Page 21 - Florida Sentinel 10-25-19

National
Blacks Are Among The Largest Consumers In The US, And Most Ignored
Emmett Till Memorial, Marred By Vandalism For More Than 10 Years, Is Now Bullet-Proof
African Americans rank sec- ond among every consumer group in the nation – spending trillions each year collectively. However, there was a $7 mil- lion decline in investment to reach Black people via televi- sion in 2018 despite the fact they are spending more time watching TV and streaming shows than the general public, reports the Huffington Post.
In addition, it appears that certain prominent brands have consistently failed black peo- ple. Whether it be a luxury brand like Gucci selling a blackface sweater or a fast- food company like Wendy’s co- opting Black language and phrases, corporations aren’t listening to the demographic with the second-largest spend- ing power in the country.
That’s proven by Nielsen’s latest report, “It’s in the Bag: Black Consumers’ Path to Pur- chase.” The report, released Thursday, highlights how media engagement, spending habits, lifestyle interests and more economic advancements have made Black people a key population that helps stimu-
late the U. S. economy.
“This year, we wanted to
help brands and marketers un- derstand the multi-faceted process Blacks take to buy the products they buy,” said Cheryl Grace, Nielsen’s sen- ior vice president of commu- nity alliances and consumer engagement and co-creator of the Diverse Intelligence Series Report, in a statement. “There are several drivers; but culture is at the center of them all. Further, with their love for technology, they are much more savvy and conscious con- sumers. They are, as we say, ‘woke.’ They pay attention to how companies are speaking to them. As they spend more,
they want more for themselves and from the brands they sup- port.”
Nielsen’s study shows Black Americans are more likely than the total population to agree that ads provide mean- ingful information. However, money spent on advertising to Black consumers decreased by 5 percent between 2017 and 2018.
“Right now there is a grand total of about $18 billion of $84 billion overall being spent on advertising focused on African Americans through media. That’s a decline from the year over a year,” Grace said. “We’re watching more, but brands are spending less to reach us. It’s a problem.”
Grace told HuffPost this is why it’s vital to create pro- gramming and ads inclusive of Black people’s voices. “When you have a level playing field and you allow us to participate, we’re gonna react and we’re generally gonna do it a little bit larger than total population has allowed,” she said. “So that niche content is really very critical.”
For more than 50 years, there was no marker at all to commemorate the lynching of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Chicago boy brutally mur- dered by two white men while visiting his family in Missis- sippi. That changed in 2008 when the first memorial was erected on the banks of the Tallahatchie River, where local authorities first pulled Till’s body from the water— but that, of course, is not where the story ends. Not in Mississippi, and not in Amer- ica.
The sign has been replaced three times in 11 years: it’s been stolen and riddled with bullet holes as a result of re- peated, deliberate acts of van- dalism (the sign, sitting at a remote spot on the Talla-
hatchie, is not easily accessi- ble to mere passersby). On Saturday, a fourth iteration of the memorial plaque went up; in an effort to dissuade future vandals, the Washington Post reports, the sign weighs 500 lbs. It’s also bulletproof.
Till’s family was on site for the dedication of the new me- morial; one of his cousins, Airickca Gordon-Taylor, spoke to the New York Times about the signs’ traumatic legacy.
“Vandalism is a hate crime,” Gordon-Taylor, who runs the Mamie Till Mobley Memorial Founda- tion, said. “Basically my fam- ily is still being confronted with a hate crime against Emmett Till and it’s almost 65 years later.”
EMMITT TILL NEW MEMORIAL
Hundreds Of Inmates Serving Life For Juvenile Crimes Await Resentencing
In 1996, Clifton Gibson was tried and convicted of first degree murder.
It was a crime he committed two years earlier at the age of 17 -- killing a man during a robbery -- and one for which he takes full responsibility.
It was also a crime for which he received life without parole, plus 18 years and 4 months.
The issue of juvenile sen- tences of life without parole has been a long-standing con- cern of advocates and many in the legal community.
Despite Supreme Court rul- ings over the past decade that mandatory life sentences with- out parole were unconstitu- tional and that individuals who were already sentenced as ju- veniles should have their cases resentenced, there are hun- dreds of people still sitting be- hind bars who haven’t had their cases reviewed, experts say.
Michigan is one of the states with the largest number of such cases, with 181 people who have yet to be resen- tenced, according to the latest records from Michigan's De- partment of Corrections. Two of those men have been in prison for 50 years, both hav- ing committed crimes when
In this Oct. 26, 2004, file photo, Lee Boyd Malvo enters a courtroom in the Spotsylva- nia, Va., Circuit Court.
they were 17 years old, records from corrections department show.
Some recent cases where in- mates have been resentenced have garnered national atten- tion, like that of Sheldry Topp, who was convicted of murder when he was 17 and was released in February after 56 years behind bars, also in Michigan.
The issue of life without pa- role also came up in the case of Alvin Kennard, who was 22 years old and not a juvenile when he faced that mandatory sentence for stealing $50.75 from a bakery and spent 36 years behind bars.
From the 1980s up until about a decade ago, the U. S. prison and jail population ex- ploded -- fueled in part by the
war on drugs and tough-on- crime laws in the 1990s as well as longer sentences -- and then began a gradual decline start- ing in 2008.
The number of prisoners serving life and life without pa- role also grew over this time period from 34,000 in 1984 to nearly 162,000 in 2016, ac- cording to the Sentencing Proj- ect.
Counting those serving "vir- tual life sentences" of 50 years or more, that number climbs to nearly 207,000 in 2016. And the number of life sen- tences continues to increase, despite a decline in the violent crime rate since the 1990s, the group reports.
The U. S. is the only coun- try in the world that sentences juveniles to life without parole, experts said. As of 2016, there were approximately 2,300 in- mates who were serving life without parole for crimes com- mitted as juveniles. Supreme Court cases over the past decade have chipped away at harsh sentencing for people convicted as juveniles, first by invalidating the death penalty, then targeting life without pa- role for those convicted of non- homicide crimes, followed by homicide.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2019 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 9-B