Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 944

A Sunday Classic: Inez Andrews--"Lord, Don't Move My Mountain"

Inez Andrews's classic Chicago Blues Banger.

AP Poll Suggest 'Rise' in Racist Attitudes

AlJazeeraEnglishAn AP survey measured the reactions of a random group towards black Americans. Fifty-one per cent of those polled admitted to being prejudiced against black people. Al Jazeera speaks with James Braxton Peterson, a political analyst and the Director of African Studies at Lehigh University.

Black Feminist Icon Barbara Smith on Black Feminism and Domestic Violence

Makers: Women Who Make America:
Black Feminist Icon Barbara Smith on Why the women's movement often alienated women of color like her, who experienced key issues differently.

Macy Gray Talks New Record, Acting & Giving Back @ HuffPost Live

HuffPostLive  Macy Gray sits down with Janet Varney to discuss her new album Talking Book, how she won over Hollywood with her role in The Paperboy and how she gives back. Also joining the conversation are guests Dr. Emmanuel Mignot, John Arnold and Jason Lurry.[image error]

Tell Me More: D.L. Hughley—Tough Words On Politics And Women

Who Owns the World? Noam Chomsky on US Global Policy

Democracy Now

In the week when President Obama and Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney debated issues of foreign policy and the economy, we turn to world-renowned political dissident, linguist, author and MIT Professor, Noam Chomsky. In a recent speech, Chomsky examined topics largely ignored or glossed over during the campaign: China, the Arab Spring, global warming, nuclear proliferation, and the military threat posed by Israel and the U.S. versus Iran. He reflects on the Cuban missile crisis, which took place 50 years ago this week, and is still referred to as "the most dangerous moment in human history." He delivered this talk last month at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, at an event sponsored by the Center for Popular Economics. Chomsky's talk was entitled, "Who Owns the World?"

NCLB Waivers: Closing Achievement Gap Requires Policy Overhaul, Not Tweaks

NCLB Waivers:  Closing Achievement Gap Requires Policy Overhaul, Not Tweaks by Kate Casas | HuffPost Black Voices
To date, 33 states and the District of Columbia have been granted a waiver from the requirements of No Child Left Behind. According to Education Weekly, once given the flexibility to revise their accountability system all but eight states have taken the opportunity to alter their achievement goals. States are now telling the Department of Education (DOE) that it will take longer for low-income, minority, and/or disabled children to reach proficiency than it will for everyone else. For example, the District of Columbia has said that by 2017, 70 percent of African American students and 90 percent of white students will be reading on grade level. In Delaware, it's 75 percent reading proficiency for black students, 71 percent for English Language Learners and 87 percent for white students.
As you can imagine, this has rankled the feathers of education advocates on all sides of the education reform debate. Opponents say that the 26 states that have altered subgroup achievement goals are lowering expectations for at-risk children. Proponents of the changes say states are being realistic about how long it will take to close the achievement gap.
My concern isn't about how the goals and timelines are being perceived, but rather, what policies and systemic changes are being implemented so states can realize their goals. What we should have learned from No Child Left Behind is that you can set a goal of 100 percent proficiency for all students, but if you don't have the policies to support that goal, you are going to fall far short. Take, for example, my home state of Missouri. Missouri, to its credit, is one of the eight states that has not used the waiver to set different goals for each subgroup. However, the five-year trend in Missouri shows that without some serious policy overhaul it will take 174 years to close the achievement gap between Hispanic students and white students in reading and 87 years to close the black/white achievement gap in math. Additionally, the gap between low-income and non-low-income students in both math and reading is continuing to widen.
The achievement gaps in Missouri are not unlike the achievement gaps we see all over America. While it is admirable that the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education believes the gap can be closed by 2017, I fear that the policy changes the department has outlined are not transformational enough to get the job done.
In order to close gaps of this magnitude, Missouri and other states have to focus on the following strategies:
• Turn traditional public schools into a model of autonomy for principals and teachers that ensures each school is able to meet the needs of the unique learners in its school;
• Provide a transparent system for giving A-F letter grades to all schools and hold them accountable for student outcomes and school spending decisions;
• Increase educational choices so children who are stuck in schools not making significant progress have a fantastic and immediate choice for something different and better;
• Recruit, retain, compensate and evaluate teachers based on performance, not seniority.
These kinds of systemic changes are happening in some places, but not in Missouri. Worse yet, there is currently no plan for them to. The outline for closing the achievement gap calls for the rehashing of a lot of worthwhile tweaks, but history has shown us that slight adjustments aren't enough.
My fear is that we are getting hung up on how states are communicating their goals for closing the achievement gap and forgetting that the actual plan for closing the achievement gap is what is important. Having spent a decade working in and with students in the mostly low-income and minority Saint Louis Public Schools, I understand as well as anyone the damage that the soft bigotry of low expectations can cause, but the loud bigotry of inaction is even worse.
***
Kate Casas is the State Policy Director of the Children's Education Alliance of Missouri, a statewide policy organization that focuses on parent engagement and public awareness.

Jasiri X: "Don't Forget About the Hood"

Jasiri X:
 
Free Download at http://jasirix.bandcamp.com/

Directed by Emmai Alaquiva, "Don't Forget About The Hood" illustrates how the issues of the poor and urban communities have been all but forgotten in this current election season, and wonders what happened to all of the energy and organizing that took place in the wake of the tragic murder of Trayvon Martin.

"Don't Forget About the Hood" was produced in collaboration with http://hoodievote.org with Da Ricanstrukta providing the powerful soundtrack

LYRICS
See cause we broke they forget about the hood
So when you vote don't forget about the hood
I ain't telling folks don't get up out the hood
just when you living good don't forget about the hood

Let's say we did it for the hood
Put on your fitted and you hood

I'm talking to the those you know that's living in the hood
that ain't getting what they should
we won't forget the hood

We the lost and forgotten called rotten so we tossed to the bottom
Let em tell it we the source of the problem
They call us gangbangers and illegals
Cane slangers of da evil
Like we the main danger to the people
So our issues don't get the same anger or treated equal
if you not one of them change raisers they don't see you
So the hood every week is ignored
Before these politicians speak to the poor they reach for the door
now voter ID is the norm
Police brutality's not reformed poverty's even more
Tens of thousands of human beings they still deport
And they made it a felony if you come back and get caught
We need to stop cheering for sides like its a sport
Vote for your self and your own hood time is short
Cause doing nothing ain't a option
Do something get it poppin
Real action over talking
The whole world is watching

So when you vote don't forget about the hood
Get out and vote but don't forget about the hood
I ain't telling folks don't get up out the hood
just when you living good don't forget about the hood

Let's say we did it for the hood
Put on your fitted and you hood

I'm talking to the those you know that's living in the hood
that ain't getting what they should
we won't forget the hood

Do we remember Trayvon or is the pain gone
Do we remain strong or did we move way on
Remember when we all had pictures in our hoods
Did we forget about the hood
Zimmerman's still free I don't know about you but it kills me
This murderer could be found not guilty
Remember how we organized fortified for the ride
Polarized but mobilized I thought it was so divine
What happened to that energy we need it now more than ever
Many people kept working I will not ignore their effort
Give voice to the voiceless that's why I record this message If you really for the hood for who or for what you reppin
That the million dollar question
Millionaires is who we follow but they hollow in they lessons
What's the point of a weapon pointed in the wrong the direction
If your hood is what you reppin how strong is your connection

Trailer: 'The Central Park Five'

IFCFilmsTube
THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE

A FILM BY KEN BURNS, DAVID MCMAHON & SARAH BURNS

In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers were arrested and charged for brutally attacking and raping a white female jogger in Central Park. News media swarmed the case, calling it "the crime of the century." But the truth about what really happened didn't become clear until after the five had spent years in prison for a crime they didn't commit. With THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, this story of injustice finally gets the telling it deserves. Based on Sara Burns best-selling book and co-directed by her husband David McMahon and father, the beloved doc filmmaker Ken Burns, this incendiary film traces tells the riveting tale of innocent young men scapegoated for a heinous crime, and serves as a mirror for our times.

WWW.IFCFILMS.COM

Who Stole the American Dream? Hendrick Smith on 'The State of Things'

Is America still the land of opportunity? Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Hedrick Smith takes on that question in his new book, “Who Stole the American Dream?” (Random House/2012). His answer is a flat, “no,” but the reasons are not so simple. From the introduction of the 401k to the deregulation of banks, Hedrick Smith joins host Frank Stasio to explain the loss of America’s prosperity.
Listen HERE