Florida Courier - September 01, 2017

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SEPTEMBER 1 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

VOLUME 25 NO. 35

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IS CLIMATE CHANGE TO BLAME? Catastrophic storms, once rare, are almost routine. Why? COMPILED FROM WIRE AND STAFF REPORTS

HOUSTON – While climate change did not cause Hurricane Harvey, it could explain the intensity of this cyclone as well as other catastrophic storms that have hit the United States in recent years, experts say.

Harvey is the latest in little more than a decade of “500-year” and “100-year” floods that once were considered rare.

The storm, a Catego-

ry 4 hurricane when it initially made landfall last week, has dumped trillions of gallons of water onto southeastern Texas, submerged houses and freeways, driven Houston-area residents from their homes and resulted in more than 20 deaths thus far.

Black publishers impacted Searches for family, loved ones and associates and co-workers continued throughout the week.

Many depended on media to get the word out about missing loved ones.

The National Newspaper Publishers Association blasted an alert to their ed-

itors and publishers showing one of their leading publishers, former NNPA Foundation Chairwoman Sonny Messiah-Jiles of the Houston Defender, being rescued by boat along with her family.

Houston Forward Times Publisher Karen Carter Richards, responded to an email from the Trice Edney News Wire saying she was thankful for “God’s Amazing Grace!!!”

She added, “My family and I are good. No water in our homes, we’re safe and dry. My office got a little water but nothing major to even talk about. Keep praying!”

See BLAME, Page A2

MARCUS YAM/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Residential neighborhoods near Interstate 10 in Houston sat in floodwater in the wake of Hurricane Harvey on Tuesday.

NASA / CASSINI SPACECRAFT

Blaze of glory Dr. Dwyron Keevin Gillard I

Resuscitation efforts fail

School songs composer dies

BY ILIANA LIMON ROMERO AND CHRIS HAYS ORLANDO SENTINEL / TNS

DELAND – Stetson football player Nick Blakely was remembered as a warm, generous person with an infectious smile following his sudden death Monday night in DeLand.

The university announced the 19-year-old sophomore, whose full name was Nicholas Adam Blakely, was on the sidelines shortly after practice began Monday evening when he complained of not feeling well.

Stetson athletics director Jeff Altier said athletic trainers pulled Blakely out of a light workout when the football player said he did not feel well and complained of feeling lightheaded.

SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

FORT LAUDERDALE – Dr. Dwyron Keevin Gillard I, a band director and Bethune-Cookman University (B-CU) graduate who is widely credited with composing the university’s signature fight song, “Let’s Go Wildcats,” died unexpectedly on Aug. 26 at the age of 49.

Imitated uncles Born Nov. 7, 1967 in Miami, Gillard began his lifelong musical journey by watching and imitating his uncles as a child. They shared their love of music with him, and he learned to play several musical instruments.

After graduating from American Senior High School in Miami-Dade County, Gillard matriculated to Bethune-Cookman in Daytona Beach on a music scholarship. He was a member of the Marching Wildcats and while there composed “Let’s Go Wildcats.”

Passed out The trainers watched Blakely for “30 to 40 minutes” when he started to show signs of recovery. Altier said Blakely then passed out.

The athletic trainers performed CPR and used an AED until an ambulance arrived six minutes later.

Blakely, an accounting major from Lawrenceville, Ga., was transported by ambulance to Florida Hospital DeLand and later died.

‘Heroic’ effort “The effort to save Nick was nothing less than heroic,” Hatters football coach Roger Hughes said while fighting back tears during a news conference Tuesday.

Hughes noted the players already had almost 36 hours off before the workout and the practice conditions were among the best of the preseason, with limited heat and light contact. He repeatedly praised the effort of athletic trainers, reiterating they followed the proper protocol and there were no indications Blakely was in danger.

Blakely’s parents, his football teammates, other members of the athletics staff and faculty who taught his courses were informed of his death Monday night.

See GILLARD, Page A2

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

DeVos back in Florida NATION | A6

Friends react

Transgender ban lawsuit CULTURE | B3

NASA/JPL/SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE/TNS

Q&A with Black Lives Matter founder Was ‘Cat in the Hat’ racist?

ALSO INSIDE

Stetson player succumbs

Saturn’s rings cast a dramatic shadow in this picture combining six images from the Cassini spacecraft’s wide-angle camera. After 13 years of observing Saturn, Cassini will hurl itself into the planet’s atmosphere at speeds of more than 75,000 mph, and eventually melt and vaporize on Sept. 15.

“He could just light up a room,” Stetson quarterback Gaven Defilippo said. “ … He’s a competitive guy.

He was going to give you your best shot every play. He was a great teammate, a great person and he will be missed every day.”

See PLAYER, Page A2

COMMENTARY: GLEN FORD: BLACKS SHOULD NOT BECOME UNCLE SAM’S CLEANUP CREW | A4 COMMENTARY: CLARENCE V. MCKEE: BLACK JOURNALISTS’ AMBUSH OF OMAROSA REVEALS BIAS | A5

FOCUS

A2

SEPTEMBER 1 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

Stay away from campaign con artists If you or someone you know is considering running for public office in the 2018 elections, you might want to read this column and perhaps save it for future reference.

You can tell It is very easy to tell the smart 2018 candidates from the not-sosmart candidates.

The smart candidates are setting up their campaign operations right now, at this very moment. They have identified or hired political professionals with expert training and a track record of campaign success. They are raising campaign money and they are putting together and mapping out a plan for Election Day victory.

The not-so-smart candidates are merely talking about running for office. They are seeking ad-

LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT

vice from their girlfriends, their home boys, their classmates, their coworkers and distant family members and relatives.

They don’t have a clue about campaign law and regulations.

They don’t know anything about the district, county or city they plan to run in. They have no strategy concerning fundraising.

They are content to wait until the very last moment to announce their intention to enter the political arena.

Signatures not enough The candidates that don’t have

the necessary funds to pay filing fees will listen to campaign clowns that tell them all they have to do is collect enough valid signatures from registered voters to avoid paying filing fees to get on the ballot.

Well, there is nothing wrong with having an organized signature collection effort that is designed to achieve collection goals; that has a specified message to encourage registered voters to sign cards in support of your candidacy; that has a plan to identify and train collectors, a way to transport collectors to designated collection sites, and a way to get food and water to collectors if they get hungry or thirsty while spending days and evenings trying to help you.

Now, the smart candidate has professionals that know how to do needed campaign research.

The professionals can find out

where the frequent voters are, who contributed to whom in previous elections, where media money was spent and in what amounts, when campaign reports are due to be filed, etc.

The not-so-smart candidates will know zero about how to conduct a winning political campaign effort.

Most of their campaign advice will come from political con men, political charlatans and political beggars!

‘Hire me!’

At every church they visit, at every reception they attend, at every group they speak to, at every barber or beauty shop and on every corner in every neighborhood, more than a few people will run up to them and say, “Hire me. I can help you!”

All they know is someone puts

PLAYER

Social media posts Grief counselors were available to help the players cope with the loss of Blakely, who had a close connection with many of

BLAME from A1

Francis Page, publisher of the Houston Style magazine had not yet been contacted as of the Florida Courier’s press time Wednesday night.

Still going The storm made a second landfall on the Gulf Coast on Wednesday, cutting a devastating path across southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana – even as the sun began to emerge in Houston and some residents returned to their waterlogged homes.

A string of coastal Texas cities was engulfed in water as Harvey came ashore again at 5 a.m.

Wednesday just west of Cameron, La. The Texas National Guard had made more than 8,500 rescues and 26,000 evacuations, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday. He announced he was seeking an additional 10,000 National Guard members from other states to help the 14,000 Texas Guard members who were activated.

Damage to environment The long-term fallout from Hurricane Harvey is still uncertain. But the Gulf Coast has already taken an environmental punch.

More than one million pounds of air pollution was released in that region as petrochemical plants were forced to shut down by the hurricane and flooding that followed, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

A small percentage of the pollution was attributed to damaged or malfunctioning equipment caused by the storm.

The data were based on regulatory filings with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The pollutants include volatile organic compounds, sulfur dioxide and carcinogens like benzene.

‘Unseen danger’ “Air pollution is one of the unseen dangers of the storm,” said Dr. Elena Craft, the EDF’s senior health scientist, putting children and seniors to greater risk of asthma, heart attacks, strokes

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.

Blakely, a defensive back, redshirted last season and never ultimately got a chance to play in a college football game. He joined his teammates getting ready for the season opener at Sacred Heart University Saturday in Connecticut. The Hatters aren’t scheduled to play their home opener in DeLand until Sept. 16.

from A1

Soon after Blakely died, word spread to the athlete’s friends in DeLand and Georgia.

“He was a good guy. He was funny. He was always happy,” said Keely Jackson, who formed a close bond with Blakely when they were in high school. “He was the life of the party. He never met a stranger. Everyone loved him.”

Archer head coach Andy Dyer, who coached Blakely in high school, wrote in a text message to the Orlando Sentinel, “Our hearts are broken with the loss of Nicholas. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, his Archer family and his Stetson football family. Nich has had a huge impact on many people and we are going to miss his great spirit and his million dollar smile.”

flyers on windshields and someone puts up signs –and they will beg to get paid to do that.

They know nothing about television, radio, billboards, Internet marketing, targeting, polling, printing, direct mailing, “robocalls,” or anything else that most campaign money is spent on.

Smart candidates win. Other candidates lose.

Even some dumb politicians are smart campaigners. Donald Trump is already gearing up for re-election and he doesn’t have to run until 2020!

If you want to run for office in 2018, get with someone that has experience in winning. Stay away from the campaign con men and women!

Track, football

COURTESY OF FOX5

Nineteen-year-old Nicholas Blakely never got a chance to play in a college football game. his teammates.

Stetson kicker Jonny Messina, an Orlando Olympia High alum, posted on Twitter, “God bless you, Nick Blakely. You were such a great guy to be around, making

everyone around you better. This year’s for you brother. (Hashtag) RIP37” Hatters sophomore defensive lineman Shane Parton posted, “Everyone is so important. Tell

everyone close to you that you love them. Love you nick, all for you. (Hashtag)RIP37” Counselors met with players and others on campus who knew Blakely at noon Tuesday.

and other health problems.

EDF officials also said state regulators shut down Houstonarea air quality monitors to avoid storm or flood damage, making it more difficult to independently measure air pollution.

A Houston Press story quoted residents living near the Houston Ship Channel as experiencing an “industrial-like stench.” One woman described it as smelling like “burnt rubber with a hint of something metallic thrown in.”

whose size allowed it to stay plugged into its power source in the Gulf.

“That’s a big factor with Harvey … it’s big enough that it still had spiral arm bands that were reaching out into the Gulf and bringing a lot of moisture into the storm,” Trenberth said, which “enabled it to keep going where most storms would have petered out.”

It means that, for any given year, in stable climate conditions, a storm of this magnitude has a 1-in-100 (or 500, or 1,000) chance of taking place. So yes, you can, theoretically, have multiple 1-in100-year hurricanes in a row — it’s just a very unlikely event.

“As long as the climate isn’t changing, you can define these things reasonably well,” Trenberth said. “With climate change … what used to be a 500-year event is becoming a 70-year event or a 50-year event. It doesn’t mean that they’re common, but they’re no longer anything like as rare.”

Big storms bigger Climate change won’t mean more storms overall – but it probably will mean that that biggest storms become even bigger, scientists say.

For example, rising ocean temperatures could be making storms like Harvey bigger than they would be otherwise, said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University. That’s because as the ocean’s surface temperature rises, the atmosphere’s ability to hold moisture goes up.

According to the Clausius-Clapeyron Equation, every 0.5 degrees Celsius of warming means an extra 3 percent or so of moisture in the air. And Harvey grew over an ocean that was 1 to 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than just a few decades ago, which means there’s around 5 percent more moisture in the atmosphere.

More moisture means a higher chance of heavier rainfall and bigger flooding – both of which, in Harvey’s case, have been wreaking major havoc in the greater Houston area.

Effects amplified “There is a good chance it would have happened anyway,” Mann wrote of Harvey in an email. However, he added, “the impacts were likely greatly amplified by climate change.”

In this altered environment, with heavier rains, storms behave differently, said Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

“The storm itself grows a little bit more intense, it gets a little bit bigger and it helps it to last longer,” Trenberth said.

Hurricanes usually start to wane soon after they make landfall, because they’re cut off from the supply of moisture from the ocean. Not so with Harvey,

Arctic impact?

Harvey flooded Houston partly because it stalled over southeastern Texas for days, rather than moving northward, scientists said. While there are some hypotheses that this slowing may be caused by climate change in the Arctic, Anand Gnanadesikan, a climate scientist at Johns Hopkins University, said the two were unlikely to be linked.

Exam ining the dynamics shaping Hurricane Harvey may help researchers get a better handle on climate change, scientists said.

“We’ll see a number of scientific studies analyzing this event,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, a climate scientist at Stanford University.

“The rapid development of the tropical cyclone that occurred, the strength of the landfall, the stalling over the coast that produced the very high rainfall totals … these are all going to be questions that we’re going to see scientists try to answer.”

Another idea that may require a revisit? Calculating the risk of such storms in the future.

What does it mean?

Harvey already has been called a 500-year flood, and by the time the storm has dissipated, it may well reach 1,000-year status.

But the last decade or two have brought a slew of these supposedly rare storms, including two 500-year floods in the Houston area in 2015 and 2016.

So what exactly does a 500-year storm mean?

“This concept actually comes from hydrology, and it relates a lot more to precipitation than it does to hurricanes or to the storms themselves,” Trenberth said.

It’s a concept typically used in assessing risk for flood insurance. It does not mean that a given storm can happen only once per century or twice per millennium, he added.

A critical consideration As human populations continue to grow in coastal areas, some cities may not be built to handle

GILLARD from A1

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education from Bethune Cookman in 1991, and a doctorate degree in education from Nova Southeastern University earlier this year.

For years, various versions of “Let’s Go Wildcats” have been played by high school bands around the state, especially where graduates of Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCUs) serve as band directors.

Longtime band director Gillard began his teaching career with Volusia County Schools in 1993, serving as the director of bands and chorus at Campbell Middle School. During his 12 years of service at Campbell Middle, his students consistently earned “Superior” ratings in both band and chorus in music competitions.

He also composed Campbell Middle’s fight song, “Campbell Spartans Are Number One,” as well as the school songs for Bonner and Turie T. Small Elementary Schools and Atlantic High

Blakely was a three-year letter winner at Archer High in Lawrenceville, about 45 minutes northeast of Atlanta.

The multi-sport athlete played running back and safety on the football team and competed on the 4x400-relay team. He helped Archer High post a 33-7 football record during three seasons.

His cousin, Kenny Monday, was a three-time All-American wrestler at Oklahoma State who won a pair of Olympic medals in 1996 and 1992.

Blakely chose Stetson over Georgia State.

He is survived by his father, Milton Blakely; mother, Michelle Wilson; brothers Ryan Brown and Jared Blakely; and sisters Shayla and Paige Blakely.

such extreme “500-year” events, which may happen more often in the future, experts say.

“That’s what the changing climate has done,” Trenberth added. “It means the extremes are greater – and if we don’t adapt to these, if we don’t take them into account, if we don’t build more resilience, we will suffer the consequences.”

Information compiled by Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Amina Khan, Jenny Jarvie, Matt Pearce, and Ann M. Simmons of the Los Angeles Times; Jeff Mosier of The Dallas Morning News (TNS); and the Trice Edney News Wire was used to prepare this report.

School, all in Volusia County.

In 2005, he left Campbell Middle and continued his musical journey as the director of bands at Mainland High School in Daytona Beach.

While there, he challenged his students to achieve scholastically and musically. Under his tutelage, his music students also earned “Superior” ratings in solo and ensemble groups at the district and state levels.

Survivors include his wife, Frances, his children Dwyronyelle, Keevin II and Delayna; his mother, Sandra Hill Scott, and father Louis Gillard; his sister Shawn Kim and brother Gary; and a host of family and friends.

Homegoing on Saturday A wake will be held at Hope Fellowship Church, Daytona Beach, on Sept. 1 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Funeral services will be held at Allen Chapel African Methodist Church, Daytona Beach, on Sept. 2 at 1 p.m.

In lieu of flowers and gifts, the family requests that donations be made in his name through the CashApp for iPhone or Android under the moniker $FGillard.

Click on flcourier.com to see B-CU’s Marching Wildcats perform “Let’s Go Wildcats.”

SEPTEMBER 1 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

FLORIDA

A3

Florida crews provide hurricane help in Texas State sends officers, boats and equipment to aid in rescue efforts

BY JIM TURNER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – As rain continued to pour Monday on Southeast Texas from the remains of Hurricane Harvey, crews from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission started helping move people to dry ground.

“The focus is basically getting people out of the flooded homes and flooded areas in the Beaumont area, all the way over to Houston, Texas, and bringing them to dry ground,” Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Col. Curtis Brown said.

Quick reaction The state agency quickly deployed 25 officers to set up command bases in Beaumont for search and rescue operations after Gov. Rick Scott late Saturday, Aug. 26, announced the state’s response to Texas’ request for emergency assistance.

“Floridians know first-hand how damaging a storm can be for families and communities and how important it is to have the support of nearby states during these challenging times,” Scott said in a prepared statement.

More going The initial 25 officers and equipment, which included eight shallow draft vessels and four patrol boats, had been staged on Friday, Aug. 25, in Pensacola in anticipation of the need for assistance from the slow-moving but powerful hurricane, Brown said.

The number of Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers in Texas will top 100.

ROBERT GAUTHIER/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

According to Gov. Rick Scott’s office on Wednesday, nearly 270 Florida volunteers have deployed to Texas and Louisiana. Volunteer Florida is coordinating the activities of 10 disaster relief organizations.

The agency’s contingent was expected to reach 52 officers by the end of Monday, with 63 more arriving on Tuesday.

“Florida’s unique, we’ve been through a lot of hurricanes and our experience here is tested,” Brown said.

Nearly 60 boats Brown said the agency hasn’t set a timeline on how long its of-

ficers, picked from throughout the state, will remain in Texas.

But he noted they are keeping an eye on systems that could impact Florida.

“Florida is a priority, but our brothers and sisters in Texas need us,” Brown said.

The state’s equipment is expected to include nearly 60 boats.

“Everything that we’re using is basically shallow draft boats or air boats or high-water ve-

hicles, duck boats, that type of equipment,” Brown said. “Unfortunately, the terrain over there right now, it’s flooded, it’s highground flooded, so they’re trying to navigate that issue to get to those flooded areas.”

More crews The state officers are not the only assistance Texans are receiving from Florida.

Scott asked to free up $20 mil for opioid fight

the Senate, casting the first tie-breaking vote ever on a Cabinet nominee.

Her selection was backed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a longtime friend who is a leading advocate of vouchers.

The American Federation of Teachers opposed the nomination, calling DeVos “the most ideological anti-public education nominee.”

THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

Saying the “opioid crisis presents an existential threat,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Latvala on Monday asked Gov. Rick Scott to use executive authority to provide $20 million for opioid-related services. Latvala, in a four-page letter, requested that Scott extend an executive order about the opioid crisis and use state reserve funds for the services.

Of the total, $9 million would go to residential treatment; $5 million would go to detoxification services; $3 million would go to outpatient treatment and recovery support; $2.4 million would go to prevention efforts; and $600,000 would go to specialized services, Latvala, R-Clearwater, said in the letter.

Lower state budget Her trip came as the administration has offered a proposed education budget 13 percent lower than in the current year, a $9.2 billion reduction, while setting aside $1 billion that could be spread to states and school districts that establish schoolchoice programs.

Echoing Trump, DeVos said parents should have more opportunities to select their children’s schools while shrinking the role of the federal government.

“We should be focused on what students need as individuals, not on systems, not on buildings, not continue to focus sort of on the infrastructure,” DeVos said.

“Let’s focus on what individual students need and require to be able to learn and become everything that they can be.”

Executive order Latvala, who is running for governor next year, also said he will work on opioid-related funding issues during the 2018 legislative session, which starts in January.

Scott issued an executive order May 3 declaring a state of emergency because of the opioid epidemic and extended the order June 29 for an additional 60 days.

“The opioid crisis presents an existential threat to the people of our state as entire generations are quickly being lost or unable to meaningfully contribute as productive members of our society and economy,” Latvala said in the letter.

Bill would eliminate Lee, Davis holidays THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

After filing a bill on Aug. 27 to eliminate Confederate Memorial Day from a list of legal holidays, a South Florida senator proposed a revised version on Aug. 28 that also would eliminate holidays marking the birthdays of Confederate leaders Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.

Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, withdrew the original version of the bill (SB 214) and filed a new version (SB 224) that included eliminating all three holidays, according to the Senate website.

State law includes a list of 21 legal holidays, including Confederate Memorial Day on April 26., the birthday of Lee on Jan. 19 and the birthday of Davis on June 3.

Book’s bill will be considered during the 2018 legislative session, which starts in January.

The Red Cross and utility companies are sending crews.

Fire-rescue crews out of Orlando, Orange County and Seminole County went to Austin. Also, firerescue crews from Tampa, Hillsborough County and St. Petersburg, are going to Texas.

The City of Miami Fire-Rescue’s swift water response team and Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue’s search and rescue team also were heading to Houston.

Criticism by FEA

OLIVIER DOULERY/ABACA PRESS/TNS

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, shown here earlier this year in Washington, D.C., was in Florida on Tuesday.

DeVos calls Florida education approach a ‘role model

BY JIM TURNER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a supporter of voucher programs and charter schools, visited two Tallahassee schools, one a private religious school, the other a charter, for what she called a “learning” experience on Tuesday.

Democrats called the visit, which didn’t include traditional public schools, a “photo op” and “publicity stunt.”

After a tour of Holy Comforter Episcopal School, DeVos highlighted innovations she saw at the school while defending the educational approach of President Donald Trump.

“I think they’re examples of what a lot of schools should aspire to be and look for, opportunities to become more innovative,” DeVos told reporters.

“I think that we need to recognize the fact that far too many schools have been stuck in a mode that is basically approach-

ing things that have been done very similarly to 100 years ago. And the world today is much different. And we need to be acknowledging that and moving toward ways that really engage students and take their curiosity and really fire it up and stoke the curiosity to continue to learn.”

Greeted by protesters DeVos also toured Florida State University Schools, a charter school affiliated with the university’s College of Education.

She said she didn’t know how the schools were selected, but innovative programs, which include concentrations in science, technology, engineering and math, were probably a factor.

She was greeted by about a dozen protesters outside the private school.

“Seeing that she’s coming to a school that is so specialized for people who are financially able to come to a private school, and not a wider representation of our community at a public school, is definitely not a good representation,” said Colleen Towey, an elementary education major at Florida State University who was among those protesting DeVos’ visit.

DeVos, a wealthy Republican donor from Michigan, has long advocated for alternatives to traditional public schools.

She was narrowly confirmed in the Senate, 51-50, with Vice President Mike Pence, in his role as presiding officer of

Prior to her appearance in Tallahassee, the Florida Education Association (FEA), the state’s largest teachers union, criticized DeVos because of her support for private school vouchers.

“It’s no surprise that Betsy DeVos will be visiting a private school among her stops in Tallahassee,” Florida Education Association President Joanne McCall said in a prepared statement. “She has long shown her opposition to public schools, her support for unfettered vouchers and for-profit charter school chains and her desire to privatize all education in this nation.”

In January, the Florida Supreme Court rejected an appeal challenging the constitutionality of the state’s voucher-like “tax credit scholarship” program.

The decision let stand a lower-court ruling that found the Florida Education Association and others who challenged the program didn’t have legal standing to bring the suit.

State ‘an innovator’ DeVos called Florida’s approach to education a “role model” for the nation.

“I think Florida has continued to be an innovator in approaching education and meeting the needs of students,” DeVos said.

The program allows corporations to claim tax credits for donations to organizations that then cover private-school tuition for mostly low-income students.

The number of students benefiting from the tax-credit scholarships has grown from 24,871 in the 2008-09 school year to an anticipated 101,869 during the 2017-18 school year, according to Step Up for Students, an organization that covers most of the students.

The growth follows repeated moves by the Legislature to expand eligibility and enrollment in the program.

EDITORIAL

A4

SEPTEMBER 1 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

Blacks should not become Uncle Sam’s cleanup crew The landscape of the United States is littered with physical testimony to the nation’s origins as a White settler colonial outpost of land pirates who exterminated and enslaved their way to global capitalist empire. Purging the evidence of historical crimes is a great catharsis, especially for the victims of America’s “Manifest Destiny.”

However, this intrinsically righteous project can be subverted into a kind of ritual national cleansing that leaves the essential nature of the current regime not only intact, but rejuvenated and exuberant – “born again,” this time as the planet’s unassailably “exceptional” nation.

Thank you Blacks and their progressive allies will be thanked for (once again) cleaning up Uncle Sam’s racist, imperial act. Such is precisely the goal of US corporate rulers and military chieftains, who were quick to disassociate themselves from Donald Trump’s defense of the old stone symbols of White power. Global hegemony requires a different symbolic repertoire.

The national Democratic Party – to which almost all the personalities depicted in the besieged statues belonged, and which was the White Man’s Party for most of the nation’s history before switching places with the GOP two generations ago – is most anxious for a symbolic national makeover.

Firmly controlled by Wall Street and Silicon Valley, the party offers nothing of substance to its Black and Brown constituencies; symbolism is its electoral stock in trade.

Fake ‘unity’ National “unity” has always been the watchword of the bipartisan War Party: unity behind the mission of global domination.

The US armed forces led in the process of racial integration, the better to subdue the non-White populations of the world.

Corporate capital takes on whatever ethnic and racial camouflage is necessary to envelop the planet in its tentacles. Stonewall Jackson is no asset to the im-

GLEN FORD BLACK AGENDA REPORT

The national Democratic Party – to which almost all the personalities depicted in the besieged statues belonged, and which was the White Man’s Party for most of the nation’s history before switching places with the GOP two generations ago – is most anxious for a symbolic national makeover. perialist Project for a New American Century. Neither is Robert E. Lee a good fit for corporate governance treaties like NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The Black political misleadership class, having no agenda beyond maintaining its own presence and self-dealing opportunities on the peripheries of power, traffics entirely in symbols. They are eager to enlist in every national “unity” project sponsored by corporate interests, to highlight their purported “strategic” presence within power structures. In their world, Black faces in high places is an end in itself; politics is the manipulation of symbols, which are substitutes for power.

In their appeals to corporate power, Black misleaders invoke national “unity” as a euphemism

Harvey, Katrina’s big brother, has arrived It has been a good span of fair weather in the Gulf Coast of the United States. However, that lull has ended. After 12 years, a major hurricane has landed on the shore lines. Hurricane Harvey has swept through the southeast coast of Texas including metropolitan Houston, then to points east.

Prudently, the governor of Louisiana declared an emergency and it was quickly approved

by President Trump. In contrast to Katrina, local, state, and federal government seem to have their act together.

Billions to be spent When this is over, the rebuilding will begin. Billions of dollars will be involved in the process.

Contractors from all over the nation and perhaps some international firms will be coming in to compete for the myriad of contracts.

Every home with water damage will have to be “gutted” and retrofitted with new wirings, drywall, roofing, plumbing, etc.

Warehouses, department stores, schools, etc. will need the same makeovers. From our lessons from Katrina, we must be organized, vigilant and unrelenting in making sure our businesses will receive their share of opportunity.

HARRY C. ALFORD GUEST COLUMNIST

From our lessons from Katrina, we must be organized, vigilant and unrelenting in making sure our businesses will receive their share of opportunity.

There will be excellent opportunities for apprentice programs to train people who are unemployed to enter the workplace.

Both Texas and Louisiana are right to work states so therefore we don’t have to worry about racist construction unions trying to apply their Project Labor Agreements. They are going to try, but no one in Texas and Louisiana is going to give them the time of day.

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: TEXAS AND FLORIDA

for color-blindness. Rather than cultivate Black communal power, they ask for a place for themselves “at the table” of the rulers – no agenda required.

Why march?

For example, in the fall of 2010, the NAACP led a “One Nation Working Together” rally at the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington. Nearly 200,000 people showed up, but even Wade Henderson, of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, called it “a march without a plan of action.”

Speakers endorsed the Democratic Party’s general campaign positions. Only Harry Belafonte made any mention of the multiplying wars Barack Obama was waging. His remarks were considered bad form in the context of national “unity.”

For the next six years, the NAACP and other established Black civic groups claimed to be grappling with formulating a broad Black political agenda.

They failed to produce even a semblance of an agenda, because that would entail making demands on the Democrats in power, including the Black president.

Instead, these misleaders acted as annexes of the Democratic Party and called for national unity in the face of Republican racism – their default, useless position.

BILL DAY, CAGLE CARTOONS

of national unity – although they will draw the line, as has Trump, at George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other Great White Men that did not wear the Confederate States uniform.

It is, of course, vital, in mass political education terms, to point out the monstrous social crimes and contradictions embodied in the monuments. It is also important to win victories that people can see with their own eyes, as the statues tumble or disappear in the night.

No long-term benefit

In the aftermath of Hillary Clinton’s defeat, Black Democrats quickly joined in the manufactured anti-Russian hysteria. This can be understood both as a visceral willingness to believe anything negative about the loathsome Orange Menace in the White House, and as an appeal for national unity against the racist hordes in Trump’s base, who were somehow allied with the Kremlin.

The result, however, was to place Black politicians, including Barbara Lee and John Conyers, in an alliance with the War Party. Regarding Trump, Lee wondered, “Where do his loyalties lie?”

Almost the entirety of the U.S. ruling class is eager to treat the racist statues battle as a question

But if the historical crime is not linked to demands for the righting of present-day wrongs, there will be no lasting benefit to the people’s struggle. Rather, the movement will have removed a blemish from the face that the U.S. presents to the world, without effectively challenging current structures of oppression.

That’s a win-win for the bipartisan War Party, the Democrats and international capital, and is the perfect kind of symbolic victory treasured by the Black political class, but will produce meager and diminishing returns for Black empowerment.

Frederick Douglass’s dictum applies generally: “Power concedes nothing without a demand – it never has and it never will.”

Protests that focus on the racist personalities and structures of the past must demand remedies for oppressions of the present.

In Baltimore, where the may-

My phone is ringing off the hook already. People wanting to know what the process is. That is to be determined, and from our experiences with Katrina, we are going to do this with precision.

Let’s hope!

broke and diverted the deluge into the Ninth Ward, many believed it was a similar process and mindset. That is still being debated. Fortunately, we will not have that type of decision to make this time.

Remembering Katrina

Advocating for ourselves

It would be helpful to reflect on the Katrina process.

First, the local officials of Louisiana were in disbelief about the magnitude of Katrina. It was doing a beeline straight to New Orleans and the local officials would not sound the alarm.

There was no evacuation order given in time for the city to mobilize.

There were hundreds of school buses that could be used to form an organized evacuation heading north to higher land. Unfortunately, the order was not given and the storm hit the city with full fury. What were they thinking?

History has shown that New Orleans is in a very vulnerable place when it comes to flooding. History shows that political leaders will protect the commerce of the French Quarter of the city at any costs.

Back in the 1930s when there was a great flood flowing down the Mississippi River and heading to New Orleans, the government decided to use dynamite to blow up a levy and redirect the flooding waters through Plaquemines Parish to save the New Orleans French Quarter.

During Katrina, when the levy

During the Katrina cleanup, Black voices and concerns were not heard.

In the beginning, the Army Corps of Engineers started slinging major contracts without a fair bidding process. They were handing them out to some of the largest companies in the world like they were dealing them out at a card table.

When Congresswoman Barbara Lee, representing the Congressional Black Caucus, demanded to see a minority participation report, the Corps sent a report that showed plenty of minority participation. I studied this and concluded it was a sham. They grabbed some Alaska Native corporations to front on some of the major contracts.

All they were doing was fronting for the major construction companies who were passing out the subcontracting to their ‘friends.’

We protested loudly.

Soon, President George W. Bush received two sincere letters from Congressman Al Wynn and from Congressman Ed Towns.

They both pleaded for the president to work with the National Black Chamber of Commerce to ensure adequate diversity in the rebuilding.

Russian foolishness

Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher

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or pre-empted protesters by dismantling and hiding racist monuments in the dead of night, activists have erected a tent city to demand housing and jobs, and a $2 billion equity fund to finance ongoing reforms.

No food or shelter “Taking down those monuments is good, that was right, but meanwhile it doesn’t help anybody get food and shelter,” said Rashid Abdul-Aziz, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The group Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle tweeted, “Take down racist statutes along with racist statues.”

In Philadelphia, the statue in question honors a more recently deceased White villain. Frank Rizzo, the former police commissioner and mayor who died in 1991, was a Northern version of Birmingham’s Bull Connor.

Rizzo’s statue was recently spray painted with the words “Black Power,” allegedly by Diop Olugbala, of the Black Is Back Coalition.

A coalition has come together to demand not only the removal of Rizzo’s statue, but that the city council consider legislation for Black community control of the police – which would be a fitting reverse-memorial for the despicable Rizzo.

Glen Ford is executive editor of BlackAgendaReport.com. Email him at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

During that time, President Bush would have bi-monthly meetings with business associations, large and small. The NBCC got invited to one and I was given a “say” as to the status of my constituency. I was very frank and yet mannerly.

The president, who was waiting for this, said, “Harry, tell your contractors to go back to those same doors that would not open and try again. If they don’t open, this time get back with Karl Rove immediately. Wait three weeks and then do it.”

A different tune We started sending out our contractors and, low and behold, the world changed. We started getting contracts like crazy. FEMA would keep an updated report for Black participation and send it to me weekly. I could verify the numbers with the actual Black contractors. It was real!

HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson let out $1.5 billion in contracts within a year. In all, Black contractors received over $3.2 billion in three years. This was the NBCC’s finest hour!

I am confident that we are going to have similar success this time. My board of directors is planning a new program. Stay tuned!

Harry C. Alford is the cofounder and president/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce. Contact him via www.nationalbcc.org.

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SEPTEMBER 1 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

EDITORIAL

Black journalists’ ambush of Omarosa reveals liberal bias It’s no secret that Black conservatives are not well received by the mainstream White media establishment, and that most Black CLARENCE V. journalists working in that comMCKEE, ESQ. munity reflect the liberal progressive ideology of their bosses.

GUEST COMMENTARY They have something else in common: they are as obsessed with “hate Trump” mania as they House Office of Public Engagewere with the “worship Obama” ment and Intergovernmental Affairs, should be given kudos just mania of the past eight years. for showing up after getting a last-minute invitation. She was Here’s an example not even listed on the original The disgraceful and disre- program! spectable treatment of the highTwo of the planned panel est-ranking Black woman in the members from major publicaTrump administration, Oma- tions – including the intended rosa Manigault-Newman, at the moderator – refused to attend recent convention of National when they learned of her particiAssociation of Black Journalists pation.

(NABJ) in New Orleans is a case Manigault-Newman was in point. put on a panel on police and The NABJ is the largest organi- the Black community and had zation of minority journalists in planned to discuss her personthe nation. It performs a valuable al family tragedy of the murservice at its annual convention der of her father and brother in which features prominent speak- Youngstown, Ohio. ers; conducts workshops and caShe was preceded by family reer fairs; provides networking members of two Black men killed opportunities; and honors out- by police. The audience was then standing Black journalists. treated to a clip of Trump’s reUnfortunately, like White lib- cent comment to a group of poeral mainstream media organi- lice implying he favored rough zations, apparently much of the treatment of criminal suspects.

NABJ membership has little tolSubstitute moderator Ed Gorerance for diversity of politi- don of Bounce TV did his uncal opinion, although some may professional best to belittle Manbelieve that they have no other igault-Newman and attack her choice working in liberal media for any and all perceived sins companies where to voice con- of the Trump administration. servative views could be detri- How’s that for an ambush? mental to their careers!

have lost children or loved ones to gun violence. This apparently did not impress Gordon or the partisan crowd.

To add insult to disrespectful injury, in addition to a continual chorus of snickers and laughter, several in the audience – including Black women – stood with their backs turned to the stage as the highest-ranking Black woman in the government attempted to speak! So much for all the rhetoric we hear about respecting Black women. I guess it depends on their politics.

Notwithstanding the aggressive and often bullish macho behavior of the moderator and hostility of the group, ManigaultNewman held her ground, telling them that she is often the “only African-American representative in the White House” and tries to be an advocate on behalf of Black people.

Neither Gordon nor the audience cared. I guess they’d rather have no one at the White House table looking like them! Rightfully fed up with the disrespectful treatment, she left the stage, ending a very disappointing and unprofessional moment in the annals of the NABJ.

Joe Arpaio is no aberration

He used intimidation and charged anyone who opposed him with crimes and even faked an assassination attempt which sent an innocent man to jail for four years.

Female prisoners were shackled while giving birth, but he didn’t bother to investigate hundreds of sexual assault cases. The judgments against him cost Maricopa County, Arizona millions of dollars.

Convention not covered

A5

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: TRUMP PARDONS JOE ARPAIO

DAVE GRANLUND, POLITICALCARTOONS.COM

the treatment of Manigault-Newman, the NABJ won’t have an opportunity to reject such an invitation. So much for the interests of the people Black journalists say they are supposed to represent!

A major purpose of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) equal employment opportunity rules in the 1970s, which I assisted in drafting with then-Commissioner Benjamin L. Hooks (who later became national president of the NAACP), was that the employment of Blacks and minorities would bring sensitivity to the problems and needs of minority communities. That was always a rebuttable presumption.

and to the public – that all Blacks think alike. If Black journalists mimic the same liberal views on politics and other issues as their White liberal counterparts, some would ask other than cosmetics, what difference does their presence make?

Black journalists should take note that Hispanic and Asian journalists are fast becoming the “new Black” – and they are more politically diverse.

I would be willing to wager that a group of Asian or Hispanic journalists would not have been so disrespectful to one of their own in such a position.

the state of Texas alone, 6,900 prisoners died in custody over a tenyear period.

Trump and Arpaio are inviting targets. They don’t mince words, beat around bushes or put a happy face on wrongdoing. They are forthright in advocating their racism while the prison-industrial complex grinds on, destroying lives and sometimes ending them.

Mass incarceration is diminished by attention paid to the Trumps and Arpaios in this country. Because of the endless desire to cover up the country’s crimes, the focus falls on the most blatant evils, while the system goes on committing an unknown number of human rights abuses in jails and prisons across the country.

The system is built to incarcerate for the sake of incarcerating, and people of color are the primary victims. Their victimizers may not look for publicity like Arpaio did, but their actions as nameless bureaucrats are equally deadly.

Trumps and the Arpaios of the world. Doing so allows the other killers to act with impunity. That is why the incarceration system must be torn out root and branch.

Prison abolition should be the watchwords, and mealy-mouthed talk of reform must be dismissed.

The United States would still have more than 2 million incarcerated persons if Joe Arpaio didn’t exist or if Donald Trump weren’t president. It should not be forgotten that a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, did more to expand mass incarceration than any other. But his successors did nothing to end it either.

The worst criminals are outside of the prison walls. Some of them are well-known like Trump and Arpaio, but most are faceless as they carry out horrific abuses.

The focus of our attention must be on ending the system that allows them all to flourish.

Although the mainstream media, for which most of the over 1,000 journalists work, devoted scant if any coverage to the convention, this incident received All the same? widespread attention.

Not impressed Lack of diversity of opinion The Congressional Black CauWasn’t listed She said that her personal trag- cus (CBC) recently rejected an in- and viewpoint among Black jourManigault-Newman, director edy has allowed her to under- vitation to a White House meet- nalists gives the false impression of communications for the White stand the pain of families who ing with the president. Based on – especially to their White bosses

Even most leftish White Americans like to think that their country is good and its institutions are fair and equitable. According to this wishful thinking, human rights abuses only happen in faraway places and injustices here are resolved by reining in a few bad apples.

The facts say otherwise and prove that the United States is consistently one of the worst human rights violators in the world.

The cruelty of its prison system extends far beyond headlines of a few well known villains like David Clarke and Joe Arpaio.

Big story Donald Trump’s pardon of former Arizona sheriff Arpaio is quite rightly a big news story, and is easily denounced as an obvious violation of the spirit of the presidential pardon process.

It was a sham used to circumvent an established process. Arpaio had not even been sentenced for his misdemeanor contempt of

MARGARET KIMBERLEY BLACK AGENDA REPORT

court conviction.

Full pardons are rare in any case, with examples such as Chel- Only one difference sea Manning’s being far more But Arpaio differs from the rest common. She received a commuof law enforcement only in the tation and only after serving seven openness of his methods. He was years of her sentence. a “media whore,” and relished the attention given to him by Fox Merited scorn News and other right-wing outArpaio is surely deserving of lets. He became a fixture among scorn heaped upon him. He re- the people who elected Trump, ferred to his jails as “concentra- and openly bragged about his untion camps.” He held prisoners touchability. outdoors in tents, a violation of The United States is full of Arnational and international law. paios. There are horrific stories Arpaio was convicted of con- of deaths in prisons all over the Margaret Kimberley’s coltempt of court because he con- country. Prisoners have died of umn appears weekly in BlackAgendaReport.com. Contact her tinued to detain undocumented thirst, or from treatable illnesses Eliminate the system people without charge in violation when denied medication. ThouIt is a grave mistake to re- at Margaret.Kimberley@Blacksands of cases go unreported. In serve outrage and protest for the AgendaReport.com. of a judge’s order.

Dick Gregory said, ‘Stay woke’ Who in America hasn’t heard of Dick Gregory?

I’d known him personally for years before he transitioned a few days ago. We met in 1986 when Congressman Mervyn Dymally invited him to my home state of Louisiana while I was a candidate for Congress. Dick spoke at a fundraising event for me and didn’t ask for a dime – not even his airline ticket. That was impressive because other celebrities required all kinds of perks.

After the campaign, I moved to Washington, D.C., and out of the clear blue, he called. He was stranded in Baltimore and needed to get back to D.C. I picked him up and after an animated conversation, we became friends. Fortunately, that never changed.

Running buddy He soon became known as my best friend and running buddy. We attended many events together, and we’d run on every track we could find. We’d run through Rock Creek Park and we tested new health equipment.

My home is filled with all kinds of exercise and health gadgets. He introduced me to just about every vitamin ever made.

He and I shared a passion for reading. He introduced me to his huge required

Clarence V. McKee is a government, political and media relations consultant and president of McKee Communications, Inc., as well as a Newsmax.com contributor. This article originally appeared on Newsmax.com.

DR. E. FAYE WILLIAMS, ESQ. TRICE EDNEY WIRE

newspaper and magazine reading. He also bought two of every book he thought worthy of reading. Because I had every book he had, he benefited by being able to call me during his frequent travels to resource certain information. This proved challenging, because his calls often came from other time zones or countries and required me to wake up and search for the information he needed.

My first time My first arrest was in good company – Dick, George Clooney, Martin King III, Ben Jealous and others. As a lawyer, my frequent role was not to go to jail, but to bail him out of jail. As a result, my arrest record for picketing is not nearly as long as his.

Fast forward to 2011 and the British Petroleum oil spill. Unlike big corporations, many underserved people were not getting paid for their losses. Dick and I immediately joined the cause. A group led by Dr. Ar-

thur Rocker met at my home and we brainstormed solutions. We made several trips to stricken areas to advise people of their rights and remedies.

We picketed BP. We traveled to their corporate headquarters in London, England seeking relief. We returned to America, then met with and picketed more BP offices. To date, BP has not yet paid poor and marginalized people.

Follow his example Let us honor Dick Gregory’s memory and all he’s done by practicing the things he taught us. He wanted us to “stay woke” and not believe everything we see. He wanted us to rid ourselves of anger, fear, hatred and jealousy. Love is much more powerful than hate.

I had my last words with him that Saturday night after Lil and his family had said their goodbyes. I promised to carry on his service to our people and finish projects we’d started together. That’s how I will honor my friend Richard Claxton Gregory, from whom I learned so much.

Dr. E. Faye Williams is national chair of the National Congress of Black Women, Inc. Contact her via www. nationalcongressbw.org.

Harvey is an unusual storm When Hurricane Harvey stalled over Texas, some Texans began to scapegoat other Texans by playing the blame game. Why not blame nature? More importantly, why not blame climate change deniers who misuse nature (global warming) for monetary gain?

By the way, nature can be altered by human exploitation, because nature is not an unlimited resource. Therefore, human beings can endanger themselves as well as future generations.

Be optimistic Texans must envision and embrace the “rainbow.” It is midnight now, but the morning shall come, because it is God’s promise to those who love and serve Him, as well as, love and serve others in His name. “For his anger endureth but a moment: in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5).

Lest we forget, “And we know that all things work together for good to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

(Romans 8: 28).

Abundant rain There are some Texans

BOBBY E. MILL GUEST COMMENTARY

who are playing a superficial public blame game.

All Texans knew that we would have rain, and rain more abundantly, at the formation of Harvey in the Gulf of Mexico. But no one expected this level of abundant Noah’s Arkstyle rain.

The message of the rainbow is to ensure that all of God’s children know, “Not by water, but the FIRE (nuclear weaponry) next time,” especially when nuclear weapons are under the control of sociopaths. However, Texans are resilient and shall recover from the worst water storm in the nation’s history.

Brother’s keeper The mayor of the city of Houston and city’s Emergency Management professionals has done a yeoman’s job in managing a devastating natural crisis. Still, there were some who declared that “there is no room in the inn” in our excellent facilities.

But God says, “We are our brother’s keeper.”

“For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” (1 Corinthians 14:33).

Hence, by the grace and mercy of Almighty God, every church should be a place whereby any soul can receive sheltering services. Most Texans know full well that, “What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”

(Romans 8: 31).

No human being can manage that which is unmanageable.

However, human beings can spiritually strive to live in God’s will that they might receive God’s grace and mercy. Therefore Houston, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace in time of need.” (Hebrews 4: 16).

Texas is in a time of need physically, materially, and spiritually.

Bobby Mills has a Ph.D. in sociology from Syracuse University and a professional degree in theology from Colgate Rochester Divinity School.

NATION

TOJ A6

SEPTEMBER 1 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

Transgender service members

1,320 6,630 to

estimated transgender men and women now serving in active duty

out of

1.3

OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/TNS

million

Transition-related treatment costs to the military

Defense Secretary James Mattis speaks at a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, May 29, in Arlington, Va. Last month, President Trump announced on Twitter that transgender troops are not allowed to serve in the military in “any capacity.”

$2.4m ACLU sues White House $8.4m over transgender ban to

or

0.038 0.134 to

The lawsuit % includes soldiers who have served for more than 10 years. %

of the military health care budget

Total annual military health care budget

$6.28 billion

Source: Rand Corporation Graphic:Staff, Tribune News Service

BY ERIK LARSON BLOOMBERG NEWS/TNS

President Donald Trump has been sued again over his plan to ban transgender Americans from serving in the military, setting the stage for another bruising court battle over a directive from the White House.

The lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, filed Monday in federal court in Maryland, alleges

Trump’s order violates the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution.

An Aug. 25 White House memo gave Defense Secretary James Mattis six months to return to the previous policy barring transgender soldiers and immediately barred transgender-related expenses.

Controversial moves Trump has inflamed U.S. cultural wars since his election victory, pushing back on his predecessor’s liberal polices and pleasing his conservative base.

His executive orders have targeted immigration, while his Justice Department started a review of af-

firmative action in colleges and joined a suit to halt the spread of gay rights in the workplace.

The president’s policy proposals also have hinted at fights over abortion and doctor-assisted suicide.

The ACLU also helped stall Trump’s proposed ban against travelers from several Muslim countries, a narrowed version of which took effect in June pending a U.S. Supreme Court hearing in October.

Thousands serving The Department of Defense concluded in 2016 that there was no basis for the military to exclude transgender men and

women from serving openly, subject to the same fitness requirements as other Americans, the ACLU said.

New transgender recruits were due to be permitted to enlist on July 1, it said.

Thousands of transgender Americans now serve in the armed forces, putting themselves in harm’s way to protect the rights and freedoms in the U.S., the ACLU said in the complaint.

“Some perform critical roles in intelligence analysis, disaster relief, medical care, and pre-deployment training at bases in the United States,” the organization said. “Others have deployed to combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The plaintiffs The plaintiffs in the suit include Petty Officer Brock Stone, 34, who has served in the U.S. Navy for 11 years, including a ninemonth deployment to Afghanistan, and Staff Sergeant Kate Cole, 27, who has served in the U.S. Army for almost 10 years, including a year in Afghanistan where she served as a team leader and designated marksman.

Five members of the armed forces earlier this month sued Trump and his top military brass seeking to halt the reversal of the transgender policy put in place by the Obama administration. The new suit by the ACLU adds significant resources to the fight as the organization has seen its membership swell since Trump’s election.

The service members in the earlier case, who are suing anonymously, say they disclosed their gender orientation relying on the existing policy that permits them to serve openly.

Trump’s explanation Treatment of transgender people has become a flash point as social conservatives lead fights in some states to require students and sometimes adults to use schools and public restrooms corresponding to their gender at birth.

In a three-part Tweet, Trump outlined his reasoning for reversing the Obama transgender policy.

“After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

“Our military must be focused on the decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.”

‘Purely political’ The ACLU included screen shots of the tweets in the complaint, saying they were a “purely political” attempt to accommodate the most conservative legislators who support the president.

“The Trump administration has provided no evidence that this pronouncement was based on any analysis of the actual cost and disruption allegedly caused by allowing men and women who are transgender to serve openly,” according to the complaint.

The Military Times pointed out that the cost of providing Viagra and sexual dysfunction medications to members of the armed forces is 10 times the costs associated with health-care services for transgender troops.

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BLACKS & GETTYSBURG Visit to Pennsylvania town offers a glimpse of history and how African-Americans played a role in it.

COURTESY OF DESTINATION GETTYSBURG

The Soldiers’ National Monument in the National Cemetery represents Liberty, War, History, Peace and Plenty.

BY ELEANOR HENDRICKS MCDANIEL SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

T

he Civil War has been a hot topic lately. We Floridians are inundated with Confederate history, which is not favorable to AfricanAmericans. But they should travel to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to learn more about the winning side, whose victory led to the Emancipation Proclamation.

Gettysburg was the site of the most unforgettable and important military conflict of the war and President Abraham Lincoln’s most famous speech, “The Gettysburg Address.”

‘A turning point’ Carl Whitehill, director of Communications at Destination Gettysburg, says, “Gettysburg is an important visit for all African-Americans to best get a first-hand look at such an important time in American history.

“While the battle in Gettysburg didn’t end the American Civil War, it was a turning point that that helped bring back together a country so divided. Abraham Lincoln, in his notable speech, reminded us all that our country’s fathers… “brought forth a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” Whitehill added.

Battle of Gettysburg The battle was not just the turning point of the war, but it was the largest and bloodiest military engagement in North America. It began on July 1, 1863, and lasted for two more days.

The Union Army won, and turned the Confederates back south, so badly defeated that they never again ventured north. A visit to Gettysburg wouldn’t be complete without touring Gettysburg National Military Park, where the battle took place. You can tour by car, bicycle or horseback. For more information, go to destinationGettysburg.com.

Contributions and sacrifice The multi-layered history of Gettysburg does not include African-American soldiers, but many Blacks were wounded or killed in the infamous battle. They worked as cooks, personal servants of officers, ditch diggers and wagon drivers who transported ammunition, food and other essentials – support services that kept the military machine operating.

Their contributions and sacrifice, like other African-Americans of that era, have been omitted from the history books. As for the Blacks who fought in the Civil War, the graves of 30 U.S. “Colored Troop” soldiers can be found in the old Lincoln Cemetery in Gettysburg.

Homes were hospitals With over 51,000 soldiers dead, wounded, captured or missing, the small town of Gettysburg was left with the staggering task of removing the corpses of men and horses from the battleground, cleaning up, rebuilding and simply surviving.

Many structures, including private homes, were conscripted into serving as field hospitals.

19th-century Gettysburg Many free Blacks resided in Gettysburg. You can view the farmhouse of Abraham Brien that still stands on the battlefield. Also, still standing in the city is the home of John Hopkins, a well-respected member of the town’s African-American community and a well-loved employee of Gettysburg College.

Another freeman, Basil Biggs, (also buried in Lincoln Cemetery) worked on the Underground Railroad by hiding escapees on his farm, and then smuggling them further north.

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Seminary Ridge Museum Learn about other Blacks who lived in Adams County (where Gettysburg is located) at Seminary Ridge Museum, which was established in 2013, and focuses on the human toll of the war.

The seminary had been a field hospital, and many of its life-sized dioramas and interactive displays inform visitors of that history. Other displays tell of many important and heroic local African-Americans.

Other historical sites Most of Gettysburg’s African-American population evacuated ahead of the Confederate Army for fear of capture. After the battle and the Union Army’s victory, they returned to their homes.

To learn more, join the Gettysburg African American History Tour (DestinationGettysburg.com) that includes historical sites close to Gettysburg.

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3 1. The Seminary Ridge Museum focuses on the aspects of its history as a field hospital and the AfricanAmerican history of that region.

Restaurant with a secret Don’t miss visiting the Dobbin House Tavern, which is the oldest standing structure in Gettysburg, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The stone façade and white picket fence of this lovely country home appears to have a peaceful history, but that is deceiving.

Although Rev. Alexander Dobbin built it for his family in 1776, the Colonial building is said to have been the first stop of the Underground Railroad on the northern side of the Mason Dixon line.

See TRAVEL, Page B2

2. This poster is on display at the Seminary Ridge Museum.

3. These life-sized dioramas are in the Seminary Ridge Museum.

4. The Dobbin House Tavern and Restaurant was an Underground Railroad stop.

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PHOTOS BY ELEANOR HENDRICKS MCDANIEL

For more information on visiting Gettysburg, go to DestinationGettysburg.com.

CALENDAR

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SEPTEMBER 1 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Overtown: The Urban Film Festival takes place Sept. 1-3 in Miami’s historic Overtown.

Special guests: Master P and his son, Romeo Miller. Schedule: www. urbanfilmfestivals.com Clearwater: The Fashion with Flair Silent Auction & Fashion Show sponsored by the Clearwater Community Volunteers is Sept.

16 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Tickets/tables: www. ccvfl.org Miami: Bethune-Cookman University’s football team faces the University of Miami on Sept. 2 at Hard Rock Stadium.

Fort Lauderdale: The Women of Color Empowerment Conference is Sept. 8-10 at the Westin Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort. Speakers will include Congresswoman Maxine Waters. Details: www.southfloridawomenofcolor.com

TC CARSON, JEKALYN CARR & CHANTE MOORE

The 2017 Allstate Tom Joyner Family Reunion is underway through Sept. 4 at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Kissimmee. Performers will include Morris Day & the Time, Cameo, Maxwell, Chante Moore, Lenny Williams, Jekalyn Carr, TC Carson and The Williams Brothers. Full schedule: BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Jacksonville: Damian Marley’s Stony Hill Fall Tour stops at Mavericks Rock N’Honky Tonk on Sept. 10, Sept. 12 at House of Blues Orlando and Sept. 13 at St. Petersburg’s Jannus Landing.

Tampa: Florida A&M’s football team takes on Tennessee State on Sept.

16 at Raymond James Stadium.

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Jacksonville: Edward Waters College challenges Cumberland University Sept. 16 during a 4:30 p.m. home game.

Clearwater: Neal Lozano’s UNBOUND Day Conference is 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Sept. 16 at Our Lady of Divine Providence House of Prayer, 711 S. Bayview Ave. More info and to register: 727-7977412 or visit heartofthefather.com.

Jacksonville: The Northeast Florida Sickle Cell Disease Association Chapter will host a 5K Walka-thon on Sept.

9 at the Florida State College of Jacksonville, 101 W. State St. Register at www.SearchingForACure2017Walk-Jax. eventbrite.com or call 904-619-4049.

Tampa: Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, Nephew Tommy of the “Steve Harvey Morning Show,’’ Tank and Kelly Price are scheduled Sept. 2 at the USF Sun Dome.

Orlando: The 15th Annual Caribbean Health Summit is at the Central Florida Fair & Exposition Park Sept. 9 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Info: www. cmwp.org.

St. Petersburg: Lil Wayne is scheduled Sept.

1 at Jannus Live in St. Petersburg.

Miami: Lauryn Hill and Nas will perform Sept.

23 at the Bayfront Park Amphitheater and Sept.

High risk According to the Florida Prostate Cancer Advisory Council, in Florida one in four men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer.

At higher risk are African-American men and men with first and second degree relatives with prostate cancer.

This higher risk group represents men who are two-and-a-half times more likely to be diagnose with prostate cancer.

“The NFL and the Jaguars have been strong supporters of tackling prostate cancer,” said

Tampa: Chris Tucker with guest D.L. Hughley will be at the Amalie Arena on Sept. 8.

Jacksonville: The Mighty Love Tour stops at the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts on Sept. 30.

Orlando: Nick Cannon’s Wild ’N Out Live! will be at the CFE Arena on Sept.

23 at 8 p.m.

Miami: Tickets are on sale for Kendrick Lamar’s Damn Tour on Sept. 2 at the AmericanAirlines Arena and Sept. 10 at Tampa’s Amalie Arena.

St. Petersburg: Catch Marlon Wayans on Sept.

19 at The Mahaffey Theater for an 8 p.m. show.

Sanford: The Florida Department of Health in Seminole County, the Florida Linking Individuals Needing Care project and others will host a Suicide Prevention Training & Resource Fair, on Sept. 12, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., 400 W. Airport Blvd. To register: Contact Lindsay Brown at Lindsay@fccmh.org or call 407-665-3260.

St. Petersburg: Maxwell is scheduled Sept. 1 at The Mahaffey Theater.

from Page 1

Where slaves hid

Left to right: Jacksonville City Councilman Reggie Brown; Jacksonville City Councilman Sam Newby; Mia Jones, executive director, Agape Community Health Center; Peter Racine, senior vice president, Jaguars Foundation and Community Impact; Dr. Ali Kasreaian, Kasreaian Urology; Kevin Hardy, former Jacksonville Jaguar; Charles Griggs, president, 100 Black Men of Jacksonville; Florida State Senator Audrey Gibson; and Darnell Smith, market president, North Florida Region, Florida Blue.

Peter Racine, senior vice president of Jaguars Foundation and Community Impact. “We know that prevention and early detection creates the best scenario for the cure of any disease, particularly cancer.”

Website launched The MTBC initiative will feature a prostate cancer risk assessment website (launched on Sept. 1) outreach during 2017 Jaguar home games, health fair screenings, system of care referrals, prostate cancer support group, speaker’s bureau network and sponsored events.

The initiative seeks to reduce the number of men getting prostate cancer through prevention, and the number men dying from prostate cancer through screening and treatment. The initiative encourages men to discuss early detection evaluation options with their healthcare provider to determine the best patient care preferences.

The 100 Black Men of Jacksonville, Inc. is actively working to improve the overall health and wellness of Duval County residents by specifically focusing on the health outcomes related to prostate cancer.

Eatonville exhibit features work of local artists “Eatonville Proud’’ is on display in Eatonville, recognized as the oldest-Black incorporated town in America. The exhibit features the work of five local artists – Joyce Hayes, Ted Hollins, Ronald E. Kelly, Everett Spruill and Jane Turner.

Eatonville is observing its 130th anniversary.

The art exhibit will be displayed until Sept. 20.

“Each artist’s uniqueness plays off of the other to bring to the audience a well- rounded perspective of skill and mastery. In addition, the exhibit also includes the introduction of authentic African bronze, from The Bronze Kingdom. This is all evidence of a direct link to our community and Africa, and our ancient heritage of richness” explained, Turner, curator of the exhibit and a longtime Eatonville resident.

For more information, visit Eatonville Town Hall, 307 E. Kennedy Blvd. or call 407-6238900. All visitors must sign in and show a photo ID. The hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Miami Beach: Tickets are available for a 2 Chainz show at the Jackie Gleason Theater on Sept. 19.

TRAVEL

100 Black Men of Jacksonville launches prostate cancer awareness initiative The 100 Black Men of Jacksonville, Inc. (J100), Florida Blue and the Jaguars Foundation kick off National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in September by partnering to launch the Men Tackling the Big C Prostate Cancer Awareness and Education (MTBC) initiative.

Details on the MTBC initiative were announced on Aug. 28 at EverBank Field. The MTBC program will provide coordinated outreach to inform men and their families about risks factors, screening, diagnosis and treatment options related to prostate cancer.

“We are extremely excited about this opportunity to work with our community partners Florida Blue, the Jaguars Foundation, former Jacksonville Jaguar player Kevin Hardy, and a host of others to save lives,” said Charles Griggs, president of the 100 Black Men of Jacksonville, Inc. “Our intent is to educate the community so they will know that a prostate cancer diagnosis is not a death sentence. With early detection, prostate cancer is 100 percent treatable.”

23 at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville.

Visitors are invited to view a small exhibition of the history of the house in the attic. While you’re squeezing up a narrow stairway, you’ll come upon a dark, tight opening under the eaves that now holds costumed black mannequins.

This, of course, was where the fugitives were hidden.

Today it’s a tavern and restaurant that specializes in succulent Colonial dishes and drinks, like Salmagundi (an 18th-century salad with meat, vegetables and cheese) and Philadelphia Fish House Punch (with rum, brandy, peach brandy and fruit juices first created in Colonial Philly).

Historic lodging The Baladerry Inn was a private home that’s located only one mile from the battlefield, and was conscripted to serving as a field hospital.

The red brick building was constructed in 1812 on the farm of George Bushman. In the 1970s, it was purchased

by Carol and Bob O’Gara who turned it into an inn, and named it after an Irish village.

Judy and Kenny Caudill bought the country property in 2010, and brought it into the 21st century without compromising its historical integrity.

They often give their guests a tour of the old house. Note that the living and dining rooms held the 1,300 men who were treated after the battle.

Haunting past

“Eatonville Proud’’ is on display through Sept. 20 at Eatonville town Hall.

As you enter those rooms and understand that not all patients survived, you realize you’re on hallowed ground.

Some people have wondered: Is the Baladerry Inn haunted?

Experts have said that it is.

When the Travel Channel visited there, they discovered paranormal activity.

Guests and other supernatural groups also have experienced ghostly encounters.

But the Caudills have created a cheerful bed and breakfast that’s focused on making their guests feel comfortable and welcomed. It boggles the mind that you can sleep so close to American history. To learn more about the Baladerry Inn, and to reserve accommodations, visit www.baladerryinn.com.

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SEPTEMBER 1 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

CULTURE

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Black Lives Matter: Where did it go?

MARK BOSTER/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Three members of Black Lives Matter, from left, Patrisse Cullors, Melina Abdullah and Pete White, followed by Pastor Kevin Sauls, greet the media after a meeting with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in Los Angeles on July 9, 2015.

One of the movement’s founders answers questions about its impact and future.

BY ANN. M. SIMMONS AND JAWEED KALEEM LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

To supporters, it is a respectable civil rights movement. To critics, it’s an anti-police organization that deserves to be banned.

Black Lives Matter came into existence following the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin, an African-American teen, by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Sanford.

The group became known nationally amid protests in Ferguson, Mo., after a White police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an 18-year-old Black man.

Since then, the organization founded by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi has been on the front lines of protests against what it calls “the sustained and increasingly visible violence against Black communities.”

40 chapters While its prominence appears to have waned in recent months, Cullors, 32, a native of Van Nuys who lives in Los Angeles, insisted that the movement is today more relevant than ever.

It has swelled to 40 chapters,

including branches in Canada and Britain. In November, the group will receive the Sydney Peace Prize, Australia’s leading award for peacemakers.

Cullors, who is writing a memoir, recently shared reflections on the state of Black Lives Matter and its future. Her comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Does Black Lives Matter even matter today?

A: I think Black Lives Matter is very relevant today, especially given the rise of White supremacists and White nationalists across not just this country but across the globe. And so our work over the last four years has been putting anti-Black racism on the map, talking about the impact anti-Black racism has on this country, has on local government, has on policy and how it actually impacts the everyday life of Black people.

Q: How do you characterize the impact and influence you’ve had?

A: As organizers, we have to think every day are we making an impact. Are we changing the material conditions for Black people? I think, yes, we’ve had an impact. I think part of what we’re seeing in the rise of White nationalism is their response to Black Lives Matter, their response to an ever-increasing fight for equal rights, for civil rights and for human rights.

Q: Left-wing groups accuse BLM of not being visible enough under President Don-

ald Trump. Are they right?

A: I would actually challenge the media, because the media has in large part focused primarily on Trump and his administration. And so, as our folks have continued to organize locally, have continued to not just hit the streets, many of our people are thinking about how to enact a political strategy. How do we build Black power in this moment? How do we actually get people in office?

It’s not a hashtag that built the movement. It was organizers, activists, educators, artists — people who built an actual infrastructure so that a movement can exist and have life. And if the media was interested in the everyday strategy they would know that Black Lives Matter is not just still here, but that it’s thriving and it’s doing some of its best work in this moment.

Q: Trump has called BLM a threat. Is the door open to talk to him?

A: It’s not. And we wouldn’t take the invitation.

Q: Why not?

A: We wouldn’t as a movement take a seat at the table with Trump, because we wouldn’t have done that with Hitler.

Trump is literally the epitome of evil, all the evils of this country — be it racism, capitalism, sexism, homophobia.

He has set out some of the most dangerous policies, not just that impacts this country but impacts the globe. And so for us, the answer is not to sit with him but to

Is ‘Cat in the Hat’ racist?

Professor thinks so

BY JOHN MURAWSKI NEWS & OBSERVER/TNS

A half-century after the civil rights movement, the share of school children in this country who are not White has grown to half of all kids enrolled. Yet the number of children’s books published featuring children of color never surpasses more than 15 percent in any given year.

This glaring imbalance points to a state of “literary apartheid,” argues Philip Nel, a scholar of children’s literature whose new book contends that beloved children’s classics reflect America’s ugly racist past (and present).

He castigates the clubby children’s book publishing industry, where the vast majority of writers, editors and publishers (89 percent, in one survey) are White, for the marginalization of books that feature Black, Hispanic and Asian characters.

Started early Nel’s historical critique of the industry, “Was The Cat in The Hat Black?”, depicts a sinister system in which children are inculcated with racism by means of cuddly animals and make-believe creatures, like the peculiar Oompa Loompas of chocolate factory fame.

Nel, a White scholar at Kansas State University, contends too many White people are blind to the systemic racism and White privilege, much of which they absorb early in life through children’s literature.

Like a detective working a literary crime scene, Nel patiently builds his case by piecing together clues and evidence in wellknown stories from Dr. Seuss, and in the current young adult fiction renaissance.

Nel uses such terms as invisible, covert, hidden, absence and erasure more than 70 times, by my count, to describe systemic racism’s clandestine modus operandi.

paland were African Pygmies, clearly depicted in an illustration reproduced in Nel’s book.

In the 1973 edition of Dahl’s book the creatures appear as diminutive White people. A tribe living in thick jungles, the carefree, laughing Oompa Loompas are shipped in packing cases to Europe to labor in a chocolate factory. Sound familiar?

Nel, along with other critics, read this as an allegory for enslavement of Africans and the glorification of colonialism.

Coping strategy

BOOK REVIEW “Was the Cat in the Hat Black? The Hidden Racism of Children’s Literature, and the Need for Diverse Books” by Philip Nel; Oxford Press (288 pages, $29.95)

‘Minstrel ancestry’ The star witness is the 60-yearold “The Cat in the Hat,” whose origins Nel traces to minstrelsy and blackface caricature. Underneath his feline aspect, this hep cat threatens the stability of a White household and challenges the White social order.

The clues to the cat’s Black lineage have been so effectively covered up that they have to be meticulously decoded to demonstrate how the story reflects subconscious White fear of Black power.

“Seuss’s ‘Cat’ serves as one example of how racism hides open-

resist him and to resist every single policy that he’s implemented that impacts our communities.

And … if I’m thinking about what I want my children to know in 30, 40, 50 years, I want them to know that I resisted a president at all costs, because this president literally tried to kill our communities, and is killing our communities.

Q: So then how does your activism have to change?

A: Some things don’t change. I don’t want to act like if we have Hillary Clinton in office everything would be different. No. The first thing that Black Lives Matter had to do was remind people that racism existed in this country, because when we had Obama people thought we were post-racial. That was the debate.

Is racism over? And very quickly we understood that it was not over. And then the second one was to talk about anti-Black racism. And then I think the next step for Black Lives Matter was to decide, “What was our target?”

And I want to be frank. I think our target has been law enforcement, and that has been important because Black folks not only are killed with impunity, but also Black folks are some of the most marginalized and vulnerable communities in this country. We believe if we can actually get real accountability in this country around mass criminalization, we could start to change the other apparatuses inside this country.

Q: What kind of influence do you want to have on policing?

ly — indeed, thrives — in popular culture for young people,” Nel writes. “The Cat’s minstrel ancestry reveals Seuss’s racial unconscious, indicating how his imagination resuscitated and revised early twentieth-century stereotypes.”

The Oompa Loompas Then there’s the fascinating but creepy episode of Roald Dahl’s Oompa Loompas.

In “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” first published in 1964, the original inhabitants of Loom-

But rather than scrub racism from the pages, Nel advocates for restoring the original crude stereotypes, like the African Oompa Loompas, to jolt readers out of their complacency.

The restoration work will have to be limited to academic research like Nel’s; publishing overt stereotypes in kiddie lit is not likely to win favor with the publishing industry, parents, teachers, librarians and the reading public.

In his assault on racism, Nel treats White denial of racism as a symptom of the problem. Playing innocent and acting hurt are the default defensive postures of the White power structure.

Nel even dedicates several pages to analyzing the psychology of “White fragility,” the coping strategy some Whites employ when confronted with their racism and privilege.

Subliminal messaging?

Still, there’s no way getting around it: Nel’s case studies can

A: I want to see Black Lives Matter be able to ultimately reduce law enforcement funding.

People often ask the question, why reduce their funding? Because they’re the one industry in our nation, and locally in particular, that is given more money than education or access to education, resources to shelter, resources to people to have access to healthy food.

Over the last 30, 40 years what we’ve seen is the pouring of millions of dollars into law enforcement and literally divesting from communities, especially poor communities. And so our argument is … they can start divesting from law enforcement and reinvesting into our communities.

Q: The Harvard-Harris poll found that most people view Black Lives Matter unfavorably.

What kind of impact has that had?

A: I always want to ask who is taking the poll? Which Americans are they talking about? Are they talking about White Americans or talking about Black Americans? Are they talking about people who are new to this country?

But the second thing I’ll say is (civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) had some of the lowest acceptance rates during his time — him and the civil rights movement. And look at us now. Look at how important of a figure he was.

Q: Do you believe in violence as a method of protest?

A: I believe in direct action, but nonviolent direct action. And our movement believes in that nonviolent direct action. But I do believe that our communities need to be defended.

What happened in Charlottesville shouldn’t have happened.

Many folks that were on the ground said the police were not helpful at all. And yet when Black Lives Matter hits the streets, when we are nonviolent, we’re the first ones to be snatched up by police.

We’re the first ones to be beaten by police. So while I think our movement should stick to nonviolent direct action, I do think the government should do a better job at defending us and defending protesters in particular.

Q: Where do you see BLM four years from now?

A: One of the biggest places that I see us will be in local and national government. I think you’ll see, not just Black people, but Black folks and our allies really pushing to be a part of local government, city government and national government — to move to be mayor, county board of supervisors, to be on boards.

Q: Is that something that interests you?

A: People have asked me to really think about taking elected office. At this moment, I feel I’m more effective on the ground. I’m not interested in elected office at this moment. But who knows? seem forced. Some readers will have a hard time making the link between the “Cat in the Hat’s’’ outlandish costume and subliminal racist messaging.

After all, the connection was not evident to Dr. Seuss himself or to generations of readers, White and Black.

Readers might also be puzzled

by Nel’s condemnation of “The Hunger Games,” the 2008 blockbuster dystopian novel by Suzanne Collins. Nel faults the author for focusing almost entirely on class and gender, rather than on race – as if that artistic decision in itself were an unpardonable literary transgression.

Nel is also exercised that the novel’s jacket omits depictions of humans, “further turning attention away from its racially embodied characters.”

Sharp rebuke To any hint that Nel can be overzealous in the fight against racism, the academician offers a sharp rebuke.

“In case this is not obvious, White people — especially those afflicted with White fragility — should get over themselves,” Nel writes.

“Remember that, in America, people of color face racism nearly every day. So, White people, if you think someone is overly sensitive about race or weighing race too heavily in her analysis, then ask yourself: how would I feel if I faced racism daily?”

The News & Observer is based in Raleigh, North Carolina.

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CULTURE

SEPTEMBER 1 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

STOJ

10 guiding principals to combat hate

CARLOS GONZALEZ/MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE/TNS

John Thompson speaks before a rally for solidarity with anti-racists in Charlottesville in front of the Minneapolis Republican Party office on Aug. 14 in Minneapolis, Minn.

Experts estimate that there are more than 260,000 hate incidents per year in the US. This information is special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Hate in America has become commonplace. A presidential candidate wins election after denigrating Muslims, Latinos, women and people with disabilities.

A young White man opens fire and kills nine African-Americans who welcomed him into Bible study at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, telling his vic-

tims, “I have to do it.”

A Muslim woman is seated on a bench in front of a coffee shop in Washington, D.C., when a woman begins screaming antiMuslim epithets.

A swastika and other anti-Semitic graffiti appear at an elementary school in Stapleton, Colorado.

A lone gunman carrying an assault rifle and a handgun storms a well-known gay club in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people and wounding 53 others.

Not all reported What can we do to stop the hate? Bias is a human condition, and American history is rife with prejudice against groups and in-

dividuals because of their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or other characteristics.

Since 2010, law enforcement agencies have reported an average of about 6,000 hate crime incidents per year to the FBI. But government studies show that the real number is far higher — an estimated 260,000 per year.

Many hate crimes never get reported, in large part because the victims are reluctant to go to the police. In addition, many law enforcement agencies are not fully trained to recognize or investigate hate crimes, and many simply do not collect or report hate crime data to the FBI. The good news is that all over the country people are fighting hate, standing up to promote tol-

erance and inclusion. More often than not, when hate flares up, good people rise up against it — often in greater numbers and with stronger voices.

This guide sets out 10 principles for fighting hate in your community.

Act. Do something. In the face of hatred, apathy will be interpreted as acceptance by the perpetrators, the public, and — worse — the victims. Community members must take action; if we don’t, hate persists.

Join forces. Reach out to allies from churches, schools, clubs, and other civic groups. Create a diverse coalition. Include children, police, and the media.

Gather ideas from everyone, and get everyone involved.

Support victims. Hate crime victims are especially vulnerable.

If you’re a victim, report every incident — in detail — and ask for help. If you learn about a hate crime victim in your community, show support. Let victims know you care. Surround them with comfort and protection.

Speak up. Hate must be exposed and denounced. Help news organizations achieve balance and depth. Do not debate hate group members in conflictdriven forums. Instead, speak up in ways that draw attention away from hate, toward unity.

Educate yourself. An informed campaign improves its effectiveness. Determine if a hate group is involved, and research its symbols and agenda. Understand the difference between a hate crime and a bias incident.

Create an alternative. Do not attend a hate rally. Find another outlet for anger and frustration and for people’s desire to do something. Hold a unity rally or parade to draw media attention away from hate.

Pressure leaders. Elected officials and other community leaders can be important allies. But some must overcome reluctance — and others, their own biases — before they’re able to take a stand.

Stay engaged. Promote acceptance and address bias before another hate crime can occur. Expand your comfort zone by reaching out to people outside your own groups.

Teach acceptance. Bias is learned early, often at home.

Schools can offer lessons of tolerance and acceptance. Host a diversity and inclusion day on campus. Reach out to young people who may be susceptible to hate group propaganda and prejudice.

Dig deeper. Look inside yourself for biases and stereotypes.

Commit to disrupting hate and intolerance at home, at school, in the workplace and in faith communities.

More information: https:// www.splcenter.org/sites/default/ files/com_ten_ways_to_fight_ hate_2017_web.pdf

Former members explain why they joined hate groups

BY SHARON JAYSON KAISER HEALTH NEWS/TNS

Cries of “Nazis, go home!” and “Shame! Shame!” filled the air as Angela King and Tony McAleer stood with other counter protesters at a “free speech” rally in Boston two weekends ago.

They didn’t join the shouting.

Their sign spoke for them: “There is life after hate.”

They know because McAleer and King were once young extremists themselves, before they co-founded the nonprofit Life After Hate to help former White supremacists restart their lives. To hear them talk about their pasts hints at what may be in the minds of those inside the far-right fringe groups whose actions have ignited raw, angry passions across the country.

What are people thinking when they spew hate? Are they all true believers? What’s more, how does someone get that way?

On the rise The uncovered American faces of White supremacy and neo-Nazism were broadcast on TV and the internet for all to see at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., this month, which ended in violence. The forces that drew them there are not new.

Hate groups in the U.S. number 917 and have been on the rise for two years, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. It attributes the trend partly to the attention given to extremist views during the 2016 presidential campaign.

But people don’t perceive extremist groups’ beliefs the same way.

The term “alt-right” — referring to a loosely organized group that developed in response to mainstream conservatism and has been associated with white nationalism and anti-Semitism

— was unknown to a majority of Americans in late 2016, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

And familiarity rose in tandem with a respondent’s education — about three-quarters of those with postgraduate degrees recognized the term, as did about 60 percent of college graduates.

‘Sense of belonging’ Among those with only a high school education, about a third had heard the term.

Those who study human behavior attribute hate speech more to deep personality issues than to a diagnosable mental illness. But they’re also intrigued by how the White supremacy movement is rebranding itself for the 21st century.

The well-known racist symbols of white robes and hoods or shaved heads and torches have given way to a clean-cut subtlety for the millennial generation.

With heightened tensions on all sides, there’s a renewed interest in explaining how minds turn toward hate.

“I felt power where I felt powerless. I felt a sense of belonging where I felt invisible,” McAleer, 49, said of the pull of White nationalism that led him to spend 15 years as a skinhead recruiter and an organizer for the White Aryan Resistance.

“I was beaten at an all-boys Catholic school on a regular basis at 10 or 11,” said McAleer, a middle-class kid from Canada, which left him with “an unhealthy sense of identity.”

Parental influence King, 42, who grew up in rural South Florida, said she turned to White nationalism as a child, first learning racial slurs from her parents.

Growing up, she questioned her sexual identity and didn’t fit

MELISSA BAILEY/KAISER HEALTH NEWS/TNS

Angela King participates in anti-hate rally in Boston on Aug. 19. King, a former neo-Nazi who went to prison at 23 for three years for a hate crime, co-founded the nonprofit Life After Hate. in. At 12, she said, a school bully ripped her shirt open, exposing her training bra and humiliating her in front of her classmates.

“At that point, I decided if I became the bully, no one could do that to me,” King said. She became a neo-Nazi skinhead at 15, and at 23 went to prison for three years for a hate crime. King had a tattoo of a swastika on her right hand; she has since covered it up with the likeness of a cat.

Need for identity Young people with a troubled past are especially vulnerable, said psychologist Ervin Staub, of Holyoke, Mass., a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst who studies social processes that lead to violence.

“Why would people join groups like that? It usually involves them finding no other socially acceptable and meaningful ways to fulfill important needs — the need for identity; the need for a feel-

ing of effectiveness; the need for a feeling of connection,” Staub said.

“Often, these are people who don’t feel like they’ve succeeded or had a chance to succeed across normal channels of success in society. They may come from families that are problematic or families where they’re exposed to this kind of extreme views of White superiority and nationalism.

Victims of abuse A 2015 report from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (known as START) found that former members of violent White supremacist groups showed almost half (45 percent) reporting being the victim of childhood physical abuse and about 20 percent reporting being the victim of childhood sexual abuse.

The study by sociologist Pete Simi of Chapman University in Orange, Calif., suggests that influences on these followers may be

related more to the group’s social bonds than ideology.

Simi, an expert on violence and extremist groups who has interviewed hundreds of former believers, co-wrote “American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement’s Hidden Spaces of Hate” with sociologist Robert Futrell of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

Young, loners Now that these groups are courting millennials, they’ve taken to changing their image, Futrell said.

Groups advocating White superiority have always preyed on “young, impressionable people who are loners or had a traumatic thing in their background,” Futrell said.

“What’s different now is the range of ways the White power movement is reaching them. The internet is a boon to those who are stigmatized and relatively powerless.”

STOJ

SEPTEMBER 1 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

Meet some of

FLORIDA’S

finest

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

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.

Thousands of Caribbean culture lovers converge on South Florida every year on the Columbus Day weekend to attend the annual Miami Broward Carnival, a series of concerts, pageants, parades, and competitions.

On Carnival Day, “mas” (masquerade) bands of thousands of revelers dance and march behind 18-wheel tractor-trailer trucks with booming sound systems from morning until nightfall while competing for honors.

Here are some of the “Finest” we’ve seen over the years. Go to www. miamibrowardcarnival. com for information on this year’s Carnival.

CHARLES W. CHERRY II / FLORIDA COURIER

Hart challenges rich friends to match Harvey donation EURWEB.COM

Officials in Texas say Hurricane Harvey could force more than 30,000 people into shelters, with flooding still threatening to swallow more streets and neighborhoods in Houston and nearby areas.

In response, actor Kevin Hart is trying to rally his rich celebrity friends to donate money toward assisting the victims and rescuers.

The comedian has given $25,000 toward the cause and has filmed a video calling on Dwayne Johnson, Steve Harvey, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake and Jerry Seinfeld to match his donation.

‘A real challenge’ STHANLEE B. MIRADOR/SIPA USA/TNS

Susan Bro presented the “Best Fight Against the System’’ award on Aug. 27 at the MTV Video Music Awards held at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif.

Slain activist’s mom, others speak against racism at VMA awards EURWEB.COM

Racism was addressed during the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA) Sunday night when the show honored Heather Heyer, the woman killed during the White supremacist “Unite the Right” rally held on Aug. 12 in Charlottesville.

Heyer’s mom, Susan Bro, was on hand to present the “Best Fight Against the System” award.

“My daughter was killed when she protested racism. I miss her but I know she’s here tonight,” Bro said on stage. “I have been deeply moved to see people across the world — the world — by her inspiration and her courage.”

New foundation Bro also took a moment to announce her new Heather Hey-

er Foundation, created to award scholarships to students interested in pursuing law, education and social justice issues.

“I’m here to speak for my child.

She’s not allowed to speak now except through me,” Bro told The Associated Press prior to the ceremony.

“I’m just so deeply pleased.

This is like a magnifying of Heather’s voice, a magnification of what she would have done.”

Six winners The “Best Fight Against The System” award went to all six nominees, including Logic and Damian Lemar Hudson for “Black Spider Man,” the artists of the Hamilton Mixtape for “Immigrants (We Get the Job Done),” Big Sean for “Light,” Alessia Cara for “Scars To Your Beauti-

ful,” Taboo and Shailene Woodley for “Stand Up / Stand N Rock #NoDAPL” and John Legend for “Surefire.”

“I look forward to all of the work that they and all of you will do together to make the world a better, kinder place,” Bro said of the winners.

Robert Lee speaks The “Unite the Right” rally was organized by a potpourri of racist hate groups to protest the planned removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville.

The Rev. Robert Lee IV, a direct descendant of the Confederate general, introduced Bro and also denounced racism from the stage, calling it “America’s original sin.”

“Today I call on all of us with privilege and power to answer

God’s call to confront racism and White supremacy head on,” he told the crowd.

‘We must resist!’

Before then, Paris Jackson also denounced White supremacists from the stage, just before presenting the first award of the evening.

“I’m seeing a lot of love and light here tonight already. A lot of diversity, and a lot of potential power. You know, if we were to all put our voices together, do you realize the difference we would make, if we were all stand up united as one? Our impact, it would be ‘uge.” she said, mocking Donald Trump’s pronunciation of “huge.”

Michael Jackson’s daughter continued: “Let’s leave here tonight remembering that we must show these Nazi, White supremacist jerks in Charlottesville and all over the country that as a nation with liberty as our slogan, we have zero tolerance for their violence, their hatred, and their discrimination! We must resist!”

“I think we participated in a lot of challenges on the Internet, some meaningful, some meaningless, but we’ve all done them,” Hart said in the video posted Instagram.

“At this point I’m going to start a real challenge. I’m challenging a lot of my celebrity friends to follow my lead and donate $25,000 to Hurricane Harvey, to the Red Cross.”

Hart donated $50,000 and many celebrities have made donations.

“At this point, it’s a serious matter. I think the people are in bad shape and they need help. I’m going to lead the charge and step up in this way,” Hart added.

KEVIN HART/INSTAGRAM

Kevin Hart makes his challenge to his celebrity friends in a video.

B6

FOOD

SEPTEMBER 1 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

S

Think outside the lunchbox Eating the same thing every day can make lunch seem so “blah.”

Now’s the perfect time to break out of the lunch rut and add some excitement to your meals.

Thinking outside the traditional lunchbox is easy with the right ingredients. Perk up your noontime noshing with fresh, seasonal ingredients coupled with kitchen pantry classics, like California Ripe Olives, which add a unique flavor and bold, distinctive color to any dish.

California farmers grow more than 95 percent of the ripe olives consumed in the United States.

From planting, pruning, harvesting and processing, they make sure that the highest quality olives come from their farms to your table – one can at a time.

Adding olives to any lunch can help bring California sunshine to each and every bite. Try some of these portable and packable recipes to add excitement to lunch onthe-go and find more at calolive. org.

BLACK AND WHITE PIZZA Makes: 1 pizza 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus additional for pizza crust 1 cup onion, quartered and thinly sliced 2 tablespoons roasted garlic, minced 4 ounces small baby bella mushrooms, chopped flour 1 package prepared pizza dough 1 cup prepared Alfredo sauce 1 cup smoked mozzarella cheese, shredded 4 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, torn into 1/2-inch pieces 1 small boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked and thinly sliced 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped 1 can (6 ounces) extra-large California Black Ripe Olives, drained and cut in wedges freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano Heat oven to 450 F and line large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In large skillet over medium heat, heat 1 tablespoon oil. Add onion, garlic and mushrooms, and cook, stirring frequently, 10 minutes, or until onions are soft.

Reserve.

Roll pizza dough into thin oval on lightly floured surface. Transfer to prepared baking sheet and brush lightly with olive oil then spread evenly with Alfredo sauce.

Top with mushroom mixture, cheeses, chicken and rosemary. Sprinkle olives over pizza.

Bake 10-15 minutes, or until cheese is melted and lightly browned around edges.

Serve with Parmigiano-Reggiano.

MAPLE OLIVE CHEESECAKE BITES Makes: 16-20 mini cheesecakes Nonstick cooking spray 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs 2 tablespoons butter, melted 3 tablespoons sugar, divided 6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup 2 tablespoons flour 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 egg 1/4 cup coarsely chopped California Ripe Olives Heat oven to 325 F and coat 16-20cup mini muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

In small bowl, stir together graham cracker crumbs, butter and 1 tablespoon sugar. Place equal amounts into each mini muffin cup then press firmly into bottom of each cup. Working with one cup at a time, press small piece of plastic wrap onto surface and press crust firmly into mini muffin cups.

In large bowl of electric mixer, beat cream cheese, maple syrup and remaining sugar until smooth; beat in flour and vanilla on low speed. Add egg and beat until just combined; stir in olives.

Spoon equal amounts into each cup.

Bake 20-25 minutes, or until filling feels set.

Let cool completely then run small, thin knife around edge of each to remove from pan.

FROM FAMILY FEATURES

GREEK SALAD IN JARS Courtesy of Simply Recipes Makes: 4 salads Salad Dressing: 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar 1/4 teaspoon salt, plus additional, to taste (optional) pinch of black pepper, plus additional, to taste (optional) 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano 1 teaspoon honey 5 tablespoons olive oil 4 pint-size canning jars with lids Salads: 1/4 medium red onion, thinly sliced

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved 1/2 large English cucumber, sliced 1 yellow or orange bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch pieces 3/4 cup California black ripe olives 1/2 cup (4 ounces) crumbled feta cheese 4 small handfuls fresh baby spinach or other dark, leafy greens 4 pita bread rounds, halved (optional) To prepare dressing: In small bowl, whisk together vinegar, salt, pepper, oregano and honey.

Select the coupons you like and save instantly when you enter your phone number at checkout. Sign up for Publix Digital Coupons at publix.com/savingstyle.

Gradually whisk in oil. Taste. Add additional salt and pepper, if desired.

Divide dressing between four pint jars.

To assemble salads: Divide onion between four jars. Divide tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, olives and feta cheese between jars. Pack remaining space with spinach, compressing leaves slightly.

Secure lids and refrigerate up to two days.

To serve: Empty salads into bowls and toss with dressing. Serve with pita bread.

Note: Store and transport salads upright so dressing stays on bottom.