“The Rich and the Rest of Us” – What is the Real Divide?

There are nearly 150 million poor and near poor people in America who are not responsible for the damage done by the Great Recession. Yet they pay the price. The poor did not create the deindustrialization of America, unmatched corporate profiteering and greed, more than a decade of foreign wars, and unregulatedtax benefits for the wealthy. When the largest economic institutions in the world were brought to their collective knees, they went crawling to the government’s doorstep in search of salvation. The government obliged, allowing Wall Street to socialize its failure on the backs of Main Street Americans. The housing and jobs crisis they created fostered a poverty unseen in generations—not just in inner-city ghettos and barrios, but also in suburbs and rural areas crossing racial, age, and gender lines. Nearly one-third of the American middle class—mostly families with children—have fallen into poverty.”

—Tavis Smiley and Cornel West

“Class warfare” is the claim that Republican conservatives have spouted when the issue of economic inequality is brought by advocates like Dr. Cornel West and Tavis Smiley.  What does that mean? It means that when the truth about the rules and rights of the rich versus the poor is exposed, the argument is that these advocates are discriminating against people who are rich, creating a “war” against people who are wealthy.

Does that make sense?

This becomes an argument of between facts and impressions.  People with facts tend to stand on more solid ground in this kind of argument.  Why is that? Could it be because FACTS can’t be subjective?

The excerpt above is an example of using logic and facts to support the rationale behind financial and economic instability.

I am not a political debater.  I actually get a little disinterested in the extended cable commentary that reiterates the same 5 minute soundbite over and over and over.  I just want truth to be spoken to power in an authentic and genuine way.

People like Dr. West and Mr. Smiley tend to cut through the political, pontificating rhetoric to get at the truth of the matter. In this case, it’s dealing with why only a small amount people stay rich while the majority live in poverty.  It mirrors the educational gap between majority students  and minority students in varying communities. The frustrated adults and commentators question why the gap remains; the everyday victims of this crime sadly become immune to its destructive results.

How do we change this? How do you fix this problem? Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as taking a pill to take the pain away.

It requires community involvement on a local, state, and federal level.  It requires pointed activism from the Occupy Wall Street movement.  It requires re-calibrating the opportunity scales so that EVERYONE has a fair shake at the American Dream of getting a good education, getting a good job, buying a house, having a family, saving money for your own kids to go to college, etc.

What do you think about this “class warfare”? Is it really a battle or just one-sided argument?

A New Adventure: Reflecting on Destiny and Stanley Ann Dunham

It’s a bright and sunny Sunday morning – my favorite time of day.

Despite it being Easter Sunday (which is sacred in itself for spiritual rebirth and family fellowship), this time of day offers my favorite reading material of the week – the Sunday Edition. Today, I was lucky enough to be given today’s New York Times paper with an interesting magazine cover on top of the piling. The cover was a vintage picture of a young white mother with black shorts with her adorable son dressed up as a pirate in brown sandals for Halloween with the title “Why She Went: When Barry Obama was 6 years old, his mother moved him to Indonesia. It was a decision that would define his life and hers.” That adorable pirate and that Barry Obama are one in the same – he would later become our President Barack Obama.

His life story is the stuff of folklore almost – absent father, caring and supportive grandparents and mother raising him, having to figure out where he belongs as a teenager and young adult, finding his footing to go to Columbia for undergrad, law school, working as a community organizer only to ascend even higher and higher as a senator and finally, the President of the United States. If you haven’t read his memoir, it is definitely a requirement for any educated person. But little is known about his mother, the woman who fell in love with and married a charismatic and articulate Kenyan from the University of Hawaii, producing a baby boy that would be “king” so to speak.

After the divorce, she met and married a grad student named Lolo Soetoro from the Indonesian island of Java. She later moved to Indonesia with her young son in tow to begin her international adventure of raising children, working, and travelling the world. It’s kind of incredible to have a mother like that.

All the while, she was instilling in her six-year-old son the manners, morals, and widened, world perspective that would be his signature persona as an adult. The new Mrs. Soetoro had her son reading from workbooks, encouraging him to be “a combination of Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, and Harry Belafonte.” High standards for sure but somehow I think she succeeded in her task.

What internal strength it must have taken to move away from everyone and everything you know to submerge yourself in a completely new culture and country to marry the man you love. Bravery and courage almost seem too simple to use in describing such a feat. It was something steely and powerful inside of this “mild-mannered” Kansas native – almost like Clark Kent with the heart and soul of Superman.

I reflect on this chapter of her life with relief, relief to know that my new adventure has been travelled by one of the most influential people in American history. Okay, this is just MY OPINION but the mother of President Barack Obama was the person that shaped him to be the man, leader, father, husband, brother, and human being that we all have the privilege to know and respect. Therefore, she is a part of American history, one of the many stories from the American Dream.

I’m not going to say that I am not afraid of this new adventure that I am on in a week but I will say that I am more calm and even resolute to this new chapter. I think I have that travelling spirit of Stanley Ann Dunham, ready to meet my destiny no matter where it takes me. I pray that God will lead my heart to that destination and that I will trust in His plan for me.

Happy Easter, everyone!

“All You Need is Love” – An Innate Awareness and Direct Action of Human Events

This past Thursday, I had the wonderful privilege of planning a film screening of 2009′s Across the Universe at a college’s theater.  I set this event up for my two Composition classes as a diversion from regular classwork (even though the ulterior motive was to foster critical thinking and connecting the dots of human experience from 1960s to 2011).

While it was a meager showing (only 13 students came),  it was a beautiful showing.  A few students even brought cookies for the event.  I was touched because I wasn’t planning to have food at all.  I suggested bringing enough food for “the class” (of 15-20) but I know my students are strapped for cash (even more than me).  I didn’t want to push the issue.  Despite that, there was a great showing of fellowship snacks and shockingly, DINNER!

One of the students who worked as a pizza delivery driver donated six pies of pizza to the event, saying that his manager even donated an extra pie because the event was “for college kids and they sure will be hungry.”  I almost cried!  This generosity was the embodiment of the film’s theme (and the students didn’t even know it yet).

I also thought about how I can make the theme of the film have practical applications to our world now.  The morning before the screening I was listening to my playlist on shuffle and my MP3 player played a song I haven’t heard a few years at least – “We Are The World” of 1985.  As I listened the lyrics (which I know by heart), I realized that this event could be more than just a diversion from class; it had the potential to make history (even if it is just for these classes and this college).

So I decided to make the event a mini-fundraiser for the American Red Cross towards the Japan Disaster Relief.  The suggested donation was $5 but any donation would be accepted.  Before we watched the film, I collected donations that totaled $37.  That might seem small to some people but knowing my students and the financial stresses they carry with them daily, I was very honored that they offered what little they had to such a worthwhile cause.  That is a memory I was always remember.

Who knows what else we’ll do this semester? Visiting the Smithsonian a-la-To Sir, With Love?  Having an End-of-the Semester Party in DC? Get invited to the White House by the President and the First Lady? The President and the First Lady visiting US on-campus?  The sky is the limit! Stay posted!

Top 30 Things You Should Know About This Blogger

So I realized something about this amazing blog and equally extraordinary audience – if you are new to my blog, you probably don’t a great deal about me.  And I further realized that my life has been a testimony to chapters of extraordinarily interesting and fascinating life experiences (yes, I just got a little wordy but it’s for a point).  Here is an ironic list  numbering 30 items  that offer some more insight into who I am as a person, more than just an educator.

#30:I love Christmas music during the holidays!
#29:I love Eggnog! No one in my fam likes it but I get it every year! Then I know it’s Xmas!
#28:I have a special reverence for The Nutcracker – I was a toy soldier and rat (not in the same production) in my dance school’s production when I was a kid. Yes, I was a ballet dancer and I still miss it!

#27: When I got into DC, a strange feeling comes over. I feel this sense of pride and awe being in the region where major decisions in our country are made. And I am THAT CLOSE to meeting the Obamas! Hey, it could happen!

#26: I am so proud of my younger brother! He is my rock (even if he doesn’t know it and gets on my nerves sometimes)!

#25: I hate the smell of chitterlings! When I was younger, my parents would love to cook it on the stove and the entire house had its disgusting smell. To this day, I will never eat a bite of it!

#24: I learned how to type so fast from the Mavis Beacon computer program. When I graduated from middle school, my dad put me on this schedule to work on the program every day, almost all summer. To this day, I rarely have to look down at the keys (really just for the numbers because I don’t use them as much as letters).

#23: I used to be really jealous of my brother when we were little. When he was a toddler and my mom was filming him with the video camera, when she wasn’t looking, I would knock him down softly. LOL! But eventually, I got over it.

#22: In middle school, I used to like this boy but he wouldn’t be honest if he liked me or some other girl. He called me up at home and I got so tired of his crap that I played the chorus in Janet Jackson’s song “If” and hung up the phone. Look it up, kiddies. Boy, did I have some guts as a kid!

#21: My cousin let me ride with him on his motorcycle when I was a teenager. We went REALLY fast! It was so much fun but my mom was so afraid for me. I couldn’t stop laughing!

#20: My mother has an obsession for all things Ralph Lauren, especially when she was pregnant with me. She named me after her favorite designer and perfume.

#19: I am the oldest sibling in my immediate family. My younger brother is my new roommate.

#18: Initially, I attended college in hopes of being a doctor. I took an internship in HS with an orthopedic surgeon and fell in love with the practice. But once I started taking the required math and science courses (and started failing those classes even with all help in the world), I quickly switched to English.

#17: I worked in the Human Resources Department in the University Library when I was a sophomore at UF. I learned a great deal about the inner workings of payroll (like library staff gets really agitated when their checks aren’t correct).

#16: No, I have never been married (and I have no kids) but I would like to be someday.

#15: For a school trip in HS, I went to Europe. The class and I went to Italy (Venice and Verona), Germany and Switzerland. Talk about a great Spring Break!

#14: I am a chronic bibliophile. Currently, I’m reading Think Like A Man, Act Like A Lady by Steve Harvey and I just got uploaded Grimm’s Fairy Tales (you got to know the classics, right?),  a lot of Oscar Wilde, Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, and W.E.B. DuBois on my E-reader application on my laptop!

#13: I love Spoken Word Poetry. I have two locations in Miami that I used to when work wasn’t too hectic. I have yet to find a new place in the DMV area.  Any suggestions?

#12: If I had to choose a TV character that was the most like me, I would say either Brenda Lee Johnson from TNT’s The Closer or Kate Reed from USA’s Fairly Legal. Their mix of strength and vulnerability is something I can DEFINITELY identify with.

#11: I met Hill Harper at Yale where he held a luncheon for young people for his book Letters to a Young Brother. He is incredibly nice and well-spoken. My HS students were trying to hook me up with him. How embarrassing (but he did call me “exquisite”)! Not bad for a HS teacher!

#10: I am a closet romantic. I hate to say it but it’s true. I love listening to my fave love songs (mostly from MJJ) to go to sleep to.

#9: I buy at least two new fashion/celebrity gossip magazines every other Friday. I am also a loyal follower of The Young, Black, and Fabulous celebrity blog since 2003. A lady has to stay current on ALL kinds of news!

#8: I secretly want to be a DJ. I actually tried it out at a friend’s party and I was terrible (but I loved every minute of it!). I have this secret talent of creating the most amazing mixed tapes/playlists for every mood. My iPod and Blackberry are full of them.

#7: My parents raised my brother and me to appreciate the rich history of African-American music and film. We listened to all the Motown greats (The Temptations, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Jackson 5/The Jacksons), Sam Cooke, James Brown, 70′s and 80′s Soul/R&B singers (Earth, Wind, and Fire, The Emotions, The Pointer Sisters, Phyllis Hyman, Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, Freddie Jackson, The Commodores, Lionel Ritchie, Donny Hathaway), and 90′s R&B (Michael Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Janet Jackson, Anita Baker, Vanessa Williams, Tevin Campbell, Boyz II Men, Usher, TLC, En Vogue).  I tend to gravitate to those greats and compare everyone else on the music scene to them – sorry, new artists!

#6: I was not popular in HS. I was/still am really tall (almost as tall as the teacher), a tomboy (I played volleyball and preferred jeans and Chapstick to dresses and lipstick to wear to class), was a novice writer (I wrote a vampire novel for fun and it became a Freshman sensation) and liked to listening to SKA and rock music (long live No Doubt, Prince, and Lenny Kravitz!).

#5: After not having an “exit strategy” for graduating college, my parents moved me to CT in hopes that I would go to grad school at Yale. Yale didn’t work out (I worked full-time in a bookstore and in retail for a year instead) but Columbia eventually did. Not bad for a runner-up.

#4: I lived in NYC for two years. While at Columbia, I stayed in Harlem with my great uncle. It was wonderful and I miss it terribly.

#3: I saw the musical The Color Purple two times: once on my own dime in NYC and once when my parents came to NYC. As far as the rest of my family goes, I have become an adopted New Yorker.

#2: As a result of #4, I am a huge fan of  Sex and the City. Yes, I have seen the entire set of the series and yes, I own the movie (and I have seen it at least three times so far).  Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with its sequel – Carrie, you married the love of your life! Work stuff out TOGETHER! You don’t need to go OUTSIDE your marriage to feel complete in your marriage! I’m just sayin’.

#1: I have fallen love in with New Orleans a year ago at a conference and hopefully, I will be able to spend my summer there for some volunteer work that can beef up my resume.

Tolerance and Patience: Maintaining Peace At A Time of War

So as you know, the president of Egypt finally stepped down from his position yesterday, freeing the nation for the first time.  What a historical moment!  But then reality hit . . . what was next? What kind of government did the people REALLY want? What kind of leadership would insure the kind of democracy that the people would be content with?

I would like to say that that was the only newsmaker this weekend but it wasn’t. On the home front (my home to be exact), I am at war with my roommate.  And the thing is that I didn’t sign up to BE at war.

But like any conflict, one person’s ideology mashes up with someone’s and rubs the other the wrong way.  This is true here.  To my roommate, rides home from work are mandatory no matter what state I am after  getting at 4AM, working a full day of work, and food shopping  at three different stores (when one store closed down  45 minutes in to my shopping trip because the registers were scanning properly).

So letting my utter fatigue get the better of me, I left the parking lot after 20 minutes of waiting without any explanation for the tardiness (I think I even assumed that he already had a ride). 

It is never easy to package in two people’s lives, aspirations, needs, and priorities into one apartment (and one car). It takes skillful maneuvering, United Nations tact, and a huge helping of empathy all the time. And sometimes that helping can get very small over the course of the day when you give to everyone else at work.

As a college educator, I am empathetic but realistic when it comes to student attendance, participation, homework assignments.  I know being excessive absent dooms your success in class, saying nothing the entire semester can doom you just as much as an absence can, and without open communications, missing homework assignments  and essays are never accepted or graded.

So how can I apply these pearls of wisdom to my war zone?  Open communication is important, I get that.  But what happens if the way my roommate and I communicate is not always consistent?  And at times of stress (and work fatigue), the communication turns into a shouting match, slowly escalating  with fiery tempers?  That can’t be healthy.

Then add the extra emotional layer as sibling and then you can really make the issue more complicated. 

The thing is that I DON’T WANT to be a weekly shouting match.  I want to live in a drama-free, shouting-free zone.  That’s the whole point of me moving to the DC Metro area – so I can start my life over on MY TERMS.

So after talking to some family and friends, I realized something.  This episode is a test in how determined I am to stay tolerant and patient.  I have prayed for more of it and now this is my chance to be about what I really want to be.

It is only a war zone if I allow it to be.  I need to approach this just as any United Nations meeting of the world’s nations – not everyone is going to agree but all nations’ issues are respected and addressed in a yelling-free zone.

I can’t let my frustration get the better of me.  It’s a tall order, I know, but I have to make this my new project.  I will recondition myself, fortifying myself with plaster of tolerance and patience , so that I can withstand the normal triggers that send me into a negative head space.  And I will politely suggest that my roommate save his tax refund money to buy a used car.

Haitian Women, Girls Now Becoming Rape Victims

Haitian Women, Girls Now Becoming Rape Victims.

Just when you think the people of Haiti couldn’t suffer anymore, a story like that above comes out and immediately hits you in the heart.

Rape, like dometic violence and incest, is a real social issue that plagues women of many cultures/backgrounds/social classes/countries.  Often times, the victims of such crimes are so ashamed that they cannot file a formal report to the authorities. 

After just attending a panel discussion on “Writing Women into History” in celebration of Women’s History Month today, I find a story like this replusive and tragic to say the least.

Without the necessary security in the “tent cities” of functioning police nor vital electricity to light dark areas, women and children become victims yet again after losing family and homes in the earthquake.

This reality just shows us all that when a country’s government is weak and finances are low, treachery can reveal itself in the most vilest and immoral ways.

This should make you appreciate all that you have as an American citizen, not say that these kinds of crimes don’t exist in the United States.  They do and victims are still too ashamed to fill reports but at least in the United States, women have the right to prosecute their attackers through police involvement.

Remember, you have a choice to remain a victim or become a survivor! Only then can you regain some small part of the power you lost in the crime!

“Life Ain’t Been No Crystal Stair . . . But I’se Still Climbin’”

Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor –
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now –
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
- “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes (1922)

As a continued student of lifelong education, I am always amazed to how often I can find so many relevant messages and themes in older literature, current events (Thank you, Mr. President for that Education reform!), and popular culture.

In Hughes’ poem, a mother is explaining to her child what the world is really like after the protective bubblewrap comes off when you grow up. The metaphor is pretty powerful!

Life is not easy, not even after high school, not even after college.  If anything, the contrast is even more profound and jarring.  In high school, you lived in the safety net of regimented classes, free or reduced meals, extracurricular activities, and a growing social circle.  Now in college, you live in a safety net of on-campus cliques, “free” money from financial aid (that you NEED to be using for books instead of those new sneakers!) and being on your own for the first time. 

 Then you graduate! What do I do ?  Where do I go?  Where do I live?  At first, you are completely terrified at the idea of not being able to answer these questions with any form of conviction and confidence.  I mean, you JUST graduated! Why do I have to have my life figured out RIGHT NOW??!!!  The beautiful thing about this is YOU REALLY DON’T NEED TO HAVE ALL OF THE ANSWERS RIGHT NOW!

What your parents and older adults don’t tell you is that THEY didn’t know it all either!  How reassuring, right??

But you better have a Game Plan or at least a sketch!  More to come . . .

President Obama’s “Hope” for America: The Promise of a New Beginning

Prof. L. D. Robinson

So one year after the most historic Presidential Inauguration of any American generation, critics and cynics question whether President Obama still has his political message of “Hope” even as a new Republican takes over the late Ted Kennedy’s senate seat in Washington D.C.

In the current climate of high American unemployment, traumatic coverage of Haiti’s latest developments, the journey of a controversial health care bill and stimulus money being sent to elitist and greedy financial institutions, people wonder what has happened to the sweeping excitement and enthusiasm that was exhibited during Obama’s campaign of 2008 and last year’s Inauguration.

I can tell you what happened.  The honeymoon ended.  After the euphoria of Inauguration 2009 wore off and the nation’s problems mounted, President Obama’s “To Do List” Agenda got thirty pages longer, at least. 

The Recession of 2009 hit the United States cruelly and millions of Americans lost their jobs.  As a result, Americans fell deeply behind in their mortgage payments and their homes were foreclosed upon.  Millions of Americans emerged in 2009 without health insurance, unable to pay for basic services because of those lost jobs and limited income. As a result of Americans’ being unable to use credit, financial institutions shut down in the worse “traffic jam” of the century.  What would you do? Crawl under a rock and wait until it all disappeared? You wish!

Against your own primal instincts of flight (running away from its problems), President Obama and his administration plunged headlong into the problems last year.  Stimulus money was dispersed for more unemployment coverage for a longer period of time.   The President initiated a new Health Care Bill to insure that every American that needed insurance would have the same access as any congressperson, senator or elected official in the country. Also, more stimulus money was given out to jumpstart the stagnant financial institutions to reset the economy. Is there anything really wrong with that?

In retrospect (which notoriously has 20/20 vision), the President now admits that he could have focused more attention to creating jobs but wasn’t he, in some way, addressing that issue already?  I’m not saying that he did everything humanly possible for it but I am just asking didn’t he make an attempt at helping unemployed Americans in their hour of need at the beginning of the recession when he took office?

If you ask the critics (or American Idol’s “Simon Cowells” of Washington D.C.  and beyond as so artfully described by the President on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last year), they may reply that the Obama administration has thrown millions upon millions of American taxpayers’ dollars at the current problems instead of solving them.  They would claim that the new Health Care Bill is the administration’s attempt at controlling Americans, citing “big government” as the root of all evil in the lives of “true”, red-blooded Americans.

But what these “true” Americans seem to forget is how the nation got into the problems that it is in now.  Whose administration let financial institutions run wild with little to no regulation on its practices, giving themselves excessive bonuses and participating risky investments at the cost of Americans’ retirement and financial portfolios for eight years?! Whose administration ignored Americans’ need for equal access to quality health care as an American right of the many, not a privilege for the elite few?  Who was the Commander-in-Chief who started a war in the wrong country after September 11, 2001 that is costly millions of dollars to fund every year while putting our military in harm’s way for almost a decade?

Now, the answers may be hard to swallow but they are the truth. BUSH ADMINISTRATION! BUSH ADMINISTRATION! BUSH ADMINISTRATION! PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH!

If you are a logical (and truthful) person, you can see that the blame resides with the former president and his administration.  So what does that mean to the current president?

That means that President Obama is making the best out of a bad situation.  It may not have been the perfect implementation of solving the country’s problems (and who is REALLY perfect anyway?) but you have to give the President credit for having the courage and the internal fortitude to at least take them on in his first year of office.

It’s like living with an irresponsible roommate who loves throwing loud and crazy house-parties every night at your apartment for eight years.  The apartment furniture begins to reek of stale beer and cigarettes. The carpet is stained with red wine, tomato sauce, dirt, and vomit.  There are empty pizza boxes littered all over the kitchen and living room.  The top of the pantry in the kitchen is “decorated” with hundreds of bottles of empty liquor. The sink and dishwasher are full of dirty dishes, drinking glasses, and silverware. The television needs to be replaced.  You had to buy your own refrigerator and a small cupboard to put it in your room and lock up your food because your “roomie” has played host with it too many times.  Thank God you have your own bathroom!

At the end of the eight years, she gets kicked out of the apartment but your name is still on the lease, so you are responsible for the apartment.  While it may have been easier to move out too, you feel like the apartment is still salvageable; it is just going to take a lot of work.  So you make your “To Do List” Agenda: you throw out the old furniture and buy new ones (on sale, of course), hire a carpet cleaning company to steam-clean the carpet, recruit your “entourage” to help throw out those pizza boxes, “souvenir” liquor bottles, and dirty dishes (do you really want any semblance of your former roommate in your apartment?) and buy an affordable flat screen television with a new DVR system.  

Now while the “To Do List” is long, you take each project on step-by-step.  Eventually, over the course of six months to a year, a brand new apartment emerges that is clean, welcoming, and becomes home.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast at Florida Memorial University

So for the sleepy-heads who would rather sleep on a day-off than do something productive, you missed out on a major event on Florida Memorial University campus.  The Vice President of the United States Joe Biden spoke at today’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast this morning.

And that wasn’t even the Keynote Speaker!!

The Keynote Speaker was equally as exciting.  His name is Rev. Harry S. Wright, a close friend of Dr. King. 

Rev. Wright talked about the origins of Dr. King.  How did he grow up?  Who taught him the ways of the world?

“Martin King” learned the strength of love from his mother and the urgent sense of now and “moral imagination”from “Daddy King” (Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr.)

“Martin King” also learned manners, common sense, civility, how to be a Southern gentleman.

Rev. Wright gave the audience an assignment. 

1. Strengthen the bond of the black family
2. Do all you can do to be the “wind beneath the wings” of black youth
3. Stay with the Church; do not outgrow it

I will definitely complete that assignment (even though I think I kind of am already with my job and the use of this blog). 

What do you think? How are you building on the dream right now?

Check out my pictures:

“Light-Skinned” African-American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one”

So as you can imagine, I have been reading and listening to the latest discussion of Senator Harry Reid’s “poor choice of words” of Candidate Barack Obama during the campaign last year. 

From the Tom Joyner Morning Show (which everyone needs to listen to on a regular basis), segments on CNN and MSNBC, to local new coverage from The Miami Hearld and television, everyone seems to have an opinion.

So I am going to throw my own hat in the discourse ring. Before you can really have an intelligent discussion about this issue, you really have to unearth the tightly packed ideology of such a comment. 

Is the comment really a poorly-worded compliment or an insult? Both sides of the debate are pretty adamant about this distinction.  As Dr. Michael Eric Dyson was explaining on CNN yesterday afternoon, if it was sincerely a poorly-worded compliment, what does that say about the collective impression of the African American community in our country?  Are African- Americans only considered viable or acceptable when they are of a lighter complexion and can go in and out of this “Negro dialect” seamlessly?

And if this is an insult, how can the President forgive the Senator so easily? 

Does it matter who really says this? Is it better for an African American to say this in private under the protection of the community?

Post a comment and let me know what you think.