The Black Agenda

[Anthony]

It's good the black community still have folks speaking on behave of the black community, but those aren't the folks living below middle class that's experiencing job loss, working for a temp agency that's very close to slave labor. In fact a lot of those folks will make a nice buck or two speaking. I hope when discussing the Black agenda we have long term solutions to problems facing the black community. Too many times we hear arguments, in house fighting & a lot of grand standing but no long term solutions. Many would argue that the problem in the black community is not enough re-enforecment of traditional values. The public education system don't produce children that compete, these children don't have enough support at home that teachers don't have enough support from parents. Education starts at home & should be re-enforced at home. But even with the lack of family values you have to ask yourself, "are black males targeted by globalization of capital?" If so, It's a problem the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act broad investments will never be able to fix. There is 100 problems facing the black community but the main debate is crime, crime is the main problem, the media often put this problem under the microscope, so, I'm going to start & finish with that issue. I feel If the United States government and the majority of the United States citizens really wanted to stop crime on a large scale they should invest more tax dollars in successful rehabilitation programs. In fact, rehab programs should be on the agenda as well as stopping social control. I'm not speaking up for violent criminals, but the truth of the matter, county, state & federal prisons mostly house criminals who are poor folks who committed nonviolent crimes, misdemeanor 1 turn into a felony 5. It's no secret in Washington that the building and maintenance of prisons are big business. Defense industry giants like Westinghouse are re-tooling and lobbying Washington for their share of the domestic law enforcement market. One of the fastest growing sectors of the prison industrial complex is private corrections companies. Investment firm Smith Barney is a part owner of a prison. American Express and General Electric have invested in private prison construction. Correctional Corporation Of America, one of the largest private prison owners. 

Education is also an issue that should be on the agenda. Jobs & the education school system. Are more trade schools the solution? More trade schools that open doors to community colleges in the inner city that offer programs in truck driving, culinary management, pharmacy technology, electrical systems, dental assisting, medical assisting, medical billing and coding, and heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration, nail technology, cosmetology and barbering could help reduce the high school drop rate & increase the rate of black folks with a jr. college or community college diploma & also boosting the job market with a career & job security. I don't have enough time to go into small business, credit, health care, college grants & more college funding but this are all issues that should be part of the black agenda. Black folks are the most disadvantaged minority group in higher education. Most black folks don't think it's possible to undo the domestic colonies controlled by external interest that took strategic measures to institutionally oppress. We know all to well how elected officials while running for election, or re-election, promise funding but when they get their butt in office funding is cut from the budget. 

The BIg Problem is greed & bad management of funds by State's. I swear, even with the economy going belly up, for almost a decade, States have always been wrong with the numbers, which lead to broken promises & budget cut's. But something else is going on in America, America's need to balance the benefits of foreign investment with national security concerns. Hear me out for a second, between 00' and the present, annual foreign direct investment in the United States averaged over, my numbers could be off a lil', $150 billion, which is 20% of the world’s total. It's been said to be true by an elected official that there is an inherent link between our national security interests and a strong U.S. economy that facilitates free and fair trade. But, foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies can pose a challenge for the U.S. government because of the need to balance the benefits of foreign investment with national security concerns. America is for sale, the dollar value is dropping because we are owned, we use to be the owner. Which brings me back to my point of social control. Certain folks in our government want more control over America's work force in order to compete with foreign countries that get very wealthy off the back of slave labor, low wage workers , which means, a conservative government main concerns is not the deficit, their concerns are foreign investment & the amount of leverage it gives other regions & the problems it could mean to the United States national security & the personal interest of certain sectors of government & their investments in banks, energy corporations, pharmaceutical corporations, defense contractor groups, real estate, I don't have to name them all, but you get my point. 

What does that have to do with the black agenda & school closing & mass layoffs. America can not compete with foreign countries so the workers in the United States are forced into low wage jobs with no careers, or should I say [slave labor jobs]. The Americans with careers are frozen at a certain pay scale or they have to take a demotion to save their jobs. Somehow, America is going to have to get something out of nothing from Americans for a period of time, which means decreasing the middle class & working the hell out of Americans living under middle class, which means blacks, latino's & poor white folks, which means white folks are going to hire more poor white folks to do construction, house rehab, temp. work & so on & so fourth, which means social control. I'm aware that not everyone in the black community have capital or a high credit score or value of a mortgaged property to receive a small business loan, these are things places like SBA require. Unless you have start-up money to open a small business your going to need SBA. Realistically, not everyone in the black community is smart enough to pass the required test to make it into college or have the support, money or the time for a personal tutor to improve them skills. Realistically, not everyone is cut out to open a bar or a soul food restaurant. Not everyone in the black community is cut out to be a record store owner, cellular phones seller or open a body shop or have a mechanic shop. Not everyone can be a hair barber, that takes a certain skill, not everyone can be a nail tech or go into cosmetology. Not everyone that take a real estate class at community college can start a real estate business & not everyone can open a daycare & definitely not everyone can be a rapper, producer or a record label owner. These are perceptions of a small black business owner in the black community. Of course there are other small businesses black folks have in the community other than the ones I named. But for the large part that's the box we are placed in. Another problem with black business owners is the image, I'm not one of those black people that say, "what we need to do as a people," I don't speak for every black person in America, but I do think a lot of black folks need to stop with the mafia, gangsta image & that perception of everyone with small business in the black community had to sell weight to position them self as a successful small business owner. It's the perception of being liquid, their not wealthy, at best, their above middle class. I'm from the hood & I'm not perfect, I was young with a lot of talent, I hustled out of desperation as a child & teenager but I also worked hard for 2 bits. I'm not scared to say that. I say that to say this, everybody I knew as a young man that owned a business wasn't a drug dealer, not only in my community but other States. Those businesses are not open today, if they are they are now owned or operated by middle easterns, indians or asians. When I was younger the problems I remember these black business owners telling me, at a young age, was that the building their store was in was going to raise their lease. Those are problems that can make you want to relocate. High leases are reasons why business don't move in after another has closed in the hood. I have seen business have a grand opening & they don't last more than 5 years. Than the buildings are boarded up. There is no grand closing. My point, I remember, not that long ago, folks could come out of high school land a job where they could grow with the company & retire from. They lived in middle class society & if they saved properly they took nice vacations & sent their children to nice schools. The days of the baby boomers are gone. Today, jobs need background checks, credit checks, racial background checks, it seems like you need a B.A. to make minimum wage, not everyone is cut out for college or to be a entrepreneur. These young adults need job training so they can land a secure job they can grow with & the training need to be placed right in the community.

Yours truly,

Anthony Smith

[Anthony]

You decide, was there any good solutions discussed?
The Black Agenda with Tavis Smiley - March 20th 2010 

The Black Agenda with Tavis Smiley - March 20th 2010 (Part 1 of 5)
The Black Agenda with Tavis Smiley - March 20th 2010 (Part 2 of 5)
The Black Agenda with Tavis Smiley - March 20th 2010 (Part 3 of 5)
The Black Agenda with Tavis Smiley - March 20th 2010 (Part 4 of 5)

The Black Agenda with Tavis Smiley - March 20th 2010 (Part 5 of 5)

Yours truly,
Anthony Smith

[Anthony]

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=promo/17312

This event will air live nationally on TV One and as a special on MSNBC. Hosted by Tom Joyner and Roland Martin and will take place on Saturday, April 17, 2010 from 11-2:00 p.m. in conjunction with NAN’s Annual National Convention in New York City, April 14 -17, 2010 at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers located at 811 7th Avenue @ 52 Street.

Please complete the following form to register for National Action Network's 12th Annual National Convention and/or the Black Leadership 12-Month Action Plan Session.
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http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/wayoflife/03/24/black.america.study/...

LaShonda Durden had just given birth to her second child. She was two weeks back from maternity leave when her supervisor called her into her office. "You need to be trying to find other employment," her manager said. A bereavement coordinator and chaplain at an Atlanta, Georgia-area hospice, Durden suddenly found herself coping with the grief of being unemployed. Sixteen months later, she's still out of work.
"It's a vicious cycle," she says. Durden is not alone. She is among the 16.5 percent unemployed African-Americans -- almost twice the rate of unemployment for whites. The figure was included in a new report released Wednesday on the state of black America by the National Urban League. The report presents other sobering statistics on the nation's racial divide on economics, education, health, civic engagement and social justice. Among them: The median household income for blacks stands at $34,218; for whites, it's $55,530. Less than half of blacks own a home compared to three quarters of white families. Blacks are more than three times as likely to live in poverty.
In addition, black-owned businesses represent a paltry 5 percent of privately owned companies, and the study says more are needed to help spur job growth in minority communities. The Obama administration, the study suggests, has taken measures to improve the gap between whites and blacks, although it says more is needed. The report says legislation needs to focus on minority job training, tax incentives and extensions for unemployment benefits.
Andrew Grant-Thomas, the deputy director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, says he believes the statistics for unemployed black Americans is far greater than what's being reported. The figures don't include people not actively seeking employment or people with higher education degrees forced to take jobs for which they're overqualified.

"The disparities are definitely huge and that number understates the size of the disparity," he says. "You want to take that number and double it." "This recession is even bigger than Katrina hitting New Orleans," he adds. "Yes, everyone got hit, but not everyone was hit equally as hard -- and shouldn't we invest in those hit the hardest?"

The faces of the statistics
On Tuesday, Durden went to Java DeLight Cafe, in a predominantly African-American suburb of Atlanta. She goes there to network and search for jobs via the Internet over its WiFi connection. The cafe is owned and operated by Patricia Setzer, an African-American who opened the establishment in 2008. She says she can relate to many of her customers. Days after she opened her business, her husband was laid off. It took him eight months to find a new job. "We literally just went without for awhile," she says. Setzer hopes her cafe can serve as a networking hub. She calls it "the cultural meeting place." If her regular customers don't return for weeks, she wonders if they've succumbed to hard times: "When they're not here, I'm thinking about them." "We want people to come here and meet and enjoy themselves,"Setzer says. To that end, she's organizing a job club at her cafe -- a place to host unemployed Americans (of any ethnicity) and give them hands on training, from resume help to how to dress for interviews. Barbers and hair stylists will be on hand for those who need fresh cuts. As a business owner, Setzer is a minority in a minority: Just 5.2 percent of small businesses in the U.S. are black-owned.
"We're all struggling, whether you're white, black or green," says Setzer as she flips turkey patties. "You've just got to hold on."
On this day, Diane Ridley Roberts, president of a management consulting firm, worked from her laptop inside the cafe. Unlike other businesses that aren't hiring, she says she's having trouble finding qualified people. Ridley Roberts, an African-American, says there is no homogenous state of black America. "To say we're all in one boat is a little naive, I think," says the owner of Global Evaluation & Applied Research Solutions. But she adds that there are common experiences that only black Americans can fully relate. Even in 2010, she says, she feels she has to doubly prove herself when she is awarded a contract.
"There are certain judgments, ideas and perceptions about me when I walk into the door as someone's consultant," she says. "It is what it is."
An unexpected job interview
Sipping coffee at a table in the cafe, Durden talks about all manner of difficulty -- from her work as a hospice chaplain to her own layoff and struggle. She's turned her joblessness into action: She volunteers monthly to help the homeless. It's a reminder, she says, that her family "could be worse off." "And that's the blessing for me -- just knowing that I am sustained," she says, "that even if the bottom falls out, God still has us in His hands." She sends out her resume at least three days a week. She attends job fairs about every two weeks. Those get discouraging, she says, with 400 people jockeying for one position.
She holds a sociology degree from Georgia State University and went on to seminary school. At this point, she'll take anything to help her family. And that's another part of the job hunt. She's overqualified for many positions and often wonders: "Do I dumb down my resume?"
"I have a passion to help people do better than they're doing now, regardless of where they are in life," she says. "I just love people."
As for her African-American roots, she says, "It means I expect to excel in what I do because I know who my foremothers and forefathers are.
"Being black in America right now, for me, it means hope. It means keeping that hope when some others may not be able to."
Durden piqued the interest of one person in the cafe. Overhearing Durden's story, Ridley Roberts asks if she has a resume. Durden pulls out her flash drive and downloads a copy. The two then leave the cafe. The impromptu job interview is Durden's best lead in a while. That's the life of the jobless: Networking and constantly searching, even on the fly.


Yours truly,
Anthony Smith

[Anthony]

Sister Evans research Black America Household Wealth, Financial Behaviors, Survey of Consumer Finances, Labor Market Discrimination also Labor Market Discrimination and Racial Differences in Premarket Factors go to the National Bureau of Economic Research website http://www.nber.org/programs/

How can we start funding ourselves when there are too many Judas in the black community tribes. Too much self hate, self greed, materialism, corruption & too many of black folks want to be white, I'm not talking about being American our the way the dress or talk, I'm too many black Americans want to be white. I know that sounds crazy & militant but it's true. So how can we fund ourselves when in the black community there are the halves & the have not's & the halves will never fund the have not's, not in this generation. There is too much finger pointing going on, you heard it before, "The reason we can't have nothing because of them nigg$S always missing it up for us," as if it's a parent in the United State that watches over the black race like an "All Seeing Eye" & one tribe is ruining it for the other, like their parent or MASTER! want help them because the rest of the children in the tribe is ruining it. The worst enemy of the black community is the elite black class.

But to get back to my point, I really think the black community need to re-shape the way trade schools are run by turning them into more of an education institution & not a training institution. Stress more curriculum & academic general education. These young adults need job training so they can land a secure job & that training need to be right in the heart of those communities. Maybe having the municipalities own it wouldn't be a good idea, maybe private or State, maybe, I don't know. But what do i know this is not my job or my area of research.

Yours truly,
Anthony Smith

[Anthony]

Yea sister Evans, I can't speak about solutions for individual problems folks may have with one & other & I'm not sure there is any solution to help this situation because America never addressed the murder problem without a realistic understanding of the issue. America solution was build more prisons. The availability of firearms in the black community is like the availability of water in the black community. One solution is kicking off the spring & summer with a nation wide gun buy back campaign every month for 6 months using firemen to collect the guns & police to over see the project using firemen instead of police will make folks more comfortable about handing over their weapon. This would have to be a major campaign using BET, CNN & radio stations like The Tom Joyner Morning Show, The Steve Harvey Morning Show & every Hip-Hop Music Radio Station also the stations online. The other solution the Government would never fund is the reconstruction of every inner city & public housing in America spreading out the community so folks want be living on top, on the side & on the bottom of each other. I'm sorry, but realistically there's no solution to the problem. We can speak about racially structured institutions and solutions to that problem. We can speak about minority residential segregation & the solutions to those problems.

I raised this question on another forum, why would you want to help young black brothers that don't realize their an asset to the investors & owners of the private prison industrial corrections complex? A black man is no different than common stock, preferred stock, municipal bonds, money markets, real estate investment trusts, mutual funds or cattle stock. WAKE-UP!!!!

Yours truly,
Anthony Smith

[Hezekiah Ben Israel]

All these people are Boule Freemasons.. They are talking about the elite black agenda, and not for the broader public because they know who they truly are, and they know who the blacks in this country truly are, and that is the true Israelites of the Bible..

[Anthony]

I got this off my facebook home page from Brother Dr. Cornel West

For those of you who missed last night's airing of We Count! you can view it again on CSPAN's website http://bit.ly/cNN4Wr

Participants spoke about the state of the black union at an event titled "We Count! The Black Agenda is the American Agenda." They focused on challenges facing the African-American community and the nation, the question of whether America was in a "post-racial" era after the election of President Barack Obama, and the future of race relations. They also responded to questions from the audience. Portions of Minister Farrakhan' remarks were lost due to technical difficulties.

It's also on>> http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/292635-7

Yours truly,
Anthony Smith