Vol 28 Issue 32

“Addressing Current & Historical Realities Affecting Our Community”

WokIsM

By: Bobby Mills, Phd

America is experiencing a socio-religious cultural crisis of monumental proportions. In fact, polarization in American society is at an all-time high, and self-centeredness is engulfing the soul of America’s spiritualmoral declaration: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness---”. Hence, America’s cultural crisis is grounded in fear of the browning of America’s population, and the declining White population based upon numerous factors. The front-line battleground is public education, and the intellectual turning of

children against the emotional notion of White Supremacy. Scientific and historical facts do not lie. Individuals are not superior to others simply based upon skin-tone. Wokism means entirely different things to Black and White individuals. On the one hand, Whites define Wokism as evil actions against them based upon their false sense of racial superiority as well as their disguised sense of inferiority. On the other hand, Wokism to Blacks refers to self-consciousness and self-awareness concerning one’s universal humanity and dignity in the context of a multi-cultural democratic society.

Wokism on pg. 5

THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF RubY REvIs POINDExTER

Ruby Mae Revis was born May 16, 1928 and departed on August 14, 2023.

Ruby Revis Poindexter was the last of ten children born to Billy Turner Revis and Hattie Elizabeth Stredic Revis; her parents, six brothers and three sisters preceded her in death. She was born in Van Vleck, Texas, A Negro Settlement, in Bay City. Ruby was raised with a strong sense of family and community; values that she voiced throughout her life.

Ruby on pg. 5

If you don’t know your history, you don’t know where you come from.

- Roy Douglas Malonson

PICTURES, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, EMAIL TO

A Revival of God Consciousness

Perception Versus Reality

If an individual perceives something to be real, it might only be real in his sight and mind, not universal reality.

In the twenty-first century, Christian Right Evangelicals and The GOP who are making things seem right only through perception, by seeking to make wrong, right, and right wrong. This is why

(73+) million Americans were hoodwinked into believing what they are being taught and told as the TRUTH, rather than what Godfearing Americans know spiritually, because: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

(Romans 8: 28). Sadly, it is only perception based upon lies, lies, and damn lies. America, know this, everything thing outside of loving God, obeying His will, and loving your fellowman as yourself is perception. For example, the GOP has vehemently been seeking to convince some fickle-minded Americans that climate change is a hoax, but its only perception based

EDITORIAL

upon lies. The GOP wants every American to wholeheartedly believe that you need a gun, and more guns for protection, but it is all perception. In America more individuals are dying, because of the availability of guns than ever before, especially military-style guns than at any time in the history of American society. Sadly, our children have become the innocent victims of our gun crazy culture. The GOP desires that Americans believe that you can legislate morality, but the question of questions is, whose morality?

Law and order in American society are about perception, not about Truth and Justice for all, because Lady Justice is not color-blind. Former President Donald J. Trump is a classic example of an individual who has violated almost every criminal law on the books. Yet, he is still a free individual, still telling lies, lies, and more lies. However, Godfearing Americans desire to believe that the wheels of justice grind ever so slow, yet ever so fine, but in due time Donald J. Trump will have a Godly encounter with justice. If any other President or American citizen committed crimes against the state, they would not be in jail, but under the jail, especially President Obama.

And all that Jazz

If You Can’t See Color You Can’t See Me

“If you give a n----- an inch, he will take an ell. A n----- should know nothing but to obey his master, to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best n----- in the world.” Slave master Hugh Auld warned his wife as he forbade her to educate Frederick Douglas.

“From that moment,” wrote Douglas, “I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom . . . “

One hundred seventyeight years later the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6–3 in Auld’s favor. They sympathetically endorsed the complaints of certain “disadvantaged white and Asian-American applicants” who claimed that affirmative action violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.

This landmark decision to deny colleges and universities the prerogative to consider race as a partial basis for admissions affirms the devout wishes and fears of Mr. Douglas’s enslaver. It establishes a new, unnecessary, and unprincipled barrier to realizing their goal of enrolling a diverse

student body. This is harmful to all scholars as it diminishes the range of experiences and voices the “disadvantaged white and AsianAmerican” students are exposed to. It ultimately dilutes the multiplicity of our nation’s most prominent professionals and minimizes the opportunities of worthy Black and brown citizens from exercising the power to alter these decisions since it is graduates of “the ivies” who tend to become the wealthiest and most politically influential citizens.

Since the 1960s the Supreme Court has addressed the question of race in university admissions on many occasions. Affirmative action has protected many Black and Latino students from discrimination, including Justice Clarence Thomas, who now vociferously opposes similar assistance for graduating high schoolers. The  evisceration of affirmative action aborts this established precedent. Civil rights leaders and educators deplore this ruling. “The only thing it’s going to do is further discourage students from underrepresented groups from applying for these institutions,” Zack Mabel, a researcher for Georgetown’s Center for Education and the Workforce, said.

Bobby Mills, Phd

Esperanza Jazz Paz

DO HIsD MAGNET sCHOOLs DAMAGE NEIGHbORHOOD sCHOOLs?

By: Esperanza Jazz Paz

HISD began its magnet school program in the mid-1970s. Previously the district had stoutly resisted court-ordered integration by asserting that Mexican students were to be newly classified as white and bussing them to predominantly Black campuses. By providing transportation (via the same buses) to magnet schools with specialized curriculum to attract them, it was hoped that the campuses would integrate themselves.

The initially selected programs were located in existing white schools, except for the engineering option at Booker T. Washington High School. This plan harmed the minority students who were enrolled at Kashmere and Wheatley by subjecting them to lengthy commutes and by draining their home schools of the most motivated scholars, but many Houstonians became enthusiastic participants.

The most sought-after magnet schools for 20212022 remained River Oaks Elementary School, Pin Oak Middle School, and Carnegie Vanguard High School. The first two are in primarily white neighborhoods. Carnegie is in the Fourth Ward, which is gentrifying rapidly. It shares the same

zip code as River Oaks, one of the most expensive communities in town, which begs the question of need. Although magnets do provide an excellent education to low-income students in more desirable neighborhoods they also admit rich ones whose parents could just as easily register them in equivalent quality private academies. The result is that many students in magnet schools, while they may certainly deserve and benefit from the added academic rigor, don’t really need the public benefit that the magnet school promises to provide. Not only do kids compete for desks at the most exemplary schools. The teachers do too, and the vacancies at the left behind campuses are filled with newer, less effective educators. If the cleverest scholars continued in their local schools their demand for more rigorous studies would allow their classmates to envision additional possibilities for themselves allowing performance to increase schoolwide.

More opportunities exist for kindergartners than any other grade, but only children deemed “gifted and talented” are eligible to enroll in the most coveted Vanguard schools like River Oaks Elementary. In the 2020 – 2021 school

year 650 families applied but less than half of their kids qualified. Of those 20 percent were invited and each one was grateful to accept. Other magnet schools operate on audition or lottery basis which are particularly desired by wealthy, white, and Asian families. Vanguard schools are extraordinarily demanding of their students. About 44 percent consistently earn the top STAAR achievement in both math and reading; the rest of HISD averages less than 25 percent

which is significant because the rigorousness of high school courses has been found to be the No. 1 predictor of college success. NonVanguard magnets such as Heights High School, High School for Law and Justice, and Waltrip High School are conspicuous for their comparatively low STAAR scores. While magnet academies did urge some voluntary desegregation it mostly incentivizes the outstanding students to desert their own neighborhoods during their high school days and relocate even farther away to the universities who market to the most academically ambitious. Those who failed to apply or were rejected from the more competitive schools are bequeathed to a milieu where their greatest influences are classmates facing similar challenges perpetuating the caste structure. Often parents of the least accomplished students are politically less engaged than magnet school families, so the neediest are overlooked when the most intellectual depart. Had the best and the brightest remained the

lower performing children would have had more positive peer role models. Schools have historically been the anchor of their neighborhoods, the space where residents gathered to support their children and the neighborhood. That essential value vanishes when the watchfulness and devotion of a group of parents or resident teachers are diverted to different campuses across the city. Jack Yates High School opened in 1926 as Houston’s second “colored” high school. The building hosted community events and meetings for the Third Ward. As it became overcrowded a new school was built in 1958 at 3703 Sampson. (Yates moved again to 3650 Alabama Street, where it remains.) The previous, beloved principal, William Holland, was replaced by Dr. John Codwell, the principal of Yates’s bitter rival, Phyllis Wheatley High School. This shift in authority unraveled the placid and united atmosphere of the school and neighborhood and introduced its disorganization.

CONGREssMAN AL GREEN HOsTs LANDMARk 2ND ANNuAL sLAvERY REMEMbRANCE

By: Teque’lia Lewis

Congressman Al Green Hosts

Landmark 2nd Annual Slavery

Remembrance

Legislative Update with Public Officials, Prominent Clergy and Notable Figures at the Wyndham Hotel Houston, Texas, August 23, 2023

— Congressman Al Green hosted a landmark event on Saturday, August 19, 2023, as he spearheaded the 2nd Annual Slavery Remembrance

Legislative Update. The event held at the Wyndham Hotel near NRG stadium gathered over 1100 attendees including prominent clergy, public officials, and civic organizations. The event was guided by the Chief Operating Officer of

the Fountain of Praise Church, George Anderson, who acted as the Master of Ceremonies. The proceedings commenced with a warm welcome from Wyndham Hotel representative Johnathan Yazdani, who set the tone for a day of reflection and dialogue.

The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Miss Alicia Charles, an uplifting rendition of the National Anthem was performed by renowned Grammy and Stellar Award nominee Kathy Taylor and the Negro National Anthem was performed by Dr. Lola Denise Jefferson. Reverend Dr. Max A. Miller Jr. delivered a moving invocation, followed

by a captivating performance from the Houston Ebony Opera Guild. One of the highlights of the event was the discussion on the significance of slavery remembrance led by Bishop James Dixon, President of the Houston NAACP. Congressman Al Green graced the podium with a passionate discourse on his Conscience Agenda. He provided a legislative update on the endeavor to designate August 20th as the National Day for the Commemoration of Slavery Remembrance, underlining the importance of confronting the atrocities of slavery to ensure they are never repeated.

“In this 2nd Annual Slavery Remembrance Legislative Update, as a community we unite to fulfill a vital mission: to commemorate the lives of the enslaved, learn from their enduring struggles, and chart a course towards a more just future,”

Congressman Al Green stated. “The widespread support of this event and the substantial turnout

underlines our commitment in confronting the dark legacy of American history. By remembering and acknowledging the past, we ensure that the lessons of history shape our present and guide our nation toward an inclusive and equitable tomorrow.”

For more visit aframnews.com

Al green, D-mars, Dorris Ellis, Jeffrey Boney, Chelsea Lenora White, Aswald Walker, Kijana Wiseman

Al green, Rodney Ellis

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. with Cong. Al Green

Members of the Ever Ready Masonic Lodge #506, Congressman Al Green, Charles Mills (103 year old Veteran), members of the Ever Ready Masonic Lodge #506, Lorenzo Butler

Al green

Wokism cont.

Governor DeSantis of Florida has negatively magnified the concept of Wokism to the nth degree suggesting that there were benefits in slavery for Blacks. Furthermore, DeSantis suggested that Wokism was being used by Blacks as a liberal political platform to confuse Whites and make them feel guilty for the 1619 Project (slavery). Sadly, most Whites do not spiritually understand the Wokism concept as defined by Blacks in the twentyfirst century: stay awake, don’t nap or sleep, beware of your environmental surroundings. Black people, we must not ever permit Whites to spiritually define

us in a negative manner, because our ontological being is not grounded in Whites socially accepting us, because God is no respecter of human personalities. America is a nation of immigrants, only Native American Indians are indigenous to the land, and its natural resources. DeSantis’s family origin is Italy, and his family came to America for a better way of life fleeing White on White inhumanity. Mussolini was an Autocratic dictator, and his best friend was Hitler. DeSantis was socialized into an Autocratic White Privilege Mentality. DeSantis’s best friend and political ally is Donald J. Trump, a four-time indicted anti-multi-cultural

democracy ungodly criminal mind. DeSantis publicly has stated if Trump is found guilty, he would still support Trump for President. Let’s briefly examine Donald Trump’s family immigrant pedigree. Trump’s family immigrated to America during World War II from Germany. Trump has a Hitler mentality, and as President, Trump was prolific at spreading the doctrine of Hitlerism from The White House. Remember the Charlotteville statement Trump did not spiritually and morally condemn concerning Jewish people.

For more visit aframnews.com

Ruby cont.

She attended Hilliard High School in Bay City. From there she went on to attend Prairie View A & M University, Texas Southern University, obtaining her Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science with a Minor in Spanish. She continued her postgraduate education at the University of Southern California. Her quest for knowledge has led her to attend various educational seminars as her teaching career spanned over two decades. Her work as a HISD teacher at Pleasantville Elementary, Miller Junior High and Hartman Junior High lasted nineteen years. A civil rights activist

and matriarch of her family, she firmly advocated for the pursuit of higher education, mentored her students and positively influenced the lives of many.

Ruby joined her husband Zeb in business by 1960 and they built The Sunnyside Clinic; the first health facility to house a General Physical Surgeon and General Dental Surgeon in Houston. Together they worked and built Poindexter Dental Inc. which she managed from 19721998.

Ruby was a Life Member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., a NAACP Life Member; a leader in Dental Professional organizations, Civil Rights Organization, Community Organizations,

cofounded Loyal Missionary Baptist Church and participated in a host of social clubs, especially the Coterie.

For 57 years she was a fun-loving wife to the late Dr. Zeb Poindexter Jr. They are survived by three children, Merlene Russell, Eleanor Patricia Dixon, Dr. Zeb F. Poindexter III, her daughterin law Anna Maria Barba Poindexter, 11 grandchildren, a growing number of great grandchildren, a variety of other close family members, some close friends, kind neighbors, former students, a host of dignitaries and many admirers.

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