Project 21: New Visions

The United States didn't invent slavery. While it is historical fact that certain regions participated in and benefited from slavery, it should also be pointed out that America had the good sense to eliminate slavery and emancipate its slaves - acknowledging their full rights and citizenship. America has also provided avenues of opportunity for blacks to excel to unparalleled levels. There are black billionaires such as Oprah Winfrey. Blacks fill key positions in many Fortune 500 companies. Attorneys, doctors, actors, authors, producers, professors, engineers, astronauts and small business owners, among others, are black. Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods ...
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As one of her six children, the greatest gift I received from my dear, now-departed mother was an appreciation of the value of an education. This appreciation helped me rise from our poor surroundings in inner city Cleveland to become the successful black professional that I am today. Heeding this lesson, however, was also the genesis of years of verbal abuse, ostracism and criticism I was forced to endure from other black people - from elementary school through graduate school. During these years, I was accused by my black brethren of "acting white" for using correct English, for making good ...
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President Bush is being pressured by the world and many American groups to send U.S. troops to Liberia as peacekeepers. Their well-intentioned argument is that Liberia desperately needs to be saved. That much is true. The tiny country of Liberia is one of the saddest places in West Africa and has seen almost continuous strife over the last decade. The Liberian people are trapped between warring government forces and rebel groups. On one side is President Charles Taylor with his Small Boy Units - child soldiers who, fueled by drugs and knowing nothing else of life, don't hesitate to maim ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published August 2003 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Ct., N.E., Washington, DC 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202-543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. Herman Cain has risen from meager beginnings to the pinnacle of the business world. Now he's now looking to apply his skills to the world of politics. His experience, coupled with his characteristic determination, make this black conservative a serious contender for the U.S. Senate in Georgia. Cain isn't from an affluent background. He rose through the ranks of Pillsbury and Burger King to ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published August 2003 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Ct., N.E., Washington, DC 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202-543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia, having recently lost its accreditation, has suspended its sports programs and laid off its coaches. Unfortunately, Morris Brown is not alone among a growing list of historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, that are facing extinction due to financial or academic woes. Grambling State University in Louisiana, known for legendary football coach Eddie Robinson, faces a similar ...
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There is strength and power in numbers. Businesses all over the world fully comprehend this notion. That's why they engage in mergers and acquisitions to grow and gain market share. In the absence of antitrust measures, this can lead to a very strong market position. Firms can then use this position of power to control markets and optimize profits. Although churches have - at their center - a mission somewhat different from optimizing profits, they too must pay attention to their bottom lines. Fortunately, churches and other non-profit organizations are not subject to the same antitrust restrictions that cover for-profit ...
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Fallout from the Jayson Blair controversy continues at the New York Times. The top editors were forced to resign. A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter resigned over criticism that he relied too much on stringers to produce his articles. The newsroom is in shock. Former Times reporter Jayson Blair was wrong in what he did, period. He falsified quotes and facts and plagiarized the work of others. It didn't matter in this instance that he happens to be black. The secondary crime in all of this was that he was treated with kid gloves because he is black. Everyone keeps trying to ...
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After working in the public policy arena for over ten years, I made a career change. Since last September, I've taught in a Washington, D.C. charter high school. I teach U.S. history to eleventh graders. Their parents, for many reasons, removed their children from public school. The common denominator is that they want their children to get a good education. They want more opportunities than are currently available in their deprived Anacostia neighborhood. One of the things that I have noticed, however, is that few students and parents realize the distinction between a good education and merely getting a high ...
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Black leaders in America have an unflinching allegiance to the political left and are part-and-parcel to the Democratic Party. They see no reason to change or reform existing race-based affirmative action programs. They are also out of step with the times. This is the premise of University of California-Berkeley Professor John McWhorter's new book, Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority. It picks up where his bestseller Losing the Race left off. It's a series of essays that argue - rightly, in my opinion - that the civil rights era is over, and that the new battleground against racism ...
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After Saddam Hussein's fall, CNN's chief news executive Eason Jordan confessed to covering up 12 years of atrocities perpetrated by the Iraqi government. Over the course of his 13 trips to Iraq, he claimed he grew increasingly distressed by the things he saw and heard. Jordan, however, said says he didn't say anything at the time because he feared for the lives of the Iraqis on CNN's Baghdad staff. Jordan told of the government-sponsored abduction and torture of an Iraqi cameraman employed by CNN who refused to confirm Jordan was a CIA spy. Jordan was personally told by Saddam's son ...
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Just when I think I finally have our black "leaders" all figured out, they throw me another curve ball. In the Chicago Sun Times, Jesse Jackson recently railed against the Bush Administration's tax cut, repeating the worn-out liberal mantra that tax cuts only benefit the wealthy. He warned that Medicaid, Medicare and funding for public schools is in danger. It's kinda funny to hear this argument from a rich man such as Jackson who sent his kids to private school. But I'm left completely stupefied. If billions of dollars in tax cuts spread out over years endanger all types of ...
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At an anti-war "teach-in," a Columbia University professor called for the defeat of American forces in Iraq and said he would like to see "a million Mogadishus" - a reference to the Somali city where American soldiers were ambushed, with 18 killed, in 1993. "The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military," Nicholas DeGenova, assistant professor of anthropology at Columbia University, told the audience at Low Library Wednesday night. "I personally would like to see a million Mogadishus." The crowd was largely silent at the remark. They loudly applauded DeGenova later when he ...
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In case you've managed to avoid the story, he's the 27-year-old New York Times reporter who resigned on May 1 after getting caught plagiarizing. In five years, Jayson Blair wrote over 600 stories for the paper, and it now appears that much of it was either incorrect, brazen lies or plagiarism. Because he's young and black, Jayson Blair's story has been eagerly seized upon by opponents of affirmative action, those who believe young reporters shouldn't be working at major papers straight out of college and those who simply hate the Times. So much has been said and will be said ...
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  A New Visions Commentary paper published June 2003 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Ct., N.E., Washington, DC 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202-543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web http://www.nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. Affirmative action programs were created to help underprivileged minorities overcome adversity so they could take full advantage of the opportunities America has to offer. In reality, it can stifle that same opportunity, increase racial tension and create just the sort of abuse it was meant to eradicate. A new set of rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court wont make things any easier. The ...
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In Greek mythology, the Furies were three female spirits who relentlessly pursued anyone who committed gross crimes such as murdering the very old, very young and family members. They tormented their victims with deafening screams and curses until the criminal either confessed or went insane. When I heard that a chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) tied the prosecution of Scott Peterson to the abortion debate, I thought about the Furies. When I heard Laci Peterson's story, I was pretty sure she was dead. People walk away from their lives every day, but this woman was in her ...
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"Regime change" in Iraq is now well underway. Because of the United States, Great Britain and the rest of the "Coalition of the Willing," the Iraqis are free of the dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein and able to construct a new representative government. Earlier, dissidents of the Hussein leadership were jailed, beaten or killed. I hate to admit it, but there is a similar intolerance in black America, albeit the consequences are less physically severe. In our communities, black conservatives who speak out against the leaders and policies pushed by liberals who claim to speak for all black Americans are ...
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For some time, I've believed most of black America gave up on Dr. King's "Dream." At its core, King's dream was of a unified nation where all races had common values and enjoyed the benefits that come with those shared values. In the last several years, however, I've become increasingly convinced of a major effort to keep black America a separate nation. A concerted effort has been made to shape the thinking of black America to harness, if not outright enslave, this major voting bloc. Please allow me to provide some historical perspective. Long ago, in Africa, we lived under ...
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Black Americans are still fighting for equality. But the eve of the final battle is upon us, and I believe it is a battle we can - and must - win. Back in the 40s and 50s, we tested the "get-along-to-get-by" process. It worked for a few, but most of us were overlooked and pushed to the back of the bus. The 60s saw civil rights laws and forced integration. Flash-forward to the 70s, where we engaged in militant resistance. Then the 80s advanced education as the way to enforce equality. In the 90s, self-segregation was introduced on several college ...
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You'd have to be made of granite to not be moved by Jessica Santillan's plight. The sweet-faced 17-year-old weighed 85 pounds and suffered from a birth defect that left her heart and lungs unable to function properly. Her one chance at life was a transplant of the defective organs. As anyone who followed this story knows, that chance was destroyed because the surgical team at Duke University Hospital gave her a heart and lungs that were not of her blood type. It led to her death. The hospital and her lead surgeon, Dr. James Jaggers, were remarkably up-front about accepting ...
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Savoy magazine recently addressed the issue of getting more blacks elected to public office. Views were diverse, and all disturbed me. Mellody Hobson of Ariel Capitol Management sounded naive: "I don't care what the platform is, I just want a black senator or governor." Publisher Earl Graves, Sr., took a different track, warning: "You have to support the candidate who will support our message. If you don't, you end up with a Clarence Thomas." Nobody asked me to help craft "our message." I like Thomas. And I appreciate the fact that Graves showcases black entrepreneurs' success stories in his magazines ...
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