Well, sort of.

Chester Davenport is believed to be one of the wealthiest black entrepreneurs in America. Via his Georgetown Partners firm, he has made quite a name for himself.

Now, he is trying to influence one of the largest business mergers of the upcoming year. As you may be aware, the two satellite radio companies, XM and Sirius are talking about joining forces. This could mean that there would be more than 300 nationwide radio channels under one company’s control.

Davenport believes that there should be opportunities for minority broadcasters to lease channels on the new XM/Sirius network. What Davenport is speaking of is a share of the pie that could mean between 50-100 satellite channels. Right now, the odds are not stacked in his favor. The current FCC chair, Kevin Martin, has shown that he is willing to side with the big corporations over the rights of minority ownership.

So, let’s see what happens. I will say that I hope that we will not see minority radio owners shut out of the new frontier of satellite radio.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Imagine being a black police officer in the segregated South. You have to risk life and limb while simultaneously dealing with the racism and discrimination against you.

Now, imagine doing that for 20 years and, merely because you are black, you don’t get the same pension as white retired officers.

This is the fight of some nearly 200 retired police officers in Georgia. Because of racism, these officers were denied access to a state-supported supplemental police retirement fund until 1976.

Had many of these officers been allowed to buy in earlier in their careers, they would have hundreds of dollars more a month in retirement benefits. Instead, some like J.L. Booker spend what should be their retirement years working to make ends meet. Booker says he could have had as much as $770 extra dollars per month had he been allowed to participate earlier.

Georgia is the only state that has such a pension crisis for black officers. I guess, at least when it comes to police officers, these other states’ legislatures have recognized that racially discriminating against those who served on the ranks of their police forces was wrong or, at least, sent a very bad message about their states.

The fight is not over. If the state legislatures do refuse to act, the next stop is court.

Georgia, stop being shameful. Protect those who protected you all these years.

Popularity: 19% [?]