The Black Informant

(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…)

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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)

(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!

(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…)

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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.

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(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

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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…)

[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

(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..)

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.

(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.