Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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Unveiled at Capitol
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CALENDAR
march
The goals is to create connections between the organizations and the RCSD community in order to address and improve overall health and wellness which positively affects students academic success. There will be performances by local youth and students groups, samples from organizations, a raffle, handouts, give aways and much more! 17 City Living Sundays 2013 - Westside Time: 12:00pm-4:00pm Location: Theodore Roosevelt School #43 -1305 Lyell Avenue Realize your dream of homeownership. Learn how easy and truly affordable it is to own a home. Join us for seminars, counseling, neighborhood information, and Open Houses.For additional information, please call (585)428-CITY or TDD (585)428-6054 April 7 4th Annual Edible Books Festival And Competition County Time: 2:00pmto4:00pm Location: Kate Gleason Auditorium, Central Library, 115 South Ave Imagine an event where books look good enough to eat and can be! Participants select favorite books and create 3-d sculptures based on the titles or themes of those books. They are made from cakes, sculpted fruits and vegetables, chocolate, macaroni and any other edible items. The results will amaze you! Contact: Linda Rock 428-8350, linda. rock@libraryweb.org
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also inside...
Unveiled at Capitol
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6 Skate with the Amerks Time: 6:00pm-7:00pm Location: Manhattan Square Park Ice Rink, 10 Manhattan Square Drive Amerks fans can skate with their favorite players at the annual Wendys Skate Amerks players will be on hand to meet and skate with fans. Free passes are available at any participating Monroe County Wendys location. Passes will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis while supplies last. One pass admits one person and all patrons must have their passes present upon arrival in order to skate. Skates are also required For more information or to purchase tickets to an Amerks game, visit www.amerks.com or call 1-855-GOAMERKS. 7 Monroe County Planning Board To Hold Public Time: 7:00 PM Location: Auditorium A at Monroe Community Hospital, 435 E. Henrietta Road The Monroe County Planning Board will sponsor a public information meeting on the proposed 2014-2019 Capital Improvement Program. 16 RCSD Health and Wellness Fair Time: 9:00am-12;00pm Location: East High School- 1801 E. Main St. The RCSD 2nd Annual Health and Wellness Fair is open to students, parents, families, staff and community members. There will be over 80 local organizations offering information about their programs and services.
PubLIsHEr
Dave McCleary davemc@minorityreporter.net Pauline McCleary pmccleary@minorityreporter.net Gary McLendon Editor@minorityreporter.net Catie Fiscus ArtDirector@minorityreporter.net Lisa Dumas Delani Weaver Sharese Hardaway SHardaway@minorityreporter.net
Art dIrEctOr
EdItOrIAL stAFF
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Claribel Oliveras
NYS Dept of Education Awards Grant to Warner School for City Teachers Condoms Available at City High Schools Rev. Marlowe Washington Announces Run for City Council Woman May Fight to Keep her Home YWCA Recieves Van Donated by Ford Dealers Rochester Wins Approval to Form Land Bank
AdvErtIsIng
Dave McCleary Lucy Smith-Fulmore advertising@minorityreporter.net Temple Boggs, Jr. Todd Elliott
PHOtOgrAPHy cOLuMnIsts
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Bill Introduced -again- to Honor Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad
Gloria Winston Al-Sarag C. Michael Tillman Rev. Michael Vaughn Vincent Felder Diane Watkins Mike Dulaney Davy Vara Ayesha Kreutz
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Education Matters: The Richards, Urbanski Alliance By carrie remis CNN Reportedly Getting Rid of Both Soledad OBrien and Roland Martin By Boyce watkins Former Rochester Mayor Bill Johnson to Run Marlowe Washingtons City Council Campaign By davy vara
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LOCAL
NYS Department of Education Awards Grant to Warner School for City Teachers
The New York State Department of Education has awarded the University of Rochesters Warner School of Education $749,985 in funding for its Clinically Rich Urban School Leadership Program. According to the Warner School, the grant will support the programs approach of mentoring and professional development to a select number of teachers in the Rochester City School District. In addition, the central features of the program include enhanced coursework while integrating field-based assignments; and a full-time clinical experience, which gives teachers release time to intern with city administrators during the school year. Urban schools across the country face the challenge of raising student achievement to higher levels, said Mary Rapp, director of the K-12 school leadership preparation program at the Warner School. The innovative design of this program creates a new pipeline for successful Rochester city school teachers to prepare for future school leadership positions within the District. The Warner School launched the urban school leadership program last year in partnership with the city school district and the College of Arts, Sciences & Engineering at the University of Rochester. The 27-credit Advanced Certificate allows teachers in the RCSD to earn a K-12 administrative certification over two years, part-time, while holding a full-time teaching position. Ultimately, the programs participants will receive New York State Certification in School Building and District Leadership. The Department of Education grant will cover 35 percent of the tuition costs for teachers, and the Warner School will cover another 20 percent.
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towards trusted members of her current foster family. She enjoys quiet family activities, such as family movie nights, particularly when she gets to pick the movie. She also likes listening to music and playing with dolls. KaDeshia, who is moderately intellectually impaired, gets overwhelmed in crowds or around people she does not know, however she does well in her small, specialized 7th grade classroom. She is emotionally attached to brothers who are placed separately and would need an adoptive family understanding and supportive of this special relationship. KaDeshia wants to be adopted. A loving, committed family able to accept her unconditionally and assist her in maximizing her potential is sought. If youre interested in learning more about KaDeshia or other waiting children, visit: www.childrenAwaitingParents.org or call 585-232-5110.
STATE
U.S. Congressman Dan Maffei (D-N.Y.-24) plans to introduce a companion bill in the House of Representatives. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md. -1) has also introduced a companion bill in the House, H.R. 213, which he says is identical to legislation (H.R. 4007) which he introduced during the 112th Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md. -1) has also introduced a companion bill in the House, H.R. 213, which he says is identical to legislation (H.R. 4007) A former slave, Harriet Tubman was which he introduced during the an abolitionist and humanitarian 112th Congress. That legislation who escaped slavery and encouraged establishment of the subsequently made more than two National Historical Parks to thirteen missions to rescue more honor Tubman but provided no than 70 slaves using a network additional federal funding for the of antislavery activists and safe project. houses known as the Underground Railroad. This year is particularly significant
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COVER STORY
North Koreas young leader has riled the U.S. with recent nuclear tests, but Kim Jong Un doesnt really want war with the superpower, just a call from President Barack Obama to chat about their shared love of basketball, according to ersatz diplomat Dennis Rodman, the ex-NBA star just back from an improbable visit to the reclusive communist country. He loves basketball. ... I said Obama loves basketball. Lets start there as a way to warm up relations between U.S. and North Korea, Rodman told ABCs This Week. He asked me to give Obama something to say and do one thing. He wants Obama to do one thing, call him, said Rodman, who called the authoritarian leader an awesome guy during his trip. The State Department criticized North Korea last week for wining and dining Rodman while its own people go hungry. Rodman also said Kim told him, I dont want to do war. I dont want to do war. Yet in January, after the U.N. Security Council voted to condemn the Norths successful rocket launch in December and expand penalties against Kims government, his National Defense Commission said in a statement that settling accounts with the U.S. needs to be done with force, not with words. The statement also promised a new phase of the anti-U.S. struggle that has lasted century after century. North Korea and the U.S. fought on opposite sides of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953. The foes technically remain at war. They never signed a peace treaty and do not have diplomatic relations. Rodman was the highest-profile American to meet Kim since Kim inherited power from father Kim Jong Il in 2011. He traveled to the secretive state with the Harlem Globetrotters team for a
new HBO series produced by New York-based VICE television. The visit took place amid rising tensions between the countries. North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test two weeks ago, making clear the provocative act was a warning to the United States to drop what it considers a hostile policy toward the North. Rodman said he was aware of North Koreas human rights record, which the State Department has characterized as one of the worst in the world, but said he wasnt apologizing for Kim. Hes a good guy to me, Rodman said, adding,
that as a person to person, hes my friend. I dont condone what he does. Basketball is popular in North Korea, and Thursdays exhibition game with two Americans playing on each team alongside North Koreans ended in a 110-110 tie. Following the game Kim threw an epic feast for the group, plying them with food and drinks and making round after round of toasts. Rodmans trip was the second attention-grabbing American visit this year to North Korea. Googles executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, made a fourday trip in January, but did not meet Kim. Rodman said he planned to go back to North Korea to find out more whats really going on.
FEATURE STORY
Rosa Parks Statue Unveiled at Capitol
By SUZANNE GAMBOA (AP) President Barack Obama and congressional leaders unveiled a full-length statue of civil rights icon Rosa Parks in the Capitol Wednesday, paying tribute to a figure whose name became synonymous with courage in the face of injustice. Parks becomes the first black woman to be honored with a full-length statue in the Capitols Statuary Hall. A bust of another black woman, abolitionist Sojourner Truth, sits in the Capitol Visitors Center. Obama said that with the installation of the statue, Parks, who died in 2005, has taken her rightful place among those who have shaped the course of U.S. history. He said her presence in Capitol would serve to remind us no matter how humble or lofty our positions, just what it is that leadership requires. Obama and House Speaker John Boehner jointly led the unveiling, standing with the statue between them as they grasped and pulled in opposite directions on the braided cord that held the covering. Congressional leaders in the House and Senate joined Parks niece in tugging on the cord. We do well by placing a statue of her here, Obama said, but we can do no greater honor to her memory than to carry forward the power of her principle and a courage born of conviction. The statue portrays Parks seated, wearing a hat and clutching her trademark purse a permanent reminder of the cause she embodied, said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The several hundred lawmakers, family and congressional staff who gathered for the ceremony in the vaulted hall rose to their feet and whooped as Boehner opened the ceremony. Here in the hall, she casts an unlikely silhouette unassuming in a lineup of proud stares, challenging all of us once more to look up and to draw strength from stillness, said Boehner, R-Ohio. Parks is famous for her 1955 refusal to give up her seat on a city bus in Alabama to a white man, but theres plenty about the rest of her experiences that she deliberately withheld from her family. While Parks and her husband, Raymond, were childless, her brother, the late Sylvester McCauley, had 13 children. They decided Parks nieces and nephews didnt need to know the horrible details surrounding her civil rights activism, said Rhea McCauley, Parks niece. They didnt talk about the lynchings and the Jim Crow laws, said McCauley, 61, of Orlando, Fla. They didnt talk about that stuff to us kids. Everyone wanted to forget about it and sweep it under the rug. He said more than 50 of Parks relatives traveled to Washington for the ceremony. In a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus in segregated Montgomery, Ala. She was arrested, touching off a bus boycott that stretched over a year. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Parks had moved the world when she refused to move her seat. Jeanne Theoharis, author of the new biography The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, said Parks was very much a full-fledged civil rights activist, yet her contributions have not been treated like those of other movement leaders, such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Rosa Parks is typically honored as a woman of courage, but that honor focuses on the one act she made on the bus on Dec. 5, 1955, said Theoharis, a political science professor at Brooklyn College-City University of New York. That courage, that night was the product of decades of political work before that and continued ... decades after in Detroit, she said. Parks died Oct. 24, 2005, at age 92. The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in her honor on Feb. 4, which would have been her 100th birthday. Parks was raised by her mother and grandparents who taught her that part of being respected was to demand respect, said Theoharis, who spent six years researching and writing the Parks biography. She was an educated woman who recalled seeing her grandfather sitting on the porch steps with a gun during the height of white violence against blacks in post-World War I Alabama. After she married Raymond Parks, she joined him in his work in trying to help nine young black men, ages 12 to 19, who were accused of raping two white women in 1931. The nine were later convicted by an all-white jury in Scottsboro, Ala., part of a long legal odyssey for the so-called Scottsboro Boys. In the 1940s, Parks joined the NAACP and was elected secretary of its Montgomery, Ala., branch, working with civil rights activist Edgar Nixon to fight barriers to voting for blacks and investigate sexual violence against women, Theoharis said. Just five months before refusing to give up her seat, Parks attended Highlander Folk School, which trained community organizers on issues of poverty but had begun turning its attention to civil rights. After the bus boycott, Parks and her husband lost their jobs and were threatened. They left for Detroit, where Parks was an activist against the war in Vietnam and worked on poverty, housing and racial justice issues, Theoharis said. Theoharis said that while she considers the 9-foot-statue of Parks in the Capitol an incredible honor for Parks, I worry about putting this history in the past when the actual Rosa Parks was working on and calling on us to continue to work on racial injustice. Parks has been honored previously in Washington with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999, both during the Clinton administration. But McCauley said the Statuary Hall honor is different. The medal you could take it, put it on a mantel, McCauley said. But her being in the hall itself is permanent and children will be able to tour the (Capitol) and look up and see my aunts face. ----Associated Press writer Mark S. Smith contributed to this report.
GUEST WRITER
Truth must be dug up from the past and presented to the circle of scholastics in scientific form then through stories and dramatizations that will permeate our educational systems
By Dr. Carter G. Woodson, American historian and educator. In 1926, Negro History Week was started by Carter G. Woodson. Now 86 years later, what was once a week in the year to study and highlight black achievement has expanded, since 1976 to include the whole month of February. To appreciate the sacredness of this month and its founder, this time needs to be filled with serious, prudent and reflective study of self, race and community. The early days of Negro History Week developed through serious study, research and review of the accomplishments, achievements and challenges faced by black people. It is noteworthy that, through dedicating one full week a year, this methodology brought about race improvement and empowerment to many. Woodson believed, and all of his undertakings proved, that by informing people of the accomplishments of black people in the United States and Africa, he would not only build selfesteem in black people, but lessen prejudice among whites. Woodsons insightful and critical analysis of our educational malaise can be found in his 1933 ground breaking book The Mis-Education of the Negro. With this valued historical work as a reference on how to improve our collective lot, today there is hardly any critical pedagogy by African Americans about our heritage. We are hard pressed to find this in public schools, religious communities and our homes. The value of dialogue and discussion are missing and was a key to Dr. Woodson success engaging the race through teachings and information forums on this subject. Dr. Woodson believed that, without a recorded history, the contributions of our race would be forgotten and this would lead to our demise, with us just imitating others in the dominant society. He believed that knowledge of history (self) could change society for all people. The improvement of the race not complaining about the race drove his spirit. So driven, in 1915 Dr. Woodson launched The Association for the Study of Negro Life. The Associations mission was to promote research, preserve, interpret, and disseminate information about Black life, history and culture to the global community. His altruistic pursuit to develop excellence in black people inspired him to produce The Journal of Negro History, a curriculum and research guide covering a wide range of topic devoted to Negro empowerment. The Journal inspired and led to a shift in the focus of historians from the masters perspective to that of the former slave and his descendant. Dr. Woodson trained other scholars and researchers to investigate the black past using census data, birth and death certificates, marriage registers, letters, diaries and oral history. This method of research has been widely adopted and disseminated by historians all over the world. Maybe the question for us is; where are these efforts working to improve life of black people by study, research, writing and discussion today? The directions practiced daily by default in the life of many of young black people are low expectations, satisfaction with the best of mediocrity, low graduation rates in public education. The described afflictions we suffer are the direct result of not having associations that influence positive affirmation and contribution in the race like the associations produced by Woodson, Douglass, Washington, and Du Bois and et al. The aforementioned giants developed in us the courage to use independent thought that laid the groundwork for truth freedom justice and equality. Lacking the functions of independent analysis and thought has caused us to lose ground on the very thing that led us to overcome insurmountable odds struggle through our own efforts. When we come together as a devoted people to study and discuss our collective shortcomings along with our accomplishments, an informed factual history will give us an empowered perspective that will improve our standing and standards in the society. Let us in the spirit of Dr. Carter G. Woodson work on our mis-education and dedicate ourselves to renew his mission of Black History month as a sacred month for study and reflection to understand and improve the sociology of black people.
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NATIONAL
Jurors sought for Pa. abortion docs murder trial
PHILADELPHIA (AP) Jury selection began Monday in the murder trial of a Philadelphia abortion provider, a potentially sensitive task since the case involves both abortion and the death penalty. Dr. Kermit Gosnell is charged with eight counts of murder. Hes charged with third-degree murder in a womans 2009 death during a botched abortion, and first-degree murder for allegedly killing seven viable babies after they were born alive. Gosnell faces the death penalty if convicted on the latter counts. He has pleaded not guilty, and insists that he helped many vulnerable women and teens get medical care, including second-term abortions not offered at many clinics. Pennsylvania abortion laws ban abortions after 24 weeks. Authorities believe at least some of the abortions performed at Gosnells clinic involved third-trimester pregnancies. The 2011 grand jury report details one case in which Gosnell allegedly joked the baby was so big it could walk to the bus stop. The nearly 300-page report described the clinic as filthy, blood-stained and macabre, with a collection of fetal body parts kept in jars. In court Monday, Gosnell defied that crude image, appearing poised, elegantly dressed and oddly relaxed. He warmly greeted a local TV reporter by name, as he has done in the past. Gosnell, the only child of a gas station operator and government clerk, had been a top student at the citys prestigious Central High School. He became an early proponent of abortion rights in the 1960s and 1970s, and returned from a stint in New York City to open up a clinic in the impoverished Mantua neighborhood, near the working-class black neighborhood where he grew up. His Womens Medical Center treated the poor, immigrants, teens and women with later-stage pregnancies who could not get abortions elsewhere. I feel in the long term I will be vindicated, Gosnell told the Philadelphia Daily News in a March 2010 interview. Gosnells third wife, Pearl, who has pleaded guilty to performing illegal abortions, and his adult children were not in court, although they had been last week when Gosnell apparently rejected efforts to negotiate a plea offer. A gag order prevents lawyers in the case from commenting, but Gosnells lawyer was seen dashing between prosecutors and his client, who had been brought to court from jail. Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart expects the trial to last six to eight weeks. Opening statements are set for March 14. Dozens of jurors were summarily dismissed Monday when they said they could not return a death verdict. Others said the long trial would be an extreme hardship, and were excused. And one woman said she had already concluded that Gosnell was guilty, given media coverage of the case. Former clinic employee Eileen ONeill is also on trial, charged with practicing medicine without a license. Eight others have pleaded guilty to murder or lesser charges. Some are expected to testify against their former boss. Associated Press/Philadelphia Daily News, Yong Kim - In this March 8, 2010 photo, Dr. Kermit Gosnell is seen during an interview with the Philadelphia Daily News at his attorneys office in Philadelphia. Three years after drug agents stumbled upon a gruesome medical clinic in West Philadelphia, abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell is going on trial on eight counts of murder. Jury selection is set to start Monday, March 4, 2013 in the death penalty case.
golden years
be heard
EDITOR@
NATIONAL
Top 10 Reasons Why People of Color Should Care About Sequestration
By Sophia Kerby (TriceEdneyWire.com) - Thanks to congressional Republicans putting the economy in jeopardy during the debt ceiling debacle in the summer of 2011 and again in 2012, a package of automatic across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration is set to go into effect on March 1, 2013. Senate Democrats have proposed a balanced approach to resolve this crisis, urging congressional Republicans to avoid the damaging sequester cuts by accepting a package of more tax revenue with targeted spending cuts. But once again Republicans are threatening the economy by risking massive and harmful spending cuts that will hurt the middle class, damage the economy, kill hundreds of thousands of jobs, and harm the most economically vulnerable among us. Sequestration will impact all Americans but will have a particularly harmful effect on communities of color, who were hit first and worst by the Great Recession and have yet to significantly feel the effects of the recovery. Americas demographics are changing, and communities of color are the fastest-growing group of Americans. It is important that we invest now in these communities, as we prepare for the nations economic future and upcoming workforce needs. The driving focus should be on averting crises that slow the nations economy and instead, promoting policies that help all Americans. Below are the top 10 reasons why communities of color should pay attention to sequestration and the impact it will have in these communities: 1. Deep cuts to long-term unemployment benefits will disproportionately affect people of color. Extended federal unemployment benefits remain vulnerable under sequestration, and the long-term unemployedthose out of work and searching for a new job for at least six monthscould lose almost 10 percent of their weekly jobless benefits if the sequester cuts go into effect next week. These cuts will have a greater impact on people of color, as 10.5 percent of Latinos and a staggering 13.8 percent of blacks are unemployed, compared to only 7 percent of whites. Whats more, in 2011, 40 percent of unemployed Asians, 38 percent of unemployed blacks, and 28 percent of unemployed Latinos were unemployed for more than 52 weeks. 2. Workforce development programs that are vital to communities of color such as YouthBuild and Job Corps face significant cuts. YouthBuild, a program connecting low-income youth to education and training, could be cut by about 8 percent under sequestration. Coupled with previous federal appropriation cuts in fiscal year 2011 by 37 percent, the program could see about one-third of its federal funding cut between fiscal year 2010 and fiscal year 2013. In 2010, 54 percent of YouthBuild participants were African American and 20 percent were Latino. Job Corps, an education and training program geared toward young adults, faces about $83 million in cuts in FY 2013 under sequestration. In 2011, 72 percent of Job Corps participants were people of color. 3. Cuts to critical job-creating programs such as the Build America Bonds program are also on the chopping block. Build America Bonds, which were created in the 2009 stimulus bill, provides incentives for infrastructure investments through the tax code. Since its inception, the program has helped states and cities fund thousands of job-creating infrastructure projects at lower costs than traditional tax-exempt municipal bonds. Build America Bonds could see budget cuts of up to 7.6 percent, however, if sequestration goes through. Build America Bonds benefit all Americans, as more than $106 billion of Build America Bonds have been issued by state and local governments in 49 states and the District of Columbia since the program started. Infrastructure investments stimulate employment in sectors that employ disproportionately high rates of workers of color, such as construction and public transit. 4. Federal budget cuts under sequestration would quickly mean cuts to federal, state, and local publicsector jobs, which disproportionately employ women and African Americans. In 2011 employed African Americans comprised 20 percent of the federal, state, and local publicsector workforce, and women were nearly 50 percent more likely than men to work in the public sector. According to the Congressional Budget Office, scheduled cuts in federal spending were the primary driving force behind slow economic growth projected for this year, meaning thousands of lost jobs and cuts to federal contractors. 5. Early child care funding could be cut by more than $900 million, impacting the thousands of children of color who benefit from these programs. Such cuts will mean 70,000 children will be kicked out of Head Start, a federal program that promotes the school readiness of children from low-income families from birth through age 5. Sixty percent of program participants are children of color. 6. Programs that directly help the most vulnerable families and children such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WICare threatened by sequestration. WIC serves as a supplemental food and nutrition program for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women and for children under age 5. The program could be cut by $543 million a devastating loss to the more than 450,000 people of color who benefit from its services. 7. Federal education funding cuts will disproportionately hurt students of color. If the sequester goes into effect, nearly $3 billion would be cut in education alone, including cuts to financial aid for college students and to programs for the most vulnerable youthEnglish language learners and those attending high-poverty, struggling schoolsimpacting 9.3 million students. Such cuts will affect key programs that receive federally funded grants such as Education for Homeless Children and Youth and federal work study. The lack of access to financial aid for people of color will further exacerbate the student debt rates in these communities. In the 2007-08 academic year, 81 percent of African-Americans and 67 percent of Latinos with a bachelors degree graduated with student debt, compared to 64 percent of their white peers. Cutting access to these vital financial aid programs will curtail the higher education aspirations of tens of thousands of students of color. 8. Cuts to critical medical research put IN ACkNOWLEdGEmENT OF ThE NATIONAL WEEk OF pRAYER FOR ThE hEALING OF AIdS
mEmORIAL AmE ZION ChURCh, REV dR. kENNETh Q. JAmES, pASTOR pROUdLY pRESENTS A FREE COmmUNITY FILm SCREENING ANd dICUSSION FEATURING: REV. EDWIN C. SANDERS, II SENIOR pASTOR, mETROpOLITAN INTERdENOmINATIONAL ChURCh FIRST RESpONSE CENTER, NAShVILLE, TENNESSEE PAUL V. GRANT pROdUCER/dIRECTOR, ThE GOSpEL OF hEALING: VOL 1
patients at risk. The National Institutes of Health would lose $1.5 billion in medical research funding, meaning fewer research projects would be aimed at finding treatments and cures for diseases such as cancer and diabetesboth of which are among the leading causes of death for African Americans. 9. Since 2010 funding for housing has been cut by $2.5 billion, meaning any additional cuts would significantly hurt low-income families and communities. Many housing programs such as Section 8 Housing Assistance provide vouchers to low-income families for affordable housing in the private market. In 2011 Section 8 aided more than 2 million low-income families across the country. Data from 2008 indicate that 44 percent and 23 percent of public housing recipients are African American and Latino, respectively. 10. As the nation continues to endure a cold winter, programs such as the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which helps bring down the cost of heating for low-income households, are crucial. The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helped about 23 million low-income people pay their winter heat bills, is in jeopardy of being cut in FY 2013. Lowincome communities, which tend to disproportionately comprise of people of color, depend on such programs to make ends meet during these tough economic times. In order to avoid significant damage to the U.S. economyand particularly to communities of color across the countrycongressional Republicans should agree to a balanced package to replace the sequester and its damaging cuts. Sophia Kerby is the Special Assistant for Progress 2050 at the Center for American Progress.
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OpINION/EdITORIAL
The Rochester grapevine has been buzzing with the news that Mayor Richards has kicked off his re-election campaign with a powerful new ally: teachers CARRIE REMIS union boss Adam Urbanski. It began a month ago when an invitation to an exclusive fundraiser listing Urbanski on the Richards campaign committee went viral on Facebook. In a city where 85% of its teachers actually live in the suburbs, the Richards-Urbanski alliance is raising eyebrows and spurring a longoverdue conversation about the role that special interests have played in Rochesters educational crisis. The Rochester Teachers Association is the local affiliate of the New York State United Teachers, which spent a staggering $5.9 million in 2011 lobbying to block reform that could have directly benefited Rochesters students and protected its taxpayers. Make no mistake, Rochesters students and taxpayers are desperate for relief. By any measure, Rochester has the lowest student outcomes and the highest education spending in the country. According to the latest state achievement data, only 18% of Rochester eighth-graders are proficient in Reading--the lowest in the state and among the lowest in the country. That means that more than 80% of eight-graders are functionally illiterate, destined to struggle with reading a newspaper, a job application or an election ballot. If that isnt tragic enough, the data show that Rochester is actually losing ground: the number of students mastering Reading (a score of 4 on the state tests) is dropping across all student demographic groups. The state report cards show that fewer than 10 eighth-graders out of more than 2100 mastered Reading in 2011. Graduation rates tell a similar story. At 45.5%, Rochester has the lowest graduation rates in the state and was the only one of the Big 5 urban districts that didnt show any gains last year. Dig a little deeper and youll find more bad news. Rochesters rate of students graduating with Advanced Distinction Regents diplomasan indicator of college-readinessis the lowest in the state and declining. Another metric showing decline is the graduation rate for black males, currently at an all-time low of 9%. According to the Schott Foundation,
The views expressed on our opinion pages are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position or viewpoint of Minority Reporter.
CNN Reportedly Getting Rid of Both Soledad OBrien and Roland Martin
According to various s o u r c e s , including M i c h a e l Cottman at Black America Web, CNN is making some major moves this month. DR. BOYCE WATKINS The network is allegedly planning to part ways with Roland Martin, Soledad OBrien and perhaps even the great Donna Brazile. Most ironic is that the network has given us the honor of cutting its black faces from the airwaves during Black History Month. The decision has confused observers whod been somehow misled into believing that CNN was a network seeking to become friendly toward people of color. After all, the company has earned millions from black people with its Black in America Series, most of which I never watched largely because I instantly got the sense that their goal was to study black people like lab rats rather than respect us as human beings. There is a difference between being interested in a group of people and actually caring about them. Making matters even more peculiar is that the network also hired three new high profile journalists, all of whom are white: Jake Tapper, Chris Cuomo and Rachel Nichols. So, its out with the black and in with the white, according to what were seeing. At least Jeff Zucker, head of CNN Worldwide, isnt being subtle with his racial exclusion. Usually people stab us in the back behind closed doors. Roland Martins contract with CNN ends on April 8. Believing that one high profile black face can be easily traded in for another, there is speculation that CNN may bring in other black commentators, such as Van Jones and Cornell Belcher. CNN and Jeff Zuckers latest moves seem bold, odd and somewhat revealing. For years, Ive always felt that both Roland and Soledad were qualified to hold their own in prime time slots, but the network never gave them an opportunity. Given that their decisions are designed to reflect the preferences of their target audience, they are effectively telling us that their audience just doesnt want to see black people on the air during prime time. Additionally, the network seems to believe that there is no black journalist on the planet as qualified as less-than-capable anchors like Nancy Grace. Over at MSNBC, a preacher and civil rights leader by the name of Al Sharpton has a show that appears to be very successful. Theyve taken a black professor (Melissa HarrisPerry) and given her a chance to hold her own during the weekends. Even people like Steve Harvey, Michael Strahan and Wendy Williams are doing an amazing job competing in the landscape of daytime television. So, Im admittedly stunned that CNN seems so determined to make hiring and firing decisions that look like they were decided upon in 1959. Perhaps Zucker has something else up his sleeve. The truth is that I dont know and I really dont care. As I expressed during an interview today with the Final Call (run by the Nation of Islam), the day must come when we become more focused on the creation and support of black-owned media outlets. These are places where black voices are appreciated as something other than a novelty, and people cant toss us to the side when were no longer the hot new negro on TV. We can get angry at Zucker for making his decisions, but the truth is that CNN was never our network to begin with. You cant move into someone elses house and shift around the furniture, which is what makes me skeptical that true racial equality can EVER be achieved at CNN. Black people need to own their own stuff. -------------------------Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and author of the book, Black American Money: How Black Power Can Thrive in a Capitalist Society.
Former Rochester, Mayor Bill Johnson to Run Marlowe Washingtons City Council Campaign
He lied to voters with his Blueprint for Change plan he ran on in 1994. He turned his back on his own AfricanAmerican DAVY VARA c o m m u n i t y, the very same voters who put him in office. He called the Rochester Police Departments execution of a 14-yearold unarmed African-American teen, justified, before the young mans body was even cold. He condoned Rochester police officers racially profiling, abusing, and executing innocent African-Americans and Latinos. He screwed Rochester taxpayers out of millions of dollars with his failed Fast Ferry. He was one of the worst mayors Rochester has had. And hes back. Disgraced former Mayor William Johnson will be heading Rev. Marlowe Washingtons campaign for Rochester City Council. In a recent news conference, Washington, who came to Rochester from Newark, New Jersey in 2005, announced he would be running for City Council in what he calls his For the People campaign. And Bill Johnson will be chairing the campaign. As a Latino father of three beautiful children, including two boys who are African-American and Latino and as someone who has spent the past 17-plus years denouncing and exposing the corrupt Rochester Police Department and their long history of abusing and in some cases even killing unarmed, innocent AfricanAmericans and Latinos, I ask the Rochester community, especially African-Americans: What has Marlowe Washington done to speak up, call out, or denounce racist, rogue, triggerhappy RPD cops? Nothing. In fact the Reverend Marlowe Washington, has never stood up to police misconduct in my hometown. Instead, Marlowe Washington has served as the Rochester Police Departments tool helping the RPD with their goal of dividing the AfricanAmerican community even further by getting them to snitch on one another, with his You Bet I Told campaign. I dont know about you, but I have a problem with another black Reverend who is quick to get in front of a few television cameras with a smile, and pitch some For the People ticket especially when former Mayor Bill Johnson is involved.
OpINION/EdITORIAL
The views expressed on our opinion pages are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position or viewpoint of Minority Reporter.
Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think. Martin Luther King, Jr. The paradox of gun violence in our country unfortunately is epic and has taken on different proportions. This impasse is so complex that the discussion of guns and the effect it has on different populaces and more importantly culture in America is a topic most will not have the courage or understanding to discuss or come within reach of. The arguments to solve gun violence usually are expedient one size fits all legislation motivated by guilt and grief to match the enormity that the violence has inflicted. To not fully understand the culture in America with gun violence keeps this a topic to ponder. Recent gun violence that has resulted in mass slayings, and the examples of Sandy Hook, Casas Adobes, Virginia Tech, and Columbine, all have common themes. All of these atrocities have the common thread of suburban logistics: In most instances a white perpetrator, mental illness, isolation and easy access to legal weapons - especially assault weapons. It should be unproblematic to work from this vantage point of knowing what is wrong here and how we correct this.
The demographics and logistics are clear. The commonalities are closely tied and there may be more resources and will to solve this because of these explanations. The mere way this alignment is presented and how it draws upon analytical data being developed may mean some movement towards a solution. This analysis seems to paint a clearer picture for many people who are now crusading for prompt action. Now there are rumblings for a ban on assault weapons, universal background checks, and mental illness tracking. On the other hand, urban gun violence in America has attached to its pervasive plague, a history of poverty, discrimination, sequestered racial and ethnic populaces, apathy, sinister culture, and neighborhood containment. This gun violence has a greater history of being unsolvable. Urban gun violence has had mass loss of life over longer periods of time and contributes to keeping neighborhoods unstable, hopeless, and undesirable as a community for those raising families. The recent killing of an honor student in Chicago reflects this stark reality. When pondering the strategies to this problem historically one can deduce this is accepted more as a tradition to continue rather than a problem to be solved. A view to consider is Chicago, Illinois last year, had 500 murders; a very high percentage took place in minority neighborhoods. We can trace this tradition of gun violence in Chicago back to the days
of Gangland Chicago and prohibition when urban citizens then were confronted with the same afflictions that people of color and poor populations face today in Chicago. The earlier citizens were recent immigrants in Chicago they lived in neighborhoods and those same neighborhoods experienced murders, being isolated and families left grieving and reeling (in the same manner today) by gun violence disproportionately. Faulty and not so well thoughtout plans by urban planners are indoctrinated to retain neighborhoods through isolation, blight and concentrate poverty. This is still the preference and still the plan. The proof is this quasi-strategy for 100 years in major urban communities has morphed down as routine in other smaller urban centers across America. God forbid we have sunk this low but all the evidence points this way and the hopeless have fastened their soul to this as reality and unsolvable. This appears to be the compelling predicament of President Obama who lives and is from Chicago. Had he expressed outrage at the gun violence in his hometown I doubt seriously he would be president today. This 100-year urban categorization with urban gun violence has damaging social, educational, financial and moral consequences that cause this to remain one of the worst injustices endured by a subjugated populace since the sin of slavery in America. Until recently, mass slayings in suburban America has given the president a voice on this subject; prior
to this he was muffled. This scourge presents a contrast that has more working against it than a gun; it has tradition and acceptance an insufferable affront to sensibilities and sensitivities. A widespread media and a grieving public have taken over the public sentiment of gun violence with pervasive coverage of mass killings in suburban neighborhoods across America. This has pushed gun violence in urban communities to become further isolated and obscured. While one is a recent phenomenon, the other has continued to transmogrify for a century and remain a tradition not to be solved. A great number in American society has fostered the notion and idea that gun violence in urban America is a fait accompli. For sure, it is a money pit growing grossly out of control. The default plan for it to continue with political will and taxes to manage it, formulates this to persist. With America being at the crossroads with gun violence our only hope is that the protectors of human excellence are dedicated to work for justice and fair dealings to eradicate this. We as a nation and our nations leaders run the continuum and recent events attest to if you allow cultivating a tradition of violence for one demographic it will spread where it was not intended, not reasoned and not planned.
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