street - Forum/Discussions - TheBlackList Pub2024-03-29T15:56:35Zhttps://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/feed/tag/streetPhiladelphia Juneteenth 2019https://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/philadelphia-juneteenth-20192019-06-24T00:01:02.000Z2019-06-24T00:01:02.000ZJunious Ricardo Stantonhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/JuniousRicardoStanton<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3828869547,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/343928975" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""><strong></strong><strong></strong></iframe></a></strong></p><p></p><p></p><a href="https://vimeo.com/343928975">Muhammad Ali Way</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user2869131">Junious Ricardo Stanton</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.<p></p><p style="text-align:center;"></p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3828869547,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828869547,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="3828869547?profile=original" /></a><p></p><p style="text-align:center;"></p><p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Philadelphia Juneteenth 2019</strong></p><p> Junious Ricardo Stanton</p><p> </p><p> As part of the forth annual Philadelphia Juneteenth celebration the whole of 52<sup>nd</sup> Street in West Philadelphia has been officially renamed and rededicated to Muhammad Ali. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenny Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, Councilman David Oh, Congressman Dwight Evens, Minister Rodney Muhammad and representatives from the nation of Islam and Muhammad Ali’s daughter and grandson participated in the street renaming ceremony.</p><p> The renaming initiative took over a year to complete. It was spearheaded by Brother Faruq and Brother Samir friends of the former champion who enlisted the help of Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell to initiate the needed legislative actions and garner support from her colleagues in city council to make it happen.</p><p>The 2019 Juneteenth Parade and Festival was scheduled to be held on 52<sup>nd</sup> and the street renaming was included in the Juneteenth itinerary and schedule.</p><p> Juneteenth is the oldest African-American celebration in the nation dating back to June 19<sup>th</sup> 1865 when enslaved Blacks were informed the War Between the States had ended and they were free. Union Army Major Gordan Granger and his troops landed in Galveston Texas following General Robert E. Lee surrender on April 9, 1865. The war was over but the enslaved Africans in Texas were unaware of the war’s end or their freedom from bondage! Major Granger and his troops informed both the enslaved Blacks and the recalcitrant whites the war was over, that hostilities were to cease and all enslaved persons were free.</p><p>The jubilation at the news was widespread throughout the region and many feel this was the first event Blacks had real reason to celebrate in this country. In many places June 19th became a traditional day of celebration. Over the years more and more African-Americans have pushed for June19 and Juneteenth as it was called to become a local, state or national holiday, especially as more realize that Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation did not liberate enslaved people in the Confederacy because neither Lincoln nor his Emancipation Proclamation had the jurisdiction or authority to do so.</p><p>Over the years Juneteenth recognition and celebration has waxed and waned but is not experiencing a resurgence of interest and participation. Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth a state holiday in 1980 due to the efforts of a Black state legislator named Al Edwards.</p><p>In Philadelphia the Juneteenth parade started three years ago under the direction of Kenny Gamble, Ali Salahuddin, community activists like Michael Coard, civic leaders and key local, state and national elected officials. The parade has grown each succeeding year, this year 1,800 participants have registered and over 10,000 attendees were expected.</p><p>Recently Juneteenth was recognized by the Pennsylvania legislature and Governor Tom Wolf as a state holiday. Ron Brown the Mid-Atlantic representative of the National Juneteenth Organization was instrumental in getting Juneteenth recognized as a holiday in Pennsylvania. “It’s a legal holiday but people don’t get paid for being off. The next thing is to make sure people can get paid, that’s the next step. That was all part of the agreement that was made, that we will do this incrementally then move so like for Martin Luther King Jr.’s holiday people get paid for being off. We’re going back to the table in about two years to make sure it’s a full holiday.”</p><p> Saturday’s weather was beautiful. Juneteenth 2019 was a wholesome intergenerational family event. The energy and excitement were so positive attendees got an even greater appreciation of the meaning of Juneteenth and as an added plus, 52<sup>nd</sup> Street was renamed Muhammad Ali Way.</p><p> </p><p> -30-</p></div>Call To Action, Jewel Cutting Black Business Reggio's Pizza, Forcing Loss of Black/Hispanic community jobs !https://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/call-to-action-jewel-cutting-black-business-reggio-s-pizza2012-07-19T13:58:38.000Z2012-07-19T13:58:38.000ZMark S. Allenhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/MarkSAllen<div><h2 class="post-title">Reggio's Pizza Under Attack By Jewel, Discontinuing Products May Force Loss Of Black/Hispanic Jobs</h2><div class="post-meta"><div class="share-utils"><div class="social-buttons"><div class="tweet-button"></div><div class="fb-like-button"></div></div></div><div class="from">By <span class="author-name">Marksallen</span>, today at 8:50 am</div></div><h6>EMERGENCY CALL TO ACTION ON BEHALF OF LEGENDARY BLACK OWNED BUSINESS REGGIO'S PIZZA NOW UNDER ATTACK BY JEWEL FOOD STORES!!</h6><p> </p><p>Black Wall Street Chicago, United American Progress Association, Father Pfleger of St. Sabina, and a host of community leaders in the Black community are galvanizing some direct action around their ardent support of Reggio’s Pizza items being discontinued at Jewel. First it was the blatant disrespect by Target stores coming into the Black community and with the community facing double digit unemployment refuse to stock the products of this legendary Black business where the sales could put hundreds of our community residents to work -- now comes this attack by Jewels that is discontinuing some of the largest selling products that will force more Black community residents out of desperately needed jobs and the community must be prepared to stand up and fight back and challenge Jewels to immediately RESTORE Reggios products back on their shelves and keep our community residents working!!</p><p><strong><i><br /></i></strong></p><p><strong><i>Specifically, The four Dinner Size items that are being discontinued at Jewel are some of Reggio's best items and represent 40% of their sales at Jewel. As a result of this adverse action by Jewel, Reggio’s will have to lay off some of its Black and Hispanic employees. Further, this seems to be discrimination and reprisal against Reggio’s Pizza, a black vendor because Supervalu perceives that Black consumers have reduced their purchasing at Jewel to find lower prices at Walmart, Food 4 Less, Save-a-Lot and ALDI.</i></strong></p><p> </p><p>YES, we need to be prepared to publicly demonstrate at Jewels to save the jobs that would be lost but we must be prepared to start the dialogue with Jewels directly to see if they will restore Reggio's and its products to avoid us having to conduct public direct action against Jewels who have been historically supported by the Black community.</p><p> </p><p>MAKE THE CALLS RIGHT NOW TO JEWELS LEADERSHIP IN SUPPORT OF REGGIO'S AND SAVE OUR COMMUNITY JOBS!!</p><p> </p><p><strong>Brian Huff (President, Jewel) - (630) 948-6044</strong></p><p><strong>Doug Cygan (Vice-President, Jewel) - (630) 948-6327</strong></p><p><strong><br /></strong></p><p> </p><p><strong><a href="http://www.reggios.com" target="_blank"><br /></a></strong></p><p> </p><p><img src="http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/551795_438851699466355_787423080_n.jpg" alt="" /></p><p><img src="http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/205273_441747539176771_261141433_n.jpg" alt="" /></p><p><img src="http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/540223_441747685843423_1143124337_n.jpg" alt="" /></p></div>Jesse Jackson Jr Is Doing Wellhttps://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/jesse-jackson-jr-is-doing-well2012-07-13T20:15:58.000Z2012-07-13T20:15:58.000ZMark S. Allenhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/MarkSAllen<div><p style="font-weight:bold;" class="yiv902211717MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><font size="4">Why Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr Is Doing Well<br /></font></p><p class="yiv902211717MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:#0f243e;"> </span></p><p class="yiv902211717MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:#0f243e;">The only people who truly control the political future of Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr are the voters of the 2nd Congressional District who I suspect will re-elect him to Congress in November when he returns from his medical leave. The Congressman's staff is at work everyday continuing to provide on ongoing constituent services from the local and national offices. And I have spent the last few weeks talking directly to voters in the district and while there are those who debate back and forth over the strategies over how he publicly chooses to handle the recovery process, the overwhelming majority of the voters still say they will vote for him in November.</span></p><p class="yiv902211717MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:#0f243e;"> </span></p><p class="yiv902211717MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:#0f243e;">It is interesting that the overwhelming majority of the comments and negative analysis I have read regarding Congressman Jackson and his future have come from people who do not have the ultimate power to elect or re-elect him to Congress in November. And I have watched those political operatives who have taken full advantage of beating on the<br /></span></p><p class="yiv902211717MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:#0f243e;">Congressman while he appears to be down for their own political gains much more than offering him prayers or other forms of personal or professional support. The good news for Jackson when he returns is that he can clearly see who stood with him and who tried to take their personal political gains from his illness.</span></p><p class="yiv902211717MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></p><p class="yiv902211717MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:#0f243e;">The Chicago Sun-Times Columnist Mary Mitchell wrote a column last week with the headline that read "Jackson's secrecy a dereliction of his duties," and I again ask "duties" according to whose rules? No matter what or how Jackson chooses to respond up until this point is continually met with immediate responses from those who say "not good enough, and do it this way," and I say one will never satisfy all the different political operatives and analysts who offer more standards that Jackson should be following by the day, except for the official rules established by law governing what Congressman have to do when taking a medical leave. And with the frenzy over Congressman Jackson and Senator Mark Kirk, does anybody have any idea whats going with the other Congressional leaders who have been are currently on a medical leave and why no tabloid coverage of their personal and professional integrity? Now maybe those national political analysts can use this as a moment to have some Congressional legislative rules changes that can better govern this medical leave process.</span></p><p class="yiv902211717MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></p><p class="yiv902211717MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:#0f243e;">More good news for Jackson is that there are hundreds of constituents, community organizers, civic, business and religious leaders who are now planning public shows of support for Jackson, in part because constituents are reporting that calls are being made to them from political opponents of Jackson to keep up some public sentiment that 2nd Congressional district voters are disenchanted at allegedly being disenfranchised by Jackson's absence and missing votes. To that end, I am going to do an upcoming analysis of these votes that Jackson is missing and just how injurious they are to the voters of the 2nd Congressional District.</span></p><p class="yiv902211717MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></p><p class="yiv902211717MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:#0f243e;">For now, let the political operatives against Jackson, including some alleged allies keep showing their public hand helping to beat on Jackson while he is down so he knows how to keep his distance from them when he returns. So while those operatives continue to lobby for their own political gain, Jackson is doing well with the people that matter most and who truly are the only people who control his future in Congress -- the voters of the 2nd Congressional District who I still say are ready to re-elect Jackson in November.</span></p><p class="yiv902211717MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:#0f243e;"> </span></p><p class="yiv902211717MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:#0f243e;">On Wednesday afternoon, Congressman Jesse Jackson’s staff announced that he is under “intensive medical treatment for a mood disorder but is expected to make a full recovery.” Now that was certainly good news, but not so good news for those who want Jackson to go through a public recovery process with his doctors doing weekly updates and photo ops of his recovery which I will continue to advise him to stay private until he is ready to come back public. Shame on all these political allies and pundits who keep making up new rules by the day on what his accountability process is supposed to be as if they are the voters of the district. <br /></span></p><p class="yiv902211717MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:#0f243e;"> </span></p><p class="yiv902211717MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:#0f243e;">Many mental health experts in the Black community know very well that Jackson is a human being and with his high profile are like other noted Blacks who put up a good public display of his confidence and strength, but it would be wonderful if he could use this stage of his life and a learning moment not just for him but talk about this when he is ready and be of real encouragement to others in this community to do the same. I sent him word that it is okay to let the world know that he is a human being and has to face the same personal and professional challenges just like the constituents he serves. “In the black community, where the stigma of mental health is still there, getting help for these issues is rare,’’ says Rebecca Walker, daughter of author Alice Walker. With that quote in mind, Jackson can truly be an example and motivation for others that there is nothing wrong with acknowledging them problem and doing the most important thing in that ones life can continue productively with proper time management and treatment.</span></p><p class="yiv902211717MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"></p><p><span style="font-size:11pt;color:#0f243e;">Good news for Congressman Jackson. Good future for Congressman Jackson when he is re-elected in November and still a major member of the powerful Appropriations Committee, and get this -- still building the seniority in Congress to possibly make history as the first Black Speaker of The House. Congressman Jackson is doing well politically, and now let the medical healing process continue in private and without the tabloid coverage over the names and credibility of his doctors or the physical location to be scouted by photographers.</span></p></div>Chicago Mayor Latest Symoblic PR Campaign, While Shootings and Violence Continueshttps://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/chicago-mayor-latest-symoblic-pr-campaign-while-shootings-and2012-07-12T12:23:38.000Z2012-07-12T12:23:38.000ZMark S. Allenhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/MarkSAllen<div><p></p><p style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;"><font size="5">Chicago Mayor Latest Symoblic PR Campaign, While Shootings and Violence Will Continue</font></p><p style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;"></p><p style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;">Today some of our political and religious leaders will participate in Mayor Emanuel's latest symbolic PR Campaign as if the Mayor is REALLY doing something to stamp out the causes of crime in our neighborhoods when actually doing nothing to provide resources to deal with the economic violence. Same PR campaign - Same rise in violence despite the PR Campaign. Really is sad, but if more people ain't demanding more, then these same PR campaigns will be the norm while our people continue to suffer and die, and nothing to stop the tensions and life threatening battles to economically survive over illegal street economies. Why do so many people have to suffer and die when one just has to know that these PR campaigns does nothing to deal with the severe lack of social consciousness and legitimate job and economic opportunities?</p><p style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;"><font size="5"> </font></p><h6 style="text-align:center;" class="yiv957558222uiStreamMessage"><font face=""><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">Mark S. Allen</span><br /><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">Chairman/Acting Executive Director</span><br /><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1332607479_0" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1337090829_0" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1337192790_0" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1337224071_0" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1340238070_0" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1342095103_0">Black Wall Street</span></span></span></span></span></span> Chicago Organization</span><br /><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">Chief of Staff To National Chairman Rev. Michael Carter</span><br /><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">National Black Wall Street USA</span><br /></font><font face=""><span id="yiv957558222lw_1336750649_0" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1337090829_1" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1337192790_1" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1337224071_1" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1337227462_0" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1339859682_0" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1340238070_1" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span class="yiv957558222yshortcuts" id="yiv957558222lw_1342012735_0"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1342095103_1"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1334346388_0" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1334758424_0" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1335492101_0" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1335967745_0" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1332607479_1" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1332788265_0" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">4655 South King Drive, Suite 203</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">Chicago, Illinois 60653</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">773-392-0165</span><br /><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1332607479_2" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span id="yiv957558222lw_1332788265_1" class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><a>markallen@blackwallstreet.org marksallen2800@yahoo.com<br /></a></span></span></span></font></h6><h6 style="text-align:center;" class="yiv957558222uiStreamMessage"><br /><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;"><span class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;"><span class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><span class="yiv957558222yshortcuts"><a>Mark S. Allen recently included in the 2012 Edition of Who's Who In Black Chicago as "one of Chicago's Most Influential Voices In The Black Community</a></span></span></span></h6><p><span style="font-family:'andale mono', times;font-size:14pt;"><b><span style="font-family:'arial black', 'avant garde';"> <br /></span></b></span></p></div>Black Wall Street Chicago/Midwest Hosts Business Communications Networking Meeting Wednesday April 11thhttps://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/black-wall-street-chicago-midwest-hosts-business-communications2012-04-10T20:49:26.000Z2012-04-10T20:49:26.000ZMark S. Allenhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/MarkSAllen<div><p><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">Mark S. Allen</span><br /> <span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">Chairman Of The Board</span><br /> <span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;"><span id="yiv87102000lw_1332607479_0" class="yiv87102000yshortcuts"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1334090492_0">Black Wall Street</span></span> Chicago Organization</span><br /> <span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">Chief of Staff To National Chairman Rev. Michael Carter</span><br /> <span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">National Black Wall Street USA</span><br /> <span id="yiv87102000lw_1332607479_1" class="yiv87102000yshortcuts"><span id="yiv87102000lw_1332788265_0" class="yiv87102000yshortcuts"><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">4655 South King Drive, Suite 203</span></span></span><br /> <span class="yiv87102000yshortcuts"><span class="yiv87102000yshortcuts"><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">Chicago, Illinois 60653</span></span></span><br /> <span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">773-392-0165</span><br /> <span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;"><span id="yiv87102000lw_1332607479_2" class="yiv87102000yshortcuts"><span id="yiv87102000lw_1332788265_1" class="yiv87102000yshortcuts"><a>markallen@blackwallstreet.org<br /><br />Mark S. Allen recently included in the 2012 Edition of Who's Who In Black Chicago as "one of Chicago's Most Influential Voices In The Black Community</a></span></span></span><br /></p><div><h2 class="yiv87102000uiHeaderTitle">Black Wall Street Chicago Hosts Business Communications Networking Meeting Wednesday April 11th</h2></div><div class="yiv87102000clearfix"><div class="yiv87102000mbs yiv87102000uiHeaderSubTitle yiv87102000lfloat yiv87102000fsm yiv87102000fwn yiv87102000fcg"><br /></div></div><div class="yiv87102000mbl yiv87102000notesBlogText yiv87102000clearfix"><div><p><strong>Black Wall Street Chicago Hosts Business Communications Networking Meeting Wednesday April 11th</strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Black Wall Street Chicago will host Networking Meeting this Wednesday April 11, 2012 from 6pm – 8pm at Black Wall Street Chicago offices at 4655 South King Drive, Suite 203</p><p> </p><p>Refreshments will be served. All CEO’s, independent Business Owners, Entrepreneurs and Company Executives big and small are encouraged to attend and bring a guest. Guest speaker will be Mr. E C Wilson - MWVS Sound Productions Inc who will answer questions regarding communications in business, cloud technology and network storage. How these and other new innovations can impact business in the black community both negative and positive.</p><p></p><p>Please RSVP : <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1334090492_1">Stephen.Milhouse@mwvs.com</span> or call 312 675-9942</p><p> </p><p>Thank you</p><p>Stephen Milhouse – CEO</p><p>A Logical Choice Computer Consultants</p><p>312 675-9942</p></div></div></div>April 15th Deadline For Matching Grant For Black Wall Street Organizationhttps://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/april-15th-deadline-for-matching-grant-for-black-wall-street2012-04-09T17:49:32.000Z2012-04-09T17:49:32.000ZMark S. Allenhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/MarkSAllen<div><p><font size="4"><span class="yiv296189785messageBody">GREAT News!! A small grants foundation has agreed to give Black Wall Street Chicago a $500 matching grant for office operations for our Chicago/Midwest Regional Offices if we can raise the first $500 by April 15th !!! WE THE PEOPLE can do this before the 15th and the offices can now afford to get its new official office incubator phones and fax!! PLUS we can start our April promotions for Consumer Education and Black Economic Empowerment Advocacy Workshops !</span></font></p><h6 class="yiv296189785uiStreamMessage"><font size="4"><span class="yiv296189785messageBody">Your contributions this week can be sent to Black Wall Street Chicago at <span class="yiv296189785yshortcuts" id="yiv296189785lw_1333906208_1"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1333992307_1">4655 South King Drive, Suite 203, Chicago, Illinois 60653</span></span> Your help this week can turn $500 to $1,000 for the work to sustain and increase Black owned businesses and jobs!!</span></font></h6><p><font size="4"><span class="yiv296189785messageBody"><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">Mark S. Allen</span><br /><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">Chairman Of The Board</span><br /><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;"><span id="yiv296189785lw_1332607479_0" class="yiv296189785yshortcuts"><span class="yiv296189785yshortcuts" id="yiv296189785lw_1333906208_0"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1333992307_0">Black Wall Street</span></span></span> Chicago Organization</span><br /><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">Chief of Staff To National Chairman Rev. Michael Carter</span><br /><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">National Black Wall Street USA</span><br /><span id="yiv296189785lw_1332607479_1" class="yiv296189785yshortcuts"><span id="yiv296189785lw_1332788265_0" class="yiv296189785yshortcuts"><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">4655 South King Drive, Suite 203</span></span></span><br /><span class="yiv296189785yshortcuts"><span class="yiv296189785yshortcuts"><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">Chicago, Illinois 60653</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;">773-392-0165</span><br /><span style="font-family:tahoma, sans-serif;color:#222222;font-size:13px;"><span id="yiv296189785lw_1332607479_2" class="yiv296189785yshortcuts"><span id="yiv296189785lw_1332788265_1" class="yiv296189785yshortcuts"><a>markallen@blackwallstreet.org<br /><br />Mark S. Allen recently included in the 2012 Edition of Who's Who In Black Chicago as "one of Chicago's Most Influential Voices In The Black Community</a></span></span></span></span></font></p><p><font size="4"><span class="yiv296189785messageBody"><br /></span></font></p></div>We're At A Critical Juncturehttps://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/we-re-at-a-critical-juncture2012-03-22T18:04:47.000Z2012-03-22T18:04:47.000ZJunious Ricardo Stantonhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/JuniousRicardoStanton<div><p>From the Ramparts<br /> Junious Ricardo Stanton<br />We're At a Critical Juncture</p><p>“One may well ask: How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others? The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.</p><p>For years I have been attempting to alert people to the growing Nazification of the US political system into a totally fascist, depraved police state that poses a significant danger to the whole world. Daily more and more signs indicate the moral rot at the core of this country is metastasizing to the point it is beyond redemption or healing. During the last few months President Barack Obama has signed legislation or issued executive orders that would make Adolph Hitler proud. In December he signed a controversial bill called the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011, a Draconian bill that makes it legal for the United States to indefinitely detain, without legal representation or trial anyone suspected of but not proven to be a “terrorist” including US citizens. <br /> The ACLU was appalled at the signing. This law violates both US and international laws. “The statute is particularly dangerous because it has no temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield. Under the Bush administration, similar claims of worldwide detention authority were used to hold even a U.S. citizen detained on U.S. soil in military custody, and many in Congress now assert that the NDAA should be used in the same way again. The ACLU believes that any military detention of American citizens or others within the United States is unconstitutional and illegal, including under the NDAA. In addition, the breadth of the NDAA’s detention authority violates international law because it is not limited to people captured in the context of an actual armed conflict as required by the laws of war.” <a href="http://www.aclu.org/blog/content/president-obama-signs-indefinite-detention-law">http://www.aclu.org/blog/content/president-obama-signs-indefinite-detention-law</a> <br />Obama is supposed to be an expert on the US Constitution. Based upon his actions on this and several other bills, you couldn't convince me he knows diddly about the Constitution or the Bill of Rights let alone what it means to abide by his sworn obligation to uphold and defend it from all enemies foreign and domestic. This from a bi-racial man who is married to a native born black woman thoroughly conscious of the history of racial animus and injustice of this country. Believe me I get it, Obama was raised by his white grandparents and was relatively sheltered from racial bigotry but come on; this goes way beyond the pale. He is supposed to know the law, he taught Constitutional Law in Illinois. So why does he continuously go along with the abrogation of the law for “security reasons” many of which are totally bogus? Why does he keep pushing the discredited Bu$h agenda if he is supposed to be about “change”?<br />Unlike most white folks, I don't hold the US Constitution up as some holy and sacrosanct document crafted by righteous and all wise white men; because it was the very document that codified slavery as a form of raising money for the US Treasury which also helped the South politically by allowing them to count our enslaved ancestors as three fifths of a person for Congressional apportionment purposes. “Slavery is seen in the Constitution in a few key places. The first is in the Enumeration Clause, where representatives are apportioned. Each state is given a number of representatives based on its population - in that population, slaves, called 'other persons,' are counted as three-fifths of a whole person. This compromise was hard-fought, with Northerners wishing that slaves, legally property, be uncounted, much as mules and horses are uncounted. Southerners, however, well aware of the high proportion of slaves to the total population in their states, wanted them counted as whole persons despite their legal status. The three-fifths number was a ratio used by the Congress in</p><p>contemporary legislation and was agreed upon with little debate. In Article 1, Section 9, Congress is limited, expressly, from prohibiting the 'Importation' of slaves, before 1808. The slave trade was a bone of contention for many, with some who supported slavery abhorring the slave trade. The 1808 date, a compromise of 20 years, allowed the slave trade to continue, but placed a date-certain on its survival. Congress eventually passed a law outlawing the slave trade that became effective on January 1, 1808.” <a href="http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_slav.html">http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_slav.html</a> <br /> As noble as that may sound/read in reality the US Constitution also called for a ten dollar tax to be levied on imported persons, (they were talking about our ancestors but cunningly cloaked their intent and language by not using the words African or slaves). Article One Section 9 of the US Constitution reads, “The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.” That ten dollars went into the treasury of the fledgling nation. So you see the US government also made money off of the slave trade an issue proponents of reparations often over look!<br />But I digress, this is about Obama and the Nazification of the US of A. Obama also signed an extension of the USA PATRIOT ACT a bill that eviscerates the US Constitution a bill that was originally signed by most Congress critters even though they never read it! A bill that had been written well before 9-11 even happened! Yet once more and again Obama the purported “man of change” signed an extension to a bill that undermines the basic rights and privacy of all of us. <br />Why am I making this a big deal? Because we've been down this road before. Read the Church and Pike Committee reports on abuses by the FBI and CIA during the 1970s which include COINTELPRO (FBI) and Operations CHAOS (CIA) and others. The Church Committee report said, “Our investigation has confirmed that warning. We have seen segments of our Government, in their attitudes and action, adopt tactics unworthy of a democracy, and occasionally reminiscent of the tactics of totalitarian regimes. We have seen a consistent pattern in which programs initiated with limited goals, such as preventing criminal violence or identifying foreign spies, were expanded to what witnesses characterized as 'vacuum cleaners', 'sweeping in information about lawful activities of American citizens.' The tendency of intelligence activities to expand beyond their initial scope is a theme which runs through every aspect of our investigative findings. Intelligence collection programs naturally generate ever-increasing demands for new data. And once intelligence has been collected, there are strong pressures to use it against the target. The pattern of intelligence agencies expanding the scope of their activities was well described by one witness, who in 1970 had coordinated an effort by most of the intelligence community to obtain authority to undertake more illegal domestic activity: <br />The risk was that you would get people who would be susceptible to political considerations as opposed to national security considerations, or would construe political considerations to be national security considerations, to move from the, kid with a bomb to the kid with a picket sign, and from the kid with the picket sign to the kid with the bumper sticker of the opposing candidate. And you just keep going down the line.” <a href="http://thirdworldtraveler.com/FBI/Church_Committee_Report.html">http://thirdworldtraveler.com/FBI/Church_Committee_Report.html</a> <br />That was in the 1970s when what the Church and Pike Committees discovered was illegal. The US Congress, Bu$h's and Obama's actions now make such activity legal!! Obama just signed a bill that makes peaceful demonstrations near federal buildings or where special events take place a federal offense!!? We are at a moral crossroads and a critical juncture in our existence as a country. With his forays into Yemen, Somalia, Libya, by sending Special Ops into Uganda and prepping for war in Syria and Iran, Obama is proving he is as much a warmonger as any psychopathic white man. Obama the Bomber's increasing use of weaponized drones overseas and potentially here at home is alarming and should raise serious moral questions and concerns but they don't. The sight of riot clad police (the US version of the Nazi Gestapo?) beating up on peaceful Occupy Wall Street demonstrators while crooks like Jon Corzine of MF Global, Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase and Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs go Scott free tells you a lot about where this country is and where it is headed.</p><p>-30-</p></div>Dr King's Legacy Still Liveshttps://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/dr-king-s-legacy-still-lives2012-01-15T20:42:31.000Z2012-01-15T20:42:31.000ZJunious Ricardo Stantonhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/JuniousRicardoStanton<div>From the RampartsJunious Ricardo StantonDr. King's Legacy Lives“The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.” - Martin Luther King Jr.When I first read about the call to occupy Wall Street several months ago I immediately thought about Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s campaign. In case you are too young to remember, in 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was planning a massive nation wide poor people's campaign to draw attention to the class warfare raging in the country at that time. He was attempting to organize and galvanize hundreds of thousands of poor and working class people of all colors to amass on Washington D.C. The goal was to encamp in the nation's capital to apply pressure on Congress to stop the imperialist wars in Indo-China, focus more attention on the plight of the poor and suffering in this country and redirect governmental resources on their behalf.At the same time he was getting the Poor People's Campaign off the ground, King lent his support to the striking sanitation workers in Memphis Tennessee. These workers were attempting to unionize, gain the respect and recognition of the city administration to negotiate in good faith for fair and decent wages and the right to collective bargaining. To me the call to Occupy Wall Street struck a similar cord and their activism reminded me of King's earlier efforts. I was pleased to see activism and resistance bloom in the midst of the current political and economic climate. The Occupy Wall Street movement was a call to direct action.Too much emphasis has been placed today on arm chair activism, social networking, writing letters, calling legislators and community service. The time has come for decisive direct action, civil disobedience, strikes and demonstrations to challenge and right the wrongs of this society. Income inequality and corporate intrigue and influence is higher today than at any time in US history since the robber baron era. To their credit the young people behind the Occupy Wall Street movement did not elect to sit passively by and allow this form of fascism to go unchallenged. Just like King challenged racial apartheid and economic injustice these young people are bringing economic apartheid and the class war to the public’s consciousness.Marin Luther King Jr. was killed because the US government and their corporate puppeteers feared his talk of economic apartheid would further radicalize the masses who were already waking up to how they were being duped, used and ground up by the US military-industrial complex. King was the most prominent and widely recognized clergyman to come out against the Vietnam War. None of the other well known religious leaders of his day, Bishop Sheen, Billy Graham, Norman Vincent Peal publicly uttered a word against the devastation and carnage the US was wrecking in Southeast Asia. King tied the war over there, the huge expenditures and profits being made by US companies to the economic privation in this country. King pointed out the direct correlation between the money spent on foreign wars and the failure of the government to address the poverty, hunger and oppression here. King’s stance gave a huge boost to the anti-war movement and put the government on the defensive to the point it stepped up its counterinsurgency operations against the civil rights, anti-war and other radical movements.The US government initiated a reign of dirty tricks, terror and violence against peace demonstrators, civil rights activists, the migrant worker movement, La Raza, Black Power, The American Indian Movement and numerous others. The FBI and CIA waged a vicious war against the American people in a fashion that would have made Adolph Hitler proud. CONINTELPRO and Operation Chaos were just two of the government's more infamous programs to attack the people. Numerous lives were ruined by the government's wickedness, both here and over seas. King's grass roots, direct action movement posed a major threat to the status quo, so the US government killed him.Lo forty-three years later we're seeing history repeat itself. The legacy of resistance to evil, war and economic oppression still flickers. The original Tea Party; meaning the asymmetric, energetic and unorganized group of protesters who were extremely concerned about the government's rising debt, taxes, the wars and expanding cost of government was a start of activism but they were subsequently co-oped by the Koch brothers who steered them into the Republican Party. The Occupy Wall Street movement saw this and refused to fall into that same trap. So they wisely kept the movement fluid with no identifiable (targetable) spokespersons. They also eschewed dialogue with the powers that be. They were merely attempting to raise consciousness about the collusion and corruption between corporations and the government, corporate criminality, the wars and the galloping fascism that is engrossing this country.If you stop and think about it the original Tea Party activists and the young people in the Occupy Wall Street movements around the country are not that different from what Martin Luther King Jr attempted; only they are doing it on the local level. So in this regard Martin Luther King’s legacy still lives. Alas the government response s been has exactly the same, co-option of the Tea party, first ignoring then using the media to demonize the Occupy Wall Street movement and finally employing violence to squash the movement altogether. In stead of assassinating the leaders (who they could not identify like they did King), they co-opted the Tea Party and then bum rushed the OWS encampments, beating, pepper spraying and arresting them.Four decades ago war criminals like Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger went Scott free. Today it's the Wall Street banksters turn to receive a get out of jail free card. The government is hoping the state's violence will discourage and deter future demonstrations and resistance against USA fascism. Congress just passed and Obama signed a draconian bill allowing indefinite detention without trial of US citizens and ordered the opening and operation of FEMA internment camps. Time will tell if they have succeeded in dousing the fires of resistance. They may have added more fuel to the fire. Private gun sales are at an all time high.As wrong and unjust as all this appears, rest assured things are not as they seem. King understood the nature of progress and struggle. He once said, “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” So as we pause to reflect on and honor the real legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., let’s not get duped and side tracked with feel good once a year community service projects. These times demand more than that. Marin Luther King openly challenged the evil of racial apartheid, the wickedness of political oppression, the waste of war, and the immorality of economic injustice on a full time, full steam ahead basis. We can do the same.-30-</div>It doesn't matter to me what OWS(ers) want. Their commitment awakens a brand new future.https://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/it-doesn-t-matter-to-me-what-ows-ers-want-their-commitment-awaken2011-10-29T16:30:15.000Z2011-10-29T16:30:15.000ZKWASI Akyeamponghttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/KWASIAkyeampong<div><p>It does not matter to me what the Occupy Wall Street(ers) want.</p>
<p>I get what they (OWS) are committed to.</p>
<p>And, I am very happy for them, myself and our world.</p>
<p>Thanks for being out there.</p>
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<p>Kwasi</p></div>Jesse Jackson: To Resuce Our Economy, Bail Out The Homeowners.https://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/jesse-jackson-to-resuce-our-economy-bail-out-the-homeowners2011-10-19T14:23:02.000Z2011-10-19T14:23:02.000ZTheBlackListhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackList<div><table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" width="620"><tbody><tr><td height="82" valign="middle" width="11"><br /></td>
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<p class="body.dropcap">When I was growing up in South Carolina among hard-pressed families, food would often be short. Mothers with two lamb chops and five children wouldn’t give the lamb chops to the biggest child and cut off the others. No, they would chop the lamb up, add vegetables, and make a stew that could be shared among all. That love and fairness make good sense, for if young ones starve, they are susceptible to diseases that could infect the entire family.</p>
<p class="body.textrr"><font color="#333333" face="tahoma, sans-serif">Part of America’s continuing economic woes is that we are ignoring the wisdom of good mothers. Powerful banks have been bailed out, but nothing has been done for millions of homeowners in trouble. The result is weakening the entire economy. Without action, America will truly face a lost decade.</font></p>
<p class="body.textrr"><font color="#333333" face="tahoma, sans-serif">On average, home values have fallen almost a third since the popping of the housing bubble. Millions have lost their homes; about 6.4 million mortgages are delinquent, with many headed to foreclosure. Almost one in four homeowners with a mortgage is underwater, owing more than the property is worth. They can’t refinance to take advantage of lower interest rates.</font></p>
<p class="body.textrr"><font color="#333333" face="tahoma, sans-serif">African Americans and Latinos are disproportionately caught in this bind. They got an education, worked hard and saved money. When they could afford a down payment, they often stretched to buy a home in the suburbs.</font></p>
<p class="body.textrr"><font color="#333333" face="tahoma, sans-serif">When the bubble burst, the value of their homes plummeted. Foreclosures dotted their neighborhoods, driving prices down further. Some were laid off. The very people who had lifted themselves up found their savings erased.</font></p>
<p class="body.textrr"><font color="#333333" face="tahoma, sans-serif">Fearing that collapse of the global financial system would trigger a global depression, the Bush administration and the Obama administration bailed out the banks without reorganizing them.</font></p>
<p class="body.textrr"><font color="#333333" face="tahoma, sans-serif">Distressed homeowners were what the military calls “collateral damage” of the strategy. Some thought this justified. Why should people who gambled on risky mortgages or bought homes that they couldn’t afford be helped? The Tea Party dates its start in part to a televised screed by a business reporter railing against helping homeowners.</font></p>
<p class="body.textrr"><font color="#333333" face="tahoma, sans-serif">But it isn’t just the irresponsible who are being hurt. Falling home prices, underwater mortgages, and forced foreclosures hit the innocent, as well. And the scope of the crisis feeds the economic troubles that affect everyone.</font></p>
<p class="body.textrr"><font color="#333333" face="tahoma, sans-serif">It is long past time for action. A sensible first step should be to allow judges in bankruptcy courts to modify mortgages, adjusting the debt to the value of the home. (A power they already have for the vacation homes of the affluent). The judges could divide the innocent victims from the reckless. The banks would have to write down the value of the loans. The smaller loans could be refinanced at lower rates. With reduced debt and payments, more homeowners would be able to keep their homes. That would reduce the foreclosures that are driving down home prices and destroying neighborhoods. It would also give banks and servicers an incentive to negotiate across the board.</font></p>
<p class="body.textrr"><font color="#333333" face="tahoma, sans-serif">In urging this, Henry Cisneros, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Clinton, also calls for a more comprehensive solution, including encouraging investors to buy foreclosed homes en mass to manage as rentals.</font></p>
<p class="body.textrr"><font color="#333333" face="tahoma, sans-serif">Bailing out the banks without helping write down the debts of distressed homeowners continues to get in the way of any recovery. It’s time to remember the lesson taught by those wise mothers in South Carolina. Fairness is both more moral and more effective.</font></p>
<p class="body.textrr"><font color="#333333" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><img alt="Jesse L. Jackson Sr." src="http://rainbowpush.org/page/-/images/jesse_sig.png" height="117" width="317" /></font></p>
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<td height="37"><h2>Register! | 12th Annual Creating Opportunity Conference</h2>
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<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF" valign="top"><table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" width="560"><tbody><tr><td valign="top"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="160"><table bgcolor="#000000" border="0" cellspacing="0" width="119"><tbody><tr><td width="119"><a href="http://rainbowpush.org/page/m/64e3729f/11e9de78/72736067/31ec5763/644406904/VEsF/"><img alt="Creating Opportunity Conference" src="http://rainbowpush.org/page/-/images/co2k11%20Poster%201.jpg" height="227" width="160" /></a></td>
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<td valign="top"><p>Welcome to the 12th Annual Creating Opportunity Conference, November 3rd-5th at the Hilton Garden Inn at 275 Baker Street, Atlanta, Georgia sponsored by Rev. Jesse L. Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition and the Citizenship Education Fund. <br /><br /> Celebrate Rev. Jackson's 70th birthday at the Keep Hope Alive Gala with Wanda Smith from V-103's Frank and Wanda Morning Show, take the Handson Banking Class to improve your financial literacy, check out the college fair and youth and young adult summit, attend workshops on sports, entertainment, business, family violence and international relations. <br /><br /> Creating Opportunity will show you how to thrive in tough times. <a href="http://rainbowpush.org/page/m/64e3729f/11e9de78/72736067/31ec5764/644406904/VEsC/" target="_blank">More Info >></a></p>
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</tr></tbody></table><p> </p></div>Occupy Harlem , Friday October 28https://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/occupy-harlem-friday-october-282011-10-19T13:32:43.000Z2011-10-19T13:32:43.000ZTheBlackList Newshttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListNews<div><p style="text-align:center;"><b>OCCUPY</b> <b>HARLEM</b> <b>MOBILIZATION <br /></b></p><p align="center"><font size="4"><b><i>We stand in solidarity with Occupiers of Wall Street<br /></i></b></font></p><p align="center"><font size="4"><b><i> </i></b></font></p><p align="center"><b><i><u>SAVE THE DATE</u></i></b></p><p><b><i> </i></b></p><p align="center"><b>Friday, October 28, 2011</b><b> </b></p><p align="center"><b>6:30 – 9:30 PM</b><b> </b></p><p align="center"><b>St. Philip’s Church</b></p><p align="center"><b>204 West 134<sup>th</sup> Street</b><b> </b></p><p align="center"><b>(</b><b>Adam Clayton Powell Blvd</b><b>)</b></p><p align="center"><b><i> </i></b></p><p>A call to Blacks, Latinos, and immigrants to occupy their communities against predatory investors, displacement, privatization and state repression. Let us assert our Dignity! WE MUST DEFEND OUR COMMUNITIES! THIS IS OUR STRUGGLE, THIS IS OUR MOMENT IN HISTORY. THIS IS PEOPLE'S POWER!</p><p> </p><p>We stand in solidarity with all of our brothers and sisters occupying cities, towns and neighborhoods in the United States. We stand in solidarity with poor and working class people across the globe rising up against criminal predatory finance capital that has no regard for humanity, that has no regard for Mother Earth.</p><p> </p><p>Wall Street, the epicenter of international finance capital, began its financial prosperity with slave profiteering firms, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Wachovia Bank and Bank of America. In fact, Wall Street and most of the city’s financial district were built on the burial ground of captured Africans forced into genocidal free labor for centuries, a crime against humanity. The legacy of that crime against humanity manifested today in Jim Crow mass incarceration, a crisis of massive Black unemployment and the greatest loss of wealth for people of color from subprime lending frauds estimated between $164 billion and $213 billion.</p><p> </p><p>Finance capital plutocrats have always controlled the US political system. They threaten</p><p>and received a $16 trillion bank bailout, the greatest thief of taxpayers' money in modern US history. And it's only the tip of the iceberg because the banks have an estimated $700 trillion of worthless derivatives, the BULL in the china shop that might very well bring down Wall Street.</p><p> </p><p>Let us, the 99 percenters, build a united people's movement of the poor, the working class and the middle class to reign in the one percent. ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE!</p><p> </p><p>Join us for this Occupy Harlem mobilization with guest speakers and the occupy site to be announced.</p><p> </p><p>NO MORE BANK BAILOUTS! NO MORE WARS! WE WANT MONEY FOR JOBS, HOUSING, EDUCATION AND MEDICAL CARE. </p><p> </p><p align="center">Harlem Fightback Against War at Home & Abroad</p><p align="center"> </p><p align="center">Telephone: <a target="_blank">646-812-5188</a></p><p align="center">Email:<a target="_blank" href="http://gmail.com">harlemfightbackagainstwar@gmail.com</a></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><ul><li><b><a href="https://lists.riseup.net/www/viewmod/theblacklist/f74cf3acf402887f236c38e57ae79520/msg00000.html">FD: Save the Date: OCCUPY HARLEM October 28th</a></b>, <em>nellie hester, 10/18/2011</em></li></ul><p> </p></div>The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement - New Afrikans and Occupy Wall Streethttps://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/the-malcolm-x-grassroots-movement-new-afrikans-and-occupy-wall-st2011-10-17T13:00:59.000Z2011-10-17T13:00:59.000ZTheBlackList Newshttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListNews<div><div><div class="ContentBlock"></div></div><div><div class="ContentBlock"></div></div><p align="center"><b>NEW AFRIKANS & OCCUPY WALL STREET</b></p><p align="center"><b> </b></p><p><b>The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement struggles to defend the Human Rights of African people in the United States and around the world. The Occupation of Wall Street is an important opportunity to highlight the economic struggles</b> <b>of the 99% and in particular</b> <b>those of New Afrikans (people of African descent in the diaspora).</b> <b>Corporate and national wealth continues to be built on the stolen land of indigenous peoples and on the backs of New Afrikans, immigrants and poor people of European descent; profits are made because of our suffering. </b> <b> </b></p><p> </p><p>The agricultural and industrial strength that laid the foundation for U.S. economic power exists because of the blood, sweat and tears of the Afrikans who were enslaved. <i>Enslaved Africans literally built Wall Street,</i> the vary wall from which Wall Street gets its name, were Africans were bought and sold. The sale of our Black bodies enriched the early traders and bankers. Now, everyday Wall Street bankers desecrate our ancestor’s graves and dishonor their work by trading this blood money on top of an African burial ground.</p><p> </p><p>New Afrikans’ incredible contributions to the strength of the U.S. capitalist economy are continuously unacknowledged and devalued. From numerous inventions to forms of art, the history books remain silent about our contribution to this country’s wealth. We demand reparations that honor the immeasurable value of our work!</p><p> </p><p>There is a direct link between corporate profit and New Afrikan suffering. While New Afrikan people suffer under the stress of under-resourced communities, high unemployment and high imprisonment rates. Our people are kicked out of our homes, off our land, and lose small businesses. Meanwhile private and public prisons benefit on our cheap labor to earn billions of dollars a year and media moguls make billions of dollars a year on the sexual degradation of our people and the glorification of violence in our communities. As a result of these and other racist policies and practices, the <i>official</i> unemployment rate for New Afrikans in some states higher than 34% and the wealth gap between white and New Afrikan households has grown even wider in the wake of the mass scale thievery orchestrated by Wall Street. We will continue to fight back against our economic oppression!<b> </b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b>We will continue our struggle for collective self-determination, human rights, and reparations! We do not expect the powers that be to willingly change systems of exploitation that benefit the top 1% and are resolved to build our own alternatives. </b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b>We stand in solidarity with occupy wall street’s outcry for economic justice because it speaks to the realities of Afrikan people in the U.S. and around the world, and our members are in the streets, in solidarity, from New York to the S.F. Bay Area, Atlanta to Dallas and in D.C. and Philadelphia.</b></p><p align="center"><a href="http://www.mxgm.org/"><font color="#0000FF">www.mxgm.org</font></a></p><p><br clear="all" /><br />-- <br />In Unity and Struggle,</p><div>Kali </div><div>Visit:</div><div><a href="http://www.mxgm.org/" target="_blank">http://www.mxgm.org</a></div><div><a href="http://www.ushrnetwork.org/" target="_blank">http://www.ushrnetwork.org</a></div><div><a href="http://navigatingthestorm.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://navigatingthestorm.blogspot.com</a></div><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/kaliakuno" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/user/kaliakuno</a></div><div><a href="http://www.facebook.com/kali.akuno" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/kali.akuno</a></div><p> </p><ul><li><b><a href="https://lists.riseup.net/www/viewmod/theblacklist/aa572fc22f6d49260479b4d08f23faa9/msg00000.html">MXGM: New Afrikans and Occupy Wall Street</a></b>, <em>KA, 10/17/2011</em></li></ul><p> </p></div>Letter to Bloomberg on Occupy Wall Streethttps://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/letter-to-bloomberg-on-occupy-wall-street2011-10-16T14:32:10.000Z2011-10-16T14:32:10.000ZTheBlackList Newshttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListNews<div><div><div><div><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">I think that Mayor Bloomberg not evicting the Occupy Wall Street was a good thing. I think good things should be encouraged and reinforced. I am therfore quite dismayed that some are depicting the mayor's action negatively as "backing down". This is a serious tactical mistake and serves to only heighten tension. We want the mayor's cooperation instead. This is why I wrote the letter below to Mayor Bloomberg:</font></div><div> </div><div><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">Letter to Bloomberg,</font></div><div><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">Dear Mayor Bloomberg.</font></div><div><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;">Please accept my thanks for not evicting the “Occupy Wall Street” protestors. I must say that I strongly disagree and deplore depiction of your action as “backing down”. On the contrary, I think you showed good judgment and acted to protect freedom.</span></div><div><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">Let us face it, New York City and other cities all across the nation have been victims of Wall Street plunging the country into economic chaos, not the protestors. Money has been squandered bailing out Wall Street and fighting grossly immoral wars. Consequently, budget shortfalls in your own New York city is forcing teachers, nurses, firemen and other vital public servants to face economic distress. How ironic! That same policeman who pepper-sprayed an innocent defenseless woman should have been thanking her instead for standing up for his well being! Meanwhile, your own New York City residents continue to fight foreclosures, loss of healthcare coverage, joblessness. The list goes on.</font></div><div><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman"> Besides surely you can understand the anger and frustration of the protestors as there is no relief in sight. Only more of the same as the Democratic and Republican presidential contenders are only competing for the favor of the villainous Wall Street CEO, banksters and corporations, with we the 99% just a mere afterthought. Prospects are dim from the Senate or the House. The grim reality is that our political system is failing us.</font></font></div><div><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">In the face of all this, you should commend the protestors for their peacefulness, discipline and restraint, no mean feat among such a disparate group. There is no burning of cars, rocks through windows or looting.</font></div><div><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">The fact is, Mr. Mayor, you should be on the side of the protestors. You should be on the side of freedom of _expression_ and the right to peacefully protest. So, I am counting on you not only to cooperate with these reasonable courageous protestors but also to protect them.</font></div><div> </div><div><i><strong>Michael Phillips</strong></i>, <br />Editor, Hot Calaloo<br /><a target="_blank" href="http://www.hotcalaloo.com/">http://www.hotcalaloo.com</a></div><div>Author, Boycott Money and Save Your Soul<br />- Launching The Goodwill Revolution".<br /><a target="_blank" href="http://www.goodwillie.org/">http://www.goodwillie.org</a></div><div> </div><div>"Bring Our War $$$ Home" - Codepink</div></div></div><ul><li><b><a href="https://lists.riseup.net/www/viewmod/theblacklist/0515083f599409a9c09239dcf192becc/msg00000.html">Letter to Bloomberg on Occupy Wall Street</a></b>, <em>Michael Phillips, 10/16/2011</em></li></ul><p> </p><p> </p></div>REASONS OCCUPYING WALL STREET WILL BE WITH US FOR AWHILE: WHY BLACK PEOPLE SHOULD ENJOINhttps://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/reasons-occupying-wall-street-will-be-with-us-for-awhile-why2011-10-06T21:30:48.000Z2011-10-06T21:30:48.000ZH. Khalif Khalifahhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/HKhalifKhalifah<div><p id="yui_3_2_0_17_131791048391837" style="right:auto;">The Occupy Wall Street Movement will be with us for awhile and i'll tell you why:</p><p id="yui_3_2_0_17_1317910483918315" style="right:auto;">1) Their complaint is absolute correct: Some not made will soon be</p><p id="yui_3_2_0_17_1317910483918440" style="right:auto;">2) Many doing the Occupying have nothing to lose: maybe no place to sleep</p><p id="yui_3_2_0_17_1317910483918712" style="right:auto;">3) They have caught the imagination of NYC, the media capitol of the world</p><p id="yui_3_2_0_17_13179104839181006" style="right:auto;">4) Rev. Al Sharpton is more likely to go there than not and he and his are the hottest show on Cable T.V.</p><p id="yui_3_2_0_17_13179104839181359" style="right:auto;">5) The extremely articulate Atty. Van Jones is among the key organizers/spokesmen: He calls it the "American Fall" a term very apt since every U.S. official who talks about Egypt, Libya or Syria call those people in the street "Arab Spring."</p><p id="yui_3_2_0_17_13179104839182242" style="right:auto;">6) Since there is no central leadership the government is hard pressed to co-opt it. The government have tried since it started 3 weeks ago</p><p id="yui_3_2_0_17_13179104839182535" style="right:auto;">7) Unlike the so-called Tea Party Movement 'Occupying Black People' are not the "run of the mill" white admirering typess</p><p style="right:auto;">8) The Movement is spreading to other cities</p><p id="yui_3_2_0_17_13179104839183133" style="right:auto;">.....................Khalifah</p></div>Former White House Official Coming To Gary Indiana for National Black Wall Street Conventionhttps://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/former-white-house-official-coming-to-gary-indiana-for-national-b2011-10-01T14:36:11.000Z2011-10-01T14:36:11.000ZTheBlackList-Publisherhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListPublisher<div><div class="xg_headline xg_headline-img xg_headline-2l"><div class="tb"><ul class="navigation byline"><li><a class="nolink">Posted by </a><a href="http://theblacklistpub.ning.com/profile/MarkSAllen">Mark S. Allen</a><a class="nolink"> on September 30, 2011 at 4:20pm</a></li>
<li><a class="xg_sprite xg_sprite-message" href="http://theblacklistpub.ning.com/profiles/message/newFromProfile?screenName=1nipo0pukrxbn&target=http%3A%2F%2Ftheblacklistpub.ning.com%2Fprofiles%2Fblog%2Fshow%3Fid%3D2055350%253ABlogPost%253A89649">Send Message</a><a class="nolink"> </a></li>
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<h1 align="center"><span style="font-size:13px;font-weight:normal;"><b>2011 BLACK <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317410398_0">WALL STREET</span> <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317410398_1">USA</span> NATIONAL CONVENTION</b></span></h1>
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<div align="center"><span><span><b>Wednesday, September 28, 2011</b></span><span><b> </b></span></span></div>
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<div align="center"><span><b>Former Special Assistant to President Barack Obama coming to Gary<span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317410398_2">Indiana</span> for National Black Wall Street-USA Economic and Political Convention October 21-23</b></span></div>
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<div align="center"><span><strong>(</strong><em>celebrating the 90th year anniversary of the 1921 race riots on the original Black <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317410398_3">Wall Street</span> of <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317410398_4">Tulsa Oklahoma</span> and where the spirit of that movement is today)</em></span></div>
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<div><span><b><span class="yiv1108261079yshortcuts" id="yiv1108261079lw_1317408960_10"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317410398_5">OAKLAND</span></span> NATIONAL HQ</b></span> <span>- National Chairman Rev. Michael Carter's chief of staff, Mark Allen has confirmed that Ken Bennett, former Special Assistant to President Barack Obama and <span class="yiv1108261079yshortcuts" id="yiv1108261079lw_1317408960_11"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317410398_6">Midwest</span></span> Regional Director of The U.S.<span id="IL_AD8" class="IL_AD">Department of Labor</span> will be at the 2011 Black <span id="IL_AD10" class="IL_AD">Wall Street</span> USA National Convention in <span class="yiv1108261079yshortcuts" id="yiv1108261079lw_1317408960_12"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317410398_7">Gary, IN</span></span>. Bennett will talk to district delegates about the Obama's <span id="IL_AD9" class="IL_AD">American Jobs Act</span> and its <span id="IL_AD1" class="IL_AD">economic</span> impact on small Black <span id="IL_AD2" class="IL_AD">businesses</span>. Allen's team and Bennett met in mid-September in <span class="yiv1108261079yshortcuts" id="yiv1108261079lw_1317408960_13"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317410398_8">Chicago</span></span> to discuss details. We will distribute and discuss the document "What The Jobs Bill Means Specifically To The Black Community Economically"<a target="_blank" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/jobsact#overview"><span class="yiv1108261079yshortcuts" id="yiv1108261079lw_1317408960_14">http://www.whitehouse.gov/jobsact#overview</span></a></span></div>
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<div><span>Allen also announced that Naomi Davis of Black In <span id="IL_AD7" class="IL_AD">Green</span>, counseled by former White house "<span id="IL_AD6" class="IL_AD">Green Jobs</span>" czar Van Jones' group have confirmed that they want to conduct a national workshop to educate people on reclaiming their land to create their own <span id="IL_AD5" class="IL_AD">markets</span> for <span id="IL_AD12" class="IL_AD">community gardens</span>.</span></div>
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<div><span><span id="IL_AD3" class="IL_AD">Online Registrations</span> Today -$65.00 per person</span></div>
<div><span><a target="_blank" href="http://blackwallstreetdistrict.com/2011convention/2011Convention.html"><span class="yiv1108261079yshortcuts" id="yiv1108261079lw_1317408960_15">http://blackwallstreetdistrict.com/2011convention/2011Convention.html</span></a></span></div>
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<div><span><b>Black Wall Street District USA is a national organization that represents 31 Black Wall Street District communities throughout the United States. Some cities Include <span class="yiv1108261079yshortcuts" id="yiv1108261079lw_1317408960_16"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317410398_9">Atlanta</span></span>, <span class="yiv1108261079yshortcuts" id="yiv1108261079lw_1317408960_17"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317410398_10">Baton Rouge</span></span>, Chicago-Regional (13 Districts including 47<sup>th</sup> Street in <span class="yiv1108261079yshortcuts" id="yiv1108261079lw_1317408960_18"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317410398_11">Bronzeville</span></span>, E 75th Street, Madison Street, <span class="yiv1108261079yshortcuts" id="yiv1108261079lw_1317408960_19"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317410398_12">Stony Island</span></span>, <span class="yiv1108261079yshortcuts" id="yiv1108261079lw_1317408960_20"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317410398_13">Peoria, IL</span></span> and Gary, Ind and seven others), <span class="yiv1108261079yshortcuts" id="yiv1108261079lw_1317408960_21"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317410398_14">Minneapolis</span></span>, <span class="yiv1108261079yshortcuts" id="yiv1108261079lw_1317408960_22"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317410398_15">Newark</span></span>, Oakland, and <span class="yiv1108261079yshortcuts" id="yiv1108261079lw_1317408960_23"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1317410398_16">Seattle, Washington</span></span>. Black Wall Street District USA headquarters are in Oakland. <span>For more information visit:<a target="_blank" href="http://www.blackwallstreetdistrict.com/"><span class="yiv1108261079yshortcuts" id="yiv1108261079lw_1317408960_24">www.blackwallstreetdistrict.com</span></a>.</span></b></span></div>
<div><strong>If our people used their own <span id="IL_AD4" class="IL_AD">consumer</span> spending power and resources to build the original Black Wall Street of Tulsa with just 35 city blocks, we are certain that 90 years later the Black community can do it again by designating city blocks where we will again use our consumer spending power and resources to create Black Wall Street businesses, institutions and jobs in majority Black communities across the United States and the world.</strong></div>
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<div align="center"><span><b>-30-</b></span></div>
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<p> </p></div>Obama Administation: Race Cowardice From the Top Downhttps://www.theblacklist.net/forum/topics/obama-administation-race2009-04-25T14:11:56.000Z2009-04-25T14:11:56.000ZKWASI Akyeamponghttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/KWASIAkyeampong<div><p> </p>
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<p><font style="color:rgb(153,0,0);" size="6"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Race Cowardice From the Top Down</span></font><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(153,0,0);">Discussions
of race in the US, except on the terms of and with the permission of privileged
whites are impolite. They are "playing the race card." Attorney
General Eric Holder labeled the national reluctance to engage with itself a
symptom of cowardice, forcing his boss to defend him. But the old saying is that
it takes one to know one.</span><br /><br />
by Paul Street<br /><br />
Last February in a speech to the employees of the United States Justice
Department, the United States' first black Attorney General Eric Holder caused a
stir by saying that that the U.S. is "a nation of cowards on race."
Most Americans, Holder argued, avoid honest and serious discussion of the
nation's continuing racial problems.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(102,51,255);">"Focusing
Instead on Winning Over Whites"</span><br /><br />
The next time Holder wants to accuse Americans of racial spinelessness, he might
want to take a closer look at his boss Barack Obama and in the mirror of recent
history. According to USA TODAY shortly before the presidential election last
fall, "Obama usually hasn't chosen to emphasize his race, focusing instead
on winning over white voters critical in the Democratic primaries earlier this
year and in general election Nov. 4."<br /><br />
That was quite an understatement. Consistent with winning majority electoral
support in the "nation of [race] cowards," candidate Obama went to
remarkable lengths to downplay his blackness and to distance himself from
specifically black grievances and the supposedly obsolete notion that the U.S.
continues to be deeply scarred by anti-black racism. Throughout his campaign,
Obama aligned himself with mainstream white hostility to blacks who
"carp" about racial disparities. He was more than ready, in black Left
writer Glen Ford's words, "to paint young Black men with the broad brush of
irresponsibility." Offering blacks little more anti-racist content than the
simple fact of being black, Obama never advanced any explicit agenda to tackle
the nation's deep institutional racism. During the primaries Obama actually ran
to the right of not just Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards but even to the right
of Hillary Clinton on questions of race and poverty.<br /><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(102,51,255);" /><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(102,51,255);">"Yet to Perfect"</span><br /><br />
Eric Holder cites Obama's March 2008 Race Speech in Philadelphia as inspiration
for his own "nation of cowards" speech. He claims that Obama's oration
provided a good example of open and honest discussion of racial issues.<br /><br />
This is highly ironic. In calling for Americans to put race aside in pursuit of
shared solutions to social and economic problems, Obama's instantly famous
Philadelphia speech the one where the future president made his last break with
his former pastor Jeremiah Wright drastically low-balled the nation's racial
disparities by saying that "race" is "a part of our union that we
have yet to perfect."<br /><br />
"Yet to perfect" was more than a bit mild in a nation where an
eleven-to-one white-to-black wealth gap afflicts black American households and
where one in three black males possess a felony record and blacks make up 12
percent of the population but nearly half of its more than 2 million prisoners.<br /><br />
Obama's "yet to perfect" statement was reminiscent of Obama's claim
the previous March (in Selma Alabama 's historic Brown Chapel) that blacks had
come "90 percent" of the way to equality in the U.S.<br /><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(102,51,255);" /><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(102,51,255);">"As if Rev. Wright Was Stuck in a Time Warp"</span><br /><br />
Another disturbing aspect of Obama's Philadelphia speech was its portrayal of
the racism that created his former pastor Jeremiah Wright and other black
Americans' anger as a function mainly of "memories" of the past. This
was profoundly misleading and deeply insulting to millions of black Americans.
The racial oppression that upsets Rev. Wright and many other black Americans,
young and old, is more than just a painful recollection and overhang from the
bad old days! Black bitterness is generated within the U.S. by numerous
interrelated and objectively racist policies and practices in the present, not
just the past. Here are some of the more relevant such policies and practices
that have survived the rise Obama and of Oprah Winfrey, Colin Powell, Tiger
Woods, and Condoleezza Rice:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);">*
widely documented racial bias in real estate and home lending institutions, in
hiring, job-training, and promotion, and in the provision of health care
coverage and services.</span><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);">* the tear-down of inner city public housing without adequate proximate
replacement units and the related elevation of the notions of housing as a
commodity and a profit center over the principle of housing as a human right.</span><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);">* the destruction and manufactured shortage of affordable housing and the
replacement of such housing by upscale commercial real estate development that
is beyond the means of disproportionately black inner city poor people.</span><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);">* the proliferation of expensive, taxpayer-financed roads and developments
constructed on behalf of mainly white suburbanites far from the predominantly
black inner city, which subsidizes white flight and takes critically needed
economic resources further from those who most in need of such resources.</span><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);">* the funding of schools largely on the basis of local property wealth, which
tends to favor whiter school districts over blacker districts.</span><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);">* the excessive use of high-stakes standardized test-based "dill and
grill" teaching curriculum and related zero-tolerance pre-incarceratory
disciplinary practices in many predominantly black public schools.</span><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);">* the hyper-concentration of black children into ghetto schools where frazzled
teachers have to deal with oversized classes where a large number of the kids
are dealing with the special barriers to learning that come with poverty.</span><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);">* the "War on Drugs" and the related campaign of mass black imprisonment
and felony-marking, which are waged with such racially selective ferocity that
two-thirds of Illinois' 40-thousand plus state prisoners are African-Americans
and more than 80 percent of the state's drug prisoners are black even though
blacks make up just 15 percent of the state and are no more likely to use
illegal drugs than whites.</span><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);">* the disproportionate investment of private and public capital and economic
development funding in predominantly white communities that already possess the
most development.</span><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);">* the reluctance of banks and full-service grocery chains to set up branch outlets
in predominantly black ghettoes and suburbs.</span><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><br style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);" /><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(51,51,255);">* the under-service of black neighborhoods and communities by public
transportation.</span><br /><br />
Thanks to these and numerous other institutionally racist processes, new
"memories" of racial tyranny are being created right now, beneath the
national self-congratulation over some whites' readiness to vote for a certain
kind of safe, conciliatory and forgiving black presidential candidate. As the
left black commentator Bill Fletcher noted, Obama spoke in Philadelphia last
spring "as if Rev. Wright is stuck in a time warp," deleting the fact
"that Rev. Wright's anger about the domestic and foreign policies of the
USA are well rooted - and documented - in the current reality of the USA."<br /><br />
Since his election and inauguration, Obama has offered no particular agenda to
confront America's deeply entrenched race disparities and the rooting of those
disparities in the polices and practices of institutional racism. He has not
acknowledged the economic crisis' disproportionate and especially dangerous
impact on people of color. He has stayed mute on the danger that his ascendancy
poses to American society's already faded willingness to acknowledge the
persistent and powerful role of racism in American life, now more deeply cloaked
than ever by the existence of a black president.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(102,51,255);">"The
Country, Alarmed at One Common Danger"</span><br /><br />
Particularly troubling for those of us who value and know the essential
democratic importance of accurate historical knowledge, Obama has repeatedly
spoken of the past in terms that are remarkably insensitive to the black
historical experience. In his Inaugural Address, for example, Obama asked
Americans to remember how "In the year of America's birth, in the coldest
of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of
an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was
stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in
doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: 'Let
it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but
hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one
common danger, came forth to meet (it).' "<br /><br />
Did anyone find it disturbing to hear the nation's first black president citing
the founders' rebellion against England (1763-1783) as an example of how
Americans need to stand together "against one common enemy"? Many
American slaves and indigenous people found very good and logical reasons to
favor the British over the colonists in the war between England and the rising
new racist and settler-imperialist slave state. The new republic's snows and
soils and forests and tobacco, rice, and cotton fields had long been stained and
even occasionally soaked with the blood of its First Nations victims and its
growing population of black chattel. The fate and struggle of the
"homeland's" early black and red victims foretold the future struggles
of Asians, Latin Americans, and Middle Easterners caught on the wrong side of
"freedom"-loving America's imperial guns, alliances, and doctrines.<br /><br />
Another example is Obama's recurrent practice of praising the GI Bill for
creating a great American middle class after World War II. The president shows
no comprehension of the fact that the veterans' legislation offered far fewer
benefits to African Americans than to working-class Caucasians in a time
"when," in Ira Katznelson's words, "affirmative action was
white." By Katznelson's careful account, the GI Bill and other social and
economic policies enacted by the Democratic Party during and after the Great
Depression "not only excluded African Americans from attaining social
parity but actually widened the gap between white and black living
standards." (Ira Katznelson, <span style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;">When
Affirmative Action Was White: An untold History of Racial Inequality in
Twentieth Century America</span> [New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2005]). This hidden
history is a critical part of why the average black family still holds less than
one-tenth the assets of the average white family more one hundred and forty
years after the abolition of slavery and more than more than forty years after
passage of the Civil Rights Act.<br /><br />
Throughout the campaign, Obama repeatedly praised the Democrats as "the
party of Jefferson and Jackson." He will no doubt continue to so, leaving
others to ruefully reflect on Thomas Jefferson's slave ownership and Andrew
Jackson's bloody service to the eradication of native American culture and the
expansion of black cotton slavery.<br /><br />
Barack Obama has played a more than collateral and inadvertent role in feeding
the widespread white belief that the U.S. has "transcended race" and
that racism is longer a significant barrier to black advancement and racial
equality.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;color:rgb(102,51,255);">Working for Corporate
and Imperial Whites in the White House</span><br /><br />
Consistent with his revealing historical deletions and his
"race-neutral" campaign, Obama has followed in George W. Bush's
footsteps by deciding to boycott the second international conference on racism,
the "Durban II" gathering in Switzerland this month and for the same
two basic reasons as Bush. First, the conference dares to raise the issue of
slavery reparations. The conference dares to discuss the racism experienced by
Arab Palestinians under the apartheid-like system in the occupied territories.<br /><br />
And so the new White House, with its first black president, its first black
Attorney General, and its first black Ambassador to the UN decided not to be
present at the world's leading forum to address international race relations.<br /><br />
Meanwhile Obama is finding ways to sustain the petro-colonial U.S. occupation of
Iraq and to expand the related U.S. wars on Afghanistan and Pakistan. He
revealingly resists pressure to investigate and prosecute the monumental war and
human rights crimes of the Bush administration, claiming that "nothing will
be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past." This
from a former and supposedly liberal law professor, someone who should be
expected to understand that one investigates and punishes past human rights
crimes precisely in order to discourage and prevent their occurrence in the
present and future.<br /><br />
He approves the denial of <span style="font-style:italic;">habeas corpus</span>
to the Empire's secretly detained "enemy combatants" as long as the
mainly Muslim victims are flown to the Bagram Air Force prison in Afghanistan
instead of Guantanamo (since prisoners in "war zones" can be more
readily denied basic rights).<br /><br />
He resorts to off-the-books, so-called supplemental funding of the Iraq and
Afghanistan-Pakistan Wars a deceptive war-financing method that Bush pioneered
and which Obama said he would abandon.<br /><br />
He sustains the crushing 47-year trade embargo and the American travel ban on
Cuba, rejecting broad Latin American sentiment and even the opinion of some
Republicans by insisting on punishing and undermining the largely black and
socialist island, which can never be forgiven for daring to modernize and
develop outside and against the supervision of Uncle Sam.<br /><br />
All of these and other Obama foreign policies operate on the white and imperial
side of global power and attack predominantly non-white others.<br /><br />
It's the same thing in the "homeland." Obama's "pragmatic" (neoliberal
and state-capitalist) policy mix combines (a) massive corporate welfare for
predominantly white Wall Street parasites and perpetrators with (b) drastically
inadequate human and social welfare for the rising number of disproportionately
black and Latino poor. It's not for nothing that Obama got a record-setting $38
million from the white-run financial, insurance, and real estate industries for
his 2008 campaign, including nearly $1 million from Goldman Sachs alone.<br /><br />
Another threat to black interests is more indirect. "Wall Street
Barry's" determination to continue and indeed expand giant taxpayer
bailouts for the very financial firms who drove the economy over the cliff can
hardly be expected to improve racial attitudes among the nation's working class
white majority. Many in that group have long been led to ironically identify the
cause of racial equality with upper-class "liberal elitism." The first
black president's massive government giveaway to the financial elite seems like
to deepen that dangerous identification.<br /><br />
That and much else about the Obama presidency including its supposed
demonstration of racism's "over-ness" and its capacity to undermine
grassroots black resistance and social justice and peace activism more broadly
put the cause of racial justice at grave risk. But that's all part of why he was
hired in the first place.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;color:rgb(153,0,0);">[</span><span style="font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;color:rgb(153,0,0);">Paul
Street</span> <span style="font-style:italic;color:rgb(153,0,0);">was
Research Director and Vice President for Research and Planning at The Chicago
Urban League between 2000 and 2005. He is the author of Empire and Inequality:
America and the World Since 9/11 (Paradigm, 2004); Segregated Schools:
Educational Apartheid in the Post-Civil Rights Era (Routledge, 2005); Racial
Oppression in the Global Metropolis: A Living Black Chicago History (Rowman
& Littlefied, 2007), and Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics
(Paradigm, 2008).]</span><br /></p>
<p><b><font size="4">Race Cowardice From the Top Down</font></b><br /> Black Agenda Report<br /> April 22, 2009<br /><a href="%C2%A0http%3A/%3Ca%20href=">www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/race-cowardice-top-down</a>"> <a href="http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/race-cowardice-top-down">http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/race-cowardice-top-down</a><br /></p>
<p>-----------Thanks to: ----------------------------<br /><span style="font-style:italic;color:rgb(0,102,0);"> s. e. anderson is author of "The Black Holocaust for Beginners"</span><br style="font-style:italic;color:rgb(0,102,0);" /><span style="font-style:italic;color:rgb(0,102,0);">Social Activism is not a hobby: it's a Lifestyle lasting a Lifetime</span><br style="font-style:italic;color:rgb(0,102,0);" /><span style="font-style:italic;color:rgb(0,102,0);"><a href="http://www.blackeducator.org">http://www.blackeducator.org</a> <a href="http://blackeducator.blogspot.com">http://blackeducator.blogspot.com</a></span><br />
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