The Agenda

Marching is fine. It's a symbol of unity. A symbol that the people are dissatisfied and feeling under represented.

                What we are missing is an agenda. I was initially distraught at so many people I look up to repeating March, March, March and wished they would stop saying march and get to work. However, as it seems to be the case so often lately I must be the only one willing to do the work. So, since no one else is willing, I have some ideas...

                Police brutality in America, especially New York City, has become expected. The deaths of black men young and old at the hands policemen across the country has nearly become the expected end to police brutality. As tragic as these recent events have been, what is most disheartening has been the response by the 'representatives' of these affected neighborhoods. The severe lack of representation in Ferguson, MO and other cities like Tompkinsville, Staten Island is devastating. That there can be a city like Ferguson where the vast majority of its citizens aren't being represented should be a signal of distress across the country.   What the people demand is proper representation in the pursuit of justice. These citizens have been begging for representation long before this year. It took these tragic events to catalyze them into the streets.  Now is the time to act. Attorney General Holder is holding a civil rights investigation. The White House must come out of that investigation with some concrete actions. The following is what the citizens of this country demand and I expect:

1. There will be immediate elections in cities, like Ferguson, where the officials are obviously not able to represent the interests of the citizens of the city
2. There will be empowerment of organizations like the Staten Island Community Board to "police the police," to do the job they were created to do, represent smaller communities within larger cities like New York.
3. There will be mandatory body cameras on policeman all across the country. 
4. There will be election reform across the country to make it easier for citizens to vote and virtually impossible for any other interest to restrict voter access.
5. There will be a, new, national committee focused on collecting data to ensure the above actions are being fulfilled.

This is just the beginning. There will be more specific demands as the people continue to see holes in their representation that need to be filled. We will continue to march until justice is served. Justice can no longer be subjective. Today justice is not available to all of America's citizens. We must make it so. It is for each of us a sacred duty.

The time to act is now. We have the freedom to ask, as well as the freedom to act. We will be free.

Nicki Minaj Only Apologizes to Jews...

The title of the article that started this was - '

No Surprise here: Nicki Minaj apologizes to Jews for her most recent video'

It's just funny. This weekend it occurred to me to download the mixtapes Nicki Minaj put out before her studio album. It made me sad for her. A man with her talent may have also had to dumb down to get to her level of pop stardom. But he wouldn't have had to go through all that she has. (If you haven't listened to her early mixtapes, LISTEN before you respond.)




What the article (if you can call it that) missed was Nicki's history of being a provocateur. And we always fall for it. Or, that is, she always gets the appropriate amount of attention. [Sidenote : As long as ANYONE named Kardashian gets payed for being alive, I CERTAINLY support Nicki Minaj despite her hi-jinks] This generation has a ridiculously short attention span AND we have been seriously jaded. Add to that being a female artist fighting to be heard at even 70% the level of a male artist and you have Nicki Minaj. You have Looking Ass Nigga. You have Anaconda. And know you have 'Only'. These singles aren't the pop ballads that comprise 50% of her studio albums and 0% of her mixtapes. They are the solid hip hop tracks that wouldn't get a first listen without the surrounding controversies.

And now the serious stuff. The article that brought this song to my attention mentioned a preference for the sensitivities of Jews over African Americans. I will note that as I post this the video that is offensive to Jews is available online in its entirety and the album cover that was offensive to African Americans is only available in reference to the controversy on Wikipedia and within articles like mine. In this instance, I would consider that argument void.

In other instances however, the article brought up some valid points. The talking heads that represent the Jewish community do get a better response than other communities, especially ours. In fact, all lobbies from other communities get a better response than ours. And that is because we don't have a lobby. We don't have an ADL. We don't have a Rotary Club. We don't have a rainbow flag. All we have are separate individuals trying to be heard with no force behind our words.

Until we do, our artists will have to continue operating like Nicki Minaj and others if they want success and we have nothing to say about it.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Donald Sterling, Ferguson, MO and Bruce Levenson (The Non-Racist Racist)

My boy Mic Drop beat me to the punch and so did the founder of the ASU at UCLA. I finally got to read the email Bruce Levenson wrote and decided that he doesn't need to sell this team, although the rumors are that he was looking for a way out. Unfortunately for him, some other enterprising owner may see the business innovation that lies in Atlanta. It may be too late for Bruce Levenson but it is not too late for the black community.

This email demonstrates a huge problem in the African American community. We don't fully participate. That's the reason cities like Ferguson, with a vast Black majority, are not controlled by blacks. Too often, we depend on white Americans' morality and ethics, asking them for jobs and ceding leadership. Then we cry when they fail to satisfy our needs.

The black population in Atlanta is more than capable of purchasing season tickets. They, just like the black population in New Orleans, don't see the benefit of that type of expenditure. Those two chocolate cities often struggle to even get there games on air but it only takes a minute in either city to see they have a substantial fan base. Unfortunately, they also have high black populations who don't want to spend money on sports entertainment. The black population of these cities is maybe too used to their sports teams being dependent on the white fan base.

This letter's only failure is in seeing the solution. The solution is not as formulaic as getting more white fans. It is in changing the culture in chocolate cities. Although, from a business standpoint, that requires spending money on a new marketing campaign to encourage the citizens of cities like Atlanta to make investments in their cities and their teams, focusing on the black citizens. It is radical both socially, politically and economically. However, current events demand a radical change not just in America but in the chocolate cities and black communities all over world.

Hopefully, that enterprising and radical owner will use the services of a emerging black business owner who sees the opportunity to both stimulate and lead the black economy out of the dumps and into a much brighter future.

Donald Sterling and Black America's Responsibility

 I’m not happy because none of my questions were answered. And I have a ton. Unfortunately for Black America, they aren’t for Donald Sterling or the NBA. They are for the rest of America, the 99%. I like how every is scrambling to distance their selves from Donald Sterling. However, they cannot distance themselves from all the questions and revelations I’ve had since Friday. And they are legion. 

I've known that Donald Sterling was racist. I did forget about it because I don't think of him much. What I do remember is bringing his racism up in the 90's and being met with excuses to keep supporting the NBA and pro sports from some of the same people feigning outrage today. I've supported the Clippers despite Donald Sterling for a long time. I will continue to do so without him now. 

I don't know what makes people think their team's owner is any different. His friend Dr. Jerry Buss advised him to buy an NBA team so many years ago. What if their only difference was management styles? And even if no other NBA owner is as racist, elitist as Donald Sterling, aren't there some bigger economic issues with the structure of professional sports and their main feeder system, college athletics?

This thing got so big so quick that my economics professor had to make a connection as she was describing how the Confederacy convinced poor white men to fight and die for rich white men. "Americans have a tendency to connect with their betters" But why? Why does every black person believe they are the specific black people that he doesn't want in his seats? Does she have some special charity where she puts gold digging to the side and dates middle class black men? You, the middle class black people, are more than welcome in the Staples Center. Just don’t sit in his seat and don’t touch his gold digger.

Speaking of gold digging, who made the tapes? We now know it was the mistress. Who sold the tapes? TMZ admitted to paying someone for the tapes. Obviously it was also the mistress. Who stands to benefit the most from them being “leaked”? (Tearing another team down is of no benefit to any other team, so it's not the Lakers) Sterling is actually estranged from his wife who was supposed to have been given the Clippers as a gift. Maybe she wants her team…

Some questions for Black America:
The NAACP is hoping that no one will ever question them for obviously selling a lifetime achievement award. Something tells me Donald Sterling is not the only one. How many of these ‘leaders’ and organizations are complicit in selling out our community for the maintenance of the status quo. I listened to this woman who was 'active' in the community call in to Front Page with Dominique Duprima Monday morning call for a rally and a panel... Basically, she wanted to get paid to, once again, stand up and cry for change but never enact any change.

This constant begging for justice from outside our community is disheartening. Justice is always in our own hands. I’m reminded of the common saying, “There is no justice, it’s just us.” What’s wrong with it being just us? Why can’t we be responsible for our own destiny? Whenever we encounter an employer from outside our community mistreating us, it occurs to me that we could just employ ourselves. I am reminded of how quickly we abandoned the Negro Leagues after Jackie Robinson’s success. I am reminded of the decline of HBCUs in the years following Brown vs The Board of Education.

Why speak on boycotting the Clippers? Donald Sterling owns A LOT more than The Clippers. Why wasn't their initial reaction enough? Why can’t we ever wait for a proper response? Someone tried to compare the inside out jerseys to the 1968 Olympics.  Tommie Smith and John Carlos won and made their statement from the winners stand. Why can’t we support our players for 14 more wins and let Doc Rivers and Chris Paul make their statements with trophies in their hands?

Tony Muhammad made the statement, "This is a moment in history" and the problem is that we keep waiting on "moments in history". We keep waiting on jobs instead of creating jobs. Sometimes when people talk about us walking around with our hands out, they are not talking about welfare programs. They are talking our refusal to be responsible for ourselves. This is and always has been a country of owners. On that level, we refuse to participate. We’d rather be employees instead of employers.

I keep hearing people talk about eradicating racist ideas from everyone’s minds. None of that matters. There is this crazy idea that we can force everyone to be nice or, better yet, that someone being nice or not has any effect on our success. We can't and it doesn't. This event is a call to action for Black America. We can continue to keep our hands out for whatever scraps the rest or America sees fit to drops us. Or, we can build/rebuild/create strong businesses and institutions within our community that will withstand whatever name calling/bigotry others will try to distract us with.

I will not stand by and maintain the status quo. We cannot afford to let any of the traditional institutions stand. They have all failed to serve anyone but themselves. Jason Mitchell called for the pulling of the Los Angeles NAACP‘s charter. I call for a complete abandoning of the NAACP. They’ve been for sell to the highest bidder for over a century. We can start supporting and encouraging the building of black business. That is an immediate MUST.  The current black business leaders are fine but we need more. We need enough options so that Magic’s ownership group doesn’t have to include people from outside our community.