Ellison, Biden address Black Press of America

from Insight ::: 07.17.2023

Own land; own community

Excerpts from news feature by Forward Times, Houston

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and President Joe Biden addressed the Black Press of America at the annual convention of National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) in Memphis recently.

Ellison, who successfully prosecuted the policed oﬃcers who murdered George Floyd, delivered a riveting message on “The Death of George Floyd and Breaking the Cycle of Inaction” which is the title of his new book.

He said in the wake of the George Floyd murder, cost of civil unrest was $500+ million in damages in Twin Cities. Across 20 states, the unrest could cost insurance companies $1 billion to $2 billion —possibly making them the most expensive in US history. Ellison said one-third of wrongful convictions involve police manipulation of evidence:

The National Registry of Exonerations has catalogued every exoneration in the United

States since 1989. Recently the NRE published a report on the long-standing problem of police misconduct. Titled, “Government Misconduct and Convicting theInnocent,” based on the review of 2,400 exonerations, Ellison said. The manipulation of evidence by police oﬃcers falls into ﬁve categories (some cases fell into more than one category):

 Witness Tampering — 13% of wrongful convictions

 Perjury at Trial – 13% of wrongful convictions

 Fabricating Evidence

– 10% of wrongful convictions

 Misconduct in Interrogations – 7% of wrongful convictions

 Concealing Exculpatory

Evidence – 7% of wrongful Ellison highlighted what he called the cycle of inaction described by social scientist Kenneth Clark. He presented Clark’s ﬁndings which stated: “I read that report … of the 1919 riot in Chicago, and it is as if I were reading the report of the investigating committee on theHarlem riot of ’35, the report of the investigating committee on the

Harlem riot of ’43, the report of the McCone Commission on the Watts riot….I must again in candor say to you members of this Commission — it is a kind of Alice in Wonderland — with the same moving picture re-shown over and over again, the same analysis, the same recommendations, and the same inaction.”

- Dr. Kenneth Clark, testifying to the Kerner Commission, 1967 During NNPA’s

Carlos Watson, tech founder of Ozy, says prosecution is racially biased

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributo

Carlos Watson, the co-founder of Ozy Media, is loudly claiming on social media and in a wellproduced video that he has been targeted as a Black entrepreneur in the mostly white tech world.

Legacy Awards and Gala Dinner, the organization honored Attorney General Keith Ellison along with Tennessee State Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. President Joe Biden’s remarks in saluting the Black Press of America made it clear how important African American-owned newspapers remain and underscored the gathering’s theme: The Black

Ozy collapsed after Watson was indicted for fraud in February 2023. Federal prosecutors alleged that Watson and his company defrauded investors out of “tens of millions.” Prosecutors claim that Watson ran a company that was a fraudulent scheme to fool ﬁnancial supporters based on false information about Ozy.

But in the tech world, over-inﬂating user data and success is generally standard practice. Watson is arguing that his prosecution is racially biassed and that he was using often used tactics by tech entrepreneurs.

“The U.S. legal system criminalizes the actions of black #entrepreneurs such as OZY Media Founder Carlos

Watson while giving their white counterparts a pass. Black entrepreneurs receive 1% of venture funding and 51% of the prosecution,” wrote Watson on social media on June 21. Watson’s legal defense team is asking the Department of Justice to conduct a racial bias investigation on the Brooklyn prosecutors who are working on his case. Watson claims that the three white prosecutors focused on him have overwhelmingly prosecuted Black people and other people of color while only ten percent of their prosecutions are Black.

In February, federal prosecutors accused Watson of running Ozy “like a criminal organization.”

“There’s a not-sosecret track record of double standards in prosecution of Black people for identical allegations as our counterparts. Acknowledging this does not suggest indiﬀerence, but of the reality we face,” wrote Dr. Nehemiah Mabry

Ownership of land has always been the number one platform for building wealth.

What we are trying to do is help families get into owning the land and the clearest path to that is home ownership. It’s the clearest path to actually building wealth.

I was able to help two of my brothers purchase a home because we are in a position to do so.. As a homeowner, we own the land that we live in.

Getting to home ownership, is easy once you learn the process, but it can be complicated. There’s a lot of doors that you must walk through. You must walk through a door to get to talk to the lender. There’s another door to talk to the realtor. There’s another door to get into the houses that you visit to ﬁnd and eventually purchase one. There’s another door you have

DEED

From to create opportunities for our most vulnerable populations where obstacles might exist, and these youth development and job training programs are crucial to the well-being of our communities and our state’s economy.”

The Youth at Work program has statewide impact: metro-focused organizations received 59% of available funds while Greater Minnesota received 39% of available funds. The remaining 2% of available funds went to organizations serving both Metro and Greater Minnesota.

As the state continues to make investments to get young Minnesotans into training and development programs, DEED’s Youth at Work program partners across the state are helping support the workforce of today and tomorrow in ﬁnding economic stability and developing new skills. The program is in high demand:

Nnpa

From 3

Press of America: Amplifying Progress, Excellence, & Voices of Black America

The conference celebrated 196th anniversary of the Black Press.

“Congratulations to the Black Press of America for celebrating 196 years of serving communities across our nation,” Biden stated in the address which aired on July 1.

“Ida B. Wells once said, the way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon the wrong. That’s the sacred charge of a free press. That’s the charge African American publishers have pursued for nearly two centuries,” Biden continued.

“With every story you publish, you make our democracy stronger. Thank you for what you do to turn the light of truth wherever your work leads you. Thank you.”

Dr. Chavis and outgoing NNPA Chair Karen Carter Richards praised the President for recognizing the importance of the Black Press of America.

“The NNPA is especially honored to hear directly from President Joe Biden for his continued support and advocacy of the importance of the Black Press of America,” Chavis stated.

“As we celebrate 196 years of the Black Press, it’s always gratifying and encouraging to have the support of the President of the United States. In the wake of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions on civil rights, the Black Press rededicates our journalism to be a clarion voice for freedom, justice, equality, and equity.”

Richards, who completed four years as NNPA Chair, also thanked the President.

“To have the President of the United States take the time out to be a part of our to walk through to meet with the title company, the closer who’s going to close it. So, there’s a lot of doors that you have to walk through in order for you to get into home ownership.

What we do is to take away all the doors and just have one door for a family to walk through to learn and to connect with every single part of that transaction so that you’re not going into it blind.

Seeing a child walk inside of a house and say “Mama, this is our house. Daddy, this is our house.”

There is no greater feeling.

It’s about changing the direction of your family and a child, the smallest child. You don’t even have to tell them. They instantaneously know the diﬀerence.

When you own the land, you own your community. We don’t rent our community. We want to own our community. Because as owner, if something happens on my block, I got to fix it, and if I got to fix, that means we got to fix it. And if we got to fix last fiscal year, DEED received over $17.7 million in funding requests from 60 organizations for the Youth at Work program.

Lawmakers recently doubled funding for the program in order to provide the necessary support.

“The Youth at Work program is one of the ways DEED is investing in Minnesota’s future. Helping youth gain soft skills and jobs skills are critical to building a strong pipeline of workers and advance Minnesota’s economy,” said DEED Deputy Commissioner for Workforce Development Marc Majors.

“Thank you to Governor Walz, Lieutenant Governor Flanagan, and lawmakers for making this program a priority.”

Awarded grants include:

Achieve Twin Cities$125,000

African Community Services - $50,000

African Immigrant Community Services - $100,000

American Indian OIC - $176,059

Anoka County$147,150

Appetite for Change$100,000 convention is, of course, special,” Richards related. “But it’s also a testament to just how vital the Black Press remains. Collectively, as Black publishers and Black business owners, we are stronger than ever, and the President’s message reinforces that.” it, that means that we have to have relationships, and if we have relationships, that means that we’re not strangers, and if we’re not strangers, that means that I’m interacting with you.

A workshop on engaging the next generation through culture and building pathways between the Black Press and the next generation through education included conversations with Forward Times Business Manager Chelsea Lenora White, and Jarren Small, the CEO of Educational Entertainment and Reading with a Rapper.

The workshop stressed the importance of solving the national literacy issue to reach the next generation and provided publishers and attendees with solutions to reach an untapped market: schools.

Small and Dr. Chavis then discussed the “Black Press State of Emergency Response through Hip Hop, Education, and Literacy,” during a ﬁreside chat.

The Google News Initiative global program manager Tina Xiao, described “3 Trends to Grow Ad Revenues in 2023”, brieﬁng attendees on the top trends in ad revenue and Google products aimed at helping accelerate publishers’ digital transformation.

Longtime NNPA partner General Motors hosted a lunch discussion on “Cultural Capital with Diverse Consumers Through Storytelling,” moderated by David Milledge, GM’s multicultural marketing manager.

The Los Angeles Sentinel underscored digital frontiers in Black journalism with a presentation entitled “Digital Transformation, Staying Accessible and Relevant to Readers,” powered by Intuit, and featuring Niele Anderson, the Sentinel’s Daily Brief host.

You are interacting with me.

If you moved on my block, the minute I saw the moving truck, I’m stopping my car and jumping out. “How you doing? My name is Jeﬀrey Robinson. That’s my house across the street with the red grill on the front porch. If you need anything, I’m a credit expert. I’m also a mortgage counselor. If you’re trying to get to home ownership.

I’m the guy you need to talk to on this block about that, and I welcome and I oﬀer my services to you and your family free of charge. Let’s see what we can do to help each other.

Because now, I own the land and I’m committed to the success of the land. I’m committed to the success of everybody else on our block because my equity is tied to your activity. Your equity is tied to my activity, but in order

$60,000

Banyan Community -

Brooklynk - $125,000

Career Solutions$115,816

Center for African

Immigrants and Refugees

Organization (CAIRO)$150,000

City of Minneapolis (Step Up) - $775,00

City of St. Paul (Right

Track) - $775,000

Comunidades Latinas

Unidas En Servicio (CLUES)$134,555

Cookie Cart - $82,972

Cristo Rey Jesuit High School$100,000 Dunwoody College -

$150,000

East Side

Neighborhood Services -

$89,713

Project for Pride in Living (PPL) - $50,000

Somali Community Resettlement Services –

$100,000

Tree Trust - $100,000

Urban Boatbuilders - for me to be able to have a conversation with you about something that’s wrong, I must begin a conversation with you. In terms of the percentage of Black homeowners, Minnesota is among worst in the nation.

How can we be the worst when we have the number one home mortgage lender in the country right here in our own backyard? We have Wells Fargo, and US Bank, another Fortune 500 mortgage lender. So, how do we have these giants in the mortgage industry in our own backyard and we be the worst?

Only 19% of Minnesota Black families own their home.

How many new Black homeowners would it take to be on par with white families? The number is 59,000. We decided to target 15% of that

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CAFE ACCORDION ORCHESTRA Parisian Street Music number. Out of that decision, we launched the 9,000 Equities initiative. We want to create 9,000 new Black homeowners and therefore create 9,000 legacies for their families.

This is also a passion for me to bring you to that ﬁnish line and get you over that ﬁnish line in a comfortable brown environment.

It’s probably going to be your ﬁrst house. It’s not going to be your last house.

As we deliver on the promise of 9,000 Equities, on the mission of One Door, you will see more of us, more in our community, walking around smiling, less of frowning. It’d be like more of us walking around with college degrees and fewer of us being high school dropouts. It’d be like more of us not having a whole lot to complain about. This is about us just

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JUL 30 having the opportunity to live and enjoy life just like everybody else. Our families and kids being able to go on vacation.

It’s about going to sleep comfortably in your own bed and waking up and opening up your refrigerator and having food in the refrigerator. Hit the light switch and the lights come on. Turn on the water faucet and waters come out. Put on the heat and the heat come out. That’s what this is about. Just simple stuﬀ Unfortunately, the things that we consider as basic necessities are luxuries for some people and it shouldn’t be. Food should not be a luxury. We are changing that one new homeowner at a time. For information: info@buildwealthmn.org, 2121 Plymouth Avenue N., Minneapolis, MN 553411 phone: 612-877-4182

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Tania Mercado, the senior manager of communications at Intuit, and Derrick Plummer, the company’s director of corporate communications, served as panelists.

Google Tech Transformation Lab presented a Q&A where publishers and attendees could learn more about how they could become a part of Transformation Tech, a new program helping news publishers achieve digital transformation through top-tier coaching and $20K in funding from the Google News Initiative.

Bobby Henry, Sr., the publisher of the Westside Gazette in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was elected NNPA Chairman, succeeding Richards, the publisher of the Forward Times in Houston.

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