Blacks

Jul 19 2012

Has the president forgotten his political base?

 In 2008, the presidential elections cost a record-setting $2.8 billion. To win that election, Barack Obama spent $740.6 million, eclipsing the combined $646.7 that George W. Bush and John Kerry spent four years earlier. Obama’s spending accounted for 44 percent of all the money spent in that campaign.

A Wall Street analyst projects that 2012 spending for ads across all media will easily surpass the $2.8 billion mark.

Jun 14 2012

Blacks and Latinos are targets, groups say

NEW YORK, N.Y.—On Father’s Day, June 17th, the NAACP and a diverse group of civil rights activists, civil liberty advocates and outraged community members will march silently down the streets of New York City to protest stop-and-frisk policing. Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s policy, hundreds of thousands of innocent people are stopped, interrogated and humiliated by the NYPD each year simply for walking down the street, the groups says, charging that the police employ racial profiling on a daily basis, and the large majority of those stopped are Black or Latino.

Harry C. Alford  |   OW Guest Contributor
May 31 2012

How big contractors corrupt construction bids

There is much corruption when it comes to procurement. Probably, the industry with the most corruption is construction. Keep in mind that corruption is the first cousin of discrimination, which is why the establishment cringes at the thought of Black strangers coming into their territory. They want to keep the graft private.

May 31 2012

Proposition 29 burning at both ends

In our last issue, we ran an article by Aubry Stone, president/CEO of the California Black Chamber of Commerce, opposing Proposition 29, which would impose a $1 tax on each pack of cigarettes in the name of cancer research. The following article rebuts Stone’s position.
By Carol McGruder and Dr. Phillip Gardiner
African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council

May 31 2012

Proposition 29 burning at both ends

By Celes King IV
Congress of Racial Equality California

Time and time again, Black voters in California are called upon to provide crucial support on either side of the various ballot measures we are presented with every Election Day. June 5 will be no different, and the so-called California Cancer Research Act is certain to be one of the most contentious statewide initiatives facing voters this year.

Across Black America

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

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.