WHO'S BUYING UP ALL THE BLACK FUNERAL HOMES? by Lorenzo Komboa Ervin
Submitted by Chuck0:THE REST OF THE NEWS
by Lorenzo Komboa Ervin
WHO'S BUYING UP ALL THE BLACK FUNERAL HOMES?
(part 1 of a 4-part series)
I was talking to a funeral home director in Georgia
recently who told me something that shocked me, and I
am sure, will shock you too.
Think you know who owns your local Black community
funeral home? Think again. It's probably owned by a
large multinational corporation, instead of a Black
family like in the past. A shadowy group of
billionaire white businessmen from British Columbia
called the *Loewen Group* owns 30-60% of all the Black
funeral homes in America (and over 1,500 funeral homes
and cemeteries in all). The Loewen Group is the #2
largest mortuary company in the world, with assets in
the billions of dollars, made eating the flesh of our
dead. Along with SCI Inc. and the Stewart Group, (who
are nos. 1 and 3 in mortuary company profits and
holdings), the Loewen Group is the harbinger of the
covert seizure of all Black funeral homes in the USA.
They have funeral homes in Canada, the USA, and the
United Kingdom, Europe, and some say, are even moving
into Southern and Western Africa.
Since they have taken over our local funeral homes,
the costs of burying a loved one has risen 30-50%. If
a family cannot pay these costs, then the body is kept
"on ice" until they obtain the money. Many critics
refer to this as keeping a body "hostage". In fact, in
too many cases, once the white big business takes over
a funeral home, prepaid funeral arrangements are
routinely ignored or unilaterally violated, and then
additional money is demanded for burial.
These white business people are also perpetrating a
fraud on the Black community by "rehiring" the former
Black owners as "managers", leading the average person
to think the business is still Black-owned. The scam
works this way: using gangster tactics, these white
businessmen buy out bankrupt Black businesses, but
also viable businesses by virtual bribes, threats, and
even setting one funeral home against another in the
same community to drive the reluctant owner out of
business and then taking over the entire market. This
is obscene, but it is the kind of hardball tactics
they favor, if any owners resist selling out to them.
It doesn't always work, and in fact the Black funeral
home directors have formed their own trade group to
protect them, but it still has allowed them to keep
the pressure on, and the pressure has caused some to
sellout.
This is really buzzards feeding on the Black dead. Yet
another example of white capitalist forays into the
Black community to dominate Black culture and
business, whether it is the beauty home business, the
hip hop music industry or funeral homes. Have they no
shame? Have we no sanctity, even in death? The truth
is that we must fight the Loewen Group buzzards off
the bodies of our ancestors and loved ones. This is
the worst exploitation possible.
They are so bad that even the federal government sued
the Loewen Group over its corrupt business practices,
but because of all the money they had already made,
they were able to hold off both the Department of
Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. In fact,
they sued the government, and tried to make the the
U.S. government re-pay hundreds of millions of dollars
in a private lawsuit that they lost against a local
funeral home company in Mississippi, whose director
sued them for trying to drive him out of business.
This company is so corrupt that their own stockholders
have successfully sued them for hundreds of millions
in a number of lawsuits over the last few years,
accusing them of fraud, mismanagement and
racketeering. But unlike Al Capone, they don't rob you
with a gun, they use an ink pen, computer, or fax
machine, and bring an army of lawyers when the going
gets tough.
Even though they were also sued by the families of
many people bilked out of their prepaid funeral
arrangements and forced to pay thousands more to bury
their loved ones, they have not changed their crooked
way of doing business. They also are every bit as
arrogant, hiding their ownership or control of many
local funeral homes now, with shell companies, and
putting millions in offshore banks. It is something
not even the Mafia could succeed in doing in hiding
illegal profits.
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Myself and other activists are
calling for a worldwide boycott of Loewen Group
funeral parlors, and a letter writing campaign to
demand that they cease taking over Black funeral
homes, stop using high-pressure sales tactics to take
advantage of families in grief, and honor their
prearranged funeral contracts. we are also asking for
concerned persons to write letters of complaint to the
Federal Trade Commission,[ 950 Pennsylvania Avenue,
N.W. 20530 or go to www.ftc.gov and file an online
complaint] demanding that they begin an anti-trust
investigation of the Loewen Group and begin to protect
Black and poor consumers. There are federal laws
already on the books regulating funeral homes, but
because of racism and bureaucratic inaction, they have
never been used to protect our interests. Now we must
complain to protect our loved ones, and see that our
dead are treated with respect, not eaten alive by
jackals only interested in money!
You also need to find out if your local funeral home
is owned by Loewen Group or another white
multinational corporation. Call and find out, and if
they won't tell you, do a litle research at the Hall
of Records, your public library, or the Secretary of
State's office.
I'll see you next week with a continuation of this
article called "Not over my Dead Body".
