What do you think Facebook, what would you do?

I got word this morning that the President of the local NAACP branch was on JoAnn Hardesty’s KBOO radio program this morning. It was a propaganda love fest about this Thorns BS fundraising dinner on Saturday and series of lies about what the NAACP is currently doing. So I listened in for minute and when JoAnn asked listeners to call in, I did. She took my call and after I identified myself, I expressed a need to give a counter view of the NAACP and its leadership, she refused and cut me off. Near the end of the program, another person called in and wanted to express a counter view but was also denied access.

I ain’t going to lie. It was a shocker to me and most of you know what I’ve attempted to do to support JoAnn. But she dissed me for the crooked shady dude she was interviewing.

So what would you do Facebook?

They even said in the next few days they’re going to do a series of pod cast. I think they are just to spread more lies about what the NAACP is doing.

I don’t have a pod cast. Is there anybody out there with a pod cast who would like to host and interview me so I can tell the otherside of this story?

What do you think Facebook?

My name is Rosa Colquitt. I am a member of NAACP Portland Branch 1120. After looking forward to the Freedom Fund Dinner for a number of months, I have concluded that I cannot, in good conscience, and a commitment to my personal values and ethics, support this Branch 1120 fundraising activity. I will clarify my reasons as honestly, objectively and as succinctly as I can. They are specifically: (1) the overt continuation of bylaw violations by the branch president, and (2) the lack of transparency with branch unit finances, even to a member of the finance committee, leading to a climate of hostility and suppression of voices that are not in lock-step agreement with President Mondaine. 

(1) On May 14, 2019, the Executive Committee held its May monthly exec meeting during the absence of Chapter President E.D. Mondaine. In direct violation of the Constitution of the NAACP and Bylaws for Units, Article VII, 2, Vice Chair, “The Vice-Chair . . . shall assume and perform all of the duties and functions of the Chair in the latter’s absence, disability or unavailability as defined by the Board of Directors,” the president designated the treasurer, coincidentally a male, to preside over the executive meeting. At that time, neither the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd vice chair, all Black females, were given the opportunity to preside over the executive meeting. The issue was openly raised at the opening of the meeting on May 14, 2019, as to why the vice chairs were overlooked and the treasurer determined he would turn the gavel over to the 2nd vice chair in the absence of the 1st vice chair.

(2)  On June 11, 2019, the Executive Committee held its June monthly exec meeting during the absence of President Mondaine. Again, in direct violation of the Constitution of the NAACP and Bylaws for Units, Article VII, 2, Vice Chair, the president designated the secretary, coincidentally a male, to preside over the executive meeting. At that time, neither the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd vice chair, all Black females, were not given the opportunity to preside over the executive meeting. Their duly described duties were again openly disrespected by the president flaunting his perceived authority to dismiss the bylaws.  

(3) On July 8, 2019, the duly elected 1st vice chair officially tendered her resignation, by email, to the members of the Executive Committee.

(4) On July 9, 2019, the Executive Committee held its May monthly exec meeting with President Mondaine presiding over the same. The atmosphere was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Not only were there hard feelings over the open disrespect I felt as a 3rd vice chair of the Exec Board, but E.D. once again appointed a new male committee chair, whom other board members did not know, and had not been given an opportunity as agreed upon to review his resume before giving board approval. After sitting through a bruising 10-minute rant by E.D. concerning uncooperative Board members, folks not volunteering to do this and that, all the great work he’s doing as president and related accolades, and more, I exited the meeting at 6:10 p.m., ten minutes after the scheduled adjournment time. I verbally stated “I did not appreciate being talked down to like a 10-year old, and that I found his behavior hostile and oppressive.” The president’s response:  “Bye Rosa Colquitt.”

(5) On July 16, 2019, I tendered my official resignation as appointed 3rd Vice Chair, via email to President Mondaine, copied to the State Area Conference President Gerald Hankerson and Secretary Darlene Andrus.

(6) On many stressful occasions, more than I can enumerate, I have raised considerable questions as both a branch member and finance committee member about the following concerns only to be met with open hostility:   (a)  the lack of a full and open discussion, with both the 1120 membership and Portland’s Black community at large, concerning the decision to hold the Freedom Fund Gala at the DoubleTree Hilton — particularly in the face of the December 2018 racial profiling of Jermaine Massey; Branch 1120 belongs to the community, NOT the president and executive committee; (b) the lack of a review of the contract with the Double Tree Hilton for the Freedom Fund Gala; (c) the lack of a review of the contract with the Lloyd Center Mall for the office space; and (d) the EGREGIOUS spending of Chapter funds for the purchase of first class airline tickets for travel to the National NAACP Convention in Detroit by the president and secretary. There is little or no TRANSPARENCY in Branch 1120 financial expenditures. Although the bylaws may not require dissemination of this financial info, there should be no reason that interested members cannot make reasonable inquiry. (If anyone is interested in a lengthy series of emails pertaining to item (d) and concerns about 11 unconfirmed July credit card debits, feel free to contact me.)

(7) On August 24, 2019, the seeming need by the president, and possibly others on the executive committee to suppress “perceived” dissenting voices, took a new low. In direct violation of the Constitution of the NAACP and Bylaws for Units, Article V, 6., Meetings, says special meetings of the Exec. Comm. “may be called by the President, Secretary or by two members of the Committee on two days written notice.” An August 24 meeting was called on just a few minutes’ notice to remove me, in my absence with no knowledge, from the Finance Committee. 

For these reasons and more than discussed herein, I cannot support a financial fundraiser by Branch 1120. It is highly doubtful that the disclosure of expenditures and receipts will be fully disclosed to the membership at any time. Moreover, those members who raise questions will be faced with hostility and dismissal. May I remind ALL who are reading this email that I am actually talking about the NAACP, the oldest civil rights organization in the history of the United States. Please remember the mission of the NAACP.

~Dr. Rosa Colquitt

On Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 9:33 AM PDX NAACP <portlandnaacp@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear NAACP Member/Supporter

We are pleased and honored to invite you and a guest to our 2019 Freedom Fund Gala, taking place at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Portland on Saturday, October 5, 2019. The evening will begin at 6 p.m. with a private cocktail hour for our VIP guests, immediately followed by the Gala. Other elements include mingling with legendary Gospel great Zella Jackson Price, of Say Amen Somebody, live entertainment, and, of course, a delicious dinner. The dress for the evening is semi-formal.

It’s no secret that Portland has blazed many amazing trails, but the racism in Oregon’s history remains a thorn in the stem of the diverse city we have become. The only way to accomplish the call to action stated in our event’s theme, “Removing the Thorns of Racism in the City of Roses,” is by making a commitment to understand our communities, and to aggressively challenge racist ideologies, both covert and overt.

When we actively work together to face racism, acknowledge it, and abolish such instances, we will be laying a formidable foundation for future generations of Portlanders.

With that, we genuinely hope that you would honor us with your presence. Should you accept our invitation, we kindly ask you to visit www.pdxnaacp.org/freedom-fund to purchase your Sponsorship and or VIP seat at the Table. For any queries or questions, please contact Antjuan Tolbert, secretary@pdxnaacp.org

Looking forward to your acceptance and to enjoying an impactful gala with you.

Sincerely,

Antjuan Tolbert

Secretary, Branch 1120

One of the Biggest Lies Sam Adams ever told

On this Labor Day weekend, I could not resist discussing an ongoing controversy. For me, it is a long-standing attempt on the part of construction unions to deceive the general public about their continued lack of black people in their ranks at all levels. The deception comes when they try to convince public officials that they are just as progressive as the employee unions in achieving diversity. They have tried to align them with organizations like SEIU, Postal and auto maker unions. But contrary to the employee unions, their record of including black people locally and nationally is horrible.

What’s even more insidious is their successful effort over the last several years to get government agencies and union dependent politicians to institute gimmicks called Project Labor Agreements (PLAs or the misnomer, Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs). They have even infiltrated and deceived community-based organizations like the Urban League. Tragically they have used their considerable resources to compromise black newspapers, stack boards, and commissions with union lackeys. Wait there’s more; they have gone so far as to hire black union pimps to hustle us at black events and community gatherings.

They accuse me of being anti-union but they are wrong. I am just pro-black. And they can shut my month by just including commensurate numbers of blacks in the trades at all levels.

The only Negro on the panel

Folks just need to know that when the local chapter of the NAACP goes out in the community and starts advocating for stuff they must follow a National protocol. As members,  it is up to us to hold the leadership accountable.

So as you can see in the Bylaws (page 7), leadership must get approval from the national office before they run up in front of the cameras and start making speeches and pontificating.  That’s a good check on egotistic leaders. This is particularly true when they try to endorse or infer support for a politician.

Secondly, all major actions should be approved by the general membership as referred by the Executive Committee. This might be a less effective check since the President will most likely select a rubber stamp Executive Committee.

I  can provide the complete Constitution and Bylaws if you send me an email at posej@comcast.net.

The numbers are still shockingly bad in 2019

I needed to share this article written back in the day speaking to a condition known decades ago,  but still afflicting blacks today, especially in Portland Oregon. My beautiful daughter Leesha was the inspiration and to note that she is currently doing quite well despite my stated concern back then. The article goes like this:

Killing Us By The Numbers

James L. Posey, 4/9/1994

A few weeks ago my daughter, who’s attending college in Alabama, informed me that she got a “D” in her calculus class. After trying to cheer me up by explaining how great she did in the rest of her classes, she knew I would not easily get over this disappointment.

I’m disappointed because I have this great sense that Black people’s inability to deal with mathematics is killing them as surely as the rampaging use of crack cocaine. Our lack of understanding and appreciation for how it affects our daily lives is devastating. There is no question that African Americans continue to receive second class education in all areas. But to continue to allow ourselves to be deficient in this critical, life sustaining subject is nothing short of suicide.

But you don’t have to be a mathematical genius to see the handwriting on the wall. Math is the underlying foundation for nearly every activity in life. So it’s not so surprising as tragic that the numbers don’t look good for us in virtually every category. Just check out one of the few good works laying out numbers on Blacks life, the National Urban League’s annual status report,

“The State of Black America.” This report illustrates, in most cases by simple arithmetic, the fact that African Americans ain’t doing so good.

In economic terms, we seem to have a particular problem with addition and multiplications, and by default, are inclined to accept subtractions and division.  For example, over the last 10 years, Blacks, in comparison to whites and other minorities, have not gained in overall capital investments, in such areas as real estate or increased earning capacity. Yet, during the same period, we have lost ground in the number of Black corporate executives, as well as the number of minorities living above the poverty line.

Even closer to home, just check out the state of Black education in Portland. I’m surely no expert, but it should be abundantly clear that there is a direct correlation between how much money one can make and keep to invest and how extensive one’s use of math skills are in their chosen career field or personal life. For example, consider the area high schools and the major subjects taught at each. Benson HS, accordingly, is recognized as a magnet in the technical sector, electronics, and medical careers while Cleveland HS is a magnet school for business careers.

Now if you know in which schools Blacks are clustered, you have some idea as to the specialty fields they primary teach and promote. As I did, evaluate each school’s subject specialty in terms of approximately how many jobs are available in the range of careers and identify the average beginning salary or pay in today market place. There’s nothing scientific about this, but as I see it, the career prospects for Black youth as a group in this town are real scary.

Not only are the higher paying careers based on the use of math skills, they also have the better prospects for future long-term employment. In other words, people who have good math skills can almost always get a job or be trained for a better one.

And it’s not just about jobs. The conditioning of Blacks to avoid competencies in mathematics is used to economically oppress and deny Blacks opportunities all over the place. As Malcolm said we’ve been “had, hoodwinked, bamboozled”. Blacks in disproportionate numbers to the rest of population are subjected to all manner of fraud and manipulation by the numbers.

That why The Oregonian can write a glowing editorial about how well the Blazer Arena project has remodeled by using minority contractors and employees without really checking out what’s really behind the numbers. Who is likely to challenge them, not to mention the powerful Blazer organization? Surely, not those Blacks who are most adversely affected, in part because they are less likely to understand the convoluted statistics.

Speaking of newspapers, a few weeks ago Angela Wilson at The Skanner chastised me for playing what she called the “numbers game” in one of my articles about Black fronts. She basically inferred that it did not make a difference whether or not a business is 51% or a 100% owned by Blacks if neither were contributing back to the community. Well, of course, no one could argue against that assertion. I hope Angela will come to realize that this not a numbers game. But it is about numbers. I hope she will take time to study the correlation between the percentage of ownership of a business owned by a minority and their practices of contributing back. Here again, the numbers will speak for themselves.

Some Blacks don’t have the necessary math background to formulate their own bids or to make the critical calculations to run their own businesses. They become overly dependent on other groups that have higher math and other educational proficiency. This dependency makes it easy to justify fronting and all manner of compromising positions. You can apply this dependency to nearly every facet of Black life and realize the scope of the problem.

Yes, it is about the numbers, both quantity, and quality, and without them, we are dead.

Shortly after returning to Portland a few weeks ago, I was surprised to come across a recent article in the Daily Journal of Commerce titled, “Portland CBA Results Scrutinized”. The article takes up the issue of two Portland water bureau projects and raises several concerns in the process. The story refers to an independent evaluation report which portrays the pilot Community Benefits Agreement as not a “sweeping success”. It points to: high administrative cost for the same results; obvious financial conflicts of interest; overlapping and duplicating functions; poor management; inaccurate reporting; and weak compliance. That the city utilized this process and may still continue to do so in the future is troubling. Continue reading As Malcolm X would say, “you’re been had, hoodwinked, bamboozled.” →