Miseducation of Black Students in Gwinnett Schools

Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks has been at the helm of public schools in Gwinnett County, Georgia since 1996, currently the longest tenure in the nation. He has been called to task for comments he made at a board workshop a few weeks ago.

During a workshop he made an inflammatory comment about Black students during a presentation about the disproportionate discipline of minority students in Gwinnett COunty.

An administrator said the issue is a problem for school districts nationwide except in Idaho, according to a study. Wilbanks then asked James Taylor, executive director of the department of academic support, “Do they have any blacks in Idaho? They don’t have many.”

A number of parents have been circulating the comment around the county and a number of folk have begun to ask for his resignation.

Wilbanks has offered what he considers an explanation for his comments:

[H]is comments were not meant to be “racist” or “insensitive.”

“Those who know me and my record are well aware of my commitment to raising student achievement and to providing safe and orderly schools for all of our students no matter their race, ethnic origin, or socioeconomic background. The NAACP certainly is aware of these efforts because we have involved them in some of our most significant efforts to ensure that our discipline policies are impartial and clear and in the best interest of all students.”

The Gwinnett Chapter NAACP, however, issued a statement Wednesday scolding Wilbanks for his comments. Branch president J.P. Portalatin said he called Gwinnett Schools on Wednesday to talk to Wilbanks, but was told that he was unavailable at the moment. The NAACP is not seeking Wilbanks’ resignation, but does want him to apologize.

One should note that African-American students made up less than one-third of the population at Gwinnett County Public Schools last academic year, but they accounted for nearly half of those facing disciplinary panels for bad behavior. Of 1,910 discipline hearings held in 2007-08 to dole out long-term suspensions or expulsions to students, 931 of those were held for black students. About 18 percent, or 345, discipline panels were held for white students.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This past Monday, NAACP officials met with Superinendent Wilbanks; the meeting didn't go so well. Wilbanks has refused to apologize for comments he made about the disproportionate discipline of minority students in Gwinnett.

Gwinnett NAACP branch president Jorge "JP" Portalatin is quoted as saying, "Mr. Wilbanks refuses to acknowledge that his comments were offensive. His behavior today was condescending and he was clearly not open to constructive feedback. The inability to see from others perspective and apologize is unacceptable in a leader." Portalatin has said that Wilbanks’ remarks at the meeting seemed to blame African-Americans for the disparity in discipline in Gwinnett County instead of what could be the inconsistent application of the discipline penalties.

Some Gwinnett parents have called for Wilbanks’ resignation.

Wilbanks has "no comment" concerning his meeting with the NAACP!

And now Idahoans are looking for an apology from Wilbanks:

Idaho strives to raise student achievement and create a safe school environment by meeting the needs of all students, no matter a student’s race or ethnicity,” said Melissa McGrath, Public Information Officer for Idaho State Department of Education. “We are pleased to see the schools and districts in Idaho are treating students fairly and equitably when it comes to disciplinary action, and we will continue to work toward this goal in the future through providing extensive guidance and professional development for districts in the areas of working with aggression, alternatives to suspension and expulsion, student assistance programs, recognizing and addressing early delinquent behaviors and dropout prevention.

Read the AJC articles about the Wilbanks Affair in Gwinnett County here and here.

Blogger on the black hand side has a post about it, too.


plez sez: gwinnett county, georgia has experienced a lot of growth over the past decade. most of the new gwinnett residents appear to be Black and latino.

as is the case, when a system experiences rapid change, often times the system is unable to adequately adapt to changes. this appears to be the case in gwinnett county. this used to be an almost all-white enclave, the bastion of white flight from atlanta and dekalb county in the 1980's as large numbers of Blacks moved into what were white sections of the metro Atlanta area. well, it is predicted that white people will be a minority in gwinnett county within 10 years.

a school system that is run by "old guard" white folk ALWAYS have issues in how to educate and deal with children who happen to have brown skin. these brown-skinned students (who tend to be African-American or latino) will generally be enrolled in slower paced special education classes and these students will also tend to be reprimanded, suspended, and expelled at a much higher rate that their white-skinned counterparts.

i'm sorry, but plezWorld doesn't make The Rules!

it is unfortunate that wilbanks made such an utterance. even though i don't find the comment patently racist, in these p.c. times, it does appear to be racially insensitive... especially, in light of the fact that there are scant few Black folks in the state of idaho!

the problem of the education of our Black children runs a lot deeper than the analysis into the number of Blacks in idaho! i don't understand why anyone would call for his resignation, but i also don't see the big deal with wilbanks offering a token apology to those whom he may have offended.

Shame Revisited - The Dunbar Village Rape

Several months ago, plezWorld joined Blogging for Justice to cast light on two horrific cases of sexual abuse directed at Black woman. It appears that the media cannot sate itself when telling the story of a blonde-haired blue-eyed victim, but seems to rarely illuminate cases that involve our Black women. We still get updates on that crazy Peterson dude whose wife went missing around Christmas, we still hear about the circus surrounding the disappearance of the high school girl who disappeared without a trace in Aruba (I think), but we hear precious little about poor Megan Williams in West Virginia or have heard even less about the Black mother and son who were sexually abused by crazed teenagers in West Palm Beach, Florida.

It was recently brought to my attention that the Dunbar Village incident (in Florida) did receive some media attention, but it was for all the wrong reasons. To recap the story from the August 22, 2007 Sun Times article:

The victim returned home from her job delivering phone books about 9 p.m. the night of the attack, according to her statement to police. While fixing her son something to eat, a young male with braids knocked on her door to tell her the tires on her truck were flat. Once outside, she said, she saw a male with a large gun and two others armed with guns. They wore black clothing over their faces, she said, and ordered her back into the apartment, where they demanded money.

After being told there was no money, the attackers tore off the woman's clothes and raped her until five others arrived, according to the documents. The new arrivals took turns having sex with her and then sodomized her. The mother was then ordered into a tub filled with vinegar and water where they used hydrogen peroxide, alcohol, nail polish remover and ammonia on her. At gunpoint, the assailants forced the mother and son to have sex.

Throughout the attack, the victims suffered beatings, including having a bowl and light bulbs smashed over their heads. The encounter was recorded on a cell phone camera, according to the mother.

Before leaving, the males looked for a lighter to set the two on fire but couldn't find one, she told police. They ordered the pair to stay in the tub and took off. About 30 minutes later one of the males returned to sexually assault the mother one last time. Before leaving, he scribbled a man's name and 6-CO, the name of a local gang, on a piece of paper and told the woman he hangs out on Sixth Street and that's where he could be found. He grabbed a Sony PlayStation 2 before fleeing the scene.

Police believe at up to ten teens/men were involved, but only four were ever charged.

Read the entire Sun Times article here.

The blog, The Point, has taken the initiative along with the blog, What About Our Daughters, in shedding light on this travesty. And this is where the story takes an ugly turn. The NAACP was contacted by the author of the blog, What About Our Daughters; an NAACP spokesperson responded that they would not be getting involved in the case because “it was outside their mission”! Al Sharpton's National Action Network never responded to any calls from the author of the blog... and then the other shoe dropped. Sharpton helped organize a town hall meeting for the Dunbar Village victim that was scheduled for February 10, 2008... and then he backed out ONE DAY before the event without explanation. On Tuesday, March 11, 2008 - only four weeks after the planned demonstration in support of the victim - Al Sharpton and the West Palm Beach NAACP held a press conference accusing the prosecutor of treating those arrested in this case unfairly. They demanded that the prosecutor offer bail to the youths arrested in this case and not try them as adults, because this was being done by the prosecutor in another gang rape case involving white perpetrators in a different Florida jurisdiction. The NAACP has apparently event sent attorneys to aid those arrested in their defense, this in spite of the heinous nature of the crime, air tight DNA evidence and confessions.

Nothing has been done by the NAACP or Al Sharpton's group to aid the victim and her son!

It makes one wonder what is going on in our society when so little value is placed on the lives of our Black women. If the victims had been white, there is no doubt that this story would've been at the top of Nancy Grace's show for weeks on end, the gang rape and violation of a Black woman gets nary a mention!

If you can find it in your heart to feel a shred of compassion for this family's misery, you are encouraged to make a $5, $10, $50, or $100 contribution to the victim fund to help the Dunbar Village victim and her son rebuild their shattered lives. Checks can be made payable to the Dunbar Village Victim Assistance Fund-St. Ann. You can drop your contribution off at any Wachovia Bank branch or mail them to: St. Ann Catholic Church, 310 N. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach, FL 33401. The church’s phone number is (561) 832-3757.

The NAACP and Al Sharpton must be brought to task for continuing the victimization of this victim while trying to aid and abet the worst elements of our society. We must let them know that they will no longer be welcome to speak on behalf of Black people if they cannot represent the best interests of Black people... and defending a group of degenerate thugs is not in the best interest of anyone!

Cancel your membership with the NAACP.

Contact your local NAACP Chapter and express your outrage at the behavior of the West Palm Beach Chapter.

Contact the National NAACP to express your outrage (Julian Bond–Chairman, NAACP National Headquarters, 4805 Mt. Hope Drive, Baltimore MD 21215 Phone: 410-580-5777)

Contact the West Palm Beach NAACP to express your outrage.

Contact Al Sharpton's Group to express your outrage (National Action Network, Rev. Al Sharpton, 106 W. 145th Street, Harlem, New York 10039 Phone: 212-690-3070 )

I thank Aaron over at A Political Season for bringing this issue to my attention.

[Hat Tip: The Point]
[Hat Tip: What About Our Daughters]
[Hat Tip: Black Women Vote!]
[Hat Tip: A Political Season]



plez sez: al sharpton is a blight on the Black community! he is that cancer that only destroys good cells. the sooner he is repudiated and discredited and muzzled... the better!

naacp is a mere shadow of its former self. the national association for the advancement of colored people is advancing the cause of thugs and masked goons... give me a break! the sooner that this group is disbanded... the better! i wish i could name ONE GOOD THING that the naacp has done in the past five years! the past ten years! i don't have a membership to cancel, i joined my college chapter when i was a freshman... i saw no need to renew it as a sophomore.

these groups (like al sharpton and the naacp) have a tendency to seek out the lowest and most base... and then call it justice. those four bastards should rot in jail for the misery they brought on this innocent family. the physical pain notwithstanding, consider for a moment the psychological scars that this mother and her son must carry for the remainder of their lives. when that pain is placed in the balance, it makes the actions of al sharpton and the naacp all the more egregious.

The Black KKK by Whitlock & McWhorter

The blogosphere is wrought with posts decrying the state of Black America and the latest boil up has been over Jason Whitlock's reference to the Black KKK. plezWorld happened upon a New York Sun article written by John McWhorter which seems to encapsulate many of my thoughts on the matter.


To put things in the proper context, one should first read what Jason Whitlock wrote about the Black KKK and the death of Washington Redskins player Sean Taylor here.

Here are a few excerpts from the Whitlock article:

There's a reason I call them the Black KKK. The pain, the fear and the destruction are all the same. The Black KKK claimed another victim, a high-profile professional football player with a checkered past this time. I could very well be proven wrong for engaging in this sort of aggressive speculation. But it's no different than if you saw a fat man fall to the ground clutching his chest. You'd assume a heart attack, and you'd know, no matter the cause, the man needed to lose weight.

Well, when shots are fired and a black man hits the pavement, there's every statistical reason to believe another black man pulled the trigger. That's not some negative, unfair stereotype. It's a reality we've been living with, tolerating and rationalizing for far too long.

When the traditional, white KKK lynched, terrorized and intimidated black folks at a slower rate than its modern-day dark-skinned replacement, at least we had the good sense to be outraged and in no mood to contemplate rationalizations or be fooled by distractions.

No disrespect to Taylor, but he controlled the way he would be remembered by the way he lived. His immature, undisciplined behavior with his employer, his run-ins with law enforcement, which included allegedly threatening a man with a loaded gun, and the fact a vehicle he owned was once sprayed with bullets are all pertinent details when you've been murdered.

Rather than whine about white folks' insensitivity or reserve a special place of sorrow for rich athletes, we'd be better served mustering the kind of outrage and courage it took in the 1950s and 1960s to stop the white KKK from hanging black men from trees.

Our self-hatred has been set to music and reinforced by a pervasive culture that promotes a crab-in-barrel mentality.

You're damn straight I blame hip hop for playing a role in the genocide of American black men. When your leading causes of death and dysfunction are murder, ignorance and incarceration, there's no reason to give a free pass to a culture that celebrates murder, ignorance and incarceration.

The "keepin' it real" mantra of hip hop is in direct defiance to evolution. There's always someone ready to tell you you're selling out if you move away from the immature and dangerous activities you used to do, you're selling out if you speak proper English, embrace education, dress like a grown man, do anything mainstream.

The Black KKK is enforcing the same crippling standards as its parent organization. It wants to keep black men in their place — uneducated, outside the mainstream and six feet deep.

[T]he Black Klan and its mentality buried Sean Taylor, and any black man or boy reading this could be next.

This is a rarity, but I would like to share with you McWhorter's response to the Whitlock article, in its entirety:

[Jason Whitlock is] a black sports columnist at FOXSports.com, and he is disgusted with much of the black punditocracy's response to the murder of Redskins football player Sean Taylor. Some are claiming that he was a target because he was an athlete. Others insist that it is wrong and even racist to bring up that Taylor had spent a lot of time on the wrong side of the law.

But the tacit assumption would appear to be that the staggeringly high murder rate among young black men these days is just the way it is. Mr. Whitlock calls these murder[er]s the Black KKK.

Oh sure, if it's brought up people shake their heads. And certainly there are "Stop the Violence" forums and such.

But very few are as truly, lastingly aroused by issues such as these, which involve the black community looking inward, as they are by nooses hung from a tree, someone saying a bad word, or the latest study showing that racism still persists in one way or another in "institutional" guise. No one takes to the streets about the Black KKK, and academics find it much less interesting than, say, a study that some employers reject job applications with black-sounding names.

Friedrich von Hayek once noted, "It seems to be almost a law of human nature that it is easier for people to agree on a negative program — on the hatred of an enemy, on the envy of those better off — than on any positive task." That's Black America's problem right now.

Mr. Whitlock seeks "the outrage and courage it took in the 1950s and 1960s to stop the white KKK from hanging black men from trees." Instead, "we take great joy in prescribing medicine to cure the hate in other people's hearts. Meanwhile, our self-hatred, on full display for the world to see, remains untreated, undiagnosed and unrepentant."

The question Mr. Whitlock leaves, however, is precisely what we are to do about our internal cultural problems. Everybody knows how to protest. And sometimes a protest is necessary. But obviously, protest alone isn't working. How do you actually build something?

For one thing, get a copy of Bill Cosby and Alvin Poussaint's new book, "Come On People" and read it cover to cover, because it is all about precisely what needs to be done and how to do it. If Mr. Whitlock has written the best race column of the year, Messrs. Cosby and Poussaint have written the best book.

All black people should read it. The audiobook should be played in barbershops. Maybe somebody needs to set it to some "phat" beats so people can dance to it.

Read of how Joyce Riley's 24th Street Non-Violent Marchers actually got the thugs out of her Kansas City neighborhood. Read about how to get a degree and a job even if you're not on your way to college — step by step. And to top it all off, "Come On People" is a great read.

No, Tavis Smiley's book "The Covenant with Black America" from last year was not the same thing. Reading it you'd barely know the Black KKK existed, and the theme is reform of the system, when the solutions that help people almost always involve working within it. Or, instead of waiting for that great day when all inner city kids are taught by awesome teachers in glimmering buildings, focus on something that can happen in the real world. Become active on your local school board, and simply insist that students are taught to read with phonics-based programs. It's how poor kids learn to read, period. So much starts from there.

Another one: If you're going to vote for a Democratic presidential candidate, vote for the one most interested in things that will help black people to help themselves.

Upon which, note that this person is not Hillary Clinton. The fact that it is even possible that the black electorate will elevate Mrs. Clinton over Barack Obama because of her mere familiarity, or residual affection for her "black president" husband, is frankly a little embarrassing.

Those who say they don't "know" Mr. Obama need to get to know him, now. And if Mr. Obama is "not black enough," I would think that his commitment to reconnecting ex-con dads with their kids, not to mention his days doing community work, would qualify him as, at least, brown.

Mr. Whitlock's point about self-hatred is also key. Currently, in large swathes of the black community, an able-bodied young man who doesn't hold down a 40-hour-a-week job is considered normal even when he has kids. We must get to the point that men like that are considered as socially unacceptable as they are in a Scarsdale[, NY] living room — as they were even in black slums until the 1970s.

I vary from day to day as to how likely I see it that one day black America will be as committed to helping itself as, say, Israel's first residents were to reviving Hebrew. There is no telling how far we could go if only most of us found reading instruction programs as interesting as nooses.

John McWhorter is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Read the McWhorter opinion article here.


plez sez: mcwhorter really packs a punch... he is quite the wordsmith and has an excellent economy of words. i loved his article.

there were a few points that jumped out at me while re-reading his article for this post:

1. you will find a glowing recommendation to read "Come On People" by Cosby & Poussaint.
   plezWorld has been reviewing this book (here, here, and here,) for the past two weeks and echoes mcwhorter's suggestion. if only the people who need to read it (i.e. those Black Klansmen) would read it! and i would love it if i went into my barbershop one morning and they were playing the audiobook version of the book.
   
   
2. we are spending too much time and energy trying to cure the hate in other people's hearts.
   michael roberts used the n-word, imus called the rutgers basketball team a group of nappy-headed-hos and then got his job back 8 months later, some slack jawed hicks hung a noose in someone's cubicle at work, blah!, blah!, blah!!! get over it, people! we have mountains of issues in the Black community (education crisis, family crisis, disease crisis, employment crisis, etc.) that should preclude us spending time chasing after a mole hill of white folk begging for acts of contrition.
   
   where is the contrition from the Black people who are murdering other Black people in Philadelphia, Detroit, Newark, and Atlanta? where is the contrition from the gangsta rappers who perpetrate their filthy language, misogynistic lyrics, and self-hating ways in their music[sic]? where is the contrition from those Black teachers who continually miseducate and under educate our Black children? and where is the contrition from the Black communities who let the Black KKK wreak havoc on our communities while throwing mere pebbles at a whiff of injustice by others?
   
   EXHIBIT 1: three Black guys invade a white guy's house planning to steal drugs and money. they beat the white guy's stepson to a bloody pulp. when they attempt to escape, all three are shot in the back by the white guy, killing two of them. the survivor is charged with the murder of his two partners in crime. now the NAACP is protesting the murder charge saying that it is racist... WTF?!?
   
   
3. stop sucking up to hillary clinton, because bill clinton was not a "black president!"
   "earth to those mindless Black democratic voters who think that january 20, 2009 will usher in a new age of enlightenment as long as hillary clinton is taking the oath of office"... it ain't gonna happen! as a matter of fact, her poll-watching ass may decide that it's time to end the affirmative action tit that so many of you like to suckle up to for comfort. she may not be the awe-shucks saxophone playin' "black person" that so many of you still think her husband to be. she may decide that we ought to stay in Iraq a little bit longer, she may decide that an invasion of Iran is in order, she may decide to extend those no-bid contractors that don't need any minority representation, she may lose that "ole time religion" and that "fake ass southern accent" that she dons everytime she speaks (down) to you!
   
   there's only one BLACK man who could possibly be heading to the white house, and his name ain't bill!
   

Call to Override Bush's Veto of SCHIP Bill

The following issue update was distributed by the Washington Bureau of the NAACP:

On October 3, 2007, President Bush vetoed legislation expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by $35 billion over the next five years. This expansion, which enjoyed bi-partisan support in both the House and the Senate, as well as among groups as diverse as the NAACP and industry groups representing insurers (the American Health Insurance Plans, or AHIP) and doctors (the American Medical Association) would have covered not only the 6 million children already enrolled in SCHIP, but would have allowed almost 6 million more American children to benefit from the program.

Since 1997, SCHIP has significantly improved American children's access to health care, and has made significant strides in covering racial and ethnic minority children. Initially SCHIP provided $40 billion to states to provide health care coverage to children who lived in families that earned too much to qualify for Medicare but too little to afford private health insurance. Since its adoption, SCHIP has reduced dramatically (by a third) the number of America's uninsured children. Racial and ethnic minority children have especially benefited from this program; since 1997, the rate of uninsured African American children dropped by almost half; from 20% to 12%; the rate of uninsured Asian and Pacific Islander children has also been cut in half, from 17% to 8%. The rate of uninsured Latino children has gone from 30% to 21%. Because of SCHIP, approximately 6 million children currently have access to vital health care services including screening and prevention services that help them stay healthy and grow to be strong and productive adults.

Despite these successes, there is still work to be done. Nine million children in our nation remain uninsured today; more than 5 million of them are racial or ethnic minorities. Nearly three-quarters of them are eligible for either Medicare or SCHIP, yet they are not enrolled in either program. While enough Senators supported the final version of the bill (67), the House of Representatives fell about 20 votes short of a veto-proof margin (two thirds of those voting, or 289 if all Members are present are needed to override a veto), passing it 265 – 159. Thus we need to encourage all Americans to contact their elected Senators and Representatives as soon as possible and ask them to vote to override the President's veto of this important program.

The Democratic Party has also issued a call to Congress to override Bush's veto:

George Bush made a cold political calculation this morning. He could have signed this bi-partisan bill into law, or he could have pandered to conservatives who didn't want to see the Children's Health Insurance Program get the funding it needs.

He decided to pander -- and millions of kids will suffer for it.

What makes this veto worse is that George Bush will spend billions of dollars in Iraq, some of it on contractors like Blackwater and Halliburton, while denying millions of children needed doctors' visits or medicine here at home.

On top of that, all of the Republican candidates for president support his veto.

Democrats are in the majority for a reason. Send a message to your Senators and Representative and let them know why that is:

Fight for Kids

plez sez: once again, The Great Decider, has made a decision which will affect millions of children nationwide. George Bush has continued to run this country as The Great Divider, choosing politics over children... and this time, even defying a bipartisan approach to a real problem.

by vetoing the SCHIP bill, Bush has threatened funding of the Georgia insurance plan (Peachcare for Kids). the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (here and here)that there are 265,000 children in Georgia who participate in Peachcare for Kids and there are another 300,000 children in the state with no health insurance of any kind. George Bush talked of middle-class and rich families benefiting from the insurance; in Georgia, the maximum yearly income for a family of four to qualify is less than $49,000 - definitely on the low side of the middle class!

Georgia had to freeze enrollment in Peachcare for Kids in March for four months when the federal money initially ran out (until Congress approved more money for the program), and now it risks being shut down completely at the end of November.

PeachCare for Kids is Georgia's version of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). It covers children whose families make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance. Congress passed a resolution to continue funding the national program through mid-November. Georgia officials say that if Congress and the president can't reach an agreement by then, PeachCare will run out of federal money and cease to exist by the end of that month.

so this country is fine with spending BILLIONS of dollars per month on war that kills thousands and destroys families, a war where services vendors can overcharge the US government by MILLIONS on no-bid contracts, but will let the "least of these" - our children - go without health insurance? all this over a 61-cent increase in tax on a pack of cigarettes! it would be unconscionable if Congress were to let Bush's veto stand... they must override the veto of SCHIP!

Georgia's Voter ID Law Upheld in Court

The fight to overturn Georgia's Photo Voter ID Law has been raging since it was passed in 2006. Civil rights groups, most notably the NAACP and the League of Women Voters of Georgia, have decried the law. In an article on August 23, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that these groups are "claiming that [the photo voter id law] creates an unnecessary extra step for people [to exercise] their right to vote. The groups claim that minorities, the elderly, poor and disabled are especially affected because of the likelihood they either do not possess a valid photo ID or would have difficulty getting a free one provided by the state."

Excerpts from the August 23, 2007 article follow:

[L]awyers for those groups tried to show that the state's program to educate voters on the change - voters previously could show non-photo ID or just sign a statement swearing to their identity - has been insufficient, particularly in targeting the people most likely to lack photo ID. Plaintiff's lawyers also were critical of the state's decision to not target certain groups, such as African-Americans, in their advertising efforts, even though blacks have historically been discriminated against, particularly in the South.

State officials contend they have embarked on a multifaceted campaign that includes mailers, radio advertisements, automated telephone calls, brochures and other means to spread the word about the photo ID requirement before local elections in 23 Georgia counties on September 18, 2007.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs attempted to poke holes in the educational campaign. They presented a literacy expert, Georgia State University professor Sheryl Gowen, who testified that the letters were written on a 12th-grade level, making it difficult for more than half of the state's population to read. That's critical, lawyers contend, because many of the people who lack a photo ID are likely to be less educated, possibly making it difficult for them to comprehend the letter.

On Thursday, September 6, 2007, U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy threw out the lawsuit that challenged Georgia's Photo Voter ID law. In upcoming elections, voters will have to present a photo ID as proof of identity prior to being able to vote. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, "the judge ruled that the plaintiffs failed to prove that the 2006 law's photo ID requirement unduly burdens the right to vote. The Georgia State Supreme Court this summer dismissed a similar suit filed in Fulton County Superior Court."

Read the entire September 6, 2007 AJC article.

Georgia Photo Voter ID Information


plez sez: a show of hands, how many of you want anyone casting his/her vote for the next President of the United States if he/she cannot read well enough (i.e. too illiterate) to understand instructions written for a 12th-grade student?

OK, i know the civil rights crowd will be all over this one about the disenfranchisement of poor and mostly Black voters. i've heard all of the arguments about the jim crow south with its poll taxes and having to count the number of bubbles in a bar of Ivory soap. understanding ALL of that, how is someone who is literate and knowledgeable enough to register to vote, able to find a way to the polls, and able to competently cast a vote, "unduly burdened" with having to secure and present a photo id when they show up at the polls to vote?

i do not understand the brouhaha over this law, nor how it "turns back the clock" on voting rights. and for that "half" of the state's population that is disenfranchised because they don't are too illiterate to secure a valid photo id... ***expletive removed*** 'em! i can't think of a candidate alive who would realistically be counting on their vote anyway.

Quote of the Day - August 23, 2007

"As a society, we should aid in his rehabilitation and welcome a new Michael Vick back into the community without a permanent loss of his career in football. We further ask the NFL, Falcons, and the sponsors not to permanently ban Mr. Vick from his ability to bring hours of enjoyment to fans all over this country... his crime is, it was a dog."
- R.L. White, President of the Atlanta Chapter of the NAACP, supports Michael Vick's return to the NFL after he serves his sentence after pleading guilty to his role in a dogfighting operation.

Quote taken from AJC article about the NAACP and Michael Vick.

plez sez: WTF?!?

W.E.B. DuBois (one of the founders of the NAACP) must be rolling over in his grave every time this august (and once noble group) comes out of the woodwork and voices an opinion about matters that may (and in most cases) may not have any affect on the Black community. R.L. White may not have been speaking for the entire organization, but as the president of the Atlanta Chapter of the NAACP, his words are taken as those for the entire organization. It seems that on a daily basis, the NAACP goes out of its way to prove how out of touch and irrelevant it has become.

Michael Vick is in his predicament because of something that Michael Vick has done. The media. The fans. The Falcons. The NFL. The poor humiliated citizens of metro Atlanta. The aforementioned folk (save Michael Vick) are the victims in this whole sordid affair: our city's only bone fide star of the NFL cast his lot with the wrong crowd, threw away a football career of unfulfilled promise and boundless riches, will spend at least a year in the Big House with a bunch of criminals, and will miss at least 3 years of his prime in football!

The ABSOLUTE LAST thing that Michael Vick or fans of the NFL will have to concern themselves with at this time is how Vick will be embraced upon his release from prison! And he will NEVER don the #7 jersey for the Atlanta Falcons, the owner of the Falcons was played for a sucker as he signed Vick to the richest contract in NFL history ($130 million), I doubt he'll be a fool to let him rejoin the team when he gets out of federal prison and serves an NFL suspension.

A few days ago, my 5-year old daughter asked me, "Daddy, why did he kill those doggies?" I just shook my head in disbelief and changed the subject. How many parents have had to try to shield their children from this foolishness?

Maybe I should be more upset about the dogfighting charges or the gambling ring or the killing of those dogs, but I couldn't care less about that... I'm serious! I'm a football fan and I've been jonesin' for the college football and NFL season to start since early January! I've been jonesin' to see #7 dazzle us and carry the Dirty Birds back to the playoffs after a 2 year hiatus. I HATE that his dumb ass has ruined yet another Falcons football season with his stupidity and arrogance.

And I hate that there are apologists, like the NAACP, who try to find some justification in Michael Vick for f*ckin' everything up!

Don Imus to Visit With Al Sharpton

The Associated Press reports that Don Imus will appear on Al Sharpton's radio show today to discuss the racially insensitive "thing" that he uttered last week on his show after the Rutgers-Tennessee Women's National Championship Game. To those who haven't heard, Don Imus referred to the basketball team players as some "rough girls with tattoos" and then referred to them as "some nappy-headed ho's!"

Excerpts from the AP article follows:

Calling himself a good person who said a bad thing, radio host Don Imus said Monday he would check his acid tongue after being lambasted for making racially charged comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team.

"Here's what I've learned: that you can't make fun of everybody, because some people don't deserve it," he said on his nationally syndicated radio show Monday morning. "And because the climate on this program has been what it's been for 30 years doesn't mean it's going to be what it's been for the next five years or whatever."

Imus said he was "embarrassed" by the remarks, in which he referred to the mostly black team as "nappy-headed hos." He said he had made the comments in the course of "trying to be funny," but he was not trying to excuse them.

Imus said he hoped to meet the Rutgers players and their parents and coaches, and he said he was grateful that he was scheduled to appear later Monday on a radio show hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has called for Imus to be fired over the remarks.

"Somewhere we must draw the line in what is tolerable in mainstream media," Sharpton said Sunday. "We cannot keep going through offending us and then apologizing and then acting like it never happened. Somewhere we've got to stop this."

Meanwhile, the Rev. Jesse Jackson planned a protest in Chicago. James E. Harris, president of the New Jersey chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, demanded Sunday that Imus "resign or be terminated immediately."

plez sez: here we go again... can you say, "Michael Richards"? i thought you could!

my sister is a graduate of Rutgers and played basketball in high school. i take offense for all of those hard working and beautiful Black young women who grace the Rutgers Scarlet Knights basketball team. they are student athletes who were playing for a national championship (for Christ's sake), i am offended that a blubbering idiot like Don Imus would take advantage of his position to disgrace their integrity and their heritage with impunity!

first, i deplore what Don Imus said because it was aimed at college students and not professionals, and the fact that he had to stoop so damn low to try to grab a laugh in what i would consider a fading career in broadcasting. he's not funny, he's not relevant, and he's not going to have much of a television show after this week.

second, what the HELL is going on with Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jackson?!? looks like they are falling over each other trying to "interview" every clown who makes a racist/insensitive remark. i didn't know either of them had a radio show and now it begs the question, what the HELL do they talk about when there's no Don Imus or Richard Michaels to skewer? like Imus, these "Black leaders" are left with a questionable careers, lack of relevance, and certainly very little of a radio show after this week! i guess it's not enough for an irrelevant NAACP chapter in NJ to demand that Imus be fired, these two preachers have to try to elbow each other out of the way to garner some ratings for their non-existent shows.

Don Imus (and his producer Bernard McGuirk) needs to go to Rutgers University, sit down with the team and their parents, and issue his apology to them, face-to-face. he doesn't need blowhard povertypimp pastors to get it for them.

if you are so inclined, you can check out the Don Imus Apology here ... look at that dried up carcass, not only is his career fading, so is he!

and for truly bold, you can listen to Rev. Al Sharpton on the radio here ... and i'm still trying to figure out what the HELL he's going to talk about tomorrow?

lastly, although, i'm still pissed with Don Imus, we have to realize that this ain't going to be the last insensitive comment that we'll hear... it's time to grow up! everyone doesn't like you, everyone doesn't respect you, you'll have to get over it.

Georgia's Confederate History and Heritage Month

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran an article on how a panel of the Georgia State Senate passed a measure that would permanently establish April as Confederate History and Heritage Month. This bill comes up a week after the NAACP asked the Georgia Legislature to consider making an apology for slavery.

Excerpts of the AJC article follows:

A bill that would permanently establish April as Confederate History and Heritage Month in Georgia sailed through a Senate committee Thursday without any opposition.

Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), the sponsor of Senate Bill 283, told the Senate Rules Committee that the proposal would help promote tourism in the state and preserve an important part of the state's and the nation's history.

"I'm not doing this for controversial reasons, but to commemorate a struggle that happened," said Mullis, whose North Georgia hometown was the site of a major Civil War battle in 1863.

The proposal has offended some civil rights leaders, who last week asked the Legislature and Gov. Sonny Perdue to offer a symbolic apology for the state's role in slavery. The Rev. Francys Johnson, the NAACP's Southeast region director, said the organization is "vehemently opposed" to Mullis' bill and finds it hypocritical.

"At the same time that the proponents of this bill want to deny any responsibility for state sanctioned and sponsored slavery from 1755 to the end of the Civil War, they still feel the responsibility to honor the treasonous conduct of the Confederacy. It doesn't seem like you can have it both ways.

"You can't honor the past and not take responsibility for it."

Mullis said he has been working on the bill for several months, long before lawmakers and civil rights groups asked for the apology.

Senate Bill 283, if approved by the Senate and the House, would encourage Georgians each April to honor the Confederacy, its history, soldiers and the people who "contributed to the cause of Southern Independence."

The bill also encourages the Georgia Civil War Commission to develop a curriculum to teach Georgia's Confederate history in elementary and high schools, as well as colleges and universities.

Reginald Bohannon, 46, of College Park said that he has no problem with a curriculum that teaches state Confederate history in schools as long as the lessons include both the good and bad parts of history.

"Yes, teach how Georgia had the second-most Civil War sites," Bohannon said. "But also teach that Georgia was on the wrong side of black people's freedom. Teach how some Georgians were Christians, yet condoned lynching, murder and Jim Crow."

The next step for the bill is for the Senate Rules Committee to decide if and when the proposal should come up for a vote by the full Senate.

Click here to view Senate Bill 283 which would establish the month of April as Confederate History and Heritage Month.

plez sez: Here we go again, first it was the Confederate Battle Emblem on the Georgia State flag and now it's this. It appears that my slack-jawed-tobacco-chewing-Confederate-flag-waving-trailer-trash-loving-treasonous-miscreant neighbors, also known as the inbred occupants of the Georgia State Senate, have taken it upon themselves to leave their indelible stain on the fabric of Georgian history.

Despite the fact that the formation of the Confederate States of America was an act of treason against the United States of America, despite the fact that the Civil War was bitterly fought to preserve the institution of slavery (in spite of their ceaseless drivel about taxes and states' rights), and despite the fact that Confederate President Jefferson Davis was a cross dressing fairy (look it up, when the Union army caught up with him, he was captured wearing a dress and patent leather pumps!)... the mindset of those in the Georgia State Senate who support this measure is the same mindset of those who - 146 years ago - split and plunged this country into Civil War.

Personally, I'm having trouble understanding why ANYONE would find any honor in glorifying an ancestry that wrought such misery, hate, bigotry, war, the KKK, and treason! And to think that these cretins want the public schools to incorporate Confederate History into their curriculum; I'm sure their version of history is in stark contrast to what I happen to know is true (there were no happy Negros shufflin' and grinnin' in the watermelon patch). The scars and cancerous lesions of the Confederacy continue to plague and badger the Black community to this day, yet these same people scour in disbelief when the NAACP asks for a token apology for slavery!

I'm not big on apologies, especially from people who had absolutely nothing to do with the "Peculiar Institution," but by the same token, I don't feel that they can have it both ways: honoring their past while dishonoring mine!