Remembering the Life of
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Michigan Chronicle
Vol. 83 – No. 21 | Jan. 29 - Feb. 4, 2020
Michigan Chronicle Hires Veteran Journalist for Key Position First published at age 10, media industry professional Georgette C R Johnson joins the Michigan Chronicle as Executive Editor-General Manager. Johnson, a 30-year veteran journalist has expertise in marketing, community and public relations, crisis management, event planning, government, education. She also has experience in insurance and financial services. She was first published in The Detroit News Sunday Magazine when a classroom essay was Georgette C R submitted by her English Johnson teacher. “I received a check for $50 and my life changed,” says Johnson. “I already had a passion for words and communicating but this opened up a whole new world of understanding and possibilities. I was hooked.” She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists as past deputy director of Region II, and parliamentarian and programming committee chair of its Detroit chapter. For more than seven years, she coordinated film crews for ARISE Detroit Neighborhoods Day throughout the city and led the production team for the documentaries which chronicled the annual events. “We are all truly excited about Georgette joining The Michigan Chronicle and The Real Times Family,” said Publisher Hiram Jackson. Her deep experience and passion for community journalism will be a major asset to our organization. This is a period of major change for all media operations and we are looking forward to utilizing Georgette’s unique set of skills to move us into this new decade.” Johnson spent several years as director of communications for the Pontiac School District. She served four years as press secretary for the Pontiac mayor and executive office liaison for seven city departments. She led many marketing campaigns from combating recall elections to recruitment and positive positioning. Johnson wrote grants, scripted, planned and executed four State of the City Addresses, Mayor’s Inaugural Ball, State of the District Address and many other high-profile events. Before joining the
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Survey: Is President Donald J. Trump A Threat to The Black Community? By Whitney Gresham Earlier this month the Washington Post released a poll which showed that 83 percent of African Americans across the country consider President Donald J. Trump to be a racist and that he has exacerbated racial tensions during his tenure in office. And 9 in 10 disapprove of his job performance. The Washington Post-Ipsos poll found Trump’s overall approval rating among black Americans stands at 7 percent, with 90 percent disapproving, including 75 percent who disapprove “strongly.”1 Trump has always polled poorly with African Americans. However, the Post poll illuminates the starkly negative view of the President by blacks at time when Trump, the White House, Republicans and their supporters have been pointing to a widely discredited poll in December by Emerson, Marist and Rasmussen that allegedly showed President Trump registering about 30% support among black voters. Alonzo White a black Republican businessman from the D.C. area told the Chronicle that he’s far more inclined to believe 83 percent of black folks believe the president is racist than him having 30 percent support among them. “Still, black folks need to understand Trump is a businessman and the only color he really cares about is “green” as in the color of money,” he said. “If you’re rich and you’re black, he’s fine with you. That’s why he got along so well with people like Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, Don King and all them before he was president.” But that’s cold comfort to a longtime Detroiter like Bernice Smith, a Lifetime NAACP member who has been active in Detroit civics and politics for more than 60 years. She notes most black folks
aren’t rich like Michael Jackson and Don King, and said just because President Trump may have a few select black friends doesn’t mean he is not harmful to the black community as a whole. “I believe whole heartedly that Donald Trump a threat to the black community,” Smith said. “For the simple reason that he attacks our voting rights, cuts back on food stamps, puts little Hispanic babies in cages and deliberately destroys their families to keep them out of our country and wants to build damn wall to keep people out!” “I’ve lived a longtime and have seen a lot of bad things by politicians, but this has never happened in my lifetime and I am 87-years old” she said. “You can’t pay me to support that man and I will tell people everywhere I go, do not fall for that B.S.” University of Michigan Law School Professor Michael J. Steinberg, professor from Practice and Director of the Civil Rights Litigation Initiative said African Americans like Smith have good reason to feel threatened by the Trump presidency. “The belief that 83 percent of African Americans believe President Trump is a racist is backed up by his policies,” he said. “From his attacks on outsiders; people who are not white and people he describes as murderers and who are not Christians pervades his policies. Starting with the Muslim ban and attacks on immigrants and characterizing Mexican Americans as criminals and rapists; separating the kids of immigrants.” Steinberg said such policies specifically target people of color. And additional discriminatory policies such as his recent announcement that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will no longer enforce provisions to take actions to eliminate racial barriers to housing along with
trump’s push for voter ID laws when he knows it will disproportionately harm people of color are proof of his hostility toward racial minorities. “As well as his speaking to overt white supremacist by saying there were good people on both sides of the Charlottesville conflict,” he said. “It just goes on and on.” Such messaging to white supremacist is strategic on part of Trump whose entire political appeal based upon playing into the fears of whites, said the Bishop Talbert Swan of the Church of God and Christ in Springfield, Massachusetts, President of the local NAACP and an anti-racist activist with a large social media following. “I think Trump was the ultimate slap in the face to black progress,” he said. It just reminds us that as far as we have come from slavery and Jim Crow we still have so much further to go. When they say “make America Great Again, they want to go back to from where escaped.” Talbert blamed much of Trump’s power on the support he receives from white evangelicals who enthusiastically support him in spite of his blatant racism and lurid lifestyle. “If you juxtapose the 83 percent of African Americans who say Trump is a racist against the 81 percent of white evangelicals who think he was sent by God and is the chosen one, it really tells you how far apart ideologically, politically, and religiously black and whites are in this country.” However, he said white evangelicals support of Trump should be instructive to all people of color in in general and African Americans in particular. “Their support of this man whose entire life has been antithetical to everything that they purport to believe in, and
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WHAT’S INSIDE
Dr. Curtis L. Ivery Releases New Book “The Wonder of Words” Includes Insight from Years of Work in Supporting Early Learning, Literacy, and Educational Equity
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A new book from nationally honored educational leader and Wayne County Community College District Chancellor Dr. Curtis L. Ivery shares more than 100 tips and ideas that parents can use to raise active readers and critical thinkers. The Wonder of Words: A Parent’s Guide for Raising Children Who Read, gives out-of-the-box ideas that make reading fun and open children’s imaginations to foster an early love for creativity, curiosity, and learning. “This book is the culmination of years of thought and passion about supporting early reading as a vital foundation to critical thinking, a joy for learning, and intellectual and
wife, Ola. We remain dedicated to helping to build strong thinkers and learners who will grow to become strong leaders in our community.” Proceeds from the sale of the book will go to The Wayne County Community College District Student Scholarship Fund.
Dr. Curtis L. Ivery personal growth,” Ivery said. “It has been an honor to champion early learning through decades of work and support with my
Dr. Curtis L. Ivery has been a national thought leader, educator, author, equity advocate and force for change for more than two decades. Ivery has assembled academic, community, business, religious, and government leaders at the table across a series of roundtables, think tanks, and conferences to develop real-world strategies to
expand educational equity in the southeast Michigan region, and across the nation. Dr. Ivery credits early reading with fueling a lifelong passion for learning and intellectual growth. “My parents were my first teachers,” Ivery said. “Wonder of Words is intended to foster that deep appreciation for the world of imagination and thought in the home as early as possible to grow the next generation of leaders.” The hardcover book will be published in February 2020 by Micro Publishing Media and is priced at $14.95. The book will be available on all major book retailer sites, as well as all WCCCD campus bookstores.