Monday, January 23, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
R.I.P Etta James.....
To one of the most prolific singers the world has ever seen. Her music and her contributions to the world will live forever in the hearts and minds of everyone who knew her. I bow to the genius that is Etta James.....
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
New Eric Roberson Album....
Eric Roberson Comes back with another classic Album in "Mr Nice Guy" showcasing his phenomenal voice and inspirational words. The Album is in stores now so support good music. Don't forget to purchase his other albums at his website on http://blueerrosoul.blogspot.com/
Is This the beginning of the end for Freedom?
Just when I thought I could go a day more without any 2012 apocalyptic events happening, SOPA and PIPA hit me over the head like a sledge hammer. SOPA which is an acronym for Stop Online Piracy Act is a bill that aims to crack down on copyright infringement by restricting access to sites that host or facilitate the trading of pirated content. Or so we think.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
One of the best books that I have read in my entire life that has not only challenged how I see myself as a black man, but it has also challenged the foundations of my thinking as it pertains to how I view my blackness. This should be required reading for every Black person living in America today. Every time I read Brother Malcolm's biography, I learn something new every time.
Monday, January 16, 2012
W.W.K.D. (What Would King Do?)
Would King idly sit by and allow the unlawful practices of drug trafficking, Gang related crime, and black youth deaths to destroy his community? Would king idly sit by and allow the children of his community to be poorly educated in a broken educational system where black youth are constantly failing to graduate? Would king idly sit by and watch the unlawful practices of an unfair justice system where black men are hauled into prisons like cattle being herded into a barn? Would King idly sit by and watch as eugenics clinics like Planned Parenthood are strategically put into black communities to destroy black babies in the womb? Would king idly sit by and decide to be inactive in a time where activism is most needed to drive progress in our communities? I think a resounding answer to these questions would be met with a swift and loud NO! So the last question remains. Why do we idly sit by and allow these things to happen? I guess some questions are just best left unanswered.
God Bless
Friday, January 13, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
What Happened to HipHop?
"What happened to hiphop" was an intrinsic question that I asked a group of friends as we furiously argued over the current state of hiphop and it's influence on the black community (especially black men in particular). After weeding through the lackluster album of Wale's "Ambition" and the incessant cackling of calling black folk cheap for not supporting "REAL" hiphop, no one really had a clear answer for hiphops demise. One friend said the current state of hiphop is only a "reflection of how society is at the moment", and another said " IT'S ALL CORPORATE!!!, BEWARE OF CORPORATE!!!". And my favorite one... " stupid American Consumers"! Despite laughing and bellyaching at the same time, I couldn't help but think that these guys were onto something with their responses even if they were at high pitched levels. But I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was lost in translation and I spent the rest of the day truly thinking about it. Honestly, I was still perplexed at the issue and because I couldn't figure out a sole reason why, it frustrated me to no end. I had become frustrated at the thought of a once proud genre that encouraged black activism, education, and progression being reduced to a "sodom and Gamorah" like celebration of black on black crime, disrespecting black women, and glorifying materialism all in the name of the "mighty dollar". And it hit me! There is not one but many reasons why hiphop went from "fighting the power" and "You must learn" to "Cash rules everything around me, dolla, dolla, dolla bills yall" and " I like my B-word's better red". I came to the conclusion that most if not all of the degradation of hiphop can be laid at the feet of the regression of black culture and it's propensity to create a movement, shape it, and leave it behind.
Brother Malcolm X once said "A race of people is like an individual man; until it uses its own talent, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture, affirms its own self-hood, it can never fulfill itself." It is no secret that Africans in America have endured the burdens of slavery, racism, and economic and social oppression at the hands of the dominant society for almost 400 years. Despite the obstacles thrown in our way, we have fought, died, and sung our way to the right to be free in a supposed free society paving the way and setting an example for other groups to follow. You would think that such a strong people who endured slavery, conceptualized and brought into existence the "back to Africa movement", Harlem Renaissance, and the Civil Right's movement and the invention of American music art forms such as Jazz, blues, rock, and gospel; would have a strong, solid, spiritual, and moral base from which progress would surely be made. But somewhere along the line, cultural wires got crossed as we saw a once rich heritage of freedom, spirituality, and innovation reduced to that of lasciviousness, materialism, individualism, and a loss of identity. Somewhere along the line black culture itself lost it soul and become "Souled out". The change can be seen taking place at the end of the 70's and the beginning of the 80's.
During the mid to late 70's and into the 80's, we recognize a major shift in black consciousness taking place as the culture of materialism and individualism began to take over. This paradigm shift coincided with the increasing poverty of blacks nationwide and with it an ever rising of black on black murder rates, and the advent of drugs such as crack. These sweeping forces had such a massive impact on the black community, that it's impact is still felt today (even by my generation). Born out of this beast of confusion was the hiphop generation. Artists such as Public Enemy, KRS-One, Kool and the Gang, Grandmaster flash and the furious five and many others sought to give blacks a voice in an ever changing world full of negativity. Songs such as Grandmasters Flash's "The Message", Public Enemy's "Fight the Power", and KRS-1's "You Must learn" served as a catalyst to induce social change and reform in the black community. For the first time since the civil right's movement, Africans in America had created another movement that caused a social firestorm in American society. But something about this movement was different.
Hiphop, once a vehicle for social and economic reform in the black community, became a form of entertainment from which endless rappers now were able to profit financially and move up in class standing because of it. As time grew on Corporate America saw profitability in it and with it hiphop became a global phenomenon. The vehicle that once drove social change for Africans in America now became a worldwide sensation and now blacks were forced to share it with the world and in doing so, hiphop went away from it's original message and with it the morals and values it once had. The positive influence it once had on the black community now has been seen as an adversary of black progress. Many say hiphop is dead, and many say hiphop is one life support. I simply say, hiphop is in purgatory where it is neither dead or alive but stuck in the middle waiting for someone or something to breathe new life into it again. Thanks for reading this and God bless and take care.
Brother Malcolm X once said "A race of people is like an individual man; until it uses its own talent, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture, affirms its own self-hood, it can never fulfill itself." It is no secret that Africans in America have endured the burdens of slavery, racism, and economic and social oppression at the hands of the dominant society for almost 400 years. Despite the obstacles thrown in our way, we have fought, died, and sung our way to the right to be free in a supposed free society paving the way and setting an example for other groups to follow. You would think that such a strong people who endured slavery, conceptualized and brought into existence the "back to Africa movement", Harlem Renaissance, and the Civil Right's movement and the invention of American music art forms such as Jazz, blues, rock, and gospel; would have a strong, solid, spiritual, and moral base from which progress would surely be made. But somewhere along the line, cultural wires got crossed as we saw a once rich heritage of freedom, spirituality, and innovation reduced to that of lasciviousness, materialism, individualism, and a loss of identity. Somewhere along the line black culture itself lost it soul and become "Souled out". The change can be seen taking place at the end of the 70's and the beginning of the 80's.
During the mid to late 70's and into the 80's, we recognize a major shift in black consciousness taking place as the culture of materialism and individualism began to take over. This paradigm shift coincided with the increasing poverty of blacks nationwide and with it an ever rising of black on black murder rates, and the advent of drugs such as crack. These sweeping forces had such a massive impact on the black community, that it's impact is still felt today (even by my generation). Born out of this beast of confusion was the hiphop generation. Artists such as Public Enemy, KRS-One, Kool and the Gang, Grandmaster flash and the furious five and many others sought to give blacks a voice in an ever changing world full of negativity. Songs such as Grandmasters Flash's "The Message", Public Enemy's "Fight the Power", and KRS-1's "You Must learn" served as a catalyst to induce social change and reform in the black community. For the first time since the civil right's movement, Africans in America had created another movement that caused a social firestorm in American society. But something about this movement was different.
Hiphop, once a vehicle for social and economic reform in the black community, became a form of entertainment from which endless rappers now were able to profit financially and move up in class standing because of it. As time grew on Corporate America saw profitability in it and with it hiphop became a global phenomenon. The vehicle that once drove social change for Africans in America now became a worldwide sensation and now blacks were forced to share it with the world and in doing so, hiphop went away from it's original message and with it the morals and values it once had. The positive influence it once had on the black community now has been seen as an adversary of black progress. Many say hiphop is dead, and many say hiphop is one life support. I simply say, hiphop is in purgatory where it is neither dead or alive but stuck in the middle waiting for someone or something to breathe new life into it again. Thanks for reading this and God bless and take care.
Black Men Among Most Disadvantaged, Least Helped in U.S.
Source: University of Chicago
Newswise — Among disadvantaged people in the United States, the most needy and least helped are probably African-American men, according to a new book from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration.
Black men suffer in a variety of ways, including being stereotyped as reckless and having little regard for their children. They are also disadvantaged because changes in the economy have depleted the number of well-paying, manual labor jobs, said Waldo E. Johnson Jr., Associate Professor at SSA, who is the editor of Social Work With African American Males: Health, Mental Health and Social Policy, recently published by Oxford University Press.
“Contemporary characterizations and depictions suggest that African-American males harbor a lifelong disregard for their own personal development, and a lack of commitment to their loved ones and society in general,” a societal attitude that keeps them from being helped, he said.
Most African-American men do not fit the popular stereotype and fulfill their responsibilities to their families and society, but the stereotype persists, fueled in some ways by media images, Johnson said. But the problems they face are real, and social workers should feel challenged to put the tools and resources of their profession at work to help black men in need, he said.
The book is a collection of studies, which details the disadvantages that black men face and suggests ways they can be helped. The contributors are leading scholars in social work and other related fields from around the country. Among the findings reported in the book:
• Black male youths are likely to grow up in single-parent homes. The boys often don’t have fathers residing in the home to serve as role models. Without paternal involvement, boys are more likely to develop ideas about what it means to be a man based on negative media portrayals and depictions, which leads them to be emotionally uninvolved and apprehensive.
• Black males, even as boys, are more likely than other male peers to suffer from stress-induced depression and other physical and mental health problems that may result in homicidal and suicidal behaviors as they mature. Their health problems continue throughout their lives with higher incidences of depression, high blood pressure, heart problems and prostrate cancer. African-American men have a life expectancy similar to that of men in developing countries.
• Black boys are more likely to experience difficulty in school and are less likely to graduate than any other group.
• African-American males' socioeconomic status contributes significantly to their likelihood of being arrested and spending time in prison.
• African-American males have longer periods of joblessness and lower salaries due to underemployment than men from other demographic groups.
Despite their problems, few programs are designed specifically to help black males, and social workers may not view them as part the families and communities that the workers serve, with the result that black males’ individual needs go unaddressed.
“It is critical to utilize both social work research and practice to articulate these and other challenges that adversely impact the physical, mental, and social health and well-being of African American males,” Johnson said.
In his book, Johnson proposes that effective programs need to replicated, such as well run after-school programs that promote educational achievement and provide sports and other outlets for boys. Social service providers need to open up programs for fathers as well.
There are also some public policy steps we can take, said Johnson, who calls them the “Plan for Success.” They include establishing an independent education and wellness plan for every African-American male born in this country, providing a school-to-work link that enhances opportunities for African-American men to work and finally, giving African-American men access to public housing.
“Many communities discourage single men from living in public housing, which signals negative value and worth as individuals and members of families who need places to live,” Johnson said. The plan can help men move forward and become fully participating members of society.
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