tees's Blog

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- The unlikely stars of Ice Cube's new video are the grieving relatives of a 17-year-old high school football star who was shot to death outside

The song "Why Me?" speaks out against senseless violence and gun crime devastating communities. Cube says Jamiel Shaw Jr.'s family is a powerful illustration of the pain that lingers after a murder. "It just was a tragic, tragic story of why," Cube says. "Young people are dying for no reason all over the world that don't know why. It's ugly, everywhere."

 Shaw had been on track for a college sports scholarship when he was gunned down in March a few yards from his house in a working-class neighborhood south of downtown Los Angeles, California.

 His mother was serving in the Army in Iraq at the time. Pedro Espinoza, an illegal immigrant and suspected gang member who had been released from jail a day earlier on weapons charges, has pleaded not guilty to murder.

Prosecutors say Espinoza drove to Shaw's neighborhood and shot him after asking him about his gang affiliation. Police have said Shaw was never in a gang.

The rap video begins with the tightly framed, sorrow-filled faces of Shaw's parents and aunt. His father recounts a final conversation with his son.

"To drive this home, it was only right to use real family and not use a bunch of actors," Cube says. His video features photographs of dozens of other crime victims blowing from a tree, then across the sand in the desert. It also depicts a young man in a football jersey being gunned down on a street. As he lays dying, he asks, "Why me homie, why me?"

Espinoza's early release from jail led the Shaws to call for the passage of "Jamiel's Law," which would push Los Angeles police to crack down on illegal immigrant gang members.

Cube says the video is not meant as an endorsement of the move. "It ain't really a commentary on that," he says. "You've got a person being killed by a person he don't know for a reason he don't know ... Who cares if it was an immigrant or if it was a taxpaying citizen?"

For the Shaws, appearing in the video was a chance to further their petition drive to qualify the proposed law for the November ballot. "Every time I start watching it, I start crying," Jamiel Shaw Sr. says. "At the same time, I feel good that we are getting the word out."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/10/06/athlete
.ice.cube.video.ap/index.html

Hillbilly: The Real Story just started at 9:00pm on the History Channel for anyone interested.  It's 2 hours long.   "Story about mythic hillbillies drawn from 300 years of outcase immigrants, war heroes, isolated backwoodsmen, miners, moonshiners, preachers, musicians and politicians.  Hosted by Billy Ray Cyrus.

So far, it's interesting.

I didn't realize that marijuana is Kentucky's main cash crop, lmao, and that those folks back in the woods/mountains are the main growers in the Appalachia region (where many ppl live on less than $8k a year- no wonder they grow so much herb crops!) Authorities, it was said, only find and destroy about 40% - 60% of it...and they admitted that they're "fine marijuana growers who grow good marijuana" lol

Apparently, most ot the peoples of backwoods Appalachia can trace their roots back 1,000s of years to the Scots in Scotland, and the Scot-Irish.  When they first started to come here when this country was just starting out, the British and Dutch settlers did not like them at all! They were considered by them to be uncouth rowdy lowly folks.  These immigrants worked their way further and further into the backwoods/the mountains.  They adapted very very well to living off the mountainous land, as they did it back home before they came here.

Okay, that's it because the television is in the other room, and I am missing it as I type this!   I just thought if anyone saw this blog and were interested they could turn right to the History  Channel and check it out. I know it will air again tonight, same channel, at 1:00am. 

I didn't see what date it may air again.... but I'm sure anyone interested can go to History.com and check it out.

I rented a few DVDs yesterday, and thought I'd share my opinion of them.

BLADES OF GLORY- hilarious.

FRACTURE (starring Anthony Hopkins) - excellent movie!!!!!  Not much I can say without giving it away for those who haven't seen it.

DEATH PROOF- One of the movies from Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse Presents double-feature. Unfortunately, the other movie to the double feature won't be released for a couple of weeks.  :(     Anyway, this movie is  GREAT! Tarantino makes a small appearance in it; Kurt Russell stars in it, as well as Sydney Poitier and a few others I've seen in a couple movies but can't think of their names.  Tarantino made an old school movie  :) and again, it's GREAT!  The car chase scene is soooo good, lol!  Movie starts out a little slow, but when the action starts....look out!  I won't give away the ending, but trust me, you'll like it!   Matter of fact, I'm going to watch this movie again today.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/personal/08/24/frene
mies/index.html

Interesting, considering that the word "frenemy" has been a term long used in Jamaica to mean someone who is pretending to be a friend (frenemy = friend/enemy), and is not gender specific.

 

To Anonymous Joe, who blogged about Resident Evil 5 and claims by some of racism, but didn't allow comments on his blog:

1) Thanks for the info, because I hadn't heard RE 5 is coming out (hopefully on PS2, I refuse to spend the money on a PS3).

2) While I agree with the points in the article at the link, at the same time, I don't think the game is racist (haven't seen the trailor, just from what I've read so far), especially after having played the other RE games. I can see how it can be construed as racist, of course ( I mean again, the critics did have some valid points), but I don't feel it is (even tho I'm sure there will be some white supremists/neo-nazis who will wet their pants in excitement while shooting all of those Africans in the game).  IMO.

If you're going to bungee jump, it's a good idea to watch for alligators:

http://www.video-clips.co.uk/viewmedia.php?cid=65a>

TOO GOOD NOT TO SHARE:

The Rap Crap Treason Act!
 
by Pearl Jr.
 
I often patronize a hip Los Angeles barbershop to get my 12-year-old son a haircut. Even though they have been cutting my son's hair for the past 4 years, recently I noticed a quietness, calmness, and maturity to this all Black-owned and all Black-employed business that featured only Black men working their trade of meticulously
lining, cropping and trimming the heads of Black males of every age.
 
The big TV screens that are usually fixed on Black Entertainment Television (BET) have been turned off. The music that played in the background no longer featured any hip-hop songs, only soul and R&B music from the 70s and 80s. So, I decided to ask if the TV was broken? The 28 year-old barbershop owner answered, No, we just
decided to make a change. I went on to ask about the new music playing in the overhead speakers. He responded, we have lots Of children and young males coming into this shop and realized Hip-hop music was being used as a tool to destroy, and we aren't participating in our own destruction anymore. I immediately got out of my
seat, walked up to him and gave him the biggest hug. Then I looked into the depths of his eyes and told him, Im so proud of you! He replied, the responsibility for saving ourselves is up to us and the videos on BET are continuously disrespecting and devaluing Black women and teaches Black males that THUG LIFE equates to Manhood. He further Explained, it teaches our children not to fear prison life. He looked down and shook his head in a disappointing manner.

Getting the vibe that he didnt want to entice a big conversation about social issues in his shop due to not knowing what type of dissention would be invoked by such a powerful stance, I knew it was time to cut the conversation and sit back down. At that moment, I had this feeling of hope that has been missing for the past 20 years.
 
These barbers aren't old men, these are men in their 20s and early 30s. I felt the most exciting feeling that young people, especially Black men are realizing the depictive lie in hip hop music.
Rap crap is just another form of racism that is meant to keep a foot on the neck of the Black race, except this reformed tool of racism is elevated to attack the mental souls of, especially, Black people.

Music has always been the soulful essence of African people. The drumbeat was a form of communication and singing in the cotton and tobacco fields made the long and harsh days of slavery only bearable, enabling the field slave to live to an average age of 28. Slaves were simply worked to death, but singing Negro spirituals gave those left to live another day, hope for a better tomorrow.

Today's lyrics in hip hop music adds more degradation towards the promise made in the Declaration of Independence, which states that every citizen is created equal (dah!), they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness . . . that whenever any
form of government (FCC allows these destructive messages) becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it . . . as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Under the current tremendously troubling circumstances outlined below, I'm announcing the enactment of
RAP CRAP to abolish negative lyrics that are targeting the Black race towards voluntary genocide.
 
Ever since NWA (Ni**az with Attitude) busted on the national scene in the late 1980s, their lyrics were aimed at exposing the dramatic unjust conditions of ghetto life in Compton, California performed in a language that was familiar to most Black people living in the inner city. The once acclaimed rap lyrics claiming injustice
was a new form of empowerment and enlightenment has since been twisted around to being utilized as the newest method to keep the Black race so far behind the White race that catching up is a seemingly impossible task.

In the history of the world, there has never been a group of people who have developed more creative musical styles than Black people:
Spirituals, Blues, Jazz, Soul, Rhythm and Blues, Disco, and the ever popular Motown sound that named their acts uplifting names such as the Miracles, the Marvellettes, the Supremes, the 4 Tops, etc., have all retired into the depths of being archaic to today's dysfunctional youth.

The biggest improvement of the Black race was directly after the civil rights movement from 1965 to 1985. We had Hank Aaron breaking Babe Ruthds all time home run record. We had Michael Jackson selling more albums than the Beatles and Elvis Presley. We had Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan changing the way basketball was played by adding sensational acrobatic moves. We had Mike Tyson being the youngest man to ever be crowned the heavyweight champion. We had Oprah Winfrey smash Phil Donahue's ratings and begin a new trend of talk shows. We had Bill Cosby crossing over to having the #1 show on TV for several seasons. Damm, we were winning and then the enactment of the RAP CRAP TREASON ACT went into full effect and all that was won is now lost and distorted into making one Ni**er rich to hurt millions of
unsuspecting Black people.
 
Today, since Russell Simmons sold Def Jam Records, Jay Z sold Roc-a-> fella, P. Diddy sold Bad Boy, and Bob Johnson sold BET, we don't own any major entities of Black music and that includes distribution that dictates what gets sold in retail stores which is connected to what gets played on radio stations.

To add insult to injury, our most successful high profile celebrities call themselves low value and corrupting names like 50 Cent, Ludicris, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Bow Wow, Missy Misdemeanor Elliot, and Juvenile. Other subsidiary labels owned by the major 5 media companies that control 85% of what we see, hear, and read name
their record labels Murder, Inc., Bad Boy, Death Row, and Ruthless Records. What kind of negative mind altering racist bulls**t is that?

The RAP CRAP TREASON ACT denounces these most intoxicating beats that can make even Barbara Bush want to bob her head to these funky tracks, but in reality songs and lyrics like, B**ch Better Have My Money, B**ches Ain't S**t, F**k Your Parents, Ten Crack Commandments, A Ni**a With a Gun and Serial Killa have all contributed to the downward spiraling of the Black race.
 
Now, I have mixed feeling about Kanye West, who spoke up for the Black victims of Hurricane Katrina by stating that Bush doesn't care about Black people and had a religious #1 pop hit called Jesus Walks. But his dual personality is similar to the 1970s Black exploitation characters that promoted the local drug dealer to also be the same person who urged youth to stay in school, parallels with Kanye's album titles, College Drop-out and Late Registration. To understand my point fully, one must comprehend this to be a complete smear to his parents' accomplishments. Kanye's mother is a college professor and his father holds a Masters Degree.

Just this year, the high school drop out rate for Black students is a whooping 50% and Historically Black Colleges and scholarships for Blacks are being left unclaimed without the enough students to take advantage of these much needed services. After all young people are bribed to believe that since Kanye didn't finish college and he is rich and famous, so why learn anything academically, I can be just like him. What Kanye isn't promoting is that he worked his BLEEP off creating beats and was rejected hundreds of times before getting his break many years after starting to make his dream a reality.

The RAP CRAP TREASON ACT also exposes the damaging trend of chronically misspelling words, such as izz (is), wutt (what), tho (though), tha or da (the), wat (what), knoe (know), shud (should), jes (just), fa (for), etc. Judging by the test scores of
Blacks, do they really know that these words are spelled wrong, or worse yet, do they care?

I'm not being a complete square who has forgotten the natural rebellious nature of most teens. I haven't forgotten that we had a secret language that was considered to be cool. In the 1970s, we used a form of pig latin, which was similar to Snoops language. The difference is that during that time, it was a complete embarrassment not to graduate from high school, and the PSAs (Public Service Announcement) for the United Negro College Fund told me every time I watched Soul Train, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Nowadays, chronically misspelling words is an indicator of the failing school system and indicative of the power of hip-hop to fraud Black
people into believing to be wrong is to be right.

THE RAP CRAP TREASON ACT charges the hip hop industry with the crime of abusing the first amendments right to free speech and identifies rap lyrics to be unconstitutional. Rap lyrics yell fire in a crowded theater that has caused pandemonium targeted at a certain group of people who see these studio gangsters as a mirror of themselves, into the danger zone of annihilation.

I further charge rappers with treason due to:

Increasing the prison population of Black males 300% in the just 20 years.

Provoking Black on Black murder rate to being 1,150% higher than White on White homicides.

The declining Black marriage rate and the rising Black divorce rate.

Normalizing the single-parent household.

And damm it, I charge rap artists with faking the diction of a retarded person as something to strive for, when any retarded person would jump at the chance to have a higher IQ. For example, the lazy talk of 50 Cent and T.I. being rewarded for sounding like they have no sense at all, and absolutely no education. This subliminal message tells impressionable and vulnerable youth that you can actually win in life by talking as if they have not one year of education. When in actuality these rap fools are being used to fool us into believing the lie that it doesn't matter, when everything in the ghetto is getting worse and a half generation of youth doesn't even have a high school education.

Hell yes, I'm charging them with a crime, but the only punishment in my power is to NOT buy any of their music, NOT watch any of their videos, NOT view any of their movies or TV shows; basically BANKRUPT them out of existence.

Destroying the sell-out is my goal.
 
And for those who act in OUR BEST INTEREST, we must reward them by purchasing books, music, and watching movies and television shows that promote a positive change for our families and ourselves.
 
Support those who support us. BUY POSITIVITY and ANNIHILATE NEGATIVITY.

Black people we have much work to do.

Prince CD giveaway angers industry

• Story Highlights
• "Planet Earth" will be packaged with a British newspaper on Sunday
  
• Giveaway roundly criticized as major blow for rapidly declining CD sales
  
• Free CDs or DVDs attached to front of newspapers widespread in Britain
  
• International sales launch for album is July 16; the U.S. launch is July 24

LONDON, England (AP) -- Prince has angered the music industry and stirred up trouble among British retailers by giving away his new album with a tabloid newspaper this weekend.

Prince's new album "Planet Earth" will be packaged with a British Sunday newspaper this weekend.

"Planet Earth" will be packaged with the Mail on Sunday at a price of $2.80.

The giveaway has been roundly criticized as a major blow for an industry already facing rapidly declining CD sales. It has led Sony BMG UK, Prince's local label, to pull the plug on its own sales release of the CD in Britain.

International sales launch for "Planet Earth" is July 16; the U.S. launch is July 24.

"The Artist formerly known as Prince should know that with behavior like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores," said Paul Quirk, co-chairman of the Entertainment Retailers Association, referring to a period in the 1990s when the singer famously stopped using his name to protest a binding record deal.

"It is an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career," Quirk said.

A publicist for Prince's record label said the 49-year-old singer-songwriter wasn't doing interviews.

Also fueling retailers' ire is what they see as a traitorous move by one of their own. After initially harshly criticizing Prince and the deal, music and books retailer HMV, which doesn't normally sell newspapers, decided to sell the Mail on Sunday in its 400-plus stores across the country.

"Like it or not, selling the newspaper is the only way to make the Prince album available to our customers," HMV said.

Rival retailers were outraged.

"We're stunned that HMV has decided to take what appears to be a complete U-turn on their stance," said Simon Douglas, managing director of retail at Virgin Megastores. "It's not only retailers that suffer; the public will suffer in the long term by restricting choice on the high street."

The use of so-called "covermounts," where free CDs or DVDs are attached to the front of a newspaper to catch the buyer's eye, is widespread in Britain where many newspapers are struggling to retain readers who are turning to online news and entertainment.

Most of the giveaways are compilations of archive recordings or older films. Past giveaways by the Mail on Sunday include CDs by Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel and Dolly Parton. Prince's CD contains new tracks along with old hits such as "Purple Rain."

Sony BMG UK said it decided it was "ridiculous" to go ahead with its own sales launch in light of the newspaper deal, but stood by its star singer, adding it remained "delighted" to be working with Prince.

The Mail on Sunday declined to say how much it paid to secure the deal or how many copies of "Planet Earth" it planned to sell. Its average circulation is 2.3 million copies.

Quirk said the deal was "yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music."

Beyond the covermounts, the value of recorded music is already under widespread threat from the rapid rise of digital downloads. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry estimated that overall music sales worldwide fell around 3 percent last year as a doubling in digital sales failed to compensate for falls in physical CD sales and digital piracy.

Prince also plans to give away a copy of "Planet Earth" with each ticket sold for his 21-date London concert later this summer.

It's his CD, he can do what he wants........

Now, don't get me wrong I like Angelina Jolie.

But I have to ask:

WHY is A. Jolie the actress playing the role of Pearl's wife??? Pearl's wife is NOT white, and there are African-American actresses out there with talent that could have been cast.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking at this as there is necessarily racism involved, but I want to know why they are casting a white woman to play the role of a non-white woman? (not that it's anything new, historically speaking).

And I would be asking this same question if it was reversed.

btw, I'm faaar from the only one that wonders this (except maybe on this site). I have seen this discussed on a few message boards in the past couple of months (her playing this role isn't recent news)

OMG you have got to be kidding.

Paris Hilton's father is already planning her 'get out of jail bash' and is wanting/requesting/asking clubs to pay him to host said bash.

ummmmmm.......the man is a millionare and a club should be paying HIM to have HIS nitwit daughter's 'bash.'

The rich and famous reek nauseatingly of a sense of entitlement they don't deserve.

Has anyone watched any of VH-1's "I love the 80s,"   "I love the 70s," or "I love the 90s" episodes? They're pretty good, takes you down memory lane and leaves ya smiling.

Last night I was checking out VH-1's "I love the 80s"; watched 1981 thru 1983, lol.  I'd forgotten that  it was 1983 when "Scarface" came out, lol, boy oh boy; I'd forgotten what those old Beta Maxes looked like when they came out LOL LOL LOL LOL, Monchichi dolls, the list seems endless, how much I'd forgotten-  talk about walking down memory lane! 

 The 1980's.... What do you remember most about the 80s?  What did you AND do you like best about the 80s, and what did you AND do you like LEAST about the 80s? I say 'did AND do' because attitudes/opinions can change as one grows, lol.

Gotta love him.... he tells it like it is.   LMAO LOL

Anyone else catch him on Jay Leno last night? LOL LOL  

The last time he was on Jay Leno's show (previous to last night), OMG he had me laughing 'til I was crying. LOL

THE BRIDGE: An Unholy Marriage
By Darryl James

"MoccaCoca. Ikashizzle. I got the hookup, Nephew."

--Snoop Dogg

"I'm not sure what you just said."

--Lee Iacocca

I used to love Snoop. His sing-songy rhymes laced with the countriness of a second generation Arkansas transplant fit so well over the beats made by Dr. Dre, that no neck could keep from making heads bob in slow syncopation. And I just knew that as he rose in his game that he would also elevate his content. Sadly, I was right, but in a different way.

Snoop has elevated his content from white America's favorite gangsta rapper, to corporate America's favorite c*on.

Yes, I said it--Snoop is cooning. What else can be said when viewing his latest commercial venture--for Chrysler no less--in tandem with that corporation's former chief executive officer, Lee Iacocca?

In the commercial, Snoop is unleashing as much co.*n gibberish as he can in sixty seconds, while the distinguished corporate statesman is rendered unable to decipher the language of the strange dark man.

It’s like dogs and cats having sex with each other.

I have to be honest--there is something that white people love about Snoop that is making me lose my love for him. Imagine--squeaky clean Corporate America and big bad Snoop. It's not as though he's some bad boy actor who is simply playing a role. Snoop purports to have a real life claim to gangster fame.

Think I'm tripping? Well, Ludacris, who is also a hot rap star, was kicked off the Pepsi brand ad campaign based on explicit lyrics in his album. But with Snoop, here's a co*n who admittedly sold drugs and gang banged, was charged with murder and maybe even slapped his wife, representing one of the largest corporations in America--in essence, selling cars to sixty year old white men and blue-haired white women.

Explain that one, Nephew. He got the hookup fa' sho'. They need us so much that they'll take anything. Did I say they "need us?"

The simple truth is that America understands our ability to hawk a product better than we ever did. And even if they have to go to the most disgraceful of us to pander to the nation's love affair with Black culture, they will. With Snoop, they did, garnering one of the most popular, who is also one of the most disgraceful.

Corporate America understands how it works, even though most of us never give it a second thought. Popular culture is based on Black culture. Whatever we do, if it becomes popular, they will take it mainstream. The biggest problem is that when it goes mainstream and generates revenue, very few of us will partake of the rewards. Another problem is that usually what goes mainstream is a caricature of who we really are.

That caricature of who we are is a small portion of our existence, but once it is packaged and sold back to us and the rest of the world, the impression is that the caricature is all we are really about. Sadly, we often get that impression ourselves. For example, the world thinks we are all thugs based on the images sold most prolifically through Rap music and the bastardization of Hip Hop culture. Once that image was sold back to us, our sisters began looking for a man with a little thug in him, and our brothers began to act like thugs. And we began to think that using the word “N***a” was a revolution.

A handful of us will clown our culture for a punchline and/or a paycheck, but Corporate America is using us, not celebrating us, and they don't give half a damn how we look in the process. Fa' shizzle, my nizzles.

Another modern day Stepinfetchit, Puff Daddy, P-Diddy, McGriddle, The Riddler, or whatever he's calling himself these days (The Buffoon formerly known as Sean), spearheaded America's embrace of the gas-hogging, ridiculously oversized Hummer. In the world's richest nation, which has some of the poorest people, it took this embarrassment to Black Nationalists everywhere to make it cool to be excessive, with the poorest and the dumbest of our people standing first in line.

So, why did Nike have a problem with Kobe? He's an admitted adulterer and accused rapist, but so what? He's Black and he was more than willing to run and jump for the boss. Hell, if OJ's knees weren't shot, he'd still be willing to run through the airports for Hertz. But alas, America convicted him for sleeping with a white woman...I mean...you know what I mean.

But the problem with Kobe and OJ is that they aren't anyone's bad boys. They tried to be nice guys and while they didn't represent the race, they didn't go out of their way to make the race look bad, either. And Corporate America needs a Black person to dance, sing or tell jokes for every white version of a commercial featuring white people who are dignified.

They order the pizza for their family based on a discount--we rip and dip. They call for the Kool-Aid man, while we predict personalities based on what fruit each person takes in their drink. They ask: "Can you hear me now?" We ask: "Where you at?" They advise: "If you can find a better car, buy it." We advise: "If it's mo' fly, then you must buy."

Through my publication, Rap Sheet, as well as it's conference and marketing campaigns, I worked with Sprite while it became the fastest growing soft drink brand in the 1990s. The world made sense then, because it was all about being squeaky clean and avoiding the appearance of bad taste or bad public behavior. But things have changed and while the soft drink may not have wanted to align itself with a modern day coon, it invented one in the form of the miniature puppet that could be positioned to clown Black socialization and sensibilities. ("Show 'em my motto!")

And it's not a new phenomenon.

Racial stereotypes were used to justify slavery from the very beginning of that peculiar institution’s existence to the bitter end. White racists employed a propaganda campaign to make Africans look backward and inferior, both culturally as well as genetically.

With Jim Crow, that campaign was embedded in the popular culture of the nation--in entertainment as well as radio and print advertising. Through this propaganda, with help from the self-hating Negroes who willingly participated, Black existence in America became synonymous with silliness, a general lack of sophistication and stupidity.

In the early part of the twentieth century, bug-eyed Negroes and horribly racist caricatures of Black Americans were used to hawk everything from pancakes to furniture, and even though she’s been slightly updated--Aunt Jemima--America’s favorite “Mammy” lives on today. So popular were some of the images from that era, that many of them became dolls and other toys, which today are collector’s items—collected even by Blacks themselves. Negative images of Africans to hawk commercial items even took strongholds in other nations, from Japan (recall the debacle circa 1990’s) and even our neighbor Mexico (remember the fiasco from earlier this year?).

And who could forget the early 1990s, when every rapper and his cousin lined up to rhyme and dance for a malt liquor commercial? After all, Ice Cube prophesied that "malt liquor make yo' jimmy thicker," and besides, "St. Ide's was givin' ends." If you don't understand, just think "If it's mo' fly, then you must buy." It's all from the same Negro Shuckin' & Jivin' manual that keeps getting updated.

The problem is that Black people in America have an image problem. And it won't get any better as long as we willingly participate in our own denigration.

Perhaps the most obvious piece of evidence will become apparent when some ignorant Negroes attack me for writing this. They don't see any problem and actually loved the Snoop commercial. They also think that Dave Chappelle is harmless and that “Ni**a” is a term of endearment for public consumption.

They are ba***rd children of the unholy marriage between the negative Black image and Corporate America.

Fa shizzle!


Darryl James is an award-winning author and is now a relationship coach, providing pragmatic advice for loving and living in today's world. James’ latest book, “Bridging The Black Gender Gap,” is the basis of his lectures and seminars. Previous installments of this column can now be viewed at www.bridgecolumn.com. James can be reached at djames@theblackgendergap.com.

I ran across this and thought I would share. Again, not sure which blog this fits.

During his last days Mahatma Gandhi gave to his grandson Arun Gandhi a list of The Seven Blunders of the World:

Wealth without work

Pleasure without conscience

Knowledge without character

Commerce without morality

Science without humanity

Worship without sacrifice

Politics without principle

  I wasn't sure which would be the appropriate blog category for this:

Crackpot

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a
pole, which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it,
while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of
water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the
cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only
one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own
imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been
made to do.

After 2 years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman
one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."

The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to
take each person for what they are and look for the good in them. SO, to all of the crackpots out there, count your blessings and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!

Peace