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This Week at OUR COMMON GROUND

“In Conversation with Dr. Ruby N. Sales”

OCG Witness from the Bridge

Saturday, March 5, 2022 :: 10 pm ET

:: What Southern Past tells us about the rise of white Supremacy

:: Weapons of Southern Resistance Living

:: There is NO Black Generational Divide

:: Black Denial, Apathy and Confusion

“White supremacy is a deep socio-spiritual scab that reeks with the stench of antisemitism, oozes the pus of Islamophobia, and festers beneath the hard crust of Christofascism, heterosexism, classism, and sexism .” – Dr. Ruby N. Sales, Director, The Spirit House Project

This Week at OUR COMMON GROUND

Black History Month 2022 Highlight ::

“Racial History Erasure: Shorting Black Victories”

Under many efforts the body of record of Black history has been revealed, updated and its usage increased immensely. However, over more than five years, led by an increasing influence of white supremacy ideology and right-wing evangelical movements, American lawmakers in over two dozen states have planned and legislative attempts to censor Black history education and even prevent schools and teachers from discussing racism, sexism, and issues of equality and justice.

During the 2022 celebration of Black History Month, we have seen public policy initiatives that have enforced the banning and burning of Black history books, literature as well as scholastic reference materials. The efforts to remove, block or prohibit the teaching of Black history is not new. The creation of Negro History Month was, in part, a response to such efforts.

Additionally, there are continuing attempts to gag anti-racist education and training over the last year has significantly increased and there is an urgent need to marshal immediate actions to halt the rampant spread of these efforts. Removing, revising, or distorting American and Black history is simply a disinformation campaign seeking to dismantle racial justice efforts and part of a greater campaign to erase Black history, Black progress, Black aspirational resistance. It is the FEAR OF BLACK HISTORY, igniting the yearn to erase Black people in this country.

In this final episode of OUR COMMON GROUND, of our 2022 Black History Month celebrations, we offer a conversation that charts the history, development, and continued salience of Black History education and Critical Race Theory, and why its transformative potential makes it such a target for opponents of a democratic society that claims and respects Black people.

We look at the precision and power of the leadership, guidance, counsel and direction provided by Black power giants Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Angela Davis and Michelle Alexander.

Fannie Lou Hamer was an American voting and women’s rights activist, community organizer, and a leader in the civil rights movement. She was the co-founder and vice-chair of the Freedom Democratic Party, which she represented at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

Like many African Americans living in the Jim Crow South, Fannie Lou Hamer was not aware she had voting rights. “I had never heard, until 1962, that black people could register and vote,” she once explained.

In 1962, Hamer attended a meeting arranged by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), an interracial civil rights group that played a central role in organizing and encouraging black residents in the South to register to vote. “They were talking about [how] we could vote out people that we didn’t want in office,” she recalled. “That sounded interesting enough to me that I wanted to try it.” What Hamer came to realize in that moment was her ability to transform American society. Despite humble beginnings and a limited formal education, access to the ballot meant that she would be empowered to shape local, state and national politics.

In 1964, one year after she succeeded in registering herself to vote for the first time, Hamer ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to challenge white Mississippi Democrat Jamie Whitten, who was seeking a 13th term. Although her chances of winning were slim, she explained to a reporter, “I’m showing people that a Negro can run for office.”

In the late 1960s and 1970s, she called out white Southerners who threatened to evict sharecroppers who registered to vote. And as a founding member of the National Women’s Political Caucus, which still promotes women politicians today, Hamer worked to expand women’s political participation during the 1970s.

Angela Davis (born Jan. 26, 1944) is a political activist, academic, and author, who was been highly involved in the civil rights movement in the U.S. She is well known for her work and influence on racial justice, women’s rights, and criminal justice reform. Davis is a professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in its History of Consciousness Department, and a former director of the university’s Feminist Studies Department. In the 1960s and 1970s, Davis was known for her association with the Black Panthers Party—but actually spent only a short time as a member of that group—and the Communist Party. For a time she even appeared on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s “Ten Most Wanted” list. In 1997, Davis co-founded Critical Resistance, an organization working toward the dismantling of prisons, or what Davis and others have called the prison-industrial complex.

Ella Baker, in full Ella Josephine Baker was born December 13, 1903 in Norfolk, Virginia. She was an American community organizer and political activist who brought her skills and principles to bear in the major civil rights organizations of the mid-20th century. Baker studied at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. As a student she challenged school policies that she thought were unfair. After graduating in 1927 as class valedictorian, she moved to New York City and began joining social activist organizations.

In 1930, she joined the Young Negroes Cooperative League, whose purpose was to develop black economic power through collective planning. She also involved herself with several women’s organizations. She was committed to economic justice for all people and once said, “People cannot be free until there is enough work in this land to give everybody a job.”

Inspired by the historic bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, Baker cofounded the organization In Friendship to raise money for the civil rights movement in the South. In 1957 she met with a group of Southern black ministers and helped form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to coordinate reform efforts throughout the South. Martin Luther King, Jr., served as the SCLC’s first president and Baker as its director. She left the SCLC in 1960 to help student leaders of college activist groups organize the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). With her guidance and encouragement, SNCC became one of the foremost advocates for human rights in the country. Her influence was reflected in the nickname she acquired: “Fundi,” a Swahili word meaning a person who teaches a craft to the next generation.

Michelle Alexander is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, legal scholar and author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness — the bestselling book that helped to transform the national debate on racial and criminal justice in the United States. Since The New Jim Crow was first published in 2010, it has spent nearly 250 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and has been cited in judicial decisions and adopted in campus-wide and community-wide reads and has inspired a generation of racial justice activists motivated by Alexander’s unforgettable argument that “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” The book has won numerous awards, including the 2011 NAACP Image Award for best nonfiction. Alexander has been featured in national radio and television media outlets, including MSNBC, NPR, CNN, Bill Moyers Journal, The Colbert Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, Tavis Smiley, Democracy Now!, and C-SPAN.

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Saturday, February 19, 2022 ::: 10 pm ET

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This Week at OUR COMMON GROUND

Black History Month 2022 Highlight ::

“In-FORMation: Stokeley & Malcom”

We look at the early era of the lives of Malcolm X and Stokeley Carmichael, and the events which shaped their leadership as they made Black history.

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Saturday, February 12, 2022 ::: 10 pm ET

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This Week at OUR COMMON GROUND

Black History Month 2022 Highlight ::

The Fire of Freedom Fighter Bayard Rustin

Saturday, February 5, 2022 ::: 10 pm ET

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Most do not know or understand the powerful role that Bayard Rustin played in the ignition of the Civil Rights Era and his guidance in the movement with key political players. We acknowledge his love and dedication to Black people and the place he called his country tonight.

We feature his debate with Malcolm X, a discussion with James Baldwin, and his Firebomb speech.

ABOUT BAYARD RUSTIN

Those who knew Rustin remember his charisma, his kindness, his slight British accent, and his tendency to break out in song. And they remember him as a master strategist. For decades before the march, Rustin had been organizing protests, marches, and sit-ins, spreading the gospel of nonviolent resistance long before Dr. King came on the national stage. In fact, Rustin’s surviving partner, Walter Naegle, describes him as a “mentor” to Dr. King.

A close advisor to Martin Luther King and one of the most influential and effective organizers of the civil rights movement, Bayard Rustin was affectionately referred to as “Mr. March-on-Washington” by A. Philip Randolph (D’Emilio, 347). Rustin organized and led a number of protests in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, including the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. While Rustin’s homosexuality and former affiliation with the Communist Party led some to question King’s relationship with him, King recognized the importance of Rustin’s skills and dedication to the movement. In a 1960 letter, King told a colleague: “We are thoroughly committed to the method of nonviolence in our struggle and we are convinced that Bayard’s expertness and commitment in this area will be of inestimable value” (Papers 5:390).

Born on 17 March 1912, Rustin was one of 12 children raised by his grandparents, Janifer and Julia Rustin, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Rustin’s life-long commitment to nonviolence began with his Quaker upbringing and the influence of his grandmother, whose participation in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People resulted in leaders of the black community, such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Mary McLeod Bethune, visiting the Rustin home during Rustin’s childhood. After graduating from West Chester High School, Rustin studied intermittently at Wilberforce University, Cheyney State Teachers College, and City College of New York.

Rustin 4 While a student at City College of New York in the 1930s, Rustin joined the Young Communist League (YCL). Drawn to what he believed was the Communists’ commitment to racial justice, Rustin left the organization when the Communist Party shifted their emphasis away from civil rights activity in 1941. Shortly after his YCL departure, Rustin was appointed youth organizer of the proposed 1941 March on Washington, by trade union leader A. Philip Randolph. During this period he joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and co-founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Rustin organized campaigns and led workshops on nonviolent direct action for both organizations, serving as field secretary and then race relations director for FOR. During World War II he spent more than two years in prison as a conscientious objector. In 1947 Rustin was arrested with other participants of CORE’s Journey of Reconciliation, a test of the Supreme Court rulings barring segregation in interstate travel that provided a model for the Freedom Rides of 1961. After spending 22 brutal days on a North Carolina chain gang, Rustin published a report in several newspapers that led to reform of the practice of prison chain gangs.

In 1948 Rustin went to India for seven weeks to study the Gandhian philosophy of nonviolence. Several years later, he traveled to Africa on a trip sponsored by FOR and the American Friends Service Committee, where he worked with West African independence movements. Despite his successful tenure with FOR, Rustin was asked to resign from the organization in 1953, after his arrest and conviction on charges related to homosexual activity. The following year he was appointed executive secretary of the War Resisters League, a position he held until January 1965.

Rustin became a key advisor to King during the Montgomery bus boycott. He first visited Montgomery in February 1956, and published a “Montgomery Diary,” in which, upon observing a meeting of the Montgomery Improvement Association, he wrote: “As I watched the people walk away, I had a feeling that no force on earth can stop this movement. It has all the elements to touch the hearts of men” (Rustin, “Montgomery Diary,” 10).

Rustin provided King with a deep understanding of nonviolent ideas and tactics at a time when King had only an academic familiarity with Gandhi. Rustin later recalled: “The glorious thing is that he came to a profoundly deep understanding of nonviolence through the struggle itself, and through reading and discussions which he had in the process of carrying on the protest” (D’Emilio, 230–231). King recognized the advantages of Rustin’s knowledge, contacts, and organizational abilities, and invited him to serve as his advisor, well aware that Rustin’s background would be controversial to other civil rights leaders. As King’s special assistant, Rustin assumed a variety of roles, including proofreader, ghostwriter, philosophy teacher, and nonviolence strategist.

Rustin was also instrumental in the formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), proposing to King in December 1956 that he create a group that would unite black leaders in the South who possess “ties to masses of people so that their action projects are backed by broad participation of people” (Papers 3:493). Rustin developed the guidelines for discussion for the founding meeting of SCLC in January 1957. Although Rustin helped draft much of King’s memoir, Stride Toward Freedom, Rustin would not allow his name to be credited in the book, telling an associate: “I did not feel that he should bear this kind of burden” (Papers 4:380n).

Rustin was instrumental in organizing the 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. He authored several memos to King outlining the goals of the march and advised King on what topics he should cover in his address. With Randolph, he also coordinated the 25 October 1958 and 18 April 1959 Youth Marches for Integrated Schools.

In 1963 Randolph began organizing the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Despite the concerns of many civil rights leaders, Rustin was appointed deputy director of the march. In less than two months Rustin guided the organization of an event that would bring over 200,000 participants to the nation’s capital.

From 1965 until 1979, Rustin served as president, and later as co-chair, of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, an organization of black trade unionists dedicated to racial equality and economic justice. From this position, Rustin promoted his view that future progress for African Americans rested on alliances between blacks, liberals, labor, and religious groups.

For most of his life, Rustin was the person behind-the-scenes, dreaming up transformative moments like the March On Washington. He wanted others, including Dr. King, to be the face of that dream.

CIVICS 201 : Voter Suppression and Disenfranchisement

Saturday, January 29, 2022 ::: 10 pm ET

WE are facing a tidal wave of restrictive voting legislation across the country and the trend will continue into 2022.

These legislative measures were not only aggressive, but they were also successful.

Between January 1 and December 7, at least 19 states passed 34 laws restricting access to voting. More than 440 bills with provisions that restrict voting access have been introduced in 49 states in the 2021 legislative sessions.

Tonight we present some of the information you need to translate and interpret these efforts in your state. How much do you really know about voter suppression and disenfranchisement happening in your state? Enough to organize and initiate the kind of mobilization needed to resist with effective push-back tools? How do you translate what you are being told by your state representatives as opposed to the reality of the legislative actions being taken?

If you are not engaged in some activity of resisting these oppressive moves, now is the time. Now. Months from now will be too late.

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“Shorting the Odds : States’ Race to Anoracy”

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

January 22, 2022 :: 10 pm ET

ANOCRACY

A political system that is neither fully democratic nor fully autocratic, often being vulnerable to political instability.

In this episode, we discuss the rabid weaponization of states’ rights in the effort to take control of power in government and thwart the rights of the people by disassembling the democratic process and democracy which protects their agency as citizens.

1867 is by far categorized as the most radical development of Reconstruction. Considered as essentially a large-scale experiment in interracial democracy unlike that of any other society following the abolition of slavery. In February 1869, Congress approved the 15th Amendment (adopted in 1870), which guaranteed that a citizen’s right to vote would not be denied “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

From the day in 1866, when the U.S. Congress passed America’s first civil rights law, public and legal opinions have been divided on whether the federal government overrides states’ rights in attempting to ban racial discrimination nationwide. Key provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment dealing with racial equality were largely ignored in the South and those efforts are now being exercised throughout the nation today. Voter rights, including access, eligibility, gerrymandering changes in the law are being enacted, in the name of “states rights”. States’ rights refer to the political rights and powers granted to the states of the United States by the U.S. Constitution.

And it is working, without much success to the many challenges to it. The main battle over states’ rights has shifted progressively from the economics of slavery to the practice of citizenship agency for African and Native Americans.

In American political discourse, states’ rights are political powers held for the state governments rather than the federal government according to the United States Constitution, reflecting especially the enumerated powers of Congress and the Tenth Amendment.

They believed states had the right to nullify, or reject, any federal law they judged to be unconstitutional. The doctrine of states’ rights holds that the federal government is barred from interfering with certain rights “reserved” to the individual states by the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Under the doctrine of states’ rights, the federal government is not allowed to interfere with the powers of the states reserved or implied to them by the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In order to prevent the states from claiming too much power, the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause (Article VI, Clause 2) holds that all laws enacted by the state governments must comply with the Constitution and that whenever a law enacted by state conflicts with federal law, the federal law must be applied.

Anti-federalists Thomas Jefferson and James Madison believed the 14th and 15th Acts’ restrictions on freedom of speech and freedom of the press violated the Constitution. Together, they secretly wrote Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions supporting states’ rights and called on the state legislatures to nullify federal laws they considered unconstitutional.

Even after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, several southern states passed “Interposition Resolutions” contending that the states retained the right to nullify the federal laws. As an inherent byproduct of federalism, questions of states’ rights are undoubtedly continuing to be a part of the American civic struggle. Red states in this country, in an effort to diffuse the democratic process by suppressing voter rights, have returned to their roots to seize control to dictate the terms of democracy. In doing so, they have staked their maintenance of power to a political system which neither fully democratic nor fully autocratic. It is called Anocracy.

Join me in bringing in my 2022 launch around the sun once again.

OCG Party !!

This Week at OUR COMMON GROUND

Saturday, January 15, 2022 ::: 10 pm ET

“King Day: To Forget Is to Forfeit”

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The establishment of a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., marked the culmination of a long campaign that began soon after King’s assassination on April 1968 and ended on 2 November 1983, with the signing of legislation by President Ronald Reagan. Public Law 98–144 designated the third Monday in January as an annual federal holiday in King’s honor, and the first official celebration took place on 20 January 1986.

15 years later. The campaign to mark the holiday over those 15 years is strewn with vicious, racist pushback in and out of government. Over those years, there were many opportunities to question just what had really been achieved/transformed in America during the civil rights movement.

Since 1983, communities and organizations have celebrated King Day through various, creative and serious celebrations and forums. A national monument in Washington has been erected in Dr. King’s honor. However, there seems to be a diffusion in what we teach, remember and understand about Dr. King’s contribution to this country. The holiday seems to have become somewhat less deliberative in our celebrations. Taking for granted our responsibilities to keep his guidance and ideologies alive. We mention it, we attend the various luncheons, dinners. Yet, we now have generations of Black children, a new scholarship that tends to marginalize the power of his transformative power in our own communities. We read and quote his words outside the context and the import of the history he ignited.

Parades, luncheons, dinners don’t launch the movement’s progress. We must organize, teach, educate, and practice the philosophy of King each and every day.

Can we keep KING ALIVE ?

We should all ask yourselves: How many times this year, did I activate the liberation philosophies of Dr. King?
Other than social latitudes, how did you practice/use-share the language of King’s movement?
Just how did I “King” in the past year?
How did I lift ‘democracy’?

“King Day: To Forget Is to Forfeit”

Tonight, we open the 2022 Season of OUR COMMON GROUND. This season marks our final. We are grateful for this journey since 1985 and the many people, listeners and guests which have supported it. Thank you. It has been a wonderfully fulfilling experience to have served the informational, knowledge and cultural needs of our community. None have benefitted more than me.

Most of us learn to be citizens by creating, joining, and participating in some form of a democratic organizations. Church groups, girl scouts, professional and union organizations, Greek organizations, tenant, and neighborhood association and by voting. But in recent decades, too many of us have fallen out of practice, or even failed to acquire the habit of democracy in the first place. Black people over the last decades have abandoned its value of traditions that included traditions that infused democratic practice in our lives as a people. We don’t recognize it or understand it. We stand alone in our own opinions, positions, and posture without acquiring the consideration or influence of others.

For Black people, once, democracy had become the shared civic religion of a people who otherwise had little in common. Its rituals conferred legitimacy regardless of ideology; they could as readily be used to monopolize markets or advance the cause of nativism as to aid laborers or defend the rights of minorities. The Ku Klux Klan and the NAACP both ,while so dissimilar in mission, relied upon democracy as its organizational form.

“AMERICANS AREN’T PRACTICING DEMOCRACY ANYMORE” wrote Yoni Applebaum in The Atlantic. Concluding, “ As participation in civic life has dwindled, so has public faith in the country’s system of government.” So here we are. Divided in darkness, trying to understand police terrorism, a violent attack on the Capitol by an organized insurgency of white supremacist. Black people who are less likely to care, vote, join whatever process which would serve the collective good. In many ways, we have lost many legislative and legal gains because those things have not figured into our priorities, who focus is solely our individual good. Even with or without a Black political infrastructure, we ignored the need for advocacy and demand for those things that would strengthen the collective. Unfortunate and so many elements have been pushed aside, diluted or hidden. So now, we find ourselves having lost voting and protection from domestic terrorism. We are in a position where access and rights to vote – the only weapon available, is being not just eroded, but removed. These tools that activate and maintain a democratic society, gone. Yes, democracy is dying because we have allowed it to languish and die from the poison being feed it. Its not just capitalism, neoliberalism, Trump, the Republicans , it is us.

Tonight, we examine the dying body of democracy. I look forward to discussing these issues with you.

L. Michelle Odom, OCG/TruthWorks Sr. Producer, “If America Fail?” will join us as well, to talk about the podcast discussion series and why it is important.

It happens with the eroding of the right to protest in freedom, and with uneven distribution of consequences from law enforcement. It happens when people we think are on our side when it comes to social justice, don’t show up for us, or worse, shame us for taking direct action. It happens when we all look at each other and say “this can’t last, right?” hoping that it’ll go away on its own while the fascists build militias.

Visit www.ifamericafails.live to learn more about the TruthWorks Network upcoming discussion series, “IF AMERICA FAILS”: THE COMING TYRANNY” premiering January 13, 2022.

November 13, 2021 ::: 2021 Season Close

OUR COMMON GROUND 2021 Season Review & Close

Looking back at the information, ideas, lessons, and insight during this 2021 Season. As we close, we celebrate our 35 years of broadcasting

BOLD :::: BRAVE :::: BLACK

“Transforming Truth to Power, One Broadcast At a Time”

LIVE: Saturday, November 13, 2021 ::: 10 pm ET

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Returning to begin 2022 Season January 8, 2022 ::: 10 pm EST

November 6, 2021 :: REBROADCAST

“In Discussion with Dr. Frances Cress Welsing: The Origins of White Supremacy Culture”

REBROADCAST of May 29, 2009 Episode

“In Discussion with

Dr. Frances Cress Welsing: The Origins of White Supremacy Culture”

REBROADCAST OF May 29, 2009 Episode

Streaming: Saturday, November 6, 2021 ::: 10 pm ET

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Dr. Frances Luella Welsing was an American psychiatrist and prominent race theorist. She was a proponent of Black supremacist melanin theory. Her 1970 essay, The Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation and Racism, offered her interpretation of what she described as the origins of white supremacy culture. In this 2009 episode of OUR COMMON GROUND, we talked with her once again about her profound significant theoretical and analytic research and writings on global white supremacy and how it manifests in America. Dr. Welsing first joined us in 1987.

ABOUT Dr. Frances Cress Welsing

Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, a psychiatrist best known for writing The Isis Papers, was born Frances Luella Cress in Chicago, Illinois, on March 18, 1935. Welsing, who was the child of physician Henry Cress and teacher Ida Mae Griffen, grew up the middle of three daughters. She received her Bachelor’s of Science from Antioch College in Ohio in 1957 and her medical degree (M.D.) from Washington, D.C.’s Howard University in 1962.

After earning her M.D., Welsing stayed in Washington, D.C., pursuing a career in child and general psychiatry. Welsing spent nearly twenty-five years working as a staff physician for D.C.’s Department of Human Services, and also as the clinical director of two schools catering to children with emotional troubles. Welsing opened her own private practice in D.C. in 1967. Through her published works and her research, Welsing sought to help bring about a solution to the mental health problems of the black community by understanding racism.

Welsing published her first major work, “The Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation” as an essay in 1974 while an assistant professor at Howard University. In the controversial essay, Welsing argued that the drive for white supremacy and superiority stems from a pervasive feeling of inadequacy and inferiority. Welsing claimed that “whiteness” was, in fact, a deficiency, evidenced by the inability of whites and other races to produce melanin which generates skin color. In short, white people in America could not cohabit peacefully with their black peers, according to Welsing, because of deep-seated jealousy of people with melanin and their embrace of racial supremacy to accommodate these feelings. The essay was controversial and, according to Welsing, prevented her from not only gaining tenure at Howard but in fact losing her teaching post.

In 1991 Welsing published her most famous work, a collection of essays titled The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors, which discussed in depth the issues of white supremacy and racism in the United States. In The Isis Papers, Welsing delved deeper into her theories of melanin deficiency among whites as the driver of racism, white supremacy, and white segregation. In the process of psychoanalyzing white racism, Welsing also discussed the importance of recognizing racial behaviors and symbols among blacks that were psychologically damaging and which needed to be countered and destroyed. She listed among those behaviors, homosexuality, which she claimed was a strategy for destroying black people.

Aside from her published racial and social theories, Welsing was an advocate for a strong African American family unit. She advised black men and women to delay having children until their thirties and instead take the time to thoroughly educate themselves so as to rear the next generation of high-functioning and disciplined black Americans who could challenge white supremacy.

Frances Cress Welsing died in Washington, D.C., on January 2, 2016, after being hospitalized for a stroke. At her death, she was eighty years old. Bio provided by BlackPast.org

October 30, 2021 :: REBROADCAST 01/29/2011 Episode

REBROADCAST OF January 22, 2011 Discussion with

Guests, Kevin Gray and Neill Franklin

Police brutality :: marijuana laws :: US media :: reparations

Featuring, ALFO, of The ALFO Show,Co-Hosting

Saturday, January 22, 2011

ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Kevin Gray is a CounterPunch.org political magazine contributor and civil rights organizer who resides in Columbia, South Carolina. He is a contributing editor to Black News, a former President of the SC ACLU, and was Jesse Jackson’s SC campaign manager in 1988. There’s no keener mind, no sharper eye focused on the condition of black politics. He is a frequent co-host and guest with Dave Marsh’s heard on Sirius radio each Sunday. Gray is the Founder of the Harriet Tubman Freedom House Project and the former managing editor of Black News in Columbia.

Neill Franklin, the National Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and a former law enforcement officer.

We will talk with him about the growing hostility by police on marijuana reform and about the discrepancies and how far some law enforcement with a lie to argue them.

October 23, 2021

“A Broken Democracy”

OPEN MIC

“Assume that Trump is re-elected, legitimately or by manipulation. One must assume that his naive and incompetent approach to the wielding of power in his first term will not be repeated. He must now understand that he will need devoted loyalists, of whom there will be plenty, to run the departments responsible for justice, homeland security, internal revenue, espionage and defence. He will surely put officers personally loyal to himself in charge of the armed forces. Not least, he will get his loyal Republican party, as it will be, to confirm the people he chooses, if it holds the needed Senate majority, as is highly likely to be the case. Equally surely, he will use the pressure that he can then exert on the wealthy and influential to bring them into line. Crony capitalism is among the probabilities. Ask the Hungarians who live in an “illiberal democracy” under a man admired by US rightwing pundits. “Americans — and all but a handful of politicians — have refused to take this possibility seriously enough to try to prevent it”, notes Kagan. “As has so often been the case in other countries where fascist leaders arise, their would-be opponents are paralysed in confusion and amazement at this charismatic authoritarian . . .

Suppose Trump comes back to power in 2024, determined to exact vengeance on his foes, backed by Congress and the Supreme Court. Yes, even this might be just an interlude. Trump is old: his passing might be the end of the authoritarian moment. But neither the electoral system nor the Republican party will go back to what it was. The latter is now a radical party with a reactionary agenda. The US is the sole democratic superpower. Its ongoing political transformation has deep implications for liberal democracies everywhere, as well as for the world’s ability to co-operate on vital tasks, such as managing climate risks. In 2016, one could ignore these dangers. Today, one must be blind to do so.”

More information can be found here.
https://www.ft.com/content/a2e499d0-10f0-4fa2-8243-e23eedc4f9f4

Our lines will be open for your thoughts, ideas and proposed solutions.

October 16, 2021

“In Coversation with Dr. Raymond A. Winbush, Ph.D.

About Dr. Winbush

Ray is a research professor and the Director of the Institute for Urban Research. As a scholar and activist, he is known for his systems-thinking approaches to understanding the impact of racism/white supremacy on the global African community. His writings, consultations, and research have been instrumental in understanding developmental stages in Black males, public policy and its connection to compensatory justice, relationships between Black males and females, infusion of African studies into school curricula, and the impact of hip hop culture on the contemporary American landscape.

He has served as a faculty member and administrator at a number of universities including: Oakwood University, Alabama A&M University, Vanderbilt University, and Fisk University. Over the last 40 years, Winbush established numerous projects to raise awareness of America’s race relations and their impact upon the lives of Black people. He received grants to further his work from the National Science Foundation, Cleveland Foundation, Job Training Partnership Act of 1982, West African Research Association, Pitney Bowes, Inc., the Ford Motor Company, and the Kellogg Foundation. In 2000, Dr. Winbush helped organize the first international conference of the National Council for Black Studies in Ghana, and in 2002 he aided in establishing the Global Afrikan Congress, the largest pan-African organization in the world.

His books, The Warrior Method: A Program for Rearing Healthy Black Boys and Should America Pay? Slavery and The Raging Debate on Reparations were published in 2001 and 2003 respectively. His latest book, Belinda’s Petition: A Concise History of Reparations For The Transatlantic Slave Trade (is considered a “prequel” to Should America Pay? Slavery and the Raging Debate on Reparations, and provides an overview of how reparations for the TransAtlantic Slave Trade has been a consistent theme among African people for the past 500 years.

His books, The Warrior Method: A Program for Rearing Healthy Black Boys and Should America Pay? Slavery and The Raging Debate on Reparations were published in 2001 and 2003 respectively. His latest book, Belinda’s Petition: A Concise History of Reparations For The Transatlantic Slave Trade (is considered a “prequel” to Should America Pay? Slavery and the Raging Debate on Reparations, and provides an overview of how reparations for the TransAtlantic Slave Trade have been a consistent theme among African people for the past 500 years.

October 9, 2021 LIVE

“BURNING IT DOWN: BUILDING ANEW”

Guest: Kim Brown, Host, BURN IT DOWN LIVE

“Burn it Down with Kim Brown” calls out systemic issues within our society and envisioning a new world. She talks about how to restructure and create systems that are inclusive of everyone. She keeps it real, and actively destroys myths that the media and politicians love that we believe, like American Exceptionalism. She makes microphones rumble.

October 2, 2021 ReBroadcast of 3/19/09 LIVE Interview

“Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting”

Guest: Dr. Terrie M. Williams, Ph.D.

Rebroadcast of 3//19/09 Interview

Black people are dying everywhere we turn, in the faces we see and the headlines we read, and we feel emotional pain, but we don’t know how to tackle it—it’s time to recognize it and work through our trauma.

Terrie had made it: she had launched her own public relations company with such clients as Eddie Murphy and Johnnie Cochran. Yet she was in constant pain, waking up in terror, overeating in search of relief. For thirty years she kept on her game face of success, exhausting herself daily to satisfy her clients’ needs while neglecting her own. When she finally collapsed, she had no clue what was wrong or if there was a way out.

She learned her problem had a name—depression—and that many suffered from it, limping through their days, hiding their hurt. As she healed, her mission became clear: break the silence of this crippling taboo and help those who suffer, especially in the black community.

Black Pain identifies emotional pain—which uniquely and profoundly affects the black experience—as the root of lashing out through desperate acts of crime, violence, drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, workaholism, and addiction to shopping, gambling, and sex. Few realize these destructive acts are symptoms of our inner sorrow.

In Black Pain, Terrie has inspired the famous and the ordinary to speak out and mental health professionals to offer solutions. The book is a mirror turned on you. Do you see yourself and your loved ones here? Do the descriptions of how the pain looks, feels, and sounds seem far too familiar? Now you can do something about it. The help the community needs is here: a clear explanation of our troubles and a guide to finding relief through faith, therapy, diet, and exercise, as well as through building a supportive network and eliminating toxic people.

Black Pain encourages us to face the truth about the issue that plunges our spirits into darkness, so that we can step into the healing light. You are not on the ledge alone.

Terrie Williams

ABOUT Terrie M. Williams

Author and public relations entrepreneur Terrie Williams was born in Mt. Vernon, New York, on May 12, 1954. Williams attended Pennington Grade School, where one of her fellow classmates was actor Denzel Washington, and graduated in three years from Mt. Vernon High School in 1971. Williams attended Brandeis University following high school, earning her B.S. degree in psychology in 1975, and then attended Columbia University, where she earned her master’s degree in social work.

After working for a number of years as a social worker, Williams founded the Terrie Williams Agency in 1988, after meeting Miles Davis in the hospital. Williams began representing Davis, and her next big client, Eddie Murphy; since that time, she has gone on to represent superstars such as Janet Jackson, Russell Simmons, Johnnie Cochran, Stephen King, and Sally Jesse Raphael, as well as organizations such as HBO and Essence Communications. The Terrie Williams Agency went on to become a division of PGP Communications, where Williams served as vice chair.

Williams authored three books: The Personal Touch: What You Really Need to Succeed in Today’s Fast-paced Business World, Stay Strong: Simple Life Lessons for Teens, and A Plentiful Harvest: Creating Balance and Harmony Through the Seven Living Virtues. Stay Strong has been used nationwide in schools, and was the catalyst for launching the Stay Strong Foundation, a nationwide non-profit organization for youth.

Williams was a highly sought-after speaker, speaking at engagements with Fortune 500 companies, universities, and numerous other organizations. Williams is the recipient of several awards, including being the first African American to win the New York Women in Communications Matrix Award, and the Citizen’s Committee for the New York Marietta Tree Award for Public Service.

In 1998, Williams donated her papers to the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University, making them the first gift of papers donated in the public relations field.

September 25, 2021 ::: “Compromise & Capitulation: Starring Harry Potter and the StormTroopers”

In Conversation with Dr. James Lance Taylor

The political fires are raging. Through a robust campaign of GOP gaslighting in the face of Democrats clamoring for cooperation, and bi-partisanship, the American people who overwhelmingly voted for a Biden Administration waits for many deliverables promised. A pandemic continues to claim citizens; the VRA of 1963 has become an useless relic, failing to protect disenfranchised the vulnerable populations for whom it was designed. From the Infrastructure bill to the George Floyd Act and the glimmer of an increasing politically biased Supreme Court and an armed, violent attack on the Capitol and government officials COMPROMISE and CAPITULATION has brought us to $1400 and Zero. What next? The Democrats seem to be playing from one playlist and the Republicans, another. The tune for all of us is being played from the same old “Harry Potter and the StormTroopers” master album. Join us for the discussion and analysis.

September 18, 2021 ::: “The Attica Massacre 50 Years Later: America’s Human rights Crisis Continues”

50 years after Attica: The unfinished business of our nation’s deadliest prison uprising

Is there anything more to learn about the Attica prison uprising? The truth is that it was a massacre of inmates protesting the lack of acknowledgment of their humanity. Demanding to be regarded as humans and the right to be treated as more than animals. Did we learn? We are just telling something of the truth about what happened there. Will that truth or a false pronouncement of being a global leader of human rights make the American prison system more sane, and humane?

Incarceration rates and the American prison system demonstrates that slavery exists in this nation. Let’s talk about abolition for the U.S..

September 11, 2021 :::OPEN MIC

“The Glitch in the Matrix”

In the arc of American history, Donald Trump’s election as the president of the United States is no shock. The functional preamble remains that all white men are created superior and those who subscribe to it are periodically compelled to stick it in the face of Black folks — and now brown and Muslim folks, too — even if it comes at considerable cost to the nation and world standing.

It did not matter that under Obama the unemployment rate fell to 4.9 percent from the 10 percent he inherited from Bush. Under Obama’s Affordable Care Act insured millions more Americans than under Bush. It did not matter that many of Obama’s policies put money in the pockets of the working class, such as dramatically raising the federal salary threshold to collect overtime pay, or the Lilly Ledbetter Act for fair pay based on gender. Despite that he was so much like all Presidents before him. He was like them. The same kind of occupant of the WH, as Bush, Clinton, Kennedy. But, ultimately, they would elect an obnoxious, underachieving, corny, egomaniac conman to ensure that an Obama would never again usher shadows into their sacred places.

Since none of that mattered, all of Trump’s rhetoric about everything in America being a “disaster” was a smokescreen for the consolidation of crude white power. The majority of white Americans, a century and a half after the end of slavery, still spectacularly preferred economic uncertainty in exchange for returning Black people to their place and now sending brown immigrants and Muslims “back home.”

Early in the Trump candidacy an opinion columnist wrote in The Boston Globe that his “hateful nonsense, meant for white people who still think the country is theirs, is a death rattle for the most crude forms of white privilege.” I was hoping that his election would be as a death rattle for the snake, not for those whom the snake struck. Finally, and most disturbing of all, there was the 74 million Americans who voted for Trump last November, despite his record of governing incompetence – crystallized by the COVID-19 debacle – and toxic, divide-and-conquer political, to say nothing that he literally ran a global criminal enterprise out of the White House and throughout the government.

In the “The Matrix”, the film describes a future in which reality perceived by humans is actually the Matrix, a simulated reality created by sentient Machines in order to pacify and subdue the human population while their bodies’ heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source. In Matrix parlance, red pills are those who are aware of the Matrix construct while blue pills are not. An often used admonishment to Black people to be realistic, clear about the political nuances of our citizenship.

The Matrix represents a system of control that operates completely in the mind. As a complex, machine-driven program, it appropriates any personal, political, or ideological leanings and renders them wholly false. It allows illusions but no action. The problem with the matrix that most people of control and power depend upon has a glitch. That is that Black people don’t believe in things, as Stevie Wonder reminded us in his awesome song, “Superstition, ” When you believe in things you don’t understand, then you suffer. . . “ The matrix which encapsulates America is built on the superstition of American exceptionalism- a superstition of massive import. Black people have taught this country the potential value and power of its own rhetoric around democracy. We have also taught them the lessons of its hypocrisy and fragility. Uncovering, exposing, and revealing. Demonstrating time after time that “we” are not who “we” say that we are. So many Americans are beginning to understand more and moving beyond the energy field of the matrix. The glitch in the matrix ? Black people. We discuss it at OUR COMMON GROUND tonight.

September 4, 2021 ::: LIVE

“As America Fails: Finding Solidarity”

Guest: Dr. Djene Rhys Bajalan

When democracies fail, they fall with the great divide taking a prominent and urgent matter for every citizen. Defining friends and foes? Easy. Comrade, allies, and enemies? Not so. The trauma of Black in America will amplify that dilemma. “Transforming Truth to Power, One Broadcast At a Time” We welcome Dr. Djene Bajalan as our guest this week.

ABOUT Dr. Djene Rhys Bajalan

Djene Rhys Bajalan is a historian, specializing in the history of the Kurds. He has worked and studied in both Turkey, Great Britain, and Iraqi Kurdistan.

Dr. Bajalan is a historian of the Middle East specializing in the rise of nationalism and the evolution of the Kurdish question. He completed his undergraduate degree in history and politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, holds an MSc in Nationalism and Ethnicity from the London School of Economics, an MA in History from Istanbul Bilgi University, and a DPhil in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford.

He is currently an assistant professor in the department of history at Missouri State University and an assistant editor of the Journal of Kurdish Studies. He has authored a number of works in both English and Turkish pertaining to the Kurds in the late Ottoman published in journals including the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Iranian Studies, and Middle East Studies. He is also the author of Jön Kürtler: Birinci Dünya Savaşı’ndan Önce Kürt Hareketi 1898-1914 [The Young Kurds: The Kurdish movement before the First World War] (Avesta, 2010) and co-editor of Studies in Kurdish History: Empire, Ethnic and Islam (Routledge, 2015).

August 14 – September 4, 2021 ::: OCG Summer Break

RETURNING LIVE September 18, 2021

August 7, 2021 ::: THIS WEEK in Black America

::: Who were the losers in OH-11?

THE CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS PAC has endorsed Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator and co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, for Congress.

Turner’s campaign to replace former Rep. Marcia Fudge, who was recently confirmed as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has so far gained the most traction among the Democratic candidates in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District. In addition to a number of high-profile endorsements, she raised more than $1 million during the first few months of her campaign. Nina Turner lost this race. We look at who else lost.

::: Remembering Dr. Ronoko Rashidi

Historian and anthropologist Dr. Runoko Rashidi passed away on Aug. 2 at the age of 66 while on his annual trip to Egypt.. He has been an OCG Voice since 2013.

“He was on tour in Kmt, doing what he loved most. “He will be greatly missed as stated in his family’s announcement. Tonight we remember him, his work and the treasures he found and offered to us.

::: Who Controls the Black Agency?

Agency is our right to vote, to be free from oppression and discrimination. Who controls it and how?

July 31, 2021

“Remembering Glen Ford”

This Week on OUR COMMON GROUND we remember Glen Ford. Glen made his transition on Thursday, July 28, 2021.

Glen Ford was the Founder, Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report, an important publication, blog and radio station.

Ford co-founded BlackCommentator.com (BC) in 2002. The weekly journal quickly became the most influential Black political site on the Net. In October, 2006, Ford and the entire writing team left BC to launch BlackAgendaReport.com (BAR).

He created his first radio syndication, a half-hour weekly news magazine called “Black World Report” – and Washington, DC. In 1974, Ford joined the Mutual Black Network (88 stations), where he served as Capitol Hill, State Department and White House correspondent, and Washington Bureau Chief, while also producing a daily radio commentary. In 1977, Ford co-launched, produced and hosted “America’s Black Forum” (ABF), the first nationally syndicated Black news interview program on commercial television.

In addition to his broadcast and Internet experience, Glen Ford was national political columnist for Encore American & Worldwide News magazine; founded The Black Commentator and Africana Policies magazines; authored The Big Lie: An Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of the Grenada Invasion (IOJ, 1985); voiced over 1000 radio commercials (half of which he also produced) and scores of television commercials; and served as reporter and editor for three newspapers (two daily, one weekly).

We have lost a brilliant, insightful strong voice, his persistence, his sacrifice, his passion, and the spirit of an INFORMED, LIBERATED, and FREE Black nation. His service and work will resonate for many Black generations and years to come.

Always a Truth Warrior, now a Beloved Ancestor.

July 24, 2021 ::: Resistance and Rebellion Rebroadcast

“Global White Supremacy: Baltimore to Palestine”

Rev. Dr. Ruby N. Sales

Faith Activist, Liberationist & Journalist

Resistance and Rebellion Rebroadcast

Original Broadcast Date: May 26, 2015

From promulgating the racist birther conspiracy theory to exhorting vigilante Proud Boys to “stand by,” Donald Trump has amplified white nationalist ideas in the United States. But neither Trump’s emergence nor his impact can be understood fully by looking at the United States in isolation. Rather, Trump must be understood for his place in a long line of Anglophone leaders who claimed to speak for besieged whites, with precedents including Ian Smith, the leader of the white minoritarian regime of Rhodesia, and Enoch Powell, the British MP who infamously warned of “rivers of blood” if Britain did not halt non-white immigration. Moreover, white nationalism is global not only in its history but in its present manifestations: white nationalists worldwide have hailed Trump’s actions and would be emboldened by his reelection. The Liberationist, Ruby Nell Sales speaks to its multi-dimensional presence.

About Ruby Nell Sales

OUR COMMON GROUND Voice since 2009

Ruby Nell Sales is the founder and director of the Spirit House Project, a non-profit that works towards racial, economic, and social justice. As a teenager at Tuskegee University in the 1960s, she joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and went to work as a student freedom fighter in Lowndes County, Alabama. A social activist, scholar, public theologian, and educator, Sales has preached around the country on race, class, gender and reconciliation. She has degrees from Tuskegee Institute, Manhattanville College, and Princeton University. She also received a Masters of Divinity from the Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) in 1998.

She is a nationally-recognized human-rights activist, public theologian, and social critic, whose articles and work appear in many journals, online sites, and books. Under the tutelage of Professor Jean Wiley, Sales joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960’s as a teenager at Tuskegee University and went to work as a student freedom fighter in Lowndes County, Alabama. There, she worked with Bob Mants, Gloria Larry, Janet Moses, Jimmy Rogers, Willie Vaughn, and local people that included Clara Maul and John Huelett.

The SpiritHouse Project houses The Jonathan Daniels and Samuel Younge Institute for Racial Justice which (1) supports and prepares a new generation of peace and justice workers who want to discern a call to social justice and non-violence; (2) strengthens their courage, hope, resolve and reason to do this work; (3) prepares them to play leading roles in public policy debates about issues such as poverty, prison industrial complex, the shrinking budget for human needs, voting rights, privacy and judicial issues, and neo-conservatism; and (4) helps grassroots communities meet their urgent need for trained and committed volunteers or staff. The 2014 class of Daniels and Younge Fellows included students and alumni from Georgia State and Spelman colleges

July 17, 2021 :: LIVE

Rev. Dr. Susan K. Williams Smith

“Rest for the Justice Seeking Soul”

Faith Activist Liberationist & Author

Author, “WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR SOME – The Bible, the Constitution, and Racism in America “ and “The Book of Jeremiah: The Life and Ministry of Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.“

Rev. Dr. Susan K. Williams Smith is an ordained minister, musician, writer, and activist living in Columbus, Ohio. She has written for the Washington Post and Huffington Post, as well as her blog, Candid Observations. She currently serves as one of the tri-chairs for the Ohio Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. She also serves as national scribe for the African American Ministers’ Leadership Council (AAMLC), as communications consultant for the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, and is the founder of Crazy Faith Ministries.

She is a graduate of Occidental College and Yale Divinity School and earned a D.Min from United Theological Seminary. Her previous book, “Crazy Faith: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives” was published by Judson Press.

Rev. Dr. Susan K. Williams Smith is an activist who has been on the front lines of social and racial justice for many years. As she has marched shoulder-to-shoulder to resist systematic oppression, she has heard the same question over and over: “How are we going to get through this?” Her new book, “Rest for the Justice-Seeking Soul” was birthed out of those cries.

She categorizes her newest book as a soul-care manual for social justice-seeking believers who stand in constant vigilance against all forms of racial, class, and gender oppression. The fight for justice and equality is an exhausting daily grind—and the work is never over. That’s why it is incumbent upon all who speak and advocate for the less fortunate to practice self-care. You can’t fight when your tank is empty. Her ideas and thinking about Black resistance and the history and foundation of faith as fundamentally part of Black culture are essential. She has been an OUR COMMON GROUND Voice since 2014, we talk with her about reinforcing and restricting our collective and individual resistance.

July 10, 2021 :: LIVE

“Trumping Black: A Lost Tribe”

In Conversation with Pascal Robert, The Thought Merchant

Pascal Robert ::: Co-Host, THIS IS REVOLUTION Podcast &

OUR COMMON GROUND IN-TER-LOCU-TOR

“The idea that somehow 20 percent of African American males supporting someone who is a male like Donald Trump [is unusual] just arises because we tend to have a false consensus about how Blacks tend to vote,” David Wilson, a polling and public-opinion expert at the University of Delaware, told a recent National Conference of Black Political Scientists meeting on African Americans, polling, and the 2020 election.

Black Republicans in the House are ready to disrupt the Democratic power structure. The prospect of two years of posturing in a superhero comic book “Freedom Force vs. the Squad” version of a legislature instead of a deliberative body focused on re-establishing some workable version of the common good is another ominous sign for the 117th Congress. While not unique, it is interesting how it unfolds in the era after Trump’s presidency.

We talk with Pascal Robert tonight about how it happens, what it means and whether it simply a message of some sort.

June 25, 2021

::: Breaching the Centrality of American Whiteness :::

An OUR COMMON GROUND LISTEN :: LEARN :: LIBERATE BROADCAST

We take a look at a variety of observations addressing the issue of Black freedom struggle, whiteness, voter suppression, and Black resistance in an era of new attacks on Black freedom and agency. Features include Rev. William Barber, 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Kwame Toure’, Bob Hebert, and Carol Anderson.

Listen Line: 347-838-9852

“Transforming Truth to Power, One Broadcast At a Time”

June 19, 2021

“Juneteenth: The Emancipation of the US Slaves”

Juneteenth was made possible because of the courage and resilience of Black people who persistently fought for their liberation. American Black freedom struggle occupies the central place in Juneteenth celebrations.

We provide a history of the event and the celebration of Juneteenth as we celebrate its first year as a national holiday.

June 12, 2021

::: “Reparations: The Debt That Is Owed” :::

Episode #2: “Reparations: The Paradigm Shift”

Guests: Dr. Rutledge Dennis, Professor of Sociology and Anthroplogy, George Mason University

Since the Reconstruction era, the reneged-upon promise of reparations—recompense to Black Americans for centuries of enslavement and racial oppression—has continued to fester like an open sore on the nation’s body politic. Many Americans dismiss the idea of reparations as economically impractical, legally impossible and politically inflammatory. In the 20th century, however, several countries—most prominently postwar Germany but also the U.S.— offered significant reparations for past atrocities. In the US, the descendants of the victims of the US chattel slavery system recognize the current effects of past racial history in America. After generations and hundreds of years Black Americans are recognizing that without reparations, there will be no fixing of continuing Black economic inequities or the persistent Black poverty crisis and the social problems it feeds. Reparations is now on the public table, up for discussion in Black homes, in Congress and even, by the President of the United States. The debt is owed.

How Black American think about reparations for hundreds of years of chattel slavery and the overwhelming economic Black chasm it creates. How do we now write the equation, set the formula that calculates the harm and healing has changed. Reparations is a debt that is owed. We examine the contemporary approach, the paradigm shift.

June 5, 2021

::: “Reparations: The Debt That Is Owed” :::

June 5, 2021 Episode #1: “The Debt That Is Owed”: Reparations & the Descendants of US Chattel Slavery

Guests: Dr. William “Sandy” Darity, Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen, Co-Authors, “From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century”

William A. Darity Jr. is an American economist and researcher. Darity’s research spans economic history, development economics, and monetary theory, but the bulk of his research is devoted to inequality in the context of race: and A. Kirsten Mullen, lecturer on race, art, history, and politics.

The wealth of the United States was for the most part greatly enhanced by the exploitation of African American slave labor: some argue it is the bedrock for the U.S. economy and capitalism. However, former slaves and their descendants are among the poorest demographic in America. Accordingly, reparations would be valuable primarily as a way of correcting modern economic imbalances. The call for reparations has intensified in 2020. More injustices and discrimination have continued since slavery was outlawed in the US. Black communities and civil rights organizations have called for reparations for those injustices as well as for reparations directly related to the US chattel slavery system. What is the debt owed ?

June, 2021

::: “Reparations: The Debt That Is Owed” :::

An OUR COMMON GROUND Reparations Discussion Series

May 22, 2021

“Black in America’s “Weimar” Moment”

In Conversation with Pascal Robert, The Thought Merchant

Pascal Robert ::: Co-Host, THIS IS REVOLUTION Podcast &

OUR COMMON GROUND IN-TER-LOCU-TOR

Listen & Call-In Line: 347-838-9852

Seventy-five years ago, Hitler came to power, ending the Weimar Republic. Did Germany’s experiment with democracy between 1919 and 1933 ever stand a real chance? Is America at that same juncture and will democracy have more of a chance? We’ll analyze the similarities in our current political environment.

” My worries are more about my own country, the US, in the sense that the threats to democracy don’t always come from abroad. The most dangerous threat may come from within. That was certainly the case in Weimar, especially in its last years. What worries me is when certain people or institutions mouth talk of democracy but in reality undermine the very practices of democracy. Of course the Nazis were never committed to democracy but they used the populist rhetoric that resonated with people. When that kind of populist rhetoric masks undemocratic practices, that’s where I think we truly need to be concerned.

The analogy that does worry me greatly is when establishment conservatives make radical conservatives salonfähig or in colloquial English “acceptable in polite society.” I think to a certain extent that indeed has occurred in the United States. When establishment conservatives go beyond the bounds of legitimate democratic discourse and constitutional provisions and make the program, the individuals and ideas of radical conservatives acceptable — that’s when we’re in trouble.”

Reference: https://www.dw.com/…/historian-says-weimar…/a-3089447

May 15, 2021

“When We Stand: The Intersection of Black Justice, Wealth and Health”

Guest: Malik Ali, CEO/Founder, Justice, Wealth and Health, SC

JWH’s Mission is to save lives from Injustice, Poor Health, and Lack of Financial Wealth.

Marching has stopped

Protesting has stopped

When we take a Stand

We’ll talk with Brother Ali about their stand in South Carolina.

May 1, 2021

“I get called Uncle Tom and the N-word by progressives…I know firsthand, our healing is not finished,” Sen. Tim Scott says in GOP rebuttal of President Biden’s address to Congress, adding later, “Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country.”

What Tim Scott did was not brave. It was not honest and it was not leadership. He lied to the American people on behalf of a Republican Party that neither values nor respects him. How does a Black man relieve himself of all dignity and his own history? What life experiences lend themselves to a man to renounce the truth about his Black experience and ally himself with racists who have no honor for his manhood? How does a Black man compromise the essence of their strength to act against the interests of his family, constituents, and a liberated Black future? When he speaks of “healing”, does he recognize himself in that vision? What price does he pay? We pay? He is a prime example of how we vote for people we like, despite our interests. Tonight we explore the bizarre nature of Black traitors.

April 24, 2021

In Conversation with Efia Nwanganza

Pioneer Activist ::: Talk Host ::: Exec. Dir., Malcolm X Center, Greenville, SC

“Black Truth on Black Justice”

“The Chauvin Trial: Black Truth on Black Justice”

Derek Chauvin’s defense hinges on the argument that George Floyd’s drug use, not Mr. Chauvin’s knee, caused his death. The defense asked permission to present an arrest of Mr. Floyd in May 2019 — exposing jurors to Mr. Floyd’s history of interactions with law enforcement.

This is always the foundation of Black justice in murder under the cover of law? A defense that establishes that Black people deserve to be murdered. The path that is drenched by the grief and tears of a people in their witness to this, not just injustice, but America’s brand of Black justice.

March 27, 2021

Evil Well Financed and Determined”

Black Disenfranchisement Under Law -“Jim Crow”

OCG Hosts, Janice Graham & Dr. James L. Taylor

Saturday, March 27, 2021 ::: 10 pm ET

Tune In LIVE: http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

Call-In & Listen Line: (347) 838-9852

Jim Crow” was developed as a derisive slang term for a Black man. It came to mean any state law passed in the South that established different rules for blacks and whites. Jim Crow laws were based on the theory of white supremacy and were a reaction to Reconstruction. In the depression-racked 1890s, racism appealed to whites who feared losing their jobs to Blacks.

Politicians abused Blacks to win the votes of poor white “crackers.” Newspapers fed the bias of white readers by playing up (sometimes even making up) Black crimes and reporting based on Black stereotypes.

In 1898 the U.S. Supreme Court sealed the fate of Black Americans when it upheld a Mississippi law designed to deny black men the vote. Given the green light, Southern states began to limit the voting right to those who owned property or could read well, to those whose grandfathers had been able to vote, to those with “good characters,” to those who paid poll taxes. In 1896, Louisiana had 130,334 registered black voters. Eight years later, only 1,342, 1 percent, could pass the state’s new rules.

March 20, 2021

“Is There No Return to Sanity?”

The madness continues the racial hate on the street of ATL and in the halls of Congress. Will the Biden/Harris be able to move forward or forever juggling in a sylo of insanity built by politically powerful and astute and persistent white supremacists and a moneyed undergird that supports it? The destructive force is fogging America’s ability to see forward. It is intentional.

March 13, 2021

OCG OPEN MIC NIGHT

One year later, we remember Breonna Taylor.

We ask, can there be any kind of Justice in Amerikka in the “new Confederacy”? The Chauvin trial is underway. What do we expect and how much will we tolerate further?

March 6, 2021

We talk with Dr. Willie Legette, political analyst as to how to resolve the problems of voting for who we “like”, votes that are often divorced from policies which address our political, economic and community needs. Are we voting electoral race politics and needing class-basis policies? Just how does the “Black vote” calculate?

About Willie Legette

Willie Legette is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at South Carolina State University and Lead Organizer, Medicare for All-South Carolina. Author, “South Carolina, Neoliberalism’s Stranglehold, and the Mystique of the ‘Black Vote'”

February 27, 2021

OPEN MIC AS WE CLOSE 2021 BLACK HISTORY MONTH

“Black History: Always the Road to Black Power”

Every period of our history has taught America something about its own failings, and us about the righteousness of our struggle. Without Black struggle, Americans would not be faced with ideals of democracy.

We need to understand Black history as a long, continuing struggle for Black Power.

February 25, 2021

A History of Black Political Movements” Session lV

“Practical Strategies for the 21st Century Black and Peoples’ Movements”
A Four-Week Lecture Series

<<< 8pm EST>>>
An OUR COMMON GROUND Black History Month Special
LIVE & InterActive: http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

Presenter, Dr. James L. Taylor, Ph.D.
Chair, Dept. of Politics
University of San Francisco, CA

The Black Power movement grew out of the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT that had steadily gained momentum through the 1950s and 1960s. It was not a formal movement, however, the Black Power movement marked a turning point in Black-white relations in the United States and also in how Black people saw themselves. Both movements were hailed as significant struggles of Blacks to achieve full equality. They were complex events that took place at a time when society and culture were being transformed throughout the United States, and its legacy reflects that complexity. But what of the legacy political movements that occurred right after the Emancipation of slavery?

We need to know and understand the networks that compose the many Black struggles and movement that brought us to our current political struggles.

This course of study will review the history of the many Black struggle movements and events that brought us to the election of Barack Obama resistance that brings us to the white supremacy insurrection and riots on January 6, 2021.

February 20, 2021

Open Mic Night

Where should be, “You’re Not Off The Hook” because nothing has not happened to make it so. We should not be living on the Black Faultline not understanding that White live under a myth about ‘Black Forgiveness’.

It seems America wants redemption without buying a ticket.

re·demp·tion

/rəˈdem(p)SH(ə)n/

noun

1. 1.

the action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil

Accountability before forgiveness is not a novel idea. But America believes it only for itself.

It seems this idea of forgiveness is 1. an act that is about keeping one’s own soul free from bitterness and destruction and 2. as a process. But more often white people or just society at large tends to think of it as a final act that lets the offender feel unburdened from guilt. Does that seem roughly accurate?

February 19, 2021

In 1990, the city of West Palm Beach proclaimed March 17 as Jimmie “Doc” Horne Appreciation Day. The tennis facilities at Gaines Park are named for him. In 1994, he was one of six recipients of the U.S. Tennis Association’s Community Service Award in the nation. This July, posthumously, he will be inducted into the US Tennis Hall of Fame. I am proud to have been one of his students for more than 12 years, starting at age 7.

Early in their careers, Venus and Serena Williams and their father practiced at Gaines Park, said son Jimmie “Bo” Horne.

“He was referred to by Venus and Serena as their tennis grandfather,” he said. “My daddy was resilient. He used to say, ‘If you want to be something in this life, you’ve got to start it.’”

Mr. Horne, who attended Florida A&M, won a state tennis championship in 1947 in the “all black division.” He became the first registered black tennis pro in Florida, according to a family-supplied biography. After serving as a quartermaster in the U.S. Army, he taught woodworking and carpentry for more than three decades at the former Roosevelt High School and North Tech Institute.

“He was an icon of the community,” said Reed Daniel, the campus manager for youth empowerment centers in West Palm Beach. “I’ll always remember him on the court with 10 or 12 kids standing at attention like a little army. He was holding a sign, ‘Tennis is a Quiet Sport.’ I loved that. Some of those kids were too young to read. But they did what he said.” Only years after he started did Mr. Horne receive even part-time pay for his efforts, Daniel said.

Jimmie “Doc” Horne Sr., a tennis standout once barred from white courts in an era of segregation, did not wait for somebody else to design a program to expose city kids in West Palm Beach to the sport. Nor did he wait to be paid. Retiring after 34 years as a teacher in area schools, he just showed up and did it. His generosity and commitment helped make him a community legend, say those who gathered to remember him before his burial. Mr. Horne passed on December 2, 2008, at age 88. There are few in the WPB Black community who played tennis who didn’t learn it or at least, in part from “Doc” Horne. In March 2021, he will be inducted into the US Tennis Hall of Fame of the American Tennis Association.

Tonight, we pay tribute to his untiring pursuit and passion for tennis in our community, extending it to the children in our community. The broadcast will feature a discussion about the Horne Center at Gaines Park named in his honor, discussion with some of his tennis students, his tennis partners, and his son, a celebrated R&B vocalist, performer, and music producer. The Jimmy “Doc” Horne Tennis Center is located at Gaines Park in West Palm Beach. New programs and renovations are under City planning and will be able to accommodate more tennis programs and player convenience. Joining us will be his son, the renowned music icon, “Bo” Horne and, we will talk with Rick Easley and James “Boneman” Marion about their love for the game and the man and how that came about.

February 13, 2021

1st Hour: “Darkness in American Medicine:

Surviving Medical Apartheid”

2nd Hour: The Trial

Live & Call-In : http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

“Black self-determination and resistance lay to waste the assumption that White supremacy in our medical past was simply “of its time”. Nor were Black, Indigenous, and people of color passive victims of oppression. Black, Indigenous, and Latinx counter-narratives offer sustenance in the present confluence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement that a better future is possible. Placing these efforts at front and center of medical history allows us to confront the shameful history of structural racial violence in medicine.”

February 11, 2021

“A History of Black Political Movements in America”

Four-Week Lecture Series

Presenter, Dr. James L. Taylor, Ph.D.

Each Session: Thursdays 8- 10 pm EST :::

Session 2:

Review of Syllabus

Examine why certain sources are most helpful to us to understand the continuum and projection of history forming new generations of struggle. How history informs strategic directions of each of the major movements.

February 6, 2021

In a time of racial reckoning, a new film looks at a very personal attempt to address racial injustices in this country.

“Ashes to Ashes” are the final words in typical African American funeral services. Many of those who were murdered by the Klan to maintain the reign of white supremacy never received their “Ashes to Ashes”.

Ashes to Ashes, the film, is an endearing portrait of Winfred Rembert, an avid Star Wars fan and master leather-work artist who survived an attempted lynching in 1967. This moving short documentary showcases the incredible friendship he has forged with Dr. Shirley Jackson Whitaker, as she creates and establishes an interactive art exhibit to memorialize the more than 4,000 African Americans who were lynched during the Jim Crow era. Taking all of her experiences from her love of medicine, art and people, Dr. Shirley J. Whitaker, MD, created the Ashes to Ashes program that will provide for a real memorial (funeral) service for the over 2 million lost during the Middle Passages.

FROM 1882-1968, 4,743 LYNCHINGS OCCURRED IN THE UNITED STATES. OF THESE PEOPLE THAT WERE LYNCHED 3,446 WERE BLACK (72%). THE MAJORITY OCCURING IN THE SOUTH (79%). This too is Black History.

The goal of the project by Dr. Shirley Jackson Whitaker is to acknowledge and mourn the African Americans who were racially terrorized during the Jim Crow era after the Civil War and until this very day. Some endured lynching and other forms of brutalization and therefore, they never received a proper burial. The ceremony was a celebration of thousands of African Americans. As we must. #BlackHistoryMonth2021

Dr. Whitaker will join us this week. Mr. Rembert is unable to join us tonight. We will host him soon.

Watch the film here:

http://ashes2ashes4ever.com/video/Award-Winning-Rees-Films-Shirley-Whitaker-Winfred-Rembert-Ashes-to-Ashes-US-Lynchings-and-a-Story-of-Survival-Al-Jazeera-Witness.mp4

About Dr. Shirley Jackson Whitaker

Dr. Whitaker is the seventh child of Eddie and Charlie Mae Jackson from Waycross, Georgia. Dr. Whitaker attended Clark Atlanta University completing a BS degree with honors in Biology. She attended Yale University School of Medicine-Department of Public Health and obtained her medical degree form Emory University School of Medicine, the only female African American in her class. A kidney specialist by trade, an artist trained under Leonard Baskin, and a healer by passion, her Ashes to Ashes project was developed to provide hope for a better American future, one in which races of varying color and heritage can understand the importance of each other’s American history, empathize with each other’s sacrifices and tragedies, realize the legacy of impacts from suffered injustices and accept that healing is a process as much a cure, and recognize and lay to rest the 4,000 victims of vigilante justice perpetrated against a predominantly black population for simply desiring the most basic of American rights of obtaining an education, ownership of land, fair competition in commerce, the uniquely American right of voting for our governing institutions and for an equal stake in the American experience. She is currently working on the second phase of A2A: The Noose: Tread of Hate and Resilience. This will center on American history through the lens of lynching and will include an International Speak My Name Day to speak the names of the lynched.

About Winfred Rembert

Mr. Rembert grew up in rural Georgia, in a farm laborer’s house and later in the small town of Cuthbert. Raised by his great-aunt, Rembert worked with her in the cotton fields during much of his childhood, and received little formal education. As a teenager he got involved in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Jailed for fleeing for his life in a stolen car, nearly lynched and then cut down to serve as an example to others, Rembert was sentenced to 27 years in the Georgia Penal System. Despite the cruel prison circumstances, Rembert learned to read and write and managed to meet and write letters to his would-be wife Patsy as well as to congressmen, with the hope of gaining early release. He also learned the craft of hand-tooling leather from a fellow-prisoner. After seven years, most of which was spent on chain gangs, Rembert was released from prison, but it wasn’t until 1997, at the age of 51, that he began to work more seriously with leather as his artistic medium, creating tooled and dyed canvases that tell the stories of his life. His paintings have been exhibited at galleries across the country—including the Yale University Art Gallery, the Adelson Galleries New York, and the Hudson River Museum—and have been profiled in The New York Times and elsewhere. Rembert is the recipient of a 2017 USA Fellowship, and in 2015 was an honoree of Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative. Rembert’s full-color memoir, Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury in 2021.

February, 2021:

OCG Black History Month Special

“A History of Black Political Movements in America”

Four-Week Lecture Series

Presenter, Dr. James L. Taylor, Ph.D.

Each Session: Thursdays 8- 10 pm EST :::

February 4, 11, 18, 25, 2021

#Black History Matters

The Black Power movement grew out of the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT that had steadily gained momentum through the 1950s and 1960s. It was not a formal movement, however, the Black Power movement marked a turning point in Black-white relations in the United States and also in how Black people saw themselves. Both movements were hailed as significant struggles of Blacks to achieve full equality. They were complex events that took place at a time when society and culture were being transformed throughout the United States, and its legacy reflects that complexity. But what of the legacy political movements that occurred right after the Emancipation of slavery? We need to know and understand the networks that compose the many Black struggles and movement that brought us to our current political struggles.

This course of study will review the history of the many Black struggle movements and events that brought us to the election of Barack Obama resistance that brings us to the white supremacy insurrection and riots on January 6, 2021.

We hope that you will join us.

SCHEDULE

February 4, 2021

Session 1: Overview of significant Black political movements and events.

Black Politics and the Reconstruction Era

Black Politics of the Jim Crow Era

Black Politics creating the Civil Rights Era

Black Political development during the Black Power Era

Reading Recommendations

Timeline References

February 11, 2021

Session 2:

Review of Syllabus

Examine why certain sources are most helpful to us to understand the continuum and projection of history forming new generations of struggle. How history informs strategic directions of each of the major movements.

February 18, 2021

Session 3:

Black political diversities and ideolgies. Examining class, economics, religion, spirituality, art, gender, sexuality, and how they have factored in Black movement history.

February 25, 2021

Session 4:

Practical Strategies for 21st Century Black and Peoples’ movements

January 30, 2021

Black Male Studies is a new field of study that is a product of Africana Studies, itself a derivative of Black Studies. Not to be found in the United States at a department level at any university, this online institute seeks to bridge the gap between the academy and the public, while advancing our understanding of Black males beyond stereotype and conjecture.

Study of Black males must be beyond stereotypes that have been established since African slaves arrived on these shores. With only one department of Black Male Studies in the world (in Scotland), The Institute for Black Male Studies offers everyone a chance to experience the field. Black Male Studies can be used multi-disciplinarily to analyze film, art, dance, socio-economics, literature, politics, social behavior (e.g. marriage, family, socialization, etc.), and many more areas across a wide variety of contexts. The Institute for Black Male Studies is the only of its type in the USA.

What exactly is “Black Masculinism” and how does it figure in rearing, living with, protecting and loving Black men and boys?

About Dr. T. Hasan Johnson

Dr. T. Hasan Johnson is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies at California State University, Fresno. He earned his doctorate at Claremont Graduate University, his M.A. at Temple University, and his B.A. at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He founded numerous Fresno State programs including the Africana Studies Online Teleconference on Black Male Studies, the ONYX Black Male Film Festival, The Black Popular Culture Lecture Series and Online Research Archive (curator), The ONYX Black Male Collective, The Annual ASHÉ: Sankofa Black Film Festival, The Annual Africana Studies Black Gender Conference, The African American Edge Initiative (co-founder), the Africana Studies Black Elder Project, and The Hip-Hop Research & Interview Project.

He is the developer of the concept of “Black Masculinism” and frequently publishes on anti-Black misandry, anti-Black male heterophobia, intra-racial misandry, and White supremacy. His first book, You Must Learn!: A Primer for the Study of Hip-Hop (2012), examines the socio-political histories that contribute to the development of Hip-Hop culture and creates new theoretical frameworks for understanding its development.

His forthcoming book, preliminarily titled, She Hate Me: A Case for Black Masculinism, Black Male Studies, and A New Paradigm for Studying Black Males, focuses on creating a new paradigm for studying Black males that challenges widely accepted stereotypes regarding Black males with contemporary data and new conceptual theory.

Dr. Johnson has made contributions to esteemed journals such as The International Journal of Africana Studies, Spectrum: A Journal for Black Men, and books such as Jay-Z: Essays on Hip Hop’s Philosopher King, Icons of Hip-Hop, and Dropping Knowledge: Hip-Hop Pedagogy in the Academy. He also created his own academic blog at: http://www.NewBlackMasculinities.wordpress.com. He was conferred both the Provost’s Award for Promising New Faculty and the Inaugural Fresno State Talks! Lecture Series Award in 2013 and was awarded the prestigious Ford Dissertation Diversity Fellowship in 2006.

January 23, 2021

In a controversial 1975 article, titled “White Racism, Black Crime, and American Justice,” criminologist Robert Staples argued that discrimination pervades the justice system. He said the legal system was made by white men to protect white interests and keep Blacks down. (At the time this was received as “outlandish and untrue”). Staples charged that the system was characterized by second-rate legal help for Black defendants, biased jurors, and judges who discriminate in sentencing. No matter, study after study demonstrates how extreme racial disparities address for Blacks in the judicial system, no matter the income strata or available resources.

Many middle and upper-class US Whites live in environments of relative social isolation, both geographically (in terms of schools and neighborhoods) and culturally (as mainstream media largely reflect the lived realities of middle- and upper-class Whites). When this social isolation is combined with financial advantage, it serves to block the development of empathy toward outgroups and increases feelings of individual entitlement, which leads to the formation of crime-specific cultural frames that include neutralizations and justifications for elite white-collar crime. Whiteness plays a role that is aside from socioeconomic status and is an important contributor to the generative worlds from which white-collar criminals emanate. This ‘mindset’ combined with operative white supremacy in law enforcement, prosecutor officials, the courts, including trial processes and sentencing.

We are all probably shaking our heads, astounded by the large number of the more than 126 domestic terrorists of January 6th are now on bail and home detainment orders. This especially in the light that Khalif Crowder, though charged, was remanded to Riker’s Island where he suffered for more than 2 years and was not remanded to his Mother. Or, a litany of criminals like Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Kwame Kilpatrick, Stephen Bannon, and many others have been pardoned by the former President of the United States through favor, quid pro quo, or even bribe. Even still when their sentences were nowhere near the gravity of their crimes. Whiteness works in all the wrong places and the prison industrial complex build-up and incarceration demographics are the evidence.

Our guest, Professor Jennifer Taub, in her book, “Big Dirty Money” suggests we first attempt to measure white-collar crime as a whole. Then we need to measure the harm to victims in terms that go beyond the economic costs. She points out that “The wealthy have the resources either to exert political influence or become lawmakers themselves”. But Taub explicitly and persuasively places the breakdown of enforcement and accountability in the context of money and class.

January 16, 2021

For years now, the domestic terrorists that breached, attacked, and mobbed the US government have been issued invitations from the highest level of government, including a mob boss President, to be present. On January 6th, they accepted those invitations. We were warned. Black people warned this nation that they were coming. And now, there is a disingenuous apology tour by the very people who sent those invitations requiring an RSVP.

Guests:

Makani Themba, Chief Strategist, Higher Ground Change Strategies

Dr. James L. Taylor, Dir., Political Science, USanFrancisco

January 9, 2021

About this Program

William A. Darity Jr. is an American economist and researcher. Darity’s research spans economic history, development economics, and monetary theory, but the bulk of his research is devoted to inequality in the context of race.

The wealth of the United States was for the most part greatly enhanced by the exploitation of African American slave labor: some argue it is the bedrock for the U.S. economy and capitalism. However, former slaves and their descendants are among the poorest demographic in America. Accordingly, reparations would be valuable primarily as a way of correcting modern economic imbalances. The call for reparations has intensified in 2020. More injustices and discrimination have continued since slavery was outlawed in the US. Black communities and civil rights organizations have called for reparations for those injustices as well as for reparations directly related to the US chattel slavery system. What is the debt owed ?

May 22, 2021

“Black in America’s “Weimar” Moment”

In Conversation with Pascal Robert, The Thought Merchant

Pascal Robert ::: Co-Host, THIS IS REVOLUTION Podcast &

OUR COMMON GROUND IN-TER-LOCU-TOR

Listen & Call-In Line: 347-838-9852

Seventy-five years ago, Hitler came to power, ending the Weimar Republic. Did Germany’s experiment with democracy between 1919 and 1933 ever stand a real chance? Is America at that same juncture and will democracy have more of a chance? We’ll analyze the similarities in our current political environment.

” My worries are more about my own country, the US, in the sense that the threats to democracy don’t always come from abroad. The most dangerous threat may come from within. That was certainly the case in Weimar, especially in its last years. What worries me is when certain people or institutions mouth talk of democracy but in reality undermine the very practices of democracy. Of course the Nazis were never committed to democracy but they used the populist rhetoric that resonated with people. When that kind of populist rhetoric masks undemocratic practices, that’s where I think we truly need to be concerned.

The analogy that does worry me greatly is when establishment conservatives make radical conservatives salonfähig or in colloquial English “acceptable in polite society.” I think to a certain extent that indeed has occurred in the United States. When establishment conservatives go beyond the bounds of legitimate democratic discourse and constitutional provisions and make the program, the individuals and ideas of radical conservatives acceptable — that’s when we’re in trouble.”

Reference: https://www.dw.com/…/historian-says-weimar…/a-3089447

May 15, 2021

“When We Stand: The Intersection of Black Justice, Wealth and Health”

Guest: Malik Ali, CEO/Founder, Justice, Wealth and Health, SC

JWH’s Mission is to save lives from Injustice, Poor Health, and Lack of Financial Wealth.

Marching has stopped

Protesting has stopped

When we take a Stand

We’ll talk with Brother Ali about their stand in South Carolina.

May 1, 2021

“I get called Uncle Tom and the N-word by progressives…I know firsthand, our healing is not finished,” Sen. Tim Scott says in GOP rebuttal of President Biden’s address to Congress, adding later, “Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country.”

What Tim Scott did was not brave. It was not honest and it was not leadership. He lied to the American people on behalf of a Republican Party that neither values nor respects him. How does a Black man relieve himself of all dignity and his own history? What life experiences lend themselves to a man to renounce the truth about his Black experience and ally himself with racists who have no honor for his manhood? How does a Black man compromise the essence of their strength to act against the interests of his family, constituents, and a liberated Black future? When he speaks of “healing”, does he recognize himself in that vision? What price does he pay? We pay? He is a prime example of how we vote for people we like, despite our interests. Tonight we explore the bizarre nature of Black traitors.

April 24, 2021

In Conversation with Efia Nwanganza

Pioneer Activist ::: Talk Host ::: Exec. Dir., Malcolm X Center, Greenville, SC

“Black Truth on Black Justice”

“The Chauvin Trial: Black Truth on Black Justice”

Derek Chauvin’s defense hinges on the argument that George Floyd’s drug use, not Mr. Chauvin’s knee, caused his death. The defense asked permission to present an arrest of Mr. Floyd in May 2019 — exposing jurors to Mr. Floyd’s history of interactions with law enforcement.

This is always the foundation of Black justice in murder under the cover of law? A defense that establishes that Black people deserve to be murdered. The path that is drenched by the grief and tears of a people in their witness to this, not just injustice, but America’s brand of Black justice.

March 27, 2021

Evil Well Financed and Determined”

Black Disenfranchisement Under Law -“Jim Crow”

OCG Hosts, Janice Graham & Dr. James L. Taylor

Saturday, March 27, 2021 ::: 10 pm ET

Tune In LIVE: http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

Call-In & Listen Line: (347) 838-9852

Jim Crow” was developed as a derisive slang term for a Black man. It came to mean any state law passed in the South that established different rules for blacks and whites. Jim Crow laws were based on the theory of white supremacy and were a reaction to Reconstruction. In the depression-racked 1890s, racism appealed to whites who feared losing their jobs to Blacks.

Politicians abused Blacks to win the votes of poor white “crackers.” Newspapers fed the bias of white readers by playing up (sometimes even making up) Black crimes and reporting based on Black stereotypes.

In 1898 the U.S. Supreme Court sealed the fate of Black Americans when it upheld a Mississippi law designed to deny black men the vote. Given the green light, Southern states began to limit the voting right to those who owned property or could read well, to those whose grandfathers had been able to vote, to those with “good characters,” to those who paid poll taxes. In 1896, Louisiana had 130,334 registered black voters. Eight years later, only 1,342, 1 percent, could pass the state’s new rules.

March 20, 2021

“Is There No Return to Sanity?”

The madness continues the racial hate on the street of ATL and in the halls of Congress. Will the Biden/Harris be able to move forward or forever juggling in a sylo of insanity built by politically powerful and astute and persistent white supremacists and a moneyed undergird that supports it? The destructive force is fogging America’s ability to see forward. It is intentional.

March 13, 2021

OCG OPEN MIC NIGHT

One year later, we remember Breonna Taylor.

We ask, can there be any kind of Justice in Amerikka in the “new Confederacy”? The Chauvin trial is underway. What do we expect and how much will we tolerate further?

March 6, 2021

We talk with Dr. Willie Legette, political analyst as to how to resolve the problems of voting for who we “like”, votes that are often divorced from policies which address our political, economic and community needs. Are we voting electoral race politics and needing class-basis policies? Just how does the “Black vote” calculate?

About Willie Legette

Willie Legette is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at South Carolina State University and Lead Organizer, Medicare for All-South Carolina. Author, “South Carolina, Neoliberalism’s Stranglehold, and the Mystique of the ‘Black Vote'”

February 27, 2021

OPEN MIC AS WE CLOSE 2021 BLACK HISTORY MONTH

“Black History: Always the Road to Black Power”

Every period of our history has taught America something about its own failings, and us about the righteousness of our struggle. Without Black struggle, Americans would not be faced with ideals of democracy.

We need to understand Black history as a long, continuing struggle for Black Power.

February 25, 2021

A History of Black Political Movements” Session lV

“Practical Strategies for the 21st Century Black and Peoples’ Movements”
A Four-Week Lecture Series

<<< 8pm EST>>>
An OUR COMMON GROUND Black History Month Special
LIVE & InterActive: http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

Presenter, Dr. James L. Taylor, Ph.D.
Chair, Dept. of Politics
University of San Francisco, CA

The Black Power movement grew out of the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT that had steadily gained momentum through the 1950s and 1960s. It was not a formal movement, however, the Black Power movement marked a turning point in Black-white relations in the United States and also in how Black people saw themselves. Both movements were hailed as significant struggles of Blacks to achieve full equality. They were complex events that took place at a time when society and culture were being transformed throughout the United States, and its legacy reflects that complexity. But what of the legacy political movements that occurred right after the Emancipation of slavery?

We need to know and understand the networks that compose the many Black struggles and movement that brought us to our current political struggles.

This course of study will review the history of the many Black struggle movements and events that brought us to the election of Barack Obama resistance that brings us to the white supremacy insurrection and riots on January 6, 2021.

February 20, 2021

Open Mic Night

Where should be, “You’re Not Off The Hook” because nothing has not happened to make it so. We should not be living on the Black Faultline not understanding that White live under a myth about ‘Black Forgiveness’.

It seems America wants redemption without buying a ticket.

re·demp·tion

/rəˈdem(p)SH(ə)n/

noun

1. 1.

the action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil

Accountability before forgiveness is not a novel idea. But America believes it only for itself.

It seems this idea of forgiveness is 1. an act that is about keeping one’s own soul free from bitterness and destruction and 2. as a process. But more often white people or just society at large tends to think of it as a final act that lets the offender feel unburdened from guilt. Does that seem roughly accurate?

February 19, 2021

In 1990, the city of West Palm Beach proclaimed March 17 as Jimmie “Doc” Horne Appreciation Day. The tennis facilities at Gaines Park are named for him. In 1994, he was one of six recipients of the U.S. Tennis Association’s Community Service Award in the nation. This July, posthumously, he will be inducted into the US Tennis Hall of Fame. I am proud to have been one of his students for more than 12 years, starting at age 7.

Early in their careers, Venus and Serena Williams and their father practiced at Gaines Park, said son Jimmie “Bo” Horne.

“He was referred to by Venus and Serena as their tennis grandfather,” he said. “My daddy was resilient. He used to say, ‘If you want to be something in this life, you’ve got to start it.’”

Mr. Horne, who attended Florida A&M, won a state tennis championship in 1947 in the “all black division.” He became the first registered black tennis pro in Florida, according to a family-supplied biography. After serving as a quartermaster in the U.S. Army, he taught woodworking and carpentry for more than three decades at the former Roosevelt High School and North Tech Institute.

“He was an icon of the community,” said Reed Daniel, the campus manager for youth empowerment centers in West Palm Beach. “I’ll always remember him on the court with 10 or 12 kids standing at attention like a little army. He was holding a sign, ‘Tennis is a Quiet Sport.’ I loved that. Some of those kids were too young to read. But they did what he said.” Only years after he started did Mr. Horne receive even part-time pay for his efforts, Daniel said.

Jimmie “Doc” Horne Sr., a tennis standout once barred from white courts in an era of segregation, did not wait for somebody else to design a program to expose city kids in West Palm Beach to the sport. Nor did he wait to be paid. Retiring after 34 years as a teacher in area schools, he just showed up and did it. His generosity and commitment helped make him a community legend, say those who gathered to remember him before his burial. Mr. Horne passed on December 2, 2008, at age 88. There are few in the WPB Black community who played tennis who didn’t learn it or at least, in part from “Doc” Horne. In March 2021, he will be inducted into the US Tennis Hall of Fame of the American Tennis Association.

Tonight, we pay tribute to his untiring pursuit and passion for tennis in our community, extending it to the children in our community. The broadcast will feature a discussion about the Horne Center at Gaines Park named in his honor, discussion with some of his tennis students, his tennis partners, and his son, a celebrated R&B vocalist, performer, and music producer. The Jimmy “Doc” Horne Tennis Center is located at Gaines Park in West Palm Beach. New programs and renovations are under City planning and will be able to accommodate more tennis programs and player convenience. Joining us will be his son, the renowned music icon, “Bo” Horne and, we will talk with Rick Easley and James “Boneman” Marion about their love for the game and the man and how that came about.

February 13, 2021

1st Hour: “Darkness in American Medicine:

Surviving Medical Apartheid”

2nd Hour: The Trial

Live & Call-In : http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

February 11, 2021

“A History of Black Political Movements in America”

Four-Week Lecture Series

Presenter, Dr. James L. Taylor, Ph.D.

Each Session: Thursdays 8- 10 pm EST :::

Session 2:

Review of Syllabus

Examine why certain sources are most helpful to us to understand the continuum and projection of history forming new generations of struggle. How history informs strategic directions of each of the major movements.

February 6, 2021

In a time of racial reckoning, a new film looks at a very personal attempt to address racial injustices in this country.

“Ashes to Ashes” are the final words in typical African American funeral services. Many of those who were murdered by the Klan to maintain the reign of white supremacy never received their “Ashes to Ashes”.

Ashes to Ashes, the film, is an endearing portrait of Winfred Rembert, an avid Star Wars fan and master leather-work artist who survived an attempted lynching in 1967. This moving short documentary showcases the incredible friendship he has forged with Dr. Shirley Jackson Whitaker, as she creates and establishes an interactive art exhibit to memorialize the more than 4,000 African Americans who were lynched during the Jim Crow era. Taking all of her experiences from her love of medicine, art and people, Dr. Shirley J. Whitaker, MD, created the Ashes to Ashes program that will provide for a real memorial (funeral) service for the over 2 million lost during the Middle Passages.

FROM 1882-1968, 4,743 LYNCHINGS OCCURRED IN THE UNITED STATES. OF THESE PEOPLE THAT WERE LYNCHED 3,446 WERE BLACK (72%). THE MAJORITY OCCURING IN THE SOUTH (79%). This too is Black History.

The goal of the project by Dr. Shirley Jackson Whitaker is to acknowledge and mourn the African Americans who were racially terrorized during the Jim Crow era after the Civil War and until this very day. Some endured lynching and other forms of brutalization and therefore, they never received a proper burial. The ceremony was a celebration of thousands of African Americans. As we must. #BlackHistoryMonth2021

Dr. Whitaker will join us this week. Mr. Rembert is unable to join us tonight. We will host him soon.

Watch the film here:

http://ashes2ashes4ever.com/video/Award-Winning-Rees-Films-Shirley-Whitaker-Winfred-Rembert-Ashes-to-Ashes-US-Lynchings-and-a-Story-of-Survival-Al-Jazeera-Witness.mp4

About Dr. Shirley Jackson Whitaker

Dr. Whitaker is the seventh child of Eddie and Charlie Mae Jackson from Waycross, Georgia. Dr. Whitaker attended Clark Atlanta University completing a BS degree with honors in Biology. She attended Yale University School of Medicine-Department of Public Health and obtained her medical degree form Emory University School of Medicine, the only female African American in her class. A kidney specialist by trade, an artist trained under Leonard Baskin, and a healer by passion, her Ashes to Ashes project was developed to provide hope for a better American future, one in which races of varying color and heritage can understand the importance of each other’s American history, empathize with each other’s sacrifices and tragedies, realize the legacy of impacts from suffered injustices and accept that healing is a process as much a cure, and recognize and lay to rest the 4,000 victims of vigilante justice perpetrated against a predominantly black population for simply desiring the most basic of American rights of obtaining an education, ownership of land, fair competition in commerce, the uniquely American right of voting for our governing institutions and for an equal stake in the American experience. She is currently working on the second phase of A2A: The Noose: Tread of Hate and Resilience. This will center on American history through the lens of lynching and will include an International Speak My Name Day to speak the names of the lynched.

About Winfred Rembert

Mr. Rembert grew up in rural Georgia, in a farm laborer’s house and later in the small town of Cuthbert. Raised by his great-aunt, Rembert worked with her in the cotton fields during much of his childhood, and received little formal education. As a teenager he got involved in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Jailed for fleeing for his life in a stolen car, nearly lynched and then cut down to serve as an example to others, Rembert was sentenced to 27 years in the Georgia Penal System. Despite the cruel prison circumstances, Rembert learned to read and write and managed to meet and write letters to his would-be wife Patsy as well as to congressmen, with the hope of gaining early release. He also learned the craft of hand-tooling leather from a fellow-prisoner. After seven years, most of which was spent on chain gangs, Rembert was released from prison, but it wasn’t until 1997, at the age of 51, that he began to work more seriously with leather as his artistic medium, creating tooled and dyed canvases that tell the stories of his life. His paintings have been exhibited at galleries across the country—including the Yale University Art Gallery, the Adelson Galleries New York, and the Hudson River Museum—and have been profiled in The New York Times and elsewhere. Rembert is the recipient of a 2017 USA Fellowship, and in 2015 was an honoree of Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative. Rembert’s full-color memoir, Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury in 2021.

February, 2021:

OCG Black History Month Special

“A History of Black Political Movements in America”

Four-Week Lecture Series

Presenter, Dr. James L. Taylor, Ph.D.

Each Session: Thursdays 8- 10 pm EST :::

February 4, 11, 18, 25, 2021

#Black History Matters

The Black Power movement grew out of the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT that had steadily gained momentum through the 1950s and 1960s. It was not a formal movement, however, the Black Power movement marked a turning point in Black-white relations in the United States and also in how Black people saw themselves. Both movements were hailed as significant struggles of Blacks to achieve full equality. They were complex events that took place at a time when society and culture were being transformed throughout the United States, and its legacy reflects that complexity. But what of the legacy political movements that occurred right after the Emancipation of slavery? We need to know and understand the networks that compose the many Black struggles and movement that brought us to our current political struggles.

This course of study will review the history of the many Black struggle movements and events that brought us to the election of Barack Obama resistance that brings us to the white supremacy insurrection and riots on January 6, 2021.

We hope that you will join us.

SCHEDULE

February 4, 2021

Session 1: Overview of significant Black political movements and events.

Black Politics and the Reconstruction Era

Black Politics of the Jim Crow Era

Black Politics creating the Civil Rights Era

Black Political development during the Black Power Era

Reading Recommendations

Timeline References

February 11, 2021

Session 2:

Review of Syllabus

Examine why certain sources are most helpful to us to understand the continuum and projection of history forming new generations of struggle. How history informs strategic directions of each of the major movements.

February 18, 2021

Session 3:

Black political diversities and ideolgies. Examining class, economics, religion, spirituality, art, gender, sexuality, and how they have factored in Black movement history.

February 25, 2021

Session 4:

Practical Strategies for 21st Century Black and Peoples’ movements

January 30, 2021

Black Male Studies is a new field of study that is a product of Africana Studies, itself a derivative of Black Studies. Not to be found in the United States at a department level at any university, this online institute seeks to bridge the gap between the academy and the public, while advancing our understanding of Black males beyond stereotype and conjecture.

Study of Black males must be beyond stereotypes that have been established since African slaves arrived on these shores. With only one department of Black Male Studies in the world (in Scotland), The Institute for Black Male Studies offers everyone a chance to experience the field. Black Male Studies can be used multi-disciplinarily to analyze film, art, dance, socio-economics, literature, politics, social behavior (e.g. marriage, family, socialization, etc.), and many more areas across a wide variety of contexts. The Institute for Black Male Studies is the only of its type in the USA.

What exactly is “Black Masculinism” and how does it figure in rearing, living with, protecting and loving Black men and boys?

About Dr. T. Hasan Johnson

January 23, 2021

January 16, 2021

Guests:

Makani Themba, Chief Strategist, Higher Ground Change Strategies

Dr. James L. Taylor, Dir., Political Science, USanFrancisco

January 9, 2021

About this Program

December 23, 2020

Kwanzaa is not an alternative to religions or faiths, but, offers a common ground to reaffirm our identity, dignity, & excellence in history & culture, providing us with a value system that serves as a framework and foundation that strengthens us to trust and claim our Struggle. Janice shares her more than 40 years of celebrating Kwanzaa and provides the information and insight of understanding, having insight into and celebrating Kwanzaa.

December 18, 2020

“Playing the Numbers”

Tonight we feature the history of the gambling practices within the Black community, known as “the numbers”. At one time, this popular form of gambling was considered an underground self-sufficiency and grassroots business undertaking. Problems were many from local law enforcement and larger criminal activities. It disappeared as the large mafia operations took over completely and states fought back with legal alternatives.

vember 12, 2020

“Niggle Nation: A State of Dubiety”

Guest: Dr. James L. Taylor, OCG Political ContributorChair of Politics Department, University of San Francisco .With our OCG Political Contributor, Dr. James L. Taylor, Chair of Political Studies, University of San Franciso, we will attempt to give language and narrative to the fragile nature of our country. It really is hard to see back and forward while walking through a firestorm. ::::::::::: “niggle” verb :::::::::::To make often criticisms or objections about matters.::::::::::: “dubiety” noun :::::::::::A feeling or attitude that one does not know the truth, truthfulness, or trustworthiness of someone or something.Synonyms for both:fuss, nitpick, quibble, compunction, qualm, scruple, tremoranxiety, concern, paranoia, wariness, disbelief, incredulity, unbeliefdistrust, distrustfulness, doubt

“WHO You Calling A Communist ?: Black Resisting Fascism in America”

Guest: Carl Dix, Street Activist, Protest Organizer, and Initiator, Refuse Fascism, The Revolutionary Communist Party

In tonight’s episode, we ask, “Who You Calling a Communist?” and will examine the history and existing protests within the Black communities to protest fascism in America. A change of the guard has never meant a change of the fabric. We cry about saving the “democracy ” but better, OCG asks, “what, which and whose democracy?” “All Power to the People”. Just what people are we talking about? Do you really want a revolution? We hope you will join us for this discussion with Carl Dix who has organized protests from Kenosha, NYC to Portland to Philadelphia in recent months.

November 21, 2020 :: 10 pm EST

“The Bill Is Now Overdue“

November 14, 2020 :: 10 pm EST

We showed up. We took the Democrats there. So now, with receipts of many decades, no apology – the bill is now DUE. Collecting on our political capital with the Democratic Party and people.

Guest: Dr. F. “Duchess” Harris, Ph.D., J.D.

Chair, American Studies, Macalester College MN

Professor Harris is a scholar of Contemporary African American History and Political Theory. Her academic books include, Racially Writing the Republic: Racists, Race Rebels, and Transformations of American Identity, (2009), Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton, (2009), Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Obama, (2011), Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Trump, (2018) and “Black Girl Magic Beyond the Hashtag: Twenty-First Century Acts of Self-Definition” (2019).

2020 Election Review: On The BlackSide Part II

”BLACK POLITICAL Construction Ahead”
∞ Saturday, November 7, 2020 ∞
10 pm ET ::: Live & Call-In
http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk
Call & Listen Line: (347) 838-9852

We continue our discussion on the 2020 Election, the Black currency reflected in the returns, and discuss what must be ahead with our panel:Dr. James L. Taylor, Chair of the Department of Politics, University of San Francisco, Pascal Robert of the Black Agenda Report, Dr. Kimberly C. Ellis ( Dr. Goddess) of #BlackPoliticsMatter and Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party.

Knowing Joe’s heart will not be enough to construct a new Black political future that will benefit and recharge our community.

November 7, 2020

2020 ELECTION SPECIAL

10 pm ET

∞ Wednesday, November 4, 2020 ∞ 10 pm ET

Live & Call-In Tune In: http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

Call & Listen Line: (347) 838-9852

Join OCG with ALFO TruthWorks host of The ALFO Show on the night after the polls close. We will be taking a detailed look at the performance of our political capital in the election with expert political analysts, observers, and commentators. Dr. James L. Tayor, Chair of the Department of Politics, University of San Francisco, Pascal Robert of the Black Agenda Report, Dr. Kimberly Ellis (aka Dr. Goddess) of #BlackVoteMatter and Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party.

Black Americans’ vote, our political currency is an important element in the presidential election on Nov. 3, and our turnout showing in the polls today will be one of the most important factors to determine the next US president. Aside from voter suppression and intimidation efforts by white supremacists and the GOP. The percentage of African-American voters who turn out to vote on the day of election has been crucial in recent presidential elections, especially in swing states such as Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina.Black voters’ turnout was 65% in 2008, and 67% in 2012, but later declined to 60% in 2016 election, according to non-partisan think-tank Pew Research Center.

It was shown that the decline in African-American voters’ turnout damaged Clinton’s chances greatly in 2016, as she lost swing states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, and ultimately the election.

In Florida, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, more than 10% of eligible voters population were Black in 2018, while in Carolinas this ratio was more than 20%, and in Georgia, it was above 30%, according to Pew Research Center.While turnout of Black voters is critical in this election, police brutality and racial injustice against Black Americans and widespread protests earlier across the US could be a strong factor in our decision to vote in this election.

Your observations and comments are welcomed about your decision to vote or not, your strategy, your concerns. Without identification, we will read them on the air on Wednesday.

October 31, 2020

“The Great Spending Spree: Black Political Currency“

Guest, Dr. James L. Taylor, Politics Chair, Univ. of San Francisco

LIVE&CALL-IN ::: 10pm EDT

Tune In Here: http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

Call & Listen Line: (347) 838-9852

In just two days when we end this scheduled broadcast, the casting of 2020 votes will end. Whatever political capital that has been earned and saved will be spent. The election gives us an opportunity, where we are able to push through the intimidation, suppression, and criminal corruption, work our political shopping list. Not for the first time, we will suffer anxiety about the delivery of what we have purchased. Our votes pass through 2020 Grifters, Traitors, and Betrayers. People who have assumed that somehow they can claim dividends on your treasure. What damage has been caused by this theft? Will it be cuts in Social Security, the price of 10 yrs of diabetes, the continuing of goof balling a pandemic? Some folks have been out there borrowing your political capital. They will not pay you interest, nor pay the loan. Odds are that your package will not arrive absent damage. Political science Dr. James Taylor joins us once again to examine how Black political currency suffers when grifters, the new Black elites, and disinformants go on a spending spree with your political currency. What is the work that Black people must do on the other side of this election? Are we vigilantly watching the docket of a new and alt-right SCOTUS? How will the civil and legal protections at play before the Court damage a new and more bold Black agenda? Police reform ::: Reparations::: Prison reform ::: Court Reform all the balls ready for juggling. How do we put Congress and the Executive Branch in check, AFTER an election?

OUR COMMON GROUND

“Transforming Truth to Power, One Broadcast At a Time”

“I’ll Be Listening for YOU”

October 24, 2020

“V-Day”

In the final Presidential debate, aside for the COVID-19 pandemic numerous key and critical issues that challenge Black people in this country. 8 million more people fell into economic poverty since May. There have been huge slashes in the budget for new and rehabilitation of affordable housing. Disparities throughout the socio-economic spectrum: predatory lending, education, the impact of environmental injustice abound, yet, throughout the political season, they have been dismissed and marginalized. Neither the fantasy plans nor the ones published specifically raise the issues of Black lives ended, on pavement, in a car or in a prison cell; or, forces of overbearing evil, under the law, attack and mangle larger than the Edmound Pettis Bridge. We go to the polls this Tuesday with empty rhetoric and no promises that assuage our soul on fire. We must vote. There is no doubt that in order to meet any of the challenges before us, Trump must go. But that is not enough. We must continue to be the dissentients that we need.Join us LIVE: http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

October 10, 2020

“Homeland Mercenaries: STAND BACK, STAND-BY ?”

The President of the United States over the last 31/2 yrs has called up for organizing under his banner of white nationalism ideology as the supportive framework of “Make America Great Again”. We are in the last 2 yrs seen evidence of this organing. It is not new. Mercenaries were an important part of the Confederate action during the US Civil War. We see it mostly in young white men who have gone rogue from their organized cells, Kevin Rittenhouse for instance. Moreover, these are the ones we see. All over America, white men and women have joined white supremacist groups, militia and political. And they are becoming the responders to the call by Donald Trump’s latest call to order to, “keep America great”.Many modern white supremacist groups eschew violent tactics in favor of using demonstrations and propaganda to sway public opinion and portray their ideologies as legitimate. However, their racial elitist ideologies have nonetheless spurred affiliated individuals to become involved in violent altercations. One such group just plotted to abduct a sitting state Governor. We need to know more and create an awareness and safety net. We know that this is the war of their fantasies.

“It’s All About Sovereignty”

OPEN MIC

Sovereignty is the point, the whole game seen in our politics over the last 3 years.Sovereignty is an unlimited power that is not subject to any type of direction.

All citizens and institutions are superordinate to it and it is the origin of all powers free of any internal external powers or pressures. We are currently living through the establishment of such by the takeover of our government by our Presidents and his supporters, including the Senate, the judiciary, and government agencies. Time to get real about how far-reaching this campaign actually has spread. The quest for sovereignty has become ugly and elections have consequences.

September 26, 2020

“American Racial Infamy”

Guest Commentators: Dr. James L. Taylor and Dr. Raymond Winbush

To deny and neglect the consequences of murder under the cover of law is an embedded American legal precept. Racial infamy. That we understand this reality is to begin to understand Black existence. We live in this Amerikka in fear. It has always been so.

“The lie is the mechanism that allows, and has always allowed, America to avoid facing the truth about its unjust treatment of black people and how it deforms the soul of the country.”
james Balwin

– James Baldwin

September 19, 2020

“ BLACK POLITICAL CURRENCY: The Dilemma ” :::: OPEN MIC ::::

Getting real on the priorities for us. Medicare :: Housing:: Climate Crisis :: Student/Medical Debt :: Judicial Malfunction :: Govt’mt Failure :: Police Overhaul :: Overturn Citizens United :: Reproductive and Environmental Justice

Do the Dems have the heart to strike back?

Claiming the Legacy and the Seat Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is one of the most consequential figures in American law and democracy. We must, first and foremost, lift up the extraordinary contributions of Justice Ginsburg as a lawyer and a justice. Every woman in this country owes her an enormous debt, and every American has benefitted from her work to clarify the meaning of equality in our country. She was a powerful member of that exemplary group of lawyers who helped give real meaning to the words etched onto the exterior of the Supreme Court: ‘equal justice under law.’ We must fight to ensure that this President and Senate are unable to fill her seat on the Court prior to ovember’s election. We have little confidence that either the President or the Senate Majority Leader will adhere to the decency and norms that would dictate restraint from seeking to nominate and confirm another justice. But we believe that there are members of the Senate who will choose this moment to stand up, finally, for what is right and proper in a democracy. We must resist ensuring that the American people will decide and insist that this seat remain open until after the next president is inaugurated.

September 12, 2020

“51 Days” :: In Conversation with Nina Turner

National Co-Chair Bernie Sanders for President 2020

Sat., September 12, 2020 :: 10 pm EDT:: LIVE

We will discuss voter choices and participation and messaging strategies for the upcoming election. What can we achieve in 51 days?

August 29, 2020

“ TweedleDee-TweedleDum: Our Grave Choices ”

Guest: Dr. Wilmer Leon, Ph.D.

Wilmer J. Leon III, Ph.D. is a political scientist whose primary areas of expertise are Black Politics American Government, and Public Policy. Dr. Leon has a B.S. degree in Political Science from Hampton Institute, a Masters in Public Administration (MPA), and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Howard University. He teaches undergraduate and graduate-level political science courses in a number of colleges and universities.

Dr. Leon is a nationally syndicated columnist and the host of SiriusXM Satellite Radio’s, “Inside The Issues with Wilmer Leon.” He is also a regular contributor to national and international television news programs, newspapers, and websites.

Join us LIVE: http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

August 22, 2020

“Four More Years? : Black Poor People in the Wreckage”

What will be the consequences of another tRump term?

Employment Discrimination Protections ::: Health and Community Support Programs ::: Climate Crisis ::: Health Insurance Access/Coverage :: Police Reform

It will be a train wreck looking for a site.

August 15, 2020

“ The Consequences of Black Political Misadventures: Who Pays ?”

Dr. James L. Taylor, Hosting

Tune In Here: http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk
Listen & Call Line: (347) 838-9852

August 8, 2020

mkutano Wednesday Night OPEN MIC
Tune In Here: http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk
Listen & Call Line: (347) 838-9852
🎙Trump’s Evil Empire
🎙Political Accountability
🎙Biden’s VP Decision

August 8, 2020

“Our Southern Comfort: Claiming The Power of the Porch”

Guest: Ruby N. Sales, Founder & Director of The Spirit House Project; Southern Philosopher, author, “From My Front Porch”

“I am of the South and the South is within me. The seasons of my life were varied and sometimes harsh…I sometimes struggled for life and survival. The seeds of my life were planted long before I was born, and I have reaped the harvest thereof. I take my Jim Crow South and Southern upbringing with me even when I leave the area. It is not something like a coat you can take off and put on at will – it is a part of you that is easily recognized, born of nights and days on the porch.”

July 29, 2020

Tonight, we begin here. Where we left off on Saturday night.

🎙Trump’s Evil Empire
🎙Re-Opening Schools
🎙The Vote: Voting: SURVIVAL strategy, not a LIBERATION strategy
🎙 Freedom Symbols, what do they mean.

July 25, 2020

“Mental Wellness, Black Survival: The Junction of Multi-Generational Trauma”

Guest: Brandon Jones, MFT

The Jegna Institute

Tune in Live: http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

Listen or Call – In (347) 838-9852

Focus: How do we help our people to improve emotional self-care, begin and transverse a necessary healing journey, and become more aware of ancestral, inter-generational, and compounded emotional pain. We will examine the implication of Slave Desendant Trauma health issues as we experience police brutality, police killings, and the pandemic.

Born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Brandon has survived living in a home of domestic violence and various other forms of trauma.

Brandon holds a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Minnesota, a Masters in Community Psychology from Metropolitan State University, and a Masters in Psychotherapy (MFT) from Adler Graduate School.

Brandon is also a 2013 Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow. He currently serves as the Integrated Services Manager at NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center.

He lives by the motto of “Live life with Purpose on Purpose”. He says, “I’m a down to earth psychotherapist, professor, and a family man dedicated to helping those who want to heal.”

A Minnesota father and husband who is attempting to create a better world by helping those who need healing.

July 22, 2020

July 18, 2020

“The ‘PROFECTORS’ of the Democracy: WHEN GIANTS FALL”

OUR COMMON GROUND celebrates the lives of Civil Rights Giants Rev. C.T. Vivian and U.S. Congressman John Robert Lewis

Listener Tributes and Commemoration are invited.

Losing both “Rev. C.T.” and John Lewis is tough. Their legacies in the struggle for civil rights and Black dignity will resonate in the Black liberation activities in the US for al history. They were the revolutionary voices of the Civil Rights Movement struggle. One strategic, one tactical. Both giants. tonight, we remember.

Listen or Call – In Line: (347) 838-9852

July 11, 2020

“Black America: Over Policed, Under Protected”
Live & Call-In: https://bit.ly/2C3RIUXUnderProtected

We know that policing models across the country view Black neighborhoods and communities as crime-ridden and havens for criminal activity. Criminalizing these residential areas create a natural response of resentment, distrust, and animosity. These communities experience an exceedingly higher level of policing, absent essential protection services, and resources needed.

How can we use the current wave of calls of police defunding and reform to change that landscape? How do we stop the killing of Black people in our streets? How do we get mental wellness resources on the street when there is a problem? Chronic homelessness? Truancy? Guns out of the hands of young people?

July 8, 2020

Live and Call-In 10 pm EDT

Join Us and Tune In Here: OCG LIVE Studio

Listen or Call – In (347) 838-9852

Because you didn’t get your call in on Saturday.
– Police Reform
– Monument Removal
– Disproportionate Black COVID-19 Infection and Death
– Surviving While BlackLive and Call-In 10 pm EDT

July 1, 2020

OPEN MIC Wednesday Night

Join Us and Tune In Here: OCG LIVE Studio

Listen or Call – In (347) 838-9852

June 27, 2020

Dr. Ron Daniels, President and Founder the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW)

Dr. Ron Daniels, an OUR COMMON GROUND Voice since 1989.

Veteran social and political activist Dr. Ron Daniels was an independent candidate for President of the United States in 1992. He served as Executive Director of the National Rainbow Coalition in 1987 and Southern Regional Coordinator and Deputy Campaign Manager for the Jesse Jackson for President Campaign in 1988. He holds a B.A. in History from Youngstown State University, an M.A. in Political Science from the Rockefeller School of Public Affairs in Albany, New York and a Doctor of Philosophy in Africana Studies from the Union Institute and University in Cincinnati. Dr. Daniels is a Distinguished Lecturer Emeritus at York College, City University of New York where he taught courses in Political Science.

From 1993-2005 Dr. Daniels served as first African American Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). During his tenure CCR emerged as a major force fighting against police brutality and misconduct, church burnings, hate crimes, voter disenfranchisement, environmental racism and the threats to civil liberties posed by the government’s response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.

In June of 1995, Dr. Daniels led an African American fact finding and support delegation/mission to Haiti. As a result of the visit, the Haiti Support Project (HSP) was created to mobilize ongoing political and material support for the struggle for democracy and development in Haiti. HSP has emerged as the leading African American organization working to build a constituency for Haiti in the U.S.

A prolific essayist and commentator, Dr. Daniels’ column Vantage Point appears in numerous Black and progressive newspapers and web sites nationwide. He also the host of a weekly issue-oriented public affairs talk show (Vantage Point Radio) on WBAI, 99.5 FM on the Pacifica Network in New York and until recently, he served as an occasional Guest Host for Make It Plain with Mark Thompson, SIRIUSXM Radio.

Dr. Daniels is Founder and President of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW), a progressive, African centered, action-oriented Resource Center dedicated to empowering people of African descent and marginalized communities. As the administrator for the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC), IBW has emerged as a leading organization within the U.S. and global reparations movements. NAARC has devised a 10 Point Reparations Program and is a stanch support of HR-40, the Congressional Bill that would establish a National Commission to study reparations proposals for African Americans. Dr. Ron Daniels serves as the Convener of NAARC.

OCG LIVE Studio https://bit.ly/2NqKwUSBlackFirewall

Call In – Listen Line: 347-838-9852

June 24, 2020

Live and Call-In 10 pm EDT

Join Us and Tune In Here: OCG LIVE Studio

Listen or Call – In (347) 838-9852

June 20, 2020

“ZER0 Tolerance POLICE IN SCHOOLS: Defending Our Children”

Guest: Zakiya Sankara-Jabar

National Director of Activism at Brightbeam, a national
network of education activists demanding
a better education and a brighter future for every child.

Co-Founder & Board Member, Racial Justice NOW
Former National Field Organizer, Dignity in Schools Campaign

Live and Call-In 10 pm EDT

Join Us and Tune In Here: OCG LIVE Studio

Listen or Call – In (347) 838-9852

Zakiya Sankara-Jabar is the Co-founder of Racial Justice NOW and National Director of Activism at brightbeam. She speaks to audiences across the country on issues of race and equal opportunity in schools while promoting strategic frameworks for change. In addition to other awards and appearances, Zakiya was named to the inaugural #Power50 Leadership Fellowship for women of color with Community Change and was recently featured in the HBO series, Problem Areas.

June 13, 2020

“Rebellion, Murder and Elections: Qualified Immunity”

Guest: Dr. James L. Taylor , Ph.D.
Chair of the Department of Politics, University of San Francisco

Live and Call-In 10 pm EDT

Join Us and Tune In Here:

https://bit.ly/3e0H5QkImmunity

Listen or Call – In (347) 838-9852

Our discussion this week will be centered in strategic questions facing Black people struggling at this crucial historical juncture to see forward.

▪️Police Defunding and new public safety strategies
▪️Police Accountability and Reform – “Cold Cases”
▪️Demands and Challenges of the Black Vote
▪️ Black Trauma and Grief

June 6, 2020

“8 Minutes: 46 Seconds: The Collapse of American Racial Delusions”

OPEN MIC Saturday Night

Live and Call-In 10 pm EDT

Join Us and Tune in here: Tune In Here: http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

Listen or Call – In (347) 838-9852

It was a hushed moment of terror we witnessed. Where from here when the protests are done and the nation turns away, once more, from any notion of some “renewed scrutiny” of violence and killing of Black people under the cover of law?

May 30, 2020

“We Can’t Breathe”

Guest: Dr. Raymond A. Winbush, Ph.D.

Director and Research Professor, Institute for Urban Research , Morgan State University

10 PM EDT – Live & Call-In

Listen or Call – In (347) 838-9852

Tune In Here: http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

Dr. Winbush is a research professor and the Director of the Institute for Urban Research. As a scholar and activist, he is known for his systems-thinking approaches to understanding the impact of racism/white supremacy on the global African community. His writings, consultations, and research have been instrumental in understanding developmental stages in Black males, public policy and its connection to compensatory justice, relationships between Black males and females, infusion of African studies into school curricula, and the impact of hip hop culture on the contemporary American landscape.

Dr. Winbush appeared as race relations expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005. His books, The Warrior Method: A Program for Rearing Healthy Black Boys and Should America Pay? Slavery and The Raging Debate on Reparations were published in 2001 and 2003 respectively. His latest book, Belinda’s Petition: A Concise History of Reparations For The Transatlantic Slave Trade (is considered a “prequel” to Should America Pay? Slavery and the Raging Debate on Reparations, and provides an overview of how reparations for the TransAtlantic Slave Trade has been a consistent theme among African people for the past 500 years.

May 16, 2020

One Side Dark, Other Side Hard : Black America In the GAP ”
Guest: Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens, Ph.D.

Author, “Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology”
Professor and Director of the Humanities in Medicine Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Tune In Here: http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

Deirdre Cooper Owens is the Linda and Charles Wilson Professor in the History of Medicine and Director of the Humanities in Medicine program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is an Organization of American Historians’ (OAH) Distinguished Lecturer and has won a number of prestigious honors that range from the University of Virginia’s Carter G. Woodson Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies to serving as an American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology Fellow in Washington, D.C.

Cooper Owens earned her Ph.D. from UCLA in History and wrote an award-winning dissertation while there. A popular public speaker, she has published articles, essays, book chapters, and think pieces on a number of issues that concern African American experiences. Recently, Cooper Owens finished working with Teaching Tolerance and the Southern Poverty Law Center on a podcast series about how to teach U.S. slavery and Time Magazine listed her as an “acclaimed expert” on U.S. history in its annual “The 25 Moments From American History That Matter Right Now.”

Her first book, Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology (UGA Press, 2017) won the 2018 Darlene Clark Hine Book Award from the OAH as the best book written in African American women’s and gender history.

Professor Cooper Owens is also the Director of the Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia, the country’s oldest cultural institution founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1731. She is working on a second book project that examines mental illness during the era of United States slavery and is writing a popular biography of Harriet Tubman that examines her through the lens of disability.

May 09, 20202

“Black Economic Inequality: #RACEMatters”

Guest: Dr. Toure F. Reed, Professor of History and Author of “Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism”

10 PM EDT – Live & Call-In

Listen or Call – In (347) 838-9852
Tune In Here: http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

Dr. Toure Reed earned his BA in American Studies from Hampshire College (Amherst, MA), and his PhD in History from Columbia University (New York, NY). He is a fourth generation African American educator and third generation professor. Having spent his formative years in South West Atlanta, GA and New Haven, CT, Dr. Reed’s research interests center on race, class, and inequality.
Specifically, Professor Reed’s research focuses on the impact of race and class ideologies on African American civil rights politics and US public policy from the Progressive Era through the Presidency of Barack Obama.

Dr. Reed is the author of Not Alms But Opportunity: The Urban League and the Politics of Racial Uplift, 1910-1950, (UNC Chapel Hill Press, 2008) and the recently published Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism (Verso Books, 2020). He is also co-author of Renewing Black Intellectual History: The Ideological and Material Foundations of Black American Thought (Paradigm Publishers, 2009).
His articles have appeared in the Journal of American Ethnic History, LABOR, nonsite.org, Catalyst, Blackagendareport.com, Commondreams.org, Jacobin, the New Republic, and the Nation.

Dr. Reed has received numerous grants and fellowships including the prestigious Kluge Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Library of Congress in support of a book in progress titled New Deal Civil Rights: Class Politics and the Quest for Racial Equality, 1933-1948.

ABOUT the Book
Examines the fate of poor and working-class African Americans-who are unquestionably represented among neoliberalism’s victims-is inextricably linked to that of other poor and working-class Americans

Reed contends that the road to a more just society for African Americans and everyone else is obstructed, in part, by a discourse that equates entrepreneurialism with freedom and independence. This, ultimately, insists on divorcing race and class. In the age of runaway inequality and Black Lives Matter, there is an emerging consensus that our society has failed to redress racial disparities. The culprit, however, is not the sway of a metaphysical racism or the modern survival of a primordial tribalism. Instead, it can be traced to far more comprehensible forces, such as the contradictions in access to New Deal era welfare programs, the blinders imposed by the Cold War, and Ronald Reagan’s neoliberal assault on the half-century long Keynesian consensus.

May 02, 2020

“Election 2020: Playbook and The Price”

Tune In: https://bit.ly/3bVLz9UElection2020

Listen & Call – In (347) 838-9852

Guest: Dr. James Lance Taylor, PhD

Chair, Department of Politics,former President of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS), an important organization of African American, African, and Afro Caribbean political scientists in the United States, 2009-2011

We share the urgency of ridding the country of an unfit, corrupt, racist con-man who occupies the WH. We have witnessed a full force destruction of all of the tools within the government structure necessary for Black people to build and sustain a viable political infrastructure. If we are to prevail, what is the path forward ? How and what is the platform from which we will address the needs of all Black people? Poor and working poor? Active and inactive? What is in our playbook? What is on the center, and at each goal posts? What is the ball and who will run, punt or pass? What is the value, indeed the price, of our vote, absent an alternative to the establishment party? We must agree that electoral politics are critical to rescue our government from total collapse. What is the price we pay? These and other questions we explore with Dr. James Taylor.

Bio

Prof. Taylor’s scholarship internationally was acknowledged through his Keynote invitation at the 2014 National Indigenous Studies Conference (AIATSIS) in Canberra, Australia, where he presented the lecture, “Taking Intercommunalism Seriously: Black Power, Indigeneity, and Peoples’ Struggles for Recognition and Anti-Racist Democracy.”

He has taught previously as a Visiting Associate Professor of political science at Saint Louis University in Madrid, Spain and political science and African American and African Diaspora Studies at University of California, Berkeley.

His most recent published article is “King the Sellout or Sellin’ Out King?”: Hip Hop’s Martin Luther King,” in Dream and Legacy: Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Post-Civil Rights era (2017).

Demand for Prof. Taylor’s political analysis, expertise, and opinion has been sought internationally by leading media organizations in Dublin, Ireland, Canberra, Australia, Toronto, Canada, and London, England. He serves as a political commentator on San Francisco, U.S national, California, and U.S. Black politics on behalf of the University of San Francisco’s Media Relations Office and appears regularly on San Francisco News TV with KRON 4, FOX KTVU local, and ABC 7. He is a frequent guest on NPR/KQED with Michael Krasny and other programs, and has appeared counting so far eight times at the California Commonwealth Club in San Francisco aside leading figures in law, media, and politics.

In 2015, Prof. Taylor addressed hundreds of California Law Enforcement Officers at the International Institute of Criminal Justice Leadership in San Francisco (USF) on the topic of “The Black Lives Matter Movement” and Law Enforcement and currently serves as a committee member for two Executive Level committees (Bias and Community Engagement) (SFPD Command Staff level) for the Mayor’s Office of San Francisco and the San Francisco Police Commission’s mandates to implement the Obama Department of Justice Findings and Recommendations on the operations of the San Francisco Police Department.

Prof. Taylor also served as moderator for two public comment and town hall events on behalf of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, San Francisco Police Department and the San Francisco Police Commission on the policy consideration of implementing Conducted Energy Devices (CEDs), also known as tasers in 2017. He has also served as a policy consultant for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission and San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

The San Francisco Museum of the African Diaspora (MOAD) and California Historical Society, the Hayward Black Historical Society and many local community groups and organizations call on Taylor’s expertise in his fields. He has given public lectures at Northwestern University, The Ohio State University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley and DePauw University (Indiana).

Prof. Taylor is Vice President of the San Francisco Achievers Scholarship non-profit on behalf of African American males graduating from the San Francisco Unified School District.

His teaching and research scholarly interests are in religion and politics in the United States, race and ethnic politics, African American political history, social movements, political ideology, law and public policy, Black political leadership, and the U.S. Presidency. He lives with his family in Oakland, California.

April 25, 2020

Our guest this week, Ruby Sales SpiritHouse Project is the Founder and Director of the Spirit House Project. She joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s as a teenager at Tuskegee University and went to work as a student freedom fighter in Lowndes County, Alabama. She is one of 50 African Americans to be spotlighted in the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.

She is a 1914 OUR COMMON GROUND Witness on the Bridge.

Our guest this week, Rev. Dr. Ruby Sales SpiritHouse Projectis a contemporary philosopher, she is a deeply committed social activist, scholar, administrator, manager, public theologian and educator in the areas of civil, gender and other human rights. Publisher of the renowned, From My Front Porch, web commentary.

April 18, 2020

OUR COMMON GROUND April 18, 2020 LIVE

Black people are more likely to die from the COVID-19 than white Americans. The coronavirus C)VID 19 spread across the United States is exposing racial fault lines.

Blacks in America, whether urban, suburban, rural suffer disparate health outcome for very specific reasons. Social, economic, and/or environmental injustice. Access to healthy housing and housing location, adequate and culturally sound medical care and treatment are among the many characteristics which has a causal impact from these disparities.

While the data sets remain piecemeal, with only some states and counties reporting outcomes by race, numbers as of April 9th, without nationwide data, are stark. Where the race numbers were known of only 13,000 COVID-19 deaths, 3,300 deaths or 42 percent were African Americans. We project that a wider study would be soundly shocking.

Tonight, Epidemiologist, Dr. Camara P. Jones, join us as we examine existing and new health and health care disparities in the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of race. We are asking why these disparities were not prioritized in the agenda for treatment and containment planning.

A corrupt racist, criminal enterprise has established itself in our government. The victorious rhetoric following a failed impeachment effort as affirmed that the President and his complicit minions affirm the new autocracy. Poor, brown and Black people are targets of the regime.

It is clear that resistance to voter suppression, imperialism charged by a turbo-brand of capitalism is immune to citizen resistance. The federal judiciary is now solidly a bastion of Republican domination. The Republican has fallen. Exactly how do we respond? How do we rebuild a Black political infrastructure shredded in today’s political environment?

There are 52 Black representatives in the U.S. House and Will Hurd of Texas, the one Republican is leaving. Two nonvoting delegates represent the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, one is Black, the other, African American. In 1965 only six representatives were Black, all were Democrats. For the first time in American history more than one Black senator is serving in the U. S. Senate. Senators, Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Cory Booker, D-N.J. and a Republican, Tim Scott, R-S.C. None seem to have the answers, propose new strategies or have evolved into a new model of representation. Obviously, the revolution will not be found in the ballot box.

Tonight, we seek the expertise, of Dr. James L. Taylor in examining the political carnage in Black communities across the country and explore new strategies to survive until we can move beyond this blatant disregard of our citizenry.

July 30, 2016

July 23, 2016

July 16, 2016

July 10. 2016

July 9, 2016

July 2, 2016

June 25, 2016

June 18, 2016

June 11, 2016

June 4, 2016

May 28, 2016

May 21, 2016

May 14, 2016

April 30,2016

April 16, 2016

April 9, 2016

April 2, 2016

March 26, 2016

March 19, 2016

March 12, 2016

February 27, 2016

February 20, 2016

February 13, 2016

Due to the Death of Assoc. Justice Antonin Scalia we are reformatting our programming for this episode. To Be Aired soon.

January 30, 2016

January 23, 2016

January 2, 2016

December 26, 2015

December 19, 2015

December 12, 2015

November 7, 2015

October 31, 2015

October 24, 2015

October 17, 2015

October 10, 2015

October 03,2015

September 26, 2015

Dr. Ruby N. Sales, Co-Moderating
LISTEN LIVE and Join the OPEN Chat: http://bit.ly/1LS3Pfj
Call In – Listen Line: 347-838-9852

RESISTANCE and REBELLION Series

We continue our series of discussions of REBELLION AND RESISTANCE required to fight American racism and white supremacy.

Tonight on OUR COMMON GROUND, we discuss white supremacy as a system of power which is a fundamental undergird and foundation of economic, political and cultural imperialism. Part of our discussion will focus on examining the parallels of the struggle to dismantle that system with the struggles of other victims of white supremacy across the globe. Joining us will be representatives of a visiting Palestinian activist group here in the US to make its case before the UN Commission on Human Rights. We are grateful to have Dr. Ruby Sales, a featured commentator on OCG to join us and to lead this discussion, taking your calls and comments.

THE GLOBAL NATURE of WHITE SUPREMACY

White supremacy is a historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations and peoples of color by white peoples and nations of the European continent; for the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power and privilege.

White supremacy operates through racial oppression against people of color: slavery, genocide, anti-immigration, driving while Black, etc. White supremacy maintains real power for the ruling class who control the major institutions of society.
Racism is white supremacy; white supremacy is racism. There is no other form of “functional” racism in the known universe. Therefore it is illogical purporting victims of white supremacy (racism) worldwide are capable of practicing white supremacy simultaneously. It doesn’t compute.

Racism | White Supremacy – One or more white persons using deceit, direct violence, and/or the threat of violence to promote falsehood, non-justice, and/or incorrectness against non-white people on the basis of “color” in order to “satisfy” white people, in one or more areas of activity including economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and/or war.
“Everything that a Racist (White Supremacist) says, and everything that he or she does is intended to help establish, maintain, expand, and/or refine the practice of Racism (White Supremacy).”

– Neely Fuller Jr. The United Independent Compensatory Code/System/Concept a textbook/workbook for thought, speech and/or action for victims of racism (white supremacy)

“The local and global power system structured and maintained by persons who classify themselves as white, whether consciously or subconsciously determined; this system consists of patterns of perception, logic, symbol formation, thought, speech, action and emotional response, as conducted simultaneously in all areas of people activity (economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and war). The ultimate purpose of the system is to prevent white genetic annihilation on Earth – a planet in which the overwhelming majority of people are classified as non-white (black, brown, red and yellow) by white-skinned people. All of the non-white people are genetically dominant (in terms of skin coloration) compared to the genetically recessive white-skinned people.”

– Dr. Frances Cress Welsing The Isis Papers

“To think of White supremacy in terms of American dynamics alone eschews the fact that much of the racism, the legacy of slavery in sheer size actually occurred outside of the United States (i.e. Brazil). Much of the colonialism globally impacts America (in terms of capitalism and trade) yet didn’t occur here. The idea that White supremacy evaporates when White people are not present or when some Whites are oppressed for other facets of identity beyond their race is simply untrue.”

“Racism Isn’t Only American. White Supremacy Isn’t Only Western.” Gradient Lair, http://www.gradientlair.com/post/63803685383/racism-and-white-supremacy-are-global

September 19, 2015

The cry of #Black Lives Matter rings throughout the nation. It stands in the wake of a new movement and awakens our national consciousness to the persistent system of white supremacy and structural racism that penetrates each of our institutions. By placing violence against black bodies at the center of the movement, BLM has demanded dignity and respect for those who are often disregarded as disposal.

The Black Lives Matter movement was born out of the pain and injustice of Trayvon Martin’s death in 2012 and gathered momentum in the wake of the killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Tamir Rice and far too many others. The significance of this emergence was not so much the movement as it was the cry of our people declaring that “Black Lives Matter”. A cry for a need for a new liberation uprising for Black people in America. #BlackLivesMatter as a slogan met the need of Black people to declare its pain, loudly and precisely. Moving that slogan as the undergird of a movement is the hard part. Figuring how we ignite political and social transformation — not just marches, Twitter feeds and shouting matches on- and offline is the real challenge.

More teaching, training and strategic action is needed. More poor people, experienced organizers and on-the ground development is required to create a movement. Too often, meetings and community conversations are held in order to delay progress and to give the illusion of progress, all while the community remains broken. The Black Lives Matter Movement has the potential to turn this very moment into a movement, but must expand in depth and breadth to accomplish the task of justice and reconciliation. #BlackLivesMatter has to be the talk on the “block” across America.

There is no doubt that the “#BlackLivesMatter” movement is a critical opportunity to engage community interest groups in conversations about race and privilege. The movement issued a call to action for people everywhere to recognize the reality of institutionalized racism. But to whom is it engaged?

We must get as excited about policy shaping as we do about protesting. Systemic terrorism needs also requires Black redemption; and that work is little, slow and fueled political bickering on the left, long meetings and little relationship building. Who is teaching the history that brings us to the street proclaiming #BlackLivesMatter ? A slogan is cry for a need for a new liberation for Black people in America, but within the village, is there a depth of understanding beyond the pain – understanding of the Empire which presses us? “#BlackLivesMatter” as a slogan meets only a small need. Moving that slogan as the undergird of a movement igniting political and social transformation — not just marches, Twitter feeds and shouting matches on- and offline.

But here is the rub. No movement can be sustained or make significant change if it falls to co-opting by the same systems which rule the Empire that designs, control and maintains the structures of institutionalized racism and system of white supremacy. It cannot be vulnerable to take-down and huge vacuums of community disengagement. If #BlackLivesMatters is to be a true moment, the whole community is required to build the walls and fortify a strategy that moves forward on objectives targeting goals for all Black people.

The whole village must understand where and when they enter. If not, it is merely another group attempting to advance a narrow agenda, important, but narrow just the same. How do we infuse the slogan with a movement?

September 12, 2015

40 Years, $1 Trillion, 45 Million Arrests – the war still rages against our community. IT WAS NEVER ABOUT DRUGS

Saturday, September 12, 2015 10 pm EDT

LISTEN LIVE and Join the OPEN Chat: http://blogtalkradio.com/OCG
Call In – Listen Line: 347-838-9852

We will review and examine the truth about the policies and intent of the “War on Drugs”. We need to talk about the money making behind the politics; how the drug war can be considered slow Nazi policy on the poor and the racial profiling used. We look at these destructive and failed policy and manipulation in its historical context and destructive outcomes. We will present audio clips for our discussion which will assist us in understanding just how much the “War on Drugs” was really never about drugs.

For sheer government absurdity, the War on Drugs is hard to beat. After three decades of increasingly punitive policies, illicit drugs are more easily available, drug potencies are greater, drug killings are more common, and drug barons are richer than ever. The War on Drugs costs Washington more than the Commerce, Interior, and State departments combined – and it’s the one budget item whose growth is never questioned. A strangled court system, exploding prisons, and wasted lives push the cost beyond measure. What began as a flourish of campaign rhetoric in 1968 has grown into a monster. And while nobody claims that the War on Drugs is a success, nobody suggests an alternative. Because to do so, as Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders learned, is political suicide. As a community we need to understand how Drug War fever has been escalated; who has benefited along the way; and how the mounting price in dollars, lives, and liberties has been willfully ignored. Where are the policy maker offices where each new stage was planned and executed? What happened in the streets where policies have produced bloody warfare. This is a tale of the nation run amok – in a way the American people are not yet ready to confront. Are you?

September 5, 2015

We are pleased to have Ruby Sales join us tonight as we discuss with you about our response to a rising and troubling challenge to the agency of Black people as citizens in this country. As we come closer to the term end of the first African-American elected to the Presidency, violence and terrorism of all kinds have been unleashed upon us threatening to silence our mobilization and voice to protect ourselves, to resist and to rebel. A slogan alone will not be enough. How do we keep the flames of liberation burning to move forward in this continuing struggle ?

ABOUT RUBY N. SALES
Guest Host

May 2, 2015

“Uprising: Resistance and Rebellion”

Tonight we look back at this week’s uprising in Baltimore MD and explore where we go from here. How do we prepare a generation of people for a new, more militarized war on Black people? How do we get our people to see, “we are the Gaza?” Looking at the Freddie Gray murder charges and the overall fracture and failure of the Amerikkan judicial and government systems.

ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Ajamu Baraka,Human Rights Leader and Contributor, Black Agenda Report

Ajamu Baraka is a human rights defender whose experience spans three decades of domestic and international education and activism, Ajamu Baraka is a veteran grassroots organizer whose roots are in the Black Liberation Movement and anti-apartheid and Central American solidarity struggles.

He writes for the Black Agenda Report and is Editor of “A Voice from the Margins” http://www.ajamubaraka.com/

Efia Nwanga, Human Rights Attorney and Liberation Broadcaster, WMXP Greenville South Carolina

Sister Nwangaza, current director of the Malcolm X Center for Self Determination, is a former Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer. The Malcolm X Center for Self Determination (http://wmxp955.webs.com/aboutus.htm ), is a volunteer grassroots, community based, volunteer staffed, owned and operated human rights action center, since 1991.Nwangaza is an affiliate member of the Pacifica Radio Board of Directors as a representative of WMXP.

April 25, 2015

In Conversation with Barbara R. Arnwine
President and Executive Director
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

‪#‎BlacklivesMatter‬ reverberates in the increasingly exposed police terrorism against people. It also resounds in the notion of Black citizenship. Tonight we discuss with Barbara Arnwine the legal challenges and abrogation of the legal and civil rights of Black citizens in this country. Voter suppression, voter rights, States’ rights, housing discrimination, gentrification in traditional Black communities and political representation at the State and national governments. Is it possible to find ways of transforming a corrupt judiciary and protections by the government agencies responsible for the oversight of justice ? Are there new legal strategies ? New paths of resistance? We also talk to her about the future of the Lawyers’ Committee and her own future as she prepares to exit the leadership of the organization after decades. We hope that you will join us in this discussion.

April 18, 2015

OPEN MIC SATURDAY NIGHT

April 11, 2015

“The Urgency of Thinking Black”
A Conversation with Dr. Tommy J. Curry

ABOUT DR. CURRY
Dr. Tommy J. Curry is a professor of Philosophy and critical race theorist who engages in the study of Black people at Texas A&M University. His teaching, research and writing spans various fields of philosophy, jurisprudence, Africana Studies, and Gender Studies.

“The Negro, in the universities and colleges of Europe and America, has to do his thinking and his reading in…the white man’s language…Our environment makes us think white, and some of us think white so persistently that we haven’t the time to think Black. I urge upon you…to help, with voice and pen, to hasten the coming of the morning when Negroes all over this broad land will wake up to the importance of thinking Black.
John Edward Bruce—“The Importance of Thinking Black”—1917

“All across the country, impunity for the perpetrators of summary execution of Black men, women and children is an ‘everyday practice.’”

• WE SUFFER POLICE MURDER, POLITICAL STRANGULATION AND THE REIGN OF WHITE CONTROL
• WE LIVE IN A POLICE STATE.
• THE CONFEDERACY IS RISING ACROSS THE LAND.
• THE WAR WAGING AGAINST POOR PEOPLE.
• WE HAVE BEFALLEN A NEW HARSH RACISM, ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION AND THE ETHICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF NEGLECT, PAIN AND SUFFERING
• WE SUFFER THE DE-RADICALIZATION OF RACISM
• WE LACK A NON-PARTISAN INTERPRETATION OF THE BLACK CONDITION.
• THE ISSUE OF REPARATIONS HAS FALLEN IN A DEEP, BLACK TUNNEL

As early as 1976, Derrick Bell had already formulated the basis of his now famous racial realist thesis—the idea that Black people “will never gain full equality in this country. Even those Herculean efforts we hail as successful will produce no more than ‘temporary peaks of progress,’ short lived victories that slide into irrelevance as racial patterns adapt in ways that maintain white dominance”—in the realization that “white self-interest will prevail over Black rights.”

Race-critics, critical sociologists and Black scholars cannot continue to think through the lenses of symbols of progress but measure and focus our energies on the actual economic, political, and extra-legal conditions of Black existence. In one of his visits on OUR COMMON GROUND, Dr. Curry said, “There is a very real contradiction between the symbolism of Obama’s reign and the worsening plight of Blacks under Obama’s reign.”

Robert F. Williams, author of Negroes with Guns, argued in that work that: “The stranglehold of oppression cannot be loosened by a plea to the oppressor’s conscience… We have come to comprehend the nature of racism. It is a mass psychosis…the logical inventions of a thoroughly diseased mind. The racist is a man crazed by hysteria at the idea of coming into equal human contact with Negroes. And this mass mental illness called racism is very much a part of the “American way of life (p.110-111).”

OUR reconstruction and redemption as a people will only come when we start THINKING BLACK.

March 28, 2015

” The Matter of White ManNess: The Bad Apple Argument NOT”

OPEN MIC

When people hear stories of police misconduct, brutality and murder under law or videos of college students singing songs of lynching Black people or elected officials creating legislation designed to oppress and discriminate many are quick to defend the system as a whole and say that these are just examples of “a few bad apples”. We submit that such arguments are ‘bullshyt’. These problems are definitely systematic and “the bad apple arguments” do not pass the test of logic.
Does not a rotten apple pollute all the apples in the crate ? Or, is their bacteria in the crate which infects all the apples ? This racist behavior living in a “specialized white male culture’ living off of white privilege and supremacy is impossible. It pollutes and empowers whatever real or assumed power they are granted. Our children die and live by this system. Our tax dollars support it.

March 21, 2015

Tribute to Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan
In Conversation with Dr. Wilmer Leon
HOST, “Inside the Issues with Dr. Wilmer Leon
Sirius/XM Radio

ABOUT Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan

He was one of the most courageous and inspiring scholars of our time would live for nearly a century, paying personal witness to dramatic transformations in the lives of Black people across the globe. Now a Beloved Ancestor. See more below.

We will discuss with Dr. Leon about today’s urgent and pressing issues and events before African-Americans.

ABOUT Dr. WilmerLeon Dr. Leon’s Prescription

Wilmer Leon is the Nationally Broadcast Talk Show Host of “Inside The Issues with Wilmer Leon” Saturday’s from 11:00 am to 2:00pm on Sirius XM (126).

Wilmer J. Leon III, Ph.D. is a Political Scientist whose primary areas of expertise are Black Politics and Public Policy. Wilmer has a BS degree in Political Science from Hampton Institute, a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from Howard University, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Howard University.Dr. Leon is also the host of XM Satellite Radio’s, “Inside The Issues”, a three-hour, call-in, talk radio program airing live nationally on XM Satellite Radio channel 126.”

Dr. Leon was a featured commentator on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight and is also a regular contributor to The Grio.com, The Root.com, TruthOut.org, The Maynard Institute.com and PoliticsInColor.com. He is an OUR COMMON GROUND Voice for more than 5 years.

March 14, 2015

In Conversation with Yvette Carnell
POWER BLOGGER and THOUGHT-LEADER
March 14, 2015 10 pm ET LIVE

Discussing her commentary about the Byron Allen suit against Black media, and more.

About Yvette Carnell

Blogging politics, social, and cultural issues
>>> BreakingBrown.com Breakingbrown.me
>>> Editor, YourBlackWorld
>>> Formerly, KultureKritic

She writes mostly about politics, social, and cultural issues for my personal blog, BreakingBrown.com as well as BreakingBrown.tv and Breakingbrown.me. She is also an editor for YourBlackWorld and a managing contributor on KuluteKritic.

Before embarking on a career as a writer, she served as a Congressional aide, first to Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), and later to former Congressman Marion Berry (D-AR). In her role as a legislative staffer, she prepared briefings, staffed Congressional hearings, represented Members with their constituents, and performed other support duties .
In her time on the Hill, she also worked as Regional Field Director for America’s Families United (AFU), one of the largest non-profit Get Out the Vote (GOTV) campaigns active during the 2004 election cycle. At AFU,she played an integral role in establishing the framework and assessment criteria for distributing over 20 million dollars to AFU’s grant recipient organizations.

In the broader Democratic Party, she served as assistant to the Director of the Women’s Vote Center at the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Her articles have been featured in the Huffington Post and Your Black World. I have been quoted by national news outlets including, but not limited to; The Nation, The Guardian, Politico and NPR.
She received a B.A. in Political Science from Howard University.

ABOUT BreakingBrown

BreakingBrown.com is a social media hub which aggregates the freshest and most insightful content from brown bloggers, podcasters and videocasters on the internet. We aggregate, distribute, critique and explore black and brown people in the unending universe which is social media. Now there’s no longer a need for you to stalk cyberspace in search of an honest black or brown perspective. It’s all right here.
In addition to providing the content which black and brown readers sorely miss with the mainstream media stream, we also consider ourselves a meeting place for black and brown social media enthusiasts and thus provide a stream of useful social media information for our overworked and underpaid (thanks Arianna) social media provocateurs.

Must Read t: “The Proper Response to Racism”
http://bit.ly/16Pjs7h

March 7, 2015

“The DOJ Report: Shallow Oversight, Vague Enforcement”

Guest, Dr. James Lance Taylor, Past President of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists; Author,“Black Nationalism in the United States: From Malcom X to Barack Obama “

Saturday, March 7, 2015 LIVE & Call-In 10 pm ET
Listen and Call In Line 347-838-9852
Listen Live and Call in HERE : http://tinyurl.com/qbptskb
:: Bloody Sunday Tribute::

ABOUT Dr. James Lance Taylor
CHAIR, PROFESSOR Urban Studies, University of San Francisco

Dr. James Lance Taylor is author of the book Black Nationalism in the United States: From Malcolm X to Barack Obama, which earned 2011 “Outstanding Academic Title” -Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries (January 2012). (Ranked top 3 percent of 25,000 books submitted and top 8 percent of 7,300 actually accepted for review by the American Library Association). He is the Immediate Past President of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS), an important organization of African American, African, and Afro Caribbean political scientists in the United States.

He is associate professor and Chair of the Department of Politics at the University of San Francisco. His undergraduate degree is from Pepperdine University and his graduate degrees were earned at the University of Southern California (USC). He has taught previously as a Visiting Associate Professor of political science at Saint Louis University in Madrid, Spain and political science and African American Studies at University of California, Berkeley.

He is co-editor and an author with Katherine Tate (UC Irvine) and Mark Sawyer UCLA Something’s in the Air: Race and the Legalization of Marijuana (Routledge, 2013), focusing on controversies concerning race and marijuana legalization. Taylor’s current research is for a book manuscript, Peoples Temple, Jim Jones, and Black America, which is a study of the Peoples Temple movement and African American political history. Two of his articles on the subject have appeared in recent editions of the Jonestown Report newsletter at San Diego State University. Two additional articles on the Post-Civil Rights era African-American Church and Civil Rights are in production at SUNY Press. He is currently writing a journal article, “A Black Theology of the ‘Souls’ of W.E.B. Du Bois’s Black Folk” in recognition of that book’s one-hundred and tenth anniversary (2013)

January 24, 2015

“The Gutting of the Fair Housing Act”
Discussion with James Perry,National Fair and Affordable Housing National Leader and Advocate
Saturday, January 24, 2015 LIVE 10 pm ET

Listen and Call in Line: 347-838-9852
Join us Here for our LIVE Chat : http://bit.ly/1COpRMQ

We began this week by celebrating the 85th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth, but today the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in an important case that could knock down a crucial racial and economic pillar of justice built during the civil rights movement.

The nine justices considred on Wednesday the extent to which the Fair Housing Act of 1968 remains a vital tool in combating the discrimination in housing and lending that continues to plague our country. In an added bit of irony, the passage of that act was itself spurred by the assassination of the person whose birth we just celebrated and the civil unrest that King’s murder sparked. Too often we forget that Dr. King didn’t just fight for the political equality of all African-Americans, he fought for his brothers and sisters’ economic equality as well.

It was an overriding concern of his captured perfectly in the Oscar-nominated film, “Selma.” Commenting on the ending of segregation in public accommodations, King asked, “[W]hat good does it do to sit at the counter when you cannot afford a hamburger.” The same could be said today.

Although it has repeatedly been suggested that Martin Luther King Jr.’s concern about economic equality arose late in his career, the theme of the importance of economic justice runs throughout his work. After all, the famous march at which King delivered his historic “I Have a Dream Speech” was titled the “March for Freedom and Jobs” (emphasis added). Referring to the time that had elapsed since the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation, King remarked that, “One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.”

As a nation, we have done a good job of lauding the progress made in eliminating thede jure segregation of public accommodations. It is always easy to celebrate success, particularly when by so doing we can assert our superiority over the benighted people who used brute force and intimidation to maintain that segregation. But we are less enthusiastic about speaking about continuing economic inequality because, in part, that implicates us and our continuing failure to address the structural causes of poverty. Or maybe it’s because we believe that inequality reflects the relative worth of groups of people.

January, 17, 2015

In the Spirit of Sankofa: Upending White Supremacy”

In the Spirit of Sankofa: Upending White Supremacy”
Opening the 31st Broadcast Season of

OUR COMMON GROUND with Janice Graham

Discussion with OUR GUEST: Rev. Ruby N. Sales
Founder, SpiritHouse Project, social activist, scholar,public theologian, and educator.
In the Spirit of Sankofa
Where does our outrage meet the challenge of change?

about RUBY N. SALES
FREEDOM and JUSTICE WARRIOR

Ruby Nell Sales is a highly-trained, experienced, and deeply-committed social activist, scholar, administrator, manager, public theologian, and educator in the areas of Civil, Gender, and other Human Rights. She is an excellent public speaker, with a proven track record in conflict resolution and consensus building. Ms. Sales has preached around the country on race, class, gender, and reconciliation, and she has done ground-breaking work on community and nonviolence formation.

November, 2014 Discussion Series

“The Soul of Black Folks” Series
November 8 -29, 2014

What Is The Soul Of Black Folk?
DuBois wrote The Souls of Black Folk in 1903. His book offers an assessment of the progress of the African-American race, the obstacles to progress, and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the 20th century. It is considered a groundbreaking work in African-American literature. Some consider it to be an American classic.

In his book, DuBois proposes that the problem with the 20th century was the color-line. The phrase color line was a reference to the racial segregation that existed in the United States after the abolition of slavery. Some consider DuBois’ concepts of life behind the cover of race and double-consciousness to be the norm for African Americans in America. Double consciousness is considered a person caught between the self-conception of being American as well as a person of African descent, making it difficult to have a unified identity.

29 November 2014

“The Souls of Black Folks: The Ashes of Justice”

Guests:
Dr. Tommy J. Curry, Professor of Critical Race Theory and Africana Studies, Texas A&M University

Dr. James Lance Taylor, Professor and Chair, Department of Politics, University of San Francisco, CA;Past President of the National Conference
of Black Political Scientists; Author,“Black Nationalism in the United States: From Malcom X to Barak Obama “

ABOUT Dr. James Lance Taylor
Dept. CHAIR, PROFESSOR Politics, University of San Francisco

Dr. James Lance Taylor is author of the book Black Nationalism in the United States: From Malcolm X to Barack Obama, which earned 2011 “Outstanding Academic Title” -Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries (January 2012). (Ranked top 3 percent of 25,000 books submitted and top 8 percent of 7,300 actually accepted for review by the American Library Association). He is the Immediate Past President of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS), an important organization of African American, African, and Afro Caribbean political scientists in the United States.

ABOUT Dr. TommyJ Curry
Dr. Tommy J. Curry is a professor of Philosophy and critical race theorist who engages in the study of Black people at Texas A&M University. His teaching, research and writing spans various fields of philosophy, jurisprudence, Africana Studies, and Gender Studies.

His work spans across the various fields of philosophy, jurisprudence, Africana Studies, and Gender Studies. Though trained in American and Continental philosophical traditions, Curry’s primary research interests are in Critical Race Theory and Africana Philosophy. In Critical Race Theory, Curry looks at the work of Derrick Bell and his theory of racial realism as an antidote to the proliferating discourses of racial idealism that continue to uncritically embrace liberalism through the appropriation of European thinkers as the basis of racial reconciliation in the United States. In Africana philosophy, Curry’s work turns an eye towards the conceptual genealogy (intellectual history) of African American thought from 1800 to the present, with particular attention towards the scholars of the American Negro Academy and the Negro Society for Historical Research.

15 November 2014

“The Soul of Black Folks: Rediscovering A Critical Truth”
Guest: Dr. Tommy J. Curry
Texas A&M University
Professor of Philosophy, CRITICAL RACE THEORY
and AFRICANA STUDIES

Dr. Tommy J. Curry is a professor of Philosophy and critical race theorist who engages in the study of Black people at Texas A&M University. His teaching, research and writing spans various fields of philosophy, jurisprudence, Africana Studies, and Gender Studies.

08 November 2014

06 September 2014

Slavery By Another Name”
ABOUT the Book and the Documentary
The Age of Neo-Slavery

In this groundbreaking historical expose, Douglas A. Blackmon brings to light one of the most shameful chapters in American history—when a cynical new form of slavery was resurrected from the ashes of the Civil War and re-imposed on hundreds of thousands of African-Americans until the dawn of World War

Under laws enacted specifically to intimidate blacks, tens of thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily arrested, hit with outrageous fines, and charged for the costs of their own arrests. With no means to pay these ostensible “debts,” prisoners were sold as forced laborers to coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroads, quarries and farm plantations. Thousands of other African Americans were simply seized by southern landowners and compelled into years of involuntary servitude. Government officials leased falsely imprisoned blacks to small-town entrepreneurs, provincial farmers, and dozens of corporations—including U.S. Steel Corp.—looking for cheap and abundant labor. Armies of “free” black men labored without compensation, were repeatedly bought and sold, and were forced through beatings and physical torture to do the bidding of white masters for decades after the official abolition of American slavery.

The neoslavery system exploited legal loopholes and federal policies which discouraged prosecution of whites for continuing to hold black workers against their wills. As it poured millions of dollars into southern government treasuries, the new slavery also became a key instrument in the terrorization of African Americans seeking full participation in the U.S. political system.

30 August 2014

23 August 2014

16 August 2014

“Homeland Terrorism”
“We were prepared then, as we are now, to give our all in the interest of oppressed people.” – BPP

>> Boots on the Ground Reports
SpiritHouse Project, Susan K. Smith and Osagyefo Sekou

>> The Smearing of Dead Black Boys

>> Mental Illness in Police Departments

LIVE
#FERGUSON #THEFRONTLINE #FERGUSONREBELLION #Homelandterrorism

Four Unarmed Black Men Have Been Killed By Police in the Last Month, From New York City and LA to Ohio and Ferguson, MO, they all died under disputed circumstances.

THE VANGUARD
The Black Panther Party

“We knew, as a revolutionary vanguard, repression would be the reaction of our oppressors, but we recognized that the task of the revolutionist is difficult and his life is short. We were prepared then, as we are now, to give our all in the interest of oppressed people. We expected the repression to come from outside forces which have long held our communities in subjection. However, the ideology of dialectical materialism helped us to understand that the contradictions surrounding the Party would create a force that would move us toward our goals. We also expected contradictions within the Party, for the oppressors use infiltrators and provocateurs to help them reach their evil ends. Even when the contradictions come from formerly loyal members of the Party, we see them as part of the process of development rather than in the negative terms the oppressors’ media use to interpret them. Above all, we knew that through it all the Party would survive.”

Where does our outrage meet the challenge of change ?

OUR COMMON GROUND with Janice Graham

URBAN PROGRESSIVE independent talk radio

LISTEN LIVE and Join the OPEN Chat: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/OCG
Call In – Listen Line: 347-838-9852

09 August 2014

02 August 2014

26 July 2014

05 July 2014

“Confronting the New Amerikkan Empire”
In Conversation with Cynthia McKinney

Join us here: http://bit.ly/1sSZxR7

We are honored to have as our guest, Cynthia McKinney former U. S. Congresswoman, international human rights activist and former Presidential candidate, to discuss domestic and foreign policy in the new Amerikkan Empire.

Our two-hour live program will span a discussion of topics which include the American relationship and funding of the State of Israel and its impact on the Palestinian people; the increased surveillance of Americans domestically; the increasing militarization of law enforcement in this country; the American destabilization of the Middle East; the resurgence of open and affirmed white supremacy in the US homeland; the education of Black children; the military, prison and health industrial complex and the reparations for descendants of the American chattel slavery system. We will of course, take calls from our listeners.

ABOUT OUR GUEST
Former U. S. Congresswoman, international human rights activist and former Presidential candidate, Cynthia McKinney will open the 2014 2nd Session of OUR COMMON GROUND on July 5, 2014. Cynthia McKinney served twelve years as a Member of the United States Congress House of Representatives. She was elected six times by the people of the State of Georgia.

As a Member of Congress, Cynthia challenged then-Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff to tell the truth about his failures as an important leader in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. She challenged the Africa Policies of both George W. Bush’s Secretary of State Colin Powell as well as Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Her political career shows her as a tireless defender of her constituents in Georgia as well as all American poor, the middle class, farmers, students, and veterans.

Cynthia authored the legislation that authorized the disparity study that found that Black farmers in the United States had suffered intentional and willful discrimination for generations. Cynthia continues to work with the farmers as they seek delayed justice. Cynthia continues to contribute to the scholarship on important issues in her work researching COINTELPRO against the American Indian Movement, the Black Panther Party, and the Puerto Rican Independence Movement. Cynthia believes that while COINTELPRO might have ended, U.S. government surveillance on its own people did not. Her thoughts have been vindicated by recent revelations by Eric Snowden of National Security Agency wiretapping practices.

Ms McKinney has become an internationally renowned human rights activist, serving with distinction as a juror on the Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Palestine and of working with: Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s Perdana Global Peace Foundation; the Brussels Tribunal on Iraq, and a successful effort in Spain to indict and hold accountable soldiers of the Rwandan Patriotic Army who committed genocide against Congolese citizens inside Democratic Republic of Congo. As a result of her activism around Israel/Palestine issues she served 7 days in an Israeli prison for attempting to deliver school supplies to Gaza’s children in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead.

Cynthia has written an autobiography, “Ain’t Nothing Like Freedom” (http://claritypress.com/McKinneyII.html ) and she maintains a Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/CynthiaMcKinneyOfficial). Visit her official website All Things Cynthia (http://www.allthingscynthiamckinney.com/).

As a liberation leader she has demonstrated throughout her political and advocacy career a willingness to step into the line of fire in order to pursue justice for oppressed people.

We have long admired her courage and respected her work and achievements at OUR COMMON GROUND. We will be honored and pleased to have her with us.

05 April 2014

Witness From the Bridge
Dr. Joyce A. Ladner
Sociologist – Academic and Education Leader
Civil Rights Pioneer Activist

Sociologist Joyce Ladner was born in Battles, Mississippi, on October 12, 1943. She attended Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Mississippi, where she earned her B.A. in sociology in 1964 and went on to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, to earn a Ph.D. in 1968.

At school, she also became involved in the civil rights movement. After earning her Ph.D., Ladner went on to teach at colleges in Illinois; Washington, D.C.; Connecticut; and Tanzania.

In 1970 she conducted postdoctoral work as a research associate at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. In Tanzania she completed research on “The Roles of Tanzanian Women in Community Development.” Active within the SNCC organization as field secretary, Ladner was a witness to the racial conflict, violence, and the institutionalization of segregation. She has written numerous reports on children’s issues and has often been consulted for her expertise. Her work spans the roles of sociology professor, university president, presidential appointee, and a national public policy analyst. A prolific scholar, she has committed her life to improving the areas of diversity, multicultural education, higher education, urban issues, public policy, family and gender challenges, and child welfare.

Ladner published her first book in 1971, Tomorrow’s Tomorrow: The Black Woman, a study of poor black adolescent girls from St. Louis. In 1973, Ladner joined the faculty of Hunter College at the City University of New York.

Leaving Hunter College for Howard University in Washington, D.C., Ladner served as vice president for academic affairs from 1990 to 1994 and as interim president of Howard University from 1994 to 1995. When she became interim president of Howard in 1994, she was the first woman to hold the position at the university. She retired to Florida in 2003.

In 1995, President Bill Clinton appointed her to the District of Columbia Financial Control Board, where she oversees the finances and budgetary restructuring of the public school system.

She is also a former senior fellow in the Governmental Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C. think tank and research organization. She has spoken nationwide about the importance of improving education for public school students. She has appeared on nationally syndicated radio and television programs as well.

She has received many honors and awards, including distinguished alumna and Hall of Famer of Tougaloo College, distinguished alumna of Washington University, Most Inspiring Teacher Award in 1986 and the Outstanding Achievement Award in 1991 from the Howard University School of Social Work. In 1996. Dr. Ladner was named Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian magazine

Ladner is active in a number of civic and professional organizations. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, The American Sociological Association, the Washington Urban League, the Washington Women’s Forum and the Coalition of 100 Black Women. In 1997, she was named Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian for her work in education.

Dr. Joyce A. Ladner, author of The Death of White Sociology: Essays on Race and Culture, published by Black Classic Press, has written numerous books on education, urban issues, public policy and transracial adoption.

She has been an activist, author and civil servant. She is a Mississippi native who earned her bachelor.s in sociology in 1964 from Tougaloo College. She earned a doctorate in sociology in 1968 from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

She and her sister, Dorie, organized and went to jail for their roles in demonstrations on behalf of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee for which Joyce Ladner served as field secretary.

Her career has included work at various universities and institutions: Southern Illinois University, assistant professor and curriculum specialist, 1968-69; affiliated with Wesleyan University, 1969-70; University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, research associate, 1970-71; Hunter College of the City University of New York, sociology faculty, 1976-81; Howard University, professor of sociology, 1981-98, vice president of academic affairs, 1990-94, interim president, 1994-95; Brookings Institution, senior fellow, government studies, 1977.

When she became interim president of Howard in 1994, she was the first woman to hold the position at the university. She retired to Florida in 2003.

Dr. Joyce A. Ladner, is the author of The Death of White Sociology: Essays on Race and Culture, published by Black Classic Press and Launching Our Black Children for Success: A Guide for Parents of Kids from Three to Eighteen by Joyce A. Ladner and Theresa Foy DiGeronimo. She has written numerous books on education, urban issues, public policy and transracial adoption. Her other books include, authored or edited, Tomorrow’s Tomorrow: The Black Woman, The Ties That Bind: Timeless Values For African American Families, Mixed Families: Adopting Across Racial Boundaries and The New Urban Leaders. And,these must reads:
Ladner, Joyce. Tomorrow’s Tomorrow: The Black Woman. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1971.
—. Mixed Families: Adopting Across Racial Boundaries. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1977.
—. The New Urban Leaders. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2001.

29 March 2014

Anti-Violence Educator/Activist Carmen del Rosario
Founder, Roots of Transformation

About Carmen del Rosario

Carmen is a highly driven and motivated, partnership, and programme management professional with over 20 years of professional experience working in the field of violence against women and children with government and development organizations, community networks and institutions in the US, El Salvador, Rwanda, Burundi, Dominican Republic, Tanzania, Congo (RDC) and Liberia

Ms. Carmen Del Rosario served as the Director of the Boston Public Health Commission’s Domestic Violence Program for 10 years. Del Rosario was a pioneer in developing strategies to engage boys and men in positive ways to prevent violence and to promote healthy relationships. In the year 2000, under her leadership, de Domestic Violence Program received funding from the CDC to develop , implement and evaluate a five years demonstration project working with men as fathers.

Over the past eight years Carmen has been working in East Africa, (Tanzania) Central Africa (Eastern Congo) and West Africa (Liberia), developing, coordinating and implementing programs to respond to survivors of Gender Based Violence (GBV), Women’s Empowerment Program as well as prevention initiatives with men from different background; these include, refugees’ men, religious leaders, traditional leaders, the police, and the UN peacekeepers. Carmen has developed intervention and prevention programs providing technical support to capacity development of the implementing partners in partnership with government, UNHCR, WFP, UNICEF and INGO.

ABOUT ROOTS of TRANSFORMATION
Roots of Transformation, is a non-government grassroots organization working toward the prevention of VAWC by catalyzing changes in communities and by supporting organizational sustainability. The organization works to prevent violence by addressing its roots causes, such as traditional gender roles, and the imbalance of power between women and men.

Our Mission

Roots of Transformation is committed to equipping people with the knowledge, wisdom and tools needed to make decisions that will positively impact their futures, the future of their family and their nation.

22 March 2014

BlueBlack – Red-Bone – Yallah : Colorism and the Black Community”

Exactly what is colorism? An old children’s rhyme captures the definition in a nutshell.

“If you’re black, stay back;
if you’re brown, stick around;
if you’re yellow, you’re mellow;
if you’re white, you’re all right.”

In sum, colorism refers to discrimination based on skin color. Colorism disadvantages dark-skinned people, while privileging those with lighter skin. Research has linked colorism to smaller incomes, lower marriage rates, longer prison terms and fewer job prospects for darker-skinned people. What’s more, colorism has existed for centuries both in and outside of black America. That makes it a persistent form of discrimination that should be fought with the same urgency that racism is.

Colorism’s Origins

How did colorism surface? In the United States’ colorism has roots in slavery. That’s because slave-owners typically gave preferential treatment to slaves with fairer complexions. While dark-skinned slaves toiled outdoors in the fields, their light-skinned counterparts usually worked indoors completing domestic tasks that were far less grueling. Why the discrepancy? Slave-owners were partial to light-skinned slaves because they were often family members. Slave-owners frequently engaged in sexual intercourse with slave women, and light-skinned offspring were the telltale signs of these unions. While slave-owners did not officially recognize their mixed-race children as blood, they gave them privileges that dark-skinned slaves did not enjoy. Accordingly, light skin came to be viewed as an asset among the slave community.

Outside of the United States, colorism may be more related to class than to white supremacy. While European colonialism has undoubtedly left its mark on countries worldwide, colorism is said to predate contact with Europeans in various Asian countries. There, the idea that white skin is superior to dark skin may derive from the ruling classes typically having lighter complexions than the peasant classes. While peasants became sun-tanned as they labored outdoors day in and day out, the privileged had lighter complexions because they didn’t have to work in the sun for hours daily. Thus, dark skin came to be associated with the lower classes, and light skin with the elite. Today, the high premium on light skin in Asia is likely tangled up with this history along with the cultural influences of the Western world.

An Enduring Legacy

After slavery ended in the U.S., colorism didn’t disappear. In black America, those with light-skin received employment opportunities off limits to darker-skinned African Americans. This is why upper-class families in black society were largely light-skinned. Soon light skin and privilege were considered one in the same in the black community, with light skin being the sole criterion for acceptance into the black aristocracy. Upper crust blacks routinely administered the brown paper bag test to determine if fellow blacks were light enough to socialize with. “The paper bag would be held against your skin. And if you were darker than the paper bag, you weren’t admitted,” explainedMarita Golden, author of Don’t Play in the Sun: One Woman’s Journey Through the Color Complex.

Colorism didn’t just involve blacks discriminating against other blacks. Job advertisements from the mid-20th century reveal that African-Americans with light skin clearly believed their coloring would make them more palatable as job candidates. Writer Brent Staples discovered this while searching the archives of newspapers near the Pennsylvania town where he grew up. He noticed that in the 1940s, black job seekers often identified themselves as light-skinned.

“Cooks, chauffeurs and waitresses sometimes listed ‘light colored’’ as the primary qualification — ahead of experience, references, and the other important data,” Staples said. “They did it to improve their chances and to reassure white employers who…found dark skin unpleasant or believed that their customers would.”

Why Colorism Matters

Colorism yields real-world advantages for individuals with light skin. For example, light-skinned Latinos make $5,000 more on average than dark-skinned Latinos, according to Shankar Vedantam, author of The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars and Save Our Lives. Moreover, a Villanova University study of more than 12,000 African-American women imprisoned in North Carolina found that lighter-skinned black women received shorter sentences than their darker-skinned counterparts. Previous research by Stanford psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt found that darker-skinned black defendants were two times more likely than lighter-skinned black defendants to get the death penalty for crimes involving white victims.

Colorism doesn’t just play out in the workforce or in the criminal justice system but in the romantic realm. Because fair skin is associated with beauty and status, light-skinned black women are more likely to be married than darker-skinned black women, according to some reports. “We find that the light-skin shade as measured by survey interviewers is associated with about a 15 percent greater probability of marriage for young black women,” said researchers who conducted a study called “Shedding ‘Light’ on Marriage.”

Light skin is so coveted that whitening creams continue to be best-sellers in the U.S., Asia and other nations. Mexican-American women in Arizona, California and Texas have reportedly suffered mercury poisoning after turning to whitening creams to bleach their skin. In India, popular skin-bleaching lines target both women and men with dark skin. That skin-bleaching cosmetics have persisted for decades signals the enduring legacy of colorism.

15 March 2014

“Ballers of the New School: Race and Sports in America”
Author and Professor, Dr. Thabiti Lewis

“What also doesn’t get annually discussed during the three-week “big pimpin’” tournament is the issue of poor graduation rates among the Black players who mainly compose these teams.”
– Dr. Thabiti Lews on OUR COMMON GROUND, June 10, 2009

We are joined by Dr. Thabiti Lewis, to talk about race and sports in America. He is the author of “Ballers of the New School” and joins us again on OUR COMMON GROUND.

Although sport is one of the dominating cultural practices in the social life of the United States, it traditionally was viewed as a discrete social phenomenon largely untouched by the problems of American society. From impersonations of Venus Williams to Michael Vick’s ban to Gabby Douglas’ hair. There is a racist beat is in the music of sports. In challenging this traditional portrayal, scholars often characterize sport as a “microcosm of society.” As such, sport has revealed the dominant attitudes and practices regarding race relations in the United States throughout the country’s history.

08 March 2014

“The Death of American Radio: Opportunity for Progressive Empowerment”

Guest: Norman Goldman
American attorney and liberal talk radio host.
Host, The NorMAN GoldMAN Show

The NorMAN GoldMAN Show

March 8, 2014 LIVE 10 pm ET

“The place where fierce independence is the norm. Where Justice is Served.”

Norman Goldman is the host of “The NorMAN GoldMAN Show” heard nightly through a live podcast and syndicate to terrestial radio across the country .

He knows all that legalese “ipso facto habeas corpus” stuff. Better yet, he knows how to make sense of it all. Day after day, on issue after issue, Norm brings it all into focus. What matters, why it matters, and why it matters to you. His is an inspiring life story which takes you from rags to righteous, to radio. His is the incredible true story of Norman Goldman’s Journey to Justice, in politics and in life!

For years, Norman has been providing insightful legal analysis for MSNBC and The Ed Schultz Show.

His live show, “The NorMAN GoldMAN Show” brings his signature clarity, wit and wisdom to the issues of the day. He also gives you a chance to talk back as he takes calls from all across the country on his nightly live stream broadcast. . Based in Los Angeles, Goldman’s national radio program is distributed by Compass Media Networks.

The program’s motto is “Where justice is served”, but on-air Norman also uses the motto “The place where fierce independence is the norm”, a pun on his first name. Recently Goldman created the “four point plan to save America”, after chastising politicians such as President Barack Obama for betraying their campaign promises. It includes power-transparency; “a WikiLeaks for radio”, and a grassroots quarterback for the coordinating/funding of the progressive message and viewpoint.

CC Media the vehicle used by private-equity firms Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP to privatize Clear Channel Communications in 2008 reported for the latest period a loss of $309.2 million, compared with a year-earlier loss of $191.3 million, and pointed to equity in losses of non-consolidated affiliates and higher interest expenses. Its revenue slid to $1.69 billion from $1.7 billion a year before as a 2% decrease in its outdoor revenue offset growth in its media and entertainment segment.

In his “Beyond Norm” segment of the 3-hour broadcast, Norman provided a nightly legal and business expose’ of Clear Channel and Cumulus, the two giant corporate owners and destroyers of terrestrial radio, and why the huge losses by Clear Channel is important. In this series, he analyzes the future and power of streaming broadcasting as the only highway of information worth a hoot. He explained IN DETAIL, what has happened and what it means for talkers, advertisers and listeners. That’s us and that is what we will be talking with Norman Goldman tonight with him on OUR COMMON GROUND.
I have for years been a nightly listener and fan of this Norm’s, and it is indeed Fierce and where Justice is Served. His is the best in the business.

01 March 2014

Annual OCG Black History Games

25 February 2014

Dr. Francis Rodgers-Rose, PhD
CEO and Founder
The International Black Women’s Congress

ABOUT Dr. Rodgers-Rose and The International Black Women’s Congress

“We have turned from ourselves, busy trying to be somebody else, trying not to look like ourselves. We are confused and do not know which way to turn. We are losing our life force. When we no longer respond to who we are—queens, seers, leaders, doers—we die a spiritual death.”
“Put On Your Red Dress”, Dr. Dr. La Francis Rodgers-Rose

The International Black Women’s Congress (IBWC), founded in 1983 by Dr. La Francis Rodgers-Rose. She has served as its CEO for the past 31 years. IBWC is an international, non-profit networking organization for Black women throughout the Diaspora.

As founder and CEO of the International Black Women’s Congress, she has been responsible for carrying out the mission of bringing forth exemplary models of African womanhood. Expanding thinking about Black women and igniting a vision for social, economic and political empowerment and service to the community. The organization offers rites of passage programs for girls, parenting skill training, AIDS outreach and coronary heart disease education.

In an effort to improve the quality of life for Black women, the organization has held yearly issue-focused conferences since 1985. Some of the conference themes have been: Weaved in the Fabric: A Wholistic Perspective on Violence Against Black Women; Healing Black Women from Violence: Reclaiming Our Rightful Place; AIDS Beyond 2012: Black Women and Girls; Economic Healing for Black Women; A Journey Towards Wellness; What Do We Tell Our Daughters; Black Women Defining Self in the 21st Century; Black Women and Families; Political Socialization of Black Women; and Black Women and Breast Cancer.

The organization published two major books, Healing Black Women from Violence in 2011 and River of Tears: The Politics of Black Women’s Health in 1993. We have established an Emergency Relief Fund; given support to the SOS Children’s Village in the Gambia and since 1996 support a maternal and child health program in Guinea, West Africa. Our long-term objective is to continue to address crucial issues that confront women of African ancestry; assist women who want to study or work abroad; establish a credit system for members; and develop a Black Women’s Health and Research Institute.

Dr. La Francis Rodgers-Rose is a Founding Member and Past President of the Association of Black Sociologists 1970 – 2012 (42 years).

She is a former Professor in African American Studies, Princeton University September 1973 – May 1988 (14 years 9 months)
For fifteen years she was the core professor in the African American Studies Program. She taught courses on the Black Woman, the Black Family, Black Self Concept, Research in the Black Community, and the Social Psychology of Black Students on White College Campuses. She served as both a formal and informal adviser on junior and senior thesis papers

15 February 2014

THE ANNUAL OUR COMMON GROUND BLACK HISTORY GAMES

#HISTORY MATTERS

LISTEN FOR 20 QUESTIONS . . . CALL IN YOUR SCORES and GET BONUS POINT QUESTIONS
ON AIR ANSWERS include important background information on the answer to each question.
Offer your own fact question to the audience (2 Bonus Points)

“African Americans, as a distinct ethnic variation in the African diaspora, were created by slavery. Millions of Africans wound up in America only because they were kidnapped to fill the needs of a slave economy. This process forged a new people, who became American by necessity, and included 12 generations of chattel slavery. For nearly 250 years, American culture dehumanized those it enslaved and, more insidiously, socialized generations of African Americans for enslavement. The nation’s economic reliance on slavery mandated a rigid and pitiless racial hierarchy.”
“In these Times” JANUARY 29, 2006
Black History Month Matters

HISTORY MATTERS

THE HISTORY OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH

As a Harvard-trained historian, Carter G. Woodson, like W. E. B. Du Bois before him, believed that truth could not be denied and that reason would prevail over prejudice. His hopes to raise awareness of African American’s contributions to civilization was realized when he and the organization he founded, the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), conceived and announced Negro History Week in 1925.
Seeing the need to spread the news about Black history to the general public as well as scholars, Dr. Woodson and the ASNLH pioneered the celebration of “Negro History Week” in 1926, which has since been extended to the entire month of February.
By the time of Woodson’s death in 1950, Negro History Week had become a central part of African American life and substantial progress had been made in bringing more Americans to appreciate the celebration. At mid–century, mayors of cities nationwide issued proclamations noting Negro History Week. The Black Awakening of the 1960s dramatically expanded the consciousness of African Americans about the importance of black history, and the Civil Rights movement focused Americans of all color on the subject of the contributions of African Americans to our history and culture.

The celebration was expanded to a month in 1976, the nation’s bicentennial. President Gerald R. Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” That year, fifty years after the first celebration, the association held the first African American History Month. By this time, the entire nation had come to recognize the importance of Black history in the drama of the American story. Since then each American president has issued African American History Month proclamations. And the association—now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)—continues to promote the study of Black history all year.

In honor of this bold act for empowerment of our people, OUR COMMON GROUND celebrates Black History Month with the nation throughout the month. Each year, we use our broadcast to host, the Annual OCG Black History Games.

Testing and challenging your Black History intelligence.

About The Games
1. We select and structure 20 questions covering significant facts about events, people and accomplishments in Black History from Reconstruction through 2014. For each question, listeners can assign 10 points for each correct answer. Five (5) of the questions will feature a (5 point bonus) question. Listeners listen for the questions, answer and call in with the answers once all the questions are posed.
2. For bonus points, callers who call in with their scores can ask for an additional listener only question to bolster their overall score.
3. We encourage teams made of family, friends and regular listeners who want partners.

#HISTORY MATTERS
#TALKTHATMATTERS

08 February 2014

“The Book of Jeremiah: The Life and Ministry of Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.”
Rev. Dr. Susan K. Williams Smith
Author and Gordon Cosby Seasoned Fellow at the Spirit House Project (ATL)

Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. will forever be linked to the historical 2008 presidential campaign of then Senator Barack Obama. Although unwillingly thrust into the spotlight, the media attention could never overshadow Wright’s prophetic teachings, nor does it define his life and ministry. The Book of Jeremiah: The Life and Ministry of Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. examines the man, an African American, a patriot who served his country, a scholar, a prophet, and a pastor. The relevance of his ministry extends far beyond his pastorate at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, reaching a global stage with a message of liberation and justice.
Susan Williams Smith provides a comprehensive picture of Wright, shedding light on his upbringing, teaching, and preaching influences, and the far reaching effects of his ministry on Barack Obama and the world.

ABOUT Dr. Susan K Smith
Rev. Dr. Susan K. Smith is the former Senior Pastor of Advent United Church of Christ, in Columbus, Ohio, is a 1986 graduate of Yale Divinity School, where she earned her M.Div.
She received her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Occidental College and her Doctor of Mininistry from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.

She is the author of four books, Carla and Annie, From Calvary to Victory, Forgive WHO?, andCrazy Faith: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives, which is currently in its second printing. Her work also appears weekly on The Washington Post, as a member of a panel of theologians, scholars and writers who comment on issues pertinent to religion.

She is the mother of two children, Caroline, a recent graduate of Spelman College, now studying music therapy at the University of Dayton, and a son, Charles, who is writing and performing music.

A former reporter, Rev. Smith worked for newspapers in Baltimore and Texas before entering seminary. She also served as an associate producer for WJZ News, as an on-air news reporter for WEAA, the radio station affiliated with Morgan State University in Baltimore, and as a talk show host for “Columbus Today,” a locally heard radio program in Columbus, and as an on-air political commentator for a news magazine television program, also produced in Columbus.

Following graduation from Yale Divinity School, where she served as the first woman to be president of the student body, Dr. Smith served as associate minister at Trinity United Church of Christ, studying under the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. She served at Trinity for three years before accepting the call to be pastor at Advent UCC

01 February 2014

Queen Quet

Head-of-State for the Gullah/Geechee Nation

The Gullah/Geechee Nation exist from Jacksonville, NC to Jacksonville, FL. It encompasses all of the Sea Islands and thirty to thirty-five miles inland to the St. John’s River. On these islands, people from numerous African ethnic groups linked with indigenous Americans and created the unique Gullah language and traditions from which later came “Geechee.” The Gullah/Geechee people have been considered “a nation within a nation” from the time of chattel enslavement in the United States until they officially became an internationally recognized nation on July 2, 2000. At the time of their declaration as a nation, they confirmed the election of their first “head pun de boddee”-head of state and official spokesperson and queen mother. They elected Queen Quet, Chieftess and Head-of-State for the Gullah/Geechee Nation.

Queen Quet Marquetta L. Goodwine is a published author, computer scientist, lecturer, mathematician, historian, columnist, preservationist, environmental justice advocate, environmentalist, film consultant, and “The Art-ivist.” She is the founder of the premiere advocacy organization for the continuation of Gullah/Geechee culture, the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition. Queen Quet has not only provided “histo-musical presentations” throughout the world, but was also the first Gullah/Geechee person to speak on behalf of her people before the United Nations in Genevé, Switzerland.

Queen Quet was one of the first of seven inductees to the Gullah/Geechee Nation Hall of Fame. She received the “Anointed Spirit Award” for her leadership and for being a visionary. In 2008, she was recorded at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France at a United Nations Conference in order to have the human rights story of the Gullah/Geechee people archived for the United Nations. In 2009, she was invited by the Office of the High Commissioner of the United Nations to come and present before the newly founded “Minority Forum” as a representative of the Gullah/Geechee Nation and the International Human Rights Association for American Minorities (IHRAAM) which is an NGO in consultative status with the United Nations. Queen Quet is a directorate member for IHRAAM and for the International Commission on Human Rights. She represented these bodies and the Gullah/Geechee Nation at the “United Nations Forum on Minority Rights.”

Due to Queen Quet advancing the idea of keeping the Gullah/Geechee culture alive, the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition under the leadership of Queen Quet, worked with Congressman James Clyburn to insure that the United States Congress would work to assist the Gullah/Geechees. Queen Quet then acted as the community leader to work with the United States National Park Service to conduct several meetings throughout the Gullah/Geechee Nation for the “Special Resource Study of Lowcountry Gullah Culture.” Due to the fact that Gullah/Geechees worked to become recognized as one people, Queen Quet wanted to insure that the future congressional act would reflect this in its name and form. As a result in 2006 the “Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Act” was passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by the president.

Queen Quet is vetted with the United States White House as an Expert Commissioner in the Department of the Interior. She is also the Chair of the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor General Management Plan which is being completed by a commission created by the act for there to be a “Gullah/Geechee National Heritage Corridor.” Queen Quet is also a member of the “National Park Relevancy Committee” and proudly continues to work to protect the environment and to insure that diverse groups of people engage in the outdoors and the policies governing them. Queen Quet has engaged in several White House conferences on this issue.

25 January 2014

The Case of IRP6

This is a story about how prosecutorial tunnel vision created a tragic communication failure. The criminal justice system exists to give everyone a chance to tell their story. Juries decide who brings the best story to the table. Bad things happen when the system amplifies one story while silencing the other. (Dr. Alan Bean, Executive Director, Friends of Justice).

The IRP6 case concerns this African-American company (IRP Solutions Corporation) in Colorado that developed criminal investigations software for federal, state and local law enforcement. The case of the IRP6 is currently under appeal in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The men were convicted in 2011 after fighting the U.S. Government pro se at trial and have been incarcerated at the Federal Prison Camp in Florence, Colorado since the summer of 2012. The IRP6 sentences range from 7 to 11 years in federal prison for non-violent, non-drug-related charges. The IRP6 continue to maintain their innocence. (D. Ct. No. 1:09-CR-00266-CMA)

18 January 2014

“Wilmington On Fire”, A Full-length Documentary

OUR GUEST: Filmmaker, Christopher Everett, ; Historical Author Larry Reni Thomas ; and Economist William ‘Sandy’ Darity, North Carolina Wilmington Race Riot Report, “Economic Impact Analysis”

Unveiling the Secret of A White Supremacy Terrorist attack Against A Black Township In NC
This event was the spring board for the white supremacy movement and Jim Crow (segregation) throughout the state of North Carolina, and the American South.

11 January 2014

OUR COMMON GROUND OPENS 2014 SEASON

“BLACK AMERICA: A STATE OF EMERGENCY”
29th BROADCAST YEAR
‘EMPOWERING BLACK AMERICA TO ACHIEVE ITSELF’

THE FILM: Wilmington on Fire is a feature-length documentary that will give a historical and present day look at the Wilmington Massacre of 1898. The film features interviews from historians, authors, activists and descendants of the victims of the Wilmington Massacre of 1898. Wilmington on Fire will talk about things such as: African-American progress after slavery, African-American’s in Wilmington prior to the 1898 massacre, The Wilmington Massacre of 1898, Reparations, African-American history in Wilmington, The state of North Carolina’s involvement in the massacre of 1898, The Black community in Wilmington today AND MUCH MORE!

You can make this project happen by clicking the green “BACK THIS PROJECT” button on the right side of this page. Pledge any amount between $10 and $1,000 and receive rewards for your support. We are asking for $16k here on Kickstarter so please dig deep! Remember, Kickstarter is an ALL or NOTHING deal so if we don’t reach $16k in 30 days, we will get NO funding at all. So, please help us reach our goal! Visit here to show your support: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/114940453/wilmington-on-fire/pledge/new?clicked_reward=false

OUR PREVIEW TRAILER: Check out the preview trailer for the film below!

THE HISTORY: The Wilmington Massacre of 1898 was a bloody attack on the African-American community by a heavily armed white mob with the support of the North Carolina Democratic Party on November 10, 1898 in the port city of Wilmington, North Carolina. It is considered one of the only successful examples of a violent overthrow of an existing government (coup d’etat) and left countless numbers of African-American citizens dead and exiled from the city. This event was the spring board for the white supremacy movement and Jim Crow Segregation throughout the state of North Carolina, and the American South. This incident is barely mentioned and has been omitted from most history books. It was not until 2006, after the North Carolina General Assembly published a report on it, that the tragedy became known to the public.

TEASER TRAILER: Check out the teaser trailer for the film below!

WHY they NEED YOUR SUPPORT: In order to complete this film, we urgently need to raise $16,000 in the next 30 days. The money raised through Kickstarter will be used to create special effects & titles, as well as for the process of combining all of these elements: rendering, color grading, compositing, sound design and editing. This is needed in order to create everything at high resolution so that the finished film will be able to screen at film festivals and movie theaters. The money will be also used for archival material usage fees (photos, documents, news articles, news footage).

The CAST:

LARRY RENI THOMAS is an author/radio announcer and activist. He is also the founder of ICROW, Inc. (International Organization for Compensation and Reparations for the Victims of the Wilmington Massacre of 1898).

KENT CHATFIELD is an independent researcher in Wilmington, North Carolina who has done extensive research on the Wilmington Massacre of 1898.

WILLIAM DARITY is a Professor of Public Policy, African and African-American Studies, and Economics at Duke University. He also worked on the official North Carolina Wilmington Race Riot Report, “Economic Impact Analysis”.

DR. LEWIN MANLY is the grandson of newspaper editor & owner Alexander Manly. Alexander Manly was a prominent black figure in Wilmington and was forced to leave Wilmington in 1898 after his newspaper press was burned down during the massacre.

INEZ EASON is the great-granddaughter of Isham Quick. Isham Quick was a Coal & Wood Dealer and was also a board member of the Metropolitan Trust Company in Wilmington, NC before the massacre of 1898.

FAYE CHAPLIN is the great-granddaughter of Thomas C. Miller. Thomas C. Miller was a prominent businessman and property owner in Wilmington and was forced to leave Wilmington during the massacre of 1898.

DR. UMAR JOHNSON is a Psychologist who practices privately throughout Pennsylvania and lectures throughout the country. He is considered an authority on mental health in the Black community. He is also in the hit documentary series “Hidden Colors”.

QUEEN QUET is a historian and the Chieftess of the Gullah Geechee Nation.

DR. CLAUD ANDERSON is an author and is the President of the Harvest Institute (a nationally recognized Black think tank that works to help Black America become a self-sufficient and competitive). He is also in the documentary “Hidden Colors 2”.

LERAE UMFLEET was the lead researcher on the official North Carolina state report on the Wilmington Massacre of 1898.

AL MCSURELY is a legal advisor for the North Carolina NAACP.

WENDEL WHITE is a Professor at Stockton College, a researcher and photographer. He created the photography book entitled “Small Towns, Black Lives: African American Communities in Southern New Jersey”.

DAAWUD MUHAMMAD is a community activist in Wilmington, North Carolina and is the author of “No Covers Vol. 1”.

WILLIE VEREEN was a member of the “Wilmington Ten”. The Wilmington Ten were nine young men and a woman, who were convicted in 1971 in Wilmington, NC of arson and conspiracy, and served nearly a decade in jail.

SONYA BENNETONE is the historian for Central Baptist Church in Wilmington, North Carolina. She gives us a wealth of knowledge about the Reverend J. Allen Kirk and his account of the 1898 massacre.

ROGER HUBBARD is a community activist in Wilmington, NC and is the Program Director for LINC (Leading Into New Communities, Inc.).

DR. TERRY JACKSON is a community activist in Wilmington, NC and is also a business coach and consultant.

SUSI HAMILTON is a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives (D-18th District).

OUR TEAM:

Director & Producer Christopher Everett: Christopher Everett is an actor, writer, director and producer. He has a degree in Graphic Design from King’s College in Charlotte, NC. He recently finished his first documentary short entitled “The Laurinburg Institute Est. 1904” on a historic African-American Boarding & Day School in his hometown of Laurinburg, NC. Christopher has also starred in many commercials throughout the south east and indie films such as the award-winning narrative short “On My Last Breath”. For more info, check out: https://www.facebook.com/wilmingtononfire

Executive Producer Pete Chatmon: Pete Chatmon is an award-winning filmmaker across several platforms. He wrote, produced, and directed “Premium”, starring Dorian Missick and Zoe Saldana and “761st”, narrated by Andre Braugher, and has directed several short films, original webseries, and branded content for ad agencies. Double7 Images, his media+marketing collective, exists to give businesses, brands, and entrepreneurs a fighting chance in a marketplace crowded with distracting media noise. For more info, check out: http://d7i.co/

Cinematographer Donte Lee: Donte’ Lee has experience in film, music videos and commercials. His music video experience includes videos for artists such as Shaggy, Calvin Richardson, Tamer Hosny, and Paper Tongues. His commercial experience includes commercials for Rubbermaid and Saber Grills. His recent feature film work includes indies “Jimmy” and “9 Ball”. For more info, check out: http://vimeo.com/donte

Additional Cinematography Jesse Kale: Jesse Kale is recent graduate of UNCW with a degree in Communication. After being inspired by the film John Carpenter’s The Thing he decided to pursue a career in filmmaking. Besides working on WOF he recently produced the action short Drag Him Out! ,which premiered at Cucalorus, and programmed UNCW’s, Lumina Theater. Though he isn’t currently working on a project he is hopeful to find something soon that will spark his interest.

Original Score Matthew Head: With over six years of scoring experience, Matthew has found much success in the realms of film and video. His composition credits include numerous scores for movies, documentaries, and even commercials. Working with The Horne Brother’s production company, Matthew served as the Music Supervisor and Composer for their films Kissing Bandit and The Start of Dreams. Matthew has also worked with Dapa Entertainment composing the music for their documentary I am a Dream Chaser. Extending his abilities, he has worked closely with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution marketing team providing music for their commercials. For more info, check out: http://www.matthewheadproductions.com/

Music Supervisor JaNese Jean: Talk about a musician that embodies every aspect of music, you’re talking about Ja’Nese Jean. Artist, Vocal Producer and Music Supervisor, Ja’Nese Jean is a Triple Threat. Ja’Nese Jean’s dream is to inspire the masses through music, and for that reason, it’s important for her to be well skilled and knowledgeable in multiple aspect of the musical realm. She’s a Songwriter/Composer with ASCAP, a member of NARAS, and AGMA. She’s also a classically trained coloratura Opera diva, and humanitarian amongst many other things.

Promo Trailer / Motion Graphics Christopher Salvador: Christopher Salvador has worked with graphic design for over 6 years, and has been working in motion graphics for about 3 years. He is currently a student at the Savannah college of art in design (SCAD) studying motion graphics and graphic design. For more info, check out:http://www.behance.net/diorchata

Assistant Editor Don Stafford: Don Stafford has been in the video business for more than 20 years. He has been IT Director for several national distributors and is currently Director, IT for an international distributor. He has gotten involved on the production side of the business in both filming and editing in the past 3 years and is proud to be a part of this project.

January 11, 2014

THE ECONOMICS OF PRIVATIZATION OF AMERICA’S PRISON SYSTEM

We begin the 2014 Season examining the prison industrial complex, the implications of the merchandising of prisoners, the school to prison pipeline and the economics of the privatization of America’s prisons.

We invite you to join us and be part of the response to THE STATE OF EMERGENCY.

To help us frame our priorities for the 2014 year we begin by examining the American prison industrial complex. We will examine the school-to-prison strategies of prison privatization and the merchandising of prisoners in America. To inform our thinking on these issues, our guest is expert, author and scholar Dr. Byron E. Price, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Business and professor of public administration at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York in Brooklyn, New York, and and co-editor of “Prison Privatization: The Many Facets of a Controversial Industry” and author of “Merchandising Prisoners: Who Really Pays for Prison Privatization?”

Byron E. Price, Ph.D. is the former Dean of the School of Business and a professor of public administration at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York in Brooklyn, NY. He formerly served as an associate professor of political science in the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University (TSU) in Houston, Texas. Dr. Price spent five years at Rutgers University-Newark at the School of Public Affairs and Administration where he served as an assistant professor and director of the MPA and Executive MPA Programs as well as a number of other leadership positions including serving as the Associate Director of the National Center for Public Performance and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Public Management and Social Policy. A leading scholar in the field of prison privatization, he is the author of the book, Merchandizing Prisoners: Who Really Pays for Prison Privatization published by Praeger Publishers in March 2006 and the coedited 3-volume set entitled “Prison Privatization: A Controversial Industry” by Praeger Publishers, September 2012.

Price is a product of the Lemoyne Gardens Housing Project in Memphis, TN, a housing projects profiled on the History Channel’s Gangland series. Through hard work, steadfast support from family and friends, Price has proven that education lifts all sails.

He received his BS and MPA from Texas Southern University, an MBA from Oklahoma City University and a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration from Mississippi State University. Learn more about the research and work of Dr. Price by visiting his website at http://www.byroneugeneprice.com/.

ABOUT THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

THE SCHOOL-TO-PRISON PIPELINE STRATEGY A 2007 study by the Advancement Project and the Power U Center for Social Change says that for every 100 students who were suspended, 15 were Black, 7.9 were American Indian, 6.8 were Latino and 4.8 were white. The same study reports that the U.S. spends almost $70 billion annually on incarceration, probation and parole. This number lends itself to a 127% funding increase for incarceration between 1987-2007. Compare that to a 21% increase in funding for higher education in the same 20-year span. Local police have a presence in almost every American mid and high school in America where the student demographic is above 30% Black.

THE MERCHANDISING OF PRISONERS Perhaps more than with other service industries in this country, the privatization of prisons has become a growth industry. Yet, prison privatization continues to be one of the most controversial issues in public policy. Although sold to the public as a cost-saving measure, the privatization of prisons has not only led to significant changes in policy making and the management of prisons, but has also generated widespread concern that incarceration has become a profit-making industry. That, in turn, strengthens calls for policies on mandatory-minimum sentencing that keep the prison industry growing. After all, in order to be successful business enterprises, prisons will need occupants.

THE PRIVATIZATION OF PRISONS The U.S. incarcerates 25 percent of the world’s prison population – 2.2 million inmates in June 2005, 500,000 more than the People’s Republic of China, which has five times our population – it would appear that the rapidly growing for-profit prison industry has found an extremely fertile niche. That three leading for-profit prison companies – Corp. of America (CCA), Geo Group and Cornell Companies – have gone public and performed well in the markets is a testament to their growth potential.

21 December 2013

28th Annual
OUR COMMON GROUND Kwanzaa Teach-In and Celebration

Kwanzaa is an African American and Pan-African holiday celebrated by millions throughout the world African community, Kwanzaa brings a cultural message which speaks to the best of what it means to be African and human in the fullest sense.

2014 Theme
“KWANZAA, US AND THE WELL-BEING OF THE WORLD: A COURAGEOUS QUESTIONING”

The N ’guzo Saba
( The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa)

Umoja (Unity)
To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.

Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)
To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.

Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)
To build and maintain our community together and make our brother’s and sister’s problems our problems and to solve them together

Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)
To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.

Nia (Purpose)
To make our collective vocation the building and developIng of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

Kuumba (Creativity)
To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

Imani (Faith)
To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

14 December 2013

IN CONVERSATION with Efia Nwangaza

HUMAN RIGHTS – COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT – MEDIA
Activist and Leader

Efia Nwangaza is a lifelong civil/human rights activist and freedom fighter who first worked for the liberation of African/Black people as a child in her Garveyite parents’ apostolic faith church, in her birth place of Norfolk, Virginia.

At age 13 years, she served as secretary of the Norfolk Branch of the NAACP Youth and College Chapter and, later in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania she fought police violence, worked in the sucessful NAACP led campaign to desegregate Girard College, “a school for poor white, male, orphans” which then sat in the heart of Black North Philadelphia.

Efia and her family helped raise money and collect clothes and food to send South for those evicted and persecuted for attempting and registering to vote.

She joined forces with returning SNCC volunteers to found the Northern Student Movement (NSM) Freedom Library Day School; featured in the Xerox sponsored Black History: Lost, Stolen or Strayed series.

Anxious to go into the heat of battle, Efia Nwangaza accepted a scholarship and attended Spelman College. She worked at the national SNCC office and took on campus organizing for the successful Julian Bond Special Election Campaign Committee/SNCC-Atlanta Project. The Atlanta Project, SNCC’s first attempt at urban organizing, began raising concerns of a maturing movement and demands of the day, self-determination and SNCC’s position on the US War in Vietnam (which it did before King and SCLC), Palestine, and the role of whites in the community and organization. Atlanta Project position papers became the theoretical underpinnings for SNCC programming, and advancement of the modern “black power” call popularized by Kwame Ture (FKA Stokely Carmichael).

Armed with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Visual Arts from Spelman College, Temple University’s first Master of Arts degree in Women’s History (African-African American), and Golden Gate University School of Law Juris Doctorate, she went to Greenville, South Carolina where she is known as a freedom fighter, legal precedent setter and the recipient of many awards.

Efia Nwangaza is the founder and Executive Director of the Afrikan-American Institute for Policy Studies and Planning and founding memeber and SC Coordinator for the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement for Self-Determination. She is the founder/coordinator of the WMXP-LP community based radio, and a board memeber of Pacifica National Foundation, the nations oldest progressive radio network.

Efia is the former co-chair of the Jericho Movement for US Political Prisoners, represented the U.S. Human Rights Network’s Political Prisoner Working Group in observing the U.S. first appearance for UN Universal Periodic Review, in Geneva. She represented the National Conference of Black Lawyers in Aristide era Haiti, lectured at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women, NGO Forum, Beijing, China, and helped draft action plan for UN World Conference Against Racism.

She is an Amnesty International USA Human Rights Defender, and past memeber of the national Board of Directors for National Organization of Women (1990-1994) which launched the Every Woman NOW Campaign for President to force NOW to address internal white supremacy and elitism, African-American Institute for Research and Empowerment (1994-1996), South Carolina ACLU (1994-2000), and she was a 2004 Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate in memoriam and education of voting rights/citizenship work and ethics of Fannie Lou Hammer, Mojeska Simpkins, and Septima Clark.

Taken from Invisible Giants: Coming Into View Volume II

07 December 2013

Honoring the Life of President Nelson Mandela – Tata Madiba xoˈliːɬaɬa manˈdeːla

Spear of the Nation Nelson Mandela: The Authentic Era of South African Revolution

Guest, Dr. Tommy J. Curry, Associate Professor of Philosophy and African American Studies, Texas A&M University

Tata Madiba.
Nelson Mandela is dead and we should never forget his revolutionary leadership. We remember why he was imprisoned and how.
Madiba was a rare and fierec revolutionary leader. Tonight we talk about his leadership of Spear of A Nation.

Nelson Mandela, the former political prisoner who became the first president of a post-apartheid South Africa and whose heroic life and towering moral stature made him one of history’s most influential statesmen, died Thursday, the government announced. He was 95.

The death was announced in a televised address by South African President Jacob Zuma, who noted, “We’ve lost our greatest son.” No cause was provided.

Nelson Mandela, also known as Madiba, led the struggle to replace South Africa’s apartheid regime with a multi-racial democracy.

To a country torn apart by racial divisions, Mr. Mandela became its most potent symbol of national unity, using the power of forgiveness and reconciliation to heal deep-rooted wounds and usher in an era of peace after decades of conflict between blacks and whites. To a continent rife with leaders who cling to power for life, Mr. Mandela became a role model for democracy, stepping down from the presidency after one term and holding out the promise of a new Africa.

Madiba was a revolutionary leader. Tonight we talk about his leadership of Spear of A Nation.

16 November 2013

In Conversation with Dr. Raymond Winbush: “Racism and Mental Health Therapies and
The Movie, “12 Years A Slave”

We are pleased to have Dr. Winbush return to talk with us on OUR COMMON GROUND. r. Raymond A. Winbush is the Director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University in Baltimore Maryland.

Dr. Raymond Winbush is an American-African, scholar/activist in the field of developmental psychology of African boys and reparations for the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

He is the author of three books, including, “Belinda’s Petition: A Concise History of Reparations for the Transtlantic Slave Trade”, (Xlibris, 2009) a “prequel” to his book,” Should America Pay?: Slavery and the Raging Debate on Reparations” which was published by HarperCollins in 2003 and hit Essence Magazine’s bestsellers list shortly after its release. It has been called by Cornel West a “must read” when it comes to understanding the struggle for reparations.. His book, “The Warrior Method: A Program for Rearing Healthy Black Boys”, (Harper Collins, 2001), is a comprehensive African-centered program for rearing healthy Black boys in a racist society.

A clinical psychologist and director of The Warrior Institute (TWI), he is engaged in research concerning adolescent development, education, health and Black men and boys. He is the author of the critically acclaimed books “The Warrior Method: A Parents’ Guide to Rearing Healthy Black Boys” and “Should America Pay?: Slavery and the Raging Debate on Reparations”. In 2007, Winbush traveled to Australia to participate in a 5-day National Conference on Racism held at Murdoch University and delivered a lecture series at Australian National University.

He is the former Benjamin Hooks Professor of Social Justice at Fisk University and Director of the University’s Race Relations Institute. He also served as Assistant Provost and Director of the Johnson Black Cultural Center at Vanderbilt University. A native of Cleveland Ohio, Dr. Winbush, is a product of public school education, K through 12. In 1970, he graduated with honors in psychology from Oakwood College in Huntsville Alabama, and during his undergraduate education there, won scholarships to both Harvard and Yale Universities. After graduation he won a fellowship to the University of Chicago and received both his Masters and Ph.D. in psychology in 1973 and 1976 respectively.
From 1973 to 1980, Dr. Winbush taught at Oakwood College and Alabama A & M University in Huntsville before coming to Vanderbilt University in the fall of 1980. At Vanderbilt he was Assistant Provost of the university, held an adjunct professorship in the Department of Psychology and was Associate Professor of Human Resource Development at Peabody College and. His research interests include infusing African American studies into school curricula, African American adolescent development, Black male and female relationships and the influence of hip hop on contemporary American culture. He is the author of numerous articles on the “politics” of Afrocentricity and the resistance it encounters among scholars who wish to maintain existing intellectual paradigms. A recent article for the Baltimore Urban League coauthored with his colleague Dr. Tracy Rone at the Institute for Urban Research, cited the hidden dangers of environmental lead poisoning in Baltimore City.

He received a five-year $2.6 million grant from the Kellogg Foundation revitalized the historic Race Relations Institute at Fisk University. The 32nd Institute was held July 6-12, 1998 at Fisk with 250 attendees including actor James Earl Jones, the children of Kwame Nkrumah, W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey and Richard Wright, Dr. John Hope Franklin, Congressman John Conyers and Naomi Tutu of South Africa. Rap stars Chuck D and other members of the hip-hop community attended, as well as well-known psychiatrist Dr. Frances Cress Welsing. The Race Relations Institute is the only institute of its kind housed at a historically Black university. Another grant from the Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith Foundation is helping to establish The Warrior Institute in Baltimore that teaches the Warrior Method to parents, teachers and community activists.

His consultations are numerous. He is a former member of the Executive Board of the National Council for Black Studies. He is former President of the Southern Region of the Association of Black Culture Centers, and has consulted widely with organizations ranging from the Joint Center for Economic and Political Studies, National Research Council and the Ford Foundation and several American universities.. He currently sits on the Advisory Board of both the Journal of Black Studies, and Africalogical Perspectives the most prestigious journals in their field. He has held Board memberships on the Center for Democratic Renewal chaired by Rev. C. T. Vivian and the National Vanguard Leadership Program, chaired by Camille Cosby which has been instrumental in recording the lives of elders in the American African community.

Winbush conducts workshops based upon The Warrior Method locally, nationally and internationally. The Warrior Method has been incorporated in school systems in Baltimore, MD; Worchester, MA; Dallas, TX; Brixton, United Kingdom; and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and the issues of mental health in the Black community.

Listen ON – DEMAND l OUR COMMON GROUND l In Conversation with Dr. Raymond A. Winbush, PhD at http://tobtr.com/s/5571659. #TalkthatMatters

09 November 2013

“Disconnected From Our History: The Residuals of Mis-Education, Media and Denial”

A Conversation we need to have and learn to have in our community.

OPEN MIC Saturday Night

This Week at OUR COMMON GROUND
LIVE November MIC Saturday Night

“History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do. It could scarcely be otherwise, since it is to history that we owe our frames of reference, our identities, and our aspirations. And it is with great pain and terror that one begins to assess the history that has placed one where one is, and formed one’s point of view. In great pain and terror, because, thereafter, one enters into a battle with that historical creation, Oneself, and attempts to recreate oneself according to a principle more humane and more liberating: one begins to attempt to achieve a level of personal maturity and freedom which robs history of its tyrannical power, and also changes history.” – “White Guilt’ essay, James Baldwin

We hope that you will join us.

02 November 2013

Dr. David Ikard, Ph.D.

” Nation of Cowards” Author, Professor

David Ikard specializes in twentieth century literature (with a specialty in African American), black feminist criticism, hip hop culture, and black masculinity studies. His essays have appeared in African American Review, MELUS, Palimpsest, African and Black Diaspora Journal, The Journal of Black Studies, and Obsidian III. In 2007 Ikard published his first book, Breaking The Silence: Toward a Black Male Feminist Criticism, which reconsiders the role of black men in feminism and identifies intraracial patterns of complicity in dominant modes of power that undermine even the most earnest and informed anti-sexist and anti-racist efforts. Co-authored with Martell Teasley, Ikard’s second book Nation of Cowards: Black Activism in Barack Obama’s Post-Racial America, explores the disconnect between the national hype over Barack Obama’s historical election to the presidency and the ever-increasing economic distress of the black community that Attorney General Eric Holder broached in his controversial “race speech” in 2008. It received the Best Scholarly Book Award by DISA in 2013. The third and forthcoming book, Blinded by the Whites: Why Race Still Matters in the 21st Century considers whether a non-hierarchical strategy of empowerment is even feasible in the twenty-first century given the surge of socioeconomic incentives for African Americans to accommodate the status quo. From a cultural standpoint, it investigates the nuanced ways in which African American writers and artists across various creative media have negotiated this dilemma of incentives over time, paying close attention to “unorthodox” patterns of resistance that typically fall off the radar of intellectual consideration. He is currently working on two monographs. The first,Loveable Racists, White Messiahs, and Magical Negroes, explores the tenacity of white redemption narratives and their impact on cultural consciousness and race relations. The second project, Who’s Afraid of an Angry Black Man, focuses on extant black pathology discourses, spanning from hip hip culture to the academy, and considers the salient ways in which they continue to inform and complicate black self-determination and political agency in the present day. He received his Ph. D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002.
He is Associate Professor in the English Department at Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL. Professor Ikard is on leave for the 2013-2014 year. He is serving as faculty at the University of Miami Department of English presently.

26 October 2013

“In Conversation with George Curry”

George E. Curry is editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service. The former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine, Curry also writes a weekly syndicated column for NNPA, a federation of more than 200 African American newspapers.

Curry, who served as editor-in-chief of the NNPA News Service from 2001 until 2007, returned to lead the news service for a second time on April 2, 2012. His work at the NNPA has ranged from being inside the Supreme Court to hear oral arguments in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases to traveling to Doha, Qatar, to report on America’s war with Iraq.

As editor-in-chief of Emerge, Curry led the magazine to win more than 40 national journalism awards. He is most proud of his four-year campaign to win the release of Kemba Smith, a 22-year-old woman who was given a mandatory sentence of 24 1/2 years in prison for her minor role in a drug ring. In May 1996, Emerge published a cover story titled “Kemba’s Nightmare.” President Clinton pardoned Smith in December 2000, marking the end of her nightmare.

Curry is the author of Jake Gaither: America’s Most Famous Black Coach and editor of The Affirmative Action Debate and The Best of Emerge Magazine. He was editor of the National Urban League’s 2006 State of Black America report.

His work in journalism has taken him to Egypt, England, France, Italy, China, Germany, Malaysia, Thailand, Cuba, Brazil, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, Mexico, Canada, and Austria. In August 2012, he was part of the official US delegation and a presenter at the US-Brazil seminar on educational equity in Brasilia, Brazil.

George Curry is a member of the National Speakers Association and the International Federation for Professional Speakers. His speeches have been televised on C-SPAN and reprinted in Vital Speeches of the Day magazine. In his presentations, he addresses such topics as diversity, current events, education, and the media.

19 October 2013

Yvette Carnell, Publisher, Writer, Editor

She writes mostly about politics, social, and cultural issues for my personal blog, BreakingBrown.com as well as BreakingBrown.tv and Breakingbrown.me. She is also an editor for YourBlackWorld and a managing contributor on KuluteKritic.

In her time on the Hill, she also worked as Regional Field Director for America’s Families United (AFU), one of the largest non-profit Get Out the Vote (GOTV) campaigns active during the 2004 election cycle. At AFU,she played an integral role in establishing the framework and assessment criteria for distributing over 20 million dollars to AFU’s grant recipient organizations.

In the broader Democratic Party, she served as assistant to the Director of the Women’s Vote Center at the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Her articles have been featured in the Huffington Post and YourBlackWorld. I have been quoted by national news outlets including, but not limited to; The Nation, The Guardian, Politico and NPR.

Shereceived a B.A. in Political Science from Howard University.

ABOUT BreakingBrown

In addition to providing the content which black and brown readers sorely miss with the mainstream media stream, we also consider ourselves a meeting place for black and brown social media enthusiasts and thus provide a stream of useful social media information for our overworked and underpaid (thanks Arianna) social media provocateurs.

12 October 2013

The Killing of Radical Black Media

Jeffrey B. Perry

Call-in Number: (347) 838-9852

Jeffrey B. Perry is an independent working class scholar whose work focuses on the role of white supremacy as a retardant to progressive social change and on centrality of struggle against white supremacy to progressive social change efforts. He is the editor of A Hubert Harrison Reader (Wesleyan University Press, 2001) and author of Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918 (Columbia University Press, 2008). Most recently he wrote the introduction and back matter for the new expanded edition of Theodore W. Allen’s “classic” The Invention of the White Race (2 vols. 1994, 1997; Verso Books, 2012).

Charles V. Richardson is the brother or Ray Richardson and grandson and heir of Hubert Harrison. For many years he helped to oversee, and then to place, the Hubert H. Harrison Papers at Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library. He works in the media field.

05 October 2013

OUR COMMON GROUND with Janice Graham

OPEN MIC NIGHT

10 pm ET Go LIVE here

Call-in Number: (347) 838-9852

– Federal Government Seizure
– Violence: Domestic, ROAD RAGE, Police Murder and Black Oppression
and You Choose

Army engineer John Van Allen, Navy gunman Aaron Alexis, and Miriam Carey in DC just this week. All African-American. Bikers beats a man into permanent paralysis. Man uses a trooper road check as a suicide tactic. Marissa Alexander is still in jail. And this is only in a span of 2-3 months. How much have we become “unaware” of violence in our community and the harm that it is doing. How is this experience forming our belief systems. Follow the dots.

The gerrymandered America, banked their take over with gangstas. Now the GOP has seized your government, locked out federal employees, loaded a gun and put it to your head and taken over your tax dollar and enfranchisement. What do you intend to do about it?

LISTEN LIVE

Community Forum: http://www.ourcommonground-talk.ning.com/

Twitter: @JaniceOCG #TalkthatMatters

Web: http://www.ourcommonground.com/

Email: OCGinfo@ourcommonground.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OCGTALKRADIO

28 September 2013

ABOUT Cathy Santos

Cathy Bennett-Santos is the newly appointed Chairwoman to Pennsylvania Department of the Disabled American Veterans, and is Founder of the National Alliance of Women Veterans, Incorporated established in 2003. She is an advocate and strategist for women who have served in the armed services. Her priorities and focus for the past twenty years comprise: Military Sexual Assault, Research and Experimentation of women veterans, advocating specific gender focused policy and legislation relating to women veterans; and addressing transitional issues that influence their lives that are encouraged to lead to healing and wholeness.

She holds a doctorate in Pastoral Counseling, Master of Science in Economic Development and Bachelor of Science in Computer Science; has received many awards and honors in her work over the years most notable to include 2012 “Most Viewed LinkedIn”, NAACP Community Service Award, several Congressional, Senate and City Council awards and citations; and President Obama Point of Light Community Service Award, just to name a few.

HERSTORY
Six years ago, based on her own Army experiences, Cathy Santos started the National Alliance of Women Veterans to highlight important issues and protect their interests.

“You’re talking about unwelcome sexual advances that create a hostile environment for you, and it usually involves a superior,” said Cathy Santos, founder and executive director of the Philadelphia-based National Alliance of Women Veterans.
While serving as a U.S. Army medical specialist at Fort Monroe, Va., between 1989 and ’92, Santos says she was harassed and raped by three males in her workplace. And though she eventually reported the incidents to military authorities, justice was not served.

Instead, for more than a decade following her honorable discharge, she wandered a wilderness of sorrow, fear and emotional paralysis, all fueled by psychoactive medications administered by a Veterans Administration hospital.
That was until she took a stand.

Since starting the NAWV in 2005, Santos has influenced change not only in the way that the military views sexual conflict among its members, but also in the opportunities and assistance available to women veterans in their civilian lives.

“What my advocacy has been able to do is create policy,” Santos said.
The continuum of challenges facing many women veterans only begins with their service-related victimization.
According to Santos, in the post-9/11 era, one of every three military women reports to having been sexually harassed or assaulted.

21 September 2013

Dr. Tommy J. Curry

Professor of Philosophy, Texas A&M University

Dr. Tommy J. Curry’s work spans across the various fields of philosophy, jurisprudence, Africana Studies, and Gender Studies. Though trained in American and Continental philosophical traditions, Curry’s primary research interests are in Critical Race Theory and Africana Philosophy. In Critical Race Theory, Curry looks at the work of Derrick Bell and his theory of racial realism as an antidote to the proliferating discourses of racial idealism that continue to uncritically embrace liberalism through the appropriation of European thinkers as the basis of racial reconciliation in the United States. In Africana philosophy, Curry’s work turns an eye towards the conceptual genealogy (intellectual history) of African American thought from 1800 to the present, with particular attention towards the scholars of the American Negro Academy and the Negro Society for Historical Research.

In Biomedical ethics, Curry is primarily interested government regulation, the ethical limits of government intervention in the practice of medicine, and democratic potentialities that arise from collaborative doctor-patient diagnoses and regenerative medicine like stem cells. Currently his research focuses on the linking the conceptualization of ethics found in the Belmont Report to Civil Rights and social justice paradigms.

02 March 2013

“Witnesses On the Bridge – Lessons Learned”

Florence L. Tate, Activist and ” FBI’s Most Wanted Press Secretary”

GUEST: FLORENCE L. TATE

Florence L. Tate, Civil Rights Activist, Journalist, and Press Secretary

She recounts Life from Days in Jim Crow South to the1984 Jesse Jackson Presidential Bid in New Memoir.

Many would think becoming an octogenarian reserves one the right to rest on her laurels — but Florence L. Tate, 81, says, “There’s still work to be done.”

The former Civil Rights activist, Dayton Daily News reporter, and press secretary for the historic 1984 Jesse Jackson Presidential campaign has lived through seven decades of American epochs – and now she’s writing about her impressive experiences and achievements in a new memoir – tentatively titled, The FBI’s Most Wanted Press Secretary Opens Her Files on Civil Rights, the Black Power Movement, and Black Partisan Politics.

At a time when our country should be experiencing a sense of accomplishment at realizing the fruits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s work — evidenced by the election of the first African American President –Tate feels instead that the racial unease and tension revealed by events like the current drama surrounding the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case signify America still has a long way to go in race relations.

“The country has gone backwards from the time of Dr. Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech; we have regressed. There’s been an attempt to take things back to the pre-Civil Rights days,” says Tate.

In her memoir, Tate draws upon her extensive experience integrating major companies like Bell Telephone, and Globe Industries, working with seminal civil rights groups including SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and CORE (Congress for Racial Equality).

As the first African American female journalist at the Dayton Daily News, she also covered current events — including the Dayton riots that occurred during the “summer of ‘68” race riots that swept across the country.

The work that brought her into close confidence with key activist figures — such as Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown — also eventually brought Tate, a middle class Dayton housewife and mother of three children, under the surveillance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation – evidenced by the giant file she received from the FBI when she petitioned for them decades after her civil rights and Pan Africanist work.

Tate wasn’t all that surprised by her voluminous FBI file. “We suspected we were under surveillance because, for example, we would pick up the phone, to try to use the phone, and there would be a silence there… we didn’t know, but we suspected… We suspected there would be people in the meetings, sometimes people who gave off vibes that they were not there to work with us… they were there to spy on us. And figures like Stokely Carmichael were always being followed by the FBI; they didn’t even try to hide it. They would sit outside in cars – for example, if he were at a meeting at my house, or wherever he was, they would be sitting outside my house. When I got my FBI file, then I knew exactly when they had been watching, spying…or infiltrating.”

Tate’s memoir chronicles her journey — from growing up under segregation in the South from the 30s through the mid-50s — to moving north in the late 50s…to finally become an influential figure in the small but dedicated civil rights movement ground work happening in Mid Western cities like Dayton.

“The civil rights activists were working in parts of the country other than the south – where the ground work was well publicized. Little or no publicity was given to the work being done in Mid Western cities like Dayton, Ohio,” she shares.

Related experiences — as Communications Director of the National Urban Coalition, and National Information Coordinator for ’72 African Liberation Day Coordinating Committee — landed Tate the role of Press Secretary in Marion Barry’s first campaign in his successful bid for Mayor of Washington D.C. in 1978, and Press Secretary during his first two years in office. Later she would repeat that role for Jesse Jackson’s 1984 Presidential campaign — during which time she traveled with him to Damascus, Syria during his historic rescue mission to free downed U.S. Air Force pilot Lt. Robert Goodman.

Tate also writes of another major life-defining segment of her journey: her experiences with mental and physical health issues. These include battling breast cancer, suffering a major stroke after the birth of her third child.

Tate says she hopes her memoir will encourage young people – and especially young women – to understand and act on their power to impact the world around them. But like a true mother, grandmother – and now, great-grandmother — she admits her main reason for penning her memoir is for her children.

“My children and grandchildren have repeatedly asked me to write my biography — so they will know who I am…so they can know who they are.”

Octogenarian Florence L. Tate Recounts Life from Days in Jim Crow South to the1984 Jesse Jackson Presidential Bid in New Memoir Many would think becoming an octogenarian reserves one the right to rest on her laurels — but Florence L. Tate, 81, says, “There’s still work to be done.”

02 February 2013

Guest: Playthell BenjaminPublisher, “Commentaries on the Times”

GUEST: Playthell Benjamin
“He characterized Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West as misdirected and Marvin X of Oakland, a recovering left coast crack head and shameless sophist with an alter-ego bearing the curious name of “Plato Negro;” a pompous wag who confuses mindless mumbo jumbo with profound wisdom, alas I have been dragged back into an ethnic kerfuffle of the sort they love to wallow in but I eschew.” He writes about all the great issues of our time, and he is interested in the whole world. From the issues of SandyHook to Syria, the White House and the UN, there is no argument that Playthell Benjamin is a learned scholar and street smart analyst.”

About Playthell Benjamin

Playthell George Benjamin is the producer of “Commentaries On the Times”http://commentariesonthetimes.wordpress.com/about/, which he writes and delivers on WBAI radio in New York City. He is a producer with The Midnight Ravers, a long running show exploring the world of art and politics which has won several radio awards for excellence in programming. He is an award winning journalist who has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in two different categories: Explanatory Journalism, Village Voice 1988, and Distinguished Commentary, New York Daily News 1995. As part of the production team for The Midnight Ravers, Mr. Benjamin won a 2011 award for excellence in radio programming, given for The Curtis Mayfield Special.

In addition to major political current events, he has extensively written about the differences in political approach within the Black community on issues related to the Obama presidency, administration policies and achievement. Playthell has been an OUR COMMON GROUND Voice since the late 1980s and we welcome his voice back to our microphone. Our discussion will focus on issues related to Obama administration achievements, the inter-community discourse on Obama, and class struggle in America. His provocative, well-informed commentary is hard-hitting and sure to invite serious consideration of our positions and direction.

He characterized Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West as misdirected and Marvin X of Oakland, a recovering left coast crack head and shameless sophist with an alter-ego bearing the curious name of “Plato Negro;” a pompous wag who confuses mindless mumbo jumbo with profound wisdom, alas I have been dragged back into an ethnic kerfuffle of the sort they love to wallow in but I eschew.” He writes about all the great issues of our time, and he is interested in the whole world. From the issues of SandyHook to Syria, the White House and the UN, there is no argument that Playthell Benjamin is a learned scholar and street smart analyst.

He writes that he has spent “a half century chronicling the triumphs and studying the problems of the black world. Indeed I was a co-founder of the first free standing, degree granting, Black Studies Department in history – the W.E.B. DuBois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Mass, Amherst. I also spent quite a few years as an activist trying to solve those problems, beginning with the explosion of the black student movement in the south during the spring of 1960. Since then my life story would make a spectacular read even by the standards of a romance novel.”

Playthell has won several prizes ranging from The Unity Award presented by the School of communications at Lincoln University in Missouri for distinguished commentary on race relations; the Griot Prize for excellence in covering a story requiring an exploration of African American history and culture: “Who is Listening to Louis Farrakhan?” It was awarded by the New York chapter of the Association of Black Journalist in December 1989. In 1991 Mr. Benjamin won the NYABJ Magazine Awards for Feature Stories, and in 1996 he won the first Annual Tom Forcade Award “for honesty and accuracy in drug reporting” awarded by High Times magazine for his columns on drug use and abuse in the New York Daily News.
From 1991 – 1996 Playthell was a regular contributor to the Guardian Observer of London, where he wrote on politics, culture and sports. He also wrote for the Sunday Times of London, particularly in the prestigious magazine, The Culture, which addresses cultural matters high and low. In the London Guardian he wrote feature stories ranging from the television coverage of the Los Angeles race riot sparked by the Rodney King incident, to the courtroom genius of the great First Amendment Lawyer Martin Garbus, as well as the O.J. Simpson Trial, The Mike Tyson Rape Case, The Inauguration of Bill Clinton, Concerts at Lincoln Center, and the Sista Souljah vs. Bill Clinton incident. Mr. Clinton’s saxophone playing was also subjected to serious critical evaluation in an essay titled “He may be the Leader of the Western World…But will he ever be President of the Saxophone? For The Sunday Times he wrote about the Youth Jazz festivals convened by the peerless jazz vocalist Betty Carter, Michael Douglass’ movie on the desperation of displaced white workers, Gangsta Rap, Jazz, etc.

“Black America Drifting Into Darkness: Black Mental Illness and Black Madness”

December 8, 2012

Dr.. Patricia Newton, M.D., MPH, M.A., (Nana Dr. Akousa Akyaa) is

presently President & Medical Director of Newton & Associates,PA, specialists in Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine. She is board certified in Psychiatry & Neurology with sub-specialty boards in Administrative Psychiatry. She has served as Asst. Prof. of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health as well as a past examiner for the American Board of Psychiatry. She was Chairperson of the Department of Psychiatry at the former Provident Hospital (Baltimore, MD). She is a graduate of Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, MO) where she served on the faculty after residency training at the Barnes Hospital Group before relocating to Baltimore. She holds a Masters Degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health (Baltimore, MD), a Masters Degree in Molecular Biology from Peabody College – Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN) and a B.S. Degree in Pre-Medicine & Biology from University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and special courses in languages and culture at the Universidad Nacional Automa de Mexico (Mexico City, Mexico).
Dr. Newton has served as a consultant to the National Institutes of Mental Health in developing media campaigns for HIV Aids and Drug Abuse. She has been a member of the Board of the Medical Acupuncture Research Institute of America conducted research in pain management and substance abuse disorders. She has served as a consultant to several Fortune 500 companies in the area of diversity training, a consultant to the Congressional Black Caucus Brain Trust for health care policy development, and has been the host of several radio shows in the Baltimore/Washington, DC area. She is a published author. She frequently lectures on a national as well as international level (England, Spain, South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Brazil) as well as develops and implements international health related conferences and tours for physicians as well as other health care professionals. She is currently the President of the Black Psychiatrists of America and holds membership in many professional medical and cultural organizations.
Her practice concentration is in the areas of anxiety disorders (post traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and social phobia), dual diagnosis, depression, and pain. She also works in the areas of trans-cultural and cross-cultural psychiatry as well as women’s issues relative to anxiety disorders and depression. Dr. Newton has worked with traditional and indigenous healers of South America, Ghana, Senegal and South Africa.

Dr. Newton is an enstooled female king and queen mother in the Ashanti region of Ghana. She is a divisional chief (Dompiahene) of the Agogo Traditional Area. In this capacity, she is one of the first females to serve in this capacity and has full rights afforded Ashanti royalty.

The Black Psychiatrists of America (BPA), established in 1969, seeks to optimize the mental health of people of African descent in the Americas and across the African Diaspora. The BPA has maintained

close ties with psychiatrists and allied mental health professionals concerned about black people across North and South America, the Caribbean and Africa. As such, this organization has a responsibility to be a voice of advocacy to ensure the proper handling of any matter or initiative affecting understanding of mental health needs, psychiatric diagnosis and treatment of black populations across the Diaspora.

“Black America Over the Cliff:
Hunger, Mental Illness and Homelessness on America’s Political Agenda”

December 1, 2012

How Black are the problems of hunger, mental illness and homelessness? Where is the mobilization on these issues in our community nationally? How to create the Black mobilization on these issues ?

What does it mean that these issues did not occupy a place in the campaign, and is not articulated clearly in the debt/deficit discourse? Who in the White House or the Congress is expressing the issues as a public policy priority ? Who is already over the fiscal cliff ?HUNGER in America
One out of every six Americans lives in a food insecure environment. The term “food insecure” means that they do not always know where their next meal will come from. Since 2006, the number of Americans served by food pantries has increased by 27 percent to 5.7 million people receiving emergency food assistance. 36 percent of households served by emergency food assistance programs have one or more adults working. 35 to 46 percent of households must choose between paying for housing, utilities or transportation and buying food.MENTAL ILLNESS in America
An estimated 5.2 million adults have co-occurring mental health and addiction disorders. Of adults using homeless services; 31 percent reported having combination of these conditions. One-half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14, three-quarters by age 24. Despite effective treatments, there are long delays—sometimes decades—between the first onset of symptoms and when people seek and receive treatment. Fewer than one-third of adults and one-half of children with a diagnosable mental disorder receive mental health services in a given year.HOMELESSNESS in America
Despite the fact that the number of homeless people was essentially unchanged between 2009 and 2011, there is much reason for concern. Economic and demographic indicators linked to homelessness continue to be troubling. Homelessness is a lagging indicator, and the effects of the poor economy on the problem are escalating and are expected to continue to do so over the next few years. In other words, we do not know the full impact yet.IN BLACK AMERICA
Epidemic, Serious and ChronicOUR COMMON GROUND with Janice Graham”Speaking Truth to Power and Ourselves”BROADCASTING BRAVE BOLD BLACK
CALL IN 347-838-9852

“The Privilege of Numbers: LATINO RECOUNT”

Saturday, NOVEMBER 17, 2012

The reelection of President Barack Obama creates a new political frontier. One which defines his reelection as a benchmark that very well may frame a critical baseline for political empowerment outcomes for racial groups in this country. There are some who underestimate altogether the value and weight of the Obama vote as a tool for political empowerment which sets the stage for negotiation and arbitration in 2014 and beyond. Vote is “voice” and the Latino community translates it that way. On the other hand, African Americans have an experienced lesson that dilutes the premise. The Democratic Party machine surely as never embraced such a notion.

Tonight, we look at why the Latino community desperately frames the political narrative that but for them, Mitt Romney would have been elected President Barack Obama. The day after the election, protesters for immigration reform were at the WH gate. Black people who are outraged abut Trayvon Martin, voter suppression and the on-going Congressional assault on programs for poor people, the establishment of an American-style apartheid were not.

Over 93 percent of African-Americans voted for Obama this year, as well as 73 percent of Asian-Americans and 71 percent of Latinos.

At 27% this year, Romney’s Latino support is dramatically lower than former President George W. Bush’s support in 2004, which was 44%, and Arizona Sen. John McCain’s 31% in 2008, according to exit polls.

The lowest percentage of Latino voters won by a Republican was in 1996, when Bob Dole garnered only 21% of Latinos compared with then-President Bill Clinton’s record 72%.

In 2008, Obama received 67% of the Latino vote. Latinos made up 9% of the electorate in 2008 with 19.5 million people eligible to vote. Today, there are nearly 24 million Hispanics eligible to vote. The number of registered Latinos has increased by 26% in the last four years to 12.2 million, according a report by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

As early as November 8th, many segments of the Latino community were declaring themselves as the deciding factor in the re-election of President Barack Obama ?

Chauncey DeVega, our last week’s guest, in his “We are respectable negros” blog wrote, “Our Latino brothers and sisters immediately (as in the day after the election) jumped on a national media conference call to make it clear that they saved the president in some key battleground states. I ain’t mad at ’em. “

I focus on this: 27% of the Latino vote, supported Mitt Romney, 44% supported George W. Bush and 31% voted for John McCain. In those numbers there is ideology and political strategy serving a communities voice.

I am asking, “WHAT !?!?!” And when the dream of the dream act is over, will their numbers return to the support of a party wrought on the principles of white supremacy, declaring themselves the “no longer minority” ?

Tonight on OUR COMMON GROUND ####

OUR COMMON GROUND with Janice Graham

“Speaking Truth to Power and Ourselves”

BROADCASTING BRAVE BOLD BLACK

Community Forum: http://www.ourcommonground-talk.ning.com/
On the Web: http://www.ourcommongroundtalk.wordpress.com/
OUR COMMON GROUND http://www.ourcommonground.com/

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omalone1 says: September 12, 2014 at 9:39 am

Gwiz, thank you for the link, we are very much keen on the work of Tommy J Curry! and continue to locate more of his work,

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∴ ABOUT THIS WEEK’S PROGRAM ∴

LISTEN LIVE and ON-DEMAND

Join the OPEN Chat

Live & Call-In Tune In: http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

Call In – Listen Line: 347-838-9852

OCG On-Demand Archives

This Week at OUR COMMON GROUND

“In Conversation with Dr. Ruby N. Sales”

OCG Witness from the Bridge

Saturday, March 5, 2022 :: 10 pm ET

:: What Southern Past tells us about the rise of white Supremacy

:: Weapons of Southern Resistance Living

:: There is NO Black Generational Divide

:: Black Denial, Apathy and Confusion

Black History Month 2022 Highlight ::

“Racial History Erasure: Shorting Black Victories”

Black History Month 2022 Highlight ::

“In-FORMation: Stokeley & Malcom”

Black History Month 2022 Highlight ::

The Fire of Freedom Fighter Bayard Rustin

ABOUT BAYARD RUSTIN

CIVICS 201 : Voter Suppression and Disenfranchisement

Saturday, January 29, 2022 ::: 10 pm ET

WE are facing a tidal wave of restrictive voting legislation across the country and the trend will continue into 2022.

If you are not engaged in some activity of resisting these oppressive moves, now is the time. Now. Months from now will be too late.

“Shorting the Odds : States’ Race to Anoracy”

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

ANOCRACY

This Week at OUR COMMON GROUND

Saturday, January 15, 2022 ::: 10 pm ET

“King Day: To Forget Is to Forfeit”

Tune In LIVE : http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

Call In ::: Listen Line: (347) 838-9852

15 years later. The campaign to mark the holiday over those 15 years is strewn with vicious, racist pushback in and out of government. Over those years, there were many opportunities to question just what had really been achieved/transformed in America during the civil rights movement.

Parades, luncheons, dinners don’t launch the movement’s progress. We must organize, teach, educate, and practice the philosophy of King each and every day.

Can we keep KING ALIVE ?

We should all ask yourselves: How many times this year, did I activate the liberation philosophies of Dr. King?

Other than social latitudes, how did you practice/use-share the language of King’s movement?

Just how did I “King” in the past year?

How did I lift ‘democracy’?

“King Day: To Forget Is to Forfeit”

November 13, 2021 ::: 2021 Season Close

OUR COMMON GROUND 2021 Season Review & Close

Returning to begin 2022 Season January 8, 2022 ::: 10 pm EST

November 6, 2021 :: REBROADCAST

“In Discussion with Dr. Frances Cress Welsing: The Origins of White Supremacy Culture”

REBROADCAST of May 29, 2009 Episode

“In Discussion with

Dr. Frances Cress Welsing: The Origins of White Supremacy Culture”

REBROADCAST OF May 29, 2009 Episode

Streaming: Saturday, November 6, 2021 ::: 10 pm ET

Tune In: http://bit.ly/OCGTruthTalk

Listen Line: (347) 838-9852

ABOUT Dr. Frances Cress Welsing

October 30, 2021 :: REBROADCAST 01/29/2011 Episode

REBROADCAST OF January 22, 2011 Discussion with

Guests, Kevin Gray and Neill Franklin

Police brutality :: marijuana laws :: US media :: reparations

Featuring, ALFO, of The ALFO Show,Co-Hosting

Saturday, January 22, 2011

ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Neill Franklin, the National Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and a former law enforcement officer.

We will talk with him about the growing hostility by police on marijuana reform and about the discrepancies and how far some law enforcement with a lie to argue them.

October 23, 2021

“A Broken Democracy”

OPEN MIC

More information can be found here. https://www.ft.com/content/a2e499d0-10f0-4fa2-8243-e23eedc4f9f4

Our lines will be open for your thoughts, ideas and proposed solutions.

October 16, 2021

“In Coversation with Dr. Raymond A. Winbush, Ph.D.

About Dr. Winbush

October 9, 2021 LIVE

“BURNING IT DOWN: BUILDING ANEW”

Guest: Kim Brown, Host, BURN IT DOWN LIVE

October 2, 2021 ReBroadcast of 3/19/09 LIVE Interview

“Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting”

Guest: Dr. Terrie M. Williams, Ph.D.

Rebroadcast of 3//19/09 Interview

Black Pain encourages us to face the truth about the issue that plunges our spirits into darkness, so that we can step into the healing light. You are not on the ledge alone.

ABOUT Terrie M. Williams

More information can be found here.
https://www.ft.com/content/a2e499d0-10f0-4fa2-8243-e23eedc4f9f4