Raleighwood, NC

Kevin Collins: The Voice of the People

"KEVIN COLLINS IN YOUR F*CKING FACE"

Via introverted loudmouth.

N&O Covers Resegregationist 5 Campaign w/Some Inadvertent Disinformation

N&O blogger T. Keung Hui writes about the Resegregationist 5: Wanted for Crimes Against Wake County School Children campaign but inadvertently, I hope, uses a classic disinformation technique of the juxtaposition of unrelated facts in a manner that might discredit me (at least among those who aren't already totally appalled, lol!).

After discussing my post on Monday and an interchange with a blogger who couldn't be bothered to read the whole post, he states:

"Regardless, tensions are definitely higher at school board meetings now. Even though the crowd was smaller, more security was present on Tuesday. A sign at the public comment signup table told people to show proper behavior during the meeting."

"After the meeting ended, security escorted the board members to their cars."

Now, having discussed such things with reporters before, my best guess is that he'll say the term "regardless" separates the two which technically it does. However, the average reader won't necessarily process such details but only note the narrative flow: Monday Clyde did this, Tuesday security was heightened.

I don't think he intended to create that opportunity for misinterpretation but that's one of the problems with journalism as a practice, a reliance on stylebooks and professional practices that are increasingly disconnected from the readers themselves.

You can simply ask whoever called for increased security what was up and why they made that move.  That should confirm my statements in a responsible, journalistic manner and possibly even avoid stirring up the real nutcases that already seem to be crawling out of the woodwork in response to my project.

Besides, if I was planning violence, I wouldn't have a blog and you would never hear my name.  Instead, I've decided to make each stage of this campaign public so I will be posting about whatever I do.  Think open source brand destruction rather than nutcase telegraphing his every move. Lol!

Related Raleighwood, NC Coverage: Wake Co. School Board

Wyclef Jean Fails the People of Haiti

This Haiti disaster is so big that I haven't even had an emotional reaction except for getting mad at Wyclef Jean for being so disappointing in his response to revelations that his Yele Haiti Foundation, which is taking in huge sums of money, has a long history of financial mismanagement. The tragedy of Haiti will probably hit me at a later date, as did the horror of 9/11, so I'm focusing on spreading the word about Yele Haiti over at ProHipHop:

Please Don't Text $5 to YELE, TSG Reveals They Are Financially Incompetent
and [Possibly] Self-Serving [Update: TSG Has More, Wyclef Responds]

More Bad News: Gawker Obtains Internal Documents from Wyclef Jean's
Yele Haiti Foundation

Russell Simmons Obfuscates the Yele Haiti Issue While Gawker Has a Better Idea

I'll have to say that John Cook has totally redeemed Gawker in my eyes.

School Board Member Debra Goldman Doesn't Support "Ramming the Changes" Through

Debra Goldman seems to have thrown Ron Margiotta for a loop by not voting in absolute lockstep with the rest of The Resegregationist 5:

Says Commandant Margiotta: "She's going to go where she wants to go. But you ask yourself, 'Where next?'"

That's cool and implies something less than total fascist mind control on the part of those who hate poor kids but she still says she's against diversity so she will remain a target of Raleighwood, NC's Wanted for Crimes Against Wake County School Children campaign.

Coming soon: DIY Tools for Brand Destruction featuring The Resegregationist 5!

Anaylytical Update: I've been thinking about Goldman's move and I'm sure some will take heart in her potential for change.  But there are certain things one should keep in mind:

A) Given the nature of this board's actions up to now and Goldman's repeated claims that her actions discussed in the above N&O article accomplish the same things the other Resegregationists want, but on a different timetable, it is possible that this whole scenario is staged to throw off the opposition and also gauge the response to such a move.

B) If Goldman honestly feels that "ramming" changes down the throats of the opposition is a bad move, the next time a measure is introduced without allowing the opposition to see it followed by a forced vote, Goldman will express her disagreement with that move.

[This is what smart reporters would be asking her about right now.  Are there any on this story at the N&O or are they simply going down their checklist of things required for "balanced" reportage?]

C) At the end of the day, this appears to be a short-term tactical disagreement between members of The Resegregationist 5, rather than a disagreement over long-term goals.  Perhaps Goldman just doesn't want the rather obvious label of "sock puppet" and good for her!  Ruining the lives of children can be accomplished much more effectively if one maintains the image of an independent brand.

Related Raleighwood, NC Coverage: Wake Co. School Board

Previously Unpublished Photos of Dr. King's Funeral Procession Unveiled in Wilson

Around Town, Week of January 13, 2010 from City of Wilson, NC

Burk Uzzle's first assignment as a young photographer came from JET magazine who sent him to cover Martin Luther King in Atlanta. He began with a family portrait in their home. He's now unveiling a group of unpublished photos of Dr. King's funeral procession at the Arts Council of Wilson in Wilson, NC, some of which you can see in the above video shot by Eric Blues. There may be other photos besides the procession but they were all taken in the week after Dr. King's assassination.

A longer interview with Burk Uzzle is also available.

Looks like I'll be making a road trip to Wilson before long! The show closes February 6th.

Via Eric Blues.

The Resegregationist 5: Wanted for Crimes Against Wake County School Children

Ron Margiotta, Wanted for Crimes Against Wake County School Children

Chris Fitzsimon of NC Policy Watch has been dubbing these Old South Wake County School Board Members the "Gang of Five", a label the News & Observer's T. Keung Hui feels will stick, I think "The Resegregationist 5" is much more fitting. Look for streetart coming soon!

Debra Goldman, Wanted for Crimes Against Wake County School Children

For a little bit more on these criminally minded politicians, including email addresses and phone numbers, check the School System's website.

Chris Malone, Wanted for Crimes Against Wake County School Children

Deborah Prickett, Wanted for Crimes Against Wake County School Children

Note: this is an independent campaign with no official association with anybody other than Clyde. However, once we provide DIY Tools for Brand Destruction, many will join without anyone needing to know their names. Yay, crowdsourcing!

John Tedesco, Wanted for Crimes Against Wake County School Children

Related Raleighwood, NC Coverage: Wake Co. School Board

Contact Information

Clyde Smith

Email:
raleighwoodnc(at)netweed(dot)com

Voicemail:
919-809-6401

Snail Mail:
514 Daniels St. #347
Raleigh, NC  27605

Note:
The above are my only points of public contact. I do not have a public directory listing at this time. There are some older folks in the area with similar names and there will probably be more given the number of people moving here in hopes of surviving the recession! Please don't bother them.

NC Independent Asks 15 Men & 3 Women for their Movie Faves of the Decade

I won't even ask about the race, class, etc. makeup of the sample chosen for Surveying the Triangle for faves of the decade cause we know how Indy liberals roll!

Related Raleighwood, NC Coverage:
Independent Weekly's Gift of Love Promotion 2010 Featuring More White People!
NC Independent's All White Year in Music Cover!

Raleigh School Board: NAACP Meeting Today & the Incredible Frustration of Being Late to the Game

If you're familiar with the Raleigh School Board and their new resegregationist members, this post will make sense to you.

If you're not, you may still get something out of it but, despite the fact that lots of people are working on this issue, I don't even have a website to send you to for more information.*  There probably is something out there but the newsletter I currently receive doesn't even identify the organization with which it's associated!

Raleigh, what's up?!?

There is an NAACP meeting tonight that looks worth attending.  Here's what I received:

"The NAACP will hold a meeting this Sunday at 5:00 PM at the Martin St. Baptist Church, 1001 E. Martin St., Raleigh. The meeting is titled "WE WILL NEVER GO BACK" and the subject is "What is the nature of the threat of re-segregation raised by 5 out of 9 Wake School Board members? Developing Coordinated Actions.""

I'd send you to the NAACP website but, though the national site does list the local organizations, the only listed website is incredibly out-of-date and neglected.

Now, this is the kind of thing I could be helping folks with, not so much building full-fledged websites, but helping put together simple web tools that can provide the core web communication that this campaign lacks.

Unfortunately I'm not going to be doing that anytime soon because it's 2010 and I need real work that pays a real wage and I'm not going to make that happen without stepping back from things that aren't crucial to my survival.

This deeply frustrates me because if folks had told me what was up before the election, I could have helped a lot in different ways including setting up web outlets for information that wouldn't require ongoing tech skills.  And we could have worked a lot more efficiently before the election.  The game now is much tougher.

It's doubly weird that a man without children who has no plans on having any is my key source of information on the ground.  None of the parents I know mentioned any of this until after the fact and then they just sat around and sadly shook their heads!

For the record I have been talking to folks to see where they're at and gathering information, which is more of a starting point than a course of action.  And I also recently spoke at a School Board meeting on the effects of resegregation on Raleigh's brand.

I may try to start doing some things here or elsewhere as a minor media intervention but this campaign needs much more and, though I see the forces building on the ground, their apparent overreliance on old media is really holding them back.

And the fact that nobody really needs me or any other mildly technical human to set up a strong web presence just heightens that absence.

Note: If you do have a related website up, hit me up for help with Search Engine Optimization and other ways of getting your site seen.  I've had a lot of success, especially with Google, though you can't tell from this blog!  I've never really put in the work here that's necessary for people to easily find me but if you need some evidence, I can send you a list of terms for which many of my other sites have had top listings for a number of years on Google.

*Note 2: I realize there are lots of individual articles and blog posts and so forth out there but which should I send folks to?  We need some basic information resources and a consistent spot for gathering links to all these dispersed bits and pieces that are so easily lost online.

I'm Already Loving Raleigh's Smoke Free Nightlife!

I went out last night to a bar I've been to before where you'd smell cigarette smoke even when you wouldn't see anybody smoking.  Sometimes cigarette smoke helps hide other nasty odors but the smoke free air smelled quite nice.

I'm prompted to write this after getting up and not smelling like cigarettes!  Yay!