Op-Ed

‘Empire’ Shows that Black Dollars Matter

Published

10 years ago

March 23, 2015

By Ron Busby, Sr.
NNPA Columnist

According to a Nielsen consumer report, African Americans are voracious consumers of media, watching 37 percent more television than any other slice of American demography. While that’s not new news, it is disturbing that we don’t completely understand the connection between our TV consumption and the huge profits generated by our connection to television.

To be fair, some TV programming can actually be beneficial. The recent coverage of the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” opened the eyes of generations of Americans who were unaware of the brutality of racial oppression in America. Much of television, however, is simply escapist entertainment for us, but a tremendous cash cow for programmers and advertisers. Take for example “Empire” on Fox. The network is known for its history of racist banter and has exploited Black America while simultaneously benefiting from Black consumers. Statistics show that “Empire” is Fox’s highest grossing show in three years, which translates into a huge pay-off for Fox.

How big?

How about the $45.2 billion Comcast/Time Warner merger? How about the $48.5 billion AT&T acquisition of DirecTV or the estimated $1.3 trillion dollars spent annually by Black consumers? Not to mention the $20 billion lawsuit filed by the National Association of African American Owned Media and Entertainment Studios Networks, against Comcast, Time Warner, and other civil rights organizations as party to a plan to ensure that profits from Black viewership continue pouring into the same pockets?

We’ve watched with interest and commented on this situation earlier, but the situation has not improved. We will reserve judgment on the soundness of Entertainment Studios Network’s CEO Byron Allen’s pending legal action, but there are a few things of which we are absolutely certain:

• No telecom giant has a plan for meaningful participation/inclusion of Black business in their day-to-day procurement activity;
• No programming giant has a plan to include, develop or support the development of positive Black portrayals to any meaningful degree;
• No cable/pay TV provider makes programming targeting Black consumers available at their basic service level, which requires their best customers to pay extra to view their favorite shows;
• No advertiser using the TV/PayTV medium includes Black business in any significant way in the development, production, delivery/distribution of their products to this loyal consumer base.

Telecom companies and consumer product companies are gearing up for an assault on your wallets like nothing you’ve ever seen, and if you’re riveted by the latest episode or game-of-the-week, you may not even notice your pocket being picked. Decisions about your money are being made right now. These decisions are being made by people who don’t know you, and whose only interest is how long you’re in front of your TV before you go buy the products they are selling.

We understand it’s about business – big business. We also understand that it is Black consumers’ money that makes the business so big. But if Black businesses don’t flourish as a result of all this activity designed to move dollars out of Black pockets, we’ll be back to “Good Times” in the projects instead of building Empires. All the more reason to invest money in the Black community. If you can devote time to watching your favorite television show, then you can also devote time to buying from your local Black businesses. Make #Blackdollarsmatters not just a hashtag, but a way of life.

Ron Busby, Sr. is president of the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc.

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Activism

Oakland Post Endorses Barbara Lee

Barbara Lee will be able to unify the city around Oakland’s critical budget and financial issues, since she will walk into the mayor’s office with the support of a super majority of seven city council members — enabling her to achieve much-needed consensus on moving Oakland into a successful future.

Published

2 months ago

April 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Congresswoman Barbara Lee. Courtesy photo, Office of Rep. Barbara Lee.

Former Congresswoman Barbara Lee. Courtesy photo.

As we end the celebration of Women’s History Month in Oakland, we endorse Barbara Lee, a woman of demonstrated historical significance. In our opinion, she has the best chance of uniting the city and achieving our needs for affordable housing, public safety, and fiscal accountability.

As a former small business owner, Barbara Lee understands how to apply tools needed to revitalize Oakland’s downtown, uptown, and neighborhood businesses.

It is notable that many of those who fought politically on both sides of the recent recall election battles have now laid down their weapons and become brothers and sisters in support of Barbara Lee. The Oakland Post is pleased to join them.

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Actor, Philanthropist Blair Underwood Visits Bay Area, Kicks Off Literacy Program in ‘New Oakland’ Initiative

These community activations were coordinated with the San Francisco-based non-profit program “Room to Read.” Ray said he is also donating his time to read and take pictures with students to encourage their engagement and to inspire them to read more. The inspirational book “Clifford Ray Saves the Day” highlights Clifford Ray’s true story of saving a dolphin.

Published

3 months ago

February 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Blair Underwood (left) and Barbara Lee (right). Courtesy photo.

By Paul Cobb
New Oakland Series
Opinion Part 3

The Post mentioned three weeks ago that a number of our local luminaries were coming together to support the “New Oakland” movement. As this current national administration continues to eliminate our “legacy” institutional policies and programs left and right, most communities find themselves beyond “frozen” in fear.

Well, esteemed actor, long-time Bay Area supporter, and philanthropist Blair Underwood returned to Oakland this week to speak with city leaders, community trust agents, students, the Oakland Post, and local celebrities alike to continue his “New Oakland” initiative.

This week, he kicked off his “Guess Who’s Coming to Read” literacy program in some of Oakland’s middle schools. Clifford Ray, who played the center position of the 1975 World Champion Golden State Warriors, donated close to 1,000 books. Ray’s fellow teammate Charles “The Hopper” Dudley also gave Converse sneakers to students.

Underwood also spent quality time with the Oakland Ballers ownership group and visited the amazing Raimondi Park West Oakland community revitalization site. In the 1996 TV film Soul of the Game, Underwood played the role of the legendary first Black Major League Baseball player Jackie Robinson and commended the Ballers owners.

“This group of sports enthusiasts/ philanthropists needs to be applauded for their human capital investment and their financial capital investment,” Underwood said. “Truly putting their money and passion to work,” Underwood said.

Underwood was also inspired by mayoral candidate Barbara Lee’s open-minded invitation to bring public-private partnership opportunities to Oakland.

Underwood said he wants to “reinforce the importance of ‘collaborative activism’ among those most marginalized by non-empathic leadership. We must ‘act out’ our discomfort with passionate intentions to create healthy change.”

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Councilmembers Ramachandran, Kaplan, Unger Identify Funds to Save Oakland Fire Stations

Our budget crisis – one of the worst in Oakland’s history – is compounded by the fact that people do not feel safe coming to Oakland due to our public safety crisis. By investing in our fundamental public safety resources today, we can send a signal to the world that Oakland is open for business. We have such a rich and vibrant culture, arts, and food scene that is worth celebrating – but we can only showcase this if we are able to keep our neighborhoods safe. Having fully functioning fire stations are absolutely essential to these efforts.

Published

3 months ago

February 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Councilmember Janani Ramachandran. Courtesy photo.

By Janani Ramachandran

There is no greater concern to the people of Oakland today than public safety. Fire stations are the bread and butter of essential city services – and every day that we have stations shuttered, we imperil the lives of our community members. In response to widespread outcry over the current and planned closure of stations, myself, along with Councilmembers Kaplan and Unger, have painstakingly worked to identify millions of dollars of new funding to save our stations. The legislation we introduced on Thursday, February 13th, will amend our budget to prevent the closure of four fire stations that are currently on the chopping block due to our budget crisis and will re-open two closed stations that have already been closed – Station 25 and 28 – in the near future. The resolution that will provide the funding to keep our stations open will go before the full City Council for a vote at our meeting on Tuesday, March 4^th at 3:30 PM – and we invite you to join us at City Hall to share your perspective on the topic.

With the devastating Los Angeles fire at the top of people’s minds, terrible memories of Oakland’s own wildfires are re-surfacing from the 1991 Oakland Hills Firestorm to the Keller fire just a few months ago – and how essential fire stations are to mitigating these catastrophes. But in Oakland, our fire stations don’t just fight wildfires – they also provide emergency medical services to our most vulnerable constituents, put out structural fires and encampment fires, and much more.

We recognize that there are a number of competing interests and important initiatives fighting for sparse City resources. But from my perspective, core safety services are the most pivotal functions that a City must spend its resources on – especially given the outcry we have heard around fire stations.

The fight to save our stations is not over. The resolution we introduced is a critical first step, and there are hurdles to overcome. If you support keeping our fire stations open, we invite you to be a part of the solution by making your voice heard at the March 4^th City Council meeting at 3:30 pm.