Lucius B. Gantt is founder and President of All World Consultants. His expertise is in media and communications. A graduate of Georgia State University's School of Journalism, the Washington Journalism Center and also the Florida State University Graduate School, Gantt worked as a professional at WSB-TV, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution and the Associated Press in Atlanta, National Public Radio in Washington, D.C., The Associated Press, Sports Desk, in New York City and WFSU-FM, WFSU-TV and the Tallahassee Democrat in Florida's capital city before starting All World Consultants in 1980.

As a lobbyist, Gantt has represented The Florida Medical Association, The Florida League of Hospitals, Bell South Mobility, Cellular Division, Hialeah Park (racetrack) Inc., The Florida Consortium of Urban Leagues, The Florida State Branch of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Minuteman Fireworks, and The United Minority Contractors. He currently provides government regulation services for Winsonic Digital Media Network , and media consulting services for "Commodore" Thomas "Mr. Brickhouse" McClary, (www.thomasmcclary.com),  The Video Access Alliance, The Florida African American Education Alliance Contemporary Fine Artist Purvis Young, Hip Hop Visual Artist, Lance Scurvin (www.ScurvOriginalz.com), Author  Dr. James Scruggs, and for Shaheed and Aliyah Najm, parents of recording star "T-Pain".

Obama's White Media Advisors Causing Black Problems 

Some white folk are causing Barack Obama some very big Black problems!

While Obama is criss crossing the United States and the world he has left his white campaign staff to figure out how to deal with Black voter education and Black vote generation.

Bad move!

Obama has spent enough time in Chicago Black neighborhoods to know that Black people oftentimes get their news and information in a totally different way than white people do.

If he and his white media advisors don’t know, we get our most reliable history, news and information from each other!

Rudimentary research by the Obama campaign would have shown that in order for Blacks to truthfully inform each other we had to plead our own cause.

Black media companies became necessary because the white press would not cover events in the Black community They would not report on Black athletes and Black sports teams, would not respect Black opinions and related editorial views, they would not respectfully write about Black deaths and obituaries, they would not run Black cartoons and illustrations and the white press for hundreds of years, and some say as late as 2008, has little or no respect for Black media and Black journalist professionalism.

OK,OK, what is the issue? You have to know it is economic. No disrespect intended but it seems some people are trying to pimp Obama.

Yeah, I know my friends that love the Black Presidential candidate unequivocally don’t like for me to write like this but its true!

Can I prove it? Yes!    

What do you call it if someone sends you out on the highways and byways and tells you to bring them all of the money you can so they can pay themselves and do whatever else they want to do? Sounds like pimping to me.

More Black people have contributed money to the Barack Obama Presidential Campaign than to any presidential effort in history. Black people just want to get some of that money back in the form of patronizing Black community businesses, advertising with Black-owned media outlets and the hiring and utilization of Black political professionals. Barack Obama knows that better than David Axelrod and the other whites he has desired to trust his campaign with.

Since Florida is always at the forefront of political issues that deal with Black voter and political disenfranchisement, it is only expected that they would be the first to rise up and question why Obama has allowed his campaign to disrespect and underutilize the Black-owned media institutions.

Why do white media consultants seek to take Black campaign contributions and give it all to white media companies? One reason is that they like to take care of their people.

Is it wrong for a Black candidate for President to desire to “take care” of his people too?
    

White media companies say they refuse to spend with the Black media because Black newspapers, magazines and Black-owned broadcast stations have no numbers. They say the papers don’t have certified circulation figures and the broadcast stations have no rating service numbers.

Well, I say the Black press cannot be accurately judged or evaluated by using white measuring sticks or performance models. You cannot judge Europe, Asia or Africa by using American standards so why would you expect what goes on in the hood by suburbian standards?

If the powerful U.S. Census can’t count all of the Black people in the United States, how in the hell can Arbittron or Nielsen count all of the people that are influenced by Black-owned media. If the highly regarded U.S. Marshals can’t count the attendees at the Million Man March, how can they count how many hands and households a single Black newspaper goes through?

This issue of Black media utilization is not going to stop Blacks from voting for one of their own but it is going t make Black people and Black voters angry.

The Barack Obama Campaign should have faith in Black people just like Black people have faith in Barack Obama.

The Barack Obama Campaign for President must spend more money in the Black community than any other candidate because he has received more money from the Black community than any other candidate!

We are not contributing to his campaign merely to make closet klansmen and others that hate Barack deep down inside rich!

It is call the Barack Obama Campaign but it really is an effort for all African-Americans!

 "Off Plantation Housing"

 A good friend of mine recently gave me a unique perspective about most of America’s African American communities.

He said Black neighborhoods in 2008 were little more than modern-day “off plantation housing”! New millennium economic chains have replaced the iron and steel chains that bound us 400 years ago!

Homes that cost $400,000 are merely modern day slave quarters that our people will never own outright but will go to their graves trying to make the required payments.

Predatory moneychangers watch over Black borrowers at the request of foreign investors and international thieves.

Twenty-first century slave masters have no need for whips in today’s Black households. They don’t need to instruct Black people to go here or go there.

Today’s neo-Negroes will report to the slave masters on their own, voluntarily. They will pay rent to shelter themselves in the poorest of housing complexes. They will pay higher prices than any other community at the Magic Markets and other convenience stores in the urban and rural ghettos.

Even during slavery days there were some Black people that were free. Many had homes and farms. Some Blacks had prosperous businesses.

 Today, the stores, hotels, restaurants, dry cleaners, taxi companies, movie theaters, dance halls, insurance companies, media companies and other business we owned are now owned by in-state carpetbaggers that suck the economic life blood out of our neighborhoods like a devilish vampire and transplant those dollars to every other section of town.

I know many people that will drive past five Black-owned auto repair shops and past ten “shade  tree mechanics” just to over pay for the same needed repairs at a place like Pep Boys or Midas.

If white folks could cut nappy hair or glue on colored hair weaves, we might not even patronize Black barber shops and beauty salons!

I suggest that we run away from that slave mentality. We need to believe in ourselves and believe in each other.

Even in the world of opinion writing, Black columnists, and many Black newspaper publishers, feel a column isn’t a good column unless it reacts to white media stories. “Write about Obama. Write about the war. Write about Bush”, they say.

     I can do that and sometimes I do but my intent with The Gantt Report is not to mimic the klu klux kolumnists. I write what I think will educate, motivate and inspire my people to rise up, stand up, get up and work together to save our communities.

 Beast banks Are Still Predatory - You Get It First

 No matter what President Bush says and no matter what candidates Obama and McCain say beast bankers and mortgage lenders are still very predatory!

Interest rates may very well be descending but not for African Americans, Hispanics and other so-called minorities.

Instead of working hard to assist people in realizing their dreams of home ownership, lying lenders put all of their time and energy into seeing how many loan customers they can victimize.

Don’t take my word for it. Try to get a mortgage loan or home equity line of credit and see what happens!

Even Oprah Winfrey and Bob Johnson can’t get lowered interest rates unless they put up a cash amount of collateral. As rich as they are, they can’t borrow money unless they agree to a deal where the lenders can steal!

The hard working Black man or woman that has been a home owner for 20 years can’t get their homes refinanced if they were one day late on a mortgage payment. Regardless of how many years you’ve paid in advance or paid on time, if you’re one day late, the government allows beast bankers to describe you as a “credit risk”.

Black people have to come up with bank statements, check stubs, multiple year tax returns, asset lists, credit reports, alimony proof, government assistance proof and much more before you’re even considered for a loan.

At the same time, non-Blacks merely have to sign their signatures on a promissory note.

If banking and lending laws are not racist, why are banks and lenders allowed to hide or lie about information that details the amount of money that Black families, Black individuals, Black businesses and Black churches deposit into banks as compared to how much banks and lending companies loan out to Blacks?

Any Black elected official that will cast a vote to bail out beast bankers and other predatory lenders is an economic punk and a traitor to his or her race!

If Black churches alone would encourage their congregations and parishioners to withdraw their money from racist banks, the banks would collapse in a matter of days.

 I used to wonder why my great grandmother despised banks and hid her money in her house. Now I know why. She did not want to be blind sided or bamboozled by beast bankers!  

(Gantt's new book "Beast Too: Dead Man Writing" is coming soon and will be illustrated by Lance Scurvin.

                     You Get It First, We Hate Us!

The Ku Klux Klan doesn’t like us. The Nazis don’t like us. The Skinheads don’t like us. But, there isn’t a single group on earth that hates us more than we hate each other!

A Jew looking for a mechanic will drive miles and miles past ten or more auto repair shops to find a garage owned and operated by a Jewish businessman to get his vehicle repaired.

There are Chinese restaurants in almost every large Black neighborhood. We all have eaten egg rolls and wanton soup but how many Chinaman stop by the soul food place to pick up some take out chitterlings?

“Coppertone” stockholders and employees have made tons of money selling tanning lotion to whites that want dark skin but more dollars have been made selling skin lighteners, straitening combs and gerri curl juice to African Americans and other Black people all over the world!

Who taught us to hate ourselves? Hmmmm, maybe the slave master?

Whoever the original teacher was, today we teach each other!

We tell our children, “I’ll send you to FAMU, but stay out of Frenchtown.” Or, “I’ll send you to Spelman or Morehouse but don’t go near Fair Street or Auburn Avenue!”

We call each other derogatory names. We are suspicious of each other. We demean and denigrate each other. We clown each other. We even kill each other!

How long will our self-destructive behavior go on? Can we ever love each other the way that we should love each other? Will we ever realize that when we help each other, support each other, patronize each other, mentor each other, defend each other and protect each other we all will benefit?

     It’s easy for Black folks to criticize rappers but its hard to criticize the people that taught young Blacks those dirty words. Its easy to despise baby daddies that aren’t always around but its hard to criticize the original deadbeat dads who not only refused to take care of the kids they made but went on to sell their own mixed-race children as slaves.

    If you love yourself, you should love your family. No matter where we come from or where we are, if we’re Black we all belong to the “African family”.  Yes, family members differ and sometimes disagree but a family should never fuss and fight in public, in the view of haters and enemies. If your Mom and Dad had a habit of arguing on the front porch all of the time, the neighbors would say that your parents are uncouth or uncivilized. We should keep our family issues in the closet, behind closed doors. To other people and to other races, we should present a united front.

    I talk about Black people, Negroes and boot licking Uncle Toms as much or more than anybody but I will also be first to defend my people when they are wrongfully attacked. I am also first to help our Black seniors and Black youth.

    I love all of my people but if I have to occasionally out an economic or political punk that does us wrong, I’m man enough to do just that.

    Try to show your people some love sometimes. We don’t have to hate each other just because the devil wants us to.

 "America's Black Power Conflict"

Five hundred years after slavery days, America still has more love for the Negroes in the house than they do for the Black people in the fields!

If you’re Black, you can’t be the best unless you’re recognized by the beast!

The “best” Black teachers are the ones that teach at white schools. The “best” Black preachers are the ones that pray about a white Jesus. The “best” Black journalists are the ones that work for white owned media companies. The “best” Black cooks are not mama and grandmother, they are the ones that cook for Waffle House and Dennys!

The more we progress, the more we step backwards. The more we rise up, the more we fall down.

The devil loves Black conflict! In Africa, they call it tribal warfare! In inner cities, they call it gang warfare.

In The Gantt Report, I call it the never ending Black Power Struggle!

People of African descent do not have to march in step. We can be different. We can certainly disagree.

There is nothing wrong with Blacks who live to integrate. There is nothing wrong with Blacks that desire to separate. Both views or philosophies have benefits, both have detriments.

Fact of the matter is that we need all kinds of Black folk to unite and work toward the goals that we have in common.

They may have not seen eye to eye on every single issue but history has shown that we needed W.E. B. Dubois and we needed Booker T. Washington. We needed Martin Luther King Junior and we needed Malcolm X. We need Minister Louis Farrakhan and we need Reverend T.D. Jakes. We needed Rosa Parks and we need Angela Davis. We needed Marcus Garvey.

We need Black Democrats and we need Black Republicans.

I don’t blame the sons and daughters of slave masters solely for the miserable way we look at and relate to each other. We have to share much of the blame.

We are the ones that think we can’t do anything without the approval and direction of others. We’re the ones that think the Black man’s ice is less cold than the ice belonging to other races. We’re the ones that are blind and can’t see we are blessed as much or more than any other ethnic or racial group.

Brothers and sisters, your brainwashed friends and neighbors may look at you as inferior if you don’t work for a white person at a white owned business or have an education from a white-oriented white or Black school but you are loved by Blacks around the world.

Throughout history and even today, Blacks continue to risk their lives, reputations and livelihoods striving for respect, freedom and independence.

 "The Obama Factor"

The “Obama Factor” may result in more Black candidates running for office this year than ever before. Black Democrats, Republicans and Independents will all be seeking votes from our communities.

Don’t take my words for it but history will repeat itself and the overwhelming majority of Black political candidates will lose and lose badly!

At the time of this writing, Barack Obama is a clear favorite to win his election and become the first African-American President of the United States. Obama will move into The White House and losing candidates can retreat to the Dog House, or in some cases, the Crack House!

The Barack Obama Campaign hired professional political consultants to develop a strategy, design a campaign plan and to professionally implement the plan.

Yes, Obama had an excellent Primary Campaign Plan and most other Black candidates don’t even have a bad clue!

Some say that our people are politically ignorant and we will vote for anybody that claims to be Black. Racists say all a candidate has to do to get Black votes is to know the words to "We Shall Overcome"!!

No! There are no  more days like that! This year, we are going to vote for candidates that we know. If we don’t personally know the vote-seekers, we want to know what they have done in our communities for the people that live in our communities.

Barack Obama was once a community activist in Chicago. How many Black candidates in your counties and cities were community activists? Barack Obama once lived in The Hood, so to speak. How many Black candidates in your community live in the heart of the Black community?

Ah, I say my people know the difference between a crusader and a clown! The clown is the one that thinks he or she is so above everybody else and thinks that Black media professionals and Black political professionals are jokes.

There has never been a Black President before but there are hundreds of Black elected officials currently in office. Are your senators, representatives, councilmen, commissioners and mayors standing up for the issues that are important to you?

Are they speaking out for the causes that you support?

Or, are the Blacks you have been voting for content to just have a title. Are they happy just to earn a high government salary? Do they care more about staying in office than they do about making life better for their constituents?

You tell me, or better yet, you tell yourself.

You can tell what Barack Obama will do and any other Black candidate will do just by looking at them. Whatever they do in the campaign, they will do the same if they are elected.

If any candidate feels that Black people are unqualified to make strategic, monetary and other decisions during the campaign, he will consider Blacks to be unqualified to do anything serious or profitable or beneficial in the future!

When you cast your votes, vote for yourself, your family and your community and not just on color! 

(Gantt's new book "Beast Too: Dead Man Writing" is coming soon and will be illustrated by Lance Scurvin.

Contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants.net) 

Lucius Gantt
The Gantt Report
Post Office Box 2071
Tallahassee, Florida 32316

www.AllWorldConsultants.net