Urban News Features

Will Hillary Prevail? By Julianne Malveaux

Aug. 31, 2015

Will Hillary Prevail?
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - If you had asked me just a year ago if former Secretary of State and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton would be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States I’d have replied “no question”. I expected a near-coronation on the Democratic side, and a little rough-and-tumble on the Republican side. Jeb Bush, I thought, would have a few competitors nipping at his heels, but the Chris Christies, Bobby Jindals, and Scott Walkers of the world had ambition and followers, but nothing to top Jeb. I thought this would be a legacy race and while I didn’t much like the déjà vu feeling about 2016, it seemed to be inevitable.

Now, the Republican nomination has turned into a reality television show, with feuds being played out on twitter, and good sense is as likely to show up in these Republican gatherings as calculus is to be found in kindergarten. Now what promised to be a sleepy Democratic glide to the nomination has evolved into, if not a contest, at least a challenge for Hillary Clinton.

As Clinton has muddled her way through the State Department email drama, potential competitors have circled her like sharks circling blood in the water. It has taken her months to grudgingly admit her mistakes. If she was going to give the emails from her private server up with an apology for her bad judgment, why didn’t she do so in the beginning? As it is, she has raised all kinds of questions about her honesty, and allowed rabid Republicans to go after her with a vengeance.

A progressive Democrat was likely to jump into the race regardless of what Clinton said or did. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have pushed Clinton to the left with their rhetoric, and few could have predicted that Sanders would not only enter the race but also attract millions of both people and dollars to support him. While the super PACs funding Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton are collecting six and seven figure checks, the average Sanders donor has given about $30 to his war chest.

Blood in the water. Vice President Joe Biden is now considering vying for the Presidency, and some see him as “insurance” in case Hillary implodes. The email drama should not sideline her from this race by itself, but weak showings in the early primaries, especially as she has already campaigned hard in Iowa and New Hampshire, will bruise her badly. Clinton supporters seem to think she has locked up much of the Democratic money, but with his long history in politics, and a group of loyal supporters, there may be more than a few pennies out there for Joe Biden. And, if Clinton even appears to stumble, there may be millions out there for Biden.

Hillary Clinton has become a much better campaigner than she was in 2007 and 2008. She seems more approachable and friendly than she was then, although there are some members of the press who would say otherwise. We’ve seen much less of former President Bill Clinton on the trail so far than we did last time around, which is a good thing. Lots of people love Bill Clinton, but his presence often raises the question about who will be running the White House. In some ways, Hillary Clinton has all her ducks in a row, just like she and her supporters thought she did before President Barack Obama said he was running for President.

Clinton stumbled in early 2008, and she may stumble again. Her handlers need to make sure she speaks to the press more often and more transparently. She needs to tone the sarcasm down to build her likeability up. Her focus on working families and middle class families is great, but she might try to say a word or two about the poor. Poor folks won’t write checks, but if they feel included they can surely vote.

If Biden jumps into this race, the African American community is likely to be conflicted. If President Obama endorses or supports his Vice President, those loyal to him in the African American community will give Biden more consideration that they might have otherwise. At the same time, African American people, generally, like former President Bill Clinton and much of that affection spills over to Hillary Clinton. And there are tens of millions of Democratic women who feel that it is overdue for a woman to lead our nation.

Hillary Clinton is the kind of sister who might benefit from a little marijuana in her brownie. She needs to loosen up and lighten up, and that is not her nature. She can prevail if she tweaks her campaign strategy and opens up to the press. The email drama is likely to go away, but it won’t if she remains defensive. And while an uptight Clinton might win a spirited fight for the nomination, an uptight Clinton won’t win the presidency.

Our nation will be worse off if a Republican wins the Presidency in 2016, and virtually doomed if the blustering Trump wins the White House. Hillary Clinton is worth fighting for, but she’ll have to tweak her style to rally the troops.

Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist based is Washington, DC. She can be reached via www.juliannemalveaux.com

Racism - Re-Emerging and Unashamed by Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

Aug. 30, 2014

Racism - Re-Emerging and Unashamed
By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

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(TriceEdneyWire.com) - It used to be that any egregious or heinous racially motivated action or statement immediately became the subject of public scorn and ridicule. I know that not everyone agreed with the resulting condemnation, but it was typically condemned from much of society. In my opinion, the reason for this condemnation was PUBLIC EXPOSURE and GUILT!

Since I’ll speak about RACISM this week, a brief restatement of what racism is seems to be in order. RACISM is an act to disadvantage another based upon racial designation--combined with the POWER to enforce that disadvantaged position. Racism is not to be confused with Prejudice which is merely an attitude or belief system. Of course, racial prejudice gives fuel to the fire of racism, but it takes an action to create racism.

Now that I've cleared that up, let's get down to the meat on this bone. What's happened to the national shame and outrage against obvious acts of racism?

During the 50's and 60's when the organized demand for racial justice and civil rights was peaking, it seemed that the American Conscience was in the throes of dissonance. After all, there was no way to justify the brutality inflicted on citizens seeking the full-measure of their rights or to reconcile the conflict between stated national ethics and the realities of racism. Americans could not explain away the reason for the killing, beating and maiming of people of color - much of it seen on television as it happened.

The whole world was watching! The brightness of the moral superiority projected across the world by the US became increasingly tarnished by home-grown acts of violence against dark people living here. The result: Americans felt guilty and from that guilt came change. Any vestige of racism became unacceptable in polite society.

Knowledge of that part of our history begs us to answer another, question regarding racism. If public exposure and guilt led to the reduction of overt acts of racism in the past, why now are so many acts of racism accomplished in the light of day without a hint of guilt or remorse?

One only has to examine the number of Black people gunned-down by police and others to see the reality of our current circumstance. These assassins operate with a cavalier approach to the elimination of Black life and, in no uncertain terms, tell our community that their actions have reached the level of normalcy. Rather than remorse, they explain to us and to the world how deserving their latest victim was of fatal justice. Delinquent child support, wearing a hood, playing loud music, selling loose cigarettes, playing with a toy gun on a playground, holding a display air rifle in a Wal-Mart store, and an alleged improper lane change have all risen from minor infractions to capital crimes! We easily hear voices from society's conservative fringe attempting to justify these acts.

From the mouths of Republican presidential candidates, we see their justification for vilification of immigrants and Brown people. They speak of mass deportation, including native-born US babies, subverting portions of the the Constitution they don't like, and building an impenetrable wall between a neighbor state and us. As they have done with our Blackness, they’ve now criminalized the Brownness of certain immigrants and distorted their image into something entirely antithetical to "The American Way." They've changed their mantra, but the euphemistic "Make Our Nation Great Again" plays the same tune as "Let's Take Our Country Back."

Racism never went away. Many have recognized it festering under the surface of social interaction. Our greatest concern should now be how to combat its unremorseful public re-emergence and its unrepentant willingness to take us back to an age of hatred, intolerance and injustice.

(Dr. E. Faye Williams is President of the National Congress of Black Women. www.nationalcongressbw.org. 202/678-6788)

U.S. Black Chamber Pressing Auto Dealers for Fair Return on Black Dollars by Hazel Trice Edney

August 24, 2015

U.S. Black Chamber Pressing Auto Dealers for

Fair Return on Black Dollars

African-Americans Projected to Spend $24 Billion on Automobile Industry This Year

By Hazel Trice Edney

U. S. Black Chamber President/CEO Ron Busby signs Memorandum of Understanding with NAMAD President Damon Lester. Marc Bland, IHS vice president of diversity and inclusion, looks on.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - This year alone, African-Americans are projected to spend as much as $24 billion on new cars and other vehicles from America's auto industry. Yet, research shows that, commensurate with their spending, Black consumers have little to show for their support of car dealerships, except the shiny new purchases in their driveways.

That's the reason that a new agreement between the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. and the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers was established to start solving that problem. The purpose of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed late last month, is to forge relationships with Black vendors and suppliers with hopes to "open millions of dollars of opportunity to Black businesses across the nation," says Ron Busby, president/CEO of the USBC.

"The end goal of these agreements is to leverage USBC's professional relationships to provide more tangible contracting opportunities for our small business members and to facilitate collaboration in the Black community."

The announcement of the MOU took place at a press conference sponsored by Hyundai North America during the USBC's recent 2015 School of Chamber and Business Management, an annual gathering with a goal of fostering growth of small Black businesses and economic development across the country. In a recent interview, Busby explains what the new Memorandum means to Black auto dealers and the Black community as a whole.

"The amount that African-Americans spend on vehicles is inappropriately unequal as it relates back to the number of dealerships that we own as well as the amount of money that those particular brands market to the African-American consumer," he says. "And so what we hope that this does - this new relationship that we've established - is we want to showcase the power of the African-American dollar and recirculate that dollar so that our Black dealers can now increase the number of employees that they have working on their staffs."

Busby points out that "The number of dealers that are owned by African-Americans is decreasing at a high rate. We have fewer dealers that are owned by Black folk now than we've ever had in history. But, yet we have more Black consumers who are buying vehicles than we ever had. We just got to support them like we have to support our Black banks as well as our Black media."

NAMAD President Damon Lester says there's been a drastic decrease in Black-owned dealerships. There were only 252 at the end of 2014. That's down from a peak ownership of 795 in 2005, Lester said. That's a 31 percent reduction in ownership in less than 10 years.

The USBC has researched several national industries to find ways to recirculate dollars back into Black businesses and the community at large. Last year the organization focused on travel and tourism "and we said we were going to spend more money with Black hotel owners," Busby recalls. The year before that, it was Black-owned banks.

But, the automobile industry is a special challenge given the comeback of the industry, which nearly collapsed seven years ago. A multi-billion dollar government bailout largely saved the industry, but Black-owned dealerships have continued to struggle having lost thousands of employees.

Marc Bland, vice president for diversity and inclusion for IHS Automotive, which provides statistics and information on the automobile industry among others, says the USBC has the right strategy to deal with the issues - not only as they pertain to the automobile industry, but others as well.

"Activity based on facts and data...creates awareness and education, which leads to proper action and engagement," Bland says. The USBC, NAMAD and Hyundai are playing out this strategy, he said.

"Collectively, what they did is say, 'Hey, here's some information that says the African-American consumer is helping to drive a lot of growth in the U.S. auto industry.' Hyundai came and showed up, which is the initial action," Bland recounted. "They invited me to come out as a leader from IHS to provide some fact-based data; and together the three of us, along with Ron, had a conversation which provided awareness and proper education to the attendees. And then NAMAD took the additional step of signing the MOU which says that NAMAD is going to work with Ron Busby to collectively say how can we work together to identify potential growth opportunity for Black auto dealers. And then you have Hyundai, which says they're going to support the efforts as well."

Bland said African-Americans represent about 8 percent of all new vehicles sold in the United States. By April of this year, Blacks had bought 373,901 vehicles, which, at a conservative

$25,000 per vehicle, could end up at $24 billion by the end of this year. He listed the eight top brands selling most to African-Americans as the following in order of sales: Toyota, Nissan, Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Kia, Hyundai and Dodge.

Bland applauded Hyundai for having one of its executives present at the U. S. Black Chamber School of Management, "which I think is the first step."

But, Hyundai is just a start, Bland says. "The data that we have so far is a good foundation for Ron to now have really solid conversations with pretty much all the auto manufacturers; those that are doing great - 'Hey how can you further expand your platform today and make it even greater?' And those that are maybe trailing behind, 'Hey, how can you get up to par, get up to speed and then further expand that platform?'"

Busby not only has that issue, but other critical Black business issues on his plate. "The number one concern is access to capital," he said in an interview. "And Black businesses in particular feel like it is more challenging this year to get access to the funds to grow and start businesses than they ever have before."

Another issue often discussed in USBC circles is the question of how to convince African-American consumers to support Black-owned businesses. With an estimated spending power of $1.1 trillion, African-American economic power continues to grow exponentially. But, the average African-American dollar only stays six hours within the Black community, the USBC stated in a release.

Busby, whose non-profit USBC has a membership of 240,000 Black-owned businesses and 115 chambers in 28 states, said he found it ironic that a recent Gallop poll revealed that Hispanic and Asian business-owners say they have not felt as much economic pressures as African-Americans.

"They have not felt the discrimination or the challenge of being a minority as much as African-Americans have," he said. "But yet we still have a very positive outlook for our future as business owners."

President Obama to Observe Katrina’s 10th Anniversary in New Orleans by Zenitha Prince

Aug. 24, 2015

August 24, 2015

President Obama to Observe Katrina’s 10th Anniversary in New Orleans
By Zenitha Prince

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Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspaper

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Almost 10 years ago, the world watched as the waters of the Gulf of Mexico—urged on by the pummeling winds of Hurricane Katrina—swallowed the city of New Orleans, and wreaked havoc all up and down the coast.

On Aug. 27, President Obama will travel to the Crescent City to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of this costliest and one of the deadliest natural disasters to hit the United States and to highlight the city’s efforts to rebuild.

The president will be joined by Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate in meeting with Mayor Mitch Landrieu and residents of affected neighborhoods. Fugate and other FEMA officials will also attend commemoration events in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas in the days leading up to the anniversary.

Officials from several other agencies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Education, the Small Business Administration and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) will also tour the region as part of the observance.

Hurricane Katrina crashed into the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005. The punishing winds destroyed trees, buildings and other property, but most of the damage—especially in New Orleans, where its levees failed—came from the resulting floods. The disaster caused more than $100 billion in damage and took about 2,000 lives.

“We all remember it keenly: water pouring through broken levees; mothers holding their children above the waterline; people stranded on rooftops begging for help; bodies lying in the streets of a great American city,” Obama recalled during a speech on the storm’s fifth anniversary in 2010. He added, “It was a natural disaster but also a manmade catastrophe – a shameful breakdown in government that left countless men, and women, and children abandoned and alone.”

This year, the president is expected to discuss his administration’s as well as state and local efforts to rebuild in the region. And, according to Time magazine, he may likely also note potential links between super storms like Katrina and climate change—a key focus area of the Obama White House.

- See more at: http://afro.com/president-obama-to-observe-katrinas-10th-anniversary-in-new-orleans/?utm_source=Saturday+News+Wrap-up+E-Blast%2C+August+22%2C+2015&utm_campaign=sat+eblast&utm_medium=email#sthash.B7Ej9Inu.dpuf

Federal Judge Re-instates Byron Allen's $20 billion Lawsuit Against Comcast, Time Warner

Federal Judge Re-instates Byron Allen's $20 billion Lawsuit Against Comcast, Time Warner

Byron Allen

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Target Market News

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Federal Judge Terry Hatter, who two weeks ago dismissed a lawsuit filed by Byron Allen's Entertainment Studios Networks, Inc. and the National Association of African-American Owned Media against Time Warner and Comcast, has issued a ruling re-admitting the complaint. Judge Hatter's earlier dismissal ruled that the Plaintiffs had failed to allege a claim for relief.

Allen and NAAAOM, following the dismissal, promised to appeal the decision and continue their suit against the cable companies, Rev. Al Sharpton, and others.

"We will continue to vigorously pursue Comcast and Time Warner Cable, who spend approximately $25 billion annually licensing cable networks with less than $3 million going to 100 percent African American owned media," said Mark DeVitre, President of NAAAOM. "We will not stop until the discrimination stops and we achieve true economic inclusion."

Orders issued by Judge Hatter said "Counsel are hereby notified that this case is reopened and the Plaintiff will be given until September 21, 2015 in which to file an amended complaint."