While everyone & their momma was praising Kanye & Jay Z’s new album, the rest of the world was getting messed up & fighting for our lives.

Once again the internets were all a flutter over the release of Watch The Throne & the stans were out in full praise mode. I expected it, so I was just going to let this week pass & let the stan party roll in silence, but the more I watched the news, heard how 600,000 Somali children could die from starvation, got phone calls from my people in London & realized the madness going on that was being ignored in place of overwhelming praise over an album that had these two rich Black men spitting mediocre lyrics being compared to Civil Rights icons  & hip-hop classics, it just had my mind blown &  I was just over my fellow humans & Black people in particular in our lack of priorities in seeing why we seem to be in an endless cycle that goes more in circles than forward. Jay & Ye are saving so much money in marketing fees because their “stans” volunteer on the daily to help sell their records without any pay, as if they are the ones putting their John Hancocks on the millions of unemployment checks being delved out in a nation that seems to be on a downward spiral, particularly for ethnic minorities & the poor majority

As I watched the video of racist white teens running their car over a Black man in Mississippi just because he was Black, all I could think about was Emmett Til. While all of twitter & other social media were having their own listening party with full play by play commentary for Watch the Throne, all I could hear was Nina Simone’s Mississippi Goddam, as I was incessantly bombarded with “New Day“, which samples Nina Simone’s Feeling Good. I was far from feeling good knowing that the new day reflections for their unborn sons had not come for many Black men in Mississippi like James Craig Anderson, along with the murdered father of 4, Mark Duggan, at the hands of police that set off the riots in North London that same night, the thousands dying in Somalia’s famine from lack of basic nourishment & shelter & the seemingly doom & gloom economic crisis in America that is disproportionately hurting those who look just like hip-hop’s new savior kings Ye & Jay! Perhaps the best song on the album that has any real lyrical substance in reflection of the times is Murder to Excellence ,unfortunately Black excellence in this case is far from Dubois’s Talented Tenth, but rather a celebration of some sort of new Black opulence & wealth , as if we had never been there before & Jay ,Ye & their circle of new money friends invented it.

“On a recent Sunday morning just before dawn, two carloads of white teenagers drove to Jackson, Mississippi, on what the county district attorney says was a mission of hate: to find and hurt a black person. In a parking lot on the western side of town they found their victim. James Craig Anderson, a 49-year-old auto plant worker, was standing in a parking lot, near his car. The teens allegedly beat Anderson repeatedly, yelled racial epithets, including “White Power!” according to witnesses…”READ MORE

2 QUOTES FROM PRIME MINISTER CAMERON (1986 and 2011)

“Things got out of hand & we’d had a few drinks. We smashed the place up and Boris set fire to the toilets.” David Cameron, 1986.

“The looting and arson last night were criminality, pure and simple. Justice will be done and the people will see the consequences for their crimes” David Cameron, 2011- Cameron’s London

“Two nights of rioting in London’s Tottenham neighborhood erupted following protests over the shooting death by police of a local man, Mark Duggan. Police were arresting him when the shooting occurred. Over 170 people were arrested over the two nights of rioting, and fires gutted several stores, buildings, and cars. The disorder spread to other neighborhoods as well, with shops being looted in the chaos. Collected here are images from the rioting and the aftermath” READ MORE

I threw up my hands in seeing any hope that we will all somehow come to the realization that we have to do better, expect better & demand better from those who we support with our hard earned money, be it ourselves, those who we pay to serve & protect us, artists or our elected leaders. It seems very few hip-hop insiders outside of Chuck D & Dream Hampton seem to agree that it is about damn time that hip-hop stepped down from the throne of braggadocio & grew up just a little bit. It is seems many so called hip-hop heads really don’t know the history of hip-hop as blogs & commenters belittle Chuck D’s relevance for speaking out to raise the bar. I fully understand that artists are there to entertain & that is what we pay for, not for them to use their celebrity to uplift people or make political, civil or human rights statements in protests or upliftment of people in anyway, but when artists & their “stans” & critics alike start referring to themselves as political figures, leaders & activists then we all have a right to hold them to the litmus test of their bravado in exclaiming the greatness set by the standards & actions of those who they are compared to.

In Kanye’s case it was the misfortune bordering on some sort of undiagnosed psychosis in delusions of grandeur that made him think to put himself in context with Hitler.  I was floored by Kanye West likening  the “hate” toward him to that of Hitler & a Huffington Post Black Voices article that likened Kanye & Jay Z to Muhammed Ali & Paul Robeson. All I could say was GTFOH & get a clue. Jay & Ye ’s shit talking about their riches, bitches & diamond rings is far from the bravado of Ali & Robeson’s shit talking with a purpose of being recognized as men & equals at a time when Black people were not seen as equals by any means no matter how much wealth we had. How irresponsible to misinterpret history in teaching a new generation who probably have no clue about Ali outside of the fact that he is known as one of the greatest boxers of all time & I doubt that many of this new generation of hip-hop enthusiasts even know about Paul Robeson with the failure of our education system to teach our young people about Black history outside of Black history month & the fact that they are descendants of slaves.

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“Paul Robeson was the epitome of the 20th-century Renaissance man. He was an exceptional athlete, actor, singer, cultural scholar, author, and political activist. His talents made him a revered man of his time, yet his radical political beliefs all but erased him from popular history. Today, more than one hundred years after his birth, Robeson is just beginning to receive the credit he is due… During the 1940s, Robeson’s black nationalist and anti-colonialist activities brought him to the attention of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Despite his contributions as an entertainer to the Allied forces during World War II, Robeson was singled out as a major threat to American democracy. Every attempt was made to silence and discredit him, and in 1950 the persecution reached a climax when his passport was revoked. He could no longer travel abroad to perform, and his career was stifled. Of this time, Lloyd Brown, a writer and long-time colleague of Robeson, states: “Paul Robeson was the most persecuted, the most ostracized, the most condemned black man in America, then or ever.…” READ MORE

As much as I love the work  of Ava Duvernay & think she is brilliant in her work to get the Black Film Industry united & to attain its global recognition, I couldn’t disagree with her  more in her comparison of Watch the Throne to a militant masterpiece à la Ali & Robeson. We can love our artists all we want in the feelings that they evoke in us personally, but when we give unearned accolades in revisionist history- that becomes a problem for an entire generation both past & present future.

“Watch the Throne — is a Black Nationalist Masterpiece for the New Millenium. Too Much? Because that’s how I feel right now. That’s what I hear. I hear Black Rich Militance, in the best definition of such a term. I hear the audacity of black gazillionaires saying wonderfully black things like, “I arrived/When Fred Hampton died.” Whaa-at?! You did? Okay. Damn.I hear pride. Pride wrapped in Maybach imagery. Things Oprah understandably can’t say. Things Obama surely can’t say. Things that for obvious reasons no true Black Power Players in Film, Sports, Music and Television have really dared speak in public in eons. Robeson comes to mind. He talked the talk. In the 40s and 50s. Ali comes to mind. He shouted the talk. In the 60s. But there’s been decades of silence since then from folks who have “made” it. Tell me who has “made it” to the highest heights and then started speaking the truth about the beauty of us, Black Folk, our souls, our bodies, our brains. Who? READ MORE

When Ali & Robeson spoke of the beauty of Black people  in reaching the highest heights in soul, body & brains it was far from being based soley on riches. This is where our generation seems to be misinterpreting our history & progress because there is more Black wealth in the world than ever, yet global Africans are still at the bottom & we have not gotten that far in our everyday struggle to be equal citizens of the world in basic respect as human beings whose very life & existence are worth as much as any other human being. All the money in the world has not, can not & will not bring us that until we hold ourselves to higher standards beyond materialism  & shit talking. Ali & Robeson used their celebrity, wealth & access to shed a light on a global African struggle that was bigger than just them as individuals, which is a greater part of their legacy than the fights or music that brought them celebrity & riches. It was never an attitude of  I got mine so you better stop “hating” on me & pull yourself up by your boot straps, hustle dope or whatever you need to do to get yours like I did. As Muhammed Ali said after winning the gold medal at the Olympics: “That gold medal didn’t mean a thing to me if my Black brothers & sisters were treated wrong in a country I was supposed to represent“!

Jay Z can never arrive after Fred Hampton died without ever having gone to battle or martyrdom for his people, but  he could very well take over where the godfather of rap, Gil Scott Heron left off by using music as the weapon in the new message to & from the messenger laying a foundation for the soundtrack of the new generation’s global revolution in hopefully finally finding some real resolutions.

Jay & Ye seem to have people so roped in- in a way that defies logic to me because many put down hip-hop & its misdirection & indiscretions, but somehow when Jay & Ye continue the same formula they get a pass & are praised as the second coming  of Ali & Robeson- Huh? Everyone is allowed their personal taste in music, but come on people we are just taking it too far with these two & their twisted logic & demonic imagery that plays right into the whole damn world loving them while saying they are part of the so called  ”illuminati“- whatever the hell that is. I have yet to hear anyone be able to explain what this so called illumanti subculture is & how so many artists we hate to love & love to hate are part of it & should be feared;however it can’t really be that feared if those who are said to be amongst them are the ones we seem to be always showering with praises of taking us all to the next level. The next level of what is what I would like to know. It seems we are all more than happy to be participants in this well staged ,well choreographed dance to nowhere based in false reality. As much as I love Ricardo Tisci & the idea of collaborating high art with hip-hop & fashion ,I realized this is all relative because I couldn’t get past the horrific looking images that jumped at me & were supposed to somehow represent  ”Bold colors and angular lines incorporated symbolically to convey the “masculinity of two of the most iconic rap figures of our time with Tisci’s recognizabl geometrical prints, surreal religious iconography, animal faces and “American obsessions“! OK, whatever that means -I couldn’t get past the 1st image.

By now many maybe calling me hip-hop’s favorite word for deflecting personal responsibility- “Hater”, when it comes to Ye & Jay. As Jay once said I “brush my shoulders off”  to that nonsensical logic because  it is exactly that- deflecting personal responibility in not wanting to hear a dissenting opinion. I do not hate Jay & Ye at all & I actually think they are very talented, which is why I hold them to a higher standard than many others who shall remain nameless. I see what power hip-hop has globally & I would love to see us all use that power in building our nation as Ali, Robeson and so many others did in lending their voices to the Civil Rights struggle.

As Mayor Bloomberg whose policies are partly responsible for so many young Black & Latino young men being prevented from fully participating & contributing to their society gets praised as the great white hope coming to save young African-American & Latino men in New York after 9 years of seeing them as nuisances & invisible men, I can’t help but to wonder where all the Black millionaires & billionaires are who talk about how much they love & want to celebrate those that look like them. I guess you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth , unless you had to get your teeth kicked in by it’s hoof first. Who will step up to the plate for Somalia outside of misleading hip-hop hooray headlines associating something that has no merit in association except in finally taking the time to tell the story. Who will step up for global Africans hurting worldwide who can use a hand up from their own in concrete examples of what can be if we are really about loving & celebrating ourselves instead of always waiting to be saved from ourselves from others outside of ourselves!

“The problems that face young black and Latino men in New York City are deep-seated and diverse, officials who work in minority neighborhoods say. They vary not only from neighborhood to neighborhood, but also from family to family and man to man.So when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced on Thursday a $130 million plan to help young black and Latino men find jobs, raise families and stay out of trouble, those men — and the mentors who would help them — were tentatively happy, but raised some questions.“I’m glad to see somebody’s actually mentioning the words ‘young men’ and ‘color’ in the same sentence as ‘funding,’ ” said Danny R. Peralta, director for arts and education at The Point Community Development Corporation in the Bronx.Still, Mr. Peralta worried that the money would just graze the surface of the problem. “If you can’t wake up in the morning to some food or if you can’t get some counseling for whatever traumas you’ve been experiencing,” he said, “it is not going to reach you.’Lee Cabrera, 23, holding his son as he looked out on a courtyard in the Harlem River Houses development, said, “There are a lot of homeless kids out there right now.” With three children under 6 and a fourth on the way, Mr. Cabrera said looking for a job was the last thing on his mind. Would Mr. Bloomberg’s plan help him raise his family? READ MORE

I am so glad that we realize as a community that just because you are counted & amongst the so called minority doesn’t mean you get a pass..If Don Imus can’t say it neither can You- DON’T GET GASSED! We must not tolerate ignorance, prejudice & racism in any form of double standard. Today I am proud of us as a community for standing together & not allowing any excuses even from our own. As Martin Luther King said “Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice Everywhere” ! At a time when we need to be focused on coming together for Haiti , we have our own doing the devil’s work in causing division. Call Cipha Sounds the sacrificial lamb or just a plain old douche bag but don’t call him a radio personality on a station that I listen to!

“On-air personality DJ Cipha Sounds has been suspended from his post at New York City’s Hot 97 radio station after making a controversial comment earlier this week, which triggered members of the Haitian community to boycott the station. Cipha, who co-hosts the station’s morning show alongside hip-hop personality Peter Rosenberg, outraged Haitian listeners after making the joke, “The reason I’m HIV negative is ’cause I don’t mess with Haitian girls.” Although Cipha was quick to issue a full, on-air apology after making what he admitted was a “tasteless” joke, the station was immediately flooded with complaints from listeners. On Wednesday, it was announced that the 34-year-old morning show host would be suspended indefinitely from his post at the station. A representative for Hot 97 explained that despite Cipha’s apology, it was important to show listeners that their concerns were taken seriously…”READ MORE

We must understand as a community that the degradation of our young girls & women along with HIV/ AIDS are not  joking matters. It is unfortunate that many ignorant people like Cipher Sounds know very little to nothing about the injustices that occurred in his own country & why Haitians would be beyond sensitive  & livid about his comments that would take them back to a dark place in American history when the then President George Bush Sr. & the US Government/CDC tried to label Haitians in totality as carriers of HIV/AIDS!

“Camp Bulkeley was a detention center located within the United States military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where HIV-positive refugees and asylum seekers were held during the early 1990s. After two years of protest, including a mention by presenters Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins during the 1993 Academy Awards, the camp was declared unconstitutional by United States district court Judge Sterling Johnson Jr.. In a negotiated agreement with attorneys for the detainees, that decision was vacated and the camp was closed shortly thereafter. Brandt Goldstein writes about the camp in considerable detail in Storming the Court: How a Band of Law Students Fought the President–And Won (Scribner 2005). Following the September 30, 1991 overthrow of democratically elected HaitianPresident Jean-Bertrand Aristide in a military coup d’etat, a large-scale exodus of Hatian boat people ensued. The United States Coast Guard rescued a total of 41,342 Haitians during 1991 and 1992, more than the number of rescued refugees from the previous 10 years combined. Just days after the coup d’état, the administration of US President George H.W. Bush ordered the Coast Guard to stop bringing fleeing Haitians to the US, and instead to redirect their boats to the US military base at Guantanamo. There, the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) ruled that more than half of these refugees were economic migrants, not political refugees, and had them deported back to Haiti. Others were deemed political refugees, but before being allowed entry to the United States, the INS tested them for HIV. Those who tested positive were denied entry under a 1987 law barring emigration of HIV positive individuals into the US. In all, 267 Haitian refugees were held at Guantanamo, making Camp Bulkeley the world’s first detention center for people with HIV/AIDS….” READ MORE

“Our community, the Haitian community & those that care about us walked across the Brooklyn bridge almost 20 years ago to say you are not putting this  label on us..we are not going to take this..it is unacceptable & it is disgraceful…Hot 97 the parent company has a responsibility now…yes we want to see Cipher Sounds disciplined, but we also want to see them use this opportunity to launch an HIV prevention campaign… they have the opportunity to talk to young people…their largest listeners, people of color who are disproportionately effected by HIV in this country, so take this opportunity Hot 97 to make things right..As a Haitian woman with a Haitian daughter, many Haitian nieces & sisters.. I say to them again.. Hold your head up high…we know who we are…we know from where we come & we know where we’re going..” HOT 97…listen to the woman speaking below…take this opportunity & move forward in a teaching moment.

“The AIDS epidemic among African-Americans in some parts of the United States is as severe as in parts of Africa, according to a report out Tuesday. “Left Behind – Black America: A Neglected Priority in the Global AIDS” is intended to raise awareness and remind the public that the “AIDS epidemic is not over in America, especially not in Black America,” says the report, published by the Black AIDS Institute, an HIV/AIDS think tank focused exclusively on African-Americans…” read more

“Hispanics/Latinos represent 15% of the population but account for an estimated 17% of people living with HIV and 17% of new infections. HIV infections among Hispanics/Latinos overall have been roughly stable since the early 1990s.The rate of new HIV infections among Hispanic/Latino men is more than double that of white men and the rate among Hispanic/Latino women is nearly four times that of white women….” READ MORE

It is only Tuesday & already it has been a horrible week in global race relations. As the saying goes “give people enough time & they will eventually show you who they really are or better yet “people show their true colors when they think no one is looking”. Which ever saying you prefer, it applies to the disrespect  & utter disdain that the decendants of former colonizers & enslavers continue to hold for Africans & their descendants globally.

There seems to be an all out assault on global Africans from our former colonizers & enslavers. From The Americas to Europe, politicians & everyday people are looking to take the world backward to the time of Jim Crow & WWII intolerance, racism & distorted sense of nationalism that seems to go hand in hand with every global economic crises. Today alone 3 stories came to my attention thru Facebook postings that many media outlets in the nations that they occurred in didn’t even bother to cover. There was the story on the World Bank having to apologize to Ghana after showing distasteful images of naked children taking baths in the streets, naked women & breast feeding mothers etc. to depict Ghana’s image at a World Bank delegation meeting in Washington DC ; there was the  story of Samuel Eto’o being taunted with racial epithets at a football match between Inter-Milan &  Cagliari &  there was the story about Perfumer-Jean Paul Guerlain basically referring to global Africans as slaves on French TV.

Samuel Eto’o is no stranger to racism in his chosen career of football. The nonsense of constant racial terrorism that has been going on in “the beautiful game” will continue because people continue to make excuses for it instead of taking it head on. We all say or are surrounded by people who say bigoted, racist & prejudiced things whether it is co-workers, family, friends, lovers, enemies or acquaintances, when we make the choice to remain silent, act like it doesn’t exist, or that we didn’t hear it, or give someone a pass on it because they supposedly “didn’t mean it like that”, we are condoning the behavior & this is why it continues & will continue until we all take account first for our own actions then hopefully help another in need of a reality check after we have become accountable for & to ourselves. The worst part of the recent racist football incident in Cagliari  is that the coaches & some players continue to pretend that this incident is some sort of fluke instead of an epidemic that has been happening for far too long & far too harshly  leading FIFA to change its rules to threaten to stop games if racist chants are hurled at players. Some people never learn & that’s why these things continue. The idiotic coach had the nerve to congratulate the fans for stopping their racial taunts so the game could continue instead of feeling disappointment that they went there with racist chants at all ? They should have been thrown out of the stadium not congratulated.

“Referee Paolo Tagliavento stopped the game after just three minutes and called the two team captains to the centre circle over the chants. He also asked the stadium announcer to remind fans that the game could be abandoned if the chants aren’t stopped. The pause lasted just three minutes before the game got underway again. Eto’o had the last laugh, though, as he scored the only goal of the game to send Inter joint top of Serie A…”READ MORE
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“Perfumer Jean-Paul Guerlain has caused controversy in France for using a racial epithet on television while discussing the making of his fragrance Samsara, CNN reports. Guerlain said (translated from French to English by CNN):

“One day I told her — and I still called her Madame — ‘What would seduce you if one was to make a perfume for you?’ and she told me, ‘I love jasmine, rose and sandalwood.’ And for once I started working like a [racial epithet]. I don’t know if [racial epithet] ever worked that hard.”

In French: “Pour une fois, je me suis mis à travailler comme un nègre. Je ne sais pas si les nègres ont toujours tellement travaillé, enfin…” READ MORE

I was less appalled by the oblivious ingrained racism of an old man who was never taught any differently than by the laughter of the reporter who knew it was wrong, but remained silent in challenging his words because it was somehow amusing to her because she probably has said the same at one point just not on TV. Many of us have said we work like slaves to mean we work hard to the bone & get little to no pay for it , so racism often times is more about intent than the words used & this is where it becomes a gray area instead of a black & white issue.

A friend of mine who is an Black American posted “I work like a slave to become a Master…” as his facebook status with many people giving him the thumps up “like” for his great ambition, so then why should we see the similar comments made by Guerlain as any different?  Is this another case where global Africans within the text of their different languages feel some sort of ownership of words that they can use freely amongst themselves like the word “Nigger” but when said by a White people it all of a sudden has a change of meaning in context? I personally do not care for the word “Nigger” used in any other context than its historical definition by anyone  Black, White or other because I have no confusion or delusions about the word in any context.

Jean Paul Guerlain to me knew exactly what he meant so his apology is just as worthless as his words & his intentions. This is most likely the way he always speaks about Black people & he just didn’t think it was being racist or that it was a big deal because a large majority of the Black peopel who have ever stepped foot in his country or whose country his country has stepped foot on did/do work like slaves in colonization & in freedom. This is nothing new & nothing surprising , particularly in France- the same nation who was ready for a modern day ethnic cleansing after their shameful showing at the world cup , which many blamed on having too many “non-traditional AKA non-white” french players on the team. This is the same nation who has been shipping Romas out in droves as the EU stands by silently. This is the same nation that has threatened to strip citizenship from all foreign born citizens who have criminal records. The part President Sarkozy seems to skip over is that these people are citizens whether they were born elsewhere or not. The whole idea of citizenship is accepting someone as one of your own & having them pledge allegiance to your nation’s flag. Why is it acceptable to the world when Sarkozy does this, but not acceptable when Mugabe does the same in stripping his nation of foreign born citizens who he deems are criminals in taking land that is not theirs?

“French lawmakers passed a controversial new bill that will strip criminals born in other countries of their French nationality if convicted of carrying out a violent crime against police officers..According to RPI, members of France’s lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, voted 294 to 239 to pass the measure. Proposed by Immigration Minister Eric Besson — who reportedly wants his ministry to be “a machine to produce good French citizens” — the measure will also allow European Union nationals to be expelled from France for repeated acts of theft, aggressive begging and illegally occupying land..” READ MORE

“We, the principled people of Zimbabwe, we, the true owners of this land, shall not budge, the land is ours”. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has given a stern warning to white farmers that his government will stick to its policy of removing them from their land.”We set ourselves an August deadline for the redistribution of land and that deadline stands,” he said in a keynote speech, the first since an eviction order for thousands of white farmers came into effect late last week..Mr Mugabe’s speech was to mark Heroes’ Day – which celebrates victory over the old white regime. He also took the opportunity in his address to attack former colonial power Britain and Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom he said was a “gangster” who had “gone insane”. “All genuine and well-meaning white farmers who wish to pursue a farming career as loyal citizens of this country have land to do so,” he said, adding that “no farmer need go without land“...READ MORE

The World Bank fiasco took the cake for me today not only as a proud Ghanaian but because it stands for so much in the bigger scheme of why all these nations have no shame in disrespecting Africans & Africa as a whole. I do not believe Ishac Diwan from the World Bank’s apology for one second. If the images from the World Bank’s website are  20-30 years old how idiotic does he & the world bank look that it took a Ghanaian journalist 20-30 years later to bring it to their attention before they realized it was there? You can’t have it both ways because why was it there in the first place 20-30 years ago? What purpose & propaganda was to be served by showing World Bank members such images as representative of the totality of Ghana? What type of ignorant fools are running the world bank & why do we hold them in such esteem? Do they have these same images of poor areas in the European & American nations which they give money to or invest in hanging around for years to showcase their members as representation of these nations? We continue to let the world bank & the IMF act as modern day colonizers -why do we need charity & loans from them when they rather owe us money for all they took & bartered from Africa & all the free labour for centuries that they never paid for but benefitted the same nations that we now beg for money? Ghana should demand a complete wipe out of any world bank debt & real partnerships if the world bank wants to have a foot in Ghana. We fail to realize that they need us more than we need them. If our governments would truly govern as leaders instead of greedy self serving puppets to their puppet masters at the World Bank, IMF & countless NGO’s then maybe  this can truly be the decade of the African as Dr. Kwame Nkrumah proclaimed five decades ago when these same types of sentiments were hovering throughout the world as our former colonizers & enslavers were getting too big for their britches in their blatant disrespect  for global Africans, our nations & our commendable contribution to the world.

“The World Bank has apologized for displaying damning images of Ghana at its recent annual meeting in Washington DC. Some of the pictures have half-naked women breastfeeding their kids and portray a country high on poverty levels. A journalist with the Daily Guide newspaper intercepted the images while covering the conference. He told Joy News the World Bank portrayed Ghana as a country full of hungry and miserable people. But the World Bank said the images are old and weren’t meant to tarnish the image of the country. The Country Director of the World Bank, Ishac Diwan, explained that the Bank’s photo library was linked to a website that was available to delegates attending the conference and the reporter saw the photos because of that linkage.He commended the Daily Guide reporter for his observation and “for alerting us that such photos were on our website…” READ MORE

I am not one of those people who believes that racism & all of our other ills & “isms” will ever be wiped out in my lifetime or ever, but I am one that believes it can be silenced & put in its place when we take ownership & act like this is truly the decade of the African by reevaluating, reorganizing, rededicating & reenergizing the teachings of Pan-Africanism that was built during a time in history just like this when Africa & her descendants throughout the world recognized that we had a mutual struggle in attaining economic power, true freedom & global respect.

As I read Steven G. Fullwood’s words about the re-organziation of the Schomburg & how what was meant to be a gathering of the community & their ideas for rebuilding went a-rye, I realized that the place is now the time is here to go back to the Pan-Africanism blueprint in order to rebuild a lasting & strong legacy from Africa to her Diaspora. There are too many Black millionaires & billionaires in the world today for us to beg & plead for anyone other than ourselves to come to our rescue in saving our cultural institutions , our history & ourselves.

If Jay Z wants to be tutored on how to become an official member of the Forbes list of billionaires, he needs not go to Warren Buffet but rather go to self made African billionares like Patrice Motsepe of South Africa  or Aliko Dangote from Nigeria or the many others who have sprung up in the past few years in Africa while there is only 1official Black Billionaire in America, Oprah Winfrey. If the Pan-Africanist mindset had truly been adopted as a way of life for global Africans Jay Z would know that his billionaire dream could be recognized quicker by investing in Africa. If the Pan-Africanist mindset had truly been adopted as a way of life for global Africans, hip-hop artists like Kanye West would be looking to build & follow their African brothers & sisters on twitter instead of looking for White validation in chasing Rocafeller & Louise Vuitton dreams. If the Pan-Africanist mindset had truly been adopted as a way of life for global Africans Black actors, actresses, directors, writers, producers etc. would be working on many more Sankofas instead of waiting for Hollywood to give them a chance & validation when there’s a thriving billion dollar industry in Africa waiting to welcome you & build with you.

As European & American businesses gather in a new scramble for Africa, The Pan-Africanist mindset , ethos & practice is needed more than ever in order to not have history continue to repeat itself. I was recently walking down the infamous 125th street in Harlem & within 4 blocks , I must have heard the word “Nigger” about 25 times from Black people. When I got to my African-American friend’s house & told her how saddened & irate I was about my experience on 125th street which felt more like I was at a KKK rally rather than W.E.B Dubois’s Harlem, she looked at me in shock  because she was surprised that I was in anyway effected by that since it has become an everyday thing in our community. As I watch Harlem’s gentrification, it makes me more irate that we refuse to capture the renaissance of old & rebuild it anew by changing our own attitudes & acting like the intellectuals & descendants of kings & queens that the old renaissance in Harlem taught us to be. As others are lured to what they see as the new emergence of Harlem’s romanticism & renaissance, they are seeing themselves as the new pioneers who have conquered new territory like Columbus.

“I made it quite clear that from now on – today – we must change our attitudes, our minds, we must realise that from now on, we are no more a colonial but a free and independent people. That new African is ready to fight his own battles and show that after all, the black man is capable of managing his own affairs. We are going to demonstrate to the world, to the other nations, that we are prepared to lay our own foundation.Our own African identity. We are going to create our own African personality and identity. It’s the only way that we can show the world that we are ready for own own battles. We have awakened. Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa. We will not sleep anymore. Today, from now on, there is a new African in the world!” Dr. Kwame Nkrumah-Founding Father of Pan-Africanism

Global Africans & their supporters in France say no more to racism (pas plus de racisme) after there was little to no media coverage outside of FB for the racist remarks made by 4th generation Guerlain perfumer Jean-Paul Guerlain. Groups and individuals met in front of the store on the Champs Elysees calling for a boycott against Guerlain & asking for  The House of Guerlain that was founded in 1828 & bought by LVMH in 1994 to disassociate themselves from JPG & his racist remarks, while yet another promising young Black man gets murdered by police in New York State as Global Africans in America just shaking their heads & saying “Again?” waiting to see if justice will b served..have we lost the spirit of protest, fighting for our rights/respect & standing up 4 what we believe in in America?

At the end of the protest video you see a sign that says Guerlain, Le Negre T’ermmerde which roughly translates to  the fact that Guerlain basically said Crew you or fuck you to the Negro or that the Negro is saying screw you or Fuck you to Guerlain. My French Global Fusionist please make your voices heard in the proper explanation.

manifestation devant Guerlain
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“Brazil is the target of an offensive by big capital, joined by transnational corporations and banks, in an alliance with the capitalist landowners who created a model of organization of agriculture called agribusiness. From the second half of the 1990s – and even more after the crisis of international capitalism – large international corporations, underwritten by finance capital, began to advance on Brazilian agriculture: land, water, seeds, production and industrialization of food and the marketing of pesticides.” READ MORE

“Brazil, South America’s largest economy, is finally poised to realize its long-anticipated potential as a global player, economists say, as the country rides its biggest economic expansion in three decades. It has also given Brazil new swagger, providing it, for instance, with greater leverage to push for a tougher bargain with the United States and Europe in global trade talks. After seven years, those negotiations finally broke down this week over demands by India and China for safeguards for their farmers, a clear sign of the rising clout of these emerging economies.” READ MORE

“Villase had walked into one of the fights over land, rooted in Haiti’s history of slavery, occupation and upheaval, that have served to slow recovery to a near-standstill in the six months since the earthquake leveled much of the capital and killed as many as 300,000 people.The government, already weak before the magnitude-7 quake and still hobbled by its aftermath, is trying to build anew in places like Corail-Cesselesse, a nearly empty swath of land that begins about 15 kilometers (9 miles) north of the capital. But the effort is paralyzed by disorganization, bitter rivalries and private deals being struck behind its back. Multiple families claim title to almost every scrap of real estate. Already one reconstruction official has been forced to step down for steering a public project to his company’s private land at Corail-Cesselesse. Wealthy landowners vow the “new Haiti” will become yet another vast slum unless the government rebuilds on their terms. Caught in the middle are the homeless, looking to grab a patch of ground from the thugs hired to keep them away. Even facing machetes, Villase had to be dragged from her flimsy shelter.”I didn’t want them to take the tent away,” she recalled. “They said, ‘We don’t care. We can rip it up while you’re inside.” READ MORE

With the recent opening up of America’s racial wounds with former USDA Director, Shirley Sherrod, becoming the poster child uncovering America’s long history of racism, classism & land disputes, I learned that in our recent history Black farmers had been rewarded a settlement of $1.25 billion in 1999 for discrimination by the USDA in its allocation of farm loans and assistance between 1983 and 1997. This class action lawsuit is known as  Pigford v. Glickman, which still has not been fully paid to date in its settlement. Where’s Fox news on this one- oh hell where is the Black news media in taking any responsibility in shedding light or education on this one in assistance & historical education of our youth?Absent as usual! I am a 37 year old African-American who would have never known about this if it hadn’t been for Fox News trying to Massacre Shirley Sherrod. In wanting to know more about who she is, I researched & stumbled upon this very important piece of history.

“The interesting thing about land is that in spite of the fact that we were enslaved, in spite of the fact that share cropping was a quasi form of slavery, between 1865 and 1910, according to census bureau figures, the African American community had acquired approximately 16 million acres of land. Now that’s 45 years after slavery when we could not read, could not write, and for all intents and purposes did not know where a college or a university was at. Our ancestors owned more of this country on a per capita basis 150 years ago than we do today.” READ MORE

“United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack and Department of Justice Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli announced in February that a lawsuit by Black farmers who alleged the agency discriminated against them, had been settled, and that there would be a $1.25 billion payout. President Barack Obama stated last May that the funds to pay back the Black farmers would be included in the 2010 budget, and Congress was to approve the settlement before March 31 of this year.At this point, money has still not been allocated.” READ MORE

“Bolivian President Evo Morales, the country’s first Indian leader, was re-elected to a second term in December 2009. Morales makes land redistribution and titling a cornerstone of his presidency. The majority of the country’s land has long been owned by a powerful non-indigenous fraction of the population, whose holdings are concentrated in the country’s fertile eastern lowlands. Morales’ government is now giving government-owned and unused land to poor and landless people, like Fernandez, in an attempt to combat this monopolization of Bolivian soil.” READ MORE

Today, particulary in Africa it seems descendants of many of Africa’s former colonizers are looking to Africa as the new frontier as the global recession makes what was once considered the European & American dream no longer tangible for most. As the instability of never ending wars in the Middle East looms over & threatens the American & European need for Middle Eastern oil, the lure for new markets in oil & energy resources outside of the Middle East has bolstered emerging markets in energy from Latin America to Africa. There is a new scramble for Africa based on the global need for energy & the natural resources of a continent that even after centuries of colonial pillaging is still bountiful.

“Portugal, one of Europe’s ailing economies, is increasingly placing its hopes of recovery on Angola, a former colony that has established itself as one of the strongest economies in sub-Saharan Africa — thanks largely to oil and diamonds. The shift comes as competition is getting stiffer in Brazil, another booming former colony, and as Portugal’s traditional European trading partners, led by Spain, struggle under a mountain of debt and soaring joblessness. Angola has already become Portugal’s largest export market outside of Europe, accounting for 7 percent of Portuguese exports last year, compared with 1 percent in 2000, according to the Portuguese statistics institute and Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency.” READ MORE

These 2 videos below are very telling of those who have been truly oppressed in history in their humility & humanity. The South African woman below still finds compassion for the White Afrikaners who oppressed her & her people for years in being shameful to see another human being suffer- Africans & their descendants are by far the most compassionate, hospitable people on earth. The majority of us would never be able to do unto Whites what the majority of them have done unto us in history & present day. Even when they bring hate we find a way to muster up love. Many may be upset & say this is a racist thing to say, but the facts of history are the facts of history & we can never rectify it if we are too afraid to address it & confront it. Just listen to the difference in tone & speak of the Afrikaners who for the first time in their life are experiencing what they have dealt to South Africans all their lives -where is the humanity & compassion for one another as human beings in their tone & speak?  All of a sudden when roles are reversed the oppressor now sees the ills of oppression, but still can not understand why he has been dealt or deserves such misfortune in anyway. As the man from Zimbabwe in the video above said -now all of a sudden they want to talk about civil rights but when we were begging for it they didn’t want to hear it-SMH! If we all had the type of compassion displayed by the South African woman below & many who have suffered oppression all their lives, oppression would never have happened nor continue to happen, but it seems the idea of White Privilege has somehow been accepted & embedded in all of us-both as the oppressed & as the oppressors.

“I was shocked ..cuz I couldn’t believe it.. u know in the apartheid, whites used to get everything & blacks we’re the ones who were suffering so it was a shock to see that..I felt uncomfortable because I couldn’t believe it.. It’s ok with blacks because we are used to it, but for whites .. it was unbelievable .. I felt sorry for them”

First & foremost let me give all praises due to the Black Star Nation that fought & earned their win against the USA fair & square as we like to say in America & let me congratulate the USA for assembling a great team that showed the world that America is & will be a true contender & winner to the global sport of Futbol/Football -the one that actually uses the foot!

I was not surprised by the sadness & anger by my fellow Americans after a sad defeat at the hands of the same Black Star team that quelled their dreams of group advancement in the World Cup of 2006 with the exact same score that sent them home in the first world cup on African soil; however I am disgusted by the level of venom, endless debates in poor sportmanship of a small number of American fans who showed their true colors in their inability to accept defeat gracefully. I have had to listen to endless foolish & even racist sentiments telling me that “I should not bite the hand that feeds me”, that if I am not supporting team USA agianst the nation whose blood runs thru me that “I need to consider going back to that nation instead of reaping the benefits of living in America”- whaaaaat? Are we back in the 1960’s America? Oh actually no this is new decade 2010 America, a half a century after Civil Rights, Black Liberation, Jim Crowe  separate but equal etc., where racial tensions, xenophia and all types of “mad isms” are emboldened more than ever, even though we like to pretend that change has come & having a Black president puts us in some sort of “post racial America”. Give me a break! Many people will get mad at me for this, but I honestly do not give a damn because it is time that we truly pull up the rug & clean up the dirt. What started as the usual sports, Muhammed Ali, Michael Jordan type of smack talk before the game between Ghana & the USA turned into some sort of referendum on patriotism peppered with racist language, backward xenophobic ideology & retelling & rewriting of history after the USA lost. As Harriet Beecher Stowe said: “The truth is the kindest thing we can give…”

“No One knows when the hour of Africa’s redemption cometh. It is in the wind, it is coming. One day a storm will be here. When that day comes, all Africa will stand together.” Marcus Garvey

Africa stood together as one on saturday cheering on the only African team to win a game at the first world cup on African soil, along with being the only African team to make it out of group play in 2006 & again in 2010 as Africa’s only hope. There was tremendous pressure on the Black Stars with an entire continent riding on their back to bring the  much needed hope that Africa longed for at the time when Dr. Kwame Nkrumah declared freedom for an independent Black Star Nation to 2010 when the Black Stars would once again represent the pride, might & future of Africa. Africa by the way of the Black Star nation once again stepped up to the plate of history to prove that Yes We GYAN- in a modern day era of Nkrumah’s black star nation & stance which proved the liberation & win for Ghana will catalyze a new wind of change calling for African unity & continental liberation.

“I made it quite clear that from now on – today – we must change our attitudes, our minds, we must realise that from now on, we are no more a colonial but a free and independent people..That new African is ready to fight his own battles and show that after all, the black man is capable of managing his own affairs. We are going to demonstrate to the world, to the other nations, that we are prepared to lay our own foundation.Our own African identity. We are going to create our own African personality and identity. It’s the only way that we can show the world that we are ready for own own battles. We have awakened. Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa. We will not sleep anymore. Today, from now on, there is a new African in the world!” Osageyfo Kwame Nkrumah -Independence Day Speech

After listening to some of the ignorant, disrespectful & borderline racists ESPN commentators & to the words & venom from some American fans, I am overjoyed that the Black Stars took this one for Africa because even if Ghana doesn’t win another game after this, this win was enough to  make the world take notice & to get under the skin of many to show their true colors by showing that somethings never change even in the euphoria of the Obama “change we can believe in” & in unity as a nation of immigrants that shows the global world what a melting pot nation should look like. Shame on the soar losers & those who tried so hard with their venomous words & disrespect to spoil the celebrations for Ghana/Africa & to take away from & taint the fact that the USA team played well & got further than they did the last world cup, but they just once again fell short to a Black Star team that was faster, younger & showed more skill & desire to win not just for a nation but for an entire continent.

“Ghana, the only team from Africa to make it out of the group phase, was matched against the United States on Saturday. If this were just a game, there is no question where my rooting interest would lie: Go U.S.A. But this was more than a match, just as the World Cup in Africa is more than an event. This was in part a referendum on whether a sub-Saharan nation with black leadership could pull off a mega-event. My heart was with the United States, but I was pulling for Africa. Not Ghana. Africa. As much as this match meant to United States soccer, Ghana’s success could be a catalyst for a long-term psychological boost. This isn’t about patriotism, but about continuing the push to keep this important giant on the right track.Sports can heal. Let Africa be Exhibit A.” Read More

USA was taken down by the same team that stopped them from advancing in group play the last world cup, so why act like it was so unexpected instead of showing respect to a team that has proven themselves not once but twice in the same match up? Over confidence & lack of respect for Africa will get you every time! Big Ups to team USA for a job well done & boo to all the naysayers who showed lack of sportsmanship & disrespect for an African team who had already proven themselves! I am frankly sick & tired of the general global lack of respect for Africa, Africans & their descendants around the world & the fact that many globally think there is nothing wrong with it or it’s par for the course because after all Africa has been the dumping ground & pillage ground for most of the world for centuries & it continues even today.

I am tired of being an upaid educator for people who choose to be ignorant because for them “igorance is bliss”.  How can you say Ghana has no chance against the USA because Michael Essien-the top paid African player in the world, is not on this year’s squad eventhough the new squad of  young players who are the youngest squad in the world cup beat Brazil in the under 20 World Cup  & almost single handedly brought down the champion Pharoahs of Egypt in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, which Michael Essien & his more experienced crew could not do for Ghana even with home field advantage  in 2008.  How can you say Michael Essien is the best player Ghana has ever had when you are ignorant on the history of the Black Stars with world reknown players like Anthony Yeboah & Abedi Pele?  How can you just disregard & disrespect proven winners by saying they can’t score & have only been able to advance because of penalty kicks without recognizing the superb defense of the players & superior play of our  goalie, Kingson ? How can you underestimate a team that has already beaten you once before on the same world stage? All of this disregard & disrespect came to a head to the peril of ignorant naysayers  & an overconfident USA team that as Landon Donovan himself said were naive to Ghana’s play.

The world cup is a wake up call for the emancipation of Global Africans everywhere who choose to deny Africa when Africa has never denied them, as the world at large refuses to let them forget that they are descendants of the Africa they choose to deny when it is convenient or involves the so called “hand that feeds them”. I was not expecting non-Africans to root for Ghana against the USA, but I was atleast expecting some sort of goodwill solidarity toward Ghana from so called African-Americans, who themselves chose to identify themselves as African-Americans at a time of good intentions in finding solidarity in a common global black struggle for freedom by embracing an identity that was taken from them by a nation that refused to accept them as just Americans, but that whole idea has been lost on many generations & has subsequently been used by White America to further a purpose of separatism & divisiveness. I had my own wake up call in recognizing the fact that not all skinfolk are kinfolk & not all non-skinfolk are enemies as I was congratulated by friends from all over the world on the Black Star win.

As we watch the Black faces of African descendants on the European teams & the teams of the Americas, it is very obvious that their ancestry comes from the very land that they have decided to forego or deny in play for the nations of their former enslavers/colonizers & their settlements created after they were done with their slave labor & colonizations. The irony, beauty & greatness of the world cup is that it is the perfect example of one having the choice to be on the side of birth nation or biological roots- which brought Kevin Prince Boateng from his German birth nation to score the first goal against the USA for Ghana’s Black stars, while it kept his brother Jerome Boateng in solidarity with his birth nation of Germany which led the two brothers to have to play against one another even though they share the same blood & last name from their Ghanaian father. This is not just representative of the world cup but also the make-up of today’s world & our global fusions!

The world seems to think it’s ok to disrespect the same African nations whose children are coveted by teams all over the world to help them win championships without giving any thought to our so called global connection thru Africa, which also historically & scientifically encompasses the roots of the world which some claim when it’s convenient while many others like to deny by all means. Africa has touched the entire world by force/malice & by choice/goodness whether anyone likes it or not & the world cup is ironically & symbolically telling of that. Africans & their descendants are everywhere in the world in positions of power, but no matter where it is in the world they still face the same exact disrespect & global inferiority complex that would have someone who is the best in class be questioned that they were accepted to an ivy league university or granted a high paying & high powered job because of some sort of affirmative action initiative, the same disrespect & put upon global inferiority complex that allows cops to stop & frisk, jail, beat & murder more black boys/men in America than any other group, the same disrespect & put upon global inferiority complex that allows blatant racism & questioning of the patriotism of the first black president in America as just a part of practicing basic American freedom of speech, the same disrespect & put upon global inferiority complex that allows xenophic laws to be put in place in America with very little resistance , the same disrespect & put upon global inferiority complex that allows cab drivers to pass by any Black person in favor of a White passenger, the same disrespect & put upon global inferiority complex that has put France in a national debate on patriotism & has brought riots to Italy, the same disrespect & put upon global inferiority complex that makes European club fans think it is OK to shout racial epithets & throw bananas at African players as just basic taunting & tomfoolery in sports, the same disrespect & put upon global inferiority complex that made me have to defend Ghana, Africans and my own patriotism because certain people could not accept defeat gracefully because it came at the hands of those that they have globally disrespected for centuries. Are we really in a post racial America or a post racial world & when are we all going to get real with ourselves and have real talk about this undying issue that has haunted the world at large for generations?

I spent a weekend of celebration of the  Black Stars hearing stories of the type of global “White privilege” that allowed a Puerto Rican woman in the west village who was telling her son to stay away from a dog owned by a White woman to be told blatantly to her face that her son does not have to be afraid of the dog because the dog is not from the Bronx, while the same White woman who said those fighting words was shocked that her words would send the Puerto Rican woman in a violent rage after she had just humiliated her in front of her young son. I had to sit in a courtroom as I waited for a Jewish female lawyer representing my Harlem landlord who failed to abide by a court ordered agreement to fulfill certain renovations in my apartment, as she went on in conversation for about 10 minutes with a Jewish male attorney talking about how she tried to hire another lawyer, who was out of work, to help her with her workload who refused the job because she didn’t feel that Harlem was a safe place for her to come to -as the lawyer that was doing the hiring said “I don’t know why she doesn’t want to come there it’s pretty safe now, even I go there at night”- with complete disregard to the fact that as a Black woman living in Harlem , I would be offended by that type of conversation in my presence while being forced to wait for her to finish the conversation to attend to my business. I held my breath & summed up my inner Zen to not be the stereotypical angry Black woman who wanted so badly to just tell her off & suggest that maybe she should look in Harlem for the many Black lawyers that I know who are out of work & would be more than happy to work & stay in their community, which is quickly being gentrified by the same people who the first thing they ask any Harlem realtor is “Is it safe”, but would not think to ask that on the Upper East side, where they were having many women being raped, because after all the make-up of the neighborhood determines safety for some people.

This is the same “White Privilege” that had my male White friend walking with me thru Harlem as we witnessed a Black man getting stopped & frisked, happily ready to find commonalty in telling me about his own story which he thought was so hilarious when he & another White male friend had been stopped in the East Village by the police who told them that they fit the description of two Puerto Rican guys that they were looking for & how he was shocked that the cab driver passed my female cousin by in Harlem as if he had not lived in New York for 10 plus years & dated & hung around enough Black people to not be so oblivious & dumbfounded by the fact that this type of blatant racism goes on daily- but I guess ignorance is bliss when you have the privileged to find humor in being stopped and told you fit the description by cops as a random occurrence in your life instead of an everyday part of life that many Black boys/men face. I am tired of those who like to act like they are so oblivious to the obvious & who choose to keep their mouths shut when they see injustice just because it doesn’t directly effect them. I actually have more respect for the KKK, Glenn Becks & Rush Limbaughs of the world than I do for the so called liberal civil rights champions like Bill Clinton whose true colors come out when their postions of power are challenged by the same people they claim to champion in equality & freedom because at least with the latter it is straight forward & you will always know what you are going to get. Don’t get me wrong, I actually generally like Bill Clinton & think his foundation has done many great things for the the plights of the world, but it is clear that his supposedly altruistic intentions toward helping Black people all over the world is based  more on his personal benefit, shine & global recognition, so because of that I am extremely weary of what will go on in Haiti under his watch.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

I had to have a long drawn out unexpected debate with a good friend of mine who got so offended that I didn’t give him enough time to mourn the loss of the USA before I called him for the usual smack talk & giggles banter that we had always shared with one another. He got so angry with me celebrating Ghana that he hung up the phone on me & proceeded to write me an e-mail that said that maybe I should consider living in the nation that I was rooting for. Wow! was all I could think because I really didn’t know it was that deep to warrant getting hung up on & going to the lowest & oldest xenophobic denominator of American history which fails to recognize that this is a nation built by immigrants collectively, whether they came by force or willingly; therefore America as we know it is an accumulation of the cultures of many nations, so no one outside of the natives who were pushed aside in the pursuit of manifest destiny can claim America as any more theirs than any of the children & descendants of immigrants who make up America. My friend did see the error of his ways & language & did apologize -but it goes to show the devil of unconsciousness can be found even in the most well meaning conscious people.

As an African-American born in America who claims Africa & Ghana in particular as the foundation of my roots, the USA is just as much mine as it is anyone one else’s who calls themselves an American & perhaps even more mine because the so called “hand that feeds me” was made possible by years of forced unpaid labor of my ancestors –so nothing has been given to me or any other African descendant by the USA –whatever benefits we reap were made possible by our ancestors & since we will never collect reparations as the Jews have for the Holocaust, I suggest Americans who like to spew this type of divisive evil- shut the hell up & refrain from any such further statements in ignorance because NO, I will never forget about slavery as much as America encourages Jews to never forget about the holocaust. In my American freedom of choice, I choose to recognize & pay homage to my ancestors by supporting Africa- the home they never were allowed to go back to because they had to build America which never allowed them to reap any benefits from their labor.

Me cheering for Africa does not equal me hating America, but ignorance & divisiveness would have many choose to believe that scenario instead of understanding history & why any African descendent would choose to cheer for Africa, particularly during the first world cup in Africa that has so much riding on the future of the continent as a whole more so than it has riding on the future of America. I went on to tell this lovely gentleman friend of mine that America forces me to check a box which clearly states African-American, where Africa is put first, so why should anyone in America be angry that I act accordingly by putting Africa first. This turned into a debate where he went on a diatribe about how he felt the title African-American should be abolished completely and  how I somehow should help lead that charge :

“I find it laughable that a white person who was raised their entire life in africa and gets US citizenship 15 minutes ago is called a “white person” while a black kid from Chicago who’s never left Illinois, couldn’t find Africa on a map, who’s family has been here for three times as long as mine is referred to as an african american, solely based on his skin tone….for me it all goes back to the late eighties when black americans were trying to break out their own identity and afrocentric became “theirs” and gave them solidarity (and Queen Latifah’s hat)… well the word is really out of date now and does more harm than good in my opinion, including stigmatizing people, of all races, with darker skin tones stating white is a fine adjective and implying that “black” is something to be ashamed of….frankly the only way this will change is if people of color make an effort to change it…. how do you think a white politician would sound making these arguments or “telling black people what to call themselves” ?…. black americans are extremely sensitive, and rightfully so, about the verbiage that has been used to describe them over hundreds of years and i feel strongly that any change in the census boxes will be coming from forward thinking, American black leaders who understand the deeper implications (Aretha Sarfo anyone?)….i think the word African-American does a lot of damage that many people of color, and the white devils, don’t recognize including the ongoing prejudice issue, that exists around the globe, that there is somehow something intrinsically worse or less desirable about being dark skinned and the bias it foments…I’ve always thought this word is one of the stupidest ever, and I’m surprised we haven’t had this conversation before, but in this case I feel like there’s not a goddamned thing any white folks can do with this one, except to maybe stir up with the influential black folks they know, i.e. YOU, and let them know if they want to change it they can. (I think most white people don’t care how black people choose to be addressed they just want consistency, less confusion and less than six syllables)..”

As much as I can see where he is coming from in the fact that this title has caused confusion & divisiveness in it being used against Black Americans who do not in anyway claim Africa nor have any allegiance to Africa, I also can acknowledge the fact that this whole issue & its implications to Black/White American relations is not my battle to fight with America in general for Black America because I am deeply rooted in my African-Americaness where I can trace my entire family for generations to specific places in Ghana, so I have no confusion of my allegiances & I can never really relate nor understand what it is like to be in that middle passage type of limbo that Black Americans have had to live with for generations, so I would never have the audacity to say it is the “stupidest word ever”  particularly when it describes me & neither should anyone who has not lived it. To me Black Americans have more claim to this land than most White Americans, but that’s just my hypothesis based in historical fact. Black Americans who have no interest in claiming Africa do need to fight to claim America as their own instead of continuing to be marginalized in a modern era middle passage where they have no allegiance to Africa because they are so far removed, yet they are still labeled & treated as not fully 100% American when America is the only nation they have know for countless generations.

Maybe there needs to be a redefinition of Black America in dropping African-American which has already come up for debate in the Black community in America. It is not up to me as a first generation African-American to decide that for generations of people & it is surely not up to any White American to call Black America’s history which they have only played the part in from a dictatorial outside looking in  standpoint to say their chosen title of African-American is “inappropriate or stupid” or to bring it up for debate, unless they are ready for a battle & to be possibly called outside their given name. Unfortunately what was done as a way of Black America having global solidarity & identity as every other immigrant in America had during the era of the Black Liberation Movement & Pan-Africanism has been used to remind African descendants that they will never be considered as just Americans, but rather the descendants of enslaved Africans & many Black Americans have accepted that even though they refuse to acknowledge, show solidarity or any type of allegiance to Africa, which was the original intention.

“Today’s idea: American-born blacks shouldn’t call themselves “African-American” because now there are many more people in the United States who were actually born in Africa, a black linguist and commentator says” READ MORE

A European who just came to this country a couple of decades ago will have children who are considered just Americans & will never have to check any box to suggest that they were not purely American, like Russian –Americans, Italian-Americans etc. but African descendants whose ancestors have been in this country from the start are boxed in as African-Americans. It’s easy to dish out the hypocrisy, but when it does not benefit America when someone like me chooses to pledge my allegiance in a football game to Africa then I am supposed to remember that I am American first even though that is not what the label African-American implies. Blacks in Europe are not called African-Italians, African-Britons, etc. & Whites in Africa are not called German-South Africans, French-Malians, British-Ghanaians, Italian-Kenyans etc. America was the last to abolish slavery, the only slave nation that has never given any type of real on the books acknowledgment toward reparation to the descendants of those who they enslaved or even remotely apologized for it on the books as many European nations involved in the slave trade have done to some extent. America actually has their first Black President who is against reparations & one of the top scholars on Black history who has angered many in the Black community by suggesting that Africans & European/American slave masters share equal blame for slavery & somehow should split the cost of reparations.

If  you deny the Holocaust or make anti-Semitic remarks in Germany you are subject to be imprisoned, but if you tell Black Americans to get over whining about slavery or make racists remarks toward Black people  in America you are likely to get your own radio or TV show on Fox or even a Disney affiliate. I have been made well aware in America & on my travels to Europe & even parts of South America that as long as your skin is Black, you will always be associated with Africa whether you like it or not. Africa to Europeans & Americans will always be as good as its people in their eyes & vise versa, so Global Africans need to wake up & accept that fact or figure out a way to change history! I am not calling for a new era back to Africa Garveyite movement because as Marcus Garvey himself said -”I have no desire to take all black people back to Africa; there are blacks who are no good here and will likewise be no good there.”

We need to practice & not just speak on this idea of unity amongst Africa & her Diaspora to help build & develop Africa in order for any African descendant to get any respect anywhere in the world. Generations of European, Middle Eastern & Asian immigrants have done so in their native lands, so why can’t we? In denying Africa, African descendants are only denying themselves. Only time will tell if America will ever accept African descendants as just Americans without reminding them of where & how their ancestors came to America- so until then I will continue to be a proud Ghanaian –American/African-American, who puts Africa first without it meaning that I hate America because I also am part of what made America.

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves. Be the change that you want to see in the world. ” -Mohandas Gandhi

Let’s start remaking ourselves by acknowledging & accepting our own evils & truths with our  greatness, by being the change we want to see if we really want to remake a world based on peace, freedom and equality!

Ghana VS USA 2006 World Cup Win

Repeat in 2010 for all those who failed to believe!

After Chris Rock’s documentary “Good Hair” brought greater mainstream familiarity with the fact that the issues of black beauty went a lot deeper for many people of color than just esthetics, now Sammy Sosa’s recent photos has brought out the dirty little secret of skin bleaching/colorism amongst people of color for mainstream consumption & debate. The passing of Michael Jackson revisited the issue of skin bleaching, but was brushed away as alien to Michael Jackson’s obsession with plastic surgery & desire to be White, or vitiligo, for those who didn’t want to believe that he was suffering from the mental anguish that colorism had brought to his life & physical destruction.

Sammy Sosa’s story has knocked the issue of skin bleaching out of the ballpark erupting into global debates & recognition of documentaries bringing the issue of skin bleaching & colorism to the forefront of mainstream topics. Years of African colonization along with the physical & mental enslavement of Africans throughout the Diaspora brought about the idea that lighter was better in the minds of African descendants because it brought one favor in the fact that it meant one was mixed with the genetics of the master, the superior race- the White race. This beauty ideal of colonizers & slave masters became cemented throughout the continent & carried on thru African descendants around the world as a badge of honor for some & a dirty little secret for others centuries after emancipation & continues to plague people of color even today. There have been many books, films & discussions on the topic in the past, but the global interest in Sammy Sosa’s rise & fall as an international alpha man type of hero struggling with this issue has now forced the world to face itself & the mental destruction of its people going as far as dying to achieve the esthetic of a European or the colonizer & slave master’s standard of what is deemed as universally beautiful.

Take a look at the bustling film industry in Africa (Ghana, Nigeria & South Africa in particular) & you will see many of its lead characters are lighter skin Africans & this remains true for most of the world when dealing with showcasing a black standard of beauty, wealth & talent whether it’s in film, fashion, or everyday business. This issue of colorism effects every continent where lighter pigmentation is the standard form of beauty, wealth & privilege widely known amongst people of color all over the world, but often overlooked or swept under the rug as a source of embarrassment complicit in self discrimination based on one’s pigmentation. I have personally witnessed this amongst Africans, Latinos, Black Americans, Indians, Arabs and even Italians- where darker hue Italians from the south are discriminated against for their close proximity to Africa or as descendants of Italians mixing with Africans. Throughout the world, Africa & its darkest of hue has always brought a sense of fear, inferiority and sometimes a warped fetish & fantasy of the ultimate in animalistic instincts, behavior & temptation, so the lightening of the hue decreases the fear & brings more acceptability & softness in beauty & humanness in accordance with colonial standards. This European standard is not only an issue for African descendants, but also a dirty little secret amongst people of non-African decent all over the world who were also colonized or economically globalized .

The issue of colorism has been a topic of discussion in Black communities in America for centuries, from Alex Haley’s “Queen”, Spike Lee’s “School Daze” , Toni Morrison “The Bluest Eye”, Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Wedding (dealing with colorism & wealth in martha’s vineyard), Tyra Bank’s episodes on her talk show, and even the election of President Barack Obama; now the issue of skin bleaching combined with colorism & racism has become a global topic of discussion continuing to rear its ugly head in its divisionism & destruction of global citizens.

I have seen so many African women bleaching their skin for all of my life & it has always been a socially acceptable thing because most African societies accept the idea that lighter is better while pumping their fists for African pride. Ironically if you look at Black American history you can see that those who pumped their fists the hardest for Black pride were often of a lighter shade of Black or married White: Malcolm X, Minister Louis Farrakhan, Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, Mohammed Ali & even the notorious Reverend Wright amongst others. I will never forget the day I realized that telling a little white girl from the upper east side of manhattan that I was babysitting for while in elementary school, that Michael Jackson was Black was as traumatizing to her as being told there was no Santa Clause. She cried & cried & told me that I was lying . I was beyond shocked by her reaction, but was taught a lesson on the negative perception of Blackness even in the eyes of the children of the so called liberal Whites in America.

My aunt recently told me an ironically funny yet sad story stemming from colorism & societal perceptions. She told me that when she was in Africa she saw Indians in Africa as being so beautiful because to Africans they associated Indians as white because of their hair & certain European features, but when she got to America she no longer found them to be so beautiful because she saw they were just like her & not white. All I could think was wow-really? I was not surprised because I grew up in this mentality, but for some reason I always loved my darkness which brought me my shine particularly amongst my global encounters – you know, the whole “wow you are so EXOTIC” thing-LOL! I was once told by my Senegalese friend, who was born & raised in Europe & works in the beauty industry, that I was the “new ideal” with my dark skin & European features- HUH? I happen to have a smallish button type of nose, oval shaped eyes &  full lips that are proportional to my face -all of which are natural native features of my 100% Ghanaian family, but I guess now it is considered European features or non-stereotypically Black/African & in some circles “the new ideal”-SMH. Part of the reason my aunt no longer found Indians to be so beautiful when she saw them in America was because in Africa many of them had the wealth & represented a certain class & perception while in America they are lumped in the same minority status as she is, within a new definition of wealth, class & colorism in America!

Esthetic globalization + Colorism + racism = Global Confusion + Global Madness!

“Colorism is a form of discrimination in which human beings are accorded differing social and treatment based on skin color. The preference often gets translated into economic status because of opportunities for work. Colorism can be found across the world. The term is generally used for the phenomenon of people discriminating within their own ethnic groups. The term colorism usually refers to when lighter skin tones are preferred and darker skin is considered less desirable or vice versa. In the United States, the phenomenon also occurs in other populations, such as among Chicanos and other Latinos and Indian immigrants. While colorism still exists in the U.S., it has diminished since the Civil Rights Movement. The name pigmentocracy is given to a group-based social hierarchy based largely on colorism. Also labeled as colorism.Colorism in the United States is a practice that began in times of slavery due to white slave owner’s beliefs that any person black (African) or associated with blackness, was inferior or lowly. Common practices of the time were to allow the slaves with the lighter complexion (more commonly the offspring of the slave masters and their slaves) to engage in less strenuous usually domesticated duties, while the darker, more African looking slaves participated in hard labor, which was more than likely outdoors. The “brown paper bag test” was a ritual once practiced by certain African-American and Creole fraternities and sororities who discriminated against people who were “too dark.” That is, these groups would not let anyone into the sorority or fraternity whose skin tone was darker than a paper lunch bag, in order to maintain a perception of standards. Spike Lee’s film School Daze satirized this practice at historically black colleges and universities. The “brown paper bag test” form of colorism is also believed to have been used in the application process to the prestigious Historically Black College Howard University. The University once required students to submit a photograph of themselves, most likely to ensure that the majority of the Universities students were of lighter complexion. Along with the “Paper Bag Test,” guidelines for acceptance among the lighter ranks included the “comb test”, which tested the coarseness of one’s hair, and the “flashlight test,” which tested a person’s profile, to make sure their features measured up, or were close enough to those of the Caucasian race. Colorism is prevalent in the job application process as well, research shows that a light skinned African American male with a bachelors degree and mediocre experience is more likely to be hired for a typical job than a dark skinned man with a Masters in Business Administration and past experience in the field…..” SOURCE

“A study released today draws a connection between political partisanship and the skin tone of political candidates. Researchers from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago suggest people believe that a lighter skin tone is more representative of a candidate with whom they are politically aligned than a politician with a darker complexion.” READ MORE

BLACK BRAZIL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj8lP-yg04U

Dove Hypocrisy: I guess the campaign for Real beauty in India according to the same company that owns the Dove brand is to be White

No matter your celebrity the racism that carries into colorism is alive & well –Let’s see if FIFA will live up to what they say- but then again the next world cup is in South Africa- a country which has had a long & very recent history of Apartheid/colorism/racism –so we’ll see how truly far we have come as human beings!

I don’t know how true this video is because -some of the celebs. are obvious but others not so sure it isn’t just make –up & air brushing which is far from skin bleaching.

UPDATE ON THE GLOBAL MADNESS BY Vybz Kartel
“The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice? Well not for reggae artist Vybz Kartel who is endorsing his own brand of skin lightening cake soap. Kartel justifies his change in appearance by comparing bleaching his skin to white people tanning…” READ MORE