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In Charter School Fight, Urban League and National Action Network Ask NAACP: “Did You See the Numbers?” By Tanu Henry | California Black Media
Black civil rights groups in California are knuckled up in a battle of principles as the state Assembly and Senate prepare to vote on a set of three charter school bills this week. The state chapters of the National Urban League (NUL) and the National Action Network (NAN) have teamed up to oppose the bills. They say the proposals amount to a “step backward” for African-American charter school parents and their children. While the California chapter of the NAACP has publicly expressed its support for all three pieces of legislation; two of them in the Assembly - AB 1505 and AB 1506 - and one in the Senate, SB 756. Members of the California chapter of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, came to the State Capitol Monday to lobby the legislature on several issues, including the charter school bills. If passed, the laws would put a moratorium on authorizing any new charter schools in the state for the next five years. Critics of the law say they would also significantly restrict the operations
The San Diego Monitor and roll back some legal rights the taxpayer-funded independent public schools currently have. “I ask my friends at the NAACP, ‘did you see the numbers?’” Dr. Tecoy Porter, president of the Sacramento chapter of the NAN, told California Black Media. For both the NUL and the NAN, they say, their difference of opinion with the NAACP boils down to one fact: Black students across California are failing in the state’s district public schools at rates that should cause national concern. Advocates say many of the schools on the frontline that have begun to help Black students improve their literacy, score higher on state standardized tests, and prepare for college and jobs, are charter schools. “African-American children are not doing well in California public schools. There is a severe and persistent Black achievement gap throughout the state of California in both English Language arts and math,” the NAN and the NUL wrote in an open letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, which the organizations shared with California Black Media. “Seven out of eight African-American public school students are enrolled in district run schools,” the letter to the governor continued. “Many African-American parents respond to this failure by choosing to send their kids to public charter schools.” Continued on page 4
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The San Diego Monitor
THE MEDIA BLACK MILLENNIALS MILLENNIALS, STARTUP THAT’S FOR BLACK RUN BY
THE MEDIA STARTUP THAT’S RUN BY BLACK MILLENNIALS, FOR BLACK MILLENNIALS In 2017 Blavity, the media and events startup focused on black millennials and black culture, has acquired travel startup Travel Noire for an undisclosed amount. Travel Noire, which offers up traveling tips and guidance for black millennials, reaches over 2 million millennials a month. Next month, I’m heading to Nairobi with some TechCrunch colleagues. Thanks to Travel Noire, I now know to hit up the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an elephant orphanage located inside Nairobi National Park.
Millennial Travel of African Americans •
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Travel Noire marks Blavity’s second acquisition of year. A few months ago, Blavity bought media platform Shadow and Act. As part of the acquisition, Travel Noire founder Zim Ugochukwu is joining Blavity and will continue to lead TravelNoire as its chief brand officer. “Travel and culture are a huge part of the black millennial experience and an important part of how we interact with the world,” Blavity cofounder and CEO Morgan DeBaun said in a statement. “Zim has shifted the conversation about travel and showed the world that we can and should be represented wherever we are. I’m thrilled to add her vision and expertise into the Blavity ecosystem.”
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The economic value of African American travelers has increased in 2018 to $63 billion from $48 billion in 2010. African American “cultural” travelers are the highest spenders, with an average per trip spend of $2,078 versus $1,345 for all African American travelers. More than half reported that their most recent leisure destination was between 100500 miles from home with Florida, New York City/New York, and Atlanta being top US destinations and Caribbean/Bahamas (38%) and Mexico (26%) mentioned as leading international destinations Food and shopping are leading spend categories with nearly half of travelers spending on local and/or regional cuisine on their most recent leisure trip. Shopping continues to be a popular activity for vacationers, most often at malls (41%) and outlet malls (34%), but also downtown (28%).
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The San Diego Monitor
Study Proves Black Millennials to Travel, are Looking for Companies That Love Understand Them
And these travelers are active — 94
We know that black millennials love to travel.
percent have taken a personal trip in the
Look around at your friends and family and count
past two years, while 76 percent have
the amazing trips they've taken recently. But new
traveled in the past six months. But they
research from DigitasLBi, shows that more than
would travel even more and spend more
70 percent of black millennial travelers (black
money doing so if marketing and
people between the ages of 20-36 who consider
experiences were more targeted toward
travel a priority and who are involved in booking
their identity. And these feelings aren't
their own travel) would pay more to travel with a
just superficial. Almost a quarter of black
brand that understands them and their identity.
millennial travelers polled said they have experienced racial discrimination while
Black millennial travelers make up a pretty large
booking travel, and almost 30 percent
segment of the travel industry. There are nearly 5
have experienced discrimination in the
million black millennial travelers in the U.S. alone
past two years during travel.
— which is approximately 43 percent of the U.S. So, it's time for companies to step up to the plate and give black millennial travelers what they want — safe, inclusive travel with relevant messaging and a strong community. “Black millennial travelers are a significant and
influential segment of the travel industry, who for some time have been underserved," Ronnie Dickerson, VP/Group Blacksays millennials want to feel safe as it Director at DigitasLBi,relates "For the several years, we’ve while tolast their race and ethnicity witnessed the emergence and growth black: NEXT PAGE traveling, and it'sofsomething that heavily weighs in on where to go and who to go with when they're booking their trips. Being somewhere that's accepting of their identity is important to them.
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The San Diego Monitor
How the Founder of Media Giant Blavity Hustles Smart Morgan DeBaun is no stranger to brand building. In 2014, she left her full-time job at Intuit to launch Blavity, a media company for black millennials, and has since acquired Shadow and Act and Travel Noire—on top of launching 21Ninety, a lifestyle brand for women of color, AfroTech, a conference and site for black entrepreneurs, and M. Roze, a skincare line. So yeah—she’s kind of a total boss. That’s why we’re thrilled to have Morgan joining our Mastercard Women’s Business Advisory Council. Throughout the year, members of the council will be popping up at events and online with advice on how to get your small business off the ground—stay tuned to learn more!
What are the common challenges you've seen among female business owners and entrepreneurs?
Being able to get into the room. There are still a lot of closed doors when it comes to women entrepreneurs, whether it be to pitch, or securing funding, it’s still very much a boys club. Hopefully, that will change in the near future with the number of women business owners and entrepreneurs consistently growing. What was the turning point that convinced you, “It's time to take matters into my own hands? The world needs Blavity.” It was after the death of Mike Brown. Almost every media source painted this kid out to be a monster, all while his body still laid in the middle of the street. Too often we see the narrative around people of color go from bad to worse in the media before real facts have been presented. Blavity was created to change that. READ ENTIRE INTERVIEW ON WWW.SDMONITORNEWS.COM
TRAVEL: travel communities who have effectively reshaped the image of black millennial travel and travelers alike. The impact of black millennials, through buying power and social currency, in an industry rapidly being reshaped by tech disruption and changing travel behaviors, cannot be understated. According to Dickerson, the travel industry as a whole has an opportunity to learn, focus, align and help fuel positive travel experiences for black millennials. This research helps add evidence to this opportunity for these consumers. When is
the last time you took a trip?
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The San Diego Monitor
Rev. Shane Harris on the People’s Alliance and Being a Leader NOW ON
The San Diego Monitor
The hidden “black tax” that some professionals of color struggle with Many black professionals feel pressure to share their income with struggling family members, making it difficult for them to build generational wealth. There are plenty of obstacles for professionals and entrepreneurs of color: a wage gap, a funding gap, and plenty of discrimination. But for many there’s also an unspoken challenge while trying to build their companies, their career, or their wealth. A common phenomenon that some refer to as the “black tax”–money they give to family members each month. When Sheena Allen, founder, and CEO of tech companies CAPWAY and Phocal expressed the stress of “black tax” in a viral tweet recently, she started a conversation of what “black tax” looks like for black founders and professionals. “I feel like it was the elephant in the room, and nobody
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talked about it for some reason. Look, we all are in the struggle of the journey, but the reality of it is we don’t have this same advantage and opportunity of quickly building generational wealth,” Allen said. She grew up with a rule that is common in many black homes: to keep your family’s struggles private. If there was no food to eat or if the lights were cut off, no one else would know about it outside of your household. This cultural rule prevents many black founders and tech professionals from sharing their experiences with money. WeUnifyTech founder Thomas K. R. Stovall agrees that no one talks about the effect of what he calls the “reverse friendsand-family funnel.” “I believe that the numbers of folks in my network who are dealing with this privately are much higher than we realize. Many who are, are not willing to discuss it publicly, for fear of embarrassing their [family],” he says. Of course, because it’s an issue that’s so often kept secret, there are no numbers on how many black professionals give a portion of their income on a regular basis to family members. But considering that the median net worth of white families in the U.S. remains nearly 10 times the size of African Americans, and that nearly 1 in 5 black families have zero or negative net worth, the number is likely significant. Read More www.sdmonitornews.com
