Best In Black FINAL VOTING Starts Wednesday, September 20th
C
O
M
E
R
I
C
A
HOMEFRONT Baobab Fare wins seventh Comerica Hatch Detroit Contest
Ends Sunday, October 16th
www.bestinblackdetroit.com
Page B1
POWERED BY REAL TIMES MEDIA
Volume 81 – Number 2
michiganchronicle.com
September 20-26, 2017
Farmington Hills student mistreated by teachers for knowing his rights By Keith A. Owens Senior Editor
Patriotism is something I understand. I get being loyal to the country of your birth, being willing to defend it if necessary, and wanting to help make it a better place for all Americans. That much I understand. I include myself in that definition.
COMMENTARY Wild-eyed, flag-waving lunacy, masquerading as patriotism is something that I consider a disease. And when that kind of lunacy infects a school, where fully grown adult teachers are entrusted with the responsibility of educating young children, then I consider it not only a disease but a po- Stone Chaney tentially dangerous threat. According to several news reports, both local and national, a sixth grade student at East Middle School in Farmington Hills was reportedly yanked out of his seat last week by some crazy teacher who could not tolerate the idea that young Stone Chaney was not standing up and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance like the rest of the kids. The following day, yet another teacher lost her mind for the same reason. From the Detroit Free Press:
Juanita Moore, Director, Charles H. Wright Museum, Salvador Salort-Pons, Director Detroit Institute of Arts and former Supreme Mary Wilson at Detroit Homecoming 2017 opening night
Don’t just buy black, invest black
Detroit Homecoming session touts the benefits of investing in black business, supporting black entrepreneurs By Keith A. Owens Senior Editor
Detroit may be an overwhelmingly black city, but it is not by any means an overwhelmingly successful city for that majority population. Two of the primary looming hurdles that need to be dealt with in order to make this city a success story for all or its residents are the quality of its public schools and access to capital and resources for black entrepreneurs.
“She starts yelling at me, telling me to get up. I just kept doing my work,” he said. “She speed walks over to me, yells at me to get up. She wanted to know why. I told her that I don’t pledge to a flag. I pledge to God and to my family.” One of the teachers has been placed on administrative leave pending the conclusion of an investigation by Farmington Public Schools, according to the Free Press story. The superintendent of Farmington Schools also released a statement saying, “The district fully supports the right of each student to participate or not in the daily pledge,” which is fine and somewhat of a relief. But it still doesn’t get to the heart of the problem here.
Because without access to a decent education, and without a significant stake in the local economy, the notion of black progress in Detroit is a non-starter. Last week, on the final day of the Detroit Homecoming, an event which encourages active participation from the city’s expats in the city’s growth and rebirth, a roomful of black expats and local business leaders and entrepreneurs met during a breakfast event held at The factory in Corktown to discuss some of the issues critical to the local entrepreneurial community, and to hear from those who have managed to make the leap from struggling small business to high growth business with potential for expansion.
The first part of the problem is the obvious part, or at least it should be obvious. No teacher anywhere has the right to treat any child like that, ever. At any time. There is simply no excuse. The second part of the problem is that these teachers are supposedly adults who supposedly know something about the teaching profession and who voluntarily chose the teaching profession as a career. So how do these so-called adults call themselves teachers with a straight face when they don’t even know that Stone Chaney had a right not to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance? Whether
See MISTREATED page A-4
WHAT’S INSIDE
Jill Ford (right), who heads the City of Detroit’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiatives, interviews Kesha Cash, CEO and founder of Impact America Fund at Detroit Homecoming 2017. – Keith A. Owens photo
Not surprisingly, the common denominator is money. Too many local black businesses don’t have the access they need to the capital they need to expand, especially when compared to white companies of similar size. Detroit has more than its fair share of black entrepreneurs and small businesses, proportionally more than just about any other major city in the country. But the vast majority of these businesses can’t attract any investment, which means they are perpetually stuck in survival mode where they will never be able to hire more than one other person – maybe. But just think about how the city’s landscape could
See HOMECOMING page A-4
Michigan No. 1 for discretionary income in U.S., Detroit ranks No. 5 city lower than the national average and non-housing expenses 7 percent lower.”
Michigan Chronicle Reports
Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty gives black girl shade! See Page D1
Trove Technologies, Inc. has released the first annual Trove Discretionary Income Study showing that the state of Michigan ranks No. 1 among all states for discretionary income, while the city of Detroit ranks No. 5 among major cities nationwide. Michigan also places five small cities among the Top 10 nationally. The Trove Discretionary Income Study is the first of its kind to incorporate data that reflect regional differences in salaries, cost of living, and taxes to most accurately reveal the take home pay of American workers across 778 occupations. While there are many cost-of-living calculators that highlight general income differences across cities, there are no others that take into account the effect of taxes on the cost of living or identify the
Some of the major findings for Detroit, and Michigan generally, include the following: Detroit ranks No. 5 among major cities nationwide for discretionary income across all occupations. Salaries in Detroit are 3.5 percent higher than the national average, housing expenses are 27.9 percent lower, and non-housing expenses 6.7 percent lower.
significant differences by occupation. “Detroit ranks in the top echelon of cities when it comes to enabling workers to keep more of what they earn,” said Michael
Pao, co-founder of Trove Technologies, Inc. “Our research finds that Detroit blows away the the rest of the country in terms of affordability, with housing expenses coming in at 28 percent
Detroit ranks highly among major cities for these professions: installation, maintenance and repair (No. 2), production (No. 3), arts, design, entertainment, sports and media (No. 4), and transportation and materi-
See INCOME page A-4
LOOK FOR INFORMATION IN THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE – SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 The Quad Will Feature Colleges And Universities Who Want You To Know They Welcome Your Applications Undergraduate & Graduate Programs ■ Learn about scholarship applications 2017
$1.00
■ See how you can obtain ‘free tuition’
This special publication will be inserted in next week’s paper and will be distributed throughout the community.