King In My Own Mind

Native American’s won a $3.4 billion settlement. This was being reported on some outlets in reference to reparations, but it is not a reparations settlement. This is a long fight (17 years I read) with regards to a mismanagement and misappropriation of land dealings that worked to disadvantage Native Americans resulting in them being “low-balled” on the land the owned…more a business settlement through litigation than a government admitting and attempting to repair a gross “Sin” to a people via financial or other means.

Not quite reparations for Native Americans as that would probably be 10 times more than this total to even began to right the wrongs suffered there, but a great victory nonetheless…But is $1000 checks to 350,000 people associated with the original lawsuit and 1.9 billion on land consolidation the best way to maximize the this 3.4 BILLion dollar victory??

I guess if the efforts and identified issue was surrounding the issues with land ownership and management then this is the best way to make what was once wrong a little more right.

Congratulations to those who fought the fight and was able to live to see the victory.

And yes I’m not going to use this as an opportunity expound on the African-American plight in the U.S. as this is a victory of a different kind…but a valid admission of guilt by a Government that is very much against that recognition…but maybe this talk about “change” has some weight to it…

While this isn’t a new sentiment by Dr. West, his latest assessment on the election results have garnered more attention on this growing divide. The divide isn’t necessarily in Black America as it has long been divide. The divide seems to be more concentrated in what was once the epicenter of the Black Intellectual Movement. This is truly a sad state to be in.

Growing up I received my own intellectual birth, of sorts, watching Dr. West, Dr. Dyson, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Angela Glover Blackwell, Rev Farrakhan, Dr. Julianne Malveaux and quite a few other experts in their field moderated by both Tavis Smiley and Tom Joyner…It was an amazing sight for my young eyes and nascent intellectual sensibilities. I clung to these symposiums and watched them relentlessly repeatedly. My desire to be informed and integrated into the understanding of what truly was/is the Black Condition in the United States of America.

They didn’t just put on a show in the tradition of the Black Church where you charge admission hoot holler and profit off the spiritual uplift in the moment then just move on…they took that Black tradition of call and response, spiritual uplift, and added some depth to it. They came armed with facts, statistics, a history of actions and inaction with the resulting consequence. EVEN bigger they took it a step further and used their collection of brilliant minds, not just preachers and activist, but professors, economist, lawyers, business minds along with grassroots activism and constructed A Plan! This was supposed to be a transformative act. And it was…for a while…while the access across the table was the same at least while the Bush Administration was in office.

The Black agenda was held up by all at the table…was contributed to by all at the table…this was a type of unification of thought into real actionable steps that has never been as localized and publicized in history. Then Barack Obama made a splash at the DNC…conversations around race in America started to change a bit. The tone was more hopeful…this talk of Change started to gain momentum.In short order The Chicago Senator a proud and vocal African-American that lifted up his white mother and grandmother’s love and efforts in raising him was the prime candidate of Change in America.

Early on there wasn’t the 90+ percent support by African Americans, but then his message started to get more traction all over and he landed Iowa, then his brilliant run took off. That wasn’t all that took off as expectations and heartfelt hope was soaring at an all-time high. Finally a person has emerged to fulfill the implied or imagined prophecy that “The Dream” shall be realized. President Obama is the change ‘We’ have been waiting on…

I lay all that out to paint the source of this seeming discontent from the West/Smiley “faction” to which ideologically I am aligned, but going the way of ugly which in effect muddies the dialogue I am not party to. I get the frustration that lies in a mix of disappointment and feeling duped by your own disillusion. But to muddy the dialogue with ugliness only works to overshadow the issues, which should always be the priority. Cool, you think President is a “Rockefeller Republican” (moderate/center-right) in disguise…fine, but why Blackface? That doesn’t add or even apply to what the dialogue should be about…it makes the response personal therefore petty…

Dr. West is better than that and the people he represent should expect better. We don’t need to tear each other down to lift up our community.I don’t think it will change in such a way that the two sides will join hands and have meaningful and needed dialogue on the issues around prison profiteering and providing greater paths out of poverty (financial and environmental). This seems to be another example of where the elders are not being mindful of where they should be the examples of putting ego to the side to elevate the agenda. Leaving the youth one less stable place to get their bearings.

There are too many leaks to plug to be using a free finger to point at what the next man is or isn’t doing.

Do Better ~

Ann Coulter And Her “kind” Are Harmful Bacteria To Our Collective Humanity.

So ‘Raggedy Ann’ called President Barack Obama a “Retard”?? Really? Is that where her alleged vast intellectual capacity to be a contributor to matters of a sociopolitical nature lead her?? Wow, but not surprising. 

If it wasn’t for Ann Coulter’s salacious, senseless, and selectively sinister statements this serpentine sycophant wouldn’t survive or be seen. This isn’t about giving her more attention, because that isn’t what should happen, but in hopes that people like her and those that choose this sort barbaric and disconnected sense of entitled disregard for simple decency are eliminated from any level of respectable designation…yet she and her kind are making money off of hate wrapped in the frail disguise called conservatism. If you are not progressing the dialog you are retarding it, so by not contributing she would actually be more of an asset to the world.

When you search Ann Coulter’s name the first thing that comes up is ‘Retard’…Poetic Justice I’d Say.

What say you?

Chuck D Sorta Calling Out Jay-Z/Kanye, but Really Hip-Hop culture

It sounds like he is upset at their success more than he probably really is as he has no real reason to assert that they don’t employ, donate, and contribute to the betterment of others. To say they are selfish based on their material success and rap boasting comes off as bitter. I’m not a fan of it as much, but “Swag Rap” has it’s place and has been around since the beginning. To talk about how dope you are, what you have, and where you are going has always been Hip-Hop.

Do Jay-Z and Kanye have the minds and will to be Cultural dynamo’s or Activist or whatever expectation he would have for them (that don’t matter)? They are rappers that are growing in their business, showing how not to be a slave to a label, showing how to turn a crappy deal to a financial independence for their future generations. Chuck needs to find better targets.

Jay-Z’s song Moment of Clarity put it all in perspective for me and made me respect him that much more…The line in the second verse on changing his content to fit his audience and profiting and wanting to rap more conscious, but figured what is more important is that you can’t help the poor if you are one of them, so he got rich and gave back that’s a win/win…Probably his best verse Ever. This is why and where he can touch places in the younger generation that Chuck D never could…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvnKKRFshng

What would you have them do and do you really know they are not doing it? Also are we really just listening to rap music and making a judgement on the totality of the lives of these two men? Especially when it is in the music and you can see they are not selfish…

Everybody can’t be Malcolm and Malcolm wasn’t always Malcolm…we have to stop pushing our own personal responsibility on those that have out performed us in the game of life…Success of another man won’t feed your family spiritually or financially…”What you eat don’t make me shit” Jay-Z~

Onajé Malik Lott

Great article…Very rich in information and facts. Thank you to Ashahed M. Muhammad. I expressed my mistrust of Obama’s will and authenticity most specifically as a beacon of achievement for Black people in this country…His style of expression is measured and yet muddy at the same time. When faced with opposition or asked the tough questions he is a truly a politician. He isn’t a freedom fighter. He isn’t a peaceful warrior. He is just another politician out to serve himself and the machine that maintains him.To sign a bill like this and follow it saying you don’t agree to everything in it tells me there is no conviction in your consciousness. What was the rush to sign the bill…what personal political agenda needed to be satisfied so soon that you would endorse something you feel the need to explain right away that you have suspicions about?!?

The governments sole purpose is maintain its own power and control. The people are the never the priority and principals can be precluded for profit at all times.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I’m not a bullshit artist. I’m not a self-proclaimed prophet or expert. I am a thinking, feeling, and critical human being that tries to put my humanity first when acting. I don’t see this in politicians. I don’t see this in Obama. I certainly don’t see any of this in this NDAA bill.

This is a topic that will take a lot of research and dissection to fully understand and I’m not there yet, but you don’t have pick and poke at excrement too much tell if it is shit or not…I am disappointed in the lack of power we have as voters and the lack of accountability that politicians, police, and other allow “authorities / upholders” of law are held to. I’m never without hope, but stuff like this makes it even more critical to guard and build defenses around your family to protect them. You have to not only worry about criminals in the street, but also government backed police and militaristic profit policy that is routinely given carte blanche to gun down and imprison those without the resources to defend themselves.

Hold tight to what you love and don’t hesitate to defend it. How does the world get worst with age and all the knowledge being shared? Maybe there is so much clutter the base principals of what humanity should feel and look like are long lost. Now humanitarian efforts are dropping bags of rice out of a plane or assigning you an your organization a large salary to profit off poverty and pain while doing nothing to curb the epidemic.

Is this what you support as a WORLD citizen?

lastingvessel:

-on camera

-on stage

-intimate conversations

-around attractive people that you’re attracted to

etc.

it’s all the same. imagine the best YOU. besides, that’s all they’ll see. appreciate your quirks and physical details. acknowledge and focus on every shape, structure and strand individually;…

Great resources (as usual with PCMag.com) for not only getting the basic ranking, but also the knowledge on what 4G really means to you. Check it out if you’ve been wondering if 4G is worth the upgrade or if you want to know if your current 4G network is performing as advertised.

I echoed the same sentiment in a Human Race Studies class I took some years ago…Afro-American is a cultural reference looking to classify a people by identifying origins…Black is more of a sociopolitical way of self-identifying particularly as an African turned American in the US.

I choose to be Black, because I don’t identify with African ideals, culture, and principals…Yet I’m not fully integrated and comfortable as an American, because of the unaddressed history of inequities and injustices that still persist.

Black is more powerful for me, because I’m still strong and my family is still thriving even as there were attempts to destroy us and we don’t truly have a home. While at times it feel we are culturally and geographically homeless there are many cultural traditions we created under duress that have stood the test of time and have been the epitome of community. To survive Hell on Earth and come out alive is amazing, yet we still have a long ways to go as the community has shattered with the availability of new ways developed to commit forms of familial suicide.

People put job positions, politics, pussy/penis, and misguided principles before their own family…That needs to change.