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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (July 13, 2011)
www . THeSkANNer . Com J uLy 13, 2011 S eATTLe , w ASHiNgToN V oLume XXXiii, N o . 37 25 CeNTS I nsIde Black Apprentice page 1 Calendar page 2 C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow Smart moveS Slavery row Dogs goP Romney, Pawlenty decide not to sign conservative pledge PHOTO BY JulIe keefe The skanner staff from wire reports Joey Thomas, former NFL player and current football coach at Ballard High School, demonstrates ways to avoid a defensive player during a football camp he hosted July 9th at Ballard High School. Black Families Struggle to Survive Black economic gains now reversed in Great Recession By Jesse washington aP national writer BalTIMORe (AP) Growing up black in the segregated 1960s, Deborah Goldring slept two to a bed, got evicted from apartment after apartment, and watched her stepfather climb utility poles to turn their discon- nected lights back on. Yet Goldring pulled herself out of poverty and earned a middle- class life — until the Great First, Goldring’s husband fell ill, and they drained savings to pay for nursing homes before he died. Then Goldring lost her executive assistant job in the Baltimore hospital where she had worked for 17 years. The cruelest blow was a letter from the bank, intending to foreclose on her home of almost three decades. Millions of Americans endured similar financial calamities in the recession. But for Goldring and many others in the black community, where unemployment has risen since the end of the recession, job loss IndeX News ........................2,4 Calendar ....................2 opinion .......................3 Bids/Classifieds............3 has knocked them out of the middle class and back into poverty. Some even see a his- toric reversal of hard-won eco- nomic gains that took black peo- ple decades to achieve. Goldring remembers her mother taping the window shades to the wall so no one could see them stealing electric- ity. She remembers each time she sat on the curb with her three brothers, surrounded by her family’s belongings, waiting for a new place to live. Sitting on those curbs, she promised to always pay her bills on time. Now, after finding herself poor again, “the only word I can say is devastated,” says Goldring, 58. “For me to live that life we were so comfortable in, we never had to worry about finances, we always had money where I can help my kids and my grandchildren — to go to calling my daughter to borrow $100 because I can’t pay a bill …” Goldring’s voice trails off as she struggles to hold back sT. Paul, Minn. (AP) — Republicans Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney have refused to sign a pledge written by a conser- vative Christian organization in Iowa that asks presidential candidates to denounce same-sex marriage rights, pornography and forms of Islamic law. Pawlenty is the second major Republican presidential candidate to say no to the Family Leader’s Marriage Vow, following former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s decision. Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman have also ruled it out. Two other Republicans, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum signed the document. Bachman and Santorum are under fire for signing the controversial pledge before it had been stripped of an introduction that claimed African Americans were better off under slavery. After Black ministers complained, the group removed the offending clause. Originally, “The Marriage Vow — A Declaration of Dependence upon Marriage and Family,” included these words: “Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the elec- tion of the USA’s first African-American President.” When the controversy broke, both Bachman and Santorum tried to repair the political damage. Alice Stewart, a spokesperson for Bachman said Sunday “In no uncertain terms, Congresswoman Bachmann believes that slavery was horri- ble and economic enslavement is also horri- ble.” see ReveRsed on page 2 see ROw on page 2 African-American “Apprentice” Speaks Dr. Randal Pinkett is the only Black Winner of Trump Show D r. Randal Pinkett has established himself as an entrepreneur, speaker, author and scholar, and as a leading voice for his generation in business and technology. He is the founder, chairman and CEO of his fifth venture, BCT Partners, a multimillion-dollar consulting firm head- quartered in Newark, NJ that provides orga- nizational development and capacity build- ing services to public and nonprofit sector organizations. He is also a partner in the Chicago-based joint venture, Blackwell- BCT Consulting Services, which specializes in management consulting and information technology solutions for the Federal gov- ernment and Fortune 500 corporations. Randal has received numerous awards for business and technology excellence includ- ing the Information Technology Senior Management Forum’s Beacon Award, the National Society of Black Engineers’ Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and the National Urban League’s Business Excellence Award. He has been featured on nationally televised programs such as the today Show, live with regis and Kelly, nightline and larry King live. In 2009, he was named to New Jersey Governor Jon see Places on page 4
