March 24, 2014

Black Leaders Critique Obama’s ‘Brother’s Keeper”, Relationship with Black Community
By Jacqueline F. Taylor

National Urban League President/CEO, Mark Morial, also a presidential advisor for "My Brother's Keeper", spoke as a sponsor at the 'Stateswomen' event. PHOTO: Mark Mahoney/Trice Edney News Wire

Barbara Arnwine and Julianne Malveaux were among five panelists headlining the "Statewomen for Justice" panel discussion, moderated by Omarosa Manigault. PHOTO: Mark Mahoney/Trice Edney News Wire

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - A Women's History Month/Black Press forum to respond to President Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative ended up being a critique of his administration over all.

“I’ve had the feeling that he’s been running from us. There was pressure to act like he was not the Black president,” said award-winning journalist and author Dr. Barbara Reynolds. “I understand that you had to put us at the end. But establish something that will last in every governmental department.”

The annual commemoration of Women’s History Month, sponsored by Trice Edney Communications & News Wire, is called “Stateswomen for Justice”. It drew an audience of 200 to the Ballroom of the National Press Club March 20.  This year’s forum entitled, “How to Move from Chaos to Community: Our Response to My Brother’s Keeper,” also drew responses to President Obama’s style of leadership.

Referencing the 1970's song by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway, “Be Real Black for Me,” Dr. Julianne Malveaux, syndicated columnist and president Emeritus of Bennett College for Women, stated: “If I had an opportunity to talk to President Obama, I would engage him in a slow dance and say be real Black for me.”

Malveaux continued, “Because the fact is that he ain’t been real Black just yet. He’s been great and late with 'My Brother’s Keeper' and he has been missing in action with Parent PLUS [an education loan program] which has caused us in HBCU land to lose over 16,000 students.” Parent PLUS recently tightened lending practices for parents with financial shortcomings.

The forum, featuring five women panelists, all renowned for their leadership, was moderated by reality star Omarosa Manigault, also an educator, activist and former White House appointee. It was also a celebration of the 187^th anniversary of the Black Press by focusing on those issues written about daily in Black newspapers.

“My Brother’s Keeper” is a White House initiative that addresses current risk factors affecting the success of boys and men of color in society. According to data released by the White House, 86 percent of African-American boys and 82 percent Hispanic boys are reading below grade level by the fourth grade. Half of White fourth graders read below grade level.

President Obama held several meetings and conversations with heads of major Black organizations as he prepared to roll out the new initiative, which was announced early this month. On the “Stateswomen” panel, those leaders also gave sober advice.

Panelist Melanie Campbell, President/CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable, who met with Obama only days before he announced the initiatives, wants the legislation to be in place beyond President Obama’s term. She also hopes that his administration will look to the local community.

“The initiative needs to be connected to the community, despite who is in office,” stated Campbell.  “The community needs to get the resources to run the programs,” she said.

Barbara Arnwine, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, first met with the President’s staff in 2009 with her concerns. She said there is a need to have targeted jobs programs that reach African-American youth. She emphasized that education needs to be addressed, especially among African-Americans without high school diplomas and GEDs.

Arnwine is fighting for additional dialogue on the local and state level regarding the reduction in incarceration rates among African-Americans. “We need a nationwide movement among African-Americans to stop…arresting people for things that we can give them citations for,” said Arnwine.

Panelists also highlighted the many contributions of Black women, who alongside their male counterparts, fought for freedom and equality.

Dr. E. Faye Williams, with the National Chair of the National Congress of Black Women, attended the White House initiative announcement. She does not want the role of women to be eliminated from the “My Brother’s Keeper” dialogue.

“Now just because there is a program called ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ does not mean that we sisters will not have to be our brother’s and sister’s keepers, but it sure is good to have some help…this year,” stated Williams.

National Urban League President Marc Morial, as a co-sponsor of the event, praised “My Brother’s Keeper” as a step forward for African-American youth.

“I congratulate the president for taking this issue on in such a public and forceful fashion,” said Morial, who is a financial advisor for the initiative. He encouraged individuals who are connected with organizations and communities that have initiatives that focus on boys and men of color to share their findings with the White House.

Dr. Reynolds added: “We are not only our brother’s keepers, we are our mother’s keepers, we are our daddy’s keeper, and children’s keepers. We will have to work together in unity to be keepers of our people.”

Malveaux concluded: “History belongs to she who holds the pen, so we have to continue to write our stories and tell our stories. In Women’s History Month, we have to remember that African-American women have been sidelined and we have to tell our story. And in regard to the President’s initiative we have to make sure that while we lift up our brothers, women are also lifted up.”

March 23, 2014

Report: South African Black Need 500 Years to Close Wage Gap with Whites

Numsa General Secretary Irvin Jim

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Global Information Network

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Union officials at a national bargaining conference in Pretoria had troubling news for workers hoping to get better pay and working conditions in the coming year.

“We cannot lie forever,” said Andrew Chirwa of the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa). “In 1994 we said South Africa will be a better place to live and unemployment will be halved in 10 years. What have we achieved in this regard?”

“We are not moving forward,” he said, answering his own question. “Instead we are worse than 10 years ago. “Not only is unemployment increasing, poverty deepening and inequalities widening”, added Numsa deputy Karl Cloete, “but the wage gap between white workers and their African counterparts is four to one.”

“It will take 520 years for Africans to earn the same salary as the Whites.”

According to Cloete, there are 80 unemployed Black African workers for every unemployed white. Joblessness has grown from 40 percent in 2008 to 46 percent in 2012.

"You must pursue the struggle for a living wage,” Cloete told the membership. ”You must pursue proper, negotiated and beneficial agreements to workers," adding that Numsa had a huge task ahead to recruit the 71% of workers who did not belong to any union.

Currently, the ANC is in talks with its labor allies to set a minimum wage as it faces its toughest election on May 7 since taking power in 1994. Dissatisfaction with a 24% jobless rate and a lack of housing, water and other basic services in poor townships has been mounting. In December, Numsa voted to withhold support for the ANC and deny it funding for its campaign. The union fears plans are afoot to expel them from the trade union umbrella Cosatu and set up another, more compliant, metalworkers’ union.

General Secretary Irwin Jim, in a 15-page media statement explaining the rejection of the ANC said it “no longer serves any revolutionary purpose”, and “the union does not believe any of the bourgeoisie political parties are going to deliver anything”.

Recent internal polls give the African National Congress at most 45 percent of electoral support in Gauteng, the country’s economic hub. This would be a sharp decline from the 64.4 percent the party won in the 2009 general elections. 

March 18, 2014

More than 1,000 Rally Against the ‘Stand Your Ground’ in Florida
By Aldranon English II

Protesters carried signs showing recent victims. PHOTO: Aldranon English II/Capital Outlook

More than a thousand took to the streets, representing opposition to 'stand your ground' laws across the country. PHOTO: Aldranon English II/Capital Outlook

Among leaders of the march were the Rev. Al Sharpton and the parents of Trayvon Martin - Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton. PHOTO:Aldranon English II/Capital Outlook 

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Capital Outlook Newspaper

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Rev. Al Sharpton and several renowned activists led a march of hundreds to the Florida State Capitol last week to protest Florida’s self-defense doctrine notoriously known as the “Stand Your Ground” law. Among the participants were the parents of slain teenagers Trayvon Martin, Kendrick Johnson and Jordan Davis.

Family members of Emmitt Till, who was murdered at 14 years-old during the 1950s, were also on hand. They joined family members of:  Fruitvale Station victim Oscar Grant III, Air Force veteran Michael Giles and recently released mother of three Marissa Alexander – who was sentenced to 20 years for firing a gun near her estranged husband.

The event beckoned many influential figures including radio personalities Tom Joyner and Joe Bullard. Others included Leon County Commissioner Bill Proctor, City of Tallahassee Commissioner Andrew Gillum, local attorneys Benjamin Crump and Daryl Parks along with Florida A&M University Student Government President Elect Tonette Graham.

Florida law dictates that people, not involved in illegal activity, have the right to stand their ground and meet force with force – including deadly force, if they reasonably believe it is necessary to avoid death or great bodily harm. Florida Rep. Corrine Brown states that the law has done more harm than good in several states including Florida.

“In 2005, Florida passed the expansion of ‘Stand Your Ground’ to 24 other states,” said Brown. “Since its expansion, the law is like a cancer that needs to be eradicated.”

Brown strongly urged the community to participate in the committee meetings later that day as well as the upcoming elections in November. 

“You have to march over to the committee meetings as well to the voting polls,” said Brown. “Florida is ‘stuck on stupid,’ you have to show up people in Tallahassee and you have to represent on a daily basis.”

Rep. Alan Williams states that self-defense laws were already in place before “Stand Your Ground,” but understands the importance of changing the aggressor language portion of the law.

“As members of the Legislature, we cannot appeal it outright now, but we are going to repair it,” said Williams.

Williams stressed the significance of the march and the goal at hand for the community as well as for the entire nation.

“This would have been the first year for Trayvon and Jordan to be allowed to vote,” said Williams. “Don’t just march because it is Monday, don’t just march because it is in the moment. March because it is a movement,” said Williams. “It is a movement that makes certain our community is better and safer for our families, friends and loved ones.”

Several individuals participating in the march held signs and banners that stated “Standing Our Ground” and wore T-shirts that read “We are not a threat.” Baltimore's Pastor Jamal Bryant’s message reverberated throughout the streets near the state Capitol as he spoke about the mission of the rally.

“We have not come today for a march. We came here for a rescue mission,” said Bryant. “We are here trying to locate the missing pieces so that our children can walk the streets peacefully without fear.”

Rev. R. B. Holmes, of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Tallahassee, plans to file a federal lawsuit against the state of Florida concerning the stand your ground law. Holmes along with Bryant plan to enforce a pastoral task force to repeal and repair the self-defense law across the country.

Sharpton stressed the attention and ramifications the march will gain from all of the public figures that were present but made certain that their attendance should not be the focus of their cause.

“We are here to help illuminate,” said Sharpton. “We did not come here to supplant. We came here to support.”

Sharpton explained that the stand your ground law is fundamentally unjust during the march.

“To have laws that tell people that they can shoot first and then ask questions later is a violation of our civil rights. I believe that law is inherently wrong,” said Sharpton. “The law in effect says based on your imagination – if you imagine I am a threat – you have the right to kill me.”

Sharpton concluded the assembly with inspirational words that left many participants charged and ready to act on change.

“Nothing we have achieved was given to us,” said Sharpton.  “We had to fight for it then, and we will fight for it now.”

The protesters planned to attend House and Senate criminal justice committees in hopes of telling lawmakers they want them to consider action on the law.