Thursday, December 31, 2009

Black News: Fox News May Be Taken off the Air

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- As New Year's revelers count down to the end of 2009, time is also running out for Time Warner Cable and Fox to agree to a new contract.

Time Warner Cable and News Corp. (NWS, Fortune 500), Fox's parent company, have been locked in a public battle over how much the cable giant should pay for the right to deliver Fox networks into its subscribers' homes.

If a deal is not reached before midnight Thursday, all of the Fox-owned broadcast networks and some of its cable channels could disappear for most of Time Warner Cable's 13 million subscribers on New Year's Day.

News Corp. wants to charge Time Warner Cable (TWC) $1 per subscriber for airing its broadcast station, Fox. The contracts for six Fox cable channels -- FX, Speed, Fuel TV, Fox Reality, Fox Soccer and Fox Sports en Español -- as well as certain regional sports networks are also slated to expire. But Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network will not be affected.

Public officials weigh in

As the deadline approaches, a flurry of government officials are trying to intervene. On Thursday, Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., wrote a letter calling for a 30-day "cooling off period" to avoid programming blackouts. Time Warner Cable responded that it would agree to an interim agreement, but a Fox Network representative said the company was not ready to agree to that temporary deal and would continue to negotiate.

Click to read.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Jesse Jackson has something to say about the death of Mark Anthony Barmore

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said a “miscarriage of justice” was performed by a Winnebago County grand jury Wednesday, when it decided two Rockford officers were justified in fatally shooting an unarmed man inside a day care.
The civil rights leader and his Rainbow PUSH Coalition has taken up the cause of Sheila and Marissa Brown, both of whom were present Aug. 24 when 23-year-old Mark Anthony Barmore was shot and killed inside the House of Grace Day Care, a part of the Kingdom Authority International Ministries at 518 N. Court St.
The grand jury made its ruling Wednesday without hearing testimony from the two witnesses, who are out of town for the Christmas holiday.
“I’m extremely disappointed,” Jackson said Thursday. “We were hoping that the outstanding facts of the case would prevail over politics.
“An unarmed man shot in the back is justified homicide? This is a miscarriage of justice.”
Jackson is expected to announce at a 3 p.m. news conference Saturday at the Kingdom Authority church that the Browns’ next course of action will be to seek a federal probe into the investigation.

 

Click to read.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Black Commentators Have something to Say - 12/23/09

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

President Obama Responds to Black Criticism

President Barack Obama on Monday rebutted critics who say he isn't showing enough compassion toward black America, citing his health care effort as one example he says "will be hugely important" for blacks.

Obama said another example is the billions of dollars in aid to states included in the economic stimulus bill, money that was used to save thousands of teachers, firefighters and police officers from losing their jobs. He said many of those workers are black.

"So this notion, somehow, that because there wasn't a transformation overnight that we've been neglectful is just simply, factually not accurate," Obama said in an Oval Office interview with April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks.

But the president acknowledged there are limits to what a president can do for any class of people.

"The only thing I cannot do is, by law, I cannot pass laws that say 'I'm just helping black folks.' I'm the president of the entire United States," Obama said, giving his standard answer to questions about the economic and other disparities facing blacks.

"What I can do is make sure that I am passing laws that help all people, particularly those who are most vulnerable and most in need," he said. "That in turn is going to help lift up the African-American community."

Click to read.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Dr. Boyce Watkins: Why the NCAA is the greatest scam of the 20th and 21st centuries

Read More: Education, Florida State University, Football, NCAA, Seminoles, Sports, Student, University

Educational mission of NCAA is great scam of 21st century

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University 

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According to the ESPN Show "Outside the Lines," the Florida State Seminoles appear to be about everything except education.

In order to win games and make millions, football players are having their majors chosen for them, and many athletes are being conveniently misdiagnosed as learning disabled. One recent episode stated that one-half of all Florida State University football players and three-fourths of their African-American athletes are Social Science majors (indicative of major clustering). One of the academic counselors said that when she started her tenure, there were 15 football players tagged as learning disabled. That number has since spiked to 65.

When the allegations were released, Florida State University started backpedaling faster than an NFL defensive back. The NCAA has done its usual grandstanding, detaching itself from the Seminoles, as if this doesn't also happen at nearly every other campus under its domain.

But the truth is that this behavior is not uncommon. If you think that Florida State University is the only NCAAschool to engage in such destructive and irresponsible behavior, then you need to be educated on how many campuses now do business. College athletes, many of them African-American, are brought to college as hired guns, under the guise of getting an education. The entire charade is sustained for the sake of helping the NCAAmaintain its multi-billion dollar professional sports league.

Yes, I said professional, not amateur. Any league that earns money on par with the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB is a professional sports league. NCAA coaches, commentators and administrators - mostly white - earn six and seven figure salaries while simultaneously robbing athletes of their educations, their futures, and the money that they and their families have earned. In order to avoid paying taxes on their revenue, the NCAA spends millions on marketing to convince us that their multi-million dollar corporate extravaganzas are polite little weekend activities that students barely remember to keep on their schedules. All the while, Tyrone Smith attends four years of college and doesn't even learn how to read.

For the NCAA, the educational mission of their professional sports league is one of the great scams of the 20th and 21st centuries, no different from the Ponzi schemes of Bernie Madoff. It is a convenient illusion, like Tiger's wife using the golf club to "save him from a car accident."

 

Click to read.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Obama’s Grade for Performance: What Should it Be?

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University , Your Black World 

The other night on the Oprah Winfrey Christmas special, President Barack Obama made an unwise move. When asked what grade he deserves as president, Obama gave himself a B+. Giving himself a grade was not necessarily the best decision, since there are over 300 million Americans who then realized that they should be giving him grades as well.
So, allow me to be the first to provide our president with a grade for his performance. I've been giving grades to college students for the last 16 years, and one thing my students will tell you is that I am fair. My other argument is that I never actually GIVE you a grade; I simply report the grade that you've earned.
1) Handling of the Economy (B-): President Obama is better than John McCain ever could have been when it comes to managing our economic downturn. The problem is that while the president has spiraled our deficit out of control, our nation has yet to see any concrete evidence that the economy's fundamental strength has returned. He has made an enemy out of Wall Street by grandstanding around executive pay issues, but he has lost the backing of Main Street because job losses continue to mount. That's the problem with always reaching across the isle: Sometimes, you don't have firm support on either side of it. The president's inability to translate massive spending into real jobs is going to cost him big time.
2) Management of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (B): On one hand, the president must face the stern reality that you can't just walk out of a war in the middle of it. We all know that Bush got us into these messes, and Obama must get us out. At the same time, Obama pledged to get us out of the wars faster than he is actually doing it, and it is incredibly awkward for a man to accept a Nobel Peace Prize while simultaneously escalating the troop presence in an occupied country. Sure Obama didn't give himself the Nobel Prize, but he still must be held accountable.

 

Click to read.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Eric Holder Talks to Black Fathers in a way that Doesn’t Make Sense

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University 

 

Elliot Millner brought it to my attention that Attorney General Eric Holder has been apparently spending a lot of time with Bill Cosby these days. In a recent speech at a black church in Queens, NY, Holder took a page out of the Barack Obama Campaign Catalog and chose to win favors with the black middle class by recklessly bashing away at absentee fathers and returning to the whole "ya'll just need to grow up and be more responsible" argument that allows any politician to explain away a blatant disregard for meaningful public policy. Rather than talking about things that we can do as a society to take our collective foot off the necks of black men, he chose to say that black men are choosing to put the foot on their own necks.
Elliot Millner, who is also in the legal profession, intelligently said the things that I am sure Eric Holder wanted to say. But unlike Holder, Millner is not constrained by the political shackles that come with being an appointed leader in a society that makes a habit of oppressing, destroying and marginalizing black men.
In his speech, Holder said that, "It should simply be unacceptable for a man to have a child and then not play an integral part in the raising and nurturing of the child."
That quote is a nice way of reflecting on the obvious. It's sort of like saying, "It should be unacceptable for a black man to become the Attorney General of the United States and not play an integral part in helping other black men overcome the blatantly racist and destructive justice system over which you preside."

Click to read.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Tiger Woods and Race: Are there any racial complexities here?

Dr. Boyce Watkins is on CNN with Don Lemon wondering if Tiger Woods will be "OJ Simpsonized" by the recent events in his personal life.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Graduation Gap for Black Athletes is Rising in College Sports

The disparity between graduation rates for white and black college football players at schools headed to bowl games grew slightly this year, according to a study released Monday.
The annual report by the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport also showed overall academic progress. But there were 21 schools that graduated fewer than 50 percent of their black football players, the study found. That's up from 19 last year.
Richard Lapchick, the director of the institute, said the widening gap between whites and blacks was surprising because those numbers had closed in recent years.
"That could be a temporary blip, but it certainly caught me by surprise," he said. "I think part of it is the urban education system where a lot of the African-American students come from is so depleted. Too many student-athletes recruited from those areas are so far behind when they come to college, it's difficult to catch up."

 

Click to read.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Your Black News: Is Obama Losing His Black Supporters?

Obama's Black Support Eroding

From AOL Black Voices 

It has taken less than one full year, but it seems that President Barack Obama's massive support among black mainstream leaders is starting to show some cracks.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have voiced concerns in recent weeks that Obama needs to spend less time worrying about bailouts of massive industry and more time thinking about black folks, who are his most ardent supporters and have been hit hardest by the economic downturn.

Now the Rev. Jesse Jackson is adding his voice to those who believe Obama isn't doing enough to help the base of his support.

Jackson, a civil rights giant who has seen his influence wane in recent years, told a crowd at a California rally this week that Obama has misplaced his priorities in spending for the bailout of banks and sending additional soldiers to Afghanistan while poor people struggle here.

Click to read.

Dr. Deborah Stroman Takes CNN To Task Over Tiger Woods

by Dr. Deborah Stroman 

 

Tiger Woods has a problem and now so do I. I was naïve to think that I could survive this holiday season of Tigervision with its seemingly minute-by-minute reports of his self-described transgressions. Every media outlet needs a story to remain viable in this world of at-your-touch news and Tiger’s naughtiness provides the perfect scoop. This tale probably has no beginning and quite possibly no end. However, my nerves became frayed and I saw the immediate end of my sideline observer role when I changed the channel and popped in on the Joy Behar Show. As they discussed the latest Tiger escapade, Ms. Behar cleverly asked for insight on how the African-American community might possibly feel about his sins. Her query was directed to a female African-American guest, Karith Foster, who calmly stated that Tiger was finally acting like a black athlete. Pump your brakes!

Although Ms. Foster’s listed occupation is comedian, she made her bold statement sans smile or giggle. She was very serious and obviously hurt by his choice of women in this scandal. She went on to describe how the black athlete needs a white woman – a trophy wife – to be successful. Ms. Foster’s understanding of the black male athlete is a stereotype and confusion-filled. Shame on her and the media for supporting the racist mindset that promulgates a representation of the black male athlete as a superhuman man that seeks sexual pleasure from every white female that worships his athletic prowess. Surely we in 2009 know better, right? Yes, the ESPNification of our sports world has created larger than life entertainment figures. Money, power and women. That’s the ticket out of a poor situation – mentally and physically. It is no longer satisfactory to score a touchdown and hand the ball to the referee or dunk the basketball and hustle back to play defense. Instead we see many of our athletes (and more likely a black man) showboating, drawing attention to themselves, and discounting the teamwork necessary to achieve such success. We as fans are drawn to the television waiting to see the clownish antics instead of running to the restroom or going back for more chips.

Click to read.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Read Obama’s Acceptance Speech for the Nobel Prize

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Distinguished Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, citizens of America, and citizens of the world:

I receive this honor with deep gratitude and great humility. It is an award that speaks to our highest aspirations — that for all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice.

And yet I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated. In part, this is because I am at the beginning, and not the end, of my labors on the world stage. Compared to some of the giants of history who have received this prize — Schweitzer and King; Marshall and Mandela — my accomplishments are slight. And then there are the men and women around the world who have been jailed and beaten in the pursuit of justice; those who toil in humanitarian organizations to relieve suffering; the unrecognized millions whose quiet acts of courage and compassion inspire even the most hardened of cynics. I cannot argue with those who find these men and women — some known, some obscure to all but those they help — to be far more deserving of this honor than I.

But perhaps the most profound issue surrounding my receipt of this prize is the fact that I am the Commander-in-Chief of a nation in the midst of two wars. One of these wars is winding down. The other is a conflict that America did not seek; one in which we are joined by 43 other countries — including Norway — in an effort to defend ourselves and all nations from further attacks.

Still, we are at war, and I am responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill. Some will be killed. And so I come here with an acute sense of the cost of armed conflict — filled with difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace, and our effort to replace one with the other.

 

Click to read.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Legal News: Cheat on your spouse – you can get sued

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- The next time a married man or woman glances your way, you might think twice before acting on impulse and frolicking between satin sheets. The scorned spouse could sue you.

Yes, you read that right. You, the paramour, can get hit with a lawsuit that could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars.

They're known as "alienation of affection" suits, when an "outsider" interferes in amarriage. The suits are allowed in seven states: Hawaii, Illinois, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota and Utah.

The law allowing such legal action dates back to antiquated times when a wife was considered the property of a husband. A broken-hearted hubby could go after his wife's lover -- not with a gun, but with the law.

 

Click to read.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Black Scholar News: Syracuse Students Debate Dr. Boyce Watkins’ Work with the University

Watkins, a finance professor at SU, is ignored by the administration.

By Naresh Vissa

In January 2007, college student Heather Ellis and her cousin stood in two lines at Wal-Mart. They agreed that the first to reach a register would combine the items for purchase. When the African-American Ellis gave her cousin the groceries, bystanders behind complained that she had cut. After some verbal exchanges, Ellis walked to her car and found the police waiting to arrest her. She tried her best to resist and suffered numerous cuts and bruises in the process.

Today, Ellis should be in medical school. Instead, she has pled guilty to charges of disturbing the peace and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors.

The case was covered by CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, Good Morning America, The Today Show and every major black media outlet in America. Even more importantly, Syracuse University is connected to it, but hasn’t issued any statements. As a producer of two radio shows, I myself find it embarrassing that I discovered Ellis through a press release pitch e-mail I received.

At the forefront of all the outrage is Whitman School of Management Finance Professor Dr. Boyce Watkins, but it’s not getting any attention from SU administrators.

“I’ve come to accept the fact that the University is not appreciative of my work,” Watkins said. “It’s part of their tradition when it comes to progressive black scholars. If I’d learned to sit down and shut up, I might be treated better. Quiet Negroes do quite well in academia.”

Click to read.

One Nation?

Last week members of the Congressional Black Caucus took President Obama to task for his inattention to the high rate of black unemployment - a rate much higher than the overall rate. By Friday, some progress on the unemployment front had been reported - the rate was down to 10 percent in November, from the October high of 10.2 percent. African American unemployment, though, was at the astounding level of 15.6 percent. Why don't the high levels of African American unemployment deserve special attention?

President Obama says he is working for our entire nation, and that when unemployment rates drop, they will drop for everyone. Perhaps that is what he has to say. But even Ray Charles can see the disproportionate unemployment burden that the African American community is carrying. Targeted public policy is the only way to close the unemployment rate gap.

Our nation has a history of targeting public policy. When it appeared that banks were especially imperiled, we bailed banks, but not other industries out. Indeed, there was much debate about why bankers should get $700 billion when others also faced challenges. The faulty logic that applied was that banks had special challenges at the beginning of the recession, and that the money spent bailing out banks would have ripple effects throughout our economy. Next, there were special provisions made for the housing industry, with bailouts and concessions made to those who had mortgages they could not pay. Again, the logic was that these citizens have special roles in our society and economy. Renters were left out of these special financial provisions. We targeted homeowners.

Why, then, is it such an anathema to target African Americans? Believe me, if it were Wall Street brokers with an unemployment rate of 15.6 percent, one and a half times the overall rate, there would be some special program developed for those brokers! Someone would take to the floor of Congress to speak of the special plight of those brokers and to wax eloquent about why they deserve a break. The logic that when the overall rate drops, the broker rate will also drop, would be scoffed at! Can't you envision the special pleading that would go to save the brokers?

The African American unemployment rate is a national disgrace. The reported rate, 15.6 percent, is an extreme underestimate. Last month, for the first time, economists began to note that the actual overall unemployment rate was 17.5 percent, including discouraged workers and others. This month, the rate dropped slightly to 17.2 percent. If there are the same numbers of discouraged workers in the African American community as in the overall community, the African American unemployment rate is more like 27 percent. And it can be argued that there are proportionately more African Americans who are discouraged and out of the labor force that whites.

The congressional black caucus is right to raise the issue of high black unemployment rates, and the President is wrong to assume that his "one nation" strategy is adequate. To be sure, Brother President has plenty on his plate - a war on at least two fronts, climate change, a staggering economy, health care, and so on. And, to be clear, President Barack Obama is the president of all of American, not just black American. Still, because we have seen targeting before, it is unclear why we can't see it now. The president of our entire nation must ensure that every sector in our nation has an opportunity to benefit from economic recovery.

If we are really pursuing a "one nation" strategy, why single any group out, ever. Why provide bailouts for bankers and for few others, why target home mortgages and not small business loans? We are seduced by the logic that some sectors are more important than others, that some sectors have an impact greater than others. The Congressional Black Caucus deserves high props for breaking its silence and raising the issue of high black unemployment rates. President Obama ought to pay attention to the fact that in our "one nation" some groups of people are feeling more than their fair share of this recession's impact.

Dr. Julianne Malveaux is an economist, author and commentator, and the Founder & Thought Leader of Last Word Productions, Inc., a multimedia production company.

Last Word Productions, Inc. is a multimedia production company that serves as a vehicle for the work and products of Dr. Julianne Malveaux. For the last 10 years the company has centered its efforts on Dr. Malveaux's public speaking appearances, her work as a broadcast and print journalist, and also as an author. Currently, Julianne Malveaux is President of Bennett College For Women in Greensboro, North Carolina.

To find more of Dr. Julianne Malveaux's columns, work and appearances please visit:
www.juliannemalveaux.com

Financial News: UCLA Students Running into Major Financial Trouble

Watch this video, which describes the financial trauma for UCLA students as the result of a recent tuition hike.

Dr. Boyce Watkins: Tiger Woods’ Women Will Cost Him $100 Million Dollars

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, AOL Black Voices 

The last thing I expected to be thinking about after getting off an airplane are Tiger Woods' women and his indiscretions. I've seen married men misbehave before, and I honestly thought we were at the "no big deal, he'll get over it" stage when it came to Tiger Woods and his corporate brand. The problem is that the list of Tiger Woods women has gotten so long that it's making him look like a PGA version of Wilt Chamberlain or Charlie Sheen.
Tiger Woods does not have a brand that will be able to withstand long lists of cocktail waitresses and "sex addicted cougars" (according to the New York Post), even if the media is exaggerating in their descriptions. The truth is that as great of a golfer as Tiger Woods might be, it could be the women of Tiger Woods who cost him a substantial piece of his fortune.
I spoke recently about how Saturday Night Live went over the line by making light of the alleged domestic violence between Tiger and his wife, Elin Nordegren. While I stand by that perspective (we would never excuse Tiger for trying to whack his wife in the head with a golf club), the truth is that there are broader implications for the fact that the list of Tiger Woods women just happens to be longer than the Dead Sea Scrolls. Whether Tiger likes it or not, the truth is that there are thousands of women across America who are cheering for Elin's decision to chase her husband with a deadly weapon. This has huge implications for Tiger's ability to sell products to American families, where women are the primary decision-makers in household consumption.

 

 

click to read.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Obama Is Happy: Unemployment Drops a Little

In the strongest employment report since the recession began nearly two years ago, the government said Friday that the nation’s employers had all but stopped shedding jobs in November, taking some of the pressure off of President Obama to come up with a jobs creation program.

Enlarge This Image

Michael Reynolds/European Pressphoto Agency

Demonstrators outside the White House on Thursday as President Obama met with business leaders and economists to seek ideas for creating jobs.

The Labor Department reported that the United States economy lost 11,000 jobs in November, and the unemployment rate fell to 10 percent, down from 10.2 percent in October.

The government also significantly revised its September and October job loss estimates. September’s data was adjusted to show a loss of 139,000 jobs instead of 219,000, and in October 111,000 jobs were lost, instead of 190,000. Even allowing for the November loss, the revisions added 148,000 people to the list of those employed in the United States in November.

Though the pace of job loss has been declining since a peak in January, the November number was surprising. Economists had been expecting a turning point to come in the late spring or summer, with employers finally adding workers as a recovery takes hold. The last time the number was so bright was in December 2007, when the economy added 120,000 jobs.

“It is clearly a much better picture, and appears to be mostly genuine,” said Nigel Gault, chief domestic economist at IHS Global Insight, who said he was encouraged by gains in the average workweek and the number of temporary workers hired. “It shows employers have come back so much and are starting to rehire.”

Click to read.

Your Black News: Congressional Black Caucus vs. Barack Obama

Rep. Maxine Waters is joined by members of the Congressional Black Caucus for a news conference.

The long-simmering family feud between the Congressional Black Caucus and the first African-American president burst into the open on Wednesday, with members boycotting a financial overhaul vote as a warning shot at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

The 43-member caucus — which included Illinois Sen. Barack Obama from 2004 to 2008 — has chafed against President Obama and his top aides since the Inauguration, complaining that the White House takes it for granted and plays favorites with conservative Blue Dog Democrats.

Ten CBC members decided to boycott the House Financial Services Committee vote en masse after a tumultuous morning meeting at the Capitol between Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel failed to yield a deal, according to people familiar with the meeting.

The bill passed easily, but Waters suggested the CBC’s 43 members could vote with the GOP to scuttle a variety of Democratic bills if Obama and Emanuel don’t address what she thinks is a lack of understanding of the CBC’s wide-ranging goals of reducing urban unemployment, home foreclosures and bank failures.

“I think that it is important for us to educate those people around [Obama],” Waters told reporters. “We’ve got to get his people educated and moving. We have not brought these issues to him personally — it is important first to educate those people around him so they understand.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), who recently accused Obama of bowing down to the GOP on health care reform, was more pointed, shouting “Yes!” when asked if he was disappointed with Obama’s level of attentiveness to African-Americans’ needs.

He added that he had an extensive list of issues with the president — a list he said was too long to disgorge in a hallway conversation with a reporter.

 

 

 

 

Click to read more.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Too Many in College?

by Dr. Julianne Malveaux

A week or so ago, I had the privilege of participating in a conversation on NPR about college attendance. Sparked by a conversation in the Chronicle of Higher Education, a group of "experts" were opining that too many people are going to college. Too many? Conservative and racially biased Charles Murray (author of The Bell Curve) thinks that too few high school students have the cognition to successfully navigate college attendance. Marty Nemko says it is a cost-benefit thing. Sandy Baum says that everyone should have opportunity and access. Nobody mentions race, but I think it is the elephant in the room. Too many white folks are opining that too many people go to college, but their kids are in college. So do they really mean that too many black folks go to college? Are their objections really about reinforcing a class system?

Here is what we know about the benefits that come from college attendance:

·College graduates have lower unemployment rates than those who did not graduate from college.

·College graduates have higher lifetime earning than those who did not graduate from college.

·College graduates are more likely to vote, and to be civically involved than those who did not graduate from college.

·College graduates are more likely to contribute to philanthropic causes and to volunteer than those who did not graduate from college.

Click to read more.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Why are Black Couples Not Staying Married?

Are black men or black women the ones to blame in the decline in African American marriage?

Should Black Preachers Be Preaching about Money?

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University, Your Black World 

Nearly every African American knows just how important the black church is to our community. We also know about "prosperity gospel," the act of preaching about God within the context of wealth building. I admit that this form of faith is a bit odd to me. I am a Finance Professor and I become confused when my pastor talks about money more than I do. The saddest truth is that it's hard to tell the difference between a pastor and a pimp: Most pastors aren't pimps, but any pimp could be a pastor. The same skill set is required in both professions.


My father is a preacher, but he almost never preaches about money. I've never heard him asking for money on the pulpit, or mentioning that giving money to him is one of the keys to gaining access to heaven. But I don't presume that my father is right about all things, and given that I write about money on a regular basis, I have gained an appreciation for what financial resources can do to enhance your life. Also, one must be aware of the pragmatic realities of running a church: You have the building fund, bills to pay every month and any community service initiatives that the church chooses to pursue. The proper use of money can certainly enhance your ability to do God's work.

 

Click to read.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Obama’s Security Threatened by White Privilege

Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III

On the evening of Tuesday, November 24 a young couple from Virginia made their way into one of the most secure events in the country, President Obama’s state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Monmohan Singh and his wife at the White House. Like the other 300 plus invited guests, Tareq and Michaele Salahi went through multiple layers of Secret Service security, took photos with Chief of Staff Rom Emanuel and mingled with Vice President Biden and other invited guests. The problem is that the Salahi’s were not invited to the dinner. Their names were not listed on the official guest list or any other list that would have allowed them entrance into the White House. They crashed the party!

All that this couple needed to gain entrance into a state dinner at the White House was a tuxedo, traditional Indian evening wear, attitude, and white skin. When they arrived at the Secret Service check point without a printed invitation and without their names on the official guest list, they were not detained or questioned. No telephone calls were made; no further inquiries were needed; just white skin, blond hair, the expectation of admittance, and a pretty smile. Had this occurred at an airport the Salahi’s would have never made it past airport security.

Click to read.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

President Obama Gets Low Support Among Whites

President Obama's approval among white Americans has fallen to 39 percent since taking office in January, Gallup Daily poll results indicated.

Overall, Obama's approval rating slipped below 50 percent for the first time in his presidency, a 16 percentage point drop since the 66 percent average he enjoyed during his first full week in office, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said of its results released Tuesday.

Support among blacks for Obama averaged 93 percent during his time in office, and has been at or above 90 percent since he was sworn in, accounting for the reason Obama's support among non-white respondents didn't drop as much, Gallup said.

click to read.

Dr. Boyce and Richelle Carey Discuss Heather on CNN


Monday, November 23, 2009

Why We Don’t Need Sarah Palin: Wilmer Leon

Dr. Wilmer J. Leon, Howard University 

With the release of her new book Going Rogue: An American Life, former Alaskan Governor and Republican party VP nominee Sarah Palin is once again being given a spotlight she does not deserve. Under normal circumstances Palin would have drifted into obscurity by now; a political has-been who never was. Instead, a sub-par politician with no substantial constituency; no command of relevant issues, and no solutions to substantive problems, is being given air and face time as though she really matters. The simple reality that few are willing to articulate is, if she were not relatively attractive, of European ancestry and a woman, Sarah Palin would be day old bread.

Former Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) did not select Palin as his running mate because she was a “rogue”, innovator, or had demonstrated intellectual heft. McCain simply pandered to the Conservative Right, tried to siphon off some of the disgruntled Senator Clinton supporters, and gave America more of the same ole’ politics. From that point until now, Sarah Palin has continually tried to reinvent herself, but continues to give Americans more of the same; “all sizzle and no steak”.

Click to read.

Dr. Wilmer Leon: It’s time for a New Social Agenda

Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III, Your Black World, Howard University 

Early on the campaign trail, presidential candidate Barack Obama said, "This country is ready for a transformative politics of the sort that John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Franklin Roosevelt represented." Socially, President Obama is beginning to move in such a positive transformative direction.

After 12 years of languishing in Congress, on Wednesday, October 28, President Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard / James Byrd Hate Crimes Bill. By signing this bill, the president expands the federal definition of hate crimes to include those motivated by gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability. It also allows federal authorities to pursue hate-crimes cases when local authorities are either unable or unwilling to do so. This law was named after Matthew Shepard, a gay man murdered in Wyoming in 1998, and James Byrd, the African-American man dragged to his death behind a pickup truck in Texas that same year.

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Sunday, November 22, 2009

Mississippi Governor Wants to Merge All of It’s HBCUs

Gov. Haley Barbour’s plan to merge Mississippi’s three historically black universities has created a tense atmosphere in a state saddled with a violent civil rights past and a decades-long legal battle over the historic underfunding of those schools.
At Jackson State University, students have turned to Twitter and Facebook to gather signatures on a petition to block the move proposed by the Republican governor. A half-dozen students attended a state College Board meeting Thursday expecting some discussion about the proposal, but there was none.
“I personally believe they undermined the uniqueness of the black colleges and how far we’ve come with the little resources we have,” said Marissa Simms, a 20-year-old JSU student.
Many of the nation’s public historically black colleges and universities, known as HBCUs, were founded more than a century ago. Mississippi’s own Alcorn State University in Lorman was the country’s first land-grant black college.
The state’s other historically black campus is Mississippi Valley State University in Itta Bena.
Nationwide, there are 40 four-year public HBCUs, and dozens more two-year colleges and private institutions. White House officials and representatives of national organizations say the colleges play a vital role in an initiative by the Democratic Obama administration.

 

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News: Klan Rally Held before the Ole Miss-LSU Game

KKK rally briefly before LSU-Ole Miss game

  • Members of the Ku Klux Klan protest on the steps of Fulton Chapel at the University of Mississippi (AP Photo/The Clarion-Ledger, Ryan Moore)

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) -- About a dozen hooded Ku Klux Klan members rallied briefly at the University of Mississippi before Saturday's football game with No. 10 LSU.

The members of the Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan spent about 10 minutes waving flags, displaying Nazi-style salutes and occasionally gesturing at a group of about 250 hecklers that included young children. They were protesting the school's decision to drop a pep song that included "Dixie."

 

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Health News: Another Hurdle Jumped for Healthcare Reform

Health Care Overhaul

WASHINGTON – A bruising debate on health care awaits the Senate after Thanksgiving now that the historic legislation has cleared a key hurdle over the opposition of Republicans eager to inflict a punishing defeat on President Barack Obama.

The bill would extend coverage to roughly 31 million who lack it, crack down on insurance company practices that deny or dilute benefits and curtail the growth of spending on medical care nationally.

In the final minutes of a daylong session, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused Republicans of trying to stifle a historic debate the nation needed.

The Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said the vote was anything but procedural — casting it as a referendum on the bill itself, which he said would raise taxes, cut Medicare and create a “massive and unsustainable debt.”

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Saturday, November 21, 2009

Heather Ellis Finally Speaks: Listen to her Side of the Story

Here is an interview that Heather Ellis did for AOL Black Voices - it appears that her side of the story is very different from the prosecution and she may have reason to sue the police department.

CNN Video on the Heather Ellis Plea Deal

Here is more CNN coverage, including final statements from Heather Ellis.

News: Heather Ellis’ First Statement Since the Trial

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"I didn't break the line, she actually broke in front of us.  We also found out that I was shoved first and that I didn't yell or curse.  I was speaking in a loud tone  as I do always.   And i still think that it's important that my story got out and that people understood the truth and heard it.  If I would have signed a plea bargain or anything before, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to let the world know now and let the jurors know what actually happened."

Friday, November 20, 2009

Dr. Boyce Watkins: Jesse Jackson Gets into it with the CBC

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by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Black Planet, Your Black World Coalition

I love speaking with Rev. Jesse Jackson.  He walks and talks like a man who has seen and heard nearly everything.  Our civil rights leaders are social hubs through which many members of our society must travel in order to reach their destinations.   You can’t call yourself a black man and not know the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Rev. Jackson took things a step further by stating recently at a Congressional Black Caucus function that,”You can’t vote against health care and call yourself a black man.”

RELATED: Jesse Jackson Says To CBC You Can’t Be Black And Be Against Health Care

This comment was aimed at Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama, the only member of theCongressional Black Caucus who does not support health care reform.   What is most interesting about Jackson’s comment is that he is right, but not quite.  You can certainly argue that Davis’ lack of support for the plan implies  that his interests are not in line with the majority of African Americans in this country:  Most of them love Barack Obama and are willing to support anything that he supports.  The other sad truth is that health care reform is so complicated that most Americans don’t have a clue about what’s going on.   In that regard, we can argue that it is difficult for Davis to say that he represents the black community when he votes in a direction that is not correlated with the majority of African Americans in the state of Alabama.

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Heather Ellis Claims She was Assaulted – There was blood in her Jacket Pocket

(Photo)

KENNETT, Mo. (AP) -- Closing arguments ended Friday and a jury took up the case of a black school teacher charged with assaulting white police officers, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace at a Southeast Missouri store.

A jury of 10 white women, one black woman and one black man began deliberating Heather Ellis' case late Friday. One of the last to testify in the three-day trial, Ellis maintained Friday that white police officers had attacked and abused her.

Prosecutors said Ellis, a Louisiana school teacher, cut in line at the Kennett Walmart in January 2007, then became belligerent and attacked officers called in to quell the scuffle. The 24-year-old faces up to 15 years in prison if she is convicted of the felony charges against her.

The racial overtones of the case have drawn national interest. Prosecutor Morley Swingle said Friday the defense was trying to portray Kennett as "some racist Hooterville."

The customer who accused Ellis of pushing in line, the assistant store manager and arresting officers are all white.

Police said Ellis used obscene language and kicked and bit officers as they led her out of the store.

In nearly two hours of testimony, Ellis denied cursing or attacking anyone. Instead, she said, it was police who assaulted her in the parking lot after she was led outside.

 

Click to read.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Heather's Attorney is Ripping Witnesses Apart

It appears that Heather's attorney, Scott Rosenblum, actually knows what he's doing - the trial is getting interesting.

Heather Ellis Walmart Video Released on CNN

Does anyone see a smoking gun in this video?

Your Black News: Detroit Man Shoots His own Son in the Head!

Jamar Pinkney Sr


Jamar Pinkney, Sr. of Detroit is accused of shooting his 15-year-old son

in the head execution style. The shooting occurred after his son, Jamar Jr., confessed that he'd done something inappropriate to his 3-year-old sister. Jamar Sr. came home, stripped his son naked, took him outside the house and shot him in the head.


Lazette Cherry, Jamar Jr.'s mother, said she wanted to get help for her son when he confessed to what he'd done with his sister. She claims, however, that there was no rape. She says that her son admitted that he knew that lying down on top of the little girl was wrong.


"He got on his knees and begged, 'No, Daddy! No!' and he pulled the trigger," she said. "There wasn't nothing that my son wouldn't do for his father. He loved his father so much."

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Dr. Elaina George: How Does Depression Affect the Black Community?

 

 Medicine on Call with Dr. Elaina George, Your Black World 

Dr George and Delores Jones, a correspondent for AOL speak about dealing with depression and change through inspiration and spirituality. 

Click here to listen!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

More Video Footage from Our Rally in Kennett

Watch video of our rally that was held for Heather in Kennett, MO.