MLK B-Day is more than a BLACK holiday!!!

Every year around this time I begin to ponder the accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I’m not questioning why we celebrate Dr. King’s birthday; however, why does McDonalds and the rest world view his birthday as a Black-American holiday instead of an American holiday?

Four years ago my mother, who is Caucasian, asked me if she should give her Black employee the day off on MLK Day. I couldn’t tell if she was joking or serious. I said, “Mom, its only right that she should get the day off.” But now that I look back on the question my mother asked, not only should her employee have taken that day off, my mom should have also. And she should observe all MLK holidays in the future.

Dr. King not only fought for Black rights, he fought for HUMAN rights. I find it very disturbing when the media makes MLK’s birthday a Black-focused holiday, when WHITE women have, in actuality, been the main beneficiary of the civil rights movement.

Affirmative action was passed by President John F. Kennedy to provide equality for minorities in an effort for them to have the same opportunities as their white counterparts; however, white women are considered “minorities” and took full advantage of the benefits. I am not suggesting that it was a problem to do so, although employers used affirmative action to hire more white women than any other minority under affirmative action, and I don’t think that was truly the intended purpose of the initiative.

If it wasn’t for the civil rights movement and Dr. King, we wouldn’t have women running Fortune 500 companies, women running for President of the United States, or a female Secretary of State. As I am writing this blog, I am beginning to recognize all the different kinds of people in America who have benefited from the civil rights era and the work of Dr. King. The Asian community has benefited, Caucasian women have benefited, Black- America has benefited, the Hispanic community, the Irish community, and the list goes on and on.

So, next time you see a McDonald’s ad commemorating the work of Dr. King, but only featuring black actors in the commercial, ask yourself why Black people are the focus when everyone else in America also benefited from Dr. Kings legacy.

I hurt again

I hurt again.

I’m hurt because again someone I loved, cared about, and that is my cousin was taken away from me.
I ‘m hurt because his mother, brother, uncle, father, grandmother, cousins are hurt.
I’m hurt because my friends saw the killing, and will remember for the rest of their lives my cousin fallen to his knees helpless as he is dying in my friends hands.
I’m hurt because my cousin became another victim on Black on Black violence.
I’m hurt because my cousin becomes a number, an unknown man in Berkeley get killed in San Rafel.
I’m hurt because our black men have nothing to live for when there aren’t a lot of opportunities for them when then get out of prison.
I’m hurt because too many black men are dying and 1.4 million black men have been in jail.
I’m hurt because when I heard the news of is death I couldn’t cry because I am so use to someone dying at home.
I’m hurt because I wish I was there to protect my cousin.
I’m hurt because I am crying as I am writing this letter
I’m hurt because I know this letter I am writing aren’t going to the people I want it to go to
I’m hurt for every single person who has lost a loved one.
I ‘m hurt because I know as a community we can uplift each other from the mental HIV/ AIDS disease that is killing each other
I’m hurt because someone took a friend, cousin, brother, son, grandson away form us.
I’m not worried because I know that God has great things in store for us, and I love him and I BELIEVE in him and I will never question his purpose in life.

PS, this is an open letter to are young black men who are killing each other. We are becoming extinct and we will never make a change if we don’t stop the killing!

One Black Queen is all I need!

For the past couple of weeks I have had several conversations with both Black American male and female friends about being in relationships. I have come to a conclusion that the majority of black men of today have become a disappointment to the black women and the Black race as a whole.

I know one might think that the comment I made above was harsh; however, the truth hurts and being a Black man myself, I feel its imperative to write this blog.

Several weeks ago, my friend Jennifer had this quote in her Gmail status: “Black men are playas and white men want to commit”. At first I was offended by the comment but then I began to think about all my Black male friends who are and were in relationships and none of them were faithful. Then I thought about my white male friends and they all were committed in their relationships. I am not at all implying that all white men are faithful, but the majority of white men are not afraid to commit.

For instance, I have a friend who just got married three months ago. I recently saw him at a nightclub with his wedding band on his key chain! I asked him where his ring was. He said, “On my key chain,” with a smile. All I could do was look and shake my head in shame. This is just one of several issues that I encounter when I talk with a lot of my friends about relationships. This issue is not that my friends are married, because God forbid that you catch black men wanting to be married; however, they have a main girlfriend with two or three other women on the side.

When I hear these stories of my friends being in a committed relationship but choosing to cheat, I ask them why they do it. They tell me: (1. They are too young to be committed (2. Their girl made them mad so they cheated (3. Their girl is the one they’re going to marry but they got to “get some” now before they put that ring on her finger (4. “I only got some head.”

When we as Black men cheat on the beautiful Black Queen that we are with it affects her more than anything we as men could imagine. If you look back almost 400 years ago, Black women were much more than just the backbone of the family – she was the leader of the family. Throughout slavery, black women would clean the master’s house, work in the fields, clean her own home lived, cook breakfast and dinner for the master and her family, get raped by her master, take care of the master’s children and her own children, and may have even gotten beaten by her husband because he was helpless and frustrated at being unable to provide for his family. Not only was the Black woman a provider, but also a fearless leader like Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, and Dorothy Height, just to name a few.

Not only did the Black women of the past lay a foundation for us, but the Black women of today are continuing to do the same. But as black men we decide to walk all over them, take advantage of them, choose not commit to them, disrespect them, lie to them. Black women are the ones that love us Black men, and we have to treat our Black women with the respect and love that they deserve.

Another trend with Black men is their lack of desire to get married. I have heard the same stories over and over again about Black men being with the same women for five years or more, but never proposing or even attempting to take the relationship to the next level. Their reasoning for this is “I’m not ready”, “I don’t want to be tied down”, “I love her, but I’m not ready for that next step.”

One might ask why the women don’t leave after a certain point, and may suggest that it’s her fault for staying with him for that long without a commitment anyway. Anyone can make pass judgment when they aren’t in that particular situation; however, we have to think about what’s going through that woman’s head. (1.She figures that one day he’s going to come around because she knows he loves her and he tells her that everyday (2. She feels that he treats her like a queen and she knows that there’s aren’t that many Black men out there that compare to him or (3. She doesn’t want to be alone so she will lower her standards in order to not be alone.

Furthermore, if your a Black woman, its hard to find that working Black man that you want when one out of 25 Black men between 20 - 29 will die, or that for every one Black man that attends a UC or State school in California five Black men go to prison, and the majority of Black men are in jail and the small percentage that actually have a good job or a college education are too busy being a playa and don’t have a desire to settle down.

Today Black men view Black women as more of an object than as a person. One reason for this stems from Black women being oversexualized in music videos and through other imagery in the media. This doesn’t provide an excuse for the way Black men treat Black women. Black men need to realize that what’s being depicted in videos doesn’t represent every Black woman and, even if it did, Black women still deserve respect, honesty, love, and commitment.

This is an open letter to my Black men to challenge them to respect our Black women, to cherish them, hold them, worship them, and most importantly, to love them

"Snitching In The Black Community"

Before writing this blog, I looked up the word “snitch” on dictionary.com. The definition that was given was “to turn informer”, (i.e., “He snitched on his comrades.”).
From the beginning of time, snitching has been looked down upon no matter where you’re from or who you are. However, in today’s media, snitching has been identified as an issue that’s unique to the black community. Numerous murders and other crimes remain unsolved as a result of the unwillingness of those who live in crime-ridden areas to cooperate with the police.
But, have the media and society forgotten about the reasons behind the lack of trust that exists between police officers and the black community? This lack of trust has existed for over 400 years. Blacks have been murdered and racially-profiled by police officers since slavery.
For instance, in the early morning hours of Nov. 25, 2006, Sean Bell, a 23-year-old New York City man due to be married later that day, walked out of a Queens strip club, got into a gray Nissan Altima with two friends who had been celebrating with him - and died in a hail of 50 bullets fired by a group of five police officers.
Another example of a police-perpetrated murder was the death of Amadou Diallo, an African immigrant, who was killed after police fired 41 shots at him in 1999. Both men were black and both were unarmed. In both cases, police officers claimed they believed the victim had a gun, but a gun was never found.
These are only two examples of what has been occurring in the black community for several hundreds of years. This volatile relationship between the police and the black community has lead to tragic deaths of young black men at the hands of police officers who use racial profiling to substantiate the belief that young black men are a threat to their lives and carelessly begin to shoot bullets into their innocent bodies.
So, the media and society are asking why black communities don’t believe in “snitching”, or providing information about crimes to the police. Why would a person who has information about a crime feel comfortable providing that information to the police when the police have, historically, racially profiled, murdered and harassed them and their neighbors?
The million dollar question is: Will there be protection for those who come forward and give police information about a murder or a crime? For instance, a little over a year ago, an elderly black woman in Baltimore, Maryland believed in cleaning up the violence and drug dealing that had taken over her community. To that end, she provided information about drug dealers to the Baltimore police. She was never able to see the fruits of her labor because her house was burned down – while she was in it – by thugs who were retaliating against her snitching.
I’m not advocating against snitching, but the relationship between police and the black community needs to improve significantly if society expects residents of crime-ridden communities to risk their lives without protection from the same officers who are killing them, their sons, and daughters.
The rap industry has recently been criticized because some rappers have been seen wearing “STOP Snitching” shirts. Rap songs now feature lyrics that threaten the lives of those who do snitch. Rappers like Cam’ron , 50 cent, and Jim Jones have made appearances on DVDs, threatening snitches, while wearing shirts that say “Stop Snitching” on the front and “I’ll Never Tell” on the back. Is this the message we want projected to our young black children growing up today?
Though I am a huge fan of rap, I am not a fan of those rappers who don’t support efforts to clean-up the violent, drug-riddled communities they have left behind. The conditions in these neighborhoods could be greatly improved by doing simple things like creating efficient neighborhood-watch programs, training police officers on how to communicate with different ethnic groups, and holding monthly town hall meetings where members of the community can meet with police officers and talk about their frustration and concerns about local police and their community.
Why has the media made it seem like the issue of snitching is unique to the black community? Has nostalgia caused us to forget about the times when Blacks were getting hanged, raped, murdered, and assaulted by whites? Even back then, nothing was done about these injustices because, supposedly, no one saw anything! Whites and blacks turned a blind eye because no one wanted to be considered a snitch! What about the numerous times during the civil rights movement when blacks were being killed by the dozens by KKK members and whites and blacks were told to keep their mouths shut -- or else. That is a historical example of an obvious “Stop Snitching” campaign.
Some might say, “That was during the civil rights movement. What about now?” A more contemporary example lies within police departments themselves. There are tons of police officers who abide by an unofficial code of secrecy that includes not “snitching” on each other. Have ABC, CNN, or CBS covered stories on police officers refusing to tell on each other because of the code that “police don’t tell on each other no matter the circumstances”? No.
Let’s also not forget about the undercover CIA officer whose cover was blown by someone from the Bush administration. For almost a year no one came forward to admit guilt. The “no snitching” code reached as far as the Bush administration! And Bush used his power to make sure his former right-hand man, Karl Rove, was exempt from testifying in front of the Judiciary committee about the incident.
As the media and society continue to criticize the Black community about not “snitching” let us take a deeper look at what’s going on around us before we single out one group of people who are guilty of abiding by this dangerous rule. This so-called “not snitching” code goes back for hundred and hundreds of years and has been perpetuated by various groups of people – black, white and other.

Black Violence

I’ve been contemplating about writing a blog about killings for a while now, but I never got the courage to do so until today. The majority of Black Americans have suffered a loss of a loved one or friend to a violent attack by a gun. The sad thing is the gun is only part of the problem; the person who is holding the gun is the other problem. From generation to generation Blacks have continued to kill each other over gang colors, turfs, respect, money, and girls (among other things).

On Sunday August 5, at 7:30 am EST, I got a call form a close friend back home in Oakland, California. I knew once I picked up the phone it would probably be bad news, but I wanted to stay positive so I picked up phone. “What’s up Patrick?” I said.
“They killed Khatari!” Patrick said.

At that point I didn’t have any emotions at all. I couldn’t cry. I couldn’t do anything but stare at the phone in disbelief that I had lost another friend to a violent ignorant gun attack.

Since I left home for college in 2000, I have lost a friend every year to senseless violence and it hurts. I ask myself everyday - when will this stop? When will young black men stop killing each other? This has become an epidemic within the black community and it needs to stop. WE can stop this epidemic through family involvement, community outreach, summer jobs for youth, after school programs, efficient rehab programs (i.e.,. prisoners make 30 cents per hour working for corporate companies in prison, but once they are released can’t get an efficient job to take care of their needs and their families) for juveniles and ex felons, etc. How is this possible?

Lack of family guidance has been a large part of the demise of the Black community. Before the Civil Rights era the black community believed in togetherness and community involvement. Post-Civil Rights, we saw the black community split. Everyone wanted the “American Dream” but forgot about each other and forgot about the principles we stood on.

It is imperative, now more than ever, that young parents act like parents and not like friends to their children. Young parents have to be more involved with their children’s education, become a part of their daily activities, talk about safe sex, talk to them about violence, tell them they are loved, and support them and their dreams.

I know this can be hard for a single parent with multiple jobs who is busy trying to stay above the poverty line in America, but that’s why it’s so important to have the community and family involvement. This epidemic of violence and murders will never be cured unless we start with the younger generation and help them out before they contract these violent diseases.

Society always says education is the key to a successful life. I believe that; however, if education isn’t equal across the board, how can we expect to succeed? According to the California education system, within the next 10 years more than one million students will qualify to attend a state university in California. Unfortunately, California does not have a place to put these prospective students, but they do have enough jails to lock them up. The Bush Administration has cut more than one billion dollars in student loans, which could have made it easier for a student who grew up in a lower-income family to attend college. New jobs created every month require a college degree and the majority of Blacks in America don’t have college degrees. If society can make a conscious effort and really make education a priority for every child no matter their social or economic background, we would see an increase of high school completion, college degrees, and less Blacks in the criminal system.

There are over two million people in prison in the United States. Half of those prisoners are Black Americans, which is amazing because Blacks are only around 13 percent of America’s total population. The problem with the prison system is the lack of rehabilitation programs that are offered for those who commit crimes. We need to especially look at the juvenile system and offer youth employment once a juvenile is released. Juvenile offenders should be taught a trade while in jail. There should also be job fairs for those juveniles who are going to be released within the month. The majority of those who are released from prisons or juvenile facilities tend to become repeat offenders because of the lack of opportunities available to them as a result of their criminal record. In addition to few job opportunities, if a person commits a crime, and that crime is a felony, that person has completely lost eligibility to receive financial aid for college

Nearly half the people murdered in the United States each year are black. This is part of a unrelenting pattern in which African Americans are disproportionately victimized by violent crime, according to a new Justice Department study released yesterday.

The study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics also found that from 2001 to 2005, more than nine out of 10 black murder victims were killed by other blacks, and three out of four were slain with a gun. Blacks, who make up 13 percent of the population, were victims in 15 percent of nonfatal violent crimes.
The new findings underline the enduring problem of crime that plagues many African American communities, even during a period when the incidence of violent crime dropped or held steady overall, according to criminologists and other experts.
In 2005, the study found, blacks were victims of an estimated 8,000 homicides and 805,000 other violent crimes, including rape and aggravated assault.
The study found that black males were more likely to be crime victims than black females; that black murder victims tended to be younger than white or Hispanic homicide victims; and that blacks in poor or urban households were more likely to be victimized than those in higher-income or rural areas.
Blacks were still more likely than whites, Hispanics or Asians to be victims of violent crime from 2001 to 2005. "American Indians were the only group that had rates higher than blacks," according to the study written by Justice Statistician Erika Harrell. We can solve a lot of these criminal problems in the black community by actually holding our elected officials responsible by advocating for efficient rehabilitation for those who are in juvenile facilities or in prison. Society thinks incarcerating someone will be their therapy or rehabilitation. This is a false assumption; however, if we can give inmates the opportunity to learn a trade, bring in former inmates who are successful upon their release to do motivational speaking, provide self-esteem coaches, present felons with the opportunity to attend college by assisting them financially (in America, if you have a felony offense on your record, you are not qualified for financial aid to attend college) and coordinate job fairs for those offenders who are reentering society, these offenders can truly be rehabilitated.

These additional programs are imperative in the prison system and, if instituted, I anticipate a decrease in repeat offenders, the national murder rate, and a decline in drug convictions. However, since the prison system in the United States is privatized and runs like a business, it will be difficult to create these programs since prisons want inmates to continue to commit crimes so they can continue to make money off their incarceration.

I do believe that “if you commit the crime, you should do the time”, but far too often there are loopholes in our system that causes Black Americans who can only afford a public defender to confess to crimes that they didn’t commit. Their best option is to accept probation for three to fours years, during which time he or she is more likely to fail since they are returning to the same environment without a job or any other opportunity to succeed.

Holding our elected officials accountable is another way to make sure our voices are heard. In California the correction facility PACs are the biggest contributors to candidates across the State of California. Former Governor Pete Wilson (R) wrote the bill Proposition 21; however, this bill wasn’t passed when Pete Wilson was in office but pushed and passed by former Governor Gray Davis (D) who received over 2 million dollars from correction facility PACs.

Proposition 21 was passed in 2000 and:
1.Transfers the authority to decide to try youth as adults away from judges to prosecutors in cases of youth as young as 16 accused of dozens of different offenses, and for youth as young as 14 for a smaller list of offenses.

2. Greatly restricts the current practice of sealing juvenile offense records for youth 12 or older, and expands conditions where police and courts can release the name of juvenile suspects. (In Denver, Colorado, eight of every 10 youth of color were in the gang database in 1992. Employers could call the police before hiring a youth to see if they were on the list.)

3. Requires that youth "admit guilt" before they can be allowed into drug rehab programs.

4. Requires that "gang members" convicted of crimes have up to three additional years added to their jail sentences, must register with the police for five years, provide the police with fingerprints, and with their new address each time they move.

5.Changes graffiti laws so that the amount of "damage" done by a graffiti writer that is considered a felony would be reduced from the current value of $50,000 to $400, turning almost any youth who tags a wall into a felon.

6. Extend the government's authority to wiretap youth, including where someone is suspected of possession of a controlled substance.

The problem with correctional facility PACs is that they give money to candidates to champion the cause of stringent laws like Proposition 21. Proposition 21 was funded by PG&E, Chervron, TransAmerica, Atlantic Richfield, San Diego Gas and Electric, and the Union Oil Company of California according to California Voter Foundation.

Furthermore, if we can examine what our elected officials are voting for and WE VOTE ourselves, we can make the decisions about how those who represent us vote. Though this was a long blog, I felt it was imperative to write on a variety of issues that are ongoing in the Black and Brown communities.