black community

Across Black America
Dec 1 2011

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.


Alabama
Comedian Roy Wood Jr. has been cast in TBS’ half-hour comedy pilot “Sullivan & Son,” starring comedian Steve Byrne and executive-produced by Vince Vaughn, Peter Billingsley and Cheers alum Rob Long. Wood will play alongside fellow comedians Ahmed Ahmed and Owen Benjamin as one of Steve Sullivan’s (Byrne’s character) best friends. Wood became a household favorite on NBC’s Last Comic Standing, where he placed in the top three finalists. Written by Byrne and Long, “Sullivan & Son” takes place in a popular and legendary neighborhood bar in a working-class neighborhood in Pittsburgh. It centers on Steve Sullivan, the son of the bar’s current owner and the grandson of its founder, who decides he wants to leave his job as a successful corporate attorney in New York and return to the neighborhood to take over Sullivan & Son.


California
The Thurgood Marshall College Fund held its first Awards of Excellence event in Los Angeles recently at the Getty House, the official residence of the Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The event co-hosts were Rolonda Watts and Judge Joe Brown. Presenters included heavyweight boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard. “The Thurgood Marshall College Fund is preparing the next generation of leaders,” said Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., TMCF president and CEO. “Our organization has proudly supported Justice Marshall’s legacy and commitment to education by providing over $100 million in scholarships to deserving students. We are excited to have presented our first Los Angeles event, recognizing the outstanding achievements of our 2011 honorees, as well as our partners, who stand with us in making sure young people have access to quality education.”

District of Columbia
The Links Inc., an international nonprofit service organization of professional women of color, recently hosted its 65th anniversary in Washington, D.C. Nearly 1,200 guests from throughout the United States, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, representing the 274 Links chapters, attended the weekend celebration, which included a rededication and ribbon-cutting ceremony of the newly renovated state-of-the-art national headquarters. The Marriott Wardman Park was the backdrop for a black-tie reception and gala hosted by actors Tim Reid and Daphne Maxwell Reid and featuring Grammy-award winning singer Will Downing. The evening marked the debut of the organization’s highest honor bestowed upon an organization, The Links Medal, presented to Johnson Publishing Co. Chairman Linda Johnson Rice for making a significant and positive impact in the lives and culture of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry.

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

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What happened to Franken-Dodd—the law to protect American consumers?
David L. Horne, Ph.D.  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Dec 1 2011

Practical Politics

For those of us who decided to be armchair quarterbacks regarding the brutal shopping games of Black Friday and Saturday, the pepper spray clear-out, the all-out fist-fighting, and the gun-toting stall circling moves were brilliant. Clearly, someone had been practicing their consumer moves.

And where were the black stripes to protect the unwary consumers who thought they only had to fight long lines and grabby hands in order to score big discounts at the cash register goalposts?

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The super duper committee stupor
Anthony Asadullah Samad, Ph.D.  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Dec 1 2011

Between the Lines

The failure the Congress’ “Super Committee” to come to a resolution on the nation’s budget deficit is not a surprise. They were supposed to reach $1.2 trillion in budget cuts before Thanksgiving or mandatory “across the board” budget cuts would “trigger” to “automatically” reduce the budget.

I think it was a ploy all along to get past the debt-ceiling stalemate that allowed both parties to save face, in the face of a government shutdown. They kicked the can down the road, and now down the road is here.

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Did so-called Black Friday trump Thanksgiving?
Julianne Malveaux  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Dec 1 2011

Rousing success for retailers

First of all, I never understood why they called it “Black” Friday. I never saw any red, black and green adorning the shopping mall sales.

Yes, I know that theoretically this is the day that puts stores in the black, out of the red they’ve been managing all year. Nearly 40 percent of jewelry sales happen between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and other sales are up in the weeks that end the year. But I’m enough of a nationalist to resent the day after Thanksgiving being called “black” for commercial purposes.

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The African Union and the African Diaspora, Part II
David L. Horne, Ph.D.  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Nov 24 2011

Practical Politics

NOTE: The U.S. Human Rights Network (USHRN) National Human Rights Conference will be held in Los Angeles at the Airport Radisson Hotel from Dec. 9-11. For both Occupy Wall Street and L.A. folks and others involved in the larger struggle for people first and things second, the scheduled speakers include a plethora of those with full resumes of getting things done.

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Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.

California
San Diego college students and volunteers will carry out their sixth home restoration project on Wednesday, July 10 through Sunday, July 14. as part of the “Healing our Heroes’ Homes” (H3) program created by the nonprofit Embrace. The five-day effort will take place at the home of medically retired Marine Corps Capt. Sarah Bettencourt. Bettencourt served with many different units across the country during the Global War on Terrorism and developed a rare neurological disorder in 2008. With a focus to restore the homes of disabled veteran homeowners, H3 falls in line with Embrace’s mission to mobilize college-student volunteers and community members to serve less fortunate members of civilian and veteran communities. The project for the Bettencourts’ home includes kitchen and bathroom remodeling, building ADA-compliant disability ramps, widening their driveway to ADA standards, widening doorways and landscaping.
 
District of Columbia
The 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival will showcase its five-year community research project on African American identity with the program “The Will to Adorn: African American Diversity, Style, and Identity.” This multicity collaboration examines the history and culture of the aesthetics of African Americans. The festival will be held June 26-30 and July 3-7, outdoors on the National Mall between Seventh and 14th streets. “Whether we realize it or not, we are all dress artists. The way we compose our look is a creative expression of our ideas about who we are and who we aspire to be,” said Diana N’Diaye, program curator. “This program explores the diversity of African American traditions of style, but also teaches young people the importance of documenting their own culture and saving that information for themselves and future generations.”

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This Week in LA

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