Students Upset, Teacher Sorry Over Assignment

October 29, 2009

BY SAMUEL RICHARD

MANAGING EDITOR

A local college teacher who asked students to draw a black man with a noose around his neck awaited word Oct. 28 on how he could be disciplined.

Los Angeles Trade Technical College teacher Bill Robles could be disciplined in various ways if officials found that Robles gave the homework assignment with malicious intent, but the primary option is to ask him to undergo sensitivity training, college President Roland “Chip” Chapdelaine said. 

Based on his initial review, Chapdelaine said he did not think Robles gave the assignment with malicious intent.

“He gave an assignment that was probably insensitive,” Chapdelaine said Oct. 26, adding he had to reserve final judgment until he conducted a full review.

Final decisions would not be disclosed, however, since the situation is a personnel matter, said Chapdelaine, who did not respond to an e-mail by presstime on Oct. 28 to confirm if an ultimate recommendation had been made.

Robles wouldn’t have to take training but only be recommended to do so, Chapdelaine said Oct. 26.

Although there are different levels, the training generally involves dialogue, exposure, understanding and discussion with people from different ethnic groups, Chapdelaine said, adding he could not speculate on future discipline.


Camelle Williams and other African American students walked out of class Sept. 16 because Robles passed out an image of a black man standing in his bare feet, pointing to the floor with one hand and holding a noose around his neck with the other.

Students in the Drawing II and Drawing III classes were given a different assignment the same day — a picture of a home, students said — but Williams still filed a complaint after talking to Robles.

“He was defending himself the whole time. He didn’t say he was sorry,” said Williams, who recently went before the L.A. Community College District’s board of trustees about the incident.

“He didn’t even acknowledge the noose,” she added.

Robles said he doesn’t remember exactly what he said that day but did not intentionally give the assignment as a racist gesture or to offend anyone. He added that he never associated the photo with any racist themes.

“In retrospect, I see it was an error in judgment,” Robles said.

Black students had an uproar over the image, he said, “and I can see their side of it, but I’m totally devoid of any of those (racist) feelings.”

“I did it in total innocence,” he added. 

[Home page of Bill Robles’ Web site, which highlights his work as a courtroom sketch artist.]

Home page of Bill Robles’ Web site, which highlights his work as a courtroom sketch artist.
Robles, a longtime courtroom sketch artist, has worked at Trade Tech for roughly 20 years.

Chapdelaine said he did not know of any other complaints filed against Robles in the past.

Robles said he picked the assignment — originally something he drew based on photos he saw many years ago in a magazine — because he felt students could apply drawing principles they learned in class with it. Students, he said, were complaining about not wanting to do certain assignments, so Robles said he wanted to give them an assignment that would be “stimulus” to the students. 

Robles said he never gave the assignment to students before. Chapdelaine and Williams, in separate interviews, said he did.

Raymond Baptist, a visual communications student who saw the illustration before it was passed out, refused to draw it.

“It was kind of shocking to me,” Baptist said. “He’s not even being considerate of people’s feelings.”

Virtually all the black students — about five in a room of roughly 30 — walked into a neighboring lab and told another teacher about the incident, according to some students.

“Everybody just came in mad, basically,” Baptist said.

Robles added that the picture — which he said was an intriguing pose and photo of Trinidadian artist and performer Geoffrey Holder — was considered a piece of art several years ago, wasn’t considered offensive, and appeared in a magazine.

Baptist said that doesn’t change his opinion about the photo “because people saw it for what it was … especially black students.”

“We see a black person with a rope around their neck,” he added. 

School officials held meetings, including one with Robles. An administration official also visited the class to evaluate Robles because of the incident, and not for a usual review, Chapdelaine said.  

Robles apologized to students several days later. The school also apologized in a letter “on behalf of the Arts Trades and Fashion Department” and the administration “for the lack of sensitivity in the Visual Communication assignment…” 

Williams said she didn’t accept Robles’ apology, but wants him fired, noting that she doesn’t have a personal problem with him. She said the situation should not be tolerated because racism shouldn’t be tolerated anywhere.

“He is only a symptom to a much bigger problem,” she said, also alleging that racism exists at the school.

Robles reiterated he is not racist, adding he would not have passed out the assignment if he was.

“I don’t know why somebody would want to tarnish a career spending all (these) 40 years with something like this,” he said, reiterating it was false that he meant to offend anyone.

“You’re worried about your 40 years. I’m worried about my 400 years (of slavery),” Williams said as a response. 

Later, Robles added, “In retrospect, I’ve had a sensitivity awakening.”

He said he was in “lala land” because he just didn’t think in racist terms when he saw the drawing, but is now more aware.

Nana Gyamfi, a lawyer and co-founder of L.A-based Human Rights Advocacy contacted by Williams, said she would help Williams get the word out about the situation.

People have the right to speak out, Gyamfi said.

“The damage has occurred,” she added, “whether the intent is there or not.”

Bottom Line: Assignment is a hanging offense

 By BETTY PLEASANT, Contributing Editor

An art teacher who gave his Los Angeles Trade-Technical College students a racially offensive classroom assignment received a slap on the wrist, but the president of the college may lose his job over it.

Bill Robles, a veteran courthouse illustrator and teacher in Trade-Tech’s Visual Communications Department, gave each of his students in his drawing class a picture of two caricatured Black men pulling a noose around their necks and, as homework, instructed them to draw the figure of the man on the left in the picture.

The class of 30 students was outraged by the assignment to the point that none of the students drew the picture and the five African-Americans in the class walked out on the spot.

Reyna Mendez, one of the offended students, said the picture was totally inappropriate and she asked Robles why he would present a picture like that for them to draw.

Mendez, who is writing a story about the incident for the college newspaper, said Robles told her he wanted to show the “gesture” depicted in that picture so the class could learn to draw gestures. Finding that to be an unsatisfactory reply, “I told him there are a lot of other pictures he could have used to show us how to draw gestures,” Mendez said.

Camelle Williams, a visual communications major who grew up in Long Beach but resides with her grandmother in South L.A., was so incensed by Robles’ picture that she spearheaded a protest against him which culminated in a confrontation with the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees last week.

Robles, an elderly man believed to be in his 70s, was immediately challenged by Williams about his assignment when he gave it last month. “He began to unapologetically defend himself by saying, ‘In all the years I have been teaching, I never had one complaint about this assignment,” Williams said.

“Even after all the African-American students walked out in protest, it was the remaining students who had to explain to him how offensive this is to all races, not only to African-Americans.”

Williams reported Robles’ actions to the college administration, including the president, Roland Chapdelaine, who promised a thorough investigation of the matter and swift discipline to follow, if warranted. Robles’ offense occurred on Sept. 16 and by the end of the month, the investigation appeared complete and Chapdelaine informed Williams that he would recommend sensitivity training for Robles and he would put in his permanent file a reprimand for not having a syllabus for his class.

Williams found Chapdelaine’s recommended “discipline” to be unacceptable, since a reprimand for Robles’ failure to have a syllabus did, in no way, address his offense, so she marshaled her fellow students and took the issue over Chapdelaine’s head — to the board of trustees, which met at Pierce College Oct. 21.

The meeting hall was packed, as most of the people went to express to the board their concerns about a farm and an equestrian center at Pierce College. Williams and her “Robles’ picture” item was listed last on the agenda. But when she spoke, things changed.

First of all, when Jimmy DeVance and other Robles students, distributed Robles’ picture to the crowd gathered for the meeting, the people reacted with horror and stunned disbelief. Although they went there to support a farm and a horse facility, they immediately found something else to champion — the removal of whomever is responsible for this abomination they saw before them.
Williams spoke movingly to the board about what Robles had done and what Chapdelaine had failed to do. After she finished, the board turned to Chapdelaine — who was present because the board was scheduled to vote on the extension of his one-year contract to head Trade-Tech — and asked him to give an account of himself with respect to the Robles incident.

Chapdelaine said his investigation showed that the adverse student reaction to
Robles’ use of the picture was “split” and that, in affect, it didn’t seem to be that big of a deal. He said, however, he would have a full report on the matter on Monday.

When the time came later on in the afternoon for the board of trustees to vote on extending Chapdelaine’s contract, it voted “no.”

Hard Fall Leaves J.R Rider With Long Climb Up

The old NBA player walked into the high school gymnasium for his first day of work Monday night wearing a Cleveland Cavaliers’ long-sleeved T-shirt and practice shorts. The gym at Trimble Tech High in Fort Worth, Texas, hardly resembled the packed 18,000-seat arenas in which he used to play. On this night he wouldn’t be matched up with Kobe Bryant(notes) or Michael Jordan – only unheralded former small-college stars. No more charter flights or Four Seasons suites. These days, it’s Best Westerns and long bus rides.

This is where 38-year-old Isaiah “J.R.” Rider now finds himself, preparing for his first season with the North Texas Fresh, one of more than 50 teams in the American Basketball Association. Sixteen years ago, Rider was the fifth overall pick of the NBA draft, a promising rookie for the Minnesota Timberwolves who would go on to win the All-Star dunk contest. Nearly two decades of self-inflicted drama and personal pain – including several arrests and a 3½-month stay in jail – have now dropped Rider to the low minor leagues, desperate to revive his career and rewrite a different ending to his troubled story.

“I still have it in me,” Rider told Yahoo! Sports. “I still have something left in the tank. It’s still in my blood. My juices still flow.

“I know I can still ball.”

No one ever doubted Rider could play. He showed flashes of being a dynamic scorer and his acrobatic dunks brought crowds to their feet. During his nine-year stay in the NBA, he averaged 16.8 points while making stops in Minnesota, Portland, Atlanta, Los Angeles (Lakers) and Denver.

“I look on a lot of NBA courts today and I still don’t see guys with the talent he had,” said Washington Wizards vice president Tommy Sheppard, who worked in Denver for Rider’s brief stay. “He wasn’t the best ball-handler. But he scored in bunches and was an unstoppable force.”

Of course, wherever Rider went, chaos usually followed. He was repeatedly late to practices, meetings and games. He was convicted of kicking a female manager of a sports bar and busted for possession of marijuana and an illegal cell phone. He spit on a fan. He quarreled with management, coaches and teammates, once threatening Atlanta Hawks center Dikembe Mutombo(notes).

Rider, who grew up in Alameda, Calif., even once missed a meeting with the Oakland mayor that would have led to the city naming a gym after him and opening up a midnight basketball program in his honor.

“I’m upset that my career didn’t go as long as it should have went,” Rider said. “Looking back at it, I would have changed some things.”

Rider spent his last full NBA season with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000-01. He was left off the playoff roster, but still received a championship ring.

“J.R. was the type of player who wanted to do things his way, and if his way didn’t match with the system sometimes there was a conflict,” Shaquille O’Neal(notes) said. “Whenever you go to a new team, you have to go with that system. If you don’t go with that system, then they oust you. He was a hell of a player and if he would have been a system-type baller then he’d probably still be here today.”

Rider’s NBA career ended in the fall of 2001 when the Denver Nuggets waived him after just 10 games. “It was because of chronic lateness,” Sheppard said. “The talent was undeniable. But we had structure. …That’s where all the bad habits came together. The Nuggets were in no position to take that, even with his talent at that time.”

After the Nuggets cut him, Rider was certain another NBA or overseas team would eventually give him a chance. Nothing materialized.

“I thought they were trying to politic me out [the NBA],” Rider said.

After returning to the East Bay, Rider’s life went from bad to worse. His mother, Donna, suffered a heart ailment and – after what Rider claims was a misdiagnosis – slipped into a coma and eventually was taken off life support. Rider considered Donna his best friend. Once, after Rider was ejected during a game in Minnesota, she walked onto the court, told him to be quiet and ushered him to the locker room.

“We were talking one day looking out at the ocean from the house I got for her in Alameda,” Rider said. “Then the next day I get a call at 2 in the morning saying she is in the hospital. I never talked to her again, man.

“I was blaming myself because I’m not playing and she’s used to going to games. I was like, ‘Screw the world.’ ”

In early 2006, Rider was arrested in Marin, Calif., on a domestic-violence charge after allegedly driving off with a former girlfriend against her will. Ordered to stay away from the community, he drove into another car after a sheriff’s deputy tried to confront him. His substance-abuse problems worsened after he began to lace marijuana with cocaine. Rider eventually pled guilty to several charges, including felony cocaine possession and evading an officer. He received a seven-month sentence in Marin County jail, and says he served half the time.

“It was the ultimate low point of my life,” Rider said. “…There were no visitors. No one down for me. No letters. I had fake friends. They left me for dead. I’ve been there for so many people. I co-signed to pay for homes. I paid for weddings. But when I was struggling, no one was there for me.”

Jail didn’t cure Rider’s problems. In January 2008, he was arrested in Berkeley, Calif., after a confrontation with a taxi driver while also possessing an unlawful firearm and being hit with a $5,000 warrant for grand theft. A drug arrest followed two months later. In March 2008, he was arrested on Los Angeles’ skid row for investigation of auto theft before being released later in the day. He says the car belonged to his cousin.

“I regret it,” Rider said about his problems. “I wish I could have it back. &hellipI had to face and go through all of that to just get to this point now.”
Isaiah Rider won an NBA championship with Shaquille O'Neal and the Lakers, but he was not on the team's playoff roster.
(NBAE/Getty)

Thomas Brown, a deputy district attorney for Marin County, and Rider’s lawyer, Garrick Lew, both say Rider made a lot of his problems worse by not following through with court requirements. As in most areas of his life, tardiness was a main problem.

“He couldn’t get out of his own way,” Brown said. “He would be able to resolve a felony or misdemeanor with fairly minimal diversion obligation and couldn’t do that at all. There were always excuses. But personally, people wanted to see him succeed. He just couldn’t do it and the courts got sick of it.”

Lew said Rider has since fulfilled all his legal obligations.

“Most of the trouble he got in was from not going to court,” Lew said. “It upset the judge. His bail would go up when he failed to do what he was expected to do.”

Not surprisingly, Rider also ran into financial problems. The Marin Independent Journal reported that Rider lost his mother’s home in Alameda to foreclosure in 2006 and also lost two properties in San Leandro, Calif., and several cars. Lew said Rider also paid for his sister to complete a master’s degree program and helped support two brothers.

So how is Rider doing financially now?

“That’s not public,” Rider said. “That’s no one’s business whether I drive my Bentley to practice or ride with one of the coaches. I’m able to eat, able to feed myself and feed my family.”

Rider, who now claims to be drug-free, said he began to turn his life around at the start of the year by attending church. He also reunited with a former girlfriend, Vanessa Cassidy. Rider and Cassidy dated while he was playing for the Lakers. Six months ago, she convinced him to leave the troubles of the Oakland area behind and move with her to Phoenix. The couple is now engaged and she is pregnant with a boy to be named Isaiah Rider III. Cassidy also is staying with Rider in Texas as he plays for the Fresh.
Isaiah Rider thrilled fans when he won the 1994 dunk contest as a rookie with his

“It’s been only her and that’s it,” Rider said of his main supporters. “Her and God. It seemed like everybody else, and I say this not mad at anybody, left me for dead in that support group. All the friends I used to have are not there. Arn Tellem, the agent I started with, won’t answer the phone. Personal friends in Oakland, those friendships ran dry. I have quite a few associates, but very few close friends.”

Hoping to restart his career, Rider contacted Joe Lee, a Washington-based agent who represents several players in the minor leagues and overseas. Lee, who has a law-enforcement background, was skeptical of Rider’s sincerity.

“I gave him a test to see if he’d be on time calling me back and to see if he’d do the things I wanted him to do,” Lee said. “And we went on for about two good weeks and he was on time all the time.”

Rider’s goal is to eventually land an overseas contract that could potentially pay upwards of $20,000 a month. Lee said teams in China and Dubai have expressed some interest, but all want to see him playing first. The hope is that the Fresh afford him the opportunity to compile some video evidence.

A 90-minute face-to-face meeting with Rider convinced Fresh owner Jay Bowdy to sign him. “I understand that he’s made mistakes, he had his chance and he flunked on it for whatever reason,” Bowdy said. “But the reason why I took him is because unless you mess up with me and I see it … then I’m not going to not accept you because of what you did 10 years ago. That’s a long time and there’s so much you can learn from your experience from that.”

Bowdy, 26, said Rider will be one of the two highest-paid players and the Fresh also are providing him with an apartment. But that doesn’t mean Rider will be banking much money. Sixty percent of the pay for players and coaches, Bowdy said, comes from each night’s merchandise and ticket sales. The team will practice and play its home games in a high school gym and practices are scheduled at night so players with day jobs can attend.

“Just give me a gym with a nice floor and I’m good,” Rider said. “It’s a long way from practicing at [Trail Blazers owner] Paul Allen’s house in Seattle, but it’s still good though.”

Rider also thinks he’s still good enough to prove he can at least play overseas, where he could land a better contract.

“Money is green everywhere,” he said. “I have a gift and I feel like I got to do what I got to do. God gave me a gift, and I feel like I should be able to play basketball for as long as I possibly can.”

Rider still has dreams he can make it back to the NBA. Most NBA general managers see his chances as just that: a dream. One Eastern Conference executive said it would be “almost impossible” for Rider to earn another job in the league at his age.

Rider needs to work on his conditioning, but Bowdy said he is only about 10 pounds over his NBA playing weight of 215. He also liked what he saw from Rider’s first practice. The first game for the Fresh is Nov. 22.

“He still has his tenacity and no-lose attitude,” Bowdy said. “I was impressed. I will be scared to see what he does to my players when’s he’s in shape.”

Just two months ago, Rider claims he pulled off his famed “East Bay Funk Dunk” that won him the 1994 dunk contest. He says he did so in a park. While wearing jeans. The video of the dunk he provided, however, makes it questionable, at best, whether the rim was the regulation 10 feet.

Still, Rider remains undeterred. “I’m the best player in the world not playing,” he said.

For now, Rider has pledged to stay out of trouble and continue working toward his goal. In addition to playing for the Fresh, he’s nearly finished filming a documentary about his life. The film will focus on Rider’s struggles after he left the NBA. Only one part of the documentary is left to be shot.

Somewhere in an old gym in North Texas, Isaiah Rider continues to search for the right ending.

Magic Johnson admits (w/Jordan) to blackball Isiah on OG DreamTeam (Isiah questioning Magic's Sexuality)

Isiah blasts Magic over criticisms in new book
=================================

Magic Johnson in a soon-to-be-released book, Isiah Thomas said he'd had enough. And so he began to fight back.

"I'm really hurt, and I really feel taken advantage of for all these years,'' said Thomas, the Hall of Fame point guard and former NBA coach and executive, most recently with the Knicks. "I'm totally blindsided by this. Every time that I've seen Magic, he has been friendly with me. Whenever he came to a Knick game, he was standing in the tunnel [to the locker room] with me. He and [Knicks assistant coach] Herb [Williams] and I, we would go out to dinner in New York. I didn't know he felt this way.''

The criticisms are made by Johnson in When The Game Was Ours, which he co-wrote with Larry Bird and author Jackie MacMullan. The book, to be released on Nov. 4, tells the inside story of the most important rivalry in basketball history.

Much of their story involves Thomas, who as captain of the Detroit Pistons served as a primary threat to the championship ambitions of Bird's Celtics and Magic's Lakers. The book offers revelations that have stunned Thomas. Magic addresses years of rumors by finally accusing Thomas of questioning his sexuality after Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in 1991. Magic also admits that he joined with Michael Jordan and other players in blackballing Thomas from the 1992 Olympic Dream Team, saying, "Isiah killed his own chances when it came to the Olympics. Nobody on that team wanted to play with him. ... Michael didn't want to play with him. Scottie [Pippen] wanted no part of him. Bird wasn't pushing for him. Karl Malone didn't want him. Who was saying, 'We need this guy?' Nobody.''

"I'm glad that he's finally had the nerve and the courage to stand up and say it was him, as opposed to letting Michael Jordan take the blame for it all these years,'' Thomas responded during one of several interviews he gave to SI.com on Wednesday. "I wish he would have had the courage to say this stuff to me face to face, as opposed to writing it in some damn book to sell and he can make money off it.''

Thomas, who is the first-year coach at Florida International in Miami, confirmed that MacMullan attempted to reach him for comment six months ago, but he declined through his publicist to speak with her.

Magic's most shocking accusation, however, is that Thomas was responsible for spreading rumors that Johnson was gay or bisexual after Johnson tested positive for HIV, forcing his retirement at age 32. "Isiah kept questioning people about it,'' Magic says. "I couldn't believe that. The one guy I thought I could count on had all these doubts. It was like he kicked me in the stomach.''

Thomas vehemently denied that he had gossiped behind Magic's back, pointing out that he knew better than to engage in such hurtful talk.

"What most people don't know is, before Magic had HIV, my brother had HIV,'' Thomas said. "My brother died of HIV, AIDS, drug abuse. So I knew way more about the disease, because I was living with it in my house.''

His brother, Gregory Thomas, died five years ago, Isiah said.

"Magic acted and responded off some really bad information that he got,'' Thomas went on. "Whatever friendship we had, I thought it was bulls--- that he believed that. Let me put it to you this way: If he and I were such close friends, if I was questioning his sexuality, then I was questioning mine too. That's how idiotic it is.''

The book's main source for this allegation is Magic's longtime agent, Lon Rosen, who says Thomas told him in 1991, "I keep hearing Magic is gay.''

"C'mon, Isiah, you know Earvin better than anyone,'' Rosen replies.

"I know,'' Thomas answers, "but I don't know what he's doing when he's out there in L.A.''

On Wednesday, Thomas denied that conversation. "I don't know Lon like that,'' he said, adding that he reached out to Johnson at the time. "I remember calling Magic and saying [of the allegations that he was rumor-mongering], 'You know that's some bulls---.' ''

Magic declined to be interviewed for this story. Rosen, speaking on behalf of his client, said he and Magic stand by everything attributed to them in the book.

Thomas insisted he felt too much sympathy for Magic to be spreading rumors about him.

"I felt awful for him; I felt awful for everybody,'' Thomas said. "But I knew enough at that time that he didn't have to retire. The 'blood' thing we do in the NBA -- where we stop the game because of blood on somebody's shirt and all that ceremonious stuff -- we're not stopping HIV/AIDS that way. We still do it out of some insane fear that came about when Karl Malone and everybody was saying they weren't playing if Magic was playing.''

Instead, Thomas said he helped make it possible for Magic to return in 1992 to the All-Star Game.

"They weren't going to let Magic play in the All-Star Game; all the players were coming out [against him],'' Thomas said. "You know how that all got turned around? I had a meeting with all of the players -- because I was president of the players' association -- and I told them not only was he going to play, but we were going to shake his hand and give him a hug. And I was the first to shake his hand and hug him and give him a kiss, to let people know that's not how the virus is spread.

"And you can go back and check at the players' association. Call Charlie Grantham [the former union executive director and COO] and ask him how Magic got to play in the All-Star Game. Ask him who called the meeting.''

When The Game Was Ours credits NBA commissioner David Stern with inviting Johnson to play in the All-Star Game, despite objections from some players and owners. The book does acknowledge, however, that Thomas was the first player to embrace Johnson on the court before the game.

"I don't discriminate," Thomas said. "I don't believe any race or ethnic group or social group should be discriminated against, because I have been discrimated against, and I know it would be wrong for me to discriminate.

"I think Magic has been misled on a lot of things, and unfortunately this has been another one of them. I am hurt and disappointed that he has chosen to believe others as opposed to his closest friends. And I think you can go back and look in that era and see who his closest friends were, and who his closest friends are now. At that time, I don't consider Lon Rosen to be one of his closest friends; he was one of his business advisers making money off him.''

Spike Lee Speaks The Truth on Tyler Perry

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Spike Lee is critical of Perry’s work describing, "Meet the Browns" and "House of Payne" as "coonery and buffoonery."

He has even compared Perry’s work to Amos and Andy. Lee has always been a controversial figure, however this time he is bang on.

Perry is the face of coonery with his Madea character leading the way. She is loud, ignorant, abrasive and downright ridiculous. Her solution to dealing with problem children is to break out the belt and pray. She is the mythical mammy that White folks think exist in every Black family.

How exactly does his vision of Black womanhood advance Black people? The overriding theme in Perry’s movies is that a woman must submit and pray to find a mate in life. His vision of Black womanhood is sexist and promotes Black male hegemony. Just like his White male counterparts, Black males seek power through oppression.

It is one thing to show Black people doing the electric slide at a party and another to show us shucking and jiving at every turn. Perry has responded by saying:

"You know, that pisses me off," Perry tells Byron Pitts. "It really does. Because it's so insulting. It's attitudes like that that make Hollywood think that these people do not exist and that's why there's no material speaking to them. I would love to read that to my fan base."

Of course these people exist, but is this really the image of Blackness that we want promoted. Is it any wonder that Obama, a Harvard educated Black man can have his intelligence questioned, when this is the image of Blackness in pop culture?

Black people are hungry to seem themselves reflected in mainstream media. They are so hungry that they will eat the sand, without every realizing that the images that they are consuming are a mirage. They eat because men like Perry tell them to and because that is all that is available. This is not nourishment for the soul.

Perry wishes to receive accolades from his and his employment of black bodies. Well, when White people employ a Black housemaid, should Black people be thankful for their generosity? When Whiteness fills it supports staff roles with people of color and saves the well paying jobs for White people, should we be thankful for the hand up? Employing Black people to participate in the diminishment of Blackness, is not something we should ever be thankful for.

Perry is very resistant to any criticism of his work. We are expected to ignore the sexism and coonery because it has a Black face behind it. Being Black does not give you any more authority thank a White person to diminish Black people. Whiteness is maintained as a powerful force through the support and collusion of people of color. While Perry is mass producing these harmful images, POC are fighting against them in an effort to get an education and jobs. If Tyler Perry really wants to do something for Black people, he can ride off into the sunset from whence he came.

Art Class Sketch Stirring Controversy

* Reporter: Christina Gonzalez
* Posted by: Tony Spearman

Los Angeles (myFOXla.com) - A sketch in an art class is stirring controversy at Los Angeles Trade Technical College. Some students say the sketch of an African-American dancer is racist.

Christina Gonzalez has more in this video report.

50 and counting - Watts Towers

By Cynthia Griffin | OW Staff Writer | 08.OCT.09

Watts has been making art for five decades

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines art as “the use of skill and imagination in the production of things of beauty.”
In 1965, a thing of beauty was not a phrase that would have been used to describe the community of Watts.
And yet at that time, co-existing with the chaos and social upheaval that characterized Watts that year, was an art movement that was in its infancy.
That movement began in 1959 with an effort to tear down the eclectic towers that soared over the community created by Italian immigrant Simon Rodia, who constructed the artwork from cement and found items during the time he lived in Watts—1920 to 1954.
“When Simon left, he gave the towers to a neighbor; the neighbor wanted to turn (them) into a taco stand,” explained Rosie Lee Hooks, current director of the Watts Tower Art Center, which sits adjacent to the world-famous Watts Towers.
The city had other ideas about the structure, and issued a demolition order. During a stress test to pull the towers down in Oct. 10, 1959, Hooks said they were so implanted in the land that they tipped over the truck trying to tear them down.
That cosmic act of defiance prompted an effort to preserve the towers by creation of the Committee for the Simon Rodia Towers in Watts.
That effort was primarily pushed by non-Watts residents. But there was also a group of people who had grown up in the area, who saw preservation of the towers as a way to bring art education to the community. Setting up shop under a tarp on the foundation of Rodia’s burned-out house, they taught informal classes. Some of these individuals would go on to make towering names for themselves in the art.
Those teaching under that tarp included Lucille Krasney, noted assemblage artist Noah Purifoy; and enamalist Curtis E. Tann. They also formed the beginnings of the present-day Watts Towers Art Center.
But, as often happens, the best of intentions in communities like Watts, if not sufficiently funded will falter and sometimes die.
What saved this center, said photographer Willie Middlebrook, a former director of the center who spent many of his formative years at the art space, was a decision to give the center to the City of Los Angeles, who then sold it to the state, and then leased it back for $1 a year.
Middlebrook said, the city also infused the community center with $100,000 in funding, and the first director under the auspices of L.A. City, was renowned artist John Outterbridge.
“Our goal (with the center) was to invite young people to learn about their history from an art point of view,” remembers long-time art advocate Cecil Ferguson, who worked with Outterbridge producing exhibitions at the center.
Among the shows Ferguson said that left an indelible impression on him was “Women of Watts.”
“This was a dynamite show. All these (pioneering) women from Watts . . . Frieda Shaw Johnson, Geraldine Burton, Kathleen King,” reminisced the feisty septuagenarian who grew up in the community and said the show chronicled the lives of women who made an impact on Watts.
“Katherine Grimes came to Watts in 1900. She planted an oak tree, and when she died, it was over 50 feet high. She grew collared greens and orchids next to each other,” added Ferguson, who went to church with Grimes as a boy and curated a show at the art center featuring her entire greenhouse.
“Another big show we did was on the Laws family—Anna Laws and Henry Laws. Anna was about 90 years old, and the day we did the opening for the show, they brought her on a stretcher. We gave awards to the whole family, and she got off that stretcher and went to get her award,” remembers Ferguson, laughter in his voice.
In 1942, the Laws family was told that African Americans were barred from living in the neighborhood at 1235 E. 92nd St. in Los Angeles, and were ordered to move. The family fought and eventually won a lengthy legal battle to remain in the home they owned.
As a result of the Laws exhibit, Ferguson said he got the thrill of meeting pioneering activist and newspaper woman Charlotta Bass, who he said helped sponsor the family’s lawsuit.
What Purifoy, Tann, Krasney, Outterbridge and Ferguson did in those years by building the art center was to develop cultural awareness in the Watts’ residents, said Middlebrook. “You have to take into consideration, there was nothing there . . . it brought high quality exhibits of all types to the community to expand the self- image of the Black community.”
Middlebrook also noted that the center was instrumental in helping numerous young artists, including himself, Richard Wyatt, Michael Massengale, Elliot Pinkney and Cedric Adams, develop their artistic skills.
According to Hooks, today the center offers courses that include graphic arts, piano and photography. There are visiting and neighborhood school programs as well as a media arts and animation program.
The center has also sponsored a drum festival for 28 years and a jazz festival for 33 years and hundreds of exhibits.
But more than the tangible gifts that the Watts Arts Center and Towers give back to the surrounding community, there is an essence that touches people.
“Once you come here, once you even walk into the gallery, there is a spiritual connection that automatically gets you, if you tune into it. You cannot leave, You just cannot leave this place, if you are a creative person,” pointed out Hooks.
The Watts Art Center begins wrapping up its year-long celebration of 50 years of art in Watts with a program Saturday beginning at noon that features Ferguson on a artist panel discussion, and a historical look at the center. A film festival Nov. 7 at the Mayme Clayton Library and Museum will conclude the celebration.

Artists come together in Watts

Artists come together in Watts

Ten years ago, a collection of African American artists working in the community came together to meet, mingle, talk and document.
The event was called the “West Coast Big Shot,” and it happened at the California Afro-American Museum in Exposition Park. It featured about 130 people.
Ten years later, many of those same artists as well as a few new ones gathered at the Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC) compound to reprise that 1999 shoot during the “2009 A Great Day in Watts” celebration.
About 200 people—from venerable Black arts curator Cecil Fergerson to artists Richard Wyatt, Bill Paajud and Michael Massenburg to music educator Reggie Andrews and photographer Willie Middlebrook, who actually was charged with taking the photo, showed up last Sunday for the event.
“I have a relationship with August 11. It’s my birthday; Diego Rivera died on the day I was born and it is the 44th anniversary of the Watts Revolt,” explained Middlebrook, who added that the idea was to bring the artists together. “That is something the West Coast lacks—somewhere all the artists can come together in one place.”
In fact, Middlebrook said some of these people—because of their schedules and the directions their lives have gone in the last decade—had not seen one another since that last photo shoot.
The other reason WLCAC was chosen as the photo shoot location is to expose the artists to the quality art space that exists in Watts in the form of the Cecil Fergerson Art Gallery, and to do a sort of kick-off for the show currently on view—“Watts Art 24/7,” a solo exhibit featuring the work of Haitian born artist Gary Senatus.

US unveils new policy of engagement with Sudan

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama on Monday unveiled a new US policy of engagement with Sudan, but warned Khartoum to expect a tough response if it ignored fresh incentives to improve the situation in Darfur.

Abandoning past attempts to isolate Sudan, Obama and top diplomats laid out a new carrot-and-stick approach aimed also at ensuring that a 2005 peace deal is fully implemented and that it does not become a "safe haven for terrorists." Reaction: Sudan hails 'positive' US policy

"We are looking to achieve results through broad engagement and frank dialogue," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters.

"But words alone are not enough," said Clinton. "Assessment of progress and decisions regarding incentives and disincentives will be based on verifiable changes in conditions on the ground."

The top US diplomat warned that "backsliding by any party will be met with credible pressure in the form of disincentives leveraged by our government and our international partners."

Clinton said, for example, that the Obama administration would watch for "credible elections" scheduled for next year under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

The planned elections have already been twice postponed amid differences between the Khartoum government and the southern former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) over a planned census and a new electoral law.

A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said US diplomats would engage with Sudanese government officials but not directly with President Omar al-Beshir, who faces war crimes charges over Darfur.

"We have no intention of talking with President Beshir," the official said. "We think he should get himself a good lawyer... and face the charges."

A top adviser to President Beshir welcomed the change of tack by the Obama administration.

"Compared to previous policies there are positive points... we don't see the extreme ideas and suggestions which we used to see in the past," Ghazi Salaheddin told reporters. "I will say it is a strategy of engagement, not a strategy of isolation."

Beshir faces an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant issued in March, accusing him of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the western Darfur region. In July, the ICC prosecutor said he has enough evidence for a further arrest warrant against Beshir for genocide.

The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million fled their homes since ethnic minority rebels in Darfur first rose up against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum in February 2003.

The government says 10,000 people have been killed.

A 22-year civil war in southern Sudan only ended in 2005, in what had been Africa's longest civil war. Elections are now planned in February and a historic independence referendum is due in 2011.

Clinton, flanked by Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, and General Scott Gration, the special US envoy for Sudan, warned that oil-rich southern Sudan risked becoming a "flashpoint for renewed conflict," if further steps were not taken.

Rice warned of "significant consequences" for any parties in Sudan who failed to live up to their promises and said there would be "no rewards" for the status quo.

In a statement, Obama said the United States and the international community must "act with a sense of urgency and purpose" as they "seek a definitive end to conflict, gross human rights abuses and genocide in Darfur.

"If the Government of Sudan acts to improve the situation on the ground and to advance peace, there will be incentives, if it does not, then there will be increased pressure imposed by the United States and the international community."

On the measures the US was considering, Clinton said: "We have a menu of incentives and disincentives, political and economic, that we will be looking to, to either further progress or to create a clear message that the progress we expect is not occurring."

"But we want to be somewhat careful in putting those out. They are part in fact of a classified annex to our strategy that we're announcing the outline of today."

Obama's George H.W. Bush Visit: A Bipartisan Boost?

There is a long tradition of sitting Presidents courting, relying on and even plotting with their predecessors, and the latest chapter is set to unfold Friday afternoon when former President George Herbert Walker Bush, accompanied by former Secretary of State James Baker, greets Barack Obama as he steps off a Marine Corps helicopter in College Station, Texas.

At Bush's invitation, the 44th Commander in Chief is paying a long-planned visit to the home of Bush's presidential library to mark the 20th anniversary of the voluntarism initiative begun by the former President in 1989. (See TIME's 2008 Person of the Year: Barack Obama.)

After being introduced by Bush, Obama will speak on community service before 2,500 people in Rudder Auditorium on the campus of Texas A&M University. Obama is expected to pay tribute to Bush's Points of Light Initiative, a community-service and charitable works program he launched in the early days of his presidency in 1989. Joining the two men on stage will be Robert Gates, the Secretary of Defense and former president of the university, who has worked for both Presidents.

The meeting has been in the works for months, almost since the earliest days of the Obama Administration, and postponed at least once. It is just the most recent display of bipartisan goodwill between current and past holders of the highest office in the land. These alliances often span vast differences in both ideology and age: Richard Nixon paid a secret visit to Bill Clinton, 33 years his junior, to discuss Russia policy in 1993; Herbert Hoover met with John F. Kennedy, 38 years his junior, before he was inaugurated in 1960. Bush, at 85, is 37 years older than Obama, who is 48.

The two men met for the first time in January when Bush's son, George W. Bush, invited all the former Presidents, as well as Obama, to the White House. Earlier this year, the White House issued a proclamation marking the 20th anniversary of another Bush initiative, the Americans with Disabilities Act - a gesture that did not go unnoticed in Bush country. (See TIME's White House photo blog.)

The political benefits of this stop are easy to spot - though it would be easy to overestimate them too. It does not hurt Obama to be seen in the Lone Star state with Bush and Baker, two of the state's favorite sons, not to mention Gates, a Kansan who in College Station is something of an iconic figure. And as Republican criticism of his busy legislative program has increased, Obama may benefit from a joint appearance with a popular former Republican President elsewhere in the country.

But it is more likely that Obama, as he considers his options in Afghanistan, would benefit most from any private conversation he can work in on the subject with Bush, who was considered a foreign policy maestro, not to mention Baker, who along with Brent Scowcroft (and Gates), helped Bush chart a solid and centrist foreign policy from 1989 to 1993.

Longtime Bush observers were not surprised that the former President initiated Friday's visit. Bush is the informal leader of the four living ex-Presidents (Carter, Bush, Clinton and Bush) in part because, as President, he paid uncommon attention and courtesy to the four living Presidents who preceded him in office. Bush already enjoys a good relationship with Clinton. If Bush is not the most active former President, he is certainly the gamest: he jumped out of an airplane to mark his 85th birthday last summer, as he said recently, "to remind people that getting older doesn't mean you have to slow down."

Another GOP senator open to health care overhaul

WASHINGTON – A second Republican senator signaled Wednesday she's open to voting for sweeping health care legislation this year, putting President Barack Obama closer to a historic achievement that has eluded generations of Democratic leaders.

But Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told The Associated Press that the bill approved Tuesday by the Finance Committee needs substantial improvements to make coverage more affordable, contain costs, and protect Medicare. Nevertheless, she joined her Maine GOP colleague Sen. Olympia Snowe in endorsing the goal of far-reaching changes.

"My hope is we that can fix the flaws in the bill and come together with a truly bipartisan bill that could garner widespread support," Collins said in an interview. "I think this bill is far superior to the ones passed by the Senate (health) committee and the three House committees, but it needs substantial additional work."

The 10-year, $829 billion Finance bill was approved by the committee Tuesday on a 14-9 vote, after Snowe broke ranks with her Republican colleagues to support Chairman Max Baucus' middle-of-the-road plan.

Wednesday, Snowe tackled the most divisive issue still on the table: creation of a government insurance plan that would compete with private ones.

While emphasizing that she still opposes the so-called public option, Snowe said in a nationally broadcast interview that she could foresee a government-run plan that would "kick in" if private insurers failed to live up to expectations that they keep premiums in check.

"I think the government would have a disproportionate advantage" in the event of a government-run option, Snowe acknowledged. At the same time, she added, "I want to make sure the insurance industry performs, and that's why we eliminate many egregious practices."

If the industry didn't follow through on congressionally-mandated changes aimed at making health care more affordable, she said, "then you could have the public option kick in immediately."

Snowe previously had proposed using the public option as an incentive, or a threat, to private insurers. This "trigger" option, or some version of it, has survived the bitter debate and scrutiny to remain a viable option for compromise.

Such a statement from a Republican can be very influential in an environment in which GOP lawmakers almost universally have opposed any kind of government-run health care option to compete with private insurers. It represents a break in party solidarity, even if finite. Health care proposals advanced in the House include such a government option.

Snowe broached her standby notion again as talks among lawmakers on health care were going back behind closed doors; Senate leaders are trying to merge two very different bills into a new version that can get the 60 votes needed to guarantee passage.

Collins, however, said she could not support Snowe's idea because she thinks it would make it too easy for a Democratic administration to impose a government plan nationwide. "It would simply delay the public plan for a couple of years," she told AP.

The White House dispatched chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag and other top advisers to Capitol Hill for afternoon meetings on combining the bills.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters that it was unlikely that the House would vote before the first week of November. He said he expected a vote by Christmas but was making no guarantees.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said he wants move quickly to merge the Finance bill with a version passed earlier by the Senate health committee. His goal is to get health care overhaul legislation onto the floor the week after next.

Both bills were written by Democrats, but that's not going to make it easier for Reid. They share a common goal, which is to provide all Americans with access to affordable health insurance, but they differ on how to accomplish it.

The Finance Committee bill that was approved Tuesday has no government-sponsored insurance plan and no requirement on employers that they must offer coverage. It relies instead on a requirement that all Americans obtain insurance.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee bill, passed earlier by a panel in which liberals predominate, calls for both a government plan to compete with private insurers and a mandate that employers help cover their workers. Those are only two of dozens of differences.

In general, bills moving toward floor votes in both houses would require most Americans to purchase insurance, provide federal subsidies to help those of lower incomes afford coverage and give small businesses help in defraying the cost of coverage for their workers.

The measures would, among other things, bar insurance companies from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and for the first time limit their ability to charge higher premiums on the basis of age or family size. Expanded coverage would be paid for by cutting hundreds of billions of dollars from future Medicare payments to health care providers. Each house also envisions higher taxes — an income tax surcharge on million-dollar wage-earners in the case of the House, and a new excise levy on insurance companies selling high-cost policies in the Senate Finance Committee bill.

Operation Snatch Niggers

Operation Snatch Niggers Pt. 1

Operation Snatch Niggers cont'd

Silhouettes Member John Wilson Dies at 69

Rev. John "Bootsie" Wilson, the last surviving member of influential soul group the Silhouettes died at age 69. Wilson, a former lead singer who joined the group in 1961, passed away Monday, Sept. 21, at his Spartanburg, S.C. home after a battle with cancer and a kidney ailment, according to his wife Pauline.

A Philadelphia native, Wilson joined the group -- best known for its 1958 chart-topper 'Get a Job' -- after the departure of the group's original lead singer. Although Wilson didn't sing on the original version of the song, which was one of the first R&B tunes to cross over to the pop charts, he did re-record and release the song under the moniker of the New Silhouettes in 1968.

During his tenure with the doo wop group, Wilson recorded notable songs like 1962's 'Move on Over (To Another Land),' 1963's 'Rent Man' and the 1968 tune 'Not Me Baby.' The latter became a 1970s dance hit in the UK and ranked among Wilson's personal favorites with the group.

Although 'Get a Job' remained the band's most enduring hit, Elaine Lewis, the widow of Wilson's bandmate Richard Lewis -- who wrote that song -- told the Associated Press that the Silhouettes hit their creative stride under Wilson's lead. "John's songs, I think, were the best ones," she said. "Somehow 'Get a Job' got all the attention, but clearly John was the best lead singer they had, hands down. He had a marvelous voice."

"He was so proud of that part of his life, his life as a Silhouette," Lewis added. "He was so nostalgic about that period of his life, and he missed his fallen comrades."

After his career with the Silhouettes, Wilson moved to South Carolina, became an African Methodist Episcopal pastor and served at eight churches since the '70s. His funeral was held Saturday.

What Happened to Lisa Nicole Carson?

http://clutchmagonline.com/lifeculture/feature/what-happened-to-lisa-nicole-carson/#1

During the early part of this decade, sistergirl had the distinction of being the only African-American actress with enough steelo to star in two hit TV series — Ally McBeal and ER – simultaneously.

With elegant but bit parts in The Cosby Show and Law & Order, in the 1990s, the Brooklyn, New York-born brick house known as Lisa Nicole Carson became a princess of the small screen.

Her star rose higher as she was cast in feature-length films Love Jones, Jason’s Lyric, and Eve’s Bayou.

But what happened to Carson, the serious character actor with a star as bright and fiery as her male counterpart, Tupac Shakur?

The woman that played a then-rare-for-its-time steamy scene with Denzel Washington in Devil in a Blue Dress (“You hittin’ my spot!”) has reportedly taken time away from entertainment. The official line is that she is being “cared for by family,” due to mental health issues.

Hints of Carson’s illness first surfaced in 2000 after a fateful incident at the L’Ermitage Hotel in Los Angeles. The morning before the Grammys were set to begin, news reports indicated an inebriated Carson yelled obscenities while at the bar. She was charged with “interfering with a legal business establishment” and “not leaving the premises” before being released to the custody of some associates.

Reports differed on her apparel or if she visited the bar twice that morning, but some witnesses said she had on wrinkled jeans while others stated that she had on a bathrobe. In any event, she was arrested for disorderly conduct and whisked away by her family into a mental health facility. That incident followed an eight-day binge in a hotel where it was reported she drank alcohol and smoke weed. Soon she was admitted to a hospital for an “undisclosed medical condition.”

Star Magazine that year reportedly quoted Carson as saying she had “smoked a joint laced with PCP,” and that the actress was working to get it together. Indications were that that was her second stay that year in a mental institution. In July of 2001 it was reported that she had been in a restaurant “sitting alone, talking to herself, and then she locked herself in the bathroom for 45 minutes,” a restaurant employee told Rolling Stone Magazine in 2001.

Police led her away but the producers of ER killed her character off in a car accident without even bringing her in for a final taping. Carson was treated in the mental health unit at Manhattan’s famed Lenox Hill Hospital, where such stars as Barry Manilow, Elizabeth Taylor and Winston Churchill have also received care. Earlier this year, British actress Natasha Richardson, who sustained fatal injuries while skiing, died there.

But what exactly was it that ailed Carson?

Reports have surfaced that Carson suffered from either bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. The two illnesses are similar but there are differences. Bipolar sufferers experience extremes in mood and temperament, capable of exhibiting a startling nonchalance one minute and a raging meltdown the next. A lot of people mistake schizophrenia for split personality disorder or dissociative identity disorder, but it is not the same.

One of the major hallmarks of schizophrenia patients is that they almost always suffer auditory and even visual hallucinations with ranging degrees of paranoia. Strange occurrences on the set of both “McBeal” and “ER” doomed her in the closed world of television.

But is that the end for Carson? Thankfully, no.

While traits of both bipolar and schizophrenia can be hereditary or genetic, recreational drugs tend to worsen the symptoms. Contrary to popular belief, sufferers of bipolar and schizophrenia can live normal lives, provided they stick to a regimen of medication for a certain time frame dependent on the individual. In other words, we just may see Lisa Nicole Carson on the small screen – or the big screen –again.