The Black Informant

TV-Turnoff Week 2006 April 24th - 30th

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Why Turn off the TV?

Television cuts into family time, harms our children’s ability to read and succeed in school, and contributes to unhealthy lifestyles and obesity. Here are just a few of the facts:

* On average, children in the US will spend more time in front of the television (1,023 hours) than in school this year (900 hours).
* Forty percent of Americans frequently or always watch television during dinner.
* As US Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher said at the Kick Off of TV-Turnoff Week 2001, “We are raising the most overweight generation of youngsters in American history…This week is about saving lives.” More »

Just “Why?”

I saw this in a public restroom recently:

“Any employee who does not wash their hands before leaving the restroom will be subject to dismissal.”

I’m afraid to ask, but how would they enforce this?

The illusion of declaring oneself as an independent

“I’m a independent.”

This is a familiar statement that I have been hearing for years from individuals on both sides of the political spectrum , but have never really taken the time to address it until now.

I have mentioned on this site many times that I am a Conservative. I have also mentioned that I am registered as an Independent (which means that I do not have any kind of allegiance to ANY party, just a preference on values). I have never felt embarrassed to publicly acknowledge this part of my makeup nor will I ever feel that way. I don’t wear the “Conservative” tag on my sleeve because quite honestly there is a whole lot more to me than that. What I realize is that by standing up for a particular set of values, this makes me vulnerable to criticism when that “system of values” has failed. I have called Conservatives out on many issues where I feel they have failed voters and will continue to do so. Nevertheless, I still tend to agree wholeheartedly with much of the Conservative viewpoint.

Those that More »

Person to Person Lending

I just heard about this website last night. We are already thinking about using it to do some consolidatation.

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Introducing America’s First People-to-People Lending Marketplace: Prosper
E-LOAN co-founder and technology entrepreneur unveil the next evolution of consumer lending; an “eBay for credit” for loans up to $25,000
San Francisco – February 21, 2006 – After two years of development, Chris Larsen, co-founder of E-LOAN, and John Witchel, technologist and entrepreneur, today formally announced the public debut of Prosper (http://www.prosper.com), America’s first people-to-people lending marketplace.

“Until now, financial institutions have controlled who is able to obtain credit and the rates people pay,” said Chris Larsen, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Prosper. “Over time, this one-sided control has bred inefficiencies and excessive margins – leading to higher rates for borrowers, and restricting people who have money to lend from entering and generating income from this vital and lucrative market.” More »

Not every product labeled as “natural” is good for you

“Frito-Lay has launched a new “Natural Doritos” product that doesn’t have the usual monosodium glutamate (an excitotoxin) and artificial colors found in its flagship product, but it does contain another offensive ingredient: yeast extract. It’s listed right on the package of the new Natural Doritos products.

Yeast extract is a flavor-enhancing additive that many food manufacturers use in place of MSG. The problem is that yeast extract is a hidden source of MSG (monosodium glutamate), according to my sources (more…).”

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My wife always told me that she was a little scared to see food manufacturers take the “natural” route. They know that most people are too lazy to take the time to understand the ingredients, so they just include the word “natural” in the label and give the packaging some earth tone color to enhance the claim.

How Black Men Influence Teenage Girls (MyBrotha.com)

“For a very long time, there has been an increased awareness of the positive, constructive interactions between Black male role-models and Black boys. The lack of fathers in the home and the negativity associated with broken families and “dead-beat dads”, has been center stage in the Black community.

While our attention on the father-son, male role-model/Black male child relationship continues to grow, we cannot forget about the strong influences Black fathers have on their pre-teen and teenage daughters - or how the behaviors of Black males impact the lives of girls around them. A well-rounded father, or any positive male figure, is crucial to the psychological and social development of a teenage girl. What girls see and hear can play an important role in how they respond and react to men as they get older (more…).”

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What I hope emerges out of this situation down in Durham is a national dialogue in the black community that addresses WITH AN ACTION PLAN on how to reverse the trend of fatherless homes. Too many folks have been jumping on the “It’s the system’s fault that this young woman had to resort to stripping to support her two kids” bandwagon. Where is the father (or fathers) of these children? Seems to me if someone was paying child support…let me stop right there because to some, I am “beating up” on black folks.

Unheard and unseen

States Help Schools Hide Minority Scores
By FRANK BASS, NICOLE ZIEGLER DIZON and BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writers
Monday, April 17, 2006

States are helping public schools escape potential penalties by skirting the No Child Left Behind law’s requirement that students of all races must show annual academic progress.
With the federal government’s permission, schools aren’t counting the test scores of nearly 2 million students when they report progress by racial groups, an Associated Press computer analysis found. More »

Good news coming out of Colorado

Believe it or not, there is a significant black population in the state of Colorado. Much of this is due to the military bases located there as well as transplants from California. My family and I lived in both Colorado Springs and in Parker (a small suburban town just outside of Denver). There is just too much city (big city) in us, so we had to move .

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This is part of a nation-wide trend! 

“The number of black-owned businesses in Colorado has risen rapidly in recent years, driven largely by construction projects such as the redevelopment of the former Stapleton Airport and transit initiatives.

A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau showed the number of Colorado black-owned businesses rose 43 percent to 7,066 from 1997 to 2002, the most recent period for which figures are available.

Black-owned construction firms in Colorado had the highest revenues of all black-owned businesses - an average of $200,000 for each of the 411 companies in 2002, the report showed. ” (more…)

Owens continues to make waves in Hollywood

Dana Owens (b.k.a. Queen Latifah–I’m not big on stage names) continues to add to her resume…

Queen Latifah Inks Deal with Focus Features and Rogue Pictures 

Queen Latifah has inked a first-look deal with Focus Features and its genre arm, Rogue Pictures, to develop low- to medium-sized budget films under her Flavor Unit Entertainment banner.

Flavor Unit, Latifah’s 17-year old Jersey City, N.J. based entertainment company, is run by the rapper-turned-actress and her partner Sha-Kim Compere.  The company’s producing “Bringing Down the House,” “The Cookout”and “Beauty Shop.”  Clients of the company’s management division incude Oscar-nominated actor Terrence Howard and Queen Latifah. (more…)

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As long as she branches out from the “loud black woman with attitude” roles, this should be a good move for her.

“But they pay taxes, too.”

This is one of the main arguments that has been floating around a lot for the past few week, but it is not new to this debate. The Center for Immigration Studies (probably my favorite website that covers this issue), who has been addressing the whole illegal immigration issue for years,  published an article back in 2002 that addresses this argument that is constantly being used by the pro-illegal immigration crowd. Here is an excerpt:

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Amnesty for Illegals Who “Pay Taxes”?

Advocates contend that illegal immigrants work hard in jobs Americans will not take, pay taxes, contribute to society, and thus should be able to earn their way to legal status. This concept, euphemistically called “earned regularization,” would create opportunities for illegal aliens to receive lawful permanent resident status by earning “credits” in a number of ways, including by paying taxes. More »

The formation of a new black philanthropy group

I would like to see more of this on HBCUs.

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Brown University grads create the Ethel Tremaine Robinson Foundation Inc. to encourage Black philanthropy among fellow alumni.

New York, NY (PRWEB) April 18, 2006 — When a group of New York City area Brown University graduates decided to launch a local chapter of the Inman Page Black Alumni Council, they were determined to make it a vehicle via which their likeminded alums could create projects to stimulate and channel strategic black philanthropic actions for the benefit of both Brown and the black community at large. In response — and with the support of their fellow Metropolitan New York chapter alums — 1998 Brown graduates Ayana Evans and Felicia Lyde, along with 1982 graduate Roland Laird founded the Ethel Tremaine Robinson Foundation Inc. According to Laird, this 501 c 3 non-profit corporation was designed specifically to promote African-American philanthropy amongst graduates of Brown University. More »

Do you remember…?

Scary!

Sergeant Re-Enlists After Losing Hand in Iraq IED Attack (FoxNews.com)

I know this story doesn’t follow the “official” talking points sheet in any dialogue about blacks and the current war in the Middle East, but oh well…

“Returning to her camp near Baghdad, Sgt. 1st Class Juanita Wilson’s last supply run turned out very differently than the other missions in her seven-month tour in Iraq.
“We got everything we needed and [were] on our way back … about an hour from our camp … that’s when something happened to our vehicle,” recounted Wilson, a full-time member of the Army Reserve whose unit deployed to Iraq in March of 2004.
That ’something’ was an improvised explosive device (IED) that wounded her and several members of her convoy in August of 2004. The explosion cost Wilson her left hand and some of her arm (more…).”

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Thanks sis. !

Great website on school accountability for those who live in CA

Even if you do not live in California, this website should help you raise a lot of questions about your local school district and how it is being administered. I will be a regular visitor to this site.
Website: http://www.schoolwisepress.com/index.html

About:

From website
OUR MISSION

Our mission is to help parents become school-smart and to assist education leaders in making that possible.

OUR GOALS

1. We are focused on helping districts and state departments of education report their schools’ results. The annual school accountability report is where education leaders have traditionally reported results, but often ineffectively. Our goal is to enable our clients to be more effective when reporting results, and see a return on their investment in the public’s knowledge of their schools.
2. We are investing in raising the standards for accountability reporting. This is a young discipline that would benefit from improved standards for design, data, and statistical analysis.
3. We are enabling our clients to meet the higher requirements of state and federal law, and do so economically.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

The public’s support of its schools has to rest on something more substantial than faith. One of the pillars of public support, in our opinion, is clear information about schools themselves. Despite laws that intended to bring school information into the light of day, much still remains in the dark. As a result, school information is unfortunately often hard to get, tough to find, or impossible to interpret without a bevy of experts. We hope to turn school data into meaningful information that parents can use.
We believe that we can help parents participate in school life and the education of their children by creating and distributing information that clarifies how schools differ and what students’ test scores really mean. Reporting results clearly and candidly is one step in that direction.

A quick snapshot on illegal immigration and black opinion

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“At the barbershop on a recent afternoon, warehouse manager Forrest Hall Jr., 60, expressed frustration with the sympathy immigrants have drawn, after days of televised marches across the country.

”They broke the law,” he said. ”If they give them amnesty, they should give every black man and woman in America amnesty for what happened in slavery. I see them parading around like we owe them something. We don’t owe them anything.”

Despite their frustrations, some African-Americans said they understand why employers hire immigrants, especially undocumented ones.

”They work seven days a week for half the money we make,” said Arthur Benson, 37, a construction worker. ”I respect that. If I had a job to do, and if I had a choice to get five black men or 10 immigrants for the same price, I’d take the immigrants.” More »

Black students who are achieving

The following was printed last year in Ebony magazine, but it is something that you do not hear too often in the daily chatter surrounding black American issues.

Over the weekend I was fortunate enough to catch Tony Brown’s Journal where he featured a young man (Asa Wynn Grant). First, here is a little about him: More »

Darfur’s children deserve our protection (William Hague)

We’ve seen the evidence of ethnic cleansing. We must act now or be condemned for our inhumanity
April 16, 2006 — ’We send our grandmothers to collect the firewood. We know they will be beaten. But we have no choice; if we send our men, they will kill them. If we send our women or our girls, they will rape them.’ I could see the bitterness and despair on the young woman’s face as she described the cruel choice that her family is forced to make every day. We were standing in Abu Shouk displaced persons’ camp in Darfur, Sudan, in front of the flimsy tent that she called home. She explained how her community faces attack from the mounted Janjaweed militia, the same people who had driven her from her village two years ago: ’First, the planes came, then the men on horseback. They shot at us and burnt our huts. We had no choice but to run.’  (more…)

The African-American online boom

This is just for reference. Similiar postings like this are filed under “Research”. The sole purpose of the next few postings is to centralize researched data on this site. I have been collecting information like this for years, but I usually keep it on my own PC.

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“African Americans say they’re more likely than the general population to participate in several online activities. Sixty-eight percent of visit news sites, while only 56 percent of the general online population is likely to visit news sites. Entertainment is a popular destination for 55 percent of African Americans, compared to 26 percent of the general online population. Seventy-two percent of African American Internet users seek out health content, compared to 53 percent of the general online population. Sixty-percent of African American Web users, and 40 percent of the general online population, visit financial content including account information, stocks, and new financial accounts. Thirty-nine percent of African American users, and 26 percent of the general online population look up sports information. ” (more…)

The Hispanic online boom

Here is another study that I am posting soley for the reason to add under “Research”. I guess you can say that this is my own personal data wherehouse. I’ll leave the commentary up to you.

Hispanics Are the Fastest Growing Ethnic Group Online, According to Nielsen//NetRatings

NEW YORK, July 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Nielsen//NetRatings (Nasdaq: NTRT), the global standard in Internet audience measurement and analysis, today revealed that Web surfers of Hispanic origin are the fastest growing at-home ethnic group on the Web. Nearly 7.6 million Hispanics accessed the Internet in June, jumping 13 percent year-over-year as compared to 6.7 million the previous year, making Hispanics the third largest ethnic group online (see Table 1).
Web surfers identifying themselves as being Asian or of Pacific Islander descent grew six percent to nearly 2.4 million individuals. More than 94 million Caucasian Web surfers accessed the Internet during the month, rising four percent year-over-year, while the More »

Media usage patterns amonst men

Men From Key Ethnic Groups Show Markedly Different Media Use Patterns
MultiMedia Mentorâ„¢ service, based on single-source data, provides guidance for more effective media targeting
Cranford, NJ, and Menlo Park, CA - October 16, 2002: New Knowledge Networks information about media use by Hispanic, African American, Asian American, and Caucasian men shows sometimes-dramatic differences in their time spent with key media - differences that could have important implications for advertisers, agencies, and media companies targeting these important consumer groups.

The new data come from MultiMedia Mentorâ„¢, a Knowledge Networks/SRI strategic planning service that allows clients to identify efficient ways of combining media to reach specific target audiences. MultiMedia Mentorâ„¢ conducts a continuous measurement of consumer use of television, radio, the Internet, newspapers, and magazines; a variety of demographic and product-variable breaks are available.

The latest MultiMedia Mentorâ„¢ surveys show that, among men ages 25 to 54, African Americans spend the most time overall with media per day - 10% more than the average. (See table 1.) Their use of magazines is some 40% higher than average, and their television time is 25% higher. More »