Commentary Thursday, March 10, 2011 • The Weekly Press • Page 4
The Way I See It
The Crime of Murder in Baton Rouge My conclusion is that just like we took If you are a conto the streets during cerned citizen of the the 60’s I feel that it is city of Baton Rouge; a must that we go back you have to be conto the streets today. cerned about all of the The major difference senseless murders that would be that of stopare taking place. In my ping and knocking on wildest dreams, I have every door talking with not envisioned such as people as we go. Of William happening during these course some will turn Jones times. Just last year 2010 us away; but as Jesus we had over 100 lives told His Disciples. taken away by heinous means. There will be those that do not The Sunday Advocate showed receive you - shake the dust from two pages of snap shots of victims your feet and continue on. that departed from life on earth by Now comes my proposal: violent means. One has to wonder Our honorable Mayor Melvin when will it stop. “Kip” Holden declare a day of The first question is why this “Stop The Violence.” All over is happening? the city neighborhoods walk the The second question is what streets and plead to the people can we do as individuals do about both black and white to help. I it? must say we have to carry the The third question is what word of Jesus with us. If we are can groups do about it? to succeed we must carry Jesus The fourth question is what along with us. Jesus is the ancan a given community do about swer. it? That is the way I see It. By William Jones
African-Americans Continue to Suffer Impacts of The Economic Recession (BLACK PR WIRE) A new analysis by Bread for the World Institute shows that AfricanAmericans continue to suffer disproportionately from hunger, poverty, unemployment, and income and education disparities when compared to the total U.S. population. “The economic recession has left African-Americans struggling in the past couple of years,” said Rev. Derrick Boykin, northeast regional organizer for Bread for the World. “But the truth is, African-Americans had been suffering from ‘recessionlike’ conditions long before the recession hit the rest of the country.” According to the analysis, “Hunger by the Numbers in the African-American Community,” the African-American poverty rate reached 25.8 percent in 2009 (the latest full year for which data is available)—far exceeding the overall national poverty rate of 14.3 percent. In each of the 10 states with the highest poverty rates, the African-American poverty rate was significantly higher than the overall poverty rate. Hunger and poverty are closely linked. One in four African-American households is struggling to put food on the table, compared to about one in seven of all U.S. households. These numbers would have been even higher if not for safety net programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) and the Special Supple-
mental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which helped keep food insecurity rates closer to their 2008 levels. “So many more people would have gone hungry last year if not for safety net programs that helped them make ends meet,” said Boykin. “It is both unfortunate and alarming that the very programs which support our most vulnerable people are the ones on the chopping block in congressional budget discussions.” Although African-Americans are about 12.4 percent of the U.S. population, they make up about 19.6 percent of WIC participants and 22.5 percent of SNAP participants. In fact, 90 percent of African-American children will receive SNAP benefits at some point before age 20, compared to 49 percent of all U.S. children. Despite these startling figures, anti-hunger and anti-poverty programs are a modest portion of the U.S. federal budget (14 percent last year). The analysis also examines economic factors contributing to the disparities between African-Americans and the U.S. population as a whole. “Hunger by the Numbers among African-Americans” is available online at www.bread. org. Bread for the World (www. bread.org) is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad.
Stop the Lies about the Financial Meltdown Marc H. Morial NNPA Columnist “I pledge…Every American lives in safe, decent, affordable, and energy efficient housing on fair terms.” One of the National Urban League’s four I AM EMPOWERED goals. No, President Obama was not born in Kenya. Superman is not real. And, there is no Monkey-man roaming the streets of Hoboken scaring the daylights out of little children. Some urban myths are nutty. Some are funny. But some, like the one about mortgage loans in low and middle income urban neighborhoods being the cause of the financial meltdown can be downright dangerous. Since this assertion was first made several years ago, the Na-
tional Urban League has called it for what it is – a weapon of mass deception, shifting blame for the economic crisis from Wall Street where it rightfully belongs onto the backs of hard working African American and Hispanic homeowners, who for decades were routinely refused home loans and a fair shot at the American Dream. Leading economists have agreed with us, including Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke; FDIC chairman, Sheila Bair; and Nobel Prize columnist, Paul Krugman. And now, a new study by the congressionally established Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission conclusively states that the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), established in 1977 to prevent redlining and spur homSee meltdown, on page 7
A Coach and his Player win the Game of Life By George E. Curry NNPA Columnist It is a story that reaffirms one’s faith in humans. The Associated Press headline last month read: “Coach Donates Kidney to Player.” It didn’t take long to learn that Tom Walter, the baseball coach at Wake Forest University, had donated one of his kidneys to Kevin Jordan, a freshman outfielder who had never suited up for the team. The story of the White Coach donating a kidney to a Black athlete from Columbus, Georgia transcends sports; it supersedes the strong bond that unites a coach with his players. It is not a commentary on BlackWhite relationships. Rather, it is a story of two courageous people whose commitments to each other went beyond offering or accepting an athletic scholarship. Kevin Jordan, now 19, was one of the nation’s top baseball prospects as a student at Northside-Columbus High in Georgia . He had made the all-city team and was so good that the New York Yankees drafted him. But, Jordan signed a letter of intent to attend Wake Forest and unlike many young athletes tempted by money, he planned to keep his commitment. “Kevin is one of the most highly touted players in the country,” Coach Walter said at the time. “He possesses gamechanging speed … plus power. He is the kind of offensive talent that opposing coaches have to
manage around. He was determined to will be an impact keep it. player from the moKeith Jordan, the ment he sets foot on star athlete’s father, told campus.” CBS’ College Sports During Jordan’s Network: “The thing senior year in high he told us, because as school, before he parents we’re always would have an optrying to look out for portunity to set foot his best interests, and George on the campus of (his) mother is always E. Curry Wake Forest Univertrying to make sure ‘Is sity , he noticed that this what you want to he had begun to tire easily. It do?’ His focus was, ‘I want to was the winter of 2009 and his live as normal a life as I can. I’ve reflexes were noticeably slower. committed to the school and I At first, everyone thought he want to do whatever I can to live had the flu. By last April, the up to that commitment.” 6’1,” 185-pounder had lost 30 Last August, Jordan enpounds. rolled in Wake Forest . Two days Doctors in Columbus, Geor- before classes, Jordan, his family, gia sent him to Emory Univer- Coach Walter, and the team’s sity Hospital , in Atlanta , for athletic trainer visited Dr. Barry additional tests. It was deter- Freeman at Wake Forest Univermined that Jordan was suffering sity Baptist Medical Center in from something far more seri- Winston-Salem, N.C. ous than flu. He was diagnosed “We had been commuwith ANCA vasculitis, which nicating with the Jordans last occurs when one’s immune sys- spring and through the sumtem begins attacking the healthy mer,” Walter told CBS. “But cells in the body. In this case, I had no idea of the extent of the ANCAs (Anti-Neutrophil Kevin’s condition until that Cytoplasmic Autoantibodies) doctor’s appointment…That’s were attacking the walls of the when the reality, the gravity of small blood cells in Jordan ’s the situation hit me.” kidneys. The swelling caused Dr. Freeman reported that blood and protein to leak into Jordan ’s kidney function had his urine, which in turn caused dropped to only 8 percent of cathe kidneys to operate at about pacity. Before long, the decision 15 to 20 percent of capacity. was made to increase dialysis After starting with 35 pills a from three times a week to every day in the spring, several months day. Rather than travel to the later he was on dialysis three dialysis center every day, Jortimes a week. dan and Jeff Strahm, the baseball But, Jordan had given his trainer, were taught how to selfword to Coach Walter and he administer the dialysis.
Jordan would attend classes each day and at 11 p.m., he would hook up his dialysis machine and stay connected until 8 a.m. the next day. He never missed a class. Three and a half months later, Jordan was told that he needed a kidney transplant. Under normal circumstances, Jordan ’s name would be placed on a waiting list and there are never enough donors to meet the need. According to the United Network of Organ Sharing, there are more than 80,000 people awaiting a kidney transplant. In 2009, there were only 10,442 donors (For more information, check out the National Kidney Foundation at www.kidney.org). Blacks made up 12 percent of the U.S. population, but only three percent of organ donors. According to the National Kidney Foundation, AfricanAmericans constitute about 29 percent of all patients treated for kidney failure in the U.S. Jordan ’s mother and brother were tested as possible kidney donors but neither was a match. Jordan ’s father was excluded because of high blood pressure. After relatives were unable to donate a kidney, that’s when Coach Walter stepped up to the plate. He underwent compatibility tests last December in Winston-Salem and a month later at Emory. At 8 a.m., Monday, February 7, Walter was wheeled See life, on page 7
Black Unemployment Remains Too High By Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Jr. NNPA Columnist Even though the unemployment rate in the United States is finally beginning to inch downward, the painful truth is that African American unemployment continues to remain at a crisis level. While the overall economic forecast appears to be improving each month for the last year, the official national unemployment for the first time in more than two years is at 8.9 percent. There are more than 13.7 million unemployed persons in the United States, as of this month. But, Black American unemployment persists in double digits above 15.3 percent. For teenagers in our communities, the unemployment rate is more than 40 percent. All labor surveys show that African Americans have the highest rate of unemployment of all groups surveyed. These unemployment percentages indicate a dire socioeconomic condition for the African American community in 2011. President Barack Obama stated, “Our top priority right
now has to be creating of African American new jobs and opportuowned businesses is nities in a fiercely comanother key factor in petitive world. And creating new jobs and this week, we received economic sustainabilvery good news on that ity for the African front. We learned that American community. the unemployment rate Private jobs are now has fallen to its lowest showing the greatest level in nearly two years increase in the overBenjamin as our economy added all national employF. Chavis another 222,000 private ment rate. Simply sector jobs last month.” put, we need more We agree with the stated priori- Black American entrepreneurs ties of President Obama. The and we need more businesses challenge, however, for the to be established and owned by African American community Black Americans so that they can is to increase meaningful and contribute directly to the increase productive job creation for Afri- in providing more employment can Americans and others ahead opportunities for African Ameriof the current pace of increased cans and others. employment because of the disThere is a direct relationproportionate high unemploy- ship between the entrenched ment in our community. Black American poverty rates Understanding the magni- and the persistent Black Ameritude of the problem is important. can unemployment rates. But, But just restating the devastating these two social indicators are impact of high unemployment also directly related to the issue is not going to produce the solu- of education, particularly to the tions that we need. Improving issue of a high quality educathe quality of education in the tion for Black American children. African American community Children in our communities are is an important factor to help three times likely to be poor as increase employment opportuni- White children according to the ties. Increasing the establishment 2010 U.S. Census Report. More
than 40 percent of African American children are born in poverty. Economically impoverished children given an inadequate education is a formula not only for acute unemployment, but it is also a recipe for prolonged social misery, unjust imprisonment and intractable poverty. I salute the continued efforts and leadership of Marion Wright Edelman and the Children’s Defense Fund to call renewed national attention to the systemic problems and challenges concerning African American and other children. Edelman emphasized, “We need to revive a policy voice for children. The cradle-to-prison pipeline - breaking it up is going to be the overall framework from which we move forward.” Over the years the Children’s Defense Fund has led the way in identifying programs and projects that work in the interests of the proper development of our children, in addition to articulating the public policy interests of all children in America. Today, with the economic challenges of the nation and calls for severe budget See too high, on page 7
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