Brown University's Committee on Slavery and Injustice in cooperation with officials of the prestigious Ivy League school are displaying exhibits of a variety of articles including merchant ledgers, journals and clippings from newspapers that document the Brown family's involvement with the slave trade. Jason Zepp wrote an interesting piece posted on Yahoo! News yesterday just after 12pm.
Culturegeist posted a link to some excerpts from the 109-page report from the Brown Committee on Slavery and Injustice in a Tuesday, March 27th post titled "British Apology for Role in Slave Trade Stirs Controversy", scroll down to check it out or just click the link on the right side of the page.
Brown has traditionally served as one of the Ivy League's more progressive institutions and Culturegeist must extend kudos and props to the Providence, Rhode Island school for being courageous enough to take the lead in a movement that will find America and nations like Great Britain slowly starting to finally and openly explore the role slavery has played in the foundation and evolution of this nation. While New England abolitionists were the leaders in the movement to end slavery in America, New England was a region that participated in and profited from the Atlantic Slave trade - sending at least 100 different voyages across the Atlantic to bring some 100,000 Africans to be sold into slavery.
This is just the beginning of America's long-overdue self examination of it's role in one of the most vast human rights violations in history. Because America can never move forward and evolve as a nation until it is open about it's history, Culturegeist will continue to document this historic shift in the perception of who we really are.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Bizzare Wave of Youth Violence Against Homeless Continues
Can someone please explain WHAT is going on with the growing incidents of young, apparently really pissed off males attacking innocent homeless people without provocation? Mainstream media really doesn't seem to be saying much about it except when one of these thugs takes the time to videotape their brutal attacks and there's a nice video clip to roll.
In the latest incident I've seen in mainstream media, Ashley Fantz wrote a nice piece on the cnn.com Website, posted just before 10pm Thursday night 3.29.07.
The focus of her piece: two 10 year old boys and a 17 year old teenager charged with the assault of John D'Amico a 58-year old homeless man in Daytona Beach, Florida. Where are the parents of these 10 year old boys? Is it reasonable to expect a parent to at least have an idea that their 10 year old son is smashing a homeless man in the head with chunks of broken concrete ?
Culturegeist will continue to keep an eye on this story, in the meantime check out this piece from the National Coalition for the Homeless Website to learn more about this underreported epidemic affecting the US - it was posted last summer, June 28, 2006.
Culturegeist supports the freedoms guaranteed by the 1st Amendment, but I'm not an expert in law. I have to seriously wonder if Websites that promote violence against the homeless are in some way party to these senseless beatings? I mean you can't yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater right? What the hell is wrong with these kids?
In the latest incident I've seen in mainstream media, Ashley Fantz wrote a nice piece on the cnn.com Website, posted just before 10pm Thursday night 3.29.07.
The focus of her piece: two 10 year old boys and a 17 year old teenager charged with the assault of John D'Amico a 58-year old homeless man in Daytona Beach, Florida. Where are the parents of these 10 year old boys? Is it reasonable to expect a parent to at least have an idea that their 10 year old son is smashing a homeless man in the head with chunks of broken concrete ?
Culturegeist will continue to keep an eye on this story, in the meantime check out this piece from the National Coalition for the Homeless Website to learn more about this underreported epidemic affecting the US - it was posted last summer, June 28, 2006.
Culturegeist supports the freedoms guaranteed by the 1st Amendment, but I'm not an expert in law. I have to seriously wonder if Websites that promote violence against the homeless are in some way party to these senseless beatings? I mean you can't yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater right? What the hell is wrong with these kids?
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Teachers Accused of Child Molestation Released on Bail in South Carolina
Allegations that two white school teachers -Wendie Schweikert, a 37 year-old teacher at E.B. Morse Elementary School in Laurens, South Carolina and Allenna Ward, a 24 year-old teacher at a middle school in Clinton, South Carolina- were released on bail after being charged with the statutory rape of an 11 year old African-American boy and multiple counts of molestation of a group of boys aged 14 - 15 have outraged residents of a conservative South Carolina community. See details of this story at cnn.com
Aside from the anger over the allegations of the teacher's molestation of the children, many residents claim the case illustrates patterns of a legal double-standard in the South divided along racial lines. Residents argue that the if the roles were reversed and the teachers were African-American and the victims white, the response by the prosecutors and police would have been very different.
It is of interest to note that a former movie theater in downtown Laurens where Schweikert taught has been converted into a Ku Klux Klan museum and gift shop called "The Redneck Store" - this observation is not intended as an indictment but rather an indicator of the environment in which these alleged crimes took place.
Without all the facts it is difficult to make such a determination, however this case illustrates some very disturbing facets of the legal system in the United States - in particular how much of a role race and perception impact the application of laws.
One of the best and most disturbing examples is that of Boston resident Charles Stuart in 1989.
Stuart used a handgun to murder his pregnant wife Carol in the passenger seat of their car then turned the gun on himself. His claim that an African-American man with a raspy voice committed the attack, and the death of their unborn son 17-day later fueled sympathy, outrage and calls for justice nationwide among white Americans.
In their zeal to find the "killer" members of the Boston Police Department scoured the African-American sections of Boston, detaining hundreds of African-American men of all ages and descriptions - it turned out that the attack on Stuart's wife was pre-meditated and carefully planned by Charles Stuart himself. The most disturbing aspect of this tragedy, aside from Carol Stuart's murder and the hundreds and hundreds of African-Americans wrongly arrested or detained: the fact that Stuart understood the racial divisions in Boston enough to know that if he accused an African-American man of murdering his wife and unborn child - he might get away with murder. Please click the first link in the paragraph above to examine the facts of this incident as reported in a well-written article in the New York Times by Fox Butterfield and Constance Hays.
Perhaps more familiar is the case of Susan Smith, who murdered her two sons, Michael 3, and Alex, 14 months by driving her 4-door Mazda Protoge into a lake while both boys were asleep strapped into their car seats in the back. The case became the subject of intense nationwide media coverage after Smith claimed an African-American assailant carjacked her at gunpoint and drove off with her two children. Please click the above link and take a few minutes to read the detailed account of how this sad, lonely depressed victim of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a step-father she later had a sexual relationship with, came to murder her own children then repeatedly lie about it in police interrogations and in front of millions of TV viewers around the nation who came to her support.
Culturegeist would like to make clear that while Smith's concocted story of a phantom black assailant exploited racial fears and stereotypes, the Small South Carolina community both African-American and white, came together in unity to show the nation that they were not divided by race. And local police should be commended for suspecting very early on that her story was false.
What do the stories of Charles Stuart and Susan Smith say about prejudices in the United States? Does "Innocent Until Proven Guilty" apply to some Americans and not to others?
Sadly, American history is replete with many examples of innocent African-Americans lynched, murdered or arrested, tried and imprisoned or executed based only on the accusations of a plaintiff who was white.
Are you familiar with the account of the Scottsboro Boys?
Aside from the anger over the allegations of the teacher's molestation of the children, many residents claim the case illustrates patterns of a legal double-standard in the South divided along racial lines. Residents argue that the if the roles were reversed and the teachers were African-American and the victims white, the response by the prosecutors and police would have been very different.
It is of interest to note that a former movie theater in downtown Laurens where Schweikert taught has been converted into a Ku Klux Klan museum and gift shop called "The Redneck Store" - this observation is not intended as an indictment but rather an indicator of the environment in which these alleged crimes took place.
Without all the facts it is difficult to make such a determination, however this case illustrates some very disturbing facets of the legal system in the United States - in particular how much of a role race and perception impact the application of laws.
One of the best and most disturbing examples is that of Boston resident Charles Stuart in 1989.
Stuart used a handgun to murder his pregnant wife Carol in the passenger seat of their car then turned the gun on himself. His claim that an African-American man with a raspy voice committed the attack, and the death of their unborn son 17-day later fueled sympathy, outrage and calls for justice nationwide among white Americans.
In their zeal to find the "killer" members of the Boston Police Department scoured the African-American sections of Boston, detaining hundreds of African-American men of all ages and descriptions - it turned out that the attack on Stuart's wife was pre-meditated and carefully planned by Charles Stuart himself. The most disturbing aspect of this tragedy, aside from Carol Stuart's murder and the hundreds and hundreds of African-Americans wrongly arrested or detained: the fact that Stuart understood the racial divisions in Boston enough to know that if he accused an African-American man of murdering his wife and unborn child - he might get away with murder. Please click the first link in the paragraph above to examine the facts of this incident as reported in a well-written article in the New York Times by Fox Butterfield and Constance Hays.
Perhaps more familiar is the case of Susan Smith, who murdered her two sons, Michael 3, and Alex, 14 months by driving her 4-door Mazda Protoge into a lake while both boys were asleep strapped into their car seats in the back. The case became the subject of intense nationwide media coverage after Smith claimed an African-American assailant carjacked her at gunpoint and drove off with her two children. Please click the above link and take a few minutes to read the detailed account of how this sad, lonely depressed victim of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a step-father she later had a sexual relationship with, came to murder her own children then repeatedly lie about it in police interrogations and in front of millions of TV viewers around the nation who came to her support.
Culturegeist would like to make clear that while Smith's concocted story of a phantom black assailant exploited racial fears and stereotypes, the Small South Carolina community both African-American and white, came together in unity to show the nation that they were not divided by race. And local police should be commended for suspecting very early on that her story was false.
What do the stories of Charles Stuart and Susan Smith say about prejudices in the United States? Does "Innocent Until Proven Guilty" apply to some Americans and not to others?
Sadly, American history is replete with many examples of innocent African-Americans lynched, murdered or arrested, tried and imprisoned or executed based only on the accusations of a plaintiff who was white.
Are you familiar with the account of the Scottsboro Boys?
British Apology for Role in Slave Trade Stirs Controversey
Britain's efforts to acknowledge the role their nation played over the course of the Atlantic slave trade has drawn criticism from Jamaicans of African descent as well as UK citizens of all races from the various nations once considered part of the British Empire. Prime Minister Tony Blair's apology on behalf of England, created anger and resentment amongst some Jamaicans, many of whom feel an apology is scant compensation for centuries of entrenched brutality, forced labor and countless violations of human rights. Read how the dark legacy of slavery still, to this day impacts the lives of people who's descendants were forcibly removed from Africa and sold as property.
It is difficult for many Americans of all races and nationalities to truly grasp the scope of slavery and it's role in commerce, banking, trade and even education. For instance, Brown University is one of many institutions partly built and financed from profits from the Atlantic Slave trade, take a few moments to read more about the Brown family's role in the slave trade.
The historian and writer Hugh Thomas is one of many experts who actually consider the Atlantic Slave trade the world's first example of global multi-national corporations. Dutch, Venetian and various European banking families were the financiers who bankrolled the Portuguese, Spanish and eventually British trading companies who sent ships laden with goods to the West Coast of Africa. Once there the goods were traded for slaves, the ships, their cargo holds packed with Africans chained next and often on top of one another, sailed West to South America, Central America, the Caribbean and the East coast of North America
The Africans who survived the Middle Passage were then sold, and the money was used to purchase goods like indigo, sugar and cotton which was then shipped back East before the process started again. It is staggering to say the least and could, in the author's view constitute perhaps the greatest crime against humanity in history. If you really want to read the definitive history, Culturegeist suggests The Slave Trade, by Hugh Thomas an immense and eye-opening work of well written and meticulously documented research that will change your view of world history.
Monday, March 26, 2007
At Least 29 Africans Perish in Modern Middle Passage Horror
Posted Tuesday March 27, 2007 - 1:58amEST
According to officials of the UNHCR, the UN refugee organization, on the morning of Thursday, March 22nd at least 450 refugees from Ethiopia and Somalia desperately attempting to flee the ravages of war and poverty that have gripped the Horn of Africa came face to face with a horrifying struggle for survival. The smugglers who packed them into four boats in the Somali port city of Bosaso for a dangerous journey across the Gulf of Aden panicked when they spotted Yemeni security forces as they searched for a place to discharge their human cargo along a remote stretch of the Yemen coast. Desperate to escape and still far from the shoreline, the smugglers forced the refugees into churning seas at knife-point, those who resisted were brutally beaten and then thrown into the swirling currents where witnesses say some were attacked by sharks. At least 29 are confirmed dead and at least 71 are still missing.
The indifference with which these smugglers treated these unfortunate human beings speaks to the disturbing irony that today Africans choosing to leave their homeland face the same deprivations of human dignity that millions of Africans first faced centuries ago from the start of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. After all this time, how much has really changed? As these words are being written it is estimated that there are some 20 million people living in bondage around the globe; not working for low wages, but actually shackled and or held against their will. Read more.
Groups like Anti-Slavery International have been fighting on behalf of the Abolitionist Cause since the 1780's, learn more about why their work is more important than ever.
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