Blought #26: Why Did Trump Meet With Black Pastors Anyway?

Trump (Center) accompanied by Dr. Darrell Scott (right) Courtesy of: USAToday.com

 A few days ago Donald Trump shook up the media and news world when he announced that he had gained the support of 100 Black pastors and religious leaders from all over the country. Not long after that the facts became clear. Only about 50 or so pastors showed up to his meeting at Trump Towers with several of them signing endorsement cards for Trump‘s campaign.

What caught my attention was the fact that two pastors from Ohio were in attendance and here’s why. Ohio is usually a battleground state. Dividing the black vote has become a key strategy for the right wing with gerrymandering. Dr. Darrell Scott of New Spirit Revival Center Ministries Inc. based in Cleveland Heights, Oh was vocal in his support of Trump’s campaign.

He even made several phone calls to Senior Pastor Corletta J. Vaughn of Holy Ghost Cathedral in Detroit to get her on board. Pastor Vaughn declined stating that she felt “uncomfortable” with the meeting at Trump Towers. She said she would be open to meeting with Trump but on her own terms probably in her church so that the presidential candidate can hear her community’s concerns.

Jamal Bryant of Empowerment Temple in Baltimore tweeted "Prostitutes for Trump...don't let black pulpit become a pole". Pastor Scott responded with "If Trump called Black Preachers ‘Prostitutes on a Pole’, the entire nation would be in an uproar! #BlackPreachersMatter" and "For respectable Preachers to be called ‘Prostitutes on a pole’ is very insulting, demeaning, and misogynistic, to say the least." The divide and conquer rule definitely applies here.

Promotional flier for Trump's meeting

Bishop Victor Couzens of Forrest Park, Ohio near Cincinnati also attended the event. He voiced his concern for an apology towards his Black Lives Matter comments and incident at his rally where protester and activist Mercutio Southall was attacked and beaten. Trump stood by his earlier comments and said that he would not issue an apology.

Personally I don’t think Trump owes him an apology. Would you show up to a KKK meeting in a Black Panther uniform? I didn’t think so. Why go to a rival hood and cause disruption? It was sad that he was assaulted but Mr. Southall could have made better judgment.

On Tuesday Roland Martin host of  TV One’s News One Now spoke to Steve Parson PhD and former pastor of the Richmond Christian Center in Richmond, VA. Parson who is a supporter of Trump was on the show to discuss Trump’s plan for the black community. He talked in circles about the tax code until Martin hit him with the facts.

Martin, who recalled on his time as a city hall and county government reporter brought up the statistics that in 2008 black owned small businesses received 8.2% of all small business loans. By 2013 that number had dropped to 1.8% due to the foreclosure crisis that wiped out  53% of black wealth. Martin simply stated “no home, no loan, no collateral” as a cardinal rule of small business loans. Parson was never able to give Martin any straight answers on how a real estate mogul (Trump) couldn’t answer those questions himself.

Martin and Parson squaring off Courtesy of: RolandMartinReports.com

The main point to be taken away isn’t the fact that Trump’s camp spun a story about 100 black pastors meeting with him. It’s the fact that the Black Churches are not the go to leaders of the black community. Black millennials like most millennials don’t cling to faith and religion. Most of our parents are the same way, why do you think we feel the way that we feel?

It reminds me of the South Park episode “With Apologies to Jesse Jackson” where Stan’s dad Randy Marsh went onto the popular game show wheel of fortune. The clue was “People who complain too much.” The spots were N_GGERS. Randy hesitantly shouted “Niggers!” when the answer was actually “Naggers”.

Randy then had to go apologize to Reverend Jesse Jackson. Stan attempted to make peace with his friend and only black kid in School Token who responded with “Jesse Jackson isn’t the emperor of black people.” The same can be said about most religious leaders.

Let’s be honest, black pastors are always caught up in scandal about stealing money from the church. Steve Parson ran his ministry into bankruptcy and lost two luxury cars that he and his son leased with the church’s money. Trump is playing this game as smart as he can. With Rubio rising and Carson fading away it’s getting closer to do or die time for Trump.

Sources:
http://www.npr.org/2015/12/01/457930597/black-pastor-calls-trump-meeting-a-get-played-moment

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/22/politics/donald-trump-black-lives-matter-protester-confrontation/

http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2015/feb/26/pastor-gets-boot/

Blought #20: Responsible Ohio's Oligopoly

Yes on Issue #3 votes by county

Like Drake I’ll admit it, I’ll admit it . Young Langston enjoys smoking the herb. When legalization started to happen in various states around the country I was like “Hell Yeah! We have to be next up.” About a year or so later I heard about a proposition called Responsible Ohio. that would legalize weed in my home state. Sadly as more and more of the facts came out I found myself on the fence.

My pros were simple; legal weed, can’t get arrested for any amount under 10 grams and dispensaries which meant dabs and edibles. The con was all alone but it was a big one. A marijuana monopoly.

You can’t argue it. A group of investors who plan to control all of the production and distribution is a monopoly. Let’s look at John D. Rockefeller. Homeboy owned at one point 90% of the oil production in America during the latter part of the 19th century. His company Standard Oil Company had absorbed almost every one of it’s investors. After that he started buying up railroads to make it easier for him to transport his product.

Actually Issue 3 wasn’t a monopoly at all. It was an oligopoly. It’s the same as a monopoly but the wealth is distributed between a small number of people versus just one person. Experts say this was Responsible Ohio’s intent from the start.

A few other arguments citing race and class made their ways onto my social media feeds. I won’t refute them but I don’t support them either. Business and political insiders around the country realize the failing of Issue 3 had nothing to do with the idea of legalization but rather how we should legalize it. Not allowing a free market was for sure going to kill the bill. Not to mention if Issue 2 passed (which it did) Issue 3 would have been essentially killed had it been voted yes anyway.

Now the lobbyist group is threatening legal action. I don’t know what that would do since Issue 2 is on it’s way to becoming a law. It’ll be interesting to see how this shakes out over the next year. Will the lobbyists win in court, will we get legal weed how we want it or will we see a backroom deal happen behind our backs?

Sources:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/11/04/6-reasons-ohio-marijuana-legalization-failed/

http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2015/11/how_the_marijuana_vote_lost_ev.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/marijuana-legalization-initiative-fails-in-ohio-2015-11

Blought #16: How to Keep a Great City Great

This past Saturday I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Greater Cleveland chapter of the National Association of Black Journalist conference at Tri-C‘s auditorium. The NABJ hosted the conference, titled ‘Covering Comeback Cities. The list of speakers included  NBC WKYC-TV's Russ Mitchell, Fox-TV’s Charlie LeDuff of The Americans With Charlie LeDuff; Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge; Cleveland Mayor Frank L. Jackson; Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams; and Chuck Stokes, Detroit's WXYZ-TV Director of Editorial/Public Affairs and son of the late Mayor Louis

It was a great atmosphere for a young writer like myself  to network and make connections. It was also an opportunity to gauge where my city was headed. Before the first panel started  Mayor Frank Jackson took the podium to share a few words. He talked about how Cleveland has spent billions of dollars to upgrade the city and how that wouldn’t be enough. There is a cycle of “boom and decline” that has to be broken.  The Mayor finished up by saying that “A great city isn’t based on the billions spent. It is what we do for the least of it. We need to make prosperity available for all.”

I trusted Mayor Jackson after he said that, even though he couldn’t have cared less about meeting me until I mentioned we both graduated from Cleveland State. The first panel discussion focused on crime and included Calvin Williams, Chief of police Cleveland; Charlie Leduff, Pulitzer winner and the host of The Americans with Charlie Leduff, and Dr. Rhonda Y. Williams of Case Western Reserve University’s Social Justice Institute. The panel was moderated by Harry Boomer of CBS 19 News. From the first panel to the fifth and final panel, excluding Session 3 which talked about SEO and Periscope, there was a common theme I heard on every panel this past Saturday.

We need to focus on the poor and invest in our children. As a city made up of over 53% of Blacks and 10% Lationo or Hispanic, we need to pull together and get a handle on this crime. We need to protect our inner city communities and children from themselves and an unjust system favoring an opposite side. The seeds of education need to be planted at a very early age. We need to graduate more students,  64.3% versus a national average of 81% is unacceptable (as is having an 81% national average but that’s a rant for another day).

Basically what I’m trying to say is that in order to make sure Cleveland stays on the up and up then we have to invest in the future of Cleveland not monetarily, but socially. We don’t want this place to become a ghost town after the RNC. We want our city to thrive and become something we can pass down to our children’s children.

'The Mouthwatering Taste of Success' by Brendan Whitt

Ethan and Indians Co-owner Paul Dolan

Anyone who has ever been successful in anything had to have one key character trait, perseverance. Whether it’s LeBron going to the gym before most of us have hit snooze, Jay-Z knowing that a drug dealer could become an all time great rap artist and business mogul or President Obama fighting his way to the White House as a black man. Perseverance will always get us through the rough and uncertain patches in life.

When I first heard of Ethan Holmes and his story I was inspired. I saw a guy who looks like me, is from my city and was on his way to the top. Ethan has always had a passion for business. He and a friend had a lemonade stand as children which they later made mobile and he even sold chocolate bars to classmates at Shaker Heights High School.

Then at 15 the idea hit him. “Why not start an applesauce company?” he thought. The market wasn’t saturated and he didn’t like the taste of Motts and other brand’s applesauces. “They’re flavors were just sugary and bland” he said. Ethan had been inspired by businessman Farrah Gray’s Book ‘Reallionaire’ given to him by his godmother.

“I never read a lot but his book just sparked my interest,” Ethan said. “He did it right.” Gray had made over a million dollars by the age of 14 after starting his own food related business. Ethan knew he had the hustle, he just needed a little push. After never fully committing to his dream Ethan finally found the moment to take his business seriously in 2014.

“I was working in Hiram’s cafeteria making sandwiches where I was making about $8.75 an hour and saving up for a clunker.” Ethan had stacked his checks and had over $1,000 saved up for his future bucket. It was then when his girlfriend Janae pushed him to finally take his applesauce business seriously. He started off by making applesauce in his kitchen and struggling to get vendors to put his product on their shelves. “There’s beauty in the struggle” he said.

Every year the Counsel of Small Enterprises, or COSE, hosts a competition where small business owners vie for the chance to gain additional resources for their businesses. “I applied every year for about three or four straight years and got denied every time. They didn't take us seriously.” Ethan’s company failed to even reach the first round. In March of this year Holmes Mouthwatering Applesauce took home first prize and $20,000.

Holmes Mouthwatering logo

There surely was beauty in his struggle as Holmes Mouthwatering Applesauce has grown into a budding success. Their applesauce is available in original and cinnamon and is now sold in over 60 locations in Ohio and Illinois in stores like Heinen’s, Zagara’s, and Giant Eagle. Ethan and his company are also looking forward to having their applesauce sold in Whole Foods and Marcs.

While his business success is surely something to be admired, it’s the personal sincerity that he injects into his company and brand. Unlike Mott’s and those other “sugary and bland” tasting applesauces, Holmes Mouthwatering cares about their consumers. Each 16 oz. jar is made from all natural products and  contains only 6g of sugar and 40 calories. Ethan has also made the conscious decision to donate 10% of all proceeds to fighting childhood obesity.  Ethan and his company are also looking to have their applesauce distributed in Columbus schools.

But it all isn’t peaches and cream or Apples and cider (dum dum tshhh).Even though he’s had success there are still struggles that plague him. Ethan says the hardest part about running a business isn’t managing product but managing people. “I was banned from hosting demos at Heinen’s for a while because people would leave early or not clean up properly.”

Holmes Mouthwatering summer interns

During this past summer Ethan worked with local Black and Hispanic teens. They learned about small business models where Ethan had them create their own mock Lemonade stands. He taught them necessary business management skills while they volunteered in his space at the Cleveland Culinary Launch and Kitchen. His time with the teens has inspired him to start his own non-profit called the Young Entrepreneur Initiative. Ethan also spends time as a consultant with the Cleveland State Small Business Development Center in Cleveland Heights.

Ethan wants to especially thank his girlfriend Janae for all of her love and support. He knows that his company can grow into a national and even global brand over the next five to ten years.
No matter how you dress it up Ethan has won and looks to continue to keep winning. He’s confident but not cocky, easy going but a go getter and stays busy. He’s just a normal guy with a bunch of apples and a plan.

Feel free to visit their site: http://holmesapplesauce.com/