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On December 10. 2011 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. the African American Leadership Forum will be holding an invitation only “AALF VI” in downtown Minneapolis at the prestigious “Windows on Minnesota” restaurant in the IDS Center. Again, another group of Black Intellectuals sit around the table to praise each other while Black Minnesotans starve, unemployed and have “blue-tarps” on their homes. This is the definition of “trifling Negros.” (See video below)

Fast Tube by Casper

by Donald W.R. Allen, II – Editor in Chief, IBNN NEWS and Black Politics in Minnesota (additional sources: Associated Press, Johannesburg Times-Star Tribune, Your Black World and talk on the street.)

"Dem belly full, but dem still hungry"

Saint Paul, MN (IBNN NEWS/Political Op Ed/December 4, 2011)…The Twin Cities has been plagued with leadership groups and programs that speak of a “gateway to opportunity” or “blueprint to and for success” lets even throw in the Council on Black Minnesotans – a 24 year dysfunction of public policy and personal favoritism   that has not addressed one; I say it again: “Not one issue in the Black community successfully per their charter.”

In the area of training, jobs, civil rights and education, it is clear that political science and leadership science is not working on behalf of the people who need it most. I’m not talking about a “hand-out,” more specifically and hand-in. If one local politician would hold the Minnesota Department of Transportation accountable, Black contractors would never have to hear about $715 dollars making it to one Black contractor when $68 million was on the table. (“Read: Mary Prescottt Letter to the Federal Highway Administration”) It would also be nice not to listen to a bias and skewed report on MPR on what a great job MnDOT is doing, when in fact, that’s not the story. (Listen to MPR propaganda here.)

“Slogans” look good on paper, literally not one effort has been made by any of the local “leadership groups” to address the rising unemployment among Blacks and Native Americans – nor speak to the inconsistencies in data delivered by the mainstream media who would have Americans to believe that “everything is fine.” Of course, most of these groups come to the table with their hands out with thousands of dollar spend in pomp and circumstance to include breakfast, lunch and dinner catered by the finest. It’s a sad time in the Twin Cities.

In a story “re-published” by the Star Tribune on December 2, 2011 from the Associated Press titled, “Unemployment rate falls to 8.6 percent, lowest in 2 1/2 years, with good signs for small business.” This is a misleading missive of twisted numbers that don’t focus on areas like the many Native American reservations throughout the United States or Black communities where unemployment is in the high teens and low twenties. Needless to say, Black people are not getting back to work.

In Minnesota training bandwagon has been successful for some non-profit CEO’s but still hits a dead-end due to the fact out of every 100 trained in Minnesota OIC’s, less that 5% get hired in their field of expertise. More importantly, I can’t think of a union in Minnesota or in the United States that would hire a “greenie” over a seasoned construction union member. It doesn’t work like that – it never has.

Nationally, White men saw their unemployment rate decline the most, dropping from 7.9% to 7.3%, while Black men endured a spike from 16.2% to an especially disturbing 16.5%. “If the best social service program is a job, why are we still training people that can’t find or get work?” Is this Governor Mark Dayton’s plan of extinction for Minnesota’s Blacks and Native Americans? It’s working.

November unemployment numbers issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there was a tale of two ethnicities.  White Americans saw their unemployment rate decline in every demographic (women, men and teens), while African Americans saw their rate rise in every single category.

In Minnesota, not one “training or employment friendly” agency from the African American Leadership Forum, NAACP, and Minneapolis Urban League said one thing, or held a press conference to firmly state that the “national numbers” did not reflect what’s happening in the minority communities across the United States, more specifically Minnesota.

Does this mean the end for Black “political and leadership science?”