Volume I

Volume I. Issue XXIV.

Keeping Urban Professionals Informed

The full story behind Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s 9/11 sermon

Editor’s note: CNN Contributor Roland Martin has listened to several of the sermons of Rev. Jeremiah Wright from Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Portions of the sermons have been excerpted in recent stories.

As this whole sordid episode regarding the sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has played out over the last week, I wanted to understand what he ACTUALLY said in this speech. I’ve been saying all week on CNN that context is important, and I just wanted to know what the heck is going on.

I have now actually listened to the sermon Rev. Wright gave after September 11 titled, “The Day of Jerusalem’s Fall.” It was delivered on Sept. 16, 2001.

One of the most controversial statements in this sermon was when he mentioned “chickens coming home to roost.” He was actually quoting Edward Peck, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and deputy director of President Reagan’s terrorism task force, who was speaking on FOX News. That’s what he told the congregation.

To listen to the full sermon click here

He was quoting Peck as saying that America’s foreign policy has put the nation in peril “I heard Ambassador Peck on an interview yesterday did anybody else see or hear him? He was on FOX News, this is a white man, and he was upsetting the FOX News commentators to no end, he pointed out, a ... Read More Click Here

FOX ANCHORS ARGUE OVER OBAMA COVERAGE:

Chris Wallace takes a stand – live on the air – against hosts of 'Fox & Friends' for biased reports. *Hell officially froze over at the right-leaning Fox News Channel Friday when one of its anchors complained live on the air about the unfair and biased reporting of Sen. Barack Obama by his Fox colleagues.

It all started with Obama's speech on race last Tuesday, when he said his white grandmother had felt nervous passing black men on the street. On Thursday, while trying to clarify his remarks, he called his grandmother a “typical white person.”

The hosts of “Fox & Friends” jumped all over both comments Friday as they played his "typical white person" quote over and over again and questioned if Obama's remarks were offensive.

During the program's third hour, Chris Wallace of the weekend political talk show “Fox News Sunday” called out the “Fox & Friends” crew and complained that ...Read More Click Here

Can Blacks Benefit From the Mortgage Meltdown?
Kenneth Autrey, Fund Manager
BlackNews

Anthony Asadullah Samad The little known about, but very profitable mortgage trust deed investing is a corner of the market that KEADA Capital, a black owned business is educating more African Americans about. Not only is trust deed investing little known among Euro-Americans, but even less known among African American investors.
The average investor is primarily aware of large Wall Street brokerage firms that offer risky products like mutual funds, stocks, and bonds that are for the most part complicated to understand as well as frightening to venture into. These investments are always preempted with the disclosure of high risk in every portfolio. Where in trust deed investing is a type of investment that offers mortgage backed notes that secure the investor's funds.....Read More Click Here

Financial Meltdown
Black financial institutions bear economic burdens amid downturn
By Tamara E. Holmes Black Enterprise

March 20, 2008 -- With the Bear Stearns collapse underscoring the vulnerability of the nation's financial institutions, leaders of African American-owned companies are facing their own challenges. The tumultuous market and economy continue to impact black-owned organizations. The subprime mortgage crisis, financial downturn, and current credit crunch still weigh heavily on their portfolios and business operations. The action the Fed took earlier this week to stimulate the economy is likely to offer some relief to black asset management firms and investment banks, but it won't be immediate financial experts say. Some even wonder whether the Fed's action might be too little, too late, especially when it comes to smaller institutions.

Anthony Asadullah Samad John W. Rogers Jr."This economic downturn and this recession and the problems on Wall Street are impacting black entrepreneurs in a dramatic way," says John W. Rogers Jr., chairman and chief investment officer of Chicago-based Ariel Capital Management L.L.C. (No. 2 on the 2007 BE Asset Managers list with $16.1 billion in assets under management). "We're less capitalized, we have more debt on the balance sheet, and we don't have the depths of resources that the big guys do-so if the big guys are hurting, we smaller entrepreneurs are getting ... Read More Click Here

KILPATRICK PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO PERJURY:

Kilpatrick & Beatty Mayor and former Chief of Staff charged Monday with lying about their affair.

*Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that they lied under oath about having an affair.

Both parties appeared in separate hearings to answer the charges of perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office announced Monday by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. District Court Magistrate Steve Lockhart entered not guilty pleas for each of them before they were released on personal bonds.

Kilpatrick, 37, is..... Read More Click Here

SINBAD VS. HILLARY CLINTON II:
Senator responds to comic's recollection of Bosnia trip, which prompts a final from Sinbad – so he says.

Sinbad Sen. Hillary Clinton is brushing aside comments made earlier this month by comedian Sinbad, who claimed that their 1996 trip to Bosnia was not as violent as she described in two separate occasions on the campaign trail.

As previously reported, the Democratic presidential candidate was attempting to show up fellow candidate Barack Obama on foreign policy by talking about her "harrowing" trip to the war torn country, stating she "landed under sniper fire" and had to duck-and-run toward waiting vehicles.

Sinbad, who was also on the trip, told Washington Post blog The Sleuth that sniper fire was... Read More Click Here

Buy or Rent?
Figuring out the best options in today's real estate market
by Bridget McCrea

There comes a time in every growing company's life cycle when its leaders must step back and ask themselves: Should we own or rent our commercial real estate space? This moment of truth typically hits when companies are growing and looking for space either to accommodate new hires and equipment or to conquer new geographic territories.

There is no easy solution to the buy versus lease question. "A variety of factors pertinent to the individual business and the owner's objectives, as well as local market factors, must be taken into account before an informed decision can be made," says Michael Merino, vice president at the real estate brokerage of Norris, Beggs & Simpson in Portland, Oregon.

Merino tells companies to consider two key factors before choosing: 1) growth potential; and ... Read More Click Here

ABC WINS BIDDING WAR FOR NEXT DEM. DEBATE:
The next Obama/Clinton showdown to take place Apr. 16 in Pennsylvania.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton In the past month, ABC and NBC have been battling over rights to air the next debate between Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama.

After the two networks lobbied both campaigns, ABC won out and will televise the 90-minute debate on Wednesday, April 16 beginning at 8 p.m. EDT on the East Coast and tape-delayed at 8 p.m. PDT for the West Coast.

The faceoff will take place at the National Constitutional Center in Philadelphia six days before ... Read More Click

BEST BUY WAVES 'MAGIC' WAND OVER BLACK CONSUMERS:
Retail chain teams with Earvin Johnson to boost urban market presence.

Earvin 'Magic' Johnson BlackEnterprise.com is reporting that electronics retailer Best Buy Co. Inc. has entered a multiyear agreement with Magic Johnson Enterprises in hopes of boosting its curb appeal among urban consumers.

With the opening of more stores in racially and ethnically diverse locations, the Minneapolis-based chain hopes its partnership with MJE will help grow the business by better understanding the needs of local communities and how to connect with them more effectively, says Herschel Herndon, Best Buy’s vice president of multicultural relations.

Best Buy also hopes MJE can help enhance management’s “ability to .... Read More Click

UNION TO PROBE LACK OF OFFERS FOR BARRY BONDS:
Opening day is two weeks away and slugger is still unsigned.

As part of its annual review of the free agent market, the Baseball Players Association plans to examine the lack of offers to Barry Bonds, who remains a free agent less than two weeks before the new season is scheduled to begin.

"He's in playing shape right now. He just hasn't hit off live pitching," Bonds' agent, Jeff Borris, told the Associated Press. "I've had conversations with Barry. It would probably take him about two weeks to get ready."

Bonds, 43, was... Read More Click

KIMORA LEE TROUNCES TABLOID-TALK:
Fashion maven calls relationship and baby rumors pack of lies.

Kimora Lee Simmons took time out during Fashion Week in St. Louis to address the recent onslaught of tabloid rumors regarding her personal life. "I'm in the paper every single week - that I had a fight with my ex-husband, or that I was mad at one of his girlfriends, or that I'm pregnant, or that I demand Fiji water," she said Friday at Washington University in St. Louis. "Lies upon lies upon lies." Earlier this month, the New York Post's Page Six reported that Simmons, 32, and her new beau, actor Djimon Hounsou, 43, are expecting a baby.

Simmons, who was reportedly bump-free in a body-clinging salmon dress while addressing reporters, didn’t take direct questions about the pregnancy rumors, but said: ... Read More Click

Diddy Accuses LA Times of Falsely Linking Him to Tupac Shakur Shooting By SANDY COHEN
AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP)

Sean "Diddy" Combs has denied a report by the Los Angeles Times that his associates were responsible for the 1994 robbery and shooting of Tupac Shakur at a New York recording studio, and that he knew about the attack in advance.

"The story is a lie," the hip-hop mogul said in a statement Monday. "It is beyond ridiculous and completely false. Neither (the late rapper Notorious B.I.G.) nor I had any knowledge of any attack before, during or after it happened. ... I am shocked that the Los Angeles Times would be so irresponsible as to publish such a baseless and completely untrue story."... Read More Click

LEBRON JAMES CRITICIZED FOR VOGUE COVER:
ESPN columnist sees racist undertones in photograph with supermodel.

LeBron James had no idea that his Vogue cover with supermodel Gisele Bundchen was being criticized by a columnist and commentator for ESPN.

The Cleveland Cavaliers star is the third man – and first African American male - to grace the cover of the famous fashion magazine. But those historical achievements were lost on ESPN.com columnist Jemele Hill, who said the picture of LeBron and Giselle is just another case of "the black athlete being reduced to savage."

"LeBron has Gisele in one hand and a basketball in the other. LeBron is dressed in basketball gear, with his muscles flexing, tattoos showing and bared teeth. Gisele, on the other hand, is wearing a gorgeous slim-fitting dress, and smiling," she wrote in her Page 2 column on ESPN.com. "She looks like she's on her way to something fashionable and exciting. He looks like he's on his way to a pickup game for serial killers. ... Read More Click

Obama's Speech on Race:
Not Just Empty Words or Another 'Eloquent Speech.'
By Anthony Asadullah Samad

The nation grew a little bit last week, when Democratic Presidential Candidate, Barack Obama, give a speech on race unlike this nation has ever seen.

In the very week America thought it had discovered the bone in Obama's closet that would derail his run for the Presidency, Barack kicked down the door of the closet that holds America's worse skeletons, its race closet.

We all know race is a conversation America never wants to have, because it's a conversation they can never win. So the race closet, stacked to the top with 400 years of skeletons-from the Middle Passage through today's colorblind racism, is closely guarded by those who know and understand this vile and twisted history.

However, this time America started it by trying to radicalize Obama and racialize Obama's Minister, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Barack finished it by stating that if you really want to have a conversation about somebody's racial views-then let's talk about America's racial views, in it's totality.

It was substantive, and it was eloquent. Historians are equating it to the great watermark speeches in American history like Lincoln's ...Read More Click Here

THE JOURNAL OF STEFFANIE RIVERS:
A Difference Of Opinion

I remember the time my older cousin brought home his new white girlfriend to meet our grandmother. It was around 1982 in Knoxville, Tennessee. My grandmother was at least 70-years-old at the time – old enough to remember when inter-racial dating was socially unacceptable. My grandmother was the consummate hostess while company was present. But as soon as the coast was clear she spoke her mind. "That boy is gonna get hisself in trouble messin’ with that white girl. I wish he would go’on and find hisself a nice pretty black girl."

Experience had taught her a different lesson than her grandchildren might have known about the consequences of inter-racial dating. My grandmother’s points-of-view were based on her lifetime of experiences. Some I agreed with and some I didn’t. But no matter what she said or how she felt I loved her unconditionally because she (my mother and other family members) did for me when I couldn’t do...Read More Click Here

Would someone please write a handbook?span
"What Will and Won't Piss Black Folk Smooth the **** Off" ...that would be an international bestseller!

Anthony Asadullah Samad I'm black, and I'm pissed off most of the time, but I wouldn't leave home without the handbook. Not in these racist-ly confusing times. I can barely keep up with when I'm supposed to be disappointed as opposed to offended as opposed to being pissed smooth the **** off.

Talk to Whitlock

Right now I need to know where this LeBron James-Gisele Bundchen-Vogue-cover controversy falls. And just who am I supposed to be mad at, LeBron, the photographer, the editors at Vogue or Tom Brady?

Maybe they're all to blame. Maybe that's the point of this whole mess. Or maybe they're just as bewildered as I am.
According to the allegations, King James looks like King Kong clutching Fay Wray on the latest cover of Vogue, and the image, according to potential handbook writers, "conjures up this idea of a dangerous black man."...Read More Click Here

The Lies and Distortions of the 30-Second Sound Bite
By Gwen Richardson

Anthony Asadullah Samad Gwen Richardson Can an individual's entire life's work be encapsulated in a 30-second sound bite? Members of the media would apparently say "yes," but most rational, logical human beings would answer this question with a resounding "no."The reason is that the selective nature of a 30-second sound bite could either spotlight the positives or, in the case of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the negatives, and lead an observer to reach a conclusion that is completely devoid of reality. A sound bite could capture one's most devastating failures or one's most resounding triumphs. But media's lust for negativity, with their focus on crime, death and destruction, virtually guarantees that any person's successes will be overshadowed by their defeats.

That's why many people reached the following conclusions from the endless loop of negative video snippets regarding Wright: He is a hateful ...Read More Click Here