Florida Courier - March 10, 2017

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MARCH 10 – MARCH 16, 2017

VOLUME 25 NO. 10

OBAMACARE REPLACEMENT 101

BY NOAM N. LEVEY TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON – House Republicans have finally unveiled legislation to repeal and – just as important – replace the Affordable Care Act. Obamacare is complex.

So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that what the GOP is proposing in its place has a few knotty details.

Here’s a short guide to what’s in the Republican plan and what it could mean for Americans’ health coverage.

Guaranteed coverage How it works now: This part of Obamacare was revolutionary. The current guarantee allows Americans to get health insurance even if they’re sick. That put an end to insurers denying coverage to people who had pre-existing medical condi-

Here’s what’s in the House Republicans’ plan, the first detailed proposal on the negotiating table. tions. Americans can get the guaranteed coverage even if they’ve been uninsured for years.

How it would change: The House GOP plan would still prohibit insurers from turning away sick consumers.

Insurance mandate

people with low incomes or other hardships that make getting health insurance difficult.

How it would change: The tax penalty is eliminated. But the House Republican bill still penalizes people who don’t get insurance.

If consumers allow coverage to lapse for as long as two months, insurers would be required to charge them a 30-percent penalty when they buy a health plan.

That penalty could discourage many people from getting new coverage if they lose their plan because of a job loss or other change.

That could increase the number of uninsured Americans.

How it works now: Obamacare, for the first time, required Americans to have Medicaid health insurance or pay a tax How it works now: For penalty. The penalty is as- decades, being a poor adult sessed annually when peo- in America often meant not ple file their taxes, though See OBAMACARE, Page A2 there are exemptions for

OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/TNS

President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, which became known as “Obamacare,” in the White House’s East Room on March 23, 2010. The GOPdominated U.S. House of Representatives propose major changes to the sevenyear-old law.

TALLAHASSEE GOES BACK TO WORK

To serve and protect

On the ballot?

Court mulls voting rights amendment

BY STEVEN LEMONGELLO ORLANDO SENTINEL / TNS

ORLANDO – Desmond Meade of Orlando did everything he could to support his wife, Sheena, in her unsuccessful run for the Florida House last year. But the one thing he couldn’t do was vote for her.

“Basically, I was told I wasn’t a citizen anymore,” said Meade, one of about 1.7 million people in Florida permanently barred from voting because of a past felony conviction, despite having completed their sentences.

Major step

JACOB LANGSTON/ORLANDO SENTINEL/TNS

During Florida’s annual State of the State speech on March 7 in Tallahassee, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings, Orlando Police Chief John Mina and Orlando Police Officer Michael Napolitano were recognized for their actions following the Pulse nightclub murders last year in Orlando.

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

Blacks on Scott’s constitution committee NATION | A6

Delta pilots make history

Serena withdraws from Miami Open tennis tourney

Carson blasted for slavery comment

COMPILED FROM WIRE AND STAFF REPORTS

OBITUARY WORLD | B2 | B3

The Miami Open’s star-packed field will be missing one marquee name.

World No. 1 Serena Williams announced late Tuesday afternoon that she is withdrawing from the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., and the Miami

Former Haiti president dies

ALSO INSIDE

Trump’s policy on Africa still a mystery

Open on Key Biscayne, citing a left knee injury.

Bad knees “Sadly, I have to withdraw from the BNP Paribas Open and the Miami Open,” said Williams’ statement. “I have not been able to train due to my knees and am disappointed I cannot be there.

I will keep moving forward and continue to be positive. I look forward to being back as soon as I can.”

Williams, 35, won the Australian Open in January, but has not played any matches since. She took over the No. 1 spot in the rankings with that win, but her absence from the upcoming tournaments will move her back to No. 2 behind Angelique Kerber.

Last year, Williams had an earlier-than expected exit from the Miami Open, an event she has won eight times, including three

in a row from 2012-15. She lost in the fourth round to 19th-ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova. It was just the second time she did not reach the quarterfinals.

Last year at the tournament, Williams won her 700th career match on her way to capturing her eighth career Miami title. The future Hall of Famer has won the Miami Open more than any other event in her storied career.

Now, a group led by Meade, a former addict convicted on drug and firearm charges in 2001 who went on to earn a law degree, appeared before the state Supreme Court on Monday in an important step in getting a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

If it makes the ballot and wins approval by voters, the amendment would restore voting rights to felons who have completed sentences for nonviolent felonies.

“It’s the most amazing thing,” Meade said of the more than 75,000 verified signatures collected so far by the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition from across the state. “We were able – with no money, and no significant source of funding –to gather enough signatures for Supreme Court review.”

Diverse supporters

“Unfortunately, injuries are a part of sports and the player’s health must always be the first priority,” said Miami Open Tournament Director Adam Barrett in a statement posted to the event’s website. “As an eight-time champion we know how much Serena loves playing our event and we hope she is able to get back on the

The people collecting signatures, he said, represent “a wide spectrum of Americans – White, Black, Latino, young and old, conservative and progressive. Just people who believe in second chances.”

Florida is one of just three states in the nation that permanently bars ex-felons from voting unless they receive clemency. Even among those three, Florida is an outlier due to Gov. Rick Scott’s strict standards.

Darryl Paulson, emeritus professor of government at the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg, said 80 percent to 90 percent of applicants in the other two states with such restrictions – Iowa and Kentucky – have their rights restored within a few years. In Florida, it often takes as long as 14 years for someone to have their petitions

See SERENA, Page A2

See BALLOT, Page A2

Health first

COMMENTARY: REV. JESSE JACKSON: FOREBODING ‘SHELBY’ RULING REPLACES HOPE OF SELMA | A4 COMMENTARY: DR. JOHN SILVANUS WILSON: MEETING WITH TRUMP WAS ‘TROUBLING BEGINNING’ | A5

FOCUS

A2

MARCH 10 – MARCH 16, 2017

Coffee and pictures in the White House There is nothing unusual about so-called Negro leaders being invited to state, federal and local government institutions to meet with newly elected politicians.

Democrats do it. Republicans do it. Liberals do it. Conservatives do it.

Politicians of all political persuasions and perspectives, at some time during the early stages of their terms in office, invite Negroes to visit them and sit around a table to enjoy a cup of coffee and smile for a traditional photograph!

Nothing to show When the Negro leaders leave the White House the state house, the City Hall or the county administrative offices they return to their states, counties, cities and homes with nothing but false promises, bad dreams and shattered hopes of better days to come!

LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT

Reportedly, John Wilson, president of Morehouse College in Atlanta, accepted an invitation to meet with President Donald Trump. About 100 other presidents of historically Black colleges and Universities (HBCUs) also met with President Trump and his White House Negroes.

The HBCU presidents, I’ve heard, were hoping to get financial and other aid from the federal government for their schools and their students. But all they got was a presidential executive order that moved the HBCU Initiative from the Department of Education to the Executive Office of the President…along with a

beverage and a smiley-face photo that was posted on Facebook, Instagram and other social media outlets that was designed to show African-American citizens that President Donald Trump is alright!

The Morehouse president isn’t happy, and a letter he wrote after the meeting was headlined as follows: “We got played!”

Students not happy More than a few Black students across America were outraged about their college and university presidents being punked, misled, bamboozled and educationally jacked by the United States Trickster-in-Chief!

Protesting students at many Black schools wonder how could their college and university’s highest administrators drop everything, change their schedules and rush to meet Donald Trump, when they routinely refuse to meet with their own students and alumni; ignore requests to meet with Black businesspersons; and wouldn’t even go to sleep and dream about meeting with Black media owners, Black radicals, Black militants and Black community activists.

No. They don’t want to sit down and talk with Black “troublemakers.” But the National Guard, the Secret Service, and SEAL Team 6 couldn’t keep them from meeting with Troublemaker Trump!

I support HBCUs I love HBCUs as much as anyone else. Two of my children attended HBCUs to get their college education. I’ve contributed money to HBCUs. I’ve bought tickets to athletic events and other events at HBCUs. And I think I could contribute financially, academically and in many other ways to HBCUs. But apparently, I don’t have the right ideology, theology, philosophy, spirituality or the political persuasion to be even considered for a meeting or a talk at any college, Black or White, that I know about.

When Black people help their own schools, colleges and universities, others will help our educational institutions also.

I hope Black schools get the federal assistance they need and desire. But it takes a village to raise a child and a school!

If schools want all Black people to take an interest in the via-

BALLOT heard by the governor.

“Nobody restricts (former) felons from voting rights and holding jobs like the state of Florida,” said Paulson, a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, adding that almost 30 percent of all ex-felons in the country unable to vote live in the Sunshine State. “I don’t take any pride in Florida leading the nation.”

Paulson said many crimes, such as driving with a revoked license or trespassing on a construction site, are felonies in Florida instead of being considered lesser misdemeanors elsewhere, increasing the number of people affected.

In addition, about 20 percent of the state’s African-American population, more than half a million people, are unable to vote because of a past felony conviction, including more than 30 percent of all voter-eligible Black men in Florida.

“We have communities where there’s large numbers of Blacks who can’t exercise political power (and) can’t hold local officials responsible, because they simply can’t vote,” said former U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando.

Welcome some diversity They need to welcome different ideas, different views, different speakers, different fundraisers, different political parties and persuasions and different students that attended and graduated from different schools to work alongside of their own faculty, staff, students and alumni to make HBCUs strong and help them survive.

Most Black people want HBCUs to do well. When HBCUs thrive and succeed, Black people and Black communities thrive and succeed!

Stop going to meetings at tables where Black people walk away unfed! Turn down the coffee and Instagram photos and turn up the Black unity, the Black Pride and the Black Progress!

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.

who meets four times a year as part of a clemency board to go through thousands of applications.

Today, ex-felons must wait five years after completing a sentence, probation and parole, plus an additional seven years if it was a drug offense, before they can be considered by the clemency board.

“Gov. Scott believes that in order for felons to have their rights restored, they have to demonstrate that they can live a life free of crime, show a willingness to request to have their rights restored, and show restitution to the victims of their crime,” said Scott spokeswoman Lauren Schenone.

from A1

Racially disproportionate

bility and success of HBCUs, HBCUs should take a similar interest in all Black people.

Next steps COURTESY OF THE FLORIDA SUPREME COURT

Advocates of restoring voting rights to ex-felons in Florida urged the Florida Supreme Court to allow Florida voters to decide the issue.

Grayson introduced an unsuccessful U.S. House bill last year that would have automatically restored ex-felons’ voting rights, calling it the “civil rights cause of the 21st century.”

Paulson said there is “very definitely a racial component” in the origins of the Florida law, dating back to the days after the Civil War, Jim Crow and the White Democratic South. While today ex-felons are more likely to be

OBAMACARE from A1

having health insurance. That’s because Medicaid, the 50-year-old government safety net health plan, historically limited coverage to select groups of low-income Americans. These included children, pregnant women, the disabled and the elderly.

Poor adults without children were barred from Medicaid coverage in most states.

Obamacare tried to change that by offering states billions of dollars to expand Medicaid to childless adults. Thirty-one states have done so. That has helped millions of low-income Americans get health coverage over the last several years.

How it would change: The House GOP plan would make two big changes to the Medicaid program.

First, starting in 2020, it would phase out the additional federal money that has helped states expand their Medicaid programs. The legislation would then eliminate the decades-old system that linked federal aid to states to how much medical care Medicaid enrollees used.

The GOP plan would instead cap how much aid the federal government provides states for Medicaid under a system called a “per capita cap.” That means the federal government would give each state a fixed amount of money every year for every person who qualifies for Medicaid.

That amount then would increase annually by an amount linked to the medical inflation rate.

Many advocates and medical groups fear that over time that change would force states to scale back coverage for poor people and limit medical services.

Insurance marketplaces How it works now: The Obamacare marketplaces, such as HealthCare.gov, enable people who don’t get health benefits at work to compare plans, just as they might compare hotel rooms or airline tickets online.

Importantly, all plans on the marketplaces must offer a basic set of benefits, such as hospital care, mental health ser-

Democrats than Republicans, Paulson said, “This is an area where Republicans have the opportunity to do the right thing.”

Restricted under Scott Under former Republican Govs. Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist, there was a trend toward greater clemency, experts say. But Scott changed how clemency is granted.

vices and prescription drugs. The plans cannot impose annual or lifetime limits on coverage, a once-common practice.

And insurers are barred from charging older consumers more than three times what they charge younger consumers.

How it would change: The House GOP plan largely preserves the marketplaces and Obamacare’s requirements that health plans offer basic benefits. And insurers would still be barred from imposing annual or lifetime limits. But they would now be able to charge older consumers five times more than younger consumers.

Insurance subsidies How it works now: Among the most important features of the current law are insurance subsidies that are available to low- and moderate-income people who use the marketplaces to get coverage. The current law offers these subsidies to people making less than about $48,000 a year.

There are several complicated, but very important, features of these subsidies.

First, they are linked to consumers’ incomes, so people who earn less get bigger subsidies. Second, the size of the subsidies is also pegged to how much insurance plans cost. That means that if health plans are very expensive in one market – perhaps because hospitals there charge a lot for medical care – the subsidies in that market are larger.

This is a big deal because there are huge variations in how much health care costs around the country, with insurance premiums much higher in some places than in others. So people who live in higher-cost areas are protected.

It’s also important because health insurance premiums can change a lot from year to year. By pegging the size of the subsidy to the actual cost of health plans, the law protected consumers from big insurance increases.

The last important feature of the subsidies is that they are automatically applied to consumers’ monthly insurance bills. That means that low-income people don’t have to pay a large premium every month and then wait for a rebate, something that can be difficult for consumers who may be living paycheck to paycheck.

How it would change: The House plan completely scraps Obamacare’s subsi-

“During the Charlie Crist years, there was a significant movement towards restoring peoples’ civil rights,” Meade said. “Under the current administration, those policies have been rolled back so significantly.”

Under Bush, more than 75,000 people had their voting rights restored, Meade said. Under Crist, that number was more than 150,000. But that dropped to fewer than 2,000 a year under Scott,

dy system. Subsidies would no longer be linked primarily to the price of health care plans and to consumers’ income. Instead, Americans who don’t get coverage through an employer would qualify for a tax credit based on how old they are.

Older consumers would get larger credit, as much as $4,000 annually for people over 60. And younger consumers would get a smaller credit, as little as $2,000 for people younger than 30. This reflects the assumption that insurers charge younger people less as they are generally healthier.

The only income variation would happen for individuals making more than $75,000 a year and couples making more than $150,000. Subsidies would be phased out for these higher-income households.

Linking the credit to consumers’ age, instead of their income, is much simpler.

But it risks leaving some people, particularly lower-income consumers, without enough financial aid to buy a health plan. And because the subsidies would increase annually at a rate slightly above inflation, they risk not keeping up with rising health insurance premiums.

Models of this approach suggest that younger, wealthier people would probably fare better under the new system.

Taxes How it works now: Obamacare’s architects cobbled together a mix of taxes to offset the cost of subsidizing insurance for tens of millions of low- and moderateincome Americans. That has meant some new taxes on insurance companies and medical device makers (both of which, it was reasoned, were benefiting from getting new customers through the law).

Wealthy Americans are paying more too. Families making more than $250,000 a year have seen their Medicare payroll taxes increase because of Obamacare.

How it would change: The House Republican plan scraps the taxes. That’s a big tax cut for the medical device and insurance industry. Insurers say lower taxes will allow them to charge lower premiums. It’s also a very large tax cut for the wealthiest taxpayers, who would no longer be subject to the Medicare payroll surtax.

The House legislation does not include any new tax to offset the loss of revenue from cutting the Obamacare taxes.

If the initial review is approved by the court, it would still need to undergo fiscal and ballot summary reviews.

Meade’s group would then need to gather a total of more than 766,000 signatures from across the state. Only then would it go before voters, most likely in 2018 or 2020.

“America is a nation of second chances,” said Meade, who received his law degree in 2014 but can’t practice in Florida because he’s barred from voting. “It makes economic sense. It makes public safety sense. And it makes moral sense.”

SERENA from A1

court soon.”

Barrett added, “Starting March 20th, we look forward to hosting another world class event with an elite player field featuring each of the top 76 ranked men’s players and 69 of the top 73 ranked women’s players.”

Stellar list The 2017 Miami Open player field features a combined 12 Grand Slam singles champions including Roger Federer, who claimed his 18th major title at this year’s Australian Open, 14-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal, 12-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic, and three-time Grand Slam champions Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka, two-time Grand Slam winner Angelique Kerber and former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro.

Qualifying rounds will be played March 20-21 and will determine 12 additional slots in each singles draw. The Miami Open will also award wildcards to five men and eight women.

The main draw begins on Tuesday, March 21 as the women take the court, followed by the first round of the men’s main draw on Wednesday, March 22. Two weeks of tennis as well as fashion, food and other events during the tournament conclude with the women’s final on Saturday, April 1 and the men’s final on Sunday, April 2.

The Miami Open will receive over 12,000 hours of global TV coverage and will be broadcasted to 193 countries/territories to nearly 70 million viewers worldwide.

Michelle Kaufman of the Miami Herald / TNS contributed to this report.

MARCH 10 – MARCH 16, 2017

FLORIDA

A3

Governor picks diverse group for constitution panel

BY DARA KAM THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – Gov. Rick Scott named 14 people – nearly all of them loyalists who have served the governor or been appointed by him in other capacities – to the state Constitution Revision Commission.

Scott’s selections on March 3 included a number of Republican political allies, including influential insurance lobbyist Fred Karlinsky, a major Scott political fundraiser, and Brecht Heuchan, a Tallahassee GOP consultant who has been a key player with the governor’s “Let’s Get to Work” political committee.

In a statement accompanying the announcement, Scott said the picks “stood out as exemplary choices” whose “diverse backgrounds and experience in education, business and policy will ensure we continue to champion policies that make Florida the best place for families for generations to come.”

Diverse group Scott’s appointees included his former general counsel Tim Cerio; state Education Commissioner Pam Stewart; and utility regulator Jimmy Patronis, a former Re-

Marva Johnson

Nicole Washington

publican lawmaker from the Panhandle appointed by Scott to the Public Service Commission more than two years ago.

The governor also named Darlene Jordan, a Palm Beach Republican who served as state finance chair of Scott’s 2014 re-election campaign and was appointed last year by Scott to the state university system’s Board of Governors; Florida Board of Education Chairwoman Marva Johnson; and Nicole Washington, a onetime Scott aide who serves on the board of Florida A&M University.

And Scott picked Belinda Keiser, vice chancellor of Keiser University; Gary Lester, a vice president of The Villages; Frank Kruppenbacher, an Orlando attorney and chairman of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority; Jose “Pepe” Armas, a Miami doc-

tor appointed by the governor to serve as a trustee for Florida International University; Lisa Carlton, a former GOP lawmaker from Sarasota; and Emery Gainey, an official in the Attorney General’s Office who was tapped last year by Scott to temporarily serve as Marion County sheriff.

“The group of people the governor selected are as diverse as any group, geographically, ethnically, just in terms of their backgrounds and their experiences,” said Heuchan, who served as a top aide to former state House Speaker Daniel Webster, now a congressman.

‘He knows them’ Heuchan coordinated Webster’s picks to the 1997 Constitution Revision Commission and monitored the panel’s work, “giving him a deep understanding and familiarity of the CRC process,” Scott said in a statement.

Scott’s appointees are “extremely talented people and they have a broad range of skill sets,” Heuchan told The News Service of Florida in a telephone interview Friday.

“The governor is a people-person. So if there’s a common theme among these people, it’s that he’s comfortable with them because he knows them. They are a blend

of very different experiences. He’s comfortable with them because their personalities blend together,” Heuchan said.

Last week, Scott named Manatee County developer Carlos Beruff, who lost a bid for the U.S. Senate last year, as the chairman of the Constitution Revision Commission, which meets every two decades to decide on constitutional proposals to put before voters.

“My goal for the CRC (the commission) is to fight for policies that will ensure a strong future for Florida, and I know Carlos also shares this vision. As we undertake this historic review, I am hopeful that this commission will propose policies that build a legacy upon which the families and businesses in our great state will thrive for generations to come,” Scott, considering a run for U.S. Senate next year, said in a statement Wednesday announcing Beruff’s appointment.

Other appointees Scott has the legal authority to appoint 15 members to the commission, including its chairman.

House Speaker Richard Corcoran and Senate President Joe Negron each have the power to appoint nine commissioners. Florida Su-

preme Court Chief Justice Jorge Labarga named his three appointees, and Attorney General Pam Bondi is automatically included in the 37-member panel.

While Republicans who share Scott’s ideology – or were handpicked by him for other posts – dominated the governor’s selections, Negron’s picks included former Senate Minority Leader Chris Smith, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat who frequently butted heads with GOP leaders before leaving office in 2016 due to term limits.

It’s not unusual for governors to pick commission members who reflect their ideology, said Florida State University political science professor Carol Weissert.

“We wouldn’t necessarily expect him to go out and do a random selection process. It looked like it was a pretty diverse group, geographically and racially,” said Weissert, who also serves as director of the LeRoy Collins Institute, which is leading an educational effort focused on the commission’s work.

“The proof is going to be in the pudding. When those people get together are they going to put aside their partisanship and look at the issues that are the best for Florida? And we don’t know that until they meet.”

Trump praises students, educators at Orlando school

BY STEVEN LEMONGELLO AND JEFF WEINER ORLANDO SENTINEL/TNS

President Donald Trump chatted with students and praised educators at a private Catholic school in Orlando on March 3, part of a trip focusing on a scholarship program for low-income families.

Trump’s visit also drew about 100 protesters angry at what they described as an “anti-public schools agenda.”

The president arrived at St. Andrew Catholic School in the Pine Hills neighborhood along with Gov. Rick Scott, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. It was the first time Rubio had appeared with Trump since the election.

‘College and heaven’ Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, a White House adviser, also were on hand.

“Beautiful class, beautiful students, right?” said Trump as he walked into teacher Jane Jones’ fourth-grade classroom.

As the children all recited the school’s goals — “College and

heaven” — Trump asked students, including fourth-graders Janayah Chatelier and Landon Fritz, both of Orlando, what they wanted to be when they grew up.

“You’re going to grow your own business,” Trump told them.

“You’re going to make a lot of money. But don’t run for politics after.”

Tax-credit program Trump was handed two cards, one welcoming him to the school and another in celebration of Florida’s 172nd anniversary, as he and the other officials made their way through the room.

“I love her hair,” Trump said to DeVos about a girl with braids.

Trump’s visit to the predominantly African-American school focused on the Florida Tax Credit scholarship, a voucher program that helps 295 students from lowincome families at the school of nearly 350 students.

Started in 2002, the tax-credit program has allowed businesses to funnel tax dollars to private schools, including many religious ones. Across Florida, 97,926 students attend private schools using tax-credit scholarships, officials say. The credit can provide up to $5,886 per student annually.

Appeals court rejects ‘opt-out’ testing arguments

BY BRANDON LARRABEE THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – In a sharply worded opinion, an appeals court Tuesday overturned a Leon County judge’s 2016 decision that seemed to support the “opt-out” movement that encourages parents to defy standardized testing requirements.

A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal unanimously ruled that Circuit Judge Karen Gievers erred on procedural grounds by allowing the case to go forward and with portions of her opinion that could have allowed some students to avoid answering questions on state exams.

Perhaps most significantly, the court ruled that the state has an interest in making sure that students do not “minimally participate” in standardized tests. Parents who brought the case against the Department of Education and several school boards told their third-grade students to put their names on the test, then refuse to answer questions.

Held back When the students were barred from moving to fourth grade under state law, the parents sued, saying they wanted their children to be evaluated using a portfolio allowed in the case of “good cause exemptions.”

The appeals-court panel, though, found that the state has an interest in preventing social promotion, the reason given for the testing requirement.

“The test can only achieve that laudable purpose if the student meaningfully takes part in the

JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL/TNS

President Donald Trump praises Latrina Peters-Gipson, principal of St. Andrew Catholic School, and Henry Fortier, Orlando Diocese Superintendent of Catholic Schools, during his visit March 3.

More praise Trump also spoke with Bishop Moore Catholic High School students Artayia Wesley and Marcus Millien, both of whom told the president about how the scholarship changed their lives.

“My mother was a struggling Haitian immigrant who came here in search of the American dream,” said Marcus, 16, afterward. Trump “encouraged us as we talked about our stories, and he told us things like, ‘great job’ and ‘proud to hear that.’”

Before a round table session that was closed to reporters, Trump praised St. Andrew Principal Latrina Peters-Gibson and Diocese of Orlando schools superintendent Henry Fortier.

“They understand how much students benefit from a full education, one that enriches both the mind and soul,” Trump said. “A good combo.”

test by attempting to answer all of its questions to the best of the student’s ability,” wrote Judge T. Kent Wetherell, in an opinion joined by judges Joseph Lewis Jr. and James Wolf. “Anything less is a disservice to the student – and the public.”

Minimal participation In a split 50-page ruling issued in August, Gievers turned down a request from parents in five of the districts because their students were no longer in public schools. But she required a sixth district, Hernando County, to offer an alternative route for students to qualify for the fourth grade.

She also found that students who fill out their names on the Florida Standards Assessment, break the seal on the test and then refuse to answer questions have “minimally participated.”

“Whether the statewide defendants decide that at least one question must have been answered for the defendants to score the test ... is irrelevant.

By being present, by breaking the seal and putting their names on the test packet, the students did participate in the test,” Gievers wrote.

‘Home-venue privilege’ Wetherell wrote that the parents’ idea of participation defies “common sense (and the statute as a whole).”

But the appeals court also found that the case against Hernando County never should have gotten that far, because districts are allowed to be sued in their own counties under “home-venue privilege.”

Gievers ruled that the districts could be sued in Tallahassee because the Department of Education was an indispensable party. But the appeals court said the lawsuit could have gone forward without the state agency, and even if it couldn’t, “there is no indispensable party exception to the home-venue privilege and the trial court lacked the authority to create one.”

The court also said Gievers should have refused to issue an injunction against the state Department of Education because the parents could have challenged it in administrative court.

Fortier talked about how school choice “is an important part of my career. … Lots of people have different opinions, but I see it as a partnership, not a situation of ‘us vs. them.’”

Trump cited Rubio and Scott as part of the reason “progress is going further and further” in education in Florida. He added that the state would have “a fabulous relationship” with DeVos, a major advocate of school choice programs.

Scott, Rubio and DeVos said little during the parts of the event open to the news media, with Scott only talking to a student about how the school’s great reputation was why the president was there.

Protests continue Before the event, protesters gathered less than a quarter mile from the school just after noon to protest the visit and the Trump

administration’s education priorities.

The protesters, many coordinated by progressive advocacy groups Organize Florida and For Our Future, toted signs and chanted slogans at passing traffic on busy Colonial Drive near Hastings Street, denouncing Trump and demanding support for public education.

“We are not falling for it, Mr. Trump,” said Robin Harris, an Organize Florida activist and Pine Hills resident. “We know that your program and your ideology and your rhetoric about school choice does not have the Black and brown student community in mind. We don’t like school choice. We don’t need it. We don’t want it.”

Staff writer Annie Martin contributed to this report.

ADOPTIONS

A home for Sabrina SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

One Church One Child of Florida is reaching out to families and individuals in communities across the state in efforts to help find permanent homes for children.

Children featured in this monthly spotlight are waiting for a permanent home and/or mentor.

Sabrina was born with a song in her heart. She’s animated, outgoing, hilarious, and almost always smiling. She loves people and gives herself wholeheartedly to being a great friend.

Sabrina is serious about her health, staying active, and about eating well although she has a soft spot for lasagna. Gymnastics and dance are her two favorite sports, and she’d really like to be either a gymnast or a dance therapist when she grows up.

She has no preference of family type, noting that if she had two dads she could be a “daddies’ girl” and the more siblings there are the more love to go around.

But she is very clear about one thing: she wants more than anything in the world to mean the world to someone.

Sabrina has such a bright, amazing future ahead of her. She needs and deserves to be part of a loving, encouraging and ac-

PHOTO BY LARA CERRI/ SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

Sabrina, 16, is one of the many children in Florida waiting for a permanent home. cepting forever family.

Churches also are asked to partner with One Church One Child in sharing information with congregations and extending Watch-Care Ministries to children.

For more information about becoming an adoptive or foster parent, mentor, partner or volunteer, call 888-283-0886 or send an email to info@ococfl.org. The website for One Church One Child of Florida is www.ococfl. org.

EDITORIAL

A4

MARCH 10 – MARCH 16, 2017

Reflections on my life of advocacy March 2017 marks the 24th year this column has appeared in Black newspapers and periodicals around the world. It’s time to reflect, assess, evaluate, and decide whether to continue writing the column or bring it to an end.

First, I sincerely thank you, the readers, for indulging what must be an obsession for me: economic empowerment. To the publishers, thank you for keeping this column alive.

Thanks to Marjorie Parham, owner of the Cincinnati Herald, and Donald Anthony, editor, who liked my initial “Letter to the Editor” and asked me to write for them regularly. They, along with William “Bill” Reed, gave me the opportunity to get my thoughts syndicated via the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA).

It’s a privilege This column continues to open doors to new relationships and allows me to “vent” as well.

It is cathartic, but it is actionoriented and solution-based.

The privilege to speak to so many people is something I do not take for granted.

Having written an estimated 1,500 articles, hosted radio and TV shows, and authored five books on economic empowerment, I should be content, right?

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But I am not content, mainly because I have not seen the outcomes Black people should have achieved during my tenure as another in a long line of griots – not only because of my writing, teaching, and advocacy – but because we are too intelligent not to have done so. That hurts.

I have often said, “The message is more important than the messenger.” The same message I write about is the same one written and spoken by too many great ancestors to list herein, so I will cite just three: Marcus, Malcolm, and Martin.

They followed the paths left by their predecessors, spoke the same message to their people, and cared so much that they gave everything they had toward their mission.

Continued the struggle Marcus Garvey, even though he faced tremendous resistance from the infamous J. Edgar Hoover and his Black spy, James Wormsley, as well as from Black folks in the NAACP and elsewhere, continued to endure.

Foreboding ‘Shelby’ ruling replaces hope of Selma In “A Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens contrasted the plight of the poor in France with the lavish wealth of the aristocracy, the city of need with the city of greed. That harsh exploitation eventually erupted in the French Revolution, and the brutal revenge of the revolutionaries on their former oppressors.

In some ways, Selma and Shelby County, Alabama represent our tale of two cities.

Fifty-two years ago, John Lewis, Hosea Williams and a host of ordinary heroes were beaten by Alabama state troopers as they sought to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, marching for the right to vote. The demonstration followed nearly 250 years of slavery, the ‘Whitelash’ against Reconstruction following the Civil War, and another six decades of legal apartheid and segregation.

Made the choices In Selma, the modern civil rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., chose nonviolence over violence, reconstruction over revolution and forgiveness over revenge. The

REV. JESSE L. JACKSON, SR. TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE

People of conscience across America must stand and march once more. We will either build a more just society or we will face a far harsher reaction.

Selma beatings shamed a nation, and helped Lyndon Johnson drive through the Voting Rights Act and finally put an end to segregation.

Four years ago, a gang of five right-wing justices on the Supreme Court issued a ruling in

Time for free tuition at HBCUs, public universities Black folks with nothing better to do were up in arms for a day about Kellyanne Conway’s feet buried in the Oval Office sofa messing with her phone while the presidents and chancellors of Historically Black Colleges and Universities crowded around Donald Trump’s desk.

Some others have written about Betsy DeVos’s note on HBCUs, which revealed her stunning and self-serving ignorance of their history and origin.

But pointing out how disrespectful or stupid key members of the Trump administration is partisan BS that won’t not save a single college education, let alone remedy the desperate situation of our HBCUs.

BRUCE A. DIXON BLACK AGENDA REPORT

Movement from ‘below’ Right now, the heads of HBCUs have an historic opportunity to save their institutions by stirring up a movement from below for free tuition for HBCUs and for all public colleges and universities, for loan forgiveness for students at public universities, interest reductions for all students, and for getting the federal government out of the student loan business.

Free college tuition is not an impractical pie in the sky. Ger-

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: ATTORNEY GENERAL JEFF SESSIONS

Garvey did so well that the weight of the federal government had to be brought down on him to try to stop his UNIA movement. False charges and a kangaroo court finally got Garvey a prison term and ultimately deportation.

And to think Barack Obama, even at the urging of Dr. Julius Garvey’s petition calling for justice, did not exonerate and clear Mr. Garvey’s name before his presidency ended. Go figure.

Garvey’s words, “The greatest weapon used against the Negro is disorganization,” still ring true today.

Daily threats Malcolm X, our “Black shining prince” as Ossie Davis eulogized him, suffered daily threats on his life and his family. His opposition came from all directions and in all colors. Because of his strength and resolve, Malcolm was considered an ominous threat, a “menace to society.” Despite all that he faced, he kept going forward even into harm’s way. He “didn’t hesitate to die, because he loved us so.”

His words are here for us today and, as Ossie Davis also said, “Nobody knew better than he the power words have over the minds of men.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., demonstrated his willingness to a case called Shelby County v.

Holder that gutted the enforcement provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Most Southern states – and many Northern states led by right-wing governors – moved quickly to pass restrictions on voting designed to make it harder for people of color, college students, the poor, workers, the disabled and the elderly to vote.

Voter ID requirements, gerrymandering, limiting early voting, no same-day on-site voter registration, eliminating ‘Souls to the Polls’ Sundays, packing and stacking political districts, cutting polling stations – all were designed to constrict the right to vote.

Fifty-two years ago in Selma, we were full of hope. Fifty-two years later, with Shelby County, we are filled with foreboding.

Selma represented expansion; Shelby County contraction. Selma was about integration; Shelby County is about separation.

Selma led to an assertion of federal, constitutional rights; Shelby County reasserted states’ rights.

Aligned with Shelby Fifty-two years ago, the U.S. attorney general and the Justice Department were leading on voting rights and enforcing the law. Fifty-two years later, Attormany does it. France does it. Norway and a dozen other countries do it. State universities in California and Louisiana did it for decades in the 20th century. It was a cornerstone demand of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign that earned him millions of votes.

Free college education is what modern human societies do when they recognize that education is a public good, not a private privilege. A nominal tax on Wall Street and reallocation of federal funds that now go to student lenders would easily pay for free tuition.

HBCUs were founded with White philanthropy beginning in the 1860s because the newlyfreed Black population urgently needed teachers and other professionals, and because White colleges rarely admitted Black students. Black student access was still being litigated in the US nine decades later, and to this day HBCUs produce a far greater percentage of highly competent

NATE BEELER, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

stay on course despite knowing the risks. He exposed himself to the haranguing voices of fellow ministers who told him to take it slow, to which he responded with “Why We Can’t Wait” and “The Urgency of Now.”

Gave his all He defied hate-filled crowds of angry Whites and law enforcement officers who wanted nothing more than to see him hanging from a tree. Unlike many ‘leaders’ today, King coupled his actions to his words. He wrote a lot and spoke a lot, but he gave so much more.

Looking back at my four decades of activism and advocacy for Black people, I realize that ney General Jeff Sessions – born in Selma but aligned with Shelby – is withdrawing legal protections for the right to vote and claiming the Voting Rights Act is an intrusion on the states.

Fifty-two years ago, we had a Texan, Lyndon Johnson, in the White House, launching a war on poverty. Today, we have a New Yorker, Donald Trump, in the White House launching a war on the poor. Lyndon Johnson called on our better angels; Donald Trump summons our darker fears.

And across America, as the wealthiest few capture virtually all the rewards of growth, we see once more a tale of two cities – one of lavish excess, one of harsh struggle. America’s middle class is sinking, home ownership is down, life expectancy is down, wages are stagnant at best, and good jobs are scarce.

Didn’t get there Dr. King’s civil rights movement never achieved its final goal – economic justice. And now across lines of region and race and religion, most Americans struggle to stay afloat in a nation of obscene and growing inequality.

Donald Trump claimed to lead a movement that would change that. But his Cabinet is Black college grads than other institutions.

Finding another way But the leaders of our HBCUs have largely failed to envision ways to fund their institutions outside of White philanthropy and occasional special government funding directed exclusively at them. The United Negro College Fund has even accepted Koch Brothers money with many nasty strings attached. It’s time to stop digging that hole deeper.

Millions of college grads, not just Black ones, are crushed by unpayable student debt and lack of opportunities, and they have proven receptive to the idea of free college tuition. It’s a movement waiting to be galvanized.

Free college tuition for HBCUs and public institutions is something that can be accomplished in a decade or so of agitation and struggle. If our HBCU college

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no one has a proprietary claim on the economic empowerment message. No one has all the answers and solutions to our problems. My words and my actions also tell me that a relatively small group can do big things, provided we stick together.

While I do not have Marcus’ charisma, Malcolm’s presence, or Martin’s eloquence, I am content to have followed their leads by using my particular gift of words and the proof thereof by my requisite actions to help our people.

James E. Clingman is the nation’s most prolific writer on economic empowerment for Black people. stacked with bankers and billionaires. His first actions are items on the CEO wish list. His budget seeks tax cuts for the rich and corporations while slashing support for working people and the vulnerable. He seems intent on making the contrasting tale of two cities even starker.

When Alabama played Clemson for the national collegiate football championship, the two schools had Black quarterbacks, both Black and White players, and Black and White fans cheering for their respective teams.

That was the spirit of Selma.

When North Carolina, Texas, and other states constricted the right to vote; when states refused to expand Medicaid to allow the working poor health care; when states passed laws designed to bust unions and worker power; that was the spirit of Shelby County.

People of conscience across America must stand and march once more. We will either build a more just society or we will face a far harsher reaction.

The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. is president and CEO of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. presidents are truly leaders and not followers, this is the current they can tap into.

Will they lead?

Of course, the common wisdom is that nobody is more conservative than a Black college president. It’s a stereotype some of them will have to violate to save their institutions, and to save the very idea of education as a public good, not a private privilege.

If the first Black president did not save HBCUs, nothing Donald Trump is willing to give out will do the trick either. It’s time to demand what is not being offered.

And if our historically Black college presidents lack the political vision and intestinal fortitude to do it, maybe we need to start this movement without them.

Bruce Dixon is managing editor of BlackAgendaReport.com.

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MARCH 10 – MARCH 16, 2017

Meeting with Trump was 'troubling beginning’ Editor’s Note: This letter was addressed “To The Morehouse College Community” and posted on the school’s official website on March 1.

I spent… two days in meetings at the White House and on Capitol Hill. As some of you may know, all HBCU presidents were invited to a dialogue with President Trump and his new administration about support for HBCUs. Most of the 104 HBCU presidents attended, including all presidents from the Georgiabased HBCUs. Many had high hopes about this meeting. There was much advance chatter about it being “historic,” and there were many signals from key Trump administration officials that they would surprise HBCUs with favorable treatment.

Given my experience in the Obama administration, I knew this would require an extraordinary announcement. Why? Because I knew that President Obama had invested $3 billion more in HBCUs in his first six years than President Bush invested in his final six years.

DR. JOHN SILVANUS WILSON JR. GUEST COMMENTARY

Start with some money Therefore, since President Trump pledged to “do more for HBCUs than any other president has done before,” we could have reasonably expected him to get started by announcing at least an additional $500 million to HBCUs…this year!

And beside the expectation of new funding, there was advance talk of changes like an aspirational goal of 5 to 10 percent for federal agency funding to HBCUs, a special HBCU innovation fund, large boosts in Pell Grant and Title III funding, and extra tax breaks for those in the private sector who contribute to HBCUs. But, instead of the long-awaited executive order containing or signaling any of those outcomes, the key change is a symbolic shift of the White House HBCU Initiative from the Department of Education to the White House. It

Who really played HBCUs? Editor’s Note: This is an edited version of a commentary originally posted on www. HBCUDigest.com.

Donald Trump’s recent outreach to the HBCU community has stirred the passions of many HBCU stakeholders who have expressed skepticism and outright outrage around the president’s efforts to support HBCUs. Even his Oval Office invitation to more than 80 HBCU presidents has been met with derision, with reports more focused on Kellyanne Conway’s posture on a couch than the historic nature of the presence of so many AfricanAmericans in the nation’s highest office at the same time.

Morehouse College President Dr. John Wilson released a press release, chiding the Trump administration’s “troubling beginning” with HBCUs and criticizing the shift of the White House HBCU Initiative from the Department of Education to the White House as merely “symbolic.”

According to reports, Wilson was “disappointed” in the meeting and TheRoot.com went even further, titling an article highlighting Wilson’s remarks with the Black colloquialism ‘Morehouse President: We Got Played.’

Came up short President Obama was a great president despite extraordinary resistance to his initiatives, but there were some areas of his presidency that came up short in terms of Black expectations. The HBCU policy arena is such an area and Dr. Wilson was, and apparently remains, an active character in the madness.

What Dr. Wilson didn’t share in his press release and accompanying news reports is that he isn’t just an impartial HBCU president, but instead, an Obama administration insider with his own disappointing track record around HBCUs. Before his embattled tenure at Morehouse College, he served as the executive director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs.

‘Disaster’ for HBCUs The Obama administration was a disaster as it relates to Black colleges, but this reality seems to thrive in the short memories of some supporters. John Wilson’s troubled tenure, along with President Obama’s bizarre relationship with HBCUs, shows that if indeed the Trump administration wanted to “play” HBCUs, it has plenty of lessons to learn from the Obama administration.

Quite simply, Dr. Wilson and company are in no position to criticize the Trump administration with their own dubious track record of vicious games played with and within the HBCU community.

Few reports Obama’s HBCU executive order mandated the publication of an annual report detailing the government’s role with HBCUs. According to the office’s website, an-

JERELL BLAKELY GUEST COMMENTARY

It took President Trump 40 days to sign an HBCU executive order that brought the HBCU Initiative to the White House for the first time in history. It took President Obama 402 days to sign an HBCU executive order that was virtually identical to other HBCU executive orders. nually required federal HBCU reports have not yet been published for data 2014, 2015, and 2016. In fact, Dr. Wilson never published the required HBCU reports while serving as executive director from 2009 to 2012.The first report was submitted in September of 2013 for the 2008 fiscal year.

The available reports don’t paint a pretty picture. In the 2010 report, the HBCU Board of Advisors recommended that the White House set an aspirational goal for each department and/or agency that no less than 5 percent of all funds awarded to Institutes of Higher Education (IHEs) go to HBCUs. According to the most recently available HBCU report, the percentage of IHE federal funding awarded funds awarded to HBCUs declined from 3.1 percent in 2007 to 2.8 percent in 2013.

The same report showed that the percentage of IHE federal funding awarded to HBCUs, excluding student aid, stayed relatively flat, barely changing from 3.6 percent in 2007 to 3.7 percent in 2013. The data shows there were dramatic dips in the HBCU share of federal funding during the height of the Great Recession, declining by more than 13 percent in 2009 and 2010.

Begged Obama After the resignation of Dr. Wilson as the office’s head, heads of HBCU advocacy organizations were reduced to sending a letter begging the president to appoint a permanent executive director to the office.

“The appointment of yet anoth-

EDITORIAL

A5

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: OPRAH FOR PRESIDENT

is not possible to measure the impact of this gesture anytime soon, if ever.

‘Discordant note’ It should also be noted that, in her luncheon speech to HBCU presidents, Education Secretary (Betsy) DeVos struck a discordant note when she said of HBCUs, “They started from the fact that there were too many students in America who did not have equal access to education.

They saw that the system wasn’t working, that there was an absence of opportunity, so they took it upon themselves to provide the solution. HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice.”

But HBCUs were not created because the 4 million newly-freed Blacks were unhappy with the choices they had. They were created because they had no choices at all. That is not just a very important distinction, it is profoundly important.

Why? Because, if one does not understand the crippling and extended horrors of slavery, then how can one really understand the subsequent history and struggle of African-Americans,

er interim executive director does not bode well for the HBCU community, whose challenges are many, immediate, and likely to have lasting adverse impacts,” according to a letter sent to President Obama which reportedly came from the heads of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) and Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), the membership associations for the nation’s 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and 90 Predominantly Black Institutions, as reported by Diverse Education.

During this same time, HBCU Advisory Board Chair and Hampton University President Dr. William Harvey told attendees at the annual NAFEO conference in April 2013 that HBCUs are in “the worst situation I’ve seen in 35 years.” Then Stillman College President Ernest McNealey, said to Politic365.com in April 2013 that the situation regarding PLUS loans was a “disaster for HBCUs” and the largest exodus of HBCU students from campuses in at least 45 years.

No surprise That shouldn’t surprise anyone considering the shabby treatment that President Obama exhibited towards Black colleges. Under the Obama administration, the White House Initiative was an afterthought.

Thurgood Marshall College Fund head Johnny Taylor made it plain, recently stating, “You know, at the end of the day where you live matters in so many ways, right? When we were in the Department of Education, this office, it was three levels down. It didn’t even report to the secretary of education. This reality speaks volumes about what the former administration and former administrations thought about HBCUs.” For years, HBCUs wanted a direct report to the White House. It took President Trump 40 days to sign an HBCU executive order that brought the HBCU Initiative to the White House for the first time in history. It took President Obama 402 days to sign an HBCU executive order that was virtually identical to other HBCU executive orders.

Black America’s ‘scold’ Ta-Nehisi Coates called President Obama the “scold of Black America” for telling Morehouse College graduates at their commencement that “there’s no longer room for any excuses.”

President Obama criticized HBCUs at a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus, with Congressman and prominent Clark Atlanta University alumnus Hank Johnson calling the president “callous” and Congresswoman Marcia Fudge saying that the president thought that Black colleges were failing their students.

As late as January of 2016, Dillard President Dr. Walter Kimbrough, who recently said there was “very little listening” at the Trump White House meeting, stated that “the people around [Obama], I don’t think they value historically Black colleges.”

DAVID FITZSIMMONS, THE ARIZONA STAR

or the current necessities and still have that chance. imperatives that grow out of that Only time will tell how much history and struggle? true support this administration will provide to HBCUs. In genA long shadow eral, the meetings were a trouSlavery has a long shadow and bling beginning to what must be the school choice debate was not a productive relationship. Trust at all alive under the menacing that the HBCU community will loom of that shadow at eman- continue to press for the kind of cipation! So, Secretary DeVos funding that educational excelmisstated that, but that does not lence and national competitivemean she should be diminished ness require! or dismissed. From listening to Dr. John Silvanus Wilson Jr. her carefully for…two days, I get the strong sense that she wants is president of Morehouse Colto get this job right. She should lege in Atlanta.

tion submitted a 2012 budget that called for ending a three-year experiment that allows students to qualify for two Pell Grants in a calendar year, to allow them to attend college year-round, and for eliminating the subsidy in which the government pays the interest on student loans for graduate students while they are in school.

With a recent study from the Education Trust noting that roughly half of the nation’s 105 HBCUs have a freshman class where three-quarters of the students are from low-income backgrounds, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist that these cuts negatively impacted HBCUs. Dr. Harvey, long-serving chair of the Obama’s own HBCU Advisory Board, had even more damning criticism of the HBCU track record at the twilight of the Obama administration: “I have to say that one of my biggest concerns or regrets is that we are not being used as the advisory board we are supposed to be.

“All this expertise – more than 150 years at the helm of HBCUs, decades as the heads of major philanthropic organizations, expertise in business, in fundraising and in public relations, connections on Wall Street, in the Ivy League and everywhere else.

Yet, we are not consulted when it comes to policy changes and decisions impacting – in a major way – the institutions on whose behalf we are to advocate.”

‘Downward trend’ He continued: “While we don’t know a lot, because a lot is not shared, we do know that federal support for HBCUs is showing an alarming downward trend. Over the last several years, all the major Title IV programs had modifications and adjustments which make it much harder for HBCUs to get funding.

“We all know of the Parent PLUS debacle. These loans to our students are down. Pell grants to students at HBCUs are down. Direct loans to our students are down.

Graduate subsidies have been eliminated. In addition to student support, overall support to Black colleges is down.”

Former White House HBCU Initiative head, career Education Department official, and noted HBCU advocate Dr. Leonard Haynes said in an interview after his 40-year distinguished track record of supporting HBCUs, “Unfortunately, the current administrative approach to helping HBCUs has been wanting and a near-disaster. HBCUs, in terms of overall support from the federal government, have gone backward, not forward.”

Thousands denied loans

The US Department of Education reported that 28,000 students attending HBCUs were denied Parent PLUS loans in the fall of 2012 because of the tighter rules.

Black colleges even threatened to sue the Obama administration because of the Parent Plus loan debacle.

In a Tampa Bay Times editorial written by Bill Maxwell, a group of former HBCU presidents Hurt Black colleges and chancellors wrote a letter to In 2011, the Obama administra- Obama upbraiding him for his

“roller coaster” approach to funding for HBCUs. “Our concern,” they wrote, “is that you could leave office without having effected the necessary change in how the state and federal governments view, promote, support and fund HBCUs. That would be, in our opinion, a tragedy of untold proportion.”

Obama not criticized Trump critics highlight that the HBCU executive order didn’t have any money attached to it.

That’s true. Neither did President Obama’s executive order. And I don’t remember HBCU presidents criticizing President Obama for not including aspirational goals.

The criticism, fortunately, has been answered by HBCU alumna and presidential adviser Omarosa Manigault.

“We understand what an executive order is and then we understand what a legislative process is and we understand what budget is. We understand that the executive order starts the action, but there are so many different steps in terms of defining programming… I submit to you that many of those detractors come from that group of people who truly could have done better by our students – and our students deserve better.”

The truth is never out of season, and Omarosa took folks to the altar of truth with her statement.

We’ll see The jury is still out for President Trump and his commitment to HBCUs. I’m extremely concerned

by Secretary Betsy DeVos and her asinine comments about school choice and HBCUs. Steve Bannon’s White supremacist views are retrograde and troubling.

But while many are questioning the motivations of Trump in supporting HBCUs, we should also question why the Obama administration didn’t do more. We cannot gloss over the fact President Trump did in 40 days what took President Obama more than 400 days to accomplish for HBCUs.

A low bar President Obama set a low bar for his successor to reach, financially and symbolically. And now we’re upset that he is in the process of clearing it with ease.

I disagree with virtually everything that President Trump has proposed. However, if he is sincere in wanting to assist HBCUs, as his executive order suggests, we should work with him on this endeavor. Congressional Black Caucus Founder William Clay’s famous admonition is worth repeating: “Black people have no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, but permanent interests.”

If it turns out that Trump is playing us, then we should at least acknowledge the blueprint was expertly designed and executed by the Obama administration.

Jerell Blakeley is a Howard University graduate, a high school teacher, and a PhD. student in Urban Systems/Urban Education at Rutgers University-Newark. Read the complete article at WWW.HBCUDigest. com.

TOJ A6

NATION

MARCH 10 – MARCH 16, 2017 the housing collapse of 2008.

Some Republicans would like to see that role reduced to minimize taxpayer risk, while others say it has made mortgages affordable to more Americans.

Shortage of units Carson will also confront a national shortage in low-income housing.

A March 2 report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition found a shortage of 7.4 million affordable housing units for extremely low income households. The study said there are just 35 available units for every 100 very low income families nationwide.

The analysis “continues to show that the poorest households in our nation face the largest shortage of affordable and available rental housing and have more severe housing cost burdens than any other group,” said Andrew Aurand, vice president for research at the coalition.

“The shortage disappears for households higher up the income ladder.”

OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/TNS

Dr. Ben Carson is sworn in as secretary of Housing and Urban Development by Vice President Mike Pence as Carson’s wife, Candy, and granddaughter, Tesora Carson, hold a Bible on March 2 in Washington, D.C.

Only African-American in Trump’s Cabinet confirmed Dr. Ben Carson will confront a national shortage in low-income housing as HUD secretary.

BY JOHN FRITZE BALTIMORE SUN/TNS

WASHINGTON – Retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson was confirmed by the Senate on March 2 to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a po-

sition that President Donald Trump has described as central to his effort to revitalize the nation’s cities.

Carson, 65, who has no experience in federal housing policy or in government, faced little opposition from Democrats. Republicans have said the renowned surgeon and former presidential

candidate will bring fresh perspective to a bureaucracy that has extensive reach in the mortgage market and subsidizes rent for millions of Americans.

The Republican-controlled Senate confirmed Carson 58-41.

8,000 employees A former Baltimore County resident who recently bought a home in Virginia, Carson promised during his confirmation hearing in January to begin his

Carson sparks outrage after referring to slaves as immigrants FROM STAFF REPORTS

Dr. Ben Carson is facing backlash, especially on Twitter, after his introductory remarks to HUD staffers on Monday referring to slaves that were brought to the U.S. on slave ships as immigrants.

“There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, greatgrandsons, great-granddaughters might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.”

Twitter comments included: “Slavery, by its very name, kind

of explains why slaves were not “immigrants.’’

‘Slaves were immigrants too?

WTF dude. They were taken from their homelands by force, put in chains and sold like cattle.’’

The Anne Frank Center posted: “WE CONDEMN REMARKS of #BenCarson today that slaves are “immigrants.” @WhiteHouse we say #BlackLivesMatter and so should you.’’

Actor outraged And actor Samuel L. Jackson went ballistic with his comment that used colorful language. His post in part: Jackson also condemned the comments on Twitter, writing: “OK!! Ben Carson....I can’t!

A HUD spokesman later called the outcry “the most cynical interpretation of the secretary’s remarks to an army of welcoming HUD employees. No one honestly believes he equates voluntary immigration with involuntary servitude.”

Carson’s clarification

OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/TNS

Dr. Ben Carson speaks on March 2 after being sworn in as HUD secretary. On Monday, he caught flak for his comments to HUD staffers.

Immigrants? In the bottom of SLAVE SHIPS??!! MUTHAF---PLEASE!!!”.

BY ANGELA HELM THEROOT.COM

Black female pilots make history on Delta flight Delta Air Line pilots First Officer Dawn Cook and Capt. Stephanie Johnson ended Black History Month and brought in Women’s History Month on the right foot — or should we say, the right flight — when they made history for Delta.

Carson tried to clarify his comments later. Here’s the full clarification he posted on his Facebook page.

“I’m proud of the courage and perseverance of Black Americans and their incomprehensible struggle from slavery to freedom. I’m proud that our ancestors overcame the evil and repression that we know as slavery.

“The slave narrative and immigrant narrative are two entirely different experiences. Slaves were ripped from their fami-

Harvard confronts its ties to slavery

Pilots Stephanie Johnson, left, and Dawn Cook organized the historic Delta flight and posed for selfies, which were posted on Facebook.

BY YESHA CALLAHAN THEROOT.COM

tenure with a “listening tour” to learn about issues facing the department. Carson said he will then develop a comprehensive plan for the administration.

Carson, who will be the only African-American in Trump’s Cabinet, will oversee a department with 8,000 employees and a nearly $50 billion budget.

Through the Federal Housing Administration, the department has taken on a more expansive role in the mortgage market since

The women became the first African-American women to make up the cockpit crew on one of Delta’s “mainline” flights.

According to Delta, the women were at the helm of an Airbus A320 flying from Detroit to Las Vegas on Feb. 26. Cook commemorated the flight by posting a photo on Facebook. And this wasn’t Johnson’s first time making history. She’s also Delta’s first

African-American female captain.

Early dream Johnson said that with the encouragement of a physics teacher in high school, she followed her dreams of flying.

“There were no pilots in my life growing up, and I think I’m the first person in my family to graduate from college,” Johnson said on Delta’s website in February.

“But for as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with airplanes and would think, ‘What a great thing it would be to know how to fly.’”

Harvard University is the latest university to try to make amends with its slavery-tainted past.

On March 3, the storied university held a conference to explore the relationship between colleges and slavery, where university President Drew Faust said the school must confront its past to move forward.

“Harvard was directly complicit in slavery from the college’s earliest days in the 17th century until the system of bondage ended in Massachusetts in 1783,” Faust, a historian, said.

Ta-Nehisi “We look at both Coates past and present today in the firm belief that only by coming to terms with history can we free ourselves to create a more just world.”

Shield removed ABC News reported that the

No specific plan Trump has frequently discussed his desire to revitalize cities — the president tends to use the term “inner cities” — but has yet to offer a specific plan for how to address joblessness, struggling schools and crime that confront many communities.

“We’ve financed and built one global project after another, but ignored the fates of our children in the inner cities of Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit — and so many other places throughout our land,” the president said during a joint address to Congress last week. “Our neglected inner cities will see a rebirth of hope, safety, and opportunity.”

Perhaps conversely, advocates are watching for how Carson will address the pressure from the Trump administration to cut federal spending, reductions that would presumably fall on HUD as well.

More than 5 million rely on federal rental assistance nationwide. lies and their homes and forced against their will after being sold into slavery by slave traders,’’ he wrote.

“The Immigrants made the choice to come to America. They saw this country as a land of opportunity. In contrast, slaves were forced here against their will and lost all their opportunities. We continue to live with that legacy.

“He continued, “The two experiences should never be intertwined, nor forgotten, as we demand the necessary progress towards an America that’s inclusive and provides access to equal opportunity for all.

“We should revel in the fact that although we got here through different routes, we have many things in common now that should unite us in our mission to have a land where there is liberty and justice for all,’’ Carson concluded. school and its ties to slavery run deep. At least two of Harvard’s early presidents brought slaves to live and work on campus; the university also invested in merchant voyages trading crops produced by slaves.

Slavery even crept into the school’s canon: Nineteenthcentury Harvard scientist Louis Agassiz promoted theories about race that were used to justify slavery.

Last year, Harvard students demanded that the law school abandon its coat of arms, which was taken from the family crest of a slave owner who helped found the school. The shield was eventually removed, and Faust soon after called for further exploration of the school’s relationship with slavery.

Coates: Make amends Author and keynote speaker at the conference Ta-Nehisi Coates reportedly garnered deep applause when he suggested colleges make some sort of financial reparations for their role in slavery.

He also commended Georgetown University for its work around the subject.

“I don’t know how you conduct research that shows that your very existence is rooted in a great crime, and you just, well, shrug, and maybe at best say I’m sorry,” said Coates. “You have to do the right thing and try to make some amends.”

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MARCH 10 – MARCH 16, 2017

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Endless possibilities with potatoes See page B6

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JAZZ IN THE GARDENS ADDS CONFERENCE

Comedian, actor and radio personality Rickey Smiley will be the host again this year. He’s also the host of his own nationally syndicated radio program, the “Rickey Smiley Morning Show.’’ His “Rickey Smiley For Real’’ on TV One is a reality show that premiered in November 2015.

Popular Miami Gardens event expands to include film, music, arts and culture component

BY JUANA BETHEL SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

The Jazz in the Gardens Music Festival is quickly growing beyond the borders of the City of Miami Gardens, boasting an annual attendance of more than 70,000 music lovers from all over the United States and Caribbean Islands.

The City of Miami Gardens is preparing for the 12th annual festival, taking place March 17-19 at Hard Rock Stadium, 347 Don Shula Drive.

Along with the two days of concerts, the festival will include the Film, Music, Arts and Culture Conference. The purpose of the conference is to educate, showcase and celebrate the diversity of art forms and artists in and around South Florida.

Smiley to host again

This year’s concerts will feature three-time Grammy award winning singer-songwriter Jill Scott, rap pioneer Common, hip-hop legends The Roots and LL Cool J, R&B crooner Robin Thicke, and up-and-coming soul singer Andra Day. Headliners will include jazz royalty Herbie Hancock, funk music innovator Morris Day and the Time, and Jazz in the Gardens AllStars Chantae Moore, Will Downing and Marion Meadows.

Comedian and radio host Rickey Smiley will host the festival again.

“The Jazz in the Gardens Music Festival is coming back to Miami Gardens with a bang.

We’re excited to bring some of the hottest, most talented performers in music, such as Jill Scott and Common, and welcome hiphop performers who are heavily influenced by jazz, like The Roots and LL Cool J featuring DJ Z-TRIP,” said Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert.

For more information, visit www. jazzinthegardens .com

First poetry contest

Miami Gardens’ signature event also will showcase local artists, along with an array of tropical food vendors, and a buzzing marketplace.

The Film, Music, Arts and Culture Conference takes place on Thursday, March 16, to Friday, March 17. The conference will include discussions with prominent figures in the art industry covering a wide range of topics.

The night of March 16 will feature the festival’s first Poetry in the Gardens as part of the conference, showcasing the talents of poets from all over the country.

On Saturday and Sunday, doors to the Jazz in the Gardens Music festival will open at 3 p.m. and the show will begin at 4 p.m.

CALENDAR

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MARCH 10 – MARCH 16, 2017

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FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Miami Gardens: A Jazz in the Gardens Jam Session is set for March 16 after the Poetry Contest Finals at the City of Miami Gardens, 18605 NW 27th St. The poetry contest is 8 to 11 p.m.

Orlando: Leela James and Daley will perform April 9 at the House of Blues Orlando.

The show starts at 7 p.m.

TAJ MAHAL

Catch the musician at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on March 9 or at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall on March 10.

Jacksonville: R. Kelly’s AfterParty Tour stops at the Veterans Memorial Arena on March 11. The show is at 8 p.m.

Orlando: Katt Williams’ Great American Tour stops at the CFE Arena on March 18.

PATTI LABELLE

The singer takes to the stage March 14 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale.

CHRIS BROWN

The singer’s Party Tour stops at the Miami’s AmericanAirlines Arena on April 12, Tampa’s Amalie Arena on April 16 and Jacksonville’s Veterans Memorial Arena on April 18.

Book offers fullest account yet of Emmett Till story DR. GLENN C. ALTSCHULER SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

Like many Black folks in Chicago, Mamie Carthan Till did not want to lose touch with her ancestral home in Mississippi, even though it remained a land of ghosts and terror.

And so in the summer of 1955, she sent her 14-yearold son to visit his greatuncle, Moses Wright. Mamie warned Emmett to speak to White people only when spoken to, to agree with them should a dispute arise, and to avoid contact with White women. The boy assured her he would.

On Aug. 24, 1955, Emmett may have bragged to Mrs. Carolyn Bryant, the pretty young wife of the owner of a grocery store, about dating White girls, paid for gum by placing money in Bryant’s hands (thus violating a Mississippi taboo), and whistled at her as he said “goodbye.”

Within hours, Emmett was kidnapped, tortured and murdered; his body, with a wire hung around his neck, was thrown into the Tallahatchie River.

Names, faces, personalities Mamie’s decision to display her son’s body in an open casket – and the trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam – made the murder a

Emmett Till was kidnapped, tortured and murdered in Mississippi in the summer of 1955.

BOOK REVIEW Review of The Blood of Emmett Till. By Timothy B. Tyson. Simon & Schuster. 291 pp. $27. cause célèbre of the civil rights movement.

“In The Blood of Emmett Till,’’ Timothy Tyson, a senior research scholar at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, and the author of “Blood Done Sign My Name’’ and “Radio Free Dixie: Robert Williams and the Roots of Black Power,’’ gives us the fullest account yet of a harrowing and horrific story of bigotry and brutality.

Former Haitian president Rene Preval dies at 74 FROM WIRE REPORTS

Former Haitian President Rene Preval died on March 3 at age 74.

Preval was president of Haiti from 1996 to 2001 and again from 2006 to 2011. He died at his home in Laboule, a neighborhood in Port-au-Prince.

The cause of death had not been confirmed by the Florida Courier’s press deadline although local media stated that he died of a heart attack.

Preval devoted his years out of the presidency to turning bamboo into furRene niture to create jobs, and Preval to boost national production of agricultural products. A savvy politician, he continued to be sought out by foreign diplomats in recent years as Haiti reeled from one political crisis to another.

He studied agronomy in Belgium and was former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s first prime minister after his 1990 election.

Forced into exile Ten months after the election, Preval was forced into exile — first seeking refuge at the French Embassy and then the Mexican Embassy, both in Port-au-Prince, be-

Tyson’s portraits of Carolyn Bryant (based in part on the only interview she has ever given), Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam give names, faces, and personalities to diehard segregationists.

And Tyson sets their behavior in the context of “Citizens’ Councils,’’ which in the wake of the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, spoke “for nearly all vested authority in Mississippi,” launched a campaign of intimidation that forced thousands of Blacks to remove their names from voter registration lists, and lamented that Bryant and Milam had not slit open Till’s stomach “so that his body would not have risen in the river.”

Seeking justice Most important, Tyson documents the courage of Mississippi Blacks in the 1950s, when the national news media (and, of course, the local press) “soft-pedaled” hate crimes.

In court, Moses Wright identified the men who kidnapped Emmett Till.

Although he slept in a cemetery and other locations and carried a rifle, Wright later said: “I wasn’t exactly brave and I wasn’t scared. I just wanted to see justice done.”

Eighteen-year-old Willie Reed risked his life by testifying that he heard the

fore eventually ending up in Washington — along with Aristide and other members of the administration.

Preval eventually broke ties with Aristide. But as a strict adherent to the Haitian Constitution, he believed that a Haitian could not be exiled from his own country.

As a result, he agreed to allow Aristide’s passport to be renewed. The move cleared the way for Aristide’s 2011 return to Haiti after seven years in exile in South Africa.

Preval is the only president in Haitian history to have served two full presidential terms and not be jailed, exiled or killed.

“May his soul rest in peace and peace to our beloved Haiti,” Aristide said in a written statement sent to the Herald.

Sought solutions Bernard Fils-Aime, a businessman and close friend of Preval who often dined with him in Haiti and in Miami, said in the end, he remained true to himself.

“His legacy is a leadership style that put people together into finding solutions. It was never about him,” Fils-Aime said. “It was about getting in touch with all sectors, from the little guy to the most powerful, to find appropriate solutions for the country.

“That is what he was about— quiet, consensus-builder but misunderstood,” FilsAime said. “Misunderstood, because people feared his kind of power.”

Preval is survived by his wife, Elisabeth Delatour Preval. two daughters, two sons and two grandchildren.

A Miami Herald story was used in compiling this report.

sounds of a beating, cries for mercy, and put Milam and Bryant at the scene of the crime. Fully aware that the defendants would be acquitted, Tyson reminds us, Black witnesses understood they would have to leave the state to escape retribution.

Race still an issue The mass media and massive protests, Tyson indicates, helped make Till’s murder the most notorious racial crime in history – and contributed mightily to the extraordinary achievements of the civil rights movement. That said, however, Tyson asks “whether America’s predicament is

Pompano Beach: Billy Ocean is scheduled March 17 at the Pompano Beach Amphitheater for an 8 p.m. show.

Cocoa: Flo Rida and DJ Nasty make a stop at the Cocoa Expo Sports Center on March 18.

really so different now.”

The Charleston, South Carolina church shooting in 2014, and visual evidence of pervasive police brutality, he suggests, proves that legacies of the racial caste system “still end the lives of young African Americans for no reason other than the color of their American skin.”

‘Moral vision’ needed Insisting that “America is still killing Emmett Till,” though often “by means less direct than bludgeons and bullets,” Tyson concludes with a stirring, serious and sobering challenge

Miami Gardens: Generational Cure will present its second Black Tie Event honoring area youth at 7 p.m. March 25 at the Betty T. Ferguson Center.

Tickets are $25. More information: Call 305-879-2369.

Pembroke Pines: Kool and the Gang will perform March 10 at the Pembroke Pines City Center.

Tampa: Catch Charlie Wilson’s “In It to Win it Tour’ with Fantasia and Solero on March 23 at the USF Sun Dome.

Jacksonville: Audra McDonald performs March 12 at the Times-Union Center Performing Arts Center.

Tampa: The Festival of Laughs featuring Mike Epps, Sommore, Bruce Bruce and Arnez J will be at the USF Sun Dome on March 11.

Orlando: The Autism Society of Greater Orlando will host its 12th annual 12th Annual Autism Space Walk and Family Fun Night on March 18 at the Orlando Science Center from 6 to 9 p.m. Register at www.asgo.org.

to all of us, as “imperfect people who have inherited a deeply tragic history.”

Americans must “develop a moral vision and political will to crush white supremacy – both the political program and the concealed assumptions,” he writes, establish social movements to confront head-on the racial chasm that divides us, and, at the same time, “find what Dr. King called ‘the strength to love.’”

Dr. Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University.

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

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

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

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

Facebook ccherry2 excellencewithoutexcuse

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

Twitter @ccherry2

STOJ

MARCH 10 – MARCH 16, 2017

WORLD

B3

Trump’s policy on Africa still a mystery No clues yet about policy but theories abound diplomatic recognition, funding TRICE EDNEY WIRE/ GLOBAL INFORMATION NETWORK

If U.S. President Donald Trump has an Africa policy in the works, he’s keeping the details close to his chest. So far, there is neither an assistant secretary of state for Africa nor an ambassador.

The incumbent secretary, Linda Thomas Greenfield, retires on March 10.

Peter Pham, vice president and Africa director of the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C., Is reportedly seeking a position.

In a strategy paper prepared for the Trump administration, Pham proposed an initiative he calls “earned engagement.”

Who gets recognition?

The U.S., he says, should grant diplomatic recognition only to governments with legitimate sovereign control over their countries.

Somalia, for example, would not be among those countries having had 15 transitional governments following the collapse of the Siad Barre regime in 1991.

None of these were recognized

by Republican or Democratic administrations.

Recognition might also be withdrawn from the Democratic Republic of Congo if President Joseph Kabila fails to honor his commitment to retire this year after elections.

Funding cuts More resources would be channeled into Africom, according to Pham, not only to address

D.A. PETERSON/U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

President Barack Obama speaks in 2015 in Washington at the Young African Leaders Initiative. insecurity directly, but also to continue to beef up African militaries.

Other clues as to the president’s Africa plans appeared last month in a New York Times article, which revealed a retreat from development and humanitarian goals while pushing business opportunities across the continent.

New executive orders are reportedly being prepared with drastic funding cuts to U.N. peacekeeping operations – now almost a third of which are funded by the U.S. – the Internation-

al Criminal Court and the United Nations Population Fund, which oversees maternal and reproductive health programs.

Surprises in store?

Anton du Plessis, head of the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies, fears that Trump will “securitize” U.S. policy, funding and engagement in Africa, focusing heavily on security problems such as Boko Haram, while ignoring efforts to create stability in the long-term through democ-

racy, good governance and sustainable development.

Among such efforts would be one of former President Barack Obama’s most successful programs – the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), which brings several hundred young African professionals and entrepreneurs to the U.S. for six weeks each summer.

“It is possible that Trump’s term in office will surprise us on Africa,” observed former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson. “Re-

publican administrations have outperformed on this front before. President Bush certainly did, and his two landmark initiatives – PEPFAR and the Millennium Challenge Corporation – remain extremely popular.”

But given the absence of any serious White House interest in Africa, Secretary Rex Tillerson, with limited knowledge of Africa having dealt mainly with corrupt and authoritarian leaders as head of ExxonMobil, may become the key American player on Africa.

Reductions in aid

and bus drivers began playing it.

In January, it went viral on WhatsApp and social media after Joseph, the radio journalist, published a radio piece examining the phenomenon.

“I was surprised at how many women were willing to admit to being a Madan Papa,” said Joseph who was bombarded with sugar babies willing to share their stories after putting out a call on his Facebook page.

He said some of the fault lies in the breakdown of the family.

Before Haiti’s recent presidential elections deepened an already existing economic crisis, the World Bank announced that the number of Haitians living in extreme poverty, or on less than $1 a day, had dropped significantly since 2012.

But with 70 percent of the population either poor or vulnerable to falling into poverty, the international financial institution warned that reductions in foreign aid and increased political instability could reverse the gains.

How song evolved

JACQUELINE CHARLES/MIAMI HERALD/TNS

From left, Jean Jameson Tintin, 24, and Jean-Philippe Macon, 23, the writer and singer of the popular Haiti hit song “Madan Papa.’’ Macon, also known as Marinad 007, wrote the song to shed light on the sugar babies phenomenon in Haiti.

Haiti song about ‘sugar babies’ and ‘papas’ becomes social commentary

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES MIAMI HERALD/TNS

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The catchy song with the frenetic beat airs the dirty secret that everyone knows but no one talks about: “The brother is shacking up with mademoiselle but mademoiselle leaves him and takes an old man.”

Born in Haiti’s most notorious slum, the wildly popular hit song “Madan Papa” — loose translation from Creole, sugar baby or daddy’s girl — has set off an uncomfortable debate about a sad reality. This nation’s brutal economic environment is leading young women to enter into sexual relationships with older men in exchange for financial favors as a means of survival.

“The only desire of these young women is to find a man to rescue them out of the situation they are living,” said Jean-Philippe Macon, singer and composer of the song “Madan Papa,” who goes by the stage name Marinad 007. “It’s a case of need. Love doesn’t really exist between the two.”

Cultural norms altered It’s not a new story. The international dating site SeekingAr-

rangement.com, for example, boasts more than 300,000 registered “babies” and “daddies” in search of relationships.

But in Haiti, where strict cultural norms kept such situations hush-hush in the past, the open declaration in a song played by DJs and climbing the charts on radio marks a new level of desperation, said Michel Joseph, a journalist with Radio Television Caraibes, who has been tracking the phenomenon.

In a country marked by extreme poverty and inequality, “Madan Papa,” with its driving electronic dance beat, has become a social commentary, a musical reflection on the misery, sexual exploitation and erosion of values caused by years of economic and political instability.

“The economic crisis has eroded the dignity of people, put them in a bad position,” said Herold Toussaint, a sociologist and a vice rector at the State University of Haiti.

An ‘exit door’ The sugar babies phenomenon, he added, is more urban than rural, and “is an expression, a consequence of the brutal situation of the country’s econo-

my that has hit everyone and every social class,” but affected the poor and women the most.

“There are no jobs, no work in the country,” said Toussaint. “So it has become a defense against poverty for the women. … What’s worse is that the women believe they won’t be anything if they don’t subscribe to this logic; they cannot get out of their economic situation if they don’t take this exit door.”

Paying everything Neesha, who didn’t want her last name used, was 19 when she met her “Papa,” a 55-year-old widower who holds a position of privilege as a government official. Three years later, she says proudly, the two are still going strong.

“I don’t like to suffer. He doesn’t allow me to ask for anything; he gives me everything,” said the second-year accounting major, who doesn’t know how much her college tuition costs, because “Papa pays for it.”

“He’s already assured me that when I finish school, he will give me a job because he’s in power,” she added. “Unlike a brother who won’t give you anything, a Papa never lets you ask twice.”

Macon, who takes credit for coining the phrase Madan Papa during an exchange last year with a young woman who had entered into a sexual-financial relationship with an old man, said his neighborhood is the epicenter of Haiti’s misery.

In densely populated Cite Soleil, the country’s largest slum, the trash-heaped canals and shacks with corroding tin roofs offer little hope of future prospects.

But it was there, in a makeshift studio with little more than a mic and an outdated laptop, that he and his crew of other aspiring musicians mixed the beats that have made “Madan Papa” so popular thanks to its dance-friendly, defiant raboday beats. Raboday is a popular dance music emerging out of Haiti’s slums.

“While people are finding pleasure in the music, we also want them to hear the message,” said Macon, 23, who has been invited to perform the song at Miami’s Compas Festival in May.

Some backlash His definition of a sugar baby is a young woman in her 20s often living a double life with “a brother” — a young, often unemployed boyfriend — and a “Papa,” a financially stable man old enough to be her father or grandfather, on the side.

Despite the song’s popularity, there has been backlash. Some of the women who see themselves reflected in the lyrics say it unfairly casts them as “gold diggers,” while others in Haiti have dismissed it as “a ghetto problem.”

Jean Jameson Tintin, one of Macon’s collaborators, says the song is about finding a solution for a broader societal problem that, if not addressed, risks becoming something widely accepted.

Gone viral After being in heavy rotation in the slums for months, the song finally burst into the mainstream late last year after motorcycle taxi

‘No choice’ Toussaint, the sociologist said it’s not that Haitian parents don’t care or have lost their values.

Rather, he said, the country’s savaged economy has weakened and demoralized families, and undermined parental authority.

“Parents are obliged to close their eyes, not because they agree but because they have no choice,” Toussaint said, noting that many of the sugar babies end up as the main breadwinner of the family.

‘Prostitution of misery’ Danielle Magloire, a human rights activist and feminist, said the sugar babies phenomenon speaks to a larger crisis in Haiti, which is the sexual exploitation and sex trafficking of women and girls.

“You go to Petionville (in Portau-Prince) and you see a bunch of young girls who are prostituting themselves. The misery has made things so grave that when you go downtown, for instance, and inquire about the price someone is paying for the sexual exchange, it’s mind-boggling.”

The price, she said, is often less than a dollar.

“When someone has sexual relations with someone for those kinds of prices, it certainly can’t resolve their economic problems,” Magloire said.

“On the contrary, it just allows you to get something to eat, something to hold you over. And because there is no social protection in this country, it makes the situation worse. I call it a prostitution of misery.”

The Madan Papa relationships, she said, are just another form of prostitution.

Neesha doesn’t disagree that being a Madan Papa is a form of exploitation. She disagrees, however, that it’s a form of prostitution.

“They don’t support youth in this country so you are left with no choice but to seek out a Papa,” Neesha said.

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HISTORY

MARCH 10 – MARCH 16, 2017

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Robert Lawrence: A forgotten NASA pioneer of four astronauts, but NAAs the 50th SA and America have reanniversary of membered the three astronauts in the Apollo 1 the first Black disaster as heroes, with astronaut’s death special commemorations while Lawrence remains a approaches, a forgotten pioneer whose NASA official says memory has been lost. there won’t be a Fading legacy remembrance Lawrence’s contribuceremony. tions to NASA reinvigoBY ERICK JOHNSON CHICAGO CRUSADER/NNPA

Two historic events that changed America occurred 50 years ago. While many will remember the 50th anniversary of the failed Apollo 1 space flight, an equally historic event that affected Black America remains largely forgotten.

The 50th anniversary of the tragic death of America’s first Black astronaut, Major Robert Henry Lawrence, will perhaps go unnoticed in 2017. Lawrence was a determined individual whose career into space never got off the ground.

Like the three White astronauts who perished during a fire on the Apollo 1 flight, Lawrence’s dreams of orbiting the earth also ended in tragedy.

Ambitious and fearless, he aspired to venture to the moon at a time when people of color were not wanted in parks, restaurants, and neighborhoods here on earth.

Died in jet crash Lawrence’s launching pad was his hometown of Chicago, where he blasted through high school and graduated at just 16 years old. Poor and Black, Lawrence faced tremendous odds against breaking into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) White stratosphere. But when he did, he became America’s first Black astronaut.

Black pride turned to sorrow after Lawrence was killed in a jet crash at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The accident happened just 11 months after an electrical fire aboard a rocket in flight killed three Apollo I astronauts on Jan. 27, 1967.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the deaths

rated Black America, but there won’t be any ceremonies and special events to mark the 50th anniversary of his untimely death.

Once a celebrated pilot who flew over 2,500 miles, Lawrence today is rarely honored on the same level as other NASA astronauts who have gone on the ultimate mission.

Schools and scholarship funds named after Lawrence have vanished, and with Lawrence’s most avid crusaders of his legacy gone (his wife, mother and other relatives), the legacy of a man who inspired many Blacks to dream big has faded over five decades.

Before the release of the movie, “Hidden Figures,” many Blacks were unaware of the historic contributions of Black NASA mathematicians Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan. Though it was Johnson’s use of analytic geometry that helped bring John Glenn back to Earth, she was among the few Black heroes who toiled, unsung, behind the scenes at NASA, where only 3 percent of 19,000 employees were Black in 1961.

He sat in the rear seat as trainee Major Harvey Royer landed the jet too fast, causing it to crash on the runway. The landing gear collapsed, the canopy shattered and the plane bounced and skidded on the runway for 2,000 feet.

Royer was ejected but escaped, albeit with serious injuries.

Lawrence was still strapped to his ejector seat, however, his parachute failed to open. He was dragged 75 feet from the wreck. Just 32 years old, Lawrence was dead and so, too it appeared, were Black America’s dreams of a Black astronaut in space. Even so, the fact that he was training a White pilot was an extraordinary contribution during an era when segregation and racism at NASA was still prevalent.

Almost left out

Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. was the first AfricanAmerican selected as an astronaut by the United States Air Force.

Lack of recruiting Morehouse, Tuskegee University (then Tuskegee Institute) and other historically Black schools were cranking out physicists, scientists and mathematicians every year, but many did not apply to NASA. Some Black leaders accused NASA of not working hard enough to recruit minorities.

From its inception, astronauts were considered the face of NASA. All of them were White and male. Though working for NASA behind the scenes was difficult for Blacks, becoming an astronaut was considered a seemingly impossible mission for

people of color.

After Black voters propelled John F. Kennedy into the White House in 1961, his administration aimed to increase minorities at NASA, as well as to place a man on the moon. Kennedy wanted to make history by selecting the first Black astronaut.

Dwight not chosen In 1963, NASA officials chose Ed Dwight to train at the Aerospace Research Pilot School to go into space.

NASA eventually did not

select Dwight for its space mission. While the agency said his academic qualifications weren’t good enough, many Blacks believed the failure of his candidacy was based on racism. The Black Press, including the influential Ebony and Jet magazines, wrote aggressively about Dwight’s experience.

Dwight left the Air Force and became a sculptor. He created the statue of former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, which stands outside the eponymous cultural center in the Windy City.

With Dwight gone, Lawrence’s NASA candidacy renewed the hopes of Black America; he was brilliant and had impressive credentials. As Dwight’s hopes of flying into space crashed, Lawrence’s career was gaining altitude.

Tragic end at 32 Lawrence never made it to the stars. On Dec. 8, 1967, he died while training another NASA astronaut to land a F-104 Starfighter Jet. The exercise was part of a six-month training program.

While Lawrence’s death stunned America, the loss deeply affected Black America, which was still trying to push past the disappointment of NASA not selecting Dwight as an astronaut.

Sadly, Lawrence’s grieving widow, son, and parents would suffer emotionally in the years to come.

In 1991 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, the Astronaut Memorial Foundation (AMF) dedicated a memorial in honor of astronauts who gave their lives for the space program. NASA didn’t consider Lawrence an astronaut, saying he had never flown 50 miles.

After a public campaign led by Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush, Lawrence’s name was added to the memorial in 1997, 30 years after his death. His widow, son, mother and sister attended the dedication.

No observance Although his name is engraved high above on the Space Mirror Memorial, NASA doesn’t hold anniversary remembrances of Lawrence the way it does for other deceased astronauts.

As the 50th anniversary of Lawrence’s death approaches, a NASA official told the Chicago Crusader that unlike ceremonies

held in Washington and at Cape Canaveral for the three Apollo 1 astronauts, there won’t be a 50th anniversary remembrance ceremony honoring Lawrence.

Fifty years after his death, NASA still maintains that Lawrence was never an astronaut. On its website, the agency mentions the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 1 astronauts, but mentions nothing about the 50th anniversary of Lawrence’s death. Asked why NASA would add Lawrence to its astronaut memorial yet not commemorate his other historic milestone, the NASA official referred the Crusader to another department, which did not respond to the reporter before press time.

Scholarship discontinued A scholarship fund set up in Lawrence’s name at Bradley University after he died was discontinued years ago. And the Robert H. Lawrence Elementary School on the South Side closed in 2013 due to declining enrollment and low academic performance.

Englewood High School, Lawrence’s alma mater closed in 2008 for similar reasons.

Some 16 years after Lawrence’s death, Guion “Guy” Bluford became the first Black astronaut to fly into space. Chicago’s Mae Jemison became the first Black woman astronaut in 1987.

In 1996, Chicago’s Joan Higginbotham became the third Black woman astronaut.

Since Lawrence’s death in 1967, 13 Black astronauts have traveled into orbit, including Charles Bolden, who became the first Black administrator to head NASA under President Obama’s administration.

While Bolden, Jemison and Higginbotham enjoy new careers since their historic flights to space, for Chicagoans and nationally, Lawrence remains a hidden figure.

The Chicago Crusader is a member publication of the National Newspaper Publishers Association.

Families reconcile 160 years after Dred Scott court decision

BY JONATHAN M. PITTS BALTIMORE SUN/TNS

BALTIMORE – Kate Taney Billingsley grew up struggling with her family history.

Her ancestor Roger B. Taney was the U.S. Supreme Court chief justice who wrote the Dred Scott decision, issued March 6, 1857, that ruled Congress could not regulate slavery and that Blacks could not be considered U.S. citizens.

She grew up hearing relatives debate a thorny question: Should the family apologize to Scott’s descendants for the decision?

“What do you do with that kind of generational guilt?” she asked.

Apology accepted Billingsley, a New York actress and playwright, addressed her angst by writing a play on the matter, and came to Annapolis on Monday — the 160th anniversary of the ruling — to enjoy one of its fruits as her father, Charles Taney of Greenwich, Conn., apologized to Scott’s great-greatgranddaughter at the foot of a statue of Roger Taney that has stood on the Maryland State House grounds since 1872.

Scott’s descendant, Lynne Jackson of St. Louis, accepted the apology, thanked the Taney family for their “courage and grace” in offering it, and gave her forgiveness as cameras clicked and an audience of several dozen applauded on a sunny, wind-

KENNETH K. LAM/BALTIMORE SUN/TNS

Charles Taney III, center, a descendant of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney, offers an apology to Lynne Jackson, right, great-great granddaughter of Dred Scott. On left, is Charles Taney’s daughter Kate Taney-Billingsley. swept day.

“I thank you, and God bless you, and thank all of you for being here,” Jackson told the Taney descendants.

A starting point Charles Taney, a greatgreat-great-nephew of the chief justice, said meeting Jackson, working with her over the past year, and studying the Dred Scott case and its aftermath has convinced him an apology for such a far-reaching injustice is only a starting point.

“I’ll steal a line from my daughter’s play,” he said, referring to Billingsley’s drama “A Man of His Time,” which premiered at The Actors Studio in New York last year.

“Apologizing to the Scotts for the Dred Scott decision is like bringing a Band-Aid to an amputation. It’s right and necessary to apologize, but what’s important now is what actions we can all take” to bring about racial reconciliation in America.

Public art issue Their position comes as several Maryland communities consider what to do with public art commemorating historic figures from the Confederate side of the Civil War. Two of those debates are taking place in Frederick and Baltimore, towns in which Taney lived and which also boast statues of the Maryland-born jurist.

A commission set up by former Baltimore Mayor

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to consider several of the city’s Confederate monuments voted last January to remove a statue of Taney that has stood in the North Garden at Mount Vernon Place since 1887.

Rawlings-Blake appointed the six-member commission as part of a wave of opposition to Confederate symbols in the aftermath of a mass shooting of black worshippers at a Charleston, S.C., church in June 2015.

The panel’s vote was not legally binding, and Rawlings-Blake has said the expense of removing the monument precluded immediate action by the city.

Support for statues House Speaker Michael

E. Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller sounded less than enthusiastic about the Taney and Scott families’ plans.

Both have called for statues of abolitionist leaders Harriet Tubman and Douglass to be placed inside the Old House Chamber, a part of the original State House that dates to the 1770s.

Gov. Larry Hogan supports that proposal.

In response to a question about a Dred Scott statue, Miller said: “He’s not from Maryland.”

Miller said there’s money in the state budget for the Douglass and Tubman statues inside the State House, and he supports that plan.

The state Department of Legislative Services has estimated it would cost $77,000 to remove the Annapolis Taney sculpture and another $5,000 per year to store it.

‘Talk-back’ session Monday’s ceremony was not the first in which Scott and Taney descendants got together to begin what they call the work of reconciliation.

Charles Taney and Jackson first met last May, not long after Billingsley competed her play, a 15-minute scenario in which a fictional descendant of Taney meets a fictional descendant of Scott at a coffee shop on the New Jersey Turnpike.

The Actors Studio, where she is a member, invited her father, a former advertising executive, and Jack-

son, the founding president of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation in St. Louis, to participate in a “talk-back” session with the audience after the performance.

The two became friends and began working together, with Taney — now a consultant for nonprofit organizations — offering his time pro bono to help Jackson’s group develop a strategic mission.

One of their projects is to raise funds for their proposed Dred Scott statue.

First formal apology Charles Taney said at Monday’s ceremony that any reconciliation is threepart: an apology for injuries, forgiveness from the victims, and the creation of a new foundation of trust.

He was unsparing in describing the injuries caused by his ancestor, noting that even though some have argued that Roger Taney might be forgiven as “a man of his time,” he also went far beyond what he saw as his constitutional mandate to consider Scott’s action as the Founding Fathers might.

Taney reminded listeners that the judge also called Blacks “an inferior race,” writing that the only rights they should enjoy are those that Whites confer on them.

Jackson accepted the apology moments later. It was the first public formal apology and statement of forgiveness between the families.

STOJ

MARCH 10 – MARCH 16, 2017

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

Meet some of

B5

Think you’re one of Florida’s Finest?

E-mail your high-resolution (200 dpi) digital photo in casual wear or bathing suit taken in front of a plain background with few distractions, to news@flcourier. com with a short biography of yourself and your contact information. (No nude/ glamour/ fashion photography, please!) In order to be considered, you must be at least 18 years of age. Acceptance of the photographs submitted is in the sole and absolute discretion of Florida Courier editors. We reserve the right to retain your photograph even if it is not published. If you are selected, you will be contacted by e-mail and further instructions will be given.

FLORIDA’S

finest

Jordan Peele of “Key & Peele’’ is the writer, director and producer of “Get Out,” the new horror movie, which is crushing it at the box office. The film netted $33.4 million on its debut weekend, surpassing expectations. The movie, about a young Black man who visits his White girlfriend’s family, blends race-savvy satire with horror.

Elise Neal is Kathryn Munson in the new superhero film “Logan,’’ which raked in $83 million in its box-office debut this month. Neal has three NAACP Image Awards nominations: Best Actress in a Comedy for “The Hughleys’’ twice and a Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for “Hustle and Flow.’’ She is shown above at last year’s Soul Train Awards.

Film students weigh in on industry’s diversity clusivity.

Although she’s held internships at companies like STARZ, she believes her path to the writers room will be a difficult one. “For any one of us to create a show and run that show in a way we find meaningful, that level of experience takes 15 to 20 years,” she said.

But Chopra saw opportunity in the “American dream” and the chance to create work in the world’s biggest platform. His passion lies in telling niche stories about subjects on the fringes of society.

BY MAKEDA EASTER LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

LOS ANGELES — “Moonlight,” a film about the journey of a gay Black man, won Oscars for best picture, adapted screenplay and supporting actor.

“Fences,” the story of a Black family in 1950s Pittsburgh, won for supporting actress.

“Hidden Figures,” based on the true story of Black female mathematicians who helped launch NASA’s space program, and “Lion,” about a young Indian man’s search for his family, were both nominated for best picture and other awards.

The Academy Awards on Feb. 26 clearly showed progress in the recognition of diverse stories and a dramatic improvement from the #OscarsSoWhite debacle of the year before.

Optimism and skepticism But what about Hollywood’s future? Did the night signify a trend toward greater representation on screen or was it just a blip on the radar?

To help answer that question, The Times spoke with seven undergraduate and graduate film and television students at Westchester’s Loyola Marymount University. The group included Indian, Mexican American and Black filmmakers and female screenwriters from across the country — all students with projects informed by today’s social climate.

They looked at Hollywood with a mixture of optimism and skepticism. They see more opportunities ahead for people of diverse backgrounds but believe there’s a long way to go before film and television reflects the kind of multicultural world they live in.

“We just want Hollywood to hear us. We want to tell so many things that we are facing in our day-to-day lives; we want to express that through our work,” said 24-year-old graduate filmmaking student Varun Chopra.

Realistic about future The students are realistic about the obstacles ahead for women and people of color in an industry that has historically been dominated by White men.

On Trump

ALLEN J. SCHABEN/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Loyola Marymount film students Octavia Bray, left, Quran Squire, center, and Varun Chopra discuss the future of the film industry at Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film and Television in Los Angeles, Calif.

“People often say just pull yourself up by the bootstraps, but you’ve got to have boots first,” MFA student Quran Squire said.

“Often that’s the biggest difference: resource, resources for people of color, resources in any sort of way to lower economic status or Black communities.”

Eden Rousso is an undergraduate screenwriting student with dreams of working in a writers room.

Although she enjoyed this year’s ceremony, including Oscars for Black actors Viola Davis and Mahershala Ali (also the first Muslim actor to win an Oscar), she was struck by the lack of Oscar-nominated female directors and the need for more diversity behind the camera.

“There was a lot more Black representation, which is awesome, but there are so many more ethnicities than White and Black,” said Rousso, 20. “I feel like that’s what Hollywood is trying to do — ‘Let’s get some Black people in there, then we’re not racist anymore.’”

Saving face Likewise, Chopra believed that

the academy’s lauded diversity stemmed from an attempt to save face after #OscarsSoWhite backlash. “We’ll have to see if it’s not just this year’s best picture nominations, but if opportunities for diverse people also follow through in the coming years,” he noted. “I hope it does.”

Looking beyond the Oscars and paying attention to the types of stories that get greenlighted was much more important to MFA screenwriting student Octavia Bray.

“The amount of opportunities available for people who are not straight, White males are slim,” said Bray, 25. “I think beyond just recognizing that there are other stories out there, people who are in positions of power need to say ‘I guess I’ll go out and make these things.’”

Not diverse enough The students spoke about the high demand for greater representation on screen; the acclaim for “Hidden Figures” and its success at the box office was particularly encouraging. But they bemoaned the lack of Latino, Asian

and Muslim stories.

“I’d like to steer a little away from Oscars,” said Ashley Marie Ryan, 25. “Even though we’re not seeing diversity in film, in television it’s changing slowly.”

Ryan, an MFA student in TV writing, has an interest in creating roles that feature older characters and various types of sexuality not often seen in mainstream media.

“But I’m not satisfied with the pace with which things are changing,” Bray, also pursuing television writing, countered. “It angers me that we’re expected to be satisfied with one or two things.”

Next Spike Lee? Interested in combining science fiction with an urban backdrop, Squire, 23, had an unforgettable experience while filming in Inglewood last year. One child at a park approached Squire to ask if he was a filmmaker like Spike Lee. “We don’t have any other representation of that. I gotta be the next Spike Lee for this kid?”

Squire asked, rhetorically. “We have to change that dynamic.”

Ryan noted that one of Hollywood’s biggest barriers is its ex-

The recent election of Donald Trump both inspired and deflated the students. Chopra had faith that innovative work would come from the political ferment after President Trump’s victory.

However, after the election undergraduate film student Antonio De Loera-Brust began to question the role of storytelling and whether making films would really drive the change he wanted to see in society.

With a passion for immigration issues, De Loera-Brust in his recent short film, “Campito Kids,” tells the story of a migrant worker’s children and their struggle to assimilate into an American school.

The 21-year-old wondered if he should switch gears to pursue politics.

“My priority for the next four years for me is to fight deportations and beyond that win elections,” De Loera-Brust said. “A lot of the solution isn’t just make a good movie. I don’t know if we have to rise up as artists; we have to rise up as people.”

The future Others were more upbeat about the future and excited about creating work and telling stories free of the limitations and tropes that have plagued Hollywood — stories free of racial, gender and sexual orientation constraints.

The Oscars-not-so-White was a good start but just a start, the students believe.

“I think our generation is going to be better,” said MFA writing student Patrick Pittis, 28. “But I think our generation is going to have to challenge ourselves not to fall into the same traps.”

FOOD

B6

FROM FAMILY FEATURES

Delicious and nutritious, it’s no wonder potatoes are a menu staple for many. Everyone craves meal variety, and potatoes offer a perfect canvas to inspire new flavor exploration so you can enjoy something different every day. From russets, reds, yellows, whites and purples to petites, fingerlings and more, there are mulSTEAK AND POTATO TACOS WITH POBLANO CHILES Yield: 12 Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 25 minutes 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided 1 large onion, sliced 2 poblano chiles, stemmed, seeded and sliced 12 ounces white potatoes, quartered lengthwise then cut crosswise into 1/4-inch thick slices 1 flank steak (12 ounces) garlic powder chili powder salt pepper 12 corn tortillas (6 inches each)

MARCH 10 – MARCH 16, 2017

S

FIESTA POTATO SMASHERS Yield: 8 Prep time: 5 minutes Cook time: 30 minutes 5 small yellow potatoes 5 small red potatoes or potato of your choice 1 pint sweet mini peppers (red, orange and yellow) cooking spray 4 tablespoons fat-free sour cream or fat-free Greek yogurt (optional) 8 sprigs cilantro, picked from stems salt, to taste chili powder, to taste freshly ground pepper, to taste Place whole potatoes into microwave-safe, covered dish.

Microwave on high 3-4 minutes.

While potatoes are cooking, cut mini peppers into 1/4-inch slices.

Spray nonstick pan with cooking spray and heat to medium. Add peppers and saute until they start to brown. Remove from pan and set aside.

Remove potatoes from microwave and with layer of paper towels covering each potato, smash on cut­ting board until 1 3/4-inch thick.

Spray saute pan with cooking spray, heat on high and add smashed potatoes. Cook 1-2 minutes until potatoes start to brown.

On plate, place potatoes and layer with sour cream or yogurt, if desired, peppers and cilantro. Dust with salt, chili powder and pepper, to taste. Serve warm.

tiple varieties to keep dishes interesting.

You might be used to preparing this kitchen staple mashed, baked or fried, but these inventive recipes show how easy it is to incorporate flavors and techniques to create new potato dishes for any meal of the day in 30 minutes or less.

Find more meal ideas featuring a variety of potato preparations at PotatoGoodness.com/explore. chopped fresh cilantro pico de gallo salsa hot sauce In heavy, large nonstick skillet, heat 1/2 table­spoon oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and chiles and saute until tender, about 10 minutes.

Transfer onion mixture to bowl. In same skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat. Add potatoes and saute until golden brown and tender, about 12 minutes. Return onion mixture to skillet with potatoes and keep warm.

Sprinkle both sides of steak generously with garlic powder, chili powder, salt and pepper. In heavy, large skillet, heat remaining oil over mediumhigh heat. Add steak and cook until browned on both sides, turning once, about 8 minutes total for medium-rare.

Transfer steak to cutting board; let rest 5 minutes.

While steak rests, heat tortillas on griddle or over gas flame until warm, turning frequently with tongs.

Thinly slice steak. Top tortillas with steak and potato mixture; sprinkle with cilantro.

Serve with pico de gallo and/or hot sauce.

POTATO PROSCIUTTO WAFFLES Yield: 6 Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 5 minutes 1/4 pound thinly sliced prosciutto 3 medium russet potatoes (or 3 cups mashed potatoes) 1 teaspoon salt, plus additional for salting water 1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted 2 large eggs, beaten 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese 1 tablespoon fresh thyme 3/4 cup all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon black pepper Heat oven to 400 F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and evenly lay prosciutto on paper. Bake 10-15 minutes until prosciutto is crispy. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Peel and cube potatoes. Place in pot of salted water and bring to boil over high heat. Once boiling, reduce heat to rapid simmer and cook until potatoes are fork tender, about 10 minutes.

Strain potatoes from water and transfer

to large bowl. Mash potatoes with fork or potato masher.

Add milk, butter, eggs, cheese and thyme to potatoes. Stir to combine.

In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper. Add to potato mixture and stir until just combined. Crumble prosciutto and fold it into batter.

Heat waffle iron. If required, grease with cooking spray.

Spoon about 1 cup batter onto waffle iron and cook according to iron’s instruc­tions until waffles are golden, about 4 minutes. Keep waffles warm in 200 F oven until all waffles are cooked and ready to serve.

Serve with touch of butter, sour cream or poached or fried egg.

THERE’S STRENGTH IN GIVING

62 million

$

Publix would like to thank our associates and Publix Super Markets Charities for

strengthening our communities through their generous support of United Way.