From The Ramparts
Monday, November 30, 2015
From The Ramparts
Junious Ricardo Stanton
Depression and Despair in The US Is Growing
"Americans are more depressed now than
they have been in decades, a recent study has
found. San Diego State University (SDSU) psychology professor Jean M. Twenge
analyzed data from nearly 7 million adolescents and adults from across the
country and found that more people reported symptoms of depression — including
sleeplessness and trouble concentrating — compared to the 1980s.Twenge’s
findings show that teenagers in the 2010s experience memory trouble 38 percent
more often than their 1980s counterparts. Teens are also 74 percent more likely
to have trouble sleeping and twice as likely to see a professional for mental
health issues. College students in the study reported feeling overwhelmed by
academic and personal demands 50 percent more often than their 1980s
counterparts." 21 Signs That Americans Are the Unhappiest People on
The Planet http://www.hangthebankers.com/21-signs-americans-unhappy/
As we move
into the "holiday season" it is alarming and sad to learn that more
Americans are on anti-depressant psychotropic medication than ever before, that
suicides in the US
are at an all time high and reports indicate Americans of all demographic
groups admit they are extremely unhappy and depressed. In a society that
is as highly advanced technologically as
America is, that is extremely materialistic that has all the superficial trappings
of prosperity, the question remains, why are Americans so unhappy, why is this
country so depressed?
From these
and others we can conclude that there are numerous forces both external
(outside of ourselves) and internal (inside of ourselves) working to undermine
our total well being. In essence, we are miserable because we have been taught
and conditioned to seek happiness and satisfaction outside of ourselves. We are
outer directed instead of focusing on the inner realms of our being: our mind,
emotions and soul. We are unhappy because we acquiesce to the messages and
programming of the media and authority figures who molded and controlled us
when we were young and this control continued into adulthood. We have been
brainwashed to believe our worth is based upon accumulating and owning things.
By seeking status in our possessions, we erroneously think our social position
is dependent on our ability to have stuff and mold ourselves into the notions and
models Madison Avenue tells us make us somebody/something.
When you
look at what Mike Bundrant says in his article
http://www.naturalnews.com/043150_depression_heavy_metal_poisoning_brain_function.html#
you can see why we are out of balance and operating in ways that prevent us
from living in harmony with ourselves, the environment and others. We do not
have to continue to kill our spirits, live in depression, go through life mired
in a sense of emptiness and alienation. If
for example we know that there are toxins in the foods that undermine our
health stop eating those foods! If we know getting out in nature walking barefoot
on the ground or on a beach making contact with the earth and water, breathing
fresh air are beneficial to us, we can do more of these things. Our total wellbeing
is our responsibility we cannot afford not to take it personally, make it a top
priority in our lives or turn it over to someone else no matter how much
education they have.
We have agency we have intrinsic power, we
have the ability to alter our psychological, emotional, mental and physical
being, to go from depressed to a life of fulfillment and happiness. We have to move past the pattern of learned hopelessness
and helplessness to a position of empowerment! We have to move from being mindless
automatons and zombies (it's no coincidence a major theme on television, movies
and video games is zombies). The writer of the article Eight Reasons Depression Why
Depression Is So Common Today mentions Edward Bernays the mastermind
behind American "public relations"; Bernays euphemism for mind
control. Edward Bernays was a nephew of Sigmund Freud. Bernays was an influential
figure in American business and is credited with the development of mass psychological manipulation. He developed a whole regime of tricking and
inducing Americans to do things that weren't necessarily in their best interests
such a smoking cigarettes and eating heavier breakfasts that enriched his clients
and himself! "Bernays was born in Vienna , Austria , in 1891 but grew up in New York City . His mother
was Freud's sister and his father was the brother of Freud's wife, Martha
Bernays. He maintained contact with his uncle, and the family often joined
Freud for summer holidays in the Alps . Bernays
began his career shaping public opinion by creating a media campaign to raise
awareness of venereal disease and sexual hypocrisy. But his application of
psychoanalytic principles to public relations and advertising came only after
reading Freud's 'General Introductory Lectures,' a gift from Freud to his
nephew in thanks for a box of Havana
cigars. In this case, a cigar did prove to be much more than a cigar. The
marriage of psychoanalysis and public relations, facilitated by the box of
Havanas, made Bernays a very wealthy man.Intrigued by Freud's notion that
irrational forces drive human behavior, Bernays sought to harness those forces
to sell products for his clients. In his 1928 book, 'Propaganda,' Bernays
hypothesized that by understanding the group mind, it would be possible to
manipulate people's behavior without their even realizing it. To test this
hypothesis, Bernays launched one of his most famous public relations campaigns:
convincing women to smoke." Psychoanalysis Shapes Consumer Culture by Lisa
Held http://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/12/consumer.aspx.
Much of our
depression and misery are because we are being nefariously manipulated.
Corporations use psychologists to design advertising campaigns to play on our
emotions, exploit our sense of inadequacy and our longing for happiness. Of
course this manipulation exacerbates our inadequacies, insecurities and sense
of alienation which impacts our psychological health because it creates
frustration, anger and a sense of emptiness which over time can morph into depression.
We are being unconsciously manipulated and exploited and over time this
manipulation can lead to frustration and if it remains pent up within us it
eventually leads to psychological and often physical implosion: illness,
depression and psychotic episodes.
Add the
readiness of doctors to prescribe anti-depression medications at the drop of a
hat to this scenario and we can see why this country is so zonked out. Anti-depression
medication is not necessarily a cure all. We need to keep in mind they have side
effects and you should be aware of these before you make medication your first
and only option. "Antidepressants can make people feel better, but they
won't change their personality or make them feel happy all the time. Like
taking any other medication, some people will experience some side effects.
Common side effects, depending on which medication is taken, include nausea,
headaches, anxiety, sweating, dizziness, agitation, weight gain, dry mouth and
sexual difficulties (e.g. difficulty becoming/staying aroused). Some of these
symptoms can be short-lived, but people who experience any of these symptoms
should tell their doctor, as there are ways of minimizing them. The likelihood
of a particular side effect happening varies between individuals and
medications." Medical Treatments for Depression https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/depression/treatments-for-depression/medical-treatments-for-depression
The main
thing to remember is we have agency, we have the ability to and can choose how
we respond to and navigate life's ups and downs. We have the ability to frame
our experiences. A flat tire is not a catastrophe it is an inconvenience so
view like that instead of a punishment from your idea of god. Maybe getting
laid off from the job you hated was a good thing, it will allow you to develop
other skills and capacities to earn a living, feel fulfilled and on purpose.
Get on with your life.
We can move beyond learned helplessness and
hopelessness to being empowered and self-actualizing beings taking control of
our lives! We can choose which regimen we use to feel better, we don't have to
go for the okey-doke of prescription drugs nor do we have to set our lives by Madison
Avenue's or anyone else's clock.
As we are
bombarded by advertisements and messages to prompt us to buy and spend,
remember this is psychological manipulation! You have the power to resist this
manipulation, to live your life on your own
terms and not be a pawn of the advertisers and retail industries! Happiness is
not based on how big your bank account is. Real happiness comes from loving
yourself, being fully engaged in the life process, serving and being a blessing
to others.
-30-
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Don't Believe The Hype
From The Ramparts
Junious Ricardo Stanton
Don't Believe The Hype
"How many
false flags in recent history have all had the same feature: drills at the same
time at the same (or a nearby) place? 21st Century
Wire reports that Dr. Patrick Pelloux was “a ‘survivor’
of the Charlie Hebdo shootings”
who just happened to be on the scene at these shootings. That in and of itself
is a coincidence, but Pelloux actually stated that
a “multi-site
attack exercise”Paris http://www.zengardner.com/paris-shooting-10-ways-looks-like-hallmark-false-flag-op/
I'm seeing a lot of Black folks draping their profile in the
French flag, posting on FaceBook sharing their sense of loss for what happened
in Paris last
week. Most of them can be forgiven because of their ignorance and lack of
awareness of the evil and dastardly nature of the real perpetrators of the
event. Most people have been duped and brainwashed to believe everything they
hear and see on mass media not realizing the mass media is a global propaganda
tool used to shape their perceptions of reality and entrain their minds to
"see" the world thought a particular lens. I caution you not to drink
the Kool Aid or fall for the proverbial okey-doke. The most recent Paris "attack"
in my humble opinion is a classic false flag operation, and I am not alone in
this assessment. Go to http://www.zengardner.com/paris-shooting-10-ways-looks-like-hallmark-false-flag-op/
and read the article by Makia Freeman who points out ten compelling indicators
the attack was indeed a false flag operation.
What is a false flag operation you ask? It is a situation
where a group or an individual disguises himself, herself or themselves and does
something against another person group or nation to make the victims think
someone else did it. The Boston Tea Party of 1773 was a classic false flag
operation. British colonists in Boston disguised
themselves as Native Americans and threw tea into the Boston Harbor
so the British would think it was "Indians" who did it. The term "false
flag" goes back to the days when European nation states sailing the seas
would hoist the flag of another nation when they attacked a ship, a coast or
colony to make any survivors or witnesses think it was another country who did
it.
Having said all that, there is additional information
coming out that leads me to suspect the latest Paris attack was not the work of fanatical
Jihadists but of cunning resourceful well coordinated Western agents or
agencies. Just as 9-11 was not the work of a man dying from renal failure
living in a cave in Afghanistan
or nineteen supposed Muslim fanatics but executed by a well connected, well funded
group of insiders within the US
government allied with representatives and supporters of a foreign power. In
the recent Paris
attack it was discovered the French Security agencies were hacked and disabled
prior to the attacks thus rendering the authorities unable to detect, intervene
or stop them! Paul Craig Roberts an Assistant Treasury Secretary during the Ronald Reagan administration who has seen the
light and regularly exposes the machinations, mischief and insanity of the
Washington Beltway crowd reports this in his most recent article, "I
have received a report from European security that there was a massive cyber
attack on French systems 48 hours prior to and during the Paris attacks. Among
other things, the attack took down the French mobile data network and blinded
police surveillance The attack was not a straightforward DDOS attack but a
sophisticated attack that targeted a weakness in infrastructure hardware. Such
an attack is beyond the capability of most organizations and requires
capability that is unlikely to be in ISIL’s arsenal. An attack on this scale is
difficult to pull off without authorities getting wind of it. The coordination
required suggests state involvement." http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/11/15/french-security-left-blind-during-paris-attacks-2/
The
"attacks" on 9-11, the 7/7 London subway bombing, the Boston Marathon
bombing and now this latest Paris situation all were done under cloak of simultaneous
first responder drills and/or live police/military simulation exercises. This
is not coincidental. The oligarchs seeking to install their fascist New World Order will stop at nothing to
frighten, dupe, bamboozle and intimidate us into going along with their depraved
agenda.
The Project for a New American Century
signees better known as Neo-Cons stated a major catastrophe was the only
thing that would allow them to usher in their program of military imperialism
and a domestic police state. "In the summer of 2000, the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a
neo-conservative think tank riddled with soon to be Bush administration
officials and advisors, issued a document calling for the radical restructuring
of U.S.
government and military policies. It advocated the massive expansion of defense
spending, the re-invasion of Iraq, the military and economic securing of
Afghanistan and Central Asia, increased centralized power and funds for the
CIA, FBI, and NSA, among a slew of other policies that would, in the near
future, be enacted upon their ascension to power. In the same document, they
cite a potential problem with their plan. Referring to the goals of
transforming the U.S. and global power structure, the paper states that because
of the American Public's slant toward ideas
of democracy and freedom, 'this process of transformation is likely to be a
long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl
Harbor.' (ibid.)" http://www.911hardfacts.com/report_04.htm
This is in their
own words written to fellow fascists, warmongers and potential elected
officials. In it they indicted themselves and exposed their plan. Their goal is
to trick us into thinking we are under attack, they would then move in with
their plan/program to save us.
This was
not an original idea. Hitler who was financed by major US industrialists,
banksters and corporations used this same trick. On February 27, 1933 his party
burned down the German Parliament building called the Reichstag blaming it on a
few "communist" patsies; thus allowing Hitler to assume dictatorial
powers under the Enabling Bill the model
for the USA PATRIOT ACT.
To fully glean the diabolical
implications of all this go to http://wot-on-earth.blogspot.com/2012/05/parallels-of-reichstag-fire-and-911.html,
https://acenewsdesk.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/the-parallels-between-the-1933-hitler-reichstag-fire-and-2001-911/
and http://www.hermes-press.com/germany1930.htm to see how far along or gone we
are.
You say
okay, but why is France
being targeted? Good question. The people behind these dastardly deeds want to accomplished
several objectives at once: create fear and panic, demonize a target group in this
case Muslims jihadists (who by the way are recruited, created and funded by the
Saudis, British MI6 the US CIA and Israeli Mossad), to hype people into reactionary
revenge to justify future actions such France bombing Syria, Israel expanding
their territory, Western hatred of all Muslims and possible WWIII scenario and to punish France for voting to
recognize Palestine as a state. For a few more reasons go to http://www.zengardner.com/paris-shooting-10-ways-looks-like-hallmark-false-flag-op/
Who benefits
from a false flag operation like this you ask? For starters the military industrial
complex, defense contractors, the banksters, sundry warmongers as well as the
real Axis of Evil US/NATO/UK/France/Israel and their lackeys in Saudi Arabia
and Turkey. Stock prices for the defense contractors are up as a result of the attacks. "The Paris attacks took place
on Friday night. Since then, France’s president has vowed “war” on ISIS and today significantly escalated the
country’s bombing campaign in Syria (France has been bombing ISIS in Iraqsince last January, and began bombing the group in Syria in
September). Already this morning, as Aaron Cantú noticed,
the stocks of the leading weapons manufacturers — what is usually referred to
as the 'defense industry' — have soared" https://theintercept.com/2015/11/16/stock-prices-of-weapons-manufacturers-soaring-since-paris-attack/
White folks
are making millions off of this and this is the continuation and escalation of
the bogus "Global War on Terror". Don't fall for the okey-doke this situation is not what it is
being promoted in mind control apparatus. For all you Black folks crying and
praying for the people in Paris my question to you is, did you cry or pray for
the Kenyans, Nigerians, or the millions of innocent people in Palestine, Iraq, Yemen,
Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan who are being incinerated and killed by US
drones, Israeli and NATO bombs?
-30-
Saving Cheyney University
From The Ramparts
Junious Ricardo Stanton
Saving Cheyney University
On Tuesday
November 10th three busloads of alumni and students along with supporters and
alumni from as far away as Atlanta Georgia, Washington D.C. and the surrounding
five county area drove by car to converge on Harrisburg to pressure Governor Wolf and the legislature to
commit to saving historic Cheyney University. Several hundred students, alumni,
supporters and friends marched, chanted, sang and assembled outside the capital
building then met inside the rotunda to hold a press conference where they
presented over one thousand signed letters to Governor Wolf, Legislative Black
Caucus Chair Vanessa Lowery-Brown and later that afternoon at the Dixon Center
Headquarters of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education additional copies of the letters demanding an
immediate search for a permanent president, increased marketing, equitable
funding for Cheyney including new academic programs and state of the art
facilities for the students.
During the
press conference activist attorney Michael Coard, Heeding Cheyney's Call's
legal advisor and leader rattled off a litany of deliberate neglect and
racially motivated discrimination against Cheyney dating back to 1901. Twelve
legislators including State Representatives: Stephen Kinsey, Education
Committee Minority Co-Chair James Roebuck, and Chair of the Legislative Black
Caucus Vanessa Lowery Brown along with Curtis Thomas, Ed Gainey, Donna Bullock,
Dwight Evans, Joanna McClinton and Thaddeus Kirkland pledged their support for
Cheyney and their determination to insure the institution received equitable
funding as they labor to break the current budgetary logjam and partisan impasse.
Students
and alumni carrying placards, banners and signs, sang, chanted and spoke during
the almost one hour press conference. The rally was planned and coordinated in
partnership between Representative Stephen Kinsey and Heeding Cheyney's Call a grass roots organization composed of
alumni, students, HBCU supporters, higher education advocates and elected
officials. Heeding Cheyney's Call has been working for over two and a half
years to get the Commonwealth to honor a 1999 agreement with the US Department
of Education's Office of Civil Rights to adequately fund the university, cease
and desist its discriminatory practices and provide modern facilities and
programs to make Cheyney competitive with the other thirteen PASSHE schools.
During that time Cheyney's situation has worsened.
When
Heeding Cheyney's Call's negotiations with the Corbett administration stalled,
their legal team filed a federal lawsuit on October 29, 2015 seeking redress
and remedy from decades of deliberate neglect, violation of the Equal
Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution, violation
of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, failure to
comply with the 1999 Consent Decree agreement and numerous US Supreme Court
rulings on behalf of HBCUs against de
jure and de facto segregation in higher
education.
The lawsuit
is still in progress but in June of 2015 based upon favorable communications
with the Wolf administration the Heeding Cheyney's Call lead attorney Joe
Tucker asked the federal judge hearing the case for a "civil
suspension" to allow all parties time to attempt to reach an amicable
settlement agreement. The judge agreed and set specific reporting dates to
advise him of the status of the negotiations. Thus far negotiations have not
been productive due to the state's budget impasse. But as a result of the
November 10th demonstration and rally, Governor Wolf reached out to schedule a
meeting with the Heeding Cheyney's Call negotiating team. A face to face meeting is scheduled for
December 2 with the governor.
Cheyney
like many HBCUs is facing declining enrollment, fiscal uncertainty, low morale
due to forced lay offs and talk of additional faculty retrenchment (layoffs).
Recent disclosures about mismanagement in the financial aid office have added
to the gloom and exacerbated the financial situation because the institution
may be forced to pay millions of dollars in fines and restitution to the
federal government because an audit revealed federal financial aid was either not
documented correctly or mismanaged. This is millions of dollars Cheyney does
not have because it is already deeply mired in red ink from its failure to
consistently reach recruitment and enrollment goals, raise significant grant and
scholarship dollars, rebrand the institution and overhaul its image.
This is why
one of the main demands of Heeding
Cheyney's Call is the immediate search for a permanent president. The Governor
Wolf and PASSHE need to signal and
demonstrate to the world they are serious about rebranding and resurrecting Cheyney. The best way to do so is by putting it on
sound operational footing by searching for and bringing in an innovative
administrative team.
Several
HBCUs around the country that were facing similar challenges as Cheyney have
turned the corner and are in a growth and progress mode. Claflin University in Orangeburg
South Carolina and North Carolina Central in Durham N.C. have made great
strides developing new academic programs, expanding their enrollment, boosting
corporate support and fund raising. Claflin is a private institution while NCC
is a state owned school.
It would be a simple matter for the
Commonwealth to look at what those schools did to turn themselves around and
apply the same or similar best practices at Cheyney. That is if the state was serious about saving
Cheyney. Apparently it is not. The fact of the matter is PASSHE is experiencing
declines in enrollment throughout its system because higher education is not a
priority in Pennsylvania .
According to the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy
Center Pennsylvania
ranks forty-fifth in education k-12 and forty-eighth in per capita
appropriations for its public colleges and universities and forty-sixth in
terms of investment in higher education. Pennsylvania
is cheap, stingy and out of touch for all students black and white students when it
comes to education whether it is primary, secondary or higher ed. When you add
racism to this mix it is deadly and does not bode well for the future of the
state.
To add
insult to injury Pennsylvania
spends far more on incarceration than it does on higher education. It costs
over $35,000 a year to house an inmate in the Pennsylvania "correctional System"
while tuition at a PASSHE school, including Cheyney, according to PASSHE's Website is around $ 19,838 a year http://www.passhe.edu/answers/pages/cost-breakout.aspx
. What makes these figures so disturbing is Pennsylvania is currently building
additional prisons at a time when their own published crime statistics show
crime has been fluctuating downward since 2009! http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/pacrime.htm
This is why
Heeding Cheyney's Call went to Harrisburg , why
the fight to save Cheyney University and make education a priority in Pennsylvania must go on!
-30-
Monday, November 02, 2015
The War On HBCUs
From The Ramparts
Junious Ricardo Stanton
The War
on HBCUs
"According to documents provided by the
Department of Education to the HBCU Digest, total grants from the Department of
Education dropped from more than $742 million in 2010 to $680 million in 2012. Grants
and research awards from federal agencies to HBCUs for S.T.E.M. development
decreased from $661 million in 2010 to $573 million in 2011. According to the WHI-HBCU
2009 annual report, the last produced by the office which, under Dr.
Wilson's leadership, never produced an annual report, HBCUs received just under
$5 billion from federal agencies, about 2 percent of a total $175 billion
awarded to institutions of higher education throughout the nation. In a recent
article in the Washington Post, Department of Education
leadership suggested that the loan changes were not executive mandates,
but rather, changes enacted by lower-ranking officials which went unchecked by
policy makers in the Department and within the White House Initiative on HBCUs."
Barack Obama and the $300 Million Dollar War On HBCUs by Jarrett L. Carter http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jarrett-l-carter/barack-obama-and-the-300-_b_3563173.html
As we
survey the political landscape examining and analyzing the facts and watching
actions rather than falling for the rhetorical okey-doke, we are forced to
conclude there is a war against HBCUs. Today in America one of the most vile canards
being pushed is that we live in a "post racial" social milieu. This
in my mind is the equivalent of the "Separate but Equal" lie that
fueled American "legal" racial apartheid, color caste and oppression
during the nineteenth and most of the twentieth century.
The war is on
both the psychological and policy fronts. The ruling class their political
flunkies and mind control apparatus question the validity and need for HBCUs. They
assert HBCU are outmoded, inferior and have no place in modern America . They
say such things as, "'Even the best black
colleges and universities do not approach the standards of quality of
respectable institutions,' according to economist Thomas Sowell. 'None has a
department ranking among the leading graduate departments in any of the 29
fields surveyed by the American Council of Education. None ranks among the
‘selective’ institutions with regard to student admissions. None has a student
body whose College Board scores are within 100 points of any school in the Ivy League.'"
Black Colleges Need a New Mission: Once an
essential response to racism, they are now academically inferior. By JASON L. RILEY http://www.nafeonation.org/hbcu-leaders-respond/
The writer of this article goes on to assert, that
HBCU retard the earning potential of their graduates. He quotes Harvard and MIT
economists to buttress his claims, "The economists Roland Fryer of Harvard
and Michael Greenstone of MIT have found that black colleges are inferior to
traditional schools in preparing students for post-college life. 'In the 1970s,
HBCU matriculation was associated with higher wages and an increased
probability of graduation, relative to attending a [traditional college],' they
wrote in a 2007 paper. 'By the 1990s, however, there is a substantial wage
penalty. Overall, there is a 20% decline in the relative wages of HBCU
graduates in just two decades.' The authors concluded that “by some measures,
HBCU attendance appears to retard black progress.'"
While this
article was supposedly written to challenge HBCUs to rethink their mission and
up their game, it was a not so subtle existential attack on HBCUs. Personally I
think economists are either the most confused or disingenuous people on the
planet. Very rarely do you find agreement amongst them on any issue. The value
of HBCUs is no different. First off the
economists and Mr. Riley who shills the anti-HBCU agenda conveniently forget
the income gap between HBCUs and Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) and
the legacy of economic caste that still lingers in this country. HBCUs never
had the facilities, equipment or endowments their PWI counterparts had, nor the
funding or backing!
The
argument that HBCUs are ineffective and outmoded is simply not true. The fact
of the matter is despite their lack of resources HBCUs continue to fulfill
their original mission, to educate Black people. These are the real facts, "HBCUs
represent about 3% of colleges in the U.S. but enroll 12% of all Black
college students and produce 23% of all Black college graduates. Remarkably,
this small group of colleges confers 40% of all STEM degrees and 60% of all
engineering degrees earned by Black students. They also educate half of the
country’s Black teachers and 40% of all Black health professionals. And they do
this with much less funding support than that of traditionally White
institutions." The HBCU Debate: Are Black Colleges & Universities Still
Needed? Started as a response to racism and starved of financial
support, HBCUs have to do more with less Robin White Goode http://www.blackenterprise.com/lifestyle/are-hbcus-still-relevant/
Studies reveal that despite lower
SAT and ACT test scores students at HBCUs go on to perform well in graduate
school and especially in Science Engineering Math and Technology than their Black
PWI attending/graduating counterparts. "Elliott, et al., indicate
that the relative position of blacks in HBCUs as compared to those at non-
HBCUs probably accounts for the positive effects of HBCUs. The authors note
that black students at non-HBCUs—even those who score well compared to national
racial and ethnic norms—are competitively disadvantaged relative to their
school’s student body on indicators of developed ability that predict science
persistence and achievement, particularly at elite colleges and universities.
This results in weaker performance and persistence among blacks than might
occur in less competitive settings. The authors note that the differences are
large enough to suggest that the achievement gaps are due to nonacademic
factors as well as to differences in developed ability. Most importantly in the
context of this briefing, Elliott, et al., note that while HBCU enrollees and
graduates have quite low SAT scores and high school grades, they nonetheless
produce 40 percent of black engineers with only 20 percent of black enrollment.
They also note that the top 21 undergraduate producers of blacks with doctoral
degrees were HBCUs, and none of the highly successful schools were among the 30
most selective academic institutions." The Educational Effectiveness of
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
US Commission on Civil Rights http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/HBCU_webversion2.pdf
I readily
admit HBCU do not have the facilities and equipment of PWIs and much of this is
by deliberate design and stems from this nation's ongoing legacy of racism and
privation. For example the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania has long neglected Cheyney University to the point it is now on life support unable to
compete in a PASSHE system that itself is in serious decline and suffering from
massive budget cuts, underfunding and loss of students. "Many people interviewed for this
article, from faculty members to Council of Trustees Chairman Robert W. Bogle
to scholars who study HBCUs, placed much of the blame for Cheyney’s challenges
with the state of Pennsylvania .
They pointed to historic underfunding and unequal treatment
of Cheyney. They described how, decades ago, contractors would use subpar
materials when constructing new buildings. They noted that, in 1969,
Pennsylvania's government was found by the federal government to be among 10
state governments operating an openly discriminatory higher education system,
and how, in 1999, the PASSHE system signed an agreement with the U.S. Office
for Civil Rights that aimed to provide more funding and new programs for Cheyney
in an effort to compensate for decades of discrimination. Yet that agreement
was never fully executed. A new coalition of alumni and advocates, dubbed Heeding Cheyney’s Call, has sued PASSHE
and seeks 'parity through equity,' or support that would make up for historic
underfunding due to past discriminatory practices. Michael Coard, a member
of that group, says Cheyney is treated like the 'stepchild' of the PASSHE
system. Bogle says that 'at no time' has the university been treated as an
'equal partner' in the system." An HBCU Fights to Survive- Kellie
Woodhouse https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/09/15/problems-mount-cheyney-university-oldest-hbcu
Public
HBCUs generally receive less funding than their WPI counterparts. But what the
critics of HBCUs never discuss are the manifold benefits of HBCUs. A recent
Gallup Poll indicated HBCU students felt better about themselves because they matriculated
to an HBCU. "WASHINGTON , D.C.
-- Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the U.S. are
battling a number of challenges, including declining enrollment numbers and
lower-than-average graduation and retention rates. Despite these challenges, a
new Gallup
study reveals that black graduates of HBCUs are more likely than black
graduates of other institutions to be thriving -- strong, consistent and
progressing -- in a number of areas of their lives, particularly in their
financial and purpose well-being." http://www.gallup.com/poll/186362/grads-historically-black-colleges-edge.aspx
There is a war against HBCUs. Priorities for higher education
are not high and governments can always find money for war, mass incarceration,
other boondoggles and corporate welfare. When you add racism to the mix the
results are catastrophic! For example in Pennsylvania the state prefers to
spend more money on incarceration and prison construction than on Higher Education
despite the fact that according to its own statistics crime has been in steady
decline since 2009! "Pennsylvania could spend more money annually incarcerating its
citizens than providing them with higher education, according to Gov. Tom
Corbett’s 2013-14 budget proposal. Funding for corrections makes up 7.3 percent
of the state budget, while secondary education accounts for 6.4 percent. Even
though Corbett will match last year’s funding for colleges and universities in
the upcoming fiscal year as previously reported, funding is still well below
what it was in past years. In the last five years, the state has cut funding
for higher education by more than $150 million per year, while it has increased
funding of state correctional programs by more than $375 million per year in
the same time frame, according to the governor’s operating budgets published
online." http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archives/article_f81d2425-a057-5fb7-b452-cecea24dfec1.html
If you are willing to stand for
economic justice, expanding opportunity and government for the people join with
Heeding Cheyney's Call as we travel
to Harrisburg on Tuesday November 10 to pleaded our case for enhanced higher
education funding, equity, parity, justice and support for Cheyney University.
For details go to www.Heedingcheyneyscall.org.
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