"Educational Reformers" Neglect Need for Vocational and Technical Education

Dr Mark Naison
Fordham, University

At a time when there is a huge need for technical/vocational education to train mechanics, vocational high schools are being shut down, to be replaced by small high schools, or charter schools which, when they work at all, train students for white collar occupations. To rebuild our infrastructure and shift to a Green Economy, we need engineers, electricians and construction workers, not clerks and brokers! But those with a 'one size fits all" approach to Educational Reform fail to see this

The irrationality of this hit home to me several months ago when I learend that Alfred E Smith Vocational and Technical High School in the
South Bronx was designated as one of 20 schools to be closed by the NYC Department of Education because of low test scores. I had visited Alfred E Smith last November to do a book event for Allen Jones Bronx memoir "The Rat That Got Away" and was tremendously impressed by the high morale of students and teachers as well as the huge auto repair shops the schools had. I remember thinking to myself how valuable an institution this was to have in the Bronx, where auto repair shops and body shops are among the most thriving of local businesses. When
I discovered the school was slated for closure, I was astonished. In a community where unemployment rates for Black and Latino youth approach 50 percent, you are closing the one school that actually trains them for decent paying jobs in their own community!

But the educational reformers, who seem to have "drunk their own kool aid" never let history, local conditions, or common sense affect the mechnical application of their test driven models. That other advanced nations, like Germany, have actually invested MORE in techichal education to help their society have the mechanical skills to adapt to a Green Economy never enters their calculations. That there will be millions of skilled mechanical jobs when ( if?) the US makes such a transition never crosses their mind either.

Someday, and I hope it is soon, people will challenge the union busting, test obsessed, charter school promoting lawyers and executives trying to remake American Education and develop a teacher centered, student centered, community centered approach that recognizes the wide variety of skills needed to have a vialble economy

Fortunatley this is happening in NY. Thanks to a lawsuit supported by the NAACP and others, Alfred E Smith High School has not yet been closed

Mark Naison
Sept 26, 2010

What Happens When Two Great Lyricists Meet

One of the great thrills of my trip to Berlin was watching an amazing young poet and free styler name Eleagel ( Ejar Ruiz) take over whatever
stage he was on, be in in a park, at a club, in the lobby of a Youth Hostel, or at a performance for the American Ambassador to Germany. His improvisational
skills were unparalled, but he also had the ability to piece together incredibly meaningful poetry on subjects ranging from gentrification to the the challenges
of love and romance

Today, I had the opportunity to bring together Eleagel with perhaps the most inspired lyricist I know, a poet and mc named Akua
Naru who spits fire about the plight of Black women in hip hop, and America generally drawing upon incredible images and producing effortless flow.

Today, I brought these two brilliant young people together in front of my Rock and Roll to Hip Hop and watched history being made. Eleagel and Akua
were amazed and inspired by one anothers talents and gave my class a set of performances, some practices, some improvised, that they will never forget

This was language stretched into an instrument of spiritual awakening, and acrobatics of the intellect. Two people from different cultural traditions(Mexican. African American) two different places ( Brooklyn, Colgne via New Haven), of two different genders, battling with total admiration and respect

It is so rare to see this, in hip hop these days, with a man and a woman, but here it was, for all to appreciate, right here in a classroom at Fordham University

It was a moment that I wanted frozen in time, but it is something that I hope to see repeated many times over. Both Eleagel and Akua will be coming
back to Fordham next Tuesday at 2;15 for a video shoot, but I would love to see them tour together, in Europe as well as the US

What happened today is something that many people all over should have the privilege of seeing

This is what hip hop his all about

Best,

Mark Notorious Phd Naison

Akwasidae Festival Celebrates Fordham's Developing Relationship to The Bronx’s African Immigrant Communities


On Saturday, September 18, a historic event took place in the McGinley Center Ballroom on Fordham’s Rose Hill Campus. A cultural festival of the Ashanti people of Ghana called Akwasidae, held at 40 day intervals throughout the year, was brought to the Fordham Campus, to honor the University’s decision to offer a course on the Ghanaian language Twi during its 2010 Summer Session. More than two hundred people came to this event, from as far away as Ghana and Florida, most in traditional Ashanti dress, to celebrate the coming of age of the Bronx Ghanaian community- the nation’s largest- and to affirm Fordham’s ties to the growing African immigrant population living in the neighborhoods adjacent to the school.

This event, which included traditional rulers of the Ashanti people from New York State and Washington , a representative of the Asantafuohene ( Ashanti king) in Ghana, an extraordinary group of drummers and dancers, and an inspiring speech by a Ghanaian presidential aspirant, brought African culture, political discourse and the arts to the Fordham campus with a majesty and force that this writer has never witnessed during his 40 years at the school.

This event is the culmination of four years of work by the faculty of Fordham’s Department of African and African American Studies and the Bronx African American History Project to build ties with the African immigrant population of the Bronx, which comes from more than twenty countries and very likely consists of over 100,000 people if you count children of these immigrants born in the US. When our faculty realized, as a result of our research and community outreach, we hired Dr Jani Kani Edward, a sociologist and ethnographer who wrote a book on Sudanese women in exile, to coordinate oral histories with this population, culminating in a grant from the Carnegie Corportion of New York to fund this research. In the course of our research, we met a Ghanaian scholar, Dr Ben Hayford, who we quickly incorporated into a research team as a consultant. Through Dr Hayford’s contacts we began developing strong ties with Bronx Ghanaian religious leaders, educators,professionals. and business owners, resulting in a number of ground breaking interviews that gave us invaluable information about this highly skilled and energetic component of the Bronx’s population

Then, a little more than a year ago, a Ghanaian radio personality and cultural organizer named Kojo Ampah showed up on the Fordham campus as a student and immediately spawned plans to increase the African presence on the Fordham campus. He joined the Bronx African American History project research team as an interviewer and community liason and organized a new student group on campus called the African Cultural Exchange. All of a sudden, African musicians, artists and political leaders began appearing on the Fordham campus, some to be interviewed by the BAAHP, others to speak or make presentations to the larger campus community

The enthusiastic response of Fordham students and faculty to these events, along with the University’s decision to offer Dr Hayford a position teaching Twi, led Kojo Ampah and his associates, Mike Mohigh and Nana Anabel Brenyah, to try to bring the largest and most important Ashanti Cultural Festival to the Fordham campus.

After months of hard work, they managed to find a space for the event, locate community sponors who would help fund it, and gain valuable support from Fordham’s Office of Student Leadership.

But the most gratifying aspect of their work was the incredible response from Ghanaians in the New York Metropolitan area and indeed, up and down the East Coast. The fact that a major university was willing to open doors to this community, to recognize its language, to celebrate its culture, and affirm how important its role was in revitalizing communities in the borough of the Bronx had a powerful effect, both on ordinary Ghanaians and leaders of Ghanaian organizations.

The result was there for all to see in McGinley ballroom Saturday. Rarely has Fordham seen a more innovative and powerful display of traditional drumming and dance, more interesting ceremonies which honored heroes and ancestors, and more powerful speeches on the future of Ghana and other African nations. This was a moment when the power of and potentiality of the Bronx’s African immigrant communities was there to see for anyone lucky enough to be present

It was also a moment when this great Jesuit institution, where a social conscience is still honored, was recognized for reaching out in friendship and respect to an immigrant population which, for understandable reasons, is still fearful of how Americans will treat them in a post 9/11 world.

This was a great day to be Ghanaian, it was a great day to be African, and it was a great day to be at Fordham University in the heart of the Bronx

May there be many more occasions like this at Fordham in coming years.

Mark D Naison
September 19, 2010

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Appeal to the Mayor of Berlin to Support the Worldwide Anti-Gentrification Struggle by Saving Tacheles

September 18,2010

Dear Mayor of Berlin

As a scholar in Urban Studies and as an admirer of the tradition of political activism and urban revitalization in your great
city of Berlin, I am urging you to use all the powers at your disposal to prevent the sale of Tacheles to developers and the
destruction of this great community arts center that attracts more than 400,000 visitors a year

At a time when the world financial crisis is creating in cities around the world what Berlin faced after reunification- a landscape
of thousands of abandoned factories, stores, apartment building and shopping centers- the last thing we need now is the
destruction of perhaps the world's best known example of the transformation of abandoned property into a creative arts center.
Not only should Tacheles be preserved and protected, but to paraphrase Che Guevara, we need "one, two, three many Tacheles" all
around the world, in New York, in Miami, in Madrid, in Rome, in Detroit and in Johannesburg!!

Tacheles is the front lines of a global anti-gentrification struggle. If you, in your position as Berlin's most important leader, can
lead a community movement to preserve this powerful people's institution, complete with marches, rallies, and legal and legislative
action, than people around the world will follow your example and began occupying the abandoned properties in their cities!
In so doing, not only will you prreserve a precious economic resource for the city of Berlin- which attracts hundreds of thousands
of tourists and creates hundreds of jobs- you will give people all over the world- including my home city of New York- the courage to
take abandoned properties and turn them into community arts centers, youth recreation space, and housing for the homeless
simultaneously meeting community needs and revitalizing local economies

Make no mistake about it, "the whole world is watching" when it comes to the fate of Tacheles. What the people of Berlin did
after reunification, with the support of progressive elected leaders such as yourself, is what activists around the world need to
do to repair the damage done by a financial system out of control that left immense wreckage in its wake

Please, Honorable Mayor, use your office as a "bully pulpit" to lead the people of your city to resist the banks and developers
who are trying to turn one of Berlin's most important community institutions into a hotel or shopping center

If you lead, people will follow, not only in Berlin, but around the world


Respectfully


Mark D Naison

Professor of AFrican American Studies and History
Fordham University
Founder, Bronx African American History Project
New York, USA

A Tale of Two Events: The 1963 March on Washington and Glen Beck’s “Restoring Honor” Rally
Dr Mark Naison
Fordham University

The 1963 March on Washington changed my life. As a 17 year old college athlete moved by the Civil Rights struggle, but unsure how to get involved, the sight of two hundred fifty thousand Blacks and whites peacefully gathering together in the Nation’s capital to demand passage of a Civil Rights bill made me feel that something profound and significant was happening in the country that demanded my participation. And when I heard Dr King’s speech offering a vision of justice in which people of all racial and religious backgrounds could play a part, I felt he was speaking directly to me. As soon as I got back to school, I joined the campus chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality and volunteered to do tutoring and tenant organizing. The rest is history. Forty seven years later, I am a Professor of African American Studies and History at Fordham University, whose life has been profoundly enriched by participation in social justice struggles, the study of African American history, and the building of deep friendships that cross lines of race, religion, nationality and sexual orientation.
Given this history, it was both shocking and upsetting to see Glen Beck use the very same setting, and the very same date, to mount all-white protest against the policies of the Obama Administration and promulgate a vision of religious faith that negates everything that Dr King stood for during his extraordinary life. That Beck could speak of “reclaiming the civil rights movement” in one sentence and denounce any form of religious faith that promoted redistribution of wealth, in another shows either his total cynicism, or his complete lack of familiarity with Dr King’s speeches and writings. Dr King, the theologian, was not just concerned with assuring individual rights for all, regardless of race creed or color, he was preoccupied with understanding how imbalances in wealth and power, deformed societies and created a climate where violence would thrive. One of his greatest speeches, his” Declaration of Independence from the War In Vietnam” was all about how the US “ was on the wrong side of a world revolution,” and how the pursuit of profits and he defense of vast imbalances in wealth was responsible for violence at home and abroad.
Dr Martin Luther King, though a man of peace, was a social revolutionary who believed that the health of societies was enhanced by the pursuit of equality. No where was that more true than his speech at the March on Washington. As I listened to that speech, I was overwhelmed by a sense not only that America could only be true to its ideals if Black people were given equal rights, but that each of us would be ultimately judged by how well our actions served those less fortunate than themselves. A nation, like a family, Dr King argued powerfully, could only truly achieve well being if all of its members were healthy and cared for, and he spoke of healing the wounds of racism and poverty as a sacred task that would not only ennoble everyone associated with it, but would greatly enhance America’s standing among the nations of the world.
Dr King’s genius was his ability to make people feel that devoting their lives to helping others immeasurably enriched their experience of living, while making the nation they lived in stronger and more respected. That someone could use his words and example to promote institutionalized selfishness as both Christian and patriotic is not only to distort his legacy, it is to defile it!
Mark Naison
September 30, 2010

Is the Tea Party Upsurge a "White Power" Movement in Disguise?
Dr Mark Naison
Fordham University

The more I observe the Tea Party movement, the more it seems to resemble the movements that overthrew Radical Reconstruction and returned the South to "White Rule."

It’s not that the rhetoric of the Tea Party mirrors the white supremacist oratory that accompanied the end of Reconstruction, or that it has violent allies that engage in murder and intimidation that way the Ku Klux Klan did, it is that the Tea Party movement is composed of white people who feel that the world has been turned upside down, that their status has fallen, and that their livelihoods are at risk, because a Black man is in power.

The overwhelming emotional response to the Tea Party movement among working class and middle class whites- which I have seen first hand in the working class neighborhood where I have a vacation house- bespeaks more than a concern about deficits and government waste. It reflects a sense that the election of Barack Hussein Obama as President threatens whites of modest means in some profound and elemental way, a feeling that has been stoked by accusations that President Obama is a Muslim and not a US Citizen.

Unlike the people who overthrew Reconstruction, who openly argued that the United States was founded as a "White Man’s Country" and could only prosper if it remained that way, I am not sure that most Tea Party activists would use openly racial reasoning to proclaim the illegitimacy of the Obama Presidency. But their sense of displacement and outraged dignity seems every bit as powerful as that of white southerners after the Civil War ruled by coalitions of Black and White Radical Republicans whose governance was secured by the presence of federal troops.
When talking to Tea Party supporters, you get an overwhelming sense that they view President Obama as an "imposter," someone whose presence not only defies long standing American traditions, but threatens them personally.

There is also a peculiar chemistry in the movement that deserves interrogation; its propensity to bring like minded white people together in settings where they can express rage and disappointment in a way they could not easily do at work, in school, or even in places of recreation where they might have to share space with people of different racial backgrounds,

The energy released in such gatherings is extraordinary, as is the release of inhibitions. White people who feel constrained from expressing racial resentments in multiracial gatherings, seem to feel "liberated" by Tea Party gatherings. Finally, they can be themselves. Finally, they are in a place where "real" American values and traditions are honored.

What we have here is not the explicit conflation of "authentic" American identity with White Supremacy a major theme in American political culture well through the 1960’s, but rather the IMPLICIT conflation of patriotism and American values with some communally affirmed ideal of Whiteness that no one is willing to acknowledge and talk about

But the implicit quality of the Tea Party’s practice of white solidarity doesn’t make it any less real. No one can observe, or attend Tea Party events, without feeling the potential of the group to "turn on" people of color whose presence somehow offends the group ( as the Black man with the skullcap did at the Ground Zero mosque protests). The emotional investment in Whiteness among Tea Party activists is something its own leaders need to come to grips with and which the rest of us need to view with trepidation

Just because the Tea Party has not yet spawned violent actions, or an underground terrorist wing, doesn’t mean that it will not do so in the future. The emotions calls upon are extremely powerful, and the traditions it invokes have a long and tragic history.

Make no mistake about it. The Tea Party is not just a crusade to restore Fiscal Integrity. It is a White Power movement that has the power to weaken and possibly unravel the thin fabric of civility that holds American society together
Mark Naison
August 26, 2010


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Statement In Support of Tacheles- Berlin Community Art Center

Why Tacheles Must Be Preserved: A Statement by Dr Mark Naison, Professor of African American Studies and History, Fordham University, New York City.

It is both ironic and reprehensible that in the middle of a global economic crisis, where banks are being bailed out by governments, and where large numbers of commercial and residential properties stand abandoned in cities around the globe, that one of the most important examples in the world of the conversion of abandoned space for creative purposes is being threatened with elimination by banks and developers.

Make no mistake about it; people all over the globe who have visited Tacheles have been inspired by the story of a group of artists who took over a huge abandoned Department store after the fall of the Berlin wall and with their own sweat and labor transformed it into an internationally known arts center with an extraordinary music club that features artists from around the globe.

Tacheles is not a period piece; an excercise in nostalgia that recalls an exciting bygone time in Berlin's history. It is a living, breathing example of what ordinary people can do when markets collapse and governments fail.

I experienced this first hand when I visited Tacheles four years ago with the progressive hip hop group Rebel Diaz. When we saw the amazing things the artists at Tacheles had done with abandoned space, not only in the building itself, but in the adjoining lot, we wondered why nothing like it had been done in comparable spaces in New York City, especially in the Bronx, where there are many partially occupied warehouses and factories.

So inspired was Rebel Diaz by this model that they were determined to recreate it in the Bronx and this year their dream became a reality. Along with 20 other artists, musicians and community organizers- they turned an abandoned candy factory in the Bronx into the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective, which, like Tacheles, has a music club, artists studios, and outdoor gardensand sitting areas showcasing graffiti arts.

At a time when the global economic crisis is leaving in its wake thousands of abandoned stores, shopping centers, and luxury housing complexes, Tacheles stands as a living example of how grass roots activism can transform such spaces into centers of artistic creativity and small scale commerce.

Not only should Tacheles be protected from irresponsible commercial development- undertaken, it should be noted, by the very institutions that brought us the global economic crisis-, it should be proudly promoted by the City of Berlin as an example to the world of how ordinary people can create opportunities in the midst of turmoil and hardship

Tacheles is not only a reminder of a heroic time in Berlin's past, it is, for many people around the globe, a symbol of their hope of a better future

August 18, 2010.