Our Time PressThe Local Paper with the Global View

By Errol Louis

A lot of hot air has been blowing across Brooklyn lately, now that opponents of Atlantic Yards have discovered that British bank Barclays plans to pay hundreds of millions for the right to have its name on the planne arena on the site. The opponents have dragged out the bank’s past financial connections to the slave trade, the Holocaust and South African apartheid.
“BLOOD MONEY: Nets arena to be named after bank founded on slave money,” screamed the headline of The Brooklyn Paper, a free paper that publishes a weekly compendium of complaints about Atlantic Yards. “Bruce Ratner has stabbed his black supporters in the back,” the paper’s editorial page said.
“Naming an arena after a slave-trading family is a slap in the face,” the paper said, urging politicians “to stand up for blacks, for history, for integrity and, indeed, for all of Brooklyn and urge [Atlantic Yards developer] Bruce Ratner to find another corporate partner.”
City Councilwoman Letitia James, who represents the area, called Barclays “a bank with blood on their hands” and was quoted by the paper as calling black supporters of Atlantic Yards “just tools used by Ratner to get this project passed.”
Barclays – like many companies with household names – profited from an untold number of monstrous crimes over the centuries. But Barclays is hardly alone – and the people and newspapers trying to claim moral ground by throwing around terms like “integrity” and playing politics with horrors like the slave trade and the Holocaust know this. Or they should.
JPMorgan Chase, for instance, has multiple, shameful connections to the slave trade and the Holocaust. According to historians and activists who have filed federal lawsuits seeking reparations, Wachovia, Aetna and CSX, the railroad company, all benefited from the slave trade.
The Brooklyn Paper, which raised this issue so self-righteously, should now practice what it preaches and publicly renounce any advertising dollars from Chase, Wachovia – Barclays, of course – and other institutions built on “blood money.”
And since we’re on the subject of names, it’s worth noting that The Brooklyn Paper is headquartered on Washington St., and thatn Washington Ave. runs right through the middle of James’ Council district. Both streets are named after our first President, a well-known slave master, so maybe James – if she’s serious – should invoke the Council’s power to scrub that name from public view.
And she’d better get busy: we’ve also got Washington Heights and Washington Square Park. And then there’s everything related to Peter Stuyvesant, an early governor of colonial New York who owned 50 slaves. His name graces Bedford-Stuyvesant, Stuyvesant High School, Stuy-Town – and on it goes.
I wish the complaints being aired about Barclays were sincere. But it’s obvious that most of the posturing on the links to slavery issue is coming from people who have never shown the slightest interest in the issue before, even though papers like Our Time Press have pressed the reparations question aggressively over the last decade.
I challenge these people to join the current fight to pass a strong law in Albany to stop human trafficking – a modern form of slavery that is going on in New York City right now.
Some estimates put the number of people in bondage worldwide at 12 million, with as many as 17,500 people newly smuggled into the U.S. every year to be forced, or sold, into brothels, sweatshops and domestic service. Many are women and children, and you may be walking past them every day.
“New York is a major port of entry, transit and destination for human trafficking,” says Taina Bien-Aime, the executive director of Equality Now, a Manhattan-based international human rights group. “It’s in our own backyard.”
In 2005, Nicole Bode of the Daily News traveled to the slums of Tijuana, Mexico, to trace one strand of the slavery network from the Southwest border to the streets and brothels of New York.
“Pimps promise to smuggle the impressionable girls into the United States, telling them they can get jobs as nannies, cooks and maids – making enough money to support their families back home,” Bode wrote. “These traffickers charge the girls as much as $7,500 in illicit crossing fees – but once they get to the United States, the girls are raped and forced into prostitution. By the time the girls realize they have been kidnapped, it’s too late for them to escape.”
A few months later, sexual servitude burst into the headlines again when a Korean couple accused of running brothels in Queens allegedly bribed two undercover cops. That led to a federal investigation that netted dozens of arrests and freed 70 sex workers caught up in a multistate human trafficking network stretching from Rhode Island to Virginia.
The Bush administration has put modern slavery high on its agenda, committing hundreds of millions of dollars and using the bully pulpit of the White House to condemn the practice. But New York remains one of several states with no law that specifically outlaws trafficking.
That’s a loophole that pimps and traffickers exploit: When a city brothel is busted, for instance, traffickers often get charged with minor crimes like promoting prostitution, which result in little or no prison time.
Every Thursday, concerned groups and individuals are gathering on the steps of Manhattan Supreme Court at 60 Centre St. at 12:30 p.m. Dubbed the “Albany Watch” campaign, the protesters shine a light on the New York State Legislature, which has failed for two years running to pass a meaningful law to curb human trafficking in New York.
New York can, and must, do better. March 2 will mark the 200th anniversary of the day Thomas Jefferson signed the law ending the Atlantic slave trade. There would be no better time for our state to play catchup and take serious steps to abolish this great evil.

Camera Caution
The city has installed those red-light cameras – which snap pictures of unsuspecting motorists and hit you with a summons by mail – at the corner of Eastern Parkway and Bedford Avenue. If you’re heading westbound on Eastern Parkway near that corner, don’t even think about running the light.

By  Stanley Kinard

Teachers Vacation During Black History Month
“We declare that we will no longer sit back and watch our children be subjected to an institutionally racist and humiliating education.  As citizens and taxpayers, we are declaring a State of Emergency regarding the education of Black children.”
– Excerpt from Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence Resolution
February is Black History Month and again we have failed to carry out the mandate to teach Black history to our children.  Most of the celebratory events that schools will host this month lack real substance and are not part of a curriculum change required to address the current racist curriculum being taught to our children.  The teacher’s union again has a contract that allows them to take a winter vacation break the last week of Black History Month.  It is an outrage that no one wants to address this. Black teachers also go along with this and they too play a role in the miseducation process of our children. 
The new high school semester begins February 1st.  Students come back to school after being out over two weeks taking Regents and finals.  From February 17 – 25 teachers take a vacation.  It is not a coincidence that this is happening during Black History Month but rather, it is another example of the pattern of disrespect that this system continues to show us.  I am amazed that no one chooses to challenge this.  It makes absolutely no sense and is an insult to the spirit of Dr. Carter G. Woodson and all of our ancestors. 
By now Councilman Leroy Comrie will have held his well-promoted press conference to stop the use of the “N” word.  This is more about publicity than it is about addressing systematic racism.  I would rather see Comrie and the other City Councilmen stand up for Black History in our schools and for setting aside funds for a major Black cultural initiative. 
I would like to see Councilman Robert Jackson, chair of the Education Committee and others address the issue of teachers taking a vacation during Black History Month.  Black History Month presents us with our greatest teaching moment and yet teachers go on vacation.  Again, it is absurd and repulsive to me.  The system shows utter disdain to us and we fall for it. 
There is a great documentary on the misogyny in hip-hop that will be aired February 20th at 10pm on PBS.  The film is called Beyond Beats and Rhymes and is directed by Byron Hurt. I urge everyone to see it.  Every parent must make sure that you watch this and discuss it with your children.
I was glad to see Aminisha Black’s article on the outcome of the basketball brawl between Paul Robeson and Thomas Jefferson High Schools.  Matters like hip-hop, basketball and Black History are issues that our youth are interested in.  We would get much further in reaching this generation of our youth if we paid more attention to these things.  I know you may be surprised to find Black History in the mix; however, I have had my most profound discussions with young people once I engage them in cultural discourse which is really the key to teaching them. They are turned off by a school system that doesn’t respect them or their history. 
In Mayor Bloomberg’s announcing last week that he was eliminating the regional Superintendent, he was acknowledging that his reform of the school system had failed.  In truth, we need to decide how we are going to educate our children and do it.  There are enough teachers and administration in place.  The kind of education we want for our children is not what Bloomberg, Klein, or Weingarten have in mind.  We Want Black History Now. Let’s Just Teach it.
In conclusion, I wish you all a happy Black History Month. Let us use this time to engage our community in awakening the African genius.

By Feona Sharhran Huff

Black History Month is a special time in the year for us as people of African descent when we collectively pay homage to and celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of our phenomenally courageous ancestors and living trailblazers. Our Time Press is especially proud to recognize the milestones of Brooklyn, NY’s Derrick Braxton. In an educational climate where it’s reported that the high school graduation rate for Black males is drastically low, this Bedford Academy High School senior is a shining example of what strength, tenacity and a burning desire to succeed can do for you. In addition to understanding the urgency of young Black men getting a solid education, this talented 19-year-old from Crown Heights is clear about his direction in life and how he intends to empower others to obtain their dreams.
And now, Derrick’s story.
Derrick has experienced a lot of family deathsw in his young years. He has lost both of his biological parents, two step-dads, and a grandfather. Plus, he’s had to overcome internal struggles such as doubting his ability to succeed and academically comparing himself to others. Equipped with a steadfast faith in God and with the rock-solid support of his older sister Lakesha – who assumed the parental responsibility of single-handedly raising him and his other three siblings at just 33 years old – Derrick is making significant inroads, especially academically. He insists that his grades improved drastically from when he first entered the academy. Both his mother and Lakesha had a lot to do with that.
“When I would come home with report cards with a 65 grade, my mother would say: ‘Derrick, I know you’re better than that.’ and the next report card I’d get, she’d be happy,” Derrick vividly recalls. “All my mom wanted was for me to be successful.”
Derrick vividly recalls that his sister had to show him some tough love to get him to buckle down on his schoolwork. “My sister doesn’t play when it comes to education,” Derrick says. “My sister knows how I love to sing and dance. Well, one time I came home with a bad report card and she didn’t let me do anything. That helped me to boost my grades.”
He continues: “Education is the most imperative source in the world. Without that, you can’t be or do anything. I see people now in the street and the same place I see them is on the corner or on the stoop talking to the same people. I’m not going to be that way.”
In fact, Derrick – who was a member of a hip-hop dance group that performed for six years on the BCAT show Flex in Brooklyn and now heads up a dance group called Fatal Touch which meets at the YMCA – has aspirations of being an entertainer. “I love to sing,” he exclaims. “I can prove it to you, too.”
Believing that everyone should have a “Plan B,” Derrick would consider a career in counseling youth.
As Derrick prepares to end one phase of his life and prepare for the next, he has this advice for other young people: “Storms are going to come, but you have to fight. Whatever you’re going through, you have to look to the sky and know that God is there for you. He is the answer.”

The Fort Greene Photography Organization (FGPO), in association with curator Empress Modupe Olufunmi of the George Washington Carver Gallery at The Magnolia Tree Earth Center, announces the photographic exhibition “Mother Earth- Urban Child”. As part of its commitment to bring photographic  fine art to the Brooklyn community, this exhibit will be on display at The George Washington Carver Gallery at 677 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn NY.
The exhibit opens February 9, 2007 and continues every Saturday and Sunday thru March 4, 2007. Works can be viewed during the weekend from 11am to 6pm. The exhibit can also be seen by appointment.
A reception will take place at the gallery on the evening of February 9th from 6pm – 9pm.
The first FGPO event for 2007 this includes the works of  Pavan Carter, Clay Horne, Ocean Morisset, Tom Govia, Syreeta McFadden, Bill Harmon, Geralyn Shukwit, Robert Marvin and Philippe Dollo.
On display will be a variety of photographic interpretations of how humans relate to each other and the environment. Images will showcase the talent of these artists by presenting images that are imaginative, emotional, as well as thought-provoking. The dedication demonstrated by the photographers in this exhibit continues to show that FGPO is one of the premier community-based artists organizations.
Fort Greene Photography Organization is a photography-inspired membership organization that was founded in January of 2001. With a membership of thirty individuals, FGPO’s mission is to advance public interest in photography, to expose the public to the works of emerging photographers through exhibitions and other events, and to provide emerging photographers with a forum to expose their work to the public.
FGPO aims to organize, sponsor and present exhibitions, forums, lectures and discussions related to photography in order to foster a greater appreciation and understanding of photography by the general public to make it accessible to all.
For further information, please contact:   The Washington Carver Gallery at The Magnolia Tree Earth Center, 677 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, Empress Modupe Olufunmi  347-351-3882 or  Pavan Carter  718-986-9496

The January meeting of the Fulton-Nostrand Merchants Association featured the announcement by Edmond Brathwaite of Nostrand Wines and Liquors of the April 12 wine-tasting at the Fulton Street branch of Carver Federal Savings Bank.  The event is designed as a scholarship fund-raiser for neighborhood youth and is sponsored by Nostrand Wines and Liquors and its suppliers.  Mr. Edmond says “it will be an event like no other in Brooklyn.” 
The bulk of the meeting was given over to introducing Captain Donald Lyons, the new commanding officer of the 79th Precinct.
“I plan to be very involved”, said the captain.  “The only way I can be is if we have a two-way street of information.    If you see something out there that the police should be addressing and you don’t think they are, you have to let me know.
The captain noted that the Fulton Nostrand area was part of an impact zone and that “brand-new officers” are assigned here.
Lyons said that if there is an officer out there who “you have an interaction with and there is a problem, you have to let me know and it can’t be one of those things where we wait until next month’s meeting, that’s not going to make anybody solve the problem quickly.” 
“Also, if there is an officer out there who you have an interaction with and he goes above and beyond or does the right thing professionally, who shows courtesy, professionalism and respect and you are impressed by that, please let us know that, too.  It’s not just the problem ones, but if we praise the ones doing the right job, it serves as an example to everybody else.  If they get recognized by the community, that goes a long way to improve morale and it influences other officers and is an example for them.”