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National Coalition on Black Civic Participation Louisiana Unity Coalition Statement on Shirley Sherrod
07/23/10 09:13 , Categories: Everything Rebuild Hope NOW
Thursday, July 22, 2010
National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
Louisiana Unity Coalition, NCBCP
NCBCP Sponsors
Unity Diaspora Campaign
NAACP Legal Defense Fund
National Council of Negro Women
National Urban League Celebrating 100 Years
Black Youth Vote
Our Voices!
Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus
Serving as a united public voice for the African American population in Louisiana.
The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Inc. was founded in 1976 on the principle of the yet unfulfilled realization of a full democracy. Building upon its rich history and strong relationships, the National Coalition serves as an effective facilitator and convener at the local, state and national levels. For more than 29 years, the National Coalition, through its 80 member organizations, has proven itself uniquely qualified to address the disenfranchisement of African American voters.
Melanie Campbell, CEO and Executive Director
Melanie L. Campbell is the CEO and Executive Director of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Convener of the Black Womens Roundtable Intergenerational Public Policy Network. Ms. Campbell has served in the civil rights, social justice, youth and womens rights movement for over 20 years. Melanie L. Campbell is the CEO and Executive Director of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Convener of the Black Women's Roundtable Intergenerational Public Policy Network. Ms. Campbell has served in the civil rights, social justice, youth and women's rights movement for over 20 years.
For more information, please visit our website at: www.ncbcp.org and www.unitydiasporacoalition.net.
NATIONAL COALITION ON BLACK CIVIC PARTICIPATION COMMENT ON SHIRLEY SHERROD
Shirley Sherrod, the former Georgia State Director of Rural Development for the USDA Melanie L. Campbell, president & CEO of The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation issued the following statement regarding the resignation of Ms. Shirley Sherrod, former Georgia State Director for Rural Development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture:
"We've come a long way in America as it pertains to race relations. However, when an upstanding woman that has excelled throughout her long career is forced to resign before the facts are revealed, in an effort to be politically correct; it's time to examine where our journey to justice and equality has lead us.
"Taking into account the fact that her father was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan, Ms. Shirley Sherrod's story of her own personal growth and racial transformation epitomizes the change many of us hope for in America and have worked for over the years.
"As an African American woman in leadership, I have to wonder if a man would have been humiliated and asked to pull over to the side of the road to text a resignation without the opportunity to tell HIS side of the story.
"The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation calls on the USDA to make every effort to right this egregious wrong by offering Ms. Sherrod her job back, and making her feel secure that she will suffer no further repercussions due to their rush to judgment.
"Ms. Sherrod deserves an apology from USDA, the media, and every individual and organization that reported the story or publicly admonished her without a thorough investigation of the facts. A fast food worker would have received more respect and due diligence.
"The lesson here is that we need to get back to the days when professionals strived to be legally and morally correct rather than politically correct; and took the time to be right instead of first."
The lesson here is that if we strive to be legally and morally correct rather than politically correct, and take the time to be right instead of first, we will not taint the reputation of a reputable woman based on comments taken out of context with the intent to incite racial discord.
NCBCP President & CEO Melanie Campbell A 501(c) 3, non-profit, nonpartisan, membership organization, the National Coalition is dedicated to increasing African American participation in civil society. The current programs and initiatives of the organization include Operation Big Vote!, Black Youth Vote!, Black Women's Roundtable, Voices of the Electorate, Information Resource Center and the Unity Civic Engagement and Voter Empowerment Campaign. Through these program initiatives, the National Coalition has trained and engaged African American leaders and community activists in overcoming institutional barriers that have hindered the growth of Black communities politically, socially and economically.
MISSION: The mission of the National Coalition is to create an enlightened community by building institutional capacity that provides and develops leadership. By educating, motivating, organizing, and mobilizing citizens in the African American community, the National Coalition seeks to encourage full participation in a barrier-free democratic process. Through educational programs and leadership training, the coalition works to expand, strengthen, and empower our communities to make voting and civic participation a cultural responsibility and tradition.
VISION: The National Coalition envisions a nation in which all citizens from children to seniors, have the tools to participate fully in the democratic process at the local, state, national and global levels. By continuing to lead the fight to eliminate remaining barriers to civic participation, the National Coalition will promote greater social and economic justice to enhance the quality of African American life.
The NCBCP is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization. All contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. NCBCP Federal Tax ID#52-1253112
“The National Coalition continues to stand in the gap providing a necessary link between communities at the national, state and local levels,” states Dr. Dorothy I. Height, Chair and President Emerita. “ReBuild Hope NOW is simply an extension of the mission of the NCBCP and serves as a life line of resources for thousands who have been separated from the comforts of home, family and community.
LET'S REBUILD HOPE NOW
Vincent Sylvain
Louisiana Unity Coalition, NCBCP
email: vincent@sylvainsolutions.com
phone: (202) 659-4929
web: http://www.rebuildhopenow.net
NABJ Statement on News Organizations Covering Shirley Sherrod
07/22/10 19:20 , Categories: Everything National Association of Black Journalists
Statement from the National Association of Black Journalists on the Reaction of News Organizations Covering Shirley Sherrod
WASHINGON, DC, (July 22, 2010)-Today, the National Association of Black Journalists issued the following statement in response to the reaction of media organizations covering former U.S. Department of Agriculture staffer Shirley Sherrod:
The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) is dismayed by the profound failure of media organizations in their rush to report on the allegedly racist remarks of former U.S. Department of Agriculture staffer Shirley Sherrod.
Because of the activist propaganda of conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart and the subsequent lack of due diligence on the part of pundits on the FOX News Channel and others to verify the authenticity of a tape with Sherrod's remarks on race, this veteran public servant was unjustly castigated and convicted as an unrepentant racist in the court of public opinion.
We expect better, and so do the millions of readers and viewers who rely on news organizations for accuracy before airing or publishing any material, especially those with potential negative consequences. This didn't happen and, as a result, Sherrod's decades-long reputation as a champion of equity and justice was tarnished in mere hours. The swift, decisive echo chamber of bad judgment from all involved, from cable networks to the White House, should be a lesson learned for us all.
To be sure, the 24/7 news cycle now requires all of us to sometimes move at a dizzying pace to report news, even when the circumstances are still developing. But those demands do not negate our responsibility as a public trust to get it right, each and every time.
Breitbart and those who went with the tape's content without first checking its authenticity owe Sherrod - and America - an apology for creating yet another sad chapter in the long history of the explosive mix of media, race and politics in this country.
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An advocacy group established in 1975 in Washington, D.C., NABJ is the largest organization of journalists of color in the nation, with nearly 3,000 members, and provides educational, career development and support to black journalists worldwide.
James Hannaham's God Says No
07/16/10 08:16 , Categories: Everything A 19 year old Black student at a Christian college in Florida falls in love with his roommate, but both of them are men. To cure himself, he has sex with a woman on campus, but in that one sexual encounter, she becomes pregnant. And she is Samoan. They marry. Overweight and in need of money, he gets a job. At a snack company. Hungry, he wanders into a Waffle House. While he eats, a man watches him from another table, and then goes to the bathroom. He follows. As the man unzips his pants, he says yes. But this is the story: God Says No.
How does a married Christian fundamentalist of somewhat limited intelligence and absolutely no street savvy negotiate a deal with Jesus to save his own lust-filled soul? With dexterous development of his main character’s first adult homosexual encounter at the Waffle House, and subsequent other encounters that become compulsive in their increased regularity, debut novelist James Hannaham grapples with that daunting question. Using brilliant humor, clever prose, and page-turning first person narration, Hannaham explores the repressed homosexuality of a man so specific, yet so plain and nondescript, that he becomes an everyman - the closeted male so much like you and me that you’d pass by without even casting a glance his way and so never know the depth of the painful struggle he has with his own body. Scripture is black and white, but this protagonist is Gary Gray.
Hannaham manages to negotiate the lonely bathrooms and dark public parks of Middle America’s Gay America with agility and wit. God Says No is funny. A cousin of controversial silhouette artist Kara Walker, Hannaham explodes the absurdity of both social convention and flamboyance, Bible Belt dogma and art school abandon, the Red States and the Blue.
Hannaham joined Guggenheim winner and Big Machine author Victor LaValle to discuss “’Laughing at Myself in the Mirror’: Comedy in Black Literature” at the most recent literary salon hosted by RingShout: A Place for Black Literature, which was pod cast by the PEN American Center. Both authors know comedy is the brutal art, and Hannaham’s use of humor develops themes of crucifixion and obedient submission. Every character in God Says No expresses the absurd. Every character suffers.
Annie, Gary Gray’s Samoan wife, shares his fascination with amusement parks and his sincere belief that Mickey can make almost as much magic as Jesus. Their wedding takes place before the signs of their one-night sin begin to show on her body. At the back-yard reception, Gary’s “Great Uncle Linton showed his teeth and said, ‘Have Samoa’” at least a hundred times. Likewise, Gary’s mother wonders out loud if Annie really is part “Black and the other Chinese” with her tan skin and “with that flat nose.” Meanwhile, Reverend James Cleveland and Mahalia Jackson fill the space between their words with a master mix of righteousness and piety.
Annie suffers all this on her wedding day and more after her husband’s encounter at the local Waffle House… and another at a local department store, and another on a business trip, and another on another business trip… While her back is bent in the care of their baby girl, her husband’s knees bend him into a prayer-like position to face and consume the pleasure and the sin of other (mostly white) men’s bodies.
God Says No is written in the first person, and the novel’s use of I is stunning. Inspired by the real-life personal narratives of gay men who attempt to rehabilitate themselves away from the homosexual lifestyle through Christian-based treatment, Hannaham never misses the all-important sincerity in Gary Gray’s quest for hetero-normative suburbia. Gray’s voice becomes a lamentation, a wail of Biblical proportions in its pliant longing for redemption and new life. Short-listed for a Lambda Award, God Says No is a brilliant debut sure to provoke sympathy, laughter, and, perhaps, introspection.
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