The top 12 “Community Pimping” incidents of 2009: Thou shall not Pimp the Community in 2010!
2009 had its share of examples where “self-appointed” leaders, big name companies, human service agencies and politicians took the opportunity to pimp the community at the community’s expense. This article is dedicated to all of those people who thought they got away free and clear in 2009. In 2010, IBNN will continue to report in real-time on the issues facing the Twin Cities Black community and those involved. Until then, Happy New Year’s!
By Donald W.R. Allen, II Editor in Chief/IBNNNEWS and USA Radical Black
1) In January 2009 the General Mills Foundation in collaboration with the UNCF (United Negro College Fund) repeated the actions of 2008 by refusing to allow minority-ethnic media outlet the opportunity to have a table in the lobby at the MLK Breakfast. The table was a way to let the attendees of the MLK breakfast pick-up a copy of their favorite Black, Hispanic-Latino, Asian and African newspaper. IBNN launched the boycott against General Mills which continues today…are you still buying Cheerios?
2) Also in January, IBNN posted the story, “The Real story why Senator Norm Coleman, the MN GOP and the Republican Party of Minnesota got thrown under the Democratic Bus.” A play-by-play of the 2008 election cycle from a point of view that will make you wonder, “What was the MN GOP thinking?” Read more
The Repetitive Exploitation of Black Minnesota: Here we go again…
African-American Men Project; Prostate Screenings; HIV/AIDS; Breast Cancer Screenings; Dairy Queen;Tires Plus; Siyeza, Inc; NRRC; Synergy…
“Good intentions have funded projects with the same point people that continue to fail Black Minnesota. When will Black Minnesota get tired of the blatant Exploitation of their Community?” ~Don Allen
By Donald W.R. Allen, II – Editor in Chief/IBNN
Several years ago, St. Paul Pioneer Press journalist David Hawley wrote a story titled “Minneapolis: Study Details Problems Facing City’s Black Men,” dated January 24, 2002.
The story details, the results of a two-year study in which Hawley stated the outlook for African-American men in Minneapolis is grim. In the article Hawley wrote: “If you’re an African-American man ages 18 to 30, the odds are roughly 50-50 that you live in one of the city’s poorest, most crime-ridden neighborhoods and that a single mother reared you. There’s also about a 50-50 chance that you didn’t finished high school and only a slightly lesser chance that you will be arrested in the next year, most likely for a minor offense. If you are arrested, the odds are greater than 50-50 that you will be charged again within the next two years.”
In response to Hawley’s “grim” article, Gary L. Cunningham, the former Director of NorthPoint Health and Wellness and the overseer of the African-American Men Project, an organization that once had the power and respect of the community to make meaningful change, but has now has been reduced to a glorified referral service, had only one thing to say, “This report deals with what people call “wicked problems’ in our society.”
Wicked problems” are still not solved today – even by the people who identified them 8 years ago despite an incredible amount of funding and resources. Read more
Minnesota’s African American Leadership Model–A fine example of Totalitarianism…The 2009 version of how our own will sell us back into Slavery
By Donald W.R. Allen, II – Editor in Chief/IBNN
The Radical may resort to the sword, (in 2009: the keyboard), but when he does he is not filled with hatred against those individuals whom he attacks. He hates these individuals not as persons but as symbols representing ideas or interests which he believes to be inimical to the welfare of the people. (Alinsky 1946: 23)
On Saturday, (11/21) I ventured to General Mills to catch a glimpse of the 170 African-American “hand-picked” leaders for the African-American Leadership Forum. (Only two kinds of people can afford the luxury of acting on principle, those with absolute power and those with none and no desire to get any.)
Headwater Foundations Trista Harris and Northwest Area Foundations Gary Cunningham’s emails stating that there was a process one could follow in order to be invited to the Leadership meeting were misleading.
Rev. Jerry McAfee and Spike Moss were both invited on the insistence of Rep. Bobby Jo Champion less than 24 hours before Saturday’s meeting. This is not the “process” detailed in the meetings.
IBNN was later contacted by several participants at Saturday’s cattle herd. One of them said, “This was nothing but a breakfast and lunch to get a bunch of names so the Headwaters Foundation can seek future funding. Nothing got done. The circus-like engagement was a dirty shame and disrespectful to all African-Americans.”
After I had a 40-minute conversation with Northwest Area Foundation’s Gary Cunningham, it seemed that we both wanted the same outcomes for Black people in Minnesota. His statements were good – but the actions that he took excluded the real Minnesota black leadership and further delayed the attainment of justice for all.
You see Mr. Cunningham is not a radical. White Minnesota feels comfortable working with him. He will do what the master says, with little resistance. (IBNN will look at Cunningham’s involvement with Pilot City- now NorthPoint Health and Wellness– and the African American Men’s Project in an upcoming story.)
Although I was not allowed to enter the guarded area at General Mills, while Gary and I talked, several people that were not on any list were granted admission to this “private formal meeting.” Yet it was impossible for the interested public to become fully informed about the African American Leadership Forum.
The sad thing about the African American Leadership forum is, organizations “self-charged” with the organizing of this model – Northwest Foundation; Headwaters Foundation and the Stairstep Foundation recognize no limits to their authority and strive to regulate every aspect of Black engagement wherever feasible.
The element of authoritarianism, according to which ordinary Blacks have no significant share in decision-making, helps to maintain these organizations in positions of political power by means of an official all-embracing ideology and propaganda disseminated through the controlled personality cults, along with regulations and restrictions of free discussion and criticism. This is the definition of totalitarianism.
An e-mail response sent to me by Mr. Cunningham reads: Read more
Rev. Walter Hoye Sentencing: A Message to African American Leaders part 1
Rev. Walter Hoye, Elder at The Progressive Missionary Baptist Church in Berkeley, CA was arrested and convicted in Oakland, CA for the “heinous crime” of holding a Pro-Life sign that read “God Loves You and Your Baby” outside an abortion clinic, breaking Oakland’s newly-adopted, unfair and unconstitutional bubble law or “medical safety zone”. Read more
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