Thursday, December 24, 2009

What I REALLY Want for Christmas

Friends

Christmas in my family is a great holiday, and people are really generous, but most of the things I want are things they can't give

Below is the list of things I REALLY want for Christmas. I am not sure I am going to get any of them, but if never hurts to ask

What I REALLY Want for Christmas


1. A New Body, With Joints that Don't Ache

2. Health Care Legislation that Has a Public Option, And Provides Real Competition to the Insurance Companies

3. An Educational Reform Movement That Is Led By Teachers, Not Bankers and Lawyers! What A Concept!

4. The Passage of Medical Marijuana Legislation in All 50 States of the Union, Especially New York!

5. The Immediate Reopening of the Night Centers, After School Centers and Music Programs in the New York Public Schools That Were Shut Down in the Fiscal Crisis of the 70's

6. The Release of All Non-Violent Prisoners from the Nation's Jails and Prisons and Their Enrollment in Schools and Drug Treatment Programs

7. The Immediate Approval of Domestic Partner Benefits for Faculty and Staff at Fordham and All Other Jesuit Universities.

8. The Conversation of Abandoned and Partially Occupied Luxury Buildings in New York and Other Cities into Affordable Housing

9. The Rehiring of Park Recreation Supervisors at All NYC Vest Pocket Parks, Another Position Eliminated in the Fiscal Crisis of the 70's

10. Hiring the Indigo Girls and Parliament Funkadelic to Perform at This Year's Spring Weekend at Fordham

11. An African Music Festival at Yankee Stadium That Brings Together the Best Afican Rappers and Musicians from Africa, Europe, the US and Candada

12. That There Be a DJ at Fordham Graduation and Students March To Their Seats to the Sounds of "Flashlight" and " Thank You Fa Letting Me Be Myself Again":

13. That Fordham Adopt Roosevelt High School Across the Street and Use All Of Its Resources to See That Students There Get a Great Education

14. That the Next Big White House Event Be Catered By Johnson's BBQ

15. That Oprah Do a Feature on PS 140 and "Books in the Hood," Two of the South Bronx' Greatest Institutions, That Are Doing Wonders for the People of That Community

16. That American Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan Be Brought Home Before the End of 1010, and that All My Brothers and Sisters in Uniform Be Out of Harms Way

17. That All My Wonderful Students, Past and Present, and the Equally Wonderful People I Have Met in My Bronx Research, Find Jobs In the Fields They Are Trained For

18. That Americans Realize They Are Part of the Global Community and Act Like They Are Its Members, Not Its Rulers

19. That All My Friends- And People Around the World- Know Love and Peace and Happiness in the Coming Year



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Friday, December 4, 2009

Hustling, Schools and the Education of Inner City Boys- Reflections on a Talk by Street Lit Authoer "Jihad"

Dr Mark Naison


Jihad’s talk in our Hip Hop Street Lit Narratives class last week helped me understand some very important issues- one of which is the failure of schools to engage working class students of color, particularly boys. Jihad , a very successful "street lit" author, was one of those boys who found nothing in school to connect with. Even though he had black teachers, even though black notables came to his school to talk about their successes and inspire students to emulate them, and even though he was clearly incredibly intelligent, Jihad was stubbornly resistant to reading and any form of academic engagement. It was only when he went to prison, in his late teens that he immersed himself in books. It was only then that he became immersed in reading and discovered that history and philosophy and political theory could help him make sense of the world and his own place in it

As Jihad described his experiences, it became clear to me that the environment he grew up in, during the late 70’s and early 80’s, was very different from the Black, inner city communities I had spent time in during the late 60’s. First of all, political revolutionaries were no longer a presence. They were not giving speeches on street corners, not selling their newspapers outside the convenience story, not talking about Black unity and revolution at the dinner table or in the barber shop. But something else, maybe something even more important, was also missing from Jihad’s life, and that is black men who went to work in the morning and came back at night after working a long hard day with money in their pocket and the satisfaction of a job well done. Those kind of black men were still highly visible in inner city neighborhoods in the late 60’s- they worked in steel mills and auto factories, drove trucks and buses, owned their own cabs and the like .But by the time Jihad was growing up, the black male working class was fast disappearing as a force in inner city neighborhods. The only Black people making good money, legally, were people working in white collar occupations, often with college degrees and they were moving out of inner city neighborhoods into the suburbs

Given this, what kind of Black men did Jihad see and interact with during his childhood and adolescence? To an extraordinary extent, the black men Jihad was meeting, interacting with and modeling himself on, including his own father, were getting most of their income in the underground economy and were living lives that occasionally offered great rewards, but also involved danger and instability. I think we need to probe implications of this economic transformation.

What does it meant to grow up in a neighborhood where the primary source of work and income, at least for men, is illegal activity? In the neighborhood Jihad grew up in, “hustling” was more than just a source of income, it was a whole way of life with its own language, forms of dress, gender roles and family dynamics. Men who made their money illegally, and were at constant risk of imprisonment and death, were unlikely to commit themselves to the kind of stable family relationships that someone who worked in a steel mill or an auto plant might do.. They moved in and out of relationships with women and had only a tangential relationship to the children they fathered.

In addition, their ways of earning income seemed to have little relationship to books or to the disciplined learning environments schools tried to provide. What made men successful in the underground economy was bravery, quick thinking, and capacity to persuade and inspire through ghetto centric language that barely bore little relationship to the vocabulary and sentence structure offered in third grade reading and social studies. Hustlers communicated through an insider’s language that was indecipherable to most middle class people, black as well as white. But it was that language that was the language of money, the language of success, and the language of power in the neighborhood Jihad grew up in!!!

As a bright male child growing up in an environment where most of the money came from illegal activities, and where the men involved in those activities dressed, spoke and carried themselves in a way that bore no resemblance to anything presented in school, Jihad naturally concluded that school had no relevance to someone like him. Money, power, respect, in his neighborhood, and in his family—at least for boys came through mastery of the hustlers code, the hustlers language, the hustlers lifestyle, and ultimately, through recruitment into the alternative economy that hustlers has created.

Once a young man has the realization that the street economy is going to be their only path to money and respect and the good things in life- and for some it can come as early as 8 years old--, teachers are facing an uphill battle to get them engaged in reading writing and math, especially since the language used in teaching those subjects, whether in readers, or on tests, is totally different from the language of the street economy

What you have then is a battle of language loyalties with the teacher on one side and the hustlers the young men aspire to be on the other, and that is a battle the teacher will usually lose –not because the hustler’s language is “blacker” or more ‘authentic” but because in the young person’s neighborhood, the hustler’s language is the language of
SUCCESS, or at least what little success there is

From the outside, we may think that turning off school, for a young person who grew up the way Jihad did, is short sighted and self-destructive, but given the limited opportunities for employment in the legal economy that he saw in his neighborhood and family, looking to the hustling culture rather than school as the place to invest his energies may be a rational decision

If this analysis is correct, we are going to face an uphill battle in trying to get inner city boys to become engaged in school unless we can rebuild and reconstruct legal economic opportunities for men of color that equal those offered by hustling and the underground economy

Children look at what they see around them and decide, fairly early what works, and what doesn’t. And in many neighborhoods around this country, there is no evidence, especially for boys that school leads to economic opportunities for people like them.

Until that changes, don’t expect school reform to accomplish very much

Dr Mark Naison
December 4, 2009

Sunday, November 29, 2009

A Proposal That Banks That Received Bailout Money Fund After School Centers in NY Schools

Friends

After reading a powerful commentary from a friend who heads one of the largest Community Organizations in the Bronx about the growing threat of juvenile diabetes, which is especially acute in the Bronx because our children don't get exercise inside or outside school, I have a proposal to make to every bank headquartered in New York City which received federal bailout funds, beginning with Goldman Sachs

Here's my proposal-

Why don't you take 200 million dollars from the billions of dollars you have assigned to your bonus pools and use it to pay the NYC Department of Education to open the after school and night centers in New York City public schools which were shut during the fiscal crisis of the 70's.

That's right, for less than $200 million dollars, you could open ever elementary school, middle school and high school in the city from 3-5 PM and 7-9 PM for sports, supervised play, dance and excercise classes and the arts. This is what many of had growing up in New York City in the 1950's and 1960's and this is what our children need now, for their physical health, and collective well being

And if any funds are left from that fund, give the money to the Parks Department to hire
Parks recreation supervisors like Hilton White to run outdoor sports and recreation programs in the City's Vest Pocket Parks!

If you think of this as an investment in the nation's future, it is a much wiser and more cost effective use of your profits than bonuses for your top exectives. Think of the
reduction in health care costs and law enforcement that might ensue.

If you believe that this is a worthy proposal, please pass it on far and wide to people in
education, politics and business.

Sincerely

Mark D Naison
Professor of African American Studies and History
Fordham University
Principal Investigator, Bronx African American History Project

Friday, November 27, 2009

Schools and the Business Model
A New Notorious Phd Jam

If we ran schools like businesses
Everything would be fine
We'd turn all our classrooms
Into little assembly lines

We'd test our students daily
On spelling history and math
And fire their teachers quickly
If by chance they do not pass

We'll grade our schools too
On an annual basis
And fire all those principals
Whose scores remain in stasis

Cause the American business model
Is the envy of the world
So let's retrench,downsize and outsource
All our failing boys and girls

Education is too important
To leave to those who teach
Let's rationalize and privatize
And assess all within reach

We did that in our businesses
And look at the results
We got AIG, GM,and Lehman Brothers
They all went boom and bust

A hundred twenty bank failures
A trillion in bailout funds
An economy left in shambles
Is this how we want schools to run?

Friday, November 20, 2009

Violence in a Familiar Place

Young People Left Behind in Morrisania’s Housing Renaissance

Dr Mark Naison
Fordham University

When I picked up the paper two days ago and read about the shooting of Vada Vasquez on a Bronx street corner, I felt a chill go through me. Not only was it depressing to read about another young person hit by a stray bullet in an inner city neighborhood- there have been too many such stories in recent weeks- but the corner the shooting took place on, Home Street and Prospect Avenue, is one I have driven by hundreds of times, and walked through at least twenty times when leading tours of Historic Morrisania for teachers, student groups and visitors from abroad.

This particular shooting took place in the heart of what was once the Bronx’s largest and most dynamic Black community, a place which hummed with vitality in the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s and produced an unmatched variety of poplar music ranging from jazz, to mambo, to doo wop, to salsa and funk. Even in the 70’s, when the neighborhood was devastated by fires, young people living in it helped create a new music form- hip hop- which eventually became the voice of disfranchised young people throughout the world. Today, Morissania is still a center of musical creativity, with new groups of immigrants form Africa, Mexico and the Dominican Republic fusing their musical cultures with hip hop and R & B. The very corner on which Vada Vasquez was shot, Home and Prospect, was the first place I saw young people in the Bronx performing a new kind of street dance that they had created called “Getting Lite.”

But all of this wonderful history meant little when I thought of Vada Vasquez, lying on life support in a local hospital, or the 16 year old who allegedly shot her,
Carvett Gentles, who may spend most of his life in jail. Why did this tragedy take place? And why was hardly anybody who lives in Morrisania surprised that someothing like this happened?

Some of the blame for this shooting has to be assigned to the easy availability of guns on the streets of New York,, many of them brought in from states like Virgninia which make it as easy to buy a gun as it is to buy a portable CD player

But much of it has to be attributed to the misguided priorities of those who have controlled community economic development in the City of New York.

From the outside, the neighborhood Vada Vasquez was shot in looks like a great New York City success story. If you walk ten blocks in any direction from the corner of Prospect and Home, you will see literally thousands of units of new residential housing placed on what were once vacant lots, some of them townhouses, some of them apartment buildings, most of them built in the last five years,

When I first encountered this wave of new construction several years ago, I was inclined to see it as a kind of Bronx Renaissance until Leroi Archibald, a long time Bronx activist and one of the wisest men I know said to me “Mark, what are they going to do with all the kids who are going to leave here? They haven’t built a single youth center or recreation facility along with all the housing. Those kids are all going to be out in the street and getting into trouble.”

More prophetic words have rarely been uttered. With thousands of units of new housing going up in Morrisania, virtually all of them being occupied by families with young children, why hasn’t someone in City Planning or HPD seen fit to make sure at least one new youth center, either operated by the City or a non profit organization, be built in the neighborhood.

Worse yet, why haven’t local elected officials pressed the Department of Education to keep every school in the neighborhood- and there are at least ten within walking distance of Home and Prospect- open from 3 PM to 10 PM with arts, sports and supervise recreation?

Morrisania is a neighborhood filled with teenagers who have nothing to do when they leave school- there are no jobs-- in part because there are almost no stores- no sports programs, no art programs, no places where they can congregate under adult supervision

Should anyone be surprised if they hang out on the streets, sell drugs, join gangs? What else do they have to do? Where else do they have to go?

It’s time that policy makers at all levels make youth issues a top priority when doing community economic development.

First of all, whenever large numbers of housing units are placed in particular neighborhood, youth centers should be built which offer free sports and arts programs to local children and adolescents. I am going to establish an arbitrary ratio- 5,000 units of new housing equals one youth center. Let’s make this official city policy.

Secondly, every school in New York City should be open from 3 PM to 9 PM for supervised recreation under the direction of licensed, public school teachers. This is what we had fifty years ago in New York, and we need to bring this program back. Our young people desperately need mentors like Vincent Tibbs, who ran the night center at PS 99, only two blocks from Prospect and Home, who influenced thousands of Morrisania young people to stay in school and keep out of trouble. As a model for the rest of the city, let’s open a Vincent Tibbs Center in PS 99 and invite all the young people in the neighborhood to use it on a regular basis. I’ll bet if we do that, there will be a lot less shootings

Finally, let’s put back the recreation supervisors in the City’s vest pocket parks, positions which were eliminated in the 70’s, and which we desperately need today. Fiftty years ago, just ten blocks from Prospect and Home, a “parkie” named Hilton White ran a community basketball program that served hundreds of youngsters and sent scores of its graduates to college, including 3 of the starters on the Texas Western team that won the NCAA Championship in 1966. Our young people need mentors like Hilton White even more now than they did then. Bring the Parkies back!

The policies I am suggesting all cost money. But no more than the money it takes to put and keep young people in prison.

It’s time we invest in young people before they turn to acts of violence

If we don’t, we are going to read more and more stories about broken dreams and wasted lives.


Mark Naison
November 20, 2009

Thursday, November 19, 2009

A Recession Jam

by Notorious Phd

Notorious is here so don't complain
I'll be spitting rhymes like clouds bring rain
MC's that front better run for cover
We need jams that bring hope to our sisters and brothers


We're living in a world of hate and pain
Where justice fails, and greed's insane
Where the banks get bailed and the people starve
And the media lie while the rich live large

People need to take the country back
Fore the train we're riding leaves the Freedom Track
We need homes for the homeless and gyms for the kids
And release of dealers doing ten year bids

Recovery without jobs is a wrecking ball
It means tracks that rot and bridges that fall
Will we watch our dreams die and our families shatter
If we don't have work, nothing else matters

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Monday, October 26, 2009

My Thoughts on Educational "Reform"

My Thoughts on Educational Reform

Speaking in behalf of "students," especially students of color, a whole generation of self described educational reformers have systematically undermined the teaching profession and made graduation rates and performace on standardized tests the sole measure of value for what goes on in classrooms

Has this educational revolution, now in progress for more than ten years, contributed to greater economic and social equality in the United States?

The statistics show otherwise. The wealth gap in the nation, and in New York City, has continued to grow despite the imposition of a test centered
approcah to public education.

Trying to achieve social equality through education, when tax policies, health care politicies, and investment policies move in the opposite direction, will prove, in the long run, to be a Fool's Errand

It not only can't work economically,, it could very easily put students from poor and working class families at a disadvantage by forcing creativity and critical thinking skills out of the classroom in favor of skills that can be easily measured on standardized tests

From the administrative standpoint, it all makes sense- let's look for results that can be easily measured

From the teachers standpoint, it looks like a conspiracy to take creativity and agency out of their profession.and create a new class of administrators who view teachers as pieces on a chessboard.

Dr Mark Naison
Fordham University
October 26, 2009

Friday, October 16, 2009

Applying for Federal Stimulus Funds to Restore Night Centers to New York City Public Schools

Applying for Federal Stimulus Funds to Restore Night Centers to New York City Public Schools

I would like to propose that the New York City Department of Education apply for Stimulus Funds to re-open the night centers in the New York City Public schools, a fixture of life for young people in the City which was eliminated during the New York City Fiscal Crisis of the 1970’s

When I began doing Oral Histories with African American residents of the Bronx in the Spring of 2003 as part of the Bronx African American History Project ( www.fordham.edu/baahp), many of the respondents I interviewed, especially those in between the ages of 50 and 70, mentioned night centers in the public schools as important factors in their personal and professional development.

From the early 1950’s through the mid 1970’s, every elementary school in New York City was open 3-5 PM and 7-9 PM for supervised recreation, staffed by licensed professionals who created a safe zone for young people as well as an opportunity to participate in sports and arts programs, play board games, and upon occasion, attend dances and talent shows.

The Center Directors, many of whom were New York City school teachers during the day, became important influences in the lives of young people they worked with. One of my interviewees, Howie Evans, a retired college basketball coach who serves as sports editor of the Amsterdam News, says that a Bronx night center director, Vincent Tibbs of PS 99, not only provided a model for Evans’coaching and youth work, he saved Evans life by blocking the center door to keep him from participating in a neighborhood gang fight. Several people I interviewed speak with equal reverence of Floyd Lane and Myles Dorch, directors of the Night Center of PS 18 in the South Bronx, who are responsible for sending scores of young people to play college basketball and helped hundreds of others avoid trouble and stay in school. In working class and poor neighborhoods filled with gang and drug activity, the night centers were the one place where young men and women could go where they felt safe, felt protected, and interacted with adults who not only taught them skills, but with whom they could talk to about problems with schools, family or their peers

Today, young people growing up in the Bronx, and other hard pressed neighborhoods of New York City, no longer either have this kind of safe zone or regular access to caring and sympathetic adults.

Ironically, the need for this kind of mentoring may be even greater today because family and living situations, for many young people, are more fragmented and chaotic than they were thirty or forty years ago. At a time when large number of youngsters are living in foster care, being brought up by grandparents, or reside in apartments that house multiple families, the need for adult supervised recreation is even greater than it was when the Night Centers were in their heyday. Teachers, preoccupied with test preparation and meeting standards, do not have the time to mentor their students in non academic areas, especially during the school day Privately funded community centers and recreation programs are insufficient to meet the needs of a million plus New York City school children

Reopening the night centers is the only program I know of that will instantaneously change the lives of New York City public schools students for the better. It will give them an opportunity to release tension, meet sympathetic adults, immerse themselves in sports and arts programs, and find a quiet protected place to do homework, while also providing a refuge from drug and gang acivity.
I could easily amass a large group of educators, coaches youth workers and elected officials to argue in favor of this proposal

I could think of no better use of Federal Stimulus Funds than restoring night center to the New York City Public Schools

Mark Naison
October 14, 2009

Sunday, October 11, 2009

"The Rat That Got Away" A Notorious Phd Jam in Honor of Allen Jones' Memoir

“The Rat That Got Away”

A Notorious Phd Jam in Honor of the Publication of Allen Jones' Memoir

They call him The Rat that Got Away
From the Bronx to Europe he made his way
His game is wicked and his style is clean
He’s a coach and a banker with a gangster lean

In the Patterson Houses Jones grew up
Where girls were fly and boys were tough
His parents were strong and his coaches proud
But the call of the streets just proved too loud

So he got him some threads and sold some dope
He was clocking dollars but killing hope
His player style won the king his crown
But the streets that made him soon took him down

So he went to Rikers locked in a cell
Reviewing his crimes in his own private hell
But his mother cried out “God save my son!”
And a judge intervened and God’s will was done

When he got out of jail he went back to the hood
What he once used for bad he converted to good
He polished his game and went to school
From Cornwall to Roanoke he kept his cool

Next stop was Europe where success was found
From pro ball to banking his life turned around
But he never forgot his street smarts and heart
Or the Patterson Projects where he got his start

Saturday, September 26, 2009

A Visit to PS 140: How an Extraordinary School Used " The Rat That Got Away" To Promote Literacy and Professional Development

A Visit to PS 140: How an Extraordinary School Used " The Rat That Got Away" To Promote Literacy and Professional Development

On Friday morning, September 25, at 7:30 AM, Allen Jones, author of The Rat That Got Away: A Bronx Memoir, joined me for a visit to PS 140, a Bronx school I have worked with for the last four years, where a group of teachers wanted to meet with us to discuss the book.

For Allen and me, the visit was a profoundly moving experience.

First of all, to see a group of 20 teachers gathered for a book group at 7:30 AM on a Friday morning, all of whom had read the book cover to cover, said something very powerful about the culture of PS 140 as well as about the appeal of The Rat That Got Away. In a school where the principal is often in the building 7 days a week, teachers think nothing to being in the building early in the morning or late into the night to enhance their own professional development or do something that might benefit their students or the larger school community. Allen and I looked at the faces of the teachers assembled, mostly women, mostly ( but not all) Black and Latino, and clearly, from their affect and conversation, people who had grown up in the city, and felt a twinge of anxiety along with the excitement. Would they like the book? Would the find it true to life? Would they feel it captured their experience and the experience of the young people they worked with every day?

After I gave a brief introduction thanking the teachers for coming, and explaining how the book was written, I asked the teachers what they thought of the book urging them to be completely honest and not worry if what they said offended us. What followed left us humbled, gratified, and deeply moved. The first teacher to speak, Mary Dixon Lake, herself a published poet and children’s book author, said the book brought to life the world of her childhood in Bedford Stuyvestant and said that20Allen’s portrait of his father captured the aura of power and respect inspired by her own father and that of many of the Black fathers she grew up around. Another teacher, Pam Lewis, said that even though she grew up in another Bronx Housing project (Edenwald rather than Patterson) twenty five years later than Allen, his description of the sights and sounds and smells of the project grounds when he went to church at 8 on a Sunday morning was exactly how she remember her trips to church during her own childhood. Another teacher came forward to praise the books language, saying that she appreciated how well Allen captured the way people in the street spoke, saying it was the first book about the Bronx, much less the city, where the language of the main characters was wholly believable and authentic

But the most powerful moment in the morning came when Mike Napolitano, a teacher in the school who had grown up in the Patterson Houses and whose older brothers knew and played ball with Allen said “That was me! That was us.” Echoing Allen, h e described project halls so clean that he could get on his hands and knees and push model cars through them, people who trusted their neighbors so much that they left their doors open all day, and people of all races and nationalities who were in and out of each others apartments, eating one another’s food, listening to one another’s music and building friendships that crossed racial lines. He went on to praise Allen for giving recognition to all the coaches and community center directors who worked with neighborhood youth, saying “ I played for them too” and then laughingly affirmed the accuracy of Allen’s depiction of the stores where hustlers and wannabee hustlers bought their clothes, pulling out a photograph of one of his older brothers in a Bly shop shirt! As Mike spoke , and as he and Allen nodded in mutual appreciation of their shred experience, his fellow teachers looked at Mike with new eyes, and with new respect, as they realized that the stories he had always been telling everyone about life in “ the Patterson” , even though he was an Italian American in his mid 40’s, were all true! By the end of the discussion, he and Allen hugging each other like long lost brothers, sharing phone numbers and making arrangements to visit a 97 year old basketball mentor named Mr Page who still alive, lucid and living on the Grand Concourse

After the book group ended, with hugs and photos and promises by Allen to return to the school, principal Cannon took us up to Mike Napolitano’s classroom, where he was using “The Rat That Got Away” to promote literacy, reading skills and an understanding of local history in his class of 4th grade boys. The class was part of Principal Cannon’s experiment in creating optional boys and girls classes in the upper grades of his school and Mike was using Allen Jones, which was rooted in Bronx neighborhoods his students grew up in, to get his boys excited about books and reading

The physical appearance of the classroom blew Allen and me away. On the walls were three large posters which had Allen’s book broken down year by year, with descriptions of important events t aking place in the country as well as important events in Allen’s life. To see the book broken down that way in a 4th grade classroom was just incredible- neither of us, in our wildest dreams, ever imagined the book being used that way. Then while we looked at the display, the boys in the class came up to use, holding notebooks and pieces of papers, and asked us for our autographs. We took about five minutes signing the materials offered for every boy in the class and then sat in chairs while Mike Napolitano had the boys sit on a carpet at our feet and ask us questions.

When the question period began it became clear that the boys knew Allen’s story down to the minutest detail , showing a particular fascination for his drug, prison and basketball experiences. “Was your name in prison really Youngblood?” one boy asked. “Are there scars where you injected drugs?” another boy chimed in. “Did you hurt your hand when you dunked” a third boy said. “Who was the Whiz Kid ( a famous Harlem drug dealer Allen referred to in one of his chapters)? a fourth boy wanted to know. At least fifteen of the boys raise their hands and the discussion only ended, after more than thirty minutes, when Principal Cannon told us we had to leave. The enthusiasm of these boys about the contents of the book just overwhelmed us. Clearly, the stories Allen told touched a chord with these young people in a way know book they had been assigned in school had ever done. When Allen had to leave he called the boys together, asked them to put their hands in a circle, count to three and chant “I am some-body.” They did exactly as Allen asked and SCREAMED the words out so loud the windows almost broke

Allen and I left the classroom and the school feeling something truly extraordinary had taken place. A book we had written had validated the lives of teachers who were working in a South Bronx school and had given one teacher a vehicle for creating excitement about books and learning among a class of fourth grade boys

No television interview about the book or review in a major media outlet could match the feeling we had after spending a morning at PS 140. This is exactly what we wrote this book for!

Monday, August 31, 2009

Welcome to the Future

Welcome to the Future: Chula Vista California’s Victory In Little League World Series Shows that Barack Obama’s America is Alive and Well

Welcome to Dr Mark Naison
Fordham University

Yesterday, I watched the final stages of a sports event which left me profoundly moved and inspired. It was the last game of the Little League World Series, and it was a contest pitting a team from Chula Vista California against a team from Chinese Taipei. The team from Chula Vista won 6-3, thanks to excellent hitting, great defense, and inspired pitching performance by a very talented athlete named Kiko Garcia.

But what moved me was not just the quality of the baseball, but the spirit and energy of the team from Chula Vista, which reminded me of a great team my son Eric played on when he was 19 years old, the senior team from the legendary Youth Service organization in Brooklyn.

The Chula Vista team, like its older Youth Service counterpar, was a predominantly Latino team, with a handful of black and white players, led by an all Latino coaching staff and followed by a group of Latino parents whose enthusiasm and love of the game energized everyone around them

Teams like this exist all over the country; but this was the first time in the 50 year history of the Little League World Series that a Latino led team from the US won the
Tournament and was crowned world champion. This victory also erases the scandal associated with the last US Latino team to make it to the final round of the World Series, the Rolando Paulino Little League team from the Bronx, whose star pitcher, Danny Almonte, was exposed as several years over age.

There is not a whiff of scandal associated with the Chula Vista team, which has become a wonderful representative of the growing presence of US Latinos in sandlot, high school and college baseball in the United States

This is something I had an opportunity to witness first hand during my fifteen years of coaching youth baseball in Brooklyn, and during the additional years I spend following
my son Eric’s high school and college teams.

It is no exaggeration to say, using the category of sociologist Roger Waldinger, youth baseball has become a US Latino “ethnic niche.”

All over the Uni ted States, from Bridgeport, to the Bronx, to San Antonio, to San Diego, US born Latinos, and the children of Latino immigrants are infusing youth baseball with an energy, skill and artistry that is reminiscent of what African Americans once brought to the game of basketball. Baseball is the national game in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and a strong rival to soccer in Mexico and Venezuela, and ethnic enclaves from those nations in the US have nurtured an incredible grass roots baseball tradition. When my son was playing high school baseball in NY in the late 90’s, over eighty percent of the All City Players were of Latino ancestry, and it was well known if you wanted to hone your skills enough to play college or professional baseball, you had to join a predominantly Latino organization. Youth Service Team in Brooklyn, which produced players like Shawon Dunstan, Manny Ramirez, and Julio Lugo, was the premier example of such an organization, and my son was fortunate enough to spend two years on its teams and have an experience which expanded his cultural horizons as much as it improved his baseball skills. Our whole family still remembers the Youth Service infield practices, which featured dazzling fielding drills that left spectators from Toronto,
to Bethesda Maryland,, to State College, Pennsylvania utterly mesmerized. In the four years my son pitched in college, he never had an infield remotely comparable to the ones he had those summers.

The team from Chula Vista had that same level of precision, skill and artistry that I saw among Eric’s teammates, instilled by coaches who loved the game and loved imparting skills to young players. Every player in their line up whether they were 5.0”
Or 6’2”, whether they were batting third or batting ninth, could hit for average and hit for power.; and their fielding and pitching was equally outstanding. To use a phrase that Nelson George once applied to African Americans in basketball, these youngsters “elevated the game,” showing skills rarely encountered among players their age

But as impressed as I was by what happened on the field, I was almost impressed by what I saw in the stands. The Chula Vista parents were a cross section of a new, multiracial America that put Barack Obama in office. Not only were Black and white parents an integral part of a majority Latinot rooting section, but several of the key players, including their team’s superstar, Kiko Garcia, were clearly products of interracial/intercultural marriages.

What you had here was a team and organization and a community which blended the best of Latino and American traditions, drawing everyone who watched these games, whether in person, or on television, into something which uplifted their spirits and brought them excitement and joy.

As I watched this team march on to a championship, I coiuldn’t help of the Obama haters around the country who imagine the real America as something “White” when it in fact is becoming gloriously multicultural

Chula Vista Little League is a wonderful symbol of that America

To quote from country singer- and Obama supporter- Brad Paisley in a song that was chosen as the anthem for his years World Series “Welcome to the Future”

Mark Naison
August 30,2009

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Letter to One of My Top Urban Studies Grads Who Cannot Find A Job

Dear

If somewhat as talented as you are cannot find work, the job situation is truly grim. None of my best Urban Studies grads this year have found jobs with non profits, government agencies, or community based organizations. They are having to piece together income from temporary work of all kinds ranging from babysitting to waiting tables to home and car repair to event photography. As for living arrangements, they are all moving back home, or living with friends and learning to budget every dollar carefully.

Frankly, I see no light at the end of this particular tunnel. I just learned from one of my friends, a law professor, that her neice's husband, who was 15th in his class in at a top law school cannot get hired as a lawyer in any capacity, much less in his specialty, environmental law. And because he has a two year old daughter and a wife who is ill, he is going to have to move in with my friends brother or their parents. Statistics bear this out. This year, only 15% of University of Connecticut law school graduates have been able to find jobs. Two years ago, the percentage was over 80% at this time of year!!

As for words of wisdom, I give you the following, though I do so with some trepidation.

1. Since the economy is not going to revive any time soon, make an inventory of all skills you have and use them to find ways of bringing in income. If you are skilled with computers, speak another language fluently, are good at repairing things, can teach or coach a sport, can clean houses or help people organize their files, use those things to find temporary work. Piecing together income from many sources is the key to survival when you cannot find a single job capable of paying your bills

2. Budget yourself as though you are living in a Depression, watch every dollar, and do not buy anything you don't absolutely need. When there is no prospect of economic revival, you have to reject twenty years of consumer socialization and learn to "live lean."

3. Move in with relatives or create communal living arrangements with friends that allow you to share rent, food, electric bills and any other expenses you have.

4. Analyze what are likely to be growth areas in the economy and see if you can position yourself to find full time or part time work in that area. Health care is one such area; drug rehabilition and work with former prisoners is another. Over the next five years, many states are going to have to release non violent offenders because they cannot afford to keep them in jail. There will probably by jobs opening up working with that population. There may also be jobs in various environmental projects supported with stimulous money. If you have construction or repair skills, look in to using them in environmental conversion work.

5. Stay in regular touch with anyone you know who might have knowledge of work opportunities-eg professors, neighbors, former employers- and keep updating your resume to allow for maximum flexibility in enterinng the job market. Also, print up business cards which highlight your most marketable skills, even if they are in areas which have nothing to do with your university training ( e.g. child care, house and office cleaning, computer repair)

6. Join social justice organizations in your area fighting for jobs for the unemployed, or occupying abandoned properties for those who need housing. Remember, their are millions, if not tens of millions of people in this country in the same position that you are in and if you are organize together to fight for what you need, you are more likely to get it than by simply pursuing individual mobility strategies. There is no contradiction between trying to help yourself find work and housing and fighting to make sure that everyone has access to decent housing and decent work.

Anyway, that's about the best I can come up with. Good luck and don't hesitate to stop by the office to talk and join me for lunch, which will be on me!

The least I can do is give all my unemployed grads a free meal The food is probably worth more than my advice

Best Dr N

Monday, August 17, 2009

Why The Job Market for College Grads is Not Likely to Improve Any Time Soon

Why The Job Market for College Grads is Not Likely to Improve Any Time Soon

Dr Mark Naison
Fordham.University

One of the hardest things about being professor these days is watch my best recent graduates have difficulty finding jobs. During the last two months, I have fielded at least ten requests from students to refer them to job openings that I know about, and to my great distress, I have not been able to place a single one of them in a vacant position.

This is highly unusual. During a normal spring, I would receive at least five personal requests from heads of government agencies or non profits in the Bronx to have one of my top Urban Studies graduates apply for a position in their organization, along with at least thirty emails advertising jobs my students could apply for. This spring, the number of personal requests has fallen to zero, while the email postings have been less than five. As a result, I have been forced to advise my grads to take any work they can find, be it babysitting and housecleaning, restaurant work, home and auto repair, while sharing living space and food cooperatively so they can live on far less income than they expected.

I wish I could say that this situation will improve soon, but based on the economic indicators I have seen, I don’t expect to see substantial job growth for the 20 to 30 year old age cohort for at least five years.

Here’s why. For the last twenty five years, the major engine of economic expansion in the US has been consumer spending. When the recession hit, fully 70 percent of economic activity in the nation was consumer generated. But this explosion of consumer spending, which took place at all levels of the society, was not, for working class and middle class Americans, based on an expansion of real wages or per capita income. Rather, it was fueled by easy access to credit that came from two sources; credit cards and second mortgages on homes.

In the current economic crisis, both of those sources are drying up. As home values have plummeted, working class and middle class families have lost their ability to finance major purchases be taking out home loans; in fact, many are hard pressed to meet their existing home payments and are in danger of falling into foreclosure

As for credit cards, banks are raising interest rates, tightening eligibility requirements and imposing punitive fees on late payments. More and more consumers are radically curtailing credit card use, while others simply cannot get access to credit cards that banks and finance companies were once giving away

Neither of these restraints on consumer credit are likely to ease. Despite the TARP program and the bailout, many of the nation’s banks, especially small local commercial banks, still have so many toxic assets on their books that they are in danger of failing. The commercial real estate market, in which many banks are invested, is in as bad shape as the housing market ( if you don’t believe me, count the number of vacant stores in your local neighborhood or at the nearby mall). Given their fragility, banks are looking for any excuse to deny people loans, or granting loans only at extremely high interests rates. They are also piling on huge fees on their individual customers to generate revenue

What this means is that American consumers cannot use easy credit to compensate for the loss of jobs, and the loss of income that so many are experiencing during the current economic crisis (which some economists are calling THE GREAT RECESSION) The Obama Stimulus plan is giving some of them enough extra income to keep their heads above water, but just barely. In anticipation of continuing hard times, consumers are saving at a rate that hasn’t been seen in over 20 years.

As consumers retrench, government doesn’t have the power to inject enough income into the economy to reproduce pre-recession employment levels.. By the beginning of
2010, the double digit unemployment levels we are seeing may stop getting worse, but we are likely to see those levels persist until new engines of economic growth appear

Where they will come from is anyone’s guess. Perhaps health care, perhaps environmental technology, perhaps transportation, perhaps new forms of agriculture, perhaps education or international trade. But until that happens, job creation will come too slowly and painfully to help this year’s graduates, and probably several years of graduates to come.

If they take their situation as a challenge, the consequences may not be that tragic. It is their creativity, inventiveness and entrepreneurial skill that may well be the engine for the new kinds of growth we need

But that will not happen until young people realize that the jobs they once expected are not going to magically reappear. They are going to have to learn to share, live with less and become much more flexible and imaginative in developing living arrangements and finding new sources of income


Mark Naison
August 17, 2009.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

A Tale of Two Boroughs: Class and Race Segregationi in North Brooklyn and the South Bronx

A Tale of Two Boroughs- A Look at How New Housing Construction in North Brooklyn and the South Bronx Intensifies Class and Race Segregation in New York City Segregation

Dr Mark NaisonFordham University


Last week, I had a chance to do an oral history interview with a lifelong resident of the Bronx named Robert Peterson.. Mr Peterson, now 83 years old, spent most of his childhood and youth in a cold water flat on Elon Avenue and 160th Street, in neighborhood that contained a cross section of Irish, Italian, and German residents until Puerto Rican and Black families began moving in during the 1960’s. Unlike most of his white neighbors, Mr Peterson remained in the South Bronx when that neighborhood was underwent physical deterioration and ethnic succession, and purchased an apartment in Concourse Village in 1965, where he has lived to this day.. Mr Peterson, handsome and physically fit, still attends mass at St Peter’s and St Paul’s RC Church, the parish he grew up in and like his mostly African American neighbors shopping, watching movies and eating in the Concourse Plaza shopping center adjacent to his building

After our interview was completed, Mr Peterson took me and his niece Kathy Palmer, who helped me conduct the interview on a walking tour of his old neighborhood, a journey which took us past several key landmarks from Mr Peterson’s youth, including St Peter and St Paul’s Elementary School, the Bronx Union YMCA (now a drug treatment center for youthful offenders), and a German language theater which now holds doctors offices. Mr Peterson could not get over how many new town houses and apartment houses were being constructed on blocks where houses had been abandoned and burned during the 70’s and remained vacant and dangerous through the 90’s. I was equally impressed. On 159th Street and 160th Street, we passed rows of new townhouses with beautifully kept flower gardens in front and saw large apartment buildings being erected near the old Bronx courthouses on 161 St near Third Avenue. Despite the recession construction crews were at work all over the community, and it seemed that every vacant lot in the neighborhood was being turned into a construction site or was slated to be one.

While these signs of economic vitality were deeply gratifying, one thing did disturb me. With the exception of me, Kathy and Mr. Peterson, and a few of the construction workers, I did not see a single white person in the neighborhood. The shoppers, the children and teens playing in the schoolyards, the kids in summer day camp uniforms, the senior citizens sitting outside in folding chairs, the people watering flowers in front of their town houses were all Black and Latino.. What you had was a spanking new, working class and middle class neighborhood, where every single new resident was a person of color, and virtually none had the affect and appearance of the city’s wealthy professional class or even its. counterrcultural, artistic intelligentsia.

Now flash back to the van tour I took two weeks ago, with a former student and her boyfriend, of the wave of new housing construction in North Brooklyn neighborhoods. There in our drives through Park Slope Flatbush Extension, Fort Greene Clinton Hill, Williamsburg and Greenpoint, we passed at least eight condominium complexes and luxury towers that had been built in the last five years. Some of these buildings were completely or partially vacant, but those that were occupied seemed to be populated almost entirely by wealthy young white people, with a smattering of Asians, blacks and latinos of comparable incomes.

Think about the contrast. In one neighborhood, all of the new construction is luxury housing, with rents set by what the market will bear. In the other, the new housing is wholly or partially funded by tax credits and government. subsidies, with rents and housing prices set at rates that upper working class and lower middle class families can afford


.What is the result? Class segregation! In North Brooklyn, the new housing being constructed not only creates housing opportunities exclusively for economic elites, it forces up rents in the existing stock of private rental housing, forcing working class and middle class families out. In Park Slope, Williamsburg and Greenpoint and increasingly in Fort Green and Clinton Hill, a family forced to move because of rising rents simply cannot find anything affordable in their neighborhood . No matter how long they have lived in the community, they will have to find housing in another part of the city, almost inevitably in a neighborhood where there is little economic or racial diversity.

This is where the Bronx comes in. During the last ten years, the existing stock of housing in the Southern part of the borough has grown enormously. Mott Haven, Melrose. Morrisania, Hunts Point and Trememont, even Highbridge and Morris Heights, have been ablaze with new construction, much of it sponsored by local churches and community groups. But this new housing has done nothing to relieve the Bronx’s shameful recent history of hyper segregation. All, and I mean ALL of this housing has been purchased or rented by Black and Latino families, many of them recent immigrants, but virtually all of them people who have been priced out of “hot” neighborhoods like Harlem, the Lower East Side, Park Slope and Williamsburg, were rents have been driven up by a deluge of wealthy new residents

This is the paradox of Michael Bloomberg’s New York. During his six years as Mayor, there has been a residential building boom throughout the city. Incredible numbers of residential structure have gone up in many different parts of the city, including some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. But with rare exceptions, affordable housing construction has been concentrated in already segregated neighborhoods while the city’s few racially mixed neighborhoods have been deluged with luxury housing.The result-the entire Bronx ( with the exception of Riverdale), most of Southern Queens, and huge sections of Central and South East Brooklyn have become places where no white people live at all, while Park Slope, Clinton Hill, Fort Green, the Lower East Side, Morningside Heights and the Upper West Side are rapidly losing most of their working class black and latino residents.

Is this the kind of city we want to live in? Is the destruction of the city’s few mixed neighborhoods something we want our housing policies to encourage?

If we want to preserve and expand neighborhoods where people of different backgrounds and incomes live together, we need to consider the following two policies

1, Begin converting abandoned and partially occupied luxury buildings into affordable housing

2. Require that every new residential building going up in New York City designate at least 35% of its units as affordable housing and set rents and apartment prices accordingly

The City Council and the State Legislature need to act immediately to implrement these measures. Misguided housing policies are fast making New York City one of the most segregated municipalities in the entire nation
Mark Naison
August 12, 2009

Friday, July 31, 2009

What Else But Home- A Great New Book on Race and Class in NYC

What Else But Home: An Inspiring, Disturbing Book that Pulls The Covers Off Race and Class Barriers in Gentrifying New York

What Else But Home: Seven Boys and an American Journey From the Projects to the Penthouse by Michael Rosen, is a tough minded, unsparingly honest, brilliantly written book about one family’s efforts to bridge race and class barriers that have grown to unprecedented proportions in Michael Bloomberg’s New York, especially in gentrifying neighborhoods like the Lower East Side. The story line is deceptively simple. The author and his wife, wealthy professionals living in a penthouse apartment overlooking Tompkins Square Park, decide to take in, and informally adopt five black and latino boys, all of whom live in neighborhood housing projects, who their son Ripton meets in pick up baseball games in the Park. Given the results, that all five boys end up staying of jail , getting GED’s and high school diplomas, and attending college or community college, you might think this is a feel good story. But what the Rosens, their two children ( both adopted) and the five boys have to do to get there is so painful, so difficult, and so beyond the range of what most people would be willing to do that it makes the barriers they crossed seem almost unbridgeable. Although the challenge this family took on inspired love and trust and generosity, it also produced levels of conflict and misunderstanding that almost broke every person who participated. Michael Rosen, a man of uncommon honesty and literary skill, puts all of this before us without pretence or embarrassment, forcing every reader to ask- could I do what this family has done, could I live with this level of tension, could I come up with the heroism needed to deal with crisis after crisis without saying enough is enough, especially in the light of some extraordinary words of wisdom a friend shared with them when boys started staying at their house

“If you’re going to let them be here, it has to be unconditional. They’ll test it because disadvantaged kids are always screwed over. Teachers start nice, social workers, their mom’s new boyfriends all start nice, get tired and walk away. These kids don’t know it, but they are fighting for their lives. It is a matter of life and death. . . . If you let them into your family, it has to be forever.”

What does forever mean when you have seven boys, two middle class, but adopted and five who have grown up in incredible poverty, violence and chaos, living with a married couple with ample resources and wonderful intentions but all kinds of baggage and a marriage that is falling apart ( the Rosens actually separate for a time when they are taking care of the five boys) First of all, it means constant misunderstanding. One of the best features of this book is the author’s ability to capture the two different languages spoken in his home- the urban, working class youth dialect the boys speak and the middle class conversational English spoken by Michael and his wife Leslie. Not only to the boys routinely use terms that are racist, sexist and homophobic , but it is difficult to explain to them why they shouldn’t use those terms when few people have ever talked to them in a calm and conversational tone about their own behavior, much less social justice issues. Living in makeshift families with rotating adult caretakers, going to chaotic, overcrowded schools, and communicating on the street other young people in hip hop influenced code words, the boys are unaccustomed to people trying to correct their behavior by appealing to their political consciousness or a higher moral sense. The Rosens attempt to impose politically correct language on them seems like it is coming from outer space. They know that the Rosens are providing them with a safe zone, free from the violence and instability they have experienced in the households where they have resided, and the housing project hallways, schoolyards and park areas where they often congregate, but the Rosens also make demands on them in terms of speech, dress, behavior that no one has imposed on them before and they are torn as to whether reinventing themselves this way is worth it

What makes the resulting conflict even more poignant, and the class and race gap the book explores all the more poignant is that the five boys the Rosens adopted-Carlos, Kendu, Phil, Will and Juan-bring considerable cultural capital to the table. They are bright, street smart, athletic ( several end up playing college baseball), good looking and have experienced enough love in their life to respond positively to the love and attention the Rosens give them. Nevertheless, they are totally unprepared, in dress and speech and affect, to adapt comfortably to the middle class milieu life with the Rosens exposes them to, whether it is eating at a sit down restaurant, going to a museum, or entertaining guests at a dinner party and totally unable to sustain the minimum behavior necessary- such as gong to class and doing homework- that would get them to graduate from high school, much less than attend college. Once the Rosens made the decision that the boys were part of their family for life, and that they would be subject to the same expectations that were imposed on the Rosen’s two children, Ripton and Morgan, their lives were going to be childcare, crisis management and chauferring 24/7 and they were going to have to spend incredible amounts of money on clothing, athletic equipment, tutoring, counseling and special school programs to get these boys through their adolescent years without getting incarcerated, injured or diverted by early parenthood. I am not sure this is an accurate figure, but I would guess that the Rosens spent well over $200,000 on clothing travel tuition and other expenses for the five boys they adopted during the six or so years covered in the book. If they had not spent that money, it is not clear this would have been a success story. The public high schools and junior high schools the boys attended gave them neither care nor attention; the local economy of the neighborhood offered no legal ways of making money; the new middle class in their neighborhoods looked upon them with fear and contempt and their home living situations were filled with violence, stress and the dangers and temptations of a local drug trade which was thrivingjust a few blocks from Yuppiedom. The Rosens MONEY, as much as their love and attention, made this a success story.
But before we confer sainthood on the Rosens- though in my judgment they are damn near close-let us give Carlos, Kendu, Phil Will and Juan their share of the credit. It took incredible courage, and resilience to leave everything they grew up around to become part of this white middle class family, especially since they had to endure more than their share of insult and humiliation to become part of the Rosens world. Some of this came from the restaurant owners, hotel and apartment managers, neighbors and friends of the Rosens in the hip, wealthy community the Lower East Side was becoming, a place where project boys were seen as objects of pity, or unwelcome intruders. Some of it came in motels and coffee shops when the boys piled into the Rosens station wagon or van to take out of town trips, most of which seemed to involve visits to historic sites. But some of it came from the Rosen’s attempt to have the boys conform to a regular schedule, keep a curfew, perform household chores, do their homework and not squander the resources the Rosens gave them, whether it was a cell phone contract or a credit card. If it took a tremendous effort on the part of the Rosens to micromanage the boys lives, it took a lot of patience on the boys part to be micromanaged, especially given the freedom they had in households where the adult presence was weak, or stretched to the limit by lack of resources
What can we learn from this experience?. First, that given the right kind of attention and resources, amply sprinkled with love, young people growing up in poverty , even those living in chaotic and dangerous households, can become skilled, educated and productive citizens. What the Rosens accomplished as a family can be replicated by institutions if they are given sufficient resources and have the right people staffing them Secondly, that the race and class divide that the Rosens sought to bridge, is growing larger almost daily because our tax structure maximizes the gap between the haves and the have nots and the market forces that allocate housing in New York city are driving poor people out of mixed neighborhoods. And third, that no family should be forced to take on the burden that the Rosens did because by all rights it is the whole society’s responsibiity. The Rosens heroism, which deserves all the respect in the world, would be best rewarded by giving young people like Carlos, Kendu, Will, Phil and Juan the same quality education, health care and recreational opportunities their middle class counterparts have
Let’s move this agenda quickly while Barack Obama is still president.
The Rosens could use a little rest!

Mark Naison
July 31. 2009

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

My Response to a Former Student Who Thinks Henry Louis Gates was "Trippin"

Since when is yelling at a police officer, and asking for his identification, grounds for arrest? Especially when you are 5'8" tall, 58 years old, and walk with a cane!

While you can question the wisdom, as well as the consistency, of Professor Gates actions, as well as his sudden emergence after years of silence, as advocate for victims of racial profiling, it is hard to justify his arrest as good police work

While it is entirely predictable that a police officer would arrest a citizen who questions his competence, asks for his badge number. and accuses him of racism, that doesn't make it legal and it doesn't make it right!

To me, freedom of speech is a more important value than the reflexive defense of police authority. Mark Smith's comment about Sgt Crowley motivations "he didn't want to be 'punked' in front a fellow officer", unfortunately is a tellingly accurate analysis of the police officer's motivation. The Sgt was not going to allow a civilian to disrespect him on the streets of his city and get away with it! If that meant arresting a sixty year old man with a disability who broke no law- and who also happened to be one of the most respected professors in the nation, so be it. What is true in the Bronx- just ask Rebel Diaz- is apparently true in Cambridge MAss- "asking a police officer for his badge number is an automatic trip to central booking."

So Dr Gates, welcome to the United States of America, where police officers have their own ways of dealing with people who question their authority.

At least you weren't beaten up in the station house,as I was 40 years ago,or in a back alley as has happened to some of my friends.

When you grow up a working class neighborhood, whether its black, latino or white, you learn very quickly that the police make up their own laws. And you don't expect it to change any time soon. Most people seem willing to give the police this kind of leeway on the grounds that they need to maintain respect on the street to keep criminals under control

If freedom of speech is a casualty, that's the price they are willing to pay.

I for one am tired of paying that price.

So thank you Henry Louis Gates for putting the issue of racial profiling and police misconduct before the nation more vividly than it has anytime since the beating of Rodney King.

I am not sure anything will come of it, but at least some people who didn't grow up in "the hood" are getting a much clearer picture of how the police really work,and how little "the law" -and the Constitution- serve as a guide to their actions!

Mark Naison

Saturday, July 25, 2009

President of All The People? President Obama Reaches Out to Working Class Whites

President of All The People? President Obama Reaches Out to Working Class Whites

Professor Mark Naison
Fordham University

At a critical point in his presidency, Barack Obama is quietly taking up steps to show white working class Americans, even those skeptical of or hostile to his Presidency, that he is President of all the people

Having a country music performance at the White House was one such step; calling the police officer who arrested Professor Henry Louis Gages, and inviting him to the White house for a beer, was another.

At a time when President Obama is staking his credibiity on putting through comprehensive health care legislation, such actions are designed to win points with a constituency that he desperately needs in his corner to pass such legislation

But it is also a response to a campaign by Republicans and conservatives- launched right after the Sonia Sotomayor appoinment- to paint President Obama as someone willing to sacrifice the interests of working class and middle class whites to advance minority interests

Seizing on Judge Sotomayor's "Wise Latina" remarks, and her rejection of a reverse discirmination lawsuit by a white firefighter in New Haven, Republicans have stoked fears among working class whites that President Obama's real agenda- the classic "liberal" agenda- is to pull them down so minorities can rise up,

Given the historic effectiveness of such attacks on Affirmative Action- made by leaders from George Wallace to Rudy Guiliani- and the visceral hatred of racial preferences among large sections of the white population, it is not surprising that the Republican campaign to portray Obama as biased against whites
has begun to gain traction.

When you add to that the controversy over President Obama's comment that the arrest of Professor Gates was "stupid," ( which it WAS!) you can easily imagine the content of the appeal to white racial fears that conservatives are launching on the airwaves and in the halls of Congress.

" First President Obama shows contempt for our firefighters, now he insults our police? What kind of president is it that is willing to ignore the sacrifices of the bravest of Americans, those who put their lives on the line for us every day, just because they are white? "


Could these arguments work? You bet they could!!

As someone who coached baseball and basketball in Brooklyn with cops and firemen for more than
fifteen years in the 80's and 90's, and who has taught a course on Affirmative Action for more than ten, I can tell you first hand, that incredible numbers of blue collar whites are convinced that liberal and minority politicians are trying to take what they earned through hard work and sacrifice and give it away to less deserving people. No one should underestimate the power of these feelings. The white sense of "victimization" when it comes to affirmative action, is every bit as powerful as what blacks and latinos expersss about their continued vulnerability to racism, and when you put the two groups in the same room
in open and honest discussion, the results can be explosive.

The long and short of it is that President Obama cannot afford to be seen, among a key portion of the American public, especially a portion that will benefit from his health care reforms, his labor legislation,
and many other Presidential initiatives, as the second coming of Al Shapton and Jesse Jackson.

This is why he had to move so fast to defuse the controversy over the Gates arrest, and reach out to the police officer who made the arrest.

This is why he had a country music event at the White House

And this is why I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he showed up at an event on the NASCAR circuit.

Some might call this pandering to racists and reactionaries, but I see it as something much more subtle and powerful- steps towards reinventing an American community which crosses racial boundaries and creates new definitions of the public interest

And what give it credibility is the substance of the Presidents reforms. No one who looks closely at his health care proposals can suggest that these are programs which benefit the minority poor at the expense of working class and middle class whites. They are proposals which benefit working class people of all races and nationalities, in large part by shifting the tax burden to finance health care to the wealthiest people in the society.

The steotypical conservative attack on liberals- they give to the have nots by taking from the have littles-
does not remotely describe any component of President Obama's health care proposals, or any other part of his programs.

But the emotional reasonance such attacks have- even when they are innaccurate- are still enormous

That is why President Obama has reached out- and must keep reaching out- to the people who believe that they have always been the victims of liberal policies.

He needs their support to pass his health care proposals, and he needs them at the table for any
real conversation about race

When all is said and done, it this kind of inclusiveness that may best define his Presidency

Mark Naison
July 25, 2009

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Dying While Black

Dying While Black: The Toll Race Related Stress Takes on the Life Expectancy of Black Men and Women

Dr Mark Naison
Fordham University


I am lucky enough to have two best friends, people I talk to almost daily and with whom I share the triumphs, tragedies and absurdities of life. On the surface, they have a lot in common- both are in their early sixties, both are professors, both grew up in middle class families and went to New York City public schools,, and both are still married to the same woman they met at fell in love with when they were in their early twenties. Their political views are also quite comparable- they are both liberal Democrats, deeply committed to social justice struggles at home and abroad, and they are incredibly kind, caring and considerate people

However, there is one difference between them that, despite these commonalities, has great significance – one is white and one is Black.

The place where this difference matters, however is not where most people would expect to find it- it is not in food, music, political ideology, or response to racial issues
Rather, it is in health, life expectancy and the cumulative effects of stress that I see the experience of my two friends diverge the most.

And here the indicator is a rather grisly one- attendance at funerals

My friend Robert ( the white one) regularly attends the funerals of relatives in his parents generation, but only on rare occasions, once a year at most, attends the funeral of a friend..

In contrast, my friend Bill , who is Black, attends the funeral of a different friend or relative –in his own age group ALMOST ONCE A MONTH. The causes are diverse, heart disease, strokes, cancer, but it is chilling to see how many people in his cohort, all of them black, are dying of “natural causes” in their late 50’s or early 60’s.

What makes it more unsettling is that Bill’s friends and relatives, for the most part, are not people suffering from the injuries of poverty- they are college educated professionals who have been middle class their entire adult lives, and who have health insurance, access to a healthy food, and the opportunity to take vacations.

But they are Black and in this society, being Black and middle class means being exposed to all kinds of stresses their white middle class counterparts barely can imagine.

What happened to Henry Louis Gates- being arrested at his own home in a white middle class neighborhood because police and neighbors thought he was breaking in- is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to stress inducers on African Americans. Every traffic stop has the same potential to escalate into a humiliating or even life threatening incident

Even activities seemingly as innocent as shopping, staying in a hotel or eating in a restaurant can turn into the emotional equivalent of walking through a minefield. Most black Americans have had some experience of being followed in stores, offered reluctant or inferior service in restaurants, or being patronized and slighted by personnel at resorts.
Even though such experiences are episodic, rather than routine, the fear of their occurrence casts a pall over activities that should be relaxing, adding a layer of tension to Black people’s lives that most whites don’t have to cope with.

A final, and perhaps most devastating source of stress on Black professionals is the fact that they cannot get angry at work without being marginalized and written off as “an angry Black person.” The Barack Obama persona that took him to the Presidency- cool and collected under pressure, unwilling to respond in kind to the most extreme provocation- is one that has a long history of working for Black professionals in high profile occupations, but which extracts a terrible emotional price. Having to internalize feelings of rage and disappointment in ways that white colleagues would never have to translates into a wide variety of medical conditions which become life threatening when one enters middle age.

To those who think I am exaggerating, take a close look at US life expectancy statistics, aggregated by race and then do a little research of your own. --- ask your Black friends over 60 how many funerals they have attended in the last two years, and then ask your white friends over 60 the same question.

I suspect the results will be the same as what I discovered when comparing Robert and Bill.

Mark Naison

Friday, July 10, 2009

Why Serena Williams is the Best Player in the History Of Women's Tennis And Jason Whitlock is a Jerk

As a former college tennis player who has competed ( though always lost) against male and female professional players, and as the pround parent of a daughter who was once ranked 37th in the country in 16 and under junior tennis, I want to express my OUTRAGE and DISGUST with Jason Whitlock's remarks about Serena Williams

Serena Williams, in my judgment, is the single most talented player in the history of Women's Tennis. She has a great first serve, the best second serve of any woman who has ever played the game, can hit with power and touch from both sides, has a terrific net game and overhead, is incredibly fast and agile and is a relentless competitor. Yes she is thick, but her thickness gives her incredible explosiveness and power, without sacrificing speed.

There is only one other player in the history of the woman's game who had the same combination of power, speed and explosiveness as Serena Williams does and that was Martina Navratilova. And guess what? Martina was also thick!

It is absurd to think that there is a single body type associated with superior athleticism and that slimness necessarily produces excellence. You can have big thighs, a big butt, a big chest-whether you are male or female-- and still move incredibly fast.

And one other thing. I think Serena Williams is beautiful. I think she is HOT! I think she has courage and charisma and talent and beauty and strength and bulldog determination.

She should be embraced as a symbol of Woman's Power, Confidence and Achievement and as a Wonderful Reminder that BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL!!

I love Serena! I love Tennis! I Love History! And I think Jason Whitlock should worry more about his weight than Serena's.

Mark Naison

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Recovery is NOT Around the Corner: The Challenge Facing Today’s College Graduates

Recovery is NOT Around the Corner: The Challenge Facing Today’s College Graduates

I hate to be the bearer of bad news on a 4th of July weekend, but this years college graduates are going to face a really tough job market for at least the next five years

The economic free fall that began last October is starting to ease, but that doesn’t mean the economy is going to start growing rapidly, and generating millions of new jobs, any time soon. The banks are still weak, the housing market is still fragile, and the crisis in the private sector is starting to spread to state and local governments. Only the recently passed stimulus package has prevented massive public sector layoffs across the nation, but the stimulus20is a one shot deal and within the next one or two years, hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of jobs in education, health care, corrections and other government functions are going to be lost as state governments have to radically cut programs and payrolls to avert bankruptcy. Unemployment is likely to rise to 11 or 12 percent, keeping consumer confidence, and consumer demand, at very low levels

In the past, the American economy could depend on easy credit to jump start consumer spending when unemployment was high, but that option is no longer there. Many credit card companies are on the edge of bankruptcy, and banks are still too fragile to resume lending to people without strong credit ratings and ample collateral. Businesses which survived the current crisis are finally able to get credit, but new business face an uphill battle convincing banks to invest in them. As for housing, large sections of the market are already glutted with foreclosed and abandoned properties, and until those properties are sold or rented, new construction, on any large scale, is not likely to take place

What this means, for recent college graduates, is that there is no sector of the economy, with the possible exception of health care and federal government employment, to which they can look to as a generator of a substantial number of new jobs. Even education, which produced tremendous job growth in the last ten years is going to be stagnant- bankrupt state governments are already instituting job freezes or laying off teachers.

To survive in this period, college graduates are going to have to take a page from their counterparts in the mid 70’s, who also faced grim economic conditions after a period of rapid growth. They are going to have to radically lower their expectations, as well as their expenses, and learn to live more frugally. What some of us did in the name of “communalism” the current generation can do in the name of “sustainability,” but the key is to create new living units, whether bound by family friendship or shared religious or political values, which radically reduce the costs of food housing and other necessities.

This is something I experienced first hand during those years. When my wife and I first moved to Park Slope in 1976, we formed a living cooperative with the family who lived upstairs from us. We shared house expenses, shared child care and had dinner together three nights a week. Next door to us was a commune, where no families had individual living quarters, and children were brought up collectively. We ate dinner at the commune at least one night a week. We took vacations the same way. For at least ten years, my wife and I spent every summer vacation sharing a house or condominium with another family in our cohort of friends who had young children. Even today, we rarely take vacations by ourselves. The idea of sharing living space, and child care responsibilities is something we view as making life more enjoyable, if we do it with people we like

At a certain point in time, the communal lifestyles we developed went out of fashion, especially as salaries for middle class professionals went up and all kind of new wealth was created in finance, real estate, and information services. But with professional salaries stagnant, and the finance and real estate sectors shredding jobs at a rapid rate, the dream of individual families affording their own private homes or apartments in their late twenties or early thirties is becoming increasingly unrealistic.

College graduates today would be wise to revisit communal and cooperative living arrangements, linking them to environmental sustainability, while developing transportation strategies ( bikes, trains etc) which reduce dependence on private automobiles. And with those strategies in place, young people can live well on a fraction of the income they thought they needed, and avoid the need to find a single professional niche in a time of fierce competition for a shrinking number of stable jobs. At this point in time, any combination of income producing activity, ranging from home or auto repair, to personal fitness, to child care, to home and office cleaning, to music instruction and production, to food preparation, in combination with whatever jobs people can find in health care, education, retail sales and business careers (reception, computer operations, accounting, paralegal etc) can create a sound basis for these experiments in group living

While this may, at first glance seem like a terrible defeat for a generation caught in a dismal economic niche, it may also be viewed as necessary adaptation to a world of finite resources and an important step in saving life on this planet

Whatever else you want to say about communalism, it saves energy as much as it saves space, and encourages cost reduction, and efficiency in areas ranging from home heating, to plumbing, to cooking to food production. I t also turns the living space and the community into a site of cultural and economic innovation as people invent satisfying ways of living and communicating that do not depend on new gadgets and great wealth.

Think about this, if we survive, as a species, people may look back on the era in American and world history, from the mid 1980’s till the Fall of 2008, as a complete aberration, a fantasy brought to life by a society gone made with selfishness and greed. How else will our descendants explain the SUV, the Hummer, the McMansion, the bling bling era in hip hop, the growth of upscale resort communities,, while billions of displaced people around the world live on the verge of starvation and two million people in the world’s wealthiest country live trapped in prison.

Today’s college graduates may still dream of boundless wealth and endless consumption, but those dreams are not a good match for the job market that they face. Rather than longing for a return to an era of rapid economic growth, they would do better to look at their counterparts in the mid 70’s for clues to how to live well in times of scarcity and combine it with their environmental consciousness to map out a blueprint to the future that brings the living conditions of the world’s middle classes more in line with those of the majority of the world’s population.

Mark Naison
July 2, 2009

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Taking the Amtrak Between NY and Washington Washington Reveals America’s Crumbling Infrastructure and Forgotten Neigborhoods

Taking the Amtrak Between NY and Washington Washington Reveals America’s Crumbling Infrastructure and Forgotten Neigborhoods

Dr Mark Naison

Fordham University



Early this week, I took Amtrak down to Washington to interview Frank Synder, Pensylvania State director of the AFL-CIO about labor’s campaign for Obama in Pennylvania in the 2008 Presidential election, which was one of the most important, grass roots efforts to confront the “race” issue head on in modern American history

Normally when taking Amtrak, I sleep or read, but because of the terrible crash on the Washington Metro late Monday afternoon, which=2 0took place when I was on the very same Metro Line only four stops away, I was too rattled to do either, so I found myself looking out the window the entire ride back to New York 0A

What I saw filled me with sadness.

From Baltimore right through Newark, I saw the remnants of of America’s crumbling industrial infrastructure revealed right before my eyes, along with the damage done to once proud working class neighborhoods in Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Camden, Trenton, Elizabeth and Newark

It was not just the hundreds abandoned factories I saw along the route, some of them a quarter of a mile wide, their windows broken or boarded up, their walls covered with graffiti, their yards filled with garbage and rusting trucks, it was the physical conditions, and atmosphere of the neighborhoods adjoining the factory that was equally depressing

Here, especially in Baltimore, Wilmington and North Philadelphia, I passed block after block of two story attached row houses with porches, a distinctive form of housing built for the local working class when these three cities buzzed with industry and enterprise. Once, these modest houses were regularly painted and spotlessly clean, the sidewalks in front of them swept daily by working class men and women proud that a job in a nearby factory allowed them to purchase their own home. Now, what houses were still left, many of them boarded up, or in advanced states of disrepair, stood on blocks where weed filled vacant lots took up as much place as the homes. These neighborhoods once had vital commercial districts, but the few stores left, their entrances protected by gates and their walls covered with graffiti, looked like they were under siege. At the speed we were traveling,20which was 20-30 miles an hour ( there were stations in each of these cities and the train would slow down when approaching) I could only get a glimpse of the people on the streets, on porches or in backyards, but the one thing that leaped out at me was that the vast majority of the m were Black and Brown. These once pr oud working class communities, deprived of unionized, living wage jobs in steel mills, shipyards, metal fabricating works, chemical and electrical plants and truck and railroad depots, had become holding pens for poor people, many of them trapped in intergenerational poverty, whose labor was no longer valued or needed in a post industrial American economy.

Significantly, the one institution along the tracks that I didn’t see boarded up were the prisons. I passed at least six prison structures along the Amtrak route, easily identified by the windowless walls, their turret like towers ( if they were more than 40 years old) and the barbed wire fencing &nb sp;that surrounded them. I had seen this before in declining industrial cities. When I visited Youngstaown Ohio ten years ago, where a five mile stretch along the Mongahela River was filled with the remnants of once bustling steel mills, the only new bu ilding in the city was a spanking new federal prison.

But if anything, the sight of the prisons along the Amtrak route depressed me even more. Once scene in particular reminded me of the profound inequalities, both racial and economic, that deform the American social structure. Just before the train pulled into the station at Newark airport, when it was moving ten miles an hour, I got a glimpse of what had to be prison yard on the West side of the tracks. There I saw a group of forty or fifty black men, most of them in their twenties, playing basketball, or standing around talking, while in a corner two very tough looking fort y year old white men with cut off sleeves stood observing. This was not a scene from OZ, it was real life, but I doubt if anyone else on the train noticed. What made it all the more eerie was that the people getting off and boarding the train at Newark Airport, were predominantly white and middle class. Here you had two different Americas, side by side, as separate and uneq ual as anything we had during the days=2 0of legal segregation, only race alone was not the criteria. Now it was race AND class that separated those left in decaying stretches of industrial towns and cities, from those living in middle class suburbs and upscale and gentrifying urban neighborhoods

Even before this current economic crises, significant portions of the American population were living in Depression like conditions. Bruce Springsteen, who knows the world along Amtrak very well, tried to remind us of the tragic consequences of deindustrialization in songs like “Born In the USA,” but how many of us heard his message?

Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I’m ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain’t got nowhere to go

Forty years of union busting, factory closing and prison construction have taken a terrible toll, not only on the lives of tens of millions of people, but on American democracy as a political ideal and a lived reality. Unless we do something to empower the people an d revive the communities that adjoin Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor- and places like it all around the nation-, large portions of the American population will remain locked out of the American Dream.

Mark Naison
June 24, 2009

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Don’t Be Disappointed in President Obama, Be Disappointed in Yourselves

Don’t Be Disappointed in President Obama, Be Disappointed in Yourselves
Response to Former Student Distressed by the Slow Pace of Change in the New
Administration.


Dr Mark Naison
Fordham University

Yesterday, one of my favorite former students wrote an email to my alumni listserv expressing his extreme disappointment with Barack Obama’s presidency and arguing that if one looked at how the administration has dealt with three key issues- health care, the environment, and foreign policy- Barack Obama was indistinguishable from Hilary Clinton and perilously close to becoming “George Bush Lite.”

As a concerned citizen who has followed the Obama administration’s economic policies very closely, and as an historian who has spent many years studying the Great Depression and the New Deal, I would like to respectfully dissent from this assessment of the Obama presidency

In my judgment, Barack Obama did not ascend to the presidency with a clear mandate to overhaul the nation’s health care system, radically revise its environmental policies and steer a dramatic new course in foreign policy. The Republicans and Independents who rallied to Obama during the last two months of the campaign did so because they wanted a president to prevent the nation from falling into a catastrophic Depression and to make sure that victims of the current economic crisis receive government aid

In the first six months of his presidency, that is exactly what Barack Obama has done. He has prevented the banking system from collapsing and restored commercial lending, taken emergency measures to rescue the automobile industry, and funneled hundreds of billions of dollars to state and local governments to allow them to continue functioning without massive layoffs and cuts in services. The Stimulus Package alone has staved off incalculable hardship. According to my wife, an elementary school principal in New York City, hundreds of thousands of dollars of stimulus money have flowed into every public school in New York City, preventing what otherwise would have been massive teacher layoffs and dramatic increases in class size. Health care institutions throughout the nation have also been able to avoid dramatic reductions in staffing because of an infusion of federal funds. When all is said and done, the Obama administration can be credit with helping save a capitalist system gone mad with its own excesses, while saving millions of public and private sector jobs that might have disappeared if Bush Administration economic policies had continued

As for health care, environment and foreign policy, where are the grass roots social movements marching in the streets, and besieging congress, to demand progressive change in those areas?

During the 1930’s Franklin Roosevelt was elected to office in amidst massive political unrest. In every part of the country, there were strikes, hunger marches, eviction riots, and armed resistance to farm seizures by banks. Some portions of this unrest, particularly hunger marches and eviction protests, eased after the emergency measures of the “First Hundred Days,” but some portions of it, especially labor organizing, actually escalated in intensity right up through the 1936 Presidential election, putting pressure on Roosevelt to make far more dramatic changes in economic policy than he had originally intended to do. It was continuous “pressure from below” that led to the passage of the Social Security Act, the Wagner Labor Relations Act, and other measures which created a safety net for America’s workers and retirees.

If we want the Obama administration to implement radical changes in America’s health care system and environmental policies, to begin dismantling the prison industrial complex and to reduce the size of the American military and its role in shaping foreign policy, than we will have to fight for those policies in the streets and the halls of Congress, day in day out, for many, many years.
Changes of that magnitude cannot be implemented by a sitting president without popular movements fighting the entrenched interests that support current policies

It’s time to take the scrutiny off the President and put it on ourselves.

If key policy areas remain immune to reform, it is our own inaction, not the President’s, that is largely to blame.

Mark Naison
June 20, 2009




Response to Former Student Distressed by the Slow Pace of Change in the New
Administration.


Yesterday, one of my favorite former students wrote an email to my alumni listserv expressing his extreme disappointment with Barack Obama’s presidency and arguing that if one looked at how the administration has dealt with three key issues- health care, the environment, and foreign policy- Barack Obama was indistinguishable from Hilary Clinton and perilously close to becoming “George Bush Lite.”

As a concerned citizen who has followed the Obama administration’s economic policies very closely, and as an historian who has spent many years studying the Great Depression and the New Deal, I would like to respectfully dissent from this assessment of the Obama presidency

In my judgment, Barack Obama did not ascend to the presidency with a clear mandate to overhaul the nation’s health care system, radically revise its environmental policies and steer a dramatic new course in foreign policy. The Republicans and Independents who rallied to Obama during the last two months of the campaign did so because they wanted a president to prevent the nation from falling into a catastrophic Depression and to make sure that victims of the current economic crisis receive government aid

In the first six months of his presidency, that is exactly what Barack Obama has done. He has prevented the banking system from collapsing and restored commercial lending, taken emergency measures to rescue the automobile industry, and funneled hundreds of billions of dollars to state and local governments to allow them to continue functioning without massive layoffs and cuts in services. The Stimulus Package alone has staved off incalculable hardship. According to my wife, an elementary school principal in New York City, hundreds of thousands of dollars of stimulus money have flowed into every public school in New York City, preventing what otherwise would have been massive teacher layoffs and dramatic increases in class size. Health care institutions throughout the nation have also been able to avoid dramatic reductions in staffing because of an infusion of federal funds. When all is said and done, the Obama administration can be credit with helping save a capitalist system gone mad with its own excesses, while saving millions of public and private sector jobs that might have disappeared if Bush Administration economic policies had continued

As for health care, environment and foreign policy, where are the grass roots social movements marching in the streets, and besieging congress, to demand progressive change in those areas?

During the 1930’s Franklin Roosevelt was elected to office in amidst massive political unrest. In every part of the country, there were strikes, hunger marches, eviction riots, and armed resistance to farm seizures by banks. Some portions of this unrest, particularly hunger marches and eviction protests, eased after the emergency measures of the “First Hundred Days,” but some portions of it, especially labor organizing, actually escalated in intensity right up through the 1936 Presidential election, putting pressure on Roosevelt to make far more dramatic changes in economic policy than he had originally intended to do. It was continuous “pressure from below” that led to the passage of the Social Security Act, the Wagner Labor Relations Act, and other measures which created a safety net for America’s workers and retirees.

If we want the Obama administration to implement radical changes in America’s health care system and environmental policies, to begin dismantling the prison industrial complex and to reduce the size of the American military and its role in shaping foreign policy, than we will have to fight for those policies in the streets and the halls of Congress, day in day out, for many, many years.
Changes of that magnitude cannot be implemented by a sitting president without popular movements fighting the entrenched interests that support current policies

It’s time to take the scrutiny off the President and put it on ourselves.

If key policy areas remain immune to reform, it is our own inaction, not the President’s, that is largely to blame.

Mark Naison
June 20, 2009