Black tells you how you look, but it doesn’t tell you who you are” -John Henrik Clarke.
It seems there are some Black Publication who are riding this quote without getting its intended message.  Just because Black just tells you how you look, doesn’t mean White can tell you who you are.

I hope Black people in particular really take heed to this quote because enough is enough with being stuck on stupid & acting like we don’t know any better, being the perpetual victims as we victimize ourselves while acting as if the information which we say we seek in defining who we are historically as a people is not readily available to us if we are honest about seeking it. It saddened me to see the video below & to be reminded decade after decade, year after year that Black children still prefer the white doll over the black doll & still do not see themselves as beautiful. At this point in history, we have no one to blame but ourselves because we have done a disservice to our youth- generation after generation. Our story started before slavery & continues above & beyond slavery, so let’s stop continuously allowing ourselves & others to make the entire sum of the Black experience globally to be based on a story that consists solely of pre-slavery, slavery & post-slavery with a mix of white supremacy throughout that entire experience. This only allows us to continue the mentality & bondage of slavery that taught us not to appreciate & love ourselves for our many shades & shapes that existed way before slavery.

“I always associated black with ugly. I was too dark and didn’t have nice hair,” said Catherine de la Rosa, a dark-skinned Dominican-American college student spending a semester here. “With time passing, I see I’m not black. I’m Latina.To many Dominicans, to be black is to be Haitian. So dark-skinned Dominicans tend to describe themselves as any of the dozen or so racial categories that date back hundreds of years — Indian, burned Indian, dirty Indian, washed Indian, dark Indian, cinnamon, moreno or mulatto, but rarely negro.The Cuban black was told he was black. The Dominican black was told he was Indian,” said Dominican historian Celsa Albert, who is black. “I am not Indian. That color does not exist. People used to tell me, ‘You are not black.’ If I am not black, then I guess there are no blacks anywhere, because I have curly hair and dark skin.” READ MORE

Globally we are all descendants of Africa but slavery is what came into play in our human greed & envy to separate us. We will all watch this video & shake our head & be disgusted & horrified that young people & even babies are expressing this type of self hate in their blackness, but we fail to listen carefully & to hear that these ideas that manifested into self hate came from people that looked just like them rather than the White media, slavery & everthing else we choose to blame besides ourselves. We can not teach our children to love themselves if we have not found that love within ourselves. No white person ever taught these children about or gave them bleaching creams- WE DID THAT. Whether it is a family member or friend calling a child outside of their name by calling them “a lil nigga” or relaxing a 3 year old’s hair because her hair is too nappy & unmanageable at an age when she can only comprehend good or bad & not that mama has 3 jobs & 3 kids that she has to feed, get dressed & ready for school everyday before she can even get to her first job, when she just came from her 3rd job less than 5 hours ago & is running on 3 hours sleep & doing it all alone; so she is just looking for any possible way to make her daily process go faster & smoother without thinking that she is teaching her child to hate her hair because the pain of the relaxer feels more like a punishment than anything any child can possibly comprehend as helpful or good. Whether it is our own publications, videos, films & over all media giving preference to the type of Black that is closer to white, be it Halle Berry & Beyonce over Angela Bassett & Estelle- WE DID THAT!

I stopped reading Ebony, Essence & Vibe Magazine a long time ago because they just didn’t speak to me nor really excite me in their content, the same way I had no interest in spending my money on Vanity Fair, Vogue or Glamour because they really didn’t speak to me or excite me in their content either; however the only diffrence is that Vanity Fair,Vogue & Glamour never told me that they were ever there to represent me as a Black woman in defining my Blackness in beauty.

A few days ago I received a text from a friend telling me how the “Blackarati” of the fashion world were in an uproar because Essence magazine had hired a White Female Fashion Director & in a matter of hours I also found out that Vibe Magazine had already done the same & we have all known that the new “Blackarati” darling, Arise Magazine took this colonial mentality straight from Africa & started from jumpstreet with a white woman defining what we now applaud & embrace as global Africaness in beauty, fashion & music without giving a second thought to who is defining our Global Africaness for us because we as Black people have always been so welcoming, hospitable  & open minded, which historically has led to being taken advantage of, being stripped of all that we own & being redefined by others to a point of global systemic self hate & confusion!

It is not simply nor solely about a matter of Black & White, but about legacy, strides & the fact that not much has changed for the majority of Black people in the world even though many would like to convince us that it has & that there is no need for any forms of affirmative action or exclusivity in the type of black pride & support that built these publications & media outlets when we had none & were specifically being shut out. As Fela says “Teacher don’t teach me no nonsense“… cuz dem all crazy.  This anger & protest is more to me about economic empowerement than just  fashion & Black & White, particulary at a time when there are more unemployed Black people in America than any other group of people.

“The black fist is a meaningless symbol. When you open it, you have nothing but fingers — weak, empty fingers. The only time the black fist has significance is when there’s money inside. There’s where the power lies.” Jesse Owens

As much as I strongly agree with the words of Jesse Owens, I strongly disagree with the words of  advice from Robin Givhan of The Washington Post to Essence Editor Angela Burt-Murray because I do believe that Black women are special & whether it comes negatively or positively in our inclusion or exclusion, we are reminded daily of our “specialness” in the world of fashion.

“Instead of wishing that the brouhaha over Placas would die down, Burt-Murray should take to the airwaves and hold up her decision as a sign that Essence isn’t just about black women. Black women aren’t “special.” They are individuals and they are universal..” READ MORE

When it’s beneficial to the white world at large then we should all be color blind & have diversity & equality for all, but I would rather Vogue take the first step in that direction before Essence because we’ve had a lot less time to enjoy the fruits of our labor before having to be the one to share it in good faith,diversity & racial progress. We owe it to ourselves in our “Ode to Black History” to be a little more conscious & sacred about the way we pimp it out or in some cases get pimped in allowing everyone to put their hands on it & to get a piece of it.

This is not to say that these White Fashion Directors, Editors in Cheifs etc. at publications focused & geared toward global Black lifestyles can not do the job or do not do a good job, but what message are we sending to our young people & particularly young girls like the ones in the video above when we allow White women to define our Blackness in style & beauty at our limited number of publications, while knowing very well that such an opportunity has never & will most likely not be  granted to us at a Glamour, Vogue or Vanity Fair because they are clear on who their target audience is & who they will allow to define & speak to that target audience.

Before anyone has the audacity to call me some sort of reverse racist since it seems to be the soup du jour chant of the moment, I want to ask you to be truthful to yourself in answering these questions: Were you in an uproar or did you even find anything wrong with Vanity Fair having a young Hollywood issue during the time of the Oscars featuring an all white cover pictorial with many unknown actresses while intentionally leaving out two Black female actresses -Zoe Saldana & Gabouray Sidibe- 1 whose movie was not only nominated for best film but also is the highest grossing film til to date & the other whose film received multiple nominations along with her own “best supporting actress” nomination? Have you ever found anything wrong or even questioned Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour & countless other publications who have never appointed a Fashion Director or Editor In Chief of any color other than White & who rarely if ever employ  Blacks as head fashion stylists, make up artists, hair stylists, photographers & art directors on major shoots? If your answer is No & you still think a Black women should not have the right to prefer to see another Black woman define her Blackness in a publication geared toward her, then maybe you are part of the problem of continuing a legacy that can find fault in the few Black publications having an obligation to employ Black people who are amongst the highest number of unemployed, particularly in such a limited nich market and allowing them to define our Blackness over a White woman.

The heads of these publications who are making these decisions to choose White over Black are the reasons why our children will always choose the white doll over the black doll. It seems intrinsically innate no matter how many years pass, how old we are or how many strides we have made. Don’t give me the usual BS about just a matter of  choosing the best candidate for the position which was not based on color, or that the world is changing & we have to be inclusive & diversify while others don’t see the need to be nor are they questioned about not doing so, or that amongst the high numbers of educated & unemployed Black people that a Black publication just couldn’t find a black person to give a hand up to because I am one of those African-Americans that knows better than that & refuse to believe that BS because I could have personally given you a long list of very accomplished, willing & able candidates.

I will give these White FD’s & EIC the benefit of the doubt because Arise Magazine has been consistently well done & has sparked my interest with every issue even though I believe there is room for more magazines  in this market to come out to compete, so I can decide if it’s actually solely because of the Editor’s superb vision, or because the content is rare & the only one of its kind in the market that sparks my interest or if it’s because it is truly as good as it gets. I have had the experience where  many White publications were more willing to showcase & feature African designers & African inspired fashion more often & long before some of these same Black publications when they had Black FD’s in charge, so as much as I am not happy with the decision made, I will hold judgement on the individual’s abilities & what they will & can bring to these publications in the long run.

For some reason Black publications always seem to feel limited by their Blackness & look to be accepted & validated in every way by bending over backwards to be inclusive in their hiring practices in high profile positions instead of  being inclusive by having the world come to them based on the level of their work, their standards & content as most other publications do. I know a White photographer who basically has made his entire living off of working for Black publications, but with every job he gets with these publications he acts as if  he is doing them a favor & that they should somehow feel privileged to be working with him instead of the other way around, even though very few White publications are knocking at his door because his body of work/book is filled with mostly images of Black people. This same said photographer is notorious for coming out of his face sideways  in speaking on & addressing Black people  & culture in his Lizzie Grubman/Liz Cohen Jewish “Power Girls”moments of thinking he is hired so often because he is the one that can keep Black people in check & on schedule -this arrogance & disrespect is who we put in charge of creating & defining the Black image! How can we ever forget the New York Magazine Story delving into how a crew of Jewish girls had pretty much taken over the PR , branding & image making of  many hip-hop artists where Liz Cohen stated, “She’s totally down with her clients like Funkmaster Flex,” says Cohen, impressed. … “But they needed two bigmouthed Jewish girls to tell it to these guys “.

We destroyed the high potential of  Black publications like Honey Magazine when we lost its initial focus & tried to revamp it as some sort of multiculti magazine that would represent every woman of color.  We can’t be everything to everyone & we will always lose our power, leverage & be  made a fool of when we lose our focus & try so hard to be multi-culti/bi-partisan. Ask President Obama how well that has worked out for him. Unfortunately this is our legacy, where we would rather not do the research when information is readily available to us, where we would rather think the worst of ourselves rather than give the benefit of the doubt, where we will easily compromise ourselves & our integrity to win white favor.

It was beyond amazing to me that after years of me trying to speak to everyone possible in order to get BET to showcase African artists from the motherland as a general part of Black Entertainment Television’s programming & award shows that this year they finally included a few African artists in a “special category” in their award show with little fanfare & acknowledgement, in the same year that the biggest story of the awards show announcements was that White Canadian artist, Justin Beiber was up for the coveted award of “best new artist”, which of course included no Africans from the motherland nor the diaspora outside of the USA even though BET has launched internationally- proving once again that we are often our own worse enemies in our setbacks & lack of  global forward movement. Once again the Joke was on us!

We have bought into & convinced ourselves that we are the consummate minority whose ultimate goal & achievement is to be accepted by the so called mainstream majority, while failing to do the research in attaining the power of information that would have told us that the Black experience is global & blackness represents a larger mainstream global majority which doesn’t tell us who we are because that part is up to us to define from Harlem, to Bankhead, to Kingston, to Old San Juan, to Santo Domingo, to Port au Prince, to Brixton, to Marseilles, to Salvador de Bahia, to Lagos, to Dakar & to Accra! We are global Africans with diverse roots in Black Africa & we should define ourselves accordingly!

“Sub-Saharan Africa does not bring to mind an image of a woman with perfectly manicured nails flipping through glossy magazines in search of the latest handbag or celebrity haircut. Yet such women are there, and in far greater numbers than the news media’s portrayal of Africa might suggest…In the wealthy neighborhoods of Lagos, Nigeria; Nairobi, Kenya; Luanda, Angola; Dakar, Senegal; and the like, ladies of leisure, successful businesswomen and middle-income housewives make up an attractive demographic that, in the past, relied on international fashion magazines for style and beauty information..But in the last few years, while Condé Nast, Hearst and Hachette Filipacchi were expanding throughout Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, a handful of African publishers were busy staking claims to this publishing territory. A result has been a series of new glossies, like Arise, HauTe, Helm and True Love, that put an African spin on fashion…“Honestly, upwardly mobile African readers are crying out for this magazine,” said Helen Jennings, editor of Arise, a monthly style publication started late last year by the Nigerian media tycoon Nduka Obaigbena, who also owns the country’s leading newspaper, ThisDay. “Because the local magazines aren’t as high-end or progressive, and no other international titles speak directly to an African readership, Arise has really caused a stir.” READ MORE

In the same week that the last of the strong holds in Black American fashion & beauty publications defined by the dark glowing beautiful skin, pearly white teeth with a gap &  deeply rooted & perfected African conrows of Susan Taylor had been handed over to a White Australian, an article came out saying how Vogue had declined Cameroonian photographer Mario Epanya’s creative crusade  in trying to bring about Vogue Africa. As much as I applaud Mario for his obvious creativity, I wish we would stop chasing mainstream & create our own, but our own also ends up needing & calling on mainstream to legitimize us, i.e. Vibe, Arise & now Essence. Why Blame Vogue for not wanting to include Vogue Africa in its roster instead of blaming ourselves for our unwavering misguided need to beg for inclusion from those who have never mixed their words about us not being their priority? Why not seek to partner with historically Black Ebony Magazine who is looking to revamp & bring newness to a new generation of global Black consumers & who has an archive of images in Black history that would probably make The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture foam at the mouth to be able to get their hands on it? Why not build from within instead of always looking out?

We do not need Vogue Africa to legitimaze our creativity, our beauty & our blackness. The covers below are sophisticated, elegant, engaging, inviting & authentically & beautifully African, having Vogue on it doesn’t make it any more or less representative of that. When are we going to realize that we will never be their target market & source of their funding & energy ? We will always be thrown a bone in a “special issue”  & no matter how successful that special issue is it will still be  shrugged off as a fluke & an anomaly. Vogue only has to look at its numbers  & the numbers of Arise & the few African centered publications that have popped up in the last few years to know that Vogue Africa makes sense financially, but God forbid  that Vogue Africa becomes more financially viable than it’s mother Anna Wintour with her current crusade to invoke Black exclusion & to wipe out black culture literally from her backyard!

“Instead of the issue not selling, it became the highest selling issues of Italian Vogue ever, and had run out of print twice, which marked the first time in Condé Nast history that the magazine reprinted an issue to satisfy demand. The reprinted copies had the tag lines: “Most Wanted Issue Ever” and “First Reprint” banded across the front. ..However, even though the advertising pages went up 30 percent. There was a “glaring lack of black models” in them. The photographer for the issue Steven Meisel, said: “I’ve asked my advertising clients so many times, ‘Can we use a black girl?’ They say no. Advertisers say black models don’t sell.” With the immense success of this issue, the question isn’t is America ready for a black model, it is now are magazines and advertisers ready for one?” Read More

We need to set our own standards within our own defintions & stop embodying & manifesting that White is right thru what we buy, what we read, who we hire, who & what we support & what we aspire to in life while we pump our Black power fist in the air- it’s a contradiction where the ultimate joke is played on us by us! With all the Black wealth in sports, entertainment & other fields being heralded in magazines like Forbes, Sports illustrated along with other publications & lists which in recent years have had Blacks from all over the world at the top of the list, you would think we would have our own fashion groups, investment banks, production studios, music groups & publishing houses like Condé Nast, LVMH, Morgan Stanley, Interscope & Dreamworks so we would not need to beg Vogue to put out Vogue Africa, or watch the dreams of young aspiring & talented global Africans in fashion, film, music etc. get deffered because they did not meet the standards to get their projects greenlighted by a white mainstream that only has a few slots for an exclusive few Blackarati!

“We don’t have to wait for someone to greenlight our projects we can create our own intersections..we don’t just have to act in the sitcom, we can own the show & the network..we don’t have to be at the end of the line waiting for a hand out, we can be at the front giving a hand up..we don’t have to wait for somebody to give us 40 acres & a mule we can buy our own.. U can b born into a whole lot of a nightmare but God can usher u into a dream” Tyler Perry

BET can actually get some accolades from me on their awards show for bringing out some of the finest singers in music to offset the rest of their mess. I wish they would have shown some international acts & their new award category to globalize their audience a bit & not have it always be more of the same monotony -as they had the same performers performing several times that night.  Hello BET- Black Entertainment is bigger than just a few artists from a few States- let’s broaden our scope & horizon just a bit so we can try to catch up to the rest of the world. The legends of Black & really world music came out , showed out & left the message for our young people to step up their game & as lifetime acheivement honoree Prince said “I was pretty wild in my younger days & you don’t have to do what I do. You don’t have to make any of the mistakes that I made. The future is in your hands“. I wished Prince would have graced us with a performance & possibly had a Wendy, Lisa, Sheila E, Morris Day & The Time tribute, but I was happy to see BET showcase something new to their audience with Esperanza Spaulding & Janelle Monae- who were handpicked by Prince along with Alicia Keys & Pattie Labelle to pay tribute to him. I must say the one thing that BET always does right is taking us to church with the gospel, hence the longest running show on BET being Bobby Jones Gospel. Kim Burrell is just beyond amazing to me & Fred Hammond, Marvin Sapp, and Yolanda Adams brought their Sunday Best.

Pattie Labelle, Deniece Williams & OMG- El Debarge were simply amazing in reminding us that June is Black Music Month! Nia Long & Larenz Tate bringing us back to our “Love Jones”  was magically delicious because hearing “Brotha to the Night” was more than alright! I must say I was less impressed with the slew of new rappers who were heralded & could only shake my head while saying in my Jay Z voice “a million Kanyes”, which seems to be what we have to look forward to from rhyme style, production and even fashion, but just like there is only one Beyonce there is only one Kanye -so hopefully all the imitations will be weeded out soon after Kanye comes back to take his throne which he failed to do at the awards show-C’mon son-what was that? As for Mr. “I invented sex” Trey Songz, super #fail on having the audacity to do “Purple Rain” in front of the man who really invented sex, while knowing that Pattie Labelle was going to come on after you to do the same song- You get a million plus Prince side eyes for plain old being disrespectful to your elders-Please stay in your lane youngin’-SMH!

Diddy -really? You are becoming exhausting with the constant self promotion-if you are really the best then you wouldn’t have to keep reminding folks to notice you-Damn! Do you think you can ever replace Total, Biggie & Lil Kim with Dirty Money, Rick Ross & Nicki Minaj- get real! We all know you are the king of the remix, but you can’t remix talent -what next a new Mary J. Blige, Faith, Craig Mack etc.- let’s just say your new era midas touch is only working for the new era of auto-tuners who don’t really know any better. I love me some sexy chocolate Tyrese, but would have preferred to hear Jaheim to do the Teddy Pendergrass tribute because his soul no doubt can be heard thru Jaheim’s voice.  Eminem to me continues to show that he will forever be a staple in the rap game no matter how many imitations come along & also should wake rappers up that if you don’t want history to be re-written years from now where hip-hop is said to be invented by White rappers like Eminem, like Rock N Roll & Elvis Presley-then you better step up your games & not let Eminem show that he’s the best lyricist in the building because he’s not Afraid- Drops mike & walks away! The only dirty south rapper I can really stomach for the long term is T.I. since Outkast seems to not want to come back to the foolishness of today’s hip-hop. I was glad to see T.I. back as a man who accepts & apologizes for his mistakes, can laugh at himself & is on a comeback to be better than ever in doing his best to utilize his gifts & opportunities in every aspect of his life, from family to business & just plain old being a better human being who can fall down , pick himself back up & keep it moving in style. I love his clean grown man style that is not bedazzled, pants hanging down so low to expose his underwear to the world and just being able to be a rapper who has some class about him that debunks the usual stereotypes. I am surely rooting for him!

BET gave us what many say was Chris Brown’s comeback moment when he finally was able to get out from the dark cloud of forever being labeled an abuser to do what he does best, in hopes of truly turning his life around, repentance, seeking & getting forgiveness and changing his ways by making that change, as he ended his Michael Jackson tribute with those very words in an emotional break down of tears. His Michael Jackson tribute was fantastic & the tears at the end although questioned by many whether or not they were genuine or a very well thought out & brilliantly executed publicity stunt, made many hearts bleed for a young man who who deserves another chance just as we have given many other artists who have done the same wrong & still get our celebration (James Brown, R. Kelly, Miles Davis & the list goes on). In an era where all we seem to talk about is the breakdown of the Black family, the lack of Black women getting married and cheating spouses -BET chooses to honor a 4 months pregnant Alicia Keys whose “Baby Daddy” & soon to be husband just barely had the ink dried off from his divorce papers a month ago, leaving yet another Black woman to be a single mother who was cheated on to add to the statistics- I’m just saying-things that make u go hmmm!  The hypocrisy in our community continues to cause the type of confusion that repeats the deafening cycle of statistics because at this point who is really listening or caring when we pick & choose who we want to praise with a clearly biased moral compass. Many still refuse to forgive Chris Brown, but lest no man who has never done any wrong  & sought forgiveness place judgement & be the judge & jury of another man. We all need to look at the (wo)man in the mirror. At least Chris Brown has admitted he did something wrong & apologized for it, has pro “Superwoman” Alicia?

Diddy YAWN!

Yes-That’s alright baby that’s alright-LOL!

All Hail His Purple Badness! Still a Sexy Mother F@Ker

The U.S. Census counts every resident in the United States, and is required by the Constitution to take place every 10 years. The 2010 Census is probably one of the most important census of all time. At a time of economic turmoil & limited resources, we can not afford to not be counted, particularly in Black & Brown communities where we have been taught not to have the government in our business because of past historical experiences that have been handed down from generation to generation. This has been highly detrimental to the lack of services in these communities, where little funding is given because of lack of  ”official” numbers showing demand. We should be pushing the people in our communities to sign & send in their Census form just as hard, if not harder than we did to get the first Black president elected because while the President is there to serve the interests of the entire nation, the census is there to serve the specific needs of each individual community. I am happy to see BET & some artists & leaders in the Black community step up to bring more awareness to the importance of the Census. I wish all the entertainers who were ubiquitously endorsing Barack Obama for president would also come out & endorse the Census because we can no longer live in a society where ignorance is bliss, where we are constantly looking from the outside in, as other communities flourish in this nation while Black & Brown communities stay stagnant or take a turn for the worse. We are in crisis mode with the lack of services in health & education leading to high numbers in the drop out rate , obesity, AIDS & environmentally based diseases & viruses.

The 2010 Census will help communities receive more than $400 billion in federal funds each year for things like:

• Hospitals
• Job training centers
• Schools
• Senior centers
• Bridges, tunnels and other-public works projects
• Emergency services

The data collected by the census also help determine the number of seats your state has in the U.S. House of Representatives.

I had a conversation with a friend the other day saying how do we not see the idiocy in the lack of funding in Black & Brown communities due to so called lack of numbers in demand  for services, when we are stereotyped as having too many babies in comparison to our White counterparts. If that is a stereotype based on facts then how do we still remain the consumate limited minority if the power is in the numbers? We need to change the mindsets of our communities in how to attain social services & resources for our communities. We must forgo the idea that we don’t want the government “all up in our business”, therefore we will not sign the census & understand that whether you like it or not the government is already “all up in your business”.  If they want access to you they can easily get to you from your social security number, to your computer, to your cell phone to your cable box -everything is being tracked , so forego any idea of secrecy & do something that is personally & socially beneficial to you & your community. Sign the census & be counted if you want more funding for schools, community arts programs, neighborhood health centers, transportation and basic services needed to make any & every community thrive. Instead of spending our energy in debating over the use of the word “Negro” on the census let’s look at it as the first time having multiple labels can be to our social benefit. Check every single box that applies to you whether it’s by your definition or someone else’s definition.

There should be no reason why the upper east side or upper west side has cleaner streets, better schools, HIV/AIDS services & more arts programs than Harlem or Washington Heights, if it’s based on numbers & demand. For those who say it is not based on numbers, but rather the hue of a community -you still need to sign the census so you can atleast have a case if your numbers are high & you still do not get the same services -help your community have a fighting chance by attaining the evidence to fight against dicrimantion if the cenus does not follow thru on what it is mandated to do.

As the state lottery says “you have to be in it to win it” -so let’s give our children & communities a chance to win. Sign your census, mail it in & make yourself count! IT’S IN YOUR HANDS

The cultural divide between Africa & her Diasporan counterparts seems to be growing wider in America even with the first Black president of the U.SA. being of direct African parentage. The New York Times recently did an article on Africans in the Bronx who have steadily been on the receiving end of victimization & divisionist stereotypes from their American counterparts. I grew up in the battle between the two communities as a first generation American of Ghanaian parentage, but I didn’t realize that decades since my youth that this divide would be as strong as ever. I have heard Africans say “well Obama is part African that’s why he was able to have the type of drive & achievements to become president whereas someone like Jesse Jackson could not accomplish that because he does not have they same drive, intelligence & work ethic as an African”. I have heard African-Americans say that Africans think they are better than them & many other divisionist & hateful things from both sides instead of us realizing that we are all in this together.

When CNN does the next series of “Black In America” or better yet when BET decides to be truly a hub for the voices of all of its people, they should take a look at this divide & bring it out in the open, so we can move forward knowing that we are one people of African decent, who’s history started at the same side of the Atlantic ocean before we were divided & conquered. We need to be honest in our stereotypes & where they came from & even more honest & genuine about wanting to bridge the gap/ocean that has divided us for centuries. It seems a young man from South Africa brought the dialogue wide open on you tube when he asked should African-Americans call themselves African-Americans? This subject truly hit home for many Africans & African-Americans/Black Americans judging from the countless video responses.

Take a look at the stories below & remember to set your mind free!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/nyregion/20africans.html

I went to a workshop preview of the documentary, The Prep School Negro on Monday. This was a documentary that directly spoke to me as a fellow prep school Negro & my own prep school experience, along with the experience of battling who you are as a Negro & the so called “non traditional student” status, as they called it at the time when I received my A Better Chance scholarship in 1987 & went off to the Pomfret School in Pomfret, Connecticut. At that time the only information of the prep school negro experience I had to reference was the tragedy of Edmund Perry. The Prep School Negro documentary is riveting in its honesty & realness. I shed tears knowing that the story was also my story in many ways, from the battle with self, family and finding one’s place between two very separate & different communities. I found it shocking to know that many people of color were uncomfortable with the use of the word Negro in the title because I had never thought of it as derogatory term. I had visions of W.E.B Dubois’s The Negro & Carter G. Woodson’s The Mis-Eduaction of the Negro in mind when I saw the title. These were books written by Black intellectuals who I had admired & wouldn’t think of them using a derogatory term to describe us as a people, as we so readily do today in the acceptance of the use of the word” Nigger/ Nigga” , which the hip-hop community has found some sort of false empowerment in its usage & acceptance. It made me think when someone in the audience explained that perhaps some older Black Americans would be uncomfortable with the use of the word Negro in the title of the documentary because during the era of the Harlem Renaissance there was an association of elitism & intellectual superiority amongst certain Black people who referred to themselves as Negroes , so the word combined with prep school would bring together those visions of elitist intellectual Black people to mind. I found that point very interesting because I had never really thought about it, but as I mentioned when I first saw the title, I had visions of Black intellectuals in my head, but never in an elitist type of manner. I had always thought of the word Negro as the the proper definition of those of us of African decent, much the same way as we refer to those of European decent as Caucasians. I had never heard of a White person being offended by being called Caucasian, so I could not fully understand why Black people would take offense to the word Negro as opposed to being called Black, which for me is more a color in my Crayola box than a definition of a people. I realized that our story as people of African decent, Negroes or Black people is a far more complex & personal story than I could ever truly break down or fully understand. As the subject of the documentary said “We have to respect our own process in life, as well as the process of others”.

I quickly realized that this process has been an ever waging battle between those considered as intellectuals & those who are considered of/from the hood, or as it was stated by the students in documentary “real Black people”. This is the same separation between the house negro & the field negro, the same separation between those who are considered bourgeoisie & those who are considered hood; yet The Prep School Negro is the story of many of us who balance our lives between the two divides, while trying to find a place between the two where we can fit comfortably. Andre Robert Lee, the subject of the documentary, like myself, is of/from the hood, yet he is very much a Black intellectual as many of us prep school Negroes are, it’s just that our perception of “hood” is a lot different from those who we grew up with. I came from a Ghanaian family who always put education first, so going to college was never an option, but rather a mandatory part of my life’s process because that was what my mother worked multiple jobs to get me to.

I grew up in Lefrak City and never knew that I was from a place which most people considered in its negative connotation, an urban ghetto or the projects because my neighbors and friends were mostly first generation American kids of Russian Jews, Latinos, Caribbean Islanders, other Ghanaians and Black Americans who were all working toward the “American dream” in trying to make sure that all of their kids had the best education possible that they could afford & college was also not an option but a mandatory part of their life’s process as well. I don’t know if I was in denial or just oblivious, but I never knew that I lived in the ghetto/projects until after college when I went to visit my mother & a guy that I was dating at the time came to pick me up and made the comment that he never knew that I was from the hood & grew up in “Iraq”- which I later found out was the nickname given to Lefrak City because many viewed it as a war zone- but somehow I managed to miss all of that. It just goes to show that being “hood” or “ghetto” is often more of a state of mind than where you are from. My mother & I lived in a well furnished, spotless, big 3 bedroom apartment with a dining room, a balcony, a garage, 24hr security, swimming pools , tennis courts, basketball courts and a library right downstairs from our building; as apposed to my moving on up story after leaving “the hood” into my so called elite Manhattan addresses on Central Park West & 5th Avenue, in much smaller apartments which do not have any of the amenities that my so called hood/war zone of Lefrak City had. I went out of my way after I was told that I was from the hood/projects/ghetto at the age of twenty something to find out if I had really been that oblivious to my surroundings. I found a great story of a man named Lefrak and perhaps one of the greatest developments & communities one could come from. Lefrak City for me represented a true melting pot of America with people from all over the world who had created a gumbo of a community which felt like Disneyland’s “It’s a small world” because of its diversity. We had African markets, bodegas, Caribbean restaurants, Russian restaurants & community rooms that held services for Jews, Muslims, & Christians alike. At Pomfret, with a handful of people of color, two of us were from Lefrak City and we did not know one another until we met at Pomfret, so go figure! I guess even out of a perceived war zone, intellectuals can be molded.

This takes me to another observation about us as Black people and prep school negroes. I was saddened by the fact that when I suggested that The Prep School Negro should be something that BET (Black Entertainment Television) should show on its network , I was told that this type of story does not fall in line with BET programming. It is a real shame that this is our first reaction to such a suggestion particularly because Stephen Hill, who was featured in the documentary because he is also a prep school Negro is head of BET programming. I was not surprised by this answer to my suggestion because I had been told the same thing in the past by BET executives when suggesting they show any stories of intellectual Black people or any diversity of us as Black people outside of our perceived ghetto/project war zones, which we show most of the world without ever showing that these places also produce intellectuals & prep school Negroes . It is really sad that we accept this amongst ourselves even when we are in positions of power where we can make a difference & be the change we want to see. Are we as prep school Negroes speaking to the bourgeoisie association of ourselves by thinking that those who did not have the opportunity of a prep school education could not possibly appreciate & relate to the fact that we are not one dimensional people or the fact that the same opportunities are available to them if they seek it? Why should we want to keep the information & know how that we have received to ourselves, as we watch those that we grew up with in the same neighborhoods settling on the lowest denominator of us and believing that they have no other choice , ability or opportunity because they are from the hood/ghetto/projects or war zones? It is said that “to who much is given much is expected”, so it is up to us who have been the beneficiaries of the best in education, wealth and positions of power to give back by sharing our knowledge and know how. Benjamin Disrelli said, “ The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own”. BET stands for Black Entertainment Television, so in serving & entertaining the full spectrum of Black people as one of our only designated outlets, those in power are responsible in telling our full story as Black people. We are just as much The Prep School Negro as we are Frankie & Neffy . How can we expect & demand that mainstream media respect & include our stories in its entirety when we do not hold ourselves to the same scrutiny & expectations. Mainstream media takes its lead & cues from us in targeting us as an audience, telling & investing in our stories. Until we do right by ourselves and diversify in the stories we tell & show about ourselves, we can not have any expectations of or blame to throw at a mainstream media that is on the outside looking in. We as real Black people or prep school Negroes need to start looking in!

http://www.theprepschoolnegro.org/2009/10/aretha-amma-sarfo-founder-global-fusion-productions/

Definition of Negro
Negro is a term referring to people of Black ancestry. Prior to the shift in the lexicon of American and worldwide classification of race and ethnicity in the late 1960s, the appellation was accepted as a normal, completely neutral, formal term both by those of Black African descent as well as those of non-African black descent. During the American Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, some African American leaders objected to the term, preferring the term Black.[1] During the 1960s Negro came to be considered an ethnic slur.[2] The term is now considered archaic and is not commonly used as a racist slur. The term is still used in some contexts for historical reasons such as in the name of the United Negro College Fund.[3][4] or the Negro league in sports. “Negro” means “black” in Spanish, Portuguese, and ancient Italian[5]; all of these derive from the Latin niger (i.e., “black”).

Around 1442, the Portuguese first arrived in sub-Saharan Africa while trying to find a sea route to India. The term negro, literally meaning “black”, was used by the Spanish and Portuguese to refer to people. From the 18th century to the late 1960s, “negro” (later capitalized) was considered the proper English term for all people of sub-Saharan African origin.
It fell out of favor by the early 1970s in the United States after the Civil Rights movement. However, older African Americans from the period when “Negro” was considered acceptable, initially found the term “Black” more offensive than “Negro”. Evidence for this is in historical African-American organizations and institutions’ use of the term—such as the United Negro College Fund. In current English language usage, “Negro” is generally considered acceptable in a historical context, such as baseball’s Negro Leagues of the early and mid-20th century, or in the name of older organizations, as in Negro spirituals, the United Negro College Fund or the Journal of Negro Education. The U.S. Census now uses the grouping “Black or African American.”

LeFrak City, Queens
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

LeFrak is a large apartment development in the southernmost region of Corona, a neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens, near Jackson Heights, built in the mid-1960s for working- and middle-class families and located on the north side of the Long Island Expressway. The complex of twenty eighteen-story (technically sixteen-story, since the lobbies are the 2nd floors and there are no 13th floors) apartment towers covers 40 acres (162,000 m²) and currently houses over 14,000 people. The development is part of Queens Community Board 4.[1]
The complex is home to a diverse population, including African-Americans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and Haitians.[2] The development remains popular due to its reasonable rents, good quality apartments, and location in a safe neighborhood.
The development is served by playgrounds, tennis and basketball courts, spacious fields, a swimming pool, a branch of the Queens Borough Public Library, a post office, two large office buildings, retail space, and over 3,500 parking spaces, and is a short walk to Queens Center Mall The complex is named for its developer, Samuel J. LeFrak.
The LeFrak Organization broke ground in 1960, finishing by 1969, and offered air-conditioned apartments at $40 a room. The LeFrak strategy of “Total Facilities for Total Living” meant bringing recreational, shopping, transportation, and other services to the residents.[2]
LeFrak City is also the home of the New York City Police Department’s Medical Services Division.

Samuel J. LeFrak
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Samuel J. LeFrak (1918 – April 16, 2003) was a noted landlord who chaired a private building firm, The LeFrak Organization. The LeFrak Organization was also ranked 45th on the Forbes list of top 500 private companies.[1] The development firm is best known for major development projects in Battery Park City, LeFrak City in Queens, and Newport, Jersey City. The LeFrak Organization was founded in 1883 in France, by Samuel J. LeFrak’s grandfather, Maurice.[1]
LeFrak grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and attended Erasmus Hall High School.[2] He graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1940,[3] with the University’s LeFrak Hall named for him. In 1988, LeFrak was honored by the United Nations, along with former President Jimmy Carter, for global contributions through Habitat International.

Notable current and former residents of LeFrak City include:
Kenny Anderson, former basketball player for the New Jersey Nets and other teams during his ten-year NBA career.
Noriega (aka NORE), rapper.
Kenny Smith, former basketball player for the Houston Rockets and other teams during his ten-year NBA career.
Kool G Rap, rapper.
Prodigy, rapper, of Mobb Deep
Akinyele, rapper
Big Mato, reggaeton/spanish hip-hop musician.
Emerson Boozer, NY Jets football player
Erick Scarecrow, Esc-Toy founder
Mark White, bass player for the Spin Doctors
E-Moneybags, rapper
Harlem Knightz, rapper
Frankie Manning, One of the founding fathers of the Lindy Hop