Sometimes we experience events, although separate and independent from one another, that provoke similar thought responses. So, it was this past Thursday evening when I was the invited guest speaker to several residents assembled in the Grand Lobby of the Millennium Tower on Mission Street in San Francisco.
The content message of my remarks reminded me of a discussion I had two weeks ago, when I was interviewed publicly by the media commentator Jonathan Capehart from MSNBC and The Washington Post. The interview occurred on a stage in a Conference ballroom at the Low's Coronado Bay Resort Hotel in San Diego, CA. Instead of before residents at the prestigious Millennium Tower, my remarks occurred at the Annual Conference of THE COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK.
Attendees at the San Diego Conference were executives and communication directors and/or managers of several of the major charitable foundations in our country today. Aggregate private and corporate foundation wealth in 2014 was $358.38 billion. As measured against our first quarter 2015 of GDP, of -$17.9 trillion, this charitable foundations giving constituted .02% (help me somebody!).
As a percentage of THEIR respective GDPs, Denmark, Sweden, Norway for example, give twice as much money for charitable social, economic, educational charitable purposes in their countries, and internationally, than the United States.
It was against this background that I repeated to my audience last Thursday at the Millennium some of what I had said earlier at the COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK Conference: "It is obscene and immoral, in the richest country in the world, for a United States Military veteran to be homeless, sleeping on the sidewalks and without food, ANYWHERE in our country."
Why did I and do I say this? BECAUSE IT IS TRUE!
To the top executives here in Silicon Valley, for example, like the relatively privileged wealthy residents at the Millennium and so many other enclaves of comparative wealth, a corollary question is: Do YOU ever ask yourselves the question of why does homelessness and hunger persist among our U.S. military veterans, not only here in San Francisco (and San Diego), but nationwide?
I also spoke about the the challenges we face arising from the ubiquitous 24/7 deaths from gun violence, systemic white racism, and income inequality.
In Chicago, for example so far this year in 2015 there have been 2,400 shootings.
Moreover, an index of our wealth disparity, for example, shows that twenty years ago, the ratio of salaries paid to corporate executive, as compared to their employees, was 20 to 1. Today, that ratio is 364 to 1 (again -- help me, somebody!).
On the issue of race and race relations, both at the San Diego Conference and to the residents at the Millennium Towers my message was the same: Race is the most hypocritical issue that persists in our nation -- a consequence of the impact of the legacy of slavery and its companion doctrine of white supremacy, and their impact upon subsequent and the current generations of the descendants of slaveholders and slaves.
Why the continued pervasive denial and hypocrisy about race and race relations in America?
James W. Lowen in his book "LIES MY TEACHER TOLD ME -- Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong" reminds us that the issue of race is the most pervasive theme in our history. The domination of black America by white America creates the sharpest division in American life.
"Over the years white America has told itself varying stories about the enslavement of blacks. In each of the past two centuries America's most popular novel was set in slavery -- Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. The two books tell very different stories."
These all occurred before African-American authors such Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, books by Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Alice Walker, and Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Leaders of Foundations and the residents of the Millennium must know this. If not, why not?
Addressing the immoral denial about the historical root causes of racism is the reason why I mentioned to my Mission Street audience the 15-week course, FROM SLAVERY TO OBAMA, that I teach at the University of San Francisco.
The course is intended to address the disconnect between the factual reality and various opinions about the consequential impact of the doctrine of white supremacy upon subsequent generations of the descendants of slaves and slaveholders, meaning US.
The Syllabus we wrote for the Course says:
"In his epic treatise The Souls of Black Folk published in 1903, renowned sociologist and historian, Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, commenting on the legacy of Slavery in our country said, "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line."
More than a hundred years after he wrote those words, the racial struggles in the United States remain the most pervasive theme in our history. Slavery, the Civil War, and nearly a century of racial segregation stand as stains on the moral fabric of the United States. Notwithstanding, the election and re-election of America's first African-American President of the United States, frank discussions on race relations in America and the historical impact of the institution of slavery upon our current society remain problematic.
The events in Ferguson, Cleveland, Baltimore, Staten Island, NY, and Charleston, SC in 2015 indicate "a fierce urgency of now" for our nation, once and for all, to confront the reality of the consequential impact of the legacy of slavery upon the current attitudes and conduct of the descendants of slaves and slaveholders. Through an in-depth examination of the long history of white supremacy and the black struggle against it, this course is designed to enable honest and critical discussion about race in America. Readings, lectures, and activities will focus on those events and individuals that have decisively shaped and influenced America's efforts to abolish slavery and address its historical consequences and subsequent efforts to create a society based on values of racial equality and social justice.'"
I also shared with the Millennium audience some recollections from personal attendance and participation at The March On Washington For Jobs and Freedom, at the Lincoln Memorial, Aug. 28th, 1963. I told them about Rabbi Joachim Prinz, who spoke immediately before Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech. He was president of the American Jewish Congress. The AJC was one of the participating sponsors of the March. Part of what Rabbi Prinz said during his speech, was like a canary in the coalmine of our morality today:
"When I was the rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin under the Hitler regime, I learned many things. The most important thing that I learned under those tragic circumstances was that bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence.A great people, who had created a great civilization, had become a nation of silent onlookers. They remained silent in the face of hate, in the face of brutality and in the face of mass murder.
America must not become a nation of onlookers. America must not remain silent. Not merely black America, but all of America. It must speak up and act. from the President down to the humblest of us, and not for the sake of the Negro, not for the sake of the black community but for the sake of the image, the idea and the aspiration of America itself."
I described a unique opportunity, in real time for leaders of foundations, and the residents at the Millennium, who do not want to continue to be "onlookers" or to stand like "deer in the, headlights", to address the consequential impact of the legacy of slavery.
That opportunity is that, for the first time, FROM SLAVERY TO OBAMA is being offered online. In addition to students at USF, several Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have indicated their interest in participating in the online course.
The University of San Francisco has been working with San Francisco Unified School District to bring "From Slavery to Obama" to high school students. The District has proposed two pilot programs that USF and they are seeking to fund.
USF's first pilot is designed to create a pipeline for African American students into college. It would provide tuition and textbooks for 20-35 African American students in their junior or senior year to take the online course "From Slavery to Obama" that we teach at the University of San Francisco.
The joint proposed program grant they seek will enable them to adapt the course for high school students. Students would also receive college credit.
The second pilot is designed to provide professional development for U.S. history teachers in the District, both regular classroom teachers and those teaching summer school to students who have failed U.S. history. In alignment with the mission of the School of Education, this pilot would reach underserved groups and support local teachers in the District. San Francisco Unified has agreed to partner with Dean Kevin Kumishiro and the School of Education by supporting teachers to attend professional development training in the spring of 2016.
Teachers will have access to "From Slavery to Obama" and will be able to use modules and materials from the course in their classrooms. In addition, the School of Education will adapt the course for U.S. history summer school teachers, so that they can use modules from the course as summer school curriculum for their students. The University professional development will professional development by high school teachers to enable them to adapt the course into a 5-week U.S. history summer school curriculum that district high school teachers will then use with summer school students.
If not now, when? If not residents of the Millennium in San Francisco and Foundations, many of whose "Mission Statements" includes support for education; then who?