Urban News Features

Dollars Under Arrest By James Clingman

Blackonomics

Dollars Under Arrest
By James Clingman

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Here’s an intriguing concept: Arrest the Black dollar. Say what, Jim? You read it correctly. We should arrest our dollars and charge them with neglect. Put them on trial, call the witnesses to testify against them, and convict them of crimes against Black people. Sentence them to a minimum of five years hard labor with no possibility of parole. That’s right, lock them up and make them work for their keep by producing distribution companies, supermarkets, financial institutions, and entrepreneurs.

Since our dollars are not making sense, we should discipline and punish them by keeping them locked up and making them work until they do start making more sense. Right now our dollars are “wilding out” in the marketplace, making everyone happy and secure except us. They are “raining down” at strip clubs; they are beating a path to jewelry stores and exchanging themselves for gaudy trinkets and ornaments; they are hangin’ out at “da club” to pay for expensive vodka, champagne, and other top-shelf liquors. They definitely need to be disciplined.

Our dollars are filling the coffers of profiteers who know that all they have to do is make the most ridiculous item in return for them. Black dollars are strewn at the feet of shyster preachers who “anoint” them by running back and forth on top of them, as they shout, “Money cometh to me!” At least they are telling the truth about that part.

Black dollars are running wild, out of control, in our neighborhoods. They run as fast as they can to the businesses of everyone other than Black people. They are jealous as well and are always trying to outspend one another by purchasing a bigger car, a bigger house, the latest gym shoes, clothing, and all the accoutrements of what they believe to be the “good life.”

More than one trillion Black dollars are acting inappropriately, committing economic crimes against Black people. They really need to be controlled and contained before they destroy us. Our dollars are weak, and are vulnerable to the constant lure of trivial things and dishonest people who are waiting to trap them with their platitudes and false doctrines. If we put our dollars in labor camps where they could work for us all day long, imagine how quickly we could revive our economic power.

Keep in mind though, when we charge our dollars and put them on trial for neglect, we will be charged as willing accomplices and co-conspirators in their criminal acts. Yes, we are guilty too; even more guilty than they are. Slothfulness is a crime; poor stewardship is a crime; waste is a crime; and failure on our part to multiply the dollars we have is indeed a crime that carries the penalty of being “cast into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” because, “To whom much ($1 trillion) is given, much is required.”

The rich man in Luke 12 who had so much “stuff” that, when he asked himself what to do about it, said, “I will build bigger barns” in which to store my stuff, well, he was called a fool and his life was “required” of him because his dollars made no sense.

This graphic illustration of the crimes we commit with and through our undisciplined dollars is played out every day in our homes and neighborhoods, and we deserve the punishment we have received for decades now. We must now punish our dollars by first arresting them and then making them work for us.

Why don’t you start an Arrest the Black Dollar campaign? Look around; they are everywhere. Arrest your own first, and get others to arrest and charge theirs. Let’s give our dollars the charge to be responsible for taking better care of our children. Give them the charge to be more accountable to us and our families. Give them the charge to work harder for us. Give them the charge to act appropriately. Give them the charge to make some sense for a change.

Instead of allowing our dollars to run wild, let’s circulate and recycle them among ourselves as much as possible before they leave us. Instead of handing them over willy-nilly to others for their fried chicken and fish, let’s just grow and cook our own, and sell it to one another and to everyone else. Instead of whining every time a supermarket closes, let’s buy our own, bring in the best managers and support it with our consumer dollars. Rather than decrying what others are doing to us, let’s start doing more for ourselves. As we charge our dollars with being more responsible, let’s make sure we are taking responsibility in this matter as well.

Arrest the Black dollar; it’s wreaking havoc among Black folks.

Taking ISIS Out? by Julianne Malveaux

Sept. 15, 2014

Taking ISIS Out?
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - As President Obama says he is going to take ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) out. I wonder how many of us have been to that part of the world. I haven’t and I wonder if our visions would help us understand what is going on in that part of the world.

If I had a gazillion dollars – or maybe just Koch bothers money – I'd send every student I knew, especially African American students out of the country, Whiie I’d most enjoy sending them to Africa or the diaspora, anyplace would work. The point would be for them to get out of themselves, out of their privilege. Then get out of the reasons that so many in other countries have antipathy toward us.

This, of course, does not account for President Obama’s plea that the world rally around the United States to stop ISIS. Global awareness, however, would go a long way toward our understand ding of the way things work around the world. Just under a quarter of a million students less than one percent of our total) study internationally, most of them white and most of them headed to Europe. Had more of them gone to the African diaspora or to parts of Latin America, more might understand the lives that so many lead, and the privilege we enjoy in the world context. We should not, of course, apologize for our gifts, we should simply be aware of them.

On one trip abroad I learned that people eat far less frequently than we do, considering it a treat as opposed to a staple. On another trip, I adjusted my concept of space, when three women – four including me, shared a bedroom. On still another occurrence, six of us shared a single can of Coke. It was a high honor and an expense for our host to be so generous. Each of these experiences “blew my mind” and made me think of US privilege. Each of them made me wish I had a young person with me to share the humbling sense of the world in which we live.

Our conversations about the global village are more theoretical l than real. We can no more relate to a global village than we can spell it if we do not leave the United States. Yet while we speak of globalization economically and culturally, wee rarely speak of it practically. We are so immersed in our own energy and culture that we are utterly unwilling to get out of ourselves.

“I used to live in the world, then I moved to Harlem an my universe became six square blocks,” wrote Ntzake Shange in her powerful play “For Colored Girls Who Committed Suicide When the Rainbow Was Enough” She spoke of thinking and shrinking and allowing boundaries t surround us. We are not all colored girls, but we are all limiting ourselves when we choose and decide to limit ourselves to our narrow environments. Our universe may be greater than those six square blocks, but not large enough for us to view and immerse ourselves in somebody else’s world.

Every single day we are confronted with some form of international crisis, from the kidnaping of girls in Nigeria, to the beheading of journalists in by ISIS. We feel, we mourn, we take up collections, and we moan and groan. And we still don’t get it. If we’d been outside ourselves, we just might

Our trips to Mexico and Jamaica don’t even begin to count toward a quest toward global awareness. While no one should put herself in risk by going to a country under siege, a few days in a ace where there is struggle may turn the kaleidoscope of presence in ways we an hardly imagine.

President Obama did “tough talk” when he warned the ISIS thugs would not take their nonsense. Good for him! Few in the United States would disagree. AT the same time our perspective might be nuanced if we got out of ourselves, got into the world.

If we say we are global citizens, then we need to act like them. We need to embrace the globe and learn that we are not the center of the world. We are less than a tenth of the world’s population, yet we consume disproportionally. WE have a long way to go before we practice what we preach.

Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist based in Washington, DC

New Baptist Convention President to Push for Renaissance in Black Community

Sept. 9, 2014

New Baptist Convention President to Push for Renaissance in Black Community
By Hazel Trice Edney

Rev. Dr. Jerry Young

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – If the Rev. Dr. Jerry Young, the new president of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc., has his way, things will change in the Black community from the leadership down to the grassroots.

Young dreams of a day when Black leaders across the nation will set aside any competition and self-orientation that may exist. And then come to the table as servants to hone out an agenda that will successfully combat the devastating effects of the economic and social ills in the Black community.

“We’ve got to come to the table. And we’ve got to determine that God has not given us these gifts for competition but rather for cooperation,” says Young, elected Sept. 4. “And we’ve got to determine that we’re going to work collectively as a group to partner together to help bring about a renaissance in our communities. That’s what has to happen.”

Young rose to the top position from the office of the vice president at-large under the now former presidency of Dr. Julius Scruggs. Leading a membership of 33,000 churches that make up the largest Black religious organization in the nation, Young now has the national pulpit for the next five years to help make the renaissance happen.

“I am certainly going to do everything I can to seek to bring people to the table because here again this is a strong conviction of mine, that we must hold all of our leaders accountable and that all of our leaders have got to come to the table with a servant attitude who actually embrace the idea that God does not give to me what he gives to me for me, but for his glory and for the good of people,” Young says. “And I think that’s what we’ve got to do. I think we’ve got to come to the table.”

Gross economic disparities; police brutality and killings; mass incarceration; Black on Black homicides; roll backs of civil rights; and major health disparities are just some of the issues facing Black America that Young says must be addressed in a way that effects change for the nation as a whole. “We have got to be concerned about America - period - as well as our community.”

Young reportedly won about half (3,195) of all votes cast (6,400) for five candidates in last week's election during the Baptist's 134^th Annual Convention in New Orleans. Therefore, he also apparently has the support to forge his vision.

A native of Scott, Miss., Young said the Black church has fallen from the leadership and advocacy role it once held during the civil rights movement. This could be largely because other organizations, including para-church organizations, have moved into that role, he said. He described a para-church as “those who operate outside of the traditional church, whatever those organizations are.”

He said there are many individual churches that are still active and vibrant. But using the parable of the “frog and the kettle” he illustrated the general state of the Black Church as it relates to social justice:

“A frog is placed in this water. The water is quite comfortable and gradually they increase the heat and because they do it gradually the frog literally remains in the water until the water kills him because he’s unaware that the temperature is changing,” he said. “Now had that water been hot all along then obviously the frog would have undoubtedly left that water a long time ago. But that’s what happens when things creep very slowly, very slowly, very slowly. And I think that has happened in the context of the church because of so many other para-church organizations that are involved.”

Fitting the description of the para-church are organizations like the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Actual network. Young did not specifically name these civil rights leaders; nor their organizations. But Jackson and Sharpton – both with roots in the Baptist church – are notably among America’s most prominent civil rights leaders and those who are most often on the forefront of issues related to injustices against Black people.

“Those of us who are privileged to be in leadership have got to come up with an agenda to deal with these ills in our community. We must,” Young insists. “Otherwise, why are we in leadership positions?”

Pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss. for 34 years, Young’s vision of helping people largely springs from his childhood experiences. Having grown up in the South during the civil rights movement, Young says he will continue to draw from his roots in order to address social ills.

“I was born on a Mississippi plantation. I grew up as a boy on the plantation in the Mississippi Delta,” he recalls. “I have seen the worst that there is to see. And I have seen people exploited, dehumanized, and all the rest. I’ve been here all my life. And now that God has granted me the privilege to serve in this position, my greatest desire is to use this position to do good for other people. How can I make a difference in terms of the quality of life for people? How can I bring glory to God? That’s what I want to do. Show me where I can do that and Jerry Young will be right there.”

The National Baptist Convention was lauded by President Barack Obama, who sent videotaped remarks focused on its historic works.

“For 128 years, you’ve been bending the arch of the moral universe closer to justice by working to advance equality and opportunity and respect for all,” President Obama said. “On some of the most urgent challenges of our history, from the fight for equal voting rights to giving all of our children a chance at a world-class education, you’ve been out in front reminding us what’s right, pushing us to do better and to be better." Obama also thanked the organization for their support of My Brothers’ Keeper, his staple mentorship program, announced last year.

Young says he has a particular heart for youth and education. His 3,000-member New Hope Baptist has "one of the best schools in the nation". Students go from 6 months to 4 years old; then from kindergarten to the sixth grade. His congregation is currently building a new church that will teach students to the 8th grade.

Now on the national stage, Young says he has “absolutely no desire to become a celebrity” – only to remain a servant. He says balancing spiritual evangelism with social activism has always been the appropriate role of the church. God’s call to Christians is to be both spiritually and socially responsible, he says.

“I think the church has to, without a doubt, embrace a dual role within the community. We’ve got to be evangelistic. That’s priority number one. But, by the same token, we have to be socially responsible,” he says. “The God who is the God of our justification is the same God who is concerned about justice. I think that has to be clearly understood within the context of the church.”

Will They Ever Learn? by Dr. E. Faye Williams

Sept. 15, 2014

Will They Ever Learn?
By Dr. E. Faye Williams

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(TriceEdneyWire.com) - I wanted to get off the subject of domestic violence, but these athletes just won’t help. The problem isn’t just Ray Rice, Ray McDonald or other abusive players in the NFL. Paul George in the NBA proved that with his silly tweets. Several times in recent weeks I’ve written about domestic violence—but I can’t let this subject go.

It's wrong to brutally knock out any woman. I’m alarmed by the increase of violence by law enforcement, gangsta rappers, athletes and others against women. Each time it happens, I feel sick, and the fear and sickness I felt for years after being abused in a similar manner come back as if it happened just yesterday.

Any woman who’s ever been abused never forgets. No matter what she might say about wanting to work through the problem with the one who abused her, deep down she knows it will never be the same as the love she felt for him before he betrayed her trust. If he raises his voice when he talks to her, she feels the same fear she felt when he actually hit her. She panics if she finds herself backed into a corner, alone on a long hallway or when she can’t see what’s ahead of her around a bend.

I've been there, so I know what it feels like and it happens whether you stay or whether you walk away. He’s likely promised that if you leave him, he will find you, and he often adds that he’ll kill you when he does. That’s always in the back of your mind as you try to move on with your life. One day, he dies and that’s the first time you feel relief since the first time he battered you.

You wish you could erase the memory, but the violence continues and it feels like it happened to you again. Though you don’t know the woman involved, you feel like you know her. You feel what she feels. You know the pain all too well. Black women are especially vulnerable because of the extra stress race carries for many Black men. Black women have many of the same stresses, but learn to cope with them and carry on.

Abusers never seem to learn that it’s not okay to punch someone out because you disagree with them or because you’re angry about something that has nothing to do with the woman. She just happens to be conveniently there. It's especially egregious when the person beaten is someone you profess to love or who is pregnant as in the case of Ray McDonald in San Francisco. Michael Vick received greater punishment for abusing a dog than many abusers get for what they do to women.

My heart is heavy for Janay Rice as she tries to relieve Ray of responsibility for his brutality. She’s the one who was knocked unconscious! As a Black woman who’s been abused at the hand of a spouse, I know how hard it is to see a Black man punished. Yet, I would say to one who decides not to have abusers prosecuted, this isn’t the way to stop the barbaric treatment. We must speak out no matter who the abuser is.

Many of us have loved men through thick and thin and have swept this problem under the rug. We must rise up against anyone who abuses us--physically, verbally or mentally. We risk our own lives when we protect abusers. If they abused you once, chances are high they’ll do it again. We must be there for each other and help each other overcome the fear of leaving abusers. I love men, but I hate abusers. We can’t continue to just let it go.

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

Bluster is Not a Strategy By Jesse Jackson

Sept. 8, 2014

Bluster is Not a Strategy
By Jesse Jackson

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Bluster is on the loose. With ISIS, an al-Qaida offshoot, proclaiming a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, Russia facing off with Ukraine, Libya descending into a civil chaos, the Taliban striking in Afghanistan, pundits and politicians are raising a drumbeat of demands for muscular action, condemning President Obama for his caution and supposed passivity. But the bluster is providing more heat than light.

Remember, we had a president who shot first and thought later, who roused Americans with the threat of weapons of mass destruction, and dispatched American forces into a war of choice halfway around the world. The result was the Iraq debacle, source of much of the troubles we face today. We were told it would be easy, and that it wouldn’t cost much. We were told — by ever-macho Sen. John McCain — that setting up a new government wouldn’t be a problem, that there wasn’t really much enmity between Sunni and Shiite. The administration’s hawks — led by Rumsfeld and Cheney — didn’t even think it necessary to plan for the aftermath. Shock and awe and then democracy would break out.

The result was certainly the worst foreign-policy calamity since Vietnam. The war will end up costing an estimated $3 trillion, along with tens of thousands of American soldiers dead and wounded. The invasion helped to destabilize the entire Middle East, unleashing a Sunni-Shiite civil war that continues to this day.

Now we hear the same kind of macho posturing from the same people who drove us so recklessly into Iraq. We should have sent arms to supposed “moderates” in Syria, they crow, arms that surely would be in the hands of ISIS by now. We should have bombed Assad in Syria, they bluster, although Assad is, at this point, the strongest opponent of the ISIS terrorists. We should ratchet up the pressure on Iran — “Everyone wants to go to Baghdad, was a favorite quip in the Bush White House, “real men want to go to Tehran” — but don’t say what that would entail. We should have done more in Libya, they argue, as that country descends into a civil chaos, but no one wants “boots on the ground.” We need to face off with the Russians in Ukraine, they suggest, arguing Obama isn’t tough enough, while suggesting nothing beyond what he is already doing. We should be bombing ISIS and organizing a coalition against it, which again the president is already doing.

Macho bluster is good for locker rooms; it plays well in TV studios. It is dangerous in foreign policy. We need a president who thinks it through before he acts it out. We want a president who is thoughtful and prudent, not one with an itchy trigger finger.

One way to bring more sense to this debate would be to do what other nations would have already done. Let’s hear far less from those who drove us into Iraq. Let’s hear more from those who voted against the Iraq war, who doubted the supposed threat of weapons of mass destruction, who were skeptical about the claims of an easy victory that wouldn’t cost much. It is hard to understand why the networks keep featuring the same crowd that got it so wrong on Iraq at such great cost to American lives and fortune.

President Obama should be praised, not censored, for refusing to be rushed into war, for taking time to organize allies and to consider whether our own security is threatened. From Afghanistan across the region to Libya, civil wars, sectarian conflicts, tribal and regional rivalries are generating complicated, tangled conflicts. No president of either party would put troops back into that cauldron.

The armchair warriors should be, but are not chastened by, the calamity that they have helped to create. They may not be able to stop talking tough, but surely neither the president nor the rest of us need listen to them.