After Super Bowl 44, Let’s Kill “Who Dat?”
by L. Arthalia Cravin

Who Dat? Who Dat? Who Dat? I’ve just about had enough of “Who Dat?” I know it’s Super Bowl time, and the N. O. Saint’s haven’t been to one in forty years, but a person can only take so much of “Who Dat?”

In August 2007 I wrote a column entitled: “Shibboleth: Honey Bunches Of Oats.” The column can be accessed at this website by clicking on “Wednesday Wisdom Archive” in the left-hand links, then reviewing the list of past columns. In my “Shibboleth” column I wondered how many people have paid close attention to the then Honey Bunches of Oats commercial that was airing on television. I wondered if I was the only person in the world who has noticed the way in which the black lady said: “Have you tried Honey Bunches of Oats?” If you saw the commercial, she was the first to appear and was wearing a white covering on her hair. What bothered me enough to fire off letters to Kraft Foods executives was what I saw as “deliberate denigration” of the black woman requiring her to pronounce “of” as “uh” so as to make her appear uneducated or illiterate. Well a Kraft Foods executive called me immediately after reading the column explaining that her articulation was her natural speech to which I then asked: “Is it to harder to say “uh Oats,” than to say “of Oats?” “Of Oats” rolls off the tongue quite effortlessly, while trying to say “Uh Oats,” is quite unnatural and requires too much effort. I then asked the “good executive” why no one else in the commercial mispronounced “of?” They agreed to review the commercial. Well the commercial changed, and given the recent economic downturn, it may have been pulled altogether.

In my “Shibboleth” column I asked this: “Have you ever heard of the term “shibboleth?” If you haven’t, turn to the Old Testament book of Judges. Judges is the seventh book in the Old Testament and appears after the book of Joshua. Now go to the 12th chapter and the 6th verse, which reads: “Then said they unto him, Say now SHIBBOLETH: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephramites forty and two thousand.” So what does “Shibboleth” and the Book of Judges have to do with “Honey Bunches of Oats?” A lot. Webster’s dictionary defines a “shibboleth” as “a password, phrase, custom, or usage that reliably distinguishes the members of one group or class from another.” If you will now re-read Judges 12:6 you will see that the person who could how pronounce the “SH” sound in the word “shibboleth” was killed on the spot. Wonder why? If you will read the rest of the story in Judges you will see that the Gileadites and the Ephramites were at war with each other. The Gileadites left over Jordan, and it just so happened that a group of escapee Ephramites wanted to go along as well. When they were confronted about their identity, the Gileadites asked if they were Ephramites, to which they responded “No, we are not.” They were then required to pronounce the word, “shibboleth.” As each one failed to pronounce the “sh” sound he was killed.

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Haiti’s “Hell”
by L. Arthalia Cravin

In an ideal world one would expect as much outrage over the history of how Haiti went from being the richest colony on earth to the poorest in the Western hemisphere, as there is shock and awe at the suffering on account of the recent earthquake. For reasons that we all know, a condition wrought by a sudden calamity is more attention-getting than an equally calamitous condition brought on by a slow, steady, stream of crippling events. Such is the case of Haiti.

What most of us knew about Haiti before the recent earthquake was that there was a Haitian Revolution that began in 1793, led by Toussaint L’Overture, that drove the mostly French whites out of Saint Dominque, (the then name of Haiti) resulting in the Haiti’s independence from French rule. If you are not familiar with High Plains Public Radio, may I suggest that you turn off your television now and then and listen to some of HPPR’s programming. Here in Amarillo you can listen to HPPR at 94.4 FM, or you can listen on your computer by going to High Plains Public Radio’s website and selecting programming. There is currently a NPPR program entitled “The Thomas Jefferson Hour,” in which Clay Jenkinson impersonates Thomas Jefferson in a sit-down, one-on-one interview. Jenkinson has the s scholarly credentials to back up his Jefferson impersonation that you can read on the Thomas Jefferson Hour link. A couple of weeks ago during Jenkinson’s impersonation of Jefferson, several questions were put to him about his true beliefs about slavery, and the Haitian Revolution. The questioning was no-holes-barred. One question asked Jefferson to admit that it was the Haitian Revolution that led to westward expansion of the United States resulting from the Louisiana Purchase.

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Reining in Budget Deficits
by The White House

The President pledges to rein the deficit, citing three specific steps to this end. He praises the Senate for restoring the pay-as-you-go law, discusses his proposal for a freeze in discretionary spending, and calls for a bipartisan Fiscal Commission to hammer out further concrete deficit reduction proposals.

Watch the address below:

Meeting Little Richard—Shut Up!!
by L. Arthalia Cravin

I was living in Shamrock, Texas when I met Little Richard back in 1960. As you know, Little Richard, whose real name is Richard Wayne Penniman, recorded songs such Good Golly Miss Molly, Tutti Frutti, Long Tall Sally and Keep a Knockin’. Little Richard was born on December 5, 1935 in St. Louis, Missouri. I did not know until I read his biography recently that Little Richard once considered becoming a minister and also recorded a few sacred songs. Mostly I remember Little Richard for wearing “c and c,” (conked and coiffured”) hair, pancake makeup, banging the piano, and singing ‘Long Tall Sally” who “ducked back in the alley—whop-bop, bop, a loo-bop a whop-bop-bop boom.”

I ended up in Shamrock in the 1960 for the same reason that all the other black folks ended up there—to pick and chop cotton. The compress, where cotton was baled, was on “our side” of the tracks, but not much else. There was no running water, no sewer, no paved streets, no sidewalks, and one schoolhouse. The school, which I understand had been some kind of army barrack left over from World War II, had four rooms, was shaped like a “U,” and served twelve grades, broken up into clusters of tree, with one black teacher for each cluster. I was in seventh grade in Mr. Smith’s class when Little Richard came through—not to—Shamrock. Mr. Smith taught all the 7th grade subjects and was also the girls and boys basketball coach.

On the day that Little Richard came through Shamrock, going to and from where I do not know, the teacher for grades first through third, Ms. Davis, got a call from someone at the old Blakemore Service Station on Main Street in Shamrock. Apparently Little Richard was traveling down what is now I-40 and needed some type of service on his bus. Ms. Davis got a call telling her that Little Richard was at the service station and that if she wanted to she could round up a bunch of kids and bring them down to meet him.

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by Dexter Harper

Employees of Panhandle Community Services arrived to work on Monday morning and found that their building had been burglarized. The burglars took office equipment, a jar of loose change but the most devastating act of the burglars was to take nearly all of the food stored in the pantry.

The thieves emptied the freezers, refrigerators and stole all the canned items. Donations from concerned community citizens and churches had recently replenished pantry nearly to capacity.

Maggie Smith, the administrator of the north branch office, says the burglary will cause an immediate halt to their food bank services. Panhandle Community Services has seen a steady increase in the number of families seeking assistance in the past months due to worsening economic conditions.

The North Heights office will continue helping qualifying families with payment of utility services and those with needs of food will be funneled to other community outreach agencies. The ability of these agencies to handle the increase demand is unknown at this time.

Also undetermined is when Panhandle Community Services will resume community food bank services.

An Open Response to “Stew” re: Black Economic Empowerment
by L. Arthalia Cravin

Right now it is 2:15 a.m. and I writing this column in response to “Stew’s” response to my “What Next?” column about this year’s Black History Month theme. Stew’s response to my column can be found under “comments” at the end of the “What Next?” column posted at blackamarillo.com. My initial response to Stew’s comments are also posted there, however, there is much more to say on the topic of “black economic empowerment” both on the “back end” and the looming “front end,” both of which are troubling.

On the back end, we know how the current wealth gap happened. For anyone who wants to “forget slavery” and its aftermath I say think again about the direct link between that “peculiar institution” and its contribution to years of wealth deprivation for blacks. Even if you choose to ignore 250 years when blacks were helping whites acquire wealth in untold ways, the aftermath of slavery cannot be similarly ignored.

I grew up in Palestine, Texas. One of that town’s heroes was a man named John H. Reagan whose bronze statue currently stands in a city park called Reagan Park. When I was chairman of the Anderson County Historical Commission in Palestine some years ago, I remember a controversy about Reagan’s legacy. As a child growing up in Palestine I can remember hearing blacks say that the statue of Reagan standing over a smaller bronze figure at the base of the statue was his way of saying “always keep the blacks down,” except that a more derogatory term was used. As it turned out there was some truth to the belief although indirectly. The little soldier figure at the base of the Reagan statue was the “lost cause” concept of the civil war given by the statue’s Italian designer named Coppini. I know because I did the research and invited someone from Coppini’s studio in San Antonio to come to Palestine to give us the history of how the statue came to be. As it turned out, the figure at the base of the statue was a small Roman soldier used to depict Reagan’s nickname as “The Old Roman.” It came to symbolize the reality that the south, the Old Confederacy, would lose the civil war and, according to Reagan’s book, My Memoirs, it should be treated as just that, “a lost cause.” But there was more. Texas joined the Confederacy and Reagan became the Postmaster General in Jefferson Davis’s Confederate administration. When the Union was winning the war near the end, Davis, Reagan and other confederate officers headed to Mexico but were caught and imprisoned. Reagan was sent to a prison in Massachusetts where he still clung to his segregationist’s beliefs about the then former slaves. I read Reagan’s Memoirs that he wrote while in prison so I know what he said even after the Civil War. What he said to the “peoples of Texas” was that they should stop resisting the emancipation of the slaves but never to stop resisting any and every means to true black equality. He said specifically to shut them out economically and politically at every turn possible. And so the story of Reagan’s foot being on the “black man’s head”—to always keep him down has some truth to it. Not only in Palestine, but across Texas, across the south and across the nation. Now back to black economic development.

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by Dexter Harper

New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church celebrated their 20th church anniversary Sunday (January 24, 2010).   “We’ve Come This Far By Faith” was the theme with scriptural reference taken from the book of Hebrews.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1

Guest churches were Greater Mount Olive Baptist, Mount Zion Baptiist, Mount Olive Missionary Baptist, Emmanuel C.O.G.I.C., Jerusalem C.O.G.I.C., Jenkins Chapel Missonary Baptist, Rehoboth Christan Worship Center - Plainview, Tx., St. John Baptist, New Birth Bible Felloship, Johnson Chapel A.M. E., Carter Chapel Primitive Baptist, Shiloh Cathedral of Praise, Galilee C.O.G.I.C., Pentecostal C.O.G.I.C. and River of Life Fellowship.

Guest choirs were Mount Zion Baptist and Greater Mount Olive Baptist.

The anniversary message was delivered by Rev. Vurn Martin, Pastor of Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church.

What Next??
by L. Arthalia Cravin

Black History Month is coming up next month—but we know that Black History Month is every month—or at least it should be. I have just finished reading an article in the current issue of AARP Magazine in which students celebrated the 100th birthday of their high school teacher. The students asked Miss West the secret to her longevity and she replied, “”long walks, playing the piano, and climbing the steps to her second floor classroom.” Then she added one more: “I don’t take any medicine. I did it once and got sick, so I knew enough to stop.” The article then discusses the difficulties surrounding passage of the current health care bill. The article ends with Miss West’s last bit of advice to her former students: “What you have done is good. But what really matters is what you will do next.” And so it is with celebrating Black History Month—What Next?

We all know the history of black history month. In February 1926, the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), Carter Woodson came up with the idea of “Negro History Week” to celebrate achievements of African Americans that had bettered America. The original “Negro History Week” was celebrated during the second week of February to honor the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. In 1976, America was celebrating the nation’s bicentennial. It was during this year that “Negro History Week” became “Black History Month” to allow more time for celebrations and events in honor of African Americans. Every year, there is a different national theme for “Black History Month.” This theme is chosen by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. President Bill Clinton proclaimed in the year 2000 that “Black History Month” would be known instead as “National African American History Month.”

Bill Clinton’s proclamation has not stuck so we still recognize Black History Month as a time to remind the nation of the many contributions of black people to America. This year’s Black History Month theme is “The History of Black Economic Empowerment.” The first Negro History Week theme was “The Negro in History.”

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White Pathology
by L. Arthalia Cravin

This column is a continuation of and further commentary on Parts I and II of “Courageous White Men.”

Last week I subbed at an elementary school for a class or second graders. The teacher had left very detailed instructions for each of his math and social studies classes. Math, of course, was the expected test. Social studies was something I never expected.

The teacher had left instructions for me to read to the students from a book entitled, “They Had a Dream,” and to play excerpts of Dr. King’s speeches, including his “I Have a Dream” speech. The CD was already queued for play. His instructions then suggested that I field students’ questions about Dr. King’s speeches as well as the book. Well, was I in for a shock at what these second graders, these mere babies, asked me.

When I turned the pages of the “They Had a Dream” book showing sketches of segregated busses, libraries, schools, lunch counters, and water fountains, one student ask what was the difference between “colored” water and “white” water? In her mind, colored water was red, blue, or green, and white water was of course white. So I had to explain the difference as “Jim Crow” designed segregation. I explained that the water in both fountains came from the same municipal water source, that the water entered both water fountains through the same water lines, that the fountains were sometimes exactly alike, and that the water in both fountains was exactly the same. I further explained that one fountain did not have blue water and the other white water. I then explained that years ago, some people saw something wrong with people who looked like me, with brown skin, or as some children call it, chocolate skin, like chocolate milk, and people who had pink skin, or white people, drinking from the same fountain. After several kids said, “that’s stupid,” these children proceeded to ask another series of questions about slavery, and why whites don’t like blacks and blacks don’t like Hispanics and Hispanics don’t like blacks. You get my drift with these questions.

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