Simeon Rice NFL great-turned-filmmaker talks about his directorial debut aesthetically speaking
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Insight News August 31 - September 6, 2015
Vol. 42 No. 35 • The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
Victor Propes A pioneering spirit By Al McFarlane, Editor in Chief Victor Propes envisioned strategies and structures that could support the advancement of people of African descent in Minnesota. His legacy includes ongoing efforts that seek to quicken consciousness and processes than can deliver equity and engagement to Minnesota’s Black community. Propes passed away peacefully in his home in Des Moines, IA, August 14, 2015. A Tribute to Victor Propes will be held 5:30pm, Wednesday, September 9th, 2015 at Scratch Bar and Grill, 408 3rd Avenue North, in downtown Minneapolis’ warehouse district.
Victor Propes was a determined civil rights strategist, advocate and organizer. He was an effective executive in Minneapolis city and Minnesota state government. He was an educator and activist proponent of African history and culture. Propes was Director of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department. Later he served as Executive Director of the state’s Council on Black Minnesotans. He provided leadership to the community through various organizations including Urban Coalition, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, National Urban League, NAACP, Congressional Black Caucus, and Pilot City (now NorthPoint Health and Wellness).
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Remembering Julian Bond Commentary
By Irma McClaurin, PhD Culture and Education Editor On hearing the announcement that Julian Bond had passed on to the ancestors, I knew greatness had left us. The event gave me pause and I tried to remember when I first found myself in the sphere of influence of this great American leader.
Remembering Julian Bond took me back to my college days. It was there I had t crossed his path and come into his political orbit. He was this great Black leader that my very white college invited to speak on campus as part of the “Program in Practical Political Education.” I was a freshmen, fresh off the bus from inner city Chicago and it’s segregated neighborhoods and separate and unequal public schools. And now I was part of a group of 18 Black students, the largest number ever admitted to Grinnell College—the first wave of integration into PWIs (predominately white institutions). The year was 1969, less than
Julian Bond
a year after the riots that were triggered by the assassination of Martin Luther King. Prior to making my way out of the projects to Iowa, I had spent that 1968 summer as part of an experimental “Great Books” summer program at Yale Summer High School. The preparation I received over the eight weeks there was my survival kit, since my high school, as wonderful as I thought it was, was woefully inadequate for the rigor of Grinnell, a very elite college in the middle of nowhere Iowa. My class was of entering Black freshmen was a cohort of 18. We were the first to break the “critical mass” barrier. Up to our arrival, there has been one, two,
three, four, maybe even ten Black students, mostly men, on campus. Now, we had a critical mass. And with that fact came surveillance and responsibility—suddenly a conversation of more than three Black students was deemed to be cause for concern, and possibly us plotting some kind of subversion. Whereas white students gathered in groups of fives, tens, and twenties, without a second thought. None of us knew the nomenclature of “white privilege” at that moment. Why Julian Bond? Why then? I can only speculate. Perhaps the college thought it prudent to have
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10 years later, Hurricane Katrina’s impact still devastating on New Orleans’ Black residents By Curtis Bunn, Urban News Service
Amelia Boynton Robinson
Congressional Black Caucus offers condolences on the passing of Amelia Boynton Robinson
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu took to the road to declare his city is “no longer recovering, no longer rebuilding” a decade after Hurricane Katrina devastated it in one of America’s worst natural disasters, but some refuse to buy that speech. For many African Americans who watched their city submerged in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico for nearly a week in 2005, Landrieu’s message rings hollow. Donya Richardson, a 41-year-old retail employee, moved from New Orleans to Atlanta in advance of the storm. She returned to her old neighborhood three times - each time leaving in tears.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Aug 26, 2015 — Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairman G. K. Butterfield (NC-01) said on the passing of 104-year-old civil rights icon Amelia Boynton Robinson, “Today we mourn the passing of a remarkable citizen, Mrs. Amelia Boynton Robinson, a civil rights activist and one of the leaders of the 1965 Bloody Sunday march of
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Jocelyn Augustino
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Katrina From 1 She lived with her then 6-year-old daughter in the Ninth Ward, one of the lowlying, predominantly AfricanAmerican areas hardest hit by the Category 5 storm that claimed 1,833 lives and left 705 people missing. The levees, built to contain a Category 3 hurricane, collapsed, and 80 percent of the city drowned under its enormity. “I went back about a month after everything settled down. I cried because the neighborhood was a wreck. I mean, a wreck,� she said “The destruction seemed unreal. It looked like a bulldozer just came through and tore up everything in sight. There was nothing left to salvage. I broke down because I had a life in that place.� Richardson returned in 2011. “I was excited because downtown looked the same, if not better,� she said. “You would have never guessed Katrina came through there. Then I got to the Ninth Ward and my heart just sank. It wasn’t as bad as that first time, but it still looked like a hurricane had been through there. It made me cry.� She returned again in spring. “I was praying to see rebuilt houses, more families—signs that real change had been made. But I saw only a little. Not enough. So many houses are just ruined and still ruined. But in other places in New Orleans, places that were hit just as hard, you can never tell anything happened.� Richardson is not alone in her observations. A wide gap exists along racial lines about attitudes regarding New Orleans’ recovery, according to a survey by Louisiana State University with 41 percent of whites said living in New Orleans improved since the hurricane clean up, while less than 20 percent of African Americans feel things are better.
Jocelyn Augustino
‘We are unique’ “We don’t talk the way anybody else talks, we don’t dance the way anybody else [dances],� Landrieu said while touring Atlanta. “They don’t eat the way we eat. They don’t hug the way we hug. They don’t love the (same) way. It’s just different. And it’s wonderful. I love Houston. Houston’s one of the great cities in the world. I love Atlanta. But you know what? New Orleans does not want to be Houston or Atlanta. What we want to be is the best version of our real selves, because we are unique.� Unique does not mean better for many Africa Americans
living in the Ninth Ward, where homeowners either walked away from their destroyed properties or relocated to Houston, Atlanta and other cities. Many failed to receive enough insurance money, if any, to repair the vast destruction. The city did receive $70 billion in federal aid for $150 billion in damages but a tour of the city revealed what neighborhoods were left on the sidelines. “When you have that kind of gap (in monetary aid),� Landrieu conceded, “not everyone gets everything all the time.� The mayor pointed to the refurbishing of the Mercedes
Benz Super Dome—where 30,000 mostly African Americans endured six days of unseemly conditions as the city drowned—the many rebuilt neighborhoods and the overall growth in population of the city as evidence of progress. “Y’all can come on home,� Landrieu said while touring Houston. “But come home to what?� Anderson asked. “New Orleans is in my heart, in my blood. That will never change. But it’s not like it was the best place for jobs before the hurricane. And with our neighborhoods— not to say that we have to live where we always lived—but
our neighborhoods just haven’t gotten the attention it deserves.� New Orleans will make headlines again during the 10year anniversary. President Obama plans a visit and so does former President George W. Bush, who was roundly criticized by many, including filmmaker Spike Lee, whose 2007 documentary on the aftermath of Katrina, When The Levees Broke, won two Emmys. On his tour, in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C, Landrieu called New Orleans “one of the world’s most remarkable stories of tragedy and triumph, resurrection and redemption.�
New Orleans will celebrate the city’s rebirth on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with parades featuring Mardi Gras Indians, and brass bands marching through Uptown and downtown New Orleans on August 29. The event is promoted as the Katrina 10 Commemorative Parade, created to be “a cultural showcase that celebrates New Orleans, its resilience and the incredible spirit of its people,� said Flozell Daniels Jr., president and CEO of the Foundation for Louisiana. But many on the eastside and in the Ninth Ward will not see reason to celebrate. They are still drowning in tears.
Education reforms need nurturing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina By Kevin Chavous, The Urban News Service and The American Federation of Children President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that Hurricane Katrina was the best thing to happen to schoolchildren in New Orleans because prior to the storm, the city had one of the worst performing school districts in America. The graft, greed and corruption which existed on the New Orleans school board prior to Katrina led to several board members going to jail. At the same time, the outputs for students were horrific. Before Katrina, only 35 percent of students scored at grade level on standardized tests The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina led to a complete
rebuilding and restructuring of New Orleans’ schools. Gov. Kathleen Blanco recommended the Louisiana State Legislature create the New Orleans Recovery School District (RSD), which took over control of the schools, wrestling it away from the corrupt school board. The RSD began working with charter school operators from around the country to launch a host of charter schools throughout the district. Many of the top education reform funders also pitched in and they say that the students are better off as a result. New Orleans is now the most charter-friendly jurisdiction in the nation, with nearly all of its public school children now enrolled in charter schools. As charter schools were taking hold in New Orleans, waiting lists continued to grow. In 2008, the Louisiana legislature
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passed a scholarship bill to allow low-income students to attend private school on public funds. That program worked so well that in 2012, the legislature expanded it statewide. As a result, Louisiana’s low-income residents have far more highquality educational choices for their students than most other places in the country. The poster child for education reform may well be the state of Louisiana, most notably New Orleans. A large majority of those in the education reform arena believe that the next big challenge is to make sure that these programs continue to grow and thrive. But another challenge looms large for the education reform movement in New Orleans. With all the academic success in New Orleans, far too many residents believe they are not a part of the reforms.
In 2014, former Milwaukee Schools Superintendent Howard Fuller interviewed several African-American New Orleans’ residents to get their views about the school reforms in their city. He said progress has been made, but a tremendous amount of animosity remains in which many feel that “reform was done to them and not with them.� Many complained about feeling put upon, invaded and disrespected, he said. In fact, a surprisingly high number of New Orleans residents support going back to the old school board in power system. In the one American city where reform flourishes, too many low-income and working class families feel as though they are not a part of the change, Fuller said. Similar feelings exist in nearly every city where aggressive education reform
has been initiated. Almost like the bureaucratic system it is trying to change, parents say the education reform movement has fallen prey to the same top down approaches that, frankly, rub people the wrong way. Far too frequently, education reformers are winning legislative battles for change, but losing the war over hearts and minds. All of this begs the question: How do we make change in education work for students in a way that people can accept? How do we win the hearts and minds of the people we seek to serve? Some school officials say the answer lies in our learning from the New Orleans experience. In the zeal to get the best school operators to start schools, reformers and city leaders did not take the time to nurture relationships with existing residents, who understandably had been traumatized by
Hurricane Katrina. Nor did they pepper the boards of these charter schools with citizens from the community. Moreover, many African-American educators were fired and young white teachers overwhelmingly ran new schools. In hindsight, greater care should have been given by the reformers to be more respectful and inclusive in its dealings with the indigenous New Orleans population. In New Orleans, some say the biggest mistake was in believing that changing a school system alone, would create a sustainable learning environment. Others disagree, because they believe the only way to build a community of learners is to inspire people to want to learn; by tapping into that inherent will to be better and do better. That they say, only happens by engaging people.
Bond
quite know what to do with my cohort of Black students. The campus now had greater diversity, but was completely clueless about inclusiveness. Black students had been invited to eat at the proverbial kitchen table, but we still weren’t being served the same food. Grinnell would learn over the next several decades that even with a critical mass (and we might have reached 50 Black students
out of the 1250 total enrollment. I’m not sure what those who invited Bond thought he would speak on, but as I vaguely recalled, he shook things up just a bit. He challenged white people to take action in the struggle for Black equality--a radical and rather inflammatory statement at the time. In order to refresh my recollections of Bond’s lecture, I contacted the Grinnell alumni office to ask about the archives of the student newspaper, the Scarlet and Black (our school colors). Reading those old papers would tell me if I had imagined this moment of Bond-like truth or if it was real. Thankfully, the archives vindicated my memory-- the latter was true. In 1969, to a young, politically naive college freshmen like myself, Julian Bond’s message was potent and timely. His talk was entitled “The Outsiders: the Poor, the Blacks, the Young.â€? His title was a description of my life as a poor, young, Black girl from Chicago’s inner city. And I felt very much the outsider as I navigated my place and space in a very white college environment in the middle of a very white middle American Iowa landscape. Years later, after graduating from Grinnell, and after much reflection and anger at the feelings of exclusion and the intellectual denigration I encountered ( e.g., the professor who told me I had good ideas but was not graduate school material in my first semester), I would enshrine these feelings of being an outsider in the poem, ÂŤTo a Gone Era.Âť The poem captured my own and other’s sentiments of ambivalence, feelings of isolationism and
the civil unrest that marked my coming of age as a college student in Grinnell, Iowa. It also cemented the beginning of my career as a professional poet/writer, earning me the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award in 1975 from Black World (the now defunct literary arm of Ebony). I would draw upon the 1968 riots, the assassinations of Malcolm and Martin, the feelings of isolationism that chronicled my tenure at Grinnell
From 1
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someone with Bond’s political savvy, but within the context of the non-violent approach, come to speak to this burgeoning population of Blacks, mostly from the inner city. We were an unknown quantity. Clearly Grinnell didn’t
The eye of this storm is not quiet It sees brown frames inside the city cutting themselves on jagged loves. Once we sought to change this word with matches. Striking our visions against straw promises, we summoned fire gods and burnt jewish stores built upon our parents tragedies, dodged bullets and walked carefully among the ashes sifting for our childhood friends and looking for a place called future. We rode books and communed with the “others� in their land; we spoke their blunted language, hung our anger on coathooks in dusty ivy hallways becoming a new minstrel tradition: blacks in whiteface, shadows tapdancing in cornfields. (excerpt from “To a Gone Era, 1975) In 1969, when Bond spoke at Grinnell, we were definitely “the poor� (most of us), “the Blacks�-all 25 Black students in the midst
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The importance of women of color voters: Then and now By Emily Baxter, Kaitlin Holmes, Rob Griffin, Center for American Progress Over the past several years, advocates around the country have been fighting to preserve and restore one of American citizens’ most basic rights: the right to vote. Voting access is critical to fulfilling the nation’s promise of equality and ensuring that all citizens—regardless of their race, gender, or ethnicity— are able to fully participate in the democratic process. For women and people of color, the power of the vote has been instrumental in helping to expand opportunities in employment, education, and beyond and to level the playing field so that everyone has a chance to succeed. But the right to vote is increasingly under attack. At the national level and across the country, efforts to limit who can vote, when they can vote, and where they vote have fueled highly partisan, heated debates about the potential impact of such changes on senior citizens, young people, women, people of color, and low-income communities. Amid this ongoing conversation about how best to ensure equal voting access, there is growing evidence that one particular segment of the population—women of color— is poised to play a more decisive
Bond From 2 of 1200 white (middle class and wealthy) students, and a handful of international students, who did not consider themselves “people of color” back then and saw no connection between their histories of colonialism and the plight of disenfranchised Blacks in the United States—and, we were “the Young.” While I do not remember the exact words Julian Bond spoke, he was a strong presence in my political life for years to come. When he spoke, I listened, and would continue to listen to him over the next several decades. And in In my memory, Bond would always be elegant, quietly charismatic, political savvy, lanky,
role in future elections. An examination of data from the U.S. Census Bureau and other sources reveals that women of color, especially African American women, are becoming a larger proportion of the electorate. Women of color’s growing influence becomes clear when comparing recent voting and registration numbers
with those from the 1960s, when the Voting Rights Act and other key legislation increased ballot box access for African Americans and other people of color. Share of voters who are women of color In the 1964 presidential election, 1 in 20 voters was a woman
of color. By the 2012 election, more than one in six voters was a woman of color. A variety of factors have affected this change in the proportion of women of color voters, but two are particularly noteworthy. First, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had a considerable impact on the ability of people of color—
and a powerful speaker. Almost forty years after his 1969 lecture, I find the bits and pieces of his speech that were preserved in my college newspaper to be somewhat prophetic. In terms of reducing the racial gap, Bond told whites that they had the power to reduce it: “the choice is, after all, yours. It has never been ours.” Today we speak of the achievement gap, the economic gap, etc. How ironic that over forty years after Bond delivered this speech the gaps between Blacks and whites have not diminished; the question is whether the power to reduce such gaps are still in the hands of whites, if they choose to? Bond also spoke of the fact that despite the Civil Rights movement, there were still political challenges. His observation that “The hopes of black people
have turned to disillusionment,” captures our current historical moment. In 1969, Bond stated “A battle some of us thought was won at the lunch counter is being lost at the ballot box;” today in 2015, we could easily say that battle some of us thought was won at the ballet box with the election of the first (and maybe the only) Black president is being lost in the job market, in the streets with police killings of unarmed Black men, in the justice system with the mass incarceration of young Black and Brown men, and increasingly Black, Brown and American Indian young girls and women. How much has changed over the intervening years? There has been no magical overnight Disney/like zippadedodah moment in which the lives of Black people have
gotten better. We have made some progress to be sure since the Civil Rights movement, but structural racism is still a reality and equity is not the rule of the land, never mind full equality for Blacks as U.S. citizens. Unfortunately, in an era of economic downturn, Blacks have suffered more despite having the first Black President, who has gone out of his way not to play favorites-- as white politicians always do. Instead, Blacks are more unemployed, underpaid, politically disenfranchised through gerrymandering, and homeless due to the mortgage crisis that disproportionately and adversely impacted us than before President Obama’s election. The only glimmer of hope after eight years in office, beyond Obamacare, is the POTUS taking up prison reform in his last 18 months. Any
especially African Americans— to exercise the basic American right to vote. Second, American women of color made up a smaller portion of the overall population in 1964 than they do today. Women of color made up 19 percent of the overall population in 2014 and comprised 15 percent of the voting-age citizen population in 2012. In 1964, they were just 6 percent of the voting-age population and 6 percent of the overall population. (See the note below for more information.) As a result, women of color are now a larger bloc of the voting population. This growth also provides insight into the future: People of color of all genders are projected to make up approximately half of the eligible voter population in 2052.
other eligible voters remained static at 71 percent. African American women made up nearly 7 percent of the voting-aged citizen population as of 2014. Over time, their share of registered voters has grown to a point where they are now more likely to be registered than other voters.
Share of African American women who are registered to vote Additionally, the Census Bureau’s data show that black women women are especially engaged voters whose registration and voting levels have increased over time. In 1966—registration information is not available for 1964—60 percent of African American women were registered to vote compared with 71 percent of all other eligible voters. In 2012, 76 percent of African American women were registered to vote, while the registered share of all
Conclusion The 19th Amendment paved the way for women to vote, helping to ensure that they could enjoy the same opportunities as men to determine the nation’s direction. However, until the Voting Rights Act was enacted in 1965, many women of color, particularly in the South, were unable to enjoy the full benefits of the 19th Amendment. During this time, intentional, discriminatory barriers such as poll taxes obstructed African Americans’ access to the ballot box.
change in this area is a major step in the right direction of progress, and will have profound impact on the lives of Black youth. However, we had hoped for more. Bond noted over forty years ago that he was “seeing it [the racial gap between Blacks and whites] grow larger and larger.” And here we are today with that statement still being a truism. How tragic is our country at this historical juncture? And how tragic that America’s has lost Julian Bond, one of our great elder statesman, Civil Rights activist, and political prodigy.
by the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) at the 75th Anniversary of its annual convention. The award is named after Emory O. Jackson, a Civil Rights activist and editor of the Birmingham News from 1941-1975. She is the Culture and Education Editor for Insight News, an activist anthropologist, writer, motivational speaker and proponent of diversity and inclusiveness leadership. Contact: imcclaurin@gmail.com. Find her at: www.irmamcclaurin.com, @ mcclaurintweets
Irma McClaurin is an award winning columnist, who is now syndicated. She recently earned the 2015 Best in the Nation, Emory O. Jackson Column Writing for the Black Press of America, presented
Share of African American women who cast votes Likewise, in 1964, prior to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, 58 percent of African American women reported voting. In 2012, 70 percent of African American women reported voting. Women of color cast ballots at a higher level than any other racial, ethnic, or gender group, and this pattern has persisted in presidential elections throughout the 2000s.
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BUSINESS Northside architect wins “diversity in business” award Jamil Ford, president of the Northside architecture firm, Mobilize Design & Architecture, was recently presented a Diversity in Business award. The award, sponsored by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, recognizes some of the Twin Cities leading business leaders (owners and executives) from the GLBT and ethnic minority communities. In addition, Mobilize Design & Architecture’s design work for the Hennepin County Human Services Center at 1001 Plymouth Ave. N. was recognized as a Top Project of
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2014 by Finance & Commerce magazine. The project was highlighted in the July 24 edition of the magazine. The project was also recognized with a Best in Real Estate award for 2014 presented by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Mobilize Design & Architecture are the architects for the Commons at Penn Avenue, a multi-family housing community currently under construction at the corner of Golden Valley Road and Penn Avenue North. Recent work includes the design of the skyways connecting
Editor-In-Chief Al McFarlane Publisher Batala-Ra McFarlane Assistant to the Publisher Shumira Cunningham Associate Editor & Associate Publisher B.P. Ford Associate Editor Afrodescendientes Carmen Robles Associate Editor Nigeria & West Africa Chief Folarin Ero-Phillips Associate Editor Culture and Education Dr. Irma McClaurin Associate Editor Leadership and Social Enterprise Dr. Anita Davis-DeFoe Director of Content & Production Patricia Weaver Sr. Content & Production Coordinator Ben Williams Production Intern Sunny Thongthi Distribution/Facilities Manager Jamal Mohamed Receptionist Lue B. Lampley Contributing Writers Melvin Carter, Jr. Harry Colbert, Jr. Julie Desmond Fred Easter Timothy Houston Penny Jones-Richardson Alaina L. Lewis Darren Moore Carmen Robles Lydia Schwartz Ryan T. Scott Toki Wright Photography David Bradley Contact Us: Insight News, Inc. Marcus Garvey House 1815 Bryant Ave. N. Minneapolis., MN 55411 Ph.: (612) 588-1313 Fax: (612) 588-2031 Member: Minnesota Multicultural Media Consortium (MMMC), Midwest Black Publishers Coalition, Inc. (MBPCI), National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) Postmaster: Send address changes to McFarlane Media Interests, Marcus Garvey House 1815 Bryant Avenue North, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55411.
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How to create a fundraising plan
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Jamil Ford
the buildings of Ryan Co.’s Downtown East development to each other and the skyway connecting the development to the new Vikings stadium. The firm, founded by Ford, lifelong Northside resident and North Community High School graduate, provides architecture, design, community engagement and planning services to diverse communities, with a firm that represents the diversity found in the communities they serve. Partnering with Ford at Mobilize Design & Architecture is David Witt, also a north Minneapolis resident.
FUNdraising Good Times
By Mel and Pearl Shaw The fundraising plan is at the core of successful fundraising. But what exactly is a fundraising plan? Is it a spreadsheet? A list of activities? A list of potential donors and funders? Our answer: it’s this and so much more. Here are four things to consider when creating your fundraising plan. First, your fundraising plan should be rooted in your strategic plan. The strategic plan sets the direction for your
organization, and the fund development plan guides your fundraising activities so the resources needed to implement the strategic plan are available. Your fund development plan should be created as part of the strategic planning process, or as quickly thereafter as possible. Your fundraising goal should be drawn from the strategic plan. This is the core of your fundraising plan: how much do you need to raise, how will the funds be used, and what impact will result. If your strategic plan does not include financial projections, then you must put pen-to-paper and figure out your projected costs. You have to know what you are raising money for and how much it will cost in order to create an effective fundraising plan. Second, include an initial
version of the case for support. This document is a primary communication piece that focuses your fundraising. Use the projections and information mentioned above to clearly and concisely communicate your fundraising story. Use facts and figures, projected impact, and emotion to make your case to individuals, foundations, corporations and/or government agencies. Third, define your campaign structure and roles and responsibilities. Your plan must include roles and responsibilities for staff and volunteers so everyone knows what they are responsible for and can hold each other responsible. These can be used when recruiting volunteers: they let people know what specifically you need help with.
Fourth, create fundraising activity chart. This is the “heart” of the plan. It should cover a two-to-three year period, broken down into quarters. The chart should communicate actions to be taken, person responsible, projected outcome, and timeframe. It must include the key fundraising tasks of identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding current and prospective donors. It should be reviewed and refined each quarter. For example, if your nonprofit seeks major gifts your activity chart should communicate who is responsible for cultivating which donors, and when the cultivation and solicitation activities should take place. Don’t save everything for the 4th quarter. Likewise, special
Women
Their ability to vote is vital to the health of our democratic society. And, in turn, elected officials must respond to the needs of this increasingly engaged and highly influential voting bloc. Emily Baxter is a Research Associate for the Economic Policy team at the Center for American Progress. Kaitlin Holmes is a Special Assistant for the Women’s Initiative at the Center. Robert Griffin is a Senior Research Associate for Progressive Studies at the
Center. Note: It is important to remember that the data presented above do not always represent exact comparisons but rather compare similar categories. Although the Census Bureau provides the best and longest-running data available on voter registration and voting rates, the racial and ethnic categories that it records have changed considerably over time. For example, the Census Bureau did not record Hispanic or Latino ethnicity in the 1960s. For this reason,
Propes From 1 He was an adjunct professor at Metropolitan State University, Lakewood Community College and Minneapolis Community College. Propes earned a Bachelor’s degree in Consumer Education from Cal State College in Los Angeles and a Master’s degree from the University of Minnesota in Business Consumer Economics. He also earned a Master of Arts in Continuing Education from the University of St. Thomas. Born Victor Lee Propes, Dec. 22, 1938, he is survived by daughter and son in law; Pashell and Art Johnson; sons Tarik Yusef Propes and Hakim Malik Propes; former spouse Beverly Propes; grandchildren; Zachary Winston, Jeremy Lee and Jacob Lee Johnson; Najia and Amire Yusef Propes; and Mariah Propes, Elijah and Malik Propes. He is survived by siblings Arthurlene Dixon, Paula Propes andv Lesha Propes, and numerous nieces, nephews and friends. Memorial Services will be held in Des Moines, IA on Saturday September 5, 2015 at Henderson Highland Park Funeral Home. Details at http:// www.hendersonshp.com. Propes served 1962-1965 with Honorable Discharge in
Tarik and Victor the US Army Military Police in Frankfurt, Germany and Saigon,
Vietnam. His remains will be placed at the Iowa Veterans
Copyright 2015– Mel and Pearl Shaw Mel and Pearl Shaw position nonprofits, colleges and universities for fundraising success. For help with your fundraising visit www. saadandshaw.com or call (901) 522-8727.
the authors chose the broadest possible definitional categories available: • For 2012 data, the “women of color” category includes every woman who is not listed as being “white nonHispanic alone,” using only citizen population data— that is, the total number of women minus white, nonHispanic women. “Black women” or “African American women” refers to the data in the Census Bureau’s “black women alone or in combination”
category, using only citizen population data. • For 1960s voting data, the “women of color” category includes women listed under the Census Bureau’s “nonwhite” category. “Black women” or “African American women” refers to data in the Census Bureau’s “Negro” women category. For 1960s population data, the “women of color” category includes every woman who is not listed as being white—that is, the total number of women minus white women. The authors believe the comparisons are still valid because estimates of the Hispanic/Latino population in the United States during the 1960s were quite small—about 3 percent of the total American population. The share of that population that was of voting age is unclear. Lastly, in more recent years, the Census Bureau has also distinguished the total American voting-age population from the total citizen—or vote-eligible— population. In the past, the Census Bureau only provided the entire population of voting age.
Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, consider making a donation to the
Buffalo Soldier National Museum in Texas. http:// buffalosoldiermuseum.com/.
From 3 Today, the vitality of the 19th Amendment is facing new attacks. The Supreme Court’s troubling 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder struck down a key Voting Rights Act provision that has been a critical tool for the U.S. Department of Justice to uncover and combat discriminatory voting practices. Passage of voting rights reforms at the federal level will be essential to ensuring that all voters—regardless of their race, gender, or ethnicity—have a fair chance to participate in the electoral process. Despite having faced significant voting hurdles throughout American history, women of color—and African American women in particular—exercised their right to vote at a higher rate than any other demographic group in the 2012 election, playing a crucial role in the outcome. Looking forward, the power of women of color voters will only continue to grow.
event fundraising should begin a year in advance. Your fundraising plan should cover two-to-three years, be easy-to-read and understand, and become your go-to source for all things fundraising. Be sure to include a budget – what you project it will cost you to meet your fundraising goal. Remember to use your plan as a constant reference. Let it guide your progress and inform your adjustments.
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Insight News • August 31 - September 6, 2015 • Page 5
U.S. Black Chamber pressing auto dealers for fair return on Black dollars By Hazel Trice Edney WASHINGTON, D.C. - This year alone, African-Americans are projected to spend as much as $24 billion on new cars and other vehicles from America’s auto industry. Yet, research shows that, commensurate with their spending, Black consumers have little to show for their support of car dealerships, except the shiny new purchases in their driveways. That’s the reason that a new agreement between the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. and the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers was established to start solving that problem. The purpose of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed late last month, is to forge relationships with Black vendors and suppliers with hopes to “open millions of dollars of opportunity to Black businesses across the nation,” says Ron Busby, president/ CEO of the USBC. “The end goal of these agreements is to
U. S. Black Chamber President/CEO Ron Busby signs Memorandum of Understanding with NAMAD President Damon Lester. Marc Bland, IHS vice president of diversity and inclusion, looks on. leverage USBC’s professional relationships to provide more tangible contracting opportunities for our small business members and to facilitate collaboration in the Black community.” The announcement of the MOU took place at a press conference sponsored by
Hyundai North America during the USBC’s recent 2015 School of Chamber and Business Management, an annual gathering with a goal of fostering growth of small Black businesses and economic development across the country. In a recent interview, Busby explains what the new Memorandum means to
Black auto dealers and the Black community as a whole. “The amount that AfricanAmericans spend on vehicles is inappropriately unequal as it relates back to the number of dealerships that we own as well as the amount of money that those particular brands market to the African-American
consumer,” he says. “And so what we hope that this does - this new relationship that we’ve established - is we want to showcase the power of the African-American dollar and recirculate that dollar so that our Black dealers can now increase the number of employees that they have working on their staffs.” Busby points out that “The number of dealers that are owned by African-Americans is decreasing at a high rate. We have fewer dealers that are owned by Black folk now than we’ve ever had in history. But, yet we have more Black consumers who are buying vehicles than we ever had. We just got to support them like we have to support our Black banks as well as our Black media.” NAMAD President Damon Lester says there’s been a drastic decrease in Black-owned dealerships. There were only 252 at the end of 2014. That’s down from a peak ownership of 795 in 2005, Lester said. That’s a 31 percent reduction in ownership
in less than 10 years. The USBC has researched several national industries to find ways to recirculate dollars back into Black businesses and the community at large. Last year the organization focused on travel and tourism “and we said we were going to spend more money with Black hotel owners,” Busby recalls. The year before that, it was Blackowned banks. But, the automobile industry is a special challenge given the comeback of the industry, which nearly collapsed seven years ago. A multi-billion dollar government bailout largely saved the industry, but Black-owned dealerships have continued to struggle having lost thousands of employees. Marc Bland, vice president for diversity and inclusion for IHS Automotive, which provides statistics and information on the automobile industry among others, says the USBC has the right strategy to deal with the
AUTO TURN TO 7
Designer Martin Davis lights up GM By Freddie Allen Senior Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – If you’re driving down a highway, street or tunnel anywhere in North America and you see the shimmering new headlights on the latest Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC or Buick approaching you, there’s a good chance you’re seeing the work of Martin Davis, a talented, young African American designer who works for General Motors. Since 2012, Davis has led the exterior lighting and design studio for the automaker’s North American division, the team responsible for the exterior lighting for every brand under the General Motors’ umbrella. Davis traces his love for
Martin Davis — a bright spot for GM.
design and innovation back to elementary school. He didn’t like Hot Wheels and the Lego sets that he owned weren’t intricate enough to hold his attention even at 5 years old. He found that he didn’t like any of the toys sold in the stores, so he started making his own. The Detroit-area native started collecting empty cardboard boxes that were used for transporting fruits and vegetables from the grocery store, bring them home and just start cutting. He molded shapes with glue, tape and construction paper. There was a small closet in the entryway of his parents’ house, just big enough for a chair and his creations: interior designs for a car including a dashboard and center console. Then he invited all of his friends over to “test drive” the car. He rolled out a new model
about once a month. His father, then an employee at Ford Motor Company’s stamping plant in Dearborn, Mich., shut down young Martin’s burgeoning auto operation fearing that letting the neighborhood kids play with cardboard in their closet presented a safety hazard. That didn’t stop him from sharing his talent for design with others, including his father’s employer. “One day I decided to send my sketches into Ford. I was still in middle school. I found an address to Ford in some magazine and put a few of my drawings in an envelope and put it in the mail,” Davis explained. “I didn’t tell my parents anything.”
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Page 6 • August 31 - September 6, 2015 • Insight News
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COMMENTARY Bipartisan effort to reform the criminal justice system Black Press of America By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., President and CEO, NNPA Whenever I have an opportunity to rejoin the transformational activities of the civil rights organization that was founded and led by the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I am always eager to participate. Such was the case July 23 in Baton Rouge, La. The occasion was the 57th annual convention of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and I had been invited to participate as part of a panel on criminal justice reform. In my younger days, I was the statewide youth coordinator for Dr. King and SCLC in my home state of North Carolina. I learned firsthand how to organize and mobilize effectively following the living example of Dr. King. I only mention this because one of my enduring memories about Dr. King was his ability to see the social change benefits of encouraging coalition-building across partisan political and racial
lines. Principles of multiracial and bipartisan coalition-building are important to any movement that seeks to reform or change the status quo. I had no reluctance, therefore, to join a panel discussion on a topic that is dear to my heart, soul and spirit – “Uniting for Progress and Opportunity: Bipartisan Efforts to Reform the Criminal Justice System.” I was pleased to join my fellow panelists: Mark Holden, general counsel and senior vice president of Koch Industries; attorney Norman Reimer, executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL); and noted Capitol Hill journalist Lauren Victoria Burke. The panel was moderated by Curley M. Dossman Jr., president of the GeorgiaPacific Foundation, and board chairman of 100 Black Men. Georgia-Pacific is a subsidiary of Koch Industries. According to Mark Holden, “The criminal justice system as it is set up today is a major impediment to opportunity for disadvantaged and poor people. There is a two-tiered system where if you’re rich and guilty you get a better deal than if you’re poor and innocent.” Holden is accurate, and I agree with his principled position.
Although we are only 5 percent of the world’s population, our nation holds 25 percent of the world’s prisoners, who are disproportionately people of color and people of poverty. Holden is a libertarian and I am a Democrat, but we are now working together to build an effective, bipartisan national criminal justice reform movement across America. If Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, I believe he would be at the forefront of this movement. The “land of the free” has now become “the land of the imprisoned.” Although we are only 5 percent of the world’s population, our nation holds 25 percent of the world’s prisoners, who are disproportionately people of color and people of poverty. There is, however, good news. A growing number of major companies and national
organizations are now following the lead of Koch Industries and the Charles Koch Institute by bonding together on the issue of criminal justice reform, including Apple, Starbucks, Walmart, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, SCLC, NAACP, Coalition for Public Safety, and the Center for American Progress. In its report from the SCLC convention, Rolling Out magazine stated, “Along with Apple, the computer juggernaut, Koch Industries is a leader in removing prior convictions from stopping individuals from receiving a fair chance at employment. These
two companies are at the front of a movement to ‘remove the box’ (the ‘have you ever been convicted of a felony’ box) on employment applications by implementing that change themselves.” There is progress now in Congress on this important issue. Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.) have introduced the SAFE Justice Act. The acronym SAFE stands for Safe, Accountable, Fair and Effective. Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, and Mark Holden, said writing for Politico, “. . . the legislation is an important step in addressing America’s ballooning, costly and ultimately unfair federal sentencing and corrections system, which needlessly throws away lives and decimates entire communities.” You should let your Congressional representatives know that this bipartisan bill should be enacted without delay. We must be vigilant, principled and persistent in order to achieve the goal of effective reform. Recently, I visited the headquarters of the Charles Koch Institute (CKI) in Arlington, Va. When you are building a social, a political or an economic change movement, it is also important, from my
perspective, to get to know something about the integrity and commitments of the people who you are working with. I was impressed by the diligence of the diverse team of scholars and staff I met with at the institute. I took a selfie with Richard Fink, president of the Charles Koch Institute. I have that photograph on display in my office at the National Newspaper Publishers Association in Washington, D.C. Actually, we took the photo in front of a large poster of another one of my freedom movement heroes, Frederick Douglass, which is prominently displayed outside the entrance to Fink’s office. There is a very relevant quote from Frederick Douglass that serves as the caption for the poster: “I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.” Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. is the President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and can be reached for national advertisement sales and partnership proposals at: dr.bchavis@nnpa.org; and for lectures and other professional consultations at: http:// drbenjaminfchavisjr.wix.com/ drbfc
One year after Mike Brown: Response of some police, politicians not maturated By Nicole Lee Anticipation for the commemoration of the one-year anniversary of the killing of Mike Brown Jr. by then-Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson was high. Clergy community and civil leaders, gathered to remember “Mike-Mike”’s life, death and aftermath that sparked a
Nicole Lee
movement. While Mike Brown’s death unfortunately was not wholly unique, the response from the community was. Community members stayed in the street publicly protesting and never went home. Open defiance lasted hundreds of days. Even after the police brought out dogs and tear gas, the community refused to back down. These acts of civil disobedience inspired people
around the country to defy the initial storyline of “looters” and “rioters” and to look to the deeper issues at play in Ferguson. This anniversary was met with protests and renewed calls for justice but it was also greeted by music, concerts, prayer vigils and strategy sessions. While the goals remained steadfast among demonstrators and concerned folks, there was diversity in approach and tactics. Activists,
artists and religious leaders were retrospective with a keen eye toward all that still must be won. The future of a movement was in the hands of not just Ferguson but the nation and as a movement, it must be prepared to act locally and nationally. Yet the response of the police and some politicians in St. Louis County has not maturated. Once again, vehicles and armament reminiscent of war scenes, rolled
onto West Florrisant in Ferguson. On the anniversary of Mike Brown’s death while a concert headlined by Talib Kweli and Common rocked the night in Ferguson, the police ordered a group of protesters to disperse. Moments later, they teargassed the very path the police ordered protesters to take. A 12-yearold girl was put in handcuffs. A
LEE TURN TO 7
Our white liberal conundrum By Walter L. Fields NNPA Columnist One of the enduring debates since the enslavement of Africans in the American colonies has been the extent to which well-meaning whites can appropriate Black suffering and be a true participant in our liberation. From the roots of the abolitionist movement to the Niagara Movement, and subsequent founding of the interracial National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to the Civil Rights Movement, the issue of ‘white intention’ has been a point of conflict not only between purportedly liberal whites and Blacks, but within the Black community.
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Walter Fields There are clear examples of whites engaged and committed in the fight for Black dignity and human rights. White students from northern colleges were among those who boarded busses for the Freedom Rides in the 1960s and participated in voting rights campaigns in the rural south. Rev. James Reeb was killed by white supremacists in Selma, Ala. while he was
in the city to participate in the historic voting rights march. Detroit mother and housewife Viola Liuzzo was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan when driving back from the Montgomery after shuttling Selma marchers. Abolitionist John Brown laid down his life in planning an armed insurrection with the goal of ending slavery. While the heroism and commitment of these whites and others can never be questioned or diminished, there still exists suspicion on the part of Blacks toward whites who claim allegiance to the Black struggle. Much of this I believe is due to the deep roots of white supremacy and the sentiment among Blacks that no white person can truly
FIELDS TURN TO 9
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Insight News • August 31 - September 6, 2015 • Page 7
EDUCATION Access Africa! Linking education and entertainment Commentary
Dr. Anita Davis-DeFoe Leadership and Social Enterprise Editor Twenty years ago, in 1995, a couple from the U.S. Virgin Islands, Michael and Vikki Boyce traveled to the Ivory Coast. This was the first of more than 20 trips to West Africa that the couple has taken over the years. Africa became a compulsion. The couple first went to Africa to buy an African beer named Mamba. Over the years, the couple’s interest made an about-face. Africa was initially viewed exclusively as a business opportunity; quickly Africa became a preoccupation. In 1998, after an African child that they knew died from a easily preventable disease (Guinea Worms) the couple decided to do something about the lack of information that was available to the poorest African communities. As they assessed the situation, the couple realized that the problem was a lack of readily available information dissemination methods that would allow disadvantaged and rural communities to be educated about even the simplest things like the importance of washing one’s hands. The couple brainstormed strategies that would allow this under-served majority of the country to become privy to information that was readily available to more affluent segments of the population. They came up with a rough concept whereby information could be presented to rural communities using a large projection screen system. In 1999, the couple tested their concept. They planned to take a medium quality projector and a small sound system to a village in the Ivory Coast’s northern sector and show some programming in the local language to see if people would be interested. When the couple told their friend who had introduced them to Africa what they were planning, he told them to take a video about AIDS to include in their programming. Having little to work with, they took the video he gave them
Auto From 5 issues - not only as they pertain to the automobile industry, but others as well. “Activity based on facts and data...creates awareness and education, which leads to proper action and engagement,” Bland says. The USBC, NAMAD and Hyundai are playing out this strategy, he said. “Collectively, what they did is say, ‘Hey, here’s some information that says the African-American consumer is helping to drive a lot of growth
Lee From 6 handicapped veteran was maced and tackled to the ground. Armed white vigilantes roamed the streets of Ferguson while once again black protesters found themselves public enemy #1. The next day, protesters took to Highway 70 shutting it down for 15 minutes. Those demonstrators who were nearly run over by an angry driver were charged with assault. Demonstrators and onlookers were arrested, many kept in handcuffs for up to 12 hours. These actions are merely a manifestation of the deeper structural issues that remain in St. Louis County. The entrenched system, never improved by the civil rights movement, continues to fight reform and punish those calling for it. St. Louis County’s municipalities had a banner year in terms of arrests and fines collected from its residents. Ferguson has rejected the first draft of the consent decree presented by the Department of Justice in order to ameliorate its racist policing practices. In an equally brazen move,
along with a couple of movies into this small village. The two set the screen up in a soccer field adjacent to a friend’s house and showed a movie, and the documentary about AIDS. The documentary chronicled the life of a truck driver. The truck driver had a wife and several children prior to becoming employed as a truck driver. Once he got on the job, he was away from his family for weeks, sometimes months at a time. Over the course of several years of driving the truck, he picked up a number of prostitutes who frequented the many truck stops and fueling stations along the truckers’ routes. He subsequently contracted HIV. Unbeknown to him, he brought the disease home to his wife. They subsequently had three children who became HIV positive. The documentary graphically chronicled the lives of the family as the older children had to take care of their parents, and their younger siblings who were dying of AIDS. The informational piece walked the audience through the various stages of the disease up until the death of each family member. It was explicit. The first night, several hundred people showed up. The second night (which was supposed to be the final night) more than 1,000 people came out. The couple was then asked to stay several more nights. With limited programming (1 movie, and a 45 minute documentary) they were astounded by the turn out. The screen was only eight feet by five feet and the sound system was so inadequate that only the first 200 people or so closest to the screen could clearly hear. The third night there was an
estimated 5,000 -6,000 people. People had walked in from miles away, most never having seen a television. The concept was an unprecedented hit. What crystallized the concept for the couple was an event that occurred the fourth and final night. Just before the end of that night’s programming, someone came in from Abidjan the capitol and shared that women were marching in the capitol naked. There had been several weeks of civil unrest, and this Virgin Islands couple had even gotten caught in several massive marches. In one incident, they were teargassed while driving through an area when the military opted to disperse a crowd of protesters. Michael and Vikki Boyce understood the gravity of the situation. The couple’s host quickly told them that they must leave this north region immediately, and get out of the country as quickly as possible because the naked marching signified a volatile situation. So the programming was shut down earlier than normal, as the couple and their host prepared for the 14 hour drive back to the capitol. While they were packing up to go, they were approached by the village fetish/voodoo man. He told them a cruel and malicious story. He said that before that night AIDS was just a word that European outsiders brought into their communities. He said he did not know anything about AIDS, and villagers had no concept of the disease’s savagery. The proclaimed fetish man went on to say that in most areas, prostitution had two prices, one with a condom, and a higher one without a condom.
All the fetishes capitalized on this price differential, and sold the prostitutes a talisman that supposedly protected them from this word “AIDS” that the European outsiders told them about. Crying hysterically and whipping himself with a leather whip, the fetish man shared, “Before tonight, AIDS was never real. AIDS was just a word that I and other village fetishes made money from. But for the first time I saw AIDS, and I know that what I sell cannot protect anyone from what I saw tonight.” After he had told his story, he walked off into the night, continuing to whip himself and whimpering, “I have been killing my people” The Virgin Islands couple left the village shattered. Michael Boyce said, “All through that long night, the man’s screams as he whipped himself resonated in my mind, as we drove the 14 hours back to Abidjan.” The Boyce’s were two of the last people to get on a flight out of the country, only able to make it as far as Paris, where they had to layover for almost a week before getting back to New York. When they finally arrived in New York, they discovered that there had been a military coup. The fetish’s words resonated with this couple and galvanized them into doing something to save lives. Since there was unrest in the Ivory Coast, they could not return. Determined to bring their concept to life, the couple saved for the next seven years and after investing more than $150,000 of their own money they moved to Ghana, and brought Access African
People Foundation to life in 2007. Through trial and error, and the culture shock of moving to another continent, these social entrepreneurs were able to fine tune their concept which crystallized into the nongovernmental organization (NGO) it is today. The NGO has traveled to more than 100 small communities and schools since its inception. After meeting with the community elders, chief, and the Queen Mother, Access Africa conducts a community need assessment. Once finding out the issues that are endemic to the community, the organization sets up its giant screens in the community’s soccer field. Access Africa shows movies or international soccer tournaments creating captive audiences, and then every 12 minutes they insert the messaging that addresses the communities need. The issues range from HIV/AIDS prevention to testing for malaria and cholera prevention, sanitation and hygiene education, to the importance of girl-child education. Since 2007, Access Africa has reached more than 2.5 million viewers in Ghana. Having self-funded the organization for more than eight years, the organization has exceeded the couple’s ability to finance it on their own. Having carefully developed the model, Access is now for the first time seeking outside resources to expand their work. The organization is seeking funding that will allow it to purchase and operate 10 screen systems. Making its screens available to companies who want to
disseminate their messages to a previously unreachable demographic group will allow Access to become selfsustaining, while enhancing the ability to broadcast its life saving messages. With the critical mass of viewers that 10 screens will provide, Access will be able to grow and expand its life saving work across Ghana and eventually into other countries. Readers worldwide can help make this happen by becoming contributors to an upcoming Indiegogo campaign which is about to launch in the next few weeks. Sharing their vision for the future, the couple commented, “Our vision for the future is to expand our existing NGO in Ghana from a small but well developed project, into a network of knowledge empowering conduits that serves humanity. With help from those with an altruistic and compassionate nature, our reach will become deep and widespread. The ability to save lives and change people’s behavior for the better all across Ghana will be accomplished on an unprecedented level.” Continuing Michael Boyce said, “We have seen the impact that this project has had, and it has only been done in a very small part of Ghana. We have saved many lives, and touched many, many more, by simply dispensing information that is readily available to everyone else in the world. The feeling of having done that is euphoric. Now after eight years, we have perfected the model, we want to do it on a much bigger scale. We want to continue saving lives.” For more information on this project visit www. accessafricanpeople.org.
in the U.S. auto industry.’ Hyundai came and showed up, which is the initial action,” Bland recounted. “They invited me to come out as a leader from IHS to provide some fact-based data; and together the three of us, along with Ron, had a conversation which provided awareness and proper education to the attendees. And then NAMAD took the additional step of signing the MOU which says that NAMAD is going to work with Ron Busby to collectively say how can we work together to identify potential growth opportunity for Black auto dealers. And then you have Hyundai, which says
they’re going to support the efforts as well.” Bland said AfricanAmericans represent about 8 percent of all new vehicles sold in the United States. By April of this year, Blacks had bought 373,901 vehicles, which, at a conservative $25,000 per vehicle, could end up at $24 billion by the end of this year. He listed the eight top brands selling most to AfricanAmericans as the following in order of sales: Toyota, Nissan, Chevrolet, Ford, Honda, Kia, Hyundai and Dodge. Bland applauded Hyundai for having one of its executives present at the U.
S. Black Chamber School of Management, “which I think is the first step.” But, Hyundai is just a start, Bland says. “The data that we have so far is a good foundation for Ron to now have really solid conversations with pretty much all the auto manufacturers; those that are doing great - ‘Hey how can you further expand your platform today and make it even greater?’ And those that are maybe trailing behind, ‘Hey, how can you get up to par, get up to speed and then further expand that platform?’” Busby not only has that issue, but other critical Black business issues on his plate.
“The number one concern is access to capital,” he said in an interview. “And Black businesses in particular feel like it is more challenging this year to get access to the funds to grow and start businesses than they ever have before.” Another issue often discussed in USBC circles is the question of how to convince African-American consumers to support Black-owned businesses. With an estimated spending power of $1.1 trillion, African-American economic power continues to grow exponentially. But, the average African-American dollar only stays six hours within the Black
community, the USBC stated in a release. Busby, whose non-profit USBC has a membership of 240,000 Black-owned businesses and 115 chambers in 28 states, said he found it ironic that a recent Gallop poll revealed that Hispanic and Asian business-owners say they have not felt as much economic pressures as AfricanAmericans. “They have not felt the discrimination or the challenge of being a minority as much as African-Americans have,” he said. “But yet we still have a very positive outlook for our future as business owners.”
the county executive for St. Louis County has decided to pursue criminal charges against protesters. These charges go as far back as last August and our cases that the state prosecutor and the municipalities chose not to pursue. I think of the ways in which St. Louis County continues to defy conventional wisdom treating its own citizens as enemy combatants every time I hear criticism of the tactics of Black Lives Matter activists. From colleagues to comment sections, there is a constant refrain citing tactics over substance. Critiques of political targets over the terror black communities are facing calls to question our priorities as a nation. One year out, I the tactics of disruption coupled with strong policy recommendations that quickly evolved into reform is the only way to manifest that black lives matter. The Butcher’s Bill is growing with so many dead black men and women at the hands of law enforcement it is difficult to keep track of the hashtags. If a 12-year-old in handcuffs or in a body bag is not enough to shake the entire country from its complacent slumber, perhaps it is not so extreme that people continue to utilize tactics that bring them face-to-face with
military vehicles and disapproval from political parties. One year out, something must give. Not just in Ferguson, but in the hearts, minds, and actions of Americans everywhere. The truth: many of us simply can’t go home hoping that the protests will abate and things will go back to normal. Many of us are fighting this system like our lives depend on it. Because for some of us, they do. Nicole Lee is the co-founder of the Black Movement Law Project and the immediate past president of TransAfrica. This article is seventh of an op-ed series on behalf of the Civil Rights Coalition on Police Reform. The coalition, convened and led by the national Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, is comprised of over 30 national civil and human rights organizations, faith and community leaders working to address the nationwide epidemic of police brutality and lethal shootings, claiming the lives of Black men, women and youth; and provide necessary reforms to change the culture of policing in America. For more information, please visit www. lawyerscommittee.org.
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Page 8 • August 31 - September 6, 2015 • Insight News
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LIFESTYLE Is marriage still honorable among all? Man Talk
By Timothy Houston In the Bible, the book of Hebrews declares that marriage is honorable among all, but the number of people getting married for the 1st time has fallen to the lowest level since records began in 1862. Are we living in a generation that sees marriage as a liability? The figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the average age for men to marry today is 36.2 and for women it is 33.6. Among people over 18, barely 50% of all adults are now married. In 1960, 72% of people over the age of 18 were married.
Why are less people getting married? How will this decline impact us as a community? Although we don’t know the exact reason why less people are getting married, the declining numbers are a clear sign that marriage is less important in the lives of Americans than it used to be. In the past, people got married at a younger age. Back in the baby boom days people were in their early-20’s, in the 1990’s they were in their mid20’s, and now we are seeing a greater number of people waiting until their 30’s to get married for the first time. What is the root cause of this trend? There are a number of things that could play a role in the decline in marriages. First, there are other kinds of living arrangements that are now socially acceptable, such as living with someone without being married, living on your own, or even living as
In the black community, the single family household has made it even more difficult for families to buy a home or for children to attend college.
a single parent. Secondly, more people are waiting to complete college and get into a career before they settle down and get married. Finally, some surveys indicate that at least for men, it is now more important to be financially able to provide for a family before they get married. Although there are
many more reasons that factor into the equations of why fewer men and women are getting married, the bottom line is that fewer marriages are occurring. The decline in marriages is not good for us as a community. Economically speaking, married couples tend to have more income and more
wealth. We also know that the kind of partnership marriage encourages is one in which you plan for the future, share your assets, and build wealth together. This increased wealth enables couples to own their own homes, invest in business, or send their children to college. This type of planning occurs less in relationship where couples live together. It should also be noted that although most children turn out well regardless of whether their parents are married or not, there’s a somewhat higher likelihood that they will face issues related to the economic hardship that is created from a lack of long term financial planning. Good or bad, the decline in marriages is a fact of life. In the black community, the single family household has made it even more difficult for families to buy a home or for children to attend college.
This trend cannot continue. What do we do now? We as a people can reverse this trend. As people of faith, we band together and declare to the world that marriage is still honorable. The words of the traditional wedding vows still ring true today. “Marriage is an honorable estate instituted of God since the first man and woman walked on the earth. Therefore, it is not to be entered into unadvisedly, or lightly, but reverently and soberly.” It is into this holy estate that two people are joined, families are strengthened, wealth is created, and communities prosper. Timothy Houston is an author, minister, and motivational speaker who is committed to guiding positive life changes in families and communities. For questions, comments or more information, go to www. tlhouston.com.
Nothing happens overnight, but a vision and a plan Motivational Moments
By Penny JonesRichardson It’s that time a year again when kids are going back to school and families have ended what
Davis From 5 A few months went by, and the young designer began
was probably a very good summer. Now it’s time to get back to work and concentrate on moving toward your greatness! The start of the fall season is approaching fast and this is the time of year for me to work on new things. I don’t know what it is about this time of year, but it always makes me want to try something new. I remember meeting a young lady once who would begin to work on new goals
every year around this time. She said that during this time of year many people think of fall as the end of summer. The leaves start to change on the trees and plants and flowers start to die. But she looks at it as a change instead of an end. I was happy to hear her say that because I can relate to how she feels. This is a time to take control of your life and do those things that will make you feel complete. This is the time to finish what you
started and move on to your next life changing goal. Many times we think that we have to put things on the “back burner” until the time is right. We may say next season I’ll finish that goal or even next year I’ll work on it. But the truth is there is never a “perfect” time to finish what you started. There will always be circumstances standing in the way. However, the key is to not let your circumstances take control, you have to always be
the one in control. Don’t get me wrong, I realize that life happens and some things take precedence over other things. But nothing should take priority over making your life better and achieving what’s important to do so. My wish for you is that this season brings you many opportunities to achieve those things that mean the most to you. I hope that you have all your goals wrote down and your map to complete those goals in
site at all time. Nothing happens overnight, but a vision and a plan! And as always, stay focused, stay determined, and keep striving for greatness.
to lose hope and figured that nothing would come of his letter. Then one day after school when he got home, his brother was waving a piece of paper at him. “’This guy from Ford called
you here’s his number and he wants to call you back,’” Davis recalled his older brother saying. So Davis anxiously dialed the number and the Ford employee who answered, thanked him for his interests
and told him that he sent the drawings over to the design department, and that someone would get in contact with him. He received a followup letter from the design department with some career advice and a list of schools.
The list of schools included his eventual choice. Following the advice that he received from Ford, while still in middle school he set his mind to attending the College for Creative Studies (CCS) in downtown Detroit. After he graduated from CCS, he applied to a number of companies. At one point he believed that he would follow in his father’s footsteps at Ford, but despite earlier interest in the middle schooler’s work, he never got an offer from the company. But he did get an offer from GM. “My time at GM has been amazing,” said Davis. “I couldn’t have imagined it being better.” Davis admitted his first day on the job was nerve-racking, and it took him awhile to find his way around the mammoth General Motors complex. “I remembered sitting at my desk that first day looking around at all designers thinking, ‘How am I going to compete with all of them?” said Davis. But the young designer did compete, gaining confidence with every completed sketch. Davis’ work began to catch eyes of the design managers and they started selecting his sketches among dozens plastered on the 20-foot wall in his studio at GM. “The early days were a lot of fun,” said Davis. “There was a freeness. I remember doing sketches for the 2004 Oldsmobile show car, the last
show car they did.” One of his sketches was selected as the theme sketch for the car. That Oldsmobile show car would be built at the worldfamous, now defunct Gruppo Bertone design house in Italy. Even though Davis wasn’t selected to join GM designers in Italy, he didn’t sit on the sidelines for long. A few months later, as the end of his first year with GM approached, the auto company gave him the opportunity to travel to Birmingham, England to work at an advanced design studio that primarily focused on Cadillacs. There he worked on the Cadillac Cien, a two-seater, mid-engine concept car. The assignment, originally scheduled for two months stretched into two years. “It was a really great experience to work on such a high-profile concept car,” said Davis. After the two-year stint in Birmingham, the Detroit area native worked on a number of production programs, including the GMC Acadia and the auto company’s Cadillac group in China. When Davis returned to the United States, company executives were having ongoing discussions about General Motors’ exterior lighting designs compared to some of their competitors. Davis said that as the conversations were happening about the direction of the new project wholly-focused on exterior lighting, he jumped at the opportunity and volunteered to do it. “It was almost like a huge experiment,” said Davis. “We never had a dedicated, exterior lighting design studio, but we wanted better lights, so we said, “Let’s see how this work.’” Davis and his team took on the exterior lighting responsibilities for three wellknown “programs”: the GMC Acadia Chevy Traverse and the Buick Enclave. Management immediately recognized the how valuable having dedicated focus on lighting could be. “Not long after that they made it an official studio and made me the first manager of that studio in 2012,” said Davis. “That was really cool.” Davis said that he still loves to draw, but in his current position he’s more like the conductor of an orchestra than an individual musician. “I don’t have an instrument. My team has all of the instruments they need and I have to remember that,” said Davis.
A Non-Traditional, Cutting Edge Experience! Be Ready for Truth, Healing, Teaching and Transformation!
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Pastor Roslyn Harmon Sundays 2-4pm
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Visit Us: Circleofhealingministry.org For More Info: 612.564.9962
Penny Jones-Richardson is a published author and life coach. She can be reached via her website at www. thequeensproject.com or email at penny@thequeensproject.com.
DAVIS TURN TO 9
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Insight News • August 31 - September 6, 2015 • Page 9
COMMUNITY “Your Honor, don’t send that child to jail, give him to us!� At-Large
By Melvin Carter, II Ramsey County JDAI Stakeholder Committee: August 18, 2015. Agenda: The next JDAI focus? Brief background -- JDAI stands for Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative. In 2005, community elders recognized secure detention (kiddy jail) as the entry gate to prison pipelines and mobilized an attack with phenomenal and measurable success. In short they said, “Instead of jailing low level juvenile offenders, let community serve as an alternative.� The annual intake plummeted in the Ramsey County juvenile detention by 70 percent in just five years. Yes, between 2005 and 2010, Ramsey County Juvenile detention dropped from more than 4,000 children per year
Fields From 6 understand the depths of our dehumanization in America. Too often whites who project a level of consciousness and empathy come across as paternalistic and as professing a greater understanding of Black suffering than Blacks themselves. Frustration also reigns among Blacks when ‘comparative suffering’ is employed by whites who offer the immigrant experience as analogous with slavery and Jim Crow. The uniqueness of statesanctioned violence against Blacks in America is only paralleled and exceeded by the genocide of the American
Davis From 8 “Now my job is to make sure that my team knows where each brand is going and understands how to use technology to create a design that is appropriately styled to the character of each vehicle.�
community does not call police due to fear that police will turn on them, and blame them. It is not safe to speak up. Children are taking plea agreements, without parents or attorneys present, without fully understanding the long-term collateral damage and consequences of over criminalizing. People take plea agreements because it is too risky not to do so. Police and courts are dehumanizing, traumatizing, and breaking communities. When we are guilty the punishment is too severe. When we are innocent
we cannot defend ourselves. When we are victims we get blamed and crimes against us are not solved. Additional concerns included continued use of criminal cells for runaway children and status offenders, existing alternatives lack inspiration, quality and nourishment envisioned by ATD Goals. Specific requests were listed as a prosecutorial discretion study seeking restorative practices, law enforcement return to principals of community policing (meaning problem solving with community) towards public tranquility, that police use force only when necessary, and only to the extent necessary and law enforcement develop clear and comprehensive de-escalation policies and procedures once a threat is neutralized. The elected, and appointed officials in the room elevated the occasion to a problem solving think-tank, rising above and beyond an “us against them� situation. Judge George Stephens, Judge Michael Clark, Ramsey County Atty. Jon Choi, Police Chief Tom Smith, County Commissioners
Mary Jo McGuire, Victoria Reinhardt and Toni Carter all listened attentively and participated generously. The exchange consisted of thoughtful questions, insightful pushbacks, and rebuttals. The spirit in the room was that of deep genuine concern about the lives, future and freedom of the constituency. Everyone stayed at the table. No one took their toys, stormed out, slamming the door. For many, distrust of those we pay to protect us, and fear of retaliation is the paramount issue. Others expressed concern of “overkill� when use of deadly force is justified. To their credit, the officials were gracious, agreeing to craft a rough draft response for the next quarterly JDAI Stakeholder Meeting (date to be determined). Don’t get me wrong. Feathers were ruffled as expected. But everyone acclimated to the discomfort in the room and pressed onward, and muscled through the tuff stuff. Attendees appeared a little rattled; some irritated. But feedback on both sides was that this was the most fruitful JDAI meeting in years.
about the American experience when he wrote “Over the last few years many Negroes have felt that their most troublesome adversary was not the obvious bigot of the Ku Klux Klan or the John Birch Society, but the white liberal who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice, who prefers tranquility to equality. In a sense the white liberal has been victimized with some of the same ambivalence that has been a constant part of our national heritage.� It is why the #BlackLivesMatter movement is so important and so misunderstood. The affirmation of blackness has always been viewed as a threat to white supremacy. It is what set the nation on fire when
Frederick Douglass tongue lashed America with his fiery “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July� Independence Day celebration speech. A century later, Malcolm X and a young Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) would both invoke the right of Black selfdetermination in ways that would unnerve white America. Yet, in all three cases, there was never a call for proactive vengeance against whites. And that is what is misunderstood by ‘liberal’ whites who now flinch when hearing Blacks affirm their humanity and our professed friends react by countering that “all lives matter.� All lives have not mattered in America. This is the truth that many whites cannot
accept or purposely choose to ignore. At no time in the history of the United States have whites experienced being enslaved, the victims of state-sanctioned terrorism, codified discrimination and second-class citizenship. And it is a legacy of discounting Black life as practices that diminished Blacks of one generation have continued to affect the standing of Blacks in successive generations. This is why the challenge that the #BlackLivesMatter Movement is posing to the 2016 presidential field is necessary and an important step toward holding elected leadership accountable for policy decisions that marginalize Black life in America. Real progress for Blacks in this
country has never come from quiet pleadings or the goodness of whites; it has been the result of confrontation, disruption, resistance and demand. Even the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement was a radical expression of defiance. For decades we seem to have forgotten that we have only moved forward when we were willing to be forward in our demand for equal standings with whites. And this mostly includes our white liberal friends who we cannot allow to claim solidarity with us while bathing in the warm waters of white privilege. #BlackLivesMatter
At first some designers of General Motors other brands were apprehensive about giving up that much control of a central element in the cars overall style, now Davis said all of them want his team’s designs. Ed Welburn, General Motors’ vice president of Global Design, praised Davis and his team for their creativity. “Martin is doing a phenomenal job,� said Welburn.
“Lighting on that [Cadillac CTS] is so striking. It wasn’t too many years ago that every headlight was either round or rectangular. Now lighting is so much a character of the car. It really is the eyes of the vehicle. Our organization is really dependent on Martin.� Davis said educators, parents and support groups first have to raise awareness among students of color about
opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers and then help them to understand that they can also excel in those professions. The GM design manager mentors children in the Detroit metro area and recommended that all students get focused at a young age and seek educational and career development programs that can assist them
with achieving their goals. Davis added that his presence in the automotive design field shows students, especially students who look like him, that they can also be successful in that field. “I think that goes a long way,� he said. And Davis has come a long way, too. “It almost feels like a dream that I have this responsibility,�
said Davis. “You think of [General Motors’] history, this 100-year-old company that’s been making cars forever and now there’s this opportunity to shift focus to another part of the vehicle, a part of the vehicle’s face, the face of each brand. It’s a humbling experience. I really do appreciate the privilege and the opportunity to fulfill this role.�
1965. Often referred to as the matriarch of our country’s Civil Rights Movement, Mrs. Boynton Robinson worked tirelessly on the behalf of those who
were discriminated against and disenfranchised, and she stood courageously in the fight to ensure voting rights for every citizen in this nation. Mrs. Boynton
Robinson was committed to equality until her death and was a champion for African Americans when our voices were not yet heard. Fifty years ago,
Mrs. Boynton Robinson walked bravely across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma to ensure that all African Americans had equal opportunity and the right
to vote. Her walk was not in vain, and we remain forever grateful for her contributions and dedicated service to civil rights in America.�
to less than 1,000, with no corresponding increase in juvenile crime. However, a multiplicity of issues still loom. The Aug. 18 JDAI meeting addressed the future and focus of JDAI, including whether it should continue to exist at all. Profound community elevated the stakes, raising the bar, asking the questions, “Does legitimacy exist in police, probation and courts.� The community was seeking reform, beginning at police contact to juvenile intake, extending beyond the magic 18-candle birthday cake. What should reform look like? Where does it start? Whose responsibility is it? Is finger pointing enough? Does it start with me and you, or is reform a team sport? Tension in the room was thicker than pea soup, no, potato soup. But there was no shouting, chants, slogans, or venting. Community activist, parents, voters, and taxpayers filtered into the room, soberly about the business at hand. A hush was in the room. Two figures approached the front of the room, and took the mic. Laura La Blanc and
Russel Balenger introduced the Juvenile Justice Reform Coalition, then delivered a data driven researched based power point, offering voices of 77 people interviewed. “We are individuals who have experienced local policing and the court system first hand. We are an expanding agency of individual partners who share experience as victims, offenders, defendants, prosecuted, convicted, incarcerated, etc. We exist to mobilize, inform, and include the community voice.� Feedback indicated that
Indian. Steve Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa, observed of the white liberal, “Being white, he possesses the natural passport to the exclusive pool of white privilege from which he does not hesitate to extract whatever suits him. Yet, since he identifies with the Blacks, he moves around his white circles, whites-only beaches, restaurants and cinemas with a lighter load, feeling that he is not like the rest. However, at the back of his mind is a constant reminder that he is quite comfortable as things stand and therefore should not bother about change.� Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made a similar observation
Robinson From 1
Classifieds
The exchange consisted of thoughtful questions, insightful pushbacks, and rebuttals. The spirit in the room was that of deep genuine concern about the lives, future and freedom of the constituency.
Phone: 612.588.1313
Fax: 612.588.2031
VACANCIES
PART-TIME INTERVIEWERS Part-time interviewers needed to conduct face-to-face and/or telephone interviews for social science/human service related survey research projects. Bi-lingual applicants must speak and read Somali, Karen, Spanish, Hmong, or other languages commonly spoken in Minnesota. Submit a cover letter with your resume at wilder.org/careers. Job code 209.
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Cokato Apts, Cokato, MN (a seniors complex 62 or over or handicapped) has vacancies on 2nd Floor for one BR apts. Waiting list open. Contact Don at 320-286-2758. E-Mail cokapts@embarqmail.com
North Memorial Needs Volunteers to Help Victims of Domestic Abuse SafeJourney, a program serving North Memorial Medical Center and Maple Grove Hospital, helps patients and individuals in the community who are experiencing domestic abuse. Volunteer advocates are needed to provide a listening ear, support, safety planning, information and referral. You do not have to have previous knowledge or experience, but rather looking for people who are sensitive to the issue, caring, and non-judgmental. Advocates sign up for 2 on-call shifts per month. Flexible scheduling - daytime, overnights, and weekends. Training is provided. Deadline to apply and schedule a short interview is January 26. Please call Suzy at 763-581-3942.
Walter Fields is executive editor of NorthStarNews.com
Email: info@insightnews.com
RENTAL UNITS AVAILABLE
The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Housing Authority has rental units available in Cass County, MN. Please call 218-335-8280. Must meet certain qualifications.
APARTMENT OPENINGS Delton Manor located in Bemidji, MN is accepting applications for future 1, 2, & 3 Bedrm apartment openings. Delton Manor has 3 twobedrm handicapped accessible units located in the building. Delton Manor promotes equal housing opportunities for all perspective residents regardless of race, color, creed, sex, sexual preference, religion, handicap, marital status, familial status, national origin or source of income. For applications and qualifications, contact NANCY at 218-759-2523. AN EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY.
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Volunteer Greeters Hennepin County is seeking volunteer greeters for its North Minneapolis human service center at 1001 Plymouth Avenue North to welcome and guide visitors, answer questions and assist with special projects. Reliable adults who enjoy working with people and who are available for a few hours twice a week are encouraged to apply. Ideal candidates will be able to volunteer for a minimum of three months. Volunteers are integral to Hennepin County’s mission of enhancing the health, safety and quality of life of its residents and communities in a respectful, efficient and fiscally responsible way. Get involved by visiting http://www.hennepin.us/humanservicevolunteer and submitting a volunteer application.
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Page 10 • August 31 - September 6, 2015 • Insight News
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Simeon Rice
Arlen J.
NFL great-turned-filmmaker talks about his directorial debut By Kam Williams Super Bowl Champion Simeon Rice is a four-time All-Pro and future Hall of Fame NFL player. Born on February 24, 1974, Simeon grew up in Roseland, Illinois, a small community on the South Side of Chicago. There, he attended Washington Elementary school, which is where he first discovered his talent for drawing. Although Simeon loved art, football led him away from his growing fascination. So, he entered high school with his heart set on playing college football and forgoing his artistic background. He received a football scholarship from the University of Illinois where he would become the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and a three-time AllAmerican. After retiring from football, he enrolled at the New York
Film Academy where he finished the short film, “When I Was King.” Shortly thereafter, he cofounded Dreamline Pictures with writer/producer John Nodilo and sold his first show to HBO. Next, he turned his attention to making his directorial debut, “Unsullied,” an homage to the actions films that he loved watching as a child. Kam Williams: Hi Simeon, thanks for the interview. Congrats on your All-Star and Super Bowl career, and thanks for all the years of great entertainment. Simeon Rice: Thank you, Kam, for recognizing my body as it relates to me as a football player. Now, I will surely entertain you with my non-stop action hit “Unsullied,” debuting August 28. KW: And congrats on having
the ambition to embark on a second career, instead of retiring to rest on your laurels. What interested you in attending the New York Film Academy? Had you studied scriptwriting or filmmaking at the University of Illinois? SR: What interested me in attending the New York Film Academy was the ability to be a storyteller and creator. No, I didn’t study any level of film or entertainment in undergrad. KW: What inspired you to adapt Reagan Farrow’s harrowing tale of survival to the screen? SR: “Unsullied” isn’t an adaption. It is an original piece in which all the events are completely created to build the story. KW: How would you summarize the film in 25 words or less? SR: “Unsullied” is about Reagan
Farrow. On a way to a race, she is kidnapped by two psychos and thrust into a dangerous game of kill or be killed. KW: Who’s your favorite director? SR: I don’t have one favorite. However, some of my favorites are Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorese, Alfred Hitchcock and Antoine Fuqua. KW: What is your favorite dish to cook? SR: If I cook, I like to make lasagna. KW: When you look in the mirror, what do you see? SR: When I look in the mirror, I see a juggernaut. KW: Who loved you unconditionally during your formative years? SR: My parents loved me unconditionally growing up. I still live by their lessons: never
half-do anything and keep God first. KW: The Ling-Ju Yen question: What is your earliest childhood memory? SR: My earliest childhood memory is when I choked on catfish bones and my father turned me upsidedown, reached in my mouth and pulled the bones out of my throat. Yup, that was disgusting! KW: What was your very first job? SR: Working in the Museum of Science and Industry. KW: If you could have one wish instantly granted, what would that be for? SR: I wish my mom was alive and healthy. KW: The Judyth Piazza question: What key quality do you believe all successful
people share? SR: I believe all successful people have a determined mind. KW: What advice do you have for anyone who wants to follow in your footsteps? SR: Believe that anything is possible, find your passion, and then follow your dreams. KW: The Tavis Smiley question: How do you want to be remembered? SR: I want to be remembered as a man of his word. KW: Finally, what’s in your wallet? SR: Several discount cards. KW: Thanks again for the time, Simeon, and best of luck with “Unsullied.” SR: Thanks for the love, Kam, and remind your readers that “Unsullied” opens in theaters on August 28th.
insightnews.com
Insight News • August 31 - September 6, 2015 • Page 11
Tek & Metasota
Aug. 31 - Sept 6
Aesthetically It! is a list of picks from the editors of Aesthetically Speaking. Aesthetically It! features venues, events, outings and more that are worthy of “It” status. If you have a venue, event or outing that you feel is “It” worthy, email us at aestheticallyit@ insightnews.com
Monday, Aug. 31 FILM/EDUCATIONAL Space: An Out-Of-Gravity Experience Science Museum of Minnesota / Omnitheater 120 Kellogg Blvd .W., St. Paul Designed with the International Space Station Office of NASA’s Johnson Space Center “Space” is a new presentation at the Science Museum’s Omni Theatre. Visit www.smm.org/ for the full schedule.
Tuesday, Sept. 1
Patti Labelle
Native Pride Dancers, and more.
Friday, Sept. 4 R&B/SOUL/ EXPIREMENTAL Eric Mayson - Detail Release Party First Avenue 701 First Ave. N., Minneapolis 8pm
$8 advance, $10 door Aesthetically Speaking “5 for ’15 R&B/Soul” honoree Eric Mayson releases his debut album at First Avenue.
Saturday, Sept. 5 HIP-HOP/ PERFORMANCE/RELEASE PARTY
Tek & Metasota Album Release Party 882 West 7th St., St. Paul 9p.m. - 2 a.m. 21-plus $10
Sunday, Sept. 6
4SEEN Magazine and Local the Label help present two of St. Paul’s powerhouse performers album release party in St. Paul with DJ Willie Shu and DJ Just Nine.
14th Annual Sumthin’ Special Black Out Affair The Exchange Mpls 10 S 5th St #B100, Minneapolis 9p.m.- 2a.m. 21-plus
$20 general admission, $50 VIP
PARTY/DANCE
DJ-Dell Dilla of the Mashwell Brothas, EA the DJ and last but not least, the winner of St Louis’ “2014 DJ of the Year” DJ NUNE help us kick off the fall and celebrate the summer at this annual all black dress affair.
JAZZ Dean Magraw and Davu Seru Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar 308 Prince St., St. Paul 7 p.m. Guitar maestro Dean Magraw and avant jazz drummer Davu Seru kick off a new monthly series in St. Paul’s Lowertown called “First Tuesdays at the Dog.”
Wednesday, Sept. 2 R&B/SOUL/ PERFORMANCE Patti Labelle and the Commodores Minnesota State Fair 1265 Snelling Ave., St Paul 7:30 p.m. Two legends of soul/R&B come to St. Paul in the form of Patti Labelle of Labelle and the one and only Commodores.
Thursday, Sept. 3 FAIR/R&B Multicultural Music and Dance Program Minnesota State Fairgrounds: Carousel Park 1265 Snelling Ave., St Paul 11:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. This is the fourth year that UCare has celebrated the diversity of its membership with this multicultural programming at the Fair. The program showcases music and dance from Minnesota’s multicultural communities, which UCare proudly serves with Minnesota Health Care Programs, Medicare products and health plans available on MNsure. Performances include Jovonta Patton & Deliverance For Youth (D.F.Y.), Larry Yazzie and
Photo of Akeelah and the Bee Cast by Dan Norman
Tickets start at $10! Begins Sept. 1 childrenstheatre.org 612.874.0400 Media Partners
Page 12 • August 31 - September 6, 2015 • Insight News
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GRIOT FESTIVAL Top row (l-r): Barbara Milon, Executive Director of Phyllis Wheatley Community Center; Leslie and Rochelle James; Nia Massey and Daryl Boudreaux Middle row (l-r): Children group dancing; Marilyn Lindstrom and Nothando Zulu; NorthPoint workers; Adam Headington, Tinka Kurth, Linda Benford and Julia Freeman; Bottom row (clockwise l-r): Shalom Ametor; Adrian and Ayofemi Mack; Nothando Zulu and Beverly Cottman;
Griots invade North Minneapolis By Titilayo Bediako The griot invasion of north Minneapolis happened Saturday, Aug. 22 at Bethune Park. More than 300 people attended WE WIN Institute’s Griot Festival, which was the latest branch on the tree of African cultural heritage and knowledge in Minnesota and beyond Africa. WE WIN utilized traditional African and African-American art forms to teach children and the community about the richness of African culture. WE WIN’s Griot Festival demonstrated the importance of African traditional art, history, culture and learning through storytelling. The African oral tradition stands as a vital and culturallyimperative source for making meaning and connecting
the past, the present and the future. Storytelling included oral stories, (spoken word and hip-hop), African drum, songs (traditional African, spirituals, and jazz), and African dance, (found in traditional African movements and hip-hop). The Griot Festival used traditional arts such as these to tell the story of Black people from Africa to America. In African traditions, the griot is one of the key figures in African society. The griot carries the cultural knowledge and identity of his or her people. The griot’s legacy stretches back for thousands of years. The griot is also guardian of the knowledge of a people’s ancestry. This history may never have been written down, making griots crucial to keeping the record of the past.
During the summer months, WE WIN partnered with Phyllis Wheatley Community Center and the We Care Performing Arts, along with griots, who worked weekly with north and southside youth to teach them the relationship of the drum, dance, oral storytelling and hip-hop to African culture. The WE WIN Griot Festival demonstrated the importance of African stories in Minnesota by bringing together several authentic local griots. The Griot Festival designed the African story methods of the oral tradition, drum, song and dance, to teach the community about the importance of the African story and why it must be shared and preserved. Youth learned these important African art forms and taught their audience the African
connection to the drum, oral stories, dance and hip-hop. In addition to the interactive workshops, the Griot Festival included bingo games, a community art project where participants colored in a display of the Kwanzaa altar, which included the seven symbols of Kwanzaa. Free food was served, face painting, and specialty balloons were provided by cultural clown artist, Rochelle James. With emcee Toki Wright, the festival culminated in stage performances by Griot youth and the Griot teachers. Besides a performance of dance, drum, storytelling and hip-hop, music was provided by DJ Van Cool, the internationally renowned beatboxer, DJ Snuggles, and spoken word legend, Keno Evol.