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Welcome To N..E. Informer's Special Black History and Valentines Day Issue


Note: This is an audio enabled website. Please mute if you do not want sound. EDITORIAL COMMENTARY Defending my hood By Michael P. Kincade February 2010 Years ago before we had kids my wife and I moved into a predominantly White neighborhood. Now I should admit that neither of us grew up that way but in searching for our first apartment it worked out like that. We received more amenities for the same price if not cheaper than back in the old hood. For three years we were the only Blacks on our street but being young and focused on our professional lives truthfully I never noticed. I still recall the first time I was stopped and questioned by a police officer. I was getting out of my car in front of the house when he pulled up next to me and asked “is there a problem here?” When I questioned him about his question his response was “someone reported a suspicious man in the neighborhood and we are just checking it out.” Now keep in mind I was getting out of the car IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know his explanation was bogus but I let it go. Having had cops in the family my whole life I understood what he meant and could only laugh at how transparent he was. Little did I know this was a prelude to just how welcomed we would be to this neighborhood? After the birth of our daughter and only knowing the names of the neighbors on each side of us we decided that it was time to go back home. It was time to move to a neighborhood where we weren’t the only Black family on the street. Where when I took my daughter to the nearest playground I saw kids and other parents who looked like me. Without realizing it we both had grown to miss knowing Miss Mabel would be out there yelling at fools driving too fast. We missed being able to walk to church or at least get there by car in ten minutes instead of taking a half hour. As for me, I missed sitting on the front steps on Saturday and saying good morning to my neighbors as they walked by. Having them stop to chat about the latest gossip and not looking at me as if I was going to jump up and steal their pocketbooks. Being able to hear the sounds of the night because folks weren’t trying to impress you with just how loud their home stereo was. And for eight years life was like that. Why did we move you might wonder? Neighborhoods don’t change overnight they do so slowly, at a crawl. One second everyone around you is just like you then slowly, like that lazy thief in the night they are gone. You don’t notice it because you’re too busy with life but it happens. Miss Mabel no longer yells at the speeding fools because she has grown tired of people calling her the crazy old lady. Instead of sitting on the front steps on a Saturday morning you find yourself way too often cleaning them from the impromptu party held there the night before. Instead of hearing the distant sound of a rolling thunderstorm suddenly the night was filled with the booming words of Tupac and Biggie. Not to mention words you cringed when you heard around yours and others small kids. Pretty soon you start to wonder is your household the only one that has to get up before noon every day. As if all that madness wasn’t enough there were the local merchants working overtime to drive you crazy. Want to know what’s on sale at the national pharmacy chain store in your hood? Just look at the shelves; whatever is missing is on sale. One Sunday I walked into one an hour after it opened to grab something I knew was on sale. I don’t know why but for some crazy reason I was shocked to see the shelves empty so soon. Seeing the manager, or at least someone who claimed to be, I asked how this happens. “People come in here and fill up shopping carts with the sale stuff.” He said to me with a straight face. Pulling out the store flyer I pointed to the missing item and asked “How could that be since there is a limit of two per customer?” He just shrugged his shoulders and walked away. Then there was the time I was in a different store from the same chain in another part of the hood. A manager, after being told by the cashier the register was out of paper and it couldn’t print out a store coupon told me “it’s not printing the coupon because you have the wrong item.” If I didn’t understand how cash registers worked or understood English I might have believed him. Seeing as I was standing there when he was told the problem and he then lied to my face all I could say was “If you don’t know how to fix the dam problem just say so.” I’m a funny man, I have more respect for folks who admit incompetence than those who try to blow smoke up my butt. At the end of our transaction did anyone apologize to me for their rudeness? O HELL NO! Last but surely not the only horror story I could share about this one particular chain store/pharmacy, there was the time a cashier wanted to argue with me for using a coupon that she couldn’t get the scanner to read. “You have the wrong size” she said to me as if I was a toddler, “it says 14 ounces or greater, your box is 16 ounces; take it back.” I wish I was making this story up but sadly I’m not. After explaining in my most patient tone that 16 WAS greater than 14 she called the store manager to come set me straight. In case you’re wondering, I got no apology that time either. Who knows maybe that’s also store policy? Do I blame the clerks with the crappy attitude making minimum wage for their behavior? Nope. I blame the people who hire them yet won’t train them properly. Do I blame managers who lie with a straight face? Nope. I blame the people above them who think they can throw anyone they want in my neighborhood to run a store just because they look like me. Do I blame district managers for not having advertised product on the shelves the day they go on sale? Nope. I blame the company for not supplying the stores in urban neighborhoods the same as they do the suburbs. Think I’m making that one up go out and check sometime. Pick a day, any day and check out your local chain store first then drive to the burbs and look for the same item. Don’t be shocked when they have them piled to the ceiling AND CHEAPER. As for the price differential their easy explanation; different neighborhoods have different items on sale each week. YEAH RIGHT! One can only take being treated like a second class citizen in their own neighborhood so long before they say enough is enough. Once we can afford to move out many of us, including me gets the hell out on the fastest thing moving. Do we look back? Nope because we know what we are leaving behind and no longer see it with rose colored glasses. We are no longer like the Swallows of San Juan Capistrano who return home faithfully. And then as sure as the sun will shine someone calls us sellouts and says we turned our back on the hood. I can’t tell you how many debates I have had over the years with folks who claim that the second a Black family gets ahead they leave. They have tried to make me feel guilty for wanting to raise my kids in a neighborhood where people respect property and each other. Where the stores and their employees treat me and my money the way I deserve to be treated and have what I want when I want it. No matter how I try to explain why we left all they hear is that we left and don’t give back. I do give back to my hood by volunteering with a youth program but I don’t do it to ease some unfounded quilt for leaving. I want the kids in the program to understand that they should never forget where they come from but also strive to go beyond their boundaries. I also have taken my kids back to see the old childhood stomping grounds. The funny thing about that, the same folks who used to fight with me about fixing up our neighborhood when we do come back to visit treat us like old friends. The same folks who used to call Miss Mabel the crazy old lady talk about back in the day as if they were golden ones. The sad part, they were doing nothing back then to improve the hood and to this day are still doing nothing. There are times, normally on late summer nights as I sit in my back yard listening to the boom of distant thunderstorms and enjoying the smell of the oncoming rain that I think about the hood. I think about Miss Mabel, Sunday morning gossip sessions, plastic pools packed tight with too many kids and one more trying to squeeze in. I also think about how tired I grew trying to defend my hood from those inside it that seemed to only want to tear it down. I will never forget that no matter how hard we tried to keep it a neighborhood they wanted it to be as Richard Pryor once said “A residential district”. If you would like to comment on this piece Michael can be reached at N E Informer Online or at mikekincade@hotmail.com National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Advertising Online Can Make A Difference For Your Business.

The Necessity of Haiti towards American Principles

by Ehi Aimiuwu

February 2010

Haiti is a nation that was not only founded on the conquest for freedom, but also contributed towards the creation of the fifty states that makes up the United States today. It was the successful slave rebellion of Haiti that made the French flee and sell a large portion of their land to America in 1803. This land is known as the Louisiana Purchase and it runs through the middle of America from north to south. It also makes up to about a 25% of America and covers 13 states.

Many American historians teach about the Louisiana Purchase without mentioning Haiti. Despite the fact that Haiti is a democracy in the western hemisphere that was founded on freedom, White American led governments had chosen to ignore it and punish it for its successful slave rebellion for almost two centuries until this current earthquake hit Haiti. In fact, we learn more about communist Cuba in America than the democracy, freedom, and contribution of Haiti to America.

As a proud American of African descent, I would like to thank Haiti for fighting against slavery and winning their freedom. This was necessary to make America a complete and free nation in the new world. It brought about true democracy and the American quest to promote freedom in distant lands. Until now, America had never given back to Haiti, but thanks for teaching us that a successful fight for freedom is as noble as the peace of God. May Haiti forever have peace!!!

Ehi Aimiuwu, Founder of Edofolks.com, Atlanta, GA. USA
info@edofolks.com
Edofolks Products: http://edofolks.com/words/edocd.htm

Census Bureau: 130.6 Million Housing Units in the US; 18.9 Million are Vacant

by Adam Quinones on

The Census Bureau released the Report on Residential Vacancies and Homeownership. This data covered fourth quarter 2009.

National vacancy rates in the fourth quarter 2009 were 10.7 percent for rental housing and 2.7 percent for homeowner housing.
The rental vacancy rate was higher than the fourth quarter 2008 rate (10.1 percent) and not statistically different from the rate last quarter (11.1 percent).
For homeowner vacancies, the current rate was not statistically different from the fourth quarter 2008 rate (2.9 percent) or from the rate last quarter (2.6 percent).
The homeownership rate at 67.2 percent for the current quarter was not statistically different from the fourth quarter 2008 rate (67.5 percent), but it was lower than last quarter’s rate (67.6 percent).
HOUSING VACANCY AND HOME OWNERSHIP DEFINITIONS

Housing Unit. A housing unit is a house, an apartment, a group of rooms, or a single room occupied or intended for occupancy as separate living quarters. For vacant units, the criteria of separateness and direct access are applied to the intended occupants whenever possible.

The householder refers to the person (or one of the persons) in whose name the housing unit is owned or rented or, if there is no such person, any adult member, excluding roomers, boarders, or paid employees.

Vacant Housing Units. A housing unit is vacant if no one is living in it at the time of the interview, unless its occupants are only temporarily absent. No mention of how a homeowner waiting on an eviction is applied to this data.

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2009, there were 130.58 million housing units in the US. Compare that to the end of 2008 when there were 129.45 million. This is a one year increase of 1.14 million (+0.88%) total housing units.

Of total inventory, 85.5 percent or 111.71 million housing units were occupied.

75.04 million, or 57.5 percent, were owner occupied and 36.67 million, or 28.1 percent, were rented.

18.88 million of 130.58 million housing units were vacant (make sure you read the definition above). This is 14.5% of total housing units.

Of vacant homes:

14.25 million were for rent
2.09 million were for sale only
7.69 million were "other"
Many foreclosures will be in the "other" category, because they are neither for sale or for rent - they are still in the foreclosure process and tied up in legal proceedings, or being held off the market until the legal owner of the property decides what to do. In addition, it is possible the unit could be undergoing repair for future use. Also included in the "vacant other" category are units "for occasional use" and units "temporarily occupied by persons with usual residence elsewhere", both of which may contain foreclosures. Foreclosures could also be included in the seasonal category, depending on the specific situation.

The South had the highest vacancy rates. The rental vacancy in that region was 13.7 percent compared to 13.1 percent in 2008. The rate in the Northeast was the lowest at 7.2 percent but this was an increase over the 6.3 percent reported a year earlier. The homeowner vacancy was also highest in the South at 2.9 percent but this was down slightly from 3.1 percent in 2008. The Northeast had the lowest in this category as well; 1.9 percent compared to 2.2 percent a year earlier.

Ownership is highest among those 65 years of age and over; 80.2 percent are homeowners. The percentage of homeownership declines with each younger age category. Ownership among people under 35 is only 40.4 percent. As might be expected it was also highest among those households with the highest incomes. Where family income was greater than or equal to the median family income the ownership rate was 81.8 percent. This was lower than the 82.9 percent in this category in 2008.

LANDMARK NEW STUDY REVEALS AN UNPRECEDENTED INCREASE IN NUMBER OF AFRICAN AMERICANS SEEKING EMERGENCY FOOD ASSISTANCE

Largest, Most Comprehensive Report Ever Conducted on Emergency Food Distribution Reports African Americans are disproportionately impacted by hunger as compared to the US population.

February 2010

A landmark study released by Feeding America, the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief organization, reports that there has been an increase of more than one million additional African Americans in need of emergency food assistance each year since 2006. With more than one in three African American adults seeking emergency food assistance from Feeding America, African Americans make up 34 percent of all adults served by Feeding America.

An increasing number of African American households with children do not know when or where they will find their next meal. According to USDA's "Household Food Insecurity In the United States, 2008" released in November 2009, 3.7 million Black children were living with food insecurity, up from 2.78 million, an increase of 35 percent.

"I have personally experienced hunger and homelessness," says filmmaker and Feeding America entertainment council member Tyler Perry, "It's almost impossible to imagine that this situation could exist in ours, the most wealthy and generous of nations. Please look out for your neighbors who you think might need help. No one should go to bed hungry in America."

Many of the people served by Feeding America food banks report they are struggling with unemployment, difficult choices between food and other basic necessities and the pressures of skyrocketing healthcare costs. Almost half of clients served report having to choose between paying for utilities or heating fuel and food; 39 percent said they had to choose between paying for rent or a mortgage and food; 34 percent report having to choose between paying for medical bills and food; and 35 percent must choose between transportation and food. Hunger in America 2010 is the first research study to capture the significant connection between the recent economic downturn and an increased need for emergency food assistance. An estimated 5.7 million people receive emergency food assistance each week from a food pantry, soup kitchen, or other agency served by one of Feeding Americas more than 200 food banks. This is a 27 percent increase over numbers reported in Hunger in America 2006 (note: link to 06/10 comparison fact sheet), which reported that 4.5 million people were served each week.

The methodology incorporated into the 2010 study includes data collected from February through June, 2009. Feeding America collected quantitative and qualitative feedback from 61,000 face-to-face in-depth interviews with people seeking emergency food assistance and more than 37,000 agency surveys, making this the largest, most comprehensive study ever conducted on domestic hunger. The results are based on surveys conducted at food pantries, soup kitchens, and other emergency feeding programs only.

"While we have reached many more people over the past four years, the need of hungry Americans far outpaces our current level of service," stated Escarra. "We will continue to partner with federal and state governments, corporate and individual donors and other hunger-relief organizations to bring more food and funds into the charitable distribution system and connect people with federal benefits until every man, woman and child has access to adequate food and nutrition."

Among other key comparative findings in the report:
* 50 percent increase in the number of children served annually.
* 26 percent increase in the number of African Americans served annually.
* 64 percent increase in the number of households with seniors facing very low food security or hunger.
* 59 percent increase in the number of client households reporting they have to choose between paying their rent or mortgage and food.

A summary of the findings and the full report are available on Feeding America's web site at
www.feedingamerica.org/hungerstudy