It appears Colin Kaepernick’s protest of police violence inflicted on Black bodies is having a positive impact on his team’s leadership. San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York announced yesterday (September 8) that the team will donate a total of $1 million to two local organizations that work to end racial and economic disparities in communities in the Bay Area.
ESPN reports that the money will be donated to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and the San Francisco Foundation, both of which make grants to grass-roots organizations working on the ground. The announcement comes nearly two weeks after Kaepernick first opted not to stand during the “Star-Spangled Banner”, and a week after he announced that he will donate $1 million of his own money to charities that support racial equity.
Per ESPN, York didn’t directly address police violence—except to say that he thinks officers draw unfair focus in conversations about racial inequity—but instead talked about what he sees as the underlying issues that contribute to the mass incarceration of Black people and why those issues should be more important than the perception of the protest:
“Whether or not I agree with Colin and his form of protest, it doesn’t matter,” York told ESPN. “I don’t think you can argue the facts of the socioeconomic divide that we see, especially in the Bay Area but throughout this country.” …
“We want to make sure that law enforcement—who are the front line on a lot of these issues, and probably not fairly so—are put in a position to figure out how we can work with the communities to help tie all of that together to help make our communities a better place.” …
“Regardless of who is on this football team and for how long, this is an important issue to the 49ers and our community, and it’s something that we’re going to stick with for a long time,” he said. “It’s sad that we’ve gotten off the real topic, that we’re all debating, ‘What did you think of this person’s comment? What did you think of this form of protest?’ as opposed to a socioeconomic divide that’s probably worse in the Bay Area than just about anywhere else in the country.” …
“When you look at the median income in San Francisco for African-Americans it’s $27,000 a year compared to $89,000 for Caucasians,” he continued. “That in turn can lead to the incarceration rates that we see in this state where it’s almost nine times as likely that an African-American will be imprisoned than a Caucasian. When you see those numbers, those numbers aren’t sustainable. The median income gap is more than double the national average. We need to address those things, and that’s why I really want to make sure we’re doing something about those things. That’s why I want to make sure we’re focusing on the issues as opposed to the form of protest.”
In September 2015, Forbes valued the San Francisco 49ers organization at $2.7 billion. It rakes in $427 million each year.
This article was reprinted from Kaiser Health News with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
Someone with at least one blinking brain cell should have vetted Donald Trump before he threw his hat in the ring for the 2016 presidential sweepstakes. The front page of the current “The Economist” reads, “Art of the Lie”. After reading his resume, it did not take a rocket scientist to conclude: Donald J. Trump is a “pathological liar”.
In response to Trump’s long-standing lie that President Barack Obama was born outside of the United States, the “First Lady” responded, “Barack Obama has answered those questions by going high when they go low”. This advice should have been shared with all persons of African ancestry.
When enslaved Africans had to flee plantations to save the Union based on a fraudulent, executive proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln, who had put his foot in his mouth and had bitten off more than he could chew, our own citizenship became suspect. Whites enjoy the “Bill of Rights” while blacks suffer a “Bill of Rites”.
When blacks fled the plantations, there was no time for mental therapy after they had suffered four hundred years of barbaric oppression and without orientation and remedial education. These Africans also fled those plantations with bad reputations arising out of the U.S. Constitution and bad habits from pirates, slave personnel and the slave codes.
This is constitutional defamation. No other ethnic group in the United States has suffered constitutional defamation. Trump defamed President Obama. This is the appropriate time for the U.S. Congress to enact legislation giving descendants of enslaved Africans a retroactive, cause of action for constitutional defamation.
Among other things, I will guarantee you that if Congress had enacted this legislation, Trump would retreat, with hat in hand, crying loudly, meaculpa, in order to save his empire. Derogatory language would go out the window. The late Dr. William A. Jones said it best: The white man is rational on every subject except race. There is a cause and effect between derogatory and defamatory language and irrational conduct.
On this Saturday evening, most nationally recognized titleholders will be assembling for the annual banquet and dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus. From the time that I attended Jim Crow schools in Coweta County, GA, I have been known as a problem-solver. In those Jim Crow schools, I was taught by some of the finest professors in the nation.
The more-than-forty million persons of African ancestry should lobby all members of U.S. Congress, all day on Saturday, for anti-defamation legislation. No one has more grievances against the United States than descendants of enslaved Africans. These grievances have remained unaddressed.
Gov. Mario Cuomo defamed me for my defense of racially motivated victims of African ancestry in Howard Beach. The defense led to unprecedented “hate crime” legislation. Twenty-six years later, I am still being denied my privilege to earn a living. For starters, the seminal cases are Scott v. Sandford 60 U.S. 393 (1857) and New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964).
Our worst fears about President Barack Obama’s successor are being realized. According to most national polls, presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are in a statistical dead heat for the popular vote. Blue states are looking redder and red states are looking bluer, and then there are lots that veer towards purple. The Hillary pneumonia scare last weekend, the national terrorist episodes – St. Cloud, Minnesota where a Somalian-American emerged as the mall stabber of 10 people last Saturday and the New Jersey-based Afghanistan-American bomber who wreaked havoc in NJ and NY injuring 31 people, including two policemen – add more variables to an already-uncomfortable, ill-informed American populace and electorate. Media has been complicit in creating Trump and should be held responsible for the rise of the monster. Well, there is next week’s television debate.
Colin Powell
Last week’s NY Post lifted items from former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s hacked e-mails which says: “I would rather not have to vote for her although she is a friend I respect.” He references Bill as a “husband who is still d—kng bimbos at home”, according to published NY Post items. On the other hand, Powell sees Trump as a “national disgrace and an international pariah”. He adds, “Trump just looks stupid trying to appeal to Blacks and Latinos”. In another e-mail, the four-star general says that Israel has 200 nuclear weapons pointed at Iran.
Ironically, President Obama’s popularity is at 58% even though Americans profess to want someone different and non-establishment. Do Americans understand how his agenda was obstructed for 8 years by a highly partisan, overtly racist GOP Congress?
Adriano Espaillat
NEW YORK: The following analysis is based on stories culled from two news sites–DNAInfo and Capital Tonight. Politics and strange bedfellows would explain last week’s NY local Primary and the 31st Senate District, where whites represent 43% of the eligible voters. Congress-bound Senator Adriano Espaillat, handpicked successor, and a fellow Dominican Marisol Alcantara won besting Micah Lasher, who is white and came in second, and term-limited former NYC Councilman Robert Jackson, who placed third. Votes in this Senate district is segmented. Alcantara was the beneficiary of a $100,000 donation by the Independent Democratic Conference, which caucuses with the Senate GOP. Alcantara presumably will join the IDC in January. Forget about a Democratic Senate majority. Also, a postscript to the above Senate race, Brooklyn Congressman Hakeem Jeffries endorsed Mr. Lasher, whose backers include former bosses Michael Bloomberg and NYS AG Schneiderman. Is Jeffries the minion of the city’s political elite for a mayoral challenge next year?
Hakeem Jeffries
What happens to Harlem’s Black Democratic machine? Assemblyman Keith Wright, who also heads the Manhattan Democratic Party Chairmanship, will soon shed both titles. Will soon-to-be Congressman Espaillat control and manipulate Harlem politics? Will he join the Black Caucus. He said on NY1 after his congressional Primary victory that his mother’s brother is Afro-Latino. Huh? Has Black Democratic power shifted to Brooklyn and the Gen-Xers?
HOLD THE DATE: October 13 for the WOMEN FOR HILLARY IN HARLEM fundraiser, which is themed: WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND UNITY, and will be held at the Lenox Sapphire Restaurant, located at 341 Lenox Avenue at 127th Street. The bash begins at 6:30 pm. Caroline Memnon, Nika Milbrun and Mari Moss-Yawn are fundraiser co-organizers. C. Virginia Fields and Victoria Horsford are host committee members.
CULTURE NOTES
Two African-American authors are among the ten nominated for the 2016 National Book Awards in fiction. They are Colson Whitehead, “The Underground Railroad”, and Jacqueline Woodson, “Another Brooklyn,” who won the 2014 NBA for Young People’s Literature. [Visit nationalbook.org]
Paul Beatty’s book, THE SELLOUT, a satire on Black life in the United States, made the Man Booker short list. Man Booker is a British Literary Award which honors authors for excellence for books in the English language.
Barbara Ann Teer’s National Black Theatre begins its 2016/2017 season with SWEET, a new play about a bittersweet coming-of-age story. The play is set in the rural South about two sisters who do everything together, are inseparable until their mother dies and a young man returns from college with two events which shatters their closeness and threatens to tear them apart. Play runs from October 22 to November 20.
NEWSMAKERS
Legal eagle Ghilliaine Reid, 45, joins McGuireWoods as a partner and a co-head of its financial institution’s industry team’s broker/dealer practices. Her impressive CV includes work as a branch chief in enforcement at the Securities & Exchange Commission’s NY Office and as a staff attorney. An attorney at Schoeman Updike & Kaufman, she was a partner/director of business and commercial law at Gibbons PC. She earned her bachelor’s degree and JD at Boston University.
(AP Photo/Peter Kramer, File)
RIP: American playwright-extraordinaire Edward Albee, 88, died last week. A highly acclaimed American theater denizen, Albee wrote theater classics such as “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf”, “A Delicate Balance” and “The Lady From Dubuque”. I will never forget his commentary after winning his third Pulitzer for “Three Tall Women”, saying that it was based on his intense hate for his stepmother…and that it was hard to believe that hate could produce a Pulitzer play.
FALL PREVIEW
Photoville returns on September 21-25 to its home on the Brooklyn Waterfront, located in the Brooklyn Bridge Plaza under the bridge in DUMBO. A free event, Photoville 2016 is a series of containers, talks, workshops and more than 60 photo exhibitions showcasing works by photogs the world over, including Kamoinge, which is a NY-based Black fine arts photography group that was organized in 1963, whose founding members include iconic shutterbugs like Tony Barboza, Adger Cowan and whose members include Ming Murray Smith, John Pinderhughes, Frank Stewart and June DeLaire Truesdale. [Visit Kamoinge.com and photoville.com]
Check out vocalist Charlene Moore live at the Sugar Bar, located at 254 West 72nd Street in Manhattan on Friday, September 23.
Theater aficionados are invited to a staged reading of CHOSEN by Dr. John Mitchell at the Julia De Burgos Performance and Arts Center, located at 1680 Lexington Avenue at 106th Street in East Harlem on September 24th at 2 pm. CHOSEN centers on Dr. Aloysius “Big Al” Sam, who reflects and celebrates the 70th Anniversary of the segregated Montford Point Marines Corps and the perils of WWII. Directed by Eric Coleman, CHOSEN stars Gareth Lawson, Nicole Betancourt, Jerry Nelson, with music by Roy Meriwhether and Clarence “Chip” Shelton. Complimentary admission. [RSVP at 212.926.2550]
Gaston Browne
The Honorable Gaston Browne, the Prime Minister of the twin-island nation of Antigua-Barbuda, will host a Town Hall meeting at the Crawford Memorial Methodist Church, located at 3757 White Plains Road, Bronx, New York. For more info, call 646. 215.6013
A Harlem-based writer, Victoria Horsford is reachable at victoria.horsford@gmail.com.
If the Northeast Brooklyn Housing Development Corporation (NEBHDCo) has its wishes, Brooklyn will be growing fish on Throop Avenue. This fall, the nonprofit expects to launch an indoor aquaponics facility it is calling Urban Aqua Farms (UAF).
While the farm will be a model for fish-growing in an urban setting, these kinds of installations have been in Brooklyn for several years. But this is the first in the Bed-Stuy community.
Asian fish farm
The NEBHDCo state-of-the-art aquaponics facility will provide year-round, high-quality, affordable fresh-water fish and vegetables to food-insecure individuals and families.
Its harvests will supplement the healthy food supply for NEBHDCo’s Golden Harvest Client Choice Food Pantry which feeds 19,000 people each year. UAF is a natural bridge between, and expansion of, the pantry, and NEBHDCo’s Communities for Healthy Food Bed-Stuy initiative.
But Bed-Stuy’s first fishery needs some community support. On Thursday, September 29, NEBHDCo will host a wine-tasting fundraiser (“#FundBedStuyAqua” ) at Throop Court, located at 378 Throop Avenue at Lafayette in Brooklyn.
Co-sponsored by Cabbage Hill Farm, Oko Farms and Wine Ring, the fundraiser is part of a larger capital campaign to raise $300,000 to launch NEBHDCo’s Urban Aqua Farms project. NEBHDCo and sponsors expect to raise $20,000 during the September 29 wine-tasting event.
“We invite the community, and other New York City institutions, to join us in celebration and support of this initiative that will not only expand our successful emergency food program, but will also educate members of the community about urban aquaponics. The #FundBedStuyAqua event is the start of a tradition of giving that features food, festivities and fun,” says Jeffrey Dunston, chief executive officer of NEBHDCo. “We hope our party reverberates across the five boroughs.”
NEBHDCo’s #FundBedStuyAqua wine-tasting fundraiser will open its doors at 6:30pm on September 29. Attendees will dine on produce grown by event sponsors and fish raised on local aquaponic farms. The evening’s menu was designed by Oko Farms and will be complemented by several wines to be served by Wine Ring.
Tickets for the #FundBedStuyAqua wine-tasting fundraiser are $100 per person. All proceeds go toward the UAF capital campaign.
To purchase tickets, visit www.nebhdcofundraiser.eventbrite.com. For more information on NEBHDCo’s Urban Aqua Farms project or to make a donation to the capital campaign, call Susan Beatini at (201) 410-2978 or send an e-mail to: info@nebhdco.org.
Come advocate for Boys & Girls H.S., at the school, 1700 Fulton Street, this Monday, September 26, 6:00-9:00pm, at a public hearing called by the New York City Department of Education. Minutes before going to press, Wednesday evening, we received a media advisory (6:35pm) alerting to the dates and times of public hearings for 27 schools identified that have been placed I receivership.
The notice was apparently intended to increase awareness of the hearings in accordance with New York State Education Law and New York State Commissioner’s Regulations request for community input in developing public discussions of the performance of the schools in question and the process of receivership. When schools are in this status, input from the public regarding recommendations for improving the school is required.
This Monday, all speakers must register between 5:30 and 6:15 p.m. Written comments will be collected on the day of the hearing and can also be submitted via online feedback form (posted on the NYCDOE website at http://schools.nyc.gov/community/OSFEP/receivershiphearings16-17.htm) no later than 5:00 p.m. on the second business day after the hearing date.
For more information, please see the New York State Education Department’s document entitled “Intervention in Struggling Schools Through Receivership,” available here.
Other Brooklyn schools subject to public hearings concerning their futures, include: Cypress Hills Collegiate Preparatory School, 999 Jamaica Ave. (Friday 9/23, 6p-9p); P.S. 165 Ida Posner, 76 Lott Ave. (Wednesday 9/28, 6p-9p); and P.S. 298 Dr. Betty Shabazz. 85 Watkins St. (Tuesday, 9/27, 6p-9p).
Those who are unable to attend the hearings may submit comments through the online feedback form, or by mail or email to the following:
Name: Sharon Rencher
Office: State/Federal Education Policy and School Improvement Programs
Address: 52 Chambers Street, Room 320, New York, NY 10007
Email: Receivership@schools.nyc.gov
Phone Number: 212-374-0557
The full schedule of public hearing dates and locations is posted here: http://schools.nyc.gov/community/OSFEP/receivershiphearings16-17.htm)
