Of late have been doing a few posts that on teh surface appeared to be about personal relationships. That is part was done because most people can relate to them when they are worded in such a way as to make them personally identifiable. and relate-able.
I will expand on those posts I did here and on facebook using a personal story. Not that long ago I held an elected position. I was one of the people who developed the processes and criteria for that position. I presented my platform and my peer presented theirs. People also told me that they planned to vote for me. Come time I lost the election. Yet, how can you loose an election when people committed to vote for you unless they either misstated their intent or simply did not live up to their commitment?
When I lost I congratulated the winer and remained silent. There were people who came to me afterwards stating if that happened to them they would have made a loud noise regarding the outcome to which I responded - why? Had I behaved in that manner it would not have affected te outcome and would have sent the message that I disrespected the very process I helped to create. Later some of the people who did not vote for me approached me for help stating that the person they selected who told them what they wanted to hear was not living up to their commitment to them. My response was simply that I cannot help them because it is not my place or responsibility to do so and that they should hold the elected person accountable for living up to the expectations of their office. This was done because as a leader it is my responsibility even having lost the elections to help people understand they must accept the rewards and consequences of their decision so that next time out they will make a more educated choice. Sometimes when we attempt to make everything right or fix everything we do more damage then good. Ironically, over time many of those people ended up loosing their positions.
What did I do:
Respected the process that was put in place
Acknowledged and respected the choice of the constituents
Held the people accountable to their choices
Too often people go for what they want to hear instead of listening for and doing what they need to for their own best interest. Also, people are shocked when they make those choices others accept them and all that the choice entails.
The lessons to be learned are:
Listen carefully to what you are being told
Observe the behavior of those making the commitments
Always be consistent in what you promise to do
Hold yourself and those connected to you accountable for their words and actions
Education people but respect then enough to allow them to make their own choices
Understand that you are not above the process (law)
People's lives and business are not a game - do not play
Feel free to add anything else you feel of benefit.
Normally I do not share my thoughts publicly on religion in any detail, however heard something today that inspired me to share some of my thoughts on this and other things.
First I will stat this is not an attempt to convert anyone rather it is meant as a point of discussion regardless of your personal faith or beliefs albeit Christian, Islam, Judaism, Buddhist, agnostic, atheist, etc.
I could go into detail regarding my beliefs on and in God, yet this singular clip
I believe religion serves many purposes none of which dilute it though some many argue.
To provide us hope
To teach us humility
To form a sense of community and/or extended family
To provide inspiration
To develop one’s imagination
To provide ethical (moral) boundaries
To show that there consequence for our actions (positive and negative) by teaching us accountability and responsibility
Have you ever considered how many people believe in magical thinking?
I know people will say I do not think like that and yet how man times have you seem people who want something for nothing.
They want a life without challenge
They want income without labor
They want to life and do as they please without accountability
They want a relationship without commitment or work
They want to be the center of attention and must always be right on everything and never apologize
They want to be able to tell everyone else what they want or think and yet do not want to listen to or acknowledge anyone else’s views
Do you know any people like this? Are there some things you wish to add?
This made me think about how we as a society deal with issues often and what our monsters say about us, our thoughts on society, how we deal with others and what their evolution says about us as a society:
Vampires – the embodiment of creed and sexuality – beings that live at the expense of others who exist to influence, control and exploit others for their own benefit – they expend their life and derive pleasure by taking it from you (though of late because of how much green and sexuality have become a part of our society we have recast them into good and bad)
Werewovles – the embodiment of abuse – being who go on a rampage when an event (full moon) triggers a transformation (again similar to vampires in their evolution)
Aliens – the embodiment of our fear of people and things that do not look or think like we do (until late and still mostly so aliens were viewed as threats to life and livelihood, of late this is slowly changing as evident by Star Trek, Star Wars, Battle Star Galactica, Star Gate
Mummies – the embodiment of confinement and restriction – so enamored in and with tradition that you are not able to live, talk or move freely
Lets for the sake of argument regardless of your belief system assume there is a Creator. Now lets say this being created the universe and all things in it. Here is where ego comes in – if such a being existed then how can you tell that being what you want them to do for you and then be angered when you do not get it and then you perform elaborate mental exercises to justify your decision to reject it because to embrace it would mean growth and change so you look for any possible excuse even if you have to manufacture them.
When did growth become synonymous to pain?
Is it not true in nature an object (albeit a blade of grass, a tree, a bush, etc grows and reaches for the light to survive and that when it stops growing it dies?
These questions are for “Christians” only
How many times have you prayed for wisdom ?
How many times have you prayed for a life partner?
How many times have you prayed for peace of mind?
How many times have you prayer for something and then gotten upset or rejected?
Have you even stopped to consider:
Situations were created to give you a to learn!
Situations were created to give you a chance to respect, trust, to lead, to follow, to talk and to listen to someone different from but complimentary to you!
Situation were created to help you grow and learn what is important to what to let go!
Have you ever stopped to think you got what you needed and asked for and yet you were upset because it was not done your way and yet if what you wanted worked so well and if your way of doing things was so great then why did you ask for help? In each case you were given a chance to grow and change and rejected it!
Driving back these thoughts kept creeping to my mind – what do they mean? Bottom line it is the reason why some people achieve great things and others fail. So often people play at relationships regardless of whether they are business or person. They seek playmates instead of partners and wonder why things do not work.
If life is short should we not?
Treat children like children
Treat adult like adult
Let your yes be your yes
Let your no be your no
Say what you mean
Mean what you say
Let your actions match your words
Let your words match your actions
Respect others
Behave in such a way others are required to treat us with respect
Make constructive use of our time
Not allow others to waste our time and respect the time of others
Let’s look deeper
A playmate is someone who entertains you and does what is in their interest at the time because it is fun to them your thoughts and feelings are of little consequence
A partner is someone who believes in and compliments you and does what is in your best interest at the time both short and long term because they care about respect and want what is best for you
Which type of people do you surround yourself with?
Playmate - A companion in play or recreation (excitement or entertainment)
Partner - One that is united or associated with another or others in an activity or a sphere of common interest, especially a business partnership or a spouse
In business people often wrongly believe business people do what they do to take on risk and excitement – while this may be true for some it is largly a misunderstanding – a business person has a vision – a mental image that they are willing to work to make a reality.
How do we fail?
We do not believe people when they tell us who they are – examples: Business:
Someone tells you they do not respect you and you keep allowing them to use or take advantage of you
Someone steals from you and you allow them back in your business to continue to liberate items at your expense
Someone lies to your face to allow them to do so
Personal that can be applied to business
Someone tells you they plan to use you and you convince yourself they did not mean it
Someone tells you that they will be unfaithful and you dismiss it as a joke
Someone tells you they are in love with someone else and you continue to stay with them
Someone only comes around when they want something from you
Someone curses you out and you allow them to do so repeatedly
So what is commitment?
Being true to yourself
Knowing that you have value and making sure you are treated with the respect and courtesy you deserve
Making statements and sticking to them
Respecting your time enough not to waste others nor allow them to waste yours
Quotes on Commitment and Responsibility:
I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen - Frank Lloyd Wright
I can't imagine a person becoming a success who doesn't give this game of life everything he's got - Walter Cronkite
We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort - Jesse Owens
We are not here merely to make a living. We are here to enrich the world - Woodrow Wilson
Whatever happens, take responsibility - Anthony Robbins
Whoever renders service to many puts himself in line for greatness - great wealth, great return, great satisfaction, great reputation, and great joy - Jim Rohn
Within each of us lies the power of our consent to health and sickness, to riches and poverty, to freedom and to slavery. It is we who control these, and not another - Richard Bach
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today - Abraham Lincoln
Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame - Erica Jong
So here are the real questions:
Can I trust you with my life and livelihood?
Can I believe you when you tell me someone?
Are you willing to sacrifice to achieve your goals?
If you answered no to any of these questions – I would reconsider entering any serious relationship especially if it involves starting business.
Also ask yourself these questions:
What do you want?
Who do you place first?
Who are you (Are you a child seeking a playmate or an adult seeking a partner)?
So what to achieve - here is something to consider
What is the bottom line? If you are wanting to stay the same - not grow and change then respectfully you are not even committed to yourself so how can you be committed to another person or a business?
Why - because insanity is doing the same things over and over again expecting different results. If you want different results you must do different things!
For far too many a painful negative or unproductive known is better than an unknown even if that unknown is better - why - people confuse comfort with health, growth and change with pain, and allow fear not faith to dictate their lives.
You exist so serve me - I have no obligation to serve you
Do as I say not as I do - I know what is best for you
I cannot do that work - it is beneath me
So much of society these day is based on entitlement. People wanting things they have not earned. The whole healthcare debate is a prime example of this. I will not be political rather I will explain it with a question - if the programs and reforms are so good for us then should not the people crafting the legistlation be themselves willing to enroll ihemselves and their family into the program and prop their seperate system.
I am all for helping others and making sure that people are provided for and I am not even going to get into choice, rather I am speaking of a time old leadership principles.
How many of you remember:
Never ask people to do anything you are not willing to do yourself.
Never think you are any better than anyone else.
Lead by example.
Any work you do is a reflection on you regardless of what it is
So, what is the point of this post - a few simple questions:
When did we become so insecure and exploitative?
What happened to the dignity of work?
What happened to the concept of integrity?
When did appearance become more important than substance?
When did pride become the norm?
What happened to service before self?
Why when people are successful or achieve some feat do the seek to tear them down, find flaws or in some manner destroy them instead of asking how did they do that and what lessons can I learn from them?
First some humor - the first person has their cell implanted in finger, second in nose and the third is receiving a fax - care to guess where it is coming out?
Seems like the past few days I have been sharing my thoughts on prorated fees for data both land line and cell based. Instead of various sentences explaining my position figured it would be good to put most of my thoughts in a single place.
The simple version is I do not think it is ethical or right for me to pay for someone else’s mistakes. When a company leader or leadership team decides to pay themselves and their staff large bonuses instead of investing in infrastructure due to poor planning and then complain because the consumers did what was requested and punish them for listening and doing only what they were asked it is wrong. Further when a company is loosing money executives do not deserve any bonuses period – how can you reward someone for poor performance or when a company reduces work force artificially or cooks the books. If we want to keep the same structure in place with little changes then instead of basing on quarterly or yearly do so on a weighted 3 year performance so that strategy is required. However I think factors such as customer satisfaction (rating on meeting of real and implied customer expectations and service) should factor into compensation as well as the performance of all departments with at least a third based on customer service and a minority based on meeting your own personal objectives.
Long version using analogy. I equate exploitation to strip mining or to plowing a field using a crop that you know will after 1 or 2 seasons leave the soil infertile. Sure you can do it and it is your choice but it is not wise because sue the cash crop will get you $3-4/unit for two seasons but does it not make more sense to run crops that will consistently ensure you get a $2/unit over 10-15 years while allowing you in off seasons to use that same soil to grow other items which will also allow you some gain say another $2-3/unit and leave the nutrients in place and with proper planning albeit more work allow a longer effective yield of about $4-5/unit. Or look at it this way – you can rob a bank and provided you do not get caught get away with say $200K one time but you cannot spend the money and must launder it say for 20-40% so you make say $120-160K and when that money is gone if you did not invest you have to rob another bank and home you are not caught and in the process of taking money from others you did not in fact earn you harm the bank customers or you kill some people – get where I am going? Yet, you start a sound business or you get a nice paying job – you are making say $20-30K/yr – 10 years = $200 - 300K providing a service and risking no potential harm or loss of life.
So lets move on to the sell of bandwidth. My question is why has more money been invested in the equivalent of hub technology – shared bandwidth. Example – 100 GB and 50 users = max worst case 2 GB/user instead of switch (more efficient) so 100 GB and 50 users = 100 GB/user. Any here is how I explain what has been done in the industry overall but I will use cakes as an example of my opinion of the pay for more bandwidth scenario:
XYZ Cake Company - Buy our new flavor of cake it is great and has all of these layer of icing – you will really enjoy and it will dazzle your taste buts and improve your live – is you are diabetic – no worries there either we have a formulation that is sugar free
Consumer – that sounds great I will get on
XYZ Cake Company – great – do think any of your family members want one
Consumer – sure - want two (2) more for them?
XYZ Cake Company – Happy to hear that here you go
Consumer – Thank you and takes cakes home and presents cakes to family. Family members take a bite of their own cakes and there is a knock on the door
XYZ Cake Company – For each bite of the cake here is the cost/bite
Consumer – but I already paid for the cake and the container to carry it and now you are telling me I have to pay for each bite I take
XYZ Cake Company – that is correct – in the past we thought the cost of the cake covered the materials and the extra we charged for the container to take it home in covered our expenses but we realized demand for the cakes was so great we were loosing money because we did not anticipate demand and our manufacturing plants and the container maker cannot keep up so we are charging you for each bite of the cake to generate money to cover our poor planning
Consumer – you are joking right – this cannot be right
XYZ Cake Company – see the fine print on the contract you signed – we can assure you it is perfectly legal – further – we see you are using you own silverware and napkins – that is unacceptable – you must use our (here is the cost) or you will not be able to eat the cake and should for what ever reason you find a problem since you were not using our items we can not nothing to make matters right by you.
Here is the question – would you buy a cake from a company who sold them like that?
So what are your thoughts want to know your opinions
Disclaimer - this post in is strictly my personal opinion and posted in part because I personally believe I or my partners in my new venture could do a better job of running most companies while assuring that they are both sustainable and profitable with a focus on innovation leading to profit instead of profit in and of itself. No company is identified and the only one's mentioned are done so for humor or to explain and differentiate the technology used.
Too often people focus on the sizzle and not the substance, the sparkle and not the content, the sweet without the nutritional value. I know I am what some would consider a geek, a nerd or an analytical technical nataured person - yet it is this perspective that allows some insights and in the vein I would like to offer some advice:
Beware of snake oil salespeople
Technology does not exist for technology sake - it should exist to support and align with your business.
Avoid the tempation to use all of the new and fancy stuff because it is there (am not saying do not be an early adopter) I am saying make sure that you do aligns with your mission
Avoid fancy websites with allot of colors and gadgets that are difficult to read and navigate - Most of us learned to read on paper with pen or on a white screen with black type - high contract easy to read - make it to difficult people will not bother staying on your site.
When selecting someone to assist you in executing you business mission make sure they are actually listening to and working to solve your challenges and make your business run more efficiently - too often many are pushing their products to make a quick dollar - you want people who are looking to form a long term strategic partnership and who believe their success is tied to your success.
I could go on but and on about this topic but I am sure by now you get the theme. Seek people who understand technology - like money, tableware, hammers, etc are simply tools not the destination. Also make sure they have some idea of how to work with you to make those tools work effectively for you!
I will close with some thought s from Sir Richard Branson - My question to you is how does what he is discussion ties into what I have written?
So many people ask me in various circles recommend or suggest them. Because of this I have a simple rule - when people ask me to refer or reference others I do it often no questions asked, but when they ask me to promote themselves I ask why?
Let me explain - I ask them: What do you talk (or tweet) about that others may be interested in? This is also a way to find out why this person is self promoting. What so few seem to get is that because they promoting and focusing only on themselves and what they want no one is interested in them. I think their is an axiom that says it best - people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care!
If you only care about yourself and what you want then what should anyone else care about you and yet if you show a genuine interest in others you would be shocked the response oyu get from them!
Why - simple really human nature - we all want to feel special and important because in our hearts we know we do not exist to fulfill your needs because we are all unique and special and the person who recognizes and respects that win our appreciation.
So often people focus on what can be done for them. Some people even believe businesses and corporations exist to employ them. What people miss is businesses exist not to make money but to bring value to all involved albeit their stock holders, owners, employees and customers/clients. Additionally as entrepreneurs and business owners we must focus on what value we bring - this is true of employees also.
In every human being, intrapsychic conflicts are bound to occur, usually because of sexual and aggressive impulses and tension. Usually, (or maybe hopefully), these conflicts are resolved by themselves in a short amount of time; however sometimes this is not the case. Every now and then, our internal conflicts can last for long periods of times, and can potentially cause us great harm. Oftentimes anxiety can wear and tear at us, and should not be underestimated. Fortunately, our body has defense mechanisms to defend us from unpleasant emotions and feelings, such as anxiety. These are 7 of them:
1. Rationalization
Rationalization is something that every human being does, probably on a daily basis. Rationalization is defined as “Creating false but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behavior.” An example of this would be a student stealing money from a wealthy friend of his, telling himself “Well he is rich, he can afford to lose it.”
2. Identification
Identification is defined as “Bolstering self-esteem by forming an imaginary or real alliance with some person or group.” This is a fairly common method of attempting to forget about ones troubles, happens fairly often, especially in insecure people. A person joining a sports team, fraternity, social clique or even subcultures are all examples of this.
3. Displacement
Displacement is defined as “Diverting emotional feelings (usually anger) from their original source to a substitute target.” This frequently occurs in families, where we often see the father getting mad at the mother. The mother then takes her anger out on her son, the son in turn yells at his little sister, the little sister kicks the dog, and the dog bites the cat. Another example would obviously be a boxer taking out his frustration on a punching bag or an opponent.
4. Projection
Projection is defined as “Attributing one’s own thoughts, feelings, or motives to another.” This characteristic is not uncommon, and we have probably all witnessed it. An angry man might accuse others of being hostile and antagonistic. Another example might be a con-artist might be under the impression that everyone else is trying to con him or her.
5. Regression
Regression is defined as “A reversion to immature patterns of behavior.” There are plenty of examples of this (and we all know a couple we are guilty of). One of the more obvious examples might be a teenager not allowed to go on a trip for spring break, so he or she might throw a temper tantrum and scream and cry at his or her parents. Conversely, a teenager might revert back to infant behavior to receive sympathy from his or her parents.
6. Reaction Formation
Reaction formation is one of the odder defense mechanisms, as it entails behaving completely contrary to how one truly feels. It is defined as “Behaving in a way that is exactly the opposite of one’s true feelings.” We see this all the time in relationships, where “I despise him” becomes “I love him.” Similarly, a boss might give an employee who he is frustrated with a raise.
7. Repression
Repression underlies all the others, and it is possibly the oddest of them all. Repression is defined by “Keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious.” There has been much controversy over repressed memories, and many court cases as a result of this. A little girl’s memory of being molested when she was a toddler might become a repressed memory. The little girl will completely forget about this experience, until the memory might resurface years later. The trouble is, there have been various accounts of memories resurfacing that have no truth or bearing to them. Repressed memories then are unreliable and oftentimes untrue. Conversely; there have been several cases of repressed memories being accurate; one must simply take an account of a repressed memory with a grain of salt.
Sources: Weiten, Wayne. Psychology: Themes and Variations. Thomson Wadsworth.
Imagine the colleges and universities that would exist now?
If the Indians were never persecuted and forced onto reservations?
If the Japanese were never forced to live in internment camps?
Starting to get the idea
This is not another discussion about the stereotypical rights and wrongs of slavery and this is not about perpetuating the myths but examining the institution of an economic standpoint.
What made the controls used to perpetuate slavery so effective?
Combining people from various tribes who did not speak same languages or share common traditions
Identifying a group of people with a visible difference and creating a culture where arbitrary and often false characteristics ranging from intelligence to hygiene were assigned
Deconstructing the identity of the ethnic group using many of the same processes used on many prostitutes today as well as physiological conditioning
Through these a cheap labor class was created. What they do not talk about in the history books is that slavery was not a southern issue is was a country wide issue and its sole purpose and driving factor was economics – cheap labor. In the southern states you had a hand full of people who owned large amounts of slave but the average slave owner across the country north and south owned 1-2. They typically lived in the house with the family and were the skilled labor. The brick mason, field hands, construction workers, black smiths, laundry workers, seamstresses, etc.
When the emancipation proclamation was passed the freed slaved who had the skills and actually did the work and operations were the skilled labor able to generate income and the former owners whose ability primarily was that of administrator lost their revenue base and further was put in a position to have to compete against their former labor. As overhead with little to no hands on experience and not a great amount of work ethic am imbalance was created and it was deemed a truly level playing field was not advantageous to the people used to being in control. Since it was impossible to restore slavery something had to be done to retard things to allow the former masters time to catch up hence jim crow laws. Allow me to interject a little logic – if freed former slaves were simply a southern problem then why did the laws exist in almost every state except Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico?
During theReconstructionperiod of 1865–1877 in the defeated South (the Confederacy), federal law protected the civil rights of "freedmen" — the liberated African slaves. In the 1870s, white Democrats gradually returned to power in southern states, sometimes as a result of elections in which paramilitary groups intimidated opponents, attacking blacks or preventing them from voting. Gubernatorial elections were close and disputed in Louisiana for years, with extreme violence unleashed during the campaign. In 1877 a nationalcompromiseto gain southern support in the presidential election resulted in the last of the federal troops being withdrawn from the South. White Democrats had taken back power in every Southern state.[4]The white, Democratic PartyRedeemergovernment that followed the troop withdrawal legislated Jim Crow laws segregating black people from the state's white population.
Blacks were still elected to local offices in the 1880s, but the establishment Democrats were passing laws to make voter registration and elections more restrictive, with the result that participation by most blacks and many poor whites began to decrease. Starting with Mississippi in 1890, through 1910 the former Confederate states passed new constitutions or amendments that effectively disfranchised most blacks and tens of thousands of poor whites through a combination of poll taxes, literacy and comprehension tests, and residency and record-keeping requirements.Grandfather clausestemporarily permitted some illiterate whites to vote. Voter turnout dropped drastically through the South as a result of such measures.
Denied the ability to vote, blacks and poor whites could not serve on juries or in local office. They could not influence the state legislatures, and, predictably, their interests were overlooked. While public schools had been established by Reconstruction legislatures, those for black children were consistently underfunded, even within the strained finances of the South. The decreasing price of cotton kept the agricultural economy at a low.
In some cases Progressive measures to reduce election fraud acted against black and poor white voters who were illiterate. While the separation of African Americans from the general population was becoming legalized and formalized in theProgressive Era(1890s–1920s), it was also becoming customary. Even in cases in which Jim Crow laws did not expressly forbid black people to participate, for instance, in sports or recreation or church services, the laws shaped a segregated culture.[2]
In the Jim Crow context, thepresidential election of 1912was steeply slanted against the interests of Black Americans. Most blacks were still in the South, where they had been effectively disfranchised, so they could not vote at all.Poll taxesand literacy requirements banned many Americans from voting, yet, said requirements had loopholes exempting White Americans from paying the poll tax or knowing how to read. For example, inOklahoma, anyone qualified to vote before 1866, or who is related to someone qualified to vote before 1866, was exempted from the literacy requirement; the only Americans who could vote before 1866 were, of course, White Americans, so White Americans were exempted from the literacy requirement, while all Black Americans were segregated by law.[5]
Woodrow Wilson, a southern Democrat and the first southern-born president of the postwar period, appointed southerners to his cabinet. Some quickly began to press for segregated work places, although Washington, DC and federal offices had been integrated since after the Civil War. In 1913, for instance, the actingSecretary of the Treasury—an appointee of thePresident—was heard to express his consternation at black and white women working together in one government office: "I feel sure that this must go against the grain of the white women. Is there any reason why the white women should not have only white women working across from them on the machines?"[6]
PresidentWoodrow Wilson, introduced segregation in Federal offices, despite much protest.[7]Mr. Wilson appointed Southern politicians who were segregationists, because of his firm belief that racial segregation was in the best interest of Black Americans and White Americans alike.[7]AtGettysburgon4 July1913, the semi-centennial ofAbraham Lincoln's declaration that "all men are created equal", Wilson addressed the crowd:
How complete the union has become and how dear to all of us, how unquestioned, how benign and majestic, as state after state has been added to this, our great family of free men!
AWashington Beeeditorial wondered if the "reunion" of 1913 was a reunion of those who fought for "the extinction of slavery" or a reunion of those who fought to "perpetuate slavery and who are now employing every artifice and argument known to deceit" to present emancipation as a failed venture.[8]One historian notes that the "Peace Jubilee" at which Wilson presided at Gettysburg in 1913 "was a Jim Crow reunion, and white supremacy might be said to have been the silent, invisible master of ceremonies."[8]
Many people misquote or misunderstand what I am about to write next and that is that the former slaves had a strong work ethic. This is why there was a problem once they were freed. The slaves who lacked a work ethic were often left to die so you worked or else. When slavery ended that work ethic still existed it was required to survive so you had the former masters who were not used to actually having to do any hands on work nor compete in a fair environment and the former slaves who knew how to work hard but were not allowed to receive the fruits of their labor who now could as a result based solely on merit we all know what happens when someone consistently out performs the other.
Consider this simple question – especially in light of our current economic crisis – if we were truly a country that lived up to our own governing documents?
Greenwoodis aneighborhoodinTulsa,Oklahoma. As one of the most successful and wealthiestAfrican Americancommunities in the United Stated during the early 20th Century, it was popularly known as America's "Black Wall Street" until theTulsa Race Riotof 1921. The riot was one of the most devastating race riots in history and it destroyed the once thriving Greenwood community. Greenwood is still being rebuilt today because of the destruction over 80 years ag
Finding Florida’s Lost Settlement A six-member team is searching for evidence of a community of former African slaves and American Indians.
The sound waves bouncing back to the underwater sonar device revealed a massive object laying at the murky bottom of the ManateeRiver, near East Bradenton, Fla. While the indistinct image could have been nothing more than normal debris, the six-member team of marine archaeologists, divers and volunteers hoped they’d discovered physical evidence of a “maroon” community of former African slaves and Seminole Indians. The object, they thought, could be a wharf used by British ships bringing supplies to the community.
Two divers from the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, an independent marine laboratory in Sarasota, Fla., recently took to the water to find out.
TheRosewood massacrewas an incident of racially motivated violence that took place during the first week of January 1923 in ruralLevy County, Florida. Six blacks and two whites were killed, and the town ofRosewoodwas abandoned and destroyed during what was characterized as arace riot. Racial disturbances were common during the early 20th century in the United States, reflecting the nation's rapid social changes. Florida had an especially high number oflynchingsin the years before the massacre, including a well-publicized incident in December 1922.
Mr. Morris is a historian at the University of Texas at Arlington, and the author of books and articles on the history of the South. He is completing a book on the environmental and social history of the LowerMississippiValley, including New Orleans.
Once again the entire country is confronted with the legacy of Reconstruction.
It is too simple to chalk the tragedy that continues to unfold in New Orleans to the force of nature, or to an unfathomable God. Hurricanes, like earthquakes, tornadoes, eruptions, and tsunamis, do come, but who or what sends them is only half the story. Such disasters whatever their origin smash into worlds of our making. What they do when they make landfall, what they meet when they reach the coast, is largely up to us. In the case of New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina hit a city of intractable poverty, in which the most desperately poor are African American. It also hit a city that was largely defenseless precisely because it is black and poor. And because its once powerful white citizenry has largely vanished.
North Carolina's African American heritage is rich and diverse. In slavery and in freedom, black residents shaped state politics and institutions, literary traditions, religious practice, and the lives of their fellow North Carolinians. The African American struggle for civil rights and equality touched all regions of the state, and the following is a listing, grouped by region, of some important dates for African American history in North Carolina.
1849 London R. Ferebee was born to enslaved parents in CurrituckCounty. His master, Edwin Cowles, took Ferebee away from his family to work with his boating crew, and in 1861, Ferebee was living with his master's family in StillTown, a village outside of ElizabethCity. In August of that year, Ferebee ran away to Shiloh, North Carolina, to seek protection with the Northern army. He records these events and other adventures in his 1882 narrativeA Brief History of the Slave Life of Rev. L. R. Ferebee, and the Battles of Life, and Four Years of His Ministerial Life. Written from Memory.
1898 The Wilmington race riots erupted. On November 10 and 11 a white militia headed by local Democratic leaders terrorized the black community, killing and wounding dozens, banishing much of the city's black leadership, and burning the offices of several black businesses, including Wilmington's black newspaper, theRecord. David Bryant Fulton'sHanover(1900) and Charles Chesnutt'sThe Marrow of Tradition(1901) are both thinly fictionalized accounts of the massacre. J. Allen Kirk, a black minister in Wilmington, details his experience inA Statement of Facts Concerning the Bloody Riot in Wilmington, N.C. Of Interest to Every Citizen of the United States(1898).
The Coastal Plain
1790 Henry Evans, a Virginia-born shoemaker, organized Evans Chapel (now The Evans Metropolitan AME Zion Church) in Fayetteville. Evans was headed for Charleston when he stopped in Fayetteville and felt called by God to stay and help reform the residents there. Rosser H. Taylor'sThe Free Negro in North Carolina(1920) and Carter Godwin Woodson'sThe History of the Negro Church(1921) both refer to Evans' work.
1813Harriet Jacobs, America's most famous female slave narrator, was born in Edenton. Jacobs escaped from her cruel master Dr. James Norcom and hid in a tiny attic room for seven years before fleeing to the North. Her 1861 narrative,Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, records her experiences in both slavery and freedom.
1823 Joseph Baysmore, elder of the First Colored Baptist Church of Weldon, was born in BertieCounty. Baysmore become an ordained minister in 1866, and in 1887, upon leaving Weldon to minister in HalifaxCounty, he published abrief autobiographical sketch accompanied by four of his sermons.
1880 The first patient was admitted to the North Carolina Asylum for the Colored Insane (now CherryHospital) in Goldsboro. The state officially established the hospital in 1877, more than two decades after opening the first white asylum. By 1884, the hospital was serving more than 150 patients according to itsannual report from that year.
The Piedmont
1832 John Chavis, a Revolutionary War veteran and prominent Presbyterian minister in Orange County and the surrounding areas, was forced to cease his public sermons when the General Assembly forbade African American preaching after Nat Turner's 1831 slave insurrection. Steven B. Weeks celebrates Chavis's accomplishments in a 1914 profile published inThe Southern Workman.
1868 The Colored Orphanage of North Carolina was mandated by the revised state constitution. However, the facility was not established until the 1880s, over a decade after the state created its first white orphanage. Though it was a non-profit private institution, the orphanage was required to make an annual report(such as this one from 1940)to the people of North Carolina since the children at the home were wards of state sent to the facility by county welfare departments.
1883 Gaston County Commissioners suggested a vote on a proposition that would tax black and white citizens at different rates for each race's segregated schools. The court later ruled this proposition, and all race-based taxation for public schools, unconstitutional, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Charles Harden reprinted the court's opinions in hisbiennial report for 1898-1900.
1890 The General Assembly approved plans to create North Carolina Agricultural and MechanicalCollege for Negroes (now North Carolina Agricultural and TechnicalStateUniversity) in Greensboro. In the early 1900s, the college held farmers' institutes, through which the university sought to aid North Carolina's agricultural development by educating African American farmers on more efficient practices and other pertinent issues. For more on the college's status in the early 20th century, see its1903 and 1904 annual reports.
1893 African American craftsmen working on Biltmore Estate gathered at the Asheville Young Man's Institute, an organization commissioned by Biltmore owner George Vanderbilt. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted also worked on the Biltmore mansion and had traveled throughout the South. Among other observations from his journey, Olmsted recorded his impressions of race relations and the black community inA Journey in the Seaboard Slave States; With Remarks on Their Economy(1856).
On February 25, 1870, visitors in the Senate galleries burst into applause as Mississippi senator-elect Hiram Revels of Mississippi entered the chamber to take his oath of office. Those present knew that they were witnessing an event of great historical significance. Revels was about to become the first African American to serve in the Senate.
Born 42 years earlier to free black parents in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Revels became an educator and minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. During the Civil War, he helped form regiments of African American soldiers and established schools for freed slaves. After the war, Revels moved to Mississippi, where he won election to the state senate. In recognition of his hard work and leadership skills, his legislative colleagues elected him to one of Mississippi's vacant U.S. Senate seats as that state prepared to rejoin the Union.
Revels' credentials arrived in the Senate on February 23, 1870, and were immediately blocked by a few members who had no desire to see a black man serve in Congress. Masking their racist views, they argued that Revels had not been a U.S. citizen for the nine years required of all senators. In their distorted interpretation, black Americans had only become citizens with the passage of the 1866 Civil Rights Act, just four years earlier. Revels' supporters dismissed that statement, pointing out that he had been a voter many years earlier in Ohio and was therefore certainly a citizen.
Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner brought the debate to an end with a stirring speech. "The time has passed for argument. Nothing more need be said. For a long time it has been clear that colored persons must be senators." Then, by an overwhelming margin, the Senate voted 48 to 8 to seat Revels.
Three weeks later, the Senate galleries again filled to capacity as Hiram Revels rose to make his first formal speech. Seeing himself as a representative of African American interests throughout the nation, he spoke—unsuccessfully as it turned out—against a provision included in legislation readmitting Georgia to the Union. He correctly predicted that the provision would be used to prohibit blacks from holding office in that state.
When Hiram Revels' brief term ended on March 3, 1871, he returned to Mississippi, where he later became president of AlcornCollege.
An extensive list of black inventors holding patents listed by name, patent number, and date - hundreds of black inventors listed, however, without the biographical information of the listings above.
A group of enslaved Africans changed Jamestown and the future of a nation
By Tim Hashaw
Posted 1/21/07
Everyone knows the tales of America's founding: John Smith, Pocahontas, and Jamestown. Yet buried by almost four centuries of history is the tale of the first African-Americans.
Under a mid-July sky in 1619, two pirate ships sailing between Cuba and the YucatánPeninsula sighted a slow-moving Spanish frigate named the San Juan Bautista. Hoping the frigate carried gold and silver, the White Lion and the Treasurer gave chase, trapping the Spanish ship in the Bay of Campeche. After hours of cannon fire, the Spanish captain surrendered. The pirates boarded and discovered that instead of treasure, they had won a cargo of enslaved Africans being shipped from Luanda, Angola, to Vera Cruz, Mexico.
The Africans—350 men, women, and children—had been captured four months earlier when an army of Portuguese and African allies seeking silver mines invaded the Bantu-speaking kingdom of Ndongo on the Kwanza River in north central Angola. Ndongo at the time was one of several sophisticated Iron Age states in Angola—a bustling kingdom of settled farmers, craftsmen, and cattle-herders. Angolans had embraced Christianity and were trading with Europe. Among the captives on the Bautista were several second- and third-generation Christians with Latin names such as Antonio, Maria, Isabell, and Francisco.
The captains of the White Lion and the Treasurer divided 60 of the Bautista's healthiest men, women, and children between them and sailed for the new English colony of Jamestown—a struggling settlement in dire need of manpower. As recorded by John Rolfe, husband of Pocahontas, the pirates arrived in the Chesapeake at the end of August. Of the Bautista's captives, 32 (17 females and 15 males) were purchased by Jamestown settlers.
From Jamestown, both corsairs sailed for Bermuda, where they traded their remaining Bautista captives. Over the next four years, a half dozen of these Africans were sent back to Jamestown. Names of Bautista Africans first appear in the 1625 Jamestown census, and from the faceless anonymity of Rolfe's 1619 general description of "Negroes" emerge John Pedro, Anthony and Mary Johnson, and Antonio and Isabell Tucker and their young child, William, along with John Graweere, Margaret Cornish, and others.
Plantations.Having been taken from a flourishing country of a quarter-million inhabitants, the Africans were shocked by the appalling conditions of tiny, death-haunted Jamestown.
In the beginning, the first group of Africans was split up and sent to a handful of tobacco plantations along the James River. They were put to work mostly planting and harvesting tobacco, but records show they also raised cattle and acted as traders, selling produce to Indians and to European ships arriving in Jamestown.
During the next two decades, some were permitted to raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom. They married, sometimes to their fellow Africans and sometimes to English settlers, and they raised families. By the 1640s and 1650s, a handful of families from the Bautista bought their own farms around Jamestown.
Slavery would not become fully institutionalized in Virginia until 1705, and, free to prosper, some of the Bautista captives in Virginia even acquired white servants to raise their tobacco in the 1650s. A few, like the Johnson family, became wealthy by colonial standards, even though others of their compatriots remained enslaved. Jamestown was the cradle of two African Americas—one free and one slave. In time, John Graweere became a respected officer of the Jamestown court. Margaret Cornish charmed the son of a Jamestown legislator. John Pedro became a member of the militia.
However, in 1691, Jamestown outlawed freeing slaves unless the slaveholder transported them out of the colony. In 1705, the legislature refused to let slaves raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom. Free African-Americans who were descendants of the first founders from the Bautista were stripped of many of their rights. In less than one century, the promising dawn had faded from memory, and the long night of slavery had begun.
Tim Hashaw is the author ofThe Birth of Black America: The First African Americans and the Pursuit of Freedom at Jamestown.
This story appears in the January 29, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
“one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all” or “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Imagine if we truly lived up to and honored these simple words what our country would look like today?
As you can see I hope this is not a post about slavery but about dreams and imagination. It is inspired by so many of the efforts of late to dismantle affirmative action which to me is a carry over of Jim Crow. Why – Rhetoric aside Equal Employment = Affirmative action. Employing or contracting with the best people regardless.
I am sorry as long as I see things like what I am about to show below demonstrating albeit in a humorous way how ethnic minorities are perceived we still are not there
As with all of my posts – what do you think? Also research and ask the questions of yourself – do your own research and ask your own questions – make up your own mind but be h
