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Calls to Action Culture News Featured

UPDATE ON FARMER EDDIE WISE: Moral Failure – The Buying of the Wise Farm

By Elliot Booker — 5 years ago

BLACK FARMERS AND AGRICULTURIST ASSOCIATION

April 5, 2016

Eddie and Dorothy Wise’s farm was purchased by a neighboring white farmer for $260,000 at a public, forced, auction yesterday. The farm was sold as part of a foreclosure despite an established pattern of discrimination by local county FSA agents, a global expression of concern, a concerted effort of local advocates, and a Color of Change petition of 30,000 signatures calling for a halt to the foreclosure. We are heartsick, emotionally exhausted, and angry at this callous disregard for the livelihood of one of our brothers and sisters and their family. We also find it morally reprehensible.

Eddie Wise and his dogs.

This post isn’t meant to summarize all that has been going on with this tragedy. Read up on this page https://www.facebook.com/BFAA.org/ to learn more details. When you do, you’ll find a lot of support among not only the Black farming community, but other groups and individuals concerned with the disappearance of the family farmer in this country and around the world. You’ll also find a handful of folks who ask questions and wonder about the financial skills and practices of the Wises. We want to take a minute to address this latter group because they reveal a hidden iceberg of suspicion and doubt that is a handmaiden of white supremacy and oppression.

For these folks, there is always suspicion that Black folks are trying to pull a fast one, to get over, or otherwise get something undeserved and unearned through hard work. A damning criticism indeed in our society of believers in the fabled Horatio Alger story of upward mobility. In that story, success is earned through hard work, thrift, and discipline, a set of morally imbued characteristics that suggest character and virtue. So, by extension, those who suffer, are poor or otherwise not successful, are seen somehow as moral failures. They have, in this narrative, a character flaw, a defect. They are, somehow, morally deficient. The problem is, the characters in Horatio Alger’s novels were inventions just like the myth of the American Dream. Myths are powerful things, though, and serve important functions. They provide guidance just as frequently as they conceal truth. They don’t, however, describe reality. To view the Wise case as a personal failing is to ignore historical evidence, subscribe to a false notion of individualism, and support racializing views that reinforce white supremacy.

Fact. Financial hardships and bailouts are everyday occurrences in modern agriculture, finance, and industry – recall the bank bailouts of 2009. Icons of success receive innumerable forms of assistance that directly contradict their self-proclaimed Horatio Alger narratives.

Fact. Eddie and Dorothy Wise, like Black people across the US, were treated unfairly in matters directly affecting the securing and operating of their farm.

To ask questions about why they missed payments, incurred so much debt, weren’t able to market their goods, etc. is to completely miss the point. Farmers and business people everywhere have financial struggles, only non-white folks also experience discrimination. The burdens of small producers everywhere are daunting. Pile on discrimination and it is impossible.

But even worse, to ask these questions is to embrace a view of Black Americans that relies on racial stereotypes, fears, and a wholly imaginary white pathway. That white pathway, like the Horatio Alger stories, says that “I’m successful because of my effort. I didn’t get any help. I made tough choices.” It’s harmful and inaccurate to believe that story because it is applied in the reverse to the unsuccessful, impoverished, or destitute. Without knowing anything about others, it is too easy to simply say that those who aren’t successful must not be doing something right. They must not be working hard enough, be thrifty enough, or have enough personal character. These beliefs are factually unsupported, but mythically powerful things. That is, there simply isn’t evidence to support that the impoverished are lazy, unmotivated, or otherwise deficient, let alone morally deficient. Even more, it is harmful to assert the validity of the white pathway because it simply isn’t true. Hard work is great, but it isn’t the sole or primary purview of white people. It simply doesn’t explain the differences in poverty rates by race. In fact, there are many more poor white people than poor people of color in the US. The rates are higher for non-whites, but the numbers are clearly higher for whites. Rates of poverty, interestingly, are historically higher in rural areas than urban areas. These rural areas are overwhelmingly white. So, to impugn Eddie and Dorothy Wise’s financial practices is to enlist a host of familiar stereotypes, ignore the profound history of racial inequality, and reinforce a mythical imaginary of white success.

The white neighbor who bought Eddie’s farm has had his eye on that property since 1993. Unsurprisingly he wanted to acquire neighboring property. During the farm crisis of the 1980s it was largely seen as bad form to try and purchase a struggling neighbor’s place. Why? Because, as members of a community, folks were to exercise restraint when faced with opportunities that came through the suffering of others. These values stemmed from a lot of things including the social bonds that emerge among community members, the engagement in shared forms of work, and, for many, deeply held Christian beliefs. The purchase of your struggling neighbor’s farm might happen, but only under extraordinary circumstances. To actively pursue it represented a moral failure.

Eddie Wise Farm Sale Flyer

At the sale of the Wise farm there were two bidders. It turns out they were working together. One of the bidders was Eddie and Dorothy’s neighbor, the other had no intention of buying the property and simply served to help get the price to a “fair” level. Under normal foreclosure proceedings the person losing their farm typically has around 10 days to make a counter-offer and save their place. These types of protections are commonly seen as a way to give every opportunity to the landowner to stay on their place. This was not an option at this sale. Whether this is legal or not is under investigation. Regardless, to treat your neighbor as an opportunity rather than your responsibility is far from Christian. To aggressively and strategically maneuver to buy your struggling neighbor’s farm is a service to self, not a service to others.

Selling the Wise farm illuminates the structural, racial, dimensions of inequality in this country. Buying Eddie and Dorothy Wise’s farm brings into clear view the moral failure of the white, Christian, community.

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Business News Featured

1 Year After #BankBlack, America’s Biggest Black-Owned Bank Still Doing the Work

By Elliot Booker — 4 years ago

Boston Glove/Getty Images

By Michael Harriot

Hip-hop has become a cultural powerhouse that fuels everything from fashion to corporate profits. They rap in beer commercials. Politicians come to Jay-Z for endorsements. With all its faults, more than any form of art that ever existed, hip-hop has always openly acknowledged the most powerful force in America: Money.

Every conversation about equality, civil rights and justice eventually collides at the intersection of wealth. Economic inequality is the underlying cause of many of the problems that face black America. The inability to afford adequate representation fuels the disparity in convictions and sentencing in the justice system. America’s history of racist housing policies, ghettos and underfunded schools traces back to lending institutions using redlining as a tool for segregation.

After marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., boycotting buses in Montgomery, Ala., and standing on the Mall in Washington, D.C., and telling the world about his dream, at the end of his life, Martin Luther King Jr. planned the Poor Man’s March.

Every enlightened soul from Martin to Malcolm, from Tupac to the Notorious B.I.G. eventually reaches the same conclusion: It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.

On July 8, 2016, hip-hop artist Killer Mike called into a town hall meeting on MTV and BET. Instead of dispensing trite maxims and well-worn platitudes, the politically conscious rapper did what he is known for doing: offering solutions. Killer Mike called for 1 million black people to deposit $100 each into a black bank.

It worked.

#BankBlack took off across Black Twitter and officially became a movement. The 95-year old Citizens Trust Bank saw at least 8,000 new accounts in the first five days, with a minimum opening requirement of $100. A week later, black people across the country moved at least $1 million to black banks, and perhaps no bank benefited more than America’s biggest black-owned bank: OneUnited Bank.

OneUnited noticed a huge influx of new accounts after the #BankBlack hashtag began trending on social media platforms, boosting the financial institution’s $655 million in assets. The movement’s still gaining momentum, and has shown no indication of slowing down, according to the bank’s executives.

OneUnited has always been aware of this dynamic. Instead of casting itself as a bank that just happens to be black-owned, it has always wanted the world to know that it is unapologetically black, and has focused on economic empowerment for the black community since its inception.

Headquartered in Boston, OneUnited bank was started in 1968 as Unity Bank & Trust. The bank acquired other financial institutions over the years, eventually becoming the largest black-owned bank in the country. OneUnited’s chairman and CEO, Kevin Cohee, has steered the bank for years, with a focus on growing black wealth along with President and Chief Operating Officer Terri Williams.

One of OneUnited’s biggest initiatives is home ownership, which is inextricably tied to wealth and financial security. Forbes magazine reports that the lifetime financial achievement of the typical homeowner is 45 times that of the average renter. A home is usually the largest asset in a middle-class earner’s portfolio of wealth.

In 2016, the U.S. Treasury Department awarded OneUnited Bank the Bank Enterprise Award for its efforts in community-development lending. The company also teamed up with the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance to promote home ownership with the #BuyTheBlock program. OneUnited is also a designated Community Development Fund.

OneUnited offers and services mortgage loans, stressing the importance of wealth-building to its customer base. The bank also holds workshops and financial literacy seminars that highlight black economic equality. Its credit-building products are geared toward empowering its black customer base with the tools for long-term financial success.

While this may sound like marketing mumbo jumbo, there are many incidents of white-owned financial institutions perpetuating structural racism. It is an indisputable fact that some of the biggest banks in the world treat their black customers unequally.

JPMorgan Chase bank paid $55 million in January to settle charges that it discriminated against black and Latino borrowers. In 2011, Bank of America handed over $335 million for making its minority customers pay more than its white customers for the same loans. Just this past May, the city of Philadelphia filed a federal lawsuit against Wells Fargo, alleging that the bank has discriminated against black and Latino borrowers since 2004.

So why do black people continue to bank white?

It was understandable 20 years ago, when people chose their lending institution based on the branches available to them. But when was the last time you walked into a brick-and-mortar bank? If you walked into your local branch right now, would anyone in the entire building even know your name? Even worse—would anyone even care?

The primary reason is habit. People have always banked at the places with which they are familiar. In an age when people have switched their shopping habits from the local department store to Amazon, banking is one the few institutions that still benefits from old-school thinking, even though there is no benefit.

Black-owned banks have the same products, infrastructure, technology and accessibility that their whiter counterparts offer. Aside from saving and checking accounts, OneUnited offers the same mortgage-lending, commercial real estate loans, business deposit accounts and online banking that consumers rely on from white-owned, larger banks.

As #BankBlack grows, consumers who entrust their money to black-owned financial institutions will be able to see the effects of wealth-building in black communities that many white-owned banks have prevented for decades.

READ MORE http://www.theroot.com/1-year-after-bankblack-america-s-biggest-black-owned-1810522862

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Books Featured

Top 5 thought-provoking books written by celebrated Pan-African leaders

By Elliot Booker — 3 years ago

by Bridget Boakye, at 06:08 am, June 15, 2018, Culture

Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara, Steve Biko

The recent wave of consciousness/’wokeness’ of the last half-decade has led many young and old people to Pan Africanism. The return to the continent and love for all things black has resurfaced an interest in African history and ideas of the past.

But who better to learn about the history and ideas of the African people than from the leaders of its past. The list below is by no means exhaustive but it is a good start for those looking to begin their deep dive into Pan-Africanism.

Neo-Colonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism by Kwame Nkrumah

Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, freedom fighter, and pioneer of Pan Africanism released this book in 1965. According to reports, it was so controversial that the US Department of State blocked $25 million in foreign aide to Ghana upon its release. The book was among the first to openly criticize Western governments, especially the United States, who had wanted to paint themselves as impartial at worst, and supportive of African countries at best at the end of colonialism. The book pointed out the exploitative nature of these countries’ relationship with Africa, especially in economic terms. “Something in the nature of an economic revolution is required. Our development has been held back for too long by the colonial-type economy. We need to reorganize entirely so that each country can specialize in producing the goods and crops for which it is best suited,” Nkrumah wrote.

Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle by Thomas Sankara

Few people know about Burkinabe’s first president, Thomas Sankara’s book about women and the African freedom struggle. This book is a transcription of a speech Sankara gave in 1987 at a women’s rally about the importance of gender equality on the continent. The book put him far ahead of his peers, making him one of the continent’s most progressive leaders. One of his most poignant quotes, “there is no true social revolution without the liberation of women”, continues to ring deeply in the hearts of many Africanists.

I Write What I Like by Steve Biko

Steve Biko, the revolutionary South African who was killed at the tender age of 31, wrote these pieces when he was president of the South African Student Organisation. One of the most celebrated leaders of the anti-apartheid movement, his writings stressed the importance of raising one’s consciousness and mindset as the way to true liberation. Father of the Black Consciousness Movement, his quote, “the greatest weapon in the hand of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed,” has become defining for all Pan Africanists.

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B DuBois

Pioneering sociologist, Civil Rights activist and Pan-Africanist, W.E.B DuBois set the foundation for the intellectual study of race in this work he published in 1903. His book explored the issues of race, class, and society. Dubois coined the term ‘double consciousness’, and introduced other radical ideas such as the color line and the veil. He wrote, “One ever feels his twoness, — an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”

The Autobiography of Malcolm X As Told To Alex Haley

Writer Alex Halex wrote this book based on a series of in-depth interviews he conducted with Malcolm X between 1963 and his assassination in 1965. Coauthored by Malcolm X and following his journey from prison to an endeared Civil Rights activist, the book is acclaimed for introducing many people to black consciousness. “So early in my life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise,” Malcolm said.

READ MORE AT: https://face2faceafrica.com/article/top-5-thought-provoking-books-by-celebrated-pan-african-leaders/6

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