That was then, this is now. The reasoning behind the Supreme Court’s ruling this week striking down key parts of the Voting Rights Act uses considerably more words, but that simple phrase pretty much says it all. To accept that conclusion, though, one has to accept that America is as post-racial as some have insisted since the election of President Obama.
Archives for June 2013
Is Paula Deen’s n-word use a Southern thing?
Some fans and fellow chefs have defended her, accepting the first explanation that as a child of the South, such language and attitudes were common and not a sign that she treated anyone poorly. Putting aside the difference between what anyone does or says behind closed doors at home and the atmosphere entrepreneurs must create in the workplace, does accepting that “everyone did it that way so can we just stop being politically correct and move on” characterize a region with a broad and racially poisonous stereotype?
Jun272013
Keeping it Positive: The Gray Classic
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – WCCB Rising’s “Keeping it Positive” contributor Mary Curtis has been jet-setting it this past week, but she took out time to stop in to talk about this year’s The Gray Classic Golf Tournament. The Gray Classic Golf Tournament began in 2009 and proceeds the 100 Black Men of Greater Charlotte’s Movement of Youth mentoring and education program. This year’s tournament runs Thursday, July 18th thourgh Sunday the 21st.
Jun262013
Keeping it Positive: Find Your Roots
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — More people are using their spare time to trace their family lineage. The Harvey B. Gantt Center is helping people in Charlotte do the same. Harvard professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates is the inaugural speaker for the 2013 Gantt Symposium. The event is Thursday, June 27th surrounding Dr. Gates’ “Finding Your Roots”. The discussion will explore individual lineage and American history. Mary Curtis shares what audiences can expect.
Jun192013
Keeping It Positive: Where to Enjoy Some Cool Jazz on a Hot Summer Evening
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – WCCB Rising’s “Keeping it Positive” contributor Mary Curtis tells us how we can cool out on a hot summer evening…take a jazz break. The 4th Annual Uptown Jazz Fest will kick of on June 21st at the Time Warner Cable Uptown Amphitheater with nationally known musicians performing. If you prefer an indoor venue, head up to the Jazz Room @ the Stage Door Theater at Blumenthal on June 18th. For the younger jazz fans, Jazz Camp is just the thing. Kids from grades 7 through 12 can enjoy a one week comprehensive music training program.
Jun122013
Growing protest vs. conservative legislation: North Carolina in the national spotlight
CHARLOTTE – North Carolina’s Republican Gov. Pat McCrory was a rock star to the crowd gathered at the party’s 2013 state convention over the weekend at the Charlotte Convention Center. But as the conservative agenda led by GOP super-majorities in both the state House and Senate in Raleigh continues to advance, disapproval is mounting, with an increasing amount of national attention.
How did a Republican wave overtake a Southern state long thought of as moderate, even progressive, one that gave Barack Obama a narrow win in 2008 and where the vote was close as Mitt Romney took it in 2012?
And will a growing and diverse group of protesters gathering weekly at the state legislative building in Raleigh for what they call Moral Mondays, speaking up and being arrested, be able to turn back a tide of legislation North Carolina NAACP president Rev. Dr. William Barber calls “extreme and immoral”?
Jun102013
J.C. Watts on GOP minority outreach: ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’
J.C. Watts, one of the stars the North Carolina Republican Party convention crowd in Charlotte, N.C., came to hear and take pictures with on Friday night, talked about his own dissatisfaction with the general GOP minority outreach effort. “The key is to put teeth in it and to be real about it,” he told me. “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Watts, a former Republican U.S. Congressman from Oklahoma and now a columnist and consultant based in Washington, D.C., continues to be a symbol and ambassador for African-American GOP success.
Jun102013
For South Carolina families, food banks help ease the grip of hunger
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Sometimes the line forms before the doors open at 9 a.m. at Harvest Hope Food Bank, a part of the Feeding America network. Chris Daly, chief operating officer of Harvest Hope, told me on Tuesday, “It gets you when they’re here before you.” The father of four said he can’t imagine the stress level of the clients, some trying to keep their children calm during what may be a two-hour wait. Harvest Hope tries to be “hospitable, quick and respectful,” he said.
The cavernous Columbia facility is part distribution center, supplier — with the agency’s other facilities — to about 500 partners in 20 South Carolina counties that feed some 38,000 people a week with what amounts to 30 million pounds of food a year. Also important is Harvest Hope’s role as a food pantry, where families can come Monday through Friday to pick up the protein, dairy products, produce and bakery goods that will help them through tough times. “You never get more than a few feet away from the end goal of the mission,” Daly said. “It keeps you grounded.”
In the United States, the child food insecurity rate, according to Feeding America data, is at 22.4 percent. In a list that no state wants to lead, South Carolina ties with Mississippi in the No. 10 spot at 27.4 percent. The numbers say that in South Carolina, 292,800 children out of a total under-18 population of 1,067,813 live in food insecure households.
Jun092013
