The Officer in Ryan Moats Debacle Wrote His Own Ticket Too

By: Deborah Mathis

We will never know what possessed Dallas Police Officer Robert Powell to behave so preposterously, shamefully and callously a couple of weeks ago, when he wouldn’t let a family get to their dying loved one because of an insignificant traffic violation.

It would hardly be of any help if Powell, himself, tried to explain his actions on the night that Jonetta Collinsworth lay on her death bed at Baylor Regional Medical Center, with her daughter and son-in-law racing to get there before she drew her last breath.

A rolling stop through a red light set him off, prompted him to turn on the flashing lights, and was all the reason he needed to hold Ryan Moats in the hospital parking lot even as Moats pleadingly explained that his mother-in-law was dying upstairs and he needed to pay his final respects.

Other than the Taliban, what kind of human creature gets that explanation and refuses to let a person go, but cold-heartedly threatens the frantic family members and insists on writing a ticket?

Powell’s tardy apology rings convenient for a man at the center of an outrage with his job on the line. And it fails to enlighten.

“After stopping Mr. Moats’ vehicle, I showed poor judgment and insensitivity to Mr. Moats and his family by my words and actions,” read the statement Powell released 10 days after the incident and, notably, after the scandal had come to light via the tale of the police cruiser dashboard tape.

That told us nothing we didn’t already know and was, in its understatement, an altogether new offense. “Poor judgment?” “Insensitivity?” Seems that Officer Powell, the storied hard-ass, has no trouble cutting him self some slack.

No, something deeper was at work there. But what? Evidently, something was missed on the psychological test that Powell presumably had to take as part of his candidacy as a police officer. Something didn’t get asked, or answered, or noticed in his training.

Was it racism? Powell is white, the Moatses are black, and the sorry episode did happen in a conservative, predominantly white Southern city. And Powell did something similar last summer to a Latino woman whom Powell arrested and jailed over an illegal U-turn.

The Officer in Ryan Moats Debacle Wrote His Own Ticket Too....

NAACP Addresses Widespread Racial Bias in the Ad Industry

By: Michael H. Cottman

Following a recent study that exposed widespread racial discrimination in America’s advertising industry, the NAACP sent a letter last week to Procter & Gamble Co. Chairman A.G. Lafley, urging the giant advertiser to incorporate more diversity in its executive ranks.

The NAACP also asked Procter and Gamble to meet with NAACP leaders as soon as possible to discuss racial bias.

"African-Americans have worked in advertising since the modern American advertising industry emerged more than 100 years ago," the NAACP letter said. "Yet, as employment discrimination has sharply diminished across the American labor market over recent decades, systemic barriers to equal opportunity in this $31 billion a year industry have remained largely intact."

"Racial discrimination is 38 percent worse in the advertising industry than in the overall U.S. labor market, and that ‘discrimination divide’ between advertising and other U.S. industries is more than twice as large today as it was 30 years ago," the letter said.

The NAACP’s letter comes after the Madison Avenue Project study, "Research Perspectives on Race and Employment in the Advertising Industry," which found "dramatic levels of racial discrimination throughout the industry against African-American professionals within pay, hiring, promotions, assignments and other areas."

The study was commissioned by a coalition of legal, civil rights and industry leaders who created the Madison Avenue Project. Civil rights attorney Cyrus Mehri, the project leader, called its findings "absolutely astonishing in this day and age."

Darlene Taylor, a public relations strategist who has worked with the NAACP on several initiatives, told BlackAmericaWeb.com that the nation’s large companies must work harder to promote diversity.

"The number of minorities in top management and executive positions in the corporate world, in general, are a small percentage," Taylor said.

She said many companies have already targeted diversity initiatives in their recruiting efforts and often includes increasing their support to minority students in colleges and on black college campuses.

"Additionally, they partner with organizations that work to encourage greater minority participation in the workforce," Taylor added. "Stronger recruiting partnerships, scholarships to minority students, internships and practical study experience that lead to jobs - real, meaningful, career-aspiration fulfilling jobs – would help."

NAACP Addresses Widespread Racial Bias in the Ad Industry....

3/28/09: Your Weekly Address

The President addresses the people of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota as they face down disastrous flooding. He speaks of what the government is doing, but also stresses that times of crisis like this are reminders of the need and opportunity Americans have to keep their dedication to service.

Cop Placed on Leave for Run-in With NFL Player

Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle says he's embarrassed and disappointed by a police officer who kept an NFL player in a hospital parking lot while the player's mother-in-law died inside the building.

Pioneering Black Historian John Hope Franklin Dead at 94

By: Martha Waggoner

RALEIGH, N.C. - John Hope Franklin, a towering scholar and pioneer of African-American studies who wrote the seminal text on the black experience in the U.S. and worked on the landmark Supreme Court case that outlawed public school segregation, died Wednesday. He was 94.

David Jarmul, a spokesman at Duke University, where Franklin taught for a decade and was professor emeritus of history, said he died of congestive heart failure at the school's hospital in Durham.

Born and raised in an all-black community in Oklahoma where he was often subjected to humiliating racism, Franklin was later instrumental in bringing down the legal and historical validations of such a world.

As an author, his book "From Slavery to Freedom" was a landmark integration of black history into American history that remains relevant more than 60 years after being published. As a scholar, his research helped Thurgood Marshall and his team at the NAACP win Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case that barred the doctrine of "separate but equal" in the nation's public schools.

"It was evident how much the lawyers appreciated what the historians could offer," Franklin later wrote. "For me, and I suspect the same was true for the others, it was exhilarating."

Franklin himself broke numerous color barriers. He was the first black department chair at a predominantly white institution, Brooklyn College; the first black professor to hold an endowed chair at Duke; and the first black president of the American Historical Association.

He often regarded his country like an exasperated relative, frustrated by racism's stubborn power, yet refusing to give up. "I want to be out there on the firing line, helping, directing or doing something to try to make this a better world, a better place to live," Franklin told The Associated Press in 2005.

In November, after Barack Obama broke the ultimate racial barrier in American politics, Franklin called his ascension to the White House "one of the most historic moments, if not the most historic moment, in the history of this country."

"Because of the life John Hope Franklin lived, the public service he rendered, and the scholarship that was the mark of his distinguished career, we all have a richer understanding of who we are as Americans and our journey as a people," Obama said in a statement. "Dr. Franklin will be deeply missed, but his legacy is one that will surely endure."

Obama's achievement fit with Franklin's mission as a historian, to document how blacks lived and served alongside whites from the nation's birth. Black patriots fought at Lexington and Concord, Franklin pointed out in "From Slavery to Freedom," published in 1947. They crossed the Delaware with Washington and explored with Lewis and Clark.

The book sold more than 3.5 million copies and remains required reading in college classrooms. It was based on research Franklin conducted in libraries and archives that didn't allow him to eat lunch or use the bathroom because he was black.

Pioneering Black Historian John Hope Franklin Dead at 94....

Michael Steele: Rush Goof Was Part of My Strategy

RNC Chairman Michael Steele on CNN, March 25, 2009

Mark Morial: 'Need to Close Persistent Gaps'

In its annual "State of Black America" report, the Urban League says that despite the progress represented by the election of the first black president, the country needs to close the persistent gaps between blacks and whites in this country.

DC Group: Married Couples, Be Poster Children for Black Love

By: Jackie Jones

We’ve all heard it: In-law jokes, stories from friends and family about all the bad stuff their husbands/wives do and little or none of the good.

It’s enough to make you wonder why people ever get married.

A Washington, D.C.-based group is aiming to change all that by highlighting successful marriages, encouraging people to celebrate the good in their relationships and be shining examples, especially in public, to others.

“The humorous side of this, we say, is married couples in the African-American community give marriage a bad name. We are asking that they become more open and responsive to the good times in their relationships,” said Diane Sims-Moore, executive director of the D.C. Healthy Marriage & Relationship Coalition-Family First D.C..

On Sunday, the coalition, which provides a number of programs and events designed to promote, strengthen and restore healthy marriages and relationships, celebrated the third anniversary of Black Marriage Day by inducting four long-married couples into its Marriage Hall of Fame.

Sims-Moore told BlackAmericaWeb.com that coalition founder Nisa Muhammad created the event to inspire other couples and to help young black people expose them to people who prove that marriage is a healthy, viable option.

The coalition also sponsors programs on developing healthy relationships of all kinds, including a fatherhood initiative.

Sunday’s event at Greater Mt. Calvary Church in Northeast Washington was aimed at encouraging people to take advantage of the coalition’s tools and resources that will, among other things, show couples how to disagree in a healthy way, find professional therapy if needed and get premarital counseling.

“Marriage is a part of life that is like icing on a cake that has already been baked,” said the Rev. Charlette Manning, PhD, who consults with the coalition to provide premarital counseling for couples and works with teenagers and young adults to encourage them to look at their lives in healthier ways.

The foundation for a healthy marriage, however, is building strong relationships between fathers and daughters and mothers and sons, Manning said.

DC Group: Married Couples, Be Poster Children for Black Love....

Study: Lots of Red Meat Increases Risk of Death by Over 20 Percent

By: Carla K. Johnson

CHICAGO - The largest study of its kind finds that older Americans who eat large amounts of red meat and processed meats face a greater risk of death from heart disease and cancer.

The federal study of more than half a million men and women bolsters prior evidence of the health risks of diets laden with red meat like hamburger and processed meats like hot dogs, bacon and cold cuts.

Calling the increased risk modest, lead author Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute said the findings support the advice of several health groups to limit red and processed meat intake to decrease cancer risk.

The findings appear in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine.

Over 10 years, eating the equivalent of a quarter-pound hamburger daily gave men in the study a 22 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 27 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease. That's compared to those who ate the least red meat, just five ounces per week.

Women who ate large amounts of red meat had a 20 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 50 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease than women who ate less.

Study: Lots of Red Meat Increases Risk of Death by Over 20 Percent....

Unemployment Woes Hitting Harder Among Blacks, Latinos

By: Jesse Washington

The ax fell without sound or shadow: Tatiana Gallego was suddenly called into human resources and laid off from her job as an admissions counselor for a fashion college.

"The way people tried to explain it to me was, I was the last one hired so I was the first one out," said Gallego, 25, who had worked there for 17 months.

Last hired, first fired: This generations-old cliche rings bitterly true for millions of Latinos and blacks who are losing jobs at a faster rate than the general population during this punishing recession.

Much of the disparity is due to a concentration of Latinos and blacks in construction, blue-collar or service-industry jobs that have been decimated by the economic meltdown. And black unemployment has been about double the rate for whites since the government began tracking those categories in the early 1970s.

But this recession is cutting a swath through the professional classes as well, which can be devastating to people who recently arrived there.

Since the recession began in December 2007, Latino unemployment has risen 4.7 percentage points, to 10.9 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Black unemployment has risen 4.5 points, to 13.4 percent. White unemployment has risen 2.9 points, to 7.3 percent.

Gallego, whose parents were born in Colombia, graduated from the University of Rhode Island. Her mother is self-employed, and her stepfather works in construction.

She was stunned when she was told to pack up and leave by the end of the day because enrollment was down at her New York City school. She said she had recently received a positive performance review, and her bosses were planning to send her to a conference.

"Maybe I just don't know that much about the business world, because I felt like I did more, I went above and beyond more than other people in my office did," she said.

William Darity, a professor of economics and African-American studies at Duke University, said that "blacks and Latinos are relative latecomers to the professional world ... so they are necessarily the most vulnerable."

"We don't have those older roots to anchor us in the professional world," Darity said. "We don't have the same nexus of contacts, the same kind of seniority."

Unemployment Woes Hitting Harder Among Blacks, Latinos....

Women Needing Cash Go from Jobless to Topless

By: Karen Hawkins

CHICAGO - As a bartender and trainer at a national restaurant chain, Rebecca Brown earned a couple thousand dollars in a really good week. Now, as a dancer at Chicago's Pink Monkey gentleman's club, she makes almost that much in one good night.

The tough job market is prompting a growing number of women across the country to dance in strip clubs, appear in adult movies or pose for magazines like Hustler.

Employers across the adult entertainment industry say they're seeing an influx of applications from women who, like Brown, are attracted by the promise of flexible schedules and fast cash. Many have college degrees and held white-collar jobs until the economy soured.

"You're seeing a lot more beautiful women who are eligible to do so many other things," said Gus Poulos, general manager of New York City's Sin City gentleman's club. He said he got 85 responses in just one day to a recent job posting on Craigslist.

The transition to the nightclub scene isn't always a smooth one - from learning to dance in five-inch heels to dealing with the jeers of some customers.

Some performers said they were initially so nervous that only alcohol could calm their nerves.

"It is like giving a speech, but instead of imagining everyone naked, you're the one who's naked," Brown, 29, said.

Eva Stone, a 25-year-old dancer at the Pink Monkey, said dealing with occasional verbal abuse from patrons requires "a thick skin."

Makers of adult films cautioned that women shouldn't rush into the decision to make adult movies without considering the effect on their lives.

"Once you decide to be an adult actress, it impacts your relationship with everyone," said Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of adult film giant Vivid Entertainment Group. "Once you make an adult film, it never goes away."

The women at the Pink Monkey say dancing at a strip club might not have been their first career choice, but they entered the business with their eyes wide open. The job gives them more control and flexibility than sitting in a cubicle, and "it's easy, it's fun and all of us girls ... look out for each other," Brown said.

In this economy, "desperate measures are becoming far more acceptable," said Jonathan Alpert, a New York City-based psychotherapist who's had clients who worked in adult entertainment.

For some, dancing is temporary, a way to pay for college loans or other bills. Others say they've found their niche.

Women Needing Cash Go from Jobless to Topless....

Michael Steele Holding Onto GOP Chair – But For How Long?

By: Michael H. Cottman

Michael Steele, the embattled chairman of the Republican National Committee, is pushing back against his critics by focusing on fundraising, filling key positions within the GOP leadership – and keeping a lower profile.

Under fire from Republicans for his recent controversial remarks about abortion and his criticism of Rush Limbaugh, Steele announced last week that the RNC has $24 million cash-on-hand, raised $5.1 million in February and is currently debt free.

“The Republican National Committee is in a strong financial position thanks to our motivated base of supporters and contributors,” Steele said in a statement. “We are building the organization we need to be successful in 2009 and beyond.”

For weeks, Steele’s Republican critics have been urging him to refrain from conducting media interviews and spend more time working on behalf of the RNC. Some have called for his ouster, and others have practically written Steele’s political obituary.

It appears Steele is getting the message: He recently hired a communications director, a political director and has declined all recent requests for interviews with the media. One GOP advisor said Steele is "pulling back" from media interviews to focus on the nuts and bolts of the party's business. The RNC also released a new Web video Friday, titled “Mystery Solved.” The video blames Democrats for the AIG controversy involving executive bonuses.

One senior GOP strategist told BlackAmericaWeb.com that Steele is staying on the job.

“There is no way he can be elected out at this point,” the strategist said. “Can't and won't happen. The true test of his effectiveness will be in the fundraising numbers, and so far, they're not bad in comparison to this time last year. Folks need to give Steele that same opportunity. Leave him alone, and let him do his job.”

But Steele’s critics have accused Steele of running off at the mouth and talking before he’s clearly thought through the issues.

Michael Steele Holding Onto GOP Chair – But For How Long?....

Washington’s New Black Pack- Ten to watch in Mr. Obama’s Washington.

By: Dayo Olopade

Barack Obama’s historic presidential victory has marked a significant expansion of responsibilities and visibility for people of color working in politics. From the Justice Department to the United Nations to the new Office of Urban Policy, Obama has empowered black Americans at the highest levels of government. The most diverse Cabinet in U.S. history—one that brings diversity of all sorts—is remarkable in part because the equitable mix seems truly to be an afterthought; the new crew will bring decades of expertise to their marquee positions.

Alongside the high-level Cabinet appointees, a junior class of dynamic African-American political leadership—call them “the black pack”—has arrived in Washington. They went through a baptism of fire during the grueling two-year campaign, counting delegates, crunching polls, spinning the press, working doors and phones, managing armies of volunteers, reaping millions of new voter registrations and logging thousands of hours working for change.

Washington’s New Black Pack....

3/21/09: Your Weekly Address

The President reflects on lessons from his time spent outside Washington this week, which only reinforced the four core principles in his budget.

Obama: The AIG Buck Stops With Me

Interest Surges in Leaving Other Jobs to Teach

By: Libby Quaid

SILVER SPRING, Md. -- Plenty of people dream of leaving their jobs to become teachers. Today, more people are actually doing it.

Peter Vos ran an Internet startup. Now he teaches computer science to middle school kids in Maryland.

Jaime McLaughlin used to do people's taxes. Now he teaches math to sixth graders in Chicago.

Alisa Salvans was a makeup artist at Saks department store. Now she teaches high school chemistry in suburban Dallas.

These teachers, with real-life experience and often with deep knowledge of their subjects, are answering a call to service that is part of a strategy to dramatically boost the size and quality of the teaching work force.

Career switchers make up about one-third of the ranks of new teachers, and that number has jumped in the past decade. Now, as the recession deepens, even more people are deciding to become teachers.

Lead Raises Questions About Children's Books

By: Lee Logan

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Could a vintage, dog-eared copy of "The Cat in the Hat" or "Where the Wild Things Are" be hazardous to your children?

Probably not, according to the nation's premier medical sleuths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But a new federal law banning more than minute levels of lead in most products intended for children 12 or younger - and a federal agency's interpretation of the law - prompted at least two libraries last month to pull children's books printed before 1986 from their shelves.

Lead poisoning has been linked to irreversible learning disabilities and behavioral problems, and lead was present in printer's ink until a growing body of regulations banned it in 1986. The federal law, which took effect Feb. 10, was passed last summer after a string of recalls of toys.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has interpreted the law to include books but has neither concluded that older books could be hazardous to children nor made any recommendations to libraries about quarantining such tomes, agency chief of staff Joe Martyak said Tuesday.

Still, the agency's interpretation itself has been labeled alarmist by some librarians.

"We're talking about tens of millions of copies of children's books that are perfectly safe. I wish a reasonable, rational person would just say, 'This is stupid. What are we doing?'" said Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the American Library Association's Washington office.

A CPSC spokesman told The Associated Press in a recent interview that until more testing is done, the nation's more than 116,000 public and school libraries should take steps to ensure that children are kept away from books printed before 1986.

After the spokesman's comments appeared Tuesday in an AP story, Martyak said the spokesman "misspoke" about the agency's stance on older books and younger children.

"We're not urging libraries to take them off the shelves," Martyak said. "It's true the CPSC is investigating whether the ink contains unsafe levels of lead in children's books printed before 1986."

Jay Dempsey, a health communications specialist at the CDC, said lead-based ink in children's books poses little danger.

"If that child were to actually start mouthing the book - as some children put everything in their mouths - that's where the concern would be," Dempsey said. "But on a scale of one to 10, this is like a 0.5 level of concern."

The publishing and printing industries set up a Web site for book publishers last December to post the results of studies measuring the lead in books and their components, such as ink and paper. Those results show lead levels that were often undetectable and consistently below not only the new federal threshold, but the more stringent limit that goes into effect in August 2011.

Those findings were cited in a letter from the Association of American Publishers to the CPSC.

Lead Raises Questions About Children's Books....

Stimulus-Snubbing Govs Don't Care About People, Black or White

By: Tonyaa Weathersbee

Let me see if I have this straight.

The unemployment rate in South Carolina has hit 10.4 percent – the second-highest in the nation. In Mississippi, the unemployment rate is at 9.2 percent. In Alabama, it’s almost 8 percent.

But the governors of these former states of the Old Confederacy, as well as Texas and Louisiana, don’t want to help their jobless citizens fight their misery with the relief contained in President Barack Obama’s stimulus package.

They’d rather conscript them to fight the Civil War instead.

Led by South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, the leaders of these states say they won’t accept the part of the stimulus package that expands unemployment benefits, such as covering part-time workers who lose their jobs. Among other things, they say it would force businesses to have to pay higher taxes once the federal money runs out.

Besides that, they say, they don’t appreciate Obama – outside agitator that he is – telling them that they have to change their laws to get federal money. No matter that for their jobless minions, that money could make the difference between someone living in their home or out of their car.

States’ rights, you know.

Stimulus-Snubbing Govs Don't Care About People, Black or White....

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas: Americans Don't Sacrifice That Much

By: Sue Lindsey

LEXINGTON, Va. - Americans today are self-indulgent and don't make the sacrifices that their parents and grandparents did, and the nation's leaders don't ask people to act for the higher good, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said Monday at a Virginia college in a rare public speech.

"Our country and our principles are more important than our individual wants," Thomas told close to 400 people who greeted him with a standing ovation at Washington and Lee University, a Shenandoah Valley liberal arts school.

He quoted President Kennedy's famous, "Ask not what your country can do for you" speech, but said Americans today are more likely to say, "Ask not what you can do for yourselves or your country but what your country can do for you."

Thomas took his seat on the court in 1991. He and Justice Antonin Scalia are considered the core of the court's conservative 5-4 majority.

Thomas endured a grueling confirmation process over allegations that he sexually harassed a former staffer of his, Anita Hill, who testified during the Senate hearings.

Since then, he has been one of the less public members of the court, although he has made several appearances to promote his 2007 autobiography. Thomas referred to that book, "My Grandfather's Son," as he described the obstacles he dealt with growing up in the segregated South in the 1950s and 1960s.

The court's only black justice spoke with reverence of the priests and nuns who taught him at what had previously been an all-white Roman Catholic school that he began attending in 1964.

"They were the ones who taught us we were inherently equal," said Thomas, a Georgia native.

Speaking in Lee Chapel, where Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is buried, Thomas told a questioner that Lincoln was his favorite president.

"We always saw Lincoln as the great emancipator," he said.

Former Detroit Mayor's Aide Out of Jail Early

The former chief of staff to ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was released from jail early Monday after serving 69 days for obstruction of justice.

Obama: How Can AIG Justify This Outrage?

Note to Steele: Make it Real Before You Keep it Real

By: Deborah Mathis

Having been read the Riot Act by the Republican National Committee elite, Michael Steele is now said to be abandoning his Here I Am Tour to focus on fundraising and rebuilding the RNC infantry – jobs one and two in regaining political power.

Or so they say.

Where both the party faithful and Steele are off-track is in their assessment of what it will take to win the hearts and minds of the American majority and, thereby, the power they seek. No doubt, it is essential to raise money – the “mother’s milk of politics,” as an old pol once put it – and you need a staff of operatives to manage fundraising activities, execute the media outreach, activate the spin machine and get out the vote. But, that presumes you have something to spend all of the money and energy on.

So far, the GOP’s got bean bag, unless you want to count the same old staid ideas that took them pretty much nowhere in the 2006 mid-term and the 2008 presidential elections.

To his credit, Steele seems to have gotten that much of the message that came through so loudly and clearly last Nov. 4, with the election of a candidate who was, in practically every way, the polar opposite of the tiresome incumbent – the tiresome Republican incumbent, that is.

When he won the RNC chairmanship in January, he came out swinging. And swaggering.
To hear him tell it, the Grand Old Party was in reformation, and the new organization he envisioned would have a hip hop edge to it.

Note to Steele: Make it Real Before You Keep it Real....

Black America’s First Mortgage Crisis

Fifty years ago, 'A Raisin in the Sun' captured our struggle for the American Dream. With our home equity up in smoke and our savings depleted, Hansberry's play perfectly captures our modern war between instant gratification and common sense.

By: Henry Louis Gates Jr.

I can’t quite believe that it has been 50 years since A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway. Like many people, my first encounter with Lorraine Hansberry’s groundbreaking play was through the 1961 film, acted by the original Broadway cast. Because I first saw the film during the black power era, my initial fascination was with Beneatha, the aspiring medical student who—to the horror of her family and probably to my parents—begins to embrace her African heritage.

Still, while Beneatha’s story line remains a powerful and resonant one for me all these years later, what grabs me most about Lorraine Hansberry’s masterpiece is not its nascent appeal for black cultural nationalism. No, the gravitational force behind the play is its dominant central theme: the need for the black community to ground itself in the essence of our tradition, an unbending belief in the future against the greatest odds, because the future of our people absolutely depends upon it.

What is striking to me now is how very contemporary Raisin’s message is for African Americans in the early 21st century. For, ultimately, A Raisin in the Sun, which opened on March 11, 1959, is about deferred gratification, its merits and its necessity if black America is ever going to catch up economically to the rest of the country and take our rightful place in the larger American middle class. Why talk about an old play in the midst of the greatest economic crisis since the Depression? Because this is precisely the time for us to do some very hard thinking about how the downturn is going to reshape the class structure of black America, and what we—within the race—can do about it. And Raisin holds clues.

Think of Walter Lee as the antecedent of hip-hop culture and the larger American material culture. He is the Man of Bling, Mister Instant Gratification. He wants to take all the proceeds of his father’s life insurance policy and buy a liquor store in the neighborhood. Think of Mama as the voice of the black tradition. She wants to use part of the money for a down payment on a home in a white suburb, use another portion for her daughter’s medical school tuition, invest the rest and demand that the four adults in the household pool their meager lower working class wages to cover the $125-a-month mortgage payment. Plan wisely and 50 years later, she reasons, ka-ching!

Black America’s First Mortgage Crisis....

3/14/09: Your Weekly Address

President Obama makes key announcements regarding the safety of our nation's food.

AP Top Stories 03.14.09

Here's the latest news for Saturday, March 14, 2009: G-20 talks in England; Obama talks food safety in weekly address; Lighter sentence possible for Madoff; Huge dog rescue in Oregon.

We Need a Hero: If Only Superpowers Were Real

By: Tonya Pendleton

In today’s economy, acts of heroism are sorely needed. But these days, people are so limited by circumstances or struggling so hard to make ends meet that they have little time or energy left over for anything else. What if you could apply the power of black superheroes to the world’s problems?

Admit it: you’ve watched the “X-Men” movies or read the comics and wondered what would happen if you, too, could change the weather. Or you’ve read the Luke Cage series and wished you could have the superhuman strength of one of Marvel Comics’ most powerful black superheroes.

While our wish to transform into superheroes will most likely remain fantasy, we're wistfully looking at some of our most popular black superheroes and determining what use they might have in today’s troubled world. President Obama could most certainly use a few on his side, but these days, almost everyone could use a superhero in their corner. Check out our list.

We Need a Hero: If Only Superpowers Were Real....

NAACP: Bank Giants Steered Blacks to Bad Loans

By: Jesse Washington,

The NAACP is accusing Wells Fargo and HSBC of forcing blacks into subprime mortgages while whites with identical qualifications got lower rates.

Class-action lawsuits will be filed against the banks Friday in federal court in Los Angeles, Austin Tighe, co-lead counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, told The Associated Press.

Black homebuyers have been 3 1/2 times more likely to receive a subprime loan than white borrowers, and six times more likely to get a subprime rate when refinancing, Tighe said. Blacks still were disproportionately steered into subprime loans when their credit scores, income and down payment were equal to those of white homebuyers, he said.

Both Wells Fargo & Co. and HSBC are receiving federal bailout funds. Messages left after hours with the banks were not immediately returned.

NAACP: Bank Giants Steered Blacks to Bad Loans....

Armed and Not Dangerous- How Michelle Obama’s “Sleevegate” should help retire dated racial stereotypes.

By: Dayo Olopade

Michelle Obama’s arms have been getting an inordinate amount of attention lately. It’s not unsolicited; the most modern first lady has appeared sleeveless on the covers of Vogue and People, at 10 inaugural balls, at a party for Stevie Wonder, at her husband’s address to Congress, and most recently, in her official White House portrait, unveiled at the end of last month.

The media saturation has prompted many questions: Is Michelle Obama too sexy? Is her celebrity diluting her image as the distinguished “mom in chief”? Sleevegate, to hear some tell it, has become an issue of sexuality—but it’s always more complicated than that. Obama, the first black FLOTUS, has become the unwitting bystander in an ageless drama of defining the black female form.

Mrs. Obama, writes Erin Aubry Kaplan, is “cruising the coattails of history to present us with a brand-new beauty norm.” True enough. But this new paradigm is particularly complicated in Obama’s case. Her commanding presence, disciplined fitness regimen and rock-hard bod make her seem out of step with the traditional sidekick role of the first lady. And she is also ill-suited to the traditional cultural archetypes circumscribed for black women. She is neither Jezebel, the soft-witted, oversexed temptress, nor Mammy, the asexual nurturer.

What’s a pundit to do?

Armed and Not Dangerous....

President Obama Opens Up Stem Cell Work, Science Inquiries

By: Seth Borenstein and Ben Feller

WASHINGTON - From tiny embryonic cells to the large-scale physics of global warming, President Barack Obama urged researchers on Monday to follow science and not ideology as he abolished contentious Bush-era restraints on stem-cell research. "Our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values," Obama declared as he signed documents changing U.S. science policy and removing what some researchers have said were shackles on their work.

"It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda - and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology," Obama said.

Researchers said the new president's message was clear: Science, which once propelled men to the moon, again matters in American life.

Opponents saw it differently: a defeat for morality in the most basic questions of life and death.

"The action by the president today will, in effect, allow scientists to create their own guidelines without proper moral restraints," Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said.

In a crowded ornate East Room, there were more scientists in the White House than Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science had seen in his 30 years in Washington. "More happy scientists than I've seen," he added.

The most immediate effect will allow federally funded researchers to use hundreds of new embryonic stem cell lines for promising, but still long-range research in hopes of creating better treatments, possibly even cures, for conditions ranging from diabetes to paralysis. Until now, those researchers had to limit themselves to just 21 stem cell lines created before August 2001, when President George W. Bush limited funding because of "fundamental questions about the beginnings of life and the ends of science."

Science, politics and religion have long intertwined and conflicted with each other. In his actions Monday, especially with the stem cell decision, Obama is emphasizing more the science than the religion, when compared with his predecessor, science policy experts say. But they acknowledged politics is still involved.

Don't expect stem cell cures or treatments anytime soon. One company this summer will begin the world's first study of a treatment using human embryonic stem cells, in people who recently suffered spinal cord injuries. Research institutions on Monday were gearing up to ask for more freely flowing federal money, and the National Institutes of Health was creating guidelines on how to hand it out and include ethical constraints. It will be months before the stem cell money flows; the average NIH stem cell grant is $1.5 million spread out over four years.

Scientists focused on a new sense of freedom.

President Obama Opens Up Stem Cell Work, Science Inquiries....

Barnes and Noble: Display a 'Hate Crime'

By: BlackAmericaWeb Staff

The founder and chairman of Barnes and Noble said the customer who placed a placed a book on monkeys among a display on President Barack Obama and the first family committed "nothing short of a hate crime, which should be punishable under federal statutes."

Officials from the book retailer claim an unknown person placed a copy of "Monkeys: A Captivating Look at These Fascinating Animals" in the display then snapped a photo. Store workers removed the book as soon as someone noticed it, decrying claims that it was put there by an employee.

“This malicious and despicable act is nothing short of a hate crime, which should be punishable under federal statutes,” said Leonard Riggio, founder and chairman of Barnes and Noble, in a statement.

Barnes and Noble: Display a 'Hate Crime'....

3/6/09: Your Weekly Address

President Obama capped off a busy week in Washington remarking on new lending guidelines aimed at lowering mortgage payments; an initiative to generate funds for small business and college loans; the release of his administration's first budget which includes $2T in deficit reduction; and the start of long overdue health care reform.

Why Tavis Smiley is a Genius- What black intellectuals owe the rest of us.

By: Lenny McAllister

Tavis Smiley’s genius doesn’t come from his radio and television talk shows, nor does it come from his appearances as a guest social commentator on multiple international outlets. It comes from his formation and continuation of the “State of the Black Union” annual symposium.

The genius of the panels during C-SPAN’s most-watched event doesn’t come from the high level of academic acumen on stage at any given moment. It comes from the depth of understanding shared by a common people with a unique history, one that highlights both significant American adversity and accomplishments.

Of all the talking points, we are beckoned to bridge the growing gap between black intelligentsia and those who feel the effects of black-on-black violence, higher levels of school dropout rates and dangerous levels of inadequate health conditions.

Never before have we seen such a deep contrast within the African-American community. We can proudly point to the accomplishments of black authors, professors, businesspeople and politicians in a manner never before seen in America. But we must also realize the stark contrast between those Americans and others who’ve given up on the American dream and, in many ways, have given up on dreaming at all. Over the past several decades, the widening of socioeconomic diversity within the black community has not built a bridge for an adequate flow of education, mentorship, community reinvestment and black solidarity. Many of the problems within black America are not directly dealing with race, but more so with poverty. Unfortunately, we constitute a higher percentage of the poor in our nation—granted, in some part because of racism, but also because of our failure to connect all African Americans, a call that we must receive and enact immediately.

Some panelists spoke to the need to spend wisely and value education zealously. Others spoke to the need for increased federal reinvestment economically. During my panel, I presented the idea of African-American professionals with two or more weeks of paid vacation per year giving one week back to their local black community as a volunteer until we can change the conditions we face.

Why Tavis Smiley is a Genius....

How Sorry is the GOP?

Pretty sorry. When the chairman of the RNC apologizes to a talk show host, you know things are in bad shape.

By: Sophia A. Nelson

In a few words, Rush Limbaugh has lost it. Not only did he show up at CPAC last weekend to rile up the conservative GOP base, but he challenged the president of the United States to a debate on his show. Is this guy for real?

As for my friend and fellow Republican Michael Steele, who recently apologized to Limbaugh for calling him an "entertainer" with an "incendiary" show, he needs to take a step back and regroup. His apology was ill-considered, and his RNC political advisers are not serving him well.

Poor Michael. He is stuck in a party gone rogue, and we all know it. Caught between the conservative right and the moderate centrist American political temperament, Mr. Steele has to walk a fine line.

Let me be clear. As someone who wrestles daily with her affiliation in the GOP, Mr. Chairman, your job as the leader of the GOP is not to kiss up to Rush Limbaugh or to late-night political pundits. Your job is to build the party at the grassroots level and expand the party to become more diverse, open and focused on important policy matters like the economy. You missed a golden opportunity on D.L. Hughley’s CNN show when Rush Limbaugh’s name came up. Yes, you are the head of the Republican Party, but you made a bad fumble when you apologized to Limbaugh for simply stating the obvious.

Where is your heart? Why would you and others like Rep. Phil Gingrey apologize to a man who proudly proclaims that he [Limbaugh] is “talent on loan from God”?

Limbaugh may have 20 million listeners, but he is the “de facto leader” of nothing. He is a radio shock jock with a $400 million contract, who in the last several years has said some of the most offensive things about black people and our new president.

How Sorry is the GOP?....

AP Top Stories 03.04.09

Government homeowner rescue plan detailed; Clinton says Israel "unhelpful" in home demolition; Referee says he saw no police during Pakistan convoy ambush; Knighthood for Ted Kennedy.

Black Caucus Presses President on Priorities

By: Ben Evans

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama reassured members of the Congressional Black Caucus that he's on their side and will do what he can to support the group's left-leaning agenda, lawmakers said Thursday after an hour-long session at the White House.

Nearly all the group's 42 members attended. Noticeably absent was Illinois Sen. Roland Burris, Obama's replacement who is fending off calls to resign.

The lawmakers - all Democrats - said the reception was a welcome change from the tenure of former President George W. Bush, who held several cordial meetings with black lawmakers but rarely agreed with them on substance.

"There is no comparison," said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland. "(Obama) basically assured us that having been a member of the Congressional Black Caucus ... that he gets the issues and will do everything he can to work with us."

Lawmakers said they presented Obama with a wish-list covering a broad range of topics, many of them economic issues affecting their districts.

They pressed Obama to focus on hiring more minorities to federal jobs and helping small and minority-owned businesses get government contracts. They also discussed creating a health-care safety net and addressing medical disparities among minorities.

Lawmakers expressed continued concerns about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and proposed forming a national task force for improving education in low-income communities.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas said the caucus made its priorities clear but is "not unrealistic about what a president can do."

Black Caucus Presses President on Priorities....

AP Top Stories 03.03.09

One missing boater rescued, 2 NFL players among 3 still missing; Family of man killed by BART officer file lawsuit; Madoff seeks to keep Manhattan apartment; Gandhi's glasses to go on auction block.

Steele: Rush Isn't The GOP's Leader -- He's An Entertainer