Urban News Features

After Nov 3, the Hard Work Begins by Barrington M. Salmon

Oct. 20, 2020

After Nov 3, the Hard Work Begins
By Barrington M. Salmon

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Political commentators, pundits and everyday Americans have characterized the 2020 presidential elections as the most consequential of our lifetimes.

For the past four years, critics say, President Donald Trump has attacked, largely eroded and seriously damaged institutions, ignored long-established political norms, and engaged in criminal behavior that led to his being impeached in January. And he has also spent his entire presidency attacking, maligning and smearing African-Americans, Latinos, immigrants, Muslims and non-whites generally, and stoked racist and white nationalist fears which have divided the country.

Of equal concern, these critics say, Trump has overseen and botched the federal response to the COVID-19 global pandemic which has brought the United States to its knees. So far, the pandemic has killed more than 220,000 Americans, sickened 8.14 million more and has been allowed to run unfettered by the Trump administration which is yet to launch a coordinated national response. COVID-19 forced the shutdown of about 80 percent of the country early in the epidemic, triggering an economic meltdown and record unemployment that dwarfs the Great Recession.

Most major political polls show Biden currently winning the election with a significant margin ahead of Trump. A New York Times/Siena College poll this week said Joe Biden leads President Trump, 50 percent to 41 percent. But given his surprise win over Hillary Clinton in 2016, most voters are taking nothing for granted. And others are asking serious questions about what actually will happen after the election regardless of who wins.

“If Joe Biden wins, are we going to take our foot off the gas?” asks political consultant and activist Michele L. Watley. She says this is a pervasive question that she poses to people that she knows and works with.

“If Biden wins, the fight doesn’t end,” said Watley, founder and owner of The Griot Group, a consulting practice that focuses on strategic communications and advocacy for clients and partners. “We can’t be comforted by a Biden-Harris win. We cannot and should not be convinced that the battle will be won with a Biden/Harris win, nor should we become complacent. There is an uprising of racism that confronts us. It’s not in the past, nor is it an anomaly or one-off. We have to hold Harris and Biden accountable and we must do the same for the Senate leader, the House of Representatives and state and local government.”

Watley, a Kansas City, Missouri native and founder of Shirley’s Kitchen Cabinet, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to amplifying the voices and power of Black women through education and advocacy, said she’s been greatly encouraged by the explosion of votes seen in early voting, the record numbers of Black women who’re running and who have won seats in Congress, state and district attorneys’ races and elsewhere.

“Progressives and other candidates have been running very competitive races. Incumbents have a right to be fearful because politics as usual in these unusual times is not gonna fly,” said Watley, former national African-American outreach political director for Senator Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign.

Dr. Monique Gamble, an assistant professor of Political Science at the University of the District of Columbia, said although she has pondered how the presidential election will shake out, with less than two weeks to go, “I still don’t know what 2020 portends,” she said with a sigh.

Gamble said she’s worried about issues including the pervasive voter suppression and manipulation tactics by Trump and the Republican Party and his unabashed embrace of white nationalists and domestic terrorists. She is also deeply concerned about his poisonous rhetoric that clearly emboldened members of two Michigan militias to plot to kidnap, try and execute Michigan Gov. Gretchen Witmer less than a month ago.

“The authorities uncovered a couple of other plots. That’s really bold,” she said. “I don’t know if all the energy, work and effort that Joe Biden and his allies are doing and have done will be enough to win the election. I’m really concerned that there might not be enough to get around the structural challenges such as gerrymandering and the electoral college having the same number of electors in Wisconsin and California, even though California has millions more residents.”

Gamble, a writer, educator and photographer, said members of Congress lack the political will to reform electoral politics.

“Before we even get to the elections, this democracy is deeply flawed,” the Alabama native said. “And there is a question of what Nov 3 looks like if the president wins. He wasn’t constrained before and would be less so especially without the prospect of re-election. There’s no lever that would stop him.”

Gamble said she’s aghast as she watches the callousness of Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans in refusing to help struggling Americans, adding that a Biden-Harris win would return a semblance of progress and movement forward.

With Trump's contemplation of the so-called "herd immunity strategy," Gamble recounts, “They say, ‘we’re willing to chop off the bottom third of society. So be it,”’ she said. “There will be long-term effects and it’s morally and strategically wrong to sacrifice these people and the more than 300,000 who some in the medical community say will die from coronavirus. The best-case scenario is a Biden-Harris win.”

Given these gargantuan challenges, columnist and political scientist Dr. Wilmer Leon, III says he believes it really doesn’t matter who wins in November.

“I don’t think that it’s really going to matter what happens on Nov. 3,” he told Trice Edney Newswire. “I think the virus is at such a point that in the next six months the numbers that we’re seeing over the past two weeks indicate that the s**t’s about to hit the fan. I’ve been talking to three public health physicians who say the projection of deaths could be 410,000 by January. This is the one data point that determines where everything goes.”

Because coronavirus is running rampant, Dr. Leon said, if former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris win in November, whatever measures they implement to fight COVID-19, “won’t be able to have an impact until April or May 2021.”

The new president and his vice president will be contending with about 140 million people who go to bed hungry every night; the presence of long food lines in cities and towns across the country; men and women seeking housing and food assistance, unemployed Americans seeking job support and help for small businesses which are disappearing in the tidal wave of COVID-19, said Dr. Leon, a radio talk show host, author and political analyst.

But he anticipates that a Biden-Harris administration – if Democrats take the US Senate and hold onto the House of Representatives – would push through a relief bill and a stimulus package to help the millions of Americans who’re struggling to buy food and pay rent, the tens of millions who are unemployed and the estimated eight million Americans who have fallen further into poverty because Republicans refuse to agree to a relief fund package.

Dr. Leon agreed with Dr. Gamble, saying that Republicans have employed enough voter suppression and manipulation tactics to steal the election.

“But will they win? No,” he says emphatically. “They can be very effective in determining the outcome unless the turnout is overwhelming. The early turnout numbers have been historically high. The numbers are significantly higher that they anticipated. He (Trump) is sh****ng on himself. They are really starting to see that it’s almost game over unless they have an October surprise.”

It’s Up to Us to Defend the Black Vote By Ben Jealous

Oct. 19, 2020

It’s Up to Us to Defend the Black Vote

By Ben Jealous

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Just weeks before Election Day, with millions of people voting already, the Black vote is being attacked from every angle.After the Supreme Court’s conservatives gutted important parts of the Voting Rights Act a few years ago, many states controlled by right-wing Republicans went wild imposing restrictions on voter registration and voting.This year, they’re completely out of control.Massively funded right-wing extremists are using threats and lawsuits against state and local officials to force purges of lists of eligible voters.

The Trump campaign is trying to enlist an “army” of poll watchers to intimidate voters. With millions more Americans expected to vote by mail, Trump’s man in charge at the postal service has imposed new work rules that caused chaos and disrupted deliveries.And those are just a few of the examples of voter suppression efforts around the country.

The Republican legislature and governor in Florida overrode millions of voters who passed a constitutional amendment to return the right to vote to people with criminal convictions once they completed their sentences; Republicans added a requirement that returning voters pay all related fines and fees before voting. That’s an unconstitutional poll tax, but courts filled with Trump-nominated judges have let Republicans get away with it.

On top of all that, Republicans are trying to force another Trump justice onto the Supreme Court just in time for the court’s conservatives to hear a case in which they could further erode the Voting Rights Act—and undermine Black Americans’ right to be free from racial discrimination in voting. That justice could also be the nail in the coffin for the Affordable Care Act, which has helped millions of Americans get access to health care.

Even more recently, a couple of far-right activists have just been charged with voter intimidation felonies by Michigan’s attorney general after they sent robocalls to voters in Detroit falsely claiming that voting by mail will somehow make people vulnerable to tracking by police and debt collectors.Attacks on the Black vote have a long history. In the early 1980s, the Republican Party was sued for intimidating minority voters and the party agreed to a federal court order not to engage in “ballot security” efforts.

That order expired in 2018, and this year, the Republican Party is spending tens of millions of dollars to block election officials’ efforts to make voting safer and more accessible.It is enraging that 55 years after passage of the Voting Rights Act, the blood-bought gains of the civil rights movement are at stake. But this is where we are. And that’s why we must defend the Black vote, and why we must overcome every attempt to misinform, intimidate, and suppress Black voters.Black men, especially young Black men, are top targets of misinformation campaigns.

That’s why People For the American Way’s Defend the Black Vote Project is reaching out specifically to Black men between 18 and 35 to combat voter suppression and encourage turnout.Since COVID-19 has restricted door-to-door canvassing and public events, we’re communicating with Black men through peer-to-peer texting technology. Texting lets us reach younger voters in their preferred form of communication.In key states, where Black voters are most likely to be targeted with misinformation, we are reaching them one-to-one with information about how, when, and where to vote—including information about new voting procedures during the pandemic.

A well-trained volunteer can text up to 2,000 messages an hour, reaching many more people than by going door-to-door. We’re supplementing that with digital advertising, public service announcements on radio, and tele-townhall meetings featuring young Black elected officials.Every dollar we spend, and every voter we reach, is worth it because there is so much at stake in November’s elections: access to health care, a responsible approach to the pandemic, justice and accountability in policing, and voting rights.

Defending the Black vote means defending the dignity and legal equality of Black people. It’s up to us.Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way and People For the American Way Foundation. Jealous has decades of experience as a leader, coalition builder, campaigner for social justice and seasoned nonprofit executive. In 2008, he was chosen as the youngest-ever president and CEO of the NAACP. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and he has taught at Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania.

Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way and People For the American Way Foundation. Jealous has decades of experience as a leader, coalition builder, campaigner for social justice and seasoned nonprofit executive. In 2008, he was chosen as the youngest-ever president and CEO of the NAACP. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and he has taught at Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania.

New Poll Shows Black Women Are Fired Up For Change & Ready To Cast Their Vote By Glynda C. Carr

Oct. 13, 2020

New Poll Shows Black Women Are Fired Up For Change and Ready To Cast Their Vote

By Glynda C. Carr

NEWS ANALYSIS

File Photo

Glynda C. Carr

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - With November 3rd less than a month a way, Black women voters hold a huge stake in this year’s election. With the first Black woman vying for the vice-presidency, a recent poll of 506 likely 2020 Black women voters conducted from September 30-October 4, 2020 by Higher Heights and Change Research, showed that 75 percent of Black women are now more motivated than ever to vote. But the remaining 25 percent of Black women polled are feeling hopeless that their ballot won’t bring the change they want to see.

In the poll, the top priorities and anxieties about the upcoming election for Black women included: the desire for a stronger response to the coronavirus and the need for racial justice. In addition, the Black women polled noted that when it came to the demographic who could bring about the change the United States needed with voter turnout, an overwhelming 64 percent, of course, chose Black women.

Over the last two presidential elections, Black women have continued to show up and show out. Whether it was voting for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, Black women have been at the forefront of trying to protect the United States from eating itself alive. But over the last 4 years, the Black community has dealt with everything from the coronavirus to the state sanctioned killings of Black people at the hands of law enforcement, as well as voter disenfranchisement.

For example, in Harris County, Texas, home to 2.4 million voters, Gov. Greg Abbott allowed the closing of ballot drop off sites, which has now resulted in several lawsuits. This is one of several examples of how voter suppression is in full force this election. But these tactics, along with long lines, changes to voting and the present pandemic won’t keep Black women from the polls. When asked in the survey, ‘what is one word or phrase that best describes your motivation for voting this year?’ participants responded with the need for change and racial justice.

As COVID continues to disproportionately affect Black and Brown communities, this election’s turnout is tantamount in putting someone in office who is capable of instituting laws that will protect the Black community’s health, as well as providing assistance to those who have been displaced from their homes or have faced unemployment. 48 percent of the respondents stated that the coronavirus was a top issue for them personally. But when it comes to what keeps them up at night, weeks before the election, racism was the most common response.

After a summer of protests and Black deaths at the hands of law enforcement, the poll results show that Black women voters are concerned about being safe in their Black skin, and if they would end up like Breonna Taylor. Others were also concerned about their Black children being safe once they leave their homes on a daily basis. Only 34 percent of respondents said they felt more hopeful of the progress that has been made in light of the recent protests, whereas 38% said they didn’t feel any different from before the protests, and 28 percent stated they felt less hopefully. Across the country, we saw millions of people hitting the streets in protest and allies standing in solidarity to the systemic racism that has engulfed this country for centuries. Black women know that the only way to rid the country of its vile history is by voting, and not only on a national level, but also on local levels. Black women know that we possess a political power like no other, and the poll results are reflective on that, particularly when 50 percent of the women polled said they felt motivated by the upcoming election.

Across the country, many people have already voted using mail-in ballots. But on November 3rd, others will head to their local polling location and cast their vote. And although the weight of the world seems as though it’s on the shoulders of Black women, this election is literally a vote or die situation. And once again, Black women will rise to the occasion to save their country.

Glynda C. Carr is the President and CEO of Higher Heights for America the only national organization providing Black women with a political home exclusively dedicated to harnessing their power to expand Black women’s elected representation and voting participation, and advance progressive policies.

Why African – Americans Should Vote Early, In-person and In Droves Before Election Day By Michael A. Grant, J.D.

Oct. 19, 2020

Why African – Americans Should Vote Early, In-person and In Droves Before Election Day

Democracy itself is on the ballot

By Michael A. Grant, J.D.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The other day I had a conversation with Bishop Michael Mitchell, president of the Council of Bishops of the AME Church. I was so inspired to hear that his denomination had set a lofty, but achievable goal for itself. The AME’s intend to have 75 percent of their members to cast their votes before November 3^rd (election day).

Shortly after our conversation, I thought why shouldn’t all of our denominations and other organizations follow suit. I do believe that voting early and in person would be impactful. We should follow all of the CDC’s guidelines to protect ourselves from the Coronavirus but voting early and person will not only have a powerful impact on the outcome of this election it will also determine whether or not the process will be deemed legitimate. For me, personally, the election is a time to re-examine priorities, a chance to ponder the larger questions about American democracy and why it is of paramount importance that we protect it in this country. In other words, a passionate patriotism has taken center stage in my thinking.

You see, since my youth, I have wanted to follow the incredible example of those civil rights warriors who put everything on the line to advance Black people’s progress toward first class citizenship in a country that we fought for, died for and struggled to enrich. Even with all the injustices that we have encountered as a people, we have known all along that our fate is inextricably intertwined with America’s fate.

We excoriated Thomas Jefferson for his duplicity in writing that “All men were created equal” while he, himself, held human beings in bondage. But if we had widened the lens of our understanding and placed Jefferson’s words a broader historical context, we would have really seen that what he and the other founding fathers did – advertently or inadvertently – was to create a standard for governance. They spoke into existence the words of the founding documents: the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. These documents continue to served as a framework and a foundation for the creation of a more perfect union.

In other words, like the awe-inspiring evolutionary process put in place by the Architect of Creation, our founding fathers catalyzed what is today still a work in progress.

Our national motto: E pluribus unum (out of many, one) may well have found its origins in the teachings of Jesus Christ of Nazareth who said: “That all may be one.” OUR ROOTS HAVE GROWN DEEPER IN AMERICAN SOIL!

Other than the Native American, no other group suffered as sacrificial lambs on the altar of America’s economic success as did Americans of African descent. And yet , as recent incidents of police brutality so vividly remind us, we are still not “A more perfect Union.” However, to claim that African-Americans should not be filled with patriotism is to ignore the progress – though hard won – that we have experienced on these North American shores.

If you would do a quick study of the public record , it would soon be apparent why African-Americans continue to give so much to make this “A more perfect Union.” From Crispus Attucks' role in the revolutionary war, to the slaves‘ enlistment in the Union army during the Civil War, to the ferocious fighting of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, down to the game-changing impact of Black Lives Matter, we have seen the need to believe in the possibility of “A more perfect union”.

Also, there are well – documented instances where our faith in America’s founding creed have produced real, tangible results. The following list is not meant to be exhaustive but to merely reinforce the idea that “This is worth fighting for.”

The signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln to free the slaves.
The U.S. Supreme Court evolved from 1893 Plessy vs Ferguson (separate but equal accommodations) to the 1954 Brown vs the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision that ruled that separate was inherently unequal.
A Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s led by the great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. climaxed with the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act 0f 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
Forty years later, America elected an African–American to the highest office in the land. Yes, this social experiment, e pluribus unum, is worth fighting for.

So during the next three weeks, I will temporarily shift my perennial, parochial passion for advancing Black people in America to an absolute devotion to helping serve this great American democracy. For with all its imperfections, America is still the greatest hope on the planet for perfecting e pluribus unun.

So, if you have read this column, please contact everyone you know, regardless of race, creed, color or place of national origin (if they are now U.S. Citizens) and implore them to vote in person before election day.

It is not hyperbole to say that what is happening in our country is an existential threat to American democracy. This is still “A government of the people, by the people and for the people” and with God’s help, it “Shall not perish from this Earth!

Michael Grant is former president of the National Bankers Association and former president of the Nashville Chapter of the NAACP

Gold-Star Family; Other White House Guests May Have Been Put in Harm's Way by Trump's Coronavirus By Hazel Trice Edney

Oct. 6, 2020

UPDATED Oct. 13

Gold-Star Family; Other White House Guests May Have Been Put in Harm's Way by Trump's Coronavirus
Arrogance, irresponsibility blamed for White House coronavirus infection of at least 15 people so far
By Hazel Trice Edney

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The Gold Star Family of United States Marine Capt. Jesse Melton III - all unmasked - poses for a photo with President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump during a reception in honor of Gold Star Families Sunday, Sept. 27, 2020, in the Blue Room of the White House. Both the President and first lady tested positive for the coronavirus only a few days later. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)

A White House Social Aide, unmasked, lights a candle in remembrance of Gold Star Family members during a reception in honor of Gold Star Families Sunday, Sept. 27, in the East Room of the White House. President Trump and First Lady Melania, also present and unmasked, later tested positive for the coronavirus. (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour)

President Donald J. Trump, unmasked alongside a child, signs a flag patch for the Gold Star Family of United States Army Pfc. Tony J. Potter Jr. during a reception in honor of Gold Star Families Sunday, Sept. 27, 2020, in the Blue Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)

President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump pose for a photo with Judge Amy Coney Barrett and her family members, all unmasked, after being announced as the President’s nominee for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020, in the Rose Garden of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

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Vice President Mike Pence meets with members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, all unmasked, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020, in the White House Situation Room. So far, no one in this photo has tested positive for coronavirus. (Official White House Photo by Delano Scott)

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - President Donald Trump has returned to the White House after being hospitalized at the Walter Reed Medical Center for Covid-19 infection. His main physican, Dr. Sean Conley, this week issued a statement saying that he is no longer contagious, but has failed to say that the president has tested negative for the virus.

The President, long criticized for rarely adhering to and even mocking CDC guidelines for mask-wearing for protection, has since continued to downplay the pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 people across the U. S. ‘It is disappearing,’ Trump said of the deadly coronavirus, addressing supporters from a White House balcony Oct. 10 even as the world reported more than a million new cases in three days.

Much focus has been placed on the Sept. 28 Rose Garden gathering where Trump announced Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court pick to succeed the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A string of people who attended that event - where nearly everyone was unmasked - have been diagnosed with the coronavirus.

However, another event the very next day, which hosted more than a hundred people inside the White House East Room, might also have spread the virus from the Trumps to unsuspecting guests at the White House. A Black family, including the Gold Star mother of decorated Marine Capt. Jesse Melton, was in attendance alongside the unmasked Trump and First Lady Melania.

The mother, Janice Chance, chaplain and president-emerita of the Gold Star Mothers of Maryland, who attended the ceremony with other family members, declined comment in response to an emailed interview request from the Trice Edney News Wire. It is not clear whether they nor any of the families at that ceremony were notified about Trump’s positive Corona test; nor whether anyone in attendance at the gold star ceremony were tested.

Since those gatherings, more than a dozen people who either attended the Rose Garden event for the Supreme Court nominee or have direct connections to Trump or the White House have tested positive for the virus. They include President Trump; First Lady Melania Trump; presidential aide Hope Hicks; senior presidential advisor Stephen Miller; White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany; presidential assistant Nicholas Luna; U. S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah); U. S. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.); U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.); former counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway; White House principal assistant press secretary Chad Gilmartin; assistant press secretary Karoline Leavitt; Trump Campaign Manager Bill Stepien; Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel; and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

As Trump left the hospital in the evening of Oct. 5 after a two-day stay, he sought to downplay the infection from the virus which has killed 209,560 (CDC) people in the U. S. - disproportionately Black. Standing on the White House balcony, Trump appeared to ceremoniously peel off his mask and stuff it in his pocket. Despite his doctors saying he is “not out of the woods yet”, he later tweeted a video saying, “Don’t be afraid of COVID.”

Meanwhile, his re-election opponent former Vice President Joe Biden continued to test negative for COVID-19. In a speech late Tuesday, he appeared to appeal to America to get back to sanity.

Reciting the opening words of President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Biden said, "He taught us this: A house divided could not stand. That is a great and timeless truth. Today, once again, we're at a house divided. But that, my friends, can no longer be. We are facing too many crises, we have too much work to do, we have too bright a future to have it shipwrecked on the shores of anger and hate and division."

Others were much stronger in their sentiments. In a video, also released Tuesday, former First Lady Michelle Obama referred to Trump’s "willful mismanagement of the COVID crisis.”

She accused him of "gaslighting the American people" and downplaying CDC guidelines for mask wearing and social distancing, "knowingly exposing his own supporters" to the deadly virus.

"Let's be honest: Right now, our country is in chaos because of a president who isn't up to the job," Michelle Obama said in the approximately 20-minute video. "And if we want to regain any kind of stability, we've got to ensure that every eligible voter is informed and engaged in this election."