INNER-CITY NEWS

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Financial Justice a Key Focus at 2016 NAACP Convention New Haven, Bridgeport

INNER-CITYNEWS Volume 21 No. 2194

“DMC” Color Struck?

Malloy Malloy To To Dems: Dems: Ignore Ignore“Tough “ToughOn OnCrime” Crime”

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INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

500 Kids “Read In” On The Green

by LUCY GELLMAN New Haven Independent

When Bonnie Waters picked up Lola M. Schaefer’s Look Behind!

Tales of Animal Ends on the Green Friday, she was looking behind at her own life, as well. And helping a young girl look ahead.

Waters, a lifelong New Havener who is now 26, got her start reading almost 20 years ago with ”Leadership, Education & Athletics in Partnership (LEAP), which she began attending in 1997 as a shy 7-year-old from Edgewood.

Friday morning, she joined dozens of volunteers and hundreds of LEAP students and counselors on the New Haven Green, where the organization was hosting its annual read-in for upwards of 500 summer campers from elementary to high school.

It was her first time on the vol-

LUCY GELLMAN PHOTO Waters

and the group, with Linae in front.

unteer side of the program, Waters said; it won’t be her last.

For her, now a unit clerk in the observation unit at Yale-New Ha-

ven Hospital, it was a chance to reflect on her own time as a camper, !young-teen-lit-program/ lynyi”leader-in-training, and se-

nior counselor at LEAP, which she credits with her success in high school and as a student at Southern Connecticut State University.

Now that Waters has seen herself through a college education, it was time to keep an eye on the extended Elm City family that raised her to succeed.

“I always want to give back,” she said. “This is a program that taught me, and gave me reasons to do more. LEAP taught me how to have a lot of goals, and to push myself—but also to actually embrace where you come from, to embrace and learn and experience it. A lot of kids don’t get that opportunity.”

It’s a beautiful thing “when they [students] do have mentors,” she added. And Friday, it was. Seated around her on the Green, a gaggle

of 7- and 8-year-old girls leaned in close, hanging on to every word of Look Behind!. Hands shot up when Waters asked questions about the plot, which tells the stories behind animals’ rear ends.

Mouths went agape as she marched out new factoids.

Crouched at the front, just inches from Waters’ feet, 7-year-old Linae Lucas keep her eyes glued to each page, pointing out the bright illustration and the repetition of the word “butt” from time to time.

After Waters finished the book and it was time for students to do their own directed reading, Linae explained why the read-in, after her first year as a student at LEAP, had had such an impact for her.

“I want to be a teacher,” she said.

“I wanna teach reading and math.

Like Miss Bonnie.”

Cofrancesco Recounts Fatal Collision

by PAUL BASS New Haven Independent

A crowd formed around her.

“Motherfucker, you killed her!” came one yell. Another: “Motherfucker, you’re going to get it now.”

At least that’s how Cofrancesco remembers the scene at the intersection of Olive and Greene Streets the morning of Oct. 30, 2014.

Cofrancesco, an attorney, was driving her blue Audi toward downtown that morning for a pretrial hearing in a lawsuit she filed against her former employer, the City of New Haven, on behalf of a client.

She struck and killed an 81-yearold pedestrian named Dolores Dogolo, a retired city government clerk. A hostile crowd formed, convinced she had recklessly killed the pedestrian, she said.

A police investigation eventually concluded otherwise. It found that Dogolo had crossed the street “diagonally and ... not within the unmarked crosswalk at the moment of the collision.” It concluded that Cofrancesco was neither speeding nor distracted: She traveled at a “minimum” of 24.07 miles per hour in a 25-mile-per-hour zone. She had

FILE PHOTO Cofrancesco

at a fire commission meeting.

a cell phone (not hers) in a bag and turned off. Neighbors and Dogolo’s daughters criticized the findings at a community meeting. The questioned, for instance, how one concludes Confrancescro wasn’t speeding based on a “minimum” speed just shy of the limit. (Police Sgt. Rose Dell, who oversaw the investigation, told the Independent that she used a standard measure called the Searle Throw Equation,

which she said is “accurate within plus of minus 5 mph.”) But no criminal charges were ever brought.

Cofrancesco made no public comments about her side of the story; she wrote in a February 2015 email to her attorney that a “wall of cars prevented me from seeing Mrs. Dogolo walk out in between the parked cars and directly into my lane of travel.”

People often hear from 4

Confrancesco in public. She is a former New Haven city corporation counsel. As a private attorney, she until recently represented the fire union. She regularly sues the government on behalf of clients (including at least two pending suits against the police chief). She represented the town of East Haven against allegations of police brutality against Latino immigrants.

Cofrancesco did eventually tell her version of events from that fateful October morning — on Feb. 23, 2016, in the Church Street law offices of the firm Levy, Leff & DeFrank. Dogolo’s estate is suing her, charging that her “negligence and carelessness” caused Dolores Dogolo’s death.

In a deposition, Cofranesco described a horrific scene and insisted she had not erred in any way in striking and killing the pedestrian.

The attorney questioning her, David A. Leff, pressed her both on her actions while driving, as well as her use or non-use of cellphones.

The lawsuit charged that Cofranesco was negligent because she allegedly drove too fast, was “inattentive,” “operated her car with defective or ineffective brakes” or failed to apply them in time, and/or

failed to sound her horn.

In a response to the lawsuit, Cofrancesco’s attorney, Elycia D. Solimene, wrote that Cofrancesco “denies that Dolores Dogolo’s injuries and losses were as a result of actions of the defendant.” She argued instead that “Dolores Dogolo herself was negligent” because, among other possible reasons, she: • “failed to keep and maintain a reasonable and proper lookout by failing to check for traffic before attempting to cross Olive Street.”

• “failed to make reasonable and proper use of her senses.”

• “failed to be watchful of her surroundings.”

• “suddenly left a sidewalk and walked or ran into the path of defendant’s vehicle which was so close to Dolores Dogolo as to constitute an immediate hazard to her.”

The case has not yet gone to trial.

(Cofrancesco declined to comment for this article.) Meanwhile, the public can now for the first time hear Cofrancesco’s side of the story in her own words in the following excerpts from her deposition by attorney Leff, who posed the questions.

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016 John P. Thomas Jr. Publisher / CEO

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By Samuel T. Ross-Lee Another shooting has shocked the nation and the misguided conversations have begun all over again. With each horrific mass shooting leading to multiple deaths, the disingenuous politicians, the unimaginative media pundits, and even the Comforter-in-Chief have pulled out the same ineffective talkingpoints because they all are focused on the wrong problem to solve.

The politicians and talk-heads typically blame mass shootings by madmen who are able to get their hands on military-style weapons on the “Gun Lobby”, better known as the National Rifle Association or the NRA. The NRA, to be sure, is that paid group of lobbyists whose job it is to keep members of the legislature steadily blocking any attempt to regulate the sell and purchase of guns, and blocking any attempts to keep guns out of the hands of even the most obvious lunatics.

Now, it is excusable that the public falls for this shortsighted and simplistic thinking, imagination, and insipid attempts to address the issue. But the politicians should know better. And they do. They should know better because the reason for the mass-shootings in America is related to something that all of them are involved with and in which they all are engaged. The

reason for mass-shootings and the Congress’ inability to pass gun legislation is not the NRA. Or at least it’s not only the NRA. The reason is money in politics, of which the NRA is but a small, though significant part.

The politicians who are expressively against the NRA will not say that, because doing so means that not only will the power of the NRA be diminished, but the power of all lobbyist. The lobbyists are the life’s blood of the status quo. They feed the greedy political animal and keep incumbents in office, fueled by a “war-chest” full of filthy lucre that scare off challengers from challenging, or that crush them if they do.

Until we work on ways to get money out of politics, the NRA will always have a foothold into greatly influencing our elected officials and determining the political outcome of gun legislation.

There is a hypocrisy connected to the cacophony of voices listed above that sound off on this issue. But there is also a hypocrisy apparent in the American voters. When Sandy Hook, Orlando, and the many killings in Chicago occur, voters scream for change, but we keep elected people who stand in the way of that change. What is that about? Our short attention spans? Our refusal to be “one-issue” voters, even if that one issue will save the lives of many? Our self-interested voting and thinking patterns, that say I will vote for the Senator or

Representative who “brings home the bacon”, even if they are bad for the nation as a whole?

Money in politics help fuel the NRA, and the NRA keeps guns unregulated by buying politicians. But, the voters could put a halt to all of this if we refused to vote for the candidates who have been bought and paid for by the NRA, or, better yet, if we fight to get lobbyist and big corporate money out of politics altogether.

We seem more impressed than worried when we hear that a politician has raised so many millions of dollars from wealthy donors and corporate sponsors.

The media present it that way as well. The candidate with the most money, despite how they got it, is the one that is the most credible, in the eyes of the public.

Well, maybe we should take time to consider what big money in politics means. It means that our elected officials cannot represent the people whom they were elected to represent. It means that laws that would operate in the best interest of the citizens must first be examined to see if they will negatively effect the corporations that the Supreme Court says are people. It means that children going to school, parishioners attending church, the public enjoying a movie, and even soldiers on an Army Post can all be shot down with guns bought by men (mostly) whose “rights” cannot be checked because there is one over-riding organization whose

money is much more powerful than your vote.

Of course there are more, many more, issues that are affected by money in politics, but there is none more deadly and daily impactful than the one that allows psychotic killers to walk the streets of our cities legally with military style weapons in their possession.

But, the politicians and socalled “thought leaders” in this nation will not deal with the larger issue of money in politics, choosing to focus on the sophist conversations that end where they started. Nothing is done.

Nothing is changed.

The NRA might be the darling of certain conservative politicians who cling to a twisted notion of what the Second Amendment means like a crack addict sucking on a pipe, but those politicians who are refuse to address the issue of big money in politics have their own addictions that keeps them high and off balance.

I have addressed in these pages before the corruption that tends to follow our semi-conscious focus on money. It distorts or outright destroys many of our institutions whose primary purposes are to bring good into the world by challenging the people who engage them to be better. Our churches, our media, our schools, and our politics, are the major institutions, as far as I can tell, that are made worst by how we engage money and make of it a demi-god to be worshipped at all cost.

If we do not fix our gaze in another direction, one that is consistent with the values of these institutions, an excessive use of guns will not be the thing that destroys us. Our love of money will.

Samuel T. Ross-Lee is the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Missionary Church, New

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INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Why Are We Still Color Struck? struggles and support one another.

All of us have had pain; many have experienced discrimination and hurt from inside and outside of our community.

By Elizabeth Overstreet, BlackDoctor.org Contributor Colorism exists in many cultures and has permeated society for thousands of years. In fact, in Egypt, there was evidence that many of the statues were defaced and changed to reflect individuals with sharper and more European features versus their African ones. Years of seeing one type of beauty revealed as better in our culture, social media, music videos and reality TV shows has deepened the color divide.

Colorism in Black culture goes back far to times of slavery. When slaves came to America, they were beaten so that they would lose their language, culture and any sense of self-identity. Often, lighter skinned slaves were placed to work in the homes and categorized as House Negroes. On the other hand, darker skinned slaves were forced to work in the fields or in positions that required lots of labor. The Willie Lynch letter addresses colorism and how it would create a divide in Black culture and continue to do so through each generation. As time progressed, post slavery, there was the paper bag test. If you were lighter or the same hue of a paper bag, you were deemed more attractive. Often those who were given opportunities in society had more of a European look or image that resonated more with Caucasians.

It was typical for movies in the 80’s to show light skinned sisters ostracized by darker skinned sisters and vice versa. Darker skinned women were displayed as angry, demanding, uneducated and loud.

On the other hand, lighter skinned women were highlighted as being more attractive, educated, rational and easy going.

If you look at TV shows such as “Martin” or many of Spike Lee’s earlier movies as well as rap music videos this theme plays out repeatedly. Often the more attractive woman was depicted as someone who was lighter skinned with more European features. And sadly, this continues to happen today.

Kanye West has openly said he prefers mixed looking women for his music videos. When a casting call was put in place for the Straight

3. Compliment and support one another. Having a diverse group of friends along with candid conversations with them has opened my eyes to the pain and hurt we inflict on one another. Light skinned women sometimes feel rejected asmuch as medium and darker skinned women because they may feel they do not fit entirely into parts of society, too. They often feel automatic judgments are passed on to

them, and ironically medium and dark skinned women experience many of the same feelings.

Having honest conversations, supporting each other and complimenting each other on our diverse beauty is a way to changethe perceptions and help one another to heal. Also, being honest about our hurts, experiences and perceptions is the only way to help us overcome colorism.

Being aware of colorism, its roots historically and loving one another is the start of changing our views and moving our culture forward in a positive way.

The Inner-City Welcomes Our New Fashion Correspondent:

Appearance Matters!

By Tanisha Bundy,

Outta Compton movie, they classified more attractive women by color categories putting lighter skinned women in a ‘B’ category and darker skinned women in other or lesser classes.

Colorism has been perpetuated over and over in society, historically and reinforced in American culture.

These experiences caused generation after generation to focus intensely on complexion, deeming European features more attractive and acceptable by society. It’s sad that we still are having these conversations years later. But, it will take many years to reverse what generation after generation has passed on to each future generation.

It’s time to change the way we view colorism.

Here’s how.

1. Correct people’s views and stereotypes. I was having a conversation with a friend of mine recently, and she noted that a woman who was darker-skinned was dark but pretty. I probed deeper and asked her why there was a but around her beauty? Would she say the same thing about someone who was fairer in complexion? It was an uncomfortable conversation. But, change can only start with honesty and in having an open dialogue. Why do we place a ‘but’ in the conversation when a person doesn’t fit what so-

ciety says is attractive? She stated that the dark skinned women had long hair and very sharp features.

I told her that it is offensive to say things like that because beauty is varied and so much bigger than what we have traditionally been taught to believe. We need to stop saying someone is beautiful because they possess a particular feature or look. Beauty is diverse.

Beauty doesn’t fit into one box and when we say these things we are reinforcing negative cultural history.

2. Teach our kids that they are beautiful no matter how they look.

Stop reinforcing stereotypes such as good or bad hair or other features that society reinforces as more attractive versus another feature. I’m a big believer that kids become what you tell them they will be. If you say they are smart and intelligent, they will exhibit these qualities and live up to this expectation.

If you say they are dumb and ugly, they will manifest and act accordingly.

Believe it or not, just because someone looks a particular way light, medium or dark skinned does not mean they have not had their challenges in life. It doesn’t mean they automatically possess high self-esteem. To move past colorism, we must recognize that we all have 6

Wardrobe Consultant & ICN Fashion Correspondent As much as I would love to jump right in and speak about the fun in fashion, I must first share with you why your personal appearance matters. You must understand that walking out of your front door is like walking directly into a showroom for all to see. You never know who’s watching you and how much influence you may have over them.

Even if you are an individual who doesn’t worry about the opinions of those who may show interest in your wardrobe collection, it’s not a great idea to ignore their perception of you.

The way you dress communicates to your onlookers your ability to distinguish what’s appropriate and what is not appropriate wear for the occasion. Your appearance plays a major role in the types of relations you gain, whether it’s personal or business. Also, it affects the way you think, act and feel.

When you are trying to obtain and maintain relationships, you cannot afford to think anything less than positive about yourself, nor can you afford to feel anything less than confident, capable or comfortable about yourself.

Lastly, you cannot afford to act defiant, arrogant, aggressive or awkward! Attention and care is essential in your appearance as a

Instagram:tanisha_bundy_styles Photo: True Trooper Photography

whole. Your goal and objective in your wardrobe and overall appearance should always lead to what represents you to the fullest. Become more aware of how your appearance affects the way you think, feel and act. And if I can leave you with this important fact, it is as follow: There are only a few situations where you can judge a book by its cover, and your appearance is one! #AppearanceMatters Facebook: tanishabundy

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INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Family Barbershop Takes The Kids

by ALIYYA SWABY New Haven Independent

When asked what differentiates his barbershop from the many others down Grand Avenue, Javier Sanchez motioned to a playpen cordoning off a brown play horse and set of blocks.

“It’s a family business,” he said.

That commitment to family is also apparent when Sanchez introduces all of his employees at Evolution SD, located at 314 Grand Ave., as family members though none are related by blood or come from the same country.

Sanchez and his wife Laura Diaz opened the business two years ago, after Sanchez worked 13 years at El Jibaro Haircut, a Puerto Rican barbershop just a block away on Grand Avenue.

Evolution SD is one of many barbershops on Grand Avenue.

Though some Fair Haven neighbors have argued they want to diversify the commercial ventures down the block, the homogeneity doesn’t seem to bother Sanchez or his wallet.

A couple of days after Independence Day, the store was relatively empty. But normally, Sanchez said, the space is packed.

Parents dump their kids in the playpen full of toys, so they can get trims and shape-ups in peace.

“It’s the only barbershop that cares about the kids,” he said. “We put on movies. Clients know they can bring their children.”

Sanchez arrived in the U.S. from Tlaxcala, Mexico, in 1990, when he was 30 years old. He first stopped in Oregon and thought about staying, but it was too cloudy in the Pacific Northwest. He had cousins and other family members beckoning him to New Haven, so he headed east.

“When I got here, I loved the people. There were many Hispanics,” he said.

A lot of “bad things” happened on Sanchez’s 15-day border crossing.

Traveling with his uncle and a friend, the trio got lost and was without food or water for days. “No one was coming to look for us,” he said.

Finally, they found a path and reoriented themselves. “It saved our lives,” he said. “Otherwise we would’ve died there.”

If everyone at the shop is adoptive family, Jovannie Rodriguez is Sanchez’s son. Rodriguez used to get haircuts from Sanchez and his actual

Javier Sanchez, Jared Sanchez, Joshua Sanchez, Diaz.

son who now owns his own barbershop in West Haven.

When Rodriguez needed a job at around 17 years old, Sanchez gave him one sweeping the shed hair regularly coating the floor.

One day, the shop was pretty empty. Sanchez asked Rodriguez, “‘Do you want to learn?’” And Rodriguez responded, “‘All right.”

It took Rodriguez three to four months to get the basics down edge ups to even out the hairline, trims, not-too-close fades.

Sanchez offered his own head as practice dummy.

Month six, and Rodriguez was ready to take on real, paying customers. One of his first tasks was to shave someone bald using a blade. “If you shave in the wrong direction or too hard, you can cut them,” he said. Do it the right way, and the scalp is smooth to the

touch.

Does he like the job he fell into?

He let out a whistle. “Yeah. It’s a passion. I ended up loving it. I do it every day,” he said.

There’s a certain kind of comfort in working inside a barbershop. The place is temperature-controlled, and the people come to him for a chat while he cuts their hair.

Sanchez taking on Rodriguez as an apprentice mirrored what his father and godfather had done for him in Mexico put him to work in the barbershop. Back in Tlaxcala, his dad sent him to work for his godfather cutting hair, when he was 11. First, he swept; then he started to cut hair. Unlike Rodriguez, Sanchez was not exciting about the prospect of the job at first. Then, gradually, he grew to like it, spending two years learning the trade.

When Sanchez finally started his 7

own business, he called it the “Peluqueria Chicarito,” a hair salon named after a famous Mexican soccer player Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez. Sanchez’s nickname is Chicharo.

Rodriguez is from New Haven, lives near Winchester. His parents are from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

The clients are from everywhere representing many Latin American countries, but some non-Latino white customers, too.

At Evolution SD, a men’s hair cut costs $15, a child’s hair cut costs $13. A haircut with a beard trim is the most expensive at $20. Nine employees see about 70 clients each during the week, Sanchez said.

Tonia Cabrera has worked in the store for about a year, cutting and dying women’s hair. She’s from Ecuador, and been working in beauty salons for the past five years.

Her workplace is one kind of family; she has a cousin here but most of her flesh-and-blood family is still in Ecuador.

Her three children are still there and expected to join her in New Haven soon. “Si Dios lo permite,” she said. “If God allows.”

Before New Haven, she was living in Queens, N.Y., where her stress levels were sky-high, along with her rent. “Here is more work, more tranquility,” she said.

Sanchez was actually prompted to start his own business in New Haven, when his son one of three Sanchez had with his first wife took

the plunge first and established a barbershop in West Haven. Before that, Sanchez worked in restaurants and factories in and around the city.

He paid his son’s tuition for barber school. Then his son told him, “Dad, when are you going to start one with me?” They began to look for spaces together, but Sanchez realized he wanted to be in Fair Haven. His wife did, too.

When they first saw the building that houses what is now a bright, clean barbershop, it was “destroyed” and “ugly,” Sanchez said. It had been a barbershop before. But it needed a good renovation. The heat didn’t work.

Walls divided the space.

“We changed all of it,” he said.

Javier and Joshua Sanchez.

Most importantly for Sanchez, they encouraged a familial atmosphere in their business, that made people feel safe and respected, including customers and employees. “You don’t hear bad words,” he said. “It’s different than the other barbershops around here.”

Among the many immigrants in New Haven from Tlaxcala, Mexico, Sanchez was excited to show off the decorative items in the store that serve as memorabilia for his Mexican culture, which he hasn’t completely left behind. Walking across fallen clumps of hair to the front of the store, he headed to a three-dimensional wall hanging of an indigenous Aztec (or Nahua) man, carrying a dead woman. As legend goes, the lovers could not be together alive, and so a higher power turned them into mountains.

Sanchez fell in love with his wife over the phone, while she was in Puebla, Mexico, and he was in New Haven. A friend introduced them and they connected virtually over the physical divide until finally, Diaz made the move north.

“It was always my dream to come to the United States,” she said. “I was happy to come.” The couple has three children, ages 9, 7 and 4.

In the future, Sanchez wants to open new branches across the city.

But for now, he’s happy to be running his version of a Grand Avenue barbershop. “Many people I met when I first started now they say, ‘Javier, congratulations!’” he said.

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Youth Help Build “Escape” Youth Center

by DANIELA BRIGHENTI

Months before it opens, The “Escape” already got a group of teens busy.

Ten New Haven high-schoolers were busy getting a former Orchard Street church building ready Wednesday for its upcoming opening as a youth drop-in and activity center as well as a homeless shelter for teens. at the site of the Orchard Street drop-in and activity center and is set to be completed in the coming months.

For five weeks during the summer, the 10 high-schoolers are

working on the site to get the shelter up and running. These students participated in the “Career Pathways TECH Collaborative” program, a initiative started by the city in the fall of 2014 that provides atrisk teens with after-school vocational training at the Eli Whitney Technical School. The idea is to steer them away from trouble with skills that can land them good jobs.

They are now putting those handson skills to good use.

“This functions as a sort of a lab, they learned and they get to do it here now,” said William MacMullen, the architectural capital projects coordinator for the

city’s engineering department.

“They do it until they get it right.”

This is the students’ second week at the construction site. So far, they have already built an entire wall separating the front entrance from the senior entrance and a greeting window for the center.

The students work at the center from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Career Pathways program coordinator Laura Whitacre said. Their backgrounds range across a variety of fields.

Angell Santana, for example,

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just graduated from Wilbur Cross High School. He studied plumbing during his last year of school with the Career Pathways program.

“The skills I know now, I wouldn’t without the Eli program,” he said, pointing out all the tools in his belt that he now knew the name for and how to properly use.

David Stephenson, a Co-Op Arts and Humanities High School graduate, was in the carpentry program. Stephenson noted how the program helped him with various skills: measuring, using

hand tools, as well as developing time management techniques to get tasks done effectively.

“I’m sure I’m still being educated, even though it feels like I’m already in the trade,” Stephenson said.

“We’re very happy to be here,” recent Hillhouse High School graduate Jahazeil Barr said. “We break the project into smaller parts and work as a team to complete them.”

At the completion of the five weeks, the program directors plan to help students acquire their driver’s licenses, update their resumes with their summer experiences and help find them jobs.

“The Escape is not complete yet, but these kids are getting so much out of this place that it’s already sort of a youth center,” New Haven Youth Services Director Jason Bartlett said.

Bartlett noted that the city could have hired a contractor to do the entire construction job on the Escape, but instead chose to break the project down into smaller parts to hire multiple minority business and youth workers.

According to MacMullen, the project is also phased so that the level of expertise required grows as the project progresses. That way, students learn and further develop their skills as they go.

This is the students’ second week at the construction site. So far, they have already built an entire wall separating the front entrance from the senior entrance and a greeting window for the center.

Bartlett sao\id the kids participating in the Career Pathways program are often students that were not doing particularly well at school, or that often times were not even showing up to school. The program, he said, helps these students to both learn a practical trade as well as improve their performance at school.

“The students can’t go to an after-school activity if they don’t go to school,” he said. “So this helps increase their attendance rate, and with the next step: providing them will hands-on training after school.”

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Financial Justice a Key Focus at 2016 NAACP Convention

By Charlene Crowell, NNPA News Wire Columnist With 2,200 branches across the country and added presence on 60 military installations, five located overseas, the NAACP’s grassroots reach is unparalleled.

And throughout its 107 year history, the annual NAACP conference has addressed issues that affect people of color. From the Niagara Movement, to Jim Crow, and discriminatory education, employment and more, the NAACP still stands as this nation’s largest and oldest racial justice advocacy organization.

In 2016 another issue — just as pressing as those for which the NAACP is historically known — echoed throughout the convention by several speakers and resolutions: financial justice.

“Vote to stop the payday lenders and the car title lenders that come in like vultures and prey on our communities,” said Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, the Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, on July 18.

Similar remarks on financial

justice were also offered during a legislative session by Houston Congressman Al Green, a former NAACP branch president, and Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, a marcher in last year’s “America’s Journey for Justice,” sponsored by the NAACP. On July 19, the convention unanimously approved a resolution that reaffirmed the NAACP’s forceful stance against predatory payday lending. This year, the resolution specifically called for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to finalize strong rules to stop the payday loan debt trap.

Noting how payday loans are heavily marketed in communities of color, and its hopes for regulation that would require loans be affordable, the resolution tied major banking institutions to the predatory, small dollar loan. In part it reads, “The NAACP recognizes the significant enabling/ collaborative role of the major banking institutions in providing payday and other predatory lenders favorable financing.”

Other sections of the resolution stated how high-cost, small-dollar loans are designed to last months, if not years, forcing borrowers into repeated refinancing and high default rates. Making these loans affordable, in the NAACP’s view,

should require lenders to take into account borrowers’ incomes and expenses.

A number of studies have found that each year payday and car-title loans strip more than $7 billion — largely from people of color and other low-income consumers.

According to consumer advocates, these loans are the most predatory and further, exploit those with the fewest financial resources.

Financial justice remained the convention focus with a keynote address from Richard Cordray, Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Created as a cornerstone of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, CFPB has in five years enacted financial regulations and returned $3.48 billion in restitution to consumers who were harmed by unfair financial practices. “[F]or African-American communities in this country, credit is often unavailable, may be quite expensive, or is offered through predatory practices,” noted Cordray. “For too many consumers of color, the pursuit of prosperity can be difficult or even ruinous.

Active discrimination, fueled by conscious or unconscious prejudice, has hindered millions of African-American consumers

from getting ahead, or even keeping up.”

“We are taking on systemic efforts to deny credit to minority populations,” continued Cordray.

“We are taking on credit that is offered on worse terms than those extended to others in similar circumstances.

For Diane Standaert, a convention delegate and executive vice president with the Center for Responsible Lending, the resolution and speaker remarks on economic injustice provided a boost to ongoing efforts to engage communities directly impacted by predatory lending.

And we are taking on credit that is offered on terms that consumers cannot afford to repay and that leaves them substantially worse off. These problems are intertwined, and they can choke off the ability of entire communities to build and sustain opportunity and prosperity. They perpetuate inequality.”

“We are grateful that the NAACP’s foot soldiers are actively joined with its leaders and others in the fight for an end to predatory lending,” said Standaert.

“Everyone – whether with families and neighborhoods or on social media – will generate a drum beat for justice that includes financial fairness for all.”

“These economic injustices deny opportunity, drain wealth, and desecrate communities,” added Cordray. “We have committed ourselves to pursue fairness and equal justice in the financial marketplace, and we will continue to bring that same commitment to every single community throughout this country.”

According to Roslyn Brock, NAACP Chairman, the organization is ready and able to carry on. “There is something on the inside that is resilient in the lives of people of color who somehow, despite the odds, manage to take one more step, fight one more battle, and cast one more vote to affect the outcome. We may get knocked down, but we won’t be knocked out!”

Cordray continued: “We will seek to attain the same dignity and respect for every one of us that each one of us deserves. Because that is what America must be about – making every consumer count.”

Charlene Crowell is a communications manager with the Center for Responsible Lending.

She can be reached at charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.

Deconstructing Reconstruction in the Aftermath of Baton Rouge, Falcon Heights and Dallas unrepentant racist and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, used the shooter’s actions to excoriate the Black Lives Matter Movement.

By Julianne Malveaux, NNPA News Wire Columnist After Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Falcon Heights, Minnesota there was Dallas, Texas. After rogue cops unceremoniously killed two Black men, a deranged shooter killed five police officers.

The shooter, identified as Micah Johnson, reportedly said that he wanted to kill White police officers. Too many commentators referred to his middle initial “X.’ in an effort to be more racially provocative. Too many, like the

The phrase “Black Lives Matter” is not racist, because it simply reflects our nation’s history. From our founding until today, there have been too many opportunities to legalize the misguided notion that Black lives do not matter. The fact that our Constitution reduces enslaved African Americans into a fraction of a person suggests that Black lives did not matter, at our nation’s founding, as much as White lives did. The differences in the terms and conditions of indentured

servitude for Whites and enslavement for Afrodescendents further cemented the notion that black lives did not matter as much as white lives did. The persistence of enslavement, and the contradictions that came from the practice of “breeding” (i.e., treating Black people as animals to increase “stock”) heightened contradictions, because the slave owners were selling their children and siblings. What did they think of themselves, if they felt they had to couple with people they found “subhuman?”

Has former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani ever read a history book? Does he understand that if revenge were ever a motive in

Black/White interactions it would have been all over but the shouting between 1865 and 1876?

Formerly enslaved people were hopeful about emancipation, but caught between hope and despair when Black Codes were imposed, when people were lynched for simply asserting the right to walk on the sidewalk, when soldiers were lynched, in uniform, because they did not defer to fellow citizens.

Even though Constitutional amendments were passed to abolish enslavement, rigid Southern attitudes imposed a quasi-enslavement that persisted until the civil rights movement, and White supremacist attitudes that that persist until toady.

When our Constitution was

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written, John Adams lamented that the issue of enslavement was a conundrum that his generation was imposing on subsequent generations. When the 13th Amendment was passed, there was no playbook to detail how our nation would transcend enslavement. We have never taken the time or energy to condemn racist attitudes, assuming they would simply go away. They have not. And millions of African Americans have righteous resentment about the many microaggressions (not to mention murders) that our community experiences. The microaggressions of White skin Con’t on page

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Malloy To Dems: Ignore “Tough On Crime”

by MARKESHIA RICKS New Haven Independent

A week after Republicans nominated a presidential candidate vowing to take a tough stand against criminals, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said that his fellow Democrats need to embrace strategies that reduce prison populations and risk being labeled “weak on crime.”

The Washington Post transformed a Philadelphia gastropub called the City Tap House into its headquarters for the Democratic National Convention. It invited party leaders like Malloy to talk about criminal justice Monday, the first day of the convention.

Malloy said Democrats from mayors on up need to embrace strategies that divert people from prison, especially young black and Hispanic men away from the prison system because he said it’s good for society.

He pointed to Connecticut’s passage of several of his Second Chance Society reform bills, including doing away with mandatory imprisonment for possessing a drug within 1,500 feet of facilities such as schools and day care centers.

“In New Haven, almost 97

MARKESHIA RICKS PHOTO Malloy

at WashPo convention parley.

percent of people lived within 1,500 feet of [such a facility]. Same in Hartford and Bridgeport, our three highest crime communities,” Malloy told the crowd. “But if you lived in Darien, most don’t live within 1,500 feet. For the exact

same crime, same drug, you didn’t have a mandatory sentence. We’ve done away with that because we came to understand that though [the law] wasn’t intended to be racially or poverty discriminatory, it was in practice. We have to

confront the idea that when there are very disparate results, we have to do something about that.”

Malloy said states like Connecticut that have made more efforts to innovate and divert people from jail have not only seen

a lowering of their prison population, but also a decrease in crime.

The governor shared the stage with Glenn E. Martin, the founder of JustLeadershipUSA founder, who also was once incarcerated at New York’s Rikers Island. He pointed out that science shows that when it comes to young black and Hispanic men, the tolerance for risk taking drops as they get older.

Malloy agreed, suggesting that the country doesn’t sell alcohol to people under 21, but treats people as young as 16 as if they had the same maturity as an adult.

Malloy urged Democrats to summon the will to face criticism for being weak on crime to enact legislation that gets results by finding alternatives to incarceration.

“I’m trying lead national discussion on this issue,” he said.

“Smarter criminal justice helps reduce crime. If we could keep people out of jail, if we could do that substantial numbers, we’ll be a safer society. Once you’re incarcerated your chances for success goes down precipitously.

Let’s take this opportunity to exploit every other opportunity to keep young people out jail,”

“One-Stop” Government “Shopping” Comes To Dixwell City government Friday opened an outpost on Dixwell Avenue to bring “one-stop shopping” to the neighborhood.

Officials cut the ribbon on the new center at 316 Dixwell Ave., a former garage and then home for a jobtraining center.

The city spent $72,000 renovating it including clearing cement out of pipes according to William MacMullen of the city’s engineering department, who oversaw the project.

A rotating cast of eight or so government workers will staff the building. Half the building will offer help sign up for state welfare and health programs, city prison re-entry and neighborhood programs, and community programs runs by Community Action Agency, MOMS Partnership, and the National Veterans Council for Legal Redress. That

PAUL BASS PHOTOMayor Harp cutting the ribbon Friday.

wing of the building is now called the New Haven Opportunity Center.

Or “NH Op-C” for short.

The goal is to enable people to avoid “taking two buses” and spending hours trying to fill out forms or obtain services, said city Commu-

nity Services Administrator Matha Okafor, who emceed a grand opening event, at which 100 people filled the building’s main room.

The state Department of Social Services will install kiosks at which people can obtain information, sign 10

up for programs, or update their status.

State social services chief Roderick Bremby was asked how those kiosks will defer from computer programs that people can access at home. He responded that they’ll provide more information; that people can press the screens rather than bumble with a mouse; that print-outs will be available; and that he hopes to have retirees volunteer to be on site to guide people and answer questions.

The other wing of the building is the new home of city government’s Small Business Academy, which helps budding local entrepreneurs.

City Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson said his office is still redesigning that academy, so it won’t open for a few more weeks.

He placed the new center’s opening in the context of a broader effort

to boost local entrepreneurship in the age of globalization as well as to revive commerce along Dixwell Avenue.

“A lot of people who used to work for big corporations are going to be starting their own businesses,” and need help developing their ideas and skills and obtaining capital, he said.

Meanwhile, the city wants to encourage both big companies and citizens “to buy locally. It’s time to go back to the time when Dixwell Avenue was a thriving local economy.

We have to bring that back.”

Pastor Theodore Brooks, whose church is around the corner, remembered bringing his car for repairs when the building housed the garage. He blessed the new goal of helping to fix the economy and create jobs at the center.“I can’t have people come to church who have no money,” he quipped.

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

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INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Ricky D’s Gets A Shack

by MARKESHIA RICKS Robin Willoughby was determined to find the man with the ribs. “I’d seen him on TV,” she said. A little sleuthing led her to a Facebook page and a phone number. “I was like, ‘I wonder if he’s open, because I want some of those ribs!’” she recalled with a laugh.

“He” happens to be Ricky Evans, owner of Ricky D’s Rib Shack. And he was definitely open for business — finally. For three years Ricky D’s Rib Shack has been a shack in name only.

Or rather, a shack on four wheels only.

The popular local food truck has been a fixture in front of the Yale Art Museum and at major events throughout the city including the annual Food Truck Festival. You can usually find the truck at an event if you look for the longest line.

Evans is hoping Ricky D’s will become a fixture in a new neighborhood now that he’s serving up his sweet-savory, Kansa-Lina style barbecue, at the crossroads of the Dixwell/ Newhallville neighborhoods. Just a few days before the Fourth of July, Evans hung out a shingle at 302 Winchester Ave. at Science Park and achieved a goal that has been three years in the making — having his own storefront.

And you can smell the smoke before you hit the front door. Evans runs the business with the help of his younger brother, Brandon, Robert “The Wing King” Covington and Jerome “The Clean King” Houfer Jr. When a customer asked how sweet the sweet tea is, Brandon lets him know that it’s sweet and then some, just as it’s done in the South.

“I might better not have that,” the man said. “I’m diabetic.”

“No,” Brandon said, “I wouldn’t recommend the tea then. But that water? The water is sugar free.”

With old school R&B pumping through the restaurant’s sound system, the men are cheerfully serving many of the favorites that people have come to love from the truck, such as ribs and pulled pork. They’re also dishing up a bigger menu that includes more sides like baked mac and cheese, chicken wings and salads.

“On the truck we don’t have propane, so it’s really just the grill,” Evans said. “This allows me to extend the menu. With the ovens I can add mac and cheese, I can add cornbread. I have space to do salads, so we’re doing salads with the smoked chicken, pulled pork or the brisket on top. We’ve got

PHOTOE vans mans the phone while brother Brandon explains the menu to Willoughby at their new rib joint. fryers. Before we didn’t do wings.

When you have the equipment you can take advantage of that.”

Evans said the storefront also allows him to do more and bigger catering jobs, which was good news to Willoughby. She’s getting married soon and has a bridal shower coming up. Barbecue could be on the menu.

“We can bring the cookout to you,” Evans told her.

Making every day a cookout is part of Evans’s strategy for success. He said for the last year and a half he’s been looking for a storefront for the restaurant, but nothing seemed to be the right fit. In fact, he’d looked at a location around the corner in Science Park that would have put him right near the intersection of Winchester Avenue, Munson and Henry Streets across from the ever popular Farmington Canal.

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But it would have required a lot more resources, so he passed.

Then a broker from Yale University Properties contacted him about the space at 302 Winchester Ave., which hadn’t been available when he initially looked at the other Science Park location. (It was occupied by a Chinese restaurant at the time.) He decided to check it out.

“It just was the right place, at the

right time,” he said. The location puts him directly across from the Winchester Lofts apartment complex and around the corner from the new Ashmun Flats apartments. In addition to the Farmington Canal the restaurant is just a short walk, bike or skateboard ride from Yale’s Ingalls Rink. It also stands a good chance of reaping the benefit of the Science Park lunch crowd and Newhallville neighbors like Willoughby, who lives just down Winchester Avenue. The restaurant is open until 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and until 10 p.m. Saturday, making it one of the few in the area serving more than wings and sandwiches well into the evening.

“We’re really the only place open on the weekend,” he said. “That’s why I really love this location. We’re right in the middle of both sides of town where we can attract people from Yale, downtown is not far, the local community over here, the hockey rink, the Science Park area.”

“It feels good,” Evans added.

“We’re in the community, and we just want to market to New Haven and surrounding areas and establish that relationship with the community and have them connect with us actually having a location versus us only being on the food truck.”

Evans said the food truck isn’t going away, but he wants to get the rhythm of the storefront and understand the flow of the business to see how the truck might fit in going forward. He’s also looking forward to getting signage installed thanks to a facade grant he was able to secure from the city. Once that’s done, he’ll be looking at what he needs to do to get some outdoor seating and some bike racks.

“It took a lot of hard work and motivation to get here,” he said. “We’re still going to add more decor. This is just a start. We want customers to come here and I want them to grow with us and say, ‘I remember when the only thing they had on the wall was ‘Every Day Is A Cookout’ and ‘Don’t Bite Ya Fingers.’’”

Evans said he wants his “shack” to have a storied and humble beginning as all great barbecue restaurants do.

While customers can dine in a storefront, there are no TVs for watching the game, or a bar for bellying up.

“But I think if I was to look at a next location, I’d look to add a bar and TVs if that opportunity was to come up,” he said. “But I wouldn’t want to move too fast. I want to get this location established. This is the original.”

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Walk and Talk One day in the 5th grade, Beatrice “Bea” Dozier Taylor was walking to school, “very much a troubled spirit,” when she says she heard God’s voice ask her what was wrong.

A self-confessed smart aleck, Taylor replied, “What? You don’t know?”

In class, Taylor had been learning about Italian, Polish and French history—all of which she loved.

But when she skipped ahead in the reading to find what would be taught about African history—her own heritage—she discovered only the legacy of slavery.

She continued her complaint to God: “They’re talking about African people and they’re saying we come from the jungle.” Then Taylor says she saw a vision in which the garden of Eden and “the jungle” sat next to one another, and she came to the realization they were one and the same.

“They say that Africans run around naked,” she continued. Then she thought maybe they’re naked because they haven’t sinned.

That heavenly chat was one of the early watershed moments of Taylor’s life, and though she didn’t’ know it yet, it foreshadowed her life as a social activist, orator and owner of A Walk in Truth bookstore on Edgewood Avenue. Specializing in Christian and also black texts, the bookstore rose out of the belief that the school curriculum she and other black children were being taught did too little to raise their esteem and pride.

“My ancestors were not slaves,” Taylor says. “They were enslaved.”

That emphasis on victimization, not victimhood, may seem slight, but it makes all the difference to Taylor, and it led her to explore questions relating to who her ancestors were before they were enslaved.

On the corner of Day Street and Edgewood Avenue in the Dwight neighborhood, her bookstore stands as a partial answer, filled with works examining or celebrating black heritage. Among the ones that have influenced her the most are Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown, the “Falconhurst” series, which began with Kyle

Onstott’s Mandingo, and The Original African Heritage Study Bible edited by Cain Hope Felder.

These books shaped her thinking and, for the past 28 years, her store’s shelves have been filled with those and many other relevant works, crafting a narrative that transcends the standard, reductive one.

Taylor believes there’s as much need as ever for black people to read such books, pointing out the parallels between the old plantations and the modern prison industrial complex, which disproportionately feeds on young black men. There’s the way prison laborers, often compelled to work under threat of punishment, earn a pittance for their efforts; the way laws strip ex-convicts of certain rights, including the right to vote; the way society often strips them of the ability to find honest work. If the connection could be made clearer to more black people, she feels, it could illuminate—and help them change—the structural patterns that have afflicted the community for so long.

That said, “I don’t do a hard sell,” she says. When someone comes into her store, she says she first tries to get to know a person’s individual interests. Sometimes preliminary conversations quickly widen and deepen, perhaps leading another browser to join in. Taylor says she’s had chains of four or five people drawn into conversation like that.

Sometimes, after a long time conversing, one of them will confess to her, “I don’t know how I got here.”

Besides her stock of black-focused texts and related wares— such as prints of works by black painters, decorative pillows, earrings, beads and a poster depicting 104 innovations created by black engineers and scientists—Taylor’s bookstore is also stocked with bibles, bible index tabs, communion cups, Christian-themed crossword books and related Christian items. Taylor says local church congregations are an essential customer base for her multi-faceted business, which also offers custom picture framing.

Keeping a diverse ledger, she says, is essential for keeping her doors open in today’s e-book marketplace. In recent years, Taylor has seen both Christian and black print bookstores closing their doors left and right. She often wonders, “Am I next?” Her family has helped her keep the lights on during the toughest dry spells. Without their support, “I would’ve gone with the rest.”

Taylor admits she’s more an activist than a business owner, and while her establishment may not be the most profitable way to make a living, she feels she has an obligation to keep her doors open, providing a place of learning, inspiration and conversation in a community that’s seen far more than its fair share of difficulties.

Taylor, for one, remains committed to addressing them. “We speak of wanting our neighborhoods to change,” Taylor says, “but if we’re not here, then it will not happen.”

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INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Daisy Street Celebrates

by DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY The Newhall Gardens senior public-housing complex on Daisy Street was temporarily converted into a party space, as residents gathered for a communal birthday celebration replete with music, streamers and home-cooked macaroni and cheese.

“It’s like a close-knit place here,” said Louisa Pearsall, the president of the complex. “I try to get them food home-cooked, not junk. Us older ones, we don’t cook like we used to.”

Pearsall and Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn stayed up late the night before preparing food and hanging up decorations for the party.

Clyburn who called the Newhall Gardens residents “my kings and queens” said she was delighted to contribute to an exciting day for the roughly two dozen seniors who attended.

“They live too long to not be happy and content,” Clyburn said.

Pearsall took over at Newhall Gardens in 1994, after more than three decades as an aide at Yale’s Morse College. She’s always hosted one party a year it’s easier to have a single celebration for everyone than to keep track of individual birthdays and has no plans to stop.

“I just turned 85 this year. I’m supposed to be a diabetic,” she said to laughter from the residents gathered around her. “But I eat as much as I want, what I want, when I want.”

Police Chief Facing Discipline

By PAUL BASS PMayor Toni Harp is planning to take action against Police Chief Dean Esserman in the wake of new complaints about his “temperament.”

Harp told the Independent Sunday that she plans to meet with aides Monday to discuss what action to take. She said options under consideration include having the chief go on “sabbatical.”

She said she is acting in light of new complaints that have come her way in past weeks about Esserman’s conduct within the department and with the public.

A trigger point was apparently a recent incident at Archie Moore’s bar and restaurant on Willow Street. Dining there on a Friday night, Esserman complained about the service he was receiving, allegedly berating the waitress at length and causing a ruckus.

“An alder came to speak to me about it,” Harp said Sunday. “I’ve Investigated it. I spoke to someone who was there.

“People asked to move. The restaurant did not charge [other patrons] for the meal because of what they had to undergo.”

Staffers at Archie Moore’s, including a witness to the events that night, declined to discuss the matter with the Independent.

Hill Alder David Reyes was among those bringing the incident to the mayor’s attention.

He heard about it from a waiter who witnessed it, a friend of his.

The chief “is the face of the department. You have to be the leader. He has set the bar high for everyone in the department.

That’s why I feel it’s important,” Reyes said Sunday. “He disrespected the people there. He belittled people.”

Esserman did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

“We are going to have to have some serious conversations about temperament,” Harp said in reference to Esserman.

She declined to say who will

Seniors gather for the birthday party.

Pearsall addresses neighbors.

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fill in as interim chief if Esserman indeed goes on leave. She said she expects that any move to fill a vacant assistant chief position will probably be on hold pending her dealings about the chief’s position.

Harp had reprimanded Esserman back in 2014 after he berated an elderly volunteer usher at the Yale Bowl and threatened to shut down a football game there because he wasn’t allowed free entry without a ticket. In a letter back then, Harp wrote, “I am ... warning you that any such future occurrence will result in more severe consequences.”

Earlier this month, the police union voted 170-42 to express “no confidence” in the chief.

While one faction of the department, cops from across the rank and file supported that vote.

Harp said she wanted to serve as a “peace broker” to work out the cops’ concerns in order to maintain the progress she has seen in the department’s policing of New Haven.

Since then she has continued to receive complaints from inside and outside the department.

Meanwhile, a sharp over the past year, and members of the Board of Alders have been vocal in criticizing the chief.

On Sunday, Harp noted that these complaints have arisen at a time when New Haven’s

Con’t on page 19

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

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INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Snow in July?

New HYTE Director Dennis Wilson with campers at the EOC.

The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for New Haven in July of all times.

And some schoolkids had to figure out how to keep New Haven safe.

The preparation took place week inside New Haven’s emergency management center at 200 Orange St. It was a mock preparation. The participants were kids enrolled in a three-week New Haven Youth Tennis and Education (New HYTEs) camp.

Rick Fontana, who as city government’s emergency management chief runs the center, delivered a mission to his young visitors at the start of the week: You have four days to prepare the city for the emergency.

On Friday, the campers reconvened in the room to present how they could work together to ensure shelter, food and medical services in the case of a blizzard.

Campers were divided into five groups, with one representing each of the fire department, police department, traffic agency, community and elderly service, and Yale University. In the next few days, they will brainstorm and debate ideas at their camp at the Connecticut Open stadium.

While putting forth solutions, the groups also kept an eye out for budget.

“Do you want to be the fire 16

chief? I think you can do it,” Fontana said to Tyler Saxton after his presentation. Saxton delivered a plan on behalf of the fire department and took into consideration the clearing of snow from fire hydrants.

Fontana followed up on his idea and explained to the campers that in New Haven, all fire hydrants are located on the odd side of the road.

“That’s why we say, ‘Don’t be the odd man out there; park on the even,’” Fontana said.

Linnette Gonzalez, 11, was in charge of community and elderly services. In her presentation, Gonzalez noted the need for shelters and warming centers for the homeless people. She also paid attention to the elderly who might be stuck in their houses.

Indeed, Fontana said, many elderly have trouble getting access to dialysis appointments during extreme weather. The center coordinates with the National Guard to help them.

Fontana did more than evaluate the kids’ work. He explained the behind-the-scenes, day-to-day operation in the emergency operations center.

In case of a weather emergency, he always starts meetings with the forecast “The first thing we’re gonna look at is, ‘Are we going to close schools?’” he said. That won giggles and cheers from the

campers.

He then showed different cameras covering the Green, various neighborhood, and the harbor, before demonstrating how to zoom in, zoom out and spin around to adjust the camera.

Much to the kids’ surprise, Fontana told them that there is a camera at every stairwell in every New Haven school. “The reason I show you this is that we can see everything.” Fontana said cameras are crucial in deterring crimes and tracking down suspects.

He wrapped up the presentation by demonstrating the alarm system as well as maps showing snow emergency routes.

Jeffrey Solano, 10, was surprised to learn that the city’s emergency alarms which he has heard several times came from a single basement room.

Another camper, Chloe LomaxBlackwell, said she has family members who served in the police department. She called it refreshing to “learn about their world.”

Fontana said he hopes that by introducing the procedures, he might interest some young people in careers in public service.

“I think they should continue” this exercise, Gonzalez said.

“Some children like to go into careers in public service but they don’t know how it feels like actually doing it.”

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

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INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Omegas Heading To Vegas For The Step Crown

by DANIELA BRIGHENTI Ruel Dixon works as a behavior analyst for Middletown’s public schools. In the afternoons, he gets to change out of his work clothes, put on his large-soled boots and step for what he calls it “the love of the art.”

Dixon is one of nine men who make up the “Elm City Ques,” a step group associated with New Haven’s Epsilon Iota Iota chapter of the predominantly AfricanAmerican fraternity Omega Psi Phi. The step group is bringing the chapter national attention.

“We’ve been winning competitions around here for the past ten, 12 years,” Dixon said.

“We have a sort of standing already.” Now the group is aiming for its biggest win yet.

“We compete in colleges all up and down the East Coast,” Dixon said. “In 2010, we even went to the Bahamas. We called it ‘Stepping on the Shores,” and we felt like celebrities on TV.” This year is no different. In April the group won the competition in its district, which is made up of four states: Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont. It is headed for the national

The Ques, including Walton in the middle.

competition. The Ques will travel to Las Vegas to compete next Tuesday in the “Grand Conclave” on a stage at the Caesar’s Palace Hotel and Casino.

The Grand Conclave happens every two years. In 2014, the group also qualified, and placed second.

“We were mere 0.5 points away from winning,” Dixon rued, as if

the loss had happened just days ago. “Now two years later ,we’re trying to win.”

Nearing the days of competition, the nine group members spend nearly every evening together, practicing and sweating hard under the New Haven summer sun.

Despite the arduous work, Dixon said it is exactly that time spent

together that brings the group closer together.

“It’s a sense of camaraderie. We develop a bond with our brothers, and it all culminates as the same motion at the same time, on the same stage,” Dixon said. “There are different ways that you develop that bond, but this is one of them.”

He noted that the tradition is

passed on continuously. As fraternity brothers get older and move on to other jobs or perhaps other cities, younger boys take their spots in the group.

Chapter member Kevin “Midnite” Walton embodies that ongoing transition. He used to be part of the “Ques” and now serves as a type of mentor, overseeing the group and its [practices].

“It’s more of a lifelong commitment, whether as a collegiate or a professional adult, [the fraternity] is part of the rest of your life,” Walton said. “And the step group is, indeed, one of our most visible, a tangible thing that the public can see.”

In true performance of his role, he stayed in the sidelines, watching as the nine men took to the front entrance of New Light High School, to start their practice, to step for the love of the art.

Dixon said one of the group’s main goals is to raise money for scholarships, which are given each year to high school students going into college. According to Dixon, last year the local chapter was able to award four $1000 scholarships, which it hopes to repeat this year.

Hillary Clinton Looks to Build African American Base with Top Staffers where they are. Where they eat, where they play and pray. We want to make sure that the AfricanAmerican community understands the secretary’s commitment and I don’t think people fully understand her story.”

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA News Wire Contributor As the presidential candidates sprint towards the November 8 election, the Clinton campaign has turned to seasoned, Black political strategists to boost voter turnout in the African American community.

Last month, the Clinton campaign hired Nadia Garnett to lead strategic efforts as the AfricanAmerican Vote Director.

“We have a theory,” Garnett said. “You have to meet people

Garnett has displayed her skills in ways that few have. In addition to serving as national political director for the Center for Community Change, Garnett was also special advisor in the Office of Presidential Personnel at The White House.

She also served as eastern state director for The Atlas Project, a political research and data firm that works with electoral and issue advocacy campaigns. There, she coordinated campaign staffers, political consultants, and state experts regarding their role in

developing, managing and executing campaign plans in presidential election years, according to her bio.

NBC BLK reported that Tamia Booker will serve as the director of African-American outreach and Zina Pierre will work with pastors and Black churches as the campaign’s African-American faith director. The Clinton campaign tapped Joel Payne for the director of African-American Paid media position and LaDavia Drane will act as the campaign’s U.S. congressional liason.

Marlon Marshall, who serves as director of state campaigns and political engagement for Clinton, is as seasoned as any individual in any political camp.

“I’ve been blessed to be a part

of this and I’m proud of our team,” said Marshall, 36. “Thirty-seven percent of our team out there in the states are people of color. We work hard to hire people who look like us.”

The St. Louis-born resident possesses a broad portfolio that includes helping the campaigns of John Kerry and now presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Marshall’s colleague, Garnett is also far from a political novice.

Garnett has worked with pollster Cornell Belcher at his Washington, D.C.-based Brilliant Corners and Garnett once served as a field director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Independent Expenditure.

Together, the new hires could be viewed as the face of the Clinton campaign in the Black community.

But, they also do much more in trying to help the former First Lady and Secretary of State become the nation’s first woman president.

They are Clinton’s eyes and ears and they lead her efforts to make sure her message is known in every state, including where the assumption is that the GOP will ultimately carry that particular territory.

As Kerry’s southern political director, Garnett also helped to establish and strengthen political relationships with Democratic National Committee members, Congress, state and local elected officials and grassroots activists in Con’t on page 23

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INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Con’t on page 14

d epartment has been earning recognition nationwide for its success with community policing. Crime has fallen steadily over the nearly five years Esserman has been chief.

During that time neighborhood walking beats have been revived, and the city cops have partnered with state and federal law

Police Chief Facing Discipline enforcement agencies INK on cutting-edge anti-violence efforts. Two weeks ago Esserman attended a four-hour group discussion in D.C. with President Obama about how to improve policing in American.

“We are doing things in New Haven that are so far ahead of other police departments,” Harp

said Sunday. “I know that is because of his leadership. It has really moved our department ahead of almost every other department that I know of. In the state, certainly and perhaps America. He’s done a really excellent job.”

Police union President Craig Miller declined Sunday to 19

suggest what action the city should take against the chief: “That’s above my pay grade.”

But he did say that if another cop had been involved in a similar pattern of repeated misbehavior, Esserman “would be asking you for your resignation or have you in front of the Board of Police

Commissioners.”

“It’s the same actions happening all the time at different places,” Miller said.

“How many of these are we going to have? Are we going to wait for the next one?”

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

21st International AIDS Conference Commences on “Mandela Day” in the world with 3.4 million people on ARVs.

By Linda Villarosa, BAI Contributing Writer

In 2000, a spindly 11-year-old boy, no bigger than a fast blink, addressed the conference, asking the world to “care for us and accept us. We are all human beings. We are normal. We have hands. We have feet. We can walk. We can talk. Don’t be afraid of us—we are all the same.” No one could turn away from this child who captivated the audience with his big smile and bigger heart—except Mbeki. Seated in the audience, the former South African president walked out before young Johnson finished his speech. The boy died a year later.

It was entirely fitting that the 21st International AIDS Conference kicked off yesterday in Durban, South Africa, on “Mandela Day,” a global celebration of the great man’s birthday.

Sixteen years ago the 13th International AIDS Conference was also held in Durban—the first time in a developing country. The event forced the world to turn its focus to Africa, where the disease had transformed wide swaths of the continent into killing fields. It also changed the global response to the epidemic, opening the door to PEPFAR and Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

That year, Nelson Mandela electrified an emotional crowd with his closing address, calling AIDS “a global injustice” and “a shocking reality that we cannot hide from.”

By contrast, this year, international superstars Queen Latifah and Common provided an unofficial kick-off to AIDS 2016 on Saturday with a concert urging the world to “keep the promise and stop AIDS.” At a protest before the event, Latifah, who played an HIV positive mother in the 2007 HBO film “Life Support,” marched alongside the mayor of Durban and the late Nkosi Johnson’s adoptive mother.

Mandela had chosen his words carefully: At the time South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki was hiding from the reality of AIDS, publicly questioning whether HIV caused the disease and provoking a poisonous denialism that would set back the battle against HIV/AIDS in his country.

And South African-born celebrity Charlize Theron made a dazzling appearance at Monday’s opening ceremony. In language ripped from the social justice script, the Academy Awardwinning actress and U.N. Messenger for Peace said:

In his 2000 speech, Mandela instead attacked the epidemic as “the greatest health crisis in human history.” The crisis was destined to touch him in a personal way: In 2005, his son Makgatho Lewanika Mandela died from AIDS at age 54.

On Monday in Durban’s cavernous International Convention Centre, Makgatho’s son, Ndaba, joined his cousin Kweku, and the two spoke movingly of their grandfather’s work and legacy. “Sixteen years ago my grandfather arrived on this stage at the tipping point,” said Kweku Mandela. “Madiba asked us to do something about HIV/ AIDS treatment. I’m humbled to stand before you continuing my grandfather’s legacy in my small way,” he said, using the isiXhosa term of endearment Madiba, or

“The real reason we haven’t beaten this epidemic boils down to one simple fact: We value some lives more than others. We love men more than women. Straight love more than gay love. White skin more than Black skin. The rich more than the poor. Adults more than adolescents.”

father, that many South Africans use when speaking of the senior Mandela.

The epidemic is now strikingly different from that first Durban conference. In 2000, though antiviral drugs (ARVs) had turned the disease from a death sentence to a manageable illness in Western

countries, most Africans had no lifesaving medication. Today 17 million people around the world have access to treatment, including more than half of all HIV positive Eastern and Southern Africans, according to UNAIDS. South Africa now has the largest treatment program of any country 20

Still, some things remain the same. Largely because of stigma, the epidemic continues to harm those least able to beat it back: poor communities of color and so-called key populations, including young women and girls, men who have sex with men, transgender individuals, sex workers, drug users. “HIV incidence among adults is either stable or increasing,” stated conference co-

chair Chris Beyrer, M.D., who also pointed to measurable declines in global AIDS funding. “It is too soon to declare victory.”

But also then as now, activists remain passionate, angry and energized. In 2000, hundreds took to the streets to break the silence around HIV/AIDS. On Monday, thousands marched through Durban for a protest organized by South Africa’s Treatment Access Campaign. Chanting and singing in Zulu—half marching, half dancing—the crowd demanded “treatment for all now!”

The issues of girls and women have taken center stage at AIDS 2016, and a number of the event’s key leaders are women. For the first time, the conference is cochaired by an African woman, Olive Shisana, Sc.D.; the majority of the 750 speakers are women; and women are responsible for most accepted first-author abstracts. During the opening ceremony, four top African singers—Gabon’s Arielle T, Waje from Nigeria, Judith Sephuma from South Africa, and Zimbabwe’s, Selmor Mtukudzi— sang their activism from the main stage with their anthem “Strong Girl.”

In a touching moment of intersectionality, Dr. Beyrer, an openly gay man, asked gay and bisexual men to “end the separation and join our sisters in the fight for better access to care for girls and women.” Dr. Shisana reciprocated asking “all my sisters to join together with our LGBT family to bring our movements together.” In unison, they shouted “no exceptions” before embracing.

Despite technical glitches, Archbishop Desmond Tutu added to the call for a united front with a wise and elegant blessing. “HIV did not reckon with you,” said a frail but feisty Tutu to the crowd via video. “Thank you for proving how much we can achieve when we act together, for each other. God bless you.”

Linda Villarosa runs t he journalism program at The City College of New York in Harlem.

She has covered the biennial International AIDS Conference since 2002.

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Con’t from page 9

Deconstructing privilege are minor compared to the macro aggressions of a rogue police officer. Have any of these people ever read a history book?

Do they even understand that if revenge were a motive, it might have been extracted in 1866, not today?

The process for ending enslavement was imperfect. Too many Southerners cleaved to the notion that people of African descent were inferior, and then they passed laws to enforce unequal status. Jim Crow laws and Black Codes, prohibitions against property ownership and voting, unequal access to education, not to mention the constant nightriders, the granddaddies of contemporary rogue police forces, all existed to enforce subjugation and fear.

To be sure, we have come a long way since 1865 and since 1876. But the fact that, in contemporary culture, you still have White people who will wrap themselves up in a Confederate flag suggests we have not come quite as far as we must. People are talking about an “honest conversation” about race now, but the conversation should have taken place more than a century ago. Now, there is far too much denial for an “honest conversation”, and I despair that conversation is grossly insufficient if it is not coupled with action.

Through halting action and corrupt compromise, the Reconstruction of the United States never happened. We are sowing the bitter fruit of a broken Reconstruction today, with too many racial attitudes ossified.

Black Lives Matter is not a racist phrase. It is the manifestation of the conversation that should have taken place after the passage of the 13th Amendment.

Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist. Her latest book “Are We Better Off? Race Obama and Public Policy” is available via amazon.com for more information juliannemalveaux.com.

Senator Warren Calls out 21st Century Digital Robber Barons infringe on functionless design patents. If left unchecked by the Supreme Court, Apple’s aggressive litigation strategy of using design patent infringement claims to seek total profits from their competitors — and thereby blocking competition — will have a devastating impact on consumers, innovation and the digital economy.

By Freddie Allen, NNPA News Wire National News Editor During a recent speech on competition and the American economy, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who some politicos consider to be in the running for the Democratic “veepstakes,” took aim at the growing concentration of power and wealth in Silicon Valley’s tech industry.

Warren, who rose to national prominence railing against Wall Street and big banks, decided to single out big tech firms due to rising concerns among privacy groups, businesses, government regulators, civil rights leaders and others about the influence of companies like Google, Comcast, Apple and Facebook; power which has gone virtually unchecked in the emerging digital economy.

The first-term senator from Massachusetts offered her critique of the industry, in a little-noticed speech titled, “Reigniting Competition in the American Economy,” at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C., where she warned that Silicon Valley’s billionaire class and Internet-age monopolies threaten to undermine the competition that has long driven the nation’s economy.

“For markets to work, there has to be competition,” Warren explained. “But today in America, competition is dying.

Concentration threatens our markets, threatens our economy, and threatens our democracy.”

Warren’s criticism comes as a number of groups have started to push back against the threat that they say is the result of the growing concentration of power among Internet giants.

For example, civil rights icon Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition continue to advocate for economic justice through his Silicon Valley race diversity campaign. The National

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.),

Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) has also embarked on a campaign to draw attention to Facebook’s dominance in news aggregation that the group says could threaten the future of community newspapers.

In her speech, Warren pointed her finger directly at the powerful technology and cable companies with enormous leverage over markets that have worked to put up barriers for competitors to enter their markets. Nowhere are such efforts more evident than among the giants of Silicon Valley, which have been favored by some regulators inside the Capital Beltway.

Perhaps no other company embodies the alleged abuse more than Apple. The popular electronics producer has sought to block competition at nearly every turn and through nearly every avenue. According to Parks Associates, an internationally recognized market research and consulting company, Apple controls 40 percent of the smartphone market. “The Wall Street Journal” reported that Apple collected 92 percent of all profits in the smartphone industry market in 1995. Apple has effectively leveraged its position to snuff out competitors, or to dictate terms for their operations.

Late

last

year, 21

Apple

announced it will enable adblocking on its operating system, effectively marking the end of digital ads not authorized by Apple on iPhones and iPads. As mobile ad space becomes more expensive—supply has always kept prices down. Apple’s adblocking feature means that fewer small and start-up companies, including Black media websites, will be able to reach their audiences, a huge obstacle for businesses seeking to break into the market.

In the realm of streaming services, Apple continues to use its popularity to size out the competition. The company recently blocked Spotify, the popular music-streaming service, from introducing a new version of its app on the iPhone. Citing its “business model rules,” Apple insists Spotify must pay a 30 percent app tax in order to offer the service on the iOS platform.

As one Spotify executive put it, “Apple wants to eat their cake, and everyone else’s too.”

By the same token, in an attempt to limit competition and scare off would-be competitors, Apple’s aggressive actions in the courtroom have earned it a reputation for putting litigation ahead of innovation. In a landmark case recently taken up by the Supreme Court, Apple is seeking all the profits from Samsung phones that allegedly

Apple isn’t the only industry leader accused of behaving like a monopoly. Minority groups, activists and some politicians have openly criticized Facebook over alleged bias in the selection of news stories represented in the social media platform’s news feed.

NNPA President and CEO Benjamin F. Chavis and NNPA Chair Denise Rolark-Barnes recently noted, “Like many other publishers who have recently written on Facebook’s growing power over the media and what Americans read, we too are alarmed with one company having such dominance in news aggregation.”

With 63 percent of Americans and 74 percent of millennials using Facebook as a main source of news, the social media network could hold the capability to dictate the way in which people receive their news.

Google has also received some criticism for their practices. A Federal Trade Commission investigation of Google in 2012 found that the search engine promoted its own content over its competitors’ content, which violated the company’s search algorithm.

Meanwhile, Comcast, the largest U.S. cable and Internet provider, has consolidated over half the country’s subscribers by systematically buying up so many of its competitors. Due to the lack of options for wired broadband service, some have noted Americans may pay more for service than individuals in other countries.

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Film Review: Star Trek Beyond harder it is to see when one day ends and the next day begins.” It’s a rightful malaise for crewmembers who’ve been on the job for decades, protecting the universe.

By Dwight Brown, NNPA News Wire Film Critic The big debate shouldn’t be if this is the best Star Trek film ever.

The more interesting conversation is about whether Star Trek Beyond is a better sci-fi space adventure film than 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens. On most levels, the answer is yes.

J.J. Abrams is out as director and comes aboard as a producer. Director Justin Lin, from the “Fast and Furious” franchise, takes the helm. The result is a taut piece of filmmaking, with perfectly choreographed action scenes (jumpstarting a space ship is a highlight) and a rapid-fire pace that only leaves time to gasp for air (editors: Greg D’Auria, Dylan Highsmith, Kelly Matsumoto, Steven Sprung).

Visually, the film is eye candy, scene-to-scene. The pleasing colors (Salim Alrazouk, art director), amazingly crystal-clear and perfectly lit cinematography (Stephen F. Windon, Fast & Furious 6) and wondrous sets (Thomas E. Sanders, product designer, Lin MacDonald set decorator) give the footage a fresh new look.

The costumes (Sanja Milkovic Hays) have a hip futuristic style.

The music (Michael Giacchino, “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”)

Much of the far-reaching themes of this long-lasting, space age phenomenon, which started on TV 50 years ago, are still relevant in a multicultural, borderless world that grows more interdependent and intertwined every day. That yearning to achieve great things as a team, for the good of everyone, is a constant. Spock, “Find hope in the impossible.”

STARTREKBEYOND1 Zoe Saldana (left) and John Cho star in “Star Trek Beyond.” (Paramount Pictures)

takes explosive scenes to higher levels with choirs and orchestras blaring. Essentially the tech credits are exemplary on every level and overshadow those from the last “Star Wars” episode.

At the hands of scribes Simon Pegg (an actor/writer who also plays Scotty in the film) and Doug Jung, the storyline bursts with danger, humor and strong relationships. It’s easy enough to comprehend without an advanced degree in astrophysics, yet complex enough to hold your attention for 120 minutes. The constant stream

of discovery, conflict, betrayal, daring escapes and death-defying events in space and uncharted planets test the crew of the USS Enterprise. Various subplots develop around different pairings (Uhura and Sulu, Bones and Spock, Kirk and Chekov…) versus the normal myopic focus on Kirk and Spock.

It all begins with a jolt. In the midst of the first leg of a five-year mission, Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) meets the leader of a foreign species. He brings a gift, a relic with him. His generosity is not well received. Midget creatures

attack him. His crew arranges a quick escape. It’s just the beginning.

A rogue spacecraft hurls toward Earth. Its inhabitant claims her ship and crew has been lost on a nebula far, far away. Captain Kirk and his team set out on a rescue mission that may be more treacherous then they imagined: Commander Spock (Zachary Quinto), Doctor “Bones” McCoy (Karl Urban), Lieutenant Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Montgomery “Scotty” Scott (Simon Pegg), Sulu (John Cho) and Chekov (The late Anton Yelchin).

Nothing goes as planned. Their starship, The USS Enterprise, comes under attack. Crash landing.

Emergency escapes. Everyone is under siege on the planet Altamid, a dangerous alien world that is a way station for a vicious, evil reptilian-looking demon named Krall (Idris Elba). For very personal reasons, he has a plan to annihilate The Federation. A victim of Krall’s vengeance, a warrior named Jaylah (Sofia Boutella, “Kingsman: The Secret Service”), joins the crews’ efforts to stop him.

There’s a weary feeling among the captain and commander. Kirk and Spock, seemingly at the end of their ropes, contemplate a different life. Kirk, “The more time we spend out here (space) the

22

The returning cast appears to be very comfortable in their roles.

Pine radiates a self-assuredness that is the essence of the unflappable Kirk. Quinto and Saldana make the quirky romance between Spock and Uhura amorous. Urban and Pegg as Bones and Scotty provide a natural comic relief.

The new addition of the Jaylah character gives Sofia Boutella an opportunity to introduce a younger fighter to the mix. Idris Elba as Krall invents a towering persona, with a raspy voice and intimidating mannerisms. He exudes a rage that is believable. His performance is more intense than the rest of the cast. It’s as if he’s a Shakespearean actor moonlighting in a big-budget film.

Director Justin Lin, a gripping script, a top-notch technical crew and a very enthused group of actors have taken this franchise up a notch. Do their efforts provide more of a thrill ride than the latest “Star Wars” saga? That’s a heated conversation Trekkies need to have with Jedi chasers.

In the meantime, let it be known, “Star Trek Beyond” bolts out of the gate at warp speed.

Dwight Brown is a film critic and travel writer. As a critic he regularly attends international film festivals including Cannes, Sundance, Toronto and the American Black Film Festival. Read more movie reviews by Dwight Brown here and at DwightBrownInk.com.

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Darryl “DMC” McDaniels Reveals Suicide Attempts: “Therapy Is Gangsta”

by Carter Higgins, BlackDoctor.Org

water, but it did help me stay afloat until other help came along.”

Wow. You never know what someone is going through.

In 2004 he decided it was time to seek professional help and calls it one of the ”best things” any man, but especially a black man can do.

Darryl McDaniels, better known as DMC in the legendary hip-hop group, Run-DMC, has had years of hit records, sold out tours and adoration from fans from literally all over the globe. Yet, even with all that he revealed a time in his life where he was ready to end his own life.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Rapper Has Kidney Failure…At Only 37 Years Old! “When I went to therapy I realized something that most men – I don’t care what race, creed, or color you are, but especially black men – I realized that therapy isn’t ‘soft’,” he stated to the media. “My saying is, ‘Therapy is gangsta.’ It actually empowered me. It allowed me to say things that I thought about, but I…

In his new memoir, Ten Ways Not to Commit Suicide, McDaniels explains a period of his life when he was battling depression and how that depression got deeper to where he thought about committing suicide every day.

“I was probably at my suicidal worst in 1997 during a two-weeklong tour in Japan. The only song I listened to then was a soft-pop ballad by Sarah McLachlan called ‘Angel,’” McDaniels writes in an excerpt first published by People.

“I cannot overemphasize how important that song was to me in the midst of my depression. ‘Angel’ kept me serene even when every fiber of my person was screaming for me to lose it [and] made me believe that I could soldier through.”

McDaniels was sober at the time

… would never want to hear myself say those things.”

after struggling with alcohol addiction but found himself at a crossroads in his life. He faced an identity crisis when he lost his voice due to a condition called Spasmodic Dysphonia. The condition, which causes involuntary movements of one or more muscles of the voice box, can ultimately result in the loss of one’s voice. He was also dealing with group con-

flicts after Jam Master Jay was killed.

MUST SEE: Rev Run Reveals Diabetes: “What You Don’t Confront You Can’t Fix” “I thought long and hard about killing myself every day in Japan.

I tricked myself into thinking that my family might be better off without me. I considered jumping

out of a window. I thought about going to a hardware store to buy poison to ingest. I thought about putting a gun to my temple…”

“It would be too simple to say that a song got rid of all my negative feelings. it couldn’t rid me of the wounds. ‘Angel’ was like a life preserver tossed to me during a storm. It didn’t pull me out of the

According to the office of Minority Health, while Black/African Americans are less likely than white people to die from suicide as teenagers, Black/African American teenagers are more likely to attempt suicide than are white teenagers (8.3 percent v. 6.2 percent).

And that stats for adults is not much better. In 2011, 54.3 percent of adult Black/African Americans with a major depressive episode received treatment, compared with 73.1 percent of adult white Americans.

Con’t from page 18

Hillary Clinton Looks to Build African American Base with Top Staffers Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana and Virginia.

Once a key White House aide, Marshall has remained the highestranking African-American staffer on any presidential campaign. He organized for John Kerry in 2004, joined Clinton’s campaign in 2007, and then worked on both of Barack Obama’s campaigns.

The St. Louis native also served as the national field director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee – the first Black person to hold that role.

Marshall joined the White House staff in September 2013.

In a Nov. 2015 CNN profile, several Clinton aides credited Marshall with helping to create a diverse campaign team at the state and upper staff level.

Plugged in staffers have helped Marshall to make sure the campaign is tuned in with what people are talking about.

When, for instance, video surfaced of a Black high school student getting yanked from her chair by a school resource officer in South Carolina, a digital staffer flagged the incident and Marshall coordinated the campaign response.

One of his most important tasks is helping the Clinton campaign navigate a cultural and political terrain that includes a new civil rights movement, viral racial incidents and the waning tenure of the nation’s first Black president.

“I do feel that our message is getting across, especially given that a first-time candidate like [presumptive GOP presidential nominee] Donald Trump is getting so much media attention,” Marshall said. “Trump is temperamentally unfit and he’s divisive. Trump is out for himself and he’s not who Americans want as president of the United States.”

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Both Marshall and Garnett said Clinton believes in developing and maintaining a strong economy for all Americans and working with U.S. allies.

When noting Trump’s slogan of “Making America Great Again,” Marshall said it’s just talk.

“Secretary Clinton believes in working together,” he said.

“Trump has catchphrases, but he’s unfit and he will not succeed.”

Marshall continued: “She’s fighting to bring back jobs and what’s also important to her, obviously with the horrible things that have with the [police

shootings], there’s a huge need for criminal justice reform.”

In part, Clinton wants resources for training police officers. She also has a global view of the future and what needs to be done, he said.

“One reason I’m excited about her is that she gets it,” Marshall said.

It’s also important to recognize that Clinton has previously been elected to office and knows the insand-outs of politics and the needs of American citizens, Garnett said.

Garnett added: “You don’t need someone who doesn’t understand these things.”

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Confidential Secretary/Records Administrator-Fire Department: C.J. Fucci, Inc., CT based construction firm has and immediate opening for a Pipe Foreman/ Laborer. Applicants must have experience installing underground storm, sewer, water piping and structures of all types including Concrete. PVC, Ductile Iron, etc. in the performance of site and road construction. Applicants also must have current OSH 10 certification; P6/P7 license is preferred but not required with equivalent experience. Fax Resumes to 203468-6256 or email vfederico@cjfucci.com. M/ F, EOE, A/A.

The Town of East Haven is currently conducting an examination for the position of Confidential Secretary/Records Administrator-Fire Department. Qualified candidates must possess a High School Diploma or GED and Three (3) years of with progressively responsible clerical work including bookkeeping and public contact or any equivalent combination of experience and training. The starting salary is $46,083 per year. The application is available at www.townofeasthavenct.org/civil-service-commission/pages/ job-notices-and-tests or the Civil Service Office, 250 Main Street, East Haven CT and the deadline to apply is August 9, 2016. The Town of East Haven is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Minorities, Females, Veterans and Handicapped are encouraged to apply.

Laborer with GWTS knowledge. OSHA Certs a +. RED Technologies, LLC, 10 Northwood Dr., Bloomfield, CT 06002; Fax 860.218.2433; Email to info@redtechllc.com. RED Technologies, LLC is an EOE.

FIREFIGHTER Town of Greenwich Applications are being accepted thru 7/21/16 4PM. Candidates must possess a H.S. diploma or G.E.D., valid driver’s license, & be at least 18 years of age & a US Citizen. Candidates must also possess CPAT certification (Candidate Physical Ability Test) issued 1/1/16 or after, or be registered for the fall CPAT with the CT Fire Academy by 7/21/16. For detailed information & to apply online visit www.greenwichct.org/jobs. Town of Greenwich, HR Dept., 101 Field Point Rd, Greenwich, CT EOE M/F/D/V

CT. Unified Deacon’s Association is pleased to offer a Deacon’s

Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125.

Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016 1:303:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S., B.S. (203) 996-4517 Host, General Bishop Elijah Davis, D.D. Pastor of Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster St. New Haven, CT

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INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

NOTICE VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this development located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preapplications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

NOTICIA VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510 .

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All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 highways, near bus stop & shopping center Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258

Old Saybrook, CT (4 Buildings, 17 Units) Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project

CT. Unified Deacon’s Association is pleased to offer a Deacon’s Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125. Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016 1:303:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S., B.S. (203) 996-4517 Host, General Bishop Elijah Davis, D.D. Pastor of Pitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster St. New Haven, CT

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

A pre-bid conference will be held at the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Castin-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection.

This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements.

Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016 Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016 Project documents available via ftp link below: http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 AA/EEO EMPLOYER

Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority Office, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any informalities in the bidding, if such actions are in the best interest of the Housing Authority.

POLICE OFFICER The Wallingford Police Department is seeking qualified applicants for Police Officer. $1137.20 weekly plus an excellent fringe benefit package.

The physical performance, written and oral board exams will be administered by the South Central Criminal Justice Administration. Candidates must register at: www.PoliceApp.com/WallingfordCT. Registration/Application deadline is Friday, August 19, 2016. The registration requires a fee of $85.00. EOE 25

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

From DC to QVC: Risky moves help family recipe go national Engine,” a program that gives small companies access to the Seattle-based powerhouse’s leadership and helps them scale up.

Eric Easter, Contributor Urban News Service.

When Starbucks asked April Richardson to mail its CEO a sample of her cake, she went a step further: She sent herself.

“We aim to be relevant in the communities we serve,” Erin Jane Schaeffer, Starbucks’ communications manager, said of DC Sweet Potato Cake and Project Engine.

“I tried every email variation of ‘Howard Schultz’ and sent him an email,” says Richardson. “One of them worked, and three hours later, I got a return saying ‘We would love to try your product, please ship it.’”

“But we had never shipped a cake before,” says Richardson.

“We went through the whole gamut of possibilities, but nothing felt right. I booked a one-way trip to Seattle and delivered the product myself, and said, ‘I know you’re expecting UPS, but you got me instead.’”

This risky but pivotal move was one of many that rapidly transformed Richardson’s Delectable Cakery and its signature product — the DC Sweet Potato Cake — from an obscure local treat into a product ubiquitous in Starbucks, specialty stores and supermarkets in D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

Richardson’s bold move also landed her business a coveted spot on QVC. The shopping channel features the cake on holidays, with Richardson — an attorney by training — as its pitchwoman.

Unlike the tales of many a lawyer who turned a cooking

DC Sweet Potato Cake – cake Courtesy of DC Sweet Potato Cake.

passion into a business, Richardson does not bake.

Born to a family of 15 and living in a four-bedroom house in a tough West Baltimore neighborhood, her passion was using her legal talent to see that the community businesses with which she grew up survived, especially during the 2007-08 economic downturn.

“I represented everybody during the foreclosure crisis, and it was hard to watch,” Richardson says. “So, I started ghostwhispering to them, offering strategies for turning their businesses around. It was my way of giving back.”

One such business was Delectable Cakery, a small bakery that pinned its hopes on an unusual sweet-potato cake recipe passed down by the founder’s

Richardson’s

mother. Richardson saw the potential, and brought her experience to the table.

“I looked at the books and said, ‘The only way I’m involved is that no matter what I ask you to do, the answer must be yes. I have to make sure your families are fed.’ We spent the first year just making sure old customers were happy. We gave away a whole lot of cake and wrote off a whole lot of invoices,” Richardson says.

“We couldn’t bring on more clients until we got our house in order. Once we did, it was time for us to bring on partners,” Richardson says. That decision led her to approach Starbucks.

“We started with two Starbucks stores — in Capitol Hill and Georgetown. Two weeks later, we were in 11 stores.”

Customers were excited by the

products and because the business is local and woman-owned, according to Richardson. Yet, while Delectable Cakery built its early reputation in the black community, Richardson thinks being a black-owned business is important, but less key to its growth.

“Some products will be offered locally, others will expand, depending on what resonates with our customers. What we do is simple — we put these local food items into 10 or 30 of our stores.

After that it is up to our customers.”

DC Sweet Potato Cake - cake Photo: Courtesy of DC Sweet Potato Cake.

“Some black companies focus so much on the African-American market that we forget that other people want our products as well,” says Richardson. “When we do that, we give up our access to other people and their money.

Richardson will open a retail shop called DC Sweet Potato Cake and Café in late 2016, in the booming Arts District of Hyattsville, Maryland, just across the Washington, D.C. line. She also plans a 20,000-square-foot facility to produce and distribute cakes to some 300 Starbucks outlets as well as Safeway and Wegman’s grocery stores.

“We want people to understand that cake is for everyone. When people taste it they say, ‘This is a great product.’ They don’t say, ‘This is a great product for a black piece of cake.’”

As they organize for more growth, Richardson says her company will keep taking risks and follow one basic guideline: “Don’t tell me no until you taste the cake.”

Delectable Cakery’s success helped inspire Starbucks’ “Project

#MoveYourMoney: Black-Owned Banks See Surge After Police Shootings

by T. R. Causey, BlackDoctor.Org In light of the recent police shootings that have seem to come back to back to back, people want change. Some are taking to the streets in protests, others have organized to protest with their pocketbook.

The #MoveYourMoney movement has African Americans moving their money from traditional

banking institutions to BlackOwned Banks.

and Houston are reporting a surge of new applicants.

The movement has picked up steam and two of Chicago’s Black banks, Illinois Service Federal (ISF) and Seaway National Bank, have reported a spike in new customers. ISF also pledged $1,000 for every new qualifying deposit will go toward small-business loans for the community.

But this is not a new concept for protest. As a matter of fact, Martin Luther King said this in his last speech, “I’ve Been To The Mountain Top,” but many people don’t mention it. Here’s the excerpt:

Black-owned banks across the country in places like Atlanta, Columbus, Georgia, Birmingham

“But not only that, we’ve got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State 26

Bank. We want a “bank-in” movement in Memphis. Go by the savings and loan association. I’m not asking you something that we don’t do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

here in the city of Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an “insurance-in.”

We are telling you to follow what we are doing. Put your money there. You have six or seven black insurance companies

Now, let me say as I move to my conclusion that we’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end.”

Now these are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

I Am My Sister’s Keeper: 5 Ways I Learned To Love Myself By Loving Black Women Below is a story by one of our fans that emailed us. In a simple email titled, “I Just Want To Spread Love”, she shared the story below. Take a look at her amazing truth.

weird, but a lot of women base their opinions about other women solely on what they THINK that other woman is doing or what they see in their mind. So instead of relying on what others said and not even basing my opinion on what I saw on social media, I would actually go up and TALK to the woman and see for myself. It doesn’t matter if they didn’t come and talk to me first, I would go up and talk to them. I would then be able to see that 9 times out of 10, women were more kind, nurturing and loving than I thought.

By Aria Ellise, BlackDoctor.Org “I don’t have any female friends.” That’s what I always used to say when I would talk to people about what I did for fun or who I rolled with. In all honesty, back then I was a 23-year-old who didn’t know any better but at the same time I thought I knew everything.

I quickly became a card-carrying member of “I don’t need no “bleep-bleep” woman” with trust issues group because in my past I have been done dirty by many females. I’ve had a distrust of men from my mother who left my abusive father, only to run to the next guy who was also abusive to me!

She married him too when I was 11 and I couldn’t wait to leave. I had girlfriends I thought I could talk to back then, but that changed.

I had the friend who pulled a disappearing act whenever she got a new man in her life, sort of like my mom. I’ve also had the friend who just wanted to be under me, trying to figure out what I was doing so that she could do it too. And I played “Dr. Phil” to the friend who made me feel more like a therapist than a real friend. I definitely have my flaws and know I wasn’t always been the perfect friend, but I thought I made the effort. At least with guys I knew what they wanted up front for the most part. Girls and women, it seemed like it was all a contest or game, nothing real.

You know how some women say, “all men are the same”? Well, I thought the same thing about women, until I met Rachel.

In my usually quarterly drop-off of “old” clothes I didn’t wear any more at a women’s shelter (I was always buying new things to stay up on these women and give away clothes to the women who I thought were “below” me), I heard what sounded like some screaming in the back. I found out there just so happened to be a guest speaker for the women residents that day, that was Rachel.

When I went to the back just to poke my head in, I saw women hugging each other, laughing, crying and smiling–like genuinely smiling and praying…this was something I never saw before.

Sure, I’ve gone out with women and guys and we were cracking up together over some drinks or laughing at somebody else because we were talking about how busted they looked, but nothing like this.

So then I just asked one person what just happened and she just smiled at me and said, “It’s because learned how to be free.”

FREE? What did she mean, “free?” Something in me had to find out. So I waiting in line while others said their “Thanks you’s” and “goodbye’s” to this woman named Rachel and decided to ask her what she talked about since I missed it and that “free” answer wasn’t much help at all, lol. So when I finally got a chance to speak to her, Rachel said she just simply shared her story.

And what a story it was: she had always been an average student and just skated by in school with C’s and D’s. Smoked weed a lot.

Then decided to take a break from between high school and college and thats where her life changed.

She went from smoking weed to selling it, then to heroin. In and out of jail with the longest stint being 4 years. Then moved on to cocaine and crystal meth and started smoking everything she could get her hands on. Joined a gang and used to have multiple overdose episodes in one year. The last one she said, she could feel herself drifting off to death and she called out saying “If there is a God out there, then show yourself!” She woke up from a drug-induced coma three days

later with a determination in her mind.

But on the fist day she had been accepted into a woman’s shelter herself, Rachel said she saw her and old enemy from a rival gang back in the day. Someone who actually tried to kill her, numerous times, tried to poison her and a bunch of other stuff. But there was something about the ex-gang rival when she saw her. All these emotions came to the surface, but before Rachel could do anything, the first words out of this woman’s mouth was, “Can you please forgive me?”

Forgive her? Hell naw, that wouldn’t happen. Yet, all throughout that day, she’d hear about her old rival being such a blessing to the other women in the house. How she comforted those who had diseases, how she gave up her salary so as to bring more women in, finding jobs for women, speaking to donors and in court on behalf of the women to help turn their lives around.

“Was this the same woman?”

Rachel thought. It couldn’t be. But the more she heard it, the more she knew it was. When she finally got tired of dodging the woman, she confronted her and found out what happened. She said… …the key was forgiveness. She told Rachel she forgave all the hurt she had in her past of her rapists who took away her ability to have children, her so-called friends that pushed her in the wrong direction, 27

her father who wasn’t there, her mother, whose drug dependency nearly got her killed…and on and on and on. She said she had found all her life what she had been looking for: validation. Knowing that God’s love is validation for us all.

And that with her holding on to hate and anger crippled her for so many years. But it was when she tried for a second time to commit suicide that heard God’s voice.

Rachel knew she had to do the same thing and find out about this God’s love. So she goes around sharing her story to all who will listen about how a poor little junkie turned her life around and has a family now, all due to the love of God. It changed me too. Made me think that all this time I was missing out on the abundant life, a life free from hurt, anger and false love and I made it my business to stop looking at women in the same way and start being free.

Here’s how I started. Feel free to use these ways yourself.

1. I only speak positive about women I come in contact with — the more I noticed that if I heard myself say something out loud negative about a woman it would stay with me, so I said I would never do that again. I would always find something nice to say or think.

I need to hear myself say it. The more I hear it, the more I believe it and the more it becomes real.

2. I actually talked and interacted with women – I know this sounds

3. I surrounded myself with great women – They say if you’re afraid to go swimming, the first thing you need to do is jump in the water.

Once I found some great women, I stayed in contact with them, immersed myself around them and shared what I could, but mostly learned from their example. Don’t shy away from the problem, confront it.

4. I was open – So many times, just because we haven’t experienced it, we immediately shut it off in our minds. But there are millions of experiences out there in the world and when women shared with me, I too would share back.

That’s how I began to grow. I didn’t just tell them what I wanted to share, I was open and told them my story. The more I did that, the more I saw that these women were just like me. Maybe different families, but we were all the same deep down. That’s what I needed to see and all the negative stuff started to drop off.

5. I gave it to God – I don’t care who you are, sometimes, people are going to try you, both men AND women. And you can’t fight it by yourself. So I would pray, and still pray now, on things that are out of my control. Asking for God to help change me to be better, not change the other person.

Listen, we’ve all got work to do, Lord knows I do. But I’m 10 years older now, a little bit wiser and just wanted to share my little story with y’all. I found myself by loving other women that I used to harbor such hatred against. I am proud to say freely that I AM my sisters keeper!

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

“Icon Talks”

Celebrates Black Success in Washington, D.C. to celebrate and discuss the success of others in the Black community.

By Victoria Jones A mix of successful entrepreneurs, social activists and actors came together for one night during “Icon Talks,” an evening of empowerment with intimate discussions, insight and performances at the Mead Center for American Theater in Southwest Washington, D.C.

“I think it’s important to celebrate and discuss our success in the African-American community, and I think it’s wonderful to see people celebrating it,” said author Zane.

Jesse Parker, a member of the 100 Black Men of Greater Washington, D.C. said that “Icon Talks” not only celebrates icons in the Black community, but it also shows that African-Americans can be versatile and have different roles outside of what the media portrays.

Honorees included media mogul Cathy Hughes, civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, and actor Omari Hardwick.

The performances and conversations at “Icon Talks” explored paths to success and provided a platform to engage, entertain and inspire.

Four Black men, John Burns, John Hartsfield, Rudyard Hilliard and Mike Burns founded “Icon Talks” on the principal that an icon is someone who inspires others with their talents and manifests their purpose and passion in how they live their life and touch the lives of others.

“Our goal is to empower young men, women and children and to use this platform to support a nonprofit that we have called ‘ICON to ICAN,’” said co-founder Rudyard Hilliard. “The focus is to provide a means for folks to overcome their challenges.”

The ICON to ICAN Foundation

gives disadvantaged and disabled children the chance to meet and spend time with prominent role models and also provides mentorship and empowerment programs for disadvantaged and disabled youth in order to overcome physical, social and economic barriers.

The icon of the moment was Omari Hardwick, an actor known for his roles as Andre in BET Network’s “Being Mary Jane” and James “Ghost” St. Patrick in the Starz hit show “Power.” The previous honoree at “Icon Talks” was Chaka Khan, who spoke in January in San Antonio, Texas.

“We are excited to have a talent of Omari’s caliber to join us for this event,” said co-founder John Burns.

“His story is incredibly amazing and he will definitely impact and inspire the audience.”

also helps to show and celebrate the success of African-Americans in various fields. Hilliard believes “Icon Talks” shows a different side of the Black community that is frequently not shown in the media.

During the ceremony, Hardwick had a one-on-one conversation with John Burns about his experience, inspiration and words of wisdom.

After the conversation, Hardwick performed two original spoken word pieces for the audience, which were met with resounding applause.

“There aren’t many of us doing this. You look around the world, there aren’t many Black people who are on different levels who are doing well,” said Hilliard. “We don’t see that in the media. All we see is crime and poverty. The narrative isn’t there about [Black people] who are succeeding. It’s not newsworthy.”

The founders and some of the attendees believe that “Icon Talks” not only helps to provide insight from various icons, but the event

“This event is important because it salutes a very credible and talented young man. [The 100 Black Men of Greater Washington, DC.] have young people coming in to actually do the presentations,” said Parker. “It brings a level of class and I think that’s important. It demonstrates that we can be in all quarters, not just basketball and football.

We can be cultural things as well.

Everybody knows that, but sometimes it’s just good to show it.”

Victoria Jones is a 2016 NNPA “Discover The Unexpected” (DTU) journalism fellow at The Washington Informer. The DTU journalism fellowship program is sponsored by Chevrolet.

Black author Zane thinks that “Icon Talks” is important in order

“Where are the African American and Latina Mark Zuckerbergs and Sheryl Sandbergs?”

By Hill Harper, NNPA News Wire Guest Columnist The question, which came from a participant in a minority business empowerment seminar, quieted the room. The answer is simple: “They’re out there. But they don’t have a data plan.”

That seems glib. But truth comes best in a simple package. The digital divide is real. Millions of brilliant, creative thinkers are still left behind, because they don’t have affordable access to the Internet. So what can we do to change this paradigm? We can go mobile.

Mobile technology has changed our world. Those of us who are already part of the mobile revolution know this innately: to be without our smartphones is to be isolated.

It’s standing in a field, watching the train flash by. It’s trying to find a book in the dark when others are holding flashlights.

But we’re not done yet – not until we’ve brought that change across the digital divide. We know what it means to be connected. And we know that to fully bring change, we have to bring that connection to the populations who today may not have access. Mobile tools don’t work when you can’t get to them.

This issue matters more than ever because being “unconnected” now means so much more than not having the chance to stream Netflix

or send tweets. It means being unable to access the myriad of business and entrepreneurial opportunities that exist across today’s vibrant technological landscape. It means not having an on-ramp to healthcare and educational information that could transform or save a life. It means being stuck in the 20th century at a time when the 21st century economy is finally kicking into high gear.

Imagine someone who isn’t connected or someone that has a mobile device, but can’t access more online data because they exceeded their monthly allotment. For them, free data could be the key. Free data is an offering that allows you to use more mobile content without having to worry about exceeding your monthly data allotment.

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This leaves more data to use on other things like social media, and gives you the option of switching to a lower cost plan, if you have too much data left over, because the content you love is covered by free data program. It’s expanded opportunity at no cost. If you see that you can watch an unlimited amount of video as part of a plan, then that might just be enough to entice you to cross the digital divide. And once online, you’ll inevitably use your mobile device to explore the web, allowing your device to be the transformative tool that it can be.

Until we get people online, they may not know the resources on which they’ll build. Creators and innovators need access to the Web to connect with others and to ex-

pand their world. Indeed, our embrace of mobile innovations like streaming media and free data can serve as the light we use to illuminate the world around those who remain in the digital dark. Dr. King’s vision of a “world-wide brotherhood” comes from those connections, those ties that grow a fully empowered and engaged community that refuses to let any more opportunities pass us by.

Our vigilance and advocacy will build the momentum we need to close the digital divide once and for all. Join me in this monumental task and be #MobileLikeMe. Hill Harper is an American Film, Television and Stage Actor, and Author.

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

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INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

Goldman Sachs’ “10,000 Small Businesses” Program Spurs Economic Growth and in-person sessions and is intended for business owners located beyond the reasonable driving distance of a locally delivered program.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA News Wire Contributor In 2010, Goldman Sachs launched the “10,000 Small Businesses” program to help business owners unlock their potential for growth and job creation by providing greater access to business education, financial capital and support services.

Six years later, the $500 million initiative continues to empower small business owners – from startups to seasoned companies – with the tools they need to achieve higher levels of success.

In December, NAACP National President and CEO Cornell William Brooks announced that his organization would join the initiative and utilize the NAACP’s network of 2,200 local chapters and state conferences to help inform and recruit small business owners to join the program, which provides intensive specialized business management courses for applicants and opportunities to access capital.

“Small businesses are the lifeblood of every neighborhood and community,” Brooks said in a news release. “Supporting their growth and ability to thrive will only strengthen the communities in which those businesses call home and provide much-needed economic opportunity to the existing and future employees of those businesses.”

In getting the word out about the program to local communities, Moin said they always partner with

local and national entities like the NAACP and the National Urban League, particularly where the membership is primarily AfricanAmerican.

“It’s important to partner with these organizations…they are the community ambassadors,” she said. “I can show up in a market and the small business owners are not going to know me, but they may know someone from the NAACP or the Urban League.”

The program is based on the broadly held view of leading experts that greater access to this combination of education, capital and support services is the best way to address barriers to growth.

“The easiest way to describe the program is that it’s a practical hands-on business education on your business,” said Sonia Moin,

program manager at Boston-based Initiative for a Competitive Inner City – or ICIC, which has partnered with Goldman Sachs on the “10,000 Small Businesses” program. “In the room, the small business owners learn from other business owners who are facing similar challenges including growth opportunities, access to capital and [hiring practices].”

Moin said that the program curriculum, designed by Babson College, one of the top entrepreneurship colleges in the country, enables participants to immediately apply the lessons they’ve learned that day in a real world business environment.

The “10,000 Small Businesses” program is currently operating in Cleveland, Chicago, Dallas,_Detroit, Houston, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, Rhode Island, and Salt Lake City.

Approximately 62 percent of small businesses in the United States have four or fewer employees and the Goldman Sachs initiative offers enormous and largely untapped potential in creating new jobs and generating economic development, according to a recent report titled “The State of Small Business in America” by Babson College.

“We all benefit if we are able to foster a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem that best supports ongoing small business growth and job 30

creation in America,” Babson College President Kerry Healey said in a statement. “Public and private sectors must work together to support small businesses, which comprise 99 percent of all U.S. employer firms and which account for more than half of the private sector’s net new jobs over the past two decades.”

More than 1,800 businesses across the United States were surveyed for the report. Most were “10,000 Small Businesses” participants, who reported that obtaining capital remains a big hurdle.

The study also found that small businesses are four times more likely to go to a bank for capital needs. Looking across all sources of capital, survey respondents apply for a median amount of $100,000, but receive only 40 percent of what they seek. Business owners say that they need more flexible loan terms.

Further, business owners find regulation both difficult and timeconsuming. On average, four hours per week is spent dealing with government regulations and tax compliance, which totals over 200 hours per year.

With the launch of_”10,000 Small Businesses”_at Babson College, which is the program’s national cohort, business owners from all 50 states now have the opportunity to participate, Moin said.

This model of the program is delivered through a blend of online

“The program helps to address the challenges faced by all small business owners, and our goal and the goal of all of our partners is to make them aware this resource exists and the impact it can have on their business,” Moin said.

“Many small business owners say they don’t have the time to dedicate to a program such as this, but we try to convince them why the return on investment is important, if they want their business to grow.

It’s important to step away from the business in order to work on the business.”

To date, over 6,500 small businesses have been served across 31 sites. More than 99 percent of participants graduate and more than half of the businesses reported increased revenues and expanded work forces within 18 months of graduation.

Ideal candidates are small business owners with more than $150,000 in revenue and have been in operation for at least two years.

Qualifying businesses also must demonstrate that they employ four or more workers and have a scalable business model and a commitment to grow and hire locally.

The initiative has a wealth of success stories with Moin pointing out how one of the small business owners who graduated from the program saw her revenue increase by 658 percent, enabling her business to add 110 new jobs.

Another small business owner who recently graduated from the program saw a 120 percent increase in revenue, helping to add 17 new jobs.

“We’re getting the results we want,” Moin said. “On average, when our alumni graduate, in six months, approximately 69 percent of them report growing revenue and 48 percent of them report that they’ve added jobs.”

For more information or to apply for the program, visit www.10KSBApply.com.

INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

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INNER-CITY NEWS July 27, 2016 - August 02, 2016

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