Urban League Education Forum Series Gets Off to Heated Start

Urban League Education Forum Series Gets Off to Heated Start
Story & fotos by José Pérez

Last week, a first-time partnership between different Urban League chapters across Florida kicked off a series of town hall style meetings to discuss an increasingly talked-about aspect of education both in the state and nationwide.   The “We Care” campaign started the first trio of a scheduled eight fori being held in cities in South, Central and North Florida.  Organized by local chapters of the Urban League and proponents of "school choice," The campaign had its first meeting at the Urban League of Miami amid a packed house of concerned residents, curious citizens, and members of the United Teachers of Dade. 

The Miami meeting was followed on consecutive nights by meetings in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale respectively.   

While the panelists assembled for the fori were fairly consistent, the tone and timbre of each meeting was markedly different.   Whereas the Palm Beach edition was quieter and the Fort Lauderdale forum was reserved and mostly light-hearted, the Miami meeting was contentious and inflamed as members of the audience, which was comprised mostly of teachers, and panelists clashed verbally and ideologically over each side’s perspective on the future of public education in Florida.   

T. Willard Fair, long-time head of Miami’s Urban League, opened the meeting with a outline for not just the first meeting but all 8 events throughout the state.  “The recipe for survival happens to be education,” said Fair who pointed out that “this is the first time that all 8 Urban Leagues” from Florida have coordinated efforts in such a manner.

Another panelist was Isha Haley, Executive Director of Black Floridians CARE.   Haley’s organization is focused, she said, on leadership in charter schools.  “We want to prepare black leaders for charter schools.”

“Leadership starts in our community,” said Haley who added that she has been “building this organization for a year and a half” but its origins actually date back over fifteen years earlier.  According to state records, Black Floridians CARE is the amended name of Floridians for School Choice.  Fair has been on the Board for the corporation since 2004. 

Nationwide, the Urban League has been supportive of charter schools dating back to 2000 when the National Urban League expressed its support of a pro-charter school bill in Washington State.   The Urban League has charter schools in Madison, Wisconsin and Pittsburgh.

As the tension in the Miami meeting escalated, Haley insisted that “we’re not here to advocate for any particular option” yet the composition of the panel was telling.   Fedrick Ingram, President United Teachers of Dade, observed that “we have a large private interest here.  On this stage there all types of charter school interests.”

At the Fort Lauderdale meeting, Haley restated her nonprofit’s goal of “creating talent pipeline” for black leaders of charter schools.    At this meeting, she mentioned that plans were under way for a proposed T. Willard Fair Fellowship which would identify 15 fellows to learn the business of and be groomed for opening and operating black-owned charter schools.   Haley and others were mum on the details promising, instead, more details leading up the expected launch of the program in January 2014

Troy Bell of StudentsFirst, shed light on Haley’s and Fair’s focus.   Bell said that there are currently 5,000 charter schools in the United States.  Only 3% of those charter schools are black-owned and/or –operated but 60% of the students enrolled in charter schools nationwide are black. 

Another panelist chosen for the We Care Campaign was Glen Gilzean from Step Up for Students.  “We provide scholarships” to private schools, Gilzean said, “for those families that want a religious education.”

Antonio White, a teacher and member of the UTD present at the Miami meeting, was not happy with what he was hearing.  “I don’t want my public dollars to go to private companies.”

At the Fort Lauderdale meeting, Shirley Baker asked Gilzean about the source of Step Up for Students’ funding.  “We raise the money through private donations” in exchange for tax credits, he replied.  

Federal tax documents from 2011 indicate that Step Up for Students spent $178,207 in on “lobbying” expenses.

Gilzean then touted a benefit of the private school option.  “Charters have to go through the school district. The State of Florida is really friendly to private schools.”  He added that there is  “no oversight…you can open up your own school in 30 days.”

The biggest source of tension seemed to be ideological.  

In his opening remarks in Fort Lauderdale, Bell mentioned “the founder of our organization” but did not actually say her name.  When the name of StudentsFirst’s founder, the controversial Michelle Rhee, was mentioned by White during the Miami meeting, Fair refused to indulge it saying that she was not present at the meeting.  Books with her name and photograph, however, were prominently displayed at a StudentFirst information table at the Fort Lauderdale meeting.


In an article published in late 2012 by Salon.com, StudentsFirst “backed” 105 candidates for political office that election and over 85% were conservatives.    According to income tax returns filled by StudentsFirst in Pennsylvania in 2011, “the purpose of Students First…is to support political candidates who are running for statewide office…who support charter schools and voucher programs.”

Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) study was cited by organizers on one side of the issue and supporters of public education on the opposite side.  “Only 17% of charter schools do better than public schools,” said Catherine Kim Owens, a parent in attendance, referencing the CREDO report.  Bell disagreed saying that the study showed that that figure was only for the first three years that a charter school is open.

Former Broward School Superintendent Jim Notter, who abruptly retired in 2011 in the aftermath of a grand jury charges of rampant corruption during his tenure, was also present at the Fort Lauderdale meeting.   Notter, who is also a member of the Urban League of Broward County’s Board of Directors, was visibly impressed by the discussion and enthusiastically offered his support to Haley “I’m available to you because you have a solution.” Before the meeting adjourned, Notter also commented on another benefit to school choice.  “You don’t have to deal with teachers’ unions.”

One teacher who did not want to give her name she she left the Miami meeting “feeling empty.”   

“What purpose did this meeting serve?”  

The teacher, who said she came to the forum trying to find out “what resources are there for the parents” said she was disappointed in the event.  “I could’ve been at home grading papers.”

*To read the article as it was printed in the South Florida Times, please click on this urlink.

Miami Prepares for 2013 March on Washington with a March of its Own

Miami Prepares for 2013 March on Washington with a March of its Own 

Story & Photos by José Pérez

As the historic milestone commerating the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington dawns in just days, leaders in Miami gathered to stage a pre-march against the backdrop of evidence that little has changed for Black America since 1963.

Dr Reverend Carl Johnson, pastor of the 93^rd Street Community Baptist Church which hosted the event, declared during the opening prayer for marchers that “we march for justice, jobs, peace, and freedom. Symbolically, we’re marching to tumble down walls.”

State Representative Cynthia Stafford acknowledged the contributions of people who participated in the 1963 march.   “You were marching for me when you marched for jobs, justice, and freedom.”

The march participants, who numbered approximately 200 people, began the procession with those at the front of the group singing “We’ve Come this Far by Faith” while only murmurs , good-natured laughs and Sunday morning gossip cascaded over the shuffle of feet at the rear.  The marchers paraded past abandoned houses and empty lots that dotted the landscape amidst proud houses and manicured lawns in North Central Miami-Dade County, many holding open umbrellas for relief from the strong August sun that was beating down upon them, some in their Sunday best, others in t-shirts and shorts, but all moving forward.

 

Goodwill Ambassadors from Miami-Dade County were passing out water at stations along the way to provide some relief for participants on a humid morning.

Also, PICO United Florida hosted a community prayer and march at Greater Bethel AME Church  in Overtown this week.  The event at Greater Bethel was a bon voyage ceremony for a tour that is scheduled to make stops and hold similar events along the way to Washington, DC in Sanford and Orlando, Florida, Atlanta and Durham, North Carolina.   The bus tour en route to this week’s March on Washington also pledged calling attention to ongoing civil rights and economic troubles for minorities in the United States.

Activist Ron Fulton, an uncle of the slain Miami Gardens teenager Trayvon Martin, participated in the march at the 93^rd Street Baptist Church to fulfill a promise.  “I made a commitment a long time ago to do everything I can do to bring equal and fairness to our justice system and our community.  I’m hoping that this will be the start of civil rights and economic change.”

Speaking of the large divide between what he called the “haves and have nots,” Fulton expressed concern over possible backlash to any change that may come from entrenched sectors of the country. “It’s already dangerous because certain people don’t want to change.”

Algernon Austin, a researcher for the Economic Policy Institute, published figures that lends credence to Fulton’s statements. Those figures are sobering.  

Austin found that almost 50% of “poor black children live in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty.”

Additionally, wrote Austin, the same relative percentage of black grade school students (approximately 75%) attend “majority black schools” today as they did over forty years earlier.  Most of these de facto segregated schools are not on equal footing in terms of resources as schools with a majority of white students. 

 Austin’s research also revealed that unemployment figures for both blacks and whites have gone virtually unchanged since 1963, hovering at a 2 to 1 ratio.  The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) study also showed that the 2012 jobless rate for blacks (14%) is higher than the unemployment rate for the entire United States during the Great Depression (13%).

But having a job has not necessarily been good news either.  Austin’s work looked at how the past half century has not shown improvement for black workers in lower paying jobs.   The EPI report found that “after adjusting for inflation, the minimum wage today—$7.25—is worth $2.00 less than in 1968, and is nowhere close to a living wage.”

Signe-Mary McKernan and Caroline Ratcliffe of the Urban Institute found that “the average wealth of white families was $230,000 higher than the average wealth of black and Hispanic families in 1983. This gap grew to over $500,000 by 2010.”

It was in this context that the march was held in Miami as a precursor for the main celebration of the important civil rights milestone in Washington, D.C. 

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Audrey Edmonson and others pointed out that there are still battles to fight to achieve true equality and justice in the United States.  “We still need to fight and get together.”

Melonie Burke, a representative for Edmonson’s colleague on the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners, Jean Monestime, echoed that sentiment.  “It doesn’t stop.”

State Senator Dwight Bullard made the drive up from his home district in South Dade to join the rally held in front of 93^rd Street Community Baptist Church and offered contextual perspective.   “Let’s understand what we’re doing here.  We represent the manifestation of that dream so our commitment is to understand that our job is not done.”

Those comments about what Stafford referred to as a “dream deferred,” borrowing from poet Lorraine Hansberry, harkened back to the almost prophetic analysis of the 1963 march by Malcolm X.    In writing in his autobiography about the event and describing self-serving  individuals within the black community at the time (“the status seeker”) and the machinations of insincere whites in power at that time, X said somberly that “the black masses in America were--and still are--having a nightmare.”

This weekend in Washington, D.C. marks a second chance for the leaders and people of the United States to get it right and realize the dream made famous by Martin Luther King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

*To read the published version of this article as printed in the South Florida Times, please click on this urlink.

'Facing the Rising Sun' - Middle Passage Remembrance Ceremony Held on Virginia Key

Middle Passage Remembrance Ceremony Held on Virginia Key

Story & photograph by José Pérez

As the astronomical phenomenon of the “super full moon” faded in the dark warmth of the early summer sky, drums greeted the dawning sun in the east, rising over the waters of Biscayne Bay.   Standing firm against a strong wind blowing from the south, a circle of people gathered in remembrance of untold millions of people that did not survive the ocean crossing between Africa and the Americas during the era of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, just yards from a sea turtle’s nest.

The gathering was not a random nor coincidental meeting on a Miami beach.  It was the continuation of what has become a special South Florida tradition:   the annual Middle Passage Remembrance Ceremony. This year’s edition was held last Sunday morning on historic Virginia Key. 

“It’s in honor of the millions of people that lost their lives because of the slave trade,” said Robert McKnight, a local artist who has been actively involved with the event for many years.   “It’s a chance to pay tribute, a way to pay homage to the ancestors that passed during that trip.”

Altine, another local artist and a woman of great energy who started the Remembrance Ceremony on the first day of Kwanzaa in 1993, said the event has grown greatly since its first year at Haulover Park Beach in Northeast Miami-Dade County. “Now we have Key West, and people all over the country” are hosting their own remembrance ceremonies.   For example, San Francisco, New Orleans, Charleston, Philadelphia, Pensacola, and Yorktown, Virginia all remember the countless humans whose remains abide in the murky depths of the ocean that brought the marauding caravels to the coasts of Africa for centuries.   There is even an underground memorial – a circle of statues - in the clear blue waters of the Caribbean nation of Grenada. “If we don’t remember them, who will?” asked Altine, who has had the remembrance on Virginia Key since 1994 with the support of organizations like the Kuumba Artists’ Collective and the Virginia Key Park Trust.

Ironically, a few months after Altine organized the first remembrance ceremony in Miami, UNESCO officially launched the International Slave Route Project at a conference in Benin.

The early morning ceremony is in honor of the “many people [that] died that were never properly buried,” said Dinizulu Gene Tinnie.  “It is a time to pause and reflect on this whole passage of history that did take place.”

Catherine Hummingbird Ramirez, an ancestral queen of the Carib nation, offered a spiritual cleansing for everyone in the circle with a lotion made out of plants, moving in a counter-clockwise direction.  She then offered a blessing for the ancestors in “each of the four directions.”  

“The ancestors are here,” said Hummingbird. “They’re listening.”

Hummingbird then lit white Garifuna sage – “a powerful medicine” – and reversed her direction, moving clockwise around the circle allowing the incense smoke to blow upon all.    As she did so, she led those gathered in a greeting to Pachamaná, Mother Earth, and together they called on the Great Spirit to “bless the ancestors that were coming on those boats.”

The participation of Hummingbird is an important symbol.  “She’s the connection between the ancestors that were here before everyone else came,” said McKnight.  Indeed, many present spoke of the relationship between Seminoles and the Africans they helped escape to freedom along the almost unknown southern route of the Undeground Railroad which ran just a few miles from where everyone was gathered last week.   “They’ve always been a part” of the remembrance, added Altine, who started the tradition with a Miccosukee tribal leader.  “They’re keepers of the land.”

Tinnie and others passed around ears of corn to everyone in the circle.  “Corn is a sacred plant, it does not grow wild,” said Tinnie.  These would be given as offerings in memory of the deceased.

“Facing the Rising Sun”

With corn in their hands, those present sang along with performance artist Omilani who offered “a song for the people of the [African] diaspora” in the Afro-Puerto Rican rhythm of bomba.  With lyrics in English and Spanish, Omilani sang of “a whole lotta freedom in my heart and soul…tengo liberacion en mi corazon” (I have freedom in my heart).   Pelicans glided overhead on the warm tradewinds as the song remembered the victims of the Middle Passage:   “I left a trail of blood all across the ocean.”

More songs were sung, each having lyrics that evoked the spirit of remembrance. 

Finally, the familiar strains of “Wade in the Water” began and, with that, came the signal to bring forth the offerings that would be carefully placed upon a palm frond raft made that morning on the beach with the blade of a machete by Tinnie, McKnight, and Marlon Moore.   The offerings included apples, oranges, malanga, whole pineapples, okra, plantains, slices of watermelon, rice, ñame, and the corn distributed to everyone.

“We encourage offerings to remember what these ancestors would have enjoyed,” said Tinnie.

Longtime participants of the Middle Passage Remembrance had spoken all morning of special occurrences that happen every time they come together to pay respects to the ancestors.  “Every year there’s a sign,” said McKnight.  He and Hummingbird spoke of a rain cloud a few years earlier that passed overhead shaped like the hull of a long-ago ship but “shed no tears.”

“The spiritual leaders tell you that’s confirmation,” affirmed Altine.

As the offerings were carried out into the sea by volunteers, others on the shore saw dolphins nearby breaching the surface of the water to get a closer look. 

For many present, the occasion to remember the nameless Africans buried beneath the waves also served to kindle spiritual feelings and remembrances of loved ones recently passed.  Kiesha, a professional from New England who recently moved to Miami, said she felt “overwhelmed” during the ceremony.  “This was a chance to feel something deep inside of me and get in touch with my ancestors.”

McKnight said that with the recent passing of some of his relatives during the previous 12 months, this year’s remembrance ceremony had added meaning.   “It brings it closer to home.” 

“The remembrance is a new beginning to call on my ancestors to help me get through another year.”

Kiesha also took time to remember her mother who passed thirteen years earlier, on the very same day.

For organizers, the event is a celebration of humanity.   “It welcomes everybody,” said Tinnie.   McKnight agreed, who said that the ceremony “is a way of paying homage to all of the ancestors.”

The remembrance is also a validation of resilience.  “You can’t kill our spirit,” said Hummingbird.

There was one more sign observed by participants.  Throughout the ceremony, a small squadron of frigate birds were literally floating over the circle of people on the warm winds blowing to the north.  Frigate birds are normally seen only by ships and, when the ceremony ended, they flew away.

*To read the printed version of this article, please click on this urlink. 

'A Unique Aspect' - An Interview with MDPD’s Director Patterson

'A Unique Aspect' - An Interview with MDPD’s Director Patterson

story & fotos by José Pérez

In the Social Work Dictionary, Dr. Robert Barker defines resiliency as “the human capacity … to deal with crises, stressors, and normal experiences in an emotionally and physically healthy way.”   That definition seems be embodied in the person of Miami-Dade Police Department Director J. D. Patterson.   Exhibiting resilience and channeling it into excellence has served Patterson well, dating back to long before he began his 28 year career with one of the United States’ largest police departments. 

“I was brought up in a violent family,” Patterson shared with no hesitation during an interview at MDPD’s headquarters in Doral.  “I come from a dysfunctional background – still do as a matter of fact,” said Patterson, who is the only person in his immediate family to have graduated from high school.   That dysfunction was so much a part of Patterson’s life growing up in Brownsville that his first research paper was a report he wrote on alcoholism – as a fifth grader.

Indeed, that “effective coping style” that Barker says is resilience allowed Patterson develop a keen awareness of human beings and how they express their needs which explains a lot about his approach to law enforcement.  “I realized that violence was not very productive,” said Patterson who described himself as someone who “would have been [labeled as] ‘at-risk’” as child growing up in Miami. 

Patterson, however, made no apologies about his experiences.  In fact, he seems to embrace them.   “It makes my empathy a little stronger,” said Patterson, “especially towards children.” 

Because he sees both physical and verbal violence as “destructive to everything,” Patterson said that “violence is not acceptable at any time.”   Patterson recognizes the “emotional nature of violence” and the universal human emotion of anger but there are alternatives to violent expressions of anger.  “We all get mad,” commented Patterson, “but if they don’t want to talk about a problem, they should go to jail” if people resort to violence.

Patterson is not, however, a proponent of an exclusively punitive approach to law enforcement.   “I see crime as a symptom, an indication of a problem,” said Patterson, who added that “violence is our greatest problem.”  He is particularly concerned about violent crimes among Miami-Dade County’s youth.   “We have to break the cycle” of violence, said Patterson.

Patterson spoke about alternatives to violent expressions of emotion such as organized sports programs and professional therapeutic interventions.  He also mentioned plans to organize town hall meetings to explore and discuss different resources for alternatives to violence in the community.

Still, Patterson’s window for getting things started under his watch is a small one.  He had already submitted his paperwork for retirement when he was named acting director to replace outgoing director James Loftus last autumn (“I was hoping he’d stay longer,” said Patterson of his predecessor).   “I’m not going to be here forever,” said Patterson who is scheduled to retire in three years.  Patterson added, that “the reality is that the department needs to start developing young future leaders,” especially with so many of his colleagues that started with him during a hiring boom in the early 1980’s will retiring with him. 

With a finite period of time before he, too, must ride off into the sunset, is there someone in the Department’s current ranks that can successfully

succeed Patterson?  “I want to believe that,” replied Patterson.    “I think that some leaders are born and some leaders are made.” 

Who could that future director be?  Patterson was too focused on the tasks before him to even begin to speculate on who that might be but he did speak of an interesting possibility for Miami-Dade County.   Describing himself as “the right man at the right time,” Patterson added that he thinks that “there will be a right woman at the right time.”

“Miami-Dade’s time is coming.”

Given the time he has to do his job as director, Patterson’s sense of urgency to get involved and make progress appears to dovetail with the community’s hurry to address pressing issues of crime and violence.   “I’ve been an intervener all of my life,” said Patterson who is also a minister as well as a cop. “It is a unique aspect to what I do.”

*please click here to read the printed version of this article.

Mayor Meets with Edison Towers Residents to Discuss Crime

Mayor Meets with Edison Towers Residents to Discuss Crime

Story & photographs by José Pérez

In a political landscape where well-heeled super-interests seem to have all of our elected officials’ attention, the thought of a regular citizen, an average Joe having the mayor of a major city come to speak to a group of senior citizens seems to be merely the stuff of which Frank Capra movies are made.    But things are not always as they seem and, yes, an average Joe can make things happen –even when his name is not really Joe.

James Stubbs, of the Edison Towers Tenant Association in Liberty City, spent most of the past summer – about three to four months – lobbying to get the mayor and the police chief to come speak at one of that group’s monthly meetings about concerns over crime in the area.  Specifically, the residents wanted to press directly for the assignment of a permanent, full-time beat cop to patrol the stretch of NW 7^th Avenue that runs between 54^th and 62^nd Streets.

“We’ve had quite a few robberies,” said Stubbs.   A retired Miami police officer, Stubbs ran through a list of recent crimes that have affected the area:  a bank heist, a stabbing at a bus stop, a smash & grab theft at a gas station, and even the shooting of an off duty police officer during a robbery – outside of his church.

Stubbs’ efforts were partially successful as Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado came to last week’s resident meeting at Edison Towers but not Police Manuel Orosa (who had to cancel shortly before) to address those concerns.  Regalado brought with him a few members of his staff and two police commanders in lieu of the chief (Commander Dana Carr from the Model City NET Office spoke with residents, too).  The importance of the chief’s participation was simple:  “Only the chief of police can authorize a beat cop assignment,” said Stubbs.

Mayor: ‘I will talk to the chief about the beat cop’

Regalado wasted little time in answering the biggest question of the evening.  “Yes! I will talk to the chief about the beat cop,” declared Regalado.  “People are complaining about it and the police department is doing something about it.”

“I guarantee to have more officers reassigned from desk jobs and more new hires will be deployed,” promised Regalado to the Tenants’ Association.  “In the next weeks, there will be more police visibility here.”

For people in attendance like Angela Kelly, Vice President of the Tacolcy Economic Development Corporation, the mayor’s guarantee was good to hear but, as she told Regalado, “it takes commitment.”

Citing both history (“we used to have a beat cop here”) and basic dollars and cents (“we would like to continue to develop the economic base for the 7^th Avenue Corridor”), Kelly echoed what Stubbs had alluded to at the beginning of the meeting about allocation of resources.   For example, the area formerly known as Wynwood and now dubbed the Midtown Design District has two beat cops around the clock. “I don’t understand how other communities have beat cops and we don’t,” asked Kelly.

Regalado’s message – and promise – were what residents wanted to hear.   “Let us try because we [Chief Orosa & Regalado] are trying to work with all residents,” said the mayor.   “We are working for the present and the future.”

And does Regalado have confidence that Orosa will back up his pledge?  “I trust him,” said Regalado.

“So do I,” said Stubbs.

*To read the print version of this article, please click on this urlink.

"Miami's Black Republicans Feel Shut Out"

‘This is a Democracy’ -  Miami’s Black Republicans Feel Shut Out

 (text and photos by J. PÉREZ)

Barbara Howard —Miami Times photo/Jose Perez

What do James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston and current Florida Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll all have in common?   The same thing as 7,746 people in Miami-Dade County:  they are all Black Floridians who also happen to be Republicans.   That begs more questions:  Who are Miami-Dade County’s Black Republicans, why are they Republicans, and are they really “Black”?  After all, with a Black Democrat serving all of the United States as President, does being Republican make one “less” Black?

Ted Lyons, for instance, has been a registered member of the “Grand Ole Party” since 1978.    A proud graduate of Florida’s only public historically Black college, Florida A&M University, Lyons describes himself as “one of the happiest persons in America to have a black family in the White House.”  And he knows a little more about the White House than most:  Lyons served in the federal government for eight years during the Reagan administration as did the late Arthur Teele, who was another prominent Black Republican in Miami after finishing his tenure in Washington, D.C.

For Lyons and others, the decision to be Republican or even just the decision not to be a Democrat should not even be an issue.   “We have to participate in both parties,” says Lyons, who is currently serving as the public relations chair for the Miami-Dade County Republican Party (which currently numbers just over 371,000 members across the county).  T. Willard Fair, longtime chair of Miami’s Urban League says plainly, “I sympathize with what is best for my community.”  

The notion that being a Republican undermines one’s “Blackness” is one that rankles many.  Sitting in her living room, abundantly adorned with artwork from across the vast African continent and a with a biography of Nelson Mandela on her coffee table, Barbara Howard says she has been painted as a “persona non grata…public enemy number one” in the community.   “Why do you call me names?  I thought we were free,” asks Howard, who came of age just outside of Montgomery, Alabama as that city was becoming ground zero for the expanding civil rights movement in this country. 

It was not so long in our country’s history that all of the states south of the Mason-Dixon Line (including Florida) were Southern Democratic strongholds, controlled for generations by the so-called “Dixiecrats.”   Men like Orval Faubus in Arkansas, James Eastland in Mississippi, and George Wallace and Bull Connor in Alabama were proud and prominent members of the Democratic Party.  Conversely, people like Ida B. Wells, James Meredith, Frederick Douglass, and Martin Luther King, Sr. were just but a few of many Black Republicans across the country. 

Fair, Howard, and Lyons all point to synchronicity of views on families and family values with the Republican Party as big reasons why they each believe that the GOP has the answers to what is ailing Black Miami.   “There is nothing broken in Liberty City that can’t be fixed with whole families,” says Fair - who is long-time registered independent voter.   Ironically, Fair’s statement echoes a very similar sentiment voiced decades ago by T. R. M. Howard who, in spite of being a Black Republican, was credited as being a powerful mentor for both Medgar Evers and Fannie Lou Hamer.

Also important to many Black Republicans is need for political plurality as a way to ensure that the needs of the Black community are not subject to whoever is in office.   Likening the long-standing “Blacks are automatically Democrat” paradigm in the American political scene to “a beauty contest,” Lyons argues that “there is no real debate in our community – we’re just supposed to vote democrat.” 

“This is a democracy, a system that allows you to speak your mind,” said Lyons.

In article published a few weeks ago in the Miami Times, H. T. Smith said  that “Blacks’ relationship with the [Democratic] Party is akin to a domestic violence situation — the Democrats continue to abuse us but we insist on staying with them and remaining fully committed.”  Fair believes that this collective relationship with the Democratic Party is rooted in “insecurity.”

“Racism - in practice - dehumanizes, therefore Blacks make decisions based on insecurity which is rooted in a lack of acceptance,” said Fair.  

Additionally, the potential for alienation from friends, relatives, and neighbors adds to this dynamic.  “There are tens of thousands [of Blacks] that subscribe to Republican philosophy but are afraid to say so,” continued Fair.   Lyons and Howard each believe that this ideological prejudice denies Black Republicans equal voice and thus undermines American democracy.  “We need to be able to share our opinion,” said Lyons, including Black-owned newspapers that “don’t allow Black Republicans to have their say on a regular basis.”

For many non-Democratic Black citizens of Miami-Dade County, the real issue centers on common issues for all.  “At the end of the day, what is in the best interest for Black folks?” asked Fair.

By José Pérez
Miami Times writer
joseperez.miamitimes@gmail.com

@PerezMiamiTimes

#   http://miamitimesonline.com/the-elusive-black-republican/

"3-Way Power Play" for Little Haiti Cultural Center

3-Way Power Play

Big Clouds Hang Over Little Haiti Cultural Center

Story and Photographs by José  Pérez

September 2, 2010 | SunPost Weekly (Miami)

A summer afternoon just off of Little Haiti’s main drag finds children engaged in an artists’ round table discussion and other kids putting together remote control robots. As small hands and growing minds brainstorm how to make their 21st Century Tinker Toys motor across the carpeted floor of the modern classroom, the children are oblivious of the storm clouds of uncertainty gathering over the Little Haiti Cultural Center, where all of these activities and more are taking place.

The Little Haiti Cultural Center is a brand-new jewel of a public facility originally proposed by late Miami City Commissioner Arthur Teele located just off the intersection of NE 2d Avenue and 59th Street.  With one year officially behind them, the LHCC has started making a mark on Miami’s cultural scene, providing a community venue and voice for both professional and aspiring artists. While that might be true from a public standpoint, the center and its staff are having to deal with concerns in Little Haiti that the LHCC is not directly serving the needs of its residents. And then there is the not so discreet behind-the-scenes plans to turn over control of the Center to outside entities.

In a small office that overlooks both the Little Haiti Cultural Center’s colorful courtyard and the lobby outside of its cozy yet popular amphitheatre (LHCC staff are proud to point out that Vice-President Joe Biden has already graced the amphitheatre with his presence) sits the desk of Anita Darbonne, the City of Miami’s Dance Coordinator. The desk and office of Darbonne are always easier to find than Darbonne herself. An energetic and graceful woman who has thrown herself into making sure the programs at the center are a success. Darbonne arrived at the LHCC shortly after it opened with experience not only as a professional dancer but also as the head of a successful private dance company in California.

When  Darbonne  started at the center, she was surprised to learn that the city had no dance program.  “Miami offers so much culture, it has so much to offer,” she says, “I was blown away.”  Darbonne, a Miami native who grew up within walking distance of the LHCC in the Sabal Palm neighborhood, sees the potential and envisions a day soon – within the next three years – when an internationally-recognized dance company will be based at the LHCC.  With that vision she sees the feasibility, the necessity of a place where people from throughout Miami can come together to learn about each other through the nurtured interchange of cultural expression.  “My thing is bringing the people together so they can learn to respect each other a whole lot more,” says Darbonne.

That vision is shared by the City of Miami’s Parks and Recreation Department which is the department that oversees the LHCC.  “Everything we do,” says Lara DeSouza, spokesperson for Parks and Rec, “our mission, is leisure and recreational opportunities that are available for everyone.”

And that brings us back to the center where the going has been difficult. While the center has been used for events that have been well-attended, most if not all of those events have been “rentals” which are used by specific – usually wealthier – people in the community and most if not all of those rentals are either private affairs and are too expensive for many local residents to attend.

While rentals have a place at the Little Haiti Cultural Center, the mission of the LHCC or any other community-based, tax-funded cultural center is to provide established programs for residents of the immediate and surrounding communities.  “Programming” provides more community access than rentals which, in essence, take up community space and resources.   This year alone, the LHCC has offered programs in dance, photography, television production, French language instruction, and so on.  The programs for youth have been for children aged 6 to 16 and they have been free of charge with families paying only a one-time $20 registration fee to help defray administrative costs (which is always important for a municipal entity in a city that is so deeply in debt that it has been on a hiring freeze for all of the current fiscal year and has also enacted a purchasing freeze since last winter).

So how was the community participation for these events so far? According to Darbonne, attendance was a big concern up until the last moment. With no money in the budget for marketing, there was no effective way of letting the community know about any of the programs (LHCC staff have had to rely heavily on “guerrilla marketing” tactics like email blasts and face-to-face outreach at local businesses and schools).  Ultimately, the classes were filled up but all were “last second maxes.” The LHCC was also hamstrung by not having a transportation budget which limited participation in the programs to either children who live close enough to the center to walk safely or by children whose parents have the means and time to drop off and pick up day camping children.

This brings us back to concerns within Little Haiti that that the Little Haiti Cultural Center is a community jewel usurped by outsiders. This concern dates back to even before the LHCC opened its doors. Lucie Tondreau, a local activist and attorney, says that many in the area were upset that Cuban contractors were employed to build the center structure instead of Haitian workers.

 Center staff point out that the LHCC’s mission focuses on expressions of Afro-Caribbean art and culture, not exclusively Haitian yet they also state they have gone out into Little Haiti speaking with business owners and students in area schools.  The obstacles of perceptions and reality are ones that Darbonne and Rasha Cameau, Director of the Center, are confident will be reconciled soon.   For example, the perception is that Haitian youth want to learn Haitian folkloric dance.  The reality, says Darbonne, is that many of the children are saying that they want to learn ballet or jazz.  Of course, for children who are not Haitian, the interest in and desire to learn about contre-danze, rara, and other dance styles is something that can be met at the LHCC.  DeSouza adds that the LHCC is a “multi-tiered center [which] is a great destination no matter who you are.”

But, back to the ongoing debate between programming and rentals.  “Programming to me is more important than rentals,” says Darbonne who points out that, via a regular dance program at the LHCC, children who are being home-schooled can earn physical education credits as just one example of how a truly viable cultural center in the community benefits the community.

But with the aforementioned city-wide budget crunch, how can the LHCC keep the programs it has now afloat, much less build itself into a vibrant and celebrated cultural center?  Cameau, who first started at the City of Miami as an employee of City Hall, says that funding from grants helps as does partnering with local nonprofits.   She would also like to see the development of a sort of booster club as they are called in athletic circles, a ‘Friends of the Little Haiti Cultural Center’.  Such an idea has merit because it can help take some of the budgetary burden off of the City while still allowing the LHCC to retain the artistic control so vital to any respectable cultural center.

That control is in peril as entities outside of the City of Miami municipal government – in both the public and private sector – have their eyes set on being given the keys to the Little Haiti Cultural Center while the city still foots the bill.

On March 1st of this year, Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado posted an entry on his Twitter page that read “Onmyway to meet with Pres.Rosenberg(FIU) and we will discuss whatwecando for the Little Haiti Culture center [sic].”

When asked about Florida International University’s and President Mark Rosenberg’s interest in the Little Haiti Cultural Center, a university spokesperson stated that Regalado “came to us because we put together a Haiti Task Force after the earthquake [in January of this year].”    Rosenberg even visited the LHCC, she said, in late July “just to visit.”  When asked about the recently-installed president of a large state university struggling through a third year of budget cuts affecting programs, faculty, and students going 17 miles east to visit a cultural center during the work week “just to visit,” the spokesperson remarked, ‘it’s his leadership style.”

Interest in the Little Haiti Cultural Center on the part of FIU is particularly interesting given that dance programs at the school were among the first victims of the budget cuts that, according to the Miami New Times, “slashed 38 faculty jobs, shut six labs, and axed 23 degrees because of a $32 million shortfall.”  The Delou African Dance Ensemble (DADE) and FIU Professor Agosto Soledad’s Brass dance company were part of those cuts and were evicted from FIU after having been in residence at the university for some time.

Ironically, both Delou and Brass have found homes at the Little Haiti Cultural Center.

For Soledad, the irony is especially deep. Soledad came to FIU to be a part of a growing dance program in one of the most ethnically diverse areas of the United States only to see the entire dance program terminated and faculty members “dispersed.”  While the budget cuts that exiled Soledad and the rest of the dance program from FIU were enacted under Rosenberg’s predecessor Modesto Maidique, Soledad is skeptical that a new president at FIU will result in a renewed commitment to dance.  “Dance is not really a part of [Rosenberg’s] vision,” Soledad says.

While the mayor is coyly cup-caking with FIU about the Little Haiti Cultural Center, sources indicate that newly-minted City Commissioner Richard Dunn is allegedly in the midst of a courtship with Jean and Emmanuel “Manny” Cherubin (WSRF-AM 1580, WAVS-AM 1170, and TeleAmerica TV) to assume the same privatized takeover of the LHCC that FIU appears to covet.   The deal is allegedly proposed to work like this:  FIU (Regalado) or the Cherubin group (Dunn) would assume management responsibilities over the LHCC but the City of Miami would still be responsible for “big ticket” repairs (broken air-conditioning, faulty elevator etc.).  Thus, the City of Miami would still be paying for the upkeep of a city-owned facility that would in fact be used privately – or so it would seem.

Emmanuel Cherubin was quoted in an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal almost four years ago that focused on lack of consumer safeguards on local radio stations that “lease” airtime to any one or any business who pays for the airtime.   “Time brokerage” is like a radio version of a television infomercial where listeners think they are listening to a legitimate show with hosts and guests purported to be trustworthy.  Not realizing they are basically listening to a commercial, listeners who fall victim to these tactics have been bilked out of untold sums of hard-earned money.  The article mentions Cherubin in connection with fraudulent programming on leased airtime on a family-owned radio station.  In the article, Cherubin says he “disregarded” the deceptive claims made by lessees to listeners.

Calls to Mayor Regalado’s office, Commissioner Dunn’s office, as well as to the offices of the Cherubins at WSRF radio were not returned.

Not long ago, the mother of a child who had signed up for one of the summer programs offered to children came into the Little Haiti Cultural Center to see Cameau.  When asked if anyone else could help her, she timidly replied, no, she needs to speak with Cameau.  When Cameau returned a few minutes later, the woman explained that her family was having hard time financially and wanted to know if Cameau could refund her the $20 she paid for her child’s registration fees.  Cameau obliged the lady who was very relieved and grateful to have back what may as well have been a million dollars for her.

##  http://www.sunpostweekly.com/2010/09/02/3way/