So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. Colossians 2: 6-8

Pardon me on getting this message out so late. First I want to send a sincere apology to all of the teachers I have ever had. I am sorry for talking in your class while you were trying to teach, running in the halls, not handing in my homework and anything else I may have done to upset you. I am so beat and tired today that it is not even funny. I spent most of the day grading papers and working with my students, the highlight was that I got to take one to lunch for being an exceptional student and answering a series of questions correctly. Call it bribery, call it what you want but I need peace and happiness in the class room!

Sorry for the rant, I had all intention to stick with Peter for today’s verse but I found this verse and it spoke to me so I decided to share this instead. It is a common message that we stay and remain faithful to God’s word and his teachings but I appreciated being reminded of others deceptive philosophies. The tongue can be very manipulative and our minds tend to clutch at things that sound appealing to us. Many have done terrible things because they were manipulated into believing what they were doing was right or justified.

So in today’s world with the advent of the internet and some of the most charismatic speakers around people are constantly looking for something to align themselves with. We all are whether we would like to believe it or not. It’s easy to believe that if presented with something that seems out of touch with our upbringing we would reject it. But we all know this is not the case. So today I think of this word as a sign of warning. Beware of all that glitters for it is not gold, and be careful of slick tongues that may attempt to bring you down a path that is neither beneficial to you or in line with the teachings of our Creator. Peace and Grace be unto you!

The eyes of the wise person see through you.

I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And in as much as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.– Abraham Lincoln 1858

I remember sitting at my cramped desk at Deauville Gardens Elementary School more than 15 years ago. I was no more than 10 years old but I remember learning of “THE GREAT EMANCIPATOR” Abraham Lincoln. It was taught that Lincoln freed the slaves and being a young black child I should be forever grateful because if it were not for his actions many of my people would still be in chains. Those formidable years of education were filled with large fabrications. A growing amount of Americans never make it to college and thus are forced to mull around the lies and propaganda that our history books sell us, between them and these false history channels we are inundated with the winners version of history which can often be extremely flawed.

For years if you asked me who was my favorite President I would proudly state that Abraham Lincoln was the greatest President that ever lived. I was taught that he liberated blacks out of the chains and physical captivity of chattel slavery in these United States of America, that this man saw blacks as his equals and valiantly battled racist southerners and their disturbing opinions of people of color in this country and drove us to freedom. However as I read his quote above, it seems that Abraham Lincoln was quite the opposite, quite the racist, and very much an oppressor of people of color. He believed that people of color were inferior to whites, why was this quote omitted from my education, why is history painted in such a viciously false manner?

In law school the question to every answer is “maybe”. The teachers say maybe because there are always multiple different ways of looking at things thus giving us various outcomes, nothing is absolute. Did Abraham Lincoln free the slaves? Maybe!

As I look at several photos taken by up and coming Photographer Young District, who has a great eye for capturing the feeling of a moment. While shooting in the Abraham Lincoln Projects on 132nd and Madison in Harlem he manages to capture this historical relationship between people of color and Lincoln. A picture is worth a thousand words and when I look at this series so much comes to mind.

Look at how the sculptor chose to dress the young black man. Lincoln is fully dressed, bow tie included while the young man wears torn clothes with no shoes. He is visibly supposed to be portraying an enslaved young man, dressed in rags praising Lincoln and his fully suited self. The young boy is looking up to Lincoln, admiring him for his courage, his oh so noble character. The young man is forever in debt to Abraham Lincoln for without Lincoln this boy would still be a slave. Now he’s become a new slave, a slave to a warped view of history.

Look at Lincoln, his face is emotionless, in fact he stares past the young man, not even making eye contact with him. Lincoln is comparable to the Santa Clause who sits in our shopping malls during the holidays, it’s just a job and he really could care less about the wishes that the young man whispers to him because he has no intention of making those dreams come true. But that’s just it! Young District has captured the real intention of Lincoln. He’s looking past blacks but using them as a tool to preserve the Union, to preserve the United States of America. And where does this statute sit, it sits right in the heart of a housing development which is the home to many people of color.

Everyday there’s a kid just like me who walks by this statute and is proud. Proud that in a country who bears the dirty stain of slavery, that there was one man who defied the odds. One man who fought to make sure that blacks and whites were equal. The above quote is not found in history books, it’s not found near this statute. However it is found in the emotionless expression on Lincoln’s face. It’s found in the archives of his speeches that let us know that he had no intention on freeing the slaves. In fact Lincoln is quoted as saying “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.”

Another deleted quote from the legacy of Lincoln, another example of how we were used as pawns and firepower to defeat the Confederate States of America. Nowhere in this quote is this Great Emancipator championing our rights, speaking out against the destructive and oppressive system of racial inequality, yet he gets this great title in our history. He is known as one of the leaders of the Abolitionist movement, yet he did not believe in our abilities, intellect or right to be treated as his equals. So did Lincoln free the slaves, why of course he did, the Emancipation Proclamation and 13th Amendment tells us so. However, it was a mere accident. Thanks to Young District for allowing his lens to capture one of Lincoln’s greatest misnomers, that he actually cared.

Am I getting Punk’d

This is ridiculous, like are students and teachers really throwing down like this is the wwf, or better yet Vegas on fight night. There is so much wrong with this video, it just shows the lack of respect that the younger generation has for its elders. All of this caught on a cell phone camera, WOW!

I have been following this story on the blogs and I just finished reading an article on CNN about it. The gentleman Joshua Packwood had this to say about some of his peers “They approached me and said, ‘Yeah, I have a problem with you being valedictorian. I know you’ve earned it and even though I know you on a personal level - I like you a lot - but it disturbs me that out of roughly 3,000 black men - there’s not one that’s done as well as or better than you academically,’ ” says Packwood.

I think that’s the wrong way to look at this situation. The young man comes from an impoverished family and if there is one thing I know America hates just as much as Black people, it’s poor whites. I remember being a kid and watching Roots, there’s a scene in there, it escapes me now. But it alluded to poor whites and black folks banding together in the south.

I’m indifferent about this gentleman, I think his success is something to be marveled at no matter what his race is. Typically when there is a comparison about black and white children and their academic success we look to the failed school systems in urban areas that produce young black children and the well equipped schools of the suburbs that produce young white children. There is a learning gap, not because black children are not smarter but because there is a lack of quality teachers and access to resources in said public schools.

Packwood’s story is interesting though because he grew up poor, lacking privilege and it was actually a black middle class family who helped him get to where he is today. I don’t like the idea of brothers diminishing their own efforts because a white man is the valedictorian of their school. As someone else said later on in the article, the gentleman of Morehouse need to work harder. Not because white boys are taking their spots but because the work ethic that they create for themselves makes them want to work harder! Congratulations to Joshua Packwood on his accomplishment.

No Homo: A look into our prejudices

A few years back, Kanye West said, “the opposite of Hip-Hop is gay!” Take our extremely homophobic society coupled with the fact that being a black man and gay is the ultimate taboo, some thought Mr. West was committing career suicide. Well, I’m not saying the opposite of Hip-Hop is gay, I do think however that the issue of homosexuality is a topic that makes many men like myself uncomfortable.

I typically write about issues facing people of color, politics, and music; so where does this no homo topic come in. Is this not an issue facing people of color, is homosexuality not discussed in music, and we all know how it is woven into the fabric of political debates? While blogging and trying to find out more information on how to drive traffic to my blog, I was surfing through necole bitchie’s blog (www.necolebitchie.com). She had a feature that was dealing with this gentleman I had never heard of and some concreteloop website fiasco between the two. So I scrolled through her feature; dealing with how this blogger B. Scott and ConcreteLoop were having issues over people discriminating that ConcreteLoop had enlisted a homosexual as one of their weekly contributors.

Now at this point I don’t know who this man is, and I was actually about to click out of this post because it didn’t affect me personally. Before I left, I clicked the youtube link and low and behold I found out what all the drama had been about. To say I was caught off guard is an understatement; here was this openly gay man looking more like a woman than a lot of women. For me to sugar coat my feelings on what I saw would do this piece no justice, so I give to you my bare honesty. I’m sure I put forth expletives that would not be a delight to the young man’s ears. However, as I thought back to my spirituality, I remembered that I am no better than him and I had no right to judge. So I listened to his message and the content blew me away!

He was reaching out to a young man who had emailed him; and was contemplating suicide because of the ridicule he was receiving from his family and peers because he was gay. A young teenage black man was thinking about killing himself; gay or not, this young man has a world of opportunities to live for and call it naive of me but I was shocked to hear that such ridicule would drive someone so far. So I commend B. Scott for serving as a voice for these young men, inspiring them to be themselves and not allow OUR ridicule of their lifestyle to drive them to an early grave.

But deeper than that, what did this say about me? When talking with some friends about the idea of even posting the video to bring light to this issue facing our communities, it was constantly brought to my attention “Cedric, if you do this people are going to start to wonder about you”. If you didn’t know, the best way to assassinate a straight black man’s character is to call him gay. However, being gay is the new black, please get riled up because I just said that but think about the statement objectively before you lash out. A professor told me once that the plight of homosexuals is very similar to that of the history of blacks here in this country. People use the bible to validate their negative beliefs that these individuals are inferior and have relegated gays to the social outcasts that blacks once were.

I told my best friend what the teacher told me some years ago, he looked at me like I had lost my mind and said that college was getting to me. Was it really that far fetched; just take a look at our country’s constitution? When it was written blacks were not a protected class of people. Right now in 2008 homosexuals are not a protected class of people in the land of the free. I have become no better than the white person who is called a racist and says, “but my best friend is black”. When people say Ced you’re homophobic I say, “nah, I’m not, my cousin is gay”. While I am not homophobic, I recognize that I do have some prejudices towards the gay lifestyle and as someone who has been discriminated against this is unacceptable. I am human though and I admit these flaws, the closer I get to God the more I learn that I have no right to judge anyone and by me judging someone I am opening myself up to have my imperfect life judged.

Barack Obama said that he will look to take away the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in the military. I think people like myself have a policy with homosexuals more like “don’t show, don’t care”! I am not one who says, “gays shouldn’t be married, gays shouldn’t be allowed to raise children”. That’s absurd; some of the most competent and intelligent people in this world are gay, so I don’t feel their rights should be limited. However, this don’t show, don’t care policy comes out when we say “oh its ok to be gay but don’t do it around me”. My lifestyle might make some people uncomfortable; they have no right to tell me when and where I can express myself; I’m a grown man unless of course my mom has something to say lol. I say all this to say, watch the young man’s video with an open mind. I wrote this piece in hopes that we can start to have a dialogue in our communities and via the Internet about our prejudices and look to actively tear some of these walls down. If young men are killing themselves because of our ridicule of their lifestyle and we are all right with that, than I think there might not be as much wrong with them as there actually is with us. To minimize the life of another simply because of his/her sexual preference is bigoted hatred at its worst. NO HOMO!

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.  1 Peter 5: 10-11

After you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. I pray that this little while of suffering is not life and then I will be happy in the after life. I have heard scriptures be interpreted that way, I pray that is not the case. I think the Lord is saying I have given my all for you, I have been caused pain too by the sins of this world. Yet I have given my only son so that you can be strong, so that you may find a way to eternal happiness through the principles of love and peace that he taught. This temporary suffering is just that; temporary, and after you have suffered I will not only restore your original happiness, but I will make you strong, steadfast and firm.

We need opposition, we need tough times, we need them like we need those great moments in our life. We need tears, just like we need a beautiful smile. Common said “I guess knowing I’m weak is when I’m really being strong, some how through the dusk I could see the dawn”. It is at our moments when we feel our weakest, when we feel that the world is crashing down on us that we are exemplifying our beautiful strength that God has bestowed upon us. Why? Because we are still pushing, we are still hoping, despite whatever circumstances may be weighing us down we still have the ability to fight and push past these obstacles. Don’t be a slave to your vocabulary; suffering comes in many forms. It is not just physical pain or extreme heart break, no suffering is feeling inadequate about something, suffering is the mental anguish we deal with when things aren’t going the way we planned. But through faith in God and belief in oneself we can see the dawn. STILL WE RISE. Peace and Grace be unto you!

Many spiritual teachers - in Buddhism, in Islam - have talked about first-hand experience of the world as an important part of the path to wisdom, to enlightenment.