By Zenitha Prince

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - High school graduation rates in the United States are at their highest since 1974, according to a recent U.S. Department of Education report, but Black students graduated at a rate below other ethnic groups.

By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - President Barack Obama has the opportunity, in this second term, to put his feet on history. He won an election that his opponent had essentially claimed, he has been firm about that which he would negotiate on, and he has offered a progressive inauguration speech that offers up a liberal agenda, embracing Social Security and Medicare, uplifting immigrants and gay rights, and embracing ways to address inequality.

One could not help but applaud the strong direction of President Obama’s speech. But those of us in the African- American community wonder why we could not get a shout out about high unemployment and poverty rates, inner city challenges, and income, economic and unemployment disparities. Failing to address the community that offered him 97 percent of their vote indicates that there is a reckless disregard of his strongest supporters.

I understand that President Obama is the President of the whole United States, not the President of Black America. At the same time some of the evils that affect African-Americans are issues that any President would address. To be sure, some of the gaps that are recorded and experienced have not changed since the 60s. Imagine the impact this President could have if he made a minor attempt in closing the gaps.

The inauguration speech spoke to all of us when it offered a progressive agenda. It spoke to some when it called out other communities and offered advancement some of them, but it spoke to none of us in the African American community unless we chose to parse the subtleties, the Bible, the references to Detroit, and the acknowledgement of inequalities.

Hundreds of thousands of people thronged to the site of the inauguration speech. Many of them were parents and grandparents who were determined that their children and grandchildren had the opportunity to witness history. A second term for President Obama is actually more exciting than a first term because now this President is freed from the shackles of re-election possibilities and free to do his thing.

Will his thing improve the lot of all of us, some of us, or none of us. In the African-American community, many think we won’t get a thing but an amazing and uplifting symbolism. There are still those who cheer simply because we have an African-American president. Can we put our cheer on for results?

In the next 18 months, President Obama has the opportunity to do whatever he wants to do. He can target resources and opportunities to any community he choses to embrace his targets. For example, more than $500 million was directed to a failed wind experiment in California. What about offering the same opportunity to inner cities?

The liberal agenda we heard during the President’s inauguration suggested that all of us would have the opportunity to benefit from progressive economic plans. He called out some communities, which suggested that some of us would get special attention. His failure to give a shout out to the African-American community suggests that none of us can count on special attention.

Julianne Malveaux is a DC based economist and author.

  By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - There are some concepts that have become popular over the past few years. When these concepts are discussed individually they make for interesting dialogue but when assessed together and in a larger context should become the cause of some concern.  The concepts are Post Racial America, New Normal, Austerity, and The Precariat Class.

During the 2008 presidential primary The New York Times published an article by Matt Bai entitled Is Obama the End of Black Politics? The premise of the article was that 60 years after Strom Thurmond left the Democratic Party over the issue of integrating the armed forces and 45 years after Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” the Democratic party was poised to deliver its nomination for the nation’s highest office to an African-American.  Did this somehow signal the end of Black politics?  Others began to ask if this signaled the realization of Dr. King’s dream.

Right after Senator Obama became President; there was a lot of discussion and articles written about a Post Racial America.  Had we entered an America devoid of racial preference, discrimination, and prejudice? The dangerous subtext to these questions is that the issues that African Americans have been fighting for since 1619 are no longer relevant and African Americans should no longer look to the government to enact and enforce legislation protecting and guaranteeing their rights. In Religion and Politics Judith Weisenfeld wrote, “Most often, media figures have deployed the term to indicate that Obama the candidate and president deemphasizes the divisive history of race in America in favor of universal histories and experiences that unite.”

As the American economy has remained stagnate with 1.3 percent growth, the national unemployment number has stayed close to 8 percent and close to seventeen percent in the African American community. Close to 5.4 million people have dropped out of the workforce and now analysts and commentators describe this as the ‘new normal.”  Americans are supposed to accept and get used to the dismal rates of economic growth and high unemployment while the stock market soars and American corporations sit on record cash balances.  According to CNBC, corporate “cash balances have swelled 14 percent and are on track toward $1.5 trillion for the Standard & Poor's 500…Both levels would be historic highs.”

These corporate stockpiles of cash are not “trickling down” to the poor, working and middle-classes. The “job creators” are not creating jobs.  The “One Percent” are doing even better with more. According to Pimco Investment founder Bill Gross. “It’s time to recognize that things have changed and that they will continue to change for the next—yes, the next 10 years and maybe even the next 20 years.”  This is the “new normal” and it’s not good.

The solution being proposed by conservatives and subtly endorsed by President Obama to address the financial crisis is “austerity.”  Austerity is the policy of deficit-cutting by lowering spending via a reduction in the amount of benefits and services provided by the government.

In challenging times such as these the government should be investing in the economy not cutting back. They should not attempt to balance the budget on the backs of the poor, working, and middle-classes. Instead of focusing on what to save, they are debating what to cut. Reductions in government spending tend to increase unemployment, which increases demands on the “safety-net” programs they want to cut while reducing tax revenue.  Also, as with the Great Depression; short-term government spending financed by deficits supports economic growth when consumers and businesses are unwilling or unable to do so.

When you start to connect the dots between, the new normal and austerity measures you see a new picture.  There is a new class of existence being created in this country. Professor Guy Standing calls this new class the “precariat.” “Millions of workers, mainly young and educated are being habituated to a life of unstable labor and uncertainty, a precarious existence…The precariat is wanted by multinationals and many corporations” because their precarious existence makes them easy to exploit.  They are saddled with debt from school loans, working two and three jobs at subsistence wages with no health care, no pension, and no sense of permanency or security.  It is a precarious or tenuous existence at best.

As the African American community continues to be plagued by disproportionate rates of unemployment, poverty, hunger, wealth disparities, incarceration rates, and other social ills the development of a precariat class will prove to be catastrophic.  African Americans and many others will continue as Dr. King said in 1963, to live “…on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity…languishing in the corners of American society and find(ing) (themselves) an exile in (their) own land” a racialized America.

If the underclass, working class, and precariat become dissatisfied with their existence what will they do, rise up?  If so, what will the government do?  How will the government protect its interests and repel the domestic uprising?

When you connect these dots and discuss them within the larger context of a government that is engaging in warrantless wiretapping, calling for the ability to indefinitely detain American citizens, stop and frisk laws, and an Attorney General who states that the president has the authority to assassinate American citizens any place in the world without judicial review, you get a very frightening picture. The picture reflects a battle between democracy and fascism and the battle for democracy should begin now.

Go to www.wilmerleon.com or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Va. State Sen. Henry L. Marsh III

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico, Senate Democratic Caucus chair, blasted it as “plantation politics.”

Sen. Mamie E. Locke, D-Hampton, Virginia Legislative Black Caucus chair, slammed it as “subterfuge, manipulation and outright arrogance.”

And Delegate Charniele L. Herring, D-Alexandria, Virginia Democratic Party chair, labeled it “downright undemocratic.”

They were referring to the power play that the 20 Republican senators employed on Monday, Jan. 21,  to ram through an overhaul of the 40 Senate districts through the divided 40-member chamber without warning.

They did it on the day the nation celebrated the holiday honoring civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and President Obama was sworn into a second term. The surprise maneuver is seen as an attempt to boost GOP chances of winning the Senate in the 2015 elections. But it flouted legislative traditions and even a 2004 amendment to the Virginia Constitution that limits redistricting to once a decade following the U.S. Census.

Democrats could not block the Republicans from attaching their revamp to a House bill making minor technical
adjustments to delegate districts.

Richmond Sen. Henry L. Marsh III was in Washington attending the inauguration. That left the remaining 19 Democrats one vote short.

“I am outraged, and I am saddened,” Sen. Marsh said after learning that his attendance at the inaugural had opened the door for Republicans “to push through a partisan redistricting plan.”

“It’s shameful,” Sen. Marsh said, calling the new plan “unconstitutional” based on his 50 years of experience as a civil rights lawyer. Marsh was also elected Richmond's first Black mayor in 1977.

Timing was critical. Had Sen. Marsh been present and the outcome tied, the Senate’s president, Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who opposed the Senate GOP’s tactics, would have sided with the Democrats and cast his decisive vote to reject the amendment. The Republican move appeared to shatter any prospect for a bipartisan truce in the Senate on other issues, galling Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, who called his party’s Senate action a threat to his legislative priorities — overhauling transportation funding and reforming public education.

“I don’t think that’s the way business should be done,” said Gov. McDonnell, who is in his final year and is hoping to win support for proposals he sees as his legacy. “What I’ve said is that this session should be about education and transportation, not redistricting and other things.”

However, he stopped short of saying he would veto the Senate plan if the House approved the legislation. The governor needs to reassure Democrats he will veto the bill, said Senate Minority Leader Richard L. “Dick” Saslaw, D-Fairfax. “If he doesn’t, then the likelihood of transportation (reform) or anything else passing here is highly suspect,” he warned.

The plan Republicans muscled through was largely the work of Sen. John C. Watkins, R-Powhatan. Among other things, the plan wipes out a western district Senate seat held by a Democrat, weakens other Democratic Senate districts, while adding a new majority-black district stretching from Petersburg to Danville.

Sen. McEachin said the Watkins plan would not be good for Black Virginians. He said the new district would cram in Democratic-leaning black voters, allowing Republicans to strengthen their grip on nearby districts by moving predominantly White precincts to them. “That is packing” Sen. McEachin declared, calling it a way to reduce Black influence. “That is plantation politics.”

Sen. Locke said she could support an additional Black-majority district, but excoriated the Republicans for their tactics. “If (GOP senators) really want a serious discussion and debate on redistricting, then we should do it openly.”

Both she and Sen. McEachin called the Watkins plan part of a broader GOP effort to restrict voting, particularly after a GOP voter identification bill enacted last year failed to give Republicans the lift they needed in November to prevent President Obama from winning Virginia for a second time.

Along with the redistricting plan, they pointed to new GOP efforts to further tighten voter-identification criteria. Sen. McEachin noted a GOP bill that proposes to apportion Virginia’s 13 presidential electoral votes by congressional district rather than the current winner-take-all method, a change that would have kept  President Obama from winning Virginia.

He also cited the GOP’s blanket rejection of bills to make absentee voting easier and to back Gov. McDonnell’s own request for automatic restoration of voting rights for nonviolent felons who have served their sentences. Senate GOP Leader Thomas K. Norment, R-James City County, chafed at the remarks and accused Democrats of recklessly evoking still-tender history in the former Confederate capital to exploit raw emotions.

He and Sen. Watkins described the new redistricting plan as an effort to reduce the number of precincts and communities that were divided by the previously approved 2011 Senate reapportionment overseen by Democrats — and increase minority Senate representation.

There are currently five Black senators. It is still uncertain whether the Watkins plan will pass in the House. House Speaker William J. “Bill” Howell, R-Fredericksburg, said he, too, was blindsided by the Republican power move.

He refused to endorse the Senate’s new redistricting plan or speculate what might become of the amended bill when it returns to the House floor. If it passes the House and is signed by the governor, the Senate plan would still need approval of the U.S. Justice Department, which must review all changes to elections in Virginia because of the state’s past history of discrimination.