Dec. 26, 2023

NEWS ANALYSIS

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Many of us go through the useless ritual of making New Year's resolutions and proclaiming "out with the old."  Maybe that works for your eating habits or exercise routine, but 2023 news will be with us into 2024. From my perspective, these are the things we'll be paying attention to in 2024.

1.    I’m an economist, so my top news carryover is The economy: Inflation is slowing, and unemployment rates are low. Good news, right? Some economists are still predicting a recession in 2024 and a "sharp hit," not a "soft landing."  Either way, economic news will dominate in 2024, and the fact that it's an election year means there will be "alternate facts" and interpretations. Bottom line – stack your money. Recession hits Black folks harder, and recovery helps us more slowly than it helps others. And don't believe the hype that Biden didn't help the economy. He did!

2.    Congressional gridlock: won't go away until the election of 2024. Republicans have a narrow majority and can't seem to get much done. A budget has to be passed in January, but neither side appears willing to compromise on immigration reform and border control, aid to Ukraine and Israel, and more.   I don't think Republicans are eager to shut the government down, especially in an election year, but their brinksmanship has left their party in tatters (who knew who Mike Johnson (R-LA) was a year ago)? 

3.    While I hate to elevate the narcissistic former President:  He dominates the news, and unfortunately, too many cover him uncritically. Look – he lost the 2020 election and inspired an insurrection. He's been indicted 91 times and is unfit for public office, but his hard-right supporters, including many Congressional Republicans, are too afraid of his influence to speak up. Can he win in 2024? Unless we invest in record turnout, very possibly. 

4.    Anti-blackness in education and legislation: While the mainstream media won't cover this much, it is alarming that 44 states have introduced legislation to restrict teaching about race. More than 1600 books have been banned, including works by luminaries like Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. Couple this with the efforts of Edward Blum to dismantle affirmative action, going so far as to sue the government, the private sector, and even African American women who have developed race-specific efforts. This effort isn't going away. Conservative foundations fund Blum's efforts. These very predatory capitalists used racism to build their fortunes and now want to eliminate the use of race in repairing the racial wealth gap.

5.    Additionally, there have been constant attacks on DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion): Efforts at universities, government organizations, and private companies. Anti-blackness is alive and well. The struggle continues.

6.    Police violence: Nobody covers police violence better than Roland Martin, who very frequently highlights incidents of police violence that don't make the national headlines. Just because it isn't on the front page of the New York Times doesn't mean it isn't happening. Kudos to Roland for constantly lifting this up and to attorney Ben Crump for working with the families of those massacred at the hands of rabid police officers. Justice delayed is not always justice denied. Thanks to Assistant Attorney General Kristin Clark, many of these massacres are being aggressively investigated.

7.    Immigration reform and border control: Have been unfinished business since 1986, but the former President has denigrated and misrepresented immigrants. There's no easy solution to immigration. How do we deport millions who are now part of the fabric of our lives? How do we absorb the people at our borders who are only looking for a better way of life? How do we balance the needs of those coming in with those already here? Cities like Chicago and New York struggle to accommodate those whose putrid governors (like Texas' Greg Abbott) are shipping people to those states. Jingoistic rhetoric doesn't help a pressing issue. With Orange Man acolytes running the Congress, any solution seems grim, if not impossible.

8.    Israel: People in the United States are firmly divided on how our country deals with the Middle East. It goes without saying that Hamas was wrong in its attack on Israel, which resulted in between 1200 and 1400 deaths and the taking of more than 200 hostages. It should also go without saying that the attack was a function of the apartheid state Palestinians were forced into, the land loss that they experienced, and the desperation that many felt. Wading into this conflict is like touching kryptonite. If you say the wrong thing, you're dead. But while it is essential to condemn Hamas, it is also important to acknowledge their motivation. There must be a cease-fire. The hostages must be released. The United States must be much more measured in our approach.

9.    Labor Power: Organized labor stepped up and showed out with strikes from the United Auto Workers, Los Angeles teachers and ancillary workers, and actors and writers in the entertainment industry. It's essential to black folks because when we are organized, we make about a third more Black folks who aren't organized. Economic issues have radicalized workers who thought they had no power. Now, as the economy tilts against workers, organizing tilts toward them.

Fasten your seat belts, y'all. 2023 left us with much in the trunk for 2024. May we use this election year to struggle for economic and social justice?

Dr. Julianne Malveaux is an economist and author. The second edition of Surviving and Thriving:  365 Facts in Black Economic History is available through mahoganybooks.com

Dec. 26, 2023

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu issues an apology for two men arrested for the Carol Stuart murder in 1989.

Charles Stuart said that a Black man killed Carol, his wife, and their unborn child and wounded him. The Boston Police ran through Black neighborhoods like stormtroopers, arresting and beating Black men and boys, forcing them to confess to the murders. It was later learned that Charles killed his wife to collect insurance money.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from BlackMansStreet.Today

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Boston, Mass. Mayor Michelle Wu issued an apology for two Black men who were arrested by police and vilified in the press for the 1989 murder of a White woman, only to learn that the brother of the killer said he murdered his wife for insurance money.

On behalf of the Boston Police Department, the entire City of Boston, the Black Community, and Boston media, Mayor Wu said on Monday: “I am sorry for what you endured; it was racist and wrong.”

Mayor Wu apologized at the same time as the HBO documentary about the murder of Carol Stuart. It is titled "Murder in Boston: Roots, Rampage & Reconking." Jason Hehir wrote and directed the documentary.

Charles Stuart claimed that a 6-foot-tall Black man shot him, shot him, and killed his pregnant wife, Carol, during a carjacking; she delivered her baby named Christopher by cesarean section. The baby died 17 days later.

The police ran through the Black community like stormtroopers with pistols drawn in the Mission Hill neighborhood, arresting almost every Black male before settling on Alan Swanson and Willie Bennet. Police eventually ruled out Swanson as the killer after brutally beating him.

But Matthew Stuart told police that the carjacking story was a hoax, and his brother killed his wife for insurance money. Charles Stuart later committed suicide by jumping off the Tobin Bridge into the Mystic River.

Police and the media were surprised by the admission, which may have caused some soul-searching. 

Raymond Flynn was the mayor at the time Carol Stuart was murdered. Francis Roache, Boston’s Police Chief, said excesses may have been taken. Flynn was criticized for the treatment Black men suffered at the hands of the police.

With the end of the grand jury's investigation, Willie Bennett was officially exonerated of the murders of Carol Stuart and her son Christopher. 

But this story does not have a happy ending.

In October 1990, a jury found Bennett guilty of an alleged robbery of a Brookline video store. He was sentenced to 12 to 25 years in prison and was released in 2002.

After a lengthy lawsuit, Bennett's family was awarded $12,500 in damages, according to the Boston Globe. As of 2023, Bennett was reportedly living alone in Boston and suffering from dementia. 

A teary-eyed Willie Bennett’s nephew, Joey Bennett, accepted Wu’s apology Wednesday on behalf of his uncle and the family of Alan Swanson. 

Joey Bennett praised her for not allowing the false arrest to be swept under the rug.

Dec. 20, 2023

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from BlackMansStreet.Today

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The jobless rate for Blacks dropped, but not far enough to catch up with other ethnic groups.

The August jobless rate for Black men fell to 5.0 percent compared to the seasonally adjusted average in August 2022 to 6.0 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The unemployment rate for Black women was a seasonal adjusted 4.7 percent in August compared with 5.9 percent in August 2022.

Employment continued to trend up in health care, leisure and hospitality, social assistance, and construction. Employment in transportation and warehousing declined.

The unemployment rate for Blacks compared with Whites, Hispanics, and women was much higher.

The jobless rate for Whites is 3.4 percent, and for Asians is 3.1 percent; the rates for both groups rose in August. The unemployment rate for Hispanic men is 4.3 percent and 4.4 percent for Hispanic women.

The jobless rate for adult women stands at 3.2 percent, for teenagers, 12.2 percent, for Blacks, 5.0 percent, and for Hispanics the rate it was 4.9 percent and 4.3 and 4.4 percent for Hispanic women.

Dec. 12, 2023

Photos of some of the children who died in Jonestown. Graphic: Courtesy of Dr. Jynona Norwood

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - It's been more than 45 years since Jim Jones forced more than 900 people to poison themselves in a mass suicide in Jonestown, Guinea. For Dr. Jynona Norwood, the pain never goes away. On Nov. 18, 1978, she lost her mother, a 2-year-old cousin and 25 other family members who are now buried in an Oakland, Calif. cemetery.

“I think about my mother every day. I think about my first cousin and how they tried to escape Jonestown...The pain never goes away,” said Norwood, who took part in a Nov. 18 memorial program at Evergreen cemetery because many victims of Jonestown were from the Bay Area. But 45 years after the worst mass suicide in world history, Norwood is far from closure. That’s partially because, in that same cemetery, Jim Jones’ name is listed alongside the victims in a mass grave where 305 children are buried.

“This man was not a minister,” Dr. Norwood said. “Those children’s sacred final resting place is no longer sacred as long as Jim Jones’ name is there.” While the deaths of the members of his church, called the People’s Temple, were widely reported as a mass suicide from a cyanide-laced flavor aide, many of the factual details remain mysteries. Many were reportedly forced to drink the punch at gunpoint. Dr. Leslie Mootoo, Guyana’s chief pathologist at the time, said the majority of the bodies had puncture wounds from needles between their shoulder blades. Rep. Leo Ryan (D-Calif.), the only congressman believed to have been assassinated in the line of duty, was among five who were shot and killed at the Port Kaituma airstrip as they tried to leave Guyana after checking on reports that people were being held against their will.

“It's a tragedy because so many lives were lost,” Norwood said in a recent interview. “Generations of young people who could have become a reporter, a journalist, an actor or a doctor, the president of the United States of America, so many inventions and cures and dreams were killed by this megalomaniac at this church with people who still loved him.” Norwood said Jones was protected by the members of Peoples Temple; yet he betrayed them. “The holocaust was history but you don’t see Hitler's name on the wall, 9-11 is history [but] you don't see those who flew those planes into the Twin Towers on a wall. How dare you insult the intelligence of America.”

Upon this year's 45 anniversary, CBS interviewed retired San Francisco police captain Yulanda Williams who is a survivor and former member of the Peoples Temple. Williams said in a documentary that she, her husband and their young child followed Jones to Jonestown to be part of what they thought would be a socialist paradise. "It was truly an active concentration camp and we were guarded 24-7 by armed security officers," Williams told CBS. “The fact is that they have no respect for Congressman Leo Ryan by wanting to put his name on the same wall" with Jones who ordered him assassinated and the "United Press International news team who were only doing their job,” Norwood said. “That is a mass grave site for the children. They didn't have dental records so they had to bury most of the children in a mass grave site in California. Forty infants are in that mass grave site.” Congresswoman Barbara Lee told the Precinct Reporter News that, “The Jonestown Massacre was a senseless, horrible tragedy, born of the evil of one man, that took the lives of nearly 1,000 innocent people – many African-American and many from the Bay area.

“As a member of Congressman Ron Dellums’ staff, I handled many cases of family members who were concerned about their loved ones in Jonestown. I was invited to go to Jonestown with the late Congressman Leo Ryan and a member of his staff, my good friend former Congresswoman Jackie Speier. But at the last minute I had a family obligation that could not be missed,” Lee said.

Norwood said Jones became a fixture in the African-American community by mimicking Dr. King's speech. “That's why you saw Black and White seated together in his church,” Norwood said. “Jim Jones lured the people by first trapping them with Dr. King’s speech. The most powerful images on the screen would make you adopt a lifestyle you didn’t even believe in.”

Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor of Third Street Baptist Church in San Francisco, said Jones often offered help to the masses with food banks, set up temporary tents to pay utility bills, and bring loads of money to pay rent for those in need. But Brown also said, “The man never would take off his shades! Something didn’t quite smell right.”

When asked whether such a tragedy could happen again, Norwood said, “It has been happening again and again. Look at Waco Texas, Heavens Gate,” said Norwood. She added that Jones tricked people with kindness. “He would pay your rent. My uncle went into business with him…Look at the pictures,” Norwood said. “Everybody was sleeping side by side. Most of them still loved him. He killed a 15-year-old, a 17-year-old a 2-year-old and you called him good. Leo Ryan never knew he was walking into an armed camp. His church said they only had 32 guns but there were thug Black men with guns. When it happened My grandmother started to call out the names of the dead and she was screaming and crying.”

Former USA Today Columnist Barbara Reynolds, who wrote a lot about the massacre when it happened said, “Jim Jones became the Black man’s savior because he sounded good, He was charismatic and he had people following him.” Reynolds' latest book,  “The rise and fall of the techno Messiah,” is about how easy it has become to spread modern day deception. “I don't say this but when I here Donald Trump speak I think about Jim Jones. Today we are flooded with lies."

Rev. Brown also said in an interview, “The legacy of Jim Jones is bad religion. He used religion to enslave, disenfranchise and to dispose Black people in America and it is happening today. Look at what [House Speaker Mike] Johnson is doing in the House of Representatives. He is bashing voting rights and he is a wolf in sheep's clothing.”

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