Empowering Black America
By Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. NNPA Columnist Every March the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and its philanthropic arm, the NNPA Foundation, gather in Washington, D.C. for Black Press...
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Blackonomics: Black Capitalism—Fulfillment or Failure?
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist In light of what most of us know about the economy and where Black people fit, mostly as consumers rather than producers, a discussion of Black capitalism is in order....
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A ‘Sterling’ Example of Our Confusion
By Ron Busby, Sr. NNPA Columnist Let me get my disclaimer out of the way first. The U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. (USBC) is a business organization. Our sole purpose is to improve the lives of Black...
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Hip Hop Corner: Everything Donald Sterling Said wasn’t False
By Jineea Butler NNPA Columnist The NBA playoffs, the NFL draft, and elevator music with Jay Z and Beyonce are all distractions in the pursuit of occupying our attention. Among them, I found Donald...
View ArticleBlackonomics: Controlling the Money
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist “Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws.” – Mayer Amschel Rothschild I often wonder if most Black people in America really...
View ArticleBlackonomics: How Much are You Worth?
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist In a 2010 report titled, “Lifting as we Climb: Women of Color, Wealth, and America’s Future,” posted by Insight – Center for community and Economic Development, a...
View ArticleBlackonomics: Race to the Bottom
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist If you and your children were sitting at the dinner table, with no food and no prospects for getting any, what would you say to them and what would you do? Would you...
View ArticleBeyond the Rhetoric: Strengthening the Black Diaspora
By Harry C. Alford NNPA Columnist The idea hit me last week during the international panel at our 22nd annual conference in Chicago. Speaking on the panel were National Black Chamber of Commerce...
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Blackonomics: Can Reparations Make us Free?
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist A caller on the Carl Nelson Show (WOL 1450AM – Washington, D.C.), at least each time I have heard him, talks about reparations and freedom. He called again when I was...
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Hip Hop Corner: Putting on my Harriet Tubman Shoes
By Jineea Butler NNPA Columnist In light of all the racism mounting up around us I put myself in Harriet Tubman’s shoes. Her mind had to be ready for war. What made her believe she could be free? Where...
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Blackonomics: Everyone Needs to Vote
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist This is a call for all eligible Black folks to register and vote in every election from now until eternity, so we can stop the rallies, marches, and demonstrations...
View ArticleBeyond the Rhetoric: Africa Back on the Radar
By Harry C. Alford NNPA Columnist Finally, President Obama extended an invitation to African nations to participate in a Summit. It was rather short but yet it was a summit. He invited 51 of the 54...
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Blackonomics: Blacks Have Become Obsolete
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist A series of recent reports cite the drastic lack of economic progress for Black people in general and Black men in particular. Freddie Allen, NNPA Washington...
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Blackonomics: Symbolism without Substance—Ferguson to Jena
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist Remember the Jena Six? Some 15,000 to 20,000 protesters went to Jena, La. in 2006 to demonstrate against injustice. After all the speeches, threats, marches, and...
View ArticleBeyond the Rhetoric: The Awakening of Black Costa Rica
By Harry C. Alford NNPA Columnist I am writing this article from the beautiful nation of Costa Rica (Rich Coast in English). It is our mission to connect the dots of the African Diaspora and this dot...
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Blackonomics: No Justice No Profit
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist In a previous article, I noted the ridiculous scenario of Black people protesting while others profited, how we travel across the nation to march and never march into a...
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Blackonomics: Place the Black Dollar Under Arrest
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist Here’s an intriguing concept: Arrest the Black dollar. Say what, Jim? You read it correctly. We should arrest our dollars and charge them with neglect. Put them...
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Blackonomics: The Cost of Not Doing Business
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist Over the past few decades Black people have been led to believe that we have “power” because we earn and spend so much money in the marketplace, now having eclipsed the...
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Blackonomics: Too Stressed to be Blessed
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist Black folks lead the nation in church-going, praise-dancing, shouting, call-and-response, and “whoopin.” We like to “get our church on” and feel good while doing so. We...
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Time for Black Democrats to Switch
By George E. Curry NNPA Columnist The midterm elections are over, the final numbers are in and they don’t look pretty if you’re a progressive. So, I am going to propose something our national African...
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Blackonomics: We Need a President of Black America
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist After the “Tuesday Evening Massacre” of the Elephants over the Donkeys, in January 2009, I wrote an article that warned about our being complacent and resting on the...
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Blackonomics: Marching to Freedom on a Treadmill
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist Here’s a sobering statement from Economic Policy Institute (EPI): “Fifty years ago (2013), the unemployment rate was 5% for Whites and 10.9% for Blacks. Today, it is...
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Black Friday Shopping Crowds Thin after Thanksgiving Rush
(Reuters)—Mall crowds were relatively thin early on Black Friday in a sign of what has become the new normal in U.S. holiday shopping: the mad rush is happening the night of Thanksgiving and more...
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Blackonomics: Still Looking for Change
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist As the end of another tumultuous year approaches, Black people again find ourselves in the relative same economic and political position as we were the year before,...
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Creating a Global Blueprint to the Future
By Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. NNPA Columnist As we begin 2015, millions of people throughout the world will make their annual New Year’s resolutions. But for 42.7 million Black Americans, 2015 hopefully...
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Blackonomics: No Justice, No Profit
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist What now? What a raucous, topsy-turvy, heart-wrenching, angry year we experienced in 2014. We had everything from the sadness of lives lost on airplanes and ferry...
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Reclaiming the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
By Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. NNPA Columnist The 2015 Martin Luther King, Jr. National Holiday should have a different impact on the collective consciousness of Black America. Why? Because once again...
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Hip Hop Corner: Reshaping the Hip Hop Agenda in 2015
By Jineea Butler NNPA Columnist “New York, New York Big City of Dreams but Everything in New York is Not Always What It Seems You Might Get Fooled If You Come From Out of Town but I Am Down by Law...
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The Country’s Last Black-Owned Banks Are in a Fight for their Survival
Michael A. Fletcher, THE WASHINGTON POST (The Washington Post)—Capital Savings Bank opened shop in Washington in 1888, making it the nation’s first black-owned bank at a time when the mere notion of...
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Blackonomics: 50 Years of Economic Futility
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist During the 50-year period from 1963 (“I have a dream!”) to 2013, Black people have been on a virtual economic treadmill. Our relative economic position has not...
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Blackonomics: Black Dollars Matter!
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist The protest slogans addressing our latest struggle for justice and equity compel me to come up with a new phrase. The signs and T-Shirts emblazoned with “I Can’t...
View ArticleBeyond the Rhetoric: Connecting with Businesses in Colombia—Part 1
By Harry C. Alford NNPA Columnist Where do I begin to tell the story of our trade mission to the beautiful nation of Colombia? It had been in the planning stage for more than 14 years. It began when...
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Looking Beyond Ferguson, Mo.
By Claud Anderson NNPA Guest Columnist The lack of respect for a Black man’s life, rights and contributions became infused into the nation’s national spirit and codified in the legal and political...
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‘Empire’ Shows that Black Dollars Matter
By Ron Busby, Sr. NNPA Columnist According to a Nielsen consumer report, African Americans are voracious consumers of media, watching 37 percent more television than any other slice of American...
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Attacking Economic Racism
By Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. NNPA Columnist Despite ill-intended efforts to do it for us, Black Americans have a responsibility to define our own reality. It is a fundamental human right recognized and...
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Challenging Economic Racism in America — Part II
By Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. NNPA Columnist There are many different manifestations of racism in America and throughout the world. But there is not a more insidious form of racism in the United States...
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Blackonomics: Time to Throw Some Political Punches
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist For the past 50 years, most of our conversations and efforts have been centered on politics. Reminiscent of the Reconstruction Era, when Blacks occupied political...
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Blacks Need to Join Discussion on the Economy
By Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. NNPA Columnist One’s worldview or social perspective is mainly informed by a matrix of different socioeconomic and political circumstances. A polling of Black America...
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Blackonomics: Executing a Collective Economic and Political Strategy
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist “Now there are some ‘practical’ things we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it...
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Hip Hop Corner: An Action Plan for When ‘They Don’t Care about Us’
By Jineea Butler NNPA Columnist I am sick of hearing about how the media is misrepresenting our community and not fairly reporting issues. Have you lost your mind? Why are you depending on them to...
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Blackonomics: Blacks are Today’s Putty People
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist Incidents over just the past two months have taken Black folks on the psychological ride of our lives. The White woman in Spokane, Wash., who passed as Black caught...
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Blackonomics: The Math and the ‘After-Math’ of the Confederate Flag
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist Now that the confederate flag has been taken down, complete with honor guard and pomp and circumstance, what are Black folks going to do now? Another question is,...
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Blackonomics: Celebrating the Life of Marcus Garvey
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist Happy Birthday, Marcus Garvey! This is not a history lesson; it is simply about homage, recognition, and appreciation of a Black man who loved his people so much that...
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Blackonomics: Black Business Figures Don’t Lie
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist Taken every five years and published in phases over two or three years, the Economic Census of Black-owned businesses has finally been released. It contains...
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Blackonomics: Teaching our Dollars to Make Sense
By James Clingman NNPA Columnist When Donald Trump first spoke about his intentions to run for president and called out Mexicans and Hispanics in general, here’s what happened. Yes, there were...
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