M takes on Jena 6 Developments over at Problem Chylde

Plea bargaining is the state’s most insidious power chip for filling the belly of the prison industrial complex. It embodies the essential difference between talking to the police and snitching – another dynamic that characterizes the criminal justice system as it stands now. The state holds liberty above a potential prisoner’s head because every person values his freedom – plea bargaining allows the person to state his price for standing as close to seeing the outside world as possible. Through the knowledge that person [allegedly] carries, he betrays his friends in the plea bargaining process and, on a moral level, himself.

And this dynamic is hardly new; the same system of exchanging one’s personal integrity and dignity at the expense of playing along with oppressive frameworks has thrived since the history of this country. The current liberty of white Americans and the monuments to their glory and might were (and still are) built with the hands and on the backs of people of color, yet we still turn a blind eye to what those frameworks rely upon to exist. Jena Six Developments (And the Institutional Racism Continues)

Kai spotlights the electrifying (!) story of a young Malawi inventor creating energy from bicycle parts and gum.

Last week the Wall Street Journal ran a front-page story on the inspiring ingenuity of William Kamkwamba, a 20-year-old high-school student in Malawi who built his first windmill from blue-gum trees and bicycle parts after seeing pictures in a textbook when he was 14 (thanks, Angela!). Mr. Kamkwamba informs us on his blog that next week he’ll be making his first trip to the US and is excited to see snow and try Chinese food. WSJ correspondent Sarah Childress writes:

MASITALA, Malawi — On a continent woefully short of electricity, 20-year-old William Kamkwamba has a dream: to power up his country one windmill at a time.

So far, he has built three windmills in his yard here, using blue-gum trees and bicycle parts. His tallest, at 39 feet, towers over this windswept village, clattering away as it powers his family’s few electrical appliances: 10 six-watt light bulbs, a TV set and a radio. The machine draws in visitors from miles around.

Self-taught, Mr. Kamkwamba took up windmill building after seeing a picture of one in an old textbook. He’s currently working on a design for a windmill powerful enough to pump water from wells and provide lighting for Masitala, a cluster of buildings where about 60 families live.

Then, he wants to build more windmills for other villages across the country. Betting he can do it, a group of investors are putting him through school.

“I was thinking about electricity,” says Mr. Kamkwamba, explaining how he got hooked on wind. “I was thinking about what I’d like to have at home, and I was thinking, ‘What can I do?’ ” William Kamkwamba’s Windmills Electrify a Household and a Nation

Carole McDonnell tells how we can become bankers for $25 and change the life of a family and a village through Kiva.org.

In some parts of the world, especially in the developing world, $25 can go a long way. If you’re interested in doing something good for your fellow humans, check out www.kiva.org

It’s an investment, not really charity. Want to be a banker?

Over at Comic book bin, Leroy S. Douresseaux examines the nuance of writing Black Superheroes

When the discussion of Black superheroes pops up, it often turns to the question of whether actual Black people as writers would tell better stories about Black superheroes than writers who are White. Of course, some always say skin color doesn’t really matter, but they’re always White, speaking from the perspective of advantage.

A White man can certainly write really good comic books featuring African-American characters. In the 1970’s, Marv Wolfman and Chris Claremont wrote excellent darkly comic and bloody horrific stories for Marvel Comics’ vampire hunter, Blade. But there’s just something about a writer who has lived as a Black man in America writing stories about a fictional character that is not just a Black superhero, but also a Black person in America. Of course, I realize that sometimes a character being Black has nothing to do with or has no affect on the narrative (for instance, Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons’ Martha Washington comics).

But sometimes being a Black writer spinning a narrative about a Black character does matter. Witness the short-lived, mid-1990’s comic book series, Hardware. Hardware was the first comic book published by Milestone Media. Milestone was an imprint of DC Comics that sought to publish superhero comic books featuring a more diverse cast in terms of skin color and ethnicity, in particularly African-Americans. In the case of Dwayne McDuffie, Hardware’s scribe and co-creator, the title had a storyteller who certainly understood what it was to be a talented African-American who repeatedly bangs his head against the glass ceiling.

McDuffie is an underrated writer, and one who has been shamefully underutilized by both Marvel and DC Comics – more than likely because he is a Black man.Milestone Media: Hardware #1, Leroy S. Douresseaux, Comic Book Bin (h/t to Negrophile for this one.)