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White Comfort, Black Betrayal: When Our Billionaires Forget Us

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The betrayal is not subtle. It is loud in its quiet, glaring in its silence, and brutal in its indifference. The Black Press—born in chains in 1827 before slavery ended, built in blood, and sustained by courage—is gasping for air while those who could save it look the other way.

Published

8 months ago

November 10, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

The betrayal is not subtle. It is loud in its quiet, glaring in its silence, and brutal in its indifference. The Black Press—born in chains in 1827 before slavery ended, built in blood, and sustained by courage—is gasping for air while those who could save it look the other way. These are not outsiders. They are our own. The rich and powerful among us have traded solidarity for status, truth for comfort, and liberation for proximity to whiteness.

The Black Press is the backbone of our collective memory. It told our stories when no one else would, when white America painted our faces as criminals and our dreams as crimes. It printed Mamie Till’s anguish so the world could see her son’s mutilated body. It carried the words of Frederick Douglass and the defiance of Ida B. Wells. It stood with Martin Luther King Jr., reporting his sermons and his jailhouse letters when white editors called him a menace. That same Black Press now struggles to survive while the billionaires it helped lift into the light sit in luxury, feeding the illusion that their comfort beside white power is safety.

Magic Johnson lounges on a $138 million yacht, surrounded by a world of white wealth. The same Magic Johnson who once symbolized Black excellence has turned his back on the institution that chronicled his rise. Meanwhile, Mark Cuban, a white billionaire with no stake in the struggle, did what Magic would not. He gave six figures to support the Black Press. Black billionaires, meanwhile, haven’t given six cents. That is what proximity to whiteness does: it kills the memory of where you came from. Dr. Dre helped to write the soundtracks of our lives. His beats gave rhythm to resistance. But his billions went to USC, a white institution that built its prestige while keeping Black students at the margins. Not a single dollar went to a Historically Black College or University. Not one dime to the Black Press. His music screamed revolution; his money whispered obedience.

And yet, we acknowledge the truth, they have every right to do what they want with their money. No one questions that. But when the world is burning, and our people are being pushed back into the fields, we wish they’d remember from whence they came. MacKenzie Scott, a white woman, has given more to Black America in one week than all of our Black billionaires combined have given in a decade. She’s donated hundreds of millions to HBCUs and Black nonprofits. Meanwhile, those who built their fortunes on the backs of Black culture, labor, and genius have built walls instead of bridges. They have mistaken assimilation for advancement.

Spike Lee, once the messenger of “Do the Right Thing,” now sits courtside beside men like Knicks owner James Dolan and Mets owner Steve Cohen—both donors and allies of Trump’s MAGA machine. Jay-Z, who once spoke truth from the corners of Brooklyn, now partners with the whiteness of SL Green and Caesars to build casinos while Black-owned media struggles to pay reporters.

Isiah Thomas, a Hall of Fame legend and one of the finest businessmen among them, knows firsthand what the Black Press can do. When his award-winning wine was shut out of a major retail chain, it wasn’t a white PR firm or a corporate lawyer who came to his defense; it was the Black Press. One call, one email, one tweet, and the company called back immediately. They didn’t want the smoke from the Black Press. That’s the power we still hold, if only our own would stand beside us.

Instead, the billionaires remain silent while the walls close in on our people.

Under Trump’s regime, more than 300,000 Black women have already lost their federal jobs—and the number is rising. Trump’s government is fighting a judge’s order demanding he restore food stamps for millions of hungry Americans, many of them Black. Healthcare for our elders has been gutted. WIC and Medicaid are under attack. Trump’s inner circle—Stephen Miller, Russell Vought, Steve Bannon, and their MAGA faithful—openly promise to erase every gain made by Black Americans. They are not even hiding their racism anymore. They fired four-star generals because they were Black. They removed the Librarian of Congress because she was Black. They are dismantling Black leadership from the military to academia. They say the immigrants they are deporting “stole” the jobs that Black Americans should have, as if the only work we deserve is in the fields.

This is not a political shift. It is an unmasking. The same white corporations that once filled their websites with slogans of “equity” and “diversity” after George Floyd’s murder have quietly pulled back. Target, Amazon, Meta, McDonald’s, Citigroup, Disney, AT&T, Goldman Sachs, and others have walked away from the very promises they made to Black America. They pledged billions, then simply decided not to give it. They used our grief for marketing, our pain for profit, and then vanished when accountability came calling. Through it all, the Black Press remains the only institution that tells the truth. It is the keeper of our history, our victories, our wounds. It is not begging—it is bearing witness. But a witness without support cannot survive. And as the Black Press is starved, those who could sustain it—the billionaires who grew from its pages—are silent. They seem to believe their proximity to whiteness will save them. They seem to believe that if they stay quiet, they will remain safe. They are wrong.

Proximity to whiteness is not safety. It is surrender. It is the price of forgetting. The truth is that the struggle never ended—it was rebranded. Trump’s America is the plantation with Wi-Fi and private jets. The new overseers wear designer suits instead of badges. They smile while they strip away everything that made our progress possible. And while they do, our billionaires sip champagne beside them, believing their wealth is protection.

It is not.

When the history of this era is written, it will show that while the Black Press fought to preserve the truth, many of the richest among us stood by—quiet, comfortable, and complicit. They had the means to fight, but chose instead to stay close to power, even as that power worked to destroy us.

Proximity to whiteness didn’t save the enslaved, and it will not save the rich. It will only make them forget who they are—and who they were meant to fight for.

Stacy M. Brown

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Jovita Moore Mural Still Has Not Been Repainted in Grant Park

ATLANTA VOICE — A mural depicting late journalist Jovita Moore, painted on the exterior wall of a building now occupied by Bellwood Coffee in Grant Park, was painted over in April. Moore passed away in 2021 after decades of working in Atlanta television news. Bellwood Coffee owners stated in May they were unaware of Moore’s identity or significance to the community before painting over the mural.
The post Jovita Moore Mural Still Has Not Been Repainted in Grant Park appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 weeks ago

July 8, 2026

Oakland Post

At the corner of Boulevard, SE. and Rosalia St., SE., directly across the street from an abandoned home and a Methodist Church, is Bellwood Coffee. One of hundreds of coffee shops in Atlanta, this place of business would not be worth a solitary discussion if not for the way its exterior walls are currently painted. There was once a mural depicting the late Jovita Moore, a beloved journalist who worked in Atlanta for decades. Moore, who passed away in 2021, mentored many of the people you see on television newscasts today. Though her legacy will never be forgotten, it was the mural of her image that was erased.

In April, members of the Grant Park community voiced their disgust at the mural, which graced a side wall of the building now occupied by Bellwood Coffee’s Grant Park location, before it was painted over. In its place are the words “Bellwood Coffee; Cocktails, Biscuits, Dry Goods, Air Conditioning. *Heat Too”. In May, the business owners responded to the community pushback on social media by acknowledging they did not know who Moore was before painting over her image. And later admitted that they did not attempt to find out what she meant to the community.

On May 21, the Bellwood Coffee Instagram account had a post about being “in close contact with Jovita’s family and are actively working on next steps in this process.” Two months later, the mural has not been replaced, repainted, or repositioned on the property. Nothing has been done. Black history is often erased, most recently by the current Presidential administration, but oftentimes on a smaller, quieter scale. The mural was originally painted by muralist Tommy Bronx, who had been in contact with the business owners about repainting it. As of July 6, Tommy Bronx had responded to a direct message via his Instagram account from The Atlanta Voice about any updates on his plans to repaint the mural.

“We’re currently working on it. You should see some movement in the weeks to come,” he wrote in a response.

On Monday, July 6, the business had several patrons inside and was running smoothly with three employees manning the counter. The Atlanta Voice dropped by Bellwood Coffee to get a look at the exterior wall where the mural once stood as a memorial to a journalist and mother who lost her life to brain cancer at the young age of 54. Moore’s image added some color to the block. The grey wall in its place does not.

A direct message was sent to the Bellwood Coffee Instagram account, and there hasn’t been a response as of 7 p.m. on Monday.

The post Jovita Moore Mural Still Has Not Been Repainted in Grant Park appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.

Based on reporting by Atlanta Voice.

The post Jovita Moore Mural Still Has Not Been Repainted in Grant Park appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

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‘Proud to Hang Her from a Tree’: Man Arrested for Threatening Black Senator

ATLANTA DAILY WORLD — A New York man faces felony hate crime charges for allegedly posting a threat against New York State Senator Lea Webb. James A. Crosby, 49, of Binghamton, was arrested by New York State Police after investigators determined he posted a threatening comment on a social media news post about a Juneteenth celebration.
The post ‘Proud to Hang Her from a Tree’: Man Arrested for Threatening Black Senator appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 weeks ago

July 8, 2026

Oakland Post

A New York man is facing felony hate crime charges after allegedly posting that he’d be “proud to hang” New York State Senator Lea Webb from a tree in response to a news story about a Juneteenth celebration.

James A. Crosby, 49, of Binghamton, was arrested June 23 by New York State Police after investigators determined he posted a threatening comment on a WBNG 12 News Facebook post. “I’d be proud to hang her from a tree,” Crosby wrote, according to WBNG.

Crosby was charged with making a terroristic threat as a hate crime, a class C felony, per the New York State Police. He is currently being held at Broome County Jail.

During the subsequent investigation, state police found Crosby was in illegal possession of firearms despite being prohibited from owning them due to a prior felony conviction. Investigators recovered a rifle, a large-capacity ammunition feeding device, and a firearm suppressor — all prohibited under New York state law, per the NYSP.

Crosby was charged with four additional counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, all class D felonies.

Webb, who represents New York’s 52nd Senate District, had been a featured speaker at a Juneteenth flag-raising ceremony at Binghamton City Hall, where the celebration included prayers and the singing of the Black national anthem.

Police said Crosby’s comment was posted in response to a WBNG news story covering the event.

The day before his arrest, Crosby posted a Facebook apology claiming the comment “was not intended to be racial in any way” and was made in reference to what he described as a “criminal,” citing criticism of Webb over her use of nonprofit legal aid in a foreclosure case — a matter state watchdogs said created an appearance of a conflict of interest, per the Ithaca Voice. He was arrested the following day.

Webb issued a public statement June 25 condemning the threat.

“It was extremely disappointing and hurtful to see the now-deleted threat and attacks on my life in response to a story about Juneteenth, a national holiday that recognizes the ending of slavery in America,” she said. “Feedback and thoughts on policy are one thing, but to make a public call for lethal violence is absolutely unacceptable and dangerous. We must recognize our shared humanity and reject violence in all forms.”

She thanked Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and law enforcement for their “swift response.”

Following Crosby’s comments, social media users called for a boycott of his contracting business, Crosby Home Improvements.

The Binghamton City Democratic Committee also called for an investigation into the incident before his arrest.

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The post ‘Proud to hang her from a tree’: Man arrested for threatening Black Senator appeared first on Atlanta Daily World.

Based on reporting by Atlanta Daily World.

The post ‘Proud to Hang Her from a Tree’: Man Arrested for Threatening Black Senator appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

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CARICOM: Strengthen Integration for Future Generations

NEW YORK CARIB NEWS — Outgoing CARICOM Chairman Terrance Drew called on regional leaders to build a stronger and more effective Caribbean Community that benefits future generations. Speaking at the 51st Regular Meeting, Drew urged modernization of governance structures and improved implementation of Community decisions to make CARICOM safer and more prosperous.
The post CARICOM: Strengthen Integration for Future Generations appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 weeks ago

July 8, 2026

Oakland Post

Speaking Sunday at the opening of the 51st Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in Saint Lucia, Dr. Terrance Drew said the region must modernize its governance structures, improve the implementation of Community decisions, and ensure CARICOM becomes safer, more prosperous, and more relevant to the lives of its citizens.

The meeting, being held under the theme “CARICOM: From Resilience to Renewal in a Changing World,” coincides with the Community’s 53rd anniversary. During the ceremony, Dr. Drew formally handed over the rotating CARICOM chairmanship to Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister, Philip J. Pierre.

Reflecting on his six-month tenure as chairman, Drew praised fellow regional leaders for maintaining their commitment to democracy, good governance, unity, and the rule of law despite mounting global economic and geopolitical challenges.

“Throughout these challenges, CARICOM chose engagement over isolation. Together, we reaffirmed our commitment to a fair and rules-based international trading system and ensured that the interests of small developing states continued to be heard.”
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He highlighted progress made in strengthening the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, including deeper trade cooperation, expanded labour mobility, and efforts to lay the foundation for long-term economic growth. Drew also noted the Community’s growing partnerships beyond the Caribbean, particularly with the African Union, while stressing that every international partnership should advance the interests of all parties involved.

The outgoing chairman also expressed appreciation to Dr. Carla Barnett and the CARICOM Secretariat for their professionalism and unwavering support during his tenure.

“Whenever I called, you answered. Whenever support was required, you and your team responded with diligence, competence, and excellence.”

Dr. Drew urged the Secretariat to continue preserving its impartiality while faithfully implementing decisions made by Heads of Government, saying that balance has helped strengthen the regional integration movement.

The conference continues in Saint Lucia with regional leaders expected to deliberate on key issues including regional security, climate resilience, trade, economic integration, food security, Haiti, reparations, and strengthening the CSME.

Based on reporting by New York Carib News.

The post CARICOM: Strengthen Integration for Future Generations appeared first on BlackPressUSA.