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CELEBRATING OUR 10TH YEAR STATEWIDE!
About 50 Black campaign staffers in key positions for presidential race See Page A6 FEBRUARY 5 – FEBRUARY 11, 2016
VOLUME 24 NO. 6
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CANCER SCREENING MATTERS That’s the message of Florida’s top health care official, Surgeon General John Armstrong, who was diagnosed with colon cancer last September at age 52.
FROM WIRE AND STAFF REPORTS
TALLAHASSEE – Hundreds of activities around the globe Thursday recognized World Cancer Day, but for Florida Surgeon General John Armstrong, the international “holiday” is personal. Diagnosed with colon cancer last year, Armstrong spoke candidly Wednesday about his experience with cancer and chemotherapy in a lengthy interview with The News Service of Florida in an effort to raise awareness about the disease, treatment and early detection.
‘Not a fan’ “It made sense to have
this conversation now,” Armstrong said during an interview in his office at the Department of Health headquarters in Tallahassee. “I’m not a fan of celebrating disease…I would prefer that (it) be ‘World Cancer Cure Day.’ But it is what it is. And I think it’s an opportunity to really push this message out.” About 100,000 Floridians each year are diagnosed with cancer, according to Armstrong. According to statistics from the Center for Disease Control’s State Cancer Profiles, Florida’s colon and rectal cancer rates are falling overall from where they were five years ago. However, Black Floridians are
diagnosed colon and rectal cancers at a 15 percent higher rate than are White Floridians. Calling the discussion about his personal health “difficult,” Wednesday’s interview was the first time the state’s chief health officer has spoken in great detail about his condition and treatment. “In the end, health is really personal. It’s really personal. It’s about what individuals hope to achieve in life,” he said.
Next-day surgery Armstrong underwent COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA surgery in September – a day after a colonoscopy re- Florida Surgeon General John Armstrong intends to use his medical knowlvealed he had the disease edge and experience to benefit himself and others in his personal battle See MESSAGE, Page A2
against colon cancer.
FLORIDA COURIER / OUT AND ABOUT
Action at the net
Regulate the body-cams Jones family pushes for changes BY MARGIE MENZEL THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE –The family of a Boynton Beach man killed by an undercover officer called Wednesday for lawmakers to approve a bill that would regulate the use of police body cameras. The parents and sister of the late Corey Jones visited the Capitol, on what would have been his 32nd birthday, to ask state leaders to support the measure (HB 93), filed by Rep. Shevrin Jones, D-West Park (no relation). A musician, Corey Jones was fatally shot by a plainclothes Palm Beach Gardens officer when his car broke down on Interstate 95 in the early morning after a gig. The officer, who was driving an unmarked van, has since been fired. “If there were body cameras, they would have answers,” said Ben Crump, a prominent civilrights attorney who represents the family. “We all would have answers as to why a church drummer who was broke down at 3 in the morning, on October 18th last year, was confronted by an ununiformed officer and is dead.”
Establishes policies
CHARLES W. CHERRY II / FLORIDA COURIER
This was the scene last weekend at the Palm Beach Juniors Volleyball Tournament in Fort Lauderdale, which attracted girls’ volleyball teams from around the state. Femi Funeus of the Hurricane 16 Adidas team spikes the ball as her teammates and opponents react.
The bill would only apply to police agencies that decide to use body cameras. Under it, those agencies would be required to establish policies and procedures addressing the proper use, maintenance and storage of body cameras and recorded data. State law See JONES, Page A2
SNAPSHOTS
Scott names three to Civil Rights Hall of Fame FROM WIRE REPORTS
TALLAHASSEE – The first Black Cabinet member since Reconstruction, a lawyer who fought segregation, and a state leader of the NAACP have been named by Gov. Rick Scott to the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame. Scott’s office announced Monday that the selections include the late Jesse McCrary, a native of the Ocala area. McCrary was an attorney who was appointed in 1978 by thenGov. Reubin Askew to serve as secretary of state, and became the first Black state Cabinet member since Reconstruction. Also named were the late attorney Earl M. Johnson of Jacksonville, who battled segre-
ALSO INSIDE
Jesse McCrary
Earl M. Johnson
Rutledge Pearson
ner of the late Leander Shaw, the Florida Supreme Court’s second Black justice. The third selection was the late Rutledge Pearson, also a Jacksonville-based civil rights activist who served as president of the Florida State Conference of NAACP Branches. He participated in desegregation activities in Jacksonville as the NAACP branch president there. Ironically, Pearson became the first African-American to be buried in the city’s racially segregated Evergreen Cemetery after he was killed in a car crash at age 37 in 1967.
gation and represented civil rights activists The News Service of Florida contributed in Florida courts, including the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Johnson was also a law part- to this report.
FLORIDA | B1
Hurston events continue through 2016 FLORIDA | A3
State hires new healthcare provider for inmates
SUPER BOWL
Some stats and recipes B3, B4
COMMENTARY: MARGARET KIMBERLEY: THE PROBLEM OF SANDERS AND THE ‘LEFT’ | A4 COMMENTARY: GLEN FORD: THE CLINTONS – WE CAME, WE STOLE, HAITIANS DIED | A4
FEBRUARY 5 – FEBRUARY 11, 2016
FLORIDA
A3
State hires new health care company for inmates BY DARA KAM THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
TALLAHASSEE – State corrections officials have
hired Centurion of Florida LLC to take over prison health services for more than three-fourths of Florida’s 100,000 inmates after Corizon Health walked
away from a five-year, $1.2 billion contract three years early. Centurion, a joint venture between Centene Corp. and MHM Services,
will be paid a maximum of nearly $268 million to fill in for Corizon, which exercised a 180-day cancellation provision in its contract with the state.
In December, Corizon told Department of Corrections Secretary Julie Jones that it intended to pull out of the state by the end of May, two years af-
Powering your on-the-go life for less.
ter the start of the country’s largest prison healthcare contract. At the time, Jones said Corizon executives told her they were losing money – up to $1 million a month – on the deal. Jones also said Corizon executives blamed the company’s exit on whether its payments should be adjusted annually according to changes in the Consumer Price Index. While its contract made allowances for such hikes, any increases would have to be approved by the Legislature, which has been inconsistent in authorizing partial increases for Corizon and never approved a full Consumer Price Index hike – as much as 4 percent – since the contract went into effect.
Spring start On Dec. 18, Jones used a type of procurement process called an “invitation to negotiate” to seek vendors to provide mental health services, dental care and health care for the state’s inmates. The new contracts are expected to start in 2018. Centurion, which provides health care for prisoners in five other states, will start operations in Florida this spring, in a contract that lasts until January 2018, when the new vendors are expected to take over, according to a press release issued by Centene.
Corizon sued Tennessee-based Corizon had been under fire from lawmakers and attorneys representing inmates who accused the company of routinely providing inadequate care since taking over services in most of the prisons in the central and northern portions of the state. Lawyers for Florida inmates in September filed a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Corrections and Corizon, alleging that the state agency and the company were denying hernia operations to save money. A month after taking over the helm of the Department of Corrections in January 2014, Jones put the health care contractors on notice that she intended to rebid health care contracts with Corizon and Wexford Health Sources, which has a $267 million contract to handle inmates in the southern portion of the state.
Health disparities summit set for Feb. 5-6 in Tampa SPECIAL TO THE COURIER
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The Florida Health Equity Research Institute, W. Montague Cobb/NMA Health Institute and Student National Medical Association are hosting the Florida Health Disparities Summit: Strengthening Research Collaborations in Personalized Medicine, Social Determinants and Community Engagement on Feb. 5-6 at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. The summit, which is free and open to the public, seeks to foster interactions among Florida researchers, physicians, students and community leaders with the goal of creating long-term partnerships to reduce and eliminate health disparities. Speakers from around the country will include Mary Jackson Scroggins, founding partner at Pinkie Hugs, LLC, and 17-year ovarian cancer survivor and advocate; Dr. Bill Dalton, CEO of M2GEN and former CEO of the Moffitt Cancer Center; and Dr. Richard Scribner from the LSU Health School of Medicine. The summit is from 7 a.m.–5 p.m. Feb. 5, and 8 a.m.–2 p.m. Feb. 6 at the Vincent A. Stabile Research Building, Moffitt Cancer Center, 12902 Magnolia Drive, Tampa.
EDITORIAL
A4
FEBRUARY 5 – FEBRUARY 11, 2016
Political decisions vs. political choices Picture this headline: “Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders win respective primaries.” Let that marinate for a moment before reading any further. Now, what is your reaction? Faced with those two choices, what will you do? For whom will you vote? Will you vote at all? Or will you go to either (or both) of the candidates and make demands, insisting that unless they support your positions publicly and in writing you will not vote for them?
We don’t decide No matter who ends up on the ballot, our choice for president will be based on decisions made by others. Some people use “deciding” and “choosing” interchangeably, and in some cases that’s fine. But in politics, it’s intellectually dangerous and comes with negative results for the electorate. Remember George Bush’s words, “I am the decider”? That was his way of saying, “I have the final say.” Like the president, the U. S. Supreme Court decides; political handlers, donors, and operatives decide. The electorate chooses, with the exception of the 2000 election where the Supreme Court decided who would be president.
No say What about Black folks? As I wrote last year (“Spectator Politics”), Black folks do not have a say in who wins Iowa and New
A few words JAMES CLINGMAN NNPA COLUMNIST
Hampshire, which are the primary indicators of who gets the final nomination for president. Why would candidates spend millions of dollars to win those two small states? Iowa has a 91 percent White and 2 percent Black population, and only six electoral votes; New Hampshire has a 93 percent White and 1 percent Black population, and only four electoral votes. By the way, the third state to vote is South Carolina, which has a 28 percent Black population and nine electoral votes. The bottom line in this exclusionary process that takes place during the run-up to the presidential election is this: the majority of the electorate is only left with choosing among, and later between, the candidates decided upon by a handful of power brokers and opinion leaders. Listen to the speeches and watch the debates, and you will see a glaring absence of rhetoric about Black issues, such as those listed in the political platform of the One Million Conscious Black Voters and Contributors (OMCBVC). Lip service and posturing are the rules of the day for candidates who want the Black vote. The bar for their response to our needs is insultingly low.
The problem of Bernie Sanders and the ‘left’ A quick perusal of the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders policy statements shows little difference between the two. Sanders benefits from once having called himself a socialist – and from not being Hillary Clinton. The former first lady, senator and secretary of state is disliked by millions of people. There has been no real debate about the Democratic Party and its role as a willing part of the political duopoly tag-team with the GOP. Any discussion of alternatives raises the specter of “spoilers” who are blamed for Al Gore’s loss to George W. Bush in 2000.
Better marketers The endless fearmongering about right-wingers and discussions about “lesser evil” only lead to Democrats who market themselves better than Republicans do. They still bail out the
MARGARET KIMBERLEY BLACK AGENDA REPORT
banksters; keep Black people in jail; and commit mass murder and worldwide chaos with drones, sanctions, or willing puppet regimes. Sanders benefits from a protection racket with Vermont’s Democratic Party. He first called himself a socialist, now an independent, when in fact he works with the Democrats to prevent primary challengers and the growth of any third party. If he were truly a leftist, the Democrats would have targeted him for defeat long ago. Instead, he gets the seal of approval and the campaign cash needed to keep his Senate seat.
The Clintons: ‘We came, we stole, Haitians died’ The island nation of Haiti is on the verge of finally ejecting the criminal President Michel “Sweet Mickey” Martelly, the dancehall performer and gangster who was foisted on the Haitian people by the United States through the bullying of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton back in 2011. Martelly’s term is up, and he is constitutionally required to leave office by February 7. Martelly and his American, French and Canadian backers had hoped to use rigged elections and strong-arm tactics to install another puppet politician, Jovenel “The Banana Man” Moise, in the presidential palace.
VISUAL VIEWPOINT: FLINT’S POISONED WATER
GLEN FORD BLACK AGENDA REPORT
Serious corruption The “Banana Man” – who wants to turn Haiti into a real banana-exporting republic, to the further impoverishment of its small farmers – came in first in an October election that was so blatantly stolen, even the thoroughly corrupt Haitian elite could not endorse the outcome. In fact, virtually no one in Hai-
Just say, “Yes, Black lives do matter,” and you got Black votes. Just say, “I am for voting rights,” and you lock up Black votes. Just mention “MLK’s dream,” or “Rosa Parks’ refusal,” or “the Selma Bridge,” and the Black votes are in the bag –mostly the Democrats’ bag. Bernie Sanders, according to an article written by Ta-nehisi Coates, said, the likelihood of reparations for descendants of enslaved Africans in America “is nil...I think it would be very divisive.” That’s a real interesting response in that Sanders did not deem reparations for Jewish people “divisive”. Barack Obama does not support reparations; Hillary Clinton and all the Republican candidates do not support reparations. So Black folks “ain’t got nothin’ coming.” Surprised? I doubt it.
What do we do? Well, we must first understand that in politics there is a difference between choosing and deciding. Then we must organize ourselves into a “deciding” force rather than continue to be a “choosing” afterthought. How do we do that? By joining the OMCBVC and reaching a critical mass of Black folks who are willing to play politics to win by leveraging our votes as a bloc, and by combining our financial resources in order to leverage our dollars within the political campaigns of prospective candidates. As a presidential candidate, Sanders suddenly sponsored legislation to raise the federal minimum wage incrementally to $15 per hour over a five-year period. Republican control of both houses of Congress meant that his timid plan is dead upon arrival. More importantly, when Democrats controlled the legislative branch completely in 2009 and 2010, they made no effort to do what they now say they want so badly. Senator Sanders did not deviate from his party’s plan for inaction.
What’s a ‘leftist’? Leftists won’t cling to the Democrats after being cast aside again and again, while still suffering from unrequited love. Leftists are opposed to imperialism in all its forms. They don’t change their minds because a Democrat is occupying, sanctioning and assassinating around the world instead of a Republican. Leftists demand that the federal government spend whatever is necessary to restore the people of Flint, Michigan to tian society except the “Banana Man,” “Sweet Mickey,” and the tens thousands of Haitians who were paid to vote repeatedly at different polling places in October considered the election to be valid. Jude Célestin, the candidate that came in second in the October electoral farce – and who was also cheated of victory by “Sweet Mickey” in the election five years ago – refused to go along with the travesty. Célestin said he would not take part in the bogus run-off election – meaning the “Banana Man” would have been the only candidate. But even the prospect of a oneman contest could not stop the Americans from insisting on going ahead with the run-off. The U.S. – which pays for the Haitian elections and therefore believes it has the right to decide who wins and who loses – growled that Haiti should go along with the fraudulent process. The Americans were upset that they might have no reliable replace-
STEVE SACK, THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
Ice cream moguls Ben Cohen’s and Jerry Greenfield’s support of Black Lives Matter and their ties to Bernie Sanders in Vermont notwithstanding, Charles and David Koch, Sheldon Adelson, George Soros, and all the rest of the puppet masters whose money controls politics show us that we have very little decision-making power. What we have at this stage of the game is the ability to choose from the power brokers’ decisions. Beyond the superficial, Black folks’ issues are not being discussed by any candidate. But why should the candidates deal with us? They are courting virtually all-White audiences in the two states they want us to believe will ultimately determine our next president.
A slight change
health and safety. Leftists are anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist. They oppose all neo-liberal “free trade” deals like the TransPacific Partnership. They want killer police to go to jail – but want to free the masses from it. They want to end gentrification and displacement. They don’t like the scam of charter school privatization of public education. The sad reality is that most Americans do not want to deviate from the establishment narrative of a wise and beneficent system. Progressives are no different. They don’t want to struggle for true change and thus be left out of the establishment whose approval they covet. They want the jobs and the acceptance that come with declaring that the country is just fine – but might be better off with a little tinkering here and there.
Drastic change
capitalism cannot be reformed. They aren’t fooled by propaganda that legitimizes intervening in foreign countries. Leftists want an empty prison system and community control of the police. They don’t exult over Sanders over Clinton, because they know that great change comes from mass action and not the ballot box. Leftists see through the Democratic Party’s corruption and don’t fear being ‘spoilers.’ They know that the system needs to be spoiled and aren’t afraid to say so. The word “Democrat” is not synonymous with leftist. Sanders fans are Democrats – with all of the flaws of the party they still support. The people who yearn to find a good person in a corrupt system have some choices to make. Putting the Sanders lipstick on the Democratic pig should not be among them.
Leftists ought to be revolutionaries who aren’t fooled by the quadrennial circus of the Democrats and Republicans, and who aren’t browbeaten into “lesser evilism.” They know that
Margaret Kimberley’s column appears weekly in BlackAgendaReport.com. Contact her at Margaret.Kimberley@ BlackAgendaReport.com.
ment for “Sweet Mickey,” their loyal puppet.
Effect on campaign Plus, the discrediting of the elections would also reflect very badly on presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who claims to have brought stability to Haiti when she was at the State Department. In fact, she is culpable for all of the Haitians who were murdered by the Martelly regime. The truth is that Hillary and Bill were the Bonnie and Clyde of Haiti, robbing the country for their own and other corporate criminals’ benefit. The teams of FBI agents that are now matching Hillary’s emails with contributions to the Clinton Foundation are tapping a mother lode of corruption that may yet bring her down before Election Day in the United States. If that happens, the Haitian people will deserve some of the credit for saving the U.S. from
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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When the game comes to South Carolina, it will change a little. We’ll see Black church visits, gospel hymns being sung, and armin-arm prayer, which always turns us on and captures our support. If you are a conscious Black voter, to join the movement that is focused on bringing about a significant change in how public policy is determined. Go to www. iamoneofthemillion.com and sign up. We must be deciders, not choosers.
James E. Clingman is the nation’s most prolific writer on economic empowerment for Black people. His latest book, “Black Dollars Matter! Teach Your Dollars How To Make More Sense,” is available on his website, Blackonomics.com.
another period of rule by the Crooked Clintons, in the process of saving Haiti’s sovereignty and self-respect.
Run-off cancelled The Haitians’ furious grassroots resistance forced the cancellation of the run-off election; “Sweet Mickey” is slated to leave office in less than two weeks; and negotiations are underway to form an interim government that would hold clean elections. The struggle now is for Haiti’s poor majority to make its voice heard above the growling of the U.S. imperialist occupiers and their hired Haitian flunkies – some of whom are real killers, whose names aren’t funny at all.
Glen Ford is executive editor of BlackAgendaReport.com. Email him at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
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FEBRUARY 5 – FEBRUARY 11, 2016
White actor playing Michael Jackson exploits his self-hate According to the London Guardian newspaper, “September 2001 was allegedly witness to one of the strangest road trips in history: Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marlon Brando driving from New York to Ohio in an attempt to get home [to California] following the 9/11 terrorist attacks…The saga is now being dramatised in a one-off special for Sky Arts, starring Joseph Fiennes as Jackson, Stockard Channing as Taylor, and Brian Cox as Brando.” Unsurprisingly, this casting of a White actor to play Michael Jackson has incited viral outrage. Michael would probably have been every bit as flattered by a White actor playing him as Rachel Dolezal would be by a Black actress playing her. Of course, the outrage Dolezal’s “passing” as Black incited has already been lost in the black hole of hashtag protests. No doubt the outrage this casting incited will be in short order, too. But at least Rachel is honest enough to admit she’s doing all she can to look Black because she does not want to be identified as White.
‘Black and proud’? By contrast, Michael maintained the charade of saying, “I’m Black and I’m proud.” He never looked more dishonest, if not delusional, than when he said that during a famous 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey. Oprah questioned him about reports that he wanted a White child to play his younger self in a Pepsi commercial. Michael protested that the very thought of this was “stupid … ridiculous … horrifying … crazy.” He protested too much, methinks. Not least because those words unwittingly described the
ANTHONY L. HALL, ESQ. FLORIDA COURIER COLUMNIST
It was as plain as the nose on his face that Michael hated features that made him look Black. The racial selfhate he personified evoked in me sadness bordering on pity, so much so that I still find it impossible to listen to his music with unbridled joy. racial metamorphosis Michael was undergoing at the time, which would soon see him get “Whiter than White” and even produce White children to play his own in real life. As I wrote in 2009, “The most manifestly troubling aspect of Michael’s personal life was his role as a father. In addition to many other Freudian questions, I wonder
What would a serious reparations discussion look like? The fundamental justice of the reparations proposition seems indisputable. Grievous harm was done to millions in the course of slavery, Jim Crow, the urban ghettoes and the current neoliberal prison state. In slavery alone, the vast sums of capital generated by stolen labor on stolen land were essential to the building of 19th- and 20th- century U.S. capitalism and America’s rise to global economic prominence. Surely victimized and exploited deserve to be made whole. Bringing reparations for tens of millions from idea to reality, however, would mean reallocation of resources on a vast scale. Making reparations actually happen is a huge political project requiring the support of significant constituencies other than African-Americans.
BRUCE A. DIXON BLACK AGENDA REPORT
part of a “reparations movement” – seemingly cannot be bothered with the task of coming up with even the sketchiest plans, roadmaps, or strategies to actually win the reparations they say they want and that we all need. Reparations then, seems to be a cause you can “join” with nothing more than an empty declaration. Once you join the exclusive club, all you get is the privilege of denouncing those who have not embraced reparations for not being as unapologetically Black as you are. In a January 2016 interview posted on Black Agenda Report, Adolph Reed extends the interNo strategy rogation of reparations and the But as Adolph Reed pointed out class politics of reparations. in 2002, the advocates of reparaCoates and others eschew class tions – some of whom claim to be analysis and hold that that race,
Hungry children are in rich America Sarah is 3 years old. She and her 6-year-old brother Bryce are inseparable, except when it’s time for him to visit the summer food program that provides meals at a school near his Ohio home for children who otherwise would go hungry. Sarah’s too young to make the trip. One morning after Bryce had his fill of food for the day, he made a detour before heading home. He walked to the trashcans and began rummaging through food others threw away. Winnie Brewer, the food services Supervisor in Marion City Schools, noticed the little boy and tapped him on the shoulder to ask why he was sifting through the garbage. “My little sister,” he explained. “She’s hungry.” Bringing her leftover food was the only way he knew to help. «We run into a lot of situations where kids will come and say they have younger siblings at home,» Brewer says. «They always want to know if they can take something back.»
MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN GEORGE CURRY MEDIA
Care package After Brewer spoke with Bryce, staff members followed him home with a care package for little Sarah. This was a temporary solution to a huge problem Brewer worries about every day. “Until we see that child digging food out of a trash can, it doesn’t hit home,” Brewer says. “Once it does, you know you have to do something.” Nearly 220,000 Ohio children under 6 are poor and young children of color are more likely to be poor. More than half (55.5 percent) of Black children, 40.3 percent of Hispanic, and 19.1 percent of White children under 6 in Ohio are poor; 21 percent of them live in families where at least one parent works full-time year-round; 47
EDITORIAL
A5
VISUAL VIEWPOINT: TRUMP LOSES IN IOWA
about the psychological impact on his three lily-White children of having this Black man (notwithstanding his appearance) insist that he is their biological father. “Just imagine the psychological defect (self-hate?) or physical dysfunction that led Michael to choose the sperm of a White man, instead of using his own (or that of a Black man), to inseminate the (White) surrogates who gave birth to his designer babies.”
Hated his Blackness Frankly, it was as plain as the nose on his face that Michael hated features that made him look Black. Perhaps that’s why his fake nose kept falling off every time he lied about this. The racial self-hate he personified evoked in me sadness bordering on pity, so much so that I still find it impossible to listen to his music with unbridled joy. Sociologists have proffered the notion of “complex personhood” to explain the psychopathology of Blacks bleaching themselves White. But, no matter how nuanced or complicated the psychology that causes this pathology, there’s no denying the racial abnegation involved. In 1926, Langston Hughes wrote this in “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain:” No great poet has ever been afraid of being himself…But this is the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America – this urge within the race toward whiteness, the desire to pour racial individuality into the mold of American standardization, and to be as little Negro and as much American [i.e. white] as possible… I am ashamed … for the colored artist who runs from the painting of Negro faces … because he fears White supremacy and systemic racial injustice explain the past and present, and that ultimately only reparations can cure these. Reed holds that reparations is not an answer to the politics of class. Instead, it is the political preference of a very specific class – the “Black misleadership” class – that has always positioned itself as brokers and spokespeople for the rest of us. He claims that reparations is the preference of the administrators of any and all racebased patronage, spoils, affirmative action, minority set-asides, and the like.
Name doesn’t matter For the vast majority of African-Americans, free college education, millions of new jobs, a living wage, universal health care (instead of Obamacare’s universal private insurance) and rolling back the prison state are great things and absolutely welcome whether or not they are labeled “reparations.” Reed also questions the frequently heard reparations argument that since slavery, Jim Crow and the rest were racially specific that they can only be dealt with by racially specific remedies. One can point to the U.S. prison state erected since 1970 that houses the largest number of incarcerated people of any nation in history. The fact is that millions percent have at least one parent working part of the year or parttime; and 32 percent have no employed parent. Nearly one in four Ohio children lacks consistent access to adequate food – that’s 653,410 Ohio children of all ages in every corner of the state. Nationally, 15.3 million children were food-insecure in 2014. The majority lives in families with one or more working adults, but are still unable to consistently afford enough food to keep the wolves of hunger from their door. There is no excuse for any child in America to go hungry or malnourished in the richest nation on Earth. Yet, child hunger is a widespread, urgent and shameful problem that cannot wait. We all have to do something – now.
Not alone Bryce and Sarah (names were changed to protect their identities) are far from alone as shown in a new Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio searing report calling to end the childhood hunger many thousands of Ohio’s youngest children suffer every day. Babies, toddlers, and preschoolers suffering hunger and malnutrition face increased odds of negative health outcomes during their years of
STEVE SACK, THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
the strange unwhiteness of his own features. Given that Michael cast a White man to father his children, one can hardly blame producers for casting a White man to play him. They clearly hope the casting’s the thing wherein they’ll catch viewers for this macabre farce. Incidentally, it bears pointing out that September 2001 was allegedly witness to an even stranger trip: the FBI helping 14 Saudis flee from Kentucky to Saudi Arabia following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This, I respectfully submit, is far more worthy of dramatization. Meanwhile, MLK famously preached that people should “not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Michael famously sang that “it don’t matter if you’re Black or White.”
It mattered to him He practically compelled us to judge him not by the content of his character, but by the color of his (bleached) skin. Whether you’re of disproportionately Black and Brown Americans have been imprisoned without a single racially specific statute or administrative rule. So if “reparistas” will not and cannot come forward with specific plans to win reparations, why can’t jobs programs and other redistributive policies be fought for and won which target specific groups without calling it “reparations?” The questions that Reed raises would be the basis for a serious discussion of reparations if such a discussion ever happens. In a media campaign where the Republican frontrunner is a demagogic buffoon; where one of the Democrats will allows followers to call him a “socialist” the way Barack Obama allowed the deluded to call him a peace candidate, an environmentalist and a civil liberties advocate; and the Democratic front runner is the contemptible Hillary Clinton; serious and constructive discussions are not even supposed to happen. Serious discussions about reparations will ask whether the heavy political lifting required can be accomplished at all under that name, and if it can, what it would look like. Serious discussion on reparations would take account of its class content and class differentiation among Blacks, rather than ignoring it in favor of the fake ragreatest brain development. Food insecure children under age 5 are nearly two times more likely to be in “fair or poor health; nearly two times more likely to experience developmental delays; two times as likely to have behavioral problems; more than twice as likely to be hospitalized; two and a half times more likely to have headaches, and three times more likely to have stomachaches. Food insecure children are more likely to be behind in social skills and reading performance in kindergarten. By elementary school, they are four times more likely to need mental health counseling.
Many health risks
Black or White has always mattered. And we did not need #BlackLivesMatter or #OscarsSoWhite to throw this into stark relief. That said, it’s not the artistic license producers are taking that troubles me. After all, if a Black man can play Thomas Jefferson in the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, surely a White man can play Michael Jackson in a TV tragicomedy. The difference? Jefferson had no psychological defect that made him want to be Black, notwithstanding his sexual penchant for Black female slaves. Therefore, the producers of that musical cannot be accused of wantonly exploiting the psychopathology of racial selfhate. The same cannot be said of the producers of this farce.
Anthony L. Hall is a Bahamian native with an international law practice in Washington, D.C. Read his columns and daily weblog at www.theipinionsjournal.com. cial solidarity that allowed the development of the Black misleadership class over the last 100 years since Booker T.
Doing for self The only where this kind of serious study, discussion and examination will take place will be the spaces we claim and create to examine our history, our failures and successes, and the work ahead. The January 8-10 Philly conference on the Black Radical Tradition was one such space. We must and we will create more like it. Those critical examinations will take place in our public and private meetings and study groups, in churches and union halls and bars, in classrooms, in basketball courts, on back porches, in rec centers and in bedrooms. The people will have to organize and lead those discussions ourselves. We’ll have to do it without any help from the Atlantic magazine or Ta Nehesi Coates, without grants from funders of the nonprofit sector, and without exclusive dependence on corporate social media.
Bruce Dixon is managing editor of BlackAgendaReport.com. Contact him at bruce.dixon@ blackagendareport.com. to struggle with breastfeeding, which contributes to increased infant mortality rates. Babies who survive are more likely to struggle with disabilities during childhood and adolescence and face higher risks of chronic disease as adults.
Important measures School-age food supports of free and reduced price breakfast and lunch are critically important to the health and academic success of older children but young children should not be forced to suffer from lack of food. Not a single parent or grandparent would want our young children or grandchildren rummaging through trash cans seeking food for younger brothers and sisters. It’s long past time for political leaders at every level and all of us to end child hunger. Coretta Scott King once said, “I must remind you that starving a child is violence.” Continuing to condone the pain of hunger and malnutrition in America is unforgivable. Please demand our political leaders act right now.
Risks keep accumulating: malnutrition from childhood food insecurity has been linked to adult diseases including diabetes, hyperlipidemia and cardiovascular disease. The stress and anxiety of early childhood hunger also make it harder to learn skills that help later relationship development, school success and workplace productivity. Marian Wright Edelman is Babies born to food-insecure mothers face tragic odds: they founder and president of the are more likely to be born pre- Children’s Defense Fund (www. term and at low birth weight and childrensdefense.org).
TOJ A6
NATION
FEBRUARY 5 – FEBRUARY 11, 2016
Who’s who of Blacks working on presidential campaigns About 50 Black campaign staffers are in key positions for the 2016 race to the White House.
Clinton’s African-American outreach director. Maya Harris holds the title of Senior Policy Advisor on the campaign. Marlon Marshall, who campaigned for Clinton in 2008 and then became a member of the Obama administration, is Clinton’s director of state campaigns and political engagement. BY LAUREN VICTORIA BURKE Tyrone Gayle, a veteran of the THE ROOT 2012 campaign of Sen. Tim Kaine If you want the Black vote, it (D-Va.) and of Capitol Hill, hanhelps if you hire individuals in dles regional communications key positions who reflect the for the campaign. Hans Goff is Clinton’s regional political states community. That was the advice given to director; Charles Olivier is the Democratic campaigns by Quen- deputy chief financial officer and tin James, co-founder of Inclusv, controller; and Elizabeth Grama hiring-initiative project created ling is the campaign’s operations by Power PAC+, which released a director. Brynne Craig is Clinton’s depreport on staff diversity focused on hiring for each Democratic uty director of state campaigns; Tracey Lewis is primary states dicampaign. “If staffers of color are not at rector; and Richard McDaniel is the forefront in every depart- Southern regional primary states ment of your campaign, it’s in- director. Former staffer to Rep. Jim Clyauthentic to say you are ready to lead our nation on issues like im- burn (D-S.C.) and Citadel gradmigration or criminal-justice re- uate Clay Middleton is Clinton’s form. ... If candidates want our South Carolina state director. support, people of color have to Jalisa Washington is the South play prominent and vital roles Carolina political director, and within their campaigns,” said Erin Stevens is the New York state James as the report was released. director for the campaign. Others include Bernard ColeIn the months after Inclusv’s man, chief diversity and human report, more African-Americans became players in the race for resources officer; De’Ara Balenger, Director of Engagement; Marthe White House. Here is a look at African-Amer- cus Switzer, deputy national finance director; Angelique Canicans who are staffers on presinon, deputy national finance didential campaigns prior to the rector for the mid-Atlantic reFeb. 1 Iowa caucus. gion; and Joslyn Massengale, corporate counsel. Key Clinton staffers The Clinton campaign also has There are over 20 African- Black staffers running important Americans in top positions on aspects of its tech operations: Ida Hillary Clinton’s presidential Woldemichael, who previouscampaign. ly worked at the Clinton FounLaDavia Drane, who was the dation, is a senior designer; Osi executive director of the Con- Imeokparia, a Google and eBay gressional Black Caucus under alum and Stanford graduate, is Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), is the Clinton campaign’s chief
LINKEDIN/THE ROOT
Top row: LaDavia Drane; Osi Imeokparia; Clay Middleton; Jalisa Washington; Maya Harris; Ida Woldemichael. Center row: Marcus Ferrell; Electra Skrzydlewski; Danny D. Glover; Symone Sanders; LaDawn Blackett Jones; Roy Tatum. Bottom row: Deana Bass; Katrina Pierson; Armstrong Williams; Elroy Sailor; Kay Cole James; Shermichael Singleton. product officer; and Sharif Corinaldi is a senior software engineer. Karen Finney is senior adviser for communications and political outreach for the Clinton presidential campaign. In late 2015, Clinton hired veteran Black pollster Ron Lester and enlisted the help of an African-Americanowned advertising firm, Burrell Communications, which is headed by two Black women.
Key Sanders staffers Sen. Bernie Sanders also has many African-Americans on his staff. Christopher Smith is Sanders’ deputy national field director and Nick Carter is his national deputy political outreach director. Symone Sanders is the face of the campaign as Sanders’ national press secretary. Marcus Ferrell is Sanders’ director, AfricanAmerican outreach; his deputy is Roy Tatem. Sanders also has a senior adviser for African-American outreach: Donni Turner. Aneesa McMillan is the communications director, South Carolina. Sanders has four AfricanAmerican state directors. His Alabama state director is Kelvin Datcher; his Georgia state director is LaDawn Blackett Jones. The Kansas state director is
Brooklynne Mosley, and Sanders’ North Carolina state director is Aisha Deanders has a national HBCU outreach director, Danny D. Glover (not the actor). Christale Spain is Sanders’ state primary director for South Carolina. Sanders also has several key African-Americans assigned in key primary states. Alex Askew is Sanders’ political director in South Carolina; Paul Stovall is the national advance lead for the Sanders campaign; Michele Gilliam is a constituency director for New Hampshire; Electra Skrzydlewski is the deputy outreach director for Nevada; and Angie Nixon is the director of community organizing, South Carolina.
Key Republican staffers Even though most AfricanAmericans who are players in the 2016 race for the White House are working for Democrats, there are several power players in key positions on GOP campaigns. Katrina Pierson is in a prominent role as national spokesperson for billionaire real estate mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump. (In 2014, Pierson challenged Rep. Pete Sessions [R-Texas] for Congress but was unsuccessful.) Earl Phillip is Trump’s state chair in North Carolina.
Model program
E. JASON WAMBSGANS/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS
The Chicago Police Department offers good Crisis Intervention Team training, to teach officers how to respond to mental health crises, but the program is “starved” for funds, says Amy Watson, an associate professor at the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Successful program teaches officers how to handle people with mentally illnesses BY NARA SCHOENBERG CHICAGO TRIBUNE (TNS)
The teen was physically imposing — 5-foot-10 and 240 pounds — and Houston police Officer Randy Crowder had been warned to expect a fight. But on that day five years ago when Crowder responded to a call from the young man’s concerned mother, he didn’t see a criminal, or even a troublemaker. There’s something else going on, Crowder recalls thinking. He suspected a mental health crisis. He asked the other officers to leave the room and introduced himself to the young man, using his first name, making eye contact and keeping a respectful distance. “We talked about it a little bit,
and he calmed down,” Crowder says. “I was able to get him to walk to my car, and we went to the (psychiatric hospital), and his mother went with us.” At a time when police departments across the country are under fire for the alleged use of excessive force against African-Americans, better police response to people in mental health crisis is often cited as part of the solution. In Chicago, where police fatally shot college student Quintonio LeGrier and a 55-year-old bystander after LeGrier allegedly became combative, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has called for a review of the Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Team, or CIT, program, which provides mental health training.
Positive results But what does a state-of-the-art emergency response to a mental health crisis even look like? The answer is emerging, experts say, in cities such as Houston, which has been offering specialized mental health training to police since the early 1990s, as well as in studies that show positive results for the popular CIT model of officer training. “The research suggests that (CIT programs) can work in terms of improving officers’ knowledge, their attitudes, their skill sets for responding,” says Amy Watson, an associate professor at the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “There’s some evidence that they can reduce use of force and injuries. There’s some evidence that they can reduce arrests of people with mental illness, and they can increase linkage to mental health services.” In keeping with the CIT philosophy that “special people deserve special officers,” departments typically seek volunteers who are highly motivated and have excellent people skills, but some departments require all officers to participate.
Training lasts 40 hours, and officers learn the signs and symptoms of mental illness as well as skills for de-escalating conflict. Ideally, they also meet people with mental illnesses and their family members. “It’s really 180 degrees different from traditional police training — and I’m not saying anything against traditional police training,” says Houston police Senior Officer Frank Webb, the senior trainer in the department’s mental health division. “If someone’s psychotic, they may be having a very hard time hearing you, because they may have three or four voices in their head, in addition to your voice, so you have to be very patient. You may have to repeat yourself, talk in a calm tone of voice. Don’t assume that they’re just being obstinate if they don’t respond right away.” Houston is one of six police departments nationwide singled out for their model mental health programs by the Council of State Governments Justice Center in partnership with the Department of Justice. The other departments are in Los Angeles; Madison, Wis.; Portland, Maine; Salt Lake City; and at the University of Florida.
More training needed Great police training is important, but it’s not enough, says Jerry Murphy, director of the law enforcement program at the Justice Center. There has to be a systemwide approach, with call-takers and dispatchers who are trained to flag mental health issues and strong partnerships with community mental health providers. Chicago offers good CIT training to the officers who receive it, but the program is “starved” for funds, Watson says. Chicago mental health advocates have voiced similar concerns. Crowder, the Houston police officer, grew up with an uncle who had brain damage due to childhood encephalitis and who sometimes seemed drunk or disoriented, due to his disability. Once, his uncle was mistakenly arrested for public intoxication. “They handcuffed him, took him to jail — he was scared to
Retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson has well-known political operative and TV personality Armstrong Williams on his campaign staff as an adviser and business manager. Even though Carson has experienced a recent staff shakeup, Deana Bass remains his national press secretary. Shermichael Singleton started as the Carson campaign’s coalitions adviser in November. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has political veteran Kay Cole James as his campaign co-chair for Virginia and Charles Badger as his director of coalitions. Sen. Rand Paul, who is known for being ahead of most Democrats on justice-reform issues, has political veteran Elroy Sailor as a senior adviser and C.J. Sailor as a political operative in Iowa. As the 2016 campaign finally reaches the point when voters will make their decisions for the first time in the 2016 cycle, it will be interesting to see who among the power players above will be using their power in the White House a year from now.
Editor’s note: The Root reached out to Martin O’Malley’s campaign for its list of Black staffers, but the campaign failed to respond by the time of this article’s release. death,” Crowder says. “And I remember thinking, man, I wish police had more education and could recognize mental illness.” Crowder says he’s dealt with many people with mental illnesses over the years, but the young man with the concerned mother stands out.
New meds, counseling During two previous confrontations with the police who weren’t CIT-trained, the teen had been arrested and handcuffed, Crowder says. Once he had been shocked with a stun gun. He had bipolar disorder and had been prescribed medication, but he didn’t like to take it because it made him lethargic. Angry and frustrated, he would lash out by punching holes in the wall or putting his fist through the television set. On that first visit, Crowder was able to take him to the hospital, where a doctor made some changes in his medication. Several days later, the teen’s mother called again, and asked for Crowder specifically. Over time, he built a relationship with the young man, responding to about 10 police calls from his mom, accompanying mother and son to a meeting with a school counselor, and helping them connect with their local chapter of the nonprofit National Alliance on Mental Illness (www.nami.org). Crowder, who has horses and cattle, recalls fielding a call from the mother on his day off: “I remember sitting on my tractor in the middle of the pasture, talking to this lady on the phone,” he says with a chuckle. The teen started taking his medication and, after that first visit, Crowder never had to take him to the hospital again. The last time Crowder heard from his mom was a year and a half ago. The young man had a job and his mom said he was doing well. “We don’t have that kind of time (for) every single call, but CIT has helped me a lot,” Crowder says. “I can tell the difference between a situation where I need to be a hardcore police officer and where I need to be a little more compassionate and understanding.”
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IFE/FAITH
FEBRUARY 5 – FEBRUARY 11, 2016
Some Black History Month events in Florida See page B2
SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE
Nat Turner film gets great reviews at Sundance See page B5
SOUTH FLORIDA / TREASURE COAST AREA
WWW.FLCOURIER.COM
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Celebrating the global legacy of literary icon
Zora Neale Hurston
DUANE C. FERNANDEZ SR./HARDNOTTSPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
Ron Isley, left, and others with The Isley Brothers’ band perform Jan. 30 at the Eatonville Festival. The legendary group was the headliner of the Saturday outdoor festival.
Nine Days of Zora!
Bern Nadette Stanis, who starred as Thelma in the “Good Times’’ series, was one of the celebrities at the festival.
A year of events is underway in observance of the author’s 125th birthday.
BY PENNY DICKERSON FLORIDA COURIER
Z
ora Neale Hurston withstood the literary test of time as a global icon who gifted the world with rich contributions of African-American literature. Hurston would have turned 125 years old on Jan. 7, 2016. In a cultural homage that also has become an annual heritage, ZORA! Festival kicked off last month to celebrate all things
The Traveling Divas from Jacksonville strike a pose. They are Tony Rice, Sharon Cromartie, Sharon Lake and Jameka Jackson.
Hurston: art, anthropology, education, music, food, people, and fun. The one-year cultural observance kicked off on Sept. 12, 2015 with “Introducing Zora Neale Hurston: An Exhibition Developed from the Archive of the Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts.” This rare exhibition included books by Hurston and memorabilia from the 2003 release of the Zora Neale Hurston stamp by the U.S. Postal Service.
Familiar to most “Zoraphiles” (loyal fans of Hurston and her work) is the nine-day, multidisciplinary event, which took place on Saturday, Jan. 23 – Sunday, Jan. 31. The event included both ticketed and free activities held throughout her hometown of Eatonville and surrounding venues in Orange County and themed: ZORA! Festival 2016: “Reflection on the Global Legacy of Zora Neale Hurston: Celebrating Her 125th Birthday.” The sponsor of ZORA! Festival is the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community, Inc. (P.E.C.), a non-profit, tax-exempt historic preservation and arts organization whose mission includes enhancing the resources of Eatonville, the oldest incorporated African-American municipality in the United States and deemed Hurston’s hometown.
Three days of arts Ask any frequent or regular ZORA! attendee about the most popular festival draw and the three-day Festival of the Arts will easily reign as the winner. The anchoring weekend begins each year on Friday when Eatonville is transformed into a white, tent city of vendors who specialize in everything from Kente cloth and cultural Tshirts to African jewelry, natural hair and skin products and, of course, books galore.
Retired Orange-Osceola County Chief Judge Belvin Perry waves to the crowd.
Kennedy Boulevard remains the town’s only accessible thoroughfare and invites all those who desire to “festival on foot” for two miles of surrounding history, including the Zora Neale Hurston National Library, Hurston’s namesake historic museum, and Hungerford Field, which serves as the gravel and grass folding chair and blanket hub for live music. This year’s headliner: The Isley Brothers.
If you missed it The magnitude of Hurston’s life remains in the arsenal of novels she penned. From the her first critically acclaimed novel, “Jonah’s Gourd Vine,” (1934) to her most renowned title, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” (1937), Hurston has been revered and respected. To hallmark her 125 birthday, more commemorative days are planned. March is Women’s History Month and a film tribute is planned at Winter Park’s Enzian Theater. “You Belong to Me: Sex, Race, and Murder in the South” will be shown on March 19 at noon. Admission is $8. The public is invited April 10-17 to participate in a special cruise celebration titled “Tracing the Caribbean Footsteps of Zora Neale Hurston: A 125 Commemorative Cruise.” For more information, call 866-632-8724. For students in grades 1-8, the Third Annual Zora STEM Summer Program is June 13 to July 15.
There were plenty of vendors, offering everything from jewelry to natural hair products.
For more information on upcoming events, visit www.zorafestival.org.
A2
FOCUS
FEBRUARY 5 – FEBRUARY 11, 2016
Some Black folks have eyes, but can’t see Africa is the center of the world – where mankind began – and the cradle of civilization! The Motherland is not a continent of nappy-haired naked people running around with spears in their hands and bones in their noses, but we can’t see that! The devil will tell you everything about Africa is bad and at the same time work undercover and behind the scenes to pirate African resources, African commodities like oil, gold, diamonds, coffee, rubber, uranium and platinum. Satan even dominates and controls the refining of the African shea nuts that you find in all of your cosmetics and in some of your foodstuffs like chocolate.
LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT
Self-hatred Yes, many of us have a twisted idea about our royal ancestors and our glorious past because the tricky devil has taught us to hate ourselves, each other, our history and our culture! Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti said it best when he recorded one of my favorite songs.
“English man gets an English name, Russian man gets Russian name, Chinese man gets Chinese name, German man gets German name, Spanish man gets Spanish name but Africans have eyes but can’t see.” (Our) religion is disorganized, utilities disorganized, government disorganized and infrastructure is disorganized. Everything is upside down,” Fela’s song says. For some reason, people of African descent – especially African-Americans – don’t think Africa is great, they don’t know or care about the African way, and they don’t do things Africanstyle!
Who’s your example? Who would you want to be like: a cavewoman, or like Cleopatra? A caveman, or a man like Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah or
US Muslims part of ‘American family,’ Obama says
‘One family’
The mosque has come under scrutiny from some conservative websites since the White House announced the trip. Those outlets have focused on a former imam, Mohamad Adam El Sheikh, who was quoted by The Washington Post in 2004 as saying that suicide bombings might be acceptable in extreme circumstances. El Sheikh told The Baltimore Sun this week that he never condoned suicide attacks, and
We have no excuse for not being knowledgeable about our great past, history and culture. Stop letting Facebook and Twitter educate you about you. Pick up a book sometimes. In fact, buy your children and grandchildren more books and read to them and with them. If you don’t know, in my opinion, the African race is the strongest race. Why do I say that?
from A1
BALTIMORE – President Obama, speaking on Wednesday during his first visit to a U.S. mosque as president, urged Americans to embrace their “common humanity” and reject the “inexcusable political rhetoric” he said is emanating from the presidential campaign trail. Obama spoke of the role Islam has played in the nation’s history, and decried a rise in rhetoric and violence directed against Muslims since the deadly attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. He called on the religion’s leaders, meanwhile, to speak out against extremism.
Questions raised
Know yourself
MESSAGE
BY JOHN FRITZE AND IAN DUNCAN THE BALTIMORE SUN / TNS
“We’re one American family,” Obama told an audience at the Islamic Society of Baltimore in Catonsville, one of the largest and most influential mosques in the Mid-Atlantic. “And when any part of our family starts to feel separate or second-class or targeted, it tears at the very fabric of our nation.” Although Obama touched on the presidential election only tangentially, White House aides said he decided to speak at the mosque largely to counter statements and policies floated by Republican candidates in recent months. “Recently, we’ve heard inexcusable political rhetoric against Muslim Americans that has no place in our country,” Obama said. “We have to reject a politics that seeks to manipulate prejudice or bias, and targets people because of religion.” On Wednesday, Obama tried to explain Islam to Americans, quoting Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and other founding fathers who welcomed the ancient religion to the new nation. Obama described the Islamic Society of Baltimore as an “All-American story.” It has grown from a small gathering of doctors at the Johns Hopkins University in 1969 into a massive campus with thousands of worshipers, a school, medical facilities and a Girl Scout troop.
Nelson Mandela? If you don’t know where you came from how, can you determine where you are going? If you don’t know what’s best for you, how can you tell what’s good for you? Black people in America and Blacks all over the world should set their minds on Africa. We need Pan-Africanism today more than ever.
KENNETH K. LAM/BALTIMORE SUN / TNS
President Barack Obama visited the Islamic Society of Baltimore on Wednesday. White House officials dismissed the stories as political attacks. Republican elected officials, too, have visited the society with virtually no controversy. When Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. toured the campus in 2002, a year after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, hardly anyone noticed.
Millions of Americans Muslims are estimated to make up nearly 1 percent of the U.S. population. Muslims and others say they have seen discrimination and hostility increase after last year’s attacks in California and France. “I know that in Muslim communities across our country, this is a time of concern and, frankly, a time of some fear,” Obama said. “We’ve seen children bullied. We’ve seen mosques vandalized.” A dozen community leaders who spoke with Obama in a closed-door meeting at the mosque. According to Colin Christopher, the executive director of a Washington-based environmental group called Green Muslims, participants shared stories of “feeling bothered and discriminated against and fear from neighbors and constantly under surveillance.” The event was a personal milestone for the president with an Islamic name, who was elected only after convincing Americans that he was a Christian, and not an adherent to the religion of his Kenyan grandfather. Polls show millions of Americans still believe, inaccurately, that Obama is a Muslim.
Christi Parsons of the Tribune Washington Bureau contributed to this article.
– to remove a cancerous segment of his colon and reconnect his bowels. “I have some experience with this, as a surgeon. I have taken care of people with this disease and I’ve also taken care of a number of post-operative patients. So I knew what I had to do to get well as fast as I could,” he said. “I was fortunate to have no complications. And I had hoped that would be the end of the story. But that wasn’t the end of the story. It turns out I needed chemotherapy.” Armstrong said he is now midway through 12 cycles of chemotherapy, which began in November and is expected to be completed in April. Armstrong said that, as a doctor, he is familiar with the science behind the side effects of chemotherapy, which can include fatigue, nausea and numbness. “For me, I can understand them because I’m a physician and I know the anatomy. I get worried for those who don’t have this background, because, candidly, they’re kind of scary. There’s some unpredictability associated with it,” he said. “If you choose to focus on the side effects, you’re not living. So my choice is to move through the side effects and keep living and working.”
Making adjustments Another side effect of the treatment is sensitivity to cold liquids, Armstrong said. “It is like drinking broken glass. There’s no other way to describe it,” Armstrong said. “Again, if you don’t understand what’s going on I think that could be really, really frightening. The good news is it subsides after a few moments. And then, clearly, you drink lukewarm water.” The side effects of chemotherapy are cumulative, Armstrong said. “So you just have to deal with that and just keep looking forward to what I think will be the middle of April as the time when I can celebrate the conclusion of this particular phase. And then, obviously, keep living and stay on the path of a survivor,” he said. Armstrong, appointed by Gov. Rick Scott as secretary of the Department of Health (and Florida surgeon general), said he considers himself “lucky” that the cancer was “found before it could have been much different” and that the chemotherapy hasn’t altered his appearance.
You have to be the strongest to occupy the center of the world and to overcome colonization, slavery, hate crimes and everything else that we went through and are going through! Many Africans, African-Americans and others of African descent have eyes but can’t see! Those colored contacts you are wearing are perhaps a little foggy. Check your eyesight and you’ll realize when African-Americans unite with Africans and others of African descent, the world will be ours!
Buy Gantt’s latest book, “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere. “Like” The Gantt Report page on Facebook. Contact Lucius at www. allworldconsultants.net.
‘It’s working’ “I’m very fortunate. It’s not that way with a lot of people on this regimen. But I can tell you that the inside feels it, so I know it’s working. I believe that I will be a cancer survivor,” he said. “There is always uncertainty. I think part of this challenge is managing uncertainty with optimism. That’s my approach.” Armstrong said he was moved by the “amazing faces of courage” of cancer patients and cancer survivors. “I realize that most people don’t want to talk about cancer. I know why. It’s very difficult because it is really, really personal. But I realized that people who are receiving treatments for cancer and survivors of cancer have an important message. “Cancer’s not going to define us. So we’re going to continue to live, and we’re going to continue to work,” he said. “I think it’s important to share thanks with all the friends, families, colleagues, employers around the state who have helped people getting cancer treatment to get through it.” Armstrong also used his personal experience as a jumping-off point to deliver a public health message: “Screening for cancer matters.” Screens are available for breast cancer, prostate cancer and skin cancer, and colonoscopies – suggested for people over age 50 – are used to detect colon cancer.
‘Made a difference’ “Colonoscopy has certainly made a difference in my life. I think that’s an important story that we need to get out there,” Armstrong, 52, said. People with family histories of cancer or symptoms of the disease should be screened earlier, Armstrong said. Armstrong also encouraged diners to stay away from charred foods, which are high in carcinogens. “If something is burned, you really need to cut the burned part off,” he said. Armstrong, who is married and has a 13-year-old son, said that living with cancer has heightened his compassion, stamina and courage. “People want to live long with the quality they deserve. They want to have more birthdays. They want to have more anniversaries. They want to see more graduations. When you have an illness like this, you really see that. You live it,” he said. “My goal is to have more birthdays, more anniversaries and to watch my son grow up.”
Dara Kam of The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.
JONES from A1
FILE PHOTO
A South Florida police officer who wasn’t in uniform killed church musician Corey Jones after Jones’ car broke down on I-95.
currently doesn’t require such policies. The measure faces a hearing Thursday in the House Judiciary Committee and would be ready to go to the House floor if approved. A Senate version (SB 418), filed by Sen. Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, passed its first committee Monday and faces two more. Corey Jones’ family spoke to reporters before heading to Gov. Rick Scott’s office to ask him to support the bill. “My brother avoided confrontation,” said Corey Jones’ sister, Melissa. “My brother wasn’t this criminal guy who looked for trouble. … My brother would never have raised a gun to an officer.” Clinton Jones, Corey’s father, described his son as a good man, devoted to his church and family. “It may be your son, or it may be your daughter,” he said.
“I wasn’t expecting this. I wasn’t looking for this, but it happened to my family.”
In legislators’ hands Scott, asked about the family’s request that he support the bill, deferred to lawmakers. “They get to pass legislation, and I’ll look at legislation as it makes it to my desk,” he said. “But we have a very good House and very good Senate, and they are focused on what is the right thing for our citizens.” This is the second year Shevrin Jones has sponsored a proposal to regulate police body cameras. The original bill would have made the cameras mandatory, he said, “but there was a lot of pushback on it.” Daryl Parks, Crump’s law partner in a host of highprofile cases, said most police departments – “although they resist at first, once they get (the cameras) implemented, they realize that it protects the officers. It also protects the citizens.”
CALENDAR
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FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Jacksonville: Edward Waters College is partnering with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra to present “Baby Boomers – The Music of the ‘60s.” The concert is Feb. 21 at 3 p.m. at the Times-Union Center Performing Arts Center. Tickets: Call 904-470-8252 or visit www.ewc.edu. Miami: “Motown the Musical’’ continues through Feb. 7 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. It will be presented at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach Feb. 9-14. Fort Lauderdale: The Love, Soul and Jazz Tour stops at the Nova Southeastern University on Feb. 12: Performers: Will Downing, Chrisette Michelle and Lyfe Jennings. Tampa: “The Lion King’’ musical by Disney continues at the Straz Performing Arts Center through Feb. 14. Miami Gardens: Florida Memorial University will celebrate its Homecoming Feb. 9-13. Events will include the annual parade and basketball games on Feb. 13. The Lions will face Voorhees College. Details: www.fmuniv.edu.
FEBRUARY 5 – FEBRUARY 11, 2016
STOJ
Tampa: The 10th annual Hillsborough Community College Black, Brown & College Bound’s Dr. Sylvia M. Carley Luncheon will feature former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell as speaker on Feb. 19 at the Tampa Convention Center at 12:30 p.m. Tickets are $125 each. More information: www.hccfl.edu/bbcb.aspx. Orlando: Central Florida Community Arts will present “The Crucible’’ through Feb. 7 at Central Christian Church, 250 SW Ivanhoe Blvd. Tickets: Call 407-937-1800 ext. 710 or visit cfcarts.com/events.
ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater makes a stop Feb. 16 at the Phillips Center in Gainesville and the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami Feb. 18-21. Artistic director is Miami native Robert Battle. The dancer shown above is Rachael McLaren. ANDREW ECCLES
Fort Lauderdale: Black Violin performs at the Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale on Feb.5.
BEN VEREEN
“Steppin’ Out Live with Ben Vereen’’ is scheduled Feb. 14 at the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center.
The Macy’s at the Aventura Mall in South Florida will host Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Taye Diggs and G. Garvin for a conversation on popular culture as part of Macy’s Black History Month celebrations. It’s Feb. 13 at noon.
Miami: The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County has invited the Haitian dance company Ayikodans to perform Feb. 4-6 as part of the center’s 10th anniversary celebration. www.arshtcenter. org
Sherman Library, 3100 Ray Ferrero Blvd. More information: call 954-262-5477. Riverview: The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA) will present a free homebuying workshop on Feb. 6 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Covenant Family Church, 6321 US Highway 301 S. More info: 813-7163996.
Fort Lauderdale: “The Abolitionists,” film viewing and discussion takes place at 2 p.m. Feb. 27 at Nova Southeastern University, Cotilla Gallery, Alvin
Sarasota: The Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe is presenting “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’’ by August Wilson through Feb. 20.
Events scheduled in memory of teen killed after leaving fair BY FLORIDA COURIER STAFF
Feb. 7 will mark two years since 14-yearold honor student Andrew Joseph III was killed as he tried crossing a Tampa interstate on foot after being ejected from the Florida State Fair during its Student Day. It was the first time the teen had attended the event. Nearly 100 students were ejected that night in 2014 by Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputies. The Andrew fair has increased security Joseph III rules since the teen’s death. The two-year mark of his death will include a full weekend of activities. “We Remember Andrew Joseph, III Memorial Weekend’’ will include a Feb. 5 pro-
Miami: The UniverSoul Circus will be at Miramar Regional Park Feb. 4-15 and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Feb. 17-21. Hollywood: The legendary Diana Ross is scheduled Feb. 9 at Hard Rock Live. Fort Lauderdale: Jamaica and Bob Marley will again be the theme for the Destination Fridays event on Feb. 5 at 6:30 p.m. at the AfricanAmerican Research Library and Cultural Center, 2650 Sistrunk Blvd. Cost: 10. www. broward.org/library.
Fort Mose’s Flight to Freedom in St. Augustine recreates the 17th-century experience of the hundreds of slaves who traveled to Fort Mose in search of freedom. On Feb. 13 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., attendees can take the guided Flight to freedom
St. Petersburg: The Pinellas County Urban League’s 3rd Annual Whitney M. Young Jr. Leadership Awards Luncheon is 11:30 a.m. Feb. 6 at the Hilton St. Petersburg Carillon Park. More information: 727327-2081, ext. 128. New Smyrna Beach: The 25th Annual Black Heritage Festival is Feb. 5-7, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Pettis Park, 314 N. Duss St. Free. More information: 386-416-9699. Fort Lauderdale: ASCENT: Black Women’s Expressions Art Exhibition is Feb. 4-March
Tampa: Computer Mentors and the Temple Terrace Public Library will provide free basic coding/logic skills and Lego Robotics programming to youngsters 10-13. Classes will be Tuesdays, 5-6 p.m., March 15-May 31 at the library. Details: Contact Kelsey Peduzzi at 813-506-6770 or kpeduzzi@ templeterrace.com.
4 at Cotilla Gallery, Nova University, 3100 Ray Ferrero Jr. Blvd. Free. Miami: The “Walk Together Children” walking tour of Historic Overtown is Feb. 20 from 10 a.m. to noon. RSVP at 305-633-3583 or e-mail missgail52@gmail.com. Miami Gardens: The Jazz in the Gardens music festival is March 18-20. Along with Usher, Kool and the Gang and Brian Culbertson, artists will include Najee, Regina Belle. Complete lineup: www. jazzinthegardens.com.
St. Petersburg: On March 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Enoch Davis Center, the Federation of Families of Florida and Swiyyah Woodard will provide a free mental health awareness forum. Woodard will discuss her mental illness and new book, “Don’t Call Me Crazy! Again!” More information: www.swiyyah.com.
test at 5:30 p.m. outside of the Florida State Fairgrounds, 4800 N. U.S. Highway 301, Tampa. Feb. 5 is Student Day at the Florida State Fair. The protesters will assemble in the Wing House parking lot at 5:15 p.m. The address is 5003 N. U.S. Highway 301. At 7 p.m., a Meet and Greet Mixer will be held at Trattoria 168, 2701 East Fowler Ave, Tampa. It’s located inside the Clarion Hotel & Conference Center.
Walk, reception, healing service A Peace Walk is scheduled at 9 a.m. Feb. 6. It’s billed as a #Stolen Lives Remembrance. The location is 4101 N. 22nd St., Tampa. A concert will follow at 11 a.m. At 8 p.m. Feb. 6, there will be a We Remember Andrew Joseph, III Memorial Fundraising Reception at the University of South Florida, Marshall Center, 4202 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa. On Feb. 7 at 8:30 a.m., a breakfast, prayer and healing service is scheduled at Love First Christian Center, 11311 Boyette Road, Riverview (Riverview High School). More information: www.AndrewJosephFoundation.org.
Re-enactments will take place throughout the day.
Flight to Freedom Feb. 13 at Fort Mose
Sanford: The Florida Department of Health in Seminole County will honor Seminole County’s Health Equity Champions on Feb. 11 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at 400 W. Airport Blvd. Dr. Shantel Herbert-Magee of Florida Hospital will be the speaker. Register at 407-665-3029 or via email at Sakialynn. Johnson@flhealth.gov.
JURNEE SMOLLETTBELL
Trail, lined with several re-enactors portraying the various characters who would have impacted a freedom seeker’s journey to Spanish Florida. There is a lunch break from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The last guided trail tour begins at 2:30 p.m. The event is free but there is a $2 charge to view the museum. Location: 15 Fort Mose Trail, St. Augustine. For more details: 904-823-2232, www. floridastateparks.org/fortmose.
UNIVERSAL PICTURES PRESENTS A WORKING TITLE PRODUCTION JOSH BROLIN GEORGE CLOONEY ALDEN EHRENREICH RALPH FIENNES JONAH HILMUSICL SCARLETT JOHANSSONDIRECTORFRANCES MCDORMAND OF TILDA SWINTON CHANNIPRODUCED NG TATUM “HAIL, CAESAR!” BY CARTERWRITTEN, BURWELL PHOTOGRAPHY ROGER DEAKINS ASC, BSC PRODUCED EXECUTIVE PRODUCER ROBERT GRAF BY TIM BEVAN ERIC FELLNER AND DIRECTED BY JOEL COEN & ETHAN COEN A UNIVERSAL RELEASE © 2015 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
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FEBRUARY 5 – FEBRUARY 11, 2016
SPORTS
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FROM GETTING THE ‘L’ OUT TO SUPER ODDS — THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE BIG GAME
SB 50 FACT SHEET Odds are …
Here is betting-line info on Super Bowl 50, as of Jan. 28: • Carolina is now a 6 pt. fave over Denver • Carolina opened 4 point favorite, but action has since moved it up to 6 • Current moneyline on Carolina is -245. Denver is +205 • Over-under on the score after the first quarter: 9.5 • Over-under on the score at halftime: 22.5 • Odds on the Super Bowl going to overtime: 7/1 • Odds the Super Bowl winner returns to the Super Bowl next season: 7/3 • Odds a kicker misses an extra point: Graham Gano: 19/1 Brandon McManus: 25/1 • Odds on which team gets more sacks: Denver: 2/3 Carolina: 6/5 • Over-under total sacks: 4.5 • Over-under total turnovers: 3 • Odds on which team will force more turnovers: Carolina: 5/7 Denver: 11/10 • Odds of scoring a defensive TD: Carolina: 2/1 Denver: 8/3 • Odds to win Super Bowl MVP: Cam Newton: 8/11 Peyton Manning: 4/1 Jonathan Stewart: 12/1 Von Miller: 18/1 Luke Kuechly: 18/1 Greg Olsen: 22/1 Emmanuel Sanders: 22/1 Demaryius Thomas: 25/1 Josh Norman: 28/1 C.J. Anderson: 28/1 DeMarcus Ware: 35/1 Ted Ginn Jr.: 40/1 Aqib Talib: 60/1 Owen Daniels: 80/1 Peyton Manning props: • Over-under passing yards: 218.5 • Over-under TDs: 1 • Over-under “Omaha” calls: 7.5. • Over-under number of overthrows: 2.5 • Odds this is Manning’s last game in NFL: 1/9 • Odds this is Manning’s last game as a Bronco: 1/13 • Odds Manning is part of the Super Bowl broadcast next season: 7/1 Odds on Peyton Manning’s future: • Odds that Manning becomes a broadcaster/TV analyst: 3/1 • Odds that Manning becomes an NFL coach: 15/1 • Odds that Manning becomes a college coach: 33/1 • Odds that Manning begins a movie career: 50/1 • Odds that Manning stars in a pilot on TV: 100/1 • Odds that Manning records a rap album with little bro Eli: 120/1 • Odds that Manning buys an NFL franchise: 300/1 Cam Newton props: • Over-under jump celebrations: 4 • Over-under rushing yards: 40.5 • Over-under passing yards: 245.5 • Over-under total TDs: 2.5 • Over-under number of towels on his body at once: 2.5 • Over-under time on screen with a smile: 3 minutes 15 seconds • Over-under number of Super Bowl appearances (career): 3 • Over-under number of Super Bowl titles: 1.5
— courtesy sbgglobal.eu
NFL gets the ‘L’ out of Roman numerals, but just for this year’s game The National Football League didn’t begin larding Roman numerals on to the Super Bowl until its fifth year, hoping to imbue its championship game with a certain chiseled-in-stone gravitas. The block letters were “one of the things that defined the Super Bowl for us,” a league official acknowledged. So why ditch a signifier of the game’s identity on the occasion of its biggest blowout ever: Super Bowl 50? It turns out the NFL dislikes the letter L, which is the Roman numeral for 50. The league got its first taste of the Roman empire’s awkward number a decade ago at Super Bowl XL, and realized it faced a design debacle if somebody didn’t come up with a way to get the L out (see logo, above). That somebody was Shandon Melvin, the NFL creative director, who devoted two years to the struggle. Unlike most of the Roman system’s other block numerals, L had such a vertical shape it nearly disappeared into the equally upright Lombardi Trophy, awarded to the winning team every year. If Roman numerals can be ditched for this game, why not forever? Melvin insists that everyone at the league office, from Commissioner Roger Goodell down, is “very committed” to reverting to the old system next year for Super Bowl LI. “They’re part of us,” Melvin said, “such a strong icon for the game. We just wanted to do something a little different for once.” — Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News
CHRIS WARE
CHRIS WARE
Newton has Panthers poised for the big W
Manning’s magic has Broncos back in SB
The storylines will be plenty leading up to Super Bowl 50. How will the Panthers’ Cam Newton play in his first Super Bowl? Carolina’s No. 1 offense vs. Denver’s No. 1 defense: Who will break first? Are we seeing a changing of the guard at quarterback from Peyton Manning to Newton? While these storylines are fine, they will have no effect on the game. That will be played on the field and not in the interview rooms. If the Panthers want to beat the Broncos to win their first Super Bowl, here are four things they’ll have to do.
Peyton Manning has gone from backup to back in the Super Bowl. Thought to be toast after he was benched and then sidelined with a foot injury, Manning has led the Broncos to their second Super Bowl in the past three years and the fourth of his career. The future Hall of Fame quarterback missed six games with a torn plantar fascia in his left foot and it looked like the final memories of him might be his 5-for-20 passing performance where he threw for just 35 yards and four interceptions on a bittersweet night in which he set the NFL’s career passing yards record. Instead, Manning rediscovered some of his old form and rode a powerful Broncos defense to a return trip to the Super Bowl and a chance to follow the path of another Denver star John Elway and go out on top as a champion — if this is indeed Manning’s final season. Here’s what you need to know about the Broncos as they prepare for their record-tying eighth Super Bowl appearance.
Stay opportunistic on defense The Panthers led the NFL in takeaways this season with 39, six more than the second-best team. They stayed hungry in the postseason with seven takeaways against the Cardinals in their 49-15 win in the NFC Championship Game. In Manning, the defense will face a quarterback who hasn’t thrown an interception this postseason, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t interceptions to be had. The Broncos haven’t With multiple neck surgeries been tested by and almost 40 years old, Manning someone close to isn’t the quarterback he once was. He never had a particularly strong Newton’s size (6-5, arm, but his velocity has declined 245), strength and in recent years. Instead, he relies speed. He’s one of on his knowledge of the offense the best running — and the opponent’s defense — quarterbacks in NFL to locate open receivers. Manning threw 17 intercephistory, averaging tions to just nine touchdowns in 5.3 yards per carry his injury-shortened season. Of for his career with the 35 quarterbacks since 1970 43 rushing TDs. who have thrown at least 17 interceptions and no more than nine touchdowns, only three (including Manning) had a winning record.
Be smart when assigning help to offensive tackles Denver’s defense is the best Carolina will have seen all year. The Broncos have it all: great pass rushers, solid linebackers and a defensive backfield that rarely makes mistakes. DeMarcus Ware and Von Miller form one of football’s best pass-rushing duos. Both are outside linebackers in coordinator Wade Phillips’ 3-4 scheme and will chase the quarterback when called. New England coach Bill Belichick rarely offered help to his offensive tackles in the 20-18 loss to Denver in the AFC Championship Game. Ware and Miller combined for 11 of Denver’s 17 quarterback hits and three of the four sacks on Tom Brady. The Panthers have a much stronger running game than New England, and those running backs know how to pass protect. Jonathan Stewart and Fozzy Whittaker can do it as tailbacks, and fullback Mike Tolbert also excels at it. Throw in a chip block or two from either tight end Greg Olsen or Ed Dickson, and the Panthers can help left tackle Michael Oher against Ware and right tackle Mike Remmers against Miller, who lines up about three-quarters of the time against the right side of the offense.
Vary the snap count Another reason Miller and Ware were so effective against the Patriots was their speed at the snap of the ball. It was as if they knew the snap count. And even if they were slow getting off the ball, the interior of the line wasn’t and didn’t allow Brady to step up into his throws very often. To avoid that, Newton must change up his snap count. He has one of the best cadences in the NFL. The Cardinals were flagged twice for neutral-zone infractions and once for encroachment. The offense, and most importantly the offensive line, has the advantage at the snap because it knows the count.
Get Josh Norman on Demaryius Thomas Thomas has been an outstanding receiver for the Broncos since 2012, catching at least 90 passes for 1,300 yards in each of the past four seasons. Meanwhile, Norman has been one of the league’s best cornerbacks. According to Pro Football Focus, only one pass was caught every 14 times when quarterbacks targeted Norman, who’s had his hands on several passes but no interceptions since Week 4. Norman will have the task of defending against Thomas, who is 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds, but Norman (6-0, 195) has faced big receivers before. He made a name for himself against the Falcons’ Julio Jones last year. Thomas is coming off his worst postseason performance. He had two catches for 12 yards against New England, the second-fewest receiving yards he’s had in a game since 2012. It’d be tough for Manning to endure another game where his top target is essentially erased. — Jonathan Jones, Charlotte Observer
The Broncos will have to slow the league’s No. 2 ranked rushing attack (Panthers averaged 146.2 yards in the regular season) and keep the Panthers from jumping out to a quick start like they did in both of their playoff wins.
Road to Super Bowl 50
The Broncos won their first seven games, even if it wasn’t always pretty for Manning and the offense. But the Broncos owned the best defense in the NFL and leaned all year on that group. Brock Osweiler took over when Manning’s injury finally sidelined him and won his first three starts before a 15-12 home loss to the Raiders. New England and Cincinnati stumbled down the stretch and Denver was able to capture the No. 1 seed and home field advantage. The Broncos gutted out a 23-16 win in the AFC Divisional Round over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Manning’s first start in two months, then Manning improved to 3-1 lifetime against New England in AFC Championship games with a thrilling 20-18 win over the Patriots.
Turning point Manning’s struggles were obvious during the first half of the season with uncharacteristic mistakes and an inability to throw downfield. But the team’s success was making it nearly impossible for Denver to make a move. That changed with Manning’s high-profile stinker Nov. 15 against the Chiefs. It became clear — and he acknowledged after the game — that he was hurting and hurting the Broncos. Enter Osweiler. The fourth-year backup still had the starting job going into the finale when Manning returned from the injury. But with Denver struggling against a bad Chargers team, Manning was called upon in the third quarter and guided the team to a comeback 27-20 win that clinched the No. 1 seed. Coach Gary Kubiak didn’t reveal it at the time, but it also clinched Manning’s starting job again for the postseason. He came into the playoffs fresher than could’ve been imagined and has survived on enough guts and guile and leaned on that tremendous defense to return for another Super Bowl.
Big game history The Broncos have now matched the Patriots, Steelers and Cowboys with a record-tying eighth Super Bowl appearance and hope to avoid adding to their record five defeats. Denver’s 2-5 record includes wins by John Elway in his final two seasons and two of the three most lopsided defeats in the game’s history. The worst was their 55-10 loss to the 49ers in Super Bowl XXIV. They also were thumped 43-8 by Seattle two seasons ago.
Impact players Manning had the worst season of his NFL career, with just nine regular-season touchdowns against the 17 interceptions. But he’s yet to throw a pick in two postseason games and enters his possible final game as one of the best quarterbacks of the generation. Outside linebackers Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware are monsters off the edge. Miller harassed New England’s Tom Brady with 2.5 sacks and an interception in the AFC title game. Chris Harris Jr. and Aqib Talib form one of the league’s elite cornerback combinations and those four defensive studs made up Denver’s Pro Bowl selections. Wide receiver Demaryius Thomas led the team with 105 catches and 1,304 yards and Emmanuel Sanders caught 76 balls for 1,135 yards.
The Broncos will win if … Denver’s defense creates havoc in the backfield for Carolina QB Cam Newton and can pressure the likely NFL MVP into making mistakes. Manning isn’t going to win this game for the Broncos, but he has to avoid losing it by taking big sacks or turning the ball over. He has a chance to add a final chapter to his legacy with a second Super Bowl title and has to seize that opportunity. — Jimmy Durkin, Contra Costa Times
B4
FOOD
FEBRUARY 5 – FEBRUARY 11, 2016
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FAMILY FEATURES
When game day arrives and friends and family are gathered around the big screen to cheer your team to victory, the only thing missing is some great grub to make the celebration complete. Putting together an all-star spread is actually easier than you may think. Simple recipes featuring highquality ingredients make it possible to serve up big flavor without a lot of fuss. Follow these tips to score a game day menu that will let your guests enjoy themselves to the fullest. Create a DIY pizza station. Prepare dough ahead of time or purchase individual serving size crusts and invite guests to make their own personal pizzas. Provide an array of fresh veggies, meats and herbs for endless combinations. Don’t forget plenty of quality cheese, and for a special twist, add some unexpected flavors, such as Jarlsberg Brand Cheese. Best known as a classic wedge, this nutty, mild cheese is also wonderful shredded for a uniquely delicious pizza flavor. Get guests started with this Sausage, Mushroom and Herb Pizza and then invite them to get creative on their own. Top it off right. No game day party is complete without chips and dip. Take your nachos to another level with premium toppings such these Barbecue Chicken Nachos. Other upgraded topping options: grilled steak or chicken, grilled corn and onions, a variety of flavorful cheeses, homemade guacamole, diced fresh veggies, seasoned olives and spices, such as Cajun or Caribbean jerk. Bring the heat. Spice things up with peppers as an added ingredient to other treats like pizza and nachos, or make the pepper the star, as with these Jalapeno Poppers, which blend the heat of a whole jalapeno balanced by the distinctive flavors of goat, Jarlsberg and Parmesan cheeses. Find more game day recipes at jarlsberg.com. CHEESE AND MUSHROOM PIZZA Makes: 1 pizza 1 premade pizza dough (14-16 ounces) 5 tablespoons tomato sauce 2 diced Roma tomatoes 8 ounces shredded Jarlsberg Cheese 2 ounces grated Parmesan cheese 8-10 sliced mushrooms 2 teaspoons oregano arugula (optional) Heat oven to 425 F. Follow premade pizza dough instructions on package. Spread thin layer of tomato sauce and fresh tomatoes on uncooked pizza dough, sprinkle with cheeses, top with mushrooms and finish with oregano. Bake pizza in oven for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Garnish with arugula, if desired. BARBECUE CHICKEN NACHOS Makes: 1 large serving 1 rotisserie chicken 1 cup barbecue sauce nacho chips 1 cup shredded Jarlsberg Cheese 1/4 cup chopped green onion sour cream (optional) Heat oven to 350 F. Pull white meat off rotisserie chicken and place in mixing bowl.
Add barbecue sauce to pulled chicken and gently mix together. Scatter nacho chips on oven-safe dish and place pulled chicken on top. Shred cheese with grater and coat top of chicken. Place in oven for approx imately 10 minutes. Sprinkle green onion on top and serve with sour cream, if desired. JALAPENO POPPERS Makes: 16 16 whole jalapeno peppers, rinsed and drained 2 logs (4 ounces each) fresh goat cheese 1 cup shredded Jarlsberg Cheese 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1/4 cup diced green onion (scallions) dash of hot sauce cilantro leaves mini hot red peppers (optional) Using small sharp knife, cut slit down one side of each pepper. Leave stem intact and remove seeds and veins. In bowl, mash all cheeses, onion and hot sauce. Divide among peppers, stuffing each generously. Refrigerate. (Note: Recipe can be made ahead to this point.) Arrange peppers in heavy aluminum foil packet. Grill 8-10 minutes, or until cheese begins to melt. Garnish with cilantro and, if desired, hot red peppers.
PICK A PARTY BITE Finger foods make it easy for your fellow fans to quickly grab a snack between plays and save the serious grub for a longer break in the action. Tide them over until halftime with these bite-site appetiz ers. For a little extra fun, use toothpicks bearing the mascot or signature color of your favorite team. Jarlsberg Cheese salami green grape toothpick Cut cheese and salami into bite-size cubes. Thread ingredients on toothpicks, varying the order and mixing and matching ingredients for different flavor combinations.
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FEBRUARY 5 – FEBRUARY 11, 2016
FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT
Meet some of
FLORIDA’S
finest
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ROBERT GAUTHIER/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS
British actor Idris Elba took home two Screen Actors Guild Awards on Jan. 30. Elba won the “Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role” award for his role in Netflix’s “Beasts of No Nation’’ and “Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries” for his starring role in “Luther,’’ a BBC America series.
ALLEN J. SCHABEN/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS
Viola Davis arrives at the 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Jan. 30. In the best drama category, she won for her roles as Annalise Keating in ABC’s “How to Get Away with Murder.’’
Racial issues shape conversation at Sundance Film Festival BY COLIN COVERT STAR TRIBUNE (TNS)
PARK CITY, Utah — Don Cheadle came to this year’s Sundance Film Festival to present his trifecta debut as star, director and writer of the Miles Davis biography “Miles Ahead.” But his script was quickly rewritten. The star found that discussions of his passion project inevitably turned to questions about the hot-button topic of this year’s racially exclusive Oscar nominations. For the second year in a row, not a single actor of color received a nod. “How do I feel about the Oscars controversy? There’s a lot,” said Cheadle, a 2005 best actor Oscar nominee for “Hotel Rwanda.” “It has to do with exclusivity; it has to do with glass ceilings. It’s about diversity and inclusion at the earliest level of this industry. It’s a conversation that starts long before we get to the Oscars and people are deciding who likes what.” So maybe it was only right that such talks were happening at Sundance, a festival that has long been a starting point for diverse filmmakers and future stars. As for the Oscars, Cheadle plans to avoid this year’s gala once again, despite his ongoing invitation as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He’s not alone: The movie industry’s parity issue triggered complaints of bias and prompted notables including Spike Lee, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith to announce that they will not attend the Academy Awards on Feb. 28. Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs has pledged to diversify the nomination process for next year’s event.
Diversity and independence Much of the attention at this year’s Sundance focused on America’s polarizing fixations on race, gender and celebrity. Art seemed to take a back seat to issues of the movies’ political parallels. Those discussions took
center stage when the festival’s founder spoke at the traditional opening day media conference. “We’re pretty proud of how we show diversity in the festival,” said Robert Redford, who began the showcase in 1985 to give a voice to independent filmmakers. Sundance has paid close attention to issues of race and gender throughout its 31-year history because “diversity comes out of the word independence,” he added. Indeed, some of the program’s female and ethnically disparate filmmakers have gone on to win Oscars after their Sundance premieres. “Searching for Sugar Man,” “20 Feet From Stardom,” “Hustle and Flow” and “Precious” all earned Oscars after opening in Park City. “Beasts of the Southern Wild” made a best picture run after its Sundance screening in 2012. Many others will be better remembered by history than the academy. “Fruitvale Station,” the 2012 true story of a young man killed by San Francisco transit police, introduced the breakout talents of director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan. The pair reunited for this past year’s box office hit “Creed,” which earned a supporting Oscar nod for Sylvester Stallone. But neither Coogler nor Jordan matched his Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Drama with Oscar nominations for either film. The Sundance Institute also provides year-round support for artists in the film industry through fellowships and workshops. At the opening conference, former Miramax studio executive Keri Putnam (tapped this year as executive director of the Sundance Institute) cited alumni such as Coogler and “Selma” director Ava DuVernay as filmmakers the festival introduced to mainstream opportunities. “We do provide a really great pipeline,” Putnam said. “We have a seat at that table in terms of providing a constructive voice to the decision makers to say, ‘Hey, take a look at this range of talent.’?” Redford, himself a two-time Oscar winner, made it clear that
B5
The standout hit of the festival is “The Birth of a Nation,” which tells the story of Nat Turner’s uprising. Nate Parker stars in the film he directs and helped to write.
he’s no enemy of the Hollywood establishment, “because I’ve been part of that, happily part of that.” As for the Oscars controversy, “I’m not into that.” The mission for Sundance, he said, is “to broaden the industry” and offer an outlet for “artists [who] are making films about what’s on the public’s mind.”
Birth of a slave film This year’s Sundance slate has offered a wide range, many with Black leads. The standout hit of the festival is the slave revolt drama “The Birth of a Nation.” Repeating the title of D.W. Griffith’s racially insensitive 1915 epic, which launched modern cinema, it tells the story of Nat Turner’s uprising, one of the largest slave rebellions in U.S. history. Nina Simone’s haunting lynching song “Strange Fruit” plays in a harrowing scene as the camera moves through a woodland of slaves hanged for challenging their plantation masters. The film, which premiered to multiple standing ovations, launched a frenzied bidding war from distributors before selling to Fox Searchlight, which carried “12 Years a Slave” to Oscar glory in 2013. Its sale price was an eyepopping $17.5 million, the highest price yet paid at Sundance. The indie film was made for a fraction of that and encountered years of resistance from Hollywood investors who doubted it could draw a global market. Still, marketing success alone was not what writer/director/
star Nate Parker was aiming for. “I made this film for one reason, with the hope of creating change agents” with its portrayal of America’s historic legacy, he told the opening night audience. “I just want you, if you are affected and you are so moved, to ask yourself, ‘Are there systems in my life that need attention, whether it be racial [or] gender?’ There are lots of injustices.”
What women want Racial themes triggered a cascade of buzz but were not the only item on the festival’s agenda, or on the mind of Sundance attendees. At a reception honoring female filmmakers, veteran producer Mridu Chandra noted that despite her 17 films, including a Sundance premiere on her resume, it’s still a challenge to overcome obstacles and climb the industry ladder. “The glass ceiling is very much there,” she said. At a Sundance festival attended by director Catherine Hardwicke, “she explained how, despite making a film that broke box office records, ‘Twilight,’ she had to pitch herself as director of the follow-up, and she didn’t get it.” Instead, the hit series recruited male filmmakers. “There may be other forces at work, but it isn’t common that a guy wouldn’t be offered Part 2 of the same series,” Chandra continued. “I don’t have a guy who is a big studio executive to help me because I am an Indian woman of color,” a matter she sees more as unconscious bi-
as than deliberate misogyny. “We like to work with people who look or feel like us. “But I’m not complaining because there is a very thriving independent world. It’s not million-dollar jobs and million-dollar movies, but I have had a career for 17 years in this field,” in part through Sundance’s commitment to female filmmakers. In this year’s lineup, women directed 40 percent of the festival’s films, an unofficial but dramatic quota system offering them a pathway to new opportunities. For some outsider filmmakers, working in a specialized film field might be preferable to mainstream conformity. As studios have shifted their budgets to lavish action fare, they have abandoned the “characterdriven films that took to heart the problems of the nation and therefore stood as Oscar-worthy,” said Harlan Jacobson, director of Talk Cinema, a nationwide film club that offers its members theatrical screenings of hit festival films before their theatrical release. “The little films that show up at Sundance are giving the industry its integrity.” That’s a viewpoint Cheadle shares as the Academy Awards approach. “Who is or is not getting an Oscar is the least of what we’re talking about,” he said. “It’s about something that happens in the halls of executives who decide who will even get on the runway. Nothing’s going to happen unless we’re discussing questions of access way before we get to February.”
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FEBRUARY 5 – FEBRUARY 11, 2016
Today ’s family traditions become tomorrow’s family history. Whether you’re passing down recipes and traditions, stories or advice, feeding into future generations is a great way to maintain your family’s legacy. So celebrate this Black History Month by not only remembering African American history makers, but also by passing down your own family’s history. When you add family, tradition, (and a little love) to the ingredients you’ll find at Publix, we think you have the perfect recipe. Thank you for inviting us to the table.
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BLACK HISTORY MONTH
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FEBRUARY 5 – FEBRUARY 11, 2016
TOJ
What’s your B.H.I.Q.? BY ELI SANDERS The Seattle Times
Black History Month began with historian Carter G. Woodson, who early in the last century came up with the idea for a “Negro History Week,” which he envisioned as a celebration of black history and achievement, as well as a time for education. In 1926, with the support of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, the first “Negro History Week” was held during the second week in February. The timing was meant to honor the birthdays of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and President Lincoln. Over the years, the event grew in popularity, and in the early 1970s, the association (which later changed its name, replacing the word “Negro” with “Afro-American”) expanded the celebration and renamed it “Black History Month.” Now, in keeping with Woodson’s idea of focusing on black history and education, we offer this Black History Month quiz: 1.The founder of the Nation of Islam was: a) Elijah Muhammad. b) Elijah Wood. c) Ralph Ellison. 2. Thurgood Marshall was: a) A prominent black thinker and architect of the Marshall Plan. b) The first black Supreme Court justice. c) A Harlem Renaissance writer. 3. Negro League pitcher Satchel Paige played with which famous band leader? a) Benny Goodman. b) Duke Ellington. c) Louis Armstrong. 4. Which amendment to the Constitution guaranteed black people (and all citizens) equal protection under the law? a) The 15th. b) The 26th. c) The 14th. 5. Black people, women and people ages 18 to 21 have all been kept from voting at some point in the history of the United States. In what order were these groups given the right to vote? a) Black men, then women, then people 18 to 21. b) People 18 to 21, then black men, then women. c)Women, then black men, then people 18 to 21.
(Black history intelligence quotient) True or false:
discovered decades before the experiment ended.
10.When the United States’ founding fathers wrote “all men are created equal,” they meant black slaves, too.
12. The holiday Kwanzaa was created by black activist and scholar Maulana Karenga in 1966.
11. In the “Tuskegee Experiment,” the United States monitored 399 black men with syphilis for 40 years to see what would happen to them — even though the men were never told they had syphilis and a cure for the disease was
13.Participants in the Harlem Renaissance included Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston and Claude McKay. 14. The historically black college Howard University is located in Atlanta.
15.Match the following black Americans with their ideas: A. “It is not integration that Negroes in America want, it is human dignity.”
■ Martin Luther King Jr. ■ W.E.B. Du Bois ■ Malcolm X ■ Booker T. Washington ■ Maya Angelou ■ Zora Neale Hurston ■ Langston Hughes ■ Marcus Garvey
B. “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are created equal.’” C. Encouraged black people to pick themselves up by their “bootstraps” and said: “In all things that are purely social, we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”
Washington apologizes for injustice, does not rightly value the privilege and duty of voting, belittles the emasculating effects of caste distinctions, and opposes the higher training and ambitions of our brighter minds ... we must unceasingly and firmly oppose (him).” F. Read the poem, “On the Pulse of Morning” at President Clinton’s inauguration: “You, created only a little lower than/ The angels, have crouched too long in/The bruising darkness/ Have lain too long/Face down in ignorance./Your mouths spilling words/Armed for slaughter./And
D.Wanted to start a colony of black Americans in Liberia and said: “There shall be no solution to this race problem until you yourselves strike the blow for liberty.” E. Wrote “The Souls of Black Folk” and said of Booker T. Washington: “(When) Mr.
6. What landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision struck down the idea of “separate but equal” schools for black people and whites? a) Plessy v. Ferguson. b) Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kan. c) University of California v. Bakke. 7. The incarceration rates for black people in America have long been decried as a reflection of a biased justice system. At the end of 2000, what percentage of all black males in the United States ages 25 to 29 was in prison? (For comparison, the answer is 2.9 percent for all Hispanic males in that age group, and 1.1 percent for all white males.) a) 5.6 percent. b) 9.7 percent. c) 24.3 percent. 8. The holiday Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865 when: a) Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, thus freeing slaves. b)Word reached Texas that Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation. c) Lincoln declared war with the South over the issue of slavery. 9. Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the first secretarygeneral from sub-Saharan Africa, is from what country? a) Ghana. b) South Africa. c) Nigeria.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY RON CODDINGTON/MCT
1. Jesse Owens: Olympic athlete 2. Harriet Beecher Stowe: Author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” 3. Joe Louis: Athlete 4. Hiram R. Revels: First black U.S. senator 5. Abraham Lincoln: President when slaves were freed 6. Marcus Garvey: Back to Africa movement leader 7. John Brown: Abolitionist 8. Harriet Tubman: Abolitionist 9. Booker T. Washington: Educator 10. Duke Ellington: Musician
11. Granville T. Woods: Inventor 12. Henry Highland Garnet: Abolitionist 13. Frederick Douglass: Abolitionist 14. Martin Luther King Jr.: Civil rights leader 15. Thurgood Marshall: Supreme Court justice 16. Sojourner Truth: Abolitionist 17. Elijah J. McCoy: Inventor; “The Real McCoy” 18. Rosa Parks: Civil rights leader 19. Marian Anderson: Singer 20. Barbara Jordan: Politician
the Rock cries out to us today, you/may stand upon me/But do not hide your face.” G. Wrote the poem, “Harlem,” a passage from which reads: “What happens to a dream deferred?/Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?/Or fester like a sore — /And then run? ... Maybe it just sags/like a heavy load./Or does it explode?” H. “I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it. Even in the helterskelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less. No, I do not weep at the world — I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.”
ANSWERS: 1. A; 2. B; 3. C; 4. C; 5. A; 6. B; 7. B; 8. B; 9. A. 10. False. When this country was founded, black slaves were not considered equal. In fact, the government counted each slave as only three-fifths of a person. 11. True. Years after the experiment, modest cash payments were given to survivors and their families. And in 1997, President Clinton issued a formal apology, saying the experiment was “racist” and “profoundly, morally wrong.” 12. True. Karenga wanted to “give a black alternative to the existing holiday.” At the center of Kwanzaa are its seven principles, which are represented by seven candles: umoja (unity), kujichagulia (selfdetermination), ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujaama (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity) and imani (faith). 13. True. 14. False. Howard University is located in Washington, D.C. 15. A. Malcolm X. B. Martin Luther King Jr. C. Booker T. Washington. D. Marcus Garvey. E. W.E.B. Du Bois. F. Maya Angelou. G. Langston Hughes. H. Zora Neale Hurston.