Instant Blackness with a ticket and a name badge at the General Mills Foundation’s – MLK Breakfast 2010
The closer we get to the beginning of 2010, and the possibility of Corporate America getting closer to “Blackness” in anticipation of Martin Luther King’s birthday and Black History Month, there are important questions that we must ask ourselves. Why has Black America let the commemoration of our history and achievements slip into the hands of White commercialization?
By Donald W.R. Allen, II – Editor in Chief/IBNN
In 1961, my birth certificate said I was born a Negro. In 2009, given the existence of a playing field that is only semi-level—and even that, only for certain blacks- black Americans as a whole are still in the “Realm of Negroism.”
On January 18 2010, General Mills Foundation and the United Negro College Fund will present the 20th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Breakfast.
The Breakfast “is an opportunity to celebrate the legacy of service of Dr. King and create an imperative to live out his legacy today in our homes, our communities and our world,” according to the MLK Breakfast website.
But wait. Next question.
Just what is Dr. King’s legacy? And how can we claim to honor this legacy, with no real engagement with the urgent issues that affect people of color every day?
Dr. King’s legacy cannot be lived and made real today over breakfast and tea, but requires grassroots organizing, protest, and activism. To fully understand this fact, we must look at the history of the Civil Rights Movement.
The Civil Rights Movement was at a peak from 1955-1965. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, guaranteeing basic civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race, after nearly a decade of nonviolent protests and marches, ranging from the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycotts to the student-led sit-ins of the 1960s to the huge March on Washington in 1963.
We must realize that Dr. Martin Luther King’s words and actions were considered radical at the time. They gained popularity because he spoke Truth to the People of the United States. Dr. King said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Today, Black America has become mute and non-confrontational. Read more
We Boycott General Mills Incorporated (Brands/Products) and the General Mills Foundation (People)
“They give to the Susan G. Comen Walk for the Cure which in turn grants money to Planned Parenthood. I’d have nothing to do with a group that is helping inadvertently to kill so many black children.” …Anonymous
Part 2 in a 4-part series titled, “Riding the Minority-Ethnic Train all the way to the Bank” – with the assistance of local and national journalists, IBNN will bring to light major non-profit organizations, foundations and corporate giants that ride the minority-ethnic train all the way to the bank and provide no service to the community. In some cases these organizations do give dollars to the underserved communities of color –but just enough to help them fail. A perpetual circle of the haves and have-not.
We demand that General Mills recognize the existence of a strong minority-ethnic media in the Twin Cities and the world and start to use ethnic-media with the same spending levels or matched frequency comparable to mainstream media, advertising and message distribution.
In 2009, the Black community will no longer tolerate companies like General Mills, Inc and others who ride the coat-tails of African Americans (or other racial or ethnic minority groups) during the months of January and February in celebration of Martin Luther King’s Holiday and Black History Month. General Mills, who loves to ride the “communities of color gravy train”, has consistently and strategically disseminated information such as the following announcement during holidays such as MLK or Black History Month.
“The General Mills Foundation plans to award a total of $500,000 in grants to Twin Cities’ organizations that serve communities of color. Foundation president Chris Shear announced the plans at the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday breakfast Monday morning. The foundation will award a total of 50 grants of $10,000 each in two batches: 25 in the spring and 25 in the fall. The grant application deadline for the first round is April 1. The General Mills Foundation has been making grants for 50 years. In 2003, the Foundation awarded $77 million to communities across the country, an amount representing more than 5 percent of company pretax profits. (Source: Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal 2004).”
Giving local non-profits $10,000 a piece is just enough money to keep them begging for more, or fail.
We propose that General Mills, Inc consider building a production plant in north Minneapolis, not far from their corporate headquarters, which could manufacture the bags and boxes for their products. Building a plant would create the economic stimulus to generate the needed jobs/employment and spending levels to help the communities in north Minneapolis thrive and become self-sustaining.
In 2007, a request was made by local Black media through an agency called Your Black Wall Street (YBWS-The Agency) – a business directory with news and information designed to enhance education, wealth and independence for the Black, Asian, Hispanic-Latino and Somali communities in the Twin Cities. The request was simple: To have all minority-ethnic media represented at the annual General Mills MLK Breakfast (Martin Luther King Breakfast – click on link for more information) not to sell or disseminate information, but to allow those in attendance know that the minority-ethnic media was alive and well in Minneapolis/St. Paul. With the covert assistance from the United Negro College Fund (which should change its motto from, “Give to the United Negro College Fund. A mind is a terrible thing to waste” to “Money is a terrible thing to waste!”), all efforts to have minority-ethnic media represented were refused and YBWS-The Agency was blocked from renting space in the Minneapolis Convention Center by General Mills and the United Negro College Fund.
With a record profit forecast in 2009, we feel that General Mills Inc (and the General Mills Foundation) should support the minority-ethnic media by spending dollars in print, television and radio that are comparable to the dollars they spend to support mainstream media. A large percentage of the poor in the United States get W.I. C. vouchers to buy GMI products, but GMI turns its nose up at minority-ethnic media except for “trinket-negro” spending during MLK and Black History Month. A $10,000.00 dollar advertising schedule in a minority-ethnic media outlet to do outreach for a cause or program will go a lot further than awarding a non-profit dollars to show your annual “Black Alliance.”We ask you to join and support this Global boycott of General Mills products and brands from now until March 2009. Please invite your friends and their friends. See the link for GM products and brands not to purchase.
In closing, it doesn’t matter if your Black or White, Democrat or Republican – we have to start today taking back or basic rights to be heard and not taken for granted any longer by big companies that will someday want our tax dollars to bail them out!
The gravy train stops in 2009!
Join the Boycott on FaceBook at www.facebook.com by signing the petition.
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