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
Monday, September 24, 2007
Don't forget the Little Rock 9
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Labels: african-american society, Arkansas, Black History, Little Rock 9, segregation
Friday, September 21, 2007
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!
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Labels: jena 6, neal boortz, world news
Thursday, September 6, 2007
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.
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Where's the Black Candidate?
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Labels: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Election, Presidency
Monday, September 3, 2007
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.
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Labels: african-american society, black culture, social mobility