Black Men's topics - tribe.net

Blk Muscle for NON, Hairy or Smooth.. Bigger...or Average

2009-12-23T19:20:59Z

South FL or outside is fine too. Lookin' for a down to earth guy to get to know.
Opposites Attract! Just like on ChaserZone.com

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Just want to give a shout to all the beautiful bros out there;)

2009-12-12T20:00:25Z

mmmmmmm. Ooowwww

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

Don't follow LEVI JOHNSTON'S porn, with a sneak of Sally, down a riotous, lower-48 alley, you INCITERS TO RIOT, violating CPC 404.6(a)!!

2009-11-18T00:04:49Z

Don't mess with Sasquatch.

Don't play with MISTER Clinton or his actual-Republican Strategist wifey.

Don't be a complete Dick Obama, try to lose to superior Bush pilots by diving to Joe Plumber, and pretend to peace.

Don't be a Giuliani, trying to suck a dirigible of death or two into Yankee Stadium, right into the on-deck area.

Don't impose deregulated energy deals, impair ERT communications, let them into the towers, and watch them DIE, like Rudy Giuliani did, and then quash all notice of how you flipped D.U. shooting galleries, to get Usama, for offering to kill Saddam, and expect the towers back up, to where the prices of food and energy are, now.

Don't be an idiot into LED ZEPPELIN, a Nixon-dupe group, and think Black Sunday is always about lousy football.

Don't be an oblivious General Cone, about to let Giuliani look like an Ethiopian mutant, who won't let any court know Jews are from Ethiopia, but when Bonds offers, "Isaiah," when he hits 756 into the Cove, to pass Aaron, in 2005, he was certain to be prosecuted, ILLEGALLY, but Rudy gets to camp on the third-base line, years after Torre dodged!

D-D-Don't be too ignorant, too stupid, and TOO GUILTY AND GREEDY, in the same stadium, year after year.

Don't let NBC run Jon bon Jovi, Jenna Bush, Matt Lauer, and anything else lousy, and call a Muslim, "Zippy," but you stinking pinheads won't allow you are so full of BRIT, you let them invent a word, when their BRAT-Crusaders figured they needed to charge through Shiites in Teheran, through the Chinese, to Beijing, to keep Jerusalem.

SO IN THE VICTORIAN CRUSADE, THE BRITS INVADED CHINA AND KEPT HONG KONG, AS A COLONY.

THE USA INVADED IN THE SAND PEBBLES INCIDENT, IN THE 1948 CIA LIBERATOR OVER-FLYING FROM TIBET AND TAIWAN, AND IN THE KOREAN WAR, TO ESTABLISH A YALU PERIMETER, THEN REPULSED.

Don't be an idiot, named "TED," and think you get to ignore the Chinese Ming Dynasty's WHITE FLEET, which left wrecked sailors and descendants all over the Indies from a hurricane in the 1430s, and so Columbus and the USA call natives, 'INDIANS,' in deliberate error and at international riot and incitement, for chill, or orders, to desist and disband.

Don't be an IDIOT, and order a SMART PERSON, to his certain death, which Major Hassan faced, if deployed.

JEWS ARE FROM ETHIOPIA, neatly, criminals, illegally gathered, at riot and mayhem! Back up!

If you SUCK SO HARD, bon Jovi is your band and Sally Palin at riot should sneak Mann Act violations up Levi's butt, without knowing his backfield can get like Eli's, watch out for Ben, Favre, Peyton, and their guys, as well, since they get blitzed, and YOU DO NOT BELONG IN THEIR STADIUM, trying to suck rocks and rockets, both.

Don't be an idiotic Bush-pilot and think you get to fly on back, to where the 48 states need to re-configure, without the illegally gathered Alaska and Hawaii, which may need to revert, since you geeks let riot rage, many years, to undermine all funding.

GOT FUNDS? No. GOT LEGAL STANDING? Not after PRC smartens up and class-actions in California, with me!

Got Yao Ming, in Houston? YOU HAVE A PROBLEM, WHEN HE GETS REALLY, REALLY PAID, FOR INJURIES.

Got Pandas? We got KFP in SF, so funny when he has Chinese Navy DNA, about 600 years old, like Yao's.

Get a clue about the Molinas and Edgar Renterria, you might have to pay them extra rent.

But when you SUCK, don't blow up a zeppelin, and then inhale the thing into our stadia, in the USA, when you riot and incite, internationally, so badly, we might have to call Torre to help Girardi, with what the jerky-front office neglects!!

Seen TITANIC? In the movie, the stern hoists, so call it HOWARD CARTOONS. The real HMS Titanic snapped and wallowed by the stern, as the bow plummeted.

When the water reached the third class passengers, they swam out like a herd of Rattus Norweigicus, on holiday, on ice. So, are you a SMART Indian, for getting all wild, without knowing MING IS THE THING? No. Singh is one king.

MING had the White Fleet, decommissioned, April 6, 1437.

TRUMP had Jacko's handjob, apparently. Look at Blanket Michael and Paris, obviously of THE Donald, you see?

ALL YOUR JUNK IS ILLEGAL CONSTRUCTION, at a riot. You sold punk rock to the Chinese, after Nixon duped it so hard, Nixon freak Bowie sued Reagan-thug Vanilla Ice and tore off a riff, they BOTH duped, inc.

So all the lawyers are sucked up the government-corporate conspiracy, REALLY! The PRC will sue, or lose holdings.

Don't mess with the PRC, just now, since the White Fleet had an Arab eunuch for a navigator, and today, Mr.Marin's BALLS ITCH, don't they! When you won't legalize pot to save the air and water, make way, for a committee, or Islam.

OR MAKE WAY, FOR BOTH. But you pigs into Crusades since Victoria may not assert your BRITS or your SHIT, for cause, chill or be served a lawful order, to disband.

There's a lot more baseball left to play, when you guys notice ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK foreshadows Tim Lincecum's arrival, in MLB.

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

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2009-08-28T20:30:00Z

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posted in Black Men - 0 replies

The Power of Forgiveness

2009-08-24T15:45:06Z

Have you ever made a mistake? What was it like when you expected someone to punish you but they taught you a valuable lesson instead? In this video, Obafemi teaches how forgiveness can build trust, strengthen relationships and inspire greatness in ourselves and our loved ones. Visit www.ObafemiO.com to register for the upcoming Acts of Forgiveness Community Ritual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsUvYCyDgSk

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

If Only

2009-07-26T08:00:44Z

If only my brother can love me the way I love him. Where are you my bother it seems like you past me by ever time I look at you its like just a second then you walk away my borther I need you. your love, you security, your future. Ohh my borhter come to me....

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Just thinking

2009-07-10T02:24:58Z

I belive, that some people on tribe are Hating on me. They dont even know me and they are already passing judement about me. Its sad because I'm a sister and its really messed up how these particular group of people are ganging up on me and have false beleives about me. I never said anything to offend anyone and if I have I am sorry that you feel that way.

posted in Black Men - 13 replies

What Blacks can Learn from Whites

2009-07-08T03:31:36Z

There's a lot of things we can learn from white people as long as we're not so stuck up in our pride to want to know how. For instance, when it comes to the way an average Black man defines money, it's totally different from the way the Whites would.

White people save up their money so as to be rich, whereas Blacks spend money they actually don't have so as to look rich.

posted in Black Men - 5 replies

The Black Man’s Manifesto for the New Millennium

2009-05-31T23:03:39Z

Brought to you by AfroerotiK

I AM a Strong Black man and as such . . .

· I will carry myself with the grace, dignity and character of a king at all times.

· I will speak to women as human beings, not as potential sex partners, not as someone with less value than myself, not someone I must dominate in order to validate my manhood.

· I will not plan out how I can get a woman into bed before I even introduce myself.

· I will not judge a woman’s beauty, worth or value by the length of her hair, the length of her fingernails, the roundness of her behind or the size of her feet, and most importantly, the color of her skin, just as I would not want to be judged by the length of my penis, the size of my wallet, the car I drive, or the amount of money I make.

· I will make every effort to make sure women know that they are safe when they are in my presence. I will not touch, grope, or physically intimidate them and I will not make unwanted sexual advances towards them.

· I will NOT strike, restrain, or threaten a woman.

· I will accept that if a woman says no, she means she’s not interested in me sexually and that is her right. I will never force a woman to have sex with me.

· I will ask my women friends, sisters and acquaintances what makes them feel undervalued, unappreciated and objectified and I will listen closely and make efforts to correct those things that I do wrong.

· When a woman tells me something is insensitive, demeaning, or offensive, I will not dismiss it immediately as male bashing. I will take her critique just as I would expect someone to consider mine.

· I will find something other than a woman’s looks to compliment her about. I will make note of her intellect, her personality, her ideas, her imagination, and her accomplishments.

· I will acknowledge that my mother, sister, and daughters are black women, deserving of respect, and I will work to treat ALL Black women as I would have other men treat the women in my life.

· I will accept responsibility for my wrongdoings, I will not lie in an attempt to get away with my misdeeds, I will apologize when I’ve done something wrong and I will deal with the consequences of my actions by facing them head on.

· I will not partake in conversations with other men when they are ridiculing women’s looks, bodies, or opinions.

· I will remove the words bitch, ho, trick, chicken head, and all other derogatory names for women from my vocabulary because I recognize them to be sexist and degrading.

· I will not refer to sex with a woman as hitting it, killing it, stabbing it, or anything that has violent connotations nor will it diminish the humanity of a woman by referring to sex with her as getting “it” or getting “some”

· I will not define my manhood by the length of my penis, I will define my manhood as fulfilling promises I keep, in having integrity, in choosing mature solutions to problems and how I can be honest even when it’s difficult.

· I will speak out when I see other men disrespecting women.

· I will honor my daughters as much as my sons.

· I will not refer to myself as a pimp, a dog, a thug, or a baller because I will not let racist stereotypes define me.

· I will learn how to communicate my feelings rather than deny I have them or trying to suppress them with sex, drugs, adrenaline, or alcohol.

Copyright 2007 Scottie Lowe

Tired of seeing black women being portrayed as ghetto bitches, freaks and whores, and black men as barely literate thugs, bulls, and pimps, Scottie Lowe decided it was time to show black people in a positive sexual light. Ms. Lowe is the sole owner and founder of www.AfroerotiK.com, a company dedicated to eradicating the negative and stereotypical depictions of Black sexuality and providing customized, personalized erotic stories for and about people of color. Her innovative approach to writing Black erotica is shattering misperceptions and opening the doors to dialogue about subjects long considered taboo.

posted in Black Men - 2 replies

Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 to Divide Africa

2009-05-11T06:14:28Z

My Blog
http://sanfrancisco.tribe.net/template/pub,oc,Detail.vm?topicid=4669c7b9-8ecc-43a2-9306-bd06eb70546f&plugin=blog&inst=2313265

When you hear of all the problems of Africa, with their skinny bodies and protruding bellies, flies every where, poor, starving, smelling, all the senseless fighting and killing, AIDS being injected, etc. Most of us feel sorry for them and wish we could help, but much like Bono of U2 and recently George Clooney and many other stars, we really want to help but don't know how... many of us just feel hopeless, or that their condition are just to big, and we think it's just a part of life being in a jungle or a desert or just their location..

No no no no no no no no no no... ! Bono are you listening??? the way to change Africa is to point to it's owners and the real criminals through out Europe - It';s how all of you got rich ...now it's time to pay Africa back.

WERE STILL GIVING REPARATIONS TO THE FAKE JEWS...currently today they are killing off over 60 million people

ALL the problems of Africa today were man made and contributed by Western society, the problems were brought to Africa, the stealing of their natural resources, the taken of slaves, AIDS injected now over 40 million today dying, all the toxic dumping in Africa, stealing resources, diamond mines, and the genocides of all these senseless killings, - but what you see are only some black ruthless leader whom they make out to be just this one monster evil man, but they fail to show you who's really behind the scenes, who's given them their orders, the puppet masters i.e World bank, USA, the oil trade in Africa (is the biggest in the world how come we never hear about it?) The Federal Reserve, Zionist, etc on and on.

Article http://wysinger.homestead.com/berlinconference.html

Meeting at the Berlin residence of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in 1884, the foreign ministers of fourteen European powers and the United States established ground rules for the future exploitation of the "dark continent." Africans were not invited or made privy to their decisions.

1884-1885 - Berlin West African Conference carves Africa into spheres of control

In the second half of the nineteenth century, after more than four centuries of contact, the European powers finally laid claim to virtually all of Africa. Parts of the continent had been "explored," but now representatives of European governments and rulers arrived to create or expand African spheres of influence for their patrons. Competition was intense. Spheres of influence began to crowd each other. It was time for negotiation, and in late 1884 a conference was convened in Berlin to sort things out. This conference laid the groundwork for the now familiar politico-geographical map of Africa.

In November 1884, the imperial chancellor and architect of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck, convened a conference of 14 states (including the United States) to settle the political partitioning of Africa. Bismarck wanted not only to expand German spheres of influence in Africa but also to play off Germany's colonial rivals against one another to the Germans' advantage. Of these fourteen nations, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Portugal were the major players in the conference, controlling most of colonial Africa at the time.

The Berlin Conference was Africa's undoing in more ways than one. The colonial powers superimposed their domains on the African Continent. By the time Africa regained its independence after the late 1950s, the realm had acquired a legacy of political fragmentation that could neither be eliminated nor made to operate satisfactorily. The African politico-geographical map is thus a permanent liability that resulted from the three months of ignorant, greedy acquisitiveness during a period when Europe's search for minerals and markets had become insatiable.

The French dominated most of West Africa, and the British East and Southern Africa. The Belgians acquired the vast territory that became The Congo. The Germans held four colonies, one in each of the realm's regions. The Portuguese held a small colony in West Africa and two large ones in Southern Africa.

After colonial rule was firmly established in Africa, the only change in possessions came after World War I. Germany's four colonies were placed under the League of Nations, which established a mandate system for other colonizers to administer the territories.

The Congo Free State, conceived as a "neutral" zone to be run by an international association in the interest of bringing science, civilization, and Christianity to the indigenes, received the Berlin Conference's blessings. Belgium's King Leopold II (far left) soon took control, reaping fabulous personal profits through the sale of land and development rights. Scandalously little was reinvested in schools like the one shown here.

BBC News site:

A man who exploited Congo's resources and contributed to up to 10 million deaths.
One man told the BBC: "He left us in poverty. He exploited our raw materials and left us with nothing."

King Leopold's legacy of DR Congo violence
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3516965.stm

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Eddie Griffin (comedian) secrets to how we built the pyramids

2009-04-10T18:37:14Z

My Blog
http://people.tribe.net/chaz/blog/da19cbed-3bf7-4ff1-ba45-b9d580db8395

This is really good... only 2 min

famed comedian Eddie Griffin tells the secrets of how the Kemetians really built the Pyramids

SCIENCE OF PYRAMID CONSTRUCTION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LHpMjQtjsE

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

SEBA: Guiding Principles of Moral Living

2009-02-15T08:57:58Z

My Blog
http://people.tribe.net/chaz/blog/adfbb7a6-704c-4e23-85a5-33470cb67695

KMT University
http://www.ukmtpress.com/ukmt/

[Moral Living]

We all seek guidance in one way or another from others on how to handle various situations and make decisions. When questions of morality are involved-right and wrong, good and bad--- people are often directed to sources outside of themselves.

Over 6,000 years ago KMT recognized that most of what we need to get through life with purpose and meaning already exists within our hearts; we simply have to learn basic moral principles and how to honestly listen to ourselves, humble ourselves, admit our wrongs to ourselves, correct ourselves, and live each day understanding that we are judged in this life and the next based on what we do in this world.

We confessed our innocence, admitted our guilt, showed remorse and restitution when we harmed others, we paid reparations to those deserving/demanding it, we showed reciprocity to those who helped us, and we devoted each day to perfection. Look at ancient African Kmt. This is the Cosmology moral system that we could model, Those with integrity will face this moment with self renewal in mind.

While there are so many things that are out of our hands, there is a lot that we control; namely who we choose to become and how we respond to situations. We can be honest and change or continue to lie to ourselves

You are so much more than you know; you are more than they have made you out to be; mighty people wake up, get up, stand up and with the heart of Auset face every fear imaginable and over come every hurdle, every roadblock, every setback until we finish what must be done. Maat means balance, justice, rightness, matching force with Yin. The force energize those listening to their hearts today. We will not rest until justice has been secured and the great wrongs have been made right. We are a force of ages unleashed from those who sought to make little of our value. Billions of years went into our making; we were meant to be. Live life as a mirror of what we were created to be not what they have have tried to lower us to be

Twenty-one billion years of this majestic forward flow of history, unfolding in Africa with the earliest civilizations emerging along the Nile, struggling for life, generating surpluses, giving birth to classes, private property and a state apparatus to manage indigenous African class, gender, ethnic, and cultural relations.

Settlements became villages, towns, cities, regional chiefdoms, kingdoms, then confederations, federated nations and empires in KMT, each eventually undergoing its natural internal birth-death-rebirth cycles. For thousands of seasons the Black African race developed life, culture, language, education, science, morality, government, and a system of justice reflective of the best of who we were over time.

KMT, an indigenous African civilization covered the longest time span of any civilization known to history. Its monuments are the most massive and longest lasting. Its records, chiefly in stone, were carved into mountains and buried in great underground temple structures. Extensive in time and massive in the volume of their architecture are the remains of KMTian civilization. The earliest of these fragments date back more than seven thousand years.

The place of settlement of Kmtian civilization was the Nile river system that poured from the interior of the African continent to a delta region, 4,144 miles in length. Annual floods left their rich black silt deposits to nurture the soil along the lower reaches of the river. Massive outpourings of river water irrigated sometimes rainless desert countryside. Skillful engineering drained the swamps, adding to the cultivable area of a narrow valley cut by the river through jagged barren hills. Deserts on both sides of the Nile and a massive mountain area on the eastern flank for centuries protected this indigenous African civilization/nation against foreign agressors. Within this natural sanctuary the KMTians built a civilization that lasted with minor break, over 4,200 years...

posted in Black Men - 3 replies

'Chris Brown & Rihanna: Love In Trouble?

2009-02-15T07:58:05Z

MTV To Air 'Chris Brown & Rihanna: Love In Trouble,' Monday At 6 P.M.
Half-hour show will take a look at the events and ramifications surrounding alleged altercation between the two singers.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1605071/20090213/brown__chris__18_.jhtml

more shameful gossip...

Did Rihanna Give Chris Brown an STD?
http://www.mtv.co.uk/channel/mtvuk/news/474206-did-rihanna-give-chris-brown-an-std-herpes

Black radio, word on the street, Internet rumours claim the pair had a fight because she gave him herpes…

The Rihanna and Chris Brown rumours are continuing- with the latest suggesting she may have given him herpes.

Some are reporting that he allegedly attacked her after finding out she had given him an STD.

Incredibly it’s also claimed on various blogs that rap superstar *Jay Z gave Rihanna herpes in the first place.

In other developments the same website says Rihanna is now refusing to co-operate with police.

It’s also reported that the real reasons for their fight was that Chris wanted to end their relationship but Rihanna didn’t.

It started with a text.

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/02/10/2009-02-10_rihanna__chris_brown_fight_started_over_.html

The explosive fight that landed sultry singer Rihanna in the hospital ignited when singer Chris Brown got a text message from another young woman, a source said.

"He got a booty call. He got a text. Rihanna saw it and she got upset. They started to argue. She got out of the car. He wanted her to get back in, so he grabbed her," the industry source said. "She pulled away.

According to a friend of the couple, Rihanna got out of the car during the fight, but Brown wanted her to come back and grabbed her arm. Rihanna defended herself, which reportedly is the moment he began hitting her.

Rihanna then reportedly dialed 911. Police officers found the singer sitting in the Lamborghini with a bloody nose; there was no sign of Chris Brown, who had fled the scene. Rihanna, who had a split lip and also was found to have bite wounds, was taken to a hospital for treatment shortly thereafter.

That's when she's told people he hit her."

http://www.welt.de/english-news/article3191151/Flirty-text-message-triggered-the-fight-with-Rihanna.html

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

Confessions of a Video Vixen: "Hip Hop's Most Notorious Groupie"

2009-02-15T07:37:30Z

I know this old old news - and at first, I thought about not posting it, but then I thought why not, i think it addresses some very important issues and our current social culture, with keeping it on a higher spiritual level, I think it's important not to ignore the social issues and

I have a perspective and I do not no a thing about these people and what is real and what isn't,

I think our personal sexual lives are very personal and private to us, but at the same time on a social level it effects us all and perhaps address some real answers and questions.

On a personal level I may see it one way and on a Social level I may see it another - this is about my Social perspective and what I see happening with young men and women and our current paradigm Esp. with America and African American culture.

I've taken on these issues and its apart of my life - and will no longer hesitate around my perspective - and like i said its usually slanted towards women and kids and young adults and education - Men are a whole different story - and speak on them and our issues in a different way. (Some say i'm always point out things regarding women and don't point out the issues with the guys

my social activism is for African Americans, other minorities, and Esp. for mothers and children and the poor, and all injustices of the of the legal system and of the world (I have Mars in Libra in the 12th house)

With this article I'm not quite sure how I feel about it - but i think it hits on a lot of issues of the day ...

Sexuality, Privacy, Celebrities and Groupies, Pornography, Marriage and Infidelity, Postitution and the right for women to charge for sex, and so many more.

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

Feed a Child with just a Click!

2009-02-09T05:42:29Z

Feed a Child with just a Click! (FREE) Via the "Internet Advertising Charity Revolution.”

EVERY DAY, around 18,000 Children Die from Starvation! Just a click of your mouse feeds a child:

** http://www.freerice.com - Free Rice
** http://www.freeflour.com - Free Bread

=Free Water=
*** http://www.freepoverty.com - Lots of free water!
** http://www.helpthirst.com - Free water

=Free Meals=
*** http://www.bhook.com - Just Click!
*** http://www.pajacyk.pl - Click the green button!
*** http://www.ripple.org/give.php?p=food - Just Click!
*** http://www.porloschicos.com/PorLosChicos.NET/index_english.htm - Click the blue button!
*** http://www.feedsa.com - Click the white button!
*** http://www.hungerfighters.com - Click the green box!
*** http://www.povertyfighters.com/ - Click the blue box!
*** http://www.thehungersite.com - Click the yellow box!
*** http://www.okruszek.org.pl - Click the Bread button!
*** http://www.chintai.net/contribution/index.html - Click the blue box!
*** http://www.kct-uk.org/click - Just visit the site!
*** http://www.straatkind.nl/ - Click on the small red ball.
*** http://www.worldhunger.org/contributefood.htm - Just click!

Help the kids:
** http://children.care2.com - Click the blue box!
** http://www.hungrychildren.com - Click the blue button!

Causes change monthly:
** http://www.youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=2335 - Click the red button!

Others:
* http://www.definition-of.com - Submit a word
** http://www.spendu.org/beta/index.php - German Rice Game!

Thank you 4 million people!

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

My latest YouTube comment, edited and prevented from notice by Obama and LOS COCHINOS, inc.

2009-02-04T04:21:03Z

Look, TUBERS! Read this, get the bigger picture, take some action:

Obama fronted deregulated energy until Debate 3, 10/15/2008. He said they were 'robbing us of our wealth,' but he let McCain and Joe W. claim offices and measures! A $100K toolbag floated, Granny Maddie died and said B.O. is Kenyan, and after the election, Blago complained and got chased. Mumbai rocked, Palis rocketed, COPS STARTED SHOOTING YOUNG BLACK MEN, 22 years old, worse than their usual, seasonal abuse, during oppression, for tyrants, inc. John Burris blew me off! 360.yahoo/bobgnote.

WHY DOES OBAMA FEAR TRUTH?

Because James Brown found out B.O. was selling out to energy and media and cops, James Brown died, mysteriously. And then Obama's private school and corporate geeks kept me and my energy information out of his campaign.

James Brown found out, Obama would support W.E.S. exemptions, for ripoff, inc., like WB and ATT and FOX and MSN, so corporations could put up fakers, like Eagles and Earth, Wind, and Fire, AC-ZZ, frauds, all, in competition with James Brown and the Band of Renown.

But worse, JB found out Obama was cooking with Betty Nguyen of CNN, at the end of 2006, and he died, beaten from knowing he used to fine his dancers and backup singers $25, bindle money for any coke-head like Barack Obama or James Brown, but Obama was selling out the world, frronting for Republican positions, burning the world, while spanking it for Hillary, whose hubby Bill signed NAFTA and deregulation of energy, Bush hid the inflation, and now, Obama is fronting for bail and sail economics.

Any fool or Michelle Obama should be able to see, you re-regulate BEFORE you bail or stimulate the illegal interests, with more illegal funding or cost-passing opportunities. BUT NOBODY REACTS, among millions of bureaucrats and media, charged with representation.

At inauguration, FOX fronted for the burning of James Brown, with Cleveland Browns step-child Jim Brown, who needs to go see Eddie Griffin get past Jim''s and everybody''s other brother, Richard Pryor. It's a DICKY-DICK WORLD, Jim. Take a knee.

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Blacks vs. Interracial Relationships

2009-01-19T18:42:32Z

It's very hard for some blacks to want to assume that they do have racist tendencies within themselves. They'd rather prefer putting it off as being a 'white man's thing', but the opposite is far true.

Why is it that some Blacks still find it hard letting go of the racial tensions and actions of the past and often find it hard saying yes to such things as interracial relationships?

posted in Black Men - 21 replies

Black Women & IR Relationships

2009-01-19T18:40:11Z

Hasn't it always been ironic that whenever someone is talking or referring to Interracial relationships, it's most often about black man and white women. On only few occasions has the discussion being about Black women and White men.

Why is it that Black women, at least a lot of them, still remain adverse to the thought of dating someone from a different race?

posted in Black Men - 4 replies

My tribe.net friend Melissa writes:

2008-11-02T20:58:04Z

"My friend Alice's nephew died last Tuesday.
He was shot in the chest twice by the Anaheim, California police. One shot went right through his heart.

He heard a commotion at the neighbor's house and ran outside to see if they needed help. Because he was young, strongly built and black, the police assumed he was part of the problem.

He had no weapon. He just wondered if anybody needed help.
He had been married less than a week. His wife is expecting a baby in December. He was studying veterinary medicine in college.
I just thought people should know.

My friend Alice told me she wishes she had a storm cellar, so she could crawl in, latch the door and scream until she can't scream anymore.
She said she can't though, because there are too many people who need her to be strong. Then she said the most remarkable thing.

"Melissa, we can't let bitterness and hatred into our hearts now. We can't let any man make us hate. Then he wins."

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers and offers of support. The family is still so shocked that nothing has really been set into motion, but I will certainly keep you all posted.
Alice and her family are devout Christians, and they believe God called Julian home for a reason.

I am thinking about his grandmother, his wife, his unborn child, his parents, all of his aunts and uncles and friends. I can't see the Divine Plan here, but maybe I'm not meant to.

Hold your loved ones tight. Put your wagons in a circle. Try to find some warmth and light in this cold, dark night."

I am spreading Melissa's message so that we can all continue to help raise the consciousness level on this wretched planet, where suffering caused by so many things, including racism, still exists as part of the separation consciousness, which is now leaving the planet.

I have offered to write the story up for the internet news blogs, but will only proceed with Alice's permission.

I know that many of my readers are lightworkers, and I intend that this message assist us in reaching each other through our heart chakras in a simultaneous meditation, so that we can pass that high vibration on to others that we know as well as to strangers. This simply must end.

LOVE TO ALL, JUDGMENT FOR NONE
dave

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

MLK was Not! a Republican!

2008-11-02T20:47:19Z

My Blog
http://people.tribe.net/chaz/blog/3ee7e1ec-f441-439d-8b38-6b831d8d23ca

These articles are being spread around
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=16500

I'm having this heated debate on tribe
http://heateddebate.tribe.net/thread/e60413ba-5723-4237-85f7-02e04ff399a7

NOTE: A lot of my comments on this blog are replys to the other post in this heated debate - FYI I love all my bothers and sister; white, black, red, brown, yellow, orange, green, and purple - we belong to the human race.

I would just like to say before I begin is that it shouldn't be about race, but that's the level that they've brought it to and it's not all about Obama, it's about all these beautiful WHITE people of this country who has stepped forward and selected Obama to Champion this country back to us - remember the Govt. is supposed be ours and work for us.

It's just when people try to manipulate the truth that upsets me...

here's what they posted:

"It should come as no surprise that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican. In that era, almost all black Americans were Republicans. Why? From its founding in 1854 as the anti-slavery party until today, the Republican Party has championed freedom and civil rights for blacks. And as one pundit so succinctly stated, the Democrat Party is as it always has been, the party of the four S's: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism"

Chaz: W stop spreading all these LIES, King was not a Republican, and in his era he was down with JFK.

And BTW black people were responsible for wining the Civil war and keeping the Union - Lincoln and his Republican party didn't care about freeing the slaves, they were only concern about saving and keeping the union, it was only when the North were getting beat so bad by the South that the North was out of any options, Lincoln then as a last ditched effort enlisted black warriors and black citizen to join the fight. If it weren't for these black soldiers we would not have a UNITED States today.

You keep posting these same articles and it's still a lie....Talk about things you know.

All parties and most of America (Still) are Racist

It never ceases to amaze me how low you people will go ...

I'm not a Republican nor a Democrat BTW -Dog Star

Everything out a Republicans mouth is a lie, or a manipulation of the truth and it's beyond me how anyone of you Republicans can talk any crap with what the Bush (Republicans) administration has done in hijacking this country and stripped us all of our rights and freedom and messed up the economy the worst since the great depression, along with an illegal war, and then to spy on all of us with a s called Patriot Act - we've lost our rights of privacy - i bet they are even looking at this blog right now- and now they've taken over our banks and our housing and financial institutions. Fascism and Police states are just up ahead...

but THANK GOD for Obama- he's heaven sent

BUT it's the beautiful WHITE people who are getting him there to get rid of those other DEVILS out of Office.

BUSH CHENEY RICE AND RUMSFELD AND MCCAIN ...Even Powell endorses OBama

And it was actually because of King and the Kennedy's connection that Black people began four decades of voting for liberals.
Tthe Government was spying on them before John and Jack Kennedy and the democratic party it's one of the reasons why the Kennedy's got shot. I suggest you leaving Texas and venturing out to the real world.

The Devil J Edgar Hoover (republican) has been in the FBI stirring up trouble since Calvin Coolidge (1924) he had King, the Kennedy's, and Malcolm x shot en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover

Martin Luther King was a Baptist minister.

"The Democrats held a narrow majority in Congress, and many of the Democratic seats were held by Southerners who opposed civil rights legislation. The president (Kennedy) needed the white Southern vote to win reelection in 1964. So Kennedy adopted a cautious approach to civil rights, emphasizing enforcement of existing laws over the creation of new ones."

"Kennedy pushed civil rights on many fronts. He ordered his attorney general to submit friends of the court briefs on behalf of civil rights litigants. He appointed African Americans to positions within his administration, named Thurgood Marshall to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, and supported voter registration drives."

"But such an approach was problematic. By not addressing civil rights publicly and comprehensively, Kennedy was forced to address racial incidents on a case by case basis -- often after they had escalated to violence. In May, 1961, racists attacked Freedom Riders traveling by bus from Washington, D.C. to Birmingham, Alabama. Kennedy sent federal marshals to protect the protesters. But even armed marshals could not guarantee protection."

Controversial Ad Links MLK, GOP False Assertion About Civil Rights Leader Angers Americans

Washingtonpost
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/18/AR2006101801754.html

When a black conservative group ran a radio ad proclaiming that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican, reaction was swift. "We've gotten some e-mails and telephone calls filled with vitriol," said Frances Rice, chairman of the National Black Republican Association. "They've called me Aunt Jemima, a sellout, a traitor to my race."

In the battle for the black electorate, liberals, who make up the overwhelming majority of black voters, have long disagreed with conservatives over ideology, public policy and economic strategies to better the lives of African Americans. But when conservatives placed the civil rights movement in a Republican context, African Americans said, they crossed a line.

"To suggest that Martin could identify with a party that affirms preemptive, predatory war, and whose religious partners hint that God affirms war and favors the rich at the expense of the poor, is to revile Martin," said the Rev. Joseph Lowery, the former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which the slain civil rights leader helped establish.

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who marched with King in the 1960s, called the ads an "insult to the legacy and the memory of Martin Luther King Jr." and "an affront to all that he stood for."

Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (R), who is running for the U.S. Senate, denounced the King ad, and Donald E. Scoggins, president of Republicans for Black Empowerment and a former member of the association, said it was a terrible idea.

Republicans railed against the radio ads, with the sharpest criticism coming from former members of the black Republican association.

"The vast majority of black Republicans I know would not have approved of the ad," Scoggins said.

It is true that Southern Democrats, many of whom called themselves "Dixiecrats," blocked the social and political progress of black Southerners for decades. Among them was Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), a former local leader in the Ku Klux Klan. Byrd has said he regrets his affiliation.

In 1960, King was arrested for trespassing during a sit-in and held in Georgia's Reidsville prison. Fearing for his son's life, Martin Luther King Sr. appealed to presidential candidate John F. Kennedy to secure his release.

When King was freed, his father vowed to deliver 10 million votes to the Democrat, even though Kennedy was only a reluctant supporter of civil rights. That began four decades of black people voting for liberals.

The younger King voted for Kennedy, and for Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson four years later. In that election, King publicly denounced the Republican candidate, Barry Goldwater.

Today, the vast majority of black voters are Democrats, including former ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young and former presidential hopeful Jesse L. Jackson, two former King aides.

That is why the ad was "a joke," said Christopher Arps, a former spokesman for Rice and the association. "Anyone with any sense knows that most black people were Republican at one time. But it's a far stretch to think that in the '60s Martin Luther King was a Republican."

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Hello! Hello! ~Rising Down~

2008-11-01T08:15:07Z

"You can call me a conspiracy theorist all you want - It's never wrong to tell the truth." - Dog Star

Check Out My Blog for the Full Article: Hello! Hello! (Good!) http://sanfrancisco.tribe.net/template/pub%2Coc%2CDetail.vm?topicid=c57eab9a-deb6-4e77-b255-757d871c0b45&plugin=blog&inst=2313265

Rev. Jeremiah Wright is Right about how U.S. Government Abuses and Uses Blacks for Medical Experiments, Including AIDS, and about the way they've treated blacks in the last 200 (500) years is remarkably accurate to anyone who has bothered to actually study American and world history.

I'm seeing so much racist garbage posted on tribe and other networks about Barrack it's amazing, I mean all these lies there's no end what these Devils will do and say, from Fox news to CNN - can't believe that we still live in a Racist society like this, but you wanna know something? YOU CAN'T STOP THE DUNK - IT"S OVER! Obama WILL be our next President - so get over it.

Learn more and empower yourself now

The Roots "Rising Down"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_dQeoWTeY8

(ROOTS-MOS DEF)
Every anywhere heights plains peaks or valleys
Entrances exits vestibules and alleys
Winding roads that test the firm nerve
fortune or fatal behind the blind curve
The engine oil purr lights flash to a blur
speed work through the earth make your motor go scurrr
tonight at noon watch a bad moon rising
identities in crisis and conflict diamonds
blindin staring at lights till they cryin
bone gristle popping from continuous grindin
grapes of wrath in a shapely glass
ingredients influential on your ways and acts
zero tolerance to raise the tax
it don't matter how your gates is latched
you aint safe from the danger jack
made it way before they made the map
or a GPS this is D-E-F

I know where I'm goin even when its dark and being led down that road
Hello hello hello hello...
you don't see that somethings wrong earth's spinnin outta control
Hello hello hello hello...
Everything's for sale even souls someone get God on the phone
Hello hello hello hello...
Northside Southside
Hello hello hello hello...
shits poppin off Worldwide
Hello hello hello hello...

posted in Black Men - 2 replies

African-American Folklore Project, Assistance Needed

2008-10-13T23:45:13Z

To Whom it May Concern,

My name is Stephen Wall and I am a Ph.D. candidate at Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Department of Folklore. As part of a seminar project, I am studying stories, rumors, arguments, and legends associated with the U.S. government’s perpetration of harmful conspiracies against the greater African-American community. I am interested to know if members of this forum site are familiar with such conspiracies and how they came to know about them. It would benefit my work greatly if any members of this forum could volunteer answers to the following questions:

Have you ever heard stories, rumors, arguments, or legends of the CIA, FBI, or other U.S. government agencies intentionally harming African-Americans in any way? Examples might include—but are certainly not limited to—plotting/committing assassinations, intentional neglect of vulnerable individuals or groups, or distributing illegal drugs or fatal diseases* in urban communities. If so, please describe these stories, rumors, arguments, or legends in as much detail as possible, including the setting in which they were told (i.e. between classes in high school, in the middle of a phone conversation, at the dinner-table with family, etc.).

Who discussed these stories, rumors, arguments, or legends with you? Were the stories, etc. treated seriously by the teller(s) or were they mentioned jokingly?

Upon hearing such stories, rumors, arguments, or legends, what emotional reaction did they elicit in you personally or in others hearing them at the same time as you?

Do such stories, rumors, arguments, or legends impact your opinion of U.S. agencies or elements of the U.S. bureaucracy? If so, how? If not, why not?

If you would like to attach age or gender information to your answers, please feel free. I would be happy to receive answers to these questions in the form of responses to my post, or as private messages within the forum’s system. Feel free to contact me through the private message system if you have any questions, concerns, or thoughts regarding my project; and please rest assured that I will withhold all personal information (i.e. usernames) from the final project write-up and subsequent discussion of what volunteers elect to share with me.

*Please note that I do not consider the indisputable facts of the 1932-1972 “Tuskegee Syphilis Study” part of such stories, rumors, arguments, or legends. Rather, I think of this tragic and unethical miscarriage of public health administration as part of a foundation for debate of further intentional harm perpetrated against African-Americans by the U.S. government.

Thank you for your time,

Stephen E. Wall
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Folklore
Memorial University, Newfoundland

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

black bulls?

2008-09-15T04:04:27Z

Why do most black men like hooking up with white women while their husband/boyfriend watches? what do you feel towards that guy?

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

Spiritual Weirdness??

2008-04-03T06:24:04Z

I'm in my 50s ... and I ain't NEVER felt such spiritual ... weirdness ... in my life! Has anyone else been feeling like something ... "spiritual" ... has been blowing through his or her life of late?

It seems like everything that I ever learned about spirituality ... was just a teaspoon of what's really out there. Comments?

posted in Black Men - 5 replies

Important Black Man of 2007

2008-03-20T18:59:50Z

In this carteogory, only one man comes to mind, and that's U.S Presidental candidate, Obama.

Any of you agree on this?

posted in Black Men - 8 replies

Runoko Rashidi Speaks in Banneker City DC........

2008-02-19T14:51:27Z

The Global Traveling Lion Warrior
Runoko Rashidi
Speaks In Banneker City DC

Topic: New Dimensions of the Global African Presence
(An Entirely New Slide Presentation Based On First
Hand Accounts)

Date: Wednesday Feb. 20th, 2008

Time: 7 PM until

Location: MaMa Sita's 6906 4th St. NW DC

Cost: $15.00 in advance
$20.00 at the door

For Info: 202-545-8888 MaMa Sita's

This is going to be a great Black Ourstory program.
Please share this with others and get your tickets
early. Runoko will be on WPFW 89.3 Pacifica Radio on
Dr. Sunyatta's show Thurs. Feb. 14th Runoko is a
proud member of the UNIA-ACL Div. 332 of Banneker
City.

Please share this with others and don't wait get
your tickets early

BaBa Senghor Jawara Baye for MaMa Sita's

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Museum of Black Superheroes

2008-02-05T14:34:32Z

Museum of Black Superheroes

http://www.blacksuperhero.com/exhibits2.cfm

index

http://www.blacksuperhero.com/index.html

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

An End to Colours

2008-02-02T20:11:43Z

This question might seem farfetched, but do you believe that there's going to come a time when no one would view the other based on the colour of the person's skin?

posted in Black Men - 11 replies

Getting past generalizations

2008-01-05T08:14:34Z

I like Black and Latin guys, but I have ran in to dificulties when trying to develop anything more than a friendship. It's sometimes met with hesitation or anger, usually due to a perception that I am part of a greater evil. There have also been guys who have went as far to say that white men are only interested in having a partner they can be more powerful than, socialy and /or financialy. I find this to be a sweeping generalization, and don't have any idea how to get past this - especially if I like the guy.
I won't try to be coy - I find Black and Latin guys to be very sexy, but I see no difference to that from a guy who likes blonds, bears or green eyes. So if I am out and I see a sexy man, I want to make a good impression and hopefully get a number or a name. I can only get so far if someone has a preconcieved idea about what I am about. I find this unfair, since my mind never goes there unless there are usual red flags you would get with a person of any background. Trash is trash, no mater what color their skin is.
So I would like to know how to meet a quality guy without being confronted with the belief that my intrest is based on prejiduces, power trips or stereotypes. I would also like to put it out there that there are guys like myself that simply like a strong, Black or Latin man for no other reason that there is an attraction, and it is based more upon values and self esteem and less about discrimination.

posted in Black Men - 2 replies

this was a good movie

2007-12-28T08:03:09Z

staple singers - respect yourself live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbgqM29_ZlA

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Red, Black and Green Flag Campaign

2007-12-28T02:24:25Z

The Woodson Banneker Jackson-Bey/
Marcus Garvey Study Group
Introduces……..

Rally Around the Flag –
The Red Black & Green Flag Campaign

To promote solidarity, unity, self-identity and self-respect for people in our Black Communities.

To participate in the campaign you must display the flag or decal in front of your home, business, organization headquarters, or on your car during following four meaningful dates during the year:

December 26th The first day of Kwanzaa (Umoja)
February 1st The first day of Black History Month
May 19th The Birthday of Malcolm X (Kuzaliwa)
August 17th The Birthday of the Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey

The three colors symbolizes three common factors that unite our people:
Red representing the blood that has been shed for our liberation
Black representing the greatness of our people
Green representing the importance of reclaiming our homeland Africa

Please support this campaign and help spread this information.

Please contact the Marcus Garvey Study Group to identify Black businesses that sell flags and decals.

We strongly recommended buying flags and decals made by Black businesses.

Please contact us at 240-498-5133 or garveystudygroup@ yahoo.com.

The Woodson Banneker Jackson-Bey/ Marcus Garvey Study Group is a coalition of Pan-African organizations and individuals that studies, promotes, and practices African Nationalism.

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

Decent Black men are the cool ones

2007-12-09T05:56:56Z

By Sam Fulwood III
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Nov. 19, 2005

I can't stop thinking about Natasha Webb-Prather's question.

Natasha is the 16-year-old student at Shaw High School's Leadership Academy whom I mentioned in Thursday's column. She stumped a panel of writers and scholars with a simple question: Why don't black boys consider it cool to be smart?

Common wisdom blames hip-hop music and thuggish ghetto culture for devaluing education among young black men. They seem to lurk on every inner-city street corner but aren't as often found sitting in high school classrooms or walking into university libraries.

Not every black boy rejects a life of the mind or seeks fast times and quick money on drug-infested streets. That we don't see as many black boys studying to become accountants, engineers and even journalists doesn't mean they don't exist. It only means we don't see them.

The lack of visibility is the beginning of the answer to Natasha's question. Those good but invisible men are as much to blame as the over-glamorized thugs and gangstas for creating a false impression of all black men.

It's well past time for the decent, hard-working, family-raising black men to demand their due respect. Sure, it might be cool to be 50 Cent, but it's also cool - and a lot easier - to be 50 Cent's attorney or doctor.

If for no other reason, successful black men owe it to black women to step into the limelight. By remaining in the shadows, they make it difficult for black girls (and women) to believe that a good man will one day be available as a boyfriend or husband.

Of course, bad boys have always been more popular with the girls than good guys. This isn't new and it's definitely not just a black thing.

So much of American popular culture is the romanticized story of bad boys and the women who love them. Think of the tough-talking gangsters portrayed by James Cagney more than half a century ago or leather-jacketed James Dean in the 1950s or Francis Ford Coppola's "Godfather" movies.

Americans - blacks, whites and others - have a love-hate relationship with bad boys. The badder the better, one middle-age woman told me recently.

And this is why I can't stop thinking about Natasha.

I wasn't on the panel, so I didn't have to answer her question when she posed it. But as she spoke, I flashed back to my high school days.

I wore thick glasses to read the print in even thicker books. Excellent grades couldn't compensate for a lack of a vertical jump. I didn't cuss, drink or cut classes. I was editor of the school newspaper and in the Drama Club.

Call me a nerd; many of my classmates did. The worst among them were the coolest and prettiest black girls, who seemed to have the best times with the dumbest of the bad boys.

Peer approval seems to be everything when you're in high school. But that's a short spell in the span of a lifetime.

Natasha needs to believe that if she continues to move in the right direction, she will attract the black boys (and, later, black men) who are her equals.

And the black boys must understand something, too.

It might seem cool now to strike an indifferent pose, but if you live long enough you'll feel differently about school and studying.

You'll know exactly when that day arrives. Girls like Natasha will have become women who are strong enough to tell you that your wasted life just ain't cool enough for them.

posted in Black Men - 6 replies

WHITE SUPREMACIST CONFERENCE TO BE HELD IN DC AREA IN FEBRUARY

2007-11-27T05:34:06Z

On Sept. 20, we marched in Jena, LA for the Jena Six. Last weekend we marched in DC to bring attention to the rise in hate crimes. The next step is to publicly oppose those who organize to commit those crimes and other trangressions against people of color. We would like to invite representatives of your group to participate in next Saturday's meeting in Washington DC to organize against a white supremacist conference to be held at the Crowne Plaze Dulles Hotel Feb. 22-24, 2008. If you cannot make it to the meeting, please get the word out to everyone you know and every list you are on so that people know about this thing that is about to take place. Feel free to contact us at daryleonepeople@aol.com for more information.

In 2008, neo-nazis and racist bigots will be planning more racist terror at the American Renaissance Conference. On Feb 22-24, prominent white supremacists from the US and across the world will gather at the Crowne Plaza Dulles Airport Hotel to vent their hatred and spew their racist venom towards communities of color.

The conference organizers call for a white supremacist society and political order. American Renaissance (AmRen) editor Jared Taylor (2705 Green Holly Springs, Oakton, VA 22124 (703) 716-0930) even states: "If whites permit themselves to be displaced, it is not just the high culture of the West that could disappear but such things as representative government, rule of law and freedom of speech, which whites usually get right and everyone else usually gets wrong."

American Renaissance is a monthly magazine promoting an agenda of white supremacy through eugenics, faux science, and what they call “race realism.” In attempts to appeal to the middle and educated classes of white America, AmRen seeks to establish scientific “truths”, such as eugenics by creating non-existent links between race and IQ, and race and the predisposition to “negative social behaviors”. AmRen advances the racist beliefs of “ Racial differences in IQ, the costs of “diversity,” the challenges of non-white immigration.” One quick glance at their website reveals articles with titles like: “A Defense of White Racial Consciousness”; “The Biological Realities of Race”; “Multiculturalism and the War Against White America”; and “The Color of Crime.”

However, it is not just the racist cosmopolitan that AmRen appeals to. Editor Jared Taylor and his cohorts have been known to schmooze with current, and former, members of the Klan (David Duke); Don Black, the operator of a “prominent” white supremacist website stormfront.org; Michael Regan, NY state prosecutor fired after attending the 2006 AmRen conference; and members of the neo-fascist British National Party. We can expect all of them and more to attend their gathering in February.

Resistance and Solidarity, a DC-based collective opposing racism, fascism and the cruelties perpetrated by the capitalist system, is calling on Mid-Atlantic anti-fascists to join us, Saturday February 23 at 9am for a day full of actions (in many forms) to protest the racist hate spouted by the AmRen National Conference. In the spirit of the anti-fascists that came before us, let's shut these racists down by any means necessary.

But before we shut them down, we need to organize!

Join us at an initial planning meeting at the Petworth Library in Washington, DC (Kansas Avenue NW and Georgia Avenue NW) on Saturday, December 1 at 2pm to gather groups from across the mid-Atlantic to counter the racist bigots coming to the DC Metro area. Agenda items include, but are not limited to: logistics, lead-up actions, protest details, media and legal work. Resistance and Solidarity respects diversity of tactics and recognizes the need for all types of actions, will not engage in philosophical or ideological discussions at the planning meeting. All who share this view, and a commitment to anti-racism are welcome, and encouraged, to attend.

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Racist Ice Cream Trucks

2007-11-06T02:48:36Z

http://popnomination.blogspot.com/2007/10/racist-ice-cream-trucks.html

posted in Black Men - 4 replies

In case you missed it on Sunday

2007-10-16T19:57:19Z

Bob Herbert brings it to you in print.

"It’s a tough book. Victimhood is cast as the enemy. Defeat, failure and hopelessness are not to be tolerated.

"Hard times and rough circumstances are not excuses for degrading others or allowing oneself to be degraded. In fact, they’re not excuses for anything, except to try harder."

Sean

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/opinion/16herbert.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

October 16, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Tough, Sad and Smart

By BOB HERBERT
They are a longtime odd couple, Bill Cosby and Harvard’s Dr. Alvin Poussaint, and their latest campaign is nothing less than an effort to save the soul of black America.

Mr. Cosby, of course, is the boisterous veteran comedian who has spent the last few years hammering home some brutal truths about self-destructive behavior within the African-American community.

“A word to the wise ain’t necessary,” Mr. Cosby likes to say. “It’s the stupid ones who need the advice.”

Dr. Poussaint is a quiet, elegant professor of psychiatry who, in public at least, is in no way funny. He teaches at the Harvard Medical School and is a staff member at the Judge Baker Children’s Center in Boston, where he sees kids struggling in some of the toughest circumstances imaginable.

I always wonder, whenever I talk to Dr. Poussaint, why he isn’t better known. He’s one of the smartest individuals in the country on issues of race, class and justice.

For three years, Mr. Cosby and Dr. Poussaint have been traveling the country, meeting with as many people as possible to explore the problems facing the black community.

There is a sense of deep sadness and loss — grief — evident in both men over the tragedy that has befallen so many blacks in America. They were on “Meet the Press” for the entire hour Sunday, talking about their new book, a cri de coeur against the forces of self-sabotage titled, “Come On, People: On the Path From Victims to Victors.”

There weren’t many laughs over the course of the hour. Speaking about the epidemic of fatherlessness in black families, Mr. Cosby imagined a young fatherless child thinking: “Somewhere in my life a person called my father has not shown up, and I feel very sad about this because I don’t know if I’m ugly — I don’t know what the reason is.”

Dr. Poussaint, referring to boys who get into trouble, added: “I think a lot of these males kind of have a father hunger and actually grieve that they don’t have a father. And I think later a lot of that turns into anger. ‘Why aren’t you with me? Why don’t you care about me?’ ”

The absence of fathers, and the resultant feelings of abandonment felt by boys and girls, inevitably affect the children’s sense of self-worth, he said.

The book lays out the difficult route black people will have to take to free the many who are still trapped in prisons of extreme violence, poverty, degradation and depression.

It’s a work with a palpable undercurrent of love throughout. And yet it pulls no punches. In a chapter titled “What’s Going on With Black Men?,” the authors (in a voice that sounds remarkably like Mr. Cosby’s) note:

“You can’t land a plane in Rome saying, ‘Whassup?’ to the control tower. You can’t be a doctor telling your nurse, ‘Dat tumor be nasty.’ ”

Racism is still a plague and neither Mr. Cosby nor Dr. Poussaint give it short shrift. But they also note that in past years blacks were able to progress despite the most malignant forms of racism and that many are succeeding today.

“Blaming white people,” they write, “can be a way for some black people to feel better about themselves, but it doesn’t pay the electric bills. There are more doors of opportunity open for black people today than ever before in the history of America.”

I couldn’t agree more. Racism disgusts me, and I think it should be fought with much greater ferocity than we see today. But that’s no reason to drop out of school, or take drugs, or refuse to care for one’s children, or shoot somebody.

The most important step toward ending the tragic cycles of violence and poverty among African-Americans also happens to be the heaviest lift — reconnecting black fathers to their children.

In an interview yesterday, Dr. Poussaint said: “You go into whole neighborhoods and there are no fathers there. What you find is apathy in a lot of the males who don’t even know that they are supposed to be a father.”

The book covers a great deal that has been talked about incessantly — the importance of family and education and hard work and mentoring and civic participation. But hand in hand with its practical advice and the undercurrent of deep love for one’s community is a stress on the absolute importance of maintaining one’s personal dignity and self-respect.

It’s a tough book. Victimhood is cast as the enemy. Defeat, failure and hopelessness are not to be tolerated.

Hard times and rough circumstances are not excuses for degrading others or allowing oneself to be degraded. In fact, they’re not excuses for anything, except to try harder.

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Hermetics Lecture in New York City

2007-10-12T17:56:56Z

A week from today; Friday October 19, 2007 at 6:00pm, I will be giving an address at the New Life Expo. The topic I will be speaking on is "The Hermetic Principles; the Secret beyond The Secret." In this address I will explain the Hermetic Principles, discuss their origin, discuss how "The Secret" and "The Law of Attraction" are descended from them, and how to use the Principles to more than just manifest; to create your personal reality by intention.

My lecture will be brief, but will allow sufficient time for a Q & A period to follow. I will distribute an introductory guide to Hermeticism (gratis), and a regimen of exercises utilizing the Hermetic Principles to "morp" the individuals life (also gratis). In the short period of this lecture: LIVES WILL BE CHANGED!!!

I invite all of my old friends to come as well as those new friends and colleagues whom I have not yet had the pleasure of meetinging person. If you are outside of the New York City area and can't attend, please share this information with friends who can. The venue offers limited space so please come a little early for the best selection of seating. I will be offering consultations after the lecture at booth #509 on the third floor, for the balance of Friday evening and throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday.

The New Life Expo will be Friday October 19, 2007 through Sunday October 21, 2007 at the Hotel New Yorker; 481 8th. Ave. @ 34th. St in New York City. To view their website please visit the following link: http://newlifeexpo.com/index.php

I look forward to seeing you there. Namaste,

al anderson

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Black-Americans & Africans

2007-10-10T17:23:48Z

Now for something serious: Yesterday I was over at Blackplanet and in one of their groups, I read a post that someone had made regarding the reason why a lot of Africans try to get in touch with Americans, especially when hooking up with American women, that their main reason is for them to be able to get their hands on a Green Card.

Naturally I was quite pissed off with reading this, and I'd like to know how most of you people tend to regarding home based Africans such as myself hooking up with you fellas online.

posted in Black Men - 7 replies

Should African Americans call themselves African Americans?

2007-10-04T17:55:30Z

Check this vid out and tell me your thoughts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8brM_UsKgk'm

I'm bit offened. Because I feel like he is totally ignorant of what's going on with AA here in USA. IT'S THE SAME THING THATS GOING ON IN SOUTH AFRICA. Dummy!

We insist on seeing each other in a different light, when the truth is they perfected oppression on the AA and then they took it to Africa. It take a human 15-25 thousand years to evolve. We have only been gone a few hundred and all of a sudden we are no longer related. Please.

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

Can You See Blacks be Picking Cotton Again?

2007-10-01T21:25:15Z

Remember when Richard Pryor predicted that many black people will lose their cars and be forced to ride bicycles and scooters ... "and anyTHING else that will move!" Well, we now see how true that is.

I live in Oakland, California where economic racism is forcing blacks WAAYYY out to places like Antioch and Concord so that whites can again reclaim and gentrify the inner city. It's sad to see how little (or no) imagination is left in the black community. Reading too much "Vibe" and watching rap videos I guess....

So, I conclude that it really is later than you think. While brothers (and sisters) are running around trying to be black-white men and loving everything but themselves, I see:

1.) The people (Mexicans) who are currently picking cotton, will become middle class
2. ) Those "true to Thug Life" will be forced into work prisons and they (or their children) will actually be picking cotton AGAIN!

You WATCH!

California (and many other states) the black dollar has been written off. New Rome (America) is most likely now the world's third largest economy. Many feared the day this would happen because they worried that many other mult-nationals would pull their money out. (That's what all that ... "put your social security into the stock market" was about...)

Plus, the recent Sub Prime Mortgage debacle gives rise to the old rumors about a possible Global Recession. (We already know that there will be a Global Water Shortage sometimes before 2014.)

So ... what do black folk do? Work together to purchase farmland and relearn how to work, live and love each other again? No ...

We still got people running around demanding Reparations. Everybody is bringing a covered dish to New Rome's sinking table and the political choice the Michael Vick's in our community can come up with is to demand a free ride?

Will the children of the people who walked out of African and peopled the world ... once again be reduced to picking cotton??

posted in Black Men - 17 replies

As we focus on Jena, they distract us from New Orleans

2007-09-27T05:23:24Z

The following article relates the "final solution" in New Orleans' public housing component. If a catastrophe were to strike any other American city the aftermath would probably be the same. Please read this and never forget our brothers and sisters in "The Big Easy."

HUD Demolitions Draw Noose Tighter Around New Orleans

by Bill Quigley

Odessa Lewis is 62 years old. When I saw her last week, she was crying because she is being evicted. A long-time resident of the Lafitte public housing apartments, since Katrina she has been locked out of her apartment and forced to live in a 240 square foot FEMA trailer. Ms. Lewis has asked repeatedly to be allowed to return to her apartment to clean and fix it up so she can move back in. She even offered to do all the work herself and with friends at no cost. The government continually refused to allow her to return. Now she is being evicted from her trailer and fears she will become homeless because there is no place for working people, especially African American working and poor people, to live in New Orleans. Ms. Lewis is a strong woman who has worked her whole life. But the stress of being locked out of her apartment, living in a FEMA trailer and the possibility of being homeless brought out the tears. Thousands of other mothers and
grandmothers are in the same situation.

Renting is so hard in part because there is a noose closing around the housing opportunities of New Orleans African American renters displaced by Katrina. They have been openly and directly targeted by public and private actions designed to keep them away. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) just added their weight to the attack by approving the demolition of 2966 apartments in New Orleans.

Despite telling a federal judge for the last year and a half that approvals of public housing demolition applications take about 100 working days to evaluate, HUD approved the plan to demolish nearly 3000 apartments one day after the complete application was filed. HUD says the 3000 apartments are scheduled to be replaced in a few years with up to 744 public housing eligible apartments and a few hundred subsidized apartments.

Unfortunately, HUD’s actions are consistent with other governmental attacks on African American renters.

After Katrina, St. Bernard Parish, a 93% white adjoining suburb, enacted a law prohibiting home owners from renting their property to anyone who is not a blood relative. Jefferson Parish, another majority white adjoining suburb, unanimously passed an ordinance prohibiting the construction of any subsidized housing. The sponsoring legislator condemned poor people as “lazy,” “ignorant” and “leeches on society” - specifically hoping to guard against former residents of New Orleans public housing. Across Lake Ponchartrain from New Orleans, the chief law enforcement officer of St. Tammany Parish, Sheriff Jack Strain, complained openly about the post-Katrina presence of “thugs and trash from New Orleans” and announced that people with dreadlocks or “chee wee hairstyles” could “expect to be getting a visit from a sheriff’s deputy.”

HUD’s actions are also bolstered by pervasive racial discrimination in the private market as well. The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center has documented widespread racial discrimination in the metro New Orleans rental market and in the states surrounding the gulf coast.

HUD told a federal judge a few days “the average time [for the process of reviewing applications for demolition] is 100 days.” They did suggest that the process could be expedited in the case of New Orleans. So it was. Instead of reviewing the details of demolishing 3000 apartments and considering the law and facts and the administrative record for 100 days, HUD expedited the process to one day.

HUD and the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO, which HUD has been running for years) argued passionately that residents displaced from public housing (referred to once in their argument as ‘refugees’) are financially “better off” than they were before. This echoes the Barbara Bush comment of September 5, 2005 when she said, viewing the overwhelmingly African American crowd of thousands of people living on cots in the Astrodome, “And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this - (she chuckles slightly) this is working very well for them.”

HUD announced approval of demolition of 2966 units of public housing in New Orleans - 896 apartments at Lafitte, 521 at C.J. Peete, 1158 at B.W. Cooper, and 1391 at St. Bernard. A few buildings on each site will be retained for historical preservation purposes.

New Orleans had a severe affordable housing crisis before Katrina when HANO housed over 5000 families. There was a waiting list of 8000 families trying to get in. HUD and HANO together did such a poor job of administering the agency that there were about 2000 more empty apartments that had been scheduled for major repairs for years.

The continuing deceptions by HUD and HANO have been shameless. Since Katrina, HUD has continued to act out both sides of a charade that the local housing authority is making decisions and HUD is waiting on local actions. Yet, the decision to demolish was announced by the Secretary of HUD in DC over a year ago. But in the year since then, HUD has continued to tell a federal judge that any legal challenge to demolitions was premature because HANO had not even submitted an application to HUD for their careful 100 day evaluation. This is while a HUD employee runs the agency, commuting back and forth to DC each week. HANO even announced they would have 2000 apartments ready for people in August of 2006 - a deadline not met even in September 2007. HANO later announced to the public that they had a list of 250 apartments ready for people to return only to admit in writing weeks later that no such list existed - nor were the phantom apartments ready.
The list of untruths goes on.

HUD would not agree to delay the demolition of the 3000 apartments until Congress finished reviewing legislation that would give residents the right to return and participate in the process of determining what kind of affordable housing should be in place in New Orleans.

And so HUD’s actions help further restrict the opportunities for African American renters in New Orleans. Adjoining white suburbs do not want African American renters back. HUD does not want them back. The local federal judge has refused to stop the demolitions.

But the mothers and grandmothers and their families and friends are still determined to return and resist demolition. One sign at a recent public housing rally summed it up. “We will not allow the community we built to be rebuilt without us.”

Odessa Lewis, despite her tears, said she is not giving up. She and other public housing residents promise “we did not come this far to be turned back now. We will do whatever is necessary to protect our homes.” Thousands of African American mothers and grandmothers are the ones directly targeted by HUD’s actions.

Forty years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr., said “We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society…When profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” We can add sexism to the list, particularly in the fight for the right of public housing residents to return.

The fight of Ms. Lewis and others on the gulf coast shows how much we need a radical revolution of values.

Bill is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans.

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Need for New Black Heroes

2007-09-26T09:35:38Z

A social institute based in U.K several months ago made a study that at the present moment, there are a less number of Black heroes for the younger generation to look up to. Somehow I am inclined to agree with them. How about you?

posted in Black Men - 13 replies

Next Tuesday: the 11th

2007-09-07T18:38:04Z

We're now in the first week of Spetember. I trust that everybody in here is well aware of the significance of next week Tuesday, the Eleventh day of the month. How do you intend of spending it?

posted in Black Men - 2 replies

Jena six petition

2007-09-05T17:58:59Z

Please sign the petition for the Jena six party.

THE MICHAEL BAISDEN SHOW: LIVE FROM JENA, LA SEPTEMBER 20TH

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Baddest Man on radio is putting action behind his words. On September 20th Michael Baisden along with comedian George Wilborn, national celebrities, and thousands of loyal listeners will March on the Jena Courthouse to demand justice for Mychal Bell, one of the black teenagers awaiting sentencing in the Jena 6 Case. Mychal Bell could receive up to 22 years in prison for what amounted to nothing more then a fist fight between black and white high school students.

Michael will need all the support he can get to show the prosecutors, the Judge, and the entire nation that we will not stand by while they steal the lives of our children. Time for talk is over, it's time to act!

JOIN THE BAD BOY IN JENA - CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW FOR DETAILS:
http://www.minglecity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=617

Please sign the petition for the Jena six party.

www.petitiononline.com/aZ51CqmR/petition.html

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Black Money.....

2007-09-05T17:56:23Z

View Park-Windsor Hills is one of the wealthiest areas in the United States. The majority of the residents here are BLACK The two communities are part of a band of districts, from Culver City's Fox Hills district on the west to the Los Angeles district of Leimert Park on the east, that comprise the single largest geographically contiguous middle- and upper-class black area in the United States. (Also included in this band are affluent Baldwin Hills and Ladera Heights and middle-class Baldwin Village.)

View Park- Windsor Hill was developed in the 1920s as an upper-middle-class neighborhood akin to Cheviot Hills, Brentwood, Carthay Circle, and Studio City. Along with neighboring Ladera Heights and Baldwin Hills, it is one of the wealthiest areas in the United States. It contains a superb collection of houses in the Spanish Colonial and Mediterranean styles, most of which remain today. Windsor Hills underwent development in the late 1930s; aimed at the middle class, it was the first subdivision in Southern California for which the newly created Federal Housing Administration provided mortgage insurance. Blacks were forbidden residence in either area until the Supreme Court's invalidation of racial restrictive covenants in 1948.

In the 1960s, the area was known as "Pill Hill" on account of the large number of black doctors who live there. After the arrival of Black families starting in the mid-1960s, the wealthy neighborhoods were sometimes called the "Golden Ghetto" or the "Black Beverly Hills."

Since the early 2000s, a small but steadily increasing number of white families have moved back to View Park and Windsor Hills, albeit to a considerably lesser degree than in Fox Hills and Ladera Heights. Blacks still make up still make up more then 93% of homeowners on View Park-Windsor Hills

As with neighboring Baldwin Hills and View Park-Windsor Hills, Ladera Heights is also one of the wealthiest areas in the United States where BLACKS are the mojority and is also With a six-figure median family income and a very low poverty rate, it stands in stark contrast to most of the historically black areas of South Los Angeles (thus gaining the nickname "The black Beverly Hills"). Boasting a higher per-capita income than Rancho Palos Verdes, it stands in contrast to much of the mostly white South Bay as well. Much of the area's desirability stems from the stunning views of the Pacific Ocean available from many hillside houses, as well as its proximity to beaches, Hollywood, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and the San Diego Freeway.

The area was historically mostly white until the early 1960s, when the neighborhood became a mecca for wealthy black families. The Southern California real estate boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s brought into the area a few more upper middle-class white and Asian families priced out of neighborhoods in Los Angeles' except for the presence of cheaper, mostly white Culver City and Mar Vista neighborhoods.

It's funny how many people have this thinking that blacks are poor and have nothing, but in reality, those of us in the know arent at all fooled by this myth. I am very happy that my family has owned 8 homes in these areas for over 50 years.

posted in Black Men - 9 replies

Where Do you see spending the next five years and why?

2007-09-04T07:17:29Z

Where to you see yourself living these next five years?

Do you anticipate any changes in the U.S. ... in the world during that time? (Any changes ... from Global Warming to Global Recession.)

Are you planning any life changes ... career ... marriage, divorce ... breakup ...

posted in Black Men - 19 replies

Support Joya Mosely AA student studying medicine in Cuba

2007-08-29T17:58:39Z

I had the chance to listen to Ms. Joya live on LIBradio.com last week . She explained how Cube offered 800 scholerships to AA and other low income people around the world to become a medical doctor. I originally thought that this program was canceled but it is not and these students need care packages. We are hoping to hear from Joya on a regular basis. Here is her link please help to support our people in Cuba.

http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/JoyaCubaMedicalStudent?action=browse

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Subverting Stereotypes

2007-08-16T23:50:19Z

Subverting Stereotypes

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

www.wnyc.org/shows/lopat...s/2007/08/15

On today’s show, journalists from The Washington Post discuss their year-long exploration of what it’s like to be a black man in America. Then, a professor of psychiatry who's also a chronic paranoid schizophrenic explains how she's managed to lead a full and productive life. Also, a writer explains how Homer’s The Odyssey influenced his literary debut. And word maven Patricia T. O’Conner explores pronunciation errors and takes calls from listeners.

Being a Black Man

Over the past 50 years, black men have been perhaps the most studied and dissected population subgroup in America. The Washington Post recently wrapped a year-long series exploring what it’s really like to be a black man in America. The series has been compiled into a book, Being a Black Man. Leonard speaks with editor Kevin Merida and one of the contributors, Robert E. Pierre.

Weigh in: Do you think the mainstream media does a good job of talking about the experiences of black men in America?

Listen @ www.wnyc.org/shows/lopat...s/2007/08/15

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

Apologizing for being black

2007-08-10T18:23:51Z

Found this on another tribe

http://tribes.tribe.net/blackentrepreneur/thread/baeb93ab-06b4-462a-b54e-7b0613a038c8

12:51 PM [03 Oct 2006 | Tuesday]

Because We Are Black

By Roger Madison

I remember growing up in Farmville, Virginia – a quiet little town in South Central Virginia. Quiet, that is, until one day a group of Black high school students became sick and tired of the poor treatment they were receiving – poor books, poor facilities, inadequate resources to learn. They led a protest march in 1951 (see Separate but Unequal), that ultimately became a part of the famed Brown v. Board of Education Supreme court case. Things were never the same after that. Black teachers lost jobs (my mother among them), leaders of the PTA had to leave town when they couldn’t find employment. Anyone suspected of supporting these students was black-balled and found life miserable or impossible in Farmville, Virginia.

I also remember Coles Grocery Store where we shopped for groceries and various sundry items, and Dean’s Luncheon where we could get a freshly cooked hamburger. I remember Master Cleaners where we took our laundry and dry cleaning, and Reid’s Café. These Black-owned businesses hover in my memory because they are long gone – victims of the civil rights movement. For a while, we continued to patronize these establishments. But, as our options expanded, these businesses declined and eventually closed.

As many of us were basking in our new-found freedom to shop anywhere, I remember one family, Mr. and Mrs. Reginald White, the owners of Master Cleaners, who did as much of their grocery shopping as possible at Coles Grocery Store. The prices were higher, the choices limited, and there weren’t any fancy promotional gimmicks to make shopping exciting. No grocery carts – the aisles were too narrow – just friendly service. If there was something you wanted that you didn’t see, Mr. Coles would try to get it. I remember sweeping the floors there as a part time job. Once, I heard someone ask, as the Whites were taking their bags of groceries to their car, “Why aren’t you shopping at the A&P? The prices are better and there is more selection.” I’ll never forget the answer. Mr. White simply replied, “Because I am Black.”

He didn’t have an eloquent economic reason. But he understood that if he didn’t make the commitment – because HE was Black – then Coles Grocery Store would soon be out of business. He could see this end coming, but he was not going to aid in the demise. He reasoned that if more of us would follow his lead, then Coles Grocery Store might even become A&P one day. He quietly shopped only at Coles Grocery Store until the very end. Now they both have passed away, and we don’t have these examples in our neighborhoods anymore.

There are many reasons why Black businesses fail at a higher rate than other ethnic businesses. One of the key reasons is that there aren’t enough of us left who are like Reginald White. I should look for Black-owned businesses BECAUSE I AM BLACK. I should demand excellence from Black business owners BECAUSE I AM BLACK. I should support Enterprise zones in Black communities BECAUSE I AM BLACK. If I live in a majority community where there aren’t any Black-owned businesses, I should use the Internet to find Black entrepreneurs BECAUSE I AM BLACK.

We need to understand that every time we look at the unemployment statistics and the numbers go up, we are closer to being included. We should recognize that when millions of immigrants join together to seek “preferred worker status” (not guest worker status, as President Bush calls it), we are being marginalized. I need to support Black businesses before there aren’t any – BECAUSE I AM BLACK.

I may not be unemployed, under-educated, an ex-felon, or stuck in a cycle of poverty, but I need to be concerned about the disproportionate numbers of Blacks who fit that description. I need to do something about this situation because no one else will. I need to take every opportunity to support Black-owned businesses; I need to aggressively seek Black applicants if I have the authority to hire; I need to mentor young Black teenagers, even if my kids are grown; I need to fight against efforts to marginalize Black people; I need to support The Covenant With Black America -- BECAUSE I AM BLACK.

If you are reading this online, then you should go to the iZaniaOnline Business Directory, or other Black search engine, and find all the Black-owned businesses in your community that you can support -- BECAUSE YOU ARE BLACK. There are many Black-owned businesses in our Virtual Black Community that could become the next Microsoft, IBM, or Fortune 500 Business. You should visit iZania Market, and support the businesses there BECAUSE YOU ARE BLACK. You should buy a copy of The Covenant With Black America, and join the fight to prevent continued marginalization of our people BECAUSE YOU ARE BLACK.

Anthony Samad wrote an article, Race dialog is Back . . . But Did Racism Go Away? We need to understand that colorblindness is a ploy to refuse to acknowledge race, but racism is as plain as it’s ever been. Don’t be blinded by the rhetoric. Some things happen to us BECAUSE WE ARE BLACK.

Roger Madison is CEO and founder of iZania LLC (www.iZania.com and www.iZaniaMarket.com), a Columbus, Ohio-based company, formed to connect Black entrepreneurs, professionals, and consumers online. iZania’s goal is to create the world’s most extensive “Virtual Black Community,” to accelerate the growth of e-commerce, and help the descendants of Africa to act in our self-interests.

Mood: None, or other
- 0 Comments

10:11 AM [02 Oct 2006 | Monday]

Apologizing for Being Black

We have to quit apologizing for being Black.

As I listen and read about the challenges we face as Black people, I am amazed that each step we take forward is accompanied by at least one apology for Black unity. We have to quit doing that. Perhaps we are affected by post traumatic stresses of slavery, or suffering identity crises, or feeling guilty about our “affirmative action position,” or feel we are the undeserving beneficiary of a set-aside program, or that we don’t belong and just got over because of a handout. Whatever the case, we need to examine our situation and formulate a way to move more of us forward without apology.

Among the factors militating against our unity are the countless apologies. We don’t want to seem to be too militant; we don’t want to be accused of reverse discrimination, or racism; we don’t want to seem ungrateful to our mainstream supporters; we don’t want to appear to be separatists; we don’t want to be accused of the same bias of our oppressors; we must treat others equal, even though we are treated unfairly. Often we make these apologies in subtle ways that we don’t even recognize, and therefore, our progress is limited. Instead of aggressively pursuing gains, we apologize for asking for too much, and make exceptions for the high achievers. So, when Blacks make progress in corporate America, they don’t aggressively seek to mentor and develop other Blacks. They view themselves as “first achievers” and as exceptions, not as pathfinders and conduits for others. That would be reverse discrimination, God forbid!

When we engage in these behaviors, we create among ourselves a view of “haves and have-nots.” This is sad, because collectively, we are all “have-nots.” Economic studies have shown that our relative wealth position has not changed since the end of slavery in the “land of opportunity.” By every measure – home ownership, education achievement, business success, community development, people living in poverty, employment – we have not made gains commensurate with our percentage of the population. Gains are being made by other ethnic groups – because of their unity and commitment to their ethnicity. Yet we still make apologies for the little progress we have made as others surpass us. We watch as the Eastern Indian businessmen make significant inroads in the hotel industry; we are helpless as the Arabs take over all the inner city gas stations and convenience stores in Detroit; we practically hand the Black hair care manufacturing and distribution industry to the Koreans; as our unemployment grows, Latinos are leapfrogging us into the building trades; immigrants of every stripe use the taxi industry and food services as launch pads for establishing an economic base (and a great way to learn to speak English in a hurry). Why aren’t African Americans helping one another make faster gains?

I have struggled with the riddle of underachievement among African Americans my entire life. I have watched closely as some of our African brothers and sisters (in Africa) have emerged from oppression to achieve accelerated progress, and seen that there are lessons we can learn that may help accelerate our progress. I believe that there are two critical factors that explain our position. At the risk of oversimplification, those two factors boil down to these: (1) The “haves” of this great nation of ours seek always to solidify their gains through unity; (2)African American “have-nots” have learned behaviors that amount to an apology for our progress. Then we distance ourselves from the few of us who make any progress at all. Whenever there are significant gains made, we negotiate away our strength to our detriment by “Apologizing for being Black.”

The Black rights movement for better schools and equal rights of the fifties and sixties became -- first the civil rights movement, then the minority rights movement, and got co-opted by the women’s rights movement, and now Black progress is mired in Diversity Programs. This pattern has resulted in a culture of apology. Now we have to apologize to every minority group -- women, gays and lesbians, the religious left, and the religious right – ad nauseam – before we can stand up and say, “What about Black rights?” Do we need affirmative actions programs? Yes. Should we apologize for them? No. We need to replace apology with pride and advocacy in our self-interests. We can begin by acting in our self-interests in our own communities.

I am not a social scientist, psychologist, political scientist, or Ph.D. in anything (there I go apologizing), but I have made some observations over my sixty years – all of them as a Black person – that I think are noteworthy. I read a lot. I have studied at the finest education institutions. I have worked at the top corporate enterprises. I have educated and uneducated friends and relatives. Many of us are guilty of unknowingly engaging in apologetic behavior. We must stop. Now.

I grew up in the sixties when James Brown ignited us with “Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud!” But other voices among us said, “Don’t be too loud, or too proud.” And the noise subsided along with our progress. Where do these apologists come from? Why do we allow them to impede our progress?

I am tired of apologizing for being Black. Once again, let’s “Say it Loud. I’m Black and I’m Proud.” After the pep rally, if you are interested in working together in our self-interests, contact me at rmadison@izania.com.

Amandla!

posted in Black Men - 15 replies

When did we stop caring for each other?

2007-08-08T07:20:02Z

Since I started my homeless outreach project I have been blown away by the numbers of people who deal with homelessness. Moreover I have been bothered by the fact the all the places in place to help, really don’t offer that much help, but they get the funding. What has bothered me the most is OUR (BLACK FOLKS) "I don’t care it aint me" attitude towards homelessness.

Here in Los Angeles there are about 98 thousand homeless people. Blacks make up about 9% of the population here in LA County, but we make up 51% of the homeless population. This really bothers me. At first I just thought the numbers we wrong. But I am very sad to report that the numbers are dead on. In fact I happen to think they are higher then 51%.

Many in the Black community blame this high number on education, lack of services and we wont even begin to talk about "the man" I will never say that we as a people are behind the 8 ball no ~ pun intended~ but I do remember a time when we cared for one another. I remember when we looked out for one another regardless of if we were related or not. We were a community and we cared for one another. This just doesn’t seem to be the case any more. I am in no way saying it doesn’t happen, however I am saying that see us walk by our own to help others. Churches have to be the worst when it comes to helping our community. "We can only help our members" I had one pastor of church in Venice tell me I couldn’t use his kitchen to cook meals for homeless people because I wasn’t a member of the church. I didn’t want to bring homeless people to the church I simply wanted to use the kitchen. it wasn’t like I was a stranger to the church. I grew up in this church until the current pastor took over. More then 80% of the membership left after he became pastor. After he told me that the kitchen was for members only I asked him this. "When you collect offerings, does the envelope and collection plate say members only? Or will you take everyone's money?" He then told me to leave.

When do we stop caring for each other? How can we heal our community? How do we repair all the damage that isn’t being address in our community. Homelessness being one of them? I don’t want to hear answers about what "the man" is doing because frankly that just doesn’t fly with me. I am not saying that there aren’t things that are in our way, what I am saying is what can we do or what are we doing to make things better?

Take a look at this video a friend of mine shot down on skid row in Los Angeles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lzfm-UQ4pE

posted in Black Men - 18 replies

Free Documentary on Christ myth, 911myth and the federal reserve (MUST SEE)

2007-08-03T18:00:00Z

There are 3 parts to this documentary. Part 1 is the greatest story ever told about the link of Christianity to astrology and horus, Part 2 is about the 911 conspiracy, and Part 3 is about the federal reserve and the war in Iraq. It's 2 hours long and I would really like to know what you think about this movie. Most stuff I already knew or heard but something's like the central bank story I didn't. I really like the way he presented it.

See it FREE here.

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

Thanks

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

'Ghetto dude' email sent by mistake: province

2007-08-03T17:57:59Z

July 21, 2007
Toronto Star

Evon Reid couldn't believe his eyes yesterday morning when he opened an email from the Ontario government's cabinet office where he'd applied for a position.

"This is the ghetto dude that I spoke to before," said the email to the University of Toronto honours student from the very person handling his job application.

That was it. One stark sentence.

"Ghetto dude? It means I'm black. It's very insulting," Reid told the Star yesterday. "It's still pretty shocking to me."

As he sees it, the email explains why he hasn't gotten a followup interview for a job as a media analyst. He applied July 3 but missed a July 10 call from Aileen Siu in the cabinet office.

Although he called her back and sent followup emails, there was no response. Until yesterday's email.

"Based on my resumé I deserved to be called, but I was not worthy of being called back once they heard my mother's voice and my voice," said Reid, 22. "She has a Jamaican accent and it's about the way I talk. There's a nuance."

And so he asks: "Is it standard policy in the (Dalton) McGuinty cabinet office not to hire any ghetto dudes?"

The email was never intended for Reid, according to Siu, who learned she had sent it to him only when the Star telephoned yesterday.

An acting team leader in cabinet office hiring, she said she was "multi-tasking" Thursday when she hit the wrong button and copied Reid on an email she was sending to a job-search colleague.

"It wasn't directed at Evon at all. That was internal ... It didn't have anything to do with any of the applicants," said Siu, 26, and a recent U of T political science graduate.

She insisted the email didn't refer to anyone "outside my circle of friends."

Siu acknowledged the term is negative but said, "I don't even know what nationality he is, right?" She added she's of Asian descent and doesn't want anyone to think she makes racially based judgments.

Reached on vacation in the Maritimes, Craig Sumi, manager of Siu's department, last night referred to her as "an unclassified, part-time employee ... low level."

"I don't know where you're going with this," he said.

However, he termed the email "totally inappropriate ... a complete error in judgment" and said he'd left a message of apology late yesterday on Reid's voice mail.

According to Siu, Reid is still a candidate for the position he sees as "a dream job for any political science student/political junkie such as myself."

He had been instantly intrigued by the job posting on the U of T website as a foot in the door at Queen's Park.

"A very challenging and interesting position which is a critical part of day-to-day media monitoring and analysis for the Government of Ontario," said the posting.

The work would be "for use by senior levels of government ... (applicant must) write high-level summaries of important issues and events ... (working in) the most technologically advanced and comprehensive media operation in Canada."

Reid thought he'd be a good candidate. His resumé appears stellar:

A summer course in international management strategies at the University of Hong Kong; one credit short of an honours degree in political science at U of T; completed project on paradigm shifts in United States foreign policy; working on another to evaluate the effects of electoral reform on public policy.

Extensive job experience; Get Reel Festival organizer; founder of Canadian International Peace project (at U of T's Scarborough campus); participant in Forum for Young Canadians on Parliament Hill; etc., etc.

In a reference letter, an executive with White Oaks Conference Resort called Reid "truly a valuable asset to our company ... a trustworthy, dependable young man that takes initiative in work that has to be done."

Reid saw another reason for the email. "I'm from Malvern," in Scarborough, he said. "The community I live in has one of the highest levels of youth unemployment in Canada. I'd hate to think that this (memo) accounts for that."

http://www.thestar.com/article/238413

posted in Black Men - 2 replies

Getting Closer to my father

2007-07-25T15:55:23Z

Men, any suggestions? I am 22 and just want to know him better before its to late.

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

Racism Litmus Test for all our White friends

2007-07-19T06:01:24Z

I'm going to put the following feature article, which I received fromnThe colorofchange.org website, in my blog. I will be heading it "A Litmust Test for Racism". My premise will be for all my White friends (many of whom are like family to me) to either take some action or just go tsk tsk tsk. If they do the former they are the people whom I thought they were. If they do the latter, they shouldn't have any problem with being called racist. You may consider doing the same with your White friends. I leave it to your discretion.

Last fall in Jena, Louisiana, the day after two Black high school students sat beneath the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from the tree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," more Black students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demanded that the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen."1

A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DA did nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyard fight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

It's a story that reads like one from the Jim Crow era, when judges, lawyers and all-white juries used the justice system to keep blacks in "their place"--but it's happening today. The families of these young men are fighting back, but the odds are stacked against them. Together, we can make sure their story is told, that this becomes an issue for the Governor of Louisiana, and that justice is provided for the Jena 6. It starts now. Please add your voice:

http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2155-117263

The noose-hanging incident and the DA's visit to the school set the stage for everything that followed. Racial tension escalated over the next couple of months, and on November 30, the main academic building of Jena High School was burned down in an unsolved fire. Later the same weekend, a black student was beaten up by white students at a party. The next day, black students at a convenience store were threatened by a young white man with a shotgun. They wrestled the gun from him and ran away. While no charges were filed against the white man, the students were arrested for the theft of the gun.2

That Monday at school, a white student, who had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses, taunted the black student who was beaten up at the off-campus party and allegedly called several black students "nigger." After lunch, he was knocked down, punched and kicked by black students. He was taken to the hospital but was released and was well enough to go to a social event that evening.3

Six Black Jena High students, Robert Bailey (17), Theo Shaw (17), Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Mychal Bell (16) and an unidentified minor, were expelled from school, arrested and charged with second-degree attempted murder. Bail was set so high -- between $70,000 and $138,000 -- that the boys were left in prison for months as families went deep into debt to release them.4

The first trial ended last month, and Mychal Bell, who has been in prison since December, was convicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery (both felonies) by an all-white jury in a trial where his public defender called no witnesses. During his trial, Mychal's parents were ordered not to speak to the media and the court prohibited protests from taking place near the courtroom or where the judge could see them.

Mychal is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31st, and could go to jail for 22 years.5 Theo Shaw's trial is next. He will finally make bail this week.

The Jena Six are lucky to have parents and loved ones who are fighting tooth and nail to free them. They have been threatened but they are standing strong. We know that if the families have to go it alone, their sons will be a long time coming home. They will lose precious years to Jena's outrageous attempt to maintain a racist status quo. But if we act now, we can make a difference.

Please add your voice to the voices of these families in Jena, and help bring Mychal, Theo, Robert, Carwin, and Bryant home. By clicking below, you can demand that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco get involved to make sure that justice is served for Mychal Bell, and that DA Reed Walters drop the charges against the 5 boys who have not yet gone to trial.

http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2155-117263

Thank You and Peace,

-- James, Van, Gabriel, Clarissa, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
July 17th, 2007

References:

1. "Injustice in Jena as Nooses Hang From the ‘White Tree,'" truthout, July 3, 2007
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070307B.shtml

2. "Racial demons rear heads," Chicago Tribune, May 20, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/yvh7t5

3. See reference #1.

4. See reference #1.

5. "'Jena Six' defendant convicted," Town Talk, June 29, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/ysxtgg

Other resources:

NPR: Searching for Justice in Jena 6 Case (streaming audio)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11756302

Democracy Now! - The case of the Jena Six ...
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/10/1413220

Too Sense: Free The Jena Six Now
http://halfricanrevolution.blogspot.com/2007/07/free-jena-six-now.html

While Seated: Jena Six
http://www.whileseated.org/photo/003244.shtml

Nooses, attacks and jail for black students in Jena Louisiana
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/28/144445/384

Justice In Jena, by Jordan Flaherty
http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=12783§ionID=30

The Perpetrator becomes the Prosecutor (and other related entries)
http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/blog/

'Stealth racism' stalks deep South
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/6685441.stm

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Comparing Yourself to a Famous Black Face

2007-07-14T06:44:32Z

If you could compare your kind of lifestyle or behaviour, or let's say there's one or two famous African-American/Black person, whom you'd so much wish to emulate his/her way of life, who would that person be?

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

OKAY - So let's talk about "Black Snake Moan".......

2007-07-13T21:07:38Z

Never saw it till dvd because i just could NOT get over the image (and implications, and visual 'meanings'... of an older black man CHAINING a young white chick to a radiator......

But i was VERY surprised at what the film seemed to turn out to REALLY be about.....

Anyone......????

posted in Black Men - 2 replies

Racial Prejudice: how often

2007-07-09T22:41:46Z

This post might hurt some folks, but it's not meant to. jUst want to know if at all another brothers here still encounter any signs of racial prejudice in or around their place of residence or working places, and how do they handle it.

posted in Black Men - 9 replies

Ireland elects first black mayor

2007-07-07T15:24:48Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/6251094.stm

A Nigerian man who arrived in Ireland as an asylum seeker seven years ago has become the country's first black mayor.

Rotimi Adebari has been elected as first citizen of Portlaoise in County Laois.

The 43-year-old fled from Nigeria in 2000 because of religious persecution. After a few weeks, he and his family settled in the County Laois town.

In 2004, he was elected in the local elections as an independent councillor and on Thursday he became mayor.

The move was the result of a voting pact between Fine Gael, Sinn Fein and independent councillors.

The father-of-four has completed a masters degree in intercultural studies at Dublin City University and now works for Laois County Council, co-ordinating an integration project for local immigrants.

Mr Adebari said it was a great honour to become Portlaoise's first citizen, but that praise should be given to the people who elected him three years ago.

"Ireland is really changing. The immigrant community in the town has been growing, especially since the accession countries joined the European Union on enlargement in 2004," he said.

However, he added: "That is not to say that I did not have my own share of the prejudice that would be out there against maybe Nigerians, or immigrants or asylum seekers."

"But I don't let the attitude of a very small minority over-shadow the fact that the people are wonderful."

posted in Black Men - 2 replies

All-white jury convicts Black teen

2007-07-02T00:10:56Z

By Abbey Brown
abrown@thetowntalk.com
July 1, 2007

JENA, La. -- After deliberating for less than three hours Thursday, an all-white jury of six returned with a unanimous guilty verdict on the highest possible charges for the first member of the "Jena Six" to face trial.

Mychal Bell, 17, could be as old as 40 when released from jail if given the maximum sentence for aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime -- more than 22 years. He was 16 when the incident took place.

Bell is one of six black teens charged in a Dec. 4 fight at Jena High School that left Justin Barker -- white -- unconscious. The attack and arrests have made headlines from Chicago to China and have been held up as the culmination of racial unrest in Jena.

Bell and the others arrested -- Theo Shaw, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and an unnamed juvenile -- were charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit the same, although Bell's charges were reduced Monday without explanation just before the trial started.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 31.

http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070629/NEWS01/706290325

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

COME HOME - REPRESENT

2007-06-21T05:44:26Z

Officially beginning on July 1st and ending the 7th in the forests of Fallsville, AR the National Rainbow Gathering Of Living Light will commence. Folks usually go early and stay late to help cleanup.
I have attended this event twice and it has completely shifted my perspective of what is possible in America.
The event nationally takes place once a year in a different location deep in the woods, always on a mountain next to a valley. It is titled a leave no trace event(all signs of attendance and stresses on the earth from our presence are corrected) and no money is exchanged for entrance or participation at any point. The attendance is at a minimum of 25,000 every year and this event has progressed since the cultural shifts of the late 60's/early 70's.
informational links/movies can be found at the bottom.
On the 4th of July silent meditation and prayer for peace happens until noon across the entire camp followed a parade of children and celebration. The spiritual, peaceful, and creative find their way to this event from all over the country and the world. The words Rainbow Family in the longer title are both a reference to the group's inclusiveness of all people and to "living lightly," an awareness of the great effect one can have on his or her environment.
Over 60 communities will be representing themselves as camps and serve food, culture, and knowledge for free. Bartering does take place at the event but no currency can be used at the event.Bring nothing but a bowl and spoon if you so choose and you will be abundantly gifted.
This event is a city which exists for a short time and manifests the goals and lifestyle that we pray and work for to spread worldwide/fulltime.
Many religions come to represent but it is not dominated by any one group and alcohol is not allowed in the main area.
This event is wonderful and the people ive met there have educated my mind, body, and spirit.
It has one flaw that stands out and i hope you can help me to solve it.
This event is not ethnically integrated.
Many people of white skin will have love for the earth, hands for the drum, and acceptance of people but the word of thiis event has not traveled to enough communities. I will be one of the few men of color attending this event(african ancestry/cherokee ancestry) and i pray to see the rest of my human family in this wonderful place
we call home.
It does feel like home,
people look you in the eye with honesty and say welcome home at every step.
This is a pow-wow in the sense of spiritual leaders gathering and women receive as much respect as men in this social understanding. Families often come and a village exists for the care of children.

I invite you to research and encourage you to come.
~Mitakuye Oyasin
~we are all related
Most recent directions at the bottom.

http://welcomehome.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Family

therainbowfamilytribe.tribe.net/

Rainbow Video archive:
http://therainbowfamilytribe.tribe.net/thread/89ecfd12-4dc7-4f24-9865-d103deadf9f4

This year the annual North American Rainbow Gathering (hence referred to as the Gathering) will be near Fallsville, Arkansas. Directions: Go to Fallsville, Arkansas, which is at the junction of Hwy 16 and 21. Fallsville is north of Clarksville and south west of Jasper. A map of the area is here. Go about 1 1/4 miles NE of Fallsville to FS 1463. Go north, and park someplace on the sides of the road.
map below:

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=35.79220,-93.47056&z=15&t=S&marker0=35.77936%2C-93.46965%2CfALLSVILLE%5C%2C%20ARKANSAS&marker1=34.81708%2C-91.49540%2CALLSVILLE%5C%2C%20ARKANSAS

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

One thing i DO like about Obama ......

2007-06-16T19:56:08Z

(hope this doesn't come off the wrong way.....)

....I realized just yesterday that it's refreshing to see a liteskin, educated brother who actually married a sister DARKER than him...., as opposed to going white or so high yellow it barely matters....

I still am about 75% ambivalent about him... mostly just because he IS a POLITICIAN...... Just can't bring myself to buy into the whole 'Golden Child' / Deliverer archetype he seems to be courting........
But i also don't wanna see the expected charecter assassination that i bet the guys gonna have to go through......

Wonder what the differences are between how west coast people of color and east coast p.o.c. percieve him.......
posted by:

posted in Black Men - 14 replies

10yrs for oral sex in GA!!

2007-06-14T16:04:22Z

Wuz-up fam, I don't know if yall have already heard, but in Douglas GA 17 year honor student was sentenced to 10 years for having consensual sex with a 15 year who initiated the whole thing. Let me not remind you that they were both minors at the time and both black, but what got him was his friends video taping it. The young brothas name is Genarlow Wilson, right now a online petition is being signed for his appeal and release and the passing of a new law in Ga that will not give anyone over 12mos for consensual oral sex and they would not have to register as a sex offender. So far Genarlow has been incarcerated for 2 years now, and still waithing for an appeal, supporters are trying to get the newly passed law to go in retro for Genarlow's case, but there is still hope for this young brotha.

to help you can go to:
www.wilsonappeal.com

and sign the online petition and email the Ga Court of Appeals for his release, please pass this on to as many people as you can, once again the man trying to put our good, young black men behind bars.

Love
Peace
Unity

posted in Black Men - 14 replies

SUPER Unbeatable MegaCool '08 DreamTeam ticket.......

2007-06-14T15:40:00Z

Dig this shyt -

Obama/Powell !!!!!!

DUDE!!!!!!!

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

"We" simply HAVE to change

2007-06-13T14:54:48Z

Greetings:

I'm amazed at how slowly the veil is lifting from black folks eyes. I'm living in Oakland, California. The Bay Area is one of the MOST diverse places on earth. Racism doesn't dance in sheets here, but economic racism is HUGE ... and getting bigger. Here are just a few points that I'd love for 'yall to just ponder on:

1. Quote: "A business should remake itself when it is at the peak of its success. Failure to do so means that it's competition will adjust come up with new ideas before it can adjust."

2. Quote: "The only constant is change." Change is the only thing we KNOW will happen ... yet, black folks (esp. black men) continue to hold their heads in the sand ... denial ... a doomed ostrich hiding from the upcoming storm.

3. China and India cannot get enough educated, Sharp minds to fuel their growth. Still, they are standing on the runway, ready to fly. Soon they will become the world's biggest economic powers. Multinationals are just waiting. When that happens, they will pull money out of the U.S. economy like mad. (Remember Bush and his gang trying to get Social Security money to prop up our economy?)

4. It's far too late to be angrily mumbling that "Mexicans need to go back where they came from." The Jinni is out of the bottle. They are eating our lunch and soon, many more white folks lunch too. They are showing us where our game is weak.

5. "My enemy - my friend" say the Buddhist. God told gave us two main instructions ... Love God and love your neighbor ... even when he doesn’t love you back. We have some powerful lessons to RE-learn. Chief amongst those lessons is the fact that all these once poor Asians and Mexicans are now driving the cars we used to drive, living in the houses our homeless asses used to live in, and working in the jobs we used to complain about and would die to have back. How'd they do it? Yeah ... they built a better mouse trap. Provided a better service, and pooled their money. They lived together when they needed to. Supported each other economically, physically, emotionally, intellectually and CULTURALLY.

6. WHY are we taking up the Prince's (as in "Prince Machiavelli's") agenda and turning ourselves into "Thugs" that destroy any and ALL business hopes in our own community, kill and terrorize our own people (esp. the nerds we need to hold close to our bosom) and create hatred between the sexes? WHY? WHY are we doing the Klan's work for them??

7. An East Indian engineer who runs a computer chip manufacturing company recently told me that "America needs creativity. There will increasingly be more jobs out-sourced over seas. If you're going to start a company, it needs to hire at least 10,000 people to make change." He has been trained to look at the high end ... but have you looked into the world's new micro loan industry? There are POWERFUL ways to make change happen on the small end too. [SEE: Kiva Microfinance at http://kiva.org/
and http://www.blacksolutions.blogspot.com ]

8. Disaffected youth ALL OVER THE WORLD look at disaffected people here in the U.S. and many emulate our actions. We can help engineer POWERFUL changes for ourselves and others. At the very least, we can stop being "Niggas" to the world and position ourselves better than we are currently doing! "He or she who doesn’t engineer his or her own destiny, will have his destiny engineered for him." What do you think the plans of the super rich are for you?

9. WE NEED TO STOP BEING BLACK-WHITE MEN !!! AHHaaHHHaaahh!! God wants every one to be his or her AUTHINTIC selves. We do NOT need to:

a.) Huck-a-buck to the world. Speaking all phony and laughing all silly
b.) Go 'round the back door for a piece of chicken and a biscuit after stabbing yet one more brother in the back. STOP THIS SHIT!
c.) Embrace our own spiritual, psychological, moral and ethical destruction by thinking that crime is our only hope. What the hell is this "No Snitch" crap?? If Spooky up the street breaks my car window and steals my face plate for a $5 rock and you don't tell ... guess who's window he's going to break when you park YOUR new ride at the curb?

10. Why do we keep embracing the WRONG people? What's with all this anti-Semitism rising up about? That ain't our fight. Okay, who cares if the guy at the deli is rude? His cousin marched with us .... before many of you got here. But that's besides the point ... what the hell do you think growing up is all about?

The list goes on and on. Include the fact that "those foreigners" dollars now mean more than ours ...and the best we can do is continue to yell about Reparations and apply for SSI?? C'mon folks ... we betta than THIS!!

I assert that the biggest obstacles to change for the black man and woman today is:

a.) The inability to work together. We have to become "brothers" and "sisters" again and cease being "niggas."

b.) Denial or the Fear of Change

c.) The inability to see what our true demons are. We're so busy trying to be *special* and defending Snoop Dawg that we can't even SEE that the things we've come to value most are killing us. Going to the night club tonight? What you going to look for??? What do you most hope to do ... and with whom??? Yeah....

posted in Black Men - 3 replies

Hamilton wins Canadian GP in landmark victory

2007-06-10T23:13:06Z

http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/news?slug=ap-canadiangp&prov=ap&type=lgns

Okay, I have to admit that part of the reason this is such a good and funny story is because a dude named "Massa" got disqualified...

By MIKE HARRIS, AP Auto Racing Writer
June 10, 2007

MONTREAL (AP) -- Rookie Lewis Hamilton won the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, the first victory for a black driver in Formula One.

In a race filled with caution flags, the 22-year-old Englishman won in his sixth F1 start and now has six consecutive top-three finishes.

ADVERTISEMENT

"I'm just having a fantastic day," Hamilton said. "This is history."

The only one to give the Mercedes McLaren driver any competition during the 70-lap race on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve's 2.71-mile road course was BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld. He chased Hamilton all day without catching him. Hamilton beat Heidfeld to the finish by 4.3 seconds.

The youngster, the first driver to start an F1 career in such a formidable manner, scrambled out of his silver and red car, thrusting his arms in the air. He then jumped to the ground, trotted to a barrier and jumped across to dive into the midst of his crew, hugging everyone in sight.

"It's been a fantastic season already," he said. "We've had six podiums and I've been ready for quite some time for the win -- it's just been a matter of when and where. The team gave me the best car and I had no problems during the race at all."

Two-time and reigning F1 champion Fernando Alonso, who started alongside his pole-winning McLaren teammate on the front row, made a mistake on the start when he drove off the course in Turn 1 .

That was just the beginning of a very bad day for Alonso, who was hit with a penalty for pitting too soon during one of the full-course cautions and made two other off-course excursions before being passed two laps from the finish by Super Aguri'a Takuma Sato and finishing seventh.

Hamilton, who came into the race tied with Alonso at the top of the standings, will take the sole lead into next Sunday's U.S. Grand Prix in Indianapolis.

"The next dream is to win the Formula One championship," he said. "But, bear in mind, I'm still a rookie and there's bound to be some bad times, too."

Robert Kubica, a 22-year-old driver from Poland, was involved in a frightening crash just before the halfway point. He escaped serious injury but was taken to a hospital for further examination after being removed from his battered car by medical personnel. Team officials said Kubica apparently sustained only a foot injury.

Considered one of the rising stars of the international series, Kubica was racing with the Toyota of Jarno Trulli and the Ferrari of Felipe Massa when he suddenly veered off course into the grass as they drove toward the hairpin turn.

Kubica's BMW Sauber slammed into the inside concrete wall, then somersaulted across the track in a shower of debris, hit the outside wall and came to rest with what was left of his car on its side.

The Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen were expected to pose a threat for the McLarens, but both had their own problems.

Massa was running fourth when he was disqualified, along with Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella, who was eighth at the time. F1 officials said they both ran a red light at the end of pit road during a caution period.

Raikkonen ran through the grass several times and struggled to a fifth-place finish, coming in behind the Williams of Alexander Wurz and the Renault of Heikki Kovalainen. Ralf Schumacher, driving a Toyota, took the eighth and final points position.

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Searching For Your ROOTS

2007-06-08T15:57:49Z

Just like what Alex Haley did with his geanology search, have you ever thought about doing yours?

posted in Black Men - 7 replies

Fellas - Do you still believe "The Good Life" can be made in the cities?

2007-06-04T05:49:35Z

Black Farms
http://www.blackfarms.wordpress.com

Hey fellas--

We're in the middle of the biggest reverse migration BACK to the South since we left it. (I mean ... combined numbers...)

They say college grads are leading the charge ... meaning the region will even be more transformed in the future.

So we're all aware of the problems in our community as will as all the issues with Main Stream ... so ... does anybody still believe that a "good life" can still be carved out in Urban America?

I strongly feel that it's time to do some thing differen ... to plan ... and bying some of this very cheap land in the Midwest and South and pulling together like minds to support and build with each other makes far more sense than continuing to numb out to the collapsing housing market, the increasing crime and drug abuse, the increasing numbers of HIV/AIDS victims, the increasing numbers of pimps in the pulpit selling that tired old Santa Claus version of Christianity ... hey ... this ain't never going to be no where near "fair."

So ... we need new myths. We need new adventures ... and before we HAVE to ... new plans to weather the up coming Recessions the future most certainly hold.

I thing we got to determind for ourselves who we are and set it down in stone. We are not now nor will ever be a monolythic people ... so maybe several versions need to be carved out. Something like "Orthodox, Conservative, Innovators ... " or something, ya know?

I'm for going back to the land. Making a black version of this "Back To The Land" Movement that's going on. They're doing lots of Intentional Community / Co-Housing things. It's so ripe right now, that we can re-love ourselves into millions ... AND find happiness and strenght doing it. Just visit a couple of these sites ... talk about the pros and cons ... start discussing whatever you're feeling about it ... 'cus, we're dying here bloods ... this shit is killing us.

Black Farms Yahoo Group
http://www.finance.groups.yahoo.com/group...farms/

Black Solutions.com
http://www.blacksolutions.blogspot.com

posted in Black Men - 18 replies

New Face ...

2007-06-03T15:56:58Z

Hello there everyone,

Just thought I'd stop by here to introduce myself as a new face in this here meeting group. My name's Philip and I'm based over in Nigeria. Glad to be amongst other fellow brothers and sisters here.

posted in Black Men - 7 replies

Think the unthinkable

2007-05-26T17:37:07Z

Imagine this; an airplane carrying Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton enroute to a 2008 Presidential Election event crashes somewhere in Indiana. Both men are killed in the crash. Black and White pundits on television and in print eulogize them in better terms than either has ever been described in memory. Black America says, "What a shame. A great loss. We grieve."

Now what? Who are their successors. Who will the corporate media mill select as the surrogates of white antipathy and racist projection of some unfocused mistrust of Black men?

posted in Black Men - 5 replies

Actor Roscoe Lee Browne dies in LA at 81

2007-05-25T01:12:52Z

One of my all time favorites from "THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS"

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Actor Roscoe Lee Browne, whose rich voice and dignified bearing brought him an Emmy Award and a Tony nomination, has died. He was 81.

Browne died early Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after a long battle with cancer, said Alan Nierob, a spokesman for the family.

Browne's career included classic theater to TV cartoons. He also was a poet and a former world-class athlete.

His deep, cultured voice was heard narrating the 1995 hit movie "Babe." On screen, his character often was smart, cynical and well-educated, whether a congressman, a judge or a butler.

Born to a Baptist minister in Woodbury, N.J., Browne graduated from historically black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where he later returned to teach comparative literature and French. He also was a track star, winning the 880-yard run in the 1952 Millrose Games.

Browne was selling wine for an import company when he decided to become a full-time actor in 1956 and had roles that year in the inaugural season of the New York Shakespeare Festival in a production of "Julius Caesar."

In 1961, he starred in an English-language version of Jean Genet's play "The Blacks."

Two years later, he was The Narrator in a Broadway production of "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe," a play by Edward Albee from a novella by Carson McCullers. In a front page article on the advances made by blacks in the theater, the New York Times noted that Browne's understudy was white.

He won an Obie Award in 1965 for his role as a rebellious slave in the off-Broadway "Benito Cereno."

In movies, he was a spy in the 1969 Alfred Hitchcock feature "Topaz" and a camp cook in 1972's "The Cowboys," which starred John Wayne.

"Some critics complained that I spoke too well to be believable" in the cook's role, Browne told The Washington Post in 1972. "When a critic makes that remark, I think, if I had said, 'Yassuh, boss' to John Wayne, then the critic would have taken a shine to me."

On television, he had several memorable guest roles. He was a snobbish black lawyer trapped in an elevator with bigot Archie Bunker in an episode of the 1970s TV comedy "All in the Family" and the butler Saunders in the comedy "Soap." He won an Emmy in 1986 for a guest role as Professor Foster on "The Cosby Show."

In 1992, Browne returned to Broadway in "Two Trains Running," one of August Wilson's acclaimed series of plays on the black experience. It won the Tony for best play and brought Browne a Tony nomination for best featured (supporting) actor.

The New York Times said he portrayed "the wry perspective of one who believes that human folly knows few bounds and certainly no racial bounds. The performance is wise and slyly life-affirming."

Browne also wrote poetry and included some of it along with works by masters such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti and William Butler Yeats in "Behind the Broken Words," a poetry anthology stage piece that he and Anthony Zerbe performed annually for three decades.

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

Looking for couples for magazine article

2007-05-08T18:54:01Z

Hi everyone!

I’m writing a new article for Womens Health (in case you don’t know – it’s
like Mens Health only for women), and I need to profile couples . If
you and your partner do any of the below, or know people who do, please pass
this on to them...They can see a sample of the questions I’ll be asking them
at the bottom of the page...

Or if you and your partner do something cool and unique that you think I
should profile, I’m all for making that pitch. It doesn’t matter where you live. You will have to participate in a
photo shoot. They’ll do your makeup and make you look all pretty and
handsome.

What I need is for you to send me what you do together and a recent photo of
the two of you. Tell me how long you’ve been together. Your relationship
status and if you have any children (and your and their ages).

Here are some ideas for the types of couples we'd be interested in
profiling.

a couple who does some kind of intense athletic training together – maybe a
marathon or triathalon or something like that...

a couple who runs a business together

a couple who volunteers together

a couple who has done/or does some kind of adventure-y thing together.

a couple who blog together

a couple who are both screenwriters (maybe they write for the same show?)

a couple who are both in a band together

Here are some ideas of what we'd want to learn from them:

How does your activity shape their relationship?
How do they get private time?
What do they do when they get sick of each other?
How does it affect their sex lives?
How does it affect their social lives?
How do they resolve differences?

If you know anyone, or are a couple, please email me
jamyew@gmail.com

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

THE FIRST BLACK NAVY CAPTAIN DIES

2007-04-26T17:32:30Z

* The Navy’s first black Sailor to be promoted to the rank of captain died April 16 in Norfolk.
*

Funeral services for retired Capt. Thomas David Parham were held April 21, at 1 p.m. at the Little Creek Amphibious Base chapel. The Reverend Dr. Barry C. Black, U.S. Senate chaplain and retired U.S. Navy Chief of Chaplains delivered the eulogy.

Parham, 87, was commissioned in 1944 and promoted to captain in February 1966. He was also the second black chaplain in the Navy.

Born March 21, 1920, in Newport News, Va., Parham earned a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina Central University in 1941. He then graduated magna cum laude from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 1944, and was ordained by the United Presbyterian Church on May 17, 1944.

While five other members of his seminary class entered the Navy chaplaincy upon their graduation, Parham was told his application could not be accepted. He continued to work in a student pastorate in Youngstown, Ohio. Later that summer, he saw a newspaper photograph of a recently commissioned black chaplain. When he returned to the officer who had earlier rejected his application and asked why, he was told, "We can take your application now."

His first duty assignments included Naval Training School, Hampton, Va.; Camp Smalls at Great Lakes, Ill.; Manana Barracks, Hawaii; and the Naval Supply Center, Guam; ministering to exclusively black units.

Parham left active duty in 1946 and returned to his ministry in Youngstown where he served as pastor from 1946 to 1950, while remaining in the Naval Reserve.
He returned to active duty in January 1951, soon after the outbreak of the Korean War. From 1951 to 1956, he was the only black chaplain on active duty.

After he had been given the impression that a black chaplain would never go to sea duty, he married Eulalee Marion Cordice on June 1, 1951.

Subsequently, when he was to be stationed on board USS Valley Forge (LPH-8), a captain complained to the Chaplains Division that Parham would be the only chaplain on the ship while the only black Sailors were a few stewards: The belief that black chaplains were only for black Sailors was predominant. Then Chief of Chaplains Stanton Salisbury published an article in the Christian Century stating that the Chaplains Division had no plans to give Parham any segregated duty, demonstrating the progress made in the Chaplains Division and in the Navy.

Parham’s other duty stations included Charleston Navy Yard, S.C.; Fleet Activities Sasebo, Japan; Naval Air Station Iwakuni, Japan; Menninger Foundation, Topeka, Kan.; First Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; Amphibious Squadron 1 and Marine Corps Recruiting Depot, San Diego; Naval Air Station and Commander Fleet Air, Quonset Point, R.I.; Bureau of Naval Personnel, Washington; Naval Training Center, Bainbridge, Md.; and Chief, Pastoral Care Service, Naval Region Medical Center, Portsmouth, Va.

In 1969, he earned a Master of Divinity at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. At American University he received both a master's and a doctorate degree. Parham retired in April 1982.
.

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

The Genealogy of African (Black) people

2007-04-21T20:05:47Z

Was browsing around, and came across these remarkable ‘youtube’ videos by Dr. York who gives a detail and in-depth look into the origins of the African (Black, Brown, Yellow) hue-man/woman, and how the African race (people) got off the path of losing touch with their true self, in exchange, for worshiping ‘other’ teachings that are not in alignment with ‘right-knowledge’. Certainly something for the Spirit-Mind-Body. These videos gives an account of how (and who) the Adam and Eve are (the new black man/woman), and how they came into being, and who their parents really are, also, an account of the real name of Egypt and the real ancient black people of the land. It’s very mind opening into ‘right knowledge’ instead of believing in unfound religion, and race, as we’ve been told to believe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y620P8PvJG4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3JWW75rDxk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GIGajPNz98

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VkdHooDF7U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpqV9dGV3K8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSqWCSeg6a4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jn7rCaBPW8

I found these videos on this site: http://nuworldorder.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=36&topic=1908.0

After watching these videos and finding out how certain children where being raised (in the seventies) to bring in the next generation to raise the consciousness of people, it made me ponder on just how the same thing is being done today, to manipulate and mutilate the DNA and reproductive organs of black man and women, by making up ‘accepted’ lies and estimates the world over.

Terry

posted in Black Men - 2 replies

How Jackie Robinson's debut was covered

2007-04-14T04:30:44Z

How Robinson's debut was covered

April 11, 2007

How some media covered Jackie Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947:

BROOKLYN (AP) – Pete Reiser, key to Brooklyn's flag chances, blazed a seventh-inning double off the screen a foot inside the right-field foul line at Ebbets Field today to drive across the tying and winning runs as the pilotless Dodgers opened their 1947 campaign with a 5-to-3 victory over the Boston Braves.

Although he did not get a hit in four official times at bat, Jackie Robinson, first Negro to play in modern big league ball, signalized his official debut as a Dodger by sprinting home with the deciding run on Reiser's smash and playing perfect ball at first base.

International News Service

NEW YORK – For the first time in baseball history a Negro played in a major league game today.

The Negro was Jackie Robinson, first-baseman of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who helped his team defeat the Boston Braves 5 to 3.

The Dodgers, minus their manager, Leo Durocher, staged a three-run rally in the seventh to give Hal Gregg the decision over Johnny Sain.

The New York Times
By Roscoe McGowen

Even without Skipper Leo Durocher, the good ship "Dodger" proved yesterday that it could sail safely into port, although slightly storm-battered in the process.

Managed by Clyde Sukeforth, skipper pro tem, who sent eighteen of his crew into action, the Brooks docked just ahead of the Boston Braves and are sharing the National League lead today – if it never happens again.

Flatbush fans, 26,623 of them, who watched their favorite team rally to win, 5-3, had no problem about dividing their cheers. All of them went to an old hero, Pistol Pete Reiser, who has heard that roar of acclaim so many times.

(Robinson mentioned only in play-by-play in sixth and 16th paragraphs)

The New York Times
By Arthur Daley
(second half of his column)

The debut of Jackie Robinson was quite uneventful, even though he had the unenviable distinction of snuffing out a rally by hitting into a remarkable double play. His dribbler through the box in the fifth should have gone for a safety, but Dick Culler, playing in on the grass, made a diving stop, threw to second for a force while prostrate on the ground, and Connie Ryan nailed the fleet Robbie at first for a dazzling twin killing.

The muscular Negro minds his own business and shrewdly makes no effort to push himself. He speaks quietly and intelligently when spoken to and already has made a strong impression. "I was nervous in the first play of my first game at Ebbets Field," he said with his ready grin, "but nothing has bothered me since."

A veteran Dodger said of him, "Having Jackie on the team is still a little strange, just like anything else that's new. We just don't know how to act with him. But he'll be accepted in time. You can be sure of that. Other sports have had Negroes. Why not baseball? I'm for him, if he can win games. That's the only test I ask." And that seems to be the general opinion.

Robinson's tremendous speed afoot did accomplish one thing, since it set up the winning run which he personally carried home. His deft sacrifice bunt was so well placed that Earl Torgeson had to make a hurried throw to Ryan at the bag. And his shot caromed off a Robinson shoulder blade into right field to give both runners an extra base. Then Pete Reiser doubled them both home.

New York Herald Tribune
By Bob Cooke

The Brooklyn Dodgers, still without a permanent leader, found an adequate one for their opener yesterday when they grouped themselves behind Pete Reiser, their winged-footed outfielder, who encircled the Boston Braves with as much ease as he did the bases.

Reiser scored three runs and drove in two more as Brooklyn staged a snappy world premiere with the kind cooperation of the Bostonians. The score was 5 to 3, and it was Reiser who added up the totals.

A solemn crowd of 26,623 customers looked on, none of whom could be accused of relationship to the normal Ebbets Field fan who is frequently guilty of conduct unbecoming to the other boroughs. Both teams were politely cheered when the lineups were announced and John Cashmore, Brooklyn Borough President, was given a timid reception when he threw out the first ball.

The game was played in an atmosphere of stillness interrupted only by the patter of Reiser's feet.

A number of observers had been attracted by the presence of Jackie Robinson, Brooklyn's Negro first baseman, but as the innings passed it was all any one could do to keep their eyes on Reiser.

(10th paragraph)

Robinson fielded his position admirably, but was held hitless in three attempts. He rapped into a double play in the fifth with runners on first and third.

New York Herald Tribune
By Red Smith

Baseball, a game invented in Brooklyn by Larry MacPhail and refined to extreme lengths by Leo Durocher, returned to its birthplace yesterday with both its foster parents missing. Also missing were about 5,800 critters whose absence was unexplained. In spite of honey-and-gold weather, only 26,623 of Ebbets Field's 32,500 seats were occupied, and there were wide, piebald patches of untented pews in left field. This gave rise of to a rumor considered widely implausible in some quarters – that Durocher has 5,800 friends in Brooklyn. …

(12th paragraph)

However, Hatten, helped himself with a skillful play on a grounder by Danny Litwhiler when the Braves were threatening in the fourth, and he might have got through all the way if Jackie Robinson could have aided him in the fifth innings.

That dark and anxious young man had grounded out the first time he faced Johnny Sain and flied out the second. Now he came up for the third time, with two runners on and one out. He seemed frantic with eagerness, restless as a can of worms.

He fouled off the first pitch. Phil Masi, the Boston catcher, caught it but knocked himself goggle-eyed against the Braves dugout and dropped the ball. Robinson took a called strike on the outside corner, then rapped a bleeder toward second which looked like a sure hit for a man of his speed.

Cutler, however, dived on the ball, scooped it to Connie Ryan, who tagged second and beat Robbie with a throw to first for a double play. Robinson kicked up dirt with his spikes but made no protest.

New York Daily News
By Dick Young

It has been said quite often of Pete Reiser, and by no less a person than Branch Rickey, that the kid is somewhat of a "hypo," meaning hypochondriac. Maybe so, but to the Brooks he's a hypo, meaning stimulant, and he wasted no time proving it again this season by breaking the Brooks on top of the NL pack with a masterful one-man show in yesterday's 5-3 opening-day victory over the Braves.

(last paragraph)

In his debut, Jackie Robinson, the majors' most-discussed rookie, fielded flawlessly at first base but went hitless in three official trips to the plate. He rolled out to third in the first, lofted a soft fly to left in the third, rifled a hot double-play grounder to short to close out the fifth, and then scored the winning tally on Reiser's seventh-inning double, after reaching on a sacrifice-error by the Braves' rookie counterpart – Earl Torgeson.

New York Journal-American
By Michael Gavan

The name of the new Brooklyn manager was of comparatively small interest in Flatbush today. Just as long as Pete Reiser can hit the ball and scamper around the bases as he did in the opening game what difference does it make who battles the umpires!

Potentially, the best ball player in the business, Pistol Pete could even mean a pennant if he could escape injury and play every day. He's that good. Fitting example of a healthy Reiser's unestimable value was provided in the glorious inaugural triumph over the Braves.

(Robinson not mentioned in story)

New York World-Telegram
By Bill Roder

EBBETS FIELD – Minus last year's manager and coaches, the Dodgers opened the season here today in the first of three games against the Boston Braves, with Clyde Sukeforth as pro tem pilot.

The Dodgers won, 5-3.

Before a near sellout throng of 31,000 lefty Joe Hatten pitched against 20-game winner Johnny Sain.

Jackie Robinson, first Negro to play in the majors, was on first base for the Dodgers and a newcomer of less than 24 hours, Johnny Jorgenson, was on third base. Jorgenson was purchased last night from the farm in Montreal.

New York World-Telegram
By Bill Roeder
(The following day)

Have the Dodgers gone sane? That's what Brooklyn fans were asking one another today as they praised Clyde (Pro Tem) Sukeforth's first managerial performance and reviewed it comparatively, play by play, in terms of what Leo Durocher would have done.

Some of the fans thought they detected a rare element of cautious baseball in Sukeforth's 5-3 opening day victory over the Braves. Are the fans right or wrong? The answer: yes and no. …

(8th paragraph)

… Howard Schultz replaced Jackie Robinson at first base in the ninth inning.

Sukeforth said he ran Tom Taum for Dixie Walker in the sixth inning, when the Dodgers were behind, because speed was required as a precaution against the double play. "We have so many good players on our team that I could afford to make a move like that," Sukey explained.

Reiser, whose two hits, three runs scored and two driven in represented Brooklyn's effective offense in toto, had a reassuring word for Robinson, who went hitless his first game in the big leagues. "He'll be all right," Pete volunteered. "He'll steady down and he'll be fine." Sukeforth had the same to say about the other rookie, Johnny Jorgenson, the overnight regular at third base.

The New York Post
By Arch Murray

Ebbets Field – With their lost leader a forlorn figure in California and nobody exactly eager for his old job, the Durocherless Dodgers started out today on the quest that failed a year ago. As Leo himself used to put it, they'll be out after the Cardinals all over again.

Billy Southworth's resurgent Braves – the same club that knocked them out of the 1946 pennant on the last day of the season – furnished the initial opposition before a sellout house at Ebbets Field. But the world champion Redbirds, heavily favored to repeat, will be the main target as old.

Joe Hatten, sophomore southpaw who beat the Bostons four times last year without defeat, opened on the mound with Johnny Sain, curve-balling 20-game winner, as his opponent. Jackie Robinson, the first colored boy ever to don major league flannels, started at first base and batted second for the Dodgers.

posted in Black Men - 7 replies

Grambling's Robinson shaped kids into men

2007-04-06T20:08:55Z

Grambling's Robinson shaped kids into men
Column by Carl Steward
Article Launched: 04/05/2007 02:35:37 AM PDT

FORGET COMPARING Eddie Robinson to other great college football coaches. Oakland Raiders Hall of Famer Willie Brown places the late Grambling State University legend in a significantly higher sphere of influence.

"I'm not comparing him to God, by any means, but Eddie Robinson was next to God when it comes to football coaches," Brown said Wednesday, only hours after learning of Robinson's death Tuesday night at age 88. "He was bigger than life."

Brown was one of the best of more than 200 players Robinson sent to professional football from the tiny black college near Ruston, La., that he put on the map.

It's still a small school, but now enormous in terms of its notoriety thanks largely to this onefrom Sports 1

man who was on the job for 56 years and became the winningest coach in college football history in the process.

Even though he has lived in the West for the past four decades, including playing and working for the Raiders for the past 37 years, Brown has never been far from Robinson and his Grambling days mentally and emotionally.

He still called his old coach once a month, and in recent years when Robinson became too beset by Alzheimer's disease to talk on the phone, he kept in contact with Robinson's wife of 64 years, Doris.

"To me, Eddie Robinson is the greatest coach who ever lived, not just because of his won-loss record, but because of the things he taught us off the football field," Brown said. "He taught you values. He

polished you, instilled certain qualities you needed to prepare for in life.

"That's the ingredient that you can really appreciate now in old age that maybe you didn't appreciate during the early years."

Brown had a solid upbringing in Yazoo, Miss. Both his father and high school football coach were strong mentors and role models. But Robinson, he said, cemented the type of player and man he would become, as he did for countless men and women fortunate enough to experience his guidance.

"Eddie put the gravy on top of it when I got to Grambling," Brown said. "He was the one from that point on who changed and patterned my life."

Brown will never forget their first meeting in 1958. Brown was planning to attend Jackson State with another fellow high school star, Willie Richardson, but was coerced into taking a trip to Grambling. An assistant was so intent on landing Brown for the program, he took him straight to Robinson's house.

"He was outside cutting his lawn," he recalled. "But he still made an immediate impression. Once I met and talked to him, I knew that Grambling was the place for me.

"He convinced me I would get my degree, and that I would play both offense and defense for him to showcase my skills. Besides, the campus and the girls were nice, too."

It may surprise Raiders fans to learn that Brown never played defensive back at Grambling. He played tight end on offense and end on defense.

"I had to, because we had so many good players at Grambling, you had to pick your spot," he said. "We had two or three guys deep at every position. I didn't switch to defensive back until I got to the pros."

Brown remembered Robinson as a coach who rarely lost his temper, never cussed. Supremely confident in his methods, he could get his point across without even raising the level of his voice.

"He simply demanded that you do it right," he said. "He used to take his briefcase and put it right out in the middle of the field. Every time a player made a mistake, he'd go into that briefcase, get his notes out of it and make that player go over his responsibilities and assignments."

Robinson already had been at Grambling for 18 years when Brown arrived for his college career that spanned from 1959 to 1962. It was the heyday of a program that reached its peak in the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

In 1971, it was determined that 43 players in NFL training camps were from Grambling, a remarkable achievement for any school, let alone from such a small school from the all-black Southwestern Athletic Conference.

"Eddie was way ahead of everybody as far as planning," Brown said. "He went to clinics, he went to pro camps. He had pro football coaches and players come to Grambling during spring ball and have them teach us the things that were taught in the pros.

"That's why so many guys were making it in the pros from Grambling, and then those players would come back to the school and work with the young kids, too. I know, because I did it myself for four years."

But even though Robinson became an icon while compiling a record of 408-165-15, winning 19 SWAC titles and 9 national black championships and grooming seven future NFL first-round draft choices, there was still something small-town about Robinson that endeared him to his players.

Even if there had been no segregation or racism while he was building his legacy, Brown doubts that Robinson would have sought greater fame and fortune at a bigger school.

"I can't picture him being any other place," Brown said. "He believed in Grambling, he loved Grambling to his bones. He started coaching there when he was 19 or 20 years old, and not many people know this, but he coached ladies basketball and softball in addition to football.

"There are so many men and women throughout this world Eddie Robinson impacted in their life. He was bigger than the president of Grambling. Any president that you can think of throughout any university, Eddie Robinson was bigger than that."

Brown will return to Louisiana to attend services for Robinson. Just from the tone of his voice, it's clear he anticipates more of a celebration of the man's life and career rather than a somber mourning session. The old coach surely would have wanted it that way.

"All the things you can think of, if you wanted a guy to be on your side and in your corner, you would want a guy like Eddie Robinson because of the things he stood for," Brown said.

Something next to God, essentially.

Carl Steward can be reached at (510) 293-2451 or by e-mail at

csteward@angnewspapers.com.

posted in Black Men - 5 replies

Volunteer Opportunity in Southern California

2007-03-20T00:45:19Z

Would you like to volunteer some of your time, talent or resources to help make a difference in the life of someone less fortunate than you? If your answer is yes, then I would like you to consider volunteering with a group of gentlemen who are concerned about women*s health issues, in producing *A Dance with My Father*, Southern California*s Premiere Father*s Day Weekend Celebration.

What is *A Dance with My Father*?
*A Dance with My Father* is a classy black-tie optional (semi-formal) gala, craftily designed by the alumni gentlemen of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. within Kappa Delta Sigma Chapter, in which daughters of all ages may be escorted by their father or father-figure (i.e. Grandfather, Uncle, Godfather, Elder or Mentor) to a dance to celebrate their unforgettable and inseparable bond.

When and where is *A Dance with My Father* scheduled to take place?
Scheduled to occur on Saturday, June 16, 2007 (Father*s Day Weekend), from 5:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. at the beautiful and historic *Art Deco* Los Angeles Union Station, attendees can look forward to spectacular live entertainment, exquisite Hors D*oeuvres, a silent auction, door prizes and (of course) dancing.

What is the purpose of *A Dance with My Father?*
The purpose of this affair is to fundraise at least $100,000 to help support three Los Angeles County based non-profit organizations that directly assist women with and survivors of breast cancer. These organizations include Sisters Breast Cancer Survivor Network, Celebrate Life Cancer Ministries, and The Denise Roberts Breast Cancer Foundation. As a collective body, these organizations help cover the exorbitant costs associated with medical treatment, mammogram examinations and living. They also provide physical and emotional support and afford women with and survivors of breast cancer opportunities to convene and dialogue with one another about treatment available and their experiences with the disease.

How may someone volunteer in producing *A Dance with My Father?*
Simply, e-mail me your complete name, e-mail address and phone # and a representative from our planning committee will contact you to discuss how you would like to be involved with this production. Whether it is your time, talent, or resources, every little bit you can contribute helps to a make a difference in the life of someone less fortunate. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely yours,

Gregory D. Brandon, President
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.
Kappa Delta Sigma Chapter

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Are you feeling it?

2007-03-19T11:12:37Z

www.myspace.com/kpknowledgeispower

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

We F**king ourselves to Death!

2007-03-08T05:19:07Z

I'm going to post this thread and afterwards ... I hope to let it go. The post about the young man (not "boy") who got 10 years for oral sex in Georgia raised some anger and discussion. But looking at the recent rate of AIDS/HIV stats in African Americans, I'm kinda sad that we seem to STILL be identifying ourselves by the trauma of hypersexuality rather than working to define ourselves by our higher characteristics and the values that are so richly ... "black."

I've posted some statistics found online about the alarming increase in HIV/AIDS in the African American community. It seems we're literally "f**king" ourselves to death. Our marriage stats are grossly down, divorce is up, as well are the numbers of black children being placed in Foster Care. So ... we seem to be F**king more .... and loving less. My question is ... are we really as cool with that as it seems ... or do you think we're just so stubborn and addicted that we just don't want to change yet?

HIV/AIDS Statistics cited from:
http://www.bcoa.org/facts.html

African Americans living in San Francisco have the highest* prevalence rate of HIV at 4.7% followed by whites at 3.7% Latinos 2.4% Native Americans at 2.0% followed by Asian Pacific Islanders at 3%.

For African American men who have sex with men HIV prevalence is estimated at 55% overall (SFDPH 2001a). Among anonymous testers, prevalence was 9.7% (SFDPHb). Another study found a 29% prevalence (Catina et al 2001). Collectively, this data suggests that African Americans have the highest prevalence of any MSM population.

The HIV/AIDS infection rate among Black men is 6 times that of white men and the rate among Black women is 16 times that of white women.

The number of men with AIDS per 100,000 population includes:
Blacks - 125
Hispanics - 58
Whites - 18
American Indian/Alaska native - 16
Asian/Pacific Islander - 9
• The number of women with AIDS per 100,000 population includes:
Blacks -50
Hispanics -17
American Indian/Alaska native - 4
Whites - 2
Asian/Pacific Islander - 1
• AIDS now accounts for 1 in 3 deaths among Black men aged 25 to 4
• More children with AIDS are Black than all other race and ethnic groups combined
• More than two-thirds of all women in the U.S. who are infected with the AIDS virus are Black
• Blacks represent 57% of all new AIDS cases in the United States, though comprising only 13% of the population
• AIDS is the leading cause of death of Blacks, age 25-44
• AIDS is the leading cause of death for Black women

Other HIV/AIDS Articles on African Americas:

New HIV statistics indicate increasing toll of AIDS on African American community
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-11/cums-nhs111606.php

“America's black and Hispanic communities have been disproportionately affected by HIV and AIDS. In 2005, the total number of AIDS cases ever diagnosed in black people overtook the number diagnosed in whites. During 2005, 49% of all new HIV diagnoses and 50% of new AIDS diagnoses were in black people.” More:
http://www.avert.org/usastatr.htm

posted in Black Men - 11 replies

FREE ENGINEERING SUMMER CAMP FOR 11TH GRADERS

2007-03-06T21:56:52Z

log on to this website http://egr.uh.edu/camps/ and click on MESET the deadline is not until April the 15th.

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

697 to go........

2007-02-28T03:11:08Z

...............till GWB leaves the WH.

Not that that's ALL 'we' need to have happen.., but F*CK - it's a start.

posted in Black Men - 2 replies

Is America about to have its first black...or woman president?

2007-02-18T23:22:35Z

There was a time when American politics was interesting for me as an outsider and I used to read practically every article with great interest, until... .... ...in steps George W Bush! As a media person I felt George made politics boring and uninteresting, yet funny. Whenever he made a speech I would rather read a hard copy of it than to sit and waste my time infront of a TV. But, I have a feeling that politics in the US will become very interesting again soon! Yep, infact much more popular as George Bush is unpopular at the moment! hehe

Two very interesting candidates have stepped up to take part in the presidential race - Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton. Thanks to the Iraq war & public disillusion with Bush & Republicans losing votes...2008 is looking like an awesome year for the Democrats...Could this be a chance for America's first black or first woman president?
And what difference could they really make?

I'd like to hear your views?

posted in Black Men - 20 replies

The Mardi Gras Indian!

2007-02-17T22:47:15Z

One tradition in New Orleans clings onto to its ancestral strength of hard work, persistence pride, and the yearly renewal of respectfulness to its origins... that's the pride of a Mardi Gras Indian.
In the midst of all the other venues of Mardi Gras , it is very easy to, often lose sight of the traditions that make up our heritage. Caucasians, African Americans, as well as other cultures, here in New Orleans, as well as across the nation, have, some to our detriment, cast aside many of the arts we once cherished. Those arts and customs now merely thought as old-fashioned and out-of-date. This we should not do with the ease, which we so readily exhibit. For in most of the traditions, are also some of our history. Some have said that's it's also our heritage. Some of this nation's heritage is best forgotten. But the history we dare not cast aside, lest we are totally doomed to repeat it. And that option, for African Americans, is thoroughly frightening.

The Black Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans are a unique sub-culture of a highly diverse and complex group of the local population . The tradition of these masking Indians, dates back to the 1700's. The scholars that claim to know the origins of the Mardi Gras Indians (a two hundred year old tradition) sometimes conflict on the precise history. As a result of this lack of a solid path in the knowledge of Indian history, many theories abound, but this much is for certain, the Indians have preserved some of their culture and history in the guise of tradition, and that tradition at the time of Mardi Gras, is now an integral part of New Orleans. In the heart of New Orleans since the 1780's and perhaps earlier, this ancient colorful and artistic culture has been practiced. A culture, that be it known, exhibits all of that tradition, with some of the positive heritage, and is quite a unique history.

In the Beginning
The history of the Mardi Gras Indians, is a long and hard road, starting in late 1600's with the Indian Village of Tchoutchuoma, which stood quietly and peacefully, in or very near the north gate of the colonial place of what has become the original Colony/Fort/Port of New Orleans, commonly known as the french Quarter. The Indians fished in the bayou and made life as livable as possible.

Other tribes did from time to time attack, and would, besides taking food, occasionally, take captives as slaves, or wives.

In 1699, Pierre Le Moyne', declares his camp "Pointe du Mardi Gras", (Mardi Gras Point), as Louisiana's first European settler's entered the Mississippi Delta Gulf Coast Region, and in 1711, a mere two years later, Native Indians were first taken as slaves.

Taken to exploit the cheap source of labor, to clear the area to be used as a port, and to learn knowledge of how to survive in the new land, the Indians endured. Some were Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Blackfoot. Even then, there was thought of Mardi Gras, as the white men of the colony of mobile, formed a Boeuf Graf Society.

Then in 1718, Jean-Baptise Le Moyne', Pierre's brother, founded the port colony and river fort of Nouvelle Orle'ans, (New Orleans). Indians slaves are among the thieves, cut throats, prostitutes, and beggars that were the first settlers.
But the Indians were not highly prized as slaves because, their love of freedom was so fierce, that they would run into the bayou and disappear into other camps which the French and later the Spanish wouldn't dare venture into.
Slaves from Africa & the West Indies Arrive
A call went out the governor to appropriate African slaves for the area, since they were known to be better workers and could not survive in the swamp. A mere year later, in 1719, the first 2 shiploads of African Slaves arrive at the port of New Orleans, for sale in New Orleans.
Napoleon also used the port for a respite for the slaves and crew after the trip from Africa to give the crew a chance to clean and re-outfit the ships for the trip to Haiti. Slaves were given their first chance, in 2 to 6 months, to stretch out on dry land. Some would be sold here. Most were held in the slave pens all along, on what is now Camp street.
For two years things were kept in order, as the African, West Indies, and Haitian slaves were trained in running plantations and working there. Slowly, the slaves and the Indians began to understand each other's language, and this improved their co-operative efforts to work in harmony together. It also gave them the way to plan things, such as escapes. So, it was inevitable, that in 1722, the first known escape of a slave from a plantation, took place. In the archives, there is no mention of if he was ever found. One must assume that he was never heard from again.

An Alliance is Sought and formed
Three years later in 1725, archives now record for the first time, some known successful cases of blacks escaping into the bayou, aided by the native Indians of the area. It is said that tribes such as the Choctaw, Seminoles and Chickasaws in Louisiana were responsible for freeing some of the African and men of color from slavery.

With the Indians help, the slaves learn to survive off the land and lived in the forest camps, just outside the city. These camps come to be known as Maroon Camps. Blacks relationship with Indians would spawn a section of the populous that was frightened and they would indeed write and state that the last thing that the colony needed was Indians and slaves becoming allies. They were intentionally kept from one another. They had good cause to be frightened, because in 1729 most of the 280 African Slaves owned by a company of the West Indies, join with the Natchez Indians in what became known as the " Natchez Revolt."

It was an attempt by the Indians to prevent their sacred lands from being seized, as the French tried to develop their Fledgling tobacco industry. The Indians has promised the slaves freedom, in exchange for their help, and along with 176 Indian braves, the force attacked their captors. But they were betrayed by one of the sailors of the West Indies company that had accidentally overheard the plans. The revolt was put down with amazing savageness. Some of the slaves were beheaded and their heads mounted on pikes and placed on the levee, to frighten and warn others as to what would happen, if it ever happened again. This show of force was so successful, that no other attempts were recorded for two years. The french colonist, convinced that all was now under control, relaxed the rules and the First recorded reference to slaves dancing at gatherings held on the plantations were found in the archives, in the year, 1732.

African Slaves were highly valued at this time in New Orleans history, as were the free men of color for their considerable trade skills. The colony, still under French rule, had a sort of live and let live approach to slavery, so much so, that slaves were " given the weekend off " to earn money and go into town. Negroes had the trust of the french, so much, that some slaves and the free men of color, were formed into a fighting force of mulatto troops, to defend the fort in case of attack by Indians. Two years later, in 1736, Governor Beinville and his Negro troops attacked the English and their Indian allies in the Chickasaw War. Simon, a Free Negro who accompanied Bienville, led a company of 45 to 50 free Negroes, in that battle.

Indeed trust had been established by the Negroes, in order to gain some of the advantages freedom could bring. So much so, that in 1744, the "Place de Negroes", (later known as Congo Square) becomes the established place to meet, transact business, get news, etc, openly, on Sundays, for free men of color, and later for the area slaves, as they began to sell, and produce other goods to accumulate money to buy their freedom. These slaves would gather by the hundreds on Sunday afternoons to sing and dance in their traditional style at Congo Plains (now the site of Louis Armstrong Park).

But the slaves, had not abandoned their thirst for freedom. They had formed a plan and meeting in the square enabled them to perfect their plans. But this would prove to be time consuming and slow. They relied on the Indians to help negotiate the swamps and continued to cultivate their relationship with them, even establishing a sort of underground railroad to the maroon camps where possible.

Banishment to the Underground!
It was at this time the Negroes were very thankful to have such allies, and in 1746 archives begin to refer to slaves dressing as Indians as the African Americans began to celebrate Mardi Gras in their unique customary fashion. These were in all likelihood, the first known " Black Indians ". Slaves escaped where ever they could and were tracked as far as the camps, in many instances. Indeed in 1756, the trickle became a flood as more than 40 slaves escape into the swamps and bayou's of the state. Aided by the "Maroon camps", their numbers began to swell as free men of color. Squaws are known to be in the camps, and some bear children which are known as mulatto's. Twenty years of this went on, and escapes were really becoming a problem. Indeed at one point, the governor threw up his hands and declared, "Where are those n.g...s running too? There's nothing out there but swamp!".

In 1771, the Free Men of color were now holding parties in the back areas of the cities and in the Maroon Camps, during Mardi Gras celebrations, and still dressing with the Indians, while adopting their ways. But because of the mass of escapes plus the fact that some of these Creoles were sneaking in to the balls, something had to be done. The sneak ins were only discovered days afterwards, causing great embarrassments to the cream of society. In 1781, the Spanish administration of the city at the Cabildo, granted a prohibition of black persons from being masked, wearing feathers, and attending night balls. This only forced them to now dress and roam only in the black neighborhoods and Congo Square.

In 1783, the Perseverance Benevolent & Mutual Aid Association was formed by free men of color, to serve as a unique form of insurance and social aide to the Negroes. This was the first of of what would become hundreds of such organizations, that would become the cornerstone of most of the African American walking clubs, and Carnival Organizations of present.

During the next ten or so years, things remained quite, but the stream of escapes began to wear Spanish lawmakers the wrong way. A way had to be found to stem the tide of escapes. Then in 1795, twenty -three conspirators were hanged when the Spanish authorities allegedly discovered plans for a slave uprising from the free men of color, who themselves, owned slaves. The bodies hung from gibbets for several days along the river. But even during all of this, things were were about to get twenty times worse.

During the years of 1783 to 1803, life under Spanish/French rule, free Negro's and free men of color, were an integral part of the colonial militia whose peacetime duties were patrolling the streets of New Orleans after dark and the maintenance of Law and Order. This had allowed them to trade off favors for money and a chance at freedom. But along came the year 1803, and the Louisiana Purchase takes place. America Troops march into New Orleans to take possession of the colony. Things will never be the same for the slaves, Creoles, and free men of color, after the "arrogant Americans arrived".

With the acquisition of Louisiana, Jefferson nearly doubled the size of the fledgling U.S. and made it a world power. Later, 13 states or parts of states were carved out of the Louisiana Purchase territory. The laws changed over night, and no more slaves were to be set free. Americans acted very nasty as opposed to the french and Spanish. To top it off, the Americans didn't allow any Indians to enter the city. The first sign of real trouble was in 1804, when fights began to break out as tempers flare about whether French or English music is to be played at the Carnival balls. New ordinance requires two policeman to be present and no weapons to be carried at the balls. For 6 years things got progressively worse for the African slaves on the plantations.

The year 1811 brought the greatest slave revolt in American history in St. John Parish, as an estimated 500 field hands walked off the upriver plantations. But they were sandwiched between Federal troops moving down from Baton Rouge, giving chase, and the Battalion of soldiers made up of Free Men of color. They were trapped. Though well organized, they had been betrayed before they could get to New Orleans, with the battle ending in Jefferson Parish in what is today, Kenner, La. The revolt was put down savagely, by 1 company of Mulattos, troops (consisting of Indians, Negro's, Creoles, and free men of color) Some of the surviving Negroes, and Creoles slaves began to tell who was involved in the revolt after repeated beatings. This lead to a general feeling of uneasiness, and charges of insurrection ( at the link: reference record #183 - # 202 and records #227 - #242 ) being brought not only against the actual participants, but any slave thought to be a trouble maker, whether he took part or not. (ref record # 187, 14 yrs old and records #238 - #242) It took some time to find all the accused slaves, upwards to 3 years, even then, some still managed to escape north.

Because of the fear generated by the 1811 slave revolt, all gatherings by slaves and free men of color were prohibited. This ended all masking by the Indians in Congo square. They had to alter their plans, routes and dates to remain undiscovered. This sent the Mardi Gras Indians into deep hiding. But the art was still practiced, and by now the costumes for which they are extremely famous for began to appear.

It wouldn't be until 1835, that the Black Indians, would resurfaced, in the known archives.

Rebirth of a tradition!
The culture however survived despite being forced underground by the fear of rebellion after the 1811 Slave revolt, and later as the "Jim Crow" laws of the 1890's. A tradition that keeps alive the memory of a two century bond between African-American and Native Americans. The Native Americans and the African slaves share a reverence for the spirits of their ancestors a strong belief in the celebration of seasonal changes and the use of ritual costumes.

It is a West African tradition to signal respect for one's host by dressing like them at ritual celebrations. There is strong evidence that the costumes of modern day Mardi Gras Indians are a cross between Africa ritual costumes and that of the Native American. This is likely because of the fact that the slaves sold here were mostly from the west African nations that captured and sold slaves to the white traders that frequented the coasts at that time in history.

The Black Indian nation is loosely organized into, what was originally called, "gangs", now called and known as "tribes", which labor all year long in some loose secretive way, creating magnificent "suits" consisting of intricate hand beading , false gems and stones, and decorative feathers and plumes as well as symbolic accouterments like rifles sticks (staffs), shields and tribal flags. They wear long braided wigs or wear tied bandanas on their heads to shield the headpieces from body oil and dirt. They also wear crowns to the beaded and feathered costumes and use moccasin-style footwear. Some now wear the same color " tights ", where possible to aid in keeping cool.

This blending of the two cultures have spawned a new unique tradition.

On Mardi Gras day, each year, "tribes" of black Indians, parade through their own neighborhoods singing and dancing to traditional chants, particularly unique to the Mardi Gras Indians. They do this to re-claim territory, and still for some, it is to "settle old scores", with rival tribes. But the tradition, has but one root cause and meaning, "To honor the Indians that helped us in our struggle to reclaim our freedom."

The "Dark Side" of Heritage
But there was a dark side to the tradition as well. New Orleans culture has been lively and diverse, but certain held prejudices, by the people, white and black, caused rifts. Since the early 1800's, the cultural differences of the French, Spanish, and Anglo fostered a rivalry between the districts. These racial and cultural differences were passed on, to the African American community as well, and indeed exists even today.

The districts, the uptown and downtown areas, hold two groups of Indians, the group with West Indian roots, and a group with African roots. The two groups of Indians, subsequently, exhibit those tendencies to show their respective distain for each other.

In the early decades, the two groups would manifest this resentment in physical fights among themselves on the days of masking. There would be gunfights, and shootouts. Stabbings, and hatchet attacks, as tribes would meet each other. It was during the times of best opportunity, times when the NOPD or "police", "the man", was stretched to the departments operational limits, that the tribes took to the streets of Nawlins'. During this time of Carnival, police were busy controlling the crowds of Bourbon street in the French Quarter, and the parade crowds on St. Charles Av. Most often, they didn't have the man power or sometimes even the desire to respond to calls of violence in the black section of town. This was "prime time to settle up", on old debts, scores and revenge for perceived wrong doings. Many accounts of wives and mothers crying as their men, and sons wandered off are told, because they didn't know whether or not they would see their loved ones alive again.

Those were the days when the Indians would indeed shoot or stab a rival tribe member. This was a time when if you masked you were deemed of questionable character and no one wanted to be around you for fear they would come to harm. Participants were family members, neighbors, and friends, all would find themselves immersed in the lore of the Indians as well as their music and activities.... and their weekly "Indian practices". The secularization of the public ritual parading in New Orleans took many decades to disappear, so much time was taken, in fact, that much of the original symbolism in the parading attire and the unique cult language of the Sunday tribes has been lost or very difficult to retrieve via oral sources.

It was during this time when the public began to refer to the Black Indians as Mardi Gras Indians, since the best season to catch sight of one would be in Carnival season, and prime time to see them was on Mardi Gras day

Many Indians have remarked that the dancing traditions only mimic what was once ritualistic warfare. they have also stated that the craft of producing the costumes have all changed dramatically in the past few decades. The formal etiquette that surrounded Indian street activities for at least a century has lost much of its continuity and detail. In later decades, the distain finally gave way to a less physical way of resolving these conflicts of who were the best tribes. The method: Who could sew the most beautiful costume.

A New and Unique Showdown!
In the late 1940's the Indians began to realize that the killing of each other was not the way and by the late 1960's, the wave of violence has pretty much given way to a whole new form of showdown on the Bayou of St. John. Enter the costume pose down!

As to the stoning and beading of costumes-- these brilliant spectacles are made of colorful ostrich plumes, feathers, sequins, rhinestones, ribbons, and beads. Each suit represents many hundreds of hours of effort by the individual Indian and other helpers and is worn only one season before it is broken down. This hand sewn suit contains specific parts. A vest usually covers the chest and back and sometimes a dickey is worn around the neck. Under the arms are wings that open up when the arms are extended. Once the wrists may have been additional decorative "sleeves." Below the waist--both in the front and back--is a large apron the last often being the most elaborate. Designs are sketched on canvas "patches" and painstakingly beaded and "stoned" into the costume. Each patch or design tells a story and must be in harmony with the dominant color of the costume. The beaded patches which are the base of many suits, are works of art, and worthy of preservation as a form of true indigenous folk art.

The Indians keep this traditions alive through great personal sacrifice as an Indian suit may cost many thousands of dollars. Estimates of material, time and labor run from a low of $18,000 to a high of $57,000 dollars. Through generations the suits have become more elaborate. Each creation stands alone as a work of art. It is with a great deal of pride and pleasure that we salute the families of those African-American men, women, and children who make and wear the costumes.

Although each suit is a spectacular visual manifestation of the Black Indian culture, it is by no means the sole method of expression. Individual members of the tribe exhibit extraordinary skills in confrontational posturing, music singing, and role playing.

One by one, dancing in toe/heel fashion, each member of a tribe meets his counterpart. Spyboy first meets Spyboy. Flagboy meets Flagboy. Wildman, then first, second, and third chiefs, queen(s) and children, all meet and play out their traditional roles. And finally one big chief faces another. Knees bent, arms outspread, swaying from foot to foot, and turning in a circular motion the chiefs slowly size up each other. This preening proves especially effective for showing off the costumes. Prestige for the tribe is garnered through the beauty and intricacy of the suits role playing and the strength of its presence in the community.

This ritualized dance, and miniature competition, drawing both from the African and Native American heritage, occurs only when one tribe meets another. The competition is to exhibit the most beautiful suit. Elaborately plumed and intricately beaded costumes are the distinguishing features of the Mardi Gras Indians. Each year on Mardi Gras Day, St. Joseph's Day and Super Sunday, with some other appearances during the year, neighborhood tribes display their dazzling, colorful costume artistry. The tribes move through the community in informal competition with a call -and-response chant punctuated by drums, tambourines and makeshift instruments. When opposing tribes meet, there is dancing and general "showing off," all with a shared pride in "suiting up as Indian." Participants in this street theater - with accompanying percussive rhythms, creolized song texts, and colorful feathered explosions - reflect respect and homage to the American Indian and the African ancestral legacy. Since the tribes have no set routes for their day's "journeys" whether they meet each other, or not, is sometimes entirely a matter of chance. To witness this procession, it is the custom to wait- perhaps from dawn-outside the house of one of the big chiefs. Song lyrics, are accompanied by "percussive instrument" ... the banging drums cow bells and tambourines are customarily "called" by the big chief. The tribe and its crowd of enthusiastic followers "respond" sometimes chanting a traditional chorus of words that have no common meaning and often derived from the early Creole language. These songs, although similar are rarely,-if ever- sung, in just the same way by all the tribes although they lay claim to the same repertoire. The tempo may be relaxed or fast depending upon the mood of the singers, but it remains consistent throughout the song. Competition is nurtured in a creative climate that awards prestige and respect to the person, who is able to out-sew, out-dress, and out-sing" another Black Indian of equal rank from another tribe.

This culture like so many other micro ethnic cultures, is highly stressed and, at worse, is in extreme danger of passing out of existence. Young blacks in economically depressed New Orleans, and therefore are hard-pressed to become Mardi Gras Indians, and older members are beginning to retire leaving few to attempt the skill, patience, and sacrifice necessary to continue the tradition, by passing it along to the next person. At best the culture is succumbing to change, brought about by the external pressures of the need to survive modern day commercial threats, and the inability to resist conforming to society's demands for familiar sameness. To be an Indian is a very special calling. It means defying seemingly overwhelming forces and making a stand for individual power. That power is often exhibited in 'being pretty' and in 'playing Indian' well.

In reality Mardi Gras is not the real focus of the black-Indian ritual cycle which runs for several days, and events throughout the year and includes St. Joseph's Day as well as Fat Tuesday. The earliest documented parading of black-Indians occurred during holy day processions and military dress parades of the century-long colonial era and continued through the Antebellum decades.

Endangered Times!
The Indian culture is under siege, because of many external pressures: the shear cost of materials such as textiles, and rhinestones for example; the tedious time-consuming nature of the sewing and beading; the fading of family and neighborhood support. To these factors, must be added the ironic fact of outside attention which though it may bring sympathetic interest to bear on a besieged folk-culture tends at the same time to distort the Indian's craft and performance thereby presenting a challenge to its authenticity; media and public attention may have an insidiously seductive effect on some individuals who may prefer to mask and parade on the big day without "paying dues" in the sense of producing one's own costume from scratch. Participants may be encouraged to play to an outside audience rather than maintain and focus upon communication between and among tribes and between tribe members and the larger neighborhood. The fact that each artisan operates alone and conceals his creative production until the day of its debut ought not beguile the observer into thinking that the Indian culture is a purely individualistic one. In fact it depends for its continuance upon the interplay of artisan family tribal alliance and neighborhood.

America is festooned with large cities having marginal areas of impoverished and miserable underclass inhabitants who cycle through life known only to their immediate relatives. Though New Orleans also presents some of these pictures there is more. The traditionally neglected and outcast classes of the New Orleans underground have for centuries responded with counter narratives, counter music, and counter art forms of many kinds. That is they have responded to creatively to their condition and heritage. Louis Armstrong was a waif from an orphanage who revolutionized popular music and became New Orleans' first world citizen. In the case of the Indians we find a parallel creative response to like conditions. As there are many biographies of Armstrong none actually identifies who he is. He remains a mystery.

Soon, unless a way is found to help, the Indian may well pass from us.

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

150th Anniversary of the Dred Scott Decision

2007-02-17T01:53:31Z

I'm giving props to Dred Scott! And the brother who did this website. Please take a few minutes to support his efforts and to read more about this historical event. Thanks. http://www.thedredscottfoundation.org/ds_intro.html

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Mainstream Hip-Hop

2007-02-09T00:09:23Z

Am I the only one that is through with mainstream hip-hop? How many times in a day can I be told to shake my butt?

I really through, even with my former favorite...The Jigga Man himself.

It's only so much of the "Money, Hoes, Cars and Clothes" I can take. I'm really done

posted in Black Men - 39 replies

An Open Letter to America's Soldiers from the Ranks

2007-02-08T16:50:04Z

The Looming Shadow of Nuremberg

By TONY SWINDELL
February 7, 2007
www.counterpunch.org/

Crimes Listed by the Nuremberg Standard of 1947: a war of aggression, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for its accomplishment; murder or ill-treatment of civilian populations in occupied territory; murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war; plunder of public or private property; wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity; crimes against humanity such as murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war.

Abu Ghraib, Haditha, Fallujah, the rape of Lebanon, the concentration camps in the West Bank and Gaza, clandestine prisons, the Iraq embargo of the 1990s, Halliburton, and Black Water. There are more, but these will suffice to compare against the Nuremberg Standard. It will not be a difficult task. For example, start with Halliburton and the plunder of public (American taxpayers') property.

How many of you recognize the name of Army Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, Jr.?

I do because he and I stood on and flew over the same ground nearly 40 years ago. Like him, I left a little blood and a lot of sweat in a Godforsaken place halfway around the world, earning four battle stars in 11 months. Plus some cheap tin and ribbon medals made even cheaper by the good friends who never came home with me. Thompson did, too.

Hugh was a helicopter pilot who aimed his guns at American soldiers--members of my brigade -- to keep them from slaughtering civilians in the Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai 4. Spotting massacred civilians around My Lai, Thompson and his two-man crew landed beside wounded civilians to give medical help as the infantry company commander and others present kept shooting the wounded. Thompson ordered his crew to open fire if the slaughter continued. No more civilians were shot.

Thompson's story is critical because the march to a nuclear war against Iran has begun, and YOU will the ones carrying it out. There is no way to effectively "confront" Iran except with tactical nuclear weapons. Tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children will die outright or suffer lingering deaths from horrible radiation sicknesses. It will be murder, pure and simple. Look at the suffering around you and multiply it by hundreds.

No doubt you know that back home, 80 per cent of the American people voted in the last election to end the Iraq debacle, but no one in Washington listened. Our two-faced media watchdogs are a gaggle of neocon propaganda peddlers, corporate whores and New World Order shills who helped orchestrate and cheerlead the slaughter, and they sneer at your patriotism behind your backs.

Everything you've been told about Iraq is a pack of lies, and the powers that be seem to think we're all stupid enough to be conned again. We can't trust our elected representatives to carry out the will of the people. They're been bought and sold, and have just proven it. For all practical purposes, a coup d'etat has taken place.

Meanwhile, soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have problems of their own just staying alive. After four years, why doesn't everyone have the equipment and armored vehicles needed? The most cynical thing our government can do is to send its soldiers into combat with defective weapons or lacking critical equipment. To me, actions speak a lot louder than words. Just ask the folks who lost everything to Hurricane Katrina down along the Gulf Coast.

Keep in mind that defense contractors like Halliburton are raking in billions, and the 100-grand-per-year hired guns and their employers certainly aren't lacking anything they need. Take a close look at their equipment. Whether you realize it or not, these hired guns are making your job a lot harder by terrorizing and humiliating the Iraqi population, accountable to no one. I've seen it all before, only with more humidity and less sand.

Let me tell you a little secret about the plan to parcel you out in small groups and isolate you in Iraqi units. This was tried in Vietnam with disastrous results, with adjectives like suicidal. And that was before we had really gotten serious about killing people over there. How can you tell who the enemy is? Do you speak the Iraqi language and understand the culture? That friendly Iraqi kid or little girl in a burka may be taking reams of mental notes about your unit strength, equipment, and movement patterns to relay to their big brothers with the IEDs, RPGs and AKs. They may even be humping bags of ammo or ordnance and running commo for insurgents.

Count your fingers for the number of new insurgents every dead civilian creates. Rape a girl and murder her family to cover it up, and you'll need a computer. Don't forget to factor in the damage from 50,000 armed-to-the-teeth mercenaries, many of whom not only don't speak Iraqi, they don't even speak English. Always remember that none of these people invited you there to blow their country apart. Imagine how you'd feel if some friendly invaders and a bunch of their salaried thugs had wasted New York City and killed the entire population.

I can tell you from experience that it's impossible to win any kind of guerilla war without the support of the population and while soldiering from a defensive position. Have your missions turned from search and clear to search and avoid like ours did? Do you have a mentality of "the day is yours, the night is theirs"? If that's true, the situation has disintegrated into a war of attrition and you've lost.

Put aside from the moral conundrum of nuking a non-nuke country that has signed the non-proliferation treaty to keep that country from maybe getting nukes of its own, and all on behalf of another country that already has hundreds of nukes and refuses to sign any such treaties. An attack on Iran means you will be trapped between a rock and a hard place. Make no mistake: the real reason for the "surge" into Bagdad is to reinforce security around the laptop warriors and bureaucrats in the Green Zone. You'll find yourselves in the curious position of playing bodyguard for the hired guns. How ironic will that be?

Think about your families and loved ones. A large number of you are serving multiple tours, with many involuntarily extended. For the latter, your country has violated the contract it signed with you, but just try breaking your end of it. Meanwhile, military families suffer at home, a significant number of you will not have jobs to return to, and unbelievably, your government is doing its best to slash or delay veteran's benefits. For those of you who come home wounded, it will take years to get a VA disability claim processed if you succeed at all.

Are your families are living near the poverty level? Look at how many payday loan shark operations hover like vultures around stateside military posts. The bottom line is that you and your loved ones are suffering all the blood and material sacrifices while White House and Congressional cronies get unspeakably rich. And, you're being asked to do it over and over again by people who are willing to spill every drop of your blood while making sure their own children avoid wearing a uniform.

To say that combat veterans--or anyone -- who oppose these wars are against you is an outright lie. We would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you to defend our country and protect our Constitution. We want Osama bin Laden and his cohorts dead as much as you do. Our hearts break when another coffin comes home, or a young man or woman returns physically or psychologically crippled. We have personally seen and felt this pain for 30 years or more. We are outraged that it's happening all over again, and for what?

Our anger is directed at the people who have cynically exploited your patriotism and love of America, people who seem to owe their allegiance to another country, people who have been using our Constitution as toilet paper. Turn your bullshit detectors up to full volume like we have. Open your eyes and discover what true courage is. It's not just facing another man in combat, it's also standing up for what's right.

Be forewarned and forearmed: the dogs of war never confront a man's intellectual or moral compass, but only his body and his emotions. They count on your blind obedience to authority. These people are not armed with superior knowledge or competence. They have nothing but a monopoly on violence and coercion, and a talent for exploiting our ignorance and timidity. All of us were born free men and women, and it's time to once again begin living like we are. It's time to show the government where real strength of the American people lies.

The bottom line is, if you don't think an ordinary soldier like yourself can do anything about the situation, you're dead wrong. Remember the story of Hugh Thompson. When the same dogs of war start barking, you start biting like he did. You do it with two simple questions to each officer and NCO, and ask it repeatedly: "With all due respect, sir, why are we still here and when are we going home?"

You don't give up your Constitutional rights when you put on the uniform, because the defense of the Constitution is at the core of your solemn oath to serve. Anyone who orders you to give up your morality and humanity should be hung. My fervent prayer is that a brigade of Hugh Thompsons like you will rise up to put a halt to this coming atrocity.

Tony Swindell can be reached at: phoenixtexoma@550access.com

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

Take a look at this Black man in action.......

2007-02-06T18:30:20Z

My good friend Kengi has left the comfort zone and is now living on the streets of LA as a homeless person in order to find ways to better help homeless people.

I would like you to take a look at his blog and see how this is one black man who is keeping the DREAM of Dr King alive

This is a link to his blog http://people.tribe.net/chefkengi

posted in Black Men - 3 replies

my response to the National Black hiv/aid paradigm

2007-02-02T22:39:07Z

This is to provide another view of what is put over our heads, so this audio may give you another insight to what we've not been told. Something to reconsider and something (after listening) might make you go hmmmmm.
your default media player will pop up and play this awesome audio.
This is an audio from LIBRadio:
lib.mp3 www.mediamax.com/spectrumb...%20lib.mp3

Terry

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

2007-02-01T20:15:07Z

Information regarding the National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day:

News Release
Date: December 28, 2006
Media Contact: David Whiters
Phone: 404 370-0123
On February 6, 2007, in recognition of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (actual date for NBHAAD, February 7, 2007), four metro-Atlanta area AIDS Service Organizations (AID Atlanta, AID Gwinnett, Recovery Consultants of Atlanta, Inc., and St. Joseph's Mercy Care) will test more than 1,000 individuals for HIV from among Atlanta's homeless population, utilizing the Oraquick ADVANCE® 20-minute rapid test. This initiative, made possible through a partnership with the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), a component of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Institute for Health Protection, will increase HIV awareness and reduce HIV infection and transmission among Atlanta's homeless population. Additional Sponsors include Georgia Department of Human Resources-HIV Section and Abbott Laboratories.
This extraordinary event is supported by more than 100 well-trained volunteers that serve as HIV pre and post -test counselors. This support affords us the opportunity to test simultaneously at the sites of three (3) Atlanta-based African American churches and five (5) homeless shelters.
As a result of this testing initiative, we project that:
· More than 96% will be African American
· More than 30% will be African American women
· More than 80% will meet a DSM-IV criteria for substance abuse or dependence
· More than 80% will self-report being homeless
· Four to five percent will discover for the first time that they are living with HIV
· Four to five percent will self-report that they were previously aware of their HIV-positive status
· Of those who report being previously aware of their HIV-positive status, less than 10% will report being active in HIV care services
· Within a 30-day period post the testing initiative, a minimum of 25 individuals will be linked with HIV care services and a minimum of 25 individuals will be linked with publicly funded drug treatment services as strategy for reducing HIV-infection and transmission
For more information regarding this event or for information on how you and/or your organization can participate, please visit us at www.recoveryconsultants.org.

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

Hip Hop Is Dead: Art, Culture, & Tradition

2007-01-26T17:33:01Z

25 January 2007]
Homer, Dante, Milton, and Nas: It's bigger than Hip Hop Is Dead.
by Quentin B. Huff
www.popmatters.com/pm/featu...radition/

Hip-hop wasn’t mainstream when I was a kid. It wasn’t considered an art form. There weren’t really any rich rappers. I got into it because that’s what I loved. It’s what my neighborhood was. It’s what I was. And now, we’re finally going to see hip-hop get old. We’re going to see it have the same life span as jazz or B.B. King. When I’m 60 years old and LL Cool J has a show, I’ll be in the front row. I mean, who else am I going to go see?
..................................—Nas, ”Hip Hop Family Values” by Alex Abramovich, New York Times, 5 December, 2004.

In high school, I loved study aids, much to the dismay of my teachers. By “study aids”, I don’t mean hardcover books from the library catalog. I’m talking about books in the “Note” series, one of many collections of paperbacked jewels, packed with condensed wisdom. Some of them were black and yellow, some red and black, but no matter what the colors were, kids could always count on these little books to distill a gargantuan classic into its essential elements. Character analysis, plot summaries, themes, foreshadowing, symbolism, you name it. They’re the ones who told me Heathcliff was such a playa hater in Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, that the color blue symbolized “illusion” in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, or that Shakespeare’s plays contained enough naughty innuendo to make pre-symbol Prince blush. Even better, these little books could teach you all this the night before the exam.

Things changed for me when these study aids began publishing summaries of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The way I saw it, an “autobiography”, even one that was “told to” someone else, was a testament to a man’s life, detailing his feelings and emotions, communicating his struggles and his passions. Malcolm X—controversial, strident, intriguing, multi-faceted—could hardly be captured in the book he helped Alex Haley produce, let alone a summary of that book. Instead of being aided by the study materials, I realized I had been missing the power and depth of the original works, and I was circumventing my opportunities to digest and internalize them. A “study aid” should be just that, an “aid” to clue you into the nuances of the works you’re experiencing.

Which, believe it or not, brings me to my enthusiasm for Hip Hop Is Dead, the 2006 release from Nasir “Nas” Jones, and why I am championing this album as more than a “rap record”, but as a work of art—an epic. Is it perfect? Well, no. Some of its concepts are jumbled; some of its execution could have been better. Considering the prior beef between Jay-Z and Nas (I call it “The Takeover vs. Ether"), the collaboration between them probably could have been more momentous. But those details don’t concern me.

See, Hip Hop Is Dead shouldn’t be dismissed as merely an ode to “golden age” hip-hop. Tupac already handled that in 1995 on Me Against the World‘s “Old School”. Hip Hop Is Dead is about the shared experience of hip-hop, the “were-you-there-too” moments. It’s about the way we’ve digested and internalized this strange, organic phenomenon we call “rap music”, the way it soothed us when we were upset, the way we heard a “dope” rhyme and couldn’t wait to say, “Yo, you got that new YZ? No? You gotta listen to YZ, man.” And, just so you know, there really was a rapper named YZ (pronounced “Why-Zee"). If we don’t want hip-hop to die, we’ve got to remember its origins ("[I]t all started from two turntables”, Nas says on “Carry On Tradition"). We, as rappers and rap fans, need to think seriously about what we want out of hip-hop and where we want this culture to go.

The Epic
On her website, schoolteacher Sandra Effinger provides a useful definition of an epic. She was kind enough to let me quote it, as follows:

[An epic is] a long narrative poem on a great and serious subject, related in an elevated style, and centered on a heroic or quasi-divine figure on whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation, or the human race. The traditional epics were shaped by a literary artist from historical and legendary materials which had developed in the oral traditions of his nation during a period of expansion and warfare.

This definition reminds me of Nas and Hip Hop Is Dead. Let’s break it down:

1. “A long narrative poem”—that’s hip-hop’s general format.

2. “On a great and serious subject”—Hip-Hop Is Dead is premised upon the death of hip-hop as a rhetorical and cultural movement.

3. “Related in an elevated style”—Nas’s complex rhymes, and his heightened sense of urgency to sound good on this album, will qualify.

4. “Centered on a heroic or quasi-divine figure”—Nas is the hero, known in hip-hop circles as, among other epithets, “God’s Son”. Additionally, Nas’s epic heroism can be traced back to his first hit, “It Ain’t Hard To Tell”:

Hit the Earth like a comet invasion
Nas is like the Afrocentric Asian, half-man, half-amazin’
‘Cause in my physical, I can express through song
Delete stress like Motrin, then extend strong
I drank Moet with Medusa, give her shotguns in Hell
From the spliff that I lift and inhale, it ain’t hard to tell

5. “On whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a nation or the human race”—the fate of hip-hop is tied to the fate of a generation and, ultimately, to society as a whole.

I connected with Hip Hop Is Dead on a level beyond identifying which of the album’s beats are the tightest—I actually like them all, even the Chris Webber-produced “Blunt Ashes”. My connection went beyond the speculation of whether Nas could produce an album equal or superior to his 1994 classic Illmatic. Had we, as artists and music lovers, interacted differently with hip-hop, Nas may never have felt compelled to record Hip Hop Is Dead. To me, it’s tough to compare the best album he’s recorded (Illmatic) to the best album he never should’ve had to make (Hip Hop Is Dead).

Connecting with this album goes beyond the controversy surrounding the album title—you didn’t really think Nas believed hip-hop was dead, did you? What’s at stake here then? It’s about art and its potential to shape minds and change lives. The stakes are the direction of hip-hop itself, which will influence the direction of a people. As Nas says on the album closer, “Hope”:

Ain’t got nothin’ to do wit’ Old School, New School
Dirty South, West Coast, East Coast
This [is] about us
This [is] our thing, know what I’m sayin’
This came from the gut, from the blood, from the soul
Right here, man
This is our thing, man

This is deep, heady stuff, the business of legends, and through his “long narrative poem”, in 16 parts we like to call “songs”, Nas embarks on a journey that is partly hypothetical and partly historical, drawing upon the traditions of rap’s most revered emcees and their master works, all in an effort to rally us to preserve our culture. It’s not about going back; it’s about embracing ways to move forward.

The Hero
Epics, like most stories, function through heroes. Homer’s epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey trumpeted the adventures of warriors like Achilles and Ulysses (also called “Odysseus"). Hip Hop Is Dead predictably positions Nas as its central hero (after all, it’s his album).

Nas is the perfect artist to undertake a project with this theme. KRS-One, Chuck D, or Rakim might have been able to do it, but Nas sits uncomfortably on the cusp between “old school” and “new school”, old enough to remember our pioneers ("Before the BDP conflict with MC Shan”, he rhymed in ‘94 on “Represent") but young enough to come of age in the ‘80s. He speaks to ‘70s and ‘80s babies as a peer, not a mentor.

Besides, few rappers have been saddled with as many expectations as Nas. He is an Atlas, saddled with being the “next big thing” before his debut even hit the airwaves. And when it did, it was a monster, viewed as the kind of mountaintop achievement that simultaneously pleases and plagues performers. Landmark albums put you in a box and, unfortunately, hip-hop isn’t quite as malleable as pop. Madonna is free to reinvent herself—indeed, she’s the Queen of reinvention—but rappers are not. Sure, you might see a name change (MC Hammer drops the “MC” then puts it back or Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs can morph into “P. Diddy” or “Diddy"), but it’s difficult to change directions, as MC Hammer found out when he experimented with a harder edge in the mid-90s or as Dr. Dre discovered in the aftermath of his “gangsta rap” persona.

Nas, though, has always been a writer. He’s proud of it, quite a unique thing in rap music, since rap lovers hold freestyling in high esteem. You get mad props if you can rhyme straight off the dome, as dramatized by Eminem’s movie 8 Mile. Yet, Nas refers to his writings with lines like:

I sip the Dom P, watchin’ Gandhi ‘til I’m charged, then
Writin’ in my book of rhymes, all the words pass the margin
—“The World Is Yours”, Illmatic

And he’s been creative with his songwriting, challenging himself to explore a wide range of themes and to push the limits of the form. Consider “Rewind”, from Stillmatic (2001), a tune in which Nas narrates a story backwards, from end to beginning, like the video for Beyonce’s Me, Myself & I, starting with the bullet that ends a man’s life and reversing the action until we hear the beginning: an answering machine message ordering the hit. Equally intriguing is “Book of Rhymes”, from 2002’s God’s Son. Here, Nas builds a song around the unearthing of old journals he hadn’t seen in years. Psyched about his find, he rhymes from the unfamiliar pages of his notebooks. He rediscovers his thoughts, critiquing them right in front of us as he goes, ripping out the parts he thinks are weak. You even hear him turning the pages as he rhymes! In 2004, Nas wrote a rhyme called “U.B.R. (Unauthorized Biography of Rakim)”, in honor of one of rap’s supreme lyricists. The rhyme takes the form of a book, complete with a “dedication”, an “acknowledgement”, an “epilogue”, a “discography”, and a promise to produce another book about KRS-One.
In addition to Nas’s writing, he has demonstrated an understanding of, and affection for, hip-hop’s terrain. The title, Hip Hop Is Dead, embodies that understanding, as a throwback to De La Soul’s De La Soul Is Dead (1991), and De La’s critique of hardcore posturing.

The overall context for hip-hop’s internal debates (what’s real versus what’s counterfeit) is informed by the work of KRS-One, who has devoted much of his long career to teaching us the importance of hip-hop as a culture. You’ll also find Mos Def and Talib Kweli’s remake of Slick Rick’s “Children’s Story” instructive in this regard. As far as hip-hop concept albums go, praise has to go out to Prince Paul’s Prince Among Thieves (1999), a hip-hop opera that revolves around a young man’s quest to finish his demo tape and his journey through the underbelly of the streets.

In 1999, Mos Def said:
Hip Hop will simply amaze you
Craze you, pay you
Do whatever you say do
But, Black, it can’t save you
—“Hip Hop”, Black on Both Sides

If hip-hop won’t save us, then we must be mindful of our power to save hip-hop. Hip Hop Is Dead demands that we, as saviors, ask ourselves, “What are we saving it from?” and “What are we saving it for?” We must have a purpose.

The guitar-laden backtrack of the song “Hip Hop Is Dead”, resurrected from Nas’s own “Thief’s Theme” (2004), might have been chosen as a link to Lenny Kravitz’s “Rock & Roll Is Dead” (1995). Not so much because the songs sound alike, mind you, but because Kravitz sang lines like this:

You can’t even sing or play an instrument
So you just scream instead
You’re living for an image
So you got five hundred women in your bed
Rock and Roll is dead

Prince (or, The Artist, as we called him back then) responded to Kravitz’s call with “Rock & Roll Is Alive (And It Lives in Minneapolis)” (1995), a b-side to the “Gold” single. Prince retorted, “Some people say it’s dyin’ / but we don’t wanna play that game”. Nas, as we know from his album, finds hope that his preferred genre is not deceased, thereby combining Kravitz’s call with Prince’s response.

But Nas probably owes the biggest debt to Ice Cube’s controversial album, Death Certificate (1991). Ice Cube sets the American nightmare within his scope, sporting an album cover that showed the rapper standing over a body that’s laid out and covered in the US flag, with a toe tag that reads, “Uncle Sam”. On a deeper level, Ice Cube’s “U.S.” stands for “us”—society in general, and the “Black community” in particular—every bit as much as it stands for “Uncle Sam”, the country. Insofar as “Uncle Sam” can be a pernicious state of mind absorbed into a group’s sense of identity, Ice Cube tells us that killing off our internal demons is paramount. On the song “U.S.”, Ice Cube rhymes in the third verse:

Us—will always sing the blues

‘Cause all we care about is hairstyles and tennis shoes
And if you step on mine, you pushed the button
‘Cause I’ll beat you down like it ain’t nothin’
And in the first verse:
We can’t enjoy ourselves
Too busy jealous at each other’s wealth
But comin’ up’s just in me
But the Black community is full of envy

You’ll find that last sentiment echoed in Nas’s aptly titled “Carry On Tradition”, when he says, “Hip-hop been dead, we the reason it died / Wasn’t…because MC’s skills are lost / It’s because we can’t see ourselves as the boss”.

But, more importantly, Ice Cube’s Death Certificate gave us the thesis for Hip Hop is Dead. Again from “US”:

Pretty soon, hip-hop won’t be so nice
No Ice Cube, just Vanilla Ice
And you’ll sit and scream and cuss
But there’s no one to blame—but us.
And that’s where the story of Hip Hop Is Dead really begins.

The Premise & the Battle
Every epic has a story, an argument, or a premise. In Paradise Lost, for example, John Milton famously set out to “justify the ways of God to men”. On Hip Hop Is Dead, Nas engages us in the possible consequences of hip-hop’s death. He’s asking, “What would you do if hip-hop died?” The scenario comes to life as a sort of hip-hop detective story voiced by the song “Who Killed It”, in which we hear Nas rhyming an allegory in imitation (and perhaps homage) to the hardboiled mystery stories. He’s usin’ the old “why-I-oughta” accent to tell a story, see? An allegory about hip-hop, personified as a “dame”, even. A “skirt”, a “broad”, a real looker. Now am-scray, will ya? Move, Kid, ya bother me.

Misogyny runs deep in our society, doesn’t it? But the genius of the song, and the work as a whole, is Nas’s ability to absorb our societal quirks and combine them with hip-hop’s traditions to weave his narrative. Nas isn’t the first to personify hip-hop, as he does in the title track ("On my second marriage, hip-hop’s my first wifey"). Common did it, of course, in “I Used to Love H.E.R.” (1994), analogizing hip-hop music to a woman he loves, a woman who eventually loses her way and becomes troubled and distant. Hip Hop Is Dead, then, could be seen as a continuation of Common’s premise, taking hip-hop’s dangerous behavior to its logical conclusion—an early grave.

Each song on Hip Hop Is Dead takes us through Nas’s journey to explore the implications of hip-hop’s death. In true epic fashion, the album opens in medias res, Latin for “in the middle of things”. The first song, “Money Over Bullsh*t” opens in the heat of battle, perhaps an allusion to the current debate over whether hip-hop is still viable (they say albums sales are down) or still relevant (they say the true hip-hop soldiers traded their rhymes for cars and flashy jewelry). In any event, Nas rhymes in fight mode, saying on the chorus:

Join me in war, many will live, many will mourn
Money Over Bullsh*t, pistols over brawn
Afraid not of none of you cowards but of my own strength
Afraid not of none of you cowards but of my own strength

The battle theme is continued on “You Can’t Kill Me”, which depicts Nas as being ready and able to fight. It’s possible, that Nas is rhyming, in an abstract way, from the first person view of Hip-Hop, thereby intertwining his artistic vision with the continued vitality of the art. Many of the album’s lyrics could be interpreted this way. As Nas says later on the title song, “If hip-hop should die, we die together”.

“Carry On Tradition” and “Where Are They Now” are the war cries, the former sounding like a mission statement for both “old” and “new” school acts, while the latter acts as a roll call for the “homies”, the soldiers of hip-hop, from Kwame and MC Shan to Special Ed and Shante. The technique of listing items, places, or people is an epic convention called “cataloguing”. The Iliad, for instance, catalogues battle camps:

Peneleos, Leitus, Arcesilaus, Prothoenor, and Clonius were captains of the Boeotians…Ascalaphus and Ialmenus, sons of Mars, led the people that dwelt in Aspledon and Orchomenus the realm of Minyas…The Phoceans were led by Schedius and Epistrophus, sons of mighty Iphitus the son of Naubolus.

Likewise, “Where Are They Now” catalogues the names of hip-hop’s finest:
Redhead Kingpin, Tim Dog? Have you seen ‘em?
Kwame, King Tee, or King Sun
Super Lover Cee, Casanova Rud
Antoinette, Rob Base never showin’ up
You seen Black Sheep, Group Home, Busy Bee?
Ask Ill and Al Scratch, “Where my homies?”
Leave it to y’all, these n*ggas left for dead
Last week my man swore he saw Special Ed.

Yes, Nas revisits the so-called “golden age” of rap, the “good ol’ days”, but he’s doing more than remembering the “pioneers”. It’s also about how we’ve lived through hip-hop, how we’ve been shaped by it, and how we express kinship through shared experiences. Nas’s message should make us “Remember why” as much as it makes us “Remember when”.

Rap is like a ghost town, real mystic
Like these folks never existed
They’re the reason that rap became addictive
Play their CD or wax and get lifted

Moreover, some of the rappers mentioned are still active. For instance, Def Jef is still a top producer, while Kwame has written and produced songs for artists such as Lloyd Banks, Mary J. Blige, and Christina Aguilera. Special Ed released an album in 2004, and other leaders of the “old school” (C.L. Smooth, X-Clan, Public Enemy, MC Hammer, and Kool Keith, to name a few) dropped albums in 2006. So when Nas wants to know, “Where are they now?”, we’re faced with two challenges: (1) being knowledgeable about hip-hop’s history and (2) staying informed about what our artists are producing. These are our messengers. Nobody’s going to respect them if we don’t.

Some listeners gloss over the charge to be knowledgeable about our history. But when you think about it, it’s a big deal. Back in the ‘80s, hip-hop didn’t have major label backing and worldwide distribution. Now, in the 21st century, the art’s been around long enough to warrant some sort of canon. So what should we include? Who are the central hip-hop figures? What are the major events in hip-hop? What’s essential listening? It’s no different than the curriculum debates in the US school systems, such as, “Should we reduce what our history courses will teach about George Washington to make room for people like Granville T. Woods or Irene Morgan or an event like the Tulsa, Oklahoma Race Riot in 1921?” For hip-hop, the question is, first of all, what does a person have to know about hip-hop to be considered “properly educated”? Obviously, Nas has some suggestions, “I got an exam, let’s see if y’all pass it / Let’s see who can quote a Daddy Kane line the fastest.”

The Descent
From “Where Are They Now”, we move to the title track’s solidification of the album’s premise, followed by the whodunit rhyme of “Who Killed It?”, discussed above.
At this point, the album changes direction, focusing now on hip-hop’s descent. “Street life” in the “‘hood”—the “ghetto”, let’s say—becomes comparable to the “underworld”—the Hades of Greek mythology or the inferno of Dante’s Divine Comedy—where heroes are often forced to travel. This descent begins with the Jay-Z collaboration “Black Republicans”, as our two titans of the hip-hop pantheon, Jay-Z (known to us as “Jay-Hova") and Nas (who calls himself “God’s Son") declaring their inability to turn away from “the ‘hood”. You’ll notice that Jay-Z starts the song referring to Nas as “Esco”, Nas’s often-used derivative of “Escobar” (as in the notorious Pablo Escobar), another sign that things are switching up. You’ll also notice that, with the slight exception of the title track’s chorus, “Black Republicans” marks the first appearance of another vocalist besides Nas.

This way, Nas takes the first six songs to flesh out his premise. The musical backdrop of “Black Republicans” brings the necessary tension, incorporating a sample from Carmine Coppola’s Godfather compositions.

The Godfather trilogy (along with Scarface, Goodfellas, and similar films) has informed much of hip-hop’s music and presentation, from hip-hop’s undercurrent of organized crime themes to album covers using what I call “the Godfather font”—look at the lettering of the Godfather DVD cover and compare it to Young Jeezy’s The Inspiration or the album from Nas’s own super-group the Firm. The Godfather movies possess epic qualities, with Godfather III most ambitiously chronicling lead character Michael Corleone’s internal and external struggle to purge the original sin of his Family (its Mafia connections) and reach salvation. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) endeavors to legitimize his business, at the public level, while at the personal level seeking absolution, from the Pope no less, for ordering the deaths of his enemies, including his brother Fredo who ratted him out in Godfather II.

But, as Michael tells his sister Connie, “All my life I kept trying to go up in society, where everything higher up was legal, straight. But the higher I go, the crookeder it becomes. How in the hell does it end?”

That’s the Hell of an epic hero and, perhaps, a rap star, as hip-hop sought and achieved mainstream success and globalization. Is it possible that the higher hip-hop goes (more cash, more cars, more karats), even if it’s only in the videos, the more internally conflicted the artistic vision becomes? Getting back to Nas, we hear the hellish tension on “Not Going Back”, featuring his real life wife Kelis. The track opens with gunshots, and then there’s Nas’s mischievous voice, boasting, “What, n*gga! What b*tch-ass n*ggas! What!
Babe, babe, start the car!” As he and his girl make their escape, Kelis complains, “Why are we out here? What’s going on?…This is crazy. Never again. You’d throw everything away, for what?”

We aren’t given the circumstances of the shooting. Unlike most hip-hop skits, this isn’t a miniature movie. Who was Nas shooting at? Was he playing himself or was he in character? It’s unclear, but what we know for sure is Nas’s declaration that he’s not going back to the ‘hood. Indeed, there’s a taboo about looking back, in hip-hop ("Yeah, my man Kool G Rap told me, ‘Son, do not look back’") and in society at large, like the Bible story of Lot’s wife being turned into a pillar of salt for looking back at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The struggle to rise from the underworld is carried through “Still Dreamin’”, featuring Kanye West on production and a guest verse. Singers are introduced into the album through the song’s mystical and angelic melody, a precursor to the crooning in the final track. In his first verse following Kanye’s, Nas takes an adamant “do-it-yourself” tone about lifting oneself from adversity, laying the groundwork for a theme of revival and redemption in the latter portion of the album. In the next verse, Nas offers another girl-gone-backwards story, paralleling the Common-esque “I Used to Love H.E.R.” metaphor he’s been extending. From here, we’re taken to “Hold Down the Block”, which drives home the “underworld” concept or, as Tupac explained it back in 1993, the idea that “the streets are death row.”

“Blunt Ashes” precedes the next, and final, dramatic shift. The track opens with Nas’s meditation on whether Langston Hughes or Alex Haley got blunted before they told stories, foreshadowing the melancholy rhyme he’s about to unleash, a bluesy, humbling amalgam of era-defining personalities and events.

This raises another epic convention, the “invocation of the muse”. The epic poet invoked the muse, a divine spirit or deity, to fill the poet with the necessary inspiration to tell the story. In this way, the gods or goddesses spoke through the poet, as in The Iliad: “Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans.” Here, Nas pulls his inspiration from the cigar or blunt he’s smoking, as he imagines the cultural deities Hughes and Haley might have done, intertwining life and death as symbolized by the fall of the ashes:

As the blunt ash falls into the ashtray
I can see my whole life fly past me
(Did I?) Did I keep it gangsta or keep it classy?
And will the money and fame outlast me?

You might also view this as Hip-Hop speaking through Nas, absorbing the tragedies and obstacles of the greats, from the deaths of Phyllis Hyman, Ennis Cosby, Donny Hathaway, and Larry and Roger Troutman of Zapp to the social obstacles faced by Academy Award winner Hattie McDaniel. Nas portrays the gods and goddesses of popular culture as being beautifully and painfully flawed and, as deeply as we’ve been affected by it all, there are lessons to be learned:

And I wouldn’t change a thing
Mistakes of the greats
This is what came from their pain
From their hurt we gain, an unfair exchange

The technique of “invoking the muse” puts an alternate spin on the namedropping already discussed in “Where Are They Now”, as a way of calling upon the strength of those who pioneered the art form.

Interestingly, “Blunted Ashes” shares similarities to KRS-One’s “I Can’t Wake Up” from Return of the Boom Bap (1993). In that song, KRS-One dreams about being a blunt and, unable to wake himself from his sleep, he’s passed around by the hip-hop artists of the day—House of Pain, Cypress Hill, Das EFX, Black Sheep, and so on down the line. Even non-rappers appear in the dream:

De La Soul took a hit and kept hittin’
Now they’re buggin’ ‘cause they passed me to Bill Clinton.
Bill Clinton said, “I’ll smoke but I won’t inhale
I’ll only hit it twice,” he got slapped by Greg Nice

Like KRS-One’s song, “Blunted Ashes” moves rhetorically from topic to topic, in stream of consciousness fashion. Just as KRS-One dreams of being a blunt, you’ll notice that Nas’ song about the blunt’s ashes is preceded by the song “Still Dreamin’”.

The Ascent
The fall of the previous song’s ashes completes the hero’s descent. He’s ready now to ascend, illustrated by the next song, “Let There Be Light”. I don’t love the singing in this song, but its intentions are good, allowing churchy vocals and impassioned inflections to signify the album’s mood change. The title “Let There Be Light” should immediately strike us as symbolic of divine intervention, or deus ex machina (god in the machine), a common occurrence in epics.

Emerging into the light always calls for a celebration. “Play on Playa” makes way for the festivities, constructed over a sample of Marvin Gaye’s “After the Dance”. You’ll recall Ice Cube’s use of this sample on his song “Steady Mobbin’”, also from Death Certificate, over which Ice Cube says, “You gotsta know ‘steady mobbin’ ain’t just the name of this jam, but a way of life”. The preservation of hip-hop as a positive “way of life” is a continual theme for Nas. Any song featuring Snoop Dogg ("Play on Playa") is bound to be more celebratory than moody or brooding, making him a fine choice for the collaboration.

The theme of ascension is amplified in “Can’t Forget About You”, infused with “Unforgettable” by Nat “King” Cole, another larger-than-life musician. There’s quite a bit of reminiscing in this song, and it plays out like a duet between Nas (on the verses) and Hip-Hop (vocalist Chrisette Michele singing the hooks), not unlike Natalie Cole’s version with her father’s vocals, or Nas’s collaboration with his own father Olu Dara ("Bridging the Gap").

Between Nas’s inspired nostalgia, Hip-Hop sings:

These streets hold my deepest days
This hood taught me golden ways
Made me, truly this is what made me
Break me, not a thing’s gonna break me
Ohh, I’m that history, I’m that block
I’m that lifestyle I’m that spot
I’m that kid by the number spot
That’s my past that made me hot
Here’s my lifelong anthem

Cole’s voice finishes the track, taking us into “Hustlers”. Nas maximizes the euphoria, commenting on his efforts with Dr. Dre as sprinkling “a little bit of heaven for your ears”, making references to “celebrating”, being at “high altitude”, and reiterating the fact that “the God’s back”. Guest rhymer the Game follows suit, adding a humorous gem about being in a record store in the ‘90s. He couldn’t afford to buy both Nas’s Illmatic and Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, so he says he stole them both, and then chose to listen to Illmatic. The album closes, as it should, with “Hope”, an a cappella rhyme supported by heavenly intonations:

Live hip-hop live, live hip-hop live
Give hip-hop give, give hip-hop give
Stay hip-hop stay, stay hip-hop stay
I pray, hip-hop pray, I pray hip-hop stays

Nas’s final declaration that hip-hop comes from the soul, backed by these harmonies, gives me goosebumps. At last, we have arrived. Hip-hop, though not dead, is in need of torchbearers to maintain its traditions and influence its future. And as Nas’s epic comes to a close, our story begins, “‘Cause if you’re askin’, ‘Why is hip-hop dead?’” Nas says, “It’s a pretty good chance you’re the reason it died, man.”

* * *
Recommended Research
2pac. “Old School”. Me Against the World (Interscope, 1995).
Chuck D. The Autobiography of Mistachuck (Polygram, 1996).
De La Soul. De La Soul Is Dead (Tommy Boy/Rhino, 1991).
Digital Underground. “Heartbeat Props”. Sons of the P (Tommy Boy/Rhino, 1991).
Effinger, Sandra. “Ms. Effie’s Lifesaver’s For English Teachers”.
Homer, The Iliad & the Odyssey (translated by Samuel Butler) [E-texts].
Ice Cube, Death Certificate (Interscope, 1991).
Kravitz, Lenny. “Rock & Roll Is Dead”. Circus (Virgin, 1995).
KRS-One. “I Can’t Wake Up”. Return of the Boom Bap (Jive, 1993).
Milton, John. Paradise Lost [E-Text].
Mos Def. “Hip Hop”, Black on Both Sides (1999).

Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Blackstar. Black Star (Rawkus, 1998).

Nas. God’s Son (Sony, 2002).
—Illmatic (Sony, 1994).
—Stillmatic (Sony, 2001).
—Streets Disciple (Sony, 2004).

Prince [the Artist]. “Rock & Roll Is Alive: And It Lives in Minneapolis”, Gold single (1995).
Nas - Hip-Hop is Dead

Quentin Huff is an attorney, writer, visual artist, and professional tennis player who lives and works in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In addition to serving as an adjunct professor at Wake Forest University School of Law, he enjoys practicing entertainment law. When he’s not busy suing people or giving other people advice on how to sue people, he writes novels, short stories, poetry, screenplays, diary entries, and essays. Quentin’s writing appears, or is forthcoming, in: Casa Poema, Pemmican Press, Switched-On Gutenberg, Defenestration, Poems Niederngasse, and The Ringing Ear, Cave Canem’s anthology of contemporary African American poetry rooted in the south. His family owns and operates Huff Art Studio, an art gallery specializing in fine art, printing, and graphic design. Quentin loves Final Fantasy videogames, Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, his mother Earnestine, PopMatters, and all things Prince.

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

In Our Image

2007-01-25T18:16:47Z

In Our Image

By John Henrik Clarke (September 1989)

Because what we see about ourselves often influences what we do about ourselves, the role of images and the question of how they control our minds are more important now, in our media-saturated society, than ever before. For the last 500 years, the history of African people throughout the world has been told through the slavery experience—only a short period in our life, considering that we are the oldest of the world's peoples.

There is a need now to look behind the slavery curtain in order to see what African people achieved as an independent people, before slavery. Because this independence existed for thousands of years before Europe itself existed, we should examine the far-reaching power of a European-created media over the minds of the world. Prior to the slave trade and European colonialism, which began in the fifteenth century, most of the peoples of the world had a concept of God shaped by their own culture and their own understanding of spirituality. They generally saw God, or any deity, as a figure resembling themselves. The expanding presence of the European made them consider not only a new God but a new image of God as well.

Because the Europeans did not have enough manpower to control the vast territories and populations they were taking over in Africa and Asia, they began to use the media as a form of mind control, colonizing people around the world, just as they also colonized information about the world. Today the mass media includes every visual object that influences the mind—billboard advertisements, commercials and more, but especially movies and television.

Since we don't usually think of school textbooks as an aspect of the mass media, we don't fully understand that both Black and white children have a misconception about the role their respective peoples have played in the development of civilization. Because of the exaggeration of the lives and achievements of Western heroes, especially Christopher Columbus, school children in general are of the opinion that most of the world's explorations and discoveries were made by Europeans. They also believe that Europeans went on discovery missions to other countries in order to spread Christianity and civilization. The contrary is true in many cases. In their expansion into Africa, Asia, the Caribbean islands and the Americas, the Europeans destroyed many old and well-functioning societies, usually for political or economic gain. The mass media has given us another picture of this phenomenon in history, and we have forgotten a recurring fact of history—that is, powerful people never have to prove anything to anyone. And by extension, powerful people never apologize to powerless people for the actions they take in order to remain in power.

Because of the prevailing one-dimensional view of history that generally favors white people, who control the textbook industry, African American students throughout the country began in the 1960's to call for Black-studies programs to correct come misconceptions about African people in world history. Twenty-one years ago (i.e. 1968, editor), I and others with similar concerns established the African Heritage Studies Association. Its purpose was to bring together scholars of African descent who would dedicate themselves to the preservation, interpretation and academic presentation of the historical and cultural heritage of African peoples, both on the ancestral soil of Africa and in the diaspora in the Americas and throughout the world.

I have no illusions about the role of the mass media in mind control, and I know that we will have to be more aggressive in calling for change and that we must develop the personnel and the funds that will give us some control over at least part of the mass media. We can start by developing programs, textbooks and newspapers that cater to the African people of the world and will also be of interest to others. We need to seriously question and challenge the educational system that gives direction to our children. We also need to establish an independent educational system, starting in our homes.

We will have taken one giant step forward when we face this reality: Powerful people never teach powerless people how to take their power away from them. Education is one of the most sensitive arenas in the life of a people. Its role is to be honest and true: to tell a people where they have been and what they have been, where they are and what they are. Most important, though, the role of education is to tell a people where they still must go and what they still must be

Just wanted to post. He always hits home for me!

Nuru

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

DNA exonerates wrongly convicted man

2007-01-21T01:29:02Z

The New York Times
Jan. 18

HOUSTON — A 50-year-old Dallas man whose conviction of raping a boy in 1982 cost him nearly half his life in prison and on parole won a court ruling Wednesday declaring him innocent. He said he was not angry, “because the Lord has given me so much.”

The parolee, James Waller, was exonerated by DNA testing, the 12th person since 2001 whose conviction in Dallas County has been overturned long after the fact as a result of genetic evidence, lawyers said.

“Nowhere else in the nation have so many individual wrongful convictions been proven in one county in such a short span,” said Barry C. Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, the legal clinic that championed Mr. Waller’s case. In fact, Mr. Scheck said, those 12 such instances are more than have occurred anywhere else except the entire states of New York and Illinois since the nation’s first DNA exoneration, in 1989.

In the aftermath of the new evidence, prosecutors had joined defense lawyers in calling for the clearing of Mr. Waller, who spent more than 10 years behind bars before he was paroled in 1993.

www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/us/18dna.html

posted in Black Men - 0 replies

From Brother's Blog; Now is the time, start planning

2007-01-12T21:23:28Z

I was impressed by a blog entry in Brother Fred's blog entitled "Now is the time, Start Planning". It inspired me to write the following response which I would like to present here for your consideration and discussion. It is only a series of observations about the path that many "new comers" to America follow to realize the American Dream, which somehow escapes us. It is of course not the only path to that realization; but it has worked for many groups in the past.

When I mentioned MI (Mixed Idiom) in the beginning I refer to the synergy of mixing employment and entrepreneurship and investing. There are few combinations that are as effective. All too often we, Black People follow a single path; employment, profession, or entrepreneurship; and don't go on to invest (except for the small minority of our professionals who invest in ideosyncratic venues such as stocks and brokered funds) beyond their own personal real estate.

Here is my observation:

Mixed Idiom, or MI is a concept that I have been trying to teach to as many like minded people as possible. The underlying concept is that we establish "clans" which would be composed of 15-50 families. Much like the family associations (sometimes called Tongs) that the Asians participate in. These clans would provide for each other's economic welfare and group development.

Often AAs lament, "they come over here and bang they got a restaruant or store. It aint fair that somebody gives them the money". What we often don't realize is that the somebody financing them is actually a family association back in Asia. Not their government or our government but as many as 2-3 thousand asians each contributing all they can from their subsistence incomes.

Their first activity is to send their "scouts", these are young men without wives who have studied and learned enough english to come here and find menial employment. They work as slaves, almost, at wages that no american would consider. They sleep in the back of job #2 or 3 and save every dime. Usually one of their jobs is in a restaurant or store where food is included as part of their income. They own 2 changes of clothes. One is always drying, after being washed the night before. They don't spend a dime on recreation. To them conversation over their weekly beer is all the recreation they get. When they have enough money they send it back home to finance another brother or cousin coming over. They repeat the process. Again and again, until there are 10 or 12 of them.

They then have enough money to bring over an uncle. Uncle acts as treasurer and supervisor for the young men. He makes sure that they stay out of trouble and keep working. They turn over 85-95% of their gross incomes. Uncle networks with other uncles already here and they buy a building. As many as 30 young men will sleep in an apartment in shifts. The other apartments in the building will be rented out for income. They buy another building and then another. All this has taken 1 year. They now have 2 or 3 buildings and from the 30 young men 15-20 thousand dollars a week in income.

By the end of the second year they have brought over another 30 worker bees and 3 aunties. The next year they start bringing over neices. These girls from back home are to be brides for the hardest workers. It is the oldest incentive program in the world. Sex.

By the end of year three there are 60 worker bees 8 uncles 12 aunties 10 neices and the first American born children are born. By this time they own 16-20 buildings where they operate 15 or more businesses. All of the worker bees are paid more than in their "slave" days, only have to work 2 jobs, live in apartments with only 3 or 4 others. They have mastered english, and are looking for business opportunities; that will be financed by the Tong. And most importantly are moving up the list to get a neice brought over to marry. The 60 of them earn 50-75 thousand dollars a week. And it keeps growing.

By the end of 10 years they own 50 buildings, have a weekly income of 250K - 400K, are all married, have no debts, are working only 1 job each, those who can are enrolled in schools and they are financing the next wave of Tongs back home. They started with just 2 or 3 cousins, now there are 3 or 4 hundred of them, all making more money than they dreamed of at the start. They send 1 or 2 million dollars back to china, monthly, where they invest in manufacturing plants or other businesses. The family association which started with less than 10 thousand US is now worth 50 million dollars or more.

Such is the power of collectivism, such is the power of a dream, such is the power of discipline. As long as we are addicted to consumerism and got to have that bling, addicted to envy and jealousy and can't stand to see anyone else get ahead; we will never compete. If we learn from this simple example, we can do the same or better within the next decade.

posted in Black Men - 2 replies

OVERCOME AND BEAT RACISM

2007-01-11T17:39:43Z

How can black people (in america and beyond) overcome racism / discrimination?

What are some solutions that black people can implement to beat racism / discrimination?

Please advise....

posted in Black Men - 17 replies

Pigmentation and the Pigskin

2007-01-10T22:46:46Z

Great article try to read it all ;-)

Politics of Race in Professional Football

http://www.blackcommentator.com/160/160_think_pigskin_pigmenation.html

The majority population members in this society are in a constant state of denial: about the war, about the intelligence of their President, about their role in the perpetuation of racial segregation. The success of sports as a leisure activity is supposed to be a way to allow them to get their minds off of everyday necessities and realities. But since sports is becoming increasingly black and brown, these people must think about “race” even as they work to get their minds off of it.

Few people want to write or talk about “the politics of the pigskin and of pigment” in professional football. And why not? The whole society is afraid to talk about race and most of the pundits sit around wondering why. Here’s why: to talk about race in America would be an indictment of the people who are in the majority, that’s why! Look at how they ducked and dodged the obvious conclusions of the Katrina evacuees: what that incident showed the world was what we have been trying to tell them for two centuries. This avoidance of reality extends to every institution that these people have created to support their system: law, health, labor, education, religion and so on.

So why should those involved in sports be any braver or honest than those who sign their paychecks, build their stadiums, manage their League office or write about their sport? All are involved in segregationist realities, stereotyped thinking, and eurocentric value systems inevitably resulting in avoidance and a refusal to deal with the politics of pigmentation.One newspaper airs a commercial featuring a black man and a white man sitting in the football stands arguing over a statistic. Up comes a man who represents the newspaper, and he corrects them both. He is then joined by other writers from the sports department of this same newspaper. In an attempt to promote how “accurate” this newspaper is supposed to be, this team of people actually proves an even greater point: an all-white staff writing about and sharing their views on sports that are dominated by non-white people. But in the newspaper’s collective eyes, this is the sign of “greatness.” Again, the power of pigmentation.

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

Conservative-media hit out on Obama

2007-01-10T22:12:41Z

In a Dec. 18 column headlined "Barack Hussein Obama," conservative Debbie Schlussel went into this rant on her website:

"Once a Muslim, Always A Muslim."

She argued that because Sen. Barack Obama's middle name is Hussein, his late, estranged father was of Muslim descent, and he has shown interest in his father's Kenyan heritage, Obama's "loyalties" must be called into question as he emerges as a possible Democratic presidential candidate.

She asked: "Even if he identifies strongly as a Christian ... is a man who Muslims think is a Muslim, who feels some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father, and who is now moving in the direction of his father's heritage, a man we want as President when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?"

She ended her column by asking if Obama becoming vice president instead would be acceptable. Answering her own question, she wrote: "NO WAY, JOSE ... Or, is that, HUSSEIN?"

Mediamatters.org points out that Schlussel's column fits into a larger pattern in recent media coverage and commentary regarding Obama. Numerous media figures have gone out of their way to highlight Obama's middle name in recent weeks:

* During MSNBC's special election coverage Nov. 7, co-anchor Chris Matthews remarked that Obama's "middle name is Hussein" and suggested that it would "be interesting down the road."

* On Nov. 27, MSNBC host Tucker Carlson referred to radio host Bill Press as "a true member of the Barack Hussein Obama fan club."

* During the Nov. 28 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, Republican strategist Ed Rogers referred to "Barack Hussein Obama."

* On the Dec. 5 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, senior political correspondent Carl Cameron told viewers: "Though he's written two books about himself already, most people know very little about Barack Hussein Obama Jr.'s uncommonly privileged life."

MORE
http://mediamatters.org/items/200612200005

posted in Black Men - 2 replies

Inclusive America, Under Attack

2007-01-06T13:48:19Z

Inclusive America, Under Attack
By Gerald R. Ford
The New York Times, Sunday, August 8, 1999

Of all the triumphs that have marked this as America's century -- breathtaking advances in science and technology, the democratization of wealth and dispersal of political power in ways hardly imaginable in 1899 -- none is more inspiring, if incomplete, than our pursuit of racial justice. The milestones include Theodore Roosevelt's inviting Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House, Harry Truman's desegregating the armed forces, Dwight Eisenhower's using Federal troops to integrate Little Rock's Central High School and Lyndon Johnson's electrifying the nation by standing before Congress in 1965 and declaring, "We shall overcome."

I came by my support of that year's Voting Rights Act naturally. Thirty years before Selma, I was a University of Michigan senior, preparing with my Wolverine teammates for a football game against visiting Georgia Tech. Among the best players on that year's Michigan squad was Willis Ward, a close friend of mine whom the Southern school reputedly wanted dropped from our roster because he was black. My classmates were just as adamant that he should take the field. In the end, Willis decided on his own not to play.

His sacrifice led me to question how educational administrators could capitulate to raw prejudice. A university, after all, is both a preserver of tradition and a hotbed of innovation. So long as books are kept open we tell ourselves, minds can never be closed.

But doors, too, must be kept open. Tolerance, breadth of mind and appreciation for the world beyond our neighborhoods: these can be learned on the football field and in the science lab as well as in the lecture hall. But only if students are exposed to America in all her variety.

For the class of '35, such educational opportunities were diminished by the relative scarcity of African-Americans, women and various ethnic groups on campus. I have often wondered how different the world might have been in the 1940's. 50's and 60's -- how much more humane and just -- if my generation had experienced a more representative sampling of the American family. That the indignities visited on Willis Ward would be unimaginable in today's Ann Arbor is a measure of how far we have come toward realizing however belatedly the promises we made to each other in declaring our nationhood and professing our love of liberty.

And yet. In the last speech of his life, Lyndon, Johnson reminded us of how much unfinished work remained. "To be black in a white society is not to stand on level and equal ground," he said. "While the races may stand side by side, whites stand on history's mountain and blacks stand in history's hollow. Until we overcome unequal history, we cannot overcome unequal opportunity.

Like so many phrases that have become political buzzwords, affirmative action means different things to different people. Practically speaking, it runs the gamut from mandatory quotas, which the Supreme Court has ruled are clearly unconstitutional to mere lip service, which is just as clearly unacceptable.

At its core, affirmative action should try to offset past injustices by fashioning a campus population more truly reflective of modern America and our hopes for the future. Unfortunately, a pair of lawsuits brought against my alma mater pose a threat to such diversity. Not content to oppose formal quotas, plaintiffs suing the University of Michigan would prohibit that and other universities from even considering race as one of many factors weighed by admission counselors.

So drastic a ban would scuttle Michigan's current system one that takes into account nearly a dozen elements -- race, economic standing, geographic origin, athletic and artistic achievement among them -- to create the finest educational environment for all students.

This eminently reasonable approach, as thoughtful as it is fair, has produced a student body with a significant minority component whose record of academic success is outstanding.

Times of change are times of challenge. It is estimated that by 2030, 40 percent of all Americans will belong to various racial minorities. Already the global economy requires unprecedented grasp of diverse viewpoints and cultural traditions. I don't want future college students to suffer the cultural and social impoverishment that afflicted my generation. If history has taught us anything in this remarkable century, it is the notion of America as a work in progress.

Do we really want to risk turning back the clock to an era when the Willis Wards were isolated and penalized for the color of their skin, their economic standing or national ancestry?

To eliminate a constitutional affirmative action policy would mock the inclusive vision Carl Sandburg had in mind when he wrote: "The Republic is a dream. Nothing happens unless first a dream." Lest we forget: America remains a nation with have-nots as well as haves. Its government is obligated to provide for hope no less than for the common defense.

posted in Black Men - 3 replies

'Godfather of Soul' James Brown dies

2006-12-26T05:16:48Z

Legendary singer James Brown dies at 73
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061225/ap_on_en_mu/obit_brown

Merry Christmas...i've been watching T.V. the news and i've heard hardly nothing about James Brown dying, this is incredible to me and an injustice. this man was beyond legendary remember when Elvis died or Sinatra it was on every station...

thanks Mr. Brown for the soul, sweat, and years.... "i got soul and i'm super bad"

there will never be another James Brown

posted in Black Men - 3 replies

Congress Votes 368-31 to Back Mumia’s Racist Frame-up

2006-12-21T21:36:33Z

Congress Votes 368-31 to Back Mumia’s Racist Frame-up

By Steven Argue

On December 6th Congress voted 368 to 31 to back the racist frame-up of Mumia Abu Jamal by condemning the decision of the French city of St. Denis to name a street after the innocent death row inmate. This anti-Mumia resolution, HR 1082 (also called HR 407), asks the French government to intervene against the city.

Voting against the resolution were members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Congressperson Robert Scott. He argued that the case was still being decided in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and that it was inappropriate for Congress to take a position.

In reality Mumia’s case is such a blatant and outrageous frame-up that it should be considered the responsibility of Congress to intervene on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal in particular and against the racist death penalty in general. Yet under the current racist government of Democrats and Republicans Robert Scott is correct in opposing Congress’s intervention. As Pam Africa, chair of the International Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, has pointed out, “the House action is designed to weigh in on and promote an atmosphere in the U.S. judiciary that is prejudicial to Mumia's receiving any form of justice today.”

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals will be hearing arguments in January. This is Mumia’s final appeal. It will decide if Mumia is set free, given a new trial, held in prison for life, or executed.

The resolution falsely claims, “Mumia Abu-Jamal stood over Officer Faulkner and shot him in the face, mortally wounding him…” Yet this is not what the eyewitnesses said. For instance William Singletary says, "Mumia Abu-Jamal didn't shoot Daniel Faulkner. The passenger in the right-hand side of the Volkswagen [that Faulkner had stopped] got out of the car and shot him. When Mumia came on the scene, we [Singletary and another man] were on the police radio trying to radio for help." ("Witness: Abu-Jamal didn't do it" Philadelphia Daily News Dec. 8, 2006)

Five California Democrats in Congress voted nay while 23 voted for the resolution. Those voting against were Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee, Fortney Stark, Michael Honda, and Maxine Waters.

Joining in the racist lynch mob voting for the blood of an innocent black man were California Democrats C. Thompson, Doris Matsui, Nancy Pelosi, Ellen Tauscher, Tom Lantos, Anna Eshoo, Zoe Lofgren, Dennis Cardoza, Lois Capps, Jim Costa, Linda Sanchez, Brad Sherman, Adam Schiff, Henry Waxman, Hilda Solis, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Jane Harman, Juanita Millender-McDonald, Grace Napolitano, Joe Baca, Loretta Sanchez, Bob Filner, and Susan Davis. Not voting were Diane Watson, Howard Berman, and Xavier Becerra.

Also voting for blood were California Republicans Walter Herger, Daniel Lungren, John Doolittle, Richard Pombo, George Radanovich, Devin Nunes, William Thomas, Elton Gallegly, David Dreier, Edward Royce, Jerry Lewis, Gary Miller, Ken Calvert, Mary Bono, Dana Rohrabacher, John Campbell, Darrell Issa, Brian Bilbray, and Duncan Hunter. Howard McKeon didn’t vote.

Among those voting for the anti-Mumia resolution was Democrat House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi. She has also announced that she and the other Democrats will continue funding the war in Iraq. In voting against Mumia Abu-Jamal Nancy Pelosi has voted for the death of an actual anti-war and anti-racist leader of the people, while her career has been firmly planted atop the corpses of over 650,000 dead Iraqis by her continuation of the slaughter.

It is outrageous that that the Democrat party would vote in its House majority to condemn a French city for daring to make an issue of a racist legal lynching, while doing nothing about the liar and killer, Bush. But then again that should be no surprise either since the Democrat Party voted in its majority for the war in Iraq.

The Democrat Party was also involved in the frame-up of Mumia Abu-Jamal from the beginning. Democrat Ed Rendell was the Philadelphia district attorney that successfully worked to frame Mumia Abu-Jamal in 1982. Later, with a lynch mob attitude created by the lies of the corporate press, he successfully ran for mayor of Philadelphia on a platform that included promoting the murder of Mumia Abu-Jamal. He was Mayor from 1992-1999. Bill Clinton then helped get him the position of chair of the National Democratic Committee. Since 2003 he has been the Governor of Pennsylvania. In addition Ed Rendell is a member of the Fraternal Order of Police that is calling for Mumia’s blood while his wife is an appellate judge on the Third Circuit US Court of Appeals that is going to hear Mumia's appeal. Besides framing Mumia, Rendell also presided over the police bombing of the MOVE home in Philadelphia in 1984, resulting in 11 deaths and 65 homes destroyed.

Nationally eight voted “present”, including California Democrats George Miller and Sam Farr, choosing not to vote for or against the resolution. In effect Miller and Farr, while present in the mob, chose silence while the United States Congress was transformed into a racist lynch mob calling for the blood of an innocent black man and political prisoner.

Sam Farr cast his “present” vote despite sending this author a letter promising to back the Congressional Black Caucus’s position, that having been a position in support of framed political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. Sam Farr also sent me a copy of a letter that he sent to the Congressional Black Caucus with the same promise. These promises, as it turns out, were nothing but lies.

This vote by the racist US Congress was also an affront to the people of St. Denis that have chosen to support and honor Mumia. Would Sam Farr stand aside in a similar way if a resolution came before him that called for action against his constituents in the City of Santa Cruz, where the city has also passed resolutions in favor of Mumia Abu-Jamal?

Mumia is innocent, and much of the world knows it.

Here is the response the City of St. Denis had to earlier attempts to coerce them into ending their support for Mumia Abu-Jamal:

“The city hall of Saint Denis denounces the manipulations of certain ultra-conservative pressure groups, and reasserts its commitment in favor of Mumia Abu-Jamal

“The city hall of Saint Denis re-affirms yet again its support to the women and men who are demanding Mumia Abu-Jamal be treated with fairness and justice. The picket this 30th day of November 2006 has been organized to protest against the pressure brought to bear on the city of Saint Denis by members of the American extreme right in order to bring about the cancellation of our decision to name one of our streets after an African American militant who has been unfairly incarcerated and sentenced to the death penalty.

“This ultra conservative pressure group, based in Philadelphia, has not hesitated to make use of the grossest manipulations. Thus, the widely disseminated information according to which the city of Philadelphia is suing the cities of Saint Denis and Paris, because of their commitment in favor of Mumia Abu-Jamal - is nothing but a lie. The Mayor of Philadelphia, as well as the president of its city council, informed the city of Saint Denis that they never intended to file any kind of suit, and have absolutely nothing to do with this campaign.

“This manipulation was unmasked, and it should be know that the Philadelphia politician who initiated it, though a member of George Bush's party, was defeated during the recent American elections.

“Whatever the case may be, the city hall of Saint Denis is proud to have named a street of this city in honor of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has become one of the symbols, of the struggle for justice and the abolition of the death penalty in the US and throughout the world.

“It is not the first time that an international mobilization has taken place in favor of American citizens who are unfairly sentenced in their own country. Such was the case for Nicola Sacco, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, between 1920 and 1927, for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who died on the electric chair in 1953, and subsequently in 1972 for Angela Davis initially sentenced [sic, she was actually never sentenced] for murder, before being acquitted of all charges.

“The city hall of Saint Denis will steadfastly pursue the struggle to save Mumia Abu-Jamal, so that this man incarcerated for a quarter of a century for a crime he has always claimed he did not commit - be reinstated in his human rights.

“Saint Denis 30th of November 2006”

The people of the world should not forget this hypocritical act of the US Congress, a governing body of a nation that falsely claims to uphold the values of human rights on a world scale. Likewise this once again exposes the need for the American people to build a socialist alternative to racist and repressive Democrat and Republican Parties.

As Mumia Abu-Jamal says, “Conventional wisdom would have one believe that it is insane to resist this, the mightiest of empires. But what history really shows is that today's empire is tomorrow's ashes, that nothing lasts forever, and that to not resist is to acquiesce in your own oppression. The greatest form of sanity that anyone can exercise is to resist that force that is trying to repress, oppress, and fight down the human spirit...”

Mumia stands up for unions, against war, against racism, equality for gays and lesbians, for the poor, and against the many injustices of the so-called criminal justice system. Mumia speaks up on many of the issues ignored, lied about, or glossed over by the corporate media and the corporate politicians. We need Mumia, yes we need him alive, but we also need him free. Yet all of the evidence shows that Mumia won't get justice in America unless we turn up the heat.

********************
Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner in the United States on death row. For more information on Mumia's case and how to get involved, check out the following web sites:

Yet Another Witness Comes Forward and Refutes The Frame-Up Of Mumia
Abu-Jamal!
www.freemumia.com/policecoercion.html

Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
www.laboractionmumia.org/

International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
www.mumia.org/freedom.now/

Free Mumia Coalition, NYC
www.freemumia.com/

San Francisco Free Mumia Site
www.freemumia.org

Chicago Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
www.chicagofreemumia.org/

This is an article of Liberation News, subscribe free:
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posted in Black Men - 0 replies

DOPE SONGSTRESS RISING... GEORGIA ANNE MULDROW...CHECK SISTA GIRL OUT....

2006-12-14T00:04:41Z

Georgia Anne Muldrow
The girl is CRAZY DOPE.

www.myspace.com/georgiaannenuldrow

My favorite songs: New Orleans, Wrong Way, Requiem for Leroy, Wheels

posted in Black Men - 1 reply

The White Girl Thing

2006-12-12T19:13:17Z

http://bv.channel.aol.com/lifemain/lifemain_canvas/featurestory?id=20050607080809990001
...............

The Nicer White Woman -- Myth or Reality?

What's up with the oft repeated notion that White women are nicer to Black men than sisters are? Clinical psychologist and radio-show host Dr. Jeff provides answers from the male perspective.

Q: What's up with the notion of White women being preferable to Black women as mates because they're nicer? I recently heard a friend's husband (both of them are Black) say that White women maintain their weight better, keep themselves up better, and aren't as difficult to deal with as Black women are.

As a single, professional Black woman who takes care of herself, I have a problem with this. Why do so many Black men feel this way? Could it be that the niceness they say White women have is simply a reflection of the fact that Black men treat them differently to begin with, based on different expectations and assumptions?

One more question: With so many Black women being left single into their early 40s by brothers, how is that so many Black men (themselves still single and running from commitment) are still offended when a sister is finally able to settle down and it happens to be with someone of another race? --Nice Too

A: Though there may be some kernel of truth to the statements that White women are "nicer" and take more care to maintain their weight than Black women do, this is still a very disturbing, destructive and insulting cop-out!

On the Pulse

Here's the situation: These brothers believe that the grass is greener on the other side--an escape from the complexities of Black relationships. Because we are victims and survivors of slavery and day-to-day racism, we as a people are blessed but stressed. That legacy affects all aspects of our interactions as people of color, often making our relationships problematic.

Black men sometimes view Black women as being angry, such as when sisters hold the brothers' feet to the fire for inappropriate or doggy-like behaviors. When the heat gets a little too much, some Black men will then go running to White women, who they believe will give them a break.

And sometimes White women do. Being White and having more status in society, they do not have the same problems as sisters. They can therefore afford to be nicer to brothers they date. There are also some White women who will tend to cut the Black man more slack, in a misguided attempt to respect the pain that he endures living in a racist society.

It is also true that Black women tend to have more health and weight issues than White women. One reason is some of the food that people of color traditionally eat--much of which is fried! In addition, Black culture has tended to define the standard of female beauty based on the full-figured woman -- you know, P.H.A.T. (Plenty of Hips and Tatas).

White culture, on the other hand, demands that its women be pencil-thin and rewards them for being so, leaving many White females with the tough job of meeting this ideal through exercising, dieting, and, dangerously, eating disorders. Now we find that Black culture is embracing the notion that thin is in, and that is why more Black women, such as you, are starting to exercise as a lifestyle choice.

Addressing one of your other points, I really don't think that Black men treat White women better than they do the sisters, though they may treat them differently. Some brothers are notorious for parading around their White trophy wives as a sign of success, so they may be nicer to them in public. But when it comes to life behind closed doors, they treat them the same way they treat any woman: good, bad, or indifferent!

Finally, I agree with you that while these brothers think it's OK to date or marry White women, they absolutely flip when sisters do the same with White men. Evidently, what is good for the gander is not good for the goose! Some even view these sisters as traitors to the race.

What's ironic is that on the face of it, sisters may have more reason to date and marry White men than Black men have to get with White women. U.S. Census Bureau information from 2001 shows that 54 percent of Black women between the ages of 24 and 34 are unmarried, compared with 36 percent of White women in the same age group. In addition, recent figures show that 691,000 Black males are in college, while 790,000 are in jail! The point is that Black women are at a disadvantage when it comes to finding and dating compatible Black males.
..................

posted in Black Men - 244 replies

Black people wake up

2006-12-12T03:19:36Z

Thank God the sistahs are responding to this disturbing story because it is all about the destruction of the black womens DNA and her body. before long, the aids organizations will have all black women thinking they are unfit for society.www.altheal.org/toxicity/house.htm

If any of you have heard of Keidi Owadu on LIBradio, then you should already know that he's been tirelessly getting the 'word' out to black women and men about these false-test that's suppose to determind your status, and the whole hiv paradim is a lie. And if you would take the time to read my blog on "Sex, Mothers, Babies, and Drugs," there you will see that there is no denying that that woman (and we all know she was black) was murdered by a lie.

copied from my other post:
The link provided was written by a really good friend. BBC got hold of his story and ran with it but it didn't get the converage deserved. The article is a classic example of what the Nazis did to who they considered unfit for what was to be a better Germany. This kind of thing is going on today yet it's disquised as a method to save lies. The article is pretty intense, the pictures (I'll let you know now) are quite graphic, but it certainly drives home, how we'd allowed the 'state' to just walk into the home of black, latino, or poor white women and be force to give their children poison, based on the results of a test that cross react with many of our antiboties, but is always accurate when it comes to black, latino, and poor white people: www.altheal.org/toxicity/house.htm

I never hear of the so-call conscious black men speaking out about this. At least, Olympic Medalist "Lee Evans" is willing to stand up and do something, also in my blog:
"A very sensitive article about ‘SEX' that made me go hmmmm."

T

posted in Black Men - 2 replies