August 13, 2015
By Lekan Oguntoyinbo
NNPA Columnist
I applaud the Black Lives Matter Movement for renewing attention on police violence against Blacks, an issue that is old as the republic – for Black lives do matter. And Black lives should always matter – even when the killers are not hyper- aggressive cops, White supremacists or other emblems of oppression.
In 2011, the most recent year for which data was available, more than 6,000 Blacks were murdered, according to the FBI, most often by other Blacks. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that more than 90 percent of Blacks are killed by Blacks. Around the world, hundreds of thousands of Blacks die at the hands of other Blacks as a result of warfare, ethnic and religious conflict and police and military brutality.
In fact, many crimes committed by cops against Blacks pale in comparison to Black-on-Black crimes.
In St. Louis for example, two males were killed in separate shootings and eight others were shot and wounded in six shootings.
A few weeks ago in a Detroit neighborhood, patrolling police officers spotted two men in a car. One of them appeared to have a gun. When the cops tried to pull them over, they sped off and a chase ensued. The driver of the fleeing car nosed his car onto the sidewalk and ran over a 6-year-old child, killing him instantly. He didn’t stop. He ran over another child, a 3-year-old who died within a few hours, before he was apprehended.
A few years ago, Al-Jazeera posted footage online of military personnel in Nigeria, the world’s largest Black country, murdering young men on a busy street of a large northern Nigerian city. The men were suspected of being affiliated with the terrorist group, Boko Haram. The soldiers had conducted a house-to-house search in a neighborhood believed to be sympathetic to the group. They pulled young men who fit particular profiles out of their homes, laid them on the sidewalk in full view of passing motorists and shot them dead in broad daylight.
The conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has resulted in the deaths of more people than any other conflict since World War II. To date, more than 5 million people have been killed. The conflict also has drawn in several neighboring countries. Some analysts have called the Congo crisis the closest thing to a world war in more than 70 years.
In Nigeria, large numbers of people are abducted each year and used as human sacrifices. Children are particularly vulnerable to these predators.
In parts of Tanzania, kidnappers frequently target albinos for ritual sacrifices. The belief is that the gods give you greater rewards if you present them with an albino.
On at least two occasions in the last five years, large numbers of Blacks in South Africa have viciously attacked expatriate Blacks from other African countries, killing scores and burning down their homes and businesses. Black South Africans see the Black expats as an economic threat.
And the list goes on and on.
For the record, I am sickened by stories of police brutality against Blacks, by the footage of the killings of Walter Scott and Samuel Dubose and by the gross insensitivity of the Ferguson police who left Michael Brown’s lifeless body baking on asphalt for four hours.
But I am even more horrified by what Blacks do to each other in this country and around the world. Pushing the idea that Black lives matter has to involve more than slogans, hash tags and protest rallies. And it must be more complex than urging federal officials to investigate police misconduct.
We have to place a higher value on Black lives in our own communities, block by block, city by city, nation by nation. It’s hard to persuade White authorities to respect our human rights and treat us with dignity when many of us don’t do the same. Until we get just as fired up about Black-on-Black violence in North St. Louis, in Detroit, on Chicago’s South Side, in South Central Los Angeles, in Lagos, in Kinshasa, in Kingston, in Port Au Prince and in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro as we do about cop killings, the phrase “Black Lives Matter” will remain no more than a pithy slogan.
And the killings of Blacks will continue unabated.
August 06, 2015
BY JESSE JACKSON
On August 6, the Voting Rights Act, keystone of the civil rights movement, will mark its 50th anniversary. This was an act, passed in the wake of the “Bloody Sunday” demonstrations in Selma, designed to correct, as President Lyndon Johnson stated at the time, “a clear and simple wrong.”
“Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of their color,” he said. “This law will ensure them the right to vote.”
But now, 50 years later, it is not time to celebrate that achievement; it is time to demonstrate against the concerted campaign to undermine it.
In 2006, after extensive hearings, the Senate reauthorized the temporary parts of Voting Rights Act unanimously. It passed the House with only 33 votes against it. President George W. Bush reaffirmed his commitment to enforce it. But the campaign to reverse or undermine the voting rights of people of color never ends.
After the Civil War, the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, guaranteed former slaves the right to vote and gave Congress the power to enforce that right on the states. Blacks voted in large numbers. Black candidates were elected to state legislatures and even to Congress. The white response was brutal. The Ku Klux Klan terrorized blacks trying to vote. Southern Democrats took back statehouses and city councils and passed a range of measures to lock blacks out of voting: poll taxes, literacy tests, double primaries and at-large districts.
In 1965, the Voting Rights Act changed this. Black voter registration surged across the South. Under Section 4, the states that had a history of voter discrimination were put under special Section 5 scrutiny, with the Justice Department requiring pre-clearance of any laws affecting voting.
Yet, as Jim Rutenberg summarizes in “Overcome: A Dream Undone” in the New York Times Magazine, the campaign to undermine the act began before the ink was dry on its signing. Republicans launched their Southern Strategy, making themselves the party of white sanctuary. Then, to win elections, they set out to find ways to weaken the Voting Rights Act and constrict the right to vote.
The five person right-wing majority on the Supreme Court led the way. In Shelby County, Ala v. Holder, Chief Justice John Roberts gutted the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act, arguing — despite detailed congressional findings to the contrary — that discrimination in voting was no longer a problem.
That opened the floodgates. Republican-dominated state legislatures across the country immediately passed laws to constrict the right to vote. They demanded official ID that African-Americans lacked disproportionately, cut days for early voting, reduced voting on Sundays, ended same-day registration, invalidated students IDs for voting and more. They gerrymandered districts, revived at-large elections and other means to reduce the voting power of people of color. It is simply obscene that Republicans have devoted themselves to creating obstacles to voting to help them win elections.
The right to vote protects all other rights in a democracy. Yet the Constitution does not explicitly guarantee an individual right to vote to all Americans. The 15th, 19th and 26th Amendments only outlaw discrimination in voting on the basis of race, sex and age. All other aspects of voting are generally left to the states and localities. While the 1965 Voting Rights Act was rightfully hailed as the most important law of the 20th century, the fundamental right to vote for all Americans is still an unfinished task.
Selma moved us forward, but Shelby has pushed us back. We’ve gone from protecting the right to vote to suppressing it. It took a grassroots voting rights movement to gain a Voting Rights Act. It will again take a grassroots voting rights movement to add a right to vote amendment to the U.S. Constitution on the road to a more complete democracy.
PHOTO: OP-JesseJackson.jpg
Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.
July 23, 2015
By James Clingman
NNPA Columnist
Now that the confederate flag has been taken down, complete with honor guard and pomp and circumstance, what are Black folks going to do now? Another question is, “What does the math of the aftermath look like?” Everything boils down to economics/business at some point, so let’s take a look at the past few weeks to see what has really taken place.
After all the bluster, the tears, the rallies, the sermons, the rhymes, and the confrontations between pro- and anti-flag folks, the sales of confederate flags show an exponential increase. Like never before, folks are driving around with two and sometimes more flags attached to and unfurled on their vehicles.
Stores that sell the flags experienced Christmas in July when it came to their sales revenues. The flag was in high demand, and still is. Thus, the math connected to the aftermath of the flag controversy has already resulted in profits for those who sell it, Walmart’s and Amazon’s decision to discontinue sales notwithstanding. Confederate flag hats, shirts, posters, underwear, etc. have suddenly experienced high demand as well. I am not mad at those folks for profiting from the flag. It’s simply part of the “After-Math” involved in protests and other collective strivings. I can hear the storeowners now saying, “Yee-Haaaah!” as they make their way to the bank.
Now let’s look at the “After-Math” for Black folks. First, the discussion of the flag literally overshadowed the fact that nine Black folks had been killed by Dylann Roof. If that flag had not been in the photos of him, it would not have even come up as an issue and would probably still be flying on the state capitol grounds. It became the focus of our attention rather than the victims of that heinous crime, as if the flag made this guy go to that church and shoot these people. Heck, if the flag had that much power, there would be a lot more us dead from its mesmerizing allure and gravitational pull on mass murderers of Black people.
Many Blacks are now left with a feeling of euphoric victory because the flag is down; they have called off a 15-year boycott of the state and the NCAA announced it has lifted its ban on holding championship events there. Uh oh, here comes the money. What will South Carolina Black vendors and contractors get from that?
On several occasions, I saw South Carolina State Senator Marlon Kimpson saying on CNN that the most important thing for Black people in his state is economic empowerment. He warned that folks should never lose sight of that, even in the aftermath of such a tragedy. Of course, he is right, but will Black folks have seats on the money train coming through the state because the flag is gone?
I had the privilege of speaking to a group of Black business owners in Columbia, S.C. on July 11, after which many of the attendees shared their feelings about the flag controversy. Their words were similar to Kimpson’s. They felt the flag was a distraction, a diversion to what is really important to Black people as we try to survive and thrive in the land of plenty. They know what time is it. I told them now’s the time to really test Gov.Haley’s compassion and empathy for Black people. I suggested they go to her and make demands for reciprocity for their tax dollars by opening up the channels for economic inclusion in government purchasing and development.
Now that the private sector has shown its willingness to capitulate to the pressure, go to them and demand they also capitulate to calls for equity in their construction, professional services, and supplier deals. In other words, Blacks in South Carolina should do the “After-Math” of the flag brouhaha and make sure their benefit is more than just a good feeling. And what about the University of South Carolina, which makes a tremendous amount of money from the participation by Black athletes in their various programs? How many Black companies have contracts with that school?
Black folks celebrated the unveiling of the MLK statue, but a Chinese man got the $10 million to sculpt it, and used stone not from Elberton, Ga., but from China. Each year thousands of people go to Selma and stand on the bridge, crying and making speeches; from their vantage point they can see 40 percent poverty in the town they celebrate. What is the economic “After-Math” of 50 years of that?
The beat goes on with superfluous issues such as flags and now maybe even the carved images on Stone Mountain, but in the aftermath of these kinds of symbolic victories, Black folks must also take a very close look at the “After-Math.”
Jim Clingman, founder of the Greater Cincinnati African American Chamber of Commerce, is the nation’s most prolific writer on economic empowerment for Black people. He can be reached through his website, blackonomics.com. He is the author of Black Dollars Matter: Teach Your Dollars How to Make More Sense, which is available through his website; professionalpublishinghouse.com and Amazon Kindle eBooks.
July 30, 2015
By James Clingman
NNPA Columnist
In light of the conversations about police abuse, unwarranted stops and arrests, and homicide cases involving Black people and police officers, many Black people get angry, maybe have a march, and then go home to await the next incident. Some of our organizations do their usual thing by making loud threatening statements and then get back in line until the next crisis hits. Amos Wilson said, “Until our behavior changes, the behavior of those who oppress and abuse us will not change.” In other words, the onus for change is on us.
Many of you may not know about the Uniform Reporting Law Enforcement Improvement Act (URLEIA), which is proposed legislation that calls for the creation of a National Office of Civilian Oversight that hosts meetings across the nation to garner citizen input. Law enforcement agents, their spouses, and unions are not permitted to attend or participate in the Civilian Oversight Conferences. These conferences are essentially designed to create policy that governs policing. Police unions and associations are largely responsible for developing the policing approaches we see in effect today; URLEIA will change that practice.
This legislative proposal is provided by ONUS, Inc., and Black Communities United for Progress (BCUP) for presentation to members of the United States Congress and the president of the United States. Now that’s what I call proactive work that will have a direct and positive effect on Black people. This is not just rhetorical bombast; this is attacking the problem of police brutality from a practical, logical, and legal perspective.
Immediately after a White woman was shot and killed by an illegal immigrant in San Francisco, Bill O’Reilly called for what he titled “Kate’s Law” to be passed by Congress. Within days 600,000 signatures were collected and members of Congress went to work to get the proposed law passed. They held hearings and brought the family of Kathryn Steinle to Washington to testify. They got swift action.
So where is the Tamir Rice law against cops shooting 12-year-olds in less than two seconds? Where is the Eric Garner Law against police officers choking a man to death? Where is John Crawford’s Law that punishes department store employees for lying to 911 and cops from killing a person for holding a BB gun that is on the shelf of that store? Where is Sandra Bland’s Law that would send a cop to jail for falsely arresting a young lady who questioned why she had to put her cigarette out while seated in her own car?
Why hasn’t O’Reilly’s TV news counterpart, Al Sharpton, gone to his good friend, Barack Obama, and all his friends in the Black Caucus and gotten them to hold hearings and write Sandra’s Law?
Instead of real action, we see our vaunted politicians genuflecting before the powers-that-be and our “Black” organizations – the NAACP and Urban League – walking 860 miles and issuing an annual report that tells us how bad our situation is.
This is exactly why we need and must support ONUS, Inc. and its URLEIA legislation. Instead of symbolic gestures, “ONUS is calling upon Congressional leaders to sponsor, endorse and enact the provisions contained in URLEIA in order to stop law enforcement agents from wreaking havoc on Black Americans…” says Jerroll Sanders, ONUS, Inc. president and CEO.
Sanders states, “The contents of the URLEIA legislative proposal stand in stark contrast to H.R. 2875 — a bill titled the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act of 2015 that is currently making its way through Congress. While H.R. 2875 provides additional funding for grants and U.S. Department of Justice policing oversight activities and promotes the creation of national training, accreditation and operating standards, it provides few real solutions to adequately address America’s racist policing problem.
I would add that H.R. 2875 creates a National Task Force on law enforcement oversight composed of individuals appointed by the attorney general from various DOJ bureaus. The AG’s task force will consult with professional law enforcement associations, labor organizations and “community-based organizations.” Along with a few other loosely worded recommendations, of course, the usual suspects, to and through which funds would be channeled are named outright, i.e. NAACP and National Urban League.
“URLEIA, on the other hand, addresses the root cause of police brutality in black communities by holding law enforcement agents accountable for the actions and sealing loopholes that currently allow perpetrators of police brutality to walk free,” Ms. Sanders continues, “URLEIA is the type of tough legislation Black Americans have been demanding in order to bring a permanent end to centuries of police brutality and abuse.”
Please go to www.changeisonus. org and read the URLEIA legislation for yourself, and then support it by supporting ONUS. If all we do is say we need change, we will never obtain it. It takes work, and ONUS is doing that work. Get involved.
Jim Clingman, founder of the Greater Cincinnati African American Chamber of Commerce, is the nation’s most prolific writer on economic empowerment for Black people. He can be reached through his website, blackonomics.com. He is the author of Black Dollars Matter: Teach Your Dollars How to Make More Sense, which is available through his website; professionalpublishinghouse.com and Amazon Kindle eBooks.
July 16, 2015
BY JESSE JACKSON
Recently, the Confederate battle flag came down on the South Carolina Statehouse grounds. This symbolic, long overdue gesture has significant meaning. The flag celebrated the sedition, slavery and secession of the Civil War. When Robert E. Lee surrendered, that flag was furled. It was raised over the statehouse in 1961 to celebrate segregation, suppression and states’ rights. Previous efforts to remove it failed. Former Gov. David Beasley called for it to come down, and probably lost his re-election as a result. Even after the triumph of the Civil Rights Movement, South Carolina burnished this symbol of racial division.
This symbolic victory came in the wake of bloodshed: the murders of the Emanuel Nine, brutally slain while in church at a prayer meeting. It came because of the amazing grace of the relatives of the slain, offering forgiveness to the hateful killer who shot the nine in cold blood. It came because of the leadership and courage of the governor, Nikki Haley, who stood up and spoke out in the wake of the horror, calling on the legislature to take the flag down. It came because of the pressure of the Chamber of Commerce and business leaders — from Boeing, Volkswagen and others — making it clear that they would find it difficult to invest in a South Carolina still intent on honoring this symbol of racial division.
The question now is whether South Carolina can discard not just the symbol of the flag but also the substance of the flag’s agenda. Can the governor now grasp this moment to lead in resurrecting the South?
Bringing down the flag has opened the way. The NCAA lifted its ban on post-season championship events in South Carolina, a decision that could produce millions in tourist revenue. New investments are likely to go forward now that the flag is down. Last month, Gov. Haley signed into law a bill requiring police to wear body cameras, putting the state in the national leadership on that issue. But much more needs to be done.
South Carolina is one of the states that chose to reject the expansion of Medicaid offered by Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, even though the federal government would pick up virtually all of the expense. It turned its back on $12 billion over the next five years, money that its hospitals and health system desperately needs. It deprived over 160,000 of its working people, more whites than blacks, from getting health insurance. Surely this is the time to reverse that decision.
South Carolina has joined other Southern states in erecting voter ID laws designed to make voting more difficult, with disproportionate impact on the elderly, people of color and the poor. This too was discriminatory in effect and in intent. The more extreme North Carolina law is now being challenged in the Supreme Court. South Carolina could lead the South in reforming its laws to ease registration and voting rather than restricting it. South Carolina’s Republican representatives in Congress tend to support their party’s assault on public investment. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has just announced that it plans to go forward with a project to deepen the port at Charleston. South Carolina will benefit greatly if the ports at Charleston and Jasper are able to handle the larger modern container ships. As the state benefits from federal investment in its ports, surely it is time for its representatives to push for greater public investment in infrastructure, and not continue to starve it.
Gov. Haley could be the determining force. She has focused on jobs, driving an agenda designed to make South Carolina attractive to business. She has demonstrated leadership in regard to the flag. She’s announced her commitment to save South Carolina State University, a historically black college, appointing a new board to help dig it out of the hole it is in.
She has earned the good will of the vast majority of South Carolina citizens and businesses. Now she can turn that authority to making South Carolina a leader of the new South.