June 28, 2015

Blackonomics

Power Talk  
By  James Clingman       

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “Now there are some ‘practical’ things we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.” - MLK

Those words were spoken by Martin Luther King the night before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, as part of his famous “Mountaintop” Speech.  He stated the problem, did an analysis of the problem, and gave solutions to the problem.  Let me add that he gave some “practical” solutions that would lead to economic empowerment and justice.

On Friday evening, June 19, 2015, at Carl Nelson’s Power Talk Series in Washington, D.C., my speech contained the same basic steps and were captured in three questions: What?; so what?; and now what?  It was the 150^th anniversary of Juneteenth, with which I began my comments on true freedom for Black people.  I essentially stated the problem, analyzed it, and offered solutions to the problem by asking, “Now what?”

Thousands of people attended the Power Talk event, and they stayed for hours beyond the scheduled time to soak up all the information given out by the august group of speakers, too many to name here.  My overall assessment is that each speaker discussed problems and opportunities that are before us every day.  They cited the common areas of work through which Black people can and should collaborate.  I trust that most, if not all who were there, left with a “mind to work,” as the people had when Nehemiah spoke to them about rebuilding the wall.

One of the main aspects of my speech was work, otherwise known as action, involvement, or initiative.  And, in keeping with MLK’s words, I offered a “practical” and appropriate response to our economic and political problems via a movement called, The One Million Conscious Black Voters and Contributors (www.iamoneofthemillion.com).

I admonished the audience not to merely listen to the words of those Black scholars, activists, educators, and advocates, but also to leave with a commitment to do something in response to what they heard.  Why travel hundreds or thousands of miles in some cases, or even across town, especially in DC traffic, to simply hear messages that make us feel good but fail to make us do good?

Imagine where some of us would be if those who heard Gordon Granger’s words on June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Texas, would have simply returned to their normal state of affairs by staying put rather than running for true freedom.  Granger told them they were “free,” with conditions of course, but his General Order #3 also recommended that formerly enslaved Africans in Texas stay on their plantations and “work for wages.”  Implicit in that statement was their right to leave if they wanted to, which some chose to do.

Just as those brothers and sisters had to make a decision, so must we today.  Will we stay on our psychological plantations, waiting for someone to come and save us or make us comfortable in our misery?  Or, will we decide to leave our current mental state of complacency and actually do the work necessary for our true freedom?  The culmination of freedom for Black people in this nation is economic freedom.  In that regard, my recommendation, as opposed to Gordon Granger’s, is that we move away from our comfort zones and build an effort so powerful that it cannot be swayed by corporate largess or manipulated by disingenuous politicians.

That effort is the One Million, a movement that answers most, if not all, of the problems we face.  During my speech at Power Talk I listed 16 things Black folks can do while we wait for a myriad of things to take place in this country, three of which are:

• Hold ourselves accountable for our own freedom;
• Organize ourselves around practical economic and political solutions that benefit US; and
• Commit some of our time, talent, and treasure to the uplift of our people.

The other 13  are on the One Million website.  It is way past time for us to assume our responsibility of taking care of ourselves.  But only when we organize ourselves into a viable force and are willing and able to execute a collective economic and political strategy, through a “practical” vehicle called the One Million Conscious Black Voters and Contributors, we will remain a toothless tiger, ignored by some, taken for granted by others and, shamefully, feared by no one.  Are you “One in a Million?”  Go to the website and find out.

June 27, 2015

Stop Celebrating - Get to Work
By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq. 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – The morning of June 25, 2015 brought us another civil rights milestone.  On that morning the Supreme Court affirmed the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and gave it a new lease-on-life.  Likeminded friends and I shared the news on the telephone, texting and with emails.  For us it was a day of jubilation that equaled or surpassed any other day in recent memory regarding healthcare.  I‘m still abuzz with the news and I’m positive about the healthcare outcomes of millions of my fellow Americans.

It is my firm belief that Obamacare is one giant step toward unshackling the chains of corporate oppression from the masses. It removes millions of men, women and children from the ranks that the uncaring, who already have the best of care, designate as acceptable casualties.  Those who’ve become more well off than a good life requires often made it to where they are on the backs of the very people they would now deny the right to have a decent health plan.  There is a great deal to celebrate!

I've previously stated the reasons for my support of Obamacare on numerous occasions, but for those who’ve forgotten, those who do not know or who’ve been propagandized by the constant flow of (negative) disinformation from the Republican Party and their allies in the news media, I will reiterate.

Before Obamacare, millions of poor Americans, including poor white people, flooded the nation's emergency rooms for their primary care.  They had no choice.  In the past, Americans visiting emergency rooms witnessed numerous patients with non-critical ailments or ailments which could have been more appropriately managed in a doctor's office.  In those cases, immediate medical care was not denied at the emergency room.  Those without insurance or unable to pay for their care were treated anyway.  Anyone with an ounce of sense, however, can understand that someone had to pay.  Payments for those medical services were made through the general tax fund of local jurisdictions and those costs were extended to all taxpaying citizens of each emergency room's respective jurisdiction.  Whatever your opinion of Obamacare, every taxpaying citizen will realize relief from a tax burden that few choose to acknowledge.

One of the pre-Obamacare catastrophes was the inability to obtain insurance coverage for individuals with pre-existing medical conditions.  Individuals whose medical insurance was a part of their employment package could not be re-insured if they had a disqualifying medical condition.  More than a small number of individuals and families fell into bankruptcy as a consequence of pre-existing medical conditions.  We have heard stories of people dying because they could not afford insulin or some other regularly used medication. There are stories of young people having no insurance because while in college or before they were able to find a job, they were not covered under the plan of their parents.

In the first paragraph of this article you’ll recall that I remarked that the Supreme Court gave Obamacare a new lease-on-life.  That new lease-on-life is less than two years long if a Republican is elected President and the Republicans retain their majorities in Congress.  That's where the GET TO WORK comes into play.  Republicans have shown their hatred for the President and his signature healthcare plan.  They’ve made over 50 attempts to repeal it without offering a replacement plan.  Some have resigned themselves to the fact that they’ll, at least, have to live with the law until they control the Legislative and Executive Branches.

We must do the work now to elect officials who will protect Obamacare. We hold the destiny of our health in our hands.  Republicans have shown they’ll take it away if we allow them to do so. We must begin working today to keep it.

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

June 22, 2015

Charleston Church Terrorist Attack Backfires on Hate
S. C. Governor, Others Call for Removal of Confederate Flag

By Hazel Trice Edney

Rev. Clementa Pinckney

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Shock and sadness over the murders of a Black pastor and eight Bible students by a young White supremacist during a Bible study inside a historic South Carolina church June 17 continued to sweep the nation this week.

President Barack Obama will attend and give the eulogy at the funeral of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, pastor of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church, on Friday, June 26. Pinckney, 41, was also a South Carolina State Senator. 

The others who died in the massacre are Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45, an Emanuel pastor and high school track and field coach; Ethel Lance, 70, a 30-year church employee; Depayne Middleton Doctor, 49, a choir member; Susie Jackson, 87, a longtime and faithful church member; Cynthia Hurd, 54, a librarian devoted to education; Tywanza Sanders, 26, 2014 graduate of Charleston’s Allen University; Myra Thompson, 59, active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority; and Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., 74, a retired pastor from another Charleston church.

The aftermath of the massacre has taken the opposite direction from what was intended by the 21-year-old terrorist who spent an hour with the group before announcing he had come “to kill Black people.” Arrested the next morning, Dylann Roof, driving with a Confederate flag license plate on his car, told police he had “wanted to start a race war.”

But his plan has not worked. Instead, even those who have defended the Confederate flag in the past joined with civil rights leaders this week to call for the removal of the hate symbol that flies on the South Carolina Capitol grounds. South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. and Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, in a late Monday afternoon press conference,  all called for the removal of the flag, which stood for slavery during the Civil War and has been the banner for race hate groups ever since.

 “Our state is grieving, but we are also coming together. The outpouring of love coming from all corners of people across this state and country has been amazing,” Haley said. She said she worshipped at Emanuel Sunday to show respect for the victims and their families.

“We know that taking down the Confederate flag will not bring back the nine kind souls that were taken from us nor rid us of the hate and bigotry that drove a monster through the doors of Emanuel that night…We are not going to allow this symbol to divide us any longer. The fact that people are choosing to use it as a sign of hate is something that we cannot stand. The fact that it causes pain to so many is enough to remove it from the Capitol grounds.”

Since the murders, a manifesto has also been discovered with photos of Roof proudly waving the Confederate flag and also burning and even standing on the U. S. flag. Despite the terror that he had inflicted, most of the family members of the victims who spoke during his arraignment told him that they had forgiven him despite their devastating grief.

U. S. Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, stood with Haley at the press conference. He said he had been conversing with Haley about the issue since the vicious killings.

“On yesterday she reached out to let me know that she had reached the place where we heard from her today,” Clyburn said in a CNN interview. “I so I proudly stood with her as she made that announcement.”

Under current law, the removal requires a two-thirds or supermajority of the General Assembly. But, Clyburn said the current legislature could resend that law and have the flag removed by a simple majority. Though Republican presidential candidates appeared reluctant to agree, it was a tweet from former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney that seemed to have exacerbated the move to take the flag down.

Romney’s tweet said, “Take down the #ConfederateFlag at the SC Capitol. To many, it is a symbol of racial hatred. Remove it now to honor #Charleston victims.”

President Obama tweeted in response, “Good point, Mitt”.

The murders have come amidst unrest across the nation because of unarmed African-Americans being shot down by police and authority figures. Roof claimed he was first angered by the controversy surrounding the shooting of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed Florida teen shot and killed by a Latino neighborhood watchman three years ago. Incidentally, Roof is reportedly incarcerated in the same jail as Michael Slager, a former Charleston police officer who was fired and is now indicted in the back shooting of an unarmed Black man, Walter Scott, as Scott fled.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, hundreds packed into the church lovingly called “Mother Emanuel”. Despite the unthinkable grief, the resolve and determination of the Black Church as an institution was clear: "The doors of the church are open," proclaimed interim pastor, the Rev. Norvel Goff during the widely televised service. "No evildoer, no demon in hell or on Earth can close the doors of God's church.”

The storied “Mother Emanuel” is no stranger to attacks nor is it a stranger to fighting for justice. In 1822, Denmark Vesey, one of the church’s founders, had planned a slave revolt in Charleston. But, after an informant foiled the plot and Vesey and 36 other slaves were hanged, the church was burned to the ground. Parishioners rebuilt the church, but after a decade, South Carolina outlawed churches that were all Black. The parishioners then worshipped underground until they publically reorganized  31 years later at the close of the Civil War in 1865.

Sunday morning prayers were held in solidarity with Emanuel in churches across the country. After praying for the hearts of those in grief, Bishop Alfred Owens, pastor of the Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church in Washington, DC, spoke to his congregation about what he described as the “merciless incident” in Charleston.

“Racism is alive and well in our country. Hate is rampant,” he said. “But, I refuse to live in fear,” he said to applause from the congregation as he exhorted them to depend on God. “You cannot walk around in fear. You must be cautious, but do not walk around in fear.” 

The rampant hate is indeed wide spread says Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a foremost authority on hate groups in America. “Since 2000, we've seen an increase in the number of hate groups in our country — groups that vilify others on the basis of characteristics such as race or ethnicity,” he said in a statement. “Though the numbers have gone down somewhat in the last two years, they are still at historically high levels.  The increase has been driven by a backlash to the country's increasing racial diversity, an increase symbolized, for many, by the presence of an African American in the White House.”

Cohen concluded, “Our hearts go out to the victims and their families.  Black churches, including those in South Carolina, have been the targets of hate crimes throughout our country's history. We know that they will remain resolute and their faith unshaken in the face of this tragedy.”