Page 36 - Florida Sentinel 7-9-21

National
Robert Johnson Pushes $14 Trillion Reparations
Teens Accused Of Robbing, Killing Indiana Basketball Hall Of Famer Arrested
Proposal That He Says Will Close Racial Wealth Gap
GARY, Ind. -- Two teens accused of robbing and killing a 70-year-old man at a gas station in Gary are in cus- tody, according to Gary po- lice.
To say Wallace Broad- nax was well known in the City of Gary is an understate- ment.
"You could not find a nicer guy," said Broadnax's daughter Carmelita Perry.
Broadnax was born and raised in Gary. Among many things, he is known as a fam- ily man, a hall of fame bas- ketball star, a retired fireman, and a friend to many.
"You are not going to find anyone that will say anything bad about Wallace," Perry said.
The 70-year-old man was shot and killed on Saturday morning after he was al- legedly gunned down by two juveniles during an armed robbery at this gas station on Grant Street, according to police.
America’s first Black billion- aire and Black Entertainment Television co-founder Robert Johnson doubts a reparations check will ever come, but he is still pushing his $14 billion reparations proposal.
Johnson, who appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box Mon- day, believes now is the right time to push Black Americans forward and close the Black/white racial wealth gap.
“Now is the time to go big,” Johnson said Monday on Squawk Box. “Wealth trans- fer is what’s needed. Think about this. Since 200-plus years or so of slavery, labor taken with no compensation is a wealth transfer. Denial of access to education, which is a primary driver of accumula- tion of income and wealth, is a wealth transfer.”
Johnson added repara- tions would signal to white Americans that “damages are owed to descendants of en- slaved people.”
Johnson added repara- tions today mean the teaching of critical race theory, the Evanston, Illinois, housing grant program, the $5 billion debt relief program for Black farmers, and the $50 billion
WALLACE BROADNAX
ROBERT JOHNSON
in corporate pledges for racial equity in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death.
“That’s what’s happening to the reparations—it’s been cut up into small pieces of things that look and feel like, ‘We want to end systemic racism, we want to end police brutality and shootings and to provide financing to Black small business owners,’” Johnson told VICE News.
“And then people can say, ‘Well, we really don’t need reparations because when you put all of these things to- gether, it’s reparations. It’s just not one big bill or asking this country to stand up and apologize, and you’re not ask- ing people to pay out of their paychecks.”
I do not know what was on those kids minds," Perry said.
The gas station is the same spot he always stopped at to pick up a morning paper as part of his daily routine on his way into his family's fu- neral home.
For the first time in nearly 40 years, he did not show up to work.
His grandson kept trying to call him.
"I still have the call log. I
called him 12, 13 times. I just could not believe it," said Broadnax grandson Ed- ward Perry III. "I just wanted him to pick up the phone. He always picks up for me."
Broadnax was a fireman in Gary for 25 years, as well as a member of the 1968 Roosevelt high school state basketball championship team which led to him later being inducted into the Indi- ana Basketball Hall of Fame.
Jordan Brand Announces Latest Black Community Commitment Grants
With The More Contagious Delta Variant, Some Officials Issue New Mask Guidance
In case you didn’t get the memo, Michael Jordan is woke now. On May 28, Jor- dan Brand announced the latest entities on the receiv- ing end of its Black commu- nity commitment grants.
Back in June 2020, Jor- dan Brand committed to do- nating $100 million to social justice causes over a 10-year period. Almost a year to the day since the program’s an- nouncement, three institu- tions that will receive multi-year grants due to their work educating the world about the Black experience are The National Museum of African American History and Culture, Morehouse Col- lege and The Ida B. Wells So- ciety.
The Smithsonian’s Na- tional Museum of African American History and Cul- ture will receive $3 million (over three years) and JB will
The more transmissible Delta variant has spread to al- most every state in the U. S., fueling health experts' con- cerns about Covid-19 spikes.
The variant is expected to become the dominant coron- avirus strain in the U. S., the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Preven- tion said. And with half the U. S. still not fully vaccinated, doctors say it could cause a resurgence of Covid-19 in the fall -- just as children too young to get vaccinated go back to school.
In Los Angeles County, the pace of Delta's spread has
prompted officials to rein- state mask guidance for pub- lic indoor spaces -- regardless of vaccination status.
The new, voluntary mask guidance is needed until health officials can "better understand how and to who the Delta variant is spread- ing," the county's department of public health said.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vac- cine has shown to be 88% ef- fective against symptomatic infections caused by the Delta variant -- two weeks after the second dose. Those who re- ceived only one dose have sig- nificantly less protection.
JORDAN BRAND
work with the institution to boost up its Talking About Race web portal, which helps sparks discussions around race as well as its Let’s Talk speaker series, which helps educators encourage conver- sation about racism and his- tory. Renowned HBCU Morehouse will get $1 mil- lion to be used toward ex- panding its Journalism & Sports Marketing course pro- gram with scholarships and enhancing its digital media lab. The Ida B. Wells Society, which was founded in 2015 at
the University of North Car- olina-Chapel Hill to spotlight opportunities for journalists of color, will receive $1 mil- lion to be used to heighten opportunities and develop- ment in the investigative journalism field.
“Education is crucial for understanding the Black ex- perience today,” said Michael Jordan in a press statement. “We want to help people understand the truth of our past, and help tell the stories that will shape our fu- ture.”
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