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CONTENTS Page WORDS FROM THE PUBLISHER 2011 New Year’s Resolutions for the
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Black Community
FEATURED STORY OF THE MONTH Because We Destroyed Ourselves 4 OBAMATICS Is Obama A Trojan Horse? 5 BLACK PERSPECTIVE The Real Root Of The Destruction Of The Black Family In Culture
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LET US NEVER FORGET
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BLACK WALL STREET
REAL TALK
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Keep Away From Mr. Welfare Man
THE BLACK HOLOCAUST WILLIE LYNCH
OUR PERSPECTIVE
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8 OUR LEGACY BEFORE SLAVERY Queen Tiye (1415-1340 B.C.) 8 MIND, BODY & SOUL The Battle of the Heads 9 SINGLE INDEPENDENT SISTAH FARRAKHAN vs. OBAMA: War Over Libya
I’m Single, Independent, Oh Yea...And I Pay My Own Bills
EDUCATION
More African American Parents Choosing To Teach Their Own ...And This Is Why.
DEAR MS.BOE Mt. Rushmore
BLACK MAN, BLACK WOMAN
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Black Men, Stand Up, Claim Your Manhood!
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Save Your Communities!
QUESTION?
Would America Be The Same Without... Black People? Let Examine.
URBAN SOURCE BOOK REVIEW “Memoirs of Sangria Renee”
URBAN SOURCE TEEN ADVICE
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WORDS FROM THE PUBLISHER Myths That Destroy the Black Community
It would be an understatement to say the black community is in shambles and needs to be repaired. At this point, it needs to be rebuilt on a solid foundation rooted in celebratory and functional morals and values. We need a regained sense of self-love, pride and worth. That starts, first, with addressing the consequential myths that have misshapen the “black mentality.” It is time for much needed selfreflection. It is time to debunk these lies that are destroying our community:
1. Traditional family structure is unnecessary. Baby mamas and daddies living together or making cordial arrange-
ments to share child custody are commendable but far from ideal. Marriages are where babies should be created, not bogus relationships. People who love each other get married. And, you shouldn’t have a child with someone you don’t love. Family structure with a Mommy and Daddy is very necessary and greatly impacts the outlook and future actions of the child. 2. Speaking proper English is “acting white.” Why have we adopted broken English as our own? There is nothing to be admired about sounding ignorant. We live in America. So, speak English…properly. It is not cool when people can’t understand you. Plus, it projects the notion of stupidity. Stupid people have trouble being respected. 3. Reciting rap songs is more important than learning the ABCs. Black children struggle more than other races in school, mostly because they are ill-prepared. Parents (no matter how young) have to shift their focus to their children. When you have a child, it’s not about you anymore. It is about investing in their future. Part of that is education, like reciting the ABCs instead of Drake. 4. Black women are mean and bitter. Black men placing negative labels on black women have been detrimental to gender relations. If black men don’t love and respect their women, who will? When black men start treating black women like queens, they will start catering to them like kings. The best way to cure a mean and bitter woman is to cure her with kindness. 5. Light-skinned women are prettier. Colorism amongst black people, especially men, is an outward expression of self-loathing. How can a group of dark people not appreciate dark skin? It doesn’t make sense. An overwhelmingly strong preference for lighter skin plays a major role is gender conflicts. 6. Black men ain’t shit. All black men aren’t bad. We have to teach and show black boys they have promise beyond the bedroom, streets, entertainment and sports. 7. Counselors and psychologists are for crazy people. There is no shame in seeking professional help to mend broken relationships and work through mental issues, such as insecurity and low self-esteem. Every individual has a plight and few go through life free from hurt 8. Black men have big thangs. Sexual prowess is not a real sign of strength or masculinity. Our community is hyper-sexualized and needs to be more responsible in the area of sexuality. Sexual promiscuity exists in the absence of self-control and respect. When we begin to respect our bodies, black men and women will also gain more respect for one another 9. Slavery is the reason for our problems. It’s time to start learning from slavery and our past beyond it. Yes, we were set up to fail, but we were also given a free will. Our destinies are determined by our actions, regardless of the obstacles placed in front of us. 10. “I’m doin’ me.” Translation: I only care about making it for myself and mine. The result: The crabs in a barrel mentality. Other races come to America and succeed because of solidarity. They help and support one another. Black people have to do the same. 11. Cultural Identity(too trusting) There are a lot of images about black people in the media, more negative than positive. A lot of people take these images and accept them into their own lifestyle because that’s what they perceive to be the “norm.” Hell, you see people from other cultures trying to “act black” from the same images that black folks are trying to be more like. Seems like no one has a real identity in the first place if all they are doing is trying to be some “image” of what they are and not who they are. Time to learn your history before slavery! Our history didn’t start with slavery; it was erased/altered by it. But there are scholars who have taken the time to research, document, and present new information dispelling historical lies/myths about people of African decent.
THE URBAN SOURCE STAFF
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Where Was Everybody When..... Black Kids were being bullied?
GUEST CONTRIBUTING WRITER Isn’t Time For The Preacher Man..... To Get Serious About Black Economical Empowerment. Can I Get An Amen?
REAL SPORTS TALK
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13 Artis Stromas
Jalen Rose: The Poster Child For F#@$^K Up Black People
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Distribution Manager
Tina Clark Editor
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CEO & Publisher
Shericka Taylor
VP Graphic/Web Designer
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William Henry Sr. Staff Photograher
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Contributing Writer
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Jr. Graphic Designer Teen Contributing Writer
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FEATURED STORY Do We Destroy Ourselves? The Question Remains By: Staff Writer
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s our financial crisis deepens and the schisms between the haves and the have-nots continue to open, American drug laws and the prison system they’ve helped create are beginning to gather an increasingly harsh spotlight. But so what. It’s not like the War on Drugs, begun almost two generations ago in 1973, has done anything to increase the growing level of economic disparity in America… right? A lot happened in 1973. It was a few years after Nixon slammed the gold window shut, the waning hours of a decapitated Civil Rights movement, when the kindling of an energy crisis was beginning to pile up, and the year we began to disentangle ourselves from Vietnam. But it also marks the genesis of the War on Drugs, the year the Rockefeller Drug Laws were passed. And that same year something funny happened: the income gap between black and white began to widen back out, instead of closing – as it had been up until 1973. Did the start of the War on Drugs play a significant role in creating our present economic and social realities – where the average black family has eight-cents of wealth for every dollar owned by whites, and a black child is ninetimes more likely than a white child to have a parent in prison?1 As the Arab world is wracked by the spasms of popular violence brought on by their social and economic inequality, many Americans have begun to stop and consider the possibility that violent fissures in our own society may begin to open. Much has been made of the emerging upperclass in American society, but the reality is that with the average white family over tentimes as wealthy as the average black family – no economic disparity is starker than the one that correlates directly with race. We’ve certainly come a long way as a nation since Abolition, but the 4
horrible reality is that a black child who was born during slavery was more likely to be raised by both parents than a black child born during the twenty-first century. Is that just a coincidence, or is there demonstrable cause-and-effect at work? Are things bad enough to cause the Department of Justice to deliberately massage their own prison data, and effectively remove prisoners of mixed-race half-black half-white parentage from their statistics entirely.
The explaination is not that blacks simply use drugs at a higher rate than whites. If anything, studies have shown that whites, “particularly white youths, are more likely to engage in drug crime than people of color.” Surveys published by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse reported that compared to black students white students were seven times as likely to use cocaine, eight times as likely to use crack cocaine, seven
history of all past American drugs laws it quickly becomes apparent that there’s no way in hell drug-using veterans was the only impetus behind this wave of anti-drug legislation, and that Nixon was using soldiers’ addiction as opportunistic displacement. As one of Nixon’s top advisers wrote in his diary: “Nixon emphasized that you have to face the fact the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognises this while not appearing to.”
If you know anything about American drug laws, it shouldn’t surprise you that some 90% of those arrested under the Rockefeller Drug Laws in the first years after its passing were minorities. In fact, the impact of the War on Drugs has been so racially biased that the United States now has a greater percentage of its black population in prison than South Africa did at the height of Apartheid. Our penal system has grown so massive that the U.S. criminal justice system now employs more people than America’s two largest private employers, Wal-Mart and McDonald’s, combined.
times as likely to use heroine, and were a third more likely to have sold illegal drugs. Drug laws in America, after all, “have originally been based on racism… all of these laws are based on the belief that there is a class in society that can control themselves, and there is a class in society which cannot.”1 The popularly cited motivation for the War on Drugs is that it was a response to the growing numbers of military serviceman who were getting hooked on heroin and other narcotics while serving in the Vietnam War. Although that was a troublesome issue, when you know the
Following the Civil War the earliest anti-drug laws were passed in some states, banning the consumption of alcohol. But not, of course, for everyone. Whites could drink as much as they pleased – as well as use opiates and cocaine, but if you were a minority in much of antebellum America you were prohibited from imbibing or using any drug at all. At the time it was a widely held belief in American politics that some races, bless their brown souls, simply couldn’t control themselves. Furthering the codification of this perception, in 1901 Henry Cabot Lodge spearheaded a law in the
U.S. Senate banning the sale of liquor and now opiates as well to all “uncivilized races.” In this case, “uncivilized” was synonymous with “dark.” At this point in American history, whites could get as drunk, high, or smacked as they wanted – while the brownskinned members of American society were completely banned from consuming any intoxicant. Throughout the first half of the 20th Century, any violence carried out by a black man against a white could be attributed to the commonly-held caricature of a “cocaine-crazed negro.” Newspaper headlines screamed of coked-up black criminals who were SHOT BUT DON’T DIE!, and policemen claiming that WE NEED BIGGER BULLETS! because their current caliber wasn’t large enough to stop the crack-crazed negroes they routinely came up against in the line of duty. However blacks weren’t singled out as a racial minority, the first anti-marijuana laws targeted the wave of Mexican immigrants who were spreading across the American South. They were seen, then as now, to be stealing jobs and government resources from resident whites, and so politicians from that region of the country first banned marijuana use by minorities alone, and then eventually altogether Nixon’s public claim that the War on Drugs was primarily a response to the growing number of addicted veterans was at best a lie of omission. Taking into account past legal precedent, and the fact that American urban centers were being wracked by a series of seemingly unending race riots, it becomes self-evident that the War on Drugs was simply another page in the story of American anti-drug laws that has always been rooted in racism. Then in 1973, with Nixon desperately attempting to spin his way out of Watergate, New York Gov-
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OBAMATICS
Is Obama A Trojan Horse?
Wait A Minute...I Love My Black President Too, But... By: Staff Writer
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his is in no way to bash Obama I, like most of Black Americans were proud to have witnessed history when our first African American President was elected into office. We were all gloating with pride as we watched on our televisions the inauguration. I believe at that moment many of us felt as though we could breathe a sigh of relief that one of “us” was now in charge and changes were sure to come and I’m not referring to the highly overrated slogan “Yes we can change” which usually meant all of America, instead I believe that we felt changes were certainly going to happen in “our” communities. So here we are now in 2011 in the worst economic crisis in history and quite frankly as an African American I’m disappointed because our communities have gotten worse. Black America hasn’t changed for better, So now I have to question whether we’re being deceived. President Barack Obama, has managed to simultaneously both deeply insult and negate Black America, while courting what appears to be an increasing amount of white Americans.Many of these white Americans are in flagrant denial of their own color privilege and racism, and clearly grasp that Mr. Obama represents no substantive challenge to the
continuation of their aforementioned privilege and/or racism. Launching his US Presidential campaign from Springfield, Illinois, the home of former US President and cynical racist Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Obama apparently wishes us to believe that Abraham Lincoln was an emancipator of Black people in America. In fact, Mr. Lincoln was a Republican Party opportunist who did not emancipate Black slaves, but callously manipulated them. Indeed, as noted historian, Lerone Bennett, Jr., wrote concerning Abraham Lincoln, “Lincoln says slavery is wrong, but he also says he is opposed to giving Negroes social and political equality”. Thus, it becomes increasingly clear as to perhaps why some white Americans seemingly have such a cuddly comfort level with Mr. Obama’s candidacy. Further adding insult to injury, Mr. Obama apparently somehow did not find it important enough for him to be in attendance at ‘The State of the Black Union 2007′ nationally televised conference, recently held at Hampton University in Virginia. It would appear that at all costs, Mr. Obama must keep a “safe distance” from forthrightly, substantively, and undeniably identifying himself directly with Black people who are seriously committed to real versus superficial “social and political
equality” in America. At that nationally televised day-long event, Mr. Obama could have shared with Black America, and the nation as a whole, his substantive thoughts, plans, and ideas as to how he intends to address Black America’s pressing concerns, which ultimately affect the entire nation. Moreover, Barack Obama’s astounding absence from ‘The State of the Black Union 2007′ conference speaks volumes as to his defacto lack of commitment to Black America, something in which, no doubt, many white Americans find enormous comfort while being able hypocritically to embrace a “Black” person’s candidacy for US President. There are many in Black America who legitimately question Mr. Obama’s commitment to Black Americans, and who wonder if white America has at last attained its trojan horse, Black U.S. Presidential candidate in the person of Barack Obama. As Conrad Worrill, director of inner-city studies at Northeastern Illinois University, is quoted as saying in the Los Angeles Times, “The question is: Will this generation of new, college-trained beneficiaries of the Black political power movement in America fight for Black political interests?” One of the “beneficiaries of the Black political power movement in America” is the Harvard University trained, now US Presidential
candidate, Barack Obama. Had it not been for the ongoing collective struggle of Black Americans and indeed had there been no Frederick Douglass, no Harriet Tubman, no Mary McLeod Bethune, or no Rosa Parks and certain allies, it is doubtful that America’s racist, socalled anti-miscegnation laws would ever have allowed Barack Obama’s Kenyan father to marry the white American woman who became Barack Obama’s mother. Many
Black Americans have paid and are still paying a terribly high price for the benefits enjoyed by a relatively few “beneficiaries.” Mr. Obama could and should have learned some valuable lessons from the examples set by Black American US Presidential candidates who were his forerunners. Unlike Barack Obama;
Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton never sought to distance themselves from Black America, as did Mr. Obama, as demonstrated by his absence from the recent ‘State of
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BLACK PERSPECTIVE
The Real Root Of The Destruction Of The Black Family In Culture By: Staff Writer
“The closing of the Egyptian
temples by the order of Emperor Justinian in the fifth century (AD) anticipated and symbolized the “2000 seasons” of the attempt to destroy African civilization. In the name of “the only true religion” or “higher civilization” or “progress” century after century has witnessed the dismantling, deforming and defaming of African institutions, a necessary precondition for the more perfect exploitation of African peoples and resources. This perennial onslaught has been waged not only by foreign invaders but also by African converts to alien cultures. This attack has been intense and unremitting, both on the African continent and among those Africans of the diaspora who were dragged
into the Western Hemisphere. The campaigns waged by the colonial usurpers and slave masters against African people stand out as the most brutal wars of biological and cultural genocide ever conducted. This is the context in which we must understand the crisis of institution building among modern African peoples. The most critical African institution, the family, has been a special target in this unrelenting warfare.
of what is called “Western Civilization.”- Dr. Jacob H. Carruthers from Intellectual Warfare. The assault upon mother Africa,
The African family is the foundation of African culture and its destruction is the most passionate objective
her human and natural resources and the attempt to utterly destroy any vestiges of African culture has
been going on now for well over four thousand years. At first during antiquity, foreign invaders weren’t numerous enough to totally overrun the Nile Valley civilizations. They came as migrants, then as conquers who while they did rape and intermarry our African women weren’t able to make much of a phenotypical or cultural impact or seriously alter the African flavor of the Nile Valley civilizations. The vicious Romans who invaded the land and attempted to obliterate the ancient temples of the Mystery Schools and
pedagogical traditions weren’t able to make a dent racially. It wasn’t until zealous Arabs invaded and overran Kemet (Ancient Egypt) in 680 AD that the racial composition began to change from totally African to an admixture of Caucasian and African. In order to undermine the indigenous African culture the invaders attempted to destroy the spiritual, educational and social foundations wherever they went. The Romans, Arabs and later Eurasian and European invaders knew that to totally subjugate the African people they had to attack, discredit, mock and ultimately destroy the African cultural base by destroying the institutions that were the glue that held African societies together. The closing, sacking and defacing of the temples by the Romans, the desecration
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LET US NEVER FORGET
BLACK WALL STREET AND....
The Untold Story Of The Tulsa Oklahoma Riot By: Von
The
Black (Negro) Wall Street” was the name given to Greenwood Avenue of North Tulsa, Oklahoma during the early 1900’s. Because of strict segregation, Blacks were only allowed to shop, spend, and live in a 35 square block area called the Greenwood district. The “circulation of Black dollars” only in the Black community produced a tremendously prosperous Black business district that was admired and envied by the whole country. Oklahoma’s first AfricanAmerican settlers were Indian slaves of the so-called “Five Civilized Tribes”: Chickasaws, Choctaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles. These tribes were forced to leave the Southeastern United States and resettle in 6
Oklahoma in midwinter over the infamous “Trail of Tears.” After the Civil War, U.S.Indian treaties provided for slave liberation and land allotments ranging from 40-100 acres, which helps explain why over 6000 African-Americans lived in the Oklahoma territory by 1870. Oklahoma boasted of more AllBlack towns and communities than any
other
state in the land, and these communities opened their arms to freed slaves from all across the country. Remarkably, at one time, there were over 30 African-American newspapers
in Oklahoma. Tulsa began as an outpost of the Creek Indians and as late as 1910, Walter White of the NAACP, described Tulsa as “the dead and hopeless home of 18,182 souls.” Suddenly, oil was discovered and Tulsa rapidly grew into a thriving, bustling, enormously wealthy town of 73,000 by 1920 with bank deposits totaling over $65 million. However, Tulsa was a “tale of two cities isolated and insular”, one Black and one White. Tulsa was so racist and segregated that it was the only city in America that boasted of segregated telephone
booths. Since African Americans could neither live among Whites as equals nor patronize White businesses in Tulsa, Blacks had to develop a completely separate business district and community, which soon became prosperous and legendary. Black dollars invested in the Black community also produced self-pride, self-sufficiency, and self-determination. The business district, beginning at the intersection of Greenwood Avenue and Archer Street, became so successful and vibrant that Booker T. Washington during his visit bestowed the moniker: “Negro Wall Street.” By 1921, Tulsa’s African-American population of 11,000 had its own bus line, two high schools, one
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REAL TALK Keep Away From The Welfare Man It’s Time To Do For Yourself By: Staff Writer
There are many members of
the government that do not give a damn about how you feel. They don’t care if they insult you. They don’t care if some of you are hungry. They don’t care if you can’t find a job – you still need to give up your unemployment benefits. The majority of Republicans and tea partiers don’t care if you get a wage that can feed your family. According to them, you should have no right to bargain for a fair wage. Republicans continue to vote unanimously for tax cuts for big oil and other mega-corporations while voting to take away your current and future benefits. For many Republican politicians the time is now for the ultimate power grab at the expense of the
citizenry and the Republicans (and mega-corporations who are driving them) are taking full advantage of it. As we can see, the power grabbing Republicans are even turning on their own party members. If they don’t care about throwing their fellow Republicans under the bus, why should you think they care about you? With this backdrop, what exactly are we expecting the government to do for us as a people? Welfare is under attack. Social security is under attack. Medicare is under
attack. The ability to bargain for a fair wage is under attack. I’ve said it before and I will keep saying it – this is more class warfare than racial warfare. Will
the Democratic Party come to the rescue and save the day? Get real. The Republicans fight dirty
and they fight hard. They know that they have a very limited opportunity to pass their agenda before the next election cycle and they are taking every advantage of it. The Tea Party is constantly pushing them to do even more for the mega-corporation and the private sector. Wherever Republicans have power and control they are wielding it viciously. On the flip side, in the cities and states with democratic majorities nothing is being done. Many Democrats are not fighting dirty or fairly – they are not fighting at all.
The poor and the middle class must wake up and start fighting back. Protesting the corruption of the government is mandatory, but in addition people must acknowledge the corruption and start doing for self. The poor and middle class must learn the rules of the game and learn to win. The Black Man Survival Guide is committed to sharing everything we learn to help the common man live a good life for himself and his family. As a community project we need you to share your knowledge with us. The more we know and the more we share the better chance we have of being successful. The revolution is coming. Do you know what side you’re on?
THE BLACK HOLOCAUST
WILLIE LYNCH
The 300 Year Myth (1712-2012) By: Staff Writer
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he Willie Lynch Letter directly related to the behavior of African American’s across the United States. Ever wonder why “Black folk can’t get along”. African American’s have a skin complex among them. Have you ever heard “light skinned, yellow, red bone and bright” to describe a lighter shade of Blacks? If so, then ask yourself why? Willie Lynch is a profound piece of literature in the African American community. Afro-Centric communities study The Willie Lynch Letter trying to break its spell on the Black populist. Ironically, considerable amounts of African American’s are unfamiliar with The Willie Lynch letter. The mystery of Willie Lynch is hidden in the history of slavery. Slavery is the primary reason for this infamous letter. The content of the Willie Lynch Letter contains the most diabolical recipes known in brainwashing history. After reading it, you may have an understanding of why African
American’s struggle with trust of people of the same skin color. Ving Rhames starred in the underground movie hit The Animal. Ving Rhames’s movie character, the Animal, learned knowledge of self while incarcerated. The Animal heard the story of Willie Lynch. That story taught Animal why Black’s were killing each other with no respect for themselves. Who is Willie Lynch? Willie Lynch is not a person but a concept. The letter portrays Willie Lynch as slaveholder who created a technique that helped other slaveholders control slaves. The Lynch letter is symbolic of what really happen to Black’s mentality during slavery. It expresses the real process
that White slave owner perfected over several years of trial and error. The correct term used by Willie Lynch was “to break a nigger like a horse.” Yes, this is a serious letter! The Willie Lynch letter is the symbolic blueprint for the making of a slave! According to the letter, Willie Lynch stood on the banks of the James River and gave four key points that The black slave, after receiving this indoctrination, shall carry on and will become self-refueling and selfgenerating for hundreds of years, maybe thousands. The first key point was The breaking Process of the African Women. The black woman was the most important aspect of the process. Willie Lynch destroyed the male image to put the black women in a frozen state of mind. In this frozen mind
state, the black women would raise her son and daughter in reverse roles. Out of fear, the black mother will raise her son weak and dependent. She will raise her daughter to be strong and independent. This type of psychological warfare is rampant in the Black community today. Today, black woman outnumber the black men in education and employment. Black women wear the pants in many black households. The second key point is the black marriage. Willie lynch says, about black marriage, “We breed two black males with two black females. Then we take the black male away from them and keep them working. The one with the female offspring will teach her to be like herself, independent and negotiable. The one with the black male offspring, she being frozen subconscious fear for his life, will raise him mentally dependent but physically strong, in other words body over mind. Now
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OUR PERSPECTIVE
FARRAKHAN vs. OBAMA War Over Libya By:Dr. Boyce Watkins
To the surprise of some, the Minister Louis
Farrakhan recently went out of his way to oppose President Obama’s decision to impose a no-fly zone on Libya. This was a unique move for Farrakhan, who has remained relatively quiet about the Obama presidency until recently. But the Nation of Islam leader seems energized by Obama’s most recent activities, calling him the “first Jewish President” in response to the controversial choices our president has made in the Middle East. The bulk of Farrakhan’s statements about the Libyan invasion came during his visit to the historic radio station, WVON, which resides on the south side of Chicago. After appearing on YouTube, the video had nearly a half-million views, proving that there are hundreds of thousands of people across the U.S. who have an interest in what Farrakhan has to say. Most of the viewers of this video are probably black, which speaks to whether or not Farrakhan’s criticism of Obama will have any influence on the president’s support within the African-American community. WATCH ‘TODAY SHOW’ COVERAGE OF
OBAMA AND LIBYA: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy When analyzing the outcome of Farrakhan’s public attack on the president, we must divide the black community into segments. First, there are the highly progressive AfricanAmericans who remain upset about the president’s apparent lack of interest in black American problems. To date, the president has hardly uttered the words “African-American” in any cross-sectional public forum, and the administration seems to feel that there is no need for targeted socio-economic policy to deal with undeniable and devastating structural inequality in the economic, educational and criminal justice systems. So, while black people remain disproportionately unemployed, uneducated and incarcerated, many feel they lack a serious ally in the White House on any of these important issues. Secondly, there are those in the black community who could care less about a war happening thousands of miles away. President Obama could launch a nuclear warhead and these folks would still marvel
over how cute Barack, Michelle and their children look on the cover of Essence magazine. Black people in this segment are far more concerned with Michelle Obama’s upcoming speech at Spelman College than anything happening over in Libya. nally, there is a collection of Afrocentric, conscientious black Americans within and surrounding the Muslim community. This not only includes the Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, but all of those who respect them. While many black Americans do not vibe with Farrakhan on every single issue, he is still considered to be among the most thoughtprovoking, independent and persuasive black public figures in America. This group is highly influenced by Farrakhan’s perception of Obama and they are also deeply concerned about a U.S. president participating in the bombing of an African country. Farrakhan’s burning words about the president may turn into a bit of a black political virus for Obama. While Farrakhan’s reach only goes so far, his words about the president add to the growing list of highly vocal critics
of President Obama’s policies as they pertain to people of color around the world. T h e
hypnotic power of Farrakhan’s rhetoric, mixed with the passion in his voice, make for a message that simply cannot be ignored. Farrakhan’s words are also in alignment with millions of liberals across America who simply see the Libyan invasion as Iraq part II. The U.S. has little capacity to stomach yet another attack on a Middle Eastern country, and American citizens learned a long list of lessons from the bungled and devious decisions that led to our interventions in Iraq
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OUR LEGACY BEFORE SLAVERY
Queen Tiye (1415-1340 B.C.)
Behind Every King, Is A Strong Black Queen
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his celebrated Nubian queen was the beloved and honored wife of Amen-Hetep III , who was one of the world’s mightiest Pharaohs and conquerors.King Amen-Hetep III, had a very deep and unusual affection for Queen Tiye. In addition to the usual titles of a King’s wife, Tiye is described as “Royal” daughter and “Royal” sister, when she was neither the daughter or the sister of a king, but of parents who were not of royal lineage. The full queenly titles which Tiye held in common with the great heiress princesses of Egypt, were bestowed on her by Amen-Hetep III, and were honorary. Tiye became 8
her husband’s trusted adviser and confidant. Being wise, intelligent, strong, and fierce, she was able to gain the respect of foreign dignitaries. Foreign leaders were willing to deal directly through her. She continued to play an active role in foreign relations and was the first Egyptian queen to have her name recorded on official acts. By Amenhotep III, Tiye had at least six children. Amenhotep III lavished a good deal of attention on his wife. In his monumentbuilding craze, he devoted a number of shrines to Tiye, built a palace for her, and even went so far as to build a gigantic artificial lake for her. We know from her son’s correspondance with
Tushratta, the king of Mitanni, that Tiye wielded a good deal of political influence, as is often the case for women in matrilineal
societies (in which the line of descent goes through the women rather than the men). Tushratta advised the new Pharaoh Amenhotep IV: Teye, your mother, knows all the words that I spoke with your father. No one else knows them. You must ask Teye, your mother, about them so she can tell you. . . . And may my brother listen to nothing from anyone else. Wielding her power and taking charge at this juncture in the nation’s history, she used her political influence and astute decisions to maintain Egypt’s authority She averted key national crises by becoming Secretary of State when her husband’s physical and mental powers deteriorated with age; and redirected political decisions to her
attention when her son Akenhaton neglected his political duties while preoccupied with his religious innovation (named the Heretic King, Akenhaton was the first ruler in recorded history to believe in monotheism). In 1898, Victor Loret discovered a mummy of Amenhotep III. Alongside it was the mummy of an “Elder Lady”. The identification of the “Elder Lady” as Tiye, had found considerable support among scholars and was confirmed in February 2010 in a DNA project that also identified the body of Akhenaten. A lock of Tiye’s hair was found in a nest of miniature coffins in Tutankhamun’s tomb which is stated as belonging explicitly to Tiye.
MIND, BODY & SOUL
The Battle of the Heads Natural vs. Relaxed) By: Tina Clark
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hris Rock’s documentary “Good Hair” is to blame for this long feud currently taking place over YouTube. Two sistah’s fell out with each other in a 7eleven… over hair…that’s right hair… Supposedly one woman made a negative comment to another woman standing in line about her changing her natural twist to a relaxed bob…all hell broke loose and was recorded on a cellphone. These two women went back and forth exchanging insults over whose hair looked better, cleaner and more appealing. Within an hour the video had received over 300 views sparking other women to publically rant and degrade natural or permed hair. One woman recorded her rant for nearly 10 minutes saying; “These natural headed hoes get on my nerves they think cause
blackness and how they want to emulate the white woman. video after video… woman after woman (a few brotha’s commented as well) a n d insult after
they damn hair is nappy they better, bi**h ya’ll ain’t better than none of us… all ya’ll with natural hair shit, ya’ll hoes still eat chicken and pork ya’ll still wash ya’ll (bleep) with the same soap I use or do ya’ll bi**hes use organic soap”. Another woman who wore shoulder length locs ranted about how “ignorant” women with permed hair really are and ashamed to show their
insult the jest remains the same that black women with natural hair and black women with relaxed hair can’ t stand each other. First, allow me to say that I am
happily nappy for over six years now. I’ve done the perm, wig, weave hell I even shaved my hair off a couple of times. For me, being natural enhances MY personality, not that I’m “more black’ with my natural. I didn’t feel any “less black” with my weave, wig or shaven head. But no matter where I go, I’m always labeled “Afrocentric” or “deep” or here’s my favorite… ”you’re just so conscience” I’ve even had a few men refer to me as a “real sistah” So last year, I did my own study to see if people perceive you differently based on natural or textured hair…I straightened my hair and posted pictures of me before and after on two different websites asking how
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WRITERS WANTED!
For More Info Please E-mail Tina At: tinac@ urbansourcemagazine.com
SINGLE INDEPENDENT SISTAH
I’m Single, Independent, Oh Yea...And I Pay My Own Bills So Stop Hatin’ On Me! By: Staff Writer
Let me preface this by
saying, I’ve no problem with married people. I hate to sound cliché, but some of my best friends are married! However, it’d be easy for me to label all wed people as needy, dependent, insecure conformists who need marriage as a way to validate themselves as worthwhile
human beings. I could make assumptions about the character of husbands and wives based solely on their marital status, but that would be stupid. Right? Guess what’s equally as stupid?
people for whom the shoe fits, too. Fortunately for married people, society just assumes that they entered into the union because they fell in love. Unfortunately for single people, it seems nearly impossible for the general public to believe that an unattached person could be perfectly pleasant and of good character. Instead, we must be majorily flawed.
This recent article in The Huffington Post attacking single people, described us all as selfish, dishonest and shallow, among other things. I’m not going to pretend there aren’t some unattached people who Is it so hard to fathom that fall into these categories, but maybe a SIS just hasn’t met her I’m sure there are some married match yet? Is it so difficult to
wrap one’s mind around the fact that some folks don’t want to be married? Is it beyond the realm of reason that marriage might be an option for some and not a life requirement? Is “you’re a bitch” really the only plausible explanation, as the article’s author suggests? I think not. I have at least one friend who believes in aliens. From what I can tell, it’s easier for the masses to believe in Alf than it is for them to accept that it might take
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9
EDUCATION
More African American Parents
Choosing To Teach Their Own...And This Is Why. By: Staff Writer
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well or better than their public school peers. For example, they typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests, according to the research institute. Blacks are home schooling for many of the same reasons whites do, Ray said.
hen most people think of homeschooling, they think rich celebs and White families. But figures from the National Home Education Research Institute show that more Black families are gaining in on the practice. In 2008, an estimated 220,000 Black children were homeschooled, compared to 84,000 in 1999. Black students make up nearly 15% of the estimated two million students who are homeschooled nationwide–more than any other minority group Once seen by many blacks as something only whites do, home schooling has steadily gained momentum in the black community in the past eight years and is expected to continue to grow, says home school experts. “Ten years ago, there were not that many people of color home schooling,” said Brian Ray, president of National
Home Education Research Institute in Salem, Ore. General dissatisfaction with public schools and increased awareness about home schooling are motivating blacks to change course, experts said. Concerns about children
missing associating with other students and the loss of a spouse’s income, however, keep many blacks who are interested in home schooling from taking the leap. Studies show that home-schooled students do just as
They want what they consider a safer learning environment or they want to teach their own values and beliefs. They also want to try different teaching approaches and build stronger family relationships. “Almost everybody knows in public schools, blacks are at the bottom of the totem pole,” Ray said. Joyce Burges, of Baker, La., and founder of the National Black Home Educators, said blacks, like everyone else, want a good education for their children, but they’re realizing that “we’ve been hoodwinked and bamboozled” by the
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Dear Ms. Boe,
Advice, Relationships & Marriage Tips Mt. Rushmore By: Bonita Saunders
I
am a 42 year old professional, nice looking African American Man. I’ve never been married and right now have no desire to marry anyone. The problem is that the women I’ve met recently all want to rush to get married. Now, I know what you’re thinking and you’re wrong. I do not have commitment issues, it’s just I really would like to take my time and find the right one for me. Why do so many Black women have such a difficult time understanding the concept of waiting? -Mt. Rushmore Okay Mt. Rushmore I’m gonna give it to you straight. With you being 42 years old, no ex-wife which means in lady terms “no drama, no spousal support” 10
you didn’t mention anything about children so again in lady terms that means “no child support payments, no late night phone calls from baby mama’s, no sharing you with
another woman” You’re attractive, well-spoken and you got a job....you are a goldmine that’s why these women are trying t o
snare you. I don’t believe that it’s so much of their inability to be patient and wait… hell; they just don’t want another woman, especially a White woman to get you. For us, it’s like seeing those pair of shoes that no one has…they may be expensive, they might even hurt our feet but we’re going to buy them anyway. I think that if you are upfront with the women initially about your desire to move slowly then most (not all) women will ease up on making you commit or at least not rush you in making decisions. YOUR ROMANCE GUIDE, DATING ADVICE, LOVE, REALATIONSHIP AND MARRIAGE TIPS. E-mail your questions in to Ms. Boe at: advice@urbansourcemagazine.com
BLACK MAN, BLACK WOMAN
Black Men, Stand Up, Claim Your Manhood! Save Your Communities! By: The Mr. RAA
H ello Brother’s ! I hope that you have been researching and
learning more about your families. The new year has been a bounty for many of us. I know that you have found out some amazing things about your family. Some of these things are good and some are bad, some are big and some little. Some are funny and some are embarrassing. I also know that the pride you have felt about your family has grown. I also know that the pride of your whole family has grown and there has even been a change in some of your kids’ attitudes. I hope that you have started to really see that the more you know about where you come from the more you can claim where you are. When you have a strong foundation it is easier to build and move into your future. A stronger family is in your future. A family strong enough to contribute to a strong community, to help build a strong nation! I know that you are starting to see
how important it is to do these exercises with your family. You can start to see how important it is to your family’s future. Go ahead, smile, you must be proud! Up untill now I have been speaking to all that would listen. I would like everyone to stay on board whether man or woman, there is strength in us building our solutions together. With all due respect I would like to speak with more emphasis to our men. Our women must continue to participate for the obvious reason that if it were not for our women we would not have made it to today. It is past time, however, for our men to reclaim what has been taken and become what they haven’t been for far too long. Men, it is time to start applying your new found knowledge to your life so that you can start to reclaim your rightful place. Your family’s pride in you will begin to grow. To our women, please continue to use this series as a guide to raising your sons. I can only imagine how scary it must be to start
raising real men again, instead of just teaching the lowly survival skills that we spoke of before. Men, it is time to take up your responsibility and lead. Even if you are trying to lead, I challenge you to better yourself as a leader, father, and husband. Take some time out of your day to think about two things. One, what it is to be a Black man. Think about what a Black man has become through the ages compared to what he should be and why. Which Black man do you prefer? Second, what is true freedom? Explore every sense and meaning of the word. Do you really want true self determination? Do you really want the responsibility, not only for yourself but for everyone that you will
become responsible for? Do you really want your manhood back? Think about it, do not play with this! You must be honest with yourself. Be man enough t o step out of the way if you must. Let another man in your family take the responsibility, you can still help out. Again, you must be honest. It is bigger than
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QUESTION? Would America Be The Same Without... Black People? Let Examine. By: Staff Writer
A very humorous and revealing story is told about a group of white people who were fed up
with African Americans, so they joined together and wished themselves away. They passed through a deep dark tunnel and emerged in sort of a twilight zone where there is an America without black people. At first these white people breathed a sigh of relief. At last, they say, no more crime, drugs, violence and welfare. All of the blacks have gone! Then suddenly, realty sets in. The “NEW AMERICA” is not America at all–only a barren land. There are very few crops that have flourished because the nation was built on a slave-supported system. There are no cities with tall skyscrapers because Alexander Mils, a black man, invented the elevator, and without it one finds great difficulty reaching high floors. There are few if any cars because Richard Spikes, a black man, invented the automatic gear shift, Joseph Gammell, also black, invented the Super Charge System for Internal Combustion Engines, and Garrett A. Morgan invented the traffic signals. Furthermore, one could not use the rapid transit system because its precursor was the electric trolley, which was invented by another black man, Elbert R.
Robinson. Even if there were streets on which cars and a rapid transit system could operate, they were cluttered with paper because an
African American, Charles Brooks, invented the street sweeper. There were few if any newspapers, magazines and books because John Love invented the pencil sharpener, William Purvis invented the fountain pen, Lee Burridge invented the Type Writing Machine and W. A.
Lovette invented the Advanced Printing Press. They were all, you guessed it, black. Even if Americans could write their letters, articles and
books, they would not have been transported by mail because William Barry invented the Postmarking and Canceling Machine, William Purvis invented the Hand Stamp and Phillip Downing invented the Letter Drop. The lawns were brown and wilted because Joseph Smith
invented the Lawn Sprinkler and John Burr the Lawn Mower. When they entered their homes, they found them to be poorly ventilated and poorly heated. You see, Frederick Jones invented the Air Conditioner and Alice Parker the Heating Furnace. Their homes were also dim. But of course, Lewis Latimer invented the Electric Lamp, Michael Harvey invented the Lantern and Granville T. Woods invented the Automatic Cut off Switch. Their homes were also filthy because Thomas W. Steward invented the Mop and Lloyd P. Ray, the Dust Pan. Their children met them at the doorbarefooted, shabby, motley and unkempt. But what could one expect? Jan E. Matzelinger invented the Shoe Lasting Machine, Walter Sammons invented the Comb, Sarah Boone invented the Ironing Board and George T. Samon invented the Clothes Dryer. Finally, they were resigned to at least have dinner amidst all of this turmoil. But here again, the food had spoiled because another black man, John Standard invented the refrigerator. Now, isn’t that something? What would this world be like without the contributions of Black folks?
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THE URBAN SOURCE BOOK REVIEW
“Memoirs of Sangria Renee” A Rose That Grew From Concrete
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By: Tina Clark
ou try to plant something in the concrete y’know what I mean...and if it grows and the rose pedals got all kinda scratches and marks on it, you not gonna say damn look at all the scratches and marks on the rose that grew from the concrete…you gone be like DAMN A ROSE GREW FROM THE CONCRETE same thing with me y’know I grew out of all this” - Tupac Shakur April is National Child Abuse Awareness Month. In honor, I decided to showcase my award winning autobiography “Memoirs of Sangria Renee” for this edition of The Urban Source. For the entire month of April all proceeds made from “Memoirs” will be donated to shelters nationwide that facilitate and support abused children. For the month of October all proceeds are given to shelters that house abused women and children in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness. Advocating against abuse is a personal fight for me.I am a survivor of child abuse and domestic violence. I, like so
many other victims of abuse learned how to conceal my bruises not only with make-up but with laughter, anger, work, sex, and frustration whatever the “fix” was to not make me hurt I tried it. “Memoirs of Sangria Renee” was never intended to become a book, I was simply tired of concealing so I just wrote all of the words that I wanted to say to the world that never listened to me. I wasn’t aware of how much pain I concealed until I bled, I cried until my eyes were swollen tender. Child abuse is one of those subjects that often goes ignored until we watch the evening news and hear of some misfortune shaking our heads...”it’s a damn shame” we’ve all said it... I’ll catch people staring at me in amazement once they’ve heard of some of the things that I’ve endured as a child. I think that it’s a misconception that if you were abused then you’re not
supposed to be “normal”… or even happy…. I always hear things like “Girl…I never knew, you don’t look like you’ve been through that” I always wanted to ask….what does a survivor of abuse look like….am I supposed to wear bruises like an emblem. Or maybe discuss meetings that I’ve had with my psychiatrist because of course “I’m messed up”. Through this book I’ve gained the confidence to stand amongst not only my peers but also teenage girls and host seminars on abuse…and usually to make everything go smoothly and everyone confortable I’ll share my own personal story… I’ll watch as eyes
bulge while telling them how I was molested and sodomized repeatedly before I was ten, or how I can count on both of my hands the number of times that I was raped before I even graduated high school. I’ll share with them the horror that I went through in one of the foster homes where I was placed as a child. And yes even me, a black girl from the mid-west suffered from anorexia weighing only 84lbs at 16years old. It’s difficult for me to watch certain movies and not have flashbacks of my life…My children have to sit through hours of hearing me cry while comparing my life to the stories of most Tyler Perry characters…But somewhere along my journey I found strength….and I stopped crying so much….now don’t get me wrong, I still can’t watch Sapphire’s “Precious” without Kleenex and yes, I identify with just about all of the women in Ntozake’s For Colored Girls but I’ve gained the courage to help heal through words and by helping others like myself. Book Excerpt; He leaned so close that I could smell the whiskey on his breath, till this day I
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MUSIC REVIEW URBAN SOURCE TEEN ADVICE
Where Was Everybody When..... Black Kids were being bullied? By: Dr. Boyce Watkins
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olding its first ever antibullying conference last week, we found the White House quite concerned with bullying as a public health issue. Without doubt, the initiative is impressive – far too many children are left with nowhere to turn when cats with bad intentions follow them home, either to incessantly poke fun or to swipe their lunch money … or worse. Most of us will agree that it’s about time adults got involved. I recall being chased by an older kid on my way home from kindergarten every day. The boy was eight years old which made him appear massive in the eyes of frightened five-year old. Back then, the President of the United States wasn’t going to protect you, you had to protect yourself. So, 12
I did what any reasonable five-year old might consider doing in that situation: I put a brick upside his head. Needless to say, the bullying problem ended right then, for I had personally reclaimed domination over that relationship. But, what’s more compelling about this sudden national preoccupation with bullying is that I wasn’t the only black kid in America being bullied. Nor were (or still are) many of the people reading this column. Unfortunately, my situation sometimes seemed like the norm rather than the exception. And what I went through was not nearly as threatening as what children in urban communities across America faced. In places like South Central Los Angeles, the bully might have had an AK-47 in his possession, threatening to murder you and your entire family. Quite a few bullied kids in urban centers knew there
was a strong possibility they might not make it to graduation after being a victim of homicide. In fact, many of them died at the hands of a bully. I’d be remiss not to ask, where was the President then? As with many other relevant political issues, bullying suddenly becomes important (in terms of media attention) when , it begins affecting suburban white kids on an unprecedented or once underreported scale. When the Columbine school shooting occurred in 1999, national awareness suddenly heightened. Had this happened in an urban school, one can’t help but wonder if it would have been considered among the many hazards of being poor and black. This year, the media was met with an onslaught of stories about lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender students being bullied. The bullying, in some cases, led
GUEST CONTRIBUTING WRITER
It’s Time For The Black Church.....
To Get Serious About Black Economical Empowerment. Can I Get An Amen? By: Mark Allen
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any Black businesses were built and maintained in the ’60s and ’70s because Black churches systematically pointed their members to the Black businesses. That effort directed dollars that built Black banks, grocery stores and generated Black employment within the community. We desperately need that type of effort again, which would lead to people not having to seek illegal ways of making money. How can we say we are learning the concept of “feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and looking out for the least of these” yet allow our dollars to build up other communities than our own? It makes no sense for so many other ethnic groups to own so many businesses in our community that clearly we have the talent to own ourselves. For instance, a beauty supply store could not survive in the Black community without Black women’s patronage. So why don’t more Blacks own and operate them and keep the jobs and money in our community?
mart that has nothing in it but Black businesses? We’ve got Black developers who can build it and Black banks that can finance it. We’ve got Black-owned and oriented radio stations that could promote us spending our money there. We’ve got Black churches with radio and television broadcasts that can also incorporate messages about keeping in our communities that which would keep our people working. And we have thousands of Black people w h o attend
church every Sunday who could be told to spend their money there. We have the buying power to make this happen if we just made up our minds to do it, and the Black church is key. The U.S. Census says that for every one billion dollars spent, up to 50,000 jobs can be created. So, if we collectively made up our minds to redirect just $1 billion into our community, then 50,000 of our people could have jobs. Let’s do it. Aren’t we tired of watching people selling drugs when they could be making money working in Black-owned businesses in our community? Aren’t we tired of watching our people going to jail for robbing people of their money that they have legitimately earned? We did it before to build a generation of Black businesses in the 60s and 70s, so why can’t we do it now? We have thousands of lives to save, and we can do it with the money that we are currently spending. Let’s make a “conscious effort” to make it happen.
We buy gas, but don’t own and manage gas stations. Why not open a Black business
REAL SPORTS TALK
Jalen Rose:
The Poster Child For F#@$^K Up Black People By: Von
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t’s always interesting to hear black athletes speak because nine times out of ten something IGNORANT comes flying out. Jalen Rose, who participated in the “Fab 5″ documentary that aired on ESPN on Sunday made the following comments about fellow NBA player, Grant Hill… “Schools like Duke didn’t recruit players like me,” Rose proclaims. “I felt that they only recruited black players that were Uncle Toms.… I was jealous of Grant Hill. He came from a great black family. Congratulations. Your mom went to college and was roommates with Hillary Clinton. Your dad played in the NFL as a very wellspoken and successful man. I was upset and bitter that my mom had to bust her hump for 20-plus years. I was bitter that I had a
professional athlete that was my father that I didn’t know. I resented that, moreso than I resented him. I looked at it as they are who the world accepts and we are who the world hates.” Here is what I gathered from Jalen R o s e ’s comments: Duke didn’t recruit players like him (i.e., those that subscribed to hip hop/thug culture) because Duke was smart enough to recognize a liability when they saw one. Instead Duke recruited black players like Grant Hill, who was not only
a force on the basketball court but came from a well-to-do BLACK family that taught him values that would make him an ideal role model for kids and Duke’s fan base. Because of all this, and because of Jalen Rose’s feelings about his deadbeat, SUCCESSFUL, well-to-do, athletic father, Jimmy Walker , who never met his son let alone tried to provide for him, Grant Hill is a bitch! Jalen Rose tried to save face after his comments went viral. He is going around saying this is the way he felt back in the day
(as in past tense). Grant Hill, not one to sit down and take this nonsense, wrote an open letter to the NY Times…. I am a fan, friend and longtime competitor of the Fab Five. I have competed against Jalen Rose and Chris Webber since the age of 13. At Michigan, the Fab Five represented a cultural phenomenon that impacted the country in a permanent and positive way. The very idea of the Fab Five elicited pride and promise in much the same way the Georgetown teams did in the mid-1980s when I was in high school and idolized them. Their journey from youthful icons to successful men today is a road map for so many young, black men (and
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hospital, two newspapers, two theaters, three drug stores, four hotels, a public library, and thirteen churches. In addition, there were over 150 two and three story brick commercial buildings that housed clothing and grocery stores, cafes, rooming houses, nightclubs, and a large number of professional offices including doctors, lawyers, and dentists. Tulsa’s progressive African American community boasted some of the city’s most elegant brick homes, well furnished with china, fine linens, beautiful furniture, and grand pianos. Mary Elizabeth Parrish from Rochester, New York wrote: “In the residential section there were homes of beauty and splendor which would please the most critical eye.” Well known African American personalities often visited the Greenwood district including: educators Mary McCloud Bethune and W.E.B. DuBois, scientist George Washington Carver, opera singer Marian Anderson, blues singer Dinah Washington, and noted Chicago chemist Percy Julian.
Black Wall Street continued.....
Blacks in Durham was three times higher than the White rate. As of 1926, 64% of all African Americans in Durham died before the age of 40. These perilous working and living conditions were not present in Tulsa.
Burning Black Wall Street On May 31, 1921, the successful Black Greenwood district was completely destroyed by one of the worse race riots in U.S. history. A 19 year old Black male accidentally stumbled on a jerky elevator and bumped the 17-year-old White elevator operator who screamed. The frightened young fellow was seen running from the
churches. Any Black resisters were shot and thrown into the fires. When the National Guard arrived, they assisted the others by arresting all Black men, women, and children, and herding them into detention centers at the Baseball Park and Convention Hall. As many as 4,000 Blacks were held under armed guard in detention. Dr. Arthur C. Jackson, a nationally renowned surgeon and called by the Mayo brothers (of Mayo Clinic fame) “the most able Negro surgeon in America”, was shot at the Convention Hall and allowed to bleed to death. The “Chicago Tribute” Newspaper reported that Whites also used private airplanes to drop kerosene and dynamite on Black
T.P. Scott wrote in “Negro City Directory”: “Early African American business leaders in Tulsa patterned the development of Tulsa’s thriving Greenwood district after the successful African American entrepreneurial activity in Durham, North Carolina.” After the Civil War, former slaves moved to Durham from the neighboring farmlands and found employment in tobacco processing plants. By 1900, a large Black middle class had developed which began businesses that soon grew into phenomenally successful corporations, especially North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. Charles Clinton Spaulding was so successful with the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company that he was able to create a real estate company, a textile and hosiery mill, and the “Durham Negro Observer” newspaper. Durham Blacks also created a hospital, Mechanics and Farmers Bank (1908), North Carolina Training College (1910), Banker’s Fire Insurance Company (1920), and the National Negro Finance Company (1922). However, living conditions in Durham were so substandard and working conditions so poor that the 1920 mortality rate among
elevator by a group of Whites and by late afternoon the “Tulsa Tribune” reported that the girl had been raped. Despite the girl’s denial of any wrongdoing, the boy was arrested and a large mob of 2000 White men came to the jail to lynch the prisoner. About 75 armed African Americans came to the jail to offer assistance to the sheriff to protect the prisoner. The sheriff not only refused the assistance but also deputized the White mob to disarm the Blacks. With a defenseless Black community before them, the White mob advanced to the Greenwood district where they first looted and then burned all Black businesses, homes, and
homes. By the next morning the entire Greenwood district was reduced to ashes and not one White was even accused of any wrongdoing, much less arrested. The race riot of Tulsa, Oklahoma was not an isolated event in American history. On May 28, 1917 a White mob in East St. Louis, Illinois of over l3,000, ravaged African American stores, homes, and churches. Eyewitnesses reported that over 100 Blacks were gunned down as they left their burning homes including a small Black child who was shot and thrown back into the burning building to die. Seven white police officers charged with murder by the Illinois Attorney General
were collectively fined $150. During the “Red Summer” of 1919, over 25 race riots were recorded (white mobs attacking black neighborhoods). In the 1919 race riot at Elaine, Arkansas, White mobs killed over 200 African Americans and burned their homes and businesses. Federal troops arrested hundreds of Blacks trying to protect their possessions and forcibly held them in basements of the city’s public schools. Twelve Blacks were indicted (no Whites) and convicted of inciting violence and sentenced to die. The NAACP persuaded the U.S. Supreme Count for the first time in history to reverse a racially biased southern court. Director John Singleton exposed the horror of the Rosewood, Florida massacre of 1922 in his film entitled “Rosewood”. A White mob burned down the entire town and tried to kill all of its Black inhabitants. In April 1994, the Florida legislature passed the “Rosewood Bill”, which awarded $150,000 to each of the riot’s nine eligible Black survivors. After the Tulsa riot, the White inhabitants tried to buy the Black property and force Black people out of town. No Tulsa bank or lending institution would make loans in the riot-marred Greenwood district, and the city refused all outside assistance. However, racial pride and self-determination would not permit the Greenwood owners to sell, and they doggedly spend the entire winter in tents donated by the American Red Cross. Rebuilding was a testament to the courage and stamina of Tulsa’s pioneers in their struggle for freedom. Most of the buildings along the first block of Greenwood Avenue were rebuilt within one year. Henry Whitlow wrote: “A little over a decade after the riot, everything was more prosperous than before.” In 1926, W. E. B. DuBois visited Tulsa and wrote: “Black Tulsa is a happy city. It has new clothes. It is young and gay and strong. Five little years ago, fire and blood and robbery leveled it to the ground. Scars are there, but the city is impudent and noisy. It believes in itself. Thank God for the grit of Black Tulsa.” Like Black Tulsa, African Americans can continue to survive by self-pride, self-help, and self-determination.
Memoirs Of Sangria Renee continued..... remember screaming for help I’m just uncertain if any sound ever left my mouth he grabbed my tiny hands shoving them down his jeans his hands felt like needles while he slipped my dress from over my shoulders fondling my budding breast between his massive fingers. I heard myself whimpering like a wounded puppy then I heard the sound of my mother’s car door slam he scrambled around my room trying to act “normal” he met my mother at the door to help her unload the brown paper bags of groceries that she was bringing in. I heard their lips smack together as she quickly began to apologize for being late. She said that she needed to stop by the store I sat in the corner of my bedroom with my knees pulled tightly into my chest. Everyday this man would fondle me until he decided that he needed more than just to touch my skin it was then that I learned the power of hurt adults can endure on a child especially a female child. I only wanted a family, I wanted a father, I wanted to be someone’s daughter but instead I became a statue of pornographic molestations I then taught myself how to become numb I gave up the desire to be loved I just wanted to survive. About the Author; Tina Clark was born Sangria Renee’ Cooper from Kansas City, Missouri. She studied Journalism, Dance and Fashion Design at Paseo Academy Performing Arts Receiving her B.S in Psychology from UMKC. Her debut autobiography “Memoirs of Sangria Renee” was awarded 2008 Best New Author and has been featured in several publications including Todays Black Woman. Tina has appeared on Showtime at the Apollo and debuted in several stage plays for the Black Theater Troup. She has received recognition from the NAACP for her community contributions.
14
More Blacks Choosing To Teach Their Own Children continued..... public school system. Many blacks are pulling their children out of public school because they see quality and equality diminishing, she said. Burges began home schooling her five children 20 years ago when the practice was still fairly new. Her son’s grade point average had slipped slightly below a B. Instead of working to help him improve his grades, the public school he attended offered Burges two options: hold him back or take him to another school, she said. “I said, ‘No way am I going to allow you to do this type of damage to my child,’ ” Burges said. “I yanked him out and didn’t know what I was going to do.” A friend suggested home schooling and helped her get started. At the time, she did not know any blacks who were home schooling, she said. When she started her nonprofit organization in 2000, she said she received thousands of calls from black parents wanting information. For years, many blacks knew little about home schooling or thought it was an alternative only for elite white people, she said. Peer pressure also might have kept many blacks away from trying something different, Ray said. In the black community, there’s always been a strong advocacy for public schools. Many blacks see them as a good route to leveling the playing field for everybody, he said. Burges’ organization has grown to 3,000
members. It provides families with support and curriculum materials and also holds an annual conference. “Nowadays, everybody knows somebody who’s educating at home,” Burges said. Some African-American home school families have come under fire for abandoning the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. However, these homeschoolers realize hard won court decisions like Brown vs. Board of Education didn’t solve our problems. Public schools remain largely segregated and the government has not lived up to its promise to provide a quality education for our children. Although some public school advocates argue that removing good students will weaken the schools for those who can’t leave, the truth is – schools have had great students in their classrooms for years, yet the system continues to fail many children. Instead of participating in lottery systems that promise to place a few students in “good schools” while leaving many to languish in a sub par environment, parents can provide their children with a high-quality education in the nurturing, supportive environment of the home. Black homeschoolers still support the long-held belief that education is the key to success. We just think home is the best place, and parents are the best people, to provide that education.
Willie Lynch continued..... in a few years when these two offspring’s become fertile for early reproduction we will mate and breed them and continue the cycle.” Willie Lynch’s concept of marriage was primarily for the purpose of perpetual slavery and profit for the slave master. Once again, the other purpose was to eliminate the black male from the family unit. The third key point deals with possible interloping negatives. Good ole Willie figured that the system may break down due to a “phenomenon”. The mind will try to correct itself due to a natural strong drive to “re-correct”. The phenomenon is countered with breeding white blood and black’s to create an array of hues within the black population. The slave master would use the diversity of color to separate blacks. In other words, light skinned against dark skinned. Mulattos were more privileged in slavery and this often caused tension among Black’s. Division among gender and age was a profound way to create another schism in the Black psyche. You see this tactic used today by many Black’s. The Spike Lee’s movie School Daze displayed the hatred light and dark skinned express to each other. The last key point in the Willie Lynch letter is controlling language. To further the severance from black’s history, you must completely annihilate their mother tongue and replace it with a new language that involves their new life style. Willie Lynch says “Being a fool is one of the
basic ingredients of an incidents to the maintenance of the slavery system”. First of all, language is part of culture and self pride. When humans use other peoples language, it displays a dominance over another. Willie Lynch suggested that slave master’s should replace the language. For example, slave master’s would teach the slave bare the minimum words that relate to his job. If a slave learned the foreigner’s language, then they would no longer be a slave. Main reason why reading was prohibited during slavery. The irony is that many black’s today fail to read anything of importance and lack intense reading skills. While the Willie Lynch letter was written in contemporary times, it displays the precise techniques that were instilled in the black race in the New World during the time of slavery. Looking back at slavery, you see this inhumane practice imbedded deeply in Black’s to this day. The black on black crime, high incarceration rate, divorce and the problems with Black men and women relationships all have something to do with slavery. The sad part about this letter is that Willie said that if the techniques were done properly, it would work flawless for at least 300 years. The Lynch letter says it was written in 1712, which means that it would be 2012 before its expiration. When will Black’s break the spell and return to their rightful place in humanity. Only time will tell!
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The Real Root Of The Destruction Of The Black Family In Culture continued..... and marring of the pyramids and tombs by the Arabs and Europeans was their thrust to crush African institutions, symbols and supplant them with their political and cultural hegemony. If we are to recover our sanity, regain any sense of our authentic African selves and our cultural and political cohesiveness so we can mount an effective counter thrust to neutralize the Eurasians’ programs of menticide, genocide and culturally induced self-destruction we have to build our own self-perpetuating, values and lifestyle shaping institutions. It is one thing to theorize about black empowerment it is another to move consciously, deliberately and effectively towards selfempowerment and ultimately to the point we can effectively wage warfare against our enemies. How do we empower ourselves? First by thinking for ourselves. Energy and action follow thought. We must reclaim our minds and control how we think, what we think about, what we think is possible and what we desire to bring into reality. During an era of universal oppressive conformity, thinking for one’s self becomes an insurrectionist act! However not to assert our natural inclination to be free self-actualizing human beings during times like these, is an open invitation to annihilation. So once we think for ourselves and embrace our experiences meaning we stop trying to forget the rape, castration, torture and terrorism we have been subjected to at the hands of Arabs and Europeans and we come to the logical conclusion our enemies are not going to alter their behaviors we must decide how we want to live or die. Do we want to acquiesce to the psychologically destructive and genocidal programs of our enemies or do we want to fight? To fight we must pass our experiences, our knowledge, our visions, aspiration and goals on, we must re-enforce them, validate, promulgate and promote them. We can do that one on one and that can be effective.
However to reach a greater number of people we must begin to impact the larger community and our heirs by building social networks and institutions. We must fashion our own means to tell our story, using our own inner resources to create uncompromising African centered media, newspapers, electronic means such as amateur radios, Internet Web sites, films and videos. We must create our own schools and pedagogical methods to teach both adults and children they have a God given responsibility to resist the destruction AmeriKKKa has in store for them. We must formulate our own centers for spiritual rejuvenation that do not propagate imperialistic alien ideologies. We have a monumental task ahead of us. We have to love ourselves enough to believe we are worthy of life and being fully functioning human beings. This way of thinking is a radically liberating cognitive process which will engender empowerment on our part. However we can expect a heightened genocidal response from our enemies. We have to think for ourselves, work for ourselves, build for ourselves but live for ourselves, our ancestors and our progeny. We have to formulate ways to strengthen our families. We have to champion ways that promote, honor and support black marriages based upon social stability rather than the fickleness of infatuation, physical attraction, looks and materialism. We have to lock on to like minded black folks who grasp the need for and who are willing to establish co-operation, group solidarity and cohesion and sustained accomplishment to ensure African survival, empowerment, and revitalization. The types of institutions we create will be determined by our history, our current realities and what we need to do to restore our sanity, our will to thrive and ensure our ability to save the race. Never forget, that our enemies have their ongoing agenda for our demise. 15
Do We Destroy Ourselves continued..... ernor Nelson Rockefeller passed a set of laws that were soon mimicked by several other states and eventually the entire federal government. They were minimum sentencing laws for drug crimes that, partially because they included a fifteen-year prison term for possessing even a small amount of narcotics, were the harshest the country had ever seen. The per-capita prison population of the United States remained constant from 1930 to right around 1973, at which point the graph begins an exponential climb that grows steeper and steeper with every passing year. These counter-narcotics laws that, both by design and in practice, fueled an explosion in our prison population – a population which started disproportionately black – with 90% of those incarcerated under the Rockefeller laws either Latino or black – and only growing to become more so as the years passed. Between 1979 and 1990 blacks made up a steady percent of our overall population, but between those same years blacks went from making up 39% of our drug-related prison population to 53% of it.2 Today that number’s down to 51.2%. An improvement, but hardly. Through the 1980s this disparate growth was fueled by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, one of the hundreds of
crime bills passed by state and Congressional legislatures in the 1980s and 1990s. The AntiDrug Abuse Act imposed the first of the mandatory minimum sentencing laws, here fiveyears in prison without chance of parole for anyone caught selling a substantial-enough amount of heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana, or cocaine. This last drug, cocaine, had a unique provision. You’d receive the same unparolable five-year sentence for selling either 5 grams of crack cocaine as you would selling one-hundred times that much – 500 grams – of powder cocaine. Crack and powder cocaine are pharmacologically the exact same drug, there’re only two important differences. One is that crack cocaine is smoked while powder cocaine is snorted. The other is a bit more telling. Powder cocaine was mainly consumed by whites, whereas crack cocaine was the form of choice for innercity blacks. Critics, for good reason, blasted the law as shamelessly racist.America introduced a solution to civil disorder and social injustice that wasn’t novel, it’s simply grown to become unmatched in scale. By 2003, the percentage of our population in prison dwarfed England’s level, our international neighbor whose culture and mores are closest to ours.
I’m Single, Independent...And Pay My Own Bills continued..... some single people a bit longer to fall in love. However, instead of a little patience and acceptance from society, singles have to deal with prejudice. I’m obviously no MLK, but when people start targeting members of any specific group, it makes me wonder what exactly their problem is. Other than the fact that maybe the author had a deadline to meet, what would motivate her to take the time and write about how damaged single people are? Obviously, there are some issues there. Maybe the author is jealous of independent singles who aren’t desperate to wed. It’s possible she’s coming to terms with the fact that her third marriage has ended and is lashing out at the group her ex-husbands have chosen to join. There are endless explanations for her obvious hate. I don’t know, but unlike her, I’ll refrain from making too many judgments.
The Battle Of The Heads continued..... my hair style looks on me. The natural hair (the afro ponytail that I usually wear) received comments about how “spiritual” I look…one brotha even said that he prefers women with natural hair because “we’re more intelligent than women with relaxed hair)…his words not mine….. However the photo taken of me with straightened hair ( The Urban Source Editor Photo) comments were generally about how “attractive” I was or “sexy” it was always pertaining to a physical attribute nothing about my “spirituality” or my ”deepness” (whatever the hell that is). So I walked away gaining insight from my experiment that Black men perceive women with relaxed hair more feminine and desirable than a woman with natural hair. And those of us with natural hair are perceived to be more intellectual more authentic and more rooted to culture than a woman with relaxed hair. I mean think about it, 95% of commercials whether televised or in print advertise hair products for the long, silky, “white” texture hair even our very own. Black Entertainment Television Network shows the woman with shiny, relaxed bouncy hair. And of course when you think of a natural sistah most people visualize Pam Griers “Foxy Brown” character who undoubltly was sexy but she kicked ass and took names. So men percieve us (natural women) more aggressive, militant, dominating and of course the ultimate stigma “The Strong Black Woman” and not saying that we
aren’t most if not all of those characterists, but hell…very rarely does a natural woman get told that she’s beautiful, or sexy like the sistahs with the free flowing weave, or perm and Vice Versa when I did wear weave, perms or wigs I was rarely percieved upon glance as “conscience” So it’s no wonder why women with relaxed hair and women with natural hair can’t get along. And because of bias assumptions we’re now fighting each other in gas stations over whose hair is more acceptable. “instead of looking at the debate of natural vs. relaxed in regards to styling options, why not look at it in regards to general health. I’ve been natural for over 10 years now. At first it was about not chemically altering my hair, but then it became about the actual chemicals that are used to alter the hair… many of which are carcinogens. Is it really worth exposing yourself to cancer and a host of other not healthy substances just to have straight hair? I’ve decided not. There’s nothing wrong with using heat every once and a while for a styling option, but to use a potentially deadly substance for a styling option women with relaxed hair are not the minority, and they DEFINITELY don’t receive the brunt of “nappy head” “bad hair” “beady bees” “you need a hot comb” jokes”- excerpt from youtube ranter on natural hair Whether you opt for natural or relaxed neither adds definition to your character It’s only hair.
OBAMA versus FARRAKHAN continued..... and Afghanistan. In other words, the public doesn’t trust the government, and they are especially skeptical of the Obama administration’s claim that the bombings are an international effort. As much as the administration may want to pretend that the Libyan struggle is part of a broader initiative, Americans fully understand that the United States is usually the one calling the shots.