Tear Down the Walls of Economic Racism by Julianne Malveaux

July 11, 215

Tear Down the Walls of Economic Racism
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - After lengthy hours of debate, the citizens of South Carolina joined their Senate in voting to remove their state flag – a version of the Confederate flag – from state house grounds. Twenty-four hours after Governor Nicki Haley signs the legislation, the flag will be removed. Many South Carolinians are hailing flag removal as a “new day” for their state, as well as a tribute to Clementa Pinckney, one of the massacred Emanuel Nine.

Revulsion from the slaughter at Emanuel AME church has sparked conversation all over the country about the confederate flag. An Iowan who sold ice to Wal-Mart with a confederate logo (go figure), was told he had to change his logo or sell his ice elsewhere. The US House of Representatives has banned display of the Confederate flag on sites maintained by the National Park Service. Mississippi Senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker say the Mississippi flag should be redesigned to remove the Confederate symbol.

At the same time, support for the Confederate flag continues. More than half of those polled by CNN say the flag represents Southern heritage, not racism. Most Mississippi legislators oppose changing the flag, and sales of the Confederate flag have soared in some states. In Georgia, the Ku Klux Klan has sued to be included in the Adopt-A-Highway program and display their symbol; in Missouri, the Klan won a similar lawsuit.

Removing the flag from public places and putting it in museums is a victory for those who reject this symbol of racial subjugation. Still every economic statistic screams racial subjugation. President Obama had it right (if belatedly) when he said that employers are more willing to employ James than Jamal. Last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that Black unemployment rate was 9.5 percent, more than twice the 4.6 percent rate than Whites experienced. Some economists will say that African Americans are less educated than Whites, explaining part of the unemployment rate gap. Others will cite other factors, such as occupation and location. Race still plays a role in unemployment rate differentials.

White men and White high school dropouts have about the same unemployment rate as Black high school graduates, and highly educated Blacks always have higher unemployment rates than less well educated Whites. While education pays off for Blacks, as those with better educations are paid more than those with less education, Whites get a greater return on education than Blacks do. If we want to remove vestiges of racial subjugation, we ought to pay attention to unemployment rate differentials and work as hard to eradicate them as we did to take down that Confederate flag in South Carolina. How? President Obama could sign an executive order directing the Department of Labor, an other federal departments, to target money and programs to the inner city or, more specifically, to African Americans. In these closing months of his presidency, he has used executive orders for other purposes. Why not use one to ensure that Jamal gets treated the same way as James?

In addition to Jamal and James, how about Tamika and Theresa? Though the unemployment rate gap is smaller between Black and White women, there are gaps in pay and working conditions. Because more than 40 percent of Black families are female-headed, low pay for Black women means different working conditions for Black families.

Similar differences are measured in the poverty rate, where more than a quarter of Black families live in poverty, compared to fewer than 10 percent of White ones. Average pay for African American family is about $31,000, compared to about $52,000 for White families. Congress has been hostile to any poverty-prevention programs, fighting to reduce food stamps programs, pushing back on Obama-backed legislation to increase the minimum wage. In the midst of legislative hostility, could President Obama do anything to lower poverty and especially the gap in the poverty rate? Certainly appointing a Presidential Commission to propose legislation on poverty prevention would be a first, if only symbolic.

The wealth gap is staggering. African Americans have a scant 2.5 percent of our nation’s wealth. The median wealth for White families is $120,000 in wealth, compared to $7000 for Black families. The wealth gap is partly a function of the inability for African Americans to attain wealth, certainly during slavery and the Black Codes era, and beyond. There were exceptions, of course, but the gaping wealth gap affects the quality of life for African Americans. What to do? The President might consider the Institute for the Black World’s proposal for a John Hope Franklin Commission for Reparatory Justice to explore the possibility of, among other things, reparations.

Taking down the Confederate flag without tearing down the walls of racial economic inequality is a partial victory. While I am elated that South Carolina governor Nicki Haley has expressed her opposition to the Confederate flag as a symbol of hate and White supremacy, I wonder if she will fight to end the institutional racism that results in higher unemployment rates, lower incomes, and less wealth for African Americans.

Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist. She can be reached at www.juliannemalveaux.com

Obama's Winning Record is Becoming Clearer by Jesse Jackson

July 11, 2015

Obama's Winning Record is Becoming Clearer
By Jesse Jackson

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The presidency is a bit like a baseball season. Players go through streaks and slumps, good days and bad days. Teams rack up wins and losses. It is only over the course of the long season that champions emerge, their record of accomplishment finally becoming clear.

As President Barack Obama’s second term heads into its final stretch, his accomplishments are becoming clear, rising above the daily skirmishes, wins and losses. As the first African-American president, Obama was always going to be an historic figure. But increasingly it is becoming clear that he will be remembered as a significant president not simply for winning office but also for what he accomplished while holding it. The first inklings of the results are reflected in recent polls showing that 50 percent of Americans now think the Obama presidency has been a success — an impressive number given the bitter partisan divide of our politics.

The president inherited an economy that was in free fall, losing hundreds of thousands of jobs a month. Now he presides over an economy that has created 12 million jobs, witnessed the fastest economic growth in a decade and set new records for the longest uninterrupted period of job growth. The U.S. recovery has far outstripped that of Europe, and this was accomplished despite the unrelenting obstruction of the Republican opposition, which committed itself from day one to opposing everything Obama attempted.

Health care reform — with the Affordable Care Act reaffirmed once more in the Supreme Court —has provided a big step forward. Some 15 million Americans have gained insurance, even as health care costs have risen at the lowest rates in this century. Nonetheless, partisan opposition led 22 states to refuse Medicaid expansion, denying millions from protection.

On the environment, the president is the most important leader since … well, since Nixon. His stimulus plan provided a major boost to renewable energy. He used regulation and executive order — particularly the gas mileage standards and the soon-to-come carbon emission standards — to boost energy conservation and limit carbon emissions. He will carry a strong hand into this year’s round of climate negotiations in Paris.

On immigration, the Congress has stymied comprehensive reform. But by executive order, the president has provided some hope for the millions left in the shadows.

On social issues, the president has been more observer than actor. Yet on his watch, the Supreme Court has ratified gay marriage. After the publicity about police shootings garnered attention, a bipartisan turn against mass incarceration has gained momentum with the Justice Department weighing in.

As for inequality, President Obama used his bully pulpit to put the issue in front of the American people. In the budgetary wars, he has succeeded in raising taxes on the rich. He sought, with little success, to increase investment in the most vulnerable. Inequality has grown more extreme on his watch, but any hopes of redressing it were blocked by Republican opposition to any and all efforts to take on the rigged rules that feed the inequality.

In foreign policy, the president’s effort to extricate us from the sectarian wars in the Persian Gulf have been largely frustrated. Troops are going back into Iraq, now to take on the threat posed by the Islamic State. Obama has emerged as a defender of presidential prerogatives in national security. His administration has continued to police the world, while deploying drones across the Middle East. By opening relations with Cuba, the president has created the basis for a new start with our neighbors in this hemisphere.

Much, of course, remains to be done. The president remained wedded to the failed trade policies of the past decades. There has been no clear policy for urban development or for targeting the most vulnerable communities. Government has grown more corrupted, not less. Big money dominates our politics more than ever before. The president’s education policy, with its emphasis on high stakes testing, has been a disappointment.

But this president has faced unprecedented obstruction, insult and venomous hatreds. He has more than survived; he has a record of accomplishment to be proud of. And he has forged a potential majority political coalition that could insure — if its members show up at the voting booth — that reform accelerates.

It's Not the Symbol; It's the Sentiment By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon, III

July 6, 2015

It's Not the Symbol; It's the Sentiment
By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon, III

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “On matters of race, South Carolina has a tough history… For many people in our state, the flag stands for traditions that are noble. Traditions of history, of heritage, and of ancestry…The hate filled murderer who massacred our brothers and sisters in Charleston has a sick and twisted view of the flag. In no way does he reflect the people in our state who respect and, in many ways, revere it. Those South Carolinians view the flag as a symbol of respect, integrity, and duty. They also see it as a memorial, a way to honor ancestors who came to the service of their state during time of conflict. That is not hate, nor is it racism.” Governor Niki Haley – South Carolina

According to law enforcement officials, Dylann Roof has admitted to the heinous murder of nine people during Bible study at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. He sat with them for over one hour, prayed with them and then preyed upon them. Roof is reported to have said he wanted to "shoot black people" and “start a race war”. A cousin of one of the victims stated that Roof said, "You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go."

Roof was parroting some very dangerous hateful and bigoted rhetoric. “You rape our women” is Klan rhetoric as displayed in the film, Birth of a Nation. “You’re taking over our country” or "This is our country…Let's take it back” is Tom Tancredo –Tea Party rhetoric. Wanting to start a race war is Skin Head/Neo-Nazi rhetoric.

As a result of this latest act of domestic terror there is a renewed call for the Confederate battle flag to be removed from the grounds of the State House in South Carolina and other places in the country. There are a few problems with this effort, primarily as people such as Niki Haley attempt to promote revisionist history even when calling for the removal of the flag. She said, “The hate filled murderer who massacred our brothers and sisters in Charleston has a sick and twisted view of the flag.” No, I think Dylann Roof’s “view” is spot on.

That flag stood for and continues to stand for hatred, bigotry, subjugation, White privilege and racism. Its creator William T. Thompson called it the “White Man’s Flag”. In 1863 he is quoted as having said, “As a people we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the White man over the inferior or colored race; a White flag would thus be emblematical of our cause.”

During the Civil War “States Rights” stood for the rights of Southern States to enslave Africans in America. During the Civil Rights Movement it stood for the rights of Southern States to defy the National Government and impose and maintain segregation.

Governor Haley stated that South Carolinians, “…see it as a memorial, a way to honor ancestors who came to the service of their state during time of conflict. That is not hate, nor is it racism.” It must be clearly stated and always understood that the “ancestors came to the service of their state” were traitors! They betrayed their country by attempting to kill the sovereign and overthrow the government. There is nothing noble in attempting to succeed from the Union in order to maintain chattel slavery. They were hate-filled racists!

By continuing to romanticize the Lost Cause, portraying the Confederacy as noble and its leaders as exemplars of old-fashioned chivalry, people such as Niki Haley provide tacit support for the domestic terrorists who have burned six churches in five Southern States in the past few weeks. The KKK is also stepping up its game. According to RawStory.com, residents in Mississippi, California, Florida, Alabama, Kansas, and Georgia received bags of candy laced with recruitment messages on their lawns and porches.

Haley’s comments reinforce the sense of entitlement and White privilege that motivated Shelby, North Carolina, police officers to buy Dylann Roof dinner at Burger King after he was apprehended. It also reinforces the mindset that motivated Charleston County Magistrate James B. Gosnell to begin Roof’s bond hearing for mass-murderer by declaring that his family members are victims as well. This is the same judge who according to The Daily Beast is on record as having said from the bench in another trial, “There are four kinds of people in this world—black people, white people, red necks, and n---rs,”.

It was not the Confederate battle flag that motivated four known Ku Klux Klansmen and segregationists: Thomas Edwin Blanton, Jr.; Herman Frank Cash; Robert Edward Chambliss; and Bobby Frank Cherry, to bomb the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on Sunday, September 15, 1963 killing Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Carol Denise McNair. It was the hatred, bigotry, and the sense of White privilege that motivated them.

The Confederate battle flag had nothing to do with the Tulsa, Okla. race riot of 1921 where a group of Whites attacked the African American community of Greenwood, also known as “Black Wall Street” leaving an estimated 10,000 African American’s homeless and burning 35 city blocks composed of 1,256 residences to the ground. The official count of the dead by the Oklahoma Department of Vital Statistics was 39, but other estimates of African-American fatalities vary from 55 to about 300. It was the sentiments of racism and hatred that motivated the White mob.

The Confederate battle flag had nothing to do with the race riots of the Red Summer of 1919 where Whites attacked African-Americans in more than 36 cities across the United States in response to social tensions created by African-Americans veterans from WWI competing with Whites for better jobs and housing.

Dylann Roof is a domestic terrorist in a long history of terrorism that has been directed toward the African-American community since the first African’s disembarked onto the shores of Port Comfort, Va. (near Hampton, Va.) on August 20, 1619.

For Gov. Niki Haley to call for the removal of the flag in one breath and celebrate and romanticize its history in another is double-speak. For President Obama to praise her by saying, “But as people from all walks of life, Republicans and Democrats, now acknowledge -- including Governor Haley, whose recent eloquence on the subject is worthy of praise…” allows this reality to be overlooked. For him to talk about the “…valor of Confederate soldiers” continues to cloud the issue. There is no valor or heroic courage in treason.

Yes, the Confederate battle flag needs to come down but when it does that celebration should be short lived. It’s not the symbol of these terrorists that matters; it’s their sentiment and actions. The African- American community is going to have to protect itself because this is only going to get worse before it gets better.

Dr. Wilmer Leon is the Producer/ Host of the Sirius/XM Satellite radio channel 126 call-in talk radio program “Inside the Issues with Wilmer Leon” Go to www.wilmerleon.com or email:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. www.twitter.com/drwleon and Dr. Leon’s Prescription at Facebook.com (c) 2015 InfoWave Communications, LLC

Bill Cosby Isn’t Laughing

July 7, 2015

Bill Cosby Isn’t Laughing

Bill Cosby

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - For comedian Bill Cosby, it’s no longer a laughing matter. Cosby swore in a 2005 deposition that he drugged a woman with Quaaludes before having sex, according to news reports.

The comedian, who was 38 or 39 at the time, admitted that he got the Quaaludes because he wanted to have sex with the woman, an unnamed employee of Temple University in Philadelphia. He is now 77.

Cosby, a native of Philadelphia, attended Temple. Last year, he resigned from Temple’s board of trustees, following renewed allegations from the woman, a former basketball employee.

He claimed he gave her Benadryl. Cosby later paid her an undisclosed financial payment to settle the allegations.

During the deposition, Cosby recalled another incident in Las Vegas that he gave another woman Quaaludes before they sex.

Allegations that Cosby drugged women to have sex have dogged the comedian for decades. In the last two years, the allegations have exploded with dozens of women coming forward.

Cosby and his attorneys had attempted to keep the deposition sealed, but U.S. District Court Judge Eduardo Robreno ordered it unsealed on July 6.

Judge Robreno wrote in a 25-page memorandum, “That there was a stark contrast between Bill Cosby, the public moralist, and Bill Cosby, the subject of serious allegations concerning improper (perhaps criminal) conduct.”

New NNPA Chair: ‘We’re Going to Flex Our Muscles’ by Hazel Trice Edney

July 5, 2015

New NNPA Chair: ‘We’re Going to Flex Our Muscles’
By Hazel Trice Edney

Denise Rolark Barnes PHOTO: Roy Lewis/Trice Edney News Wire

New NNPA Chair Denise Rolark Barnes responds to audience after the June 19 election. Standing behind her is NNPA President/CEO Ben Chavis.
PHOTO: Roy Lewis/Trice Edney News wire

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - When America’s first Black newspaper was published on March 16, 1827, Black people were still enslaved. Nearly two centuries later, the issues of Black America – though not as severe as human bondage - are still urgent and continue to undermine America’s promise of freedom and justice for all.

This is the reason that 21^st century Black newspapers remain focused on “pleading our own cause” as was expressed in the first editorial by abolitionists Samuel Cornish and John B. Russwurm in the Freedom’s Journal. The editorial concluded, “Too long has the public been deceived by misrepresentations, in things which concern us dearly.”

In this regard, Denise Rolark Barnes, the new chair of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, says the federation of more than 200 Black-owned newspapers will continue to – not only thrive – but grow as it begins its 75^th year. With most newspapers in an economic struggle industry wide and Black newspapers enthralled in a historic battle against advertising discrimination, Barnes says NNPA’s new leadership team will encourage a keen focus on issues that continually plague Black communities, while initiating strategies to expand.

“Housing, the large foreclosure rate, the issue of the lack of police-community relations, the unwarranted deaths of young Black men at the hands of police, the big issue of Black on Black crime – We need to take responsible positions on all of these issues because this is what our community looks for, but this is also what I think our advertisers will be looking for. They want us to take a stand on these issues,” says Barnes in an interview with the Trice Edney News Wire. “I’d just say look out because we’re going to flex our muscles. And we’re looking forward to doing our jobs on a broader scale and speaking stronger. And I know the publishers are prime for it.”

The flexed muscle of the Black Press recalls the powerful logo made famous by the historic Richmond Planet. The newspaper's banner carried a drawing of "a flexed, muscular black arm with lightning bolts radiating out of its clenched fist", as decribed by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Barnes, publisher of the Washington Informer Newspaper for more than 20 years, was given the leadership charge by her fellow publishers in a June 19 election held during the NNPA Annual Convention in Detroit. As publisher, she follows in the footsteps of her father, the late Calvin Rolark, who was widely known as a business and community leader as well as publisher of the Informer, which he founded more than 50 years ago.

The executive committee elected alongside her also includes publishers who are well-entrenched leaders in various communities: First Vice Chair Karen Carter Richards, Houston Forward Times; Second Vice Chair Francis Page, Jr., Houston Style Magazine; Treasurer Janis Ware, Atlanta Voice and Secretary Shannon Williams, Indianapolis Recorder.

“Many of us are second generation publishers. We’re fairly young and are committed to the legacy that was left by those who started in this industry. We understand what our responsibilities are and we’re looking forward to continuing to make a difference through the stories, the photographs, and the editorials that you’ll find in Black-owned newspapers,” said Barnes.

She ticked off several initiatives foremost on her mind that the association must explore in coming months and years in order to expand and strengthen its membership. Among them are:

Since NNPA operates off of sponsorships and advertising, there must be new ways to help corporations understand the value of Black newspapers. That will be a major effort now through a national advertising sales team currently being established.
Increase, solidify and grow online presence in order to engage readers who may not readily pick up newspapers. Currently, the two NNPA websites are NNPA.org and BlackPressUSA.com. Most NNPA member newspapers also have their own individual websites. The NNPA Foundation, which includes the D.C.-based NNPA News Service and Blackpressusa.com, run by Editor-in-chief George Curry, has a separate board chair.
Create genres through which readers can exchange opinions and thoughts surrounding the issues and articles in Black newspapers.
Consider broadening the NNPA membership base to fully include those newspapers that only publish online as well as helping to bring back members that may have become defunct due to economic difficulties.
Provide greater support and service to newspapers that are evolving into multi-media companies.
Supporting the staff of the national office, also based in Washington, D.C., in order to maximize the success of the policies set by the board.

Barnes’ term as chair is two years, after which she could run for a second two-year term. The executive committee heads a 22-member board of directors, including representatives of five regions. The board establishes policy and directives for the Washington, D.C. headquarters, which is led by NNPA President/CEO Benjamin Chavis.

Chavis’ stature as a former member of the recently pardoned historic Wilmington 10 as well as his civil rights leadership as former NAACP executive director, has raised the visibility of the organization to a new level over the past several years. Barnes, who replaces former chair Cloves Campbell of the Arizona Informant, says she will build on the new growth forged by Campbell during his four-year tenure.

“NNPA for so long didn’t have a president and didn’t have a staff; therefore the publishers were actually involved in the day to day management of the association. Now, we have the benefit of both of those, the president, the staff and the National Office. And so, the board now can get back into the business of creating policy,” she said.

The fact that the NNPA national office and chair are now both located in the nation’s capital is an additional advantage from a standpoint of infrastructure, she said. Amidst the home of the federal government, the U. S. Congress, she says she will work the relationships garnered by her and her father over 50 years for the maximum benefits for NNPA.

“We serve as the voice for the Black community; we speak truth to power, we influence legislation and I think when folks see that we’re still an integral part of our community because of the positions that we take on behalf of our community, it will show that we have the kind of value that’s worth investing in,” Barnes says. “Some may not always appreciate the positions that we may take. But, it’s not about liking what we do. It’s being respected for what we do.”

She concluded, “We give you stories about communities that are working hard to support their families, to build communities, to contribute to this nation and to the world and I don’t ever see a day - to be honest with you - where the Black press will not play that critical role in this country and across the world.”