Volume XVIlI, Number 1 6 PAGES • 1 SECTION“Voice of the Lowcountry”

Jul 31 - Aug 13, 2014 50¢Hilton Head Island • Ridgeland • Beaufort, South Carolina • Hardeeville • Savannah

BLACK POLITICAL...Bruce A. Dixon

page... 4 (Liberal)

RADICAL BLACK...Peter James Hudson

page... 4 (Independent)

5 REASONS SLAVERY...John Hawkins

page... 4 (Conservative)

ST. HELENA ISLAND -The Lands End Woodland,Inc. of St. Helena Island, SCwill celebrate the 9th Annual Lands EndWoodland RiverFestival onLabor Dayweekend,August 29-30,2014.

The festivalis a multi-cultur-al communitycelebration ofthe Gullahancestry and cul-ture of the peo-ple of St. HelenaIsland throughmusic, story-telling, historicalpresentations,local art, crafts,and a “taste ofGullah” special-ty dishes. TheRiver Festival has become a favorite eventfor families looking to soakup cultural festivities duringthe last days of summer.

Locals and visitors fromthe Lowcountry and acrossthe region will converge onthe historic site of the former

Riverside Plantation over-looking the intracoastalwaterways of Lands EndBeach for this 2-day celebra-tion.

On Friday evening, thefestival will kick off with a

good old fashion fish fry andmusic on the beach from 5-11p.m. On Saturday, August30th, from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00p.m., center stage will openwith a special performance ofchildren’s folktales in Gullahby S.C. Folk Heritage winner“Aunt Pearlie Sue”, Latinfolk dancers, the Community

Bible Church youth puppetshow, gospel choirs, Africandrummers and dancers, andmore.

Visitors can sample deli-cious Lowcountry seafood,Gullah specialties and home-

made ice cream at foodtrucks; then spend the dayfishing, and taking tours ofhistoric tabby ruins, nearbyFort Fremont Park and thePenn Center museum.

For more festival infor-mation, please call (843) 263-5261 or emailrbrowne@embarqmail.com.

Go to website: www.land-sendwoodland.org.

History of the LandsEnd Woodland, Inc. In1920, decades after Recon-struction, Dennis Freeman,who had formerly been

enslaved on theTombee and the

RiversidePlantations, led

47 AfricanAmericans who

pooled theirmoney to pur-

chase 328 acresof the former

RiversidePlantation at a

tax sale. Thegroup preserved

the forests andbeachfront prop-

erty for therecreational and

environmentalenjoyment of

future genera-tions.

By 1994, the heirs of theoriginal land owners incorpo-rated the Lands EndWoodland, Inc., a not-for-profit organization, to contin-ue their mission of land con-servancy, becoming the firstAfrican American landown-ers’ Association in BeaufortCounty.

NATION - Black men are no better offthan they were more than 40 years ago,due to mass incarceration and job lossessuffered during the Great Recession,according to a new report by researchersat the University of Chicago.

Derek Nealand Armin Rick,the co-authors ofthe study, foundthat reforms in thecriminal justicesystem at the state-level largely con-tributed to dispari-ties in arrests andincarceration ratesthat ultimately sti-fled educationaland economicprogress for Blackmen.

“The growthof incarcerationrates among Blackmen in recentdecades combinedwith the sharp dropin Black employ-ment rates during

the Great Recession have left mostBlack men in a position relative to Whitemen that is really no better than the posi-tion they occupied only a few years afterthe Civil Rights Act of 1965,” the co-authors wrote.

They continued, “Today, Black-

White gaps in math and reading scoresamong youth and Black-White gaps inoverall educational attainment amongyoung adults are quite similar to the cor-responding gaps observed around1990,” stated the report which also sug-gested that “relative to Whites, labormarket outcomes among Black men are

no better now and possibly worse thanthey were in 1970.”

Black men over 20 years-old stillface a double-digit unemployment rate,the highest rate among all adult workergroups. According to the LaborDepartment, the jobless rate for Blackmen was 10.9 percent compared to 4.9

percent for White men, 4.8 percent forWhite women and 9 percent for Blackwomen.

The same economic crisis that crip-pled many Black families and robbednearly half of all wealth from the Blackcommunity, also forced cash-strappedstates to cut spending in the billion-dol-

lar prison industry. Most offend-

ers are locked upin local jails and

state prisons. Localjails, state and fed-

eral prisons com-bined house closeto a million Black

men. Neal said thatif you’re a Blackman 25-35 years-

old without a highschool diploma,you’re about as

likely to have a jobas you are to be in

prison; under 25without a high

school diploma,you’re more likely

to be in prison. “You have to

get to the 35 andabove age group, before you’re more

likely to have a job than be in prison,said Neal.

“I don’t think the typical person onthe street or the typical congressmanknows how messed up things are.” Nealadded: “It’s important to know the truth,we must know the truth.”

The diversity ofcommunity

I came tothis lovely landnot only for thebeauty of themarsh & openwater, but forthe beauty ofits people.Racial diversitywas an impor-tant factor inwhere I choseto spend myretirementyears. There isan upliftingquality to cul-tural diversity.And, oh, I mustadmit, the lilt-ing cadence ofthe Gullahdialect that remains is music to my ear.

So I am puzzled that, in an area as culturally & racially diverseas we are, that when I attend the open council meetings, I do not seethe African American population represented. I see them at church,at all the cultural events, in our fine restaurants & the great gather-ings we have at Henry Chambers Waterfront Park; but they areabsent as council members, despite the fact that we have an activeBlack Chamber of Commerce, & many of the businesses that I fre-quent are owned by the Black population here.

I recall Erin Moody’s 12/11/13 article on the movement to let goof the at-large city council elections & replace it with single-mem-ber districts. I know how successful this has been in other areas ofthe country in bringing a more diverse representation to city coun-cils, particularly in Florida.

And I know that the Burton-Dale-Beaufort branch of theNAACP has advocated strongly for changing to single-memberdistricts. I’m no history buff, but I do remember that in formertimes, at-large elections were put in place with the intention ofracially discriminating. So it seems positive to me to replace thissystem for that reason. We’ve come a long way from that sort ofthinking here in Beaufort!

Even though I’m a ‘come ya’ from the North, my neighbors areAfrican Americans, as are the majority of my friends. I see AfricanAmerican kids at the playgrounds playing with White children,Black & White businessmen & women having power lunchestogether at the restaurants, but I don’t see a single AfricanAmerican on Beaufort’s city council, making decisions that have astrong effect on their businesses, land use regulations, appointmentof judges, the enforcement of health & safety codes—everythingthat affects quality of life.

The African American experience here is a part of our heritage& should be a part of the future we are designing together. ‘Honor Diversity’ is a phrase that has gained momentum & respect,its deepest roots going back to the Civil Rights Era & beyond.

So I hope that as we consider changing the way we seek repre-sentation, we will honor the beautiful & engaging diversity we havehere. There’s a great way to do it, and the precedents for it havebeen fruitful: changing from at-large representation to single-member districts will honor the diversity I have come to cherishhere.

I’ve read that our community is 27% African American. Oneout of 5 council members being African American would give a20% representation - that sounds good to me!

BEAUFORT - The Burton-Dale-Beaufort Branch of the NAACPwill meet at the Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, 367 Kean Neck Road,Dale, S. C., Saturday, August 9, 2014. The Executive Committeewill meet at 4:00 pm and the General Membership meeting willtake place at 5:00 pm.

All members and those interested in becoming a member areencouraged to attend. If you have any questions, please contactDarryl T. Murphy at 843-271-0376.Rita B. Smith - Secretary

NAACPto meet

Willa KoretzSt. Helena Island, SC

Letter to Editor

Gullah Sentinel News Service

Black men 40 years of little progress

Gullah Sentinel News Service

2014 LANDS END WOODLAND RIVER FESTIVAL

August 29 - 30Gullah Sentinel News Service

The Gullah Sentinel Volume XVIlI, Number 1 Page 2 NEWS Thursday, Jul 31 - Aug 13, 2014

Sunday School.........................11:00 am

Sunday Service.......................12 NOON

Monday Young People Prayer....7:30pm

Wednesday Bible Study..............7:30pm

Wednesday Midday Prayer.....12 NOON

Friday Service............................7:30pm

Stuart Point, SC 29902846-4050 Church • 846-8237 (Pastor)

Bishop Willie Webb, Jr.

Friendship Holiness

Service TimesSunday School ...............8:45 amSunday Worship ...........10:00 amWed -Prayer & Praise .....6:00 pmBible Study.....................7:00 pm

911 Craven Street Beaufort 29901Rev. Kenneth F. Hodges, Pastor

Tabernacle Baptist Church

Pastor’s Study • 524-1893Church Office • 524-0376

Sunday School.......................10 amSunday Service......................11 amThursday Prayer Meeting.........6pmThursday Bible Study...............7pm

Since 1865

601 New Street Beaufort, SC 29902

Church: 843-524-6886

“Above All Else....Sound Doctrine!”First African Baptist Church

Rev. Alexander McBride, Pastor

Display Your Church • Phone: (843) 982-0500 • Email: gullah@thegullahnews.net

Brick Baptist ChurchTheme: Spirit of Oneness

I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in theworld, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect themby the power of your name - the name you gave me - sothat they may be one as we are one. (John 17:11)

Sunday School ....................... 8:45 AMSunday Worship ..................... 10:00 AMWednesday Bible Study ........... 7:00 PM

Reverend Abraham Murray, Pastor

P.O. Box 518 • 85 M.L.King DriveSt. Helena Island, SC 29920(843) 838-3033/838-9160

Chairman of the Deacon MinistryMarvin Ladson

brickbaptist@islc.net

The Church Directory

The Beaufort CountySchool District is

soliciting... Proposals from qualified

firms in response to IFB #15-003

2015 Vehicles (Mini CargoVans; Trucks; SUVs).

Proposals are due by 2:00PM on August 15, 2014.

Specifications of IFB #15-003 may be

obtained electronically athttp://www.beaufort.k12.sc.us

(click on “Community”,RFP’s) or by contacting Sandi Amsler, CPPB,

Procurement Coordinator at843-322-2349 or via e-mail

atsandi.amsler@beaufort.k12.sc.us

Bids from Minority andWomen Business

Enterprises are stronglyencouraged.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONEQUAL OPPORTUNITY

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ESCAMBIA COUNTY, FLORIDA- In a lawsuit of epic proportions, aFlorida jury has awarded a widow astunning $23.6 billion dollars in a ver-dict against RJ Reynolds Tobacco.The case is significant, not onlybecause of the dollar amount, but alsobecause it may affect millions of oth-

ers who’ve seen their lives come to anend due to smoking-related illnesses.

The punitive damages were sup-plemented by another $16 million dol-lar award to the estate of MichaelJohnson Sr. The trial lasted fourweeks, during which CynthiaRobinson sued the company for negli-gence due to their failure to warn con-sumers of the dangers of smoking. As

a result, Johnsonbecame ill with lungcancer and eventuallydied.

The man tried toquit smoking for years,and could not. The ver-dict was announced inEscambia County afterjust 15 hours of deliber-

ations.“RJ Reynolds

took a calculatedrisk by manufac-turing cigarettesand selling themto consumerswithout properlyinforming themof the hazards,”said Robinson’slawyer Willie Gary said in astatement.

Willie Gary is one of themost respected AfricanAmerican lawyers in the coun-

try. He is often compared to the lateJohnny Cochran for his ability to winmassive verdicts, in many cases onbehalf of Black plantiffs. He is alsoknown for being a tremendous bene-

factor forHistorically BlackColleges andUniversities.

“As aresult of their neg-ligence, myclient’s husbandsuffered from lungcancer and eventu-ally lost his life,”Gary said.

“We hopethat this verdictwill send a mes-sage to RJReynolds andother big tobaccocompanies that willforce them to stopputting the lives of

innocent people in jeopardy,” headded.

The company plans to appeal,since a verdict of this size could bank-rupt the organization.

Florida widow wins $23.6 billion in RJ Reynolds tobacco payout

Gullah Sentinel News Service

Get Ahead of theStorm: SCE&G’sStorm Center is agreat resource toplan ahead.

Attorney Willie Gary and lawsuit award winner Cynthia Robinson

The Gullah Sentinel Volume XVIlI, Number 1 Page 3Thursday, Jul 31 - Aug 13, 2014 NEWS

NATIONAL NEWS BRIEFBlack dollar circulates in

Black community 6 hours, and then it’s gone

NATION - The NAACP and other organizations are con-stantly advocating for policies to create more opportunitiesfor Black owned businesses to succeed. But, while theseorganizations are affecting change at an institutional level,they pointed out how we, as individuals, can foster an envi-ronment where more Black businesses can thrive.

First, they say, we must stop the massive “leakage” ofour money out of our communities. Currently, a dollar circu-lates in Asian communities for a month, in Jewish commu-nities approximately 20 days and White communities 17days.

How long does a dollar circulate in the Black commu-nity? 6 hours!!! African American buying power is at 1.1Trillion; and yet only 2 cents of every dollar an AfricanAmerican spends in this country goes to Black owned busi-nesses.

Direct Auto Insurance marketsworthless policies to poor Blacks and

Hispanics, claims lawsuit

DETROIT - Direct Auto Insurance targets its worthlesspolicies to mostly Blacks and Hispanics, claims a Chicagolawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that the insurance company isrunning a scam whereby it promises coverage and collectspayments, but doesn’t honor policies once claims are made.

Direct Auto Insurance Company developed a businessstrategy wherein they target consumers with low to moder-ate incomes, including a high percentage of African-American and Hispanic individuals, who did not have thefinancial ability to hire legal representation to defend themagainst defendant’s predatory practices, the lawsuit alleges.

Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin sentenced, 10 years

in prison

NEW ORLEANS - Former New Orleans Mayor RayNagin, who was the face of the city during HurricaneHurricane GustavKatrina, has been sentenced to 10 years inprison for his conviction on corruption charges.

Nagin was sentenced Wednesday in Federal court afterhaving been convicted of political corruption in February.

Nagin was accused of accepting over $200,000 dollarsin kickbacks, accepting free granite for his family-run busi-ness and funneling lucrative contracts to his funders. Naginwas also found guilty of accepting bribes from people look-ing to do business with the city. He was accused of takingadvantage of the construction boom after Hurricane Katrinato line his own pockets.

Rev. Al Sharpton throws UnitedNegro College Fund under bus,

taking Koch brothers money

NATION - The United Negro College Fund has taken a lotof heat for accepting a $25 million dollar gift from the con-servative Koch brothers.

Most recently, (AFSCME), the American Federation ofState, County and Municipal Employees, cυt all ties with theUNCF for accepting the gift, and now Rev. Al Sharpton’sNational Action Network is piling on.

“While National Action Network respects the workdone by the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) in supportof students attending Historically Black Colleges andUniversities and understand the need to raise funds to con-tinue this critical work, we stand in support of the decisionby the American Federation of State, County and MunicipalEmployees (AFSCME) to sever ties and end their partner-ship with the UNCF,” Sharpton said. The Koch brothers areall for the dismantling of trade unions.

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TEXAS/ARIZONA - The KuKlux Klan spent years tοrturingand harassing African-Americans, but now they’reasking for a favor.

Vice reports that the KKKis turning to African-Americansfor help with America’s immi-gration problems.

Robert Jones, the ImperialKlaliff of the Loyal WhiteKnights of the Ku Klux Klan,told Vice that African-Americans are included in theiroutreach program.Specifically, Jones hopes thatthe high unemployment rateamong African-Americans willinspire an anti-immigrant sen-timent.

“We think our governmentshould step in and do a wholelot more to secure our bor-ders,” he said. “All our jobs arebeing outsourced right now,and what jobs are left here,Black and White Americansare being forced to have a com-petition with the Mexicanscoming across the border,because they’ll do the jobcheaper.”

Jones says when he talksto African-Americans aboutimmigration, they agree withhim.

We’re starting to see theWhites and African-Americanswaking up to this illegal imm-

igration problem,” he explained. “We’re

starting to reach out moreto the African-American

community and talk to them about the s

ame issues, and they’reagreeing with the Klan

that illegal immigrationneeds to stop.”

Some observers say,“It is unclear how far the

KKK plans to go with thisrhetoric or why it feels

that such a heinοus organ-ization is capable of

rebranding.”

KKK asks african-americans for a favor

Gullah Sentinel News Service

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The Gullah Sentinel Volume XVIlI, Number 1 Page 4 EDITORIALS Thursday, Jul 31 - Aug 13, 2014

Peter James Hudson

Black people have seen inthe condition and treatment of thePalestinians a reflection of theirown and recent statements byBlack writers, scholars, artists,and activists have affirmed thehistory of Black solidarity withPalestine. Alice Walker, RobinD.G. Kelley, Angela Davis,Ferrari Sheppard, Teju Cole, dream hampton,Margaret Kimberley, Glen Ford, KevinAlexander Gray, and others have all spokento the sheer brutality meted out against thePalestinian people by the State of Israel.

They have foregrounded the historicalparallels between the everyday practices ofviolence, the modes of legal disenfranchise-ment, the normalization of racism, and theforms of segregation and containmentthrough which the policies of Israel towardsthe Palestinian people mirror the historicregimes of apartheid in South Africa and JimCrow in the United States. And they havebeen at the forefront of calls for internation-al solidarity with Palestine and for support ofthe boycott, divestment, and sanctions move-ment against Israel – calls. that have taken onan added urgency in light of the currentIsraeli offensive against Gaza.

For background on the history and poli-tics of the Israeli occupation and thePalestinian quest for self-determination, ThePublic Archive recommends a number ofrecent texts. In The Battle for Justice inPalestine, Ali Abunimah, editor of theElectronic Intifada, places the complex localpolitics of the conflict into global contextwhile describing the impact of the neoliberalturn on the practices of occupation. The col-lection Palestine, compiled byFunambumlist editor Leopold Lambert aspart of his fantastic publication series, offersa critical take on the cartographic, spatial,and architectural elements of settler colonial-ism. In Nablus: City of Civilizationsarchitect Naseer Rahmi ‘Arafãt conjures ameticulous oral and architectural history ofthe city of Nablus, a cross-roads of Arab civ-ilization that has witnessed almost completedestruction as a result of occupation.

The late Edward Said’s The Question ofPalestine remains an eloquent and ethicalclassic while in the Idea of Israel: A Historyof Power and Knowledge, Israeli historianIllan Pappé, author of the earlier The EthnicCleansing of Palestine, provides an uncom-promising investigation into the ideology ofZionism and its manifestation in the prac-tices of Israeli settler colonialism.

For more on thespecific question ofBlack solidarity withPalestine, the Black onPalestine Tumblr is amust-follow archive ofvideos, links, essays,and excerpts. In BlackLiberation andPalestine Solidarity,published by theexcellent Atlanta-based autonomouspublishing house, OnOur Own Authority!Publishers, LennieBrenner and MatthewQuest offer a clear-eyed and unflinchingread of the politics andrhetorics of the Blackfreedom movement inits encounter withIsraeli settler colonial-ism.

The longer andbroader history of thequestion of solidaritybetween the Africandiaspora and the Arabworld is recounted inAlex Lubin’s compre-hensive The Geo-graphy of Liberation:The Making of an Afro-Arab PoliticalImaginary. SohailDaulatzai’s Black Star,Crescent Moon: TheMuslim Internationaland Black FreedomBeyond Americaexamines how AfricanAmericans have seenthemselves as part ofwhat Daulatzai callsthe “Muslim ThirdWorld” and showshow radial, interna-tionalist, and anti-imperialist modes ofBlackness, from an erastretching from theCold War to the Waron Terror, have foundalliance with Muslimstruggles for freedom.

A number of recent mono-graphs have approached a differ-ent question of solidarity,alliance, and affiliation within theBlack World: the question of soli-darity through the history ofsound. Shana Redmond’sAnthem: Social Movements andthe sound of solidarity in theAfrican diaspora, examines Blacksong and Black citizenship in thesoundtrack of Black protest.

Tsitsi Ella Jaji’s Africa in Stereo:Modernism, Music, and Pan-AfricanSolidarity reads the reverberations of AfricanAmerican music across the Black Atlanticthrough its influences in Senegal, Ghana, andSouth Africa. Gaye Theresa Johnson writesof solidarity and sound in The PublicArchive’s new favorite city: Los Angeles. InSpace of Conflict, Sounds of Solidarity:Music, Race, and Spatial Entitlement in LosAngeles, Johnson explores the history ofracial conflict and inter-racial alliancebetween Blacks and Chicanos in L.A. fromthe 1940s to the present and the sonic andspatial strategies of solidarity.

Meanwhile, a more traditional group oftexts have recovered the history of BlackInternationalism and pan-African struggle ofthe of the Interwar years: Hakim Adi’s Pan-Africanism and Communism: TheCommunist International, Africa and theDiapora, 1919-1939, Gerald Horne’s BlackRevolutionary: William Paterson & theGlobalization of the African AmericanFreedom Struggle, and Holger Weiss,Framing a Radical African Atlantic: AfricanAmerican Agency, West African Intellectualsand the International Trade UnionCommittee of Negro Workers, a book whoseuse of Soviet archives is unprecedented.

Finally, two recent texts look at theimpact of revolutions in the Caribbean on thepractices of solidarity in the internationaltheatre of the Cold War. David Scott’s Omensof Adversity: Tragedy, Time, Memory, andJustice considers the history and historiogra-phy of the collapse of Grenada Revolutionand its impact on the Caribbean left.

In Visions of Freedom: Havana,Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle forSouthern Africa, 1976-1991, Piero Gleijesesexamines the resonances of the Cuban victo-ries in Angola and Namibia on the strugglesto dismantle apartheid in South Africa. Scottoffers an account of failed revolution;Gleijeses one of success. Both offer lessonsfor Palestine and the Palestinian solidaritymovement.

Enjoy the summer.

Bruce A. Dixon

As Israeli troops massedaround Gaza, the NAACPwrapped up its 2014 annualconvention in Las Vegas with-out a mumbling word of soli-darity with bleedingPalestinians. Moral Monday'sRev. Barber was a guest onHBO's Real Time with BillMaher as well, but could notspare a single breath to discussthe morality of occupation,house demolitions, or Israeliapartheid to his notoriouslyIslamaphobic host.

Al Sharpton is on MSNBCnightly, and can't find time tocover the murderous assault onGaza in any meaningful way.You don't hear so much as apeep from the CongressionalBlack Caucus or the NationalUrban League, the NationalAction Network, RainbowPUSH, big time Black pastorsand business people or the restof that crowd.

Our Black political classof preachers, politicians, bigtime academics, pundits andaspirants have not beensilenced by threats or fears ofeconomic retailiation. Maybeyou can say that about enter-tainers and athletes, but not ourso-called leaders. People likeBlack members of Congress,Al Sharpton and Rev. Barberare where they are becausethey don't need to be told whattheir masters require.

Their legitimacy dependson the hollow pretense thattheir Black faces in high placessomehow constitute the contin-uation of the struggle of ourpeople against racism, JimCrow and injustice in general.

For the most part, ourBlack political class are notabject fools. They absolutelyknow that the Israeli state hasbecome a full fledged ethnoc-racy, the 21st century's pre-miere apartheid state completewith Jewish-only roads and

towns, frequent lynch mobs forAfricans and Arabs, lawsagainst recognizing mixedmarriages, and completely dif-ferent judicial systems, hous-ing regulations, voting andproperty rights, depending onwhether, as Max Blumenthalputs it, you've got J-positiveblood.

Our Black political classknows that Israel is, to para-phrase Noam Chomsky,America's landlocked aircraftcarrier, weapons research testbed and nuclear armed militarybase in the middle of a couplehundred million brown peopleand a good fraction of theworld's most easily accessibleoil.

If Bush and Cheney werestill in the White House, someof the bravest among themmight speak out just a little toremind us that Palestinians arehuman too. They might evensay that occupation and dispos-session are the real crimes. Buta member of their own class, aBlack politician is in the OvalOffice, a president who openlyinsulted and humiliatedMuslim Americans at a WhiteHouse Iftar dinner only lastweek. They don't need to besilenced, they silence them-selves, not out of fear but out ofcraven opportunism.

Still, daily occurrenceslike the shelling of 10 and 11year old boys on a beach kick-ing a soccer ball make opensupport of Israel difficult moredifficult for them than it used tobe. So they do nothing, andthey say nothing. Nothing onAl Sharpton's show. Nothing intheir Moral Monday commu-niques and marches. Nothingfrom the Urban League, noth-ing from the Black church,which is pretty much anappendage of the Black politi-cal class these days.

When our people werestruggling against Jim Crowand US apartheid fifty yearsago, those suffering under

colonialism in Asia and Africalooked to us for their inspira-tion. African governments,Cuba, and China too wel-comed, educated and shelteredMalcolm X, Kwame Toure, andmany others when they touredthe African continent and theworld.

When the Vietnamesewere under savage attack theyused to call to US Black sol-diers in the night to ask andremind them, "Black man whyare you here? Your fight is athome." It was their official pol-icy until 66 or 67 to spareBlack soldiers they could havekilled in close encounters whenpossible. Those brothers cameback to inform youngsters likeme who would have been draft-ed the next year so we couldhelp organize in our Blackcommunities against the impe-rial war.

When a nuclear armedSouth Africa invaded Angolarepeatedly in the 70s and 80s,Cuba sent 60,000 troops, themajority of them of Africandescent and its entire air forceto fight across the Atlantic tofight, and turned the SouthAfricans around.

In the global strugglesagainst colonialism, capitalism,and injustice we are all inextri-cably connected. We're all obli-gated to carry a bit of eachother's burden, to stand up foreach other when required. It's atradition. It's international soli-darity. That's how this thingworks.

But our Black misleader-ship class are not players. Theyare being played and playingthemselves.

Radical Black Reading:Summer 2014

Hudson

Black political class paralyzed and silent onGaza massacres

Dixon

5 reasons slavery reparations bad ideaJohn Hawkins

Terrible ideas never really die on theLeft; they just come back over and overagain, like a gas station sandwich after anight of heavy drinking. So it is withreparations for slavery, which liberalswould happily embrace en masse if theyever thought they could ram it throughCongress. Here's why reparations forslavery are a bad idea.

1) How do you prove that slavery isresponsible for problems BlackAmericans are having today? If it were1866, it would be easy to prove thatBlack Americans who had been enslavedwere hurt by the practice. They weremistreated, deprived of their freedom,and were not paid wages for their labor.

On the other hand, if you fast for-ward to today, it’s extraordinarily diffi-cult to show that anybody’s problemswere caused by something that happenedalmost 150 years ago. Keep in mind thatthere were White indentured servantsforced to work alongside slaves backthen. There were White Americans whowere kidnapped and enslaved by theBarbary pirates.

There were Japanese and ItalianAmericans who were forced into intern-ment camps during WWII and many ofthem actually had their property confis-cated and sold. The relatives of manyJewish Holocaust survivors live inAmerica as well. So while BlackAmericans have been treated worse thanany other group in America, there are alot of other groups that have seeminglybounced back with little damage fromhow they’ve been treated in the past.

Additionally, while BlackAmericans are indisputably doing worsethan most other groups in America, thereare certain subsets of African-Americansthat are doing just fine. For example,Black female college graduates make

102% of what White femalecollege graduates earn.African immigrants also out-perform Black Americanswho were born here in anumber of ways.

If there are certain sub-sets of Black Americans whoare doing well, that suggeststhat there is no one universalfactor like slavery that can beblamed for the difficultiesBlack Americans face.

2) Who would pay reparations? The Civil War ended in 1865; so all

the slaves and slave masters are all longdead. Moreover, even in the South,depending on which numbers youbelieve, somewhere between 80-95% ofWhite Americans never owned slaves.There were also several thousandBLACK AMERICANS who ownedslaves -- yes, really. Certainly theywould be more responsible for slaverythan a White man who didn't own slaves,right?

We don't hold people responsiblefor what their ancestors did and even ifwe did, most White Americans, even inthe South, didn't own slaves. So 149years after the Civil War ended, theresimply is no way to hold the peopleresponsible for slavery accountable forwhat they did.

3) Who would receive reparations?There are no living slaves; so it's impos-sible to compensate the people who werehurt by the cruel and oppressive practiceof slavery. So, would we compensateBlack Americans in general on the theo-ry that slavery has held them back?

Blaming the economic problemssomeone has today on something thathappened to his ancestors almost a cen-tury and a half ago seems like one heckof a stretch, but let's say we buy into theargument. What do we do about peoplelike Barack Obama and Tiger Woods

who are of mixed heritage?Would Obama pay repara-tions to himself? Would aBlack man who immigratedto the United States a decadeago be eligible? What about incrediblywealthy Black Americanslike Oprah Winfrey, MichaelJordan, and BET's RobertJohnson? Why should someWhite middle manager in

suburbia be asked to kick in money forthem?

4) It focuses on the wrong solution:Just giving people money seldom helpsto fix their problem. That’s whyAmerica’s "war on poverty" has been anutter and complete failure. After dolingout more than 21 trillion dollars over thelast 50 years, we’ve done nothing toreduce the poverty rate.

In fact, it’s entirely possible that thepoverty rate would be LOWER today ifthere had never been a "war on poverty."You can see this same dynamic with aidto Africa. After handing out more than atrillion dollars, much of the continenthas gone BACKWARDS over the last10-15 years. Even winning the lotterydoesn’t tend to make a generationalimpact.

Of course, that doesn’t mean weshouldn’t do anything. No Americanshould have to live in an area where he’safraid to let his children play in the yardbecause drug dealers sell openly on thecorner. Terrible inner city schools dis-proportionately impact BlackAmericans.

That’s why school vouchers andcharter schools disproportionately bene-fit them. Helping Black Americans tohelp themselves would do more to createsuccess and prosperity than any give-away program ever could.

5) The government has already paidout an enormous amount of "repara-

tions:" Just to give you an idea of howcommon slavery is in human history,keep in mind that the Brits who broughtAmerican colonists here kept slaves. TheIndians we took the land from keptslaves. Our neighbors to the north andsouth (Canada and Mexico) kept slaves.We acquired slaves from nations inAfrica that kept slaves. Many of theslaves that ended up in America werecaptured by Middle Eastern slave traderswho also kept slaves. Even some WhiteAmericans were enslaved by the Barbarypirates.

Still America had a particularlylarge and thriving slave trade and we’vealready paid an enormous price as anation for it, starting with the 625,000Americans who died during the CivilWar. Keep in mind that America had apopulation roughly 1/10 the size we havetoday; so that would be the rough equiv-alent of 6.25 million Americans dyingtoday.

Additionally, although Whites makeup the majority of Americans on welfare,percentage wise, roughly twice as manyBlack Americans take government assis-tance as White Americans. Additionallythere are Affirmative Action programsand racial set-asides that discriminateagainst White and Asian Americans tomake it easier for Black Americans toget jobs and get into college.

So, when you add it all up, hundredsof thousands of Americans have died,numerous special programs have beencreated for Black Americans, and tril-lions in government assistance havealready been paid out. Other than GreatBritain, there’s no other nation on PlanetEarth that’s done even a fraction of thatmuch to make up for engaging in slav-ery.

So, if anyone wants reparations, itwould be fair to say that they’ve alreadybeen paid!

Hawkins

“letters to the editor” Email: GULLAH@THEGULLAHNEWS.NET

The Gullah Sentinel Volume XVIlI, Number 1 Page 5Thursday, Jul 31 - Aug 13, 2014 NEWS

NEW YORK - Aaron McGruder’s “BlackJesus” hasn’t even aired and already Christiansare up in arms, demanding that the show be can-celed.

The Christian activist network One MillionMoms and a flurry of pastors have taken offenseat the character and are calling on the AdultSwim network to nix the show.

In the show, Black Jesus lives in Compton,California and goes on a “daily mission tospread love and kindness throughout the neighbor-hood with the help of his small but loyal group ofdowntrodden followers.”

David A. Rogers, pastor of the House ofPrayer for All Nations Ministries in Chicago,Illinois, calls the show “utter foolishness and dis-respectful” and wrote a letter to the TurnerBroadcasting system expressing his outrage:

“We, the Christian community are vehement-ly opposed and violently offended at this upcomingprogram soon to air on your channel called,‘BLACK JESUS.’ The level of disrespect aimed atthe depiction of our Lord and Savior is inexcus-able. We are hard pressed to find any value in thisprogram, its message or its purpose.

As a group of believers, we are prepared tolaunch a mass campaign and boycott of yourchannel and any advertisers that are financiallyprofiting from this program. These continuedattacks against our Christian values and thedegrading imagery of the Lord Jesus Christ, willbe met with social media awareness to the entireChristian community and a targeted boycott ofyour advertisers.

The organization One Million Moms has alsoexpressed outrage, calling the show “blasphe-mous” and accusing it of “making a mockery ofour Lord…the entire program will be based on liesabout Christianity.”

Dr. Samori Swygert

The ground break-ing documentary series,Hidden Colors, recentlydebuted its’ 3rd install-ment (Hidden Colors 3:The Rules of Racism) inselect theaters across thecountry. Hidden Colors3 was a masterful production,and I consider it to bemandatory viewing.

I fervently believethat our youth need tosee this, and its’ priorseries. The historicalinformation revealedthrough dates/times, leg-islations, public policies,and the unique perspec-tives of the intervieweesbrings everything fullcircle.

Tariq Nasheed is thedirector of the documen-tary. The actors/partici-pants in the film include:Tariq Nasheed, Dr.Frances Cress Welsing,Carol Anderson, Nas,George Fraser, PaulMooney, Dick Gregory, Dr.Phil Valentine, DavidBanner, Dr. Kaba Kamene,Dr. Umar Johnson,Shahrazad Ali, Joy Degruy,and Khalil GibranMuhammad.

George Fraser’s confi-dent Godfather demeanorand delivery of iron cladapproaches to business res-onated with me.

I also loved that theypresented facts. Many timeswe fall into the trap of ideo-logical debate with variousdemographics of Americansociety. However, facts areirrefutable. The only way toshut a person down in adebate is with: dates, events,and laws. Remember thephrase, ” you can have yourown opinion but not your

own facts”.They debunked histori-

cal, and racial myths ofAfrican Americans in theUnited States with surgicalprecision. I recommend get-ting a pen and paper whenwatching the documentary,because they reveal the spe-cific names, laws, and courtcases that have been hiddenand concealed, but were thetools to the subjugation ofAfricans in America.

They even illuminatedthe topic of organ harvestingof African Americans, inwhich I did a write up on afew months ago on:www.blacktimetravel.com.

I really offer my kudosfor this production becauseafter all the history and per-spective, they dedicated awhole segment on solutions.

Many times intellectu-als, scholars, and historianswax poetic on our origin andlegacy. I have no problemwith that, but we have tobecome solution oriented inthought and philosophywhile simultaneouslyembracing our cultural her-itage.

The key theme in thesolutions is, AfricanAmericans need to unite eco-nomically, place high impor-tance on education, obtainresources and capital, and awhole lot more.

I won’t go any furtherinto detail to avoid spoilingthe experience for you. Iencourage you to buy thisseries and watch it with yourman, woman, husband, wife,children, friends, and others.

NEW YORK - Sam Wilson, Captain America’slongtime partner The Falcon, will be replacingSteve Rogers this fall in the comic book series,Marvel Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesadarevealed on Comedy Central’s “The ColbertReport.”

“Well if there is one bird associated withAmerica, it is the falcon,” Colbert remarked.

Wilson will officially take on the cowl andshield in “All-New Captain America #1″ by RickRemender and Stuart Immonen.

Colbert addressed the fact that Wilson isBlack, to which Quesada said, “I don’t see colors.”This prompted Colbert to ask, “If you don’t seecolors, how do you do comic books?”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wil-son is the second former sidekick to take on the

CaptainAmericaidentity inthe past decade, and will be the sev-enth char-acter touse the name in Marvel continuity.

“I’ve been having a lot of fun writing,” Samsaid in a Marvel.com interview. “It’s a completelydifferent attitude. The fact that he’s not a soldiershifts things up a bit. Sam’s not going to be Steve.Steve can be very rigid. That can be kind of joy-less at times, whereas Sam is absolutely not that.”

While there have been other replacements forRogers, Wilson will be the first person of color toappear as the title lead in the comic.

christians threαten boycott, demand, aaron

McGruder’s “black Jesus”be canceled

Hidden Colors 3 a smash hit must see!

Movie Review:

Gullah Sentinel News Service

The new Captain America is Black

Gollah Sentinel Entertainment Service

NEWSThe Gullah Sentinel Volume XVIlI, Number 1 Page 6 Thursday, Jul 31 - Aug 13, 2014

HAMPTON ROADS, VA - A woman tells ascary story about how a man used BishopJakes’ likeness in order to swindle her out of

quite a bit of money. Claudette Woodley saysthat someone friended her on Facebook claim-ing to be Bishop Jakes. The man also said thathe would give her thousands of dollars in order

to fix her furnace.“I felt so good because it said Bishop

Jakes invited me as a friend! And that’s when Itold him, I said ‘I love you,’” says Woodley.

The man then told the woman to wire themoney to a location in

Africa. She did so becauseshe loves and trusts Bishop

Jakes, but it turned out to bea complete scam.

Now, Woodley is goingaround telling others to becareful about giving away

money in the same way.“That man is going to prey

on a whole lot of older people, and see that’s whathurt me so bad,” she said.

NewsChannel 3 in HamptonRoads, VA did the woman

a favor that they hoped would make her feel better. They actually helped her toarrange a meeting with the

real Bishop Jakes. She wasalso given front row ticketsto the Megafest event held

by Jakes every year.“It was super. I never dreamed the day

would come where I would meet him in per-son. He still looks the same way he do on TV,”says Woodley.

Man pretended tobe td Jakes and

convinced awoman to give him

thousandsGullah Sentinel News Service

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