Am I getting Punk’d:

Did she say a real nigga need a real bitch?

It smells like water…. WTF….. I’m sorry ladies I must post Letter to a Young black Female AGAIN. CLEARLY SOME OF YOU OLDER WOMEN CAN READ IT AS WELL!

Letter to a young black female

What’s up young lady. You may not know who I am but I know who you
are. You see, I see your potential, I envision you accomplishing all
of your dreams and goals. Anything that you set your mind to can and
will be yours if you just Believe!

Believe in what you may ask? Yourself! Believe that you are the
intellect which has governed civilizations for century upon century.
Believe that you are the standard of beauty and not whatever images
the media shells out at you. Believe that there is no task too big
or too small that you can not reach for and achieve.

Realize young lady that women have always been at the helm of
everything great. James Brown said it best, “this is a man’s world but
it wouldn’t be nothing without a woman or a girl”. You have so many big
sisters to look up to, so many sources of inspiration that have
provided the framework of the strong work ethic known as womanhood.

Notice I call you young lady for these terms that I hear you referred
to are not your names. You are a Queen who must demand respect, your
mere presence should command respect. You must first respect yourself
however, and respect your fellow sisters as well. Together you young
ladies make up the future table of leadership.

God made you to be special, he made you to stand apart from the crowd.
So fear not if you feel isolated or alone, look back to your big
sisters who have changed the landscape of history, they once felt
alone too. I write you this letter to show my admiration for you, to
pay homage to the beautiful gift that the creator is bestowing upon
us. Follow your dreams and believe in your path young lady, for the
very thought of you reaching a tenth of your potential is an
inspiration to us all!

Truly yours,
Cedric D. Shine (your #1 fan)

Ok, is this stupid children Friday! I know, I know you should never call a child stupid but the nonsense in the news today is utterly ridiculous and disheartening.

A group of teens at Gloucester high School in Gloucester Massachussetts made a pact to get pregnant. Over 17 young women, most under the age of 16 have gotten pregnant during this school year. The numbers were so startling that the school officials decided to investigate what was going on.

What they found was that these young girls were getting pregnant on purpose. There is so much wrong with this situation that it is not even funny. 1. We have children playing with the lives and futures of these babies that they are about to bring into the world. 2. STD’s are spread through unprotected sex, it is logical to assume that if all these girls are getting pregnant that they are having unprotected sex with these men.

The article states that one man is 24 years old and homeless and he is the father of one of these young girl’s babies. These young girls are searching for love in all the wrong places. It’s sad that they went to such lengths to gain attention. I am truly worried for the young women of the coming generation. In a world where youtube booty shaking and naked photos of young girls pop up everywhere on the internet I am concerned for their well being. I am concerned for the future mothers of our children. Ofcourse it would be preposterous to assume that all young girls are acting this way. But any time you see 17 young girls at one high school making pacts to get pregnant that should let you know that this is a growing problem.

It would be a waste if I just ranted about these problems and said nothing in the way of solutions for such a  problem. We need young women to mentor these young girls. We need young men to mentor our young sisters and present them with more respectful and favorable images of themselves. We need to enstill respect in these young ladies. Not only respect for themselves but respect for their peers and most importantly their own bodies. I pray for these 17 young children coming into this world, and I pray for these girls because the road to parenthood is not be easy by any stretch of the imagination. Now that we have watched these young ladies make these mistakes it is up to their parents, communities, churches and us to help support young women in such a situation and to prevent other young ladies from making similar mistakes. Peace and Love!

Letter to a young black female

What’s up young lady. You may not know who I am but I know who you
are. You see, I see your potential, I envision you accomplishing all
of your dreams and goals. Anything that you set your mind to can and
will be yours if you just Believe!

Believe in what you may ask? Yourself! Believe that you are the
intellect which has governed civilizations for century upon century.
Believe that you are the standard of beauty and not whatever images
the media shells out at you. Believe that there is no task too big
or too small that you can not reach for and achieve.

Realize young lady that women have always been at the helm of
everything great. James Brown said it best, “this is a man’s world but
it wouldn’t be nothing without a woman or a girl”. You have so many big
sisters to look up to, so many sources of inspiration that have
provided the framework of the strong work ethic known as womanhood.

Notice I call you young lady for these terms that I hear you referred
to are not your names. You are a Queen who must demand respect, your
mere presence should command respect. You must first respect yourself
however, and respect your fellow sisters as well. Together you young
ladies make up the future table of leadership.

God made you to be special, he made you to stand apart from the crowd.
So fear not if you feel isolated or alone, look back to your big
sisters who have changed the landscape of history, they once felt
alone too. I write you this letter to show my admiration for you, to
pay homage to the beautiful gift that the creator is bestowing upon
us. Follow your dreams and believe in your path young lady, for the
very thought of you reaching a tenth of your potential is an
inspiration to us all!

Truly yours,
Cedric D. Shine (your #1 fan)

Here is the article

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/1016357,pregpact062008.article

Today I was watching the video below of a young girl who is using youtube to rile people up to help her. The video is really sad and it reminds me of a piece I wrote about how the court systems treat women like prostitutes and are not helpful to rape victims. The piece is below as well!

Sadly this young woman is looking for justice after dealing with this terrible ordeal and when the courts hear her they may not give her the justice she deserves. It’s a sad system!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfg3w11_A_E&hl=en]

Treat Her Like A Prostitute
Think of North Philadelphia, think of the abandoned row homes; already I can see the drug addicts standing around outside waiting for their daily fix. The cops aren’t paying much attention to this block; this is a typical block in the heart of North Philly where abandoned homes stand in desolate neighborhoods; a criminal’s safe haven. Inside this fateful house a young woman is being RAPED, she is being forced to have sex with four men at gunpoint. On this lonely block I can see this young woman fearing for her life. While in this house these men are beating her and taking her womanhood from her forcefully. Wait……. This story is biased, did I mention our victim is a prostitute! Does that matter? Or, because she is a prostitute is this merely an occupational hazard? Let’s take away our moral judgment and rely solely on the law, which is meant to protect the citizens of this country. Well according to Judge Teresa Carr Deni in Philadelphia, a woman who was raped in late September in North Philadelphia experienced such an occupational hazard. Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmm…

So what type of message are we sending, I remember hearing NO MEANS NO! Rape victims are already not supported by the criminal justice system, which is why so many sexual assaults go unreported every year. Moreover, essentially what the courts are saying is that if you are a prostitute then you are not a credible citizen and your rights can be violated because you put yourself in that situation.

I am not here to defend prostitution as a viable means of income but I am concerned with how people are treated in this country. Now to give the whole story without any bias I will give you the information as provided to me by the local newspaper, The Philadelphia Daily News. As the story goes, the woman was working as a prostitute, she charged two men $200 to have sex with them. They refused to pay her, and here is where this story gets ugly. A gun then comes out and two more men rape the woman at gunpoint. The 5th man saw the woman crying and decided to help her get dressed so that she could leave the house without further harassment from the other individuals. Unfortunately, the judge said that she would not waste her time on such a case because there are real rape victims out there. Again I ask does No not mean No? I mean, I’m just curious, or are we letting our moral judgments affect who the law will protect and whom it will dismiss as this poor young woman was dismissed in Philadelphia?

It’s very interesting how we vilify the media, Hip-Hop, movies and all other proponents of misogyny when it comes to the mis-representation and treatment of women. However, here is our sacred criminal justice system picking and choosing who deserves to be protected under the law and who does not. I just wonder if this is a sign of things to come. A woman has one to many drinks, she’s forced to sleep with several men and the argument goes something like this; “well she’s normally a very promiscuous girl, she had on a short skirt, or the infamous, she wanted it”!

It’s our time to stand up and have our voices heard if only to protect our sisters, cousins and mothers and ourselves in the future. If we are outraged by the way women are treated in the media, we should be equally outraged at how women are being victimized by the criminal justice system. It is not ok for a man or a group of men to maliciously rape a woman no matter what her occupation is. If we continue to allow this type of behavior to persist than we will continue to get the same results that depict women as sexual objects who are not deserving of respect. We have allowed the media to say this for far too long, now it has spilled over into the law of our land. We can not allow our women and their presence to be belittled, lets fight to preserve their image and their constitutional right as human beings that deserve the right to be protected in this country. We can start by sending letters to our Congressmen and the Philadelphia Bar Association to let the powers that be know that we will not take this type of injustice sitting down. Let’s Make It Happen!

If I know about drug dealing in the ghetto, the police have to know. One has to wonder why very little is ever done about it. - Elaine Brown

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

Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul.- Coretta Scott King

Letter to a young black female

What’s up young lady. You may not know who I am but I know who you
are. You see, I see your potential, I envision you accomplishing all
of your dreams and goals. Anything that you set your mind to can and
will be yours if you just Believe!

Believe in what you may ask? Yourself! Believe that you are the
intellect which has governed civilizations for century upon century.
Believe that you are the standard of beauty and not whatever images
the media shells out at you. Believe that there is no task too big
or too small that you can not reach for and achieve.

Realize young lady that women have always been at the helm of
everything great. James Brown said it best, “this is a man’s world but
it wouldn’t be nothing without a woman or a girl”. You have so many big
sisters to look up to, so many sources of inspiration that have
provided the framework of the strong work ethic known as womanhood.

Notice I call you young lady for these terms that I hear you referred
to are not your names. You are a Queen who must demand respect, your
mere presence should command respect. You must first respect yourself
however, and respect your fellow sisters as well. Together you young
ladies make up the future table of leadership.

God made you to be special, he made you to stand apart from the crowd.
So fear not if you feel isolated or alone, look back to your big
sisters who have changed the landscape of history, they once felt
alone too. I write you this letter to show my admiration for you, to
pay homage to the beautiful gift that the creator is bestowing upon
us. Follow your dreams and believe in your path young lady, for the
very thought of you reaching a tenth of your potential is an
inspiration to us all!

Truly yours,
Cedric D. Shine (your #1 fan)