Faye Anderson: NAACP Civil Rights and Civil Wrongs

The NAACP is the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. I have known just about every chief executive officer since the 1980s, from the late Ben Hooks to Ben Jealous.

Some longtime Board members are also longtime friends and colleagues.

I attended the NAACP’s Civil Rights School at Harvard Law School in 2007.

Still, I have been called a hater for pointing out that Wells Fargo is a lead sponsor of the NAACP’s 101st annual convention.

Whatever. It’s not what they call you, it’s what you answer to. And as sports agent Scott Boras famously observed:

If you are really effective at what you do, 95 percent of the things said about you will be negative.

I have been writing about the subprime mortgage crisis for quite a while. I’ve also organized housing symposia and policy sessions for the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.

Study after study after study shows African Americans were targeted by subprime lenders.

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News: NCAA Signs Record Deal: Still Doesn't Pay Athletes Anything

The NCAA men's basketball tournament is expanding, starting next season, but not on the large scale once expected.

The sport's signature event will grow to 68 teams from 65 in conjunction with a new 14-year, nearly $11 billion television agreement with CBS and Turner Sports announced Thursday. That gives the NCAA a 41% hike in annual media and marketing rights connected to the tournament — and "financial stability through the first quarter of this century," interim President Jim Isch said — without the controversy of a more dramatic move to a 96-team bracket.

Negotiations with CBS/Turner, ESPN and Fox Sports initially had targeted a 96-team field, drawing concern and criticism from traditionalists and others over the impact on the tournament's aesthetics, effect on college basketball's regular season and conference tournaments and potential for further intrusion on players' time and studies.

 

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African American Bloggers on Newsone.com - 3/11/10

Rev. Al Sharpton

Founder and President of the National Action Network (NAN), Rev Sharpton is one of most-renowned civil rights leaders in the country. Pres Obama called him “the voice of the voiceless and a champion for the downtrodden."

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Dr. Boyce Watkins

The Bottom Line

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and author of the book, "Black American Money." For more information, please visit www.YourBlackWorld.com.

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RK Byers

Rich's Rant

Novelist, screenwriter and edtor RK Byers has spent a career speaking his mind on all topics from sports to news. His work has appeared in consumer publications including The Source and GIANT.

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Elon James White

This Week In Blackness

"This Week in Blackness" is a satirical look at race, politics and pop-culture in a so-called “post-racial” America.

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Warren Ballentine

Radio host Warren Ballentine, "The People's Attorney," will provide you with all the legal and financial advice you need to keep up in today’s fast-paced world. Visit his website at www.thetruthfighters.com.

Why Athletes Still Don’t get paid

by Dr. Boyce Watkins 

I was invited this week to speak to the Stanford University NAACP about whether or not college athletes should be paid.  When I am asked whether I think college athletes should be compensated for their labor, I simply respond to the question with another question:  “Why shouldn’t they get paid?  Did they not earn the money?  Is someone else earning money from their labor? Is the labor of the athlete essential to the revenue-generating process?”  Answers to these questions help us to understand how insane it is that athletes earn billions of dollars for coaches, but aren’t entitled to any of that money for themselves.  I’ve seen race horses get better deals than that.

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Dr. Michael Fauntroy Speaks on Felon Voting

by Dr. Michael Fauntroy

“I don’t want everybody to vote.  Elections are not won by a majority of the people.  They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now.  As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”
– Conservative activist Paul Weyrich, at a 1980 training session for Christian conservatives
    While there are a number of very worthy issues that need to be addressed in this area, I propose that we include the issue of felon disenfranchisement in our deliberations.  Felon disenfranchisement is critical as it impacts the outcomes of elections throughout the country.  Too often, conservative, anti-minority candidates are elected because of the disproportionate removal of African Americans and other minorities from the election rolls.  As the policies that disenfranchise felons disproportionately impacts African Americans (both those caught up in the criminal justice system AND the larger Black public which does not get the policies that it could because supportive people are not elected to office), we must understand it undermines the policies that we believe to be helpful to our community.

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Your Black Politics: Cop Not Indicted for Shooting Unarmed Man

NEW ORLEANS – A grand jury on Thursday declined to indict a white police officer who shot an elderly black man in the small Louisiana town of Homer in a case that heightened racial tension and sparked protests.

The panel returned a “no true bill,” meaning the case won’t go to trial, after considering and rejecting a range of charges including murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide against former police officer Tim Cox.

Many in the rural town of 3,800 were outraged by the shooting last February of Bernard Monroe, a 73-year-old left voiceless by cancer. Police said Monroe was armed when he was shot outside his home, but witnesses said he didn’t have a weapon.

The grand jury heard testimony from 20 witnesses over two days, said Kurt Wall, director of the criminal division of the state attorney general’s office. The attorney general handled the case after the local prosecutor recused himself.

“We believe it was a full, complete, accurate and thorough presentation conducted at a neutral site. We respect the grand jury’s decision,” Wall said.

An FBI spokeswoman said the bureau is continuing to investigate the case.

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Dr Boyce on CNN: Harry Reid’s Racist Remarks

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had to backpedal and apologize very quickly for a private conversation he had with Barack Obama during Obama's presidential campaign. In the discussion, Reid stated that Obama could be a successful candidate because he is "light skinned" and that he speaks with "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."
Two journalists, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, made this assertion in a book to be released next Tuesday.
"He [Reid] was wowed by Obama's oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama - a 'light-skinned' African American 'with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,' as he said privately. Reid was convinced, in fact, that Obama's race would help him more than hurt him in a bid for the Democratic nomination," they write.

 

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Black Commentators Have something to Say - 12/23/09

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  Milton Kent

  Media & women's basketball writer for Fanhouse.com

  NFL finally comes to on impact of head trauma

  9:36 AM on 12/23/2009

  OPINION - On October 28, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was slammed about a House Judiciary Committee hearing room like a quarterback facing a blitz....

  > MORE

• 

  Karanja Gaçuça

  Freelance filmmaker, writer, blogger and Political Consultant.

  Obama and Dems weak-kneed on health care

  7:40 AM on 12/22/2009

  OPINION - Is the health care bill, as it is, worth the political capital that it has cost the President and the Democratic congress? ...

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• 

  Kristen Clarke

  Co-Director of the Political Participation Group at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund

  Slideshow: 12 key civil rights moments of the decade

  10:26 AM on 12/21/2009

  OPINION - The first decade of the new century has been marked by incredible triumphs, ongoing challenges, and a number of historic moments......

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• 

  Dr. Boyce Watkins

  Author and Finance Professor at Syracuse University

  NCAA's educational mission is great scam of 21st century

  9:41 AM on 12/21/2009

  OPINION - For the NCAA, the educational mission of their professional sports league is one of the great scams of the 20th and 21st centuries, no different from the Ponzi schemes of Bernie Madoff......

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• 

  Clarence Haynes

  Writer for VIBE, Newsday, The Source, Publishers Weekly, and Giant Magazine.

  Avatar: A timely message of respect for native people and environment

  6:31 AM on 12/21/2009

  REVIEW - Avatar is a reminder of the lessons to be learned from indigenous cultures and the respect and honor that must be paid to the environment....

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• 

  Glenn Minnis

  Sports contributor

  Chris Henry's missteps don't outshine memories of a good heart

  9:01 AM on 12/18/2009

  OPINION - In the ego-driven world of professional sports, it says a lot about a player, about man when all of his teammates seem to genuinely share an affinity for him....

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• 

  Javier E. David

  Writer

  Bankers' bonuses benefit Main Street

  7:11 AM on 12/18/2009

  OPINION - Amid all the sound and fury generated by banking bonuses, left unspoken are the external benefits that those amounts provide to large states....

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• 

  Shamara Riley

  Editor of BookerRising.net

  China's 'One-Child' laws won't translate for African-American women

  8:25 AM on 12/17/2009

  OPINION - The adoption of China's one-child policy in the US would have a disproportionately negative impact on women of color....

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  Kenyon Farrow

  National Public Education Director for Queers for Economic Justice

  Conspiracy theories about HIV do real harm

  10:00 AM on 12/16/2009

  OPINION - HIV/AIDS conspiracy theories circulate in homes, barber shops, churches, and among activists in the African-American community....

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The Black News Breakdown – 12/23/09

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  Woman held in Hawaii after Michelle Obama threat

  By theGrio

  8:25 AM on 12/23/2009

  HONOLULU (AP) - A woman accused of telling the Secret Service she would "blow away" Michelle Obama was in federal custody as the Obama family planned to travel to Hawaii...

  > MORE

• 

  Caught on tape: Man run over by car

  By theGrio

  5:01 PM on 12/22/2009

  VIDEO - A Florida man is recovering after being run over during a dispute over a parking space.The brutal incident was caught on tape...

  > MORE

• 

  Ndamukong Suh is AP College Football Player of the year

  By theGrio

  4:24 PM on 12/22/2009

  NEW YORK (AP) - Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh bulled past the guys who play the glamour positions and proved you don't have to score touchdowns...

  > MORE

• 

  NFL to ask players to donate brains for concussion research

  By theGrio

  3:44 PM on 12/22/2009

  The NFL is partnering with Boston University brain researchers who have been critical of the league's stance on concussions...

  > MORE

• 

  Kool & the Gang gives rare concert in Havana

  By theGrio

  2:55 PM on 12/22/2009

  HAVANA (AP) - American R&B pioneers Kool & the Gang helped Cuba get its funk on, bringing their eclectic mix of sounds to an open-air stage...

  > MORE

• 

  Obama says he has unemployed relatives

  By theGrio

  1:36 PM on 12/22/2009

  WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says he and the first lady have relatives who are unemployed and suffering...

  > MORE

• 

  AP: Serena Williams is the female athlete of year

  By theGrio

  10:21 AM on 12/22/2009

  (AP) - Playing her best at the most important events, Serena Williams re-established herself as the top player in women's tennis in 2009...

  > MORE

• 

  Medics accused of refusing to help pregnant woman suspended

  By theGrio

  9:30 AM on 12/22/2009

  NEW YORK (AP) - Two EMTs accused of refusing to help a pregnant woman who collapsed in the coffee shop where they were taking a break were suspended...

  > MORE

• 

  Tiny newborn girl may break world record

  By theGrio

  9:29 AM on 12/22/2009

  VIDEO - A little girl born in Mobile, Alabama may be the world's tiniest baby...

  > MORE

• 

  Despite recession, FBI crime stats fell in first half of 2009

  By theGrio

  9:22 AM on 12/22/2009

  WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI says murders fell 10 percent across the U.S. in the first half of 2009...

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White Privilege and the President’s Security

Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III

On the evening of Tuesday, November 24 a young couple from Virginia made their way into one of the most secure events in the country, President Obama’s state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Monmohan Singh and his wife at the White House. Like the other 300 plus invited guests, Tareq and Michaele Salahi went through multiple layers of Secret Service security, took photos with Chief of Staff Rom Emanuel and mingled with Vice President Biden and other invited guests. The problem is that the Salahi’s were not invited to the dinner. Their names were not listed on the official guest list or any other list that would have allowed them entrance into the White House. They crashed the party!

All that this couple needed to gain entrance into a state dinner at the White House was a tuxedo, traditional Indian evening wear, attitude, and white skin. When they arrived at the Secret Service check point without a printed invitation and without their names on the official guest list, they were not detained or questioned. No telephone calls were made; no further inquiries were needed; just white skin, blond hair, the expectation of admittance, and a pretty smile. Had this occurred at an airport the Salahi’s would have never made it past airport security.

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Health News: Another Hurdle Jumped for Healthcare Reform

WASHINGTON – A bruising debate on health care awaits the Senate after Thanksgiving now that the historic legislation has cleared a key hurdle over the opposition of Republicans eager to inflict a punishing defeat on President Barack Obama.

The bill would extend coverage to roughly 31 million who lack it, crack down on insurance company practices that deny or dilute benefits and curtail the growth of spending on medical care nationally.

In the final minutes of a daylong session, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused Republicans of trying to stifle a historic debate the nation needed.

The Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said the vote was anything but procedural — casting it as a referendum on the bill itself, which he said would raise taxes, cut Medicare and create a “massive and unsustainable debt.”

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Black News: President Hits a Sunday Media Tour

from CNN, Your Black World 

President Obama says that despite signs of economic recovery, the country will not see large-scale job growth until next year. In a wide-ranging interview broadcast today on CNN's "State of the Union," Obama said reversing job losses from the recession will come at the end of the recovery period, not the start. full story

Black News: Jimmy Carter Says Racism is driving attacks on Obama

Former President Jimmy Carter said in an interview Tuesday that Congressman Joe Wilson's "you lie" outburst to President Obama was "based on racism" and that many of the critiques leveled against the president have been made because of his black heritage.

"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man," Carter said in an sit-down with NBC's Brian Williams.

Carter specifically said that Wilson's comment was "dastardly" and part of an "inherent feeling" held by many Americans -- particularly Southerners -- that African-Americans "are not qualified to lead this great country."

"It's an abominable circumstances and grieves me and concerns me very deeply," Carter said.

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Black in America: Jesse Jackson, Boyce Watkins, Barack Obama's Nutts