Two African-American Women Named Deans at Emory University

June 1, 2014

Two African-American Women Named Deans at Emory University
UVA Professor Heads Business School; Theologian Becomes Dean of Chapel

deans at emory

Erika Hayes James (left)was appointed dean of the 95-year-old Goizueta Business School; Rev. Bridgette Young-Ross was also recruited to be Emory’s next dean of the chapel and spiritual life. (Courtesy Photo)

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Erika Hayes James was appointed dean of the 95-year-old Goizueta Business School at the university. James, who assumes her new post July 15, currently serves as the senior associate dean for executive education and a professor of business administration at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia and is a highly regarded expert in crisis leadership.

“Erika James has all of the qualities that we want for a leader at Goizueta,” said Provost Claire Sterk, who led the international search, in a statement. “She brings a background of impressive scholarship and strong skills in academic administration, and she will work collaboratively with faculty, students, staff, alumni and supporters to take the school to the next level—all the while honoring the principled leadership of Mr. Goizueta’s legacy.” The school is named after Roberto Goizueta, former president of The Coca-Cola Co.

James earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology at Pomona College, a private liberal arts college in Claremont, Calif., and her master’s and doctoral degrees in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan, according to her biography on the Darden Graduate School website. She was also a visiting professor at Harvard Business School.

Among numerous paper and multi-media case studies, published in notable academic journals, James co-authored Leading Under Pressure: From Surviving to Thriving Before, During, and After a Crisis (Routledge, 2010).

The educator said she is excited to join Goizueta, whose full-time MBA program is ranked No. 1 by Bloomberg Business Week for job placement, and whose undergraduate business administration program is counted among the nation’s top 10 undergraduate programs.

“I believe that the Goizueta Business School is a world-renowned school that is on the verge of greatness,” James said in a statement, “and I want to be a part of helping the school reach that greatness.”

The Rev. Bridgette Young-Ross was also recruited to be Emory’s next dean of the chapel and spiritual life, beginning July 1.

Ross beat out more than 130 applicants and nominees in the university’s first chaplaincy search open to religious leaders beyond the Christian tradition.

“Bridgette Young-Ross brings great gifts of faith, intellect, bridge-building and mentorship to the work of the Office of Spiritual Life," said Emory President James Wagner in a statement. "She will continue to strengthen the vibrant and formative interfaith dynamics that are a hallmark of Emory as a research university.

“As she engages students, faculty and staff in questions of spiritual meaning through collaborations with our various schools and divisions," says Wagner, "she will both provide leadership on ethical issues confronting the university and represent the religious dimensions of Emory to the broader world.”

Rev. Young-Ross is not a stranger to the Emory campus, having served as associate dean of the chapel from 2000 to 2009.

For the past five years, Young Ross served as assistant general secretary of the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, in Nashville, Tenn., where she was responsible for supporting and equipping more than 500 collegiate ministries in the United States and for helping to develop more collegiate ministries around the world.

The Chicago native earned a bachelor's degree in management and marketing from Illinois Institute of Technology and an MBA degree from the University of North Carolina, as well as a master’s of divinity degree from Gammon Seminary at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. She gained extensive experience in management in the corporate world before entering the ministry in 1990.

Marking a Big Loss by William Spriggs

June 1, 2014

Marking a Big Loss

By William Spriggs

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - This week marked the loss of a powerful voice in Maya Angelou. Fortunately, many in the nation paused to notice her loss. Dancer, actress, poet and teacher, Angelou captured everyone's attention because of her ability to talk honestly out of her own pain and to get people to empathize, to share in the human experience.

Recently, Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote a telling piece for The Atlantic on reparations. As Coates notes, he leaned on the work of many people in writing the piece, including his experience studying history at his alma mater Howard University. What he did better than others, however, was weaving his argument through the personal experience of current residents of a Chicago neighborhood.

It was a great attempt to personalize a history of bad policies that others had previously described in abstract form. But perhaps his most telling passage was this: "In America there is a strange and powerful belief that if you stab a black person 10 times, the bleeding stops and the healing begins the moment the assailant drops the knife." This is a concept rooted in memory and a sense of who can claim to be harmed, to have a sense of being wronged, to mourn, a sense of humanity. The passage is potent because it is a powerful way to explain the lack of empathy for the plight of African-Americans.

That is one of the reasons Angelou was such an important voice, because not everyone could weave more than a century of biased policies through the lives of one family, as Coates did, and not everyone could be as poetic and powerful as Angelou in bringing empathy to African American lives. But there is a far deeper damage than the case Coates makes about reparations that flows from America's inability to empathize with the position that bad policies have left African Americans in.At his commencement address to Howard University's graduation in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson said, "Negro poverty is not White poverty. Many of its causes and many of its cures are the same. But there are differences-deep, corrosive, obstinate differences-radiating painful roots into the community and into the family and the nature of the individual.

These differences are not racial differences. They are solely and simply the consequence of ancient brutality, past injustice and present prejudice." Johnson's speech that June day was meant to elicit empathy for African- Americans, to connect them as worthy to claim the American Dream. And, to do this, he makes clear reference to a history of policies with malice; "not the result of racial differences"-differences in character, culture or morals.

Now, whenever America goes into recession, the fault lines of the policies of the past create crevices into which hundreds of thousands of African-Americans fall-compounding poverty through the loss of incomes and savings. But, rather than focus on bad policy, it quickly becomes a story about issues of character, as Congressman Paul Ryan did in explaining American poverty.

The inability to dissect bad policies and to then quickly divert attention to the victims of the policies does not just harm African-Americans. It hurts America. The lack of empathy, the sense that letting Wall Street run amok, removing the wage floor from beneath workers, denying workers their right to organize, lowering investments in our schools and colleges have no consequences, leaves Americans with blameless politicians and business elites.

Five years into a recovery that has only finally restored the number of jobs that were in place five years ago, but leaves millions unemployed and the incomes of the median family still lower and the poverty rate higher, and thousands still with homes lost to the financial "games" of Wall Street, is not really recovery. Lack of empathy is part of the ability of Republicans to vote against extending unemployment benefits or to cut Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits or fail to extend Medicaid coverage as more than half of America is still making up income losses. They feel no responsibility for those left struggling.

It isn't enough for Americans that we have passed new regulations for Wall Street if we don't have policies to undo the harm those policies caused. Americans deserve to be made whole. As long as we limit the narratives and stories we may tell, we will limit the policy options we can discuss. And our current "memory" defines who is suffering and who gets to make claims on policy-not the 99 percent.

Follow Spriggs on Twitter: @WSpriggs. Contact: Amaya Smith-Tune Acting Director, Media Outreach AFL-CIO 202-637-5142

Great Divide Could Spur Populist Movement by Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

June 1, 2014

Great Divide Could Spur Populist Movement
By Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Congress ended the month of May without renewing jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed that were cut off at the end of last year. House Speaker John Boehner rails against the Obama administration for failing to create jobs, but apparently blames unemployed workers for not having one.

There is a stark divide between the actions in Washington and the opinions of most Americans. Americans overwhelmingly support broad sensible reforms that will help working families, including renewing unemployment benefits. A new study released by the Campaign for America’s Future, “The American Majority is a Populist Majority,” reports on recent polling data. Nearly three fourths of Americans (73 percent) favor increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Republican House Speaker John Boehner won’t let that come to a vote in the House, and Senate Republicans have blocked it in the Senate. Three fourths of Americans (75 percent) favor a government job creation program to hire 1 million people. The Congressional Progressive Caucus budget that proposed a large jobs program got less than 100 votes in the House. Nearly three fourths of Americans (71 percent) favor increasing government investment to build and repair roads, bridges and other infrastructure needs.

But Congress has failed even to replenish the Highway Trust Fund that is about to be exhausted. Thus far, this divide between public opinion and congressional action has had confusing political fallout. Congress is near record lows in public approval. But Republicans who have obstructed virtually every reform seem to be profiting. Pundits now favor them to keep control of the House and possibly take the majority in the Senate. A big reason for this, we’re told, is the fall off of Democratic voters from the core of the Obama majority — people of color, young people and single women.

They were hit the hardest in the economy and have struggled in the so-called recovery. Like most Americans, they don’t have time or energy to sort out Washington’s bickering and figure out who is to blame. So generally, the party of the president gets more of the blame. What is missing is an independent moral voice, a movement that isn’t about left or right, Democrats or Republicans, but is challenging legislators from the moral center. Without that, Democratic operatives tend to extol technique, the techniques they’ve mastered to target, contact and get out their voters. Republican operatives tend to emphasize money, the money they are able to raise from the billionaire and corporate lobbies that play an increasing role in our elections. Citizen movements with a moral voice transform politics. In many ways, this was the lesson of Obama’s victory in 2008. He sensibly caught the wave of mass public dismay at the Iraq debacle.

The candidacy of his primary opponent, Hillary Clinton, was in many ways capsized by that wave. His Republican opponent, John McCain, couldn’t overcome the desire of Americans for change. Could a citizen’s movement upend expectations this fall? A populist movement is stirring in the country. We see it in the cities and states raising the minimum wage, not waiting for Washington. We see it in the protests of low wage workers in the fast food industry, in the Moral Monday’s mobilizations in North Carolina now spreading to other states. We see it even in the rock star status accorded to the French economist Thomas Piketty and his book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” on inequality.

If this continues to build, the pundits may be surprised. Voters may turn out in greater numbers than expected either to punish incumbents or to support challengers who carry a populist message. Washington political pros tend to focus on the results of polls, but polls are but a snapshot of passing attitudes. Movements don’t respond to polls; movements mold opinion. The next months may be more interesting than many now expect.

Economic Collapse by James Clingman

June 1, 2014

Blackonomics

Economic Collapse
By James Clingman

clingman

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Imagine the U.S. dollar being worthless. Picture millionaires and billionaires becoming “thousand-aires” overnight. Think about the possibility of two hundred million U.S. citizens being unable to eat unless the government provides food for them. Fathom a day when you check out your 401-k or your bank account and find nothing there. What would happen to social security and Medicare if the dollar was devalued to the point of being virtually worthless? The short answer to these scenarios: We would be in a world of hurt and misery.

As the recent Urban League Report stated, despite our current fiscal situation, Blacks are “optimistic” about our economic future. So it naturally follows that we seldom, if ever, give a thought to the possibility of an economic collapse in this country; after all, we are the world’s “top economy” the “biggest, strongest, and the ‘baddest’ nation on earth.” Our dollar is the reserve standard for the world; oil is traded in what we call “petrodollars,” which assures that our economy will always rule because everybody needs energy, right? We are the “breadbasket” of the world, and everybody needs to eat, right? We are indeed “all that” aren’t we?

In case you have been spending most of your time watching all of the award shows on BET, the housewives and divas of…, or the many other mindless, non-thought provoking distractions being tossed at us 24/7, you have no idea about the true state of our union. You are hung-up on what Donald Sterling said, what Stephen A. Smith and Michael Eric Dyson said, what that police commissioner in New Hampshire said, and what Mark Cuban said. You are ensconced in what Michelle Obama is wearing, what brand of Vodka Diddy drinks, Solange’s elevator beat-down, and buying a $200.00 ticket for the Beyonce/Jay-Z concert.

While I understand the need for us to get away from the real world and reside in fantasy land for a while, the amount of attention we give to the 140 character banter of some celebrity or athlete, no matter how mindless or ridiculous it may be, is very dangerous. We have no sustainability, no patience, and no staying power when it comes to the things that really affect our lives and our very survival. In other words, we have been swept away from reality by reality shows through which we live vicariously; and to make matters even worse, we have fallen for the absolute delusion of economic progress in spite of all the indicators that point to the complete opposite.

We are not teaching our children and grandchildren about economics, wealth building, finance, entrepreneurship, inflation, hyperinflation, deflation, quantitative easing, cashless society, bartering, self-reliance, gold, silver, bitcoin, fiat, and the role of money in general. In many cases we adults have very little knowledge of these things. We are too busy working 70 hours a week to earn dollars that could be worthless in the next decade or two. We are not making efforts to prepare for the worst; we are not “hedging” our bets against economic collapse, and we are definitely not working to become more independent, which includes, at a minimum, being able to grow food and feed our children.

In general, we have very little understanding of what our government is doing and the plans it has for us just in case things get really bad financially. Yes, we talk about conspiracy theories all the time, and we think we know about the Bilderbergers, the Council on Foreign Affairs, the Illuminati, Skull and Bones, the Boule, and all the other so-called secret societies that run the world. While they may make for great conversation, we cannot affect them one iota. They are doing their thing, and all we do is “talk” about them. Do you really think they care? When it’s all said and done, if a collapse does come, they will be the ones we will have to depend upon because they have the vast majority of the wealth.

This is not meant just to instill fear in us, albeit, we are at the very bottom of every economic category; it is to stimulate us to use that fear to change our minds, to be more informed and active, and to direct our attention to economic empowerment in a world where that’s all that counts. It is an effort to bring us back to where we once were, when we took care of ourselves and built for future generations. It is a cry for a stronger and collective foundation of Spirit-led people who know that while we are on this earth we have an obligation to share our talents and to multiply them rather than squander or “bury” them in the ground of conspicuous consumption.

As for our position in this country, as a citizen of 1^st century Rome said, “I smell smoke!”

The Downside of Brown v. Board of Education By A. Peter Bailey

June 1, 2014

Reality Check

The Downside of Brown v. Board of Education
By A. Peter Bailey

apeterbailey

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - When the much-heralded decision in Brown v. Board of Education was issued in May 1954 by the U.S. Supreme Court, I was a 16-year-old junior at Nurnberg American High School in Nurnberg, Germany. My father was in the U.S. Army and my family had moved there in March 1953 from Tuskegee, Ala. During my sophomore, junior and senior years, I was the only Black student in my classes, which was a very different situation from what has existed in segregated Tuskegee. I had never attended school with White students before we were stationed in Germany.

Being in Germany, I missed much of the euphoria that exploded among Black folks around the Supreme Court decision which declared all-Black public schools to be “inherently inferior” to their White counterparts. Like everyone, I regarded that as a given, despite the fact that when arriving in Germany in 1953 after only having attended all-Black schools, not only was I not behind my White classmates academically, I was in fact ahead of most of them.

It was about 10 years later, in June 1962, that I first heard Brother Malcolm X speak for the first time. He spoke with clarity, conviction and knowledge about several things, most notably on the attacks on the minds of Black people by advocates of White supremacy. It was my first time hearing this so forcefully expressed and explained.

That was the beginning of my realization that labelling all-Black schools as “inherently inferior,” not because of states treating them with malign neglect or because of pervasive White supremacy, but just because they were all-Black, was basically an attack on our minds. It may be denied but the harsh reality is that most Whites and, unfortunately, most Black folks interpreted and continue to interpret the Supreme Court decision that way. It’s just a short step from that position to believing that all-Black anything—businesses, professionals, institutions, etc.- are inherently inferior.

I have a personal experience on the tenaciousness of that belief. When I was quoted in an article supporting historically Black colleges and universities, a White man wrote a letter to the editor accusing me of being as much a segregationist as George Wallace. My response to him was, “Don’t flatter yourself. Many Black people had no desire to go to the University of Virginia. We just didn’t want Whites to be able to tell us we couldn’t go there. After that was settled, we would choose to go to Hampton University or Virginia Union University or to Virginia State University. For us, it was all about having the right to choose.”

The belief that anything all-Black is inherently inferior has been devastating to the growth of serious Black economic power in this country. Too many of us deeply believe that White ice is colder than Black ice. As a result, we give billions of dollars annually to White-owned or -controlled entities. This downside of Brown v. Board of Education must be totally rejected if we are to maximize our cultural and economic position in this country and the world.