The Black Informant

Missed opportunity

(nydailynews.com) I should have taken a stand. I didn’t.

It was the year 2000. I was interviewing for what I then considered to be the most important job of my life: Miss America 2001.

I had spent the past three years dreaming about and preparing for the opportunity. I studied world news and politics. I became a voracious reader of current events, and subscribed to several newspapers and myriad periodicals. I discussed social issues, such as the relationship between poverty and violence, with my political science professors and local judges. I wanted to be a great representative for America, and to speak out on the issues of our time.

After preparing, studying, and praying, my moment finally arrived. As I stood before the panel of Miss America judges ready to tackle the nation’s most pressing problems, I was asked: “What is your opinion on rap music?”

Rap music? Teenage pregnancy - I was ready to address it. Adult illiteracy - I could discuss that for hours. High school dropouts - I’d spoken at alternative schools already. But rap music at my Miss America interview? I hesitated, and finally said something about “Christian rap,” then moved on quickly to what I thought were more important subjects. (more…)

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This reminds me of Oprah when she also regretted not spotlighting this issue before the Imus mess. She said something to the effect that she did not want to be the only one.

Here comes the mayor

(iht.com) JACKSON, Mississippi: The mayor of Mississippi’s largest city and two police bodyguards were acquitted of using sledgehammers and sticks to demolish a duplex he considered a drug house.

Jackson Mayor Frank Melton, 57, would have been forced to resign if convicted of any of the four felony counts, and he could have faced jail time. The officers were also acquitted of the charges.

[…]

The first-term mayor was elected by a landslide in 2005 on promises to root out the crime problem that is blamed for suburban flight and an evaporating tax base in Mississippi’s capital city.

But it was not long before his unorthodox tactics, including carrying guns and cruising the inner city in the police department’s mobile command center, landed him in the sights of the district attorney’s office.

Melton and detectives Michael Recio and Marcus Wright were each charged with malicious mischief and two counts of conspiracy in the August attack on a duplex they considered a blight on the community. (more…)

I just saw an interview of this mayor recently and he seems like the real deal. His tactics did not seem to be “photo ops”. The impression I got from him that the people hired him to do a job and he was just tired of politics.

(Anybody who is more familiar with this story than I, please chime in.)

Here are some of his past quotations as recorded on Wikipedia (source):

“Now the election is over and it is time for our city to move forward together. To do so, we must build a team with the best people that Jackson and the surrounding area have to offer. To be on my team, you must have a passion for your job and serving others. In my administration there will be no politics … no race … and no negative influences. If this is the sort of environment you would like to work in, I encourage you strongly to apply for a position with the city of Jackson.” — Frank Melton

“To our youth … You want a job, you have one with the city. But we have a rule—we will not pay you a dime until you do something to help someone in your neighborhood. … To qualify for this program, you must be in school with acceptable behavior, and you must be in church on Sunday. While I must admit that I am crossing the line with this request, I must tell you that I was one of you as a teenager.” — Frank Melton, Inaugural Address, 4 July 2005

“I want to publicly apologize about my language. When you’re being backed up against the wall, there is so much a man can take. I am going to spend the next 30 days working on my language.” — Frank Melton, one day after a “rambling, obscenity-laced and somewhat incoherent” live telephone interview on WMPR-90.1 FM, 4 May 2006

“(The media) come and ask me questions, then they run out and ask the public what they think, like I give a sh*t what they say. You come and set me up and then ask people what do you think. If I cared what they think, I’d ask them before I answered your stupid question.” - Frank Melton, post-City Council Meeting comment with camera running, February 28, 2006

“I will cream you personally.” - Frank Melton, post-news conference statement to reporter, March 10, 2006

“Before you go up in there and f*ck him, make sure he gets a job.” - Frank Melton, comment to young women after an 11:55 p.m. search of a private home resulting in no arrests, April 2, 2006.

“I am the ultimate authority.” - Frank Melton, in response to allegations of abuse of power, May 1, 2006

“It’s been such a stressful two weeks. I wanted to shake their hands. I wanted to touch them. That’s all it was.” - Frank Melton, explaining why he had police pull over four school buses on their way home on an interstate on a Friday afternoon, May 3, 2006 (related)

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The Los Angeles most folks forgot

(dailynews.com) “…Rodney King,” says longtime African-American activist Danny Bakewell, “was merely really the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Bakewell and others say King was the symbol of the two cultures that had historically co-existed in Los Angeles and of the increasingly noticeable inequalities in virtually every aspect of life - inequalities that suddenly could be documented on videotape and evoke human rage when shown over and over again in the new age of the technological revolution.

“The biggest problem we had,” says Bakewell, who today is the publisher and editor of The Sentinel, the city’s largest African-American newspaper, “was how do you lock down the rage so that the community is not completely annihilated in terms of all the burning and the looting?”

The answers did not come easily. The immediate solutions proved wrong.

Corporations pledged $500 million to Rebuild L.A., which was created to help the riot-torn areas recover but which actually spent much of the money elsewhere, according to records archived at Loyola Marymount University.

The Los Angeles Community Development Bank, the other major public-private partnership formed to resurrect riot-torn South Los Angeles, is also history - mired by bad or questionable loans and, according to one report, having seen only 11 percent of the jobs it created going to the people it was supposed to serve.

“All those well-intentioned programs were doomed from the start,” says John Bryant, founder and board chairman of Operation Hope, the nation’s first nonprofit investment banking organization, which was born within days of the riots.

What has resurrected South Los Angeles, say Bakewell, Bryant and other business leaders of the area, has been good old-fashion capitalism.” (more…)

When I read the above article, I could not help but see the similarities between South Central Los Angeles and New Orleans. I remember the outrage many of my Black brothas and sistahs voiced over how these poor and innocent folks were victims of an America that forgot about them–never once including themselves in the blame. While it became popular to heap all the blame on government failure, the self-fueled criminal environment of New Orleans that existed before the storm proved to be too much for “spokespersons of Black pain and poverty”.

This is from the website leftturn.org:

(excerpted, but you can read the whole thing here)

We, the undersigned, represent a wide range of grassroots New Orleans organizers, activists, artists, educators, media makers, health care providers and other community members concerned about the fate of our city. This letter is directed to all those around the world concerned about the fate of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, but is especially intended for US-based nonprofit organizations, foundations, and other institutions with resources and finances that have been, or could be, directed towards the Gulf Coast.

In the days after the storm, there were many promises of support made to the people of New Orleans. Promises from not only the federal government, but also an array of nongovernmental organizations, such as progressive and liberal foundations and nonprofits. Small and large organizations have done fundraising on our behalf, promising to deliver resources and support to the people of New Orleans.

Many organizations and individuals have supported New Orleans-led efforts with time, resources, and advocacy on our behalf, and for this we are very grateful. These organizations followed through on their promises and offered support in a way that was respectful, responsible, and timely.

However, we are writing this letter to tell you that, aside from these very important exceptions, the support we need has not arrived, or has been seriously limited, or has been based upon conditions that become an enormous burden for us.

While we remain in crisis, understaffed, underfunded and in many cases in desperate need of help, we have seen promises go unfulfilled. From the perspective of the poorest and least powerful, it appears that the work of national allies on our behalf has either not happened or if it has happened it has been a failure.

[…]

In 15 months we have hosted visits by countless representatives from an encyclopedic list of prominent organizations and foundations. We have given hundreds of tours of affected areas, and we have assisted in the writing of scores of reports and assessments. We have participated in or assisted in organizing panels and workshops and conferences. We have supplied housing and food and hospitality to hundreds of supporters promising to return with funding and resources, to donate staff and equipment and more. It seems hundreds of millions of dollars have been raised in our name, often using our words, or our stories.

However, just as the government’s promises of assistance, such as the “Road Home” program, remain largely out of reach of most New Orleanians, we have also seen very little money and support from liberal and progressive sources.

Instead of prioritizing efforts led by people who are from the communities most affected, we have seen millions of dollars that was advertised as dedicated towards Gulf Coast residents either remain unspent, or shuttled to well-placed outsiders with at best a cursory knowledge of the realities faced by people here. Instead of reflecting local needs and priorities, many projects funded reflect outside perception of what our priorities should be. We have seen attempts to dictate to us what we should do, instead of a real desire to listen and struggle together. We have heard offers of strategic advice, but there have been very few resources offered to help us carry it out.

Again, this is a Liberal website who has publically acknowledged this contradiction.

Another truth that has somehow vanished out of online discussion regrading New Orleans is how the Federal government did in fact allocate $334 million as of January of this year to that city, but…

…Louisiana had forwarded only $145 million to the city. State officials have said city leaders failed to provide required documentation, which Nagin called cumbersome.

Also, eight months after it was hired, a Virginia-based consulting company in charge of dispensing billions in federal aid to people whose homes were damaged by hurricanes Katrina and Rita has received 101,000 applications but handed out fewer than 300 grants. (more…)

Listen, vote for whoever you wish. I believe that there are plenty of good Democrats out there who genuinely care about the problems associated with impoverished areas. Unfortunately many of them are too intimidated to speak out against the Liberal undercurrent that has taken over their party–the same undercurrent that has used these communities for personal political gain. Hey, you don’t have to like me or my opinions. All I ask is of you is to look at these two examples (Los Angeles–South Central and New Orleans), look at the political party that has been in charge over these cities FOR YEARS (and if you are into race, look at the race of these politicians) and make up your own mind.

Take a lesson from the “South Central” page of history and stop repeating it.

Understanding the pay gap

(realclearpolitics.com)”…The National Committee on Pay Equity used the occasion to announce that among full-time workers, women make only 77 cents for every dollar paid to men. The three leading Democratic presidential candidates have all endorsed legislation to fix the problem.

And the effort got new fuel from a report by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Educational Foundation, which says women are paid less starting with their first jobs out of college, and that the deficit only grows with time. Pay discrimination, says AAUW, is still “a serious problem for women in the work force.”

[…]

On its face, the evidence in the AAUW study looks damning. “One year out of college,” it says, “women working full-time earn only 80 percent as much as their male colleagues earn. Ten years after graduation, women fall farther behind, earning only 69 percent as much as men earn.”

But read more, and you learn things that don’t get much notice on Equal Pay Day. As the report acknowledges, women with college degrees tend to go into fields like education, psychology and the humanities, which typically pay less than the sectors preferred by men, such as engineering, math and business. They are also more likely than men to work for nonprofit groups and local governments, which do not offer salaries that Alex Rodriguez would envy.

As they get older, many women elect to work less so they can spend time with their children. A decade after graduation, 39 percent of women are out of the work force or working part time — compared with only 3 percent of men. When these mothers return to full-time jobs, they naturally earn less than they would have if they had never left.) (more…)

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Ouch!!

PARIS (Reuters) — Sitting in a cafe near the Champs Elysees, the 26-year-old French-born woman of Algerian descent looks like any other Parisian. But two months ago, she did something none of her friends have done.

She had her hymen re-sewn, technically making her a virgin again.

“I’m glad I had it done,” said the woman, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. “I wanted to reconstruct part of my life, to reconstruct myself so that I could feel better about myself.”

[…]

“Many of my patients are caught between two worlds,” said Abecassis. They have had sex already but are expected to be virgins at marriage according to a custom that he called “cultural and traditional, with enormous family pressure”. (more…)

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One of our baby girls is missing (4/29/07)

ANGELIQUE ARIEL ALFORD
Case Type: Missing
DOB: Aug 8, 1992
Sex: Female
Missing Date: Mar 24, 2007
Race: Black
Age Now: 14
Height: 5′4″ (163 cm)
Missing City: RICHMOND
Weight: 130 lbs (59 kg)
Missing State : VA
Hair Color: Brown
Missing Country: United States
Eye Color: Brown
Case Number: USVAVA07-253
Circumstances: Angelique has a scar on her left arm that is approximately 3 inches. She was last seen wearing white shoes and blue jeans. She may still be in the local area.

ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
Virginia Missing Children’s Clearinghouse
1-800-822-4453
Henrico County Police Department Officer D.A. Ojibway (804) 501-5000

My quick thought for today

“If what you do in the privacy of your own home is your business, then the results of what you do in the privacy of your own home should also be your business.”

~me

Is the Purpose Driven movement all that it is cracked up to be?

Bob DeWaay and Brian Flynn of Critical Issues Commentary did what I thought was an excellent study on the Purpose Driven movement that has swept over the church in the past few years. I heard one pastor mention that roughly 70% of churches are involved in this movement in some way, shape or form.

In a nutshell, the Purpose Driven movement was ignited by a book written by a Southern California pastor by the name of Rick Warren. Warren’s ability to break the gospel down in practical terms and how churches can present it made this book very popular in both Christian and secular markets.

While historically Black churches tend to stick to more traditional ways of both presenting and living the gospel, many of our non-denominational churches have grabbed on to this genre of teaching as well.

This 15-part podcast series can be accessed here. Or if you like, you can read the free online version of the book “A Berean’s Discernment Tool for The Purpose Driven Life” by clicking here.

Herbal Remedies

Written by Glen Ellis for Real Health magazine

(realhealthmag.com) “Like many of you, I too, have been confused by the reports published over the last year, by several prominent medical journals, asserting that some of the popular herbal supplements that many people (including myself) have used for years to address some common health issues are not effective.

Among the herbs cited as “ineffective” are, Black Cohosh, used for menopausal symptoms; Echinacea, used for the immune system; and Glucosamine Sulfate, used for arthritis and joint issues.

As a responsible herbalist and homeopath for over twenty years, supporting clients, and their doctors, in a variety of health issues, I have anecdotal evidence, supporting the “healing power” of each of these for their respective purported purposes. I can think of several specific cases where Glucosamine Sulfate helped arthritis sufferers resume a quality of life that was once lost to joint pain and stiffness. I also recall the 87 year old woman in great pain from a viral induced infection of Shingles. I remember her offering me her monthly Social Security check (which I refused) in gratitude for my suggestion that she try Echinacea.” (read more…)

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BlackInformant.com makes “Best of Political Blogs” for New York Daily News

I just noticed this from my server logs.

Thanks NY Daily News and the person who submitted it!

[link]

The importance of sowing good seeds

The other week I received a phone call from an area code I wasn’t that familiar with. Normally I will just let it roll over to voice mail, but for whatever reason I decided to answer it. On the other end I heard the voice of someone I had not heard from for years. It was a young lady that I, along with a few others mentored some years ago. It was so good hearing from her. She told me that she spent around $30 for a location service to locate my wife and I only to hit a brick wall. She found an old e-mail address for my mom and that is how she was able to contact me.

As we talked, I couldn’t help but remember all the trials and tribulations I watched her go through over the years. When I first met her, I was single and in my mid twenties and she was still in high school. At that time I was working on a part time basis with a non-profit organization that targeted youth in my area. I was working in North Jersey at the time and a co-worker friend of mine told me about her and her family. I finally had the opportunity to meet her and her family at a conference in North Carolina and the rest was history.

The organization I was working with decided to relocate to Atlanta and it wasn’t long that I decided to do the same to work with them on a full time basis. It also wasn’t long that this young lady made the move as well after she graduated from high school to attend Clark-Atlanta U. This was a good move for her because her home life was not the greatest. In Atlanta, she had the comfort of knowing a few folks from Jersey that she could lean on whenever she needed us.

Long story short, during her time in Atlanta, life pitched her a series of curve balls — one of which resulted in a baby. By this time I was married and my wife and I loved her no less. When I left Atlanta and the rest of the East coast, I left behind many folks over the years I had spent time with helping them to grow into mature adults (quite a few of them I have no idea of their current whereabouts). Hearing from this young woman really made me happy as she has sent me pictures of her beautiful daughter. They are both doing fine and currently reside with family in Florida.

What really touched me was that her friend (another person whom I spent a lot of time mentoring), is doing very good as well. In fact, both of them went on this mini quest to find “Mr. Brayboy”. Like the first young lady, she too came from a very troubled background that I will not go into at this time. Today, she is happily married and also has a child.

To be completely honest with you, I am always quite hesitant talking about such things on this site because I never want it to seem that I am boasting (for once, I am at a loss of words—hopefully some of you understand what I am trying to say). In this case, I just feel downright proud and happy for them because despite the times of doubt, it was the Lord who ultimately carried these young ladies who have today arrived to womanhood.

Sometimes you really wonder if you have made a difference. Talking to this young lady answered that for me.

(P.S. They are planning to come see my family and I later this year. I am looking forward to it)

After the riots

(latimes.com) Fifteen years after the 1992 riots, South Los Angeles has seen dramatic population shifts — but frustratingly little economic progress.

Latinos are a growing presence in a community that was once the center of African American life. Many middle-class black and Latino families have moved out of the area for better schools and safer streets. Those remaining are disproportionately poorer and have fewer job skills.

New grocery stores have opened since the riots — a longtime goal of residents and activists. Yet the area still suffers the region’s highest unemployment and underemployment rates.

By almost any economic measure, South Los Angeles has lost ground compared with the city and county. The area, bordered roughly by the Santa Monica and Century freeways between Alameda Boulevard and west to the city limits, grew jobs by only 0.4% from 1993 to 2005, versus 24.6% growth for L.A. County as a whole, according to the state Employment Development Department. The area’s average wage grew 21.3% in that period, versus 47.3% for the county.

[…]

Many middle-class African American and Latino families have moved to such places as Baldwin Hills, the Inland Empire and Lancaster. From 1990 to 2000, the African American population of San Bernardino County rose 34% and the number of Latino residents surged by 79%, according to census data.

Those who remain in South L.A. have less education and fewer job skills, Flaming said. Forty-five percent of adults in the community do not have high school diplomas, and 37% of those with jobs are considered to be among the state’s working poor, he said.

And more of the residents are Latino. Although experts disagree on the exact numbers, South L.A.’s Latino population has grown dramatically since the 1992 riots, hitting 54% by 2000 versus 38% for African Americans, according to the Los Angeles City Planning Department. (more…)

Quick thoughts:

And of course this article doesn’t mention the amount of illegals (Mexicans, Asians, etc.) that make up this issue. While there are many good places within the region where former LA residents are relocating, the article also fails to mention the jump in crime statistics in these areas since the riots (read). I mention this because there are much deeper issues here than the lack of better education and employment.

Speaking of education, here is something worth thinking about…

* The LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) annual budget is currently around $11 BILLION dollars. They are also in the midst of a $19.2 BILLION dollar school construction and repair program (I do not know if the $11B is included in this number). Wanna know the total annual budget for the entire city of Los Angeles?

$6.7 BILLION!!! (source)

You read that correctly. It is cheaper to run the entire city of Los Angeles than to fund its failing public school system.

Question for you:

With an ever-increasing cost of living rate within the city of Los Angeles and a population with a high concentration of non-English speakers (numbers of whom are illegal)– combine that with the portion who no matter what will fully use the resources around them to move ahead, what else can the city do? With this type of demographic, what businesses could actually pay enough to help lift these folks out of poverty?

South LA still exists, even after the riots. Perhaps it will take the crime of yet another 4 White police officers to get the attention of the nation again to this depressing issue.

Related

(source)
THE latest standardized test results show that nearly one-third of Los Angeles Unified students don’t have the skills to pass the high school exit exam.

That’s roughly triple the state failure rate, which is bad enough. But it gets worse, much worse, when those numbers are considered with the district’s dropout rate of about 50 percent.

Taken together, it begins to be clear that students entering their senior year September at Los Angeles Unified School District high schools have catastrophically bad chances of getting the skills they need to graduate in June and go on to further education or training so they can lead productive lives. This is a serious breakdown in our educational system. While some improvement is being made among younger students, the fixes that have been undertaken aren’t going to come in time to help the 31 percent of those entering their senior year who still need to pass the English and math portions of the exit exam. And the evidence still is spotty whether improvements among younger students are carrying over to high school.

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The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, in conjunction with UCLA, produced a controversial report last spring saying that official dropout statistics in California’s largest school districts were shockingly out of sync with reality. The researchers found that only 48% of the L.A. Unified students who started ninth grade in 1999 graduated four years later. The district claims a graduation rate of 66%.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who wants to take over the school district, jumped on the study to assert that half of the students in L.A. Unified were dropping out.

School district officials said that was wrong, since the UCLA numbers included as dropouts students who had left to continue their education elsewhere. They put the dropout rate for 2003-04 at 33%.

[…]

The debate can be seen in microcosm at Birmingham High. UCLA calculated the graduation rate at Birmingham at 50%. L.A. Unified, using federal formulas, puts it at nearly 80%, with just 3.5% classified as dropouts. (source)

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CNN Finally Recognizes Dropout Rate Scandal

If THEY say it, react, respond, get downright angry!

There has been yet another disturbance in the force–the blackosphere. This time, Darth Limbaugh has dropped one on Obama…or did he?

I even got an e-mail on this, so I figured I would say something about it.

Question: Where did Rush get the inspiration to create the “Barack the Magic Negro” song?

A. From a recent Klan meeting
B. From President Bush and V.P. Cheney
C. A Black liberal
D. “He’s a racist cracka, who cares?”

If you said “C”, you are correct!

In all the posts and comments that I have read over the past day or so, NOT-ONE-PERSON mentioned the fact that David Ehrenstein for the LA Times was the individual who first referred to Obama as the “Magic Negro” (you can check Technorati for yourself. Please prove me wrong–I’m very serious!).

Ehrenstein writes (source):

AS EVERY CARBON-BASED life form on this planet surely knows, Barack Obama, the junior Democratic senator from Illinois, is running for president. Since making his announcement, there has been no end of commentary about him in all quarters — musing over his charisma and the prospect he offers of being the first African American to be elected to the White House.

But it’s clear that Obama also is running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination — the “Magic Negro.”

He then mentions a link on Wikipedia that further explains what is a “magic negro”. Let’s jump there for a minute (again, this is the definition Ehrenstein pointed to):

The magical negro is typically “in some way outwardly or inwardly disabled, either by discrimination, disability or social constraint,” often a janitor or prisoner. He has no past; he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist. He is the black stereotype, “prone to criminality and laziness.” To counterbalance this, he has some sort of magical power, “rather vaguely defined but not the sort of thing one typically encounters.” They are patient and wise, often dispensing various words of wisdom, and are “closer to the earth.”

The magical negro serves as a plot device to help the protagonist get out of trouble, typically through helping the white character recognize his own faults and overcome them. In this way, the magical negro is similar to the Deus ex machina; a simple way for the protagonist to overcome an obstacle almost entirely through outside help. Although he has magical powers, his “magic is ostensibly directed toward helping and enlightening a white male character.” It is this feature of the magical negro that some people find most troubling. Although the character seems to be showing African-Americans in a positive light, he is still ultimately subordinate to whites. He is also regarded as an exception, allowing white America to “like individual black people but not black culture.”

To save the white protagonist, however, he would do anything, including sacrificing himself, as Sidney Poitier did in The Defiant Ones, the prototypical magical negro movie. (source)

If I was an Obama supporter, I would frankly find this definition quite offensive. The definition clearly paints the picture of a individual who ultimately has no real power unless he is a subordinate to Whites. This is a slap in the face of all of those (some I have personally challenged) who have expressed that Obama is well-qualified to be the next president. When this article first came out, I remember only a few Black bloggers and websites out there who referenced it. Rush made it into a song and now folks are ready to yank him off the air on the grounds of (gasp!) blatant racism.

“But when Ehrenstein said it…”

Awwww, nevermind!

Instead of looking for the latest offense, put together a solid list detailing WHY some of you have already made the choice to vote for him (this is my ump-teenth time asking for this).

P.S. If I have made some of you angry with this post, if you feel that I have completely “sold out” to the White man by defending Rush on this particular issue, I want to hear from you. No one-liners–explain yourself after reading all the above information.

Seriously, do you think that it would have mattered?

According to this writer, Republican candidates missed an opportunity during the Imus controversy.

Don Imus controversy made clear the GOP party is still clueless when it comes to race and representing the kind of party that is inclusive to African-Americans and perhaps, minorities as a whole.

Republican presidential candidates missed an opportunity to make political gains with a broader electorate outside of the usual hardcore conservative base. There was an opportunity for presidential hopefuls — former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Senator John McCain, former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and other candidates to win some hearts and minds from an unlikely GOP voting block.

What Imus said was wrong. This was a legitimate issue; it would have been appropriate to speak out. More importantly, it was the right thing to do. Instead John McCain and Rudy Giuliani both accepted his apology even before the Rutgers women’s basketball team did; Mike Huckabee criticized Imus’ comments but also mentioned that Bill Maher and other celebrities should be fired as well. While it is accurate that Maher and other celebrities have said some outrages and offensive things; those are separates issues and they have nothing to do with the comments made by Imus. Likewise, the rest of the republican field stayed silent. (more…)

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To most Black Americans, the Republican party will ALWAYS be the party of racists. It does not matter how many initiatives this party targets towards the Black community, most Blacks will forever raise the bar of expectation for Republicans while continuing to accept the usual from the Democratic party. Somewhere in the halls of the DNC, folks are laughing their butts off every time another Black activist group demands that the Democrat party should earn their vote. They are laughing because since the Civil Rights era they have absorbed the black vote without having to earn it. Oh sure, Democrats have involved Blacks when they needed our vote. But when I look at the condition of our schools or the continuous problem of homelessness that historically hovers within Democratic districts, it kinda makes one wonder (This is the point where a hard core Democrat will chime in by suggesting that it was the Republican party that hindered Democratic progress. Man, just stop it! Hold Democrats to account for once).

This is also the point where some may think that I will give some sort of “alter call” to receive salvation from the Republican party. Let me put a halt to the organ music right now by telling you that the Republican party is no more the party for Blacks than Democrats. Both parties have made it very clear that their new political Negro are illegals from Mexico as they have virtually ignored the effects illegal immigration is having on our schools and other social services frequently used by us.

The Democratic party has successfully made itself a permanent part of Black Americana, so any efforts by Republicans at this point persuade Blacks en masse is futile. As it stands now despite recent efforts in the past few years to recruit more Blacks in the Republican fold, a Black Republican (or Conservative for that matter) is still considered an “Uncle Tom” and “sell out” while a Black Democrat is considered “authentically Black” (man, you cannot buy that kind of loyalty). No initiative in the world could erase that ideology. Black critics like the writer of the excerpt above is simply continuing the game of dangling the carrot only to yank it at the last second. If she really believes that some “formal” announcement from the RNC against Imus would have yielded potential Black voters, I have a couple of fortified levees in New Orleans she might be interested in.

P.S. Mind you, notice how she mentioned nothing about the fact that Obama had to be prodded by the media to comment on the same issue.

Related

Congressional Black Caucus on school vouchers
Carrot Dangling

Factory jobs quickly become a thing of the past

(clarionledger.com) WASHINGTON — Three weeks ago, Dawn Zimmer became a statistic.

Laid off from her job assembling trucks at Freightliner’s plant in Portland, Ore., she and 800 of her colleagues joined a long line of U.S. manufacturing workers who have lost jobs in recent years. A total of 3.2 million - one in six factory jobs - have disappeared since the start of 2000.

Many people believe those jobs never will come back.

“They are building a multimillion-dollar plant in Mexico, and they are going to build the Freightliners down there. They came in and videotaped us at work so they could train the Mexican workers,” said Zimmer, 55, who had worked at Freightliner since 1994.

That’s the issue for American workers. Many of their jobs are moving overseas, to Mexico and China and elsewhere.

[…]

Princeton economist Alan Blinder, who was vice chairman of the Federal Reserve during the Clinton administration, says the number of jobs at risk of being shipped out of the country could reach 40 million over the next 10 to 20 years. That would be one out of every three service sector jobs that could be at risk.

Those lost manufacturing jobs are fueling an intense debate over globalization - the increasing connection of the United States and other economies. (more…)

And no matter WHAT politician claims that if he/she is elected, they will bring jobs back to the US, don’t believe it. With countries like Mexico, China, India and South Africa proving to the world that they can do the same work for less, the globalization dam is already broken. Anything else is nothing more than empty campaign promises where the future president will spend the entire duration of his/her term blaming past presidents for failure to produce.

With this in mind, this is also why the consistent raising of the minimum wage gives folks very little incentive to move out of the dependent class and into more secure professions.

“Diversity” comes to Beverly Hills High School–at what cost?

(myfoxla.com) BEVERLY HILLS — Black parents and civil rights leaders will present applications today for Beverly Hills High School’s diversity program, which was modified after complaints that it benefited few black and Latino students.

At an April 12 meeting with civil rights leaders, Superintendent Kari McVeigh extended the deadline 13 days to tomorrow and decided to stop considering applicants’ test scores, grades, writing samples and extracurricular activities in determining who is accepted. Instead, the granting of permits will be on a random basis.

The diversity permit program allows 40 students from 12 Los Angeles Unified School District middle schools to attend Beverly Hills High School, which has higher test scores, smaller classes and more Advanced Placement courses than most LAUSD schools.

On April 2, the Los Angeles Times reported that the students in the diversity permit program are mostly Asian. The next day, Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson called a news conference and wrote McVeigh, seeking to have more black and Latino students receive diversity permits. (more…)

Give it a few years and you will not be able to tell the difference between BHHS and most LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) schools which rank close to last in the nation. The colleges and universities in this state tried this same thing years ago and were forced by voters to abandon it (although some of these same “leaders” are trying to force UCLA to resurrect this policy).

Bottom line: True Black progress does not come at the expense of lowering standards or abandoning test scores. These “leaders” simply lack the will to go up against teacher unions to demand for better administration of public schools here in California.

Weak and sickening!

The history behind mealtimes

A very interesting read!

(history-magazine.com) TODAY WE DON’T always agree on the names and times of our meals. Some of us have dinner at eight, while others have supper at five. It wasn’t always that way.

The names of meals and their general times were once quite standard. Everyone in medieval England knew that you ate breakfast first thing in the morning, dinner in the middle of the day, and supper not long before you went to bed, around sundown. The modern confusion arose from changing social customs and classes, political and economic developments, and even from technological innovations.

Despite our stereotypes of big English breakfasts of sausages, kippers (sardines), toast, tomatoes, etc., big breakfasts weren’t really common until the Victorian age. Breakfast before the 1800s was usually just toast or some variation of gruel or porridge, except when a lavish spread was offered to impress guests. The main meal of the day was dinner.

In the Middle Ages, great nobles ate the most formal dinner, around noon or one p.m. Their dinner was more than a meal; it was an ostentatious display, a statement of wealth and power, with dozens of servants attending in a ritualized performance. (more…)

And now it has dwindled down to a bowl of Captain Crunch and leftover wings from last night (Oops! Did I say that out loud?)

Cuban hip hop artist “breaks it down”

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) — Working on an old computer with a burned-out monitor, Cuban rapper Aldo Rodriguez painstakingly lays the tracks for his next song.

Sitting shirtless on the edge of his bed, tattoos up and down both arms, the 23-year-old says he’s not afraid to speak his mind in the communist country run by Fidel Castro for decades. His lyrics are punchy and edgy, tackling issues that the state would prefer not to be aired.

“I’ve pointed out the things that seem wrong to me, and the people like it,” he says. “They like to hear it because they identify with what they hear in the songs.

“It’s not anything bad. It’s just the truth, and the people aren’t used to hearing it.” (Watch a Cuban rapper speak his mind )

His group — Los Aldeanos, or “The Villagers” — is one of Cuba’s best-known underground hip-hop acts. It’s earned credibility with lyrics that condemn racism, police harassment, prostitution and inequality — criticisms often heard in Cuba’s streets, but controlled by the state in the media.

For example, in their song “Ya Nos Cansamos,” roughly translated “We’re Fed Up,” you’ll hear these lines:

“They’re always saying we’re all equal
But you tell me if the doorways are crumbling in the generals’ houses.
Of course all the hospitals in Cuba are free
But who do they treat better, the officers, or me?”

(more…)

The sun sets on the Black Family Channel

(multichannel.com) Atlanta-based Black Family Channel is expected to end its run as a 24-hour channel once talks with Gospel Music Channel are finalized later this week.

The two parties are negotiating a deal in which BFC will yield its 16 million subscribers to 10 million-subscriber Gospel, along with its blessings, effectively ending its run as a linear cable channel as of April 30.

But BFC executives said the network will “not shut down operations,” although it’s unclear in what capacity it will exist.

[…]

Despite its star power and its unique positioning — along with BET and TV One — as a national network targeting African-American audiences, BFC was unable to secure significant cable and satellite distribution to continue to fund the network, according to sources, thus leading to the Gospel negotiations. (more…)

Interesting on many levels.

Precious cargo from Haiti

It is stories like this that I use in my case that despite some of the problems here in America, this country is by far the best option for those that live in hopeless situations.

(miamiherald.com) One by one they walked in: five girls in spring flower dresses with their hair neatly braided, nine boys in black slacks and white shirts. No one noticed the children — ages 10 to 17 — until the priest interrupted his homily.

”These are the kids from the boat,” the Rev. Reginald Jean-Mary told a packed Notre Dame d’Haiti Catholic Church just as the children took their seats up front.

At their first visit to the Little Haiti church, the young survivors — who had remained nameless and faceless since they arrived from Haiti on a rickety wooden sailboat that washed up on Hallandale Beach March 28 — brought tears to Notre Dame’s parishioners.

Emotions ran deep at the Sunday services — just one day after 1,200 mourners had come to the same church to bury the one known man who didn’t survive among 102 who arrived on the trip: Lifaite Lully, 24.

The children didn’t speak but gave church members an insight into their harrowing journey through a song they asked to sing in their native Creole.

”Deliver me, oh Lord. I feel I am drowning,” the children sang, some choking back tears. “Water is getting to my neck. I feel like I am stuck in mud. I don’t have anywhere for me to rest my head. A lot of people are making me suffer, they turn me into an enemy. They put me in jail for nothing.”

As the Haitian children — all designated as ”unaccompanied minors” by immigration authorities — sang, parishioners joined in and teared up. Some in the crowded church wailed loudly as if they, too, were reliving the trip that Haitians on board said took 22 days — much of it without food or water, and at one point cooking rice with saltwater. (more…)