Urban News Features

Trump Makes Republican Convention Whiter Than Usual, Some Say By Tatyana Hopkins

July 22, 2016

Trump Makes Republican Convention Whiter Than Usual, Some Say
By Tatyana Hopkins

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell told the New York Times that he wasn't going to the Republican National Convention and wasn't even watching it on TV.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Howard University News Service

CLEVELAND (TriceEdneyWire.com) - Republican National Conventions are routinely mostly White. This year’s, however, was remarkably so, particularly according to the African-American Republicans, some who complained to the media and their party.

If anything, this year, the party bash was most notable for prominent Black Republicans who aren’t here.

Missing is a long list of Black Republican stalwarts – former Secretary of State Colin Powell; former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott; Utah Congresswoman Mia Love; former Oklahoma Congressman J.C. Watts; former Education Secretary Rod Paige; former Secretary of Housing and Urban Affairs Alphonso Jackson; and a long list of Black state and municipal office holders.

Many were turned off by Trump and statements he has made about Mexicans, Muslims and others that even members of his party called racist.

Love told one newspaper she didn’t come because she didn’t see a benefit to her state. Powell told the New York Times he wasn’t even watching the convention on television.

One bit of news that has caused the convention some embarrassment is the lack of Black delegates to the convention.

Telly Lovelace, the Republican Party’s national director for African-American Initiatives and Media, sent an email to reporters outlining the diversity of delegates at the party’s convention. The total number of African-American delegates was 18 out of 2,472 delegates. That figure represents less than 1 percent of total delegates.

In 2004, by comparison, the number of Black delegates at the convention was 7 percent, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based public policy organization that produces research on Black electoral politics.

In an interview here at the convention, Lovelace said that unofficially those numbers have changed, but he didn’t have any new figures.

“We’ll be releasing the official numbers soon,” said Lovelace, who noted that he is the only African-American at the RNC headquarters.

Despite the statistics that show Black voters are turned off by Trump and the absence of so many prominent Black Republicans, Lovelace said the party’s Black engagement is better than it was in 2014.

“We need to build a relationship with the [Black] community,” he said, which he was hired to do.

Lovelace was previously the managing director of IR Media LLC, an African-American owned Washington-based communications firm founded by Jarvis Stewart, former chief of staff to former Rep. Harold Ford (D-Tenn).

His job is to make the Republican Party seem like a viable option to African-American voters. His hiring followed an exodus of Black staffers. The entire Black outreach staff at the RNC left their positions between October and April.

Lovelace said the well-publicized friction between the Republican Party and the Trump campaign is improving.

“We’re beginning to have that merge between the RNC and the Trump campaign,” said Lovelace.

The RNC will continue to hire black staffers, implement a program that will allow the RNC and state Republican chapters to engage with historically Black colleges and universities and will reach out to the Black community using a wide range of media on issues important to them, he said.

He concluded, “We’re taking a step in the right direction.”

Republican Convention: Heavy Police Presence Apparently Pays Off in Cleveland By Briahnna Brown

July 21, 2016

Republican Convention: Heavy Police Presence Apparently Pays Off in Cleveland
By Briahnna Brown

Hundreds of law enforcement officers from around the nation fill downtown Cleveland to monitor protestors during the Republican Nationl Convention. So far, the increased force has worked. PHOTO: Milbert Brown, Howard University News Service

Police were on horses, bicycles, motorcycles and on foot during the convention. PHOTO: Milbert Brown, Howard University News Service

Breeanna Usher, 24, is from Los Angeles, but is in Cleveland for now doing her graduate social work at
Case Western University. PHOTO: Milbert Brown, Howard University News Service.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Howard University News service

CLEVELAND (TriceEdneyWire.com) – Nearly everywhere you look in downtown Cleveland during the Republican National Convention, there are cops – tall cops, short cops, fat cops, buff cops, young cops and old cops.

There are beat cops, cops on horses, cops in riot gear, cops in neon vests directing traffic and bicycle cops with body cams atop their helmets. There are cops from Illinois and Michigan and California and Austin, Texas, and Louisville, Ky. There are cops from Georgia and Florida and Wisconsin and Delaware and even Maine. In fact, the city asked every state to provide additional law enforcement, and it seems like nearly every state did.

Still, the massive law enforcement presence seems to have paid off. There have been some hectic protests, including a flag-burning protest Wednesday that led to 17 arrests and resulted in charges of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.

There have been some tense moments, like the standoff that police broke up between immigration activists and Trump supporters Tuesday on Euclid Avenue, Cleveland’s equivalent of a Main Street, right at rush hour. And the guys openly carrying assault weapons Monday had many people, especially police, anxious.

Most of the numerous protests that have taken place in downtown Cleveland have been relatively peaceful. The city has not needed the nearly 1,000 jail cells it made available, nor the 20-hour open court it set up to handle offenders.

Make no mistake, though, the protesters are here.

Hanif Phelps, 31, is originally from Cleveland and stood on a downtown corner with a white foam board that read, “ALL LIVES MATTER*” and listed groups like Muslims, “Black folks,” and LGBTQ+ people underneath.

“There is a little bit of divisiveness, and I’m trying to remove that and let people know that there is a movement out there that has some validity,” Phelps said. “But we have to make sure that all the lives matter when we say it. We can’t say ‘All Lives Matter’ and exclude any one of those demographics.”

Phelps said the Black Lives Matter movement is not inherently separatist. He said slogans that include “lives matter” refer to a section of a group of people.

“When we say, ‘cop lives matter,’ we mean good cops,” he said. “When we say, ‘Black lives matter’ we mean the people who aren’t in gangs shooting other black people. You cannot hold law-abiding citizens accountable for criminals.”

Milbert Brown, Howard University News Service: Police were on horses, bicycles, motorcycles and on foot during the convention.

Nearly 100 protesters created a “Wall of Trump” Wednesday morning, in response to Trump’s promise to build a wall between the United States and Mexico to keep illegal immigrants out.

Various groups from across the country formed a “wall” of cloth sheets painted like bricks that stretched down a block of Prospect Avenue, the closest public access street north of the Quicken Loans Arena, where the convention is being held.

They chanted and sang “Wall of Trump” and “The walls that they build will tear us apart! They’ll never be as strong as the walls of our heart!”

One of the “wall” protesters was Daryl McElven, who came to the RNC from Vermont. He is with It Takes Roots to Change the System, part of a “people’s caravan” traveling to the RNC and next week’s Democratic National Convention.

“We want to bring people together,” McElven said. “We want to show them what a wall looks like, how inconvenient it is and how ridiculous it is.

He said he was pleased that the protest brought out such a diverse group of supporters.

“We love people of all colors and races here,” he said. “It’s a beautiful thing.”

Angela Hall, 32, from Cleveland, was part of the protest. She said she worries that her elderly father would be sent back to Puerto Rico.

“We’re out here saying that we’re not taking it anymore,” she said. “You’re not going to send immigrants, or anybody for that nature, back over a wall. You’re not putting our African Americans back on boats. You’re not sending our Jews back to Israel or wherever you think they come from. We’re just not taking it anymore.”

Breeanna Usher, 24, is from Los Angeles, but is in Cleveland for now doing her graduate social work at Case Western University. She was with the Hispanic organization Miente.

“We’re basically just out here to have a symbolic wall to wall out the racism and hate and ignorance Trump has been spewing since he started the candidacy,” Usher said. “This is to educate people and really to get other people engaged.”

After Dallas and Baton Rouge, We Need Action By Jesse Jackson

July 17, 2016

After Dallas and Baton Rouge, We Need Action
By Jesse Jackson

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - As the Republican Party holds its national convention in Cleveland, Americans have been shaken by the shootings of police in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La., following the police shootings of Black men in Baton Rouge and Falcon Heights, Minn. I spoke at the funeral of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, weeping with his family and friends, as they remembered and mourned their loved one. I spoke later at the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, leaders of the police in different communities, and witnessed their tears as they mourned the deaths of their fellow police officers in Baton Rouge.

There is a national call for mourning, for a conversation, for peace. But we need more than a conversation, more than weeping for our lost loved ones. We need common sense and action.

The police now are stupefied. They face people armed with weapons of war — assault rifles designed for battlefields, not for American street corners. There is no defense against snipers armed with such weapons. These weapons can take down planes. They can slaughter crowds. They can pick off police. Incredibly, people have the right to carry these weapons of mass destruction openly in various states.

No police chief in America supports easy access to military style weapons. They want these weapons banned. The ban used to have bipartisan support. Now the gun lobby has turned it into partisan gridlock. Those who bluster loudly that they are champions of law and order and of the police vote at the same time to allow their enemies to be armed to the teeth. But the police are crying out even as they are being buried: Protect us from these weapons.

Some on the right denounce Black Lives Matter, blaming the protesters for fanning antagonism toward the police that triggers the attacks on them. This doesn’t make sense.

Black Lives Matter’s nonviolent demonstrations began after numerous videos revealed blacks being shot at point blank range by police. Following some of these incidents, police witnesses filed false reports, covering up what happened. Police killings without accountability sparked nonviolent demonstrations across the country.

The discipline of the demonstrators has been impressive. In fact, the demonstrations deter violent attacks by offering a nonviolent outlet for pain and outrage. They have not created the tensions between the police and the community. It is the shootings and mistreatment of African-Americans that have caused the tension. The videos do not cause the tensions. They simply ensure that those outside the black community now see with their own eyes what African-Americans have known for a long time.

The killers of the police in Dallas and in Baton Rouge did not come out of the civil rights movement. They came out of the military, where they were trained to shoot, to make bombs, to ambush, to kill. They were veterans of war, not of the nonviolent movement for justice for all. They returned from risking their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan to communities plagued by real economic fears and racial anxieties. Post-traumatic stress disorder is real, yet mental health assistance is too limited and weapons of war too readily available. The mix is toxic and sometimes lethal.

Cleveland, where the Republican National Convention is now taking place, is in a state with open carry laws. Demonstrators for and against Donald Trump have the right to carry their military weapons openly into demonstrations outside the convention hall. This is an utter distortion of the Second Amendment. The Founding Fathers wanted to make certain that the states could maintain independent militias. They never envisioned Americans carrying assault rifles to a political demonstration.

Law and order bluster won’t solve this challenge. Level-headed conversations between police and community are long overdue, but they won’t solve it either. We need action: background checks to keep the mentally unbalanced and those on the terrorist list from buying guns; a ban on the sale of assault weapons; and a real plan for economic development of our urban and rural communities in need.

Doing nothing means things will get worse. Police are on edge for good reason. Civilians are on edge about the police for good reason. Military assault weapons flood our communities. The violence diverts attention and action on real needs — on jobs and housing, schools and health care. Enough bluster. It is time for common sense … and action.

Directing Dollars Seen As a Way To Protest Recent Shootings

July 17, 2016

Directing Dollars Seen As a Way To Protest Recent Shootings

Thousands Make Deposits in Black-owned Banks

Michael Grant, President, National Bankers Association

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Reacting to the most recent wave of shootings of Black men by police officers, thousands of African-American consumers across America are directing their dollars by opening checking and savings accounts in Black-owned banks.

A grassroots effort being called a "Spend Movement" found the nation's Black banks receiving calls and on-line requests to open accounts.

According to National Bankers Association President Michael Grant, "This is a movement that began over 100 years ago but had become dormant as a consequence of racial integration. Thousands have been mobilized to protest with their spending power. Many African-American consumers are linking the shootings with a sense of powerlessness, feeling undervalued and disrespected."

Many African-American bankers are hearing that Black lives do not seem to matter because less value is placed on the lives of Black people as a group in America.

Since Friday, July 8, literally thousands of checking and savings accounts have been opened at Black-owned banks.

"The Black lives matter movement is a complement to an emerging economic empowerment movement that is engulfing Black communities all over America," stated Preston Pinkett, NBA Chairman and CEO of City National Bank, headquartered in Newark, N.J.

Hoping to manage the expectations of its expanding customer base, Black bankers are encouraging some of their prospective customers who have lost their check-writing privileges to work with bank employees to correct the situation. But the banks are also cautioning customers not to become frustrated if the bank is unable to immediately extend check- writing privileges because of past mistakes by customers.

Grant also cautioned Black consumers to be mindful of the voluminous requests that the banks are receiving on-line, in person and by telephone. He said, "This is a very positive development for Black banks. They have always provided a disproportionate share of the small business loans and consumer loans to African-Americans. Ironically, it seems that we have gone full circle back to where we were before desegregation. The Black community is turning inward and seeking to provide security for itself. And few would argue against the notion that nearly every major social issue plaguing Black people in America can find its roots in economic deprivation.

The National Bankers Association, founded in 1927, is a consortium of 36 African-American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American and women-owned banks, headquartered in Washington, D.C.

'Stop This Killing!' Aunt of Alton Sterling Pleads After Three More Police Killed in Baton Rouge By Hazel Trice Edney

July 18, 2016

'Stop This Killing!' Aunt of Alton Sterling Pleads After Three More Police Killed in Baton Rouge
By Hazel Trice Edney

Veda Washington-Abusaleh, the aunt of Alton Sterling, killed by Baton Rouge police, pleads for peace after three Baton Rouge police officers were killed Sunday.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - America was still mourning the ambush-style killing of four Dallas police officers Sunday, July 17, when the news hit that three more police officers were killed in yet another ambush. This time in Baton Rouge.

The killings of eight police officers – by two apparently lone Black vigilantes - came amidst intense protests following the videotaped apparently senseless police killings of Black citizens Alton Sterling of Baton Rouge and Philando Castile of Falcon Heights, Minn. The breaking news of three more police killings on Sunday – despite pleas for peace coming from President Obama, civil rights leaders, politicians and others - has exacerbated community and police tension and fears, causing a Sterling family member to tearfully plead for peace.

“We are a peaceful people. We just had a meeting yesterday to make sure everyone was on one accord,” said Sterling's aunt, Veda Washington-Abusaleh, in a message video-taped by a local news agency. “That’s how this all started – with bloodshed,” she said, becoming increasingly emotional until her voice pitched, demanding an end to the violence:

“We don’t want no more bloodshed! So if you’re not on one accord with us, leave, go home, go where ever you came from. This is our house. You can’t come in our house killing us! That’s what you’re doing because at the end of the day, when these people call these families and they tell them that their daddies and their mamas are not coming home no more, I know how they feel because I got that same phone call. No justice, no peace! That’s what we’re calling for. Stop this killing! Stop this killing! Stop this killing!”

Her painful outcry echoed the more subdued; yet equally sincere appeals from President Obama, who – just having eulogized five Dallas officers – appeared stunned at the continued violence.

“I condemn, in the strongest sense of the word, the attack on law enforcement in Baton Rouge. For the second time in two weeks, police officers who put their lives on the line for ours every day were doing their job when they were killed in a cowardly and reprehensible assault. These are attacks on public servants, on the rule of law, and on civilized society, and they have to stop,” he said. “We may not yet know the motives for this attack, but I want to be clear: there is no justification for violence against law enforcement. None. These attacks are the work of cowards who speak for no one. They right no wrongs. They advance no causes. The officers in Baton Rouge; the officers in Dallas – they were our fellow Americans, part of our community, part of our country, with people who loved and needed them, and who need us now – all of us – to be at our best.

Congressional Black Caucus Chairman G. K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) also issued a statement expressing outrage on Sunday.

“Members of the Congressional Black Caucus offer our deepest sympathies to the families of the officers killed and injured in today’s shooting in Baton Rouge. Tensions are high in our country, but violence does not lead to justice and targeting law enforcement does not bring about solutions. The CBC continues to call for peace and we stand by state and federal officials as they investigate to find the individuals responsible for today’s horrific event.”

By the time these statements were released, Gavin E. Long, a 29-year-old former Marine, had been killed in a shootout with police. A preliminary investigation revealed that Long lured police by calling 911 and reporting a man dressed in a Ninja uniform carrying a rifle. When they arrived, he opened fire killing three and wounding three.

The Falcon Heights killing of five Dallas officers happened during a protest against the Baton Rouge and Minneapolis shootings. The suspect, Micha Johnson, also a military veteran, was killed by a police robot carrying a bomb as he hid in a parking garage.

The names of the three Baton Rouge officers killed are Montrell Jackson, a 10-year-veteran, who is Black; rookie Matthew Gerald, 41 who is White; and Brad Garafola, 45, a 24-year veteran of the force, also White.

Officer Jeronimo Yanez who killed Castile as he reached for his driver’s license as requested, remains on administrative leave pending state and federal investigations. Officers Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II, who shot Sterling after pinning him to the ground, are also on administrative leave pending investigations.

Meanwhile, civil rights leaders have constantly encouraged protests but pleaded for peace since the videotaped killings of Castile and Sterling. Those pleas have escalated since Sunday.

"Our hearts are broken at the news of three more police killed and three more wounded," said National Urban League President/CEO Marc Morial. "The epidemic of gun violence in our nation has been at crisis levels for several years and requires immediate action."

Kristin Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, showed equal empathy for the families of the police officers and the citizen victims by condemning all hate.

“While there are many unanswered questions regarding this incident, all people of sound mind and good conscience agree that violence threatens the fabric of our nation. We mourn with the residents of Baton Rouge who, within the last several days, have been faced with dual tragedies of monumental proportion,” Clarke said. “We hope that the days that lie ahead provide opportunity for the residents of Baton Rouge and our nation to stand together in opposing violence and hate of any kind.”