Written By CTA

With the recent release of the Nation of Islam’s new book, “The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews, volume 2,” there has been a renewed effort among Jewish organizations, right wing conservatives and Blacks who have not yet read the book, to once again condemn the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.

In order to deflect attention from its central thesis, and to avoid a much needed and straightforward dialogue on race relations, those attacking Minister Farrakhan, by means of straw man argument, seem more interested in avoiding exposure than they are with examining historical facts. Citing Jewish scholars, historical records and other non anti-Semitic sources, the book exposes myths, names individuals and identifies institutions that took part in the economic oppression of Blacks in the Jim Crow South.

Releasing this scholarly work to demonstrate and prove that Black economic development has been consistently undermined since the Emancipation Proclamation, it appears that for fear of moral or legal obligations, the anger and defensiveness coming from Jewish organizations, and their conservative allies, is based more upon a sense of denial than upon any genuine claims of anti-Semitism or so-called reverse racism.

Establishing the basis of legitimate grievance, “The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews, volume 2” is intended to spur discussion and to lay the perimeters for a proper dialogue regarding many decades of economic exploitation. While Blacks had absolutely nothing to do with Jewish suffering, either in Europe or in America, it is indeed unfortunate that those victimized by their European brethren would now minimize the significance of their own documented roles in the historical suffering of Black people.

There is an anecdote that says when an adversary runs out of an intelligent argument, he will resort to name calling. Under a long and blistering campaign of unjust charges and personal attacks, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has never returned evil for evil. His stance on principle has been consistently resolute and uncompromising and, regardless of whom or what, he has always spoken truth to power when others feared to stand up and speak for themselves.

Today, in order to break the mold of an economically unjust relationship, and to honestly address the current impasse between Blacks and Jews, there must be willingness among Jewish advocacy and interest groups to acknowledge an historical wrong. Regarding Black leadership, there must also be the courage to stand on actual facts, and without fear of material loss or censure, to lay out the case for repairing the damage 400 years of slavery and undeserved suffering has caused.

In order to enable and empower an economy worthy of 40 million Black people, it is important to know what was in order to decipher and correct what is and what could be. For that to happen, it is first necessary to realize the significance of the nearly one trillion dollars Black consumers spend annually, and how this wealth could be leveraged beyond civil rights concerns and requests for corporate philanthropy.
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Hope you enjoyed all of the suspense of “The Decision,” the hour-long prime-time show concocted by James’ management and ESPN, in which the title-less, seven-year vet announced that he has decided to take his talents to South Beach, because there isn’t going to be anything remotely close to this any time soon.

For starters, look for the NBA owners to lock out the players next summer after the expiration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and in all likelihood expect a long and protracted delay to the upcoming season.

Say what you want to about the appalling, petulant behavior of Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert after he directed his inexcusable vitriol at James after he opted to earn his money income-tax free in South Florida — what good, tax-hating Republican wouldn’t have made the same decision?

But if you think the owners won’t be twice as gangster as they go after things like guaranteed contracts and reduced payouts even to superstars, well, you just don’t understand the engine that drives the NBA.

Carmelo Anthony will be the most coveted free agent next summer, but after that there is a precipitous falloff in talent. Injury prone Yao Ming has to show that he’s healthy after sitting out all of last season, and Jamal Crawford and Tony Parker, well, you get the picture.

This is why Chris Paul’s wanting to cut ties in New Orleans despite having two years left on his contract will be the hottest story to follow in the off-season.

At Anthony’s recent wedding, Paul reportedly joked about the possibility of joining Anthony and new Knick Amar’e Stoudemire in New York to form another Big Three to battle Miami over the coming years. Along with New York, it has been reported that Paul would be interested in playing for Dallas, Orlando and the Los Angeles Lakers because he does not feel New Orleans is committed to building a championship team.

Paul should do everything in his power to make this happen, especially if it means winding up in Los Angeles or Orlando. Paul, taken with the fourth overall pick in 2005, has been an exemplary citizen in the Big Easy. But unlike James, he can’t be portrayed as a native son turning his back on his hometown which, in reality, is a huge croc anyway.

Paul doesn’t have any true ties to New Orleans. James, from Akron, was vilified for leaving his “hometown” of Cleveland. But really, only a true sucker buys into this way of thinking. How many successful people have left their hometown and gone on to achieve magnanimously in other places? The same will happen for James, a hall-of-famer even if he never plays another game in the NBA.

James gave Cleveland every opportunity to build a team around him and the Cavs went out and put together teams that were built for the regular season but unable to give James the support he needed to win the Eastern Conference.

Paul, arguably the best point guard in the league, no doubt feels the same way. He envisions himself perhaps dishing off to Kobe Bryant on the break or feeding Dwight Howard perfectly in the post. And playing alongside Anthony and Stoudemire in NYC wouldn’t be a bad thing, either.
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Written By CTA

The second problem is more troubling. Vilsack should have been talking about the shameful and disgraceful treatment of black farmers by his agency, and the equally shameful and disgraceful treatment of the farmers by Congress. The day after Vilsack issued his lofty pronouncement about zero tolerance for racial discrimination, Gary Grant, President of the 20,000 member Black Farmer & Agriculturalists Association, flatly called Vilsack’s statement “a complete lie.” He had good reason. During the past quarter century, tens of thousands of black farmers have lost their land, homes, and livestock, due to the blatant refusal by the USDA to make or guarantee loans to them.

The farmers have filed individual and class lawsuits, staged sit-ins, held protests marches and rallies challenging the naked discriminatory lending practices of the USDA. Shirley Sherrod was one of them. She and her husband and a cooperative of black farmers were refused loans and their farms were foreclosed on in 1985. They filed a suit. It took more than two decades of legal wrangling but finally Sherrod and her husband and the other farmers won their suit and were awarded damages $13 million in damages.

The USDA has revamped its operations, has an active civil rights division, and says it carefully scrutinizes its lending program to prevent bias. This doesn’t mean that the USDA has totally righted its past racial wrongs. In a statement, the black farmer’s association notes that the USDA has not punished any of its agents or officials that encouraged or turned a blind eye to discriminatory lending. A decade ago the USDA shelled out $2.3 billion to the farmers to settle the discrimination suits. But that didn’t end the injustice. Thousands of black farmers that lost their land did not get a nickel. They were excluded from the settlement through bureaucratic bungling, technicalities, and challenges by Bush Justice Department officials.

A decade later, with the approval of President Obama, Vilsack, agreed to a second settlement of $1.25 billion. This again didn’t end the injustice. Congress had to approve release of the funds. It set a deadline of March 31 for approval. The deadline came and went. Congress went on spring vacation without approving the money. It set another deadline of May 31 for approval. That date also came and went with no action.

GOP conservatives and the right-wing talking heads then went to work. They railed that the settlement was a deficit buster, was unjustified, and a political giveaway by the Obama administration to appease black Democrats. The presumption being that all the black farmers are Democrats and dutiful Obama voters.
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The above quote is a favorite that has infiltrated Facebook status updates and blogs around the Internet with increasing regularity. It also illustrates why one of the most powerful themes shaping this election year is anti-incumbency. The longer an elected official been in office, the more vulnerable they are becoming to being caught in the undertow of a wave of angry voters.

All the reason why beleaguered Representative Charles Rangel, buffeted by news that a Congressional investigative panel will hold him to account for a wide range of ethics violations, should be increasingly worried about his future. Though the New York Democrat represents overwhelmingly Democratic Harlem, anything is possible in a volatile political environment.

Ever the combative politician, a defiant Rangel insisted on Friday that he “look[s] forward” to a public trial, which will be the first of its kind since James Traficant - a flamboyant Ohio Democrat with a distinctive hairstyle - was dispatched from Congress amid corruptions charges.

Rangel’s case, however, is the latest in a dismaying series of black politicians who have run afoul of legal and ethical rules while in office yet still retain public support. His ethical woes can be reflected through the prism of black voting patterns. Why does it seem that many black voters rally behind corrupt or disgraced political figures - and in many cases still cast votes in their favor?

The powerful Harlem Democrat is well-known for bringing home the bacon for his constituents; yet like many other black elected officials, represents districts that suffer from relentlessly poor economic prospects. Once elected, these professional politicians seem to abandon all sense of judgment as they seek to enrich themselves and expand their influence, all while doing little to improve lives for their voters.

Fealty to troubled black politicians by black voters is an unsettling but unfortunately recurring phenomenon. Ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s public service career proved stubbornly durable, as he remained in office for years as the stench of ethics violations wafted around him. At the height of his troubles, Detroit voters rallied around him. Most recently, a prayer vigil was organized to commemorate his 40th birthday - his first as a convict.
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Written By CTA

Written By CTA

Next week, Oakland, CA is going to face a 10 percent cut to its police force in order to balance its budget. This week, 80 police officers were laid off, bringing the force down to 696 officers. This comes after Oakland has decreased violent crime by 14.1 percent from 2008 to 2009 but also in the wake of the worse series of civil unrest in decades. The verdict of involuntary manslaughter for Johannes Mehserle, the former BART transit officer that shot and killed Oscar Grant, triggered protest throughout Oakland as young men and women were taken into custody for vandalism and expressing their discontent with the verdict.

Before these latest set of events, all signs pointed to resurgence in Oakland as people were populating the streets, moving back to downtown to live and taking long jogs around the beautiful Lake Merritt. Now, Oakland faces uncertainty, despair and confusion as residents are unclear on whether or not they can report certain crimes to the police department or if a police officer will be sent to take a report.

A local television station announced that all low-level crimes should be reported online and to not expect a police officer to arrive to take the report. The most unfortunate consequence of the Oakland layoffs is that community policing, the key instrument for its decrease in violent crime will be cut and eliminated as a police program. In a time where the people of Oakland need law enforcement the most, police departments are being down-scaled and public safety is in jeopardy.

The untold story is that what is going on in Oakland has been happening to America’s police departments all over the country. Tulsa, Oklahoma, Minneapolis, MN and Grand Rapids, MI have all seen dramatic decreases to their police departments and like Oakland, face uncertainty on how to render justice and public safety to its citizens. Although this rash of police downsizing will come with a hefty price, placing the blame on the current recession is all too easy of a target.

Sure, “the Great Recession” has a lot to do with the drastic cuts we have seen over the last year, but just saying that police layoffs are due to municipality’s inability to meet the budgetary needs of their cities misses the point. Many police departments face uncertainty over the size and future of its police departments because their approaches to policing over the last 25 years were misguided.
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The recent verdict against a former Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer, in a Los Angeles courtroom, has once again revealed the uneven application of justice concerning the killing of unarmed Black youth at the hands of White law enforcement personnel.

Found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of 22-year-old Oscar Grant, on New Year’s Day 2009, Johannes Mehserle claimed to have confused his .40 caliber service weapon for his “non-lethal” Taser when shooting Mr. Grant in the back. While dozens of witnesses and cell phone video confirmed the victim was no threat to himself or to others, Mehserle, who claimed to be fearful of the young man’s alleged movements, killed Mr. Grant as he laid face-down, subdued by police officers, on an Oakland train station platform.

Subsequently desiring a “fair trial” for the former officer, the State of California agreed to a change of venue from Oakland to Los Angeles, where, after a short deliberation, a slap on the wrist verdict angered many, sparking street demonstrations and calls for additional federal charges. Raising serious questions not only about the value of Black life in a so-called post-racial America, but also whether or not juries are capable of rendering fair decisions in racially charged police on civilian homicide cases, the Grant verdict nevertheless echoes the majority opinion of the Supreme Court’s infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision.
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