Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - 'Racism' Video That Led To Firing USDA Official Shirley Sherrod Lacked Critical Context
Abdul Karim Bangura
-----Original Message-----
From: Mobolaji ALUKO
Sent: Jul 21, 2010 2:51 AM
To: USAAfrica Dialogue , NaijaPolitics e-Group , NIDOA , naijaintellects , OmoOdua
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - 'Racism' Video That Led To Firing USDA Official Shirley Sherrod Lacked Critical ContextDear All:This is ridiculous.Obama might give her her job back, but Ms. Shirley Sherrod should not take it back, tut rather should sue the Obama administration for wrongful dismissal. How can a feeling she expressed 24 years ago as a non-government employee be manipulated by wicked conservative media against her today to force her out of a job? The rush to judgment without the context was trigger-happy and completely un-professional, and shows an administration too jumpy about race in this case and too ready to please the budding racists in the country, probably with an eye to the November mid-term elections.It is bitterly disappointing.Bolaji Aluko-----------------------'Racism' Video That Led To Firing USDA Official Shirley Sherrod Lacked Critical Context
BEN EVANS and MARY CLARE JALONICK | 07/20/10 09:42 PM |
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is standing by its quick decision to oust a black Agriculture Department employee over racially tinged remarks at an NAACP banquet in Georgia, despite evidence that her remarks were misconstrued and growing calls for USDA to reconsider.
Shirley Sherrod, who until Tuesday was the Agriculture Department's director of rural development in Georgia, says the administration caved to political pressure by pushing her to resign for saying that she didn't give a white farmer as much help as she could have 24 years ago when she worked for a nonprofit group.
Sherrod says her remarks, delivered in March at a local NAACP banquet in Georgia, were part of a story about racial reconciliation, not racism. The white farming family that was the subject of the story stood by Sherrod and said she should keep her job.
"We probably wouldn't have (our farm) today if it hadn't been for her leading us in the right direction," said Eloise Spooner, the wife of farmer Roger Spooner of Iron City, Ga. "I wish she could get her job back because she was good to us, I tell you."
The NAACP, which initially condemned Sherrod's remarks and supported Sherrod's ouster, joined the calls for her to keep her job. The civil rights group said it and millions of others were duped by the conservative website that posted partial video of her speech on Monday.
"We have come to the conclusion we were snookered ... into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias," said the statement from NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous.
A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said President Barack Obama was briefed on the matter after Sherrod's resignation and stands by the Agriculture Department's handling of it.
The website, biggovernment.com, gained fame last year after airing video of workers at the community group ACORN counseling actors posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend. It posted the Sherrod video as evidence that the NAACP, which recently passed a resolution condemning what it calls racist elements of the Tea Party, condones racism of its own.
Sherrod said she was on the road Monday when USDA deputy undersecretary Cheryl Cook called her and told her the White House wanted her to resign because her comments were generating a cable news controversy.
"They called me twice," she told The Associated Press in an interview. "The last time they asked me to pull over to the side of the road and submit my resignation on my Blackberry, and that's what I did."
Sherrod said administration officials weren't interested in hearing her explanation. "It hurts me that they didn't even try to attempt to see what is happening here, they didn't care," she said. "I'm not a racist ... Anyone who knows me knows that I'm for fairness."
The administration gave a different version of events.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack – not the White House – made the decision to ask Sherrod to resign, said USDA spokeswoman Chris Mather. She said Sherrod willingly resigned when asked.
In a statement, Vilsack said the controversy surrounding Sherrod's comments could, rightly or wrongly, cause people to question her decisions as a federal employee and lead to lingering doubts about civil rights at the agency, which has a troubled history of discrimination.
"There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA," Vilsack said. "We have a duty to ensure that when we provide services to the American people we do so in an equitable manner."
USDA is sensitive to the issue because the agency has for decades faced charges of discrimination against black farmers who said they could not get aid that routinely went to whites. The department agreed to a final $1.25 billion settlement earlier this year in a class-action suit that has been pending for more than a decade. The payout of that settlement is pending in Congress, and Vilsack has made fixing past wrongs over civil rights a top priority.
The current controversy began Monday when biggovernment.com posted a two-minute, 38-second video clip in which Sherrod describes the first time a white farmer came to her for help. It was 1986, and she worked for a nonprofit rural farm aid group. She said the farmer came in acting "superior" to her and that she debated how much help to give him.
"I was struggling with the fact that so many black people had lost their farmland, and here I was faced with helping a white person save their land," Sherrod said.
Initially, she said, "I didn't give him the full force of what I could do" and only gave him enough help to keep his case progressing. Eventually, she said, his situation "opened my eyes" that whites were struggling just like blacks, and helping farmers wasn't so much about race but was "about the poor versus those who have."
Sherrod said Tuesday the incomplete video appears to intentionally twist her message. She says she became close friends with the farmer and helped him for two years.
In the full 43-minute video of her speech released by the NAACP Tuesday evening, Sherrod tells the story of her father's death in 1965, saying he was killed by white men who were never charged. She says she made a commitment to stay in the South the night of her father's death, despite the dreams she had always had of leaving her rural town.
"When I made that commitment I was making that commitment to black people and to black people only," she said. "But you know God will show you things and he'll put things in your path so that you realize that the struggle is really about poor people."
Sherrod said in the speech that working with Spooner, who she does not name, changed her entire outlook.
"She's always been nice and polite and considerate. She was just a good person," Eloise Spooner said. "She did everything she could trying to help."
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
[POST UPDATED, SEE BOTTOM]
An employee of the Department of Agriculture has resigned, after conservative media outlets posted video Monday of her describing a time in the past when she hadn't used the "full force" of her abilities to help a farmer because he was white.
In the video, Shirley Sherrod, who is black, recounts having been asked to help a white farmer avoid foreclosure. She says she was torn over how much to help him because so many black farmers were also struggling, and decided to do just enough to be able to say she'd tried:
I didn't give him the full force of what I could do. I did enough. ... So I took him to a white lawyer. ... So I figured if I would take him to one of them, his own kind would take care of him.
Sherrod spoke to CNN on Tuesday, explaining that she told the story of her actions — which, she said, occurred 24 years ago when she was working for a nonprofit, not the USDA — to illustrate how she has since realized that everything is not about race but "about those who have versus those who do not have." She says she later became friends with the farmer and his wife.
Even so, Sherrod resigned after conservative media activist Andrew Breitbart posted video of the story and Fox News picked it up. She told CNN that she tried to explain to USDA officials that the incident was in the past, but said "for some reason, the stuff Fox and the tea party does is scaring the administration."
In a statement quoted by CNN, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said of Sherrod's actions:
There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA, and I strongly condemn any act of discrimination against any person. ... We have been working hard through the past 18 months to reverse the checkered civil rights history at the department and take the issue of fairness and equality very seriously.
NAACP CEO Ben Jealous was also quick to condemn Sherrod's actions, though. In a statement Monday posted on Breitbart's Big Government site, he said:
[NAACP HAS NOW RETRACTED ITS CRITICISM, SEE UPDATES BELOW]
Her actions were shameful. While she went on to explain in the story that she ultimately realized her mistake, as well as the common predicament of working people of all races, she gave no indication she had attempted to right the wrong she had done to this man.
In response, Sherrod told CNN that it was "unfortunate that the NAACP would make a statement without even checking to see what happened. This was 24 years ago, and I'm telling a story to try to unite people."
Watch her interview with CNN here:
UPDATE: Sherrod has now come forward and said that the White House forced her to resign. The wife of the white farmer has also come forward to defend her. Read our update here.
UPDATE: The NAACP has now retracted its criticism of Sherrod, saying it was "snookered" by conservative media. Read our latest update here.
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Moses Ebe Ochonu
There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.
---Mohandas Ghandi
Pius Adesanmi
| Moses: Don't mind Abdul. He thinks he has found a reason to take a swipe at those who were irritated by his Massaphilia (apologies to Maazi Biko) during the campaign. I find his version of pan-Africanism entertaining though. It is the younger brother of Kwabena's give me back my black dolls pan-Africanism. Abdul's is what I call spelling bee pan-Africanism. Add "k" and every other thing shall be added. Once Obama starts talking about his "Afrikan policy", Mwalimu Abdul will call him the best thing to happen to the continent after Nelson Mandela. Pius --- On Wed, 21/7/10, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com> wrote: |
Tony Agbali
Seriously, am I missing something here? Is the US UN Ambassador a cabinet level position. I know all the secretaries of different departments are, including the Vice President and the Attorney general, but it is my first time of hearing that the US UN Ambassador is a cabinet level position.
The last time I browsed through a booklet of American immigration on naturalization, this did not seem to be the case. I realized that since then what had changed was the inclusion of the secretary of the Homeland Security, as a cabinet position. I recently glanced this was not the case, as there was no indication of such, at least evidentially in the most obvious manner?
The cabinet advises the President essentially about the government. Now, does the American UN ambassador advise the President in an independent manner from what the Secretary of State does?
The political scientists, policy scholars, American studies folks help me out here. Am I missing something here, or I simply am ignorant of what a cabinet level position is within the American government, or changes therein? I would like to learn. --- On Wed, 7/21/10, Pius Adesanmi <piusad...@yahoo.com> wrote: |
Pablo Idahosa
appoint the UN Ambassador to a cabinet-level position. This was
certainly done by Clinton and has been done by Obama. Rice is appointed
the cabinet, neither iffs nor butts.
Pablo
Tony Agbali wrote:
> Seriously, am I missing something here? Is the US UN Ambassador a
> cabinet level position. I know all the secretaries of different
> departments are, including the Vice President and the Attorney
> general, but it is my first time of hearing that the US UN Ambassador
> is a cabinet level position.
>
> The last time I browsed through a booklet of American immigration on
> naturalization, this did not seem to be the case. I realized that
> since then what had changed was the inclusion of the secretary of the
> Homeland Security, as a cabinet position. I recently glanced this was
> not the case, as there was no indication of such, at least
> evidentially in the most obvious manner?
>
> The cabinet advises the President essentially about the government.
> Now, does the American UN ambassador advise the President in an
> independent manner from what the Secretary of State does?
>
> The political scientists, policy scholars, American studies folks help
> me out here. Am I missing something here, or I simply am ignorant of
> what a cabinet level position is within the American government, or
> changes therein?
> I would like to learn.
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/20/shirley-sherrod-agricultu_n_653329.html>
>
>
> *BEN EVANS and MARY CLARE JALONICK*
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/20/shirley-sherrod-agricultu_n_653329.html#>
> | 07/20/10 09:42 PM | AP
> Shirley Sherrod Usda Naacp
> Shirley Sherrod Resigns From USDA Post After Racism
> Controversy
>
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/20/shirley-sherrod-agricultu_n_653329.html#comments>
> WASHINGTON � The Obama administration is standing by
> <http://biggovernment.com/>, gained fame last year
> after airing video of workers at the community group
> ACORN counseling actors posing as a prostitute and her
> boyfriend. It posted the Sherrod video as evidence
> that the NAACP, which recently passed a resolution
> condemning what it calls racist elements of the Tea
> Party, condones racism of its own.
> Sherrod said she was on the road Monday when USDA
> deputy undersecretary Cheryl Cook called her and told
> her the White House wanted her to resign because her
> comments were generating a cable news controversy.
> "They called me twice," she told The Associated Press
> in an interview. "The last time they asked me to pull
> over to the side of the road and submit my resignation
> on my Blackberry, and that's what I did."
> Sherrod said administration officials weren't
> interested in hearing her explanation. "It hurts me
> that they didn't even try to attempt to see what is
> happening here, they didn't care," she said. "I'm not
> a racist ... Anyone who knows me knows that I'm for
> fairness."
> The administration gave a different version of events.
> Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack � not the White
> House � made the decision to ask Sherrod to resign,
> said USDA spokeswoman Chris Mather. She said Sherrod
> willingly resigned when asked.
> In a statement, Vilsack said the controversy
> surrounding Sherrod's comments could, rightly or
> wrongly, cause people to question her decisions as a
> federal employee and lead to lingering doubts about
> civil rights at the agency, which has a troubled
> history of discrimination.
> "There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA,"
> Vilsack said. "We have a duty to ensure that when we
> provide services to the American people we do so in an
> equitable manner."
> USDA is sensitive to the issue because the agency has
> for decades faced charges of discrimination against
> black farmers who said they could not get aid that
> routinely went to whites. The department agreed to a
> final $1.25 billion settlement earlier this year in a
> class-action suit that has been pending for more than
> a decade. The payout of that settlement is pending in
> Congress, and Vilsack has made fixing past wrongs over
> civil rights a top priority.
> The current controversy began Monday when
> biggovernment.com <http://biggovernment.com/> posted a
> after conservative media outlets posted video Monday
> of her describing a time in the past when she hadn't
> used the "full force" of her abilities to help a
> farmer because he was white.
> In the video, Shirley Sherrod, who is black, recounts
> having been asked to help a white farmer avoid
> foreclosure. She says she was torn over how much to
> help him because so many black farmers were also
> struggling, and decided to do just enough to be able
> to say she'd tried:
>
> I didn't give him the full force of what I could do. I
> did enough. ... So I took him to a white lawyer. ...
> So I figured if I would take him to one of them, his
> own kind would take care of him.
>
> Sherrod spoke to CNN on Tuesday, explaining that she
> told the story of her actions � which, she said,
> occurred 24 years ago when she was working for a
> nonprofit, not the USDA � to illustrate how she has
> since realized that everything is not about race but
> "about those who have versus those who do not have."
> She says she later became friends with the farmer and
> his wife.
> Even so, Sherrod resigned after conservative media
> activist Andrew Breitbart posted video of the story
> and Fox News picked it up. She told CNN that she tried
> to explain to USDA officials that the incident was in
> the past, but said "for some reason, the stuff Fox and
> the tea party does is scaring the administration."
> In a statement quoted by CNN, Secretary of Agriculture
> Tom Vilsack said of Sherrod's actions:
>
> There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA,
> and I strongly condemn any act of discrimination
> against any person. ... We have been working hard
> through the past 18 months to reverse the checkered
> civil rights history at the department and take the
> issue of fairness and equality very seriously.
>
> NAACP CEO Ben Jealous was also quick to condemn
> Sherrod's actions, though
> In a statement Monday posted on Breitbart's Big
> Government site, he said:
> [NAACP HAS NOW RETRACTED ITS CRITICISM, SEE UPDATES BELOW]
>
> Her actions were shameful. While she went on to
> explain in the story that she ultimately realized her
> mistake, as well as the common predicament of working
> people of all races, she gave no indication she had
> attempted to right the wrong she had done to this man.
>
> In response, Sherrod told CNN that it was "unfortunate
> that the NAACP would make a statement without even
> checking to see what happened. This was 24 years ago,
> and I'm telling a story to try to unite people."
> Watch her interview with CNN here:
>
> *UPDATE: *Sherrod has now come forward and said that
> the White House forced her to resign. The wife of the
> white farmer has also come forward to defend her. Read
> our update here
> <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/news/yblog_upshot/pl_yblog_upshot/storytext/usda-official-resigns-amidst-race-controversy/36955538/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100720/el_yblog_upshot/resigned-usda-worker-white-house-forced-me-out>.
> *UPDATE: *The NAACP has now retracted its criticism of
> Sherrod, saying it was "snookered" by conservative
> media. Read our latest update here
Abdul Karim Bangura
Let us be honest! Black folk must put Obama's feet on the fire, lest they end up with nothing. The guy is even comfortable appointing homosexuals and lesbians, not that anything is wrong with that, and will defend them to the hilt, but he is quite uncomfortable appointing Blacks in key positions. The record is very clear: Clinton gave us Black folk eight cabinet positions, Bush gave us three, and Obama gave us one. And in America, you have to have significant representation around the Big Table in the White House to get your share of the proverbial pie.
Some Black folk should also be honest and stop this yuki-yuki talk about "Obama is President of the US, and he does have to do anything for Afrika." This would be fine if the United States does not owe Afrika so much in many ways.
Whether some folk know/like it or not, many Afrikans expect some goodies from Obama. The following is an excerpt of the introduction of the paper I wrote for Obama and his folk when I was invited by his folk to a special meeting via the TransAfrica Forum to assess his policy toward Afrika and the Caribbean thus far. It is similar to a paper that will soon appear in the CODESRIA Bulletin and a chapter in a book on Obama in press.
"The son of Ann Dunham, a white American from Wichita, Kansas, and Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a Luo from Nyang’ome Kogelo, Nyanza Province, Kenya, United States President Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. is considered by most Africans as one of their own. Thus, during the 2008 United States presidential election, many African groups and individuals in the United States and Africa donated handsomely to Obama’s campaign. When he won the election, there was jubilation throughout the African continent. Africans were not celebrating Obama for the sake of it. Neither was President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya saying “we are proud of your roots” for nothing. Such joy was informed by a world of expectation that Africa would fare better under an Obama presidency (Kanu et al., 2008).
Obama’s victory brought optimism in Africa that the win signalled a turning point for Blacks everywhere, the largest percentage of who are located on that continent. The expectation of reparation and official apology for centuries of the slave trade, policy change towards the continent, and fair trade was sky-high (Kanu et al., 2008). Obama’s electoral success inspired many young Africans to dream about what is achievable with hard work. Even Mwalimu Ali Alamin Mazrui, the doyen of African Studies, expressed optimism that Obama’s message of change and his triumph would bring a great deal of optimism in Africa, particularly among the young (Butty, 2009). Many Africans were expressing optimism that Obama’s presidency would mark a significant improvement in United States policies toward the continent and even further strengthen the ties between the people of Africa and the people of the United States. Many African stakeholders were optimistic about United States-sponsored freedom, rule of law and democracy on the continent. Africans were eager to see if Obama will truly “unclench the fists of those who cling to power,” as he promised in his inauguration address (Biyyaa, 2009).
Thus, in his second year of the presidency, it is only fair to ask about what Obama has done for Africa thus far. This question is addressed in the following section."
And about those who doubt my Pan-Afrikanist credentials, it suffices to say that they know very little about me. Muamar Qadhaffy, Abdoulai Wade, John Kufuor, and many others think differently.
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Agbali
Sent: Jul 21, 2010 4:50 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - 'Racism' Video That Led To Firing USDA Official Shirley Sherrod Lacked Critical Context
I would like to learn.
![AP]()
I didn't give him the full force of what I could do. I did enough. ... So I took him to a white lawyer. ... So I figured if I would take him to one of them, his own kind would take care of him.
There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA, and I strongly condemn any act of discrimination against any person. ... We have been working hard through the past 18 months to reverse the checkered civil rights history at the department and take the issue of fairness and equality very seriously.
Her actions were shameful. While she went on to explain in the story that she ultimately realized her mistake, as well as the common predicament of working people of all races, she gave no indication she had attempted to right the wrong she had done to this man.
Moses Ebe Ochonu
Pius Adesanmi
From SaharaReporters |
Abdul Karim Bangura
http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/cabinet
The Cabinet
The tradition of the Cabinet dates back to the beginnings of the Presidency itself. Established in Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, the Cabinet's role is to advise the President on any subject he may require relating to the duties of each member's respective office.
The Cabinet includes the Vice President and the heads of 15 executive departments — the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Attorney General.
President Obama at Cabinet meeting April 20, 2009 at the White
House.
White House Photo by Pete Souza
In order of succession to the Presidency:
Vice President of the United States
Joseph R. Biden
Department of State
Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton
http://www.state.gov
Department of the Treasury
Secretary Timothy F. Geithner
http://www.treasury.gov
Department of Defense
Secretary Robert M. Gates
http://www.defenselink.mil
Department of Justice
Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr.
http://www.usdoj.gov
Department of the Interior
Secretary Kenneth L. Salazar
http://www.doi.gov
Department of Agriculture
Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack
http://www.usda.gov
Department of Commerce
Secretary Gary F. Locke
http://www.commerce.gov
Department of Labor
Secretary Hilda L. Solis
http://www.dol.gov
Department of Health and Human Services
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
http://www.hhs.gov
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Secretary Shaun L.S. Donovan
http://www.hud.gov
Department of Transportation
Secretary Ray LaHood
http://www.dot.gov
Department of Energy
Secretary Steven Chu
http://www.energy.gov
Department of Education
Secretary Arne Duncan
http://www.ed.gov
Department of Veterans Affairs
Secretary Eric K. Shinseki
http://www.va.gov
Department of Homeland Security
Secretary Janet A. Napolitano
http://www.dhs.gov
The following positions have the status of Cabinet-rank:
White House Chief of Staff
Rahm I. Emanuel
Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Lisa P. Jackson
http://www.epa.gov
Office of Management & Budget
Director Peter R. Orszag
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb
United States Trade Representative
Ambassador Ronald Kirk
http://www.ustr.gov
United States Ambassador to the United Nations
Ambassador Susan Rice
http://www.usunnewyork.usmission.gov/
Chair Christina Romer
http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cea/
Austin Jackson
Assistant Professor, Residential College in the Arts and Humanities
Co-Director, My Brother's Keeper Program
Core Faculty, African American and African Studies
Michigan State University
jack...@msu.edu
kenneth harrow
i went to google, sent me to whitehouse.gov, listed the cabinet with all the secretaries and vp, and added 6 more at "cabinet level":
White House Chief of Staff
Rahm I. Emanuel
Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Lisa P. Jackson
http://www.epa.gov
Office of Management & Budget
Director Peter R. Orszag
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb
United States Trade Representative
Ambassador Ronald Kirk
http://www.ustr.gov
United States Ambassador to the United Nations
Ambassador Susan Rice
http://www.usunnewyork.usmission.gov/
Council of Economic Advisers
Chair Christina Romer
http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cea/
- From: Pius Adesanmi <piusad...@yahoo.com>
- Moses:
- Pius
- -----Original Message-----
- From: Mobolaji ALUKO
- Dear All:
- This is ridiculous.
- It is bitterly disappointing.
- Bolaji Aluko
- ---------------------
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/20/shirley-sherrod-agricultu_n_653329.html
Kenneth W. Harrow
Distinguished Professor of English
Michigan State University
har...@msu.edu
517 803-8839
fax 517 353 3755
Mobolaji ALUKO
Section 2. The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.
The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.
UNQUOTE
It does mention "the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments", but if the President decides to include the Office of the US Ambassador to the UN as an "executive Department", who is to stop him?
There you have it. Susan Rice is a cabinet member. What a Cabinet member is, as different of cabinet-rank status is the topic of another symposium.
Bolaji Aluko
Abdul Karim Bangura
"The following positions have the status of Cabinet-rank:"
""cabinet level""
Second, any political scientist who specializes in American government and politics will tell you that except for the office of the Vice President, since he is nationally elected, the creation of any "executive level" agency and the confirmation of anyone to head such an agency must be blessed by the Senate. It is part and parcel of our "checks and balances" or "separation of powers" creed.
-----Original Message-----
From: kenneth harrow
Sent: Jul 22, 2010 5:39 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - 'Racism' Video That Led To Firing USDA Official Shirley Sherrod Lacked Critical Context
on Cabinet Level:
i went to google, sent me to whitehouse.gov, listed the cabinet with all the secretaries and vp, and added 6 more at "cabinet level":
White House Chief of Staff
Rahm I. Emanuel
Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Lisa P. Jackson
http://www.epa.gov
Office of Management & Budget
Director Peter R. Orszag
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb
United States Trade Representative
Ambassador Ronald Kirk
http://www.ustr.gov
United States Ambassador to the United Nations
Ambassador Susan Rice
http://www.usunnewyork.usmission.gov/
Council of Economic Advisers
Chair Christina Romer
http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cea/
ken
Kenneth W. Harrow
Distinguished Professor of English
Michigan State University
har...@msu.edu
517 803-8839
fax 517 353 3755
--
kenneth harrow
it is true they make a distinction on the website; but status seems pretty close to level.
anyway, i bow to you poly sci people to sort it out.
k
Moses Ebe Ochonu
Moses Ebe Ochonu
Abdul Karim Bangura
-----Original Message-----
From: Mobolaji ALUKO
Sent: Jul 22, 2010 7:13 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - 'Racism' Video That Led To Firing USDA Official Shirley Sherrod Lacked Critical Context
The following positions have the status of Cabinet-rank:
White House Chief of Staff
Rahm I. Emanuel
Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Lisa P. Jackson
http://www.epa.govOffice of Management & Budget
Director Peter R. Orszag
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb
United States Trade Representative
Ambassador Ronald Kirk
http://www.ustr.govUnited States Ambassador to the United Nations
Council of Economic Advisers
Ambassador Susan Rice
http://www.usunnewyork.usmission.gov/
Chair Christina Romer
http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cea/
-----Original Message-----
From: Moses Ebe Ochonu
Sent: Jul 21, 2010 9:28 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - 'Racism' Video That Led To Firing USDA Official Shirley Sherrod Lacked Critical Context
The answer to your question, Tony, is a categorical yes. Obama elevated the UN ambassadorship to a cabinet level position. Presidents have the power to do this, depending on how integral to their agenda they consider a position. They also have the power to downgrade a position from cabinet level. Presidents routinely use this power. There are several "non-secretary" jobs that are cabinet level and have always been or have been for a long time. The Office of US trade representative has always been a cabinet level position, I think.
![AP]()
toyin adepoju
"He has been battling with his conscience in the past five years on whether to expose this act of academic terrorism or not."
Its a pity he does not know his story is not new. Congratulations on his having the courage to speak out and move closer to psychological freedom from the terrorism he went through and help others do the same. I expect there are worse stories than his from Nigeria.Professor Ogo Ofuani,who did his PhD at the University of Ibadan more than thirty years ago,described the Nigerian PhD as "prostration, handwork and dobale" 'dobale' being a Yoruba word for prostration in recognition of the power,whether actual or symbolic, of an authority figure.I would not know about the University of Ibadan or about other Nigerian universities,or even much about other departments outside the one where I studied and taught in a Nigerian university, but my experience there has some similarities with stories coming from other Nigerian universities.
The junior academic staff and I, who were often also postgraduate students, at the Department of English and Literature at the University of Benin between 1990 and 2002 when I left there, had a similar experience. The sheer horror and ridiculous character of the experience informed my criticism of the recent agitation by indigenes of Benin, the city where the university is located, to make sure the next vice-chancellor is Bini on the grounds that they have been cheated out of that position since the inception of the university. Having escaped the semi-jungle that some of the powerful figures in the university at times turned the university into, my attitude was "What is the concern of a person who has escaped from prison with who becomes the head prisoner in a prison?". Rather than insist on having a person from an ethnic group as head prisoner, work to change the place from a semi-academic institution cum prison to a fully functional academic system.
I did not think I would have the motivation, the emotional resources, to catalogue how a group of people transformed an academic environment into a personal fiefdom. I might be reduced to simply chanting repeatedly "It was horrible!”.
Not all the senior academic staff in my department were guilty. I got the impression that those who could not adapt themselves to the system of being victim or victimiser were the ones who left.
I need to state that those senior academic staff at the Department of English and Literature at the University of Benin between 1990 and 2002 who so devalued the department when I was there did me two strategic favours. Those favours, ironically, helped make me strong enough to understand that they were running a destructive system. I also wonder if I would not have been better off in the long run without those favours.
The first favour was being offered the place on the MA program even though I could not have passed the entrance exam. My relationship with academia has always been problematic since I dont identify fully with the educational system, preferring to educate myself rather than be subjected to the strictures of programs not designed with individual needs in mind. I did not study for the entrance exam and so could not answer any of the questions, preferring to answer a question set by myself. The staff made sure I was offered a place anyway, partly because I was one of if not the best graduating student in my BA class and they knew I had such hiccups during my BA program and still did very well. With hindsight, I might have been better off outside that MA program but it meant I kept my job in the department which I had been offered after the BA program.
The second favour was a couple of senior academic staff making sure I retained my job even after my then temporary appointment was not renewed by the vice-chancellor as punishment for refusing to return to work during an academic union strike.A senior lecturer,who was the head of department and his protege,the oldest professor in the department,were aggrieved at this even though they had returned to work like most others had under the threat of losing their jobs, but they did not think I should lose my job for standing on principle. The professor appealed to the vice-chancellor who asked me to write a letter of apology for not returning to work and he would renew my appointment. That meant I would remain employed, take care of my family, and eventually, be strong enough to rebel against the system the department was running.
Yes, these senior academic staff had proved helpful to me in the ways I described. Some academic development was also taking place. But at the heart of the system was a culture of systematic dehumanisation created through consistent outright public verbal assaults at graduate students and junior academic staff, arbitrary changes to the rules guiding postgraduate programs, using staff like errand boys; all these coupled with being largely impervious to new ideas, backwardness in the scope of ideas taught at BA and MA levels and ideas and subjects tackled at the PhD; in fact backwardness that extended to being at least ten or more years behind in strategic global developments in key fields in the discipline. All this was compounded by the limitations of the university as a whole, amplified by the country's shortcomings in general.
The university library was well equipped and I wish I made better use of it but the scope for developing ideas within the university system was severely corroded by its systemic problems. Most of these problems were human made.
My vision when I completed my BA was to use my studies in Nigeria as a launching pad to reach a global audience. I disdained the fashionable idea of studying abroad. I was convinced that we needed to demonstrate the value of our national environment in developing the best scholarship possible, as a means of breaking Western epistemic hegemony. Why cant people come from the West and Asia to study at the University of Benin or anywhere else in Nigeria? Why must we be the ones to travel there?
Why cant Africans, Asians and other non-Western thinkers develop their own epistemic frameworks, using tools from anywhere in the world they choose, from which perspectives they would study the world?
Why must I always rely on the philosophies and methodologies developed in the history of Western scholarship in studying almost anything while neglecting centuries old developments from other civilizations? Why cant there be a genuine global dialogue of epistemologies and methodologies?
In relation to my limited experience with the Nigerian university system, I am convinced such an achievement is a possibility regardless of the country's limitations, particularly electricity supply. If security is assured, people can create and sustain programs that people anywhere would be willing to participate in. If the right attitudes are cultivated, such achievements are possible at the level of the national educational system.
My experience studying in England reinforced my conviction that what I was experiencing in that department at the University of Benin was,to a significant degree, a sad and terrible joke branded as an academic system. At last, it was the norm to treat me as a human being among other human beings, a person who deserved to be respected, in a context where mutual respect was the common currency of interaction. I was no longer in danger of being embarrassed by rudeness and snide remarks from senior academic staff at departmental board meetings, a situation that had sustained a slow burning dread in me for years whenever approaching the department at Uniben. I would no longer be subject to being the victim of an ambush by my supervisor as I had experienced at Uniben, who at a departmental seminar, condemned an essay which I had written under his close supervision, having had the outline written entirely by him and having made all corrections he demanded, while still in debt from the two sets of copies of the essay I had made for all members of staff before and after his corrections had made it necessary to replace the first draft. All the senior staff present at the seminar condemned the essay on spurious grounds, and without bothering to suggest any improvements, while my supervisor declared that I had misquoted him in my essay, a false assertion. One professor called the essay vulgar. I requested from them how the work could be improved. There was silence. I recognised that they had ganged up to subjugate me for an earlier initiative in which I had dared to go ahead with my idea of writing books and selling them to students, because most of the senior academic staff lived in mortal fear of intellectual initiative from their graduate students and junior academic staff. It was that seminar experience that convinced me that even though I had spent up to three years in that PhD program, to continue would be to waste my precious time and further subject myself to psychological brutalisation. I left the program so as to avoid their games in which people’s lives were being strangled and precious years laced with unproductive sand.
The story I posted on these fora recently about what I understand as discrimination against a student at the University of Cambridge convinces me that there can be injustice in academic systems all over the world.The possibility of being maltreated,however,is reduced by the general cultural level of the nation where the university is located and by the culture of the university itself.
The only time my PhD supervisor at UCL has come close to being rude to me was was in expressing exasperation over my tendency to unilaterally modify the thesis, a tendency that emerged every few years as the program wore on. This was because I was constantly wanting to integrate new ideas, broader perspectives.
My Uniben experience was one in which ideas unknown to the supervisor would not have been entertained in the first place. And the prevailing ideas were the ideas a small core of senior academic staff, two or three people, had learnt in their graduate education in the 1960s and perhaps 1970s.
My UCL program involves a synthesis of ideas and works from the verbal arts, the visual arts, music, philosophy and spirituality. It involves collaborative supervision from the exposure to African art from my supervisor at SOAS and the grounding in Western art from my supervisor at UCL.
The student/academic staff who tried to do his PhD through inter-university supervision at my Uniben department had his thesis topic approved, leading him to continue till he had practically finished the thesis in about three years or more, writing about 100,000 words or more,I expect, only to have his thesis topic cancelled by a professor in the department who decreed that it was not relevant to the department. The student rebounded by writing another thesis while publishing the old one as academic papers. Having overcome such hurdles, he has now become head of department while those who opposed his work are retired.
Efforts to navigate within such a system while abiding by its rules meant, to me, that the scope of people's possibilities for achievement was significant narrowed. They were also compelled to internalise a culture of subservience, of suppression of their own creative abilities so as to survive and continue to earn a living at such a high price within the system. As long as one was malleable in relation to those academic bullies masquerading as academic authorities, those who were undergoing temporary appointment like I once was, would remain employed. Those who were permanent staff had so internalised the jungle culture of being either predator or prey that they bent like rubber under fire under the blows of those academic terrorists or were themselves engaged in preying on others.
For those employed in the system, their income would rise steadily.They would compete their formal academic education sooner or later. They would be able to sustain their families with the income being earned. They would not, like those who went abroad to study, have to acclimatise to a new culture.
The question, however, would be, what is the value of the price being paid for these benefits?
Thanks
Toyin
Cornelius Hamelberg
those in the American diaspora know how the shoe fits. I leave it up
to them to supply some of the first hand details about the things that
they feel close to in their diaspora/ American hearts.
For example you get a glimpse into the reward system from here:
http://www.thelocal.se/search.php?keywordSearch=Matthew+Barzun&search=Go&type=news
After the euphoria had somewhat abated, one of my African-American
mentors ( Harvey Cropper) told me “ Don't forget that he's an
American president – a president of Am-erica – not Africa.”
There are those who see him as the president of the world ( the globe)
This is how I see it: that it's not merely a question of uncle
tomfoolery or suffering from a “White complex” and all that jazz - or
merely about fulfilling a quota system for Blacks and other relatively
disadvantaged minorities
Very generally speaking, it is understandable, and to be expected
that for people with a background in African ethnic politics in which
colour, tribe and tribal loyalty is the dominant factor which goes
hand in glove with nepotism, Brother Obama could be something of a
disappointment.
But American democracy, American politics is at another level.
However even though America is not yet a post-racial society, it is a
remarkable achievement in the annals of American history, that Barack
Obama was elected as the first Black President by a majority of
Americans and hopefully not against God's will, Brother Obama is
therefore president of all of the great United States of America
On the one hand the Democrat party is well organised with executive
committees at many levels from the county level up – and
of course, there are quite a few Black Republicans:
http://www.google.com/search?q=BLack+Republicans
But in the past few presidential elections, 84% of the eligible Black
electorate have traditionally voted for the Democrat's presidential
candidate, irrespective of his colour – although this time around
perhaps more than 90 of the Black vote went to Brother Obama and many
of the Black people who voted for Brother Obama hope that they did
not vote in vain – now that he is president – and of course some are
standing in line , wanting to and waiting to be rewarded. ( How about
a ministerial position ( media & communication) for Sister Oprah
Winfrey - lets put our hands together to give her another round of
applause!!!!! Yeah!)
Among the rationalists, the statistically minded are aware that Black
people constitute approximately 13% of the US population and would
like to see this proportionality reflected in the Black
representatives appointed to high office by the administration that's
being led by America's first Black President.
But is this how it plays out or is meant to play out even in a post-
racial society which at it's ideal best could still be something of a
fiction ? ( In one of his last interviews, the last White President of
South Africa F.W. De Klerk was asked how he felt about being the last
White South African president and he cheerfully replied ( and with
what I thought was unabated/ naïve optimism)that since South Africa
was then entering a post racial stage in which the colour of a man's
skin was no longer the most important factor, it was quite possible
that in the future there will be White president of South Africa
despite the great majority of the voters being Black. In thinking that
de Klerk's optimism was mere wishful thinking I was being pragmatic
not racist – and when Barack Obama was elected, many who witnessed
the miracle, such as Rev. Jesse Jackson, shed a tear or two - and
perhaps Andrew Young who had previously expressed doubts about
whether now was the time – to seize the time now - and that Barack
should at best go for the presidency of the United States of America
in about 8 to 15 years time --- perhaps he too has shed a tear or two
– of hope and disbelief, with or without mixed emotions.
On the night before the presidential election our Abdul Bangura
( he's here to verify) had posted on the Leonenet forum his prophecy
that Brother Obama would wake to reality the day after the election
( when the election results would be announced) as a very sad and
disappointed man – so certain was he about the so called “Bradley
effect” - and the extent of “White Power” and unfortunately by then
he had thrown his full weight behind his old man, the veteran war hero
John McCain.
Here's a little opinion meant to expand the horizons of the discussion
at hand:
http://forums.skadi.net/showthread.php?t=113856
On Jul 21, 3:24 pm, Abdul Karim Bangura <th...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Ha, ha, ha, haaaaaaaa....He, he, he, heeeeeeee.....---:) When I, a member of the Democratic Party Executive Committee, predicted all this in 2008, I was called all sorts of unsavory monikers on this forum: "Sell Out," "Closet McCain-Nut," "Uncle Tom," etc. Let's face it, Obama is failing Afrikans on the Motherland and in the Diaspora. His token appointment of Eric Holder in his cabinet for an agency that had lost most of its bureaus and power when Homeland Security was launched is a slap in the face of our Afrikan ancestors. The guy even prefers nominating gays to national positions and take the heat than to appoint Afrikans. And as we say in America, "I told you so."-----Original Message-----
> From: Mobolaji ALUKO
> Sent: Jul 21, 2010 2:51 AM
> To: USAAfrica Dialogue , NaijaPolitics e-Group , NIDOA , naijaintellects , OmoOdua
> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - 'Racism' Video That Led To Firing USDA Official Shirley Sherrod Lacked Critical Context
>
>
>
> Dear All:
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> This is ridiculous.
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> Obama might give her her job back, but Ms. Shirley Sherrod should not take it back, tut rather should sue the Obama administration for wrongful dismissal. How can a feeling she expressed 24 years ago as a non-government employee be manipulated by wicked conservative media against her today to force her out of a job? The rush to judgment without the context was trigger-happy and completely un-professional, and shows an administration too jumpy about race in this case and too ready to please the budding racists in the country, probably with an eye to the November mid-term elections.
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> It is bitterly disappointing.
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> Bolaji Aluko
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> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/20/shirley-sherrod-agricultu_n_653329.html
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> 'Racism' Video That Led To Firing USDA Official Shirley Sherrod Lacked Critical Context
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> BEN EVANS and MARY CLARE JALONICK| 07/20/10 09:42 PM |
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> WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is standing by its quick decision to oust a black Agriculture Department employee over racially tinged remarks at an NAACP banquet in Georgia, despite evidence that her remarks were misconstrued and growing calls for USDA to reconsider.
>
> Shirley Sherrod, who until Tuesday was the Agriculture Department's director of rural development in Georgia, says the administration caved to political pressure by pushing her to resign for saying that she didn't give a white farmer as much help as she could have 24 years ago when she worked for a nonprofit group.
>
> Sherrod says her remarks, delivered in March at a local NAACP banquet in Georgia, were part of a story about racial reconciliation, not racism. The white farming family that was the subject of the story stood by Sherrod and said she should keep her job.
>
> "We probably wouldn't have (our farm) today if it hadn't been for her leading us in the right direction," said Eloise Spooner, the wife of farmer Roger Spooner of Iron City, Ga. "I wish she could get her job back because she was good to us, I tell you."
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> The NAACP, which initially condemned Sherrod's remarks and supported Sherrod's ouster, joined the calls for her to keep her job. The civil rights group said it and millions of others were duped by the conservative website that posted partial video of her speech on Monday.
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> "We have come to the conclusion we were snookered ... into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias," said the statement from NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous.
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> A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said President Barack Obama was briefed on the matter after Sherrod's resignation and stands by the Agriculture Department's handling of it.
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> Sherrod said she was on the road Monday when USDA deputy undersecretary Cheryl Cook called her and told her the White House wanted her to resign because her comments were generating a cable news controversy.
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> "They called me twice," she told The Associated Press in an interview. "The last time they asked me to pull over to the side of the road and submit my resignation on my Blackberry, and that's what I did."
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> Sherrod said administration officials weren't interested in hearing her explanation. "It hurts me that they didn't even try to attempt to see what is happening here, they didn't care," she said. "I'm not a racist ... Anyone who knows me knows that I'm for fairness."
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> The administration gave a different version of events.
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> Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack – not the White House – made the decision to ask Sherrod to resign, said USDA spokeswoman Chris Mather. She said Sherrod willingly resigned when asked.
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> In a statement, Vilsack said the controversy surrounding Sherrod's comments could, rightly or wrongly, cause people to question her decisions as a federal employee and lead to lingering doubts about civil rights at the agency, which has a troubled history of discrimination.
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> "There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA," Vilsack said. "We have a duty to ensure that when we provide services to the American people we do so in an equitable manner."
>
> USDA is sensitive to the issue because the agency has for decades faced charges of discrimination against black farmers who said they could not get aid that routinely went to whites. The department agreed to a final $1.25 billion settlement earlier this year in a class-action suit that has been pending for more than a decade. The payout of that settlement is pending in Congress, and Vilsack has made fixing past wrongs over civil rights a top priority.
>
> "I was struggling with the fact that so many black people had lost their farmland, and here I was faced with helping a white person save their land," Sherrod said.
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> Initially, she said, "I didn't give him the full force of what I could do" and only gave him enough help to keep his case progressing. Eventually, she said, his situation "opened my eyes" that whites were struggling just like blacks, and helping farmers wasn't so much about race but was "about the poor versus those who have."
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> Sherrod said Tuesday the incomplete video appears to intentionally twist her message. She says she became close friends with the farmer and helped him for two years.
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> In the full 43-minute video of her speech released by the NAACP Tuesday evening, Sherrod tells the story of her father's death in 1965, saying he was killed by white men who were never charged. She says she made a commitment to stay in the South the night of her father's death, despite the dreams she had always had of leaving her rural town.
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> "When I made that commitment I was making that commitment to black people and to black people only," she said. "But you know God will show you things and he'll put things in your path so that you realize that the struggle is really about poor people."
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> read more »
kenneth harrow
there is a difference between doing something substantial for black people, and doing something symbolic that looks good but adds up to nothing
i am talking about clinton, not obama
the clinton administration was notoriously famous for crushing programs that assisted poor black people in this country; welfare "as we know it" ended; what replaced the air to poor people, predominantly urban black populations? to single mothers? to health care for poor people. go down the list, and the answer is less than nothing. clinton won over a conservative middle vote by reducing the safety net for poor black people. and got himself reelected.
a challenge to his defenders: tell me what he did that had positive consequences for the black population in the usa? i mean really do, that meant something?
secondly, a genocide in africa occurred on his watch. on this point i am an expert since i am amnesty international's country specialist on rwanda. his un ambassador, madeleine albright, daughter of holocaust survivors, justified u.s. non-intervention on the grounds that the killing of 800,000 people, mostly tuttsis, was "acts of genocide," not genocide. she was his mouthpiece. he permitted it; he later went to rwanda and apologized, saying, we didn't know, if only we had known. the most repulsive lie imaginable. i can provide details to prove this, but does it matter?
folks, i could write a book to explain the legal and moral failures of clinton's administration in not stopping a genocide when they were bound to a un genocide convention that required them to intervene, to support un intervention. instead they called for reducing the un peacekeeping force from 5000 to 800, and guarding the whites and one stadium in downtown kigali.
clinton thought african lives were unimportant and that not one single u.s. troop, or any troop supported with un money, should be put at risk to save african lives. this was his reading of the political circumstances after the death of 1`7 americans in somalia.
no one can excuse that; no one should excuse that.
clinton the friend of black people????? good pr, yes. reality?
so rental prices are good in harlem. where does he actually live? in the wealthy white suburbs, of course.
ken
kenneth harrow
"My vision when I completed my BA was to use my studies in Nigeria as a launching pad to reach a global audience. I disdained the fashionable idea of studying abroad. I was convinced that we needed to demonstrate the value of our national environment in developing the best scholarship possible, as a means of breaking Western epistemic hegemony. Why cant people come from the West and Asia to study at the University of Benin or anywhere else in Nigeria? Why must we be the ones to travel there?
Why cant Africans, Asians and other non-Western thinkers develop their own epistemic frameworks, using tools from anywhere in the world they choose, from which perspectives they would study the world?
Why must I always rely on the philosophies and methodologies developed in the history of Western scholarship in studying almost anything while neglecting centuries old developments from other civilizations? Why cant there be a genuine global dialogue of epistemologies and methodologies?"
on the other hand, we do generally validate a set of scholarly voices. not because they are "western"; not that they do not change. deconstruction is rarely followed; poststructuralism is very old hat, as is postmodernism. this is a dynamic field with competing values. what is controlling this process?
the limits of "western" are also problematic. in our field we cite those whose works have status, and the first names that come to mind are...mbembe. mamdani, gikandi, irele, adesamni, falola, diouf, etc etc. who else? i liked brian larkin's noise and signal, believe it was important. he is "western," teaches at columbia, and in his book cites any number of africans. haynes is great on nollywood. so is okome
to be really rigorously honest, the line between a "westerner" and non-westerner is largely meaningless. all the scholars and authors i could cite live and teach in western and african locations. some like kom in both; soyinka back and forth, like almost all the others.
do you imagine any africanist scholar hasn't lived in africa? and can you name many african authors of international reputation who have spent their lives only at home?
i hate the idea that a national identification is supposed to trump others; ethnic ok?not really, larger international pan-african ok, a bit. but the nation state as site of positive identities? for football, maybe. for thought? no.
it isn't that western thought is dominant, but that dominant structures, in economics as in the institutions that generate culture, are located in a few western sites. not the "west," but in those powerful institutions that pay the strongest thinkers to come and teach there. mbembe is halftime in duke, halftime in s africa. last i checked he "is" cameroonian, but what does that "is" really mean?
is this deplorable? well, yes, in the same way that all inequalities generated under the structures of capitalism today--by which i mean globalized capital, neoliberal capital if you will--often result in dominant institutions that ultimately prove limiting. i agree we need freedom in african universities to explore and research and write, and it isn't there when teachers are paid relatively poorly and have unimaginably huge loads of students.
so the error is to reduce this to "western" and "african." the two are not really separated by inherent cultural differences: each is marked culturally by the other over time, deeply. please consider gikandi's brilliant arguments on how the english needed african to develop its sense of englishness for itself. but the power differential in this results in the dominance in intellectual institutions that marks us all everywhere, in the west as in africa.
ken
Okafor, Chinyere
Coming out – E no easy-o!
The word Ofuani caught my eye, so I read the piece. I had wanted to challenge Toyin because I was also in Benin, though not for all the years in his time-frame, but then it is his own story – he wore the shoes. It is not easy to write “oppression.” It has taken Okonkwo five years to come out – name his oppression, take back the power, and be positive in thinking of how to prevent other students from having such horrible experience. Because of the network of oppressive systems, destabilization of status quo, fear of reprisal and “fear,” people often try to let the sleeping dog lie while they die in silence, but psychologists have said that it is very unhealthy. So kudos to you!
As I read your stories, I wondered at the “extra angle” of such issues, the untold stories of sexual harassment. Sometimes people wonder why women who have been abused keep quiet and sometimes are seen communicating with their abusers in public as if nothing happened. Why? Why did it take you this long to tell your story and take back your power? I’m not querying you, but just thinking aloud. And thanks for the stories.
Professor Chinyere G. Okafor, Ph.D
Department of Women's Studies & Religion
Wichita State University, Wichita, KS 67260, USA
Phone: (316) 978-6264, fax (316) 978-3186
E-mail: chinyer...@wichita.edu
URL <http://soar.wichita.edu/dspace/handle/10057/1222>
<http://webs.wichita.edu/wmstudy/faculty.html><http://www.chiwrite.com/>From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of toyin adepoju [toyin....@googlemail.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 8:57 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com; Edo-nationality; naijap...@yahoogroups.com; nigerianworldforum; WoleSoyinkaSociety; naijao...@yahoogroups.com; nai; Nidoa
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Academic Terrorism...
toyin adepoju
Pius Adesanmi
Folks, be warned. Do not watch this youtube clip near your kids. Read the comments after watching the clip for details... what is Nigeria coming to? Professor in a compromised situation. Students turning it into an opportunity for extorsion and yahoo-yahoo. Crime jam crime! What kind of society is this? Youtube will disable this soon if you don't watch it quickly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jEX2_CZ5Yc&feature=player_embedded Pius |
toyin adepoju
toyin adepoju
--
kenneth harrow
this is an encyclopediac answer, and i can only address a bit at a time.
you are right that the dominant approaches being used in "the academy" are largely being generated on the basis of work formulated by western thinkers. but it is too messy to leave it at that. we tend to evoke the indian subaltern historians a lot these days. their grounding includes marx, but also indian social and political realities.
a better ex for us might be mudimbe: no one is more thoroughly grounded in foucault; and he follows along channels dug deeply by said. he turns the saidian orientalist argument into one that is completely grounded in african historical, political, religious, and philosophical experiences. those experiences reflect the colonial experience; to be accurate, the african colonial experience, one forged by africans and westerners; the african colonial/religious experience, one in which so-called bantu thought marked the approaches to african lit which i and everyone i knew took in the early 70s. take it back even to Facing Mt Kenya.
thank god we no longer follow along with the sacred list of "truths" about africa which everyone accepted in those days.[which is why i really don't find the gates example of any worth today] but those "truths" came from a meeting of anthropologists, social scientists, religious thinkers, literature people, historians--not unlike the mix that informs much of the top scholarship of today, like that of james ferguson. ferguson references a wide array of african and western sources.
when i first taught about islam in africa, i had to turn to sufi sources to understand authors like cheikh hamidou kane or camara laye since the only way their religious or philosophical thought was presented had been as existentialism or christianity! there followed a large body of scholarship that used arab or muslim sources to understand so many african authors whose meanings depending on variants of sufism, like tayeb salih.
i do not see many people looking to asian scholarship to interpret african lit. it would be odd, i don't know why to do it.
but african authors we are mentioning, those writing novels and esp in european languages, have been long exposed to europhone lits and thought, or to metisse versions that engage african epistemologies with european ones, utilize discourses and languages that make the most sense when interpreted with tools forged in relatively similar ways. for bhabha, the meaning of colonialism lies in the meeting of colonialists and colonized. i would argue that the thought that developed came from that meeting, even if one dominated the other.
i don't have time now to develop this, and i promise to get to your other points later, but here are two quick thoughts:
i have a very very hard time believing that the psychological dynamics within the family, and in society, are radically different in different parts of the world. superficial differences, yes. fundamental father-mother-child, no. on that point i wrote Less Than One and Double in an attempt to give feminist readings, predominantly based in french and american feminist thought, of african women's lit. i know many dispute this approach.
secondly, i believe that derrida's approach to textuality is true of language, and thus literature, in general. language as interpreted in poststructuralism, doesn't require a cultural specificity for us to analyze in terms of signifiers, signifieds, referents, differance, and thus the relationship to "reality" or to a symbolic order.
i do believe postmodernism is more culturally specific, and that all the major points jameson makes about it are, without his being aware of it, grounded in a eurocentric point of view.
i think marxism is largely to be understood in terms of specific economic systems which, in his texts, were capitalist and western. and nothing is more culturally specific than the dialectic which he, like hegel and the greeks before them, thought were universal.
but nowadays globalized economic systems are world-wide, are susceptible to marxist interpretations, are not reducible to european or western points of view any more: sony is in hollywood, and gm makes all its money in china where its cars are being built. we are all outsourced. turning to indian theorists is very common, and they are not all deconstructionists like spivak.
ken
kenneth harrow
you wrote;
>5.In most parts of the world,the conceptual and historical language
>of Western scholarship is the language of discourse. The race of the
>scholar or their geographical location is often irrelevant to this hegemony.
>
>6.Scholars in Benin,for example, are less likely to make the study
>and application of native Olokun aesthetics and hermeneutics their
>concern.Why bother when well developed systems are already imported
>and established from Euro-America? The fact that these
>Western hermeneutic systems began as studies of sacred literature
>and can therefore represent a stimulus to continue the development
>of the cognitive traditions represented by tradition from native
>hermeneutic models seems to be too much trouble for many
>particularly since Western imperialism has discredited those native
>models as anachronistic.
my sense is that the approach to a text is eventually generated in a
collaboration between the thinker, the text, and, indirectly the
interpretive discourses/theories that the thinker brings to the text.
in the early years of written african lit and cinema, those
interpretative discourses relied heavily upon readings generated from
western texts; but that wasn't totally bizarre; i read in many early
afr lit novels of the 50s overtones of voltaire's candide, not
surprisingly since the authors in question also cut their teeth on
voltaire and other french authors
but with time, the reading of african lit was built on the readings
of earlier african lit.
you might wish that i could take soyinka's myth literature and the
african world as a model on which to base my thinking.
we did that in those days; it helped us to read The Interpreters and
lots of other texts. now those readings strike me as programmatic,
forced, unconvincing. it isn't enough to evoke a mythology of yoruba
gods and read african lit through that optic, as though doing the
whole greek mythology thing to european lit as we did in the 50s and
60s. the time of joyce's ulysses is over, and with it the threads of
explanation.
we were looking for straight answers to texts whose richness lay,
still, in bending the light. the answers don't come from a culture,
from the heart of the truth in people's cultural and social
practices. it starts with words, and ends when it ceases to be
answers,but rather questions, more questions. i hope ikhide's
readings lead us that way when he expostulates against the notion of
one culture, one reading, one truth, one answer, one igboness, one
yorubaness, one americanness, one anythingness. it was never a one,
never will be a one; we are multiple, our creations in words and
collection acts are multiple.
ideally i would take some kind of baktinian approach that sees
discourses altered by the interactions, between texts and readers,
authors and texts, narrators and authors, etc. in the space between
where interactions are born, there the words come to life, and don't
stop as we go on discussing what we read.
western influences in this? yes, where? in each of us, more or less.
african influences, yes.
a dominance of western thought over african creation? only in the old
days, because that was how colonialism and imperialism functioned.
still true? maybe with the publishers; maybe with those who reach for
one simple answer: what is the real meaning of TFA? beyond that, i
think we are always fighting that dominance you cite since the
institutions that created it are still endebted to it.
an example: why is african lit usually taught in language depts that
are divided along the lines of european languages? why is nigerian
lit taught in an english dept? instead of an african dept? is all
nigerian lit written in english???
what of cameroon lit? which dept? whose cubbyhole does it belong to?
where does orature belong? all those questions were addressed by
mudimbe, and he is right, the elevators of thought are locked into
already given epistemologies. i am agreeing with you there.
but they too change, as do we, and there's the nub. i have read
african lit for 35 years, and it has replaced european lit in my
baggage. i can't read it as i would have otherwise, years ago; and
that means the critical approaches have been generated by that
change. that's why i resist these identity formations that insist on
a purely western or african approach. isn't this true for all of us?
we aren't the children of hegel, but of a mixture of thinkers, whom
we cite as they work for us. some more than others. i have written
about sembene's films for a very long time, increasingly in
resistance to what i view as his project.but even so, he is my point
of reference, when i think about african cinema. i don't need to go
to truffaut, i have sembene. he generated african cinematic theory by
creating a body of films that influenced us all.