The Black Informant

Seven sistahs of summer

(blackfilm.com) “When it comes to films in general, there are never enough roles for women on the screen, let enough leading roles, or roles for African American women, but so far this year, we have seen a good share of prominent roles go to Black women. While Halle Berry is the only one to have a leading role in “Perfect Stranger”, some supporting roles were given with Meagan Good in “Stomp The Yard”, Thandie Newton in “Norbit”, Gabrielle Union in “Daddy’s Little Girls”, S. Epatha Merkerson in “Black Snake Moan”, Kimberly Elise in “Pride”, Jada Pinkett Smith in “Reign Over Me”, Nia Long in “Are We Done Yet?”, Tracie Thoms and Sydney Tamaii Poitier in “Grindhouse”, Vivica A. Fox in “The Salon”, and Victoria Rowell in “Home of the Brave”. (more…)

#

Mayors in charge

Should mayors take charge over public school systems?

Kevin P. Chavous over at edspresso.com responds:

Mayoral involvement cannot be lukewarm or tepid. It must be real and tangible. Such involvement has to be respectful of the local political and historical nuances of the city. Moreover, the mayor’s vision must be aligned with realistic goals and expectations that will ultimately lead to better educational opportunities for our children. Mayors also have the ability to shepherd local resources together to work collaboratively for children.

Yes, it clearly would do more harm than good if mayoral education reform plans get tied up in naïve political agendas that are unrealistic and not kids focused. Mayors do need to understand that their role in leading public school reform initiatives is not about the coalescing of political power, but rather to serve to align education offerings with better accountability and management. (source)

A plan with no money

(wdsu.com) NEW ORLEANS — A $14.4 billion rebuilding blueprint for New Orleans passed its first regulatory hurdle Tuesday, with the city planning commission approving the plan — but the panel gave it a less-than-ringing endorsement.

Commissioner Edward Robinson Sr. and other board members said the plan is an imperfect starting point to charting the recovery and rebuilding of New Orleans, but it’s “movable.”

[…]

The plan, which calls for such things as elevating and clustering neighborhoods, is the latest in a litany of proposals that have come forward since Katrina hit in August 2005. It’s been billed as the most comprehensive, developed after a months-long planning process that included extensive public comment.

But it — like its predecessors — has one basic problem: It comes with no money. Finding the money needed to move major infrastructure projects forward has been one of the city’s biggest problems; police are still working out of trailers. Even all the money eyed for city recovery director Edward Blakely’s smaller, $1.1 billion plan is far from being secured. (more…)

Reading this really makes me sick in so many ways. Before Katrina, New Orleans was a forgotten wasteland of corrupt politics, an ever-increasing homicide rate, large welfare demographic, and bad public schools. Each year, folks would flock to this city for one thing only–Mardi Gras. During all those years I cannot recall not one time hearing folks make a big deal about all the issues I just mentioned. Katrina came and folks raised pure hell from coast to coast with a few whip slashes shy of making the Katrina story into a full revisitation of Black slavery in America.

Fast forward to today and who is one of the main roadblocks keeping much needed money away from this city?

Mayor Ray Nagin and state government.

As of Jan. 18, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had agreed to pay $334 million for infrastructure repairs in New Orleans, 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. (source)

I say, fire Nagin and replace him with some crusty ol’ “racist” White man (hmmmmm, let’s see ………) I KNOW! Don Imus. With Imus in charge, the case could be made (grit your teeth in anger when you read at this point) that it is HE via his r-r-r-r-racist motivations who is withholding money from this city full of po’ Black folks in order to drive them away to make it into a White city (This would not work under Nagin—okay, stop gritting your teeth)…

(Could you imagine the outrage? Man, there would be a march every week!)

…’cause Lawd knows with decades of maintaining the status quo under mediocure Black leadership, New Orleans is on the fast track of returning to its pre-Katrina era.

But I hear the food is still good!

Muslims “very happy” with their lives in the U.S. than Europe

(iht.com) WASHINGTON: A new poll of American Muslims reveals a group that is better assimilated, more content and less politically polarized than counterpart Muslim populations in Western Europe - but also smaller in number than some Muslim groups had estimated.

For the survey, the Pew Research Center interviewed nearly 60,000 respondents - in Arabic, Urdu, Farsi or English - to find a representative sample of 1,050 respondents, for what appears to be one of the more rigorously complete looks at a population that is not well understood.

As a whole, the poll found a largely content and hard-working U.S. Muslim population, and one that is fast assimilating. Though 4 in 10 have arrived since 1990, a large proportion say their closest friends are non-Muslims. Their incomes are close to the national average. Even more than the general public, they say they believe that by working hard they can get ahead.

Eight in 10 said they were “very happy” or “pretty happy” with their lives.

But young American Muslims - those under 30 - were more accepting of extremism. They were far more likely than their older counterparts to see themselves as Muslims first rather than as Americans first. (more…)

#

Putting a face on the statistics

For the next couple of weeks or so, I will be doing a series of posts that will feature our young Black men or women who have had their lives cut short due to homicide from around the country.

Rattling off gobs of homicide statistics is very easy–all you have to do is COPY and PASTE–BAM! You made your point. However, after all the debating is over there is still somebody out there who is without a father, son, brother, sister, mom or friend due to the “statistics” we so freely throw around.

====

(latimes.com) Funeral services were held Tuesday at First AME church in the West Adams district for Watts homicide victim Mario Jackson, 45, one of the victims of a double homicide May 6. (source)

Comment from a LAPD detective:

I am pleased to see the blog (LA Times blog) posts and well wishes for the family of Mario Jackson, who along with his friend Tierney Yates was senselessly shot and killed during which should have been a night out to enjoy a televised boxing event. The shooting occurred at a private club, and in attendance were over 20 people who by all accounts were acquaintances. The location is a small building with a well-lighted patio area where the shooting occurred. The incident was most likely precipitated by an argument, which caused someone inside to telephone the police and report a disturbance (before the shooting). I was the homicide detective supervisor at this incident, and for the past 20 years it saddens to see the lack of empathy we have for our friends and neighbors in a time of need. I have mourned for thousands of victims over these years, and have attended as many funerals as I care to remember. Having sat with the Jackson and Yates families on the day of their loved one’s deaths, and knowing that this incident was witnessed by so-called friends, it left me speechless in consoling the families for any hope of solving this double murder. For all those in attendance and witnessed this shooting, know that you have given strength to the person responsible, and that no doubt another life will be taken by him without consequences, unless we stand up for our friends and neighbors.

Detective III Sal LaBarbera
OSB Criminal Gang/Homicide Group
Southeast Squad

=====

Police Want More Information About Quadruple Homicide
Quadruple Homicide Victims

Durham (wral.com)— Police have increased its reward to $3,000 for information about the 2005 execution-style slayings of four men at a Durham townhouse.

“We believe several people in our community have additional information regarding this violent crime,” Cpl. David Addison, coordinator for Durham Crime Stoppers, said in an e-mail Thursday.

In October, authorities arrested Rodrick Vernard Duncan in connection with the Nov. 19 shootings of Juan Coleman, 27, Jamel Holloway, 27, Lennis Harris Jr., 24, and Jonathan Skinner, 26, inside the residence at 2222 Alpine Road.

[…]

Investigators said the shootings were not random acts and that the victims were probably targets of a drug-related robbery. Police Chief Steve Chalmers, in a Nov. 21 interview, said the victims knew the men responsible for shooting them and that the assailant went to the townhouse with every intention to kill them. (more…)

Is America ready to elect a minority president? (Carol Swain)

[e-mailed by professor Carol M. Swain]

We must separate the question of whether America is ready to elect a minority president from the individuals currently running on the Democratic ticket. In other words, the success or failure of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama says nothing about the willingness of the country to place its fate in the hands of its first female or first African-American leader.

A March 2007 Gallup Poll shows that most Americans say that they are comfortable voting for a black presidential candidate (84 percent) or for a woman (77 percent). The country is ready for a minority president; but not any of the current Democratic front-runners.

Consider that Hillary Clinton does not seem to fit the bill as a woman whom most Americans feel comfortable supporting. Despite her intelligence, education and experience, polls show that she does not engender the kind of trust and confidence needed to become the nation’s first female president.

In fact, Hillary Clinton has lost ground. A May 2007, Gallup Poll shows that her popularity has fallen steadily. In April, the percentage of Americans that viewed her favorably had fallen from 58 percent in January to 45 percent in April. She
evokes strong positive and negative reactions from the public.

Barack Obama could eventually become the country’s first black male president. But first he has to overcome some disadvantages. He is relatively unknown across much of America, and his detractors dismiss him for not having enough experience. Moreover, he is not the product of old wealth.

Perhaps, Obama’s best chance of becoming president will be after he has served in the No. 2 position on a Democratic ticket headed by a Caucasian male. Such a ticket, I believe, would be a potential winner for the Democrats and for Obama. It would give him the exposure needed for a successful future bid, and it would create much enthusiasm among African-Americans.

Gov. Bill Richardson, another minority candidate, has chosen not to seek media attention as the nation’s first potential Hispanic candidate. As the governor of New Mexico, he is a dark horse with a number of strengths. Although his election would be a historical first, Richardson is shrewd and able to run as a Caucasian male.

Republicans could get into the game by persuading Condoleezza Rice to serve in the No. 2 position on a white-male headed ticket. Unfortunately, however, Rice’s Teflon image has been marred to the point that it is not clear whether she could attract the votes of women or blacks.

I predict America will elect a black or a Hispanic male president long before it elects a woman of any race. At play are our Judeo-Christian, and now Muslim, traditions that have limited the roles of women. Unlike a man, on a global scale, a
woman has to overcome the perception that she will be weak on defense and unable to persuade world leaders of nations where women are viewed as subordinate beings.

In a world where people of color vastly outnumber those of European descent, the “right” minority could make a world of difference in how America is perceived in the world.

Published in the Tennessean, Sunday, May 20, 2007

Beautiful!

Rachida Dati becomes first person of African decent to hold top post in Paris government

(bbc.com) Lawyer Rachida Dati, named as French justice minister by President Sarkozy, is the first person of North African origin to hold a top government post in Paris.

She was born in 1965 to an Moroccan mason father and an Algerian mother, one of 12 children raised in humble circumstances.

At the age of 16, she started working as a carer in a private clinic.

The premature death of her mother forced her to look after her younger sisters and brothers.

“My mother was the light of my life. When I lost her, I thought I had been punished,” she says. (more..)

You think they could have made their lips any bigger?

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish airline Iberia has cut an advertisement showing black Cuban women in bikinis bottle feeding a baby tourist as he sings “feed me mulattas … come on little mamas, take me to my cot” after complaints it was sexist.

A consumer rights group demanded Iberia, Spain’s national flag carrier, pull the ad for online sales as it was offensive to Cuban women and could encourage sex tourism.

The animated cartoon shows young Cuban women driving the baby to the beach, dancing for him and massaging him after he is transported to the Caribbean island via the Iberia Web site. (source)

I came across this article by way of the babalu blog. Below, you will find the actual ad.

When “nanny government” doesn’t listen to her own rules

(kutv.com) A California lawmaker, who favors a penalty for people caught driving while using their cell phone, reportedly caused a car accident this weekend – while she was on her cell phone.

State Sen. Carole Migden, 58, D-San Francisco, was driving her state-issued SUV near Vallejo on Friday morning when she rear-ended another vehicle, according to the California Highway Patrol.

[…]

Last year, Migden voted in favor of a new law that will impose a minimum fine of $20 for drivers caught using a cell phone on the road, without the aid of a hands-free device.

Migden will not be fined, however, because the new law doesn’t take effect until July 2008. (source)

All you can do here is laugh and shake your head.

“You have Black folks and you have N-”

I personally prefer the word “Negroes” here.

This is a quote from taken from Chris Rock back in the day. It is also my response to Sherri Winston’s recent article entitled “The growing divide between poor and middle-class blacks”. She writes:

The May Essence magazine examines the growing divisiveness between poor blacks and the black middle class today. Of course there is a divide: Those of us who’ve “made it” have been taught to despise those who didn’t. However, we’ve also been taught that if we turn our backs on poor blacks, we’re no better than racist whites. (more…)

To this day, folks still give a chuckle or two to what Chris Rock said because IT IS TRUE! In every race you will find two groups of people: those who do what it takes to move ahead and those who fit the “Junebug” profile. So yes, Junebug can be found in all cultures. In the movie Johnson Family Vacation, there was a scene in which family members were trying to distance themselves from this brotha because they knew he was going to tail them for some sort of “hook up”, not because he was poor.

Junebug is not always poor, but has a history of making the point that he/she cannot survive unless you are constantly giving them a free “hook up”. Never mind the fact that it wasn’t free “hook ups” that got you where you are today–you worked your butt off! On the other hand, Junebug will rarely WORK to get his.

While I do believe that we can always do more to help those who are truly unfortunate in our society, Winston’s assertion here that middle class Black folks are taught to despise lower class/poor Blacks is way off. Now if SHE has been taught this, she is the one with the problem, not “we“, because most middle class Black folks I know do not think this way. Deeply woven in our culture is a concern for those who are TRULY less fortunate than us. Check out just about any Black church to see that in action. Junebug is the one we “despise”, not poor folks.

Face it! There will ALWAYS be a portion of society that will do nothing no matter how much you reach out to help them. For those who truly desire to move out of poverty, in most cases help is out there for them–and Black folks will oftentimes be right there helping them out.

There is a whole lot more I could say in response to this piece, but I think I will hold off on it for a later comment or post.

History we can’t forget: Lead Belly

From Wikipedia:

“Huddie William Ledbetter (January 23, 1888 - December 6, 1949) was an American folk and blues musician, notable for his clear and forceful singing, his virtuosity on the twelve string guitar, and the rich songbook of folk standards he introduced. He is best known as Leadbelly or Lead Belly.

Although he most commonly played the twelve string, he could also play the piano, mandolin, harmonica, violin, concertina, and accordion. In some of his recordings, such as in one of his versions of the folk ballad “John Hardy”, he performs on the accordion instead of the guitar.

The topics of Lead Belly’s music covered a wide range of subjects, including gospel songs, blues songs about women, liquor, racism, folk songs about cowboys, prison, work, sailors, cattle herding, dancing, and songs concerning the newsmakers of the day, such as President Franklin Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, the Scottsboro Boys, and multi-millionaire Howard Hughes.

[…]

Lead Belly’s boastful spirit and penchant for the occasional skirmish sometimes led him into trouble with the law, and in January 1918 he was thrown into a Dallas, Texas prison for the second time, this time after killing one of his relatives, Will Stafford, in a fight. It is said that he was released seven years into his twenty year sentence after writing a song appealing to Governor Pat Morris Neff for his freedom. Lead Belly had swayed governor Pat Neff by appealing to Neff’s strong religious values. That, dubbed in combination with good behavior (Including entertaining by playing for the guards and fellow prisoners), was Ledbetter’s ticket out of jail.” (more…)

Also check out the LeadBelly.org official website.

His songs could also be heard on chains gangs during that era.

Debit card fees: WATCH IT!!

(blackenterprise.com) Once upon a time, banks were institutions primarily identified with saving money. Today, many banks seem better known for costing you money. For example, many people use bank debit cards to avoid abusing credit cards. Yet, according to a new study conducted by the Center for Responsible Lending, your bank could hit you with debit card over-draft coverage, at triple-digit (and even quadruple-digit!) interest rates. It’s true, banks can charge up to 1,000 percent interest due to a loophole in the Federal Reserve’s rules. This makes your average credit card interest rate pale by comparison. (more…)

Tracing her roots

Shay of BookerRising talks talks a little bit about her findings as she pieces together her family tree:

“Most importantly, “Roots” was great at emphasizing that black Americans (1) have history and culture before slavery and (2) that we still retain some of it. Since “Roots” aired in 1977, my family has been able to trace our ancestry back seven generations to 1822 in South Carolina on one branch, and back eight generations to 1830 in Mississippi in another branch. Another five branches can also be traced back seven generations, with states like Louisiana, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Alabama in the 1800s mix before my family started leaving the South en masse for Illinois and other Midwestern states beginning in 1923. I am fortunate that — thanks to (1) listings in a family Bible owned by my great-great-grandfather R.W.M., who was our family’s first college graduate and later a college professor and ordained minister beginning in the late 1800s, and (2) a great-great-aunt who recently lived to be 103 as good starts — I can name half of my great-great-great-grandparents. I can also name one great-great-great-great-grandparent. This much information was not known in 1977. I have since learned that Kisie/Kizzy/etc. may be linked to the Kissi tribe in modern-day Sierra Leone and Liberia, so my ancestors may have been doing the sneaky way to maintain African heritage without slaveowners’ knowledge. (more…)

On my last trip to the east coast, my aunt handed me a huge folder of research she and a friend, along with help from family members were able to put together regarding our family tree. My lineage is a combination of both African slaves and Native Americans from the Lumbee nation in the Carolinas. At some point I will take the DNA test to find out more about my African roots.

Coin commemorates Little Rock 9

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Fifty years ago, nine black students faced down a mob to integrate Little Rock Central High School. Now, they are being honored on a commemorative silver coin.

The U.S. Mint introduced the coin Saturday at the NAACP’s Daisy Bates Education Summit, which pays tribute to the Arkansas NAACP leader who served as adviser to the Little Rock Nine. (more…)

Security officers get unionized

(CBS) LOS ANGELES Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced the formation of a union for 4,000 security officers who work in high rises, office buildings and other real estate across the city in a move that would guarantee fair wages and affordable health care.

The union, a joint partnership with the Service Employees International Union, would provide security officers with the opportunity to organize, negotiate new contracts and transform low-wage employment into quality jobs that offer decent pay and access to affordable health care, according to the mayor’s office.

The unionization is the largest African-American labor-led effort currently in the country, said mayor spokesman Darryl Ryan. (more…)

As a person who worked as security officer within the last 5 years, I have very mixed feelings about this. My first impression of course was very positive because the pay for security work here in Southern California is crap compared to other states. Health insurance? HA! Just forget about it because most guards just can’t afford it.

Here is where I have some problems

#Increasing pay WILL NOT increase the quality of work in most cases. Security work is a very transient business where hiring and firing takes place every week mainly because it is grunt work. While there are guards out there who take their jobs seriously, many do not as finding shortcuts becomes the name of the game to make the time go faster. This is not a slight against security guards–it is just the nature of the job.

#When union officials talk about raising wages, what they are really looking at is how much of a cut they can get from “poorly paid” employees who oftentimes will not keep a close watch (fiscally) on their leadership.

#There are a lot of good, yet small security companies out there whose contracts with local businesses aren’t as lucrative as some folks would think. Making it mandatory for them to provide “affordable” health insurance and a increase in pay would put many of these operations out of business–resulting in an increase of unemployment.

Another one of our babies is missing (5/20/07)

JASMINE DENISE DALES
Case Type: Endangered Missing
DOB: May 1, 1992
Sex: Female
Missing Date: Apr 17, 2007
Race: Black
Age Now: 15
Height: 5′1″ (155 cm)
Missing City: NEWPORT NEWS
Weight: 130 lbs (59 kg)
Missing State : VA
Hair Color: Brown
Missing Country: United States
Eye Color: Brown
Case Number: USVAVA07-312
Circumstances: Jasmine was last seen on April 17, 2007 wearing jeans and a brown jacket. Her ears are pierced and she is known to wear gold hoop earrings. Jasmine also has a 3 inch scar on her right thigh. She may still be in the local area.

ANYONE HAVING INFORMATION SHOULD CONTACT
Virginia Missing Children’s Clearinghouse
1-800-822-4453
Newport News Police Department Officer J.M. Tomasik (757) 247-2500

Shout’n

Baltimore Shout
Shouting John! Hold My Mule!
Salsa Shout
Dance Like Ain’t Nobody Watching
SHOUT!
PRAISE HIM MAN OF GOD (The Best Praise Break)
Mo’ Shout’n

Roots: The other story

From Wikipedia:

Haley earned a Pulitzer Prize special award in 1977 for Roots, and the television miniseries garnered many awards, including nine Emmys and a Peabody. Haley’s fame was marred, however, by charges of plagiarism. After one trial, in which he admitted that large passages of Roots were copied from The African by Harold Courlander, Haley was permitted to settle out-of-court for $650,000. Haley claimed that the appropriation of Courlander’s passages had been unintentional. In 1988, Margaret Walker also sued Haley, claiming that Roots violated the copyright for her novel Jubilee. That case was dismissed by the court.

Additionally, the veracity of those aspects of the story which Haley claimed to be true has also been challenged. Although Haley acknowledged the novel was primarily a work of fiction, he did claim that his actual ancestor was Kunta Kinte, an African taken from the village of Juffure in what is now The Gambia. According to Haley, Kunta Kinte was sold into slavery where he was given the name Toby and, while in the service of a slavemaster named John Waller, went on to have a daughter named Kizzy, Haley’s great-great-great grandmother. Haley also claimed to have identified the specific slave ship and its specific voyage that transported Kunta Kinte from Africa to North America in 1767.

However, noted genealogist Elizabeth Shown Mills and the African-Americanist historian Gary B. Mills revisited Haley’s research and concluded that those claims of Haley’s were not true. According to the Millses, the slave named Toby who was owned by John Waller could be definitively shown to have been in North America as early as 1762. They further said that Toby died years prior to the supposed date of birth of Kizzy. There have also been suggestions that the griot in Juffure, who, during Haley’s visit there, confirmed the tale of the disappearance of Kunta Kinte, had been coached to relate such a story.

Although a friend of Haley’s, Harvard University professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of general editors the Norton Anthology of African-American Literature, has acknowledged the doubts about Haley’s claims, saying, “Most of us feel it’s highly unlikely that Alex actually found the village whence his ancestors sprang. Roots is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship. It was an important event because it captured everyone’s imagination.” (source)

Columnist Stanley Crouch wrote about this back in 2002. Here is an excerpt:

Ward urged Courlander - the man whose novel “The African” Haley pillaged - to be quiet about his huge settlement. Ward thought that Haley had become too important to black people to be torn down in public. As I said once before in this column a few years ago, that was paternalism at its very worst: Treat them like children; they can’t handle the truth.

Haley called Nobile in February 1979 at New York magazine when he was reporting on the federal case. Haley said he shouldn’t report on the case because the Ku Klux Klan could use the outcome against his people.

On another occasion, I heard Haley protest on the radio that “they” were trying “to say that black people have no history.” At another point, according to Nobile, “He compared the truth about him to those people who attacked Anne Frank and said that there was no Holocaust. He would resort to anything.”

Since “Roots” has brought millions of black tourist dollars to Gambia, one Gambian said to me, “Yes, it is a lie but it is a good lie.”

The book remains an opportunistic insult to black people, and no amount of excuses will change that harsh fact. (source)

The movie and book Roots has always been (and still is) a great story to me. Part of what made it great to me was that its contents were presented as a part of historical truth. Its one thing to use a creative license when retelling events in history, however it is something totally different when one STEALS another person’s work, make up other portions and present the whole thing as fact.

With or without this book/movie, slavery did happen here in America. I just find it somewhat disheartening to know that Haley stooped so low in order to get broke off. Accuracy should always be paramount when dealing with history–especially with a fractured history like ours.

Sharpton…apologizes?

(foxnews.com) SALT LAKE CITY — Leaders for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Rev. Al Sharpton are planning an in-person meeting, a church spokesman said.

Sharpton asked for the meeting during a telephone apology he gave to two church elders after he said during a May 7 debate that Mormons don’t believe in God.

“Mr. Sharpton and church leaders are looking at possible dates for a meeting, but nothing is imminent,” church spokesman Scott Trotter said.

Sharpton spoke by phone with Russell M. Nelson and Henry B. Eyring, members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the second-tier of church leadership.

The minister and former Democratic presidential candidate’s remarks were about Mitt Romney, a Mormon who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. Sharpton said that “as for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyway, so don’t worry about that, that’s a temporary situation.” (more…)

#