Why celebrate his legacy? Because we know he was right

Despite not dedicating the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on Sunday as planned because of Hurricane Irene, that fact that King will be the first non-president enshrined on the Mall is a perplexing event. It is perplexing because King was arguably one of the most hated people in America when he died at the hands of an assassin’s bullet. In his last year of his life—which starts April 4, 1967, with his “Vietnam” speech and ends April 3, 1968 with his “Mountain Top” speech—King’s prophetic persona had shifted from an optimistic prophet to a pessimistic one. He would call America a “sick society,” and had he lived, would have preached a sermon titled, “Why America May Go to Hell,” on Easter Sunday. He had long since moved from “I Have a Dream,” and started using Malcolm’s language of “nightmare” to describe society’s dealing with the poor and marginalized. Why would we celebrate his legacy?

When he died, he was embarking on a poor people’s campaign—to highlight to the world the poverty in the “greatest country on earth.” That is why he was in Memphis, because King told anyone who would listen that the sanitation workers in Memphis and all workers have dignity and purpose and that people should treat them fairly. He called for a revolution of values, ones not focused on materialism, militarism, racism, and poverty, but ones focused on the Beloved Community. This love would seep through all areas of life and would ground itself in the Golden Rule—treating others, as you would want others to treat you. So again, why celebrate his legacy?

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Dr. King Weeps From His Grave

THE Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial was to be dedicated on the National Mall on Sunday — exactly 56 years after the murder of Emmett Till in Mississippi and 48 years after the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. (Because of Hurricane Irene, the ceremony has been postponed.)
These events constitute major milestones in the turbulent history of race and democracy in America, and the undeniable success of the civil rights movement — culminating in the election of Barack Obama in 2008 — warrants our attention and elation. Yet the prophetic words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel still haunt us: “The whole future of America depends on the impact and influence of Dr. King.”
Rabbi Heschel spoke those words during the last years of King’s life, when 72 percent of whites and 55 percent of blacks disapproved of King’s opposition to the Vietnam War and his efforts to eradicate poverty in America. King’s dream of a more democratic America had become, in his words, “a nightmare,” owing to the persistence of “racism, poverty, militarism and materialism.” He called America a “sick society.” On the Sunday after his assassination, in 1968, he was to have preached a sermon titled “Why America May Go to Hell.”
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Justice A.A. Birch Jr. left imprint on state judiciary

Quietly motivated by the injustices of racism and segregation, Adolpho A. Birch Jr. toppled barriers as a Nashville prosecutor, as Tennessee’s highest-ranking judge and in several positions in between.
A tall and lanky man with a distinctive white beard, Tennessee’s first and only black chief justice was known for his private nature and for downplaying the significance of his own accomplishments — even as others counted Birch as a priceless mentor, a beloved friend and one of the most important figures in state history.
Early in his career, Birch was among the Nashville lawyers who voluntarily represented black activists who were arrested during sit-ins at whites-only lunch counters in the 1960s. Decades later, as a member of the state Supreme Court, he challenged death sentences — at great political risk — and was instrumental in a decision to open the state’s courtrooms to cameras.
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Black Buying Power: Watch Where You Spend Your Money

Most big advertisers don’t respect the African American consumer
By David Alexander, Special to the NNPA from Our Weekly –
How much do most big corporate advertisers respect the African American consumer—25 percent, 15 percent, 5 percent, or one percent?
If you guessed one percent you were wrong. It’s less than that—.68 percent, to be exact.
Of the $263.7 billion spent annually on advertising within the nation, less that one percent is used to target African American consumers, despite the fact that Black buying power is estimated at around $857 billion, according to the 2010 census.
Ken Smikle of Target Market News notes that “the largest single investment corporate America makes is advertising,” but only a trickle is spent targeting African American consumers, a group that has been and continues to be underestimated, underserved, disrespected and misunderstood.
Pepper Miller, co-founder of the Hunter-Miller Group, a multicultural marketing firm, and co-author of the book “What’s Black About It?” explains that one of the most common misperceptions advertisers have is that mainstream publications will reach all possible consumers. Since most African Americans speak English, they generalize, there is no need to market outside of the mainstream publications.
“Marketing is about segmentation, diversity and understanding who your customers are,” counters Miller, who has devoted many years to the field of diverse marketing. But why do advertisers feel that way when these facts are taught in most marketing classes, and when it is known that most African Americans generally distrust the mainstream media?
A 2008 study by Radio One entitled “Understanding Black America” revealed that only 13 percent of African Americans trust the mainstream media, and out of 29 million Blacks, only 2 million can be reached through mainstream publications.
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Blacks and Latinos Will Suffer When the Student Debt Bubble Bursts

When the housing bubble burst, the resulting foreclosure crisis was a disaster for black and Latino families, who lost 53 percent and 66 percent of their median household wealth, respectively, between 2005 and 2009. As a result, the racial wealth gap is widening, with white households enjoying 18 times as much wealth as their Latino counterparts, and 20 times more than African-American households.
There is every indication that the bursting of the student debt bubble, like the housing bubble before it, is imminent. And when it happens, it will send shockwaves throughout the financial markets. People of color will be especially vulnerable.
Although education is widely viewed as a way up and a way out for poor, working-and middle-class students, the prohibitive cost of college tuition has created a virtual debtors' prison for many. Loan defaults and delinquencies are on the rise in America, and are only expected to worsen.
A recent report from Moody's Analytics says that tuition has doubled since 2000 -- that's a 10 percent increase every year -- causing student debt to accelerate during the recession. In contrast, other types of consumer debt such as mortgages, credit cards and auto loans have decreased sharply. Outstanding student loans have increased 25 percent since 2008. Student debt now exceeds total credit card debt, and is likely to reach $1 trillion this year, with the average debt for a bachelor's degree at $24,000.

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Nivea Apologizes for Ad Telling Black Men to ‘Re-civilize’ Themselves

Nivea For Men has apologized to people who were disturbed by a racially insensitive ad placed in a recent edition of Esquire magazine. The controversial ad has made its rounds across the Web since Wednesday and features several troubling images: a clean-shaven black man with close-cropped hair angrily throwing the severed head of a Afro-wearing, bearded black man. The text of the ad tells readers: “Re-civilize yourself” and has the caption “Look like you give a damn.”
When reached by Colorlines.com earlier this week, a spokesperson for the company said, “We always consider tone, message and sensitivity to all audiences in developing our creative campaigns. We apologize to anyone who may take offense to this specific advertisement.”
For many, the racial undertones were in fact hard to escape.
Over at GOOD, Nona Willis Aronowitz points out that this isn’t the first time Nivea’s ads have caught people’s attention for the wrong reasons. Britini Danielle writes at Cutch, “While I remember the old school Gillette ads that warned men that anything less than their products would be ‘uncivilized,” there’s something about this image that rubs me the wrong way.”
And she wasn’t the only one. On Thursday, “Nivea” was a trending topic on Twitter. People on the social network voiced their outrage with messages like, “Nivea claims that black people aren’t civilized,” and called the ad “unapologetically racist.”
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Africa: The Problem With Affirmative Action

Henry Louis Gates Jr., the famed African-American literary scholar and director of the Du Bois Institute at Harvard University, recently reflected the following in an interview on National Public Radio: If it weren't for affirmative action, he would not have been admitted to Yale University, regardless of how high his credentials were and he would not have had the opportunities to demonstrate his talent over the past four decades.[1]
Gates' admission reflects a fundamental problem with affirmative action. It works.
I had the opportunity to reflect on that out loud in a discussion at the Race and Higher Education conference in Grahamstown last month when I asked: 'Are there no mediocre white people in South Africa? Is every white person hired, every white person offered admission to institutions of learning, an excellent candidate?'
My rhetorical question was premised upon what Gates and many other highly achieved blacks know and that is the myth of white supremacy is the subtext of the 'qualifications' narrative that accompanies debates on affirmative action.
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Cornel West and the Black War Over Obama - The Daily Beast

Cornel West and the Black War Over Obama - The Daily Beast

It's 'bBlackademic: young and black in academia

I wasn't necessarily in love with my major department at my undergraduate institution, though I had some fairly decent professors. Then came the semester I took Blacks in Film as an elective. I then took African American Studies, and then a summer semester Harlem Renaissance course at a local community college. Each of those professors brought a combination of passion and academic rigor to the courses that I honestly had not seen in many of my other my classes. What was different? Aside from one high school teacher, this was the first time that I was gifted academic knowledge by someone who reflected my cultural background and experience.

This view probably mirrors many other former and current Black learners, even with caring white teachers. However, a YourBlackWorld.com study reports that 42% of all African Americans at predominantly white campuses never had a single black professor during four years of college. Seventy-four percent of the same students only had one black professor in a field outside of African American studies. On a subconscious level, this was in part why chose a career in academia, why I became a Blackademic.

These results indicate a phenomenon far beyond not having enough black faculty on campuses across the US. It means that there are too few examples for black students to model themselves after and that many don't see the option. Dr. John Barker, Assistant Provost for Undergraduate Education at the University of Miami gives a prime example. When he speaks to new groups of mostly minority students, he has them do a visualization exercise, in which students picture a faculty member and then give a description. "Nine out of 10 picture one who is white," says Barker.

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In Defense of Tavis and Cornel

I am friends with Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, so it has been hard for me to watch and hear the often nasty attacks leveled at them both. While no person is above criticism, and I would not have used some of their words, much of what I'm hearing about them just leaves me shaking my head in wonder about where we are going as a nation that has so many needs. The Smiley and West "poverty tour" has presented their critics with another opportunity to accuse them of everything from grandstanding to undermining President Barack Obama. That is nonsense and reveals a more significant truth with which we all must deal: some people so hate the messenger that they can not accept the message no matter how important it may be. It has gotten to a point where their critics seem to be saying "if Smiley and West are for it, then I am against it."
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Dr. Cornel West, and Tavis Smiley Poverty Show full in effect…

(ThyBlackMan.com) “Me and Tavis, we’re going to remind you who Martin really was.” – Dr. Cornel West
Now that Dr. Cornel West and television personality Tavis Smiley have set out like an Afro-centric version of “Thelma and Louise” on a tour denouncing the Obama administration for what the two decry as a lack of focus on the poor, the only real interest I have is how this road trip ends. Will West-Smiley lock hands and drive over the cliff or are they apt to take us along for the ride and the plunge?
To say that I am disappointed in Dr. West and Tavis is an understatement.  During one of the most difficult periods African-Americans have faced in the post-Reconstruction era, we should expect more from Black elites who claim to possess some special anointing to lead the masses. It is not a matter of their criticism of President Obama that disturbs me; it is how they are going about their critique and the sense that much of it is personal and has little to do with the general welfare of our community. There is no question that this administration has a lot of work to do to improve economic conditions for Blacks, every monthly employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reads like an epitaph for Black America. Still, to simply lay all the blame at the foot of 44, when the policies of 43 got us into this mess, suggests an analysis by West and Smiley that is either rooted in ignorance or intentionally misleading. Given the truly historical circumstances that created the present crisis, and the manner in which current inequities have been cumulative, the idea that President Obama is somehow fully responsible for our present condition is absurd.
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An Interracial Fix for Black Marriage

"At this point in my life," says Audrey, age 39, "I thought I'd be married with children." A native of southeast Washington, D.C., and the child of parents who are approaching their 50th wedding anniversary, Audrey seems like the proverbial "good catch"—smart, funny, well-educated, attractive.

Audrey earns a good living, too, with an income from management consulting that far surpasses what her parents ever made. Her social life is busy as well, filled with family, friends and church.

What Audrey lacks is a husband. As she told me, sitting at a restaurant in the fashionable Dupont Circle neighborhood of the nation's capital, "I'm trying to get to a point where I accept that marriage may never happen for me."

Audrey belongs to the most unmarried group of people in the U.S.: black women. Nearly 70% of black women are unmarried, and the racial gap in marriage spans the socioeconomic spectrum, from the urban poor to well-off suburban professionals. Three in 10 college-educated black women haven't married by age 40; their white peers are less than half as likely to have remained unwed.

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New HIV Numbers Released: Bad News for African-Americans

On Wednesday the Centers for Disease Control released its latest round of multiyear HIV statistics, and once again the rates of African-American infection, especially among Black male homosexuals, were causes for concern to say the least.

Overall the number of new HIV infections in the United States remained stable between 2006 and 2009 with about 50,000 infections each year. However, the increase in the number of young Black homosexuals was alarming.

“Not only do men who have sex with men continue to account for most new infections, young gay and bisexual men are the only group in which infections are increasing, and this increase is particularly concerning among young African-American MSM,” said CDC director Thomas Frieden, M.D.

Black male homosexuals were the only subgroup with a notable increase—48 percent during that time period, according to CDC estimates—in new infections during that time period.
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