Daytona Times - August 18, 2016

B-CU grad’s internship was powered by NASCAR SEE PAGE 7

East Central Florida’s Black Voice AUGUST 18 - AUGUST 24, 2016

YEAR 41 NO. 33

EE FR

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN: CHILDREN OF COLOR SHOULD SEE THEMSELVES IN BOOKS SEE PAGE 4

OLYMPIAN JUSTIN GATLIN OF ORLANDO DEFENDS HIS PAST, MOVES FORWARD SEE PAGE 7

www.daytonatimes.com

Time to let your vote be your voice Where to cast ballots early in Flagler, Volusia DAYTONA TIMES STAFF

For those who have made up their minds about the candidates and are eager to vote in Volusia County, they can do so starting Monday. Early voting started on Aug. 15 in Flagler County.

Early voting in Volusia is Aug.

MEAC/SWAC Challenge coming to Daytona Beach

BY ANDREAS BUTLER DAYTONA TIMES

Since 2008, the annual MEAC/SWAC Challenge has been played in Orlando. This year, the HBCU conferences’ battle will be in Daytona Beach with the Bethune-Cookman University Wildcats taking on the Alcorn State University Braves.

The game, owned and operated by ESPN Events, a division of ESPN, showcases teams from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). The conferences have the largest football programs among historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

20-27 for the Aug. 30 primary election. The hours are MondaySaturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

On the Aug. 30 election day, the hours will be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and voters must then vote at their assigned precinct of record.

Volusia early voting locations Department of Elections, Historic Courthouse 125 W. New York Ave., DeLand Deltona Regional Library 2150

Eustace Ave. Daytona Beach Regional Library at City Island, 105 E. Magnolia Ave. Ormond Beach Regional Library, 30 S. Beach St. New Smyrna Beach Regional Library, 1001 S. Dixie Freeway

Flagler early voting locations Early voting in Flagler County See VOICE, Page 2

DUANE C. FERNANDEZ SR./HARDNOTTSPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

Residents got a chance to hear from candidates at a forum held at Allen Chapel AME Church in Daytona Beach on Aug. 4. It was sponsored by the Volusia County-Daytona Beach NAACP and local chapters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.

A proper burial for Billy Jackson

Sept. 4 game The game, pitting B-CU against the Mississippi HBCU will be played at Municipal Stadium in Daytona Beach on Sept. 4 with a 1 p.m. kickoff. It will be aired live on ESPN as Bethune-Cookman (MEAC) hosts Alcorn State (SWAC).

“It is a unique situation.

They have changed the whole approach. They will be taking it from campus to campus now for the next couple of years. We are honored and proud to be able to host it. We are very excited. This gives us a three-hour infomercial on national TV. It’s the only game on TV and the only game in town,’’ said Lynn Thompson, Bethune-Cookman University’s vice president of Intercollegiate Athletics.

2017 in Baton Rouge In 2017, the game will be played at A.W. Munford Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with Southern University (SWAC) as host, facing South Carolina State University (MEAC).

“We are thrilled to continue the MEAC/SWAC Challenge legacy in Florida for the 2016 game featuring two of the strongest returning teams, Alcorn State and BethuneCookman from their respective conferences,” stated Pete Derzis, senior vice president of ESPN Events. “In 2017, we take this historic game to the campus of Southern University as they will face South Carolina State University.”

Started in 2005 The game started in 2005

PHOTOS BY DUANE C. FERNANDEZ SR./HARDNOTTSPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

Billy Jackson’s family and his friends at the Dozier School of Boys attend the burial service at Mt. Ararat Cemetery in Daytona Beach.

Family, Dozier School survivors pay respects to Daytona Beach teen who died 64 years ago

say they endured vicious beatings in a small building at the school called the White House.

Jackson was buried Saturday at Mt. Ararat Cemetery on Bellevue Avenue in Daytona Beach.

Attended Campbell

BY DAYTONA TIMES TAFF

Billy Jackson’s life ended way too soon. He died in 1952 at age 13 while a ward of the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, a small city in North Florida.

While the cause of death was listed as a urinary tract infection, it’s believe he died from a severe beating after trying to escape the reform school. He was sent to the school in August 1952 for repeatedly skipping school.

Johnnie Walthour of Jacksonville, now deceased, reported years ago that he dug a grave for a friend he knew only as Billy, who died after developing a bloated stomach.

Walthour said the boy was repeatedly beaten in the White

The family of Billy Jackson leave the funeral service at R.J. Gainous Funeral Home in Daytona Beach. He is survived by a sister, Mattie Jackson, nephews, nieces and other relatives.

House after trying to run away.

Other former students at the school have reported that they were brutally beaten while there.

Returned to sister A Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation ensued and Jackson’s remains

were identified in unmarked graves found on site. Jackson’s remains were sent this month to his sister, Mattie Jackson, a Daytona Beach resident.

Funeral services were held at R.J. Gainous Funeral Home in Daytona Beach on Saturday with former Dozier school students there, known as the “White House Boys.’’ The men

A task force is now in the process of deciding on a memorial for the Dozier victims.

Jackson was born on Feb. 18, 1939 in Daytona Beach. He attended Campbell Elementary School.

He is survived by his sister Mattie Jackson of Daytona Beach; two nephews, Shawn Irving of Daytona Beach and Dawn Irving of Orlando; three nieces, Wanda Aaron of Daytona Beach, Wendy Irving of Orlando and Ida Cummings, Washington D.C. A detailed story on Billy Jackson and the Aug. 13 service appears this week in the Florida Courier, the sister newspaper of the Daytona Times. It can be read online at www.flcourier. com.

See GAME, Page 2

ALSO INSIDE

COMMUNITY NEWS: FLAGLER COUNTY SEEKING NOMINATIONS FOR VETERAN OF THE YEAR | PAGE 3 CULTURE: REPARATIONS WEBSITE OFFERS WHITES THE OPPORTUNITY TO HELP BLACKS | PAGE 8

7 FOCUS

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AUGUST 18 – AUGUST 24, 2016

Love Fest returns on Aug. 27 The Third Annual Love Fest is scheduled for Aug. 27 from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 849 Derbyshire Road in Daytona Beach.

This is a free community event, which is about restoring unity in the community through community partnership awareness.

Free food, haircuts and health screenings will be available. There also will be a zone with activities for children.

The entertainment will be Christian, urban, rap and pop music, along with spoken word and dancing. Local artists and others from around the state as well as St. Louis, Missouri, will participate.

This event is sponsored by the Mind of Christ Ministries.

For more information, visit www.lovefestdaytona.org.

Children and Families Advisory Board to meet Aug. 29

DUANE C. FERNANDEZ SR./HARDNOTTSPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

Disco at the Bandshell KC and the Sunshine Girls had local residents dancing to some popular ‘70s tunes on Aug. 12 at the Daytona Beach Bandshell. A large crowd turned out to hear the KC and the Sunshine Band tribute band. Songs included “Shake Your Booty,” “Get Down Tonight’’ and “That’s the Way I Like It’’ – all 1970s songs made famous by the original group.

The North Carolina A&T Aggies defeated the Alabama A&M Bulldogs 47-13 in the 2014 MEAC/SWAC Challenge in Orlando.

Attendance at the game at Bright House Networks at the University of Central Florida was 8,210.

VOICE

from Page 1

KIM GIBSON/ DAYTONA TIMES

GAME

from Page 1 and spent three years at Legions Field in Birmingham, Alabama.

It has been played in Orlando since 2008, with all games at the Florida Citrus Bowl except for 2010.

That year, it was played at the Bright House Networks Stadium at the University of Central Florida.

“I like the idea of moving it to the cities and towns.

We enjoyed playing in Orlando in the past and now we get to play other places,’’ Thompson said.

The MEAC dominates the series with a 9-2 record, having won the last five contests.

No Classic attendance The game doesn’t attract nearly the attendance of the Florida Classic and Bayou Classic. The Florida Classic had 45,728 in 2015, way down from its 73,358 in 2003.

In 2015, the Bayou Classic in New Orleans drew a high of 62,907. The previous post-Hurricane Katrina high mark was 59,874 at the 2008 classic.

The largest MEAC/

SWAC Challenge crowd was 30,106 in Birmingham in 2007. The game drew just 7,257 last year when Arkansas Pine-Bluff played South Carolina State in Orlando. The highest MEAC/ SWAC game played in Orlando was 30,106 in 2007 when Florida A&M University played Southern University.

Economic impact It also doesn’t bring economic impact of those games either – 30 million or $50 million, respectively, to the Orlando and New Orleans communities.

However, the event is still expected to have a positive economic impact on the schools and their communities.

“We expect it to have a great impact economically and, most importantly, brand Daytona Beach as one America’s greatest destinations,” said Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry Thompson echoed, “We believe that this could be like a homecoming game where we get 7,000 to 10,000 fans. With two to three nights of activities, that’s a lot of money being dropped around the city of Daytona Beach.”

History has been kind to Bethune-Cookman in the

MEAC/SWAC Challenge.

The Wildcats won the game twice. In 2011, B-CU pummeled Prairie View A&M, and in 2012 the team beat Alabama State.

will end on Aug. 27. The voting times are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Aug. 30 election hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The voting sites are: Flagler County Public Library, 2500 Palm Coast Parkway N.W. (corner of Belle Terre and Palm Coast Parkway) Palm Coast Community Center, 305 Palm Coast Parkway NE (corner of Clubhouse Drive and Palm Coast Parkway) Supervisor of Elections office, 1769 E. Moody Boulevard, Building 2, Suite 101, Bunnell (Government Services Building)

The Children and Families Advisory Board will meet at 1:30 p.m.

Monday, Aug. 29, at the Volusia Literacy Council, 826 White St., Daytona Beach.

Members will discuss, evaluate and make recommendations for requests provided by lead agencies for the “services for persons with disabilities” service category.

The advisory board assesses and evaluates strategies to meet needs, monitors program compliance, advertises funding availability, recommends appropriations for programs serving children and families, and provides recommendations to the Volusia County Council on children and familyissues.

For more information, visit www.volusia.org/cfab or call Brittany Scott, children and community programs coordinator, at 386736-5955, ext. 12959.

Report problems Voters are encouraged to report any incidents or irregularities.

Volusia County/Daytona Beach NAACP President Cynthia Slater told the Daytona Times last month that the organization would be monitoring sites on Election Day and during early voting.

“Information will be posted on social media outlining steps voters can take if they believe they are being denied their rights. This will include the NAACP national voter’s rights hotline.

We will also have staff available to take discrimination complaints,” Slater stated.

With recent issues of employment, terrorism, police brutality, inequal-

ity, immigration, injustice and racism in the headlines, organizations are reiterating the urgency of voting.

“There are many important issues at stake, including poverty, employment, gun control, criminal justices, health care, protection of Black lives, fair and equal justice, voter protection and the public safety.

We cannot be apathetic when it comes to voting.

We must vote as if our lives depend upon it.’’

Slater added.

For more voting information, visit the Flagler Supervisor of Elections office website at flaglerelections.com and the Volusia County Department of Elections at volusiaelections.org.

Expanding the brand Commissioners of the conferences are excited about the change.

“We are excited. The MEAC/SWAC Challenge has been an instrumental event for our conference by continuing to expand our brand on a national platform by playing on ESPN. It also provides our student athletes, institutions and coaches with an opportunity to participate in a bowl-like first class event to start the football season,” said MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas.

SWAC Commissioner Dan Sharp stated, “The MEAC/SWAC Challenge has been an enormous event for our conference.

It expands our league on a national stage by playing on ESPN while providing our fans an historical legacy to look back on. We are delighted that a pair of teams that have finished near the top of our conferences the past few years start off the college football season for the next two years.’’

ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE FOR BLACK STUDENTS. NO EXCUSES. The classic guide from Florida Courier publisher, lawyer and broadcaster CHARLES W. CHERRY II PRAISE FOR ‘EXCELLENCE WITHOUT EXCUSE’: “This guide for African-American college-bound students is packed with practical and insightful information for achieving academic success...The primary focus here is to equip students with the savvy and networking skills to maneuver themselves through the academic maze of higher education.”

– Book review, School Library Journal • How low expectations of Black students’ achievements can get them higher grades; • Want a great grade? Prepare to cheat!

• How Black students can program their minds for success; • Setting goals – When to tell everybody, and when to keep your mouth shut; • Black English, and why Black students must be ‘bilingual.’ …AND MUCH MORE!

www.excellencewithoutexcuse.com Download immediately as an eBook or a pdf Order softcover online, from Amazon, or your local bookstore ISBN#978-1-56385-500-9 Published by International Scholastic Press, LLC Contact Charles at ccherry2@gmail.com

Facebook ccherry2 excellencewithoutexcuse

for info on speeches, workshops, seminars, book signings, panel discussions.

Twitter @ccherry2

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M A YNEWS OR

AUGUST 18 – AUGUST 24, 2016 COMMUNITY DECEMBER 14 - 20, 2006

Bikes and backpacks Local motorcycle clubs held their first community backpack giveaway on Saturday at the Islamic Center of Daytona Beach. Participating motorcycle clubs included We Hot Throttle Divas, Divine Divas, Xfactor, Steel Stallions, Sunchasers and Down – N- Dirty.

More than 300 backpacks were distributed.

DUANE C. FERNANDEZ SR./ HARDNOTTSPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

Flagler seeking nominations for Veteran of the Year Flagler County’s Veterans Services Office is asking for nominations for its Veteran of the Year award, which will be presented on Veterans Day. The award will be presented to a living Flagler County veteran who has not only served his or her country with honor, but has used the leadership skills and abilities learned in the military to improve the Flagler County community through selfless volunteer service.

“There are a number of veterans who continue to serve their fellow veterans and the community, said Sal Rutigliano, Flagler County Veterans Services Officer. “They deserve to be recognized.”

Nominations will be accepted from through Sept.

30.

Nomination requirements The Veteran of the Year Committee, a subcommittee of the Flagler County Veterans Appreciation Day Committee, will review all nominations and select the Veteran of the Year.

The award will be presented at an expanded Veterans Day ceremony held at the Flagler Executive Airport – which is hosting the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall for the long weekend.

The nominee must be a resident of Flagler County; be a living veteran of one of the five Armed Forces of the United States, including Reserve or National Guard, or a United States Merchant Marine; have demonstrated outstanding patriotism, leadership and service as a veteran and a volunteer in the community or civic service; and be awarded for a single act or for continuous service.

Previous recipients of the award will not be considered.

Nominations must be postmarked no later than Sept. 30 and may not exceed three typewritten pages.

Resume needed The nomination must include a resume of no more than two pages with a minimum font size of 11 points that includes: periods of military service and branch of one of the five Armed Services or USMM; military awards and decoration; membership in nationally recognized veterans’ organizations; membership in community or civic organizations; community or civic organization awards or special recognition; and the nominee’s address, telephone number and email if available.

A one-page typewritten nomination statement,

maximum 250 words, that describes why the individual being nominated should be selected as the Flagler County Veteran of the Year should be provided along with the resume.

Proof of military services is also required through either a DD214 or verification by a nationally recognized veteran’s organization.

“It’s an honor for us to be able recognize the men and women who have served our country and continue to serve our community,” said County Commissioner George Hanns.

Mail nominations to Flagler County Veteran’s Service Office, Attn: Veteran of the Year, 1769 E. Moody Blvd. – Building 2, Bunnell, FL 32110.

DeLand church’s Music Makers seeking students for Nativity show

church’s fellowship hall.

Registration is required in advance and includes snacks, crafts, storybook with practice CD, plus a cast party at the dress rehearsal. Music Makers follows the Volusia County school calendar, so if school is cancelled due to a holiday or unexpected event, then rehearsal is cancelled for that day.

Register your child today by visiting the church website located at http://trinitydeland.org/music-forall/ and clicking on the All About That Baby link. An early bird registration fee of $30 is due by Sept. 1. After that, the fee will be $40.

Scholarships are available.

To learn more, contact Conya Hartman, director at 386-734-4425, ext. 14 or email her at trinitymusic@ cfl.rr.com.

Allen Chapel men to host fellowship breakfast

Trinity United Methodist Church of DeLand’s popular Music Makers, a musical performance group open to students in second through fifth grade, will be performing “All About That Baby!” for the 2016 fallChristmas season.

The musical tells the traditional Nativity story but with a fun twist. Incorporating both speaking, singing and rapping parts, the story line follows Nathaniel, an absent-minded shepherd who, with his sheep, winds up witnessing the holy birth.

Weekly rehearsals will begin Monday, Sept. 12 and will run through Nov. 28 with an additional dress rehearsal prior to the performance on Dec. 4. The musical will be performed twice for the 8:30 and 11 a.m. services in the church’s sanctuary.

The Men’s Fellowship (Sons of Allen) of Allen Chapel AME Church will host a free community breakfast Aug. 20 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. The church is located at 580 George W. Engram Blvd., Daytona Beach.

The theme is “What Does It Mean to Be a Godly Man? Thaddeus L. Collins will be the facilitator. He is a retired educator with Volusia County Schools and served as an adjunct instructor at several institutions of higher learning in Mississippi and Florida.

Collins is involved in the community through civic, religious and fraternal organizations.

For more information, call the church office at 386-255-1195.

Registration required

Small business training scheduled in Deltona

Rehearsal time is from 2:30-4:30 p.m. in the

The Small Business Development Center at Daytona State College will offer a training on social media, “Learn to Leverage Social Media for Your Small Business,” from 9 a.m. to noon Aug. 26 at Deltona City Hall, Room 150A, 2345 Providence Blvd.

The training will focus on: • How small businesses can leverage social media to help them grow • Learn to identify which social media platforms are right for your business • Uncover how to develop meaningful content for higher reach and engagement • Understanding tools to help you measure your social media activity • The advantage of social media advertising tools “boosting posts”

Cost for the training is $20. Businesses may register by calling 386-5064723.

Church to host Law Enforcement Appreciation Day St. James Missionary Baptist Church will host its annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Day on Aug. 28 at 4 p.m. The church is at 609 S. State St., Bunnell.

Flagler County law enforcement officers, community leaders and political candidates are asked to attend along with are asked to participate.

Tokens of appreciation will be given and a fellowship dinner will be served.

Officials and candidates who want to participate are asked to email stjames777@bellsouth.net or call 386-795-6327 by Aug. 24.

Palm Coast VFW plans spaghetti dinner The Palm Coast VFW will have a spaghetti dinner fundraiser on Saturday, Aug. 27. The address is 47 Old Kings Road N. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. and food will be served until 7.

Live entertainment will be provided by Zig Zag. Tickets are $8 in advance or $10 at the door.

For more information, call 386-446-8696.

Church hosting men’s conference and health fair A free Man Up Men’s Conference and Health Fair 2016 will be held on Aug. 27 and 28 at Daytona Deliverance Church of God, 600 W. Engram Blvd., Daytona Beach.

On Aug. 27, the health fair will take place from 9 a.m. to noon. It will include a free lunch, seminars, a blood drive and a CPR class (10 spaces for $10). Registration is urged for the seminars and blood drive.

A worship service is scheduled on Aug. 28 at 10:45 a.m. with Bishop William A. Lee Jr., senior pastor of Daytona Deliverance Church of Bishop God, as the William A. speaker.

Lee Jr. For more information, call 386-2532612 or visit www.ddcog. com.

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7 EDITORIAL

AUGUST 18 – AUGUST 24, 2016

Children of color should see themselves in books Children’s books and the publishing industry have failed to keep up with the rainbow of our children’s faces and cultures and needs.

Doreen Rappaport writes fiction and nonfiction that celebrate diverse histories and biographies such as her Caldecott Medal winner, “Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” illustrated by Bryan Collier. Her curiosity left her wanting to know more:

Ambition discouraged “I got into it because when I was a teenager there were no books about women. Maybe there was Eleanor Roosevelt and Jane Adams – those were the only two books. There wasn’t much of a place for young girls with a curiosity, and maybe even an ambition, and actually we were told not to be ambitious.”

Author and illustrator Don Brown started out on the very same hunt as Doreen Rappaport: “I had two little girls, and I wanted to read to them stories about real women who were brave and heroic. I couldn’t find books like that.”

He too decided to write his own, and has since written more than two dozen books on famous and less well-known historical figures and events. His latest graphic nonfiction book, “Drowned City,” is about Hurricane Katrina.

Poet and author Carole Boston Weatherford approaches history

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN GEORGE CURRY MEDIA

from another angle: she said she “mine[s] the past for family stories, fading traditions, and forgotten struggles” in order to help fill in the gaps of the stories being told. Many of her books are based on historical events spanning the African-American experience from slavery through the civil rights movement, and she said children are often amazed to learn the stories she writes about are true:

Really happened “One of the first questions is, ‘Did that really happen?’ Well, you know, that’s exactly the reaction that I want from the kids – because they can’t fathom that some of the inhumanities and injustices that were part of legalized segregation and part of America’s history of institutionalized racism really happened.”

Rita Williams-Garcia has won numerous awards for her historical fiction trilogy that begins with the Newbery Honor novel “One Crazy Summer” – she began telling stories that were very deliberately not historical. She was writing contemporary fiction about girls like herself whom she had

A tale of two selfies It may seem frivolous to consider two selfies of the interns in the Congress that recently rocketed around the social media. In fact, these two selfies alone tell a great deal of the tale of the last half-century or so of American life.

That includes explaining how a mentally unstable demagogue, Donald Trump, came to be the Republican Party’s nominee for president of the United States.

Simple scenes At first glance, the two selfies, which are readily available on the Internet, convey a simple scene: the smiling faces of bright, politically-inclined young people eagerly absorbing their first experience of national politics and the nation’s capital.

But what’s immediately striking is that the respective selfies of the dozens of interns of the Republican members of Congress and those of the Democratic members of Congress present radically different images – and

LEE A. DANIELS GEORGE CURRY MEDIA

visions – of American society.

One could be forgiven for mistaking the Republican selfie for a photograph from the 1950s, when American society was more than 80-percent White, the nation’s capital was a deeply racially-segregated city, and the Congress of the United States was in terms of its membership and higher-echelon staffing also deeply exclusionary. In the photo, fronted by Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, there appear to be no Black Americans or other Americans of color at all.

Stark contrast The contrast with the selfie of the Democratic interns could not be greater. For starters, no Dem-

Poverty, desperation in a world-class city When a demented killer slayed 49 in a gun rampage in Orlando, there was national attention. Presidential candidates called for escalating the fight against the Islamic State in the Middle East, even though the killer seems to be a homegrown terrorist.

But in Chicago, 404 have died in gun violence this year. According to the Congressional Research Service, the murder rate averaged 16 per 100,000 a year from 2010-2014. That is nearly four times the national average and nearly three times the Illinois state average.

Not random These killings are not randomly distributed. African-Americans constitute about one- third of Chicago’s residents, but they

REV. JESSE L. JACKSON, SR. TRICEEDNEYWIRE.COM

account for 80 percent of its murder victims. The killings are concentrated in endangered communities burdened with abject poverty and deplorable living conditions. Desperation and murder are segregated in Chicago.

In West Garfield Park, the average per capita income is $10,951.

More than 40 percent of the residents live below the poverty line, with an unemployment rate greater than 25 percent. In Englewood, the average per capita household income is $11,993.

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: USAIN BOLT

never seen in novels, and the girls in her audience responded with an immediate hunger for more.

“My first novel had just been published, and I went out to a library in Long Island, and it was nothing but angry girls . . . ‘Don’t write about slavery, don’t write about the water fountains and the civil rights . . . I want you to follow this girl and then write about her friend.’ They wanted to see – they were saying, ‘I need to see myself in the here and now.’”

Jason Reynolds, the author of “When I Was the Greatest,” “The Boy in the Black Suit,” and “All American Boys,” shared similar feelings. When he was in school no one ever showed him books that featured his voice or story, and so he didn’t like to read at all.

He now very deliberately writes books for other young people:

Visible and invisible “Right now what we see in our communities, we see that the young people of color are hypervisible, yet terribly invisible at the same time, and that puts them in a really complicated spot, and I think all I really want to do is say, ‘I see you.’”

He added: “This doesn’t have to be your entire literary lineage.

What this is, is your springboard into the world of letters . . . Show them them first. Then you can give them Shakespeare, you can give them Harper Lee, we can run the gamut of things we can give them – but let’s give them

GATIS SLUKA, LATVIJAS AVIZE, LATVIA

them, and then we can move out.

That’s my personal opinion.”

Children everywhere thrive when they see excellent books that give them them and open up their worlds to all kinds of excellent stories about others.

Are you seeking out books like these for your children and

grandchildren? How well are schools and libraries in your community doing in providing them?

ocratic officeholder appears in the photo. Instead, its “out-front” selfie-holder is one of the interns and those pictured represent the mosaic of what the American nation looks like now.

When I first saw the Republican selfie, I thought, “You have to work very hard to get a photo like that in the 21st century United States of America.” And that is the tale of American politics since the civil rights movement made America a democracy in fact, not just rhetoric.

The Republican Party, taking up the “Lost Cause” of White supremacy, has worked very hard to “reserve” opportunity and the resources of the country for Whites like them.

Its leadership has used the “Southern Strategy” of the Nixon years; and the “wedge politics” and “dog-whistle politics” of the Reagan-Bush 41 and Bush 43 presidencies; and finally, the overt race-war politics against the Obama administration to try to build the political equivalent of a “White fortress” against the demographic transformation of American society the selfie of

the Democratic interns strikingly represents.

That’s why the selfie of the Republican interns virtually mirrors the demographic portrait of the just-concluded Republican National Convention. There, only 6 percent of the nearly 2,400 delegates were Black or of Hispanic descent. The 18 Black delegates – down from 167 in 2004, and 36 in 2008, and 28 in 2012 – were the lowest such representation at a Republican Convention since 1912. If there were other delegates of color at the Cleveland gathering, they were, literally, invisible.

In stark contrast, half of the 4,766 delegates to the Democratic National Convention were of color: 25 percent were Black, 16 percent were of Hispanic descent, and 9 percent were Asian American or Native-American.

Further, more than 600 of the delegates self-identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer.

pool of “human capital” of American society really looks like. The Republicans pretending otherwise has cost them dearly politically: two crushing presidentialelection defeats by the man who, symbolically, represents a triumph of democracy and decency over bigotry; an ongoing vicious internal party fight among various factions of conservatives; and now, the prospect of another crushing presidential-election loss because its national ticket is led by the worst presidential candidate in American history.

And yet, a deeper consideration of these Democratic and Republican selfies does offer cause for hope. That hope is that behind the bright, somewhat self-conscious smiles of the young people in both is a commitment to the practice of politics as an honorable calling.

Forty-two percent of households live below the poverty line, with an unemployment rate over 21 percent.

In Fuller Park, per capita household income is $9,016, with 55.5 percent of households living below the poverty line. The unemployment rate is 40 percent. Washington Park, North Lawndale, Austin, Greater Grand Crossing, East Garfield Park…the list goes on.

During the height of the Great Depression, the unemployment rate hovered at roughly 20 percent. These neighborhoods are suffering levels twice that, now six years into the supposed recovery.

Wars go on in Afghanistan, in Syria, in Iraq, in Yemen, and now the U.S. is beginning to bomb Libya.

But the right now disaster zones in Chicago are ignored.

The everyday violence is decried, but nothing is done. The poverty is regretted, but there is no plan to attack it.

In fact, national policy does more to expand the divide between endangered communities and affluent ones. A new report by the Institute for Policy Studies and the Center for Enterprise Development details the growing racial wealth gap in America.

They find that without a drastic change in policy, by 2043, when people of color are projected to account for more than half of the U.S. population, the racial wealth divide between White households and African-American and Latino households will have doubled from about $500,000 in 2013 to more than $1 million.

historic inequities – from federally sanctioned housing discrimination to private redlining – but its expansion is fueled in part by tax policies that aid the highest earners while providing the lowest income families with virtually nothing.

Over the past 20 years alone, the report finds, the federal government spent more than $8 trillion through tax programs to assist families in building longterm wealth, including saving for retirement, purchasing a home, starting a business or paying for college.

But the impact of these expenditures has been “upside down.”

Typical millionaires pocketing about $145,000 in public tax benefits each year to increase their wealth while working families receive a total of $174 on average.

More of the same won’t help. If nothing changes, the desperate zones will get worse.

Historic causes

The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. is president and CEO of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

‘Disaster zones’ These are disaster zones in a supposedly world-class city.

They look like they are under siege, and to some extent they are. Drugs and guns, violence and despair mark lives condemned to live in these zones.

The war in Iraq will end up costing us more than $3 trillion.

Pool of capital The Democratic Convention’s delegates represent what the

The gap reflects the impact of

Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher

Opinions expressed on this editorial page are those of the writers, and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of the newspaper or the publisher.

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MAYOR

AUGUST 18 – AUGUST 24,DECEMBER 2016 ENTERTAINMENT 14 - 20, 2006

Johnny Mathis still nurturing his art at age 80

BY HOWARD REICH CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS

Johnny Mathis, who turned 80 last September, released his first album, “Johnny Mathis: A New Sound in Popular Song,” for Columbia Records in 1956.

“I’m fine getting old,” says Mathis, who believes that his voice “has mellowed. But, fortunately, it still sounds like me.”

Ah, that famous Mathis sound: a persistent vibrato that borders on a tremolo, making some listeners swoon and others demure.

How does he do it? And why?

“I think most people don’t understand: I have nothing to do with that,” says Mathis. “I just open my mouth and it comes out that way.

“There are situations when, in your singing, in your interpretation of songs, for instance, when you want a straight tone. And I have to work really hard at getting a straight tone. … That’s sort of like if you have curly hair, you have curly hair.

“I thought I sounded a little like Eartha Kitt for a long time, and I didn’t like it.”

Nearly 90 albums The mass public, however, clearly did. Mathis has made nearly 90 albums, sold millions of recordings and saw “Johnny’s Greatest Hits” ride the Billboard top albums chart for nearly a decade starting in 1958.

This music has been woven into the history of our popular culture, Mathis signatures such as “Chances Are,” “Misty” and “It’s Not For Me to Say” often used in films and TV shows to evoke a seemingly more innocent time in American life.

Yet for all of Mathis’ broad appeal, listeners might not realize that jazz undergirds his art.

Early influences When he was a youngster growing up in San Francisco, his parents played the music constantly on the record player at home, he says. Better still, his father often took him to the city’s famous Black Hawk jazz club to

hear Dave Brubeck, Cal Tjader, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and other titans.

“I was 13, 14 years old at the time, and I got to meet all of these incredible jazz artists,” recalls Mathis.

“And later on, after I started to sing (professionally), I’d meet them on the road, and they’d say, ‘Oh, you’re little Johnny.’”

No one influenced Mathis more, however, than an extraordinarily gifted singer-pianist from Chicago: Nat King Cole.

“Nat was my hero right from the very beginning,” says Mathis.

“My dad brought his music into the house and played it over and over again.

“And then, at a very early age, I met him, and he was the nicest, kindest man I’d ever met. From that moment on, he was my vocal hero. … He was the person I looked up to, and I couldn’t have had a better teacher.

“I tried to sing exactly like him.

I thought that was the way everything should sound.”

Vocal coach It’s not difficult to hear Cole’s imprint on Mathis’ art, from the crushed-velvet quality of Mathis’ vocal tone to his elastic way with rhythm and phrase. But Mathis also forged a style apart from Cole’s, partly because of the aforementioned flutter in his tone, partly because imitating the master really was impossible to do.

“Later on, I learned a little bit about how he approached his singing,” says Mathis, “and it all had to do with the fact that he was a piano player.

“So he would sing a little and play a little, sing a little and play a little.

“And I tried to do it, and it didn’t work.”

Furthermore, while Cole had started out as a jazz pianist and stood as one of the most influential of the mid-20th century, Mathis was a singer from the outset and enjoyed rigorous instruction from an opera singer named Connie Cox. “She was adamant that I

JC OLIVERA/SIPA USA/TNS

Johnny Mathis is shown at the 53rd Annual International Cinematographers Guild Publicists Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Feb. 26 in Beverly Hills, Calif. learned to produce the tones,” says Mathis. “(We) always studied vocal production: how to produce it so it doesn’t deteriorate.

That was the foundation of my whole career, vocally. … I give her all the credit.”

Facing racism Notwithstanding Mathis’ early successes, he faced the open racism routinely accorded AfricanAmerican performers of his vintage. Though he downplays such encounters, he has not forgotten them.

“As far as I’m concerned, because of people like Nat Cole and Lena (Horne), I never had a problem,” says Mathis, before cit-

ing a few.

“One time, I think — or I thought — I was being ostracized. And that was when I sang for the first time at the Sands hotel in Las Vegas. They said they didn’t have a room at the hotel; I would have to live someplace else.

“I went along looking for a place to stay, and of course there was no place, except in the colored section, which was quite a ways away from the hotel. And that was about it.

Enduring success “I was raised in San Francisco, and I couldn’t understand that thinking, especially when you’re

singing in one of the great venues in Las Vegas.”

But that wasn’t the worst of it.

“There was one time down South, when I was singing, where we got a letter before I went onstage, and it mentioned that I was not welcome, and they were going to do something terrible to me while I was singing,” recalls Mathis.

“I remember I was a little nervous. I was pacing back and forth onstage, so they wouldn’t have a target to kill me.”

Mathis obviously survived and transcended these affronts, answering them in the best way possible: with success that endures.

‘Miss Sharon Jones!’ chronicles singer’s battle with cancer

BY DWIGHT BROWN NNPA NEWS WIRE

OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/TNS

Comedian Larry Wilmore speaks during the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner on April 30 at the Washington Hilton hotel in Washington, D.C.

Comedy Central cancels Larry Wilmore show

BY MEREDITH BLAKE LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Comedy Central has canceled “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore” after a year and a half on the air. The last episode of the show was to air Thursday.

“We thank Larry and ‘The Nightly Show’ staff for their tireless efforts across the past two years and the conversations the show generated by addressing social issues of great importance to the country, always challenging people’s attitudes, perceptions and bias,” said Comedy Central in a statement.

The late-night program debuted on Comedy Central in January 2015 in the time slot previously occupied by “The Colbert Report.” Hosted by longtime “Daily Show” contributor and prolific writer-producer-comedian Larry Wilmore, the series focused on topical com-

edy and, in particular, issues of race. (The original title of the show was to have been “The Minority Report.”)

One less Black Instead of interviews with high-profile guests, “The Nightly Show” often featured roundtable conversations. In what might be the show’s most celebrated regular feature, “Keeping it 100,” Wilmore rewarded panelists who answered his provocative questions in an authentic manner.

The cancellation will leave “The Daily Show’s” Trevor Noah as the only Black host in latenight comedy, a circumstance Wilmore addressed in a frank statement: “I’m really grateful to Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, and our fans to have had this opportunity. But I’m also saddened and surprised we won’t be cov-

ering this crazy election or ‘The Unblackening’ as we’ve coined it. And keeping it 100, I guess I hadn’t counted on ‘The Unblackening’ happening to my time slot as well.”

Other projects The show has languished in the ratings and also lagged behind its competitors on social media, an increasingly important metric.

Wilmore garnered more attention, though not of the entirely positive kind, for his set at the White House Correspondents Dinner in April, where he mercilessly skewered the Washington press corps.

While the abrupt cancellation is certainly not good news for Wilmore, he has other projects to keep him busy.

He co-created “Insecure,” a comedy starring Issa Rae, which premieres on HBO on Oct. 9 and is already generating positive buzz. He is also an executive producer on the ABC sitcom “black-ish,” which was recently honored with an Emmy nomination for comedy series.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings is a Grammy-nominated R&B band from Brooklyn, New York.

Their groove is funky like James Brown’s. Jones’ gyrations are as wild and ferocious as Tina Tuner’s. The group’s soul shakes and their lead singer’s indomitable spirit blend into something very special, heartfelt and familial.

When Jones is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, it rocks the band’s foundation.

REVIEW Her fight for life and that harrowing journey is what’s on view in this very emotional and inspiring documentary titled “Miss Sharon Jones!”

According to the American Cancer Society, for all stages of pancreatic cancer combined the one-year relative survival rate is 20 percent and the five-year survival rate is 6 percent. Blacks are more likely to be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer than Whites.

Jones is the lead singer and the star attraction of her group. Her ability to perform and record determines whether the artists she loves can keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. She has a lot of responsibilities and a lot of reasons to want to beat her deadly illness. At just 4’11”, she carries the weight of a mountain on her shoulders.

Gutsy outlook Jones’ willingness to share her feelings, fears and her recollections of being told she was “too short, too fat and too dark” to have a successful singing career is never less than courageous. Her gutsy outlook on life puts viewers squarely in her corner. She’s an everyday superwoman letting a lot of people ride on her cape.

In many ways, she is no different than others who undergo cancer treatments: surgery, week-upon-week of chemotherapy, a loss of energy, loss of hair, doubts and despair. In other ways, her experience is so unique because of her public life and a support system that consists predominately of friends and medical/healing practitioners and not her imme-

STARZ DIGITAL

Sharon Jones is featured in the documentary “Miss Sharon Jones! The film is being shown in select theaters around the country. diate family.

Veteran documentarian Barbara Kopple (Oscar winner, “Harlan County U.S.A.” and “American Dream”) takes the audience behind the scenes as this ultracool music group with an oldschool feel goes through hell and back. Kopple’s efforts are aided by judicious editing (Anne Fratto, Jean Tsien) and illuminating cinematography (Gary Griffin, Tony Hardmon, Kyle Kibbe).

Enlightening experience For 94 heart-warming minutes, every emotion, every dramatic confrontation, setback and supportive gesture is on view. It’s hard not to be touched by it all. It’s as if Kopple’s camera is an invisible friend that lets you hold Jones’ hand along the way. Witnessing the singer’s day-to-day battle is an extraordinarily humbling and enlightening experience.

This personal story will make you appreciate the very essence of life. By the end of the film, you’ll desperately want Jones to recover, revive her career and make it back to center stage. Will she?

Take a hanky and get blessed by a beautiful spirit. “Miss Sharon Jones!” is pure joy.

Dwight Brown is a film critic and travel writer. As a critic he regularly attends international film festivals including Cannes, Sundance, Toronto and the American Black Film Festival. Read more movie reviews

by Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com.

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M ASPORTS YOR

AUGUST 18 – AUGUST DECEMBER 14 - 20, 24, 20062016

Justin Gatlin defends his past, moves forward

BY HELENE ELLIOTT LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

RIO DE JANEIRO – Sprinter Justin Gatlin on Saturday dismissed a suggestion made by gold medal-winning U.S. swimmer Lilly King that he should not be allowed to compete in the Rio Olympics because he has served two drug suspensions.

King, who won the women’s 100-meter breaststroke, was contemptuous of Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova, who has served a 16-month suspension and tested positive for meldonium this year but appealed and won the right to compete in these Games.

After swimming against Efimova, King called for the exclusion of any athlete who has served a drug-related ban. Asked whether she meant to include fellow American Gatlin – who contended for medals in the 100- and 200-meter dashes – she didn’t back down.

“Do I think people who have been caught doping should be on the team? They shouldn’t. It is unfortunate we have to see that,” she said.

Gold medalist Gatlin was suspended for two years in 2001 after testing positive for a substance in the medication he was taking for attention deficit disorder, but his term later was reduced to one year.

He won gold in the 100 in Athens in 2004 but served a four-year ban from 2006 to 2010 after testing positive for testosterone. He returned to win bronze in the 100 at London in 2012.

“I don’t even know who Lilly King is. She does swimming and

MARK REIS/COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE/TNS

Justin Gatlin, right, took the silver medal in the 100-meter event on Sunday in Rio. Usain Bolt, center, smiles after winning the gold.

I’m track and field, so I’m not worried about that,” he said on Aug. 13 after being timed in 10.01 seconds in the first round of the men’s 100-meter dash, the swiftest time of the day.

‘I’ve worked hard’ Gatlin added that he has confidence in the work of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and the World Anti-Doping Agency and in his own policies.

Daytona Beach’s Ryan Lochte said robbers posing as police pointed a gun at his head and took his money.

“I’ve come back and did what I need to do, and I’ve worked hard and I get tested just like everybody else and I’m back here,” he said. “I believe in the system. Everybody else believes in the system too.”

B-CU grad interns at Speedway through diversity program SPECIAL TO THE DAYTONA TIMES

RYAN LOCHTE/INSTAGRAM

An apology for Lochte, others robbed at gunpoint Rio 2016 offers regrets after incident involving swimmer from Daytona Beach

BY NATHAN FENNO LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

RIO DE JANEIRO – The spokesman for Rio 2016 apologized Monday to Ryan Lochte and three other U.S. swimmers who said they were robbed at gunpoint a day earlier.

“We regret the violence has got so close to the athletes,” Mario Andrada said during the daily media briefing at the Games. “We have requested the security authorities … need to make sure ev-

Tony Dungy: NFL player, coach, hall of famer Editor’s note: This article was one of the stories this week in BlackAmericaWeb.com’s “Little Known Black History Facts’’ series.

BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM

Tony Dungy, one of the NFL’s class acts, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame last weekend making him the first African-American coach to achieve the honor.

He already has etched his name in the history annals by becoming the first African-American head coach to win a Super Bowl in the NFL. Dungy, who turns 61 this October, is a native of Jackson, Mich.

Tony Dungy

erybody is safe everywhere in the city. We apologize to those involved and regret that violence is an issue in these Games.”

Lochte, the 12-time Olympic medalist, was in a taxi early Sunday from France’s hospitality venue to the Olympic Village along with teammates Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen.

They said they were pulled over and robbed by men posing as police officers.

No injuries Andrada said police have spoken to some of the swimmers and are looking for the cab driver.

None of the swimmers was injured.

Also Monday, the International Olympic Committee’s spokesman, Mark Adams, explained his initial denial that any incident involving Lochte had occurred.

“I contacted the (U.S. Olympic Committee and) they told me the story was not correct. I reported it was not correct,” Adams said. “I was asked to get an update from USOC, I got an update from USOC, I gave you USOC’s update and there was another one after that.”

In his college playing days, he starred at the University of Minnesota at the quarterback position.

caneers. The team was woeful at the time, but Dungy is given credit for turning the franchise into a winning one.

Player, then coach

In 2002, Dungy was named the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts but struggled early on.

Eventually, Dungy’s Colts vindicated their coach by winning Super Bowl 41 in 2007 with Peyton Manning who won the game’s MVP trophy.

Dungy, who also works as a television analyst, is best known for his soft-spoken demeanor and as a man of strong Christian faith. He has worked in prison ministry and has established mentoring programs.

Dungy and his wife, Lauren, have seven children together.

Sadly, Dungy’s 18-year old son, James committed suicide in 2006.

Undrafted by the NFL in 1977, Dungy played safety and special teams for the Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers, ending his career with the New York Giants.

Dungy’s first foray as a coach began in Pittsburgh with the team’s defensive backs corps in 1981. He was later promoted to defensive coordinator before leaving the team in 1989 to become the Kansas City Chiefs’ defensive backs coach.

After several seasons of displaying his defensive wizardry as coach and coordinator, he was given a chance to right the fortunes of the Tampa Bay Buc-

Analyst, mentor

Jasmine Lewis, a recent graduate of Bethune-Cookman University (B-CU), competed among hundreds of students from across the United States and internationally for a position with the NASCAR Diversity Internship Program (NDIP).

Lewis was one of the top 26 students that stood out to the NASCAR executives and she was ofJasmine fered an inLewis ternship at the Daytona International Speedway in guest services assisting with events and logistics.

“I didn’t realize how competitive the internship was,” Lewis said. “I went through six interviews and the supervisors placed me where they thought my skills would be best utilized.”

A female Bulgarian steeplechase runner, Silvia Danekova, was declared ineligible to compete last week because of an anti-doping rule violation. The decision was made by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

10-week program She graduated from B-CU in May 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication with a specialty in public relations and advertising.

When asked how she found out about the opportunity, Jasmine shared, “A friend of mine participated last year and she told me how much experience she received during the program.”

The NDIP is a 10-week paid hands-on learning program that pairs college students with their desired career focus.

“I learned a lot from interning with NASCAR,” Jasmine said. “It was a ton of hours to work each week during event times, but overall it was a great experience and I learned a lot about the motor sports industry and NASCAR,” she stated.

Career goal More than 300 students who have participated in the NDIP receive job offers from their experience with NASCAR and its partners.

“My goal is to pursue a career working for a sports organization in their legal department as a legal counsel overseeing contracts and eventually starting my own sporting events company,” Lewis said.

She is currently obtaining a master’s degree in entertainment business and sports management from Full Sail University and a Juris Doctorate degree from North Carolina Central.

Milwaukee team hires first lady’s brother

key players.

“We strive to equip every member of our organization with the tools they need to find personal success beyond basketball,” Bucks co-owner Wes Edens said in a statement.

BY CHARLES F. GARDNER MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL/TNS

Played at Princeton

Former Oregon State coach Craig Robinson is joining the Milwaukee Bucks as vice president of player and organizational development, the team announced Monday.

Robinson, the brother of First Lady Michelle Obama and brother-in-law of President Barack Obama, coached at Oregon State from 2008-14 after spending two years as head coach at Brown in the Ivy League.

Robinson’s role will be to serve as a mentor and advisor to the Bucks young roster, which includes 21-year-olds Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jabari Parker as

A Chicago native, Robinson was a two-time Ivy League player of the year at Princeton.

He was an assistant coach at the Illinois Institute of Technology before attending the University of Chicago to receive a graduate degree in business administration. Robinson worked in finance and banking before returning to coaching as an assistant at Northwestern from 1999 until 2006.

Robinson and his wife, Kelly, were married in 2006 and have four children: sons Austin, Aaron and Avery and daughter Leslie.

He posted a 93-104 record in six seasons at Oregon State and the Beavers failed to reach the NCAA Tournament during that stretch.

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7CULTURE

AUGUST 18 – AUGUST 24, 2016

Minorities seek help from Whites on Reparations website

BY DAVID NG LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

As an interior designer relatively new to the business, Christy Lynn Abram lacked the connections that could make her startup a success. Then a friend recommended Reparations, a new Internet site that allows ethnic minorities to request help or services from a White person who would fulfill them free.

“I was kind of drawn to it,” said Abram, who is Black. “My thought wasn’t that someone owed me anything. It was more about opening myself up to having someone help me.”

Launched as a modest project on Facebook in mid-July but soon expanded to a stand-alone website, Reparations is starting to draw international attention for its brazen approach to race relations.

It is provoking strong reaction, including condemnation from those who see it as a racially divisive tool that exploits liberal white guilt.

Global response But Seattle-based conceptual artist Natasha Marin, who created the project, defended her site as a social experiment intended to explore “White privilege.”

“There are people across the political spectrum who don’t understand that they have privilege,” she said. “So in many ways the site lets you cash in your whiteness to help other people.”

Marin said the project has received more than 1,000 requests and offerings.

As word of the site has spread, offers and requests have come in from all over the U.S. and other countries including Britain, New Zealand and Zambia. One offer was for a night’s shelter and a meal to a person of color traveling near Paparoa, New Zealand.

Death threats Marin, 37, is Black and comes from Trinidad. She said she has received a barrage of negative online feedback, including death threats, racial slurs and messages calling her a “whore.”

She said she was surprised by some of the vitriol.

“You can tell the whole world that I was that naive,” she said. “I don’t feel like I deserve the hatred I’ve been getting out of this.”

The artist said that requests are moderated and that she tries to facilitate exchanges.

Abram, the interior designer, said she received several responses that were helpful, including one from a man in Montreal who gave her career advice via Skype. But she also received “nasty” messages, including one that said White people didn’t owe her anything and another that called her a “bloodsucker.”

“guaranteed minimum livable income” for all black people.

Controversial concept

Supports movement

The concept of reparations has been controversial, especially when referring to the notion that Black people in the U.S. should be compensated for the legacy of slavery.

Recently, leaders affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement published a political platform calling for slavery reparations.

“The government, responsible corporations and other institutions that have profited off of the harm they have inflicted on Black people — from colonialism to slavery through food and housing redlining, mass incarceration, and surveillance — must repair the harm done,” said the Movement for Black Lives, a group associated with Black Lives Matter.

The group is demanding “full and free” access for all Black peoples to lifetime education, including public colleges and universities. Other demands include a

The group is also pushing for the passage of a House bill that would study reparations for African-Americans. The bill was introduced three years ago by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. It would seek to recommend remedies for slavery and the discrimination that Blacks have faced in the country since the 17th century.

Marin said she isn’t officially affiliated with Black Lives Matter but said that she supports the movement. “Would I wear a Black Lives Matter T-shirt? Yes,” she said. But the artist added that her site was never intended to address slavery specifically.

“I never actually intended to have any kind of commentary for reparations on American slavery,” she said. The site was intended to address race relations, she said, but “that doesn’t mean I’m incanting reparations for slavery.

Right now, in America, there’s a

Natasha Marin defends her site as a social experiment intended to explore “White privilege.”

COURTESY OF NATASHA MARIN

racial component to everything.”

Plenty of critics Detractors, however, still object to the site.

“The idea of white guilt is intrinsically linked to slavery,” said Paul Joseph Watson, a London-based editor and writer at InfoWars, the libertarian site, who has written critically of the project.

“I have no problem with someone setting up a website encouraging others to help poorer members of society, but miring it in race guilt is just a way of exploiting gullible leftists,” he said, adding that the artist’s invocation of White privilege is “just another facet of the race card.”

Varied requests Some recent requests on the Reparations site include travel money for a Native American woman looking to explore her cultural heritage, daily expenses for parents who said they are having trouble making ends meet, and art supplies for disadvan-

donated by our customers and associates in 2016 Thank you to those who donated in our stores this spring to help save and improve children’s lives. publix.com/CMNH

taged students.

White visitors to the site can make unsolicited offers. Recent examples include tutoring for young students, pet sitting and help with resumes.

Marin said the requests and offers haven’t fallen neatly into the site’s prescribed racial outline in which people of color make requests and White individuals offer assistance.

“What surprised me was that people of color were the first people to make offerings,” she said.

The site was initially intended to be open through the end of the year, but Marin said she may end the experiment earlier given the negative feedback she has received.

“In America, we have Americans and we have hyphenated Americans,” she said. “And hyphenated Americans are different. We are so programmed to focus on whiteness that we don’t think about what it means. We as Americans need to stop denying that this is a thing.”