Last week it was that Barack Obama and Michelle Obama were exchanging “terrorist jabs”. Now they are calling Michelle Obama Barack’s “baby mama”. This nonsense is not going to stop obviously so the best we can do is combat these racist measures and attempts to smear the next President of these United States.

I often wonder about the intelligence of the people who make such idiotic decisions. I am offended for the Obama’s. They are determined to smear Barack Obama and his wife at any costs, and they wonder why America is in the state it is currently. It is because rather than deal with real issues like health care, the economy, and poverty instead we like to divide ourselves along silly racially charged bigot lines.

This nation has always struggled with how it was going to deal with poor people and people of color. Every few years you will see some great change in the way that they approach this. We’ve had the war on poverty that never really got into waging a real war on poverty. - Maxine Waters

New York Pricks & Dicks at its finest are no more than the murderers of a young family man with ambitious goals and aspirations. Truth is, I am Sean Bell, my brothers and friends are Sean Bell, and you too could be a victim of unjustifiable force by the people who your tax dollars pay to serve and protect; thus making you Sean Bell.

I pray that this time we really do wake up and take this for the issue that it really is. This is not a race issue on it’s face; why yes racial politics are part of the reason things went down the way that they did. However, now that two young girls are being raised without their father we have to look deeper within ourselves, past our skin color and see that this is a humanity issue. Why are young black men’s lives disposable? We get so caught up between black and white that we do not realize that their is a power structure in this country that oppresses people. It often privileges people of caucasian backgrounds and oppresses people of color.

New York Pricks & Dicks serve as an oppressive force upon the many young black males who live within the city limits. In an attempt to “promote safer neighborhoods” they are trained to act a certain way in neighborhoods that are closer to the poverty line than those which are not. You never hear about some wild white boys getting shot in a barage of bullets in a white neighborhood. Why? Because that would be unacceptable to the power structure.

If we think back to the days of slavery you had the slave master but he often had an overseer; an Uncle Tom who he would use to keep negroes in check. Detective Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and all of the other black police enforcement who continuously use excessive force on public enemy #1; the black man, are those same Uncle Tom’s. This serves two purposes; 1.) the power structure is still able to control minority men and keep them in check. 2.) They use people who look like them so that their racist power structure is not undermined by political correctness. It looks so much better when its blacks killing blacks rather than whites.

This is not a race issue, this is a humanity issue. White people who are tired of being benefactors to such a racist system and receiving the privilege of not having to be victims of this system should stand with people of color fighting these injustices. This is not the America Barack Obama speaks of; but this is the America that many of us know too well. Couple Hope, Change and groups of different ethnic and racial groups together towards humanitarian issues such as police brutality and we can fight to make this the country the way we would like to pretend that it is!

WORDS
written by the lovely Ma’at

Words mean nothing
everything
Confined by the speaker
Writer
Audience
Perception

In Spoken form
Words Cause your ears to Bleed
They call you a Nigger
Bitch
Boy
They deleted your past from your present through Spoken Word
Taught you to love his Word and forget your own
They took your language so you lost your power
Power to speak
Power to communicate
Power to grow as a people

In Written Form
Words are a weapon
Blinding light, truth, way
Don’t read!!!
Remain, Ignorant to our reality
Our reality as Black people in America
Black people in the world
Stricken with poverty, beaten, crippled
Our women raped of their womanhood
Our men raped of their manhood
Our children raped of their innocence
Emancipate yourself from mental slavery
Words…..
the key to your freedom
Do not be a slave to your vocabulary

Over the past few weeks we have been bombarded with media distortments of Pastor Jeremiah Wright and his statements made during his tenure as Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois. Questions of race, which deeply divide this country though many of us would like to believe that it doesn’t have been wedged into our news coverage of this historical moment in our country. Of course I am speaking of the fact that the two front-runners for the Democrat Presidential nomination are a black man and white woman; two unequivocal minorities.

Why is it that a black Pastor who has no formal role in our Political process has received so much coverage based around his comments? Yet, Patrick J. Buchanan, a well know Republican, columnist, and at 3 different points in his career sought the nomination to be Commander in Chief of the United States of America can make divisive comments centered around race. Comments that are quite insulting and there is no uproar in the media, there is no condemnation of his language. Could this be the type of oppression that Jeremiah Wright was speaking about, the interesting way in which our media sets the agenda for what we think and how we think about it. Is it ok to think about racism when it negatively depicts a black minister, but when this privileged man; whom to many represents the views of our government invokes incendiary language about the history and culture of a people we turn a blind eye to it?

Barack Obama was right; we do need to have a serious conversation about race in this country if we ever plan to move forward. Slavery ended in the 1800’s, however the oppression black people face still exists today. This is not an issue against white people; white people are not the government, white people are not the institutions that impose on the civil liberties of minorities. I think that a genuine conversation about race and oppression in this country will show both sides this point. Until we open up this dialogue and speak about these topics responsibly we can expect eloquent comments like the one you will read below from privileged, white men, who run this country.

“America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.”

“[N]o people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ’60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.” - Patrick J. Buchanan

To read more just click the link below.
http://www.buchanan.org/blog/

How long will we lie in our self pity? How long will we serve as a reminder of what potential energy is? When will we take action and become the dream that we desire to be? These are the questions that came to my mind when I read this passage. When the word speaks of this sleep, this slumber, our hands folded and rested, I see death! The death of our dreams, the death of our ambition and goals. How long? We must awake ourselves from this sleep, we must awake ourselves from pity and do all that is in our power to achieve our greatness. No longer can we look to heroes and be amazed at their presence while not leaving our own eternal footprint in the sand.

Jesus, was a great man, a noble man. In his time he did great things, whether you choose to believe the stories of this man or not is irrelevant. What are you doing to get closer to such a being, to be of such nobility, to provide inspiration and sight to the blind people of our society. What are we doing to achieve our goals? Having dealt with rough times, I ask myself all of these questions. My response to myself is to stand tall, with my head up and shoulders broad. My response to myself is to believe in myself so that I can achieve. Most of all, my response to myself is to trust in God, to ask him for the strength to wake up, for the strength to be free from hopelessness. Today marks a new day, this second marks a new second, a chance for us to awake from whatever vices we have and be the greatness we aspire to be. Self doubt, negative relationships, a lack of ambition and drive, these are just some of the issues all of us are dealing with. No longer do I want to look at our leaders of the past and marvel, instead I will take the actions that they have shown us and with the power of God build on the foundation that they have already laid. Peace and Grace be unto you!

One falls forward toward success.

We ain’t thugs for the sake of just being thugs. Nobody do that where we grew at nigga duh. The poverty line we not above so out comes the mask and gloves cause we ain’t feeling the love. We ain’t doing crime for the sake of doing crime, we moving dimes cus we ain’t doing fine. 1 out of 3 of us is locked up doing time; you know what that type of shit can do to a niggas mind. My mind on my money, money on my mind if you owe me ten dollars you ain’t giving me nine. Yall ain’t give me forty acres and a mule so I got my glock 40 now I’m cool and if al sharpton is speaking for me. Somebody get him the word and tell him I don’t approve. Tell him ill remove the curses, if you tell me our schools gon be perfect. When Jena 6 don’t exist tell em that’s when ill stop saying bitch, biiitchhhh!!!!!

Jay – Z “SAY HELLO”
American Gangster

In the 2003 Fade to Black DVD, Jay-Z referenced taking time out in his music to address what’s going on in the hood, asking his peers, “am I wrong to do that, to have those feelings.” Well on the last verse of Say Hello from Jay’s latest album American Gangster, Jay addresses many inherent issues within the black community, its duality is indescribable, just vibe with me!

We ain’t thugs for the sake of just being thugs….. True but false, we live in environments where many feel that they have no other options but to resort to a criminal lifestyle because of the lack of resources to education, and job training to achieve that American Dream. However, we also live in a time where the commercialization of hard times has become intriguing to many youth. In fear of not being respected our youth are imitating thug lifestyles in an effort to replicate what they see on television and hear in songs.

The poverty line we not above so out comes the mask and gloves…….. True indeed, many of our families are living below the poverty line, suffering, living from check to check. So out comes the mask and gloves…. Wait a minute, who is this mask and glove being used to hide? Who is the victim of these tools the perpetrator you so vividly paint chooses to use while committing his crime that he’s not doing for the sake of committing crime? More than likely, people who look just like you, live in similar conditions as you, creating a vicious cycle of survival of the fittest in our communities!

1 out of 3 of us is locked up doing time…………. Oh I know what that type of thing can do to a brother’s mind, to a young man’s self esteem. When your peers are being hauled away in record numbers to institutions of enslavement, better known as prisons! However, thread this story together; already Hov has answered some of his own questions, showing you the circumstances which desperately rape our communities of our brothers.

Yall ain’t give me forty acres and a mule……….. So you got your Glock 40 now you’re cool. No….. Not cool, that’s misplaced anger. They did that to us, well who is they, is this “the proverbial man” who keeps his foot on top of the black man’s throat? No! This is a historical reference, reflective of the United States and promises that were made to people of color that were not fulfilled. Moreover, it’s institutionalized racism that Jay is talking about and how it affects the neighborhoods we live in. The lack of resources and awareness on how to achieve in this land of American opportunity. Back to this Glock 40, this gun, our anger and despair for a system that oppresses us is quite valid but to then take out that same anger on our own people only furthers a system of destruction upon us as a community.

And if Al Sharpton is speaking for me………. Say no more my brother; many feel that the Old Guard of leadership is out of touch with the issues of today’s generation. A few months ago I saw Sharpton attacking Nas over his new album title “NIGGER”. I thought, we have to get better communication within our community of leadership! Nas shouldn’t have to hear via MTV news that Al Sharpton has a problem; Sharpton should contact Nas directly and feed him some knowledge and wisdom as a younger brother. We should respect our elders and in turn they should respect us and what we are trying to create as an innovative and creative group of young people.

Instead, we need to openly communicate about issues respectfully and provide viable solutions to these problems. Because once again, I hear anger within ourselves when we truly should be coming together to fight against systems of inequality and their injustices. Sharpton can’t make the schools better and neither can Jay, but with an agenda targeting urban public school systems WE Can. Targeting legislation used to fund educational programs in underserved communities, using our right to vote, utilizing our freedom of speech against the ills that plague us, We Can. By reinvesting in our own communities and not spending our dollar in everyone else’s the minute it’s earned, we can create economic prosperity and create opportunity within our neighborhoods. Then the mask and gloves don’t have to come out because they are only hurting us. There’s an awareness issue in the hood, there’s misplaced anger in the hood, it’s time now that we unite together and build with each other to create an agenda and Make It Happen! 1
C. Shine