USA Radical Black

Ugly Truth: Most U.S. Kids Sentenced to Die In Prison Are Black

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Originally Posted November 11, 2009.

The U.S. stands alone in the world in condemning thousands of juveniles to life without parole. And race is a huge factor. Will the Supreme Court even consider it?

This is the second in a two-part series on juvenile life without parole. Read Part One here.

On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court heard two cases that could have major implications for the way juvenile offenders are treated in our criminal justice system. Sullivan v. Florida and Graham v. Florida both involve men who are serving life without the possibility of parole for crimes they were convicted of as teenagers — crimes in which no one was killed.

Joe Sullivan was only 13 years old when he was accused of sexually assaulting a 72-year-old woman in her Pensacola, Fla., home, hours after he and a group of older teenagers robbed her house. Sullivan, who reportedly suffers from mental disabilities, insisted that, while he participated in the robbery, he did not commit the rape. But his co-defendants, 15-year-old Michael Gulley and 17-year-old Nathan McCants, 17 pinned the crime on him. Both were tried as juveniles; Sullivan was tried as an adult. Read More »

Jesse Jackson: ‘You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a Black man’

By Mike Soraghan – The Hill (Read related story from Your Black World – Jesse Jackson vs Artur Davis)

The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Wednesday night criticized Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) for voting against the Democrats’ signature healthcare bill.

“We even have blacks voting against the healthcare bill from Alabama,” Jackson said at a reception Wednesday night. “You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.”

The remark stirred a murmur at the reception, held by the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Foundation as part of a series of events revolving around the 25th anniversary of Jackson’s run for president. Several CBC members were in attendance, including Chairwoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who’d introduced Jackson.

Davis, who is running for governor, is the only black member of Congress from Alabama.

He is also the only member of the CBC to have voted against the health care bill earlier this month.

Davis referred to Jackson’s 1988 run for president in a statement, issued through his office, that said he would not engage Jackson on his criticism. Read More »

Technorati Test #1 -WNBFZ5XNP35K

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Open Letter to Mr. Gary Cunningham and Kevin Walker of the Northwest Area Foundation, Headwaters Foundation and State Representative Bobby Jo Champion (D-MN/58B) – “Where Does Black Leadership begin in Minnesota?”

On Saturday, November 21, 2009 an African American Leadership Forum will be held at General Mills starting at 7 a.m. -  the group of hand-picked, like-minded participants will insure that Black Minnesotans will achieve the same status-quo engagement while non-profit “fat cats” receive funding that never makes it past the agencies doors.

In the case of the now lack-luster Northway Community Trust who granted an out-of-town agency $50,000 for a survey of businesses on Broadway Avenue who never delivered a report – is one of the examples of Northwest Area Foundations “community engagements.”

The following email was sent to Northwest Area Foundations Gary Cunningham and President Kevin Walker:

Dear Mr. Cunningham and others,

I am writing to express my disdain for being lied to by you and the Foundation you represent regarding the African-American Leadership Forum tomorrow (11/21) at General Mills.

Northwest Area Foundation continues to overlook the community members who strive for social change aggressively and who are outspoken about social issues, when we are the people fighting in the trenches on a daily basis.  You promised in previous emails sent directly to me, that you would invite me and Mr. Edwards to this “leadership” meeting for a chance to dialog and observe the process.

Today, I spoke with Alfred Babington-Johnson from the Stairstep Foundation and Trista Harris from Headwaters Foundation and “hand-picked” participants to attend a “leadership forum” to be held on Saturday, November 21, 2009 starting at 7 a.m. and once again, you have overlooked inviting major activists in the Twin Cities and people who could create real change.

By working with those you feel comfortable with, lends itself to collusion, corruption and no results to no successful measurable outcome for the community. Read More »

MLK Breakfast Part II: Go Ahead “Celebrate,” while your having breakfast…2 Million Black Households With Children Face Hunger

Source: Feeding America

Again the community is pimped, played and starved.

1.8 million Black Households with children are food insecure – Black households with children experiencing very low food security up 92%

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA) reported yesterday that almost one in four children living in the United States are food insecure. According to the 2009 report on Household Food Insecurity in the United States, there is a striking disparity in the prevalence of food insecurity among black children. Nearly two million black households with children were food insecure at least some time during the year, an increase of 25 percent over 2007. In 2008, there were 3.76 million non-Hispanic white households with children that were food insecure. The study also revealed that 146,000 black households with children — a 92 percent increase over 2007 — experienced very low food security, meaning that the food intake of one or more of the household children was reduced and their eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year because the household lacked money.

This marks the largest increase in food insecurity rates among African-American households with children since the USDA has been collecting data. Very low food insecurity for non-Hispanic whites rose 35 percent during the same period.

“Importantly, these numbers reflect the state of the nation one year ago, in 2008. Since then, the economy has significantly weakened, and there are likely many more children of varying ethnicity struggling with hunger than this report states,” said Vicki Escara, president and CEO of Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization. “It is an outrage that one in four children in this nation lives on the brink of hunger and doesn’t have access to adequate amounts of nutritious food.”

The new data reinforces recent findings from a research study conducted by Feeding America reflecting a dramatic increase in requests for emergency food assistance from food banks across the country. Conducted in September, the Feeding America study shows that more than half of its network food banks reported seeing more children as clients.

“This study reveals particularly tragic realities facing many black families with children. We know that inadequate nutrition in children often delays their cognitive development and cannot be restored later in life,” said Escarra. “Feeding America will continue to focus on expanding programs to hungry and at-risk kids to ensure that our future engines of economic growth are strong adults.

“Feeding America’s 200 food banks continue to work on the front lines feeding more than 25 million people each year, through our country’s food pantries, soup kitchens, and emergency feeding centers — more than 63,000 agencies in total,” said Escarra. “These establishments, many of which are grass root and faith based centers operated solely by volunteers, serve as an oasis for the more than 4 million people who seek relief weekly to help feed themselves and their families. Emergency food assistance is a critical link in the nation’s response chain to help people through times of crisis.”

Escarra observes, “Our network food banks are calling us every day, telling us that demand for emergency food is higher than it has ever been in our history. Feeding America will continue to work closely with our partners at USDA to ensure that the public and charitable sectors are keeping pace — as best we can — with the dramatically increasing needs for food assistance.”

‘Post-Racial’ America? Not Yet. NAACP Legal Defense Fund Releases Report on Why the Fight for Voting Rights Continues After the Election of President Barack Obama

(SOURCE: NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund)– The NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s (LDF) Political Participation Group, released “Post-Racial” America? Not Yet, a report detailing why the fight for voting rights continues one year after the historic election of President Barack Obama.

“Amid the excitement of President Obama’s election, ‘post-racial’ has become a powerful buzzword in our social and political lexicon, and some have asserted that America has completely overcome the racially discriminatory practices that have endured long past the work of the Civil Rights Movement,” said John Payton, LDF President and Director-Counsel.

“President Barack Obama’s election as the first African American President marks continued progress toward our highest ideals of freedom and equality, and affords all Americans great hope about the promises of our Constitution,” said Ryan P. Haygood, Co-Director of LDF’s Political Participation Group. “Yet some mistake this critical milestone as the end of our nation’s ongoing journey toward racial equality.”

With voting as its focus, this report confronts the myth that President Obama’s election ushered America into a “post-racial” era by examining two recent developments in the area of race and politics. Read More »

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?

(Source The Independent Business News Network)

Minneapolis, MN (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 »

Black elementary students told to act like slaves – in 2009

By Matt Roberts, November 13 (originally posted 11/8) New Orleans News – The Examiner

WAXHAW, N.C. — A history lesson that asked black elementary students to act like slaves has sparked protests from parents and teachers at a North Carolina school Wednesday.

During a field trip to Latta Plantation, three students from Rea View Elementary in Waxhaw were chosen by tour guide Ian Campbell to wear bags and mimic picking cotton while their white classmates looked on, WSOC-TV, Charlotte, reported Friday.

Many of the teachers and parents from the elementary school said they plan on writing the leaders of the plantation regarding the racially insensitive history lesson.

Campbell said “I was trying to be historically correct not politically correct,” Campbell adds, “I am very enthusiastic about getting kids to think about how people did things in 1860, 1861 — even before that period,”  who added he has been a historian for 15 years.

Kojo Nantambu, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, criticized the lesson.

“There is a lingering pain, a lingering bitterness, a lingering insecurity and a lingering sense of inhumanity since slavery. Because that’s still there, you want to be more sensitive than politically correct or historically correct,” he said.

Facebook alibi saves jailed Black teen

By ERIN CALABRESE – New York Post/November 12, 2009

Pass the syrup — this lucky guy is eating breakfast at home instead of on Rikers Island.

A Brooklyn teen’s playful Facebook message to his pregnant girlfriend about pancakes sprung him from jail and helped him avoid years in prison for a holdup he didn’t commit.

Prosecutors dropped a robbery charge against Rodney Bradford, 19, after learning his Facebook account status had been updated with the inside joke “WHERE MY IHOP?” from a computer in his dad’s Harlem apartment one minute before an Oct. 17 stickup of two men in Brooklyn’s Farragut Houses.

“They had me on Rikers Island for 12 days. It was really miserable,” Bradford told The Post last night.
“If it wasn’t for Facebook I’d still be on Rikers Island.”

His joyful stepmom, Ernestine Bradford, agreed, saying. “Facebook saved my son,” she said. “Normally, we yell at our kids, ‘Oh, you’re on the computer!” It’s completely different. If it wasn’t for Facebook, my son wouldn’t be here.” Read More »

Who’s Afraid of the Big Black Republican – Racism in the Republican Party

By Conor Friedersdorf – The Daily Beast

The GOP chairman’s comment that some white Republicans are afraid of him is just the latest reminder that our politics are hardly post-racial. Conor Friedersdorf on how the GOP can repair its image—and the myths the left perpetuates.

Did you hear the one about the Republican National Committee Chairman who agreed that whites in his party are afraid of talking to black people?

No joke.

“I’ve been in the room and they’ve been scared of me,” Michael Steele said. His unusual remark is the latest instance of Republican attitudes toward race making national headlines—and causing a headache for GOP officials, who are constantly trying to reverse the perception that their party is hostile to minorities.

The right should rethink its ideological commitment to the notion that racism isn’t a real problem in America anymore, even if they disagree about how it should be fought; and the left should alleviate suspicion that race is being used as an ideological cudgel by helping to stigmatize those who frivolously play the race card.

The single time the news media obsessed about racism in the Democratic Party came during the Election ‘08 primary, when several Hillary Clinton supporters in states like West Virginia were seen on YouTube, during television interviews, and on The Daily Show saying bigoted things about Barack Obama. Soon Bill Clinton himself, sometimes praised in liberal circles as “our first black president,” found himself accused of racially questionable remarks. I wouldn’t put any politically advantageous trick past Slick Willie, but I never imagined that I’d see him being called on multicultural in-sensitivities as though he were a Republican pol. Read More »