Urban News Features

U.S. Minorities to Become Majority Faster than Predicted by Zenitha Prince

U.S. Minorities to Become Majority Faster than Predicted
By Zenitha Prince

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

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The United States is on pace to become a minority-majority nation even faster than previously predicted, according to Census Bureau statistics on race and ethnicity released June 13.

The percentage of non-Hispanic Whites in the U.S. population reached an all-time low of 63 percent during the year ending July 1. Numerically, that means there are 197.7 million White people out of 313.9 million total Americans.

Though the number of Whites increased by 188,000, mostly due from immigration from abroad, the number of deaths exceeded births—another first—by more than 12,000.

“This is the first time there has ever been an overall non-Hispanic White natural decrease in the U.S.,” demographer Kenneth Johnson told Bloomberg News.

There are other trends that suggest that minorities will outnumber Whites by 2043, as has been predicted. Children of color under age 5 are almost a majority, representing 49.9 percent of that age group. And, according to previous Census analyses, minorities younger than 18 are expected to overtake the number of White children by 2019.

“It’s the younger, rapidly growing minority population that will be driving economic and demographic growth this century,” William H. Frey, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based policy research group, told Bloomberg.

Overall, people of color grew in number by 1.9 percent, now composing about 37 percent of the total population.

Specific trends show that Asian Americans were the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in America, surging by 2.9 percent to almost 19 million people. The growth was mostly fueled by international migration.

Hispanics were the second fastest growing group, increasing by 2.2 percent, or more than 1.1 million, to just over 53 million in 2012. Their growth was primarily propelled by “natural increase” (births minus deaths), the Census said. Latinos also remain the nation’s second largest ethnic group, behind Whites, representing 17 percent of the population.

“Asians and Hispanics have long been among our nation's fastest-growing race or ethnic groups,” Thomas Mesenbourg, the Census Bureau's acting director, said in a statement.

By comparison, African-Americans increased by a mere 1.3 percent to 44.5 million last year.

A Shameful Parade by Dr. Barbara Reynolds

June 16, 2013

A Shameful Parade
By Dr. Barbara Reynolds

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - It's hard for me to overlook the shameful parade of sons of celebrated leaders who are in jail or on the way to jail for confessed crimes ranging from bribery, embezzlement and just plain thievery. Their crimes go beyond mere law-breaking. The sons have dishonored a legacy of public service that their fathers helped to build in order to break down barriers to economic and political progress for African-Americans.

The latest inductees to the Political Hall of Shame are: Former Washington, D.C. council member Michael A. Brown (D) who this month pled guilty to accepting $55,000 in illegal funds, some of which were stuffed in a Redskins coffee mug. Former congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., who is awaiting sentencing after a guilty plea of embezzling $750,000 from his campaign funds to purchase such things as a Rolex watch, furs and a fedora previously owned by Michael Jackson. And then there’s former D.C. Councilman Harry Thomas, Jr. (D- Ward 5) who is serving time after admitting to stealing $355,000 in city funds that could have gone to make a difference in the lives of city youths.

Just as civil rights victories are celebrated collectively the spectacles of college educated sons in upper middle class families joining the felons in the prison pipeline have created collective sadness among the rank and file. These men’s very ascent to higher office was on the backs of their famous fathers, trailblazers in the political and civil rights struggle. Civil Rights veteran Jesse Jackson Sr. credible runs for president in 1984 and 1988 were jewels in the foundation later polished and perfected by President Obama. Ron Brown, the late commerce secretary and democratic National Committee chairmen, opened avenues for Black businesses and business development as did the senior Thomas.

One can only wonder what created this downward spiral and what does it say to the next generation? What lessons did they learn from their fathers? Is this fathering gone wrong? Were they so busy fathering the community they did not father in their own homes? Jesse Jr. and Michael Brown grew up as privileged sons fathered into circles of wealth and influence. They grew to manhood at a time when the rhetoric of hard work, integrity and ethical based public service rang in their ears and the doors opened by their famous fathers were present for them to walk through.

Did their successful upbringing evolve into a culture of greed and self indulgence where victories for the masses then became internalized into victories for self which entitled them to desire the biggest symbols of material success: expensive cars, the bling, the swagger, the style. Public service has become the Big ticket of self indulgence creating a court of youngish, entitled black privileged princes. In a way the fruit did not fall far from the tree because in some circles men like Jackson and Brown preformed like Kings of the Hill.

This air of entitled nobility perhaps explains why Jackson Junior felt the need to use public funds to purchase the fedora that crowned the head of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. Did Jackson Jr. relish a crown himself? Brown’s lawyer explained his client’s confessed guilt of accepting $55,000 in illegal funds to the crashing of the economy. Most district residents are suffering hardships so the example of this public servant is “ steal your way out of it?”

My listening ear has picked up many excuses for this behavior. An often heard argument: “Well, these Black men are not doing anything that Whites haven’t been doing all along.” Granted, theft is an equal right among thieves, but to African-Americans, who represent a group that has been denied resources, seen their children swallowed up by drugs, poor schools and, a prison pipelines public funds in the hands of honest politics could be life-saving, that choice must not be an option.

Like many area residents I am pained by this sad spectacle because I had personal contact with these fathers. In the early seventies in Chicago I was a neighbor and frequent visitor to the Jackson Household, talking to his wife, Jackie. I delighted in carrying the chubby faced Jesse junior on my shoulders. Throughout his career, I respected him as a brilliant man.

Two weeks before he died in a plane crash, Ron Brown summoned me to his office at the Commerce Department. This had never happened before and I always felt it was an invitation to keep watch over how the past would impact the future. And shortly before Thomas senior died, I stood shoulder to shoulder with him as we were recognized by Allstate insurance for public service.

Despite their setbacks there is still a future role for these favored sons. Their fathers were not perfect servants but at their very best were public servants. It is not too late for the sons to honor their fathers.

Barbara Reynolds, a former columnist for USA Today, is an author of six books, including Jesse Jackson: America’s David: The Man, the Meaning and the Myth.

LBJ’s War On Poverty Still Only Partly Won By Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.

June 16, 2013

LBJ’s War On Poverty Still Only Partly Won
By Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Fifty years ago this week, Medgar Evers, the NAACP regional secretary in Mississippi, was murdered by a member of the White Citizens’ Council. Evers’ death received national attention, serving only to strengthen the movement for civil rights.

Two years later, President Lyndon Johnson delivered a historic commencement address at Howard University, laying out progress made and challenges unmet. Johnson praised the “indomitable determination” of African Americans demanding their freedom. He hailed the Supreme Court for outlawing segregation, as well as Congress for passing the first civil rights legislation in 100 years.

The barriers to freedom are tumbling down, but “freedom is not enough,” he told the graduates. “You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying, ‘Now you are free to go where you want.’ . . . You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and bring him to the starting line of a race and then say, ‘You are free to compete with all the others.’”

“It is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity,” the president said. “All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates.” This, Johnson concluded, was “the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just legal equity but human ability; not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and equality as a result.”

Johnson understood that ability can be “stretched or stunted” by the accident of birth — the family you are born into, the neighborhood you live in, the school you attend, the poverty or luxury of your surroundings. He noted the progress that had been made in the building of an African-American middle class. But for “the great majority of Negro Americans,” he said, “there is a much grimmer story. They still . . . are another nation.”

Johnson listed some of the “facts of this American failure.” What is stunning is how little progress has been made since.

Negro unemployment was twice as high as that of whites in 1965. It is twice as high as whites today.

Unemployment for African-American teenage boys had grown to 23 percent in 1965. Unemployment for black teenagers of both sexes is 42.6 percent today.

The median income of African-American families had dropped to 53 percent that of whites in 1965. It was 63 percent in 2011.

Johnson argued that while the causes of this disparity are complex, “we have to act.” He pushed for a war on poverty, for jobs, “decent homes in decent surroundings” and “an equal chance to learn.” Care for the sick, welfare and social programs “designed to hold families together are part of the answer.”

Sadly, Johnson’s war on poverty was lost in the forests of Vietnam. Tired of war, cynical about lies, weary of upheaval, Americans were said to suffer “compassion fatigue.”

No president has sounded the call since. The barriers Johnson vowed to shatter have remained. And even as African Americans discovered the ladders to the middle class were disappearing, middle-class Americans of all races found themselves starting to lose their own footing.

Five decades later, legal segregation is behind us. Medgar Evers would be pleased to see African Americans admitted to the University of Mississippi. African Americans voted in higher percentages than whites in 2012 for the first time ever. But the work of what Johnson called “the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights” — equal economic opportunity — remains to be done.

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

Trial to Secure Justice for Trayvon Martin Begins by Marc Morial

June 16, 2013

To Be Equal
Trial to Secure Justice for Trayvon Martin Begins
By Marc Morial

marcmorial

(TriceEdneyWire.com) “I believe that's Trayvon Martin, that's my baby's voice. Every mother knows their child, and that's his voice.” - Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin

On Monday of last week, the trial of George Zimmerman, charged in the second-degree murder of Trayvon Martin, finally got underway. The surface facts of the case are not in dispute. On February 26, 2012, Zimmerman, in his role as a neighborhood watch volunteer, followed, shot and killed the unarmed 17-year-old Martin who was walking back to a home in a Sanford, Florida gated community after buying a bag of skittles and a bottle of ice tea from a nearby convenience store. Everything else about this case is complicated by the issues of race, the unsuccessful attempt by Zimmerman’s defense to put Trayvon’s background on trial and Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense that is rooted in Florida’s questionable Stand-Your-Ground law. Widespread public attention generated by the case will also likely complicate and prolong the selection of an impartial jury.

As of this writing, Judge Debra Nelson has yet to rule on whether testimony from voice analysis experts can be used to argue whose voice – Trayvon’s or Zimmerman’s -- is heard screaming for help just before the sound of a gunshot on a taped 911 call. This is a crucial point that could buttress Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense or the prosecution’s contention that Zimmerman was the aggressor. It should be noted that Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, has heard the tape and has no doubt that the screaming voice is that of her son. As a lawyer, I appreciate the role of experts in trials, but as a parent, I agree with Sybrina Fulton that in this case there is no more reliable expert than the mother of the victim.

Prior to the start of the trial, Judge Nelson ruled against the defense’s attempt to introduce as evidence, Trayvon’s school records, past history of fighting or photos and text messages on his cell phone. The judge rightfully decided that none of this has anything to do with why Zimmerman shot Trayvon.

It should also be noted that Zimmerman, a white Hispanic, was a particularly zealous neighborhood watch volunteer. In the months leading up to that fateful February day, he had made dozens of 911 calls. In a number of those calls, he reported spotting “suspicious” persons in the neighborhood, almost all of whom were black. In his confrontation with Trayvon Martin, not only did Zimmerman disregard the police dispatcher’s order not to follow the so-called suspicious person, he violated local neighborhood watch rules against carrying a weapon and making pursuit.

We will leave it up to a jury to decide whether George Zimmerman is guilty of second-degree murder in the killing of Trayvon Martin. But, as champions of civil rights and equal justice under the law, we believe this case will shed needed light on the issues of racial profiling and the stereotyping of young black males. We also join Trayvon’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, in calling for a repeal of Florida’s troubling Stand Your Ground law which states that anyone in fear of his or her life could be justified in using lethal force against a potential or perceived attacker. We will be closely following the case and will keep you abreast of developments.

Government Surveillance: What Goes Around Comes Around by A. Peter Bailey

June 16, 2013

Reality Check

Government Surveillance: What Goes Around Comes Around
By A. Peter Bailey

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - When reading about the knashing of teeth about government surveillance by members of the press in the AP and James Rosen cases and of Americans in general by the National Security Agency my first reaction is, “What goes around comes around.”

I don’t recall any overwrought weeping and wailing from the press or the American public when, throughout the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, government agencies, most notably the FBI and CIA, conducted destructive privacy-invading surveillance against those involved in the human rights and civil rights movements for equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity in this country.

I know this from my personal experiences as a Malcolmite and from those of others whom I knew. Master researcher, Paul Lee, provided me with a set of the FBI files on the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), a secular organization founded by Brother Malcolm X after his departure from the Nation of Islam. The first page of the files noted for that “The individual members of the OAAU referred to in this report as having some official position therein, and of which the Bureau is not aware are:” It then lists seven names alphabetically by last name. Mine was the first one listed. Following the listing of names, the file continued “All of the above mentioned individuals are currently under investigation by the NYO (New York Office) at this time…” We were not surprised by the government surveillance because Brother Malcolm had warned us to be prepared for it if we joined him in the struggle against white supremacy.

It was later that I found out that members of my family were also targeted. A brother-in-law in the U.S. Army lost his security clearance for one year because he was married to one of my sisters. A niece, as late as 1985, who was scheduled for assignment as a communications technician in the Pentagon, was instead assigned to Puerto Rico after being questioned about her being related to me. These are just two examples of invasive government surveillance in action.

The general American public probably had at least some knowledge about what was going on. I am sure that members of the press were aware of the pervasiveness of such surveillance. Yet, with rare exceptions, there were no loud expressions of outrage about the invasion of privacy or violation of the Fourth Amendment when extensive surveillance by the FBI, CIA and other government agencies basically derailed the human rights and civil rights movements. What is going on now is lightweight compared to what happened then. Targeted people not only lost their privacy. Surveillance against those in the two movements resulted in some people being killed. Some were brutalized; others were imprisoned. Some lost jobs; others were denied employment.

So don’t expect those of us who experienced that to get all bothered because of what is currently happening. We regard it as a case of surveillance operatives coming home to roost.