Week in Review April 13th 2007

Many people realize that racialy polarized voting happens in America. In many places Whites votes for White candidates, and Blacks vote for Black candidates. Since Whites outnumber Blacks this means that in most areas Blacks come out the losers. But what happens when an area formally controlled by -conservative wingnuts- Whites changes demographicaly and racially polarized voting works against them -letting everyone have a say-. Well if it's Mississippi it's time for our politicized -justice- system to prosecute Black officials.

Attorneys in the two-year-old legal battle filed documents Monday summarizing what they want U.S. District Judge Tom Lee to consider in deciding who's right.

Brown and other black Noxubee County Democratic leaders deny the Republican-controlled Justice Department's claims that they've violated the Voting Rights Act.

The Democrats acknowledge that predominantly black Noxubee County is racially divided, with whites losing elections since most voters prefer black candidates.

“There is a long history of racial polarization that results in block voting by whites and blacks. The government appears to suggest that Ike Brown and people with whom he associates are the cause of this unfortunate situation,” states documents submitted by Edward Pleasants, one of the attorneys representing Brown and the Noxubee County Democratic Executive Committee.

The political schism, he wrote, can be blamed on whites who are mostly Republicans and frustrated they can't win elections in a black Democratic stronghold. They won't accept the fact blacks now control the county's political structure after decades of white domination.

“The (federal) government's position is a classic example of the victim being blamed for fighting back against those who are committing a crime against them,” states the legal brief.

The Justice Department claims Brown and his Democratic operatives have violated white voters' rights as retribution for years of blacks being politically oppressed.

Good thing this -justice- department is really into prosecuting election fraud, any day now I expect action on Florida and Ohio
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Culture
Mr. Imus was fired. As many people know, Don Imus opened his mouth. We all know that can only happen so many times before he says somthing like this:

On the April 4 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, host Don Imus referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team, which is comprised of eight African-American and two white players, as "nappy-headed hos" immediately after the show's executive producer, Bernard McGuirk, called the team "hard-core hos." Later, former Imus sports announcer Sid Rosenberg, who was filling in for sportscaster Chris Carlin, said: "The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the [National Basketball Association's] Toronto Raptors."

McGuirk referred to the NCAA women's basketball championship game between Rutgers and Tennessee as a "Spike Lee thing," adding, "The Jigaboos vs. The Wannabees -- that movie that he had." McGuirk was presumably referring to Lee's 1988 film, School Daze (Sony Pictures), though co-host Charles McCord misidentified it as "Do the Right Thing" (Criterion, June 1989).

People weren't taking it this time as the National Association of Black Journalists spear-heading a campaign against MSNBC and Imus for his racist comment
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In the Meetings Are Part Revival, Part Rally, but All Sharpton, the NY Times writes a story on Shapton's Sunday services

Every Saturday morning, Mr. Sharpton opens the doors of his National Action Network’s headquarters in Harlem for an “action rally.” The meetings are something more than a rally — part radio show, church service, comedy revue, civil rights demonstration, town hall meeting and fund-raising drive. The rallies are broadcast live on WLIB-AM, the city’s first black-owned radio station.

On most Saturdays, the so-called House of Justice on West 145th Street can feel as casual as the International House of Pancakes 10 blocks south. Anyone can walk in and take a seat. The words etched onto the large tinted window at the entrance, facing 145th Street, read not House of Justice or National Action Network but Diamond Gym, the storefront’s former occupant, which explains why the walls are lined with mirrors.

Yesterday, in a fast-paced 90 minutes before a crowd of fewer than 100 people, Mr. Sharpton led a drummer and a pianist through a gospel song (“Sing it like you mean it,” he sang into the microphone), criticized the federal government’s slow pace of rebuilding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and paid tribute to the sacrifices of both Jesus Christ and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Gays find a cool reception on conservative black campuses.

April Maxwell was so lured by the promise of a black college experience, with its distinct traditions and tight-knit campus life, that she enrolled at Hampton University in 2001 without even visiting the waterfront campus.

A lesbian who is open about her sexual orientation, she arrived eager to join the extended Hampton family.

Instead, "I felt like I was the only gay person on campus - it seemed like nobody was really out," said the now 24-year-old Maxwell.

She channeled her isolation into organizing a gay support group, but a panel of students and faculty denied it a charter. The panel recently denied a second attempt at chartering Students Promoting Equal Action and Knowledge, headed by underclassmen after Maxwell graduated.

It's a tug-of-war that's emerging at other black schools, where students say outdated rules and homophobia block them from forming the gay campus voice common at majority white institutions.

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As the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut is marked, Major League Baseball is sure to give itself an extended pat on the back. We'll hear much this month about the breaking of baseball's "color line" as a civil rights milestone.

As the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut is marked, Major League Baseball is sure to give itself an extended pat on the back. We'll hear much this month about the breaking of baseball's "color line" as a civil rights milestone. We'll be reminded that the national pastime opened its doors to blacks way ahead of many other American institutions. The sport will bask in the righteous recounting of Robinson's courage and Branch Rickey's wisdom.

But to focus on events of 60 years ago is to dishonor No. 42. Jackie Robinson wasn't one to dwell on the past. After leaving baseball after the 1956 season, he devoted himself to blazing new paths -- in business, politics and the civil rights movement. He was all about today and tomorrow, not yesterday. Proud as he was of changing the game in 1947, Robinson biographers and contemporaries agree he'd be more interested in assessing the game of 2007.

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POLITICS
color of change has a number of items they are working on First, the CBC/Fox debate, as well as pressuring Lieberman and Congress to investigate the government's response to Katrina, an investigation that Lieberman called off once he became chair of the Homeland Security Committee.
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INTERNATIONAL
Africa is becoming both the beneficiary and victim of the high global price of oil.

Although Africa has long been known to be rich in oil, extracting it hadn't seemed worth the effort and risk until recently. But with the price of Middle Eastern crude skyrocketing, and advancing technology making reserves easier to tap, the region has become the scene of a competition between major powers that recalls the 19th-century scramble for colonization. Already, the United States imports more of its oil from Africa than from Saudi Arabia, and China, too, looks to the continent for its energy security.

Does Africa measure up to the hype? After all, the entire continent is believed to contain, at best, 10 percent of the world's proven oil reserves, making it a minnow swimming in an ocean of seasoned sharks. Africa is unlikely ever to "replace" the Middle East or any other major oil-producing region. So why the song and dance? Why all the goose bumps? Why do so many influential people in Washington let themselves get so carried away when they talk about African oil?

The answer has very little to do with geology. Africa's significance as an oil "play," to borrow the industry lingo, lies beyond the number of barrels that may or may not be buried under its cretaceous rock. Instead, what makes the African oil boom interesting to energy-security strategists in both Washington and Europe (and, increasingly, Beijing) is a series of serendipitous and unrelated factors that, together, tell a story of unfolding opportunity.

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Zimbabwe bishops warn of revolt Zimbabwe's Roman Catholic bishops have warned of a mass uprising unless free elections are held, in a letter pinned up in churches across the country.

Many people in Zimbabwe are angry, and their anger is now erupting into open revolt," the letter said.

Individual bishops have previously criticised President Robert Mugabe, a Catholic, but this is the strongest joint attack on his government.

A minister told the BBC that the letter showed Zimbabwe was a "free country".

"The churches are free to say what they like," said Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu.

"We have got a process for changing governments and electing leaders. We are preparing for elections."

'Biblical oppression'

Zimbabwe's nine Catholic bishops also called for a national day of prayer on Saturday 14 April.

Last month, a prayer meeting attended by opposition leaders and activists was broken up by police, leaving two people dead.

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Google Earth Focuses on Darfur. The Internet search company has updated its Google Earth service with high resolution satellite images of the region to document destroyed villages, displaced people and refugee camps..

In a project with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, inaugurated Tuesday, the Internet search company has updated its Google Earth service with high resolution satellite images of the region to document destroyed villages, displaced people and refugee camps.

Google Earth allows those who have downloaded its free software to focus on satellite images and maps of most of the world. When users scan over the Darfur region, where the United Nations estimates that more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in four years of carnage, Google Inc. hopes to attract their gaze with icons.

The icons represent destroyed villages with flames and refugee camps with tents. When users zoom in to a level of magnification that keeps most of Darfur on a computer screen, the icons seem to indicate that much of the region is on fire. Clicking on flame icons will open windows with the village's name and statistics on the extent of destruction.

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The Battle for Nigeria

Nigeria contains many worlds. During 10 days in the country on a fact-finding trip for U.S. editors, I saw just a few of them, but I did catch a glimpse of both the calm, air-conditioned indoor world of politicians, lawyers, and diplomats—where we spent the bulk of our time—and the anarchic, sweaty outdoor world of the voters. The denizens of that first world can talk for hours about politicians and potential eleventh-hour alliances, about strategy and the 20 known methods of rigging an election. The people on the street are angry about open sewers and the dearth of jobs, schools, and clean water, and they have little faith that corrupt politicians will solve these problems.

As a recent International Crisis Group report put it, the Nigerian elections of April 14 and 21 "are not a routine quadrennial ritual." If elections happen and the results are regarded as relatively free, fair, and transparent, it will be the first time in the nation's history that one civilian administration will hand over power to another. Right now, that looks like a mighty big if.

Nigerian elections aren't issues-based—far more significant than policies and principles are where a candidate was born, the ethnic group he belongs to, and his religion. With the country pretty evenly split between Muslims and Christians and riven by regional rivalries, the notion of "power shift"—rotating the top office around the regions—has become paramount. Since current President Olusegun Obasanjo is a southern Christian, it's generally accepted that the next president will be a northern Muslim—and all the leading contenders meet that description. When elections are decided by whose turn it is rather than who has the best ideas, it's hard to be optimistic about democracy.

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MONEY.
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Two Faces of Minority Banking, Urban Trust, NuAmerica Differ in Target Markets and Size

Two new Washington banks, one seven months old, the other about to open, are taking two different approaches to serving minority communities.

Urban Trust Bank, which opened its headquarters branch at 14th and I streets NW in September, has nationwide plans focused on African American customers. The federally chartered bank is owned by RLJ, the Bethesda-based company headed by Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television.

NuAmerica Bank won approval from the D.C. Council last week to open a branch in Columbia Heights, from which it will target small businesses in the region's Hispanic sector, according to Julio Lopez-Brito, who will be its chairman.

But the banks' founders share the belief that their target markets are ripe for expansion that would benefit not only minority neighborhoods but also the banks' investors.

"A significant portion of urban consumers continue to be unbanked and under-banked," said Urban Trust's president, Dwight L. Bush. "We actually see these communities as viable, and our mission is . . . to bring these consumers into the financial mainstream, help them to become homeowners, to become entrepreneurs, and help them to create and maintain wealth in their neighborhoods."

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HEALTH
Blacks Face Challenge, One Pound at a Time

In the shadow of the Capitol, on the same ground where guns, wars and other life-and-death issues have been protested, African Americans rallied over another grave concern: obesity.

The tone of the gathering on the Mall last weekend was more pep rally than demonstration, the goal more to inspire than incite. But in confronting what is now a health crisis among black people, the 50 Million Pound Challenge is calling for nothing less than action: The extra weight has got to go.

"The numbers are unimaginable," said the campaign's founder and leader, Ian Smith, a prominent black physician, author and television commentator who wants the issue taken up on a national scale. "It's not just [an individual's] problem. It's a problem for all of us."

Nearly four in five black women in the United States are overweight or obese -- the worst rate of any group -- and nearly a quarter of black females ages 6 to 19 fit that classification. Although the percentages of black males with weight problems are not similarly disproportionate compared with the overall population, the numbers are extremely high and are growing. The already skewed prevalence of health complications within the community continues to increase, too.

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L.A. tops the nation's major urban areas with 1.1million Latinos, blacks and Asians living within two miles of hazardous waste sites.

California has the nation's highest concentration of minorities living near hazardous waste facilities, according to a newly released study. Greater Los Angeles tops the nation with 1.2 million people living less than two miles from 17 such facilities, and 91% of them, or 1.1 million, are minorities. Statewide the figure was 81%.

The study, conducted by researchers at four universities for the United Church of Christ, examined census data for neighborhoods adjacent to 413 facilities nationwide that process or store hazardous chemical waste produced by refineries, metal plating shops, drycleaners and battery recyclers, among others.

Though about one-third of U.S. residents are nonwhite, more than half of the people living near such facilities were Latino, African American or Asian American, according to the report.

The cause is simple, said Robert Bullard, a sociologist at Clark Atlanta University in Georgia and lead author of the study, which updates a landmark report from two decades ago. "The most potent predictor of where these facilities are sited is not how much income you have; it's race.... You don't have many of these facilities in West Los Angeles, and you don't have many minorities in West Los Angeles either.... You've got both in Vernon and surrounding neighborhoods."