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Vol. 48 No. 19• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com

The Big Lie as Journalism Murdock paper publishes “book” lie on Vice President Harris By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent On April 23, The New York Post published and then edited a story that claimed that a children’s book by Vice President Kamala Harris was given out to migrant children at the Mexican border as part of a “welcome kit” upon entering the U.S. Former New York Post writer Laura Italiano claims she was forced to write the story. “The Kamala Harris story — an incorrect story I was ordered to write and which I failed to push back hard enough against — was my breaking point,” wrote Italiano on social on April 27. Increasingly, Murdock media properties, such as

Fox News, have relied more on contributors and ﬁctional information rather than straight reporting focused on accurate knowable truth as demography in the U.S. changes. The non-factual information after the election of President Joe Biden has resulted in lawsuits for defamation — such as two lawsuits by Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems. The companies are suing Murdoch’s Fox Corporation for billions in defamation and named Fox anchors Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro as defendants. Dominion Voting Systems sued Rudy Giuliani for $1.3 billion based on over 50 statements by Giuliani made at hearings, on social media, his podcast and on Fox News — where Giuliani claimed

Dominion Voting Systems “ﬂipped” votes to facilitate President Biden’s win. President Biden won by over 7 million votes with several Republican controlled states certifying his election as legitimate. The headline in the article was headlined by the words “Kam on in.” The “news” story claimed that migrant children were being given “welcome” packets with a copy of the Vice President’s 2019 children’s book, “Superheroes Are Everywhere.” Daniel Dale, a fact checker at CNN, pointed out that The New York Post “temporarily deleted, and then edited and republished,” the debunked piece. An editor’s note at the bottom of the current version of the story now reads: “Editor’s note: The original version of

this article said migrant kids were getting Harris’ book in a welcome kit, but has been updated to note that only one known copy of the book was given to a child.” A CNN poll released on April 30 indicates that the “big lie” strategy is working on some Americans. The question “Did Biden Legitimately Win Enough Votes for The Presidency,” resulted in Republicans answering “no” 70 to 23 percent. Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist for NNPA and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is also a political strategist as Principal of Win Digital Media LLC. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

Vice President Kamala Harris

What the US can learn from Africa about slavery reparations By Kwasi Konadu John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Endowed Chair and Professor, Colgate University The House Judiciary Committee voted on April 14, 2021, to recommend the creation of a commission to study the possibility of paying reparations to the descendants of enslaved people in the United States. The measure, H.R. 40, would establish a 15-person commission to offer a “national apology” for slavery, study its long-term effects and submit recommendations to Congress on how to compensate African Americans. Any federal reparations bill faces long odds of being enacted due to Republican opposition, but this is the furthest this effort has advanced since a similar bill was first introduced over 30 years ago. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Democrat from Texas, who introduced H.R. 40, called it a needed step on the “path to restorative justice.” As the U.S. debates reparations for descendants of U.S. slavery, looking to Africa might help clear a path forward, according to my research on African history and the African diaspora.

South Africa’s incomplete reparations In the U.S. and globally, arguments for reparations mostly revolve around financial restitution. But a closer examination of the actual reparations efforts illustrates the limits of programs solely focused on financial restitution. In South Africa, Nelson Mandela and his ruling political party, the African National Congress, created a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1995 upon coming to power. The commission investigated human rights crimes during nearly five decades of apartheid, the system of legislation that upheld segregationist laws and perpetrated racist violence. The commission also established a reparations program, recommending in its 2003 final report that victims of apartheid receive roughly US$3,500 over six years. But the commission stipulated that only those who had testified to the commission about apartheid’s injustices – about 21,000 people – could claim reparations. Some 3.5 million Black South Africans suffered under apartheid rule. Mandela’s successor, Thabo Mbeki, issued the onetime $3,900 payments in 2003. South African governments

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Activists mark National Reparations Day in Washington, D.C., on July 1, 2019. have since made no additional payments to those who testiﬁed or other apartheid victims. Nor have any post-Mandela governments put the perpetrators of the apartheid system on trial. The power structure that upheld apartheid has remained largely undisturbed. South Africa is the world’s most unequal society, according to the World Bank.

Whites make up the majority of wealthy elites while half of the Black South African population lives in poverty. Dismissing the wider social and economic damage caused by apartheid – highincome inequality, unreturned lands seized by whites, poor community infrastructure – has kept millions who suﬀered violence from qualifying as victims. They may never see

reparations. Sierra Leone’s underfunded eﬀort Around the same time that South Africa created its Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the West African nation of Sierra Leone undertook a similar eﬀort to confront the aftermath of its 10-year civil war. Sierra Leone’s

civil war, from 1991 to 2002, killed at least 50,000 people and displaced another 2 million. In 2004, its Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended reparation measures for survivors. It recommended pensions, free health care and education benefits for amputees, those severely wounded, those widowed by the war and survivors of sexual violence. Sierra Leone governments long ignored these recommendations, but in 2008 pressure from the country’s largest survivor organization, the Amputee and War-Wounded Association, and a $3.5 million grant from the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund restarted reparation efforts. Instead of implementing the TRC’s more comprehensive reparation measures, however, the Sierra Leone government in 2008 provided each of the 33,863 registered survivors a single $100 payment. The UN later provided some small payments, loans and vocational training to other survivors in subsequent years. After interviewing survivors of the Sierra Leone civil war, the nonprofit Peace Research Institute Frankfurt concluded in 2013 that Sierra

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When they want all Negroes to look alike Myth of Race By Professor Mahmoud El-Kati Part 7 of a series

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

In a statement, Trump called the Oversight Board decision a ‘total disgrace.’

Why Facebook created its own ‘supreme court’ for judging content – 6 questions answered By Siri Terjesen Phil Smith Professor of Entrepreneurship & Associate Dean, Research & External Relations, Florida Atlantic University Facebook’s quasi-independent Oversight Board on May 5, 2021, upheld the company’s suspension of former President Donald Trump from the platform and Instagram. The decision came four months after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg banned Trump “indefinitely” for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The board chastised Facebook for failing to either set an end date for the suspension or permanently ban Trump and gave the social media company six months to resolve the matter. What is this Oversight Board that made one of the most politically perilous decisions

Facebook has ever faced? Why did the company create it, and is it a good idea? We asked Siri Terjesen, an expert on corporate governance, to answer these and several other questions. 1. What is the Facebook Oversight Board? The Oversight Board was set up to give users an independent third party to whom they can appeal Facebook moderation decisions, as well as to help set the policies that govern these decisions. The idea was ﬁrst proposed by Zuckerberg in 2018 after a discussion with Harvard Law Professor Noah Feldman, and the board began work in October 2020, funded by a US$130 million trust provided by Facebook to cover the initial six years of operating expenses. According to the board, it “was created to help Facebook answer some of the most diﬃcult questions around freedom of expression online:

what to take down, what to leave up, and why.” The Oversight Board has ﬁnal decision-making authority, even above the board of directors, and its decisions are binding on Facebook. Political analysis, without partisanship The Oversight Board has 20 members from around the world and a diverse variety of disciplines and backgrounds, such as journalism, human rights and law, as well as diﬀerent political perspectives. It even includes a former prime minister. The goal is to eventually expand the board to 40 members in total. 2. What other decisions has it made? So far, the board has reviewed 10 Facebook decisions, including the one involving Trump. The decisions involved a variety of types of content, such as posts that were removed because they were deemed racist, indecent

Melvin Carter

By Irma McClaurin, PhD By Irma McClaurin, PhD https://corporate. target.com/article/2020/09/lakestreet-letter

Andrea Jenkins

Commentary by Dr. By Aarohi Narain By Mecca Dana Randall Harry Maya Alexa Starks Colbert, Beecham Spencer, Bos Bradley Jr. Josie Johnson By Global Latisha Information Townsend Contributing Architect Howard Mayo Managing Clinic University Editor Staff Writer Contributing Network (GIN)Writer News Service harry@insightnews.com

or intended to incite violence. It overturned Facebook’s ruling in six of the cases and upheld it in three of them. In the 10th case, the user deleted the post that Facebook had removed, which ended the board’s review. In cases where the board overruled Facebook, the posts that had been removed were reinstated. And the board sometimes urged the company to clarify or revise its guidelines. Given that Facebook is expected to take 20 to 30 billion enforcement actions in 2021 alone, it’s unlikely the Oversight Board will be able to handle more than a handful of the most high-proﬁle cases, like that of Trump. It’s one of the reasons the Oversight Board is dubbed “Facebook’s Supreme Court.” 3. Is it a model other social media companies are likely to follow?

FACEBOOK 4

In MnDOT Hwy 252/I94 Project

Bringing community voices to the table Part 2 in a series Rev. McKinley Moore, pastor of Jehovah Jireh Church of God In Christ in Brooklyn Park questioned the efficacy of having to walk what amounts to an extra two blocks, just to cross the street. He was referring to an elaborate spiraling overpass spanning Hwy 252, an effort conceived to facilitate co-existence for pedestrians, bicyclists, and road traffic in the suburb’s transportation grid. “It goes around in spirals up and over. It’s like it’s adding two blocks just to cross the street. I don’t know if that’s the norm, but that’s considered by some as a deterrent to use,” he said. Pastor Moore addressed the question in the virtual Town Hall meeting last month that explored issues and opportunities created by the search for improvements in the Highway 252/I94 Corridor segments in North Minneapolis, Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park. Stairstep Foundation CEO Alfred BabingtonJohnson and Conversations with Al McFarlane moderator,

Rev. McKinley Moore

Rev. Cyreta Oduniyi

Rev. Dr. Francis Tabla

Al McFarlane co-hosted the Town Hall and introduced an initiative to support Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) eﬀorts to broaden engagement around the project for African American and African immigrant residents who may be impacted by improvement considerations. Forum participants included: Reverend Dr. Francis Tabla, senior pastor Ebenezer Community Church in Brooklyn Park, Bishop Richard Howell, the Diocesan Bishop of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World and Pastor of Shiloh Temple Church in North Minneapolis, Reverend Cyreta

Oduniyi, a pastoral leader at Liberty Church in North Minneapolis and Superintendent McKinley Moore, pastor of Jehovah Jireh Church of God in Christ in Brooklyn Park. MnDOT Project Manager Jerome Adams described Pastor Moore’s concerns as among “the issues that we’ll be examining over the next three years. Now, to be clear, right now we don’t have a solution to say, ‘This is exactly what we’re going to do at that intersection.’ But we’re embarking on a three-year journey where we’re going to look at alternatives to solve exactly that problem. We had

one fatal crash between 2016 and 2019. And prior to that, we had six fatal crashes between 2003 and 2015. He said MnDOT is looking at bicycle and pedestrian connectivity along the corridor. “So, how hard or easy is it to get across, whether it’s having to dodge traffic or going out of your way distance wise? Like you said, it’s like going an extra two city blocks just to cross the road. So, that is going to be one of the things we definitely want to look at. And we’re going to try to find solutions that have a more direct, easier path to make

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Children’s defense fund preparing to open summer freedom schools

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MNDOT 4

“All ‘Negroes’ look alike,” how utterly simpleminded. Have such people ever looked at “Negroes”? Do they see with their eyes? Of course not! They see with their beliefs, which distort their minds, feelings, etc. What this means is that they want all “Negroes” to look alike. They make it easy to ignore the great variety of colors, hair forms, and facial contours. Many of the “Negroes” look almost exactly like the late Negrophobe J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI. Therein lies the problem. Do “Negroes” sometimes look “white” because of artiﬁcial insemination or human cohabitation? This is a part of what Baldwin calls “the unspeakable”. According to racist logic, all behavior can be attributed to “race”. Individual ability or cultural achievement is accounted for by “race”. African people are supposed to be more criminally inclined, less likely to value education, seek employment, care for their families; more prone to lie, cheat, or steal than Europeans simply because of their “race”. Black people are, in eﬀect, less endowed to be decent human beings than “whites”. The cause

of this uneven distribution of positive traits comes from one or two sources: religion (i.e. arranged by God Almighty) and nature, which is less generous to African people in the endowments of intelligence and talent. Since the l9th century, this can be proven by “science”. Any reasonable observation can dispel the falsehood of such beliefs; nevertheless they persist. Again the idea of “race” was imposed on religion ﬁrst, then science. A glaring and gruesome fact, such as the monotonous and senseless murder of Black people by “whites” over many generations, does not stigmatize “whites” as violent. Power is responsible for obscuring this reality. More than half the people in death row are Black men and women. Until very recently, no “white” person had ever received the death sentence for taking the life of a Black person in the whole history of capital punishment in the United States. Power arranges this obscenity. There is a clear-cut connection between “race” and power. The crazy quilt - contradictory, tragic, and oft absurd behavior on the part of American people generated by the idea of “race”, is the premise from which logic ﬂows. A simple syllogism explains it all: All Black people steal from downtown stores. The multilingual, super educated medical doctor, Dr. Charles Hawkins is Black, and therefore, Dr. Hawkins will steal from downtown stores. “Race” is a false premise that promotes faulty logic, and

RACE 5

Time to make the dream of citizenship a reality Guest commentary By Corey Day With Democrats holding the majority in Congress and with President Joe Biden leading our country, it is time to fast track passage of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. Passing the DREAM Act would put the small group law-abiding young adults brought to the U.S. as children, often called “Dreamers,” on a path to eventual U.S. citizenship. This must be a priority because Dreamers have been living with uncertainty for too long. Many Dreamers are currently working or going to school legally under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) permits; the average DACA recipient was brought to the U.S. at only 6-years-old and has considered the U.S. their home for 22 years. But Dreamers lost what little stability they had through DACA when President Trump rescinded the program in 2017 and then spent three years ﬁghting in court to keep it gone. While the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration terminated DACA in an unlawful manner and the Biden administration has committed to keeping the program in place, DACA is not immune to future legal challenges. Without legislation permanently protecting Dreamers, these young people will always live-in fear that DACA will be overturned in

Corey Day the courts. They will live in constant fear of deportation from the only country they call home. The DREAM Act would allow them to remain in the U.S. and pursue the American Dream without fear of deportation. Voters across the political spectrum agree that letting Dreamers remain in the U.S. is the right thing to do; 97 percent of Democratic voters and three-quarters of GOP voters support letting Dreamers stay here while working or attending school. Skeptics should take note that not everyone brought illegally to the U.S. as a child would be eligible to be on a pathway to citizenship; only those brought to the U.S. before 2007 at the age of 16 or younger would qualify for citizenship under DREAM Act. It includes stringent measures to ensure that no one takes advantage

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Comcast launches additional 44 WiFi-Connected “Lift Zones” in Twin Cities As part of its ongoing commitment to help connect low-income families to the Internet so they can fully participate in educational opportunities and the digital economy, Comcast today announced it has equipped 44 additional locations in the Twin Cities with WiFi-connected “Lift Zones” bringing the total to 74. Working with its network of nonproﬁt partners, Comcast is providing robust WiFi hotspots in safe spaces designed to help students get online, participate in distance learning and do their homework. This initiative provides free connectivity inside partner community centers for the next three years. “We are so pleased to be the recipients of Comcast’s Lift Zone Wi-Fi connectivity in

Facebook From 3 As a platform company, Facebook is unique. It’s a social media giant that must monitor a global operation that generates over $86 billion in revenue, employs 58,600 people and serves more than 2.8 billion active monthly users – more than a third of the world’s population – as well as millions of advertisers. Very few companies operate in a space that involves user content moderation, and none at this scale. Other platform companies have considerably less content, and usually only in one language, whereas Facebook is available in 100 languages. Given Facebook’s shareholder-elected corporate board of directors includes just

MnDOT From 3 it easier to get to where you want to go,” Adams said. Adams said a 2018 environmental assessment revealed information about residents that the department has taken very seriously. “One comment that we heard was that MnDOT doesn’t really listen. It’s like we might talk to the public, but we’re not really going to listen to the public. We we’re just going to do what we want, Adams said. “Another

our recreation centers and other park facilities,” said Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board Superintendent Al Bangoura. “As we move toward re-opening more recreation centers for safe in-person programming, we are looking forward to providing programs that support youth in doing their schoolwork, facilitate work readiness training, and invite families in to access virtual activities and information.” “We are proud to partner with community organizations across the Twin Cities and equip them with free internet service that will provide kids with safe, fast and reliable connectivity to keep up with school and prepare for a brighter future,” said J.D. Keller, regional senior vice president, Comcast Twin Cities. “The COVID-19 10 people, each of whom has their own demanding day job, it is not surprising to me that Zuckerberg decided to set up an outside panel to develop decisions about speech and online safety. It’s unlikely, however, that other companies will ever have a similar type of board. The Oversight Board has been extremely resource intensive. It took over two years to establish through a series of 22 roundtable meetings with participants in 88 countries, six in-depth workshops, 250 oneon-one discussions and 1,200 submissions – not to mention its high cost of $130 million, which is meant to last six years. 4. Was it a good idea, from a corporate governance standpoint? A growing body of research questions whether directors on corporate boards comment was that we weren’t doing enough about transit service, whether that was local buses, express buses on I94 or BRT, which is bus rapid transit on 252/I94.” The feedback led to a study deﬁned as an environmental impact statement, a document much more robust than an environmental assessment and which looks at impacts of alternatives very carefully. “The purpose of an EIS is to answer several important questions, including how does the proposed highway project beneﬁt its surrounding natural, social, cultural, and

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crisis continues to put many low-income students at risk of being left behind, accelerating the need for comprehensive digital equity and internet adoption programs to support them. We hope these Lift Zones will help those students who, for a variety of reasons, are unable to connect to eﬀective

distance learning at home.” Some of the new Twin Cities community organizations that have established Lift Zones in their respective facilities include 40 Minneapolis Parks & Rec locations and Face to Face in St. Paul. A full list of new Comcast Lift Zones can be found here.

can fulﬁll their oversight responsibilities on their own, due to the sheer amount of information that must be obtained, processed and shared. While I think we will see more corporate boards outsource some decisions and processes to external panels – as a small board cannot be expected to have the requisite knowledge and skills on all topics – few corporations are likely to follow Facebook’s lead and grant an outside body the power to make unilateral decisions. Since only the board of directors is beholden to a company’s shareholders, board directors ultimately need to take the ﬁnal responsibility for corporate decisions. 5. Does the Oversight Board shield Facebook from political or legal fallout? While it’s likely that some at Facebook hoped

shifting its thorniest decisions would insulate the company, executives and corporate board members from political or legal problems, as the Trump decision shows, it won’t actually do that. Certainly the decision to utilize an outside oversight body might be interpreted as political, as all 10 Facebook board directors live and work predominantly in the United States and might be hesitant to vote to make decisions like restricting the freedom of expression of a former president who still commands support among many Americans – and won 47% of the popular vote in the last election. But whether Facebook makes the decision itself or outsources to an independent board, Facebook will still face the consequences if the decision to uphold the Trump ban alienates Americans or people around the world who feel it is

economic environment? What are the positive and negative impacts of the proposed highway project? And,” he said, “what actions can be taken to avoid, minimize or mitigate these impacts, including consideration of not doing a project at all?” Rev. Cyreta Oduniyi asked what considerations are given to the disruptions of people’s daily lives resulting from large constructions projects. Chris Holberg, who manages outreach and engagement for the project, said examining that question is part of the very deliberate process MnDOT uses to guide its approach to any solution or project. He said, “We don’t have that answer right now. We’ll get there. But before we can say this is how we’re going

to keep folks moving around during a highway project, we’ve got to figure out what it is we’re going to build.” Holberg added, “In the same step-wise fashion, we really have to figure out what are the problems we’re looking to solve first and foremost, and how would we go about solving that? What are the different ways that we can solve those problems? And then based on those solutions, what are the impacts and the benefits to each one? And how do they stack up?” The discussion about construction benefits and impacts will probably occur in 2024 rather than in 2021, Adams said. Rev. Dr. Francis Tabla, senior pastor Ebenezer Community Church in Brooklyn

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By Lee H. Jordan Minneapolis Juneteenth Committee - 2018 National Juneteenth Film & Bicycling Commissions

In March, Comcast announced a $1 billion commitment over ten years in continued support of digital equity, including its Lift Zones initiative, which aims to establish WiFi-connected safe spaces in 1,000+ community centers nationwide for students and adults by the end of 2021. Lift Zones complement Comcast’s Internet Essentials program, which has helped connect a cumulative total of 10 million low-income people to the Internet at home since 2011, including more than 272,000 Minnesotans. About Comcast Corporation Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company that connects people to moments that matter. We

an attack on their freedom of expression. People may leave Facebook for other platforms such as Parler, Gab and Signal, as many have already done since the initial Trump ban in January – and knowing an outside body made the decision won’t stop them. And a poor “political” decision could drive away some advertisers and make it harder to hire and retain employees, regardless of who made it. 6. How are other social media companies handling these issues diﬀerently? Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey made an internal decision to permanently suspended Trump from his company’s platform on Jan. 8, 2021. While Dorsey acknowledged that the decision set a “dangerous precedent,” Twitter, like other social media companies, doesn’t

Project Manager Jerome Adams

are principally focused on broadband, aggregation, and streaming with over 56 million customer relationships across the United States and Europe. We deliver broadband, wireless, and video through our Xﬁnity, Comcast Business, and Sky brands; create, distribute, and stream leading entertainment, sports, and news through Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, Universal Studio Group, Sky Studios, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, multiple cable networks, Peacock, NBCUniversal News Group, NBC Sports, Sky News, and Sky Sports; and provide memorable experiences at Universal Parks and Resorts in the United States and Asia. Visit https://twincities.comcast.com/ for more information.

have an appeals process for that kind of decision. Some newer companies, such as MeWe and Rumble, oﬀer more lax content moderation in order to allow greater freedom of expression for users. Gab describes itself as “A social network that champions free speech, individual liberty and the free ﬂow of information online. All are welcome.” Parler’s content guidelines are even more basic and keeps content moderation to an “absolute minimum. We prefer to leave decisions about what is seen and who is heard to each individual.” Gab and Parler are presently banned from the app stores of both Apple and Google due to a lack of content moderation.

Chris Holberg

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Park, noting comments suggesting people viewed MnDOT as “notorious for enforcing their wishes upon the community” called the Town Hall meeting with MnDOT managers a paradigm shift because communities that are being impacted are being invited to the table. He said that Brooklyn Park is home to some 10,000 Liberian, Ghanaian, and Nigerian immigrants, and African Americans being impacted by this project. “We appreciate the fact that we can be invited to the table to be a part of the conversation. And I

can envision what the outcome would be when MNDOT has worked closely with the community,” he said. “In the ﬁnal analysis this is a win-win on both ends. And I’m beginning to envision that this may be a paradigm that may be emulated by other communities, or other cities may emulate the example of MnDOT by bringing the constituents to the table to be a part of the conversation. I hope this will be a conversation that will be ongoing to the end of the project,” Dr. Tabla said.

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Children’s defense fund preparing to open summer freedom schools By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia The Children’s Defense Fund has always lived by the motto that children are the future. As young people of color are the majority of youth in America, the nonprofit organization is ramping up its Freedom Schools program. Dr. Starsky Wilson, the president and CEO of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), said the schools incorporate “the totality of CDF’s mission by fostering environments that support children and young adults to excel and believe in their ability to make a difference in themselves and in their families, schools, communities, country, and the world with hope, education, and action.” Dr. Wilson noted that students in the program are known as scholars. “By providing K-12 scholars with rich, culturally relevant pedagogy and highquality books that deepen scholars’ understanding of themselves and all they have in common with others in a multiracial, multicultural democratic society, CDF Freedom Schools programs further empowers scholars to believe in their ability and responsibility to make a difference while instilling in them a love of reading to help

Race From 3 absurd conclusions. At bottom, such logic is legitimized by power. VIGNETTES FROM THE WORLD OF RACISM The Drinking Fountain: Segregate the Water, and Maybe the Air One of the most graphic symbols of southern Jim Crow law was the legal establishment of separate drinking fountains for “white” and “colored”. This is a sad commentary on how utterly stupid grown people can be. This artiﬁcial arrangement was enough to convince “white” people that they were inherently better than Africans. How fragile. How easily fooled into a false sense of superiority. The water came from the same treatment plant, ﬂowed through the same pipelines to the mouths of people, “white” and Black. Designating separate water fountains according

Dream Act From 3 of the legislation, and it will not encourage further illegal

Slavery From 1 Leone’s reparations program failed. It pointed to the high numbers of victims, limited funding and public health epidemics like Ebola that made reparations less a priority. Reparations through the courts In other African countries, survivors of colonial atrocities have sought redress through the courts. In 2013, Kenyan survivors of British colonial atrocities brought a legal suit to the British high courts demanding reparations. The British government recognized “that Kenyans were subject to torture and other forms of illtreatment at the hands of the colonial administration” and agreed to pay £19.9 million – $27.6 million – in compensation to some 5,000 elderly survivors. But the government stalled payments, and Kenyans later demanded more than what was oﬀered. A similar court case in Germany demanding reparations for the Germans’ 1904-1908 massacre of the Herero people in colonial Namibia remains contested. And negotiations over payments and other forms

“Freedom Schools are not just culturally responsive, but we invest in young people – developing their sense of self-agency that they can make a difference in their home, their community and in the world,” expressed Dr. Wilson, who is expected to discuss Freedom Schools further, and the most recent CDF State of America’s Children 2021, during the NNPA’s annual summer convention in June.

Freedom Schools program, CDF officials said they utilized the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Reading Inventory to measure scholars’ reading achievement. They said 76.7 percent of scholars did not experience summer learning loss. While currently at a 60 percent parent participation rate, CDF is striving to increase this number by soliciting different workshop topic ideas that resonate with the community’s needs. “It’s absolutely critical that we are there for our children,” Dr. Wilson insisted. “We can’t fall into a trap. I had a mentor who heard me say that I work hard, so my sons don’t have to. “He told me that everything I had said was good except for the last part. He said, ‘the part about you work so hard, so they don’t have to. “Don’t set them up for failure like that because the reality is that you pushed through the struggle as far as you could, so you prepare them for the struggle.’” Go to: https://www. childrensdefense.org/programs/ cdf-freedom-schools-dc/ for more information about the CDF’s Freedom School. For the full CDF State of America’s Children 2021 report, go to: .ttps://www. childrensdefense.org/state-ofamericas-children/

them avoid summer learning loss,” Dr. Wilson remarked during a live appearance on the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s morning breaking news program, “Let It Be Known.” Recent Freedom Schools’ surveys found that 65 percent of scholars liked to read, while 81 percent enjoyed talking about what they read. Approximately 86 percent reported they read many diﬀerent kinds of books, 100

percent reported wanting to go to college, 98 percent reported they could achieve their goals, and 89 percent said they believed they could make a diﬀerence. The CDF outlined the following behavioral benchmarks: Seventy-seven percent of scholars reported they were willing to listen to diﬀerent opinions. Sixty-eight percent of scholars said standing up for what they think is fair.

Sixty-three percent of scholars said that they could solve problems without yelling at others. Sixty-eight percent of scholars said that they know how to solve arguments without ﬁghting. Seventy-nine percent of scholars said learning how to cooperate to solve problems. “Freedom Schools are not just culturally responsive, but we invest in young people – developing their sense of

self-agency that they can make a diﬀerence in their home, their community and in the world,” expressed Dr. Wilson, who is expected to discuss Freedom Schools further, and the most recent CDF State of America’s Children 2021, during the NNPA’s annual summer convention in June. Registration for the convention is free, and those interested can sign up at www.virtualnnpa2021.com. For the summer

to “race” made perfectly, good sense to these retarded, southern political leaders and their unthinking, submissive, lock-step constituencies of the South. There is little doubt here that the energy put into such laws accounts, in part, for the social backwardness of southern “whites” to this very day. Though Black people were humiliated by Jim Crow, they were less aﬀected. They were not made into nincompoops. They knew it was stupid. They knew that they were human beings, white were not sure.

trial courts of the South when up until the 1960’s “whites” and African people had to be sworn in on separate Bibles. There was apparently something awful about Black people that contaminated “whites” - except when raising their children, cooking their food, and nursing the whole family. It was James Baldwin who proclaimed that the Black mammy on southern plantations and there after was the world’s ﬁrst psychiatrist long before Sigmund Freud. It was she who listened to the social-emotional problems and dispensed advice and comfort to each member of the dysfunctional slave holding family.

“white” and Black people to eat from the same lunch counter was an abomination, which violated the highest codes of racial etiquette. Few things could be more oﬀensive to “white” southern sensibilities than eating in a public place with Black people. One of the most celebrated occasions in the struggle to break segregation involved a future governor in the early 1960s. Lester Maddox, the owner of Pickwick Restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia gave his “white” customers ax handles with which to beat up Black people who attempted to “integrate” his restaurant. During this episode Mr. Maddox was predictably stupid. He was perfectly willing to allow Black people to cook the food - sweaty palms and all - that went into pristine stomachs of “white” folks. Maddox was a superbly stupid man, yet he was elected to the State of Georgia’s highest oﬃce.

northern states were in fierce competition to “out-stupid” one another. Mindless meanness was the order of the day. A general spirit captured the racist mentality. In some deep southern states Black people entered the front of the bus, paid their fares, and then went to the back of the bus to take a seat. In some other deep southern states Black people entered the front of the bus, paid their fares, promptly exited, and re-entered the bus through the back door to take their seats in the back of the bus. From this, one can surmise that some states were more “liberal” than others. In some states, in some retail stores Black people were literally not allowed to try on clothes, or fit a hat before they bought them. In other states there would sometimes be a hired Black clerk to accommodate Black customers, where clothes were set aside that could be tried on. It was almost universal that Africans who went to downtown theaters in southern cities were confined to the balcony. Blacks saw better from up high, one supposes. At spectator sporting events - football, baseball, and

basketball games to be precise there was the proverbial “rope” that separated Black people from “white” people and at public beaches, the same thing. One incredible incongruity that slapped legal segregation down was “Negro music”. It was not uncommon in the segregated South, long before integration, for young “white” people to show up for all Black dances or stage shows with a space reserved for them, and not at their insistence. The police were always there to keep people in the proper place. The proverbial “rope” was there to keep the “races” from mixing. But invariably the music, that irresistible, magical mad stuﬀ that Black people seem to create so eﬀortlessly, would cause the “whites” to disregard the “rope”, give Jim Crow a swift kick in the pants, and come over to the Black side and try to swing. This played havoc with the policeman, who never quite knew what to do about it but look with a wish that he had the nerve to do likewise, and be so human. Will continue to next week: Segregation Up South

reform.

in Minnesota and previously was Executive Director of the Minnesota DFL.

God Made Us Do It: The Misuse of the Holy Bible Misinterpretation and misapplication of the Biblical text has been central in the rise of “race” thinking. Distortion and out - of - context readings were used to sanction slavery. Clergy, and lay people alike, twisted the Scripture. The Bible became a device that placed “white” people close to God while African people, who were to be used for brutish labor, were placed beyond the pale of salvation. The venom of racism was manifest in many

The the

Restaurant: Keep Niggers Out! Among the many absurdities generated by formal racial segregation was the denial of the simple right of African people to be served in public restaurants. The managers of such establishments, in the South especially, would routinely spare no ends to prevent close physical proximity between Black and “white” people. For

immigration. Dreamers must also actively contribute to our economy by attending school and/or working while they are on the path to U.S. citizenship. The DREAM Act will extend a desperately needed lifeline to the small pool of

young people who came to the U.S. by no choice of their own and proudly call themselves Americans. The U.S. House of Representatives has acted and passed a bill, now it is up to the U.S. Senate to do the right thing. Seeing the DREAM Act passed

of redress continue.

rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world. Sign up today.] For these groups, reparations isn’t just about money – it’s a plea for collective restoration, to retrieve something on behalf people who lost their labor or life to powerful white governments and institutions. Through slaving and colonial rule, Africa lost people. But the continent also lost skilled labor, creativity and innovations. Those beneﬁts were transferred to colonial societies – and their recovery remains at stake for Africa and African descended people worldwide.

Rethinking reparations through Africa Groups representing African and Caribbean nations have offered alternative ways of thinking about the colonial slavery and racial violence driving such reparations efforts. In 2019, the African Union – a regional policy body made up of 55 African countries – defined reparative justice as redress for “losses suffered” under any circumstances where human rights have been violated. That includes financial reparations – its policy document emphasizes material support for rebuilding homes and businesses damaged by oppressive colonial regimes. But it also called for member countries to think beyond money to consider reparations measures aimed at healing trauma and establishing broad social justice. Much of the African Union’s thinking aligns with the Caribbean-based Caricom Reparations Commission’s 10-point reparation plan, established in 2013. It includes debt cancellation for Caribbean countries built on colonial slavery and the right of African descendants worldwide to return to an African homeland, should they wish to, via an internationally supported resettlement program. [Over 100,000 readers

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By LaurenofPoteat Courtesy University of Alejandra By Dr. Commentary By North Brandpoint Dr. Rhonda Nicole Rekha Kimya Memorial Winbush E.Oliveras N. Mankad by Moore (BPT) Sen. Staff Ian Roth NNPA Minnesota Washington News Staff Bobby Dennis, Incoming Joe Salem Board Champion College ChairAfrodescendientes Mayo Clinic Staff Correspondent By IanPhysician Roth NorthPoint www.TheConversation.com elect, WomenHeart Health & Mayo Clinic Staff Wellness Center

Unity Without Uniformity: Competitive Stupidity During the heyday of segregation, the several southern, border, and indeed, by the Senate and sent to Biden for his signature into law will be a great step forward toward commonsense immigration

Corey Day served as a senior adviser to PresidentElect Joe Biden’s campaign

Black Women On Course 2021 Kickoff Meeting Sunday, May 16, 2021 2:00 - 4:00 PM LaQuinta Inn & Suites 10420 Wayzata Blvd, Minnetonka, MN 55305 (952) 541-1094 Call Hotel For Directions (About 3 miles from the Brookview Golf Course) COVID-19 Restrictions Apply

Grab & Go Exchange Bring any and all gentley used golf apparel and equipment.

Bring A Friend! Please RSVP by Thursday, May 13th to Martha Arradondo at: mlarradondo@msn.com Phone: (612) 272-7496

Page 6 • May 10, 2021 - May 16, 2021 • Insight News

Insight 2 Health

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fda.gov

The FDA is working to address the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak and keep you and your family informed on the latest developments. Here are answers to some frequently asked questions from consumers about prevention, vaccines, clinical trials, and vaccine side effects.

Coronavirus Q&As for Consumers Q: How can I prevent COVID-19? A: The best way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed to the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend everyday preventive actions to help prevent the spread of respiratory diseases. They include: • Wash your hands often with plain soap and water. The CDC recommends washing your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after you have been in a public place, or after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing. If soap and water are not available,

the CDC recommends using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol. Learn more about safely using hand sanitizer. • Wear a mask that covers your nose and mouth to help protect yourself and others. Follow CDC guidance on social distancing and mask wearing. Find more information about how to select, wear, and clean your mask. • Get the COVID-19 vaccine when it is oﬀered to you. Once you are fully vaccinated, you may be able to start doing some things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.

Q: Are there any vaccines or other medical products available to prevent COVID-19? A: Yes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized three COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use. Additionally, the FDA is working with other vaccine developers, researchers, and manufacturers to help expedite the development and availability of medical products such as additional vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and other drugs to prevent or treat COVID-19. For information about vaccine clinical trials for COVID-19 visit clinicaltrials. gov and the COVID-19

Prevention Network. Note: The information on clinicaltrials. gov is provided by the sponsor or principal investigator of a clinical trial. The listing of a study on the site does not reflect evaluation or endorsement of the trial by the federal government. Q: How do I report COVID-19 vaccine side effects? A: If you experience a severe allergic reaction or any life-threatening symptoms – such as trouble breathing – call 911, or go to the nearest hospital. Call the vaccination provider or your health care provider if you have any side effects that bother you or do not go away.

Report vaccine side effects to the FDA/CDC Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) by calling 1-800-822-7967 or going online. Please include the name of the vaccine in the first line of box #18 of the report form. You may also be given an option to enroll in v-safe. V-safe is a new voluntary smartphone-based tool that uses text messaging and web surveys to check in with vaccinated people to identify potential side effects after COVID-19 vaccination. V-safe asks questions that help CDC monitor the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. V-safe also provides second-dose

reminders, if needed, and live telephone follow-up by CDC if participants report a signiﬁcant health impact following COVID-19 vaccination. For more information on how to sign up, visit: www.cdc.gov/vsafe. For the latest information about COVID-19, visit: • FDA: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) • FDA: COVID-19 Vaccines • CDC: Coronavirus (COVID-19) • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

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Insight News • May 10, 2021 - May 16, 2021 • Page 7

And I don’t blame him

My husband doesn’t want to move back to America By Ijeoma Kola, PhD After taking a two-year “gap year” after defending my dissertation, I did the damn near impossible and landed a postdoctoral research position at a top 10 R1 research institution. Well, God did it. But still. I got an academic job in a pandemic. In a year when countless universities are not only freezing hires but making major staff cuts. But Black women are in high demand in academic spaces right now, so I shot my over-theshoulder half-court shot, and it went in. Despite the fact that COVID-19 is currently ravaging college campuses, the position is not remote and will require me to move to the Midwest. I grew up in northern New Jersey and went to college and graduate school in the Northeast, so I’m admittedly a bit nervous about living in the Midwest. There doesn’t seem like there’s much to do besides go to Target, which of course, now being in my 30s, I don’t really mind. But even before I told my husband about the job offer, I knew he wouldn’t be excited about it. Well, he would be excited for me, but not excited about what it would mean for him and for our family — a Black man and a Black woman raising a Black son, who so far, has only known a life completely devoid of racism. My husband is from Kenya and lived in Nairobi until moving first to Norway and then to the US for college. This is where we met, somewhere on Harvard Yard (we think… we can’t actually remember our first meeting). After college, he worked in Lagos for a year and a half, and then returned to the US for grad school, largely because I was clear about the fact that I wasn’t the kind of woman to be in a 5-year long-distance relationship across oceans. In total, he lived in the US for close to 9 years. We decided that we’d move to Kenya once I finished grad school so that he could be

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Our little family after our four-year wedding anniversary photoshoot a few weeks ago. closer to his family. I welcomed the move because I was in a period of transition — I just finished my 24 consecutive years of schooling and was 5 months pregnant with my first child, so might as well throw a cross-continental move in there and have the ultimate adventure! Before leaving for Kenya, I’d lived in the US for 28 years. My family emigrated from Nigeria when I was a baby thanks to a nursing shortage in the early 90s that my mom and countless other Nigerian nurses helped resolve. Although I identify first and foremost as Nigerian, I’m also American. It’s the only physical home I’ve ever known and before we moved to Kenya, I really did believe my parents’ core ideology that it was the best place in the world

was told that it was really hard for women, in particular, to reenter academic spaces after a few years “on the outside,” so two years post-PhD and in an era where white guilt is at an alltime high, I felt like it was now or never. The day that I signed the contract for my new job, I could tell my husband was sad. He is much more concerned with how his words aﬀect other people than I am, so I could tell that he had something on his mind but didn’t want to steal my joy by sharing it with me. After putting our son to sleep, he went for an evening run and when he returned, I was relentless about getting him to spill what he was holding back. And then he said one of the most heart wrenching but factually accurate things I’ve

to create a better life for your children. Although it took me some time to adjust to the cultural differences, not so much between life in Kenya and America but more so between my hustle-hard/never finish last Nigerian culture and the easygoing hakuna matata Kenyan mindset, I started to find my groove in Nairobi. Despite the fact that I’ve only experienced the city while pregnant, then as a new mom, then in a pandemic, I’d gotten to the point where I was comfortable with the idea of living here long-term. I’d even picked up a tiny bit of Swahili (kidogo). I didn’t necessarily want to leave. But I did want to test the waters of academia and

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A tenderhearted favorite

Steel Magnolias Now – Dec 15

by ROBERT HARLING directed by LISA ROTHE