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About “Socially Responsible Kids”

Election Day is coming up and this is the perfect opportunity to teach your kids how to be model citizens. In this episode, our Mommy In Chief and featured guest will offer some recommendations for raising socially responsible children.

Featured Guest: Dr. Marcella Runell Hall

Dr. Runell Hall is a social justice scholar and author. She has co-edited three award-winning books: The Hip-Hop Education Guidebook; Conscious Women Rock the Page: Using Hip-Hop Fiction to Incite Social Change; and Love, Race & Liberation: ‘Til the White Day is Done. Hall has also written for Scholastic Books, The New York Times Learning Network, VIBE, and various academic journals including Equity and Excellence in Education.

In May ’11, Hall earned her doctorate in Social Justice Education from UMASS, Amherst. Her dissertation is entitled Education in a Hip-Hop Nation: Our Identity, Politics & Pedagogy.

Currently, Hall is the Interim Director of the Center for Multicultural Education and Programs/Center for Spiritual Life at New York University (NYU). There she also serves as adjunct faculty in the Steinhardt School of Education and the Gallatin School of Individualized Study.

Marcella was born in Washington DC and raised in NJ & NY. She currently resides in Brooklyn with her husband, David Hall (aka DJ Trends) and their daughter Aaliyah.

Episode Links & Resources

• LINK: Sweet Blackberry
• SUGGESTED BOOK: The Skin You Live In by Michael Tyler, Illustrated by David Lee Csicko
• SUGGESTED BOOK: Love, Race & Liberation by JLove Calderon & Marcella Runell Hall (Recommendation for older kids, parents and educators)
• LINK: Children’s books that promote social justice and civic engagement
• TIP:  Use web based 360 tours or You Tube clips if you can’t travel abroad. Example: Abu Dhabi Virtual Tour
• SOCIAL MEDIA BRIEF: Facebook Q & A – Do you vote when it’s a non-presidential election year?
• LINK: Here There Everywhere News for Kids
• LINK: PBSKids Zoom Election 101
• LINK: Volunteer Match

by Wayne Hodges

It’s over. The ‘Big Texas’ wolf in sheep’s clothing has been revealed. Thanks to a report in the Washington Post, the world is now cognizant of the infamous “Niggerhead” rock entrance at the hunting grounds of Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry’s family.

How insane? Now picture the Perry family discharging firearms near a large rock with the racially-insensitive, derogatory term “Niggerhead” painted on it, and you have a PR nightmare for the ages. As expected, the Perry campaign is scrambling like cockroaches to alleviate the damages.

“A number of claims made in the story are incorrect, inconsistent and anonymous, including the implication that Rick Perry brought groups to the lease when the word on the rock was still visible,” said communications director Ray Sullivan who insists Perry’s family never owned the property.

“The one consistent fact in the story is that the word on a rock was painted over and obscured many years ago.” According to Perry, as soon as his family began leasing the property, his father showed his disgust by painting over the word nearly thirty years ago.

However, several witnesses claim the racial slur was highly visible throughout the 1980s and as recently as this summer. Presidential candidate Herman Cain, whose arguably Perry’s stiffest competition for the Republican nomination, blasted his fellow party member by calling him “insensitive” for failing to step up to handle the matter.

“There isn’t a more vile, negative word than the ‘n word,’ and for him to leave it there as long as they did is just plain insensitive to a lot of black people in this country,” said Cain during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” As far as I’m concerned, Perry should drop out the race. During a time when black unemployment has eclipsed 16 percent, the last thing we need is a prejudiced bigot occupying the White House.

Yes, Perry has appointed minorities to the upper reaches of government. Just keep in mind, good crooks often have alibis. Meaning? It’s certainly not uncommon for bigots to surround themselves with people of opposite color as a measure of racial insurance.

So Ralph Nader and Cornel West have teamed up yet again to sabotage the Democratic Party. They’re currently canvassing the country for Democratic opponents to challenge Obama in the primaries. According to Nader, “Without debates by challengers inside the Democratic Party’s presidential primaries, the liberal/majoritarian agenda will be muted and ignored.” And he goes on to say, “The one-man Democratic primaries will be dull, repetitive, and draining of both voter enthusiasm and real bright lines between the two parties that excite voters.”

If my grandfather was still around he’d say, “These two fools have more nerve than a brass-ass monkey.” And he would be right. I’m shocked that either of them have the nerve to even open their mouths, because the last time they teamed up during the 2000 election to “excite the voters,” they excited the Democratic Party right out of office. I used to joking tell friends that after Bush was sworn in, his very first act as president was to take down a picture of George Washington and replace it with a picture of Ralph Nader in the Oval Office.

Admittedly, many of us are frustrated by President Obama’s lack of assertiveness toward the GOP, but the point of an election is to vote your interest, not your frustration. If you were Jewish in pre-Nazi Germany and frustrated with the administration in office, would you squander your vote to vent your frustration at the sitting administration, or would you vote to make damn sure that Hitler didn’t win the election? That’s the situation that we’re currently in here in the United States.

I’ve written several articles criticizing of Barack Obama, but I’ve always tried to remain constructive, and I’ve limited my criticism to specific issues instead of launching unsubstantiated attacks on his overall character. As I see it, that’s the difference between attempting to have a positive impact on policy, as oppose to engaging in the destructive practice of pursuing a personal agenda.

Obama has caused me tremendous frustration on several issues, but simple common sense dictates that my being frustrated is far preferable to allowing the GOP to come into power and turn the United States into a nation of corporate fuedalism. That’s a level of common sense that Ralph Nader, Tavis Smiley and Cornel West seems to be lacking. Tavis seems to be keeping a low profile in this effort, by the way, but somehow I still visualize West sitting on his knee with Tavis’ hand in his back.

Isn’t it curious how all of their criticism is directed at Obama while, this point, it has become abundantly clear that the GOP has turned into a group of radical lunatics with absolutely no sense of limits, or any respect for the United States Constitution?

The GOP literally stole the 2000 election, invalidating the votes of literally millions of Americans; they invaded an innocent country, killing over a million Iraqi citizens – the majority of whom were innocent women and children; they’ve thrown away the lives of thousands of our troops in pursuit of corporate greed; they ravaged our economy and are using it as a pretext to abolish Social Security and all other elements of the social safety net; their radical Supreme Court has given multinational corporations more control over our electoral system than American citizens, and they’ve effectively turned the state of Michigan into Michighanistan by taking away the citizens’ right to self-determination. Yet, Nader and West would risk turning the nation over to these people, yet again, because they’re personally irritated with Barack Obama?

Anyone – and I do mean ANYONE – who would do that is either stupid, insane, think they’ll benefit from a GOP victory in some way, or are so blinded by an oversized ego that they’ve lost all connection with reality. It is clear to most thinking people that President Obama, flaws and all, is our best defense against turning the nation over to a GOP who want’s to drag us back into the Middle Ages. If that wasn’t the case, Nader and West wouldn’t have to mount a talent search. Thus, it’s one thing to have individual principles, but placing the entire nation in jeopardy to indulge those principles suggests an egomania that, at the very least, borders on psychosis.

It’s time for Nader and West supporters to realize that neither of these two individuals are grounded in reality. They both have a proven track record of being politically naive, at best, and delusional at worst. They both fail to recognize that while it’s an admirable ideal to want to vote one’s conscience, that’s all it is – an ideal. Politics is about being practical, and the inescapable fact is, their consciences can’t hold political office – and even if they could, I wouldn’t want to rely on the consciences of men with such poor judgment in the first place. So while they might want to fall on their swords in the name of political purity, the rest of us would rather settle for a functional democracy.

Again, this is not the first time that Nader and West have engaged in this failed strategy. West supported Nader in his self-serving and childishly petulant campaign during the 2000 election that led to the appointment of George W. Bush. So while West is running around claiming to be so outraged over the economy and lack of jobs for the poor and middle class in this country, he’s partially responsible for it. In a previous article,

The Tavis/West Poverty Pimp Tour, I point out the following:

“Those of us who are students of political history have seen this Tavis/West demagoguery before. They’re following directly in the footsteps of Ralph Nader, one of the worst turncoats in American history.

“Nader should have pushed his agenda during the Democratic primaries, then if his position was rejected, he should have fallen in line and supported the Democratic candidate, if for no other reason than to support the public good. But instead, when his position was rejected, he took it as a personal rejection and acted like a petulant child. He ignored the greater good and purposely sabotaged the Democratic agenda – along with all of the causes that he was supposed to be so passionate about all of his life – and took his ball (and votes) and went home.

“By doing so, Nader negated everything that he ever accomplished in his life. He also betrayed the fact that everything he ever accomplished was done purely for self-promotion and not for the public good, as we had previously assumed. His miserable act of treachery during the 2000 election was purposely designed to help George Bush to win that election in order to deny the Democrats after rejecting him as a candidate. That makes him just as culpable as Bush and Cheney for the death of over a million Iraqi citizens, the maiming and death of thousands of American troops, and even the nations current economic condition, which is a direct result of the Bush administration’s purposeful plundering of the United States treasury. Nader supporters would say that he stood on principles, but his “principles” have led to the death and misery of literally millions of innocent people. Thus, Ralph Nader should be remembered as one of the most miserable and self-serving snakes in all of U. S. History.

“Tavis and West are engaged in the very same sort of treachery as Nader, and it may very well lead to the same result, or worse. Because you see, this time we’re going to be left with a fascist state.”

But if you confront members of the Nader/West coalition with these facts, they’ll immediately begin to obfuscate and engage in intellectual gymnastics in an attempt to avoid responsibility for the horrific fate that they brought upon the country. They’ll say things like, “It’s not our fault that Gore lost. He just didn’t fight hard enough for a recount.” But by using such arguments what they’re actually saying is, “Gore just didn’t work hard enough to undo the damage that we’d done.” But the bottom line is this – Gore lost the 2000 election to Bush in Florida by 537 votes, and the Nader/West coalition peeled off 97,488 votes from Gore in Florida alone. So don’t take my word for it – you do the myth.

Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet, and musician, born in Los Angeles. He’s a columnist for The Los Angeles Sentinel, Black Star News, The Atlanta Post, and several other publications. He’s also a staff writer for Veterans Today and the author of “A Message From the Hood.” 

(Washington Informer) — Michael Shuler could hardly wait to participate in the Ward 8 Democrats Biennial Convention, which took place at Savoy Elementary School in Southeast on Sat., Sept. 17. A 2011 graduate of Ballou High School in Southeast, he wanted to make sure that his vote counted when it came to who should run the Ward 8 Democrats for the next two years.  ”I am here to vote for Joyce Scott, Sandy Allen and Darryl Ross,” Schuler, 19, said. “I believe that they can make things happen. I really want Markus Batchelor to win because he has good qualities and I like the fact that he put himself out there to be a candidate.”  Shuler got his wish. The slate led by Scott won all of their races in a higher than expected turnout.  Scott, a long time resident of Ward 8 and the first vice president of the Ward 8 Democrats, defeated ward newcomer Natalie Williams for the presidency, 203-130, with a handful of votes going to a minor candidate. Batchelor won his position, first vice president, with a commanding 206 votes and former D.C. Council member Sandy Allen, a candidate for second vice president, received 250.

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I really think the Obama Administration should rename the Buffett Tax Bill the “We, -the-people-, have-been-telling-you-Obama-to-raise-taxes-on-the-rich-for-two-damn-years-now-and-now-you-decide-to-listen-only-because-Warren-Buffett-wrote-a-half-way-decent-editorial-in-the-New-York-Times, -basically-saying-what-we, -the-people, -have-been-demanding-for-two-damn-years” Tax Bill.  Just a thought.

But it is quite odd that Obama’s core base of voters have been screaming to the raptures about the need to raise taxes on the rich, only to be dismissed by the Administration as “whiners.” But some billionaire comes around, and basically says, “sure Administration. It’s okay to raise taxes on us. We really don’t mind.” And now the Administration has decided to see the light and become more aggressive and principled.

But so goes politics.  One minute you are a whiner, the next you’re a valuable registered voter in a heated election season. Which is exactly why I’m not quite jiving with this latest scheme, cooked up by Ralph Nader, Cornel West and over forty other progressive leaders, which seeks to use the momentum of the upcoming election to push Obama back to the left.

The proposed plan, which was introduced earlier this month in the form of an open letter, seeks to enlist a slate of six progressive candidates to run against President Obama during the primaries.  According to Nader, West and the other signers of the scheme, each of the six candidates will represent a field in which Obama has never clearly staked a progressive claim or where he has drifted toward the corporatist right.

The letter has been sent to a list of elected officials, civic leaders, prominent members of academia and various non-profit and civic groups in hopes of recruiting prominent leaders within the progressive moment to join the slate of potential candidates. The letter also declares that with the inclusion of primary challengers, President Obama will be forced to seriously articulate and pay attention to many more issues affecting many more Americans.

On the surface, this sounds like a great idea but if the overall goal is to  “rigorously debate” his policies than how exactly might this be effective in pushing him to the left?
But before we get into why it won’t work, let’s first dispel the myth that a third party candidate would weaken President Obama chances at reelection (because I know that’s what many of you have already began thinking).

The most common political troupe, which seeks to warn voters about taking third party candidates seriously, is the potential for their inclusion to really screw up the outcome of an election. Many democrats like to cite the 2000 presidential election, where George Bush narrowly etched out a win against Al Gore in the highly contested Florida race.  Many diehard Democrats have openly and wrongly declared Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader the reason that Gore lost the election.

For one, there were numerous other factors, which played into the Florida vote-counting debacle including: (1) The seven other third party candidates on the presidential race ballot; (2) the number of voters, who had been disenfranchised by Florida voter’s purging list; (3) voting systems and procedures that failed; (3) the United States Supreme Court, who declared George W. Bush the winner; and (4) Democrats, who weren’t inspired enough by Gore to get out and vote at all.

Therefore, the assertion that Nader’s marginal vote hurt Gore is not only unrealistic but not even borne of any polling data. Yet, Nader, along with other third party candidates, have become easy scapegoats by many Democrats for failure of their candidate to inspire voters to vote for him.  And that’s what we are really talking about here: voter inspiration.

It’s no secret that Obama is far from closing the deal with voters of any persuasion. And the reality is that many voters, who had been inspired in 2008, will be probably be so depressed by Obama’s submissiveness to the Republicans in his first term that they might be willing to consider a candidate outside the two-party system.

But Nader’s scheme appears to be more about symbolism, which will amount to more debate and less about actual transformation.  Of course, Obama, whose sole goal during an election cycle is to win your vote, will be more likely to mimic the words of  the progressive six if it means that he has a chance to win the primaries. But what guarantees are there after the primaries, that he won’t shift again, to appease undecided voters of maybe the more moderate sphere in the general election?

This is not to suggest that dialogue doesn’t need to happen or have validity but at some point, true progressives will have to stop trying to bend Obama to our will and begin to start thinking seriously about the next level of action.

I mean, let’s forget the six candidates and concentrate of developing one candidate, who knows all his/her shit.  One of the biggest criticisms of any third/independent party, particularly on the left, is the inability to put up candidates, who stand a chance of winning elections.  As such I would really prefer to see progressives spend the energy building their ground troops for a real campaign to nurture and support candidates, who could help push the progressive agenda. And of course, there is the matter of forcing debates with the incumbents and the only way that could happen is if they are able to get on the ballot. And the last I checked, many states within the union have made that task damn near impossible.

Charing Ball is the author of the blog People, Places & Things.

(Washington Post) — Early support from Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III and several other county leaders helped Derrick Leon Davis win the Democratic nomination for the vacant District 6 seat on the County Council.  With all 26 of the district’s precincts reporting, Davis received 3,570 votes, or 55 percent of ballots cast. Arthur A. Turner Jr., with 1,254 votes, or 19 percent, was a distant second among the primary’s 14 candidates.  In the predominantly Democratic county, Davis, a former school system official and the current chairman of the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund, becomes the strong favorite to succeed Leslie Johnson, who resigned in disgrace this year.

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(Wall Street Journal) — New York City Council Member Ruben Wills’s campaign called on the city’s Campaign Finance Board to investigate rival Allan Jennings for allegedly using “questionable loans” to bankroll his comeback bid.  Jennings’s latest financial-disclosure reports showed his campaign received loans totaling $67,000 from three people. These loans represent the lion’s share of his campaign’s intake of money. Wills and Jennings, along with two other lower-profile candidates, are competing in next Tuesday’s Democratic primary for the right to serve the Southeast Queens district in 2012 and 2013.  Jennings, who held the seat from 2002 through 2005, has raised nearly $13,000 in contributors and currently has an estimated balance of $71,852 in his campaign coffers. Will has raised about $45,000 and received more than $76,000 in public funds. He has roughly $50,000 left in his campaign coffers.

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(American Statesman) — A group of plaintiffs made up largely of Latinos and African-Americans is accusing Texas Republican lawmakers of racial discrimination in their effort to secure GOP political power at a time when the state is experiencing significant growth among minorities.  In a case set to begin today , lawyers for minority groups will argue that lawmakers in the Republican-dominated Legislature drew new district boundaries for the U.S. House of Representatives and the Texas House that would dilute the representation of Texas’ Latinos and African Americans, keeping the racial and ethnic groups’ often Democratic voices muted.  ”They did it on the backs of the Latino community,” said Jose Garza, a lawyer for the Mexican American Legislative Caucus.  The Legislature must go through the process of redistricting — and redrawing boundaries for Congress, the state House, state Senate and State Board of Education — once every 10 years after the collection of census data. But historically, the redistricting cases always end up in court.

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(Washington Post) — Andi Pringle, the new deputy chief of staff to D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray, voted in the District’s primary election last year even though she had moved to Maryland.  The voting irregularity was revealed Thursday by community activist Dorothy Brizill on the Web site dcwatch.com. Brizill is known as a government watchdog and is considered well-versed in election law.   “Anyone who has been in the District for a long time is concerned about people voting from outside the city,” she said. “It came to have a name, as voting from Ward 9.”  Brizill said that she routinely checks the voter registration of new government hires and that she was “somewhat shocked” to learn the information because Pringle and new chief of staff Chris Murphy wereannounced this week as a fresh start for the Gray administration.

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