"The haves and the have not."
Part 2 in a 4-part series titled, “Riding the Minority-Ethnic Train all the way to the Bank” - with the assistance of local and national journalists, IBNN will bring to light major non-profit organizations, foundations and corporate giants that ride the minority-ethnic train all the way to the bank and provide no service to the community. In some cases these organizations do give dollars to the underserved communities of color –but just enough to help them fail. A perpetual circle of the haves and have-not.
We demand that General Mills recognize the existence of a strong minority-ethnic media in the Twin Cities and the world and start to use ethnic-media with the same spending levels or matched frequency comparable to mainstream media, advertising and message distribution.
In 2009, the Black community will no longer tolerate companies like General Mills, Inc and others who ride the coat-tails of African Americans (or other racial or ethnic minority groups) during the months of January and February in celebration of Martin Luther King’s Holiday and Black History Month. General Mills, who loves to ride the “communities of color gravy train”, has consistently and strategically disseminated information such as the following announcement during holidays such as MLK or Black History Month.
“The General Mills Foundation plans to award a total of $500,000 in grants to Twin Cities’ organizations that serve communities of color. Foundation president Chris Shear announced the plans at the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday breakfast Monday morning. The foundation will award a total of 50 grants of $10,000 each in two batches: 25 in the spring and 25 in the fall. The grant application deadline for the first round is April 1. The General Mills Foundation has been making grants for 50 years. In 2003, the Foundation awarded $77 million to communities across the country, an amount representing more than 5 percent of company pretax profits. (Source: Minneapolis/
Giving local non-profits $10,000 a piece is just enough money to keep them begging for more, or fail.
Read the full story at www.ibnn.org.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
