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About Todd & Anita
Todd Haygood New to Macon, Todd is a native of North Carolina comes from Charlotte. where his career started working as DJ, production director, sales assistant, and assistant program director, before coming to Macon to take on the task of program director for WIBB-AM & FM, and WRBV-FM. Todd is a big fan of cars, video games, and sifi movies, so a great weekend can be as simple as pizza games, and a move or two with his fiancé Trina who drives from Charlotte every other weekend until the big move. When asked how he does like life in Macon Todd says” I like calling Macon home”.
(Sept. 22) -- It's not exactly like Mom used to make.
Abbott Laboratories today issued a recall of nearly 5 million units of Similac baby formula after consumers reported finding beetles and their larvae in the powdered breast milk substitute. An inspection of the Sturgis, Mich., plant where the formula is manufactured confirmed the contamination.
Production at the plant has been halted while it is treated for the infestation, CNN reported.
What, exactly, is being recalled? Approximately 5 million units of powdered Similac that is packaged in plastic containers, as well as 8-ounce, 12.4-ounce and 12.9-ounce cans of formula are being recalled. Liquid Similac is not believed to have been affected and is not being recalled.
Why is it being recalled? Who likes finding beetles or larvae in their powdered baby formula? In a statement released today, Abbott Laboratories said that though the Food and Drug Administration determined there was "no immediate health risk," there was "a possibility that infants who consume the formula containing the beetles or their larvae could experience symptoms of gastrointestinal discomfort and refusal to eat."
Where is the recall being issued? Stores throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam and nations in the Caribbean are affected by the recall.
Consumers seeking further information about the recall can call the company at 800-986-8850.
Oops! Arizona Ethnic Studies Ban Makes Courses MORE Popular
Turns out that Arizona’s ban on ethnic studies courses in public schools may be having the opposite effect than lawmakers anticipated—the field appears to be gaining, rather than losing appeal among students.
Last spring, the state’s school superintendent Tom Horne proposed the ban, alleging that the classes were, in effect, prejudiced against white people. At best, Horne argued, they promoted “ethnic chauvinism.” And at their worst, they encouraged students to overthrow the U.S. government. Riding a wave of white populist sentiment after signing SB 1070 into law, Gov. Jan Brewer then legalized the ban. Districts that refuse to comply risk losing 10 percent of their state funding, and already some of the state’s ethnic studies teachers are toying with the idea of a constitutional challenge before the law goes into effect on December 31.
Students don’t seem too bothered. In fact, Mary Ann Zehr writes in Education Week that in Tucson, which has the only district-wide ethnic studies program in the state, enrollment in Mexican-American studies has doubled. Zehr profiles TucsonHighMagnet School:
At least one class in two of the courses taught from a Mexican-American perspective at this school have more than 45 students, although the union contract calls for no more than 35 students in a class. School district officials say enrollment in Mexican-American studies in Tucson Unified’s 14 high schools has nearly doubled since last school year, from 781 to 1,400 students.
“Ethnic studies allow me to read and view and analyze different forms of literature and learning from another perspective,” said Krysta Diaz, 17, one of 386 students taking an ethnic-studies course at the school this year. The courses attract primarily students like Ms. Diaz, who are of Mexican-American heritage, but also draw in the occasional African-American, Anglo, or immigrant from a country other than Mexico.
It’s not a new point, but certainly a promising one, especially at the beginning of a school year that’s already muddled in national controversy. Shortly after the law, officially known as HB 2881, was passed, Daisy Hernandez reported for ColorLines that the courses were broadening:
Interviews with several professors in the field suggest that ethnic studies is (surprise, surprise) bearing the markings of race relations today: a widespread acceptance that black and brown experiences are important coupled with the complaint that we don’t need to focus on race and the rise of people of color to prominent positions juxtaposed with the ongoing need to organize and make demands on school systems.
Professor Jeff Duncan-Andrade, who teaches Raza Studies in the country’s only College of Ethnic Studies at San FranciscoState, argued a similar point. Afraid of what goes on in ethnic studies classrooms? Visit one, Andrade says. Critics might be surprised at how confident, affirmed students of color can actually contribute to the national discourse, not erase it.
In any case, Horne’s intentions are pretty obvious. He’s a man on a political mission with a long history of bullying the state’s Latino students. Currently, he’s running for state attorney general and trying desperately to appeal to Arizona’s aging baby boomers who can already feel their racial majority slipping. During one fit, Horne mandated that kids prove their permanent U.S. address before getting on school buses on the first day of classes.
Many weeks ago I mentioned on these pages something I’d worked on that was strange and awesome and I could not talk about, even though I was excited to tell the world. This is it.
Today everyone at Forbes is excited to present the new edition of the annual Forbes 400 — our list of the richest people in America. As always, it tracks the movement of the super wealthy; on top this year yet again is Bill Gates, with an estimated net worth of $53 billion.
Gates on top is no surprise –but the cover story for the 400 issue is something new that I’m proud to be a part of. The first Forbes 400 Summit brought together the old and new school of American wealth; Warren Buffett, the most successful investor of all time, and Jay-Z, one of the most successful musicians ever. They met in Buffett’s home town of Omaha, Neb. to share their different perspectives on success and wealth, and to talk about the social obligations that come with each.
Why Jay-Z? Shawn Carter, better known by his stage name, is one of the top recording artists in history, having sold approximately 40 million albums worldwide. In 2007, he tied Elvis Presley for the most number one albums by a solo performer; he went on to break the record in 2009. Today, only The Beatles have more number one records –19 to Jay-Z’s 11.
But Jay-Z’s more than a musician. His artistic and public persona is tightly linked with entrepreneurialism. Born poor, he made his own fortune, and put it to productive use, building businesses and enduring products. He’s founded companies including Roc-A-Fella Records and Rocawear; run others including Def Jam Records; and has stakes in businesses from pro basketball’s New Jersey Nets to cosmetics retailer Carol’s Daughter. With an estimated net worth of $450 million, we think he’s a billionaire in the making –one of the 15 tech moguls, hedge-funders, athletes and entertainers with a strong chance of breaking into the Forbes 400 ranks this decade.
In the pages of this year’s Forbes 400, Buffett and Jay-Z share their wisdom and talk about the future of American wealth. You can read some of their conversation here and watch video highlights of the meeting here. It’s a fascinating discussion.
(For the record, the specific weird thing I’d done that I really wanted to talk about? Burning a mix CD of Jay-Z tracks for Steve Forbes. It’s one of the strangest –and best– moments I’ve had in ages.)
Gay sex claims against Bishop Eddie Long rock gospel community
Allegations from 21-year-old Anthony Flagg and 20-year-old Maurice Robinson of sexual impropriety by prominent Atlanta minister, Bishop Eddie Long, who presides over NewBirthMissionaryBaptistChurch in Lithonia, GA and has over 25,000 members, shook the gospel community last night. During a press conference, the young men's attorney, B.J. Bernstein, best known for winning justice for Genarlow Wilson, who was wrongly incarcerated for sexual predatory behavior as a teen, detailed several incidents of Long's alleged sexual misconduct.
Flagg alleges that he and Long shared a bed at various hotels during several trips paid for by the church. In addition, Flagg was on the New Birth payroll and was given a Mustang convertible for his personal use. Robinson had similar allegations and claims that Long engaged in sexual relations with him during a trip to Auckland, New Zealand. In addition to receiving a Malibu car for his use, Robinson's tuition at an area college was also paid. Long reportedly referred to such men as his "spiritual sons" and even conducted a candlelit ceremony to seal that covenant.
Because both men were 16 or older at the time of alleged sexual activity, the age of sexual consent in the state of Georgia, the suit is not a criminal one. Instead, the suit alleges pastoral misconduct and seeks punitive damages against Long, New Birth and LongFellows Youth Academy, a tuition-based nonprofit program specifically designed for young boys that Long personally oversaw. Long, through his attorney Craig Gillen, has denied the allegations.
On Twitter, the story was a top trending topic last night. Atlanta radio personality Mizz Shyneka tweeted "I just think that every1 needs 2 reserve judgment about Bishop Eddie Long until they know all the facts! Those are big accusations!" Popular gospel music duo Mary Mary urged their Twitter followers to "be quiet and pray for Bishop Eddie Long.." [sic]
The Southern Poverty Law Center identified Long as "one of the most virulently homophobic black leaders in the religiously based anti-gay movement" in 2007. Long, along with New Birth pastor Bernice King, daughter of civil rights icons Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, led a 2004 march described by gay rights activists as "an anti-gay marriage march." In 2006, Julian Bond reportedly did not attend Coretta Scott King's funeral services at New Birth because of the church's anti-gay stance.
The African-American church community has been no stranger to charges of hypocrisy from the gay community. Although the black church is viewed as an institution where homosexuality is not tolerated - a point of contention for gay activists such as Keith Boykin - some prominent black gays from that community include gospel recording artist Tonex, who publicly revealed his homosexuality last year. In addition, pastor/Grammy Award-winning gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, best known for his song "We Fall Down" outside of black gospel circles, has been very vocal to the ire of many gay activists about his "ex-gay" experience, suggesting his faith has absolved him of his homosexuality.
A Mississippi teen's hairstyle is keeping him off of his homecoming court. A week before VicksburgHigh School's homecoming festivities several escorts found out that they would not be participating.
Patrick Richardson said school officials told him that his hair is keeping him from escorting one of the homecoming maids. The 16-year-old is sad that he won't be in the next VicksburgHigh School yearbook, pictured escorting his best friend Sa'shia Jones who was chosen junior class maid.
Patrick said after paying to have a tux fitting last Thursday, the principal called him to the auditorium and told him that he could not be a homecoming escort because he wears dread locked hair. The junior was told he would have to cut it to be an escort.
"When I decided to grow my hair that's what I wanted to do. I thought it was acceptable, but from what the principal told me homecoming is of a higher standard and dreads are just not acceptable," said Richardson. Patrick has been growing the dreads since last October and said the hairstyle is not prohibited nor addressed in any way in the school handbook.
The student's mother, Tammi Mason, said she is upset because her son's money was not refunded and that the school is not embracing his cultural expression. "It's actually a form of discrimination to me because if that's the case then everybody who's fat shouldn't be able to be in it on the court. They could say anything. Actually they could say you have to be a size 10 to be one of the maids," said Mason.
Patrick's dreads are about eight inches long and were going to be braided and pulled back for this Friday's homecoming ceremonies.
Another Vicksburg high parent Lynda Jackson said that her son freshman De-Marcus Jackson also wears dreads and was humiliated to find out that his hair would prevent him from escorting the sophomore maid. Vicksburg Schools Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Swinford said there's no written policy, but there is a practice that bans dreadlocks on the homecoming court.
She said students have been made aware of this, and school officials are in the process of looking at creating a written policy. Mason and Lynda Jackson said they are looking into taking legal action, although it may be too late to help their sons' participation in this year's homecoming.
Police: Mom leaves kids in closet for 10 hours, 2 die
Edyan Farah (AP Photo/Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department via The Indianapolis Star)
RICK CALLAHAN,Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- A woman charged in the deaths of two of her children allegedly locked them and three siblings inside a small closet and left to visit a friend, returning about 10 hours later to find the boy and girl dead inside.
An Indianapolis police report released Tuesday said Ebyan Farah, 28, told officers she "was not in her right mind" when she allegedly put her five children in an upstairs closet about 6 a.m. Sunday and placed a large bed in front of the door so they couldn't get out.
Police said the closet was about 6 feet long and 18 inches deep.
Farah, an immigrant from Somalia, found her 5-year-old daughter, Zuhur, and 3-year-old son, Zakariya, "stiff and unresponsive" when she returned home about 10 1/2 hours later and opened the closet, the report said. She told officers she then carried them downstairs, but did not call 911 or try to revive them, according to the report.
Lt. Jeff Duhamell said the three surviving children -- a 7-year-old girl and boys ages 5 and 1 -- are now in foster care.
"It's just a very, very sad case," he said. "It's one of the worst ones I've seen -- to be placed in closet approximately 18 inches by 6 feet and a bed pushed up against it for a minimum of 10 hours. We think possibly a lot longer and probably not for the first time."
On Monday, Farah was charged with two preliminary counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in death. She remained jailed Tuesday at the Marion County Jail on a $200,000 bond. Susan Decker, a spokeswoman for the county prosecutor's office, said Farah will appear in court Wednesday to be advised of her rights but that prosecutors have requested 72 more hours to prepare formal charges.
Decker said she did not know whether Farah had an attorney. She said the prosecutor's office had no comment on the case, adding that "everything is still under investigation at this point."
An autopsy performed Monday did not show how the boy and girl died and toxicology results that could reveal that would take three to four weeks, said chief deputy coroner Alfarena Ballew. She said coroner's office investigators returned to the apartment Tuesday to re-examine the scene.
Police and neighbors said the siblings appeared malnourished, but Ballew said that while the two children's bodies were thin, she did not consider them to be emaciated or malnourished.
The police report said Farah told detectives that after locking the children in the closet she left the apartment to first speak to a neighbor, then went with that woman to her apartment in the same complex.
Authorities were called to the two-story apartment at Manchester Village Apartments about four hours after Farah said she returned and found the two bodies.
The report said a family friend had grown concerned that Farah was "acting strangely" and would not allow anyone into the apartment for hours after she returned.
The report said the wife of that friend -- the woman Farah had visited with -- called Farah's uncle to the complex and that when the uncle looked into an open door in the apartment he saw what appeared to be a dead child on a couch.
When that man tried to call 911, Farah allegedly grabbed his phone and threw it. He retrieved the phone and held Farah while the family friend called 911, the report said.
When medics arrived, the family friend directed them into the apartment's front living room and pointed to a child laying on the couch and another on the floor, the report said. The medics found both "in full rigor mortis" and neither had a pulse, it said.
Hussein Adam, a cousin of the children's father, said Monday that the family had emigrated from Somalia about a decade ago. He said Farah's husband had returned there several weeks ago to visit his parents, but was en route back to the U.S.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
11 year old kills 2 year old while babysitting
Published 9:23 p.m. yesterday Views: 190
Sandy Springs, Ga. (CBS/WGCL) Fulton County prosecutors have the difficult task of determining whether or not an 11-year-old Georgia girl who has been charged with the murder of a 2-year-old toddler should be tried as an adult.
The Fulton County District Attorney issued a statement Wednesday saying that the office is waiting untit the police have concluede their investigation before proceeding.
"Ashlea Collier, Zeyda's mother, told CBS affiliate WGCL that she went to work Saturday evening and left her daughter at the apartment of one of her co-workers, Kiyosha Bell.
However, Bell says she was not home that evening and left her 11-year-old daughter in charge of babysitting the 2-year-old.
Unfortunately, when they returned to the Dunwoody Pointe Apartments Zeyda was unconscious.
The toddler's mother called 911, but it was too late. Doctors pronounced Zeyda dead at the hospital shortly after midnight.
According to police, the 11-year-old initially told detectives that Zeyda had been injured after falling off a bed, but autopsies showed that the injuries were inconsistent with the girl's story.
Police say that the 2-year-old died from blunt force trauma.
"She's been coming to me in my dreams asking me for help. So she didn't die in peace," Collier said through sobs to WGCL.
The 11-year-old babysitter whose name has not been released is being held a juvenile YouthDetentionCenter in FultonCounty.
the country is so full of sadness. i know this mother is devastated......the photo provided here is of the two year old that was killed.
The story is an all-too-familiar one: On Labor Day weekend, a Guatemalan immigrant named Manuel Jamines was shot in the head and killed by LAPD officers. The police claim the man charged at them with a knife, but at least one eyewitness says he was unarmed. The killing has inflamed long-simmering tensions between the police and immigrant and minority communities in Los Angeles, resulting in protests and arrests. Adding fuel to the trash-can fires are reports that the officer was involved in at least two previous shootings.
Jamines’ story comes as part of what seems an unending line of police violence against black and brown folks, from Oscar Grant in Oakland to Aiyana Stanley-Jones in Detroit to systematic racial profiling in Brooklyn. At a time like this, when calls for police accountability are rumbling from grassroots activists coast to coast, our movement for justice needs a soundtrack. It needs music created from the same inner-city streets whose residents have borne the brunt of police brutality since before Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale formed the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. It needs gangsta rap.
Some critics have hastily written gangsta rap’s obituary. But in 2010, the genre remains a commercial force; what has declined is its gravitas as protest music. Once outspoken on the subject of police violence, in recent years, hip-hop broadly has been all but silent on politics of any sort, at least from a mainstream perspective. Back in the days, gangsta rappers faced off against label executives in corporate boardrooms over freedom of speech; now they entertain marketing meetings over energy drink endorsements.
This change didn’t happen overnight. And it didn’t happen on its own. The de-fanging of gangsta rap has paralleled the corporatization of hip-hop—and the resulting de-politicization of what was once an inherently political art form.
As a musical genre, gangsta rap has always been both acclaimed and reviled. Seemingly both inherently contradictory and inherently controversial, since its emergence in the late 1980s, the genre has been at or near the center of cultural debates around violence, crime, sexism, drugs, censorship, police accountability and inner-city socioeconomics. It’s also been at the center of music industry profits. Ever since NWA’s double-platinum album “Straight Outta Compton” in 1988, gangsta rap has accounted for a substantial part of all U.S. music sales. Its mainstream breakthrough took place in 1993, when Dr. Dre’s three million-selling “The Chronic” resuscitated a moribund music industry still reeling from Kurt Cobain’s suicide and the decline of grunge. It has remained a Billboard mainstay ever since.
Though music sales overall are down since the 1990s, many gangsta-identified artists have continued to post huge numbers: Tupac Shakur has sold an incredible 75 million albums to date (including nine million copies of “All Eyez on Me”), many of those sales coming since his still-unsolved murder; 50 Cent’s “Get Rich or Die Tryin’ ” sold six-times platinum in 2002; T.I. released five platinum albums and eight platinum singles between 2003 and 2008; Game released two albums that entered the Billboard charts at number one in 2005 and 2006; Young Jeezy’s U.S. sales totaled more than 2.5 million units between 2006 and 2008; in 2008, Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III” sold 1.1 million copies its first week of release. On and on it goes.
Freedom of Expression or Menace II Society?
Gangsta rap’s commercial success once existed in tension with its role as a flash point in the culture war. It has been faulted for glorifying sexism, violence, and illegal drugs; and high-profile legal cases involving rappers, from Tupac of the 1990s to today’s T.I., have garnered significant media coverage over the years, fueling perceptions of young black men as thugs while overshadowing the broader political, socioeconomic and historical context.
” ‘Gangsta rap’ was a reaction of white journalism and never a description of the performers themselves,” says author and historian Cecil Brown. Noting that police brutality has long been a theme within hip-hop, he says, “This need to express one’s condition by using electronic technology is not different from using the medium of the work song to express slave oppression.”
The controversy around gangsta rap fittingly began with its willingness to address police violence against African Americans. In 1989, in response to the N.W.A. song “Fuck tha Police,” the FBI notified police departments nationwide about the group’s planned tour dates and sent a warning letter to its label, Priority. In 1992, then-Vice President Dan Quayle criticized Tupac Shakur for anti-law enforcement lyrics on his “2Pacalypse Now” album, saying such content “has no place in our society.”
That same year, the Tipper Gore-led Parents Music Resource Group and the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas mounted a campaign against “Cop Killer,” a song by rapper Ice-T’s Afropunk outfit Body Count. Gore compared the song to antisemitism in Nazi Germany, yet neglected to mention that it addressed systemic racism, albeit using profanity and graphic descriptions of violence to express outrage at injustice. After meeting with Time-Warner executives, Ice-T “voluntarily” decided to pull the song from the album.
The “Cop Killer” backlash created a chilling effect across the pop culture landscape, resulting in the censoring of major-label rap albums by artists who weren’t gangsta, but just political, including Paris’ album “Sleeping with the Enemy”—which contained the allegedly seditious song “Bush Killa”—and KMD’s “Black Bastards”—whose cover featured a Sambo-like figure hung by a noose.
Pro-censorship efforts against gangsta rap were next taken up by onetime civil rights activist C. DeLores Tucker and Bill Bennett, a former drug czar with strong ties to the law enforcement community. Their campaign specifically targeted Tupac, Snoop Dogg, and Death Row records for promoting negative stereotypes, yet ultimately failed to stem the genre’s rising popularity.
Ironically, Tucker overlooked social commentary—by the same artists she vilified—on issues like teenage pregnancy, single parenthood, the aftermath of the Rodney King verdict and the prison-industrial complex. An interesting postscript to the Shakur-Tucker saga is the 2010 inclusion of Tupac’s “Dear Mama” to the National Recording Registry. The Library of Congress called the song “a moving and eloquent homage to both the murdered rapper’s own mother and all mothers struggling to maintain a family in the face of addiction, poverty and societal indifference.”
Corporate Thuggin’
Meanwhile, the main profiteers from the genre’s enduring commercial success have been white record label executives. And as the economic viability of gangsta rap has increased, the amount of sociopolitical commentary in it conspicuously decreased.
On its 1992 debut, Cypress Hill rapped about police terrorism on “Pigs.” But after selling double platinum and crossing over to white audiences, the group’s message shifted from justice to self-medication through weed. Its members became “Insane in the Brain”—and sold even more records. Nestled among tracks on Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic” was “The Day the Niggaz Took Over,” a fiery commentary on race, rebellion and reaction to police abuse. Six years later, Dr. Dre’s follow-up, “Chronic 2001,” riffed on adultery, ecstasy use, and car bombs, yet was completely devoid of political sentiment. In 1994, Ice Cube responded to the acquittal of the officers who beat Rodney King with “We Had to Tear This Motherfucker Up”; a decade later, the same guy who once defiantly declared, “fuck the police/comin’ straight from the underground” starred in the forgettable family comedy “Are We There Yet?”
The notion of Ice-T playing a TV cop or Ice Cube acting in a remake of a Cary Grant film wouldn’t be so hard to stomach had other street-credible artists taken up their spots on the political front lines. But the last truly socially-conscious hip-hop album to earn gold certification—500,000 units sold—may have been Mos Def’s “Black on Both Sides” in 2000, a far cry from the heady days of 1988 to 1991, when Public Enemy and BDP totaled three platinum and three gold albums cumulatively.
If hip-hop once stood at the forefront of the fight for social justice, post-millennial gangstas like Jay-Z, Game and 50 Cent see themselves as CEOs. In the last decade, the biggest nationwide trend in rap—besides corporate shilling—has been the emergence of thugged out, materialistic and apolitical Southern artists like 3-6 Mafia, who garnered an Oscar for 2005’s “Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” and Young Jeezy, whose company is called “Corporate Thugs Entertainment.”
Still, even in an era of corporate thuggin’, activism among rap artists persists, quiet as it’s kept. There was Jay-Z’s endorsement of Barack Obama, David Banner’s response to Hurricane Katrina and Bun B’s involvement in Haitian earthquake relief and immigration issues. Master P, Big Boi and Xzibit were all outspoken about the BP oil spill. The important difference is that mainstream rappers who speak out nowadays do so outside of the recording studio.
Why is this? Besides the fact that major record labels have convinced the rest of us that political rap doesn’t sell, even hip hop media, it seems, would rather cover T.I.’s latest arrest than focus on injustice. In 2008, Papoose and Game were among the many rappers who recorded tributes to Sean Bell, only to be dissed by hip-hop website XXL.com, which complained, “Bell has become a marketing tool.”
An actual example of gangsta-ness being used as a marketing tool might be Reebok’s ill-conceived and thankfully abandoned “9 Shots” campaign for their G-Unit clothing line—an attempt to brand 50 Cent’s bullet wounds. Perhaps Reebok should instead issued a limited-edition Aiyana Stanley-Jones sneaker. Or instead of “Lollipop,” Lil Wayne’s number one hit could be a song about the New Orleans police who murdered Katrina refugees and then tried to cover it up.
Some smaller artists are defying industry and media indifference to the tragic reality of police violence. After Oscar Grant was killed by a BART police officer on New Year’s Day 2009, within a day, rapper Mistah F.A.B. and singer Jennifer Johns recorded an Internet-only tribute, entitled “My Life.” Within a month, several other Bay Area underground artists, including AP.9, Ise Lyfe and Beeda Weeda followed suit with their own Grant tributes.
Not a single upper-echelon rapper has seen fit to address the situation in rhyme, however. Likewise, the Stanley-Jones shooting resulted in very few peeps from MotorCity emcees, gangsta or otherwise—a notable exception being “R.I.P. Aiyana Jones,” by Silo Sh3llz, who openly questioned why the rap community had remained silent over the senseless killing of a 7-year-old girl. At this writing, the video had received just 350 views on YouTube, while the idiotic, cliched “ShawtBusShawty” has clocked over 5 million views.
One can only hope that Jamines’ death—the latest incident of excessive force by the LAPD—will pull Ice-T, Snoop Dogg or Ice Cube away from Hollywood long enough to return to a subject they’ve spoken on at length before. They may not need to keep it gangsta, but certainly they could keep it real.
(Sept. 6) -- Throughout history, whenever books have been set on fire, passions have been unleashed.
In Gainesville, Fla., a pastor's plan to hold a public burning of Qurans to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks has already set off angry protests from Afghanistan to Indonesia and elicited a formal response from the U.S. Embassy condemning the plan. Now, the book burning has another high-profile foe: Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of American forces fighting in that country.
"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort," Petraeus told The Wall Street Journal. "It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."
Terry Jones, the pastor at Dove World Outreach Center, told MSNBC's Chris Matthews that his church has declared Sept. 11 as "International Burn a Quran Day," and added that he hoped the burning of the Muslim religion's holy text "will be as it is intended, as a warning."
That the proposed actions of Jones' church, which counts just 50 members in its congregation, should reverberate so loudly across the world is itself a telling sign of tensions between the West and the Muslim world, as well as what some see as a growing distrust of Islam in the United States.
From the controversy surrounding the so-called "ground zero mosque" in lower Manhattan, to the suspected arson at the construction site of a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tenn., this year's anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks comes as Americans engage in a vocal debate over the role of Islam in the future of the nation.
While Gen. Petraeus' fears that "Burn a Quran" day will lead to violence against U.S. forces in Afghanistan and around the world, police in Gainesville are also preparing for possible violence in Florida as a result of the church's protest.
Black Unemployment Rate Increases 700% More than White
This weekend, I was on the radio with Rev. Jesse Jackson. He'd just completed a march in Detroit, for jobs, peace and justice, only to find that his SUV was stolen upon arrival. But when I asked him if he was OK, his response was quite telling of the leader that he is: He simply said that the car doesn't matter at all when there are so many people suffering across America.
Well, the nation-wide suffering for African Americans has just intensified with the recent unemployment data delivered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It's most recent report showed that while white unemployment only went up from 8.6 percent to 8.7 percent, black unemployment went up from 15.6 percent to 16.3 percent. This increase is at a rate that is 700 percent higher than the increase for white Americans.
The numbers tell an interesting and sad story about the forgotten economic hardships being felt by black people all across America. First, black unemployment is nearly double that of white Americans. While the rest of America finds itself screaming in pain over unemployment rates between eight and nine percent, black America is asked to remain silent about unemployment rates as high as 15 - 16 percent. While government officials are not acknowledging black economic hardship, the United Nations is. As of April, the UN announced that it is investigating whether consistent black unemployment is a human rights violation.
Black male unemployment is shockingly high, rising from 16.7 percent to 17.3 percent. This compares to a rate increase of 8.8 percent to 8.9 percent for white males. In other words, black male unemployment is 94 percent higher than the rate for white men. Unfortunately, this has become the norm for the African American male.
Black women also watched their unemployment rate rise from 12.9 percent to 13.2 percent, while white women saw no increase at all. At this point, white females have the lowest unemployment rate of any demographic group. Black women have an unemployment rate that is roughly 85 percent higher than white females.
The worst group of all are black teenagers. Their unemployment rate already stood at a startling 40.6 percent last month. This month, it rose to 45.4 percent, which is not only the highest unemployment figure of any group, it is also 90 percent higher than the unemployment rate for white teenagers, which held steady with a modest increase from 23.5 percent to 23.8 percent. The high unemployment rate for African American teens is likely one of causes for massive amounts of teen violence and persistently high rates of black incarceration. When kids don't have jobs, they find something else to do. What they choose to do on their own is not always productive.
What's so interesting about having a black president is that the presidency has made us feel uncomfortable as a community about asking that our specific issues be addressed. I am not sure how bad things have to get, how many black people have to be homeless or how many unemployment applications we must fill out before we can get our leaders in Washington to realize that while 9.6 percent unemployment is horrible for the nation, 16.3 percent unemployment in black America is absolutely devastating.
What's worse about the recent black unemployment numbers is that they aren't going to go away. When this recession ends, and white unemployment drops to four or five percent, black people will still have unemployment rates which match or exceed the rates that white Americans are experiencing today. But while white privilege gives other Americans the right to moan, groan and complain about eight or nine percent unemployment, black Americans will be considered to be trouble makers for speaking against numbers of the same magnitude. Rarely, if ever, do we see a greater indicator of racial economic inequality than this.
There was a time when black people were legally considered to be three-fifths of a person. Today, we have an economic version of the Three-Fifths Compromise, which says that it is an acceptable and comfortable outcome that white unemployment will never be more than three-fifths that of black Americans. As long as this disparity holds constant, our government officials don't see a problem, and don't expect us to see one either. In all of the talk about helping the nation out of this recession, almost never has any advisor in President Barack Obama's economic cabinet even mentioned the idea of reducing the disparity between black and white unemployment. Their silence is both deafening and perplexing to the black people who put him in office. I wonder
The couple were arrested Wednesday night in West Hollywood at a routine traffic stop. When officers smelled marijuana emitting from the pair'süberexpensive vehicle, they decided to conduct a thorough search of their car. Police reportedly uncovered a small amount of ecstasy, pills that are currently awaiting testing and Styrofoam cups with traces of sizzurp, a street name for a purple codeine-based cough syrup used as a recreational drug that has gained popularity in the hip-hop community.
The Billboard chart topper tweeted a few choice words for the couple but aimed them mostly at Tiny:
"Ok I'm gone till the"
$ept 6. "I'm gonna let you motherf***er$ $uffer of boredom till I return But that TI s**t is bad."
$ept 6."Man TI and tiny done got picked up agin for methamphetmines and ecstacy dam manTiny gotta take that charge. Say it was yoursBaby."
Even if Tiny decides to take 50 Cent's suggestion, will the courts be lenient on her this go round? After all, the 35-year-old has been cuffed before. Back in 2007, Tameka, who was pregnant at the time, and T.I. were arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and ecstasy.
And let's not overlook what type of message 50's advice sends to females everywhere. There are too many black women who take the rap for their boyfriends and husbands only to get put away for long periods of time. Even though Tiny didn't have enough sense to stop herself from getting high with her hubby, let's hope she exercises more wisdom than 50 Cent can offer when actually fighting this charge.
We need to make better choices. T.I. and Tiny are adults with kids. Going in and out of prison is wack as a teen, but going in and out of prison as a full-fledged adult is just straight embarrassing and tacky.
Here we are just three years later and the celeb couple is facing drug charges, yet again. And T.I., who is on probation after serving seven months in prison on weapons charges, will need to rally up the best legal teams possible in order to keep the judge from throwing the book at him.
That "road to redemption" seems to be riddled with landmines for these newlyweds.
Edwin Broni-Mensah, a 25-year old PhD student, who created his first computer game at the age of seven and now runs his own company, was selected from a shortlist of 200 people.
Click on image to read full article.
Edwin, studying for an Applied Maths PhD as well as running his innovative refillable water bottle company GiveMeTap, topped the list by Future Leaders magazine, sponsored by Barclays Capital, Deloitte and the University of Cambridge.
The shortlist features 100 graduates in total, all who have balanced good academic grades with impressive achievements outside of their studies.
Edwin is a shining example of this, having set up a company which encourages local businesses to offer free refills of water to anyone carrying a distinctive GiveMeTap bottle.
The first daughters saw the Jonas Brothers and visited L.A. and Niagara Falls. Malia got braces; Sasha went to Spain. But it’s all over Tuesday, when school starts.
Click on image to read full article.
Malia and Sasha Obama have enjoyed a summer that most American children can only dream of — vacations stretching from Maine to California, with a couple of foreign trips in the mix, and a Jonas Brothers appearance at the White House.
Their second summer in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue had them around town at recitals, sleepovers and sporting events. Both study piano. Malia, 12, also plays the flute and enjoys soccer. Sasha, 9, favors basketball.
Summer kicked off on a high point when one of their favorite groups, the Jonas Brothers, sang at the White House during a June tribute to Paul McCartney.
Russell Simmons
Simmons offers window into thoughts on NYC mosque
Wed Aug 25, 12:30 pm ET
NEW YORK – Russell Simmons is making his support for a proposed mosque near ground zero crystal clear through the windows of his apartment overlooking the WorldTradeCenter site.
The nine windows on the top story of the Liberty Street building have been taken up by large signs. The first six windows use the symbols of world religions to spell out "coexist," starting with an Islamic star and crescent for the "C" and finishing with a Christian cross for the "T."
The other windows contain a biblical reference and other phrases. A representative for hip-hop mogul Simmons says it will be up until at least Sept. 11.
Supporters of the Islamic center say religious freedom should be protected. Opponents say it should be moved farther from ground zero.
Jon Stewart Takes Fox News to Task for Hiding Shareholder's Funding of Controversial Mosque
It seems that Fox News is at it again. The network has been following the money trail of who is funding the controversial mosque near Ground Zero in an attempt to show that the mosque is tied to 9/11 sympathizers. It turns out that one of the funders of the mosque is News Corp.'s own Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who is reportedly the largest shareholder in News Corp. outside of Rupert Murdoch. Stewart topped off his hilarious account with a photo of Murdoch and bin Talal shaking hands. Three words that don't go together: Fox News and transparency.
Michael Enright, right, confers with his attorney Jason Martin, during his arraignment in a New York City courtroom on charges that include attempted murder as a hate crime, Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010. (AP Photo/Steven Hirsch, Pool)
TOM HAYS, Associated Press
NEW YORK(AP) -- A college student who did volunteer work in Afghanistan was charged Wednesday with using a folding tool to slash the neck and face of a New York City taxi driver after the driver said he is Muslim.
A criminal complaint alleged that Michael Enright uttered an Arabic greeting and told the victim, "Consider this a checkpoint," before the brutal bias attack occurred Tuesday night inside the yellow cab on Manhattan's East Side. Police say Enright was drunk at the time.
A judge ordered Enright, 21, held without bail on charges of attempted murder and assault as a hate crime and weapon possession. The handcuffed defendant, wearing a polo shirt and cargo shorts, did not enter a plea during the brief court appearance.
In addition to a serious neck wound, Ahmed H. Sharif suffered cuts to forearms, face and one hand while trying to fend off Enright, prosecutor James Zeleta said while arguing against bail.
Defense attorney Jason Martin told the judge his client was an honors student at the School of Visual Arts who lives with his parents in suburban Brewster, New York.
To deny bail, given his background, "I don't think is warranted," Martin argued. The lawyer declined to comment outside court.
Enright volunteered for Intersections International, a group that promotes interfaith dialogue and has supported a controversial proposed mosque near the WorldTradeCenter site.
A group representative, the Rev. Robert Chase, called the situation "tragic."
"We've been working very hard to build bridges between folks from different religions and cultures," Chase said. "This is really shocking and sad for us."
Sharif, a 43-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant who's driven a cab for 15 years, was quoted in a news release from the New York Taxi Workers Alliance as saying the attack left him shaken.
"I feel very sad," he said. With the tension over the mosque, he added, "All drivers should be more careful."
Sharif accepted an invitation from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a staunch of the supporter of the mosque, to visit City Hall on Thursday.
"This attack runs counter to everything that New Yorkers believe no matter what god we pray to," the mayor said in a statement.
Sharif told authorities that during the trip, Enright asked him whether he was Muslim. When he said yes, Enright pulled out a weapon -- believed to be a tool called a Leatherman -- and attacked the driver, Royster said.
After the assault, the driver tried to lock Enright inside the cab and drive to a police station, police said. The suspect then jumped out a rear window. An officer there noticed the commotion, found Enright slumped on the sidewalk and arrested him.
Intersections has come out in support of the mosque project, but Chase said Enright wasn't involved in that.
Enright faces a maximum eight to 25 years in prison if convicted of the attempted murder count.
___
Associated Press writer Deepti Hajela contributed to this report.
So, Nike has officially jumped on the bandwagon for big butts huh? In their new ad promoting their butt-enhancing shoes, an ethnically ambiguous woman is shown in what appears to be a pair of panties, tennis shoes and a cut-off tank. This ad precedes a similarly booty minded campaign from 2005 which shows off the curves of a dark-skinned model– why the change?
Nike butt enhancing shoe ad
Stereotypically, the commonality or predictably of a big butt rests with black women (myself excluded) but in the new world where booty is popping up everywhere (hello Kim Kardashian) and even being celebrated, I’m not surprised that Nike chose a safer model… or one that isn’t black at all. In other words, black girls ain’t the only ones with the big butts anymore.
So then comes the emotional reaction: Are our assets being taken away from us? Is it more beautiful to have a big butt and not be black? And was Serena just not available even though she’s already a Nike girl?
But then the issue deepens (thank god) because the first line of their little poem is: “My Butt is big and round like the letter C” and I’m instantly on board. It sounds like Nike is praising curves and telling women that if someone has a problem with your shape they can well, kiss your ass. Kudos to Nike. Some think the message, aside from the woman they chose, is offensive and why because they were trying to be humorous (and failed) with the space heater reference?
What’s wrong with finding strength in an asset others might not think is beautiful? What’s wrong with acknowledging that big butts draw attention and that, no, lunges don’t do a damn thing but give it more shape. If anything, Nike is headed in the right direction. Now, if we can just convince them to add some black girls into mix… we certainly wouldn’t want people to get confused about who had it first.
South Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Alvin Greene is at it again. This time, Greene was booted from a restaurant in South Carolina when his companion got into a fight with people eating at the restaurant. Oconee County Democratic Party officials had asked Greene to speak at their monthly meeting over the weekend in Seneca. The group rescinded the invitation after Greene was indicted Aug. 13 on a felony charge of showing pornography to a college student. Greene showed up for the meeting anyway, which led to the dust-up. Onlookers called police, and Greene and his female companion were asked to leave. Greene is lacking a little something that we like to call common sense. Someone please save this man from himself, and us from the next foolish event.
Domino's Delivers Racist Receipt to Customer: 'N*GGER DON'T TIP'
To all of those who believe that this is a post-race society, please explain this. How is it that a black woman in 2010 cannot order a pizza without getting called the N-word? The Consumerist blog reports (via Gawker TV):
A woman in Apex, N.C., had just taken delivery of two Domino's pizzas when her 10-year-old niece pointed out the words "N**GER" and "DON'T TIP" at the bottom of the receipt.
Not exactly thrilled with this level of customer disservice, she complained to the Domino's, and the driver was subsequently given the boot. Which might explain why she's now received over a dozen threatening phone calls.
Says the customer:
"They were saying basically the same stuff that was on the receipt. They were saying 'N-this, you got me fired. You did this, you did that,' just being real ugly to me, just being real mean... I'm thinking it is 2010, it's never good to do that. You can't do stuff like that anymore."
This is very interesting considering the fact that Dr. Laura recently tried to explain away how harmless the N-word is today. It may seem benign to some, but it is still frequently used by people seeking to emotionally and in some cases physically harm African Americans. No, America is not post-race at all, if African Americans can still be flagrantly disrespected as customers in this way, by even a Domino's pizza delivery boy.
Certainly Domino's is not totally responsible as a company for the racist word on a receipt delivered to one customer. But we have to ask what kind of employee training practices are in place at Domino's if this former employee felt comfortable doing such a thing? The question then becomes, whose responsibility is it to address the continuing racial prejudice in this country, and its effects? Do corporations like Domino's have a responsibility to train workers on how to deal with workplace frustrations and issues they may have with the many different types of people they come into contact with?
It would make sense for companies like Domino's to take the lead on educating people on how to deal with race differences. More than any other area of American life, workplaces are a melting pot of different nationalities, races, genders, sexual orientations and ethnicities. When you throw direct customer service into the mix, a whole new level of patience and understanding is required. To the company's credit, a Domino's representative has stated:
"I'm horrified this occurred. This was the action of a lone individual and it does not reflect my views. Upon learning of the incident, the General Manager of the store fired the responsible person immediately. I have reached out to the customer and offered my sincere apology."
But is saying "we're sorry" enough? Now that Domino's has exposed this African American woman to hateful racists who are making physical threats, is Domino's going to be there to protect her if the situation takes a turn for the worst? If Domino's had better screening and training practices, perhaps this African American woman would never have been insulted by seeing "N*GGER DON'T TIP" on her receipt -- and she would not be worrying for her safety today.
What's in Store at Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally?
The right-wing commentator is planning a rally near the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, with Sarah Palin in tow. What he's up to is anyone's guess, but there have been clues.
With Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally set to take place near the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday, the Internet is buzzing with speculation about what Fox News' seemingly unstoppable juggernaut has up his sleeve this time. Though Beck pulls stunts -- both grand and small -- as a matter of course, this weekend's event is of particular interest to civil rights leaders. It happens to falls on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" address.
Progressive pundits are assuming that Beck is out to pervert the memory of King, a supposition not outside the realm of possibility, considering that the controversial TV and radio host once flippantly accused President Barack Obama of a being a racist with "a deep-seated hatred for white people." Beck has also called Obama "very white," a comment he's never explained further or contextualized. In other words, his credentials for hosting a rally on the anniversary and location of one of history's most memorable civil rights events are shoddy at best, nonexistent at worst.
Stoking even more suspicions is how secretive Beck is being. Little is known about the event except that there will be speeches by Beck and Sarah Palin, and attendees are prohibited from bringing signs. The fear, of course, is that it will turn into a pit of hatred à la the health-care town halls. But there may be a glimmer of hope.
On May 28, Beck devoted more than half an hour of his Fox program to celebrating the overlooked historical contributions of forgotten African-American heroes. With the assistance of David Barton, a Christian historian, and Lucas Morel, a politics professor and author of Lincoln's Sacred Effort: Defining Religion's Role in American Self-Government, Beck highlighted the accomplishments of black men like Prince Whipple and James Armistead, former slaves who went on to fight alongside General Lafayette and George Washington in the American Revolution.
"I'm so tired of people saying it was just white people [who founded America]," said Beck to a small, mixed audience. "No! Why are we intentionally leaving others out?"
Net News...
Friday 07-23-2010 8:22am ET
Serena Williams, Big Butts and the Painful Path to Self-Love
There's more to life than having a ''sugar bum bum.'' Body parts should never go in -- or out -- of style.
She was born in Compton. I was born in Trinidad, the most southerly island in the Caribbean. She was raised to become a tennis superstar. In high school, my tennis instructor quietly took my parents aside and let them know that their child was ''more of an academic.'' But now that we're both grown women, for the first time I can truly identify with Serena Williams.
In a recent interview with Harper's Bazaar, Serena confessed that, under all that raw physical talent, the body, the unstoppable ambition to be the best in her field, all along she has been dealing with body-image issues. Self-comparison issues that just about any woman in the world could easily recognize.
''I was 23 when I realized that I wasn't Venus. She's totally different,'' she explains. ''I'm super-curvy. I have big boobs and this massive butt. She's tall and she's like a model and she fits everything. I was growing up, wanting to be her, wanting to look like her, and I was always fitting in her clothes, but then one day I couldn't.''
Serena's words speak to a mentality that plagues many women. For many of us, there is a perpetual feeling of not quite measuring up, a constant comparison of our features with someone we'll never be, an ongoing lamentation that you'll never be as (fill in the blank) as (fill in the blank). For me, it was all about comparing myself with my high school friends who were impossibly lissome, long-haired and universally desired by boys. And for Serena, it was all about comparing herself to her svelte sister -- a sister who possesses a name that is synonymous with archetypal female beauty: Venus.
But the truth is, it is Serena's body that has made her an icon, and not her sister's. She is the one who is known for being a real powerhouse on the court. It's her ''massive butt'' that has inspired rap lyrics. These days, Serena controls her own appearance, owns her image and celebrates her identity. She doesn't seek to cover herself up to appease the masses -- instead of dressing conservatively, Serena struts out in one of her self-designed outfits. She's redefined tennis fashion (sometimes with rather controversial results). One look at this woman, and ''Brick House'' starts playing in your head. She is one of the last women in the world you might expect to have misgivings about her physique.
Serena's Bazaar interview revealed a softer side of this athletic icon -- the side that doubts and frets. Because it doesn't matter if you're from Compton or from Trinidad or from anywhere else around the world -- if you're a black woman, you've probably had issues with your own booty at some point. If it isn't too big, it's too small. If it isn't too shelf-like, it's too flat. We always allow something to stand between us and self-acceptance.
Like Serena, I've got a big butt. And big boobs. Big everything -- size has been an issue in my life ever since the onset of puberty. And like her, I once compared myself with other people and yearned to have a body (or skin, or hair) like theirs. Growing up in Trinidad -- land of soca music, barely-there Carnival costumes and ''wining down'' -- a butt of a certain appearance and size is admired: high, round and juicy. The kind of butt that late legendary calypsonian Lord Kitchener would have referred to as a ''sugar bum bum.''
I have never had that kind of butt. Mine is lower, heavier, definitely ripe. It took me years of angst, therapy, terrible boyfriends, fashion faux pas and dressing-room meltdowns to get to where I am now: a place not just of body acceptance but also of self-love. Same goes for Serena: ''Since I don't look like every other girl, it takes a while to be okay with that. To be different. But different is good,'' she told Bazaar. She's so right -- it does take a while. Sometimes when you think you're finally there, those old insecurities will reappear, or someone like Jason Whitlock will feel the need to express an unappreciated and ill-informed opinion about your derriere. But that's when you must remind yourself: Different is good.
Serena was bootylicious before it was fashionable, but finally it seems the world has caught up with her. Rapper Nicki Minaj has been alleged to have had butt implants, actress Countess Vaughn recently gave praise to her surgically enhanced booty on The Mo'Nique Show, and Booty Pop panties are advertised on mainstream television every night. Now you, too, can look like Serena Williams for just $19.95. Even the New York Daily News has pronounced big butts "Summer 2010's hottest trend," citing Kim Kardashian as an ideal example. As if a body part should be subject to the vagaries of fashion.
So what does that mean for young girls growing up with a new generation of curvaceous role models? Hopefully it will mean a new era of appreciation, and not the same old discrimination. Hopefully it will mean a bright future for voluptuous women, where stacked doesn't equal stupid. Here's where a Serena Williams can lead the way. Because unlike her equally stacked peers -- J. Lo, Kimmy K or Ice-T's wife Coco -- Serena's booty signifies more than just sex. It is also a symbol of her strength.
But how about focusing on another body part? ''I think a smile can make your whole body,'' Serena told Bazaar. ''Models, they look fabulous, but they don't smile and they look so mad. But I like my smile, how it's bright and it's nice. Good thing my braces worked out.'' Because she's so much more than just a big butt and a smile.
Andrew Breitbart's Tea Party Hypocrisy
Right-wing blogs don't help the Tea Party's cause by papering over their race issues. And in the process, they're turning off a lot of potential black voters. Like me.
Congratulations, Andrew Breitbart. You might have just cost the Tea Party my vote.
Last week when I wrote ''How the Tea Party Could Get My Vote'' for The Root, I said what should already be pretty obvious: There are plenty of African Americans who enjoy conservative talk radio, who bristle when paying their income taxes and who envy (sort of) the rollicking, ''No co-pay, no peace!'' cri de coeur of Tea Party rallies.
Not too many black folks want to see a lady like Shirley Sherrod get railroaded.
But in the video of the full speech, it's clear not only that Sherrod went on to help that farmer but that the speech was a testimony about coming to terms with her own prejudice, and gaining the perspective that it's ''not so much about black and white.''
In the course of a week, Sherrod was called racist, resigned under pressure, was vindicated, apologized to by White House staff -- and offered a new job by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. If Breitbart's goal was to tie Vilsack and the Obama administration up in knots, he can claim ''Mission Accomplished.''
But if he's claiming the race-relations moral high ground for the Tea Party, he failed miserably.
Last week I rapped the NAACP for wasting valuable time on calling out Tea Party racism. But that doesn't mean that I thought there wasn't any racism in any of the varied Tea Party organizations. There's too much ''birther'' rhetoric out there -- and way too many infamous Tea Party posters like the one depicting President Barack Obama as a ''witch doctor'' with a bone in his nose.
I take most Tea Partiers at their word when they say their movement is primarily about deficits and pushing back on expansive government. But in a case like Sherrod's, it's a case of Tea Party-friendly media trying to set up a flawed and self-defeating interpretation of what ''racism'' is.
Breitbart told Fox News' Sean Hannity that he posted the video in response to the NAACP ''tarring the American and the Tea Party movement with the false charge of racism'' -- as if he could ''prove'' that the Tea Party wasn't racist by falsely accusing Sherrod.
Even if Sherrod was a committed racist -- she clearly isn't -- at best, Breitbart would have succeededonly in pointing out one individual racist in the NAACP. Unless he's also saying that there's not even one individual racist in the Tea Party -- like, say, Mark Williams, who got thrown out of the Tea Party just last week for joking that freed black slaves didn't ''cotton'' to freedom -- then he's pushing a double standard.
His apparent thesis -- NAACP equals black equals Democrats equals the enemy -- betrays a bias of its own. It's probably too much to assume he already knows that African Americans generally see the NAACP as a fairly stodgy, old-line advocacy group, led for 15 years by Benjamin Hooks, a Republican who was in the Nixon administration.
And unless I'm missing something, Breitbart's ''I'm rubber; you're glue'' approach to the issue doesn't show too much confidence in the appeal of what's billed as the Tea Party's core message: trimming federal waste and flattening out income taxes.
But Breitbart did exactly what the Tea Party complains has been done to them.
At its essence, the moral of the story Sherrod tried to tell in her speech is simple -- it's straight out of Broadway's Avenue Q: ''Everyone's a little bit racist ... sometimes ... '':
In the long wind-up of her speech, Sherrod, whose father was killed by a white farmer when she was 17, talked about her client's unwelcome ''superior'' attitude, and how she initially wanted to pawn him off on ''one of his own.'' It's not PC, but it's honest storytelling. What's striking about the public -- and the media's -- initial reaction to her speech is that it was so easily spun as a racist diatribe. Even if you hear only the edited clip, to conclude that she's working up to an indictment of white people, you almost have to want it to be that way. We're conditioned to look for racism in everything.
Sherrod's story is really how it's supposed to go. People confront their biases, and they evolve. As a group, the Tea Party hasn't done that yet. I'm still prepared to believe Tea Partiers who say their anger at the government isn't motivated by bigotry. If Breitbart wants to criticize the media's ''poking and prodding at the racial hornet's nest that was supposed to have been removed'' after Obama's election, that's fair enough.
But he won't win the Tea Party any points until he can admit that's exactly what he did.
Ieshuh Griffin is a legislative candidate from Wisconsin who seems willing to do whatever it takes to get elected. In the five words that candidates are allowed to put on the ballot to describe themselves, Griffin put the phrase, "Not the white man's b*tch."
Obviously, the words got the attention of the Government Accountability Board, which voted to reject the wording. Words are not allowed on the ballot if they are profane, discriminatory or include an obscene word or phrase.
Griffin, a black woman, took her case to a five-judge panel. The entire panel happened to be white, which might be part of the reason that Griffin sees herself as having to confront a predominantly white power structure. She argued her case and fought, but didn't win in the end.
"It's a freedom of expression," she said to the panel. "It's not racial. It's not a slur."
Griffin earned a bit of a moral victory when three of the judges ruled in her favor. But she lost the war, given that she needed four votes to get her initiative passed. Thomas Barland, who spent 33 years as a judge, felt that the language was not a problem.
"She says a lot in five words," he said. "It wasn't pornographic, it wasn't obscene, and I didn't interpret it as racial."
Roxanne Dunlap, one of the other members of the panel, felt that the words were racially discriminatory. She said that if a candidate were to use the words, "not the black man's b----" on the ballot, his efforts would be immediately rejected.
Griffin's language was certainly interesting and will surely draw the attention she's seeking in order to get elected. Her statement was an honest, frustrated reaction to the white-dominated power structure that many African Americans face in their day-to-day lives.
For Dunlap to simply apply the white male version of the same language would be to ignore 400 years of history that has not forced the white man to spend his life under the boot of African American people. Therefore, direct translations of racially loaded terminology almost always end up awkwardly deviating from our instinctual reaction.
The truth is that black people use different language because we've had a different experience -- the same way women are able to use unique language toward men because we've spent thousands of years oppressing them.
While her initiative didn't pass, Griffin may spark up a few votes with such a strong and fiery approach to politics. Also, I am hopeful that she remembers that white politicians are not the only ones who will try to turn you into their "b*tch." Black politicians can be just as deceptive, manipulative and destructive, so she needs to watch her back in every direction. At the end of the day, I am hopeful that she has as much fire in her walk as she does in her talk; Wisconsin may be better for it.
An unidentified member of the New Black Panthers, left, films a protester with a bullhorn during a protest between hundreds of black and white protesters in Paris, Texas, Tuesday, July 21, 2009. The conflict began with a march through downtown by about 100 black activists who were protesting the state's handling of the case of a black man who was run over and dragged by a vehicle. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Is black racism a real problem? Or is it pure politics?
Shirley Sherrod was dismissed from her Agriculture Department job because remarks she made about her dealings with a white farmer almost a quarter century ago were perceived as racist. She was offered her job back Wednesday because a full viewing of that speech showed it to be a tale of racial reconciliation.
But put aside the furor and confusion over the employment of the black woman who headed the USDA's rural development office in Georgia. The Sherrod affair brings to the fore a simmering debate over whether black racism is cause for concern in America under its first black president.
During the campaign, Barack Obama was forced to address the blistering racial remarks of his former pastor. Since then, there have been complaints that Barack Obama presides over an administration that is racial, not post-racial -- when he supported a black Harvard professor who was arrested by a white police officer, or when the Justice Department dismissed most charges against a group of black militants accused of intimidating voters.
"If the Justice Department is really not interested in pursuing cases against blacks who violate whites' civil rights and only go after whites who violate blacks' rights, that is a major problem," says William Stogner, a 46-year-old telecommunications technician who lives in St. Louis.
Growing up in the 1970s, Stogner was often called "cracker" by black kids in his grandparents'East St. Louis neighborhood. Last April, while walking to his car after a tea party rally, he says he heard the same epithet from a group of young black men. To Stogner, black and white racism are equivalent: "To me it's bad no matter where it originates."
But to some conservatives, there is something special about black racism: It is invisible in the liberal media, and perpetrated by the Obama administration. While white racism is highly publicized, they say, black racism gets a pass.
"The sheer hypocrisy is maddening to me, and is a terrible, terrible double standard," said conservative radio host Mike Gallagher.
Andrew Breitbart clearly sees black racism as an issue. He's the conservative blogger who posted the clip from Sherrod's 1986 speech to an NAACP meeting that set off the contretemps. He said the NAACP, in accusing the tea party movement of racism, was glossing over its own bigotry.
In the video, he wrote, "Sherrod's racist tale is received by the NAACP audience with nodding approval and murmurs of recognition and agreement. Hardly the behavior of the group now holding itself up as the supreme judge of another group's racial tolerance."
To Sherrod, Breitbart was just playing his own racist card: He created "a racist thing that could unite even more the racist people out there," she told the liberal website Media Matters.
Imani Perry, a professor at Princeton's Center for African American Studies, said some conservatives are manipulating white fears for political advantage.
"I think many white Americans are fearful that with Obama in the White House, and the diversity in his appointments, that the racial balance of power is shifting. And that's frightening both because people always are afraid to give up privilege, and because of the prospect of a black-and-brown backlash against a very ugly history," Perry said.
Some liberals have long maintained that racism requires power, and so black people can't be racist. Obama's election undercut the first argument and made the specter of black racism appear more threatening.
Of course, the black power movement of the 1960s and 1970s -- "We must wage guerrilla warfare on the honky white man," said H. Rap Brown -- was plenty threatening.
Joe Hicks was a black nationalist and proudly demonized whites back then. Now a conservative Republican and vice president of Community Advocates Inc. in Los Angeles, which works to improve race relations, Hicks says today that black racism is not widespread: "The average black person doesn't dislike white people."
But he does believe it has become more prevalent than white racism. "Bigotry among white Americans has been driven to the margins of society. White people fear being called a racist more than anything else. But as white people have slowly moved away from viewing themselves in a racialized way, black people have maintained their sense of racial consciousness," which sometimes leads to bias, he said.
Gallagher, the radio host, says the appearance of anti-white bias at the Agriculture or Justice Department "creates white racists."
"White people sit around, and they get angry and they think this is the world they live in, and it's not fair. I hear it in the frustration of my callers," he said.
"White America understands by now, you'd better be very careful in the way you treat people of color. In this history of this country that's great advice. That's as it should be. We've had a shameful past," he said. "Now the fear is that the pendulum has swung so far the other way, that white people mind their P's and Q's and don't say anything that can be perceived as racist, but blacks can talk about hurting people."
Perry, the Princeton professor, pointed out that blacks have 10 cents of wealth for every dollar possessed by whites.
"We can hardly say whites as a group are suffering under the weight of racial discrimination. That said, we do have to find ways of talking about race with more openness but also with greater sensitivity," she said.
"There is a lot of work for everyone to do in this regard, and people of color are no exception."
___
Jesse Washington covers race and ethnicity for The Associated Press. He is reachable at jwashington(at)ap.org.
Alvin Greene, Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, makes his first public speech during the monthly meeting of the NAACP Sunday, July 18, 2010, at Manning Junior High School, in Manning, S.C. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Surprise U.S. Senate nominee Alvin Greene frequently mentions his 13 years of military service, but records obtained Thursday by The Associated Press show that the veteran who has called himself an "American hero" was considered a lackluster service member at best.
The records, which document his superiors' decisions to pass over Greene for promotion, cite mistakes as severe as improperly uploading sensitive intelligence information to a military server, and as basic as an overall inability to clearly express his thoughts and perform basic tasks.
Greene, 32, won a surprise victory in the June 8 Democratic primary. Greene handily defeated Vic Rawl, a former lawmaker and judge who had been considered an easy win by the party establishment.
Up to that point, Greene had done no visible campaigning and had no website, fundraising or staff.
In the weeks since, Greene has given a series of awkward interviews to reporters clamoring for more information on the unemployed man who lives in Manning with his ailing father. In one interview, he suggested that the state's economy could be improved by making and selling action figures depicting him in his uniform. On Sunday, Greene gave his first public speech, a 6 1/2-minute recitation of his previous comments and commitment to jobs and education. He now has a website and says he has raised less than $1,000.
Greene has often mentioned his military service, saying he first came up with the idea to seek political office while serving in Korea. But the veteran has also refused to go into detail about his service, merely saying he won numerous decorations and left the military honorably but involuntarily.
At his home in Manning on Thursday, Greene told an AP reporter who reviewed the documents with him that the evaluations show he was discriminated against by military supervisors but he did not explain what that meant.
"I'm telling you who they promote: the terrorists and the communists," said Greene, wearing a blue U.S. Air Force T-shirt. "This is why we need to overhaul the military and get these people out."
The records obtained by AP only reveal a small slice of Greene's service record, his three years with the U.S. Air Force. After serving in junior ROTC in high school, Greene entered the Air National Guard in 1995, serving there until 2002.
In July of that year, he entered the Air Force, serving first as an intelligence librarian responsible for analyzing reports and briefings at Shaw Air Force Base near Sumter.
In a performance report two years later, Greene received adequate marks for performing tasks assigned to him, complying with standards and training requirements. But Greene's reviewer marked him as an ineffective leader who lacked organization and was "unable to express thoughts clearly."
Greene is "usually capable of handling mundane tasks with supervision" but is "not able to adapt to any changes to daily routine," the reviewer wrote, also noting that Greene had received multiple disciplinary actions for failing to perform his duties.
Greene was also written up for posting sensitive information on a military Internet server, a mistake that resulted in a three-day work stoppage. Records showed Greene was kept at Shaw while the rest of his unit deployed after leadership "recognized his inability to contribute to the wartime mission."
Greene protested the denial, writing that the reviewer "only concentrates on presenting a negative perception of me by making false statements of my character" and saying the reviewer and other airmen "create a hostile work environment."
A year later, Greene was evaluated again, this time in his new job as an analyst working with the weapons of mass destruction section. But Greene's job had little to do with intelligence analysis and more to do with shredding documents and escorting contractors around the base.
Again receiving low marks for ineffective leadership, Greene also was rated as not knowing much about his duties or performing them effectively and not complying with minimum training requirements.
The reviewer also wrote Greene "required a daily to-do list" to perform basic duties and had a "consistent inability to follow instructions or maintain basic job knowledge." Most seriously, the reviewer wrote that Greene would represent "a threat to others" because of his inability to grasp the basics of military training.
In additional comments, the reviewer said she would not recommend Greene for promotion but did note his community service work and fundraising efforts for a holiday party. "While Alvin is a decent person, he lacks the basic skills necessary for promotion," the summary said.
Greene also objected to that appraisal, writing that corruption to his computer "can often make it impossible for me to accomplish tasks in a timely fashion" and said another airman "cursed me out and told me I am wanted out."
Six months after that evaluation, Greene was honorably discharged from the Air Force. A year later, he joined the Army National Guard, in which he served about six months before joining the U.S. Army.
Detailed records of Greene's Army service have not been released.
___
Associated Press Writer Jim Davenport in Manning, S.C., contributed to this report.
Net News...
Friday 07-16-2010 8:24am ET
Rush Limbaugh Insults Black People with "Cracker" Remark
Rush Limbaugh is at it again, earning his paycheck from Premier Radio Networks. Recently on his show, he seemed to proudly celebrate the death of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner by referring to Steinbrenner as "the cracker who made a lot of African American millionaires." The comments got the attention of the nation, which surely increased Limbaugh's ratings. What it also did was remind the country that he is a person of weak character and almost no class.
George Steinbrenner had a very powerful legacy through the years, helping the Yankees build and maintain their dynasty through selfless and determined investment. No, he wasn't an angel, for people at the top of the heap rarely are. But at the very least, for him to be called a "cracker" on the day he died is like calling Dorothy Height the n-word at her grave site.
By now, the nation has learned not to take Rush Limbaugh seriously. We understand that he is nothing more than entertainment and should not be respected as any sort of serious political figure. He continuously works, like Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity (whom I call the "Axis of ignorance," I just added Beck this year), to do whatever he can and say whatever outrageous thing that will keep him in the media. That's what happens when you're nothing but an entertainer who has almost no responsibility for the things you say.
With regard to the legacy of George Steinbrenner, he did create quite a few African American millions, but quite a few white and hispanic ones too. Steinbrenner spent nearly $100 milion more in his annual payroll than the next highest paying team, so he leveraged the Yankees to the point where anything other than a championship was simply unacceptable. His investment strategy seemed almost irrational and even irritating to his competitors, but what I do like about Steinbrenner's life is that he lived the life that was fulfilling to him. We also must say, at the very least, that his life was incredibly impactful. To disrespect the legacy of such a well-respected man on the day of his death in a racially-demeaning way is both embarrassing and uncivilized. But then again, that's what Rush Limbaugh is all about.
Whoopi Goldberg has a history of defending the faux pas of her celebrity buddies who just happen to be white dudes. Flash back with us to the 1993 roast of Whoopi Goldberg at NY's Friar's Club where her then boyfriend, actor Ted Danson, did his bit in black-face, dropped a cluster of N-bombs and ate watermelon for his finale. The experience was so vile that Montel Williams, who was in attendance, got up and left during Danson's routine and resigned from the Friar's Club the next day.
More recently Whoopi tried to put the crimes committed by director Roman Polanski in proper, skewed, Hollywood perspective by infamously stating that his statutory rape and sodomy of a 13-year-old girl while she was drugged, was basically not that big of deal. Y'know 'cause he was 43 at the time and it was the '70s so we guess that older men giving minors quaaludes and then butt-raping them was socially acceptable back then. She described the act as not being "rape-rape," which makes us wonder whether she'd describe what happened to her character Celie in "The Color Purple" as "rape-rape?"
And finally this brings us to Mel Gibson, a friend of hers who is apparently near and dear to her heart. Whoopi would have us believe the misogynistic, angry, N-bombing, "wet-back" calling, worldwide Jewish conspiracy theorist isn't a racist because they're friends and he's played with her kids. Sounds a bit delusional Whoopi, but what do we know? We're just a "pack of n-ggers" who haven't quite mastered the art of apologizing for our white friends.
Group Plans Rally in Support of Oscar Grant's Killer?
According to the Northern California website Claycord.com, there is a rally for the convicted criminal this coming Monday.
"Hundreds of people are expected to attend a rally on Monday, July 19th at the Walnut Creek Courthouse to show their support for Johannes Mehserle, the former BART cop who was recently found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for killing an unarmed man named Oscar Grant on New Year's Day in 2009.
The group coordinating the rally had the following to say on their Facebook page...
"Anyone who supports Johannes and our Law Enforcement Officers may attend. This is a peaceful rally to show our support for Johannes and the injustices he is experiencing.The rally is from 2pm-7pm on Monday July 19th at the Walnut Creek Courthouse on Ygnacio Valley Road."
Wow. We guess it wasn't enough to formally declare that a black man's life isn't worth a conviction of murder in the first degree and society should actually make it easier on the killer because he's a BART cop? FOH.
What Financial Reform Means to You
by Stacy Johnson Thursday, July 15, 2010
provided by
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, otherwise known as Financial Regulatory Reform, will soon be signed into law by President Obama. The bill is 2,319 pages long -- there's no single article that can fully explain every way in which this sweeping legislation will ultimately impact your life, but it's important to understand at least the basics.
Let's take a look at exactly how this reform bill will impact your life in the coming months and years.
Mortgage Lending
The changes made to mortgages will help assure that consumers are less likely to get nailed with high fees and bad loan terms.
• The days of the "liar loan" are now officially over. Lenders will now be required to fully document a borrower's income before agreeing to provide a mortgage loan. They will also be required to determine that the borrower can otherwise repay the loan.
• The bill also prohibits lenders from offering incentives (called yield spread premiums) to mortgage brokers in exchange for originating loans with terms unfavorable to borrowers, such as higher interest rates.
• Prepayment penalties for most mortgage loans will no longer be allowed.
The downside of these consumer protections? By making mortgages less profitable for lenders, they could become tougher to get for borrowers. For example, we're already seeing stricter lending standards with higher required down payments.
Free Credit Scores
Consumers can already get a free look at their credit histories once every year from the big three credit bureaus -- Experian, TransUnion and Equifax (NYSE: EFX - News) -- by going to AnnualCreditReport.com. In its earlier form, the new law had extended that ability to credit scores as well, offering one free look at our credit scores annually.
In the final version, however, the bill only allows consumers who are denied a loan or suffer some other sort of "adverse action" to get a free look at their credit score.
In addition to being turned down for a loan, other "adverse actions" that could result in a free look at your credit score include an increase in your cost of insurance, being charged more for, or being denied, a car lease, or if the interest rate you're offered on a credit card or loan is higher than one being offered for those with excellent credit.
Debit Card Interchange Fees
While final changes are still months away, the new bill will very likely save merchants money. Whether it will save any for you, on the other hand, is less certain.
• Interchange fees, also known as "swipe fees," are charges merchants have to pay Visa and Mastercard for processing debit and credit card transactions. The fee for debit cards currently averages 1.6% -- credit cards' swipe fees average more than 2%. Under the new law, the Federal Reserve can cap the fees on debit cards (but not credit cards) limiting them to what they decide is "reasonable and proportional to the actual cost incurred."
• It will take months for the Federal Reserve to decide what's reasonable, but in Europe, Visa and MasterCard interchange fees are as low as 0.2% -- in Australia they're capped at 0.5%. Odds are that caps here will be higher than those charged on other continents, but lower than they are today. In lobbying for this change, retailers virtually assured Congress that they would pass along their savings to consumers. Many consumer advocates, however -- including this one -- are skeptical.
• Merchants will be allowed to offer a discount to customers who pay with cards that carry lower transaction fees -- that's something that hasn't been allowed in the past. They'll also be allowed to set both minimums and maximums for card transactions.
An All-Powerful Consumer Watchdog
One of the primary changes brought about the new law is the establishment of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau within the Federal Reserve. This new agency will have sweeping powers to regulate virtually every kind of lending activity and lender, from the largest banks to the smallest pawn shops.
But there is one large group of lenders that escapes oversight by the new agency: car dealers.
According to Edmunds.com, of the 11 million cars expected to be sold this year, about 70% will be financed or leased through a car dealership. But despite opposition from both consumer advocates and the White House, Senate republicans successfully excluded car dealers from regulatory overview by the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
The argument from car dealers and their lobbyists? They're already regulated by plenty of state and federal consumer protection rules that are designed to prevent practices such as "bait and switch" lending and loans packed with undisclosed extras such as extended warranties.
In addition, dealers argued, if another layer of regulations are imposed on them, lending and leasing may become so unprofitable that many dealers would simply stop offering it, ultimately hurting consumers.
Bank Bailouts
While the bill didn't go as far as many wanted -- for example, it doesn't give the government carte blanche to preemptively break up banks it considers "too big to fail" -- it did establish some new rules that could head problems off before they become systemic. It also should reduce the amount of money taxpayers would be required to shell out should good banks go bad.
• In the case of a failing financial institution, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) will borrow from the Treasury to pay for the cost of liquidation, then get its money back by selling off the institution's assets. If asset sales aren't enough to repay the Treasury, the FDIC could charge a fee to other banks.
• Payments to creditors of a failing institution designed to prevent a crisis from spreading will be limited to payments a creditor would receive in bankruptcy. In other words, money owed by failing financial firms to other companies might not be entirely repaid. This would prevent a repeat of the $160 billion taxpayer bailout of AIG.
• If a bank fails, the FDIC will have the ability to take back compensation paid to its current or former senior executives for the two years preceding its failure. In addition, the government can ban senior executives found responsible for a bank's failure from future work in the financial services industry.
Additional Protection for Investors and Consumers
• Financial literacy: The legislation requires the SEC to conduct a financial literacy study. It also creates an Office of Financial Literacy that will be tasked to develop programs to teach Americans about savings, loans, liens and fees. The agency would establish standards for financial advice programs and help keep Americans, particularly seniors, from becoming victims of scams.
• Investor Advocate: The legislation creates an Investor Advocate within the SEC that will represent the interests of retail investors.
• Greater disclosure to retail investors: The legislation requires that adequate disclosures be made to retail investors before they are allowed to invest in financial products.
• More protection for underserved investors: Another goal is to allow the un-banked and under-banked greater access to mainstream financial institutions.
Kim Fields: I Would Never Divorce Myself from 'The Facts of Life'
By Tim Hayne, Parade | Thursday, July 15, 2010, 3:16 PM
Kim Fields, then and now
Embassy Pictures/Everett Collection Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage.com
As an actress, Kim Fields spent most of her formative years in front of the camera. Now, she's spending a lot of time on the other side of the lens.
The 41-year-old showbiz vet, wife to actor Christopher Morgan, and mother to son Sebastian, 3, has been busy directing episodes of Tyler Perry's hit sitcoms "Meet the Browns" and "House of Payne," offering advice to aspiring filmmakers as a panelist at this summer's "Lens on Talent: Get Focused" film symposium, and being a guest on the upcoming season of BET's "Lens on Talent: A Johnson & Johnson Filmmaker’s Challenge," which premieres September 12. Fields sat down with Parade.com to talk about her child-star past, the underwhelming feat of turning 40, what it's like to work with Tyler Perry, and why she has (almost) no regrets from her "Facts of Life" days.
Getting the acting bug at an early age
"I was never pushed into the industry. I was a very shy child. I was not one to perform for friends and family at every get-together. When my mom started going to acting classes out here in New York, we couldn't afford a babysitter. And so she took me to the acting classes just because, well, what else was she going to do with me? And there were other kids there whose parents couldn't afford sitters either. We would keep ourselves entertained by imitating what we saw them doing, and that kind of birthed acting classes for the younger kids. In that crop was Danielle Spencer, who played Dee on 'What's Happening.' Her father was a ridiculously tremendous actor named Tim Pelt, who we lost some time ago in a horrible car crash."
A childhood beyond acting
"I always felt that I had a childhood. I went to regular school whenever I wasn't working. At one point, I wanted to be a marine biologist."
Being a part of "The Facts of Life," the pop-culture phenomenon
"It still, to this day, blows my mind. When you're in it, you don't think about that at all. I mean, my goodness, we were almost canceled once, and the critics and the media never regarded 'The Facts of Life' as any sort of great critical success or an acclaimed show. And we were too big to be a cult-followed show. We still had nine years. Nine years of your life from age 9 to 18; you can't fathom a more-crucial piece of your own time."
More to Kim than just the "Facts"
"'Facts of Life' was and continues to be a milestone on my journey. But when people act like the journey ended when 'Facts of Life' ended, that's annoying. I could never and would never want to divorce myself from it because it was such a great experience from so many different facets. I got a tremendous education — my literal education from schooling but also the education from the on-the-job training. The fantastic group of people that I've worked with as cast members and crewmembers — we continue to be good friends. I love showing up to a set, and there's a camera guy I worked with as a child, and now we're equals. It's just fantastic to me."
Understanding that the public grew up with her
"I recognize the unknowing, involuntary effect that 'Facts of Life' had and continues to have on several generations of people. When I walk into a store and the cashier can't focus at all because she says, quite frankly, 'Can I have a hug?' Sure. I mean, there's a part of me that wants to say, 'You know I'm a stranger, right? If you ask the next person that they'll report you.' So there are certain elements of not just 'Facts of Life' but my own career that I realize audiences have taken ownership of. And it can be a glorious blessing and sometimes a little odd all these years later. But I certainly wouldn't have it any other way."
Being the only African-American actor in a predominantly white cast
"I didn't feel alone or singled out because, No. 1, I was a kid. Those thoughts don't really register. It's not like being in a classroom, and no one wants to play with you; it wasn't like that at all, and as a kid, there's only so much that you can comprehend. So much is in hindsight. At the time, you don't realize any of this. You're just showing up to work. You're just going to school. And then, years later, it becomes, like, 'Is that me when they're talking about "the only" or "the first" or "the pioneer" or "groundbreaker"?' I'm like, 'Really? I was just an actor.'"
Having (almost) no misgivings about her "Facts" days
"People say, 'If you had to do it again, would you stay nine years?' Sure. 'If you had to do it again, would you change the character name?' Well, maybe. No one wants to walk around in their 40s and still be called 'Tootie.'"
Regrets about the roller skates
"No. They got me the gig!" [Laughs.]
"I can't say it was a break; it was a change in my schedule. I didn't do what one of my heroes, Jodie Foster, did, who just said, 'I'm taking a break from the industry, and I'm going to Yale.' For me, because I was in Malibu, California, (at PepperdineUniversity) I was still working. I wasn't on a series and reporting to a set every day, but I would do a Dick Clark special here and there, as a host. I did a talk show on campus that I created and produced and had Blair Underwood and Betty White and Sugar Ray Leonard and Jason Bateman (as guests). I was a film and TV production and broadcast journalism double major. I was still always around it."
Taking on another female ensemble show, "Living Single"
"I was surprised that I did another predominantly female ensemble show. I was surprised that I did another series where (my character) did not have (her) own place to live. I was a roommate yet again. It's not in any way a complaint; it's just another one of those ironic observations. Aside from that, I loved doing 'Living Single.' I adored the cast."
The real reason she said yes to a cameo on "The Comeback"
"I'd already met with (Lisa Kudrow) and her producing partner — I think it was the season before for a show that she was a producer on — and we kind of clicked. So the following season, when 'The Comeback' happened, (Kudrow and Michael Patrick King) reached out to me. The idea of working with (King) and Lisa Kudrow on something was just a lot of fun. Yes, in all absolute honesty, there was a part of me that thought, 'Hey, if they ever do anything with "Sex and the City," maybe I can be the black girl in it. [Laughs.] Yeah, we saw how that worked out."
Working with Tyler Perry on "Meet the Browns" and "House of Payne"
"I've known Tyler for a very long time, from the theater days. And he's always been very, very kind in saying how much he supported my work or my mother's work as actresses over the years, as he was growing up. Once everything took off for him TV-wise, he just wasn't able to do everything that he was doing as director, as head of the studio, as a fellow actor, as a writer, etc. So they started reaching out and saying, 'Hey, who can we get?' I was one of the first directors that they brought in to shadow Tyler. He's been incredibly gracious and supportive of the work that I'm doing there."
Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com
Losing her dreadlocks
"Last year, when I was about to turn 40, I had this notion in my head of, OK, here comes a new decade of my life, a new chapter, and wanting to have a new look or energy. I'd had my locks for 11 years. I thought maybe it was time to do something different. I had just finished doing this one-woman show that I produced and written and directed, and so I was kind of feeling good about where I was as an actor. And I thought, 'You know, let's cut my hair'"
Turning the big 4-0
"There's a lot of hype around 'Life begins at 40. 40 is the new 20.' Like, as soon as that magic birthday hits, Willy Wonka turns over the factory to you and your whole life and world change but, at least for me, not so much. I didn't know what I was doing. I knew what I was doing as a mom, as a wife, as a director in my career, but as Kim, I felt completely clueless. Just now, turning 41 a couple of weeks ago, slowly things are starting to click."
Keeping it all on track
"First of all, we're a praying family. You just can't run willy-nilly in this industry. For me, before I was even a mom or a wife or anything, I was a praying person. I was always very clear that my faith sustained me and helped me keep a modicum of sanity. I couldn't even fathom being in life — let alone this life in the entertainment industry — without God. The entertainment industry has its own perils and ups and downs, like any industry. But in just life itself, I couldn't and wouldn't want to be without God. And I've tried to be in this life without God: no thanks."
Net News...
Thursday 07-15-2010 8:44am ET
A Wake-Up Call in Oakland
The verdict in the Oscar Grant shooting case was a slap in the face to a community sure that this time justice would be served, says radio journalist Davey D.
It's been five days since the verdict of involuntary manslaughter was handed down to former Oakland, Calif., transit cop Johannes Mehserle for the shooting death of unarmed Oscar Grant III as he lay face down with his hands behind his back in front of a train packed with horrified passengers who were returning home from New Year's Eve celebrations in January 2009. His murder, which was caught on video by dozens of cell phones, sent shock waves all over the world.
Some are saying Mehserle's conviction is a good thing; after all, it's the first time in the history of this great blue, liberal state of California that an officer was convicted for killing a black man while on duty. That may be true, but as far as I'm concerned, being the first to get a crumb when you deserve a meal is not good enough. Justice was not served. The Grant family deserved more. This hard-working Oakland-Bay Area community, which came together and tirelessly and meticulously organized for the past 18 months to see this case through, deserved more.
A Series of Wake-Up Calls
Mehserle only getting involuntary manslaughter, and not second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter, cut deep. It was a slap in the face. It symbolized just how broken the justice system is and how powerless we are within it. It was another wake-up call that left me wondering just how much more can you invest in a system that is continuously unresponsive to black people and other marginalized communities?
The first wake-up call, for many of us in Oakland, came the night Grant was murdered. To better understand, one has to remember what was going on at that time. The inauguration of President Barack Obama was three weeks away. Many of us were in a hopeful, festive mood. Hope, change and the anticipation of new beginnings are what many of us were thinking as this nation was gearing up to have its first black president.
Many of us were happy that he had already named Eric Holder, another African American, to hold the nation's top law enforcement spot as attorney general. The thought of us black folks having to revisit the all-too-familiar scenario of white-cop-shoots-unarmed-black-man-and-gets-away-with-it was the furthest thing on our minds the night Oscar Grant was killed. I've often wondered if similar thoughts were rolling through Grant's mind that fateful night.
Was he thinking it was a new day when he was approached by an aggressive Johannes Mehserle that night? Did he feel comfortable enough to question why Mehserle had pulled him and his friends off the train? Did he think that the days of having to cower and be scared of white cops in black and brown neighborhoods were over?
Grant's murder was a harsh wake-up call. It reminded us that there would be no post-racial America, that it was business as usual. This was further underscored when we learned that moments before Grant was shot, he was called a "bitch ass nigger" by Mehserle's racist partner Tony Pirone, who has since been fired after months of community pressure. One can only wonder what Grant was thinking when he heard those words.
This wake-up call was driven home further by what we heard from sworn testimonies by Grant's friends, all men of color. They said as they sat on the platform, not only did they have to witness him being shot at point-blank range, but they were made to sit there for hours in handcuffs while officers taunted them. The young men were never charged with any wrongdoing.
Against Injustice, Unity
It's with all that in mind, along with knowing all the work people put into organizing around this issue, that I'm disheartened by the jury's verdict. The Mehserle trial should have been an open-and-shut case, with this man being charged with voluntary manslaughter, at least, if not second-degree murder. I'm still bewildered by it, as was everyone else who took to the streets the night the verdict was read. What more was one supposed to do?
It would be one thing if people in Oakland sat back and just complained and this was the result, but Oakland isn't like that. I saw people rise to the occasion and do all the right things. Seeing folks from all walks, ages and ethnic backgrounds come together, link similar struggles and seriously put their shoulders to the grind in the name of getting justice for Oscar Grant and his family was breathtaking.
There were town halls held every single week at OlivetBaptistChurch in West Oakland. There were dozens of marches, sit-ins, teach-ins, speak-outs and fundraising concerts. A number of artists created songs for the cause. Others made T-shirts and posters.
Coalitions were formed and bridges built, linking elected officials, activists and folks from different communities who saw Oscar Grant not only as a young black man who got killed but as someone who could just as easily have been them or a member of their community. When the trial moved to Los Angeles, organizers from the Bay Area linked up with organizers in L.A. to form tight coalitions.
Most importantly, people sat down and developed strategies with the Grant family, who have been a source of inspiration and have been incredibly strong throughout these past 18 months. The end result was an impressive string of victories that included an unresponsive Alameda County district attorney Tom Orloff and BART police chief Gary Gee being forced to step down and resign, two of the officers on the platform with Mehserle (Tony Pirone and Marysol Domineci) being fired, and BART itself being investigated by an outside firm, which concluded that the agency mishandled the shooting case and had inadequately trained its police officers.
A Stacked Deck
Although jaded by seeing acquittals in high-profile police shootings, such as the cases of Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell, I was hopeful this case would turn out differently. The dozens of videos documenting Grant's shooting spoke volumes. No way this was going to be covered up and swept away. Unfortunately, when you have every police union in the state throwing their weight behind a rogue officer, what seems an obvious conclusion can quickly become complicated.
When you take into account the consistent polling data that show the huge differences in the way whites and blacks view police, you can understand why this was cause for concern. Many of us believe that no matter how egregious their acts, the police can do no wrong in the eyes of whites. One of the reasons cited by Mehserle's defense and Alameda County Judge Morris Jacobson for moving the trial from Oakland to Los Angeles was because African Americans could not be impartial. They cited as proof an unscientific poll that was widely reported by local news outlets.
It was troubling that Mehserle's violent past was not allowed into the courtroom, thanks to California's powerful Policemen's Bill of Rights. The Los Angeles jury and many in the public were not privy to hearing how, six weeks before he murdered Oscar Grant, Mehserle is alleged to have savagely beaten a 41-year-old black engineer named Kenneth Carrethers, whom he overheard dissing the police to a friend. After the beating, Mehserle is said to have driven around to three different hospitals, looking for a place that would support his "he got hurt because he was resisting arrest" narrative. Why a guy like this was still on the force is beyond me.
Time to Refocus
Mehserle's lightweight conviction was jarring, and the pain was intensified by the fact of so many communities across the nation focusing instead on the "big" decision that basketball great LeBron James was going to make. Why weren't our urban broadcasters rallying us around Grant's case? Where was our progressive media to weigh in and do some serious investigative reporting on this? Why weren't more black folks outside Oakland talking about this?
Instead, Mel Gibson, Lindsay Lohan and King James news was the order of the day. Have we gotten so used to police shootings and cops getting away with it that covering them is seen as no longer worth the air space? That to me was the biggest wake-up call.
With all that being said, the lack of attention and the unfairness in the verdict has strengthened our resolve here in "ThaTown." People have come to lean on each other and draw strength from knowing that more than a few will be stepping up to fight for justice and put a permanent end to police brutality and misconduct.
The Oscar Grant case is not over. The U.S. Department of Justice is looking into it. We are pushing to make sure the other officers on the platform get jail time for lying, and we intend to change some laws. As Oscar's Uncle Bobby (Cephus Johnson) said over the weekend, This is war, and we have many battles before us.
Davey D is a journalist and community activist from the Bay Area. He hosts the daily syndicated radio show Hard Knock Radio, which has been covering the Oscar Grant case since the beginning.
DES MOINES, Iowa — A billboard created by an Iowa tea party group that compares President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin is drawing sharp criticism – even from fellow tea party activists who have condemned it as offensive and a waste of money.
The North Iowa Tea Party began displaying the billboard in downtown Mason City last week. The sign shows large photographs of Obama, Nazi leader Hitler and communist leader Lenin beneath the labels "Democrat Socialism," "National Socialism," and "Marxist Socialism."
Beneath the photos is the phrase, "Radical leaders prey on the fearful & naive."
The co-founder of the roughly 200-person group said the billboard was intended to send an anti-socialist message. But Bob Johnson admitted Tuesday that the message may have gotten lost amid the images of fascist and communist leaders.
"The purpose of the billboard was to draw attention to the socialism. It seems to have been lost in the visuals," Johnson said. "The pictures overwhelmed the message. The message is socialism." He said he didn't know of any plans to remove the sign.
But others in the tea party movement criticized the sign.
"That's just a waste of money, time, resources and it's not going to further our cause," said Shelby Blakely, a leaders of the Tea Party Patriots, a national group. "It's not going to help our cause. It's going to make people think that the tea party is full of a bunch of right-wing fringe people, and that's not true."
Blakely also expressed outrage at linking Obama to Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany who oversaw the killing of 6 million Jews and whose invasions of neighboring countries led to World War II.
"When you compare Obama to Hitler, that to me does a disservice to the Jews who both survived and died in the Holocaust and to the Germans who lived under Nazi regime rule," Blakely said.
John White, an Iowa coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, said that he can understand the North Iowa group's perception that Obama is "Hitler-esque," but he thinks the billboard is offensive and unproductive. White said that he planned to discuss the matter with national tea party officials.
"I fear they may end up in some kind of trouble over it, because it's basically slanderous," White said. "I don't know that it's the message we want to send. I'd much rather see billboards that say 'Remember in November. Get Out and Vote.'"
The billboard is owned by Waitt Outdoor of Omaha, Neb. Waitt general manager, Kent Beatty, said the company didn't have a problem with the message.
"We believe in freedom of speech," Beatty said. "It doesn't reflect our views, necessarily."
The White House declined to comment on the sign.
One person who welcomed the billboard was Dean Genth, a Democratic activist from Mason City, a city of 30,000 people just south of the Minnesota border, who said he thinks the sign lays bare the views of tea party supporters.
"I welcome them to continue to spew that kind of stuff because I think it's going to do a lot of good for the good Democrats around the state," Genth said.
___
Associated Press writer Julie Pace in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
While Dan Gilbert's rage in Comic Sans didn't do him any favors with David Stern, Jesse Jackson or Miami Heat superstars, it did win over some pretty important people — Cleveland Cavaliers fans. Distraught by the loss of their marquee player, Cavs fans embraced Gilbert's guarantees and disgust with LeBron James(notes). Now they're taking things a step further than just agreeing with him — they're helping him.
After being hit with a $100,000 fine for his ode to anger, Gilbert received an offer of his own from some Clevelanders who totally agree with everything he said, if not his font choice. From the Associated Press:
Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert has more fans and friends than he ever knew.
His emotional, controversial letter criticizing LeBron James for leaving to join Miami spawned an outpouring of fan support for Gilbert. A team spokesman said the team has received thousands of e-mails and phone calls, including some from fans offering to help Gilbert pay a $100,000 NBA-imposed fine.
Well, that's nice. Very nice. Probably not allowed by the NBA in any way, shape or form, but it's the thought that counts.
And while Gilbert is more than happy to take people's money in the form of high-interest loans, he has opted not to accept these fans' offers to pay his fine.
"The humbling offer by so many is another reflection of the strength of Cavs fans and the people who live and work in this region and are always the first to step up and have each other's back," Gilbert said. "I will pay this fine myself, but would be grateful and highly appreciative for any fan who redirects the dollars they kindly offered to contribute towards this fine to the Cavaliers Youth Fund, which will positively impact our region's kids through the numerous local charitable groups the Cavaliers Youth Fund supports."
Even though it's gotten him in some trouble with the league, Gilbert's pretty much nailed the PR part of losing LeBron James, at least in Cleveland. He showed the fans he was upset just like them, and that's sure to help them want to stay attached to the team. Now, he's trying to turn his fine into something good for the area. Good thinking, really.
Maybe all it will take for Dan Gilbert to become a beloved figure in Ohio is the loss of the best player in Cavaliers history. Every owner should try it.
Net News...
Friday 07-09-2010 11:01am ET
First Lady to VisitGulf on Monday
July 9, 2010 at 04:01 am
*The White House seems to be doing, well, nothing really about the oil spill in the Gulf. Maybe a few visits here and there from vice president, other officials, and now from the first lady.
Critics, consumers, and heck … America are peeved of the lack of action the government has made on behalf of the oil spill. BP has been doing nothing but covering up the situation and polluting everything. What exactly is going on?
Michelle Obama will be visiting the GulfCoast to express her concern and support for the people, but that just won’t take away the devastation, unfortunately.
Mrs. Obama “will begin her visit with a briefing by officials and local leaders,” the announcement said. She also plans to speak with local residents at a community event.
She heads to the GulfCoast after a speech Monday to the NAACP convention in Kansas City, Mo.
Video: King James Has Decided. He’s Going to … Miami!
July 8, 2010 at 06:32 pm
*OK, finally the drama is over. In front of a national and international audience of millions, Lebron James has decided he will … take his game to Miami as had been speculated and reported. There he will join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in search of an NBA championship.
In the hours before his choice was revealed, the sports world spun out of control with speculation and rumors, including some reports that he had told his inner circle he is leaning toward the Heat.
James, Bosh and Wade entered the pros in the same year, the respective Nos. 1, 4 and 5 picks in the 2003 draft. They went their separate ways: James to Cleveland, Bosh to Toronto and Wade to Miami, where he won a championship partnered with center Shaquille O’Neal in 2006. That year, James, Bosh and Wade all signed matching contracts to make sure they were all unrestricted free agents at the same time. They also won gold medals together at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Season-ticket sales for the Heat’s coming 41-game season were suspended Thursday afternoon after the entire supply of available seats were sold out. Not every seat has been released for sale yet and some will be held back for single-game purchases at the 19,600-capacity arena.
ESPN televised James’ decision live from a Boys & Girls Club in Greenwich, Conn., a group with which James has a relationship. Frank Sanchez, the vice president for corporate and partner relationships for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, said James approached the organization last weekend about using its location for his big show, titled The Decision.
Watch LeBron reveal “The Decision” here:
Michael Steele: ‘I Ain’t Going Anywhere’
July 8, 2010 at 03:09 pm
*RNC chairman Michael Steele has made his first public comments since his wildly erroneous statement that the war in Afghanistan is “of Obama’s choosing,” and “not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.”
Two Republican lawmakers and several prominent conservative media figures called on Steele to leave his post for raising doubts about the Afghanistan war that the GOP supports.
“Every time something happens, people say ‘he should step down,” Steele said at an appearance with the Colorado Republican Party.
“The reality is that’s not happening, so stop the noise on that,” he said. “You don’t need the distraction. We’re focused on winning. I ain’t going anywhere. I’m here, I’m here. Look, we have too much work to do.”
Despite the pressure to step down, Steele earlier this week was seen as likely to survive the outrage. Observers said it would be almost impossible to force a party chairman out just four months before the midterm elections.
Black-owned businesses have not fared particularly well as independent actors in this age of consolidation, having suffered heavy attrition rates due to a surge of mergers and buy-outs over the course of the last two decades. Many of these companies had long histories within the African-American community, becoming household names associated with the fulfillment of black Americans’ business ambitions.
Changing economic conditions, however, prompted business owners across the United States to realign their resources and consolidate their efforts in a drive to increase efficiency and competitiveness. Black-owned businesses could not sit idly by in the face of this profound change overtaking American business – they had to act or risk being left behind.
The Atlanta Post has compiled a list detailing some of the most high-profile acquisitions of black-owned businesses by larger companies during the latest wave of consolidation ventures. Ranging from clothing companies to advertising agencies and everything in between, these enterprises have undoubtedly left a lasting imprint on the modern business landscape.
Rocawear – Bought by Iconix in 2007 for $204 million Rocawear, a well-established clothing brand belonging to rapper Jay-Z, was bringing in an impressive $700 million a year in sales when it was purchased by Iconix Brand Group in 2007. Jay-Z retained his role in product development, licensing, and marketing. In addition to the $204 million doled out by Iconix, the acquisition contract stipulated that Jay-Z would be paid an additional $35 million if the brand met its targeted sales figures for the next year under his leadership. Iconix aimed to generate $1 billion in sales from the company following the acquisition.
Phat Fashions – bought by Kellwood in 2004 for $140 million
Phat Fashions was founded in 1992 by Russell Simmons as an urban fashion brand with Phat Farm, a men’s urban apparel line, as its flagship venture and expanded to include the Baby Phat women’s clothing line by Simmons’ then wife, Kimora, in 1999. The company’s annual revenue was approximated to be $200 million at the time of the merger. Russell and Kimora Simmons continued in their leading roles at the company following its acquisition by Kellwood. According to Kellwood CEO Hal Upbin, the company had been interested in expanding into the urban apparel market since the late 1990s, but was not convinced of its long-term viability until shortly before the Phat Fashions acquisition.
Soft Sheen – acquired by L’Oreal in 1998 for an unreported sum, estimated to be around $160 million
A household name in ethnic hair-care, Soft Sheen was acquired by L’Oreal USA – the American division of French cosmetics giant L’Oreal – in July of 1998 for an undisclosed sum. At the time of acquisition, Soft Sheen boasted annual sales figures of close to $95 million.
While the financial details of the deal remained elusive, L’Oreal’s interest in the ethnic hair-care market was readily apparent – in the wake of the acquisition, L’Oreal sought to expand the Soft Sheen product line and increase funding for research and development projects.
Burrell Communications Group – merged with Publicis Groupe in 1999
Specializing in marketing aimed at the African-American demographic, Burrell Communications Group had ample experience in urban and youth marketing to bring to the plate. In the late 1990s, however, the company was facing pressure to expand into the general advertising market in order to stay competitive. It elected to use an alliance with French advertising giant Publicis Groupe as the vehicle to carry it towards that goal, setting up a merger with the company in 1999. As a result of the deal, Publicis Groupe acquired 49% of Burrell Communications’ stock for an undisclosed sum.
Translation Consulting and Brand Imaging – acquired by Interpublic Group in 2007 for a reported sum of between $10 and $15 million
Owned by marketing heavyweight Steve Stoute, Translation Consulting and Brand Imaging was an agency that specialized in helping celebrities partner up with major corporate sponsors and launch joint marketing campaigns aimed at the urban and youth demographics. Translation’s clients included numerous celebrities, such as Jay-Z, Beyonce, and T.I. and the company was responsible for several highly successful advertising campaigns. In late 2007, Translation Consulting was acquired by Interpublic Group – a massive media and marketing conglomerate with offices in over 100 countries – for an undisclosed sum, thought to be between $10 and $15 million. Following the sale, Translation continued to operate as an independent unit and Stoute went on to start Translation Advertising with Jay-Z in 2008.
BET – acquired by Viacom for $2.34 billion in 2000
Mass media giant BET, a cable channel catering to the African-American audience with a focus on hip-hop and urban culture,was one of the nation’s largest black-owned companies. BET Holdings, the owner of BET, reported $225 million in revenue in 1999, the year before the company’s purchase by Viacom for close to $2.4 billion. Viacom also assumed BET Holdings’ $570 million debt as part of the sale agreement. The deal, which greatly increased BET’s advertising revenues, reflected positively on the value of Viacom’s stock.
Essence Communications Partners – acquired by Time Inc. in 2005 in a transaction reported to be valued $170 million
Essence Magazine, a major publication targeted at African-American women, was for a long time the premier success story amongst black-owned businesses – its 35-year publishing history standing as a stark testament of the perseverance of its creators and the relevance of its material. With a circulation figure of 1.1 million and a well-established reader base, Essence Magazine was an appealing acquisition option for media conglomerate Time Warner as it was increasingly trying to court minority demographics. In 2000, Time Inc., a subsidiary of Time Warner, secured a major stake in Essence magazine by purchasing 49% of Essence Communications, the magazine’s parent company. However, the acquisition was not complete until 2005, when Time Inc. obtained the remaining 51% in a deal reportedly valued at around $170 million.
Zimbabweans wash dirty US dollars with soap, water
By ANGUS SHAW (AP) – 3 days ago
HARARE, Zimbabwe — The washing machine cycle takes about 45 minutes — and George Washington comes out much cleaner in the Zimbabwe-style laundering of dirty money.
Low-denomination U.S bank notes change hands until they fall apart here in Africa, and the bills are routinely carried in underwear and shoes through crime-ridden slums.
Some have become almost too smelly to handle, so Zimbabweans have taken to putting their $1 bills through the spin cycle and hanging them up to dry with clothes pins alongside sheets and items of clothing.
It's the best solution — apart from rubber gloves or disinfectant wipes — in a continent where the U.S. dollar has long been the currency of choice and where the lifespan of a dollar far exceeds what the U.S. Federal Reserve intends.
Zimbabwe's coalition government officially declared the U.S. dollar legal tender last year to eradicate world record inflation of billions of percent in the local Zimbabwe dollar as the economy collapsed.
The U.S. Federal Reserve destroys about 7,000 tons of worn-out money every year. It says the average $1 bill circulates in the United States for about 20 months — nowhere near its African life span of many years.
Larger denominations coming in through banks and formal import and export trade are less soiled.
But among Africa's poor, the $1, $2, $5 and $10 bills are the most sought after. Dirty $1 bills can remain in circulation at rural markets, bus parks and beer halls almost indefinitely, or at least until they finally disintegrate.
Still, banks and most businesses in Zimbabwe do not accept torn, Scotch-taped, scorched, defaced, exceptionally dirty or otherwise damaged U.S. notes.
Zimbabweans say the U.S. notes do best with gentle hand-washing in warm water. But at a laundry and dry cleaner in eastern Harare, a machine cycle does little harm either to the cotton-weave type of paper. Locals say chemical "dry cleaning" is not recommended — it fades the color of the famed greenback.
Laundry worker Alex Mupondi said customers asked him to try machine-washing a selection of bills and the result impressed him.
But storekeeper Jackie Dube hasn't yet taken up advice of friends to cleanse the often damp and stinking U.S. dollars she receives for the garments and cheap Chinese consumer goods she sells in Harare. It's time-consuming, she says, adding that stinky, unhygienic bills are a problem.
"I get rid of the worst of the notes as soon as I can in change," she said.
The very same dynamics are unfolding on the African continent, but rarely—if ever—are African countries mentioned as a place for U.S. investment. Larry Seruma wants to change that.
“The fund invests across the entire continent from Cairo to Cape Town, and in all industries, including basic materials, technology, utilities, and consumer goods,” says Seruma, who serves as the fund’s portfolio manager.
Since the fund’s inception last April, it’s become available on four major brokerage platforms: Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Pershing, and Scottrade. Seruma spoke to Black Enterprise about Africa’s emergence and how African American investors can take part.
Should Africa be on every investor’s radar screen? We believe so. Here’s the reason: Brazil, Russia, India, and China were once where Africa is now. A lot of investors who may have missed out on the opportunity to invest in those countries 10 years ago are beginning to realize this is the time to do it for Africa. It’s the last frontier in terms of investment destinations. We believe that investors can look at Africa as a way to deepen their emerging market allocations without increasing risk.
What’s the best case for investing in Africa now? Look at returns. Over the last 10 years, the returns for emerging markets have been about 7.3%. If you look at Africa, the returns have been 13.8%. African markets have performed just as well as other emerging markets. In the first quarter of 2010, Africa’s return has been between 20% and 25%. When you look at developed markets in the first quarter, they were about 4.87% (S&P 500).
What are your criteria for the African companies you look to invest in? We look for good corporate governance, dominant market share, good solid management, the ability to execute, companies that have a good shareholder base. When we invest in local companies, we like those that have multinational shareholders. We also like companies that have access to cheaper capital.
Aside from that, there are three important factors I look for. The first is consumer growth. Africa is urbanizing. We’re looking for companies that are exploiting this huge market opportunity in the urban areas. The second thing is infrastructure, companies that provide infrastructure services to the big urban centers—not only roads, but also technology infrastructure such as telephone and Internet. Many African countries are spending a lot of money to fund this infrastructure. Finally, there are many companies that are part of Africa’s commodity story.
Most people, when they think about Africa, think of its abundant natural resources. We look at companies thriving in that space. Big multinational companies are beginning to invest in Africa to increase their oil and gas resources.
What’s your favorite commodity-based African company right now? Tullow Oil plc. (TUWOY)--they have been the most successful oil and gas exploration business in Africa. The investment thesis for this stock is based on the company’s assets in Ghana and Uganda, where the most recent oil discoveries in Africa have been made. The market potential is about $7 billion in oil.
The Ghana discovery is jointly owned by three companies: Tullow Oil, Kosmos Energy, and Anadarko Petroleum. They each currently own one-third of the discovery. Additionally, Tullow Oil has another recent discovery in Uganda. It owns 50% of that asset with a company called Heritage Oil. Now Heritage Oil has recently decided to sell its 50% stake to Tullow, making it the sole owner of that asset. In Ghana they are looking to start pumping out oil by the end of this year. In Uganda it’s going to be 2011. Tullow is positioned to benefit from that given the fact that they are a large holder of those two assets. Their stock price right now does not reflect the value of those two assets.
So as a long-term call, it’s a very good company to own. In addition to that, Tullow continues to explore oil on the rest of the continent. Our 12-month price target is $11.
What’s a good way to capitalize on consumer growth on the continent? SABMiller plc. (SBMRY) is a South African brewery company that started out in Cape Town and grew its business across the entire continent. It has been very successful at doing that and has since expanded outside Africa—with assets in Europe, the U.S., and Latin America. After this summer, the company is looking to benefit from the World Cup because it sells 90% of all beer in South Africa.
The company is looking to capitalize on it in order to expand in other African countries. It owns the largest brewer, for example, in Zimbabwe. And they’re pursuing the same strategy in the rest of Africa. So if you go to Kenya or Uganda or any of these countries, they own some of the largest local brewers. They are looking to use their infrastructure in a way to expand their business. So it has good exposure to Africa, Latin America, and Europe. It’s an African company that has really gone global.
Owning a piece of this company gives an investor exposure to Africa but also other emerging markets. My 12-month price target for SABMiller is $35. So, we have both commodity and consumer-based picks. Do you have an infrastructure play for us? Yes. My final pick is MTN Group Ltd. (MTNOY), the largest telecommunications operator in Africa. Based in South Africa, they operate in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East. Their two largest markets are South Africa and Nigeria.
Their main source of future growth will come from all the untapped markets in Africa. Telecommunications penetration among consumers on the continent is under 15%. That presents an opportunity—a lot of growth possibilities. Another growth opportunity for the company is in the data market. In Africa there is only about 2% penetration in the data market.
Our 12-month price target for this stock is $18.
This article appears in the August 2010 issue of Black Enterprise.
Beyonce Avoids Injury as Car Door Is Ripped Off in London
Beyonce suffered a pretty serious scare in London's Knightsbridge neighborhood the other night during a momentary stop that took place during an evening out on the town with Jay-Z. Apparently, she requested a quick detour to shop at U.K. luxury department store Harrods while on the way to a Japanese dinner at local hotspot Zuma and opened her door only to have a speeding black taxi cab drive by and rip it clear off the body of her Mercedes S-Class. Witnesses are saying that Bey and Jay were both clearly freaked out by the incident.
"It was terrifying to watch," a witness told The Sun. "It all happened quickly. The taxi came out of nowhere. She seemed very shaken and was lucky to be alive. A couple of seconds difference and God knows what could have happened."
The fluke accident reportedly spooked her out enough that the shopping trip was canceled and the power couple received a new ride before continuing on to their dinner date. Bey has been in England for the last few days as Jay-Z performed at London's Wireless Festival in Hyde Park. She's been seen driving around, partying backstage with friend Gwyneth Paltrow and doing tons of shopping at various chic boutiques across the country's capital.
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