THE PASSING OF MY MENTOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had the great honor to salute my mentor's time on this Earth and give condolences to the entire Payne Family for their loss. God give save passing to the soul of Donald Payne and thank you for all the work you had accomplished as a politician in Congress. 

 http://politic365.com/2012/03/06/kendrick-meek-reflects-on-passing-of-rep-donald-m-payne/

 

 

 

http://www.theroot.com/blogs/blogging-beltway/new-jersey-rep-donald-payne-has-died

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/06/donald-payne-dead-new-jersey-congressman-cancer_n_1323513.html

STEPS TO BECOMING A GENIUS

 At a fundamental level, this is how we begin to fix what is broken in our community, specifically with young talented Men who fall between the cracks of our broken educational system. Too often, Black boys are ostracized and profiled as not interested in learning when the obvious is that the standards and methods for learning are outdated for the advanced minds of contemporary youth. Children embracing the "other" America, the one that is easily attainable by shortcuts, guile and imitation, a lifestyle where it requires those of weak resolution and determination to be rewarded, kills all chance for innovation, true creativity, collective work and responsibility to self-determination as a society. To be better than all Peoples as well has creating a legacy much like royalty to pass down like wealth and pride, we need our talented to be elevated, matured and ready to be better than the generation before them. We need to consolidate our geniuses.

 How to become a genius:

1. Consider yourself being a genius and act like one in every moment of your life and you will very soon feel that you are one.
2. Work out your time in such a way that every hour is properly utilized and put aside as much time as possible on becoming better.
3. Established a good skill on recognizing data that is valuable and vital.
4. Learn something new and valuable each day.
5. In anything you read or observe, make sure you understand it. Clear up the words you don’t understand and ask or look up anything at the moment to understand observations which were not understood. Never pass by something you don’t understand.
6. Carefully choose a profession in which you earn your money for living and at the same time enables you to enhance your skill and abilities.
7. Read a lot and carefully select which literature to read in which to gain the most valuable and vital data.
8. Evaluate, look and make conclusions on anything you read and observe.
9. Expect much more of yourself than what is expected from others.
10. Help people around you to the best of your ability and establish friends who can support you if needed.
11. Be very self-confident and certain but on the same time be open to listen, look and reevaluate to make new conclusions.
12. Know that no matter how good or skilled you are you can always become better and never cease to become more skillful in anything you have selected to do.
13. The true genius knows that it is not enough for himself/herself having reached sky high levels – he has to take the rest of mankind with him up and has dedicated his life in making it happen.
14. Never refer to yourself or others as being "smart". Intelligence and Smart are polar opposites in meaning, intent and potential and should be considered an insult.
15. Leave a record of your evolution for others to follow and or continue. This is your gift to humanity.

As defined:

Genius - an exceptional natural capacity of intellect, especially as shown in creative and original work in science, art, music, etc.

Intelligence - capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc. The faculty for understanding. Evolution in aptitude and potential.

Talent - a capacity for achievement or success; ability

Smart - having or showing quick intelligence or ready mental capability, socially elegant; sophisticated or fashionable. Witty.

SKEWED LOGIC FLAWED DATA

I just read an article that is weighing heavy on my conscious. Heavy because there is this movement, so subtle and so insidious that if you aren't aware, or you choose to ignore it, you'd find yourself within a movement of people who are brainwashed into thinking that their skewed logic and flawed data is the TRUTH.

The article in question is from the Blog, "the Root". Specifically, "Black Men: Death Rate Lower in Prison than Outside it?" Normally I'd read it and debate it within myself, research it and or debate it among my friends but this particular article I needed to take a way-back stance and look at the Big Picture. What is going on that is not seen or spoken. Where is the information trying to take me or "us" what matters. Who was this article for? And ultimately why?

As a researcher and historian, I have found that noting the person, group, institute and the sponsors of a study is very important and should be presented before quoting its data. I do not believe these statistics are applicable to the whole of Black Men nor do I subscribe to the notion that the application and gathering of the data is non-bias. Granted that People of Color are disproportionately incarcerated than Whites, the elements of prison life; depending on the prison (minimum to maximum security), would determine the health and welfare of individuals. Also consider that within the Industrial Prison Complex, resources such as medicine, health care, physical conditioning may be available but the mental health of prisoners are always a matter of concern and debate.

Michele Bauchmann recently made a statement that Black Families were better off during slavery for having a stable two parent structure than during a time when there is a Black President. Looking at the statistics and numbers, that may be true but the data is flawed because you don't take into consideration that there were outside elements which adds to and or prevents families from staying together or taking in extended family members as it was during and post-slavery. During slavery you had direct families, extended families as well as adoptive families collectively together. Within the US, there are laws as well as economics that prevents this or make it difficult to do. To use this type of misrepresentation would be like stating that Black employment was better during slavery than under a Black President thus using him as the cause of Black unemployment. This being said, the data for this study is flawed because elements such as education, family, environment, social structures both within and outside, the diversity of Prisons studied and their resources and the core comparison of those whom are/did serve time in prison over an extended period of time and those that haven't was not presented in an actual academic setting.

Do I believe that there is "some" truth to the study? I believe in a small way yes but with all things being equal, with health care, physical conditioning, access to education, a healthy diet and the like, Black men on the outside would live longer due to better Mental Health. This article not only encourages but give credence to the existence of the Industrial Prison Complex as it relates to Black men and other Peoples of Color and frankly as a Black man I am offended especially since the articles doesn't address that once many of these Black men leave, they either return (mental illness), they suffer from addiction (sustained and or acquired in the prison), are or have become HIV positive, or in need of medications that were freely given to them but become unavailable once they leave the system. I could easily say that Black children do better in Summer Camp than those that stay home. Does that mean we should consider removing all Black children from their homes and have them live in perpetual summer camps? Some would say that's what our modern day MILITARY is for. Collect all the Black men in America for Summer Camps, Military duty, Colleges and Universities, the employed and Community Active and let's do a real comparison and contrast ... you'd have to show me all of the data and the people who signed the checks for this to have this study done. Then again we can allow the subliminal messages sink in and eventually live in the world of the researchers and Michele Bauchmann and have Black male unemployment at 0% as slaves and have a child and a wife in every shack under Massa's care. Life was so much better for Black people then.

HOW SEVEN YEAR OLD BOYS SING

Stick for stab
Jumpin grab
Getting the fuk out
Bitch muthafuk forget the shout
Got my piece
Bought not lease
Taggin
Mackin
It’s da real for real
Black all you know da deal

Flip bip an' pow
I got da raw shyt now
Cumin hard
I got yo sweet card
Slow whine down on me
I got da bling for you baby
Turn da ass around
And da around
Breakin yo back
Big Black yo Mac attack

Get wit my program
Oh damn
Like a rubba check
My Ho on deck
You betta be ready
Point yo shyt steady
My Glock on automatic
Fanatic
Nomadic
Top of da 9th Homerun Addict
I’m gonna bat it
Mad Hat it

I crush it like Hannibal
Man handled
Burnin you flammable
I got that work fo you
Unmoveable
Own da room on you
Titan true-able
Beyond liable
The Black Buck
Mack truck
Heavy Load drive
The Lord of light alive
Prison proof
Raisin da roof

I don’t play
I don’t play
Nigga I don’t play
Fuck yall Niggas
Get off my tip
an' go away
I da true Nigga
Multi-Million Figga
Breakin yo back
Big Black yo Mac attack

How Seven Year Olds Sing by Shazza Nakim
Copyright © by Peace of Mind Publishings and with permission by Shazza Nakim

THE AUDACITY OF BEING SMARTY PANTS

I am stealing a little thunder from a Blog that I like to read when I wrote this. Over the past few weeks I pulled back from the table of let’s “Bash Hillary” this week, lets “Bash Barak” next week. The whole Style vs. Substance, Action vs. Inactions, Bread and Butter vs. Meat and Potatoes it got tied and pathetic. Even more so, many of the Black Bloggers were and still are far worst than the Traditional Media and I just got sick of reading what new NON ISSUE was going to be the ranted of the day. Well, on my way back I go back to surfing for my general information off the Internet and International sources. Then I go to my Black Blogs and guess what, not a DAYUM beat was missed; SSDD.

My Black Conservative Blog that I enjoy had an “Obama” piece on it (when in Rome I say) that made me decide to do my first Political entry in about a month. The entry was this:

"My biggest fear of the Obama Campaign was not that he would be perceived as the Black candidate (that is pretty hard to overlook), but that he would be perceived as an uppity Black candidate (a Black elitist who is out of touch with common folk and who has the gall to look down on poor whites). Well, it happened and the media and the blogosphere has gone 'ape s__t' over...the truth!”

I thought the same thing way back when Obama was running for Senator of the State of Illinois. My beliefs were not because I am a Conservative or a Black Republican but for the only reason that I come from the same educational background as Obama. The views and perception that the Blogger addressed, I get working in my own Community. I mean lets keep it real, if you are a college graduate and live in a richly diverse Black community, you know you have had run ins with all types of people with varying levels of academic achievement. It is expected upon the first words from people speaking that we expect a minimum of rudimentary level of education; basic reading, writing and comprehension. Absent the notion of Common Sense, we can expect in this modern time that a person will at least complete a sentence with the proper Queen’s English or Street lingo with a noun and a verb. How a person communicates, does speak volumes as to their character. It tells a story of education, geographic location even generation. So when tone, posture and intent is backed behind a Man or Woman speaking in America, we have no choice but to departmentalize where we stand against them either side-by-side or on the sidelines doubting if and how we compare.

Living in urban areas, the diversity in peoples is far reaching and varied. From rich to poor, young to old, Black to White, Saints to Sinners, you can’t keep tract of the complexities. Within the communities of Black folk we have Dark skin to Light skin, Religious to Spiritual, Educated to Illiterate, Elders to Adolescence, Conservatives and New Progressives. Sticking to the Educated (Intellectuals) coming Home to community, there is and has always been a deeply rooted disdain for the character that comes with possessing (too much) knowledge; although becoming an educated Black person, part and parcel, necessitated in the uplifting of a Race.

These groups of Blacks have been a part of the Black American Diaspora since the days of Reconstruction and the Talented Ten. Even more so, those Jack and Jill Blacks are even sub-divided by Northern and Southern Intellectuals and Traditionally Black College and Universities vs. Ivy Leaguers. So when I see Barak Obama standing before the nation and speaking, the perception of him being an Agent of Change and Inspiration does exist and yet his appeal is greatest with the Youth and White Collar Professionals (at least this is how the media is reporting it). So between the Obama’s stance as an intellectual (political), well traveled, Ivy League educated, Charismatic (I hate this reference) and having a command of poised language, on the surface, he can have the appearance of a cultural elite to those without; the poor, the working class and those on the other side of the Black sub-culture.

So when you take the feelings of people under the shadow of inequities, words spoken from the physical representation of a “possible” Affirmative Action recipient that has done GOOD, an individual whom have in his niceties described them as “bitter”, an existence that may or may not exist, it would only be a matter of time before someone on the receiving end speak up and shout words like Elitist, Uppity, and Bourgie. If you come from a simular background as an Obama, the expectation for this type of negative response is like the theory of Memory Prediction Framework. This theory of when the brain takes events and stimuli from the past sets up a framework for serious and preordained reactions. This action supports in making decisions and navigating through complex obstacles and random occurrences. Think of it like driving slowly through a minefield and knowing where they are all placed. Now speed up the driving with a dust storm, the Sun in your eyes and birds flying across your window and your brain blocks out all other stimuli and concentrates on the driving to avoid the mines. This is Obama’s Memory Framework because although he was referring to economics, in America economics is tied too close to Race, either his or Small Town America’s. His fix for the situation? You will see Obama calling upon all of his past lectures, speeches, sermons, conversations, personal conflicts and history of his being MISUNDERSTOOD by others for being ELITE.

Obama’s analyst of Small Town America does not threaten those Intellectuals on par with Obama. It is only those that have not had the blessings of a Harvard education (including those that were rejected and ended up going to their SECOND CHOICE SCHOOL) and those that have been laborers for generations might have issue.

THE FATE OF BLACK LOYALTY

This election has created a major rift within the Black Community. The affects aren’t quite evident as of yet but it is there. Look at it as the BIG PULL BACK of a tsunami wave. That one wave that rolls back about one or two miles then rises up fifty feet to then crash and destroy everything in its way. I wrote an observation of a Harlem altercation over one BLACK man’s support of Hillary Clinton over Barak Obama (I'm Gonna Kick Your Hillary Lovin Ass). The scene was centered upon members of the community physically beating up a man who worked for the Hillary Clinton campaign based in Harlem. I will admit, based upon the tensions in the air, the history of the community, the legacy of activism plus the fact that many people felt betrayed by Bill Clinton’s presence in the community and the economic incentive he brought in relation to the continued political and financial down turn of Black and Brown people in Harlem, any reminder of the OLD GUARD would be seen as being a JUDAS to one’s race. It did not matter if the man was exercising his right to choose or even work for a candidate of his choice; he was in enemy territory and as a result, paid the price.

It’s been a few weeks since then and I really didn’t concentrate on that event until now. Since we are entering into the last round of Preliminary votes to determine who the Democratic Presidential candidate will be, words and actions for or against one candidate over the other is quickly becoming more than just a debate of words but THREATS to more than just the livelihood of people, particularly Black People and Black Community Supporters.

I have stated on many occasions, not only is the United States venturing into new territory of Political participation, so are Black people in America. The ability to effect this type of Political change has not been seen since the days of American Reconstruction, an era no one Black person alive has experienced but was the foundation for Black Intellectualism which sprung wells of purpose and direction for generations. Black people did not just talk about politics; they SPOKE to it in ways that was NEW and exciting, the inaugural seeds for inclusion in modern America growing into Black communities or at least the potential of it.

The drawback of this inclusion of political vigor was that many were not necessarily searching for all the required information and or only accepting information from bias sources. Taking this part of past history and applying it today. the price for accepting bad political advice diminishes any person voting and the process limits where one can find the complete information needed for future consideration. Granted, Black people are still behind the starting line and slowly inching toward the “Merge Here” lanes of the Information Highway, they are, however, are quickly moving to get into the flow with the help of Black youth and those few that have taken advantage of technology and willing to get the information out to an information starved community. As a whole, like all things involving Class and Black America; those opportunities are slightly below the National average. Just the nature of knowing HOW the political machine works is below average enough, almost POOR. So while this campaign continues to CHANGE and TRANSFORM a Nation, America is on the other side of the ethnic line while others are looking to Black People to catch up with their numbers at the same time they are looking for their active VOICES. Not saying that WHITE America and other ethnic groups are better as a whole, but it is statistically true that other groups, by their numbers, positioned themselves in AMERICA as practicing their political participation more efficient and more effective for their community needs with better results. This meaning, ethnic groups POLITICALLY know when to be heterogeneous in living the American Dream and homogeneous then voting as a BLOCK for a desired goal for Self and Community. The closest Black Folk have come to this phenomenon was the 1960’s and even then, Blacks were not monolithic enough to move forward as a block to effect complete CHANGE. So when Michelle Obama says that, "for the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is making a comeback", her words reflect not only her political history but her social reality in relation to her History as a Black person living in America. The Civil Rights Movement transformed an OLD America but it did not evolve enough to move with a continuing advancing America. To question this as a non-White experience and you know that the naiveté of it is rooted in one’s lack of knowledge of Black struggles. To question it as a White American, you sense that the question comes from a rejecting and or resisting the importance of Black "struggle". So that there is no mistake or clarity issue for those reading this with a Conservative or Republican slant, I define “struggle” as, a means by which Black people pushed for equality and fairness Politically, Economically, Legally, Socially and Ancestrally to be on par with those Groups that have benefited from constraining Blacks as a whole from evolving in America as human beings with full citizenship. This would include individuals, groups, businesses, religions and countries.

I define “struggle” this way because too often I have been asked by WHITES and challenged by Conservative BLACKS that Black people in America should be Proud to be in America. If not for the “sins” of America, Black people as a whole would still be in Africa and not part of the Greatest Country in the World. To which I quickly remind them BOTH, “So who holds PRIDE for all those hundreds of thousands of Africans thrown overboard during the Trans-Atlantic Middle Passage? What you seem to be arguing is much like kidnapping 300 people in America and sending them all by plane to Europe and half way over the Atlantic Ocean the plane explodes or crashes. When asked my reaction, I respond that they all should be happy they had “experienced” what it was to fly on an air plane.”

This type of response would be in total IGNORANCE, total ARROGANCE and ultimately a total DISCONNECT with people’s lives and history, their family and their potential. Especially since the practice of African slavery extends beyond 500 years with America constituting the worst of its practice. The nature and existence of America is in the writing off people's existence as insignificant no matter who they are. This is why I use the word, ”struggle” because it takes work to CHANGE the perception of people who do not SEE, even when the limitation of vision comes from within one’s Race.

So as Black folk continue to “struggle” through this election, we are finding not all are familiar with the terms and terminology that comes with a complete understanding of elections and government. Blacks that are new to the process (be it a young generation with a lack of history to base sound judgment upon or an older generation plagued with apathy and betrayal) all are not astute in the thought process just to prepare, judge, question and finally decide on issues and or candidates. I basically refer to this as missing the prerequisite VOTING 101’s course. Distressingly so, this is also an American phenomenon (excluding the foreign born and naturalized citizens for most often they come from countries where voting is not a Right and once in America their responsibility to voting is exercised as strongly as their Faith).


As an educator, the lack of the basic understandings of the American political structure is not due to any malignant force or hidden agenda group (or maybe so); it has more to do with the direction the American educational system had evolved into. The moment ETHICS, GEOGRAPHY, PHONICS and CIVICS were removed from the core curriculum of schools, the need to know “the what and the who” of the REPUBLIC became moot. Couple this with age and complacency and you have several generations of Government Illiterates pulling leavers for unfamiliar names with unfamiliar agendas come election time. With Black folk leaving the line, thus leaving all other Americans behind a BIG 8Ball to move from behind. Although History is fundamental for understanding American’s past, it is Civics and Ethics, which makes clear it’s present.

There are many reasons why it is important to question everything about voting and our candidates. Politicians have for years come to Black communities with promises of contributions and economic incentives only to fall short of many. Elections have placed political pawns that depend upon the PORK from Top Government to skim while giving the gristle to the reserved few. Black communities have seen career Politicians live out several generations of stagnation only to leave in shame and scandal. Many of these Politicians enter with a genuine interest in Civic Duty and grow into self-satisfied Political Royalty throwing crumbs to a hungry community. Wrap it all in the traditional clothe of Spirituality and you have bonifided stereotypical Leader of Blacks as oppose to the Self-Proclaimed Black Leaders for an extended lease on a community. And yet, this can only happen when a community has a HANDS OFF approach to their voting and voting knowledge.

For years you had Politicians in New Jersey’s largest city of Newark plunder and deprive the citizens of improvements and social gains. In a period of over four decades, the city had two mayors, Kenneth Gibson and Sharp James, each holding on to that title without CHANGE or challenge. The mantra for each was that of Change and Hope and Renaissance but it was all code for VOTE FOR ME BECAUSE I LOOK LIKE YOU. And Black folk did. This, for years, was the standard TOP DOWN way of doing Politics and a sure way to guarantee the success of the DREAM KILLING MACHINE and deter any “Excitement of the New”. No one could challenge the establishment because no one KNEW how or even if they could. No one knew the rules. No one knew what the mayoral title and responsibilities entailed. In not knowing, no one questioned how a Mayor of the largest city of the State can simultaneously hold a seat on the NJ State Legislature or questioned if it was a conflict of interest for the City of Newark. So when a community doesn’t know the basics, the VOTING 101’s, voting and politics, government becomes a perpetual machine that is self sustaining and hostile to its citizens. Long story short, a gentleman OUTSIDER, by the name of Cory Booker who no one knew, arrived with EXCITEMENT AND A MESSAGES OF HOPE AND CHANGE. No one initially trusted or wanted to take a chance on the unknown, untested Politician. Who was this Man who wasn’t even a Newark native? Words where exchanged and the politics got ugly but after his second attempt, Booker eventually replaced Sharpe James as the Mayor of Newark (who is at the time of this posting is under indictment for several charges of impropriety).

Booker, a schooled Politician with a DOWN TOP style of governing, is now working to undo almost 40 years of political abuse. Part of that undoing is bringing People to the table and making sure they understand the inner workings of the Government, the very basics of how a City works. The task is great and the issues deeply rooted as well as his criticisms on the time and speed of his results but it had to be done and can only be done with the help of the people.

The moral of the story; knowledge of the political system, no matter how basic, is a community’s saving grace. Unfettered “passion” can do more harm than logic because even in the absence of logic, COMMON SENSE should kick in and rule. But in the rare cases of the absence of logic and common sense, PASSION can be a "wicked bed fellah" if the people serving up the EMOTION, also controls the OCEAN. It was passion that kept the previous mayors in office, it was trust, which grew into Hope, and then CHANGE to move the city forward; SLOWLY, to get this one in the driver's seat.

What Black folk currently lack with this new found Political energy is "Sophistication". I say this meaning that when you compare the Latino vote (which is near 15% of the Nation’s population, surpassing the 13% that make up Black Americans), there are inherent differences, which should be acknowledged, but the major social and economic concerns are shared with Black Americans. The diversity within the Latin communities speaks volumes and yet when it comes down to voting, as a collective, their vote always comes with DEMANDS, even from their own Latin Officials. Demands that regardless of the region of the Americans they come from; the Caribbean, Mexico, Latin America, South America, the boughs of New York, the barrios of LA, the end result is “all Latinos” move that much closer in closing the Brown “struggle”. How does this affect Black folk? Well, it depends.

There is no doubt many of the social achievements of Blacks have benefited many other People of Color. Many of those benefits have opened the door for whole groups to move quickly to the front for social and economic gains. The only difference when it comes to voting is that Black folk traditionally VOTE for the Rights for “ALL” and other groups vote for benefits of the “Group”. While Black folks are politicking for fair and affordable housing, education, equal opportunity in employment, other group’s vote for the zoning for specific businesses within their ethnic communities, language inclusion, Green Card and VISA extensions, Grants dedicated for specific cultural reparations that will collectively aid in the growth of their community. It doesn’t matter that Blacks win fair housing because the result will benefit all communities (Asian, Black, Latin, White) but those groups politicking for economic gains win for their communities WITH the additional benefits of fair housing. Blacks fall short with their GAINS and often see the small gains of other ethnic communities as SELECTIVE TREATMENT and not their POLITICAL SAVVY. Again, like the Latin vote, no politician will get it without a solid DEMAND by them. To Black folk, this may appear unfair and showing favor, especially when all groups benefit with their demands and in the end, it shows how much Black folk are slow at catching up in their Voting 101’s.

This political practice from other ethnic groups (LATINS, ASIANS, EASTERN EUROPEANS) has clearly defined their “Sophistication” to the politician and Political Party Groups. Politicians know going in that they are not loyal to any one Party. Bi-partisan is a fantasy for what is real to non-Black folk is WHO IS IN THE MAJORITY. It is in their lack of LOYALTY which lies their political POWER. Black Americans aren’t there yet. In the 1960, Malcolm X prior to his assassination preached to Black people in Harlem that as a collective, the Negro should change his political affiliation to Independent. This would allow the Negro to be courted by both Republican and Democrat. This would also place the Negro in a position of bargaining and thus economic positioning within his own community to own property, expand business and self-determination from under White domination. Almost 50 years later, the idea maybe slightly different, but Black people are on the precipice of getting it.


Continue to THE FATE OF BLACK LOYALTY pt.2

THE THEORY OF A LOST GENERATION by Phillip Jackson

There is no longer a need for dire predictions, hand-wringing, or apprehension about losing a generation of Black boys. It is too late. In education, employment, economics, incarceration, health, housing, and parenting, we have lost a generation of young Black Men. The question that remains is will we lose the next two or three generations, or possibly every generation of Black boys hereafter to the streets, negative media, gangs, drugs, poor education, unemployment, father absence, crime, violence and death.

Most young Black Men in the United States don't graduate from high school. Only 35% of Black male students graduated from high school in Chicago and only 26% in New York City, according to a 2006 report by The Schott Foundation for Public Education. Only a few Black boys who finish high school actually attend college, and of those few Black boys who enter college, nationally, only 22% of them finish college.

Young Black male students have the worst grades, the lowest test scores, and the highest dropout rates of all students in the country. When these young Black men don't succeed in school, they are much more likely to succeed in the nation's criminal justice and penitentiary system. And it was discovered recently that even when a young Black man graduates from a U.S. college, there is a good chance that he is from Africa, the Caribbean or Europe, and not the United States.

Black men in prison in America have become as American as apple pie. There are more Black men in prisons and jails in the United States (about 1.1 million) than there are Black men incarcerated in the rest of the world combined. This criminalization process now starts in elementary schools with Black male children as young as six and seven years old being arrested in staggering numbers according to a 2005 report, Education on Lockdown by the Advancement Project.

The rest of the world is watching and following the lead of America. Other countries including England, Canada, Jamaica, Brazil and South Africa are adopting American social policies that encourage the incarceration and destruction of young Black men. This is leading to a world-wide catastrophe. But still, there is no adequate response from the American or global Black community.

Worst of all is the passivity, neglect and disengagement of the Black community concerning the future of our Black boys. We do little while the future lives of Black boys are being destroyed in record numbers. The schools that Black boys attend prepare them with skills that will make them obsolete before, and if, they graduate. In a strange and perverse way, the Black community, itself, has started to wage a kind of war against young Black men and has become part of this destructive process.

Who are young Black women going to marry? Who is going to build and maintain the economies of Black communities? Who is going to anchor strong families in the Black community? Who will young Black boys emulate as they grow into men? Where is the outrage of the Black community at the destruction of its Black boys? Where are the plans and the supportive actions to change this? Is this the beginning of the end of the Black people in America?

The list of those who have failed young Black men includes our government, our foundations, our schools, our media, our Black churches, our Black leaders, and even our parents. Ironically, experts say that the solutions to the problems of young Black men are simple and relatively inexpensive, but they may not be easy, practical or popular. It is not that we lack solutions as much as it is that we lack the will to implement these solutions to save Black boys. It seems that government is willing to pay billions of dollars to lock up young Black men, rather than the millions it would take to prepare them to become viable contributors and valued members of our society.

Please consider these simple goals that can lead to solutions for fixing the problems of young Black men:

Short term

1. Teach all Black boys to read at grade level by the third grade and to embrace education
2. Provide positive role models for Black boys
3. Create a stable home environment for Black boys that includes contact with their fathers
4. Ensure that Black boys have a strong spiritual base
5. Control the negative media influences on Black boys
6. Teach Black boys to respect all girls and women

Long term

1. Invest as much money in educating Black boys as in locking up Black men
2. Help connect Black boys to a positive vision of themselves in the future
3. Create high expectations and help Black boys live into those high expectations
4. Build a positive peer culture for Black boys
5. Teach Black boys self-discipline, culture and history
6. Teach Black boys and the communities in which they live to embrace education and life-long learning

More Facts

- 3 7.7% of Black men in the United States are not working. 47.0% of Black men in Illinois are not working. (2006 Joint Economic Committee Study chaired by Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY))

- 5 8% of Black boys in the United States do not graduate from high school. 65% of Black boys in Chicago do not graduate from high school. (2006 Report from the Schott Foundation for Public Education)

- Almost 70% of Black children are born into female, single parent households (2000 Census Report)

- About 1 million Black men in the United States are in prison (U.S. Justice Department)

By: Phillip Jackson

FUZZY MATH

Adults of working class families can relate to this story. You come home from school with a mountain of homework and you run to your parents. You complain about that EVIL teacher that wants nothing more than to eliminate your free youth time with homework that NOBODY understands. So in their interest your parents ask what type of brutal torture was bestowed upon their poor little child. You whip out THE MATH! “OH LORD”, your parents think to themselves, the curse has finally come for me. Your parents hear the words of their past ancient academic tormentor saying; “YOU’LL NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU WILL NEED MATH IN YOUR LIFE.” They then whisper to themselves, “SHUT UP!” as you respond back in concern, “WHAT?” Your parents assure you its nothing as they continue to listen to your complaints while the pit of their stomach grumbles and under arms turns on faucets of perspiration.

You place before your parents the MATH assignment when you notice your parent’s face has turned a Ghost White and you ask again, “Are you OK? You look a little sick.” Your parents tell you to, “Go on Boy and stop asking stupid questions” while they scratch and fidget like a Crack addict. You begin to explain how confused you are with THE MATH when after about 5 minutes in, your parents stop you and say, “This MATH is different from the math we did when I was your age. This must be that NEW MATH.”

New Math? At this point a quick thought comes across your conscious, “You must be dumb if you can’t help me” but the guilt in calling your parents dumb plus the WRATH OF GOD dispels the thought real quick so you just say, “OK, I’ll just go upstairs and figure it out myself.”

This is mostly a shared experience when people tell WHEN and HOW they first heard the term NEW MATH. It wouldn’t be until years later and realizing that my parent’s weren’t PERFECT PEOPLE that New Math meant anything beyond addition, subtraction, division and fractions. That New Math; Algebra, Trigonometry, Geometry, Statistics and Calculus was all that stuff that most working class or poor parents were only bless to get IF they were selectively picked in Segregated Schools or Bused to areas where WHITE children attended. Long story short, I survived my NEW MATH rite of passage and for the record, I did quite well in school.

My understandings of Math lead to my understanding of Science, which lead into Logic and eventually Psychology. There is a clean and completeness with these disciplines. The patterns make sense; there are no loose ends or doubts. So when you apply them to life, you get a crystal clear picture of real events and reality up until RECENTLY. I am listening to the predictions of the many Super Tuesday Polls and I am saying to myself, “When will these people learn that this all means nothing.” The Pundits are explaining where and how the numbers are adding up and the degree of margins plus the factors and “ifs”, “buts”, “possibles”, and “last times” and then I head one of the reported ask, "So how did you come up with these numbers?” The Political Analyst replied, “Well, its all Fuzzy Math.” FUZZY MATH? Was this the NEW MATH of my generation, something that I need to tell my children about or is this more like the Voodoo Economics of the Bush Sr. Administration of the early 1990’s? All of a sudden I am as confused as my PARENTS were when I showed them Geometry for the first time.

I kinda get it when the factors and possibilities aren’t matching up. Nothing is like it usually is. For years we had the same old politicians doing and saying the same old thing but how do you account for two credible MINORITIES in an election. This is all new ground for everyone to cover. If you are a person that wears glasses and your view is blurry, you take them off and clean the lens. If your view is still no clear and you know that the lenses are clean, then you know you just might need to see a doctor or get a stronger prescription. Why? Because what you currently have, isn't working. The fact that this guy used the term FUZZY MATH only told me one thing, HE DON’T KNOW. Just like my parents, they didn’t know THE MATH so they decided to call what they didn’t know something NEW when the truth was that it was/is MATH that has "existed for centuries". I respect my parents enough for NOT pretending to know and thus lead me down a road of failure and frustration but, to call it something NEW,was not right and I forgive them for that … it wasn’t their fault for not knowing. For this Political Analyst to try and DUMB ME DOWN with creating something out of THIN AIR and calling it a MATH, I needed to smack him in the back of the head. The scary thought is, this might be a new trend to say "FUZZY MATH" the way the media has decided to call Senator Hillary Clinton, "Billary", and it actually become a new College Course of study or POLITICAL THEORY. When FADS become trend to become practice to become reality have pause.

TIME TRAVEL with Dr. MARTIN LUTHER KING Jr.

The mind is fragile. I work with it all the time. As a standard practice I try to check my thoughts as much as I can and I surround myself with people who will check my actions and words as well. My Momma told me when I was young that if ever I get in trouble, it would be because of my mouth. It was funny back in the day when my mouth would say something before my brain realized but as an ADULT, I now have the power to bring down PRESIDENTS or start WARS so its not so cute anymore. So not only as an adult but in this new-age a FEAR, there is a fine line between "keeping it REAL and keeping ALIVE. So it's not unusual that I’d be out and about and go off on a rant with no common sense and I hear, “HEY, you going there” by friends which would snap back into reality. I think as Black people we need a little checking because we do know we can all GO THERE. The problem is that when we do, and there is no CHECKER or LIFELINE to bring us back, we go all the way into a place where there is often, no return. This characterizes and stunts our SPIRITUAL FEAR because that "THERE" is also our ownership of our reality, the midpoint of one’s responsibility and possibly the one thing that defines your existence. Is being checked always a bad thing? That’s hard to say since we do not have the ability to foresee the future, but we can see into the past.

We fantasize about going back through time, the power of knowing what you know and going back in time to re-do or even drop knowledge to those close to you. A question like this you can find popping up at dinner conversations or job interviews. They look like fun games to play but it’s really a very dangerous thing to do. The mythos of time travel being dangerous is true because it cannot only open up the good in MAN but it can open up a DARKNESS as well. I’m not talking about Armageddon-type stuff, what I am talking about are the emotions that spill out of looking backwards into places sacred.

I like history. I've loved it since I was a child, throughout high-school (yes I was a nerd), college and I use to teach it during my post-graduate commitment to Urban schools. World Cultures, Western Civilization, Northern Africa and Middle-Eastern Studies, Russian History, US History and African-America History all were part of my teaching regiment and vocation for my students. The more I got into it on the teaching side, the more my Worldview changed and expanded and it wasn’t from appreciation. Once you look into what mankind has done to itself, the way Man’s very nature towards itself and others, you begin to have an underlining anger at the ignorance, fear, horror, exploitation, destruction, waste and manipulation we harbor. Then there is the trust factor. Since history is the rule of patterns and circular events, for the most part, the POWERS THAT BE come calling with the same “banter and bane” and as a historian you can smell them coming.

On the day we appreciate Martin Luther King Jr. I took a trip back through time. Looking back at a lifetime of King streets and boulevards, centers and squares, elementary and high-schools, the speeches and documentaries, books and theories, the audacity of past employers explaining to me why I have to take a PERSONAL DAY to celebrate the KING'S NATIONAL HOLIDAY and then I looked outside of my window watching some man yelling at a woman about her use of twenty dollars to buy groceries (they had to be on drugs or something because no one normal argues about buying food for the house). I think back at King’s beginnings, his original ambition and how it evolved into a reluctant Civil Rights Leader, how he was the center of the Sun, the hottest part and out from that energy he lit all others within his shine. I looked at how once that sun implored, many of those dreams and shared ambitions fell in upon itself into something less radiant yet just bright enought to still see the road to be traveled. Still there is the Hope but not as HOT or as BRIGHT.

We know who those people are today, we know those that continued the movement and still we continue to look back at the glory days as a reminder of what use to be, what can be, should be, and if we have the ability, to ask WHAT IS?

If you are a time traveler, your answer is No. If you were there at the point of origin you should either me MAD AS HELL or just MAD CRAZY. My friends and associates can never watch historical shows highlighting Black struggles. They often reply, “It makes me mad and makes me want to hurt some White people.” And so they avoid those feeling by avoiding their history. So who is really safe? Who benefits?

That’s the power and the flaw with TIME TRAVEL; you have to be careful where you go and what you really want to see and know. In all the Sci-fi stories on Time Travel, there is always that fear that to do it, and possibly "change" something, it would cause "catastrophic" events to mankind and possibly the UNIVERSE. The theory is the “Butterfly Effect”. But I think it goes deeper than that. I mean, if you physically had the ability to go back, would you just want to see or would you become an active participant? Now take that same theory but place it on a mental level, if you can mentally go back in time (history), would you just want to observe or would you want to be an active participant and "change" it? Fix it? Make it right?

Regardless of the effects, the change would in essence remove POWER for those that covet it and redistribute it to others (sounds like a REVOLUTION to me). The end result might destroy Man, Country or even the way we praise our Higher Power but the arrogance that it will destroy the universe or even GOD? ... HELLO PUT ME IN THE TIME BUBBLE, I'm going back to Carthage and chillin' with Hannibal.

Carl Sagan, the famous Astrophysicist and Astronomer once said. " I have mixed feelings. The explorer and experimentalist in me would very much like it to be possible. But the idea that going into the past could wipe ME out so that I would have never lived is somewhat disquieting."

OK so you know, I am talking about Knowledge and Memory and not wiping out the Human Race but it's all the same and relevant. Are we really just here acknowledging just the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. or do we Time Travel back and relive his existence. I was not born when King was alive but his intense ambition lives within me, my only frustration is, there are few that can brave enough to Time Travel with me to take on the fire hoes, the marching, the boycotts, the sit-ins, the real closed dialogue and the demands of being a Martin Luther King Jr.