5A
OPINIONS/Ciatbittt $oft
Thursday July 7, 2005
Black students can
compete on world
scientific stage
I was bom and raised in small, rural BCTmettsville, S.C. I
am a proud graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, the only
historically bladk college listed among U.S. World and News
Report’s best liberal arts colleges in the United States.
So I want to brag on a youi^ Bennettsville native and
Spelman College student in this column and remind all of us
that bladk children, black girls and young
women, and blacJk college students can com
pete with anybody if we ejqject them to and
make sure they are prepared to. Spelman
prepares yoift^ women to compete on a
world stage.
My Bennettsville homegirl, Karina Liles, is
a Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools
intern. Her sister, Jalaya, is also an honors
graduate of Spelman, former PVeedom Schcx)!
intern, and now a Freedom Schools program
associate in Bennettsville. Karina and
Marian
Wright
Edelman
almost 650 mostly black college students are teaching near
ly 6,000 children to learn to love to read and to serve others
in more than 75 Freedom Schools in 44 cities and 22 states
this summer after intensive training at CDF-Haley Farm in
Ifennessee. But Karina also is one of the six-woman team of
Spelman computer science students who have programmed
a computer-operated dog called the “SpelBot.”
Spelman’s Web page says that 30 yeare firom now, when
historians look back to see how historically black colleges
and universities were involved in robotics research, Spelman
will dominate their findings. Spelman reports that the
^)elBots RoboCup Scx:cer Tfeam recently qualified for the
2005 International RoboCup four-l^ged robot soccer compe
tition to be held in Osaka, Japan on July 13-19. The
SpelBots’ (short for Spelman robotics) participation in the
competition was no small feat. Out of the 24 teams fiom
aroimd the world that qualified, Spelman is the first and
only HBCU, the only all- women’s institution, and the only
soMy undergraduate American institution to qualify The
other U.S. teams are fix)m Carnegie Mdlon University,
(Georgia Tfech, the University of Pennsjdvania, and the
University of Tfexas at Austin. The remaining teams are fiom
Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia.
In RoboCup scx^cer matches, teams put four-legged robots
in a scx^cer competition. Spdman’s team writes and pro
grams the complex graduate-student level computer soft
ware that allows the sophisticated robot dogs to play a com
petitive soccer game completely autonomously or without
any human intervention. The robots must find the scxxrer
ball, the goal, and their competition, make their own strate
gy for scoring goals and defending their own goal, and then
kick, pass, and blcxk the ball, all without a remote control.
The research topics and technology involved include com
puter vision, localization, motion and locomotion, robot path
planning, multi-robot coordination, and robot communica
tion.
I do not undei’stand all of this technology but our children
need to understand it in this rapidly globalizing and highly
competitive world. Fm so proud of Spelman students who
are breaking new ground. I salute Spelman’s fine new pres
ident, Beverly Tatum, and Spelman’s faculty who set a stan
dard of excellence.
Let’s root for our young women as they go out to compete
on a world stage, (jo SpelBots! Go black youths! You can do
and be anytliing! .
MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN is CEO and founder of the
Children’s Defense Fund.
PHOTO/rOMEKA DE PRIEST
Students from Spelman College in Atlanta and their
SpelBots will compete in RoboCup 2005 in Osaka, Japan,
next week.
Connect with send letters to The charlotte Post,
P.O. Box 30144 Charlotte, NC 28230
e-mail editorial@thecharlot-
tepost.com
Diamonds aren’t
best Mend to Sierra
Leone’s people
Despite what the title may imply the remix to rapper Kanye
West’s latest song titled Diamonds' is not an ode to the spariding
stones. Instead, West devotes his bars to addressing the illegal dia
mond trade in Si^ra Leone in West Afidca.
A brutal civil war has been raging in Sierra Leone since about
1991, funded by the diamonds mined there and
sold in the United States and other places. Though
most of its residents suffer firom widespread pover
ty the region boasts diamond-rich fields and vast
diamond deposits. Rival militias battling over
blood-diamonds have kOled and mutilated thou
sands of civilians. Children as young as 7 years old
work in the mines for hours a day Rebels sell some
of the gems for cash and exchange others for
weapons that have kept the war going. While the
situation in Siora Leone is nothing new, it can
Angela
Lindsay
become a deeper quandary considering the curr^t state of
America’s bling, blrng hip hop culture.
Diamonds are a mainstay in the lyrics and videos and on the
bodies of most of today’s hip hop artists. On a regular basis, rap
stars seem to be sporting the biggest and brightest diamonds of all
celebrities. Every other rap song seems to glorify being “iced out”
and literally out-shinii^ the next person. I am not at all opposed
to people lavishing themselves with finer things as a result of their
financial success. But with some of the world’s most popular and
wealthiest rap stars being Afiican American, it is impossible to
ignore the dynamic between the image of success that diamonds
represent here and the reality of oppression they repres^t thou
sands of miles away
In his song, Kanye West recites; “(jood morning, this ain’t
Metnam/ Still, people lose hands, legs, arms for real/it was known,
in Sierra Leone/ When I speak about diamonds in this son^ I ain’t
taUdng about the ones that be Rowing/ I’m talking about Roc-A-
FeUa, my home/ These ain’t conflict diamonds, is they Jacob?/
Don’t He to me, man/ See, a part of me saying. Keep shining’/ How,
when I know what a blood diamond is? / Though it’s thousands of
miles away, Sierra Leone connect to what we go throu^ today /
Over here it’s the drug trade, we die fium drugs. Over there, they
die fix)m what we buy fitum drugs / The diamonds, the chains, the
bracelets, the charms is /1 thought my Jesus piece was so harm
less/ til I saw a picture of a shorty armless/ And here’s the conflict.”
A conflict indeed. The ‘ Jacob’ West mentions in the verse above is
Jacob the Jeweler, diamond jewelry designer to the stars.
Expressing appar^t internal conflict, West pleads with Jacob in
the song to teU him that his diamonds are not the product of the
conflict in Sierra Leone. But it is possible they are.
Reports say that the diamond industry has helped the govern
ment there put certificates on packages of diamonds that are
mined legally and marketed through official channels. But that
accounts for only 10 to 20 percent of the diamonds ihat are dug up
every year, and diamond experts still have a difficult time telHng
the difierence.
It has been predicted that rebels accoimt for 85 to 90 percent of
total production in Sierra Leone. According to research, ejqjerts
estimate that between 10 and 15 percent of diamonds produced
around the world are conflict diamonds, but they represent a high
er share of gem-quaHty stones. Gem quaHty stones are clean pieces
of stones extracted fiom mining, which can be used in jewelry by
way of cutting, carving and polishing. In other words, they are the
ones that can end up as human ornaments.
It is not uncommon to see some rappers with diamonds decorat
ing their teeth, diamond necklace pendants as big as saucers, and
I even saw a rapper use diamonds as ice cubes once to cool his
drink. At a Bobcats game, one famous rapper’s diamond earrings
yfere so big, I could see them sparkling fiom his courtside seat. And
I was in the nosebleed section.
I do not mean to blame rappers as the only or the most willing
contributors to the destruction in Sierra Leone. The diamonds are
hard to trace and many people and industries eryoy them. But
given the prolific endorsement of diamonds by some hip hop stars,
coupled with the power of their immense celebrity status, they
may have the unique abflity to influence this cause.
Recently an event titled live 8 was held in various cities world
wide to highfight the problem of ^obal poverty The series of con
certs and events was designed to influence leaders of eight of the
world’s richest countries who will meet at the G8 Summit on July
6th and be presented with a workable plan to double aid, drop the
debt and make trade laws fair. Some of today’s hottest artists,
including Kanye West, Destiny’s Child, U2 and Mariah Cary per
formed. It was simulcast around the world and was the bi^^est on
line event in history
^\^th hip-hop music being the global phenomenon it is today, the
Sierra Leone conflict could be a perfect opportunity for artists to
join their rap colleague. West, in the quest he has begun. I can not
help but think about that impact if hip hop stars, as famous for
their ‘bfing’ as they are for their beats, were to organize an event
similar to Lave 8 to speak out against Sierra Leone’s rampant vio
lence and its ill-gotten gains.
It may not provide a final resolution as the issue is much more
compHcated than that. But it could be a productive start-especial-
ly if diamonds are supposed to be forever.
E-mail Post columnist ANGELA LINDSAY at Undsaylaw00@yahoo/rom
Pughsley’s real
legacy at CMS
It was my good foitune to have engaged in several
discussions with Dr. James Pughsley on both a giuup
and one-on-one basis, having exchanged perspectives
with him on many issues related to Chai*lotte-
Mecklenburg Schools. Therefore, I can affinn that he
projected an aui-a of a consummate professional and
a man of admirable decency Indeed, like many other
Afiican Americans, I was pleased to
observe the rare phenomenon of
someone “who looks like me” as the
top administi’ator of CMS. Moi’eover,
shoitly after he was selected to be
superintendent in 2002,1 conveyed to
him my beHef that soon he could
expect the “wolves to be at his doori’
because of his “color,” among other
reasons, and I pledged my pereonai
support in the event of such perceived
Gyasi a.
Foluke
Pughsley
attacks-suppoit piimarily because his successor may
have a more imdesirable philosophical-racial orienta
tion towards us.
The above factore notwithstanding, some of us also
recall that Jim Pughsley was part of a “team” \mder
Eric Smith who promised us in 1996 that he would
close the black-white academic gap to within 10
points by the year 2001. But this gap remains today,
in the range of 40 points, genei-ally excluding very
laudable achievements in reading and math, the
mqjor focus of state and federal stan
dards. Moi’eover, tliis same “team” was
instnmiental in removing Mr.
Kenneth Sinmions as pi’incipal fiom
West Charlotte High School-even
though Ken Simmons, hei'oically was
attempting to do what still needs
doing, i.e., significantly improving the
education of students,- especiafly Black
students, at that school. For West
Charlotte is one of several schools
within CMS that is engaged in “academic genocide”
among “at-risk” students, according to Superior
Court Judge Howard Manning. Of coui-se and per
haps tangentially some of us also I’ecaU that Eric
Smith, allegedly accepted at least a $25,000 bribe
fix)m McGraw-HQl Publishers, perhaps to promote
their books within CMS, although the “silence has
been deafening” in this conmiunity about this poten
tial corruption or “spiritual wickedness in high
places.” Moreover, there are other “school-house
secrets” that need to be revealed in this community
Clearly we may discern a more perceptive critique
of Piaghsley’s legacy at CMS by reading The Mis-edu-
cation of the Negro (1933), by Dr. Carter G. Woodson,
and my third book. The (Drisis and Challenge of Black
Mis-education in America: Confronting the
Destruction of Afiican People Through Euro-centric
PubHc Schools (2001). For, among other factors, the
cuniculum of this system teaches our black students,
subconsciously, to worehip white people, while teach
ing them, both simultaneously and subconsciously to
hate themselves, as narrated, in part, by Dr. James
Lowen in “Lies My Tfeacher Tbld Me” (1995).
And Pughsley was a victim insofar as he received
his formal “education” at Euro-centric institutions of
“higher education” (sic) that, appai’ently provided
him with Httle or no genuine education on his great,
ancient Afiican heritage-culture, “The Cradle of
Civilization.”
FinaHy to reiterate, Jim Pughsley, like his prede
cessor Eric Smith, has done a good job, in relative
terms, of improving academic achievement among all
students in the very narrow area of reading and
mathematics. But our students, especially Black stu
dents, have a critical NEED for Afiican centered,
wholistic education, as recently mandated, in part, by
the city of Philadelphia and the state of New Jersey
Equally important. Dr. Pughsley and other pubHc
officials need better to understand that there are no
cheap or easy solutions, authentically to “close the
racial gap” between our students. As Professor Roger
^^ilkins has noted, ‘We can’t have equal outcomes for
children whose parents face dreadfully imequal eco
nomic circumstances in this life.” And surely a 51
percent Black poverty rate, in contrast to a 12 percent
rate for whites in Charlotte, reflects such dreadful cir
cumstances. Indeed, as the late Honorable EHjah
Muhammad has observed, “Those who do not treat
you right cannot be expected to teach you right.”
Amen!
GYASI A. FOLUKE, MA. DD, a non-lraditional Minister, is
an author-lecturer-(on.sultant, public access television pro
ducer, retired Air Force officer and part-time CEO of The
Kushite Institute for Wholistic Development.
HELLO, JUSTIN Tl^APECLAl^E? JUST WANTIP TO LET )
you I^NOW THAT WiCHAa JACkTSON is an ARTIST
ANP NOT A genre OF AAUSKl COa? LATER. J