The Empowerment Initiative Online Newsletter

January 30, 2015

 

 Editor’s Message

“Black Lives Matter” slogan best applies toward the struggle in America

I want to commend Vanessa K. De Luca, editor-in-chief of Essence magazine, and her staff for their outstanding February 2015 Special Collector’s Edition, “Black Lives Matter.”

The contributing writers — Melissa Harris-Perry, Isabel Wilkerson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Common, Patrisse Cullors (founder of #Black Lives Matter), David Banner and Michelle Alexander and others — did a magnificent job with their insightful articles about how “Black Lives Matter” after the deaths of a number of Black men at the hands of police officers in 2014.

I also liked the questions Essence.com Poll asked readers: “What do you believe the Black community needs the most? And “What changes would you like to see in police training?”

It is obvious that there should be more changes in police training — but we need more emphasis toward participation in other areas of the Black struggle in America as well.

Here three major ones we must consider:

Black Lives Matter in Education. Especially when Black Children can’t read.

According to a press release for the website TestOurKids.com, “80 percent of Pennsylvania Black Kids Can't Read! Sixty-seven percent of Boston, MA, Black Kids Can't Read! Seventy-five percent of Michigan Black Kids Can't Read! ONLY 3 percent of Detroit Black Kids [are] Proficient in Reading!”

The press release went on to indicate that “70 percent of Steger, IL Students CAN’T READ,” but mentioned one principal in Steger: Wanikka Vance, head of Foundations 4 adVANCEment Children’s College & Career Readiness Academy, an elite Christian academy (PreK-4th grade). Vance “TOOK ACTION to ensure her children students CAN” read.

Black Churches and organizations need to climb onboard to ensure that Black children learn how to read. One example, according to TestOurKids.com, is the Rev. Roma J. Benjamin, Senior Pastor of Greater Faith Ministries and Founder of Roma J. Benjamin Ministries in Harrisburg, PA. Benjamin is an advocate of teaching children how to read. (TestOurKids.com offers services to help communities start their own reading centers.)
Black America, what are you doing to ensure that Black children learn how to read?

Black Lives Matter in Community Development.

In 2015, the Black community must continue to create more service organizations that run programs to combat such social ills as drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, truancy and delinquency. Furthermore, the Black church — in addition to meeting spiritual needs and teaching values and morals — needs to continue the needs of its congregations and communities by more developing housing for low-income families and the homeless.

Also, those in the communities must be more energetic and self-generated in politics by understanding the political process — knowing how they can choose a candidate who will speak on their behalf and help improve the fabric of their lives. Most important, they must realize that their vote is their voice.

One of the most urgent needs in Black community development, according to Black Initiative and Government Responsibility (published by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 1987), are “effective bridges between the urban poor and the new black middle class outside the ghettos. Organizations at all levels, particularly locally based community organizations, need to address more vigorously the appropriate role and implementation of collaboration across class lines between blacks who enjoy some of the advantages of the society and those who do not.”

Black Lives Matter in Economic Empowerment.

Some statistics say that today’s Black current buying power is 1 trillion, forecasted to reach $1.3 trillion by the year 2017. I believe our buying power is more than 1 trillon and by 2017, will be 2 trillion.

Once we realize that our spending power equals the gross national product of some developed and undeveloped countries in the world, we can rebuild the economic power that we had during segregation in 1920s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.

In other words, we in Black America can go beyond the accomplishments of our ancestors by (1) investing our finances to create and own businesses in our communities (such as supermarkets, department stores, car dealerships, computer cafes, banks and insurances companies); (2) extending these  black business downtown as well as into the suburbs in large, medium, and small cities as well as towns; (3) funding our historically black colleges and universities and building two-year and four-year colleges that provide regular and vocational curricula); and (4) funding and building our own Head Start, kindergarten, elementary, middle, high and vocational schools. In addition, we can build hospitals, clinics, medical and research facilities and factories (manufacturing cars, computers and more), as well as purchase and own professional sports teams. 
I know many of you will say that all this is impossible. But nothing is impossible for God. To borrow from an old church saying, He may not always answer our prayers when want him, but he answers them at the right time. 

Until we recognize that solving the aforementioned problems are just as important as marching in protest of police brutality, we can began a movement to regain our rightful place in the world.

Hotep people!
Renarda A. Williams (aka Abari Sankofa)

Headline Features

Marian Wright Edelman’s Child Watch Column
How to End Child Poverty for 60 Percent of Poor Children and
72 Percent of All Poor Black Children Today
 

Poverty hurts children and our nation’s future. This stark statement is backed by years of scientific research and the more we learn about the brain and its development the more devastatingly true we know this to be. Childhood poverty can and does scar children for life. Yet in the largest economy on earth we stand by as 14.7 million languish in poverty. Here’s a snapshot of who our poor children are today:

• Every other baby is a child of color. And 1 in 2 Black babies is poor – the poorest child in America.
• 1 in 3 Hispanic children under 5 is poor during their years of rapid brain development.
• More than 1 in 4 urban children and nearly 1 in 4 rural children is poor.
• 1 in 5 of all children in America is poor—14.7 million children.
• 1 in 6 Black children is extremely poor living on less than $8 a day.
• 1 in 7 Hispanic children under five is extremely poor.
• 1 in 8 Hispanic children is poor.
• Less than 1 in 9 White children is poor; 4.1 million children.

A child of color is more than twice as likely to be poor as a White child. Of the 14.7 million children living beneath the poverty line in 2013, defined as a family of four living on less than $23,834 a year, or $16.25 a person a day, over 40 percent lived in extreme poverty on less than $11,917 a year, half the poverty line — barely $8 a person a day.

The 14.7 million poor children in America exceeds the populations of 12 U.S. states combined: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming and is greater than the populations of Sweden and Costa Rica combined.

Our nearly 6.5 million extremely poor children exceeds the combined populations of Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming and is greater than the populations of Denmark or Finland.

It is a national disgrace that so many poor children live in the United States of America — the world’s richest economy. It doesn’t have to be this way. It’s costly. And it’s the greatest threat to our future national, economic, and military security.

The Children’s Defense Fund has just released a groundbreaking report called Ending Child Poverty Now showing for the first time how America could end child poverty, as defined by the Supplemental Poverty measure, for 60 percent of all poor children and 72 percent of all poor Black children. We can make this happen by investing another 2 percent of the federal budget to improve existing programs and policies that increase parental employment, make work pay, and ensure children’s basic needs are met. Poverty for children under 3 and children in single parent households would drop 64 percent and 97 percent of all poor children would experience improvements in their economic circumstances.

CDF contracted with the non-partisan, independent Urban Institute to generate real numbers on the costs to implement improvements to existing policies and programs and the number of children who would benefit. CDF’s report shows how relatively modest changes in policies we know work can be combined to significantly reduce child poverty, and implemented right now if our political leaders put common good, common sense and economic sense for children first to improve the lives and futures of millions of children, and save taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars each year.

CDF’s report estimates a cost of $77.2 billion a year for the combined proposed policy improvements and suggests multiple tradeoffs our country can make to pay for this huge, long overdue and urgently needed reduction in child poverty without raising the federal deficit including:

• Closing tax loopholes that let U.S. corporations avoid $90 billion annually in federal income taxes by shifting profits to subsidiaries in foreign tax havens; or

• Eliminating tax breaks for the wealthy by taxing capital gains and dividends at the same rate as wages, saving more than $84 billion a year; or

• Scrapping the F-35 fighter jet program already several years behind schedule and 68 percent over budget and still not producing fully functioning planes. For the $1.5 trillion projected costs of this program, the nation could reduce child poverty 60 percent for 19 years, potentially breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty.

Fifty years after President Lyndon Johnson declared a war on poverty, it’s time for all Americans to work together to finish the job beginning with ending child poverty in our nation with the largest economy on earth.

Marian Wright Edelman is President of the Children's Defense Fund whose Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.
For more information, or want to download the CDF’s new report  —  and share it widely with your child advocacy networks and faith communities to learn changes that can be made at the national, state and local levels — go to www.childrensdefense.org.

Sony and the Sociology of Racism

http://www.blackstarnews.com/us-politics/justice/sony-and-the-sociology-of-racism.html
By EZRAH AHARONE

As a result of the North Korean-related hacking of Sony's computer system, certain "racist" emails of Sony executive Amy Pascal were made public. This may appear as an isolated incident of racism amongst individuals. But it offers opportunity to uniquely examine certain aspects of the "sociology of racism" that not only fester in entertainment, but extensions of this same sociology have historically led to deadly consequences in the streets of America when Black men encounter law enforcement.

By "sociology" I am simply referring to America’s sum total of ethnic and cultural distinctions and exchanges; shared and conflicting beliefs, ideals, and values; common sociopolitical influences; and the human actions, ethos, and consciousness that publicly and privately shape American society, institutions, and government.

Among Pascal's emails were "jokingly racist" comments that President Obama probably liked Kevin Hart, along with the movies 12 Years A Slave, Django, The Butler, and Think Like A Man. She thereafter launched an apology campaign, topped with a meeting with Al Sharpton where he scolded her about the "lack of diversity" in movies (which is inarguably relevant yet arguably impertinent to the impetus behind her comments). White House Spokesperson, Josh Earnest, said her apology was "appropriate."

But wait, Hollywood is no longer producing Sambo-like movies that cast Blacks as dimwits . . . are they? So what requires apology? Think about it . . . Kevin Hart can sell out just as many or more arena seats to mixed audiences as any comedian, Black or White. And every movie Pascal mentioned was a relative box-office success on its own cinematic merit.

For the record and despite "lack of diversity," 12 Years A Slave earned $188 million worldwide and won numerous awards, including Oscars for "Best Picture of the Year" and "Best Supporting Actress" by Lupita Nyong'o, who People magazine subsequently dubbed "Most Beautiful Woman in the World." Django had blockbuster earnings of $425 million worldwide and starred former Oscar winner Jamie Foxx. The Butler earned $177 million worldwide and starred former Oscar winner Forest Whitaker and billionaire-extraordinaire Oprah Winfrey. Think Like A Man earned $96 million worldwide and was based on Steve Harvey's book that ranked #1 on The New York Times best-seller list.

So nothing should be wrong with any president or anybody liking any of these films with decorated Black actors. After all, they grossed nearly $1 billion for both Black and White people in the industry. Both Black and White people walked the red carpet. Both Black and White people applauded these stars and movies at black-tie awards. And all of the Black actors are probably on Obama's short-list of invitees to certain occasions anyway, and all have most-likely attended a White House event already.
So beyond box-office and star power, some other veiled criteria must lurk behind the scenes of these movies that render Pascal's apology "appropriate." To wit, the unidentified elephant in the room that drips with racism, relates historically to America's unarticulated but implicitly understood "sociology of racism" that places definitively higher values on ideals, interests, and institutions that are White, Anglo, Protestant or Jewish.

In this vein, had she said that Obama or any other president "liked Tina Fey, Adam Sandler, or Seth Rogen movies," it would be a non-story. Not because they — or even White actors from the past — are more talented per se than their Black contemporaries. But because there's a qualitatively greater premium that is always assigned increasingly to the sophistication of White movies, the significance of White actors, and the affluence of the White audiences they draw.

So the goal of equal validation of Blacks (via diversity) is really a phantom pursuit because the goalposts are continually moved out-of-reach, in relative and incremental measure, to assure that White accomplishments signify the apex.

But it neither begins nor ends there. Understand that this sociology is four centuries in the making. Its implications and evidence saturate society on multiple and widespread levels, whereby a diminished worth has been historically and intrinsically equated to the Black experience as a whole . . . Black ethos, Black history, Black culture, Black leaders, Black lives.

Extreme frictions from this sociology help explain existing racial tensions of why Americans of all races are now protesting nationwide against such desensitivity, while displaying placards in 1960's-fashion, stating: "Black Lives matter."

However, to enact concrete systemic change, people should be mindful of implementing a collective approach that recognizes the origin of this 400-year sociology, as opposed to protesting against its symptoms and outgrowths. But this becomes problematic because, any effort to confront the source and substance of this sociology head-on, would be viewed as too subversive. This, in consequence, would interrupt the government access and corporate revenue streams that prop-up certain Black leaders, who would then have to put a "For Sale" sign on their operations.

Whether shooting movies or shooting Black men, there are ingrained sociological and systemic elements that underlie and desensitize government and society. So within this historical unfoldment, neither Amy Pascal nor Sony is the problem, and holding meetings about diversity and police body cams is not the solution. Hopefully though, messages like this will garner proper consideration so that Black America will not have to rely on more hackings from communist North Korea as the next best hope to prod America to become an all-inclusive democracy in the truest sense of the concept.
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Ezrah Aharone is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Political Science at Delaware State University and the author of Sovereign Evolution: Manifest Destiny from Civil Rights to Sovereign Rights and Pawned Sovereignty: Sharpened Black Perspectives on Americanization, Africa, War and Reparations. His forthcoming book The Sovereign Psyche will be published in the spring of 2015. He can be reached at www.EzrahSpeaks.com.