Bomb threats to HBCU's are the latest from the "Deplorables"
The Tuesday Talking Points!
"History shows that it does not matter who is in power or what revolutionary forces take over the government, those who have not learned to do for themselves and have to depend solely on others never obtain any more rights or privileges in the end than they had in the beginning." Dr. Carter G. Woodson, Black History Month creator
***I find it deplorable that in a day and age when so many Americans pretend that racism in its ugliest forms has gone away, that a number of Historically Black Colleges and Universities have received bomb threats in recent weeks.
Among the hallowed institutions dealing with this madness are:
Spelman College
Jackson State University
Albany State University
Alcorn State University
Morgan State University
Mississippi Valley State University
Kentucky State University
Edward Waters University
Howard University
Xavier University
Tougaloo College
Ft Valley State University
UDC
Cognizant of these alarms, the Federal Bureau of Investigations issued the following statement: "The FBI is aware of the series of bomb threats around the country and we are working with our law enforcement partners to address any potential threats..."
Here's hoping that the FBI moves quickly to identify and arrest the individual(s) responsible for these threats of domestic terrorism, and that HBCU students across America remain safe in the days ahead!
***I also find it deplorable that in the week since President Joe Biden reaffirmed his commitment to nominating the first Black woman to sit on the United States Supreme Court, that Mississippi Republican Sen. Sen. Roger Wicker took to the airwaves to state that such a pick would be a "beneficiary of affirmative action."
There was a time when such racially incendiary statements used to boil my blood, but as a I get closer to the age of 50, I know beyond all doubt that the oldest form of affirmative action is the "good ol' boy" system that has propelled dumb to mediocre white males to prominent positions of power from the earliest days of Colonial America. I have also lived long enough to realize that just because some white male graduated from college or professional school, that such doesn't mean that said white male is supremely intelligent. Some are, mind you, but a good many really are not the sharpest intellectual knives in the drawer, thus, their pithy comments about Black intelligence, in general, and Black women who could be nominated to replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. Black women, I submit, whose a academic records, I assure you, far exceed those of their critics!
***I also find it deplorable that Georgetown University law school administrator Ilya Shapiro found himself suspended this week pending an internal investigation due to Tweets he posted last week arguing that President Biden "would not nominate the objectively best pick, but a lesser Black woman."
Dean Shapiro's comments angered Georgetown students and staff alike, and the old Ol' Hobbs, the one who grew up clapping back at insults at FAMU High, was tempted to Tweet to the Dean that his "mammy" was a lesser woman for having him. But I am a work in progress and am continuing to work on staying high when the racists go low, like former First Lady Michelle Obama often reminded us all. Still, Shapiro certainly has a right to his own opinions, but he has no right to remain gainfully employed at a leading University with a diverse student body and staff.
***Another week, and another comment from yet another conservative weakling, this time in the form of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who called President Biden's promise to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court "offensive." Said Ted, "The fact that he's willing to make a promise at the outset, that it must be a Black woman, I gotta say that's offensive. You know, you know Black women are what, 6 percent of the US population? He's saying to 94 percent of Americans, 'I don't give a damn about you, you are ineligible'..."
Well, Teddy, I still find it highly offensive that you let your 2016 Republican presidential primary opponent, Donald Trump, to call your wife Heidi ugly--while he further claimed that your father was complicit in the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy. Any real man would have defended his wife and father's honor with fistscuffs, but alas, Teddy, you are no real man!
HBCU Spotlight
Each day during Black History Month, the Hobbservation Point will feature one of America's top HBCU's.
First up is my undergraduate alma mater, Morehouse College
Morehouse Facts
Founded in 1867 at Springfield Baptist Church in Augusta. Later moved to Atlanta and changed names to the Atlanta Baptist Seminary, Atlanta Baptist College and, since 1913, Morehouse College. A member of the Atlanta University Center consortium of schools along with Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, Morris Brown College and the Interdenominational Theological Center.
Enrollment: All-male, predominantly Black
Motto: "Et Facta Est Lux"
Sister Schools: Spelman College and Bennett College
Academic Honors: #1 HBCU producer of Rhodes Scholars (five). One of only four HBCUs with a chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society. Has won four Honda Campus All-Star Challenge (Quiz Bowl) National Championships.
Mascot: Maroon Tigers
Conference Affiliation: SIAC
Famous Alumni: Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Civil Rights leader Julian Bond; President Bush's (41) Secretary of Health and Human Services, Louis Sullivan, President Clinton's Surgeon General Henry Foster, President Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson; Dr. David Satcher, the only scientist to serve as Surgeon General and to helm the Center for Disease Control; Howard University's first Black president, Dr. Mordecai Johnson; Ebony Magazine Editor Emeritus Lerone Bennett, Jr., Olympic Gold Medalist Edwin Moses; filmmaker Spike Lee, and actors Samuel L. Jackson, Bill Nunn and John David Washington.
Black History Hobbservations
Also this month, the Hobbservation Point will feature a person, place, or event from history that focuses upon Africa and the Diaspora.
First up: Onesimus, 18th Century enslaved African medical pioneer
In 1721-22, Boston, Massachusetts experienced a Smallpox outbreak that some feared could turn into an epidemic similar to the Bubonic plague that had ravaged Europe during the Middle Ages. Symptoms of Smallpox included fever, fatigue, head and back pain and prominent rashes and lesions on the arms, face, and legs of the infirm. At the time, the city's population was approximately 11,000 and that year, over half of its population reported symptoms of the disease, and there were 850 confirmed deaths.
15 years earlier, Cotton Mather, a Harvard graduate and popular New England Puritanical preacher, scientist, and writer, purchased a West African man named Onesimus. While in Rev. Mather's captivity, Onesimus informed his so-called 'owner' that in his native land, Africans did not fear Smallpox the same way that Europeans colonizers did. Onesimus went on to inform Rev. Mather that to prevent the spread of the disease, that his people would place a small amount of smallpox pus into a scratch into non-infected people's arms, and that by exposing them to what is known as variolation, that the same were inoculated from infection.
Five years before the major outbreak in Boston, Rev. Mather penned a letter that was sent to the Royal Society of London. In it, Rev. Mather shared the information that he obtained from Onesimus, and he proposed “ye Method of Inoculation” as the best cure for the dreaded disease. In the missive, Mather praised "my Negro-Man Onesimus, who is a pretty Intelligent Fellow,” and went on to explain the methodology then in use among Onesimus's native people.
During the 1721-22 epidemic, Rev. Mather suggested to local doctors that they use the Onesimus inoculation technique; the majority of local doctors and ministers scoffed at the idea, averring with arrogance that the same was a "barbaric" technique that was "contrary to God's will." One critic blasted Mather for "Negroish" thinking, while others threatened to do physical harm to Mather and his family.
One physician, Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, was willing to give the Onesimus inoculation a try--going so far as to inject his very own son with the method. In desperation, others soon sought Dr. Boylston out for treatment and in one of the first clinical studies in Colonial America, of the 287 people that he inoculated per Onesimus's technique, only two (2) percent of his patients died. Amazed by the results, within a few years, the Onesimus Inoculation was standard practice in the Americas and Europe until later in the 17th Century when Edward Jenner's vaccination techniques proved to be even more efficacious.
Lest we forget...
Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point—have a great day!
Oh that white insecurity will doom this country!