December 21, 2017
Staff Report
#BlackGirlMagic, is the social media hashtag that took the world by storm, highlighting the many achievements and historical contributions Black women have and are making!
As a part of their Diverse Intelligence Series, Nielsen released their 2017 report “African-American Women: Our Science, Her Magic”, unveiling various statistics on Black women around the U.S.
Additionally, the report addresses the meaning of the popular hashtag #BlackGirlMagic and describes the ways in which Black women are trendsetters, and how Black women are excelling in academia and as self-made entrepreneurs. Other topics in the report include, social media and the magic of sisterhood, media consumption, and the mainstream appeal of Black Content.
What is Black Girl Magic? Nielsen describes it as “an illustration of Black women’s unique place of power at the intersection of culture, commerce and consciousness.”
Black women are the economic engine of the Black community and their spending power is also magical.
According to Nielsen, “at 24.3 million strong, Black women account for 14 percent of all U.S. women and 52 percent of all African Americans.”
“Black women’s values spill over into all the things they watch, buy and listen to, and while they control the lion’s share of the African American community’s $1.2 trillion in spending power, they are doing so with an eye toward the tangible and intangible value of those dollars spent,” read the report.
The magic doesn’t end there. Black women are reaching new heights in their entrepreneurial endeavors as they are majority owners in over 1.5 million businesses with more than $42 billion in sales according to the U.S. Census Survey.
Black women over-index for going back-to-school with 64 percent of Black females who enrolled in college right after completing high school between 2013-2015. The most affluent group of Black women are ages 35-49, whose annual incomes are $50,000 or higher. However, the average Black female income is $21,729. Despite that average income being slightly low, Black women are still contributing to the total Black buying power that is predicted to hit $1.5 trillion in 2021.
These statistics speak to the resiliency of the Black woman, who, despite her hardships, still manages to support her family, get an education, and aspire to be at the top of her profession.
With statistics proven in trendsetting and growing economically, only 25 percent of Black women are married. Eight-one percent of Black women ages 18-34 have never been married and of the 25 percent that are married, 10 percent are married to someone of a different race. Forty-six percent of Black households are married couples vs. 44 percent that are single-mother families.
“African American women are leaving an indelible imprint on America’s economy, social consciousness, and cultural landscape, and they’re showing no signs of slowing as they become more and more aware of that influence,” read the report.
Visit www.lasentinel.net/opinion/the-lobby to watch an episode of Los Angeles Sentinel’s web show The Lobby, where Senior Vice President, U.S. Strategic Community Alliances and Consumer Engagement for Nielsen, Cheryl Grace visited the hosts and discussed #BlackGirlMagic and #OurScienceHerMagic. For more statistics on Black women, go www.nielsen.com and download the report.
December 14, 2017
By Freddie Allen
NNPA Newswire
When it comes to preparing the next generation for careers in science, technology engineering and mathematics, also known at “STEM,” Jack Gerard, the president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, said that leaders in the oil and natural gas industry have to answer the “awareness question.”
“There are many people out there, today, that don’t really understand the oil and natural gas industry or the opportunities that it can present for them, their families and for well-paying careers,” said Gerard. “It’s incumbent upon us, as an industry, to have this dialogue more often and to intensify this discussion, so that people really understand,” the connection between the oil and natural gas industry and their everyday lives.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, recently hosted a panel discussion focused on increasing diversity and inclusion in STEM careers and in the oil and natural gas industry. API, the only national trade group representing all facets of the oil and natural gas industry, according to the group’s website, supports 10.3 million jobs in the United States and nearly 8 percent of the U.S. economy.
The panel discussion coincided with the release of a new RAND report titled, “Postsecondary Education and STEM Employment in the United States.” The report, which was prepared for API, examined national education trends and the relationship between degree attainment and employment and wages, specifically in STEM fields.
“Many of tomorrow’s best paying careers, at all levels, will require some kind of training or education in a STEM discipline,” said Gerard.
STEM degrees can lead to higher earnings and can help to close the wage gap between Blacks and Whites. Those higher earnings are even more pronounced in the oil and gas industry.
Blacks with STEM bachelor’s degrees earn $45.15 in hourly wages in the oil and natural gas industry, compared to Blacks with non-STEM bachelor’s degrees, who make $28.10 per hour, according to the RAND report.
Whites with STEM bachelor’s degrees make slightly more per hour than Blacks with STEM degrees working in the oil and natural gas industry ($45.26 vs. $45.15).
The hourly wage gap is higher between Whites and Blacks with non-STEM degrees that work in the oil and gas industry ($37.73 vs. $28.10).
According to the 2016 report titled, “Minority and Female Employment in the Oil & Natural Gas and Petrochemical Industries, 2015-2035” by IHS Global prepared for API, “nearly 1.9 million direct job opportunities are projected through 2035 in the oil and natural gas and petrochemical industries” and “African Americans and Hispanics will account for over 80 percent of the net increase in the labor force from 2015 to 2035.”
Dr. Calvin Mackie, a motivational speaker and founder of STEM NOLA, a program that exposes students from underserved communities to STEM careers, said that if the oil and natural gas industry is going to recruit minorities to fill some of those 1.9 million jobs, industry leaders “have to go where most people don’t want to go” and that’s into Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.
Mackie continued: “We have to make sure that we expose every kid to the possibility of STEM, because the future will belong to those that can play in it and create it and all of our kids deserve that possibility.”
December 14, 2017
City News Service
The Los Angeles City Council Wednesday approved more stringent rules for banks that want to do business with the city, which could result in Los Angeles divesting its funds from Wells Fargo over its fake accounts scandal and support of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
“We all realize that banks have done such bad things that we couldn't have written it if it were fiction, or imagined that companies would be creating phony bank accounts and checking accounts and making phony loans and doing all kinds of things without even letting the customer know,” Councilman Paul Koretz said.
The city's efforts to change the rules for its banking partners was undertaken as a result of the Wells Fargo fake accounts scandal, in which 3.4 million accounts were fraudulently created by employees given aggressive sales goals, and its support of the controversial pipeline. The city does the majority of its banking with Wells Fargo through roughly 800 different accounts.
Some of the rules were approved immediately in a 14-0 vote that drafted new language for a request for proposals for banks, and others were included in a 12-0 vote that directs the city attorney to amend the city's Responsible Banking Ordinance. The city attorney would need to make the changes to the ordinance, and the council would have to approve of the updated language in a future vote.
The approved rules include “social responsibility” factors in the RFP that will be weighed heavily when the city considers proposals from banks.
Councilman Paul Krekorian said at a recent Budget and Finance Committee meeting that “the weight of the social responsibility component” in the new rules would “exceed what has been done by any other city.”
Wells Fargo’s financial support of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline was also cited in a council motion as motivation for the city to explore divesting its funds from the bank while outlining criteria and standards the city would have in any future agreements with financial institutions.
“It’s time for us to endeavor to only do business with ethical financial institutions that have high standards and ethical standards. This is a very fiscally sound approach to looking at what divestment will mean, and it’s a very complicated and intricate matter,” Councilman Mitch O’Farrell said in June when he co-introduced the motion with Koretz.
In response to the fake accounts scandal, some council members expressed a desire to ban banks the city does business with from having individual or branch-level sales goals, but the Budget and Finance Committee was told several times by city staff that banning banks from having sales goals would be too difficult to monitor and could eliminate all possible bidders.
“Disallowance of sales goals may result in no or limited eligible bidders qualified to provide the city’s general banking services,” according to a report from the Office of Finance.
The committee then shifted to the idea of requiring banks to disclose sales goals practices in their bids, and an amending motion that was approved as part of the vote on the Responsible Banking Ordinance included a request for the city attorney to include the requirement that banks disclose their branch- level or individual sales goals and if they would promote or fire an employee based on them.
“The disclosure would solve a lot of the problems, because if they had a set of sales goals that were not humanly possible in the normal course of business, we would be able to spot that relatively easily, so if you had Wells Fargo-style sales goals it would be pretty obvious that no one could meet those without engaging in inappropriate behavior,” Koretz said at a previous committee meeting.
The new social responsibility score would include things like a bank's Community Reinvestment Act score, which tracks its level of lending, investments and services in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Wells Fargo’s score took a significant hit due to the fake accounts scandal.
Under the new RFP guidelines, the first phase of a banking bid will focus on its financial and organizational capacity while giving it a total score up to 100. The second phase of scoring will include a possible 30 points for its social responsibility score on top of the first phase score, for a total possible score of 130.
The new rules in the RBO will also require that a bank disclose any recent regulatory action taken against it, and that it have whistleblower protections and certify that it is in compliance with all applicable consumer financial protection laws.
In a settlement last year stemming from the fake accounts scandal, Wells Fargo paid $50 million in civil penalties to the city of Los Angeles and $135 million to two federal agencies, and was ordered to provide restitution to affected customers.
The Dakota Access Pipeline that runs more than 1,100 miles from North Dakota to Illinois sparked a months-long protest near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Members of the tribe opposed the project on grounds that it passed over a sacred burial ground and would threaten their water source.
Pipeline construction was halted in November 2016 by the Army Corps of Engineers, but President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January instructing the agency to finish the project. Oil has been flowing through the pipeline since March.
Wells Fargo executives said in a February statement that Wells Fargo is not the lead bank on the project but merely one of 17 financial institutions that made a loan to the developers of the pipeline. The company said it lent $120 million to the project.
November 16, 2017
Staff Report
The Los Angeles Urban League announced that noted attorney and civic leader Michael Lawson has accepted the position as Interim President and CEO of the famed civil rights organizations Los Angeles Branch. Michael Lawson is not new to the Los Angeles Community and is well respected throughout both the business, political, philanthropic community here in Los Angeles and throughout the nation. Michael Lawson served as a partner at the international law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flori, LLP in their New York and Los Angeles offices until he retired in 2011.
Mr. Lawson received his Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School in 1978 and earned his BA in Political Science and Economics from Loyola Marymount University in 1975.