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The Profit of Protest – Definitely in the Black By James Clingman

June 28, 2013

Blackonomics
The Profit of Protest – Definitely in the Black
By James Clingman

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(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Overruling myself, I am now doing what I said I would not; I am writing a column in which I mention two items: Skittles and Iced Tea.  I cringed every time I heard those words during the pursuit of justice for Trayvon Martin and his family, and throughout the trial of George Zimmerman.  They became synonymous with Trayvon himself, and were mentioned just as much as his name was mentioned.  As far back as March 2012, demonstrations and protests were held, one of which took place in Liberty City, Florida, that featured protesters holding up bags of Skittles and cans of Arizona Tea.

In case you have not yet figured out the connection by reading the title of this article, as Booker T. Washington said many years ago, “Beneath politics, beneath education, even beneath religion, lies economics.”  And I would add, even beneath protest lies profit.  Understanding that nothing happens in this capitalistic society until something is sold, when I read about the windfall profits of Wrigley and Mars, makers of Skittles, that truism hit home even more.

Having discussed this phenomenon in a previous article, titled "Marching in Place", I felt compelled to finally write one that includes the words: Skittles and Tea.  Our protests leave a residue of profit for many companies, some of which is unavoidable, admittedly; but in the case of Trayvon Martin, the protests in which people purchased candy and tea, and even hoodies in many instances, resulted in unexpected, incremental, and welcomed profits by the manufacturers of those products.  What a country! Huh?

It is safe to say that the vast majority of the protest items were purchased from stores that are not owned by Black people, which points once again to the fact they we prefer symbolism over substance.  And in Liberty City, of all places, which was once a bastion of Black owned businesses and economic empowerment for Black folks, according to a 1986 INC. Magazine article by Joel Kotkin, titled, "The Reluctant Entrepreneurs", the irony of profitable protests looms even larger.

The article cites, “Back in 1957, when Sonny Wright arrived in Miami, business was lively and vibrant in such black inner-city neighborhoods as Overtown and Liberty City.  Independent laundries, restaurants, nightclubs, hotels--many of them black-owned --flourished along the main streets of the steamy resort city. ‘We had a thriving little business community,’ Wright remembers, ‘the black entertainers like Sammy Davis Jr. and Nat King Cole stayed in our hotels.  Blacks bought from blacks.’”

“Wright continued, ‘now all that has changed.  Ever since integration, everything is gone, the smart guys went to work for the government or moved to the suburbs. Nobody stayed around. Nobody created jobs in the community.  Integration set everything downhill for black business in this town.’”

Sad to say that now protesters of a senseless killing of a young Black man cannot even buy their Skittles and tea from a Black owned store in Liberty City and most other cities across this country.

We protest while others profit.  And as I said in my previous article, we count people “at” our protests while others count profits “from” our protests.  Symbolism over substance.  Arizona Beverage and Wrigley/Mars, although innocent and unattached to the tragedy received windfalls from it.  Mark my words, someone will soon, if they have not already, go to these two companies for money, thus, exploiting even further the death of Trayvon Martin.  I wonder who will be first at that feeding trough.

Quite honestly, Skittles and Arizona Iced Tea had absolutely nothing to do with George Zimmerman killing Trayvon Martin, and yet they have become “symbols” in the aftermath of his death.  If young Martin had nothing in his hands that night, would it have made any difference?  Absolutely not.  Would it have made any difference at Emmett Till’s funeral if they announced what brand of bubble gum he bought in that store?  Of course not.  But folks back then had a little more sense than we do now.  They did not rush out and buy the bubble gum and wave it during their protests and mail it to the police chief of “Money,” (another irony) Mississippi.

Now some may say this is a trivial thing and maybe even question why I chose to write about it.  Well, my intention is to get us to see, once and for all, the role Blacks play in the economics of this country – yes, even in the face of tragedy.  I want us to understand how to keep the main thing the main thing in all that we do, especially when it comes to economic empowerment.  If this article does not at least cause you to think about our collective actions and the futility thereof in many cases, if it does not make you know that many times our dollars just don’t make good sense, then I have failed to do my job.  I will keep trying though; you can count on it.

We Do Have Choices! By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

July 28, 2013

We Do Have Choices!
By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.

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 (TriceEdneyWire.com) - When something we’ve been doing all our lives becomes too difficult to continue doing, yet we want to do something to make a difference, we often agonize over what we can do.  After an unbelievable verdict in the George Zimmerman case, Stevie Wonder made a choice not to perform in certain states that insist upon holding onto their dangerous Stand Your Ground laws.

A few days later, people of all colors and cultures made a decision to attend rallies in over 130 cities around the country at the call of Rev. Al Sharpton to put our thoughts together on constructive things we can do to deal with our pain over the murder of Trayvon Martin.

We came up with many ideas from numerous speakers.  One of the consistent themes was voting in every election.  Another recurring theme was not to spend our money in places that are not only dangerous for our children, but where even adults like us are not respected.

Florida isn’t the only place we find problems, but one must admit it’s a huge example of what we should no longer tolerate, and even Floridians must be sick and tired of what's happening in their state.

There was a time when we knew Florida for great oranges and wonderful sunshine, but those are the last things we have on our minds now when we think about Florida.  For years now, we’ve had serious concerns about Florida, and now uppermost in our minds are such things as Florida

  • refusing to count votes right,
  • putting up roadblocks to voting,
  • sending a woman to jail 20 years for defending herself in a domestic violence case,
  • blaming a child for his own death when an overzealous neighborhood watchman decides to pick a fight with an unarmed child, then claim to be the victim and murder the child,
  • having an adult decide he can just drive up, shoot into a car and murder another child because he doesn’t like his music.

The Dream Defenders began a sit-in at the Florida governor’s office to discuss issues that can no longer be ignored.  With all the tragedies there, surely many Floridians would prefer that we not risk taking our children there to see a rat at Disney World! There’re far more meaningful things to do.

As crazy as things are in Washington, it would be worth it to bring your children to see the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial and teach them all that Dr. King did to make our nation a better place for all.

Show them Sojourner Truth who presides over Emancipation Hall in the Capitol. Visit the statue of Frederick Douglass, there, too. Go to Statuary Hall. See memorials for Dr. King and Rosa Parks. Tell your children about their great work. Don’t forget to tell them the Capitol was built on the labor of our ancestors who were brought here in chains and forced to work, but never paid fairly.

Stop by to see Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune’s memorial and Benjamin Banneker Overlook. Visit Dick Gregory who speaks truth to power for us, and devour the genius of a man who risked his life and gave money to buy food for hungry people when their officials tried to starve them during the Civil Rights Movement.

Show your children the White House where the President and his family live. Tell them just 50 years ago Black people weren’t allowed to vote, but our many strengths helped us work our way out of slavery faster than any group in the world has ever done.

Come by Truth House—home of the National Congress of Black Women to see the work we do every day to make a difference in the world.

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

Student Loan Resolution - Better Than Nothing? By Julianne Malveaux

July 28, 2013

Student Loan Resolution - Better Than Nothing?
By Julianne Malveaux

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(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The United States Senate finally stepped up to ensure that student loan rates would not double, as might have happened. There have been weeks of back and forth, but now the Senate says they will tie student loan rates to the federal funds rate, which means that in the short run the lowest student loan rates will be 3.86 percent; this will be up slightly from 3.4 percent.  At the same time, these loan rates may rise up to a rate of 8.25 percent depending on the way interest rates rise.  All other loan rates – those for graduate student, for Parent PLUS loans, and others, will rise as well.

It may seem a victory that student loan rates don’t rise much higher than they were in June.  The connection of rates to the federal funds rate, however, connects the notion of supporting student to the oscillations of the economy.  We need talented student to enter the labor force, as encumbered as they might be, whether the economy is rising or tanking. The notion that student loan rates will be tied to the federal funds rate offers students no security.

One might argue that many have no economic security.  The mortgage holder with a variable mortgage is subject to interest rate fluctuations as they manage a balloon payment.  Those with underground mortgages are victims of interest rate variables as they try to dig themselves above ground.  Surely, though, students who are financing their education in order to invest in the healthof our nation should have different rules.  When I graduated from college in 1974, interest rates hovered between 9 and 10 percent.  The student loan interest rate was two percent.  Why?  My cohort was no more or less brilliant than any other.  We were part of our nation’s plan for its future, should be the case for today’s young people.

Many hoped that the deal on student loan interest rates would take into account the fact that the federal funds rate (the rate to which the Federal Reserve Bank offers to banks) is well below one percent.  From that perspective, even the existing rate of 3.4 percent suggests that the government is taking in more than it give out.  It’s complicated – there are other costs that must be considered in the lending process.  It’s complicated, but shouldn’t our students get as close to the same deal that banks and others get?

Allowing student loan interest rates to fluctuate, to the detriment of students in an environment when rates are certain to go up is to slap our students in the face.  President Obama says he wants more students to graduate from community college or four-year institutions; we need more graduate and professional students in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs. It seems hypocritical to articulate these needs and then to undercut the means to meet them.  There are more than one trillion dollars outstanding in student loan obligations.  The average student graduates with $27,000 in debt.  Since nearly half of all students graduate with no debt at all, this means that the average debt for those who borrow is closer to $40,000.

Many students with a talent for organizing, human resource allocation, or classroom teaching are diverted from their goals because their first priority is to pay student loan debt.  WE are starving our civil society institution, and those who would serve them, by placing money over affinity and creativity.  This has been happening for decades, but the current student loan dustup reminds us that we have not provided the safe space for our young people that we should.

The Senate bill passed 80-18 with some Democrats rejecting the bill because of its flaws.  Others, like the progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), elected as a financial whiz and people’s advocate, chose to go with the one-year “okey-doke” rather than dig her heels in for the long run fight.

In some ways Warren is right.  The finger in the dike approach saves students this year, and so it is better than nothing.  When, though, is better than nothing simply not good enough.  Stay tuned.  The vote on reauthorization of the Higher Education Act will happen next year.  Are students waiting and watching?  What about parents? Is there a political lobby to turn this mess around?

Julianne Malveaux is a DC based economist and writer.

From Conversation to Action: After Trayvon By Jesse Jackson

July 28, 2013

From Conversation to Action: After Trayvon
By Jesse Jackson

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(TriceEdneyWire.com) - President Barack Obama eloquently described the agony experienced among African-Americans from the slaying of Trayvon Martin. He called for a more thoughtful “conversation” on race, convened not by politicians, but among families, in churches and workplaces. He suggested modest steps to provide greater training on racial profiling with police, greater efforts to figure out how to do a “better job helping young African-American men feel that they’re a full part of this society and that they’ve got pathways and avenues to succeed.”

The president’s courageous comments merit praise and consideration. But we’ve had a long conversation about race in America. No small part of American history has been devoted to that “conversation” and that struggle. And as the president said, great progress has been made.

What we need now is action. The president’s personal narrative must translate into policy. His sentiments must be turned into meaningful solutions.

Young African-American boys need positive reinforcement, but they also need adequate nutrition as infants, good education as children, and jobs once they get out of school. Unemployment among black teenagers not in school hit a staggering 42.6 percent in June (up from a miserable 36.4 percent a year ago).

Blacks and Hispanics are clustered into low-wage, unstable jobs, and physically concentrated in impoverished ghettos and barrios, mostly in our nation’s cities. According to the census, in 31 cities, the unemployment rate is above 40 percent. In six of them, the unemployment rate is above 50 percent, which makes these young men fodder for the prison industrial complex. This is a global disgrace.

These men need more than a conversation about them from those who already have jobs. They need a plan. Lift them up where they belong. This is good policy for Americans. Lifting them is cheaper and much more wholesome than talking about them and leaving them in the margins.

Yet, the last time we had any major effort targeted at the concentrated areas of poverty and joblessness was Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty in the 1960s. In fact, Johnson’s war was remarkably successful, reducing childhood poverty and providing work or training to millions. But its programs fell victim to the costs of the Vietnam War.

Now, instead of concerted programs to provide hope and opportunity, African-Americans witness concerted attacks on the poor. North Carolina, for example, has become one of six southern states to introduce new voter ID laws since the Supreme Court’s conservative justices dismembered the Voting Rights Act. The Senate version requires a state issued ID, disqualifies student IDs for voting. The House version cuts early voting, same day registration and more. Of the 316,000 registered voters without a state-issued ID, 34 percent are African-American and 55 percent registered Democrats.

Since Republicans took control in North Carolina in 2012, the state has taken a hard shift to the right. So far this year, bills passed or pending by Republicans would eliminate the Earned Income Tax Credit for 900,000 low wage workers, reduce Medicaid benefits for 500,000 and federal unemployment benefits for 170,000, cut 30,000 kids out of pre-K, and transferred $90 million from public to voucher schools.

In North Carolina, people of conscience realized that a conversation about the situation wasn’t enough. The Rev. William Barber III, president of the North Carolina NAACP, helped create “Moral Mondays,” weekly protests at the state capitol to “dramatize the shameful condition of our state.” These protests have grown dramatically, with thousands getting arrested in peaceful civil disobedience to challenge the assault on voting rights and on the poor.

This week, President Obama will travel to Knox College in Illinois to outline out his agenda on jobs and the economy once more. He will contrast “middle-out” economics, a focus on the strengthening the middle class, with the trickle-down economics of Republicans. If we are to provide hope for young African-American boys, we need a bottom up economics, as well, targeted to provide jobs in communities scarred by high levels of unemployment and poverty.

Whatever the president’s agenda, Rev. Barber is right. Nothing will get through the obstructionists in Congress unless citizens of conscience mobilize across the nation and demand action. That will create the conversation we need to make progress once more.

Keep up with Rev. Jackson and the work of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition at www.rainbowpush.org.

Mandela Improves as South Africa Celebrates His 95th Birthday

July 21, 2013

Mandela Improves as South Africa Celebrates His 95th Birthday

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(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Former South Africa President Nelson Mandela remains hospitalized in critical condition, but has made “sustained improvement” since June 8, President Jacob Zuma’s office reports.

According to the Associated Press, “Zuma gave the update after visiting Mandela at the Pretoria hospital where he is receiving treatment. During the visit, he told the anti-apartheid leader of the love and support of all South Africans that was displayed at the leader's 95th birthday celebrations on July 18.”

Mandela has received an outpouring of prayers and well-wishes since he was hospitalized June 8 for a recurring lung infection. The Nobel Peace Prize recipient is revered around the world because of his 27-year incarceration during racial apartheid White minority rule and his rise to the presidency in 1995.

Doctors have not publicly said whether he is headed for release from the hospital. Meanwhile, on his birthday, the United Nations declared a “Nelson Mandela International Day” during which people performed community service in his honor.

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