There is something very basic going on in the country today but no one seems to be noticing or acting on it very fast. Black America was going to have a shot at an equal education after 1954. Well it didn’t happen. It was a goal that was left unfinished. The schools are a mess, thanks in part to George W. Bush’s program called "No Child Left Behind." Black America was going to get a shot at equality of opportunity in business and the employment arena. It hasn’t happened. The economy is in a shambles, thanks to the broken Republican "Trickle Down" theory which says give tax breaks to the rich and they will take care of the poor with the outsourcing of work by sending jobs overseas causing massive loss of jobs in America while the Stock Market rides high.

And then there is the highjacking of the Civil Rights movement by the distraction of the hip hop subculture. In Black America Russell Simmons and P. Diddy have been anointed kings as they teach our young to curse and be vulgar in order to make a gangster hit and make the big time at the expense of the perceived character change in Black America. These so-called Hip Hop moguls remind me of the sad chapter in Black History where a few West African Chiefs got paid to sell their own brothers into slavery. Now these modern day chiefs sell music and a demeaning subculture to the world that has resulted in a new form of slavery personified by one million Black men in prison, millions of Black women with Aids in our communities, being delivered by those who are coming out of prison having practiced homosexuals acts of convenience while there. In effect, the Hip Hop movement has destabilized our community by replacing character with greed.

Schools and Education have been the foundation of Black America’s progress and now there are more young Black men in prison than in colleges and universities. The prisons are full of young Blacks who can’t even read. The elementary, middle and high schools are teaching kids to pass tests and not much else. At Pasadena School District, for example, the Superintendent got rid of an award winning science program because of its practical teaching application rather than teaching just to pass tests. Doesn’t anyone realize that everyone doesn’t learn by the same methods? Maybe that is the problem, people do know that fact but have decided that in order to resegregate the whole school system and accommodate the eventual increase in a voucher program they must destabilize the public schools by showing that they don’t work.

Today in many schools there are few art classes, few music classes, and physical education is missing which results in kids with health problems from obesity to diabetes due to the lack of physical exercise. Parents are encouraged to move their kids out of "bad" schools and leave them behind. I guess that is called improving education for the few who can afford it.

We need to be asking are we setting up two school systems, one for the haves and one for the have nots. Maybe the answer lies in who populates the public schools. Non-whites.

There is a cultural element here where Black leadership does not rail against the negative effects of the "hip hop culture". It’s a subculture that says " If you call me Nigga with a beat, I will dance" - a subculture that says it’s better to be a "homie" in style with hip hop than a square dressing, talking, learning in a conforming way. Instead, the so-called leadership embraces the rap industry because they either fear our children or see money, and more recently with the Hip Hop Summit some politicians see that the proponents of this negative music may well garner votes to stay in office. I can only wonder why some of them are kept in office when our neighborhoods never seem to improve. The poorest schools in towns , the highest crime rate, the highest unemployment rate, the potholes, the absent street sweepers, lack of entrepreneurial opportunities and lack of role models, all define Black communities. The Question is why? Is it by accident, or is it by design, and how can we change it? Well that is another discussion but it begins with a change of mind set and a new militance that demands equality from those in power by politicians who will recruit the churches, the sororities, fraternities and all of the social organizations to demand change as we did in the sixties, street by street and house by house.

The how we got here is well documented in the Republican manifesto called the "Contract With America" (1994) by Newt Gingrich. But we all know the saying that if you want to hide something, put it in a book.

Then there is the Schwarzenegger element. In the election just passed, most people voted for whatever Schwarzenegger wanted in his new budget. I believe that we cannot give absolute power to anyone without demanding something in return. As we watch the budget changes take place and the resulting loss of services to the poor, the elderly and the young, we must ask ourselves why didn’t we bargain for our vote. Why not tell Schwarzenegger we will vote for his economic programs if he will turn back the clock on Proposition 209 to guarantee more equality in education and contracting?

Think about it. Blacks were being asked to vote for Propositions 55 to build more schools, and I voted for it too, but when the billions are spent on the schools, the chances are that black contractors will not get any of the contracts because of Proposition 209 and the resulting return to the "good old boy" system. It appears that the politicians are afraid of Schwarzenegger’s. Well only time will tell.I think when we finish the Swartzenegger years there will still be unfinished business if we continue to accept whatever he puts before us.