By Freddie Allen
NNPA Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Like its White counterpart, Black newspapers must adjust to a rapidly changing digital age. But unlike White newspapers, the Black Press continues to play a valuable and unique role in the African American community, panelists said at a panel last week at the National Press Club.

“I’m a product of Black schools and Black churches,” said Benjamin Chavis, an online educator and longtime activist. “The Black press has a value to all people, but if Black people don’t celebrate the Black press why should we expect other people to celebrate it?”

Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree also praised the Black Press noting that he still prefers to hold a printed copy of Black newspapers.

But the youngest member of the panel challenged members of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) to target younger readers.

Jineea Butler, founder of the Socials Services of Hip Hop and the Hip Hop Union said the Hip Hop generation needs support, too.

“Corporations come to the Hip Hop community and engage us,” said Butler. “The disconnect is that the people that came before us don’t think that we want the information.”

During the panel discussion, Butler said that the Hip Hop generation not only wants information, but they also desperately need leadership, too, and the Black Press can fill that void.

“You guys have got to come teach us,” said Butler speaking to an audience of Black publishers. ”You need to show us the way.”

Chavis, who works with many Hip Hop artists, agreed that publishers, who suffer from an aging readership, need to attack younger readers, many of whom get their news primarily through mobile devices.

“The Hip Hop generation didn’t fall out of the sky,” he said. “They were given birth by this generation. The irony is some of us don’t even recognize or affirm what we gave birth to. We can use our newspapers to reaffirm that recognition and I guarantee that reciprocity can take off.”

Ogletree said both old and young can benefit from better communications.

“It’s cheaper, it’s efficient, it’s very effective and when young people are reading, we need to make sure they’re reading about what’s happening to us as well,” he said.

Kevin Lewis, director of African American Media for the White House, stated: “There is no Barack Obama president without the Black Press. It’s not just the Black press. It’s the Black community and Black leaders.”

Lewis said President Obama supported the Black Press and recognized that Black newspapers were a great conduit to the Black community.”

But some publishers have complained that the 2012 Obama presidential campaign only spent roughly $1.2 million advertising in Black newspapers and nearly a billion dollars in other media buys.

Chavis said all advertisers should be held accountable.

“We march for everything else, why can’t we march for the Black press?” asked Chavis, who is also the president of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, a non-profit group that works with Hip Hop artists and entertainers to engage young people for social and political change. “We need to think about advertising in a new way.”

Lewis said, “There’s a history in the Black Press. I think that there is also a lot of worth in having a physical newspaper.” Lewis continued: “News is so immediate, that there is a value in having something online as soon as something happens. In the past we would be able to embargo something for a week, but now we’re just embargoing it for 10 minutes.”

After the panel discussion, Cloves Campbell, chairman of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, said that reaching that younger, more connected, Hip Hop generation remains a top priority.

“Our readership is getting older and we have to make sure that we put content in our newspapers that the younger generation wants to read,” said Campbell. “Bringing Jineea in was the best thing that we could have done to get that other perspective from a younger person who is right there on the ground with the people we are trying to reach. Having her here and having her participate more in the future will be the key to our success.”

Campbell also said that the Black Press has to embrace technology and learn to connect to readers through social media. Campbell said that Black newspapers also need to be more community-oriented and show more support for local organizations.

He said, “We have to hit the ground and get some perspective on what readers want by hosting forums, round table discussions and focus groups.”

By Chris B. Bennett
Special to the NNPA from The Seattle Medium

Ghettopoly – a racially insensitive game modeled after the popular monopoly board game – is stirring up controversy once again. The game, which uses stereotypes often related to African Americans as the butt of its humor, was removed from the shelves from Urban Outfitters in 2003 after a nationwide protest by the NAACP that ultimately led to the game being barred from sale in the United States after Hasbro, makers of the game monopoly, sued the inventor of the game, David Chang, for copyright infringement.

According to Kathy Carpano, a spokesperson for Hasbro, “the company was successful in obtaining a default judgment against Mr. Chang and in June of 2006, the Court issued a permanent injunction against the Ghettopoly game and Hasbro was awarded both damages and costs.”

However, despite the permanent injunction, the game, which features a pimp, a hoe, a 40-ounce bottle, a machine gun (oozie), a marijuana leaf, a basketball and a piece of crack as game pieces, is once again available for sale — most notably through Seattle-based, online retail giant Amazon at a premium price of $114.99.

The game’s official website automatically re-directs visitors to the page where the product is sold on Amazon’s website.

According to a domain registration search, the domain is registered under Ghetto Poly Inc. The domain registration was last updated in August 2012, and lists Chang as both the administrative and technical contact.

In a 2003 interview with The Seattle Medium, Chang, who emigrated at age eight from Taiwan with his family, said he views the game as humorous and not degrading.

“Ghettopoly is controversial because its both fun and real life,” Chang told The Medium. “The graphics on the board depict every race in the country and both genders. It draws on stereotypes not as a means to degrade, but as a medium to bring together in laughter. If we can’t laugh at ourselves and how we each utilize the various stereotypes, then we’ll continue to live in blame and bitterness.”

According to a press release promoting the game, Chang did his market research by watching MTV and studying the lyrics of rap and hip-hop music, and video games provided him insight into the culture of the ghetto allowing him to come up with the names of the properties of the game in just a few hours.

Chang doesn’t feel that the game depicts any single group, rather that it pokes fun at everything associated with the ghetto.

“The playing of the game is not to offend people, that’s not my intention,” stated Chang. “It’s a satire. If they can’t see that there is nothing I can do about that. I’m not here to convince them otherwise.”

However, many African American leaders found the game to be offensive, as it allows players to buy crack houses and projects instead of houses and hotels. Property names include: Ray Ray’s Chicken and Ribs, Harlem, Busta Rap Recording, Malcolm X Ave., Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. and Hernando’s Chop Shop. In addition, instead of having railroads like the original monopoly game, players can purchase liquor stores. One of the Ghetto Stash cards (equivalent to Monopoly’s Community Chest cards) reads: “You got yo whole neighborhood addicted to crack. Collect $50 from each player.”

Carl Mack, former president of the Seattle/King County NAACP, did not find the game funny or amusing.

“Everything about the game is degrading,” said Mack during an interview with The Medium in 2003. “It promotes every insensitive and racial stereotype that America has been in the forefront of creating with Black folks.”

Mack and a former Seattle/King County NAACP member, Eric Dawson, were the catalyst of the 2003 nationwide protest of the game when they went into the Downtown Seattle Urban Outfitters store and demanded that they game be taken off the shelf.

The recent discovery that the game is once again available for sale has many in the African American community questioning the availability of the game through a retailer like Amazon.

The Medium contacted Amazon regarding the sale of the game on their website. According to Amazon’s website, ‘listings for items that Amazon deems offensive are prohibited on Amazon.com. Amazon reserves the right to determine the appropriateness of listings on its site, and remove any listing at any time.’ Examples of prohibited listings include, ‘Products that promote or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual or religious intolerance or promote organizations with such views.’

When asked by The Medium, if this game [Ghettopoly] would fall under this category? And If so, why is it allowed to be sold on amazon.com. Amazon responded by saying, “Amazon will not be releasing comment.”

“All that this is, is another example of a company that is willing to make money off of a product regardless of the racial indignity or racial insensitivity of that product,” said Mack of Amazon’s response. “Amazon is just as guilty as he is [David Chang]. If they know about it and don’t do a thing about it then they are just as racially insensitive as this guy, David Chang, is.”

“Here is their policy about racially insensitive material,” continued Mack. “Given their policy, they still don’t appear to have a problem with selling this [game]. In our minds they don’t value diversity, and they certainly don’t value the dignity of Black folks as clients.”

As of press time, six days after being contacted, the game is still available through Amazon’s website.

“It appears to me that they [Amazon] will not do the right thing until they are forced to do the right thing, and that is something that we should always remember,” said Mack.

By Maya Rhodan
Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – They were Southern governors who shared the same last name – Perdue – but took different approaches in two high-profile race-sensitive cases. Despite a direct appeal from Pope Benedict XVI, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue did not spare Troy Davis from execution in 2011 for allegedly killing a Savannah policeman.

Over the objections of many, including some members of her own staff, last December North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue issued pardons of innocence to the Wilmington Ten, activists who were imprisoned for crimes they did not commit.

Five days before she left office and 40 years after the Wilmington Ten was convicted Perdue, the first female governor of North Carolina, granted full pardons of innocence to the group. Pardons of innocence are granted to show that the state of North Carolina no longer believes the Wilmington Ten committed a crime.

Perdue was honored by the National Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation last week for her display of courage. The awards ceremony capped a 2-year campaign by the NNPA to win pardons for the Wilmington Ten.

In issuing the pardons, the North Carolina governor cited “naked racism” for the false conviction of the Wilmington 10, led by Benjamin Chavis.

Mary Alice Thatch, publisher of the Wilmington Journal, persuaded the NNPA to take on the challenge of seeking pardons for the 10 activists.

“I don’t know if you remember Michelle Obama saying, ‘For once in my life, I’m proud of my country,’ Thatch said as the governor was about to be presented with the award. “I want to say to Gov. Perdue, for once in my life, I am proud of North Carolina. Thank you so much.”

The NNPA’s Wilmington Ten Pardon of Innocence Project was an effort to “generate national and worldwide support for the petition, to the state of North Carolina, and specifically the governor, to grant individual pardons of innocence to the Wilmington Ten.”

Publishers across the country prominently displayed stories on the case. Cash Michaels, editor of the Wilmington Journal, wrote a series of stories most of 2012 that shed light on the questionable actions of the prosecutor, who made notes during jury selection showing a preference for “KKK”-type supporters.

On Feb. 6, 1971, a White-owned grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood was firebombed during a demonstration in Wilmington, N.C. When emergency responders got to the scene, they shot by snipers.

Nine Black men and one white woman were arrested and later charged with conspiracy to commit arson and conspiracy to assault emergency response teams, they became known as the Wilmington Ten.

After three of the prosecution’s witnesses recanted their testimony, Amnesty International and other groups rallied on behalf of the Ten, saying the actions of the prosecutor as unjust and corrupt, portraying the imprisoned group as political prisoners.

In 1980 all of their convictions were overturned, but the governor of North Carolina withheld a pardon. Nearly 40 years later, the pardons were granted.

The efforts of the Black Press were recognized by Chavis, one of the seven surviving members of the Wilmington Ten. Speaking on behalf of the activists and their families, Chavis said. “This is another proud moment. We salute Gov. Beverly Perdue for her courage, for her leadership, and for making a difference.”

Chavis was sent to Wilmington in 1971 by the United Church of Christ’s Commission for Racial Justice to organize and lead a group of students amid tensions caused by the closing of a Black high school.

Their headquarters were at Gregory Congregational Church, just blocks away from Mike’s Grocery, the White-owned grocery store firebombed in February 1971. Officials claimed to have found ammunition in the church, leading to the arrest and later conviction of Chavis and eight others.

Chavis was sentenced to 34 years in prison.

Although their convictions were overturned in 1980, the Wilmington Ten wasn’t pardoned until Dec. 31, 2012, on the eve of the 150th anniversary of the day the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.

“Without those quiet voices that banded together to speak up for justice in the face of naked racism this wouldn’t have happened,” said former North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue after she was presented with the award.

“We in the south understand freedom and equity and privilege,” Perdue said. “It was my privilege to present this pardon of innocence to a group of citizens of my state in this country who were truly innocent. We all would want that for ourselves and our friends and our family and so it was the right thing to do.”

Chavis notes that this event should be a source of pride for the Black Press community.

“The truth is that the context in which the governor made the decision was the context of the Black Press of America through the NNPA flexing its muscles,” Chavis said. “We should never understate what we do, today was a proper statement of what we do.”

Special to the NNPA from the Atlanta Daily World

A new study conducted by the Guttmacher Institute shows that African American teen abortion rates are more than twice as high as the national average.

According to the study, the national average is 18 abortions per 1,000 women among 15-19-year olds. The African-American abortion rate is 41 per 1,000 women among that age group, which is four times higher than non-Hispanic whites abortion rate at 10 per 1,000 and twice as high for Hispanics at 20 per 1,000.

The Guttmacher Institute revealed in a recent study that black women account for 30 percent of all abortions and African Americans make up only 13 percent of the total U.S. population.

In a state-by-state study in states with high abortion rates, African American teen pregnancy had the highest probability of ending in an abortion of any other race.

In New York 67 percent of the time pregnancies among black teens—excluding miscarriages—ended in an abortion. The study determined New York has the highest teen abortion rate in the country.

So far there has not been a study that has found the direct cause for the high abortion rate among black teenagers.

“There’s no definitive research that’s actually been able to answer that question. We just do know that African-American women, including African-American teenagers, just have more pregnancies,” said Rachel Jones, a senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute.

Jones did mention that poverty and lack of attention put teenagers at a high risk for teen pregnancy and could very well be the reason for such high abortion rates among African American teens.

The Guttmacher Institute figures are from 2008 and are the most recent data available.