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The Great Migration? Many Blacks Returning To The South

NewsOne Staff — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:24:25 +0000

NEW YORK — Nearly fifty years ago, Blacks retreated from the South to elude the implications of segregation. Ironically, today many Blacks, in New York especially, are migrating back to the South in search of economic refuge.

About 17 percent of African-Americans who moved to the south in the past decade came from New York, according to census data. Additionally, of the 44,474 people who left New York State in 2009, more than half (22,508) fled to the South, according to a study conducted by Queens College for The New York Times. Numbers also reveal the amount of Blacks, many of whom are college educated, moving to the South from other states in the East and Midwest is at the highest level its been in decades.

This surge of relocation to the South, for most migrants, is attributed to the economic downturn. Many middle-class African-Americans are faced with financial hardships that have propelled them to seek geographical alternatives. One alternative is the South, where one may arguably live more financially secure.

The New York Times Reports:

The movement marks an inversion of the so-called Great Migration, which lasted roughly from World War I to the 1970s and saw African-Americans moving to the industrializing North to escape prejudice and find work.

Spencer Crew, a history professor at George Mason University who was the curator of a prominent exhibit on the Great Migration at the Smithsonian Institution, said the current exodus from New York stemmed largely from tough economic times. New York is increasingly unaffordable, and blacks see more opportunities in the South.

Black Vs Brown Hate Crimes May Be Spurred By Bad Economy

NewsOne Staff — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:56:09 +0000

A 15-year-old Mexican youth stands on the corner talking to two friends. A 17-year-old black teen spots the trio and quickly approaches. He pulls out a knife, demanding the Mexican youth’s iPod while shouting anti-Latino slurs. The 17-year-old flees with the stolen items. The victim’s two companions, who are African-American, are unharmed.

This is one of the latest examples of what authorities say is an apparent uptick nationally in bias crimes against Latinos, and immigrant advocates and community leaders say they are particularly concerned about a spate of alleged hate crimes where African-Americans were the perpetrators.

“We saw, in the months of June and July, a tremendous increase –attacks at such a pace that it caused alarm,” said Mexican Consul General Ruben Beltran, whose office is supporting victims of a rash of violence against Mexicans on Staten Island, New York, that police say were bias crimes. “Hopefully, the worst is over.”

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What African-Americans Can Learn From Pat Tillman

NewsOne Staff — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:43:46 +0000

Pro-football player turned Army Ranger who was killed in Afghanistan in April of 2004, Pat Tillman, is the subject of a riveting documentary that opens this weekend called The Tillman Story. Initially, the family was told that Pat was killed by enemy fire, but after months of investigation and a botched cover-up by the US military (under the command of the now retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal and the Bush administration), it was determined to be friendly fire. While the The Tillman Story dispels much of the mythos surrounding Pat Tillman, the focus is the family’s Herculean effort to find the truth about Pat’s death.

Over a year, Pat’s mother, Dannie Tillman, pores over nearly 3000 pages of army documents detailing the events of the fatal day in the Afghan mountains and how the army handled the death. She then demands—and is granted—a formal Congressional hearing. Watching her painstaking search begs the questions: Are fratricide cases typically swept under the rug? And what about other families who’ve lost loved ones in war and who are not satisfied with the stated cause of death? The Tillman Story is about friendly-fire as much as it is about how these deaths are investigated.

One compelling statistic from the film: 1/6 (16%) combat deaths are a result of friendly fire. And while the Army claims the rate has dropped significantly since the Persian Gulf War (due to technological advances) from 10-14 % to .78 per cent, most experts agree this number is low. It also stands to reason that these cases inordinately affect African-Americans since they are disproportionately represented in the military. According to US Census Bureau the percentage of African-Americans in the US is 12.9% as compared to 17.3% serving in the military (according to the US Department of Defense).

So if a family suspects a cover-up, who has the power to challenge the government? It seems that people of privilege at least fair better.

“There is no doubt that Tillman’s were able to do what other families in the same position couldn’t,” explains Amir Bar-Lev, the film’s director. “Because of Pat’s celebrity, the Tillman family had access to people—and power—that most wouldn’t, like John McCain,” (who is seen in the film at Pat’s funeral). Bar-Lev also insists that Dannie Tillman is well aware of this. “She’s the first to say that this film isn’t about Pat, it’s about our country.”

In 2008, Salon.com published a story about the deaths of two soldiers, 31-year-old African-American Pfc Albert Markee Nelson and 21-year-old Pfc Roger Suarez-Gonzalez who died (together) in Ramadi, Iraq. Both families were told that their son’s died from an enemy mortar attack, but when a 52-minute video surfaced (one of the soldiers had a helmet camera turned on during the raid), it showed the deaths were in fact friendly-fire.

Interestingly, few media—mainstream or alternative—outlets picked up on the story (which in some cases is the only way families can get attention) and the parents of the two soldiers, Jean Nelson-Feggins and Roger Suarez, say they still haven’t gotten satisfying answers from the military.

“Even after the video, the army insists that my son was killed by enemy fire,” explains Roger Suarez Sr. from Lady Tamales, from the restaurant he owns Carson City, Nevada.

In a story that ran in the Associated Press in 2008, Jean Nelson Feggins insists she was not alerted to the video by the military but that she learned of it from Salon.com. What’s more, she was suspicious of a cover up from the start.

There are no winners in this game. At the end of The Tillman Story, Dannie Tillman and her family aren’t any clearer on Pat’s death than they were in 2004. The US Department of Defense concluded it was friendly fire, but to this day, no one has taken responsibility for the cover-up. What is clear is that having the leverage to challenge the system can go at least part way in bringing closure and moving forward.

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