Garland
ume X- Issue 243 August 1-15, 2012
JOURNAL
Published 1st & 15th Each Month
MY TRUTH By Cheryl Smith
Who are you, really? A friend was really distraught rePublisher
cently because after years of working for a major corporation in a position of community engagement and marketing; he is no longer employed. Now his frustration is not because he is unemployed, instead, it is because he is not receiving the attention, recognition, honors and sometimes celebrity adulation that he has received for years representing XYZ company. Finally he realizes, it wasn’t about him! This brings me to my truth! If you are who you are because of who you work for, who you are married to or a position you hold, then one day; you could be disappointed, too. Unfortunately status is something that appears even easier to lose if it is tied to another. Status is like happiness.
Oh say can YOU see? You have fumbled an opportunity to intercept a lie and use your privilege to score for justice. As a lifelong fan of the Dallas Cowboys, who once enjoyed season tickets, it’s heartbreaking that you have taken a stand on the wrong sideline of history. As training camp opened you used your mighty microphone to passionately pronounce that there is no room on the Dallas Cowboys for the right to protest for right during the national anthem. Your “MASSA Complex� has shown your boys where the “gun line� (check out the movie “Life�) is! And they had better not cross it! Your quarterback, who went to school in the same state where Emmett Till was lynched, Fannie Lou Hamer was brutally beaten by police, Medgar Evers was assassinated; and remains a place of wicked white supremacy, vicious police misconduct, and a justice system that is criminal, knows his place and has echoed your senti-
Last month, I had the pleasure of engaging with 125 boys ages 12 to 16. These budding, rambunctious young men
merged on the campus of Paul Quinn College (Dallas, Texas) to participate in “Kappa Kamp� which Cheryl Brown
What makes you happy? Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr. said, “I like to cook, travel and dream. I’m a writer. I’m happy.� Have you discovered what makes you happy? Can you be happy alone? Is being happy tied to someone else, a position, or material things? I like saying that I am “like a room without a roof. I’m happy.� And sometimes I struggle to keep others from stealing my joy. Years ago I heard the aforementioned author speaking about being alone. The place she described was so soothing to me. Maybe because I have always loved the writings of the phenomenal Nikki Giovanni, or simply because her words made so much sense. So often we are on the go that we don’t take that time to be alone with our thoughts, to hear our hearts beat or the sound we make when we inhale and exhale. See MY TRUTH, page 6
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An open letter to Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones
By Dr. Felicia Shepherd La’Wonda Peoples
Phalconstar.com Garland, Texas
Free - Take O
!VAILABLE AT .EWSSTANDS IN
ment and committed a terrible turnover for freedom.
ally take a stand for what the flag symbolizes, “liberty and
Dr. Frederick Douglass Haynes, III Oh say, did he see white Mississippi police officer Daniel Starks tasing a handcuffed Black man for no reason? I held out hope that given your track record as a game-changing maverick and successful businessman that you would use your privileged platform to actu-
justice for all.� You have been fiercely independent as an NFL owner but you allowed 46-1 to punk you and the NFL while he was pledging allegiance to Vladimir Putin and Russia. Oh say can you see? Your friend in the White House has emboldened racists, put
a white supremacist (whose policies reinforce the racial injustice Colin Kaepernick was taking a knee for) over the justice department and signaled to police that brutality is ok. I guess that’s why you reaffirmed your partnership with Papa John’s Pizza while saying nothing to denounce the ugly bigotry dripping from the lips of the former owner? Colin Kaepernick took a knee during his last season as a quarterback for the 49ers because he was sick and tired of Black sisters and brothers dying, mothers crying and police departments lying. In the tradition of Paul Robeson, Althea Gibson, Wilma Rudolph, Muhammad Ali, John Carlos and Tommie Smith, Curt Flood, Serena Williams, LeBron James and others; he used his platform to raise consciousness and speak truth to power on behalf of the powerless who have no platform. Oh say can you see? As owner of America’s
team that is comprised of almost 80% African Americans did you know that “This is America� for them: Police violence and homicide persistently and disproportionately terrorize Black communities. A new study reveals the proportion of black bodies in America killed by police is significantly higher than previous research suggested. Across the country, Black men are over three times more likely to be killed by police than white men, according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health. In an analysis of all male homicides between 2012 and 2018, 8 percent occurred at the hands of police, who serve and protect YOU, researchers found. Of nearly 6,300 reported deaths during the six-year count, almost 1,800 were black. “This is America.� Oh say can you see, Jerry? Police killings are highest among Black men across the United States. Lead author Frank Ed-
ically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and three Predominately White Institutions (PWIs) in attendance. Recruiters, typically alumni of the institutions,
and oftentimes would not have access to a college fair. Because of Kappa Kamp, they had the opportunity to engage with colleges and learn about the various majors to possibly pursue. Going back to the business plan. The teams created a plan to market their product. They researched, wrote, organized, and designed the ultimate business plan. Now it was time to put it into action. The business plan pitch competition is the platform where each team’s product is revealed and explained in front of judges. The goal for every team is to have the extrinsic reward of winning the business pitch competition and prize. They argued, debated, compromised, and finally agreed in order
See Dr. Haynes, page 3
Can our boys be saved?
is sponsored through the Guideright Foundation of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc.. This is not your typical camp where all the boys do all day is run and play.
During the two weeks they are on campus, they are learning how to create business plans and then
create a business pitch based off their team’s business plan. Yes, team. The boys are grouped into team names associated with Kappa Alpha Psi (i.e. Team Indiana, Yo, Krimson, Kreme, etc). In addition to learning how to be entrepreneurs, Kappa Kamp dives into the world of STEM. Kampers went on field trips to Microsoft, Siemens Corporation, and Toyota, to name a few, to learn more about science and technology. We cannot forget culture. The boys experienced going to various museums in the Dallas/Fort Worth area along with hearing musical performances of the Dallas Symphony. There was an on-site college fair, with 17 Histor-
poured knowledge of their beloved alma maters into these young men. Kampers come from many cities across the United States
See OUR BOYS, page 7
The Black Press challenges Fake News at Annual Conference By Lauren Poteat NNPA Newswire Washington Corresponden
As Donald Trump’s persistent “fake news� rhetoric continues to fester in the media, Black publishers across the nation, recently took charge of the conversation, giving way to a special forum entitled “Black Press vs. Fake News.� The forum took place during the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s (NNPA) annual convention. Dorothy Leavell, the chairman of NNPA and publisher of the Chicago Crusader, the Gary Crusad-
er and the Chicago Reader, moderated the dialogue about misinformation in mainstream media. “What do we do in this age of fake news?� Leavell said. “Our struggles and our truths have been at the forefront of battling fake news throughout history.�
Leavell continued: “In 1827, we battled the lie that we were nothing more than three-fifths of a human, spearheaded by the Freedom’s Journal, the nation’s first Black-owned and operated newspaper, which stepped in and showed us different. In
1895, activist Ida B. Wells, who established the ‘Memphis Free Speech’ refuted the fake news of her day— concerning the mythical rape of a White woman.� Leavell said that, throughout history, Black people have been victimized by the proliferation of fake news and misinformation, including some of our most profound Black leaders like Marcus Garvey, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., leaders of the Black Panther Party and even today’s Black Lives Matter. “All these obstacles are nothing new to us,� Leavell
said. “So, while Donald Trump has been credited for popularizing the term ‘fake news,’ we know this, too, is ‘fake news.’� Joining in on the dialogue, additional speakers included Sarah Glover, the president of the National Association of Black Journalists; Deborah Gray-Young, the managing partner of D. Gray-Young, Inc. Consulting; Dr. Julianne Malveaux, an economist and sociopolitical commentator; and A. Scott Bolden, the managing partner of the Washington, D.C., office of the globSee Black Press, page 7