Urban News Features

Political Involvement is Necessary, Not Sufficient By Julianne Malveaux

Feb. 27, 2017

Political Involvement is Necessary, Not Sufficient
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The unfortunate election of Donald J. Trump to the Presidency of the United States speaks volumes about the limits of African American involvement in the political system. Don’t get me wrong. I was born and will live and die a political junkie, obsessed with the minutiae of politics. Actually, I’m a recovering politician; having run for office, got my butt beat, and flirted with the possibility of doing it again for years. Politics is about making the rules of distribution, of deciding how laws determine who gets what, when, where and why. Politics importantly ensures that those who make the rules are favorably disposed toward justice and fairness. Politics allows resistance when those elected don’t follow the lead of their constituents.

Economics and politics are closely aligned. Economics also determines who gets what, when, where and why. So-called free markets determine the flows of economic distribution, but politics often regulates the way that these so-called free markets work. I say that these markets are “so-called” free because we know that politicians distort markets to their liking. During a recession, for example, politicians agree that bankers need a tight rein on them that they can’t simply exploit for the purpose of earning predatory profits. After a recession, some politicians might loosen the rein on bankers and decide to let predatory markets flow free.

African Americans have righteously focused on politics and the political system, especially during the early days of the civil rights movement, when the fight for the right to vote was a priority. People like Fannie Lou Hamer were beaten within inches of their lives because they were determined to vote. Medgar Evers was killed because he was organizing voters. We had a focus on laws. Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “The law will not make you love me, but it will keep you from lynching me.” And so we focus on the laws and on politics.

The Trump election reminds us of the limitations of politics, and the need to focus on the economic aspects of our lives. Political involvement is necessary, but not sufficient for Black progress. Every single economic indicator shows African American people lagging. Not much has changed since Dr. King said, in 1967, “Of the good things in life, the Negro has approximately one half those of whites. Of the bad things of life, he has twice those of whites. Thus, half of all Negroes live in substandard housing. And Negroes have half the income of whites. When we view the negative experiences of life, the Negro has a double share. There are twice as many unemployed. The rate of infant mortality among Negroes is double that of whites and there are twice as many Negroes dying in Vietnam as whites in proportion to their size in the population.” The numbers have changed some, but the bottom line is that African Americans are not full equal participants in our economy.

How do we fix that? How do African Americans flex our full economic muscles? How do we reward those corporations that support equality, and punish, through selective buying and boycotts, those who oppose freedom and equal opportunity? How do we stomp with the big dogs like the Koch brothers who buy politicians with the same ease that some of us buy potato chips? Do we even stand a chance?

I think that we have to spend as much time and place as much emphasis on economics as on politics. I think we have to be clear that poverty is a profit opportunity for some corporations. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has already reversed the Obama executive order that would stop the use of private prisons for federal incarceration. But these private prisons are machines of predatory capitalism, and now that Sessions has approved their use, their stocks are soaring. So we have to ask ourselves if our pension funds, mutual funds, or other financial instruments invest in corporations like Corecivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America, $CXW) and the Geo Group ($GEO). Can we push our investors to withdraw investment from these funds? Or will we be willing, in the name of predatory capitalism, to profit from this chicanery?

Similarly, from Ava DuVernay’s film 13^th, we are reminded of the others who profit from the prison industrial complex, including those who provide meals (Aramark is one of those companies) and phone calls. How much discomfort do they impose on our incarcerated brothers and sisters to make a profit?

Politicians make rules, but money talks when the nonsense walks. We need to spend as much time focusing on economics as on politics. We need to follow the money when we see oppression. And we need to be clear that the clearest path to Black liberation is that path that focuses on economics.

Claims of 'Fake News' Are an Insult to an Institution that Has Risked Lives to Advance Liberty By Marc H. Morial

Feb. 26, 2017

To Be Equal

Claims of 'Fake News' Are an Insult to an Institution that Has Risked Lives to Advance Liberty

By Marc H. Morial

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - "The brutality with which officials would have quelled the black individual became impotent when it could not be pursued with stealth and remain unobserved. It was caught—as a fugitive from a penitentiary is often caught—in gigantic circling spotlights. It was imprisoned in a luminous glare revealing the naked truth to the whole world." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In 1955, Jet Magazine and the Chicago Defender published photographs of Emmett Till’s mutilated corpse, igniting international interest in the American Civil Rights Movement. Defender reporter Mattie Colin, who covered the return of the teenager’s body to Chicago, captured his mother’s anguish in her poignant articles:

"Oh, God, Oh God, my only boy," Mrs. Mamie (Till) Bradley wailed as five men lifted a soiled paper-wrapped bundle from a brown, wooden mid-Victorian box at the Illinois Central Station in Chicago Friday and put it into a waiting hearse. The bundle was the bruised and bullet-ridden body of little 14-year-old Emmett L. Till of Chicago, who had been lynched down in Money, Mississippi.

For many in the north, the brutality of the Jim Crow-era south was an abstract and distant concept. Reporters like Mamie Colin made it horrifyingly real. And no one dared demean it by calling it “fake news.”

Friction between the White House and the journalists tasked with holding officials to account is part of a healthy democracy. But recent concerted efforts to delegitimize the news media are destructive and demoralizing. Among the low points of the recent presidential campaign were the vicious attacks on individual reporters which were a regular part of some rallies. White House press conferences, which should be a source of lively give-and-take, have devolved into ad hominem attacks.

"The civil rights movement would have been like a bird without wings if it hadn't been for the news media," Rep. John Lewis has said.

Newspapers and the newly-popular medium of television brought into American homes disturbing scenes of activists in Birmingham and Selma being attacked by with dogs and fire hoses, beaten and tear-gassed by state troopers and sheriff's deputies. A photograph of Selma activist Amelia Boynton, beaten unconscious, ran on the front page of newspapers and news magazines around the world.

Among the martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement is Paul Guihard, a reporter for a French news service, who was shot to death in 1962 during protests over the admission of James Meredith to the University of Mississippi. Newspaper offices were the targets of shootings and bombing attempts.

The men and women of the Fourth Estate continue to risk their lives in the performance of their duties. In the last quarter century, at least seven journalists have been killed in the line of duty in the United States, four of them murdered. One of the first important American journalists to face death threats for her reporting was Ida Wells, a trailblazing African-American woman who documented the savage practice of lynching in the 1890s.

The work of America’s journalists has resulted in some of our nation’s most important reforms. Upton Sinclair’s expose of unsanitary practices in meatpacking led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and Federal Meat Inspection Act. Seymore Hersh exposed the My Lai massacre and the Army’s subsequent coverup. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s Watergate reporting led to the indictments of 40 Nixon Administration officials and the eventual resignation of President Nixon. The Washington Post’s publication of Florence Graves’ investigation into sexual misconduct on Capitol Hill led to the passage of the Congressional Accountability Act.

Even the staunchest defenders of freedom of the press were not always happy with its results. As a delegate to the Continental Congress, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” As President, Jefferson blasted the press. But he never changed his position: “It is, however, an evil for which there is no remedy; our liberty depends on the freedom of the press and that cannot be limited without being lost.”

“Moonlight” Wins Academy Award for Best Picture

Feb. 27, 2017

'Moonlight' Wins Academy Award for Best Picture

Viola Davis

Mahershala Ali

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The sun shined on “Moonlight,” which won the Oscar for Best Picture during Sunday’s night’s 89th Academy Awards. Actress Faye Dunaway, who presented the award for best picture, announced that “La La Land” had won before realizing she made a mistake.

She then announced that “Moonlight” had won the Oscar for best picture. The cast of “Moonlight” ran to the stage, hugging each other as they celebrated their surprising win. Blacks took home a record five Academy Awards. Winners included Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney for best adapted screenplay for “Moonlight,” a film about the coming of age story of a boy growing to manhood under brutal circumstances in Miami. Mahershala Ali won an Oscar for best supporting actor for “Moonlight.”

Viola Davis won the Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in “Fences.” Davis is the first Black woman actress to win an Oscar, Emmy and Tony award. Mahershala Ali is the first Muslim to win an Oscar. Ezra Edelman’s film “O.J.: Made in America,” won the Oscar for the best documentary.

It's Time for a Review By Dr. E. Faye Williams

Feb. 27, 2017

It's Time for a Review
By Dr. E. Faye Williams

(TriceEdneyWireService.com) – One of my most important teaching activities was time spent in review with my classes. My classroom experiences taught me that in every unit of instruction there were elements of the subject matter that would not be understood, would be misunderstood, would not be prioritized/ordered appropriately or forgotten. The classroom review was an effective tool for test preparation and a determination of subject matter retention.

As a manager of personnel, I found formal, interim and informal personnel performance reviews to be effective tools in documenting and improving the quality of performance of our employees. These reviews gave them an accurate understanding of expectations of their jobs and gave us both a way to measure how well they met those expectations.

I believe it is essential to review and evaluate the performance and motives of elected officials and how both impact on me and those with which I share similar interests and values. This review must be as broad and wide-ranging as the impact of the decisions made by the politicians under scrutiny. While providing options for periodic re-evaluation, this review must be thoughtful and as accurate as possible. It must be Promethean in predictability.

Applying that logic to the first 30 days of the Trump administration, I have concerns at numerous and most unsettling levels. Rather than acknowledging his slim margin of victory in the Electoral College and loss of the popular vote in his policy-making, Mr.Trump is in disregard of the 54% of Americans who voted against him and he’s gone full-bore in his plan to be a disruptive influence in the structure of American politics. I fear that his administration will exceed a state of disruption and devolve into an oligarchic autocracy. Like those who have returned George Orwell's "1984," a 69 year-old book, to the "best seller list,' I wonder how far we are from calling Trump Big Brother.

Those familiar with the rise of autocratic governments in the 20th Century draw our attention to the parallels with Trump World. Among the first acts by 20th Century dictators were to destroy and/or restructure the institutions and political processes upon which civil order was established. To date, the majority of Trump's Cabinet nominees express policy positions in direct opposition to the Cabinet positions they occupy. One only wonders what structural changes will alter the functions of the Departments of Justice, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Human Services and the EPA.

From Trump's mouth come ridiculous, unsubstantiated accusations of widespread, monumental voter fraud. Many in the Civil Rights community sense that Trump will attempt to further restrict/suppress the votes of minorities and other Democratic leaning populations. Yet, since last year, US intelligence sources confirm Russian interference in the 2016 Election.

Trump's administration has made an obvious effort to discredit and malign the public’s faith in the Judicial Branch and the Media. Demeaning characterization of "so-call judges" in disagreement with Administration positions are meant to create a loss of faith in our judicial system. Arguing the validity of lies labeled “Alternative Facts” and the direct characterization of unflattering news accounts as “Fake News” has become the hallmark of Trump and those in his circle. More commonplace are lies, distortions and misrepresentations of Trump and his allies. Just as commonplace are their appeals to sympathetic listeners to reject the truth of media reports as lies.

Until last week, mainstream Republican leaders have failed to challenge Trump’s disparagement of our valued institutions. Last week, Senator John McCain observed that one of the first acts of dictators was to destroy the open, free dialogue of society.

Our first 30 day review suggests that McCain is not off the mark. We must RESIST the destruction of the freedoms we have worked so hard to achieve.

(Dr. E. Faye Williams is President and CEO of the National Congress of Black Women, www.nationalcongressbw.org. 202/678-6788)

Trump's Tough Talk Won't Fix Chicago by Rev. Jesse Jackson

Feb. 21, 2017

Trump's Tough Talk Won't Fix Chicago
By Rev. Jesse Jackson

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Donald Trump is fixated on what he describes as the “carnage” going on in Chicago, suggesting that if Chicago’s horrendous homicide rate doesn’t come down, he’ll “send in the feds.” At his recent press conference, he announced plans to create “a task for reducing violent crime in America, including the horrendous situation — take a look at Chicago and others — taking place right now in our inner cities.”

During his campaign, Trump suggested that he knew the answer for solving the crime problem in Chicago: “How? By being very much tougher than they are right now.” He claimed he met with a couple of top Chicago police officers and one said, “I’d be able to stop it in one week,” if they could take the gloves off.

Trump apparently has no idea of just how harsh Chicago police have been on young African-American men. His comments above came in the wake of the protests over the use of force by the police, including the murder of Laquan McDonald that was caught on camera and covered up.

Why is the homicide rate so high in Chicago? Actually, it came down earlier in this decade as it did in other cities but has spiked in recent years. Trump defines the situation correctly when he says there are two Chicagos. “There’s one Chicago that’s incredible, luxurious and all — and safe. There’s another Chicago that’s worse than almost any of the places in the Middle East that we talk about, and that you talk about every night on the newscasts.”

Chicago is the most segregated large city in the country. Poverty is concentrated in poor, largely African-American neighborhoods. With concentrated poverty and grotesque youth unemployment, drugs and guns spread and crime and homicide follow.

Trump doesn’t say how Chicago got that segregated. It wasn’t an accident. Housing segregation was enforced by urban planning, restrictive zoning and housing covenants. Violence frustrated efforts to push integration. The result is two cities, segregated and massively unequal. In the neighborhoods of concentrated poverty in Chicago, nearly half of the young black men are neither in school nor employed. A dire new study from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute reported that over 80 percent of Chicago’s African-American 16- to 19-year-olds have no jobs. This is a recipe for violence, gangs and trouble.

Some blame gangs and the easy access to guns and drugs. But this is confusing symptoms and causes. “Where do gangs come from? You can’t divorce the gang problem from the problem of deep concentrations of poverty,” says Robert J. Sampson, author of “Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect.”

Racially segregated, impoverished communities suffer from having no jobs, no hospitals, poor schools, mean streets, environmental toxins and inadequate housing. The persistence of violence and concentrated poverty in Chicago comes, Sampson concludes, from “extensive social and economic segregation.”

The solution to crime and homicides in Chicago isn’t tougher police tactics. Chicago police are already infamous for how tough they are. The solution is a deconcentration of poverty along with revitalization of impoverished neighborhoods. Jobs for young people make a dramatic difference. We need mixed-income housing throughout the metropolitan area. Experiments that moved people from impoverished Englewood to affluent suburban neighborhoods proved remarkably successful. Revitalization of urban neighborhoods and breaking down walls of segregated living patterns requires leadership — from the city and from the federal government.

If Trump truly wants to succeed in reducing homicides in Chicago, he should not only be meeting with the mayor and the governor but also with other elected officials, ministers and community leaders — offering a major plan to rebuild those neighborhoods and put people, particularly young people, to work — while opening up mixed-income housing across the metropolitan area.

Tougher cops sounds macho, but it’s a posture, not a policy, a diversion, not an answer.