Juan Williams Calls for Fight Against 'Culture of Failure'

Juan Williams' most recent appearance at Politics & Prose, a Washington, D.C., independent bookstore, felt more like a grass-roots community action meeting than a traditional, literary speak-and-sign.

The Fox News and National Public Radio correspondent spoke in his hometown about his latest book, Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America—and What We Can Do About It, which Williams describes as a "call to arms" and "a challenge to cross racial lines to change the way we discuss race and poverty."

The author of Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary, and Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965, acknowledged that he could face castigation for picking up the gauntlet thrown down by Bill Cosby in a fiery polemic in 2004.

Cosby's unexpected remarks at the NAACP's 50th anniversary celebration of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruling to desegregate public schools, evoked controversy and backlash. Cosby shocked many when he scolded blacks for not taking responsibility for the social and economic plight of the underclass. He accused middle-class blacks of being afraid to "air our dirty laundry." Critics accused him of blaming the victim, forgetting his own roots and siding with right-wing talk show hosts and their followers who hold blacks responsible for the lion's share of crime and chaos.

Williams said he wants this book to re-open the discussion, starting by going back in recent history to identify when and where the culture strayed from the philosophy of the Civil Rights-era. He identifies that period as a time when African Americans mobilized to overcome obstacles, and rightly prized education as the most effective way to fight racism. He wants to pinpoint when and what caused blacks to adopt an identity and "a culture that celebrates failure. America has to compete economically with the rest of the world. Our market wants talent, all the smart people it can get, no matter what color they are."

"We have to speak honestly about the hard facts," including the 50-percent high-school dropout rate of young men and the 70-percent rate of children born to unwed mothers in the black community, he said.

Like Cosby, Williams attacked what he sees as the negative aspects of hip-hop culture as it is marketed to young people. This includes the way that gangsta rap glamorizes crime, promotes instant gratification and misogyny and celebrates a lifestyle that denigrates traditional avenues toward upward mobility for lower-income black people. "Those who strive to attain academic excellence are ostracized, ridiculed, considered to be acting white," Williams observed.

The author urged African Americans to abandon the idea of reparations, calling the concept of financial compensation for slavery a "dead-end issue." In a spirited exchange with a retired schoolteacher who said her grandparents were slaves, Williams agreed that the government should serve a role as a social safety net, to regulate safety issues. But, he insisted, "We can't wait for the government to solve this."

According to Williams, about half of blacks and 90 percent of whites are against reparations. And, once a check is written, most of society will consider all of the injustices of slavery bought and paid for, he believes. Rep. John Conyers (D.-Mich.) has tried to get Congress to address the issue since 1989, said Williams. "Let's stop wasting energy and move on to things that we can get done."

The March for Life Stop the Violence and Start the Love..:

A post-mortem critique…

The Honorable John Peyton, Mayor:

The Honorable City Council Members:

The chairman of the coalition publicize the March for Life as "a positive and total success" The community would have to wonder by what measure such a claim can be made for that assertion. The March and subsequent news conference, one can see without lenses that it was a colossal failure, the very most it was a dog and pony show.

The March was intended to be a show of unity focused on the murder rate. With deceit in its ranks, it turned out to be no more than a center stage photo opt for incumbents running for reelection, and holding steadfast in not allowing opponents to be seen are heard. Some are accusing the NAACP of nullifying the vote taken to keep the March non political. Moreover the Coalition staged a march/demonstration with some of the Organizations Leaders on an ego trip seeking recognition, greed, personal aggrandizement and an opportunity too leverage a shake down that's short of extortion, in making their demands at City Hall.

Some of the news conference depicted Dr. Kings' quote "nothing is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." The Southern Christian Leadership Conference Chairman got stuck in stupidity thinking that he could bring back separate governments, Jacksonville and Duval County. Further suggesting that "if we had a socio-economic system that worked, we wouldn't have the murder problem" such proposition is flawed for we have elected to be ignorant in a capitalist system and consciously not participate in engendering in the economy as a people, thereby allowing some of the poverty too exist while self reliance and responsibility would have trumped some of the adverse conditions we face. There is nothing that will be a coup de grace (death blow) too racism, discrimination and exclusion without us transforming our thinking in spite of it. I am the first too acknowledge there are racism and too few opportunities creating a vast disparity among its citizen. Notwithstanding, our plight Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune gave us in her last will and testimony, a legacy. 

Excerpt In the 45th edition of Ebony Magazine.

"I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. As long as Negroes are hemmed into racial blocs by prejudice and pressure, it will be necessary for them to band together for economic betterment. Negro banks, insurance companies and other businesses are examples of successful racial economic enterprises. These institutions were made possible by vision and mutual aid. Confidence was vital in getting them started and keeping them going. Negroes have got to demonstrate still more confidence in each other in business. This kind of confidence will aid the economic rise of the race by bringing together the pennies and dollars of our people and investing them into useful channels. Economic separatism cannot be tolerated in this enlightened age, and it is not practicable. We must spread out as far and as fast as we can, but we must also help each other as we go."

An observation I quote A. Philip Randolph "we buy what we want and beg for what we need" With that mind set we will not stay as free as we think we are. 

This so-call cadre of black leaders must be toppled, for the only ones they can lead is as Harriet Tubman said "I freed a thousand slaves; I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves." And such stupid leadership will lead us to a place like Goree Island.

"History shows that it does not matter who is in power... those who have not learned to do for themselves and have to depend solely on others never obtain any more rights or privileges in the end than they did in the beginning." -- Dr. Carter G. Woodson

"Not for myself, but for others" "absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness, and absolute love."—Dr. Mary Jane McLeod Bethune

I pray my people will use responsibility as a guiding light.

 Edward Exson

Signed 1:30 AM 2/13/07

Forward by Stanley L. Scott

904-764-5175

BLACK FAMILY PLEDGE

By Dr. Maya Angelou

Because we have forgotten our ancestors our children no longer give us honor.

Because we have lost the path our ancestors cleared, kneeling in perilous undergrowth, our children cannot find their way.

Because we have banished the God of our ancestors, our children cannot pray.

Because the long wails of our ancestors have faded beyond our hearing, our children cannot hear us crying.

Because we have abandoned our wisdom of mothering and fathering, our befuddled children give birth to children they neither want nor understand.

Because we have forgotten how to love, the adversary is within our gates, and holds us up to the mirror of the world, shouting, regard the loveless.

Therefore, we pledge to bind ourselves again to one another;
To embrace our lowliest,
To keep company with our loneliest,
To educate our illiterate,
To feed our starving,
To clothe our ragged,
To do all good things, knowing that we are more than keepers of our brothers and sisters. We are our brothers and sisters.

In honor of those who toiled and implored God with golden tongues, and in gratitude to the same God who brought us out of hopeless desolation,

We make this pledge.

Internet Website For African Heritage Children, Parents, And Educators Opens!

MELANET Ensures African-American Children's Creativity Thrives In CyberSpac

National Black Parents Code
Guidelines For Correct Black Parents

1. I will have a feeling of love and responsibility for all Black children, be they my own biological descendants or not. The extended family is a traditional way of life for us; therefore all African adults are potentially correct Black parents.
2. I will teach what is right and what is wrong.
3. I will respect my children and will demand respect from them.
4. I will strive to produce in the home harmony, stability and an atmosphere of trust and love. I will provide opportunities for learning and will instill a sense of pride by teaching our past and present history.
5. I will have control and power in the home, being that the home is the smallest example of a Nation-and if the home is not together you cannot deal with outside forces.
6. I will find the best possible educational institution for my children and I will participate in some way in the institution.
7. I will seek to establish and perpetuate those moral attitudes and values that will add to my children's personalities and characters: virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherliness, kindness and charity.
8. I will develop a deep inner love that flows over and around the Black child to form a shield of protection, guidance, wisdom and strength.
9. I will assume the responsibility for cultivating the development of Black youth. This cultivation process occurs mentally (through skill development); physically (through the sharing of food, clothing and shelter); emotionally (through the commitment to the national development of Black people); and, spiritually (through the living out of a superior value system).
10. I will be about collaborating with others like myself, creating an atmosphere whereby Black children can grow and develop their potential in effective and meaningful ways.
11. I will be responsible for strengthening the positive qualities of the child and for correcting negative characteristics. I will maintain and nurture positive stability in the Black family.
12. I will be a model of the intellectual, emotional and moral discipline necessary to the child's understanding of, relationship to, and responsibility for the total Black experience-past, present and future.
13. I will have as my goal harmony within, and freedom with confidence in the knowledge that the ultimate in freedom is service to mankind. My whole person aura and lifestyle will transmit these same equalities and values to the young.
14. I will help every Black child to develop the skills to survive. I will teach that the highest good in life is to serve Black people, helping all Black people in the struggle to survive.

MELANET Ensures African-American Children's Creativity Thrives In CyberSpac

What keep most blacks in poverty, as a whole is the poverty mentality, lack of education and misdirection by the black boule leadership?  Tonyaa as much as I love you I must disagree with you in substances. A prime example of my argument on this topic: Every year Essence Magazine has a major event in New Orleans during the summer. The last event was shadow by racist tension in New Orleans. The black boule's that attended the event did nothing to support the local black community calling for equality in education, employment and discrimination. We as black people as a whole has self imposed blinders over our own eyes and afraid to deal with the truth. We have numerous black communities all over the United States just like the urban core of New Orleans. Where black officials has the leadership role and fail to deal with poverty on all levels. The city where you reside Jacksonville has an outstanding history of poverty among blacks. Someone, please tell me how can we hold someone else accountable? When we are not accountable for ourselves. The enemy within us is what destroys the self-esteem and self-confidence of the black community since post civil rights. 

The road to peace and prosperity begin and end with us.

Doc3507@msn.com  

                                                                        IN THE CIRCUIT COURT, FOURTH.                                                                       JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, IN AND FOR

                                                                        DUVAL COUNTY, FLORIDA

                                                                        CASE NO.:  88-9765-CA

                                                                        DIVISION:  FM-A

STANLEY L. SCOTT,

            Petitioner/Former Husband,

And

GRADENE D. WILLIAMS

n/k/a GRADENE D. CRANE          

            Respondent/Former Wife

_______________________________/

EXCEPTION TO THE REPORT OF THE GENERAL MASTER REGARDING THE FORMER WIFE'S SUPPLEMENTAL PETITION TO MODIFY CUSTODY

THIS CAUSE came on for hearing before General Master Donald W. Matthews on September 3, 2003, upon the Former Wife's Supplemental Petition for Modification of Custody Order filed June 11, 2003. The Former Husband was present, appearing pro se; the former Wife was present and represented by Grayling E. Brannon, Esquire.

            FINDINGS:

            The FINDINGS, doesn't represent the ANSWER TO THE SUPPLEMENTAL PETITION FOR MODIFICATION OF CUSTODY ORDER was not included in the REPORT OF THE GENERAL MASTER.  On filed in the circuit court by the petitioner.

A.        The Court has jurisdiction of the parties and subject matter of this action.

B.         I disagree with the Consent Final Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage. The parties were divorce before the Discovery of Pregnancy. The parties' minor child has resided with the father totally since November 7, 1990. The Father has been a very active parent of the parties' child before and after birth. The Father has never miss a doctor appointment before or since the childbirth, with or without the Mother present. The Mother has never pay or required to pay any medical/dentist bills for the child before or since his birth.

Per the testimony of the Respondent, the parties' child has adjusted well in her household. The Father does not agree with this statement in language and subject. 

The parties' child only wants to reside with the mother so he can be free to do as he feels without supervisor. The Father required that the parties' child show respect to parent, finish school and do his small chores at home. The parties' child feels that he should be able to do as he pleases, his choice of friends and environment should not be question. The Father believes that is not the correct mindset of a productive child with a positive future. 

Remember the parties' child has resided totally with the father for 13 years without any help from the Mother mentally, physically or spiritually.

As stated by General Master Hearing Officer Donald W. Matthews, the parties child seem to be very bright, manner able, and a intelligent young man for 16 years of ages, with a great deal of potential, with a need to stabilize himself that both parties recognized.

The Father has been the only parent involved totally with the parties' child development for 16 years. The parties' child has been exposed to a positive environment 98 percent of his life with the Father. The Father has invested quality time in the child life before birth. The parties' child is well traveled throughout the country. The Father put his career on hold to spend more quality time with the parties' child without any help from the mother mentally, physically or spiritually.

Since the order of custody the Mother has never been active in the parties' child life. The Mother has had a lukewarm relationship with the child until early this year. The Mother has take step on numerous occasions to destroy the bond that existed between the Father and Son. The Mother has only spent quality school time with the parties' child on three occasions in his 10 years of schooling.

On four separate occasions I have asked the Mother to unity with me mentally and spiritually for the positive well being of our child. I would set up a parent/child meeting to show unity for the child sake. The Mother personally shows her discomfort with me in front of the child every time. The only way I can constructively communicate with the mother is through a written letter. I have never had a positive communication with the mother since the childbirth.

3. The mother has never been required or requested to any medical/dentist insurance for the parties' child in sixteen years. Since the father received custody of the child. The Mother has only been required to pay 62.50 biweekly child supports for the child. The stated she paid $8 biweekly for the parties child through her present job not $12. The Father is not an experienced air conditioning contractor as stated on the report. The Father is in fact self-employed in the entertainment field. The Father income decrease substantial in 2002 when he was involved in a major auto accident in November 2001. That required the Father to have surgery on his left shoulder.  I never stated to the General Master that I was interviewing for a job.

Due to the statement of my employment and job interviewing, I believe the General Master has me confused with someone else case.    

4. The Father strong disagrees in language and substances of the Proposed Order. I strongly feel that it does not comport with the best interests of justice. 

The Father disagree with the Proposed Order:

1.      The Father disagrees with the finding of facts, conclusions of law and recommendation of the Report of the General Master.

2. I disagree in language of the supplemental petition of the Former Wife and that it should not be granted in present language. The Father strongly feels that the primary care, custody and control of the parties' minor child should be joint primary custody The Father feel that granting the mother primary custody will cause a negative effect in the grown of the parties' minor child mental development. The Father has spent the last 16 years with the child nurturing and directing his mental, physical and spiritual development. The Mother does not care about his mental, physical and spiritual development due the Mother lack of involvement in his life over the past 16 years.
3. Paying a reasonable child support during his stay with the Mother is not an                                                                                                                  issue in the matter before the court. I would give my life for our son. The Father disagrees with the arrearages because the parties' child ran away from home in April 2003. The Father has maintained a resident for the parties' child and had court order custody. The Father allowed the parties' child to reside with the Mother during the summer. The Father felt if it would help the parties' child regain his positive mindset that would be great. Plus, give the parties' child the opportunity to reside with his Mother during the summer. The parties' child has never resided with his Mother a full summer since his birth. The Mother has never own her own resident since his birth. The Father lifelong goals and dream is to by any mean necessary to help the parties' child be a productive person and citizen. .

            I humbly ask that the Honorable Judge Mathis grant these following stipulations.

1.      The primary care, custody and control of the parties' child are Joint. This   will let the child know that he does not have the power to control his parent. Plus, let the Mother know that she must share the responsibility of the development of the parties' child.

2.      The Mother resides within one mile of the Father; both reside within the same school district. The Father agree with the parties' child living with the Mother as long as he continue to go to school and keep a C average. The parties' child must rotate all major holidays between the Mother and Father. During the summer of 2004 the parties' child is require to reside with the Father.

3.      The Father has no problem paying a reasonable child support. The

Father has never requested an increase in child support from the Mother                                                                           regardless of his financial situation. The main financial requirement for raising a minor child has been met by the Father without any help from the Mother. The present age of the parties' child is 16. The Father has and will continue to provide financially, physically, and mentally to the parties child regardless of his resident.

4.      The arrearages is a personal lynching of a good Father who embrace his

Fatherhood before the parties' child was born, and continues alone without any help from the Mother physically, financially, or mentally. I feel that according to law and the custody order I was not require to pay the Mother any child support between May 2003 until the present time. The mother fail to work out an agreement that was equitable to everyone involves. This whole situation could have been work out if both parties' were concern about the child well being without the courts present. The Mother dislikes for the Father has continue to do harm to the parties child development.

The reason we are here before the court is because the Mother dislikes for the Father and the lack of concern for the parties child well-being and personal development. Her only goal in this matter is to try to destroy the Father/Son relationship by any mean necessary. She is using the courts for her personal agenda and with the Proposed Order by General Master it is a personal lynching of a good loving father who have never walk away from his duty.

Enclosure: The Third of Four letters sent to the Mother requesting her              involvement in our son life – Gradene Crane – Dated on 5/4/01

Copies to:

Donald W. Matthews

General Master Hearing Officer

Duval County Courthouse

330 E. Bay Street

Jacksonville, Florida 32202

Counsel for Respondent/Former wife

Grayling E. Brannon, Esquire

1536 North Jefferson Street

Jacksonville, Florida 32209

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December 12, 2006

Jacksonville City Council Meeting

 Good Evening, Ladies and Gentlemen:

 My name is Stanley Scott

The African Americans State of the Union in Jacksonville, Florida with its current leadership the political and ministerial is a colossal failure. Our future is bleak.

I come here to night with a heavy heart full of disappointments and hope for the future. As an African American Activist for equality and empowerment and self-reliance I present my first annual State of the Union concerning African Americans progress in Jacksonville.

After150 years of Institutional Racism and Nepotism there continues to be a roadblock for African Americans for empowerment in employment, education, government and benefits from our tax dollars that the city distributes.

The biggest roadblock to African American Equality and Empowerment is the lack of a progressive collective consciousness within the African American Community. Our leadership consists mostly of ministers and a few politicians that have used their positions in the church and community for self centered political and material gain.

African American ministers continue to deceive their constituents and extort them for financial gain in the name of Jesus.

African American Leadership and the Mayor Faith Based Partnership has embraced and apply the Willie Lynch mentality within the church and community causing an alarming high rate of divorce within the church, a class division based on income and turning their back on the less fortunate and trouble youths.

Regardless of the negativity facing African Americans from within and outside of the community I still have hope, and pray that we the people of African American descent will awaken from the abyss of intolerance, the blame game between mature male and female. We must destroy the consumer mentality of living above our financial means, embrace education as mandatory for all African Americans regardless of ages, separate the church from politics and support the needs of the community and less fortunate. Extra effort is needed in rebuilding the African American family that has been destroyed.

Additionally, we much do everything as a community regardless of income and position of power to enforce the laws and punishment for murder. As a private citizen I embrace the death penalty for cold-blooded murderers without a shadow of doubt.  

Thank you for this opportunity to voice my concern as a parent, concerned citizen and activist for equality and empowerment, in the Black Community. 

KIPP, is the only way to turn around failing Schools in Jacksonville and America.
Welcome to KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program!

KIPP is a network of free open-enrollment college-preparatory

Welcome to KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program!

KIPP is a network of free open-enrollment college-preparatory public schools in under-resourced communities throughout the United States. At KIPP, there are no shortcuts: outstanding educators, more time in school, a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum, and a strong culture of achievement and support help our students make significant academic gains and continue to excel in high school and college. Join us and reach more children with a high quality public education.

KIPP Schools share a core set of operating principles known as the Five Pillars:

1. High Expectations. KIPP Schools have clearly defined and measurable high expectations for academic achievement and conduct that make no excuses based on the students' backgrounds. Students, parents, teachers, and staff create and reinforce a culture of achievement and support through a range of formal and informal rewards and consequences for academic performance and behavior.
High Expectations in Action

2. Choice & Commitment. Students, their parents, and the faculty of each KIPP School choose to participate in the program. No one is assigned or forced to attend these schools. Everyone must make and uphold a commitment to the school and to each other to put in the time and effort required to achieve success.
Choice & Commitment in Action

3. More Time. KIPP Schools know that there are no shortcuts when it comes to success in academics and life. With an extended school day, week, and year, students have more time in the classroom to acquire the academic knowledge and skills that will prepare them for competitive high schools and colleges, as well as more opportunities to engage in diverse extracurricular experiences.
More Time in Action

4. Power to Lead. The principals of KIPP Schools are effective academic and organizational leaders who understand that great schools require great School Leaders. They have control over their school budget and personnel. They are free to swiftly move dollars or make staffing changes, allowing them maximum effectiveness in helping students learn.
Power to Lead in Action

5. Focus on Results. KIPP Schools relentlessly focus on high student performance on standardized tests and other objective measures. Just as there are no shortcuts, there are no excuses. Students are expected to achieve a level of academic performance that will enable them to succeed at the nation's best high schools and colleges.
Focus on Results in Action

It is unusual for fifth graders to focus on college, especially those from neighborhoods where high school graduation is not guaranteed. KIPP students not only think about college, they exude confidence in knowing they will get there—and graduate. The results are remarkable: students excel academically, develop confidence and leadership skills, and experience the world through local and out-of-state field lessons. After four years at KIPP, students earn acceptance to competitive college-preparatory high schools and become first generation college students.

The two founding KIPP Academies remain among the best in their districts and the nation. In 2003, KIPP Academy Houston was named a No Child Left Behind – Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education and is the first state charter school in Texas to be recognized with this distinction.

KIPP Academy New York was awarded the 2004 Twenty-first Century Schools of Distinction award for academic excellence and is the highest performing public middle school in the Bronx (New York City Department of Education).

Since 2003, the alumni of the founding KIPP Academies have been graduating high school and attending four-year colleges and universities. They have earned over $12.5 million in scholarships to four-year universities and colleges around the country.

Snapshots of Success

As each KIPP School matures into a full fifth through eighth grade school, their students are demonstrating dramatic academic gains and narrowing the achievement gap in public education:·

KIPP Asheville Youth Academy (Asheville, NC) fifth grade outperformed other Asheville City Schools District fifth grades on the North Carolina state test.

KIPP Aspire Academy's (San Antonio, TX) current seventh grade outperformed every school in the school districts in its attendance zone in reading and mathematics on the 2005 Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.·

KIPP DC: KEY Academy (Washington, DC) is the highest performing public middle school in the District of Columbia.·

KIPP Gaston College Preparatory (Gaston, NC) is a North Carolina School of Excellence. 100% of last year's eighth grade achieved above grade level scores in all end of grade tests including reading, math, and computers as well as a high school math test (Algebra I).

KIPP Heartwood Academy's (San Jose, CA) fifth grade outperformed every school in the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District on the California Standards Test. They were the highest performing fifth grade in math among all California charter schools.·

KIPP South Fulton Academy's (East Point, GA) sixth grade had the highest passing rate in math in South Fulton County on the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test.·

KIPP Summit Academy's (San Lorenzo, CA) sixth grade outperformed every single school in the San Lorenzo School District in every subject of the California Standards Test.·

KIPP Ujima Village Academy's (Baltimore, MD) fifth grade earned the highest fifth grade math scores in Baltimore on the Maryland School Assessment.·

KIPP WAYS Academy (Atlanta, GA) was one of ten schools in Atlanta Public Schools with a 100% pass rate on the state's fifth grade writing test.·

TEAM Academy's (Newark, NJ) current eighth graders started KIPP at the 31st percentile in math. Three short years later, they were performing at the 91st percentile, as measured by the Stanford 10.

The Mis-education of the African American Leadership 2006

Leadership (l¶"d…r-sh¹p") n. 1. The position or office of a leader: 2. Capacity or ability to lead: 3. A group of leaders:  4. Guidance; direction:

I often reflect since the beginning of the year 2000, the new millennium, and just don't understand. I asked myself how could one nationality of people in America spend close to $800 billion dollars this year and own less than 3% of the wealth in America. That's too big for me to figure out so let me come closer to home, Jacksonville. According to Florida Times Union, they reported in an article African Americans in Duval County spends close to $8.4 billions dollars. Somebody help me do the math please. Furthermore, in a finding by the Jacksonville Community Council Inc (JCCI) that 40 % of African American families make less than $15,000 a year in Duval County; out of 325,890 households in Jacksonville, there are over 39,000 African Americans families living below the poverty level.

There is four points that stand out here that is clear:

• Most African Americans worker makes on average $8 to $12 dollars an hour.

• African Americans at large spend every dollar they earn as consumers.

• The causes can be found in the lack of leadership, a proactive education, self-knowledge and entrepreneurial mentality in the African American community at large.

• Racism and Nepotism is only a minor component concerning poverty in the African American community in Jacksonville less than 30 %.

Where is African American leadership concerning this issue of net-worth in the African Americans Family? Where are the monthly seminars, community church meetings, and the Blueprint for Prosperity Plan for the city at large?

My main point is the major injustice to African Americans in this city is self-inflicted.  There are some African American Leaders whom has deceived and taken advantage of the spiritually mis-educated African American communities in Jacksonville and the nation. It appears as though the African American Leadership can be brought for a few million dollars in this city. The materialistic mentality of the leadership is self-centered in words, action and deeds.

The "Cost of Inequality" will examine findings disclosed in Beyond the Talk: Improving Race Relations, the landmark JCCI finding completed in 2002. The findings included the following statistics:

• 44% of black households in Duval County earned income below $15,000, compared to 19 % of white households and 15% of Asian households.

• 67% of black students in Duval County public schools participate in the free or reduced-cost lunch program. That figure compares to 27% and 55% participation for white and Hispanic students, respectively.

• During the past decade, through baby boom times and bust, black unemployment rates have remained more than twice the rate of white unemployment.

• In 1999, white male professionals earned an average of 33 % more than black male professionals.

• According to the 2000 U.S. Census, median income for white households was 45 % greater than for black households.

• In its 2001 fiscal year, the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission processed 178 charges of race-based employment discrimination. Black workers filed 64 % of all discrimination complaints.

The Cost of Inequality is made possible in part by the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission and produced in cooperation with JCCI and Florida Community College Jacksonville (FCCJ).

What really catches my eye is the fact that African American male professionals still earned 33 % less than white male professionals. Stay with me for a minute, I'm trying to understand the mentality of African American Leadership. Our best and brightest African American male/female professionals attend 4 to 8 years of colleges to get a job. The best and the brightest of any nationality career goals must be to create wealth and jobs for its people through the free enterprise system.

Case in Point: Education

According to the National Advisory Committee of Duval, 47% of the parents are illiterate and unable to assist their children; if they can't read, they can't recognize the markers that direct them to upward mobility. 

The African American Leadership concern for education is non-existence in this city. Education is the key component in the survival, growth, prosperity and legacy of any nationality. The African American Leaderships does not have a plan or primary agenda to embrace or empower education as the key component for self-equality and self-empowerment. For the most, African American Leadership in Jacksonville, since post civil rights, has played a major part in destroying the African American family at large. African American Leadership has developed a class division in the community based on income and your position in city government and the mega-churches. This is one of the major causes of the disconnections of the African American leadership from the community.

Solution:

Equality is not a gift. Equality is self-made and maintain by singleness of purpose.

African Americans having one mind, one goal, and one mission is the only way to possess equality, respect, happiness, and political power through controlling wealth.

If we are to waken from the abyss of destruction in the African American family and legacy, African Americans one and only goal in this city and country is to embrace education as mandatory for the next 10 years. A proactive school education begins at 3 year old continue for a lifetime. 

The whole community must sign on to this worthy endeavor today as outlined below:

• Focus on African American History for youth 3 to 6 years in neighborhood churches and graduation requirement for all middle school students.

• The city and media need to highlight adult education programs and classes for all citizens in this city, i.e. parenting, free reading and math classes, home economics, personal finance, single parenting seminars and social functions for parents and their children.  

• African Americans must take it among us to educate our youths and adults who are falling behind. It's our duty to take advantage of opportunities i.e. FCCJ, University of North Florida (UNF), and Edward Waters College (EWC) available to us in Jacksonville.

In closing, regardless of the open racism, nepotism, lack of African American businesses and spiritual leadership in Jacksonville. It's our duty as African Americans to educate ourselves so we can rebuild our families net worth, decrease divorces, address health issues, and to teach our youth the honor of discipline and respect for self and others.

African American Leaders need to come down from the mountaintop now and lead, follow or get the hell out of the way.  

Sociology of Religion of W.E.B. Du Bois.

... Behold ... the Black Churches of America...

Their five millions of members in 40,000 groups, holding $200,000,000 in their hands, are the most strongly organized body among us ... what is this church doing today toward its primary task of teaching men right and wrong, and the duty of doing right? The flat answer is nothing if not less than nothing. Like other churches and other religions of other peoples and ages, our church has veered off on every conceivable side path, which interferes with and nullifies its chief duty of character building. It has built up a body of dogma and fairy tale, fantastic fables of sin and salvation, impossible creeds and impossible demands for unquestioning belief and obedience.

He criticized black urban churches for catering to the better off and betraying the "working man", and for taking too great a portion of poor families' income, money which would be better used for more pressing needs, such as better housing (Du Bois 1967[1899]:xiii, 185). Throughout The Negro church (1903), he included multiple portraits of black ministers as ignorant, drunken, unlearned, dishonest, and immoral. But Du Bois's harshest criticisms in the realm of religion were reserved for white Christianity. Throughout his life, Du Bois noted how white American racism played itself out in the religious sectors of society. "A nation's religion is its life," he declared, "and as such white Christianity is a miserable failure" (Du Bois 1970b: 309)

And furthermore:

When the [white] church meets the Negro problem, it writes itself down as a deliberate hypocrite and systematic liar. It does not say "Come unto me all ye that labor:" it does not say "love its neighbor as itself"; it does not welcome "Jew and Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, bond and free;" and yet it openly and blatantly professes all this... the church has opposed every great modem social reform; it opposed the spread of democracy, universal education, trade unionism, the abolition of poverty, the emancipation of women . . .. and the emancipation of the Negro slave (Du Bois 1970b:217).

The truth will set you free…