Our Journey Begins, Here! | #TheBlackWire001
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Our Journey Begins, Here! | #TheBlackWire001
Good Morning Black America, I can’t believe that launch day is finally here for The Black Wire!
So without further undue, I’m just going to let you dig in and see you down in the “Before I Let You Go” section.
Today is Thursday, March 16, 2023. This day is so important to history for a variety of reasons not just because it’s launch day for us. 196 years ago, on this day the first black-owned and operated media company launched to pave the way for the UnBossed! Columbus team as well as myself to be able to write this newsletter. I will tell you more about it in the “This Really Happened Black America” section below.
In this edition of The Black Wire, if you expected to come and get the same ol’ news analysis about the news that you can get from other media outlets, you subscribe to the wrong daily newsletter.
What you can expect from me in this newsletter that comes directly to your inbox is simple as the tagline for The Black Wire that I took directly from the Chicago Defender when it first started: “A Fearless, Honest Champion for Black America.”
I am not going to lie to y’all. It was hard to boil down everything into the three most significant stories I’m watching. If truth be told I am watching 10-to-15 different big stories at any given moment.
The reason why I do a top three list and summarize those stories in 2-3 paragraphs or less is because I realize you don’t have a lot of time to be keeping up with all the nuanced details of all the news. After all, if you did that would put me out of a job 😂.
Here are today’s top three stories:
#1) 3 Columbus Cops, 3 Counties, 4 Days, 1 Question: What's Going On?
Now, yall know we had to begin in Columbus with the top story I am watching.
Officer Robbie Whitlow, Sgt. Melvin Romans and Officer Tylor Nixon are all without their gun and badges as of Tuesday evening, on either restricted duty or leave, a Columbus police spokesperson said.
Yesterday morning, Brian Steel, the executive vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police Local 9 issued this statement on Twitter.
According to The Columbus Dispatch:
Nixon, of Galloway, was pulled over by Gahanna police at 3:09 a.m. Friday on I-270 southbound near Hamilton Road. His breath test showed a blood alcohol content of 0.168, over double the legal limit in Ohio, according to his criminal complaint filed in Franklin Municipal Court.
In addition to his OVI charge, Nixon also faces a felony charge of improperly handling a firearm in a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. A loaded 9 mm handgun was found during the traffic stop, Gahanna police reported. Nixon was released Saturday on his own recognizance on the condition that he does not possess firearms or ammunition
Sgt. Romans was recently promoted to the rank within the last year. Most people will know him from his patrol area in the Linden neighborhood.
But nevertheless, the Sergeant is facing OVI and driving on the right side of road charges in Circleville Municipal Court in Pickaway County after being arrested Sunday morning around 1:20 a.m. by Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Unfourtnely, I can’t leave Officer Robbie Whitlow out of this. Out of the three officers arrested he is the only one who refused to submit to a breathalyzer test. Whitlow is 35 years old and was stopped on Monday around 2:40 a.m. by Ohio State Highway Patrol. He was arrested in Pickerington, according to Fairfield County Municipal Court records.
Bottom line: 3 Columbus Cops, 3 Counties, 4 Days, 1 Question: What's Going On?
The answer to that question is: We all understand policing is a stressful job. We’re just asking as a community the same thing you would ask of us; “Don’t Drink and Drive!”
Two more things:
To the leadership within the Divison, please make an example out of these 3 officers because any one of the 3 incidents could have had a different ending.
Thank you to the Gahanna Police Department and the Ohio State Highway Patrol for showing leadership and accountability to your oath and not to the blue line.
#2) Black Man in White Town: "Big Misunderstanding" or Big Wrongdoing?
A Black Wisconsin Man was racially profiled and wrongfully detained by a Wisconsin police officer while riding in a car with his white grandmother and white friend.
His name is Akil K. Carter, his grandmother Paulette H. Barr, and family friend Sandra K. Adams filed a federal civil rights lawsuit for the 2018 ordeal. The case reached the trial stage this week.
Carter’s attorney told the court the “foundation of this case is freedom” and that citizens are protected by law from “unreasonable seizure.” Police must have reasonable suspicion that a crime is afoot,” and that in this case, based on the facts, there were none.
The fate of the discrimination case is in the hands of an all-white jury of four women and three men.
If Carter and the family win the trial, they seek from the court an award of damages for the emotional distress and trauma he has experienced over the last four and a half years.
The family is also asking for the city to reform its “policies, practices, and procedures to prevent like actions and harms in the future.”
#3) Minnesota GOP State Senator Shocking Claim: I've Never Met Any Poors - Why Kids Don't Need Free Lunch?
Minnesota Republican state Sen. Steve Drazkowski has lost his damn mind, and because of that, I need an explanation. According to Drazkowski, his state should not pass a bill to provide free school breakfast and lunch to children because he's never met any poverty-stricken improvised people.
"I have yet to meet a person in Minnesota that is hungry," Drazkowski said before voting on the legislation. "I have yet to meet a person in Minnesota that says they don't have access to enough food to eat."
"Now, I should say that hunger is a relative term," added Drazkowski. "I had a cereal bar for breakfast. I guess I'm hungry now."
Oh, Helllllllll. Well, there is poverty in Minnesota, and his ignorant ass should know that. It's not hard in 2023 to pick up your phone and say, “Hey, Siri! Can you Google?” Then Siri pulls up the answer for you. Or he could get in his car and drive around and use his eyes and look for his damn self.
My grandmother used to tell me all the time, “Seeing is Believing.”
MinnPost reported last year:
More than 20% of African-Americans and nearly 30% of Native Americans in Minnesota were in poverty. Six of the 23 regions examined had poverty rates higher than 10% and over 10% of Minnesotans age 65-plus were in poverty.
Beginning Monday, I am going to highlight every day a different small black-owned business. Why? Because we need to begin to understand the power of the Black Dollar.
Today, at a time when the buying power of blacks is projected to reach $1.7 trillion by 2030.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. talked about in his Mountaintop speech on April 3, 1968:
“Individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively, that means all of us together, collectively we are richer than all the nation in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? After you leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, West Germany, France and I could name the others, the Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty billion dollars a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? That’s power right there if we know how to pool it.”
On March 16, 1827, Freedom’s Journal, as a four-page, four-column standard-sized weekly, was established the same year that slavery was abolished in New York, and was the first African American-owned and operated newspaper in the United States.
In its early years, it distributed more than 800 copies throughout 11 states and the District of Columbia. It reached as far as Canada, Haïti, and the United Kingdom for an annual subscription cost of $3.00.
Begun by a group of free black men in New York City, the paper served to counter racist commentary published in the mainstream press.
In the inaugural publication, the newspaper editors said, "We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us. Too long has the public been deceived by misrepresentations, in things which concern us dearly...”
Before I let you go, I must tell you one final thing.
Frederick Douglass, the former slave and great abolitionist who founded The NorthStar newspaper, said it was just “common sense that those who suffer injustice are those who must demand redress and, thus, African-American authors, editors, and orators must have their own paper with which to share their voices.” It was Douglass who inspired Robert Abbott in 1905 to found the Chicago Defender, a groundbreaking newspaper that battled white supremacists and segregationists, spoke on behalf of millions of Black Americans and led the Great Migration of Blacks from the South to the North.
It was the great Ida B. Wells who used the power of her pen to fight against lynching, even as she faced mobs that wanted her killed.
But today, we’re seeing fewer voices of color in radio, television, and online media.
Not just on the air but owning. Here we stand 20 years away from the year 2043 when America will become a nation that is majority people of color, and we are still depending on someone else to tell our story. That, I, simply just can’t ALLOW to happen. We must always be in control of our narrative.
While mainstream news organizations have added more diversity on camera and in the executive suite, I am telling you having sources dedicated to Black audiences still matters.
The most important thing we have in Black-owned media is authenticity and trust.
That is what I will thrive every day to bring you through The Black Wire.
Until next time Black America! Remember to keep it real because your conciseness depends on it.