Afro-Netizen

Can Rosa Parks Sell Pickup Trucks?

Chevy's icky, exploitative new ad

By Seth Stevenson
Slate.com

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The spot: Singer John Mellencamp leans on the fender of a Chevy pickup, strumming an acoustic guitar. He sings, among other things, "This is our country." Meanwhile, a montage of American moments flies by: Rosa Parks on a bus. Martin Luther King preaching to a crowd. Soldiers in Vietnam. Richard Nixon waving from his helicopter. And then modern moments: New Orleans buried by Katrina floodwaters. The two towers of light commemorating 9/11. As a big, shiny pickup rolls through an open field of wheat and then slows to a carefully posed stop, the off-screen announcer says, "This is our country. This is our truck. The all-new Chevy Silverado."

This ad makes me—and, judging by my e-mail, some of you—very angry. It's not OK to use images of Rosa Parks, MLK, the Vietnam War, the Katrina disaster, and 9/11 to sell pickup trucks. It's wrong. These images demand a little reverence and quiet contemplation. They are not meant to be backed with a crappy music track and then mushed together in a glib swirl of emotion tied to a product launch. Please, Chevy, have a modicum of shame next time.

I should probably leave it at that (the poor ad is just trying to sell trucks, after all, in its own muddle-headed way). But this isn't your basic flag-waving car commercial. It mixes patriotic images with some heart-rending, shameful episodes from our past. And the ambiguity is furthered by the presence of John Mellencamp—a guy who, in a different incarnation, used to make semipolitical statements about the dark side of the American dream. A guy who wrote an open letter in 2003 arguing that the Iraq war was "solidifying our image as the globe's leading bully" and wondering why President Bush hadn't been "recalled" yet. Mellencamp once sang the line, "Ain't that America" with a decidedly bitter tinge. Now he sings the remarkably similar line, "This is our country," and it's hard not to wonder what he means by it.

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Black folks in ‘Chocolate City’ are still stuck in the mud

By Jamala Rogers
The St. Louis American

NEW ORLEANS - A year after the unthinkable devastation of New Orleans wrought by Hurricane Katrina, progress in reconstruction is slow or non-existent if you’re poor or black. In fact, many observers believe New Orleans is a case study of what those in power would make out of every American city if left alone to execute their plans - urban centers without poor folks.

Katrina left 80 percent of the city flooded, killed more than 1,339 people in Louisiana, displaced 786,372 citizens and has ruined 18,752 businesses, according to the NNPA.

In New Orleans, there are efforts to reassure the people that everything is all right. On WYLD 98.5 FM radio, deejays continuously plug the slogan “Building New Orleans, one day at a time.” A “My Katrina Hero” essay contest is underway by the city government. The French Quarter, which sustained only wind damage, looks like a Hollywood movie set. Rumors still persist that levees were blown up to spare this historic tourist district by redirecting raging waters to the predominantly African-American 9th Ward.

A casual pan of city streets indicates priorities in the rebuilding effort. A gigantic sign graces the top of the New Orleans Astrodome, letting passersby know that the facility re-opens on August 26. The Dome of Death was the shelter of last resort for more than 60,000 stranded victims and the centerpiece for many a reporter’s human interest (or horror) story.

A closer look and a chat with the residents reveals that all is not well, even in the Quarter. Two hostile, hand-written signs were posted on the storefront windows of YesterYears on Bourbon Street, a shop of quaint and quirky novelties. One sign read, “There is no real intention to rebuild New Orleans” and the other lamented “There is no economic recovery money.” The owner had just laid off her last paid employee and was uncertain about her 29-year-old business. Without government assistance, YesterYears was about to become yesterday’s failed business statistic.

The Democratic members of the House Small Business Committee have found that 80 percent of small businesses on the Gulf Coast have not yet received loans promised by the federal government. The Small Business Administration has approved loans of more than $10 billion, but only $2 billion has been loaned to business owners.

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Andy Young’s Truth, America’s Blues

I couldn't have blogged about this better myself . . .

By Terry Smith
BlackProf.com

Imagine a Korean-American neighborhood in which the supplies for Korean restaurants are sold primarily by black merchants.  Imagine a Jewish neighborhood where blacks are most of the property owners and merchants, or an Arab-American neighborhood where primarily blacks sell fried chicken to its inhabitants.  You are unlikely to find any such places in the United States today, but you are sure to find many black neighborhoods where these non-black groups are reaping profits from where they neither reside nor invest.

Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young may not have achieved MLK-like eloquence in his criticism of non-black ethnic groups who do business in black neighborhoods, but the attempt at turnabout in accusing this civil rights hero of racism won’t mask the basic truth of his observations.  Young recently resigned a post at Wal-Mart Stores that he never should have assumed on the heels of his comments that Wal-Mart should drive “mom and pop” stores out of business because such stores had “overcharged blacks” and sold them “stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables.”  Young continued, “I think they’ve ripped off our communities enough.  First it was Jews, then it was Korean, now it’s Arabs; very few black people own these stores.”
Which part of Young’s statement is untrue?  Poor neighborhoods in which blacks are disproportionately concentrated pay a “ghetto tax,” spending more for basic goods and services than most middle-income neighborhoods.  As for quality and price of the food and merchandise sold to the inhabitants of these neighborhoods, suburbanites and residents of white neighborhoods are not rushing to the ghetto for fresh fruit or bargains.  Indeed, if the “mom and pop” stores Young criticized fostered the good-will their names suggests, presumably many of them would be more competitive with larger chains.

That leaves us with Young’s temerity in calling out specific ethnic groups as having engaged in exploitative conduct toward black neighborhoods.  There’s a familiar pattern here.  A black public figure criticizes a particular ethnic group, such as Jews, and his sin of specification, rather than the substance of his charge, becomes the focus of public attention.  It’s the racial equivalent of wag the dog, a perfect deflection of the public’s attention from the real, more serious issue.  And a black public official is the perfect foil because his perceived gaffe dilutes the moral legacy of black people as victims of exploitation by virtually every ethnic group in the United States, including Jews, Koreans and Arabs.

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The Black Stake in the Internet

By Bruce Dixon
The Black Commentator
America’s black misleadership class, which is nearly indistinguishable from its black business class, has struck again.  In a stunning coup, a mainline African American voting rights group has been enlisted on the side of AT&T and other telecom monopolies in their legislative push to privatize the Internet and roll back hundreds of agreements with local communities that force these monopolies to extend Internet and cable service to poor and rural communities around the country.

A time-worn corporate technique for dishonestly manipulating public opinion is to create what are called in the world of public relations, industry-funded organizations and front groups.  The indispensable site SourceWatch.org spells it out like this:

"An industry-funded organization receives funding from a company or industry and often acts as a mouthpiece for views that serve the industry's economic interests... Industry-funded organizations come in many shapes and sizes... trade associations, think tanks, non-profit advocacy groups, and media outlets. Some of these organizations serve as ‘third parties’ for public relations campaigns. The third party technique has been defined by one PR executive as ‘putting your words in someone else's mouth.’”

"A front group... purports to represent one agenda while in reality it serves some other party or interest whose sponsorship is hidden or rarely mentioned. The front group is perhaps the most easily recognized use of the third party technique. For example, the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) claims that its mission is to defend the rights of consumers to choose to eat, drink and smoke as they please. In reality, CCF is a front group for the tobacco, restaurant and alcoholic beverage industries, which provide all or most of its funding...”

For this legislative sales season, the telecommunications monopolies have created a deceptively named corporate mouthpiece called Hands Off the Internet.  Its chief public spokesman is former Clinton White House official Mike McCurry.  A look at the Hands Off member organizations reveals a list of the usual suspects like the American Conservative Union, the Center for Individual Freedom, and the notorious National Association of Manufacturers.  As bankrollers and hosts of the party, one expects to see AT&T and Cingular listed, and they are.

Renting black Republicans is neither a new nor a big deal, so the National Black Chamber of Commerce, which recently fronted for the proposed privatization of Social Security on the grounds that fewer African Americans lived to collect it, is along for the ride too.  In their attention to detail the telecom monopolies have even rented the traditional contingent of black preachers, constructed them a web site and bestowed upon them the title of Ministerial Alliance Against the Digital Divide.

BC was quite surprised, however to see one of the mainstays of black voting rights activism listed among the members of the telecom astroturf group:  the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation.  How and why did this happen?  What does it mean for NCBCP and for what remains of the civil rights movement?

Why Network Neutrality is a Black Issue

On April 27, BC published two stories about CBC member Bobby Rush's sponsorship of this year's noxious telco legislation.  We explained how the Rush-Barton Act, also called the COPE Act or HR 5252, would kill off public access TV, strip towns and cities of the right to force cable monopolies to serve blacker and poorer areas in return for being able to do business in the wealthier parts of town, and allow companies to charge web sites like this one for allowing content or email to reach users.  We called attention to the acceptance of a million dollar donation by a tentacle of AT&T to a not for profit organization associated with the congressman.

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Johnson buys bank, plans black-focused firm

Former CEO of BET to build financial services firm for African Americans

By Terence O'Hara
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON - Robert L. Johnson, the founder and former chief executive of Black Entertainment Television, said yesterday that he acquired a tiny Florida savings and loan and plans to move it to Washington to use as the springboard for a large consumer financial services company aimed at black customers.

The bank, to be renamed Urban Trust, is part of an effort by Johnson to build what he hopes will be the country's largest minority-owned financial services company, one positioned to attract major Wall Street investors as it seeks to foster and profit from rising black wealth. The company is meant to compete with the nation's most elite financial firms, but, its new chief executive said, it will also spend "a lot of afternoons in churches" advocating homeownership.

"Urban Trust will . . . bring more access to capital to individuals and families who need it, especially those that need help managing their assets and their wealth in a better way," Johnson said. "There's no doubt in my mind that a well-capitalized, well-managed black-owned financial institution will be welcomed."

While average household net worth of blacks is far lower than the national average -- $15,500 vs. $71,700 in 1998, according to the latest figures compiled by the Federal Reserve -- it is growing far more rapidly than the national average.

In establishing Urban Trust, Johnson wants to reverse a decade-long slide in the number and performance of small, undercapitalized black-owned banks across the country whose traditional markets have been invaded by mainstream financial institutions.

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Keys to Black Empowerment

By Michelle Singletary
The Washington Post

What is the economic state of black America? That is the question radio and television hosts Tavis Smiley and Tom Joyner will be addressing in Houston on Saturday. The two men, who have the ears of millions of African Americans, are hosting a symposium called "State of the Black Union 2006: Economic Empowerment -- Building and Leveraging Wealth in the African American Community."

With the recent deaths of two great civil rights leaders, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, some in the black community have been bemoaning the economic state of black America.

Smiley invited me to join the panel of black educators, commentators, authors, business owners and policymakers to find out why blacks did not generally benefit from the stock market boom in the 1990s or the recent housing market explosion.

Why is it that many African Americans have not experienced the same prosperity of many other consumers who took advantage of low mortgage rates to significantly increase their wealth?

When I look at some statistics, it's easy to see why some black leaders are concerned that too many blacks are bling-bling broke.

According to Target Market News, which specializes in tracking African American marketing, media and consumer behavior, blacks spend more per capita than whites on many food, clothing and entertainment products and services.

Many point to the company's survey to criticize black spending. For example, blacks spend about $22 billion of their income on apparel products and services and almost $29 billion on automobiles.

Black households had $679 billion in earned income in 2004, an increase of 3.5 percent over the $656 billion earned in 2003.

If you use the overall earned income figure, it doesn't appear as if blacks are spending wisely.

On a household basis, the annual median income of blacks in 2004 was just $30,134, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Asian households had the highest median income ($57,518). The median income for non-Hispanic white households was $48,977. For Hispanic households, it was $34,241.

But the fact is that a great deal of black spending is on necessities such as health care. The uninsured rate in 2004 was 11.3 percent for non-Hispanic whites but almost 20 percent for blacks. Meanwhile, African Americans, several studies have shown, are unfairly charged higher interest rates for big-ticket consumer items such as cars.

One of the keys to prosperity, though, is homeownership.

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Minorities seek Reds share

Rigaud trying to assemble $6M consortium

BY JOHN FAY | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Cincinnati Enquirer

The man behind the rise of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is trying to put together a group to buy a stake in the Reds.

Ed Rigaud, who has been working to get minorities more economically involved in the community, said the African-American group would put up more than $6 million. It would be the first time a black group has owned a piece of one of the city's best known and revered institutions.

Rigaud's group would join new Reds chief executive officer Bob Castellini's ownership group, which was approved last week by Major League Baseball.

"I've been working on economic inclusion," Rigaud said, "inspiring minorities to become involved entrepreneurially in the community.

"This would be a big step."

Rigaud, a former executive at Procter & Gamble, has put up his own money to get the process started.

"This would be a great thing for the community and the Reds, if we can pull it off."

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University Bans Certain Hairstyles for Students

WTOP News

HAMPTON, Va. - Afros are OK but cornrows and flowing dreadlocks are not for business administration students at Hampton University.

The hair code is part of a strict academic and dress doctrine for combined business administration students at the private, historically black university. The program allows students to receive a bachelor's degree and a master's in business administration in five years.

In addition to the hair rules, students must maintain a B average after their sophomore year, heed a conservative dress code, complete two internships and meet regularly with business leaders.

"We don't have problems with Afros," business Dean Sid Credle said Friday. "A nicely tapered Afro - that's fine."

Credle said the dress, grooming and behavior rules are intended to prepare students for the starched business world.

"When we look at the top 75 African Americans in corporate America, we don't see any of them with extreme hairdos," he said.

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Urban League's new mantra: Economic development

By DeWayne Wickham
USA Today

ORLANDO — Lance McCarthy wants the civil rights movement to change its course. While he says this new direction is just a tweaking of the one the movement has taken for over a century, others no doubt will see it as a sea change.

"We have to advocate, provide direct services and engage in business development," says McCarthy, head of the Orlando affiliate of the National Urban League. "This is the civil rights movement of the 21st century."

One of the leading proponents of this new direction, called "social entrepreneurship," McCarthy is not a lone voice. "This is an expansion and extension. The new cutting edge of the civil rights movement is economic development," says Marc Morial, the Urban League's national president.

In essence, Morial and McCarthy want to turn the Urban League — which along with the NAACP, Congress of Racial Equality and Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee spearheaded the push for social and political changes in the1960s — into a civil rights profit center. "We have to go from social services to business development," McCarthy says. "We want to generate money for our affiliates while generating benefits for community." Morial calls this the "double bottom line" of civil rights organizations.

This approach gives new meaning to the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome" and might cause a stirring in Booker T. Washington's grave. At the turn of the 20th century, Washington — who built the Tuskegee Institute — was this nation's most influential black leader. He argued that economic empowerment, not social and political advancement, should be the major goal of blacks.

"The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing," Washington said in 1895 in his "Atlanta Compromise" speech. "No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized. ... The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera house."

Washington's approach was attacked by W.E.B. DuBois, a contemporary critic whose push for full equality became the taproot of the 1960s civil rights movement. More recently, black conservatives have pressed civil rights leaders to put a higher priority on economic development. But McCarthy, whose affiliate hosted a development conference last week, says social entrepreneurship is neither a concession to Washington nor a rejection of DuBois.

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Is 'white' the only color of success?

Minorities can have their careers derailed by their tone of voice or hairstyle, a new study shows.

By Marilyn Gardner
Staff writer
The Christian Science Monitor

During her years as an attorney for one of the top international law firms in the United States, Angela Williams looked forward to defending clients. But sometimes she was not given the chance.

"When it came time for an opportunity to represent Fortune 500 companies on huge cases, even though I might have had trial experience over and above my white male colleagues, they were chosen," says Ms. Williams, who is African-American.    

In an age of diversity, when many companies point with pride to their multicultural workforce, a sobering reality remains: Minority professionals often find their career ambitions thwarted by hidden bias - what workplace experts call the new face of discrimination. "Acting white," they say, can be the price of promotion in a business world where white men account for 98 percent of CEOs and 95 percent of top earners in Fortune 500 companies. Diversity does not always extend to the executive suite.

"Minorities are getting stuck in the early stretches of career structures," says economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett, whose study of minority professionals appears in the November Harvard Business Review. "They are not getting promoted and advanced at a rate commensurate with their weight in the talent pool."

In a survey of more than 1,600 minority professionals, Dr. Hewlett and Princeton professor Cornel West found that sterling credentials can be overshadowed by personal and cultural traits. Everything from cornrows, ethnic jewelry, animated hand gestures, and certain manicures can leave colleagues thinking, "You're different."

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