Yesterday was a good day because with the world seeming to be falling apart at the seams with the hardest hit being nations & cities with majority Black populations, we can all use some positivity in our global African image. America has a president who touts education as a mainstay in his platform & who happens to be Black, but our education system seems to be getting worse & failing Black children more than any one else.

On Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day that fell on the birthday of Muhammad Ali & First Lady Michelle Obama as well as the 50th anniversary of the assassination of one of our greatest Black leaders , Patrice Lumumba, the NAACP took on to marching because North Carolina schools wanted to make up missed school days instead of observing the national holiday which gives school children a day off. I mean really NAACP-where are your priorities? Wouldn’t these kids have been better served by negotiating & compromising on a curriculum for the day that focused on teaching these children about who Dr. King was & how important he was in fighting for equality in education? What purpose is served by keeping our children home to observe the holiday just for them to play video games & do everything but learn about Dr. King? Having a day off in observance does not equate to learning about or paying homage to Dr. King, so we really need to get our priorities straight & figure out what battles need to be fought.

Our children are not learning & instead of focusing on figuring out a better way/means of teaching , we want to march to have them stay out of school. No matter how you slice it, it makes no sense to me because I think even Dr. King would be more honored if these children went to school & got their education in honor of him, but rather we pick a fight in protest instead of coming up with solutions for compromise in the best interest of our children & then we wonder why we are experiencing a slow burn in the lack of respect for education in our communities. We can’t tell our youth that education is their passport to the future & become the antithesis of that.

“Without education, you’re not going anywhere in this world….Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today….Look at yourselves. Some of you teenagers, students. How do you think I feel and I belong to a generation ahead of you – how do you think I feel to have to tell you, ‘We, my generation, sat around like a knot on a wall while the whole world was fighting for its human rights – and you’ve got to be born into a society where you still have that same fight. What did we do, who preceded you ? I’ll tell you what we did. Nothing. And don’t you make the same mistake we made….”MALCOLM X

Global African children in Africa, Haiti etc. are begging to go to school while the NAACP is marching & protesting to keep kids out of school-huh? I know I may be simplifying the situation, but it is very simplistic & elementary when we would rather prove some point of not being disrespected by not honoring a day off instead of finding the best solution & compromise for the education of our children. Our children are being failed because they are not being taught their history or being given the right consideration, funding & tools to learn about who they are & where they come from by utilizing today’s resources & technology. Our nations are in dire straits with schools being shut down & deteriorating left & right while the whole idea of quality of life has been thrown out the window with layoffs of police forces as crime rises & jobs being lost left & right in sectors of life that serve our everyday needs while we pay more for less.

Our governments worldwide have shown us that they are not dependable in doing the work of & for the people & we surely can not count on them to teach & raise our children. Children learn best by examples, so it is time for us all to step up & to lead by example. We can no longer keep waiting for superman because these times call for us all to find superman within ourselves!

Enter Adamu Waziri, Lebron James & Reginald Hudlin with new animated series which will hopefully not only teach & shed a new light on our global Blackness, but will hopefully create jobs & encourage global Africans to resurrect new era griots & visionaries to pass on our history & to cultivate our future. We need to develop thinkers who will take global Africans forward & what better way to start by teaching them from young. I remember waking up on weekends to watch “Fat Albert”  & subsequently continued to grow & develop in the great relative & realistic possibilities of being Black in America that was brought to us by visionary thinkers who taught & led by example like,Bill Cosby, who showed the nation & the world a different side of Black life in America & a different world.  Bill Cosby set the stage for a time when one man brought Black creatives & thinkers together not only to entertain but to teach. We really need to focus on how we are educating & developing our children for the future because the hard times are here & they need to be able to be innovative with a sense of self awareness, accountability & pride to move forward.

“An unprecedented study that followed several thousand undergraduates through four years of college found that large numbers didn’t learn the critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication skills that are widely assumed to be at the core of a college education.Many of the students graduated without knowing how to sift fact from opinion, make a clear written argument or objectively review conflicting reports of a situation or event, according to New York University sociologist Richard Arum, lead author of the study. The students, for example, couldn’t determine the cause of an increase in neighborhood crime or how best to respond without being swayed by emotional testimony and political spin…”READ MORE

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Young people of today are the internet, technology & animation generation & Adamu Waziri, Lebron James & Reginald Hudlin are coming to help educate & develop them on their territory with three new animation series reminicent of “Fat Albert” & our much forgotten Blackimation (Black Animation) creativity of the past. “Bino & Fino“ by Nigerian Adamu Waziri,”The Lebrons“-a colloboration between Lebron James & Nike & “Black Panther“ by Reginald Hudlin are the breath of fresh air that we need in the chaos of controlling our image while having it be an entertaining teaching resource for our children. Kenyan born Wanuri Kahiu made history this past year by creating Kenya’s first Sci-Fi film & winning Best Short Film at the Cannes Independent Film Festival for her Sci-Fi film Pumzi, showcasing that African film making goes beyond Nollywood & that you do not need huge hollywood budgets to create greatness because where there is opportunity global Africans will always excel!

“Animation history is a relatively short history in comparison with many of the visual arts and when mentioned often brings to mind the works of Walt Disney and other great American animators. What is not thought of concerns the history of Animation in other non-western, non-European countries such as Japan, India, China, and even Africa. These countries have Animation histories that have been inspired by western animation techniques and innovations, yet each one strives to find its own national style. Egypt appears to have led the way; following the Frenkel brothers was the Egyptian animator, Ali Muhib, who started the Film Animation Department as part of the national television station and directed the film The White Line in 1962. The White Line incorporated animation and live action. Muhib spent 8 years at the department, after which he went into advertising and was able to create the first Arab animation film series, Mishgias Sawah in 1979. Animation continued to thrive in Cairo while elsewhere on the continent in Niger, Moustapha Alassane creates La mort du Gandji in 1963. Many consider Moustapha the father of African animation, his works are viewed in a high art context, he is self-taught and his style is stop-motion using simple animated puppets and directly drawing on the film. His films include: Bon voyage sim-1966, Samba le grand-1977, and more recently Kokoa 2-2000…” READ MORE

“According to the makers – Bino and Fino is a cartoon series about a brother and sister named “Bino”  and “Fino”  who live with their grandparents ‘Mama’ and ‘Papa’ in a modern day city in Africa. Bino and Fino have many adventures where, with the help of their friend Ladidi the fairy, they discover and learn things about the world…”READ MORE

“LeBron James is taking his talents to the Internet in a new Web-based animated series that will revisit some of his best-known off-the-court performances while featuring socially conscious messages. The cartoon series, called “The LeBrons” and planned for a spring debut on its own YouTube channel and Mr. James’s Web site, lebronjames.com, will revive the characters from a popular series of Nike commercials in which Mr. James played four versions of himself: the youthful and wide-eyed Kid LeBron; the physically adept Athlete LeBron; the smooth and savvy Business LeBron; and an ornery elder statesman called Wise LeBron…”READ MORE

“Certain comic book characters remain popular on the page but seem to defy adaptation to the big screen — Entertainment Weekly recently asked whether or not we’d ever see a Wonder Woman movie. But for filmmaker and former Black Entertainment Television president Reginald Hudlin, writing first a comic book and then an animated series of Black Panther (out today from Shout! Factory) was a way to visualize a cinematic adventure for a character that Hudlin calls the African equivalent of Captain America. A quick Black Panther recap for anyone who’s not a comics reader: He’s not just a superhero, he’s T’Challa, the king of Wakanda, a technologically-advanced African nation that has closed itself off from a world that is not yet ready for its futuristic devices. The country stays ahead of the game thanks to its supply of vibranium, and the mantle of Black Panther is passed along royal family lines…”READ MORE

“Moustapha Alassane is an African filmmaker, born in Niger, 1942.Born in 1942 in N’Dougou (Niger), Moustapha Alassane graduated in mechanics. However, in the Rouch IRSH in Niamey he learns the cinematographic technique and becomes one of its main researchers. Jean Rouch allows Alassane’s education and accommodation in Canada, where he meets the famous Norman McLaren, who teaches him the secrets of animation. Moustapha Alassane is one of the first filmmakers in Africa, making Niger one of the African nations of more importance in cinema, close to Senegal. He was the author of the first animated films of the sub-Saharan Africa, directing also documentaries and fiction films. He was Head of Cinema Department at the Niamey University for 15 years. Moustapha Alassane directed, in 1962, two shorts inspired in traditional tales: “Aoure” and “La Bague du roi Koda”. Representing the African culture (“Deela ou el Barka le conteur”, 1969; “Shaki”, 1973), Alassane uses also moral satire (“F.V.V.A., femme, villa, voiture, argent”, 1972), denouncing the thirst of power form the “new wealth” in Africa. Criticism and black humour are, after all, in almost all of his films. The frog is his favourite animal and protagonist of most of his animated films, because Alassane believes it is funnier to animate frogs rather than humans. Directed around thirty animation, documentary and fiction films…” READ MORE

When we say “Never Forget” -Let’s Actually Mean It! Haiti is no longer in the global headlines but Haitians are still waiting for a hand up & to rise up from devastation! Let’s Continue to Build For Haiti!

Join 54 Kingdoms and Addicted To African And Caribbean (ATAC) Magazine, in a campaign effort to provide both a physical and mental support system for our neighboring brothers and sisters in Haiti. Let’s not just build Haiti. Let’s rebuild a BETTER and STRONGER Haiti.

Don’t just tell young people that the sky is the limit , Show Them! What started out as a story of Barrington Irving, a Jamaican American who became the youngest person & the first black pilot to fly solo around the globe hoping to inspire other young poor inner city kids from the streets of Kingston,Jamaica where he was born to the streets of Miami, Florida where he found his calling to literally see the sky as the limit, is now a wonderful inspirational story of  the young Black teens in Florida who he took under his wing making their own history by building him a plane to continue to fly with the sun.

“The Jamaican-born aerospace student hopes the trip will be an inspiration to children in poor, urban neighborhoods. “I want to show them they can do more with their lives than resort to violence,” said Irving…Irving grew up in a rough Miami neighborhood just behind the Opa Locka executive airport, where he says 24 children were killed last year alone….” READ MORE

This wonderful each one teach one story has received little to no media attention. If we all truly believe in education, uplifting people and hearing about good news, then how does the national media get it so wrong? It is up to us to take back the news, take back our education system & to take back the goodness of humanity! As the the title of this video about the students who built the solar plane says “show your children”- but also show your educators, show your elders, show your politicians, show your neighbors  & show everyone you can that this is the type of Hope We Can Truly Believe In & that when we say Yes We Can -we actually Follow Through & Do It!

“There are 11,000 children living in the neighborhood covered by the Harlem Children’s Zone, and we work with 8,800 of them. Whether they are the 1,400 in our two charter schools or in the local traditional public schools, we make the same guarantee: We will get you through college. Given the desperate need for high-skills workers, this is a promise that America needs to make to all of its students….” READ MORE

From the young Black students making history in building a solar plane to Chilean Miners finding freedom, to one man deciding to take the lead in setting our educational bar higher, to the wonderful global women like Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who are at the forefront in letting the world know that investing in girls should be a global priority, I have come to realize that we do not have to wait for superman because superman/woman exists in everyone of us & when God sees us working together for the common good & returning to the goodness & greatness of our humanity -HE DELIVERS!

As the miner known worldwide now as the new Super Mario said, “I was with God, and I was with the devil, They both fought for me. God won.”  Let’s continue to show & to have more of those days where the best in us as human beings triumphs & God wins!

“We have done what the entire world was waiting for,” he told Chilean President Sebastian Pinera immediately after his rescue. “The 70 days that we fought so hard were not in vain. We had strength, we had spirit, we wanted to fight, we wanted to fight for our families, and that was the greatest thing…The president told him: “You are not the same, and the country is not the same after this. You were an inspiration. Go hug your wife and your daughter.” With Urzua by his side, he led the crowd in singing the national anthem…” READ MORE

quoted from adande81 -”it took 33 days to drill all 33 miners were rescue on this date 10-13-10 add dat up equals to 33 god works in mysterious ways..” The Trinity of Unity Working Together as 1 is REAL!

I didn’t start out as a John Legend fan because I found him to be awkward & not well developed in his stage presence when Kanye first introduced him to us all. I was tired of hearing “Ordinary People” & watching him perform it on every show sitting at the piano , plus I was beyond annoyed with him when I saw the video for the “Show Me Campaign” at a time when we as Africans were questioning the imapct & worthiness of numerous NGO’s & the global image of Africa that many of these NGO’s were using to be able to fill their coiffeurs to help us poor Africans who just could never help ourselves. I was unapologetically upset with John Legend’s words & depiction of Ghana through the “Show Me Campaign” as he said “There’s no comparison between America & here when it comes to the extremeness of the poverty here..it is not even close..” All I could think was REALLY?, has he traveled through some of the backwoods of Mississippi & other parts of the USA & seen the conditions of no running water & the high level of poverty there? Does he even understand that we Africans have our own traditions of self sustenance that doesn’t need the government in Ghana to set up soup kitchens & a welfare system in order for us to be our own brothers & sisters keepers? When someone is hungary they can go to their neighbor/family & will be fed because no matter what anyone says about Africa we do see ourselves as family & have a long tradition of making sure one another is fed no matter how little we may have to share- All of this was being taken for granted in telling a one-sided story of Ghana & many African nations who are bombarded with NGO’s taking the place of governments that refuse to serve their people & being plagued with the images & words of helplessness & hopelessness that does not allow Africans the mental freedom & opportunities to do for ourselves as entrepreneurs who have always historically shown our resilience in making do without fear!

My friend from San Francisco, a 6′8 plus, White ex-baller who probably knows more about & enjoys Black Soul, R&B music more than most people I know, came for a visit one day back to New York & he forced me to give John Legend a second listen by playing me his full CD & leaving it behind for me to consume it on my own time. I was also doing a deal with one of my clients & Mr. Legend’s record label at the time, so I was gifted with free tickets to go to see him at Radio City Music Hall in New York. I all of a sudden realized Damn! this dude is great & why the hell wasn’t the radio playing some of these songs like “Live It Up” & “Stay With You“, which showed his amazing retro soulfulness that he has now recaptured in a full album. This new album is amazing at a time when we need to put the education, consciousness & words back into the music because that’s what the youth & the majority of the people are listening to. I have watched John Legend grow & develop not only in his stage show, but also within himself as a man & as a human being in not only talking about it, but also being about it! John Legend has become a true leader of our time in his commitment to education & reviving & redefining a music industry that has gone back to its activist roots a la Marvin Gaye, John Lennon, Nina Simone, Donny Hathaway, Joan Baez, Carly Simon, Aretha Franklin & so many others before him. Support this new project -Wake Up! by John Legend & The Roots because this is right for the times & we must all take time to STOP! LOOK! & LISTEN!

I was on twitter the other day & saw Russell Simmons Tweet about an article he wrote for Global Grind entitled: Lockdown, USA vs. GradNation: We Have A Choice To Make:The Battle For America’s Future Rests At The Schoolhouse Door. In reading the article all I could do was shake my head because I remember Russell back in my high school & NYU days when he was all about the party & bullshit, wearing his lucky genius of Def Jam & lack of college degree as some sort of badge of honor because leave it to the Rick Rubins of the world to get a college degree, because a “Nigga ” like him from Hollis was about the money & the hustle – but I always wondered who made more money from Def Jam -Rick Rubin or Russell Simmons? I remember being in prep school & coming home to Queens when the kids in my neighborhood looked at me as some sort of anomaly as they praised & looked at Russell Simmoms, his Def Jam movement & hip-hop as the standard norm. Little did many of them know that me trying to get the best education possible should have been seen as the standard norm & that their dreams of becoming rappers, athletes & the next Russell Simmons was actually the anomaly. I had to write him a little note just to take him back down memory lane & for us all as a community to get to the real ROOTS of our problems which is far from the need for meditation time in our classrooms. I believe we can all do our part to better the conditions of our youth & the manner in which they are being educated, but if Russell Simmons’s solution is to put all his efforts in fighting for meditation time in schools, then we have a longer road ahead of us than any of us can imagine.

“A tragic crisis of enormous magnitude is facing black boys and men in America. Parental neglect, racial discrimination and an orgy of self-destructive behavior have left an extraordinary portion of the black male population in an ever-deepening pit of social and economic degradation…The Schott Foundation for Public Education tells us in a new report that the on-time high school graduation rate for black males in 2008 was an abysmal 47 percent, and even worse in several major urban areas — for example, 28 percent in New York City…The astronomical jobless rates for black men in inner-city neighborhoods are both mind-boggling and heartbreaking. There are many areas where virtually no one has a legitimate job…” READ MORE

Posted Answer to Russell Simmons:

I see that with age & maturity u have come around 2 knowing the importance of education particularly in the black community at large. I remember being livid with u & all those rappers who would boast about dropping out of school, slinging dope or not having a college education & becoming successful. Tons of kids back then looked up to u & they went on to have kids which they preached this same nonsense 2 & pointed 2 u & others as examples of why education is not that important in being successful. I remember when u were promoting Phat Farm & letting young black men know that they didn’t need 2 rock suits 2 meet with CEO’s & major biz players because you didn’t & now you are rocking & selling them suits. We as a community need to look within & remember how far & wide the messages we send goes, particularly amongst our entertainers & athletes because no matter what u are in the spotlight more often than any educator or business person & unfortunately our kids learn & pay more attention 2 to u all more than educators & business entrepreneurs outside of the entertainment biz.

Would Def Jam have become as big as it was & as financially successful without the NYU education, access & biz know how of Rick Rubin? We can’t sell our youth pipe dreams of becoming Jay Z, Diddy, Rusell Simmons & professional athletes who made it without college degrees & then take it back when it leads into a community crisis. You have to take some responsibility in the fact that you led a huge generation with offspring who didn’t necessarily see education as the key to the future & acknowledge that you were one of the lucky ones in the right place at the right time with the right idea- more of an exception than the rule.

The biggest issue in the Black community is lack of knowledge of access- there r programs, scholarships & resources available or that can become available if the community gets active in its demand, but very few have the education to even know where 2 begin the search & end up feeling defeated, helpless & hopeless. I have friends in the hasidic community who r in high #’s on welfare etc. but they find every loophole & access to resources possible to get their children ahead in life. THE ABC (A Better Chance) Program has been around for decades -my immigrant African parents were able 2 find out about it & make sure I got a scholarship that was started for inner city American Black & Latino kids, but most of the ppl who received the scholarships were new immigrants & first generation Americans- many of my black American friends had parents who had no clue about the existence of such a scholarship & just thought I was just some special breed of African when their children had the same opportunities if they only took the time to seek it. We need to focus on educating our community in finding access 2 resources & exercising their political power as other communities do to attain resources. You should be pushing the upcoming census just as hard as you pushed the vote for Obama because this determines the resources that are given 2 communities & many black ppl have some fear of the gov’t being in their biz which in the long run becomes a detriment 2 progress & access.

Another suggestion I have is instead of paying for the celebs like the Kardashians & Reggie Bush 2 fly on a private jet to bring some sort of unknown awareness 2 the plight of Africans, you work with African ppl like myself or directly with our inner city public schools in creating incentives for upliftment & empowerment like Jewish people do in creating a Kubbitz style study abroad in Africa for inner city children. I have never met an African descendant in the Diaspora, young or old whose life &/or outlook in life has not completely changed by visiting Africa. We need to rebuild the Pan-Africanist spirit in this nation & realize that the time of Pan-Africanism in America started from Harlem 2 Africa etc. was the time when we had the highest levels of educated progressive Black ppl because there was a sense of pride in knowing our history, in knowing ourselves & in knowing that we r somebody. I have many acres of land in the mountains of Ghana, West Africa that my family would be more than happy to donate in building up a Kibbutz style center to host young people from the African Diaspora- if you are interested please holla at me & let’s finish the work of Garvey, Nkrumah & W.E.B Dubois -whose resting place is in Ghana.. I would love to see you feature The Prep School Negro Documentary on global Grind as well as get behind it financially if you are really about setting an example in pushing the importance of education in the Black community because we need to allow our young people access in seeing something else different from the setbacks of their immediate surroundings & in seeing ppl just like them with even less than them being able to come up from the ashes & thrive & rise like phoenixes.

Thanks for the continual devaluing of Africa that you all perpetuate in your so called humanitarian “taking it all in” efforts. You don’t understand how much of a disservice constantly showing images of poor Africans with random, sometime lowly, western celebrities do to the psyche of the continent & the way others view us. South Africa is a bustling wealthy cosmopolitan country with poor areas just like America, but you would never know it from seeing this video. There are poor & wealthy areas in African countries just as there are in America & this whole constantly showing hopelessness & having people outside the community coming in to save & help the so called poor, forgotten & hopeless is the same relentless destruction perpetrated on Black people in America in poor communities -so please quit the shit & give the full story & the full truth or don’t bother to show up!

Where is the story about the fact that the minority Whites in South Africa still own & profit from these diamond mines & the little chump change given to the charities for publicity purposes is no where near the profits made by the owners  & Russell Simmoms himself in the business he does with these owners. Let’s ask Russell if his partners in the diamond business in South Africa are Black? Black South Africans & poor non-black South Africans & immigrants  risk their lives in these mines everyday to get these diamonds for the profits & enjoyment of a small minority, so keep rocking your diamonds & coming to “take it all in” at the human African Zoo every once in awhile on your private planes as the Africans sing & dance for you & their dear African Angel Kim Kardashian- WTF- It is so ridiculous that I have to laugh -what exactly is Kim “spreading the word” about?.  The entire diamond game & trade is one marred with death & continual global debate & exploitation which is way beyond the pay grade of the Kardashions, Reggie Bush & even Russell Simmons who has been inducted into the game/trade. Thanks for nothing -I hope you had a good experience on the behalf of Africans but then again we are always so welcoming of the nonsense.

In the fall out of the education debate & President Obama’s move to overhaul the no child left behind laws, there have been numerous articles on the progress & lack there of  of our educational system, particularly in Black & urban communities. I went on to read an article about the president of the Detroit school board, Otis Mathis , who can barely read nor write, but somehow managed to get a college degree & a nomination to oversee the academic future of 90,000 children in the nation’s lowest-achieving big city district, while Black people in his community defended the choice of having him in this position. All I could think was this is straight crazy talk! I couldn’t even read the whole article the first time around because it was so unbelievable to me as this man admitted that he is not good at reading , writing or comprehension, while people in the community defended him as being engaging & persuasive with the ability to relate & to have patience for the kids in his district who are also having problems with reading, writing & comprehension. How do we not realize that this is the problem? Unqualified & under-motivated educators are filling up our school systems just collecting pay checks & tenures without doing the job & now we want to perpetuate the problem further by having school board presidents who are unable to put grammatically correct sentences together-WTF! We have to have some sort of standards of expectations if we want to be progressive people. Doesn’t leadership start at the top? The people of Detroit know this is wrong, but somehow accept Mr. Mathis as some sort of role model for the failing students to know they can make it without reading & writing at grade level-Huh? We need to start getting serious about education especially in the Black American communities because anywhere else in the world this would sound an alarm of outrage at all the enablers who failed this man & continue to fail generation after generation while allowing accountability & culpability to be the big elephant in the room. Even in New York we allow Mayor Bloomberg to taut statistics about high levels of graduation rates in NYC public schools while at the same time telling us he has to shut down public schools & some charter schools which he put in place in mostly poor minority neighborhoods because of failing grades & low graduation rates- Huh? When are we going to be accountable & culpable in demanding our voices be heard & that those who came before us already endured “separate but equal” in order for us to be able to progress & overcome & not to have to revisit it again & again. What is the point of blaming the school system from your couch at home instead of taking the lead in changing your condition one community or one child at a time like the parents of the 13 year old Morehouse student chose to do.  If you have to stay home & teach your own children then maybe it’s time to demand that some of those funds for charter schools  be allocated to home schooling since parents have to do the job that their tax payer dollars spent on the public education system is not doing. The government in administering education aid & resources has resorted to the separate but equal model of a modern day Jim Crowe as they favor funding toward Charter Schools who serve fewer students than public schools with little accountability & who often only take the best & the brightest, while leaving public schools with little funding & resources to educate special needs students who need the funding & resources the most. This has all led to communities who should be working together to alleviate the gap, widening the gap in their division & fight to make sure that all the children of the community are accounted for & educated equally.

Well, back to the big elephant in the global Black community -accountability & culpability. Global Grind served it up again with some more tomfoolery in trying to make some sort of point by making no sense. They had a story about celebrities using the “N” word & referenced a few Black comedians & rappers in general, while showing videos of all the White celebrities that had come under fire for using the “N” word without any accountability & culpability of the fact that Black America has spread the word further  than the KKK in the global lexicon & vernacular. When White people like Dr. Laura throw our own bullshit in our face then we  try to come out in outrage without dealing with the root of the issue  in understanding that if the root of the tree is rotten it can never bare any good fruit!

They had Kim from “Desperate House Wives of Atlanta” on Kandi Burruss’ radio show talking about NWA & calling out their full name outside of their initials , which led Kandi to take Kim out of the room & have her come back to apologize. They had the  infamous John Mayer Playboy article & the Paris Hilton drunk hip-hop dancing to B.I.G. & throwing the “N”  bomb. All I can say is does Kandi pull her Black friends aside & make them apologize when they use the word in or out of context or endearment? I am no fan of Kim but she was just saying the chosen name of the group for goodness sake-Black people need to stop with the hypocrisy because obviously the definition of the word has not changed in anyone’s mind as a term of endearment even in the Black community if every time you hear hear a White person say it, no matter the context , you feel a certain kind of way that is far from endearing. I am also no fan of Paris Hilton, but she was listening & dancing to “hypnotize” by Biggie before she threw the “N” Bomb. How many times does Biggie say the “N” word in hypnotize? “Biggie, biggie, biggie can’t u see sometimes ur words just hypnotze Paris Hilton”. Maybe she was just hypnotized like the Pavlovian dog & just repeated what she heard- so do we blame Pavlov or the dog?

The Kim & John Mayer incident is like an undercover cop setting up a perp for a fall. These White celebrities hang around Black people who use the “N” word around them flippantly, then they eventually become immune & flippant about it too, then all of a sudden people want to put the cuffs on them for using what you pushed on them- Oh Please, Black people are losing credibility in this fight so someone better get it together one way or the other in full embrace of the word or let it fully go in general! I feel the same about the constant complaining of young black men getting harrassed by cops. Don’t get me wrong I know very well that there is systematic racism & racial profiling but we can also eleviate some of it by not dressing the part. If you want to dress with your pants on the ground  & exude & embody prison cultural lifestyles then don’t be too surprised when when you are treated like a prisoner. You can’t stand in the streets or hallways of your building & smoke weed & say the cops are harrassing & profiling you & filling up the prisons with young black men- you are doing something illegal & you have to be accountable for that-we can’t compare that to someone minding his own business in his suit & nice car getting pulled over just because they are Black. We have to call out the wrongs & hold ourselves & young people accountable so that we are not losing credibility in truly fighting against racial profiling, police brutality  & false imprisonment of our young men & women, who are now being imprisoned in large numbers as well.

I am so exhausted with the constant complaining, blaming White people, blaming the education sytem, blaming the criminal justice system etc. for our lack of. When are we ever going to embrace personal accountability in our community? I am not saying this as being immuned from this because we all must take accountability as being part of the problem in order to become part of the solution. I know I have sat around a few times upset, angry & feeling depressed that certain things have not gone my way or that I have not been able to attain or receive certain opportunities easily & readily available to others because of race, socio-economic class, not being raised with two parents in the home & all those other crutches & sometimes excuses that we often use as a panacea for our lack of achievements & our feelings of helplessness & hopelessness as we become our own victimizers, abusers, enablers & obstacles.

My generation nor the ones after me never had the real hardships of slavery or Jim Crowe, which literally & legally made Black people less than human & with no choice nor right to an education whether we wanted it or not. I have never felt the pain of an overseer beating the flesh off of my skin, picking cotton & doing hard labor til my finer tips bled or I fainted to my death or one breath from death. I have never had to endure rape in order for my children to be free. I have never felt what it was like to live in a society that legally sanctioned me from being able to drink from the same water fountain as my White counterparts, or to have to sit in the back of the bus & give up my seat no matter where it was to a White person because they were legislatively deemed superior to me. I have never had a cross burned on my lawn & lived in daily fear of death with no justice to be had or recourse to be taken solely because I am Black. I have never been beaten, attacked by police dogs & hosed down just for asking for my basic freedom & civil rights,so for never having to endure all of that all I can do is thank those who came before me & endured so I could overcome, and for that I will be forever thankful just for life ! I and the rest of the Black community at large of my generation & after must remember this everyday as I/we start feeling sorry for myself/ourselves because something didn’t go right for me/us today & know that tomorrow is another day for me/us to try again, harder & better than before because if those who endured before me/us could rise & produce a Harlem renaissance, globally heralded Black intellectuals, A Pan-Africanist movement that showered Africa & her Diaspora in a beautiful storm of progression & new found freedoms with enlightened scholars, entrepreneurs & everyday doers at a time when all the odds & obstacles in the world were stacked against them- then what the hell do I/we have to be so down about in a day & age when information which has always been power is right at my/our fingertips – accessible & available, limited only by my/our imagination, efforts & faith!

I give thanks for life & have faith that progress is synonymous with time, endurance & effort, but I/ we will get there because the blueprint has been laid out by those who endured so that we could overcome!

“Got to be the best ..my pursuit is relentless”!!

DORITOS 2010 Crash The Superbowl Contest Finalist

All I can say is fail, fail, fail & boo to all those Black Americans who just couldn’t get enough laughs out of the usual daily stereotypes of Black children being portrayed & labeled as bad ass disrespectful bebe’s kids, irresponsible single moms bringing home random guys to meet their young children which they would leave in a room even for a moment to so call “play nice” because that can be your new daddy & having our food of choice for our growing children be unhealthy junk food instead of healthy choices of fruits & vegetables, even though black children suffer at alarming rates from diabetes, obesity, asthma & many other illnesses brought on by nutritional & environmental choices.

We can’t protest certain things when it comes to others stereotyping us as black people, while turning a blind eye to others & ourselves doing the same in the spirit of games people play or a good laugh. The fact that it was shot by a Jewish guy named Avi Cohen to win the Doritos commercial prize is not that shocking to me – he learned well from his brother in black exploitation Lyor Cohen, one of the biggest exploiters of black stereotypes in guise of entertainment to make a buck -well lots of millions of bucks that is. The amount of black people making their praises for this idiocy public should not surprise me either, except some of them are the ones who are quick to speak on people like Lyor Cohen’s exploits of Black hip-hop artists in constantly portraying stereotypes, yet they love another Cohen doing the same with some Doritos.

There is nothing funny about the type of violence going on amongst our children at schools, in their neighborhoods, in their relationships & in their homes. How dare we chastise & criticize Chris Brown about not knowing or doing better, when we find it so funny that a 5 year old child would have the audacity & know how to slap an adult who is his mother’s guest or anyone for that matter. Are we so ignorant & stuck on stupid that we do not see the correlation? If you find laughter in the misbehavior of a small child & encourage him/her in displaying the behavior for your personal amusement instead of teaching him/her that any type of violence & disrespectful behavior is not funny or acceptable at any time, then that child will grow up to be an adult who continues to think that that behavior is funny, no big deal and acceptable. Why should a 5 year old child know anything about a man who is not his father touching his momma in any way- sexually, violently or otherwise & to be able to have the gumption to verbalize it in a disrespectful unchildlike manner! Black people seem to be the jokiest people on earth – we seem to find laughter in anything & everything even when it’s to our detriment in the changing of our own conditions, yet we wonder why most of the world does not take us seriously. As Fela Kuti said: we continue to go the way of Suffering & Smiling.

09 Shuffering & Shmiling

What the hell is wrong with us as a people that we just can’t see past our own idiocy for one moment to realize why we are still fighting for equality & desegregation in education, housing, & employment, when we find the types of shunned behaviors that have been used to justify inequality & segregation in our education, housing & employment systems as hilariously acceptable. If I was a white, educated, financially well off person, I would not want such ignorance & tomfoolery invading my children’s education system, the neighborhood where I lay my head for peace & my workplace either. As the saying goes, “if you don’t stand for something, you are bound to fall for anything”.

I am beyond shocked that none of this registered with educated male & female black Americans, some of whom are civil rights activists, political pundits, ivy leaguers, writers, educators & the so called creme de la creme of black intellect. These are the same people who send their children to private schools because they do not want their children associating with the type of “bebe’s kids” who they think are in public schools, the same type of men who will date Tamika- the single mom from the projects & talk to his fellow ivy league or HBCU fraternity brothers about Tamika’s fat ass & how he only wants to “hit that”, but he’s not looking to marry her & have to be a father to some other man’s child & have to deal with any baby daddy drama, the same types of black people who move to the suburbs or to affluent or so called good neighborhoods in efforts to not be associated with the same stereotypes which they find so hilarious in this commercial, the same type of black people who would look for the nearest rock to crawl under if they were amongst their white counterparts & their child or the woman/man who they were dating’s child behaved in the manner that was portrayed in the commercial. This is the hypocrisy in your laughter that you have to come to terms with.

I am more afraid for the future of black American children than ever after seeing the great applause this shameful advertisement received across the board of what Black America represents & finds so hilarious. At a time when 100’s of inner city schools are being closed because of underperformance, drop outs rates rising, unemployment being the highest for black people in America, black on black violence at an all time high amongst younger & younger children, police brutality toward young black men reaping it’s ugly head at alarming rates, disastrous health statistics killing our young people at higher numbers than other communities, and the Oscar contender that is making black history at the start of this new decade being the movie Precious; If this is not the best time than ever to wake up & to stop finding so much laughter in our dysfunctions & to see how truly precious our children are, then I do not know when it will ever happen. Celebrating a modern day commercial version of Bebe’s kids worthy of super bowl stardom is not the way to the change we need!

I was hearing things like “damn it’s just a commercial not social commentary” in answer to my outrage of the praises- but my answer to that is “damn is just the future of our young children & their social acceptance & interaction at stake”, as they are being reared to think that this type of behavior is at all funny at any time. I urge all of those who found that commercial to be so hilarious to speak to the teachers/educators & ask them how funny they think this commercial is when they are dealing with kids & parents who think this behavior is funny & no big deal, as they battle for resources to help them educate children who are begging to learn while they have to spend most of their energy attending to hyper, misbehaving children who think it’s funny to slap an adult, point their finger in their face & speak out of line to them when they are there to educate them & not to be disciplinarians & peace or police officers.

I have been seeing a lot of uproar over the blatant marketing toward black America by fast food chains like McDonald’s. Why should we be in an uproar over having an abundance of McDonald’s, liquor stores , perpetual violence in our communities, mediocre to poor schools, misbehaving kids & so many other staples of dysfunction in our neighborhoods when we do not hold ourselves to higher standards & find great laughter in the stereotypes of our dysfunction? If you want Whole Foods, green markets, high end retailers & top notch teachers in your schools then your standards & behavior of consumption, action & interaction has to represent & attract what it is you want and deserve. Once again I ask, what the hell is wrong with the adults of Black America and why do we choose to continue to fail our children?

Let’s keep giving our middle finger to everything our ancestors & the generations before us gave their blood, sweat, tears, dignity & lives to fight for in order for us to be able to hold our heads up high in dignity & equality to our fellow man, as we pay them back by having a good laugh at their expense & undoing everything they fought against as they defied the stereotypes we so welcome & praise!
Happy Black History Month!

I am more than proud & unapologetic in accepting that I am in the minority of those who thought this was a sad day in black history & did not find any amusement in this commercial. It is a never ending cycle with us- as we celebrate a glorious day where black people of New Orleans can hold their heads up high & celebrate in equality with their neighbors in rising up from devastation, we find a way to take steps back & tarnish the celebration by praising stereotypes to let them know that nothing has changed.

Below is a list of some of the fans of the commercial who wanted to make their appreciation for black stereotypes public! Don’t be offended by being put on front street on my blog when you chose to go public with your praise! As our president says sometimes you have to call out people by name & shame them into changing their ways. I really doubt that some of you will change your mind because many have been finding all sorts of justifications, but hopefully you will give it a second thought in view of the bigger picture of where Black America is headed, how far we have come & how far we have had to come from- especially during Black History month!

josephdominique
Damnn he told him ha he got dooged by a kid .haha too funny

SprtBasScc
This is the greatest super bowl commercial ever

meredithlee12
favorite super bowl commercial so far!

pdak04
its just a commercial…
smh…
even though some women do that in real life…
roflmaooooo
but stfu whining

TheTamara1000
This was so funny. I can’t stop watching it. Who ever did not enjoy this is a hater.

Derrel Johnson
Doritos has the best commercials so far.

Jamal Simmons- Keep your hands off my momma and your hands off my Doritos. Best yet.

LaToia Jones Come one people… It’s not a social commentary it’s a cheesy commercial.

Gretchen Cook Anderson Loved that one – great choice, Jamal!

William Easley I thought it was the funniest so far. Not looking deep or for social commentary. Every image doesn’t need to be social statement.

Marc Calixte #1 Super Bowl commercial so far…… DORITOS!!! Details: Little boy SMACKING his mother’s boyfriend when he picks her up for a date. Hilarious!!!!! Chime in on your favs if you want people!!

Shirley S. Holloway That’s my favorite lol.. don’t touch my mom and don’t touch my doritos!

“I really know how it feels to be stressed out, stressed out, when ur face to face with your adversity.. we’re going to make this thing work out eventually… i was type caught up, but i swallowed my pride & let that nonsense ride…we going to make it, we gotta make it” Can’t keep letting the nonsense ride!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/02/food-stamps-will-feed-hal_n_342834.html

http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/ib241

http://blogs.bet.com/ontv/primetimeplayback/2009/11/bet-special-hosted-by-star-jones-takes-on-obesity-in-black-america/

This was before the true weight of the recession hit the Black community
Black males’ Rampant Joblessness, high drop-out rate, incarceration dooming black community: study
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_12_111/ai_n18765592/

“life is one big road with lots of signs so when u riding thru the ruts don’t u complicate ur mind..wake up & live y’all -wake up & live now..rise oh rise mighty people ..there’s work to be done so let’s do it little by little.. RIIIISE from your sleep & slumber… wake up & live”

“This is dedicated to who it may concern”

“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”

Lil Wayne’s Magical Styrofoam Cup This article was sent to my e-mail today from the Global Grind & all I could do was shake my head in disbelief of just how off track & out of control we have become as a nation, at a time when we must all take responsibility particularly for the sake of our suffering youth. Speaking with many of my family/friends who are educators, I realize more & more how incredibly hard their job is & how much harder it becomes when they are left to watch over poisoned minds in a world where anything & everything goes as a young person, as long as you have money or local/global celebrity status. These educators who go above & beyond definitely deserve more pay for their work because from some of the stories I have been hearing-they are left to multitask as educators, disciplinarians, and psychologist to so many lost/discarded youth that are just looking for that 1 person who really cares enough to give them that much needed push.

This type of story doesn’t help these educators when they are dealing with youth that see someone like Lil Wayne as a hero & want to follow in his footsteps to success. To suggest that as long as one is having continual success, their destructive behavior shouldn’t matter & should be pretty much praised for their rate of success is a dangerous line to walk with our youth. We have had way too many of our heroes & superstars die because of destructive behaviors with alcohol, drug abuse & other things. We always come with our tears & anger after the fact saying someone should have stepped in to give help, or that we didn’t know that the destructive behavior would ever lead to death when we clearly knew because we have seen it happen over & over again -generation after generation.

After seeing Lil Wayne’s Behind the Music story on VH1 – I became impressed by him as an artist and a human being, as well as saddened by him as an artist & a human being. To me he is the Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway, Michael Jackson, Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin, Kirk Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, etc. of this generation; a troubled genius in his craft with countless enablers who would not dare to say no to him because their livelihood whether directly or indirectly is dependent on his continual success in his craft, by any means necessary. Lil Wayne was a child who had to grow up quick to make sure others were taken care of & as long as he was doing that no one could say no to him. I watched Rihanna’s interview with Diane Swayer as she said “imagine being a little girl & no one saying no to you”. She spoke about Chris Brown not having any soul in his eyes the night he brutally abused her, but I also saw no soul in her eyes as she did this interview, almost as a coping mechanism to take herself out of the situation because she had come to the “F’ love” point in her life when love is exactly what we all need & desire to cope with life’s trials & to become successful human beings.

We are raising a generation with no soul in their eyes to block the pain & a generation who feel like they need to not give a f*ck in order to get thru the pain. As elders, family, friends,fans, educators, journalists and members of a global human community, we MUST give a f*ck & take responsibility for the messages, acceptances in behavior & glorifications of behavior that we send/promote to our youth in order not to have a completely dysfunctional society. The obsession with celebrity youth culture & the incredibly bad behavior that we reward constantly in so many ways is sending all the wrong messages not only to the fans, but also to the celebrities that are living these lives who are still young & need guidance & love.

What messages are we sending when we don’t stand up for the proper guidance & love of our youth & basically become enablers or those who throw their hands up & say well he/she is not my problem? No one can tell a grown man/woman what to do, but glorifying bad behavior, paying homage to it & being an enabler is dead wrong. I wish the person who wrote this article for Global Grind could step in a day in the life of my educator friends & family, who are the true soldiers dealing with the aftermath of the glorification of the bad behavior & examples being set forth for our youth to emulate or to see as no big deal! Life is a big deal & one little misstep can take it away. There are things we can’t control about losing life, but there are preventative measures we can take in prolonging life whether it is ours or someone else’s.

Case & point: my cousin who is a substitute teacher in the Bronx basically ended up saving two of her students lives just by knowing the lingo of the kids who she was responsible for & by stepping up to let them know that she understood & was having no parts of it. A Latino gang member in her class stood up & threatened to take “a buck fifty” from the white female class president during a heated discussion on racism catalyzed by the reading of “A Raisin in the Sun” ; after finding out that she told another student that she did not like Black people. “A buck fifty” – translation: slashing someone in their face. I had no idea that a buck fifty meant more than $1.50, but my cousin is an educator who cares & took the time to understand the life & language of her students even though she had been raised completely differently from these kids- she never threw her hands up & said he/she is not my problem as some educators do because the multitasking between educator, disciplinarian & psychologist can be very overwhelming for many. That day she taught these kids that they could have a heated discussion without it escalating to violence & she stood up as an elder to let them know she was in charge & would quickly snitch/call the authorities on anyone who brought violence/criminal behavior to the class because that was not going to be acceptable behavior as long as she was substituting. These kids are all from different backgrounds in a charter school leadership program because someone had seen some sort of potential in each one of them or wanted to collect a check by placing them in the charter school. Whatever the real reason maybe, this school is deemed a leadership academy & that day they got a teacher who quickly shutdown what had become acceptable/tolerated bad behavior by some in order for everyone to have the opportunity to live up to their individual leadership potential & to be able to fully participate in getting educated! There is a lot of work to be done & we all have a part in it. These videos below are very telling in so many ways & we need to Stop , Look & Listen!

http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/04/01_rapmusic.shtml

Instead of Baby having regrets of not making more money off of Lil’ Wayne by not copyrighting the words “Bling Bling”- he should be having regrets of turning a child prodigy onto a self destructive life of drugs & sex by age 11 when he was the adult who this child sought love & guidance from. According 2 American laws Baby should be arrested for this not bragging about it on television. Our society has been way too implicit 2 the delinquency & statutory rape & abuse of our minors-I guess we have come 2 a point of pure anarchy -a society without any respect for laws & human decency sanctioned by the so called adults/elders who are responsible for the raising & upliftment of the future!SMH

This is what a 16 yr old Disney Star looks like nowadays -dancing on a stripper pole on top of an ice-cream truck at the Teen Choice Awards- but we have no idea why our young people are so over sexualized & caught up in all sorts of destructive behaviors.

Rihanna never thought her life would spiral into a Britney Spears type of media chaos- Be careful when you have a good laugh at someone else’s dysfunction & spiral because you never know the pain until you have to walk in their shoes- (min:3:06)

About ABC
Our mission is to substantially increase the number of well-educated young people of color who are capable of assuming positions of responsibility and leadership in American society.
History A Better Chance began in the 1960s as an innovative experiment in educational opportunity.  At a time of political unrest, social idealism, and the struggle for civil rights, the Charles E. Merrill Foundation awarded a grant that allowed twenty-three independent schools to respond to President John F. Kennedy’s call for equal access to the nation’s top schools for students of color.  The schools’ response: the Independent School Talent Search Program (ISTSP).
45 years ago,  A Better Chance was built on a simple idea: better educational opportunities lead to better lives. More than 11,000 Scholars and the millions of people they have touched are a testament to the validity of this premise.

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