Minority...Majority...guess it depends on which side of the ocean you see from..

Dr. Francess Cress Welsing raises an interesting point:

"In today's very small world at least three-quarters of the people are "non-white", and the members of this "non-white" majority population are subjected to domination throughout their lives, either directly or indirectly, by a tiny minority of the world's people who classify themselves as "white." Racism (white supremecy) then, is revealed as one of, if not the most important observable phenomenon in the world today from which social, behavioral and all other scientists should be seeking an explanation."

Minorities Become Majority in State, Census Officials Say Population: Whites totaled 49.9% in 1999, estimates show. California tallies, using DMV records, say milestone still year away.

By SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON, RICHARD O'REILLY, Times Staff Writers

Minorities are now the majority in California, according to Census Bureau population estimates unveiled today.

Experts said this demographic trend will become a national one in the next few decades as the population of the United States swells with the arrival of more immigrants and the birth of minority children.

"This just confirms that California continues to be the major gateway melting pot for immigrants in the United States despite the fact there's a spillover and movement out of California," said demographer William Frey, of the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. The trend will lead to an image of Californians far different from the stereotype of blond surfers and beachgoers, other experts said.

According to the Census Bureau estimates for 1999, whites total 49.9% of the state's 33.1 million residents. Latinos follow at 31.6%, Asians at 11.4%, blacks, 6.7% and American Indians, less than 1%.

The bureau estimates are the last to be released before detailed Census 2000 results come out next year.

"We're seeing the formation of a new regional identity," said David Hayes-Bautista of UCLA, a researcher on Latino and immigrant demographics. Like Texans, Californians will speak English infused with Spanish and blend in facets of Latino culture. But they won't call it Latino. It simply will be Californian, he said.

"What this really means is there is not one single group that is totally dominant," said Harry P. Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, adding that subsequent generations will intermarry, further blending culture, ethnicity and race.

"Politics of inclusion are going to have to be the norm for all Californians simply because of demographic realities," Pachon said.

Not everyone accepts the census findings.

The head of the state Finance Department's demographic research unit said it is too soon for the Golden State to claim a minority majority. Linda Gage said that in her estimate, the state will not pass the milestone until July 2001.

Still, there are areas of agreement. "Certainly we're both showing very significant growth in our minority population," Gage said.

The Census Bureau showed steady gains within Latino and Asian populations over the past decade, particularly in Los Angeles County. (The county has had a minority majority since at least 1990, according to Census figures).

In fact, Los Angeles showed the biggest Latino population by county in the nation: 4.1 million, up 23.6% between 1990 and 1999. It also topped all the others in Asian population with 1.2 million, up 26.1% in the decade.

Proportionally, the number of Asian and Latino residents in surrounding counties surged even higher.

Nationally, Latino and Asian numbers increased substantially during the past decade as well. Between July 1, 1990, and July 1, 1999, the nation's Asian and Pacific Islander population grew 43.0% to 10.8 million, and the Latino population grew 38.8% to 31.3 million.

Unlike Los Angeles County, however, the white population nationally increased between 1990 and 1999, rising 7.3% to 224.6 million, according to the census figures. In Los Angeles County, white residents decreased by more than half a million during that period.

Los Angeles County also differed from national estimates in black population growth. Nationally, blacks remained the country's largest minority group, increasing 13.8% during the same period to 34.8 million. The county's black population dropped close to 4%.

Overall, Los Angeles County gained close to 455,000 residents between 1990 and 1999, the Census Bureau reported, although like the state, county demographers say the Census Bureau estimate is too low.

The nation's American Indian and Alaska native population, meanwhile, increased 15.5% to 2.3 million.

While the biggest percentage increases of minorities occurred in Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina, the largest number of minorities live in the country's most populous states, New York, California and Texas, census officials reported.

The difference between the state and federal estimates highlights an almost decade-long dispute over how the two levels of government count heads.

While the federal and state agencies use the same methods and sources to reach their estimates, there is one significant difference that contributes to the discrepancy, Gage said. The state uses Department of Motor Vehicle records to determine interstate migration. Such migration is largely white, resulting in a difference in ethnic totals.

MOORE V. MUMIA: DUPLICITY ON THE WHITE LEFT

By Linn Washington Jr.

What does liberal icon Michael Moore and liberal-lambasting Rush Limbaugh share in common?

Both mega-media stars have drawn criticism recently for stooping to exploit racist sentiments about Black men for their professional enrichment.

Curiously, there is a Philadelphia connection to the Black men recently exploited by filmmaker Moore and radio loud mouth Limbaugh. Like Limbaugh's low blow to Eagles' quarterback Donovan McNabb, Moore's maligning of Philadelphia death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal in Moore's latest book has sparked widespread criticism.

Last week Philadelphia political activist/author Ewuare Osayande flipped the script on Moore by pointing a verbal lens at this Academy Award winner's published remarks questioning the innocence of Abu-Jamal.  Osayande focused on Moore's anti-Mumia barb during a thought provoking presentation in Center City.

However, Osayande merely used Moore as an evidentiary prop for his searing, documentary style examination of racism and chauvinism within the white political Left…from the anti-war movement to non-profit organizations.

"Michael Moore is a fraud…There, I said it," Osayande quipped, mocking the phrasing of Moore's published comment about Abu-Jamal. "Moore is the latest manifestation of what white liberalism means today. Until the white left becomes accountable to the oppressed they claim to represent, they will continue to mislead," Osayande charged during his presentation entitled, "With Allies Like These You Don't Need Enemies: Racism, War and the White Left."

Moore, Osayande contended, bases part of his anti-Mumia posture on the "racist premise of presumed guilt of Blacks" - a stereotype shared by some white liberals and most white conservatives.

Osayande questioned why the white Left has not mounted a campaign to denounce Moore's calculated-to-sell-books slap at Mumia. The fact that Moore has told a few key (white) Mumia supporters that his book comment was perhaps "too flip" fits into what Osayande said is an all too typical antic of too many Left-liberals.

"Well meaning is not the issue. Results are the issue. White folks get stuck in, "This is not what we meant to do,"" Osayande said during his presentation at the Friend's Center, sponsored in part by the AFSC's Criminal Justice Program.

The danger of Moore's anti-Mumia slap, Osayande argued, is its potential to confuse persons uninformed about crucial details of the internationally controversial case but who will accept Moore's position as fact because of their esteem for Moore.

"There is a man who has confessed to the murder that put Mumia on death row. You mean Mr. Research, Michael Moore, doesn't know of this confession," Osayande asked rhetorically.

Osayande pointedly criticized Moore for pandering through using the anti-Mumia slap at the beginning of a book chapter where Moore "is making concessions to white conservatives."

Moore, in his hot selling new book, says Mumia "probably killed that guy. There, I said it." - offering no proof for this assertion while maintaining his longstanding posture that Abu-Jamal should not "be put to death."

Philadelphia area author David Lindorff pilloried Moore's presumption of Abu-Jamal's guilt in an article posted last month on the Counterpunch news/commentary website.

"Sadly Moore…has joined a short-list of other purported leftists…who seem ready to bolster their "independent" credentials by trashing Mumia supporters," stated Lindorff, author of "Killing Time: An Investigation Into the Death row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal" - the most comprehensive book on this case published to date.

Lindorff, himself a white Leftist, noted in his widely-circulated article that Abu-Jamal's 1982 murder trial "stank from the beginning…If the evidence presented at the trial was weak, cooked and hidden, how can [Moore] or anyone come to any kind of "probable" conclusion based upon it?"

Moore concedes that Abu-Jamal did not get a fair trial, a fact acknowledged by many including Amnesty International investigators yet a critical fact rejected by Pennsylvania and federal courts.

Osayande, zooming beyond filmmaker Moore in his presentation, blasted the white-Left anti-war movement for its silence on the shabby treatment of Shoshana Johnson, the Black US soldier wounded and captured during the same Iraq war battle that produced Pentagon manufactured hero Jessica Lynch.

"Shoshana Johnson is not getting any book deals, movies, magazine covers and she is getting an Army disability pension far less than the pension given to Lynch. Where is the white Left on this issue," said Osayande, who's new book is entitled, "Black Anti-Ballistic Missives: Resisting War/Resisting Racism."

Osayande assailed local white Left lead anti-poverty and other self-proclaimed progressive organizations, charging they have become the "gatekeepers between the oppressed and the capitalists…They are a Non-Profit Industrial Complex!"

Osayande said tensions have always existed between the white Left and Blacks since the 19th Century anti-slavery movement because the white Left refuses to aggressively address the issue of racism.

"When it comes to racism experienced by people of color, the reaction of the Left is to deny it or defend it, never to eliminate it," Osayande said.

Osayande's critique of the white Left echoes concerns raised by a succession of Black leaders, like Rev. Richard Cain's 1865 complaints about white liberals and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 criticisms of white moderates in his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail." White liberals "are responsible for several critical roles in the maintenance of peaceful white supremacy," asserts the 2002 published book, "The American Directory of Certified Uncle Toms."

For Osayande, the question remains: "Are white organizations in the movement willing to be accountable to people who are oppressed?"

-THE END-

Linn Washington Jr. is an award-winning writer who teaches journalism at
Temple University.

I think Rastafari symbolizes many ancient things that we, as white ones have been far removed from. There is an ancient.. and yes, familiar recognition reflected in our African brothers and sisters. Many times there is a yearning to connect back to this rich cultural spiritual root that taps somewhere deep in our inner conscious and core.

Often times when we hear certain music and observe certain lifestyles it begins to stir up some very deep feelings that looks to find a way to respond. Here is where the journey opens wider to learn about your history and the history of the world.

We as white ones, as you may have already observed, cannot piggy-back onto the cultures or heritages of others.. as these things are born out of the experience of the peoples that make the culture and any movements what it is. It is from the people that have lived through and been born into any particular circumstance that brings to it the necessary wisdom, knowledge and skill gleaned in order to survive whatever that experience provides them. This is where different cultures lend different experiences to different peoples.. and what applies to one may not apply to another experientally speaking.

However..it is these experiences that make there contributions to the whole of mankind...and why it is vital to know your own history and work to your best understanding from where you are. For it is here, where you can come in truth and wisdom gleaned from your own experiences and contribute what you know, see, and have learned. To Know thy Self is no accident but an intentional and deliberate search to work from the best of where one can Be.

It is my observation and experience that has revealed to me the importance of understanding the dynamics of how race and its complex relationship correlates to who we are as spiritual connected human beings. These forums provide extensive research, knowledge, and information to provide a firm foundation in understanding the world around us and how we as responsible human beings might better inform ourselves to make better choices.

...so by your username "convictions"...does something from Rastafari and these boards stir something inside?

What catches the inner eye? It seems as if you are aware of something deep inside yourself and that there is something here that might help you to see what it is..

War Analysis: The Iraqi Monkey Trap

By William Raspberry


There is a legend, the Rev. Earl Neil told the congregation of Trinity Episcopal Church here one recent Sunday, that certain African tribesmen have a clever way of trapping monkeys.

They begin by making a paw-sized hole in a coconut, then filling the coconut with rice or some similarly attractive food. A monkey will come along, stick in his paw and grab a fistful of rice -- and then find that he can't get his paw out.

"It screams for help, but it is trapped by its own greed," Neil explained. "As you and I can see, all the monkey would have to do is turn loose of the rice. His open hand could easily be withdrawn. The problem is that the monkey places greater value on the rice than on his own freedom."

That was the attention-getting windup. Here was the pitch:

"The Bush administration has stuck its hand into a coconut called Iraq, grabbed a fistful of oil and control, and now is finding it difficult to get out. It is trapped by its power and its greed. Now it screams for help from the United Nations (which it had earlier dismissed as irrelevant and inconsequential). And all the administration would have to do is to turn loose some control, and it might be able to withdraw with dignity.

"But like the monkey, it places greater value on the spoils of war than on freedom for the Iraqi people, reconciliation with the world order and what might very well be the soul of our nation."

The analogy isn't perfect. After all, it was the administration that laid the coconut trap in the first place -- against international and domestic advice that there was no need to rush unilaterally into what was likely to be an easy war and a fiendishly difficult peace.

But it works well enough. Even the administration itself might agree. Early last week administration officials ponied up a series of what they hoped would be seen as fist-opening concessions in a new resolution adopted Thursday by the U.N. Security Council. It would establish a multinational force to help the American- and British-led forces in Iraq and also provide more money to rebuild that devastated country. In exchange, the United States would grant at least symbolic self-governance to the Iraqi people by declaring that the Iraqi Governing Council and its ministers "will embody the sovereignty of the state of Iraq."

The administration clearly wants its hand free of the coconut.

But it also wants the rice. The Iraqi Governing Council is seen by many Iraqis as a creature not of Iraq's people but of the United States. And as if to underscore the point, the resolution reaffirms America's authority to administer and rule the country (and its assets?) until we deem it time to turn control over to people we deem worthy of wielding it.

If it's hard to know whether the Bush administration wants a freed hand more than it wants the rice, it may be because different influential players in the administration want different things and are willing to pay different prices for them.

In many ways, the president's mind has been a battleground for the fighting between pragmatists and ideologues -- between those who see America's interests in more or less traditional terms (trade, good relations with neighbors and some deference to international rule) and those who see America's unchallenged power as a heaven-sent opportunity to reorder the world -- at least that part of it called the Middle East.

Perhaps that is why the president is trying to consolidate postwar authority under his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, thus bringing control back to the White House and away from the Rumsfeld/Cheney/Wolfowitz axis of hubris.

But pretty soon the president himself will have to do something about that coconut. Does he want the rice -- control of Iraq's oil and lucrative rebuilding contracts for his political friends at Bechtel, Halliburton and elsewhere -- more than he wants the possibility of extracting himself from a mess he was warned about but still blustered into?

Will he end up just another trapped monkey?



© 2003 The Washington Post Company

It is interesting that you mention the awakening of Rasta  beliefs through reggae music...Many whites find themselves for lack of a better word "wanting" what their own culture cannot provide....and therefore find themselves yolking or bonding with other cultures that give them a sense of their own connection to nature and to their ancient spiritual root ...something main stream religions offer very little of...and if anything..highlight the contradictions and hypocracies of both human and spiritual misconduct in the guise of a (self) righteous kind of faith..utilizing fear and guilt as a means to keep ignorance alive and well.

Rasta bust down them barriers!

Yes...reggae is a wondrous vehicle to open the mind and eyes to another world beyond our own. The question is though...once inside what is one willing to realize when the message in the music becomes more than a skankin riddum?...more than dreadlocks?...more than a cool concert or new CD??

Here-in lies the power and beauty of the arts that speaks a language capable of entering in to the conscious domain...and deeper yet into the inner reasonings of the mind.

Contrasts and contemplations will arise...and it is good to question the status quo of one's beliefs...through whatever means avails itself...reggae is one of those means.

The quiet inner voice for reason will offer its guidance through all things experienced.. if one is willing to trust the truth within themselves and act on the highest from what they know.. from where they are. Doors will open..and more wisdom and knowledge will avail itself through sincere intentions of the heart.

So ye say you are relating more through the Rasta way of life as it rings true to the innner core of what you know makes sense...smile...indeed..

If I may share some quotes from the "Rasta Speaks" board: (and highly suggest you check it out yourself)

"In essence Rasta in its most ancient meaning is about developing oneself towards self-actualization, which is the only way to attain universal wisdom."

and...

Rasta stands for universal love, a higher spiritual ideal that is not usually emphasized in the mainstream of Western society. To be a Rasta is to be a righteous person, continuously seeking to improve SELF. This process of self discovery is further clarified by the words of a St Lucian Rasta who said "The word Rasta as I understand it means purely, the power that lies within any man which enables him to do anything he wants... To be a Rasta therefore is to be conscious of that divine power, and to be developing one's power potential for achievement... Rasta becomes therefore a philosophy of life fulfillment"

Yes...much of life is encompassed through all of Rasta...and through it you will see the disparity and injustices of a system (Babylon)  that is more supportive of ill gotten gain...particularly for whites...hence:

"And here is why so many whites, ironically, are attracted to Rastafari. It is a way of expressing their own resistance to the 'Babylon system', even though they were born into it and partake, willing or not, of its privileges. As much as Rasta gives Blacks a way to deal with the historical pain of being born black, it offers Whites a way to deal with the pain of being born white. It offers a vision of unity, in which blacks and whites together can work to dismantle systems of global 'downpression'. Rastafari also offers whites a way to reconcile with their own heritage, to be Jewish or Christian, to return to a religious ideology many felt had to be rejected because of the way it has been used as an instrument of oppression against nonwhites. Rastas speak of being the 'real Jews', the 'real Christians' of this time, feeling that they have gotten to the heart of the Bible's teachings about justice, unity, and love."

So yes....there is much to learn about yourself and of the world through which you live...read ...read...read.. and you will learn so much more...

bless

The Case For Regime Change
by Ted Rall

Making the case for United Nations intervention against the United States, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami told the organization yesterday that military action will be "unavoidable" unless the U.S. agrees to destroy its weapons of mass destruction.

In a much-anticipated speech to a special session of the U.N. General Assembly held in Brussels, Khatami launched a blistering attack against American leader George W. Bush, accusing him of defying U.N. resolutions and using his country's wealth to line the pockets of wealthy cronies at a time when the people of his country make do without such basic social programs as national health insurance.

"Nearly two years ago, the civilized world watched as this evil and corrupt dictator subverted the world's oldest representative democracy in an illegal coup d'etat," said Khatami. "Since then the Bush regime has continued America's systematic repression of ethnic and religious minorities and threatened international peace and security throughout the world. Thousands of political opponents and ordinary citizens have been subjected to arbitrary arrest and imprisonment. Basic civil rights have been violated.

This rogue state has flouted the international community on legal, economic and environmental issues. It has even ignored the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war by denying that its illegal invasion of Afghanistan--which has had a destabilizing influence throughout Central Asia--was a war at all."

Khatami said the U.S. possesses the world's largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, weapons "that, when first developed, were used immediately to kill half a million innocent civilians just months after acquiring them. No nation that has committed nuclear genocide can be entrusted with weapons of mass destruction."

"Bush has invaded Afghanistan and is now threatening Iraq. We cannot stand by and do nothing while danger gathers. We can't for this tyrant to strike first. We have an obligation to act pre-emptively to protect the world from this evildoer," Khatami said.

As delegates punctuated his words with bursts of applause, Khatami noted that U.S. intelligence agencies had helped establish and fund the world's most virulent terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda, and the Taliban regime that harbored them. "The U.S. created the Islamist extremists who attacked its people on September 11, 2001," he stated, "and Bush's illegitimate junta cynically exploited those attacks to repress political dissidents, make sweetheart deals with politically-connected corporations and revive 19th century-style colonial imperialism."

Khatami asked the U.N. to set a deadline for Bush to step down in favor of president-in-exile Al Gore, the legitimate winner of the 2000 election, the results of which were subverted through widespread voting irregularities and intimidation. "We favor not regime change, but rather restoration and liberation," he said. In addition, Khatami said, the U.S. must dismantle its weapons of mass destruction, guarantee basic human rights to all citizens and agree to abide by international law or "face the consequences."

Most observers agree that those "consequences" would likely include a prolonged bombing campaign targeting major U.S. cities and military installations, followed by a ground invasion led by European forces. "Civilian casualties would likely be substantial," said a French military analyst. "But the American people must be liberated from tyranny."

Khatami's charges, which were detailed in a dossier prepared by French President Jacques Chirac, were dismissed by a representative of the American strongman as "lies, half-truths and misguided beliefs, motivated by the desire to control a country with oil, natural gas and other natural resources." National Security Minister Condoleezza Rice denied that the U.S. maintains weapons of mass destruction and invited U.N. inspectors to visit Washington to "see for themselves that our weapons are designed only to keep the peace, subject of course to full respect for American sovereignty."

The U.N. is expected to reject any conditions for or restrictions on arms inspections.

Experts believe that the liberation of the United States will require a large ground force of European and other international troops, followed by a massive rebuilding program costing billions of euros. "Even before Bush, the American political system was a shambles," said Prof. Salvatore Deluna of the University of Madrid. "Their single-party plutocracy will have to be reshaped into true parliamentary-style democracy. Moreover, the economy will have to be retooled from its current military dictatorship model--in which a third of the federal budget goes to arms, and taxes are paid almost exclusively by the working class--to one in which basic human needs such as education and poverty are addressed. Their infrastructure is a mess; they don't even have a national passenger train system. Fixing a failed state of this size will require many years."