Lauren Victoria, Author at The Archive Site for The Baltimore Times

Republican connected tech firm targeted black voters on facebook for ‘deterrence’

A database built by Cambridge Analytica, the Republican-aligned firm that shut down over allegations of improper use of Facebook data, targeted Black voters for “Deterrence” in profiles prepared for Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign according to reporting by Great Britain’s Channel 4 News. It had already been known that Black voters were focused on disenfranchisement by the Trump campaign and Russian interference. But the new report outlined that 3.5 million Black Americans were profiled specifically in a new digital form of social media-driven voter suppression for ‘deterrence’ by the Trump campaign. What this also reveals is that in 2016 Facebook allowed this to take place. In 2016 many Black voters said that they wanted to stay home on Election Day.

“The ‘Deterrence’ project can be revealed after Channel 4 News obtained the database used by Trump’s digital campaign team— credited with helping deliver his shock victory to become president four years ago. Vast in scale, it contains details on almost 200 million Americans, among more than 5,000 files, which together amass almost five‐ terabytes of data— making it one of the biggest leaks in history. It reveals not only the huge amounts of data held on every individual voter, but how that data was used and manipulated by models and algorithms,” the new investigative report from Channel4 revealed.

Over 3.5 million Black Americans were marked for ‘deterrence.’The digital arm of Trump’s 2016 digital team, called ‘Project Alamo’ included a team from the now defunct British company Cambridge Analytica. Two senior directors of the former Cambridge Analytica team are now working on the Trump 2020 campaign for The White House.

Voter suppression has become mainstream policy for the Republican Party in America. Efforts to suppress the vote became mainstream after the election of the first Black President of the United States, Barack Obama, in 2008.

Voter suppression efforts that disproportionately target Black voters include requiring certain IDs at the polls, shutting down polling locations in predominantly Black areas and polling hours that make it difficult for working class Americans to participate.

Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million votes. In certain states, such as Wisconsin, the margin was thin. Hillary Clinton won the most votes but lost the Electoral College and Trump won four years in the White House.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist for NNPA and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is also a political strategist as Principal of Win Digital Media LLC. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

Death of Chadwick Boseman Puts Focus on Colon Cancer and African Americans

The death of actor Chadwick Boseman from colon cancer at age 43 has brought new attention on the disease and how it disproportionately impacts African Americans.Boseman was diagnosed with stage 3, colon cancer at 38. It later advanced to stage 4. Boseman was filming movies that included completing his own stunts while undergoing cancer treatment that included chemotherapy. The actor died on August 30. His death caught many who worked closely with him by surprise.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in both men and women in America. It is the second most common cause of death related to the disease. African Americans are disproportionately impacted with a 20 percent greater rate than whites and an even greater degree of mortality.

Every year, on average 140,000 Americans are diagnosed with colon cancer with about 50,000 succumbing to the disease. For African Americans the death rates are higher. Diets high in animal fat and low in fiber are associated with the development of colon cancer. Cigarette smoking, obesity, lack of exercise, and vitamins C and E deficiency are also contributing factors tied to colon cancer.

Dr. Wayne Frederick, who is the President of Howard University and a medical doctor, where Boseman graduated in 2000, commented on Boseman’s trip to Howard University’s commencement in 2018 as the featured graduation speaker. Frederick focused on the importance of knowing what one’s family history is and knowing what close relatives died of. He instructed that if you’re unclear how a close relative died you should investigate and find out.

“When I was in medical school, we got screening guidelines that it should start at 50. What we are seeing now is individuals getting colon cancer now is much younger. It is something for us to watch,” said Dr. Frederick on Roland Martin Unfiltered on August 31, 2020. Martin broadcast a two-hour tribute in honor of Boseman on his daily show.

“African Americans are much less likely to get the generic screening,” he added. Dr. Frederick also mentioned that popular historian Dr. Ibram X. Kendi was diagnosed with colon cancer at 36.

In January 2018, Kendi learned he had colon cancer after a colonoscopy. Though the cancer spread to his liver, further tests revealed that Kendi was cancer free after six months of chemotherapy and surgery.

In January 2019, Kendi wrote “What I Learned From Cancer,” in The Atlantic. Kendi was trying to complete another epic work “How to Be an Antiracist,” as he was being treated for colon cancer.

“In the hours of each day when I managed to submerge myself inside the writing zone, the metastatic cancer was an afterthought. The symptoms from the six months of chemotherapy, from January to June last year, were an afterthought: my marathons of tiredness, the bubbling nausea, my hands and feet tingling and darkening and drying and blistering, making them unusable at times,” Kendi wrote regarding this cancer battle.

Shooting death in Georgia defined as ‘modern day lynching’

Months after the U.S. House passed a new lynching law, which has been held up by the Republican led U.S. Senate, and a day after investigative journalist Ida B. Wells was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize— a lynching story dated February 23, 2020 is in the news.

The shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, 25, went viral on social media on May 6, months after his murder. The video shows Arbery jogging down a street in Brunswick, Georgia. It appears to demonstrate the involvement of three men— two on a pickup truck and another filming the scene from behind.

Arbery’s death took place on February 23, 2020 about three miles from where he lived. Arbery was an avid jogger and played football.

The two men on the pickup truck have been identified through numerous media reports as Greg McMichael, a retired investigator in the Brunswick District Attorney’s office, and his son Travis McMichael. They appear to follow Arbery from behind as he is jogging down a suburban street. Travis McMichael, the alleged shooter, is seen confronting Arbery and part of a struggle ensues in and outside of the camera’s range. The sound of shotgun fire is heard. Arbery is then seen on video collapsing after the sound of the gunshot in front of the truck.

Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson recused herself because one of the men seen in the video of the fatal shooting pointing a gun at Arbery worked in the district attorney’s office.

During an exclusive interview on Roland Martin Unfiltered on May 7 with Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones confirmed there was no support of her from anyone in the small Georgia community after her son died. That is changing. Since the viral video has been widely seen everyone from LeBron James to former Vice President Biden and President Trump has commented on Arbery’s death.

“Initially I was told there was a burglary and a struggle over a firearm,” Cooper-Jones said on Roland Martin Unfiltered. She confirmed she has not watched the video of her son’s death but the description of it from others did not line up with what authorities told her after her son died. “I need to get these men indicted. They need to go to jail. Two months has been too long,” said Jones on Martin’s show answering a question from Dr. Gregg Carr, the Chairman of the African American Studies Department at Howard University.

Late on May 7, Greg and Travis McMichael were finally arrested. Many observers of the breaking news warned that the exotic charges and where any future court case is likely to take place matters.

The Congressional Black Caucus had demanded arrests the day before and released a statement that in part read, “the killing of Ahmaud Arbery shows us that the spirit of lynching is still alive and well in our nation and something that we cannot tolerate.”

“The scary thing for me is they thought the video would help his client. The culture is so backwards down there they actually thought that,” said Arbery family attorney Lee Merritt on Roland Martin Unfiltered. The case has widely been compared to the 2012 murder of Trayvon Martin in Florida by George Zimmerman.

“What happened to #AhmaudArbery is a ‘modern day lynching.’ This February, the House overwhelmingly passed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which would make lynching a federal crime,” wrote Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL).

South Carolina Republican U.S. Senator Tim Scott wrote, “ Every.single.time. The excuses pour in – ‘he looked suspicious’… ‘we thought he was committing a crime”…The fact remains, #AhmaudArbery was hunted down from a pickup truck and murdered in cold blood. My heart breaks for his family, and justice must be served.”

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist for NNPA. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

Civil Rights Leaders Urge African Americans To Remain At Home

With the coronavirus death toll passing 50,000 during the last week in April, black leaders in the U.S. have taken to warning their communities of the danger of opening the country back up too soon. The coronavirus has devastated the black community in Detroit and all of the fatalities in Richmond, Va. are African Americans. Though the numbers are showing signs of slowing down black leaders are taking no chances.

On Friday, April 24, 2020, a group of civil rights leaders encouraged African Americans to “stay-at-home” shortly after the Governor of Georgia decided to lift the state’s stay-at-home order. The CDC guidelines outline that if COVID-19 stats remain down for 14 days straight the state can re-open. Many Governors are following those guidelines.

Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, joined a group of black faith and civil rights leaders and the heads of the largest historically black religious denominations to encourage African Americans to “stay at home” until there is evidence that it’s safe to go out.

A letter authored by Rev. Al Sharpton (NAN), Rev. Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson (CNBC), Sherrilyn Ifill (NAACP, LDF), Marc Morial (NUL), Derrick Johnson (NAACP), Melanie Campbell (BWR), Kristen Clarke (Lawyers’ Committee) encouraged people to stay at home.

“We, the undersigned, have joined together to state our unequivocal and firm opposition to the premature effort of governors to willfully re-open their states. The actions of these governors, which demonstrate reckless disregard for the health and life of black residents, compel us to speak out and take action to protect ourselves,” the letter began. “We encourage all black churches and businesses to remain closed during this critical period. The denominations and independent churches represented in this statement, which comprise a combined membership of more than 25 million people and more than 30,000 congregations, intend to remain closed and to continue to worship virtually, with the same dedication and love that we brought to the church. The civil rights organizations represented are working tirelessly to protect our communities from injustice and inequality as this country responds to the pandemic.”

Several Republican governors appear to be taking their marching orders from President Donald Trump who is anxious to re-open the country economically while not referencing the over 50,000 dead Americans from COVID-19.

Issues around environmental racism, disparities in health care coverage and treatment and economic considerations are issues African Americans have to confront more than other communities. The group, Black Millennials for Flint, are mobilizing to confront the problem of the continuous lack of clean water in the city after it was revealed that former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder made serious errors during the Flint water crisis.

“On April 25, 2014, a completely dehumanizing decision was made by former Governor Rick Snyder to switch from the Detroit Water System to the Flint River creating one of the most lethal man-made crises in American History. Fast forward to 2020, six years later, not a single individual involved in this act of genocide has been held accountable for the poisoning of an entire city,” the group wrote. “To put this in perspective, or to ‘make it plain’ as our elders say, the kindergartners in Flint that started this 2019-20 academic school year have not lived a single year of life without the threat of unclean drinking water. Their first year of their educational journey has now also been brought to a halt due to COVID-19.”

The Flint water crisis continues along with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist for NNPA and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

Signs COVID-19 Is Disproportionately Impacting African Americans Grow Larger

In a letter dated February 4, 2020 and sent to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) said comprehensive demographic data on people tested or treated for the virus that causes COVID-19 doesn’t exist.

Cities with large black populations have now emerged as new hot spots for the spread of the virus. They include Houston, New York, Detroit and New Orleans. Nearly 70 percent of the COVID-19 deaths in New Orleans have been African American.

“Any attempt to contain COVID-19 in the United States will have to address its potential spread in low-income communities of color, first and foremost to protect the lives of people in those communities, but also to slow the spread of the virus in the country as a whole,” Warren and Pressley the lawmakers wrote to Azar.

“States MUST start tracking and reporting race data in connection with #Covid_19. As of Friday morning, African Americans made up almost half of Milwaukee County’s 945 #Covid_19cases and 81 percent of all 27 deaths in a county whose population is 26 percent black,” wrote attorney Kristen Clarke of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law on April 3, 2020.

An April 3, 2020 report in ProPublica analysis stated that “early data shows African Americans have contracted and died of coronavirus at an alarming rate.”

African Americans made up almost half of Milwaukee County’s 945 cases and 81 percent of its 27 deaths in a county whose population is 26 percent black. Milwaukee is tracking COVID-19 cases by race— one of few cities that does so.

In Michigan, where the state’s population is 14 percent black, African Americans made up 35 percent of cases and 40 percent of deaths as of Friday morning. Louisiana has not published case breakdowns by race either.

“COVID is just unmasking the deep disinvestment in our communities, the historical injustices and the impact of residential segregation,” said Dr. Camera Jones, who spent 13 years at the CDC. “This is the time to name racism as the cause of all of those things. The overrepresentation of people of color— is not just a happenstance— it’s because we’re not valued.”

As public health officials watched cases rise in March, misinformation has also been a factor. Rumors and conspiracy theories proliferated on social media, pushing the bogus idea that black people are immune to the COVID-19. Much of the initial focus was on international travel and closing borders and not underlying health disparities that persist in the U.S.

Aircraft Carrier Named After Doris Miller

The U.S. Navy is set to name a new aircraft carrier after World War II hero Doris Miller. Miller was a Mess Attendant 2nd Class from Waco, Texas. The aircraft carrier naming would be the first to be named after an African American.

In June of 2016, the USNS John Lewis (T-AO-205), a U.S. Navy replenishment oiler was named after civil rights legend and Congressman John Lewis. But the USNS John Lewis is not a warship.

On January 19, 2020, the Navy announced that CVN-81 would be named after Miller. The CVN-81 is a Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier scheduled to be built in 2023 and launched in 2028.

Miller fought during the attack on Pearl Harbor after the Japanese surprise attack on the islands on December 7, 1941. Miller was the first African American to receive the Navy Cross for valor, the third highest honor in the Navy. Miller shot an anti-aircraft gun during the attack on Pearl Harbor though he had no training on the gun. He also took care of wounded members of the ship he was on, the U.S.S. West Virginia.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives Also at NHHC. (2016/07/05).

The U.S.S. West Virginia He served breakfast that morning and was collecting laundry when his ship was hit by the first of seven torpedoes plus two bombs.

“The sacrifice and patriotism of heroes like Doris Miller inspired me to pursue public service,” said Rep. Bernice Johnson (D-TX). “Though he is deserving of even higher official recognition, including the Medal of Honor, the announcement of the naming of this vessel on Martin Luther King Day could not be more fitting.

Until Franklin Roosevelt’s administration, African Americans could not serve in the military at all but attendant, steward and cook positions were open to blacks. Miller enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1939 at 19.

Two years after Pearl Harbor, Miller was killed in action when his ship Liscome Bay was attacked by a Japanese submarine during the Battle of Makin. Miller was presumed dead and was declared “missing in action” on December 7, 1943, two years after his heroic actions at Pearl Harbor.

Miller’s heroic actions were publicized numerous times in the black press and he became an icon of African Americans.

Smithsonian Institution Selects African American Museum Director Lonnie Bunch As Secretary

In a historic selection, the Smithsonian has selected Lonnie Bunch, III as the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Bunch will serve as the 14th Secretary.

Bunch, 66, is the Founding Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. He will now oversee 19 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, numerous research centers and several education centers as the Secretary of the Smithsonian.

While most people know Bunch as the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, it wasn’t his first job at the Smithsonian. He was an education specialist at The Air and Space Museum in the late 1970s and worked at the The Museum of American History’s office of curatorial affairs from 1989 to 2000.

Bunch is also the former director of the Chicago History Museum.

“I will work tirelessly to build upon the traditions of the Smithsonian to help America better understand the changing world it faces in the 21st century,” Bunch said at an announcement of his appointment on the morning of May 28th. Bunch’s successor is David Skorton. Bunch will begin his new job on June 16.

“The search committee unanimously felt that Lonnie was by far the best candidate of the many, many that we saw,” said David Rubenstein, the chair of the Smithsonian’s board.

“Mr. Bunch’s four decades of museum experience and his tremendous success in building the National Museum of African American History and Culture from the ground up make him the right person to lead our nation’s extraordinary federally-supported consortium of museums, research centers, and a zoo. The Smithsonian Institution’s diverse holdings and rich treasures reflect the greatness of America, and I can think of no one better to serve at its helm,” said House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn in a May 28 statement.

“Mr. Bunch has demonstrated his ability to build and steward collections, fundraise to support the preservation of these remarkable artifacts, and to tell the story of our country’s artistic and human experiences.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist and writer for NNPA as well as a political analyst and strategist as Principal of Win Digital Media LLC. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

Director Spike Lee Wins First Oscar At 91st Annual Academy Awards

NNPA — Director Spike Lee, who was famously passed over for Best Film and Best Director for his 1992 film “Malcolm X,” won his first Oscar at the 91st Annual Academy Awards.

Wearing a purple suit and hat and seated in the front row at the Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, Lee was nominated for two Oscars: Best Adaptive Screenplay for “Blackkklansman,” and for Best Director of the same film.

Though Lee did not win for Best Director for “Blackkklansman,” the evening featured a great deal of diversity as the Director of the film “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón, was awarded for Best Director.

Lee’s production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983. Lee, 61, has created several memorable films including, “She’s Gotta Have It” (1986), “School Daze” (1988), “Do the Right Thing” (1989), “Mo’ Better Blues” (1990), “Jungle Fever” (1991) and “Malcolm X” (1992).

When Best Actor nominee Denzel Washington, who starred in “Malcolm X,” lost to Al Pacino for his performance in “Scent of A Woman” it was considered one the biggest snubs in Oscars history. Overall, “Malcolm X” won no major awards.

“It was so funny and so horrifying because it was based on the truth and truth is so precious these days,” said legendary singer and film director, Barbra Streisand, as she introduced Lee’s film “Blackkklansman,” at the Academy Awards.

Though Lee was born in Atlanta, he was raised on New York and has made Brooklyn, NY his hometown.

President Obama’s Policies Still Drive Economic Growth

In May of 2017, the black unemployment rate hit its lowest level in 17 years: 7.5 percent. Then, in June, the jobless rate for blacks fell to 7.1 percent, before rising to 7.4 percent in July, according to the latest jobs report.

The jobs numbers over the last six months have generally been impressive. It’s fascinating to note that suddenly, all the accusations that low jobs numbers were “fake” when President Barack Obama was in office have suddenly vanished.

The black unemployment rate hit 16.7 percent in September 2011—the highest black unemployment since Ronald Reagan was in office pushing “trickle down” economics. Overall, the black unemployment numbers were higher, on average, under President Obama than President George W. Bush or President Bill Clinton.

The 30 year-high for black joblessness in late 2011 prompted members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to embark on an August 2011 jobs tour. That same year, President Obama barked at members of the CBC at their annual gala to “put on your marching shoes…and stop whining and complaining.”

The black unemployment rate, in general, was lower under President George W. Bush than it was under President Obama. Economists agree that the high jobless numbers, under President Obama, were largely driven by the economic downturn known as the Great Recession. Now, Obama’s economic policies are continuing to bear fruit during Trump’s first six months as the Black jobless numbers improve.

Black unemployment still remains double than it is for whites. July’s numbers showed black unemployment at 7.4 percent, Hispanics at 5.1 percent and whites at 3.8.

In 2013, AFL-CIO Chief economist Bill Spriggs wrote: “A big puzzle in looking at the changes in the black unemployment rate is the fact the black labor force is older now than during past major downturns in the mid-1970s and early 1980s. In 1975, the black unemployment rate spiked to 15.4 percent. In 1982 and 1983, the black unemployment rate skyrocketed to above 20 percent for a nine-month period starting in October 1982.”

Several political observers pointed out that many jobs being added to the U.S. economy are in the service sector, such as restaurants and healthcare.

“Ensuring workers have better jobs and better wages also means they should be trained with the tools they need to succeed in our economy,” said Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) the top Democrat on the Education & Workforce Committee in the House, in a statement on August 4, 2017.

The economy added 209,000 jobs in July.

Though the reasons for rising and falling black unemployment over the last six months are not clear, it is clear that the current numbers reflect Obama’s economic policies; President Donald Trump has yet to implement any economic strategy and his proposed budget won’t take effect until next year, at the earliest. Additionally, Congress has passed nothing related to the economy regarding taxes or jobs.

Lauren Victoria Burke is the White House Correspondent for NNPA and a writer and political analyst. She appears on NewsOneNow with Roland Martin every Monday. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

Trump’s White House Circus Continues

In only six months in the White House, the Trump Administration has delivered the shortest tenure of any White House Chief of Staff in United States history (189 days) and the shortest tenure for a White House Communications Director (10 days). President Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, holds the record for the shortest tenure of any National Security Advisor in U.S. history (24 days).

On July 21, Anthony Scaramucci made his debut as the new White House Communications Director in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House. It was a smooth-talking, personality-driven press conference; Scaramucci showed all the signs that he was ready for prime time as newly-appointed White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stood nearby. The political commentator and capital management executive took question after question and many political observers called Scaramucci Trump’s “Mini Me.”

The conservative New York Post ran a cover that depicted the jungle-set reality TV show “Survivor” featuring several current White House employees including Counselor to President Trump Kellyanne Conway; then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus; senior advisor to President Trump Jared Kushner; and then-White House Communication Director Anthony Scaramucci. It turns out the cover was extremely well timed.

On July 26, Scaramucci went on a profanity-laced tirade during a phone call with Ryan Lizza, a Washington correspondent for The New Yorker magazine; the investment banker-turned White House insider threatened “to fire the entire White House communications staff” and called Priebus “a f—ing paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac.”

Priebus resigned on July 28. On Monday, July 31 Scaramucci was gone, too, even though his first official day would have been August 15.

CNN.com reported that, “Scaramucci is the third White House communications director to leave the post that had been vacant since late May, when Mike Dubke left after about three months on the job. Sean Spicer, the former White House press secretary, also assumed some of the communications director role before he resigned when Scaramucci was hired July 21.”

The article continued: “In addition to Priebus, Katie Walsh, the former White House deputy chief of staff, left the administration in March, and Michael Short, an assistant press secretary, resigned earlier this month when it became clear Scaramucci was going to fire him.”

The revolving staff door in Trump’s immediate orbit could not be consoling to anyone hoping that his administration, nearly 200 days into the job, would achieve some sense of stability. The Trump staff rollercoaster can’t be calming to foreign leaders, either, who have relied on the U.S. for decades.

The staff shakeups fly in the face of one of President Trump’s biggest claims of his 2016 presidential campaign: That he was an incredibly successful, billionaire real estate mogul driven by “The Art of the Deal.” Trump’s skills as an alleged master of negotiation are yet to be seen during his time in the White House.

Trump’s biggest and most embarrassing legislative failure, to date, occurred on July 27 after the Senate failed to vote on a partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act. The vote failed after Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) walked in through a Senate lobby and at the front of the chamber, as other senators and congressional staffers milled about, lifted his hand and quickly pointed his thumb down. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) looked on in dismay.

Republicans control the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate and White House, but with Trump’s combustible managerial style, it feels as if Republicans are in control of nothing.

Now that President Trump has named retired four-star Marine General John Kelly as his new Chief of Staff, the beleaguered reality TV star will have yet another shot at trying to run the country with some semblance of order.

Lauren Victoria Burke is the White House Correspondent for NNPA Newswire, a writer and political analyst. Lauren appears on “NewsOne Now” with Roland Martin every Monday. Connect with Lauren by email at LBurke007@gmail.com and on Twitter at @LVBurke