Minter’s Thoughts

The following appeared in the Sept. 24, 2008 edition of The County News, an African American weekly newspaper serving Iredell, Cabarrus, Catawba, Mecklenburg and Rowan counties in North Carolina. I’m editor at large of the publication.
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Though Barack Obama is supported overwhelmingly by black voters, his presidential campaign has been little different from that of most others in the nation’s history.
In his campaign speeches, based on the theme of change, he has parroted the Democratic line on most issues, including the Iraq War, taxes and the economy.
That’s by design. To win election, Obama must convince a lot of white voters, many from rural, small-town America, that he can indeed run the country and that he is not a threat to their hopes nor to their values.
For all too many Americans, blacks have not earned a seat at the table and already chew up too large a share of the country’s tax dollars. For those Americans, there’s not a problem the country faces that can’t be traced somehow to the black community.
To those Americans, Obama says forget that I’m black. I am an American, just like you. I can be your leader. I will protect your interests.
In one statement on the campaign trail, Obama even chided blacks for the high number of fatherless children in the black community.
Republican John McCain wants those same voters to think just the opposite. Obama, McCain charges, is black. He’s not as much an American as I or you. He shouldn’t be your leader because he doesn’t have your interests at heart.”
So, where does that leave the black community.
To be sure, blacks are Americans, too. They have views about the Iraq War and terrorism. They don’t want to pay higher taxes. And they have traditional – even conservative values – about such issues as religious practices, abortion and gay rights.
But blacks see much more in Obama’s candidacy than most whites could imagine. His election would represent a milestone of historic proportion in the 400-year-old history of blacks in America.
For most blacks, Obama’s candidacy is bigger even than the candidate himself. It’s not about Obama and Michelle and the girls. It’s about the black community’s hoped for exoneration from the negative slant given to their lives and the neglect of their problems and their dreams.
The success of African Americans in other fields – entertainment, sports, business and military service – have done much to establish the right of blacks to claim ownership of their American citizenship.
However, as a society, far too many whites still believe that citizenship is wasted on a community where poverty, crime and idleness remain such a huge concern. For too many whites, blacks, particularly young black males, are the “boogie man in the closet.”
In such a society, Obama, son of a black man and a white woman, competes for the world’s biggest prize, the American presidency.
What does the black community – with its many problems and dreams – want to hear from Obama, who is a hair’s width away from the most powerful job in the world.
Blacks want to hear Obama say that as president, I will turn the Justice Department back towards its role as protector of the weak, rather than champion of the strong.
They want him to say, as president, I will make sure that federal dollars are spent to make life better for those who are poor and ill, and not to punish them for their weaknesses.
As president, I will devote the resources required to make sure no child is left behind and there will be no race-based or income-based achievement gaps.
As president, I will find ways to lower the percentages and raw numbers of blacks who are imprisoned because of failures in our systems of education, health and social services. Children led into crime by abuse and neglect will be treated as victims, not as scourges of society.
As president, I will make sure housing is available for all income levels. And I will insure that the barriers to employment and job promotion will be removed and that workers’ rights will be defended.
As president, I will insure that every child will be able to attend college, if qualified and prepared. The costs of a college education will no longer be a cloud preventing children from seeing the sunshine of economic success.
I will not appoint another Thomas or Scalia to the nation’s highest court. I believe the courts should protect the civil and human rights of all Americans, preventing governmental and government-sanctioned tyranny.
Blacks want to hear Obama say, “I am one of you. I understand your plight. I have not forgotten my roots. I recognize America has a long way to go before it lives up to its creed of ‘Liberty and Justice for all.’ I promise to do all that I can as president to make that promise come true.”
Of course, Obama, even if he wanted to, can’t say that. Not now. Not while he is locked in a nail-biting contest for the presidency. Not while his race hangs over the campaign like snow atop the Himalayas.
Not while many whites will measure him, not by his personal accomplishments, but by the acts – real and imagined – of all blacks.

The following appeared in the Oct. 1, 2008 edition of The County News, an African American weekly newspaper serving Iredell, Cabarrus, Catawba, Mecklenburg and Rowan counties in North Carolina. I’m editor at large of the publication.
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Those 130 or so conservative Republicans who killed the economic bailout are blaming the current fiasco on efforts to give more Americans the opportunity to own their own home.
Those Republicans want to blame Democrats for pushing through legislation that not only made it easier for banks to lend money in the “subprime” housing market, but also – through the Community Reinvestment Act – encouraged banks to invest in communities they had previously avoided.
In effect, conservatives are attacking low-income and even middle income Americans in their drive to kill the bailout bill.
Conservatives are laying the blame on Democrats for encouraging financial institutions to make more credit available to those who were once shut out of the housing market and most other credit markets.
These conservatives take their argument even further, seeking repeal of the Community Reinvestment Act, which requires banks to spend some of their deposits in low-income, often inner city areas.
The argument goes that banks are failing because they have loaned money to people who can’t afford to buy houses or they have invested money in areas which do not return a profit.
It doesn’t take long to figure out who they are talking about. Namely, black folk. And its another part of the “divide and conquer” which has been used to manipulate and separate Americans since the days of slavery and Jim Crow.
Conservatives, who don’t like government oversight of business, are setting up a blame game that frees middle income whites from having to think about how much they use credit to make unwise buying decisions.
To be sure, in the current crisis, some low-income Americans are losing homes they probably could not afford. But then, we’ve made home ownership the mantra of citizenship for decades. Conservatives have promised that a whole range of social problems, including crime, could be solved if more folks owned their homes.
That was typical “feel good,” “sound bite” rhetoric used to overlook, avoid and ignore the truth about the genesis of so many of our social ills – racism and economic and social repression.
Truth is, some folks don’t need to own homes. The cost of home ownership is so much more than paying the monthly mortgage payment. It includes maintenance and upkeep, and repairs to roofs and air conditioning systems that can easily cost a couple of thousand dollars at any moment. Those homeowners can’t call the landlord anymore.
And we haven’t broached the subject of the quality of the homes being purchased. Barely passable when new, within a decade new slums will stand, as the poorly constructed properties decay.
But the problem conservatives are trying to avoid talking about is that a lot of those folks who will lose their homes are middle income Americans who, in our greedy orgy of spending, purchased homes a little bigger and little more expensive than they could afford.
As their jobs went oversees or businesses raised productivity by cutting the number of employees, those mortgages became too much to bear.
And as the housing market tanked, the actual cash value of those mortgages dropped. And in an economy that is more like a “house of cards” than a rock solid foundation, the chickens began coming home to roost.
Many of us have predicted for years that this would happen, while politicians, bank executives and economic pundits insisted everything would be okay. The theory was that as long as we can keep juggling the credit-based “bowling pins” things would be alright. But start removing the cards at the bottom and entire economic structure comes tumbling down.
But, my grandmother, who never finished high school, could have told them that you can’t fight two wars, give the richest folks huge tax cuts, send jobs oversees and use credit as currency. Not at the same time. Not for long. And not without a day of reckoning.
Blame greedy corporate executives. Blame Congress. Blame the Bush Administration.
The bottom line is that the day of reckoning has apparently come.

The following appeared in the Oct. 15, 2008 edition of The County News, an African American weekly newspaper serving Iredell, Cabarrus, Catawba, Mecklenburg and Rowan counties in North Carolina. I’m editor at large of the publication.
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The circumstances which brought a 12-year-old girl and the man who sexually assaulted her together last week are an extreme example of a plague infecting our community.
First, the desperation of a mother trying to keep a child in school, who puts her on a Charlotte Transit bus for a crosstown trip to catch a school bus seems incredulous. Her attacker followed her off the transit bus and attacked her in nearby bushes.
Undoubtedly the mother wanted the child to remain in her assigned school after moving to another neighborhood.
That’s not an unusual wish. Many parents do it all the time, driving their children to school bus stops from outside of the assigned districts. What’s a parent to do when personal transportation is unavailable? The desire to avoid interrupting the child’s education is commendable. The method for achieving that goal was perilous, particularly when hardly a school year passes without a child being assaulted in some way at a school bus stop.
Could not this community find a way to help that mother and child, with their limited resources, to achieve what we insist families do – keep children in class so they can learn? How we would have criticized her if the child was kept out of school until better arrangements, if possible, could have been made.
Perhaps the school system or some other human services agency, public or private, could help families in similar circumstances. The lack of transportation is a major barrier to employment, adequate health care and apparently education for too many families.
Second, why was the suspect, Marcus Maurice Kennedy, a sex offender who state doctors had determined suffers from a severe mental illness, not in a supervised care facility.
Apparently Kennedy suffers from schizoaffective disorder, a condition that can lead to mood swings, hallucinations and delusions. According to reports, Kennedy has been arrested over 30 times, mostly for minor offenses which were dismissed. He also served several short jail and prison terms.
In 2005, after failing to register as a sex offender, the court ordered a mental evaluation of Kennedy, which determined that his “limited intellect” and substance abuse problems have left him poorly equipped to cope with life outside institutions.
However, he was still not ordered to a mental health facility for treatment.
The community has a right to ask ‘why not.’ The community also has a right to know how many other Marcus Maurice Kennedy’s are out there on the streets terrorizing our neighborhoods.
We won’t begin a cost-benefit analysis of getting Kennedy the help he needed, but for his 12-year-old victim, her family and others who loved her, indeed for the general peace of her community, doing so would have been priceless.

The following appeared in the Oct. 22, 2008 edition of The County News, an African American weekly newspaper serving Iredell, Cabarrus, Catawba, Mecklenburg and Rowan counties in North Carolina. I’m editor at large of the publication.
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NOTE – An evenly divided Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, split along party lines, failed to seat Dunlap at its Tuesday, Oct. 21 meeting. The board’s four Republicans voted against seating Dunlap, while the four Democrats voted for Dunlap’s addition. The Democratic Party, which recommended Dunlap’s appointment as provided by N.C. law, has sued to force the commissioners to seat Dunlap.
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The addition of George Dunlap and Vilma Leake, both Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board members, to Mecklenburg’s Board of County Commissioners may create the perfect tag team needed on the powerful governing body.
If the studious Dunlap and the impassioned Leake bring their drive and energy to the County Board, they will revitalize efforts to insure that often forgotten citizens and communities receive their just due of county resources.
Dunlap was set to be appointed to the County Board at Tuesday’s commissioners’ meeting. He was nominated Monday night by Democrats from District 3, which had been represented by the late Valerie Woodard.
The district’s precinct leaders, who had a number of capable choices, apparently liked Dunlap’s experience and long years of service. Many said he would be ready “from Day One.”
Leake is running for election in District 2, after ousting incumbent Norman Mitchell in the May Democratic Primary. She faces Republican opposition on Nov. 4.
Both Leake and Dunlap are long time school board members who have fought diligently and tirelessly on behalf of inner-city children, often in the face of staunch pressure from suburban interests to shift resources outward.
In those roles they often clashed with the County Board over operating budgets and school construction bonds.
Their elevation to the County Board comes at a critical time. The current economic crisis will put even more pressure on local governments to balance budgets while maintaining services critical to children, seniors and working class families.
This will be a time of greater need for many of them and it is not the time to cut back important assistance programs.
Now may also be the time to re-think and re-prioritize how county funds are spent. For example, pumping money into the school system, while neglecting families and communities, will not “fix” public education.
Children from troubled families and neighborhoods will struggle in the classroom, no matter how qualified the teacher, how new the school building or how advanced the computers there.
As County Commissioners, Leake and Dunlap should bring a broad understanding of what makes families, neighborhoods and schools work. And, as commissioners, they will have an even greater impact on how scarce resources are allocated.
As veterans of the political process in Mecklenburg, they should also bring an ability to “get things done” in the face of constant attacks on the African American community, its hard working families and its children.
Dunlap is known for reading the fine print and mastering complex nuances of issues brought before the school board. In doing so, he often can see the upcoming negative impact of seemingly simple proposals. In debate, he often draws out the underlying challenges those proposals can create.
Leake is known for her heartfelt love of children and her willingness to defend them from attack by anyone. Once her heart is set on a course of action, she follows it through, no matter the effort of others to sway her from the path. She knows what’s right and works hard to see that right is done by children and their families.
The black community and Mecklenburg County will be well served by their presence on the County Board.

This appeared September 10 as an editorial in The County News, an African American weekly newspaper serving Mecklenburg, Catawba, Iredell, Cabarrus and Rowan counties in North Carolina.
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The end to the Gloria Pace King-era at the United Way of Central Carolinas comes complete with the inevitable complaint about her compensation package, including 2007 salary and bonuses of $365,000 and an $822,000 pension fund deposit.
King was the highest paid United Way executive among more than 30 nationwide of similar size surveyed by The Charlotte Observer. She also built the local organization into one of the best in the nation and last year raised over $43 million. The United Way of Central Carolinas supports 91 organizations in Mecklenburg, Anson, Cabarrus and Union counties, as well as the Mooresville-Lake Norman area.
Despite her job performance, which even critics admit is exemplary, last month King was forced from the position she had held for 14 years. We assume no racist or sexist motive in her banishment.
However, questions about the size of King’s pay package and how it was approved had included threats to reduce, if not cancel, contributions to the United Way’s annual fundraising campaigns.
Some would say that’s the core reason why King had to go. Odd that, since King apparently did nothing wrong. If malfeasance is alleged, the board which approved the pay package should resign. Not King.
Trying to diffuse the controversy by removing King does little to correct what was wrong with the decision to reward her with such an ample pay package. A special task force is investigating and could issue a report later this year. The IRS, which tightened restrictions on non-profit salaries after several highly-publicized abuses, may also review King’s pay package.
Meanwhile, the United Way’s annual fund drive kicks off this week. Recent economic news indicate that the need is likely to be greater in coming months than ever before. Now is not the time to reduce contributions for charitable and enrichment programs.
But that is not the only issue arising from the King-United Way brouhaha.
At its most basic level, the controversy says much about how we as a nation compensate those who work directly in programs and agencies to improve the lot of our people.
It is ironic that captains of industry and finance earn so much more than those who work directly with the problems and issues facing our communities – notably, those laboring in the fields of health care, education, and social work.
An executive at a bank or manufacturing plant would expect to be so amply rewarded for achievements equal to those of King at the United Way. Many business executives are protected with severance packages awarding them millions of dollars. King’s pay package pales in comparison.
It is time we as a nation began paying human service professionals, of whom we demand so much, comparably to the way we pay those in other arenas, such as commerce, entertainment, and sports.
Until we do, many of our best minds will continue to eschew critical work as nurses, social workers, teachers and managers of non-profit agencies.
Highly-talented professionals like Gloria Pace-King won’t bother to apply.
An appropriate cliché applies – “You get what you pay for.”

NOTE - This appeared as an editorial in The County News, Sept. 3 edition. The County News is an African American weekly covering Mecklenburg, Iredell, Catawba, Rowan and Cabarrus counties in North Carolina. I am editor-at-large.
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Barack Obama stands on the threshold of an historic achievement – the American presidency.
He would be the first black – at least half-black – man to reach this nation’s and the world’s pinnacle of power.
But even as Obama fights valiantly to win this election, many African Americans – and whites – are already trying to assess the meaning of an Obama victory on Nov. 4.
That victory is by no means assured, of course. Most polls indicate a neck-and-neck contest with Republican Sen. John McCain – even after last week’s ceremonious crowning of Obama as the Democratic Party standard bearer.
Some blacks are already criticizing Obama for not speaking often enough or loudly enough on “black issues.” Some noted, for example, that he did not mention Martin Luther King Jr. by name during his acceptance speech. Obama said simply “a young preacher from Georgia.” His critics missed the poetry in Obama’s phrasing. Have you heard of “the man from Galilee.”
And, Obama surely would not want to be accused by those same critics of evoking Dr. King’s name in a vain attempt to make political hay from that young preacher’s historic legacy.
Obama ruffled a few black feathers when he called recently for black men to be better fathers, a contentious issue for many who note that past and current racist practices debilitate black manhood.
Despite the criticism, however, most blacks understand that Obama is in for the fight of his life and of African American election history. Most also understand that Obama is not running as the black community’s candidate. He is the candidate of the Democratic Party, which despite its near universal support from black voters, remains an umbrella organization of a number of groups and causes. Note the Hillary Clinton inspired desires for a female president.
Obama represents the best hope of all those groups for a more welcoming America.
An Obama victory will mean much to this country and to the world.
But what that victory will mean for African Americans is not so clear.
It will not mean “forty acres and a mule” or such other reparations sought by many. While Congress and a number of state legislatures have passed resolutions apologizing for slavery, there’s no consensus on reparations for that horrible national sin.
And, while an Obama-led administration may include more African Americans in positions of power, we cannot expect the entire cabinet and other top slots to be filled solely by African Americans.
Obama is not likely to appoint all black federal judges, though its likely that at least one African American jurist could be elevated to the Supreme Court. The conservative Clarence Thomas needs a good “whist” partner, I’m sure.
Problems that have plagued the black community will not magically disappear. Black-on-black crime and high unemployment, particularly among young black males, will continue to be challenges.
Educational achievement gaps will continue to plague the nation’s public school system, though one can hope Obama would scrap or fully fund “No Child Left Behind.”
Blacks will continue to wrestle with such health issues as high rates of hypertension, diabetes and kidney disease, though Obama is promising to build a health insurance system that covers most Americans.
Those and other Obama initiatives will still have to pass a Congress where legislation looks more like sausage than pork loin.
If Nov. 5 will look pretty much like Nov. 4, why should African Americans care whether Obama is the next American president?
The answer lies at the core of what’s really the most difficult challenge facing the black community and this nation. That challenge is finding a way to inspire hope in the hearts and minds of a growing legion of disaffected and alienated young black Americans.
Obama’s story is the story America loves to tell. It’s a story of opportunity grasped, of obstacles overcome, of hard work and sacrifice. Obama rose to power not because his parents were wealthy, but because he got a world-class education and because he learned to serve his community, not terrorize it.
That’s the story that must be sold to young African Americans and others who aren’t great athletes or entertainers.
An Obama victory in November will be an opportunity for black parents and for teachers, mentors and pastors to once again challenge children to work hard in school. It ‘s an opportunity to tell our children they should dream those impossible dreams, which even when they don’t come true, carry us so much further in life and provide a compass to guide us along the way. It is our dreams, after all, that define who we truly are. It is our dreams which make us pause before making decisions about joining a gang, breaking into a house or picking up a gun. Our dreams make us avoid drug and alcohol abuse and lascivious behaviors. Our dreams keep us working on the job, not because we are working for “the man,” but because we are working for ourselves and our families.
If Obama can inspire a larger number of parents and children to be better today than they were yesterday, to study harder and to work longer, the social and economic impact on the black community and the nation will be immeasurable.
But for Obama’s election to have such an affect, the black community must use it wisely. Election night parties involving youth and including talks on the political history of the United States should be in the planning stages. Workshops, seminars and sermons retracing black history until today should be in the works.
An Obama inauguration should be an occasion for historical education and celebration, kicking off a few days early one of the most informative Black History Month commemorations of our lifetime.
Used properly as a tool of instruction and inspiration, Obama’s election could have an impact on Black America, and indeed White America, not witnessed since Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus, black Civil Rights marchers defied obstructing law officers, and black college students refused to leave whites-only stools at lunch counters.
But now, as then, the black community has to be involved in order to reap its reward.
Obama’s election, if used properly, could be a catalyst for the changes black Americans have long hoped for.

Less than 33 percent of the vote, in a Democratic primary, is hardly a convincing win for the Chair of the Mecklenburg Board of Commissioners.
The drop off in black votes cast for Jennifer Roberts and black attorney Harold Cogdell is significant. Without those votes in November, Roberts will have to reach out to more suburban voters, who are less concerned about the problems of the inner city.
The first signs of this strategy will be Roberts’ actions during the upcoming county and schools budget process.
Such a move, if successful in attracting enough votes, will surely further alienate black voters from Roberts. Such a scenario could create a problem for local Democrats, whose 5-to-4-vote control of the County Board is at best tenuous.
If you have enjoyed the contest between Obama and Clinton, you’ll love the upcoming general election. Voters on all sides of most issues will be out in force. Blacks will again be a sizable share of those voters whether Obama or Clinton is the Democratic nominee. McCain’s supporters, even those holding their noses, will display equal fervor.
Locally, Republicans have been salivating over regaining control of the County Commission, with its control over despised human service agencies and this political plum, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. They are likely to challenge hard for that control with Democrats weakened by the Mackey Factor, as local media have begun calling the lingering impact of the party’s sheriff-replacement fiasco.
In such an environment, every vote in the commissioners’ race will be critical for Roberts.
Last time out she won more than any of her opponents and was vaulted into the Chairs’ post. She was aided by a coordinated attack on the previous County Board Chair, fellow Democrat Parks Helms, the dean of local office holders. Both won at large seats because of strong support from black Democrats.
Black voters again will determine whether Roberts’ retains her role as the County Commission chair, and even whether she remains on the board.
Cogdell’s candidacy may attract the kind of single-shot vote that would take those black votes from Roberts. Her own single-shot campaign would certainly hurt, if not doom Cogdell’s already slim chances at election.
Republicans could easily pick up two of the three at large seats to take control. But a three-seat sweep is also a reasonable projection.
So far, many black Democrats seem willing to risk such an outcome for the long-term impact of a re-aligned Democratic Party in which black votes are no longer taken for granted. They also believe Republicans will be unable to govern a burgeoning urban county after winning control with the now staid “no tax increase” pledges sure to come.
In two years county voters will be clamoring for a return to more moderate and progressive leadership on the County Board.

The Clinton folks weren’t complaining when husband Bill was getting 90 percent of the African American vote. Why complain about Obama’s support among African Americans. The fact is, most African Americans in this country, and obviously a sizable number of white Democrats, know drastic changes are needed in this country. Obama is doing a better job of articulating the voters’ hopes for a stronger America, built on the original national goal of  “one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.” Conservatives have destroyed that dream, with the resulting social and economic distress experienced by too many black, brown and white Americans today.

Bill Wright’s revelation, in a recent letter to the Charlotte Observer’s Forum, that “one-parent households” have an impact on today’s problems is incomplete.

First, every child raised in a single-parent household does not fail. Many have done quite well, in fact. And many children from two-parent households don’t succeed, unfortunately.

There are more factors at play here than just whether there’s one or more parents in the household. Family income is an example of an important factor. A single mother with a nanny and a cook can usually provide more for her children than most two-parent households. Many low-income mothers do the same with sure will-power.

The real question is: are we willing to allow this society to degenerate simply because some individuals don’t uphold their responsibility to their children? Obviously some parents are simply uncaring, lazy or ill prepared. Others, by quirk of fate or luck, find themselves in dire circumstances. Whatever the case, the children deserve an opportunity to succeed. And, it is fiscally irresponsible to not provide that opportunity, no matter the circumstance of the household in which those children live. We lose when children lose. We lose contributions to the tax base. We lose their positive contributions to our communities. And, in the worst cases, we pay huge sums of money to house them in our prisons.

We must avoid the knee-jerk, politically motivated sound bites which only scratch the surface of our problems and fail to reach deep enough to find the real solutions.

The question is not why blacks vote for Barack Obama, but why more whites won’t vote for a black candidate. Before you answer, remember this country elected George Bush - twice. Obviously, many of the factors listed as pluses for a president, for example, running one of the country’s largest states or serving long Senate terms, do not guarantee a successful presidency. What Obama brings to the table are skills and a world view much more in line with what America and the world needs at this critical time in our history. The old ways are not working. The other two candidates, one Democrat, the other Republican, promise business as usual in Washington. A new vision is needed to meet the challenges we face, whether that is fighting terrorism, curing an ailing economy or healing our internal wounds. Yes, We Can!