“Black folks need legacy. We have to have examples of successes in order for us to be able to let the generations to come know that many of the successes that occurred by African-Americans in this country can be seen and pointed out and can be emulated,” says Michael Roberts, the chairman and CEO of The Roberts Companies.

I have decided to not only do a series of Africans on the rise but also African-Americans & Diasporans on the rise because we just don’t hear enough of these stories in the media . It seems everyday there is some rapper going to jail, some sad story about how broken Black people are, from Africa to America, but there are people of African decent making great strides in business, sports, entertainment, technology & any & every industry you can possibly think of- we just don’t get to hear their stories. We have always been told that education is the key, but it seems to end at the words with no real push to attain the education because it is made financially difficult & those who are purveyors of information often do not push the education criteria by disseminating as much information as possible to those who need it the most. I decided to focus more on education because our education system particularly in poor urban neighborhoods is failing our children & often thru no fault of their own; they are failed by mistakes of adults & overwhelming bureaucracy that is dumped on them creating too much of a load which keeps them crawling, hoping to one day shed the load to stand up tall & walk. We have to allow our young people to have a fair chance & to believe that “Excellence is No Accident”.

The United States Department of Education started a contest called “I am what I learn” giving students a chance to speak on the importance of education in their lives. Shane Battier of the Houston Rockets and Rhodes Scholar Myron Rolle, two great American heros shared their stories about the role education plays in their own lives because they were impressed my the initiative of the young people who participated in the contest & wanted to stand up as role models on the importance of education. These young African-American males are the types of role models our young people need to see. I was shocked to read the comments on the Global Grind http://globalgrind.com/content/1090494/The-NFL-Or-Oxford-You-Choose/ in reference to Myron Rolle deciding to forego a career in the NFL for a Rhodes Scholarship. These comments expressed the ignorance of lack of education because people thought he was crazy to not go to the NFL, saying he could always go back to school-huh? They had no understanding of how rare & prestigious a Rhodes Scholarship is & that it does not wait for you to come back to it at your leisure. It seems we have left the power & empowerment of education by the “WASTEside” for the glamour & glitz of of fast money while worshipping materialism without acknowledging the fact that the way to keep what you attain comes from education. Education should never be considered a waste of time.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/10/26/bia.education.success/index.html

http://www.theprepschoolnegro.org/2009/11/lorene-cary-writereducator/

We have to do everything possible to make sure our youth do not be come cold.
“If education is the key tell me why do the bigga heads make it so expensive for we”