Looks Like Congressman Harold Ford Jr. Is Determined To Be A U.S. Senator, Even If He Has To Represent New York

Black Pol From Southern Red State Exploring Options

Talk about an "Empire State of Mind." First it was the Sex And The City sequel movie trailer. Now, after losing a race for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee, Harold Ford Jr. is eyeing a similar race in New York.

Ford, an African-American Blue Dog Democrat with a family deeply rooted in Tennessee politics, lost a hard-fought campaign to Bob Corker in 2006. Now, he's considering running against incumbent Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in this fall’s Democratic primary.

Having moved to New York only three years ago, the 39-year-old former House member has told friends that he will decide in the next 45 days whether to run, the NY Times is reporting.

Ford is being encouraged by a group of very influential New York Democrats (as well as Republican New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg) who are dissatisfied with Gillibrand. Governor David Patterson appointed Gillibrand last year to fill the seat vacated by Hillary Clinton when she became Secretary of State.

Ford’s namesake, Harold Ford Sr., represented the 9th Congressional District for 22 years. Fresh out of law school, Ford Jr. was then elected to the same seat, serving from 1997 to 2007 before bowing out to run for the Senate. Despite the Ford family having its share of scandals and controversies, they remain very much beloved by the African American community -- particularly in Memphis.

The Senate race against Corker was particularly testy, with both campaigns battling to the end. Corker won by 49,935 votes in a race in which more than 1.8 million were cast.

Since that loss, Ford has taken a job as a vice chairman of Merrill Lynch; served as a television commentator; served as chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, a Democratic think tank; and, in 2008, married Emily Threlkeld, a public relations specialist.

Rep. Steve Cohen, who holds Ford’s old seat, said anyone with Memphis roots who gets elected to Congress can benefit the city.

“I wish him nothing but the best,” said Cohen, who has tangled with members of the Ford family over the years. “I think it’d be great if he was successful. He knows Memphis, loves Memphis. As a senator from New York who had Memphis ties, it’d be good for Memphis.”

According to the Times, Gillibrand has already raised at least $5.5 million, and will likely raise tens of millions more.

Ford raised about $20million during his last run, one-quarter of which came from New York, the Times reported.

“Senator Gillibrand is a voracious fundraiser. That’s something she’s well known for,” Cohen said. “She’s raised a lot of money and she’s got a lot of the establishment on her side. She’ll be a formidable opponent and a difficult opponent to beat.”

Cohen said Ford’s chances are aided by New Yorkers’ history of electing political outsiders to represent the state.

“New York has welcomed Robert Kennedy, who had limited contacts with (the state), Hillary Clinton and others over the years,” he said. “It’s kind of a melting-pot state. I think it’s up to the people of New York.”

Harlem Becoming Less Black Every Day - You Got A Problem With That?

672 Whites in 1990. Today It's Almost 14,000

For nearly a century, Harlem has been synonymous with black urban America. Given its magnetic and growing appeal to younger black professionals and its historic residential enclaves and cultural institutions, the neighborhood’s reputation as the capital of black America seems unlikely to change soon. With that said...

But the neighborhood is in the midst of a profound and accelerating shift. In greater Harlem, which runs river to river, and from East 96th Street and West 106th Street to West 155th Street, blacks are no longer a majority of the population — a shift that actually occurred a decade ago, but was largely overlooked.

By 2008, their share had declined to 4 in 10 residents. Since 2000, Harlem’s population has already grown more than in any decade since the 1940s, to 126,000 from 109,000, but its black population — about 77,000 in central Harlem and about twice that in greater Harlem — is smaller than at any time since the 1920s.

In 2008, 22 percent of the white households in Harlem had moved to their present homes within the previous year. By comparison, only 7 percent of the black households had.

“It was a combination of location and affordability,” said Laura Murray, a 31-year-old graduate student in medical anthropology at Columbia, who moved to Sugar Hill near City College about a year ago. “I feel a community here that I don’t feel in other parts of the city.”

Change has been even more pronounced in the narrow north-south corridor defined as central Harlem, which planners roughly define as north of 110th Street between Fifth and St. Nicholas Avenues.

There, blacks account for 6 in 10 residents, but native-born African-Americans born in the United States make up barely half of all residents. Since 2000, the proportion of whites living there has more than doubled, to more than one in 10 residents — the highest since the 1940s.

The Hispanic population, which was concentrated in East Harlem, is now at an all-time high in central Harlem, up 27 percent since 2000.

Harlem, said Michael Henry Adams, a historian of the neighborhood and a local resident, “is poised again at a point of pivotal transition.”

Harlem is hardly the only ethnic neighborhoods to have metamorphosed because of inroads by housing pioneers seeking bargains and more space — Little Italy, for instance, has been largely gobbled up by immigrants expanding the boundaries of Chinatown and by creeping gentrification from SoHo.

But Harlem has evolved uniquely.

Because so much of the community was devastated by demolition for urban renewal, arson and abandonment beginning in the 1960s, many newcomers have not so much dislodged existing residents as succeeded them. In the 1970s alone, the black population of central Harlem declined by more than 30 percent.

“This place was vacated,” said Howard Dodson, director of Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. “Gentrification is about displacement.”
Meanwhile, the influx of non-Hispanic whites has escalated.

The 1990 census counted only 672 whites in central Harlem. By 2000, there were 2,200. The latest count, in 2008, recorded nearly 13,800.

“There’s a lot of new housing to allow people to come into the area without displacing people there,” said Joshua S. Bauchner, who moved to a Harlem town house in 2007 and is the only white member of Community Board 10 in central Harlem. “In Manhattan, there are only so many directions you can go. North to Harlem is one of the last options.”

In 1910, blacks constituted about 10 percent of central Harlem’s population. By 1930, the beginnings of the great migration from the South and the influx from downtown Manhattan neighborhoods where blacks were feeling less welcome transformed them into a 70 percent majority. Their share of the population (98 percent) and total numbers (233,000) peaked in 1950.

In 2008, according to the census, the 77,000 blacks in central Harlem amounted to 62 percent of the population.

In greater Harlem, the population peaked at 341,000 in 1950. The black share hit a high of 64 percent in 1970. In 2008, the comparable figures were 153,000 and 41 percent, respectively.
About 15 percent of Harlem’s black population is foreign-born, mostly from the Caribbean, with a growing proportion from Africa.

Some experts say the decline in the black population may be overstated because poorer people are typically undercounted by the census, and Harlem has a disproportionate number of poor people.

Others warn that proposed development and higher property values may force poor people out and say that when the city was the neighborhood’s leading landlord it should have increased ownership opportunities for Harlem residents .

“Gentrification — the buying up and rehabilitation of land and buildings, whether by families or developers, occupied or abandoned —means a rising rent tide for all, leading inevitably to displacement next door, down the block, or two streets away,” said Neil Smith, director of the Center for Place, Culture and Politics at the City University of New York Graduate Center.

The story continues...

Folks Who Get It: Percy Sutton Epitomized What The Harlem Renaissance Was All About

Job Well Done Sir - Rest In Peace!

Percy E. Sutton stood proudly at the center of the struggle for equal rights. He was arrested as a freedom rider; represented Malcolm X as young lawyer; rescued the fabled Apollo Theater in Harlem; and became a millionaire tycoon in the communications business to give public voice to African Americans.

Displaying fierce intelligence and exquisite polish in becoming one of the nation’s most prominent black political and business leaders, the New York icon died on December 26. He was 89.

Percy Sutton was an eminent politician in New York City, rising from the Democratic clubhouses of Harlem to become the longest serving Manhattan borough president and, for more than a decade, the highest black official in the city. In 1977, he was the first seriously regarded black candidate for mayor.

His supporters saw his loss in that mayoral race as a stinging rebuff to his campaign’s strenuous efforts to build support among whites. But David N. Dinkins, who was elected the first black mayor in 1989, called Mr. Sutton’s failed bid indispensable to his own success.

“I stand on the shoulders of Percy Ellis Sutton,” Mr. Dinkins said in an interview.

Mr. Sutton’s business empire included, over the years, radio stations, cable television systems and national television programs. Another business invested in Africa. Still another sold interactive technology to radio stations.

Mr. Sutton had an immaculately groomed beard and mustache; tailored clothing; and a sonorous, slightly Southern voice that prompted the nickname “wizard of ooze.” Associates called him “the chairman,” and he liked it.

Percy Ellis Sutton, the last child in a family of 15 children, was born on Nov. 24, 1920, in San Antonio, Tex. His father, Samuel Johnson Sutton, was born into slavery and became principal of a black high school. His mother, Lillian, was a teacher.

The 12 children who survived to be adults went to college, with the older ones giving financial and moral support to the younger.

S. J. Sutton, an early civil rights activist who did not use his first name for fear it would be shortened to Sambo, farmed, sold real estate and owned a mattress factory, funeral home and skating rink — in addition to being a full-time principal.

Percy milked the cows, then rode around San Antonio with his father in the same Studebaker used for funerals, distributing milk to the poor. He liked to attach strings to cans to pretend to be a radio broadcaster. He was an Eagle Scout.

At 12, he stowed away on a passenger train to Manhattan where he slept under a sign on 155th Street. Far from being angry, his family regarded him as an adventurer, he said.

His family was committed to civil rights, and he bristled at prejudice. At 13, while passing out N.A.A.C.P. leaflets in an all-white neighborhood, he was beaten by a policeman.

He took up stunt-flying on the barnstorming circuit, but gave it up after a friend crashed. He attended three traditionally black colleges without earning a degree. Their present names are Prairie View A & M University in Texas, Tuskegee University in Alabama and Hampton University in Virginia.

During World War II, he served with the Tuskegee Airmen, the famed all-black unit in the Army Air Forces, as an intelligence officer. He won combat stars in the Italian and Mediterranean theaters.

He entered Columbia Law School on the G.I. Bill on the basis of his solid grades at the colleges he attended. He transferred to Brooklyn Law School so he could work days. He worked at the post office from 4 p.m. until midnight, then as a subway train conductor until 8:30 a.m. He then reported to law school at 9:30. He kept this schedule for three years and became a lawyer.

This punishing pace so annoyed his wife, the former Leatrice O’Farrell, that she divorced him in 1950 — only to remarry him in 1952. In between, he married and divorced Eileen Clark.

Mr. Sutton’s survivors include his wife, Leatrice Sutton; a son from their marriage, Pierre; and a daughter from his second marriage, Cheryl Lynn Sutton.After graduating from law school, Mr. Sutton made what he termed “a major miscalculation.” He enlisted in the Air Force because he mistakenly thought he had flunked the bar exam.

He returned to Harlem in 1953 and opened a law practice. The initial going was tough: he had to work at supplemental jobs that included scrubbing floors.

The story continues...

Outrageous New York Art Exhibit About Barack Leaves Me SMH (Shaking My Head)

The Assassination of Barack Obama: Freedom of expression or racism?

A controversial art exhibit was raided and shut down before it could be viewed in NYC this week. Check out the other disturbing pictures under the hood. (NSFW)

According to the NY Times blog Cityroom, Boston-born performance artist, Yazmany Arboleda, tried to set up a provocative art exhibition in a vacant storefront on West 40th Street in Midtown Manhattan with the title, “The Assassination of Hillary Clinton/The Assassination of Barack Obama.”

The artist thought his racist views were protected under the Constitution because he was expressing himself through his art. Wrong. Not 30 minutes after Arboleda set up the gallery across the street from the New York Times building, police, feds and secret service swooped in to shut the art exhibit down.

While police covered the offensive storefront window with brown paper, Arboleda was led away in handcuffs to be “interrogated”.Arboleda, 27, learned the hard way that freedom has its limits.

Later, in an interview, he said: “It’s art. It’s not supposed to be harmful. It’s about character assassination — about how Obama and Hillary have been portrayed by the media.”

He added, “It’s about the media.”

What say you???

Source

Black Folks Fell Hard For Sex & The City, But Did The Big Apple Pay The Price?

I have a female friend who proudly swears she's never seen an episode of "Sex and the City." She might be the only New York resident in possession of two X chromosomes who can make that claim.

SEE THE ENTIRE LIST IN PHOTOS

The HBO show - which, if you haven't heard, is also a forthcoming movie - was essential TV for millions of women, who took its pro-friendship message as gospel. Unfortunately, the antics of its leading ladies didn't always provide the best examples for their viewers, many of whom continue to worship at the "SATC" altar. Carrie Bradshaw, we're holding you responsible for the following developments, which you and your cohorts unleashed upon an unsuspecting city.

Check out the reasons why New York will never be the same.

BREAKING NEWS: NOT GUILTY VERDICT IN THE SEAN BELL CASE CAUSES NEW YORK TO BRACE FOR THE WORSE!!!

Queens Supreme Court Justice Arthur Cooperman, 74, has just ruled that there was insufficient evidence to find three New York police officers accused in the Sean Bell shooting murder trial.

More pictures, video and details under the hood...

Prior convictions by the victims and his boys, credibility and demeanor issues with the prosecution witnesses, and a reasonable fear for the officer's safety where all the factors that the court stated was the basis for its decision. The reaction was strong, immediate, and combative, with Nicole Bell bolting out the courtroom saying "I've got to get outta here!!!"

A no-nonsense jurist who once threatened to eject a rape victim from his courtroom for crying too loudly, Cooperman decided that the three plain-clothes, undercover detectives accused in the slaying of Bell, shot in a hail of 50 bullets on Nov. 25, 2006 in Jamaica, were not guilty on ALL COUNTS!

Sean died the day the day of his wedding to Nicole Bell, who legally changed her name after his death and who is now raising her deceased fiance's two little girls by herself.

Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora were facing up to 25 years in the slammer for manslaughter. Marc Cooper was charged with reckless endangerment and faced up to a year. Two of the three officers are Black.

One of the most important bench-trial verdicts in the city's history, Cooperman is no stranger to cop trials.

In 1986, he presided over the trial of NYPD Sgt. Richard Pike and Officer Jeffrey Gilbert, convicted of torturing two teens with stun guns.

He denied a request to throw out the jury's verdict, calling it an "affront" to "honest and honorable police officers."

WATCH VIDEO OF THE CROWD REACTING

Not that today's verdict has been rendered, will Bell supporters who previously promised peace be able to contain others who are outraged?

"Let us be the purveyors of peace so the oppressors will not rob of us our most vital resource, our young people," Father Darryl James said last night at Community Church of Christ, where the groom-to-be's funeral had been held. Pictured above after the verdict, William and Valerie Bell, Sean's parents.

Meanwhile, the Kalua strip club, where Bell, 23, had been celebrating his bachelor party, has already planned to shut down today now that the cops will go free. "The boss is worried that people will bum rush the place," a bouncer told The New York Post.

Court officials said other cases were postponed until after the verdict. [NY Post]

New York's Cocaine Smoking Governor David Paterson Nominates A Black Man As State's New Police Superintendent

First HNIC Gets Busy Trying To Avoid His Own Drama

Governor Paterson announced today that he is nominating Harry Corbitt to be the superintendent of New York state police, replacing Preston Felton.

Corbitt, who retired as a colonel from the state police in 2004, is a former deputy superintendent of internal affairs for the agency. During a 26-year career that began in New York state's west-central region, he also held command positions with with the Thruway detail.

Corbitt's selection must be confirmed by the state Senate.

Meanwhile, a hotel sex scandal is brewing for Paterson that is definitely not a good look for the brotha. Today, the gov's latest confession is he smoked cocaine and weed back in the day.

We here at 3BAAS really like this guy, as do 58% of recently polled New Yorkers. But 13 overnight stays and you're only 20 minutes from home. Ah... we're just a tad bit concerned. Details.

NY Governor Spitzer Says Power Will Go To The Blind Black Man Effective Monday

A Stunning Fall, An Amazing Rise For David Patterson

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer said on Wednesday that he will resign effective Monday after allegedly spending thousands of dollars on meetings with prostitutes.

"I look at my time as governor with a sense of what might have been," Spitzer said, with his expressionless wife Silda standing at his side. "There is much more to be done, and I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people's work."

His wife took deep breaths as hundreds of photos were taken at close range. Each of Spitzer's words was accompanied by a rush of camera clicks.

"Over the course of my public life, I've insisted, I think correctly, that people regardless of their position or power take responsibility for their conduct. I can and will ask no less of myself," he said.

Watch Spitzer's Resignation Speech

Despite Spitzer's resignation, the U.S. Attorney's office said there was no deal in place for the governor regarding possible prosecution.

"There is no agreement between this Office and Governor Eliot Spitzer, relating to his resignation or any other matter," said Michael J. Garcia, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District Of New York.

Attending the news conference with Spitzer were his close advisers and lawyers, including Ted Wells, a prominent attorney who recently represented I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Lt. Gov. David Paterson, slated to take Spitzer's place, requested that the resignation go into effect next week in order to have more time to put a transition team in place.

Paterson will become the governor of New York when he is publicly sworn in on Monday. Paterson will become just the eighth black governor in American history, the first in New York.

In a statement, Paterson expressed sadness over the scandal.

"On a personal level, Governor Spitzer and Silda have been close and steadfast friends. As an elected official the Governor has worked hard for the people of New York."

Spitzer formally announced his resignation in a Wednesday morning news conference.

Prior to the announcement, Spitzer and his wife left their apartment around 11 a.m. and got into a black SUV to take them to his office. Cameras aboard news helicopters tracked the movement of Spitzer's three-vehicle motorcade from his apartment on the Upper East Side to his office in midtown Manhattan.

Spitzer's resignation will not become final until he informs top-ranking officials and submits an official letter. WNBC.com has been told to expect a paper statement e-mailed out and posted on the state's official Web site.

New York State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, speaking at a news conference Wednesday, said he felt "sad" for Spitzer and his family but stressed that the state needs to focus on the future.

"He must deal with his own problems in his own way, but it is time for us and all new Yorkers to move forward," said Bruno.

Bruno and Spitzer have an acrimonious history, as Spitzer had been embroiled in an earlier scandal in which his aides were accused of overzealously searching for incriminating information about the majority leader.

Bruno also said he was looking forward to working with Paterson.

"We are going to partner with the lieutenant governor when he becomes governor," said Bruno. "David has always been very open with me, very forthright ... I look forward to a positive, productive relationship."

The case involving Spitzer started when banks noticed frequent cash transfers from several accounts and filed suspicious activity reports with the Internal Revenue Service, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The accounts were traced back to Spitzer, leading public corruption investigators to open an inquiry.

A law enforcement official said Tuesday that Spitzer had spent tens of thousands of dollars with the call-girl service Emperors Club VIP.

Still another law enforcement official said investigators found that during the tryst with a prostitute named Kristen, Spitzer used two rooms at Washington's Mayflower Hotel -- one for himself, the other for the call girl. Sometime around 10 p.m., Spitzer sneaked away from his security detail and made his way to her room, the official said.

According to an affidavit, a federal judge approved wiretaps on the escort service's telephone in January and February. FBI agents in Washington had the Mayflower under surveillance when Spitzer was in town, a senior law enforcement official said.

The officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

Spitzer, a first-term Democrat, built his political reputation on rooting out government corruption, and made a name for himself as attorney general as crusader against shady practices and overly generous compensation. He also cracked down on prostitution.

He was known as the "Sheriff of Wall Street." Time magazine named him "Crusader of the Year," and the tabloids proclaimed him "Eliot Ness." The square-jawed graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law was sometimes mentioned as a potential candidate for president.

He rode into the governor's office with a historic margin of victory on Jan. 1, 2007, vowing to stamp out corruption in New York government in the same way that he took on Wall Street executives with a vengeance while state attorney general.

His term as governor has been fraught with problems, including an unpopular plan to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and a plot by his aides to smear his main Republican nemesis. The prostitution scandal, some said, was too much to overcome.

Barely known outside of his Harlem political base, Paterson, 53, has been in New York government since his election to the state Senate in 1985. He led the Democratic caucus in the Senate before running with Spitzer as his No. 2.

Though legally blind, Paterson has enough sight in his right eye to walk unaided, recognize people at conversational distance and even read if text is placed close to his face. While Spitzer is renowned for his abrasive style, Paterson has built a reputation as a conciliator.

Bruno, though the next highest-ranking official, does not become lieutenant governor upon Paterson's ascension to governor. The lieutenant governor's office would remain vacant until the next general election in 2010 under state law. However, whenever Paterson is out of state or if he were to become incapacitated, Bruno would be acting governor.

NY GOVERNOR ELIOT SPITZER TO RESIGN OVER PROSTITUTION SEX SCANDAL, BLACK LT. GOVERNOR TO ASSUME POWER!!!

Spitzer Linked to Prostitution Ring

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials and now the rest of the world that he had been involved in a prostitution ring. Of course he apologized to his family and those whose trust he violated, but when it's all said and done, this man RIGHT HERE will be the new Governor of New York:

With David Paterson, the blind African American politician currently serving as Lieutenant Governor, maybe 2008 will see Black men running the show in DC with Barack, Deval Patrick in Massachusetts, and this brother in Hillary's state. To make things even more interesting, Governor Spitzer is a superdelegate... for Clinton!

David Paterson is a former State Senator who evokes mixed feelings in New York political circles and particularly in his native Harlem. Spitzer chose him based on his personal liking for, and confidence in, him.

Here's a profile of Paterson in the New York Observer in 2006:

State Senator David Paterson’s bid to be Eliot Spitzer’s candidate for Lieutenant Governor and campaign-trail partner was launched last month in a flurry of confusion and political intrigue. It stunned his Harlem-based world, and left him for a few days opposed by a candidate who had been endorsed by his wife and father. And when things settled down, Mr. Paterson unsettled some of Mr. Spitzer’s supporters with a public promise of a “Paterson-Spitzer administration.”

It seems the brother may have been more clairvoyant than people realized.

Mr. Spitzer, who was huddled with his top aides early this afternoon, had hours earlier abruptly canceled his scheduled public events for the day. A first-term Democrat who pledged to bring ethics reform and end the often seamy ways of Albany, is married, has three children, and was named by Time Magazine as "Crusader Of The Year" for all his prosecutorial good deeds.

Just last week, federal prosecutors arrested four people in connection with an expensive prostitution operation. Administration officials would not say that this was the ring with which the governor had become involved.

He had a difficult first year in office, rocked by a mix of scandal and legislative setbacks. In recent weeks, however, Mr. Spitzer seemed to have rebounded, with his Democratic party poised to perhaps gain control of the state Senate for the first time in four decades. Most people, however, never realized that he had a sex addiction that would finally cause him to hit rock bottom!

Mr. Spitzer gained national attention when he served as attorney general with his relentless pursuit of Wall Street wrongdoing. As attorney general, he also had prosecuted at least two prostitution rings as head of the state’s organized crime task force.

In one such case in 2004, Mr. Spitzer spoke with revulsion and anger after announcing the arrest of 16 people for operating a high-end prostitution ring out of Staten Island.

“”This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered management structure,” Mr. Spitzer said at the time. ”It was, however, nothing more than a prostitution ring.”

Albany for months has been roiled by bitter fighting and accusations of dirty tricks. The Albany County district attorney is set to issue in the coming days the results of his investigation into Mr. Spitzer’s first scandal, his aides’ involvement in an effort to tarnish Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, the state’s top Republican. [CNN]

VH-1's New York Traps, Er... Lands A Married White Dude "Tailor Made" For Her

Triffling Tiffany “New York” Pollard — the embarrassing, low-budget boob and weave star of VH1’s hit reality show I Love New York 2 — is jumpin the broom to a guy that's still working on that divorce, Three Brothers has learned.

New York, 25, weeded through 20 wannabe celebrities, er... we mean eligible bachelors in season 2 of her dating reality show before she finally found a trainer. Sorry, we mean keeper. Her Mr. Right? “Tailor Made” (real name George Weisgerber), a 32-year-old White retail planner from Queens, New York. This cat proposed on the Dec. 17 finale, but Pollard turned him down. On season 2’s reunion show that airs Jan. 6, however, he was stupid enough to propose again. This time, her and her momma said "yes!”

Pollard originally competed for (slept with) rapper Flavor Flav’s affection on his hit VH1 show, Flavor of Love. When he chose the big booty we still lovingly refer to as “Deelishis” over her, she looked for love her own show, I Love New York. In Season one, Pollard chose “Tango,” who, after a few months, called off their engagement.

Weisgerber, who was separated while taping the show and is currently finalizing his divorce, admits he “always had a crush” on Pollard, and thought it fate when casting for season two began. “She needs a guy who will treat her right and respects her and values her for who she is, he told PEOPLE recently. “Our personalities complete each other. I cherish her and want to cater to her every need. But I’m not a doormat. We have a good balance.” People

Black NY Times Editor Gerald Boyd Returns From The Grave, Haunting Writer Jason Blair And The White Bogeymen

The New York Times In Black & White

Gerald Boyd, former managing editor of The New York Times, died a year ago Thanksgiving Day from lung cancer. And to mark the occasion, New York Magazine has decided that they want to back up the hearse to his grave, dig the brotha up and burying him all over again.

African American scribe Les Payne breaks it down for us. The nearly 7,000-word article disinters the scandal that got the 58-year-old sacked along with the paper's top editor, Howell Raines. Writer Jeff Coplon was careful in crafting his report, which lands on target and manages to spatter blood. The story, however, lacks the virtue of coming clean about those at the Times who, however unwittingly, prepared Boyd for the fall that some considered as needless as it was inevitable.

Boyd rose higher than any known Black editor at the august newspaper. I say "known" because one of the earliest Black writers at the Times kept his racial identity a total secret. As with light-complexioned African-Americans who desegregated other institutions with stealth, Anatole Broyard, a former literary critic at the Times, reasoned, perhaps wisely, that his rise would be best served if the men running the paper thought that he was white like them. No such editor has been uncovered playing Broyard's skin game.

Still, it was disingenuous for Max Frankel, then the top editor, to set Boyd up on an executive track in 1990, telling him in so many words, as Coplon writes, that he would be the Times' Jackie Robinson. The Brooklyn Dodgers infielder broke baseball's lily-white barrier, while Boyd was preceded by others at the paper. Frankel reportedly "warned" Boyd that white colleagues would resent his promotion "because" he was black. By describing Frankel as having played Branch Rickey to Boyd's Robinson, Coplon imbues the Times' motivation with an enlightened sense of racial fair play.

The truth - which New York magazine completely omits - is that the Times was under court order to further desegregate its editorial staff. The paper settled the racial discrimination suit, Rosario et al. v. The New York Times, in 1980 for more than $1 million and a promise to do better. In the early 1980s, however, the court warned the Times in writing that A.M. Rosenthal, the editor later ousted to make way for Frankel, had failed to live up to the signed agreement.

So it was the Rosario consent decree that boosted Boyd, not goodwill from the Times or altruism on the part of Max Frankel. This is not to diminish Boyd's talent and hard work. For if Anatole Broyard's racial passing proves anything, it is that meritocracy works for blacks at the Times only when the bosses don't know you're African-American.

Frankel, as quoted by Cop-lon, admitted to selecting Boyd primarily for his "equanimity ... for white establishment settings," a curious qualification that's never required of white candidates. "He didn't bear some of the anger and hostility that were visible in other people."

Boyd had pushed more aggressively on racial matters at his hometown St. Louis paper, but corked his emotions to succeed at the Times. Here it was required that blacks grant white Times bosses their innocence on matters racial in exchange for personal advancement. The ambitious Boyd rocketed through the ranks as much for the specificity of his loyalty as for the generality of his race.

When reporter Jayson Blair defiled the Times with a blizzard of fabricated stories the paper published, Boyd was slandered - and sacked - as the alleged protector of this twisted little con artist, who happened to be black. Deserving African-American subordinates knew better, for Boyd had long prided himself in not being the brothers' keeper. Even after his firing, he boasted to the National Association of Black Journalists: "I was not the black managing editor. I was the managing editor."

With Boyd gone from his high perch, the Times has recovered from the affirmative effects of the Rosario consent decree. In a city nearly a third African-American, The New York Times, for example, covers the 75 percent black NFL and the 15 percent white NBA with a huge sports staff that among its editors, reporters and columnists fields only a single, black staffer, the columnist Bill Rhoden. There is a word that describes this pattern of coverage the Rosario suit addressed, but out of respect for Boyd's deep and unrequited love for the Times, I will not use the "r" word here. [Newsday]

Another Noose Incident, This Time At A NYC Post Office: Okay, So What's Up???

There was yet another disturbing discovery involving a noose near Ground Zero in Manhattan Thursday. This time one was found hanging from a lamppost at the Church Street Post Office.

While police said it's not clear where or at whom the Church Street noose might have been directed, detectives at the NYPD Hate Crime task force have 56 hours of surveillance tapes to comb through, trying to catch the person who hung a noose on Professor Madonna Constantine's door at Columbia University. A colleague, who Constantine is suing for defamation, says she had nothing to do placing this vile symbol of racism at her door.

Nooses -- deplored as symbols of lynchings in the Old South -- have appeared in recent incidents in the New York area and across the country. In Queens, a white woman was arrested after threatening to kill her black neighbor's children with a noose. Other nooses have been found at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, and in the Hempstead Police Department's locker room on Long Island.

Has the Jena 6 case caused all these copycat? Is it Barack Obama backlash? Is there something deeper afoot? While no real database on nooses around the country, we have seen an increase in the last 10 to 15 years all over the U.S. -- not just the south." Hate crimes in New York City were up 10 percent last year, with 256 incidents reported.

What Do The Boondocks, Barack, And A Black Girl Biting A Police Officer All Have In Common?

Boondocks Bows Down to the N-word

Brown Launches FreeFoxyBrown.com

New York Opens Slave Burial Site

Fewer Blacks Receive End-of-Life Hospice Care

Haiti's Rebuilding Shifts to Education

Diplomats Defend Mugabe's Attendance at EU-Africa Summit

Debra Lee Tries to Shake Off the BET’s Bad Rap

15-Year-Old Girl Pepper Sprayed After Biting Officer

Obama Gets Military Brass Backing in New Ad

Blacks Buying in Home Slump

Sharpton to Isiah: Apologize or Else

Move Over Nicole Richie, Singer Tamia And NBA Baller Grant Hill Have Baby News Of Their Own!

Tamia and Grant Hill Have a Baby Girl

While D'Angelo Pleads Guilty, Monica Confirms Pregnancy

James Brown's Trustee Quits After Stealing Money

Without Role Models, Youth Are Prey to Underworld Culture
Cornel West: Returning Rap to Its Roots

Blacks Press Case on MLK Memorial

Public Pays Respects to Civil Rights Pioneer Oliver Hill

Media Consolidation and the Black Grass Roots

New York's Black Population Decreases 40,000

ARE RUMOUS ABOUT POPULAR BLACK HARLEM CONGRESSMAN CHARLIE RANGEL TRUE?

First L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Now Charlie?

Harlem congressman Charles Rangel and his wife, Alma, have been living apart for some time and divorce is likely, according to sources.

The separation, although not public, has been known in political circles for months, says a Washington insider.

The congressman spoke to me Friday and declined to comment about his relationship with his wife.

But he specifically denied a claim by a source that he had been dating other women.

"I work all the time, from 8 o'clock in the morning," he said. "I don't go out, I don't go to nightclubs. That is false."

The source had claimed that Rangel, 77, "has been keeping company - it's a midlife career embarrassment. He's running amok."

The source also claimed Rangel's elevation to chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee had bolstered his romantic confidence.

Democrat Rangel, a Harlem native, has represented New York's 15th District since 1971.

COULD WHITE FOLKS SAY THEY'RE ANTI-BLACK AND GET A STREET NAMED AFTER THEM???

"When asked if he was anti-Semitic, Sonny Carson said ‘no, I am anti-white.’

While New York City community activists fight to rename a public street after Sonny Carson, critics say a street renaming is an honor that Carson doesn't deserve.

How about we rename every school and street named after George Washington because the American president owned slaves, OKAY?

"That is not a uniting position,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. “And I don't believe it is appropriate to elevate that man and give him a higher level of government recognition."

Known for making racially charged comments, Carson was once linked to a homicide and was sentenced to prison for kidnapping. His was one of more than 50 names included in the bill, which would rename four blocks of Gates Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant after him.

"How is it that only one name is taken out and that’s a black man? How is it that a black man is disrespected in his own district? How is it that three white members of the Parks committee and one white speaker is going to tell the whole black community that they can't have this,” said Brooklyn City Councilman Charles Baron.

"This was a bad fight to pick,” said Bronx City Councilwoman Helen Foster. “As chair of the parks committee, I'm going to look into every single name that we have passed and make sure that everybody is clean. Because if we're going to pick and chose when it comes to Sonny Carson, then we are going to pick and chose everyone else."

Was Carson's name being removed from the bill all about racism? Before you answer, read his full story here.

SO NOW WHAT DO YOU THINK?

SEE THE THREE BROS: READY, AIM, FIRE!!!

German Soldier Told To Think Of Blacks And Shoot

BERLIN - A German army instructor ordered a soldier to envision himself in the Bronx facing us while firing his machine gun, a video that aired Saturday on national television showed.

The president of the New York City borough that the army instructor referred to demanded an apology, saying the clip “indicates that bias and assumptions and racism is alive and well..."

Shot in July 2006, the video shows both instructor and soldier in camouflage uniforms in a forest. The instructor says, “You are in the Bronx. A black van stops in front of you. Three African-Americans are getting out and insulting your mother in the worst ways. ... Act.”

The soldier then fires, yelling obscenities in English. The instructor then screams, "Louder." (SEE VIDEO HERE)

Al Sharpton said he was outraged that Germans were depicting blacks as target practice. “I think this is an incredibly racist kind of insult to African-Americans and it speaks to the kind of institutional racism that people think we are hallucinating about,” he said. [Source]

REVEREND AL IS ON A ROLL FOLKS - THIS SHOULD BE HIS NEW THEME SONG:

McFadden & Whithead - "Ain't No Stoppin Us Now"