Opinion
A Shocking Observation on Blacks
“Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
B ERNIE F OSTER
Founder/Publisher
B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER
Executive Editor
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News Editor
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Reporters
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S USAN F RIED
Photographers
The Skanner Newspaper, established
in October 1975, is a weekly publica-
tion, published each Wednesday by
IMM Publications Inc.,
By James Clingman
NNPA Columnist
B LACKONOMICS
“A
James
Clingman
merica leads the
world in shocks.”
Those
immortal
words were spoken by the late Gil
Scott-Heron during the Nixon
“H2O Gate” era. Forty years later,
Black people lead the world in
shocks. We are shocked every
time a Black person gets killed or
abused by a police officer; we are
shocked at the absence of indict-
ments and convictions for those
acts; we are shocked that our gov-
ernment will only give these acts
lip-service; and we are shocked by
the endless rhetoric, excuse-mak-
ing, and rationales put forth as a
response to Black lives being
treated like they don’t matter.
We are so shocked that we con-
tinue to roll out the same old
tactics, chant the same phrases,
and make idle threats that we
know we will not fulfill. We are
shocked that society will not
change this endless parade to the
graveyard for Black men especial-
ly. We are also shocked at the rate
of our deaths and the nonchalant
attitudes of those who kill us. And
we are shocked by the fact that
even though these killings are
caught on cameras, there is still no
punishment for the perpetrator.
Rodney King’s butt-whuppin’
was caught on camera in 1992,
and so was Nathaniel Jones killing
in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2003. Heck,
White folks photographed the
lynching and burning of many
Blacks over 100 years ago. Why
are we so shocked now? I have
come to the conclusion that we
just like to be shocked. It’s like the
old tale of a boy constantly hitting
himself in the head with a ham-
mer. When asked why he did that,
he replied, “Because it feels so
good when I stop.”
Do we really want this lunacy,
this evil, this abuse to stop just so
the others I could name.
Let me try this again, after so
many years of saying the same
thing. The vast majority of the
problems Black people face in this
nation can be solved through the
utilization of economic power.
That’s what runs this country and,
therefore, that’s what gets desired
outcomes. The lack of economic
power results in a perverse weak-
ness and subordination of any
group of people. Thus, Black folks
are always shocked at our posi-
tion, our mistreatment, and our
dependency on the very political
entities that care very little, if at
all, about us. That’s backward and
wrong-headed thinking.
If Black folks in Baltimore or
We are also shocked at the rate of our
deaths and the nonchalant attitudes
of those who kill us
we can catch our breath for a little
while, and then return to business
as usual? One thing for sure is that
it will not stop simply because it
ought to, as folks always imply
when the news reporter poses the
question, “What you think about
the latest incident of police
abuse?” Inevitably, as was the case
in the latest abuse in Baltimore, a
sister said, “It’s got to stop.” Oth-
ers chimed in and said the same
thing, as was said in the case of
Eric Garner, John Crawford, Ezell
Ford, Oscar Grant, Michael
Brown, Tamir Rice, and many of
anywhere else want to be empow-
ered to the degree that politicians
finally move beyond merely say-
ing what they think we want to
hear, to doing what we need done
for our security and progress, we
must make drastic changes in our
behavior. Our reactions to all the
killings and beat-downs have been
so predictable, so much so that the
authorities know they just need to
wait us out for a while, like the
Eric Garner case, and we will go
away. They know the shock value
of their actions is impotent and
only temporary.
The Fraser Institute released an
article titled, “External shocks and
political parties’ attempts to ‘buy’
votes can affect levels of econom-
ic
freedom,”
that
noted,
“Economic freedom is one of the
main drivers of prosperity, result-
ing in improved wealth, health,
and education for individuals and
their families.” said Herbert
Grubel.
“…external shocks (think wars
and revolutions, economic depres-
sions or recessions) prompt the
public to gravitate to political par-
ties promising change and
dramatic new directions… Chang-
ing public views allow progressive
politicians to buy votes by creat-
ing a narrative that government is
better at looking after citizens than
citizens are at looking after them-
selves. That inevitably leads to
larger government, more regula-
tion, higher taxes, and crony
capitalism,” Grubel said.
Extrapolating from that article, I
would say that Black folks have
come to depend on politicians for
so long now that even when our
people are killed by police, we run
to them to solve the problem. It’s
not going to happen until we wield
power with our dollars and our
votes. The “external shock” neces-
sary to prompt political parties to
appropriately respond to our needs
must be felt by them rather than by
us. That shock must be one that
reverberates throughout the corpo-
rate board rooms, the halls of
Congress, and 1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue: No more business as
usual!
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Child Watch Clamoring to Enter Poor Door
M
ore than 88,000 people
have applied to enter the
“poor door” at a new
luxury condominium tower on the
Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Only one in 1,600 will win the lot-
tery to live there.
Some months ago a New York
developer made headlines with the
plans for this building, which
takes advantage of zoning rules
encouraging affordable housing
by including some low-priced
rental units along with the luxury
condos for sale. A separate
entrance for the people living in
the low-income apartments con-
tinues with segregated living
inside. Low-income tenants won’t
be allowed to use the pool, gym,
private theater, or any of the other
amenities reserved for the wealthy
owners.
Critics immediately pounced on
this design as a modern-day form
of Jim Crow. But the need for
affordable housing is so over-
whelming that when the deadline
came this month to participate in a
lottery for the spots behind the
“poor door,” tens of thousands
applied. Meanwhile, The New
York Times reports that most of the
219 luxury condos on the other
side of the building have sold,
some for more than $25 million.
The contrast between the haves
and have-nots might be especially
stark at that New York building,
but millions of families across the
country are finding themselves on
the wrong side of the poor door.
Page 2 The Portland and Seattle Skanner April 29, 2015
C HILD
W ATCH
Marian
Wright
Edelman
Housing is the single largest
expense for most families and for
far too many is growing increas-
ingly out of reach. The number of
families with worst-case housing
hungry because he’d made his
younger siblings something to eat
but there wasn’t enough food left
for him to eat, too. Through it all
Ayriq stayed committed to
excelling in school and winning an
academic scholarship to Ohio
State University. But even this
year, his senior year in high school
and on his way to college, he
found himself homeless again.
Ayriq says: “I don’t want to be
homeless again. I don’t want that
to be who I am.”
The Children’s Defense Fund
honored Ayriq with a scholarship
Because of funding limitations only
about 1 in 4 needy families with
children receives assistance
needs increased from 6 million in
2007 to 8.5 million in 2011,
including 3.2 million families with
children, and the number of home-
less public school students was 85
percent higher in 2012-2013 than
before the recession.
Ayriq Sims has been one of
those students. He and his siblings
spent their childhood bouncing
between unstable living arrange-
ments, extended stays at relatives’
homes, and homeless shelters.
Even when Ayriq’s family had
somewhere to stay, he remembers
all the times their lights and water
were turned off, or when he went
for overcoming tremendous odds.
Homelessness and housing insta-
bility can have serious, negative
consequences on children’s emo-
tional, cognitive, and physical
development, academic achieve-
ment, and success as adults.
Federal rental assistance, includ-
ing public housing and vouchers
for private rentals, helps about 5
million of the neediest low-
income households afford a place
to live. But because of funding
limitations only about 1 in 4 needy
families with children receives
assistance.
To add insult to injury, the
Republican House and Senate
budgets are proposing severe cuts
to already inadequate and desper-
ately needed housing subsidies.
The White House estimates that
compared to the president’s budg-
et proposal, the Republican House
budget would cut housing vouch-
ers for 133,000 families and
housing assistance for 20,000
rural families. This is on top of the
2013 sequestration cuts that led to
100,000 fewer families receiving
assistance by June 2014.
The Urban Institute found that
providing enough housing subsi-
dies to serve eligible families
would reduce child poverty by
20.8 percent and lift 2.3 million
children out of poverty. More than
2.5 million more households
would receive a subsidy, worth an
average of $9,435. We could easi-
ly pay for this housing subsidy
expansion by making fairer and
common sense reforms to close
corporate accounting tax loop-
holes, saving $58 billion a year. Or
if we had more responsible and
more just members of Congress on
both sides of the aisle, instead of
repealing the estate tax which
amounts to a $27 billion a year
giveaway to the 5,400 ultra-
wealthy estates worth over $5.4
million — in the top two-tenths of
1 percent — as the Senate and
House both voted to do, we could
invest the $24 billion a year need-
ed to ensure poor and near-poor
children a chance to grow up in a
stable place to call home.