August 25, 2013

Blackonomics

Hey, Chocolate City, where da money at?  - Part Two
By James Clingman

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “Being poor doesn’t always mean being without resources.  Anacostia is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., yet the total income of all its households is $370 million per year.  Most of this money quickly departs in the hands of landlords, business owners, and bankers who live in more upscale parts of town…. The principal affliction of poor communities in the United States is not the absence of money, but its systematic exit.” -  Michael Shuman - Going Local - Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age

In part one of this article, I discussed the social/political/economic problems inherent in Washington D.C. and their implications for Black folks.  We also took a peek at some of the ironies thereof.  Now let’s look at some solutions in hope of Washingtonians being willing to implement them.

The dearth of sit-down restaurants near Howard University’s campus make it virtually impossible for students to buy moderately priced nutritious meals off campus.  I am told that 20,000 or more Deltas recently came to town to celebrate their 100^th anniversary; surely other sororities, fraternities, and alumni come each year, and someone makes a lot of money selling food to them.  Wouldn’t it be great if Black groups would pool some of their money and invest in a couple of restaurants on Georgia Avenue and other nearby DC locations?  They would have nice places to eat when they return to their alma mater, and make money at the same time by supporting their own businesses.

How about someone starting a business comprising students and a private security company to escort students to and from the metro stop on 7^th Street and various locations in the “hood,” where they inevitably have to frequent from time to time?  This would help prevent harassment, assaults, and even another robbery or murder?  Students would pay an annual fee for the service and, voila! we have a viable Black owned company doing good and doing well at the same time.

Here’s another one.  Black folks in DC drink a lot of bottled water.  There is a Black owned and operated water bottling company in Forestville, Maryland, Curtis Bottling Company, whose brand is Blue Delta Water.  This company should be swamped with orders by residents of the Chocolate City.  But noooo, they are too busy spending their dollars on water from other companies.  Blue Delta Water should be available at DC colleges, public schools, churches, Black events, especially all of our marches, and at athletic events.  Guess what would happen if that came to fruition; jobs, jobs, jobs! as some of our leaders are always espousing but never offering ways to create.  It’s not difficult to solve some of our problems; we simply lack the will to sacrifice for our collective success.

DC is the site of the founding chapter of the Collective Empowerment Group (CEG, formerly known as the Collective Banking Group, CBG), a group of churches that were sick and tired of banks mistreating them.  They grew from about a dozen churches to what is now some 150+ churches comprising over 100,000 members, with several chapters across the nation, including one here in Cincinnati, Ohio.  The CEG is an excellent mechanism for Black folks to leverage benefits not only from banks but from other businesses.  It operates just like an affinity group or a collective purchasing group.  Headquartered in DC, the CEG could help lead Black church members to a higher level of respect and reciprocity in the marketplace.  Why aren’t all Black churches involved with the CEG?

One of the most obvious and easiest businesses to support is a tax preparation business, and guess what, there is a national Black owned tax business called Compro Tax.  Founded some 30 years ago by Mr. Jackie Mayfield and located in Beaumont, Texas, Compro Tax Service has some 250 offices throughout the United States.  To my knowledge and according to their website, there is not one Compro Tax Office in Washington, D.C.; the closest one is located in Baltimore.  C’mon, Chocolate City; what’s up with y’all?  There are hundreds of thousands of you who pay to get your tax returns completed.  Who are you paying to do that?  It’s surely not Compro Tax, but it should be.

For you entrepreneurially inclined brothers and sisters, Compro Tax will set you up in the tax services business, assist you with finding an office (you can even have a mobile office if you prefer), set up your computer system, and provide you with start-up and continuous training in the business.  A turnkey business.  What are you waiting for Chocolate City residents?

There are several more examples I could offer to transform DC from simply being a money pit for politicians and lobbyists into a safer and economically stable place for Black folks to live, work, and learn as well.  The hard part is to get us to move forward with more than mere words and marches, and do the “practical” things that MLK described in his famous speeches we so love to quote.

“Where da money at?”  It’s in your pockets, Chocolate City.  Make your dollars make sense.

August 25, 2013

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Recently, I’ve been viewing world events with greater interest than usual.  Although many of us either ignore or approach world events with a sense of hopelessness and helpless resignation, I believe it’s imperative for us to maintain awareness of how the US Government interfaces with the rest of the world in our name.

I submit that when our government closes embassies for an indeterminate period, evacuates embassy personnel or emphatically issues travel advisories to American citizens, we cannot afford to bury our heads in the sand about world issues.  Our practical involvement in world affairs becomes increasingly critical in the face of current events in the world.  When we examine circumstances related to the murders in Benghazi, the deposing of Presidents in Egypt, the civil unrest in Syria or the granting of asylum to Edward Snowden by Russia, we are reasonably obligated to understand the role the US plays in these affairs.

Anyone analyzing current world events must also analyze the related assessments of the so-called media experts.  Concurrent with that analysis is the requirement to filter these assessments through the prism of political motivation.  Following my own advice, I’ve been able to develop personal clarity through my own world view on a wide range of these critical issues.  I’ve also been able to confirm that, in the minds of his political opponents and critics, President Obama will never be acknowledged for his ability to manage the affairs of state.

I could attempt a counter-critique of the foreign policy critics by name, but the list would be far too lengthy for the space I have and would only mirror the lengthy list of domestic policy critics.  To simplify things, let’s say that 50 percent of the Raucous Radical Right finds it appropriate to say that President Obama hasn’t done enough.  The other half says that President Obama has done too much.  To confuse matters even more, every few days, they switch positions.  Adding insult to injury, few, if any of them extend the courtesy of respecting the office of the presidency.  For most, it’s merely Obama this or Obama that!

Whatever side of the argument to which they switch, a common theme for many of them is the complaint that “Obama’s” policies have created the diminished esteem in which the US is held in the world community.  This is the principal issue I most resent.  I wonder if they’re too uniquely feeble-minded to understand that the disrespect shown by the world community to the president and the US is a reflection of the disrespect shown to him in the media, by some in the public and by many elected officials.

Sadly, many who lead this country also lead the assault against the President.  Whether covertly or overtly, they set the example of disrespect that the weak-minded follow.  From the outburst of “You lie!” during the State of the Union Address to the most recent chants of “Bye, bye, Black Sheep!” in Arizona or the rodeo stunt, when one considers the innumerable instances of race-based disrespect directed at the President, it isn’t difficult to understand any doubts of US credibility or disdain held by our international adversaries.

I challenge political leaders who harbor animus toward our President to reconsider their oath of office:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion…So help me God.

I challenge them to consider their own roles as “Enemies of the State.” After their own unconscionable behavior, I ask, “What do you really expect of others?”

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

August 25, 2013

King’s Unfinished Symphony of Freedom
By Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.

Next weekend, we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, best known for Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Dream.”

Fifty years later, the dream challenges us yet. It is alive because it is not static. The dream of equal rights and equal opportunity, of being judged for character, not color, has transformed this nation. Much progress has been forged; much remains to be done.

One way to think about the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. King’s Dream is as a symphony of freedom. The first movement was the movement to end slavery, which required the bloodiest war in American history. Then came the drive to end segregation, the disfiguring legal apartheid of the South. In that victory, the movement freed not only African-Americans but also the South to grow, and opened access to libraries and hotels, trains and restaurants, pools and parks. Rosa Parks could sit wherever she wanted to on that bus.

The third movement was the movement for empowerment, for the right to vote. That movement culminated in the Voting Rights Act, challenging the various taxes and tests and intimidation used to deprive African-Americans of the power of the ballot box. This year, the five conservatives on the Supreme Court weakened the act. Conservative governors are pushing to constrict rather than expand the vote. We still have no constitutional right to vote. Surely, that is the next step toward the dream.

The fourth movement of the freedom symphony features the trumpet call for equal opportunity, and the clash over extreme and growing inequality. Here, Lyndon Johnson’s promise to fulfill the movement’s pledge that “we shall overcome” has been frustrated. African-Americans continue to suffer twice the unemployment as whites. Poor people of color, often isolated in ghettos and barrios, have less access to healthful food, good schools, public parks and safe streets. Inequality is the new de facto segregation, with the affluent withdrawing to gated communities and private schools, and the poor huddled in impoverished neighborhoods.

Dr. King knew this final movement was the most difficult. He saw Johnson’s war on poverty being lost in the costly folly of Vietnam. He worried that we might be “integrating into a burning house.” He was murdered while standing with sanitation workers organizing for dignity and a decent wage. When he died, he was organizing a new march on Washington — a Poor People’s Campaign that would bring the impoverished of all races and regions to a Resurrection City in Washington, D.C., to demand a renewal of the war on poverty.

The fourth movement — the movement for real equality of opportunity — remains unfinished. Its agenda speaks to poor and working people of all races: full employment, a living wage, child nutrition, a good public education from pre-K to affordable college, high-quality health care, affordable housing in vibrant communities, workers empowered to share in the profits and productivity they help to produce.

We have gained freedom without equality. Globalized capital and communications have been used to push workers down rather than lift them up. We continue to squander scarce resources policing the globe. Inequality has grown worse, and the middle class is sinking.

The symphony of freedom is unfinished, but its powerful themes still resound and stir its listeners. Dr. King called on each of us to march for justice. He understood the power of people of conscience when they decide to act. As we remember his dream, we are called to action, for there is more work to be done.

August 19, 2013

Dr. King’s “Dream” vs. Obama’s Realpolitik  
By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon, III

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government’s policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one’s own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty. But we must move on.” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. April 4, 1967

As America commemorates the 50^th anniversary of the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom I am compelled to ask the following question: Would Dr. King be invited to speak at upcoming events to commemorate the March?

If you get past the marketed “Dream” reference in the “I Have a Dream” speech and understand that it was an indictment of America or read “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” or Dr. King’s last book Where Do We Go From Here, Chaos or Community?; you can rest assured that today Dr. King would be in opposition to America’s backing of the assignation of Muammar Gaddafi, drone attacks, indefinite detention at Guantanamo, NSA wiretapping, mass incarceration, and the Obama administration’s failure to speak forcefully about poverty in America. From that premise one can only conclude that if Dr. King were alive today, those within the African-American community who are engaged in stifling honest, fact-based, critical analysis of the administration’s policies would not allow Dr. King on the dais.

On August 28, 1963, Dr. King stated, “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation…One hundred years later, the colored American lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.”  Today according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate stands at 7.6 percent and 15 percent in the African-American community.  Today, “in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity,” according the Bread for the World, “14.5 percent of U.S. households—nearly 49 million Americans, including 16.2 million children—struggle to put food on the table” and “more than one in five children is at risk of hunger. Among African-Americans and Latinos, nearly one in three children is at risk of hunger.”

President Obama has claimed to be a champion of the middle class but rarely speaks to the plight of the poor in America.  Dr. King would not stand idly by and allow this to go unchallenged.  As America spends billions of dollars on its drone program, children continue to go hungry.  In his 1967 speech Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence Dr. King stated, “A few years ago…It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor, both Black and White, through the poverty program…Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political play thing on a society gone mad on war. And I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube.”  If you replace Vietnam with Afghanistan and the War on Terror I believe Dr. King would be engaged in the same analysis and saying the same things today.

Dr. King said that the people of Vietnam must see, “Americans as strange liberators…they languish under our bombs and consider us, not their fellow Vietnamese, the real enemy…What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test out our latest weapons on them…?”  Today, Dr. King would be asking the same questions about America’s actions in Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, and the continued US support for the Zionist government in Israel as it continues to build settlements on Palestinian land in violation of international law.

Let’s be very clear. I have used actions of the Obama administration to highlight many of the contradictions that we face and to demonstrate how the man we now revere, the icon that will be lauded at the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom would not be invited to speak. That’s the symptom of a greater problem.

To gain great insight into the real problem you have to examine the work of Edward Bernays and the rise of the propaganda industry in the 1920’s. “[The] American business community was also very impressed with the propaganda effort (created by Bernays). They had a problem at that time. The country was becoming formally more democratic. A lot more people were able to vote and that sort of thing. The country was becoming wealthier and more people could participate and a lot of new immigrants were coming in, and so on.  So what do you do? It's going to be harder to run things as a private club. Therefore, obviously, you have to control what people think. There had been public relation specialists but there was never a public relations industry.” - History as a Weapon – Noam Chomsky - 1997.

The business community as Chomsky discussed or the corptocracy in today’s parlance uses propaganda to co-opt the American political landscape and has contributed to the decline of the American political left. The politics and policies of the Obama administration are examples of that decline, not responsible for it.

At the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington, pay very close attention to what is said and even closer attention to what is not (August 27, 2013 is the 50th commemoration of the passing of W.E.B. DuBois).

Understanding the moral basis of Dr. King’s analysis, he would be standing today for the very things he stood for then.  He would be critical of the current administration, and as such, great efforts would be made to shut him out of the national debate since many in the African-American community see honest, fact-based criticism of Obama administration policy as antithetical to the interests of the African-American community.

Dr. King’s “Dream” was significant because of its juxtaposition against the reality of the Negros' nightmare but Bernaysian propaganda keeps the focus on the “Dream”.

Dr. Wilmer Leon is the Producer/ Host of the Sirisu/XM Satellite radio channel 110 call-in talk radio program “Inside the Issues with 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

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