Here are a couple of photos, all taken in the same room at the Mann Building, that show why some of us are confused about what the real mission is for Africatown. I do not know when they were written but they were left up during the press conference I attended.
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| Mann as a "safe haven for radical thought" or an art space or a fashion academy or a "cannibis farmer's market". |
They clearly want to help African-American kids but it also seems they believe that their neighborhood is changing in ways that they feel are wrong/unwanted and that taking the Mann Building is the first step in keeping it an African-American neighborhood.
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| Ideas about teaching African-American students |
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It is very hard to know what to think or if this represents the thoughts of an entire neighborhood.
Comments
http://www.centraldistrictnews.com/2013/05/a-vision-for-africa-town-by-addisalem-gebremedhin-resident-of-newholly-community-and-solomon-welderfial-resident-of-yesler-community/
PSP
That would be like if I wrote ad nauseum about the community efforts in Queen Anne and what I thought was wrong in it and how they just need to do x, y, and z.
How is it your business?
WHAT DO YOU ENVISION FOR THIS BUILDING
* "A Little United Nation C."
* Studio
* Safe haven for "radical" thought
* Art $pace
* Uplifting Place To Grow & Learn :)
* A Fashion Academy for the community to grow and build with
* Apiologist program "Bee keeping" stewards of Planet
* NoOneAlike Jewelry Store/ SistaSoul Speak
* MMJ dispensery /cannibis farmer's market
Some of these goals seem more adult focused than child focused, IMHO.
-ABC
AFRICATOWN INNOVATION CENTER
* Regain & recapture the symbols of life
* Teachers should receive knowledge from students - reciprocity of teaching
* Engage a child's point of interest
* Process of learning vs the product
* Culturally Relevent curriculum
* Teachers represent the background of students
* If help what we want hold district accountable
* Re- what we're
* Understand different and indoctrination
* Early learning/ teach children the BIG picture about learning about the world they live in
* Understand our cultural strengths & use it in the classroom
How Black Kids Learn
--------------------
- Relational
- Collective
- Inter-personal; want to talk out about we're learning
- Dialogue
- Rhythm(?)
ABC
How is it your business?
It's all of our business.
If we were discussing the occupation of a private, I might feel that this opinion was justified, depending on the circumstances. But, we are talking about a public school building - OURS - yours and mine. That alone gives all of us reason to have some say if we choose to.
It's not clear whether you are just addressing Charlie and Melissa or anyone who has participated in this discussion, but I can assure you that many people posting here are either from the CD, are African-American, or at least are of mixed-race, mixed-families, lower status, lower income, etc. You are mistaken if you are painting the participants in this discussion with such a broad brush as to assume they are not part of your community.
Also, people here freely discuss what other communities and schools should be doing, how their buildings should be used, how boundaries should be drawn, what should be taught, who should be tested, etc. SPS has been poorly managed for a long time and is excellent at pitting different schools/communities against one another; welcome to the blog. Your building/school/community isn't likely to be treated differently if tax dollars are supporting it.
You can't hide behind a wall of, "It's a Black thing, you wouldn't understand."
If you want support, you need to help everyone understand. It may be unfair to require the non-dominant culture to explain itself to the dominant culture - esp. in the language of the dominant culture. But, without supporters in the dominant culture, I don't see how this occupation can end well. Seattle is strapped for seats, and folks aren't going to be happy handing the building over unless they can buy in to what you are hoping to accomplish. Unfortunately, the "What Do You Envision For This Building" brainstorming session pic hinders your cause more than it helps.
In the words of Chuck D., "It's a Black thing, you GOTTA' understand."
Help us understand.
Your ignorance and naive view of the world is the main problem for African American kids ( if you even have any). I have raised my kids to be open to all types of cultures and experiences and not be limited to the African American experience. Your paranoid beliefs are not wanted in my home or my community ( I also live in the Cd)
Two, I'm a taxpayer and so yes, if someone is taking a public building that we all own, sure I will ask questions. The use of the building is in the ownership of it. Also, why does someone have to be African-American to have a say in the Central Area? That's confusing to me.
I didn't say anyone in Africatown is confused; I said that what they are saying is confusing if these two boards are any indication.
AFRICATOWN INNOVATION CENTER
* Regain & recapture the symbols of life
* Teachers should receive knowledge from students - reciprocity of teaching
* Engage a child's point of interest
* Process of learning vs the product
* Culturally Relevent curriculum
* Teachers represent the background of students
* If help (illegible writing) what we want hold district accountable
* Re-(illegible writing)what we're (illegible writing)
* Understand different (illegible writing)and indoctrination
* Early learning/ teach children the BIG picture about learning about the world they live in
* Understand our cultural strengths & use it in the classroom
* (illegible writing)
* (illegible writing)
How Black Kids Learn
--------------------
- Relational
- Collective
- Inter-personal; want to talk out about we're learning
- Dialogue
- Rhythm(?) (illegible writing)
- (illegible writing)
ABC
Wanting Clarity
AGAIN, you are misinforming your readers with a venomous headline and selectively posted material that supports your pre-existing hatred of the AIC.
You post pictures of a few random brainstorming notes on white boards but IGNORE any of the intelligent discussion that you heard last Saturday (during the brief period you were at the press conference).
While you may not agree with the AIC, it is extremely irresponsible of you to severely misinform your readers and generate an atmosphere of fear and hatred towards a community that is trying only to protect their children.
I suggest that you read Rebecca Solnit's "A Paradise Built in Hell”. Dr. Solnit looks at the reactions of everyday people during disasters. In every case, there is overwhelming evidence of people with the least giving of themselves to help their community. However, they inevitably face repression by more dominant and privileged neighbors that become gripped with fear and over-react with a harsh military response.
A specific example of this is New Orleans during Katrina, where the media FALSELY REPORTED rapes and murders in the Superdome. This caused a hysterical reaction among the wealthier white neighbors who then formed vigilante gangs that murdered innocent blacks involved in rescue operations. (This is a fact -- there were NO documented rapes or murders in the Superdome, despite what you heard on TV at the time, and there were scores of DOCUMENTED murders by white vigilantes. Please look this up for yourself.)
Melissa, whether you intend it on not, your EXTREMELY biased editorial stance might do actual harm. I am not trying to convince you to support the AIC. However, when you post a hatchet job on the AIC like the piece above, you further dehumanize the AIC in the minds of poorly informed neighbors. Your inaccurate and biased reporting is fueling a spirit of fear and hatred against the AIC and their supporters. This is the kind of fear and hatred that runs through the mind of “neighborhood watch” types -- like one in Florida named George Zimmerman.
While you may not support the AIC, you really need to stop posting such inaccurate and biased information to incite the community -- it is dangerous and irresponsible of you..
Hands off page :
https://www.facebook.com/events/1390090434565739/
PSP
Do you have a minute to share your opinion of Dr. Umar Johnson? If you didn't hear him speak at the Mann school, here's a link to some of his other speeches. In particular, I'd like to know (as a Nova parent) if you feel he would be an appropriate guest speaker at Nova.
But what exactly ARE you wanting to do? If you will not publicly write about your group, your goals, and your plans, how exactly do you think you'll gain support? If you do not want public support for your plans (which I understand, really), then why are you seeking public resources such as an entire school building? (this is the part that I don't understand, frankly)
You can either work solely within your own group to achieve change, but you'll only have your own resources to draw on. Or you can seek allies outside of your group, but you will need to explain what you are doing to the wider community to get them to give you resources.
Which option are you actually seeking here?
Wanting Clarity
I was referring to Melissa when I asked why is it her business to evaluate Africatown as she has made it clear in her blogposts that she is not from the CD. I just threw out Queen Anne as an example of a white neighborhood that can do whatever it wants without having to answer to and "seek support" the "dominant culture" when they take any action.
I think it's laughable that a group who is trying to educate and uplift children should have to "help white people understand" why and how they're doing so. You think these parents should spend their time explaining to you about what they are doing rather than focusing on alleviating the MASSIVE issues in the Seattle black community? I think it's abundantly clear what their goals are. It's not complicated AT ALL.
I am so reminded here because of these comments, in ML King County of this quote from MLK himself:
' "Over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” '
Melissa - you say it's about the ownership of the building, but you've delved further into other issues. This blogpost doesn't talk about the rights to the building, it questions the Africatown mission and their approach to alleviating issues in the CENTRAL DISTRICT--AGAIN, for which you are not a part of.
But the cost of being insular in that way is that you have to pay your own way. Why should anyone offer to help pay for your program, or give you a public building, if you do not in turn tell them your plans and goals?
Seeking Clarity
Wayne Au's piece on how much more engaging his African-Anerican studies classes at Garfield were than the traditional honors history class he took:
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/23_02/deco232.shtml
The School-to-Prison Pipeline: A Nationwide Problem for Equal Rights | Rolling Stone
ow.ly/26Uovo
(I think if you copy and paste this shortened URL it will work correctly)
Why Does Los Angeles Criminalize Black and Brown Youth? | The Nation
ow.ly/26Y6YC
(Copy and paste this shortened URL to your browser)
They aren't incorrect that there are better methods of teaching and management of learning environments. I think most of us want that for our kids. As stated above, poor management for years is part of the cause.
The first sign shows greater interest an aspirations in a community space, a hub for the community, one that is losing its historic district to gentrification. It isn't chaotic, it is open-minded and aspirational.
Whether the Mann building is the exclusive or ultimate location available for this pursuit is questionable, though I can understand the appeal of the facility.
I visited an ecolodge in the rainforest of Ecuador some years back. A non-profit group was founded by a white American who did graduate field work in the area to develop their compound. The business model was done in partnership with the indigenous community and arranged such that through working at the facility they gained equity over some years resulting in total indigenous ownership over time. This was in contrast to European and North American businessmen and their associates who built the other ecolodges in the area where the locals were hired at the least wage possible and had no equity stake in the operation.
Ann D.
and most of our graduates have no real proficiency in math and science either, heck most can't name the states in their country, and their schools are closing, and our kids falsely packed in so called AP classes that aren't worth a quality education any place but home. WHAT IN THE HECK IF YOU KNEW ABOUT AFRICATOWN YOU CAN DO FOR SOMEONE ELSE WHEN YOU CAN'T EVEN HELP YOUR OWN? Last time I look wives is working for minimum wage, meth. killing kids, more mothers raising children alone.
White people are in those ridiculous Board meetings more helpless, hopeless than everyone else cause we are actually believing they actually care as SPS becomes more impotent.
The only privilege we THINK we have belongs to someone else, go ask Gates and the Koch and they don't care if you are white.
Now if you are white talk about what you going to actually do for kids being screwed in your own neighborhood and leave Africa town alone, they definitely have a clearer vision than us. JESUS! Would laugh if it wasn't so sad!
"Only the racist can't hear the racism when it is communicated."
Taking photos off white boards and flipcharts as a community attempts to help itself. Yikes! a very tabloid blog.
Thanks to whomever posted the link to centraldistrictnews.com. They have a picture of the AIC rules. Apparently people are allowed to spend the night in the Mann building. Is AIC providing education or a rooming house? This is ridiculous. I live in the CD and wish the Umojafest people would just go away. They are militant, uneducated, angry and an embarrassment to the neighborhood. They represent a tiny little group of people that until recently were totally isolated from the rest of the hood. The are a very evil hate filled group.
Thanks to ABC for posting transcripts -- I couldn't enlarge the second picture large enough to read it.
Central schools are overcrowded, and the kids need Mann as a school building. Overcrowding at Washington can only be made better by reopening Meany (which the District should never have closed); Meany can only be reopened as a middle school if we move the schools there now somewhere else; there aren't extra buildings, it has to be Mann. And I GUARANTEE that the District is not going to take the $1,000/day or whatever it's costing at Mann out of their own central budget, they'll take it out of the money they put in our classrooms.
You've made your point. It's time to move and give the building back to the kids.
Ed, I will warn you - you need to not try to align this blog or me in any way with people like George Zimmerman (and indeed, the DAY the verdict came out, I posted and was very angry).
I find it interesting that people who do not like/want to be judged are quick to judge other (the comment on the people who live in Queen Anne - fyi, they have been fighting for decades for a high school for their region - do they have one? No.)
"Why should anyone offer to help pay for your program, or give you a public building, if you do not in turn tell them your plans and goals?"
Good point. No,the plans have NOT been clearly outlined. There's a lot of talk but again, no written proposal which is standard for this kind of partnership. I again note that some groups from Africatown were unable to secure dollars from the F&E levy because of this lack of documentation. It's a public building and public dollars - yes, everyone from the Superintendent on down has the right - as citizens - to see what public dollars are being spent on. It's no one's private business.
Disgusted, there were two photos and one was talking about how to support African-American students. It was fine so I don't get your point. I was showing the confusion between the two photos.
AFRICATOWN INNOVATION CENTER
* Regain & recapture the symbols of life
* Teachers should receive knowledge from students - reciprocity of teaching
* Engage a child's point of interest
* Process of learning vs the product
* Culturally Relevant curriculum
* Teachers represent the background of students
* If help (illegible writing) what we want hold district accountable
* Re-(illegible writing)what we're (illegible writing)
* Understand difference btwn training, education & indoctrination //
* Early learning/ teach children the BIG picture about learning about the world they live in
* Understand our cultural strengths & use it in the classroom
* Euro = fact; if you don't see it it doesn't exist
* African = a feeling (illegible writing)
How Black Kids Learn
--------------------
- Relational
- Collective
- Inter-personal; want to talk out about we're learning
- Dialogue
- Rhythmic (illegible writing)
- (ex of an Afri (illegible writing)
ABC
Seattle school squatters warn of 'itchy trigger finger'
"Horace Mann School is still being occupied by a group of people that might have a gun and is on the lookout for police officers.
Someone inside the Seattle Public Schools-owned building left KIRO 7 a voicemail after a photographer working for the station shined a light to take video Saturday night.
"I was wondering if you could tell your cameraman to please turn his light off because we thought it was the police and our guy up on the roof, he's got an itchy trigger finger,” the man in the message said. “So if you would please turn that off, that'd be great."
- WTF?
Do you have documentation that any "groups associated with Africatown" were denied FE funding? What is your source? What group are you talking about? More made up hearsay?
It is true however that FE Levy dollars sold on the backs of black students continue to go to white organizations mostly run by white women who are not accountable or authentically part of the community they claim to serve.
How about an expose on where all the money supposed to help these students is going? What is their plan? What is their data/outcomes?
I mean we understand you are anti-Africatown but your vigilante propaganda is really a bit much.
WTF?
Anyone could have made that call to escalate the tension. There are parents and children frequenting the building, I don't think there is anyone "on the roof with an itchy trigger finger."
KIRO should play the recorded message on air to expose the person and I'm sure the police can trace the call pretty easily.
-Drama
All of us have asked for more information about the plans Africatown has for their program(s). As has the district. As has the Board. It is clear from the Board comments, some want to believe in these groups but want more information.
That's where the disconnect comes in. Even if you believe the general public has "no right" to any specifics, the Board and the district does.
So an anonymous source at the Office of Education said "Africatown had talked to them"?
LOL
Denial of funding usually means that an entity submitted an application that was reviewed and denied based on some criteria.
Might I also add that I understand "Africatown" to be a community (like Chinatown-International District) not any one organization and not limited to the effort at the Mann building.
I thought your fact checking usually includes a paper trail, names, pictures, etc. but you've been posting a lot of hearsay regarding this issue. Always with a negative spin. I see that others have noticed your bias and commented on your selective reporting as well.
www.africatownseattle.org
Also, don't assume that every entity or individual that relates to and supports the Africatown concept identifies with the tactics at the Mann building.
I have printed photos.
I have put up website links.
I have never said that I am unbiased on most issues. I try to present the facts but yes, I usually will support one thing more than another.
Africatown uses their name; I don't have enough information, in written form, to understand how to use or not use it.
Again, the original tenants had keys, made keys and gave them out and now we see a "rules" list to use/sleep in the building. Clearly, someone is in charges of who is and isn't in the building.
If people who support Africatown do not "identify" with these tactics, they should be speaking out. They are not.