Haiti Gets No Respect
Haiti Gets No Respect
Junious Ricardo
Stanton
Recent
images of US Border Patrol Agents interacting with Haitian immigrants caused
shock and stir when juxtaposed against images of Afghani refugees being
shuttled onto waiting US military transport planes to he brought to the US and housed courtesy of the US government
and taxpayers. The rationale is that these people need to be recued because
they collaborated with the US
during the US/NATO occupation of that nation in what had become the United States
longest running war. President Biden took heat for his handling of the Afghanistan
withdrawal and the fact he left an unknown number of Americans in the country.
People see
how the US is bending over backwards to accommodate the Afghan refugees and the
stark contrast to the way Black Haitians are being treated as they also try to
forge a better life for themselves and their families by coming to America.
On Friday
the US Secretary of Homeland
Security Alejandro Mayorkas appeared at a press conference to provide an update
on the situation in Texas.
He stated the images of the border patrol appearing to beat the Haitians with
horse reins was “not who we are and are not our values.” He stated all the
migrants had been removed from the Del Rio area
some were processed and returned to Haiti while others were being taken
care of until their future fates could be determined.
People
around the world were outraged at the images of the US Border Patrol agents’
interactions with the Haitians. On
social media there were comparisons to how enslaved Africans were treated in
the US
during slavery and the actions of the US Border Patrol agents. Neither is a
good look especially when you consider the abysmal relationship between the US and Haiti going back to the
establishment of that Republic in 1804.
Haiti’s defeat of France
sent shockwaves throughout the Western Hemisphere especially the US slavocracy which was heavily dependent upon
slave labor to generate the workforce and profits that would make the US the
envy of the world. The resilience of the Haitian people to stave off subsequent
attempts by France, other
European countries as well as the United States to recolonize and
re-enslave it has led to formal ostracism, crippling debt and odious “reparations”
payments being imposed upon the island nation by the West. It’s as though the
Western imperialists will never forgive Haiti for defeating them and
casting off their shackles and chains.
On July 7,
2021 Jovenel Moise the unpopular President of Haiti was assassinated in a brazen
attack on his home. There are alleged links between the assassins and the U.S., “Several of the men involved in the
assassination of Haiti's President previously worked as US law enforcement informants, according to
people briefed on the matter, as US
investigators grapple with an increasing number of Florida links to the alleged hit squad. Haitian
President Jovenel Moise was killed last Wednesday in an operation that Haitian
authorities say involved at least 28 people, many of them Colombian mercenaries
hired through a Florida-based security company. At least one of the men
arrested in connection to the assassination by Haitian authorities previously
worked as an informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the DEA said
in a statement in response to CNN.” Several tied to Haitian assassination plot
were previously US
law enforcement informants – Evan Perez https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/12/americas/haiti-assassination-plot-us-law-informants/index.html
The US has been
directly or indirectly involved in all the intrigue and mischief on the island
for over a century. “Between 1911 and 1915, seven presidents were assassinated
or overthrown in Haiti,
increasing U.S.
policymakers’ fear of foreign intervention. In 1914, the Wilson
administration sent U.S. Marines into Haiti. They removed $500,000 from
the Haitian National Bank in December of 1914 for safe-keeping in New York, thus giving the United States control of the bank.
In 1915, Haitian President Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam was assassinated and the
situation in Haiti
quickly became unstable. In response, President Wilson sent the U.S. Marines to
Haiti
to prevent anarchy. In actuality, the act protected U.S. assets in the area and
prevented a possible German invasion. The invasion ended with the Haitian-American Treaty of 1915.
The articles of this agreement created the Haitian Gendarmerie, essentially a
military force made up of U.S.
citizens and Haitians and controlled by the U.S. Marines. The United States gained complete control over
Haitian finances, and the right to intervene in Haiti whenever the U.S. Government
deemed necessary.” US invasion and occupation of Haiti 1915-1934 https://history.state.gov/milestones/1914-1920/haiti
In addition
to invasion and occupation the US
maintained indirect control over Haiti by propping numerous
dictators. The US
government, multinational corporations and oligarchs have been involved in all
the intrigue on the island either directly or indirectly for decades. “Through
framing Haiti
as a nation that lies outside modernity and progress, its only hope is through
developmental aid from former colonizers, international lending agencies, the
United Nations (UN), and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). These
global “civil servants” provide development strategies that are amenable to their
own economic self-interest. Neoliberal economic policies, odious debts,
despotic regimes, and the overthrow of democratic governments are the result of
this neocolonial order. Through racial narratives that project Haitians as
existing outside modernity, and through neocolonial influences in all phases of
Haitian life, Haitians are subject to global institutions that remove their
agency and replace it with dependency”. From De to Post to Neo-colonization: A
brief history of Haiti’s
occupations Jason D. MacCleod https://www.jasondmacleod.com/de-to-post-to-neo-colonization-history-haiti%E2%80%99s-occupations/
There is
more to the Haiti
situation than meets the eye.
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HBCU Best Practices
HBCU Best Practices
Junious Ricardo
Stanton
“While HBCUs today look quite different from the schools
that were founded in the 1800s, HBCUs now find themselves in a continuing
conversation on whether these institutions should exist in a post–Brown v.
Board of Education and post-Obama environment. The relevancy of HBCUs has been
the subject of academic inquiry, and many media outlets recently have raised
the question of the continued existence of these institutions. Some believe
that HBCUs are a remaining vestige of segregation, and many cite the
opportunity for African Americans to now attend all institutions of higher
education-unlike at the time of the founding of HBCUs. The financial exigency
in many states are making leaders take a look at the increasingly scarce
funding for higher education, and states are taking a hard look at the future
of financing HBCUs. States and the federal government have also placed a
renewed focus on accountability, and HBCUs have been criticized for their
performance on the metrics used to evaluate all higher education institutions.
Simply put, the world of higher education is changing.” Repositioning HBCUs for
The Future Access, Success Research and Innovation Association of Public and Land Grant
Universities John Michael
Lee Jr. and Samad Wes Keys https://www.aplu.org/library/repositioning-hbcus-for-the-future-access-success-research-and-innovation/file
HBCUs are
facing a myriad of challenges they didn’t anticipate or contemplate two years
ago such as the health and public safety concerns around the pandemic and
nation wide lockdowns. Funding shortages, low alumni giving and the ongoing
question of the relevance of HBCUs were issues that needed resolution even before
the pandemic turned US
higher education upside down. Higher education in the US never existed in a vacuum; it
was always impacted by paralleling social, economic and political events, HBCUs
even more so.
The history
of HBCUs is one of resilience, perseverance, adaptation and innovation often
during times of extreme hostility towards African-Americans amidst
socio-economic and political volatility. HBCUs had to survive apartheid,
virulent racism, color caste and oppression as well as events like the Great
Depression and the recession of 2008.
US Higher Education in general
suffered during the Great Depression, enrollments declined, there were
professor lay-offs, endowments decreased, construction dropped, fundraising was
difficult and this reality was far worse for HBCUs. “The Great Depression and
World War II left many Black colleges in a financial crisis. Despite
improvements in funding in previous years, most land-grant HBCUs were still dismally
underfunded when compared to their White counterparts. Private HBCUs were in an
even tougher bind. The Depression had wiped out many of their sources of
philanthropy. Fundraising was becoming very difficult and distracted
administrators from issues of improving education. In 1943, Dr. Fredrick D.
Patterson, president of the Tuskegee Institute, published an open letter to the
presidents of private HBCUs urging them to band together, pooling their
resources and fundraising abilities. The next year, the United Negro College
Fund began its activities soliciting donations to private HBCUs, with far
greater efficacy than any one of its member colleges alone.” Historically Black
Colleges and Universities a Proud History http://www.hbcucouncil.com/HBCU-s.html
The innovative thinking of Tuskegee University’s Dr. Fredrick D. Patterson
is needed today. There are areas where HBCUs can collaborate with each other as
well as their predominantly white counterparts such as lobbying for more state
and federal funds. HBCUs are facing complex challenges and need visionary
innovative leadership.
The good news is there are abundant
opportunities for HBCUs to rebound and thrive even during times like these.
HBCU leaders have to be willing to be candid about their situation and be
optimistic they can guide the institution forward. The worst thing an HBCU
president can do is lie to his administrative staff, faculty, alumni,
constituents and the general public. The second worst thing is to exaggerate
the college or university’s situation. Honesty is the best policy.
HBCUs need leaders who can employ and
integrate best practices such as: sound fiscal management, networking and
partnering skills both internally and outside the university. HBCU presidents
need to have a good relationship with their Trustees, have a sound vision for
the institution and be able to engender the support needed to execute that
vision, they need a competent administrative team, an effective external
affairs department, a comprehensive fundraising strategy and support staff,
have a visionary Provost and faculty, a good working relationship with alumni
and other constituents and have a positive presence in the surrounding
community.
The future can be bright for HBCUs
even in these turbulent times. We will continue to examine the good, bad and
ugly of HBCUs.
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What a Week
What a Week
Junious Ricardo
Stanton
The week of
September 5, 2021 was quite a week. People in the Southeast, Mid Atlantic and
Northeast regions were still reeling from the devastating impact of Hurricane
Ida the week before. Heavy rains, flooding, tornadoes, major property and
infrastructural damage have left physical scars across the landscape. Damages
are reported in the billions of dollars and recovery will take months, the
psychological and emotional impact may take even longer to mend.
On Monday September 6th Americans
had a holiday, a day off called Labor
Day that was created to honor the struggles and triumphs of workers for
better working conditions, higher wages, benefits, shorter working hours and
fairer treatment by the management and ownership class. Those struggles to improve working
conditions and a better work environment were bloody, violent and protracted.
Unions became a force to be reckoned with both economically and politically.
Many men women and children lost their lives and suffered grievous losses to
bring about the progress and benefits workers currently enjoy. But today
through the relentless efforts of the ruling oligarchy unions and organized
labor have been under persistent attack for several decades.
There was a time Labor Day was a
major holiday, featuring parades, speeches and the kick off of major political
campaigns following a summer hiatus. But this past Monday like many past Labor
Days for most people was just a day off, totally devoid of significance and
meaning.
Last week we saw amplification of
fallout from the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan
after twenty years of war and occupation. This was America’s longest running
war; a war with little to show for the loss of US, allied and innocent
Afghanistan civilian lives, US public treasure and dubious geostrategic
objectives. Political partisanship and rancor over the way US troops and
citizens departed reminded many of the way US troops left Vietnam after another failed imperial
misadventure in Southeast Asia. It was a
painful reminder of the realities of imperial overreach.
The politicians who launched this
war told the American people they were invading Afghanistan to go after the
perpetrators of the 9-11 attacks. But even if you believe the official
government narrative (I don’t) the truth is the “highjackers” were Saudi and
Egyptian nationals not Afghani citizens. The fact of the matter is the home
base of Islamic fanaticism is not Afghanistan
but Saudi Arabia!
Saudi Arabia
is where Wahhabism originated and branched out. Osama bin-Laden was a Saudi
Wahhbist. Wahhabist fanatics maintain recruiting the training grounds in Saudi Arabia and around the world, why didn’t
the US
go after them?!
President Biden facing intense
criticism from his Afghanistan
withdrawal needed to redeem himself so he ramped up the Great Reset agenda by establishing his COVID vaccination plan. Biden
came into office claiming he was going to conquer COVID. Alas he has not. His
mask mandates for government employees, his goal to vaccinate the nation by
July 4th (which failed) have not resulted in the eradication of the
virus. New variants have supposedly sprung up as almost all coronaviruses do (think
the common cold, flu and influenza). While it appears to be more contagious the
Delta variant is not as lethal (despite the fear mongering by the media).
Biden wants everyone regardless of
immunity status to get the jabs which is problematic on so many levels. Biden talking
tough is not going to make this go away; neither is ignoring or disregarding
long standing realities such as herd immunity, natural antibody resistance and
healthy immune systems. Nor will policies that are: unconstitutional,
potentially damaging to businesses and divisive going to resolve this
situation. What we will see is a hardening of lines, psychological and
ideological silos forming, more partisan infighting and the possibility of more
violent confrontations among Americans.
Like the Global War on Terror, the government
declared wars on: drugs, crime and poverty, have been dismal failures. The only
sure fire thing that ever comes of these “wars” is expanded government control,
increased government spending to enrich select segments of the oligarchy like
the military industrial and prison industrial complexes and Big Pharma but more
suffering on our part!
When the Taliban first took over Afghanistan
they shut down the opium farms and trade. When the US forced them out, the opium trade
magically ballooned exponentially. Afghanistan reveals the futility of that
misguided conflict; drug abuse is rampant spurred on by the invigorated opium
trade and recently from the hollowing out of the US economy due to globalization and
currently from the emotional trauma, economic and social devastation caused by the
government’s policies supposed to mitigate the COVID pandemic!
The wealth gap has increased exponentially
during the pandemic. Billionaires became richer overnight while more and more working
Americans are sinking deeper into poverty unable to make ends meet! The
government programs are an attempt to bribe the people into going along with
the government’s program. Soon they will use these benefits (bribes) to induce
compliance and conformity if you fail to
obey they will snatch suspend or reduce the benefits!
Speaking of the War on Terror,
Saturday marked the twentieth anniversary of 9-11. The ruling class and their
government and media sycophants told us 9-11 changed everything and it has. The
aftermath of 9-11 wrought major changes in US life, more surveillance, more
government intervention and an increasing loss of civil protections and
freedom. The USA PATRIOT ACT was written way before 9-11 even happened. https://www.globalissues.org/article/342/the-usa-patriot-act-was-planned-before-911
The National Defense Authorization Act makes it okay for a US president to
order extra judicial killings of US citizens and to lock us up without cause or
due process.
For anyone willing to open their
eyes and think critically last week was really revealing.
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Organized Labor and Workers Kicked To The Curb
Organized Labor and Workers Kicked to the Curb
Junious Ricardo
Stanton
“Not long after President
Reagan declared the 1981 air traffic controllers strike illegal and fired
11,000 air traffic controllers, corporations began illegally opposing union
organizing efforts by aggressively firing union organizers.” The Attack on
Labor Unions and why they matter by Martin Hart-Landsberg | 9 Jun 2017
As we pause to celebrate Labor Day
let us stop and think about how the ruling oligarchs have successfully and
systematically waged a multi-front war on organized labor and the devastating
consequences this mugging has had on working people. The timeline of major attacks goes back to
Ronald Reagan. Since the 1980’s when President Ronald Reagan decertified the
air traffic controllers union and summarily fired the union’s whole membership,
the labor movement, organized labor and its membership have taken hit after hit.
Today the labor movement exerts far less power and influence
than it did forty years ago. “The number of employed union members has
declined by 2.9 million since 1983. During the same time, the number of all
wage and salary workers grew from 88.3 million to 133.7 million. Consequently,
the union membership rate was 20.1 percent in 1983 and declined to 11.1 percent
in 2015. In 2009, there was a sharp decline in the number of workers overall
and in the number of union members. The number of wage and salary workers
declined by 4.9 million from 2008 to 2009, and the number of employed union
members fell by 771,000. However, the union membership rate was 12.3 percent in
2009, essentially unchanged from 12.4 percent in 2008.” Union Membership in the
United States- Megan Dunn and James Walker https://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2016/union-membership-in-the-united-states/pdf/union-membership-in-the-united-states.pdf
People think the Republicans
orchestrated the attack on unions but it has been a bi-partisan affair. Bill
Clinton and Al Gore ran their version of the “Southern Strategy” moving the
Democratic Party more to the right, becoming more corporate friendly and distancing
themselves from the party’s traditional base of organized labor, civil rights
and liberalism during their 1992 presidential campaign. History shows Bill
Clinton betrayed organized labor even before he became President when he was
governor of Arkansas, “After the labor movement helped elect David
Pryor, Dale Bumpers and Bill Clinton early in their
careers, the three politicians took aggressive anti-union
positions, Michael Pierce, an associate professor of history at the
University of Arkansas, writes in a recent piece on The Labor and Working-Class History Association’s Labor Online
website. Pierce sees a connection between Clinton’s early work against 1978’s Labor
Reform Bill (for the Pryor campaign), his later pro-business policies as
governor and president and Hillary Clinton’s struggles with working class
whites.” The roots and legacy of Bill Clinton’s ‘abandonment’ of organized
labor- Lindsey Miller https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2016/11/28/the-roots-and-legacy-of-bill-clintons-abandonment-of-organized-labor
But it was Reagan
who won the major battle against unions mainly because the rest of national
organized labor leadership white collar, blue collar and no collar stood passively
by and allowed him to decertify the air traffic controllers union. What do you
think would have happened if just the Teamsters and Longshoremen Unions stood
up to Reagan and demanded he rescind his order and rehire the air traffic
controllers or there would be nation wide wildcat strikes?! Almost all commerce
would have come to a halt in this country. What do you think would have
happened if the public sector unions supported them and went on strike also?
Who do you think would have blinked first Reagan or the unions?
Alas that did
not happen and as a result working folks are paying the price today. For almost
a century there has been an organized assault on organized labor in both the
private and pubic sectors led by billionaires like the Koch family and their
minions in the state houses around the country. In recent years the Koch family
stepped up its anti-labor organizing and funding to create a political
infrastructure far beyond the one created by their father Fred Koch.
The elder Koch
was a founder of the John Birch Society an arch conservative organization; his
sons Charles and David took anti-unionism to a whole ‘nother level, by creating
and funding the American Legislative Exchange Council to impact local state and
national policies.
“Hundreds of ALEC’s model
bills and resolutions bear traces of Koch DNA: raw ideas that were once at the
fringes but that have been carved into “mainstream” policy through the wealth
and will of Charles and David Koch. Of all the Kochs’ investments in right-wing
organizations, ALEC provides some of the best returns: it gives the Kochs a way
to make their brand of free-market fundamentalism legally binding. No one knows
how much the Kochs have given ALEC in total, but the amount likely exceeds $1
million—not including a half-million loaned to ALEC when the group was
floundering. ALEC gave the Kochs its Adam Smith Free Enterprise Award, and Koch
Industries has been one of the select members of ALEC’s corporate board for
almost twenty years. The company’s top lobbyist was once ALEC’s chairman. As a
result, the Kochs have shaped legislation touching every state in the country.
Like ideological venture capitalists, the Kochs have used ALEC as a way to
invest in radical ideas and fertilize them with tons of cash.” ALEC Exposed:
The Koch Connection Lisa Graves https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/alec-exposed-koch-connection/
The Koch network still
influences not just anti labor ideology and policies, but also in areas such as
deregulation, education, Social Security and trade policy! “But ALEC also promotes a broader
economic and deregulatory agenda that is not directly tied to the profitability
of specific donors—including advocating for cuts to Social Security,
unemployment insurance, and food stamps; supporting more trade treaties on the
NAFTA model; and cutting public funding for schools, as well as supporting
efforts to block union organizing and restrict union participation in political
debates.26 Virtually
all of the initiatives described in this report—including forced privatization,
‘right to work’ and abolishing minimum-wage and prevailing-wage laws—reflect
model statutes developed by ALEC and promoted through its network. This
dimension of ALEC’s work is not aimed at immediately enhancing specific donors’
revenues, but at reshaping the fundamental balance of power between workers and
employers.” The
Legislative Attack On American Wages and Labor Standards 2011-2012 Gordon Lafer
https://www.epi.org/publication/attack-on-american-labor-standards/#epi-toc-1
Recent US Supreme Court
decisions have made it easier for big money like the Kochs to buy politicians,
political parties and set agendas which hurt labor unions and workers. Corporate
bottom line priorities have targeted workers and organized collective
bargaining. There is an increasingly aggressive push to undermine labor unions
and weaken worker power. “The so-called reforms union opponents advocate
for would only make a flawed system worse and even less democratic. While
proponents of these reforms claim that they are looking out for workers, their
efforts are best understood as an effort to weaken workers’ ability to join
together in unions and serve as a countervailing power against corporate
interests. If unions are weakened even further, there will be fewer checks on
the power of corporations in the workplace and the economy at large.” Anti
Democratic Attacks on Unions Hurt Working Americans- David Madland, Alex Rowell
and Gordon Lafer https://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/economy/reports/2017/06/26/167907/anti-democratic-attacks-unions-hurt-working-americans/
We can see this
in decades of stagnant worker wages, increasing anti union legislation and anti-worker
policies that are the result of a massively well coordinated and financed
assault on organized labor, collective bargaining and worker engagement. Celebrating
Labor Day has become a hollow event another way the ruling class mocks us. See
this for further elaboration: How the American Worker Got Fleeced https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-the-fleecing-of-the-american-worker/
As we celebrate
Labor Day stop to think about how workers and unions are systemically being
kicked to the curb.
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