Florida Courier - December 09, 2016

FC

EE FR

PRESORTED STANDARD MAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID DAYTONA BEACH, FL PERMIT #189

www.flcourier.com

CELEBRATING OUR 10TH YEAR STATEWIDE!

Reporter’s book on protests shows Black deaths matter See Page B1 www.flcourier.com

DECEMBER 9 – DECEMBER 15, 2016

VOLUME 24 NO. 50

30 MILLION UNINSURED

A new study states that if Obamacare is repealed, many Americans – including millions who voted for Donald Trump – will lose their health insurance.

BY TONY PUGH MCCLATCHY WASHINGTON BUREAU /TNS

WASHINGTON –Partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act through a budget reconciliation bill could cause nearly 30 million Americans to lose health insurance and 9.3 million to lose government subsidies to help them purchase marketplace coverage, according to a new analysis.

The additional 29.8 million uninsured – 22.5 million from the elimination of the Medicaid expansion alone – would push the national total of the uninsured to 58.7 million in 2019, according to the analysis by

researchers at the Urban Institute. The analysis is to be published Wednesday morning.

That’s more than the 50 million who lacked coverage in 2009 before the health law was passed, said John Holahan, a senior fellow at Urban Institute and co-author of the report.

Trump voters suffer More than four out of five of the newly uninsured would come from working families; 56 percent would be non-Hispanic Whites.

Coverage losses would be greatest in the 31 states and the District of Columbia that expanded eligibility for

Medicaid under the ACA, the report found.

In those states, the number of uninsured would rise from 14 million to 32.5 million. Non-expansion states would see an increase from 14.9 million uninsured to 26.2 million.

California would lead all expansion states with nearly 4.9 million people losing coverage while nearly 1 million would become uninsured in Pennsylvania, 775,000 in Washington state and 486,000 in Kentucky.

Among non-expansion states, the uninsured would grow to more than 2.5 milGARY FRIEDMAN/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS lion in Texas, more than 2.2 Fremont High School students in in Los Angeles filled out health surveys and See OBAMACARE, Page A2

gathered information about Obamacare in September 2013.

PEARL HARBOR ATTACK, 75 YEARS LATER

Finally laid to rest

Getting ‘strapped’ Non-Whites buy guns after Trump wins SPECIAL TO THE TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE FROM THE AFRO AMERICAN

African-Americans and other racial minorities in America are arming themselves, fearing a continued surge in hate crimes since the election of Donald Trump in November, according to NBC News.

Four times as many non-Whites are flocking to gun stores, firearm business owners told NBC News.

Additionally, Black gun groups such as the National African American Gun Association say attendance has doubled since the election.

Trump sets tone

RICHARD MESSINA/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Pallbearers remove the flag from the casket holding the remains of Navy Fireman 3rd Class Edwin Hopkins as he was buried in New Hampshire on Oct. 15. His remains were identified almost 75 years after he was killed on Dec. 7, 1941, at the age of 19, while serving on the battleship Oklahoma.

Minorities “feel that racists now feel like they can attack… just because the president is doing it,” Earl Curtis, the African-American owner of Blue Ridge Arsenal in Chantilly, Va., told NBC News.

Racial tension in America had already been brewing. The election of President Obama in 2008 was met by cross burnings, racial epithets hurled at African Americans and scrawled on various surfaces, Black figures hung on nooses, effigies of the president and the vitriolic rhetoric of the Tea Party.

The racial temperature continued to rise as the unrepentant killing of unarmed Black men and boys by police was answered by nationwide protest and the sparking of the Black Lives Matter movement. Into that maelstrom stepped Trump, whose See GUNS, Page A2

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

Orlando Pulse owner won’t sell it to city NATION | A6

Sharpton organizing January D.C. march WORLD | B2

Cuba looking for global investors U.S. taxpayers target of India IRS scam

ALSO INSIDE

Feds investigating bias in St. Pete-area schools ST. PETERSBURG – The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into whether the Pinellas County school district systematically discriminates against Black students and students with disabilities.

The Pinellas County School Board’s long and well-documented history of racial discipline disparities was recently profiled in the EPIX docu-series, “America Divided.”

Investigations, complaint The investigation also came after a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative series by Tampa’s daily newspaper, the Tampa Bay

A Tampa Bay Times newspaper series revealed that Pinellas County ‘is the worst place in Florida to be Black and go to public school’ because of underpaid and inexperienced teachers, violence in the schools, poor physical plants, and disproportionate punishment meted out to Black students.

Times, entitled “Failure Factories.

The series revealed that Pinellas County, which includes St. Petersburg, “is the worst place in Florida to be Black and go to

public school” because of underpaid and inexperienced teachers, violence in the schools, poor physical plants, and disproportionate punishment meted out to Black students.

The federal investigation also follows the Southern Poverty Law Center’s complaint alleging that the school board violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, citing the disproportionate rates of arrests and restraints on Black students and students with disabilities.

‘A great step’ “No child should go to school in fear that the color of their skin or disability will determine whether they are maced, arrested or suspended,” said Judith Browne Dianis, Executive Director of Advancement Project’s national office, in a press statement.

See SCHOOLS, Page A2

COMMENTARY: REV. JESSE JACKSON: CASTRO PARADOXES CAN’T BE REDUCED TO BLACK, WHITE | A4 COMMENTARY: JULIAN COLA: GOD BLESS THE HYPOCRITICAL LIBERAL THAT’S GOT HIS OWN | A5

FOCUS

A2

DECEMBER 9 – DECEMBER 15, 2016

Democrats must dump their political messengers If you don’t believe AfricanAmerican voters have been sold some political snake oil, it will be crystal-clear during the term of President-elect Donald Trump!

So-called Negroes have told you election after election that our future, our progress and our hope was based on our blind support of a political party that, in many ways, seldom supported us.

Not only were our issues not supported, our causes not supported and our businesses were not supported. We were neglected, we were exploited and we were used!

LUCIUS GANTT THE GANTT REPORT

litical party or persuasion beat Democratic candidates like Buddy Miles once beat snare drums!

Even Stevie Wonder can see that over the years, Democrats tried their best to be more Republican than Republicans. That strategy failed miserably!

They were reluctant to stand up and speak out strongly about the issues that were important to Democratic loyalists, to workers, to Latinos, to Blacks, and to other groups that have lived and died for Democratic candidates.

GOP used to lose It’s hard to tell sometimes, but back in the day, in most states, a Republican political candidate couldn’t win a rat race.

Now, even in areas where there are more registered Democrats than there are Republicans, conservative candidates of any po-

Beaten everywhere Democrats didn’t just get beat at the ballot box. They got beat in the media. They got beat in

the ground game. They got beat on social media. They got beat in early voting. They got beat in absentee voting – and nearly every other way!

Historically, getting beat is an occasional thing. One party wins a few seats, and two years or four years later the opposition wins a few seats back.

The Democratic Party went on a downward spiral probably in the 1980s when in Republicans began to take over on state and local levels.

How did they do it? Republicans hired people that could deliver, people who could generate votes, and people who could help them win elections!

Didn’t matter The GOP didn’t care what your registration or party affiliation was. They didn’t care what your economic status was. They didn’t even care what your race was. If you could help their candidates

win, Republicans would hire you.

Democrats labeled their political advisors. The only hired “Democratic” consultants, Democratic printers, Democratic media consultants and professionals, Democratic pollsters and so on. On its face, nothing is wrong with that.

What is wrong is continuing to hire people election after election that insist on giving you bad strategy, bad advice, inaccurate poll data, ineffective “Get Out the Vote” operations, poor broadcast and print media, and worst of all, pitiful and disgusting message creation and distribution!

The Democratic Party can quickly turn around its political fate by hiring people who can reach both urban and rural voters, both employed and unemployed Americans, males and females, and United States voters of every race, creed, and color with political messages that motivate and inspire people to cast votes for their candidates!

Dump them!

But they must get rid of the old and employ new political messengers immediately. Democrats cannot wait until late in future election years to retain and employ new age political experts and consultants.

The best political consultants work for money. They are just as comfortable working for Democrats as they are working for Republicans or independents.

It’s all about the political message! You can’t kill the messengers, so hire them to work for the Democratic Party and the “donkey” will rise again and win again!

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.

SCHOOLS from A1

FLORIDA COURIER FILES

Racial incidents and Donald Trump’s election has led to an increase in gun purchases by Black Americans and other racial minorities.

GUNS from A1

unabashed disparagement of Mexicans, Muslims, Blacks, women and others seemed to embolden those with bigoted agendas.

‘Build the wall’ Since Trump swept into the White House on a tide of hate Nov. 8, the Southern Poverty Law Center has reported an uptick in hate-related incidents.

Of the 701 reported so far, several include school children chanting, “Build the wall” to their Hispanic peers (referencing Trump’s promise to build a wall to prevent Mexicans from illegally entering the U.S.) or “White power;” swastikas emblazoned on homes and public surfaces; non-Whites, LGBT or

Muslim Americans being verbally or physically attacked and more.

On Nov. 28, the Council on American-Islamic Relations also sent a letter to FBI Director James B. Comey asking for a formal investigation into a series of letters sent to mosques that threaten the genocide of Muslims across the nation and praises the president-elect.

Pistols to rifles Philip Smith, founder of the 14,000-member National African American Gun Association told NBC News that his members are buying a range of guns, from Glock handguns to AR-15 rifles to AK-47 semi-automatic weapons to 9-millimeter pistols.

“Most folks are pretty nervous about what kind of America we’re going to see over the next 5-10 years,” he said, adding that fears include those of an “apocalyptic end result where there’s anarchy, jobs are gone, the

OBAMACARE

economy is tipped in the wrong direction and everyone has to fend for themselves.”

The increase in gun purchases among non-Whites after Trump’s victory reflect an upswing that has been reflected over the past eight years, according to research.

According to a July 2016 research paper by John Lott Jr. of the Crime Prevention Research Center, the number of concealed handgun permits during President Obama’s tenure soared to 14.5 million, a 215 percent increase since 2007. The uptick, he noted, was largely driven by non-Whites whose permit-holding was increasing about 75 percent more than among Whites.

General fearfulness?

The vast majority of gun owners say that “having a gun makes them feel safer,” says a Pew Research Center report on gun ownership in America. The 2013 Pew Report indicates that far

million in California and more than 1 million in Georgia and Florida. More than 500,000 would lose coverage in Missouri and more than 200,000 in Mississippi and Kansas.

reducing the number of uninsured Americans. Losing federal subsidies to buy insurance would force many to simply drop their coverage.

And because healthier people would drop coverage faster, premiums would rise as insurers find a higher percentage of their customers are sick. That would leave some insurers with insufficient funds to cover claims and force others to leave the market entirely.

Eventual collapse

Few choices

The new analysis predicts the coverage losses would also contribute to a “death spiral” collapse of the revamped individual insurance market and cause charitycare costs to skyrocket for hospitals and state and local governments unless new funding is provided.

The additional 29.8 million uninsured would require an extra $88 billion in uncompensated care in 2019 and an extra $1.1 trillion from 2019 to 2028, the report estimated.

The chaos would undo much of the progress the health care law has made in

“To replace the ACA after reconciliation with new policies designed to increase insurance coverage, the federal government would have to raise new taxes, substantially cut spending, or increase the deficit,” the report said.

The research underscores the complex policy and political considerations that may make it difficult to repeal President Obama’s signature legislation without first having a plan to replace it.

from A1

No easy task Even though Congress has voted more

Specific issues

more Americans cite protection – rather than hunting or other activities – as the main reason they own guns today A national survey finds that nearly half of gun owners (48%) volunteer that the main reason they own a gun is for protection; just 32% say they have a gun primarily for hunting and even fewer cite other reasons, such as target shooting. In 1999, 49% said they owned a gun mostly for hunting, while just 26% cited protection as the biggest factor,” according to the report.

Safety also is a major concern among the majority of Americans who don’t have guns in their homes. According to Pew, “nearly six-in-10 (58 percent) of those in households without guns say they would be uncomfortable having a gun in their homes. When asked why they would be uncomfortable, more cite concerns over gun accidents and safety than any other factor.”

than 50 times to repeal the health law and President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to sign legislation to do that when he takes office next month, Obamacare advocates say doing away with ACA will be easier said than done.

In January, Congress passed a reconciliation bill repealing large portions of the Affordable Care Act with federal budget implications. But Obama vetoed the measure. With Republicans soon to control the House, Senate and White House, GOP lawmakers could pass a similar reconciliation bill in early 2017.

Doing so would allow them to eliminate the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, federal funding to help purchase marketplace coverage and the individual and employer mandates that require most individuals to purchase health coverage and certain employers to provide coverage or face financial penalties.

Because the previous GOP reconciliation bill delayed repeal of most budget-related ACA provisions for two years, the Urban Institute analysis does likewise, projecting the cost and coverage changes of a

“This investigation is a great step in addressing the discipline disparities that disproportionately harm Black children and students with disabilities in Pinellas County Schools and documenting the harms that young people on the ground have long been experiencing.

“We are proud to stand in solidarity with The Dream Defenders in their continued fight to organize and work with communities to ensure all students are able to learn in an environment that prioritizes their well-being and success. We urge the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to complete a thorough investigation and reach a resolution agreement that incorporates thoughtful community input.

“We must continue to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline that inappropriately applies criminal justice standards to youth in school settings. We applaud the work of Dream Defenders and look forward to their continued campaign to reimagine schools as free of harmful policing and surveillance practices that negatively impact outcomes for Black students and those with disabilities.”

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights will investigate: • Whether the school district discriminated against students on the basis of race and disability by subjecting them to more discipline, arrest and restraint than similarly situated White students and non-disabled students.

• Whether the school district, on a district-wide basis, disciplines African-American students more severely than similarly situated students of other races.

• Whether the school district, on a district-wide basis, disciplines more severely and uses restraint more often on disabled students than similarly situated non-disabled students.

• Whether the school district’s administration of discipline has denied students with disabilities a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE).

Go online to http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2015/investigations/pinellas-failure-factories/ to read the entire Tampa Bay Times series.

2017 reconciliation bill to 2019.

Shrinks budget To the delight of fiscal hawks, a reconciliation bill repealing the ACA would cause federal health care spending for children and working-age adults to shrink by $109 billion in 2019 and by $1.3 trillion over the years from 2019 to 2028 as the Medicaid expansion, premium tax credits and costsharing assistance disappear.

States would also cut their spending for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program by $4 billion in 2019 and by $76 billion from 2019 to 2028.

But the savings would be offset in part by the cost of uncompensated care, the analysis said.

Billions for care The federal government would likely spend $23 billion for charity care in 2019 and $262 billion from 2019 to 2028, according to the analysis.

State and local governments would pay $14 billion for charity care in 2019 and $164 billion the following decade.

DECEMBER 9 – DECEMBER 15, 2016

FLORIDA

A3

Pulse owner won’t sell nightclub to city

BY JEFF WEINER AND GAL TZIPERMAN LOTAN ORLANDO SENTINEL/TNS

ORLANDO – The city of Orlando’s deal to buy Pulse fell through on Monday, when owner Barbara Poma said she could not bring herself to sell the nightclub she founded in memory of her brother.

Clutching her husband’s hand for support, Poma told reporters during a news conference outside the club that she struggled with the decision.

“This decision truly came just from my heart and my passion for Pulse, and everything it’s meant to me and my family for the last 12 years since its inception,” she said. “So I think the struggle was you know, letting it go, and it’s just something I could not come to grips with.”

Memorial planned Poma’s announcement came about a month after Mayor Buddy Dyer’s staff revealed the city had negotiated a $2.25 million purchase price for the

club, a landmark in the gay community where a gunman killed 49 patrons and wounded dozens more on June 12.

The city hoped to build a permanent memorial on the land.

District 4 Commissioner Patty Sheehan, who had urged the city’s purchase of Pulse, expressed disappointment Monday and dismay that some of her colleagues on the City Council had balked at the proposed price.

“I’m distressed by the decision, but I support Bar-

Barbara Poma, right, the owner of the Pulse Nightclub and her husband Rosario Poma, conduct a news conference on Monday at the Pulse Nightclub.

bara’s decision,” Sheehan said.

Vote was delayed Poma said she did not yet know what the site would look like in the future.

She has been raising money under a nonprofit called the onePULSE Foundation.

Though most of the funds raised in 2016 have been promised to the National Compassion Fund, 10 percent will be set aside for a “permanent memorial at the existing site of Pulse Nightclub,” the founda-

RED HUBER/ORLANDO SENTINEL/TNS

tion’s website says.

The City Council had been set to vote Nov. 14 on purchasing the

4,500-square-foot building on a third of an acre at South Orange Avenue and West Esther Street. But Dyer delayed the vote after some commissioners expressed concern about the price.

Squabble over price City staff had appraised the property at $1.65 million, as it existed before the killings. Commissioners Tony Ortiz and Jim Gray objected, with Ortiz telling WFTV he was “not going to allow for somebody to capitalize on such a tragedy.”

Gray said his opposition didn’t reflect a judgment of Poma’s motives, but rather of the dollars and cents of the transaction.

“She offered a price and I just, from my perspective, wasn’t willing to pay the price that she wanted,” he said.

Sheehan argued the city has paid above appraised value for property before.

“You never want to enter into a real estate transaction while you insult the seller and I am deeply distressed by some of the things that were being said,” Sheehan said. “Barbara Poma is a victim in this, as well.”

‘About the emotion’ Poma said she made the decision not to sell around Thanksgiving, and the City Council’s public debate about her asking price “didn’t offend me.”

“Everyone’s entitled to their opinion and their feelings but, for me, it wasn’t about the real estate and the appraisal, it was about the emotion, what happened here,” she said.

Heather Fagan, Dyer’s deputy chief of staff, acknowledged Poma’s decision in a statement.

“We understand that this was an incredibly difficult decision for the owners,” the city’s statement said.

“We respect their decision and are hopeful the Pulse site continues to be a place of hope and healing that honors the victims.”

Iconic gay bar Since the massacre, the club has become a place of mourning for visitors and locals alike.

Had the city bought the club, Dyer had proposed leaving it as-is for a time while soliciting community input on what form a permanent memorial there should take.

Dyer’s office said city staff “will continue to research and understand how other communities have approached the memorial process.”

Poma opened the bar in 2004, naming it Pulse in honor of her brother John, who had AIDS and died in 1991. It was often the first gay bar a young person would visit in Orlando.

Did you know that smart technology can help you save?

Smart thermostats have been proven to save, on average, 450 kWh per year, or about $50 annually. Find even more smart ways to thelp you save money and lower your bill when you take FPL’s Online Home Energy Survey. Go to FPL.com/EasyToSave to see how you can save up to $250 a year.

What’s next?

Terry DeCarlo, executive director of the GLBT Center of Central Florida, said he counseled Poma as she weighed her options, urging her to “go with what’s in your heart.”

“I would not wish what this woman is going through on any person in the world,” he said.

DeCarlo said it’s too soon to say what comes next for Pulse.

“It’s so early,” he said.

“I’m sure, within the next few months, things will come out and (Poma), with input from others, people that were there and other organizations, will come up with a plan.”

EDITORIAL

A4

DECEMBER 9 – DECEMBER 15, 2016

Castro paradoxes can’t be reduced to black, white Fidel Castro, Cuba’s leader for almost six decades, has died at 90. USA Today’s headline read, “No Mourning in Miami.” The Washington Post featured testimonies condemning Castro’s authoritarian government.

A revolutionary, a brutal dictator who sided with the USSR in the Cold War, a sponsor of guerilla wars, leader of a failed economy – Castro’s death has unleashed the full indictment against him.

Another side We need a broader view, a more clear-eyed analysis of the man and his times.

Why was this leader of a small island nation 90 miles off our coast celebrated across Africa and Latin America? How could he survive the determined efforts of the U.S. government to oust him, outlasting 11 American presidents? Why did Nelson Mandela praise and thank him?

Castro led the Cuban Revolution against a brutal dictator to victory in 1959. Always more a devotee of Marti – the Cuban poet and patriot who led the revolt against Spain – than of Marx, Castro set out to nationalize foreign companies that owned and dominated most of the island, implement land reform, expand schools and clinics, and set Cuba on an independent course.

There were victims of the revolution, for whom we continue to seek family unification. Some elites and some common people fled the turmoil of revolution.

Relations with the U.S. quickly soured.

Targeted for death John Kennedy signed off on the “covert” Bay of Pigs invasion

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

by a CIA-organized and-trained army of Cuban exiles. They were defeated easily, and the CIA never forgave Castro for the embarrassment.

The U.S. launched multiple assassination attempts, enforced an economic embargo and tried various ways to sabotage the Cuban economy. Cut off from the hemisphere, Castro turned to the Soviet Union, which supplied oil and aid. The U.S. strangled and starved him into strength.

Castro’s defiance and pride consolidated the hatred of U.S. governing circles. He exported doctors and teachers, while the U.S. exported weapons and war.

Across the world – and in parts of the U.S. – Castro was and is celebrated.

He stood with Africans against European imperialism and South African apartheid. He stood with Latin Americans against Yankee domination and corrupt local regimes. He dispatched doctors across the world to non-aligned nations, earning friends and saving lives.

Fought apartheid In 1975, he launched an audacious airlift of Cuban troops to repel the South African invasion of Angola, marking the beginning of the end for apartheid. He celebrated Mandela while the U.S. government was supporting the apartheid government and labeling Mandela a terrorist.

In 1959, Castro came to the

What’s the return on our investment?

Having read some of the postelection statements by our top Black organizations, and after watching some of their leaders on TV news shows, I thought about the effectiveness of our champions for civil rights, economic empowerment, and political empowerment. How effective have they been in terms of gains for the collective of Black people, their primary constituents?

While they are mostly run by Black people and receive millions of dollars from Black members and supporters, the reciprocal benefits returned by these organizations are lacking.

Marches and walks In exchange for Black dollars, Blacks get “no justice, no peace” marches, demonstrations, 860-mile walks, voter registration campaigns, reports on how bad a shape we are in, emails that ask us for more money, press conferences, and awards programs.

The “Big Three” Black organizations – the NAACP, the Urban

JAMES CLINGMAN TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE

League, and the National Action Network – despite having tens of millions of dollars collectively, and despite having the gravitas to be invited to the White House to discuss “Black issues” and the “Black agenda,” give Black people the same old song and dance when it comes to empowerment.

Their mantras, “...equality of rights for ‘all’ persons,” “To Be Equal,” and “No Justice, No Peace” respectively, ring hollow and have not solved the myriad of problems we face.

They have been in existence for 107, 106, and 25 years, respectively. They have worked on important issues and have developed various programs. But because they are controlled by the purse strings (puppet strings) of corporate donors, these vaunted Black

Random thoughts of a free Black mind, v. 289 Aging is a contact sport – It’s been a while! I’ve been traveling.

For the past 10 years, one of my college schoolmates has annually thrown a big birthday shindig in the Bahamas. I was hesitant to go this year because I had too many things going on…until one of my travel buddies told me, “Man I wish I had 40-year relationships like you have! I’d go in a heartbeat.”

So I changed my mind, took

QUICK TAKES FROM #2: STRAIGHT, NO CHASER

CHARLES W. CHERRY II, ESQ. PUBLISHER

the 40-minute flight to Nassau, and roomed with one of my Morehouse College classmates.

United Nations in New York City.

He chose to stay in the Hotel Teresa in Harlem and met with Malcolm X, acts scorned as a publicity stunt. But in 1959, African-Americans couldn’t stay in White hotels across the South.

We lived under the American version of apartheid. Neighborhoods across the country were redlined by race.

Castro was the first Cuban leader to recognize his country’s large Black population, descended from slaves, and to help integrate them into national life. Castro’s embrace of civil rights was an electric message across the Black community in the U.S.

Willing to listen When I first met Castro in 1984, I found him to be a magnetic personality, a brilliant mind and a proud leader. I was told I couldn’t talk to him about religion. We talked for hours.

He told me he had once loved the church and thought of it as a center of activism and social justice, not just piety. But when he came down out of the mountains after defeating the brutal dictator, he was shocked and heartbroken to find the priests armed and ready to kill to defend the graveyards of the rich.

I reminded him of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the other theologians of liberation, and Castro came to church with me in Havana. It was the first time Castro had gone to church in 27 years. I had to remind him to take off his hat and put out his cigar.

We laughed and settled in for the service. I was told he wouldn’t talk about political prisoners. We talked, and he released 48 prisoners to me. organizations cannot make headway for Black people.

Safe interviews As the go-to guys for cable news shows, the heads of the “Big Three” – Cornell Brooks, Marc Morial, and Al Sharpton – either have a great deal of personal influence, or the news show hosts know they are “safe” and will not say what really needs to be said, and even be irate, about Black issues. They are usually tepid in their rejoinders regarding serious Black issues. They are more inclined to talk about “all” and “people of color” and “rainbows” and “minorities.”

Because everything in this country is driven by economics, we understand the penchant for the Big Three and other smaller groups to go only so far in their public on-camera responses to the concerns of Black folks. It’s all about protecting the “old coffers,” to borrow a George W. Bush term.

Speaking of coffers, former NAACP President Ben Jealous received an annual salary of $320,000. Cornell Brooks, his successor, left a job that paid him more than $240,000 per year to accept $150,000 from the NAACP, despite the interim president, Lorraine Miller, being paid over He was slowly making his way back from deaths of his mom and younger brother (a doctor who suffered a fatal stroke), then a job loss (he has a law degree), then divorce, then his own stroke in April. He could speak, but was paralyzed for a week, and was bedridden for 30 days.

This is the first time he’s traveled since the stroke, and he’s grateful for every day.

One factor in living life successfully is RESILIENCE – bouncing back from adversity and to keep living successfully. My classmate made it to Nassau, participated with everyone, and kept me laughing as we reminisced about college and life afterwards.

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: ELECTION RECOUNTS AND DEMOCRATS

RICK MCKEE, THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE

Hero and mentor In later years, Castro’s government cooperated with the U.S. in countering terrorism. His health and education systems became the envy of much of the hemisphere. He was hero and mentor to a new generation of populist nationalists across the hemisphere – from Hugo Chavez in Venezuela to Evo Morales in Bolivia.

Castro’s legacy is surely mixed.

Under constant threat from abroad, he jailed political enemies, suppressed free speech and trampled on rights. Cuba’s economy stagnated, particularly after the Soviet Union fell apart, but it survived despite being cut off from a major logical trading partner.

U.S. enmity helped make Castro a global hero, a symbol of the possibility of independence for developing nations, but it inflicted great costs upon the Cuban people. The U.S. recognized and traded with the Soviet Union, with communist China, with brutal regimes from Saudi Arabia to $160,000. Supposedly, the NAACP was in a “financial crunch” during the interim period after Jealous helped raise some $43 million in revenues.

Brooks, considering his prior experience, undoubtedly is paid considerably more than $150,000 now. Taking a $90,000-per-year cut in salary without a promise or contract calling for a significant raise in the near future makes sense only if you “got it like that.”

Excellent salaries With total revenues of $53 million-plus, the National Urban League compensated President Marc Morial a tidy sum of $836,000 in 2014. An additional five employees received approximately $300,000 each in total compensation for that same year. We don’t know what they are earning now, but it’s a good bet their salaries are higher.

The smallest of the Big Three, the National Action Network, a 501(c) 4 association, did so well with corporate donations in 2014 that Sharpton was able to give himself a 70 percent raise from $241,545 to $412,644.

Before the hating begins, please know that I am all for Black folks making money, as long as it’s legal, ethical, and moral, of which I Meanwhile, your humble writer left it all on the dance floor for two days, walked up and down the Paradise Island beach, then marched behind a junkanoo band for almost 30 minutes and lived to tell the story. All I need is a beat and some adult beverages…

Pearl Harbor attack, the 75th anniversary – My daughter Chayla and the leadership team of South Plantation High School did a great job in doing a virtual “Honor Flight” to annually recognize World War II veterans who could not be flown to Washington D.C., to tour the World War II Memorial there. It was a great ceremony, complete

Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher

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

CREDO OF THE BLACK PRESS The Black Press believes that Americans can best lead the world away from racism and national antagonism when it accords to every person, regardless of race, color or creed, full human and legal rights. Hating no person, fearing no person. The Black Press strives to help every person in the firm belief...that all are hurt as long as anyone is held back.

Dr. Glenn W. Cherry, Sales Manager

W W W.FLCOURIER.COM

Dr. Valerie Rawls-Cherry, Human Resources

Charles W. Cherry, Sr. (1928-2004), Founder Julia T. Cherry, Senior Managing Member, Central Florida Communicators Group, LLC Dr. Glenn W. Cherry, Cassandra CherryKittles, Charles W. Cherry II, Managing Members

Jenise Morgan, Senior Editor Angela van Emmerik, Creative Director Chicago Jones, Eugene Leach, Louis Muhammad, Lisa Rogers-Cherry, Circulation Penny Dickerson, Staff Writer Duane Fernandez Sr., Kim Gibson, Photojournalists

MEMBER

Florida Press Association

National Newspaper Publishers Association

Society of Professional Journalists

National Newspaper Association

Associated Press

Pinochet’s Chile, but the embargo against Cuba went on and on.

When Barack Obama came to the White House, he discovered that instead of isolating Castro, the embargo was isolating the U.S. in our own hemisphere. After nearly 60 years of a frozen failed policy, the U.S. finally has started small steps toward normal relations.

We aren’t naïve Castro was no saint; the Cuban regime was repressive and wrong-headed about many things. But we shouldn’t view Castro solely from the perspective of those who fled the revolution or of the Cold Warriors and covert operators who spent decades who spent decades trying to bring him down.

We won’t understand the perversity of our own policies if we don’t understand why Castro’s leadership is celebrated across much of the world.

The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. is president and CEO of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. make no judgments in the cases I cited. I’m simply writing about ROI (Return on Investment) for Black dollars.

Over the past 25-50 years, Black folks have invested billions of dollars into our Black organizations, and that’s not even counting our churches. Question: What dividends have we received in return for those investments? You can be the judge of that; it’s your money.

Ask some questions But as handsomely as the leaders of our organizations are paid, and as well as our politicians are taken care of, we should all be asking a few questions.

Are we in this just to provide good jobs for a few individuals?

Do we really expect them to deliver anything of substance to us?

How much longer are we willing to follow this path?

What is our return on investment?

James E. Clingman is the nation’s most prolific writer on economic empowerment for Black people. His latest book, “Black Dollars Matter! Teach Your Dollars How To Make More Sense,” is available on his website, Blackonomics.com, and Amazon Kindle eBooks. with video of the actual memorial and a celebratory parade.

However, this year, there were no Black WW II, Korean Conflict, or Vietnam veterans in attendance. Our WW II veterans are called “The Greatest Generation.” If that’s the case, what does that make the Black, Asian, and Native American veterans of that war who bled and died for a country that treated German prisoners of war better than they treated the nonWhite soldiers who help defeat them?

Hit me up at ccherry2@ gmail.com.

Central Florida Communicators Group, LLC, P.O. Box 48857 Tampa, FL 33646, publishes the Florida Courier on Fridays. Phone: 877-352-4455, toll-free. For all sales inquiries, call 877-352-4455; e-mail sales@flcourier.com.

Subscriptions to the print version are $69 per year. Mail check to P.O. Box 48857 Tampa, FL 33646, or log on to www.flcourier.com; click on ‘Subscribe’.

SUBMISSIONS POLICY SEND ALL SUBMISSIONS TO NEWS@FLCOURIER.COM. Deadline for submitting news and pictures is 5 p.m. the Monday before the Friday publication date. You may submit articles at any time. However, current events received prior to deadline will be considered before any information that is submitted, without the Publisher’s prior approval, after the deadline. Press releases, letters to the editor, and guest commentaries must be e-mailed to be considered for publication.

The Florida Courier reserves the right to edit any submission, and crop any photograph, for style and clarity. Materials will not be returned.

DECEMBER 9 – DECEMBER 15, 2016

12 post-election ideas from frontline organizers When you find yourself in a suddenly darkened room, what do you do?

Some rush blindly to where they think the door might be. Others stand still, let their eyes get adjusted to the different environment, re-orient themselves, then cautiously and sensitively, move forward. Some search out people who might be able to show the way.

Post-election, a lot of people are re-assessing and searching for the best way forward. Here are some ideas from experienced, thoughtful people who are organizing on the front lines.

1. You were born for this time.

My friend Cherri Foytlin, a mother who lives in rural Louisiana in a deeply Republican area, gives her life organizing to protect our earth, water and the rights of indigenous people. For that she has been arrested and is subject to death threats. Right after the election, she wrote: “Fear no evil. Joy and Love still live, and it is up to us to build the shelter for the Hope that they provide. Lower those pointed fingers, we will need them to grasp the hammer and forge the nails. Do not give in to your righteous anxieties. Our heroes have never left us. All the good that ever was, it is still here. You were born for this time.”

2. Join allies. Marisa Franco, one of the founders of Mijente, calls on Latinos and AfricanAmericans to join with Whites who didn’t go for Trump. “No one is going to build it, no one is going to give it to us. Positioning folks like the people in Arizona who built resilience and strength, positioning people who have been survivors to teach others. People in the South, in Arizona have been doing that for years,” she said.

“We’ve got to build bridges across communities.”

3. Fight and dig in for the long haul. Jaribu Hill of the Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights: “At a time when Black women and men are murdered under the color of law, as the great Medgar Evers said, we cannot let up now!

At a time when trans peoples are murdered by homophobic hatemongers, we cannot let up now!

At a time when thousands of immigrants are targeted for exploitation and deportation, we cannot let up now!”

Patricia Cullors, one of the founders of Black Lives Matter, insisted, “You don’t negotiate with hate. I don’t think now is the time for diplomacy. Now is the time to stand up around what is right and what’s wrong.”

Dave Archambault, Tribal Chair

BILL QUIGLEY GUEST EDITORIAL

“It’s hard to know what to say in a moment like this. Many of us are reeling from the news and shaken to the core about what a Trump presidency will mean for the country, and the difficult work ahead for our movements. ... The hardest thing to do right now is to hold on to hope, but it’s what we must do. We should feel our anger, mourn, pray, and then do everything we can to fight hate together.”

May Boeve 350.org of Standing Rock, challenges us to dig in for the long haul. “In honor of our future generations, we fight this pipeline to protect our water, our sacred places, and all living beings.... We’re about protecting our future. And that’s what he should be about.

“How can I protect my future so that 50 years from now, 100 years from now, there’s something there? And that if we continue to do what we’re doing at the pace that we’re doing it, in 50 years we’re going to see mass destruction because Mother Earth cannot sustain herself with all the activity that’s taking place.”

God bless the hypocritical liberal that’s got his own A survey was taken after TaNehisi Coates’s article, “The Case for Reparations,” went viral in 2014. The results were all but unanimous – 94 percent of White American respondents said they were opposed.

Though it’s fair to assume that such a high percentage of naysayers include liberals and KKK sympathizers (or actual members), progressives and White nationalists, devoted feminists and the 53 percent of White women who voted for Donald Trump, their disagreement with Coates was “very unfair,” as Trump would say.

Remnant of slavery White liberals have reached their boiling point per the outcome of the presidential election. They curse the Electoral College, a vestige from American chattel slavery.

Their demand – that ballot holders of this outdated system flip their vote come December 19 – is not only righteous, it’s the only way to project the general U.S. public as not being a bunch of democracy deniers.

However, acknowledging the damage occasioned by the Electoral College this election season without recognizing the lasting harms caused by America’s original sin puts liberals in a “Catch 22” of epic, hypocritical proportions.

Trump spoke an inconvenient truth: “The system is rigged.”

Liberals have jumped on his bandwagon.

But can they dump the messenger, challenging the legitimacy of the Electoral College after Hillary’s overwhelming pop-

JULIAN COLA BLACK AGENDA REPORT

However, acknowledging the damage occasioned by the Electoral College this election season without recognizing the lasting harms caused by America’s original sin puts liberals in a “Catch 22” of epic, hypocritical proportions. ular vote victory, while ignoring calls for conciliation and reparatory justice as it pertains to Black people in America?

A longtime hoax The infamous Electoral College was, in fact, a governmental scheme, nothing less than a convivial compromise between Northern politicians and slave-

4. Humility, grief and hope.

Equality Louisiana’s message the day after the election began with, “We’re not sure what to say either.” Humility is a starting point for knowledge. Like Socrates said, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” Likewise, it is okay to grieve.

That said, neither humility nor grief is an excuse for paralysis or inaction. May Boeve, of 350.org: “It’s hard to know what to say in a moment like this. Many of us are reeling from the news and shaken to the core about what a Trump presidency will mean for the country, and the difficult work ahead for our movements. Trump’s misogyny, racism, and climate denial pose a greater threat than we’ve ever faced, and the battleground on which we’ll fight for justice of all kinds will be that much rougher. The hardest thing to do right now is to hold on to hope, but it’s what we must do. We should feel our anger, mourn, pray, and then do everything we can to fight hate together.”

5. Courage. Pablo Alvarado of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network stated, “Fear has been the driving force of this presidential election. A fear which has spurred hatred, promoted violence and created an environment where families worry about their future, about their loved ones. Fear won last night, but this type of fear can only be defeated by courage and action.” Likewise, Justin Hansford wrote, “Woke up this morning, mind stayed on freedom. Stop acting like we never took a loss before, then won.

My ancestors stared slavery in the face.”

6. Listen to and talk face-toface with people. Social media is not a substitute for human-to-human communication. As Dream Defenders suggests: “We know it can be tempting to use social media as a way to engage in this moment, to understand where our people are at and to tell people what we think they are doing wrong. But right now, we need to stay centered, to foster actual human connection and build a shared commitment to struggle together.” Listening is part of our orientation. We listen to pick up clues from our fellow seekers about what is the best path, the best next step.

7. Solidarity. “Solidarity is our protection,” the Rev. Deborah Lee of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity in California told David Bacon. “Our best defense is an organized community committed to each other and bound together with all those at risk…We holding Southerners. Neither wanted Black people – “slaves” in the American psyche (or psychosis) – to vote.

Whereas the North, having a majority of the U.S. population at the time, preferred a direct voting system to win elections, the South wished to have enslaved Black people represented in the final tally to improve their electability.

A settlement was reached between both parties, enshrining in the Constitution that enslaved Black people would be considered three-fifths of a human being. James Madison, defending the Constitution’s treatment of African-descendants as part human and part commodity declared: “The true state of the case is that they partake of both these qualities: being considered by our laws, in some respects, as persons, and in other respects as property... The federal Constitution, therefore, decides with great propriety on the case of our slaves, when it views them in the mixt character of persons and of property. This is in fact their true character. It is the character bestowed on them by the laws under which they live; and it will not be denied that these are the proper criterion...”

Haven’t lost much

EDITORIAL

A5

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: DONALD TRUMP AND FLAG-BURNING

PETER BROELMAN, AUSTRALIA

ask faith communities to consider declaring themselves ‘sanctuary congregations’ or ‘immigrantwelcoming congregations.’”

DRUM (Desis Rising Up & Moving), an organization of South Asian and Indo-Caribbean immigrants – most of whom are Muslims and most of whom are undocumented – called for action.

“In the words initially chanted by working-class youth of the British Asian Youth Movement against neo-Nazi fascism, we are ‘here to stay and here to fight’ in solidarity with our Black, Latino, LGBTQ, women and worker communities.”

8. Resistance. The Center for Constitutional Rights election statement was stark. “The dangers of a Trump presidency go beyond the attacks on people of color, women, Muslims, immigrants, refugees, LGBTQI people, and people with disabilities.

His campaign was marked by the strategies and tactics of authoritarian regimes: endorsing and encouraging violence against political protesters, threatening to jail his opponent, refusing to say he would accept the results of the election if he lost, punishing critical press. Together with all those who value freedom, justice, and self- determination, we must resist and prevent at all costs a slide into American fascism.” They concluded, “Resistance is our civic duty.”

9. Continue building local and state power. Sergio Sosa, director of Nebraska’s Heartland Workers Center, reflected on their 20-year history of community and workplace organizing. “People here have to remember the power they’ve built on a local level and use it,” Sosa says, “even in the face of a national defeat.”

10. Look outward globally.

Kathy Kelly, of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, an activist in the U.S. and Iraq and Afghanistan, insisted on renewing our global connec-

tions. “Many U.S. people awoke this week with a new understanding of the dangers facing our common life together. These battles we fight are not a game, and they can escalate into even direr realities. I look to Afghanistan, I look to the simple facts faced by the Standing Rock protesters, and I know we must look back to the sorrows which so much of the world will commemorate today.

These sorrows, so painfully real, can help all of us yearn above all for an understanding by people worldwide, and here in my own frightened, divided country – an understanding that we live in a real world, beset with multiple wars, and must at last turn to each other, prepared to live more simply, share resources more radically, and abolish all wars in order to build a real peace.”

11. Working people. Adolph Reed demands that organizing must address the concerns of working people. “Defeating these reactionary tendencies will require crafting a politics based on recognition that the identity shared most broadly in the society is having to or being expected to work for a living and that that is the basis for the solidarity necessary to prevail and, eventually, to make a more just and equitable society.”

12. Organize. Organize. Organize. We must organize intelligently. Unless we organize in a thoughtful and humble way that understands the dynamics of race, class, gender, and place, as my friend Ron Chisom of The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond likes to say, “We will not be organizing, but disorganizing.”

There is no shortcut. We cannot organize for peace and justice if we do not model peace and justice in our organizing.

al College petition to void Donald Trump’s presidency and elect Hillary Clinton. The petition has reached over four million signatures in less than a week.

Hypocrisy runs rampant, as it always has, in America. White liberals’ carefully guarded bubble of “edumucated” self-righteousness doesn’t even allow them to utter the same words of their so-called political foe to say, “Yes, the system IS rigged.”

Instead, they carry protest signs.

ties in which he stated, “We are warning you that all those who will come to our land to trade in slaves will be killed and massacred if you do not send our children back.”

Resistance was so widespread that White slave traders had to build fortified forts and barracoons along the west coast of Africa. Jean-Baptiste Durand of the Compaigne du Sénégal attested that protection was needed “from the foreign vessels and from the Negroes living in the country.”

We can also rest assured that at no point did Africans ever sell hundreds of years of White slave masters, lynch mobs, fleeced labor, cotton fields, the KKK, or the copyrighted notion of White superiority to America.

America’s ‘best’ The problem is that The Donald represents the very best of America – a country that lectures Black people about the unviability of conciliation and reparatory justice. These arguments are shrouded in contrast and injustice.

Some are quick to say that the White power structures of today aren’t liable for the chattel slavery and Jim Crow of yesterday.

But in retrospect, all the resources and profits accrued by the founding forefathers, and American society as a whole, has been passed down, generation after generation, without any atonement for their crimes against humanity.

Others rush to claim that Africans sold Africans into slavery.

Even a Black man, Harvard-educated Henry Louis Gates, said it. Liberals to the Klan must have treasured his words like gold.

However, such vague references about Africans selling their own kind intentionally ignore historical African leaders who resisted White slave incursions such Queen Nzinga, Samori Touré, Abdoul Kader Kane, King Menelik II, and others.

White liberals, grief-stricken

by Trump’s presidential victory and their own highbrow inertia, have lost fairly little. They lost an election, but not hundreds of years of labor, their names, languages, cultures, and customs.

They insist upon repair, a rapid solution to an age-old problem. When White America devises a rigged electoral system to marginalize Black people, the joke’s not supposed to be on the “Send them back” Kader Kane, leader of the Futa jokesters.

Meanwhile, Lady Gaga urges Toro region in northern Senegal, all Americans to sign the Elector- wrote a letter to French authori-

Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer who teaches at Loyola University New Orleans.

Same motives El-Hajj Malik El Shabazz (popularly known as Malcolm X) often conferred an analogy to liberals and conservatives alike.

Though their mannerisms and methods differ, like the fox and the wolf, both have the same motives and appetite. The fox (liberals) smiles and professes to be a friend of the Negro. However, the big bad wolf (conservatives) maintains a fierce facial expression when hunting prey.

But if “Love Me I’m A Liberal” crusaders are stymied by or just plain tired of outdated analogies, I recommend a modern, contemporary take on your “Dump Trump” insignia.

Just remember the voice of the outgoing president: “The sun [will] come up in the morning.

We’re actually all on one team.”

Julian Cola has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Portuguese from the University of New Mexico. This column originally appeared on Black Agenda Report.

TOJ A6

NATION

DECEMBER 9 – DECEMBER 15, 2016

January march to challenge Trump’s attacks Sharpton and other civil rights leaders to participate in D.C. event during MLK weekend

BY HAZEL TRICE EDNEY TRICE EDNEY NEWS WIRE

In his victory speech the morning after the Nov. 8 election, President-Elect Donald Trump called for America to come together and promised to be the president of all Americas – even those who did not support him.

Despite his vitriolic, pit bull style of campaigning that won the hearts of the Ku Klux Klan, he continued his new tone and demeanor in his first Oval Office meeting with President Barack Obama.

Since the meeting, he has even conceded to keep some parts of the Affordable Health Care Act, known as Obama Care, and said he would not seek prosecution of his Democratic campaign rival Hillary Clinton because “I don’t want to hurt those people.”

Even in his Thanksgiving message, he made a special mention of the “inner cities” to double down on his campaign promise to improve Black neighborhoods.

Since the election, his staff has said he has spoken several times with Obama, seeking a smooth transition.

Not buying it It all sounds like a new and improved Donald Trump – far from the chants of “Lock her up!” But the leaders of the nation’s top seven civil rights organizations are not buying this softened, new and improved version of Trump.

They say it will not be his tone, but his actions that will determine what they will now do to guard against and protect any rollbacks on civil rights gains.

Their first sign that danger is nigh is Trump’s hiring of Stephen K. “Steve” Bannon, a founder of Breitbart news, the voice of the so-called “alt-right” White supremacists and racists across the nation.

Their second sign was Trump’s nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) for U.S. attorney general.

Sessions once said the Ku Klux Klan was alright with him until he learned that they smoked pot and was denied a federal judgeship in 1986 for a “slew of racist comments, including calling the work of the NAACP and ACLU ‘un-American’,” according to the NAACP.

Ministers unite “Whether one whispers or

OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS/TNS

President Barack Obama meets with President-elect Donald Trump on Nov. 10in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. in their first public step toward a transition of power. whether one shouts, if the message is the same what does it matter?” National Action Network President Rev. Al Sharpton said of Trump in response to a question during a phone conference between journalists and civil Rev. Al rights leaders.

Sharpton “I think we are mistaking his change in tone with change in content. He has said very loudly that he wants stop and frisk and that he supports the state laws that oppress voters” as well as anti-immigration stances,’’ Sharpton said.

Because of these issues – among other indicators that there is trouble ahead – Sharpton has announced a mass march during the Martin Luther King Holiday weekend in January – less than a week before the Trump inauguration, Jan. 20.

Sharpton said the National Action Network recently hosted a conference call with 413 ministers planning a Jan. 14 march,

“kicking off King week around the very theme that we will not be moved.’’

‘Being realists’ Sharpton was backed on the phone line by six other organizational heads that represents the nation’s largest civil rights organizations: Marc Morial of the National Urban League; Melanie Campbell of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; Wade Henderson of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; Cornell William Brooks of the NAACP; Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; and Kristin Clark of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “We are not being alarmists, we are being realists about the record of the incoming president-elect and what he has said.

If people are saying we’re not giving him a chance, we are willing to give him a chance. The problem is we are listening to what he has said,” Sharpton said.

Brooks said the NAACP is ready to employ every legal strategy necessary to fight against attacks.

He noted how racism, antiSemitism, xenophobia and misogyny became routine during the campaign. “When we look at the positions Mr. Trump took as a candidate, there is nothing to suggest that he is not fully committed to those positions as president. And his appointments indicate that he is doubling down on his campaign promises.”

Ball in Trump’s court Ifill said much of their action will be contingent upon the actions of Trump. “The ball is in Mr. Trump’s court and our job is to develop our strategy and to deal with what is likely to come to ensure that we are not only protecting civil rights but finding ways, even in this hostile climate, to advance civil rights,” she said.

Henderson and Clark made note of attacks that are already in full force against voting rights.

Clark said voter suppression efforts “put in place in the three years preceding the 2016 presidential election” by the Shelby County vs. Holder case, “opened up the flood gates.”

The result of Shelby v. Holder was the gutting of the Pre-

‘No place for me’

RICK LOOMIS/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Tauheedah Shakur, 20, of Los Angeles, works at the Youth Justice Coalition as an organizer.

Ugly memories and new fears for Blacks

BY JOE MOZINGO LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

LOS ANGELES — She can’t shake the memory — the sneering faces, the screaming, the wrath.

Francine Williams was one of about 30 Black students in New York City to integrate Lafayette High School in Brooklyn in 1965.

Before class let out one afternoon, a crowd had gathered outside in the predominantly Italian American neighborhood of Bensonhurst. Her teacher assured her that the school had a plan for this and told her and other Black students to gather in the lobby.

She thought that administrators would call their parents or the police. But instead the principal opened the front door and said, “We can protect you while you’re on school property. But now you have to leave.”

Her heart jack-hammered. She and her friends pushed through the protesters and endured threats, shoves and epithets, trying to reach the train. A man crammed a flier for a gun shop in her face, with an image of a pistol. “This is what we’re going to do to you.”

Outraged, terrified All those images have returned since Donald Trump won the

presidential election, she said.

They morph with video images of Trump supporters, faces twisted in rage, attacking Black protesters at campaign rallies.

Fran Sutton-Williams, 66, doesn’t fear Trump so much as the violence his supporters might unleash, feeling protected by his authority. They only shoved her in 1965.

“Now, I think they would hurt us,” she said, sitting at a coffee shop near her house in Los Angeles’ Pico-Robertson neighborhood.

African-Americans interviewed across Los Angeles tend to view Trump’s election — and his choice of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions to be U.S. attorney general — on a scale from nervous hope to doomsday dread. Some are blase, fatalistic maybe. Others are outraged, or terrified. And many cycle through all of those emotions, over and over.

“Me and my family are Muslims, we’re Black, I’m a woman,” said Tauheedah Shakur, 21, of South Los Angeles. “This election says there’s no place for me.”

The Trump win disappointed but did not shock her. “America has never been an inclusive place,” she said. “Now we have a president who says exactly what he feels.”

Because she used to wear a hijab and her name is Arabic, she’s endured affronts since the Sept.

11, 2001, terrorist attacks. People have shouted at her to go home.

“I will gladly go back to Georgia if you buy me a ticket,” Shakur replied once.

She’s bracing for more such interactions, noting a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center that tallied 300 hate incidents in the week after Trump won. Like Sutton-Williams, Shakur said that for now she is more worried about Trump’s followers than his government.

“I feel like somebody is going to attack my family,” she said.

Facing her fears But she has no plans to lie low.

A youth criminal-justice reform activist, she took to downtown streets to protest Trump in the last two weeks and was heartened to see thousands of faces of all colors doing the same.

“People of color are resilient,” she said. “We always face these things.”

Most of her friends and family see Trump as a phenomenon to fear and fight. Her grandmother grew up in Texas during the Jim Crow era and is terrified that the nation might return to those days.

Yet one acquaintance said she was happy Trump won because “he’s going to bring the jobs back.”

Shakur scoffed at that promise,

clearance Clause of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which required certain states and territories to get approval from the Justice Department before making any changes in voting policies.

During the Nov. 8 election Clark noted that African-American, Latino and others were blocked from voting at certain polls.

Voter suppression cited She described depressed voter turnout and voter suppression in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida and North Carolina. “Voter suppression had an impact on election day,” she said.

Henderson pointed out that states covered by Section 5 “have closed at least 868 polling places” since the Shelby decision in 2013, causing long lines to ensue.

Sharpton added, “In terms of his movement to the right and the flavor of White nationalism, we may have lost an election, but we have not lost our minds nor have we lost our ability to mobilize…We are going to keep street heat up.” but its optimism points to the unsettled atmosphere the country is under.

Plenty of questions For supporters and opponents alike, Trump’s lack of government experience or deep ideology, his erratic tweets and regular 180-degree reversals on policy have created a nationwide hold-yourbreath moment.

“He’s either going to cut his own throat or get it all together,” said Marshall Durden, 70, an Army veteran and handyman, at a 76 station in the Crenshaw District. “We’re just going to have to wait and see.”

He didn’t like the appointment of Sessions — a hard-line conservative on racial issues who has disparaged the Voting Rights Act. Would he try to suppress Black voters? Would he be willing to prosecute civil rights violations at this time of widespread unrest over police shootings of unarmed Black men?

But he is more scared of Trump’s chief strategist: Steve Bannon, the former editor of Breitbart News, a platform for White nationalist views.

Durden still looks at it all with a bit of dark humor.

“Like the KKK’s going to be parading around again,” he said, laughing at what should be the absurdity of that idea.

Two thoughts eased his mind.

The first: “I tell Black people this all the time: We’re not the only ones who don’t like him.”

The second came to him the day after the election, as he was putting in a kitchen floor for a client.

“What he said comforted me: ‘Man, this is none of our business.

That’s the White folks’ business.’”

No sense in worrying about it.

HEALTH FOOD || HEALTH TRAVEL | |MONEY SCIENCE | BOOKS | MOVIES | TV | AUTOS LIFE | FAITH | EVENTS | CLASSIFIEDS | ENTERTAINMENT | SPORTS | FOOD COURIER

IFE/FAITH

How Tracy Reese became top fashion designer See page B3

DECEMBER 9 – DECEMBER 15, 2016

SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE

Add a tasty twist to entertaining See page B5

SOUTH FLORIDA / TREASURE COAST AREA

|

WWW.FLCOURIER.COM

SECTION

B

S

‘They Can’t Kill Us All’ African-American reporter who was arrested in Ferguson looks back at the progress of the Black Lives Matter movement.

BY MIKE FISCHER MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

ROBERT COHEN/ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH/TNS

Huffington Post reporter Ryan J. Reilly is arrested when police officers suddenly closed a Ferguson, Mo., McDonald’s restaurant on West Florissant Avenue on Aug. 13, 2014. Wesley Lowery was arrested at the same time.

“How do you sleep when you know that soon you’ll need to tell the story of the death of yet another Black man?”

That’s the question journalist Wesley Lowery asked himself while lying restlessly in bed this past July when he learned he’d be covering the story of yet another Black man killed by the police.

At that point, it had been almost two years since Lowery — part of a team of Washington Post reporters who won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of police shootings — had been arrested after the police asked him to leave the Ferguson (Missouri) McDonald’s where he’d been charging his phone.

‘Constant stream of black death’ “They Can’t Kill Us All” is Lowery’s account of Ferguson and its aftermath, during which he covered what he chillingly but accurately designates the “constant stream of black death” he witnessed, from the protest movement that emerged after Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson through ensuing uprisings in cities including Cleveland, Baltimore and Charleston.

Lowery can get lost in the minutiae of those separate stories. He occasionally repeats himself. And his transitions can be disjointed — a consequence, I suspect, of wanting to include too much, and too many names, in this relatively brief account.

For all that, I highly recommend his book, and not just because the story he tells about why Black lives should matter — and, in America, often don’t — can’t ever be heard often enough.

Above: A citizen peacekeeper tries to keep protesters back as police advance on W. Florissant Avenue on Aug. 18, 2014 in Ferguson, Mo. CHRISTIAN GOODEN/ ST. LOUS POST-DISPATCH/TNS

Right: Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery was arrested while covering protest in Ferguson, Mo, on Aug. 13, 2014.

‘The dead looked like my father... brothers, and me’

BOOK REVIEW “They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement” by Wesley Lowery is published by Little Brown and Company.

(256 pages, $27)

What makes “They Can’t Kill Us All” more than a ripped-from-theheadlines chronicle is Lowery’s combination of solid reporting, emotional commitment to his story as a Black man and a reflective turn of mind.

See BOOKS, Page B6

Author takes dramatically different approach to fixing ghettos

BY DR. GLENN ALTSCHULER SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

Along with many other Americans, White as well as Black, Tommie Shelby wants to see the day that ghettos are abolished.

But abolition, he maintains, involves more than overcoming racial prejudice or reviving the War on Poverty. It will occur only as part of a “fundamental reform of the basic structure of American society.”

A professor of African and African American Studies and Philosophy at Harvard University, Shelby designed “Dark Ghettos’’ as a philosophical reflection on ghettos in the United States.

Inspired by Kenneth Clark’s “Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of SoTommie cial Power,’’ pubShelby lished some 50 years ago, his book does not lay out political strategies or policy proposals.

Instead, in chapters on community, culture, reproduction, family, work, crime, punishment and dissent, Shelby searches for “those deeper, more elusive and

more general ‘truths’ behind the familiar facts about poor black neighborhoods.”

Straightforward, radical The thesis of “Dark Ghettos’’ is straightforward and unabashedly radical.

Employing a “systemic-injustice model” rather than the “medical model that now reigns in policy circles,” Shelby insists that American society is so manifestly unjust that African-American ghetto dwellers, the victims of “racial stigma, neighborhood disadvantage, inadequate schools, fragile families, forced servitude, and shocking incarceration rates,” can legitimately refuse to behave in accordance with mainstream values or “respect the authority of the law qua law,” without “thereby violating the principle or reciprocity of shirking [otherwise] valid civic obligations.”

For this reason, Shelby maintains that the government is not justified in using welfare benefits to force poor, single Black women to make “responsible” reproductive choices; imposing work requirements on able-bodied adults; or even prosecuting (and jailing) ghetto Blacks for shoplift-

BOOK REVIEW Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform. By Tommie Shelby.

Harvard University Press. 340 pp. $29.95 ing, prostitution, welfare fraud, tax evasion, and selling some drugs to consenting adults.

Profound questions “Dark Ghettos’’ generates profound – and vexing – questions.

Is Shelby’s standard for “the just society” relative or absolute? Does he believe that poor

Whites in Appalachia, migrant farmers, and other Americans who have not been given “real opportunities to reach the goal of material comfort” are also “not being unreasonable when they choose crime as an alternative to subsistence living on welfare or through charity” – and that the state lacks the moral standing to punish them?

Can a state continue to function as a state if it cannot legitimately enforce laws? Does Shelby really think that a refusal to work and an increase in crime by ghetto Blacks will hasten root and branch reforms of the basic structure of American society?

Deserves a hearing Although Shelby does not adequately address these questions, “Dark Ghettos’’ deserves a hearing, even from readers, who, like me, are fighting him every step of the way.

Witness, for example, his provocative claim that biological fathers who have indicated to their sexual partners that they do not want to be parents and have used contraception should not be forced to pay child support.

Or his assertion that it would be better to provide greater public

support for single-mom families rather than encourage unions of biological parents (which sometimes result in exploitation and domestic abuse).

Or his demand that a right to work be coupled with a state obligation to maintain a full-employment economy, provide appropriate training and educational opportunities, and supply public sector jobs for those who cannot find work in the private sector.

Stark reminder At bottom, it seems to me, Shelby is a sophisticated academic agent provocateur, intent on spreading “impure dissent,” like the rap artists he admires.

With an insistent beat, “Dark Ghettos’’ will not let us forget that racial discrimination has not been eradicated and inequality is now greater and more entrenched. Shelby has issued a timely reminder that the status quo in the United States is unacceptable.

Dr. Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He wrote this review for the Florida Courier.

B2

WORLD

DECEMBER 9 – DECEMBER 15, 2016

STOJ

Cuba reaching out to world for foreign investors

BY MIMI WHITEFIELD MIAMI HERALD/TNS

MIAMI — For $2.5 million, a foreign investor can help create an international equestrian club in the province of Havana or plunk down $10 million to create a network of eco-lodges across the island with a Cuban partner.

For an estimated investment of more than $15 million, the welcome mat is out for a potential manufacturer of air-conditioning equipment in Cuba’s Mariel Special Economic Development Zone, and investors are also invited to negotiate the right to set up a plant capable of producing 10,000 light automobiles a year at the zone.

These are just a few of the 395 joint venture projects, management contracts and other economic partnerships that Cuba is offering foreign investors in the latest edition of its portfolio of opportunities, released last month.

What will U.S. do?

Under Law 118, Cuba revamped its foreign investment code in 2014, even allowing investors to set up factories with 100 percent foreign capital.

Although the law offered tax breaks and other benefits to investors, foreign companies still can’t directly hire Cuban workers and must go through a government agency for their labor needs.

But as Cuba courts foreign investors from around the globe, U.S. businesses might be getting further behind in their tentative efforts to make inroads in Cuba.

President-elect Donald Trump has said he might reverse Obama administration rules that allowed a rapprochement with Cuba unless the island’s leaders respect human rights and release political prisoners. And that throws even more uncertainty into the equation.

Investment priorities Meanwhile, the Cuban government is forging ahead with efforts to attract foreign capital.

In addition to the Mariel zone and tourism, the new investment portfolio also includes projects in the agriculture, sugar, energy, mining, transportation, biotech/ pharmaceutical, health, construction, business services, telecommunications, banking, and

AL DIAZ/MIAMI HERALD/TNS

Starwood Hotels & Resorts has signed a deal to operate Havana’s iconic Hotel Inglaterra in partnership with the Cuban government. But as Cuba courts investors from around the world, the prospects for U.S. business are unclear. finance and industrial sectors.

Here are a few more examples of what Cuba wants: Foreign capital for a clean, energy-efficient soybean processing plant and soy oil refinery. It would require an investment estimated at $149 million.

Hundreds of millions of dollars to set up various biotech factories.

A joint venture partner for Cuba’s CIMEX to build and operate a wholesale operation for food and industrial products. Cuba’s private business sector has long complained about the difficulty of finding products for their businesses at wholesale prices.

“There is now a new set of priorities for foreign investment.

Foreign companies know what Cuban companies are looking for, so there can be a match,” said Carlos Gutierrez, secretary of commerce in the George W. Bush administration and now chairman of the Albright Stonebridge Group, a commercial diplomacy

and strategic advisory firm.

Ready to go All of the projects in the Cuban portfolio have been thoroughly studied and are ready to go as soon as suitable foreign partners and capital are found, said Rodrigo Malmierca, Cuba’s minister of foreign trade and investment.

Until the 1990s — when the collapse of Cuba’s benefactor, the former Soviet Union, sent its economy into crisis, forcing it to make its first overtures to foreign investors — Cuba wasn’t really interested in reaching out to the world for investment. But Malmierca emphasized that Cuba’s increased interest in foreign investment now “isn’t a necessary evil.”

Instead, he said, it’s a cornerstone of Cuba’s current development strategy.

In addition to financing projects that will create jobs and help Cuba realize its goals of broadening export markets and replacing

imports, Cuba also wants foreign investment to increase its access to state-of-the-art technologies and management practices.

“The idea is to make Cuba a producer of products that were imported for domestic use and eventually a net exporter,” said Saul Cimbler, a Miami-area businessman who is working on joint venture deals with Cuba for himself and clients. “The whole idea is to make Cuba self-sufficient.”

Two big projects Cuba estimates that to reach a goal of 7 percent economic growth annually, it will need foreign investment of around $2.5 billion each year. Since Law 118 went into effect in early 2014, Cuba has attracted $1.3 billion in investments, Malmierca said.

But in November, Cuban media reported that two big foreign investment projects had broken ground at the Mariel zone: a joint venture of Unilever and Cuba’s

How India IRS scam cheated U.S. taxpayers In recent years, investigators in the United States, Canada, Britain and other countries have traced several organized phone frauds to Indian call centers.

Organized phone frauds Indian call centers have built a reputation for handling customer service and tech support inquiries for major U.S. companies.

But in recent years, investigators in the United States, Canada, Britain and other countries have traced several organized phone frauds — involving callers posing as computer technicians, debt collectors, immigration of-

plus commissions — a typical call-center salary, though far less than the amounts they extorted from individual victims.

“Any large country where the employment opportunities are few but the number of available graduates is high, you will always have the risk of illicit activities,” said K.S. Viswanathan, vice president of industry initiatives at Nasscom, an industry group that has worked with U.S. authorities to call-center fraud.

‘Normal call center’

BY SHASHANK BENGALI LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

THANE, India — Nearly an hour into the phone call, the woman began to get suspicious.

The man on the line said he was with the Internal Revenue Service and that she owed a penalty for tax fraud. But to make the payment, he told her to drive to a nearby Food 4 Less grocery store in suburban San Diego and purchase an iTunes gift card.

Twice he said she owed “1,000 rupees,” before correcting himself to say $1,000.

Even the name he gave, Daniel Parker, seemed odd. He spoke with a foreign accent and mangled basic phrases.

“Your name is Daniel Parker?

Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yeah, ma’am,” he replied. “I am sure.”

But it was too late. The National City, Calif., woman had already shared an iTunes card number worth $500 — becoming one of tens of thousands of Americans drawn in by an extensive, yearslong scam in which callers from India pose as IRS agents to extort money.

Intersuchel to build a $35 million factory that will turn out shampoo, deodorant, Lux soap, Omo detergent and Close-Up toothpaste and also BrasCuba Cigarillos, a Cuban and Brazilian joint venture that will make Popular, Cohiba and H. Upmann cigarettes in a $100 million state-ofthe-art factory.

Last summer, two French companies — Bouygues Batiment International and Aeroports de Paris — also were granted concessions to manage and renovate Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport and the aerodrome of San Antonio de los Banos, in Artemisa. Details of the contract are still being worked out.

The U.S. opening toward Cuba that began in December 2014 also seems to have spurred other nations around the world to take a second look at Cuba in the belief that the next step would be lifting the U.S. embargo, increasing competition for prime Cuban investment opportunities.

SHASHANK BENGALI/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Police in October raided this nine-story tower in Thane, India, where scammers posed as IRS agents to extort money from U.S. taxpayers. ficials or tax agents — to Indian call centers.

In recent years, investigators in the United States, Canada, Britain and other countries have traced several organized phone frauds — involving callers posing as computer technicians, debt collectors, immigration officials or tax agents — to Indian call centers.

Buildings raided On the surface, little sets the illicit call centers apart from legitimate ones. They operate almost in the open, using the same corporate-style office spaces and recruiting from the same vast pool of English-speaking college graduates — allowing the crimes to persist for years.

This year, the Federal Trade Commission described Indian call centers as “the source of various impostor frauds that have reached consumers throughout the English-speaking world.”

Last month, police in the northern Mumbai suburb of

Thane raided three office buildings suspected of being used to make the fraudulent IRS calls and rounded up more than 700 people for questioning. At least 70 remain behind bars as investigators have expanded the inquiry to include dozens of call centers in multiple Indian states.

Weeks later, the Justice Department announced the indictments of nearly 60 people in India and the United States for involvement in shady call centers that had conned more than 15,000 Americans out of hundreds of millions of dollars since 2012.

Blighted India’s image The scheme — part of what the IRS described in 2014 as the largest phone fraud to target Americans— has exposed a dark side of India’s $30 billion call-center industry.

“It has blighted the image of India,” said Parag Manere, deputy police commissioner in Thane.

“Someone who does this kind of

thing, they will not be tolerated.”

Yet the Thane police investigation and the federal indictments showed how the scam went on for several years despite growing concern in both countries.

Parag Manere

College grads recruited

The messages sent to Americans would warn recipients that he or she was suspected of tax fraud, and tell the people to call a U.S. number — routed to one of the call centers in India.

Authorities believe dozens of calls a day were fielded at the offices set up this year outside Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, whose large numbers of unemployed English-speaking college graduates were prime candidates for recruiters.

Police said entry-level callers were paid about $300 a month,

In Thane, most of the callers operated out of a nine-story tower called the Hari Om IT Park.

When it opened this year, police said, suspects used the cover of an outsourcing company and signed a lease to occupy six floors, installing desks and partitions to house hundreds of employees.

“There was nothing suspicious that we saw in that time,” said Prem Bahadur, the building’s caretaker. “It looked like a normal call center.”

A second office opened a month later, in a basement below a bank branch. The 4,800-squarefoot space was sublet from a tenant who had a five-year lease, and representatives of the landlord said they did not know the identities of the tenants.

Authorities believe these two offices and a third nearby brought in $150,000 to $225,000 a day.

“They knew they were cheating people,” Manere said. “But perhaps they didn’t care because the victims were foreigners.”

U.S. and Indian agencies have made arrests before in similar cases. Last year a Pennsylvania man, Sahil Patel, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for his role in an India-based IRS scam, though the kingpins remained at large.

The Thane bust could be the most significant yet. The Better Business Bureau, which used to field about 200 reports of tax scams every week, said that after the arrests in India it received just 11 complaints in a week.

Special correspondent Parth MN contributed to this report.

STOJ

FINEST & FASHION

DECEMBER 9 – DECEMBER 15, 2016

Meet some of

FLORIDA’S

finest

submitted for your approval

B3

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.

Political commentator Van Jones, who once worked for the Obama administration and has been an outspoken critic of President-elect Donald Trump, said in his post-election comments that the outcome was a “whitelash against a changing country” and “a whitelash against a Black president.”

He recently conducted interviews with Trump supporters and his findings were presented during a one-hour CNN special on Tuesday titled “The Messy Truth.’ ’The author and attorney also is a cofounder of several nonprofit organizations, including the Dream Corps, called a “social justice accelerator.”

Visual artist Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze was one of the Black artists featured at Art Basel Miami Beach, which took place Dec. 1-4 in Miami. Born in Nigeria, she grew up in the United Kingdom and now lives in New York. This year, the Art of Black Miami expanded its programming to include even more artists of African descent. Amanze is a visual artist whose practice is primarily centered on drawing and works on paper.

PHOTO BY EMILY JOHNSTON FOR ARTSY

PHOTO COURTESY OF CNN

‘A distinctive voice’

Detroit native Tracy Reese is one of the few Black designers who has reached global success.

International fashion design success did not come easy for Tracy Reese

BY PATRICE GAINES URBAN NEWS SERVICE

ADAM JENNINGS/ CHARLOTTE OBSERVER/TNS

First Lady Michelle Obama waves to the delegates after finishing her speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 4, 2012. She was wearing a Tracy Reese dress.

No one knew what First Lady Michelle Obama would choose to wear on stage at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. That decision is generally a secret kept from the public – and designers – until she appears under the spotlights. And when she stepped out onto the stage that historic night, the first lady wore a custom design shimmering pink and gold brocade Tracy Reese dress.

“It’s probably my proudest moment,” said Reese, speaking from the Bahamas, where she was vacationing.

That night, Reese tweeted: “Thanks everyone for sharing this amazing moment! We are all so grateful and honored to have

dressed Mrs. Obama for such a momentous speech!!!”

The first lady had worn Reese’s designs before, but with millions watching and the media critics gushing. On that night, her clothes were introduced to a new audience, Reese has said.

Started early Today, she is arguably the best known Black designer. She has come a long way from the little girl in Detroit who made clothes for her doll out of socks and later, as a teen, made her own outfits.

“We wrote a budget for each school year. Being able to sew a few things, I could control my destiny and get extra pieces,” Reese said.

She calls it “fortunate” that she went to a summer program for high school students at Parsons School of Design in New York City.

“It was great exposure and I made up my mind to become a designer,” said Reese. “I learned it wasn’t just a hobby, but a big industry. It made (design) seem like a viable career.”

She graduated from Parsons in 1984, one of two Blacks in her class.

Clothing line at 23 Her father, a Chrysler plant manager, saved $100,000 and gave it to Reese to start her first clothing line. She was 23.

“It was a huge vote of confidence and I worked my fanny off trying to make sure it paid off,” Reese said.

Nevertheless, the business had failed.

“I was a little too young and inexperienced,” said Reese, now 52. “There is value in experience, growing a base of contacts.”

She went to work for her friend Marc Jacobs at Perry Ellis. Some 10 years later, in 1999, she reopened her business. With perseverance, she attracted some of the larger stores such as Neiman Marcus, Macy’s and Nordstrom.

She has created five labels thus far, including her namesake Tracy Reese, a line of clothing worn today by Hollywood celebrities and First Lady Michelle Obama.

Reese said her brand’s aim is to “make women feel beautiful in everything we do.”

Robin Givhan, Washington Post fashion editor, said Reese’s designs appeal to contemporary customers without being so trendy that they are quickly outdated.

“Looking at her work critically over the years, there is a consistent point of view, which is important because it says she has a distinctive voice,” said Givhan.

“There is a lot of noise in fashion. Those who rise above have a distinctive voice. Her sensibility has a subtext of vintage and retro in it. It has an almost southern ladylike aspect but it is fully wholly, rooted in contemporary styles. It makes it a very interesting sensibility because it has something that very much speaks to contemporary customers but makes you feel it is rooted in something more lasting,’’ she added.

Reasons for disparity Reese is excited about what she sees as her opportunity to grow creatively in the future.

For one, she plans to begin offering her clothes in larger sizes.

“I think you could run dry because it’s a demanding industry. You could dial it in or keep digging deep and finding something within yourself,” Reese said.

She is well aware that few Black designers reach her level of global success.

Articles about the disparity of Blacks in the fashion industry have pointed to many reasons it exists – from Black parents not seeing the fashion industry as a viable career to cuts in public school arts programs and just the sheer difficulty of raising the finances needed to launch a collection.

“We have to keep pushing the issue (of racial disparity) so people will be conscious about making changes,” said Reese. “We have to direct people to proper education paths, whether it be in production, design or marketing research. We have to keep the conversation going.”

B4

FOOD

DECEMBER 9 – DECEMBER 15, 2016

TOJ

FROM FAMILY FEATURES

A rich, buttery main dish

A simply sweet dessert

W

It’s easy to add buttery richness to just about any protein you choose to serve at your holiday gathering with this easy compound butter. The sauce takes little time to make and adds an unforgettably elegant touch to filet mignon, making it perfect for your next holiday celebration.

Cut from the heart of the tenderloin, Omaha Steaks Filet Mignon is aged to peak flavor and tenderness, vacuum wrapped and flash frozen to lock in fresh­ness. Find more holiday main dish ideas and recipes at omahasteaks.com.

Once the satisfaction of a full meal wears off and the craving for one final course comes calling, there’s no better dessert to turn to than the creamy delight of cheesecake. Add in the sweet flavors of honey and blackberries, and you’ll find yourself perfectly content to wind down the holiday gettogether. For more ways to infuse honey into your holiday menu, visit honey.com.

hen the holidays approach, it’s the perfect time to up your game in the kitchen with standout recipes.

A knockout holiday meal starts with a main dish like filet mignon topped with Roasted Garlic Compound Butter for a rich treat, paired with cheesy a sidekick like these Crispy Cheddar Mashed Potato Puffs. Finally, top off the night with Honey and Blackberry Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust, and you’ll have guests ready to come back next year.

A new twist on a classic holiday recipe Transforming family recipes into something memorable is easy when you use high-quality, wholesome ingredients, made with love from Borden Cheese. With a wide range of offerings, including mild cheddar, mozzarella, sharp cheddar, Mexican, Swiss, American, Colby Jack and more, Borden Cheese is available as singles, shreds, chunks, slices, strings and snacks – offering pure, creamy goodness to satisfy every taste. Add a new twist to your holiday spread with this delectable recipe for Crispy Cheddar Mashed Potato Puffs, which uses chunks of mild cheddar, and find more recipes at BordenCheese.com.

CRISPY CHEDDAR MASHED POTATO PUFFS 3/4 cup sour cream, divided 1 teaspoon finely chopped chives or green onions, plus additional for garnish 8 ounces Borden Cheese Medium Cheddar Chunk, divided 2 medium russet potatoes (about 1 pound), peeled and chopped 2 tablespoons Borden Butter 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder 1/8 teaspoon seasoned salt 1/8 teaspoon dry mustard 1/4 teaspoon salt 15 bacon strips, cooked crisp and crumbled 1 cup beer batter dry mix oil, for frying

To make chive cream: In small bowl, mix 1/2 cup sour cream and chives or onions together.

Refrigerate.

To make cheddar crisps: Heat oven to 400 F. Shred 4 ounces cheese to make about 1 cup shreds. Divide shreds into eight piles, about 2 inches apart, on silicone baking mat or parch­ ment paper-lined cookie sheet and bake about 5 minutes, or until cheese melts and becomes crisp.

Let cool 5 minutes and remove from baking sheet.

Reduce oven temperature to 180 F. To make potato puffs: Place potatoes in medium saucepan and cover with cold water.

Heat over medium-high heat and boil potatoes until tender; drain.

In electric mixer bowl fitted with paddle, beat potatoes with butter on medium-low speed until smooth then add remaining sour cream and all seasonings. Stir in crumbled bacon.

Cut remaining cheese into eight 1/2-inch cubes. Form balls of mashed potato mixture using ice cream scoop. Make small hole in center of each potato ball and fill with one cube cheese.

Cover with additional mashed potato so cheese is hidden inside. Refrigerate until ready to fry.

In large saucepan over medium-high heat, heat oil to 375 F. Prepare beer batter according to package directions; dip each mashed potato ball into batter and deep-fry about 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel. Reheat oil to 375 F between batches.

Keep potato puffs warm in holding oven.

On plate, top potato puffs with dollop of chive cream, chives and cheddar crisp. Serve immediately.

ROASTED GARLIC COMPOUND BUTTER 2 heads garlic 2 teaspoons olive oil 1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature 2 Omaha Steaks Filet Mignons (6 ounces each), prepared Heat oven to 350 F. Slice about 1/4 inch off each garlic head to reveal cloves. Remove any excess outer layers of paper on garlic.

On sheet of aluminum foil, drizzle each garlic head with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Wrap foil tightly over garlic. Roast 40-60 minutes, until garlic is golden and can be easily pierced with a knife. Let cool 15 minutes.

In bowl, squeeze garlic cloves out of paper. Add salt and mash with fork to create paste. Add butter and combine with fork, ensuring paste is well blended into butter.

Place butter on edge of a sheet of parch­ment or wax paper. Fold paper over butter and roll into cylinder. Twist ends of paper and refrigerate until solid.

When ready to serve, cut chilled butter into slices and place on top of prepared filet mignons.

Note: Unused butter can be kept in refrigerator for about 2 weeks.

HONEY AND BLACKBERRY CHEESECAKE WITH GINGERSNAP CRUST Recipe courtesy of the National Honey Board Crust: 2 cups (8-ounce package) crushed gingersnaps 1/4 cup melted butter Cake: 1 1/2 pounds cream cheese, softened 3/4 cup honey 1/3 cup heavy cream 1 tablespoon vanilla 1 tablespoon gluten-free all-purpose flour 1/8 teaspoon salt 4 large eggs 1 pint fresh blackberries Garnish: 1 pint fresh blackberries (optional) honey (optional) Heat oven to 350 F. In medium bowl, combine crushed gingersnaps and butter. Transfer mixture to 9-inch springform pan. Stick hand in sandwich bag and firmly press mixture into bottom of pan to form crust. Bake 8 minutes. Remove from oven, reduce heat to 300 F and allow crust to rest.

Meanwhile, using stand mixer, beat cream cheese at medium speed 3-4 minutes. Add honey, cream, vanilla, flour and salt. Beat until mixed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition.

Beat mixture until just combined.

Pour cream cheese mixture into prepared crust.

Drop blackberries on top of mixture. Bake 65 minutes. Turn off oven and leave cake in oven 1 hour. Remove and allow to cool.

Run knife around sides of cheesecake. Cover and chill overnight. Remove sides from pan. Serve with additional berries and drizzle with honey, if desired.

PHOTO COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES

STOJ

DECEMBER 9 – DECEMBER 15, 2016

FOOD

B5

Add a tasty twist to entertaining FAMILY FEATURES

The holidays are the ultimate time for connecting with friends and family, so treat them to something special this year with your own mouthwater­ing take on a holiday feast. Add a new and delicious twist to entertain­ing this season with a festive bacon bar.

Mix things up with simple decorating tips and these easyto-make – and even easier to eat – bacon recipes from Smithfield that can help create the perfect setting for your next holiday gathering. Whether drizzled with caramel and sea salt, twisted with puff pastry or baked with bourbon and maple syrup, your guests can enjoy bacon in a variety of ways. The classic cut and versa­ tility of Smithfield Hometown Original Bacon is ideal for dishes you can include in your bacon bar like bacon cheddar biscuits, savory bacon jam and flavorful bacon salt. You can also incorporate different bacon flavors; with more than 10 different Smithfield varieties to choose from, there truly is some­thing for everyone.

Complete your holiday spread with printed labels that festively identify the variety of bacon flavors, unique recipes and side dishes on display. Simply print templates onto thick card stock and cut to your desired shape.

Use twine or holiday ribbon to tie the labels onto mason jars, bowls or baskets, or use a small clothespin to clip the labels onto your bacon creations. Garnish your display with garland, red berries and pine cones for added holiday cheer.

Visit Smithfield.com/BaconBar for printable labels, more decor ideas and recipe inspiration to give your own bacon bar a personal touch.

CRISPY BACON TWISTS WITH GOUDA AND APRICOT PRESERVES Cook time: 45 minutes Serves: 15 Nonstick spray flour, for dusting 1 package (2 sheets) frozen puff pastry dough, thawed 1 egg, beaten 1 cup (12 ounces) apricot preserves 2 cups (about 7 ounces) Gouda cheese, shredded 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves 2 pounds (about 25-30 slices) Smithfield Hometown Original Bacon Heat oven to 375 F. Line two rimmed baking pans with foil, set baking racks in pans and lightly spray racks with nonstick spray.

On lightly floured surface, roll out one puff pastry sheet to roughly 8-by-12 inches. Brush top with egg and thinly spread 1/2 cup preserves over dough. Sprinkle evenly with 1 cup shredded cheese and 1 tablespoon rosemary, lightly pressing cheese mixture into dough. Fold short end of dough over to enclose cheese mixture and lightly roll to seal. Cut into 15 1/2inch strips. Repeat with remaining puff pastry and ingredients.

Lay one slice bacon diagonally. Grab one strip of prepared dough by ends and place one end of dough strip horizontally at top end of bacon and roll bacon with dough downward, stretching dough strip while rolling. Place spiral-wrapped bacon twist on prepared rack and repeat.

Bake twists 35-45 minutes, or until pastry is browned and bacon crisp, rotating pans as needed for even cooking.

Let cool 5 minutes and gently use spatula to remove twists from racks. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Tip: For a different flavor, try smoked or aged Gouda or fresh thyme instead of rosemary.

Crispy Bacon Twists with Gouda and Apricot Preserves

CARAMELIZED BOURBON BACON Cook time: 30 minutes Serves: 12 2 packages (16 ounces each) Smithfield Thick Cut Bacon 4 tablespoons honey 1/2 cup bourbon 4 tablespoons maple syrup Heat oven to 375 F. Line two baking pans with parchment paper.

Remove bacon from package and space evenly on pans without overlapping slices.

Place pans in oven and bake 15 minutes. Rotate pans halfway through baking time. Meanwhile, combine honey, bourbon and syrup.

Remove bacon from oven. Carefully drain grease from pans.

Brush bacon with bourbon mixture. Return to oven and bake 3-5 minutes. Let cool slightly and serve.

Caramelized Bourbon Bacon BACON CHEDDAR BISCUITS Cook time: 30 minutes Serves: 12 4 ounces shredded cheddar cheese 1/4 cup chopped green onions 1/2 cup cooked Smithfield Hometown Original Bacon, diced 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1 tablespoon and extra for rolling, divided 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter 3/4 cup milk

Heat oven to 450 F. In small bowl, toss together cheese, green onions and bacon with 1 tablespoon flour. Set aside. In separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Use pastry cutter or two forks to cut in butter.

Add milk and stir just enough to bring ingredients together. Gently fold in cheese mixture.

Turn dough onto floured surface and knead about 1 minute. Pat or roll out dough to 1/2or 3/4-inch thickness. Cut into rounds with 2 1/2-inch round biscuit cutter.

Place biscuits on ungreased baking sheet.

Bake 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

Sea Salt Caramel Bacon SEA SALT CARAMEL BACON Cook time: 40 minutes Serves: 12 2 packages (12 ounces each) Smithfield Thick Cut Bacon 4 tablespoons caramel topping 1 teaspoon flaked sea salt Heat oven to 375 F. Line two baking pans with nonstick foil.

Remove bacon from package and space evenly on pans without overlapping slices.

Place pans in oven and bake 10 minutes. Rotate pans and continue baking until crisp, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven. Using tongs, place bacon slices on clean parchment paperlined baking sheet. Let cool slightly.

Heat caramel in microwave 10 seconds. Drizzle bacon with caramel. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Return to oven and bake 2 minutes. Let sit 5 minutes. Using tongs, remove to cooling rack.

Cool 5 minutes before serving.

CALENDAR

B6

DECEMBER 9 – DECEMBER 15, 2016

S

FLU SHOTS

JAY PHAROAH

Tickets are on sale for the Miami Festival of Laughs is Jan. 14 at the James L. Knight Center.

The 8 p.m. show will feature Michael Blackson, Benji Brown, Arnez J, Mike Epps, Jay Pharoah and Felipe Esparza.

AL B. SURE

The Tampa Bay Soul Fest featuring Brian McKnight, Johnny Gill and Al B. Sure is Jan. 15 at the USF Sun Dome.

PETER LONDON GLOBAL DANCE GROUP

The dance company performs Dec. 16-18 at the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami.

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR Miami: The Miami Mass Choir will headline the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of MiamiDade County’s free Gospel Sundays concert on Dec. 11 at 5 p.m.

Miami Gardens: Free oneon-one business consulting sessions are available Dec. 19 and 20 at City Hall.

Schedule a session by calling

M.D. Stewart & Associates at 305-890-4984.

Clearwater: Catch Gladys Knight on Jan. 20 at Ruth Eckerd Hall for an 8 p.m. show.

Daytona Beach: NAIA Football Banquet of Champions is 6 p.m. Dec. 16 at the Ocean Center.

Orlando: Jodeci is scheduled Dec. 11 at the House of Blues Orlando for a 7 p.m. show.

Orlando: A Man in the Mirror

– Michael Jackson Tribute is 7 p.m. Dec. 28 at the House of Blues Orlando.

Jacksonville: The Comedy Get Down show featuring Cedric the Entertainer, Eddie Griffin, D.L. Hughley, George Lopez and Charlie Murphy will be at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial on Dec. 9.

Orlando: The Roots will perform Dec. 29 at the House of Blues Orlando and at the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts on New Year’s Eve.

Miami Funk Fest a weekend of R&B, hip hop and soul Variety Entertainment will present the Miami Funk Fest Dec. 9-10 at the Miramar Regional Park.

Scheduled performers are Bell Biv Devoe, Dru Hill, H-Town, Jodeci, Mystikal, SWV, TLC and Guy featuring Teddy Riley.

Hosted by Luke “Uncle Luke’’ Campbell, the Friday show starts at 6 p.m. and Saturday concert begins at 4 p.m.

Funk Fest is one of the country’s largest traveling music festivals, entertaining close to 110,000 people annually with lineups that feature some of the topselling artists in R&B, hip hop and soul music from the past two decades.

Miramar Regional Park is located at 16801 Miramar Parkway, Miramar.

Tickets are available from $45 to 165 for a one-day pass, and $80 to $300 for a two-day pass.

In an effort to make Funk Fest a great experience for the fans, we have made some changes to ensure a seamless admission pro-

BOOKS

and police chiefs, defense attorneys and local police union.

from Page 1

He’s honest, for example, about the pain involved in covering a story in which his “fundamental professional obligation” “to fairness and truth” must be reconciled with being “a black man in America,” covering a story in which “the dead looked like my father, my younger brothers, and me.”

Rather than compromising his ability to tell the whole story, Lowery’s personal background allows him to see the big picture, in ways much of the media didn’t.

“One of the lessons of Ferguson was that the story was never about the specifics of the shooting,” Lowery writes, in outlining his own method as a reporter: Don’t just contact the victim’s grieving and overwhelmed family, but also the civil rights leaders and neighborhood associations, former politicians

Mystikal

Luke Campbell

Role of Twitter in telling story Focusing on this context, Lowery moves past our collective tendency to assess the details of each shooting or what sort of person each of the victims was; such a “shortsighted framing,” he insists, places the burden of proof on those victims – itself a means of conveying that Black lives don’t matter.

Looking at “historical context,” Lowery explores issues such as how and why a disproportionate number of traffic stops and incarcerations involve Black men.

Lowery’s ability to think big allows him to see other trends as well.

He’s attuned to the tension between traditional and social media, noting the integral role that Twitter played in rapidly spreading news and organizing protests.

He himself elects to

cess and we are assured by the City of Miramar that parking will be more accessible and affordable for our valued guests,” said Leo Bennett, CEO of Variety Entertainment.

The City of Miramar will provide shuttle services from a nearby parking lot located at Everglades High School, 17100 SW 48th Court. Shuttles will begin at 3 p.m., on Friday and 1 p.m. on Saturday, and will run one full hour after the show. Parking in the shuttle lot is $10 per car, and includes round-trip transportation to the concert.

For tickets and more information, visit www.funkfesttour.com.

tweet rather than record at one point, reasoning that he could live with “a more disjointed and incomplete set of direct quotations” if it meant he could stay on top of “a story that had played out on social media.”

The ‘broken promise’ of Obama presidency At 26, Lowery also has his pulse on the divide between those protestors who believe change can come from within and the growing number convinced it can’t.

“In 2008, I voted for the first time,” he notes in his opening pages — before referring later to the “broken promise” of the Obama “presidency.”

“Even the historic Obama presidency could not suspend the injunction that playing by the rules wasn’t enough to keep you safe,” Lowery observes.

What protection could Obama offer, he continues, “when, as James Baldwin once wrote, the world is white, and we are black?”

Get your flu shot at Publix.

Talk to your Publix pharmacist any time the pharmacy is open—they’ll determine which vaccine option is best for you and administer it right there.*

We make it easy. Stop in to receive your flu shot today—no appointment necessary.

Visit publix.com/flu to find out more. *State, age, or health restrictions may apply. See pharmacy for details.