So What Now?

So the world's most fearsome red herring, Osama bin Laden, is no more. I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but militant Islam doesn't live or die with OBL, and hasn't for a long time. I'm elated he's dead, but I'm not deluded enough to think this will have any effect on our endless War on Terror, much less a downscaling. I'm also not deluded enough to buy that OBL wasn't being sheltered and shuttled by very senior, high-ranking elements within Pakistan. But we'll see how it plays out.

An appropriately subdued speech by the Prez, with a minimum of chest-thumping.  Of course, a dirty hippie like me can point out the irony of our America-hating, secretly Muslim president being the one to finally "get" OBL, but there's no reason to think that those who are hell-bent on othering Obama will be swayed by the wonderful news.

Commentary: The Furor Over Black Marriage

Depending on the day, my attitude toward traditional heterosexual marriage ranges from agnostic to pretty cynical, so perhaps what I say should be taken with a grain of salt. But the current obsession with the relatively low rates of marriage among African-Americans is starting to get on my nerves.

It's no easy thing to go against the pro-marriage tide, since the Crisis of the Black Family has been an established theme for damn near 50 years (if the notorious Moynihan Report of 1965 can be marked as its beginning). Moreover, our community's obsession with the issue does reflect some genuine yearning for the kind of haven in a heartless world that present conditions too often deny us. And who can deny the advantages of two stable, resourceful, mutually committed people (of opposite sex or not) working together to manage a household and raise children?

Therein lies problem with this one-sided discussion: the benefits of marriage are so relentlessly hyped that it's hard to believe that Black people haven't gotten the message by now. Whenever we come in for a public scolding on programs like CNN's "Black in America" series, it seems that the gathered Black talking heads never offer more than the most token resistance to the "fact" that heterosexual marriage should be the desired state for all Black people. Then we have contrived events such as the proudly heteronormative "National Black Marriage Day"--which, though undoubtedly well-meaning, gives off more than a whiff of Black insecurity, the kind that would make a besieged people say, "See, White America? We're worried about this problem too!"

The Villager, 4/8/11 - "Democrats fight losing battle over state budget"

In a vote that sharply reflects the deep ideological fissure within the state, the Committee Substitute for House Bill 1 (C.S.H.B. 1), the general appropriations bill that sets the budget for the state, passed the Texas House of Representatives Sunday by a vote of 98-49. The bill cuts tens of billions from public and higher education, health and human services, and public safety programs, while keeping the state Rainy Day Fund mostly intact—a key goal of fiscal conservatives.

For the 82^nd Legislature, the momentum toward steep spending cuts was established early, even though Democrats have always insisted that the story of the deficit is also the story of certain well-heeled players—some of them major corporations—refusing to pay their fair share in taxes.

“We can’t afford to subsidize companies that are making millions and billions of dollars while we have folks that are getting layed-off in our schools,” said Davis. “It’s the will of the leadership to recognize that we need additional resources.”

Dallas Examiner, 3/31/11 - "Why minorities can not afford to let redistricting take a back seat"

It’s basic civics: the U.S. Constitution requires a national population count, or census, to be conducted once a decade in order to determine the apportionment of congressional districts. In the case of Texas in 2011, the issue of legislative redistricting, despite its profound implications for the practical workings of democracy (not to mention the ability of certain minority groups to be represented by the elected officials of their choosing), has so far had to take a back seat to the ongoing wrangling over the state budget—a sign of the unprecedented fiscal crisis confronting the state. But previous redistricting battles offer a prelude to what Texans can expect in the coming months.

Casual political observers got their most recent taste of partisan redistricting in 2003 when a Republican majority was able to push through a controversial mid-decade redistricting plan—fought by numerous advocacy groups including the Texas NAACP and Texas League of United Latin American Citizens—that sent more Texas Republicans to Congress in 2004. But a pair of North Texans on the House Redistricting Committee, Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Ft. Worth) and Rep. Roberto Alonzo (D-Dallas), insist that concerned Texans can’t afford to lose sight of the fact that more than just partisan advantage can be lost for those who end up with the short end of the redistricting stick.

Dallas Examiner, 3/24/11 - "Johnson discusses bills, budgets and service"

As the newest member of the Dallas delegation to the Texas legislature, Rep. Eric Johnson may have had the slightest inkling what he was getting into when he first contemplated running for the District seat once held by longtime state rep Terri Hodge. But with the legislative session entering its third month, and with Johnson having filed several pieces of legislation, including bills on ethics reform, eminent domain, and curbing abuses in the payday lending industry—not to mention his recently being named to the all-important House Appropriations Committee—Rep. Johnson can no longer be considered uninitiated. With HB 1, the House’s version of the budget, having just passed out of the Appropriations Committee on an 18-7 party-line vote, Johnson has a front row seat to some of the most contentious and high-stakes negotiations among legislators, negotiations that will profoundly impact the lives of his own constituents as well as those of Texans in general.

Examiner: On Feb. 9 the Senate passed SB 18, which purportedly protects private property rights against eminent domain. Have you had a chance to look at it, and how similar is it to your bills?

Johnson: I have begun to review SB 18 with my staff.  It contains provisions similar to my bill, HB 747, which requires the disclosure of more information to property owners who are affected by the eminent domain process.  My other bills touch on subjects not addressed by SB 18:  HB 745 will ensure that property owners are provided documents pertaining to eminent domain in the language of their choice. HB 746 will ensure property owners receive enough compensation to allow them to continue to own a home or operate a business in their community.

Dallas Examiner, 3/17/11 - "The Doggett Amendment controversy"

In this time of budget deficits and calls for shared sacrifice coming from the Texas GOP, some are holding the rigidity of the party’s leader, Gov. Rick Perry, to blame for preventing more than $800 million dollars in federal assistance money from flowing into the state’s coffers.  While the Education, Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act was on its way toward becoming a law last summer, a Texas-only provision was added by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin) which binded the Texas governor to apply for the funds on the condition that he certify the money would not be used simply as a substitute for state spending on education, but in addition to it. Texas’ application to the Department of Education was rejected on that basis, leaving the cash in limbo.

The so-called “Doggett Amendment” has been the subject of much conversation among state officials, and considerable indignation among Texas Republicans. In his State of the State speech back in late January, Perry referred to it as an “anti-Texas” amendment, and characterized Doggett as a lone liberal Texan who is penalizing the rest of the state.

Why Black Folks?

There are many things that fascinate me, as I hope this blog will eventually show. But the issue I am most passionate about, unquestionably, is the unfinished history of the black freedom struggle in the United States. More than just an "issue," it is one of the most illuminating facets of American life, serving, however fitfully and problematically, not just as a model for progressive activism, but as a supreme mode of creative trouble-making for those of us able to learn a thing or two from its fearlessness, impetuosity, and joyous infidelity to the dominant "success narrative" of America.

It's an interesting time to be writing about race. Sooner than any of us expected, a black man found a way to get himself elected President of the United States. Predictably, this leads many to herald the inauguration of a post-racial America, especially among those benighted intellects for whom the mere presence of black faces in high places is sufficient to proclaim the end of racism.

But some of us are duty-bound to continue worrying about ordinary black folks, however much it may put us in bad odor with the prophets of post-racialism, and I'm just arrogant enough to believe I can give some coherent form to the experiences of people such as families victimized by the subprime mortgage implosion, young men (and increasingly women) caught up in the racist "War on Drugs," and those left to their own devices to respond, constructively and otherwise, to the economic shocks of our post-industrial society and its destructive permutations.

I can and will write about things other than race. But, given the unprecedented degree of popular dissatisfaction with mainstream institutions (shown in poll after poll), it is apropos to frequently revisit the history of a social group that, more than any other (and with all due respect to everyone fighting similar forces), has put into practice the imperative of getting this goddamned country to rethink its own bullshit.

Take what is happening right now in Wisconsin. Yes, those people deserve applause, as well as every possible show of solidarity from progressives. But, deviant that I am, I can’t help wondering how the national conversation about Wisconsin’s public employees would be different if it were mostly black and brown faces that we saw on those nightly news broadcasts. Of course, when it comes to workers standing up in the face of relentless political attack, nothing can be taken for granted, and under all but the most extraordinary circumstances (which these are) workers of all colors struggle to earn the benefit of the doubt in a country that holds up visionary capitalists as the true makers of society. So for heaven’s sake let’s not minimize the crap that Wisconsinites are dealing with.

But let us consider for a minute how things might be different if the protesters were mostly people of color. In fact, we already have some context for such a comparison. In 2009 and 2010, while a few scattered Tea Party protests dominated the headlines, at least a few on the left couldn’t help but be fascinated by the relatively indifferent press response to the far larger immigration reform protests of a few years ago. Yes, there was press coverage, notably from the Los Angeles Times, as a click-through will show. But there was nothing approaching the saturation coverage of the Tea Party phenomenon, and never any suggestion that Latino disaffection is a world-altering force to which the two major political parties must orient themselves or else. For some, the Democrats’ losses in the 2010 elections confirmed the wisdom of focusing on the Tea Party, while others see the shellacking of the Dems as the predictable result of an off-year electorate being allowed to marinate too long in the sour juices of a bad economy. For this writer, it confirmed at least this much: spasmodic expressions of black and brown rage can spark “national conversations” but they will never be given public sanctification, and much less will they be seen as outpourings of the true national self to which all must answer.

To see just how different the discourse can be, the immigration protests can again serve as an illustrative case. At around the time that the protests reported on by the L.A. Times were happening in 2006, Fox News talk show host Bill O’Reilly took the opportunity to make repeated claims on both his radio program and TV show that the immigration rights movement is little more than a conspiracy to take over the nation and subjugate good, decent white folks. For example, during the May 16 edition of The O’Reilly Factor:

The New York Times and many far-left thinkers believe the white power structure that controls America is bad, so a drastic change is needed. According to the lefty zealots, the white Christians who hold power must be swept out by a new multicultural tide, a rainbow coalition, if you will….An open border policy and the legalization of millions of Hispanic illegal aliens would deeply affect the political landscape in America.

Additionally, on the May 1 edition of the Radio Factor, sayeth O’Reilly:

Then there’s the hardcore, militant agenda of “You stole our land, you bad gringos.” The organizers of the demonstrations [say] “We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.” That is their slogan, that “you stole our land, and now we’re going to take it back by massive migration into the Southwest, and we’re going to control those places because you stole it from us,” and that’s the agenda underneath.

assimilationist urge can even exist side-by-side with an ironic awareness that “the border crossed us,” a fact that seems to escape Mr. O’Reilly and many others. For all their surface militancy, the immigration rights protests fall well within the best traditions of American reformism—it’s no accident that the movement’s signature legislative initiative is The DREAM Act, which aims at nothing more radical than easing the path to citizenship for undocumented college students, who by their very existence prove their group’s fealty to middle-class striving.

And the Tea Party? Well, we have this from O’Reilly’s Fox News colleague Sean Hannity:

Hannity: The summer may be coming to a close, but politicians across the country are still feeling the heat from their constituents. Now thousands of ordinary Americans (emphasis mine) are taking part in what is known as the Tea Party Express. They’re speaking out against government-run health care, out-of-control spending, and the rallies that started just last week in CA will conclude in Washington on Sep. 12. And our very own Griff Jenkins has been on board the Express since day one, and he joins us now from the site of tonight’s rally in Flagstaff, Arizona. Griff?

Griff Jenkins: Sean, this is the story of the America that Washington forgot, and apparently doesn’t want to hear from. They’re miners, they’re small business owners, they’re veterans, they’re nurses, they’re mothers, and what you’re hearing right here in Flagstaff is going on all across the great American West.

This broadcast came near the beginning of the Tea Party phenomenon in 2009, and Fox’s coverage would only become more shamelessly obliging toward the movement after that. Now, there is more to media discourse than just whatever emanates from the Fox News sewer, and the Tea Party certainly has its critics, both inside and outside mainstream circles. But even among those who know better, it takes effort to beat back the media narrative that the Tea Party, for all its overheated and at times violent rhetoric, is where “ordinary Americans” are to be found—not the brown-skinned people who are lobbying to get The DREAM Act signed into law.

And not the African-Americans who were among the first to protest what the subprime mortgage industry was doing before the bubble burst in late 2008. This brings me back to the situation in Wisconsin, indeed the situation confronting the entire country. As heroic as the protesters truly are, I can’t help but wonder how much further down the path toward a less brutal social order we might be if black disaffection were taken as seriously. As it is, some in the chattering classes (and not just in the precincts of the far right) can’t seem to resist trying to niggerize Wisconsin’s public sector workers—as lazy, coddled, overpaid, undeserving—so it doesn’t take much imagination to see how actual, protesting niggers would play.

Dallas Examiner, 3/10/11 - "Budget cuts: Community looks for intelligent answers"

Sen. Royce West and Rep. Yvonne Davis were on hand at Concord Missionary Baptist Church last Sunday for a short yet tightly focused community meeting about the state budget and what it means for Dallas parents, schoolteachers, elected officials, and other interested stakeholders. Among those present were city councilman Tennell Atkins, and DISD trustees Lew Blackburn, Bernadette Nutall, and Carla Ranger.

“The reason for the meeting was that people want to come together to get intelligent answers on what we’re facing as far as school districts,” said community activist Claudia Fowler. Fowler stressed the educational nature of the meeting, and the intent of Sen. West and Yvonne Davis to dispel misinformation about both the state’s fiscal position and to persuade attendees of the importance of putting sustained pressure on the Capitol.  

Dallas Examiner, 3/3/11 - "Disparity Study examines Texas contracts, Black businesses"

The Comptroller of Public Accounts’ (CPA) Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) program was originally conceived as a means to close the gap between minority- and women-owned businesses and the most lucrative contracting opportunities in the public and private sectors. For some, such as minority business enterprise (MBE) advocacy organizations like the Minority Business Enterprise Institute of Public Policy (MBEIPP), this remains an ongoing struggle despite the raft of resources and advice that the state makes available.

“What I believe is that if we’re going to have a sustained economic recovery, it has to be job-based. In order for it to be job-based, it must include small businesses, and the fastest-growing segment of small businesses are those owned by people of color,” said Cliff Miller, a founding director of MBEIPP, in a recent interview with the Dallas Examiner.

Liveblogging the Texas Legislative Black Caucus 2011 African American Legislative Summit

Monday, Feb. 28, 2011
9:00 AM - Opening Remarks on the Floor of the House Chamber

Words of greeting from numerous members of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. The high point came in the form of an energetic address from Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who exhorted those in attendance to channel their energies into advocacy on behalf of the disadvantaged.

11:00 AM - Legislative Initiatives Panel Discussion

Representatives Harold Dutton (D-Houston), Sylvester Turner (D-Houston) and Yvonne Davis (D-Dallas) conducted a wide-ranging discussion of a variety of issues of interest to African-Americans in Texas. Of particular concern was the state budget crisis. A note of emergency was sounded due to the fact that the steepest budget cuts that are being proposed by Republicans are in the areas of public education, higher education, and Medicaid. There were exhortations from all who took the microphone that the state Rainy Day Fund, of about $9 billion, be drawn down to help close the deficit. The point was repeatedly made that closing tax loopholes, reconsidering tax breaks and abatements for well-heeled companies--i.e. "spreading the pain around," in the words of Rep. Dutton--should be part of the budget discussion but hasn't been. Citizens were repeatedly urged to pressure their representatives, even if they were of the opposing party.

Dallas Examiner, 2/24/11 - "Schools may suffer most from budget cuts"

With the Senate version of the state budget already being picked apart in hearings, House members have only recently been given their committee assignments. But it was HB 1, the House preliminary budget released at the start of the session, that kicked off the earliest wave of denunciations from Democrats who feel that the proposed budget cuts are too draconian, and disproportionately target the most vulnerable Texans.

“We are here to champion the dreams and opportunities of Texas families, of our children, of our seniors, and we feel that these dreams and opportunities are now threatened by the budget that has been laid out today,” said Rep. Jessica Ferrar (D-Houston) at the Jan. 19 press conference that served as the Democrats’ opening salvo in a budget battle that for some boils down to a simple question: Who should bear the burden?

Dallas Examiner, 2/17/11 - "State of the State"

Gov. Rick Perry delivered his State of the State address last Monday, making it clear to lawmakers and the public that he envisions a balanced budget that preserves essential services without requiring raising taxes, and that the final result of the budget crucible will be a streamlined state government and a Texas that continues to be a national economic leader.

"As leaders, we must continue to be fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars and truly reform our approach to governance," Gov. Perry said. "Our discussions about streamlining state government must be followed by a willingness to act, including consolidating or suspending non-mission-critical entities until the economy improves."

Despite widespread fears among many, especially educators and HHS (health and human services) providers, that the state budget crisis will necessitate steep and painful cuts that aren’t likely to be reversed any time soon, Perry sounded an optimistic note about the state’s economic future.

"As this thing gets rolling, some folks are painting a pretty grim picture of our situation. So I think we need to balance their pessimism with some good news that continues to flow from our comparatively strong economy. Have the doomsayers forgotten that Texas added more jobs in 2010 than any other state? Last year the growth rate of Texas jobs was nearly double the growth rate of any other state."

Dallas Examiner, 1/27/11 - "DISD Task Force Faces Challenges"

Plagued by high drop-out rates and low test scores, Black male students have long been a particular object of concern for education reformers. Devising solutions which take into account the special challenges faced by Black males while also taking for granted their innate ability to achieve is another matter.

DISD’s newest attempt at a solution, the African American Male Task Force, hopes to chart new paths. The task force’s mission statement: To eliminate the achievement gap of African American male students by ensuring that their academic, social, cultural and emotional needs are being met as they engage in rigorous and relevant instruction, while striving to become college and workforce ready. As part of DISD’s larger African American Student Success Initiative, the task force’s overarching aim, according to Task  Force chair Robert Edison, is to deploy data-driven interventions at the academic, psychosocial, and institutional level in order to improve educational outcomes for Black males.

With the blessing of Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, Edison and the rest of the task force are trying to formulate new approaches to the problem of Black male underachievement without restigmatizing a group already stereotyped as being perpetually in crisis. The group held its first meeting last September, and received input from students during a “Speak Out” event held on Dec. 3. Edison envisions a menagerie of pilot projects that will hopefully evolve into tomorrow’s conventional wisdom for dealing with the unique challenges faced by Black male students.

The Examiner caught up with Edison to ask him some questions about the task force.

Dallas Examiner, 1/20/11 - "Texas legislative session highlights budget, redistricting"

The 82^nd session of the Texas Legislature promises to be an eventful one for African-Americans. Upcoming battles over the budget and redistricting are expected to dominate the headlines. Black lawmakers are fully aware that the widespread alarm over the state’s fiscal position—a $25 billion deficit—will bear mightily on any new programs they wish to create.

“The biggest issue is going to be the budget,” said Sen. Royce West, “to make certain that we’re not playing defense but offense, to make certain there are no onerous cuts that will severely impact the constituents in the district.”

Still, that hasn’t stopped Sen. West from pledging to spur the legislature to action on issues such as homeowners’ association abuses, expunging the records of the wrongfully convicted and curbing abuses in the payday lending industry.

Dallas Examiner, 1/13/11 - “General Motors vice president offers Blacks hand up”

As General Motors’ new Vice President of Diversity, what makes Eric Peterson unique is not that he’s an African-American who has managed to climb the corporate ladder, although he is certainly that. Rather, what stands out instantly is the manner in which Peterson has used his all-too-rare achievement as a platform for community-minded interventions. As director of industry dealer affairs, a job he continues to hold, Peterson was already a point man for GM’s relationships with minority- and women-owned dealerships. In his new post, he becomes the public face of an iconic manufacturer’s efforts at strengthening its ties to minority communities nationwide.

Examiner: In your time at GM, have you had many opportunities to provide mentoring to up-and-coming African-American managers or aspiring executives?

Peterson: My whole approach when I move to an area is, one, to have an open-door policy to support people, but more specifically with African-American employees because I want to try and help others in that aspect. When I go into an area I will determine who the high-potential folks are, who are people who have an interest in moving up within the company and have the skills and such and reaching out to them. But in many instances once people get to know me and realize I’m there they reach out to me. But I specifically try to reach out to African-American employees and assist them with their careers whether they’re executive potential, manager potential or just administrative assistants. I mean I just try to help people when I can and have been pretty successful from that aspect.

Examiner: Is there anyone you would credit with helping you on your way up the corporate ladder?

Peterson: One person that really was influential for me was Roy Roberts, who was VP for Pontiac and GMC. I worked really closely with Roy when I was heading up the minority dealer program. He was over our area and he was very helpful in helping me navigate the board presentations that we had to make and working with the corporate world because being relatively new to that level of the business you needed someone and Roy was very instrumental. I stay in touch with him today even though he’s retired.

Dallas Examiner, 11/11/10 - “Crisis in Dallas plagues youth, young adults”

Because it has been almost three decades since the AIDS pandemic first exploded into public consciousness, it may be hard for some to believe that there are still vast pockets of the country in which un- and under-treated people continue to suffer, and where public health experts and AIDS activists are not much closer to getting a handle on the problem than they were three decades ago.

Within Black communities, this doleful reality is becoming increasingly apparent, as people are alarmed to discover that Black women are the fastest-growing group of AIDS sufferers, representing 67 percent of all new HIV infections in the U.S. among women. Within Dallas County, there are currently 14,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, more than a third of whom are Black. Blacks are 48 percent of the newly-diagnosed (compared with 28 percent for whites and 23 percent for non-white Hispanics). 1 in 89 Black individuals in Dallas County are living with HIV/AIDS. *

And Dallas is no anomaly. Despite being just 13 percent of the U.S. population, African-Americans are 50 percent of all of those living with HIV.

Given the ways that the socioeconomic profile of the “typical” AIDS patient has evolved over time, experts everywhere are insisting on the need for new paradigms and, for Black communities especially, new urgency.

Dallas Examiner, 10/28/10 - “Dallas wet or dry: proposition 1 and 2 on the ballot”

Proposition 1, a controversial ballot initiative that, if passed, would open all of Dallas to retail beer and wine sales, couldn’t help laying bare some of the fault lines that have long defined political life in the city ‒ wet vs. 

dry, suburban vs. urban, Black vs. White, religious temperance vs. a secular commitment to the bottom line.

Both sides of the fight draw their ranks from concerned members of the community as well as more self-interested elements. Some city council members, such as Steve Salazar, worry that opening the dry areas of their districts to alcohol sales will lead them to resemble those portions that are already wet, complete with beer barns, higher crime, prostitution and blight. Others question the motives of those sponsoring the move, which include major retailers such as Costco and Kroger.

An organization called Keep the Dollars in Dallas is spearheading the initiative. According to its spokesman, Gary Huddleston, Dallas is losing sales tax revenue to the suburbs where buying alcohol is a less complicated ‒ and confusing ‒ undertaking. With its patchwork of wet and dry boundaries that overlay neighborhoods, people have to cross arbitrary boundaries in order to make purchases.

Dallas Examiner, 10/7/10 - “Working together to promote jobs, diversity”

It is relatively late in the game for both Democrats and the “professional left” who are trying to jolt the party into moving decisively on their central concerns. With many experts predicting the loss of one or both houses of Congress in the upcoming mid-term elections, Democratic strategists may be more preoccupied with minimizing losses than with charting bold new paths.

Opposed to this hunker-down mentality, and partly as a response to the high visibility of the “Tea Party” phenomenon over the past year, a number of progressive organizations joined forces to hold the “One Nation Working Together” march last Saturday  at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Billed by its organizers as a counterpoint to the anti-government pitch of the Tea Partiers, its line-up of speakers included a number of liberal stalwarts who argued forcefully for government intervention to create jobs, protect civil rights and promote fairness and justice.

“This march is very much in the tradition of the 1960’s marches,” said NAACP National President Benjamin T. Jealous. “It’s a march for jobs and justice. It’s a march that’s been organized by the civil rights community in concert with a broader range of faith, labor and student organizations. In that respect it’s really wider than the 1963 march or the 1995 (Million Man) march.”

Dallas Examiner, 9/23/10 - “City council votes to increase taxes”

The battle over the city budget came to a head over the past two weeks as city officials crossed swords over one big question: to tax or not to tax? Rejecting a tax hike would leave the city council with no choice but to cut funding to various programs in order to balance the budget.

The Sep. 15 straw vote on the budget saw the momentum swing away from Mayor Tom Leppert’s vow not to raise taxes to a modest tax increase designed to save essential city services from the budget ax. Then yesterday, in an 8 to 7 vote, the council finally decided on a budget that would raise property taxes by 4.91 cents per $100 of property value.

Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway, who delivered an impassioned speech during the Sep. 15 meeting in which he summoned images of the pot-holed streets that mark South Dallas, sees the shift as a win for the underserved neighborhoods of South Dallas, who tend to be most dependent on well-funded public services.

“I think that the [council members] who represent primarily the southern sector made a determination that raising taxes was the best thing for the folks that we represent,” said Caraway. “Who should be happy are the people who voted us to go down and speak on their behalf.”

Dallas Examiner, 9/9/10 - “Airport contracts divide city council”

The arcane world of airport concessions contracts has been laid bare, and for some what they see isn’t pretty.

After hours of sometimes heated discussion, a racially divided city council voted 8-7 against a proposal that would have given more than half of the concessions space in a renovated Love Field terminal to the airport's current vendors—without a competitive bid— for a term of up to 18 years.

To the surprise of some long-time council observers, the council overruled a recommendation by city staff to extend the contracts of Star Concessions and Hudson Retail Sales—two firms with ties to prominent Democrats, including State Rep. Helen Giddings and Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson—without a competitive bid.

The essence of the city staff recommendation, that the no-bid contracts would be appropriate given the incumbents’ experience, the desirability of minimizing disruptions during the renovation, and the business risks taken by the incumbents—which included significant capital investments—during a period of uncertainty following the 9/11 terror attacks, ultimately failed to carry the argument.

Dallas Examiner, 8/19/10 - “President speaks on a brighter future”

Before a mostly adoring crowd of about 3500 at the University of Texas at Austin, President Barack Obama gave a short, spirited address that touted his administration’s commitment to education and to addressing the most common travails faced by college students. Burnt orange festooned the auditorium at Gregory Gym as the President took the opportunity to show off his unique touch with one of his core constituencies—young people.

“When I look at the faces of America’s young men and women, I see America’s future,” the President said at one point during the speech. “And it reaffirms my sense my hope, it reaffirms my sense of possibility, it reaffirms my belief that we will emerge from this storm, and we will find brighter days ahead.”

The President opened with a friendly anecdote about a stop in Austin during the ’08 Presidential campaign, then dropped the names of a number of local luminaries, including Congressman Lloyd Doggett, state senator Kirk Watson, and Mayor Lee Leffingwell, who were among the attendees.

Dallas Examiner, 8/12/10 - “Marcus Graham project bridges corporate gap”

The Marcus Graham Project hopes to kill two birds with one stone. First, it hopes to connect promising young African-Americans with opportunities in the fields of advertising and marketing that would otherwise be out of reach. Second, the organization, through its partnerships with major corporations such as AT&T, tries to function as a bridge between corporate America and underserved communities.

Named for the ultra-suave advertising exec portrayed by Eddie Murphy in the 1992 film Boomerang, Marcus Graham is the brainchild of Lincoln Stephens, a former employee of TracyLocke, a Dallas ad agency. Stephens credits a former professor with implanting the idea for an organization that works to foster networks of diverse professionals.

“I noticed that there was an underrepresentation of African-Americans at [my] agency, and specifically African-American males, working in roles outside of the mailroom and accounting and that type of thing,” Stephens said. “As I progressed further in my career, and started reading more about the inner-workings of the industry and so forth, I recognized that diversity was a problem.”

“When I got here, I didn’t really know what to expect,” said intern Chike Onourah of his summer with the Marcus Graham Project. “I think the main difference here is that it’s a very sink-or-swim environment—you basically have to learn a lot of things through trial and error, and honestly that’s a good way to learn for me because it teaches you to think on your feet.”

Dallas Examiner, 7/15/10 - “TSU Academy gives students second chance”

“These young people need an opportunity to become educated and earn their degrees,” says Dr. Betty Cox, tenured professor in the Department of Sociology at Texas Southern University, reflecting upon her inaugural year as director of TSU’s newly-launched Summer Academy program for high school students.

The program is one university’s answer to the challenge presented by underprepared yet eager students, and it’s also one veteran teacher’s platform for putting into practice everything she’s learned about getting through to young minds.

 “As I told [the students] this morning, ‘We don’t want you to stay here for six years. We want you to get your work and get out of school in four years, not longer than five years’,” said Dr. Cox.

Divided into two sessions, Academy I and Academy II, students are immersed in a rigorous five weeks of academic and social preparation for life at TSU. Academy I was completed last week. Academy II has just begun and will run to mid-August.

Dallas Examiner, 5/6/10 -- “Whose history will Texas teach our children?”

The never-ending battle over historical memory has become a high-profile tableau in Texas. On May 21, the 15-member State Board of Education will be making its final vote on revised social studies standards that will largely determine what students will be taught about U.S. history—including such hotly contested issues as civil rights, the Great Society, anticommunism, and the separation of church and state—for the next 10 years. What has made this round of revisions a national story is the unabashed efforts of the seven-member bloc of Republicans on the Board to rewrite history with a decidedly conservative spin.

“[The proposed standards] serve a two-fold purpose,” said Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe. “One is to minimize Blacks and Latinos, their accomplishments, their efforts, even suggesting that the successes that minorities have had is a result of white benevolence rather than minority agitation.”

“The other part is that what they’re proposing would brainwash students. They’re adopting a curriculum that would teach individuals that the Republican philosophy is the proper philosophy in that they should become Republican.”

The NAACP has been one among a handful of organizations—others include LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens), the National Alliance for Education, and the American G.I. Forum—fighting a rear guard action against the impending changes through impassioned testimony at Board hearings and efforts to mobilize their members statewide.

Dallas Examiner, 4/1/10 - “When I Rise: The compelling film of Barbara Smith Conrad”

Of the many things opera divas are known for—mercurial temper, exacting discipline, brittle performance standards—vigorously challenging social mores is not one of them. But for star mezzo soprano Barbara Smith Conrad, whose formative experiences as a singer intersected with the bracing, painful and ultimately liberating ways of the racial conflicts of the mid-twentieth century, prying open closed minds wasn’t just necessary in order to open doors, it was the predicate of her own artistic coming of age.

Conrad, born in 1940, is the subject of the documentary film When I Rise: The Story of Barbara Smith Conrad, which premiered in Austin at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival. The film documents her humble Northeast Texas origins, unlikely casting opposite a white male classmate in a UT production of the opera Dido and Aeneas and triumphant emergence on the other side of the controversy that ensued, one that went all the way up to the Texas legislature.

“The idea of just singing in my first opera was pretty thrilling,“ Conrad said from her home in New York City. “I auditioned, and went to class the next morning, and people stood up and started clapping … and I discovered very quickly that I had been chosen for that role.”

About Dido and Aeneas, Conrad said, “It was such a shock. One day you’re just a student, excited about doing your first opera and whatever else you’re trying to get through and learn, and suddenly you’re this … this figure. That Barbara Smith.”

Dallas Examiner, 3/18/10 - “A helping hand: Preventing foreclosures”

If there is a silver lining in this economic downturn, it’s the possibility that it might ferment new activism, as well as a new openness to bottom-up solutions during a time of what many perceive as a lack of leadership at the top.

Last month on Feb. 15, the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. brought together a broad assortment of religious, business and community leaders to the Hilton Anatole in Dallas to discuss possible responses to the foreclosure crisis, now entering its third year. The event brought new attention to the continuing economic woes being felt by many in the greater Dallas area, but also went further by spotlighting the crisis’ roots in the failure of powerful economic and political actors—Wall Street, banks, the Fed, both political parties—to effectively stem the tide.

Eight days later, the Rev. Jackson, through his Rainbow/PUSH coalition, led a national rally against Bank of America, who he identifies as one of the main culprits in the crisis. “The problem was that when the money went to the banks, the money was not, basically, held accountable for them to put on the lending side. They actually put the money on the trading side,” said Winsor Barbee, a Dallas spokesman for Rev. Jackson.

Dallas Examiner, 2/18/10 - "Terri Hodge Found Guilty in Corruption Probe

Three months after former Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill’s conviction for corruption, the sweeping FBI investigation has claimed another prominent victim: longtime state representative Terri Hodge. Charged with taking money from developers in exchange for helping them get lucrative tax credits, Hodge pleaded guilty to a lesser count of income tax fraud.

While it may be difficult to resist the temptation to situate her story within the all-too-familiar framework of political scandal, it’s worth remembering that, for many in District 100, Terri Hodge was a well-regarded representative for one of the most economically and socially stressed districts in the city.

“We voted for her, and campaigned for her,” said District 100 resident Mary Malone, “and I guess if there’s a good side and a bad side, the good side is what we all knew about.”

Malone, a district resident for four decades and president of the Las Casas Neighborhood Association, paints a picture of a concerned, active state rep who attended neighborhood barbecues, fussed over her constituents’ needs, and even saw to it that Malone’s dog was awarded a commendation for his involvement in foiling a burglary.

“It was little things like that that touched your heart,” said Malone. “It was the caring that we knew about Terri Hodge.”

Dallas Examiner, 11/5/09 - “We Examine: Interview with Craig Watkins”

Intro: The Dallas Examiner’s exclusive feature We Examine, looks at the career of Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins.

DE: In your short two years in office, you have not only become a Texas public figure, you have gained national notoriety. Are you surprised by the amount of media attention you have received? Do you think it is tied to the fact that you are the first African American district attorney in a state not known for racial advancements?

Watkins: I think initially it wouldn’t have surprised me that we would have gotten this attention for a short time because of the fact I’m African American. But after almost three years, the fact that we’re still on the national radar screen is a bit surprising to me. But I think it’s a result of the progressive policies we’ve put in place, especially dealing with the wrongfully convicted, which tends to cause the national folks to continue to pay attention. It is a bit surprising, but I’m grateful for it because it gives us the opportunity to spread the word on how law enforcement should be dispensed and the hope is that other agencies throughout the country will take note and do the same thing.

Dallas Examiner , 10/29/09 - “Rebuilding community’s trust”

On Nov. 3, parents, teachers and concerned citizens of DISD District 9, encompassing South Dallas and parts of downtown, will be electing a new trustee to replace the outgoing Ron Price. For Price, it’s the end of a long and at times controversial tenure representing a challenging district. For the board as a whole, the election comes at the end of a tumultuous year of budget crises, mass layoffs, and a controversial attempt—ultimately aborted—to extend the terms of three of the Trustees (including Price).

The campaign, a spirited contest among four would-be newcomers to elected office, has succeeded at bringing to the forefront issues of transparency and accountability (for Trustees as much as teachers, parents and students) that weigh heavily on the minds of those with a stake in the city’s schools. The candidates, financial consultant Rossi Walter, educator and consultant Sally Cain, longtime school community liaison Bernadette Nutall, and retired DISD administrator Juanita Wallace, differ dramatically in terms of their styles and backgrounds, yet each of them pitch their candidacies as offering voters a chance to return to the basics of leadership and attending to the needs of Dallas’ schoolchildren.

“The thing that’s most important to me is community involvement,” says Rossi Walter. “As a district, we have to take advantage of the resources that our communities represent—that is, the individuals, the businesses, [and] people who would donate their time and expertise, number one, if they believe that public education works and, number two, if we ask them to.”

Walter says that his campaign has been hobbled by his failure to win the endorsement of Alliance/AFT, who endorsed his previous bid in 2003. As a result, Walter must struggle to get his message across with a campaign that’s understaffed and underfunded. “I had endorsements last time,” says Walter. “Alliance/AFT was a big supporter, [but] they endorsed someone else (Nutall) this time around. A lot of things that they tackled before now depend upon me and the few volunteers that I have.”

Dallas Examiner, 10/8/09 - “The Jury Has Spoken”

It’s being called the most stunning political fall from grace in the city’s history. On Monday, August 5, the corruption trial of former Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill ended with a guilty verdict. The decision has left many political observers thunderstruck, and has raised fundamental questions about the way business gets done in City Hall—in particular, the power wielded by city council members over development projects in their districts. The verdict has also left in its wake much anguished speculation about the fate of some of the important issues that Hill championed, among them the idea of minority participation in city projects. For the cynical, there remains the question of whether Hill was singled out because of his politics or race. For everyone, there persists the question of how to undo the damage.

Found guilty on 8 of 9 counts in the case, and facing years in prison, Hill continues to deny that there was any corrupt intent in any of the actions he took while on the city council.

“We were very confident not only about our case and how it was presented,” says Hill, “but we were also confident in our own innocence, and that justice and truth, when pressed down, would rise up and the jury would see that.”

Upon speaking with Hill, it immediately becomes clear that he foresaw a different outcome. “It’s been very painful. It feels like a kick in the gut. The truth is, we didn’t expect that [verdict] at all. We didn’t plan on it, we didn’t think about it.”