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D.C. HEALTH DEPARTMENT GIVES GUIDE ON WEST NILE VIRUS 4
The life of Civil Rights icon Julian Bond is remembered Page 2 August 27 - September 2, 2015
Newsman Vance to lead Lasting Legacy Summit Page 11 www.districtchronicles.com
Volume 15 Issue 1
Bruce Cummings/US Navy
6
Editorial
Julian Bond: a dedicated life of service By George E. Curry NNPA Columnist
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2 | Aug. 27 - Sep. 2, 2015 | District Chronicles
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orace Julian Bond was born Jan. 14, 1940 in Nashville, Tennessee, into a family of privilege. His father, Horace Mann Bond, was a noted educator who served as president of Fort Valley State University in Georgia, where such notables as W.E.B. DuBois and Paul Robeson were frequent guests. During their formative years, most Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), established during the Reconstruction Era to provide higher education for formerly enslaved African Americans, were headed by Whites. Bond’s father was the first Black president of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, his alma mater. His mother, Julia, was a librarian. Young Julian was sent off to George School, a private Quaker boarding school near Philadelphia, and later enrolled in Morehouse College. At Morehouse, Bond chose a life of activism that would become the hallmark of his life. This is significant because many Blacks born into a life of privilege distanced themselves from the nascent Civil Rights Movement. I remember how incensed I became when Condoleezza Rice boasted in a Washington Post interview that “My parents were very strategic. I was going to be so well prepared, and I was going to do all of these things that were revered in White society so well, that I would be armored somehow from racism …” And it got worse, as I noted in a column on Rice. Referring to Rev. John W. Rice, Jr., she said, “My father was not a march-in-the-street preacher. He saw no reason to put children at risk. He would never put his own child at risk.” Bond’s father, who had more blue blood credentials than the Rev. Rice, obviously instilled a different set of values in him. Bond dropped out of Morehouse College to join the Civil Rights Movement, first as co-
Icon of civil rights movement is dead, but his legacy lives on.
founder of the Atlanta Student Movement that organized local sit-ins on the heels of the 1960 lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina. He was also a co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). It was in his capacity as communications director of SNCC that I first met Julian Bond during the summer of 1966, after I had completed my freshman year of college. I spent that summer as a volunteer in the Atlanta headquarters, watching him interact with the media and carefully polishing SNCC’s national image. He also wrote poetry. I don’t remember many of his poems, but I still recall part of one we recited all summer: Look at that girl shake that thing, We can’t all be Martin Luther King. Don’t ask me why I remember that nearly 50 years later. The incident that catapulted Bond to international fame was his opposition to the Vietnam War. The Rev. King did not publicly turn against the Vietnam War until his speech at Riverside Church in New York on April 4, 1967, exactly a year before his assassination. In 1965, Julian was elected to the Georgia House of
Representatives. Shortly before he was scheduled to take office, he endorsed a statement by SNCC opposing the Vietnam War. The Georgia House accused Bond of treason and refused to seat him. A federal appeals court upheld the decision. But on Dec. 5, 1966, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld his right to free speech or ordered Georgia to seat him. Bond spent two decades in the state House and Senate. Perhaps his lowest point came when Bond and former SNCC chairman John Lewis competed for the same Congressional seat in Georgia. Bond’s estranged wife charged – and later recanted – that Julian was a habitual user of cocaine. Lewis challenged him to a urine test. Julian replied he would agree on one condition – that Lewis hold the cup. There was no drug test and Lewis went on to defeat Bond and remains in office today. In one of at least four tweets Lewis sent after Bond’s death, he said, “We went through a difficult period during our campaign for Congress in 1986, but many years ago we emerged even closer.” George E. Curry is editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service (NNPA) and BlackPressUSA.com.
Consumer Protection in auto financing under attack. By Charlene Crowell NNPA Columnist
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ABC News
When it comes to public policy, most citizens tend to think in terms of what government can accomplish on their behalf. Multiple civil rights laws and the Americans with Disabilities Act are but a few such examples. There is also another side to public policy reforms: attempts to rollback or take away regulations that are often favored by industry and championed on Capitol Hill by paid lobbyists. Just last week, a U.S. House committee moved a bill that will stop the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from taking action against discriminatory practices in auto lending. This legislative development is an example of how Washington often responds to industry and its lobbyists. The proposed rollback in consumer protection in auto financing has the support of more than 170 Members of Congress, including a number of Democrats. H.R. 1737, co-sponsored by House Members Frank Guinta (R-N.H.) and Ed Perlmutter (D-Colorado), recently passed in the House Financial Services Committee. So what does this legislation do? H.R. 1737 would require the CFPB to drop guidance it issued in 2013 that called for auto lenders to comply with anti-discrimination laws. The bill would also require the Bureau to gather public comment before issuing any other guidance related to auto lending. Supporters say it is simply about proper process. No – it is not. The bill would condone discrimination in auto lending. All of its supporters should be ashamed. The 2013 CFPB guidance took direct aim at a specific practice in auto lending. Auto dealers get bonuses from lenders for selling consumers a higher interest rate than that for which they qualify. These bonuses add up to billions of dollars in added dealer compensation. On top of these lucrative deals, this practice is completely hidden from consumers.
Finance
Congress moves bill that condones lending discrimination
Research by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) found that consumers who took out loans in 2009 paid $25.8 billion in more interest over the lives of their loans – all because of dealer interest rate markups. For the past two decades, this lending practice has resulted in a series of lawsuits and more recent enforcement actions that all alleged discrimination resulting from this practice. The data from these lawsuits and related enforcement actions consistently show that borrowers of color pay higher interest rates than White borrowers, solely because of this dealer kickback. Recent CFPB enforcement actions total more than $176 million in fines and restitution to consumers. By utilizing the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), CFPB has taken steps that no regulator to date has taken to end discrimination in auto lending. Fortunately, just as a coalition of interests pushed for and won passage of reforms that created CFPB, several consumer and civil rights groups are now simultaneously pursuing preservation of the Bureau’s pro-consumer actions. A late July letter sent to the entire 435-member House of Representatives on behalf of the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza. Americans for Financial Reform, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and other organizations, reminded lawmakers of the history and scale of discriminatory auto lending finance. “This is one of the last areas in consumer lending where an
individual sitting across the desk from a consumer makes a decision about how much to charge that particular consumer for financing above and beyond the financing costs dictated by their credit worthiness. Intentionally or not, this often leads to people of color paying more than their fair share,” wrote the advocates. “In the mid-1990s, a series of lawsuits was filed against the largest auto finance companies in the country alleging that borrowers of color were most likely to have their loans marked up and paid larger markups,” continued the advocates, “The data used in those lawsuits indicated that borrowers of color were twice as likely to have their loans marked up, and paid markups twice as large as similarly situated whites borrowers with similar credit ratings.” “Consumer protections in auto lending have been non-existent until the CFPB came on the scene,” said Chris Kukla, CRL senior vice president. “Auto dealers and their allies in Congress are now trying to stop the CFPB from enforcing anti-discrimination laws. Dealer interest rate markups are unfair and discriminatory, and should be prohibited entirely. With the record of discrimination tied to this practice, Congress should be thanking the CFPB for acting instead of getting in the way.” Charlene Crowell is a communications manager with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at Charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.
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District Chronicles | Aug. 27 - Sep. 2, 2015 | 3
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Metro Briefs: Notable news in and around Washington District of Columbia DC confirms one human case of West Nile virus
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Wearing proper protective clothing such as long sleeves and pants, when outdoors in known mosquito activity areas taking extra care during peak mosquito biting hours (dusk to dawn). Applying insect repellents to exposed areas of the body; and Eliminating standing water on private property including pots, trash bins, tires, etc. Standing water in private property may result in fines under the Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases Control Emergency Act of 2005 (DC Official Code § 8-2131, et. seq).
4 | Aug. 27 - Sep. 2, 2015 | District Chronicles
Covering tires stored outside before each rain and uncover them
pestcontrol.us
he DC Department of Health has confirmed a case of West Nile Virus. DOH officials have been closely monitoring the well-being of the District of Columbia resident who has since improved and been released from a local hospital. A West Nile virus human case has been identified during the summer months for the last three consecutive years, a department spokesman said. DOH is asking residents and visitors to follow some simple guidelines to prevent mosquito bites during the summer months when mosquitoes are most active. “As we continue to monitor this situation and protect the health of the District residents, we strongly encourage residents to eliminate water filled cavities and spaces in which mosquitoes breed, such as old car tires, lawn figurines, poorly draining rain gutters, discarded cans and saucers under plant pots” said DOH Director, Dr. LaQuandra S. Nesbitt. Other preventative measures to protect against mosquito bites include:
District Department of Health reminds residents to take care of standing water.
promptly afterwards to prevent water from standing on the tarps.
Storing pet food and water bowls inside when not in use.
Cleaning roof gutters and downspouts regularly. Eliminating standing water from flat roofs.
West Nile Virus is an arbovirus that’s most commonly spread by infected mosquitoes. It can cause febrile illness, encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) or meningitis (inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord). Most people who become infected with West Nile Virus do not develop any symptoms. About 1 in 5 people who are infected will develop a fever with other symptoms such as headache, body aches, joint pains, diarrhea or rash. Most patients with this type of West Nile virus disease recover completely but fatigue and weakness can last for weeks or months. Less than 1% of people who are infected will develop a serious neurologic illness such as encephalitis or meningitis. Should residents or visitors experience any of these symptoms they should contact their primary care physician or visit a healthcare provider as soon as possible. For more information on preventing mosquito bites and information on the West Nile Virus and its symptoms visit the District of Columbia Department of Health at www.doh.dc.gov or the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at www.cdc.gov or by calling (202) 535-2323 between the hours of 8:15am and 4:45pm.
Turning over plastic wading pools, wheelbarrows, and canoes when not in use. Covering waste containers with tight-fitting lids; never allowing lids or cans to accumulate water. Flushing bird baths and potted plant trays twice each week. tarps over grills, firewood piles, boats or swimming pools to eliminate small pockets of water from standing several days. Re-grading low areas where water stands and clean out debris in ditches to eliminate standing water in low spots. Maintaining swimming pools, clean and chlorinating them as needed, aerating garden ponds and treating with “mosquito dunks” found at hardware stores. dripping water faucets outside and eliminating puddles from air conditioners.
Divine Intervention
Donald Trump and the politics of White male anger By David Gushee Religion News Service
AMG | PHOTOGRAPHY
ABC News
(RNS) – Donald Trump’s ongoing narrative about political correctness being “the big problem” in this country may help explain his surprising climb in this week’s presidential polls. Billionaire Trump does not appear to have suffered too much on the personal front for having had to live in a more “PC” America. But his message seems to resonate with (other) aggrieved White males, which may help to explain his rising popularity as a presidential candidate. Trump said at the Cleveland GOP presidential debate that “the big problem that this country has is being politically correct. … I frankly don’t have time for total political correctness, and to be honest with you, this country doesn’t have time either. This country is in big trouble. We don’t win anymore.” This was in response to Fox reporter Megyn Kelly’s nowfamous question about Trump’s history of making disparaging remarks about women. The term became widely used beginning in the early 1990s. One major source was conservative author Dinesh D’Souza’s book “Illiberal Education,” which disparaged multiculturalism and other unwelcome developments on college campuses. He and other conservatives sounded the alarm about “thought police” demanding ideological conformity to liberal norms and values. It was a clever adoption of Communist-related rhetoric at the end of the Cold War. Communists in places such as the USSR and China demanded rigid ideological conformity (“political correctness”); brave freethinkers challenged them; today’s liberal elites must be challenged in the same way by today’s (conservative) freethinkers. Linking the academic left to the Communist left was a brilliant ploy. Those of us Euro-American White male types who were in school during the early 1990s remember what was really going
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Trump’s anti political correctness message echoes within Republican party.
on. On elite campuses, America was beginning to evolve into the gender-egalitarian, multicultural society that we are today 25 years further down the road to becoming. Any remnant of belief that this country belongs to upper-class white males was being pushed aggressively to extinction. The belief that course programs and syllabi should reflect a diversity of voices became increasingly entrenched. Student admissions and campus life policies were altered to reflect and advance gender, ethnic, racial and eventually sexual-orientation diversity. Hiring was bringing increasing diversity to staff and faculty. Even language was changing. Gender-inclusive language became ascendant, and terms used to name various groups of people were being altered to reflect what the affected people now wanted to be called. Reinhold Niebuhr and Martin Luther King liked to say that no one ever gives up power voluntarily, even if that power is unjust or unjustly exercised. That includes the transition from one group in a society having total control to a situation of having to share control with others. Exclusive white male power was being taken away, both by people from the previous margins of society and by privileged white people themselves who now agreed that changes were required. Academia became the leading edge of social change, and those who were not happy
with those changes went on the counterattack. Certainly there were times when white men experienced demeaning treatment as these changes unfolded. I remember times when I felt misunderstood and mistreated. Sometimes it seemed that those who had so often experienced subjugation took some pleasure in making white guys like me squirm. But I started on a personal journey of change, and got excited about a genuinely egalitarian, multicultural America (and church). The pressures I first experienced in school in the 1980s and 1990s proved indispensable in nudging me along, however uncomfortable they were at the time. Donald Trump’s linking of political correctness with American decline both connects with past usages of the term and gives it a powerful new focus. Now being “anti-PC” can be about taking America back to greatness under effective (white male/”colorblind”) leadership, at last. Then we can “win” again. For a number of reasons, I am increasingly worried about this politics of white male anger, despair and defiance. I think it explains a lot of what is most troubling about our country right now. The Rev. David Gushee is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics and director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University.
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District Chronicles | Aug. 27 - Sep. 2, 2015 | 5
Cover
Desegregation linked to closing achievement gap
By Jazelle Hunt NNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Year after year in measure after measure, Black, Latino, and Native American students trail their White peers in educational outcomes. These gaps were at their lowest in 1988, the same year public schools hit peak integration levels – and longterm data shows that this was no coincidence. “As long as we have schools and classrooms that have concentrated the most disadvantaged children together, there’s no way that schools can overcome the disadvantage, because every student can’t get special attention. So the level of instruction has to decline,” said Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute. “The only way that we’re ever going to raise the achievement of African- American children living
in ghettos, substantially, is to desegregate those ghettos. Make sure that more children are attending schools that are predominantly middleclass.” Schools with student bodies of color aren’t inherently inadequate – there are plenty around the country that graduate bright, motivated Black and Brown scholars. Still, it is the better distribution of resources – not merely the presence of White students – that make integration necessary. “We know that there’s inequitable access to advanced coursework, for example, so we know that many African-American and Latino students attend schools where they can’t take algebra II or chemistry, or they don’t have advanced placement courses,” said John King, delegated deputy secretary of the Department of Education. “To the extent that we can integrate schools by race and class, we’re likelier to reduce those inequities.”
The way schools are funded can also worsen the effect. Most districts are funded through property taxes, other state taxes, and federal money (through grants or as part of a larger budget given to each state). Often, needy schools are left at the bottom of the list when it’s time to distribute these funds, forcing them to rely more heavily on alreadymeager property taxes. And as individual schools make cuts to stretch the money, they are unable to attract and keep highly effective teachers, and provide students enriching extracurricular activities, challenging classes, and first-class facilities. “It’s not because they’re sitting next to a White child, it’s because they’re not in an environment where children with serious disadvantages are so concentrated that the school can’t focus on … grade level instruction,” said Rothstein. White flight, class politics, and gentrification also play a major role – if neighborhoods are racially and
300 schoolgirls as they studied for exams that night from the northeastern town of Chibok in Borno state. The mass kidnapping sparked an international social media campaign under the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. Little information about the girls’ whereabouts has come out of the region since they disappeared with their captors into the bush more than a year ago. Ogebe attended a meeting between some of the escaped Chibok schoolgirls and a small contingent of lawmakers that included Reps. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) and Lois Frankel (D-Fla.). He said that his heart began to break as he imagined the girls returning to their town after the meeting, still living under the threat and violence of Boko Haram. So, the lawyer arranged to bring 10 of the girls to the United States, where they have now been living with host families for about a year. During a July press conference about the missing schoolgirls, Rep. Wilson said that, according to her sources, Boko Haram militants are guarding the girls closely because they hope to use them as a bargaining chip. “And until someone can show me a mass grave where are all of these girls are or show me one of
the girls has been married off or have been killed, I will continue to believe that they are still alive,” said Wilson. She visited the region a year ago with a small contingent of lawmakers from the United States and met with some of the girls who had managed to escape. Wilson said that they were disappointed by the lack of progress in finding the girls and the absence of any real support for their families. White House officials recently announced plans to work with Congress to provide $465 million in aid for training, equipment and capacity building to African nations to assist them in their counterterrorism efforts during the 2015-2016 fiscal year. The U.S. government also planned to increase support to Nigeria, Niger and Chad through youth and sports programs to boost social and civic engagement in areas besieged by Boko Haram. According to Ogebe, the geography and tactics of the terror group pose incredible challenges to what the Nigerian military can do on its own. Because the Sambisa Forest shares borders with several neighboring countries, Boko Haram is able to trek back and forth across international borders illegally, a
economically segregated, the local public school system is likely to reflect that. “It wouldn’t be fair to say that schools can’t produce great outcomes for kids if they don’t have White students or if they don’t have middle-income students,” said King. “But I think it is fair to say that, for a variety of complex political and historical reasons, resources often have been inequitably distributed based on race and class.” Those complex reasons essentially boil down to the effects of slavery, and the not-so-distant decades when federal, state, and city laws explicitly separated the races and purposely created inequalities for Black Americans “African American ghettos in this country are not … by accident, because people choose to live someplace else or because Black people just can’t afford to move. We created these segregated communities with racially explicit public policy at the state,
federal, and local levels,” said Rothstein. “The effects endure. It’s not as if you can say, ‘OK, now we’ve got everybody separated, we’re going to stop this policy,’ and all of a sudden have an integrated society.” The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), a civil rights law, is now up for renewal – No Child Left Behind was its most recent update, and that expired in 2007. Currently, both the House and Senate have passed their versions of this update, and they are significantly different; when Congress returns from summer recess, the appropriate committees will have to find a way to merge the bills into one policy. “There are certainly challenges around housing, and segregation that we have to overcome in order to create diverse schools, but we have a lot of examples around the country,” said King. “And we’re going to…try to share those best practices with people.”
Lawyer uses GoFundMe effort to send Boko Haram girls to college
By Freddie Allen Senior Washington Correspondent
6 | Aug. 27 - Sep. 2, 2015 | District Chronicles
Freddie Allen/NNPA
(NNPA) – As teenagers across the nation prepare to transition from high school to college, at least two of the survivors of last year’s Boko Haram mass kidnapping hope to do the same – if they can raise the money. Emmanuel Ogebe, a lawyer and human rights activist who worked to bring 10 of the Chibok, Nigeria girls who escaped to the United States, said that he was excited when he learned that some of the girls were accepted to college, but that the group sponsoring them doesn’t have the resources to pay for it. A few weeks ago, Ogebe launched a GoFundMe campaign, Bring Our Girls Back-To-School, to raise $75,000 for tuition, fees and living expenses for the girls. Some of the funds will also be used to help the girls who don’t attend a four-year college to go to vocational school and learn life and social skills that will enable them to live in the U.S. independently. On April 14, the same day that an explosion destroyed a bus depot on the outskirts of Abuja, killing at least seven and injuring more than 100, Boko Haram abducted nearly
Three of the girls that escaped from the Boko Haram militants during the mass kidnapping in Chibok last April bow their heads in prayer before the #BringBackOurGirls press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Emmanuel Ogebe (2nd from right) joins them.
travel pass not afforded to the Nigerian military. “The military is limited by constraints that don’t limit the terrorists,” said Ogebe. “This is why the search requires a global coalition.” Going by her first name to protect family and friends still living in northeastern Nigeria, Lili, one of the rescued girls, said that going to school in the U.S. is safer because no one is threatening you. “Going to school here is better than Nigeria, because here there is peace,” said Lili, adding that she doesn’t know when she’ll return to Chibok. Even though the fall semester will be underway in a matter of
weeks, Ogebe said that he hopes to raise enough money so that the girls who got accepted into college can attend this semester. Now that Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State in Syria (ISIS), human rights advocates hope that stamping out the terror group that continues to ravage western Africa becomes an international priority. “When it comes to global terror, Black lives matter, too,” said Ogebe. “And we need to work to put this horrific group out of business.” For more information on the Bring Our Girls Back-To-School campaign, visit http://www.gofundme.com/rux936pg.
Politics
Millennial rift exposed at Texas Southern University forum
CW39 NewsFix
Millennials felt left out at TSU forum when their questions were redirected to social media website for answers.
By Jerry Ford II Special to the NNPA from the Houston Forward Times On the day the family of Sandra Bland filed a lawsuit against the Waller County Police department, many community leaders assembled at the Barbara Jordan–Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University, as a community forum called “WHATHAPPENEDTOSANDRABLAND” was held. Speakers included Marlon Smith, Black Greeks Speak; Tarsha Jackson, Texas Organizing Project; Professor Howard Henderson, TSU School of Public Affairs; Sarah Guidry, Earl Carl Institute executive director; and DeWayne Charleston, former Waller County Justice of the Peace. Charleston was the first African American elected in Waller County and served two terms as Justice of the Peace. He was involved in the federal lawsuit that resulted in Prairie View A&M University students finally being allowed to vote, based on the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1979 in The United States v. Waller County. Congressman Al Green made an appearance and received the loudest reception as his roaring speech brought community members to their feet. Other notables in attendance included former TSU president and current Houston NAACP chapter president Dr.
James Douglas, who pleaded for the decriminalization of noncriminal drug offenses. The event invited millennials to participate in the discussion via a live discussion on Twitter following #WhatHappenedtoSandraBlandTSU. The community discussion on Twitter had a completely different tone than the forum taking place inside the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland auditorium. One Twitter user stated “#WhatHappenedToSandraBlandtsu why are we always told to be peaceful? Clearly we are here because there’s an epidemic of POLICE violence,” wrote @kalebjtaylor. “I don’t want to talk about more talking. We are done talking #WhatHappenedtoSandraBlandTSU,” posted @DivineLadiL. The frustration on Twitter began to spill over into the auditorium, when a question asked on Twitter was asked at the forum and answered out loud. No panelist jumped to immediately answer the question, “How can student activists and millennials best effect change in our community? #WhatHappenedToSandraBlandtsu.” Finally, a panelist responded by telling young people to get on Facebook. The moderator then quickly moved on to the next question, which then set off a negative chain of events in the crowd.
Some students walked out in disgust as a few community members started screaming and interrupting the panelists, pleading to the group to address the younger generation’s questions. “Telling millennials to go on Facebook shows how the older generation is disconnected from the younger generation because we don’t use Facebook that often anymore,” said Kaleb Taylor, junior at Texas Southern University. Afterwards, many millennials echoed the notion that the forum confirmed that the people with power do not have a real strategy for change. The sentiments from most younger attendees at the forum and on Twitter was that all they heard was the same old tunes and that millennials are always sent to the “kiddie” table on social media to discuss important issues. “This conversation and this panel just showed us that we need more unity in the Black community, and that we have to take an aggressive and proactive stance to make sure these things don’t continue to happen,” said Taylor. “I think it’s a challenge for millennials to participate in this process given some of the barriers put in front of us,” said Shekira Dennis, Houston Justice Coalition cofounder. “We are very conscious thinkers and extremely proactive but it becomes difficult when people just limit us to social media.”
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District Chronicles | Aug. 27 - Sep. 2, 2015 | 7
Arts and Entertainment
Let’s get back to what we call hip-hop
2DopeBoyz
Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson’s recent bankruptcy fillings highlight the fabricated lifestyle of some hip-hop artists.
By Jineea Butler NNPA Columnist
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8 | Aug. 27 - Sep. 2, 2015 | District Chronicles
(NNPA) – Recently Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson filed for bankruptcy, testifying in court that despite his flashy public persona, he is only worth $4.4 million. Not that there is anything wrong with that. The dilemma is the art of the illusion. So often we see hip-hop personalities fabricate their status to appear bigger than life. Rocafella Records’ co-founder Dame Dash even admitted in an interview with Boyce Watkins, “We would always pretend that we had more than we had, so we would always make something look bigger.” The rapper’s admittance just blew the cover off of that neverending hip-hop fantasy. According to multiple media outlets, 50 Cent testified he doesn’t own the expensive cars and jewelry we consistently see him sporting. He claims he rents, borrows and leases instead. In its May 2015 issue, Forbes
magazine published that Jackson was Number 4 on its Hip-Hop’s Wealthiest Artists list at $155 million. They also referenced that he was deservedly “still enjoying the fruits” of his epic $100 million Vitamin Water deal that he banked in 2007. He deserves an Oscar for keeping up the $155 million dollar front and pretending like he doesn’t have as much money as we perceived. Nevertheless, how are people supposed to take us serious if everything we live by is fake? If the most visible around us are fronting, what does that say about the rest of us? We are already plagued with fake butts, hair, breast and jewelry. How can we advance our cause if the majority of the culture is misrepresenting itself and making terrible decisions on behalf of hip hop? From Rick Ross assaulting his gardener, to Diddy hitting his son’s football coach with a kettlebell, the hip-hop lifestyle doesn’t seem so attractive. I assume that that was the objective in hiring all these art-
ists to run amok and act a fool. This however, may be a breakthrough for the community at large. We have an opportunity to usher in the next school of artists that includes intellectuals, activists, entrepreneurs and the like. The chorus to the hit song “Legends Never Die” by Kloke, featuring Sadat X and Rash, says it all: “Let’s get back to what we call hip hop.” We have to stop competing against one another and start competing with the real world around us. We have to go back to the basics and prepare ourselves for the near future. We have lost ourselves trying to live in the moment and act like we have money to spend when, in fact, we don’t. A lot is lost in the illusion because of the time and effort spent on perfecting it. So much so we start to believe our own hype. Jineea Butler is a hip-hop analyst and founder of the Social Services of Hip Hop and the Hip Hop Union,. She can be reached jineea@gmail.com and on Twitter at @newamericanfly.
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In the Neighborhood
Metro Briefs: Notable news in and around Washington
Finding Senior Housing can be complex, but it doesn’t have to be. “You can trust A Place for Mom to help you.” – Joan Lunden
District of Columbia Local, national leaders to head free Black male summit at Howard Theatre
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Prince George’s Doctors Community Hospital offers free health lectures, screenings and support groups Year round, Doctors Community Hospital provides various free lectures, screenings and support groups to help people maintain or improve their health. Free Bariatric Surgery and Weight Loss Lecture Fridays, September 11, October 9, November 13 and December 11 9:00 a.m. Doctors Community Hospital 8116 Good Luck Rd. Professional Office Bldg., Suite 210
(800) 967-8641 NBC Washington
asting Legacy, a summit highlighting issues relevant to young African-American males, will be hosted by the Ambassador Horace G. Dawson Scholars program September 16, 12 to 2pm at Howard Theatre. The summit, led by Jim Vance of NBC4, will include a panel discussion on the importance of college education and Black leadership, and will feature J.R. Clark, Esq. and Congressman John Lewis. High school males, educators and community leaders are expected to attend the free event. The summit will be followed by a wine dinner fundraiser, also at Howard Theatre, with celebrity chef Malcolm Mitchell at 7 pm to support the new nonprofit. The program is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit established to encourage African-American young men to become high achievers and lead-
A Place for Mom is the nation’s largest senior living referral information service. We do not own, operate, endorse or recommend any senior living community. We are paid by partner communities, so our services are completely free to families.
Local NBC Newsman Jim Vance will lead the summit at Howard Theater next month.
ers through higher education. It aims to enrich young males’ educational journey through academic tutoring, college preparatory workshops, personal mentorship and professional guidance. Organizers hope to recruit 30 male students to participate in the program following the summit. “This is an opportunity to come together and support young African-American males in the District of Columbia,” said Lelia Pray, founder and executive director of the program. “It is our responsibility to expose them to successful leaders who they can identify with,
and it is our hope that this event will plant a seed that will allow more young men to grow to create successful lives of their own.” The dinner will be hosted by WPGC’s Vildana “Sunni” Puric and will feature a fashion show and live auction. Jazz trombonist Jeff Bradshaw will perform during the evening. Admission to the summit is free to the public, while the dinner requires individual or business sponsorship. Register at www.hgdscholars. com. Howard Theatre is located at 620 T Street, NW in Washington, D.C.
Lanham, MD 20706 Obesity is often linked to diabetes, sleep apnea, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, arthritis and other conditions. In many cases, losing weight reduces or eliminates the need to use some of the medications taken to manage such conditions. Doctors Community Hospital’s free bariatric surgery and weight loss lectures are presented by Dr. Hitesh Amin, MD, board-certified surgeon and medical director, Bariatric and Weight Loss Center. In addition to general information about weight management and behavior modification, Dr. Amin educates people about advanced surgical procedures that are covered by most insurance plans. One such bariatric surgery procedure uses the daVinci® robot, which may result in reduced pain, shorter hospitalization and faster recovery. Registration is required by
calling 301-DCH-4YOU (301-3244968). www.DCHweightloss.org Free Colorectal Screening Colorectal cancer is often preventable and curable. However, it is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in Maryland. To help improve the health of residents, Doctors Community Hospital and the Prince George’s County Health Department have partnered to provide free colonoscopies. All colonoscopies are performed by experienced gastroenterologists at Doctors Community Hospital. Maryland residents may qualify for free colonoscopies if they meet specific program requirements: Maryland residents Ages 50 or older Ages 50 or younger with a family history of colorectal cancer Registration is required by calling 301-883-3526 or 240-542-3380.
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District Chronicles | Aug. 27 - Sep. 2, 2015 | 11
In the Neighborhood
Metro Briefs: Notable news in and around Washington District of Columbia
Norton visits her elementary school, announces her universal prekindergarten bill WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) opened today school by cutting the ribbon on a new cafeteria at Bruce-Monroe at Park View, the elementary school she attended. Norton used the first day of District of Columbia Public Schools to announce that when Congress returns from recess, she will introduce the Universal Prekindergarten and Early Childhood Education Act
of 2015. Norton said that today was also a personal and sentimental occasion for her, even though BruceMonroe is now only a playground at Georgia Ave. and Irving St. NW. Her bill uses federal grants to encourage public school systems to provide universal, prekindergarten to every child, regardless of income. Norton said school districts that do not have early childhood education programs, as well as those in the 40 states and D.C. that fund at least some early childhood education, would be eligible for the grants. Although D.C. already offers free universal pre-kindergarten to all, Norton emphasized the city would be covered by her bill. She said her bill puts D.C. in the same position as it was when the city offered health care to uninsured residents before the Affordable Care
Act and its programs were later mostly absorbed into the ACA. Norton said her bill fills No Child Left Behind’s significant prekindergarten education gap by using existing public school infrastructure and standards for public school teachers. “Early childhood is the most critical period for a child’s brain development,” Norton said. “When this period is maximized, healthy development is virtually assured. Head Start and other early childhood education programs have been successful in lifting up a selectively small number of children fortunate to receive access to programs that offer genuine educational programs geared to three- and fouryear-old children. The documented effects virtually mandate providing this early start on learning to all
Volunteers set up their stalls on the road of L Street and greeted recipients with a smile as they distributed the fresh produce. Juanda Smith, 61, heard about the food bank from a friend and started coming this year. “It helps me with food to last for the month,” said Smith. “So, it’s like an addition. I get everything, the cabbage, the potatoes, the apples and especially the salad.” In addition to distributing fresh produce, the Capital Area Food Bank shares recipes for healthy and affordable meals at the market as well as online. “We’re not just handing you fresh fruits and vegetables, anticipating that you’ll go home and do something with it,” said Holcomb. “We’re giving you a recipe to go home and actually try with the fresh fruits and vegetables that we provide.” Tiffany Mitchell, 31, a day care worker who lives across the street from the food bank, brought her god-brother to help her pick up her fresh produce for this month. “My favorite part of the market is the fruits,” said Mitchell. “My daughter likes fruits. So, she’s going to enjoy these grapes and just the fact that they help us with the food, because it is a struggle.” Cloment Okehie, a 29-year-old engineering student, was unaware that he qualified to receive free pro-
duce. “I was just passing by last month, going to the library, because I go every weekend and one of them told me about the food bank and that I qualified,” said Okehie who, on his second trip to the food bank received a turkey. “It benefited me a lot,” he said. “It reduced my expense. It makes me stay at home to cook and not
Norton at the ribbon cutting ceremony for Bruce-Monroe Elementary’s cafeteria.
kids.” The Norton bill would bring the educational benefits of Pre-K within reach of the great majority of kids by adding new grades for three- and four-year-olds, similar to five-year-old kindergarten programs that are now routinely part of public schools. Providing Pre-K as part of the public school system
would also ensure qualified teachers and safe facilities for all children. Norton’s bill addresses the great majority of parents who are neither wealthy enough to afford early education nor low-income enough to qualify for Head Start. Her bill leaves intact proven programs funded by the federal government today.
Capital Area Food Bank lifeline for DC poor
By Francisca Fournillier Howard University News Service
Tyrell Holcomb, the distributions program manager with the Capital Area Food Bank, took a look at the long line of people who were queuing for the fresh produce and meat that the organization offers the first Saturday of every month and made a prediction. “Today, it looks like we are going to have a record in terms of the number of households in which we are going to be serving,” said Holcomb, 26. “I’m anticipating that we’ll probably serve about 300 households today.” Scores of people lined up on the windy Saturday morning near the Northwest One Library near First and L streets in Northwest Washington with their market bags and trollies in hand to collect their free fresh fruits and vegetables distributed by the Capital Area Food Bank. The Capital Area Food Bank distributes fresh food to individuals who are low to moderate income, and who receive federal assistance. Potatoes, cabbage, turkeys, onions and grapes were just a few of the giveaways available to those waiting in line with their food bank key cards Saturday. The food bank serves all eight wards in the District, Fairfax County in Virginia and Prince George’s County in Maryland.
12 | Aug. 27 - Sep. 2, 2015 | District Chronicles
Cloment Okehie prepares to leave the Capital Area Food Bank after receiving his fresh produce for the month.
to go out so much to spend. It has been so wonderful.” Qualified residents can sign up and become a member of the food bank at no cost. “Members of the market place sign up and get a key card which makes the flow of the line much smoother,” said Holcomb. “And what happens is, on a monthly basis they come, they show their key
cards, their key cards get scanned and they’re able to come through and get their produce. It also helps us to track the number of people we’re actually serving at each distribution.” For more information on how to visit the next community marketplace in your neighborhood, visit http://www.capitalareafoodbank. org.