Jason Whitlock is the True Buffoon

I was browsing online tonight when I stumbled across another slanted article on Fox Sports from the "Honorable Jason Whitlock." In his article he basically talks about how the black athlete is destroying sports and how they are buffoons because they, as he likes to call it, shuck and jive on the field. He is of the opinion that football should be played as if these professional athletes are in corporate America wearing a suit and tie with little or no emotion. In the same breath he talks about the guys being payed to play a game. I pose this question to Mr. Whitlock, if they are playing a game are they not to have fun? What is wrong with a little playful teasing as long as there is no malice or intent to show someone up individually? He goes on to make the argument that the Colts and Patriots are the most successful teams in the NFL because they not coincidentally have more white players than any other teams in the NFL; as if to imply that in order for a team to play well or be successful, one must have more whites or non-black athletes as he so cleverly tries to put it, to makeup for the incompetencies of the undisciplined, heartless and ignorant black player. He is falling right into the trap from the 60's where it was universally accepted that the black quarterback and athletes in general lack discipline, heart and intelligence, and were only able to function when being directed by their white counterparts. Now I truly understand why there are so few Black Head coaches in college and professional athletics even though blacks or non-whites make up close to 70% of the athletes.

What enrages me the most about his article, besides the choice of words that he chooses to use such as buffoonery, bojangling etc, is the sheer ignorance and venom that he speaks with. He is looking at the end results without understanding or addressing the true problem.

Let me state for the Record that I am Not going to make excuses for bad behaviour as we all have to understand right from wrong, but lets put this in perspective. Imagine if you grew up your whole life dirt poor, the family next door was dirt poor, the family down the street, also dirt poor. Daily you are surrounded by drugs, unemployment, domestic violence, murder, robbery, dilapidated buildings as you grow up. Now imagine waking up one morning at the age of 21-24 with $250 thousand to $2 million dollars in your bank account. What kind of person would you be? Wisdom at 40 or 44 years old is easy, life has a way of helping you gain understanding and retrospect, but at the age of 21 or 23 just how much retrospect and life experiences do you have to draw from? Can you really talk to someone from your old neighborhood about how to handle your new found wealth when you could very easily gather all the people from your old neighborhood together and would not be able to accumulate or have over time accumulated at any point in their combined lives, half the wealth these athletes are gaining overnight.

Imagine growing up seeing your mother work two to three jobs and still having the power cut off, no cable, having to eat cereal with water instead of milk. That "hood life" can be a double edged sword when you wake up rich overnight. One side of you will never want to be poor again so you will do any and everything you can possibly do to protect your riches. There will still be that other side that will want to enjoy all the things that in your wildest dreams would have never been available to someone from your background.

We need to quit being naive and foolish enough to think that once someone gets money all the problems and past experiences that has driven these individuals to succeed and fail will just disappear. If anything the money makes it worse as the problems are never truly addressed, but overlooked by the money as it relates to the athletes, and the talent as it relates to the NFL organizations and fans. I challenge Whitlock and any other person that thinks like him to actually get down on the ground level to help fix the problem instead of talking about it and blaming hip hop from the friendly confines of his office desk as he sips on his tall Starbucks Latte. One thing Pac Man Jones, Mike Vick, Tank Johnson, and all the other athletes he loves to bash and label as buffoons, have in common is that they have overcame personal tragedy and lived in some of the worst environments and family lives that one could ever imagine. Drug abuse, death, and prison, all things these "troublemakers" grew up with impacting and shaping their mentality. Instead of reveling in the trials and tribulations and scolding them, get out there and teach.

Here is the article for those interested: http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7343980

They Frown When You Up

I have tried my best to not re-hash any of the million other stories relating to the infamous Michael Vick, but after countless stories on every eye that he bats or step that he takes I wanted to write something. Not about him, but about the people that claim that he is the worse person to ever walk the face of the earth. You can go to ESPN, Fox Sports, CNN or any other website and read countless posts in the comment section about how death is to good for this man and how he is a coward, punk or whatever the people can think of to say about and describe him. I can't get down with what Vick did in the least, but I was always told to be careful how you judge someone else as that is the same stick that you will be judged by. I have heard many others make this same statement, but I also truly believe that all the people that are so hateful to a guy that they have never met, would not and will not have any impact on their lives outside of maybe their Fantasy Football season have lost some of their own humanity and self respect in their reactions toward him.

I read an article where a minor league baseball team in Minnesota handed out dog toys made in the resemblance of Vick for all in attendance on fan appreciation night. Here in Atlanta a sports bar planned on clearing out the parking lot, dumping all the Vick paraphernalia that they could find and inviting all dog lovers and people who own dogs to bring them down so they can "let nature call" on all of the items placed in the lot. What is so wrong in your life that would make you feel the need to do this? Will this really change what has taken place with this man? Is this what you really need to feel better about your own life? Even the Animal Humane Society got in on the act using all the Vick jerseys they could find to line the dog litters. This is a professional and corporate entity, shouldn't they be above the stupidity and pettiness to work on the same level as a person that has been called "barbaric," "primitive" and "animalistic?" Above and beyond the extortion tactics of stating in Atlanta's own AJC that if Vick were to give them 20 million dollars they would not petition the NFL to keep him out of the league after his time is served!

I can remember growing up listening to UGK and they had the phrase, "They Frown when you up and Smile while your Down, and if you change for the better shiest friends stop coming around!" I have always taken that phrase to heart but never have seen this to the extent that I see it in the world today.

I understand that people love their animals and what Vick did was inexcusable. He is now and will be punished for what he has done. I just beg everyone else not to lose their humanity in the madness of this all! When news of the Vick fiasco first hit, all over the radio you had concerned parents claiming they were distraught because now they had to go and explain to their kids how much bad a person Vick is and how terrible a thing he has done, but the words and reactions of people in the public are just as damning to a child as anything this one man could have possibly done. What do you say to your child when you put a shirt on them with the words WE HATE? So you teach your kids to hate a person now? He is not Stalin, He is not a politician! We always claim that atheletes are the bain of society, while constantly ignoring the scandals on Capitol Hill. For every Michael Vick, there is a Senator Larry Craig, a Tom Ley, a Karl Rove; these are supposed to be the educated ones who affect the lives of all Americans and are assigned to represent the values and moral compass of our nation to the world. Vick is known for having fast feet and a strong arm, he didn't major in Political Law or Ethics 101.

Most of America wants to believe that atheletes are dumb jocks playing a kids game, but we cry with so much outrage when they make bad, sometimes very bad decisions. Where is the logic in this? While Some are rejoicing and some are crying, I task each and every one of us to look within ourselves and not others for what is right or wrong in our lives and to focus on us and not rejoice in others downfalls.

Don't forget the Little Rock 9

Good day all, still catching my breath from a long weekend of family and friends in town, but wanted to post a quick note to commemorate the Little Rock 9 as today is the 50th anniversary of the date back in September of 1957 when 9 black students were escorted by federal troops into all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Even though segregation had been declared illegal in 1954, throughout the late 50's and early 60's there were many cases where segregation still existed. This became such a national issue because of the direct involvement of the Arkansas Governor at the time, Orval Faubus, and his stance against allowing the students to enter the school, going as far as to deploy the Arkansas National Guard to block the students from entering. It was such an intense situation that President Eisenhower had to send federal troops to provide safe passage for the students. Much needs to be said about the character and the courage of the 9 students just to show up and succeed amidst all the violence and chaos that surrounded their arrival. The strength shown by all of those to show up when the constant threat of violence, name calling, stares and disgust is a testimony to the human spirit and the ability to survive all obstacles with the right mindset. By no means were there crosses any easier to bear than what is facing our children now. The crazy thing about this whole situation is that the school, even though over 70% black now, was still under federal desegregation monitoring until earlier this year in 2007!

For more on this story, here is a link to CNN's coverage: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/24/integration.anniversary.ap/index.html

Back Like I never Left

I am sorry about the long time in between blogs, but sometimes life takes the forefront and you have to re-prioritize things for a second. I am back now and plan on updating the site on a more regular basis with insightful and timely info on what's going on.

As you all know Jena 6 has been heavy in the news lately with a culmination of events taking place yesterday in Jena with many rallies and demonstrations. At first I was nervous about haphazardly allowing any and everybody on the buses to embark on this journey, but I am glad and very proud of how everyone addressed the situation. By "showing up" and not "showing out," the people involved have caused for the awareness to be heightened on this and hopefully other situations like it. Just because that little town in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi or wherever is not named Jena, does not mean that this cannot happen in that town. Now comes the real work as we must began addressing and teaching people how this situation can be avoided in the future and the main objectives that need to be in progress.

We also have the situation with Donovan McNabb speaking on the state of the Black Quarterback and all those that agree and dispute his notion that Black Quarterbacks are criticized harsher than others. I don't know how everyone else feels, but since 9/11 it seems as if the climate and mood of this country has turned darker and darker to like we are reverting back to the Segregation days. I happened to be listening to A.M. radio yesterday and stumbled upon the "Neal Boortz show" and he was talking about being in France and the fact that the french love their dogs and allow dogs in restaurants. Well he continued talking about how beautiful it would be in America if dogs were allowed to eat at restaurants, and that an added benefit to "Americans" would be that Muslims would refuse to eat or go in to those restaurants and you would no longer have to eat in the presence of them. When did ones religion automatically make them Un-American?

Just a little food for thought as we began to discuss and debate somethings that are going on in the world today and how it affects us. Thanks for supporting us and look out as this will be a very exciting time!

Is Barack Obama Black Enough?

Let me start this off by asking the very same people that question Barack Obama's ethnicity by asking them a question. Has there ever been a black president, and if so what was his name? This is not to endorse Barack Obama as the only solution to the Presidency, or to discredit anyone else running because I have not done all the research there is to be done as of yet. One thing I am confident in stating however, is that there has never been a Black President before, so I ask my fellow African Americans, why are all the questions about how black a presidential candidate needs to be and the such now? What is exactly black enough and by what means were these standards created? A lot of people will try to give me the line that Bill Clinton was the first Black President and quantify this by stating that to this day Bill maintains an office in Harlem to be down with the brothers and sisters. Contrary to popular belief, if you look at Bill Clinton's or any other past president's birth's certificate I can guarantee you that Negro, African American, or Black is just an empty check box on the standard form. Bill Clinton may be a smooth talker, handy with a saxophone, and comfortable at the barbershop, but rest assured, a "brother" Bill Clinton is not.

Al Shartpon made the statement, " Don't assume that just because someone is your color that they are your kind!" when referring to whether or not he was putting his support behind Barack Obama. Why use terms such as this in an attempt to undermine this man. Wouldn't he be better served stating that the jury is still out, but he must talk to the man and study his politics in more detail before making a commitment? Why play upon his skin tone as it relates to his candidacy? Does anyone question Sharpton's blackness, and why he would wear a perm in 2007? What makes him feel that he is a viable solution to representing blacks and our political agenda? When I look around my neighborhood the only people I see wearing permed out hairstyles are the pimps and the pushers. What is that saying about him? Is he attempting to pimp the black community and push foolish ideologies into our communities that keep us oppressed and needy instead of enabling and empowering them for growth? Where are his messages on how to accumulate the wealth and knowledge that he always screams should just be given to us because of the trauma and destruction our forefathers faced? Why is he not begging our people to stay in school, start our own businesses, take control of our own communities and lives to make it better for us all?

Barack Obama may not be black like me, talk like me or walk like me, but make no mistake about it, he is blacker and more viable than any other "black" candidate to previously run and that means Jesse and Al. We need to get out of the mindset that the ideal black presidential candidate will bring about radical change in government and ostracize others while placing blacks into the forefront of power and rewriting history. The idea of turning the tables upside down after hundreds of years of oppression may seem plausible and myopic, but this is a false ideology perpetuated by some prominent people that stand the most to gain by continuing this rhetoric and divisive game. The true black candidate will be one that can garner and demand respect from all communities and look out for the good of all people not just one particular race or class. We need to understand the fact that America is just not built like that and there will be no reparations! Consider the fact that African Americans only make up 12% of the population as a whole. You can not work for just one group of people's needs and not others! Has this fact not been a rallying point by candidates in so many other elections?

I am not asking anyone to blindly follow Barack Obama to the presidency, but please dispel this notion that is based off an imaginary blackness gauge and not the true issues which primarily center around the ability of a candidate to lead and make the right decisions for all. Remember the great Martin Luther "The King" Jr envisioned a day when a man would be judged by the content of his character and not the color of his skin! It is a sad day when we have more whites seeming "publicly at least," to grasp this notion better than those that were and still are on the tail end of judgement based off the color of their skin.

Where's the Black Candidate?

Allow myself to introduce...myself

As we all know, the last few months have provided more than enough subject matter to provoke discussion on any number of social topics. Quite frankly, I'm a bit weary of discussing or even thinking about it all. Perhaps as a result of working through Labor Day weekend, (how ironic) my attention span is shorter than usual. So, as a result, I'll keep my thoughts short and fairly random, in an effort to give you an idea who I am, and what kind of things you can expect hear from me. Without further delay, here's a few things that come to mind now.

- "Quite frankly," isn't a good way to start a sentence. If I have to tell you I'm being frank, are you to assume that everything else I've said was less than "frank?"

- Perhaps this is a false "back in the day" perception, but it seems black people were more driven and focused when opportunities for success were more limited. Now that we have more access to the opportunity structure in our society, we appear to be apathetic and distracted. Our collective attitude seems to parallel what many of us have experienced in personal relationships. When the relationship is new, and the extent to which you will win the affections of the person you're interested in is uncertain, your thoughts and energies are focused on that "special" someone. When the relationship has reached a point of stabilty, and you've become comfortable in your knowledge of the level of emotional attachment and commitment of your "significant" other, it's easy to become complacent, disinterested, and unappreciative of the person whose affections you once made great efforts to attain.

- Yes, I went off on a personal tangent. But what's the fun of reading a blog if you don't get a look into the everyday, personal things that we all spend a lot (some of us too much) time trying to figure out about ourselves?

- I'll wrap up this first post with a thought that perhaps may lead to further discussion. I think we have too much black culture in our community. As a matter of fact, there's too much community in our community. I think we all should have an understanding and appreciation for the history of people of African descent in this country, and, by identifying with our shared history, feel a strong sense of love and kinship for each other. But I think our sense of culture should pretty much stop there. As an individual, the way I think and act should have everything to do with what I know to be right, based on whatever system of values I have, not anyone's definition of black culture. I try to do the right thing in everything I do, not because I want to be a good black man, but because I want to be a good man. If we, as individuals, do the best we can for ourselves and our families, then many of the problems we face collectively we be alleviated. I'm not saying that the larger social structure is perfect - we must continute to push for equitable opportunities for social mobility for people of all socioeconomic backgrounds - but I do know that, just as in personal relationships, if we can't appreciate what we have now, we will eventually lose it.

Somewhere We Went Wrong- Part 3

This will be my final post on the topic of "Somewhere We Went Wrong." By no means do I feel that I have touched on all that is needed to be touched, but I fear that this blog will come off sounding preachy and self-righteous to the point that it loses its' effectiveness. Let me further clarify that I myself am part of the problem, being that I have a child born out of wedlock and her mother and I still have not married. Yet I still feel that it has to start somewhere and why not with me.

I know many will say that we already have our "Black Leaders," I have a major problem with that statement. First of all, can anyone tell me when we had a Black Election and voted on who our leaders would be and what our "National Agenda" would be? What platform did these guys run on? Did they come to your church or local community center like candidates for any other political races and explain to you what their credentials were or what they can do for your community to make things better? Why do we as blacks feel that we have to have these leaders in the first place? Who is the leader for all Whites? Who is the leader for all Mexicans? Why aren't we raising our children to be leaders and to take control of their on destiny? Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson do they really speak for you and what you need in your communities? We have to stop accepting the status quo and truly question the motives and agendas of the people that claim to be our leaders. What makes them qualified to be leaders anyway? Just because someone walked with Martin Luther King does not automatically entitle them to be a leader.

Too many times our communites have accepted the loudest, boldest, most outrageous voice in the crowd and with open arms, accepted them to be our unofficial leaders instead of choosing leaders off of their body of work. I do not want to discredit the work that Jesse and Al have done over the years and they have brought attention to cases that would slip under the radar and have been instrumental on some of the more publicized cases, but it is easy to lead when the spotlight and glory is to be had, what type of leader are you in the trenches when all you have is everyday people saying thank you? Why wait until an injustice has been done, a waiter does not serve you at Denny's or the new movement to stamp out vulgar rap lyrics? Do we not think these modern day artist are just reflecting what is going on at this time and what they see in their environments?

If they truly are the leaders that we profess them to be, why haven't anyone called for their resignations? Are we better off today than we were 20 years ago? If you look around our communities there are four common denominators in every "hood": drugs, crime, poverty and despair. We continue to suffer while they fly around giving "token" speeches on any and every hot button topic they can. Jesse Jackson and Rainbow Push got bus loads of people to go back to New Orleans to vote for the Mayoral election after Katrina, but don't you think we would have been better served organizing and working with "The Habitat for Humanity" on getting bus loads of people to rebuild the Lower 9th Ward and East New Orleans? We need to recognize who the real enemy is, we have said time and time again how the system is stacked against us and how the government does not care about what happens to us. I ask you this question; if we know this and it has been constantly proven, why do we feel the need to wait for the government to handle issues that we can do as a community? Why haven't our so called leaders addressed this. Stop waiting for others to do what we can do for ourselves and lets get it done! Everyone is not fit to be a leader and I understand and accept this, but at some point and time we all have to take account for our own actions and make sure that we take care of our best interests.

Somewhere We Went Wrong - Part 2

There are a number of topics that could be discussed today, but in keeping with the theme for the week, I decided to continue down the path of were we went wrong, and the self-inflicted ills of the black community. I hope to further expand on some of the problems and how we got off the path envisioned by our forefathers and Civil Rights leaders of the past.

I talked with my mother today, and we had a brief discussion on what made me decide to write about these issues. I explained to her that these are topics that have always been on my heart and mind, but the true driving force comes from dealing with the battles occuring within my own home as I struggle with raising and developing a 13 year old black male during the hip hop times of today. By opening these lines of communication and hopefully give a platform for others struggling with trying to raise a well-educated and respectful young man we can stop the downward spiral of our community. Harriet Tubman was quoted as saying, "If I could have convinced more slaves that they were actually slaves, I could have freed more of them!" Hopefully I can convice our community that we really have problems and that we must look within ourselves to solve them.

According to a 2001 report from the US Department of Justice, black males had a 32.2% chance of going to prison followed by Hispanic males at 17.2% with only a 5.9% chance of going to prison for white males. In 1974 the chance of a black male going to prison was 13.4%. Can we honestly say there is more racism today than in 1974? What has happened in our community to cause such a dramatic increase in these numbers? I ask this because the problems in our community often times are attributed to unfair targeting by overly suspicious cops, racial profiling, the design of "the system", but the fact remains that until we take account for our own actions and community, these numbers are going to continue to rise. Never mind that even racist cops are left powerless if we just don't do the things that will cause us to lose our freedom!

I read an article where a TV director was asking black people if they thought more black men were in jail or in college; almost 4 to 1 the response was in jail. According to the US Census Bureau, in 2005 there were 864,000 black males in college and 800,000 in prison. Nothing to cheer about, but this just alludes to the idea of perception and reality. If you believe everything you see or hear on TV and the radio, you would think that most black males are either headed or just getting out of jail.

See we need to stop focusing on what everyone else thinks of us because until we have a better view of ourselves, our abilities and our community, it won't matter what anyone else believes. Gone is the excuse, that is all I am expected to be, we need to expect the best from ourselves. I look back at pictures of my great grandfather's and grandfathers' time, and you would be hard pressed to see any black man on the street without being neatly dressed in public because they understood what being presentable means. 95% of who you are to others is about perception. Right or wrong, rarely do people take the time to learn the person without first judging them based off their appearance. Our children today are quick to state that they will be hired by what they know, not how they dress, but how many business men or women do you know with sagging suits and doo-rags at work?

As a community we need to demand excellance from our youth and not except the excuse that are so prevalent today. We have it easy compared to what earlier generations had to face so the excuses of today hold no weight. Whether we realize it or not, we have greater access to opportunites now than at any other time in our lives. We can go were we want without threats of physical harm, live where we want, and own some of the same places that just 40 years ago were unheard of. The true onus is not on the children but on us as adults and leaders in our communities. No longer can we accept the notion that it is cool to be a fool, dropping out of school, sloppy dressing and all the other things we equate with being young. We must begin to hold our children up to a higher standard and we will in turn see our children and community respond.

Somewhere We Went Wrong - Part 1

As I began to leave my imprint on the digital age, I struggled and contemplated over just what it was that I had to blog about. I mean, you can find numerous articles and blogs on just about anything you can think of, so why add one more? Well, as I doggedly watch the saga of Michael Vick and his so-called comrades it hit me. There are a lot of people talking about what Black America, and specifically Black Men in America and what they should or should not be doing. The difference is, none or rather most of the people doing the talking are either white or older black adults that are not in touch with what we actually face. I plan to take a different approach as I am 30, and I have lived in the sports world and have made the transition to Corporate America. I am going to attempt what so many others have failed, and that is to provide a blueprint for my young brothers to excel in all facets of life and keep the "hood pass" that so many foolishly try and keep and to some extent live down to.

BET has it all wrong, T-Pain has it all wrong, see the "hood pass" should not be worn as a sign to show this is what I am and all that I will ever be which usually equates to ignorance, poverty, petty crime and welfare. When I listen to the song "I'm so Hood" by DJ Khaled featuring T-Pain playing on every urban radio station under the sun, I understand how the youth are misunderstanding this. See the " hood pass" should be worn as a badge of inspiration to prove to everyone that no matter what odds are against you and what obstacles get in your way, you will still succeed and achieve your goals. If you talk to anyone in the hood their goals and dreams are the same as anyone else, they want to get an education, a well paying job or start a business, and move to suburbia. But if you pay attention to the media and what is being displayed through the TV and radio waves, you would never know this. I am a firm believer that people learn through repetition and if you are constantly hearing the garbage that is being pumped that our children are hearing you will see why so many fall into the trap living down to the "hood pass".

All this week we will analyze and hopefully debate some of the ills that come with this thinking of the "Hood Pass" and some ways to change our situation.

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