Category Archives: African American Males

The Dream is Dead and Gone to China!

Posted by Wonder Woman on

While WW is busy fighting crime, I thought you would like to revisit this topic from July 2011 since it is soon in coming. I think it is an outrage that the MLK Memorial looks Asian, angry, and is minus African American workers or artists!!

Peace Family,

WW

MLK Memorial Still Brews in Controversy for Building with Chinese Workers

July 5, 2011 By Staff  of Your Black World

http://yourblackworld.com/2011/07/05/mlk-memorial-still-brews-in-controversy-for-building-with-chinese-workers/

Your Black World reports.

We have just two months before the August 28 celebration of a new memorial in Washington DC dedicated to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The site will be four acres, and cost $120 million to construct.   The memorial continues on in spite of controversy about the builders choosing a sculptor from China.

The King family is in support of the use of a Chinese sculptor, leaving many American and African American artists disappointed that their talents were not used by the family.  There are also some who believe that the 30-foot likeness of Dr. King appears too confrontational, contrasting with King’s non-violent approach to Civil Rights.

Ed Jackson, executive architect of the Martin Luther King National Memorial, said that the King family approved the likeness created by Lei Yixin.

“I’ve seen probably 50 sculptures of my dad, and I would say 47 of them are not good reflections — that’s not to disparage an artist,” said Martin Luther King III. “This particular artist — he’s done a good job.”

The critics of this decision include a sculptor who was on an earlier team.  Also, academics, union members and others were angered by the decision to bring a group of Chinese workers to Washington to put the statue together.  Those who support the monument are working to deal with the criticism as they seek ways to raise the last $6 million needed to finish the project.

“He had already created … three additional sculptures of Dr. King’s head,” Jackson said, referring to past work that had been done by Lei.

Jackson then brought pictures of four different heads to two of King’s children, who chose Lei’s as the best of the group.

“The response was the first one,” King III said. “I informed them that this was the one that had generated all that controversy about their father looking confrontational. Martin said, ‘Well if my father was not confrontational, given what he was facing at the time, what else could he be?’”

Ed Dwight, a sculptor who’d been on the project earlier, said that he thought that Lei Yixin would help him, but not that he would be doing the job by himself.   Dwight claims that King would be insulted to hear that a sculptor from a Communist country would be working on his likeness.

“Dr. King would be turning over in his grave if he knew,” Dwight said. “He would rise up from his grave and walk into their offices and go, ‘How dare you?’”

There are also some who would argue that Dr. King, a man who fought for the rights of American workers, might be concerned about the exclusion of black and white American workers on the project.  Bringing Chinese workers across the world to work on a King memorial is an interesting reminder of corporate globalization that is taking place in America today.  Throughout the economic recovery, American workers have been the least to benefit, while the wealthy and corporations have done quite well.  Part of the reason for this division is due to the fact that wages are kept low by using workers overseas.

Gil-Scott Heron Gone But Never Forgotten.

Posted by Disrael on

Gil Scott...View ImageView Full Size Image

Gil-Scott Heron died last week.  The news said, “He had a history of drug use.” One could not argue with that.   However, Gil-Scott Heron’s life was more than just his bout with substance abuse…. I remember hearing him say, “Like the forest they buried beneath the highway…..never had a chance to grow.”   This shook my mind, back in ’78!  How many of us ever stop to think that there is a forest buried underneath I-43.  Why do you think they have to keep patching up the cracks?  That forest is still fighting to break through and be what it was meant to be, just like a lot of our young people and shit some of us old heads as well. This was early in my young, Black life. Young people, I implore you to check this brother out, seriously.  If you dig thought-provoking, conscience-raising art, Hip-Hop, Rap or just like hearing true words spoken; consider also that some of his stuff is 40 years old.

In reality as Gil-Scott passes away with a 20 second sound byte, some of us would be wise to reflect on the fact that our day is getting closer.  What will they say about you when you are gone?  Did I do anything of value?  God knows the kids have given us some cause for concerns.  Did I create any beauty?  Will they even give you and your life a  second thought when you are gone ?Gil-Scott Heron, you did your part.  Job well done Blackman, Black Poet.    The revolution will not be televised or online.  Enjoy your well-deserved rest brother.  The struggle continues.

Who’s The Baby Daddy???

Posted by Shakara on

From blackvoices.com:

A new study shows that the rate of American women who have children with multiple fathers, also called “multiple-father family structure,” is “pervasive.”

According to the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1 in 5 American Moms has kids with different birth fathers.

And you probably already know what’s next.

Black Mothers lead the list: 59 percent of us have children with more than one father, while Hispanics come in second place at 35 percent and whites come in last at 22 percent.
According to the study’s author Cassandra Dorius, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, “[Mothers with multiple fathers for their children] are more likely to be underemployed, to have lower incomes and to be less educated.”

According to the study, families with multiple fathers are stressed out, with issues often arising about how to consistently raise a child in different households:

“Everyday decisions are more complex and family rules are more ambiguous,” Dorius says. “Families need to figure out who lives with whom and when, who pays for things like clothing, who is responsible for child support.”

The most unsettling theory about the high rate of children with different fathers is when the study considers what the outcome will be for the children involved:

“It’s possible that some of these kids will be multiply disadvantaged.”

Esteemed psychologist of the “Today Show” and resident psychologist of VH-1′s “Daddy Day Camp” Dr. Jeff Gardere, talked with BlackVoices.com about this issue:

“In the past, multiple fathers was more of a product of poverty and the ravages of racism in the black community. And we do know that it caused more conflict and confusion for the kids and a harder time for mom’s to manage.”

Unlike study author Dorius’ assessment, Dr. Gardere doesn’t see a bleak picture for the majority of children who are brought up in households with multiple fathers:

“Kids can still thrive psychologically when there has been more than one father in the lives of their families.”

To Dr. Gardere, this latest study actually exposes a positive development in society:

“I believe that instead of just seeing this as a deficit issue, I want to look at it from a strength base view point. It now seems this phenomenon may be based not just on poverty and racism, but more on the issues of lower marriage rates, higher divorce rates, less available men who are willing to totally commit and women who can either go it alone or manage the situation with multiple fathers.”

Honestly, I think we do ourselves — and our children — a disservice by trying to put a positive spin on these findings. It is no secret that many of our children are not only growing up with multiple fathers but without fathers.

And we see how far that has gotten us.

I think I can speak for most black women that no one plans to have children by different men. For many of these women, the children produced with different men occur in unplanned pregnancies.

Now sure, many will argue that black women definitely need to be more discerning about the men that they sleep with and use birth control — and they are right.

But it isn’t as though some black women haven’t been able to come up with this on their own. There are, albeit not as many, a number of black women, who I know personally, who refuse to have a child out of wedlock. Some of these women are still waiting to conceive deep in to their 40s with no suitor in sight.

So there is a problem.

And the other side of that problem is indeed some black men.

For some of those hardworking Mothers with different baby daddys, there is a major discrepancy between what they and their significant other want. I don’t know how many black men I’ve seen who will date the Mother of their children for years.

These men love their children and more often than not take care of their responsibilities, but when it comes to making the relationships they have with their women official, there’s a lot of backpedaling.

When I have asked jokingly (no pressure) when they are going to put a ring on their lady’s finger, they are quick to say that they aren’t the marrying type — too bad they didn’t realize that they also aren’t the father type.

And when said woman gets tired of waiting, she often breaks it off with her child’s father and starts the next relationship anew, hoping that this relationship will be the one that finally elevates her from “girlfriend” and “baby’s mama” to “wife.”

And for many, their day hasn’t come yet: the last wasted relationship is followed by yet another and another, and children are unfortunately created in between.

Black women need to shoulder their share of the responsibility about using birth control until a man has proven that he wants to be in a committed relationship (read: married). But there is an equally troubling issue with some black men: why are they comfortable “dating” their baby mama for 10 years and never making it official, causing many of these kids to be born out of wedlock?

This question — and so many others — needs answering.

We owe it to our children.

What do you all think about this??? Is it the man’s fault, woman’s fault, or both?

Looking Like A Fool With Ya Pants On The Ground…SAGGING!

Posted by Wonder Woman on

Looking Like A Fool With Ya Pants On The Ground…

Sagging and Pop Culture’s Effect On Our Community

 

First off you need to support Black Media in Milwaukee! We need to continue showing allegiance to our local talkers, local writers, local griots, and all those helping spread the word!! We need to support the advertisers and the shows 110%. If you don’t have radio access there is an app for that, a podcast, or RSS feed, anything. Show that you are listening and pass it along! Sometimes we may not agree with the person, but it is better to have a voice than dead air and space. We could have no information being passed to the masses at all!

That being said, Earl Ingram is one of my favorite talk show hosts. No we do not see eye to eye on several things, but this brother represents our community, he backs up his words with action and $$$, and he is a man of conviction, showing uncharacteristic leadership in the Milwaukee Black Media by exposing us to a buffet of varying Black voices that until his show, were once demonized by the typical Dem loving Black media that for so long ruled the airwaves.

End of Rant!

Yesterday on 1290 AM WMCS’s Earl Ingram “Evening Rush (3pm-6pm weekdays), Mr. Ingram presented an interesting topic along with Frederick Alexander Meade, a national commentator, syndicated writer, scholar, and socially conscious brother. The topic was about “Sagging” and Meade was going off! Sadly, WW had to work and could not hear it all, but I got to hear most of it and the topic was too good to let it die, so I offer this up as an extension to the subject: Sagging Pants!

For those unfamiliar:

“Sagging is a manner of wearing trousers (slacks, shorts, pants or jeans) below the waist, hanging below the waist area and therefore revealing much of the underwear. Sagging is predominantly a male fashion. Women wearing low-rise jeans to reveal their G-string underwear (the “whale tail”) is not generally considered sagging. (WW says: “the G-string should be included, but that is for another day”).”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagging_(fashion)

 

He was right on many of the points he brought up, it looks ridiculous and it is something we as a community need to address. This should not have to come down to laws, penalties, and fines. However we are not addressing it and it we are 30 years into the fashion “trend.”  A little Google search and one can find videos, websites and everything in between all dedicated to sagging pants. “Pants On The Ground”-An American Idol legend!! Even Brett Favre has his own version of this song! YIKES!!

Should there be laws to address what the community seemingly allows? Our silence is compliance! Meade suggested fines and possible jail time. Some callers commented that we have enough Black men in jail already without adding more of them into this never ending cycle that does not rehabilitate anyone. As for fines, who will pay them and how much should we fine offenders of fashion? Where would they get the money to pay fines and then do we want them having records that follow them the rest of their lives? How do we get people to see this is a sign of ignorance? Not to mention no one wants to see your underwear, especially not anywhere near my food!

Some say “sagging” is a fashion started by the jail population who cannot wear belts because they could be used as weapons or to commit suicide. However our rap stars continue this fashion faux pas to make them look cool and connected to the streets and our young people emulate the look, and so it seems the look will never end. Meade cited other reasons as well that should be considered for banning sagging. One of which is we need soldiers not idiots and that sagging pants can be harmful for your health, if I understood him correctly.

In several published reports sagging pants have been the cause of quite a few freak accidents and deaths. Not to mention news stories that detail people trying to get away from the scene of a crime but get caught because their sagging pants prevented them from getting away. Of course that is a good thing, but still why would you be so stupid? Why are sagging pants associated with negativity and with Blacks, especially Black men?

Some states and school districts already have laws/rules against “sagging.” The ACLU says that “sagging” laws would be challenged by their organization because they are profiling and racist. Are they? If we start down this slippery slope, where do we stop? Do we create laws about tats? What about those silly jackets with huge brand logos on them? Mohawks? God knows I didn’t like them in the 80’s and now I am looking at grown men with them? Have you seen Matt Barnes with that silly Mohawk? You are a Laker now, get rid of it!! Ron Artest got rid of his! (Sorry it’s playoff season had to sneak it in.)

It is bad enough parents are allowing this, but as a society where do we step in? MPS and other school districts already assume the roles formerly held by parents. They are parent, guardian, law enforcement, and now the fashion police? Don’t they have enough to deal with and is it really racist to ask our kings and queens to start dressing the part? Should we start enforcing uniform policies and/or have all out uniforms?

Just prior to the 2008 US Presidential Election, then-candidate Barack Obama appeared on MTV and stated that laws banning the practice of wearing low-slung pants that expose one’s underwear were “a waste of time”. However, he did follow that up with the statement: “Having said that, brothers should pull up their pants. You are walking by your mother, your grandmother, your underwear is showing. What’s wrong with that? Come on. Some people might not want to see your underwear. I’m one of them.”

So family, what do you think? Should we enact laws to curtail this fashion mistake? Should we continue to wait for parents to do their job and stop letting their kids out of the house with sagging pants? What about adults who wear sagging pants and the people who love them? After all this would not be a popular fashion if those of us in relationships with “saggers” stopped seeing this as a turn on and if we as a community started actively protesting this. How we do that without getting the “lovely feedback” that would follow? I have no clue. I have enough problems trying to get my oldest to keep his damn pants up. Publically, I give the look and then a comment, but unless we get it into their minds that no good can come from “sagging” they won’t stop. Even skinny jeans didn’t do the trick (Kanye wore “sagging” skinny jeans) and then we could start a whole other topic on skinny jeans, tight shirts, cleavage, G-strings, holes in your jeans, hair coloring, weaves, short-shorts, and right on down the line.

I think our young people are waiting for us to show up and lead them or guide them. They are tired of going it alone, or knowing that we are afraid of them and therefore allow them to do whatever they want. Time for the collective belt whooping! They need mentors and they need to see positive people doing positive things, dressed like professionals, acting like professionals. They also need us to stop bickering so much and see a community united. They need to see jobs with good managers and real families and all the things that lead to fashion trends and not fashion staples.

Yes that’s a lot to deal with but we must start somewhere. Pulling up your damn pants is a good place to start becoming “a beloved community” (St. Paul/MLK once called us to be) and begin taking back what is ours. Our youth would be phase one! Let’s not destroy another generation!!

Peace Family,

WW

Our goal is to create a beloved community and
this will require a qualitative change in our souls
as well as a quantitative change in our lives.
~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

 

“Earl Ingram Jr. & The Evening Rush”

http://www.earlingramjr.com

“Sagging”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagging_(fashion)

Droopy Pants Can Kill

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/nyregion/02nyc.html

Turning Earth Day Black!

Posted by Wonder Woman on

 

Turing Earth Day Black!

Environmental Injustices Affecting The Black Community and Earth Day

You think of Earth Day and you think of white folks planting trees and other such fluff. What you need to know is that African Americans, especially those of us in the highly populated areas of Mother Earth are the ones who need to be vigilant about Earth Day, every day!

What Is Earth Day?

Short version…April 22, 1970, Gaylord Nelson-Governor of Wisconsin declared Earth Day, a way to call the nation’s attention to the issues of Earth and our need to be better caretakers of it.

This year’s theme is “A Billion Acts of Green.”

Why?

“Black Americans are disproportionately exposed to environmental injustices and life-threatening pollutions and toxic hazards. These dangerous problems are local, statewide, regional, national and international. In Harlem, South Central Los Angeles, Southside Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, New Orleans, and in just about every other place in America where we reside, we find ourselves disproportionately with high rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases, multiple forms of cancer, and other sicknesses that are directly related to harmful exposure to environmental hazards in the air that we breathe, as well as in the water and food that we consume.”

 Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.

There are many reports that link the food we eat to the ever changing hormonal imbalance our young girls especially, are facing. PMS (Premenstrual Symptoms) or worse PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder), cause ongoing depression, anger and rage, difficulty concentrating, overeating, and fatigue to name a few. You may also notice that our young girls are bigger and “curvier” than ever before. How many times have you walked passed a young woman and noticed that she is built like a full grown woman? This has also been linked to the hormones found in our food and water supplies that can cause lifelong imbalances in all of us.

Think of all the toxins farm animals are injected with and that our fresh produce is really jacked up with hormones to make it bigger, grow faster, and be more appealing to the eye. We are poisoning ourselves while we think we are eating healthy. In fact some of our produce and bottled water is as cancer causing as a lit cigarette! We read about lead poisoning and our water supply and the connections to cancer every day!

We can’t even swim in Lake Michigan but yet we are exposed to its effects every day. As soon as it gets warm where do we all head? You really want to know what MMSD has swimming around in those “overflows” and sewage dumping that we keep side stepping?

What are we as a community doing to ward off some of the toxins we are exposed to especially in big metropolises like Milwaukee? Earth Day is OUR chance to remind the entire community about the need to be good stewards of our planet. It is not a white issue at all. It is definitely a black issue as well. It’s an “everybody” issue! We all need to work together to begin making our urban areas safer.

Another case-in-point for you:

“Did you know that many of the growing lists of so-called “learning disabilities” that affect too many of the children in the Black American community maybe environmentally related to exposures from lead poisoning and other toxic substances laced in many of our neighborhoods?”

 Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.

This is indeed scary! Is it any wonder why our kids are falling so far behind? If they live and breathe toxins every day and can’t focus, how can we expect anyone to teach them anything?

So How Do We Make Earth Day Black?

Taking Earth Day and making it Black must remain a priority issue for us. It does not have to be trivial, stupid, or a labor of wasted time. In fact families can use the time to do something useful and unifying like planting that tree or starting a garden, or cleaning up. When is the last time you saw a young person walking around your neighborhood with trash bags and gloves and repairing the damage some of their friends cause? How many people do we see littering all over the place but we keep on walking and think what a horrible person?

Do you talk to your kids or young people, or even talk to some of us “adults” about how we livin’? Does the inner city have to look like one big garbage can filled with trash and blight everywhere? Can we unite to call our mayor and aldermen to find grant money to spruce up that abandoned building we all know is sitting there, over a decade, with no promise of anything to come? Can we petition for a park or a place for us to begin gardening or co-ops? We have grants for everything else under the sun! We can use this day to teach our youth that they are not just responsible for themselves, but teach them that they are global citizens. What happens in Japan happens in our backyards too! This is a good time to build community and remind ourselves of our pledge to Kwanzaa the seven guiding principles that should be worked on every day of our lives.

If you are looking for event s in your area, please visit “earthday.org”

And let us not forget to send a shout out to Growing Power a nonprofit entity with an emphasis on this African American community which helps people grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable manner. They did just receive a major grant to help move them and us forward. We need to see more of this kind of “out of the box” thinking in this city!!

Please support them in this major undertaking!

http://www.growingpower.org/

More about African American Environmental Efforts Can Be Found Here:

The Grio

http://www.thegrio.com/specials/earth-day/

I leave you with some statistics to help us all understand the damage of Asthma because we all know someone with it. It is one of the largest infiltrators of the Milwaukee African American yet we have some power to change its destructive course if we start to focus on Earth Day and its immediate impacts on our community in particular. Over 3 million African Americans have Asthma and we are 3 times more likely to die from it. Asthma thrives in large part because of our quality of life, or lack thereof.

Peace Family,

WW

Asthma and African Americans

• In 2009, about 2,380,000 African Americans reported that they currently have asthma.

• African American women were 30% more likely to have asthma than non-Hispanic White women, from 2001-2003.

• In 2006, African Americans were three times more likely to die from asthma related causes than the White population.

• From 2003-2005, African American children had a death rate 7 times that of non-Hispanic White children.

• African Americans had asthma-related emergency room visits 4.5 times more often than Whites in 2004.

• Black children have a 260% higher emergency department visit rate, a 250% higher hospitalization rate, and a 500% higher death rate from asthma, as compared with White children.

• Children in poor families are more likely to ever have been diagnosed with asthma.

http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/templates/content.aspx?ID=6170

 

African Americans & Asthma

African Americans have the highest asthma prevalence of any racial/ethnic group. The current asthma prevalence rate among Blacks was 38 percent higher than that for Whites. African Americans account for 26 percent of the 4,200 deaths attributed to asthma in 2001. African Americans were three times more likely to die from asthma than Whites.

http://blackdoctor.org/content.aspx?counter=96

 

A Black American Earth Day

By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., NNPA Columnist

http://keyconversationsradio.com/?p=1888

 

Top 10 Environmental Issues Affecting Urban America

By Talia Whyte

http://www.thegrio.com/slideshow/the-top-ten-environmental-issues-affecting-america.php

 

Earth Day turns 40 this year, but many African-Americans have never seen environmentalism as a priority until recently. With Van Jones and Majora Carter becoming household names, green is now the new black. Here is a list of 10 environmental justice issues affecting the black community that should be given full attention by all Americans.

1. Air pollution

Air pollution is a serious problem in communities of color, as poor air quality can contribute to a host of health problems.

2. Industrial Sites and Illegal Waste Dumping

Most communities of color live near power plants, oil refineries or waste management facilities. Industrial waste that is not disposed of appropriately (or legally) can get into the water system and land used for housing and agriculture.. Improper waste dumping creates a host of health problems, ranging from asthma to lung cancer.

3. Mercury Exposure

Fish is an important source of animal proteins and other nutrients, but it can also contain a high percentage of mercury emissions generally from incinerators, coal-burning power plants and other industrial sites, which can have a devastating effect on people of color.

4. Water Safety

Water is considered a fundamental human right, but many communities of color lack safe drinking water, swim near waste-contaminated beaches and live near polluted flood waters.

5. Transit Justice

Public transit is used at a higher rate by more people of color and low income communities than whites.

6. Food deserts

Communities of color are more likely to live in “food deserts” — areas where communities lack access to supermarkets and other sources of affordable, nutritious foods necessary for maintaining a healthy diet. Food deserts play a major role in poor health and environmental degradation.

7. Urban Green Space

As more skyscrapers and industries find homes in urban areas, less green space becomes available, especially for communities of color.

8. Lead poisoning

Lead poisoning is possible the most damaging environmental injustice.

9. Climate Change and Basic Living

The growing climate change problem means that people of color and low income communities will soon have to pay more for basic necessities.

10. Heat in the City

Since most people of color live in inner cities, they are twice as likely to die in a heat wave, and suffer from more heat-related stress and illnesses.