Washington Informer

Constructing Black Selves: Caribbean American Narratives and the Second Generation By Lisa Diane McGill

In 1965, the Hart-Cellar Immigration Reform Act ushered in a huge wave of immigrants from across the Caribbean—Jamaicans, Cubans, Haitians, and Dominicans, among others. How have these immigrants and their children negotiated languages of race and ethnicity in American social and cultural politics? As black immigrants, to which America do they assimilate?

Constructing Black Selves explores the cultural production of second-generation Caribbean immigrants in the United States after World War II as a prism for understanding the formation of Caribbean American identity. Lisa D. McGill pays particular attention to music, literature, and film, centering her study around the figures of singer-actor Harry Belafonte, writers Paule Marshall, Audre Lorde, and Piri Thomas, and meringue-hip-hop group Proyecto Uno.

Illuminating the ways in which Caribbean identity has been transformed by mass migration to urban landscapes, as well as the dynamic and sometimes conflicted relationship between Caribbean American and African American cultural politics, Constructing Black Selves is an important contribution to studies of twentieth century U.S. immigration, African American and Afro-Caribbean history and literature, and theories of ethnicity and race.

The Other America: Caribbean Literature in a New World Context By J. Michael Dash

A wide-ranging work that explores two centuries of Caribbean literature from a comparative perspective. While haunted by the need to establish cultural difference and authenticity, Caribbean thought is inherently modernist in its recognition of the interplay between cultures, brought about by centuries of contact, domination, and consent.

The Repeating Island: The Caribbean and the Postmodern By Antonio Benitez-Rojo

In The Repeating Island, Antonio Benítez-Rojo, a master of the historical novel, short story, and critical essay, continues to confront the legacy and myths of colonialism. This co-winner of the 1993 MLA Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize has been expanded to include three entirely new chapters that add a Lacanian perspective and a view of the carnivalesque to an already brilliant interpretive study of Caribbean culture. As he did in the first edition, Benítez-Rojo redefines the Caribbean by drawing on history, economics, sociology, cultural anthropology, psychoanalysis, literary theory, and nonlinear mathematics. His point of departure is chaos theory, which holds that order and disorder are not the antithesis of each other in nature but function as mutually generative phenomena. Benítez-Rojo argues that within the apparent disorder of the Caribbean—the area's discontinuous landmasses, its different colonial histories, ethnic groups, languages, traditions, and politics—there emerges an "island" of paradoxes that repeats itself and gives shape to an unexpected and complex sociocultural archipelago. Benítez-Rojo illustrates this unique form of identity with powerful readings of texts by Las Casas, Guillén, Carpentier, García Márquez, Walcott, Harris, Buitrago, and Rodríguez Juliá.

Beginning in 2007 and continuing through 2011, Illinois Congressman Jesse L. Jackson Jr. amassed a collection of celebrity memorabilia, furs, jewelry and furniture, according to the New York Times. The Post states that as a result of a lavish lifestyle of Jackson shared with his wife Sandi Jackson, he is expected to plead guilty in a case involving misuse of campaign money.

Jackson, 47, also reportedly used campaign funds to purchase a $5,000 football signed by U. S. presidents and two hats that once belonged to the late singer, Michael Jackson.

Also charged with conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and making false statements, Jackson resigned from his congressional duties in November in the wake of a federal investigation. According to federal documents, Jackson -- the son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson -- was in direct violation of campaign finance laws.

He faces up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

The government has also filed charges against Sandi Jackson, a Chicago alderman, accusing her of filing false tax returns. Mrs. Jackson, who resigned her post in January, is expected to plead guilty and faces a maximum of three years in prison and a $100,000 fine.

The Post further reported that in July 2007, according to the investigation, Jackson had a $43,350 gold-plated men's Rolex watch that he had bought with campaign funds shipped to Washington from Chicago, and that about two months later, he obtained two pieces of Bruce Lee memorabilia with campaign funds, each for $2,000, from a dealer called Antiquities of Nevada. The Post report goes on to state several other purchases Jackson made from campaign coffers amounting to thousands more dollars, including mink furs and items that once belonged to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

(Source: The New York Post)

The role of women in the fight for civil and social rights cannot be overstated. As one Freedom Rider explained recently, "Black women rarely had hold of the microphone, sometimes because of sexism, but they wrote the speeches, they organized the marches, planned the boycotts, took part in the sit-ins and demonstrations, and were beaten, arrested, sexually assaulted, and dehumanized for their efforts alongside the men." In the interim, these women earned degrees, reared families, inspired a new generation of God-fearing and patriotic Americans, and shared their love for life. The Washington Informer encourages its readers to study the vibrant history of African American women.

Among Our Top Picks:

Black Women as Cultural Readers, by Jacqueline Bobo

This work demonstrates that African-American women, as a separate interpretive community, view cultural products in a unique way. In interviews with black women, she examines their specific responses as spectators and consumers of films and novels, including Waiting to Exhale, The Color Purple, and Daughters of the Dust.

Living with Jim Crow: African American Women and Memories of the Segregated South, by Anne Valk and Leslie Brown

This groundbreaking book collects Black women's personal recollections of their public and private lives during the period of legal segregation in the American South. Using first-person narratives, collected through oral history interviews, the book emphasizes women's role in their families and communities, treating women as important actors in the economic, social, cultural, and political life of the segregated South. By focusing on the commonalities of women's experiences, as well as the ways that women's lives differed from the experiences of southern black men, Living with Jim Crow analyzes the interlocking forces of racism and sexism.

When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost by Joan Morgan

In this fresh, funky, and ferociously honest book, award-winning journalist Joan Morgan bravely probes the complex issues facing African-American women in today's world: a world where feminists often have not-so-clandestine affairs with the most sexist of men; where women who treasure their independence often prefer men who pick up the tab; and where the deluge of babymothers and babyfathers reminds Black women who long for marriage that traditional nuclear families are a reality for less than 40 percent of the African-American population.

Producers of the Lifetime movie, "Betty and Coretta" could face legal action by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, according to a commentary on Black America Web.

The movie, which debuted earlier this month, recounts how the widows of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. – Betty Shabazz and Coretta Scott King – coped with the deaths of their husbands. Shabazz and King are played by Mary J. Blige and Angela Bassett, respectively.

While Farrakhan has not taken action against either the film's producers or executives of the Lifetime Network, the movie makes references to him being behind Malcolm X's Feb. 21, 1965 murder.

Farrakhan said he's falsely depicted in the movie, which he added, seeks to destroy his reputation.

"It is because the murder of Malcolm X is still alive in the hearts and minds of many, and they wish to charge me with that crime in order to seek to destroy my reputation with the people that love and admire me," Farrakhan said in a Final Call interview. "And also, to plant the seed in the hearts of those who don't know me that I am, in fact, a 'murderer.'"

In December 1964, Farrakhan denounced Malcolm X in the Nation of Islam's newspaper, but admitted years later that his words contributed to the climate of hatred, acrimony and retribution between NOI members and Malcolm X's followers.

"I have appealed to the government to open the files," Farrakhan was quoted as saying in a BET report. "So that everything in those files could be made manifest, not only to the Shabazz family, and the families of those so ill-affected by his murder, but also my family and the lives that are constantly put in the public."

(Sources: Black America Web, BET)

A. Shuanise Washington, Rep. Chaka Fattah to Hold Leadership Roles at Foundation

The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation has elected A. Shuanise Washington as its new president and CEO. Washington and several other officers were recently named during the CBCF's annual meeting. With her ties to the Foundation spanning more than 15 years, Washington has served in various capacities on the CBCF's Board of Directors and as a corporate funder for the Corporate Advisory Council.

She served as the board chair upon the death of Rep. Donald M. Payne in March 2012 and previously as the board's vice chair from 2010 to 2012.

"On behalf of the Foundation, I thank Krista Haggins who served as interim president for the past four months," said Washington. "We are indebted to Ms. Haggins for keeping the organization functioning smoothly and for the many significant contributions she has, and continues to make, during her tenure at CBCF."

Washington's longstanding commitment to the Foundation is tied to her deep belief in philanthropy and civic engagement. She most recently served as the founder and sole principal of Washington Solutions, LLC, which provided business consulting services for small, medium and large businesses, governments and nonprofit organizations.

Prior to that for 22 years, Washington was vice president of Government Affairs, Policy & Outreach for Altria Corporate Services. Washington, who retired in 2008, is a member of The Links Incorporated.

Rep. Chaka Fattah, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, was elected as the new chairperson of the CBCF's Board of Directors. Fattah, who sits on the Subcommittee for Energy and Water Development, is also the chief sponsor of legislation which offers tax credits to children and their parents to make college tuition more affordable.

In 2009, Rep. Fattah co-chaired CBCF's Annual Legislative Conference with Rep. Yvette Clarke of New York.

"The CBCF has an extraordinary legacy and I am honored to be elected to chair the board," said Rep. Fattah. "The Foundation's unwavering leadership to guarantee permanent input into national policy with a focus on the interest of African Americans is one that has generated well earned respect."

Others officers elected during the meeting are:

R. Donahue Peebles

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Peebles Corporation

Vice Chairman

Kevin Brown

Chief Procurement Officer, Dell, Inc.

Secretary

Marcus Mason

Partner, The Madison Group, LLC

Treasurer

Chief Procurement Officer, Dell, Inc.

Secretary

As a part of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities' celebration of Black History Month, that includes an exploration of Go-Go music, the District's own Go-Go band, Rare Essence will perform following a screening of the documentary "Straight Up Go-Go." The event will be held at 8 p.m., Feb. 22 at the Lincoln Theatre.

The documentary, which was released in 1992, traces the development of the "Go-Go sound" in the 1970s - from early influencers, Cab Calloway, James Brown, Fela Kuti, and Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers - through the 1980s with Black Heat, Experience Unlimited, Rare Essence and Junkyard Band, up to the new generation of artists including Pleasure Band, C. J.'s Uptown Crew, Casual Al & The City Groovers.

Rare Essence, founded in 1976, began when four childhood friends decided to form a band to play music by their favorite groups - Parliament/Funkadelic, Cameo, and Confunkshun in their basements. The original four members were Quinten Davidson, Andre Johnson, Michael Neal and John Jones. Rare Essence went on to achieve relative success with the hits "Body Moves," "Lock It," and "Work the Walls."

"Brown Babies" Tells the Story of Bi-racial Children Born in Germany during World War II

The Washington Informer, in partnership with Wells Fargo, McMillon Communications, The Foundation for the Advancement of Music and Education Inc ( FAME), and Bowie State University Department of Fine and Performing Arts, will present "Brown Babies," a film that speaks about a little known by-product of Black soldiers in World War II.

The film screening takes place from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 21 at  Bowie State University, 14000 Jericho Rd., Bowie, Md.

Former news personality Doris McMillon discovered she was one of the nearly 5,000 brown babies adopted and raised by a black American couple. Her story, specifically her own search for her biological parents, is credited with inspiring the "Brown Babies" documentary. Doris, who is featured in the film, will be part of a discussion panel after the film and will also be available to sign her memoir "Mixed Blessing," which is a must read.

Regina Griffin is the executive producer of "Brown Babies: The Mischlingskinder Story." She is an Emmy award-winning news producer formerly of CBS News and is currently executive producer at WUSA-TV.

Regina, who is passionate about her production, will also be a part of the post film discussion panel shared the following with The Washington Informer.

Unusual Causalities of War

By Regina Griffin

Black History Month is not generally a time when we talk about war and its impact on children and families. But for just a moment, imagine scrubbing your skin raw trying to wash the brown color off, or being taken for a swim only to have a caregiver try to drown you, or being told your only options in life is to become a nun or a prostitute. These are just some of the horrifying stories told in the powerful, award-winning documentary, Brown Babies: The Mischlingskinder Story.

Brown Babies exposes this shameful piece of history that much of the world has forgotten. The film tells the stories of the lives of biracial, bicultural children of African American GIs and German women during post World War II occupation of Germany. These ignored, unwanted and forgotten children were placed in orphanages and left to live without the love and support of their parents and their countries, Germany and the United States.

Making Brown Babies was indeed a labor of love. I poured my heart, soul and resources into this project, believing these stories to be an important part of Black history, of American history, of world history. It has been my hope that people want to learn more about the children born, not just out of post occupation Germany, but during and after any cross cultural conflict. As a journalist, as a storyteller, I wanted to tell the story.

Doris McMillon, whose story is among those featured, is an award winning journalist and CEO of McMillon Communications, Inc. For her, the message underscored in Brown Babies remains relevant even though the events occurred over 60 years ago. "Brown Babies is really a continuation of what has played out in different parts of the world where soldiers from other countries come to fight and end up in relationships with the women of the country they occupy," McMillon said. "As with any war in a foreign country, children conceived out of wedlock are often silent casualties. Their mothers can't afford to keep them and their fathers leave no financial support to take care of these children after the war has ended. I am proud to have our story told and am hopeful that the light shed will promote awareness that transcends race and time," she shared.

Brown Babies: The Mischlingskinder Story won Best Documentary at the 2011 American Black Film Festival. It has been featured on CNN and earned the distinction of Best Film at the African-American Women in Cinema Film Festival (New York City) and was HBO Best Documentary finalist at the 2011 Martha's Vineyard Black Film Festival. Brown Babies continues to garner national and local attention.

To learn more about Brown Babies: The Mischlingskinder Story, schedule interviews and review the schedule for upcoming screenings, visit www.brownbabiesproject.com