Last Tuesday, the City of Davis issued a proclamation acknowledging that today is Martin Luther King Day. In the course of introducing the proclamation, Mayor Joe Krovoza mentioned that it was a bit awkward that there was no one there to receive the proclamation.
It seems in the past there has been, although after discussion with city staff, it does not appear to be a formalized process. This is a lost opportunity to honor people in the community worthy of recognition for such an MLK Day.
My wife was at the heart of that controversy, but I think as we approach five years since those events ensued, that it is time to revisit some of these issues. Most notably, the issue of the need for a community-based commission to organize and do outreach so that we can have citizens rather than city staff do key tasks of planning community events.
What has happened in the last four and a half years is that the major focuses of strife have disappeared. Email records clearly show that the former Police Chief Jim Hyde intentionally attempted to fan the flames of discontent prior to his leaving.
His exit email placing the blame on the dysfunction of the HRC certainly stirred the pot. He continued that with a magazine article that took shots at his former organization, likening them to Reno-911. And most recently we have received word that he has continued to take shots at Davis and its activists, even in the course of training other police officers.
However, we also need to recognize that things are different than they were in 2005 when Halema Buzayan was arrested late in the evening in her home in her pajamas. While that case is still pending in federal court, we have seen a flurry of changes starting with the hiring of Bob Aaronson as a professional police ombudsman for the city and continuing through the hiring of Landy Black as Police Chief.
Are the problems gone? No. We still receive complaints, many of them manifesting themselves in the court system, or handled professionally in the internal process.
I still remember, during the course of bringing interns on board, asking an African-American member of the football team at UC Davis whether he was ever racially profiled and his response was, “all the time.” To the point where he and his friends were reluctant to go out together at night.
We should never expect all problems to disappear, but what we should expect is people to be treated with courtesy and respect – and for the most part that has been the rule of the day in Landy Black’s department.
This is not just about the police and this is not about an attempt to re-write history. In fact, I would argue that this is the opposite of those goals. This is about five years later moving on.
We need to do more in this community than we have done to help foster better relations.
Last year during the wave of hate graffiti and other instances of hate on the UC Davis campus, we should have taken note in what African-American students were saying. They talked about feeling isolated, not only on campus but in the community.
One female African-American student at a rally last year emphasized how uncomfortable she feels as an African-American in Davis, that there is a reputation among African-Americans that Davis is unwelcoming to minorities, particularly African-Americans.
While those issues have vanished from the headlines, they are not gone.
Don Saylor last year showed up at a rally and promised to help organize something, but he never followed through. We are still in need of that leadership and direction, and hopefully that can occur with the new council.
A more community-based HRC might be able to deal with these issues that arise.
It is more than just this, however. We continue to struggle with a pervasive achievement gap in our vaunted schools. The most alarming aspect of it is that it holds even when controlling for socio-economic status of the parents. Even among college-educated parents, African-American and Hispanic students do significantly worse than their white and Asian counterparts.
This is certainly an issue that we as a community should be working on.
And so today, yes, we are going to talk about racial equality and the progress that we have made in the last fifty years. And we have made tremendous progress. More African-Americans go to college than ever before.
But at the same time, less than 3 percent of all students in the UC are African-American. African-Americans are still more likely to be in prison than to set foot in a college classroom.
We need to look at our own community and what students are telling us, and apparently a lot of people in power are not listening.
What happened five years ago is indeed in the past, but the problems still exist today and we need the new council to look into these issues and help us to refocus and figure out a way to address them.
I close as I always do on MLK, by citing one of MLK’s powerful but lesser known speeches. This is called “Our God is Marching On” delivered on March 25, 1965. It is a call to action, an action that we must all heed on this day.
“How long? Not long, because “no lie can live forever.”
How long? Not long, because “you shall reap what you sow.”How long? Not long:
Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above his own.How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
How long? Not long, because:
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat.
O, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant my feet!
Our God is marching on.”
—David M. Greenwald reporting
There’s no need for anything that resembles the trouble making HRC that was disbanded back then. In my opinion that HRC created many more problems then it ever solved. To this day I thank that council back then for ridding Davis of that cancer.
We continue to struggle with a pervasive achievement gap in our vaunted schools. The most alarming aspect of it is that it holds even when controlling for socio-economic status of the parents. Even among college-educated parents, African-American and Hispanic students do significantly worse than their white and Asian counterparts.
This is certainly an issue that we as a community should be working on.
I am puzzled; are you suggesting additional resources be directed to African American and Hispanic students in the Davis School District?
[quote]But at the same time, less than 3 percent of all students in the UC are African-American. [/quote]Interesting… David, were you alive/cognizant the day Dr. King died at the hands of a mentally disturbed white man? I remember it well… I also well remember the shooting death of Sen. Robert Kennedy ~ 6 weeks later… at the hands of Sirhan Sirhan… I was attending Jr. High the day after Dr. King’s assassination… I was struck by a black student, in the solar plexis, and it hurt like hell… I had difficulty getting my breath. I was attacked because I’m “white”… fortunately, for my ‘world view’, our black vice principal saw what happened, rushed over to see if I was OK, and when I affirmed I was, he (verbally) lashed into the kid who hit me, and I remember him saying something to the extent that Dr. King would be P.O.’d to know about the attack… I mourned Dr. King’s death, not because he was black, but because he was a man of God (despite some of his weaknesses), and spoke truth and healing. I wonder if Dr. King would prefer having a school/public holiday on the anniversary of his birth (which I believe is more important than ‘celebrating “death” dates), or whether he would rather that schools were open, students of all races learning the core subjects, but also learning to respect/”get along with”/love one another. We have “work” to do on this holiday… Dr. King, I expect, would want us to do so… it wasn’t about him… for everone, whether this is a day off for you or not, I commend the saying, “as I have loved you, love one another”. Pax/Pachem/Paix
Martin reminds us that one person, armed with truth courage and commitment, can change the world. While the current generation seems to be,”Waiting on the world to change” Martin gave us the vision and promise,”We Shall Overcome.”
“In my opinion that HRC created many more problems then it ever solved.”
Really in your opinion, what did they do that created more problems then they solved?
“I am puzzled; are you suggesting additional resources be directed to African American and Hispanic students in the Davis School District? “
Not necessarily. I’m suggesting that we recognize and acknowledge the issues that remain in our community and begin to address them. May not be able to right now since we lack the resources.
Hpierce: MLK died four years before I was born. I never knew a world where segregation was legal. My daughter will never know a world without a black president. At the end of the day, we have made great progress and we have great progress still to make.
dmg: “A more community-based HRC might be able to deal with these issues that arise.”
What do you mean precisely by a “more community-based HRC”? Members of the community make up the HRC. It is the City Council who limited the HRC’s mission drastically – and has been trying to eliminate many commissions bc there has been CC antipathy towards public involvement in local political issues. If the HRC has no teeth to it, blame the CC… but there must be a balance – a commission still cannot act outside its purview w/o CC permission.
dmg: “Last year during the wave of hate graffiti and other instances of hate on the UC Davis campus, we should have taken note in what African-American students were saying. They talked about feeling isolated, not only on campus but in the community.”
The community did take note – UCD went quite a long way to address the graffiti issue. What more should have been done that was not done? How is the “community” of Davis responsible for the idiots that scrolled the hate graffiti on the UCD campus?
I would argue that constantly dredging up the issue of “racism” actually makes the problem worse, not better. Addressing specific instances of racism at the time they happen makes sense. But essentially branding all of us w the “racism” epithet bc of some bad actors on campus, insisting we have not somehow done enough, is not helpful. Each of us is responsible for our own behavior, not someone else’s bad behavior that we have no control over…
My youngest daughter, who just graduated from UCD a couple of years ago, had many good friends on campus who were of a different ethnicity. She didn’t give their ethnicity much thought, other than how they differed in the foods they ate, or some cultural differences of interest. But the bottom line is they were all students on campus, there to learn and obtain a degree. The city of Davis has many ethnic restaurants as well as International House, had a minority Mayor (Asmundson) and City Council member (Heystek) until recently, and as far as I can tell, does not discriminate in providing services to minorities. What more would you have us do that we are not already doing?
I don’t think the people today truly understand real hard core “racism”. I come from the state of Maryland, where I lived during the era of “whites only” stores. As recently as about 20 years ago, there was a restaurant in MD that closed rather than have to serve African Americans. The actor Morgan Freeman intervened in a Southern town just a few years ago, that was still having segregated proms, one for “whites” and one for “blacks”.
In fact, I would argue the greater problem in this college town is that UCD students do not have a voice on the CC. That would go a long way to making students feel more welcome. Former Council member Lamar Heystek came the closest to finally representing student interests on the CC.
MLK day reminds me of the aftermath of two horrible political assisinations in 1968 – first King and then Kennedy. I was sitting in Spanish class (in a school outside of Madrid) when we heard about the Kennedy shooting and I vividly recall my teacher (a Spanish citizen) walking up to me and asking What Is Wrong With Your Country?. I do not think I had focused on the faults of My Country prior to that.
So when I think of MLK day I consider what is still wrong with our country and consider the contribution of a person of an individual who contributed to a better society.
David, as someone born in 1950s Georgia, with a few decade’s and countless mile’s perspective I am less impressed with our progress as a nation.
Elaine,institutional racism is certainly far less prevalent, though not extinct. I am far more concerned with is the fact that so few of us have any close friendships outside of our own racial groups. I have had more opportunity than some, perhaps, having been a musician and through my civil service career. I celebrate Martin’s life by trying to love a little bit more each day and doing something to make someone’s life happier. A huge part of his message was forgiveness and tolerance, virtues we have hoarded in recent years, like gold and like gold, only have value when spent.
To Alphonso: I have to laugh at your Spanish teacher’s reaction to the assassinations in our country, in light of Spanish history. Let’s see, there were assassinations since 1960 by Basque separatists; the Spanish Inquisition which began in 1478 – was not abolished until 1834.
From Wikipedia: “ETA or Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, (English: Basque Homeland and Freedom; pronounced [ˈeta]), is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization. The group was founded in 1959 and has since evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country from a Marxist-Leninist perspective.[3][4] ETA is the main organisation of the Basque National Liberation Movement and is the most important participant in the Basque Conflict.
ETA’s motto is Bietan jarrai (“Keep up on both”), referring to the two figures in its symbol, a snake (representing politics) wrapped around an axe (representing armed struggle).[5][6][7]
Since 1960, ETA has killed 858 individuals, injured 1230 and undertaken 77 kidnappings.[8][9][10] The group is proscribed as a terrorist organization by the Spanish and French[11] authorities, as well as the European Union as a whole,[12] and the United States.[13] This convention is followed by a plurality of domestic and international media, which also refer to the group as “terrorists”.[14][15][16][17] More than 700 members of the organization are incarcerated in prisons in Spain, France, and other countries.[18]”
I would say your teacher was engaging in the practice of “the pot calling the kettle black”… assassinations are carried out in just about every country, to all our collective sorrows…
Thank you for you insightful comments Mr. Musser.
Same here ERM, I felt the same thing when I read about the America bashing teacher. Every country has its lunatics.
[quote]We continue to struggle with a pervasive achievement gap in our vaunted schools. The most alarming aspect of it is that it holds even when controlling for socio-economic status of the parents. Even among college-educated parents, African-American and Hispanic students do significantly worse than their white and Asian counterparts.
This is certainly an issue that we as a community should be working on.[/quote]
In what way is this a community issue?
ALPH: [i]”(In 1963) I was sitting in Spanish class (in a school outside of Madrid) when we heard about the Kennedy shooting and I vividly recall my teacher (a Spanish citizen) walking up to me and asking What Is Wrong With Your Country?”[/i]
In 1963, Spain was governed by Francisco Franco, a violent dictator who used assassination and intimidation as common means of controlling the Spanish people. I think the question asked of you was entirely in jest. Every civilized Spaniard in 1963 knew how bad life was under Franco. He not only suppressed all freedoms in his country with an iron fist, he had ground the country into poverty.
By the time King and RFK were murdered in 1968, Franco’s soldiers were regularly slaughtering college students in Spain. Franco not only used his Armed Police to violently suppress student uprisings, he had plainclothed secret police inside the campuses murdering professors and student leaders.
DAVE: [i]”Even among college-educated parents, African-American and Hispanic students do significantly worse than their white and Asian counterparts.”[/i]
Dave, why don’t you suggest the obvious–that the black and browns who are not doing as well as the yellows copy the strategies the yellows have used?
I happen to know a number of very high-achieving African-Americans. A friend of mine who I grew up with here in Davis (he is 6 years older than I am) is a multi-millionaire in Hollywood. The culture in his childhood in Davis was one which stressed family, success in school and hard work and so on, all those things which are thought of as “Asian family values.” I am fairly certain that most black lawyers, doctors, engineers, CEOs and the like came from homes which had similar so-called Asian values.
It’s not hard to figure out that if one culture generally stresses those things which lead to success it will be successful. And if another perpetuates a failed culture its children will fail. The worst thing we as a society can do for those who are making bad decisions (such as having children out of wedlock) is to blame society of those bad decisions. That perpetuates the problem. Instead, I think it would be helpful to hold up a successful role model, to show those who are born into rotten family situations what route they can take to better themselves.
[quote]It’s not hard to figure out that if one culture generally stresses those things which lead to success it will be successful. And if another perpetuates a failed culture its children will fail. The worst thing we as a society can do for those who are making bad decisions (such as having children out of wedlock) is to blame society of those bad decisions.[/quote]
Great point sir. Thank you.
I shall now re-post my initial post, which I made before realizing there’s no edit function, and I failed to make the URL’s clickable for you all…
I always cringe at the lamestream media coverage that issues forth at this time every year.. exclusively happythink with utter disregard for Martin’s embracing of strong anti-war activism in his final months. So imagine my disgust at seeing this:
“..
The article concerns a speech by the Defense Department’s general counsel, Jeh C. Johnson, who stated, “I believe that if Dr. King were alive today, he would recognize that we live in a complicated world, and that our nation’s military should not and cannot lay down its arms and leave the American people vulnerable to terrorist attack.”
..”
[url]http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/01/14/the-misuse-of-martin-luther-king-jr/[/url]
Please realize how twisted and vile these jingoists like Obama can really be, and let us please demand real change from everyone in any position of power whatsoever (i.e. media.)
I was PLEASANTLY shocked to hear KQED playing superb audio from the CBC of MLK doing lectures in the studio which I’d never heard before.. in which he explains his conversion into a peace activist. (KQED’s website, lamely, doesnt even adequately notate what was on that Wednesday and there’s “no audio available” .. and CBC is super pricey as to getting their archived stuff generally.. ) I managed to find the top-notch audio in a search:
http://www.prx.org/series/31037-martin-luther-king-jr-massey-lectures
This should be on KDVS, KDRT, KXJZ, KVMR, KPFA etc, etcetera, et al and so on! Totally timely to todays events.
[UPDATE: tried listening to DN! on KDRT this morning, as the KPFA signal was iffy. They were broadcasting silence. How hard can it be? Given the uncomfortable nature of the controversial material, one wonders whether they have a solid chain-of-control from studio out to antenna that’s free of Rightist scum.]
Also utterly germane to current events, a Pacifica 2-part broadcast not to be missed by ANYONE:
[url]http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/39753[/url]
[url]http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/39870[/url]
I just went to look up the audiofile from when Amy G played MLK’s “Beyond Vietnam” on DN some years back, and voila, a good excerpt gets played tomorrow:
[url]http://www.democracynow.org/2011/1/17/special_dr_martin_luther_king_jr[/url]
oh, and
[url]http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/?id=438591&t=10_awesome_things_mlk_said_that_you_won’t_hear_this_weekend[/url]
Re: KDRT — “one wonders whether they have a solid chain-of-control from studio out to antenna that’s free of Rightist scum.”
Yes they do. The broadcast antenna is right on top of the building. But the station is closed and unstaffed on Mondays, so if there is a problem it sometimes takes awhile for them to get the broadcast going again.
Thanks for the links.
[quote]Hillary Rodham Clinton is indeed problematic, as she represents the political machine in power under which Obama serves. And she in turn, under the Bush crime family. Back in her lawyerin’ days, she actually was key in removing evidence of GHWB’s involvement [/quote]
Babble
The biggest division in America is social class. I have a number of close friends (and a spouse) outside of my race, but no real friends outside of my class.
MLK’s dream seems farther away now in some ways. I think we are a less racist society but economic pressures are paramount and have created other tensions. Some African Americans have done well but others are trapped. I don’t have an easy solutions and I don’t think gov’t will solve these problems.
Davis is an island of relative prosperity surrounded by deep economic problems that exist in central California. We have a small African American population but our surrounded by a huge Latino community.
[i]” We have a small African American population but are surrounded by a huge Latino community.”[/i]
For what it’s worth, Davis is a much more diverse community today than it was when I grew up. The percentage of our population which is non-white of most every sort–South Asians, Orientals*, Africans and Afro-Caribbeans and black Americans and non-white Hispanics–are all higher today than they were 40 years ago. (We also have a much larger Jewish community in Davis, today, though I’m not sure if percentage wise their are more MOTs or not.)
It’s interesting that you mention Latinos surrounding Davis (implying that not too many are Davis residents). Due to heavy Mexican immigration into California for the last 30 years, our region is today far more Hispanic than it was decades ago.
However, due to changes in agricultural practices, the farming periphery of Davis is [/i]less Latino today than it was in the 1960s and ’70s.[/i] It used to be the case that large numbers of migrant farm laborers would come to the Davis area to work the row crops every spring and fall. (Their kids would often enroll in Davis schools for a month or so and then they’d leave with their families.) But those numbers have declined as crops changed and as mechanization took their jobs. I am not sure of this, but there used to be a large migrant housing complex southeast of Davis and I think it was torn down at some point. In fact, I think every single Yolo County city and town had its own peripheral housing complex for migrants back in the day.
*Orientals–no offense in that term. By it I mean Asians from the Orient, in contrast to Asians from places like Sri Lanka, Lebanon or Oman or Nepal or Tajikistan.
KDRT — “one wonders whether they have a solid chain-of-control from studio out to antenna that’s free of Rightist scum.”
I doubt the “Rightest scum” is trying to infiltrate KDRT.
You lefties are a hoot.
“Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong”
Buffalo Springfield
When MLK day became a national holiday Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays were consolidated into Presidents Day. So there was no net change in school days or work days.
“Orientals–no offense in that term.” Maybe not to you or Charlie Chan but I am sure there are others who find it offensive.
rusty49: “I doubt the “Rightest scum” is trying to infiltrate KDRT.
You lefties are a hoot.”
LOL
“*Orientals–no offense in that term. By it I mean Asians from the Orient, in contrast to Asians from places like Sri Lanka, Lebanon or Oman or Nepal or Tajikistan.”
Not sure what you mean by that, since all of the places you mention were (and generally still are in Europe and Asia) considered to be countries in the Orient. “The Orient” expanded in an easterly direction as European discovery of Asia moved toward the east.
FYI – you also need to read more about Spain in 1968 – pretty mild place with lots of economic growth.
ERM
“rusty49: “I doubt the “Rightest scum” is trying to infiltrate KDRT.
You lefties are a hoot.”
LOL”
I know Elaine, can you believe it?
I spent 10 years in California prisons and know the Pelican Bay SHU personally. I wrote a drug war novel Roll Call by Glenn Langohr to show the public the path we are on by incarcerating petty criminals is only breeding bigger ones who are displaced from society when they are released. The U.S is not the leaders of the free world; we are the leaders of the incarcerated world! I started http://www.lockdownpublishing.com when I got out of prison to help other prisoners change their lives through writing. http://youtu.be/jEQ8Gh1-bFs Here is the NY Review Kirkus Discoveries, Nielsen Business Media
discoveries@kirkusreviews.com
A harrowing, down-and-dirty depiction—sometimes reminiscent of Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic—of America’s war on drugs, by former dealer and California artist Langohr.
I’m also writing over 50 California prisoners to inspire them to turn their lives around through writing. I want interviews and publicity as I am broke out of prison and can’t afford the regular channels…
Thank you and God Bless Glenn 949 357 7465
TIME TO PROTEST THE C.C.P.O.A –Coming soon