National Black News Journal

Major News Developments!

Compiled by Robert N. Taylor

(posted 5-12-'08)

Blacks Suffer Disproportionately from the “War on Drugs”

          (Taylor Media Services) According to two recently released reports, African Americans have suffered much higher rates of arrests and imprisonment than whites in the nation’s 30-year “war on drugs” even though whites actually constitute the majority of drug offenders.

           Report says police “target” inner city Blacks for drug arrests.

One report, entitled “Targeting Blacks: Drug Law Enforcement and Race in the United States” was compiled by the New York-based Human Rights Watch. Among its findings: a Black man is nearly 12 times more likely than a white man to be sentenced to prison for violating drug laws (34 states were covered in the report). In addition, a Black woman was 5 times more likely to be sentenced to prison for a drug offense than a white woman.

          The second report, entitled “Disparity by Geography: The War on Drugs in America’s Cities,” concludes “Urban black Americans have borne the brunt of the war on drugs.” The report was compiled by the Sentencing Project and it shows a 225 percent increase in the rate of drug arrests for African Americans during the 1980 to 2003 period. This compares with only a 70 percent increase among whites. In 11 cities, says the report, Black drug arrests soared by more than 500 percent.

Victims Claim Police Concocted Story to Justify Philadelphia Beating

          (Taylor Media Services) Civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton has labeled it “worse than Rodney King.” He was referring to last week’s much publicized video-taped beating of three young Black men by Philadelphia police and comparing it to the 1991 traffic stop beating of Black motorist Rodney King by Los Angeles police.

           Mayor Michael Nutter apologized for the beatings

In the incident last week, Philadelphia police have accused the men of being suspects in a shooting rampage. But attorneys for the men deny that story and instead claim police chased the car and beat the men because they mistook one of the passengers – Dwayne Dyches – for a man allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of police officer last weekend.

          Dyches’ lawyer, Eldridge Suggs, issued a statement saying in part: “All they’ve done is make up some facts to account for the beating and the reason why they beat this man is because he looked so much like the cop-killer.” Mayor Michael Nutter and Police Chief Charles Ramsey apologized for the beating and thus far 13 officers have been removed from street duty while the being is being investigated. The beating was videotaped by a Philadelphia television station and repeatedly broadcasts on stations around the nation.

Major African American Participation in Summit Set to Spur African Economic Development

          (Taylor Media Services) One of the largest summits of its type has been set for June 2 to 6 to plot strategy for spurring economic development and improved living standards in Africa. Among those attending will be more than 1,000 prominent African American leaders and several major U.S. corporations.

           Andrew Young

Civil Rights Movement veteran and former Atlanta, Georgia Mayor Andrew Young is co-chairman of the gathering which he describes as a “poor man’s African Davos” – a reference to the annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland when the world’s richest nation’s gather to plot their economic strategy. The Rev. Jesse Jackson will also be in attendance.   

          The meeting will take place in Arusha, Tanzania in East Africa. Tanzania’s Ambassador Augustine Mahiga also described the gathering as “a bridge over the Atlantic, connecting Africa and Americans – a multi-purpose bridge to serve political, technical and economic ends.” Additional information about the summit is available at http://www.thesullivanfoundation.org

Rev. Al Sharpton Steps Up Protests in Sean Bell Case

          (Taylor Media Services) Hundreds of people, most of them African American, disrupted rush hour traffic in New York City last week to protest a judge’s acquittal of three police detectives who shot and killed a young Black man – Sean Bell – on his wedding day in 2006. The 50-bullet police shooting of Bell generated a national outrage.

           Rev. Al Sharpton

However, in a skillful legal maneuver, attorneys for the three officers – two Black and one Hispanic - secured a trial by judge instead of by jury. Two weeks ago, the judge found the officers innocent of all charges saying he saw no criminal intent to harm Bell.

          The six protest rallies throughout New York City last Wednesday were organized by Rev. Al Sharpton and his national Action Network. Sharpton and Bell’s fiancée Nicole Paultre want a federal investigation into the case to determine if federal civil rights charges can be filed against the three detectives. Sharpton and Paultre were arrested during one of the demonstrations.

Detroit Expo Champions “Buy Black Weekend”

(Taylor Media Services)  The International Detroit Black Expo (IDBE) will host its 2nd Annual Buy Black Weekend in Detroit, June 6th – June 8th at Cobo Hall. The power packed event will feature a host of activities, including educational workshops, seminars and networking opportunities. The Weekend theme is, “There is Power in the Black Dollar.”

In addition to providing solutions to Detroit’s economic woes, Buy Black Weekend II, seeks to uplift minorities who are overcome with financial distress and empower them with tools for entrepreneurial success. It also focuses opportunities for Fortune 500 companies that are interested in diversifying their portfolios and building a relationship with the African American consumer.

General admission to the Expo is free and event tickets can be purchased onsite and at www.DetroitBlackExpo.com . Interested persons can contact (313) 309-3215 or www.DetroitBlackExpo.com  for more details or to obtain vendor, sponsorship and/or media information.

More Women Entering Reproductive Years with Diabetes, Especially Blacks

          (Taylor Media Services) A new study finds that more and more American women, especially Blacks, are entering their reproductive years with diabetes. African American women in the study had the highest prevalence of diabetes before pregnancy, followed by Hispanic women, then Asian and Pacific Island women, and then Caucasian women.

          Study head Jean Lawrence studies diabetes at the giant health care organization Kaiser Permanente. Her study is based on the medical records of approximately 175,000 teenage and adult women in southern California who became pregnant between 1999 and 2005.

           Diabetes is a chronic disease that develops when the body does not produce enough insulin or cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Diabetics have abnormally high blood sugar levels, which if left untreated can lead to serious health problems, including foot ulcers, blindness, kidney failure, heart disease and stroke. The complete results of Lawrence’s findings can be found in the May issue of Diabetes Care.

Mildred Loving Dies; She Fought to Make Mixed Race Marriages Legal in U.S.

            (Taylor Media Services) Mildred Loving, the Black Virginia woman who fought to make interracial marriages legal throughout the United States, has died. She died last week at her home in central Virginia. She was 68.

           Mildred and Richard Loving

Loving and her husband Richard married in Washington, D.C. in 1958. But a few weeks later when they returned to their home in Virginia they were arrested for violating a state law (then common throughout the South) which barred Blacks and whites from marrying. In order to avoid jail, the couple had to agree to leave Virginia and not return for 25 years.

          However, after living in the nation’s capital for several years, the couple took their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court which struck down the Virginia law in a unanimous decision (Loving v. Virginia) in 1967. The Court ruling also overturned similar laws in dozens of other states. Loving’s husband died in an automobile accident in 1975.

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Entertainment, Books, People and Style

The R. Kelly Underage Sex Trial Finally Begins

            (Taylor Media Services) After six years of legal maneuvering and unexpected delays, the underage sex trial of popular R&B crooner R. Kelly began in Chicago this past Friday with jury selection. Kelly is actually charged with child pornography for alleged having sex with a 14 year-old girl and videotaping the incident which prosecutors alleged took place some time between January 1998 and November 1, 2000.

           R. Kelly

            Kelly, now 41, has maintained his innocence. There are even reports that the young woman in question, who is now 23, denies that she is the person pictured in the video. But late last week, prosecutors are said to have produced a second woman who will testify to having a three-way sexual affair with Kelly and the then 14-year-old girl. Kelly’s attorneys had sought another trial delay when news of the new witness was made public.

Star Jones Blasts Barbara Walters over “Lying”

          (Taylor Media Services) Star Jones, former co-host of the popular television talk-show “The View” has come out swinging at veteran journalist and talk-show host Barbara Walters. First, she denied a claim in Walters’ new book “Audition” that she “lied” for Jones about her much publicized weight loss. Jones told Usmagazine.com that it was Walters who asked her to lie about the gastric-bypass surgery.

           Star Jones

She also blasted Walters for admitting in the book that during the 1970s she had an affair with Black Republican Senator Edward Brooke of Massachusetts. According to Jones, “It is a sad day when an icon like Barbara Walters, in the sunset of her life, is reduced to publicly branding herself as an adulterer, humiliating an innocent family with accounts of her illicit affair and speaking negatively against me all for the sake of selling a book.”

          A Walters’ spokesperson refused to respond to Jones’ comments.

Rapper DMX Arrested Again on Drug and Animal Cruelty Charges

          (Taylor Media Services) Rapper DMX (real name Earl Simmons) was arrested again last week on drug and animal cruelty charges following an early morning police raid on his Phoenix home. Murray Richman, attorney for the 37 year-old Simmons, issued a statement saying his efforts to make DMX available to law enforcement prior to the raid were rebuffed and that the animal cruelty charges were not supported by evidence.

           Rapper DMX

            It was the second arrest in a week for DMX. On Tuesday, he was taken into custody after speed cameras allegedly caught him traveling 114 miles an hour on a suburban Phoenix freeway. There was a similar raid in DMX’s home this past August but he was not there at the time.

San Francisco Film Festival Presents Urban Kidz Film Series

(Taylor Media Services) Created with young viewers in mind, the sixth annual Urban Kidz Film Festival Series (UKFF) unreels on Saturday, May 31, 2008 from noon to 3:00 p.m. at the Museum of the African Diaspora, 685 Mission Street. San Francisco, California. UKFF is an offshoot of the San Francisco Black Film Festival and features a striking assemblage of short and feature films, designed to spark the imaginations of the 5-to-12-year-old set.

This is a free event for children and $10.00 per adult. Space is limited and each adult is allowed to bring up to four children. Treats and beverages are courtesy of Starbucks, Turtle Mountain, Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association and Horizons Organic Milk. Logon on www.moadsf.org or www.sfbff.org or call 415-771-9271 for more information.

DNA Tests Due Soon on James Brown’s “Son”

          (Taylor Media Services) Another stage in the messy and complicated battle over the estate of the late “Soul Brother Number One” James Brown should be resolved this week or next. DNA test results should be released determining whether Brown is the biological father of the son of Tomi Rae Hynie – one of his former backup singers.

           Tomi Rae Hynie and the son she claims in James Brown II

Since Brown died in December 2006, there has been a raging battle over his estate largely involving children father by brown and people who claim they were fathered by Brown. Brown did refer to Hynie as his wife but the legality of the marriage has been challenged. Nevertheless, James brown II has received Social Security and insurance benefits since the singer’s death.

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Comments from the Editor’s Desk

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Op-Ed Commentary/Opinion

 ARE BLACK VOTES GOING TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER?

By William Reed

What’s the real issue for Black Americans in this presidential campaign?  Is our preference for: the symbol of acceptance of a black in the White House, or substantive gains towards societal parity?

Despite an increase in numbers among the middle-class, Black Americans lag behind the white majority class in every social and lifestyle index.  The question confronting the Black American Electorate is: will we demand a president willing to address socio-economic and political strategies and public policies to help Black Americans achieve parity; or accept a candidate willing to publicly water down racial disparity issues to accommodate a status quo-oriented white majority class and culture?

Senator Barack Obama’s thrashing of Rev. Jeremiah Wright renewed a discussion among African Americans of: “What is Black Empowerment?”  For many African Americans, “empowerment” will be realized if Obama ascends to the presidency.  They express a willingness to support “The Obama Dream” at whatever diminution of ethnic interests.  Others, taking issue with Obama’s “rebuke” Wright, say empowerment will only be realized through candidates willing to represent their views and issues.

Most Obama Dream supporters make the point that: “this is too important an election” and irregardless of the correctness of Wright’s remarks, they are “outdated and worn-out”.    “Nothing can justify the remarks of Rev. Wright at this moment in history” said a writer to the National Black News Headlines, complaining that Wright, and his supporters, have “jealous anger that Obama can run a popular campaign that is not based on racial prejudice or the unforgivable ‘sins’ of the US ”.  Other blacks say “Bill Clinton was right when he called Obama’s race-neutral political posture ‘a fantasy,’” and cite needs for blacks to re-evaluate their relationship to the electoral process and “change directions and alliances”.

Race has been made an issue in the 2008 presidential campaign, but with a negative accrual to Black Americans.  Willing to adhere to the two-party dominated system, most African Americans allowed suppression of our interests during recent discussions.  But, because issues of race and racism are at the table, why aren’t we increasing our candidacy considerations to include and address our inequality problems. 

Cynthia McKinney is the Green Party presidential candidate.  She says: “I am deeply offended that in the middle of a presidential campaign, remarks – be they from a pastor or a pundit – are the cause of a focus on race and not the deep racial disparities that communities are forced to endure on a daily basis…I am glad that candidate Obama mentioned existing racial disparities in education, income, wealth, jobs, government services, imprisonment, and opportunity.  That must be the role of public policy at this critical moment in our country.  Now it is time to address the public policies necessary to resolve these disparities”.

For actual substance over symbols blacks should consider endorsing issues she supports and possibly voting for Candidate McKinney.  If whites think that Wright’s remarks are “outrageous,” McKinney will even put issues of Black Reparations into play.  People skeptical of “politics as usual” see Obama’s brand of race-neutral politics as a set-back.

Blacks need to get paid, not played.  Wright was ridiculed for saying, “Politicians do what politicians do”.  For the truth of the comment and its affect on our issues, Black Empowerment advocates only have to look at one-time Black Reparations proponent and now House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Congressman John Conyers, to see how one of us can tone down on our issues when they get into “mainstream” positions. 

For years Congressman Conyers was a “driving force” behind a bill to study the effects of slavery and Jim Crow and the potential of reparations for African Americans.  If the study revealed a need for compensation for unpaid slave labor, Black Reparations could have an accrual value of $25 trillion.  A 2005 BET poll showed 80 percent of African American families favored some form of reparations, but after assuming chairmanship of the whole committee of which he’d submitted House Resolution 40 – a bill to study reparations - to a sub-committee continuously for 15 years, Conyers conspicuously now never mentions it.

 (William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com)

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Better Life Opportunities, Events and Information

American Black Film Festival Seeks Submissions for Los Angeles Event

(Taylor Media Services) Film Life’s 12th annual American Black Film Festival (ABFF) will take place August 7-10, 2008, in Los Angeles, California According to an announcement last week by the festival founder and CEO of Film Life, Inc., Jeff Friday. Friday stated, "We are very exited about once again being in Los Angeles and providing the opportunity to link the independent Black film community with Hollywood."

Festival activities will be centered in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Allstate® has signed on as the 2008 presenting sponsor. HBO®, the festival’s founding sponsor, returns along with BETJ and Lincoln as premiere sponsors. Film submissions for consideration for the 2008 ABFF are being accepted from now through June 3, 2008. Submission forms, deadlines and eligibility criteria are available online at www.abff.com.

Website launched for “Savvy” African American Baby Boomers

(Taylor Media Services) On October 15, 2007, the first of the 78 million Baby Boomers, those born between 1946-1964, filed for Social Security. Of this 78 million, says www.AABoomers.com , the 9.1 million African-American Baby Boomers have been virtually ignored by the media and marketers, although they represent the highest income segment of African-American consumer groups.

AABoomers.com was launched to fill the gap left by other publications. As is stated in its logo, AABoomers.com is for and about the Savvy African-African Baby Boomer. This segment of the African-American community includes the largest population of the African-American middle class and was the best educated group of African-Americans in history. For additional information about AABoomers.com, interested persons can email contactus@aaboomers.com or contact its advertising, MatterMax LLC at 404-966-3798.

Harlem Book Fair Set to Present Its Wheatley Book Awards

(Taylor Media Services) On Friday July 18th, 2008 The Harlem Book Fair will usher in its 10th Anniversary by honoring key figures in African and African American Literature. The Schomburg Center for Black Research will host the annual Wheatley Book Awards Program and Dinner. This year's honorees are Haki Madhubuti (Third World Press); W. Paul Coates (Black Classic Press); Kassahun Checole (Africa World Press); Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson (Just Us Books); and Tony Rose (Amber Communications Group).

Created by HBF founder Max Rodriguez, the Wheatley Book Awards recognizes literary achievement that transcends culture, boundary, and perception. Past honorees include Maya Angelou, Chinua Achebe, Sonia Sanchez, Walter Mosley, Octavia Butler, Ishmael Reed, John A. Williams, Walter Dean Myers, and other notable authors.

Interested persons can confirm your via email (rsvp@qbr.com) or contact Tiffany Newton at 212-348-1681 for reservations and additional information about the Wheatley Awards or visit www.qbr.com

Third International Conference on Appropriate Technology Set for November

          (Taylor Media Services) Howard University and the Northern California Council of Black Professional Engineers last week announced that the Third International Conference on Appropriate Technology will take place November 12th to 15th in Kigali in the East African nation of Rwanda.

          The announcement included a “call for papers” and participation to be submitted to the Rwandan Ministry of Science, Technology and Scientific Research. The deadline for abstracts is May 28th. Individuals desiring additional information can visit online www.atconference2008.net or email jtrimble@howard.edu

New Website Targets Women of Business and Style

          (Taylor Media Services) The worldwide web is filled with websites designed for women, luring them with the usual topics of interest, ranging from health and beauty to mom-targeted offerings. One site, however, StylishAttitudes.com, says it is setting itself apart by appealing to ladies of all ages who own homes and businesses, as well as those aspiring to become homeowners and entrepreneurs.

          "More and more women are becoming homeowners and entrepreneurs, and I want to provide them with a place where they can satisfy their appetite for success, while also checking out the latest in fashion, health and beauty," said President and CEO, Deborrah Gilbert. StylishAttitudes.com refers to its members as "Women of Wealth," or "WOW" for short.

Learn and Earn with Brother Bedford’s” Conversations with Black Millionaires

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