Ishmael Reed Reviews The Sayings of Plato Negro, Marvin X

Review by Ishmael Reed, 
Professor Emeritus, UC Berkeley

Photo: Michael Simon

If someone would write a book demythologizing the Black Power movement, how would they assess it? One of great nobility, or one of hypocrisy, one of courage or one of cowardice, one that fostered change in the status quo, or one
that was part of the problem. Or would one conclude that it was one having mixed results.
       
That it  modified the direction of The Civil Rights Movement, which was heading toward Anglo Saxon assimilation, the way that many Irish, Italian and other white ethnic groups lost their roots and thereby lost their souls, is indisputable. 

Marvin X, who is not only a terrific writer but a Black Power historian has served us well by listing all of the 60s poets who were influenced by Islam and other non-Western sources, (though, without Muslim scholars there’d be no Western civilization.) 

African writers, whom I interviewed for my book about Muhammad Ali find African American Muslim conversion puzzling since they view Islam as an invader’s religion and one that treats the indigenous population, harshly, but one cannot underestimate the influence of Islam upon the world.

However,if I had to pin down the influences upon Marvin X’s The Wisdom of Plato Negro,Parables/Fables,I would cite the style of Yoruba texts. I studied for some years under the tutoring of the poet and scholar Adebisi T.Aromolaran ( “ Wise Sayings For Boys and Girls”)and was guided through some texts in the Yoruba language which revealed that didacticism  is a key component of the Yoruba story telling style. Africans use proverbs to teach their children the lessons of life. Marvin X acknowledges the Yoruba influence on his book, The Wisdom of Plato Negro, Parables/Fables.

  He imparts wisdom by employing cautionary tales and uses his own life and mistakes to consul the young to avoid mistakes. George Bernard Shaw said that if you don’t write your own plays, others will write them for you and they will “degrade”and “vulgarize” you. As part of a grant, I attended local theater for three years and found the portraits of blacks to be offensive,mostly. The women were prostitutes and the men were like the black man in “Precious,” a bestial evil. 

Marvin X in “One Day In the Life”, his classic play about recovery, which I saw at the Black Rep., the only local theater that doesn’t depend upon a audience that desires guilt free productions, was one of the few plays that wasn’t escapist, or preached post racism or blamed the victim.

Moreover, unlike some of the books written by popular African American writers, his book does not look backward to the period of slavery, though some of that is here. He writes about the contemporary problems of a community under attack. He blames crack for causing “ a great chasm between adults and children, children who were abandoned,abused, and neglected, emotionally starved and traumatized.”
       
Pundits,scholars and reporters who have posed as experts on the inner city, but
don’t live here, have blamed the middle class for abandoning the urban centers.They’re wrong. The middle class is making all of the cash from profits from vice. They run the motels, where the prostitution trade takes place. 

When Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker slapped an injunction against two prostitution hotels which were scenes of child sex trafficking, beatings and rapes by pimps, the proprietors complained that she cost them $80,000.

The middle class are the absentee landlords, who plopped down a crack house in my neighborhood, they’re storeowners who make hundreds of thousands of dollars selling liquor. None of these proprietors is black! When I asked the Muslim who runs the Northside Supermarket, who was paid a fawning tribute by a clueless Chronicle reporter, who painted him as some kind of Santa Claus, when those attending our neighborhood crime meetings have complained about the criminal activity in from of his store for years,I was called out of order by an Oakland policeman, who turned out to be a friend of his, when I asked what a Muslim was doing selling liquor?

I wrote, “I am sure that I’m not the only North Oakland resident who is outraged by Chronicle writer, Justin Berton, portraying Yahya ‘Mike" Korin of Northside Supermarket as some kind of neighborhood Robin Hood who hands out turkeys to the poor at Xmas.

“I've attended meetings over the years, where our neighbors, black, white, and Hispanic, have complained about this store which attracts some of the most unsavory elements in our neighborhood and whose violent behavior has threatened the safety of our residents.” I had to mention whites because “Mike” was claiming
that only newcomers were protesting against his store, and that he was some
kind of benevolent uncle to the folks.

Marvin X exposes the situation of other ethnic groups invading black neighborhoods and making the lion’s share of profits from vice, while the media focus upon the mules of the operation, the pathetic and disgusting pimps, the drug dealers who are killing each other over profits that are piddling next to the great haul made by the suppliers of the guns and the drugs. Don’t expect the local newspapers to cover this end of the distribution.
       
Marvin X writes: “ The so-called Negro is the donkey of the world, everybody
rides him to success. If you need a free ride to success,jump on the Negro’s back and ride into the sunset. He will welcome you with open arms. No saddle needed, just jump on his back and ride him to the bank.”  

When you learn that the government ignored the dumping of drugs into our neighborhoods by their anti-communist allies, you can understand the meaning of Marvin X’s words. Not only are invading ethnic groups and white gun suppliers benefitting from using the black neighborhoods as a resource ,but the government as well.*

Marvin X also takes aim at the Dream Team academics who “parrot” the line
coming down from the One Percent that the problems of blacks are self-inflicted.
“The state academics and intellectuals joined loudly in parroting the king’s every wish. Thank God the masses do not hear them pontificate or read their books. After all, these intellectual and academic parrots are well paid, tenured and eat much parrot seed. Their magic song impresses the bourgeoisie who have a vested interested in keeping the song of the parrot alive.”
        
Marvin X’s answer to this intellectual Vichy regime has been to cultivate 
off campus intellectuals by conducting an open air classroom on 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland, which is how the peripatetic philosophers like
Plato used to impart their knowledge in open air academies.

The Black Arts movement expanded the audience for poetry. It inspired thousands of young people to write. They are the grandmothers and grandfathers of the Hip Hoppers. They produced children who are high achievers. The only thing that could mar the Black Arts legacy is its tolerance for a lunatic fringe. One, who used to edit a black magazine, but hasn’t written a lick since the 1960s, came out here recently and was greeted warmly, when if you put some white skin on him and covered him with tattoos, he’d be indistinguishable from your ordinary low level skin head,without the Budweiser six pack.

I would give the Black Arts a mixed review. I’m the one who said that in
the global village, nationalism is the village idiot. But I have supported it in concrete ways because the Black Nationalist movement is the only roadblock to black culture becoming extinct!
     
Moreover,some of those who were Yacubists of the 60s changed. Muhammad Ali,who met with the KKK during the 1970s, recently attended his grand son’s Bar Mitzvah.
____________
* Parry, Robert “How John Kerry exposed the Contra-cocaine scandal,
Derided by the mainstream press and taking on Reagan at the height of his popularity, the freshman senator battled to reveal one of America's ugliest foreign policy secrets” Salon.com, Oct.25,2004


Ishmael Reed,author of “Going Too Far, Essays About America’s Nervous Breakdown”
Email: ireedpub@yahoo.com
Tel: 5104280116
Address : 870 53rd St. Oakland, Ca.94608





Black Bird Press
1222 Dwight Way
Berkeley CA 94702
195 pages
$19.95

Marvin X reads and signs his book on Saturday, September 1, 3-6pm at
the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street @ Franklin, downtown Oakland.
Donation $20.00, includes signed book. 

Marvin X will be accompanied by Academy of da Corner poets Aries Jordan, Ptah Allah El and
Ramal Lamar. Percussionist Tacuma King will accompany Marvin X, also, trumpet master Earl Davis.
Refreshments served. Call 510-200-4164. 

Parable of the Poor Righteous Teacher: Tenn. State Professor Arrested on Campus

Dear Friends, when it comes to black university education, they do it differently in Tennessee. They use strong-armed tactics against you if you struggle to speak for excellence in higher education.
 
Loving you madly, Rudy
 
Rudolph Lewis, Editor
ChickenBones: A Journal
www.nathanielturner.com
 
 
 

Tennesee State Professor Arrested on Campus

August 21, 2012

Dr. Jane Davis, a professor at Tennessee State University , was arrested this morning on campus.  Dr. Davis was charged with disorderly conduct.  She is accused of “interrupting a meeting or procession,” which is a class B misdemeanor.

Dr. Davis was arrested while attempting to ask TSU interim President Dr. Portia Shields the reasons behind the meeting and why she was not invited.  That’s when Dr. Shields allegedly called campus police to have her removed.

“I asked her was this a Faculty Senate meeting and she would not answer,” Davis told the Tribune in a telephone interview. “She asked me to be quiet and made it clear she wasn’t going to let me speak.”

Police came and removed Dr. Davis after she refused to leave or stop speaking.

TSU has issued a written statement about the incident:

“During the special meeting of the faculty senate called by the President of the University, Dr. Portia Shields, Dr. Jane Davis, faculty member and chairperson of the faculty senate, was arrested by campus police for disruptive behavior and verbally assaulting the President after continually being advised to remain calm. After several attempts were made by the President to calm Dr. Davis, she was asked to leave the room, which she refused to do, and continued being disruptive and confrontational.”

One of the faculty members at the meeting anonymously told the Tennessee Tribune that the gathering seemed “odd at first glance,” based on the mix of people who were invited.

“Although the Senate has 30 members, only about half that many (were invited). I’m not sure if this indicates that the administration is trying to intimidate a handful of people or is so out of touch with the Senate that they don’t know who is and who is not on the Senate.”

Davis and Shields have been battling for quite a while.  The disagreements started in June of this year when it was alleged that the Associate Vice Provost changed 270 grades from “Incomplete” to letter grades for two pilot math classes. The university said that the “Incompletes” were a mistake.

There was then a hearing called by the Senate Higher Education Subcommittee to investigate the allegations.  The report has not yet been released.   Two days after the hearing, there was a meeting of faculty, staff and administrators, during which it is alleged that Dr. Shields accused Dr. Davis of damaging the TSU reputation.  She then allowed another faculty member, Dr. Oscar Miller, to call for Dr. Davis to be removed as Senate Chair.

http://www.techyville.com/2012/08/news/tennesee-state-professor-arrested-on-campus/#

Tennessee State University faculty leader arrested

Associated Press
Updated Tuesday, August 21, 2012

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A vocal faculty member at Tennessee State University who has opposed university leadership was taken away from a meeting in handcuffs on Monday and removed as the chair of the faculty senate.
Jane Davis, an English professor, was arrested by campus police on a charge of disorderly conduct, TSU spokesman Rick Delahaya told The Tennessean (http://tnne.ws/PAq0ex ).
Davis has been an outspoken critic of policies and decisions made by TSU interim President Portia Shields, who came to the university in early 2011 to make reforms for the school to gain a necessary full accreditation. Her contract expires at the end of the year.
Last week a suggestion was made to oust Davis and the Faculty Senate's executive council and the university surveyed faculty members on the idea. In the online poll, 60 percent of those who responded said they wanted Davis removed and 59 percent said they wanted the executive council to go with her.
Davis said she wanted to speak in her defense about the survey and calls for her removal.
"Dr. Shields attempted to discuss the results of the Faculty Senate survey," said Delahaya. "Dr. Davis then became extremely disruptive and would not allow the meeting to proceed."
Davis said that she wanted to speak with Shields, who was at the meeting.
"This was my one chance to speak in front of her, but speech in front of her that she doesn't agree with is disorderly conduct," she said.
Following the arrest, the Faculty Senate voted to remove her as the chair. Davis said that the vote to remove her was illegitimate because the meeting had been called by university administration rather than the faculty senate.
"Nothing that happened there counts," said Davis, who still considers herself the leader of the legislative body.
Davis said that the Faculty Senate was intimidated by Shields when they decided to vote her out.
"They see someone being put away in handcuffs. How will they not go along with it?" she said.
Delahaya said Shields did not suggest or endorse the removal of Shields and wanted the school's entire faculty to be represented.
"She did want the faculty to have some type of voice," he said.
Davis said she is being retaliated against by Shields for complaining that university administrators changed grades for some students. The university said it was correcting a mistake in grading.
"This is crystal-clear intimidation and retaliation," Davis said.

http://m.knoxnews.com/news/2012/aug/21/tennessee-state-university-faculty-leader/

Letter to the Editor

What is at Stake in the Tennessee State Grading Controversy

On August 13, there will be a hearing in the Senate of the State of Tennessee to look into the controversy concerning grade changes in two Math courses at Tennessee State University . In these courses, students who previously would have placed in now eliminated developmental classes work to attain competency in Math. The two courses ended in Fall, 2011. It is the exceedingly strange events affecting grading of  students with Incompletes that took place the following semester that has caused controversy that needs to be explained to the university as a whole, the academic community at large, and taxpayers. Why does this issue matter?

The student-teacher relationship has been undermined in this situation. According to university procedures, the initiation and required work to fulfill Incompletes  involve the instructor and student—and not an external force that decides that Incompletes be changed without requirements stated on the syllabus, primarily a Math Competency test, being completed. The student-faculty educational relationship is damaged drastically if student achievement is not reflected according to the standards stated on the syllabus and fulfilled by the overwhelming majority of the students.

And inaccurate reporting of students’ competence violates several principles of accreditation—something no university can afford, especially TSU, which was recently taken off of warning status by the accrediting agency, SACS.
Clearly, the fact that by Administrative direction, grades and requirements were retroactively changed the semester after the courses ended is more than problematic. This decision cheats the students out of a complete foundation in Math; creates a double standard for students who completed all of the requirements in Fall, 2011 in contrast to those who had ‘incompletes’ changed to grades without doing the same work; and does not represent accurately all of the students’ levels of achievement. This last point threatens both accreditation guidelines and federal funding.

Moreover, in the weeks since the controversy broke, various questionable reasons for the grade change have been offered by Interim President Portia Shields: principally, that the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) has a quota on the number of ‘incompletes’ that can be given; and that TBR revised its  guideline on ‘learning support’ courses in such a way that  certain requirements for the Fall Math courses were dropped after the fact (the TBR A-100 guideline is at issue here). Yet, not only does the slightly revised guideline say nothing whatsoever that calls for a retroactive readjustment of requirements for Math courses already completed; it contains no revision applicable to the Math courses in question.

Most importantly, the ever-so-slightly revised guideline was issued in February, 2012, a full two months after the courses ended.

Tellingly, in a letter sent to the university as a whole, the Chair of the Department of Mathematical Sciences makes clear her support of grades that were submitted in December, 2011 but is silent on giving such an endorsement of grades that were changed in Spring, 2012.

In short, the chaotic treatment of courses created to offer supplemental help to students while complying with the Complete College Act (which eliminates developmental courses at four year institutions) is not something to be treated as too “embarrassing” to be discussed publicly, as Dr. Shields contends. The ultimate embarrassment would be a university whose accreditation is at risk or even lost as a result of the aforementioned problems. Everyone should welcome a public resolution to these issues. Far from involving mud-slinging or partial attempts at justification, what is needed from all sides, to quote Sergeant Friday from “Dragnet,” are “Just the facts, Ma’am.”

Dr. Jane Davis is an Associate Professor of English and Chair of the Tennessee State University Faculty Senate

http://hbcudigest.tumblr.com/post/28016202929/letter-to-the-editor-what-is-at-stake-in-the-tennessee



Parable of the Poor Righteous Teacher 



for Haki Madhubuti (Don L. Lee)

Sooner or later, they always come for the teacher. After all, the more popular, the more dangerous. The more serious and sincere, the more a threat to the bourgeoisie whose philosophy is do nothing, say nothing, know nothing. Thus, the serious teacher has no seat at the table. Yes, he is tolerated for a time, maybe a long time, but the plot was hatched the first day he arrived to teach, when the contract was signed, his doom was sealed.

No matter what chairs he established, no matter how many institutions he created in the name of God. The bourgeoisie care nothing for God, only as a cover for their filthy behavior in the dark, their winking and blinking at the water hole.

The teacher must know absolutely if he is on his job he won't have a job, for no matter how many years he gives of his soul, his mental genius, he is not wanted. No matter how many students he is able to raise from the box, his services are not wanted.

The bourgeoisie do not want Jack out of the box, this must be understood. They prefer Jack and Jackie stay confined and proscribed in the box of ignorance. They are mere pawns in the game of chance the bourgeoisie play until they are removed from power, after they steal all they can, when the coffers are empty, the institution bankrupt and they are under indictment.

Now they will never put down their butcher knives, never turn into Buddha heads. This is why one must practice eternal vigilance with them. They are planning and plotting the demise of the poor righteous teachers at every turn.

So the teacher must teach his students about power, but when he does, his exit papers are signed. He may not know this. He may believe he has friends on the board of trustees, but he is only fooling himself. He is a starry eyed idealist, a dreamer, who shall be awakened from his dream one day for sure. And on that day he shall find his office door locked. His classroom door secured by a guard. His students transferred to other colleagues he thought were with him. But they will only say to him, "Sorry, brother."
--Marvin X
4/5/10

This is the parable Marvin X read on KPFA radio Monday night on the Greg Bridges show. Catch his reading and book signing on Saturday, Sept. 1, 3-6pm at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street,
downtown Oakland. Call 510-200-4164 for more information. 

The West Oakland Attitude

Planned West Oakland television series would share positive, historical stories

The road near the Port of Oakland, in West Oakland. Photo by Justine Quart.

By: Brittany Schell | August 20, 2012 – 3:00 pm

The Pointer Sisters. The Black Panthers. Olympians Jim Hinds and Ray Norton, basketball player Bill Russell, baseball’s Frank Robinson and Curt Flood. These famous names all have roots in West Oakland, and Ed Howard wants to share their stories, along with those of other West Oakland residents from the 40s, 50s and 60s.

“So many positive things have come out of Oakland, and still do,” Howard said. “The people I grew up with, many famous and most of them not famous, I know the impact we’ve made. It’s not the image that the world and the country have.”

Howard, 75, is co-producing the West Oakland Stories, a six-part television series he hopes will air later this year, with childhood friend Leonard Gardner. The pair has been raising money for a few months and plan to start filming once they raise half the total production costs, less than $10,000, Howard said.

If all goes according to plan, the shows will be aired on local station OUR TV, channel 78. The programs will be made up of anecdotes, told by people who grew up in West Oakland with Howard and Leonard, both 1955 graduates of McClymonds High School.

Ed Howard, co-producer for the West Oakland Stories. Photo courtesy of Ed Howard.

“Every time I get with my friends, we talk about West Oakland, everything we did,” said Howard, president of Kakakiki, a company that makes hair products for the black community. This is the format he envisions for the show—guests will share their stories and memories of the neighborhood in the 40s, 50s and 60s.

Part of Howard’s motivation for the West Oakland Stories was to counter the negative portrayal of Oakland, locally and across the country. “Since the 60s, we’ve seen such a negative image of Oakland,” Howard said. “Oakland is not negative. Black Oakland is not negative. That’s what the story is going to be about.”

Though many people are unaware of the celebrities who came out of West Oakland, Howard wants to tell everyday stories, not stories of fame. He grew up with Frank Robinson, Bill Russell, and others who became well-known figures from that era. He knew their families, went to the same schools and had class with them.

“Frank Robinson used to talk about people’s mamas,” Howard said, referring to the major league baseball player. Bill Russell, now a retired professional basketball player, taught Howard to sneak into shows at the downtown Fox Theater when they were teenagers.

“This is a legacy piece to capture stories,” said Rickey Johnson, who runs a website to promote multicultural projects and activities. He is helping Howard and Gardner get the word out about their endeavor. “This project will tell the stories we know can’t be told again once the people who lived here have moved on.”

Howard wants the television series to showcase what he called the “West Oakland attitude,” which he said comes from growing up there. He used Russell, who was a basketball star in the 50s and 60s, as an example. Russell, who moved to Oakland from Louisiana when he was eight, is known for his gruff demeanor.

“That’s not a negative attitude, it’s a West Oakland attitude,” Howard said. “It’s simply a black man who stands up and speaks his mind, in a positive way.”

When he was five, Howard also moved with his family from Louisiana to Oakland. Thousands of black laborers moved to Oakland during World War II, many coming from states in the South, to work in Oakland’s thriving shipyards and canning industry. After the war ended in 1945, industry declined and jobs were harder to find. The following decades were marked by poverty, rising violence and heightened racial tensions.

This environment produced the West Oakland attitude, which comes from “surviving and thriving during difficult times,” said Johnson. “This is about West Oakland residents who had tenacity, the willingness to tough it out.”

Howard has been involved in endeavors for the black community most of his life. In the 1960s he produced a television talk show, for San Francisco’s channel 7, called “Black Dignity.” He also worked as a Kaiser engineer downtown, where he created a summer hiring and training program for young black men.

Now, Howard said, there is a void the West Oakland Stories can fill. “Oakland is a positive place,” he said. “Nobody’s talking about that.”

Below, members of the West Oakland Renaissance Committee/Elders Council:
Dr. Larry Moore, Francis B. Brown, Leonard Gardner, Ed Howard, Marvin X,
not pictured Paul Cobb and Maxine Ussery

Mentor Mixer Tonight

Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. REMINDER Oakland Bay Area CARES and Heart and Soul Center of Light invite you to join us for our   August Mentor Mixer Tuesday, August 21st, from 6pm - 8pm   Our conversation this month: Creativity   We invite our current mentors, potential mentors and partners to join us as we engage in expressing our creative selves.  Our intent is to open ourselves artistically to more fully realize who we are and our tremendous power.  Creative expression leads us to have fuller lives and inner peace. It is a tool for our liberation and the liberation of our children. Light refreshments will be served Click here to RSVP Location: Heart and Soul Center of Light 1001 42ndStreet, between Linden and Adeline Oakland Bay Area CARES monthly Mentor Mixer usually happens on the 3rd Tuesday of each month.  Our Next Mentor Mixer is Tuesday, September 18th at Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church 1188 12th Street, Oakland, CA 94607 The mixer provides us the opportunity to network, to share and to experience community with others who are committed to mentoring our youth.     A New Way Forward Braintrust Member Iyanla Vanzant will be in Oakland on Friday, September 21st  Click below for details and to purchase tickets!

Marvin X on KPFA, Greg Bridges interview

KPFA 94.1 FM Berkeley: Listener Sponsored Free Speech Radio
Marvin X thought you would like to see this page from the KPFA 94.1 FM Berkeley: Listener Sponsored Free Speech Radio web site. Transitions On Traditions with Greg Bridges - August 20, 2012 at 8:00pm by KPFA Web Director Click here to read more on our site Below, L to R: Greg Bridges, Angel, Aries Jordan, Marvin X

Angie Stone — What U Dyin' For