12 THE GREENSBORO TIMES Needed in 2018 > from page 1


basic understanding of economics and expand the conversation beyond traditional financial literacy and consumerism, and take inventory of their time, money and resources for maximum benefit of their dollars.


Start first with self, then family, next local community, and then the


community at-large, she explained. It’s the way at BRIJ, which promotes the Build Black movement through the Neo-Green Book, a guide to Black business and services, and accountability of individual and collective economic practices, according to Ms. Shabazz.


“Are we learning a new skill, like farming, that can help with both


individual and collective independence, or are we binge watching our favorite show on Netflix? Are we making excuses of why we can’t support Black businesses, or are we planning ahead to make sure that we can? You have to be honest about who you are and your contribution to the problem or solution,” Ms. Shabazz said.


In criminal justice reform, Blacks must continue the dialogue around


ending money bail and jail expansion, said Nana Gyamfi, a Los Angeles- based human rights attorney.


In addition to the 1.6 million people incarcerated in federal and state prisons, there are 646,000 people locked up in more than 3,000 local jails throughout the U.S., according to Prison Policy Initiative. Seventy percent of those in local jails are being held pretrial—meaning they have not yet been convicted of a crime and are legally presumed innocent.


“There’s a real push to reform the bail system, and I think that that


push is getting a lot of traction, and that we may find in 2018 that in some places, bail is no longer an issue, unless we’re dealing with super serious cases and that we have less people that are spending months and years of their lives in jail, innocent until proven guilty, just because they can’t afford bail,” said Atty. Gyamfi.


She said Blacks must also continue to push back against jail expansion, and the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars into incarceration and policing.


In addition, connect the dots between immigration and detention centers and mass incarceration, she said.


The new year demands Black college students focus on acquiring


the knowledge necessary to build a nation and a better future for their people, said Salih Muhammad, chairman of the Afrikan Black Coalition, which works to unify Black students across California and resolve issues concerning academic retention, academic policy, campus climate, matriculation, and political education.


According to a recent study (“The Asset Value of Whiteness:


Understanding the Racial Wealth Gap,”) published by DEMOS, the median White adult who attended college has 7.2 times more wealth than the median Black adult who attended college and 3.9 times more wealth than the median Latino adult who attended college.


“Strategically, we must find innovative ways to best organize the resources we do have toward meaningful freedom-based objectives. Toward this goal, our biggest issue continues to be the lack of knowledge of self, which produces a downward spiral of productivity. The lack of self-knowledge robs our people the benefit of ‘education,’ ” he said.


Parents, guardians, and mentors should consider guiding young,


Black people toward making a future for themselves, he argued. College access isn’t necessarily the pathway to freedom, personally or collectively.


Learning trades certainly helps, according to Congresswoman


Brenda Lawrence of Detroit, Mich., who sponsored the “Putting Black America to Work: the New Skilled Trade Workforce” panel at the 47th annual Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference in September in Washington, D.C.


The United States is importing foreign welders for jobs that pay from $30-50 an hour, observed Gregory Clay in the AFRO.


According to Rep. Lawrence, the average age of skilled trade workers is 53, and the trades are one industry that needs an infusion of youth, especially from the Black community, wrote Mr. Clay.


Rep. Lawrence sponsored the panel to determine why young Blacks


are seemingly shying away from the trades, such as welding, plumbing, construction, electricity, heating and air conditioning, post office positions, railway occupations, etc.


Salih Muhammad, a young leader and Nation of Islam student


minister, cautioned against steering Black students into the social sciences and liberal arts without thought to what their educational outcome should be.


Others advocate self-education as a supplement to formal education to ensure Black students land on the right side of the economic track.


Gwen Samuel, education advocate and founder of the Connecticut


Parents Union, told The Final Call Blacks must first reflect on all the injustices they suffered, particularly in areas like public education, unemployment, and gentrification in 2017 to stay focused in 2018.


Then, they must resolve to vote for changes, she said. “Whatever the lane that God has put us in, handle your business in


that lane! So you start out 2018 thanking God for another year to fight, but fight we must,” Ms. Samuel told The Final Call.


Nationally, over three million public school students received at


least one out-of-school suspension and 130,000 were expelled during the 2011-2012 academic year according to the latest 2014 statistics by U.S. Department of Education.


Statistics by the Penn Graduate School of Education indicate Blacks


were nearly half of all students suspended and expelled from public schools in the South—with 427,768 Black boys suspended and 14,643 expelled.


According to Columbia Law School Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw


and colleagues in their 2015 report, “Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Underprotected,” 90 percent of all girls expelled from New York City public schools in 2011-12 were Black.


As for the ongoing debate about school choice, which allows public


education funds to be used for private school, charter school, home school or any other learning environment parents choose, Ms. Samuel feels everyone must take responsibility for the state of failing education in 2018.


Charter school proponents argue that expanding the pool of schools


gives children of color a better opportunity to learn, while staunch supporters of public education state that more resources and funding are needed to make schools better.


“It’s bigger than charters. The law says that parents have the legal right to the upbringing of their children. … Parents should be thinking about all options to protect their babies: homeschooling, charters, vocational schools, technical schools. Are we teaching our kids the manufacturing realm again?” asked Ms. Samuel.


Throughout the year 2017, Black Americans witnessed the beginning of the backlash Black America is paying for eight years of Barack Obama.


New York businessman Donald Trump rode into the White House


on the back of a campaign characterized by White grievance, racial resentment and a coded promise to pull America back to a time when Whites were ascendant and Blacks, women, immigrants, foreigners and gays and lesbians knew their place.


“America elected Trump which emboldened people. He made it clear that he wants to make America White,” said D.C. businesswoman Danielle Ricks. “The racists have really came out of the woodwork, probably the most visibly since Jim Crow. It’s just incomprehensible to them that an intelligent Black man became president. America wasn’t supposed to elect a Black resident. It doesn’t matter that he’s half-Black, half-White.”


The Howard University grad and owner of a media company that


provides digital, social and visual media for a range of clients, said in 2017, racism, bigotry and intolerance grew.


Black Lives Matter activists and NFL player Colin Kaepernick were among those who kept issues like police brutality, the state-sanctioned murder of Black people and mass incarceration in the public spotlight.


“It’s been an interesting dichotomy of seeing people fighting for


exclusion versus inclusion, the spike in racial slurs and hate crimes and ‘woke’ people finding their voice,” Ms. Ricks said. “African Americans are realizing that not only do we have to go to the polls, but we have to hold the people we elect accountable and run for office.”


In a year of retrenchment politically, economically and socially,


Blacks while on the defensive, have ignited a powerful and significant counter narrative as it relates to political activism and making their votes count.


As the November and December elections in Alabama, Virginia and New Jersey showed, Blacks are not going anywhere without a fight.


Alabama’s Dec. 12 special election results illustrate the electoral


muscle of Black men and women by powering Democrat Doug Moore to a coveted U.S. Senate seat against his rival, religious fundamentalist Judge Roy Moore. According to exit polls, 98 percent of Black women voted for


Needed in 2018 > page 13


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