Project 21: New Visions

A New Visions Commentary paper published August 2001 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. I first heard about the reparations movement as a college student in Washington, DC in 1989. An upperclassman with a group that seemed to spend all their time in the yard talking - and occasionally ranting - about social issues of the day one time loudly proclaimed that America owed black people a cash settlement for slavery. Our ancestors, he reasoned, never got ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published August 2001 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. No good deed goes unpunished when Jesse Jackson is involved. But, this time around, Jesse's got a fight on his hands because his prey won't roll over and play dead like usual. Trying to give a man a leg up, Sinclair Broadcasting gave Eddie Edwards a loan in 1991 to help him start his own television company. Edwards' company, Glencairn Limited in Pittsburgh, ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. For the past couple of weeks, major newspapers have carried stories about new efforts to privatize the U.S. Social Security System (SSS). Although the real battle to effect this change is far from beginning in earnest, African-Americans would be well advised to begin considering where they come down on this issue. Should African-Americans favor privatization of Social Security? Before providing an answer, let's consider a few facts about the current state of Social Security. From the outset, Social Security privatization was part of President George W. Bush's campaign platform. Importantly, the President received significant ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published July 2001 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. While in my local shopping mall recently, I noticed a curious thing. There didn't seem to be any black men shopping with their families. I saw plenty of Hispanic men, white men and even African men with their families. But I saw no American black men shopping with their families. Later, my husband and I went to a local family-style buffet restaurant for ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. One thing is for sure. The U.S. Supreme Court has put itself between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the Ten Commandments. Placed along the top border of the Supreme Court's magnificent courtroom are carvings of several of history's great lawgivers. From Hammurabi to Octavian and Justinian to Napoleon, they represent the founding principles of law that helped establish justice and equity here in the United States over the past 225 years. Somewhere in the middle of the southern frieze is a carving of Moses holding the two stone tablets ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited A man whose actions led to cold-blooded murders is now running for President. And, because the Reverend Al Sharpton is black and liberal, his infractions will be overlooked by many and forgotten by other. They shouldn't be. Freddy's Fashion Mart was a Harlem boutique owned by a long-time Harlem businessman who happened to be Jewish. Freddy's owner rented space in a building on 125th Street. The building belonged to a black church. In 1995, the building's owners decided to raise the rents on the business tenants. It's not an uncommon thing to do - ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. The NAACP is not around to help Ron Greer, a black pastor and fireman in need of assistance. "Civil rights" organizations also weren't there for Pastor Reggie White, the former Green Bay Packer star, when he had his endorsement deals with Campbell's Soup and other products pulled. Obviously, civil rights for Christians is not a part of the NAACP's agenda. Ron Greer is one of the most hated men in Wisconsin. It all started when a fellow fireman at the Madison Fire Department asked Ron what he thought about homosexuality. Drawing on his faith, ...
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Boycotts are an effective means for achieving social change. The Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott was a key point in the struggle for civil rights. Southern Baptists are boycotting the Walt Disney Company to protest the company's moves away from family-friendly entertainment. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has made headlines for its high-profile boycotts of South Carolina for flying the Confederate Battle Flag atop the state's capitol dome and most recently the Adam's Mark hotel chain for alleged discriminatory practices. I'd like to suggest a new boycott: Blacks and Americans of all races should boycott the ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. Reverend Arthur Allen is the man at the center of a maelstrom. Allen is pastor of a 150-member-strong church - The House of Prayer - in Northwest Atlanta. The church is the focus of an ongoing investigation that led Georgia state welfare authorities to remove nearly 50 children from parishioners' homes between late March and early May. The Fulton County Department of Family and Children's Services (DFACS) charges that members violently discipline their children, placing them at risk of harm. It started when children came to school with noticeable bruises. Teachers notified DFACS, which ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. "My baby is a good boy! He didn't do nothing wrong!" The woman who spoke these words sat crying in a rocking chair on her porch. Her 18-year-old son was in jail awaiting trial for a very serious crime. She was a friend of my mother's, and when Mamma rushed to comfort this poor woman I tagged along. My mother spoke soothing words to her, and coaxed her into going inside and lying down. I said almost nothing. I couldn't bring myself to speak my mind. I'd known this woman's son since the day ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. There has never been a worse time for the government to push policies that would raise gasoline prices, especially since they've risen almost 45% over the past year. But this is exactly what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is doing with reformulated gasoline (RFG). RFG was implemented as part of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. It is blended to burn more completely and evaporate less than conventional gasoline, thus creating less air pollution. But, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), two of the five factors now contributing to high gas prices ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. A great deal of controversy surrounds Berkeley Professor John H. McWhorter's recent book, Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America. In his book, McWhorter argues that contemporary African-American youth - the Generation Xers - shun academic excellence because it is not "cool." There is a lot of clear evidence on this issue from both sides of the controversy. You are likely to know at least one African-American youth who has excelled academically, and was laden with excellence awards as he or she graduated from high school or college this season. Similarly, you are also ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published May 2001 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. Motherhood can be the most sacred duty of a woman's life. The status of motherhood, however, is under attack on many fronts. Last year, the United Nations convened the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women to essentially dissolve reference to gender. It issued a proclamation calling for the elimination of Mother's Day. Why does being a mother make ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published May 2001 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. At one time or another, most of us have had a roach problem in our home. We know that when we turn on the lights the roaches scatter. That's exactly how liberals have acted since the Reverend Jesse Jackson disgraced himself. They are running to get as far from him as possible. Not to make light of a man's personal destruction, but this ...
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On April 22, I awoke to the rumblings of a communist state here in America. Federal agents, under orders from Bill Clinton and Janet Reno, broke down the door of Lazaro Gonzalez's home in Miami to forcibly reunite little Elian Gonzalez with his Cuban father. From the very start, liberal blacks in Congress like Maxine Waters and Sheila Jackson-Lee pushed for Elian's return to Cuba. They charge there is a double standard between U.S. policy toward Cuba and Haiti. They seem to forget that our military invaded Haiti in 1994 to restore its first democratically-elected president to power. In Haiti, ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. Who should pay for reparations? Black Americans... obviously. Black Americans have pondered a debt due for slavery since Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Few would deny a debt is owed for the centuries of institutionalized slave labor, beatings, rapes and murders spanning generations, but the details pose questions. Clearly, there are businesses and families that profitted and cannot deny or defend their involvement. But how much is owed, by whom and who is owed? I believe I have an answer that may not appease everyone, but it's rational and won't divide our nation or ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. It's a delicate time to be a student in one of our government's schools. At a time when technology is advancing rapidly and information is king, our schools are failing. At a time when African-American youth should be taking advantage of the opportunities afforded to them by the hard-fought struggles and painful sacrifices of generations past, more than 60% of our fourth graders cannot read. At a time when our educational system needs an overdue facelift, we have leaders who fight to maintain the status quo. This is a dangerous time in the African-American ...
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A New Visions Commentary paper published April 2001 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. Because you had to fill out those confusing forms last year, you are probably aware that the U.S. Constitution mandates that a census be conducted by the government every ten years. You are probably also familiar with the importance of the census results. States that increase in population between censuses gain additional seats in Congress while states that decrease in population lose seats ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. If I told you there was a plan to decrease minority salaries and jobs here in America while allowing the African continent to become polluted, would you think I was peddling a crazy conspiracy theory? A few years ago, I would have dismissed it as nonsense. But that's exactly what the United Nation's Kyoto Protocol would do to prevent "global warming" - a scientific theory that isn't even proven. President George W. Bush took a lot of heat from environmentalists when he announced the United States will not abide by Kyoto's regulations, but he ...
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Reprints permitted provided source is credited. When television news reports show homes located in poor neighborhoods, you often see a lot of trash, litter and other debris strewn about in the yards and on the porches. A well-dressed commentator usually stands in front of these homes with microphone in hand and a phony look of concern on his or her face. With a pained expression, they lament about how white racism and poverty are the major causes of such conditions. Not one word is said about the responsibility of those living in the homes. Not one word is uttered about ...
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