Our Time PressThe Local Paper with the Global View

Our Time Press: Looking at David Yassky’s Web site, I didn’t see the words, African-American, Black or Caribbean-American attached to any of the issues he speaks about. What initiatives will you be taking in office that will address African- American/Caribbean concerns in Brooklyn?
Chris Owens: We are now up to one billion dollars for the war in Iraq.  Think about the impact on education, housing and health care amongst other things if those resources had been in our community.  So fighting the war is all-important.  Secondly, my commitment is to education.  I believe when you talk about power of the people, you have to deal with education.   I believe 1.1 million public schoolchildren deserve representation…  We have a battle going on over high-stakes testing.  Tests are defining our life.  Some folks do well on tests and some folks do not.  But the real issue is if we’re not providing the preparation, if we don’t have the guidance counselors, the libraries in the schools, the computer labs, the musical instruments, the materials for art so that our young children who express and learn differently are coming out with a disadvantage, despite the testing.  So we have to address education as one of our primary issues.
I believe we have to get involved at the federal level with parent involvement  in education.  My father started this.  He actually got an amendment passed to the Title 1 formula which set aside 1% of Title 1 funds for parent involvement.   We have to take that step and take it a lot further.  So many of our parents are young, so many of our parents really need help with parenting.  And as part of that, with becoming better parents to their kids while they’re in school.  Children respond to love.  Children respond to attention. They develop when they get that.  Young parents are struggling every day to survive in the community and tend to overlook their kids.  I was at the Albany Houses and there was a stroller with two babies  about 25 feet from a booming speaker.  I said to the mother, “I don’t mean to get in your business, but these children will never be able to learn properly if you let  them be this close to loud music.”  We are so out of touch, because we are so wrapped up in our day, that we don’t know what we’re doing to these young kids because we are not thinking about the implications of what we do.   So at the federal level, I want to deal directly with parent involvement and parent education.
More community programs for young people .  Small businesses need help.
Government doesn’t have a responsibility for everyone’s life but government does have a responsibility to make sure that people who have been denied equal treatment, economically, socially, politically and legally, get that equal treatment.  And when we look at our communities we see totally unequal treatment.
OTP: Talking about government responsibility, you’ve said that “Racism in employment must be confronted directly and sincerely and the federal government has an obligation and a role in this struggle.”  What is that obligation and what kind of confrontation do you envision?
Owens: This goes to the heart of the distinction between equal opportunity and equality.  We’ve been talking about equal opportunity for years.  Laws have been put in place to supposedly create equal opportunities.  Well, now that we’ve had this time, what are the real outcomes.  We need to look at outcomes if we’re going to evaluate the success of our equal opportunity approach.  The outcomes we know about, that there is racism in hiring, that there’s racism in the workplace itself.  That has to be addressed.  We need to look at the patterns, look at the data and we have to take action to correct it immediately.  The Princeton Study documents what the need is.  (A study by Princeton University researchers used admissions data from elite colleges to analyze what the colleges would look like without affirmative action. What they found was that Black and Latino enrollments would plummet.)
It is clear that the type of racism in hiring that we have to address is significant, pervasive and enduring.  Therefore there must be some new laws put in place at the federal level to protect our people from being discriminated against in hiring.

OTP: There’s an over 50% high school dropout rate among African-Americans and yet there are recent reports about the “amazing” increase in graduate degree holders in Brooklyn.  What are these statistics telling us?
Owens: Well, first of all, the graduation rate for Black men from our high schools now is only 30%.   That is so outrageous.  If whites were graduating at that rate, we’d have a revolution.   It is absolutely outrageous.  And the statistic about an increase in graduate degrees is reflecting demographic change.Citing the report in the Brooklyn Papers that “we had a loss of about 22,000 African -Americans in a one-year period from the Borough of Brooklyn, but an increase in whites of 66,000.”   The reality is, it’s not just race, it’s the class issue.  It’s the whole issue of gentrification and displacement, coming to a head now and moving forward with projects like the Atlantic Yards serving as catalysts for change and perpetuaters of inequality.  When we look at those statistics about the degrees, we’re basically saying, “Yes, we have a smarter, more sophisticated population that is now in Brooklyn”. Why?  Because the people who live here should be able to stay here; can’t afford to live here and they’re being pushed out.  That’s the problem.
Those two numbers are not contradictory.  They are an expression of a pattern, and expression of the future and our community has to wake up, we have to look at people like David Yassky who’s using the power of money to try and take over a congressional district.  And then look at the power of the developers and who’s coming in after the developers do their work and we have to say, “enough is enough”.  We have to say, “This is our city, we have a right to live here”, and there must be policies in place to equalize this.  That’s partially the federal government’s responsibility…
OTP: What is the importance of turnout?
Owens: We have to emphasize the fact that every African-American in the 11th Congressional District should find it their absolute duty to vote in this election.  I don’t know if they’re going to vote for David Yassky or me or some of the other candidates but we don’t want to look at ourselves on September 13th and say, “If  I’d only done this, if I’d only done that.”  We cannot look ourselves in the eye if we did not vote.  Only 33,000 people voted in 2004 in the congressional primary.  Only 50,000 people voted in the congressional primary.  We have 239,000 Democrats in this district, the overwhelming majority of whom are African-American.  So the future is in our hands.  If we don’t turn out, we only have ourselves to blame, because we can beat the big-money guy if we don’t think he belongs here.  But if we don’t vote, we have beaten ourselves.

“We’ve got a new attitude” come September, that may very well be the song that 4W Circle of Art and Enterprise, Inc., commonly called ‘4W’ by fans and supporters, will be singing.  4W Circle has served the needs of artists since 1991 and has been a supporter of emerging artists since its inception.ÿ4W has changed itsÿlook several times over the past 15 years to stay with the changing trends and this September they will unveil an entirely new look, new artist- in- residence program, new merchandise and a new approach to achieving its mission!
4W is recognized by many, in the borough, region and even internationally, as an institution, whose validity and integrity must be secured and maintained. Intrinsically, 4W has been branded as the place to find the latest and the best in ethnic, specifically African, handcrafted items. Its challenge today is gauging, not just the present, but where future designers and trends are headed. In an effort to reassert its commitment to handmade items from community artists and designers, 4W: “Women Working and Winning for the World,” will this September embark on a series of initiatives aimed at celebrating the past,  supporting the present, preparing future creative entrepreneurs who will supply the unique handmade items it has become known for!  Some of our current artists who create or design their own merchandise are:  Cae Byng, owner of JL Handmade Soaps; Barbara Garnes of My Father’s House and Charita Powell and Stacey Ford of Amazulu Designs.
Ultimately, 4W will emerge as a retail arts incubator that provides services and retail space to creative entrepreneurs, assisting them in opportunities to provide an income with their creative talents as well as training to maximize their talents and skills.  4W’s new mission will now include the development of  protocols and practices for training, not just artists and designers but the support services that art-based businesses need –  production, financing, public awareness, community support and patronage, branding, packaging, publicity as well as professional and legal  services.
On September 9th @ Brooklyn Heights Branch of The Brooklyn Public Library, located at Cadman Plaza, 4W, in collaboration with Brooklyn Fashion Gallery, will launch the first in a creative education series.  The seminar scheduled for 11am to 2pm will focus on  Creativity, Passion and Business.  Passion, the foundation and driving force for many artists, often seems counteractive to common business protocol and practices. Rose Mastnak, a recognized creative branding guru and former Brooklyn resident, will lead a panel of creative business experts. To register call 718-875-6500 or log onto www.brooklynseams.com

This event is a prelude to the September 25th Brooklyn Seams launch!  Brooklyn Seams is a design challenge that seeks to identify rising new talent and product lines and provide them with training, resources and mentors. The Challenge participants will be required to take part in a specially designed entrepreneurial training and art residency program that addresses the business of creative independent fashion.  Final selection will include an independent panel of judges’ evaluation, which is based on Runway presentations, Rack sales and consumer (Roadway) usability response.
The Challenge is open to New York State residents who are Indie designers. Organizers are seeking designers with artistic, creative and fashion forward styles that translates well to urban cultural loyal customers of 4W. Those wishing to participate are advised to attend the September 9th Seminar and contact brooklynseams@brooklynfashiongallery.com for details.   4W Circle @ 704 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY.

By Feona Sharhran Huff
Education Field Reporter

As Bedford Academy High School approaches its Four-year Anniversary in September, longtime educator, visionary and school principal George D. Leonard has something to brag about. This past June, his students scored between 80 and 95 percent on the New York State Regents exams – an academic accomplishment that’s almost unheard of, especially for a start-up school.
“These test scores show that Black and Latino students who live in the projects can do as well as anyone if given an opportunity to shine,” Leonard insists. “Once you make the academic setting in any given institution comfortable and encouraging, it doesn’t matter what color the children are or their culture, they’re going to do well.”
Leonard – who helped set up Brooklyn’s Benjamin Banneker High School about 13 years ago – is a strong proponent of these exams, which are given in January and June. “The Regents is designed to determine if students are ready to go to college. This allows us to prepare them for the coursework,” he reasons.
Not only did his students rank in the top percentile overall, but Leonard had students who scored 100 percent on the biology Regents and extremely high on the chemistry Regents – pretty impressive for students who are majority level 1s and 2s.
“Maybe the education [system] in New York should reevaluate how they classify students as Level 1’s and 4’s because we’ve been very successful,” Leonard says. “[Our students’ transcripts look really good and very acceptable to getting into a lot of colleges.”
Leonard insists that Bedford Academy students are able to do well on the Regents exams and in their coursework because the teachers understand their scholastic needs, have the spirit of making them work hard and are committed to bringing out the best in them.
Additionally, he says, “We are able to provide instruction that will be well- received by Black and Latino students. We are always modifying our approach when it comes to structure, talking to them and encouraging their parents.”
The exam scores are not the only reason Leonard has to be proud of: Bedford Academy will have its first graduating class in June 2007 among the 330 students attending the high school. As he gets ready for this big day, Leonard is also focusing on how to take the high school to the next level.
“My goal is to have this academy on the same level as far as academic rigor as Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech and Staten Island Tech,” Leonard shares. “We want to expand Bedford Academy where we can really give specialized classes, college math, AP courses, etc.”
As he and his staff set things up on the academic side, he encourages the parents to do their part as well. “It’s important that they believe that their children can succeed,” he says. “Believe that they can be doctors and engineers.”

The Search for Chanel’s Killer

Many thanks to “America’s Most Wanted” for featuring the murder of Chanel Petro-Nixon as the lead story of the show’s August 12 broadcast. The national exposure should help the police determine who strangled the 16-year honor student.
Many people have mentioned to me what a shame and a scandal it is that the violent deaths of black New Yorkers, particularly women, rarely get the round-the-clock media treatment that selected white victims receive. It’s a point well taken – but there is a remedy at hand. When it comes to news coverage of this kind, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Those who want to make a fuss should call every news organization in the city when a loved one is missing, ask to speak with the assignment editor, and talk at them until you get a response. It may not always work, but at least you will have tried.
A reward of $33,000 will be paid to anyone supplying information that leads to the arrest and conviction of Chanel Petro-Nixon, who left her home at Fulton Street on Father’s Day, June 18, shortly after 6 pm and was found strangled on Kingston Avenue several days later. Call 800-577-TIPS; you don’t have to give your name.
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Develop Don’t Delay Brooklyn
A busload of politicians has lined up to ask the Empire State Development Corporation to extend, by at least 30 days, the time it takes to consider and take public comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement submitted for the $4.2 billion Atlantic Yards project. The requested delay, which would involve postponing the planned August 23 public hearing, is probably not going to happen, nor should it.
For starters, a postponement might deny the Pataki administration – not just the Governor, but his top economic development aides – the satisfaction of seeing the project clear a key hurdle, approval by the Public Authorities Control Board later this year. Timing is crucial: after the November election, the Pataki administration will instantly be reduced to lame-duck status, and it will be difficult, if not impossible, to control the early, post-approval stages of the project.
And beyond the question of control, politicians are not in the habit of allowing others to take credit for their pet projects, particularly as vast and ambitious an endeavor as Atlantic Yards. It’s safe to say the staff at the Empire State Development Corp. would rather drink muddy water than let a new administration get all the glory, political credit, and photos in the history books. Legacy is a real motivation.
An even more important factor is the announced intention of opponents of Atlantic Yards to file a lawsuit to halt the project. Stopping the development clock would only allow the opponents more time to prepare their legal papers. It would also give them a measure of the thing they most want: to draw out the process long enough to whip up more anti-development fervor and bleed the project of money by tying up the developer in court.
The state officials surely know this, so I doubt there will be any further delays. Those who want to see the project advance should try, by any means possible, to attend the hearing on August 23, or to send comments to the Empire State Development Corp.
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Boycott Rent-a-Center
For a town obsessed with money – making it, trading it, lending it, spending it – we don’t spend nearly enough time talking about how to keep ripoff artists from stealing it.
Our lack of attention to consumer scams makes Gotham’s 8 million residents a huckster’s dream, particularly the nearly 2 million struggling along below the poverty line.
A good case in point is Rent-A-Center, a Plano, Tex.-based chain of stores that offers some of the worst deals imaginable to the people who can least afford to be ripped off. As Sen. Chuck Schumer pointed out at a recent press conference, the rent-to-own industry “uses deceitful lease agreements to grossly overcharge the city’s most vulnerable residents for common household goods.”
Rent-A-Center, for instance, offers customers a chance to “rent” a snazzy 27-inch Toshiba television for $16 a week. Sounds like a great deal – but after 78 weeks (a year and a half) of such payments, the customer gets to keep the television after paying an incredible $1,247 for a set that Toshiba actually sells for $350 online and in regular retail stores. That’s a markup of 256% – and customers who fall behind at any point have the set repossessed.
In another ripoff flagged by Schumer, Rent-A-Center is renting out Whirlpool air conditioners for 30 payments of $26 a week – a deal that leaves customers paying $779 for an appliance that really costs $279, a markup of 179%.
A serious, grass-roots consumer movement would stage protests outside of places like Rent-A-Center, then target the corporations running the ripoff. In 2005, for instance, nearly every one of Rent-A-Center’s 43 New York City outlets were located in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods where most of the residents are black or Latino, according to the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, a nonprofit watchdog group.
Preachers in these low-income neighborhoods should regularly warn their flocks of these places, and maybe even organize the occasional boycott to underscore the point. The same attention needs to be directed at other places where working people regularly get ripped off – including the payday loan companies, the companies offering tax refund anticipation loans and predatory mortgage lenders. They account for a big chunk of what a recent study by the Brookings Institution calls a “ghetto tax.”
We’re long overdue for a ghetto taxpayer’s revolt. In other words, what we need is a movement.

More dead, more wounded, more internally displaced, more refugees – and they talk.  More rockets and bombs falling from the sky like rain – killing and wounded and they talk. More  violence and more bloodshed – and they talk.  More meetings and more discussions.  More deals and more no deals.  More dead, more wounded, more internally displaced and more refugees.  And guess what ?  They continue to talk. What about the children ?  What about the women ?  What about the innocent victims ?
With all of the meetings, discussions and talks by the “leaders of the world”, I am reminded of the profound statement by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that is very appropriate regarding all the talking.  Dr. King, while confined to a Birmingham, Alabama jail in April 1963, wrote the now- famous ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’.
In an attempt to reach people of  so-called “good  will”, he wrote the following words:

“Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than          absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.  Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
Many of the “world leaders” are giving a blanket endorsement to the violence, death and destruction in the Middle East.  At the same time, in their narrow- minded ‘luke- warm’ ways, they are meeting and talking and meeting and talking – and looking for a “quick-fix solution” as they try and come up with another United Nations (UN) Resolution to try and hide behind – again.
There was a sprinkle of hope and encouragement this past week when Pope Benedict XVI spoke out and said –  war doesn’t bring any good for anybody, not even for the apparent victors”.  He called on Christians and others to mobilize against warfare in the Middle East.  Former United States President Jimmy Carter was much more direct in focusing on the ongoing violence by stating that President George W. Bush has pursued an “erroneous policy” – a policy which has fostered violence in the Middle East.
Out there in the ‘wilderness of world leaders’, all among themselves, many are obsessed with ‘the politics of war’.  They believe in the idea and policies that genuine peace can and will emerge from violence, conflict, bombs, tanks, rockets and bloodshed.  They believe strongly in a plan which is guided by the use of force: rockets, tanks and bombs.  As  “world leaders”, more rationale thinking is expected.  As “leaders”, more rationale thinking is required.  Leaders must be reminded daily that “Wisdom is better than weapons of war” (Ecclesiastes 9:18).
I submit that the current plan and course of action will not bring about peace.  The current plan and course of action will help push the Middle East towards more violence, war and  insecurity.  Common sense should reveal this fact to ‘thinking and nonthinking leaders of the world’.   I further submit that those who think ‘the politics of war’ will help foster peace and security have a very narrow- minded view – and historical understanding – of the Middle East, little or no respect for most people in the Middle East, and a blind eye view of justice.  The current plan and course of action will continue to bring about more violence, more deaths and more destruction – and no doubt – more talk.  The ‘politics of war’ disrespects nature and lacks moral principle.
While this article is an appeal for peacemakers, it is also designed to encourage and instill hope.  I want to share a statement by Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa.  In his book, God Has A Dream:  A Vision of Hope for Our Times (2004), Tutu writes:

This is a moral universe, which means that, despite all of the evidence that seems to be to the contrary, there is no way that evil and injustice and oppression and lies can have the last word.  God is a God who cares about right and wrong.  God cares about justice and injustice.  God is in charge.
Besides the courageous United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Kofi Annan and a few other voices, are “world leaders” compelled to loudly denounce the violence and at the same time work seriously to end the outrageous and senseless killing in the Middle East ?  In nonpolitical  terms – there should be only one response.  The response is “YES I AM”.  No, I will not  (or inaction) speaks for itself.  A political response is simply ‘rhetoric’ – double talk which says YES and NO at about the same time.   Such a response is hypocritical, empty talk and basically useless.
We can do much better.  We must do better. We must collectively – not selectively – find a way to  end the violence and killing.  Courageous men and women need to mobilize, step forward and lead.  The mind-set of this leadership must be guided by wisdom, love and justice; the peace will come.
The question of leadership is a severe issue today.  In fact, the world is on the verge of suffering from a crisis in leadership.  Desmond Tutu’s response to those who criticized his vocal and active opposition to South Africa’s unjust apartheid system was – “I am compelled to say what I say.”  Just as the “prophets of the 8th century BC”, And as did the Apostle Paul, the message of love and justice must be preached all over the world – including the Middle East – including at the meetings where they just talk.  The “world leaders” must be reminded time and time again – there is no ‘quick-fix solution’.
I am compelled to continue asking a very basic question.
Where are the peacemakers ?
Jerry Henderson, a native of Alabama (USA), is an author, educator and freelance writer.  His e-mail address is jhenderson74@yahoo.com