Julius Malema Calls For The Creation Of ‘United States Of Africa’
by moguldom

January 20, 2020

Julius Malema Calls For The Creation Of ‘United States Of Africa’

South Africa’s firebrand opposition leader Julius Malema wants the formation of a “United States of Africa” that will bring together the entire continent in one economic bloc.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party leader said he envisions continental unity at the political level and was planning to use South Africa as the launchpad for the idea if he wins the next elections.

The EFF is South Africa’s third-biggest party with 43 parliamentary seats out of around 400, as per the last general elections.

“We want to lead Africa, we want a United State of Africa. With one currency, with one economy, with one parliament, with one president, with one judiciary,” Malema told delegates at an EFF annual general meeting that re-elected him as the party leader on Dec. 16.

“(An Africa) … where all member states will be held accountable, we want Africa to be one. With this South Africa, it is just a starting point. And why? Because political freedom came from up there in the north. Economic freedom must come from the south going up there.”

“We cannot have one Africa while the continent is still divided on the internal political landscape. Malema is seen as a person who represents the African agenda, while allegations point that he is not such person who will carry such program,” said political analyst Sibusiso Ndlovu.

Oprah Cancels Production On #MeToo Doc About Russell Simmons
by moguldom

January 17, 2020

Oprah Cancels Production On #MeToo Doc About Russell Simmons

Oprah Winfrey has pulled the plug on her involvement in an upcoming #MeToo Documentary featuring a woman who accused Russell Simmons of rape, The Verge reported.

The documentary was slated to appear on Apple TV+, but Oprah said she will no longer serve as executive producer of the project because she and the filmmakers are “not aligned in” their “creative vision.”

The media mogul made the announcement through a statement via Deadline and other media outlets. Her full statement reads:

“I have decided that I will no longer be executive producer on The Untitled Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Documentary and it will not air on Apple TV+. First and foremost, I want it to be known that I unequivocally believe and support the women. Their stories deserve to be told and heard. In my opinion, there is more work to be done on the film to illuminate the full scope of what the victims endured and it has become clear that the filmmakers and I are not aligned in that creative vision. Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering are talented filmmakers. I have great respect for their mission but given the filmmakers’ desire to premiere the film at the Sundance Film Festival before I believe it is complete, I feel it’s best to step aside. I will be working with Time’s Up to support the victims and those impacted by abuse and sexual harassment.”

Winfrey made the announcement after getting backlash from rappers like 50 Cent, The Game and Simmons himself. They accused the first Black woman to become a billionaire of targeting Black men who were accused of sex crimes, but letting their white counterparts get a pass.

RELATED: 50 Cent Criticizes Oprah For Only Going After Black Men Accused of Sex Crimes

However, as noted in her aforementioned statement, Winfrey said she still believes and supports Simmons’ accusers. Despite this, 50 Cent thanked Winfrey in an Instagram post for removing herself from the documentary.

“Alright, alright, alright Oprah we love you, thank you for responding and if you ever need me for anything I’m here,” the rapper captioned in his post of a screenshot of Deadline’s article.

Simmons also responded to Winfrey’s announcement with a long, heartfelt Instagram post to the beloved media icon. In it he says the documentary was troubling because Winfrey had “been a shining light to my family and my community. Contributing so much to my life that I couldn’t list a fraction of it …”

He went on to accept responsibility for being “guilty of exploiting, supporting, and making the soundtrack for a grossly unequal society,” but maintained he has never forced himself on anyone.

This article was written by Isheka N. Harrison for The Moguldom Nation on January 13, 2020.

by moguldom

January 13, 2020

Black Business Owners With 750+ Credit Scores Are Rejected For Loans

Black business owners are being denied business loans from banks despite having good credit scores and showing consistent annual profits.

According to the most recent data available from the U.S. Federal Reserve, Black business owners are denied loans by banks more frequently than any other racial group, reported St. Louis Public Radio.

St. Louis-based “sauce man” Freddie Lee James Jr. and his wife Deborah are among those Black business owners who’ve been denied. The couple says despite bringing in $200,000 annually in profit, banks will not give them a loan.

“We have 750-760 credit score. … We pay all our debts. We don’t have no problems with that. But they were saying that the sauce business is not generating enough capital to their standards,” James said.

Statistics show Black-owned businesses are twice as likely to be denied as their white counterparts. While some say its difficult for small business to get loans in general, Galen Gondolfi said racism and discrimination in lending exacerbates the issue for Blacks.

St. Louis-based “sauce man” Freddie Lee James Jr. and his wife Deborah are among those Black business owners who’ve been denied. The couple says despite bringing in $200,000 annually in profit, banks will not give them a loan.

“We have 750-760 credit score. … We pay all our debts. We don’t have no problems with that. But they were saying that the sauce business is not generating enough capital to their standards,” James said.

Statistics show Black-owned businesses are twice as likely to be denied as their white counterparts. While some say its difficult for small business to get loans in general, Galen Gondolfi said racism and discrimination in lending exacerbates the issue for Blacks.

“I tell them failing to plan is like planning to fail,” said. Eddie G. Davis, the center’s president and executive director. “It’s like driving blind. … We work with them to develop their business plan, develop, for example, their target market and identify who their customers will be.”

This article was written by Isheka N. Harrison for The Moguldom Nation on January 9, 2020.

New York Gives $3.5M Grant To Help Build Hip-Hop Museum In The Bronx
by moguldom

January 6, 2020

New York Gives $3.5M Grant To Help Build Hip-Hop Museum In The Bronx

New York recently awarded a $3.5 million capital grant to help build the world’s first museum dedicated to hip-hop music and culture.

According to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the $80 million Universal Hip Hop Museum will open in 2023 in the South Bronx – which is considered the birthplace of hip hop. The museum is currently operating temporarily in Bronx Terminal Market.

The museum is expected to be a win-win for the city. It’s director, Rocky Bucano, told The New York Post that the Hip Hop Museum will generate tourism and tax revenues for the Bronx and New York. The Bronx Point Development is slated to be its permanent home.

“The museum is part of the renaissance of the Bronx. The Bronx is coming back,” he said. “But the museum will be of the people and for the people.” Bucano added that the museum received $6.5 million in additional funds from the city.

“It’s the best Christmas gift ever,” Universal Hip Hop Museum ​spokesperson Renee Foster told Patch. “It’s like Santa Claus.”

Hip-Hop music isn’t the only thing that will be showcased at the museum. There will also be exhibits on break dancers, graffiti artists, disc jockeys, and MCs.

“Hip hop culture was born in the Bronx and New York City is the cultural center of the world,” said Foster. “We’re joining institutions like Carnegie Hall and all those great artistic institutions.”

Corporate partners for the museum include Microsoft and MIT as well as support from Hip-Hop artists such as Nas, Q-Tip, and LL Cool J.

“The Universal Hip Hop Museum will occupy 50,000 square feet in Bronx Point, the residential and retail project by L+M Development Partners that will be erected north of the 145th Street bridge along the Harlem River in the Bronx,” The New York Post reported.

Residents had mixed feelings about the grant.

This article was written by Ann Brown on January 1, 2020 for The Moguldom Nation

Mayor Pete Buttigieg: Generational Wealth Has Been Stolen from Black America
by moguldom

December 30, 2019

Mayor Pete Buttigieg: Generational Wealth Has Been Stolen from Black America

Video footage of Democratic presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg saying Black Americans had its generational wealth stolen was shared today.

When asked his stance on reparations, Buttigieg not only voiced his support for HR 40, but also said the wealth disparity between Blacks and whites is a result of “systemic racism in this country.”

“Now I support HR 40 … but I don’t think we have to wait for that commission to do its work to do other things,” Buttigieg said. He added if generational wealth is “true for a dollar that’s been saved, that’s also true for a dollar that’s been stolen – and what has been stolen from Black Americans is generational opportunities to build up wealth.”

The video was captured and shared by a Twitter user identified as Jameion B. Fowler, who identifies as an outspoken member of the American Descendants of Slavery (#ADOS) movement.

“So we shouldn’t be surprised that when slavery ended… less than two lifetimes ago, that we continue to see the consequences of that, in addition to things that are not from some distant far off point past but happened within living memory,” Buttigieg continued.

In a second clip shared by Fowler, Buttigieg added making policy changes without addressing past injustices would not work.

“What we’ve learned is you can’t just get to 2019, replace a lot of these racist policies with neutral policies and say okay now everything is going to take care of itself. It doesn’t work that way, or if it does it’ll take hundreds of years, so we’ve got to act now to address this,” Buttigieg continued.

There were mixed reactions to Buttigieg’s response from other #ADOS members. While one of his colleagues applauded Fowler for asking the “right questions,” another seemed exasperated and said Buttigieg didn’t even really answer the question.

 

This article was written by Isheka N. Harrison for Moguldom.com on December 12, 2019

Apple And Microsoft Sued Over Congo Cobalt Mine Child Labor Deaths
by moguldom

December 23, 2019

Apple And Microsoft Sued Over Congo Cobalt Mine Child Labor Deaths

Five major U.S. tech companies have been accused in a lawsuit of being complicit in the deaths of children mining cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The lawsuit implicates Tesla, Apple, Google’s parent company Alphabet, Dell Technologies and Microsoft as being aware of “the forced labor system that has brought grave harm to the Congolese minors.”

The children were allegedly being forced to mine cobalt, a metal used to make mobile devices, computers, and electric cars.

The Democratic Republic of Congo supplies 54 percent of the world’s cobalt, and the need for the metal is growing steadily as demand for electric cars and mobile devices increases.

Child labor in cobalt mines

Six of the 14 children died in tunnel collapses, and the others suffered life-altering injuries, including paralysis, according to the lawsuit.

The legal complaint on behalf of 14 families from the Democratic Republic of Congo was filed on Dec. 15 by International Rights Advocates, a U.S.-based human-rights nonprofit, Fortune reported.

The lawsuit details that children, some as young as 6 years old, were forced by their families’ extreme poverty to leave school and work in cobalt mines owned by the British and Swiss mining company Glencore.

Some children were paid as little as $2 per day for working six days a week, according to the legal complaint.

“These companies – the richest companies in the world, these fancy gadget-making companies – have allowed children to be maimed and killed to get their cheap cobalt,” said Terrence Collingsworth, an attorney representing the families.

Demand for cobalt is set to increase as the metal has thermal stability and high energy-density properties ideal for batteries used in smartphones, electric cars, and other electronic devices.

Global demand for cobalt is expected to reach about 120,000 metric tons a year by 2020, a 30 percent increase from 2016. It could reach around 357,000 tons by 2030, according to the London-based cobalt-trading company Darton Commodities.

 

This article was written by Peter Pedroncelli and originally published on Moguldom.com.

Many Of The Poorest Americans Are Abandoning Church En Masse
by moguldom

December 16, 2019

Many Of The Poorest Americans Are Abandoning Church En Masse

Many of the poorest Americans are abandoning church in numbers, a disturbing trend that is denying social and networking capital to those who need it the most, according to research findings by political scientist Ryan P. Burge of the Eastern Illinois University.

Burge’s research, which was first published by the Religion in Public blog, showed that people in the lowest income bracket according to the General Social Survey were more likely than any other not to attend church services.

The poorest Americans are not attending church

The gap between the four income groups tracked by the General Social Survey has doubled from just 5% in the 1970s to more than 10% in 2018 when “a quarter of the wealthiest Americans reported never attending church while those at the bottom income bracket who never darkened a church door were over 35%.”

“Consider this, 40% of individuals who are in the bottom quartile of the income spectrum and engage in few social activities never attend church. That’s twice the rate of someone in the top income bracket who has an active social life,” Burge wrote in Christian Today.

The gap between the poor and the rich in terms of church attendance has also spiked in recent years.

Those at the top of the income ladder have become even more social since 2000, according to the research, while those at the bottom are increasingly becoming isolated.

This story was written by Kevin Mwanza and originally appeared on www.moguldom.com.