Page 4
Tri-State Defender
September 4 - 10, 2014
OPINION The emotional toll of growing up black
John H. Sengstacke Publisher (1951 - 1997)
The Mid-South’s Best Alternative Newspaper
• Bernal E. Smith II President / Publisher • Dr. Karanja A. Ajanaku Executive Editor
Powered by Best Media
Obama’s African legacy already being debated by George E. Curry NNPA News Service
WASHINGTON – President Obama showed a deeply personal side of him rarely seen in public as he toasted African leaders at a State Dinner at the White House at the recentlyconcluded U.S.-Africa Summit in Washington. “Tonight we are making history, and it’s an honor to have all of you here,” he said on Aug. 5. “And I stand before you as the president of the United States and a proud American. I also stand before you as the son of a man from Africa. The blood of Africa runs through our family. And so for us, the bonds between our countries, our continents, are deeply personal.” It was precisely because of those special bonds that Africans and African Americans had such high – some say unrealistic – expectations of what Obama would do for Africa when he was first elected president in 2008. Now those expectations have faded with the passage of time. Since his election, Obama has made only two trips to Africa, not counting his brief trip to Johannesburg in December 2013 to attend a memorial service following the death of Nelson Mandela. His first trip as president was July 10-11, 2009 to Ghana, where he met with the president, addressed the Ghanaian Parliament and toured Cape Coast Castle, where enslaved Africans were kept before being taken to the West. He took a three-nation trip June 26-July 2, 2013, visiting Senegal, where he toured Goree Island; South Africa and Tanzania. Obama visited Kenya, his father’s place of birth, prior to assuming office. As Obama noted in his toast to African leaders, “Of all the incredible moments of our trips to Africa, one of the most memorable was being able to bring Michelle, and later our little girls, to my father’s hometown in Kenya, where we were embraced by so many relatives. “We’ve walked the steps of a painful past – in Ghana, at Cape Coast Castle; in Senegal, at Gorée Island – standing with our daughters in those doors of no return through which so many Africans passed in chains. We’ll never forget bringing our daughters to Robben Island, to the cell from which Madiba showed the unconquerable strength and dignity of an African heart. We’ve been inspired by Africans – ordinary Africans doing extraordinary things…” With slightly more than two years left in his two-term presidency, scholars and activists are already debating what will be the African legacy of the first African American elected president of the United States. The legacies of Obama’s two immediate predecessors on the continent are clear. Although, by his own admission, Bill Clinton should have done more to end the Rwandan genocide, fight the AIDS epidemic and end famine and war in Somalia, his legacy is the passage and signing of the African Growth and Opportunity Act – AGOA – into law in 2000. AGOA was designed to help economies in sub-Saharan Africa develop stronger economic ties with the U.S. It does that by providing trade preferences for certain goods to enter the U.S. duty free, including textiles. The law, renewed once since passage, is up for renewal again in 2015. It is universally agreed that George W. Bush’s African legacy is what he did to curb HIV/AIDS in Africa. A White House fact sheet noted, “President Bush has made a historic commitment to the fight against global HIV/AIDS. In his 2003 State of the Union Address, President Bush announced the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to combat global HIV/AIDS. Later that year, President Bush signed the initial 5-year, $15 billion authorizing legislation that had been approved with strong bipartisan support. This President views this commitment as a central part of our foreign policy to help alleviate the despair that allows extremism to take hold. “PEPFAR is the largest international health initiative in history to fight a single disease. This effort has helped bring life-saving treatment to more than 2.1 million people and care for more than 10 million people – including more than four million orphans and vulnerable children –
George E. Curry
around the world.” What is Obama’s signature contribution to Africa? Bill Fletcher Jr., former president of TransAfrica, an advocacy group, summed up Obama’s African legacy in two words – “good
speeches.” He explained, “When he (Obama) was a senator, he introduced legislation in connection with the Great Lakes Region, peacekeeping and economic development. In the six years he has been in office, I’ve seen no evidence of any kind of U.S. effort to engage in peace and reconciliation. “For example, the U.S. should be trying to resolve Moroccan occupation of the Western Sahara. But there are no special envoys working in the Great Lakes Region. The U.S. ignores the corruption of Equatorial Guinea. The response to the Nigerian Boko Haram crisis ends up being basically military and very little else. So, I don’t feel there’s anything particularly innovative in Obama’s approach toward the continent.” Mel Foote, president of Constituency for Africa, an Africa support group, disagrees. “His biggest legacy is going to be these young African leaders initiative,” a reference to a pre-summit gathering here hosted by Obama. “You can’t stop them. They are the powers to be in their own countries. “He had young people from Zimbabwe here, he had young people from Cameroon here –countries that have dictators. These are the best and the brightest that have been identified by U.S. embassies, not by the governments of those countries.” Foote and Fletcher agree that Africa’s problems extend beyond the need for additional U.S. trade. Africa has the youngest population in the world, with nearly 200 million people between the ages of 15 and 24. In most African countries, that group makes up more than 20 percent of the total population, according to the African Development Bank. By 2045, the number of young people is expected to double. With those growing numbers comes the challenge of providing a sufficient number of jobs. As a Brookings report explained, “Young people find work, but not in places that pay good wages, develop skills or provide a measure of job security. With the exceptions of Botswana, Nigeria and South Africa – all of which have alarmingly high youth unemployment rates – less than one-fifth of Africa’s young workers find wage employment. Over 70 percent of youth in the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda are either self-employed or contributing to family work.” The Brookings study notes there is also an education crisis. “In the midst of an increasingly knowledge-based global economy, 30 million primary school-age children in Africa – one in every four – are out of school, along with 20 million adolescents,” the report stated. “…Many of Africa’s children are denied an education because they are working as child laborers.” The continent has other pressing issues as well, including the need for more energy. Another Brookings study, titled, “Top Five Reasons Why Africa Should Be a Priority for the United States,” observed: “The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that there are 590 million people in subSaharan Africa, mostly in rural areas, without access to electricity, representing nearly 6 in 10 people in the region. In addition, 700 million people, or 70 percent of the population, rely on traditional, non-commercial sources of energy, such as biomass, for cooking.” In his speech to African leaders, Obama acknowledged that even with Africa’s challenges, it is a continent on the rise. He said, “Even as Africa continues to face enormous challenges, even as too many Africans still endure poverty and conflict, hunger and disease, even as we work together to meet those challenges, we cannot lose sight of the new Africa that’s emerging.”
During the recent US-Africa Summit, President Obama said Africa is on the rise. (White House photo.)
CBC: The Clueless Black Caucus On the very day that Michael Brown, the slain teenager from Ferguson, Mo., was buried, the Congressional Black Caucus made a major announcement. They sent a letter complaining to President Obama. Yep, you heard correctly. They took the bold move of asking the president to investigate issues of racism and discrimination within local law enforcement nationally by setting up a police czar. Now that you have finished laughing, let’s discuss this a little further. It took plodding through the CBC’s meandering letter to see that they made a few strong recommendations to the president. They first want Obama to appoint the “Department of Justice (DOJ) to train every police department in the country on the issue of racial bias.” It’s amazing that members of congress need to be reminded that policing is a local issue, not a federal one. The federal government has its hands full trying to eradicate racism from its own ranks. So I have a recommendation for the CBC: Let the states and municipal governments deal with the issue on the local level. The second recommendation concerned accountability. According to the CBC’s letter, “Police departments should not be solely responsible for investigating themselves.” Oh really? These same members of congress seem to have no problem when it comes to congress investigating itself. If another member of congress or the public files a complaint against a member of congress, Congress refuses to bring in an independent investigator. The third recommendation deals with the issue of diversity. “Police department personnel should be representative of the communities they serve…DOJ must set, implement, and monitor diversity hiring and retention guidelines for local police departments,” according to the letter. Again, this is a local issue and DOJ has no authority to engage in such an activity. Why won’t Congress agree to be subjected to this same standard? Besides, Congress conveniently exempts itself from some of the law it passes. The fourth recommendation revolved around engagement. “Too often law enforcement personnel hold stereotypes about black and brown youth and vice versa. Lack of familiarity breeds lack of understanding and increased opportunities for conflict…” These same members of Congress perpetuate stereotypes that Republicans hate blacks; and don’t care about the poor. Democrats rarely engage with Republicans on any issues; and people wonder why no legislation gets passed in D.C. The fifth recommendation: “…The Administration must quickly establish a national commission to review existing police policies and practices and identify the best policies and practices that can prevent more Fergusons and vastly improve policing
Tri-State Defender Platform 1. Racial prejudice worldwide must be destroyed. 2. Racially unrestricted membership in all jobs, public and private. 3. Equal employment opportunities on all jobs, public and private. 4. True representation in all U.S. police forces. 5. Complete cessation of all school segregation. 6. Federal intervention to protect civil rights in all instances where civil rights compliance at the state level breaks down
in communities across the nation.” Is anyone listening? This is a local issue. The final recommendation called for more b u r e a u c r a c y. “The Administration must appoint a federal Czar, Raynard housed in the Jackson U.S. Department of Justice, who is specifically tasked with promoting the professionalization of local law enforcement, monitoring egregious law enforcement activities, and adjudicating suspicious actions of local law enforcement agencies that receive federal funding.” In essence, the CBC wants to nationalize all local and municipal police departments. This is yet another example of why no one takes the CBC seriously. They constantly advocate positions that have no chance of passing Congress; and in this case, are not even legal. Did the CBC really just realize that racial disparities on the Ferguson police force existed? I was born and raised in St. Louis and these disparities have existed for decades in Ferguson and throughout the region. The federal government has absolutely no role in insuring diversity on a local police force. That is the responsibility of the locally elected leadership. Local police should answer to the citizens they are sworn to serve and protect, not to Eric Holder or the CBC. The CBC conveniently ignore that blacks are 67 percent of the population of Ferguson; but they rarely participate in elections in any meaningful way. Are the blacks in Ferguson just realizing that there were only three blacks out of 53 on the police force? Maybe blacks are fine with the composition of the police force and the rest of their elected officials. If they were dissatisfied, they could have quickly changed that by voting. We cannot continue to blame others for our apathetic behaviors; and we can’t continue to run to big government to do for us what we are not willing to do for ourselves. We must be what we are looking for. The CBC has chosen to put the blame and responsibility for Ferguson on everyone but the citizens of Ferguson. Whose fault is it that blacks don’t vote in Ferguson? They have the power to vote, but they don’t have the will to vote. They hold the key to their own future. (NNPA columnist Raynard Jackson is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a Washington, D.C.-based public relations/government affairs firm. He can be reached via www.raynardjackson.com. Follow him on Twitter at raynard1223.) DISTRIBUTION: Tri-State Defender is available at newsstands, street sales, store vendors, mail subscription and honor boxes throughout the Greater Memphis area. No person may, without prior written permission of the Tri-State Defender, reprint any part of or duplicate by electronic device any portion without written permission. Copyright 2013 by Tri-State Defender Publishing, Inc. Permission to Publisher, Tri-State Defender, 203 Beale Street, Suite 200, Memphis, TN. 38103. Back copies can be obtained by calling the Tri-State Defender at (901) 523-1818, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: Mail subscriptions to the Tri-State Defender are available upon request. One Year, $30.00; Two Years, $55.00. Domestic subscriptions must be addressed to: Subscriptions, Tri-State Defender, 203 Beale Street, Suite 200, Memphis, TN. 38103. Delivery may take one week. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Tri-State Defender, 203 Beale Street, Suite 200, Memphis, TN. 38103. GENERAL INFORMATION: Any and all inquiries can be made in writing, by calling (901) 523-1818 or by e-mail. TELEPHONE: Editorial and Administration: (901) 523-1818. Display Advertising (901) 523-1818. Classified Advertising (901) 523-1818. Fax: (901) 578-5037. E-MAIL: Editorial e-mail (press releases, news, letters to editor, etc.): editorial@tristatedefender.com; Display advertising e-mail (ads, advertising price requests, etc.): advertising@tri-statedefender.com; Classified advertising e-mail (ads, advertising price requests, etc.): classifieds@tri-statedefender.com; Subscription/Circulation e-mail (subscriptions, subscription price requests, etc.): subscriptions@tri-statedefender.com; Production e-mail (technical questions/specs, etc.): production@tri-statedefender.com. The Tri-State Defender (USPS 780-220) is published weekly by Tri-State Defender Publishing Co., 203 Beale Street, Suite 200, Memphis, TN 38103. Second Class postage paid at Memphis, TN.
Terrell Strayhorn, a brilliant black Ohio State University professor, recently opened the Educational Testing Service and Children’s Defense Fund co-sponsored symposium on Advanc- Marian Wright ing Success for Edelman Black Men in College by sharing a question his 14-year-old son asked him: Why did he get in trouble for speaking out of turn when he jumped in to answer his teacher’s question? When his white friend did the same thing, she was praised for being excited about learning. Strayhorn noted that many parents and grandparents and educators and policy experts are concerned about the same question: “There are lots of black and brown boys who are often penalized for committing the same exact act that non-black and nonbrown, usually white kids, commit in school – and some students are praised for certain behaviors that other kids are penalized for. It sends a very mixed message, because my son is confused: ‘So what should I do? Not be excited about learning? What if you just can’t wait for the question? How do I signal to the teacher I’m not a rule-breaker?’” Strayhorn said these questions are something we’ve got to think about. He highlighted a number of other roadblocks we must all be sensitive to and overcome to get all our children on a path of healthy development, confidence, and success. The disparate treatment of black children in the classroom from the earliest years, especially black boys, often discourages and knocks many off the path to high school graduation and college. The cumulative and convergent toll of subtle but discouraging adult actions in schools and other child serving systems they come into contact with too often impedes the success of children of color, especially those who are poor, and burdens them with an emotional toll they don’t deserve. I used to sing loudly with my children and Sesame Street’s Kermit the Frog “It’s Not Easy Being Green.” I can only imagine the number of black children and adults who sing inside daily “It’s Not Easy Being Black.” I’m sure that black youths seeing what happened to Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown and others who lost their lives for walking while black and those who are stopped and frisked and arrested and victimized by excessive police force carry these burdens inside every day. Even the youngest black boys, ages 4 and 5, who are put out of school and even preschool for nonviolent disciplinary charges for which white children would never be. Strayhorn spelled out another way black children are harmed: through disparate resources in the classroom, including textbooks, that hold black, brown, and poor students back. He described an experience he had while a professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville working with a Knoxville high school that was 97 percent black. “I found that in this high school these students were learning from textbooks that were at least 10 years old… What exactly are the implications of learning from a textbook that’s 10 years old? Well, I’ll tell you this: that if you don’t catch up too quickly, especially in terms of science, there are certain technological revolutions that have happened at such a fast pace that they’re not even mentioned in the books from which they’ll learn – but will certainly be part of the test that they’ll take to demonstrate competency to go on to college.” As he covered what does work in building a pathway to success, Strayhorn emphasized the need for positive interventions based on proven designs – because in his program evaluation experience he’s seen far too many well-intentioned efforts that lacked a measurable impact because good ideas weren’t well implemented. He said as an example mentoring programs are especially popular, but many don’t provide adequate training: “If I ask everyone at this table, ‘Will you be a mentor?,’ and you all say yes, and I say, ‘Now, go out and mentor,’ but never tell you what a mentor is supposed to do, I never tell you how important it is to get to know your mentee.” We need to watch out for the subtle as well as the overt ways in which we treat non-white and white children and those who are poor differently. And we need much more diversity in children’s literature so that white, black, latino, Native American, Asian American, and all children can be exposed to the rich mosaic of America’s melting pot to help them see themselves and what they can be. (NNPA columnist Marian Wright Edelman is president of the Children’s Defense Fund.)