Dirty Little Secrets in Black Leadership: Headwaters Foundation’s Trista Harris answer to, “Let us participate on Saturday (11/21) at General Mills”
Who are the 170 African-American leaders involved in this “work-group” tomorrow (11/21) at General Mills? I’m sure I can name some of the usual suspects that have failed the Black community time and time again. Why it is that this woman is in charge of who attends an African-American Leadership Summit? Controls are no different than Slavery in a cold Jim Crow.
Please join us at General Mills to protest the exclusion of stakeholders in the African-American Leadership Forum tomorrow at General Mills.
The following is a response from Headwaters Foundation Trista Harris:
I’m following up on our conversation this morning. Saturday’s African American Leadership Forum is for community members that have participated in previous meetings of the African American Leadership Forum. I certainly want you to know that all the people you mentioned are welcome to be a part of this effort but because this is a working meeting, Saturday’s Forum is not an appropriate place for them to become engaged.
One of the things that we set up as an entry point into the African American Leadership Forum is the need for the attendees to have a pre-meeting to become familiar with the work that’s been done to date.
We call these groups cascading groups. We have instituted this arrangement in part because we want people to become familiar with the previous work and add value in a smaller groups setting, so that we don’t have to restart the Forum every time new members come to a larger meeting.
After this weekend’s meeting if you would like to call together a cascading group of your own, we will provide facilitation assistance and food for the meeting. These have been exciting meetings where we already have 170 African-American leaders attend. People really like this approach and have gotten a lot out of the cascading group meetings. I have been heartened by this work and the need for a forum of African-American leaders to develop a shared agenda.
I also hope you understand the approach we are taking. I will make sure that they get invited to a cascading group to become part of this important work.
I look forward to working with you on this and other issues that impact low-income people in our community.
Best wishes,
Trista Harris
Executive Director
www.headwatersfoundation.org
2801 21st Ave S. Suite 131
Minneapolis, MN 55407
P: 612-879-0602 # 13
F: 612-879-0613
It’s on!
A message to the Sharptons, Jacksons, and Farrakhans of the World: The struggle is not over; the gauntlet will be passed back to you very soon
By Donald W.R. Allen,II – Editor in Chief of IBNN – 2009 ©
“This generation will have to learn from damn near scratch what a real social movement looks like.”
Reports of racism have increased. Black unemployment is sky-high. The foreclosure crisis has devastated black neighborhoods across the country. Yet no official stance on race relations in the United States has been taken by our Black President, Barack Obama.
“Is racism only prevalent if you’re a professor at an Ivy League school who is arrested in your upscale neighborhood?”
White America allegedly demonstrated their goodness and racial tolerance in 2008 by voting for a Black man to be president of the United States. We have learned that a large and decisive number of whites can be persuaded to vote for a certain kind of Black man: one who never speaks about racism, and in no way, resembles Al Shartpon, Jesse Jackson, or Louis Farrakhan.
Without question, the nation has experienced an election of historical significance, for reasons that go beyond the obvious “first Black” aspect of race. The 2009 presidential race was the most-hyped presidential campaign in U.S.history, if for no other reason than the simple fact that every presidential campaign is more hyped than the last, since hype is what corporate media sells.
But what happened to the champions of the Civil Rights movement– and their ideals? What was wrong with the words and actions of Huey Newton; Malcolm X; Dr. King – whose children are very upset by the government’s abandonment of a commitment to racial justice?
These men fought and died so that all of Black America could have the kinds of lives enjoyed today solely by the (African-American) “talented tenth.” The struggle is far from over!
What about the national Civil Rights Leaders in the United States?
In 2008, while preparing for an interview with Fox News, the Rev. Jesse Jackson apparently did not know that his microphone was on when he made the whispered comments to another guest as he prepared to do an interview. “See, Barack [has] been talking down to black people . . . I wanna cut his nuts out,” Jackson said.
But we have to look at this comment in context.
Jackson, who was shocked and maybe a little jealous at Barack Obama’s mass appeal, did not understand why a Black man, wielding this kind of “across the board popularity” still would not comment or take a position on behalf of Race, Civil Rights or the Black struggle in America.
Why hasn’t Obama addressed this issue since being elected President—other than continuing to talk down to Black people? In part it’s because his victory was contingent upon him having made a pact with white America, that he wouldn’t be like Jesse Jackson, and that he wouldn’t pursue and aggressive Civil Rights Agenda.
Rev. Al Sharpton is one of America’s most eloquent speakers- providing information on day-to-day life in black America, using his trademark in-your-face rhetorical style.
As of June of 2009, Rev. Sharpton has been seen as an ally of President Obama. The online political news blog, Politico wrote this on the “Odd Couple” pairing;
“It might be the oddest political pairing of the year. Barack Obama, whose campaign for president carefully avoided race-based political appeals, is teaming up with the man who practically perfected them: the Rev. Al Sharpton.
This double-take moment came last month (May 2009), with Sharpton holding court with reporters at the White House, fresh out of an Oval Office meeting with Obama in his role as co-founder of the bipartisan Education Equality Project.
So far, Sharpton has been to the White House more times, and for more close-up conversations with Obama, than the leaders of other long-established civil rights organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Urban League.”
Apparently, Sharpton has adopted the notion, “If you can’t beat em, join em.” While Sharpton’s visits to the White House are seen by many Black leaders as photo opportunities for Obama to show allegiance with the “real Black America,” others say that Sharpton is smart to keep President Obama within reach, ala: “keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
If President Obama’s ride in the White House becomes more “bumpy,” Sharpton has positioned himself to either support the first-term president or say, “I told him this was going to happen.” No matter what, Sharpton has positioned himself well.
The Minister Louis Farrakhan is another story entirely.
He will never be an administration insider. But black America needs Minister Farrakhan more now than ever. With his knowledge, wisdom and historical perspective, Farrakhan could be there to catch Black America as a whole and assist Jackson and Sharpton in repairing the eventual and pending damage of Black America’s infrastructure in the upcoming months.
Farrakhan, who has a no non-sense approach and is thrilled that there is a Black man in office as the president of theses United States said in an interview with ABC News that if Obama was avoiding controversial Black leaders like himself, Rev. Al Sharpton, and Rev. Jesse Jackson for fear of alienating white voters, this would be an acceptable price to pay.
But Minister Farrakhan also had this to say: “I haven’t made myself available to him … [and] he hasn’t made himself available to me.” As for the controversy over Obama’s early Muslim education, Farrakhan said that, “If anything, it should help him rather than hurt him.”
America has but three Black leaders that can address the disparities that keep Black America from achieving its goals of education, wealth (through employment) and independence. The struggle is not over, nor has it been addressed in a cordial and diplomatic way since the election of Barack Hussein Obama.
The catch-22 for Obama is this: if he were to place leaders like Farrakhan, Sharpton and Jackson into positions where they could truly empower and uplift black America, the notoriously-fickle mainstream media, who once made Obama their darling, would likely shift towards condemnation; unleashing a kind of “buyer’s remorse” among the wider white population, and all-but ensuring that he is voted out of office in 2012.
Slain civil rights leader Malcolm X once said, “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and guilty seem innocent – because they control the minds of the masses.”
Is this good for President Obama?
Through praise and condemnation Sharpton, Jackson and Farrakhan have remained consistent champions of the black community.
Only time will tell what will be the destiny of black American under the Obama presidency.
Prized Possessions: Media Politics and Missing (Black)Women
News from the Black Agenda Report
“In a nation of 300 million that’s half-female, only a select group is entitled to rank among the high-profile ‘missing,’ should they disappear. “In the national ‘victim-ocracy,’ small town, suburban and/or university affiliated white women get the most play as valued human
By Sikivu Hutchinson Orginally posted on the Black Agenda Report October 5, 2009.
“Location, race and gender play a pivotal role in the media’s fixation on missing person stories.”
When the L.A. Times runs a story on a missing black woman on the front page of its local features section it stimulates inquiring minds. How, in the super-charged climate of breathless cable news reports on Jaycee, Elizabeth Smart and their white sisterhood could such a feat of journalistic subversion be possible? In mid-September of this year 24 year-old Mitrice Richardson, an African American woman from South Los Angeles, went missing after being released from a Calabasas, California jail. Richardson had been arrested for apparently refusing to pay the tab for a meal she ate at a Malibu restaurant. Prior to the arrest, restaurant personnel and witnesses reported that she was behaving erratically and gave the appearance of being mentally ill. After authorities found marijuana in her car they arrested her on charges of “defrauding an innkeeper” and possession.
The Times chronicled the massive search made for Richardson by friends, relatives and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The story was also picked up by local news and has outraged African Americans nationwide. Questions swirl around the County Sheriff’s conduct in both the arrest and release of Richardson. Why, for example, was she not placed on a 72-hour psychiatric hold (a common practice when dealing with mentally ill “suspects”) when detained? And why, after being released from jail was she sent off into the dead of night in a remote area without a cell phone or vehicle? Families of missing and abducted people of color organize tirelessly to generate any shred of coverage they can get from the media in “post-racial” America. Tired of the media’s ritual indifference to the lives of black women in their community, the mothers of missing women in Edgecombe County in North Carolina launched a billboard campaign called MOMS (Missing or Murdered Sisters) to advertise a slew of suspected abductions and murders of black women in their area. So what distinguishes Richardson’s case from that of the scores of other missing and abducted people of color which seldom score even a few lines buried in a big city newspaper? Location is apparently the only factor that would warrant such an aberration.
“Families of missing and abducted people of color organize tirelessly to generate any shred of coverage they can get from the media in “post-racial” America.”
The Malibu sightings of Richardson were evidently so jarring for local white residents that they elicited instant recollection from those reported to have seen her. Unlike other missing person cases tainted by the urban “grit” of South Los Angeles and other communities of color where crime is perceived to be the cultural norm, the crime free veneer of an almost exclusively white community in which “it’s strange to see a black woman walking in the (Malibu) canyon,” is the subtext. Location, race and gender play a pivotal role in the media’s fixation on missing person stories. In the national “victim-ocracy,” small town, suburban and/or university affiliated white women get the most play as valued human interest subjects and cultural possessions. The endless media loop of search parties, dragged lakes, crack of dawn patrols and tearful living room pleas from grieving family members only lodge in the public imagination as national pathos when “our” little hometown girls are at stake. As exceptions to the rule, Richardson’s case—coupled with the more prominent example of slain Vietnamese-American Yale University student Annie Le—illustrates the extent to which location can obscure the regime of white privilege and entitlement that frames the stories and lives deemed most valuable by the mainstream media.
“Small town, suburban and/or university affiliated white women get the most play as valued human interest subjects.”
Centered in a bastion of Ivy League power and privilege nestled uneasily in the racially segregated city of New Haven, the Le case garnered national attention in spite of Le’s ethnic background. As a member of the academic elite, Le represented a student body potentially imperiled by the urban dangers of crime-ridden housing “projects” and other undesirable areas. And as with any good colonialist private university regime (e.g., the University of Chicago and the University of Southern California) hell-bent on takeover of the “ghetto,” these untamed areas naturally sully a city’s cosmopolitan aspirations. Once it was discovered that Le was murdered by a white insider, and not an encroaching racial Other, the tabloid cable news mafia modulated its budding hysteria and moved on.
Clearly the racist “model minority” myth and the promotion of the docile, assailable Asian stereotype make Asian Americans more palatable to mainstream white society than African Americans. Le and Richardson’s backgrounds are dissimilar save for their being young women of color. Yet take away Le’s Yale pedigree and they would be “united” as victims of the mainstream media’s hierarchy of the disposable. For it is utterly certain that the mainstream media would not have deviated from its nationally sanctioned script of victimized white women if either Le or Richardson had gone missing in South L.A. or the “gritty” streets of New Haven.
Sikivu Hutchinson is the editor of blackfemlens.org and a commentator for Some of Us Are Brave, KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles.
Click here for more information on MOMS.
White Cop Walks In Killing Of Black Officer
“When will the conversation about race begin again? America has turned its back to the politics and events of race, color and status – only to yell “foul” if you’re a professor at an Ivy League University.” …IBNN
by JORDAN C. ALSTON August 15, 2009, 10:32am – Originally posted on Hip Hop Wired.com 
Racial tensions in the nation are at heights that have not been seen in decades. Be it North or South, hatred knows no barriers, with the point being brought home recently by none other than those tasked with protecting the masses. Officers of the law have long been at odds with members of minority communities, usually due to them using less than altruistic means to brandish their own form of cowboy-esque law enforcement procedures reminiscent of their predecessors from a bygone era.
Even still, racially motivated incidents from within their ranks are often never reported, creating a public front that would have a gullible citizenry believe that the only color police officers car about is blue emblazoned with a smidgeon of gold. In spite of that effort, recent activities have exhibited otherwise, as a racially charged case of cop-on-cop violence has ended with the scales of justice seemingly tipped in the favor of the melanin deficient aggressor.
On May 28th, Officer Omar Edwards was shot and killed while pursuing a man that he believed was responsible for breaking into his car. His murderer, Andrew Dunton, was none other than a fellow “brother” in blue. Stories by officers that witnessed the incident say Dunton yelled “Police. Don’t move. Drop the gun. Drop the gun” before opening fire on Edwards. Edwards was off-duty at the time and Dunton was in plain clothes.
Accounts after that detail vary, as a New York grand jury decided to settle on a version that had Edwards make eye contact with Dunton while “pointing” his gun toward him, a move which purportedly prompted the white officer to unleash six shots into the junior officer. The eye contact between the two officers led to the jury’s decision that will see no criminal action taken against officer Dunton, giving better incite into their decision that they deemed no criminal wrongdoing was committed.
The decision made in regard to the four-year NYPD vet came as less than shocking to members of the Black community, with Marquez Claxton of the Black Law Enforcement Alliance choosing to publicly decry its often too common similarity to other polarized, racially induced incidents.
“Well, first and foremost, it disturbingly predictable,” said Marquez to New York’s ABC affiliate. “Once again, we cannot have complete confidence in a process that relies so heavily on a relationship between the police department and the DA offices.”
The decision handed down by the grand jury finally allows for the NYPD to conduct an administrative review of the case, allowing them get Officer Dunton’s account of what happened on that infamous day in May.
Officer Edwards was a 25-year-old newlywed who left behind a wife and two young children.
Politics and Blacks
By Walter E. Williams -Bio
Originally Posted in Townhall.com
President Barack Obama won an unprecedented 96 percent of the black vote. That’s not much of a news story since blacks typically give their votes to the Democratic candidate. Blacks are probably the most politically loyal people in the nation and it is almost taken as gospel, at least among civil rights organizations and black and white liberals, that the only way black people can make socioeconomic progress is through the politics of race and special government programs. However, such a vision can be subjected to empirical evidence.
In 1940, when blacks were politically impotent, their poverty rate was 87 percent. By 1960, before blacks achieved much political power, it fell to 47 percent. During that interval, in various skilled trades, the incomes of blacks relative to whites more than doubled. Before 1960, there were no anti-poverty programs or affirmative action programs that can explain an economic advance that exceeded any other 20-year interval, though there were Truman and Eisenhower administration attacks on some of the gross forms of racial discrimination. A significant chunk of black progress occurred simply through migration from rural areas in the South to big Northern cities. Between 1960 and 1980, black poverty fell roughly 17 percent and continued falling to today’s 24 percent. The decline in black poverty between 1960 and 1980 might have simply been a continuation of a trend starting much earlier and cannot be attributed solely to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, President Johnson’s War on Poverty, or Richard Nixon’s affirmative action.
Most of the major problems that many black people face are not amendable to political solutions and government anti-poverty programs. Let’s look at some. In 1940, 86 percent of black children were born inside marriage, and the illegitimacy rate among blacks was about 15 percent. Today, only 35 percent of black children are born inside marriage, and the illegitimacy rate hovers around 70 percent. Today’s breakdown of the black family is unprecedented. It began in the 1960s with the War on Poverty and the harebrained ideas of the welfare state. In the mid-1960s, Daniel Moynihan sounded the alarm about the breakdown in the black family in his book “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action.” At that time black illegitimacy was 26 percent. Moynihan said, “(A)t the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of the Negro society is the deterioration of the Negro family.” He added, “The steady expansion of welfare programs can be taken as a measure of the steady disintegration of the Negro family structure over the past generation in the United States.” Moynihan’s observations were greeted with charges of racism and blaming the victim. By the way, the welfare state is an equal opportunity family destroyer. Today’s illegitimacy rate among whites, at nearly 30 percent, is higher than it was among blacks in the 1960s when Moynihan sounded the alarm. In Sweden, the mother of the welfare state, illegitimacy is 54 percent. Read more
Hitchhiking for compliance on Minnesota’s roads and highways, who will facilitate a facilitation for the facilitators at MnDOT?
“The Civil Rights Office of MnDOT (Minnesota Department of Transportation) is committed to ensure equal opportunity for all businesses and personnel on The Minnesota Department of Transportation and Public Facilities projects. To hold policies to ensure that no person be excluded from participation, or be denied benefits, based on race, religion, color, gender, age, marital status, ability, or national origin.”
The Law: 49 CFR Part 26.7 states:
a. You must never exclude any person from participation in, deny any person the benefits of, or otherwise discriminate against anyone in connection with the award and performance of any contract covered by this part on the basis of race, color, sex, or national origin.
b. In administering your DBE program, you must not, directly or through contractual or other arrangements, use criteria or methods of administration that have the effect of defeating or substantially impairing accomplishment of the objectives of the program with respect to individuals of a particular race, color, sex, or national origin.
What happened at MnDOT?
H.I. R.E. Minnesota (www.hiremn.org) based in north Minneapolis, one of the state’s largest advocate’s for jobs in the construction and green trades, has battled with the practices of MnDOT’s “lack of inclusion” on road and highway projects in the State of Minnesota.
Louis King co-chair of HIRE Minnesota says, “We’re not asking for any ‘handouts’ – just the opportunity to get trained participants jobs working on Minnesota roads and highways, hence, equal opportunity for all businesses and personnel on The Minnesota Department of Transportation and Public Facilities projects.”
The late Dr. Martin Luther King in his prophetic last speech (1968) said, “All we say to America is be true to what you said on paper.”
On paper as well as the MnDOT website, MnDOT’s inner office agency or the “minority conduit” to assure checks and balances as it pertains to minority-ethnic compliance the Civil Rights Department states the following:
1. To promote fair and equitable public service, advocating non-discriminatory treatment in providing transportation services.
2. To ensure transportation services are provided in a non-discriminatory manner.
3. To ensure equal opportunity in employment, participation, benefits, services, and contracts.
4. To eliminate discrimination.
5. To increase the number of businesses owned by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals in the highway and bridge construction industry.
These five points heinously say, “Okay, I don’t have to ride in back of the bus and someday MnDOT might have a level playing field.” Read more
North Minneapolis Politics: Part 3: What is the Strategic Plan for the Empowerment Zone? Where has it “worked” in North Minneapolis?
On 2005 12/01/2005 the Minneapolis Empowerment Zone (EZ) announced the release of a $1 million Request for Proposals (RFP) for the purpose of spurring private investment in North Minneapolis. “The idea is to encourage businesses and organizations to locate on or expand in the Northside for job creation and increase economic development,” said Jonathan Palmer, former head of Minneapolis EZ (circa 2005).
In a phone call today (7/16/09) to Maria Conley, EZ Project Coordinator, who says the EZ has “no money,” it makes you wonder what really happened to millions of dollars meant to build, brand, and grow a blighted community. One of 14 areas zoned by the Federal Government as an Empowerment Zone, meant to uplift and build blighted areas like north Minneapolis. (City of Minneapolis Empowerment Zone Areas)-(Link: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/ez/docs/ez-map.PDF)
When viewing the list of recipients, payments and status as of 2009, (which you can view “everything” here: http://ibnn.org/ez – Excell Workbook) it would seem that the EZ missed its mark as it pertains to the mission of assisting groups challenged by racial disparity and poverty, while race and class paid a huge part on who actually received the dollars from the Empowerment Zone.
Take a visit to the City of Minneapolis website visit the section titled The Minneapolis Empowerment Zone at (http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/ez/govboard.asp), when you arrive at the page, click on the link for “Strategic Plan.”
There is no “Strategic Plan” – file not found.
Could this be another example of the City of Minneapolis flying by the seat of its pants and failing Minneapolis along with other catastrophic failures like the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights?
Minneapolis is long overdue for a “better breed” of politicians, representatives and even self-appointed leaders who will address the issues, not covertly throwing “hams” to people that don’t live in north Minneapolis or don’t look like us.
North Minneapolis residents (Black and White) must be “frosty” and pay attention to the plans of City Hall for our community. Still as we move forward, no “official” statement from the 5th CD Congressman, who could flex his perceived political power and address many items.
Secondly, we have to address agencies that are “business focused” like the West Broadway Business Area Coalition, whom for the most part is carrying water for the Peace Foundation and a couple of local politicians. It is IBNN’s position that this non-profit be dissolved or re-structured to be an effective entity for Businesses in north Minneapolis.
When we read the description on what the EZ does, it comes to question who in the area challenged by racial disparity and poverty are they talking about? North Minneapolis or NoMi has not changed much, despite the Billions of dollars over the last 10 years pumped in for programs, roads, buildings and to build capacity for residents that are $12,000 under the median income of the City of Minneapolis as a whole.
The website goes on to say, “The majority of Minneapolis’ minority population resides within the EZ, and close to one-third of all EZ households are on public assistance. The extreme poverty of EZ residents coupled with racial discrimination directly affects the health of EZ children and their families.
The Minneapolis Empowerment Zone or EZ, has for the most part completed projects like the Midtown YWCA which according to them, located at 21st Avenue and East Lake Street, the facility lies in the heart of this underserved community and gives residents a chance to improve their health more conveniently than ever.
The Empowerment Zone and rumors of multi-forgiveness’s makes us wonder, what is the plan; who is part of the plan and looking at North Minneapolis: “Where are the deliverables to the community?”
IBNNNEW- Apology to the North Minneapolis Community. We don’t have leaders, we have self-appointed spokespersons Donald Allen
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- IBNN Exclusive Report: Youth with weapon attempts to enter funeral of Alisha “Lele” Neely (Captured on Film) Donald Allen
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