Anderson@Large

Black and Blue

President Obama will present his jobs plan before a joint session of Congress on Thursday.

In a piece headlined “Black and Bleak,” Robert Kuttner wrote:

In the Labor Department's August jobs report, released Friday, overall unemployment was unchanged at a dismal 9.1 percent and the economy created no net new jobs -- but black unemployment soared to catastrophic 16.7 percent. For black men the rate jumped a whole percentage point to 18 percent, and for black youth the rate rose from 39.2 percent to 45.5 percent. Blacks now comprise 12 percent of the labor market, but 22 percent of the unemployed.

[…]

President Obama has famously avoided emphasizing race. One can fairly debate how much of the higher black joblessness today is the result of persistent racial discrimination, and how much reflects gaps in education and the fact that blacks tend to be concentrated in vulnerable sectors of the economy.

But either way, it is calamitous for the black community and what matters is that Obama has let all this fester.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed told MSNBC's Chuck Todd:

We do need to acknowledge that it is more difficult for this president because of the historical nature of his presidency to have the kind of conversation that many in our community would like to have focused solely on African-American people.

But I hope that that’s a political trap the president won’t walk into.

If the president were to start speaking directly to African-Americans about what he’s doing for them, what he has done for them, as the first African-American president, that during a general election campaign, that could have very adverse results. And I believe that black people understand that.

In 1955, jazz icon Louis Armstrong recorded “Black and Blue” whose lyrics capture the dilemma facing black Americans:

My only sin is in my skin.
What did I do to be so black and blue?

What did black folks do? In 2008, they turned out in record numbers and gave 96 percent of their vote to Candidate Barack Obama. But President Obama cannot target policies to assist them because as we are told ad nauseum, he is “not the president of black America.”

For a Pitch that Rocks, Add Music

Earlier this month I attended the Laurence A. Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship’s conference, “Building a Fan Base: Lifting Your Business to Stardom.” The conference was held at World Cafe Live so I assumed it would be a different kind of party.

And it was. The mash-up of music and a panel discussion made me want to shout.

The moderator, Mark Loschiavo, executive director of the Baiada Center, posited “jazz as a metaphor for entrepreneurship.” He drew parallels between musicians and entrepreneurs. To grow a business worth shouting about, entrepreneurs must move beyond customers to a fan base. Fan is broadly defined to include partners, investors, suppliers, mentors and advisers.

Between playing classics like Elton John’s “Your Song” and Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” the band members panelists, Stephen M. Goodman, Bruce Kaminsky and Bob Wilson, shared their insights about the rhythms of business and the performance aspect of a successful pitch.

The panelists said an entrepreneur needs more than a good product or service offering. They underscored the importance of repetition, accessibility, entertainment and emotion.

Repetition: A key component of composition, melody and rhythm is repeatability. It’s the thing that makes music work. In marketing, it’s about consistency. Successful businesses create a repeatable experience around the brand or business that consumers grow to trust. Think FedEx, eBay and McDonald’s. But it’s not about having a huge advertising budget. Instead, it’s about establishing a message and repeating it.

Accessibility: Successful musicians and businesses like the Grateful Dead and Apple create a sense of community. It’s about openness, accountability and communication.

Entertainment: As technology and the culture changed, there has been a shift from the music to the show. Think Steve Jobs. If you have your stuff together, you don’t have to, say, wear a caveman outfit to be entertaining. If you’re on top of your game and have an achievable business plan, that’s entertaining to early investors.

Emotion: Create the emotion and then tie the emotion back to the brand or entrepreneur. Think Folger’s Coffee.

The message in the music resonated as I read this pitch advice from Business Insider:

Know the people you’re pitching. Rothrock said that entrepreneurs should know everything about the VCs they’re pitching to -- where they live (“as long as you don’t drop by”), their dog’s name, their hot button issues. Senkut agreed -- do your research and try to make personal connections.

Entrepreneurs should also know what music the VCs like. When a white male is on the stage, a VC sees himself, his son, brother, Best Man, etc. But there is no instant connection with minority and women entrepreneurs. It bears repeating that people like doing business with people they know.

With limited time to make their pitch, minority entrepreneurs should use music to overcome conscious and unconscious biases and stereotypes, and make an emotional connection.

The bottom line: Your pitch doesn’t mean a thing, if it doesn’t swing investors to your fan base. If you want investors to get jazzed about your startup, add a little music.

Black Music Appreciation Month 2011

Duke Ellington famously said: “There are only two kinds of music, good and bad.”

It’s all good as June kicks off African-American Music Month. In a Presidential Proclamation, President Obama said:

The music of our Nation has always spoken to the condition of our people and reflected the diversity of our Union. African-American musicians, composers, singers, and songwriters have made enormous contributions to our culture by capturing the hardships and aspirations of a community and reminding us of our shared values. During African-American Music Appreciation Month, we honor the rich musical traditions of African-American musicians and their gifts to our country and our world.

From the cadenced hums of spirituals to the melodies of rhythm and blues, African-American music has been used to communicate, to challenge, to praise, and to uplift in times of both despair and triumph. The rhythmic chords embedded in spirituals have long expressed a deep faith in the power of prayer, and brought hope to slaves toiling in fields. The soulfulness of jazz and storytelling in the blues inspired a cultural renaissance, while the potent words of gospel gave strength to a generation that rose above the din of hatred to move our country toward justice and equality for all.

Read more: Presidential Proclamation--African-American Music Appreciation Month

In the meantime, let the music play.

The Joint is Jumpin’

Yesterday the Library of Congress launched the National Jukebox, an online collection of popular music, speeches, and rare and historic recordings.

To create a playlist, go here.

Who knew the Library of Congress is the joint!

All that Jazz

April is Jazz Appreciation Month.

But all that jazz from President Obama that “we have begun to reverse the devastating slide” should give black folks the blues:

As Americans, and as human beings, we seek not only the security, but the sense of dignity, the sense of community, that work confers. That is why it was heartening news that last month, for the first time in more than two years, our economy created a substantial number of jobs, instead of losing them. We have begun to reverse the devastating slide, but we have a long way to go to repair the damage from this recession, and that will continue to be my focus every single day.

Prof. Boyce Watkins recently wrote:

Obama’s race problem just got a little deeper. As the rest of the country is starting to see light at the end of the economic tunnel, the African American community just walked into a deeper, darker crawl space than the one it was in before. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released unemployment data for the month of March, finding that unemployment for whites remained steady, while the jobs numbers for African Americans tanked, going from 15.8 percent unemployment to an astonishing 16.5 percent.

The labor reports don't look good for President Obama, who has been met with considerable pressure from members of the black community to improve the jobs situation for people of color. There are some who argue, with good reason, that the president is simply not working as hard for black folks as he is for everyone else. it can also be said that Obama's massive effort to fight the job shortage throughout the United States seems to have been working to a certain degree. The month of March was good for most Americans, who were spared further increases in the rate of unemployment. The bad news for the president and his economic advisors is that the rising tide is not raising all ships.

Dr. Watkins, teach.

Happy New Year

Thank God this zero of a decade is over. The lowlights included the Florida election debacle, 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Hurricane Katrina and the entire George W. Bush error.

I want to get the new decade off to a better start so I’m skipping the black-eye peas. Instead, I’m kicking off 2010 with some “Memphis Soul Stew.”

Have a safe and happy new year.

Birth of the Cool

The jury is still out on whether taxpayers are getting a positive ROI on the $787 billion stimulus package.

The White House has assured us that the job numbers released last Thursday are just the tip of the iceberg. Americans will be jazzed later this month when reports from the states “show at least 250,000 education jobs created or saved across the nation.”

OK, but as my mother would say, tomorrow is not promised to anyone.

So rather than wait until Oct. 30 to find out where some of the money went, I checked out Philadelphia native Barkley L. Hendricks’ first career retrospective, “Birth of the Cool,” at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Support for the touring exhibition was provided by an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant through the National Endowment for the Arts.

During a gallery lecture, Hendricks said he was inspired by the coolness associated with jazz musicians like Miles Davis, who “epitomized cool,” and the Modern Jazz Quartet, and some stylish subjects:

There is a message that each of us communicates to the world by our fashion choices.

Hendricks’ life-sized portraits include cool cats such as “Dr. Kool,” “Sir Charles, Alias Willie Harris” and “George Jules Taylor,” and hip chicks like “Ms. Johnson,” “Miss T” and “Lawdy Mama.” And since Hendricks is pretty cool and, ahem, “Brilliantly Endowed,” there are a number of self-portraits.

One of my favorites is “Icon for My Man Superman.”  The subtitle is Bobby Seale’s observation that “Superman never saved any black people.”

So, while you’re cooling it until more stimulus job numbers are released, check out “Birth of the Cool.”

For more info, go here.