Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Aug. 24, 2006, edition 1 / Page 3
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3A NEWS^e Clisrtotte floigt Thursday, August 24, 2006 Often ignored, black women face hurdles, too Continued from page 1A black, according to the Assodation- But the predominate image of black women in the media can be damaging to young women, that’s why Janine Davis started her Girl Talk Foundation in 2003. “I saw a need for guidance in the lives of young women,” she said. “The needed to see that there’s more to live for than being in a video.” According to a study in the Journal of Black Studies, a steady diet of music videos and media images has a dam aging effect on black women’s body image. Though the study discov ered that black women don’t judge themselves by the white standard dfbeauty, see- thin black models made women dissatisfied with their bodies even more so. Davis said on her visits to schools, she saw that so many yoiu^ girls were angry and had an apathetic attitude about getting suspended fiom school for fighting and were boy crazy Girl Talk, she said, allows the girls to get together and talk about what’s going on in their fives and not worry about trying to impress the adults in the room. “It’s about empowerment,” Davis said. “A lot of girls allowed sox^ and boys to define them. They didn’t know how to be a good girl- fiiend, saying that they relat ed better to guys.” The media often portray black women as backstab- bers, aggressive and unable to get along with one anoth^. “From the early 1630s to the present, black American women of aU shades have been portrayed as hypersexu- al bad-black girls,”’ author K. Sue Jewell wrote in “Prom Mammy to Miss America and Beyond.” But Davis believes that when girls are showed anoth- way that they will respond. Seventy-five percent of her Girl Talk participants return to the program, which targets girls between ages 11 and 16. And many of those girls also consider going to college. On the Net: . mvw.girltalkfoundationjDrg Restaurant races clock and developer Continued from page 1A the group that was actually planning on doing that,” TOlson said. As early as January, con struction and leveling will • begin and Wilson is hoping that the restaurant wfil be a part of that development. If not, TOlson hopes the budd ing will be saved by a historic designation by the Charlotte- Mecklenburg Coimty Historic Landmarks Commission “It’s not historic?” said Pamela Lagga, a Coffee Cup customer. Lagga said she’s been coming to the restau rant for 10 years and this is the only place in Charlotte where she’d get up on a Saturday morning to have breakfast. Stewart Gray of the Historic Landmarks Commission said the Coffee Cup has applied to be placed on a study fist. This means that the property will be eval uated and tiien a decision wUl be made as to its historical significance. “This is a very initial step,” said Gray adding that being added to this fist won’t stop any demolition of the proper ty However, the operators of the Coffee Cup can lobby the commission to start a study and research process, which would protect the building fiom being tom down for at least six months. So does the Coffee Cup have what it takes to get the his toric designation? Gray said a number of factors would determine that. “State law lays out that a property has to show special historic significance,” he said. That could mean the reputa tion of the building, if it has national or local architecture that’s been lost.” Wilson believes that the Coffee Cup has historic sig nificance in the city of Charlotte, stating that the restaurant was one of the first places to integrate before Jim Crow was abolished. The original white owners foomoted a cook to business partner at the establishment in the 1950s. Wilson said the restaurant did this before laws were changed in the south. When the restaurant near ly went out of business three years ago, Wilson left corpo rate Ammca to take over. ‘You can come in hoe any Coffee Cup regu lar Pamela Lagga says she’s been eating at the uptown restau rant for 10 years. The Coffee Cup is scheduled to be closed in December in order to make way for town- homes. Its own ers are trying to win a historic designation for the building, which would keep developers from razing the property. PHOTO/CURTK WILSON Poverty exacts higher cost By lorinda M. Bullock NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION WASHINGTON - It seemed as if Amgela and Edward Johnson’s dream of owning their own home would only remain just that—a dream. When the child care professional and retired auto mechanic went house-hunting with a real estate broker, he took one look at their poor credit scores and flatly predicted they’d never be approved for a loan. He even suggested the Johnsons find someone else to apply for the loan on their behalf It also didn’t help when homeowner fiiends often complained to the Johnsons of back breaking interest rates on their mortgages. So when the Johnson’s finally moved into their new Suitland, Md. home just outside of Washington, D.C. in May Angela Johnson was downri^t giddy when they ran into that bro ker again. “I saw him. And you know I was so proud to tell him, You know we bought a house and let me tefi. you what the interest rate is,”’ she said. She’s got a reason to beam with pride. The Johnsons beat the odds that are statistically stacked against low-income Black Americans. The Washington-based Brookings Institution’s recent report, “From Poverty Opportunity” shows that on average, lower income homeowners ($30,000 or less) pay interest rates as high as nearly 7 percent, meanwhile people witii incomes of more than $120,000 paid a rate of 5.5 percent. The Johnsons were able to secure a rate of 4 percent. So how did they do it? And why aren’t more day and not know who’s going to be sitting next to you,” Wilson said, adding that they’ve served celebrities like boxing champion George Foreman, New York Giants linebacker LaVar Arrington and wrestler Ric Flair. “When you talk about the his toric significance, it is huge.” And if the Cup closes, cus tomers fike Thomas Casey who’s been a patron for over 30 years and receives a dis count on meals for his loyalty the city wfil suffer a big loss. “They can build houses somewhere else,” Casey said. “This is one of the nicest places you can eat and the people are very fiiendly and it would be a big loss if they had to move.” Wtfc Cljarlotte www.thecharlottepost.com KEZIAH’s FURNITURE BIG SALE Large Pillow - Top Queen Mattress Set $299 Sofas, Bedroom Suit and Dinettes All on SALE 12 Months No Interest 8004 Blair Rd. (Highway 51) Mint Hill 704.573.6150 2914 Gibbon Rd. (Off 1-77 & I-85)Charlotte, N.C 704.596.7427 V!o!id;n'~\ivuiiesd2L lOOW Microbm's hWLUDlNS Hmm Hair Aabies HAIMR11IDIN6 a(I-day, mryiay. 704.370.-0828 low-income folks rushit^ to do the same thit^? Financial empowennent expei-ts and the Brooldi^ Institution’s study say the number one problem is the lack of information. For low income Black Americans, there are even deeper issues, said John Hope Bryant, the chairman and foimder of Operation Hope, a Los Angeles-based financial empow^ment organization. ‘We really don’t have a history of economic capitalism and fi^ enterprise. And that’s hurt us. We’re experts generally speaking in dvil rights, we’re experts in issues of social justice because those are the things that most impact ed our lives finm the history we have in this coimtry said Bryant, who has been featured on Oprah, and has a number of partnerships with major financial institutions across the cormtry and with former U.S. President BUI Clinton. “Even our broad church network was used in the soda! justice perspective arotmd issues of political empowerment that was a good strate gy for the time, rmfortunately it didn’t really prepare us for a world and a cormtry that is a democracy rooted in capitalism,” he said. Because of that, Bryant laimched a new movement—the Sliver Rights Movement— whai he started Operation Hope in 1992. Bryant’s goal was to help lower income people take back their fiscal fives and has developed several programs including credit counsding, job assistance and home ownership dasses that help people fike the Johnsons. 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