Get Money, Teach Kids, Add On

2007-09-12T15:52:00.000-07:00

The love of Hell...

Peace,

My intent today was to write a blog on the science of relationships between Man & Woman (Knowledge & Wisdom) and build about issues that we could use to better conditions in the Black family. However, a funny thing happened on the way to the parliment....

I started thinking about the hate crime incident this week in West Virginia & the Jena 6 (they seem unrelated however they couldn't be more connected) & came to this conclusion:

Black Folks Love Hell.

I know that's a pretty strong comment there, b.u.t. follow me; By loving hell, we also love to pounce on the hell that has been created & create more hell in the name of trying to get it "right", while not loving right enough to raise hell when things are wrong...

When the covers came off of the Vick debacle, we debated for days the impact of his lack of kindness to animals, his representation of young black men, the dysfunctional nature of 'Ghetto' culture, etc.. Nevermind that this was an isolated incident involving the gold medalist of the SNP; this was painted as a pivotal point in the sociology of Black men. Due to the silent class war in our community, many black people roiled against the prevalence of 'Nigga Culture' that would cause Vick to do such a thing (Meanwhile, no one complains when the 2 million Indians (so-called Latinos) have cockfights like they're going out of style).

Fast Forward...

News of the W. Va. Hate crime comes out & you barely hear a peep from the "Good & Respectable" Black folks. The woman was raped repeatedly, forced to eat dog & rat feces as well as drink from a toilet, all the while being told that this was happening to her because she was a Nigger. Where is Al Sharpton? Jesse? John Mcwhorter? Cosby? Waldo?

We have the case of the Jena 6, which clearly indicates that racism & discrimination is alive & well in America & it gets less than 1/10th of the attention of Imus (Remember him?). Where's the uproar? The radio & television shows? The righteous indignation?

My point is that racism & white domination have become to prevalent & normal that we are now the gatekeepers of the gates of hell for our people. Don't confuse the class war with Martin Luther Kings' fight for moral uprightness; this is negroes fighting to show their sponsors that they're not afraid to crack the whip on the 'bad' niggas when needed. When it comes to the current climate in the society, everything's tilting slightly to the right & it's going to spell hell for poor black folks without community love. Don't allow the talk about personal responsibility to obscure the reality of structural racism & discrimination in America.

2007-08-30T09:16:00.000-07:00

How Much Money Buys Change?

Peace,

1987. KRS-1. Crack. Triple Fat Goose Jackets. Mickey Mouse Shirts. The Black community was in the throes of a battle which would have drastic unforeseen consequences as far as quality of life issues; To me it was the best time ever...

In Philadelphia, there was a stigma attached to you based upon what school you went to (It would be years later that I found out why the stigma was oh so real). Certain schools had well-deserved reputation for being dens of "hell" as far as dysfunctional behavior was concerned; the type of school where girls having sex at the age of 10 was fairly common. One of the schools with this reputation was Belmont, a school in the "Black Bottom" section of West Philadelphia, so named because the neighborhood was the only place where Black people could live in West Philly during the early 1900's. On June 19, 1987, Philanthropist George Weiss & his wife offered the 6th grade graduating class of 112 free college educations along with a full-time staff to tutor & set up summer programs that would assist the youth in getting through High School. Now, in many circles, this kind of offer would show that if poor black children were given the same opportunities that others were afforded in this country, a sea change would emerge.

What were the results you ask...

of the 112:

- 65 earned high school diplomas

- 34 dropped out

- 8 died (7 violently)

Now of the 65 that graduated:

- 26 didn't go any further

- 20 earned bachelor degrees

- 10 earned associate degrees

- 14 earned a vocational certificate

In addition, 30 of the 112 became teen mothers...

Why am I taking up your time to add-on about this? To ask the simple question:

What are we going to do once we realize that all of the money in the world won't change our situation?

The tab for the program was approx. $5 million dollars... 5 mil to produce 20 bachelor degrees? Now to be fair, some of those who succeeded may not have if not for the program & many were victims of poor education before they were adopted into this program. My larger point is that we have to change the mental conditions that our youth live in before they'll be interested to change their physical conditions. Many mistakenly spout that "Knowledge is Power" when in reality, Culture sets the stage for powerful change. Without Culture, you're just pissing in the wind & throwing money away (On a side note, much of what we think is knowledge is actually data or information that cannot truly serve as a base for activity). Those that created these environments are fully aware that money in & of itself can do very little to remedy these worlds; that's why they keep giving money to programs so that they can absolve themselves of any blame for our conditions; call it reparations 140 years late...

We have to be strategic and focused with the blueprint for ressurecting our families & neighborhoods, and it won't be with money only; it will be based on a thorough analysis & best practices that can produce a sea change from Washington to Watts. If not, don't be mad at me when you go for a grant, get the grant & find out that a fool & his/her money are soon parted...

2007-08-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

You define your Universe...

Peace,

I acknowledge that I've been on extreme lunch mode as far as blogging, b.u.t. it's better to be unseen & productive than all over the internet & broke/unproductive. Progress talks & bull$h!t runs the marathon...

Today's degree in the Supreme Alphabet is You/Universe. One understanding of the relationship between You & Universe is the ideas & values that you project have a direct correlation on the environment around you. Simply put, if your Universe is filled w/ confusion & unproductivity, it would stand to reason that you have to evaluate what you're holding onto & in. The lack of understanding of these value often leads to solely blaming external elements for your lack of happiness vs. first evaluating how all things relate to self (This is not to say that there aren't situations where external agents are the sole cause of destruction; only to check your intentions & determined ideas first)

Now, to some things going on around the Universe...

- Gold Medalist in the Stupid Nigga Playoffs: Mike Vick! What the hell was he thinking? First of all, I am here to stop all crime... That being said, How do you go into criminal activity with a number of gentlemen & everybody fold? He should've took a page from the Barry Bonds book & got with some stand-up men who could handle the time! Pick stronger dudes next time, homeboy!*

Second of all, why would he be involved personally in the activity? Common sense would tell you that you have alot more to lose than everybody else... When keeping it real goes extremely wrong...

- All this talk about the quality of "character" in the NFL is garbage... It's football, not teaching... The quality of character has gone down in every sector of society (See Abu Ghraib). The bottom line is sports is entertainment, not something that really matters

- The basis of Culture is awareness & consistency and many of us are in need of both... When you make the conscious decision to compromise your value system for comfort or acceptance, just realize that it's you who falls short...

- Religious behavior& Zeal two different things; it's paramount that you be able to distinguish between them

- Karl Rove is the most interesting political story in the last 50 years. He single-handedly transformed the landscape of electoral politics... Too bad he left Bush to play while Rome burns...

- The best democratic candidates have no chance of winning...

- The Simpsons Movie was a scathing critique of government & big business wrapped in a foolish cartoon. If you knew what you were looking for, you saw what you needed to see

- Since August 1, I've been on a Vegan + diet (Meaning Vegan + certain fish; I like fish) I'm feeling great & it shows that all healthy eaters are not weird. In many ways, food is the final frontier when it comes to self & community transformation; You'll have people who are incedibly progressive in all other ways, b.u.t. are still feeding the major corporations by being hooked on Flamin' Hot Cheetos & Big Macs

- I acknowledge that I need to use technology better than I currently do (Beyond Myspace, Facebook & Email); And I don't mean chirping on a Nextel either; those are just toys for the old generation

- Progressives & Community Activists need money

2007-07-02T16:22:00.000-07:00

(Not So) Quick Notes

Peace,

As most of you who read my blog know, I've been on extreme lunch mode regarding posting regularly. The delay wasn't due to a lack of things to build about; rather a lack of time & a renewed appreciation for the fact that beautiful actions are far more effective than beautiful words. It's all Wisdom (which is today's Supreme Mathematics), b.u.t. certain things are needed at certain times & the realization of that is an aspect of Wisdom as well. Here are some reflections from the past couple of weeks:

- Black people love to hear other black people talk; They even love it more than watching black people build tangible things

- The Black man is the maker & owner of his destiny, b.u.t. that doesn't mean that you can change the fundamental nature of a thing; If it looks weak, smells weak & sounds weak, then it isn't strong. The failure to understand this fact will keep you out of step with the cycle of life

- Charm School is Dumb... There, I said it. The show makes Flavor of Love look like Tony Brown's Journal

- For most rappers these days, Myspace is their replacement for actual marketing & promotion. In a sense, that's cool so I don't have to see their flyers all over walls in the hood

- Ay Bay Bay

- Progressive & "Conscious" black folks would do a lot better if they didn't dress so damn weird. Just because your colors match doesn't mean that you don't look like a hippie

- Evidence that the West Coast is years ahead of the rest of country as far as certain aspects re: quality of life issues - Last week, the New York Times reported that Oakland schools are having youth practice 'mindfulness' in class as a relaxation technique for increased learning. Now if they could only move the brother & sisters in Hunter's Point away from a toxic shipyard

- Two weeks ago, the AP reported that health officials are seeing 'Superbugs' emerge amongst the urban poor that threaten to infect tens of thousands; Next time you feel flu-like symptoms, don't charge it to the game

- Why are people so addicted to ringtones? Please turn that down!

- Supreme Mathematics is results-based, meaning if you're not producing anything, it doesn't work... You know who you are

- When's the last time you heard about Mullah Omar? They haven't found him yet, meaning he's probably siiting in one of those cities underground (& not in Afghanistan either)

- Sicko is the best movie of the year, hands down

- Next post: Knowledge or Culture (and no it's not Culture/Freedom)

- Post after that: Long Hair, Don' Care

2007-05-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

Pathways

Peace,

Say what you will about American Turbo-Capitalism; it sure creates jobs for people in certain arenas. Let's look at solving the colossal problem of the Black underclass; there are no shortage of "experts" who spend an inordinate amount of money & time discussing and writing papers on ways to stem the tide of poverty in urban & rural Black areas. The problem is that the poverty rate has increased in many areas, even as the economy has improved in other areas. After taking some time to ponder the issue, one word stands out:

Pathways.

Pathways?

Pathways.

Most people who read my blog are aware of the breakdown in many Black communities in the post-industrial & technological age, so I don't have to go too far back to bring anyone back up to speed... But ask yourself this: Was your grandfather white-collar or blue collar? What about his peers? Due to the economic & political climate of the times, Black men were able to provide for their families with a limited level of(organized)education. Even in time of explicit societal racism & discrimination, Black men were able to be the foundation for their communities.

Fast forward to 2007: There's a 17 year-old black male raised in a single parent home in Anyhoodville, USA. Due to institutional racism, he's attended sub par schools & never got the academic assistance that he needed in order to excel. He's not a good athlete & can't rap; Because of budget cutbacks, there are no vocational programs in his school. Last b.u.t. not least he's starry-eyed & money hungry due to Nigga Imperialism (most of contemporary hip-hop). Here are his choices:

A) ITT Tech
B) Work as a security guard
C) Clean up offices at night
D) A package

Unfortunately, in this scenario, too many of our youth pick a package over the other options. While the choice is a foolish one, the larger issue is the dearth of choices available to him. A young White male in a similar situation? Hell, he can always go to community college for two years & become a cop; better yet, he can start working for a landscaping company or go into the building trades through a family friend. Option 1 isn't culturally attractive to the Black kid due to police brutality and the erroneous perception that only White people should be cops, which continues the vicious cycle of brutality due to the police in your community acting as occupiers versus stakeholders. Option 2 is largely unavailable to the Black kid due to the lock-out of Blacks in the construction industry. Even a black female can change the economic fortune of her family in one generation by going to nursing school due to the lack of nurses in this country.

My point is that we must do a better job of creating more viable pathways for young Black men before they become involved in "the life". Now this is the part where most people insert "We need JOBS JOBS JOBS!", but that's not necessarily going to solve the problem (See our last period of full employment). What we need to develop are jobs/industries that create other jobs by virtue of what they do. Microloans have done wonders for the Indian subcontinent & Indonesia (See Muhammad Yunus & the Grameen Bank), b.u.t. we do nothing with it in this country for those who need it most. While I acknowledge that repayment could be an issue, the impetus to pay back your loans is a learned behavior, not an innate one. (Besides, if that was the case, nobody would get a student loan). If we were to help young Black men open convienence stores (an obvious need due to the lack of supermarkets, b.u.t. that's another story), it would help create jobs as well as increase community investment form the youth.

Another option is to get Black youth more access to the inner workings of industries that they support, like sports & entertainment. There needs to be a track for youth who want to be booking agents, tour support, lighting directors, etc.. so that they can tap into the billions of dollars that are spent through the music that they support. Through mentor ship & apprenticeship programs, they could get on the job training & real-life work experience. Sound crazy? Well, our current condition looks alot crazier...

2007-05-10T15:06:00.000-07:00

Situation-sensitive or Simply Sorry?

Peace,

A couple of years back, I was building with a brother of mine named Born Understanding who was living in Power Born (Pittsburgh) at that time regarding the best way to communicate to the youth, & the God made a statement that sticks with me to this day: "If a kid's in the middle of the street & a car is coming, I don't say (In a soft voice)'Please get out of the street', I'm going to yell 'Get the f#ck out of the street!'"

I was reminded of this statement while reading an article on Ben Chavis (no, not that one). Chavis is Principal of American Indian High School in Oakland, & is credited with overseeing one of the most amazing school transformations in California history. His schools, which before his arrival were among the worst in Oakland, now consistently produce high scoring & highly competent students, often from the most poverty stricken area in Oakland. He is hailed as a leader in educating disenfranchised youth. The stuff after-school specials are made of, you say; What's the big deal, You ask?

Well, do the knowledge to the following:

- He curses like a drunken sailor at the students

- He's an avid opponent of bilingualism

- His school have no computers or art classes

- He loves No Child Left Behind

- Children who disobey school rules receive public humiliation

- Children who do well recieve money for grades

In short, 180 degrees from the accepted positions of many educators. Chavis & his mentee Jorge Lopez who runs Oakland Charter Academy have many teachers & school officials up in arms over their methods. Now to be sure they run charter schools, which gives them much more latitude than your average principal, b.u.t. their success begs the question: Are schools trying to do so much half-ass that they're not doing anything particulary well? I acknowledge that there's a tradeoff in everything, b.u.t. do we want bilingual, socially aware Black & Brown babies who pass with C averages, esp. ones that are running 5 laps behind from the jump? Computer skills are of utmost importance, b.u.t if the kids are working on powerpoint presentations & typing games all day, is that the best use of the time their in school? It echoes the debate of politically correct vs. mathematically direct; that is the choice between doing things as they "should" be done vs. doing things that may be able to stem the tide of rising poverty & disenfranchisement in our communities. Additionally, I not saying that other methods don't work; only that we may have to use more than one method to create a situation that has all of our children being healthy & productive members of society.

The other point it brings up is the utility of school in developing self-knowledge & self-image without outside assistance... There's a 98% black school in this area that has African American History classes & most of the youth don't pick up a damn thing... While a good portion of that is due to the ability of the teacher to imapart concepts, it's also important to realize that without learning orientation (which allows you to receive Knowledge), data & information can go in one ear & out the other. As a community, we have to do a better job of assisting the schools so that they can properly prepare students to exist in a rapidly changing, complex society. I don't want a kid to know who Imhotep is, b.u.t. can't fill out a resume. Below is a article from the East Bay Express about Lopez's school. Check it out & let me know what you think!

Early one Wednesday in mid-October, a hulking man roamed the halls of Oakland Charter Academy, his many and varied tattoos hidden under a dark suit and tie. Jorge Lopez, the school's 35-year-old principal, was looking for trouble. He stepped into a classroom of 24 eighth graders, all wearing the standard white tops with khaki pants, all sitting silently at their desks in neat rows, all apparently under the spell of the prim Chinese-born woman standing before them, explaining an algebraic equation. No one looked up when Lopez entered, nor a few moments later when he left.

Just outside the classroom, Lopez removed from the wall a piece of paper with a large "6" painted on it. He replaced it with another, this one bearing a "5," to update the following reminder: "Days Left Until The State Test: 195."

Lopez, who took over the school three summers ago, ruthlessly eliminating its entire staff and remaking the place in his own image, looked almost embarrassed as he and a visitor stood beneath the sign in silence. "I'll be honest," he admitted, "there's nothing to do sometimes." He gestured down the empty hallway. "I mean, look at us."

It was not always this way. OCA, the city's first charter school when it opened in the fall of 1993, was created largely out of a desire by neighborhood parents — overwhelmingly poor immigrants from Mexico — for a safe and welcoming middle school for their kids. Embracing Latino heritage and bilingualism, and relying heavily on parent volunteers, the school quickly became a pillar of the neighborhood. Still, its test scores consistently ranked among the worst in the state. Although scores had risen substantially in the three years before Lopez took over, only one in ten students tested proficient in either English or math in March 2004. By many accounts, the school lacked effective discipline and order, and many teachers opted not to use textbooks in their classrooms. To Nena Pulido, an OCA eighth grader when the new principal arrived, life there before Lopez "was just like a party."

The young administrator came to OCA with a simple mission: to make it a great school. His formula was similarly straightforward. Lopez believed he could produce high test scores and ambitious, college-bound students by emphasizing mandatory attendance with more classroom hours; zero tolerance for bad behavior; a homework-laden curriculum stripped of cultural, linguistic, or artistic coursework; and inspirational or menacing speeches as necessary. "I run this school with a hard hand," he explained recently. "I don't take a lot of shit from parents. I don't take shit from kids. I don't take shit from teachers. My focus is the kids. I want them to leave. I do not want them in Oakland. If they do come back to Oakland, I want them not to live where they're living."

In a city whose thirty charter schools fare on average little better than the severely underperforming district schools they are meant to complement and compete against, OCA is an anomaly. Under Lopez, its test scores have improved more than those at any other school in the city. It is now Oakland's number two middle school by the Academic Performance Index, California's way of rating schools based on student test scores. This past March, nearly two-thirds of the school's kids tested proficient in both English and math. That is roughly twice the district average, and an increase of more than 600 percent in two years. "Where have multiculturalism, bilingualism, and parent involvement taken us in the ghetto?" Lopez queried, referring to the previous administration's core values, ideals widely held in the education establishment. "What I do produces results."

Back in the hallways, where it seemed nothing could break the spell of silence, Lopez spotted a mark: a young, slight boy walking toward him, his straight-ahead stare betraying a deep desire to get past this scary, powerful man without drawing his attention.

No dice.

"Are you being loud in class?" asked Lopez, acting on a day-old tip from the boy's sixth-grade teacher. He had managed in an instant to move to the middle of the hallway, blocking young Jose's way. It was unnecessary. Jose was clearly too terrified to do anything but try his best to weather the storm.

"No," Jose stammered, looking fixedly at the middle of Lopez' tie.

"Are you talking out of turn?" Lopez persisted in an even, menacing tone.

"No," Jose said nervously, still staring straight ahead.

"Look up," Lopez ordered. "Tell me you're not talking out of turn."

Jose looked into the narrowed brown eyes of the man towering over him.

"Sometimes," he managed.

"So when you look at me, all the sudden that's the trigger to tell the truth?" the principal asked. "What do you think I'm going to tell you? How should you act in class?"

"Raise my hand?" Jose offered hopefully.

"Keeping that mouth shut," Lopez agreed. He bent down and leaned toward the pupil's ear. "Where'd you go to school at before?" he whispered to the sixth grader.

"Jefferson," Jose said, confused by the sudden turn in the conversation.

"This ain't Jefferson," Lopez replied. "Don't do that shit here. Do you understand me?"

Having made himself clear, Lopez let Jose pass. The boy walked to his classroom, looking as if it were all he could do to keep from running.

"A brilliant kid," Lopez said after Jose was out of view, whispering so as not to disturb the quiet that once again surrounded him. "He just gets bored sometimes."

Jorge Lopez' desire to get his students out of Oakland is rooted in personal experience. Born in 1971, the second of three children to Mexican parents who'd had enough of picking lettuce in the Imperial Valley, he attended public schools in his hometown of Richmond, where he struggled from the start.

"They'd sit me in a circle and say, 'What is your problem today, Jorge? Let's talk about those feelings,'" he recalls bitterly of his days at Belding Elementary and Downer Junior High. "I sat in more circles than any Native American in the history of Indians."

Without a firm hand to guide him, Lopez says, he developed into "a straight-F student" who repeated seventh grade before being sent straight to Richmond High in order to remain with his peers. "Richmond schools are — it's like Oakland — they're not meant to educate. They're meant to just house you," he says.

Although he struggled in school, Lopez excelled as a street entrepreneur. By twelve, he was a veteran brawler and an emerging drug dealer. "It all started everybody hustling joints here and there and it developed into something big," he says. Soon, he was selling powder cocaine, speed, and whatever else interested people in early-'80s, pre-crack Richmond.

There was one line Lopez never crossed: "I was never a gang member," he says. "I was always a hustler. I always sold anything anybody needed. I figured if I joined a gang it cut off half my supply." This did not mean he was unaffiliated. When he flunked out of Richmond High in tenth grade, he was transferred to a continuation school. On his first day, a student welcomed him by pulling out a gun and pistol-whipping him. "It was a neighborhood thing," says Lopez, who lived in a Norteño part of town. He did not return to the school.

Instead, at sixteen, he began helping his mother with her job cleaning houses. After three months of this, an elderly client in the Berkeley Hills, disgusted to learn that he had dropped out, enrolled him at Berkeley High using her address.

With the new surroundings came new opportunities, and not just of the educational variety. "There is nothing like some rich white people," Lopez says. "They will buy all the drugs. And I came from Richmond with all the connections." He quickly mastered the first rule of commerce: Buy low, sell high. "I made tons of money at Berkeley," he recalls. "I had the biggest weed sacks all over Berkeley High School. I was known for it."

Nevertheless, he managed to graduate, he says, by staying at the back of the class and keeping quiet. "This was in the days before No Child Left Behind," he explains.

Shortly after he finished high school, Lopez got involved in a fight in San Francisco, in which he severely beat a man with a tire iron. It was the latest in a string of violent run-ins. Because he was seventeen, he got probation instead of prison.

His brother, Eddie, had seen enough. A star football player who had just been admitted to Chico State on a scholarship, Eddie asked Jorge to join him for a ride one August afternoon. Not until they passed Vallejo did Jorge realize he'd been had. There was a duffel bag of his clothing in the trunk, and like it or not, he was moving to Chico with his brother.

"For the first week I was in withdrawal," he says, recalling the expanse of orchards and open space. "I hated it." Soon, though, "Something clicked. Something told me, 'Use this.'" Lopez stopped drinking and smoking and began running several miles a day. He also signed up for classes at Butte College. "I was a young kid pulled out of Richmond and it did wonders for me," he says. "It was like a cleansing. And it just showed me that your environment is what really fucks you."

Out on Oakland Charter Academy's sun-drenched concrete schoolyard one recent afternoon, a group of boys made the most of their twenty-minute lunch with an energetic, raucous game of six-on-seven basketball. Nearby, most of the 150-strong student body sat at rows of tables beneath plastic tarps, eating homemade sandwiches of ham and cheese or peanut butter and jelly. Even if the school had a cafeteria, Lopez says, he would not offer the free or reduced-price lunches for which 87 percent of his students qualify based on family income. "There's a misperception that there isn't enough food," he says. "That's bullshit. The biggest problem is obesity."

Over by the basketball game was Alvaro, a big-boned eighth grader with short brown hair, wearing an oversize white polo shirt over his khakis. Lopez, who had stepped into the yard to survey the scene, approached Alvaro and introduced him to a visitor. "Tell about how you had to write the letter," Lopez asked. Alvaro hung his head in silence. "C'mon, tell the story," the principal persisted. Head still bowed, Alvaro gave a subdued account of one of the most humiliating moments of his young life.

One morning in late September, the boy explained, he got it in his head to steal a computer from his teacher. It was an old Apple laptop that sat in the back of the classroom, largely unused. Alvaro's friend Antonio was there when he took it, and Alvaro swore him to secrecy. Antonio, in an impressive display of disloyalty, went straight to Lopez to rat out his friend.

The next day, Lopez came into Alvaro's class to deliver a speech about how stealing from family is the worst thing you can do in this world. Here Lopez filled in the details where the boy's account grew vague. "All the kids were looking up at me, confused," he recalled. "Except Alvaro. He was hanging his head. That's how I knew he did it." Lopez made Alvaro stand up. "Tell the class you're a thief," he instructed him. He then sent Alvaro to every other class in the school to repeat his announcement.

Then came the really embarrassing part. "I was just thinking of different ways I could humiliate him," Lopez recalls. He wrote Alvaro a letter calling him "an idiot and a thief." In a rare nod to bilingual education, Lopez had Alvaro present the letter in Spanish to his family and friends, and collect signatures of those who had read it, including his grandmother, whom he visited that weekend in Los Angeles. "I told him to get twenty signatures," Lopez boasted. "He came back with 32."

When Alvaro's teacher stuck the returned computer out of sight in a storage locker, Lopez ordered that it be returned to its old highly visible spot at the back of the classroom. "It's like, I fucking dare you," he explained.

The principal's office at Oakland Charter Academy, which doubles as the teachers' lounge, sits just off the school's main entrance. It is clean and spare. One of the few decorative touches is a framed photograph Lopez keeps of himself with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a self-professed admirer of the school. Most of the room is filled by a long, rectangular table with a chipped wood veneer, where Lopez, his hair slicked back and his goatee neatly trimmed, sat recently to recount the unlikely story of how he came to run this school.

It began in 2000, he explained, with his fall from grace at the Dolores Huerta Learning Academy, a charter school just a few blocks away. Lopez had been promoted from teacher to principal of the newly established and highly dysfunctional school when he was only 28, partway into its second year of existence. As he sees it, a grandstanding parent advocate on the school's board, eager to further her own political ambitions and fearful of his potential, preyed on his inexperience and forced him out before he could turn the school around. Lillian Lopez, the agitator in question, and no relation to Jorge, recalls it differently. She says she simply felt the school needed a more experienced leader. In any case, he left Huerta after just a few months as principal, with a bruised ego and an abiding distrust of school boards and meddlesome parents. He moved his family to Sacramento, where he earned a master's degree in education administration and worked for an education nonprofit.

One day in the spring of 2004, his phone rang. The caller was Ben Chavis, the controversial, tough-love principal of American Indian Public Charter School. Chavis took over American Indian when it was on the brink of closure due to poor test scores and promptly turned it into Oakland's highest-performing middle school. He had mentored Lopez while the younger man was at Huerta and later took him on as an intern while Lopez worked toward his master's degree. "I hear that OCA is looking for a principal," Chavis told his acolyte, wasting little time. "You should follow up with that."

"I'm all right," Lopez replied. He and his wife, herself a schoolteacher, were settled happily in Sacramento. Their young son, Maceo, had made friends, and they were looking to buy a house.

"Motherfucker, you're scared of Oakland," Chavis goaded.

"Fuck you," Lopez snapped back. "I ain't scared of nobody."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Who do I call?" Lopez asked.

A week before his job interview, Lopez drove from Sacramento to Oakland for some unannounced reconnaissance. He arrived during the school's lunch period, then 45 minutes, and passed unnoticed through the open front gate and into the schoolyard. Kids there were "running around like fools," he says, and he saw two leave unsupervised through the back gate. Upon further inspection, he saw that the school's computer lab, which he later converted into his office, was full of trash. There were about a dozen TVs with no cords, five broken copy machines, and several gallons of hot pink paint, some or all of which had been donated by parents. Assessing OCA, he grew excited. "It was the biggest crock of shit I had ever seen in my life," he says. Taking it over, he figured, would be his chance to transform it into the sort of school he should have gone to as a kid.

A week later, before a panel of OCA board members, Lopez laid on the charm. "You have a great school here," he recalls telling them. "And I want to continue the growth." Among those interviewing Lopez was Fernanda Gonzalez, a Cal graduate student in education and a backer of the school's Spanish-language and Latino-culture-infused curriculum. Lopez came across as passionate about his work, Gonzalez recalls, and as someone who knew from his own life experiences what the kids at OCA were up against. "It seemed like more than a job to him," she says.

Lopez saw the interview differently. "One thing I know about boards is they're dumber than shit," he says. "I went in and told them everything they wanted to hear."

It is hard to imagine anyone more different in temperament and leadership style from Lopez than the man he was hired to succeed at Oakland Charter Academy. Soft-spoken and unassuming, the bespectacled, salt-and-pepper-haired Francisco Gutierrez was easygoing and comfortable delegating authority. Four of his nine teachers comprised a "leadership team," tasked with overseeing the school's curriculum as well as its discipline. He also gave teachers considerable autonomy in the classroom. Former OCA math and science teacher Mirella Rangel recalls the arrangement fondly. "We were proud to teach kids to be bilingual and to have them appreciate their culture," she says. Gutierrez, she adds, "was really supportive of us."

After agreeing to work alongside Gutierrez for his first few weeks to ease the transition, Lopez formed a different view. "The teachers taught what they wanted to teach," he says. "And Mr. Francisco Gutierrez sat in his office and let it all happen. Like the sorry leader that he was." (Responds Gutierrez: "He is someone who feels entitled to say negative things about a person. I'm not interested in playing that game.")

Once aboard, Lopez quickly set about making Gutierrez's life miserable, insulting and demeaning him repeatedly and making a mockery of his staff meetings. Within a couple of weeks, Gutierrez was gone, vowing, he says, to "never, ever, ever again" agree to such a power-sharing arrangement. Next to go was the school's secretary, whom Lopez caught sympathizing with parents upset over the last-minute addition of a mandatory summer school for incoming sixth graders. Then, at the school board meeting in late June, Lopez employed a tactic he had learned from a book recommended by Chavis. The book: Sun Tzu's The Art of War, a copy of which Lopez still keeps in his office. The tactic: to obscure his primary objectives.

At the meeting, Lopez cited a looming fiscal crisis due to sloppy bookkeeping, and called for a 15 percent reduction in the school's budget. To cut costs, he proposed reducing teaching staff by switching to "self-contained" classrooms, where students stay in the same room with one teacher throughout the day. The board went along, unwittingly paving the way for Lopez to end the school's long tradition of teaching Spanish. In addition, since only one teacher had the necessary credentials to teach a self-contained class, Lopez was able to force the others out. Within weeks, the new principal had curtailed parent involvement and gotten rid of volunteering and planning committees, which were school fixtures. It was no less than a coup d'état. "It became no longer a community-oriented school," says Estella Navarro, an OCA cofounder, parent, and board member bitterly opposed to Lopez' changes. "It became his school."

The counterinsurgency was launched at the following month's board meeting, which Lopez had been told would be a "getting to know you" family affair. His baby daughter bobbing on his knee, Lopez watched as a group of students delivered a letter accusing him of firing their teachers unjustly, listened while parents railed against him for menacing their kids and taking away their soccer-playing privileges during the summer school then in session, and seethed as parents and teachers called for his ouster. "It was a three-ring circus," Lopez recalls. He accuses a former teacher of fomenting parent anger toward a last-ditch effort to get rid of him, but the teacher, David Barker, denies this. "The parents did that on their own," he says. "After the parents stood up [at that meeting] and told him they didn't want him there, he changed his behavior very quickly."

After a subsequent board investigation cleared him of any wrongdoing, Lopez determined to quell any lingering doubts. "Give me a year to show academic progress," he said at the final board meeting before the new school year. "If I don't," he promised, "I will resign and pay back my salary in full."

Barely a week into that fall's classes, Sarah Tin, one of Lopez' two new eighth-grade teachers, came into his office with some bad news. "None of them did their homework," she reported. Tin was in her early twenties and fresh out of college. In defiance of the outgoing board president, who wanted a Latino staff, Lopez had hired his new teachers off Craigslist, with no requirement for previous teaching experience, and with salaries starting at $40,000 — about $3,000 more than the district's starting pay.

As the principal feared, the eighth graders, ingrained with the old administration's ways, were proving the most difficult to change. Tin was having trouble with kids skipping class, not paying attention, and now, in an act of open mutiny, colluding to ignore a homework assignment. "It was the last straw," Lopez recalls.

He walked the short distance to Tin's classroom, where students sat at the individual desks Lopez had brought in over the summer after discarding the large round tables previously used in all OCA classrooms. "You guys are no longer students!" Lopez thundered as he walked in, shoving the books on one boy's desk to the floor. Three girls sitting to one side of the room raised their hands, hoping to get in a word. Lopez preempted them. "I said shut the fuck up," he hollered. "I do not want to hear shit from any of you."

He sent the three girls outside with rags to wash the school's walls. "Put your books on the floor," he told the rest of the class. After ordering Tin to collect their newly purchased textbooks, he took some of the boys out into the hallway and gave them brooms to sweep the floor in full view of other classrooms. Such hard-nosed tactics, Lopez acknowledges, would not work in an affluent school. "In the hills, they'd fire my ass in a second," he concedes. But the day after his tirade, Lopez was pleased to learn that almost all of Tin's students had done their homework.

Fast-forward two years. At the end of a recent school day, Lopez slipped into teacher Rebecca Anderson's sixth-grade class and stood to the side as she explained the homework assignment, an essay on a story they had read in class. Anderson, a young white woman with soft features and glasses, pointed to the whiteboard behind her with the words plot, setting, and character written in descending order.

"All of these things go back to what?" she asked. A half-dozen hands shot up.

"The story?" one dark-haired girl said enthusiastically.

"Okay," Anderson said. "Or the what? Jose?" It was the young student from the hallway.

"The thesis?" he offered timidly.

"Right," Anderson said. "If you don't have supporting details, it's a bad choice for a thesis. And if you don't remember how, your language arts book shows you exactly how to do it."

Her students nodded and took notes. Every last one of them was either paying close attention or doing an extremely good job of faking it. Lopez looked on in near awe. "If I had had this kind of school as a kid, I'd be a whole different person," he whispered. "I didn't learn that until I got to Berkeley High."

A few moments later, when Anderson had finished with her lesson, Lopez addressed the class. "You guys, I am very proud of you," he began. "You are alert, raising your hands. When I came in here, you didn't even look up." He produced a fat wad of dollar bills. "How many of you guys did your homework this weekend?" Arms shot up in a frenzy. Lopez went from student to student, pressing four dollars into the hands of all but the few who had not finished their weekend assignments. "This is an investment," he said as he made his way slowly around the room. "I expect hard work."

Jorge Lopez' mission has been accomplished. The teachers follow his lead, the students spend an average of two hours each night on homework, and neither the parents nor the school's board, which has turned over completely since he took the job, tries to tell him what to do. In the meantime, Oakland Charter Academy has joined American Indian Public Charter School as Oakland's second middle school to meet state standards for overall student performance. Under Lopez, OCA now ranks in the top 10 percent of schools with a similar socioeconomic makeup statewide, and in the top 30 percent overall. Last summer, Lopez sent 31 students to gifted-and-talented programs at Johns Hopkins, Stanford, and Cal, something unheard of at OCA before his arrival.

To all appearances, these achievements are real. Anticipating his critics, Lopez insists that he has never forced out students who lag behind or act up. Of the 57 students who entered sixth grade at OCA in the fall of 2004 — all of whom were admitted before Lopez arrived — 47 remain. According to data that Lopez provided, nine of the ten who left moved out of the area and one left without explanation. Five were held back a grade. None have been kicked out, Lopez says. In March 2005, after less than one school year under Lopez, 33 percent of those students tested proficient in math, and 35 percent tested proficient in English, according to state figures. By the following spring, 66 percent of the school's seventh graders were proficient in math, 68 percent in English.

Liane Zimny, who monitors charter schools for the district, sees no indication that Lopez has tried to manipulate test scores by pursuing promising students while discouraging struggling ones to apply. "It takes a person of high ethics not to be tempted into playing a numbers game," she says.

Perhaps most compelling is the praise heaped on Lopez by his former students. With the textbooks Lopez introduced in her eighth-grade year, says Karely Ordaz, a self-professed history buff, "It made sense how stuff happened. Like the American Revolution. I mean, I already knew they won, but now I know that they came first, and they set up colonies, and they got bigger. And they didn't like being with Britain, so they overthrew it."

Ordaz, neither of whose parents speak English, had no educational goals to speak of before she met Lopez. "I didn't even think I was going to finish high school, to tell you the truth," she says. "I was tired of school already. And I was in seventh grade." Lopez's demands, and her ability to respond to them, Ordaz says, "made me want to go to college and move on and be somebody and make money."

Ordaz is now a tenth grader at the newly established American Indian Public Charter High School, to which Lopez encourages his graduating eighth graders to apply. Her appreciation for Lopez is echoed by several fellow OCA alums now at American Indian High. Among them is Christhian Cortez, who was a problem student when Lopez took over at OCA. The wispy fifteen-year-old, who entertains dreams of hip-hop stardom, shudders to think what would have happened had the new principal not arrived when he was an eighth grader. "Probably right now I'd be in a screw-up school that wouldn't teach me nothing," he says. "And I'd be all screwed up." Like Ordaz, Cortez plans to attend college, and he has Lopez' promise for help with tuition should he need it.

What these students didn't get from Lopez was a curriculum that included Spanish classes and an emphasis on Latino culture. Although the school has admitted more blacks and Asians since Lopez took over — in accordance with plans to diversify its student body drawn up shortly before Lopez' arrival — OCA's students are still overwhelmingly children of non-English-speaking immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala. And while Lopez acknowledges that teaching kids to be proficient in Spanish is a worthy goal, it is not, he says, a primary responsibility of his school.

Fernanda Gonzalez, a former board member and supporter of cultural and Spanish education, laments this omission. "I think you can do both," she says of combining a rigorous back-to-basics curriculum and a focus on Spanish and Latino culture. Gonzalez also questions Lopez's bullying leadership style, which she likens to that of "a king." She quit the board in late 2004 amid frustrations that Lopez did not consult it before firing a struggling teacher he had recently hired.

Yet despite Gonzalez' pedagogical and managerial disagreements with Lopez, she is, ultimately, a fan. "It was the most remarkable year-to-year shift that I have ever seen at a school," she says of Lopez' first year. "He is the best thing that could've happened there."

Estella Navarro, a cofounder of OCA who was recently kicked off the board in what she saw as an attempt to stifle dissent, is unforgiving of Lopez for misleading her about keeping parents involved at the school. Yet she is glad he became principal. Her youngest daughter stayed at OCA after Lopez arrived, and Navarro says the girl learned more under him than before he got there. "If I saw that he came in and they weren't learning anything, then I would go crazy," she says. "But I can't do that. The school improved. The kids know their stuff. It doesn't matter how I swallowed the pill, I swallowed it."

While still unhappy with Lopez' tactics, David Barker, the former OCA teacher who wanted him ousted back in the summer of 2004, is also solicitous. "I don't know of any principals in the Bay Area other than Jorge Lopez and Ben Chavis who send their kids to Johns Hopkins in the summer," he says, referring to the gifted-and-talented program. "It's incredible."

OCA is not for everybody, of course. As a charter school, it must admit students without regard to academic ability, and fill its rolls through a lottery. However, since prospective students have to apply, those whose parents are unable or unwilling — and thus are more likely to be from disadvantaged backgrounds — are not in the applicant pool. That pool, furthermore, is likely to become increasingly self-selecting as the school's tough-love reputation grows, and families begin seeking out OCA for its rigor. Already Lopez has noticed that this year's incoming sixth graders are better prepared than their predecessors for the discipline and hard work. Still, as district spokesman Alex Katz notes, it is not the principal's job to meet the needs of all the neighborhood kids. "Charter schools are supposed to offer different models," he says. "These schools are not going to work for everyone."

Oakland Charter Academy also is a small school by design, with an enrollment hovering around 150, and simply cannot accommodate all who wish to attend. Fernanda Gonzalez justifies her support of OCA with a simple, if somewhat harsh, analysis. "Ideally, we'd do it for all kids," she says. "Would I rather we do it for none? No."

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to replicating the principal's success is that beating a school into shape this dramatically requires a particular kind of leader, and people like Jorge Lopez come around only so often. And if he has his way, Lopez will be spread thinner in the not-so-distant future. As Chavis did with American Indian, Lopez intends to open his own high school as early as next fall. He's looking for a space near the middle school, which would allow him to run both schools directly. Barring that, he would oversee both, but hire a site administrator for the new location.

Meanwhile, Lopez has his hands full at home. As he would have his students do, he has managed to escape his old street life, and now lives on three-quarters of an acre just above Highway 13, with his wife and three young children. The house, a daycare center before the couple bought it last year, sits at the foot of a steep, heavily wooded expanse of eucalyptus and pine trees. On a recent Sunday afternoon, Lopez sat on his patio, his normally slicked-back hair a bit disheveled from a day spent working in the yard. He fretted about a tree on the far side of the lawn that was damaged in a storm last year and all but certain to fall. And his wife's fenced-in garden, he pointed out, showed clear signs of a recent visit by a deer. Catching himself, Lopez shook his head and laughed his riotous cackle. "That's when you know you're a middle-class Mexican," he said, still chuckling. "When you're worried about deer and trees instead of guns and bullets."

Five-year-old Maceo, his eldest child, wandered out to the porch wearing a T-shirt from Alameda's Rising Star Montessori School, where he is enrolled in kindergarten at an annual cost of $8,000. According to the Rising Star literature, the school promotes "academic excellence in a warm, nurturing environment that celebrates diversity."

"They're soft whiteys," Lopez acknowledged, sipping a glass of water as he admired his son. "But he doesn't need the same shit I needed. Look at what he comes home to." He watched as Maceo climbed onto a massive swing set left behind by the daycare. "I want my kids to do whatever they want," Lopez said. "I always say business or banking, but I really have no idea. But going into education? That's dead. Anyway, they'd never be good inner-city school principals. They didn't grow up in it."

And his students?

"Some of them," the principal said emphatically, "are going to make damned good administrators."

2007-05-08T16:03:00.000-07:00

Connections

Peace,

Let's say someone was to offer you a million dollars; you being a rational person & all, what would you do with it? Would you invest in underserved communities? Or maybe you'd feed the hungry? Take care of your immediate family?

Now let's just say that instead of the noble aims named above, you decided to spend it on strippers, booze, & video games...

Insane right?

Well that's what's happening when it comes to the currency of networking in many situations. The theme of this month's Forbes magazine is the power of networks, ranging from economics to religion to the social networking phenomenas known as Myspace & Facebook. Inside the pages are a true testament to the importance of networks to human behavior, development, & survival. Not to go too far out b.u.t. ponder this for a sec: Your very existence is due to the cooperations of various networks inside of the body. It was in this vein that I started to look at how young Black & Brown people utilize networks & to what end. After thinking about it for a sec, I saw that by underutilizing networks, we actually set ourselves back in the process to community change.

While that may all sound very "deep", let's bring it back down to lowest form & ask the following questions:

- How many people do you know that has been able to access their primary source of income off of Myspace?

- How many people do you know that have found a "relationship" off of Myspace?

- How many people have a friendlist full of obvious business contacts?

- How many people have a list full of naked women and/or gang members?

- How many people do you know that have been able to build a strong grassroots network off of social networking sites?

- How many people have someone with a name like 'Long John Silver' or 'Tasty Sweetness" in their top 8?

Now this is not to say that many ou haven't made viable cultural & economic connections through social networking sites; It's to say that by allowing a potential goldmine like Myspace or Facebook to be used for foolish things, we blow a chance to truly be change agents in the 21st century by using all of the tools at our disposal. One of the few benefits of globalization is the ability to be able to communicate & do business across the globe, which shrinks the space that we have to traverse in order to bring about Freedom, Justice & Equality. Her's a few ideas to think about when you're using social networking sites:

- Can I add any value to the lives of the people who are my friends?

- Can they add any value to my life?

- Would I broadcast the fact that the people in my network are my friends if we were in the same space?

- Do I actually have anything in common with these people?

Let me know what you think!

2007-05-04T17:03:00.000-07:00

Change Agent

Peace,

One of the myriad of issues that black people face all over the world is economics servitude & disenfranchisement. There are a number of proposed solutions to this problem (Job Training, Integration, Socialism, etc.) many of which work in isolated situations but don't seem to be able to taken to scale. Below is an article from the Philadelphia Daily News about Progress Plaza in Philadelphia, the first Black shopping center in the country. The methodology used to develop the project is one that can be applied to any situation for the economic sustanance of the community. Check it out & tell me what you think!

THOSE THUGS who disrupted the opening gala at the Pearl Theater in December were firing live ammunition.
But it turns out it was all just a test.

The incident, which marred the $1 movie night at the Avenue North Complex at Broad and Oxford streets and which left one gunshot victim seriously injured, looked like a major setback for the $100 million development that community leaders had been working on for years.

Bart Blatstein's Tower Investments built the Pearl as the centerpiece of a block-square complex that houses retail outlets, restaurants and social-services facilities under one roof. It's the key project in a revitalization plan for a re-emerging swath of North Philadelphia where a number of commercial developments and 6,000 housing units have sprung up in the last 10 years.

Everyone said the right things after the shooting. Blatstein said he would not be deterred. Community and political leaders sounded determined. Indeed, the Pearl has been packing them in at its seven-screen multiplex.

But I really wasn't sure that their optimism would stand the test until last week, when Progress Investment Associates broke ground at Broad and Jefferson streets for the brand-new and much-improved Progress Plaza.

The shooting incident wasn't even an afterthought when I talked yesterday with Wendell R. Whitlock, who heads Progress Investment Associates.

"That was just a couple of knuckleheads" Whitlock said. "We weren't discouraged at all by that.

The $16 million renovation they are undertaking will only increase security on North Broad Street.

"There will be a lot more light and a lot more motion and activity," Whitlock said. "What we're doing just complements what's happening across the street."

What they are doing is updating and upgrading a dream that began 40 years ago at Zion Baptist Church at Broad and Venango. The concept came from the heart and head of the late Rev. Leon Sullivan. He sold his congregation and the rest of the city on the idea of building their own economic-development engine.

He called it the "360 plan."Investors bought shares at $1 a month for three years, creating a fund that financed the original Progress Plaza in 1968.

"They put $200 per share into a for-profit and $160 in a nonprofit fund," Whitlock said. "Reverend Sullivan warned them they weren't going to make much money."

They received one cash dividend in 40 years. But the success of the first shopping plaza ever built by a working-class community was a model that was replicated around the country. That was an added dividend.

In time, the plaza became a casualty of economic downturns and a sharp population decline as people moved out of North-Central Philadelphia for greener pastures. Progress Plaza barely remained afloat.

But a building boom, leveraged with public money, and Temple University's rapid expansion are repopulating and re-energizing the neighborhood. Progress Investments retooled its board and started raising funds.

"State Senator Shirley Kitchen was first," Whitlock said. "She found us $1 million for soft costs; Dwight Evans came up with $1 million and Curtis Thomas.

"Governor Rendell came up with $3 million. We got a half-million from the city Commerce Department."

All of which led to a favorable financing deal with the Reinvestment Fund that provided $10 million.

"We have begun work to extend the old Eckerd drugstore at Broad and Jefferson by 3,000 feet to include a Citizens Bank with drive-in windows, a Payless shoe store and a retailer to be named," Whitlock said.

Phase two will add 6,000 square feet to the office and retail complex at the back of plaza facing Broad Street. Patterson-Bittenbender, a joint venture between minority-owned and woman-owned construction companies, is scheduled to complete the first two phases by late fall. A 42,000-square-foot Fresh Grocer supermarket is slated for opening a year later.

"You better believe I was waving Reverend Sullivan's flag all the way," Whitlock said. "I couldn't have done this without his legacy."

A legacy that has been shown to be bulletproof

2007-04-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

2 Sides of the coin

Peace,

A quick review of the last 10 days or so:

When keeping it real goes wrong AKA Cam on 60 Minutes - Killa on TV was the embodiement of the Dave Chapelle skit. Now, if you've read my writings before, you know that I'm anti-snitching in the context of the so-called 'war on drugs'or freedom fighters across the globe b.u.t. the examples that Cam gave were ridiculous... There's a big difference between 1)Person A who sells drugs & kills telling on person B who sells drugs & kills in order to get a reduced sentence & 2) Calling the cops about a person that abuses kids, rapes kids & kills without regard to consequences. The first is a rat of the lowest kind; the second, a person with common sense.

As I watched it, it reminded me of the unmentioned part of the "no snitchin ethic"; Street justice... There was a time where we didn't go to the cops when people trangressed against the community & the men handled it themselves. As our community has broken down, we stopped policing ourselves which made it easier for the police state to come in and oppress the community. Youth of today only know the most obvious aspect of the code, so they take it out of context & go bonkers with it. I know a kid (A&B student, by the way) who got kicked out of school for AA because him & his homies jumped a kid for 'snitchin'. It's up to those of us who know better to give the youth more context & culture in their lives so that they pass on healthy ideas in the future.

Violence is as American as Cherry Pie - The Virginia Tech massacre was truly tragic & my condolences go out to the families of those slain. The biggest thing that should come out of this horrible event is that violence is an american problem, not a Black/Brown problem. As I checked out the coverage of the tragedy & built on it with various people, the following questions came to mind:

1) How did he get more that 100 rounds off without the campus police catching him first?
2) How come there weren't any undercover police in the classes? It's a known fact that they have them at most major colleges
3) Why is our MH system in this country a total failure? All of the money spent to lock up non-violent first time drug offenders & no money for those who are potential threats to themselves & their communities if not treated
4) How come it's easier to get a gun than a passport?

Crew Love - Bush & his minions are as loyal a bunch as I've ever seen... Even in the face of obvious failure, they stick together! Attorney General Gonzales was clearly flustered & reaching for answers during his testimony for congress & still Bush has his back. A fair amount of idealism is good because it allows you to see beyond today's limitations; Idealism like GW will lead you into a gun fight with a pocket night. One has to respect their heart though; they've been able to defend the indefensible with the war bill veto. The Demos still haven't been able to find the right PR spin to really make the Republicans' insanity obvious.

2007-04-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

Life's Like A... Pt.2

Peace,

After doing my initial post on chess, I began to pay more attention to any articles about in the media. This morning (April 13th/Knowledge Understanding), I saw an article about a Puerto Rican youth & chess that is eye-opening to see the least. There's something seriously wrong when a expert chess player hates school, & I don't mean with him either. It's a sad commentary on today's educational landscape, & an indicator of the lack of community safety nets needed to grab youth with obvious skills & intelligence. Check the article, & tell me what you think!!

Teenage Riddle: Skipping Class, Mastering Chess
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
It is early afternoon, 20 minutes into G band — or sixth period — at Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn. But today, Shawn Martinez, a third-year student, and one of the stars of its national championship chess team, is nowhere near school.

Instead, while his classmates memorize the periodic table of the elements, perform Shakespeare or solve for x, Shawn, wearing a black do-rag under a brown Yankees cap, distractedly watches a pickup chess match inside the atrium of a building on Wall Street. The place is a hangout for chess hustlers.

Shawn, 16, skips a lot of school — “It wasn’t weeks that I missed, it was months,” he says — but he is no ordinary truant. He is so gifted a chess player that he has claimed a place among the top young players in the nation after learning the game only four years ago. He is also important to Murrow’s chances of capturing its fourth consecutive national high school title; the tournament begins today in Kansas City, Mo.

Shawn comes to Wall Street to play a type of chess called blitz, a game in which the ticking of a three-minute clock eliminates the ponderous pauses of traditional chess and transforms the game into a fevered, trash-talking street sport in which money, not prestige, is the prime motivator. For Shawn, a large bet might be $10 a game.

“It helped my game to play for money,” said Shawn, dismissing as “average” the players he had been watching. “I love chess with a passion. It’s all the situations you get put in — it’s like life to me. It’s like anger to me. Sometimes, if I don’t like something that’s happening, I can take my anger out on the chessboard.”

Murrow has no varsity sports; its nationally known chess team is a source of deep pride at the school. And while Shawn’s story has echoes of the classic tale of the star high school athlete who struggles academically but remains on the team, it is also very different. Instead of marveling about quarterback options and touchdown passes, his supporters speak about castling and checkmates. And no one questions his intelligence.

Charming and funny, Shawn has a remarkable long-term memory, and parries easily with older members of the Wall Street crowd as he takes their money. He is by turns quiet and boisterous, open and defensive, and seems easily bored. He says he does poorly in English class, but he is well spoken. During nearly three years at Murrow, Shawn has missed so many classes that he is credited with passing only three courses.

Administrators and the teacher who runs the club say they have struggled with Shawn, and are seeking a balance of how to engage him in his studies without barring him from the one thing about which he is passionate. Beth Siegel-Graf, Murrow’s assistant vice principal for student guidance, said allowing Shawn to compete on the team is part of a strategy intended to keep him from dropping out altogether.

“What we try to make students and parents understand is that students doing poorly in school are hooked to the building because of their extracurricular activity,” she said. “We try to use that activity as a hinge.”

A math teacher named Eliot Weiss started the school on its road to becoming the powerhouse it is today when he formed a chess club; Murrow is now able to attract some of the city’s best young players. The team was the subject of a recent book, “The Kings of New York,” by Michael Weinreb, an occasional contributor to The New York Times. Two years ago, the team met President Bush in the White House.

Shawn, like many great players, has been blessed with the combination of an amazing visual memory and the ability to essentially see into the future by predicting various outcomes within a few seconds. During the past two years, Shawn has raised his United States Chess Federation rating more than 100 points to 2,028, giving him the rank of expert, a level just below master, and ranking him No. 19 among 16-year-olds. During that same two-year period, however, he has flunked every class.

His relationship with chess sums up his contradictions: he loves it, yet in one candid moment he said it had ruined his life. He had strong grades in sixth grade, he said, but was failing in seventh — the year he started playing. And he rejected the opinions of adults that he benefits from his relationship with the game.

“I became addicted to chess,” he said. “They think they did something for me, but they didn’t. Chess didn’t save my life. They want to make it like I’m a kid from the ghetto and I can play chess and that’s special. Why does it have to be like that? It’s embarrassing. They compare me to my environment — the way I dress to chess. You don’t have to be the brightest person in the world to play chess.”

Perhaps the most significant of those adults, Mr. Weiss has evolved into something of a father figure for Shawn, whose own father died when he was young. The teacher said he was taken aback by Shawn’s chronic underperformance.

“I have never had a student this talented in a particular skill — not just talented, but one of the best in the country — and so disinterested in schoolwork, not understanding what it means to fail high school,” Mr. Weiss said.

On some days, Shawn does attend classes with about 10 other students who are also behind. On many other days, he simply does not bother. He likes math, but the algebra course he has been forced to take repeatedly is too easy, he said, so he does not make an effort. “The sad thing is, some of the kids can’t even do it,” he said.

Murrow, a 4,000-student school in the Midwood neighborhood with a far-reaching variety of course offerings that are reminiscent of a small liberal arts college, was founded in 1974, and it gives its students considerable freedom. Periods are called bands. There are no bells, and no one is herded from class to class. Free time is scheduled into every school day, and students can choose to eat, to sleep, to do homework, to do nothing or, as Shawn has often done, to play cards in the cafeteria.

“It is a school where if you don’t have your personal responsibility together, you could drop out,” Shawn said.

Ms. Siegel-Graf, the assistant vice principal, said Shawn was allowed to accompany his teammates on the plane to Missouri on Wednesday afternoon after a conference at which he promised that, this time, he would begin going to school regularly. Shawn turns 17 on April 24 — 11 days after the nationals start — and Ms. Siegel-Graf said Shawn and the school had worked out an arrangement in which although he would still be technically enrolled at Murrow, he would begin taking courses to prepare for the G.E.D diploma.

The rules for the national tournament require students to be enrolled full time in school in the United States or its territories for the entire semester. They also state, “The coach is responsible for assuring that all of his players are properly registered and eligible to participate as members of his team.”

On a recent Thursday, a few weeks before the nationals, Shawn said he had not gone to school because he had a sore throat. Later, he said he had run out of minutes on his mobile phone and needed to win some money playing chess to pay the bill.

Here, among the businesspeople and tourists on Wall Street, Shawn sticks out with his Yankees cap, baggy jeans and well-worn red and black Nike high tops, but he also mixes easily with the stockbrokers and others who come to play.

They challenge Shawn and lose their money, even after he warns them he is an expert.

“What I do is allow them to think they can beat me,” he said, though he denies adamantly that he is a hustler. “It’s gambling, and gambling you do at your own risk.”

Playing chess for money is a gray area in the law. The state statute generally prohibits wagering on “games of chance,” but it is unclear whether chess falls into that category. A Police Department spokesman did not respond to a request to clarify the matter.

Shawn was taken away from his birth mother when he was one week old because of her crack cocaine habit. Lidia Martinez, a widow who is Shawn’s adoptive mother, said she knew immediately upon seeing the week-old Shawn that she wanted to adopt him. Ms. Martinez acknowledged however, that she, like everyone else, had failed to get her son to go to class. “He believes he’s too smart for school,” she said.

Shawn says he is able to remember his biological father, who died when he was 2. He says he can even recall his own first birthday.

At Murrow, Shawn is the third best chess player, behind the seniors Alex Lenderman and Sal Bercys, who are each among the top 2,000 players in the world. They were both featured prominently in Mr. Weinreb’s book, while Shawn appeared in fewer passages. In one he is described as being “monosyllabic” and unable to let his guard down.

“The kid’s been an enigma since junior high school,” Mr. Weinreb wrote. “He has a gift, that much is clear, and he’s managed to discover it amid a life that has been fraught, like so many in the city, with disappointment.”

While Alex and Sal have played since around the time they started kindergarten, have had private coaches, and have extensive experience at tournaments, Shawn claims to have never even cracked a chess book. “I never studied a book in my life,” he said. “I’m too bored.” Shawn said he learns by playing, often against opponents online. He favors an aggressive style that employs his pawns as attackers.

“When you put pawns together, there’s no stopping them,” he said. “You put two or three together and they practically control the whole game. People know me for my pawns.”

2007-04-11T14:15:00.000-07:00

Black & Brown: A tale of 2 Banks

Peace,

Whenever the discussion comes up regarding immigrants & the effect they have on the economy, one of the main reasons that people say that brothers & sisters from Africa, Asia and Latin America come here & do better than indigenous original people is "They work harder". Maybe it's me, but in my estimation, nobody has collectively worked harder under adverse conditions than Black folks; There are plenty of people who are working smarter than Black folks, & that's the large reason for the swift upward mobility of many original people who get to this country. Here's an allegory that may add on: There are 2 families who want to go to Bob's Big Boy (I went back on ya); One family who has never been there, but decides to take a friend who goes all of the time; & another family who was given vague directions by a tv commercial plus a friend who went 4 years ago. Who's more likely to get there faster? The 1st family are immigrants & the 2nd are indigenous-born Black people.

Immigrants tend to utilize well established tactics to move up in society (Thrift, Industry Domination, Small Business Ownership, Communal Living, etc..), while we move with the flavor of the day to "make it". One day it's technical school; the next it's something else. Nothing exemplifies this like the article from the Washington Post that you see below. The Black bank focuses on opening branches in every city to appeal to the "Black Lifestyle" , while the Latino one focuses on a variation of micro-lending & community development. While both approaches are needed, one comes across as meat & potatoes, while the other looks like more glitz & glamour.

Two new Washington banks, one seven months old, the other about to open, are taking two different approaches to serving minority communities.

Urban Trust Bank, which opened its headquarters branch at 14th and I streets NW in September, has nationwide plans focused on African American customers. The federally chartered bank is owned by RLJ, the Bethesda-based company headed by Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television.

NuAmerica Bank won approval from the D.C. Council last week to open a branch in Columbia Heights, from which it will target small businesses in the region's Hispanic sector, according to Julio Lopez-Brito, who will be its chairman.

But the banks' founders share the belief that their target markets are ripe for expansion that would benefit not only minority neighborhoods but also the banks' investors.

"A significant portion of urban consumers continue to be unbanked and under-banked," said Urban Trust's president, Dwight L. Bush. "We actually see these communities as viable, and our mission is . . . to bring these consumers into the financial mainstream, help them to become homeowners, to become entrepreneurs, and help them to create and maintain wealth in their neighborhoods."

Lopez-Brito, who got the idea for a niche bank serving the Hispanic community while working with a public television station aimed at Puerto Ricans, said his bank's goal was to create special relationships with Hispanic-owned businesses that need loans of $25,000 and more.

"It's marrying the idea of community banking, which has been such a proven concept in the U.S., and introducing the immigrant community and small businesses to take advantage of the community bank," Lopez-Brito said. "We will still do individual accounts. If you have a sole proprietorship, we are definitely interested is doing a mortgage for you and your employees. But the relationship will start with the business."

Low-income and minority communities are relatively untapped markets for banks, according to a study released last month by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. Nearly 21 percent of all U.S. households do not have any relationship with banks, said John Taylor, president and chief executive of NCRC, a nonprofit group founded in 1990 that tries to attract investment to poor communities and neighborhoods. And "countless other consumers," he said, have personal savings accounts but often resort to expensive payday loans, pawnshops and check-cashing services to get cash.

The NCRC study documented the shortage of mainstream, regulated bank branches in working-class or minority neighborhoods, compared with white and upper-income neighborhoods around the country. The Washington area ranked eighth among the 25 cities studied for overall banking services available in lower-income neighborhoods. In recent years, a number of existing Washington area banks have opened branches in minority or low-income neighborhoods.

"Having full-service bank branches in under-served areas is critically important," Taylor said. "Much of the problem we have today in terms of mortgage foreclosures is the absence of full-service branches in low- and moderate-income and minority neighborhoods. "

Lopez-Brito is launching NuAmerica with $3 million from 15 investors, including $400,000 of his own money. The bank is trying to raise the equity to $20 million with an initial public offering, which will close April 30.

"Being owned and locally managed will make a big difference," said Lopez-Brito, a Venezuela native and a graduate of New York University's Stern School of Business. "From the landscaper to restaurant owner to a doctor who needs to outfit his office, we want businesses to be the nucleus of our bank. Second, any customer who wants to walk through the door and talk to the chairman, he can. I will be there. If he or she wants to talk to the chairman of Bank of America, good luck."

Urban Trust is operating on a different scale. It has $30 million in assets, offices in Washington and Orlando, and a federal charter under which it could expand to all 50 states. Johnson, who bought the bank a year ago, is talking with Wal-Mart about putting branches in stores around the country.

That prospect concerns Taylor, who said an Urban Trust-Wal-Mart partnership could undercut existing community banks that have strong relationships with their customers, just as Wal-Mart has been blamed for putting some small-town retailers out of business.

Johnson said a lot of Wal-Mart customers and employees are exactly the people who could use his bank. "We think this in fact gives us more access to people who need our services," he said. "The people who shop at Wal-Mart are a certain income level. They need financial services. They need financial information. They need credit. The people who shop there as well as the people who work there."

Urban Trust is targeting the African American market for mortgages, credit cards, student loans and small-business loans, Johnson said.

"We want to have a national footprint," he said. "There are no national brick-and-mortar African American businesses. You can go from cable companies or store to store and buy Ebony and Black Enterprise magazines, but I don't know where you can walk into an African American bank in Washington, New York, Boston, Charlotte and Richmond."

Johnson said African Americans are overcharged and underrepresented in the credit card market, and that basic credit-background checks overlook a number of African Americans who may be creditworthy.

"There's definitely a need for banks to focus on urban customers with different lifestyles and different financial needs," Johnson said. "Half of African American households are headed by females. They have unique financial needs that come about by being the only breadwinner and having to deal with the economics of meeting financial obligations without a second paycheck in the house, and having to deal with credit discrimination by not having been in the workforce that long. These are all kinds of things that our bank is designed to address."

2007-04-10T13:28:00.000-07:00

Mountains & Molehills

Peace,

I'll tell you in advance that I didn't want to write about what I'm writing about... I wanted to write about something that was a much more important topic to me IME (In my estimation). I wanted to avoid the obvious & overcooked topics that are built about everywhere. Nonetheless, I find myself writing about the very thing that I was trying to avoid...

Imus.

Yeah,Imus.

You know why I didn't want to write about Imus? There are a couple of reasons, but the most relevant is that the furor over the Imus issue is classic BLD (Black Leader Displacement). Black Leader Displacement is the focus on individual acts of racism & bigotry over systemic dysfunctions in American society that reinforce structural racism & discrimination. After BLD, what usually happens is PGBTS (People going back to sleep) because they feel that the strike against an individual represents a strike against the system that creates the condidtions that many of us live in.

Classic example: "Kramer" & his rant against "Niggers". There was a huge uproar, Al & Jesse came out against it, "Kramer" apologized profusely & went into rehab, Jerry Seinfeld gave him a polite spanking, & everyone went back to watching
Flavor Of Love. What actually changed? Not a thing. There's still a disparity in health related issues, We still earn less on the dollar, A large segment of men in our community are still unemployable, etc..

So when this came up, I was meditating that people would see it as it is; A redneck shock jock spewing the garbage that resonates with his listeners. You see lost in the hoopla is the fact that Imus is a mouthpiece for the demographic that he represents: working- to middle class white men who want America back. Talk show hosts don't say things that don't resonate with their listeners.

Early last week, I watched the Imus show on MSNBC to get a feel for the show. It was basically a hour of hyper-masculine white humor. They told a couple of bad jokes about Hilary Clinton, talked about politics with a conservative slant, had some musicians on, & shared a couple of bad gay jokes. At that time, I thought to myself "So this is how politics are transferred". I was actually going to write a blog comparing Imus & Steve Harvey before all of this jumped off. Now with the suspension, MSNBC can show that they are 'Politically Correct', Imus can say that he's served his penalty, Jesse can extort some fortune 500 company for 'sensitivity training', & we can all go back to sleep while 15 year-olds (who read at a 4th grade level) with AK-47s go to war in the streets for a dwindling drug trade. All this is not to say that those sisters don't deserve a apology; they do & are to be commended for their intelligent, well-spoken responses at the press conference. What I'm saying is that as long as we settle for the short win over the long victory, we'll find ourselves back here again.

2007-04-04T16:43:00.000-07:00

The Babies are the greatest

Peace,

Alot of of the dialogue in Black America (as well as a good number of my posts)center around the issues & problems of Black youth in our community. While there are enough issues to go around, I wanted to take a different approach today and celebrate the positive acheivements of our youth who are braving the negative elements and being successful. Below is a article from the Philadelphia Daily News chronicling the success of Black & Brown babies in a national Mock Trial contest.

I never participated in mock trial; I joined the debate team in High School, b.u.t. I just went for the girls. Even with that, I learned a valuable lesson in the science of organization & preparation in communication. Check it out, & let me know what you think!

JASON PARKER doesn't get nervous.

Not when he's playing a lawyer in front of four real federal judges - and an audience - with nothing but his wits, his research and what he learned in Philly public schools helping him argue his case.

Not when he's opposed by smart students from throughout the nation, some of whom attend the nation's most privileged schools.

Parker was so cool, he earned a nickname at the National High School Moot Court Tournament Sunday:

Mr. Suave.

"Scared money don't win," Parker said with a grin, in an interview yesterday.

Parker, 17, a junior at the Carver High School of Engineering and Science(!), and fellow Carver student, senior Laeeqa Collins-Pressley, 18, made it to the finals at the moot court competition, held at the Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, D.C., on Sunday.

Two other Philadelphia School District students also did well in the competition: Marcelo Morales, a 13-year-old ninth-grader at the Academy at Palumbo, who made it to the semifinals; and Andrew Howard, 15, a ninth-grader at Constitution High School, who reached the quarter-finals.

It was a huge accomplishment for the students, who faced the top moot-court competitors from throughout the country and proved that Philly's young people are not to be out-argued.

"Our students competed against suburban kids from around the country," said Gwen Stern, director of the University of Pennsylvania Law School's Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project.

The project sends about 30 law-school students into city schools to teach students about constitutional law issues that affect teenagers - cases such as police searches, student press rights and high school locker searches. It's in its second year at Penn.

The literacy project culminates in local moot court competitions. The four students who went to Washington for the national competition first won a competition among about 50 other Philadelphia students. In Washington, they competed with about 70 students from around the country, Stern said.

Parker eventually lost to the student who won the moot court competition - and who happens to be going to Stanford University next year, said Stern.

She added that the competition shows what Philadelphia students can accomplish:

"They are extremely bright kids when they are engaged in a subject they're interested in. They become excited and motivated to learn."

The students argued a faked Fourth Amendment case about two teenage brothers who allege that a police officer conducted an illegal search of their vehicle. In the case, the police officer took their photos without permission, searched their car without consent - and found drugs in it.

Students running the tournament at the Washington College of Law came up with the case, which mimicked the kind of illegal-search case that could be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Parker argued for the teens' side; Collins-Pressley argued the government's position.

"This was a very difficult problem," said Penn law professor David Rudovsky, the literacy project's faculty adviser. "Some of my law students would have had a hard time with it on a final exam. But [the high school students] were able to work through it and understand it."

Parker said that when he first started high school at Carver, he was thinking of becoming an engineer.

"Now, after this, I think I'm going to be a lawyer," said Parker, who lives in Nicetown - and who celebrated his 17th birthday on Sunday, the day of the competition.

Collins-Pressley, from the Northeast, said she hasn't ruled the law out completely, but she's still planning on becoming a physics teacher. "I love math, and I just want to expand that into physics," she said.

Andrew Howard, from West Oak Lane, said the experience confirmed for him that law is in his future. Marcelo Morales used to think about becoming a doctor or dentist, but now he also wants to be a lawyer.

Morales' story is especially powerful. He came to the United States from Argentina at age 7, knowing only a small bit of English.

He started in second grade here but skipped third grade and went into fourth grade. He lives in South Philadelphia.

Morales is tall for his age and when Howard heard that he was only 13, Howard did a double-take.

Asked if he felt uncomfortable going up against much older high school students, Morales said he was nervous at first. But a practice round helped.

"After the practice round, that boosted my confidence. I wasn't nervous anymore.

"I was just trying my best." *

2007-03-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

Dunce Cappin' & Kazooin'

Peace,

A couple of weeks ago during Civilization Class, a discussion arose regarding the mentality of Black children in contemporary society & the increasing lack of regard for intellect in our community. My brother Shaking (www.yellowseed.blogspot.com) suggested a movie entitled Idiocracy that spoke to some of these issues within society in general. I grabbed the movie & did the 1 to see if it had any relevance to where I saw Black children heading as far as respect for intelligence. While I must say that the movie was pretty funny, the comedy was overshadowed by the cogent & relevant points expressed in the movie. Here are some of the good points that I got out of the flick regarding the general society:

- You know society's in trouble when we accept "scientific evidence" that's paid for by the company over common sense. you want a example, you say? Enter exhibit A: Pork. People know fully well that the pig ain't no good for 'em, b.u.t. in order to fill their desires, they cite reports done by pork lobbying firms.

- When people take tried & tired Clichés (Bush & The Republican War Machine) over actual analysis & evaluation (The Iraq Study Group) as international policy. (For further proof, see conservative talk radio)

- In a world where everywhere changes 180 degrees from how it was, right becomes wrong & vice versa ( See ideas about child rearing & the importance of motherhood in contemporary society)

- As people become conditioned to entertainment, glitz & glamour becomes the order of the day & actually replaces information

How does relate to Black Children? Well, if the larger society is going to hell in a breadbasket, we're going in a gasoline- drenched go kart, as anything that has a negative effect on society usually has a larger effect on us (Joblessness, Poverty, Health Issues, etc..) Due to the structural & behavioral issues that plague our families, Black babies are less intellectually inclined than any time since slavery. Now, I'm not going to go John Mcwhorter on the situation & blame it all on us, b.u.t. the first step to affecting change in any situation is to acknowledge that it exists.

Even during the Crack era, you had young boys & girls who were inclined to learn of their history & culture (courtesy of the NGE & other progressive cultural movements). Remember the Malcolm, Martin, Mandela & Me T-Shirts? Imagine that happening today...

Due to the fact that intelligence doesn't seem to pay off for our children in society, they gravitate towards that which will seem to reward them (Athletics, Music, etc..) Let me give an example: My daughter attends a majority-white school with a fairly rigorous academic cirriculum. In that environment, a voracious appetite for reading is the rule, not the exception. At the all-black after school program she attends, none of the children bring books to read after school, but quite a few of them fancy themselves as future athletes or performers. The diiference in orientation leads to the difference in worldview & activity.

Ironically, the title of the post is from a Clipse song ('Mr. Me Too') that advocates many of the ideas that I've mentioned above. While I am a fan of the Thorton Brothers, I can properly process the song, not have it negatively impact my behavior & activities. There's nothing wrong with dancing, having fun & doing your own thing, b.u.t. the key is to understand the difference between someone laughing with you & someone laughing at you.

2007-03-22T13:49:00.000-07:00

Urban Anthropology: The Niggas Of Niggas

In any society, you have a group of people who seem to be the source of a never-ending creativity. In american society, Black people are that group. From music to language, from style to fashion, black people set trends & blaze trails regarding creativity. As far as american society is concerned, Niggas start styles, and everyone else gets rich off of it (which is a whole 'nother post)

Go a little deeper though, & you 'll find a group of folks who set the trends within our community. These brothers & sisters seem to emanate style & creativity with little obvious effort. They are often the trendsetters & style mavens of the community. From language to fashion to music, they are always on the edge of urban culture. While it's true that the aforementioned persons live and do their thing in every city, through my travels & experience, I've identified one city that always seems to be on the cusp of the proverbial "Next $h!t" . New York? Nah. Atlanta? Only recently. Philly? Close but no cigar. Where I am talking about?

Washington D.C.

Yes, Chocolate City. The District. Divine Cee (for those mathematically inclined). After some years of walking & talking with Black people from all over the country from all walks of life, I've come to the conclusion that D.C. starts a lotta trends or styles with the Black community that other cities (Namely New York) steal & give them no credit for being the originators. Now to be true, D.C. has certain cultural elements that don't really transfer (see go-go), b.u.t. even that can be co-opted in some form(As I will build on). Just to give you an idea, I'll share an example:

One of my favorite albums of all time is All For One by Brand Nubian. As a youth, I listened to the album incessantly, and was awed by their creativity in the way of choruses. One song in particular "Drop The Bomb" had a chorus that started like "We gonna drop the bomb on the Yacub crew..." Now me being a young buck & all, I naively assumed that they came up with themselves.

Fast forward to 2006: I'm traveling back to Power Born from D.C. listening to the Go-Go show on WKYS, and what do I hear? A song from the mid-to-late 80's with the chorus "We gonna drop the bomb on the Northeast Crew...." (Northeast being a section of D.C.). To top it off, Brand Nubian's 'Drop The Bomb' had a Go-Go beat as well!

Now, most folks from D.C. are somewhat aware of this, & won't hesitate to let you know about it, b.u.t. for years, I charged it to immense CC pride, born from the uniqueness of the D.C. experience (Living separated from & in the shadows of the nation's capital, Taxation without representation, A combination of the north & the south, High murder rate). It was only recently that I put everything together to arrive at my conclusion. More evidence, you ask? Do the knowledge to these supporting details (Shouts to my righteous brother Divine Culture!):

- New Balances:Until the Mid-90's, Besides the D.C. Area, no Black youth anywhere would touch NB's with a 10-foot pole. Only after Foot Locker decided to exploit the popularity (& price) of the 574 did NB's become a staple in cities across the country.

- Designed T-Shirts/Independent Apparel Companies : Unbeknownst to many, Miskeen Originals had their creative genesis in the D.C. area, having designed for companies like Enduro (A D.C. Based clothing company) & doing freelance designing for companies in the District & B-More. After coming back to Philly & putting them in Dr. Denim (A store in Philly) Miskeen as we know it was born. Anyone who has came through D.C. knows that they were rockin the paint on their shirts for some time. Nowadays, you can see the independent ethic through homegrown lines like Alldaz (one of my favorites), Shooters, Planet Chocolate, Sobiato, & more.

- Nike Boots: This is the contemporary example, & most indicative of my original premise: Those who travel around know that D.C. dudes have been wearing the Nike Boots for years (even when they didn't look too sporty). Somehow within the last year, the style got hijacked by Harlem cats (via Jones & Cam). A couple months ago, Jones appeared on 106 & Park with a fresh pair of ACG's on & declared that they were 'Harlem Kicks'. While in Mecca (on 125th) a few weeks after that, I noticed every other person had a pair on, effectively claiming them as their own.

Now, in the interest of not belaboring the point, I won't go too far into the musical influence (Jay's use of a Go-Go chant for the song "Put your hands up", The Go-Go influenced production of Rich Harrison & Chucky Thompson, Herby Luv Bug from Salt-N-Pepa fame, etc.) but it can clearly be seen in that world as well.

How did this 'borrowing' begin to take place? Well, from my vantage point, there are a few points, b.u.t. the major one is a known trading post for our people: HBCU's. People from all over come to these school & cross-pollination often takes place. Case in point: About 10 or so years ago, I attended a homecoming at a HBCU that featured a HH group (from NY, no less) & A Go-Go group (from DC obviously). Students acknowledge styles, concepts, ideas, culture, etc. from other areas and often add them to their world view. At it's best, it is a space for growth & development through learning about the diversity of the Black experience: at worst, a surface- level appropriation of concepts with no appreciation of their origin.

The irony in this is that the appropriation of culture mimics what is done to us on a consistent basis. This is not to say that you shouldn't pick up things that are attractive & applicable to you: only that it's important to always take a contextual look at what you pick up to insure that you're not a 'culture vulture'. Hey DC will keep doing what is does, just as Black people keep doing what we do. It's just important to know why you do what you do & where it came from so you understand it's relationship to you.

2007-03-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

Building & Destroying (aka Analysis vs 'Hatin')

Peace,

The impetus to write this particular post came from 2 sources: 1) A article written on thesource.com by an old friend of mine (Daina Richie) on 'hatin' in HH (Check it out if/when you get a chance) & 2) An article by a God whose views I respect b.u.t. dont always agree with.

The title of this post is 'Hatin vs. Analysis' and it's based on the following questions: How do you know when your analysis becomes "Hatin"? Is there a difference? How much of this is real vs. imaginary?

Now anyone who's turned on a radio or opened a HH magazine in the last 10 years is familar with the term "Hatin". The now ubiquitous term originated in the bay (The slang capital of Black America) as a response to anyone (usu. "squares") who spoke ill of a brother who made moves in the street. As it gained momentum outside of the bay through HH, it became more of a general term referring to anyone who leveled criticism (justified or not) at someone's actions.

At the date of this writing, the term is primarily used as a defense mechanism for weaknesses & defiencies. If you don't like a song, you're hatin; If you don't like to wear skulls & tight t-shirts, you're hatin; Disagree with someone's strategies, you're hatin. While at first glance, it seems pretty low on the list of things to worry about, it's actually a little deeper. If you have a community of people who are consistently resistant to critique, criticism, or analysis, they become insulated, slow-moving & growth-resistant. One look at contemporary HH tells the whole story. Now, some of this I can charge to youth, b.u.t. the fact remains that as long as youth adopt that mentality, we'll see the slowest-moving generation in 100 years.

Now on the other side, there are those who utilize analysis & critique as a cover for their hate. The integral ingredient that creates a difference: bias. Critique & analysis have a certain level of neutrality at their base, while bias (& by extension, hating) do not. Scathing & personal remarks lend themselves to what we commonly call hate, & indicate insecurity on behalf of the writer. Vulgar diatribes only interest those who watch Maury for fun & Fox for news.

While the line between analysis & "Hatin" seem blurry, in actuality, intention clearly seperates the two. Knowing the difference will allow us all to grow faster & escape the bottom of the 8 (destroying).

2007-03-06T13:51:00.000-08:00

Life's like a ....

Peace,

People say life's like alot of things, b.u.t. for the purpose of this post on this beautiful day of Equality, I'll use the adage "Life's like a Chess Game". Now if we actually go in and break that statement down, we hit some deep & real subjects.

As a youth, the only exposure I had to chess was when I went over my friends' house & saw the chess board sitting on the living room table (R.I.P. Coach K). At that point, it appeared to be the grown-up version of chess, so I left it at that. In middle school, my school had one of the better chess teams in the city, so we would always have programs in the auditorium celebrating their accomplishments (although due to the collective ignorance of the student body, it was never put on par with basketball or the "real" sports). I didnt personally embrace chess until my sophmore year in college, & even then it was begrudgingly, due to my perspective that chess wasn't a indicator of intelligence any more than spades or 21 blackjack being that it could be played out of a book. If I won, I would play it down; If I lost, I would play it down.

Then came Howard's Homecoming of 1997. I gained insight on a number of new issues that night (The NY-DC beef, Club Politics, How not to wear a trench coat, etc..)b.u.t. the true jewel that I earned that chilly October night was the science of chess. Here it goes:

It's 1 am, & the Gods & I are walking on U street towards Ben's Chili Bowl. A brother dressed in a fatigue jacket & a turban looks at us & says "Peace! Who over here plays chess?" One of the better chess players among us replies in the affirmative. My man (in the turban) pulls a plastic board out of his pocket & challenges the God to a match on top of a trash can (using makeshift pieces, no less). They go on to play for a 1/2 hour, back & forth. Keeping in line with his opening admonition, old head in the turban plays very agressive, bordering on reckless; always focusing on his own strengths. Conversely, The God's style was more understated; responding to the moves that were made vs. playing his own hand. In the interest of space, I'll fast forward you to the end; The brother in the FT saying "I'll get you next time".

Besides that story being off the hook, See where I'm going? Both of their chess styles reflected their personalities, & over the 10 years since, I've seen that play out over & over again. People who are aggresive on the board tend to be aggressive in the real world; the same with people who are passive. Here is a small list of the the things that chess has taught me:

- Strategically, no one thing is the end all be all; some chess playes are so scared to lose their queen, it's ridiculous!

- Even the smallest person has potential for growth; A pawn can become a queen if it makes enough forward movement

- Everything isn't what it seems to be; Just because a move looks good, doesn't mean it is

- Plan in advance; The best chess players plan moves in advance. Too often, people plan based upon their present conditions vs. how conditions will be in the future.

- Life is time-sensitive; Windows of opportunity are vital to success & one can't assume that the window will be open forever.

There's a great article about Black chess players that can be found at the websites listed below. In closing, please give youth around you the gift of rational thinking & disclipline, for it's the gift that recreates itself!

Sites to check out:
http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/news_7_285.php
http://www.thechessdrum.net/historicmoments/HM_BlackChess/index.html
http://www.thechessdrum.net/65thSquare/DrumHistory.html

2007-03-02T13:34:00.000-08:00

Let's Go Crazy

Peace,
I build that this finds everybody in the best of conditions; mentally, physically, & financially. I know that I've been lunchin' a bit on the blogging, b.u.t. I'm back & ready to build! About 2 weeks ago, I traveled to Philly for business & personal reasons, & I was able to reflect on the similarities and differences between the city that I grew up in & the city that I see now. Philly's always been wild b.u.t. it's like the planet of the apes as far as in the streets, & that's even comparing it to the JBM/Jamaican warfare in 88 & 89. How did the streets get so crazy, you ask? Well before I answer, here's a quote that can provide some context:

"You just looking at the frame; there's a big picture you're missing!"*

What do I mean? when we look at the increasing violence in Philly & cities all over the country, there's a tendency to look at the obvious; the ever-growing culture of sex & violence on television, the breakdown of the black family, etc.. Rarely do we discuss the overarching socio-economic factors that has created what you see out here.

My answer is this: Turbo - Capitalism, Classism, & Racism have combined to create a generation of virtually unemployable Black Men (If worst comes to worst, Black Women can always become a nurse or work at the bank). It starts early, when Black boys suddenly lose interest in anything related to academics. It continues on when Black boys who "act out" are sent to juvenile discliplinary schools that are essentially junior lockups. It happens when Black males are allowed to sit in the back of the class & fail as long as they don't make too much noise or disturb the class. It becomes worse when a 18 year-old who reads at a 3rd grade level decides that selling dope or stealing wheels is a valid career choice, & so on.

All who read my blog know that I dig Good Times; WWJD (what would james evans do?) if he couldn't work at the factory? In the doc Bastards of the party, The narrator directly tied the rise of the B's & C's to post-industrial LA economics; there's not really a mystery about how all of this came together.

Thankfully, this discussion is starting to produce fruitful dialogue. please check the article below from thePhiladelphia Daily Newsthat discusses some of these issues. Next blog, I'll speak on some things that we can do!

WHEN HIS daughter was born two years ago, Lamar Stalworth, 19, wanted a new life. He gave up hustling - selling drugs - and got a job in his North Philadelphia neighborhood cleaning up vacant lots and cutting grass.

Then he lost that job and went for months without an income. Flat broke, Stalworth went back to hustling for a short time.

"But I saw myself being caught up in the game," he says. "And with my daughter, I had more responsibility. I thought, 'Do I really want to do this or not?' "

He decided not, and reached out for help to IDAAY, the Institute for the Development of African-American Youth.

But the appeal of the streets was undeniable.

"Fast money" is what the young men call it. In five minutes, they say, they can make $200 hustling on the corner. It's quick and easy, compared to finding a "legit job" - which they consider a mysterious and frustrating process for which they have few knowledgeable guides.

Stalworth was one of 10 young men meeting in classrooms at Temple University last month, some sent by courts to the IDAAY program for first offenders for possessing guns.

Young men like them - in trouble and with guns - made up the majority of victims and perpetrators of the 2,004 shootings and 406 homicides in the city in 2006. Most perpetrators and victims had criminal records; a large majority had dropped out of school.

Another thing they had in common: Almost all were jobless.

Rising gun violence has alarmed Philadelphians and sent leaders and citizens in search of solutions: more police protection, gun control, curfew and truancy laws, conflict resolution and mental-health treatment.

Now, the city has begun to talk about another potential solution: Getting some of these kids off the streets and into jobs.

Overall, fewer than half of Philadelphians age 20 to 24 have a job, according to 2005 figures. The city neighborhoods with the lowest levels of employment are also among the neighborhoods with the highest levels of crime.

When Bilal Qayyum, an economic-development coordinator in the city Commerce Department and co-founder of Men United for a Better Philadelphia, walked with two other men to Harrisburg last September to protest gun violence, they made the connection explicit: The T-shirts they wore read, "Jobs not Guns."

Their analysis is echoed by experts. "There are many other reasons for crime," says Bernard Anderson, a labor economist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and deputy secretary of labor in the Clinton administration. "But there's simply no question that the extraordinary rate of joblessness among young black males in urban areas fuels the crime problem."
None of that should be particularly surprising.

But what is surprising is that there may be something businesses and government leaders can do about it.

Barriers to 'legit jobs'

The young men in the IDAAY program - and others like them in Philadelphia's neighborhoods - say they want to work at "legit jobs." They want the stability of a regular paycheck, the credit they need to buy cars or rent apartments, and the self-respect that comes from taking care of themselves and their families.
But motivation, however fierce, is not enough.

The city's young people face big barriers to work. The biggest: More than 40 percent of Philadelphia public-school students end up leaving school without a degree, according to a recent report sponsored by the anti-dropout effort Project U-Turn.

For people with college educations or other post-secondary-school training, area job prospects are pretty good, says Paul Harrington, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, who has studied Philadelphia's job market.

But for those who have only a high-school diploma or who have dropped out, "there is no room at the inn," he says.

It's a truth being lived out around the nation. In earlier generations, when manufacturing jobs were plentiful, school had little practical connection to work. That has changed profoundly. Two-thirds of the new jobs created in the United States between 1984 and 2000 required a college education, a trend expected to continue.

"There are forces in the job market that create a new set of challenges that we haven't had in previous generations," says Sallie A. Glickman, founding executive director of the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board. "For adults looking to get into the job market, the pipeline increasingly is through educational credentials."

So nearly half of Philadelphia public-high-school students, those who don't graduate, are forced into desperate contention for low-skilled jobs - competing not only with each other, but also with adult immigrants and women coming off the welfare rolls.

In that competition, they face more barriers to work.

Despite the return of some retail jobs to neighborhoods including South Philadelphia (now home to Ikea and Wal-Mart) and West Philadelphia (where a Lowe's is planned) most jobs remain clustered in the suburbs or Center City, so transportation is a problem. One young man in the IDAAY program says he traveled to Plymouth Meeting, 90 minutes each way from West Philly, for a job at the concession stand in a movie theater.

Many of the young men say they have applied for jobs but never got called in for interviews. One says he saw a McDonald's manager toss his application into a wastebasket.

Maybe he's lucky to have seen the manager's face: Most retail stores and health-care concerns require job applications to be filed online (for more, see Page 5).
Also, at least a third of African-American men in Philadelphia have criminal records. Background checks effectively eliminate many of them from contention for jobs (see Page 5).

And so the cycle continues - so rapidly, in fact, that Philadelphia may not understand the severity of its unemployment problem.

Anderson, the Wharton economist, makes a distinction between the terms "unemployed" and "jobless."

People who have never had jobs, and people who have stopped looking for work, are not counted in the official unemployment rate. That masks the true state of desperation in many Philadelphia neighborhoods, where more than half of African-American men are not working.

Census data recently showed that 40 percent of city residents age 15 and older reported they were out of work - and not collecting unemployment.
Among young men in Philadelphia age 16 to 24, joblessness continues to worsen. In 2000, about 25 percent of men in the city between 16 and 19 had jobs, well below the national average of 36 percent, says economist Harrington.
In 2005, the employment rate had sunk to 19.7 percent. Things weren't any better for 20- to 24-year-old men: In 2000, 57 percent had jobs. In 2005, the rate had fallen below half, to 49 percent. "These are big losses," Harrington says.
Joblessness and violence

It was a poignant and troubling scene on Feb. 8 outside Community College of Philadelphia, at 17th Street near Spring Garden: Hundreds of people, dressed for success, holding folders with resumes, waiting for hours in bitter cold to enter a career fair.

In a recognition of the role that jobs play in fighting violence, the fair was sponsored by the city as part of its Safer Streets campaign.

In the auditorium, 92 employers were taking applications. The city says more than 2,000 people showed up.

"It shows that people need jobs and that they want to work," says Leon Simmons, director of the Work Wise job-search program in the Mayor's Office of Community Services.

"This is a capitalist country," says Bilal Qayyum. "You've got to work. You've got to pay rent. It's very simple. Everybody has to have an income."

The benefits of work, however, run far deeper than merely paying the rent.

Youth employment is an unrecognized aspect of economic class: The "haves" have the option to work; the "have-nots" don't, and may not understand why it is important.

Research shows that students who work part-time in high school are less likely to drop out and more likely to go on to post-secondary schooling. Over the years they tend to earn more than those who didn't work when they were students.
"If there's one thing that kids with an advantage do, it's that they work," says Glickman, of the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board. "That's the difference between middle-class families and the kids that are on the other end of the spectrum."

One of the men in the IDAAY program put it this way: Working is "starting on your manhood."

Not working, on the other hand, can prompt young men to prove their manhood in different, destructive ways.

Like most American cities, Philadelphia is home to a growing number of young people who are both out of school and out of work - in 2004, that group made up 24.1 percent of all city residents age 16 to 24. Urban-poverty experts call them "disconnected," with serious consequences both for them and for their cities.
Elijah Anderson, professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the 1999 book "Code of the Street," has made one of the most persuasive connections between the city's joblessness and violence.

He says that the scarcity of even low- wage jobs and the reduction of welfare benefits feed an underground economy of barter and informal arrangements - some legal, some not.

"Respect" - the power to exact vengeance against others - is the coin of the realm for these arrangements, says Anderson. The demand for respect often is the source of disputes that escalate into gunshots.
And that's one reason that, as in most cities, violence in Philadelphia is limited by geography and social class, only rarely breaking out of the city's poorest neighborhoods.

Yet, although Philadelphia taxpayers are not all in equal danger of being shot, all do bear the financial burden of the shootings.
The price is stunning: According to former City Councilman Ed Schwartz, who chaired the Philadelphia Tax Commission in 2004, more than 40 percent of the city budget - $1.3 billion - is spent responding to crime.

Looked at this way, the joblessness that leads to violence is more insidious than mere lack of money, and jobs are more valuable than the income they produce.
What could turn it around

Getting more Philadelphians to work will require big, systemic fixes as well as targeted programs. Some of the big fixes - tax policy that supports job creation, economic-development efforts that work with local governments, school reform - are under discussion, even if the methods or the results are up for debate.
What does work, in the interim?

Smaller programs - the kind of help that various workforce development organizations in the city can, and do, provide to potential workers.
One such organization, the Philadelphia Youth Network, provides overall management around jobs for youth in Philadelphia: apprenticeships and internships through public schools; 7,800 jobs for young teenagers with a summer component; and the WorkReady program, which links students to internships in local companies.

To support the work, PYN blends resources from numerous funding streams - government and private foundations and employers themselves.
In the process, PYN makes it easier for employers to take a chance on someone whose resume doesn't jump out, or whose background might engender doubt, says PYN President Laura Shubilla. PYN also runs the payroll for the kids who work.
Through the WorkReady program, employers can tell PYN what kinds of jobs are available and how many kids they can employ. Working with the School District of Philadelphia and 90 community organizations, PYN has the capacity to match kids' interests with work they will enjoy. The kids are pre-screened and given employment supports, and PYN advises companies on how to mentor them.
"We're the eHarmony of youth employment," Shubilla says, referring to a popular online matchmaking service.

Matching kids to the right jobs pays profitable dividends: "Some of the companies hire the kids year-round," says Shubilla. "Many of the employers will ask for the kids back year after year. Some kids have gone to college, and often they come back to those employers when they're on their breaks."

Fast money or fast grave

Employment makes a significant difference in the lives of young people. With support, jobs can transform lives and futures - but Philadelphia is tens of thousands of jobs away from providing opportunity for work to everyone who wants it.
So the responsibility falls to local organizations and businesses to provide pathways out of joblessness and poverty.

Meanwhile, Lamar Stalworth is still looking for a job.

He, and the other young men in the IDAAY program, understand that finding that elusive opportunity holds the potential to save their future - and even their lives.
One young man gave voice to it as the group met at Temple last month:
"Fast money" often leads, he said, to a "fast grave"

2007-02-16T15:19:00.000-08:00

The Name Game Pt.2

"Say your name again?"

"What's your real/given name"

"What did your mother name you?"

"Are you a muslim now?"

The above-mentioned questions are familar to anyone in the Black community who has 'changed' their name. It's the subject of many inside jokes when discussing the diversity of our experience. Check this hypothetical convo taking place on any block USA:

Person 1 - "Did you hear that "Insert name here" changed their name?

Person 2 - "Naw. To what?

P1 - "I don't know...Marvin X Farrakhan or something like that..."

P2 - " He must be on some back to Africa thing... If his mother call him 'insert name here', then that's what I'ma call him"

P1 - "You know he still eat pork & like white girls"

While funny, dialogue like this is damaging & counteproductive for a myriad of reasons. One, it binds everyone into whatever mental prison that person in presently incarcerated in. Two, it creates this paradox: names that have no meaning get a wink & a smile, while names that may serve as a representation of self-discovery & self- definition get snide remarks.

Furthermore, the response "well, what did your mother name you?" ain't enough either. Your mother/father may have had the best onlf intentions when naming you, b.u.t. a person may identify qualities that they would like to be known by that may not be present in what we in the NGE call our 'honorable' (called as such due to the level of honor that we give our physical family) names.

While a name is not everything, it serves as an important marker for one's understanding of self. Every culture in the world are known by their names, as it sets the foundation for what's expected from you in society*. When your name gives you no idea of your life's journey, it's hard to recover (as a collective, individuals may have an easier time identifying their purpose).
The next time you encounter someone with a name different than what your used to, you might want to take the time to get some context on what the name means, & why they changed it. Instead of perceiving it as a joke, look at it as another person looking to reclaim a healthy sense of self through cultural means.

* It must be noted that names such as Malcom, Marcus, & the like do have a signifigance due to the legacy that those men established in fighting for the freedom of our people

2007-02-07T13:46:00.000-08:00

The "Difference"

When I first caught sound regarding Joe Biden's flap about Barak Obama, I shook my head like everyone else and lamented to myself about the subtle presence of racial bias in all aspects of society. Then (like we all should do before we start to talk about things) I thought about it a little more & drew it up, if you will. The "Obama factor" is one that will play a large role in this election (There's been so much discussion about the 08' election that you forget it's early 07). Below are some of my thoughts on the Flare-up & the larger ramifications of Obama in the race:

- Upon further evaluation, Biden's comments weren't as disrespectful as they seemed to be; he just got tripped up saying it and came across wrong. What he really said was that Obama's the first candidate who's not an "activist candidate" (aka not a rabble-rouser a la Jesse or Al Sharpton). The key will be to see how everyday Black people respond to someone who doesn't speak like a Baptist preacher

- It will be interesting to see how Obama positions himself with respect to the developing Demo field. It's obvious that he can't look to be seen as the "minority" candidate for 2 reasons: 1) He doesn't have those "Credentials" (Demonstrations, food strikes, etc..) 2) We're in a much more moderate America than we were 20 years ago, & being the Black candidate just won't cut it

- Speeches & family life notwithstanding, I still have yet to see what worldview Obama has regarding the myriad of problems that impact America.

- Obama entering the race has the potential to siphon millions of votes from Hillary, who would have gotten most Black peoples' vote on the strength of name-recognition alone

- 3 out of the last 4 presidents have been from the south; How Obama will connect with the hicks in Tennessee is anybodies guess

- Question: Will the established Black leadership come out in support of Obama, or will they fall back for fear of pissing the Clintons off?

- If he doesn't get the nomination, he would be a very strong candidate for VP, depending on who the nominee is. In my view, a Clinton-Obama ticket would ruffle the feathers of 3/4 of white America

- Obama has an interesting conundrum: being moderate b.u.t. not too moderate; ethnic b.u.t. not too ethnic. It's going to be one hell of a ride!

2007-02-01T14:26:00.000-08:00

The Name Game

Peace,

Lexus.

Tanisha.

Daquan.

Dupree.

Shawanda.

Many of us are well acquainted with these names & others; The are the infamous names that have sprouted up in our community in the last 20-25 years. They are also the subject of the name bias that's been written about in books like Freakinomics by Stephen Leavitt, that shows the discrimination against job applicants with "Black" names.

Below, find what were identified as the 20 "Blackest" names for girls:

Imani, Ebony, Shanice, Aaliyah, Precious, Nia, Deja, Diamond, Asia, Aliyah, Jada, Tierra, Tiara, Kiara, Jazmine, Jasmin, Jazmin, Jasmine, Alexus, Raven

* Please note the NGE/Islamic/Pan-African infuence in the names above

Here are the 20 "Whitest" names for girls:

Molly, Amy, Claire, Emily, Katie, Madeline, Katelyn, Emma, Abigail, Carly, Jenna, Heather, Katherine, Caitlin, Kaitlin, Holly, Allison, Kaitlyn, Hannah, Kathryn

* Please note that there are really only 5 or 6 names there; the rest are variations

The "Blackest" names for boys:

DeShawn, DeAndre, Marquis, Darnell, Terrell, Malik, Trevon, Tyrone, Willie, Dominique, Demetrius, Reginald, Jamal, Maurice, Jalen, Darius, Xavier, Terrance, Andre, Darryl

* I Must say that I've never met a white person named Terell

The "Whitest" names for boys:
Jake, Connor, Tanner, Wyatt, Cody, Dustin, Luke, Jack, Scott, Logan, Cole, Lucas, Bradley, Jacob, Garrett, Dylan, Maxwell, Hunter, Brett, Colin

All jokes aside, why is this important? Well, if people are being discriminated against, then that isn't a good thing. On the other hand, if we're giving our children the culture to go along with the names (excepting the lexus thing), then in reality, they shouldn't have as much of a problem as they may be now. Frankly many original brothers & sisters from the indian sub-continent have names that most of us can't spell, much less pronounce, yet they don't seem to have problems getting or keeping jobs. We have to do a better jobs of creating a reality for our children so that their names don't create a barrier. The issue is when give our children hard-to-pronounce names, and then throw them out to the wolves, or don't give people around them a understanding of why they carry those names. I will say that some of the names may sound a little "out there", b.u.t. in the absence of a culture to call their own, people will make do with what they have. In a sense, it's indicative of the fact that many of us were trying to go outside the box, b.u.t. didn't necessarily have a framework.

Be on the look out for Part 2...

2007-01-26T11:13:00.000-08:00

Grades

Peace

Let's rewind to 1989:Crack in the streets & HH in the ears. I was a twelve year old seventh grader trying to take it all in. I attended a junior high for "Gifted" and/or high-performing students. As I look back it was a good experience due to the diversity of the group. You had white kids, black kids, rich kids, poor kids, puerto rican kids, gay kids & everything in between. Now, at that time there was a unspoken ranking as far as academics in my school. The list looked something like this:

1) Asians
2) Upper - Class White Folks
3) Weird White Kids (Dungeons & Dragons Types)
4) Poor Whites & Middle Class Blacks (Tie)
5) Smart Black Kids who didnt want to appear smart (For reference, see Jawanza Kunjufu)

It was basically an accepted "fact" that asian kids would have the best grades & test scores*. On the rare occasion they failed a test, you'd see them having a fit in the hall ways. I remember a kid that scored 1000 on the SAT in the 7th grade. Being kids, we just thought that they were naturally smarter & thus deserved better grades.

Now with the benefit of age & experience, I know that culture (in this case, the culture of many asian families regarding education). was the primary factor in the disparity. At that time, widespread hustling had only recently become in vogue, so the anti-school sentiment wa s not as large as it is today among black babies, b.u.t. yet and still, the difference in attitude was obvious.
A couple of weeks ago, I happened upon a book written by an asian man regarding the secrets of asians in school. I'll share them here so that you can use them however they see fit.

1) Instill a love & need for learning & education

2) Instill a sense of family pride & loyalty

3) Instill a respect for delayed gratification & sacrifice

4) Define your child's role as a student

5) Cultivate a respect for elders & people in positions of authority

6) Play a active role in your child's education

7) Determine & develop your child's individual talents

8) Set clearly defined short-term & long-term goals

9) Teach your child to value academic success over social status or popularity

10) Reward positive school performances & devise a plan of attack for poor school performances

11) Forget the "Do whatever makes you happy" mentality & focus on professions with financial security & intellectual fufillment

12) Keep your money in perspective

13) Limit activities that interfere with schoolwork

14) Promote an environment of healthy competition

15) Surround your child with similar minded children & role models

16) Help your children view America as an land of opportunity

All of the abovementioned points aid in developing basic civilization (Knowledge, Wisdom, Understanding, Culture, Refinement, & not being a savage in pursuit of happiness), and should be taking place in families where the parents are aware of the way that this country's economy works. Additionally, we must seek to provide a safety net for the children in our communities that do not have the "luxury" if you will, of having parents who are as aware.

I acknowledge that some of you may take issue with #16, b.u.t. it is important to recognize that we are in a place to acquire resources (Knowledge, Money, etc..) to spread across the original diaspora, and that can be looked upon as opportunity. Something that was once the "poor part" of the planet could now be seen as the "best part", and vice versa (See 1st & 3rd degrees in the 1-14 for those in the NGE).

2007-01-22T15:44:00.000-08:00

Tradition vs. Innovation

Peace,

Every now & again, I tune in to what's happening on various NGE listservs and groups to get an idea what people within the nation are thinking & saying. After watching a number of conversations go back & forth regarding some controversial topics (those of you that know, know), I decided to write on the topic of tradition vs. innovation. This topic is in no way limited to members of the NGE, and in fact I build that those of us who are looking to be part of the solution for humanity's issues can add on to what i'm thinking.

In every group, sect, culture, religion, or way of thinking, there will eventually come a time where the members of that community have to discuss and come to some form of understanding regarding this issue in order to chart a path for it's collective growth & development. Now, before it seems like I'm veering off into intellectual wonderland, let me give you some tangible examples: Much of the underlying tension that exists in HH today is a result of the debate, with those who think that HH should remain as it was in the 80's & early 90's on one side, and those who see HH as an ever-changing and ever-developing art form and Culture on the other side.

Another example is leadership within the Black community. Some think it appropos to continue fighting for Black people in the vein of 1960's - style civil rights protest & advocacy, while others see the primary issue as economics and argue that new tactics are needed. Additionally, you could include the debate on tradition & innovation within the Black Church (e.g. Kirk Franklin & the fusing of "Holy" & "Secular" music). Below, please find some of my views on the debate:

- If one errs on the side of tradition, cultural progress can grind to a halt; Err on the side of innovation, and context for the original idea can be lost

- From my view point, one must be well-versed in tradition in order to propose innovation so that the impetus for change isn't grounded in cynicism or iconoclasm

- Most of what we know as tradition today was innovation at some point, so it would be wise for us to always be open to growth

- People who live on the fringes of either side are probably missing the big picture. Life is a mix of the two, and if evaluated and executed properly, the two will propel your idea to new heights.

2007-01-17T15:02:00.000-08:00

Peace is not the word to play

Peace,

Just thought i'd take a second to shout out a classic from back in the day, & to underscore a very good point: Let's not use such a powerful word in vain. It's more than just a thing to say when you begin a conversation. It should be an ethic that we subscribe to at all times. Another thing while I'm at it: It's cool if you want to show me respect by saying Peace God, b.u.t. if you're going to do that, have some idea why we advocate that. If not, you sound silly and it comes off as patronizing.

Earlier this week, the federal holiday for Dr. King was observed. Though obviously a man of great ideas & vision, the rev has nonetheless been presented as a peace-loving pacifist who loved everyone & wouldn't bust a grape in a food fight. By white & black people continuing to juxtapose rev vs. mr. shabazz, it diminishes the depth & complexity of both men. We now know that King was opposed to the 'Black Power' slogan versus being opposed to the idea itself. Additionally, in his later years, rev became more outspoken in his criticism of the status quo & began organizing in ways that took him outside the bounds of a traditional "Civil Rights" leader (ex. The Poor People's Campaign). In America, to speak about Civil Rights is one thing, & to advocate for huan rights is another. Below is a article that goes more in-depth to Dr. Kings' perspective written by Dr. Manu Ampim, a noteworthy professor from Oakland. Do the Knowledge, extract what you will, & let me know what you think!

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. SUPPORTED BLACK POWER Prof. Manu Ampim (Excerpts from 1989 Master’s Thesis, “The Revolutionary Martin Luther King, Jr.”) ----------------------------------------------------------

There have been consistently glaring omissions by biographers of Martin Luther King concerning his statements embracing Black Power as a concept. The focus usually has been on his statements rejecting Black Power as a slogan, without making the distinction that King himself made between Black Power as a concept and program on the one hand, and the use of the phrase as a slogan on the other. When the militant cry of “Black Power” burst on the public scene in mid-June 1966 in Greenwood, Mississippi during the Meredith March Against Fear, King suggested that the Black Power slogan had negative overtones and was causing divisions within the march. King preferred “black consciousness” or “black equality” to “Black Power.” He reasoned that the words “black” and “power” together give the impression of black domination rather than black equality. King debated with Stokely Carmichael of SNCC and Floyd McKissick of CORE over the matter. He asserted that a leader must be concerned about the problem of semantics, and the “Black Power” slogan carried the wrong connotations. Carmichael replied by saying that the question of violence versus nonviolence was irrelevant. He argued, that the real question was the need for African Americans to consolidate their economic and political resources to achieve power, as practically every other ethnic group in America had done. King had no problems with this, but he responded by stating that ethnic groups such as Irish and Italians did not use slogans of Irish or Italian power, but they worked hard to achieve power. King stated, “This is exactly what we must do. We must use every constructive means to amass economic and political power. This is the kind of legitimate power we need,” He added, “But this must come through a program, not merely a slogan.” [emphasis added]. If we look at the primary sources it is clear that Dr. King had problems with Black Power as a slogan, but unlike the established civil rights leadership – which denounced the Black Power advocates – he called for and worked to implement Black Power as a program. Dr. King’s Statements in Support of “Black Power”:

“Black Power, in its broad and positive meaning, is a call to black people to amass the political and economic strength to achieve their legitimate goals. No one can deny that the Negro is in dire need of this kind of legitimate power. Indeed, one of the great problems that the Negro confronts is his lack of power. From the old plantations of the South to the newer ghettos of the North, the Negro has been confined to a life of voicelessness and powerlessness. … The plantation and the ghetto were created by those who had power both to confine those who had no power and to perpetuate their powerlessness. The problem of transforming the ghetto is, therefore, a problem of power – a confrontation between the forces of power demanding change and the forces of power dedicated to preserving the status quo.” (Where Do We Go From Here, pp. 36-37). Emphasis added.

“Power, properly understood, is the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political or economic changes. In this sense power is not only desirable but necessary in order to implement the demands of love and justice. One of the greatest problems of history is that the concepts of love and power are usually contrasted as polar opposites. …What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. …There is nothing essentially wrong with power. The problem is that in America power is unequally distributed.” (Where Do We Go, p. 37). Emphasis added.

“Black Power is a call for the pooling of black financial resources to achieve economic security. …If Black Power means the development of this kind of strength within the Negro community, then it is a quest for basic, necessary, legitimate power. Finally, Black Power is a psychological call to manhood.” (Where Do We Go, p. 38).

“Black is beautiful and as beautiful as any other color. When we believe that, this is something very necessary, this is something very constructive and very creative. So, the concept of Black Power is something we are certainly able to understand and accept. …So as we talk about power, we must always see power as the right use of strength.” ((SCLC Staff retreat, Frogmore, SC, 11/14/66). Emphasis added.

“Power is the ability to achieve purpose. Certainly the Negro needs power because this is our problem, we are powerless. We have been powerless economically and politically in the ghetto itself in a sense came into being to keep the Negro in his powerless position.” (Frogmore, SC, 11/14/66).

“Power is not the white man’s birthright; it will not be legislated for us and delivered in neat government packages. It is a social force any group can utilize by accumulating its elements in a planned, deliberate campaign to organize it under its own control.” (Where Do We Go, p. 157).

=========================================== King acknowledged in an interview that the unsuccessful “end slums” campaign in Chicago was an implementation program for the concept of Black Power but, as the Baltimore Sun reported on July 10, 1966, “under a more palatable name.” The Sun further recorded that King “totally indorses [sic] the concept of ‘black power’ ” as enunciated by McKissick and Carmichael. The newspaper also noted that King’s statements placed SCLC, CORE, and SNCC “in basic agreement on the new ‘black power’ direction of the movement.” King indicated that his differences with CORE and SNCC over “Black Power” were only semantic. Dr. King did not only endorse the concept of Black Power as an individual, he endorsed it as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Similar to the Black Power advocates, SCLC advocated the building of a positive and cohesive concept of black history and fostering “a sense of …community” among African Americans. In addition, SCLC resolved that it would encourage and work toward true community through the development of economic and political power, and by constant emphasis on African Americans “owning and controlling their communities. (see SCLC board resolution, “Afro-American Unity,” August 17, 1967.) This emphasis was exactly what Black Power advocates were calling for, though they may have sometimes said it in different words. Beginning in late 1966, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that ‘black power’ is a most timely issue in the country today.” The Bureau later commented that there is a “marked tendency on the part of SCLC to move away from integration and move toward economic and political power.” (FBI files, 10/27/66; and 2/26/68). Emphasis added.

2007-01-15T15:38:00.000-08:00

Knowledge & Power

Peace,

Earlier today, I was lookng for something to watch at the rest. As I scanned through the seemingly endless collection of "street" dvd's that I've picked up over the past few years (I must say that they can be a great teaching tool for the youth, as far as what's going on in other parts of the country), I decided that I wanted to watch something with substance that could be used for analysis & observation. I chose 'Syriana', a movie starring George Clooney & Matt Damon that caused a fair amount of controversy last year around the "fictional" country that the movie was set in & how closely it bared resemblance to present-day middle eastern politics. To say that it sparked thought & analysis would be a understatement. Please find some of my thoughts below:

- What the hell is the Middle East? Names are a large part of identification, and that particular phrase tells you nothing. To be sure, at one time, comparing middle east vs. far east (China, Japan,etc..) was relevant, b.u.t. in this day & time, it does nothing by confuse joe public as to what continents these countries are really on. Egypt is considered as such to seperate it from Africa; Tunisia is right next to it, and everybody calls that Africa, so why not Egypt. If those countries really attached themselves to a continental or pan-continental bloc (See the big homie Hugo for reference), they could be much more powerful than they are now.

From a historical angle, The middle east is/was a area that was destined to fail. It's been the bastard child of European/Western countries since WWI, when it was recognized as a strategic area by european countries who were uncomfortable with the Ottoman Empire. For all those in the NGE, please see the Knowledge degree in the 1-14 for reference and analysis.

- Things are often much more complex than they seem. In the movie, you couldn't judge a book by it's cover as far as who thought what solely based on ethnicity, position, etc.. Similarily, today there are a myriad of issues that are often painted as one dimensional (ex. Young Black men sell drugs because they're lazy and irresponsible). The more nuanced the anaylsis, the more comprehensive the solution can be. Think about where America would be re: the Iraq fiasco if GWB and his neo-con cronies were a bit more "nuanced".

- Knowledge & Power born Equality; simply put, your idea & your ability to affect your environment create your overall impact. Low expectations create low realities. This is no disrespect to my more "enlightened" or "deep" brothers, b.u.t. if your life goal is to "master" yourself (control breathing, high science diet, etc..), while letting idiots run with the globe, you're doing yourself & your children a disservice. Those of us who know better have to take our ideas to scale, and not be satisfied with the crumbs off of the table. There is no reason to be satisfied with having no or little impact on the world around us (& I don't mean your woman or family; that should be implicit). Allah the Father advocated for those of us in the NGE to be pacesetters for our people; none of us can do that by playing the back when it comes to the future of the planet. Let's build, grow, multiply & expand for the good of the entire planet.

2007-01-08T16:17:00.000-08:00

Urban Orientalism

Below is a post on "Urban Orientalism" that I posted on a blog that I share with my esteemed brother Divine Culture Allah. Do the knowledge & enjoy!

Urban Orientalism Pt. 1

During my younger years, one of my primary role models was my uncle. Approx. 10 years older than me, he served as my example of what I wanted to be when I got older. One memory that sticks in my head is the thought of saturday afternoons during the early-mid 80's, when he stopped everything he was doing to watch "Karate Flicks" on Channel 48 ( & the resulting practice on me and house objects). In fact, It seemed that the whole hood pushed pause on any activity while checking out flicks like The Five Deadly Venoms & Master Killer. My uncle went on to become a Black Belt in Kempo(A Korean Martial Art). This was my introduction to Urban Orientalism.

Urban Orientalism?

What the hell is Urban Orientalism?I'll start by telling you what it isn't:

- It ain't the "Chinese" take-out in your hood. That, my brother/sister is a grease factory & a urban crime magnet.

- It ain't getting a tatoo of a Chinese character that someone told you means "loyalty"

- It ain't wearing Chinese slippers on the concrete until the bottoms look like tar just because "all the girls are wearing them this year".That, my people is capitalism & cultural appropriation at it's worst.

No, Urban Orientalism (A self-coined term, by the way) is the connection and relationship between Black & Brown communities in the Wilderness of North America and filaments of Asian Culture (For the sake of PC, I must state that I was made aware that the term Oriental can be seen as offensive in some circles, & that Oriental refers to culture, while Asian refers to people as well as culture). A book that gives a good introduction to the phenomenon is Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting by Vijay Prashad. In the book, Prashad lays out the origin and implications of the connection between Black & Asian/Indian communities, from the development of the Moorish Science Temple & Nation Of Islam, to the relationship between the Black Panthers and The Yellow Peril (look it up if you're not down), to the Black community's love for Bruce Lee. The evidence presented in the book is exhaustive, so my musings on the subject will be based on elements of UO that occur closer to home, if you will: Shou Wu Chih & Bidis.

During my high school years, I was involved with a young lady who would wax incessantly at times about this mystical drink called "Sa-wu-chi". Now I considered myself pretty hip & aware regarding alternative potions & such, b.u.t. I had no idea what she was speaking of. She went on to tell me that it was a drink that the Muslims that she knew partook in. At that point, I took it as info for info's sake & moved on...

2007-01-04T08:59:00.000-08:00

Hip Hop Ain't Dead, Yall Just Grew Up

Peace,

The title above may come as somewhat of a surprise to some of you, given the tone of some of my posts in the past that have been critical of contemporary HH. And don't worry, I'm not going hipster on yall or anything; It's that after taking a critical look at the environment that was being created around the music, I noticed a few inconsistencies in the prevailing perspective that HH had some how gone astray in the last few years. For a look into where I'm coming from on this, please check the following points:

- To all my 30 and over east coast - Centric fans: To say that HH died when "Laffy Taffy" came out is indicative of a serious bias, as nobody said that HH died when Wrex - N- Effect came out with "Rumpshaker". Hey, they are both totally devoid of content and marketed to do one thing: Have a woman shake her @$$. When you were 15, it rocked the party; give 15 year-olds of today the same opportunities. Let's not even get to talking about Luke, who was at least as profane as the Ying Yang Twins. Back then, we didn't say it wasn't HH; it was just a different regional spin on the music.

- To all those that say that HH is being overrun by "Studio Gangsters": Yo chief, studio gangsters have been around since day uno, and that issue is more economic than everything because poor people are looking to HH as a profession more than an art form, and that fact causes people to make decisions & moves that are not in the best interest of the music. Also, let us not have short memories & forget that some very good HH was made by brothers who were not who they said they were, or who were telling the stories of other men: See NWA, Ice Cube, B.I.G., Nas. I would love for HH to be genuine and authentic, b.u.t. I have come to accept that some people are good storytellers.

- To the little homie Nas: Of all people to say that HH died! You were the so-called "savior" of the music with Illmatic. Between It Was Written & Stillmatic, you confused the hell out of everybody, and made jams like You Owe Me w/ pony man. If HH is dead, it's because you didn't give it any guidance.

- For all of my 30-&-ups, it's really about the subjective vs. the objective, as far as the ability to see the music as changing, b.u.t. still having some of the basic qualities it had when you were growing up: Imagination, projected importance, social commentary (you just have to look a little deeper), misogyny, dances, and most importantly, Black Expression. Give the corporations hell, cause they're really the ones who are trying to kill the music, and give the kids(& old men acting like kids) a break.

2006-12-20T14:43:00.000-08:00

In West Philadelphia....

Peace,

I have two major influences in my life: Supreme Mathematics & Philadelphia. While it's pretty easy for anyone to recognize that I live out my Culture, it may not be as easy to see how being from philly affects how I see the world. It's not until you get older and have the ability to think back that you see how important location & culture are to developing your self-image. For example, most Black men aren't comfortable with wearing pink hats or pink shirts (That whole Cam thing notwithstanding), b.u.t. due to growing up in philly, I don't think twice about rocking a slightly faded pink polo shirt, due to the influences of my youth. Another example is music: I listen to 70's soul the way some of you listen to R. Kelly (don't all put you hands up at one time!). Another huge influence in Philly is Islam, b.u.t. I'm going to cover that in another post. For know, check out a list I was sent regarding 50 ways you know you're from Philly. This list is for those between 28-35, & even if you're not from the crib, I'm sure that there are things that you can reflect on in your own life of how where you're from partially shaped how you see the world. Feel free to add on...

1. You knew Will Smith when he was The Fresh Prince

2. You think South Street is Philly`s version of The Village

3. You know how to spell Schuylkill River

4. It drives you insane when someone says tennis shoes instead ofsneakers

5. You would BOO your own mom if she made a bad sports play

6. You don`t call a cheesesteak a Philly cheesesteak or a hoagie a sub

7. Seeing The Liberty Bell, and Independence Mall is not a big deal, andyou haven't been since your 6th grade class trip.

8. You own a Power 99 tshirt

9. You know what Power 99 is and remember Carter & Sanborne in the morning....let us not forget Horace the Taurus Pindaurus the THIRD and Rasheeda and her earrings.
9A. You`re an old a** Philadelphian if you remember Stanley T!

10. You know how to scam SEPTA. (I know all of yall have sold your>school tokens!)

11. An Asian person has ever served you shrimp-fried rice, three chicken>wings, a pizza roll and a homemade iced tea.

12. You know what a "Jawn" is

13. PHIL-A-JOB!

14. You been to club "Dances" at least once.

15. Everybody on the block is "yo cuzzin" even if they`re not related to you.

16. You used to go to the Gallery or South St. in the summer time just to chill.

17. You have a Chinese store on the corner of your block and their wings>put the local KFC out of business.

18. You have carried a City Blue bag to school in place of a book bag.

19. You grew up playin double dutch, KING ball, Catch-A-Girl-Get-A-Girl, House, Red Light Green Light, or playin ball on milk crates.

20. You hate KOBE

21. You know where the "Plat" is.

22. You go all out for Powerhouse like it`s a prom.

23. Ladies: You had an asymmetrical hair cut with parts on the side.Guys: You ever colored your hair and beard Blue Black.

24. The ice cream truck still coming making its rounds at 3 AM.

25. You know what a "TRIZZEY" is! LOL

26. You punctuate every sentence with, "YaMeeeeen" at least twice.

27. You want mayonnaise (and extra) on your "hoagie" not olive oil.

28. You hate the Redskins

29. You hate T.O..
29a. Now you REALLY HATE Dallas.!!

30. You realize that your favorite dessert is "wooder ice".

31. You ever had a hoagie, Chumpies and a red hug for lunch.

32. You pronounce ACME "ACK-A-ME" and Pathmark "Paffmark".

33. Grape Soda is not unusual!

34. You sleep soundly through gunfire and ambulance sirens and are>awaken by crickets.

35. You visit New York and are impressed by how clean it is.

36. You can`t eat french fries without Cheese Whiz.>>37. You call sprinkles on top of your ice cream cone "jimmies".

38. You don`t think Wawa sounds funny.

39. You snub a cheese steak that isn`t on an Amoroso roll.

40. You know who Jim O`Brien is and how he died.

41. You can`t imagine lunch without a Tastykake. (And you rub the tastykake on a flat surface before opening it so the icing doesn't stick to the plastic!)

42. You've purchased jewelry from Fiff Street or Market Street.

43. You vacation at Wildwood

44. You know where to find the Rocky statue.

45. You know that only tourists go to Geno`s, Pat`s and Jim`s for
authentic cheese steaks and you only go if you're drunk and its 3:00am.
45a. You know where the "Let Out" is.
45b. Club McDonald's.....

46. You know what and where "Boathouse Row" is

47. You aren`t a bandwagon Sixers fan. You loved them when they sucked,and before they had A.I.

48. You know that MOVE isn`t some new dance to do when you hear "DA ROOOF DA ROOOOF DA ROOOF IS ON FIYAHHHHHH".

49. You ever drove/walked by Channel 6 when they were doing the weather and beeped/ danced to get on TV.

And finally....50. You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends fromPhiladelphia

2006-12-18T14:03:00.000-08:00

Food For Thought

Peace,

If you read this blog, I'm sure that you're at least somewhat "Conscious" about what you eat. By "conscious", I don't mean vegetarian or vegan or fruitarian; I mean aware of what you eat & what effect it has on your body. For me, it's been a long journey towards my health & nutritional world at the date of this writing. At this point, I consider myself a "healthy" eater, which translates to me observing the dietary laws of the NGE, & maintaining a majority vegetarian diet ( although I enjoy Salmons company very much).

Below is a article from Bloomberg that I found on www.philly.com regarding a study done that people with higher IQ's tend to become vegetarian later in life. Firstly, I have serious doubts about the method used to identify intelligence in our society, and secondly, you have to draw up what conclusions can be drawn from the inferences stated. Check it out, & tell me what you think!

Smartest kids go vegetarian

By Eva von Schaper

Bloomberg News

Children with a higher intelligence quotient at age 10 are more likely to become vegetarians later in life, according to a study published online today by the British Medical Journal.
People with an IQ of 110 were 21/2 times more likely to avoid eating meat, the lead author of the study, Catherine Gale of the University of Southampton, said in a telephone interview. Researchers studied more than 8,000 men and women, and found vegetarians were more likely to be women, belong to a higher social class, and have higher educational degrees.

"If you are bright, you are more likely to understand health information, and more likely to act on it," Gale, a senior research fellow, said.

The results backed up findings that intelligence is associated with lower rates of heart disease.
While their intelligence may allow the vegetarian participants to be more health literate, some vegetarians act on purely ethical reasons when they give up meat, the study said.

The researchers studied participants at age 10, and followed up 20 years later. About 4.5 percent of them said they were vegetarian. Some who classified themselves as vegetarians found it acceptable to eat fish or chicken.

2006-12-14T15:07:00.000-08:00

Pouring Up

Think about this for a minute: Hip Hop is the American Dream. What I mean by this is although it may have started in the ghetto & represented the underprivileged, it's goal was to make it out & blow up, thus transcending it's environment. Not that this is necessarily wrong, as nobody poor wants to stay poor. It just means that the time will eventually when HH "sells" out, & people shouldn't be as surprised as they are when it happens.

Take HH's relationship to business. In this day & time HH sells everything from gold grills to blunt wraps usually with very little concern as to the social impact or quality of the product. Quick quiz: besides Vitamin Water (Curtis Jackson) (1), name one product that you really want your children or future generations to have? Most of the products that we hawk are specifically designed for us and in many ways continue to reinforce the same behaviors that prove to be counter-productive to our community. Besides Jay-Z (HP commercials) & Diddy (Sean John) most of our products are "ghettoized", if you will.

Which leads me to Champagne. Long the drink of choice the money getters in HH, Champ became the ultimate symbol of style & status, even leading to the absurd (See Damon Dash pouring champ all over women while in a drunken stupor). And while rappers incessantly told us about the cost of the grapes, no one ever told us how good it tasted, or how exclusive that year was. A couple of weeks ago, I read a article in Fast Company (www.fastcompany.com)about Branson, the Hip-Hop taste maker who was in the process of securing his own champagne for sale in his wine bar, as well as other locations throughout New York. The article peaked my interest for two reasons:

1) The fact that he's developing a product that falls outside the pale of what we expect from HH- related figures

2) The lack of visible support from artists who benefited from Branson's stature (Jay, Diddy)

I'm posting the article below so that you can see it, and dig what happens when people develop a short memory. I salute the brother Branson for going outside of the norm with his business idea,(2) and not falling victim to the same ol' same ol' with marketing & promoting the product.

Bottled Up

Just When Cristal got kicked out of the party, Hip-hop fixture Branson B. was rolling out his own champagne. So where are his famous friends now? Hey, it's just business.

Hip-hop giveth and hip-hop taketh away. Earlier this year, Frederic Rouzaud, managing director of Louis Roederer Champagne, was asked by The Economist whether the hip-hop world's love of its flagship, Cristal, "could hurt the brand." "What can we do?" Rouzaud responded. "We can't forbid people from buying it. I'm sure Dom PÃrignon or Krug would be delighted to have their business."

Chalk up another one for French diplomacy. An indignant Jay-Z, the multiplatinum rapper and Def Jam Records president and CEO, promptly slammed the statement as racist and called for a boycott, triggering a rush of nasty PR for the gold-tone bottle he helped put on the map. No more endorsements in hit songs, no more gauzy close-ups in videos or on red carpets. The embrace that made Cristal the eighth most-mentioned brand in Billboard's Top 20 chart in 2005, according to American Brandstand, was summarily withdrawn.

Cristal will survive, of course. Demand still runs high, even if some of the slack has to be picked up in the less-than-glamorous Chinese and Russian markets. But within hip-hop--and the coveted young demo that follows its cues--what will take its place?

This is the question for Branson B., a Harlem talent manager and entrepreneur with local roots that run about as deep as they get. Branson doesn't rap, but he was once described as "hip-hop's version of the Dalai Lama." Now, with Cristal's implosion, he's looking to become hip-hop's version of Frederic Rouzaud: A self-taught oenophile, Branson has spent years developing his own high-quality champagne and has just begun rolling it out in select venues nationwide.
Branson's venture has all the makings of the perfect entrepreneurial storm. He has name recognition in a champagne-fueled subculture and a new bubbly to bring to market at precisely the moment when the dominant bottle has gone flat. But his story is an object lesson in how hard it can be to build a brand even when you seem to be the right guy, in the right place, at the right time. By his own calculations, Branson has been paid tribute in more than 50 songs over the years. Now he's hoping some of those old friends in the hip-hop community will show up to back one of their own. Hoping and still waiting.

Almost Famous

Long, neat dreadlocks fall across Branson's broad shoulders as he sits beside a line of empty champagne bottles in his Harlem wine bar, which is still under construction. Scattered among the empties are various promotional materials for rap artists and events. One glossy card plugs a DVD documentary on the notorious street thug 50 Cent, whose violent exploits inspired the chart-topping rapper who took his name. Branson narrates the project.
Branson's name, like Cristal's, is a hip-hop staple: It has popped up in hit lyrics from stars such as the Notorious B.I.G., Sean "Puffy/Puff Daddy/P. Diddy/Diddy" Combs, Mase, Redman, and LL Cool J. It's "like he's a celebrity," says Jimmy Rosemond, CEO of Czar Entertainment and manager of rapper the Game, adding that for out-of-town artists, an audience with Branson is a "status symbol." Fab 5 Freddy, coexecutive producer of VH1's Hip Hop Honors, agrees: "When you go to the top of the food chain, he's a well-known guy."

In fact, Fab 5 Freddy and other industry insiders credit Branson with having triggered rap's champagne craze in the first place in the early to mid-nineties, when he'd show up at recording sessions or other events with a few bottles of his latest favorite. But Branson is not your typical upturned-pinkie connoisseur. The lyrics about him tend to be of the "smoke a little Branson inside the mansion" variety (he's quick to point out that "I don't control the lyrical content, I don't control the artist"). And his reputation in the neighborhood goes back decades, to its most storied hip-hop incubator, the Rooftop Roller Rink. He has since managed artists including major R&B star Christopher Williams and the influential producer and Jodeci member DeVante Swing. He had his own record label for a while and later worked on another with Andy Hilfiger (brother of Tommy). For more than 20 years, his candy store, the Sugar Bowl, was an uptown landmark.
Branson's love of champagne led him downtown, however, to Manhattan's finer wine shops; with their guidance, his fascination evolved into an obsession. "He was always exploring different champagnes," says J.R. Battipaglia, manager of Garnet Wines & Liquors in Manhattan, who has known Branson as a customer for more than 15 years. "He wasn't a label buyer."

Branson says it took a good decade before it occurred to him to go into the business. He gravitated toward the rare but unsung "grower-producer" champagnes--those grown and bottled on one estate--and when he first expressed interest in importing some by the acclaimed Guy Charlemagne, Battipaglia was surprised but jumped to help. He put Branson in touch with Jeanne-Marie de Champs, who represents some of the top estates in Burgundy, as well as Guy Charlemagne. "He has a personality that we are maybe not used to in France," de Champs chuckles, "but it's great." She agreed to broker an introduction overseas.

So, more than two years before the Cristal controversy even broke, Branson journeyed to the village of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, in the Champagne region, for the nearly three-month-long process of selecting grapes for three wines. He sweated through the rules and regulations imposed on new businesses by the French government and the region's hyperzealous governing body. (The laws, de Champs notes, "are very strict. You cannot do what you want, how you want, or what kind of label you want.") He fought off a challenge to his trademark from another company that claimed Branson's name was too similar. He created his own sleek, understated logo for the label and secured a New York State broker's license to buy and sell alcohol.
After three and a half years and an investment he puts in the mid six figures, Branson had three bottles of his own: a blanc de blanc/brut reserve, a brut rose, and a special 2000 vintage, now available as "Guy Charlemagne selected by Branson B." Retail cost: $40, $43, and $65, respectively, or roughly a quarter the retail cost of a bottle of Cristal, which can run $800 or far more in some nightclubs.

Brand Flash

"There are two realities in champagne," explains Roberto Rogness, general manager of Santa Monica's Wine Expo and a commentator on the industry for NPR and MSNBC. "It's almost exactly like the music industry. Over here is pop music and over there is the music you want to listen to." Powerhouses like LVHennesseyt Hennessy Louis Vuitton), the world's largest producer of luxury goods, dominate the game with millions in marketing muscle, while the best small vineyards in Champagne remain all but invisible despite arguably superior--and definitely cheaper--products. "You have always been able to buy our bottles of better champagne than Cristal for the same money," Rogness says flatly.
"I'm not going to lie. I'd love nothing more than for Jay-Z to stand up and say, 'Hey, I'm drinking Branson B. now.' That would be wonderful, and help sell the product."
In other words, the champagne hierarchy is no meritocracy, and the rest of the $23 billion U.S. wine market is no different. Fab 5 Freddy and others point out that rappers are expanding into wine and liquor just as they moved into apparel following Russell Simmons's striking success with Phat Farm. Meanwhile, the rise of bottle service in large clubs has made them far more influential as distribution and promotion channels--making brand flash a critical component of sales.

Both trends--rappers' entry into the wine-and-spirits business and the use of clubs to promote brands--are being built into the entire product-development strategy. For example, David McCallen, CEO of Straight Up Brands Inc., a publicly traded company, is launching a sparkling wine called Wave with rapper Foxy Brown, as well as other beverages with Ja Rule and DJ Clue. According to McCallen, because Foxy is signed to Def Jam, Jay-Z has agreed to host Wave's launch this winter, "appear around the product with her," carry it in his 40/40 Clubs, and include a promotional insert in her new CD.

The quality of the wine isn't the main point--it's all about placement and cross-promotion. McCallen stresses that deals like Foxy's aren't endorsement deals. The artist "owns a piece of the brand" and shares in revenue as a creative partner (he puts the profits on wine products at around 35% to 40%, and up to 100% on spirits). "We give them signing bonuses, just like a record deal," he explains. "I want the artist to literally work [the name] into their songs, rap about it, have it in their videos. It's all product placement." After Busta Rhymes released his hit "Pass the Courvoisier" in 2001, that tipple saw a 30% sales increase.
"This is a fit for [rap artists] from a product point of view," McCallen adds. "I mean, they're shameless promoters . So it's not a disconnect for them to rap about a liquor deal, a liquor product that they own. It's spot on."

The Shepherd

And then there's Branson, with his studiously chosen grapes, his understated bottle, his legit French label and trademark. For Branson, the quality of the wine is the point. But as wine merchant Battipaglia knows all too well from the retail side, grower-producer champagnes like Branson's, outstanding as they may be, have struggled here. "Americans, I would say, are very label conscious," he says, adding that Branson is "really working hard to get exposure. I think he initially thought it would have been a little easier."

Up at his as-yet-nameless bar in Harlem, Branson gives voice to a classic business quandary: "I don't want to pigeonhole myself to the rap community and be like, 'Hey, this is a rap champagne,'" he says. "I'd like the support of the hip-hop audience, but I'd like the hip-hop audience to be educated and aware and conscious of what they're drinking." In other words, he's serious about this stuff. And that has always been his way. "When Puff and other people in hip-hop were young and just about to do it, they were very inspired by Branson and his tastes," says Fab 5 Freddy. "Branson is a very intelligent, very aware tastemaker. He's one of those shepherds."
Wouldn't you think, then, that a guy with so much legend behind him would have the hip-hop community rallying, eager to put forward one of its own?

Branson mentions having sent some samples with a personal note in early 2006 to Jay-Z's 40/40 Club in Manhattan. He and Jay-Z aren't close, but they know each other socially through a mutual friendship with the late Christopher Wallace, aka the Notorious B.I.G. Branson worked for Biggie as a consultant during portions of his multiplatinum career, which was cut short in 1997 in a still-unsolved homicide.

Though he's built like a linebacker, Branson comes across tonight like a self-possessed yet world-weary professor. "I mean, I'm not going to lie. I'd love nothing more than for Jay-Z to stand up and take a position and say, 'Hey, I'm drinking Branson B. now.' That would be wonderful, and that would help sell the product." After Jay-Z cited Krug--hardly a brand known for its uptown cred--as an alternative to Cristal, it saw "a nice sales increase," acknowledges Emily Cohen, Krug's New York--based senior brand manager (she says she can't link the two events, but Wine Expo's Rogness says he also noticed a spike--and does attribute it to Jay-Z's plug). Jay-Z didn't respond to repeated requests for comment about whether he would support Branson's new venture.

Combs, too, is nowhere in sight. Czar Entertainment's Rosemond says Branson's role in advising and building up Biggie was "definitely one of the components" of Combs's own ascent. ("So Branson, pass me a jar cuz these cats done went too far," he raps on one track.) For months, however, Branson has been hearing that Combs was considering launching his own champagne. "You know, it's funny," Branson says, without laughing or smiling, "here I am trying to do something, and now he's trying to do it." He adds, "Puffy and I had a good relationship for a lot of years, and I used to share champagne with him, but I wouldn'tÂ ." His voice trails off. "I know that I had some kind of impact in his life, but I don't know if he would admit it.

"You know what I've learned?" he adds. "Everybody remembers different things."
Combs also refused to say whether he intended to support Branson's champagne--or compete with it. Fab 5 Freddy is sure he and Jay-Z will do their part (Combs owns a number of popular restaurants as well). "Oh, absolutely. It's just a matter of time, if it hasn't happened already." He relays that Combs tried some of Branson's label earlier this year and enjoyed it.

Then, in October, the rapper Nas was quoted talking about the possibility of "Diddy/Nas champagne." A week or so later, a Jay-Z video appeared shilling for Armand de Brignac, a champagne with a gold-plated bottle and an ace-of-spades-shaped label. The company's CEO insisted there was no financial arrangement with Jay-Z but complimented him on having "the highest standards and finest taste."
Maybe it's not about community, after all.

Bubble Up

Dining in a slick Murray Hill lounge one mild fall evening, Branson seems more upbeat than he did at his wine-bar-in-progress. Honey lounge in New York has signed on to carry Branson B., and the exclusive Cain clubs are thinking about it. Megu has added it to the wine lists at its tony Japanese restaurants in Trump Towers and Tribeca (Tribeca's list is a Wine Spectator award winner). Platinum-selling rapper the Game recently wrote Branson B. Champagne into the performance rider for his upcoming world tour. Momentum is coming Branson's way.

"I'm happy being creative," Branson remarks. "I'm happy doing things, making things happen, having ideas, and seeing them manifest." Asked about the days of dropping by while Biggie was in the studio, he recalls being present the night "Rap Phenomenon" was put down on wax. "We're sitting in there, we're listening to the track, and then he just spits my name as part of the lyrical flow. You know, everybody turns and looks at you, but at the same time, it's not about you. It's about how it fits, it works, and it all feels good.
"I didn't know he was going to do that," Branson adds, sounding humbled.
Only recently did Branson decide to track down all the songs that have included his name and document them. The sheer volume took him by surprise. "I don't think there's another person who isn't an entertainer or star who has been mentioned more than myself in the lyrical content of this music," he muses.

"That, I guess, is building a brand."

1 - Who woulda thunk it?

2 - Everybody in HH starts a Vodka or Congac, and when the trend ends, they're left holding the bag

2006-12-08T15:34:00.000-08:00

Outta Control

Peace,

There's been alot going on, so on this day of Build/Destroy, it's my will to touch on a number of things that caught my eye over the last couple of days. Walk w/me:

- Iraq sure turned out to be Bush's Vietnam, didn't it? To make matters worse, he won't move with 2 of the main recommendations made by his pop's homeboys (aka The Iraq Study Group), lest he appear to be capitulating to the demands of those who slouch away from fighting for the freedom of people the world over (good mimicry, right?)

- My beloved city of Power Allah (Philadelphia) is outta control. The city is on record to have more murders than days in the year, & of course most of the casualties are young Black men. Earlier this week, there was a shooting outside the fist movie theater opened in North Philadelphia in 60 years, & a 17 year old was arrested for attempted murder. This may come off as conservative or whatever, b.u.t. we have very serious environmental & cultural issues when a 17 year old takes it into his own hands to take someone off of the planet. No amount of marches or symposiums will handle this issue, & while music itself is only one aspect of the landscape, a steady diet of "Murder Murder Kill Kill Homicide"

- On this subject, two weeks ago, there was an article done in the New York Times Sunday Magazine regarding the No Child Left Behind (Also known as the Poor Ghetto Children Still Left Behind) act, expectations, and socialization. The article highlighted studies done that point to a child's early socialization being the biggest factor in preparation for school. Specifically, the studies focused the amount of "utterances" that children hear that assist them in wiring their brains for language & idea comprehension, and the amount of affirmative vs. Negative or disparaging statements that children hear. While all of the issues in education can't be thrown out due to this study, I can't help but think about all of the young girls that I see out in the street who spew out negative comments to their children on a daily basis. Inadvertently, they could be wiring their children for failure. With that said, think about all of the negative that our babies hear on a daily basis, that can possibly impact their psychology and view on the world.

- HH is increasingly becoming outta control (in a real way). From violence at events (BARS Awards & Mixtape Awards), to the petty (b.u.t. funny) disputes that are popping up everywhere (see: young buck & gillie vs. lil wayne), the streets are beginning to affect the industry in a negative fashion. The new rift that is developing is based upon ageism, and developed out of the NY vs. the South "pork" (cause it's worse than beef).

Case in point 1: Weezy's diatribe regarding Jigga. In a sense, the fans and the magazines are to blame (along with the drugs) because they allowed him to continue with this "greatest rapper alive" garbage for a couple of years now. It was only a few years ago that he wanted to be on DJ with Jay-Z, so why the turnaround? The inference that Jay had to come back to "save" HH, when in the eyes of Wayne it's doing just fine as it is.

Case in point 2: Jeezy's diatribe against Nas. This one's a little deeper, & points to the framework for how people understand HH. To Jeezy, he IS HH, so how could it be dead? Hip Hop for him (and others of his ilk) getting paid & telling his story (In that order). to him, it has nothing to do w/ the 4 Elements or consciousness or anything else (outside of being a "real nigga"). In a way, I can't blame him, if only for this reason: Let's say that the most influential time for you to hear HH is between 11-15 years old. If your 32, the most influential artists would have been Run-Dmc, LL, Rakim, BDP, and so on. If you're 25, then the most influential artists would be Dre, Snoop, Biggie, Jay, & Pac, as they were the biggest artists during that time frame.

Now, the artists that I named as influencers for the younger crowd all looked up to the artists I mentioned earlier(Even 5-0 says that his favorite rapper is Rakim), b.u.t. took the music (as well as resulting culture) in another direction that made no mention of the foundation . For example, how many young people know that Jay's "Aint no Nigga" took the beat from an EPMD song? Or that BIG's interlude on Life After Death was a direct knock-off of P.S.K.? Or for a more modern example, how many kids (or adults) knew that Jay's "Girls, Girls, Girls" was a old-school chorus? By the time the kids got the music, there were no traces of the culture, only the music and money.

Case in point 3: Lupe Fiasco. In one of his responses to a negative review of his album, he mentioned that he didn't own one tribe album. If you so-called savior of beats & rhymes doesn't know the basics, then what do you expect out of the others?

All of yall get a grip. It ain't what it was, and never will be, as all things must change. If they want HH to be alive, put out good HH.

- Damon Dash is seeming to be outta control. On Kays Slay's satellite show earlier this week, Larry Davis called in from the injustice and stated the following, among other things:
1) Dash is a liar
2) Dash stole the SP logo from Beans
3) Dash is trying to get paid off of LD's life story without his permission
4) Jay left him because he doesn't do good business
5) Dash drained Rocawear

now, while only they know the true story, I'll say this: It's kinda odd that Dame doesn't get down with anyone anymore. No Beans, no Nore, no Jay, no nobody. I kinda looked at it like he got the bum deal, b.u.t. it appears that he may have been giving out the bum deals. He doesn't even seem to be involved in any Diplomat business, which is strange unless they know something that the general public doesn't.

2006-12-04T13:07:00.000-08:00

Won/Lost Ones

(Jay-Z Won/Jay-Z Lost)

Peace,

If it isn't already apparent, I'm very interested in the intersection of Hip-Hop, Economics, & Society. For that reason, Rocafella Records always stood out as an example of the bridge between good business and quality art. No matter where you stood on the subject matter, it was obvious that there was care & effort put into Jay-Z's music. As far as business practices, RR always seemed to see beyond the pitfall and traps of HH economics (e.g. Demanding true ownership vs. Being the owner of a "vanity" label).

However, by the time the play ended, Jay, Biggs, & Dame broke up, the music started to suffer, and RR served as yet another example of HH relationships gone bad.

What Happened?

Well in a nutshell, Jay-Z won & Jay-Z lost. Below, I will explain how he could do both at the same time.

How Jay-Z Won
When RR first broke up, I looked at the conflict as 2 different business styles, with Jay leaning towards corporate partnerships & Dame charting a course of serial entrepreneurship. At that time, I saw the differences as surface. Now, we know the cause was precipitated by Jay feeling that Dame's business whims (signing everyone w/ pulse, a foray into movies, buying pro-keds) were destroying the brand. Additionally with Steve (Puffy don't break my neck) Stoute at his side, Jay began moving into uncharted waters as far as HH, Marketing, & Brand Identity, Jay didn't have as much need for the aggressive, loud-talking Dash. One other thing that put the nail in the coffin was that many of Jay's business partners (Stoute, Lyor Cohen) weren't too fond of the way that Dash got busy.

When Jay-Z & friends threw Dash out of the matrix, I thought it was a pretty cold move to do to a person that you got paid with for the last 7 years. In reality, Dash was left without a home & without a identity due to being pushed out of RR. Most of the artists on Rocafella went with Jay, leaving Dash with Rell, Sizzla, & Beans (Who has since left dash). After being thrown under the bus, Dash tried to start his own thing, to no avail. Fast forward to 2006: Jay sells 700,000 units first week out, & Dash is more known for doing reality shows & stalking Jay. Also, for all those who are into this sort of thing, Jay's promo push is the last of the mohicans as far as the big corporate variety (More on Steve-o Stoute in another post). Right now, Jay is on top of the world, & Dash is most known for being bitter & his wife's budding fashion career. In this way, Jay won.

Jay Z Lost

Although Jay's on top of the world in one sense, in another way, he's tarnishing his legacy & image. Although Kingdom Come sold well, it will go down as one of his least well received albums from a critical perspective. When listening, you can't help but see the Jordan in him (post-Bulls,that is).

Kingdom Come finds Hov in a zone where he wants to show the world he's got it, b.u.t. make it look effortless at the same time. Instead of leaving when he (& his squad) were on top, he comes back to show that he's the best that ever did it (A title he's been chasing since HH memorialized Big as the best thing since the Hula Hoop). In this sense, I like to compare Jay/Mike with Bird. Bird knew when it was time to roll and did it gracefully, moving to the front office so that his career in basketball could take it's natural course. We don't have any Larry Legend's in HH because unfortunately, it's a bit too ego driven for that. Rapper are always forced out after their prime by a new generation (HH eats it's young & it's elders).

I do applaud him for trying to create a new zone in HH, if you will: The "Old Head" HH album. You know, the HH album for older grown & sexy, upwardly mobile types. If you're going to do that, you have to be consistent: You can't talk it, and then do bad odes to strippers ( True Old Heads are much more discreet & subtle). The other thing about KC is the preoccupation with "Young Niggas". Instead of leading without having to lead, he tries to bully the youth into taking his lead,however beneficial that road may be.

Which leads me to his issue with Jim "The Workman" Jones. You see, although Jones is outwardly flashy & arrogant, in reality, he's a hard worker with alot of initiative and drive who's taken himself from hypeman to star in his own right. He also actualized what no other rapper was able to do: create a true "movement" based on gang affiliation (The Red Team) & pavement pounding. Say what you will about his music, b.u.t. the diplomats are one of the few NY crews that have country-wide appeal. Jones has been the most outspoken in coming at Jay for sometime because in the eyes of the constituents that Jones serves (New York & Youth), the legend of Jay-Z lost some of it's luster. Along the way Jones manages to come up with a hit song, only increasing his visibility & annoying Jay even more. So now Jay finds himself in a battle of sorts with a moderately talented rapper who keeps firing shots. What does he do?

He makes a diss song over Jones's song, which only shows that he's as vulnerable as people think he is. If you are truly above the fray, then you shouldn't be pulled in by Jim of all people. On the other side, if it was a publicity stunt, then o' how the mighty have fallen. Either way, it's a lose-lose situation that he never should
have put himself in.

Finally, there's this thing about being the president of Def Jam. Without hating or anything, the question has to be asked: How can you run the label & record an album at the same time? Doesn't that seem like a huge conflict of interest where you'll turn in two half-assed efforts instead of one good one? How can a president be focused on the strategic plan for the label when the focus is on a huge corporate rollout for your own album? You can't be the president & be on your own tour at the same time. On the real, Jay had to do this album to make the numbers look right for Def Jam this year with a strong 4th Q push, in the face of a steadily declining market share for his company. In doing so, he has sacrificed the artists on the label, many of whom came to DJ because he was going to run the ship.

The best thing Jay could do for HH at this point is to prove that we can manage it just as well as we do it in a changing marketplace. In a interview Jigga noted "70,000 is the new 150,000"m b.u.t. if we buy that, how in the hell did you sell 700,000? The same way it was done in the past: promotion, marketing, & product placement. I don't knock the hustle, I knock the application

2006-11-27T15:19:00.000-08:00

In The Place To Be

Peace,

I just returned to Power Born from the Bay for a couple of days, so that's why I was off the set. A few of my observations from the last week or so:

- First of all, Homeland Security is in need of some major retooling. What am I going to do, take over the plane with Shea Butter? Catching a plane these days is like getting on a prison bus, & does anyone feel that much safer? The TSA seems like a new way to employ people, and that's all

- People have beat this Kramer thing to death, so I won't go in too far, b.u.t. didn't his character stomp on the P.R. flag a couple of seasons ago? Were we expecting anything else? This episode is what happens when some White Men get to let their pent-up feelings out. Trust me, he's not alone; only the mouthpiece. As media gets more un-pc, we'll see more of this

- I don't know the whole story regarding the 92-year old sista who was killed last week, b.u.t. I know it's a damn shame when a elder has to go to those extremes to protect herself in her own home. Frankly speaking, she might not have known who it was, as people will use a lot of tricks to get in your house

- Funny how everyone's bearing witness that the United States doesn't know what the hell it's doing in Iraq huh? This was a miscalculation of epic proportions, and may have ended up doing much more to destabilize that area than help. Remember homeboys & homegirls: sometimes relative power is more effective than absolute power, & subtle strategy always beats brute force

- Isn't is sad when you see young girls in the street yelling & screaming at their children? I do understand that the sistas are under alot of pressure, b.u.t. they have no idea of the negative implications of their actions. More to come regarding that subject...

- Isn't it deep how neighborhoods that no one wanted to live in 20 years ago are now the "hot" areas? An extension of that is how real estate developers are able to take old factories and warehouses and turn them into lofts and condos that can cost over 1 million dollars due to the view & proximity. I'm going to make sure that I buy something that white people don't want today and get rich in 20 years

- Airports need better food choices

- If you're a vegetarian & find yourself at the Harrisburg Airport, be sure to pack a lunch (cause there's nothing for you to eat) & bring a book (cause it'll be virtually empty)

- San Francisco is a beautiful city, b.u.t. they need to resolve their homelessness situation. Two blocks from the major shopping district, I found myself stepping over people to get to the whip

- With that, it is important to deal with the mental health issues that many homeless people have. They aren't all out there cause they couldn't find a job

- Being there, I got the inclination that Black people are basically persona non grata down town. While Powell square was remarkably diverse, you saw very few black people shopping.

- Why do people still teach their children to believe in Santa Claus? So that they'll continue to buy the lies later in life. If you think that someone from the North Pole is coming down your chimney to bring your presents based off of your behavior the past 365 days, you'll buy a whole bunch of other stuff.

- The Bay Area is off the hook. I met a clown(a real clown actually) in S.F. over by Niketown & decided to take a flick with him since everybody else was. Before the camera flashed, he threw up the hippie peace sign (two fingers spread apart) & screamed YEE! (R.I.P. to Furly Ghost aka Mac Dre)

- This might rub some the wrong way, b.u.t. I'm sick of Black people halfway celebrating thanksgiving! Either you do or you don't. Simple. We can't keep saying "I don't celebrate it, but it's a time for the family to come together and be thankful". Pardon Self, b.u.t. ain't that thanksgiving? And if you don't celebrate it, why are you still eating turkey?

- We should have a day to celebrate the day the Africans were brought to america and introduced to our good European friends that were already here waiting for us so that we could work together & call it "Togetherness Day". We should celebrate the day by eating chicken & having a mock auction. Sound crazy? Yeah, it's about as crazy as people celebrating the beginning of the destruction of the indigenous man. Remember, there were 17 million plus 2 million here in the wilderness of N.A.

- Word is bond, they have a energy drink called "Hyphy Juice". And it's actually better than red bull

- Alcohol is way too cheap and way too accessible in Oakland. The only place that I've been that has more liquor stores is D-Mecca (Detroit).

- For those who know today's mathematics & knowledge 120, you get the relevance of the title of the post once you reverse the polarity & deal with the place that all things are born from

2006-11-16T14:32:00.000-08:00

It's all for sale

Peace,

For today, I had some other things that I wanted to build about, b.u.t. then I saw it: The B.E.T. Hip-Hop Awards. It sat there as a topic that just would not let me ignore it, hard as I tried. For the sake of not being redundant, I'll keep my statements brief. Here we go:

- Is Hip-Hop the only musical genre that must promote itself incessantly? Every rapper doesn't have to tell us when their album comes out. Not to be sarcastic, b.u.t. that's what your marketing budget is for. I do understand that HH is somewhat crowded these days, and sales are down, b.u.t. there are times when you can focus on being a artist

- Katt Williams as Money Mike in Friday was his gift & his curse: It's what made him, b.u.t. it's doubtful that he'll ever be that funny again. I must tip my crown to the Dips on welcoming him into the fold; great marketing & branding move, as it makes this talk of a "movement" (however laughable) seem reasonable. To me the funniest thing he did last night was doing the prison-style push-ups during Jones's set

- Why were we exposed to that much outright product placement? The camera would focus on a ad for 10 seconds before going to commercial

- They could have condensed the Ozone Awards & last night into one, based on how the south ran away with all the awards. There's one concept that NY was able to ignore for about 20 years of this art form: Most black people have 1-3 degrees of separation from the south. The whole Mid-West has some family member in Mississippi, and there doesn't seem to be any real difference between LA/The Bay & the south other than location. On the serious side though, when the south started to embrace the blues, they started winning & it doesn't like it'll stop anytime soon

- I'm not convinced that Lil Wayne is the "best rapper alive". Maybe it's the Philly in me

- Doesn't Snoop come off as a dude who should be wearing a captain hat & a playboy chain?

- Jeezy wore a portrait of Big Meech (BMF) during his performance last night. When the smoke clears, it'll be a story worth writing about regarding the rise & fall of that organization

- B.G. is like the M.O.P. of the south. Eveyone recognizes that he's good, b.u.t. he doesn't sell any records

- For all of his buffoonery, Busta Ryhmes still represents some morals within the HH game. To me, his tirade was well overdue

Bonus:

- Where is Osama & Mullah Omar, & why aren't they part of any discussion?

2006-11-09T14:34:00.000-08:00

To The Victor, All The Spoils

Theme Music at the date of this writing: www.blackjazz.com

Peace,

As current events unfold, there are times that I choose to speak on it, & times when I don't. I don't speak on it when I think that a subject has been covered well by someone else and there's nothing else to say. In the case of election day this past Tuesday & Wednesday's resignation by the one and only Donald Rumsfeld, I'm compelled to speak on it because there are a couple of things that have been lost in the hoopla (some positive and some negative). Take a walk with me, if you will:

- Some may be congratulating the demos' at this point, b.u.t. how could anyone mess this one up? A imbecile for a president, gas rates at a all-time high, a war that has no discernible end, and you couldn't win some seats back? The election was the easy part

- Just because the demos' won, it doesn't mean that you should could confuse them for fun-loving peaceniks. Even though the netroots and other liberals supported many of the candidates and some of them gave lip service to the "pc" demo positions, most of them will legislate from the center. Bob Casey, the victor over Rick Santorum here in Pennsylvania, is definitely the lesser of two evils; a anti-abortion, pro-gun, pro-war representative from a socially conservative section of the state. I don't look to him to assist in solving the issues of the poor & oppressed

- My people, stop believing that politics will bring you complete community change! At best, it is another mechanism that will enable us to change our conditions. When you confuse it with the solution, you end up chasing a tail that you can never catch (see redlining, voter recount, etc.)

- Now that the demos' have won, they have to prove that they have an agenda that they can effectively push through. You can win on being anti-, b.u.t. what are you pro-?

- Get ready for Hillary World! In my estimation, her candidacy will be one of the most interesting events of the last 50 years. In order for her to win, she has to shed Bill and be pro-war for the conservatives, and at the same time, wear the cloak of the Clinton years for nostalgic demos. Any other demos' will be left in the dust

- Nancy Pelosi has 2 years to sabotage the demos' chance at winning. In a sexist world, we'll see how America responds to a woman in power who's not afraid to use it.

- Who really thinks that Rumsfeld would've been given the can if the GOP had retained it's seats? Bush saying that is trash

- You know who's the most unpopular man in the GOP is right now? Karl Rove

- George is ready to be pragmatic because he doesn't have any other choice. If he doesn't get this right, his presidency will go down in infamy (If it hasn't already). This may be a chance to prove that he has diplomatic & strategic bones in his body

- Rumsfeld personified angry, cocky, rich White men in power. Only the natural order of balance brought their insanity to light

- Barack Obama doesn't have as good of a chance to be president as Jesse did in 1988. It will remain to be seen if he can mobilize Black people. Right now, he seems a little too moderate

- You know people are sick of the Bush dynasty when they elect a Black Muslim (See Keith Ellison in Missouri)

2006-11-03T15:47:00.000-08:00

Where Are The Rules?

Peace,

In my estimation, one of the biggest issues that we have in our community is the lack of rules. Due to the lack of rules, people do whatever the hell they want to. You want to leave your children without a father? Go right ahead! Feel like pissing on your neighbor's steps? Be my guest? Have "relations" with anything with an Adam's Apple? Why not! It's a free world!

On the serious side though, the internal & external perception of our community is that we are a bunch of uncontrollable animals who live by the laws of the jungle; no rules or codes of conduct. Although media would have you see it differently, does anyone really think that we are the only ones who have crime and antisocial behavior in our communties? Of course not, b.u.t. other communities just do a better job of hiding their dirty laundry based on the spoken & unspoken rules of that community. For example, when was the last time that you saw two Jewish leaders (in america) openly feuding & calling each other names? When have you seen a famous Mexican/Chicano leader call his own people lazy on a cross-country tour? You haven't, and that's my point! (Full Disclosure: I grew up around men & women who were very big on honor, loyalty, & proper protocol)

Anyway today I happened upon the following code while travelling through the cyberworld in the country of myspace. I think that the code is somewhat appropriate (if you happen to be involved in anti-social behavior, which I don't advocate; only that often they are the ones who need rules the most) , and speakes to many of the issues in our community today. (And yes, I am anti-snitch if you are involved in that lifestyle) Check 'em out & tell me what you think!

"THUG LIFE" CODE:

1. All new Jacks to the game must know: a) He's going to get rich. b) He's going to jail. c) He's going to die.

2. Crew Leaders: You are responsible for legal/financial payment commitments to crew members; your word must be your bond.

3. One crew's rat is every crew's rat. Rats are now like a disease; sooner or later we all get it; and they should too.

4. Crew leader and posse should select a diplomat, and should work ways to settle disputes. In unity, there is strength!

5. Car jacking in our Hood is against the Code.

6. Slinging to children is against the Code.

7. Having children slinging is against the Code.

8. No slinging in schools.

9. Since the rat Nicky Barnes opened his mouth; ratting has become accepted by some. We're not having it.

10. Snitches is outta here.

11. The Boys in Blue don't run nothing; we do. Control the Hood, and make it safe for squares.

12. No slinging to pregnant Sisters. That's baby killing; that's genocide!

13. Know your target, who's the real enemy.

14. Civilians are not a target and should be spared.

15. Harm to children will not be forgiven.

16. Attacking someone's home where their family is known to reside, must be altered or checked.

17. Senseless brutality and rape must stop.

18. Our old folks must not be abused.

19. Respect our Sisters. Respect our Brothers.

20. Sisters in the Life must be respected if they respect themselves.

21. Military disputes concerning business areas within the community must be handled professionally and not on the block.

22. No shooting at parties.

2006-10-31T15:43:00.000-08:00

Audio Visual

Peace,

First, I want to say peace & thank you to my readers, consistent or sporadic, long-time or just tuned in. Thanks to your support, I am moving into other endeavors and continuing to push the envelope regarding ideas that are relevant & relative to the issues that communities face all across this country. While my focus is original people as well as the poor & oppressed, the ideas that are discussed are meant to be beneficial for all that read this blog.

- Since we're on the subject of adding on (+), My illustrious brother Divine Culture & I are manifesting a new addition to the blogosphere: Urban Anthropology (UA)! UA will focus on original people and the intersection of ideas & concepts that give birth to what is now conviently termed as "Urban Culture" (Read: Nigga S_ _ _). While the subjects will be exhaustively researched and analyzed, expect the writing to be engaging, and relative to a wide variety of people. The address is www.urbanology1.blogspot.com. Come on over and learn, explore, & grow with us!

- Next, I gotta send strong universal greetings to my brothers at www.blackelectorate.com regarding their first "Business & Building" weekend held this past weekend in D.C. What I saw of both events was inspirational, forward-thinking & progressive. While so many profess rhetoric, there are few who walk the walk with real solutions for our people, and those brothers are in that category. They have my support & backing as they strive to elevate the condition of original people.

About a week ago, i was perusing BE and noticed a link to an article about Street Lit in TIME magazine. Now, I'm aware that there are a number of perspectives about street lit, some good and some bad. To me, there are some larger implications on the development of the genre that make it an important discussion. Below, please find the article with my comments in bold:

When St. Martin's press begins promoting the latest work from novelist K'wan next month, the campaign won't look like the marketing for, say, the corporate thrillers of Joseph Finder. Funkmaster Flex, the hip-hop evangelist, is closer to the flavor(My man is about five years late. Flex today is about of much of a tastemaker as I am. Flex was able to leverage the power and following that he has from Hot 97 to represent the "Hip-Hop" market. In my estimation, Jay-Z would have been a better example, given the sophistication of his current plan) K'wan's reading audience is loyal--he has more than 400,000 books in print. But titles like Gangsta, Road Dawgz and his latest, Hood Rat, have captured an audience well outside St. Martin's usual purview. So instead of signings at Barnes & Noble, St. Martin's is planning giveaways and readings in barber shops and beauty salons. There will be ads on urban radio and an official Hood Rat mix tape CD(I'm all about keepin it real, b.u.t. there has got to be some limits).

"When they signed me, they were like, 'Great. We got him,'" says K'wan. "But they didn't really know what to do with me until now." St. Martin's isn't alone in that dilemma. For years, book publishers have catered to the $250 million African-American market with the aspirational stories of authors like Terry McMillan and Eric Jerome Dickey(Read: Middle-Class). But attracted by the gaudy numbers generated by the genre known as street lit, such publishers as Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Random House are hitting the pavement.

Street lit profiles the black underworld in graphic detail. Like gangsta rap, street lit often has thieves, pushers and prostitutes as protagonists. And like gangsta rap in its heyday, street lit is hot business. In an industry that considers sales of 20,000 copies of a typical novel a success, gritty street-lit authors like K'wan are routinely doubling that number.

And just as rappers reshaped the recording industry, street-lit authors have applied their own considerable entrepreneurial skills to publishing. They have insinuated themselves into every step, from negotiating the book deal to promoting the finished work. In the process, they have expanded the fiction market, a trick that has eluded mainstream publishers, making customers out of people who aren't exactly pining for E.L. Doctorow's latest(This paragraph is really the crux of the article. Using a model that's less top-heavy and more mobile, street-lit authors have been able to turn the stuffy publishing industry on it's head. For better or worse, they've been able to bypass the obstacles that make the publishing industry almost impossible to enter for the average person, as there are virtually no barriers to entry for street-lit authors).

Although street lit's roots reach back to the 1970s and the novels of Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim, the development of cheap digital printing smashed one barrier to entry. And the advent of Amazon, which diminished the need for display space in bookstores, smashed another. So street-lit authors had a route around mainstream publishing houses. Following the success of The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah in 2000--it sold 475,000 copies--a flood of gritty, self-published crime novels hit the market. What street-lit authors may have lacked in wordsmithing (Again, a testament to the insular, slightly elitist nature of the publishing industry), they made up for in cold business savvy( Was it business savvy, or was it a untapped market?).

On a recent afternoon, Relentless Aaron parks his white SUV near Rockefeller Center in New York City and begins digging through a pile of books in the van. A giant portrait of him covers the side of the SUV along with the tagline AUTHOR, PUBLISHER, PRODUCER. In the late 1990s, Relentless, as he likes to be called, was jailed for passing bad checks. He turned to writing for therapy, and when he was sprung, restructured himself into a one-man publishing house. Now, with a Bluetooth hands-free in his ear and a stack of books in hand, he prowls tourist-filled 50th Street, approaching anyone who seems to fall within his target audience. Last year Relentless signed a four-book deal with St. Martin's Press. Two of his books have been optioned for films.

When he talks, Relentless sounds more like a marketing executive than a burgeoning author. "My goal is to sell into the future," he says. "You can't just come out here and sell nothing. But more than selling now, I want to create an awareness that I have an entertaining brand." That's exactly the sort of sales-speak that makes publishers dance. While most editors claim a love for literature, they need to move the merchandise. "You're more likely to find that sort of hustler, business mentality among street-lit authors," says Monique Patterson, a senior editor at St. Martin's. "The streets are all about going out and being competitive and hustling your own stuff(We should look at this development as inspiring & empowering for future generations: apply a DIY ethos to traditional fields in order to create value for you as well as your communities)."

Putting it in business terms, some street-lit authors have transferred their core competency to publishing from other sectors. Like drugs. K'wan was still selling marijuana at the point where his Gangsta started to fly off the shelves. He moved out of public housing in 2004--the same year he signed a book deal. But he didn't leave everything behind. "In the morning I load up my trunk and hit the streets," says K'wan. "It's the same as when I was on the block hustling, except it's a different product. I hit the street vendors in the Bronx, Harlem and Brooklyn, talk to the kids and sign a few books." (He should be studied and spoke about in the same way that more mainstream black entrepreneurs are spoken of, regarding grassroots marketing and keeping a pulse of the demographic that you serve)

Street-lit author Vickie Stringer has become vertically integrated to protect her market share. Currently, she's enjoying the fruits of a six-figure book deal with Simon & Schuster. In the early 1990s, Stringer says, she was trafficking up to 30 kilos of cocaine weekly to street gangs in Ohio. She was busted and served seven years in prison. When she got out, she self-published her roman Ã clef Let That Be the Reason--and got nowhere. So she developed a business plan. "I finished the book in 2001, and I sent out letters to over 26 agents and publishers, and no one would touch it," says Stringer. Instead, she self-published. "I just took it to the streets, just trying to recoup my printing.
"
Stringer has repeatedly reinvented herself for the shifting dynamics of her genre. When a number of authors rejected by mainstream publishers approached her for advice, she founded a company--Triple Crown Publications--in her kitchen. When mainstream publishers began competing with her for authors, she started a literary agency, ensuring herself a cut from the contracts of writers who went big. K'wan was her first author and her first client as an agent. "Even when I was a hustler, I never wanted to sit on a street corner. I always wanted more control," she says. "I always wanted to have the freedom. I wanted to be the check signer, not just the receiver."

The boom in street lit has led to an equally potent, if not predictable, backlash from black writers with a more literary bent. "I've heard from agents and writers, all telling me the same thing," says author Nick Chiles (In Love and War), who blasted street lit in a New York Times editorial earlier this year. "There's all this talent out there that five years ago editors would have been clamoring over, and they aren't getting a shot. I've seen a waning of the industry's interest in contemporary black fiction." (The larger issue here is that many of those writers are not entrepreneurial enough to survive in a changing market, as they were used to the traditional system. They should leverage their time spent in the industry and be able to deliver product to their demo through whatever channels are applicable. At the end of the day, the book business is about selling books)

Even among its purveyors, street lit's ethos has taken some knocks. "There are so many people flooding the market, but they're not taking responsibility for what they're writing," says K'wan. "It's just a bunch of guns. The life we live is graphic and real, but authors need to have some type of moral lesson in their books."(His point is well received. I read street-lit (No really, I do), and some of it is the literary equivalent to a Gangsta rap album made in somebody's basement by a bunch of would-be criminals that can barely spell. Like "Gangsta" Hip Hop, some of it is really good, and much of it is really not. On another note, we must realize that poor people are going to follow whatever pathway they think will earn a dollar for them without any concern for the quality of the product. Everybody's got a story to tell, and they'll make one up if that's what people want)

Like every other kind of media, publishing is faddish. The rapper 50 Cent(The Black Sir Richard Branson) recently started an imprint. Vibe magazine, in conjunction with Kensington Publishing, followed suit. The expansion has left some of its authors ambivalent. "In the beginning it was about a need to express ourselves on a greater plane," says K'wan. "But now it's such a money thing. It affects how the genre is perceived by the public, and it affects authors coming in. They look at this like it's Hollywood. They don't understand that to endure this game, you have to love this game." But as he well knows, to play it, you've got to make the numbers.

2006-10-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

A Pot To Piss In, A Window To Throw It Out Of

Peace,

When I was younger, one of my Grandmother's favorite sayings was "____ ain't got a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of." At that point, I really didn't understand the depth and wisdom present in that statement; It just served as a damn good put down to whoever was on the receiving end. As I got older, I realized that she was right: While many tended to front like they were on change (Philly Stand Up!!), most individuals that I came in contact with on a daily basis had neither. Even if they made a lot of money through their job/hustle/racket, etc., most had nothing to show for it outside of a few material trinkets that depreciated the minute you brought them.

After years of thinking, reviewing, and discussing social-economic issues with hundreds of people, I came to another realization; not only did her saying hold true individually, it was valid for the collective as well. If one is honest, there are very few social institutions in our communities that are exclusively black-owned. Now, don't misunderstand me; business is global, and money moves through many hands and there are instances where being exclusive can be counter-productive. When you look at the state of the black community in general, however, it's obvious that the lack of economic power has crippling effects on the other dimensions of our lives.

You can have power in a lot of ways in your environment (Intellectual, Political,Physical, etc..) b.u.t. if you don't have the ability to access resources, then your power to create the world you want to see will be somewhat limited. One of the main reasons that I printed up the "Get Money, Teach Kids" shirts was that for many "progressive/conscious" people, it's become anathema to talk about acquiring resources, lest you be considered a "capitalist". There are many flaws in this logic which I'll discuss at another time, b.u.t. here's an analogy; Imagine yourself in a world where being a warrior was how everyone survived, b.u.t. there was a small group of people who wouldn't call themselves "fighters" because they thought that people couldn't see the distinction between fighting for survival and fighting for fun!

In closing, I'll leave you with a article that outlines the importance of economic power. Remember: People + Money + Infrastructure = Sustainable power!

An Open Letter To Black America

It Is Time To Bring Back Black

In recent years some nationally prominent Black leaders have complained that they resent being known as Black leaders, they say they want the world to know they are capable of leading anybody. Rather than demonstrate that leadership by leading their own people to the necessary levels of self- sufficiency and competitiveness, these leaders have abandoned the critical issues facing Black people and have begun to chase an ambiguous romanticized notion of alliances with other groups without any demonstration or even an explanation as to how these alliances will actually empower Black people.

For decades these leaders have stood on the shoulders of the Black community to challenge and threaten corporate America in what we were told was a struggle for economic justice, and while the Black community is still being exploited by corporate America these nationally prominent Black leaders acknowledge that their operating budgets are now sustained by their corporate sponsors. It appears as though these leaders, a small cluster of their friends and, in some instances, members of their own families are the only ones to have received concessions from the nationÂs major corporations. This mis-leadership is precisely what noted sociologist Max Weber warned against when he made the distinction between living off politics and living for politics, Weber contends, ÂHe who strives to make politics a permanent source of income lives off politics as a vocation, whereas he who does not do this lives for politics.Â

Leaders not only examine issues and point out inherent problems; they also craft solutions and lead by example. These nationally prominent Black leaders and organizations have actually abandoned the specific needs of Black people, Case in point: Black Americans have never received proportional benefits for the time, energy, and resources that they have devoted to voting. No major party or candidate has delivered benefits to Black people in return for their votes. Still these nationally prominent Black leaders tell Blacks simply to vote, while politicians hide behind mythical concepts and broad groupings, like people of color, minorities, poor people, multi-culture, and diversity in order to justify doing nothing specifically for Blacks in return for their votes. Unless the politician or political party is committed to repairing the damage done to Blacks by centuries of historical inequities, telling Blacks to just vote is to engage Blacks in nothing more than a keep busy activity. Too often these nationally prominent leaders have engaged in a flawed analysis of the problems confronting Blacks, and as a result have offered inadequate solutions.

Black people are offered a meaningless covenant with America that leaves all the power and resources firmly in the hands of white power brokers. These leaders have cooperated with major white developers in securing huge development contracts to build anything they please, from Stadiums in downtown Brooklyn to a $1billion urban riverfront in Cincinnati, Ohio. Rather than secure the development project itself for a consortium of Black developers they, on behalf of the white developers, urge Black people to accept temporary dead end jobs as the Black benefits, jobs they would never allow their own children to accept.

These prominent leaders argue that unemployment is so high among Blacks that any job is of value. When you consider that unemployment among Asians is 0%, among Arabs 0%, Hispanics 4.6%, with Hispanics receiving 41% of all new jobs since 2004, and among whites unemployment is 4.5%, it is clear that other groups have an economic plan working in and for their communities. With unemployment at 48 to 50% in Black urban centers throughout the country and thereby making any job acceptable, the real question becomes, how is it that under their watch unemployment among Blacks remains twice the national rate that it was for all Americans during the Great Depression of the 1930Âs. Black leaders, where is your economic strategy to empower Black America?

While ignoring the work being done to revitalize Black communities by lesser known Blacks in various cities, and in some instances even moving to block and discourage those efforts, these prominent Black leaders have agreed to become the mouthpiece for other groups in order to make the agendas of those groups sound like an extension of the civil rights movement. Black leaders should be taking Black people to the next level, addressing the unfinished business of our civil rights movement, which will then make our people politically and economically competitive and self-sufficient.

Allowing any and all groups to use broad terms like diversity, people of color, and minorities is a ploy to avoid addressing the specific needs of Blacks, and to equate the grievances of these groups to the historical suffering of Black people does Blacks and history a great disservice. For over a century and a half, Blacks in America have marched and protested against every perceived affront. Blacks have marched and sued for equal rights, minority rights, womenÂs rights, poor peopleÂs rights, gay rights, workers rights, voting rights, and now immigrant rights. Blacks have held hands, sung songs, prayed and swayed with everyone, yet have barely moved an inch economically and politically in terms of real power and influence.

Blacks have the strongest legal and moral grounds for justice due than any other group, but have not enjoyed the full support of any of these other groups. Given our history of struggle we are offended by these national Black leaders and organizations that scold and chastise us for not embracing their newest gimmick to impress white power brokers, that of immigrant rights. They don't seem to understand that there are still critical issues unresolved that have particular consequences for Blacks.

Enough is enough, Black people are in need of leaders who without apology are committed to the very real needs of Black Americans, We urge the leaders who feel trapped by their Blackness to go quickly to the task of providing leadership for all these other groups so that we can get away from their mis-leadership long enough to get out of our current political and economic ditch.
It Is Time To Bring Back Black, and hundreds of thousands of us are ready to do just that. What about you?

Sponsors:
Hood Research, Detroit; Black Chamber of Commerce of Akron Ohio; National Leadership Alliance, NYC;
Black Waxx, Jersey City NJ; Harvest Institute, Washington DC; The Coalition of Artists & Activists, NYC;
Los Angeles Council Of Elders; Blackonomics, Cincinnati. Ohio; Reparations Now, LA; Recycle Black Dollars,
California; BAFCA: Black American Family. Christian Agenda. California; KUJI Economic Development Initiative, Cincinnati, Ohio
Virtually Black, San Diego, CA.;

2006-10-18T10:10:00.000-07:00

Understanding Cipher....

Music I'm bumpin' right now: Block Tested, Hood Approved - Big Rich

Peace,

Blogs are an interesting thing; they can be used for anything from from politics to romance, to rants, and sometimes you'll see all three in one (depending on the mood of the blogger). For the most part, I keep my blogs impersonal and based on the title that you see, because while I think that my life it somewhat interesting, it's not necessarily what needs to be posted for the world to dissect. I try to present the best part for readers/viewers, meaning I give what I think you'll get something from.

I'm going to depart from that somewhat for this blog, as it's about me turning 30. That's right the big 3-0. In the Culture of the NGE, it stands for Understanding Cipher ( not the other way around), and is the degree when Allah stated that a man/woman comes into the "true" Knowledge of him/herself that's based on experiential observation/analysis as well as information. For me, it gave me a chance to reflect on the different milestones and markers within my life & analyze where I've been/where I'm going. Within that, I have developed a greater understanding of my place in this world dealing with the past, present,& future.

For example, my father & uncle came to Power Born to celebrate with me & the family. My father is my living role model and example of manhood that I received as a child, so you can imagine how honored that I was that he would do so. Additionally, my uncle also played a very large role in my development through sports & other means (Inadvertently, he was also my first exposure to the NGE due to him running a rec center at 10th & Oxford during the late 80's). The relationship and closeness between my father & his brothers is the model that I use for maintaining the bond between me and the Gods that I've taught, so in a sense it was the past and present coming together to define the future through an intergenerational bond (I know, that's some sh!#, right?)

Thinking back to where I was mentally and physically @ 10, 15, 20, & 25 years of age also showed me the power of your environment and the impact of small increments of time when you review and recollect. At 10, I was a regular kid growing up in the hood listening to the Beastie Boys & Rakim; at 15, I was a avid hip-hop head who just got the knowledge of himself; at 20, I was in Pittsburgh as an expectant father teaching mathematics & organizing the youth march for the late Johnny Gammage; At 25, I was developing the Growth & Development process for the NGE, among other things. At this stage in my development, I can actually use all of my experiences to move me, my, family, my nation, and humanity forward. I'm older, wiser, & smarter, and my future activities will reflect that.

It's been a hell of a 30 years, and I'm going to keep the next 30 just as funky. Respect & love to my Old Earth, Old Dad, and all who have contributed knowingly or unknowingly to my growth & development; I'm putting you on my back and I'm standing straight up.

2006-10-06T07:27:00.000-07:00

Keep On Movin'

Last month, I Medina & I were in Medina (Brooklyn) on a day trip. Upon realizing that the West Indian Carnival parade was being held on the next day, we decided to explore Eastern Parkway & it's surrounding areas. Usually when I travel to Medina, I'm either headed to the head (Fort Green) or the heart (Bed-Stuy), areas named for their role in the development of the NGE in New York. While I was familar w/ Eastern Parkway from my research on Hasidics from Crown Heights & the tensions between them and the So-called West Indians/African-Americans, I had no inclination of the experience that was to come.

What I found in Flatbush & East Flatbush was a vibrant neighborhood filled with businesses, beautiful homes & a strong sense of community. To be true, it seemed like another world from what I was accustomed to. There has been much research done on the earning disparity between West Indians & African Americans in various communities across. Without going too deep into the myriad of reasons, it seems as though so-called west indians have utilized the time proven method for getting a economic foothold in america: Entrepreneurship, Education, & Fiscal Discipline. This phenomenon stretches to other worlds as well. Case in point: 12 years ago, when I was accepted to the University of Pittsburgh, most of the Black students were middle/lower-middle class students from Philadelphia. Fast Forward 12 years later, Pitt raised their standards for admisssion in hopes of becoming a "public ivy", & now most of the students are So - called West Indians & Africans from the New York metropolitan
area.

Below is a article about Black & White incomes in Queens from the NY Times. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Across the country, the income gap between blacks and whites remains wide, and nowhere more so than in Manhattan. But just a river away, a very different story is unfolding.
In Queens, the median income among black households, nearing $52,000 a year, has surpassed that of whites in 2005, an analysis of new census data shows. No other county in the country with a population over 65,000 can make that claim. The gains among blacks in Queens, the city’s quintessential middle-class borough, were driven largely by the growth of two-parent families and the successes of immigrants from the West Indies. Many live in tidy homes in verdant enclaves like Cambria Heights, Rosedale and Laurelton, just west of the Cross Island Parkway and the border with Nassau County.

David Veron, a 45-year-old lawyer, is one of them. He estimates that the house in St. Albans that he bought with his wife, Nitchel, three years ago for about $320,000 has nearly doubled in value since they renovated it. Two-family homes priced at $600,000 and more seem to be sprouting on every vacant lot, he says.
“Southeast Queens, especially, had a heavy influx of West Indian folks in the late 80’s and early 90’s,” said Mr. Veron, who, like his 31-year-old wife, was born on the island of Jamaica. “Those individuals came here to pursue an opportunity, and part of that opportunity was an education,” he said. “A large percentage are college graduates. We’re now maturing and reaching the peak of our earning capacity.”
Richard P. Nathan, co-director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, called Queens “the flip side of the underclass.”
“It really is the best illustration that the stereotype of blacks living in dangerous, concentrated, poor, slum, urban neighborhoods is misleading and doesn’t predominate,” he said.
Andrew A. Beveridge, a Queens College demographer who analyzed results of the Census Bureau’s 2005 American Community Survey, released in August, for The New York Times, said of the trend: “It started in the early 1990’s, and now it’s consolidated. They’re married-couple families living the American dream in southeast Queens.”

In 1994, an analysis for The Times found that in some categories, the median income of black households in Queens was slightly higher than that of whites — a milestone in itself. By 2000, whites had pulled slightly ahead. But blacks have since rebounded.
The only other places where black household income is higher than among whites are much smaller than Queens, like Mount Vernon in Westchester, Pembroke Pines, Fla.; Brockton, Mass.; and Rialto, Calif. Most of the others also have relatively few blacks or are poor.
But Queens is unique not only because it is home to about two million people, but also because both blacks and whites there make more than the national median income, about $46,000.
Even as blacks have surged ahead of whites in Queens, over all they have fallen behind in Manhattan. With the middle class there shrinking, those remaining are largely either the wealthy, who are predominantly white, or the poor, who are mostly black and Hispanic, the new census data shows.

Median income among blacks in Manhattan was $28,116, compared with $86,494 among whites, the widest gap of any large county in the country.
In contrast, the middle-class black neighborhoods of Queens evoke the “zones of emergence” that nurtured economically rising European immigrants a century ago, experts say. “It’s how the Irish, the Italians, the Jews got out of the slums,” Professor Nathan said.
Despite the economic progress among blacks in Queens, income gaps still endure within the borough’s black community, where immigrants, mostly from the Caribbean, are generally doing better than American-born blacks.
“Racism and the lack of opportunity created a big gap and kind of put us at a deeper disadvantage,” said Steven Dennison, an American-born black resident of Springfield Gardens.
Mr. Dennison, a 49-year-old electrical contractor, has four children. One is getting her doctoral degree; another will graduate from college this school year. “It starts with the school system,” Mr. Dennison said.

Mr. Vernon, the lawyer from Jamaica, said: “It’s just that the people who left the Caribbean to come here are self-starters. It only stands to reason they would be more aggressive in pursuing their goals. And that creates a separation.”
Housing patterns do, too. While blacks make more than whites — even those in the borough’s wealthiest neighborhoods, including Douglaston — they account for fewer than 1 in 20 residents in some of those communities. And among blacks themselves, there are disparities, depending on where they live.

According to the latest analysis, black households in Queens reported a median income of $51,836 compared with $50,960 for non-Hispanic whites (and $52,998 for Asians and $43,927 among Hispanic people).
Among married couples in Queens, the gap was even greater: $78,070 among blacks, higher than any other racial or ethnic group, and $74,503 among whites.
Hector Ricketts, 50, lives with his wife, Opal, a legal secretary, and their three children in Rosedale. A Jamaican immigrant, he has a master’s degree in health care administration, but after he was laid off more than a decade ago he realized that he wanted to be an entrepreneur. He established a commuter van service.

“When immigrants come here, they’re not accustomed to social programs,” he said, “and when they see opportunities they had no access to — tuition or academic or practical training — they are God-sent, and they use those programs to build themselves and move forward.”
Immigrants helped propel the gains among blacks. The median income of foreign-born black households was $61,151, compared with $45,864 for American-born blacks. The disparity was even more pronounced among black married couples.
The median for married black immigrants was $84,338, nearly as much as for native-born white couples. For married American-born blacks, it was $70,324.
One reason for the shifting income pattern is that some wealthier whites have moved away.
“As non-Hispanic whites have gotten richer, they have left Queens for the Long Island suburbs, leaving behind just middle-class whites,” said Professor Edward N. Wolff, an economist at New York University. “Since home ownership is easier for whites than blacks in the suburbs — mortgages are easier to get for whites — the middle-class whites left in Queens have been relatively poor. Middle-class black families have had a harder time buying homes in the Long Island suburbs, so that blacks that remain in Queens are relatively affluent.”
The white median also appeared to have been depressed slightly by the disproportionate number of elderly whites on fixed incomes.

But even among the elderly, blacks fared better. Black households headed by a person older than 65 reported a median income of $35,977, compared with $28,232 for white households.
Lloyd Hicks, 77, who moved to Cambria Heights from Harlem in 1959, used to run a freight-forwarding business near Kennedy Airport. His wife, Elvira, 71, was a teacher. Both were born in New York City, but have roots in Trinidad. He has a bachelor’s degree in business. She has a master’s in education.
“Education was always something the families from the islands thought the children should have,” Mr. Hicks said.
In addition to the larger share of whites who are elderly, said Andrew Hacker, a Queens College political scientist, “black Queens families usually need two earners to get to parity with working whites.”

Kenneth C. Holder, 46, a former prosecutor who was elected to a Civil Court judgeship last year, was born in London of Jamaican and Guyanese parents and grew up in Laurelton. His wife, Sharon, who is Guyanese, is a secretary at a Manhattan law firm. They own a home in Rosedale, where they live with their three sons.
“Queens has a lot of good places to live; I could move, but why?” Mr. Holder said. “There are quite a number of two-parent households and a lot of ancillary services available for youth, put up by organized block associations and churches, like any middle-class area.”

In smaller categories, the numbers become less precise. Still, for households headed by a man, median income was $61,151 for blacks and $54,537 for whites. Among households headed by a woman, the black and white medians were the same: $50,960.
Of the more than 800,000 households in Queens, according to the Census Bureau’s 2005 American Community Survey, about 39 percent are white, 23 percent are Hispanic, 18 percent are Asian, and 17 percent are black — suggesting multiple hues rather than monotone black and white.

“It is wrong to say that America is ‘fast becoming two nations’ the way the Kerner Commission did,” said Professor Nathan, who was the research director for the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders in 1968 and disagreed with its conclusion. “It might be, though, that it was more true then than it is now.”

2006-09-26T15:01:00.000-07:00

Through The Wire

Peace,

Ghetto. The word & it's many manifestations (Ghetto Life, Life in the Ghetto, The Hood, Urban Underclass, etc.) are pregnant with meaning & implications for millions of people across the world. From Paris to Philadelphia, the term conjures up both positive & negative images for inhabitants and outsiders. For some, it serves as a living hell, For others, a profit center. Regardless of vantage point, "The Ghe-toe" (So sayith James Evans Jr.) is often painted in Monochromatic terms, all good or all bad.

What results is usually years of neglect (by inhabitants & governments) followed by a social & economic overhaul which changes the population & neighborhood into a shell of it's former self (both positive & negative). The neighborhood may have better schools, & become safer and more attractive to investors, b.u.t. also loses it's charm and "soul", if you will. Additionally, there are also very clear lines of "right" and "wrong" (As in the police and block watch are right, and the drug dealers and women with 4 children from 3 fathers are wrong).

Enter The Wire. From my perspective, The Wire is the most realistic & factual portrayal of the hood that has ever come on TV. Period. It's as they just put a camera on a street corner and let it roll. Anyone who's been to B-More or knows anyone from out there can attest to how close to the mark they are. Basically, It's the realest & scariest S&!# on television, and for good reason.
Two reasons that The Wire stands out:

1) There are no heroes or villain, only players - On The Wire, "humanness" shines through. No one is all good or bad, rather you see fragility & strength on a number of levels. Also, the show doesn't take sides about what happens in the street. Rather than take sides, it just watches the cycle go on as a stoic observer.

2) The issues in our communities are often painted as a issue of "values" (read: personal responsibility and parenting) vs. social & economic breakdown. The Wire refutes that by showing all of the issues that contribute to what goes on (community apathy, economic neglect, political disregard). This season, with its focus on the school should illustrate the comprehensive nature of the problem.

Finally, I'm reposting a editorial from the Detroit Metro-Times that speaks about one of the characters, and what he represents within our community. Occasionally, I'll do a Wire check-in regarding the development of the season. Until next time... Look out for the babies, and teach those who don't know any better!

How could they kill Stringer Bell? How could they do it?I'm still trying to adjust.
If you're a fan of HBO's The Wire, you can relate to my distress. If not, then let me say briefly that this is one of the best TV programs in a long, long time. To call it a cop drama would be an extreme disservice, although that is the basic framework. What the Baltimore-based series does is portray the uglier realities of urban America with a precision and honesty that has never been attempted before. The result is a phenomenal cast of characters that gives individual voices and humanity to people many of us might otherwise ignore or, worse, write off as being all the same. And of all the characters giving the lie to that assumption, Stringer Bell took that lie and tied it up in knots.

String, as he was known on the streets, was a drug kingpin. He was also a drug kingpin who took business courses at night school in order to run a more efficient empire. He was a drug dealer who read great literature and philosophy, who translated his earnings into massive real estate holdings and other ventures. Stringer Bell was a genius who should have run a Fortune 500 company, but instead was trapped inside the twisted mind of a cold-hearted killer (who himself was killed at the conclusion of Season 3) and a drug dealer who would have made Machiavelli proud.

I was fascinated with Stringer Bell because he was a walking, talking contradiction who represented the best and worst of the streets: a highly intelligent black man whose business acumen and leadership skills were employed in all the wrong places. Still, in a perversely misguided way, String was proof of the power of an educated and analytical mind. Most of us working folks have no love for the drug trade. But no matter how much we detest what drug dealers have done to our communities, most of us know that these kids aren't stupid, and you definitely can't say they don't have a work ethic. It takes an education even if it's an education acquired largely outside of the classroom and a serious work ethic to run a drug empire, even if it's the wrong kind of education for the wrong kind of work.

The reasons why kids choose to sell drugs have been detailed in volume upon volume of newspaper articles, studies, books, etc. The bottom line is that the money seems good; there are always opportunities for advancement whenever a co-worker gets shot or locked up; and you get mad respect from your peers .Untiltil you get shot or locked up. Sure there are risks, but it's also a risk being poor and black. From the dealers' perspective, dealing is the best shot at the American Dream and they aim to take it no matter who they have to shoot to get it.

Education, the standard kind that you get in school, is supposed to be that ticket to a better life. If America worked as it's supposed to, drugs and other fringe occupations wouldn't be so appealing to so many inner-city kids. They would see that education can get you where you want to go, that it can get you out of the ghetto. But here we are, nearly four decades after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and some would argue that the black poor are as solidly locked into their wretched existence as they were during the civil rights era.
Urban public schools, the ones abandoned by just about every white and black family with options, are also the only option for most of the black poor. Those who attend are essentially stuck with patchwork education leftovers. You don't have to look any further than Detroit and the recent teachers strike to see the boiling pot of anger and frustration simmering throughout the public school system nationwide. The teachers with the most challenging job of all are the most underpaid, the most overworked and the most unappreciated. Even the most dedicated professional can't prevent that poisonous mixture from spilling over into the classroom, and it's the kids who pay the consequences. These kids know that they are being shortchanged because, like I said, they are hardly stupid. They already know that too many of those who graduate are hardly prepared for college or much of anything else, so they figure why bother with graduation?

So where does that leave us? Well, a brief look at statistics compiled by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research might give us a place to start.

Among a recent report's key findings:

- The overall national public high school graduation rate for the class of 2003 was 70 percent.

- Nationally, the graduation rate for white students was 78 percent, compared with 72 percent for Asian students, 55 percent for African-American students, and 53 percent for Hispanic students.

- Female students graduate high school at a higher rate than male students. Nationally, 72 percent of female students graduated, compared with 65 percent of male students.

- The gender gap in graduation rates is particularly large for minority students. Nationally, about 5 percent fewer white male students and 3 percent fewer Asian male students graduate than their female counterparts. While 59 percent of African-American females graduated, only 48 percent of African-American males earned a diploma. Further, the graduation rate was 58 percent for Hispanic females, compared with 49 percent for Hispanic males.

- Each of the nation's 10 largest public high school districts, which enroll more than 8 percent of the nation's public school student population, failed to graduate more than 60 percent of its students.

In Season 4 of The Wire, String is dead, his partner, co-kingpin Avon Barksdale, is locked up, and a new power named Marlo is taking control of the corners. But the core drama is the battle inside the schools. I don't know how it will all play out on HBO, but out here in real life I hope and pray that sooner or later the message will resonate at deafening volume throughout the corridors of power that we ignore these kids at our own peril.
If we refuse to care about their welfare for their sakes, then perhaps self-interest might be enough. According to a Detroit News special report last year, "Forty percent of Michigan residents who got cash welfare last year were high school dropouts, costing the state roughly $156 million. And about 70 percent of convicts who entered prison last year were dropouts; housing them for just one year will cost taxpayers about $200 million."
Furthermore, dropouts "are twice as likely to be unemployed and more than twice as likely as others to be in poverty. And when they do find jobs, they make two-thirds as much as a typical Michigan worker."

There's more. "Education at a Glance," an annual study by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, released a report recently that said, in part:
"The United States is losing ground internationally because other countries are making faster and bigger gains. The high school and college graduation rates of recent U.S. students are now below the international average. For example, among adults age 25 to 34, the U.S. ranks 11th among nations in the share of its population that has graduated from high school. It used to be first."

This isn't about them, OK? It's about us.

2006-09-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

Wisdom Knowledge

Peace,

A oft-repeated refrain in the Black Community is "Knowledge is Power". Sadly, that's not necessarily true, as I run into a number of people in my life with Knowledge & no Power! Being that I deal with the science of Supreme Mathematics, it's true that I have somewhat of a bias for equating the two principles when they both have their own space & place, b.u.t. even with that said, Knowledge can be empowering, b.u.t. not Power. Knowledge applied within one's way of life can affect & change the environment.

In that vein, I want to make a quick list of blogs that I check out on a regular basis that I find informative or enlightening. As with all, identify & utilize what is applicable:

www.imedinapeaceful.blogspot.com - Yeah, it might be seen as a shameless plug, b.u.t I get alot out of reading her posts. Besides that, she brings great insight to the table as far as being a Earth & Community Organizer.

www.yellowseed.blogspot.com - Again, one might perceive it as a plug, b.u.t. I just happen to have very sharp thinkers around me!

www.divinecultureallah.blogspot.com - See above statement.

www.analyticalwealth.com - Great blog for economic theory & analysis

www.planetgrenada.blogspot.com - Blog that focuses on Islam, the so-called Latino/a diaspora, and issues of social justice

www.differentkitchen.blogspot.com - A site that provides a good balance between education & entertainment

www.atlantisschool.blogspot.com - Although my good brother can tend to get on the controversial side with dealing with NGE in-house matters, excellent insight for a different take on things

www.blogmaverick.com - Mark Cuban's blog. No matter what one may think of him personally, he's a great businessman

Check these out, and let me know what you think. I'm becoming more technologically adept, so soon I'll be walking into the 21st century, and can make better use of the resources on here.

Quote I'm working with at the date of this writing - "...Plus the seeds/ need a stand-up dude to show & prove degrees" - I Wise Allah

2006-09-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

Old School, New School, Need To Learn Mo'

Peace,
In the Black community, there are a number of outposts where "family business", if you will, is discussed. Barbershops, Hair Salons, Pool Halls& Bars have traditionally served as the locations where we build on subjects both serious & trivial, ranging from religion to was Martin really crazy? Inevitably in these trading posts, discussions/debates/arguements will emerge regarding the everlasting debate (and I don't mean Jordan vs. Magic or R. Kelly vs. Aaron Hall): Black Folks vs. Niggas. Yeah, I said it, Black Folks vs. Niggas. The reason that I use such an explicit phrase is that it best communicates what I'm getting at, as far as a us vs. them mentality.

Now don't get it twisted, it's not new, rather it's been taking place in the wilderness of North America since we got here and were fed a steady diet of pork, misinformation, & death. For many years, it played out in secret, or in a mother saying to her daughter " Are you sure you want to be with someone of his kind? You know, as dark as he is & all?

It could also play out when looking at "good" black folks vs. "bad" black folks like " them niggas over there starting all that trouble! Who does Marcus Garvey think he is anyway? Then it was Civil Rights vs. Black Power, and so on.

After the 60's, it went unnoticed due to the amount of Black love & pride that was being shown, so it may have appeared that it was gone, b.u.t. it was only laying low (check Good Times for reference)

It came back in the roarin' 80's with Black Folks vs. Hip Hop due to it not being "respectable" enough for older folks (e.g. "Why do they have to scratch the record all up?)

Now, it's gone to another level: Good black folks vs. Niggas in the Hip Hop subculture, and the charge is led by none other than Mr. Cosby and his legion of "ol'schoolers", proclaiming that what we need is a return to the "old ways", the ways of the black family before Niggas ruined everything!

You know, before people starting naming their babies made-up names like Muhammad or Shaniqua, letting their kids run the streets at all times of night, and generally letting go of all personal responsibility!

Now, I'm not into sarcasm, so I'll get right to my perspective: Seeing the world through Supreme Mathematics - colored lenses means that personal responsibility is paramount as far as being the author of change in one's own life and in the life of others. It goes without saying that the first step to change is the step that you take, and that in order to revive ourselves and our communities, we must step up and be counted.

With that said, how in the hell does The Cos think that we got in this position? By chance? Or because we wanted to kill each other at a all time high & have men in prison at an astonishing clip in the name of "lettin it all hang out"? We've been hit with an economic, political, and social snowball the likes of which the world has never seen. Who among the Black intelligensia during the late 60's / Early 70's predicted post-industrial America? Who warned us against the potential downsides of integration? Did The Cos tell us that America would need a new industry to replace manufacturing & would create a Prison - Industrial Complex based on low level narco-activity by black youth?
What did the Cos & his ilk do to prevent our schools from becoming mini-jails with no resources?

My point is this: it's easy to tell your people what to change, b.u.t. it's alot harder to to speak truth to (so-called) power to remedy the environmental ills, or better yet to remedy the ills through community-built institutions that emphasize personal accountability and create community change? No matter what school you're from, it's time to realize that to fight today's battle, we need a new educational institution.

While some concepts (Take care of your kids, get a job, don't piss on your neighbor's steps) are universal, all "Back in the day" tactics won't necessarily be applicable today, & even if they are, the method of applying them may be different. In a world where many homes are headed by young black women, The Cos & brothers like him blasting everybody like someone's angry (yet somewhat absent & withdrawn) granddad is not going to get it. I'm all for critique, b.u.t. it needs to be constructive so that we can truly begin to work out our issues.

2006-09-11T15:38:00.000-07:00

The Shepard & The Flock

Film I'm currently doing the knowledge to - The Weatherman

Peace,

America's an interesting place when observing its contradictions. Walk with me:

- A country that claims to hold free & fair elections, yet holds presidential elections with only 2 choices, and doesn't allow proper recounts. Meanwhile, when other countries have free & fair elections (Palestine), if the desired persons don't win, they don't recognize the new government.

- A country that was built on the backs of free & cheap labor rejects men & women who come to this land to build a better life for themselves (and provide services to meet the ever growing demands of our populace).

- A country that has the best Colleges & Universities in the world has high schools with no books.

- Amazing contradictions, aren't they? Now, how do you keep everything stable in a world like this? A steady diet of social control through obvious as well as subtle means, which leads me to the subject of my post today: Karl Rove. Simply put, Karl Rove is the most powerful man in America. He has orchestrated & maintained republican control throughout a variety of events: 9/11, The unsuccessful duck hunt for Osama, The Iraq (Vietnam) war, the downward spiraling of the economy, etc.

How does he do this you ask? Well, lets start with developing effective wedge issues (homosexuality) that distract the masses from the issues that directly impact one's quality of life (Economics, Crime, etc.). Think about it: get people to vote based on sexual orientation vs. things that affect you on a daily basis. By playing off of the fears of millions of people, you can push your agenda on the entire country.

Next, you create a “boogeyman”. Throughout this country’s history, we have had a number of boogeymen: Niggas, Spics, Japs, Russians, etc.. Our present-day b.m. takes it to another level: Islamo-Facists who would like nothing more than to destroy our way of life, take our land and our ability to drink beer at sports events! Where is our b.m. (and not baby mama) from you ask? Everywhere where there’s sand! Do we make any distinction between different sects of Islam? Hell no! In fact, they all are on the same side and want us dead, regardless of the hundreds of years of sunni-shia conflict!

The result? A populace that will defend the indefensible in the name of “security” and “freedom”.

Add-on: You buy all of the dream-pushers (Black Mega-Church Ministers) with federal faith-based money so that they’ll sell their congregation the following story: Democrats have been taking your vote for granted for too long! Why don’t we play the field and see what options are out there? Plus, it’s time for us to get paid, and we can’t do that on liberal handouts! (To me, the story sounds like a woman whose man isn’t treating her right, and that’s for another blog)

Is this yet another hate fest designed to inspire you to move to action? Nah. We’ve had one too many of those, and look at where we are. In all actuality, what we should extract from this is that to achieve your goals, strategy is needed (and not “vote for me cause I’m black” either). Rove is a masterful strategist who employs all available tools to identify voting blocs and their preferences so that he can market his product (candidates) to them. (Small aside: did ya know that most gin drinkers are republicans, and most bourbon drinkers are democrats? Karl Rove does)

What “progressives” need is more strategy and less emotion. Rove crafts strategy that is relative and relevant to the demographic that he targets. One disappointing thing that I saw at the Hip-Hop convention was that too many demos are painted with a broad-brush stroke, as far as outreach.

Father Allah, The founder of the NGE, instructed us that America was our country, and that we should make it strong. For many years, I grappled with that concept, b.u.t. as I get older I see that we are to make this country what it should be, and not necessarily what it has been made into. People from all over the world look to the U.S. for inspiration, and we truly owe it to ourselves and those who came before us to fight and struggle to make this land work for all who inhabit it’s borders. One way to do it is to make our message applicable and easy to digest for the masses of people so that they can truly do what is in their best interest.

2006-09-05T15:51:00.000-07:00

Impressions

Peace,

A couple of impressions from the last 14 or so days of my life:

- Last week was the 1 year anniversary (is this term really applicable?) of Hurricane Katrina & its devastating effects effects on the Gulf Coast. I watched Spike Lee's When the levees broke, and did the knowledge to the various articles & reports from that area. Here are my conclusions:

1) The U.S. Government never gave a damn about Louisiana in the first place. The reason that black people in N.O. were so behind the 8 ball to begin with is that America treats the entire state as a colony (meaning take all it's resources and give it nothing). The state gets nothing from the off-shore drilling that's done in the Gulf Coast. With no federal dollars coming in, and no industries beyond tourism and fishing. This was a castastrophe waiting to happen.

2) Katrina was not a natural disaster, it was a social disaster. Making the distinction is very important. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of rapidly worsening social disaster all over the country. Detroit is a social disaster. Philadelphia (which by the way has the same death rate as the U.S.'s first couple of months in Iraq) is a social disaster. You can't handle social disaster through law enforcement, and you can't change it with prayer, positive thoughts or good intentions. There has to be a comprehensive social upheaval that speaks to every aspect of our being.

3) When watching the HBO special, I noticed that every black person who held any type of governmental position was an understanding seed (light skin) which is due to the social engineering and class structure that has been maintained in the N.O. for hundreds of years(It's one place where black people can say "I'm Creole" and it actually means something). If anything should have been washed away, it should be that.

- The uproar over Andy Young's remark regarding other ethnic groups doing business in black communities can be filtered down to a couple of points:

1) What he said was true, and anyone who has lived in a black community in the last 40 years knows it. I travel all across the country, and it's the same everywhere. The other piece that was inferred b.u.t. not explicitly mentioned is that different ethnic groups are able to come and build a economic foundation based upon the needs of the black community. When I was young & coming up in philly, 90 percent of the corner stores were owned by asians, mostly from Vietnam (the other 10 percent were owned by jamaicans, b.u.t. thats another blog).

The peculiar thing that I noticed was that I only saw the children of the families in the stores during the summer time. When we struck up a conversation, I found that they all lived & went to school in the suburbs, and that none of their future plans included doing anything regarding a store. They were all going to school for subjects like Accounting, Medicine, Business Law, or Finance. I then understood that the family opening a store in the hood was a upward mobility move that allowed the parents (most of whom were 1st generation immigrants) to get a foothold and help their children get an education in subjects that will give them access to resources and networks (my blog on Asians & Education coming soon). Frankly, we would do well to mimic that move.

In about 1995, all of the Asian stores disappeared, and were replaced by Dominican bodegas. I guess that the plan was born (brought to completion), and they were moving on for the next step of individual & community progress. Now, philly looks like new york with bodegas on every corner. Given the history of dominicans & blacks, it shouldn't be long before their work is done, and we see another ethnicity.

2) Andy, why were you representing wal-mart to begin with? As much as I detest what has been done in our communities by other groups, the only difference between them and wal mart is that the food will be cheaper. There's a reason that the empire that Sam built doesn't like unions: they don't want to pay living wage. Recent big-box fights in Chicago have gone against the stores, so their looking for new strategies to get in. Andy was representing walton world as a paid consultant, so who knows where his true loyalties lie?
- America is in some deep shit now. Isreal not being able to knock Hezbollah out, plus the extended engagement in Iraq & afghanistan shows that the world's superpower may be overstepping it's bounds. By the way, what the hell is "Islamic fascism" anyway? Last time I checked,fascism was a national phenomenon, not one that crossed borders

2006-08-22T13:46:00.000-07:00

Ideas & Reality

Peace,

Today's topic will initially appear to be a bit of a departure for the topics that I've been building on lately, b.u.t. I will that you see the connection as you continue to read. On the Knowledge Born day (the 19th for those who still gotta learn SM & SA), I had an insightful intellectual exchange with I Medina (www.imedinapeaceful.blogspot.com) regarding the relationship between ideas & reality. I Medina, being the pragmatist that she is, raised a point questioning the worth of an idea if it can't be manifested into something real and tangible. I countered with the point that there are a number of reasons that ideas don't come to fruition that may not have anything to do with the worth or relevance of said idea (timing, quality of work, process, etc).

As we continued to add on, it got me to thinking about a couple of points. Here we go:

- There are some ideas that need other idea/realities to make it work. For example, the idea that we need Black businesses in our communities is as relevant today as it was 30 years ago, b.u.t. Unity & trust are preconditions for that idea to be able to be manifested into reality

- Ideas create reality, and in turn, reality creates the context & environment for ideas. This dynamic can beg the questions "which came first/which is more important?"

- In the context of AWM, the 5 percent and the 10 percent live based upon ideas, while the 85 percent live based upon the reality that they see.

- The power of an idea is that you can see beyond your particular situation/environment. All of the great men & women of time immemorial (as well as many of the infamous characters of history) moved off of an idea
- When looking at the idea/reality relationship, it is important to have balance and understanding. People who live based on ideas alone can find themselves disconnected from reality, while those who live based only on their supposed “reality” often find themselves stuck in the doldrums of their environment, never seeing beyond their particular situation. It is imperative that we find the space where we are not only living in reality, b.u.t. Creating our own reality. Let’s see where we want to go, and create an action plan for making it manifest.

On another note,you know what? That Rick Ross album is bullshit. Simple and plain bullshit. If you're gonna talk about getting money, pull a Jeezy and have the decency to make it hardcore. If jay-z had any influence on that, shame on em!

2006-08-15T15:54:00.000-07:00

Chemical Babies

Peace,

A couple of things that I'm pondering at the date of this writing (Allah U God, Knowledge Power, AWM 42):

- The DMX reality show is good for a laugh or two, b.u.t. I don't get anything deeper than you would get listening to his album. His relationship with the white man that lives next to him on the ranch is a tad bewildering, cause it infers that with all the people that X has met over his life, he didn't get any Wisdom or guidance until he went out to the desert. Another interesting aside is that X mentioned that his original rap name was Divine Master of the Unknown! Get outta here! (For those who may not know, that's DMX in the Supreme Alphabet) This is just a testament to the influence that the NGE has on Hip-Hop, and look where Hip-Hop has gone as our influence has waned.

- BET is wild as hell, and not in a good way. I saw a commercial where KFC was sponsoring the "Ultimate Family Reunion". Yeah, I said it: The Ultimate Family Reunion. The winner would receive enough chicken for hundreds of people. Extreme ethnic marketing and stereotyping for the '06. Check this out: I'm the Blackest man in the building, and I ain't had chicken since Biggie returned to the essence. I recognize that we do enjoy chicken, and that family reunions are big business, b.u.t. we are a diverse people.

- Today, while listening to a podcast, I heard a term that I would like to share with everyone: Chemical Babies. Reflect on that for a second while I give you some context. Walk w/me through the mind:

- I'm doing the knowledge to Yellow Bus Radio hosted by Mistah F.A.B. from the bay (Yes, I moves with Thizz & Hyphy, which I'll delve into in a second). He's interviewing San Quinn, and they begin to discuss the violence in San Francisco. San Quinn states that one of the reasons that the babies are tripping in the street is that they are "Chemical Babies", meaning that many of them were born addicted to crack, plus being addicted to sugar and flaming hot cheetos. Currently, the chemical babies are addicted to e-pills and blunt wrappers, and are wild as all outdoors. It's important to understand that we're dealing with a different generation: One raised on TV, Bullshit Hip-Hop & Violence. No wonder they're going dumb.

Two days ago, the Philly Daily News reported that the rate of gun violence in Philly is comparable to the deaths at the start of the Iraq war, and that most of the killers and victims are between 14-24. Family, we have a epidemic on our hands, and the younger generation looks worse.

So I Majestic, since you're presenting all of the problems, what are the solutions?

Detox.

We need a cultural detox. Not a hippie detox; not a Lailaa Afrika 30 day fast detox; not a put your head between your legs detox. This detox that I'm speaking on starts with identifying all the things that keep us addicted within our society. From porn to chocolate bars; High Fructose Corn Syrup to computer time.

Step 2: Identify how and why you're addicted to said element, and the positive and negative effects that it creates.

Step 3: After weighing the pros and cons on a personal and collective level, identify methods to disconnect from said element along with suitable alternative (if necessary).

Step 4: Live it out

Step 5: Identify how to succintly capture your experience and build with others

While it may look like i'm oversimplifying, I'm not. The above process may take years, b.u.t. we have to start with those who don't know anything else. This brings me to a point that might as well be my mantra: Create alternatives. If a young'n sells drugs because they don't want to be broke, and all of the people who tell them not to sell drugs are broke, it only reinforces why they should get the hell away from you and your sad-sack story. If I'm trying to build with a young person on why they should be a vegetarian, and all of my food tastes like alfalfa sprouts, do you really think that they're dropping the hamburger? If you're living a righteous life, stop making it look so damn boring! While I don't eat boca burgers and the like often, I recognize their utility in helping with some people's transition. Family, we are in a war of sort, and slingshot are not enough.

*Plug, Plug, Plug* Rebel Music Vol. 3 is out! Check www.classic1824.com or www.myspace.com/rebelmusic1824 for more details.

Also, be on the lookout for my "Get Money, Teach Kids" T-Shirt

2006-08-04T17:02:00.000-07:00

Peace, Progress, & Power

Peace,

Todays Supreme Mathematics is Culture. Culture is a way of life that consists of your ways, words, actions, morals, ethics, intellectual positions, etc... Culture is what gives people a framework for how to interact and conduct themselves in their environment. Ultimately, Culture produces Knowledge, which is the foundation for one's life. I want to cover a couple of topics today that will be dealt with in more detail at a later date. Alright kids? Got your thinking caps on? Heeere we go:

- I took a trip back onto memory lane the other day, and stopped at my time of being infatuated with wrestling; you know, WWF, WCW, AWA, & all of the other alphabet associations from that time period. As I started to think about all of the characters and all of the different situations, a pattern of accultaration started to emerge. Do the Knowledge:

- Junkyard Dog: A slick talking, growling, uncontrollable Black Man from Detroit
- Tito Santana: A high-flying mexican who wears a sombrero and has a chicken with him at times
- Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat: A high-flying Asian who bears an uncanny resembelence to Bruce Lee
- Jimmy "Superfly" Snukka: A high-flying Pacific Islander who has "wild" hair and wears leopard-skin tights
- Kamala & Abdullah The Butcher - African Characters who were portrayed as maniacal dictators (Abdullah) and uncontrallable cannibals who could only be tamed by his white "handler"
- Slick - A pimp who handled various wrestlers
- Razor Ramon - A So - called Hispanic who was a dead-on impression of Scarface
- Whaoo Mcdaniel - A Native wrestler who finished people off with the "Wahoo Chop", and had moves like the "Indian Burn".

Get my drift? From a very early age, we are given a framework from which to look at different ethnicities based on very exaggerated stereotypes. Popular culture has to do this in order to maintain the status quo and keep the social order. In this case, social order is kept by giving everybody what they "need", and making it what they want.

- After pondering for a spell, I'm ready to build about the Hip-Hop Political Convention that took place in Chicago (C-Medina) two weeks ago. At some point, I'll do a larger piece for a project that is yet to come (In comes the sound of anticipation!) For now, I'll share some observations:

- Hip-Hop is not a culture. I repeat, Hip-Hop is not a culture. Hip Hop has some cultural implications, and Hip-Hop can impact and affect culture. If Hip-Hop is culture, what is the value system? The food? The financial framework? Hip-Hop came out of culture, b.u.t. it is not culture.

- With an umbrella as large as Hip-Hop, what kind of political platform could you hope to come up with? You have communists, liberals, conservatives, anarchists, and people who barely care about politics in the same room, and you're looking to come up with....? You'll have a good conference and you may even create some good networks, b.u.t. you won't have a movement. For example like Adisa Banjoko and others have noted, what is the Hip-Hop position on abortion? Foreign Policy? The Middle Eastern conflict? Until we're sophisticated enough to move to that place, it's smoke & mirrors.

- Chicago is on some shit. Gentrification in C-Medina is unlike anything I've ever seen. Community control must include economic self-sufficiency. Say what you will about the projects, b.u.t. it fostered a strong sense of community, and was a strong voting bloc.

More to come....

2006-07-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

A Dollar for your thoughts...

Peace,

I just got back from the 2006 Hip-Hop Political Convention in Chicago, and I'm collecting my thoughts so that I can give you a coherent viewpoint on what I saw and the implications thereof. For now, please check out this post from Adisa Banjoko regarding Hip Hop and politics. Where he's at is similar to my point of view at this time.

Right now, I'm not very convinced that Hip Hop will have the political and social impact it CAN have. I believe this is mostly due to the fact that the rap music industry has bought the voices of too many freedom fighters, magazines, TV and radio stations.I also believe that the "Hip Hop movement" is not very clear on what it wants from America OR itself.I will be doing work in urban schools, juvenile halls and writing kids books.But I wont be writing about the potential or actual impact of Hip Hop in a book again.My goal was to have Vol. 3 ready by the next election. But I'd rather work with the kids than just write about them. I'd rather talk to the kids, than just talk about them.Other than as a tool to vent authentic frustration and be a form of propaganda- its got no legs.

The problem is everybody wants to rap and write. But nobody wants to work for the freedom, justice and equality we say we want.At this point, Hip Hop and politics REALLY- don't mix.So, for those that love the idea and are going to carry forward with it- good luck.But I can't pretend this union is working.And our children deserve more.This does not mean I wont write about stuff online or for spots like Davey D, Guerilla Funk or Allhiphop.com. But the book thing, as far as Hip Hop and politics are concerned- its over.

I'll always love Hip Hop. I also hope I'm wrong. I hope Hip Hop DOES carry the new torch of justice. But I don't see that happening.It's about the kids.I'm focusing on kids books- straight up.If we aint saving the kids, we aint saving anything.

PEACE,
Adisa

2006-07-06T14:42:00.000-07:00

Equality

Peace,

Today's mathematics is Equality. In our paradigm, Equality is universal balance and homeostasis. Equality is the nature of the Black Woman (Earth), and the ethic of the Black Man (Father). Equality is to want the following things for your brother/sister:

1. What they want for themselves
2. What is in their best interest

Maintaing a cipher of Equality is no easy task, especially in a world that requires most people to be moving 24/7. One must insure that their Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding is in porportion to create balance for oneself. (By the way, Equality doesn't mean 50/50; that's sameness.) There's been a lot of talk in the news recently regarding Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, and their philanthropic endeavors. While I applaud their giving, we msut remember that the greatest giving happens on a day-to-day basis, and it goes beyond money. Any outlay of time, compassion, concern, or is giving and needs to be respected as well. The following article profiles a black man with a history of giving. Remember, you can impact the world through a word, way, or action!

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are widely described as two of the smartest beings on the planet. So it wouldn't surprise me at all if they know about Thomas Cannon.
On the other hand, it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't. Still, when I read news reports of Buffett's and Gates' charitable-giving project, I saw it as a timely tribute to Cannon, who died last year at age 79. The longtime resident of Richmond, Va., was no titan of industry, but for many he embodied the spirit of giving more than any megabillionaire could.

Although he was a postal worker who seldom earned as much as $30,000 a year, Cannon routinely gave away much of what he earned, usually in increments of $1,000. His generosity was celebrated in such national forums as Ebony Magazine and on the Oprah Winfrey and "Nightline" TV shows.
Cannon made his first donation in 1972, when he was 47. He had given away an estimated $150,000 by the time he died. His methods must have required some extraordinary penny-pinching, but he didn't see it that way. He once explained to a reporter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch exactly how he did it: "People say, 'How can you afford it?' Well, how can people afford new cars and boats? Instead of those, we deliberately kept our standard of living down below our means. I get money from the same place people get money for those other things."

It would be easy to point to Cannon, a black man, as a role model for African-Americans everywhere. But, in this regard, African-American communities are qualified to serve as role models for the country at large. According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, blacks donate 25 percent more of their discretionary income than whites. On average, Black Enterprise magazine notes, black households give $1,614 to their favorite causes. That figure doesn't take into account tithing -- contributing 10 percent of household income -- to churches, a widespread practice among black families.
Target Market News, a Chicago-based research firm, found that African-Americans made $11.4 billion in charitable contributions in 2004. That kind of giving tends to be curiously overlooked by critics who describe their black countrymen as selfish underachievers who lounge around waiting for handouts.
Black Enterprise's 2005 list of the nation's leading black philanthropists included people long noted for their generosity, such as Winfrey, Bill Cosby and radio superstar Tom Joyner. Others on the list, such as basketball star Alonzo Mourning and rapper-actor Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, certainly deserve more credit for their willingness to share. None of them fits the charitable-giving profile of the typical wealthy American. According to a 2000 report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the rich tend to give a far lower percent of their net worth than the rest of us.
Gates and Buffett, whether they know it or not, are carrying on in the tradition of Thomas Cannon. And so is Darryl Lester, in his own way.

"We call it an old tradition with a new twist," he told me. Lester is the founding partner of HindSight Consulting, a nonprofit based in Raleigh, N.C., that helps build networks for community-based giving. From informal conversations in private homes, HindSight creates giving circles to help ordinary citizens donate in a more strategic fashion. Members of each circle offer annual contributions, which the group then gives away in the form of grants. "By pooling not just money but time, talent and resources, we help people become part of a larger philanthropic conversation," Lester said.

He established the first circle in Raleigh. Called the Next Generation of African-American Philanthropists, it gave away more than $11,000 in its first round of grant-making, including to local groups helping women with AIDS and working to close the achievement gap in public schools. "Now we have an opportunity to do some collective problem-solving together," Lester said. "Why are so many people hungry and why are so many people homeless? I'm not saying that charity at the basic level isn't important, but as a people we need to look at the root causes of these problems."

HindSight has since helped establish giving circles in Birmingham, Ala., New Orleans, and Christiansburg, Va. Lester said he is now working to establish another giving circle in Raleigh-Durham that will consist solely of black men. It's all about paying it forward, he said. "Maybe the creator helped you get where you are so that you could give back," he said, "not so you could hoard more stuff."

2006-06-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

Peace,

The following is an article that I've had in the stash for quite a while. Check it out and tell me what you think!

Is the Nation of Gods and Earths a Muslim Community?

I Majestic Allah

Within and outside the Nation of Gods and Earths (NGE), many are unsure as to the relation of the NGE to the religion of Islam as practiced by over 1 billion adherents throughout the world. Understandably, perspectives on the matter are varied, ranging from inclusion (those who see the NGE within the Islamic scope) to total exclusion (those who see the NGE having no relation to the religion of Islam). There are also those who see the NGE not as Muslims, but a group with ideas in the vein of Shiite and Sufi sects. The primary consequence of this argument is the way in which we define ourselves in relation to other cultures/religions in society. Furthermore, it begs the question: is the NGE merely an offshoot of the Nation of Islam (NOI), and by extension, orthodox Islam; or is it a new value system unique to itself? The answer to this question is one that incorporates many factors and connects varied cultural and social dynamics.

In order to look deeper into the question, it is imperative that we first evaluate the ideas and value system of the respective cultures/religions to see if they are indeed similar. The primary reason that many accuse the NGE of being quasi or Proto-Islamic is the use of the terms Allah and Islam. Although both groups use the terms, the meanings and context in which they are used are strikingly dissimilar.

In the traditional Islamic context, Allah is used to refer to an omnipotent, omniscient, astral God who is the object of adoration and worship in western monotheistic thought (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). God in Arabic is Ilah, so the prefix Al (meaning the) was added on to indicate a shift away from polytheistic culture/religion, as was the norm in pre-Islamic Arabia. In the paradigm of the NGE, Allah is the Blackman, who after gaining an acute awareness of his positive qualities, history, and the world around him, actualizes these positive qualities in order to be the creator of his own destiny and a positive enriching influence in his family and community (global and local). This worldview is not unlike the concept of the “perfect man” in Sufism and the Kabbalah. While many would hold that Allah is a term exclusive to the religion of Islam, it is actually an Arabic term that is also used by Arab Jews and Christians when speaking of God. Our use of the Arabic term is not only related to the history of the NGE (and our evolution out of the NOI, but also on the profound affect that the term carries when speaking of a change in the worldview from the Christian perspective held previous by many in the African-American and Latino community. While the Terms Allah & God are similar in religious usage, when used among a population that has been oppressed by a mix of white supremacy and religion (in this case Christianity), the term Allah often signals a stance of independence and separation from their previous cultural and religious experience.

The term Islam in the traditional Islamic context means “peace through submission”, and refers to the religion and culture developed by Muhammad Ibn Abdullah in 7th century Arabia. From the perspective of the NGE, Islam bespeaks the cultural filament of high civilization practiced and maintained by people of the Afro-Asiatic Diaspora. Even in orthodox Islam, it is acknowledged that Islam as an ideal championing the existence of the oneness of God predated the emergence of Islam as a religion. Similar to the term Allah, the NGE does not use the term Islam to be seen as Muslims, but to underscore the correlation between a civilization’s development of character & humanity, and it’s development of science & mathematics. It is well documented that the religion of Islam was a catalyst for the development of science, mathematics, and philosophy for hundreds of years, even influencing the enlightenment period in Europe. Within Africa, cities such as Djenne and Timbuktu are testimonies to Afro-Islamic achievements in mathematics and science, as well as human development and spirituality. In the African- American community, Islam (in it’s myriad of manifestations) usually indicated a system that improved one’s character, as well as one’s knowledge of and standing in the world. By seeing oneself within this ethno-cultural framework, the mental paradigm is developed where people of varied backgrounds can transform the behaviors that many of us suffer from (lack of motivation, defeatist behavior, anti-intellectualism). This is why within the NGE community, you will find terms such as “science/scientist”, “mathematics”, “right and exact”, and so forth. The NGE use of the term “Mathematics” is of particular importance as it relates to the Hindu-Arabic numerals we use. The history of the Hindu-Arabic number system is an example of the historical and social bond that connects civilizations and promotes human development by way of cultural and intellectual exchange. By seeing the filament that runs through the high civilizations of people of color, one can develop a universal worldview that champions and relates to the achievements of people of color all over the planet. While some may dismiss this framework as underdeveloped and imaginary, it is no more fantastic than the Zion of Rastafarian thought, or the “glory days” of Kemet of some Afrocentrists.

On a religious level, however it is important to note that orthodox Islam and the NGE are in no way the same. There is no veneration of Muhammad as the last prophet in the NGE, and the NGE has no set amount that is required to be distributed to the poor. Due to the view that man is the creator of his individual and collective destiny, prayer in the form of Salat is not required. Fasting is encouraged in the NGE, but not in a structured and mandated form as is Ramadan in orthodox Islam. Conversely, most Muslims would consider it anathema to call themselves God, and there is no outward expression of ethnocentrism present in the religion of Islam. Historically, there have been Islamic groups/sects that held views similar to the NGE, such the Zaydis of Yemen, the Druze of Lebanon, and the Baye Fall sect in Senegal, but these groups are the exception and not the rule. While comparisons to Sufism are fair (Exemplified by famous Sufi Al Hallaj, who was beheaded for exclaiming Anal Haqq, or “I am the truth”), it is important to note that many of the Sufis that advocated self-actualized Godhood identified with Gnostic and Neo-Platonic thought and often ran afoul of traditional Islamic tenets.

While it is understandable why the NGE is identified with Orthodox Islam given the history of the NGE as well as the usage of selected terms by both groups, the truth is that the NGE espouses many concepts that do not fit neatly within an Islamic scope. In fact, after Allah, the founder of the NGE left the NOI, he went to great lengths to identify the NGE as a separate community, even going so far as to order sweeping name changes so that the Gods and Earths would not be mistaken for Muslims of the NOI. While one may be tempted to dismiss this change as slight, it is no less indicative of a new worldview than Muhammad changing the direction of prayer from Jerusalem to Mecca. It is also important to note that Allah, when asked about Islam, remarked, “that’s just I-Self-Lord-And-Master”, again speaking to the process of self-actualization rather than submission. Ultimately, to place the NGE in an Islamic scope does a disservice to both groups. One, it forces the NGE to fit it’s values within a previous but unparallel framework. Secondly, It compels Orthodox Islam to include a group with values that are dissimilar to their own. It also infers that there will be no “new” value systems, and that no cultural/religious development can take place after the last revelation of the western monotheistic tradition (Islam). Following this train of thought, Christianity would be seen as “Quasi-Judaic”, and Protestants would be known as “Pseudo-Catholic”. The NGE is a new value system that has similarities to and influences from a variety of Cultures/Religions (Islam, Buddhism, Gnosticism, Christianity), but is a unique ethno-cultural response to the condition of people of color in contemporary society. It is no less valid due to it originating from another group than Protestantism, being a response of the excesses of another group (Catholicism in this case). Building upon the legacy of Cultural/ Religious Nationalism left by the Moorish Science Temple and the NOI, the NGE and the ethno-cultural worldview that we espouse deserves the respect and consideration afforded to other Cultures/Value Systems and should be seen as adding another dimension to the contemporary Afro-Asiatic Diaspora.

Already, within the last forty years, the NGE has made a considerable impact on urban youth worldwide and is well known through its influence on Hip-Hop Culture. The ideas and values projected by many NGE musicians (Rakim, Wu-Tang Clan, Poor Righteous Teachers) has influenced youth culture, serving as the impetus for tens of thousands of disaffected youth to learn about and research the history and culture of aboriginal people across the globe. Viewing the NGE outside the limited parameters of “Proto-Islam” will allow many to gain greater understanding and appreciation for the ideas and concepts found therein.

2006-06-15T16:53:00.000-07:00

Show & Prove

Peace,

For those of you who don't know, we in the Nation of Gods & Earths have a yearly event entitled the Show & Prove, which commemorates the life of Allah the founder of the NGE. This event is a testament to the life and vision of Allah, as it relates to what he wanted for future Gods and Earths. The event began in 1971 and was centered around a science fair in which the young Gods and Earths could exhibit their awareness and competency in science and mathematics (the subjects in which Allah placed much of his focus for the Gods and Earths). The event also featured singing, dancing, drumming, and a fashion show.

The past weekend, I attended our 35th annual show and prove. Gods and Earths from all across the country attended to see the universal family. As I looked around and saw the thousands in attendance, I marveled at the power of an idea(Knowledge), and the majesty of proper application and implementation(Wisdom). When those two elements come together, a positive result often emerges(Understanding). Both elements must be present to insure success; An idea w/ improper application will be dead on arrival, and the best intentions can't mask a bulls(!T idea.

That premise leads me into the importance of the concept "Show and Prove". To show is to exhibit, demonstrate, or make visible. Prove means to verify or establish by means of fact or reason. The use of the term compels one to not only speak of something, b.u.t. to provide supporting details or proof as well. This is one of the steps that allows us to set a standard of excellence for all of the human families to follow. It also ensures that your exhibition is aligned with the means to verify your assertion. Just as we demonstrate and establish that the Blackman is God and the Blackwoman is the Earth, so should you show and prove whatever your premise is. By doing that we will be able to interact and build as civilized people and change the world that we live in today.

2006-06-05T16:09:00.000-07:00

Stop Snitchin'

Peace,

Today's mathematics is Power. Power is the ability to affect and change your environment. There are many types of power (coercion, influence,domination), however when using power in the most supremely mathematical sense, it is the abilty to move something in a positive direction based on a righteous way of life. One's power should always create equality (balance, homeostasis) in the environment.

I wanna talk about snitching for a minute. I must say in advance that I have a perspective that won't go over well with some segments of the population that read my blog. What I'm finding is that if you have a perpesctive that is in line with the Black "intelligensia", you're probably out of touch with the "common folk". Okay civilized people, here we go: I am anti-snitching as it exists in a contemporary sense. Enter a hypothetical conversation/debate with a person who is pro-snitch:

I: I can see where the kids are coming from with this "stop snitching" thing

T: How can you say that? Drugs and violence are tearing apart our communities. How can you say that someone shouldn't tell on criminals?

I: When I say that, I mean that people who engage in criminal activity should not tell on others who engage in criminal activity to get a "get out of jail free" card. I'm perfectly fine with civilians reporting criminal behavior to the police; that's part of the game.

T: Still, how can you condone crime and intimidation? That's part of destroying our communities!

I: I don't condone intimidation, b.u.t. I also don't condone lack of accountability or responsibility. People know what they're getting into when they get into the game, and they don't have much remorse when they out there hustlin', so dont get holier-than-thou when you get caught. Besides, snitches are notoriously bad pipelines of info, and are replacing real police work in many cases.

T: Don't you agree that we should get drug dealers off of the streets?

I: What I think is that we need to look at the problem realistically. First of all, the drug game has become a industry in our communities, and it ain't because our youth are out to destroy us, either. As a people, we still haven't adjusted to post-industrial America, so our children are making due with anything that they can. Add in the institutional racism that permeates all fibers of our society, and you get generations who really believe that hobbies and crime are the way to go (See Basketball, Hustling,& Entertainment). So while I do think that we need to reduce the negative impact of open-air drug markets and the resulting violence, locking them all up and throwing away the key isn't the solution. The larger issue is that we need to start policing ourselves, b.u.t. that would be getting off topic a little.

T: All I know is that drugs is choking the life out of our community

I: To me, unprincipled drug selling, use, and the resulting behavior is chocking the life out of our community. All communities have drug sellers, users, and abusers, b.u.t. ours is out of hand due to the absence of any rules or morals when dealing with that cipher. In Washington Heights, they sell more powder than a little bit, b.u.t. every block isn't a drug market. This idea can be extended to other aspects of our community as well. We need to establish rights and wrongs and convey them to our children so that the youth don't continue to terrorize the elders and the larger community. If we want the youth to stop hustling we have to advocate for better education, create industries in our communities, and change the way that we look at a communities survival in the wilderness

T: On to the next topic...

2006-05-25T17:35:00.000-07:00

Rap Game/Crack Game

Peace,

Today's Supreme Mathematics is Wisdom Power all b.b.t. God. Through my Wisdom you will see my Power, and through my Power, you will see my Wisdom. Being intelligent with your ability to affect & change your environment is what seperates the men from the boys. We see the children running these streets and using power in the wrong ways. It is up to the Blackman with knowledge of self to show his community and the world how to be wise and intelligent with the power that we have.

I wanna talk about hip-hop for a minute. There are a lot of reasons that hip hop is worth talking about, b.u.t the main reason that I want talk about it is the role it plays in our community. In 2006, hip hop is central to the identity of many of our people (specifically the youth). In addition, you can't minimize it's role as a medium for communication for/about our people (good or bad) In taking a look at everything, here's what's standing out:

- You know where hip-hop really went wrong? When hip-hop became a viable alternative for a career for our youth (alongside crack and basketball). When poverty is widespread, schools aint workin, and the family unit has beeen destroyed, you damn right people will sell negative images for money. It took a while for the major record labels to totally commodify it, b.u.t. when they did, they did it to death. Remember, broke people w/out knowledge of self will do almost anything.

- If we date hip hop back to the early-mid 70's, that would make it about 30 -35 years old. There are alot of confused 30-35 year olds out here, and you should look at hip-hop the same way. How many black people do you know who will talk about how the government is shafting them, and then go right ahead and give all their money back to them? That's Hip Hop.

- The regional chasm that we've created are reminiscent of the Malcolm/ Martin, Black Panthers/US, Dubois/Washington divisions. New York is'nt losing because of any grand con-spiracy; They're losing cause of the holier than thou attitude of many in new york. Note to all: just because you started it doesn't mean that you'll always be seen as the best. Just like Dumar Wa'de Allah says "There's no 401(k) plan for a five percenter", there's no 401(k) plan for creativity. There's a wealth to experiences to be heard within different regions; let's appreciate it all.

- Speaking of which, am I the only one who notices an elitist attitude in the conscious/progressive circles? There's nothing wrong with critical analysis; hell I think I'm pretty critical, b.u.t. I'm not coming off like Bill Cosby out this jawn either. Remember, Hip Hop does not exist in isolation of the rest of our issues. It actually is sitting right in the middle of them at the date of this writing. Hip Hop won't grow up until Black Men grow up.

- What's up w/ shooting rappers? Majestic says that rappers should stop talking to the people like they're somebody they're not. We always hear the analogy between music and movies, b.u.t. here's the difference: Nobody takes Tom Cruise seriously when he does MI3. If you're speaking to the hood, tell the truth about your character. Our youth see no distinction between fantasy and reality when their reality is depressing. If you don't want it to happen, stop selling the fantasy. Why don't we ever hear about Mos Def getting shot?

- Lastly, I want to say this: Jay Z (Cocaine) vs. 50 (Crack). More to be revealed

2006-05-17T17:08:00.000-07:00

Tale Of Two Cities

Peace,

I like to travel. B.U.T. I don't necessarily like to go to the tourist spots or cities that have been identified as the best places to travel to. No ,I like to go to where the "Niggas" are; the spots where people don't like to go. The places where you can get a home-made lemonade or Iced Tea from the Chinese store; The places that have shirts with the neighborhood's name on the front. Neighborhoods like Northwest(Uptown) & Southeast D.C.; East Baltimore; East & West Oakland; The Eastside of Detroit; Scarborough (T.O.); Brownsville and East New York. I don't travel to these places to get some sort of visceral thrill from traveling through these "dangerous" places; I travel there because these are the places that I feel at home. When you step foot in these places, you often feel like your in another city, where everybody knows your name and their damn happy that you came. For many years, there were de facto borders that made this more reality than fantasy. The faces, names and accents change, b.u.t. the situations are the same. As far as the history of the aforementioned places, they tend to fall in two categories:

Neighborhoods that were once thriving Black communities until social (the MLK riots) and economic (Post-Industrial America) factors brought about their demise
Neighborhoods that were European enclaves until Black migration (and subsequent White Flight) changed the demographics of the 'hood

In either case, what's happening in a lot of the hoods all across the country is what I call "The Great Yuppie Land Grab". After these places being left to rot for over 30 years, they are being pegged as the new "hot spots". There are a myriad of reasons for this phenomenon, b.u.t. I'm going to focus on two:

The dissatisfaction with sub and ex-urbia, in economic and social costs;
The redevelopment and scarce space in American cities

As gas goes up and the housing bubble deflates, no one wants to live in the boonies. Additionally, many of these "bedroom communities" creates a fake facsimile of true neighborhood living. Also, as cities become inviting again, more people want to live in them. No major American city outside of the Sun Belt is getting any bigger, so guess who gets the heave ho? You got it homeboy: The renters, the project dwellers, and the otherwise unwanted. Instead of blatant racism, this one has a new twist: Market Forces. I put it in bold because we have to understand that this is the "new bogeyman", the force that will dictate change all across America while being shrouded in economic jargon and mystery. And since no one understands it, they won't blame it.

The Knowledge Degree in the Student Enrollment states that we are the makers and owners; it is past time that we actualize that concept. If nothing else illustrates my point, look at Exhibit F: New Orleans. The city of New Orleans will never be the same and we must accept some responsibility for that. To go from one hand to another, Harlem (Mecca) or Fort Greene(The Head of Medina) will never be the same, and we must also accept responsibility for that. Don't be content with moving to a first-ring suburb when you were sitting on a gold mind that you didn't properly develop. If we're not careful, the "hood" will be but a fairy tale, thanks to gas prices and the new bogeyman.

2006-05-11T16:53:00.000-07:00

Between Iraq and a Hard Place

Peace,

Pardon for the delay in adding on. As you become more productive, you get busier. As you get busier, you have to become even more productive, and the cycle goes on. I've been doing alot, which will be manifested to you in the very near future. While I'm here with you on this day of Knowledge Knowledge all being born to Wisdom, let me share some things in the atmosphere:

Universal peace and love to the Rajee Family regarding the new addition to the universe, Laya Wisdom Rajee Earth! Laya was born on the God day to Justice Rajee Allah and Equality Rajee Earth out there in Portland, OR. I tip my crown to the both of you!

Last week, the US scored next to last of all developing countries regrading newborn deaths. In the richest country in the world, that shouldn't be a problem. Black families actually had three times the national average, so you draw it up (28, 1-40).

As you've read on other NGE blogs this month, some of the Gods are raising the rod. Let it be known that Allah had the dream in May, b.u.t. it was made born to the Gods in July, and since it was too late to start that month, they did it in Allah You God (August). Due to that fact, many brothers observe in August.

This week in Newsweek, there is a feature article on African-Americans and AIDS, as Black people are now disporportionately affected by the virus. How the hell did a virus that was known as the "gay disease" become a Black disease? There are numerous reasons, and if you're reading this blog, you already know. The bottom line is that Knowledge is the foundation. b.u.t. you must have Wisdom, Understanding, and Culture if it's going to be a lifestyle. You can tell people not to have unprotected sex all you want, b.u.t. if the environment doesn't reflect that, then it's not going to change. This concept can be applied to many ciphers, and is one of the main reasons that we are in the condition we are in. You can tell kids to go to school, b.u.t. if they dont see how to do it and the fruit of going to school, and a environment where it can work, then forget it homeboy/homegirl. Knowledge is not Power; Knowledge applied in an environment to affect change is.

Get a hybrid vehicle; better yet, get a bike like my brother Born Shamir. Please remember, economics is based on scarcity. We are not living in the times of the Beverly Hillbillies; don't assume that there will be oil at this level of demand forever, and even if there is, you won't find it in America (More to come regardng that subject).

This goes out to most New York rappers and their fans; stop complaining! Do you know why the south is winning?

1. They have sound business tactics. They actually run their own labels and know the ins and outs of how to market and promote themselves.

2. They are more creative. Besides the Harlem Shake (A dance modeled after a fiend), when's the last time New York came up with a dance? or a new sound? They can't even come up with there own gangs, and you want people to listen to you. Understand, New York is the Mecca (In more ways than one), b.u.t. for people to respect you you have to get your swagger back in a way besides arrogance. The south is a fountain of creativity and struggle. Put those two together, and you've got good music.

3. See answers 1 and 2.

How about the Gods and Earths on podcast?
How come there aren't Halal Chinese spots all across the country?

2006-04-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

Movement or moving mentally?

Peace,

Today's supreme mathematics is Wisdom Equality all being born to Build or Destroy. When judging your ways and actions, one must always identify if your words, ways, and actions create balance or a limitation in self and others. You must always do your best to add on to which is good and destroy that which is bad.

Now, I watched Cam'ron's new movie Killa Season last night. It was my expectation that I would get a few laughs, be appalled at the treatment of women, talk about his acting and go along my way. Well, it just so happens that on my way to the parliament, I came to some other conclusions. Please see below:

The Dips are some of the funniest rappers on the planet, as some of you already know from listening to their music or watching any of the Street DVD's out now. They're not coonish funny, they're your cousin from the projects funny, or your uncle john-john funny. Even if they don't mean it, they got a lot of jokes.
They are very charismatic. "conscious" rappers, and community folks take note: One reason that negativity spreads faster than positivity in this day in time is that the "bad" folks are more fun to be around than the "good" folks. We can't be lame, and then expect the youth and the community to be magnetically attracted to us just because. For references, please see Fred Hampton, El Hajj Malik Shabazz, Brand Nubian, etc..
For all of the dumb s#!t that they say on record, If you have insight, you could see morals and values within the flick. For example, In the movie, stick-up kids killed Cam's 7 year old niece. When he had the opportunity to retaliate and kill the dude's young family member, he chose not to. While I don't advocate what he did (spit on her), the streets are out of hand right now regarding bringing the family into street beef (a violation of a rule handed down through the ages: Don't kill women & children!), and Hip Hop has a lot to do with that, as rappers say lines like "If I don't kill you, I'ma kill your kids" in songs. Remember: Kids pay attention to these guys. At another point Cam cleaned up a smoker (crackhead for the slang impaired) who was previously in college, and compassion is not an emotion you see in the average "murder, kill, homicide" street flick.
The # 1 problem with independent street films is that they eventually run out of money. Just when the plot takes an interesting turn...The screen goes black and the credits roll. To Cam and the dips: Yall dudes is sittin on a lot of change (As evidenced from your jewelry and cars), so go ahead and put another $200,000 in. Your fans will appreciate it.

A common theme in Hip Hop is "This is a movement", and some are turned off by that kind of statement. The criticism is true if you compare it to the Black Power Movement or the Civil Rights Movement, b.u.t. it is important to remember that in the absence of something good, people will settle for something bad. That's why you see the youth hanging on to whatever they see and calling it important, even if it's just cliches and a shell of it's former self. Hell, even the elders will do it given the right situation (See contemporary civil rights and black power).

Since we're speaking on morals and values, one last thing: How in the hell did we let R. Kelly come back and do the "I'm in love with a stripper" remix? From the lessons I learned on the soil, there were three things that were/ are inexcusable: Snitches, Child Abusers, and Rapists. Well, we see that the hood is hard on #1 and #3, so how the hell does R. Kelly get a pass. Regardless if we want to admit it or not, a lot of people saw that tape, and you know that it was him, so don't front. This guy had the audacity so say (and I'm paraphrasing) "I wanted to stick my head in her a@#". First, that's not civilized. Second, your record is scarred homeboy, and you need to stick to gospel. One thing that will change our community is the establishment of high standards. You'll be surprised to see how many people fall off when we expect more than they're used to giving.

2006-04-23T15:46:00.000-07:00

Are You "Conscious"?

Let me begin by informing you that I picked up "La-La means I love you: The best of the Delfonics", and I'm going to strongly suggest that you do the same. Do not pass go, do not collect $200 dollars! (Full Disclosure: I'm from Philly and I think that Philly Soul was the best thing to ever happen to R&B since they invented the microphone). If you can't set the mood with that, then the mood ain't in you (or you don't have any magnetic).

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let me ask a question: Are you conscious?

I'll wage a dollar to a dime that most who read this blog will answer "yes" or "indeed so". When we think of the term, we usually associate it with knowing that Jesus wasn't white, being aware of the "African-American" presidents, or being able to wax eloquently about the Kemetian contribution to science, religion, and culture. Now, please allow me to raise the stakes: Let's say that you being "conscious" was predicated on you correctly answering the following three questions:

What is the Laffer Curve?
What is the Median home price in your area? Has it gone up or down in the last 3 years? By how much?
Who are the top 5 oil producing countries in the world? (For extra credit: what percentage of the world's oil supply does the United States consume)

After thinking about them, would you still be "conscious"? I will that 90% say "yes" or "indeed so". Unfortunately, from my personal experiences as well as reports on the financial and business literacy of Black & Brown communities in this country, the answer is mostly no. Individual and collective ignorance on these issues directly impacts the quality of life for our people all over the planet. You can talk about melanin all you want, b.u.t. if you're not aware and well informed about the state of the global economy, then you're not totally "conscious". Moreover, you are dooming those you know less than you to not be able to see the larger picture and how it affects them on a day to day level.

In order to make comprehensive change, consciousness has to be a wholistic framework, not one that includes what we want to know about, and excludes that which we perceive as "white" (As if original people didn't create economics and politics) or "devilish" (Which is scarier because it infers that we're afraid to confront the oppressor on any level that we see them). We have to be informed and have a perspective on every science that impacts our quality of life.

As a add-on, I suggest that you check out "The Undercover Economist" by Tin Hartford. It takes very complicated concepts and explains them in a simple way. For the babies, you can google "economics for children", and get access to info that can teach them about money.

2006-04-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

Scientists & Builders

Peace,

Let's go back a couple of years: 1990. March 1990 to be exact. The School District of Philadelphia held it's annual High School Fair at the Philadelphia Civic Center. As a 13 year old, it was a sight to see. Kids from all over the city coming to check out what the high schools had to offer, boys and girls coming to check out what each other had to offer, and neighborhoods looking to revive old beefs. In the end all three were accomplished; prospective high school students saw various high schools, numbers were exchanged, and fights broke out all across the fair.

At that time in Philadelphia (Pre Charter School Era), Public high schools fell into the following categories:

The "Good" Schools - Central, Girls High, Masterman

The "Pretty Good" Schools - Engineering & Science (My Alma Mater), Bodine, GAMP

The specialty Schools - Saul, Creative & Performing Arts,Franklin Learning Center

The Vocational Schools - Bok,Dobbins

Everywhere Else

Among the "Everywhere Else" schools was West Philadelphia High, a school that was renowned for Basketball and not much else. The stratification had already begun, and West (as it is affectionately called) was becoming a school that you went to because:

1) Your grades weren't good enough to go anywhere else
2) You family didn't push enough buttons for you to go anywhere else

Now, in reality West had many good teachers and supportive staff members (And a large contingent of young Five Percenters, I may add), b.u.t. due to the state of the schools, it was looked at as a "neighborhood" school and not given much support by the district or anyone else. As I walked around the High School Fair, I wandered to the booth for West; A couple pamphlets and a car chassis. The pamphlets championed the "Automotive Technology Academy" at West. I took a pamphlet and kept moving. A couple of dudes from the hood I was from ended up going there and participating before getting into their own trials and tribulations in the streets.

Fast Forward 14 Years:

West Philadelphia High has the Best Automotive Academy in the area, and one of the best in the country. So Saith the Philadelphia Daily News:

One of the most impressive cars at this week's Philadelphia Auto Show doesn't come from Japan, Germany or Detroit.

It came from the auto shop at West Philadelphia High School.

The car - designed and built by students in the school's Academy for Automotive and Mechanical Engineering - delivers more horsepower than some Porsches and gets gas mileage comparable to a Toyota Prius. It runs on fuel made from soybeans. (2/15/06)

Last year, the team won the Tour De Sol, a competition for Eco-Friendly cars, amongst competition from high school and college teams. Helluva achievement right? One would think that the program would be one of the centerpieces of the Philadelphia School District, Correct?

Emphatically no.

Last year, the program had to fight for it's funding to continue based on school district money constraints. In fact, the program (100%Black & Asians) would have been closed if not for concerned community residents and area auto dealers, who see the importance in having a space where young people can learn the finer points of automotive engineering.

It seems like everyday, there is another person bemoaning young black men and their lack of marketable skills that will enable them to make it in the "new" economy. We all talk about the losses, and never mention the wins. Allah the Father urged his young five percenters to become skilled in science and math so that we could become pacesetters of the world. Since 9/11, there have been cries from the the tech world to prepare more American students for the changing economy; look no further than the customer survive and IT jobs that have been moved to India due to lower costs and a more educated workforce. When you look at those points in a international context, making sure that young people here are skilled in math & science becomes a no-brainer. I tip my crown to the team of scientists & builders from West Philly High; We should all be proud of you. Below is an article that speaks to the glories and the struggles that they will face in this years competition.

Clayton Kinsler, auto mechanics teacher at West Philadelphia High School, scanned Locust Street to make sure it was clear of pedestrians, then hammered the throttle, rocketing the mean little coupe down the 4800 block.
The car's rear-mounted engine unleashed a primal, metallic roar, temporarily drowning out the jet-like whistle of the car's turbocharger.
A video crew from Discovery Channel Canada was also on the street that Saturday in March, filming what is arguably the country's fastest, most efficient eco-friendly sports car - and the West Philadelphia High School team that created it.
The asphalt-hugging, gunmetal-gray roadster was going through its paces in preparation for the Olympics of environmental auto competitions - the May 10-14 Tour de Sol in upstate New York. And much was riding on this car. The students were pretty sure they had worked out the major bugs.
Last year, the car won the race, garnering national attention for the team of about a dozen mostly African American vocational education students.
In February, the hybrid - which boasts 50 miles a gallon on soybean-based biodiesel fuel - got more media attention at the Philadelphia auto show.
If it won a second Tour de Sol victory, there'd likely be scholarships and well-paying jobs in the auto industry for the students - and badly needed grants, sponsorships, or even lucrative partnerships with major automakers for the city school's automotive academy.
Maybe Hollywood would come knocking.
For the moment, though, on Locust Street, it was time to cut loose and show off for the film crew.
At each high-speed pass by Kinsler, 47, the car's student builders whooped and cheered.
Then, zooming down Locust, Kinsler suddenly felt a loss of power. When he pushed the pedal, the engine revved, but nothing at the wheels. He coasted to a stop at 48th Street.
And sat there.
The students looked at one another and began walking, then running toward the car, as the realization dawned that something had gone horribly wrong.
Even as the video rolled, they swarmed around the car with pit crew precision and removed the engine cover.

Simon Hauger, 36-year-old head of the school's Electric Vehicle Team and mastermind of the project, peered into the tangle of wires, pipes and hoses.
"The axle's done," he announced. As he had feared might happen, the car's unorthodox axle had sheared in two.
Over the last year, the team and their instructors - Kinsler, Hauger, and shop teacher Ron Preiss - had overcome all kinds of obstacles:
How to instill in these urban students the value of hard work, responsibility, and a passion for learning when their environment outside of school often encouraged the opposite.
How to get the money to support the endeavor, which was beyond the school district's ability to fully fund.
And how to use unconventional thinking not just to succeed, but to blow away the world's expectations of them.
The axle - a thick metal rod that transfers engine power to the wheels - had required a lot of unconventional thinking. This was the fourth time in less than a year that it had broken.
The team had custom built the car from a kit called the K-1 Attack, with parts coming from different car makes. The axle presented a peculiar engineering challenge - the car's Volkswagen engine needed a way to spin its Honda rear wheels.
And so, the two rear axles are an amalgam of Volkswagen, Honda and parts-bin bits welded together. The left one, shorter and less flexible, is constantly breaking. A section of cheap steel pipe held its VW and Honda ends together, but the pipe tore under the high torque forces of acceleration. The car goes from zero to 60 in four seconds.
A thicker, higher-quality sleeve might do the trick, Hauger surmised.
A half-dozen team members pushed the stricken vehicle backwards, uphill to the school's garage, and gingerly rolled it onto the cradling metal arms of a power car lift.

Devereaux Knight, the 2005 team captain who'd gone on to one of the area's best technical schools, Automotive Training Center in Warminster, and a job at Central City Toyota, had dropped in. He draped an arm around Kinsler and teased him about his penchant for breaking axles: "Two for you, one for Hauger."
The atmosphere in the garage was a mixture of adrenaline and disappointment, with team members half-jokingly asking that the mechanical failure be edited out of Discovery's video.
The only thing to do now was saw off new axle halves from whole VW and Honda units, send them out to be welded... and wait.
"We didn't expect it to break again," said a disappointed Joseph Pak, a lanky, earringed 10th grader with gel-spiked hair. Still, he said, he was relieved that it had happened well before the May competition.
For Pak and other team members who'd struggled with school, the car was an "in-your-face" affirmation of their talents and dreams.
Pak, the team's only Asian member, admits he used to skip more school than he attended. "I was just hanging out." Now he gets straight A's and wants to be an engineer.
"I've seen the extreme of not doing things when you should," Pak said. With the Attack, he said he's seen the extreme of what happens when you stay the course.
It was now midafternoon and the French Canadian director was setting up his final shot.
"What you want to do is -" he began.
"Cry," Knight interjected.
Hauger, though, was upbeat. "This is actually pretty good news," Hauger said. Their more complex engineering of the axle had held. This was a simple weld.
The ideas that come out of West Philly's auto shop aren't rocket science, Hauger says, but they do require imagination and some risk-taking - traits he thinks Detroit could use.
He envisions the high school program sharing the team's know-how of building hybrid cars on the cheap. No major automaker sells a performance car that gets such outrageously high mileage.
With oil prices high and demand for hybrids soaring, the timing could not be better.

Developing a car model costs automakers about $1 billion. Even adding back the discounts and freebies the school team received - such as carbon-fiber body panels and custom wheels - the Attack would still have clocked in well under $100,000.
Hauger estimated their two-seater, if mass-produced, could sell for about $50,000.
But before such lofty ambitions could be realized, the Attack's axle had to be repaired.
Sixteen days later, during fourth-period auto mechanics class, a handful of team members gathered in the school shop. On a metal worktable sat the newly welded axle assembly. Machinists at Drexel University had augmented the original design with a beefier, higher-grade steel sleeve.
Kinsler motioned to the damaged axle, lying on the same table and looking like a broken femur.
"If you can't shift into second gear without something breaking, it ain't right," he said.
A student got under the car to pop the axle in place, much like pushing a tight toilet paper holder into place. Kinsler yanked on the suspension to create clearance. But, after many tries, it hadn't connected.
Quietly, Calvin Cheeseboro, a tall, athletic-looking 11th grader with neatly twisted braids, took over. Cheeseboro, who'd twice installed axles in the Attack and can practically assemble its complicated shift linkage in his sleep, now wrestled with the greasy metal rod.
First, the wheel-facing side popped into place. Then, with Kinsler again pulling on the suspension, the inboard side mated to the transmission with a satisfying clunk.

Classmates Bruce Harmon, a quiet senior who becomes animated when the talk turns to cars, and Jeffrey Daniels, a stocky 11th grader with nimble hands, ducked under the car to tighten clamps and make sure the piece was securely in place.
Cheeseboro, who has struggled to maintain passing grades so he can work with the team, said it felt good to be the guy to put in the critical part. Still, he said, he'd sooner not face such drama, especially with the May race fast approaching. "I don't want to break another axle."
The team had hopefully resolved their thorniest problem.
They'd find out that afternoon, out on Locust Street, if their solution had worked.

2006-04-06T15:06:00.000-07:00

Land Snatch

For those 25 +, do you remember the Damon Wayans Jail Character on In Living Color? You know, the one who talked like "The manifestation of the calibration jumped on the expose of my testicles"? Subtly, that had two effects:

1. It devalued the positive, life changing experience that many black men go through during their time in jail by reducing the idea of those brothers to a unintelligible sounding fool

2. It continued the devaluation of consciousness in general

Subsequently, you started to see images in other movies and television shows that showed the conscious brother as the lame outcast (Menace II Society) or as the chauvinist pig (A Different World). While this might seem slight, the fact that intelligence has been maligned among black men, plays a large role in how our children are easily led in the wrong direction, hard to lead in the right direction, and glorify ignorance and uncivilization (Pimps and Gangstas). It's important that we perpetuate the image of knowledge and awareness being beneficial and "cool", if you will. If a kid perceives you as lame, It's not likely that he'll take you as a role model. In my estimation, the Gods and Earths have done a good job of popularizing knowledge and consciousness, b.u.t. even that can get misconstrued when everyone and their brother calls themselves "God" with no thought of the responsibility inherent in that claim. Kids, take note: Being God is more work than fun (b.u.t. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world).

On another note, If you don't know anything about the immigration debate and the subsequent rallies, protests and marches over the past two weeks, then you probably fall in 1 of 2 categories:

1) A person who doesn't watch anything other than BET and VH1 Soul

2) A person who doesn't care about anything that doesn't have "Black" in it

Either way, you're in a bad space. This issue has become the hot-button issue in politics across the board. News articles across the country are speaking of the "Sleeping Giant" that has awaken due to this issue. Additionally, unlike most issues in this countries, this one can't be neatly divided and defined by race, gender or political persuasion. Republicans (Those courting the Hispanic vote vs. Those representing paranoid white conservative districts) are just as torn as Democrats (Those looking for a leg up in this fall's elections vs. Unions paranoid about the legalization of millions of non-unionized workers). As if that ain't enough, many so-called African Americans are up in arms, saying that the immigrants are "taking our jobs and not speaking English".

*Newsflash*

You weren't doing those jobs anyway! Ask a black man to work on a farm, and he'll accuse you of trying to put him back in slavery (As if we really got out). Thinking that we're in competition with each other obscures the larger point that we are both suffering under global capitalism and social oppression, and would do better to come together than to separate ourselves and our struggles from a larger goal. We have more things in common than different. When we start see ing ourselves as different (7th degree in the 1-14), then chaos and destruction will soon follow. This issue, as well as the recent Abramoff scandal involving Native nations ("Tribes" is a derogatory term) underscores a deeper concept that many of us are missing: This is their land. Let me write it again:

This is their land.

The 5th degree in the 1-14 states: Why did we take Jerusalem from the devil? How long ago? When I look at the recent mobilization of the Native Nations as well as the so-called Latin@, it's obvious to see that they are striving to reclaim what is rightfully theirs. About a year ago, I was listening to a NPR segment regarding a Mexican Charter School where the students were being taught their original languages and didn't speak English in the school. When they interviewed the principal, he basically said that they were preparing the future generations to take back Atzlan (The original name for most of the area that are now the west/southwest parts of the country). At that point, I didn't think too much of it, b.u.t. now with the benefit of seeing the rallies as well as the recent Black/Brown problems in the California prisons and school, I now see the bigger picture.

Two nights ago, on the Bev Smith Show, Chris Moore interviewed a representative of a large Latino group in Las Vegas and commented on reported fears from whites on the border areas and in cali that Mexicans are essentially attempting a political and economic Reconquista of all the areas that were lost in the Mexican-American War.

The representative said "Well, that's basically true".

You add that with the Natives who are constantly fighting for sovereignty and economic development here and in Canada, and you get a certified movement. Another thing that stands out in this whole thing is the involvement of the youth. Thousands of kids walked out of school and joined the protests waving Mexican flags. Having assisted in the coordination of a student walkout here in Power Born (Pittsburgh) years ago, I knowledge the potential power of youth becoming organized for a common cause. So-called African Americans need to see civil rights beyond Jesse Jackson, Voting for Ray Nagin, and Affirmative Action, and acknowledge that you either change or die. When we all come together with common goals in mind, it's much more likely that we'll be victorious. We are all original people and the fight is a collective fight.

Peace!

2006-03-31T10:22:00.000-08:00

We Finally Got Our Piece Of The Pie?

Peace,

Today's supreme mathematics is Understanding Knowledge all being born to Culture. Put simply, what is the fruit of your knowledge? How has knowledge improved your way of life and the life of your family? Your community? If it hasn't, then you need to evaluate your foundation and what it consists of.

Last week, the New York Times and other media outlets reported that Bob Johnson (of BET infamy) plans to start a new retail and financial services company. The bank, which will be named Urban Trust, will be opening locations in Washington D.C. and Florida initially, with branches in other urban centers to follow. Now, I'm aware that any original person with a ounce of common sense or consciousness will cringe at Bob J doing anything to "help" black people, however we have to look at this in light of other factors. Consider the following

A Operation HOPE study reported that in a survey of 4,000 students, 86% of Black High School seniors failed a basic literacy exam, compared with 57% of White students
Black families have a larger rate of being targeted by sub-prime predatory lenders
The poverty rate among Black children is 37%
In some cities, over 50% of African American men are unemployed

When you look at our economic condition and see it's connection with health, education, culture, etc.., then the need to do something about our financial standing becomes clear. Will Bob Johnson be able to solve all this? Of course not! Fundamentally, financial literacy is a inside-out kind of thing, meaning that people learn it from others in their social circles. If the people around you aren't financially literate, chances are you won't be either. Also, it isn't like this is a non-profit altruistic venture here: The primary purpose here is to grow the business. There's also the issue of the term "Black-Owned Business". It's not entirely clear if he's doing this with his own money or even black money, due to his relationship with the Carlyle group and other financial giants. (Let's not forget, the largest investor in BET for many of the early years was white). More likely, it's an investment into a segment of the population who hasn't been targeted by others due to their spending and saving habits by a multi-racial group of investors with a black face.

Do we need Black-owned banks? I think there's a place for them if they are really looking to act in the best interests of the black community when it comes to loans, policies and outreach. We're way past the point where being black is enough. As Imam Jamil Al-Amin put "Being Black is necessary, but it's not sufficient". If true financial independence is the goal, then we have to start one family at a time. Things that we can do:

Save 10% of your pre-tax income. You'll be surprised at how fast it grows
Look to own vs. Rent. Home ownership is one of the primary ways to get out of financial bondage. In fact, home ownership (along with the GI Bill) was one of the chief ways that lower and middle class white families were able to escape poverty after WWII (redlining the suburbs so that only white families could move there and own homes)
Invest. Look at the financial stability of all the companies that you support by buying their products. If they look to be healthy, why not invest? Someone else damn sure is!

Until the next time, P.E.A.C.E.!

2006-03-23T16:22:00.000-08:00

Do You Remember....

Peace,

Today's mathematics is Wisdom Understanding all being born to Power. Through speaking and communicating with clarity, you affect environments to the highest degree. Wisdom should always be manifested for the sake and cause of understanding. When your Wisdom is understood, the power of your idea is recognized.

Earlier today, I had a conversation with my Earth (www.imedinapeaceful.blogspot.com) regarding black talk radio. On many of the shows (Al Sharpton and Bev Smith in particular), no matter what the topic, many of the callers complain about the state of the youth and wax poetic about the "Good ol' days" (As if original people in america have ever had them). At times, some of them sound like someone rounded all of the black people aged 15-35 and turned them into zombies in some large laboratory. To them, and anyone who thinks like them, I ask...

Where the hell were you doing in the 1980's?
What were you doing?
Were you somewhere trying to be "upwardly mobile"
Did you have a dry curl (The predecessor of the jeri curl)?
Were you reading about the prospective job market in 20-25 years?
Did you vote? Who did you vote for?
Were you aware of the black man's disappearing act from the home?
Were you watching Prince and not thinking that it was a bit strange that a man was looking and dressing like a woman?
Were you advocating for equity in the schools?
Were you preparing for the post-industrial age when you couldn't get a job with only a High School Diploma?
Did you predict the breakdown of inner cities in advance?

The abovementioned questions may seem a bit harsh, b.u.t. my point is that the development of the institutional forms of racism that we see today took place not so long ago. The older generation can rightfully object to the perversion present in much of today's music, b.u.t. we sure didn't make it up (See the question regarding Prince). The situation that youth find themselves in today is based on a subtle and consistent process that can be dated back some years. For example, when the industries that provided jobs and livelihoods for much of Black america in the urban and industrial centers shipped the jobs overseas and crippled our community, why didn't we see the long term effects and work to combat it?

On a political level, you can see that perception of Carter as a spineless and ineffective leader opened the way for Reagan to come and re-establish "Traditional American Valeus". With that tacit support, Reagan took tax money, reduced social programs, and filtered money to wars in distant lands to insure american empire (This has gotta sound familiar). At the end of his term, Inner - City America is flush with cocaine and guns, all the while hobbling from a destroyed infrastructure. While people may have spoken out against Ronnie Ray-Gun (Remember star wars and all the money funneled into defense against our "super-enemy", the USSR for a war that never happened), we were not prepared for Bush, AKA Reagan II! If we aren't on our toes, our children will be facing a situation 10x worse. As many of you know, planning and funding for prisons is based on the third grade test scores in many of our communities,b.u.t. we've even surpassed their predictions for their new cash cow.

I'm not shifting all of the blame on our elders, only showing that we have to be vigilant so that the same thing doesn't happen to us in this day and time. As you know, I'm solution oriented so here they go:

1) Let's predict our history well in advance by developing a comprehensive plan that cover all aspects of life in our community

2) It is imperative that we be honest with ourselves about the possible effects of what's taking place today from politics to the economy to education.

Below is a repost of a NY Times article regarding the plight of Black Mne and how it's worsened over the last 20 years. Please take heed and share it with whomever you can.

Plight Deepens for Black Men, Studies Warn
By ERIK ECKHOLM
BALTIMORE — Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics, a flurry of new scholarly studies warn, and it has worsened in recent years even as an economic boom and a welfare overhaul have brought gains to black women and other groups.
Focusing more closely than ever on the life patterns of young black men, the new studies, by experts at Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and other institutions, show that the huge pool of poorly educated black men are becoming ever more disconnected from the mainstream society, and to a far greater degree than comparable white or Hispanic men.
Especially in the country's inner cities, the studies show, finishing high school is the exception, legal work is scarcer than ever and prison is almost routine, with incarceration rates climbing for blacks even as urban crime rates have declined.
Although the problems afflicting poor black men have been known for decades, the new data paint a more extensive and sobering picture of the challenges they face.
"There's something very different happening with young black men, and it's something we can no longer ignore," said Ronald B. Mincy, professor of social work at Columbia University and editor of "Black Males Left Behind" (Urban Institute Press, 2006).
"Over the last two decades, the economy did great," Mr. Mincy said, "and low-skilled women, helped by public policy, latched onto it. But young black men were falling farther back."
Many of the new studies go beyond the traditional approaches to looking at the plight of black men, especially when it comes to determining the scope of joblessness. For example, official unemployment rates can be misleading because they do not include those not seeking work or incarcerated.
"If you look at the numbers, the 1990's was a bad decade for young black men, even though it had the best labor market in 30 years," said Harry J. Holzer, an economist at Georgetown University and co-author, with Peter Edelman and Paul Offner, of "Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men" (Urban Institute Press, 2006).
In response to the worsening situation for young black men, a growing number of programs are placing as much importance on teaching life skills — like parenting, conflict resolution and character building — as they are on teaching job skills.

These were among the recent findings:

¶The share of young black men without jobs has climbed relentlessly, with only a slight pause during the economic peak of the late 1990's. In 2000, 65 percent of black male high school dropouts in their 20's were jobless — that is, unable to find work, not seeking it or incarcerated. By 2004, the share had grown to 72 percent, compared with 34 percent of white and 19 percent of Hispanic dropouts. Even when high school graduates were included, half of black men in their 20's were jobless in 2004, up from 46 percent in 2000.

¶Incarceration rates climbed in the 1990's and reached historic highs in the past few years. In 1995, 16 percent of black men in their 20's who did not attend college were in jail or prison; by 2004, 21 percent were incarcerated. By their mid-30's, 6 in 10 black men who had dropped out of school had spent time in prison.

¶In the inner cities, more than half of all black men do not finish high school.
None of the litany of problems that young black men face was news to a group of men from the airless neighborhoods of Baltimore who recently described their experiences.
One of them, Curtis E. Brannon, told a story so commonplace it hardly bears notice here. He quit school in 10th grade to sell drugs, fathered four children with three mothers, and spent several stretches in jail for drug possession, parole violations and other crimes.
"I was with the street life, but now I feel like I've got to get myself together," Mr. Brannon said recently in the row-house flat he shares with his girlfriend and four children. "You get tired of incarceration."
Mr. Brannon, 28, said he planned to look for work, perhaps as a mover, and he noted optimistically that he had not been locked up in six months.
A group of men, including Mr. Brannon, gathered at the Center for Fathers, Families and Workforce Development, one of several private agencies trying to help men build character along with workplace skills.
The clients readily admit to their own bad choices but say they also fight a pervasive sense of hopelessness.
"It hurts to get that boot in the face all the time," said Steve Diggs, 34. "I've had a lot of charges but only a few convictions," he said of his criminal record.
Mr. Diggs is now trying to strike out on his own, developing a party space for rentals, but he needs help with business skills.
"I don't understand," said William Baker, 47. "If a man wants to change, why won't society give him a chance to prove he's a changed person?" Mr. Baker has a lot of record to overcome, he admits, not least his recent 15-year stay in the state penitentiary for armed robbery.
Mr. Baker led a visitor down the Pennsylvania Avenue strip he wants to escape — past idlers, addicts and hustlers, storefront churches and fortresslike liquor stores — and described a life that seemed inevitable.
He sold marijuana for his parents, he said, left school in the sixth grade and later dealt heroin and cocaine. He was for decades addicted to heroin, he said, easily keeping the habit during three terms in prison. But during his last long stay, he also studied hard to get a G.E.D. and an associate's degree.
Now out for 18 months, Mr. Baker is living in a home for recovering drug addicts. He is working a $10-an-hour warehouse job while he ponders how to make a living from his real passion, drawing and graphic arts.
"I don't want to be a criminal at 50," Mr. Baker said.

According to census data, there are about five million black men ages 20 to 39 in the United States.
Terrible schools, absent parents, racism, the decline in blue collar jobs and a subculture that glorifies swagger over work have all been cited as causes of the deepening ruin of black youths. Scholars — and the young men themselves — agree that all of these issues must be addressed.
Joseph T. Jones, director of the fatherhood and work skills center here, puts the breakdown of families at the core.
"Many of these men grew up fatherless, and they never had good role models," said Mr. Jones, who overcame addiction and prison time. "No one around them knows how to navigate the mainstream society."
All the negative trends are associated with poor schooling, studies have shown, and progress has been slight in recent years. Federal data tend to understate dropout rates among the poor, in part because imprisoned youths are not counted.
Closer studies reveal that in inner cities across the country, more than half of all black men still do not finish high school, said Gary Orfield, an education expert at Harvard and editor of "Dropouts in America" (Harvard Education Press, 2004).
"We're pumping out boys with no honest alternative," Mr. Orfield said in an interview, "and of course their neighborhoods offer many other alternatives."
Dropout rates for Hispanic youths are as bad or worse but are not associated with nearly as much unemployment or crime, the data show.

With the shift from factory jobs, unskilled workers of all races have lost ground, but none more so than blacks. By 2004, 50 percent of black men in their 20's who lacked a college education were jobless, as were 72 percent of high school dropouts, according to data compiled by Bruce Western, a sociologist at Princeton and author of the forthcoming book "Punishment and Inequality in America" (Russell Sage Press). These are more than double the rates for white and Hispanic men.
Mr. Holzer of Georgetown and his co-authors cite two factors that have curbed black employment in particular.
First, the high rate of incarceration and attendant flood of former offenders into neighborhoods have become major impediments. Men with criminal records tend to be shunned by employers, and young blacks with clean records suffer by association, studies have found.
Arrests of black men climbed steeply during the crack epidemic of the 1980's, but since then the political shift toward harsher punishments, more than any trends in crime, has accounted for the continued growth in the prison population, Mr. Western said.
By their mid-30's, 30 percent of black men with no more than a high school education have served time in prison, and 60 percent of dropouts have, Mr. Western said.
Among black dropouts in their late 20's, more are in prison on a given day — 34 percent — than are working — 30 percent — according to an analysis of 2000 census data by Steven Raphael of the University of California, Berkeley.
The second special factor is related to an otherwise successful policy: the stricter enforcement of child support. Improved collection of money from absent fathers has been a pillar of welfare overhaul. But the system can leave young men feeling overwhelmed with debt and deter them from seeking legal work, since a large share of any earnings could be seized.

About half of all black men in their late 20's and early 30's who did not go to college are noncustodial fathers, according to Mr. Holzer. From the fathers' viewpoint, support obligations "amount to a tax on earnings," he said.
Some fathers give up, while others find casual work. "The work is sporadic, not the kind that leads to advancement or provides unemployment insurance," Mr. Holzer said. "It's nothing like having a real job."
The recent studies identified a range of government programs and experiments, especially education and training efforts like the Job Corps, that had shown success and could be scaled up.
Scholars call for intensive new efforts to give children a better start, including support for parents and extra schooling for children.
They call for teaching skills to prisoners and helping them re-enter society more productively, and for less automatic incarceration of minor offenders.
In a society where higher education is vital to economic success, Mr. Mincy of Columbia said, programs to help more men enter and succeed in college may hold promise. But he lamented the dearth of policies and resources to aid single men.
"We spent $50 billion in efforts that produced the turnaround for poor women," Mr. Mincy said. "We are not even beginning to think about the men's problem on similar orders of magnitude."

2006-03-16T14:43:00.000-08:00

Blast From The Past

Peace,

On this day of Knowledge Equality all being born to God, I want to send a shout out to all the Gods and Earths in the blogsphere making knowledge born about who we are, what we teach, and what we will achieve. I want to send a special shout out to my brother and alike in Living Mathematics, Justice Rajee Allah, who's celebrating his Understanding Cipher (30th) degree day today. We call them degree days because when you get a year older, you move to another degree in development. Justice was the first brother I taught here in Power Born almost 11 years ago and has stayed just and true to our culture since his day 1. I can't forget my brother Knowledge Build who flipped to his 30th degree ("Tell us what and how everything is made?") on the build or destroy day of March.

While I'm at it, I want to take the time to welcome my sister Aymara Islasia Earth and her sun Justice to the cipher in Power Born. Finally, much respect to my brother Aru Self Allah who completed 120 degrees today. I tip my crown to you my brother!

For those who may not have done the knowledge to it, below is a piece written by Michael Muhammad Knight, a writer for MuslimWakeUp! last year regarding the cipher here in Power Born. Please know that the best is yet to come and that the babies truly are the greatest!

I don’t care much for conferences, since I’m not a scholar or an activist and writing for me is just a matter of spilling guts. Scholars can find value in your work only by relating it to things that have already happened (Oh, you live your Islam like a heretic? You must be heir to the Qalandars and Hassan bin Sabbah). Activists, meanwhile, would rather a piece remain ideologically correct than reveal its author’s ugly parts.
But still there was a panel: “Islamic Anarchism: Pipedream or Reality” at the National Conference on Organized Resistance in D.C., arranged and moderated by a white convert named David who regularly says “peace be upon him” after the Prophet’s name. His group consisted of a professor, a guy from Farid Esack’s clique, a South Asian girl and me. When it came my turn I spoke about the Five Percenters as a movement against the use of religion for power and exploitation, with W.D. Fard’s whole theory of how unseen mystery-gods were sold to the masses as a means of controlling and pacifying them. During the question-and-answer period, a white woman stood up and warned me about the dangers of a white man speaking about “Five Percenterism,” apparently because I had missed out on some important facet of it. She didn’t know where I was coming from.

After the panel I drove from D.C. to West Virginia, running over her comments in my head and returning to the same question that I’d been asked enough times by Muslims, non-Muslims, Gods and Earths: Irish on your mom’s half, Austrian on your dad’s, how’d you get into this? Why do you wear that pin with a black man’s face and the word “ALLAH?”
I don’t have to go back four hundred years to find the devil in my blood.

My dad’s house sits atop a wooded hill, just beyond a gas station that sells pickled pig-knuckles. It was dark so I had to pass the hill a few times before finding his hidden driveway. I parked alongside the road because my car would never make it up; I can barely survive that hill on foot. At the top I stopped to catch my breath and stared down Dad’s kingdom. Outside he has stacks of firewood, a shed with the Lord’s Prayer carved into its door and buckets catching the rainwater, scattered salvaged junk and two pickup trucks, one black and one white.
He seemed glad enough to see me. Turned out he has a TV now and we were in the third quarter of the Super Bowl. “They have to stop McNabb,” he said. Later in the conversation he told me that people had black skin because they were cannibals. “And also,” he added, “if you have sex with a white girl on a freshly covered grave, her skin will turn black too.” Dad’s a racial separatist. I first met him in 1993, when I was fifteen years old. By then I had already devoured Malcolm’s autobiography and watched the movie three times. The director of Afropunk theorized to me that some Caucasians may come to Islam as a means of acquiring oppression and becoming the Other, which I can see, but sometimes we just need to murder our fathers.

My hurting Buick’s odometer passed 170,000 miles on the way to Boston, current center of the professional sports universe, where I met up with the Kominas. Basim’s calling himself Basim SWT now, and Shahjehan has become Shahjehan PBUH. Joyriding through the city with Basim SWT behind the wheel, he built for me on the history of Irish-Americans and Boston’s uniquely Irish punk scene.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ve got a fetish for your culture.”
“That’s okay, I’ve got one for yours.”
I spent a few days with him and ate all the spicy food in his house. Then it was back to the road and sleeping in parking lots. That Sunday I arrived in Pittsburgh, which the Gods and Earths called Power Born, for parliament.
My Power Born connection was a God named I Majestic, respected as one of the more prolific teachers in the region and maybe the Nation as a whole. The parliament was held at the home of Zyhier, one of the earliest Gods to teach in Pittsburgh.

I immediately recognized Abu Shahid as he walked in—he’s an Elder going back all the way to the Father’s time at Temple #7. I couldn’t help but pester the God and ask him the same questions he’s been hearing for the last forty years. Abu Shahid introduced me to his seven-year old daughter Jhonaziya, who already knew her lessons. When Jhonaziya recited the earth’s distance from the sun, she watched me write it down to make sure I had it right.
According to I Majestic, “colored men” (Caucasians) that study with the Gods often fall into one of two categories: either they’re suffering from racial guilt and want to repent for their ancestors, or they want to be Gods themselves. The exact place that a colored man can find with Gods and Earths has not yet been defined. The Nation hasn’t seen enough white converts to make it an urgent issue, but there have been a few. I Majestic told me about one named Gadreel whose father had actually tried to join the NOI before him, even writing a letter to Elijah Muhammad; and he knew of one God that had encountered a young John Walker Lindh. As a teen the American Taliban would lurk in online chat rooms, pretending to be black.

Upstairs I stood at the periphery of a circle and watched Gods building in turn. A Puerto Rican “yellow seed” named Sha-King built on the day’s math while watched by his two-year old son, Shaborn. The children in the room were repeatedly showered with praise; the NGE’s self-deification seems its most pure and true when applied to kids. At a Harlem parliament, one Five Percenter pointed at a toddler and told me, “he’s God.” Why contest that?
After the parliament broke up I thanked Zyhier for having me in his home, and I Majestic for opening this particular gate, and Abu Shahid for building on his forty years in the desert. The Elder wished me a safe trip. It’s a long ride, insha’Allah, from a jagged sun to a quarter-moon. We just so happened to be in the first ten days of Muharram, so I drove to a Shi’a function in Monroeville with plans to slap a dent in my chest.

2006-03-09T15:34:00.000-08:00

SOCIAL EQUALITY (OR ENGINEERING)

Peace,

First things First: How many newspapers do you read? If the answer is 0-1, step your game up for the good of yourself, your family, and your community. If that sounds extreme, look at it from this angle: business and political leaders read 5-6 papers a day (that includes international papers like the guardian, or bbc.com). Ideally, one should read papers from a liberal, moderate, and conservative slant in order to be aware of what's being discussed in a given day. I guarantee that you'll see things in some papers that you won't see in the others. If you don't know, how can you possibly teach? Access to information is one of the first ways that the haves are separated from the have-nots. Watching television is no substitute either, as that medium is suited for entertainment and not information. If you can, do the knowledge to www.blackelectorate.com (Peace, Brother Cedric!) or check out NPR (Stations vary according to the locale. If you don't do it for yourself, do it for your children who have to grow up in a world that you aren't really doing your best to stay abreast of.

Moving on to the subject of children, as a child, I attended a number of independent nursery and pre-schools. The schools were multicultural and very open. Later in life, I noticed that many of the people that I attended pre-school and elementary school with tended to be successful in their endeavors. I now recognize that a child's early education in an integral aspect of that child's development. The decisions that you make regarding their education can define their attitude towards education, their social networks, etc. Today they are select pre-schools in major cities that are actually rejecting kids, asking for admission essays, and charging up to $10,000 a year for 3 and 4 year olds! If someone is paying that much for finger paints, there's a bigger picture. In this case, where you go to pre-school influences where you go to elementary school, which affects where you go to middle school which affects ... you get the idea. You can't underestimate the impact of the socialization, networking, and access to resources that an environment like that can afford you.

On the other side, imagine the impact that underfunded head start programs have on children in Black, Brown, Yellow, Red, and poor White communities. Low quality early education programs tend to funnel our children into other low quality schools which seriously impact the earning potential and by extension, quality of life for many in our communities. If you don't dig where I'm coming from, go to the "hood school" in your city and see if the children there are being prepared to lead our community or country in the coming years. As globalization continues to entrench itself in all aspects of our life (more on that later), a two-tiered society is continuing to develop, where the haves and the never-hads are so far apart, you couldn't tell them that they were from the same country. Please take this seriously; it's one of the first aspects of social engineering (after unfair access to healthcare for expecting mothers,mind you), and creates an environment where the social equality of the poor and impoverished only reinforces the dysfunctional environment that they already see, whereas the social equality of the rich gives them perpetual access to more money, power, and respect internationally. Rich men usually marry rich women, and poor & uneducated men usually marry poor & uneducated women.

Here's a link to the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/education/03preschool.html?ex=1142139600&en=025e197284eadd0c&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Just because I don't like venting and not adding on, I'm going to end by giving some practical solutions to this:

1) Get your children into the best schools possible to increase their access to people, places, and things
2) Advocate for educational equity for the school in low income communities. If possible, volunteer your time and expertise to the schools so that the youth can see school as an community
3) Act with the goal of making sure that our children are balanced and skilled in a number of areas.

Please add on!

P.E.A.C.E.!!

2006-03-02T18:57:00.000-08:00

Peace,

If you've never read my writings, welcome!! If you've done the knowledge to my writings @ www.imajestic.blogspot.com, welcome back!! I have returned from an extended hiatus in which I saw and did a number of things. When I looked at coming back, I decided to make a cyber-space move.

Q: What does Author of Change mean?

A: Simply put, an author of change is one of the descriptions of the Black Man with knowledge of himself. An author of change takes control of his destiny and writes his history to create the world that he wants to see for himself, his family, his community, and ultimately the word.

Q: What about Get Money, Teach Kids, Add on?

A: That is the most basic breakdown of the blueprint that I'm following at the date of this writing. It's not necessarily in order, b.u.t. it's the order that catches the eye and ear. It represents the following:

Get Money - Economic Development

Teach Kids - Youth Development

Add On - Building & Destroying/ Community Infrastructure Development

In order to bring about Allah World Manifest (The realization of what we teach and what we will achieve) in particular and Freedom, Justice, and Equality for all human families of the planet Earth in general, these are three integral components. Many champion one over the others, b.u.t. without all three, you don't have a self sufficient community. Most of what you read on this blog will relate to one or more of the above mentioned topics. I build that you find it informative, insightful and challenging. More to be revealed!