ARE YOU GONNA STAND WITH OBAMA? – William Reed Columnist

For the Democrats’ Black partisans the message is simple: Stand With President Obama, Vote November 2.”

Leading Democrats are betting that if the midterms are a “referendum on Obama” they like their odds with the party’s African American base.   Nine out of every ten African Americans have an unwavering loyalty towards the Democratic Party.  So, to tap into President Barack Obama’s high approval rating among Blacks the head of Democratic National Committee (DNC) has approved a $2 million advertising outreach effort among African Americans for the 2010 November midterm elections.  The ad-buy says: "Stand With President Obama. Vote November 2."

President Obama may be floundering among the rest of the population, but has a 91 percent approval rating among Blacks. During the Congressional Black Caucus’ recent Legislative Conference in Washington, DNC Chairman Tim Kaine met with White House aides and civil rights leaders about Black turnout for the November elections.  But counting on a high turnout among African Americans in the midterm elections is tenuous at best.   Polls show that the enthusiasm gap between Whites and Blacks is even higher than in past midterm elections: 42 percent of Whites are thinking about the November elections, whereas only 25 percent of Blacks are focused on the midterms.

Kaine’s goal is an 8 to 10 percent “Obama bump” over prior midterm participation, and says “investment in African American outreach is fundamental to that effort”.   The $2 million the DNC is committing is up from $260,000 in 2006.  The ads will go up in key states with sizable Black populations such as: Florida, California, Maryland and Illinois.  Overall the DNC has committed $50 million to minority voter outreach. 

More than $3.7 billion will be spent in the 2010 midterm elections by various interest groups, so the $2 million outlay among African American media shouldn’t be a major matter.  But, the Black chairman of the Republican National Committee is accusing Obama & Company of making “an appeal based on class warfare and race”.  RNC Chairman Michael Steele acknowledges that the GOP should do better when it comes to minority outreach; but, now as before, has committed no money.  The RNC’s first African American chairman admits that the Republican Party has failed to sufficiently reach out to Blacks, and has employed a “southern strategy” for the last “40-plus years.”  Throughout his tenure Steel has repeatedly promised to do a better job of minority outreach, but has done little but talk loud.   Steele’s negative comments on the DNC’s minority outreach should be viewed by Blacks as an affront.

It’s good that the Democrats are giving Black media outlets some “walking around” money, but its young people, Latinos and African-Americans that have fared the worst under Obama’s presidency.  Blacks are between the devil and deep blue sea when it comes to our causes.   The Republicans really don’t want us and the Democrats take us for granted.

It’s curious as to why those most battered by the economic recession would be expected to “stand up” for more of the same.  Obama’s, and the Democratic-led Congress’, economic recovery programs have not possessed the key elements necessary for all Americans to share equally in improved prosperity.  African Americans are still being hit hard with an unemployment rate of 15.7 percent; and as high as 50 percent for Black teenagers.  Double digit unemployment is tragic for Americans who are not accustomed to more than 4 – 5 percent joblessness, but for African Americans, being in a recession is nothing new, since we tend to hover at unemployment rates that exceed those of white Americans by 4 – 5 percentage points.   On the whole, racial sentiments are playing a role on both sides of this season’s advertising and get-out-the-vote issue.  The RNC is pointing to Obama’s minority outreach to stir White resentment and goose the GOP base.  Be the voter Black, or White, the greatest problem either group has with President Obama is that an economic recovery means nothing if his policies and practices create no jobs or wealth-building where they live.

(William Reed is available for speaking engagements via BaileyGroup.org)

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THE DECLINING BLACK MIDDLE-CLASS – by William Reed Columnist

Across the board, Black Americans love President Barack Obama.  We love his wife and his family.  We love the symbolism of it all and most refuse to attack his presidency.  But, has it stuck you that the ever growing list of problems Black Americans face aren’t on anybody’s agenda? Though we have Black people in high positions the quandary of Black Americans is not on the president’s agenda, or that of Congress and mainstream media.   Even the Congressional Black Caucus leadership takes a hands off approach to their constituents’ dire situation. Unless African Americans develop an agenda and make the requisite demands, their economic prospects will continue declining.

With the current national unemployment rate at 9.5 percent, Americans across the board are wondering when they’ll see an economic recovery.  But those concerns are even greater for African-Americans, whose unemployment rate is closer to 20 percent.  Lack of economic opportunities has long been a problem among most African Americans, but financial woes have fallen on the Black middle-class.  Disturbing trends made up of a stagnant economy and a inactive Black middle–class has put this group on a downward slope.  A report from the Economic Policy Institute shows that economic gains African-Americans made in the 1990s have slowly eroded.

These economic concerns are even greater for African Americans that languish behind the rest of Americans.  But, from all appearances, Blacks are just “fine on Cloud 9”.  The historic election of President Obama led to big cheers among Blacks, but their reality is growing uncertainty, joblessness and poverty.  As it was in 1920, the economic trajectory for Black Americans continues downward – despite the presence of a Black man in the White House.  On all major economic indicators, which can include income, wages, employment and poverty, African-Americans are worse off than at the beginning of the decade. A Pew Research Center report reveals that of the sons and daughters of the 20^th Century Black Middle-Class are ending up with lower incomes than their parents.

As Blacks were defending his presidency, Obama signed economic stimulus legislation in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – $787 billion aimed at helping America’s economy recover.  The act includes increased federal spending for health care, infrastructure, education, various tax breaks and incentives, and direct assistance to individuals.  But nothing has been targeted to help Blacks in the grave economic circumstances they face.

Many Blacks elect to fall in behind the fantasy being pushed that America is better because it has a Black President and that “we all” are moving towards becoming a post-racial and equitable society.  It looks like Blacks will be the last Americans to hold Obama’s feet to the fire for their lack of “economy recovery”.  Most Blacks, definitely those of the middle class, don’t seem to realize how they’ve brought about their own decline.  DuBois’ vision of Blacks building a economic foun­dation by incorporating into White industry and gaining skills and acumen that foster capitalism never happened.   Blacks in positions to do something, don’t.  Few among the mainstream have looked out for Black Americans’ best interest.  Like Obama, many Blacks have assimilated American Establishment mind-sets and apologize for this nation’s injustices and inequality.

The unique circumstances of Black Americans will get no attention from the Obama administration unless Blacks in crowds stop adoring and making apologies for him and start making demands of him.  If Blacks continue to lose assets, homes and jobs and fail to bring attention to their plight, then hackneyed speeches from Obama will be all we will get.  Blacks are foolish to not hold Obama, et al., accountable.  We continue confusing “political empowerment” with “economic empowerment” and as we accept “politics as usual” and continue African Americans’ downward spiral.  Blacks overlook basic mechanisms we need to employ to gain and sustain collective wealth.  Interactive participation in capitalism is the way we can maximize economic growth and generalize prosperity.  Capitalism can work for us if we hold elected officials accountable and form effective economic and political bases.

(William Reed is available for speaking engagements via BaileyGroup.org)

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“BLACK POWER”: NOT YET – by William Reed Columnist

“Politics without economics is symbol without substance” – Minister Louis Farrakhan

August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. The landmark legislation outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S.  But, 45 years after the legislation Blacks nor their vote have attained   “Black Power”.

The 111th United States Congress consists of 541 elected officials from 50 states, five territories, and the District of Columbia.  The Senate has 100 members and the House of Representatives has 435 members and six non-voting delegates.  African Americans are at their peak in the national politics and total 42 Members – 9.5 percent of the House.  Historically underrepresented in Congress, at 13 percent of the US population Blacks still remain unrepresented.  Blacks proudly claim and defend Blacks who hold the four House Committee Chairmanships.  But, compare that with the 45 seats Jewish Americans occupy in the House and Senate – 13 in the Senate and 32 in the House.  Jews chair scores of the Senate and House committees and sub-committees that oversee every aspect of American affairs.  Jewish Americans’ proportional representation in national representation dwarfs that of Blacks.  The Senate has 13 Jewish Americans, one Hispanic (Bob Menendez, D-NJ) one Japanese American (Daniel Inouye, D-HI), one Native Hawaiian (Daniel Akaka, D-HI) and one African American, Roland Burris (D-IL).

About 2 percent of Americans identify themselves as Jewish, but their Congressional influence is four times that.  The Jewish community wields vastly more power than any other ethnic or religious group.  Most Jewish money goes to Democrats and most vote Democratic.  But the Republican Party strongly supports Jewish interests.  The House has one Jewish Republican, Virginia’s Eric Cantor.  The Senate has two Republican Jews, 2 that are Independents and 9 Democrats.   All of the Blacks currently in Congress are Democrats.

Can it be that the concept of “Power” is a state of mind Jews have that Blacks don’t?  Collectives and unity of purpose are alien notions among Blacks.  While Black American debate the merits and utility of Black institutions such as the NAACP; there is a conglomeration of Jewish efforts at work in the U.S., such as the B’nai B’rith community service organization, devoted to supporting the needs and interests of their communities.  Jews have power in America Blacks don’t have because they have cohesion and a higher dedication to their people and purpose.  Jews don’t as a rule go “mainstream” and leave their kind behind as assimilated Blacks have done.   Jews have demonstratively more wealth than Blacks.  They comprise eleven percent of  the nation’s elite and are 20 percent of the leaders of important voluntary and public interest organizations, and more than 15 percent of the top-ranking civil servants.  Jews definitely network and cooperate in ways Blacks don’t seem to comprehend.

The substance in Jews’ political power is economics.  Close to half America’s billionaires are Jews. The chief executive officers of the three major television networks and the four largest film studios are Jews, as are the owners of the nation’s largest newspaper chain and the most influential single newspaper.  Jewish Americans are more than 25 percent of journalists and publishers.  By far the most uncompromising pro-Israel newspaper in the country is the chronicle of American business, the Wall Street Journal. Throughout history, Jews have played important roles in reforming or overthrowing regimes in which they have been unable to obtain their goals.  In contemporary America, Jews have far more power in molding public and foreign policy than Blacks.  When race-based issues come to the fore, not only Obama, but many American policy-makers run and hide.  Isn’t it time Blacks took a page from the Jewish American Power playbook?  Though Blacks are the most disenfranchised ethnic group in America, we still find no value in joining groups such as the Urban League and NAACP.  Blacks have to rethink our reliance on partisan  politics as a strategy to reach higher levels of clout.  One way is to learn to work together like our Jewish friends do.

(William Reed is available for speaking engagements via BaileyGroup.org)

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WHAT ABOUT “BUYING BLACK”? by William Reed Columnist

The Souls of Black Folk W.E.B. DuBois’ vision was that by incorporating into White industry Negroes could build an economic foun­dation by becoming skilled workers through industrial educa­tion and from their ranks small capitalists could rise.

There is a movement of note to boost Black economic development.  The current interest group started when one suburban, professional couple took a stand to live off Black businesses for one year.  In early 2009, Maggie and John Anderson an upper-middle-class African-American couple, who live in Oak Park, Illinois, made a vow to only patronize Black-owned businesses.

Throughout the 20^th Century, there have been numerous approaches suggested for improving the economic viability of African-Americans. Given the economic discrimination and oppression by institutions in the larger society, many social theorists and urban economists have argued that African-Americans should use their segregated social circumstances to build a separate and autonomous economic base.  The shared experience of social segregation, employment discrimination, and minority status should be rationale for the development of cooperative enterprises that would advance the economic conditions of the entire African American population.

African Americans spend more for consumer products than any other racial group; yet have less discretionary income and long-term investments.  Blacks have the highest poverty and unemployment rates of all other racial groups.  All this despite the billions of dollars we spend each year.  It’s the elephant in the room few African Americans want to talk about and even fewer want to do anything about.  Blacks stay poor because we refuse to recycle our money. Under the Empowerment Experiment (formerly the Ebony Experiment), the Andersons bring focus on ways of supporting Black-owned businesses and professionals while motivating other Blacks to do the same.  They say Black communities “will improve when Black sellers, consumers and investors all support each other”. This iteration of Black economic development is being given wide acclamation.  Morehouse College’s economics department chair says the movement is akin to those of Marcus M. Garvey and Booker T. Washington.  Gregory Price says "The idea is a sound one, given that Black Americans are still underrepresented in the ranks of the self-employed and that entrepreneurship is a key component to wealth".  Lawrence Hamer, associate professor of marketing at DePaul University, praises the experiment as being "brave and courageous," and that the rationale is "exactly right."   While the “Buy Black” campaign is designed to have broad reach, the Andersons exemplify the Black nouveau riche – the 2.5 million Black households with incomes over $100,000.  The Empowerment Experiment (EE) targets middle and upper middle-class families to get them to make commitments to “Buy Black”.

Like the Andersons, more African Americans now live and buy in the suburbs.  The Andersons now want these households to think about buying where they used to live.   They live in a suburb bordering the west side of Chicago where the median family income is $103,840.  The Andersons gambit is to change Black Americans’ mindsets from just being consumers to being more conscious of how they spent their money and with whom. John is a Harvard graduate with a Kellogg School MBA.  Maggie Anderson is a first-generation Cuban American that has a JD and MBA from the University of Chicago.   The Ebony Experiment Group, LLC is a community service oriented project.  EE seeks community and corporate support toward helping infuse long-term wealth into the Black community by galvanizing and uniting Black consumers, investors, businesses and professionals.  "We have the real power to use the money we spend every day to solve our problems” says Ms. Anderson.   Blacks can control their own economic destines.  James Cling­man, an advisor with the experiment who has a syndicated column called Blackonomics, points out that Blacks are negligent in patronizing their own, and “I would love to see more families pledge to do what the Andersons did".  “Did you EE today?” is the mantra people who’ve made a pledge to “Buy Black” use.  Consumers, entrepreneurs, investors and/or philanthropy heads are urged to sign up at www.EEforTomorrow.com register, a commitment and set up online accounts to track spending.

(William Reed is available for speaking engagements via BaileyGroup.org)

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THE EXODUS by William Reed Columnist

Once again, Western countries are succeeding in cutting another African country down to size.  Sudan, a country in northeastern Africa, is the largest country in Africa and in the Arab World, and the tenth largest in the world by area.

Sudan is rich with abundant resources represented in vast areas of land and varying climates.  Sudan was made special with fertile agricultural lands, large amounts of fresh water, and a variety in animal resources.   But, the crown jewel of Sudan’s current economy is oil production.  And, that’s the base of the Sudan story.

Sudan produces 500,000 barrels of oil per day and has reserves estimated at six billion barrels.  But that may go away.  With just months until the referendum to determine whether the South remains part of a united Sudan, coupled with the conflict in Darfur, the country remains volatile and its future uncertain.  The future of North and South Sudan is rooted in implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which requires the January 2011 referendum.  For American advocates, it’s important to ensure a smooth referendum process and beyond.  For the political movements in Sudan it’s important to keep a hand on the tiller.  Under the National Congress Party (NCP) and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) coalition government, Sudan’s economy is currently the 5^th largest in Africa and one of the fastest growing in the world.  The per capita Gross National Product (GNP) in 2009 was $2,300.  Sudan has 42 million people and a labor force of 12 million.  But, the booming economy and vast array of products exported may soon experience drastic changes.

About 70 percent of oil pumped in Sudan comes from the South.  Separation of Sudan will deny the North billions of dollars in revenue from the South’s vast oilfields. Currently the North and the South split proceeds from crude in accordance with CPA requirements. In what is likely Sudan’s last unified government ahead of January’s secession referendum, President Omar al-Bashir appointed Southerner Lual Acuek Deng to a new cabinet post with an “Oil Minister” portfolio.    American political activists still see Sudan in terms of the decades of civil war between the mostly Muslim North and the South, which follows Traditional and Christian beliefs.

Sudan is divided into 25 states which are subdivided into 87 districts; the 10 states in Southern Sudan comprise 84 counties.  The country’s oil reserves are in the South but the pipeline that carries the oil to export terminals and refineries runs through the North.  The South needs Khartoum’s co-operation to sell its oil. and the North needs revenues from the South’s resources. Government of South Sudan (GoSS) officials already say they’ll continue sharing oil revenues for a time.

Sudan’s ruling political parties are the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).  In the April races for the National Assembly the NCP won 73% of seats, while the SPLM won 22%.  The NCP is headed by Omar al-Bashir and follows ideologies such as Islamism, Arabism, nationalism and conservatism.  However, Western human rights groups and governments claim it attempts to create a totalitarian state through extreme Islamic and dictatorial practices. The SPLM is a predominantly Christian rebel movement turned political party.  The SPLM has been the US favorite in the fight.  Based in Southern Sudan, SPLM fought against the Sudanese government from 1983 to 2005.  Since signing the CPA in 2005, the SPLM has had representatives in the North’s government, as well as the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS).  Salva Kiir is First Vice President of Sudan and the SPLM Chairman.

Beyond politics, opportunities abound in the vast lands that make up Sudan.  For example, Juba, the capital of the South, has just three paved roads.  The region’s lack of infrastructure is an opportunity for investors and donors from banking to agriculture to construction and telecommunications.  While much of Southern Sudan’s development is likely to be undertaken by local companies and individuals, the U.S. government provides important encouragement and opportunities for American companies and donors to contribute to help build Southern Sudan.

(William Reed is available for speaking engagements via BaileyGroup.org)

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CAN YOU SAY NOT IN MY NAME? by William Reed Columnist

Were he alive today, a number of people would be throwing shoes at Dr. Ralph H. Bunche.  Most African Americans know little of the role Dr. Bunche played in today’s Mille-East debacles.  Ralph Bunche, not Barack Obama, was the first African American awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.  But, among African Americans that know of Bunche many are critics that saying he was “a useful idiot” that enabled Western Powers’ plans to establish the State of Israel.

Bunche was given the 1950 Peace Prize for “successful mediation of a series of armistice agreements between Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria” that brought about the ability to make Israel a nation.  Bunche thought he was making a peace that has never come.  The deal Bunche made created a situation that has left 4 million Palestinian refugees spread across the Middle East.

Willing tool as he was, Bunche believed that “no problem of human relations is ever insoluble”.  But, results count and Bunche foolishly thought he was setting the course for “two states living side-by-side”.  Bunche never foresaw the wantonness with which the Jewish State would evict the Arabs and expropriate their lands.  Sixty years after the fact, the Palestinians are landless and Bunche’s dream of a peaceful Middle East wanes.  Mainstream Blacks celebrate Bunche, but African-Americans like Malcolm X, in the 1960s, criticized Ralph Bunche’s role saying: “the agreements started a process that created millions of Palestinian refugees and Jewish taking of Palestinian property as their ‘historical homeland’”.

Will the African American population ever experience an epiphany and figure out the injustices occurring in the settlement activities on Palestinians’ land?   Few African American leaders have challenged these patterns.  Before he was beaten into submission, Rev. Andrew Young gave an effort to righting the wrong.  After serving with Martin Luther King, Young was elected to Congress in 1972.  In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Young the first African-American Ambassador to the United Nations.   During his brief and stormy career at the UN Young emerged as a leading spokesman for relations with African and Third World nations.  A storm of protest from Israeli and American Jewish leaders following Young’s violation of the US’s prohibition against meeting with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), forced his resignation in 1979.

Since Young little is being done in aiding the people Bunche though he was helping: “people whose normal place of residence was Palestine, who lost their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict".   In obedience to tradition, our first Black President continues America’s past treatment of Palestinian people.  Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have a “go along to get along” posture of compliance on the issue and regularly vote Israel $3 billion in aid each year.

Thousands of Black American preachers and pundits have had sponsored trips to the “Hoy Land”.  They comprise a cadre that sees no evil in the ongoing treatment of the Palestinians.  Many Blacks fear expressing dissent when issues about Israel are raised. If you don’t agree that Israel is a moral exemplar and light to the world, "the only democracy in the Middle East" that is just attending reasonably to its security needs against a world that is (for no good reason) hostile to it, you can be hounded, harassed, intimidated, discredited, denied tenure or fired.

A movement like that the one that combated apartheid in South Africa, is needed to increase awareness of the depth of Israel’s practices toward Palestinians.  Surely Bunche would “call a spade a spade and endorse a global movement advocating on behalf of equity for the Palestinian people.  Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was forced from her seat for being evenhanded on Middle East issues.

Israel’s right to exist does not confer a right to abuse and oppress the Palestine population.  It’s time to respect the right of Palestine to exist as much as we insist that the Palestinian peoples respect Israel’s right to exist.  When Palestinians can go home maybe then, Ralph Bunche will rest in peace.

(William Reed is available via the Lakeland, Florida-based BaileyGroup.org)

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The Age of the Hoochie Mama Is Over: It’s Time for Hip Hop to Grow Up by Dr. Boyce on AOL Black Voices

Brought to you by The Great Black Speakers Bureau, the #1 Black Speakers Bureau in the world.  To join the Your Black World Coalition, please visit YourBlackWorld.com

The Latest from Dr. Boyce on AOL Black Voices

NJ Officer Taped Spraying Pepper Spray in Detained Black Man’s Face

• I am not quite sure what to make of the ruffled YouTube video that is now scouring the web out of … Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 12th 2010 8:40PM | Comments (2)

Dr. Boyce Watkins on TheLoop21:  The Age of the Hoochie Mama Is Over:  It’s Time for Hip Hop to Grow Up

The age of the Hoochie Mama is over

by Dr. Boyce Watkins | TheLoop21 in Culture & Society

It’s time for hip hop, and its audience, to grow up.

read more

Dr. Boyce on NPR:  Why Elena Kagan should not be on the Supreme Court.  Click to listen.

Brian McKnight Ruled to Have Fathered 14-Yr Old: Owes $341,640: What Can We Learn from This?

• It appears that the singer Brian McKnight is now a not-so-proud father. Well, the child isn’t … Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 12th 2010 12:53PM | Comments (3)

  Video:  Two Detroit teens killed in car crash just hours after graduation.  Click to watch.

Gary Coleman: Told Wife that All She Cares about is Money

• The death of Gary Coleman was sad for anyone who grew up watching him. It was not only sad to see … Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 11th 2010 7:42PM | Comments (0)

South Carolina Senate Candidate Planted to Split the Black Vote?

• When I first saw the Democratic candidate for the Senate in South Carolina, Alvin Greene, I didn’t … Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 11th 2010 6:11PM | Comments (23)

Brandon Johnson: 15-Year-Old Boy Beaten by Police in Indianapolis

• Indianapolis Police Chief Paul Ciesielski called for the firing of a white officer who’s been … Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 11th 2010 1:25AM | Comments (81)

O.J. Simpson Fights to Get a New Trial in Nevada

• O.J. Simpson’s attorneys are planning to try to convince a group of Nevada judges to overturn his … Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 10th 2010 11:58PM | Comments (14)

Oscar Grant Trial Has No Black Jurors

• On New Year’s Day of 2009, Oscar Grant was shot in Oakland, Calif. The shooter was a Bay Area … Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 10th 2010 6:58PM | Comments (13)

Black Scholar Says Universities Not Serious About Diversity

• Dr. M. Cookie Newsom is the Director for Diversity Education and Assessment at The University … Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 10th 2010 3:01PM | Comments (12)

Talib Kweli: Rapper Replies to Slim Thug’s Comments on Black Women

• A note to Slim Thug: You probably just need to be quiet for a while. It’s not to say that your … Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 10th 2010 12:24PM | Comments (16)

The Globe Magazine Angers Todd Bridges Over Gary Coleman Death Photos

• There has been a great deal of public speculation of the role that Shannon Price, Gary Coleman’s … Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 9th 2010 11:30PM | Comments (70)

BP Shares Get Hammered as Firm May Face Bankruptcy Due to Spill

• Today, the shares of British Petroleum (BP), the company responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf … Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 9th 2010 7:46PM | Comments (3)

I think that since Vh-1 loves to honor hip hop every year, it’s time that we think a little more carefully about how they might do their jobs effectively. Don’t get me wrong, much of the greatness of hip hop should be celebrated, and having such a powerful awards show gives rappers yet another chance to be on TV.  The added exposure creates money-making opportunities, and I’m always down for that.

But let’s be real:  Is the entire hip hop industry really worthy of being honored all the time?  Should every popular artist or well-known song be celebrated, or should some be maligned?  To say that every impactful group or song in the history of hip hop is worthy of an honor is like saying that we should celebrate Adolf Hitler’s birthday just because he was famous.

Click to read.

Bill Maher’s joke on Obama’s blackness reveals serious ignorance

By Dr. Boyce Watkins

Apparently Bill Maher, the ultra-liberal talk show host who both entertains and annoys me, doesn’t understand what it means to be a black man. During a recent episode of his popular show, Real Time with Bill Maher, the host criticized President Barack Obama for not being a "real black president," (whatever that means) in his response to the gulf region oil spill. Rather than paraphrasing, please allow me to quote Maher’s exact words.

"I thought when we elected a black president, we were going to get a black president. You know, this [oil spill] is where I want a real black president. I want him in a meeting with the BP CEOs, you know, where he lifts up his shirt where you can see the gun in his pants. That’s — ‘we’ve got a motherfu**ing problem here?’ Shoot somebody in the foot."

Click to Read. 

This message was sent from Dr. Boyce Watkins: Your Black World to cdancyii@embarqmail.com. It was sent from: Dr. Boyce Watkins, 23F Queens Way, Camillus, ny 13031. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below.

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STOP THE WAR ON BLACK MEN by William Reed Columnist

If you’ve given “an Abe” for cannabis, cocaine or meth, then you are one too.  Those 5 bucks joined a stream of money fostering the world’s illegal drug trade; the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of substances subject to drug prohibition laws are estimated to be a $40 trillion market.

Consumption of illegal drugs is widespread globally.  But, the single largest marketplace for illegal drugs is the United States.  Close to 13 million Americans still think nothing of occasionally buying a gram of cocaine, a few hits of ecstasy or a quarter-ounce of weed to have a good time.  Americans with serious drug habits regularly spend $100-$500 dollars a week purchasing their drug of preference.

Government studies say that 800,000 American adolescents, ages 12–17, sell illegal drugs.  Young Americans of all stripes are involved in illegal drug activity, but America’s war against that trade has serious affects on young Black men.  Blacks constitute 13 percent of all drug users, but are 35 percent of people arrested for drug possession; 55 percent of persons convicted; and 74 percent of people sent to prison.

“Everybody’s doing it”, but the number of Black men who are behind bars and being channeled into permanent second-class citizenship status should be a cause for alarm.  The illegal drug trade is producing long-term consequences and problems in societies worldwide; but an American tragedy is the disproportionate impacts of the drug war on Black males.   Out of sight of “Colorblind” Americans, the War on Drugs subjects young Black men to conditions of life sufficiently destructive enough to amount to an instance of genocide.  Based on current rates of incarceration, an estimated 7.9 percent of Black males compared to 0.7 percent of White males will enter prison by the time they are age 20.  And 21.4 percent of Black males versus 1.4 percent of white males will be incarcerated by age 30.  Blacks (28.5%) are about six times more likely than Whites (4.4%) to be admitted to prison during their life.  Black family-life is being destroyed.  African American children are nine times more likely to have a parent incarcerated than White children.

The genocide of young Black men is like shooting ducks in a pond.  The high arrest rates for African Americans reflect a law enforcement emphasis on inner city open-air markets where drug use and sales are likely to take place. The drug war has been brutal among Blacks, but those who live in integrated communities have little clue to the devastation being wrought.  The American War on Drugs has been waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color, even though people of all colors use and sell illegal drugs.   Young Black males are definitely getting the shaft in the War on Drugs; and due to the lack of public attention continue being subjected to disabling conditions that restrict their opportunities, inflicts pain and suffering and shortens their lives.  The rate of drug admissions to state prison for Black men is 13 times greater than the rate for White men.  The average federal drug sentence for African-Americans is 49 percent higher than for Whites.  Rates of drug use or drug selling are no greater for members of minorities than for nonminorities, yet minorities are stopped, searched, arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated at far greater rates than Whites.

Steps should be taken to rid our communities of this genocidal activity.  In America’s multi-billion dollar illegal drug trade Blacks are simply street-level pawns.  If legit employment opportunities were as frequent for them as White youth, the criminal number would be equal.  According to according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than half of Black males between the ages of 16 and 19 are unemployed; fewer than 14 in 100 young Black men actually have jobs.

Let’s remove the yoke of the War on Drugs from around our necks.  Tell every lawmaker you see that legalizing drugs will save $48.7 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition.  America can save money by legalizing some drug sales and ceasing processes that destroy young Black men.

(William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com )

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WOULD YOU WANT YOUR CHILD TO GROW UP TO BE LIKE …? by William Reed Columnist

Are Black role models different than White ones?  General use of the term means a "person who serves as an example, whose behavior is emulated by others".  The image of the “First Black” in a position in the mainstream is usually made as a reference to social roles to which all should aspire.  Taking an evaluation of some “first Blacks” brings questions of their competence and whether they’ve shown qualities other Blacks should imitate.

As the 66^th United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was called by Forbes Magazine “the world’s most powerful Black woman”.  As Rice became a player in the establishment’s “ole boy network” she pivoted away from issues of race.  A preacher’s daughter, the Queen of Chutzpah is primarily known as President George W. Bush’s major accomplice in making false assertions that lead to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.   Rice has been called a “war criminal” by some.  According to a Senate intelligence report “Condi” made the first known approval for the CIA to use water boarding techniques as early as July 2002.

Rice’s predecessor, General Colin Luther Powell was 65th United States Secretary of State and the first Black to hold the position.  His ‘good soldier’ legacy will forever be marred because most detailed U.S. case for invading Iraq was laid out in a U.N. address by Powell.  He admits being duped by the Bush Administration and the CIA.  While Rice is classified as a ring leader in the plot to go to war, the gullible Powell was just as culpable in the roles he played.  Powell also played a key role in the 2004 coup that took Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power.  TransAfrica founder Randall Robinson says “Colin Powell is “the most powerful and damaging Black to rise to influence in the world in my lifetime”.

Franklin Raines is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Fannie Mae, the congressionally chartered firm started in 1939 to offer mortgages to Americans wishing to become home owners.  A product of Wall Street served as President Bill Clinton’s budget director.  He was Fannie Mae’s CEO from 2000 until 2004; but under his reign Fannie Mae went deep into the practice of buying mortgages based on almost no or no money down given to borrowers who could not afford them.  During the time Raines received bonuses and salary over $90 million. In 2004 he was offered “early retirement” after the accounting practices used during his tenure to secure top executive bonuses were shown to be fraudulent.

E. Stanley O’Neal, African American chairman and CEO of the world’s largest brokerage firm, Merrill Lynch, was forced to resign after his company, which had invested heavily in the collapsed sub prime real estate market, recorded over $8 billion in losses, the biggest in Wall Street history.  O’Neal, 56, was one of five African Americans to head a Fortune 500 company and the first to become a chief executive of a Wall Street investment firm. Named CEO February 12, 2002, and within three years after taking over, O’Neal had eliminated 24000 jobs.  In his exit, O’Neal pocketed a compensation package worth $28 million.

To compensate for the continual exclusions of Blacks from positions of power in this society, the mainstream media labels people like Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Stan O’Neal and Frank Raines “leaders” of and “role models” for Blacks.   But, its not unpatriotic for us to question what kind of role model have these “first in their fields” been for Blacks.

The prevailing thought is that Black youngsters need role models, drawn from legal, business and education professions to counter under-achievement and involvement in crime.   Too often the role models for young Blacks are celebrities and rappers who glamorize crime, guns or gaming.  How are the aforementioned “gangstas” any different what they do?   Shouldn’t some of our public role model be someone from where we live, who hasn’t forgotten where s/he came from, how s/he got to where s/he is now and always looking back to see who s/he can help?

(William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com)

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IS MOVEMENT FOR REPARATIONS DEAD? by William Reed Columnist

Like many Black Americans, the Project 21 Black Conservative Leadership Network called the US Senate’s “apology for slavery” resolution "useless".  But, Project 21 seems to singing somebody else’s agenda when they say: “apologizing for slavery and segregation will be used as a lobbying tool to acquire reparations payments”.   Is the concept of reparations for Blacks a dead issue and is Project 21 contributor Jimmie L. Hollis right in urging the Senate to "move on"? Hollis says: "As an American of African ancestry, I think this apology is ridiculous and useless.  It is just another ‘feel good’ action.  If we are to start apologizing for every injustice and wrong done in the past, we will spend the next few decades just apologizing."

Most American descendants from slaves would agree “an apology is not enough”.  In 2010, a disproportionate number of African Americans are in jails and ensconced in judicial systems. Unemployment among Blacks remains, as it has for decades, twice that of Whites.   Black institutions, social agencies, education and communities are typically funded below rates for Whites.  Yet, in the face of America’s institutionalized pattern of discrimination, this cadre of young Blacks steadfastly stands for the status quo. 

Can any deny the “rightness” of reparations?  Its human and legal rights advocates say African American Reparations is based on a legal precedence: that when a society or group willingly and knowingly commits a crime or “moral wrongs”, a form of compensation is due.  The movement has been led, before his death, by Johnnie L. Cochran, Randall Robinson and a venerable constitutional attorney Dr. Robert L. Brock.  Cochran was heading Reparations for Slavery lawsuit against the United States of America.  Dr. Brock says “a debt is owed Blacks for the centuries of unpaid slave labor that built America’s early economy and money owed from discriminatory wage and employment patterns Blacks have been subjected to since emancipation”.  A legend in Black Reparations circles, Brock gets little mainstream media with statements like: "The wealth of America is our legal property.  But we must make our legal claims to get money as others have".

Before some Project 21 contributors were out of high school, Brock was holding meetings across America, supporting Congressman John Conyers’ H.R. 40 Bill “to form a Commission to Study Reparations Proposal for African-Americans”.  In the years before he became House Judiciary Committee Chair, Conyers made a ritual submitting H.R. 40 in Congress each year since 1989.  Basically H.R. 40 Bill: 1) acknowledges the fundamental injustice and inhumanity of slavery; 2) establishes a commission to study slavery and its subsequent racial and economic discrimination against freed slaves; 3) studies the impact of those forces on today’s living African Americans; and 4) commission would then make recommendations to Congress on appropriate remedies to redress the harm inflicted on living African Americans.  But the imperative of correcting and repairing the legacy of slavery and its continuing effects on African-Americans is on the skids.  Congressman Conyers has now given up on what now appears to have been a 20-year facade of legislating for slave reparations in America.  Conyers was recently quoted saying “the reparations issue is ‘too controversial’ to pursue at this time’.

For the few that think things have “changed”, for most Black Americans, situations have remained the same.  For the majority of African Americans the vestiges of slavery and de jure segregation continue.  Yet, the House Judiciary Committee’s first Black head now says reparations are “too controversial to pursue”.   At a time America has its first self-proclaimed “Black President” and first Judiciary Chair; it is more than ironic that the level of discussion about absence of wealth, work, educational, and economic capacity among Blacks is more muted than under previous people in those positions.

Its odd Blacks would damper down discussions about reparations during the Presidency of a Black man?  Are the voices of Project 21’s protégées the political reality?  Have conversations regarding rectifying economic injustices done Blacks completely died; or will African Americans give attention to, and make the passage of, H.R. 40 a priority despite Conyers and Obama?

(William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com )

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WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO JESSE JACKSON? by William Reed Columnist

Though post racial attitudes and political ridicule pushed him to the sidelines of American mainstream media messages, Rev. Jesse Jackson has a track record that cannot been be ignored.  Called everything from “charlatan” to “race hustler”, Jackson has helped many Blacks gaining middle-class status, now in its second-generation.  Jesse Jackson and Operation PUSH, or the National Rainbow Coalition have been at the forefront of racial economic reciprocity issues for 40 years.  But even among Blacks, instead of commendations aJackson been ostracized and shunned.  Millions know of Jesse and tens of thousands have directly benefited his campaigns.  A protégé of Black legends,  Jackson’s profile deserves a look.

Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH organization met recently in Atlanta with the chicken people.  They came willingly because Jackson has an ongoing relationship with YUM! Brands, the world’s largest quick service restaurant company and owner of KFC.  KFC Corporation and Jackson have a long and mutually beneficial relationship.  KFC rules the roost when it comes to serving chicken, with eight million daily customers across the world.  The company has over 16,200 outlets in more than 100 countries.  Rainbow/PUSH’s  International Trade Bureau is trying to get more minorities among KFC’s 2,500 U.S. locations.  The Trade Bureau reports that “Blacks and Hispanics account for nearly one-third of the company’s U.S. revenues”.

The relationship between Jackson and Kentucky Fried Chicken is goes back to when he was head of Operation Breadbasket and helped the fast-food company land its first minority franchise operation.  The forerunner of getting businesses to hire Blacks and to purchase goods and services from Black contractors was Operation Breadbasket.  It was a MLK-Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) program to improve the economic conditions of Black communities.  Jesse’s early mentor was Rev. Leon Sullivan who gained legendary success using “selective buying” (boycotts) with Tasty-Cake in Philadelphia. Too many among American society, Blacks in particular, have forgotten, or ignore the number of minorities Jesse has gotten on the payrolls, in the boardrooms, and on supplier lists of major corporations.

After leaving Operation Breadbasket, Jackson first formed Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) and later the National Rainbow Coalition.  Both came together in 1996 to pursue an agenda of social justice, civil rights and political activism.  Pursuing “Sullivan’s Principles”, Operation PUSH gained success initiating corporate actions and government sponsorships. The National Rainbow coalition became a prominent political organization that raised public awareness on political issues and consolidated a large voting bloc.  The Atlanta project is one of numerous social/corporate initiatives under the Rainbow/PUSH banner.  With national headquarters on Chicago’s  South Side, Rainbow/PUSH has branches in Washington, D.C., New York City, Los Angles, Detroit, Houston, Silicon Valley, New Orleans and Atlanta – each with particular area of endeavor.  The industries it most aggressively pursues are the financial sector on Wall Street, the telecommunications field and high-tech firms in Silicon Valley.  The Wall Street activities are organized under sub-organization "The Wall Street Project".  Rainbow/PUSH has been active to increase minority representation in the broadcast media, entertainment industry, and automobile industry.  It has also sought increased representation of minority administrators in college and professional sports.

In 1998 Rainbow/PUSH admonished Freddie Mac for its lending and employment practices, which led to the earmarking $1 billion in mortgage loans specifically for minorities.  The controversy came from the $1 million donation to sponsor Jackson’s annual Wall Street Project.  In the early 2000s, Rainbow/PUSH worked with NACAR to increase the number of minorities involved in auto racing, through direct financial support and projects to find talented African-American racing drivers.  This initiative ended in 2003, after NACAR was criticized by conservative groups for the partnership. 

While Left and Right politicians try to keep race out of civil conservations, Jackson and Randolyn Jones of Rainbow/PUSH’s Atlanta Southern Region trade bureau talk “minorities and chicken” and are organizing an association of KFC minority franchisees.  Still a man of the times, Jackson told the gathering: "We have a vested interest in YUM!" and “Some of today’s minority franchisees are the same ones we worked with a generation ago.  Others are children of that first generation”.

(William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com)

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THE BUCK STOPS HERE by William Reed Columnist

“Act fast to help us use ads to target U.S. leaders with reports of Bashir’s voter repression!”  With that “Save Darfur” sought donations to continue efforts to destabilize and divide Africa’s largest country.  Calling Sudan’s elections “a sham,” Save Darfur ads tout American leaders to not let citizens of Sudan “be allowed to legitimize President Omar al-Bashir’s dictatorial rule, despite his status as an indicted war criminal!” In its latest move to undermine that country, Save Darfur’s Robert Lawrence is urging United States officials not to legitimize Sudan’s presidential election.  Maybe the group shouldn’t go there.  Questions “legitimacy” apply to as much to Save Darfur as they to Omar al-Bashir’s candidacy.  A nationwide reelection of President al-Bashir against a bevy of challengers immediately puts into question what Sudanese think of International Criminal Court (ICC) indictments the Sudanese leader faces.

Over the past eight years international attention has been directed away from conditions in Southern Sudan to the issue of Darfur, thus overlooking serious threats of a North-South war re-erupting.  Outstanding problems remain between the two ruling parties, the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), both of which signed a peace agreement in 2005. Multi-party elections, being held April 11^th – 13^th, bring to an end the transitional period which began when the decades-long Second Sudanese Civil War ended in 2005. Presidential and parliamentary elections will select the President of Sudan and the National Assembly.  There are thousands more Sudanese involved in the six elections than just al-Bashir.  The country will elect: national presidential and parliamentary, the South Sudan President, state governors, and the South’s parliament and state assemblies.  A reformism for Southern Sudan’s independence will be held January 2011.

It is true that Sudan’s 74-year-old president is a wanted man by the West.  Al-Bashir has an arrest warrant hanging over his head from the ICC, but if anything, Bashir’s defiance of the warrant, and implicitly of the West, has enhanced his appeal among the electorate.  The Darfur conflict, the aftermath of two decades of civil war in the South, the lack of basic infrastructure and reliance by much of the population on subsistence agriculture confront whatever government emerge.

It’s estimated the “Save Darfur Coalition” has taken in over $100 million.  Instead of the money going to save people in Darfur it’s consumed by publicity campaigns that generate more donations.  Reports say several millions of these funds have ended up in Israeli bank accounts that help fund programs that include illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.   Many think Save Darfur is a “grassroots movement” similar to events a generation ago against apartheid.  Do donors actually know it is top-heavy with evangelical Christians who preach the coming war for the end of the world and with elements known for uncritical support of Israeli actions in the Middle East?  Millions of dollars thought for helping Darfur is spent to manufacture consent for US military intervention under the cloak of stopping or preventing genocide.  Instead of supporting the elections and allowing candidates to make, and fulfil, promises of “fixing bad roads” and growing the economy among Sudanese society, Save Darfur pushes rancour and disunity.  In contrast to Save Darfur’s, an international donor’s conference held for Darfur recently raised $850 million for projects intended to ensure the safe return of nearly 3 million displaced people.  Organized by the 57-nation Organization of The Islamic Conference, the conference’s statement said they “wanted to highlight the importance of development in achieving peace and stability in Darfur”.  The biggest donors were Brazil, the Islamic Bank for Development, Qatar and Turkey.  Western countries such as the US, Canada, Norway and Britain did not pledge saying the region was not secure enough for the proposed work.

Sudan is the world’s 17th fastest growing economy and has had substantial new economic infrastructure investments.  It still faces formidable economic problems.  Its existence is based on the elections and a referendum on independence for the oil-rich South.  It’s time to tamp down on imperialism and instead seek constructive engagement with whoever emerges as elected officials in Sudan.

(William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com)

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EXECUTIVE PAY: THE BOTTOM LINE FOR THOSE AT THE TOP by William Reed Columnist

Private jets and chefs, limo and driver, skybox suites, are job perks that many CEOs have to endure.  It is reported that the heads of America’s 500 biggest companies’ total aggregate compensation amounts to $5.1 billion each a year.  Standard & Poor’s says a chief executive officer of a top 500 company was paid, on average, $10.9 million in 2008.

Excessive executive compensation has taken center stage since the government’s bailout of banks began.  Americans expressed outrage as CEOs and other executives responsible for the financial crisis pocketed millions from bonuses to Golden Parachutes.  In 2008, CEO perks alone amounted to an average of $364,041 – or nearly 10 times a full-time worker’s the median pay.   The economy tanked for those workers, but many companies were bailed out with more than $700 billion in taxpayer money, as well as low-interest loans and guarantees.

In a display of Obama administration “kicking butt and taking names” Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg recently slashed executive pay at companies that still depend on government funds.  A once-prestigious roster of corporate titans like American International Group (AIG), Citibank, Chrysler, Chrysler Financial, General Motors and GMAC got slammed by Feinberg.  Kenneth Feinberg is a lawyer appointed by President Obama to oversee pay at firms receiving "exceptional assistance" from the government’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and have not yet substantially repaid the funds.

To Corporate America Obama said, "This is America, we don’t disparage wealth. We don’t begrudge anybody for doing well. We believe in success. But it does offend our values when executives of big financial firms that are struggling pay themselves huge bonuses even as they rely on extraordinary assistance to stay afloat."  To soothe angry Americans’ backlash to the bailouts, Obama’s administration issued guidelines limiting salary for top executives at some firms receiving TARP funds and requiring that additional pay be in the form of restricted stock, vesting only after the company repays its debt, with interest, to the government.  Congress then added rules curbing bonuses for top earners at TARP-funded firms and barred those firms from paying bonuses that equal more than a third of their total compensation.

The pay cut affects around 120 top executives of the six companies.  But, at the end of the workday all the executives whose pay was affected can still live large.   AIG Chief Executive Robert Benmosche’s previous $10.5 million annual pay package has been cut to $3 million. Feinberg approved $9 million in compensation for GM Chairman and CEO Edward Whitacre Jr., including $1.7 million in cash; and $6.27 million for new chief financial officer Chris Liddell, including $900,000 in cash. At the GMAC lending company, the new CEO, Michael Carpenter, will receive $8 million -all in stock.

At Chrysler Group LLC just one employee among the top 25 executives is getting overall compensation of more than $1 million: $1.02 million.  None of the Chrysler executives is earning more than $500,000 in cash, and just one is getting $500,000 in cash.   At Chrysler Financial direct compensation will increase by 10 percent.  Only eight Chrysler Financial executives will make more than $500,000 in cash.  Feinberg reiterated that Chrysler Financial is shutting down and therefore must pay all of the compensation in cash because the company is to shut down by the end of 2011.  An African American, Darryl R. Jackson, headed the company.

Bank of America and Citigroup and have repaid all or some government assistance, getting them out from under Feinberg’s authority.  In the case of Citigroup, it turned out to be a good investment for the government.  The Obama administration is in final preparations to sell its 27 percent stake expecting to net more than $7.5 billion, by far the largest profit returned from any firm that accepted bailout funds.

The mantra of most of the companies was that such salary slashing puts them “in jeopardy of losing top talent to competitors”.  If they stay in place; or move to firms not affected by government oversight; these executives will still land in some pretty high cotton.

(William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com)

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Speaking Truth to Power – WAS AFRICAN AMERICANS MEETIN’ WIT OBAMA A FARCE? by William Reed Columnist

“Let us march on ’til victory is won”

Blacks keep getting fooled about initiatives due them no matter the resident of the White House.   Black Economic Development prospects took a strange turn when President Barack Obama brought prominent African-American leaders to the Oval Office to discuss his administration’s plans for improving the dire economic conditions gripping much of Black America. 

Despite Black joblessness rates twice that of Whites, Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP; Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League; and the Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, emerged from the meeting mouthing the “Post-racial America” mantra.  Satisfied with the meeting, the head of the NAACP said: “In these times, it didn’t make sense to talk about race-based initiatives.”  Jealous also said: “When you’re on the ground, the poor Black community is the same as the poor White community”.  The event, and comments resulting from it, has not only raised questions about Obama’s “accountability” to Blacks, but theirs as well.  Some African American pundits say it was a White House ruse.  The nation’s first Black President got the Civil Rights leaders to accept the notion he cannot adopt employment strategies that primarily help Blacks.  Officially, President Obama got their support to “target help to regions most in need”, which in turn, Obama says, “would lift African-American communities”.

To the point of changing the status of African Americans from the nation’s poorest ethnic group, the delegation obviously lost their way and focus.  Comments, attributed to Rev. Sharpton that: “President Obama doesn’t need  a Black agenda … He’s not the president of Black America, he’s the president of all America, and he need not focus specifically on the unique challenges Black America is facing”, causes concern.  Into that breach stepped Tavis Smiley, who on the “Tom Joyner Morning Show” questioned Black leaders giving cover to Obama’s short-comings to Blacks.  Smiley said: “If Black America’s recognized leaders are unwilling to push President Obama on these issues now, how can they expect to hold the moral authority to question any other president henceforth about issues directly pertaining to Black America?” Sadly Smiley is being labeled a “hater”, “sellout” and “traitor” by many Blacks for his stance on the issue of Obama’s “accountability”. 

Sharpton said he wants the voices of minorities to be taken into account when economic or jobs legislation is drafted, "We need to be part of the discussion; just as labor leaders have been included, just as business leaders [have had their say]."  But, when Sharpton “had his say” and he failed to hold Obama’s feet to the fire by not using the “face time” to tell the nay-sayer about race-specific Presidential Initiatives that have been enjoined by Lyndon Johnson and his 1960s Great Society programs to eliminate poverty and racial injustice and Richard Nixon and 1970s mixture of Government loans, tax incentives, and private business aid in the 1970s to create Black capitalism. 

Economic stimulus programs could increase Blacks’ standard of living, i.e. the Johnson and Nixon Initiatives.  Yet, Blacks, and their leadership, have allowed Candidate, and President Obama to “nickel and dime” them on issues of economic development.  Blacks still star-struck about Barack being in the White House can’t get their heads around the thought that the President of the United States can, before noon tomorrow, direct billions in Economic Stimulus programs to predominately Black Congressional Districts by his signature.

For “our victory to come”, more Black Americans need to understand where Smiley is coming from and start utilizing basic and proven techniques to grow Black American enclaves.  Either we need to change the paradigm of how Black America’s leaders are to deal with this president, or change to a new “Leadership” paradigm of new ideas, perspectives, and participants.  Like-minded Blacks should note the conference Smiley is convening a Saturday, March 20th in Chicago.  The nationally-televised forum: “We Count! The Black Agenda is the American Agenda”, will be held from 8 am – noon, at Chicago State University’s Emil and Patricia A. Jones Convocation Center, 9501 South King Drive.

(William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com)

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Speaking Truth to Power – THE CENSUS FORM: SEND IT BACK! by William Reed Columnist

It’s time to be counted.  Every day, the average American gets 1.7 pieces of direct mail, in March they will get another in the form of the 2010 Census.  The 2010 Census is being mailed to more than 130 million households, including America’s 8.5 Black family households.  Fully a third of these households aren’t expected to send their forms back.

Rating just below “a come to Jesus meeting", filling out the 2010 Census should be a high priority item for African Americans.  The head of National Urban League, Marc H. Morial, is a leading voice urging Black Americans “to fill them out and mail them back.”  Morial says the 2010 Census is important “because the stakes for our communities are so high”. 

Critical as it is, in past censuses, African Americans have been undercounted at worse rates than any other racial or ethnic group.  Eliminating the gap between Black Americans and other Americans in the census count is essential to ensure that our communities receive their fair share of federal funds, ensure full political representation, and provide for effective enforcement of civil rights laws.  During the 2000 Census millions of people were not counted – including disproportionate numbers of African Americans and other minorities.  As a result of this undercount these communities lost political representation and needed funding for services.  Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP, says the 2000 Census undercounted African-Americans by nearly 3 percent.

In contrast to the times of the 1940s and 50s when African Americans were “invisible”; during the last two Census counts, African American males have diluted Black power by being exactly that.   According to the Census, as of July 1, 2007, the estimated population of African-American residents in the US (including those of more than one race) was 40.7 million and 13.5 percent of the total population.  The Census Bureau expects the African-American population to grow by more than 70 percent between now and 2050, so an accurate count in 2010 will influence the education of our children, the health of families, and the economic and political power of African-American communities for the next 10 years and beyond.

The census is used to distribute government money to communities for job training, schools, and hospitals. It’s also used by businesses to decide where to open new shops, grocery stores, restaurants and fund infrastructures. And it is used to determine representation in Congress, state legislatures, and local governments. Communities that are undercounted lose out in all those areas.  The fact is, every person who is not counted cost their communities more than $14,000 in funds for schools, health care, and jobs – and diminish African-American influence at all levels of government. Getting counted will bring Black communities more respect, resources, and political representation.

“We Can’t Move Forward until You Mail it Back” says the U.S. Census Bureau.  The Census Bureau wants African American men especially, to understand how important it is to fill out and return their 2010 forms.  Traditionally, African American males have not participated, but this may be the route to put a good number of them back to work.  Once you get your form in the mail, fill it in and mail it back in the postage-paid envelope provided.  The 2010 Census form is just 10 questions, such as: Name; Sex; Age, Date of birth; Race; Household relationship; If you own or rent.  "Some people are skeptical of answering questions from the government and have growing concerns about privacy, but the 2010 Census is important, easy and safe,” says Morial.

The 2010 Census advertising campaign is calibrated to reach the average American 42 times with messages about the importance of participating in the census.  Much of the advertising is targeted toward media primarily for minority and ethnic audiences.  The estimated cost for the 2010 Census is $13.7 to $14.5 billion.  Mailing it back is a cost savings for the 2010 Census.  For each percentage point the mail-back rate increases, the Census Bureau saves taxpayers $80 to $90 million in costs associated with having to send census takers to non-responding households.

(William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com)