Spike says "Do the Right Thing, stop the "School Daze"

[AKA_Monet]

Sistermadly--

I am here with you up in the Pac NW. The problem here is there is too much egoism, pride (from the old ways of doing things) and "feudalism"--or fifedoms.

I think the reason why it is that way is that is the way some "folks" want it. I.E. Billy Gates, Paulie Allen, et al. There is no motivation to make the effective changes that are needed to make it happen up here for any child of African descent to succeed. I see it EVERYDAY at UW... And you can forget about the entire state of Oregon...

You also have the issue of "claiming heritage" up here. For instance, there should BE NO REASON WHY the ONLY African American Museum in the Puget Sound area (Tacoma, WA) had to close its doors. Aside from gross mismanagement and lack of support, there is some "old guard" that actually does not have the corporate structure and ideology needed to reason with these wonderful "Mercer Island/Bellevue/Redmond/Issaquah/Spokane folks" who run things up here. Moreover, many folks actually do not want to be considered of African descent here. You can see that all over the place.

You could say probably the most effective group of African Americans in this area are maybe, Blacks at Microsoft, Boeing Employees, Weyerhauser and Niketown in Portland--and really other than personally connecting up in Bellevue on Friday nights, what do they really do? And those folks are pretty much corporate and spread out--so what connection do they really have? Really? And they dayum sho don't want any "real life changing African Americans" from the outside to do anything--just look at what happened at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Seattle...

I really don't mean to get on your case and I do not intend to focus my comments on you, but I am working in these community service organizations up here and I nary see a even a "negro" to acknowledge my existance even in non-Af Am. organizations--I am usually the "token" and I hate it...

And really, the way the MLK day celebration is planned up here is bucket stoopid... Really. I have NEVER EVER ATTENDED a jacked up meeting like that EVER in my life...

Besides making like "logical decisions" of connecting two groups of folks together is like pulling hen's teeth. Hayle, like who would think that a dental program at a community college could have some of their students as part of their training share proper care of dental appliances at an old folks home would NOT be beneficial for both parties? Who would have a problem with that? But, that is what happened when I tried to facilitate this process...

And the few black folks up here trying to make effective change--man if I haven't seen what it takes to be a superhero, then, dayum I don't know what else needs to be done...