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NEWS, NAKED WHITE MAN,COLLEGE STUDENT WAS KILLED BY POLICE..POLICE SAY HE WAS NAKED AND ACTING ERRADTIC .NAKED KILLED STUDENT FAMILY LAWYER SAYS, SURVEILLANCE CAMERA SHOWS NOTHING TO JUSTIFY DEADLY FORCE..SINCE POLICE GET AWAY WITH BEATING UP AND KILLING BLACK MEN, INTERESTING TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS TO POLICE AT SOUTH ALABAMA COLLEGE....WAITING TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS TO WHITE POLICE WHO HAD CHAVIS CARTER HANDCUFFED CLAIMED HE GOT OUT OF HIS HANCUFFS AND COMITTED SUICIDE.//////

BLACK PREACHERS GETTING BLACK PEOPLE TO THE POLLS.WHAT DO THEY GET OUT OF THIS.....AFTER THIS THEY CAN TAKE ON DRUG DEALERS, GANGS AND PIMPS. THEY WANT. THEY ARE NOT DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING ..GREED MOTIVATES PREACHERS I HEARD BLACK POLITICANS GIVE PREACHERS MONEY.....

I just recently completed Toni Morrison’s latest book “Home”, a novel I have been looking forward to reading because its advance notices promoted it as being set in the 1950s, an era I could relate to. Since many of Morrison’s novels take place way back in the day, I was glad she had chosen to write about what was, to me, a more recent period in history. I was curious about how Ms Morrison would portray the 1950s which have been referred to as not only a bland and innocent time populated by the “silent generation“, but also the decade that was ripe for the civil rights movement it spawned. I anticipated she would write about a passive race of people, done with being patient, spurred into protest by dynamic leaders like Martin Luther King, and inspirational ones like Rosa Parks, and martyrs like Emmet Till, all played out against a backdrop of doo-wop music and Amos ‘N Andy TV and Dorothy Dandridge celebrity. The ‘50s I knew. Silly me. I should’ve realized that Toni Morrison would never stoop to such mundane predictability. With Toni it’s never easy. And “Home” is vintage Morrison. So, before long, through the vividness of her prose fraught with its extraordinary metaphors, and the wretched poignancy of her characters, I was beyond reading this book; I was experiencing it. In my imagination I was there, immersed in a version of life in the 50s that was diametrically opposed to the one I led back then as a young black woman residing in a small integrated suburb of Chicago. Crouched in the unforgiving frozen terrain of Korea, killing to keep from being killed while dodging bullets, I was there with the book's protagonist, Frank Money, as he witnessed the horrible deaths of the homeboys with whom he had enlisted in the Army, hoping to escape the dead-end drudgery that was their fate as black youth bogged down in the dusty little rural town of Lotus, Georgia. There, following Frank through the post traumatic stress that plagues him as a shell-shocked war veteran, wandering the dangerous streets of northern cities, working his way through despair with whiskey and the fleeting love of Lilly, a comely, ambitious woman not content to be his ongoing caregiver. There, listening to the frenetic be-bop music in a smoky little night club, visited between trains on his way back to rescue his gullible younger sister, “Cee”, who has been victimized and sterilized by a mad professor of eugenics. And, in the end, there, back in the confines of a hapless little town that modernization forgot, and slavery remembered. Yet a place that is also a welcoming haven not lacking in the homespun warmth and time-worn wisdom embodied by its black inhabitants, common folk of varying degrees of good and evil who, through the worst of conditions have endured, blissful in their ignorance, secure in their belief that “be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home”. As the book draws to its close I was also there, witnessing a reappearing zoot-suited phantom who like the style he sported, comes and finally goes with a smile on his face, signalling that "all's well, that ends well". At 145 pages, “Home” is a short intense novel, something which always earns points with me, and a satisfactory read for those who are up to the challenge of spinning straw into gold. Finally, because it is what it is, I have no choice but to give this good thing that came in a small package, 4 stars. * * * *

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Artist - Zion Birdsong, Musical Director of The Book Look Song - D. Amari Jackson, Creator of The Book Look Like This Quote MultiQuote Edit Blog This

Implicit in almost every post on this site is the underlying message that It's hard being black; not only in America, but throughout the world. Just as white skin is an "entitlement", " it can be argued that "colored" skin is a burden. If I were a rapper I'd spit out some verses about this. Instead I'll just spill out some thoughts. As an African American, no matter what your circumstances are, your race is always a factor that puts you at a disadvantage even when the playing field is leveled to allow you to advance despite inadequate qualifications. I repeat: It's hard being black. Is this how it was meant to be? White people seem to be genetically equipped to dominate, oppress, and seize power. That's an explanation, but it offers little consolation. Blacks are supposed to be more spirtual. Which I guess is why they are haunted by bad luck spooks, They also suffer from mass frustration, a side-effect of having to maintain a dual identity. To cope with being relegated to the bottom of the heap, out of desperation, long suffering negroes continue to cling to the hope that God willl grant them their reward in the hereafter. Lord have mercy. Meanwhile, atheistic China has ascended to a position of world leadship, leaving the options of Buddhism and Taoism for those seeking an inner peace that they don't have to go to heaven to attain. Still, Blacks keep on praying and thumping the Bible, all the while ignoring the intriguing interpretations about the black race being descended from Noah's son Ham who, as a punishment for laughing at his naked father, was marked with the skin color that cursed his lineage. Preferring to adopt the biblical references to homosexuality being an abomination, black believers gloss over the possibility that God couldn't care less about their unfair lot in life. Noah did his thing.So be it. To add insult to injury, presidetial candidate Mitt Romney is a member of the Mormon church which has never had any respect for Blacks, considering them unfit for leadership. But all those white Christians who in the past rejected Mormonism are now willing to tolerate it, and if Obama loses, it will be because the majority of white people do not want to be ruled by a black man and that is what matters most to them. All religion aside, the scientific mathmatical law of averages says that at some point chronic losers will win. So in the upcoming election will the fluke that got Obama elected repeat itself? Will things turn around so that race won't matter and things won't be so hard??? Maybe. But I wouldn't bet on those odds. A re-elected black president's blackness might still prevent him from being a successful winner. Because it's hard being black

I just can't get enough of this silly song. Why, I don't know. My grandson even threatened to shoot a video of me singing it so he could add it to YouTube's collection of diffent covers of it. This link provides one of the more interesting versions for those of you who are tired of serious subjects. http://youtu.be/lEsPhTbJhuo

Has anyone seen the video going viral on youtube? Teen girl talking trash to city bus driver. Bus driver says something like "I'll get my granddaughter on you" and the teen continues to be loud, disrespectful, in his face, yadda yadda yadda until she hauls off and hits him. And then it goes completely downhill from there. What in the world is happening? I'm sure those of us who have ridden the city bus in many parts of Chicago and other major cities have seen this type of aggressive behavior out of our youth. So in a way, this isn't a surprise. But now with youtube, the whole world gets to see some of the ignorance that REALLY goes on in some of our communities. I can recall riding the bus and seeing something similar to this, although in that case the adult was a passenger and chose not to fight the child. I also recall shopping on the West Side of Chicago w my daughter when a group of teens wanted to jump her merely because they didn't like the way she talked - too proper, too "white"...yes, in this day and age we're still doing that. So we've always known that we've got these types of issues in our community. But how do you feel about the world, through youtube, having the inside scoop on our dirty laundry? Nowadays everybody's got their phones out, willing and waiting to post the outrageous behaviors. Will seeing ourselves on camera like this - knowing that the whole world sees it to - help us to think twice before embarrassing ourselves? Or does it make matters worse? Or neither?

EX COACH SADUSKY GOT OVER 30 YEARS FOR CHILD MOLESTING AT PENN STATE.WHY HAS BISHOP EDDIE LONG NOT BEEN CONFRONED BY, THE NAACP,BLACK CHURCHES AND BLACK POLITICIANS FOR BEING SEXUALLY INVOLVED WITH YOUNG BLACK BOYS.////...CHURCH IS AS BAD AS PIMP AND DRUG HOUSES..///

Our parents were being born into this world a little more than 50 years ago. They were the children of Black Americans born three generations after the abolishment of slavery. But thanks to governmental acceptance of the institution of segregation, they remained second class citizens. Being second class citizens, they did not have access to the best schools and were ineligible for many good paying jobs. Our grandparents refused to allow this form of segregation to remain in place and demanded change. They made a choice to fight for this change by any means neccessary. This choice cost some people their lives and others their freedom. While fighting for these rights, our grandparents also taught their children to value education. Many adults in their generation did not finish high school; but they wanted more for our parents. Grandpa and Grandma pleaded with our parents to get a high school degree and refused to accept anything less. Their persistent message stuck with our parents and resulted in millions of black teenagers receiving a high school diploma. Black teenagers had never finished high school at such a high rate and this was largely due to the efforts of our grandparents. After segregation was abolished and our parents became adults; they bought us into this world. We were the first and second generation of black children born in a post segregated United States. Our parents were only expected to finish high school, but they wanted more for us. The new message was to obtain a college degree. They knew a college degree would increase our chances of obtaining a good paying job and achieving financial stability. Their own career failures led them to this conclusion. While having a high school degree got them into the doors of Corporate America, our parents weren’table to advance without a college degree. They had to settle with the lowest paying jobs and didn’t have the time to obtain a college degree. Many of our parents had to provide for us and attending college was not feasible. They did not want this lifestyle for us and made sure we heard this new message. Their persistence worked. We finished college at a higher rate than ever before. Many of us even went on to obtain post graduate degrees. Our parents used a message to help with the advancement of our race just like grandma and grandpa. While it is true that not everyone bought into this belief, their message was proven effective. There are more black CEO’s and presidents in Corporate American than ever before. We’ve even witnessed the election of the first black president of the United States; a Harvard graduate. But now our parents are the grandparents and we are the adults. We are the people guiding the next generation of Black American adults. We are left with the responsibility of helping our race overcome setbacks from the past. The message of obtaining a high school degree belongs to our grandparents. The message of obtaining a college degree belongs to our parents. What is our message? The message we must create for the next generation should be different. Our children watched us finish college and obtain post graduate degrees. They understand the importance of a good education and the role it plays in getting a high paying job. The next generation needs more. Education based messages are no longer good enough. We need to offer them a message that will fulfill the dreams of our grandparents. This message must lead to Black Americans overcoming a problem that has yet to be solve; owning the highest unemployment and poverty rates in the United States. The way to achieve this is to teach our children how to effectively manage their money. The previous generations have taught us how to earn money; now we must teach our children how to use it. Our message to the next generation must be to obtain financial freedom. We must keep them from falling into the same debt building habits we accepted. It is no longer acceptable to promote obtaining college degrees through the accumulation of unsustainable debt. They must understand the consequences of uncontrolled spending and excessive credit card usage. We can’t teach our children to allow home equity to be their biggest asset. They must be taught how to protect their net worth and achieve lifestyle goals without a serious accumulation of debt. We must teach them how to escape paycheck to paycheck cycles. Failure to spread our message will result in a continuance of financial inferiority. Our parents taught us the value of a college degree without going to college themselves. Our grandparents taught our parents the value of obtaining a high school degree without finishing high school themselves. It’s time for us to step up and help with the advancement of our race. No excuses allowed. This is our obligation to the next generation and we should fully embrace it. Make sure you support the blog and comment there also at http://moneyetiquette.com/blog.html

I'm sure it's just a problem for me, Troy, but what happens is that I often miss exchanges because when I click on the link to the last comment posted, this takes me directly to it and I have to remember to scroll backwards to see if any conversation preceded that last comment if whoever wrote it doesn't make reference to it, or quote directly from it. And I still haven't figured out how to include just a small segment of a quote from a post when responding to it. FaceBook is frustrating because you can't correct errors or edit comments after you've entered a post. You have to copy the original post before deleting it and then paste and correct it before reposting it. I'm really beginning to have a love/hate affair with FaceBook because of being bombarded with a bunch of sappy "inspirational" graphics and praises to the lord and cheer leading for Obama. And, of course, there are those people to whom it has become a daily journal and picture album, not to mention the deejays posting links to YouTube. Come to think of it, one of the few things I actually like, not even love about FaceBook, is injecting a dissonate note into a thread where people with a herd mentality are all chiming in, agreeing with what has been said by the original poster.

Fists of Freedom: An Olympic Story Not Taught in School Dave Zirin on July 25, 2012 - 11:16 AM ET Nation readers —Over the next several weeks, I’ll be writing about the 2012 London Olympics. I’m going to try to write about the stories not just on the field but off: the Counter Olympics demonstrators, the workers behind the scenes, the athletes with personal stories that speak less to their desire for athletic success than a desire for human rights. It seemed fitting to start by looking back at perhaps the most political, controversial, inspiring moment in Olympics, if not sports, history: the medal stand black gloved salute of 200 meter runners Tommie Smith and John Carlos. I origincally wrote this article for GOOD magazine online (July 23, 2012) as part of the Zinn Education Project series called “If We Knew Our History.” * * * It has been almost 44 years since Tommie Smith and John Carlos took the medal stand following the 200-meter dash at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City and created what must be considered the most enduring, riveting image in the history of either sports or protest. But while the image has stood the test of time, the struggle that led to that moment has been cast aside. When mentioned at all in U.S. history textbooks, the famous photo appears with almost no context. For example, Pearson/Prentice Hall’s United States History places the photo opposite a short three-paragraph section, “Young Leaders Call for Black Power.” The photo’s caption says simply that “…U.S. athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised gloved fists in protest against discrimination.” The media—and school curricula—fail to address the context that produced Smith and Carlos’ famous gesture of resistance: It was the product of what was called “The Revolt of the Black Athlete.” Amateur black athletes formed OPHR, the Olympic Project for Human Rights, to organize an African American boycott of the 1968 Olympic Games. OPHR, its lead organizer, Dr. Harry Edwards, and its primary athletic spokespeople, Smith and the 400-meter sprinter Lee Evans, were deeply influenced by the black freedom struggle. Their goal was nothing less than to expose how the United States used black athletes to project a lie about race relations both at home and internationally. OPHR had four central demands: restore Muhammad Ali’s heavyweight boxing title, remove Avery Brundage as head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), hire more African American coaches, and disinvite South Africa and Rhodesia from the Olympics. Ali’s belt had been taken by boxing’s powers that be earlier in the year for his resistance to the Vietnam draft. By standing with Ali, OPHR was expressing its opposition to the war. By calling for the hiring of more African American coaches as well as the ouster of Brundage, they were dragging out of the shadows a part of Olympic history those in power wanted to bury. Brundage was an anti-Semite and a white supremacist, best remembered today for sealing the deal on Hitler’s hosting the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. By demanding the exclusion of South Africa and Rhodesia, they aimed to convey their internationalism and solidarity with the black freedom struggles against apartheid in Africa. The wind went out of the sails of a broader boycott for many reasons, partly because the IOC re-committed to banning apartheid countries from the Games. The more pressing reason the boycott failed was that athletes who had spent their whole lives preparing for their Olympic moment simply couldn’t bring themselves to give it up. There also emerged accusations of a campaign of harassment and intimidation orchestrated by people supportive of Brundage. Despite all of these pressures, a handful of Olympians was still determined to make a stand. In communities across the globe, they were hardly alone. The lead-up to the Olympics in Mexico City was electric with struggle. Already in 1968, the world had seen the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, demonstrating that the United States was nowhere near “winning the war”; the Prague Spring, during which Czech students challenged tanks from the Stalinist Soviet Union, demonstrating that dissent was crackling on both sides of the Iron Curtain; and the April 4 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the urban uprisings that followed—along with the exponential growth of the Black Panther Party in the United States—that revealed an African American freedom struggle unassuaged by the civil rights reforms that had transformed the Jim Crow South. Then, on October 2, 10 days before the opening ceremonies of the 1968 Olympic Games, Mexican security forces massacred hundreds of students and workers in Mexico City’s Tlatelolco Square. Although the harassment and intimidation of the OPHR athletes cannot be compared to this slaughter, the intention was the same—to stifle protest and make sure that the Olympics were “suitable” for visiting dignitaries, heads of state, and an international audience. It was not successful. On the second day of the Games, Smith and Carlos took their stand. Smith set a world record, winning the 200-meter gold, and Carlos captured the bronze. Smith then took out the black gloves. The silver medalist, a runner from Australia named Peter Norman, attached an Olympic Project for Human Rights patch onto his chest to show his solidarity on the medal stand. As the stars and stripes ran up the flagpole and the national anthem played, Smith and Carlos bowed their heads and raised their fists in what was described across the globe as a “Black Power salute,” creating a moment that would define the rest of their lives. But there was far more to their actions on the medal stand than just the gloves. The two men wore no shoes, to protest black poverty as well as beads and scarves to protest lynching. Within hours, the IOC planted a rumor that Smith and Carlos had been stripped of their medals (although this was not in fact true) and expelled from the Olympic Village. Brundage wanted to send a message to every athlete that there would be punishment for any political demonstrations on the field of play. But Brundage was not alone in his furious reaction. The Los Angeles Times accused Smith and Carlos of a “Nazi-like salute.” Time had a distorted version of the Olympic logo on its cover but instead of the motto “Faster, Higher, Stronger,” it blared “Angrier, Nastier, Uglier.” The Chicago Tribune called the act “an embarrassment visited upon the country,” an “act contemptuous of the United States,” and “an insult to their countrymen.” Smith and Carlos were “renegades” who would come home to be “greeted as heroes by fellow extremists,” lamented the paper. But the coup de grâce was by a young reporter for the Chicago American named Brent Musburger who called them “a pair of black-skinned storm troopers.” But if Smith and Carlos were attacked from a multitude of directions, they also received many expressions of support, including from some unlikely sources. For example, the U.S. Olympic crew team, all white and entirely from Harvard, issued the following statement: “We—as individuals—have been concerned about the place of the black man in American society in their struggle for equal rights. As members of the U.S. Olympic team, each of us has come to feel a moral commitment to support our black teammates in their efforts to dramatize the injustices and inequities which permeate our society.” Smith and Carlos sacrificed privilege and glory, fame and fortune, for a larger cause—civil rights. As Carlos says, “A lot of the [black] athletes thought that winning [Olympic] medals would supersede or protect them from racism. But even if you won a medal, it ain’t going to save your momma. It ain’t going to save your sister or children. It might give you 15 minutes of fame, but what about the rest of your life?” The story of Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics deserves more than a visual sound bite in a quickie textbook section on “Black Power.” As the Zinn Education Project points out in its “If We Knew Our History” series, this is one of many examples of the missing and distorted history in school, which turns the curriculum into a checklist of famous names and dates. When we introduce students to the story of Smith and Carlos’ defiant gesture, we can offer a rich context of activism, courage, and solidarity that breathes life into the study of history—and the long struggle for racial equality.

STANDING BY THE SHORE,LOOKING OUT INTO THE SEA...IN MY MIND IMAGES OF SLAVE SHIPS I BEGIN TO SEE..WHITE MEN CAPTURING AFRICANS UPON THEIR AFRICAN SAND. .FORCING THEM INTO A SHIP'S CARGO HOLE,LEAVING THEIR AFRICAN LAND..MEN,WOMEN AND CHILDREN,CHAINED,SHACKLED CONFINED...A WAY TO ESCAPE AND FLEE IN THEIR MIND...DIFFERENT PLACES IN AFRICA THEY ARE FROM. DIFFERENT TRIBES EACH WITH A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE TONGUE...FROM THE CARGO HOLE,AFRICAN SLAVES FORCED UPON THE SHIP'S DECK.SLAVE CAPTIVES WITH CHAINS SHACKLES ON THEIR WRIST,ANKLES AND NECK.LUCIFER HIMSELF THE CAPTAIN ON THE SLAVE SHIP..JOYFULLY BEATING THE SLAVES WITH HIS WHIP..SLAVES THROWN OVERBOARD DAY AND DARK.BOUNTIFUL FEAST,THE SLAVE SHIPS FOLLOWED BY SHARKS..AND THE SLAVES ON SUNKEN SLAVE SHIPS,DO THE SOULS OF THOSE SLAVES WITH THE OCEAN MOAN/ DO THEY WANDER AT THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN DEEP,OR DID THEY FIND AWAY BACK TO THEIR AFRICAN HOME////SLAVE SHIP ARRIVES TO AMERICA,SLAVES FORCED OFF,THEIR PEOPLE THEY DO NOT SEE,NOT HEARING SOUNDS OF TRIBAL DRUMS,ELPHANTS OR THE LIONS ROAR...UNKNOWN TO THEM THE HELL THAT AWAITS THEM ON THIS STRANGE AND DISTANT SHORE.../.....

FROM READING AND HEARING ABOUT LONG AGO WHEN BLACK FOLKS WERE IN ACTION....THERE WERE STRONG BLACK VOICES THAT ORGANIZED MOTIVATION...FOR BLACK PROGRESS THINGS HAD TO BE PUT IN MOTION.SINCE THE DEVIL'S POLITICAL SEEDS WERE BRINGING BLACK ANIHILATION..FOR BLACK EQUALITY, THERE HAD TO BE WITH THE DEVIL ORGANIZED CONFRONTATIONS..FOR BLACK EQUALITY THERE HAD TO BE SACRIFICES ,FOR A BLACK REALITY TRANSFORMATION.EMIT TILL,MEDGER EVERS ALL THE LYNCHING AND HANGING SUCH BLACK DEVASTATION..THE MARCHING,BUS BOYCOTTS , BLACK FOLKS WERE IN UNITY FORMATION..THE CHURCH LED BY REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING,WAS A PLACE OF STRATEGY, AND SPIRITUAL ELEVATION...BLACK PEOPLE WERE TOGETHER IN UNITY BATTLES,NOT LIKE TODAY WHEN BLACK PEOPLE ARE DIVIDED,CONQUERD, IN SELF SOLITUDE ISOLATION.FOR A BLACK FUTURE WE NEED TO RETURN TO LONG AGO IS MY OBSERVATION..