The black community faced political losses in 2011

by Kwadjo Campbell

Looking Back

When I look at the economic indicators of unemployment, homeownership, and education, I can see that 2011 wasn't a good year for the African-American community.

The unemployment numbers for African Americans in South Carolina are at 20 percent, according to the most recent U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics data, significantly higher than the state's current rate of 9.9 percent and Charleston's rate of 7.8 percent.

Meanwhile state Sen. Robert Ford has said that the mortgage crisis has hit African Americans the hardest — and many in the black community would agree with him.

The graduation rates remain at a dismal 50 percent for African-American males. Failing schools produce unskilled workers, and that's not going to cut it in a 21st-century economy. Can we let another year go by without addressing the gap? Perhaps our leaders can help these students get the technology they are missing at home and, unfortunately, in many of their schools.

The political landscape wasn't better, as we lost political power in the City of Charleston as the result of continued gentrification and redistricting. The continued migration of African Americans from the peninsula results in the loss of federal resources available to low-income census tracts. This money is used to develop homeownership and job creation programs. African Americans also failed to seize city council seats in North Charleston, where there's a black majority. This was a missed opportunity to guide the city as it grapples with port expansion, rail access, and economic development issues.

Mayors Joseph P. Riley Jr. and Keith Summey were re-elected as expected and their black opposition rejected. Riley received at least 50 percent of the African-American vote in this year's election; that 50 percent represents the older generation of African Americans, which continues to see Joe as a symbolic bridge between Jim Crow and post-segregation politics. The other half represents a younger generation ill prepared to face new-world realities like a tough and competitive global economy. This group, justly or unjustly, blames Mayor Riley. It goes with being the incumbent, but he has one more term to change their minds.

Mayor Summey received an even greater share of the black vote in his re-election bid. The mayor of North Charleston has built up a strong reserve of social capital through community churches and civic leaders. Those who underestimate the power of social capital got crushed when Summey cashed it in on Election Day. He won decisively despite accusations of racial profiling and discrimination at the hands of the North Charleston Police Department. It did not bother voters that the mayor's position on rail access is not in their best interests. Mayor Summey will have to be responsive to the issues raised concerning the African-American community over the next four years, and if not, the community cannot wait until the next election to hold him accountable. Educate the voters now. Demand action now. Get prepared now.

Meanwhile, the election of Keith Waring to Charleston City Council is a very important development in the African-American community. First, Keith is the son of Louis Waring and literally and figuratively represents the passing of the leadership baton from one generation to the next. More importantly, however, is what Keith's election means for economic development in the African-American community. While this is Waring's first elected office, he has served as a de facto leader of black Charleston's business and professional class, which often seeks his advice on political matters. Waring has also served in a leadership capacity within the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce. I believe all of this gives him the tools to develop effective economic policies that will help create a self-sustainable environment where minority-owned businesses can thrive. I believe he is also key to developing the necessary unity among council members representing underdeveloped communities. Waring will play a major role in helping Mayor Riley make substantial and long-lasting contributions to the African-American community during his final term in office.

Kirsten West Savali: Is Paula Patton a Black Trophy Wife?

By: Kirsten West Savali, Your Black World

If I were Paula Patton, I would be embarrassed.
In an exclusive interview with Essence Magazine, the Mission Impossible 4 actress’s husband of six years, Robin Thicke, managed to not only divulge intimate details of their sex life, but to paint his wife as nothing more than a hyper-sexual, replacement mommy-figure who introduced him to the world of Blackness.

Patton, through no malicious—but still very purposeful—intent of her husband’s, was cast as the Black Trophy Wife, valued because she grants him an authenticity, an entree’ into the world of soul, funk and R&B that he would not have been granted otherwise. He maneuvers her from her rightful place at his side, and pushes her to the front of his agenda to seduce the Black community into accepting him as our own —that is, when his “mojo and swag” aren’t being occupied giving Patton “double-digit” orgasms.

He also reveals in the interview that she calls him ‘Daddy’ and he calls her ‘Mama’ because their respective parents didn’t play important roles in their lives, so they became each other’s replacement. For some reason, he doesn’t seem to realize that when compounded by race in a traumatized society his words are toxic. Their twisted dynamic is eerily reminiscent of a slave-owner/Mammie dichotomy and co-dependency—exacerbated by racial stereotypes—is neither attractive, nor romantic.

I enjoy Robin Thicke’s music, but I have no illusions that he will ever be Donny Hathaway or Marvin Gaye, or even Eric Benet or Rapheal Saadiq. Then again, neither does he, because according to him, his contemporaries are “Drizzy Drake and Chris Brown.” He doesn’t even take himself seriously.

Breaking News: Heavy D Cause of Death Revealed

The Los Angeles County Corner’s Office has finally released Heavy D‘s official cause of death.
After collapsing on November 9 in from his home,  the rapper-actor, born Dwight Arrington Myers, was rushed to the hospital where it was speculated that he died from pneumonia. That has now been ruled out and the cause of death is officially a pulmonary embolism — a blood clot in his lungs. Other factors that could have contributed to the “Overweight Lover’s” death, are a pre-existing heart disease and deep leg vein thrombosis.

The blood clot was “most likely formed during an extended airplane ride,” said county officials. Myers had just returned from Wales, England performing in a tribute concert to “The King of Pop,” Michael Jackson.

The beloved star was laid to rest in a star-studded ceremony in Mount Vernon, New York. Guests included Sean “Diddy” Combs, Mary J. Blige, and Rev. Al Sharpton, who joked that “James Brown made us black and proud, but Hev made us fat and proud.

Dr. Boyce: Taxation Without Representation – How the Child Support System Should Be Changed

by Dr. Boyce Watkins – Scholarship in Action

I was on 1380 WAOK in Atlanta for an interesting interview this morning.  The conversation revolved around child support payments and the “Financial Abortions” concept that my Senior Editor, Kirsten West-Savali, brought to my attention just a couple of months ago.  The conversation expanded to child support in general, and I can say that I am clearly concerned about deadbeat parents who choose not to support their kids.  I don’t care if he’s buying diapers and visiting your child every weekend; he should also be using a chunk of his paycheck to help you pay the bills related to taking care of that child.

Continue reading on The Boyce Blog

U.S. Transportation Department and Environmental Protection Agency guess at 2025 car sales

 

By Rick Manning

If Congress is seriously interested in finding people to cut perhaps they just need to look at those responsible for producing automobile company sales projections for the year 2025. That’s right, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation spent your tax dollars to make up sales projections for a model year that is thirteen years from now.

Of course, this should not be surprising for the EPA which regularly creates regulations based upon speculative global warming models that project weather patterns fifty to one hundred years in the future. So, automotive industry sales projections for the year 2025 must have seemed like legitimate economic analysis after dealing in the politically driven climate guessing world for the past few years.

Not shockingly, the analysis is based upon the automakers current line-up of vehicles and their dependence upon vehicles which are likely to no longer exist if the Transportation Department’s rule increasing the average gas mileage for a company’s fleet of vehicles to 54.5 miles per gallon in 2025 becomes the law of the land.

The projections were created as part of the CAFÉ standard rulemaking process, and Automotive News quotes Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting at LMC Automotive as indicting the guesswork on two fronts noting that the report relied upon 2008 sales data making it, “a bit dated, especially given all the changes in the automotive industry over the last few years.”
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11 Big Gov't Busts of '11: #2-Our National Finances

Video by Frank McCaffrey

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Scandal and insanity at Penn State, Durban and the IPCC

By Paul Driessen

In a repeat of Copenhagen, on the eve of the Durban climate change gabfest, someone released another horde of emails from alarmist climate researchers, including Dr. Michael Mann, whose infamous “hockey stick” was headlined in the 2001 IPCC report to justify the Kyoto agreement and demands that nations slash fossil fuel use and economic growth.

Meanwhile, back on Dr. Mann’s campus, Pennsylvania State University was confronting the sordid Jerry Sandusky affair. Sports Illustrated summarized the Augean Stables task in an article titled “Missteps at every turn: Efforts to clean up Penn State reveal how deep the institutional problems lie.”

As SI noted, a key judge in the case, Pennsylvania’s governor, Penn State’s new athletic director and even the attorney appointed to head up a “full and complete” internal investigation all have deep and longstanding ties to the university and/or its big-money football team. Noting these and other “blatant conflicts of interest,” the magazine quoted new PSU president Rodney Erickson as saying, “Penn State is committed to transparency to the fullest extent possible” [emphasis added] – in view of relevant financial, personal and other considerations, and special exemptions that Penn State enjoys from disclosure laws.

SI ended the article by asking, “Is Penn State cleaning house? Or simply rearranging the furniture?”

The same question applies to Dr. Mann. In the wake of Climategate 2009, Penn State hurriedly exonerated him and his department of any wrongdoing, as did NOAA and the National Science Foundation. The blatant whitewashes reflect the desperation of organizations intent on preserving their money train and perpetuating the Hollywood façade of manmade catastrophic climate change.
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GOP Elimination match round 2

By Rebecca DiFede
Gingrich, Bachmann, Romney and Santorum survived round one of Americans for Limited Government’s presidential brackets, and now you can vote for your favorite today!

It’s down to Gingrich, Bachmann, Romney and Santorum.

In the epic battle to win the title of GOP Presidential nominee, these four must face-off this week to see who will get ever closer to being the people’s choice.

Last week’s exclusive internet polling results are in and the final four in Americans for Limited Government’s exclusive NCAA-style Republican nominee bracket is down to Gingrich v. Bachmann and Romney v. Santorum match-ups.

Heading into the Iowa caucus, you get to vote on whether master debater Newt Gingrich or tea party fave Michelle Bachmann move into the finals. These media-frenzy favorites will go head-to-head in a fight that is sure to be a ruthless one. Both are constantly in the public eye and have landed more than a few unfavorable quips in the papers.

Both are constantly in the public eye and each has found themself at some time in the race as the alternative to Romney’s nomination leadership. Which one will make it to the finals?

You decide.
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