Kind of Blue
Kind of Blue's JournalTwo Georgia State politicians I'm watching: State Sen. Nikema Williams & Stacey Abrams.
Contrast that with the response from another high-profile black woman who will likely play a bigger role in Georgia’s 2020 race: State Sen. Nikema Williams, the chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia.Williams said on social media that she broke down in tears watching Biden “continue to defend his flawed position” during the debate, when he invoked a state’s rights argument to defend his opposition to busing to integrate schools in the 1970s. “I see you #Kamala. Vice President #Biden was and is wrong. We have a fundamental difference in belief here,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “As a black woman in the south, leading a State Democratic Party, I will make sure our party recognizes all the little Kamala’s and Nikema’s out there that deserve someone and a party to fight for them,” she added.
This divide may soon grow even sharper. Several state Democratic lawmakers expressed support for Harris on Friday, though stopped short of giving her an endorsement. Most Georgia Democrats have stayed on the sidelines so far.Georgia’s most prominent Democrat, Stacey Abrams, has also not picked a side. Neither has Williams, who said in an interview that she’s neutral in the race. Still, she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she’s deeply concerned with Biden’s remarks.“Everybody is going to be vetted,” Williams said. “That’s what the debate season is about. We’re having a robust conversation. Last night it was Joe Biden who had something dredged up from his past, and it was a missed opportunity for him to face it head-on.”She continued: “It’s 2019 and that happened before I was even born. To say that he was still doubling-down on state’s rights – it’s problematic. Elections are about the future. But you have to address what happened in our past.”https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/sharp-split-over-joe-biden-among-black-georgia-leaders/DH9GkQI4WJAY7ML7hkUeOI/
State Sen. Williams was arrested last fall during a protest to count every Georgia vote. All charges were eventually dropped. Abrams endorsed Williams during her 2017 bid. "I am proud to endorse my friend and our leader, Senator Nikema Williams, to be the next Democratic Party of Georgia chair. Nikema has been a stalwart for our party, working hard, guiding us through tough times, and working alongside me to make great inroads in 2018."
Here Sen. Harris answers a voting rights question posed by State Sen. Williams at She the People Presidetial Forum. Starts at 01:16:33 to 01:22:40.
Great question. Back in the '80s, I worked for a company with headquarters
based in Belgium. My experience was there were not many blacks from any other countries or born there. When we'd see each other though it was amazing. We were like long lost friends...LOL. Though it's not that we wanted to hang out together or best friends forever, just seeing another black face, biracial, triracial, whatever included, it was enough to start a conversation that were always similar in my encounters.
It was enough to see each other because we knew that no matter where we're from, imperialism and colonialism bound us together.
Now, here in the States, as an immigrant kid, I grew up in very multi-cultural neighborhoods. Africans- not many, Caribbeans, Puerto Ricans and African-Americans got along just fine, bound by the same thing mentioned above. I think the beautiful thing was there was always cultural links in food, music, upbringing.
I can only recall 2 negative experiences with African-Americans knowing that I was African. One of them was ridiculous, an incredibly Afro-centric woman accused Africans of not coming to the rescue of enslaved Africans in America. I couldn't believe I had to explain to her the continent was and still dealing with the affects of imperialism. The other more serious incident was perfectly balanced by an African-American woman a few years later, so I chalk it up to just running into sometimes nasty and sometimes beautiful human beings.
I have to include a group of black Vietnamese friends. I met the first at the same job mentioned above. I thought he was probably Filipino. He was fascinated by my last name. And when I told him where the name is from, I don't think I've ever seen another human go numb and then crazy with joy going off about the Motherland. OMG! Before I knew it, I was inundated with his friends when he brought the group who found each other here hoping to one day find their black dads or families. It was just an experience I treasure. They were blacks in Vietnam and accepted by black people here.
As for Sen. Harris, to me, everywhere I've lived and traveled she is considered black, experiencing the same force that separated us and bring us together.
Harris lands 2020 endorsement from 2 Black Caucus members
Endorsements from the caucus, which counts more than 50 members, could be influential in the Democratic presidential primary. With these two new supporters, Harris now has six endorsements from the CBC.
Harris's campaign announced on Saturday that she had raised $2 million in the first 24 hours following the start of Thursday's debate. Aides to her campaign said she received donations from 63,277 people, and that 58 percent of those donors had not contributed to her campaign before.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/harris-lands-2020-endorsement-black-caucus-members-64054917
Kamala Harris' 2020 Rivals Unite to Defend Her Against 'Racist and Vile' Birther Conspiracy Theories
Even Donald Trump Jr. was among those to amplify an attack on Harris first made by Ali Alexander, a MAGA-world figure, claiming that Harris should not be commenting on matters of race because she is not an “American black,” but “half Indian and half Jamaican.”
Trump Jr. later deleted his retweet circulating the claim, and his spokesman said he had retweeted it simply because he had not realized Harris was half-Indian.
Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican father and Indian mother, was born in Oakland, California, and was among the first wave of black students to benefit from federally mandated busing in Berkeley in the 1970s. Her standout moment on the debate stage came when she opened up about her own experience growing up black in America.
When she was accused of not really being black, it was her own Democratic opponents in the 2020 race that jumped to decry the attacks.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/kamala-harris-2020-rivals-unite-to-defend-her-against-racist-and-vile-birther-conspiracy-theories
I'm trying to understand the picture you're painting of Sen. Harris.
So is guillaumeb's statement false or half true? "racism is so endemic to the system that it affects everything. And Harris' experience as a non-white female is qualitatively different from that of a white male."
Her parents were/are educated people but she was raised by her single mom in the flatlands, redlined African-American community in the areas South and West Berkeley. Even if her mom and dad earned upper middle class income in the early '70s, we know that to this day, because of redlining, black people who make that much do not live in upper middle-class neighborhoods.
“She lived close to the dividing line,” said Scott Saul, a professor of English at UC Berkeley and editor of “The Berkeley Revolution,” a digital history project. “It is a harbinger of how she has crossed those boundaries throughout her life.”
So I'm not sure how you relate systemic racism affecting everything to Harris not lacking in diversity, intellectual and cultural riches. My childhood in such neighborhoods had all of those riches. So are you saying the voluntary busing at that time was unnecessary, just because they wanted to? "statistics come from a 1963 report called De Facto Segregation in Berkeley Public Schools, which highlighted how segregated BUSD schools were in terms of enrollment and a number of other factors, including teacher composition and curriculum.
Along with passionate advocacy by the NAACP and UC Berkeley’s Congress of Racial Equality, the force of new star superintendent Sullivan, and School Board members who spoke as strongly in favor of desegregation, that research helped pave the way for various integration pilots, including the tumultuous integration of the junior high schools in 1964, and ultimately the busing plan in 1968."
I'm not so sure of your statement, "Berkley, by the way, has been more integrated than almost anywhere else in America, certainly as far back as when she was growing up."
As far as I know "In the early 1960s, Berkeley was also at the forefront of the battle over fair housing. In Jan. 1963, the Berkeley City Council passed an anti-segregation law that included criminal penalties for those guilty of housing discrimination – one of the first efforts of its kind. However, the opposition was tremendous...one supporter of the referendum said that it was “A plot to Congo-lize our city.”
Read more here about Berkeley, "more integrated than almost anywhere else in America," and the lasting affects of segregation. https://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/09/20/redlining-the-history-of-berkeleys-segregated-neighborhoods
https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Kamala-Harris-rode-the-buses-that-integrated-14060240.php#photo-17774443
https://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/10/16/a-radical-decision-an-unfinished-legacy
http://revolution.berkeley.edu/projects/public-schools/
I'm trying to understand the picture you're painting of Sen. Harris.
So is guillaumeb's statement false or half true? "racism is so endemic to the system that it affects everything. And Harris' experience as a non-white female is qualitatively different from that of a white male."
Her parents were/are educated people but she was raised by her single mom in the flatlands, redlined African-American community in the areas South and West Berkeley. Even if her mom and dad earned upper middle class income in the early '70s, we know that to this day, because of redlining, black people who make that much do not live in upper middle-class neighborhoods.
“She lived close to the dividing line,” said Scott Saul, a professor of English at UC Berkeley and editor of “The Berkeley Revolution,” a digital history project. “It is a harbinger of how she has crossed those boundaries throughout her life.”
So I'm not sure how you relate systemic racism affecting everything to Harris not lacking in diversity, intellectual and cultural riches. My childhood in such neighborhoods had all of those riches. So are you saying the voluntary busing at that time was unnecessary, just because they wanted to? "statistics come from a 1963 report called De Facto Segregation in Berkeley Public Schools, which highlighted how segregated BUSD schools were in terms of enrollment and a number of other factors, including teacher composition and curriculum.
Along with passionate advocacy by the NAACP and UC Berkeley’s Congress of Racial Equality, the force of new star superintendent Sullivan, and School Board members who spoke as strongly in favor of desegregation, that research helped pave the way for various integration pilots, including the tumultuous integration of the junior high schools in 1964, and ultimately the busing plan in 1968."
I'm not so sure of your statement, "Berkley, by the way, has been more integrated than almost anywhere else in America, certainly as far back as when she was growing up."
As far as I know "In the early 1960s, Berkeley was also at the forefront of the battle over fair housing. In Jan. 1963, the Berkeley City Council passed an anti-segregation law that included criminal penalties for those guilty of housing discrimination – one of the first efforts of its kind. However, the opposition was tremendous...one supporter of the referendum said that it was “A plot to Congo-lize our city.”
Read more here about Berkeley, "more integrated than almost anywhere else in America," and the lasting affects of segregation. https://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/09/20/redlining-the-history-of-berkeleys-segregated-neighborhoods
https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Kamala-Harris-rode-the-buses-that-integrated-14060240.php#photo-17774443
https://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/10/16/a-radical-decision-an-unfinished-legacy
http://revolution.berkeley.edu/projects/public-schools/
From Sen. Harris: That little girl was me
https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1144427976609734658So says the man peddling Cohen as a good man and Palin as new feminist ideal
DEUTSCH: Women want to be her, men want to mate with her. it's as simple as that. ... Men want a sexy woman. Women want to idealize about a sexy woman. She's the perfect age...she's still young enough to have that physical appeal. That's the perfect ingredient to sell a woman in power.I'm in agreement with this article's conclusion.
It’s hard to predict what will happen to Biden’s standing in the wake of this week’s news. But I think it’s increasingly clear that the way we think about racial controversies (with the implication that minorities are particularly triggered by them) and the black vote (assuming it is fairly monolithic) are off. Biden’s positive mentions of his work with segregationist senators may have annoyed nonblack Democrats as much or more than black ones. And the biggest question is not whether it pulls all black people from Biden — the younger ones are already kind of ambivalent about him — but whether it breaks his bond with older black people.
Just waiting for the debates
Cantaloop/Cantaloupe Island
This year marks the 20th anniversary, 30th now, of Us3's acclaimed, platinum-certified 1993 album, Hand On The Torch and its gold-certified lead single, "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)."US3 Featuring Rahsaan And Gerard Presencer performing Cantaloop (Video) (Feat. Rahsaan And Gerard Presencer) of the U.K.
On June 17 in 1964, pianist Herbie Hancock recorded what would become perhaps his most famous composition ever: “Cantaloupe Island.” The perfect convergence of hard-bop, soul and modal jazz, the song originally appeared on Herbie’s fourth Blue Note album, Empyrean Isles, which featured Hancock in the company of a jazz A-Team: trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams. A jam session favorite since its release, the song would find new life nearly 30 years later, when the English jazz-rap group US3 sampled Herbie’s infectiously funky groove for the backing track of their early ’90s hit “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia).” https://www.jazziz.com/herbie-hancock-cantaloupe-island/
This one features again Freddie Hubbard and Ron Carter, of course, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson and Tony Williams live.
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