(NNPA)—Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia may be the first Black politician to address “flash mob” attacks that involve majority Black teens rummaging stores and attacking other races.

“You have damaged your own race,” Nutter said to a group of Black teens, the Washington Times reported. “Take those God-darn hoodies down, especially in the summer. Pull your pants up and buy a belt ‘cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt.”

FLASH MOB INCIDENT—In this March 20, 2010 file photo, young people run down South Street in Philadelphia during a flash mob incident that involved thousands and closed the street to traffic from Front Street to Broad. Thanks to websites like Twitter and Facebook, more and more so-called flash mobs are materializing across the globe, leaving police scrambling to keep tabs on the spontaneous assemblies. (AP Photo/The Philadelphia Inquirer, Laurence Kesterson)

The series of flash mob attacks in Philadelphia involve a group of teens who spontaneously assault random people in the tourist locations.

Nutter then continued: “If you walk into somebody’s office with your hair uncombed and a pick in the back, and your shoes untied, and your pants half down, tattoos up and down your arms and on your neck, and you wonder why somebody won’t hire you? They don’t hire you ‘cause you look like you’re crazy.”

(NNPA)—During her last round of picks for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (“Debt Supercommittee”), intended to help solve the nation’s debt crisis, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi appointed Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., and Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., adding diversity to the important panel. The Demo­crats are also represented by the only woman on the committee, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

The 12 member bipartisan panel will have until November to decide how the country should save $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.

(NNPA)—Authorities in Ohio are investigating the appearance of racist flyers left around a neighborhood in the wake of a murder-suicide of a local interracial teen couple.
According to reports, the flyers left in Deerfield Township, Ohio, were addressed to White parents, their headline reading “Don’t Let Your Daughters Date Blacks, It Might Be a Matter of Life and Death.”

“Some bigot came in the middle of the night, skulking in the middle of the night, putting this on people’s cars,” resident Greg Stanforth told Cincinnati NBC affiliate WLWT.

AMANDA BORSOS and TROY PENN

For the Week of August 20-26

August 20

1619—This is the most probable date that Black History in America begins. Approximately 20 Africans (the records of the day referred to them as “20 and odd Negras”) arrived in Jamestown, Va., aboard a Dutch ship. It appears the Africans were sold as indentured servants who could work and earn their freedom. Little is known about the group except that the Dutch had stolen them from a Spanish slave ship which was probably headed for the Caribbean or South America. Few names survive. But one of the men was called Anthony (or Antonio) and one of the women was called Isabella. The available records indicate the ship arrived in Jamestown in the latter part of August. Other records and some speculation have led most historians to believe the actual arrival date was Aug. 20, 1619—the beginning of Black history in America.

NAT TURNER