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.

What I Gave Up For Lent

When I was in New Orleans, I wasn't a practicing Catholic. So, while I knew every year when Ash Wednesday (The beginning of Lent and the day after Mardis Gras) was, I wasn't into participating in Lent. Now that I am a practicing and participating Catholic, I always forget when Ash Wednesday is coming and don't remember to sacrifice anything until a week after Lent begins. That leaves me trying to figure out what I haven't done for a week so I can continue to sacrifice it for the rest of Lent. It's hard. I even did it this year. But then Father John said it plain - "There's only one thing we need to give up for Lent-....


-Sin."
Sin brings about distance from God. What are the things that separate us from the glory of God? Let me give you a hint…It’s not cheesecake. Hell, it’s not cigarettes, alcohol (Maybe sometimes), it’s not soaps, gambling, gossiping, eating out or buying
purses. It IS lying, cheating, stealing, killing, sleeping with the wrong
people, and any other sin we do over and over without accepting responsibility
for. And then who do we blame, we blame God for not answering our prayers. We
blame God when we give up trivial things for Lent and still don’t feel the
blessings God has for us.

"It's not God's fault."....
Take responsibility for your own actions. Stop sinning. Stop naked-dicking everyone
and anything and thinking it’s OK because you gave up Ice Cream for Lent. Take
a look at our role in the existence of evil in our world. You know your
favorite drinking partner ain’t shit, yet you continue to talk to them about who
you are dating. You keep hanging in the hood and getting arrested. Stop
hanging! Quit hanging with losers and wondering why you keep losing. ....
Repent. Repent from everything. Repent for loserdom. Repent from niggardom. Repent from naked-dicking. Repent from everything you know you do to yourself to make your
life miserable.....

To make simple and easy for you, try not being an asshole for  forty straight days.

Then get ready for the blessings.....


BTW If any of the words are foreign, I implore you to dig through my blog. I have full encyclopedic entries on many of the words you may have trouble with.

Trying to Fail

Current mood: confident
Category: Life

Steve Harvey went off on a tangent this morning so had to find something else. I came upon the local "People's Station". A lady was getting advice from the special guest. (No idea who the special guest was, but she had a British accent so she must have been smart.) This lady was a stay at home mom with about six kids. The lady kept saying nothing was working. Everything she had been trying was failing. The guest gave her options and the lady kept saying I tried. I tried this. I tried that. Try. Try. Try.

All I could think was - she can tell her children she tried when they get knocked up, knocked out, and knocked around. Steve Harvey already called trying - failing with honor. Is that the best our children can hope for? To fail with honor?

I had already been thinking about how much lazier we are than our parents. And maybe this is why. The baby boomers, rich or poor, DO things. We don't do anywhere near as much as they did or do now. And half the shit we say we do we don't actually do. We only try to do those things. We try everything.

When it comes to trying, we got the Baby Boomers beat. We might have it backwards. Some of us try a lot of things and all we end up doing is recreational. We try school, we try occupations, we try marriage, we try to make a living. But we do dates. We do drinks. We do drugs.

Perhaps we should turn it around. Let's do a whole lot of living. Try dating. Try drugs. Try anything we don't plan on doing forever. Let's do the things we don't mind doing forever.

We are the "Just Do It" generation. So just quit trying to fail.


*Standing ovation* and the crowd goes WILD!!!! Ok I guess u got ur muse back, that was fantastic...love this blog!!! 5 kudos!!!
Since I've gotten older I've definitely been in "Do it and Get it Done" mode...Is it b'cuz I feel I have less time to do it and no more playing around I don't know....but great piece Jason.

23 kudos!!!!!!! Excellent Blog! I see u did get your muse back lol. Just because she had a British accent doent mean that she is necessarily smart. Very true statement bout the systematic teaching of our children to "FAIL WITH HONOR" as if u are already knocking yourself out of the game before u even play. lol

JR

Don't try, DO IT.

My ODE to LA

Current mood: adventurous
Category: Travel and Places

I was chatting online with someone the other day and they mentioned how much they hated LA and wanted to leave. It brought to mind my old poem about coming home. It's
dated now so I won't share it.

Instead, I have to defend my home more directly.

My defense is really a defense of big city living.

I realized after being in Atlanta for a few months, I am not a small town guy. The reason why is simple. There is NO ESCAPE in a small town. Even in a city like Atlanta where everything is so spread out, you can't get away from certain people. You can go to the other side of town and escape a particular person or persons but you can't escape those type of people.

In a BIG city (A real big city ATL-not where you claim the surrounding cities to boost the population), the other side of town is REALLY the other side of town. In Los Angeles, for instance, I have been known to shift my scenery completely and hang in a different venue, with a different crowd at the drop of a hat. OR, I can hang in the same spot with different people and get a totally different experience. I've been on Sunset with so many different crowds, I couldn't even count the various perspectives from which to experience that one strip.

The same can be said for my neighborhood. I have met people who lived around the corner or just down the street after living there for years and seen a WHOLE different scene in my very own neighborhood. It's like - You live where? You know who? And they live here too? WTF!

In smaller cities. There isn't much to find after a VERY SHORT while. No matter how far away you go. In Atlanta or New Orleans or DC or even Vegas (all the places I've lived so far) if you want to avoid people, you just have to ignore them. There is no changing the scenery.

I always remember an add for Los Angeles that said if you want to go to a small town, see movies made, ski and surf all in the same day, there's only L.A.. I'm sure New York, Chicago, and Houston all have those widely varying communities. Me, I love L.A.. I love the Lakers (even though Kobe Bryant is the devil). I love Venice. I love Hollywood. I love West Hollywood. I love Long Beach. I love Santa Monica. I love my block. I love my neighborhood. I love my High School.

In Los Angeles, I had a classic American upbringing. I went to school in my neighborhood. My parents were on the PTA. I walked home from school. At UCLA, I used to get out of trouble because I went there (on any side of town).
All my experiences have left me in a great place. Some has been good. Some has been bad (Damned Kobe!). But I am truly happy with where I am. I'm glad I left and I can't wait to get back.

I owe everything to being able to step outside of labels. To being able to step outside of my environment and choose any other I wish. I owe all that to Los Angeles. The biggest city in America. Sorry New York, you may have more people, but I don't want some of those people to touch me. How can you "back, back. Give me Fifity feet" when fifty feet is the other side of town? (crowded assed town) California my be hippie central but shit, we don't hug all the time. Great to visit though!

For people itching to get out of L.A., LEAVE. I wish you could have had my experiences there. But any place is as great as your imagination will take you. In a city like Los Angeles, phrases like "stuck" and "same shit" shouldn't exist. With so many options, being stuck is a state of mind. And if you keep seeing the same shit, it's because you keep doing the same shit.

Perhaps, L.A. is not for everyone. Everyone doesn't have the big enough dreams or imaginations for a city like L.A.. Some people are perfectly comfortable in a smaller setting. My imagination will allow me to live anywhere because L.A. is always in my heart. Also, I know Los Angeles is my ultimate destination.
So if you want to stay in L.A., but it's getting you down. If you don't dig your experiences, if you want to change, change yourself, change your perspective. But PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE:

Don't blame it on my town.


Tight!

MA NINJA....SPOKEN LIKE A TRUE "G"...SHAW DOG TO THE FULLEST....WEST UP MY MAN...

AND NOW I MUST COPY THIS AND PASTE IT IN A BULLETIN...YOU JUST SAID EVERYTHING I ALWAYS SAY....

ROB GREENIDGE AKA OG HOT SAUCE FROM DA W/S.....

If they don't like L.A., they can move. More space on the freeway for everyone else.

It's just like my cousin who is destined to got o jail no matter what state he is in. how many of us know people like that?