The Community Journal’s fiscal year is nearing, which means it’s time to reassess our educational journey and for me to prioritize column themes on subjects that have intrigued me this past year.
Obviously, I can’t get to them all (producing a weekly column is not as easy as it seems), so I thought I’d just throw out a few subjects I had planned to build articles around:
Who says I can’t wear Nike shoes with another brand’s t-shirt?
My son recently told me it’s inappropriate, and I have a public image to uphold. I agree, at least with the latter point.
I could care less about mixing and matching based on some arbitrary rule. Particularly if I’m the one paying.
Like most African Americans, my top priority when dressing is to ensure my clothes are clean, ironed, and color coordinated…
…Along the same lines, do y’all realize every time you purchase an item with a brand name attached, you are providing ‘free’ advertising for that company? And paying more to do it!
It’s one of the most overt marketing scams within eyesight, although most folks apparently are blind to it.
Why would you pay extra for a brand-name item, which is generally of inferior quality, when you don’t have to? Jordan’s don’t make you jump higher but cost many times more than generic. And you serve as a billboard to advertise the product and get nothing for it.
The next time you buy a car, tell the salesman if they want you to drive around with their name on the back of the vehicle, and pay you. Or reduce the price. Or both…
…Why don’t government (aka public) school teachers correct the English of Black students? Isn’t that part of their job description?
It makes no sense to me to make students take English classes and not correct them when they use double negatives (‘I ain’t got no money), the wrong tense, ‘I ‘scene’ you yesterday,’ or Ebonics, which is not to be confused with Black English.
Is there a conspiracy behind the unwillingness of the government’s educracy to allow poor children to distinguish themselves with poor grammar? Maybe we should reread Woodson’s ‘Miseducation of the Negro…’
…Why are we still playing this game of misleading unemployment figures? If you believe the politicians (who are trying to deflect attention away from the higher inflation rate in His-story), the unemployment rate is 3.7%
However, not in the Black community, and definitely not among Black men. It’s 10 times that percentage. Moreover, the unemployment rate excludes folks who have tired of looking, those who work in the underground economy, and the majority who work in less than minimum wage jobs…
…Speaking of politicians, maybe congressmen and senators haven’t moved on social security because they don’t need it? They make well over $400,000 when benefits are included; most retire as millionaires. Can they relate?
…I assume the sale of bulletproof vests will increase significantly before the 2024 Republican Convention if Milwaukee is the selected site. After a GOP committee endorsed Milwaukee, liberal groups started planning ways to disrupt the conference. I’m exaggerating about the need for vests, but I don’t think it’s farfetched to recommend helmets, knee-high boots, and a lot of petroleum jelly…
…Are Korean nail technicians more artistic than Black techs? I’ve been told (by those who crossed the picket line at Beauty Island) that they sell better horse hair for wigs and weaves, but can they paint a sister’s nails better than a sister’s?
Apparently, they can, which explains why they prosper while Black nail businesses barely stay alive. I guess buying black doesn’t include painting red…
…President Biden has the lowest performance ratings since Tricky Dick.
Inflation is rampant, forcing many elderly to buy dry dog food instead of beef because it is cheaper.
The John Lewis voting rights bill is still in limbo, as is the police accountability and reparations bills the commander ain’t cheap promised to enact when he said you’re not Black if you don’t vote for him.
You need a master’s degree in math to figure out the deficit, and social security is as unstable as Donald Trump’s moral code.
Those concerns have put a target on the back of Democrats and will probably result in Republicans gaining control of the house and senate this fall.
So, what is the DNC’s solution? Elect more Democrats. Or at least that’s the response made by a leading Democrat on Fox News Sunday.
And the alternative? There is none because, as one pundit explained, the best thing going for Dems this fall is that they are running against Republicans.
So, suppose I understand this plot correctly. In that case, voters say the country is heading in the wrong direction under Democrats. The alternative is Republicans, who decry the country’s direction but offer no solutions to resolve any problems.
All we can do is throw our hands up and act like we just don’t care…
…I was reading through old Negro Narratives and came across a statement about Abolitionist John Brown. He was, without a doubt, the most famous abolitionist of the 19th century. But what I found even more compelling was how the man of God was perceived by W.E.DuBois, civil rights icon and founder of the NAACP:
“John Brown was right,” DuBois said in his autobiography. ” Brown’s (Harper’s Ferry) raid stood as “a great white light—an unwavering, unflickering brightness, blinding by its all-seeing brilliance, making the whole world simply a light and a darkness—a right and a wrong.”[154]
DuBois’ comment was similar to positions taken by Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany but paled in both reverence and historical significance to that of Harriet Tubman, who said he was the “greatest white man who ever lived.’
That’s high praise. In fact, let me be the first to petition for a John Brown holiday. If not a government-sanctioned event, how about a Christian holiday. Brown was compelled by his theological teachings, which were counter to the commonly accepted Christian dogma that supported slavery…
…A sister told me recently she supports term limits for the same reason she wants a young man to replace her recently divorced husband. Gotta’ think that one through…
…Women throughout the country are up in arms over the Supreme Court’s decision on abortions. Since I assume the Democrats will lose some seats this fall, there is little hope for a congressional solution. But that doesn’t have to mean the verdict cannot be reversed.
Women are in the majority (even though they are treated like second-class citizens—third class for women of color). They could run and control the country if they would get together.
Want to restore abortion ‘privileges?’ It’s easy. Organize an ‘ain’t getting none strike’ before the fall elections. And keep it going as long as necessary (which will probably be about three weeks).
In Ebonics, that means to do what my mother told my sisters so they wouldn’t need to have an abortion…It’s called the old dime (quarter for Black women) celibacy tactic—put a dime between their legs and don’t let it drop until you have a ring.
If men don’t respond to anything else, they will do anything for sex…
…Speaking of abortions, I haven’t been able to eat a boiled egg since the court overruled Roe. If you don’t’ get it, that’s on you, or you’re a vegetarian…
…Supposedly, women have an extraordinary intuition that men don’t possess. So, where does that leave bi-sexual men or transexuals?
…A decade ago, a survey revealed over 40-plus percent of Black men would not marry a sister with two or more children. That figure increased significantly if the children had different fathers. I haven’t seen a recent survey, but I assume little has changed.
To be honest, I think I dated very few women without a child during my adult life. Finding a sister without children today is about as challenging as finding a 20-year-old virgin. Actually, they may be one and the same.
Over 70% of Black households, 53209, are headed by a single mother, most of whom are poor.
The pool is much smaller for brothers who want to start their own families.
Given this reality, it shouldn’t be surprising that marriage is on the endangered species list, primarily restricted to college-educated, higher income, and Christian couples).
I have to wonder what our community will look like in the future…
…In fact, I would be remiss in not mentioning that most—not all —children brought up in low-income female-headed households are statistically handicapped economically, academically, and, some say, spiritually. Which begs the question: why produce children if you can’t provide them with a lifestyle better than the prior generation?
I’m not attacking single parents. I was one, so I offered blessings to the sisters who struggled and overcame the odds. But let’s be honest, it’s unnecessarily more difficult, and children brought up without a father are generally on a rocky and booby-trapped path…
…Since we’ve transgressed to that ‘touchy’ arena, can you be a ‘true Christian’ and not follow biblical tenets? That includes bedside Baptists and those who think listening to gospel music equals a sermon.
I am not among those who believe everything in the bible is to be taken literally.
Too many men have myogenic and prejudicial hands in writing the sacred words. Moreover, we know there is a thin line between the ‘Word’ and Hebrew culture…
…And while we’re on this subject, I finally started reading a copy of the Wisconsin Christian News. That I picked up somewhere last spring. I previously scanned through the publication, but only this weekend began reading the articles.
Whew, this right-wing propaganda is so far right that I can only assume the writers have fallen over the planet’s edge.
The publishers follow the same denomination of Christianity that promoted White Supremacy.
No wonder Sunday, 10-11 am. is the most segregated hour in America…
…What is the Black agenda? My answer will probably be different than yours since I have the advantage of attending two national conferences to develop a consensus agenda that would empower us and show us the road on the other side of Martin Luther King’s mountain.
I ask the question partly because I’ve heard the Truth’s Tory Lowe and his sidekick Elizabeth repeatedly say Black politicians are not following the Black Agenda. It would be beneficial to everyone if they could explain their Black agenda.
Hotep.
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