April 10, 2017

America's Current Civil Rights Climate the Most Dangerous in Decades, Activists, Lawmakers Say
By Jane Kennedy

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In a wide-ranging discussion on Capitol Hill among lawmakers, activists, policy experts and former Obama administration officials about the state of civil rights in the Trump administration, the consensus was unanimous that the current climate for civil rights is the most dangerous that has been experienced in decades.

The April 6 event was hosted by Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), ranking member of the House Committee on the Judiciary.

“Although the Trump presidential campaign promised changes that would benefit minorities in the areas of crime, equal justice, and economic equality, his political allies and surrogates have sent a different message that has served to heighten national divisions and anxiety,” said Conyers, the longest-serving member in the House, known as “the dean” of the Congressional Black Caucus.

The forum took place only a few days after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Justice Department would review all of the consent decrees that the Obama administration entered into with law enforcement agencies that had demonstrated and documented histories of abuses and misconduct.

“The misdeeds of individual bad actors should not impugn or undermine the legitimate and honorable work that law enforcement agencies perform in keeping American communities safe,” the DOJ memo stated. In February, Sessions, who admittedly was unfamiliar with the details of the reports that led to decrees with police departments in Ferguson and Chicago, for example, nonetheless described them as “pretty anecdotal.”

Catherine Lhamon, chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and a former assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department under President Obama, described the first 76 days of the Trump administration’s civil rights record as “harrowing,” which she said was being “charitable.”

Recalling the immense challenge of getting a consent decree to reform the Los Angeles Police Department in 2000, despite years of abuses that included beating a homeless woman, lying to judges, planting drugs on innocent people to secure convictions, racially based stops and assaulting citizens, she said that Sessions’ decision was a signal of the “low value” the new administration places on civil rights.

“It was only through federal involvement that conditions [in LA] materially improved and that provided the impetus for real change for communities that were desperately in need of it,” Lhamon said. “The one ray of hope remaining now is that the federal courts have to approve the end of consent decrees that have already been implemented.”

This week, U.S. District Judge James Bredar denied the Justice Department’s request to delay the implementation of a consent decree for the Baltimore Police Department.

“The administration consistently uses its signaling to demonstrate disregard for civil rights. When it announces that it will reconsider the value of police consent decrees, withdraws support for transgender students, slashes the [budgets of agencies] that protect civil rights, the administration unilaterally sends a chilling message that it not only is not striving to secure civil rights for all but is in fact striving to not be a federal partner in that effort.”

Roy Austin, former director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs, Justice, and Opportunity, delivered an equally pessimistic assessment.

“In my humble opinion, the greatest current threat to civil rights in this great nation is this current administration. In record time [it] has already shown not simply a willingness to not defend civil rights, but it has shown an intent to violate civil rights, and at a minimum make it easier for others to violate civil rights. No marginalized, struggling, excluded, discriminated against, or protected individual or group is safe from what [it] has already done or appears to be planning to do,” Austin declared. “Everything that people have fought for, and that some have died for in recent decades, is at risk. Hopefully the will of the people, of representatives like you, and the courts will continue to ensure that the current administration cannot accomplish all that they desire.”

According to Austin, the Trump administration “could not move fast enough” to remove guidance that literally helps to save the lives of transgender individuals. In addition, he had harsh words for the White House’s “Muslim ban,” which in his view not only endorses religious discrimination but also diminishes public safety.

“When the federal government announces it will side with bigots and those with irrational fears, we all lose some of our humanity,” Austin said.

He also criticized the “orchestrated photo-op” that President Trump had with the leaders of the nation’s black college and university presidents in February. While the White House may have celebrated it as a successful meeting, Austin cautioned, the students who depend on and thrive at these historic institutions, must not be fooled by the administration’s false promises.

“Many of us in the Obama administration used to say that we wanted a nation where the color of your skin, the God you pray to, your ZIP code, or who you love did not determine your chances of success. It saddens me to see an administration that is trying to make these characteristics even more important and determinative,” Austin lamented.

Following eight years of near radio silence when it came to criticism of the White House to avoid publically finding fault with its first African-American occupant, the Congressional Black Caucus has been quite vocal in calling out actions by the current administration that members consider unjust. After its meeting last month with President Trump, the group announced plans to also meet with key members of his administration to find common ground and at least attempt to smooth out differences.

But given Session’s previous civil rights history during his time as a lawmaker and the record he is currently building at DOJ, the hope for common ground appears bleak.

Said Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, “We may be seeing the most dangerous Department of Justice that we have seen in decades.”

April 10, 2017

Morality, Race, and Chemical Assaults in Syria
With No Black President to Oppose, Trump Decides to Take Action

By Roger Witherspoon

Tomahawk launch from USS Ross 

The tragic result of Assad's use of gas to kill more than 1,400 men, women and children in Syria.

This photo of a South Sudanese child is among the horrific pictures of men, women, and children being massacred or starving in an ongoing civil war.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In 2013, Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad launched a massive gas attack on civilians which killed more than 1,400 men, women, and children.  President Barack Obama was both horrified and angry and sought legal authorization from the GOP-controlled Congress to launch a military strike against Syria.

The Republicans, who had criticized many Obama initiatives as “overreaching,” unauthorized and illegal, declined to grant approval. They were encouraged in their position by Donald Trump, who had seen newspaper still photos — sanitized for American audiences — of the chemical attack. Trump repeatedly said the U.S. has “no business” in Syria and the use of chemical weapons there was not our problem. More than once the prolific Trump tweeted “stay out!”

That attitude didn’t change with the regular use of barrel bombs (http://bit.ly/2oGZg7S ) which have killed thousands of Syrian men, women, and children.  There were videos and still pictures of destroyed neighborhoods and assorted bodies sticking out of what used to be apartment buildings. But they didn’t earn a 3 a.m. tweet.

And that was understandable: Why should a Caucasian billionaire give a damn about a bunch of Muslim babies dying in a Syrian street? And why would a rich White man who associated freely with White supremacists ever side with a Black President over a moral issue?

In the ensuing years, on the other side of the globe, thousands of Muslim Rohingya men, women, and children have been slaughtered by Buddhist mobs and military in Myanmar and Thailand.  Thousands of Rohingya people tried to flee on overloaded boats, only to be pushed further out to sea to die by Navy vessels from surrounding countries whose captains viewed Muslims as vermin to be exterminated.

To this, Trump has said nothing. But then, it was a bunch of Muslims being killed by a bunch of “slopes” — nothing for a White man to bother tweeting about.

Meanwhile, in South Sudan there were horrific pictures of men, women, and children being massacred or starving in an ongoing civil war. There were some photos of desiccated bodies rotting in the sun, and others of reed-thin waifs (  http://bit.ly/2nJTQnz ), their empty bellies bloated, being held to the last by emaciated mothers with no milk to give.

The incoming president, during the course of his world briefs, would have had these photos if he cared to look at them and thick dossiers if he cared to read them. But then, a bunch of Black women and children dying in the African sun was hardly worth a White man’s tweet.

Which brings us to April 2017. As it happens, President Trump, as usual roaming the mansion bored and alone, was looking at late night television and saw real time videos of men, women, and children dying in the streets of Syria from the same type of gas attack launched by the same murderous President Assad four years ago. The videos of these 70 victims were riveting, a stark difference from the static photo or two in a local newspaper four years earlier. It didn’t matter that in terms of scale, this brutal assault killed just 5 percent as many as the 2013 attack he dismissed with a tweet.

This time, there was no Black president to automatically oppose. This time, there was no opposition Congress to interfere.  This time, Trump actually looked at the videos — and found it difficult to turn away from the haunting scene: a woman’s writhing, uselessly flailing limbs that eventually stop in death; the straining, heaving chests of children starving for air until their little bodies give up and the heaving slows and then stops forever — children light-skinned enough to evoke images of his own grandchildren.

And that was enough for Trump to loose the weapons of war (http://bit.ly/2p7XN6G).

The launching of 59 Tomahawk missiles against a Syrian airbase came less than a week after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced that the official policy of the United States was that President Trump didn’t give a damn how many people were slaughtered in Syria’s one-sided, uncivil war. A generation ago, Assad’s father secured control of the country by the brutal slaughter of some 20,000 Syrians.  Assad has improved on that level of butchery with more than half a million dead citizens to his credit as he seeks to kill anyone who isn’t part of his minority sect and a sycophant blindly supporting him. With Tillerson’s announcement, the President of the United States gave Assad permission to continue his murderous ways, secure in the knowledge that America would neither question his morality nor interfere in his slaughter.

But then, there was late night television and the images that Trump couldn’t get out of his head. It would be encouraging to think that the immorality of Assad’s chemical war offended Trump. But that’s unlikely in a man who boasts of sexually assaulting women and openly disdains morality.

It would be encouraging to think that, as President, Trump realizes America has a longstanding role in the world to oppose evil and could not ignore this brazen violation of civilized norms. But that would be counter to his longstanding position of “America First” and the rest of the world can go to hell. It would be encouraging to think that Trump sat down with all the long-term experts at the State Department to understand America’s role in the face of this reviled throwback to World War I. But then, Trump fired all the State Department experts.

Which brings us back to skin color.

The man who schemed to avoid serving his country saw death in Syria stalk scores of women and children who looked like his and felt compelled to order other Americans’ children into the breach to avenge them. As a parent, I understand the revulsion at the chemical attack. But then, as a father and grandfather I understood it in 2013.

But as a Black father whose child is serving her country overseas, I wish I had confidence that decisions that could again place her in harm’s way were based squarely on the morality of the situation and the role of America in a dangerous world and not on the ability of the President to identify with the color of a foreign victim’s skin.

Roger Witherspoon, a board member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, has been a professional writer for more than 40 years.  He has published in Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Essence, Black Enterprise, The Economist, and US Black Engineer & IT among others.He can be contacted at https://witherspoontnp.wordpress.com/

April 10, 2017

New Study: Black Millennials More Optimistic About Their Future Than Whites, Hispanics

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Tarket Market News

(TriceEdneyWire.com) A newly released study of Millennials reveals that Black consumers between the age of 18-35 are more optimistic about their futures than Hispanics, Asians and Whites of the same age. Young African-Americans were also far more likely (59 percent) to say "anyone can achieve their dreams if they try hard enough."

The report is based on 2016 data from a collaborative research study conducted by Richards/Lerma (known for its expertise in Hispanic market advertising) and The University of Texas, Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations. It was designed to gain a more thorough understanding of the complexities of today's highly diverse multicultural Millennial group. 

"One of the most staggering findings of all in the midst of our nation's current racial upheaval is that Black Millennials are more optimistic than the other Millennial segments. Although they are less likely to say they are currently satisfied with life, they are the most optimistic about the future," the report says.

The study, "Millennials Deconstructed," consisted of a national online sample of Black, Hispanic, Asian, and White Millennials between the ages of 18 and 34 and Hispanics 35+ for comparison, and explored three separate topics: political beliefs and attitudes, the American dream, and media behavior. A series of qualitative one-on-one interviews were conducted following the quantitative study to gain additional insights into survey findings.

"Although our initial intent in this report was to strictly define and deconstruct the American Dream by racial/ethnic segment, a much more interesting story emerged after analyzing the results," the report says. "When zooming into the differences between the segments, the data reached out and smacked us with untold cultural stories that challenge popular notions about each race and ethnicity. While the differences between the way the groups define and relate to the American Dream are interesting, what's far more compelling is how their cultural and ethnic background shapes their responses in counterintuitive ways. In other words, it's not only 'the what' we want to talk about, it's the often neglected how and why."

April 4, 2017

Dr. Bernice King Tells 'Stateswomen' Gathering: 'Rise Above' Anger and Animus
By Barrington M. Salmon

Dr. Bernice King addresses the Stateswomen for Justice Luncheon and Issues Forum. PHOTO: Roy Lewis/Trice Edney News Wire

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The Rev. Dr. Bernice A. King, at the close of Women’s History Month, electrified an audience of men and women at the National Press Club, challenging them to rise above bickering with people with whom they may have political and cultural disagreements and find common ground – including with President Donald Trump.

In a speech she called, “What Does the Black Lives Matter Movement and Trump Have in Common?” she focused on the reality of the anger and animus on one side and the disgust, concern and fear of Trump on the other. She said the way to move forward from to the vilification hurled from both sides is to find common ground.

“We need people to rise above it and engage in conversation, real conversation,” she advised. “We’re not hearing each other right now because we’re not listening. We’re trying to react to what is said. We have to realize that that individual (with whom we disagree) is still of value. We have to win over people. The next generation is watching us for cues.

“We must listen and hear even though we don’t want to,” she continued. “We should not be drawing the line, unfriending people on Facebook, disconnecting links on LinkedIn or dragging them on Twitter. We must resist separation in the face of difference. We must love unconditionally …”

Chief executive officer at the King Center in Atlanta, Dr. King was keynote speaker at the 7^th annual Stateswoman for Justice Luncheon and Issues Forum, sponsored by the Trice Edney News Wire. The event, also in celebration of the 190^th anniversary of the Black Press, drew about 200 men and women to the Press Club even in chilly, rainy weather.

The youngest daughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King caused a stir and murmurs in the crowd as she prefaced her remarks by warning the packed ballroom that her comments about Black Lives Matter and Trump might cause some discomfort.

“Now I’m going to say some things that might be a little different and controversial,” she said with a wry smile. “I’m pushing the envelope. What do they have in common? They have awakened in us deep down divisions that in many respects we have tried to avoid, ignore, deny. I don’t know about you, but I’m very concerned about that.”

The Spelman College graduate who has a Bachelor’s Degree in psychology and a Masters of Divinity and Doctorate of Law from Emory University, went on to say that “there’s a deep polarization that exists in our nation and in fact, it’s potentially getting worse…Dr. King tried to teach us how to live in a world and co-exist with all of these different ideologies. What he left is an important blueprint that we cannot escape if you’re going to create a just, equitable world. He gave us plans and a strategy: chaos or community.”

She offered Black Americans four policy and moral prescriptions they should pursue if they hope to achieve the justice and equality for which her father fought and died:

• She said the Black community must be willing to value and embrace all of the community and all aspects of justice.
• She said they and others must realize that we’re all on the same boat – that justice can’t be narrow and one-sided.
• She said there is a great need for people who’re working to forge an agency for justice and who value long-term strategic planning in that area.
• Lastly, she said the community needs people who value building the “beloved community.”

King’s remarks magnified the growing racial, social and cultural divide that has been exacerbated by a vitriolic presidential campaign, Trump’s naked appeals to race and his masterful stoking of racial fears. Sensing the anxiety and feeling of disenfranchisement White voters carried, he spoke to their anger and their belief that Washington, African Americans, Latinos and immigrants had conspired against their interests.

Hazel Trice Edney, president/CEO of Trice Edney Communications and Trice Edney News Wire - convener of the luncheon and forum – also assembled a distinguished panel of Black leaders to discuss the topic, “Listen Up America: Forging Our Agenda for Justice.”  Panelists were Washington Informer Publisher Denise Rolark Barnes, chair of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA); former Bennet College President Dr. Julianne Malveaux, a noted economist, businesswoman, author, and commentator; Dr. Lezli Baskerville, Esq., president/CEO of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO); Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; and Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds, an award-winning journalist, minister and author of the autobiography of Coretta Scott King, “My Life, My Love, My Legacy.”

Howard University’s Yanick Rice Lamb, journalist, author and chair of the Radio, TV and Film Department, moderated the lively panel discussion. During her remarks, Malveaux drew laughter when she told King that she had to part ways with the reconciliation aspects of her keynote speech.

“My sister, I’m a Baby Panther and a cynic. Even though my doctor said fisticuffs isn’t good for my health and my girlfriend said she’s going to let me stay in jail for 24 hours,” said Malveaux, who leaned forward and gestured with her hands to accentuate her comments. “I’m resisting. I am a fighter because in every good we saw in Dr. King, we’ve seen an erosion. As Rev. Willie Barrow said, ‘We’re not as divided as disconnected.’”

Clarke expressed her deep concern about the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the US Supreme Court, who she described as an extremist who is wholly unsuited to be elevated to the High Court.

“This Supreme Court nomination has tremendous implications for us as black people in Voting Rights, healthcare and the death penalty,” Clarke said. “We deserve a justice who will fairly interpret civil rights and Constitutional laws.”

She also condemned Attorney General Jeff Sessions, saying he didn’t have to character or compassion to properly serve the people, especially African-Americans.

“The US Department of Justice is led by a man who couldn’t bring a more hostile attitude. He voted against hate crimes as a senator and he is pro-police,” Clarke continued. “We need to bring pressure to let him know that he must put aside his personal and political views. Mass incarceration is an issue we cannot turn a blind eye to. He has supported the return to the use of private prison and he has abandoned police reforms.”

During an audience question and answer session, women and men touched on multiple topics such as the disrespect meted out to women. A specific reference was to Trump Press Secretary Sean Spicer, whose exchanges with White House Correspondent April Ryan have recently been criticized as disrespectful. In a condescending way, he once told her to stop shaking her head. Concerns about missing Black and Brown girls and Fox’s Bill O’Reilly’s disparaging remark about Rep. Maxine Waters wig were also discussed.

“I’m furious and angry up here and I’m still not gracious,” Rev. Reynolds said forcefully as dozens in the audience stood and applauded. “I’m angry at how Rep. Waters was disrespected. He didn’t look at her record. We can take it off and pull it off because it’s ours! April Ryan was disrespected and she’s a grown woman. She can shake her hair, her finger, any part of her! We need to shake it up!”