Blackonomics
By James Clingman     

                                            

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Have you noticed the television commercials that offer loans of various kinds or other enticements such as auto leases and insurance policies for the elderly?  These commercials are laden with information that appears on the screen for a few seconds and is too small to read.  On the radio these kinds of ads have a spokesperson who gives you the details of such offers so fast that you can’t understand a word he is saying.  Like me, you have probably wondered why they bother giving the details at all.  Of course, by law, they have to disclose this information but I guess no one said how long it should be, how large a font to use, or how slowly the spokesperson had to speak.

What does this all mean to us, the consumers?  Most of us probably know someone who has fallen prey to these commercials and gone out and made purchases they ultimately regretted because of the high prices they ended up paying.  As the saying goes, “The devil is in the details.”  Indeed.

The genesis of this article is from the commercial that offers a loan of $10,000.00 with little or no red tape.  It says the company is owned and operated by Native Americans, and it features a phenotypically looking Native American female as spokesperson who lauds the opportunity to get $10,000.00 to pay all your bills and the convenience of having just one fixed monthly payment.  The problem is she doesn’t say what that monthly payment will be.  Instead, it is flashed on the screen just before the commercial ends, embedded in a paragraph that is too long to read in the time allotted.

A $10,000.00 loan, without hassles, can go a long way to help someone who is in dire financial straits, so I would imagine some people would jump at the opportunity to take advantage of the offer.  The problem is that it is taking advantage of the consumer. This is not like the $1,000.00 Montel is offering to put into your checking account “in 24 hours.”  Sit down while I tell you what the fine print says on the $10,000.00 commercial.

The convenient fixed monthly payments are $743.49.  So far so good, right?  Well, I had to watch the commercial several times before I could make out how many payments that would be.  After at least four viewings, because I did not believe what I thought I had seen the first, second, and third times, I confirmed the number of payments to be 84.  “Okay,” I said; let’s see what the total amount of the loan would be.  For 84 months, which is seven years, at $743.49 per month, the total amount to be repaid is a whopping $62,453.00!!!

I still keep going back to the calculator to check my math.  Please, someone, if I am wrong in my calculations, let me know.  I still can’t believe this.  Maybe because of its limited time on the screen I made a mistake and did not read it correctly.  I hope so.  But I also hope that anyone who is considering accepting this “loan” will stop and read all the fine print.  Some may opt for a lower amount, say, $5,000.  Well, for that amount you make 84 payments of $486.58, or a total of $40,872.00!!  Sound better?

If your credit is bad and you need a car there is always someone who will sell one to you.  Here’s the catch though.  Your interest rate will be much higher than normal.  The dealer may even drastically reduce the sticker price of a used car, but he will recoup that in high 15% - 25% interest rates in conjunction with the finance company.  I don’t know for sure but I would guess the dealer gets a cut from the finance company for doing the deal.

Don’t get me wrong.  I am not some lifelong paragon of using my money wisely.  I made some dumb purchases and abused credit cards as well when I was younger and ignorant and in my instant gratification mode of life.  So this is not a self-righteous condemnation of folks who find themselves in untenable financial situations that call for drastic measures such as taking loans that come with usury interest rates as high as 340%.  I am simply writing this to inform and warn folks to take time to read the fine print before signing up for desperation loans.

Please look for alternative ways to raise money when you have problems – legal ways, of course.  And, if the situation calls for it, there is always bankruptcy.  I know that comes with a high cost as well, but a least you will not have the burden of trying to pay bills with borrowed money, that is, if you don’t go out after filing bankruptcy and run up debt again.  The bankruptcy laws were written to relieve you of that burden and have been used for years by millions of people.  Unfortunately, many Black people view bankruptcy as a stigma; other folks view it as a strategy.

Read the fine print, folks.  And then make good choices when it comes to borrowing money and buying cars.

Jan. 27, 2013

Fifth graders Alyx and Nolan survey the after-school offerings at the diverse, dynamic Wilson Focus School in Omaha, Nebraska. PHOTO: America's Wire
By Susan Eaton

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from America's Wire

OMAHA, Neb. - (TriceEdneyWire.com) - Fifth-grader Alyx has trouble naming the "absolute coolest" thing about Wilson Focus School, part of an innovative educational model called the Learning Community that provides students opportunities to attend diverse schools in highly segregated areas.

Alyx says it's not just the snakes and other reptiles, not just the "totally amazing and beautiful" Australian blue-tongued skink caged in her classroom. It's not just her teacher, Mr. Mitchell, "who is so great, who is the best." And it's not just her friend Nolan who is "funny and kind." But Alyx, who is white and lives in the suburbs, and Nolan, who is African American and lives in Omaha, agree that one of the "coolest" things is as Alyx says, "There are kids from all over. Everywhere."

Well, not quite everywhere. But unlike the typical school in this highly segregated region, or the typical school in many still-segregated communities across the country, Wilson Focus School reaches across two counties to bring together students from a mix of racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds. Yet, even with its well-documented successes, the Learning Community is being threatened by public officials who question the value of the diversity it brings.

Wilson offers the standard diet of mandatory reading time, science reports and oral presentations. However the schools' specialized leadership, communication and technology curriculum nudges kids into constant negotiations with each other. Each day, students must solve problems collectively, acknowledge and negotiate differences and learn how to balance individual desires with community needs.

In Alyx and Nolan's fifth grade classroom, students hone these skills within their own "micro-society" they named "Diverse City." Nolan explains: "Students have jobs, like cops or lawyers or secretaries and there are rules and you sure can bet there are disagreements that you need to resolve."

Fifth-grader Nicholas Vollmer notes that in Diverse City, "you can sue people," adding, "But you don't want to overdo that because . . .usually the goal is to get to some peaceful kind of resolution."

Diversity is not just an add-on feature, here, teachers say, but integral to the mission of the school.

"The students," teacher Glenn Mitchell says, "Really get," that "diversity-be it racial socioeconomic, cultural, in learning style...is a reality of life and that our diversity is going to help them learn how to leaders. They can't really be leaders if they can't communicate and interact successfully in a diverse setting. Isn't that obvious? I mean, it seems pretty obvious to me."

The Focus School is but one element in metropolitan Omaha's regional education model known as the Learning Community. Created by Nebraska's legislature in 2007, the Learning Community is designed to reduce funding disparities between Omaha and its suburbs and to create more socioeconomic diversity in schools.

Eleven school districts pool money that the Learning Community then redistributes via a needs-based formula. The money also provides free transportation to certain students who wish to attend schools not located in the districts where they live.

Finally, Learning Community dollars pay for an array of education-related services, including high-quality preschool, to young people and their families who live in Omaha's poorest neighborhoods.

The Learning Community emerged following anguished debate over the kinds of messy issues most elected leaders, even in ostensibly more progressive states, prefer to avoid discussing - segregation, economic inequality, social cohesion and righting past wrongs of discrimination. There is still a lot of hopefulness surrounding the Learning Community, both locally and nationally, among civil rights advocates, educational leaders and scholars. But it is not clear that the program will survive the political threats that it faces.

This month, a group of state legislators introduced a bill that would dismantle the Learning Community, although it's unclear whether the bill will reach Nebraska Gov. David Heineman's desk. Five years ago, Gov. Heineman signed the legislation to create the Learning Community, but in recent years he has questioned whether the program is still needed. "I don't know what purpose it really serves," Gov. Heineman recently told a local reporter. However, the Learning Community still has strong support among the state legislature's education committee and certainly among parents and children who have benefitted from it.

"This was really exactly what we were going for," says Willie Barney, who five years ago created an organization called The Empowerment Network, to in part, provide African Americans a stronger voice in civic matters. Barney, whose son Neremiah attends Focus School, adds, "If you want your child to go to a school that is diverse and that is high performing, then that should exist."

The Learning Community is but a light counterweight in a region that records some of the highest rates of inequality between whites and blacks and between whites and Latinos, particularly in jobs and income. According to the Urban Institute, Omaha ranks 91^st of 100 metros (100 represents the largest gap) on these two measures. The region's high rates of residential segregation earn it a "D" on the Washington-based Urban Institute's Metrotrends report card.

In 2011, the Learning Community allowed about 2,250 students to transfer schools, with about half of those increasing diversity in their new schools. Another 180 students attended Wilson Focus School, with the number projected to grow to 250 in a few years. Another few dozen students attend the Focus School program in middle school, which offers a continuation of the leadership and technology curriculum used at Wilson.

"The Learning Community is a work in progress. We have here a structure that provides a beginning, a foundation," says Ben Gray, an Omaha city councilor. "We need to give this a fighting chance."

The Native American word "Omaha" translates from the Hokan-Siouan language to "the upstream people" or a tribe that travels "against the current." There is something of that against-the-grain mentality in this contemporary effort. But the Learning Community also reflects a pragmatism that has long characterized this state.

"I love telling people that 30 percent of Nebraska's children under the age of five are Latino. I love saying that because people just don't believe it and it makes them pay attention," says Ted Stilwill, CEO of the Learning Community. "People have their image and their stereotypes about Nebraska -- that it's cornfields and white people. But of course the data is right there. It tells the story about the fact that we are changing, that we really need to provide ways for all children to prepare for that diverse world, to be part of that world."

Jan. 27, 2013

"The State of Equality and Justice in America" is part of a 20-part series of columns written by an all-star list of contributors to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

The contributors include: U. S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) LCCRUL 50th Anniversary Grand Marshal; Ms. Barbara Arnwine, President and Executive Director, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL); Mr. Charles Ogletree, Professor, Harvard University Law School/Director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice; the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., President/CEO, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition; the Rev. Joseph Lowery, Co-founder, Southern Christian Leadership Conference; U. S. Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.); and 14 additional thought leaders and national advocates for equal justice.

Here's the third op-ed of the series:

State of Equality and Justice in America: Another Side of the Debate on Affirmative Action
By U.S. Rep. Yvette D. Clarke (D-N.Y.)

 (TriceEdneyWire.com) - On October 10, 2012, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, a lawsuit about the constitutionality of the affirmative action programs in which colleges and universities consider the race of applicants in an effort to maintain diversity.

For several decades, the debate about affirmative action has been dominated by conservatives who have divided this nation by claiming that some people are “winners” and other people are “losers” under any such program. Generations of Republican politicians and their campaign managers have used the issue to develop resentment toward racial minorities.

We need to have other voices in the conversation – voices that explain the importance of affirmative action for every student and for our society as a whole. The leaders of our corporations, our institutions of higher education, and our military know from their experience the importance of diversity in our classrooms.

In 2003, the Supreme Court held in Grutter v. Bollinger that public colleges and universities could consider the race of applicants in selecting a class of students with the diversity to succeed in the modern world. A brief submitted to the Supreme Court by several large corporations explained that students could develop "the skills needed in today’s increasingly global marketplace" only through interactions inside and outside the classroom with "widely diverse people, cultures, ideas, and viewpoints."

Leaders of our military, such as General Wesley Clark and former Secretary of Defense William Cohen, submitted a brief in Grutter which stated that the recruitment of a diverse class of officers at our nation’s military academies, such as the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, was necessary to fulfill the military’s “principle mission to provide national security”.

For our leaders in business and the military, the benefits of affirmative action are obvious. To compete with students from around the world, our students must have the opportunity to interact with people whose experiences are different from their own. Students educated in classrooms that are diverse will have the resources – social and intellectual – to become full participants in our civil society and its economy.

But in Fisher, the Supreme Court has been asked to reexamine the determination that colleges and universities have the ability to consider the race of applicants, with several other factors, in admissions. This determination has been the law in the United States for more than 30 years.

A reversal of the Supreme Court’s precedents on affirmative action would undermine the efforts of college administrators to select a class of students that has the ability – as a result of diversity – to excel in the world beyond the classroom. We must continue forward, not backward. As Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote, “Unless our children begin to learn together, there is little hope that our people will ever learn to live together.”

U. S. Rep. Yvette D. Clarke (D-N.Y.) has represented New York’s Ninth Congressional District since 2006. She currently serves on the Homeland Security and Small Business Committees. This article – the third of a 20-part series - is written in commemoration of the 50^th Anniversary of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The Lawyers' Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to enlist the private bar's leadership and resources in combating racial discrimination and the resulting inequality of opportunity - work that continues to be vital today. For more information, please visit www.lawyerscommittee.org. 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – There was exultant singing and dancing in the streets of Nairobi and around Kenya as Barack Hussain Obama rested his hand on two bibles and was sworn in as 44^th President of the United States. Images of this East African nation’s favorite son standing tall before a crowd of some 800,000 in Washington DC were closely watched at the Kenyatta International Conference Center and on other large screens. In Kogelo, the western Kenyan village where his late father grew up and where his grandmother, Sara Obama still lives, residents feasted in Obama’s honor. “Mama Obama” spoke via Skype to Kenyans gathered in Washington, DC for an inaugural dinner. She sent wishes for “wisdom, good health and, very importantly, courage… I pray for him every single day.” Meanwhile, campaigning is underway to elect governors, senators and country assembly persons in Kenya's polls next month that observers hope will not devolve into divisive ethnic rivalries flaring into violence. In the nationwide election in 2007, “more than 1,000 died and hundreds of thousands were displaced,” analysts for the International Crisis Group, a NY-based thinktank, wrote in a new report. “Tensions are especially high this time around. Competition for land and resources, youth unemployment and reliance on ethnicity are only a few on a long list of serious problems.” Two coalition parties have emerged as strong contenders in the upcoming March 4 poll. They are the Jubilee Alliance and the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy. Social media, which is strong in Kenya, will be limited "in an effort to forestall violence in the March elections", the government announced. Text messages must in KiSwahili and English and be submitted 48 hours before scheduled dispatch. Registration certificates must accompany the text requests.