Opinion
Embracing the Real Black History
“Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
B ERNIE F OSTER
Founder/Publisher
B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER
Executive Editor
T ED B ANKS
Advertising Manager
J ERRY F OSTER
Account Executive
L ISA L OVING
News Editor
H ELEN S ILVIS
Multimedia Editor
B RUCE P OINSETTE
Reporter
D AVID K IDD
Graphic Designer
M ONICA J. F OSTER
Seattle Office Coordinator
J ULIE K EEFE
S USAN F RIED
Photographers
The Skanner Newspaper, established
in October 1975, is a weekly publica-
tion, published each Wednesday by
One hundred and fifty years ago,
President Abraham Lincoln signed
the Emancipation Proclamation. It
was a flawed document that freed
enslaved people in Confederate
areas that he did not control. At the
same time, it was a progressive
document because it initiated dis-
cussion about the Thirteenth,
Fourteenth and Fifteen “FREE-
DOM” Amendments.
One hundred years later, in
1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
riveted the nation with his “I Have
A Dream” speech during the Aug.
28 March on Washington. Many
will remember that he said, “I
have a dream that one day people
will be judged not by the color of
their skin but by the content of
their character.” Somehow people
forget that in the same speech he
said, “We have come to the
nation’s capital to cash a check
that has been marked insufficient
funds.” If people said “cash the
check” as often as they said “I
have a dream,” we’d move more
quickly forward in closing the eco-
nomic gaps that African Ameri-
cans experience.
We’ve been doing this 50-year
thing for the past couple years, and
we’ll be doing it for another few.
The “Greensboro Four” North
Carolina A&T State University
Students (with the help of Bennett
College students, often ignored)
sat in at Woolworth counters on
February 1, 1960, more than 50
years ago. The March on Wash-
ington happened 50 years ago.
The Civil Rights Act was passed in
B ENNETT
C OLLEGE
Julianne
Malveaux
1964, and beyond that the 1960s
will resonate for the next few
years with commemorations and
anniversaries.
These celebrations are important
historical moments, but who
remembers? The median age of
the population in the United States
have never experienced dis-
crimination. Even when they
experience it, they are slow to
embrace it. They are post-
racial, whatever that means.
If some of these young people
had been immersed in history,
they might understand why the
Black unemployment rate is
twice that of the White rate. If
they had read some Dr. Martin
Luther King, who spoke of racial
disparities in much of his work,
they would understand the many
ways the struggle continues. But
popular culture suggests that when
Black folks and White folks can
both act extreme fools on reality
‘We have come to the nation’s capital
to cash a check that has been
marked insufficient funds’
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr
is about 37 years old. Many of
these folks remember the civil
rights moment through twice and
thrice told tales. Those who are
under the median age see the civil
rights movement as something
like a fable, something they heard
about, but doesn’t really matter to
them. Many of these young peo-
ple see themselves as “post-
racial.” They hang out with their
peers, race notwithstanding. They
shows (I think I blanked out after
about a minute of “Bad Girls
Club”); there is some measure of
equality.
There has been a rich history and
legacy of struggle and protest that
has been swallowed by the notion
of post-racialism in the first
decades of this century. It is laud-
able that President Obama used
both a Bible of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. and that of President
Abraham Lincoln, connecting the
150-year-old dots.
President
Obama’s choice in using both
Bibles in this anniversary year is a
testament to his sensitivity and
ability to juggle the tightrope he
must manage as both president of
the United States and the first
African American president of our
nation.
Most folks 50 and older get it.
What about those who are both
younger than our nation’s median
age and unschooled in the nuances
of history? Is our conversation
about race in America stuck in
some kind of time warp, where we
are unable to speak cross genera-
tionally because we have extreme-
ly
different
memories,
recollections, and knowledge
about that which happened 50
years ago?
We do our nation a disservice
when we duck and dodge our
racially tinged history. We have to
grace and embrace the past in
order to move forward with our
future.
Somehow this is a message that
needs to be transmitted to young
people, especially in this 150th
year after emancipation, this 50th
year after the March on Washing-
ton, this season of embracing and
celebrating our history.
Julianne Malveaux is a Wash-
ington, D.C.-based economist and
writer. She is President Emerita of
Bennett College for Women in
Greensboro, N.C.
IMM Publications Inc.,
415 N. Killingsworth St.,
P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228.
African Americans and the Philippines
Telephone (503) 285-5555.
E-mail: info@theskanner.com
World Wide Web site:
http://www.theskanner.com
Fax: (503) 285-2900
The Skanner is a member of the
National Newspaper Pub lishers Associ-
ation and West Coast Black Pub lishers
Association.
All photos submitted become the
property of The Skanner. We are not re -
spon sible for lost or damaged photos
either solicited or unsolicited.
© 2012 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED.
REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART
WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED.
To see The Skanner
News on your smart
phone go to
theskannermobile.com
or scan this QR code
with your app.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Local news
Opinions
Jobs, Bids
Sports
Entertainment
Music reviews
Bulletin board
RSS feeds
Page 4 The Portland Skanner
Although the Spanish-American
War (1898) is a well-known
episode in U.S. history, few of us
know that immediately following
the end of hostilities with Spain,
the USA initiated a war of colo-
nization against the Philippines.
Interestingly, Black America fig-
ured into this war in a very odd
way.
The U.S. claimed the Philippines
as a trophy from their war with
Spain. The problem is that before
the U.S. military arrived in the
Philippines, there was a very suc-
cessful insurrection underway by
the Filipinos, an insurrection that
was nearing victory. The Philip-
pine rebels believed that the U.S.
had arrived to assist in the final
push against the Spanish. Instead,
the U.S. troops turned against the
Filipino rebels and embarked on
what can only be understood to
have been a racist, genocidal war
aimed at subjugating the archipel-
ago.
The war started Feb. 2, 1899.
Black America found itself in an
odd place at that moment. Recon-
struction in the South had been
defeated by White supremacist
forces and African Americans
were in the process of becoming
disenfranchised as Jim Crow seg-
regation was emerging as the law
of the former Confederacy. In
order to prove ourselves worthy of
full citizenship, many African
Americans volunteered to fight
Spain in 1898, and later went to
the Philippines to fight a popula-
tion they had been led to believe
February 6. 2013
were heathens.
The U.S. war against the Philip-
T RANS
A FRICA
Bill
Fletcher Jr.
pines was one atrocity after anoth-
er, including indiscriminate
killings and the use of a torture
technique that we have come to
know as water-boarding. Entire
cities were destroyed, such as Iloi-
lo on Panay Island. And in this
the White military, most infa-
mous—was that of Army corporal
David Fagen. Fagen abandoned
the U.S. military and went to
fight on the side of the Filipinos
against his country. In fact,
Fagen became an officer in the
Filipino guerrilla army. This so
infuriated the U.S. military that
they put a price on his head.
Although there were claims that
Fagen was killed, it was never
proven. In either, case he never
surrendered and was never cap-
tured. The war lasted until at least
1902, though skirmishes contin-
ued well past that.
The week following February 2
has become, for many Filipino
activists, Philippine Solidarity
Week. It is a time to remember
In order to prove ourselves worthy of
full citizenship, many African
Americans volunteered to fight Spain
in 1898
setting the Filipinos were not only
demonized, but racially demo-
nized, with White soldiers refer-
ring to the Filipinos as “n——” as
they went about murdering them.
The overtly racist side to this
conflict became apparent to
African American soldiers, result-
ing in demoralization as well as
some desertions.
The most
famous—or from the standpoint of
that the U.S. colonized the Philip-
pines and held it in subjugation
until 1946 at which point the coun-
try received nominal independ-
ence but actually became a
neo-colony of the U.S. Struggles
for genuine independence have
continued through today, includ-
ing an insurrection led by the
National Democratic Front of the
Philippines. The U.S. govern-
ment, including under President
Obama, supports government after
government in the Philippines that
serve the interests of the USA.
More to the point, such govern-
ments either directly engage in
human rights abuses or turn a
blind eye to such abuses including
what are politely called “extra-
judicial killings,” i.e., political
murders, aimed at opponents and
dissenters.
African Americans, both at the
birth of the 20th century and
today, have had a connection with
the Philippines. Soldiers and
civilians, in 1899, were aware that
the war was one of aggression and
in many cases were prepared to
speak out. As the U.S. of the 21st
century seeks to further militarize
the Philippines and block efforts to
peacefully settle the long-standing
civil war, we, once again, need to
be prepared to speak up. And, in
so doing, remember the moral
dilemma faced and answered by
David Fagen more than a century
ago.
[For more information on David
Fagen, please see: E. San Juan, Jr.
“An African American Soldier in
the Philippine Revolution: An
Homage to David Fagen.” Cultur-
al Logic, 2009, pp.1-36]
Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a Senior
Scholar with the Institute for Poli-
cy Studies, the immediate past
president of TransAfrica Forum
and the author of “They’re Bank-
rupting Us” – And Twenty Other
myths about Unions.