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.
Naomi Campbell attacks companies for ‘dropping’ black models in recession
Article originally from the Telegraph.co.uk (Digital Publisher of the year).
We (people of color), have the power to control spending habits in the country. We can make advertisers, television stations, and brand names respect our dollars. In other words, “If you don’t see Black, put it back!” IBNN was made aware of this article by Ms. Michelle Renee of San Francisco, California.
(Photo: Sisters “Missing in Action.”)
Reprinted with permission.
The 39-year-old supermodel, who is a close friend of Sarah Brown, the Prime Minister’s wife, claims that major companies are refusing to use non-white women to promote their products.
“This year, we have gone back all the way that we had advanced,” she says. “I don’t see any black woman, or of any other race, in big advertising campaigns.“
Campbell, who was born in London to a mother of Caribbean descent, refers to the publication last year of a special edition of Italian Vogue dedicated to non-white models.
“That made some noise, but, unfortunately, we are the same as before,” she says. “People, in the panic of the recession, don’t dare to put a girl of colour in their campaign, full stop. Nor of any other race. It’s a shame. It’s very sad.“
The model, who is a friend of Nelson Mandela, has won support from Bruce Oldfield, the designer of the wedding dress worn by Samantha Cameron, the wife of the Tory leader. Read more
“You guys have a Black President, what more do you want?” From Abe to Barack, racism continues and nothing has “Changed”
by Donald W.R. Allen, II – editor in chief of the Independent Business News Network
More than 50 years ago, Malcolm X said, “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
Too many mainstream radio, television and print media outlets in the Twin Cities, actively deny residents the opportunity to see, hear and read news about the local minority-ethnic population.
News and information racism – a form of structural, systemic racism, manifests itself in the form of a virtual blackout in terms of reporting on events that take place day-to-day in the local population of color. In other words, “White News,” appears be the only “Right News.”
On Friday, August 21, 2009 a press conference was held in north Minneapolis to discuss an upcoming engagement with local activists overseeing the remodeling of foreclosed homes. The problem? Minnesota’s “trusted news source” never showed up. Nothing new!
When Blacks or other people of color call press conferences, the local media does not seem to feel moved or obligated to cover events of this nature.
This week in the Twin Cities, no minority-ethnic news item could possibly top Brett Favre becoming a Minnesota Viking. While newsrooms hurried to get crews to the Viking training camp, the minority-ethnic population of the Twin Cities became the shadow of concern, again – no news is good news?
On Friday August 21, 2009, the Barnes and Noble stores at the Mall of America and at the Galleria decided that a published black author, who was a star athlete at the University of Minnesota, and is today a highly-regarded motivational speaker, was not an appropriate candidate for a book signing at their stores because of their customer base.
When IBNN called the Mall of America branch of the company, customer relations manager Mike Sedki told us, “The author you speak of is not a good fit for the MOA. Our guests are from all over the world – they wouldn’t be interested in the author or his book. We want authors like Marie Osmond and Buzz Aldridge at this store.”
If you want to clean the bathrooms, there’s always a place for minorities at the Mall of America.
Despite the election of a black man as president, news distribution outlets continue to overlook, bypass, and hoodwink the minority-ethnic community, by failing to consider their news to be “news that’s fit to print.”
It’s like, “You guys got a Black President, what more do you want?”
In 2009, Black males are still most often portrayed as a menace to society. Black females appear routinely as hoes or sex objects, and the mainstream media has done little to show the American public that those stereotypes are incorrect.
Soledad O’Brian’s highly touted “Black in America” CNN mini-series is a patronizing, simplistic portrait of the American-American community, that appeals to the voyeuristic curiosity of the liberal White audience, but has no real substance or meaning. The show should be called “Black in America (Made for Whites).”
As an article from Science Daily (July 17, 2008) reports, “Watching the news should make you more informed, but it also may be making you more likely to stereotype. . . . In a pair of recently published studies, [one] professor found that the more people watched local or network news, the more likely they were to draw on negative stereotypes about blacks.” (*University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2008, July 17). Negative Perception of Blacks Rises with more News Watching, Studies Say.)
Of course, if a Black man shoots himself in a night club and gets two years in jail –that’s news.
If a Black man commits a heinous crime, it’s on at 5, 6 and 10.
Other than the above examples, Blacks in the media are almost non-existent.
As another article from The Ohio State Research News titled, “African Americans Still Nearly Invisible in Media,” states, “While African Americans have made inroads into some parts of American society, they are still nearly invisible in many parts of the news media and the entertainment industry. . . . Rudolph Alexander, Jr., professor of social work, argues in a newly revised book that the media often ignores African Americans in stories of both heroes and victims, even when they are an integral part of the narrative. (From the book, “Racism, African Americans, and Social Justice, (Rowman and Littlefield, 2nd edition, 2005)
Black leaders in the Twin Cities and the broader US must address this ongoing disparity in coverage of a population that in 2025 is estimated to be the “majority” in the United States. (NY Times, “In a Generation, Minorities May Be the U.S. Majority,” by Sam Roberts, published on August 13, 2008)
“Will the roles be reversed?
Will White America protest against the minority mainstream media for overlooking them?
For now, the mainstream media must be held accountable for the slice of “white cake” that they call news. Furthermore, mainstream media must broadcast and report on issues in the minority-ethnic community with “unconditional coverage.”
Now that’s love!
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
The Health Care Bill/Stimulus “Undressed”
IBNN Editors note: Take time – look into this Health Care Reform plan – it’s not what you think. In Minnesota’s Democrats are shoving Obama’s health care plan down our throats like it’s a “great thing,” but what they’re not telling you is you will lose most of the health care you receive now (if any), this includes those on MNCARE. You won’t just be able to “walk into an emergency room” when you’re sick. We, (people of color) don’t always have insurance; we are the first to wait until a problem gets worse; and we use the emergency room for our doctor’s office – we will be the first to die with Bill H.R. 3200. At some point (before this mess) federal and local government has given program grants to address the health disparities that affect the uninsured and poor. This Bill is what happens when we, the community don’t hold agencies accountable for lack of community outreach.
Contact your local Congressperson and tell them, “We’re not STUPID -The Government should not be in the Health Care Business! Research provided to IBNN by www.Reagan.org, Joshua H. Bolin – Executive Chairman
Reagan.org has done some research, and discovered that under Section 3001(c)(3)(A)(ii) of the Health Care Bill/Stimulus, the United States federal government will spend $20,000,000,000 (that’s two billion for those of you who got overwhelmed by all the zeroes) for “an electronic health record for each person in the United States by 2014.”
Additional provisions under 3001(c)(3)(A)(i) require that after the federal government creates a database containing your entire health history, it will also require — read this carefully — the “electronic exchange and use of [this] health information and the enterprise integration of such information.”
What does this mean for you? It means that if your physician, surgeon, hospital, dentist, emergency room caregivers, psychiatrist or any other health care provider takes federal money from ANY patient, then you will be subject to this database under Section 13112.
What kind of information would be filed away about you? The database is set to include obvious information like your physical and family health history, but would also record any thoughts you might have had and relayed to a doctor. So if you discuss (or even just mention) private marital issues, any drug use, genetically predisposed conditions, private abnormalities, concerns about mental or emotional health, etc., the federal government can access that extremely private information. And once your health is a government concern, they can regulate and legislate it — meaning it controls your ability to receive basic care and lifesaving treatment, your decisions to have and raise children, or even your suitability to exercise Constitutional rights such as owning firearms.
Additionally, a federal database containing such sensitive information would be an open invitation to hackers and or a foreign military to attempt to break in and steal records. Every day, databases maintained by the Pentagon, White House and Congress are attacked. If President Obama’s nationalized health care bill passes, your private data will be subject to the same attacks.
We simply cannot allow all of our information to be that vulnerable.
H.I.R.E. Minnesota files “Missing Persons Report” on Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT) – whose missing? …Hundreds people of color that should be hired by the agency to work on road construction projects throughout the state
Rally at MNDOT 11:45 am – 1 pm, Thursday, July 23, 2009. (Minnesota Department of Transportation is located at Transportation Building, 395 John Ireland Boulevard, Saint Paul, MN 55155. Click here for map.
Earlier this month, H.I.R.E Minnesota asked people from around the state to contact the Office of Energy Security to let them know that we expect them to be accountable to low-income communities and communities of color. Thanks to your help, we are moving negotiations forward to make that happen. We’ll keep you updated.
At the same time, there is another state agency we need to hold accountable: The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT).
Join us this Thursday as we file a missing persons report at MNDOT!
Meet on the lawn across the street from the MNDOT Headquarters (in the MNDOT cafeteria in case of rain)
Each year, MNDOT gives hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money to private contractors to build and repair our roads, bridges and transit ways.
They know they are supposed to meet their modest goals for women and minority contracting, hiring and training. They know because they’ve been told by the federal government, by community groups, by workforce development programs and by HIRE Minnesota, including many of you who came to hearings this spring.
Yet year after year MNDOT fails to meet its goals. Drive by any local construction site and you’ll notice whose missing: workers of color.
But MNDOT now tells us that we are asking them to move “too fast” to meet their goals!
We’d like you to help us file a missing persons report with MNDOT. Please join us at the MNDOT headquarters this Thursday. We need to remind MNDOT that they need to be accountable by giving opportunities to people from our community.
NAACP Celebrates 100…Continue to R.I.P., there’s a lot of Crap going on out here…where you guys at?”
In Minnesota the NAACP is virtually invisible. While trying to build capacity, the local chapter has been plagued by mismanagement of people, places and things to include funds. The video below is a prime example of how the NAACP is viewed and the level of disrespect directed towards the organization and Black people as a whole. Sometimes you wonder who is responsible for the catastrophic failure of Black organizations (locally and nationally) – sometimes all you have to do is look at the brothers or sisters sitting at the table…
The following story about the NAACP was sent to IBNN. Sound familiar? We didn’t think so…
NAACP Celebrates 100 Years…
Founded on February 12, 1909 – the NAACP is the nation’s oldest, largest and most widely recognized grassroots-based civil rights organization. It’s more than half-million members and supporters throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors. Read more
IBNNNEW- North Minneapolis: NAACP President “Uncovers” two of the North side seven and an estimated $4 million dollars Donald Allen
- Apology to the North Minneapolis Community. We don’t have leaders, we have self-appointed spokespersons Donald Allen
- The Death of North Minneapolis… Donald Allen
- IBNN Exclusive Report: Youth with weapon attempts to enter funeral of Alisha “Lele” Neely (Captured on Film) Donald Allen
- WCCO 4 (CBS) Television fails in journalistic integrity with “edited and spliced” tape of the Minneapolis Police Beating of Ira Stafford…rating F- Donald Allen
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