March 26, 2013

Marie Johns receives "Beyond the Call of Duty" Award from the National Bankers Association

SBA Deputy Said to Go “Beyond the Call of Duty” for Black Businesses
By Hazel Trice Edney

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – It is a story that has unfolded all too often across America. The owner of a small business finds it simply impossible to pull through the torturous economy. The doors shut or the website shuts down and another business venture comes to a close.

Without incubation and support, the nation’s small businesses – including Black-owned businesses which are doubly vulnerable due to a history of racism and discrimination – would go under at alarming rates. In short, they need an advocate.

This is the reason that when the leaders of the National Bankers Association, an organization of 37 mostly Black-owned banks, began pondering prospective recipients of their annual “Beyond the Call of Duty Award”, its president says they did not have to look very far. No question, it was Marie Johns, deputy administrator of the U. S. Small Business Administration, he said.

“I think Marie Johns has an extraordinary record of serving the small business community in our country. She has shown a genuine interest in working with all small businesses. She’s been fair and inclusive, she believes in diversity, she’s shown a great sensitivity to the struggle of small businesses,” says Michael Grant, president of the National Bankers Association after bestowing Johns with the award during the NBA’s Annual Legislative/Regulatory Conference last week.

In prepared remarks, he said, “Ms. Johns has developed a reputation for being a good listener. She not only listened to community bankers and small business owners, she acted,” he said. In fact, Grant says Johns has served so well in the position that he believes she should be promoted to the top of the agency. “I think she would be an excellent candidate to be SBA administrator,” he said in an interview, noting that the agency has even greater potential.

An article by Claudio E. Cabrera, originally posted last fall on business website TheStreet.com and re-published this month on BlackEnterprise.com, is headlined, “Minority Businesses a Big Driver in the U.S. Small Business Economy.”

The article reports that “the number of black-owned businesses rose a noteworthy 60.5% to 1.9 million from 2002 to 2007, more than triple the 18% rate for businesses established nationally, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Business Owners.”

It continues, “During the most recent period for which there is Census data, black-owned businesses generated $137.5 billion in receipts, up 55.1%.”

But the down side is this: Most of the highly prosperous Black-owned businesses are concentrated in certain states.  New York, Georgia and Florida and cities like New York, Chicago, Houston and Detroit have the largest concentration of the nation's black-owned businesses, the article reports, based on Census calculations. Also, “of the 1.9 million black-owned businesses, little more than 100,000 had paid employees” and only “14,000 of those businesses had receipts of $1 million or more.”

Johns agrees that as Black and other minority businesses grow, the economy grows.

“In 2013, minority-owned small businesses are one of the fastest-growing segments of our economy, and an engine of opportunity for millions of hard-working men and women in our communities,” Johns said in a prepared statement issued after last week’s award. “Empowering these businesses, and embracing an inclusive view of entrepreneurship, is essential to our long-term economic growth and global competitiveness.”

She also agrees with Grant that more must be done. “We must ensure that more people across the country have access to the capital, technical assistance, and support networks they need to help them start businesses, create jobs, and grow our economy.”

Suring up Black banks in order to serve their communities is a part of that mission, she says. “Over the past four years, the U.S. Small Business Administration has been working hard to create more access for entrepreneurs and more opportunities for lenders to work with the small businesses in their communities. The NBA and our network of lending partners are on the frontlines of these efforts to revitalize our economy and communities.”

In her statement, Johns ticked off a list of services available to strengthen small businesses and “underserved communities”. They include the Small Loan Advantage (SLA) program and Community Advantage lenders, she listed.

In fiscal year 2013 alone, she reported, the SLA Program “has already surpassed total SLA loans and approved SLA dollars in FY 2012 and 2011 combined, with more than 1,000 loans approved for a total of nearly $150,000,000 since the start of the fiscal year.”

Deputy administrator Johns is already a presidential appointee, nominated by President Obama on December 17, 2009, and confirmed by unanimous consent in the Senate. Her bio on sba.gov boasts more than $30 billion in lending to more than 60,000 small businesses across the country.

“That is the most capital going to small businesses in the history of the SBA,” it states. She doesn’t have to convince Grant: “At a White House news briefing three years ago, President Barack Obama announced a number of new initiatives designed to streamline SBA guidelines and render the agency more user-friendly. Working in tandem with the Administration, Ms. Johns used her business savvy and exceptional executive skills to bring a more modern and less cumbersome SBA to community banks and small businesses, in general, and minority banks and minority-owned business enterprises in particular.”

March 24, 2013

Amazon Removes Racist Game After Black Press Story
By Chris B. Bennett

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Seattle Medium

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Amazon.com has removed Ghettopoly, a racially insensitive board game modeled after Hasbro’s popular board game Monopoly, from its website after a ground-swell of grassroots activism prompted the retail giant to no longer allow the game to be sold through its online system.

The game — which features a pimp, a hoe, a 40-ounce bottle, a machine gun (oozie), a marijuana leaf, a basketball and a piece of crack as game pieces — was previously removed from the shelves from Urban Outfitters in 2003 after a nationwide protest by the NAACP that ultimately led to the game being barred from sale in the United States after Hasbro sued the inventor of the game, David Chang, for copyright infringement.

People from many sectors of the community took action after The Seattle Medium published a story, in the March 13, 2013 edition, about the availability of the game through Amazon’s website. Some people were so outraged that threaten to cancel their Amazon account if they game was not removed from the site.

Richard Johnson, former president of the Central Area Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Kent Black Action Committee, was so outraged by the sale of this game through Amazon that he started an online petition.

“I am starting a campaign to  tell Amazon.com to stop selling the racially offensive board game called Ghettopoly,” wrote Johnson in an email to community leaders. “The battle to stop the sale of  this game was originally fought back in 2003. Now its back being sold as a collector’s item. Once again we need to stand up and not accept this outrage. ‘Racism is Not A Game.’”

Gwen Allen-Carston, executive director of the Kent Black Action Commission, immediately took action after hearing that the game was being sold through Amazon as well. Allen-Carston not only signed the online petition started by Johnson, she called and e-mailed Amazon and encouraged others to do the same.

“I have raised my voice against this to Amazon and am looking forward to others doing the same,” wrote Allen in a social media post. “This madness has to stop.... SHAME SHAME SHAME ON YOU AMAZON!

Former Seattle/King County NAACP president Carl Mack, the catalyst for the 2003 protest, lent his support after hearing that Amazon apparently had taken no action to remove the game after being notified that the game was available through their website.

According to Amazon’s website, ‘listings for items that Amazon deems offensive are prohibited on Amazon.com. Amazon reserves the right to determine the appropriateness of listings on its site, and remove any listing at any time.’ Examples of prohibited listings include, ‘Products that promote or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual or religious intolerance or promote organizations with such views.’

“Here is their policy about racial insensitive material,” said Mack in an article that appeared in the March 13, 2013 edition of The Seattle Medium. “Given their policy, they still don’t appear to have a problem with selling this [game]. In our minds they don’t value diversity, and they certainly don’t value the dignity of Black folks as clients.”

On Friday morning, March 15, the issue with Amazon and Ghettopoly was escalated even further during The Seattle Medium’s Rhythm and News radio program, as host Chris B. Bennett, co-publisher of The Seattle Medium held a roundtable discussion with Rev. Carl Livingston, Florida-based political analyst/commentator Opio Sokoni and Hazel Trice Edney, editor-in-chief of the TriceEdney News Wire where they talked about the game and its distribution through Amazon. The trio of guests empowered many listeners not only in Seattle, but across the country to contact Amazon and demand that the game be removed from their website.

“When it’s all said and done, we’re  the ones that are going to have to stand up and say something about this,” said Sokoni. “So, I would encourage people to call [Amazon] and let them know that this is unacceptable.”

Mack, who now resides in Maryland and was inspired by the level of activism that was taking place with regards to this issue, wrote the following post on his Facebook Page last Friday to encourage people to sign the online petition:

“Family, I need some help reminding Amazon and any other company who sells racially insensitive crap that we can hurt them economically too... Amazon should be ashamed of themselves. I am not sure I am going to forgive them”

Allen-Carston received an email from Amazon over the weekend stating that the game was no longer available on their site.

“All I did was make a phone call and send an email, with passion and concern,” said Allen-Carston. “It may not be much, but, it is a step in a direction which moves me forward to do more.”

Despite the swift removal of the game from their website, many community members still find fault with Amazon for not removing the game without being forced to do so by the community.

“Their handling of Ghettopoly is commendable but I’m sorry to see that it took the community to light some fire under them in order for them to take it down.,” said Adam Myers, a local business owner and life member of the NAACP.

Amazon has not responded to The Medium’s request for comments since removing the game from their site.

March 24, 2013

Nearly Three Centuries Later, Black Press Still Pleading Cause
By Deniqua Campbell

Unarmed Wendell Allen was shot in the back, killed by a New Orleans Police officer.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Wendell Allen’s life came to an abrupt end on March 7 last year as he died shirtless, standing on a staircase, at his Gentilly home in New Orleans, La.

Unarmed, the 20-year-old basketball star was shot in his back by New Orleans Police Department officer Josh Colclough. For six weeks the Allen family believed their child was shot in his chest until the embalmer revealed that Allen was actually shot in his back.

Yet, newspaper readers in New Orleans noticed two starkly different news priorities on the stands and in the streets.  Louisiana Weekly, a Black-owned paper, had the Wendell Allen shooting on the front cover. Right beside it, was the Times-Picayune, a White daily newspaper that had no mention of the Allen shooting. Instead, the cover featured a Black male being charged with multiple counts of murder.

In interviews over the past year, seasoned journalists say the differences in coverage between White and Black-owned media - whether print or broadcast - continue to be clear.

News outlets like CNN, MSNBC, BBC and Fox News, all cover certain types of stories from a certain perspective. “Black press is the voice of the Black community,” said Ingrid Sturgis, journalism professor of new media and multimedia expert at Howard University. “Our story doesn’t always get heard in mainstream media.”

Award-winning Black press reporter Hazel Trice Edney agrees. “Both of these stories are important,” said Edney, editor/publisher of the Trice Edney News Wire. “It is typical across America that when Black newspapers come out they have distinctly different stories than White newspapers.”

On August 13, 1977 an article headlined A little About A lot—The Need for the Black Press, was featured in the Baltimore Afro-American that detailed former dean of the School of Communications, Dr. Lionel C. Barrow’s four reasons for Black press. According to Barrow the Black press functioned as a watch dog, answered attacks published in the White press, presented a view point different even from that of liberal whites and, the black press also served as the carrier and preserver of Black culture.

Marrow did not deny that there were still improvements that needed to be made, improvements on production, in investigating and in reporting, writing and editing. But considering other issues Black media has faced, its survival is incredible.

“The strength of the Black press would be that it always relied on context and providing perspective,” said George Curry, award-winning journalist who is editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service.

Curry reflected on when he interviewed the family of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen shot dead by Neighborhood Watch captain George Zimmerman on Feb. 28, 2012, a highly publicized court case now set for court June 10.

“No one was doing a story on how the news broke to Martin’s father,” Curry said.

While reporters of White publications were sticking to the basics and investigating the case, Curry went for an intimate and personal story.

“Urgency is not such a big problem,” Curry said. “It’s worth the wait because we don’t come out with the same frequency as other newspapers.”

Today the Black press faces issues within its own agencies. Perhaps the biggest is technological advancement. According to the State of the News Media in 2007, an annual report by the Pew Research Center on American journalism, “the black press has been slow to technology, and its audience appears to be aging.”

Pew’s State of the Media 2013 reports a new Black press hurdle – how to attract the attention of new, younger readers.

“One of the broader challenges for African-American news media in general, and most notably the newspaper sector, is striking a balance between appealing to a younger generation with a contemporary product and fulfilling a mission to honor a history that includes the defining civil rights struggle of a half-century ago,” the report states.

‘“History has got to be a definitive weave in what we do,”’ said John J. (Jake) Oliver Jr., the publisher and chief executive of the Afro-American newspapers in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., was quoted in the Pew Study. ‘“We’ve got to redefine our personality from just a straight delivery of community news to helping people really educate themselves.”’

The Black press has an extensive history dating back to March 16, 1827. That is when the first Black newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, was founded in New York City by John B. Russwurm, a journalist, and Samuel Cornish, a minister. It's first editorial stated, "We wish to plead our own cause. For too long have others spoken for us."

Because of its longevity, now 186 years old, some find it hard to fathom why the Black press isn’t the biggest and most advanced among all media in the U.S. But, there are many reasons its numeric growth has been stunted.

“Technological advancement is an issue and it remains an issue,” Edney said. “But we’re working on that. There are many black newspapers that are online and there are many that are not.”

According to Sturgis, it has a lot to do with resources. “A lack of resources, reporters, funding to do in depth pieces, and training in new media hampers the ability to cover what needs to be covered as well as the ability to grow,” Sturgis said.

Financial struggles due to racial discrimination in advertising have also been a complaint by NNPA, a federation of more than 200 Black-owned newspapers, founded in 1940. The organization has launched many strategic campaigns calling on fair share in advertising from major corporations.

But the Black press isn’t losing its older audience. Curry admits that the older audience is a lot more appreciative of news and Edney agrees that there are faithful readers of Black newspapers that have strong contingencies within the community. The biggest concern Edney has with the black press is getting online and becoming more technology savvy.

“Because of the urgency of our issues, we must use every opportunity available to get our message out,” Edney said.

According to the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, 83 percent of U.S. adults own a cell phone. Of these adults, 35 percent of them own a smart phone and one quarter of them use their phone as their main source of internet access. This is a trend that is especially found among 18 to 29-year-old adults who identify themselves as Black.

Pew Internet research shows that “when someone has a mobile device connected to the internet, they are more likely to share, to forward, to create and to consume online information, from text to photos to videos.”

Curry said, “You’re not going to reach the younger audience through print…You have to reach them through a mobile platform.”

The Black press, aiming to play a vital role in the lives of African-Americans, has been serving the community to bring perspective and context for over 100 years. Black press continues to do its part in telling the story and keeping its readers loyal. “You have to give them something they can’t get anywhere else,” Curry said.

Two months into Wendell Allen’s death, the Allen family remained outraged at the slowness of the investigation.

“They feel that because their son is African-American, the police department is taking its time investigating the incident,” said the Rev. Raymond Brown, president and founder of National Action Now during a press conference at the Allen home.

According to Louisiana Weekly, the shooting took place inside the Allen’s home during an execution of a search warrant for marijuana. Since the shooting, Allen has not been linked to the marijuana allegedly sold in or near the home.

Eventually, Colclough was indicted by a state grand jury on one account of man slaughter regarding Allen’s death.

A year after the shooting Colclough awaits trial and no date has yet been set. Meanwhile, the family, early this month, filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the City of New Orleans, accusing the New Orleans Police department of several civil rights violations.

Though the Times-Picayune has done extensive reporting on the case, the Louisiana Weekly – in keeping with the Black Press mission – has not only lead the way, but agitated for justice, Edney says.

“The White press [still] criminalizes and stereotypes us,” Edney said. “We need to bring a sense of fairness and balance to the media consciousness.”

Independent Police Monitor Issues Report on New Orleans' Stop-and-Frisk 
By Fritz Esker 

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Louisiana Weekly

The Independent Police Monitor has released the “Review of the New Orleans Police Department’s Field Interview Policies, Practices, and Data,” examining the “stop and frisk” procedures of the department that was catapulted into national spotlight after gross police misconduct during the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina.

The report was originally intended to determine if the stop-and-frisk practices met legal standards. The stop and frisk procedure can be a tool for investigating potentially criminal activity, but it is vulnerable to abuse and violations of constitutional rights.

“We are looking very thoroughly at this issue,” said Susan Hutson, New Orleans Independent Police Monitor. “This report is important for the people of New Orleans because citizens complain of profiling and unfair targeting regularly…If the NOPD implements our recommendations, it will help to heal the police/community divide on this issue.”

The report could not fully determine if the NOPD’s policies met with legal standards. After requesting a review from the Office of the Inspector General, the monitor determined the data was flawed and could not be statistically analyzed.

Hutson said the data provided by the NOPD was too vague. Many of the incidents were entered into the system as resulting from catch-all descriptions such as “suspicious person” or “call for assistance.” Neither designation provided enough information to determine if the stop was legitimate.

Other issues arose, too. If a car was stopped and there were three passengers inside, the entries did not make it clear if one person in the car was searched or if all three were searched.

Aside from improving its data input and collection, the report also recommended that NOPD officers receive better practical training on when to implement the stop-and-frisk policy. There are gray areas on when to conduct searches and it can be difficult for an officer to know what the right choice is in the heat of the moment.

“The 4th Amendment is tough,” Hutson said. “You really have to look at a lot of cases to understand what it means.”

Other recommendations-invol­ved quality control measures. In making the report, Hutson’s team studied police forces in other cities. One recommendation is to hand out a receipt or a business card to any person who has been subject to a search. This way, the person has a record of the stop, the officer’s name, and why the search occurred.

Ursula Price, executive director of community relations for the New Orleans Office of Inde­pendent Police Monitor, said the community should continue to demand accountability for issues they are concerned about, asking for answers and identifying policies that they want to change. The recently released report was initiated because the public wanted an evaluation of the stop and frisk procedures.

“If the community is concerned about something, they should take up the mantle and demand change,” Price said.

The NOPD did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.