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IN THIS ISSUE

Page 6 The Illusion of Inclusion

Page 9 How Students Can Get Ahead: What Colleges And Companies Want

Page 11 3 Tips to Help Small Businesses Save at Tax Time

Page 9 New Martin Luther King Jr. Biopic Selma Due in Theatres December 25th

Page 17 2015 Vacation Ideas

Publisher/CEO Sharon S. Gordon Editor-at-Large Alicia (A.C.) Dunlap V.P. Sales & Marketing Lisa Freeman-Williamson Sales Leonette Robinson Contributing Writers Delois R. Wright Brenda Spencer Mykayla Bryant Production/Graphics Mayda Sanchez Online Ashley Corry Distribution Cobre Gordon UTS Grind & Go Street Team Copyright Urban Trendsetters is published monthly and distributed the first Thursday of every month as a comple-mentary publication by Myshbre Media and Communication, LLC,5773 Emporium Square, Columbus, OH 43219. Publisher reserves the right to edit, reject or cancel any advertisement or editorial

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The BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) Business Directory is a community re-source for locating African Americans in business and to communicate additional businesses, resources and services available to build and enhance opportunities in the community. Our first edition of The BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) Busi-ness Directory will launch in Central Ohio. The BEE Business Directory will be pub-lished in print and online.

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Publisher s Message

The holidays are a great time to play catch up and celebrate with family and friends. Dur-ing this time we are reminded of what we are thankful for as well as anticipate what we want accomplish in the new year. For retail-ers, the holiday season means something so much more. Retailers recognize the holiday season as the opportunity to increase their business bottom line and end the year with a BANG!

The holiday season accounts for between 20 percent and 40 percent of typical retailers' total annual sales. The busiest shopping days, Thanksgiving Day (after the dinner has digested), Black Friday, Small Business Sat-urday (powered by American Express) and Cyber Monday have the ability to create a massive amount of sales for retailers both big and small, with the right amount of planning and an aggressive advertising. Here are the four day weekend sales re-sults from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday Week November 28 - De-cember 1, 2013: 141 million shoppers visited stores or web-sites from Thanksgiving Day November 28th through the Cyber Monday Eve, December 1st, according a survey by the NRF (National Retail Federation (NRF) survey). Based on consumer survey responses, the NRF esti-mated that $57.4 billion was spent over the four-day Black Friday weekend, which, if correct, is 2.9% less than 2012. 59 million consumers shopped online be-tween Thanksgiving Day and the Sunday after Black Friday and spent an average of $177.67 per person, according to estimates

based on the NRF consumer survey. Between Thanksgiving Day (November 29) through Black Sunday (December 1st), 76.4% of shoppers purchased something for themselves, according to consumer survey data collected by the NRF. ShopperTrak reported that total sales in physical stores for the four-day Black Friday weekend, starting with Thanksgiving day were $22.2 billion, which is an increase of 1%, compared to the same time period in 2012. Last year, consumers spent around $5.7 Bil-lion at independent merchants around the country on Small Business Saturday. Cyber Monday Sales Results and Statistics for November 28 & 29, 2013: Cyber Monday, December 2, 2013 was the single biggest day for e-commerce sales for U.S. based Internet retailers, according to ComScore. Cyber Monday 2013 sales were $1.735 billion, which represents an 18.4% increase compared to 2012. Visa card holders spent $2.6 billion on Cyber Monday 2013, which was 28% more

than they spent on Cyber Monday 2012. Cyber Monday 2013 sales rose 20.6%, com-pared to Cyber Monday 2012, according to IBM Benchmark reports. Mobile devices were used to make 17% of Cyber Monday 2013 purchases, which is an increase of 55.4% compared to sales that originated from mobile devices on Cyber Monday 2012, the IBM Benchmark reported. Dont miss the opportunity to increase your sales and services during this holiday season. After holiday sales are an additional way to boost end of the year revenue. Sharon S. Gordon

Founder / Publisher [email protected]

Is Your Business Ready for the 4 Busiest Shopping Days of the - Dont Miss the MOMENT!

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TRENDSETTER SPEAKS

The Illusion of Inclusion: Raven-Symon and the Politics of Racial Dis-Identification

Nationwide Recent comments made by Raven-Symon may have been igno-rant and self-depreciating, but were not, by any stretch of the imagination, un-common. On national television she stat-ed, Im an American, not an African-American. I dont know where my roots go (in Afrika), I dont know how far back they go, and what country they go to but I do know that I have roots in Louisiana. As if this wasnt insult enough to her ancestors, and all self-respecting Black people in this country, this African-American actress, who is undeniably of African ancestry, goes on to say, Im an American, and thats a colorless person I have a lot of things running through my veins. Increasingly we are seeing more and more politically undereducated and self-hating African-Americans attempting to dis-identify from their Blackness.

However, this behavior is not without

precedent. Histori-cally, even es-teemed scholars such as W.E.B. Dubois have, at one time or anoth-er, attempted to dis-identify from their Blackness, ridiculously claim-ing that they were the sum total of far too many different racial genotypes to affirmatively iden-tity with their pre-dominate Afrikan-ity. Although dis-identification has been a problem for Blacks since the end of slavery, we have seen a dra-matic increase in this strategy since the election of President Obama and the birth of the

alleged, and defi-nitely hypocritical, post-racial socie-ty. How can a so-ciety that proclaims to be post-racial explain the record-breaking suspen-sion and expulsion rate of kindergarten

Black boys, or the highest incarceration rate in the world that disproportionately targets Black men and women.

The belief that anyone in this country will cease to identify you with your par-ticular race just because you hate your membership within that particular group is ridiculous. All politics in America are race based. Every job and dollar spent is in neglect of, or support for, one racial group or the other. Raven-Symon, and other Negro victims of white supremacy havent the slightest clue about the true significance of race in this country. However, their frequent comments, ex-pressing their desires not to be Black, only adds to the argument on whether Blackness is still relevant in a society with a Black president, and millions of African-Americans who prefer not to be identified with their most obvious physi-cal and biological characteristic, their racial background. The question on whether Blackness is still relevant in a society based on white privilege is rather

ridiculous in a country where White po-lice officers kill at least two unarmed Black men a week, without probable cause, and arent even brought in for questioning. If you think America is post-racial then go ask the parents of Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown their opinion.