HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUY THE CBC?

You would think the CBC would take heed from their base and stop this madness. But they are pressing forward with the Fox Debate anyways, but as the New York Times reports in, For Democrats, Debate on Fox Reveals Divide

The caucus is bent on salvaging what remains of the debate, and of a relationship that has produced other benefits. Not only has Fox given over precious air time for the debate, but an examination shows that its parent company, News Corporation, has also taken other steps to reach out to the group’s constituency, including making campaign donations to the caucus and its members and creating internship programs at predominantly black colleges.

As I wrote a few day ago I was going to research the financial link between FOX News (News Corp) and the CBC. I didn't have any hard evidence of one at the time I made that statement. But I have found over the years that when politician make a move that seems counter to their normal political behavior money is usually involved. So I will answer the question: How much does it cost to Buy off the CBC?

First price quote:

...News Corporation also gained currency among black and Hispanic leaders by helping orchestrate a campaign to increase the participation of minority viewers in the television ratings system, a task it entrusted to a consulting firm with strong ties to Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mrs. Clinton, in turn, has established a relationship with Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corporation, who, for example, held a fund-raiser for her last year during her Senate re-election campaign.

It seems that wasn't enough as Bill is very popular amongst Blacks but isn't a member of the CBC.
Second price quote:

Despite a fierce debate within the 43-member caucus over whether to sever ties with Fox News, those representing the caucus in its dealings with Fox have thus far held firm. The network itself has apparently urged the caucus to do just that. There was, for example, a meeting for caucus press secretaries attended by representatives of News Corporation and Fox News, where talk turned to how to publicly present the merits of the debate. (Also working in Fox’s favor is that the debate is to be held in Detroit, the home city of Representative Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, the caucus chairwoman.)

Find a Congresswoman who is so desperate to hold event in her city she will "sell out"
Third price quote:

The partnership between Fox News and the caucus began in earnest in 2003, when the news channel responded to the caucus’s request for a broadcast partner for its debates for the 2004 presidential election. (Technically, the caucus was sponsoring the debate through an affiliate group, the Congressional Black Caucus Political Education and Leadership Institute; the use of the institute gives the caucus itself some distance, even though several prominent caucus members are on the institute board.)

Fox’s proposal included broadcasting the debates in prime time, giving the caucus a say in selecting moderators and covering much of the production cost, said one former caucus staff member close to the negotiations.

Make a reasonable sounding proposal to your intended -victim- partner, and hope they don't notice that you will cut the debate short, and call it the "Democrat Party Debate".
Forth Price quote:

Months after joining forces with the caucus, Fox News created internships for students at Morgan State University, a black college in Baltimore, in the Congressional district of Representative Elijah E. Cummings, who was then chairman of the caucus.

In June 2003, its political action committee, known as News America-Fox, made a $1,000 contribution to Mr. Cummings’s political committee.

The Fox group later made contributions of at least $1,000 each to other caucus members, including Representatives Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas, and Gregory W. Meeks and Edolphus Towns of New York. The political arm of the caucus itself received a $5,000 contribution from the Fox group, in May 2006. And on the Web site of its foundation, the caucus lists News Corporation among several dozen corporate sponsors.

For a total of $4,000 in direct contributions, $5,000 to the CBC PAC, and a few -indoctrination studies- internships that were jobs that needed to be filled anyways. You can buy the CBC.

Well the strong negative reaction to the CBC debate is finally starting to leak through to the some of the members.

James Rucker, executive director of a group that has tried to mobilize opposition to the partnership between Fox News and the caucus, said that the news channel was using its association with the caucus to inoculate itself against criticism that its coverage of Democrats in general and blacks in particular was biased.

“This is Fox’s brilliance,” said Mr. Rucker, whose group is known as the Color of Change. “In ’03, they made a brilliant investment. On the one hand, they got to be aligned with the brand of the Congressional Black Caucus. On the other hand, they got to proceed with business as usual.”

Mr. Meeks acknowledged that Fox, in partnering with the caucus on the debates, seemed to be trying to do a little image-building. But he said at least Fox was willing to sponsor the debate, when no other network would.

Mr. Meeks was further quoted as saying:

Mr. Meeks said that he had yet to decide whether to advocate canceling the debate. Fox’s supporters within the caucus have moved quickly to close ranks, even taking the unusual step of sending a letter to candidates seeking the Democratic nomination, urging them to participate in the debate and noting “the importance to African-Americans and others to hear from you.”

While 26 members of the caucus signed the letter, it is also notable who did not, including Representative Maxine Waters of California, a prominent and powerful member of the group.

Asked about the debate in a brief telephone interview, Ms. Waters said only, “I’m opposed to it.”

Thank you Ms. Waters, and hopefully Mr. Meeks comes around.
In the mean time hopefully the CBC members find a spoke person who is "clean, neat, and articulate enough because":

For now, at least, the caucus and Fox News can count on having at least one participant, Mr. Biden. Luis Navarro, Mr. Biden’s spokesman, said in an interview that Mr. Biden would be there because the caucus represented “an important base” and Fox offered an unparalleled forum for a candidate “to hold the Bush administration’s feet to the fire on their handling of Iraq.”

With thanks to dnA for the diary List Of CBC Members Who Signed The Letter Urging Candidates To Reconsider On Fox Debate (and Britain33 )

Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick
Bennie Thompson
James Clyburn
Sanford Bishop
Gwen Moore (?)
G.K. Butterfield
Mel Watt
Danny Davis
Bobby Rush (?)
John Lewis
Keith Ellison
Charles Rangel
Eddie Bernice Johnson
Stephanie Tubbs Jones
Sheila Jackson Lee
Donna Christian-Christensen
Diane Watson
Al Wynn
Elijah Cummings
David Scott
Yvette Clarke
John Conyers
Hank Johnson
Al Green
Corrine Brown

A list of at least some of the members who did not sign the letter.

Julia Carson (Indianapolis)
William Lacy Clay, Jr. (St. Louis)
Emmanuel Cleaver (Kansas City)
Artur Davis (Birmingham, Alabama)
Chaka Fattah (W. Philadelphia)
Alcee Hastings (Ft. Lauderdale)
Kendrick Meek (Miami)
Jesse Jackson, Jr. (South Side Chicago)
William L. Jefferson (New Orleans)
Barbara Lee (Oakland)
Gregory Meeks (Queens)
Donald Payne (Newark)
Bobby Scott (Richmond)
Ed Towns (Brooklyn)
Maxine Waters (Compton)

WEEK IN REVIEW, MAY 25th 2007

There are 26 clueless Black People in America. If they were members of a civics club it would be no big deal. The problem is they are elected officials, they are members of the CBC.
26 members of the CBC have signed letters to Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards urging them to reconsider their decisions to skip a debate cosponsored by the CBC Institute and Fox News. Will they never learn? I am going to look into these 26 and see if they have recieved contributions from FOX executives.

Black Caucus leaders sent the letter to the entire field of Democratic presidential candidates, but the primary targets were Obama, Clinton and Edwards.

The caucus has 43 members from 22 states, who together represent about 40 million Americans, an official with the group said. Seventeen members of the Black Caucus represent districts that are less than 50 percent African-American, said caucus Chairwoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), who argued that the issues at the debate will also be of interest to other minority constituencies, such as Hispanics.

“It’s not just a black thing,” Kilpatrick said.

Thompson said presidential debates often ignore issues that are important to minority voters.

“Nobody is talking about the disproportionate statistics that we have in this country as it relates to minority population,” Thompson said. “You can look at healthcare, you can look at education, you can look at employment, you can look at housing, you can look at lending. All those [statistics] show a very bad picture for many constituents we represent.

“So we think Democratic and Republican candidates alike should have an opportunity to say what they plan to [do to] level the playing field,” he added.

By framing their decision to skip the debate as a missed opportunity to communicate to an important Democratic constituency, caucus leaders are ratcheting up the political pressure on the Democratic front-runners.

Thompson said that the CBC Institute, not Fox, would set the debate format and select the questions to be asked. He said Fox merely will broadcast the event.

So far, liberal opinion leaders have praised the Democrats’ decision to snub Fox.

Left-leaning columnist E.J. Dionne wrote last month that Democrats were well within their rights.

“Tell me again: Why do Democrats have an obligation to participate in debates on Fox?” Dionne wrote. “I am an avid reader of conservative magazines such as National Review and the Weekly Standard. But if these two publications teamed up to sponsor a Democratic debate, would anyone accuse Edwards, Obama and Clinton of ‘blacklisting’ if the candidates said, ‘no thanks’?”
The pressure may be particularly acute for Obama, who is a member of the Black Caucus. Obama has irked fellow CBC members by failing to respond to a request made early last year that he host a fundraiser for the Black Caucus’s political action committee (PAC). Clinton received a similar invitation and quickly followed through by headlining a CBC PAC fundraiser in March of 2006.

Once again this is clear evidence why I am such a HUGE E.J. Dionne fan.
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POLITICS
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Last year, Marcus Mason and a handful of other black lobbyists, many of them former congressional chiefs of staff, began working in earnest to boost the number of black aides on Capitol Hill.

Marcus Mason, a top transportation lobbyist, has always had an itch to get places fast.

At 20, he started his own photography business. At 21, he was tapped to run the congressional campaign of Walter Tucker, a Democrat then serving as mayor of Compton, Calif. After Tucker won, the 22-year-old Mason became the youngest chief of staff on Capitol Hill. By his early 30s, he was the No. 2 lobbyist at Amtrak.

Now 36, Mason is a newly minted contract lobbyist with the Madison Group, where he is busy representing the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. He is also pouring his energy into helping other blacks experience the sort of rapid rise that he has had in Washington.

“There’s a lot of great talent out there that just needs to be given a great opportunity to show what they can do,” Mason explained. “Somebody took a chance on me at 21, a real gamble.”

Last year, Mason and a handful of other black lobbyists, many of them former congressional chiefs of staff, began working in earnest to boost the number of black aides on Capitol Hill.

Seizing on the hot demand for staffers after the Democratic takeover, the group established a vetting committee and began collecting résumés from promising candidates. Mason created a résumé bank to streamline the effort, which is already bearing fruit. So far, the group has placed 36 blacks in congressional offices.

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CULTURE
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Trumpeting Diversity A Rare Majority-Black Orchestra Tries to Build Cultural and Racial Bridges

What strikes you first are the musicians -- most are African American, and on this night, they are decked out in, to use street parlance, "high-low" -- blazers over T-shirts and jeans instead of penguin suits and long black skirts.

There is Denna Purdie of Upper Marlboro, a former cellist with "The President's Own" U.S. Marine Band. On violin, Wayman McCoy III, a marketing and sales executive from Germantown. And California resident John Wineglass, an Emmy-winning daytime television music composer, helps on viola.

They number 75 in all -- classically or church trained musicians who come together to play their own brand of music under the banner of the Soulful Symphony, led by native Washingtonian and award-winning musician Darin Atwater, 36. The charismatic Atwater, who lives in Baltimore, oversees music programs at Celebration Church in Columbia. He said he created the symphony in 2000 as a way to present African American cultural expression to a wider audience and to bring more minorities to symphonic music.

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an exhibit at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center that examines the black experience in Vietnam in the context of the era's domestic social fabric.

A pair of combat boots. A wristband woven from boot laces with several bullets dangling. A photo of black servicemen standing outside a makeshift African temple.

The items are part of "Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era," an exhibit at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center that examines the black experience in Vietnam in the context of the era's domestic social fabric.

Samuel Black, curator of the center's African American Collections, conceived the exhibit, in part because his older brother, Jimmy McNeil, served two years in Vietnam.

Black was 4 years old when his brother was sent to Vietnam. He died in 1971, unrelated to the conflict, and Black said he really never knew what his brother's experience was.

Black found that much had been written about the role of blacks in other wars, particularly the Civil War and World War II, but there was little about blacks in Vietnam.

As he researched, he found the black experience in Vietnam was linked to social changes on U.S. soil. The civil rights movement was in full swing. The Black Power movement was growing.

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Being of 100% Jamaican decent I am always biased to these stories.
In the cool environs of 10A West King's House Road, Barbara Makeda Blake Hannah announced to a buzzing gathering on Thursday night that her acclaimed novel Joseph: A Rasta Reggae Fable is to be made into a feature film.

The novel, Joseph, now published in paperback, was also re-displayed alongside Blake-Hannah's newest book: Rastafari: The New Creation (December 2006). Both her books have been published by her own media company, Jamaica Media Productions, but more significantly, Blake Hannah secured a publishing deal with Macmillan Caribbean, one of the premier book publishers in the world, through Novelty Trading. The film Joseph is to be produced by Jamaica Media Productions with Grange as executive producer.

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Here is a profile of a man of many first.Wilder's career dotted with firsts

Lawrence Douglas Wilder made history by becoming governor of Virginia, a state where his grandparents had been slaves.

His victory in that 1989 election made him the first black person to be elected a governor in the United States.

Born in Richmond on Jan. 17, 1931, Wilder was raised during the Great Depression in what he called "gentle poverty." During this time, black people and white people were segregated by race and black people were treated as second-class citizens.

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INTERNATIONAL
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The truth about reconciling. We, as South Africans, are not honest about our attitudes to race - and racism, for that matter

So now we have to talk about race, right. We need, according to some, a "TRC process" to deal with the issue of race in South Africa. The big question that has been asked is: "Does race matter?"

Of course not. Racism does. But, okay, maybe I'm just being pedantic about a simple matter of semantics. So one assumes that when people say we should talk about race, they mean we should talk about racism, and that we need a TRC process to deal with racism.

Forgive me for being cynical, but I don't think that a "truth and reconciliation process" will work when we talk about racism.

For one thing, there will be no truth.

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Toronto Star: Almost two years into the redevelopment of Regent Park, relocated residents insist their community bonds are being bulldozed in the name of gentrification.

Almost two years into the redevelopment of Regent Park, relocated residents insist their community bonds are being bulldozed in the name of gentrification.

The $1 billion project has stressed out most of the 1,160 people displaced so far in the redevelopment of the subsidized housing project.

Residents initially thought they had the right to return to an apartment in the area. But they're now realizing the city-owned landlord, Toronto Community Housing, is counting on many not coming back. "People are worried that it will only be for the rich," says relocated resident Sureya Ibrahim, 29.

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HEALTH
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Public Health Predominately Black Communities in Boston Have Higher Rates of Lupus; Exposure to Petroleum Products Examined as Cause

Residents of two predominately black communities in Boston -- Roxbury and Mattapan -- have higher rates of lupus compared with other neighborhoods, according to a report conducted by the state Department of Public Health, the Boston Globe reports.

Concerns about the rise of lupus diagnoses among black women from three Boston neighborhoods prompted the department to conduct a comparative study based on neighborhoods. For the study, researchers examined local care providers' medical records from 1999 to 2004 from all of the city's 17 neighborhoods.

Researchers found 178 cases of definite or probable lupus diagnoses between 1999 and 2004, and 37 of those cases were among people from Roxbury. According to the public health department, five out of every 100,000 Boston residents are diagnosed with lupus annually; the rate in Roxbury is 10.4 lupus diagnoses per 100,000 residents and the rate in Mattapan is 7.9 diagnoses per 100,000 people.

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LAW
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Justice Dept. Sues New York City, Citing Bias in Hiring Firefighters

The United States Department of Justice filed a civil rights suit against New York City yesterday over the Fire Department’s written entrance exam, which black and Hispanic candidates fail at much higher rates than whites. The suit claims that the city has never proved a link between test scores and performance as a firefighter.

Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
A group of black firefighters gathered at City Hall for the announcement of a suit against the city.
The suit is the latest in a series of legal attempts going back decades to diversify the Fire Department, which is more than 90 percent white. Three percent of the department’s 11,000 firefighters are black and 4.5 percent are Hispanic, a tiny proportion in a city where more than half the population is black or Hispanic.

The city’s testing practices “do not select the firefighter applicants who will best perform their important public safety mission, while disproportionately screening out large numbers of qualified black and Hispanic applicants,” Wan J. Kim, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.

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Maybe some one should have informed a manager that Black Woman have been wearing braids for thousand of years.
Hairstyle Leads to Unemployment and Allegations of Racism

What is trendy? What is inappropriate? Those are the questions at the center of a personal dispute at one Virginia correctional facility, which has now left one woman without a job and another woman in fear of getting fired.

The NAACP of Virginia says the way one warden is interpreting a department of corrections grooming guideline is nothing short of racist and they are now taking their fight to the state Capitol.

"They fired me on May 16th...and said that I had an extreme hairdo...I am now not allowed back on the compound," said Donna Alison.

Alison is now jobless after her superiors fired her for having braids in her hair. The issue is a February 2007 grooming guideline that leaves some interpretation up to a supervisor.

"'Supervisors will judge the appropriateness of a particular hairstyle by the appearance of headgear when worn'...and here's the kicker...'Extreme or eccentric or trendy haircuts or hairstyles are not authorized,'" stated King Salim Khalfani with the NAACP of Virginia, quoting the guidelines.

For Alison, and her former colleague Juanita Hudson, they say their braided hairstyles are not eccentric or trendy.

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Milloy: Seeking to Close the Book on a Bad Law. No other drug law makes such a peculiar distinction between different forms of the same drug. Blacks comprisie 80 % of those charged and convicted of crack-related offenses.

For Arthur Burnett, a senior D.C. Superior Court judge, few drug cases have tested his judicial temperament like those involving crack cocaine. What infuriates Burnett most is not the users but the law itself: a five-year mandatory minimum prison sentence for possessing five grams of crack cocaine -- about as much as two packets of sugar.

No other drug law metes out so much punishment for such a small offense, Burnett points out.

No other drug law makes such a peculiar distinction between different forms of the same drug: If a person has powdered cocaine, it takes 100 grams to get five years -- even though crack is nothing more than a heated mixture of powdered cocaine and baking soda.

Worse yet, with blacks comprising 80 percent of those charged and convicted of crack-related offenses, the law is widely perceived as being unjustly applied.

And "mandatory" means there's no case-by-case consideration.

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WEEK IN REVIEW, MAY 18th 2007

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post once again proves why he is one of best progressive editorialist A Question Of Race Vs. Class. Affirmative Action For the Obama Girls?

Barack Obama doesn't think anyone should cut his two daughters any slack when they apply to college -- not because of their race, at least. In the unlikely event that the Obama family goes broke, then maybe.

In an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Obama waded into the central issue of the affirmative action debate: race vs. class. Perhaps typically, Obama's remarks were more Socratic than declarative. He didn't really answer the question, he rephrased it. Maybe the way he posed it, though, will lead to a discussion that's long overdue.

He seemed to side with those who think class predominates when he said, "I think that we should take into account white kids who have been disadvantaged and have grown up in poverty and shown themselves to have what it takes to succeed."

It's hard to disagree with that proposition, especially as economic inequality worsens in this country. Harvard University (where Obama went to law school) has taken the lead in guaranteeing that money will not be an obstacle for qualified low-income students.

But Obama seemed to agree with those who point to the lingering effects of racism when he noted that "there are a lot of African American kids who are still struggling, that even those who are in the middle class may be first-generation as opposed to fifth- or sixth-generation college attendees, and that we all have an interest in bringing as many people together to help build this country."

That observation points to circumstances that have to be taken into account. Diversity, in my view, is very much in the national interest. But diversity is a process, not a destination. We have to keep working at it. And since a college degree has become the great divider between those who make it in this society and those who don't, affirmative action in college admissions is one of the most powerful tools we have to increase diversity.

This is my personal oppinion. I am very much a believer in the fact that Class matter more then race. But hat doesn't mean race isn't important. I think part of learning is having to live and learn next to people who are different then you.

As for Obama's assessment of his daughters' privileged status, that's just a statement of the obvious. With such Type A, high-wattage parents, those girls probably will have the grades and test scores to get into any college. And if they don't, they will benefit from a different affirmative action program -- one that for many generations has ushered the academically undistinguished scions of prominent families into the nation's most selective colleges and universities.

Let's not pretend that college admissions has ever been a level playing field. Obama graduated from Columbia; his wife, Michelle, from Princeton. This means that at those two Ivy League schools, their daughters will be "legacy" applicants, just like George W. Bush was at Yale and legions of Kennedys have been at Harvard. Given the Obamas' power and fame, admissions officers at the schools they attended -- and probably at other elite schools, too -- are going to find a way to let the Obama girls in.

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POLITICS
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When to play ethnic politics? Tread carefully when competing for the late Juanita Millender-McDonald's seat.

AS CANDIDATES LINE UP to run for the congressional seat of the late Juanita Millender-McDonald, it is tempting — inevitable, perhaps — to identify them by ethnic group. The Long Beach/South Los Angeles district is the stand-in for much of a region that once was characterized by an African American voting majority and political establishment but has become increasingly Latino. Every vacant seat raises the question: Is Latino power beginning to eclipse the black political structure?

So there is Latina state Sen. Jenny Oropeza, African American Assemblywoman Laura Richardson and other candidates who, like it or not, will be depicted as champions of their respective ethnic communities. The election may presage other district transitions. Will county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke be succeeded by another African American or by a Latino? What about Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry? If growth or shrinkage in the roster of black elected officials is the only indicator of political power, it is easy to understand the fervor with which African Americans try to retain a seat.

Ignoring the ethnic factor verges on dishonesty. Racial and ethnic identity among historically marginalized minorities has a long and obvious history in the democratic process. Elected officials naturally group together to promote common interests. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) was being naive or disingenuous when he wrote Millender-McDonald earlier this year asking to abolish her Congressional Black Caucus and similar groups, such as the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, on grounds that race has no place in politics. We don't live in that ideal world just yet.

But that doesn't mean those caucuses are doing right by focusing on power consolidation at the expense of constituent service. Millender-McDonald's multiracial district remains plagued by large pockets of poverty and gang violence that affects all of its people. Any good candidate should be embraced by any ethnic caucus.

Also see Gay Leaders Continue to Label Black Politicians Homophobic Until Proven Friendly
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Sunday Shutout: The Lack of Gender & Ethnic Diversity on the Sunday Morning Talk Shows. Guest lists that are overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male.

Not only are the Sunday morning talk shows on the broadcast networks dominated by conservative opinion and commentary, the four programs -- NBC's Meet the Press, ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation, and Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday -- feature guest lists that are overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male.

And the top-rated Sunday show -- Meet the Press -- shows the least diversity of all. The NBC program is the most male and nearly the most white (Face the Nation beats it out by 1 percentage point), and it has the highest proportion of white males to all other guests.

A breakdown of the guests who appeared on the Sunday shows in 2005 and 2006 shows that men dominate these shows. In fact, men outnumber women by a 4-to-1 ratio on average.

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In Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, a reformist candidate given no shot has captured the Democratic mayoral nomination.

"Philadelphia's next mayor must run this city differently than John Street has," Nutter's first campaign commercial intoned. "Michael Nutter will."

There is, of course, much more to the man than his history with Street.

He is a former financial adviser and disco deejay, a husband and father. He is a Baptist who was born a Catholic, an African American politician without much of an African American political base. He is a political reformer who has been a ward leader since 1990, a charisma-challenged policy wonk whose dry wit has been the prime source of humor in this year's mayoral forums.

"No candidate is more informed," said supporter Leslie Anne Miller, the former general counsel to Gov. Rendell. "No one has better articulated positions on a variety of issues, because he's actually taken the time to think about the issues."

Before resigning his Council seat last summer to run for mayor, Nutter had solidified his reputation as the body's most independent and arguably its most accomplished member.

He played a key role on such issues as banning smoking in public places, writing new ethics rules to address the pay-to-play system, enacting campaign finance reform, keeping the wage- and business-tax cuts in place, and hiring 100 more police.

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CULTURE
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The growing divide between poor and middle-class blacks

The May Essence magazine examines the growing divisiveness between poor blacks and the black middle class today. Of course there is a divide: Those of us who've "made it" have been taught to despise those who didn't. However, we've also been taught that if we turn our backs on poor blacks, we're no better than racist whites.

The article begs for discussion and debate. As an educated black woman, am I my brother's keeper? Do I have a responsibility to my community?

It always amazed me how whites were fearless about drawing distinctions between their middle and poorer classes. White college friends and later co-workers didn't flinch in mixed company when describing someone as "trailer trash or poor white trash."

But for us, referring to someone as "ghetto" to describe another black person to a white person was the ultimate betrayal.

Not anymore. Over the past 10 or 15 years, the mythic unity among blacks has crumbled.

In a scorching and highly acclaimed standup routine in the late '90s, Chris Rock wielded the "n" word like a burning cross. To paraphrase, he said he loves black people. "But I hate n------!"

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: A survey exploring life, love, work, motherhood, money, sex, religion and relationships has found life differs for black and white U.S. wome

More than 90 percent of African-American and white women reported that racism remains a prevalent force in U.S. society, according to the survey for Women in Black & White.

Fifty-six percent of African-American women reported feeling marginalized due to their race, compared to 5 percent of white women; however, white women feel that gender is the more defining factor.

Fourteen percent of black mothers worry -- compared with 1.5 percent of white women -- that their daughters will be viewed as sexually available due to their race.

Although white women live in households with higher annual incomes, black women are more financially independent, with a higher percentage having checking accounts solely in their own name -- 95 percent compared to 83 percent of white women. Ninety percent of African-American women had a savings account, compared with 80 percent of white women.

Ninety percent of black women worked outside the home, compared with 78 percent of white women.

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It's open season on hip hop's thug

Geoffrey Canada smacked the problem right in the face.

As a Harlem community worker with 20 years of experience dealing with and nurturing young people, Canada said that the message coming out of hip hop was deadly and irresponsible. The lyrics imply that cooperating with the police is being an Uncle Tom. Canada found this reprehensible and said that it amounted to saying to criminals that the community was theirs to have.

Prof. Douglas Thompkins began the discussion by pointing out that, no matter what the history of police community relations had been, he saw that the black community needed to change its attitudes because losing the rule of law means that black people live in subhuman conditions in their own communities and those inhuman conditions were created by violent criminals.

There were many of the usual explanations for crime, such as slavery, poverty and police harassment that came from the audience of students and from some John Jay professors, but the panelists - with one exception - did not give in to the regular line of excuses. Almost everyone rejected the idea that black or Latino criminals were helpless victims buffeted around by external influences. They made choices; they had to be accountable.

Thompkins has credibility. He served 18 years in prison and was the leader of a Chicago street gang. He understands that police overreaction or excessive force is something that must be factored in and protested against. Thompkins said that when refusing to cooperate with police became synonymous with minority identity, that attitude brought a kind of hell to the black and Latino lower-class communities. In summarizing, John Jay Prof. David Kennedy felt that we are on the verge of a new kind of civil rights movement in which the people oppressed by crime move to liberate themselves by reprimanding the police whenever they resort to excessive force.

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bringing baseball back to African-Americans. Seaford grad, former major leaguer on tour to renew interest in sport

DeShields, 38, describes his role in the venture as that of a "businessman." Unlike Boyd, a 47-year-old right-hander who fancies himself a reincarnation of ageless pitcher Satchel Paige, DeShields harbors no illusions of making a comeback as a player. He's perfectly content to watch his 14-year-old son play on a traveling team. He just wishes more young African-Americans were as interested.

Like so many current and former black players, DeShields is passionate about the subject. He alleges that Major League Baseball, while spending time and resources promoting the game in Latin America, has neglected inner-city communities and alienated young blacks.

Most major league teams, including the Phillies, have created academies in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Foreign-born players aren't subject to the amateur draft, so teams have concentrated their scouting efforts outside the U.S. According to the Central Florida report, a record 29.4 percent of major leaguers last season were of Latino descent.

Sixty years after Robinson's debut, DeShields believes blacks are being left behind.

"It's sort of a mirror image of American business," he said. "Take jobs out of the country, outsource them, and Americans don't have jobs. That's what it comes down to. Major League Baseball has set up facilities in other countries. They're getting these kids for cheap because there's no world draft. It's really unfair to our kids.

"Major League Baseball isn't really interested in developing our kids, so we have to do it ourselves. That's basically what we're trying to do. Every day, all day, we have to put that same type of effort with our kids."

Boyd, the tour's ringleader, has roots in New England from his time with the Boston Red Sox and in the independent Can-Am League when he pitched for the Brockton Rox. DeShields said many of the initial stops will be in that region, with the barnstormers facing Can-Am League teams this week in Brockton, Nashua, N.H., New Haven, Conn., and Quebec City.

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LAW
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Patricia J. Williams writes that fifty-three years after Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court is poised to rule on two cases, in Seattle and St. Louis, which put the future of school integration at risk.

May 17 is the fifty-third anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the iconic case we celebrate for having ended the notion that racially separate education could be considered "equal." Yet the meaning of that case has always been the subject of dispute. I grew up in a household where we learned that segregation was bad because it was premised on the stigma of inferiority. Segregation licensed the isolation of African-Americans from the benefits of citizenship; it limited access to a full range of public spaces, not just schools. I took it for granted that such provincialism ultimately hobbled both whites and blacks as well as the anxious "in between" groups, such as recent immigrants and Asian-Americans. We cannot be full participants in a democracy if we have built impermeable walls around our various identity groups.

From the beginning, of course, there was an alternative narrative, voiced mostly by apologists for Jim Crow: that freedom of association should allow us to live in ghettos if we choose. The most interesting exposition of this view--interesting because it's from a refugee from Hitler's Germany--is probably Hannah Arendt's controversial 1959 essay "Reflections on Little Rock." "It has been said," she asserts, "that enforced integration is no better than enforced segregation, and this is perfectly true."

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Today, Reggie Henderson will vote. It's a right most Americans take for granted. Not him. Not if you're an ex-felon like Henderson. Not if you've been locked up.

Today, Reggie Henderson will vote. It's a right most Americans take for granted. Not him.
Not if you're an ex-felon like Henderson. Not if you've been locked up.

You see, in the United States, if you've committed a felony, voting is an iffy proposition. Henderson, 34, is lucky he lives in Pennsylvania, where ex-felons and those on parole and probation are eligible to vote. In New Jersey, ex-felons can vote, too. Not so simple in Delaware. There, ex-felons have to wait five years before they can have their voting rights reinstated.

And it's a good thing that Henderson, who rebuilt his life and now operates three barbershops, doesn't live in Florida. The Sunshine State, land of hanging chads, bans ex-felons from voting - for life.

Can you say disenfranchisement? Prohibitive voting laws in 35 states mean that at any given time, 5.3 million American citizens - a disproportionate number of them African American men like Henderson - get no political say in their lives. Not only have they been locked up, they are locked out of the democratic process.

Forty years after passage of the National Voting Rights

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HEALTH
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Hartford Courant: Autism And Race. Parents, Advocates Seek More Prompt Diagnoses Of Minority Children

When Ronnie Bonner Jr. was 21/2, his mother, Corendis Dawson-Bonner, was convinced that he had autism. While her pediatrician said not to worry, Dawson-Bonner was sure that his lack of language development, eye contact and social interests were symptoms of the disease.

"We would have a roomful of kids, and he would be off in his own little corner of the world," Dawson-Bonner remembers. "He didn't engage."

In the next few years, doctors and other professionals would pin a wide array of labels on Ronnie - including developmental delay, attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity and a social and emotional disorder. Even obsessive-compulsive disorder and oppositional defiant disorder were mentioned.

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INTERNATIONAL
Income inequality between races in Brazil has narrowed over the past decade but a black woman still earns only half what a white man makes, a United Nations report showed.

Income inequality between races in Brazil has narrowed over the past decade but a black woman still earns only half what a white man makes, a United Nations report showed on Thursday.

The difference in income between blacks and whites in Brazil narrowed by 31 percent between 1995 and 2005, according to an International Labor Organization study of global workplace discrimination.

The income gap narrowed because of successive minimum wage hikes, lower inflation and declining real wages for white men, the report said.

Brazil also made progress in advancing policies to reduce race inequality, said Lais Abramo, ILO director for Brazil.

"There are many countries that don't even want to recognize race discrimination," she said.

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A young girl fast for peace in Jamaica,

"We have the power to be successful in anything as long as it's positive!"

Today and tomorrow, she will continue to spread this message during her 12-hour-a-day fasting and reading for peace and purity at the Kingston and St. Andrew Parish Library.

It all began at 6:00 a.m. yesterday and already, there has been an overwhelming response to what Choc'late calls her 100 per cent crime-free initiative.

"A lot of times as youths, what we may hear especially from adults are negative things - we don't have self respect, we don't have discipline we don't have a sense of direction - however my motive is to tell the youths what we have. We have the power of making the right choices! We have the power of accepting responsibility for our action! We have the power of doing anything!" she said.

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MONEY
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Black Expo heads to S. Africa

An Indiana Black Expo delegation is leaving Thursday for South Africa, the first of two trips to Africa aimed at humanitarian exchanges, economic development and forging an international presence for the organization.

Joyce Rogers, Expo's president and chief executive officer, and Alpha Garrett, communications director of the organization, will travel with state Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, for the 11-day trip.
And next month, Rogers, Garrett and representatives of a local consulting firm will travel to the West African nation of Senegal.

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Black Men Can't Coach? While The Ncaa Considers Changing Its Game Plan, Many Black Football Head-Coaching Candidates Remain On The Bench

In early may, the University of Alabama had an opportunity to make history by hiring the first African American head football coach ever in the Southeastern Conference -- and fumbled the ball. After firing football head coach Mike Price over an incident involving a stripper, the university -- upon the urging of the Rev. Jesse Jackson -- began interviewing Sylvester Croom, an African American running backs coach for the NFL's Green Bay Packers. But in the end, Miami Dolphins assistant coach Mike Shula, a white man, got the job even though Croom was equally (and some say more) qualified.

This is but the latest incident in which qualified African Americans have been turned down for head-coaching jobs within Division 1-A football, collegiate sports' elite.

In fact, attend one of the 50 or so Division 1-A college football games played on any given Saturday this autumn and you'll see that nearly half the players battling it out on the field are African American. Also, a good portion of the officiating team is black. Many of the fans cheering and jeering are African American as well. But take a look at the sidelines to the fellows wearing the headsets and you'd be hard-pressed to find a coach who isn't white.

The stats paint a grim picture: of the 117 Division 1-A football teams, only 3.4% of them have black head coaches. They can literally be counted on one hand: Tyrone Willingham at Notre Dame, San Jose State's Fitzgerald Hill, Tony Samuel at New Mexico State, and Karl Dorrell at UCLA, who was hired following last season.

By comparison, more than 20% of the coaches in Division 1-A college basketball, the second most popular -- and profitable -- sport on many campuses, are black. It's difficult to find worse stats for black coaches even among the ranks of major professional sports. During the 2001—2002 season, the NBA boasted the highest percentage (48%) of African American head coaches, with 14 counted among its 29 franchises. Though the NFL's statistics are abysmal, NCAA football still lags behind its pro counterpart, which had two African American head coaches (6%) among its 32 franchises during the 2002 season (Marvin Lewis has since been hired by the Cincinnati Bengals, bringing that rate up to 9%). Even Hispanic-dominated Major League Baseball had eight African Americans (26%) calling the shots.

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Tavis Smiley will headline a two-day conference aimed at maximizing the economic power of the black community.

Renee Reed had a problem.

The Miami resident wanted to refinance her home, but felt that the bank wasn't giving her a good deal.

Her financial advisor suggested she work through her church, New Birth Cathedral of Faith, 2300 NW 135th St. in Opa-locka.

New Birth is part of the Collective Banking Group, a coalition of 60 African-American churches in South Broward and Miami-Dade whose mission is to maximize the combined financial power of church members and use it for their benefit.

It worked for Reed, who said she saved about $5,000 in interest and fees once she had the weight of CBG behind her. She was treated better, she said, and got a lower interest rate.

''I've never had such a good relationship with a bank before, and the difference is because of CBG,'' Reed said.

Starting Friday, CBG is sponsoring a two-day Empowerment Conference in Hallandale Beach, at which church members and others can learn about managing credit, home ownership and financial practices for faith-based organizations. One featured speaker will be Tavis Smiley, the African-American author, radio personality and motivational speaker.

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RIP
Yolanda King, Daughter of Civil Rights Leader, Dies at 51

WEEK IN REVIEW, May 11th 2007
New Bush nominee found to have race-baiting past

President George W. Bush's pick for a top position at the State Department may have failed to follow through on a commitment she made to African-American and Latino lawmakers to address diversity issues in America's diplomatic corps.

Henrietta Holsman Fore, the current Undersecretary of State for Management, was nominated Monday to serve as Deputy Secretary of State and Administrator of the US Agency for International Development. But one Congressman was concerned that racially insensitive remarks she reportedly made 20 years ago could call her fitness to serve into question.

"I still think that a person that has a background of this nature puts her at a disadvantage, and when you get into something as sensitive as USAID, where you're dealing with developing countries, and people of color, I 'm not so sure how she will be perceived by the leadership of countries she has to work with," Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, told RAW STORY in a Wednesday interview.

CULTURE
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'Radio Golf': A clear signal of black class struggle

An elegant, accomplished black man runs for political office espousing a populist message but finds that his smooth assimilation into the upper echelon of society is held suspect by some black Americans.
If that sounds vaguely familiar, it might be noted that Radio Golf (* * * out of four), the final installment in August Wilson's 10-play cycle tracing the experiences of black Americans through the 20th century, premiered in 2005, when a newly elected senator named Barack Obama was a rising superstar. That's not to suggest that Wilson, who died of cancer later that year, foresaw Obama's presidential aspirations, but it's a safe bet that the playwright could have predicted some of the tensions and contradictions cropping up in coverage of the candidate's current campaign.

Radio Golf, which opened Tuesday at Broadway's Cort Theatre, deals with similar conundrums in tracing the mayoral bid of Harmond Wilks (Harry Lennix). Unlike Obama, Wilks owes much of his success to privilege, having been provided a plush real estate job by his father. But unlike his pal Roosevelt Hicks, a Tiger Woods-worshiping corporate climber with whom Wilks plans to redevelop Pittsburgh's embattled Hill District, Wilks is prone to sympathize with the disenfranchised

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It seems that is a on going "rethinking" of Mormonism and it's relationship with Black People. A number of stories of late have been poping up on the internet (or internets to quote the comander guy). Salt Lake City mayoral candidate Jenny Wilson has the backing of the Utah Democratic Black Caucus and a plan to promote diversity in Utah's capital city. . Wilson, a Democrat, announced the endorsement and unveiled her diversity agenda Saturday to coincide with Cinco de Mayo.

"Salt Lake City is rich in cultural and ethnic diversity," she said in a press release. "As mayor of Salt Lake City, I will celebrate and advocate for Salt Lake's diverse communities. Promoting diversity and economic opportunity will be a cornerstone of my administration."

Along with this there is now a Black LDS Organization. Why this is important is clear from PAST LDS teaching Mormon racism in perspective. Also see PBS ("Religion and Ethics," March 31, 2006):African-American Mormons
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.Art collection a story of race

Walking through, she points out 17th and 18th century documents that outline, from business and political perspectives, the economics of slavery. Those are the jumping off point of the exhibit, which is a chronological mix of art and artifacts.

Works by artists of the Harlem Renaissance are among her favorites. "They capture the dignity and beauty in ordinary African-American life," she says, adding "they humanize." She points to "Portrait of a Girl," a 1940 oil painting by Charles Alston. He was a leading figure in the New York artistic community who taught artists such as Jacob Lawrence, represented in the exhibit by "John Brown Series, #8," a 1977 serigraph.

Pieces deeper in the exhibit, such as Ed Dwight's 1986 bronze sculpture "Old Masai Woman" are a reflection of Shirley's taste for late modern and contemporary art. "I buy the dead artists, and she buys the living ones," he says with a laugh.

The exhibit will be on tour for two years and Kinsey says they're already "missing" certain pieces. But, that's not a bad thing, he says. "We now have pieces that jump off the walls, that were never appreciated like they should have been because they were too crowded."

Besides, he says, they're still shopping.

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Looking for a good role model for your kids? Brainy, black & pint-sizedAn animated, globetrotting role model is born. Teddy P. Brains is his name, a bookish, curious, eyeglass-wearing kid who lives in Metroville, U.S.A. But Philadelphia is really his home

HE'S THE valedictorian of his kindergarten class.
He travels to South America to learn about the rain forest and its importance to the cycle of life.

And he follows his parents' advice to "ask questions, seek answers."

Teddy P. Brains is his name, a bookish, curious, eyeglass-wearing kid who lives in Metroville, U.S.A.

But Philadelphia is really his home.

See, Teddy is a 3-D animated character who came to life right here in a Port Richmond studio from the brain trust of two Mount Airy producers.

The bespectacled kid with a love for entomology also happens to be African-American.

He and a cast of characters star in the newly released DVD "The Adventures of Teddy P. Brains: Journey into the Rain Forest," aimed at children ages 5 to 8. The DVD can be found in Barnes & Noble, at Amazon.com and at www.teddypbrainstv.com, among other outlets.

Public television has featured multicultural casts since the debut of "Sesame Street" and "The Electric Company" in the '60s and '70s. Diversity still reigns on PBS educational shows such as "Cyberchase" and "The Magic School Bus," which ran from 1994 to 1998. These days, a young Latina is "Dora the Explorer."

But the Philadelphia creative team behind Teddy P. Brains may have come up with the first children's cartoon to focus on an African-American child in an intellectual setting.

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INTERNATIONAL
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High rates of crime and violence in the Caribbean are undermining growth, threatening human welfare, and impeding social development, according to a new report published by the World Bank and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Crime impacts business and is a major obstacle to investment. In many countries, as crime increases, access to financing declines; spending on formal and informal security measures increases; and worker productivity declines. Estimates suggest that reducing the homicide rate in the Caribbean by one third from its current level could more than double the region’s rate of per capita economic growth.

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Nicolas Sarkozy’s election as French president stirred fears yesterday in Francophone Africa that his tough immigration policies could poison France’s traditionally strong ties with the world’s poorest continent.

“Immigration policy is going to harden and (repatriation) charters are going to resume. He is going to kick out a lot of Africans,” said Habibou Thiam, a 32-year-old carpenter in the Senegalese capital Dakar.
Sentiment in French-speaking Africa had broadly favoured Sarkozy’s Socialist rival Segolene Royal, who was born in Dakar and was perceived to have a more sympathetic view of the needs and aspirations of developing African countries.
Sarkozy’s insistence during his campaign that he would seek to curb and control illegal migration of Africans, many of whom dream of seeking a new life in Europe, had drawn sharp criticism from governments and ordinary people on the continent.
“With ‘Sarko’ as president, our compatriots, even those whose (migration) situation is in order, will be trembling. Is he going to renew expulsions all over the place and charters.

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News24: Foreign ministers from 53 African nations started gathering in Durban on Monday for a two-day meeting on political and economic integration on the continent.
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HEALTH
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Vibe: Dave Tolliver and Edgar "Gemini" Porter, aka Men at Large, are challenging African American men to lose a collective 2 million pounds by the end of the year as a way to improve their health.

Dave Tolliver and Edgar "Gemini" Porter, aka Men at Large, are challenging African American men to lose a collective 2 million pounds by the end of the year as a way to improve their health. The duo - who themselves weigh a collective 750 lbs. - decided to take the initiative after the passing of Gerald Levert, who helped nurture the group. "Gerald's death was a big loss to us," said Porter in a statement, "and when we began to look around at a lot of friends and family members who were also dying young it hit us that many of them were dying from either, being overweight, being diabetic, or having high blood pressure."

"We realized we aren't as young as we used to be but obviously being overweight was having a serious impact on us," Porter continued.

The singers' goal is to lose 100 lbs each, which Tolliver said they aim to do by "pushing back from the table and eating less," "walking a lot" and "rehearsing more vigorously to get in shape... Searching ways to lose weight on the internet let us know just how big the problem is among black men."

Over 69% of African American men are thought to be overweight, and 40% of all black men have high blood pressure. Additionally, eight percent of black men suffer from diabetes - twice that of white men - according to statistics from the Center for Disease Control.

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News-Medical: Researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine explored why blacks are less likely than other races to become living kidney donors, and the reasons are obesity and failure to complete the donor evaluation

Donor questionnaires and charts for 541 disqualified potential donors were reviewed. The disqualified donors were all identified by documented information, race, gender and cause of donor exclusion. In some cases, disqualified donors had more than one reason for exclusion.

About 30 percent of blacks were excluded because of obesity, compared to 16.6 percent of whites. Obesity was defined by body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 32 kg/m. Twelve percent of blacks were excluded because they didn't complete the evaluation process, compared to 1.8 percent of whites. For whites, the biggest reason for exclusion was kidney stones, at 7.3 percent, compared to 1.5 percent in blacks.

"Further study of these differences may improve our understanding of the causes of low rates of living kidney donation among African-Americans, particularly regarding the social reasons," said Reeves-Daniel. "Is it lack of trust in the medical community, financial inability to get to doctor's appointments for tests, concerns with work and child care, or perhaps some other issue?"

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POLITICS
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For African-Americans, folly of this war hits home

This war, launched under false pretenses, now has so little merit that the enrollment of African-Americans in the military may be at its lowest point since the creation of the all-volunteer military in 1973. In 2000, 23.5 percent of Army recruits were African-American. By 2005, the percentage dropped to 13.9 percent. National Public Radio this week quoted a Pentagon statistic that said that African-American propensity to join the military had dropped to 9 percent.

Technically, 13.9 percent is about the proportion of African-Americans in the general population. But the military's meritocracy has long been a disproportionate option for young African-Americans because of a disproportionate lack of career opportunities and decent public schools to prepare them for college.

The drop in African-American enrollment in the military may be as powerful a collective political statement about Iraq as when Muhammad Ali refused to be drafted during the Vietnam War. Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, major polls showed that African-American support for the invasion was as low as 19 percent, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, while white support ran between 58 percent and 73 percent in major polls.

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Rep. Hank Johnson’s mild-mannered style will never be mistaken for that of his outspoken predecessor, Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D). But that doesn’t mean fellow Democrats are going to let him cruise to a second term. Freshman Rep. Hank Johnson conscious of potential primary.

Democrats in the Atlanta area say Johnson is keenly aware that McKinney’s departure has opened a door to any number of ambitious would-be members of Congress. Johnson, wary of pronouncing himself reelected, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week that he’s hearing several names.

Anti-McKinney Democrats largely coalesced behind Johnson last year to knock off McKinney for the second time in the last three cycles. Now some of them — and possibly McKinney — apparently have turned their eyes on the quiet freshman as well.

“He’s certainly hearing rumors,” Johnson spokeswoman Deb McGhee Speights said. “But he wouldn’t be surprised, certainly, at this point if there is a challenger.”

Pervasive speculation has it that DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones will drop his U.S. Senate bid to enter the race, and Democrats are not counting out repeat bids by McKinney or former Rep. Denise Majette (D-Ga.). Majette beat McKinney in 2002 but vacated the seat for a failed bid for Senate in 2004, at which point McKinney retook her old seat.
Jones’s campaign dismissed the rumors and spoke highly of Johnson. But many Democrats are dumbfounded by Jones’s flirtation with running for Senate.

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MONEY
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Auto loan rates higher for African Americans

Black auto buyers have been charged higher auto loan rates than others, federal research says. But the gap in loan rates could narrow - and possibly disappear - as the result of recently concluded lawsuits.

Blacks paid a typical auto loan rate of 7 percent for new cars, compared with a rate of 5 percent for whites in 2004, according to a consumer organization's analysis of the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances. That was the most recent survey available.

And blacks were more likely than auto buyers in general to have auto loan rates higher than 15 percent. For used car loans, 27 percent of blacks who buy cars were charged interest rates of 15 percent or more. Blacks were three times as likely as whites - 27 percent to 9 percent - to have auto loan rates at least that high, according to the report released Monday.

Hispanics were paying a typical rate of 5.5 percent for new car loans, while 19 percent of Hispanics had loans for used cars over 15 percent, the analysis found.

Lenders' suggested quote rates are based largely on the buyer's credit history, but auto dealers often raise the rate higher than that risk-related rate without discussing the rate with the customer, consumer advocates said. And they question the causes of those rate differences.

"It's hard to believe that any differences in creditworthiness explain all of these rate gaps," said Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the Consumer Federation of America. "They size you up, the car salesmen and finance and interest guys. They must think African Americans are more vulnerable to a markup."

But a series of legal actions against auto finance firms seeking fair treatment for minorities could help solve that problem.

"We had 11 lawsuits, the last of the cases settled last month," said Stuart Rossman of the National Consumer Law Center. "We reached a settlement with each of the finance firms. Our cases involved discrimination. We believe the terms of the settlements will eliminate discrimination."

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.Pepsi Ad Man Who Fought Stereotypes Dies In L.A.

(AP) LOS ANGELES A former Pepsi ad man who broke color barriers with one of the first corporate marketing campaigns to portray African Americans in a positive light has died. Edward Boyd was 92.

Boyd was hired as an assistant sales manager at Pepsi in 1947and led a group of educated African American salesmen.

He created a marketing campaign that showed African Americans as respectable, middle-class consumers.

One store display pictured a smiling mother holding a six-pack of Pepsi-Cola as her handsome, young son reached for a bottle.

The promotions differed sharply from the insulting images of many ads at the time.

Boyd died April 30 at Century City Doctors Hospital in Los Angeles. The cause was complications of a stroke he suffered in March.

BUSINESSWEEK ASKS, DO YOU WANT TO BUY THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE?

I don't think this article got much notice progressive blogosphere, but Business week did a story on the -selling off- privitization of public infrastructure currently the rage in financial markets. From the Chicago Skyway now in private hands to the

$3.8 billion deal for the Indiana Toll Road, struck in 2006, could break even in year 15 of the 75-year lease, on the way to reaping as much as $21 billion in profits, estimates Merrill Lynch & Co.

See Roads To Riches, Why investors are clamoring to take over America's highways, bridges, and airports—and why the public should be nervous for the full story.

In the past year, banks and private investment firms have fallen in love with public infrastructure. They're smitten by the rich cash flows that roads, bridges, airports, parking garages, and shipping ports generate—and the monopolistic advantages that keep those cash flows as steady as a beating heart. Firms are so enamored, in fact, that they're beginning to consider infrastructure a brand new asset class in itself.

With state and local leaders scrambling for cash to solve short-term fiscal problems, the conditions are ripe for an unprecedented burst of buying and selling. All told, some $100 billion worth of public property could change hands in the next two years, up from less than $7 billion over the past two years; a lease for the Pennsylvania Turnpike could go for more than $30 billion all by itself. "There's a lot of value trapped in these assets," says Mark Florian, head of North American infrastructure banking at Goldman, Sachs & Co (GS ).

There are some advantages to private control of roads, utilities, lotteries, parking garages, water systems, airports, and other properties. To pay for upkeep, private firms can raise rates at the tollbooth without fear of being penalized in the voting booth. Privateers are also freer to experiment with ideas like peak pricing, a market-based approach to relieving traffic jams. And governments are making use of the cash they're pulling in—balancing budgets, retiring debt, investing in social programs, and on and on.

But are investors getting an even better deal? It's a question with major policy implications as governments relinquish control of major public assets for years to come. The aggressive toll hikes embedded in deals all but guarantee pain for lower-income citizens—and enormous profits for the buyers.

We have seen what the privitization ethos has done to the Iraq war. Where war profiteering mercenaries such as Black Water group, and Halliburton have performed functions that used to be done quite well by the US military. I think we as a group (progressives) need to come to grips with this movement. Other wise a few years from now we could be facing a movement as powerfull as "Free Trade" (something in my opinion that progressives were late in coming to grips with).

On the other side of the bargaining table from the investment firms sit struggling governments suddenly amenable to the idea of selling control of assets to solve short-term problems. The burden of maintaining roads, bridges, and other facilities, many built during the 1950s, is becoming difficult to bear.

Federal, state, and local governments need to spend an estimated $155.5 billion improving highways and bridges in 2007, according to transportation officials, up 50% over the past 10 years. And that's hardly the only obstacle they face. In 2006 alone, states increased their Medicaid spending by an estimated 7.7%, to $132 billion. And state and local governments could be on the hook for up to $1.5 trillion in retiree liabilities, estimates Credit Suisse. At the same time, politicians find it difficult to raise taxes. Chicago's former chief financial officer, Dana R. Levenson, sums up the situation: "There is money to be had, and cities need money." U.S. Representative Chaka Fattah, a Pennsylvania Democrat who is running for mayor of Philadelphia, proposes to privatize the Philadelphia International Airport and use the proceeds to fund poverty programs—a much easier sell than a tax increase.

But there's a downside to the quick cash: planned toll hikes that are usually quite aggressive.

Chicago's Skyway could see car tolls rise from $2 in 2005 to $5 by 2017. For some perspective, if a similar scheme were applied to the Pennsylvania Turnpike during its 67 years of existence, the toll for traveling from the Delaware River to the Ohio border would be as much as $553 now instead of $22.75. Macquarie, which teamed up with Spain's Cintra to purchase the Chicago Skyway and the Indiana Toll Road, underscored the governmental trade-off during a presentation at the recent White House Surface Transportation Legislative Leadership Summit: "More Money or Lower Tolls." In an extreme scenario, governments could begin to sell properties that aren't tolled to private owners who will impose fees.

I'm not reflexively anti-privization. But I do think we need to talk about this early. When if ever is it a good idea? Is some infrastructure to critical to sell? Should limits be placed on deals? Can tax payers fund infrastructure, then have it sold off at a profit? These are all questions we need to ask ourselves.

Some facts:

1) All told, some $100 billion worth of public property could change hands in the next two years, up from less than $7 billion over the past two years; a lease for the Pennsylvania Turnpike could go for more than $30 billion all by itself.

2) Investors in the $3.8 billion deal for the Indiana Toll Road, struck in 2006, could break even in year 15 of the 75-year lease, on the way to reaping as much as $21 billion in profits

3) Rob Collins, head of infrastructure mergers and acquisitions at Morgan Stanley, estimates that 30 funds are being raised around the world that could wield as much as $500 billion in buying power for U.S. assets

4) Investors can't get in fast enough. They recently deluged Goldman Sachs with $6.5 billion for its new infrastructure fund, more than twice the $3 billion it was seeking.

5) Federal, state, and local governments need to spend an estimated $155.5 billion improving highways and bridges in 2007, according to transportation officials, up 50% over the past 10 years.

6) The 99-year lease of the Chicago Skyway that went for $1.8 billion in 2005 was the first major transaction.

7) Based on the going rate of about 40 times toll revenues, the iconic Golden Gate Bridge could probably fetch $3.4 billion were California interested in selling. The Brooklyn Bridge? If permission were granted by New York City to charge the same tolls as the George Washington Bridge, a private owner might shell out as much as $3.5 billion for it.

8) Chicago's Skyway could see car tolls rise from $2 in 2005 to $5 by 2017.

9) Bankers say New York could reap a combined $70 billion for long-term leases on a bunch of assets, including the state's lottery, the Tappan Zee Bridge, and the New York State Thruway. New York state officials have looked into the option of leasing the lottery, which itself might command $35 billion—a sum that could substantially upgrade, say, New York's higher education system. The downside? The state would probably have to remove constraints on the lottery's marketing designed to discourage people from gambling more than they can afford. If the state insists on keeping the constraints in place, it could reduce the value of selling it.

Why I support the Byrd, Clinton war deauthorization

Let me as a disclaimer first inform you that I am an leaning towards Obama with John Edwards as my close second in 2008. I felt that it's important for me to first get that out of the way because I am supporting the Byrd/Clinton war deauthorization bill bill on principle not because I support HRC's run for the POTUS.

I wrote a diary last week (on Daily Kos) called Other ways to end the Iraq occupation where I proposed (amongst other things) just such a move.

I was doing a lot of thinking on how to win a legislative battle with the Bush administration on the Iraq war. The current way the Democrats are trying to fight Bush, with the Iraq spending bill, seems to me to be in many ways wrong. It strikes me as Democrats trying to rehash how Viet Nam was ended. Well just because Viet Nam was ended by pressuring on spending, doesn't mean Iraq needs to be ended this way. Secondly although I like the Murtha Plan, it may be attacked as a little too cute. The MSM will call it "Ending the war by red taping the Bush administration". Don't get me wrong I do think Bush should be red taped, but I question if it will work. Bush simply doesn't care if he has to pay a heavy price in public opinion, he is a fanatic.

If Bush would let CHILDREN DROWN in New Orleans do you really think he won't leave soldiers in Iraq with funding drying up, just to get his way? He can as -commander in chief- , -the decider- commander guy ORDER the troops to stay there. Bush will then claim that Democrats are starving troops who are still in harms way. I am sure he will do this. But deathorizing the war that's a different animal.

I would change the Byrd Clinton bill slightly. Vote on ending the war authorization (authorization of the use of force) effective one year from the date of the vote.

By this vote of congress, the presidential authorization of the use of force will expire on May 1st 2008. Congress reserves the right to re-authorize the use of force for a period of one year, prior to the expiration date.

This vote will do the following:

1) It will allow for a clean funding bill (remember Bush wanted that, now he gets it). But tell him, a clean funding bill will only be allowed AFTER this vote is allowed (sorry Mitch McConnel that means you can't fillabuster it)

2) After this law is enacted George Bush needs to be informed that congress will only reauthorize force, after he certifies the troops are trained, ala the Murtha Bill. Since he will fail, or lie that they are trained, congress can win the media wars by pointing out he is lying.

3) It makes a HARD deadline for end of the Iraq war. Unlike cutting off funding which gives an implied deadline (troops should come home when funding runs out). It would also be a clear violation of law (war powers act more on this later)for George Bush to keep troops in the feild after Congress no longer has given him war authorization. The constitution gives congress the power to declare war and armistice.

Many people have heard the phrase "the President is comander in chief". But do they inderstand what powers the constitution give congress over the military?

ARTICLE 1
Section 8
Congress has the power to:

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

Now I understand that some people think that this isn't the best approach. They challenge this approach on a few common grounds that I will address.

1) The Senate will filibuster it.
This is a good thing. Sen. Reid should force endangered Republican Senators from NH,ME,MN,VA to have to stand up and vote against cloture. This will put enourmous pressure on them. It's far easier for them to make the argument, that "while troops are in harms way we need to give them financial support", then to make the argument that "we need to continue to authorize them to stay in harms way."

2) This will end up in the courts. Implied in this is that this is a bad outcome.

This is actually a much better situation then most people think. In Clinton v. City of New York the SCOTUS ruled 6-3 that the LINE ITEM VETO violated the constitution separation of powers. Remember the line item veto was a darling of the conservative movement, yet even Thomas and Scalia voted against it (although Scalia was only partial concurrence ). This is an example of how strict constructionism can be used against it's very supporters. If congress can grant a power (declaring war) it's implicit that they can take it away.

On the other hand if the court rule in Bush's favor, running against "unelected judges" who "order troops into harms way against the expressed wishes of the people elected representatives" would be a great campaign issue. In the same way that Roe jump started the conservative movement, the Florida recount helped jump start the netroots. A bad court decision helps elect more Senators and a President in 2008 who WILL END THE WAR.

1) Bring the Political fight to new ground

One problem with much of the Democratic leadership is that they try to fight political battles in the "old ways". Running political ads on Network TV instead of Cable, 16 Blue States + 1 instead of the 50 States strategy, ect. Yes cutting spending work in Viet Nam. Yes it may still work. But as we saw in the 2006 election opening multiple fronts is a good way to achieve political victories.

2) It would put the War Power Act to a supreme court test

The War Powers Act of 1973 (Public Law 93-148) limits the power of the President of the United States to wage war without the approval of Congress. The War Powers Act of 1973 is also referred to as the War Powers Resolution (Sec. 1).

The purpose of the War Powers Resolution is to ensure that Congress and the President share in making decisions that may get the U.S. involved in hostilities. Portions of the War Powers Resolution require the President to consult with Congress prior to the start of any hostilities as well as regularly until U.S. armed forces are no longer engaged in hostilities (Sec. 3); and to remove U.S. armed forces from hostilities if Congress has not declared war or passed a resolution authorizing the use of force within 60 days (Sec. 5(b)). Following an official request by the President to Congress, the time limit can be extended by an additional 30 days (presumably when "unavoidable military necessity" requires additional action for a safe withdrawal).

I think it's about time to see if this law has any teeth! As I said above I think a court show down with Bush would be good.

On November 9, 1993, the House used a section of the War Powers Resolution to state that U.S. forces should be withdrawn from Somalia by March 31, 1994; Congress had already taken this action in appropriations legislation. More recently, war powers have been at issue in former Yugoslavia/Bosnia/Kosovo, Iraq, Haiti, and in responding to terrorist attacks against the U.S. after September 11, 2001.

Every Republican who voted for these resolution, who complains about its use in this instance, should be attacked as a hypocrite.

WEEK IN REVIEW, MAY 7th 2007

In a shocking study (snark, snark) racial -profiling- prejudice is shown in traffic stops.

The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics released a report Sunday showing that white, African American and Hispanic drivers are equally likely to be pulled over by police for alleged traffic offenses. In 2005, the year covered by the study, black drivers were actually less likely -- by a tiny margin -- to be stopped by police than were drivers in other groups. You might be tempted to conclude that the constitutional imperative of equal protection had finally been extended to America's streets and highways.

But you would be wrong. The study reports that African American and Hispanic drivers who are stopped by police are more than twice as likely as whites to be searched. Specifically, police searched only 3.6 percent of white drivers pulled over in traffic stops, while they searched 9.5 percent of African Americans who obeyed the flashing lights and 8.8 percent of Hispanics.

POLITICS

It has been refreshing to see that racially polarized voting is starting to die in much of America. In MA Whites voted for a Black Gov, in Maryland Blacks voted for a White Senator, because in both cases voters voted on the cadidated merrits. Which brings us to Philly.
So close to the mayoral primary, voters have yet to align by race. That's rare in Philadelphia.

In most Philadelphia mayoral elections, the returns can be read in black and white. This year, more voters are coloring outside the lines.

The race for the Democratic nomination remains a toss-up with just 16 days left - in part, polls say, because white millionaire Tom Knox is drawing a healthy share of black support and former City Councilman Michael Nutter, who is African American, is drawing a healthy share of whites.

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Black professionals investing in Obama. For black professionals, Mr. Obama's campaign is especially appealing because in him they see one of their own.

Sen. Barack Obama will encounter plenty of people who call him "brotha" when he meets local supporters and campaign donors today in Dallas.

The Illinois Democrat has a broad base of support for his presidential bid, with campaign cash coming in from Wall Street to Hollywood. But nowhere has his candidacy been more anticipated than with black voters who have longed for a national presidential contender since the historic presidential campaigns of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson in 1984 and 1988.

And for black professionals, Mr. Obama's campaign is especially appealing because in him they see one of their own. Their great hope is that his celebrity image and crossover appeal will propel him to the White House, a hope they say Mr. Obama embodies like no black politician before him.

He's got a story that a lot of African-American professionals have," said Michael Davis, 41, of Dallas, the managing director of a large financial institution. "He played by the rules. He worked hard. He's done well, and we can identify with that.

"He personifies our collective possibility. In that regard, he's somebody we feel is a lot more accessible than most candidates we've seen in the past."

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The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) plan to create a task force to study immigration issues and provide information about the impact of immigration reform on the black and Hispanic communities.

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) plan to create a task force to study immigration issues and provide information about the impact of immigration reform on the black and Hispanic communities.

The CBC last week invited Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), chairman of the CHC’s immigration task force, to speak about immigration reform at the group’s weekly meeting; the small task force will include three yet-to-be-named members from each caucus.

“Having a more in-depth conversation is a good idea,” Gutierrez said.

The task force is designed to help the two groups coordinate efforts to pass an immigration reform bill while opponents of immigration reform attempt to stir up anti-immigration sentiment among black Americans.

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If there is still doubt on many people why Clinton can compete with Obama for Black votes stories like this help answer it Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has failed to raise money for the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) even though it has been a year since he was asked to, and his main rival for the Democratic presidential nomination has done so, CBC members say.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has failed to raise money for the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) even though it has been a year since he was asked to, and his main rival for the Democratic presidential nomination has done so, CBC members say.

CBC leaders asked Obama to hold a fundraiser for the caucus’s political action committee (PAC) a year ago but they have slim hopes that he will come through for them.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Obama’s chief rival for the nomination, held a fundraiser for the PAC in March last year at the home of Dan Leeds, a Washington venture capitalist.

Clinton’s husband has also agreed to use his fundraising clout to help the CBC. At the end of June, former President Bill Clinton will chair a charity golf and tennis tournament organized by the spouses of Black Caucus members. The event will raise money for college scholarships.
Another one-time Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Evan Bayh (Ind.), also responded to the caucus’s request to raise money for its PAC; he hosted a Capitol Hill event in February 2006.

Stay posted
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CULTURE
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The N-word civil war continues as. Movement spreads against ‘n-word’. Slur ignites passions in churches, campuses and beyond. But at the same time Vibe: What's the Real Reason for the Sudden Attack on Hip Hop?

In the context of these questions, we can also ask why the attacks on hip hop - and why now? That some people hoped to enact political retribution for the so-called victory of Don Imus's firing, goes without saying. But I'd like to suggest that, more significantly, the current critique of hip hop is aimed at undermining the culture's potential to politicize the generations of constituents that might claim hip hop as their social movement. After high profile voter registration campaigns in 2004 that were fronted by Russell Simmons, Sean Combs and others, much was made of the lack of impact that hip hop generation voters had on the outcome of the 2004 Presidential election. The hip hop generation, in fact, embraced the franchise in unprecedented numbers, but those numbers were obscured by the unprecedented turnout of religious fundamentalists who were galvanized by issues like same-sex marriage and threats of anti-American terrorism. With no candidate on the Right likely to galvanize religious fundamentalists, the hip hop nation - which has continued to organize since 2004 - represents a legitimate political bloc. With this political bloc comes demands for social justice, particularly within the realms of the prison industrial complex, the labor force, US foreign policy, law enforcement, the electoral process, mainstream corporate media, the economy, public education and a range of other concerns.

While there has long been criticism of hip hop culture from the standpoint of social conservatives, pro-hip hop feminists, religious groups, anti-homophobia activists and hip hop heads themselves, what marks this moment as different are the attempts to force mainstream black political leadership and Democratic Presidential candidates to repudiate hip hop culture (reminiscent of the pressures placed on Reverend Jesse Jackson to distance himself from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in 1984). Emblematic of these pressures is a recent Chicago Tribune editorial, which asked, "Will Obama scold David Geffen, the entertainment mogul who is one of his most prominent contributors and who owns Snoop Dogg's record label? Will Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton admonish rap impresario Timbaland, who recently threw a benefit for her at his Miami home that raised $800,000?" Asking figures like Reverend Al Sharpton, Senators Clinton and Obama, and Russell Simmons to publicly distance themselves from hip hop is a transparent attempt drive a wedge between them and a constituency that has both the energy and the creativity to galvanize a youth-based electorate in the 2008 election season.

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Has America lost another generation of black boys?

In response to this growing crisis Mr. Jackson founded the Black Star Project, a dynamic educational reform organization, whose primary objective is eliminating the racial academic achievement gap by involving parents and communities in the education of children. Founded in Chicago's Southside in 1996, the Black Star model is taking root and even being duplicated in other cities.

...

Jackson has convinced some well known corporations, foundations and community organizations to become participating partners in the Black Star project. Some of the prominent names are: Toyota Motor Sales USA, ComEd, Schott Foundation for Public Education, OfficeMax, Ariel Capital Management, Quaker/PepsiCo Beverages & Food, and many others listed on the Black Star website.

Toyota contributed $240,000 to help finance and launch the Toyota Black Star Parent University, a new three-year program that will help Chicago parents obtain skills and resources needed to build stronger families.

Classes financed by the Toyota Black Star Program will be held in neighborhoods throughout the city. Local parenting experts serve as "professors" and teach courses that range from educating children about resolving conflict to developing financial literacy. This initiative, if successful in Chicago, will be offered to other cities.

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African-Americans, Koreans try to heal deep wounds

The 350 marchers who made the recent 1.4-mile trek down Wilshire Boulevard from Koreatown to MacArthur Park made up in symbolism what they lacked in numbers.

Actor Danny Glover and civil-rights attorney Connie Rice marched alongside Korean merchants and churchgoers, Los Angeles Police Department officers and activists from Homies Unidos.

African-Americans, Koreans, whites and Latinos sought to underscore an ethnic unity they hope marks a dramatic change since the 1992 riots that destroyed 2,000 Korean businesses and exposed wide rifts between Koreans and other minority groups.

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RIP Mary Carter Smith, 88

Mary Carter Smith, a storyteller, folklorist and entertainer who became nationally known as she helped popularize traditional African stories, dress and songs to American audiences and school pupils, has died. She was 88.

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Obama Reaches Out With Tough Love, Candidate Says Criticism of Black America Reflects Its Private Concerns

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is delivering pointed critiques of the African American community as he campaigns for its votes, lamenting that many of his generation are "disenfranchising" themselves because they don't vote, taking rappers to task for their language, and decrying "anti-intellectualism" in the black community, including black children telling peers who get good grades that they are "acting white."

As he travels around the country in his effort to become the nation's first black president, Obama has engaged in an intense competition for black voters -- a crucial Democratic Party constituency that accounts for as much as half the electorate in some key primary states such as South Carolina. But the first-term senator, who has sought to present himself as an agent of change eager to challenge political convention, has taken the unusual route of publicly criticizing his own community.

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MONEY
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Widowhood's Economic Consequences Harshest on Minority Women. Black women who became widowed suffered a loss that was five times greater and Hispanic women a loss that was four times greater than non-Hispanic white women.

Minority widows are at a particularly high risk of poverty in late life, according to a report published in the latest issue of The Gerontologist (Vol. 47, No. 2). While the data reveal a substantial financial widowhood penalty among all ethnic groups, minority women often have lower incomes and fewer assets to begin with.

Authors Jacqueline Angel, Maren Jiménez, and Ronald Angel of the University of Texas at Austin sought to discover the economic consequences of losing a spouse as women approach retirement. They drew from a sample of over 4,500 hundred women between ages 51 and older. The study looked specifically at Black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic White women.

The findings show that although non-Hispanic white women had more initial wealth than their Black or Hispanic counterparts, widowhood resulted in a greater relative loss in total assets for the minorities. Black women who became widowed suffered a loss that was five times greater and Hispanic women a loss that was four times greater than non-Hispanic white women.

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HEALTH
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Beware the bearers of false gift. This story is behind the subscription only part of the WSJ, but lobyist are targeting minority lawmakers to prevent chnages to Medicare part D.
Insurers Fight to Defend Lucrative Medicare Business.The minority advisory committee that AHIP is unveiling today includes about three dozen prominent black, Latino and Asian-American leaders in 16 states.
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Christianity, not vanity, at root of black women's diet program

The idea of strolling the beach in a bikini isn't what motivates Sandra Mosby to bake her chicken rather than frying it, or to lightly season her collard greens rather than dropping in a fatty ham hock.

For Mosby and a growing number of black women, developing healthy habits and losing weight is less about satisfying her vanity and more about strengthening her Christianity.

Several recent studies throughout the U.S. have concluded that the all-about-you mentality of many mainstream diet programs doesn't resonate with black women whose focus lies in strengthening their families, communities and churches.

Now, there's a new approach: Rather than pushing black women to adapt to those programs, researchers are developing new programs that emphasize improving health as a pathway to better serving God.

"A lot of the existing weight-loss programs are designed and developed for typical middle-class white women," said Judith Fifield, a professor in the University of Connecticut's medical school at the UConn Health Center.

"A lot of the traditional weight-loss messages are, 'It's all about you,' whereas a lot of African-American women are so committed to caring for their families and serving the church that they aren't used to putting themselves first," she said.

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INTERNATIONAL
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Sunday Times (London): The Queen is being urged to apologise for the slaughter of American Indians and the introduction of slavery when she visits Virginia to mark the 400th anniversary of the first English settlement in the New World.

THE Queen is being urged to apologise for the slaughter of American Indians and the introduction of slavery when she visits Virginia this week as guest of honour to mark the 400th anniversary of the first English settlement in the New World at Jamestown.

She will be landing in the middle of a row over political correctness after officials in Virginia banned the use of the word “celebration” for the anniversary. It is being called a “commemoration” out of respect for the suffering of native Americans, who were attacked after the colonists arrived in 1607.

Africans begin to appear in the English settlement’s records as indentured servants in 1619 and were later codified in Virginia’s statutes as slaves. Virginia passed a resolution earlier this year expressing “profound regret” for the enslavement of millions of Africans.

“Leaders and heads of state have a responsibility to set the tone and it would be a welcome move for the Queen to express regret,” said Virginia state representative Donald McEachin, a descendant of slaves, who sponsored the resolution.

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Book review on Blacks in France

Can one be Black and French? Such a question doesn’t even deserve to be asked, if one looks at the composition of
the French national soccer team, that is made up largely of Afro-Caribbeans or Afro-Africans. The truth is that, the French national soccer squad is not the appropriate benchmark to evaluate the acceptance of Blacks and other minorities in a country, which has arrogated to herself, the title of custodian of world freedom and the respect of human rights. It is because such above mentioned question and many more do come up regularly that, two iconoclastic authors, who are amongst the undisputable best French specialists on French-speaking Africa, have decides to team up to produce a book not in their area of predilection, but about a section of France’s citizens.

The title of the book which is the fruit of their collective effort is: Noir et Francais or Black and French in English. The names of the co-authors of the book are: Geraldine Faes and Stephen Smith. And the 445 page book is the outgrowth of a meticulous research within the Black French community, encouraged by an apparent malaise within. The authors while aiming to make their book appear as an instructive manual, they also seem to have the humbled, but not so easy ambition to make other components of the racially divided France to understand the Black community and its problems. Toward that end, they have also taken the precautions to present the Black community in its diversity. They tell us that, while Blacks are as diverse as any other human race, in France, there two main groups of Blacks: black-afro-Caribbeans and black-afro-Africans.

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Zimbabwean authorities have arrested, abducted and tortured hundreds of political activists in a campaign that has grown worse since the vicious beating of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in March, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday

In a report based on dozens of interviews in Zimbabwe, the New York-based rights group said the international outcry over the assault on Tsvangirai did nothing to curb President Robert Mugabe's brutality. The crackdown has reached deep into opposition ranks and affected many people who have no apparent role in politics, the report said. Journalists and human rights lawyers have also been targeted.

May good reserve a special place in Hell for this man.
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Odds and Ends

Ok, I work in R&D so I understand how research papers work. I also have read (much of) the study so I know most of their methodology is sound. I also understand that the researchers were showing that even in a "minority dominated environment" prejudice still exist. All that being said, I still think it was a tad silly for the NYT to post this on their front page.
Study of N.B.A. Sees Racial Bias in Calling Fouls

An academic study of the National Basketball Association, whose playoffs continue tonight, suggests that a racial bias found in other parts of American society has existed on the basketball court as well.

A coming paper by a University of Pennsylvania professor and a Cornell University graduate student says that, during the 13 seasons from 1991 through 2004, white referees called fouls at a greater rate against black players than against white players.