Check Mate

 “Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political or cultural group.”

My father didn’t attend church on a regular basis, some would say that he was not saved or a Christian. Yet, on my thirtieth birthday my dad prophesied into my life, while playing a game of chess at five in the morning.  He said daughter one day “you will open the eyes of the blind, you will greet the captives released from prison, liberate those who sit in dark dungeons”.

Listen, “In Washington, D.C. its called corruption…In Hartford, CT. It’s called lobbying Check, well, if you live in any housing that’s affiliated with HUD multi-family housing projects it’s called hustling.  Mate! Pay attention, Only in Connecticut…is where they do this!”  At the time I was not sure what he meant until I found the same passage in the bible {Isaiah 4:27}.

There is a certain amount of honor in being chosen by your fellow citizens to manage public affairs, but there is also the element of accountability, elected office holders are subjected to being torn down for the smallest transgressions. Thomas Jefferson once said: “when a man or woman assumes public trust he should consider himself public property.”

So I smile when I am asked to prove that ethnic disparities exist in North Hartford. When it comes to describing politics in Connecticut; it’s hard not to align the word conspiracy to the mission statements of political candidates running for office throughout Hartford, Connecticut.

Are you broke or better?

 In any conspiracy theory there would be two major players- active and passive. The active conspirators can be described as the city of Hartford’s court of common council. The passive conspirators are African Americans who participate via their, self hatred, apathy and miss education of common laws.

When White Hartford gets a cold…Black Hartford gets pneumonia

In 1964, the same year that the land mark civil rights act was passed, a host of anti-poverty programs were breed; including the economic opportunity act and the food stamp legislation, and programs for mass transportation. In 1965, additional legislation included Medicare and Medicaid, the elementary and secondary education act, the higher education act, the public works and economic act had additional changes.

I constantly challenge community leaders, non-profit agencies, city council members and the mayor in debates to review the ethnic and economic disparities that run rampant in impoverished neighborhoods throughout Hartford, Connecticut.

My challengers asked me to document who were the plotters in the conspiracy to create ethnic and economic disparities in North Hartford? I smile and listen, yet I remain confident in knowing that video tapes of racial discrimination as shown on national television: in banking, employment, and housing is not a figment of anyone’s imagination. In essence the poverty programs were advertised as the means to fulfilling the civil rights promise in a nation burdened by the quilt of a history of racial discrimination.

 “The fruits of political activity are enjoyed in a monetary way by all of the servants of the Democratic Party; there is no increased recognition of the contributors that are committed to the improvement of human rights”. Martha Hood PhD

Not a day goes by that I don’t think of the legacy my paternal and maternal elders instilled in me. The fight for equality is to benefit everybody, so that nobody gets left behind.

Sometimes -Something is not better than nothing. GranGeorge

Rest in Peace to my Father,

Martha Hood PhD