Page 5 - 4-28-15 Tuesday's Edition

Editorials
From Scratch To Success 2015
The Great Migration: 21st Century Style
Perhaps it should be called “The Great 21st Century Land Bamboozle.” We refer to the slick, sly, and wicked relo- cation of more than six million Black Americans from the
rural South to cities of the North, Midwest, and West be- tween 1916 to 1970, which resulted in the loss of more than 12 million acres of privately owned farmland.
Indeed, current changes to land ownership in the West Tampa area are reminiscent of that historical era and tragic mindset.
Currently, land speculators are pouring though West Tampa attempting to entice owners and heirs of prime pro- perty to give up their birthrights for inflated offers of more money than the owner-heirs have ever seen at one time.
Yet, such lump-sum offers are in reality far less than the true-values of the homes and property, as property values will soon explode and locations close to Downtown soon blossom into bonanzas of profit far above any offer cur- rently being dangled in owner-heirs faces.
Property owners are also missing out on an opportunity to create generational wealth by keeping ownership and using the property as income-generating rentals.
So what shall we see, twenty years from now? When we reflect on the West Tampa demographics, if we don’t lis- ten, we may see a similar loss of land ownership as was wit- nessed during the Great African American Migration or the American Indians’ Trail of Tears.
We all should remember that wealth in America began with land ownership: simply stated, the more you own, the more economically stable you become. But you can’t col- lect from what you don’t keep, now can you?
What happened to 8 Atlanta educators recently was a warning to educators nationally. As many struggle be- tween traditional education and a newer, more entrepre-
neurial, and a more political way of looking at public education: simply as a realm of credits and tests, the glory of knowledge and the wonder of teaching is left to the hindmost.
Perhaps, that’s why a Georgia judge convicted them of racketeering in one of America’s largest school cheating scandals, meting out terms of up to seven years each. In the words of a Tampa elder who raised this question years ago, “What did they do wrong?”
The answer is blunt and stupid: “They are accused of “falsely inflating standardized test scores and thereby ob- scuring the academic shortcomings of predominantly poor minority Atlanta public school students.” These teachers up until recently had possessed spotless records. And for their so-called crimes, they would receive prison sentences of seven years each. Not even Al Capone was dealt with so se- verely.
Yes, as has been said by Atlanta education and political of- ficials, what The Atlanta Eight did was “a shame to Atlanta and its 50,000- student public school system.” But as was also mentioned, it was “soul-searching” for a school system more than half a century from segregation that still saw Black students as second class. And for that reason, Atlanta doesn’t stand alone.
For that reason, a frustrated group of teachers did what Daniel did as they stepped boldly into a backroom, business- filled, over-politicized standardized testing lion’s den, which had as much to do with education, as peanuts have to do with a Ph.D.
“Today is the day to scratch the surface of your real potential.”
~Selphenia Nichols
Empowered greetings!
Many of you reading this column are working a 9-5 job that you don’t like. You look at your paycheck and feel un- derpaid and overworked. Some of you may not have a job at all.
You desire more out of life than what you’ve gotten so far. There is a thought in the back of your mind to do something different, but you don’t know what. Or maybe you feel discouraged because you don’t have financial re-
I love my hometown. And every time I get a chance to see it receive some national attention, I take pride in being able to tell people that’s where I’m from.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case Saturday morning when Melissa Harris- Perry, of MSNBC did a fea- ture on the Tampa Police Department. For roughly 20 minutes Mrs. Perry and her in-studio guests were highly critical of the T.P.D. after it was revealed that a justice report found signifi- cant evidence to suggest that officers in the department practiced a consistent pat- tern of racial profiling of area bicyclists.
According to the report, out of the 10,000 citations that were given out to cyclists, 8,000 were issued to African Americans, some as young as 10-years-old.
On the surface I can imagine how this informa- tion comes off to anyone reading this right now. Black kids being ticketed while rid- ing bicycles sounds like a pretty petty issue. But, as you take in the bigger picture and see the larger agenda at work, a far more troubling image begins to take shape.
The issue isn’t about the minor infractions. The real concern is how the Tampa
sources.
I want to encourage you
with the words of a song that says, “You don’t need a whole lot, just use what you’ve got.” It is with this premise that I have started every business I have ever owned.
As an entrepreneur at heart, I believe that every- thing you own should be able to make money for you. Here are 5 steps to getting started.
1. Take inventory of the gifts and talents that God has endowed you with.
2. Take inventory of the material possession you have.
3. Creatively determine
Police Department is using the high number of interac- tions with our youth to begin the criminalization process.
These police encounters with, who I assume are, mostly young Black males only serve two probable pur- poses for the department.
The first would involve giving these kids an early in- troduction to the justice sys- tem. The second would seem to be yet another way to in- timidate and instill fear into a new generation Black men.
Being harassed while cy- cling is just the precursor to being harassed while driving. One is simply the acclima- tion process that prepares a person for the other.
What bothers me the most about this racial-profiling re- port is that it pulled back the curtain on what was tran- spiring under the watch of Police Chief Jane Castor.
Chief Castor was viewed as someone willing to help troubled neighborhoods while bridging the gap of communication often found between cops and the resi- dents of the inner city they patrol.
I am sure someone will try to defend Chief Castor and absolve her of any wrongdo- ing in this matter because of the positive things she’s ac- complished during her
how they can be used to take you to the next level in life.
4. Begin to view life through the eyes of others. Observe people to see what problems they are facing. Re- member, no matter how small a problem is - it still demands a solution. That so- lution if developed by you cannot only change that per- son’s situation, but it can also change yours.
5. Ask God to open up your understanding and allow His creative power to flow through you.
My life is a testimony that you can go from scratch to success using these steps.
Contact Selphenia at 813-956-0185 for a free Suc- cess Strategy Session or in- vite her to speak at your next event.
Stay connected, visit her website: successcoach- towomen.com, Instagram: Selphenia, Facebook: Selphenia Nichols Success Coach To Women, or Twitter: queenofsuccess1.
tenure. But, with these new revelations concerning the behavior of her officers com- ing to the light, everything she’s done in the past now has to be viewed as little more than the your classic 52-card-fake-out.
The truth that her sup- porters can’t deny is that every leader sets the tone for what goes on inside of his or her organization. And, as it has been throughout history, the leader of any such group is ultimately held responsi- ble for anything that hap- pens under his or her command.
That means, whether she knew what was going on or not, there is no way she can come out of this episode un- scathed. If she did know, that translates to her condoning or sanctioning these prejudi- cial actions. And, if she didn’t know, that could be con- strued as her being unfit to lead.
Racial-profiling in law enforcement is the root problem that leads to the kind of unnecessary police sponsored homicides we’ve witnessed in cities from Fer- guson to, most recently, Bal- timore. And, if allowed to thrive unchecked in Tampa, it could end up being the cat- alyst for yet another incident that could have one of our sons’ or daughters’ names added to the growing list of young Black people whose death came by courtesy of a policeman’s bullet.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bulletin Publishing Company. Any- one wishing to contact Clarence Barr email him at: realityonice@yahoo.com.
A White Eye For Tampa
Eight Atlanta Teachers And The Lion’s Den
TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5