mcj july 15, 2015 edition

JJOUROURNALNALW I S C O N S I N ’ S L A R G E S T A F R I C A N A M E R I C A N N E W S P A P E R

CCOMMUNITYOMMUNITYVOL. XXXIX Number 50 July 15, 2015 www.communityjournal.net 25 Cents BULK RATE

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MILWAUKEE, WISCONSINPERMIT NO. 4668The Milwaukee

TAKI S. RATON:TAKI S. RATON:The uncompromising, philosophicalgriot warrior of our life-timeHad Taki Raton been born 200 years

earlier, chances are he would have been alieutenant in Nat Turners’ liberation army,or a scout for Harriet Tubman’s Under-ground Railroad.

Had his ancestors not been brought to America in chains, chances are Takiwould have been a Griot Warrior, a tribe’s historian, responsible for main-taining the most important cultural icon of his people: their history.

But God had other plans for Taki, and planted him in our midst 68 yearsago to inspire and educate us, to strip away the lies told through ‘His-story’,and to plant the seeds of intellectual revolution in a stagnate and confusednation within a nation.

I was shocked to hear from several people last Tuesday that Taki had joinedour ancestors. I had hoped that rumors of his death were similar to those aboutme that surfaced when I was hospitalized for six months earlier this year.

Obviously, mine were false (or maybe wishful thinking by some of thesame folks who released a sigh of relief upon hearing of Taki’s death).

I say that because Taki made a lot of people uncomfortable. Not becausehe was dishonest or advocated for the violent overthrow of the U.S. govern-ment. But instead, because he was a philosophical warrior whose ammunitionincluded undisputed history and the wisdom of our forefathers.

SIGNIFYIN’SIGNIFYIN’

(continued on page 3)

Mikel Kwaku Osi Holt

Families Against Violence held a march and rally Saturday. The March started at theMartin Luther King statue on MLK Drive and Walnut, and ended at the Dr. King Elemen-tary School, 3275 N. MLK Dr. The event also included recreation and a resource fair in-volving several community based organizations. Participants were encouraged to formwalking teams in honor of victims of intra-community violence or the groups they arerepresenting. Jermain Reed of Fresh Start was the key organizer of the event, He isshown in the top photo talking to the mainstream media the purpose of the march aschildren and teens holding anti-violence placards. (Photos by Yvonne Kemp)

A block party celebration dedicated to the memory of Dr. James G. White, the late Harambee leader/mentor, and former Milwaukee County Su-pervisor was held in the Harambee neighborhood. It was sponsored by the Harambee Community Center. The celebration was a tribute for Dr.White, who was a Regional Vice-President of WestCare WI-Harambee Community Center (formerly Harambee Ombudsman Project). Said Ald.Milele Coggs, who was White’s goddaughter and mentee: Dr. White was a special leader who worked hard to bring resources to the neighbor-hood and the community, and this is a fitting way to pay tribute to him on his birthday anniversary.” (Photos by Yvonne Kemp)

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: “During the community birth-day celebration for the late Dr. James White, we asked four individu-als what is the most memorable recollection they have of him?”

DELVYN CRAWFORD (son-in-law to Dr.White): “My mostmemorable momentwith my father-in-lawhas to be his dedicationto his family. He knew that actions spokelouder than words, therefore he dedicatedhimself to spend quality time with his family;teaching them to uphold family values, sup-port one another, and do our part to bring thebest out of each other.”

MILWAUKEE ALD.MILELE COGGS:“My favorite momentswith my godfather Dr.White were when hewas in his artistic ele-ment discussing the im-portance of Hip-Hopand watching him perform his rap song,“Total Eclipse” (about the Nat Turner slave up-rising) as “Ghetto Priest.”

JIACCHAES WHITE(nephew): “My favoritemoment with my Uncle Jameswas right before he passed. Heshowed up to my going-away-party when I went off to Hous-ton for school and wasencouraging me to do my best and never give up; and if Ifeel like I can’t do it (to) call him and he would be on hisway. Unk was a caring, generous, and loving person thatcared about more than just his family. He did what mostpeople were afraid to do: He took chances for the Black com-munity.”

NADJA GIBBONS-CRAWFORD(daughter): “Myfavorite moment withmy dad was right be-fore he was going togive me away to myhusband (Delvyn Crawford). Dad said to me:‘Nadja, he asked for your hand in marriage. Iknew at that moment he was truly the rightone for you.’ I had been doing good at notcrying until that moment.”

The community got to hear first hand the Milwaukee Bucks planto build a new arena in the downtown area during a Town HallMeeting at the Wisconsin African American Women’s Center.Representatives of the Bucks, investors, political figures and amember of the Milwaukee Urban League told residents detailsof the new arena, the financing plan and addressed concernsfor jobs and economic development for Black Milwaukeeans.The Town Hall was sponsored by the Urban League. (Photo by Yvonne Kemp)

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION HELD IN REMEMBERANCE OF DR. JAMES WHITE

Community Town Hall on new Arena

COMMUNITY COMES OUT TO CLAIM VICTORY OVER VIOLENCE!

PULSE OF THE COMMUNITY

(Photos and question by Yvonne Kemp)

The Milwaukee Community Journal July 15, 2015

THETHE PULSEPULSEThe WHO•WHAT•WHERE• WHEN of YOUR Community!

F o r m e r l y t h e 4 W C o m m u n i t y H a p p e n i n g s

Timothy Anderson, the grandson of Milwaukee Community Journal Editor Thomas Mitchell,Jr., shadowed his grandfather for a day last week at the Community Journal’s offices, locatedat 3612 N. Martin Luther King Drive. Timothy was an “Intern” for the day learning aboutnewspapers, editing, writing and what it takes to put the weekly publication together. Timothy,who is 12, even accompanied his grandfather to an assignment at the offices of the SocialDevelopment Commission (SDC) to interview that organization’s Executive Director, GeorgeHinton. Timothy even took notes during the interview and tried his hand at writing a storyabout the experience. Hopefully, his grandfather said, the special day will inspire his grandsonto consider a career in journalism. Who knows, he may become the MCJ’s editor one day!(Photo by Yvonne Kemp)

Grandson “shadows” his editorgrandfather at MCJ offices

Seventy Years Young!On Sunday July 13, 2015, Mrs. Freddie Ruth Bradley celebrated her 70th Birthday at theDoubletree Hotel Downtown Milwaukee. (Photo by Kim A. Robinson)

Baby Shower for Tifarah and Reco & their soon to arrive Baby boy, Rickole Jr. held a co-ed Baby shower located at the VeteransManor 3430 W. Wisconsin Ave on Saturday July 11th. (Photo by Kim Robinson)

Showered with love before the big day!

The NorthDivision Blue Devils Class of 1975 held their40th Class Reunion at the BrownDeer Boat House lo-cated in Brown Deer Park on Saturday July 12, 2015.

Blue Devilsof 75 unite!


PERSPECTIVESPERSPECTIVES Quote of the Week: “Nearly all religions were brought to peopleand imposed on people by conquerers and used as the framework to controltheir mind. My main point here is that if you are a child of God and God is apart of you, then in your imagination God is supposed to look like you andwhen you accept a picture of a deity assigned to you by another people, youbecome the spiritual prisoner of that other people.” --Dr. John Henrik Clarke

THETHEMILWAUKEEMILWAUKEECOMMUNITYCOMMUNITYJOURNALJOURNALPublished twice weekly,Wednesday & Friday3612 North Martin LutherKing Drive, Milwaukee, WI 53212Phone: 414-265-5300 (Advertising and Administration) • 414-265-6647 (Editorial) • Website: communityjournal.net • Email: [email protected]/[email protected]

Opinion and comments expressed on the Perspectives page do not nec-essarily reflect the views of the publisher or management of the MCJ. Let-ters and “other perspectives” are accepted but may be edited for contentand length.

MCJ STAFF:Patricia O’Flynn -PattilloPublisher, CEORobert J. ThomasAssoc. PublisherTodd Thomas, Vice Pres.Mikel Holt, Assoc. PublisherThomas E. Mitchell, Jr., EditorTeretha Martin, Technical Consultant/Webmaster BillingDept./Publisher’s Admin. Assist.

Colleen Newsom,Classified AdvertisingJimmy V. Johnson, Sales Rep.CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:Taki S. Raton, Richard G. Carter,Fr. Carl Diederichs, Rev. JoeMcLinPHOTOGRAPHER: Yvonne Kemp

I know I should not write when I am feeling the way I feel now (upset anddisappointed), because the last thing that I want to do is convey the wrongmessage, but SOMETHING IS SERIOUSLY WRONG WITH THE BLACKCOMMUNITY! I liken our condition to a house that is on fire (our commu-nity) and the irony is that the hose, loaded with water (organized movement),is right next to the house but no one IS picking up the hose to put out the fire(organizing). I’ve said before, and I will continue to say that unless we dosomething significant and do it quickly, Blacks face extinction or being rele-gated to the permanent status of second-class citizenship. It’s time for theBlack community to push hard.

Brothers and sisters, what more do we need to see to convince us that thepermanency of second-class citizenship for future Black generations is in-evitable.

Is the mass incarceration of Black men enough (with nearly 55% of theprison population is comprised of Black men when our population is only4%)? Is the demise of the Black family enough (with nearly 80% of all Blackfamilies headed by a single parent, mother (this number was 20% in 1960)?Is it that nearly two-thirds of all Blacks families live at or near poverty, (thispopulation is growing at an alarming rate with the reduction of the so-calledBlack middle class)?

Is it the fact that Blacks own less than one-half of one percent of the nation’swealth (this number hasn’t changed since the emancipation of Black people).Without wealth and capital, there is no socio-economic fight. If you thinkthese numbers are bad, think again.

This is just the tip of the iceberg - the problems are systemic and are ex-treme in every area of life. These among other factors make for a negativetrajectory for our children and future Black generations.

As bad as things look for the Black community, is even worse is that somany Black people have come to accept this reality. Where is the sense ofurgency and why aren’t there more Black leaders demanding something thatcould/would address these issues?

Where is the energy on a local level or a national level that most of us canrelate to that addresses the social and economic issues facing the Black com-munity?

Where are the meeting places and meetings to discuss these issues alongwith possible strategies and solutions? Where is the movement and the cen-tralized effort to fix these issues? Who are our leaders and what are theydoing about these facts?

We live in a democracy and in a democracy, if you want to win, you must

have leadership. Every group is seeking to obtain more control, power, andresources that are very limited and all of them have representation. In orderfor any idea or group to win above others, leadership is required. Who repre-sents the Black community locally and/or nationally? Who speaks for theBlack community when it’s time to negotiate on behalf of the Black commu-nity?

The honest answer is that the Black community has no one leader. I com-pare our community to a body without a head because a multitude of leadersis like having no leader at all, especially if those individuals are not workingtogether.

While we must engage the masses (they have a huge role to play in themovement), we must organize our leadership (leaders need leadership also).Let me be perfectly clear, our leaders are the only ones with the potential oftackling the massive issues we face.

This is no easy feat and will require the coordination and organizing of ourmost accomplished, most learned and strongest, and our most successful lead-ers (i.e. business, civic, legal, medical, social, political, corporate, religious,etc.). You are a leader because you have been blessed.

Yes, you contributed to your success but your future would look a lot dif-ferent but for the struggles of those that came before you and it is our beliefthat “when much is given, much is required.” Given the incredible plight ofour community, who could help our community, if not you?

I’m frustrated and dismayed by the lack of leadership and inactivity. Noth-ing is happening and we continue to make excuse after excuse for not organ-izing ourselves. There is no other option. If we want to be successful, wemust put out the fire.

Granted, this is some tough stuff and it’s not going to be easy, but we mustdo for ourselves what no one else will do. If we don’t get a handle on thesesocial and economic issues, as they have developed over the past 60 years,these numbers will get worse, causing future generations to become morevulnerable.

I say that we continue to make excuses because we’re not doing what weneed to do to save our children. We’re not organizing. Our children don’tcare about our status, egos, or our pedigree. Their destiny has already beendetermined unless we unite around a common cause: BLACK SURVIVAL.

Our leadership continues to fail us by not doing the very basic thingsneeded, creating unity. We see division at every level. Our academia has notbeen able to utilize the knowledge acquired from some of the best universitiesin the world to advance the self-determination of Black people.

Our religious leaders are divided into so many different sects that it’s prac-tically impossible to align to allow for “functional” unity. The on-going spir-itual message from each spiritual center is self-serving and is geared atkeeping and maintaining the status quo (dis-unity is quietly preached). Ourpoliticians clearly have lost their way.

They practice majority politics but forget that they are a minority. Whenyou’re a minority in politics, you consolidate your power by becoming a cau-cus, although, in many cases the Black caucus is ineffective, unorganized,uninspired, or nonexistent. Rarely have I seen the Black politicians pull theirindividual power together.

While we lack the individual and organizational capacity in many areas, asgroup we are stronger. We are greater than the sum of our parts. Our problemis that we don’t get to see our collective power in action often enough.

I hate to break it to you, but no one person or organization is going to saveBlack people. The problems we face are so acute and severe they will requirethe highest level of centralizing, coordinating, and strategizing.

If you look at a house (or anything), each part, the design, bricks, wood,fixtures, paint, carpets, etc. and even the labor, has its own value. However,putting the parts together in one place at one time into the final product esca-lates the value exponentially.

When it all comes together, it is referred to as synergy. We reference thegreatness of our people but to be great is to have great leaders and to be greatleaders, they must be able to lead (good action).

Message to the Black Community andthe Black Leadership:IT�S TIME FOR THEBLACK COMMUNITYTO PUSH HARD

Equally impressive, Taki was anexcellent teacher with the rare abilityto connect with even the most brain-washed or naive individual. He wasa lantern of truth that cast his lightupon a darkened community, em-powering those he touched withracial pride and self respect.

I make no bones about my BlackNationalist philosophy. Taki hadmoved beyond that realm to embracea Pan African doctrine through whichhe opened the door of knowledge tothousands of us who benefited fromhis vast knowledge of African antiq-uity.

While I focused most of my re-search on our dichotomous timeAmerica, our vast but unacknowl-edged contributions and a reinterpretation of ‘His Story,’ Taki’s concentrationwas on our ancestors’ innumerable contributions centuries before theMayflower.

He opened my eyes to the greatness of our African history, to the first civ-ilization and our advancement of law, science and medicine.

As a member of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civi-lizations (ASCAC), Taki taught about Amenhotep the world’s first recognizedgenius, the first college founded by Africans while Europeans were still dis-covering that fire was hot. He was telling his students that math, particularlyalgebra, was not beyond their reach because their ancestors invented it.

Taki brought to life and gave meaning to the concept of Maat, the 11 DevinePrinciples and Laws. He lectured on African antiquity, and why it has beendistorted by those with a vested interest in keeping Africans, and AfricanAmericans, in a state of psychological slavery.

It was his grasp of history and the importance of a cultural foundation forBlack Americans that made him such a dangerous individual; particularly tothose who taught that Africans were happy-go-lucky jungle bunnies beforewe were “invited” to America to share in its “bounty and freedom of oppor-tunity.”

Taki moved to Milwaukee to teach in the public schools, and was a favoriteamong Black students. But when the frustration of fighting against those whotaught a false history of our time in America and our contributions to worldcivilization and culture finally overwhelmed him, Taki left the public schoolsystem and opened his own school, Blyden Delany Academy.

Attesting to his philosophy and educational goals, the academy was appro-priately named after Edward Wilmot Blyden, considered the father of PanAfricanism, and Martin Delany, often called the first proponent of Black Na-tionalism.

Taki has introduced various aspects of the Africentered curriculum severalyears earlier when he served as a consultant for Harambee CommunitySchool, where I served as a board member.

We spent a lot of time together, discussing the Africentered model, its im-portance as a tool to rebuild our culture and lay a foundation for Black pride.

I found myself in awe of Taki’s seemingly endless pool of knowledge, andwas equally impressed with his uncompromising Black pride.

Taki wasn’t what I called a Neo-Negro, one of those individuals who talkeda good game behind closed doors, but cast their eyes downward when facingWhite power brokers or members of the Negrocracy. Indeed, it was his tenac-ity and willingness to throw rocks at the castle walls that earned him his rep-utation as a champion of Black self-determination. It was courage andcommitment that made him dangerous. Taki not only spoke to Africentrictruth, but told White America he knew why Black children were failing inschools they controlled. He confronted them, and us, about who and why theypulled the cultural rug from under us.

There was a reason why Blyden Delaney was successful under his leader-ship and why the children who walked out of its doors are numbered amongthe community’s finest. Taki provided them with an Africentric foundationto stand upon; he infused them with cultural pride, dignity and self-respect.

Since the school’s closing, for financial reasons, Taki taught at SpringfieldCollege, wrote for the Community Journal and spread his message about ourtrue history and culture at forums and conferences. In one of his last presen-tations, he spoke about Black Nationalism and the fight against White Su-premacy at the Community Brainstorming session at St. Matthew’s CMEChurch.

Many of the White missionaries who regularly attend the monthly sessionto keep Black folks in check, walked out as he argued in support of BlackNationalism and the implementation of an Africentered curriculum in the pub-lic schools. That episode—White missionaries walking out on the truth es-poused by a true griot warrior—may be an appropriate epithet for Taki Raton.Hotep.

SIGNIFYIN’SIGNIFYIN’(continued from page 1)

There will be a memorial commu-nity prayer service for Taki Ratonon Thursday, July 16, 2015 at 3500N. Sherman Blvd. (The old greenWOKY building on the corner ofSherman Blvd. and Fond du Lack Av-enue.) The time of the service is7:30 p.m. The service is being heldby Angela Davis, president ofKnowledge Consulting, Inc. Ms.Davis taught with Taki at MillsChristian Academy. Parking will beavailable at the rear of the build-ing where those attending the serv-ice can also enter the building. Theservice will be held on the mainfloor. Attendees will be directed towhere the program will be held.

Seventy Years Young!On Sunday July 13, 2015, Mrs. Freddie Ruth Bradley celebrated her 70th Birthday at theDoubletree Hotel Downtown Milwaukee. (Photo by Kim A. Robinson)

Showered with love before the big day!

How ‘broken window’ policingcontinues to shatter Black livesby Lincoln Anthony Blades

In March of 1982, two social sci-entists named James Q. Wilson andGeorge L. Kelling, joined togetherto write an article for The AtlanticMonthly titled “Broken Windows:The police and neighborhoodsafety.”

In the article, these two men argued that whenminor signs of social disarray were left alone, notonly would that community beget more disorder,but it will eventually lead to increased levels ofchaos and criminality.

The seminal example they used was profferinghow broken windows on a building would temptvandals into breaking more windows, and eventu-ally would lead to them breaking into the buildingand even starting fires.

Whether you personally agree with that theoryor not, the one irrefutable fact about their essay isthat it forever altered criminal policy in America,especially in New York City.

In 1985, Kelling was hired as a consultant to theNew York City Transit Authority and presided overthe city’s crackdown of graffiti in the subway.

In 1990, this strict and unforgiving approachwas embraced by the head of the New York CityTransit Police – a man named William Bratton.Using Kelling’s model as his inspiration, Brattonspearheaded a zero-tolerance campaign on infrac-tions such as fare-dodging.

When Bratton was hired as police commissionerby mayor Rudy Giuliani in 1993, he brought hisstyle of policing with him and applied it city wideto crimes such as public urination, panhandlingand unsolicited squeegee car cleaning.

He also introduced a comprehensive automatedtracking system called Compstat which was usedto monitor the time, type and location of individualcrimes.

Backed with stats and a focus on policing bro-ken windows, the era of increased summons wasofficially underway.

When Operation Impact, an initiative to floodhigh-crime neighborhoods with mostly rookie of-ficers, was launched in 2003, a huge bump in sum-mons took off.

In 2005, the program reached its peak when648,638 summons were issued in one year. But,when you analyze the neighbourhoods which wereconsidered high crime, there was a stark overrep-resentation of areas populated mostly by black andbrown faces.

Black and Latino New Yorkers were being tar-geted by the NYPD at a rate that far exceeded theirwhite neighbors. In fact, according to the New

York Civil Liberties Union, roughly 81% of the 7.3million people hit with violations between 2001and 2013 were black and Hispanic.

So, earlier this week, when news broke thatNYPD officers and law makers have allegedly is-sued 850,000 bogus summonses and have at-tempted to cover it up by destroying evidence, weshouldn’t just view this as a simple inconvenienceto many New Yorkers, but more so as the outrightextortion of African-Americans by the NYPD.

That last sentence may make some people un-(continued on page 8)

Photo courtesy of Google

“Black and Latino New Yorkers were being targeted bythe NYPD at a rate that far exceeded their whiteneighbors. In fact, according to the New York Civil Lib-erties Union, roughly 81% of the 7.3 million people hitwith violations between 2001 and 2013 were blackand Hispanic.”



The count of blackchurches in the South thathave been torched is not thesix that have been burnedsince the massacre of nineblacks at Charleston's Em-manuel AME Church, but37. The church burnings oc-curred in a period of nottwo weeks but over 18months.

That was only the tip of the churchburning iceberg. In a six year periodbetween 1991 and 1996, the ATF in-vestigated more than 150 churchesthat had been torched in both theSouth and the North.

Some of those burned were whitechurches. But it was the sheer num-ber and ferocity of the arson attackson black churches that caught the na-tion’s attention and stirred alarm thatblack churches were being systemat-ically targeted.

The tormenting question, though,was by who and why then, and again,today? Black churches have been aninviting target for racially motivatedattacks by the Klan, assorted whitevigilantes and cranks during a hotbutton period from the early to mid-1960s.

The reason then was simple. Theywere the gathering place, center-piece, and rallying point for the mass

meetings, marches and demonstra-tions by civil rights leaders.

Martin Luther King, Jr., the SCLC,CORE and the NAACP, knew thatwhen all other public and private fa-cilities were barred to them for use inmost Southern cities and towns, therewas always a local black church thatwould open its pulpit and sanctuaryto them.

The price paid was steep. In lessthan one month in 1962, five blackchurches were torched in rural Geor-gia.

The next year the nation recoiledin shock at the dynamite bombing ofthe 16th Street Baptist Church inBirmingham and the murder of fourblack girls.

But the resurgence of attacks onblack churches in the 1990s mysti-fied many. The civil rights era ofmass protests and demonstrationswith black churches at the center hadlong since passed. So who was doingthe dirty work now and why?

Then President Clinton was amongthose who wanted to know why andasked Congress for an extra $1.2 mil-lion to beef up the investigations. Themoney was approved.

The ATF, FBI and federal prosecu-tors supplied a partial answer withthe arrests and prosecutions of a mot-ley assortment of suspects.

They were almost always young,male, and white, and they hadspouted racist sentiments, had loose

ties with shadowy hate groups.Or the perpetrators fit the textbook

category of poorly educated teens ormalcontents who tanked up on boozeor drugs took out their warped angeror derangement on a handy and vul-nerable target, namely the nearestlocal black church.

Shamefully, a few of those fin-gered in the burning of a fewchurches were blacks who saw it asa chance to grab insurance money orharbored a grudge.

No matter whom the perpetratorwas and their motive, the churchburnings came against the backdropduring this period of fresh attackslaunched by conservatives on affir-mative action, voting rights, and theresurgence of hate groups and anti-government militia groups.

That same racially charged climateand the tensions it ignited repeats it-self again today. The Charleston mas-sacre was the most heinous andhorrific atrocity, but it was also thelatest in a train of race tearing eventsin the past year.

The mass agitation over the policekillings of and assaults on unarmedyoung black males, and increasinglyfemales. There's been the relentless

assault by ultra conservatives on vot-ing rights protections, college affir-mative action programs, and the openand subtle vicious racial harangueand hectoring of President Obama bysome Tea Party extremists, and unre-constructed bigots.

Much of that hate is well evidentin the nonstop race baiting digs,slurs, and putdowns of blacks onwebsites, chat rooms, and in socialmedia.

Add to that, the conflict over theremoval of the Confederate flag fromstatehouse in South Carolina andother places in the South.

The backlash has been fierce withrecord breaking sales of the flag andloudly touted plans by the Klan tohold rallies and marches with theclear message to legislators to keephands off the flag.

Investigators have been quick tosay that they have found no evidenceof a conspiracy, let alone a racial mo-tive, in the church burnings. And thatit's way too soon to even intimate thatany of the church burnings were ahate crime.

Almost certainly, there will besome arrests in the burnings. Thatagain will provide at least a partial

answer whether the burnings weredone by crackpots and malcontentsor organized racial hate mongers.

No matter what investigators ulti-mately find about who is burning thechurches and their motives for doingso, the horrifying fact is that blackchurches a half century after the peakof the 1960s civil rights battles stillremain the one black institution thatis America’s inviting target for at-tacks—whatever the reason.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an au-thor and political analyst. He is aweekly co-host of the Al SharptonShow on American Urban RadioNetwork.

He is the author of From King toObama: Witness to a Turbulent His-tory (Middle Passage Press). He is aweekly co-host of the Al SharptonShow on American Urban RadioNetwork.

He is an associate editor of NewAmerica Media. He is host of theweekly Hutchinson Report News-maker Hour heard weekly on thenationally network broadcastHutchinson Newsmaker Network.Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson onTwitter.

• Peace Temple Church of God In Christ will hold the 34th Lisbon Family and FriendsOutdoor Gathering Saturday, August 1, 2015 at the church, located at 3332 W. LisbonAve. Elder Ulysses Brewer is pastor. There will be free food, games, bouncer for chil-dren, face painting, a puppet show and more. For more information, call 414-554-3888.

• Peace Temple Church of God In Christ will celebrate their pastor, Elder UlyssesBrewer’s third year anniversary Sunday, July 19, 2015, at 3:30 p.m. Peace TempleCOGIC is located at 3332 W. Lisbon Ave.

• Greater New Birth Church will have a mobile feeding pantry in its parking lot Friday,July 17th, 2015 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Greater New Birth is located at 8237 W. Silver SpringDrive. The mobile pantry is sponsored by Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, in part-nership with Grace International Fellowship

What’s Happening in YOUR Faith-Based CommunityWhat’s Happening in YOUR Faith-Based Community

In Loving Memory

Quality Service...a tenured tradition

sincere concern at your time of need.

Offering pre-need, at need andafter-care services to families in

Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha andother communities

throughout our state. J.C. Frazier, Funeral Director

Milwaukee6630 W. Hampton Avenue

Milwaukee, WI 53218Telephone: (414) 462-6020

Fax: (414) 462-9937

Racine800 Barker St.

Racine, WI 53402Telephone: (262) 637-6400

Fax: (262) 637-6416

Families served by:Northwest Funeral Chapel O’Bee, Ford & Frazier

Cobbs, Agnes M.Age 89 yrs. July 13, 2015. Funeral services will be held on Tuesday,July 21 at 11AM at Christian Faith Fellowship Church 8605 W. Good-hope Rd. Instate Tuesday 10AM at the CHURCH until time of services.Visitation Monday 3-7PM at:Northwest Funeral ChapelO'Bee, Ford & Frazier6630 W. Hampton Ave. (414)462-6020

Dotson, Carol J.Age 70 yrs. July 13, 2015. Funeral services will be held on Friday,July 24 at 11AM. Visitation Friday 10AM until time of services at:Northwest Funeral ChapelO'Bee, Ford & Frazier6630 W. Hampton Ave. (414)462-6020

Carter, GeraldineAge 50 yrs. July 11, 2015. Funeral Services will be held on Monday,July 20 at 11AM at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church 3737 N. ShermanBlvd. Visitation Monday 10AM at the CHURCH until time of services.The family is served by:Northwest Funeral ChapelO'Bee, Ford & Frazier6630 W. Hampton Ave. (414)462-6020

Gladney, William E.Age 55 yrs. July 9, 2015. Beloved father ofSade Gladney. Loving son of William Glad-ney. Brother of Rene Gladney, Julian(Bev-erly)Gladney, Lisa(Joe)Shaw and CathyGladney. Also survived by a host of otherloving relatives and friends. Funeral serv-ices will be held on Wednesday, July 15 at

1PM. Visitation Wednesday12 Noon until time of services at:Northwest Funeral ChapelO'Bee, Ford & Frazier6630 W. Hampton Ave. (414)462-6020

Williams, Exie B.Passed away peacefully July 11, 2015 at the age of 95. Funeral serv-ices will be held on Saturday, July 18 at 11AM. Visitation Saturday

10AM until time of services at:Northwest Funeral ChapelO'Bee, Ford & Frazier6630 W. Hampton Ave. (414)462-6020

Henderson, DebraAge 55 yrs. July 7, 2015. Funeral services will be held on Wednesday,July 15 at 11AM at Free and Blessed Ministries 5229 N. 51st St. Visi-tation Wednesday 10AM a the CHURCH until time of services. Thefamily is served by:Northwest Funeral ChapelO'Bee, Ford & Frazier6630 W. Hampton Ave. (414)462-6020

Adams, Bryan L.Age 40 yrs. July 1, 2015. Funeral services will be held on Wednes-day, July 15 at 11AM. Visitation Wednesday 10AM until time of serv-ices at:Northwest Funeral ChapelO'Bee, Ford & Frazier6630 W. Hampton Ave. (414)462-6020

Walters, BettyAge 74 yrs. June 19, 2015. A Memorial Service will be held on Tues-day, July 14 at 1PM at Wisconsin Memorial Park 13235 W. CapitolDr. The family is served by:Northwest Funeral ChapelO'Bee, Ford & Frazier6630 W. Hampton Ave. (414)462-6020

Street, LuzelleAge 80 yrs. July 12, 2015. Funeral services will be held on Friday,July 24 at 11AM. Visitation Friday 10AM until time of services at:Northwest Funeral ChapelO'Bee, Ford & Frazier6630 W. Hampton Ave. (414)462-6020

Ernestine O’Bee, Founder

The Matthews-MurklandPresbyterian Church in Char-lotte, N.C. was burned down inan act of arson in June of 1996.Chuck Burton / AP

Who is Burning America’sBlack Churches---And Why?New America Media, Commentary, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Posted: Jul 01, 2015

Pictured above: Aftemath of Birmingham ChurchBombing, 1963. Photo courtesy of the Equal JusticeInitiative's History of Racial Injustice, based in Mont-gomery, Ala.

RELIGIONRELIGION


T I C K E T S A R E S T I L L A V A I L A B L E !

MOLINA HEALTHCARE RECOGNIZES UNSUNG HEROES AT ITS NINTH ANNUAL COMMUNITY CHAMPIONS AWARDS CEREMONY

Molina Healthcare of Wisconsin recently celebrated thegood deeds of six community heroes at its fourth annualCommunity Champions Awards. The ceremony was heldat the Tripoli Shrine Center on June 18th. This year’s win-ners included Paul Grippe, Sharon Amos, Phyllis Holder,Larry Hartman, Hope Voigt and Colleen DeLisle.

“We proudly salute the hard work and dedication ofthese extraordinary individuals,” said Scott Johnson, pres-ident of Molina Healthcare of Wisconsin. “It was a pleas-ure honoring this year’s Community Champions awardwinners for the dedication and commitment they put intoserving those in need in our communities.”

The Community Champions program celebrates the vi-sion of Dr. C. David Molina, the founder of MolinaHealthcare, as well as community partners who work to-gether to care for society’s most vulnerable individuals.Each community champion was nominated by a commu-nity-based organization and also received a $1,000 grantto give to a deserving nonprofit organization of his/herchoice.

THE 2015 COMMUNITY CHAMPIONS AWARD WIN-NERS:

Colleen DeLisle is only a freshman in high school and

has dedicated countless hours to community service in-cluding feeding the hungry, providing warm clothing tohomeless individuals during winter months and distribut-ing thousands of books to kids in need.

Paul Grippe volunteers as the city representative of theMilwaukee Police Department Block Watch and recruitsother constituents to join the force. Paul also serves onthe board of the Milwaukee Christian Center where hehelps identify community needs and implements pro-grams of service to fill the void.

Sharon Amos has consistently volunteered 25 hours aweek for the past four years at Kilbourn ElementarySchool where she helps coordinate school-wide activi-ties, fundraisers and take on administrative duties.

Phyllis Holder is a breast cancer survivor and Regis-tered Nurse, who hosts free support groups and educa-tional events for victims, their families and women at riskthrough Sisters 4 a Cure. She’s been a longtime volun-teer for the organization providing health prevention edu-cation.

Larry Hartmann is a caretaker for grassroots homelessoutreach programs at Tippecanoe Presbyterian Church.In the last 4 years since transitioning from homelessnesshimself, Larry has guided 25 clients through the home-less intervention program. He also started a meal pro-gram called “Larry Under the Bridge,” which deliversbagged dinners to areas where homeless frequent everySunday throughout the year.

Hope Voigt is a practicing accountant and serves onthe board of directors for House of Hope, a homelessshelter for young mothers and their children. She sharesher financial expertise as a member of the executiveteam and participates in fundraising events.

Pictured (back row - left toright): Babette Honore, VicePresident of Community En-gagement of Molina Health-care of Wisconsin; PhyllisHolder, Community Cham-pion; Sharon Amos, Commu-nity Champion; Hope Voigt,Community Champion;Michelle DeLisle, Colleen’smother; Larry Hartmann, Com-munity Champion; PaulGrippe, Community Cham-pion; and Scott Johnson,President of Molina Health-care of Wisconsin.

MINORITY BANKS SHUTOUT OF NEW MARKETSTAX CREDITS AWARDS

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - On June 15, 2015, theCommunity Development Financial Institutions Fund(CDFI Fund), an arm of the Treasury Department, is-sued $3.5 billion in New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC)allocation to 76 entities across the country. Sadly, nofunds were awarded to the nation's minority banks,the institutions with the longest track records of de-ploying capital in the most underserved communitiesin our country.

The NMTC Program is designed to spur economic development in dis-tressed communities across the U.S. The program provides a tax credit to in-vestors who invest in projects or small businesses in those communities byfunneling their investments through the recipients of tax credit allocation.

According to the CDFI Fund's own Award Book, only six awards (less than8%) went to minority controlled entities of any kind, and those groups re-ceived only $165 million, under 5% of the total dollar amount of allocation."The absence of a single minority bank raises much concern," said MichaelGrant, President of the National Bankers Association. "In 2009, the GeneralAccounting Office issued a report detailing the disparity in NMTC awards tominority entities. The numbers have actually gotten worse, not better," hecontinued.

A 2009 study by the Government Accountability Office indicated that onlyabout 9% of minority entities were successful when applying for NMTCs,while non-minority entities had three times the success rate, winning 27% ofthe time. According to GAO, although the program is highly competitive, mi-nority entities have less than a one in three chance of any other type of entityto receive an award. Minority banks have had even lower success rates thanminority entities overall.

"By our estimates, less than 2% of the $450 billion in NMTCs issued overthe past [12] years has gone to minority banks," said Doyle Mitchell, CEO ofIndustrial Bank of Washington, D.C. and immediate past Chairman of theNBA "Some of our banks have been deploying capital in the poorest neigh-borhoods in America for over 100 years, and we think the CDFI Fund shouldreview the program to ensure that applications by minority and other smallCDFI banks are evaluated on criteria that reflects their position as regulated

(L-R)Michael Grant, president, National Bankers Association; B.Doyle Mitchell, CEO, Industrial Bank; Preston Pinkett, CEO, CityNational Bank, chair, National Bankers Association



New Horizon DayCare Center, LLC.Grand Opening

The New Horizon Day Care Center is hosting a GrandOpening Celebration for its new State-of-the-Art Facilityon Saturday, July 25, from 10:00am-3:00pm with a pro-gram and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at 12noon. This newcontemporary facility is located at 4200 North HoltonStreet Suite #105.

The concept and design of the center was developed byLLC. Member Mr. Saleem El-Amin and designed byPhoenix investors, LLC.

The delightful new interior was built from the groundup and commissioned by an affiliate of Phoenix investors.Specifically, we’d like to acknowledge Mr. Frank Criv-ello- Mr. John Peret, and Mr. Robert Peret and their ex-cellent team of construction workers and remodelers fortheir hard work, long hours and exceptional effort.

The Day Care which is state-licensed and a Young Starlevel Certified, features six bright, spacious and beauti-fully decorated rooms.

With both a large outdoor playground with state certi-fied equipment and soft area. In addition, the buildinghas a spacious climate controlled in-door play and recre-ation area were children experience a playtime wonder-land.

The facility also has a state-of-the-art on groundskitchen space serving breakfast, lunch and afternoon

snacks, comfortable staff lounge and very large parentconference meeting room. Moreover, we a have a won-derful grandparents program,

Milwaukee Public Library year around reading pro-gram, after school services and summer field trips toname a few. We also, have low teacher student ratios,highly trained and Registry Certified staff, a comprehen-sive curriculum and family involvement program.

Previously located at 7918 West Capitol Drive NewHorizon Day Care Center opened its door in May, 2011.The idea for a Day Care Center was generated out of avision to support parents in our Treatment Foster Careprogram who were in need of immediate child care serv-ice.

From that insight, parents in the surrounding commu-nities were also afforded a beautiful and safe learning en-vironment for their children.

In 2014, New Horizon Center was offered an opportu-nity that they could not refuse to move to the new locationthat would be built to their exact specifications.

The new facility opened in June 2015, and boasts a ca-pacity of 74 children and is opened Monday-Friday from6:00am- 7:00pm. Transportation is provided to a limitedradius of the Milwaukee metro area.

We are currently enrolling ages 6 weeks to 12 yearsold. Parents, grandparents and guardians are encouragedto take a tour of the facility and enroll your child today.

For more information contact Ms. Kim Cubbie Pro-gram Director or Ms. Latoya Matthews Assistant to theDirector at (414) 393-4004 or visit us our website atwww.thenhcllc.com.

Remember to please join us for our Grand Opening cer-emony on July 25, 2015.

YY&&EEY O U T H & E D U C A T I O N

Staples Associate Directs$5,000 to Boys and GirlsClub of Greater MilwaukeeMilwaukee Staples AssociateChooses Non-Profit Organization to Benefit from Staples Foundation Grant

Staples Foundation, the private charitable armof Staples, Inc., has awarded $5,000 to Boys andGirls Club of Greater Milwaukee under a pro-gram that lets Staples associates direct donations.

The Staples associates who directed the fundsregularly volunteer with the organization.

The Staples Foundation grant will contribute tothe organization’s Career Development Program-ming program which assists over 2,000 youth en-rolled in career-specific programming andmentoring.

This program helps members engage in a com-prehensive career development, which consists of21st Century job readiness, tech and life skillstraining, career exploration, worksite visits andreal-world job experience within the clubs andoutside collaborations.

The grants are part of a philanthropic initiativecreated by Staples Foundation which allows Sta-ples associates around the world to direct fundingto non-profit organizations that are focused on ed-ucation or job skills.

The program, called 2 Million and Change, en-courages local community engagement by award-ing larger grants to organizations where

associates are highly engaged in volunteering orfundraising – up to $25,000 per organization.

In 2014, Staples directed grants to 990 domesticorganizations in 47 states in support of educationand job skills programs, including tutoring for pe-diatric cancer patients, job skills development forindividuals with disabilities, school supplies,mentoring and more.

“Staples Foundation is committed to encourag-ing associates around the globe to make a differ-ence in their local communities and through 2Million and Change we enable them to directlysupport the programs where they personally seethe greatest need,” said Katy Dobbs, director ofglobal community and giving for Staples, Inc.

“We are thrilled to see more associates partici-pating in this program every year, and we’reproud to help them support the charities they careabout most.”

About Staples Community and Giving Staples contributes to educational and youth-

oriented community efforts, from literacy andmentoring to career skills development, throughin-kind and monetary donations and grants fromStaples Foundation, the private charitable arm ofStaples, Inc.

Through its community and giving efforts, Sta-ples and Staples Foundation have helped morethan 6,500 organizations in 26 countries. Formore information, visit www.staples.com/com-munity.

Friends of Tariq Akbar came together at his funeral to sayfarewell to their friend last week. Akbar was shot to deathafter he and his friends watched the annual July 3 fire-works. Police say the shooting stemmed from an onlinefight about a girl — an online dispute that Tariq was not apart of. A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in the shoot-ing. (Photos by Kim Robinson)

Tariq Akbar

Teen friends say farewell to Tariq Akbar

ROCK THE HOUSE EVENT TOBENEFIT LOCAL CHILDRENAND FAMILIES

Ready to rock out? On Friday, Aug. 21, Turner Hall will host the third an-nual “Rock the House” concert to support Ronald McDonald House Chari-ties® of Eastern Wisconsin, Inc.

The event stars DJ David Hall and The Eddie Butts Band, one of thelongest-running and most successful bands in Milwaukee that has a reputationfor entertaining audiences and encouraging them to hit the dance floor.

Jazz, pop and R&B tunes sung by Eddie Butts and other vocalists willshowcase Wisconsin’s favorite bands’ musicianship and ensure a night of funfor all.

Debbie Allen, a McDonald’s Owner/Operator who is an accomplishedGospel singer and motivational speaker, will join the Eddie Butts Bandthroughout the night.

“The excitement building around this event is encouraging,” said Allen.“Everyone is looking forward to spending the night listening to music andsocializing, and it’s all for a great cause, the children and their families.”

Who: The Eddie Butts bandfeaturing Debbie Allen What: Third annual “Rockthe House” charity concertWhere: Turner HallWhen: Friday, August 21,2015 from 7-11 p.m.Why: To raise $75,000 insupport of families whoneed a “home away fromhome” while their childrenare receiving medical treat-ment at local Milwaukeehospitals

Rock the House tickets areavailable online atwww.RMHCHOME.org. Indi-vidual tickets are $50,which includes appetizersfrom Maxie’s and two adultor non-alcoholic bever-ages. For more informationgo to http://rmhcmilwau-kee.org/event/rock-the-house-concert.

The Eddie Butts Band

FROMTHEBLACK


KALEIDOSCOPEKALEIDOSCOPEt h e M C J l i f e s t y l e & e n t e r t a i n m e n t s e c t i o n

Old School: we Ain't Through Yet! - Black men 60 yrs.old and older are invited to attend a meeting at the Wiscon-sin African American Women's Center 3020 W. Vliet St. onMonday, July 20th from 4:30PM - 5:55PM to discuss solu-tions that can address the conditions in our community. Thediscussion will center around Mentoring, Outreach, Philan-thropy, Health and Resource Gathering.

Heal the Hood and BND presents Heal the Womb andHeal the Nation!

There will be women advocates addressing women's is-sues, spoken word artists and vendors. Sunday, July 19th at2PM at the Wisconsin African American Women's Center3020 W. Vliet St.

Respecting the Humanity of Prisoners - A encounterwith the stories, poems, art and witness of Wisconsin prisoners. Family members of those inprison will share their stories. This event will be held at The First Unitarian Society of Mil-waukee 1342 N. Astor St. on Saturday, July 25th from 10AM-1PM. This event is sponsoredby MICAH, The Body and Soul Healing Center, ACLU of WI, Project Return, WisconsinCommunity Services, Prison Action Milwaukee and Justice Point.

"Stress Free for Life" - Order a copy of this book today for yourself and order a copy fora loved one that is incarcerated. You can order this book by calling 718-469-3199 at Tauien-terprises. This book will give you the insight of how to eliminate, not manage the stress inyour life.

Encore3 Presentation - Monday, July 20th at the Heritage Senior Citizens Village 2455W. Silver Spring Ave. Be my guest and learn about some very powerful products that ad-dresses chronic pain, diabetes and hypertension. The presentation starts at 7:00PM Sharp.If you get there 15 minutes early you can sample some of the products. For more informa-tion call me at 374-2364.

FROMTHEBLACKBy Tony Courtney

The Marcus Center for Performing Arts presents onenight only, Milwaukee authorand social entrepreneur,Dasha Kelly, for a summerrooftop performance on Saturday, August 4

Join Dasha Kelly for a night of intimate story-telling brought to you through music, art andwords intricately woven onto the newly renovatedFitch Garden rooftop. Known for her eclecticstyle of storytelling,

Kelly infuses the lyrical sounds of artist ValerieBenton (R&B), Evaughn High (Gospel), Iberia(Pop), Tom Vollman (Indie Rock) along withNeoSoul performer Davia Fenton rounding out amusical cast of amazing Milwaukee talent. Enjoythe visual art works of cover artist and Milwaukeeresident Mary Osmundsen helping to bring thestory of Almost Crimson to life.

Almost Crimson released in May, 2015 byCurbside Splendor Publishing, is a fictional novel

that tackles the effects of mental illness on the lifeof a young girl who takes on the responsibility ofraising herself and caring for her chronically de-pressed mother. Crimson, a whip smart younglady learns to maneuver adult challenges whilestill managing the trials of daily life as a child.

Kelly’s fourth novel is one of her most success-ful attempts at bringing an often familial taboointo the spotlight and making the topic accessibleto anyone willing to read a story Buzz Feed de-scribes as Candid and Heartfelt.

Number 6 on Buzz Feed’s 16 Most ExcitingBooks of 2015, Almost Crimson continues to gar-ner powerful reviews:

Michael Seidlinger of Electric Lit ranks AlmostCrimson #2 in his 2015 Great Indie Press Review“…With amazing heart and depth, Kelly exploresCeCe’s world and the people she encounters asshe works to free herself from her surroundingsand change her seeming destiny. Kelly’s debut isone of rare grace and honesty, and her words arebeautiful and moving.”

The 20 city tour began in May at BoswellBooks, which practically sold out of the novel be-fore Kelly’s scheduled appearance. The summertour has taken Dasha from the Northside ofChicago to Botswana, South Africa and manycities in between.

Upcoming tour dates before her MilwaukeeHomecoming on August 4 include: ChangingHands in Phoenix, July 11, Kramer Books inWashington DC, July 22, Mr. Hip Presents inBoston, July 25 and Art Fusion in Charlotte, July27.

Dasha Kelly is an internationally-respectedwriter, artist and social entrepreneur. She travelsextensively leading experiential workshops oncreativity, team building and writing.

Dasha has delivered her uniquely engagingworkshops to college campuses, corporate teams,churches, correctional institutions, arts groups,class rooms in every primary grade (K-12), eld-erly recreational programs and non-profit organi-zations.

The HBO Def Poetry Jam performer is theFounder and President of Stillwaters Collective, anon-profit organization in Milwaukee that usesspoken word to encourage youth and youngadults to express themselves through written andperformance poetry in order to build a positiveself image and better engage a broader commu-nity.

Gaze upon a spectacular Milwaukee Sunset andlisten to some of the city’s most remarkable talentSaturday, August 4 at 7:00 PM, in Fitch Gardenslocated on the rooftop of the Marcus Center forthe Performing Arts.

Tickets are still available and can be purchasedat the Marcus Center box off. For ticket informa-tion call 414-273-7206 or visit online at Marcus-Center.org.

BOOKSHELFBOOKSHELF Dasha Kelly

www.commu-nityjournal.net


“Mister Speaker, I am proud that the MilwaukeeCommunity Journal hails from the 4th Congres-sional District. It has consistentlyinformed, analysedand entertained readers for nearly 38 years. I ampleased to give praise to Patricia O’Flynn Pattilloand her staff for providing a voice to the communityand providing educational opportunities to students. I wish them many moreyears of success.”--A segment from Cong. Gwen Moore’s remarks she made on the Congressional Record paying tribute to the Milwaukee Community Journal’s Dr. Terence N. ThomasScholarship Annual Brunch

easy, and years ago may have beenviewed as race-baiting, but now re-cent facts that proven that not only isthis a very probable and prejudicialattack, but it’s also not limited toNew York.

In March of this year, the Depart-ment of Justice released a report thatexplicitly stated that the police forcein Ferguson, Missouri deliberatelytargeted and ticketed black residentsto maximize revenue for the city.

The DOJ report not only states thatblack Americans are disproportion-ately targeted and 68% less likely tohave their cases thrown out in court.Blacks are 50% more likely to havetheir citation lead to an arrest warrantand accounted for 92% of cases inwhich an arrest warrant was issued.

Even more disgusting and trou-bling is that when violence occurredagainst African-Americans, 90% ofthe time they were against blackfolks.

When looking at those numbersand understanding the nation-wideissue the United States has with raceand policing, you would have to benaive as hell to believe that those in-equalities exist simply in Ferguson.

Although half of the summons inNew York City are thrown out, thereis irreparable harm being done toblack New Yorkers who are targetedand criminalized by programs likestop and frisk which fall under therubric of broken windows policing.

If what is being alleged is true,African-Americans are being ex-torted as a means of financial rev-enue to the city while also helpingofficers and precincts accomplishtheir CompStat targets.

It’s the sort of over policing ofminor crimes leads to black menbeing imprisoned for petty crimessuch as selling loose cigarettes on thestreet, which results in overzealousofficers placing black men in illegalchoke holds while they audibly gasp,“I can’t breathe…” before they’resuffocated by the very same menwho were tasked with protectingthem.

There is no broken window so im-portant that it’s worth eroding thetrust people of color have in theirown police force.

Lincoln Anthony Blades blogs dailyon his site ThisIsYourConscience.com.He’s an author of the book “You’reNot A Victim, You’re A Volunteer.” Hecan be reached via Twitter@lin-colnablades and on Facebook at Lin-coln Anthony Blades.

How ‘brokenwindow’ policing continues toshatter Blacklives(continued from page 3)

THE BLACK COMMMUNITY IS IN DANGER OF BE-COMING A PERMANENT UNDERCLASS IN AMERICAAND SILENCE, EVEN BY DEFAULT, IS UNACCEPTABLE.

By permanent, I mean that our children will have greater dif-ficulty in the future of achieving the American dream (this seemsalmost impossible because it’s not as if our children are doingbetter). My disappointment lies in the fact that organization ofBlack leadership is not happening and we must ask the question,why?

A few generations of this behavior has created some very badhabits and behaviors that we must overcome. Yes, we have amassive oppressor that has an agenda to enslave the Black com-munity.

However, the biggest threat to the future of the Black com-munity is ourselves, mainly the lack of leadership and we’vecome to be extremely good at doubting ourselves.

We make excuse after excuse for not working with each other;believing and thinking that we are more than what we are (allthat and a bag of chips); working against each other by backbit-ing and speaking ill of each other; elated and somewhat happywhen one of our brothers or sisters has fallen from a high posi-tion; infatuation with symbolism and ceremony over substanceand sustainability; reactionary responses versus proactive ap-proaches; tearing something down versus building somethingup; walks, vigils, marches, but no follow up; and were quick todisavow ourselves from our past and the hurt that is associatedwith the enslavement of our people (as long as we don’t ac-knowledge the pain and trauma that America has caused us, we

can never heal). WE’VE BEEN BRAINWASHED AND PROGRAMMED

BY OUR OPRESSOR AND TODAY THAT PROGRAMMINGHAS US DOING ALL WE CAN NOT TO WORK TO-GETHER.

The Black community has been seriously harmed by theBlack experience in America. How else can you explain ourcircumstances? If the Black community isn’t suffering from thelegacy of slavery, then one must believe that Black inferiorityis real (which I don’t believe).

We were snatched and robbed from our motherland by ex-treme force; carted here like cargo under the most vicious andinhumane conditions; placed into the most violent levels of chat-tel slavery for nearly 300 years; and during this same period, wewere systemically stripped of nearly every aspect of our culture,history, language and knowledge of self.

Our ancestors suffered from the worst human conditions onlyto have the leaders of this current generation suffering from asevere case of amnesia forgetting about all of the horrible thingsthat have happened to the Black man in America.

Who will speak for our ancestors because they can’t speakanymore?

What would our great leaders of the past do today? Whatwould the great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., MalcolmShabazz, Marcus Garvey and many others being doing today?Would they be silent (WE HAVE BEEN PROGRAMMED TOTHINK THIS ISN’T IMPORTANT)?

Our conditions demand that you get out of your comfort zoneand make your voice heard. We must end our self-imposed boy-

cott and join the fight. We can’t/won’t EVER be able to removethe distrust we harbor until we internally fight against the “Catch22” and get ourselves to the table.

Too many of us are sitting on the fence waiting to see whathappens. In my humble opinion, there are three things that wemust recognize if we are to have a shot at changing our condi-tions: 1) it’s going to take a significant high level of unityamongst Black people especially our leaders; 2) our progresswill only come when we organize our resources, capacities, andpeople; and 3) we will have to earn the success that we envision.No one will give us what we need and what we deserve. WeMUST DO THE WORK - PROGRESS THRU ORGANIZA-TION

What the Black community needs more than anything isUNITY. Not the unity that is some superficial description whereall Black people are all doing the same thing at the same time �that’s unrealistic.

The unity that I’m referencing is a functional unity - a func-tional unity where representatives (leadership) from all segmentsof the community are working together around a common andcollective agenda.

A. Phillip Randolph stated: “At the banquet table of nature,there are no reserved seats. You get what you can take and youkeep what you can hold. If you can’t take anything, you won’tget anything, and if you can’t hold anything, you won’t keepanything. And you can’t take anything without organization.”

Restated, “Nobody is going to give us anything, we must takeit; we must organize ourselves.” IT IS TIME TO UNITE ANDIT IS TIME TO PUSH HARD.

(continued from page 3)IT�S TIME FOR THE BLACK COMMUNITY TO PUSH HARD

institutions operating in distressed areas, which is significantly different fromnon-regulated or larger institution applicants,'' he went on to say.

"If not for the allocations that were awarded to our bank just after HurricaneKatrina, even less would have gone to minority banks," stated Alden McDon-ald, CEO of Liberty Bank in New Orleans.

"In spite of the experience we have gained, our successful NMTC invest-ment track record and continued need in the communities we serve, we havenot been able to win an NMTC allocation from the CDFI Fund since 2010,"he continued.

Bob James, President of Carver State Bank in Savannah, GA, stated, "ourbank has applied for NMTC allocations six times and have been rejectedeach time, in spite of our participation in over $60 million in NMTC proj-ects and 88 year track record deploying capital in the most underservedparts of Georgia. We think something needs to change to give us a fair op-portunity to compete."

"Our banks have tried hiring consultants, attending CDFI Fund trainingseminars, finding creative ways to gain direct experience in the NMTC Pro-gram, and speaking to the CDFI Fund and Secretary of the Treasury, all tono avail," said Michael Grant.

"Consistently, larger banks are awarded allocations which enhances theirprofitability at the expense of our banks," he continued. "Another concernis the relatively new entities created specifically to participate in the NMTCProgram that do not have the long track records of service to poor commu-nities like our minority banks.

“These new special purpose entities have received significant awardsfrom a program that is supposed to benefit the neighborhoods served by ourmembership," he added.

"The NMTC Program has great potential to be part of a comprehensiveeconomic solution in America's inner-cities, most of which still have not re-covered from the Great Recession," said Preston Pinkett, CEO of City Na-tional Bank and Chairman of the NBA.

"But the groups best equipped to make those investments, minority banks- many of which have been in service for over 100 years- have largely beenshut out of the NMTC program," he continued. "We need our CDFI Fund todo more; we need a real change that will allow us to receive allocations sowe can use these resources to improve our communities," he concluded.

MINORITY BANKS SHUTOUT OF NEW MARKETSTAX CREDITS AWARDS(continued from page 5)

KUDOS FOR MUL SCHOLARGregory Fanning (at left), Assist. Director of Education and Training with the MilwaukeeUrban League, congratulates Michah Childs for receiving the Miller Park Community Schol-arship, which is part of the Milwaukee Brewers Community Foundation, Inc. Michah recentlyreceived the MUL’s National Achievers Scholarship and was a participant in the “Doing TheRight Thing” (DTRT) Program. Michah will be attending the University of Wisconsin-StevensPoint in the fall.

“A DREAM will never become a REALITYif you do not wake up. Many are afraidto wake up and spoil their DREAMS.Wouldn’t it be awesome to LIVE YOURDREAM in lieu of sleeping YOURDREAM? WAKE UP!!!”--Author Unknown


Read the newspaper with its finger on thepulse of YOUR community in print or online! YOUR Milwaukee Community Journal!

mcj july 15, 2015 edition

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