Still slaving away....
"Survey highlights burdens of black women in recession; Willingness to aid family adds to financial strains" by Chris L. Jenkins | Washington Post, February 19, 2012
WASHINGTON - The Great Recession carried special pain for black women like Jane Ladson.
She had always been the one her family turned to when they needed help, and she did not hesitate to give it. She helped pay for weddings and rent. She made room for her nephew when her brother died of AIDS. And even now in her 50s, she took in a baby that was not her own.
But help was easier to give when the economy was booming and Ladson was bringing home $4,000 a month as an Amtrak mechanic. Even an injury on the job turned into a blessing in disguise when she collected a $700,000 settlement that allowed her to build her dream home in Clinton, Md., and help her longtime partner start her own hair salon.
There must be something wrong with me because I never see it that way.
And is it just me or did the newspaper choose a lesbian couple as a representative sample?
Then the recession hit, and fate twisted the other way.
Yeah, it was just fate. It wasn't thieving by Wall Street, or mismanagement by the economic wizards. If it is just fate why we entrusting our economic futures to that crew?
A slip on the stairs of her home has kept her out of work since the spring.
Another blessing in disguise?
The hair salon struggled to keep customers. She was forced to sell her car and fell behind on her mortgage. Foreclosure notices began replacing dinner invitations....
Looking back, 57-year-old Ladson can see where things went wrong.
Her injury settlement enabled her to buy a home in the 1990s. But instead of paying off her mortgage, she participated in the boom in cheap loans in the years before the recession. In the black community in particular, fast and loose credit became widely available for purchases such as cars and homes, seemingly offering a pathway to the good life.
Besides, there were better things to do with the money, she thought at the time, such as investing in the overheated stock market and cruising to the Bahamas.
Oh, she BLEW IT! And we are somehow supposed to feel sorry for her?
There were also her friends and family to think about. Her three-story home in the subdivision of Maryland’s Mount Airy Estates became not only the gathering place for holidays and get-togethers, but also a refuge. The preteen nephew she took in is grown now, but he still drops by to help her put up decorations during the holidays. A framed photo of him wearing a cap and gown at his high school graduation sits prominently in her living room.
Three years ago, Ladson learned that Pat Body, her partner of 25 years, needed a safe place for her great-granddaughter to stay. The girl was just an infant, and Ladson was nearing retirement. But how could she say no?
Now, 3-year-old Kaila Kirksey refers to Ladson as Auntie Jane, and the dream house is filled with stuffed animals and plastic teacups, the television tuned to the Disney Channel....
And yet, like so many other black women, Ladson continues to shoulder the burden of supporting her extended family of siblings, cousins, nephews, and grandchildren.
Mammy!
Of course, it's okay for the divisive, manipulative media to put that imagery and thought in my mind, it's just wrong for me to say it.
Oh, btw, I REJECT SUCH CHARACTERIZATIONS coming from my agenda-pushing sheet of Jewish supremacism.
Across the country, black women are bearing a heavier responsibility for family and friends than their white counterparts, even as they struggle to emerge from an economic downturn that has hit them harder.
A survey by the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation reveals that black women have more trouble paying their bills or getting a loan than white women. And they are trying to regain their footing in a world where more than half feel as though they do not have the skills and education to compete for a job.
And who could question that survey?
The Post-Kaiser poll of more than 800 black women is the most extensive exploration of the lives and views of African-American women in decades. In nearly 20 extended interviews with women who participated in the survey, a picture of frustration and resilience emerged....
That is a RATHER SMALL SAMPLE after WAITING LONG ENOUGH, ain't it?
That dynamic persists even though the economic boom has given way to a harsher financial reality. Nearly three-quarters of black women worry about not having enough money to pay their bills, more than white men or women. Black women are more than twice as likely as white women to report problems meeting their rent or mortgage payments....
You know what? 99% of us are in the lifeboat, the 1% is still on the luxury liner, and tired of the AmeriKan media dividing at every turn of the page.
--more--"
Flip:
"Questions unanswered as slavery museum plan falters" by Susan Svrluga | Washington Post, February 19, 2012
WASHINGTON - Nearly 20 years ago, former Virginia governor L. Douglas Wilder said that he wanted to create a museum that would tell the story of slavery in the United States.
Related:
The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews
Jewish Involvement in Black Slave Trade to the Americas
I was never told those stories in my history books!
He had the vision, the clout, and the charm to make it seem attainable, and he had already made history: the grandson of slaves, he was the nation’s first elected African-American governor.
He assembled a high-profile board, hosted splashy galas with entertainer Bill Cosby promising at least $1 million in support, accepted a gift of more than 38 acres along Interstate 95 in Fredericksburg and showed plans for a $100 million museum designed by a renowned architect.
But the US National Slavery Museum filed for bankruptcy last fall. Creditors have filed claims totaling more than $7 million. The City of Fredericksburg has threatened to sell the land because of unpaid real estate taxes.
Black men don't pay their bills?
Officials have asked the court to either liquidate the organization or to appoint a trustee to oversee its finances.
“Governor Wilder disappeared,’’ said the Rev. Lawrence Davies, the former longtime mayor of Fredericksburg who was a member of the board.
Thieves come in all colors.
It wasn’t just board members and city officials who were left to wonder. There are donors, too, asking what happened.
“I trusted them,’’ said Therbia Parker Sr., a general contractor from Suffolk, Va., who gave the museum nearly 100 artifacts he had collected. They included rare pieces such as leg shackles, a handwritten bill of sale for slaves, and a collar with a plantation name and slave number on it.
I have the same feeling of betrayal when it comes to my newspaper.
“I’ll never forget the first time I saw a newspaper with ads for runaway slaves, the rewards being offered,’’ he said. “The reality of it: This really happened.’’ He wanted future generations to feel that history as viscerally as he had. But he doesn’t know where the artifacts he donated are now. And he is furious that the museum, slated to open in 2004, was never built.
I once felt that passionately about history -- before I found out is was all a lie.
In recent years, Wilder has issued statements and spoken on video about his commitment to creating the museum, but he has repeatedly declined to answer questions from a variety of people, including government officials and major donors.
I thinks he stoles it!
In US bankruptcy court in January, an attorney for the museum said that an accountant would have a plan by the end of February to reorganize, pay creditors, and renew efforts to build the museum.
It was in 1993 that Wilder said he wanted to create a museum that would teach future generations about slavery.
Instead it can stand as a monument to thievery.
The presidents of Howard and Hampton universities, historian John Hope Franklin, Cosby, and business leaders had joined the board in the 2000s. They talked about raising $200 million.
They had collected artifacts and planned interactive exhibits.
But some people began asking questions early on. “We offered our assistance to the director there,’’ said John Fleming, now the director of the International African-American Museum planned for Charleston, who at the time had just stepped down as president of the Association of African American Museums. “They didn’t seem to be interested in associating with other museums, partnering with other museums, or using consultants who have been in the field for years. They just went off on their own.’’
Oh, yeah, they stole millions.
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Oh, I will always love you.
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