Volume 54 -No.30 February 18th, 2021

2021 BLACK HISTORY MONTH ISSUE

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Volume 54 - No. 30 February 18th, 2021

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SECONDHAND SMOKE DOESN’T STAY AT HOME T:20.5"

As COVID-19 lingers, and Californians continue to spend more time at home, it’s important to know that secondhand smoke can travel through air vents, sink drains, and cracks in walls, carrying toxic chemicals that can damage your lungs. If you’re being exposed, get strategies on how to protect yourself from this secondhand harm, especially now when lung health is key. Go to TobaccoFreeCA.com.

© 2021 California Department of Public Health

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The Black Church:

THE SAVIOR AND SOUL OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY

In the fall of 2008, newspapers, talk shows and blogs exploded with news that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the African American minister from Chicago’s Trinity Church, had denounced the United States with inflammatory language: “God damn America!” Wright’s most famous parishioner was the leading Democratic contender for the presidential nomination, Barack Obama. Trinity was Obama’s spiritual home -- the place where he had found religion, where he was married, and where his daughters had been baptized.

Rev. Wright, a former Marine with a Ph.D., had served as his spiritual mentor.

While many white voters seemed surprised, puzzled and shocked by Wright’s angry rhetoric, African Americans were less so. Obama seized the moment to deliver a profound meditation on race in America, a speech titled “A More Perfect Union.” Tracing the deep historical roots of racial inequality and injustice, Obama put Wright’s anger into historical context. In very personal terms, he also described his experience at Trinity: Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

Eventually Obama broke with Wright and left Trinity, but his speech illuminated the role of the black church in the African American experience. Standing apart from the dominant white society, yet engaged in a continuing dialogue with it, the church evolved with countless acts of faith and resistance, piety and protest. As historian Anthea Butler has observed, the church has been profoundly shaped by regional differences, North and South, East and West, yet in both the private and public spheres, the church was, and remains, sustained and animated by idea of freedom.

The term “the black church” evolved from the phrase “the Negro church,” the title of a pioneering sociological study of African American Protestant churches at the turn of the century by W.E.B. Du Bois. In its origins, the phrase was largely an academic category. Many African Americans did not think of themselves as belonging to “the Negro church,” but rather described themselves according to denominational affiliations such as Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and even “Saint” of the Sanctified tradition.

African American Christians were never monolithic; they have always been diverse and their churches highly decentralized.

Today “the black church” is widely understood to include the following seven major black Protestant denominations: the National Baptist Convention, the National Baptist Convention of America, the Progressive National Convention, the African Methodist Episcopal

tion. These churches continued to grow. Historian Mary Sawyer notes that by 1810, there were 15 African churches representing four denominations in 10 cities from South Carolina to Massachusetts.

In black churches, women generally were not permitted to preach.

One notable exception was Jarena Lee, who became an itinerant preacher, traveling thousands of miles and writing her own spiritual autobiography.

Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and the Church of God in Christ.

one day set them free.

Remarkably, a few black preachers in the South succeeded in establishing independent black churches.

In the 1780s, a slave named AnORIGINS drew Bryan preached to a small New historical evidence docugroup of slaves in Savannah, Ga. ments the arrival of slaves in the White citizens had Bryan arrested English settlement in Jamestown, and whipped. Despite persecution Va., in 1619. They came from the and harassment, the church grew, kingdoms of Ndongo and Kongo, in and by 1790 it became the First present-day Angola and the coastal African Baptist Church of SavanCongo. In the 1500s, the Portunah. In time, a Second and a Third guese conquered both kingdoms African Church were formed, also and carried Catholicism to West led by black pastors.

Africa. It is likely that the slaves In the North, blacks had more auwho arrived in Jamestown had been thority over their religious affairs. baptized Catholic and had Christian Many worshipped in established, names. For the next 200 years, the predominantly white congregations, slave trade exported slaves from but by the late 18th century, blacks had begun to congregate in selfhelp and benevolent associations In the 1780s, a African Societies. Functionslave named Andrew called ing as quasi-religious organizations, Bryan preached to a these societies often gave rise to inblack churches. In 1787, small group of slaves dependent for example, Richard Allen and in Savannah, Ga. Absalom Jones organized the Free African Society of Philadelphia, White citizens had later evolved into two conBryan arrested and which gregations: the Bethel Church, the whipped. mother church of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) denominaAngola, Ghana, Senegal and other tion, and St. Thomas Episcopal parts of West Africa to America’s Church, which remained affiliated South. Here they provided the hard with a white Episcopal denominamanual labor that supported the South’s biggest crops: cotton and tobacco.

In the South, Anglican ministers sponsored by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, founded in England, made earnest attempts to teach Christianity by rote memorization; the approach had little appeal. Some white owners allowed the enslaved to worship in white churches, where they were segregated in the back of the building or in the balconies. Occasionally persons of African descent might hear a special sermon from white preachers, but these sermons tended to stress obedience and duty, and the message of the apostle Paul: “Slaves, obey your masters.”

Both Methodists and Baptists made active efforts to convert enslaved Africans to Christianity; the Methodists also licensed black men to preach. During the 1770s and 1780s, black ministers began to preach to their own people, drawing on the stories, people and events depicted in the Old and New Testaments. No story spoke more powerfully to slaves than the story of Exodus, with its themes of bondage and liberation brought by a righteous and powerful God who would

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THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING AND “HUSH HARBORS” In the late 18th and early 19th century, thousands of Americans, black and white, enslaved and free, were swept up in the revival known as the Second Great Awakening. In the South, the religious fervor of evangelical Christianity resonated easily with the emotive religious traditions brought from West Africa. Forging a unique synthesis, slaves gathered in “hush harbors” -- woods, gullies, ravines, thickets and swamps -- for heartfelt worship which stressed deliverance from the toil and troubles of the present world, and salvation in the heavenly life to come.

Yet most of the enslaved lay outside the institutional church. In the 1830s and 1840s, Southern churchmen undertook an active campaign to persuade plantation owners that slaves must be brought into to the Christian fold. Because plantations were located far from churches, this meant that the church had to be carried to the plantation. Aided by denominational missionary societies and associations, plantation missions became popular institutions.

But missionaries recognized that Christianity would not appeal to all enslaved blacks. Novice missionaries were warned: He who carries the Gospel to them … discovers deism, skepti(CONTINUED ON PAGE B4)

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The Black Vote:

MLK AND THE POWER OF THE BLACK VOTE

Georgians to exercise their right.

As a consequence, the power of the Black ballot turned the Senate and U.S. presidential elections blue Despite the enduring chronicles like the rolling rivers of the Chatof voter intimidation, poll clotahoochee River on the border of sures and voter purging, there is red Alabama and blue Georgia. Dr. a strength and resilience that is King died fighting for justice and undeniable. Six years before the spoke against the rolling tides of March on Washington for Jobs and injustice in the South to suppress Freedom, Dr. Martin Luther King, the Black vote.

Jr. graced the steps of the Lincoln The paradox of American democMemorial for the Prayer Pilgrimracy is celebrating the voting rights age for Freedom. Standing before of U.S. citizens while denying the 25,000 civil rights activists, Dr. wrong of suppressing Black voters.

King boldly asserted, “The deWhite supremacists, segregationnial of this sacred right is a tragic ists, Dixiecrats and white elites betrayal of the highest mandates of have attempted to disenfranchise our democratic tradition.”

Black voters from the end of the History is replete with disenReconstruction Era to recent elecfranchised voters and those brutions in an attempt to deny Black talized and killed for exercising voices of democracy and curtail their rights. WW II veteran MaBlack progress. Frederick Douglass ceo Snipes died because he cast said, “If there is no struggle, there a ballot in the 1946 Democratic is no progress.” primary because he believed in the Without question, there are other power of democracy. The blood connections and significant voices of the martyrs for Black freedom in the struggle — hidden and cries from the red clay of America unhidden figures — whose actions for the reality of democracy. The ring with the harmonies of liberty. hallowed cries and sacrifice were It is important to acknowledge the duly honored by Black voters who work of Black women who courademanded to be heard and refused geously organized to help Biden to be denied. win the presidential election, and Rev. Raphael Warnock’s elecfor Rev. Warnock and Jon Ossoff to tion as Georgia’s first Black United win the U.S. Senate runoffs. Their States senator represents the fruit efforts helped our nation make of democracy and the harvest of the progress toward Dr. King’s vision sacrifices of known and unknown of American democracy. organizers who registered people Dr. King’s legacy regarding the to vote and encouraged Black Civil Rights Era is connected to

By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist Antoinette Gaboton-Moss

Fannie Lou Hamer

WW II veteran Maceo Snipes

the legacies of Ella Baker, Dorothy Height, and Diane Nash and extends to the political activism of Fannie Lou Hamer who was brutally beaten for registering people to vote. Stacey Abrams, LaTosha Brown, Aimee Allison, among other Black women, continue Dr. King’s legacy of grassroots mobilization, fighting against voter suppression, stressing the importance of civic engagement, and working to build a more equitable society where people can flourish grounded in love and justice.

In sharp contrast, the insurrection at the Capitol does not reflect the ideas of democracy but instead the duplicity of democracy and racialized hypocrisy in carrying out the rule of law. Subsequently, the insurrection was tyrannical, racially motivated, and repeated the cycle of white violence toward Black political activism and democratic progress from Reconstruction to the backlash of the Obama presidency.

Make an impact on the lives of Central Unified students!

Shirley Chisolm

The scene at the Capitol was the antithesis of Dr. King’s beloved community — hateful, violent and immoral.

The victory of the incoming president was ushered in by the Black vote. The celebration of Warnock on the streets of Atlanta and for Black people walking on red clay roads of rural Georgia are the epitome of King’s Dream that “a state sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.” As Warnock said, Georgia was bluer on election day and America was better because “the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton went to the polls and picked her son to be a United States Senator.”

Antoinette Gaboton-Moss is the pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Highland Park and the founder and executive director of Black Community Watchline.

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CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Office of the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools proudly recognizes the month of February as Black History Month. During this time, we celebrate the contributions of Black American citizens as scientists, inventors, educators, farmers, homemakers and explorers of earth and sky.

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The Black Newspaper/Press:

‘THE PILLARS OF BLACK AMERICA’S STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE’

Russwurm

Douglass

Black Newspapers: A Revolutionary Beginning

In honor of black history month, it is with great honor that I speak on one of the greatest forms of early mass communication that the world has ever seen, the newspaper. Through the use of the newspaper in Black America, the world has been revolutionized; Bringing people together, breaking the cycle of ignorance (for those who choose to not be alliterate), and constructing a new way to keep citizens informed. Beginning with the Freedom’s Journal in 1827 and progressing to more modern news companies, such as CNN and The Washington Post, which have origins beginning with the foundations of the black men and women who started publishing news papers in the 19th century, a lot of progress can be seen within the black community in regards to literacy, education, and contributions to society. In addition, new innovations such as Twitter have impacted the world of African-Americans and allows those that fall into the spectrum of “colored people” to be universally connected through a network that is accessible within seconds. Starting off as a form of rebellion and a fight to break the cycle of oblivion and illiteracy, the Black newspaper created a chain reaction educated black men and women who would later go on to change the course of the world.

Making its debut on the 16th day of March, 1827, the same year slavery was abolished, Rev. Peter Williams, Jr., John Russwurm, Samuel Cornish, and other free black men in New York City came together for the cause of writing to, and for, their fellow Black Americans, and founded the very first black owned Newspaper.

Thus, Freedom’s Journal was born.

In the 1800s, when Freedom’s Journal came out to the public’s viewing, weekly papers were released every Friday and circulated in 11 states and a multiple countries outside of the United States. The Freedom’s Journal “provided international, national, and regional information [about] current events and contained editorials declaiming slavery, lynching, and other injustices. The Journal also published biographies of prominent African-Americans and listings of births, deaths, and marriages in the African-American New York community.” (wisconsinhistory.org) The birth of The Freedom’s Journal reshaped black lives because although in certain states, laws “prohibited teaching slaves and free blacks” (SelfTaught, 13), black men and women proudly subscribed to the newspaper and taught themselves to read, even if it meant that they would receive lashings or punishment by law enforcement if caught. The importance of newspapers in the 1800s can easily be overlooked and underappreciated, but in actuality, composing newspapers was a form of rebellion and resistance, proving that no one can keep the black man ignorant. (Self-Taught, 11) Looking back in history, other than the abolition of slavery, AfricanAmericans challenging the American political system and demanding equal opportunities (whether in school, the work force, restaurants, ect.) made the biggest difference in how AfricanAmericans are perceived in history.

As someone from a generation of youth who has personally encountered minimal racism and discrimination, it is outrageous to think of how 400

years ago, and even 200 years ago when The Freedom’s Journal became published, there were still men and women in shackles, living their lives unwillingly as slaves. Freeman’s Journal, and other notable columnists who made developments in Black America significantly advanced our people because “Black papers became the primary means of group expression and main community service outlet, reporting on job opportunities and retailers that didn’t discriminate, and covering charity events in uplifting society pages with big pictures of smiling, dignified black people enjoying each other’s company.” (neimanreports.org) This type of unity can change and uplift the tired mentality of the Black men and women who, at one time, where complacent in their ignorance. The Freedom’s Journal was revolutionary in countering racist commentary printed in mainstream press and providing a safe haven for Black men and women who felt that the newspaper was the only place they could receive hope and support from.

Unfortunately, Freedom’s Journal stopped being published two short years after making its debut. Although the life of Freedom’s Journal was short lived, it succeeded in the goal of uniting African-Americans and promoting literacy, unity, and integration.

The impact of Freedom’s Journal can be seen when looking at the other articles and publications, which were derived from the original groundbreaking Freedom’s Journal. Empowerment for the black population was especially advocated within the Freedom’s Journal and all other preceding black newspapers by promoting literacy and intellectual development (blackpast. org). Surprisingly, although America wanted to keep African-Americans in chains (physically and metaphorically), Black publishers grew to be some of the most rich and powerful figures in African American society of the time. In 1932 during the presidential election, “Robert L. Vann, Abbott and others steered black voters en masse to the Democratic Party, breaking the traditional ties to the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln and helping to elect Franklin D. Roosevelt.” (niemanreports.org) This type of power within the black community upset White Americans, who once took delight in giving lashes and raping colored women. Slowly, through newspapers and Black individuals contributing to mass communication, Black America began to take back their rights and fought back to be seen just as intellectual equals.

For over 180 years after the Freedom’s Journal concluded their news-

paper publications, Black newspapers did not have as much popularity as the Freedom’s Journal. Instead, African-Americans showcased their talents by contributing journalism, columnist, and cartoonist expertise to local news headquarters. Among the men and women who helped provide and pave the road by working for companies who network through mass communication, there are many big names in the particular field such as Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, and Mary McLeod Bethune. (nnpa.org) Many powerful news companies however, did open such as, the Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003) who was the first Black daily news in the 20th century, The Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988) who was the most widely circulated Black newspaper on the Atlantic coast, the Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005) who was the oldest and largest black newspaper in Western United States, and the Norfolk Journal and Guide (1921-2003) who was the only newspaper to provide on-thescene, day-to-day coverage of the Scottsboro trial, and was one of the best researched and well written black newspapers of its time. (proquest. com) Each of these newspapers extended the lending hand in spreading news about black politics, arts, civil rights, and movements within black communities. The beauty about Black newspapers in the 20th century was the support offered and the boom of conversations about how to change and better the system in which oppressed, and still oppresses minorities all too frequently.

By the time the Black Power Era began, the medium of newspapers was severely challenged, and in a sense creating a divide between the Black and White, rather than unifying one another primarily because of the way White news forums would portray and skew the reality of each daily endeavor during horrific events, such as the many civil rights protests. The strides toward civil rights, however, attracted the best of the best journalists who would write articles to attract readers and get more citizens involved. The type of news that became published generally was able to reveal the scary reality minorities were forced to accept, and once more prompted men and women to take a stand to declare their power as a people in hopes to change the course of history that our founding fathers imposed on us.

In 1941, after seeing a lack of Black newspapers and outlets for AfricanAmericans, the National Negro Publishers Association was founded in hopes to “harmonize [their] energies in a common purpose for the benefit of Negro journalism” (nnpa.org) and was host to 22 publications. In 1956, the association voted to rename the organization, the National Newspaper Publishers Associations. Today, the NNPA is comprised of over 200 Black Newspapers and totals of over 15 million readers. (niemanreports. org) By no means are White owned newspaper companies being degraded and unappreciated, but to a certain extent, America cannot keep allowing ourselves and our people to be brainwashed and taught about our people by a person who has never lived the struggles that minorities endure on a daily basis, in this nation founded on the premise of racism. Because of that fact, Black companies strive to advance our people, and find support from one another, rather than changing our ways and adapting to White culture to feel that our voices are

finally being heard. Educating ourselves is the most important way of achieving this goal.

With the advancement of technology and a digital age, America, and many other countries have been able to promote black businesses, black news, and things that would be important to a person who is interested in the life of a minority. Because of where technology is right now, Internet is accessible to most individuals, and therefore just a few clicks and points away on cellphones, laptops, and other hand held devices. This being the case, it is evident that within black culture and any other American culture alike, everyone should theoretically be up to date with current events. Wrong.

Shockingly, when looking at statistics, studies show that only 28% of (Continued on page B3)

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Exclusive/Feature Editorial :

Crackers and Karens:

WHY BLACKS FEAR FOR THEIR LIVES IN WHITE AMERICA NOTE: A CRACKER IS A REFERENCE USED AMONG BLACK FOLK TO DEFINE A RACIST WHITE PERSON AND A KAREN IS A FEMALE COUNTERPART. RACISM IS FULLY BAKED INTO AMERICAN CULTURE.

The Black Lives Matter movement is a direct response to the unjustified killings of Black men, Black women, and Black children by racially motivated shootings by White policemen and White policewomen. In addition, private citizens who have become inebriated with the cocaine of racism have also carried out such killings. It is this contemporary and historical context that leads many Black folk to live in fear. They live in fear for their own lives and those of their loved ones.

This fear is historically predicated on a 19th century plantation owner who said that the sole basis which enabled him to produce cotton for profit on the backs of his enslaved Black men and womenwas “to make them stand in fear.” The process which “baked” fear into the hearts and minds of the enslaved was the sheer arbitrariness of punishment for those who resisted their enslavement. The baking of fear could be rape, castration, lynching, whippings, and such unique and sick punishment by which one slave was forced to defecate into the mouth of a slave resister.

The 1861-65American Civil War between the “quasi-free” North and the slave South led to legal freedom with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution followed by the changing political status of Black folk with the 14th Amendment of citizenship. Political power through voting rights came with the 15th Amendment. With Reunion came the Reaction of the Ku Klux Klan and various other White supremacistgroups. This reaction is encapsulated in the words of President Andrew Johnson, who said, “This is a country for White men, and by god, so long as I am president, it shall be a government for White men.”Even though the Radical Republicans passed these new Amendments, this segmented party soon gave way to a cooperative relationship with the racist southern Democrats. The rise of lynchings, rape, and castrations soon followed. A new Shadow of Slavery fell on the land in the guise of Jim Crow as “the great fear” on “the land that never snows.” The 2016 film THE FREE STATE OF JONES vividly traverses this bloody history starring Matthew McConaughey and Mahershala Ali. One of the most vocal “Karens” during this period was Georgia’s Congresswoman Rebecca L. Felton, who said to protect White women, we will have to “lynch 1,000” Black men a week. Interestinly, the myth of the Black rapist was actually exposed as the “big lie” when the Memphis, Tennessee,anti-lynching crusader, Ida B. Wells, published her book RED RECORD in 1895, which chronicled the spark that led to the majority of lynchings. The root cause was disputes over politcial power, labor contracts, and payment, and economic competition.

In Memphis the destruction of The Peoples Grocery and the lynching of owner Thomas Moss, William Steward, and Calvin McDowell were solely about stopping Black economic uplift. However, the myth of the Black rapist is retentive, in part, because of Hollywood’s fixation on selling for profit, sex , and violence. Class and race conflict, economically grounded, arethe driving forces of African American history. Everyone knows that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, but very few know that he was there to support the Black working class municipal workers’ strike. Not a White woman in sight. Note that the Wilmington, North Carolina, massacre of 1898 was ignited by Whites determined to stopBlacksfrom voting and attaining political power. Some estimated that multiple hundreds of Blacks were murdered. Of course one cannot forget the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, which involved a White mob of Crackers destroying the Black Wall Street of the Greenwood district. Black businesses were burned to the ground, and hundreds of Black folk were just “burned” to death.

Ofcritical importance is to understand this history and its dialectic (motion, conflict, and change) and the dimensions of party realignment. Southern Democrats, residing in the states of the Old Confederacy, were the party of the Klan whereas the Republican party, the party of Lincoln, was the party of capital or the monied class. However, over time, the party of Lincoln became, in the words of current House Minority LeaderKevin McCarthy, a big tent-party which welcomes both Crackers and Karens. This unholy alliance led to White supremacist violence as the progressive element within the GOP disappeared soon after the passage of the Civil War Amendments. Thisdialecticled to the Freedpeople being “sold down the river” into the darkness of death and destruction. Therefore, by the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940, most Blacks had fled the racist Republican party and joined the new liberal and pro-integrationist Democratic party of the geographic areas of the North, East, and West.

Party realignment entrenched racism in the new Republican party and in their brethren, the southern Democrats. Beginning in the period of Reconstruction (1865-1877), racial violence with the murder of Black folk became a continuous fault line unimpeded by any appeal to human morality and decency.

The Republican party was joined at the hip with the “cracker’ southern wing of the Democratic party.

The year 1919 was called “Red Summer” because of the blood shed by the murder of thousands of Black folk by Crackers and Karens.

White-initiated race riots occurred in dozens of cities in the North and South. Most riots were precipitated by the return of Black veterans of WWI. Blacks with guns and experience using them in Europe killing Germans led to a reverse fear in American Whites of the now “uppity”or the New Negro who did

Malik Simba, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus Department of History/Africana Studies California State University-Fresno

not willingly return to a placated existence within the shadow of the plantation. Black veterans had seen cowardice in White American soldiers and hadslept with French women. The invincibility of Whiteness was no longer apart of their thinking. Black veterans returned from the war willing to Fight Back which was the slogan of the NAACP. Fighting back was put to the test when Black sharecroppers in 1919, led by a veteranin Elaine, Arkansas, organized an economic cooperative to blunt the exploitationby the planter class. A conflict occurred and a deputy sheriff was killed. Crackers throughout Phillips County surged to Elaine and murdered hundreds of Blacks in revenge. The New York Times printed a news story of the incident with the title, “Murdering Whites.”The Supreme Court case of Moore v. Dempsey, which involved the right to a fair trial, evolved out of this racist conflict. The fear of death and destruction led to many Blacks in this region joining the Great Migration to the North.

Furthermore, White women were central to the destruction of Rosewood, Florida, in 1921, the 1933 false rape conviction of the Scottsboro Boys and their long incarceration on death row, the police murder of Black men in Groveland, Lake County Florida, in 1949, and of course, the brutal killings of 14-year-old Emmitt Till in 1955. . White women as provocation highlight sensational stories in the demented imaginations of Crackers and Karens. Of late, we know the cases or incidents of Susan Smith, Amy Cooper, and a “courtside Karen” who confronted LeBron James.

In 1971, Susan Smith drowned her 3-year-old and 14-month-old sons and blamed it on a Black man; and who can forget “Karen” Amy Cooper, who was filmed falsely accusing a Black man of attempting to assault her in New Yorks’ Central Park while he was bird-watching.

This month, February 2021, LeBron James of the L.A. Lakers was falsely accused of verbal assault by a well-heeled courtside White woman. This Karen posted derisive comments about James even though the entire incident was recorded exonorating James of any verbal interaction with “Courtside Karen,” who was removed from the arena. Because of these types of incidences, there is an old Black folk saying that Black men should “stay out of White Women’s business.” Actually this folkism was a dialog in the 1960 film SERGERANT RUTLEDGE starring Woody Strode. His character, the sergeant, was falsely accused of raping and murdering a young, virginal teenage girl. The real murderous rap-

ist was revealed as the nice White middle-aged store keeper.

Finally, one must mention White women who were the antithesis of the stereotypical Karen. Such women included were First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who supported the NAACP campaign for antilynching legislation; Viola Liuzzo, who sacrificed her life trying to destroy Jim Crow; Hillary Clinton, who fought to elevate the education of Southern Black children; and the liberal philanthropist, McKenzie Scott who, in December 2020, donated over $8000 million to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other educational institutions. .

In conclusion, the Great Fear in Black America revolved around this concrete history and the lived experiences in the hearts and minds of Black folk. The memory of Whitesupremacist terror leads to constant discussion in Black barbershops and beauty parlers.The famous Black sociologist John Gwaltney wrote his seminal work, DRYLONGSO, which chronicled the experience, via muliple dozens of interviews, Black migrant women from the South to the North. Most shared stories of being of raped by a Cracker or a Karen assisting in such rapes. And as for Black men and women, say the name of Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter was a response to the sheer insanity and the arbitrariness of racist killing of Black folk. These killings make for fear in Black parents about permitting their children to play with toy pistols (Tamir Rice), or fear while watching a football game in one’s apartment (Bothan Jean), or fear while taking a jog (Ahmaud Arberry), or fear while going to the store to buy candy (Trayvon Martin), or fear of appearing suspicious (Amadou Diallo), or fear while smoking a cigarette (Sandra Bland), or fear while taking one’s family for an afternoon ride (Philando Castile), or fear while just trying to order a burger at a drive thru (Rayshard Brooks),or fear while holding a sandwish (Casey Goodson), or fear while walking home at night (Elijah McClain), or fear while standing in your own garage (Andre Maurice Hil), or fear while having an argument with your girlfriend (Jacob Blake), or or fear just jaywalking (Kurt A. Reinhold), fear while just being Black (George Floyd). Given the infiltration of police departments by Crackers and the legal doctrine of qualified immunity, which makes unjust killings by police justifiable by law, it is no wonder that BlacksFEAR living in America. Every Black parent gives their pre-teen children what is known as “The Talk.” Parents share with their children the racist travails they will face as adults and caution them about proper behavior. The Talk is driven by the Great Fear.

But the relentless Great Fear can be moderated by knowing this history described and not letting it consume or socially paralyze you, or in the words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who said in his 1933 inaugural, “You Have Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself.” However, everyone counters fear differently.

The Black Newspaper/Press...

(Continued from page B1) Black Americans read the newspaper. (journalism.org) The unsettling reality is that now because of the age of Twitter, where people of all ages have the ability to post and share experiences, photos, and videos instantly, African-Americans and youth of the current generation are unworried and content with where our culture stands. Instead of broadcasting opinions and stories through mass media, the youth has the tendency to only speak to his or her followers—and this is relevant when discussing any type of social media platform (i.e. Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook). Although talking about current happenings is beneficial to expending intellectual horizons, there are limited benefits when only a few people are made aware of the news, or when the youth have lost hope in reading the news or writing articles.

Times, and many more other companies are holding down some of the highest ratings of all time for popularity, and even in this digital age, where many individuals have evidently shied away from the concept of being informed.

News companies are still doing a phenomenal job of keeping the interest of Americans all alike and monitoring output to be sure that every individual is represented and accounted for. Although major progress has been made within the Black community since slave times, “In reality, racism remains a major obstacle in black progress in America today. Forty years after the March in Washington, In 2016, Black and White published Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream is newspapers are all in popular demand. still unachieved—and the black press The Wall Street Journal, New York is still on the case.” (niemanreports.

Times, USA Today, Los Angeles org) The best way to combat the Times, The Washington Post, The negativity in the news is to see more Philadelphia Tribune, Chicago SunBlack faces in the news and have Being brought to attention that social media is winning the hearts of people of all ages, one can say, “Yes, black papers are no longer the main media for many African-Americans. Yes, the number of black publications goes up and down depending on social and political circumstances. Nonetheless, the black press is no more dead than the white press.” (niemanreports.org) Although facts prove that there is a decline in Black press views, knowing the history and power of the newspaper, there is hope that the newspaper has not yet met its full potential and can come back and prove importance, even the youth.

courage instilled in the youth so that as our people get older, we have new minds coming in and continuing to strengthen our image. Hope is in the hands of our educators and parents of this current generation. As a Black people, we are not done writing their history yet.

From past to present, it is indisputable that the newspaper has served as one of the most important, most fluid, most patriotic, and most valuable aspects in mass communications.

Although the news has gone from paper to electronic, it is nonetheless, the newspaper, and a part of history to forever cherish and respect the history of. Beginning with Freedom’s Journal in 1827 and having many young men and women still writing for their lives and writing for the lives of the silent, telling stories through the news will never be outdated.

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The California Advocate

February 18, 2021

The Black Dollar:

The Historic Road to $1.5 Trillion in

BLACK BUYING POWER and Dispelling a Common Myth

Black buying power currently stands at over $1.1 trillion and is on the road to hit about $1.5 trillion by 2021. This collective buying power means that nearly $2 trillion will be flowing through black America annually very soon, making us the centerpiece for various researchers, marketers, advertisers, and other campaigns designed to influence black spending patterns.

But the question is, with so much buying power, can we as African Americans influence and direct said spending ourselves? Do we have the power directly, indirectly, and strategically to determine where that money flows and if so, could directing that flow help rebuild the black community?

Road to More Buying Power and Influence The data comes from a recent Nielsen study that also reports that African American households earning $75,000 or more per year are a fast-growing segment that will have more influence going forward than ever before.

Within the next 45 years, by around 2060, black America might be represented by 75 million in the U.S., holding about 20% of the U.S. population. In terms of black-owned businesses, that number sits anywhere from 2.5 million to 3 million enterprises and is

spent in black-owned enterprises and if black America were to redirect just about 10% of total black spending to black-owned enterprises, that could translate into the creation of about 1 million jobs centered around communities of color.

Black Buying Power Matters

1st Black Millionaire Madam C.J. Walker projected to grow in larger numbers going forward.

All of this data points to the trend that African Americans will be very important contributors to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) along with the creation and sustainability of U.S. jobs.

The Myth of the “Six-Hour Black Dollar”

While black spending power increases, how that money is best put to use to rebuild the black community is always in question. For example, there has been a lot of informal discussion about how long a dollar remains in the black community. Some claims have been a dollar lasts no longer from one to six hours before it leaves.

Harlem couple dons matching Red Fox fur coats While such information has been widely circulated, analyzed, and discussed, researchers from Howard University have looked into the claims and could not properly substantiate the statistics. Howard University analyzed credible data and research tracking sources, such as The Federal Reserve, Bureau of Labor Statistics, SBA, and even other reports from Nielsen, and none of these sources track how often money circulates within a particular community.

There are suggestions that the rumors of the quicklycirculating black dollar originated in the book, Talking Dollars and Making Sense: A Wealth Building Guide for African-Americans.” Howard University reports that they reached out to the book’s author, Brooke Stephens, for further comment and she was un-

able to provide where she obtained her information other than citing a six-month study of which she could not actually provide.

Yet, there is hard research being done on the issue of how the vast spending power of African Americans can be used to help communities of color. The Empowerment Experiment was conducted as a research project via a foundation set up by a black, middle-class Chicago couple, who partnered with Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management’s Levy Entrepreneurship Center for the study.

The Empowerment Experiment shed great insight into economic trends of black people. For example, it showed that less than around 3% of the current black buying power is

Over the last six months, we have seen hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. And while the protests have sent a powerful message, one of the most sustainable ways to achieve lasting equity in the U.S. might be for consumers to choose to put their money where their values are. Because black spending power does matter and with black consumers spending $1.4 trillion in 2019 (which is larger than Mexico’s gross domestic product), that money can lead to significant change if wielded more strategically. As Black Friday, looms in just a month, BCT Partners explores ways that black consumers, and others who support programs and initiatives to improve equity in America, can use their spending influence to fight racism and affect longlasting change.

Black Buying Power By The Numbers: HISTORY IN THE MAKING

habits of Black consumers compared to the rest of the population at large.

The wealth of Black people in The spending by Black consumers America and the gap between other is especially influenced by advertisracial groups has been well docuing, the report found, with them being mented, but that doesn’t mean Black 42 percent more likely than the rest folks don’t have any money to spend. of the country to respond to ads on Even though the racial wealth gap is mobile. actually widening, Black people can That’s because, the report found, spend money with the best of them, that “Ninety-six percent of African statistics show.

Americans own a smartphone, and With Black History Month upon us, those aged 35+ surpass the total popuwe take a closer look at the spending lation in their age group by 2% for habits of Black America, by the num- smartphone ownership. In fact, Afribers. can Americans make up 23% of the And with nearly 50 million Black total market for U.S. cellular sales, people in the United States, Black while only accounting for 14% of the consumers spend more than $1 triloverall population.” lion a year. Nielsen, which provides Black folks also love to spend their analytical insights about the habits of money on beauty and grooming prodconsumers, released an in-depth look ucts, shelling out about $573.6 milat Black buying power to document lion on an annual basis for “personal the trends associated with that tremen- soap and bath needs.” That was about dously reliable level of spending.

19 percent higher than any other de“At 47.8 million strong and a buymographic. ing power that’s on par with many We also like to spend lavishly at countries’ gross domestic products, high-end department stores, with 63 African Americans continue to percent of Black folks saying in a outpace spending nationally,” said survey they like to buy from Saks Cheryl Grace, Nielsen’s Senior Vice Fifth Avenue, 45 percent at NeiPresident of Community Alliances man Marcus (45%) and 24 percent at and Consumer Engagement and coBloomingdales. creator of the DIS Report.

Also, counter to the current trend of Nielsen’s report, entitled, “It’s in the shopping online, Black folks prefer to Bag: Black Consumers’ Path to Purspend their money in person instead chase,” found that Black buyers have of over the internet. especially influenced the technology “More than half (52%) of African market and broke down the spending Americans find in-store shopping

By Bruce C.T. Wright

THE BLACK CHURCH...

(Continued from pageA4) -cism, universalism … all the strong objections against the truth of God; objections which he may perhaps have considered peculiar only to the cultivated minds … of critics and philosophers!

The Methodists were the most active among missionary societies, but Baptists also had strong appeal.

The Baptists’ insistence that each congregation should have its own autonomy meant that blacks could exercise more control over their religious affairs. Yet the independence of black churches was curbed by law and by the white Southern response to slave uprisings and abolition.

ABOLITION In the years leading up to the Civil War, the black church found its political and prophetic voice in the cause of abolition. Black ministers took to their pulpits to speak out against slavery and warned that any nation that condoned slavery would suffer divine punishment.

Former slave and Methodist convert Frederick Douglass challenged Christians to confront an institution that violated the central tenets of the Christian faith, including the principle of equality before God. In 1829, African American abolitionist David Walker issued his famous tract, “Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World,” urging slaves

relaxing, compared with 26% of the total population” and “55% of Black consumers say they enjoy wandering the store looking for new, interesting products,” the Nielsen report found.

“When shopping, African Americans are more influenced than the total population by store staff (34% more likely), in-store advertising (28% more likely) and merchandising (27% more likely).”

And when it comes to supporting our own, we are first in line to buy from Black-owned businesses, especially those in the beauty industry, where Black folks accounted “for almost 90% of the overall spend.”

We are also influenced by celebrities to the point that “35% of African American shoppers are more likely to agree, ‘when a celebrity designs a product, I am more likely to buy it.’”

Food is also another shopping sector that Black folks spend liberally on.

According to Nielsen’s report, “soul food” is a major driver for “African American consumers’ top grocery purchases,” including certain brands like “Quaker grits ($19 million); Louisiana Fish Fry ($11 million); Glory Greens (frozen and fresh, $9.5 million combined) and Jay’s Potato Chips (nearly $2.7 million).”

But it’s not all selfish consumerism on the part of the Black dollar. A study from 2012 revealed that African Americans donate a larger share of their income to charities than any

other group in the nation.

“We have been givers since the beginning of time,” Tracey Webb, founder of Washington D.C-based Black Benefactors, previously told NewsOne. “From our communities in Africa to the Underground Railroad and the Civil Rights Movement, Black collective giving is something that’s inherent in us.”

With that said, Black Enterprise cautioned conflating buying habits with wealth.

“To the degree we withhold our spending from companies that are harmful, disrespectful, or unfair to black consumers, and intentionally direct our dollars toward companies (including black-owned businesses) that are beneficial to black communities and value black consumers, our spending power is important.,” Alfred Edmond Jr., Senior Vice President and Editor-at-large of Black Enterprise wrote in 2017.

“In other words,” he continued, “the ability to build wealth depends on the degree we control our spending, so that after we pay income and other taxes, and for necessities such as housing, food, and transportation, we have something left over to not just spend, but to earmark for emergency savings, retirement savings, an investment portfolio, buying real estate (beginning with our own homes), financing businesses, and acquiring other assets.”

to resort to violence, if necessary.

He, too, warned of divine punishment: “God rules in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. ... His ears continually open to the tears and groans of His oppressed people. ...”

In the North, black ministers and members of the African American community joined white abolitionists in organizing the Underground Railroad, an informal network that helped persons escaping bondage to make their way to freedom. Prominent among these activists was Harriet Tubman, who escaped from slavery in 1849 and made her way to Philadelphia. Having secured her freedom, Tubman put herself in

jeopardy by making repeated return trips to the South to assist others.

Her courage and determination earned her the affectionate sobriquet “Moses.”

Marilyn Mellowes was principally responsible for the research and development of the series God in America and has served as its series producer. She produced and wrote From Jesus to Christ, the First Christians, a four-hour FRONTLINE series that premiered in 1998. Additional credits include Vietnam: A Television History, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, Castro’s Challenge, The Kennedys, Nixon and Julia!

America’s Favorite Chef.

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The California Advocate

February 18, 2021

February 18, 2021 The California Advocate

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Celebrates Black History Month

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The California Advocate

February 18, 2021

celebrating B L A C K

H I S T O R Y

M O N T H

t o da y

and

ev er y da y

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The California Advocate

February 18, 2021

February 18, 2021 The California Advocate

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February 18, 2021