Archive
Your Black Life: Bill Cosby and the Art of Fear – Dr. Boyce Watkins
“‘White America needs to understand that it is poisoned to its soul by racism’, and that ‘all too many White Americans are horrified not with the conditions of (Black) life but with the product of these conditions-the (Black person) himself’. In a word, they are not horrified by injustice done to us in New York or New Orleans, in the schools, courts, streets, slums or prisons, but are horrified at the righteous anger we express, and the audacity not just to hope but also to resist injustice and oppression in its various forms.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
I recently appeared on an episode of Good Morning America about a judge in Atlanta named Marvin Arrington. The show renewed my skepticism of mainstream media, and helped me remember why I love Bill Cosby so much.
Apparently, Judge Arrington was fed up with seeing one black defendant after another in his courtroom, and surely to the liking of Bill Cosby, Arrington took matters into his own hands. Judge Arrington took the unprecedented step of dismissing all of the white attorneys from his courtroom and holding a private session with the black defendants. [...]
When Good Morning America called to ask me what I thought about Arrington’s actions, they spent more time asking me about Bill Cosby than Arrington. [...] Apparently, we have not yet created enough episodes of Fat Albert to earn the license of unconditional, single-minded self-righteousness [...]
More At Your Black Life
Your Black News: How Black America Shaped Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama may be the pride of the South Side, but her undergraduate years at Princeton also helped shape her worldview.
A new biography, Michelle (Simon & Schuster), by Washington Post reporter Liza Mundy, delves into Obama’s years at the elite university, in particular Obama’s senior thesis, “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community.”
“The question of what upper-income blacks owe to the less fortunate was a major preoccupation,” Mundy writes. [...]
Her thesis found that when African Americans are at Princeton as students, they tended to identify more with their race, but after graduating, less so. Obama, now 44, pledged not to forget the black underclass [...]
More At Your Black News
Your Black Scholar: Strategies For Overcoming The Holiday Blues
Strategies For Overcoming The Holiday Blues
By: Dr. Gloria Morrow
The holiday season can be the loneliest time of the year, especially during the month of December. Even though the research refutes the notion that the highest rate of suicides occurs in the month of December, many people do experience the Holiday Blues because of the loss of a loved one, exhaustion, separation from family and close friends, feelings of failure due to unmet goals and expectations, significant changes and increased stress. Some may even experience the Holiday Blues because they cannot afford to go Christmas shopping.
This year has been particularly difficult for many people in the African American community because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the massive loss of life, property, jobs, and familiar surroundings. Therefore, it may be harder for people to handle the stress of such events, especially around the holidays [...]
Your Black Politics: Is Barack Obama Wrestling With Self-Hatred?
Black Rage, Barack’s Redemption
By: Tolu Olorunda
Staff Writer – YourBlackWorld.com
After much deliberation, I’m convinced that President-Elect Obama’s disturbing perspective of the African-American community is not motivated by malice or cowardice, but simply a result of his upbringing. In other words, his distinctly condescending attacks on Black consciousness are merely a product of the overwhelming, disproportionate influence his White mother and White grandparents had on him. In contrast, Michelle Obama, raised by Black parents and nurtured in the womb of Black America, is prone to persuade a more empathetic view of the African-American community. It is virtually impossible for Barack Obama to have emerged from the loving arms of a woman who, “once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe,” and not have inherited some of such Negrophobia, which has cast dark shadows on Black male psyche. In Just Walk on By, Author, Brent Staples wrote of the degree of “lethality nighttime pedestrians” attribute to certain Black males who fit the kinds of cringe-worthy stereotypes which Obama’s grandmother (God rest her soul) must have expressed constantly. The impact of this on the young Barry cannot be overlooked [...]
More At Your Black Politics
Your Black Politics: Barack Obama: The Test Of Black CommUNITY
Barack Obama: The Test of Black CommUNITY
By: Tolu Olorunda
Staff Writer – YourBlackWorld.com
“But we must understand that we are now at a stage of struggle for a People’s Democracy… The mass support of Obama by the national Afro-American movement, especially its progressive sector, will reinvigorate our struggle… We must enter into that mainstream struggle & make our own demands, utilize the pressure of our needs & our numbers. We are almost 50 million people with the 16th GNP in the world… almost 600 Billion dollars a year. We have the muscle and the money. We need to make our move.”
-Renowned Poet and Activist, Amiri Baraka, in a speech earlier this year.
The Black CommUNITY has laid its bed and must now lie in it. To be sure, this author is not particularly pleased with the 95% level of unconditional support from the Black CommUNITY, vis-à-vis Obama’s presidential bid. Nevertheless, Obama’s unpredictable popularity within the Black CommUNITY is a testament to an often glossed over, deep-seated desire/potential for divine unity of the Black CommUNITY. Obama’s candidacy, thankfully, buttressed this reality in unequivocal terms. Many have privately joked, over the past week, about the seeming impossibility of the Black CommUNITY agreeing on any specific agenda, let alone a political one. Some have quipped that the last time such unprecedented levels of support was rendered in favor of anything, O.J. Simpson was on trial for double murder. The comedic value of such statement notwithstanding, its veracity is unquestionable. Having rallied around this man, with unwavering support, let there be no more excuses for our disunity, or inability to remain unified around the ultimate cause: Total liberation.
On at least three key issues, the world will need the assistance of the Black CommUNITY to emerge victorious:
Find Out At Your Black Politics
Your Black Life: Loving v. Virginia Doesn’t Guarantee Gay Marriage
Proponents of Gay Marriage Have No Legal Argument Under Loving v. Virginia
By Syreeta L. McNeal, CPA, JD
Recently, proponents of gay marriage in California are protesting the passage of California’s Proposition 8. California Proposition 8 amended the California Constitution to restrict the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman.[1] Proponents of gay marriage have been making the argument that their struggle is equivalent to the struggle of African-Americans in seeking their civil rights in the 1960′s. One case that proponents of gay marriage readily equate their struggle to is Loving v. Virgina.[2] This article is intended to debunk the legal argument purported by proponents of gay marriage and show that this case does not embrace recognition of gay marriage on a state level.
Overview of Loving v. Virginia
On June 12, 1967, the United States Supreme Court held that Virginia’s statutory scheme to prevent marriages between persons solely on the basis of racial classifications held to violate the Equal Protection and Due Processes Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.[3] Listed below is the issue, relevant facts, relevant law and analysis by Chief Justice Warren in rendering his opinion:
Find Out At Your Black Life
Your Black Power: ABC’s ‘Life on Mars’ Rewrites Black History
ABC’s ‘Life on Mars’ Rewrites Black History
By: Tolu Olorunda
Staff Writer – YourBlackWorld.com
In approximately 42 minutes, Life on Mars, a new ABC TV series, sought to do the impossible: Rewrite Black history. On Nov. 6th, ABC broadcast an episode called, Things to Do in New York When You Think You’re Dead. The premise of this particular episode was centered on emerging racial tensions within Black and Puerto Rican neighborhoods, following the death of a 9-year old Black girl -believed to have been murdered by a Puerto Rican man. This watered-down version of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing was, I presume, intended to promoted dialogue around issues of inter-racial fellowship. Unfortunately, such megalomaniac decisions by big-media companies have only, historically, intensified the problem. It’s like MSNBC claiming its exploitation of incarcerated inmates in the Lockdown series is only a means to an end of educating younger people of the dangerous and horrific conditions of prison life. Or worse, BET intimating that its obsession with the American Gangster series is a way of informing young Black and Brown kids of the history and peril of gang deathstyle. In short, such inference is devoid of logic [...]
Full Article At Your Black Power
Your Black Scholar: An Open Letter To Barack Obama — Alice Walker
An Open Letter to Barack Obama
By: Alice Walker
Dear Brother Obama,
You have no idea, really, of how profound this moment is for us. Us being the black people of the Southern United States. You think you know, because you are thoughtful, and you have studied our history. But seeing you deliver the torch so many others before you carried, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, only to be struck down before igniting the flame of justice and of law, is almost more than the heart can bear.
[...]
I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters.
[...]
I would further advise you not to take on other people’s enemies. Most damage that others do to us is out of fear, humiliation and pain. Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess a certain religious or racial devotion. We must learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise [...]
More At Your Black Scholar
Your Black Life: Rampant Racism In LGBT Community Comes To Light
You could see this coming, and this is what I’m talking about when you ignore the elephant in the room. Rod McCullom of Rod 2.0 blogs reports on the escalation of the “blame the blacks” meme that has been swirling about the blogosphere and the MSM.
A number of Rod 2.0 and Jasmyne Cannick readers report being subjected to taunts, threats and racist abuse at last night’s marriage equality rally in Los Angeles. Geoffrey, a student at UCLA and regular Rod 2.0 reader, joined the massive protest outside the Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Westwood. Geoffrey was called the n-word at least twice.
It was like being at a klan rally except the klansmen were wearing Abercrombie polos and Birkenstocks. YOU NIGGER, one man shouted at men. If your people want to call me a FAGGOT, I will call you a nigger. Someone else said same thing to me on the next block near the temple…me and my friend were walking, he is also gay but Korean, and a young WeHo clone said after last night the niggers better not come to West Hollywood if they knew what was BEST for them.
The backlash is upon us, and it’s going to get uglier unless our organizations step forward and say something. The desire to scapegoat blacks for Prop 8′s defeat has exposed the now not-so-latent racism in our movement [...]
Your Black Power: Will He (President Obama) Stand Up For The Righteous Cause?
By: Tolu Olorunda
Staff Writer – YourBlackWorld.com
In light of Sen. Obama’s historic win on Tuesday night, certain perspectives must be taken into consideration in order to avoid being taken for a 4 year ride, which provides nothing, having promised NOTHING! In the long and winded 20-month battle for a seat at the table of presidency, Sen. Obama has often conducted himself with an unimpeachable level of dignity, grace and humility. Nevertheless, there have been times when the Good Senator has fallen short of those ranks. In fact, he has, throughout the course of his presidential bid, played the 90% hand that fed, clothed, nurtured and made him: The Black Community. Whilst many Black progressives seem quite comfortable with being snubbed – in exchange for a Black presidency – not every card-carrying member of the Black Community appreciates the Illinois Senator’s disposition on the issue of Race. They are fully aware of the tightrope which needs to be walked for a Black man to transport himself to the pedestal of history, but many see a tension between overt opportunism and the potential for a progressive Black president. In my humble judgment, there are ten issues of concern to the Black Community on which Sen. Obama has failed woefully in the course of his political career and this historic campaign:
More At Your Black Power
Your Black World: Gay Rights Activists Mad At Black Voters For Prop 8
Stop Blaming California’s Black Voters for Prop 8
By: Raymond Leon Roker
Excuse me? I voted against Proposition 8. I’m among the 30 percent of black Californians that did so. And as much as I can condemn the homophobia and intolerance that drove a portion of the 70 percent of blacks that voted in favor of Proposition 8′s ban on gay marriage, it’s an outrage to lay its passage at their feet. I’ve read several editorials already about how the ungrateful blacks betrayed gays right after America gave them their first president. I know there are some wounds and frayed nerves right now, but this type of condescending, divide and conquer isn’t going to help at all. And it’s a gross oversimplification of what happened.
According to the exit polling, there’s enough blame to go around. Don’t forget the 49 percent of Asians who voted for Prop 8. And the 53 percent of Latinos who fell in line for it too. And then there is the white vote in support of 8. Slightly under 50% percent of them, a group representing 63% of California voters, voted “Yes” on 8. Last I checked blacks held little sway over all of those groups [...]
More At Your Black Life
Your Black Life: Do Black Americans Really Have Voting Rights?
While attempts at voter suppression are partisan in intent they are racial in effect. The Democrats have not won an election without the black vote since 1964. The most effective and crude way to undermine their base is to minimise the vote in black areas. This is precisely what happened in Florida in 2000, where Republicans lowered the threshold for inclusion on the “purge list” of ineligible voters. By the time they were done, African-Americans accounted for 88% of those purged, even though they only comprised 11% of the actual electorate.
The practical consequences of this interference, manipulation and, at times, intimidation is twofold. It disenfranchises people who either don’t have the time, inclination or wherewithal to stand up to officialdom. And it creates huge lines while others stay and fight. A Democratic party survey from 2004 found half of the state’s African-American voters in Ohio reported some problems at the polls on election day. On average, black voters waited in longer lines than whites, were more likely to be asked for identification when they got there and felt more intimidated.
This year will be worse [...]
Your Black Politics: Many Blacks Remain Sceptical Of Obama On Race
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Despite Barack Obama’s message of change and hope, fears persist in the black community about what his election as president could mean for the legacy of racism in America.
Namely, that it might mean nothing at all.
“America is still one of the most segregated countries by race and by class in the industrialized world,” said Dedrick Muhammad, research associate at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, a think tank for social justice.
Muhammad pointed to research showing that black Americans remain far behind the rest of the country economically, with median wealth one-tenth of that in white America, and one in three black children born into poverty.
Like most black Americans, Muhammad supports Obama’s historic bid to become America’s first black president.
However, he said the Illinois senator’s campaign tactic of largely avoiding discussion of race in his campaign has “driven me crazy.”
“What saddens me today is that we don’t talk about black-white inequality,” he said. “I see in Obama a winning strategy, but it is sad to me.”
For the 47-year-old son of a white American mother and black Kenyan father to gain the lead he currently holds over his Republican rival John McCain, Obama has had to tip-toe around any potential racial controversy, analysts say [...]
More At Your Black Politics
Your Black News: Black Voters Cautiously Anticipate Obama Win
Lula Cooper expects the tears to flow if Barack Obama becomes the first black president. But she’s not breaking out the tissues just yet.
“I cried when I marked my ballot for him. We’ve had such an incredible journey to this point,” said the former civil rights activist, her voice quavering. “I think he’s going to win, but I really am very, very cautious.”
Like a Hollywood blockbuster whose conclusion feels assured but still sets the heart racing, the endgame of this election has gripped black America with a powerful mixture of emotions.
Obama’s potential victory represents a previously unimaginable triumph over centuries of racism. But beneath the hope and pride lies fear: of polling inaccuracy, voting chicanery, or the type of injustice and violence that have historically stymied African-American progress [...]
More At Your Black News
Your Black Politics: Georgia Senator, Saxby Chambliss Calls Blacks: “The Other Folks”
The Republican is outwardly confident, but there’s urgency in his voice as he tours North Georgia, trying to boost turnout in his predominately white base: “The other folks are voting,” he bluntly tells supporters.
Just in case anyone was confused about who those “other folks” are, Chambliss gave this quote New York Times:
The development is not lost on Mr. Chambliss. “There has always been a rush to the polls by African-Americans early,” he said at the square in Covington, a quick stop on a bus tour as the campaign entered its final week. He predicted the crowds of early voters would motivate Republicans to turn out. “It has also got our side energized, they see what is happening,” he said.
Former Sen. Max Cleland, who was beaten by Chambliss in 2002, expressed concern in an interview with the Huffington Post about a “white backlash” to Barack Obama in the South. But he also touted the “historic numbers in terms of registration, African-Americans and young people” that is changing the region’s political landscape in “fundamental” ways.
From Huffington Post
Your Black World Headlines: 10/22/2008
Your Black World Headlines: 10/20/2008
School Children Snatched By Rebels In Congo
Missing Black Kids Get Unequal Media Coverage
Black Community Businesses Honored In Houston
Don Cornelius Arrested In L.A. For Domestic Violence
Your Black World Headlines: 10/15/2008
Repeal the Community Reinvestment Act: a Cancer on the American Economic System for Home Ownership
By Syreeta L. McNeal, CPA, JD
Historian and writer James Truslow Adams coined the phrase “American Dream” in his 1931 book Epic of America:
“The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.”[1]
Now we are in 2008 and I have been hearing many pundits, including Fox News Contributor Lamont Hill, state that home ownership should be a constitutional right for all American citizens, especially those underserved in America. So, is homeownership a constitutional right for all American citizens, including those who are underserved in America? In my opinion, the answer is a resounding NO. Here are my reasons stated below..:
Your Black Power: Malcolm X & Martin Luther King Stress Black Pride
If the corporate media had it’s way, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King would be depicted as two tangents, far away from each other as the devil is from God. Fortunately, reality speaks louder than spin, and with the resources available today, it is clear to detect the glaring similarities between two of our greatest heroes: Malcolm & Martin. Not only were they ferocious warriors for human rights, they also both fiercely advocated the obliteration of self-hate in Black people, and the restoration of self-love, unity and community. Watch, in the following clips, how determined these great prophets were, in stressing pride in Blackness.
First up, Martin speaks on the residue of eurocentricity in the psyche of Black folks:
Second up, Malcolm regrets the wretchedness of self-hatred in Black Communities:
From Your Black Power
Your Black World Headlines: 09/26/2008
Unemployment Rate No. 1 Concern For African Americans
Cynthia McKinney Hopes To Debate Obama If McCain Wants To “Bow Out”
African American Leaders War Against Tobacco Industries
Hypertension Among Blacks Reaches Epidemic Proportions
Egypt Unveils 3,000-Year-Old Red Granite Head
South Georgia Residents Brace For KKK Rally At Harvest Festival
Busta Rhymes Briefly Detained at UK Airport For U.S. Convictions
Hancock Star Will Smith To Star In ‘I Am Legend’ Prequel
Your Black News: Black Unemployment Soars
It’s been eight months and Isaiah Washington, 18, is getting frustrated. He’s pounded the pavement knocking on doors and he’s faxed resumes all to no avail.
“It’s tough especially for young Black men” said Washington. “I need a job with benefits, but nothing is out there. I’ve had a few interviews, but they don’t result in nothing.”
Washington has no skills and he’s a high school dropout.
But James Price is frustrated, too. He’s got a college degree and the skills to go along with it. He’s mostly worked in the media and ran his own business for a decade before his cash flow ran dry.
“There is a media crisis,” he said. “Newspapers aren’t hiring and televisions stations are only hiring if you have a good inside contact and you are young and white. Mature, skilled Black people like me need not apply. I’m at the point where I’ll take almost any job that pays me what I’m worth and provides health insurance.”
These are the easy tales of woe found in almost any African-American community in Philadelphia. But these anecdotes and the government’s recently released national unemployment statistics don’t tell the true story about the depth of joblessness in the Black community…
Your Black Politics: Report Says Gov. Palin Has No Record On Race Issues
There’s no record that Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin uttered anything more than the obligatory complimentary congratulations to the woman that beat her out for the Miss Alaska title in 1984. The winner was Maryline Blackburn, an African American. A ritual congratulatory wish from Palin would have been about the only public acknowledgment to date from her in an instance, in this case a beauty contest, where Palin was confronted with the issue of diversity in the person of a competitor.
Since then, Palin’s record on race and diversity has been the blankest of blank sheets. The probes into Palin’s record on diversity and civil rights have almost exclusively focused on her views on gay rights, same-sex marriage and equal pay. These are crucial civil rights issues. But so are racial diversity and civil rights.
The Web site OntheIssues.org gives a comprehensive look at the positions of elected officials on the major issues based on their statements, speeches, campaign materials and policy-position papers. Palin has taken no position on immigration, affirmative action, job and housing discrimination, school re-segregation, police-minority community relations and racial disparities in the criminal justice system.
The site did list two terse positions Palin took on hate crimes legislation and cultural diversity. Both give a tiny window into the would-be vice president’s thinking on diversity and civil rights. During the 2006 gubernatorial campaign, she told the Eagle Forum that she opposed expanded hate crime legislation…
Your Black News: Where Is The Black Agenda For Barack Obama?
The first black president of the United States cannot credibly govern without a national black agenda. But don’t depend on him to front it.
For the last 22 months, Sen. Barack Obama had one priority: getting elected.
Black progressives have a different, urgent mission: to put meat on the bones of a black economic and social compact.
It’s payback time. [...]
Obama knows that if black people allow parochial and self-interested operators to nibble away at his ankles, black America will be the biggest loser.
But the conversation is long overdue.
Obama’s dodge around race was exquisitely choreographed. Practically the only black concerns he has addressed are his weak nod to affirmative action and his stump-speech admonishments to wayward black fathers and that trifling “Cousin Pookie” — a name he often referenced in his speeches to black audiences. [...]
Black progressives need to now lay out an agenda. Start with equitable educational opportunities for African Americans. Fifty-four years after Brown v. Board of Education, black schoolchildren are still relegated to the bottom of the educational opportunity barrel [...]
Read More