The New Jim Crow & Black Buying Power – Ramifications For Some Industries

Study: Black Buying Power Increased Dramatically

For a list of things going right in the black community – never ask a black conservative “buckdancer” – or a conservative period.

(Buckdancing is a real art form, BTW – which along with “clogging” is a dance style to bluegrass and old-style country music. It evolved from a combination of  “clogging”, a European style –  early African American dance, and traditional Cherokee dance, principally in the Appalachians. This is the  national champion buckdancer, Thomas Maupin doing some freestyle Buckdancing. I think you will agree. Thomas has some serious moves.)

And yeah, I put that in there just to irritate the hell out of the closed-minded set.

These studies support a dramatic increase in economic power, and significant progress across the educational front in the black community. The black population also seems to be growing faster than some previous studies have indicated.

The “African-Americans Revealed” study, based on a BET survey of 80,000 black consumers over 18 months, showed a 10 percent increase in America’s black population between 2000 and 2008 and 55 percent increase in black buying power over the same period.

According to the survey, black buying power is estimated now at about $913 billion and is projected to increase to $1.2 trillion by 2013.

A similar study released in November by the Selig Center at the University of Georgia estimated that black buying power would be about $1.1 trillion by 2014, with current spending power for blacks at about $910 billion…

These numbers look about 20-30% low, actually – compared to more detailed studies I’ve seen. One of a number of issues in calculating the black contribution to the US economy is in defining who exactly is black, and what exactly is black enterprise. As the line between black, white, and multiracial becomes fuzzier – I would anticipate calculations of this sort become more difficult and are subject to a higher margin of error.

Blacks spend a large part of their disposable income – $39 billion – on computers, cell phones and other electronics, the survey showed. That’s about 31 percent of the available disposable income.

The survey also showed that blacks spend more time each week online than they do watching television.

According to the study, blacks spend about 18 hours each week online, compared with 15 hours watching television.

It would seem that the feared “Digital Divide” during the 90’s has largely disappeared. What is interesting is the migration towards the Internet as a source of information and entertainment. According to Nielsen, the average US consumer watches TV about 38 hours a week, and only uses the internet about 8 hours a week. Unless the brothers are out there watching porn. or playing online games – this has some pretty interesting ramifications relative to literacy and educational levels.

Nielsen May 2009 Viewership Numbers for Americans

Last but not least, belieing the “black folks is ignorant” crisis fawned by black conservatives and Chicken Littles…

“African Americans Revealed” predicted there will be 42 million blacks in the United States, which would be a 13.4 percent increase over the 2000 Census. The total population growth for the nation in the upcoming Census is projected to be 9.8 percent.

Researchers at the University of Georgia who compiled the separate buying power study in November said the gains in black buying power reflect much more than just population growth and inflation.

“Of the many diverse supporting forces, one of the most important is the increasing number of blacks who are starting and expanding their own businesses,” Georgia researchers said.

The fact that blacks are getting more education and better access to higher salaries also is boosting buying power. The percentage of blacks who have completed high school or college increased has increased from 66.2 percent in 1990 to 83 percent in 2008, according to Census data cited in the report from the Selig Center.

Doggone them black folks! Give them a chance …

And they’ll go an try and improve themselves!

Now – there are some interesting implications to black American buying habits in terms of their importance to certain industries.  Just about none of the infrastructure behind supplying those consumer electronic products and communications devices is in black hands. Another infamous SCOTUS 5-4 decision by the “fab” five put the kabosh to that with Adorand v Pena.

So if the Democrats are really going to go to war with the SCUMMUS 5 over their recent sell out of Democracy…

Maybe it’s time to review all of those 5-4 decisions.

 

The Real SOTU

Enjoy!

 

Miss America – A Virginia Gal!

The new Miss America hails from Virginia, guys. Eat your hearts out!

Caressa Cameron, a Fredericksburg native, currently enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth in Richmond took the title last night –

Miss America - Caressa Cameron

Caressa Cameron, formerly Miss Virginia, wins Miss America 2010 title

A 22-year-old woman who represented Virginia was named the winner Saturday night in the 2010 Miss America pageant.

At the competition, held in Las Vegas, Caressa Cameron of Fredericksburg, a Virginia Commonwealth University communications major, won one of the oldest and most celebrated titles in American popular culture.

“Take away the TV, take away the video games, set some standards for our children!” she answered unhesitatingly in the interview portion of the contest, in which she was asked what to do about the epidemic of childhood obesity.

As winner of the pageant, which is in its 88th year, she is to receive a $50,000 scholarship.

Her talent was listed as singing, (vocal pop) and Saturday night she sang the “Dreamgirls” ballad “Listen.” Her platform was listed as AIDS education.

She went to Massaponax High School before VCU, and has been a dean’s list student. Her career ambition is to work as an anchor for a television news station, according to the site.

Jen Corey, 22, Miss D.C., was in the top 10. Cameron follows two other winners from Virginia, Nicole Johnson in 1999 and Kylene Barker in 1979.

And uhhhh… For the guys out there –

 

Starting Fresh – When the HR Rep Doesn’t Call

One of things you never will hear crossing a politicians lips when talking about unemployment – is the fact that the 10% unemployment numbers include 5 – 7  million of the unemployed are folks who have college degrees, and would be classified as white collar workers. This situation started shortly after the Dot Com bust, where previously highly paid professional people with significant skill sets were thrown out of work, or forced into underemployment by cascading companies.

During the Bushit Administration, these jobs were heavily “outsourced” to China and India. Another “brilliant” idea when you consider those 160,000 programmers in China attempting to Hack into Google, our military systems, and cripple our grids conducting 3 – 5 million attacks a day…

Were trained largely on corporate America’s dime.

Finding a Job by Starting a Business

Last year, more laid-off managers and executives grew tired of waiting for human resources departments to call them back. They took matters into their own hands by starting companies.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the outplacement firm, regularly keeps track of 3,000 high-level job seekers in a range of industries. Last year, 8.6 percent of these decided to take the start-up route, compared with 5.1 percent in 2008.

The biggest surge was in the third quarter. The hope is that this momentum “will carry into 2010, since new business development is considered critical to a sustainable recovery,” Challenger stated.

After seven years, only about a third of start-ups are still in business, according to a study in the Monthly Labor Review. Most of these companies fail within in the first few years. So in four years or so, it would be interesting to see how many of these entrepreneurs wish they had waited for that H.R. person to call back.

 

President Obama at Georgetown/Duke Basketball Game

President Obama and VP Joe Biden attended the Georgetown-Duke basketball game today in DC (Georgetown won).The Prez makes a pretty good commentator!

 

President Obama Opens A Can of Whoop Ass on Republicans – In Their House!

This had to hurt!

First the Speech –

And now the Q&A –

This was a real “Come to Jesus” meeting for conservatives.

“The whole thing basically went like [this],” Mike Madden wrote at Salon. “Republican asks obnoxious question rooted in Glenn Beck-ian talking points; Obama swats it away, makes the questioner look silly, and then smiles at the end. It got so bad, in fact, that Fox News cut away from the event before it was over.”

 

Blue Moon

A little something to enjoy Dinner by –

 

The War For Justice – Democrats Step Up

Since the 2000 (S)election where 5 Republican Judges illegitimately installed a Republican President, progressive discontent with the direction of the judiciary has grown.  Stung by decisions by a “Liberal” court during the Civil Rights era which ruled in favor of Civil Rights for Minorities and tore down much of the Jim Crow System, the conservative’s obsession with stacking the courts and the Judicial System reached fevered peaks. The result after three Republican Presidencies in the last 30 years has produced a Judicial nightmare where minorities have no hope of receiving justice or respect for their Civil Rights in courts dominated by conservative sycophants and conservative minority appointments whose singular qualification is to share skin color…

And to have the same respect for other minorities as a KKK Grand Wizard at a lynching.

Turning the Supreme Court Into a Political Toilet

The Supreme Court of the land, and it’s 5 member conservative majority has become a joke, not because of issues with strict constitutionalism or contructionalism – but their complete  and entirely a whore of the Republican Party even to the extent of bending and breaking their own strict constitutional standards.

Kickback?

President Obama finally got the “party” going at the SOTU, at the SCUMUS 5 decision to prostitute our Democracy to the highest bidder, whether that bidder be domestic or foreign.

Democrats Declare Rhetorical War on the Supreme Court

President Obama’s public undressing of the robed Supreme Court justices seated in front of him at the State of the Union address turned heads and drew rebukes from Republicans.

But his words were downright genteel compared with what’s been said on the Senate floor the past two days. Democrats on Capitol Hill accused conservative court members of deciding cases specifically to benefit the Republican Party.

 

Paul R. Jones – Collector and Patron of African American Art

Paul R. Jones

Paul R. Jones was one of the central figures in socializing an appreciation for, and collection of African-American created art. His collections and donations also helped raise the value of artworks produced by black artists and raise consciousness – helping artists become recognized, and raising commercial value. Unlike the robber-baron families whose donations formed the basis for a number of museums, Paul was never wealthy. He sought out talented artists and sponsored them, while working to raise interest and participation by major galleries in collection of works by African American artists. You can view part of Paul R. Jones’ collection here – at the University of Delaware.

Paul R. Jones, noted collector of African-American art, dies at 81 in Georgia

Paul R. Jones, a collector of African-American art who donated troves of works to universities in Delaware and Alabama, has died. He was 81.

Jones died in Atlanta on Tuesday after a brief illness, said University of Alabama spokeswoman Angie Estes. The university established an art collection in Jones’ name after receiving some 1,700 pieces valued at $5 million in 2008.

Despite humble beginnings in Alabama and never independently wealthy, Jones began buying pieces in the 1960s after noting African-American art was underrepresented in public galleries.

As the drawings, paintings, photographs, sculptures and other works grew into the hundreds, part of his collection was exhibited at the University of Delaware in 1993. He later made a gift of several hundred works to the school.

“My goal has been to incorporate African-American art into American art,” he told The Tuscaloosa News in 2008 when he made his donation to the University of Alabama with a plan for it to be part of the curriculum.

He embraced the school even though he was turned down by the University of Alabama Law School in 1949 after it discovered he was black.

Born in Bessemer, Ala., in the central part of the state, he was raised in the Muscoda Mining Camp of an iron and steel corporation. Jones attended historically black Alabama State University in Montgomery and finished his education at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Described as a civil rights activist, he worked with an interracial community group in Birmingham, Ala., and held jobs with the federal government for 15 years before becoming deputy director of the Peace Corps based in Thailand.

When his collection grew into the hundreds, he decided it should be used for educational purposes.

“I knew I could sell the collection at its appreciated price, and get myself a chauffeur, a cook, a maid, and travel the world,” he was quoted on a University of Delaware Web site devoted to his collection. “But, I realized I wanted to do something with my collection that would have a lasting impact, both in my lifetime and beyond.”

 

On Intelligent Black Folks

Hat Tip to NewsOne

This one by RK Byers which poses an interesting question –

Do Intelligent Black People Have A Harder Time?

James Baldwin once wrote, “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.” Now imagine being a particularly intelligent ‘Negro’ (and some of you don’t have to imagine.) You’d pick up on every racist slight and you’d catch every joke that was intended to go over your head. You’d be, in a sense, a living piñata, being beaten by people who never even realized that you were alive.

You, the intelligent Black, would seemingly have two options—both of them bad.

1. You could try to prove your intelligence to white people. This sucks for two reasons: the first is that it presupposes that every white person has an intellect that is worthy of your proving equal to. Second, it puts whites in the position of using their respect for your intellect as a sort of ‘carrot on a stick’ whereas no matter how smart you prove yourself, you could never possibly be smart enough.
2. You could take the Lincoln Perry route, disguise your intelligence, rename yourself something like Stepin Fetchit, and make money giving the stereotype believers what they want. Perry, a literate, thoughtful, educated and intelligent man, played a complete buffoon onscreen and made millions. That route’s gonna take a toll on your soul, though. Look what it did to Stepin Fetchit.

So what’s the deal smart black folks?

 

Howard Zinn – Historian, Passes

Howard Zinn, Historian, Dies at 87

Howard Zinn, historian and shipyard worker, civil rights activist and World War II bombardier, and author of “A People’s History of the United States,” a best seller that inspired a generation of high school and college students to rethink American history, died Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 87 and lived in Auburndale, Mass.

The cause was a heart attack, which he had while swimming, his family said.

Proudly, unabashedly radical, with a mop of white hair and bushy eyebrows and an impish smile, Mr. Zinn, who retired from the history faculty at Boston University two decades ago, delighted in debating ideological foes, not the least his own college president, and in lancing what he considered platitudes, not the least that American history was a heroic march toward democracy.

Almost an oddity at first, with a printing of just 4,000 in 1980, “A People’s History of the United States” has sold nearly two million copies. To describe it as a revisionist account is to risk understatement. A conventional historical account held no allure; he concentrated on what he saw as the genocidal depredations of Christopher Columbus, the blood lust of Theodore Roosevelt and the racial failings of Abraham Lincoln. He also shined an insistent light on the revolutionary struggles of impoverished farmers, feminists, laborers and resisters of slavery and war.

Such stories are more often recounted in textbooks today; they were not at the time.

“Our nation had gone through an awful lot — the Vietnam War, civil rights, Watergate — yet the textbooks offered the same fundamental nationalist glorification of country,” Mr. Zinn recalled in a recent interview with The New York Times. “I got the sense that people were hungry for a different, more honest take.”

 

“Jindalized” – Another Political Suicide

Last night on the Republican response to the President’s SOTU, shiny new Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell followed in the footsteps of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal…

In committing political suicide.

The amount of personal hubris to be stupid enough to make this speech, while still trying to consolidate leadership in Virginia – is incredible.

Predictably – President Obama cut McDonnell’s nuts off – before he said the first word. There has never been an instance in my memory of an opposing party speaker being so massively outclassed, out maneuvered, and out smarted. Mcdonnell’s speech was rendered utterly and completely superfluous.

McDonnell stated last night that he wanted Vriginia to “be the first state to drill offshore on the Eastern seaboard”.

As a property owner on the Atlantic coast, participant in efforts to protect the barrier islands and wetlands on the Virginia coast, and avid fisherman…

Fat effing chance, Bozo!

You better stick with “privatizing” the state liquor stores and figuring out how to come up with a Republican plan to actually support small business development (beyond local liquor stores) in the state for the first time…

Instead of sucking Oil Company fat weenie.

 

Obama to Yellowcrats – “Govern”

One of the most frustrating things about the Dem majority in Congress is their continued tendency to chicken out each and every time the Republicans raise and objection or the Right-wing noise machine cranks up the static.

Democrats have failed over the last year by waffling, with predictable electoral results.

To those Democrats who have demonstated the lack of cajones…

Grow a pair!

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The Post-Racial SOTU

Matthews lays out an interesting dynamic of President Obama’s SOTU Speech last night. Opposition to this Presidency has far too often been based on race – not politics. That isn’t only the slack-jawed inbred Republican Tea Bagger sort – but doubts some white Americans have about this black guy with a funny name, who doesn’t look like Joe next door. It is the second sort of “not quite racism” which leaves the door open for the Drugbos, Becks, and Sno’ Ho’s to spew their vile racist filth.

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ACORN Fake Pimp Becomes Radioactive to Republicans

Tapping, or tampering with a Congressman or Senator’s phones is a Federal Crime. A Felony punishable by 10 Years in prison and a $250,000 fine. There  is ample precedent for this going back to the days before cellular phone service was encrypted and digitized, where a couple managed to overhear and record a conversation by then House Speaker “Neut” Gingrich. The couple were fined $5,000.00 each – not because they were able to overhear the conversation (which was legal) – but because they recorded it.

Entering, or attempting to gain entry to a Federal Building with a false identification is also a Felony.  Making the actions of O’Keefe and his accomplices even more serious. Of course, one of the co-conspirators, Robert Flanagan’s,  father is the acting US District Attorney (Bill Flanagan) for Western Louisiana – so these white boy criminals will likely get “special justice” – walking away with a hand slap instead of prison time.

But it could be “Hard Out There for a Pimp”, having to spend time in a real prison, with real pimps…

Today, Republicans are running away from O’Keefe.

• O’Keefe was supposed to be the keynote speaker at a Salt Lake County GOP fundraiser on Feb. 4. But county GOP Chairman Thomas Wright told the Salt Lake Tribune: “We’ll be announcing a new speaker shortly.”
• Rep. Pete Olson, R-Tex., is on the defense for introducing a resolution honoring O’Keefe for exposing ACORN. He told the Hill that he doesn’t condone unlawful behavior, as On Deadline reported this morning. There were 31 cosponsors on that resolution, so you can expect Democratic challengers to use that resolution against their GOP opponents in this fall’s midterm elections.  Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., is identified here as a cosponsor of that resolution.