Nation Adds Jobs Elsewhere, but Blacks are Left Standing in the Unemployment Line By Frederick H. Lowe

March 19, 2017

Nation Adds Jobs Elsewhere, but Blacks are Left Standing in the Unemployment Line

By Frederick H. Lowe

blackmanjobless
The jobless rate in the Black community went up in February.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The nation’s businesses added 235,000 jobs in February but the companies obviously didn’t hire in the Black community where the unemployment rate went up compared to other racial and ethnic groups where it went down.

The Black jobless rate in February was 8.1 percent compared to 7.7 percent in January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported.

The high unemployment rate among African-Americans, compared to 4.1 percent in February among Whites, was down from 4.3 percent in January. Among Hispanics, the jobless rate was 5.6 percent in February, down from 5.9 percent in January.

The jobless rate among Asians in February was 3.4 percent, down from 3.7 percent in January, BLS reported.

Black men 20 years old and older continue to suffer the highest unemployment rate. In February, it was 7.8 percent, up from 7.3 percent in January.

This compares to a February unemployment rate for White men of 3.8 percent, down from 4.0 percent in January. The February jobless rate among Hispanic men 20 years old and older was 4.6 percent, down from 4.8 percent in January.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not provide equivalent statistics for Asian men 20 and older.

Black women 20 years old and older also saw an increase in their jobless rate. In February, their unemployment rate was 7.1 percent, up from 6.7 percent in January.

In comparison, February’s unemployment rate for white women 20 years old and older was 3.7 percent, down from 3.9 percent in January. Hispanics saw big drop in their unemployment in February. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the jobless rate for Hispanic women in February was 5.6 percent, down from 6.3 percent in January.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not provide equivalent statistics for Asian women 20 and older.

The nation’s overall unemployment rate was 4.7 percent in February.

The Ammunition We Need Now More Than Ever - Black Newspapers by Oscar H. Blayton

March 14, 2017

Editor's Note: Editors and Publishers: The following is the first in a series of three articles discussing the modern day role of the Black Press in celebration of the 190th anniversary of the founding of Freedom's Journal, the first Black newspaper March 16, 1827.

The Ammunition We Need Now More Than Ever - Black Newspapers
By Oscar H. Blayton

Special Commentary

Rev. Samuel Cornish and John B. Russwurm, founders of Freedom's Journal, March 16, 1827

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In 1960, Blacks in Virginia watched as the state changed the laws against trespass to make it a more serious crime, and the penalty was raised from a $100.00 fine to $1,000.00. This action was taken by the then all-White legislature in an attempt to combat the Civil Rights Movement and more severely punish the activists that were engaging in the sit-ins that were taking place in Richmond – the former capital of the Confederacy – and across the nation.

During that time, we read the unhinged rantings of segregationists, such as James J. Kilpatrick, who wrote lies, to stoke fear and hatred in the hearts of whites against their Black neighbors by exaggerating the civil disruption caused by demonstrators.

During the Civil Rights Movement, Virginia was not the only state where fierce battles for equal justice were fought – battles where so many people suffered, and many lost their lives. But much of the truth of this struggle was hidden by the dominant news sources of the day; and battles had to be fought to even bring the truth to light.

That was a time when the only reliable news about the Civil Rights Movement could be found in Black newspapers. Even the storied New York Times and the Washington Post wrote about the Civil Rights Movement from the perspective of spectators, a safe distance from the fray. Having nothing to lose, the journalists at these newspapers, in an attempt at “objectivity,” often gave too much credence to the misrepresentations of their Southern counterparts.

Today, reading the current reporting and editorials of the large, White-dominated, corporate newspapers, I have a sense of déjà vu. But now it is not just the newspapers of the Southern segregationists that are spewing lies. The “alt right” haters have gained a prominent voice in the national discourse, and they are on their way toward gaining even greater influence, with Steve Bannon entrenched in the White House.

So now, as much as ever, the voices of the Black newspapers are needed to combat the evil we face.

We are witnessing the normalizing of the Donald Trump presidency, as the language of appeasement creeps, ever so slightly onto the front pages of the dominant newspapers. Sports writers are chiding Black athletes for refusing to go to the White House and provide Trump with a photo-op, so that he can pretend not to be a bigot. Journalists writing for many major outlets are reporting the terrorizing of undocumented aliens as “routine” law enforcement activity. And stories about the law suits against Trump and the allegations of sexual assault, including rape, are evaporating from the pages of the corporate press like small puddles in a drought.

Too few Americans are alarmed by these recent developments because they are not in the crosshairs of the bigotry that drives the current administration. There will be precious few allies to combat this plague of bigotry alongside people of color, progressive women, immigrants, the LGBTQ community and undocumented aliens.

But the one resource we have is the battle tested Black Press, founded March 16, 1827. Black newspapers have always been the sword and shield against injustices aimed at people of color. This tradition goes back to Fredrick Douglas and beyond, including the first Black newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, founded 190 years ago by John B. Russwurm and Rev. Samuel Cornish.

The ammunition that we will need most in the struggles to come will be the accurate reporting of the truth; and it is beginning to look like the major corporate news media is prepared to compromise on that. So, we must continue to battle to bring accurate facts to light. And we will be opposed by those powerful people who want to hide the truth in the shadows by controlling the outlets that feed lies to the public in order to keep us passive, and apathetic.

Maintaining Black newspapers as a loud and honest voice that will fight for the rights of people of color is our best and brightest hope in these terrible times to come.

Oscar H. Blayton is a former Marine Corps combat pilot and human rights activists who practices law in Virginia.

Hate Groups Increase for Second Consecutive Year as Trump Electrifies Radical Right

March 12, 2017

Hate Groups Increase for Second Consecutive Year as Trump Electrifies Radical Right

Muslims hit hardest with hate attacks as fear heightened among African-Americans, others

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Southern Poverty Law Center

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The number of hate groups in the United States rose for a second year in a row in 2016 as the radical right was energized by the candidacy of Donald Trump, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) annual census of hate groups and other extremist organizations.

The most dramatic growth was the near-tripling of anti-Muslim hate groups – from 34 in 2015 to 101 last year. However fear has grown among many racial and ethnic minority groups. In a post-election SPLC survey of 10,000 educators, 90 percent said the climate at their schools had been negatively affected by the campaign. Eighty percent described heightened anxiety and fear among students, particularly immigrants, Muslims and African-Americans. Numerous teachers reported the use of slurs, derogatory language and extremist symbols in their classrooms.

The growth has been accompanied by a rash of crimes targeting Muslims, including an arson that destroyed a mosque in Victoria, Texas, just hours after the Trump administration announced an executive order suspending travel from some predominantly Muslim countries. The latest FBI statistics show that hate crimes against Muslims grew by 67 percent in 2015, the year in which Trump launched his campaign.

The report, contained in the Spring 2017 issue of the SPLC’s Intelligence Report, includes the Hate Map showing the names, types and locations of hate groups across the country.

The SPLC found that the number of hate groups operating in 2016 rose to 917 – up from 892 in 2015. The number is 101 shy of the all-time record set in 2011, but high by historic standards.

“2016 was an unprecedented year for hate,” said Mark Potok, senior fellow and editor of the Intelligence Report. “The country saw a resurgence of white nationalism that imperils the racial progress we’ve made, along with the rise of a president whose policies reflect the values of white nationalists. In Steve Bannon, these extremists think they finally have an ally who has the president's ear.”

The increase in anti-Muslim hate was fueled by Trump’s incendiary rhetoric, including his campaign pledge to bar Muslims from entering the United States, as well as anger over terrorist attacks such as the June massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando.

The overall number of hate groups likely understates the real level of organized hatred in America as a growing number of extremists operate mainly online and are not formally affiliated with hate groups.

Aside from its annual census of extremist groups, the SPLC found that Trump’s rhetoric reverberated across the nation in other ways. In the first 10 days after his election, the SPLC documented 867 bias-related incidents, including more than 300 that targeted immigrants or Muslims.

In contrast to the growth of hate groups, antigovernment “Patriot” groups saw a 38 percent decline – plummeting from 998 groups in 2015 to 623 last year. Composed of armed militiamen and others who see the federal government as their enemy, the “Patriot” movement over the past few decades has flourished under Democratic administrations but declined dramatically when President George W. Bush occupied the White House.

The SPLC also released an in-depth profile of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an anti-LGBT hate group. Leaders of the legal advocacy organization and its affiliated lawyers have regularly demonized LGBT people, falsely linking them to pedophilia, calling them “evil” and a threat to children and society, and blaming them for the “persecution of devout Christians.” The group also has supported the criminalization of homosexuality in several countries.

Trump Administration's Health Care Lies are Starting to Hurt By Jesse Jackson

March 12, 2017

Trump Administration's Health Care Lies are Starting to Hurt
By Jesse Jackson

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - For many of his supporters, Donald Trump’s casual relationship with the truth was at first amusing, part of his brash, anti-establishment appeal. He says what he thinks, went the argument, and if it isn’t true, so be it. His voters, we were told, have learned to take him seriously but not literally.

Now, however, the lies are beginning to hurt. The president’s use of what White House adviser Kellyanne Conway calls “alternative facts” — aka falsehoods — has been mimicked across his administration and by Republicans in Congress. Now House Speaker Paul Ryan, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price have joined the president and others in a fusillade of lies to sell the Republican replacement for the Affordable Care Act.

The president promised that the Republican plan would cover “everybody,” that it would offer better and cheaper care than that available under the ACA. Price pledged that “nobody will be worse off financially” under the Republican act. Mulvaney promised that “Medicaid is still there,” and the bill “actually helps a great many people.” Vice President Mike Pence told a crowd in Louisville that the ACA was a “nightmare” that had “failed the people of Kentucky,” a state in which the percentage of people without insurance was cut in more than half by the law. House Speaker Paul Ryan’s lies are too numerous to detail.

The facts are inescapable. The Republican bill offers people less help to purchase health insurance, particularly older workers. Millions will lose coverage or pay more for less. The expansion of Medicaid to lower-wage workers covered 10 million people under the ACA. The Republican bill savages Medicaid — after two years so voters might not notice in 2018 — and millions of the working poor will lose coverage. It does this not to reduce complexity, or regulation, or administrative nightmares, but to pay for a repeal of the taxes on the rich built into the ACA. Congressional analyses show, as The New York Times’ Jesse Drucker reports, Trumpcare’s two biggest tax cuts will lard $144 billion into the pockets of those with incomes over $1 million or more over the next decade. To pay for that, the working poor and older workers take the hit.

And that isn’t all. Rural areas will be hit hard from the cuts in Medicaid and decline of subsidies for poorer workers. Older blue-collar workers who don’t get insurance from their employers will be hurt the most. States will suffer a devastating budget cut that will force cuts in education, in roads, bridges and other services. Jobs cuts will follow in large numbers.

These are not facts that the administration likes, so it lies and then attacks the messengers. This weekend, administration spokespeople fanned out to discredit the Congressional Budget Office’s official assessment before it was released. House Speaker Ryan forced passage of the act through two committees before CBO could complete its assessment so the anticipated bad news would not influence legislators. OMB Director Mulvaney — who knows better — dismissed the CBO estimate as not “the best use of their time.” If CBO isn’t going to deliver good news, it shouldn’t say anything at all.

The president’s bizarre denial of reality — about the election results, about the size of his inaugural crowd, about getting wiretapped — initially were treated as the amusing signature of an entertainer. But now the lies hurt. If the Republican health care bill becomes law, millions will end up worse off. Will a handful of Republican senators have more respect for the truth than the White House? That may be the only thing that will keep Republicans from depriving millions of health insurance and costing jobs, while ladling tax breaks to the very wealthy.

We Played Donald Trump Cheap; Now the Joke’s On Us By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon, III

March 13, 2017

We Played Donald Trump Cheap; Now the Joke’s On Us
By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon, III

NEWS ANALYSIS

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “In several Southern states men long regarded as political clowns had become governors or only narrowly missed election, their magic achieved with a ‘witches’ brew of bigotry, prejudice, half-truths and whole lies.” - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1967

On Friday, January 20, America inaugurated a narcissistic misogynist millionaire who marketed to what Dr. King called the “White backlash” by playing to racist sentiments, bigotry and hatred. Just as he stole the line “Make America Great Again” from Reagan’s campaign, Trump also stole the racist page from Reagan’s play book.

As Reagan, then Governor of California, sought to reassure social conservatives (aka racists) by launching his presidential bid in Philadelphia, Mississippi, Trump has fanned the flames of xenophobia and ill-founded fears of terrorism.

His tweets and illogical rants were and continue to be a “witches’” brew of bigotry, ignorance, prejudice, half-truths and whole lies. We played him cheap and now the jokes on us.

Early on in the 2016 presidential campaign businessman Donald Trump was the media darling. CBS Chairman Les Moonves said at a Morgan Stanley conference, "It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS…It's a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going.”

America could not get enough of Trump’s bombast, buffoonery and total disregard for truth and fact. Mainstream media was so entertained by the novelty of Trump that it ignored his inability to articulate substantive policy and lack of experience. According to a report from Harvard’s Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media Politics and Public Policy, “Only 11 percent of coverage focused on candidates’ policy positions, leadership abilities or personal and professional histories.”

It’s imperative that we clearly understand that this White backlash as Dr. King called it, or politics of resentment as Dr. Ronald Walters called it, is not new. What is the backlash in response to? What is this resentment directed toward?

The answer to the question is the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American President of the United States. As Dr. Walters wrote in White Nationalism Black Interests – Conservative Public Policy and the Black Community, “Within American society, which includes contending social groups, there exists a balance of power that conforms to that society’s racial composition”. This balance must conform to the normal distribution of power if society is to remain in equilibrium. President Obama, in the minds of a many people became an indicator that the normal distribution of power was askew and in jeopardy.

Now this normal distribution of power has shifted so far to the right that it has placed America in jeopardy. President Trump recently tweeted, “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”

To date Trump has provided no evidence to substantiate this outlandish claim. But the man who ran on eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse” is now asking Congress to open an investigation.

The investigation should begin with Congress asking Trump to present to the public the information he used to make his claim. If not, how much tax payer money will be wasted researching another unsubstantiated claim by Trump?

The larger problem is it’s not just Trump, it’s also those around him. Here’s what Trump’s HUD Secretary, Dr. Ben Carson, said about enslaved Africans: “That’s what America is about, a land of dreams and opportunity…There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less.” Carson tried to “clarify” his statement by saying that anybody who’s come from a foreign place is an immigrant. Ignoring the fact that Webster defines “immigrant” as “a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence”. A person “comes” to a country based upon their free will. Enslaved Africans did not come to America to take up permanent residence in pursuit of opportunity; they were brought to America against their will and worked to death.

Trump’s Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos recently praised HBCUs as “pioneers” of the school choice movement. DeVos ignores the historical reality that in Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana and other states it was illegal to teach and/or allow Africans in America - slave or free - to read. In Virginia, any slave or free person of color found at any school for teaching, reading or writing by day or night could be whipped, at the discretion of a judge, "no more than twenty lashes". Mississippi state law required a White person to serve up to a year in prison as "penalty for teaching a slave to read". The creation of HBCUs had nothing to do with choice and everything to do with the response to slave codes, Jim Crow laws and state sanctioned segregation.

During his first address to the joint session of Congress, Trump acknowledged the sacrifice of Navy Special Operator Senior Chief William ‘Ryan’ Owens, but failed to take responsibility for authorizing the raid in Yemen where he died. In fact, he tried to blame the Obama administration for authorizing the raid and leaving it for him to clean up. According to the Washington Post, In an interview with Fox News that aired Tuesday morning, Trump said the mission “was started before I got here.” He went on to say, “This was something that was, you know, just — they wanted to do… ‘And they lost Ryan,’ Trump continued.”

According to PBS, President Obama did not authorize the raid. It was suggested in early January that the decision be “deferred to the Trump administration, so they could run their own careful process. And President Obama agreed on that, that he would make no decision whether to do things like this, and instead that Trump should run his own process.”

Donald Trump is a man long regarded as a political clown. We mocked him, scoffed at him and dismissed him as we dismissed Sarah Palin; the lightest of lightweights. He worked his magic (and Republican thievery) and was elected by employing a “witches’” brew of bigotry, prejudice, half-truths and whole lies. A tactic he continues to employ.

You get what you vote for in America (or don’t show up to vote for). We played him cheap; now the jokes on us.

, Producer/ Host of the nationally broadcast call-in talk radio program “Inside the Issues with Wilmer Leon,” on SiriusXM Satellite radio channel 126. Go to www.wilmerleon.com or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. www.twitter.com/drwleon and Dr. Leon’s Prescription at Facebook.com