Month: September, 2017
worker |
September 13, 2017 |
8:41 pm | African American Culture, African American history |
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http://www.nola.com/300/2017/09/dr_daddy-o_new_orleans_radio_v.html
Pioneering New Orleans radio personality Dr. Daddy-O, aka Vernon Winslow, works the mic in an undated file image. In May 1949, Winslow became the first black deejay to get his own full-time radio show in New Orleans. The airwaves were never the same.
The Times-Picayune is marking the tricentennial of New Orleans with its ongoing 300 for 300 project, running through 2018 and highlighting the moments and people that connect and inspire us. Today, the series continues with the on-air arrival of Dr. Daddy-O, who would change the face of New Orleans radio for generations.
THEN: It was the late 1940s and it was the South, so while Vernon Winslow was hired to help create the soon-to-be iconic Poppa Stoppa radio show on New Orleans’ WJMR, he — as a black man — wasn’t allowed to go on the air. Rather, he was brought on as a writer and programmer, coaching white deejays on how to “sound black” and picking hip new R&B records for them to spin. Then, one night in 1948, he decided to read one of his own scripts on the air. He was fired immediately. But within six months, in May 1949, the folks at Jax Brewery and Fitzgerald Advertising, eager to market to New Orleans’ black consumers, offered to sponsor a show for him to host, titled “Jivin’ with Jax,” on competing station WWEZ. New Orleans radio had officially been integrated, and a local broadcast icon was born.
NOW: Winslow, who later in his career focused more on spinning gospel music than R&B, died in late 1993 and was buried in Lake Lawn Cemetery. His legacy lives on across New Orleans’ radio dial, however, as the man who influenced generations of on-air talent, from Poppa Stoppa to Jack the Cat to Okey-Dokey Smith and beyond. “It was like the Berlin Wall. He broke down the walls,” legendary New Orleans recording engineer Cosimo Matassa is quoted as having once said.
TRI-via
- Winslow was first invited to visit the WJMR studios — at that time in the Jung Hotel — based on a phone call. When he went up to meet station management in person, however, the light-skinned Winslow had a rude awakening. “They said, ‘Are you a n—-r?,'” Winslow remembered in a 1977 interview with The Times-Picayune. “I said, ‘Yes.’ So they said, ‘You can’t be a disc jockey, but you can write our copy.'”
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New Orleans radio pioneer Vernon Winslow, aka Dr. Daddy-O, at the console in December 1986.“Jivin’ with Jax” broadcast from the Hotel New Orleans. It being the Jim Crow era, Winslow had to take the freight elevator to the studio. He later moved his operation to Matassa’s J&M Studios, first pre-recording his show for broadcast and later broadcasting live from J&M with Dave Bartholomew’s house band providing background music.
- Jax billed Winslow as “New Orleans’ first sepia disc jockey” and had him train deejays in other markets.
- Born in Ohio and raised in Chicago, Winslow earned a fine arts degree from the University of Chicago before relocating to New Orleans. “Had things worked out for me in a way that my talent could support me, I would have been a painter,” Winslow told The Times-Picayune in a 1986 interview.
- Before his radio days, Winslow earned a master’s in education from Tulane, which helped him land a job teaching art at Dillard University.
- In the late 1950s, Winslow went to work for New Orleans radio station WYLD, where he stayed on and off for more than 30 years hosting a gospel show.
N.O. DNA
Much is made in the music world about “the New Orleans sound.” But before Dr. Daddy-O signed on, that sound was decidedly muted for the simple reason that “race” records received limited play at best on local radio stations. “Other stations were too dignified to play rhythm and blues,” Winslow said in a 1987 interview with The Times-Picayune. That would soon change. By the end of 1949, the city had its first true black radio station, in the form of WMRY, which broadcast from the Court of Two Sisters restaurant. It would later become WYLD. A second black station, WBOK, signed on about a year later. Those stations have been credited with helping to put local R&B on the map — and on the air. With musicians eager to be heard, and audiences eager to listen, it would lead to a boom in New Orleans-styled R&B that would all but define the radio waves for decades to come.
By: Mike Scott, staff writer
Sources: The Times-Picayune archive; “The Death of Rhythm and Blues,” by Nelson George; “New Orleans Radio,” by Dominic Massa; staff research
Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung
U.S. IMPERIALISM IS A PAPER TIGER
July 14, 1956
[Part of a talk with two Latin-American public figures.]
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-5/mswv5_52.htm
The United States is flaunting the anti-communist banner everywhere in order to perpetrate aggression against other countries
The United States owes debts everywhere. It owes debts not only to the countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa, but also to the countries of Europe and Oceania. The whole world, Britain included dislikes the United States. The masses of the people dislike it. Japan dislikes the United States because it oppresses her. None of the countries in the East is free from U.S. aggression. The United States has invaded our Taiwan Province. Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam and Pakistan all suffer from U.S. aggression, although some of them are allies of the United States. The people are dissatisfied and in some countries so are the authorities.
All oppressed nations want independence.
Everything is subject to change. The big decadent forces will give way to the small new-born forces. The small forces will change into big forces because the majority of the people demand this change. The U.S. imperialist forces will change from big to small because the American people, too, are dissatisfied with their government.
In my own lifetime I myself have witnessed such changes. Some of us present were born in the Ching Dynasty and others after the 1911 Revolution.
The Ching Dynasty was overthrown long ago. By whom? By the party led by Sun Yat-sen, together with the people. Sun Yat-sen’s forces were so small that the Ching officials didn’t take him seriously. He led many uprisings which failed each time. In the end, however, it was Sun Yat-sen who brought down the Ching Dynasty. Bigness is nothing to be afraid of. The big will be overthrown by the small. The small will become big. After overthrowing the Ching Dynasty, Sun Yat-sen met with defeat. For he failed to satisfy the demands of the people, such as their demands for land and for opposition to imperialism. Nor did he understand the necessity of suppressing the counter-revolutionaries who were then moving about freely. Later, he suffered defeat at the hands of Yuan Shih-kai, the chieftain of the Northern warlords. Yuan Shih-kai’s forces were larger than Sun Yat-sen’s. But here again this law operated: small forces linked with the people become strong, while big forces opposed to the people become weak. Subsequently Sun Yat-sen’s bourgeois-democratic revolutionaries co-operated with us Communists and together we defeated the warlord set-up left behind by Yuan Shih-kai.
Chiang Kai-shek’s rule in China was recognized by the governments of all countries and lasted twenty-two years, and his forces were the biggest. Our forces were small, fifty thousand Party members at first but only a few thousand after counter-revolutionary suppressions. The enemy made trouble everywhere. Again this law operated: the big and strong end up in defeat because they are divorced from the people, whereas the small and weak emerge victorious because they are linked with the people and work in their interest. That’s how things turned out in the end.
During the anti-Japanese war, Japan was very powerful, the Kuomintang troops were driven to the hinterland, and the armed forces led by the Communist Party could only conduct guerrilla warfare in the rural areas behind the enemy lines. Japan occupied large Chinese cities such as Peking, Tientsin, Shanghai, Nanking, Wuhan and Canton. Nevertheless, like Germany’s Hitler the Japanese militarists collapsed in a few years, in accordance with the same law.
We underwent innumerable difficulties and were driven from the south to the north, while our forces fell from several hundred thousand strong to a few tens of thousands. At the end of the 25,000-li Long March we had only 25,000 men left.
In the history of our Party many erroneous “Left” and Right lines have occurred. Gravest of all were the Right deviationist line of Chen Tu-hsiu and the “Left” deviationist line of Wang Ming. Besides, there were the Right deviationist errors committed by Chang Kuo-tao, Kao Kang and others.
There is also a good side to mistakes, for they can educate the people and the Party. We have had a good many teachers by negative example, such as Japan, the United States, Chiang Kai-shek, Chen Tu-hsiu, Li Li-san, Wang Ming, Chang Kuo-tao and Kao Kang. We paid a very high price to learn from these teachers by negative example. In the past, Britain made war on us many times. Britain, the United States, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, tsarist Russia and Holland were all very interested in this land of ours. They were all our teachers by negative example and we were their pupils.
During the War of Resistance, our troops grew and became 900,000 strong through fighting against Japan. Then came the War of Liberation. Our arms were inferior to those of the Kuomintang. The Kuomintang troops then numbered four million, but in three years of fighting we wiped out eight million of them all told. The Kuomintang, though aided by U.S. imperialism, could not defeat us. The big and strong cannot win, it is always the small and weak who win out.
Now U.S. imperialism is quite powerful, but in reality it isn’t. It is very weak politically because it is divorced from the masses of the people and is disliked by everybody and by the American people too. In appearance it is very powerful but in reality it is nothing to be afraid of, it is a paper tiger. Outwardly a tiger, it is made of paper, unable to withstand the wind and the rain. I believe the United States is nothing but a paper tiger.
History as a whole, the history of class society for thousands of years, has proved this point: the strong must give way to the weak. This holds true for the Americas as well.
Only when imperialism is eliminated can peace prevail. The day will come when the paper tigers will be wiped out. But they won’t become extinct of their own accord, they need to be battered by the wind and the rain.
When we say U.S. imperialism is a paper tiger, we are speaking in terms of strategy. Regarding it as a whole, we must despise it. But regarding each part, we must take it seriously. It has claws and fangs. We have to destroy it piecemeal. For instance, if it has ten fangs, knock off one the first time, and there will be nine left, knock off another, and there will be eight left. When all the fangs are gone, it will still have claws. If we deal with it step by step and in earnest, we will certainly succeed in the end.
Strategically, we must utterly despise U.S. imperialism. Tactically, we must take it seriously. In struggling against it, we must take each battle, each encounter, seriously. At present, the United States is powerful, but when looked at in a broader perspective, as a whole and from a long-term viewpoint, it has no popular support, its policies are disliked by the people, because it oppresses and exploits them. For this reason, the tiger is doomed. Therefore, it is nothing to be afraid of and can be despised. But today the United States still has strength, turning out more than 100 million tons of steel a year and hitting out everywhere. That is why we must continue to wage struggles against it, fight it with all our might and wrest one position after another from it. And that takes time.
It seems that the countries of the Americas, Asia and Africa will have to go on quarrelling with the United States till the very end, till the paper tiger is destroyed by the wind and the rain.
To oppose U.S. imperialism, people of European origin in the Latin-American countries should unite with the indigenous Indians. Perhaps the white immigrants from Europe can be divided into two groups, one composed of rulers and the other of ruled. This should make it easier for the group of oppressed white people to get close to the local people, for their position is the same.
Our friends in Latin America, Asia and Africa are in the same position as we and are doing the same kind of work, doing something for the people to lessen their oppression by imperialism. If we do a good job, we can root out imperialist oppression. In this we are comrades.
We are of the same nature as you in our opposition to imperialist oppression, differing only in geographical position, nationality and language. But we are different in nature from imperialism, and the very sight of it makes us sick.
What use is imperialism? The Chinese people will have none of it, nor will the people in the rest of the world. There is no reason for the existence of imperialism.
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/The-U.S.-Rich-Poor-Divide-Through-the-Lens-of-Hurricane-Irma-20170910-0007.html
The U.S. Rich-Poor Divide Through the Lens of Hurricane Irma
A person walks through downtown Miami as Hurricane Irma nears the city. | Photo: EFE
Published 10 September 2017 (11 hours 8 minutes ago)
Without access to a car, a resident complained that his repeated attempts to dial 311 to get information about the shelters that are available have gone unanswered.
A haunting sense of déjà vu is panning out as Hurricane Irma churns its destructive path on the U.S. state of Florida as the rich-poor divide, so rawly displayed in New Orleans when the levees broke during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is unfolding again.
Inequality, more sooner than later at this late hour, is determining who can prepare or evacuate before the wrath of a historic storm reaches land.
Wilman Hernandez, a hotel dishwasher living in Tampa Bay, Florida, has been trying desperately to get his family to a shelter, but to no avail. Without access to a car, he complained that his repeated attempts to dial “311 to get information about the shelters that are available†have gone unanswered.
“No one answers the phone,†Hernandez lamented, according to Tampa Bay Times.
A different scenario is playing out in the affluent coastal residence known as Rio Vista. Here, the owners of multi-million dollar homes have spent small fortunes to secure their private boats, stock up on supplies and/or joined the ranks of those who have the wherewithal to fly north.
Case in point, one Florida businessman, identified only as Morse, chartered a private plane for his wife and two children to fly to Alabama and stay with relatives during the storm. He also purchased two generators, 50 gallons of water, 67 gallons of gas, non-perishable foods and other survival necessities, costing some $7,500, as he stayed behind to look after his business.
“You try to do whatever you can to protect your family … I wish everybody had the ability to take care of their families the way they want to,†he said without offering an idea as to how his wish could be fulfilled in a place like Florida or anywhere else in the United States.
Like Morse, Deborah Rosenberg, an interior designer, also took the luxury of chartering a private jet from Miami to New York City. Despite purchasing extra food for those who cook and clean in her posh home, she’ll watch Hurricane Irma from the Big Apple with her daughters and husband who works in the financ industry.
“It’s a complete contrast,†she commented about disparities that allow her family such respite while others are forced to endure the deadly storm.
Roughly 8.5 miles away from opulent Rio Vista is Liberty City, a working-class African-American neighborhood, where almost half the residents etch out a living below the federal poverty line.
Louis Diaz, a 29-year old resident said, “We’re in the inner city here. People don’t want to help folk like us,” adding, “Nobody is leaving Liberty City because there’s nowhere for them to go.â€
OPINION:
Venezuela Extends Bolivarian Solidarity to Caribbean Neighbors
In Miami proper, homeless people, some 400, were being picked up by volunteers. They were given rides to shelters voluntarily or under threat of involuntary hospitalization, the Irish Times reported.
“We were driving in the vans and we had people jumping out into the streets to stop us so we would pick them up, said Ron Book, chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust.
“Those folks were coming out of the woodwork, they knew we were out there,” said Ron Book, chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust.
Lastly, about 9 miles away from the despair of Liberty City is 51-year old Max Borges, owner of a public relations agency and Miami Beach resident. The island enclave running along the coastline is home and playground to celebrities, art deco buildings and a large concentration of wealth.
With a reinforced home, built-in generator, food and water for days and other essential supplies, Borges and his family decided that they would ride out the storm in the comfort and safety of their home. Hence, only hours before Hurricane Irma was scheduled to reach Florida’s mainland, he cruised over to a Miami Beach golf course to practice his swing.
“That was a good one!†he indulged himself after striking a golf ball several feet through the air and onto the putting green.
worker |
September 10, 2017 |
8:44 pm | Economy, environmental crisis, Local/State |
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http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2017/09/lets_face_facts_louisiana_is_s.html#incart_most-readopinions
Let’s face facts: Louisiana is sick and dying | Opinion
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Two questions have dogged me lately: If I could go back 18 years, would I raise my children in Louisiana? Would I still view this as a place that would nurture and educate them, offer opportunities for personal and financial growth and help my wife and me imbue in them the values important to us?
When my son and daughter were born, I believed the answer was yes. I had hope. Even three years ago, I still had faith in Louisiana, as I wrote in a column to young people who considered abandoning the state: “Stay here, find like-minded people, organize them, expand your influence, demand change, but don’t give up on this amazing, beautiful place. Its good people — flawed as we might be — are worth your efforts.”
When I wrote that, I believed Louisiana had brighter days. I hoped there was a small flame of desire to recreate something great here. I thought Louisiana’s people wanted to redeem their state.
I was wrong.
Today, I ask only, “Is this as good as it will ever be?” The answer, I believe, is yes. It’s not getting better and could get much worse.
For all its rich and diverse culture and abundant natural resources, Louisiana is the sick man of the United States. We’re an economic basket case and a toxic waste pit of environmental neglect and misconduct.
We are the state most adept at missing opportunities and abusing and wasting our abundant natural resources.
Louisiana is my home in every way and, at 59, I cannot imagine living anywhere else. And yet it’s time to admit this is a place with no visible promise and little hope. To pretend otherwise is to engage in delusional thinking. We must face facts.
I’m not saying everyone should give up and leave. I’m staying and fighting for our future. There is much work to do, and I believe I can make a difference. I suspect most of you feel the same. But if we’re staying, we must be honest about Louisiana’s deplorable condition and bleak future.
Blame our leaders, if you like. But the problem is us. On average, we aspire to mediocrity; we are happy with good enough. We live in a land of plenty but view the world from an attitude of scarcity.
We mask our state’s profound illness and disease with colorful festivals and spicy food.
We tolerate — sometimes celebrate — our corrupt politicians. (Witness the recent outpouring of affection for disgraced former Gov. Edwin Edwards on his 90th birthday.)
Speaking of celebrations, nothing makes us happier than college football, which is our true religion. In the fall, we worship on Saturday nights in Tiger Stadium, the state’s holy shrine. Meanwhile, what transpires across campus — in the classrooms and lecture halls — barely concerns us.
Our elected leaders sell their souls to big oil and the chemical industry. The first has spoiled our land, pillaged our resources and damaged our coast, while the other has poisoned our air and water.
We are 47th in environmental quality. Perhaps it’s no coincidence we have the nation’s highest cancer rate.
Almost a third of our children live in poverty, the third-highest rate in the nation. That’s not changed for decades.
We have the seventh-lowest median household income and the third-highest unemployment rate. After decades of so-called “reforms,” we still have the worst public schools in the country. We’ve cut higher education funding more than almost every other state.
I could go on. We are first in almost everything that’s bad and last (or near last) in almost everything that’s good. In most cases, even mediocrity seems beyond our reach.
The experience of the last four decades should settle any question about whether Louisiana and its people will soon awaken from their coma of complacency. We know well the diseases of ignorance, poverty and pollution that afflict us — and have accepted them as sad facts, not obscenities.
The question isn’t whether there is much hope or aspiration left in Louisiana’s people. There is not. The question, instead, is whether this is a place our promising young people should abandon as soon as possible.
So here’s what I’ll tell my children: If you want to stay, then regard Louisiana as a mission field. However, if you want a place that will enlarge your life, expand your horizons, offer new opportunities and challenge your thinking, you should look elsewhere.
Our insular, prehistoric ways will not soon spawn a dynamic, creative culture to revive our economy and attract bright young minds to study at our universities and, after graduation, remain here to build a vibrant state. Our people have said loud and clear over the decades that we do not desire such a state.
It’s time to admit that Louisiana is sick and dying.
Robert Mann, an author and former U.S. Senate and gubernatorial staffer, holds the Manship Chair in Journalism at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. Read more from him at his blog, Something Like the Truth. Follow him on Twitter @RTMannJr or email him at bob.mann@outlook.com.
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