The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. - Proverbs 22:7 (KJV)
Debt = Slavery.
Those things, are for people with big offices - educated people. I'm not educated so I never worry about those things. Anything you don't bother about, you don't need. All these people bothering about automobiles and television - and others bothering about getting paid for them. Now I don't bother about anything - so I'm 104 years old.
- Fountain Hughes
People of color have traversed a very unique path out of necessity and often had to grasp education by the limited means at their disposal. In Brewton, Alabama, James Dooley founded the Southern Normal School (aka SNS, now inactive) for this purpose in 1911. While many alumni have debated the forces driving her closure, it's always better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Fortunately, one flagship of preparatory distinction remains in Mississippi, the noteworthy Piney Woods Country Life School.
The Piney Woods School didn't submit to the standard plagues that beset her peers. Instead, Dr. Laurence Jones (Founder) wisely told her story on the "This Is Your Life Program" and established a 700K endowment that had grown to approximately 7M when he passed away! Their Facebook fan page proudly states a sovereign mission:
The Piney Woods School recognizes that throughout the United States there are students, especially African-American students, who have the capability to make their lives extraordinary through excellence in education and development of moral and ethical attitudes, but do not have the opportunity to do so for financial or other reasons.
Piney Woods mission is to provide that excellence in education within a Christian community through creation of an exceptional academic model which supports the tenet that all students can learn, develop a strong work ethic, and lead extraordinary lives through academic achievement and responsible citizenship.
At The Piney Woods School we are changing the world, one student at a time. We are preparing tomorrow's leaders who are:
Educationally Astute
Morally Responsible
Civically Equipped
Technologically Proficient
Globally Perceptive
...and Full of Faith and CompassionLong live this valiant educational endeavor and her champions.
Posted by: Zeal
[R Bettis]
A Unique Plight
One of the rights of passage that blacks in small business must endure is the freebie expected by associates. Why do family and friends believe they're entitled to your services 24-7 when they've never lifted a reciprocal finger on your behalf?
A doctor may find that Cousin Louella needs the cure for lung cancer now but her children will hold her liable when their mama smoked cigarettes like a chimney for 40 years. The lawyer inevitably finds that June Bug must be free today although he clearly doesn't have an alibi, smells like a "pound of sess" and by the way, where'd he get that new 50-inch plasma because he hasn't worked an honest day in his life? You're barbering? Mookie really needs a free haircut and can pay you ASAP after La Amistad returns from Freetown. I fondly recall from my real estate days those pals who passed on home acquisition by the straight and narrow path:
Who knows? Perhaps they beat me like a piñata for market analyses and rode my tires bald because they liked seeing their favorite agent starve. Thanks, guys!
Personal Accountability is one of the best things left in the United States of America. For instance, you can still undertake purchasing a home or defending yourself in court if you understand the pros and cons. Save some money. Why not, right? Realizing I needed dental work and in stark contrast to the something-for-nothing scenarios described above, I approached a dental professional who's done excellent work for 25-30 years. For the clueless, here's how I got the help I needed:
Notably, I didn't pepper him with the following stereotypical scenarios:
If you're LF3 (Leaning on Family and Friends for Freebies), wake up and smell the coffee, please! Otherwise, here's some snappy comebacks for your favorite small business parasite:
Come over and fix your computer that Geek Squad couldn't? Dude, you should've bought a Dell.
You want to see some houses but aren't pre-approved? Here's a phone book for contacting lenders and real estate companies.
You need yet another emergency loan and promise to pay it back this time? What about all those other unpaid loans? Where's my money and where's my mama's money?
Somebody out there feels me and knows "the touch" all too well. Sing the blues freely but don't you dare ignore those pseudo-911 calls from Mookie because he'll tell Big Mama and you know she doesn't need to be agitated with her high blood pressure and all... Wait a minute, is that Jerome on TV? Can he get tickets to the big game? Word? Holler atcha' boy for me, then!
Posted by: Zeal
[R Bettis]
"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom." -Malcolm X
This inspires me because it applies equally to mental and physical bondage.
Dwight Bullard
"Our Deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, but our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous. Actually, WHO are WE NOT to BE? We were born to make manifest. The glory of God is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people to do the same."
- Marianne Williamson
This inspires me because it reminds me that anything is possible no matter how strenuous the task may seem. This quote is a reminder that I was born of greatness because of the God that my ancestors and I serve so therefore knowing and acknowledging this fact invokes me to act as such. Often times we belittle ourselves or under mind our accomplishments to make others around us feel secure. However this quote lets me know that doing so does not benefit anyone. In fact, I believe that by telling of your accomplishments others will be more apt to better themselves as a result of YOUR own successes/accomplishments. #thatisall
Sherifa C Williams
"Permanence, perseverance and persistence inspite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak."
-Thomas Carlyle
This inspires me because it is the true definition of what it means to work hard regardless of what stands in your way. This quote keeps me focused whenever I hit a roadblock in life. It makes me work twice as hard to get past it.
Darren Shivers
"Things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out."
This quote inspires me because i know that has its ups and its downs, and we are all subject to this. This quote speaks to me and says instead of letting my obstacles bring me down, I should find lessons in everything whether it be good or bad. As long a we can grow from our experiences we are never losing the battle.
Da'Ron Thomas
My favorite quote is MADE. M-A-D-E is an acronym for "my attitude determines everything."
Attitude is shaped by thoughts, and my thoughts shape how I feel about EVERYTHING. If I can control my thoughts to accept things and to see all things in a positive light (kinda like looking at the bright side) then I am able to persevere and succeed through any situation. Attitude really does shape everything.
Here's another one: "The attitude is the mind's paintbrush; it can color any situation. :)
Charyl Montgomery
As yet, the Negroes themselves do not fully appreciate these old slave songs.
- James Weldon Johnson
Through a stroke of good fortune, I once met the late, great playwright August Wilson years ago in Minnesota while volunteering as an usher in exchange for free tickets to a fund-raising event. Wilson's magic first entered my life via the 1995 screen adaption of The Piano Lesson and later by virtue of the Penumbra Theatre Company in Saint Paul. The scene residually active in my imagination is when Charles Dutton, Carl Gordon, Lou Myers and Courtney B. Vance delivered Berta Berta.
Mesmerized, I researched the Parchman Farm so brilliantly and tragi-comically lamented by Wilson's characters. Results quickly yielded that Brandford Marsalis had also paid tribute to this same forgotten culture in 1992, several years prior to the film.
Everyone should view the aforementioned video to grasp these chains forged for a specific people so long ago but which now shackle all Americans psychologically via the proliferated sociopathy of the race construct.
Meanwhile, the Idiot Box (TV) programs into our skulls more pressing concerns such as Oil Spill 2010 but don't chickens come home to roost in the strangest of ways? Is Black Gold still Texas Tea or A Spoiled Sea? Aren't we all now cooped in the same holding pen, slaving and fighting each other for less but hoping for more?
The slave had many means of resisting the dehumanizing effects of slavery. Religion became one of them. And through religious songs they made up from Biblical stories, they expressed their real feelings.
- Julius Lester
Singing was liquefied religion. We sang because it temporarily freed our spirits from torturous states of involuntary servitude while synchronizing our bodies with the exercise of brutal labor mandated by the framers of this society. We sang to maintain our humanity. We sang to resist. Most importantly, we sang to keep it real and steel our psyches for hell on the horizon.
Don't forget to remember those who were railroaded into building the infrastructure of this nation. From Birmingham, I share a final brief video in tribute to these people, our Pantheon of the Option-less.
Posted by: Zeal
[R Bettis]
"...A haunting 150-year-old photo found in a North Carolina attic shows a young, black child named John, barefoot and wearing ragged clothes, perched on a barrel next to another unidentified young boy. In April, the photo was found at a moving sale in Charlotte, accompanied by a document detailing the sale of John for $1,150..."
This is a part of our history that so many try to trivialize, try to write away and say "Oh, you should just get over that! Forget about that. Time to move on."
But how can we? How can we move on when our ancestors blood, sweat and tears have been poured into this land... Yet they receive no recognition. They receive no honor. We, their children, do not honor them.
Look at the faces of these two, little boys. A tragic scene of two black children, frozen in this moment forever. When I look at the boy on the right, I see a dull look in his eye that a child should NEVER have. I see child ready to burst into tears.
On the little boy on the left, I see pain. I see anger. I see a face already aging and hardening...
These children are unknown and shall forever remain so. They could be brothers... But we will never know. One of us could be the descendant of one of these beautiful, black children... But we will never know.
Their story--our story--goes untold, unwritten... And we have those who attempt to "water-down" the truth of what our ancestors went through. Those who want to wipe out history... More than they already have. They would remove ALL signs of these two, black children and all signs of what they went through.
We read about the horrors of the slavery and we live the psychological effects of it... But these two children LIVED the horrors we read about. We don't know how they died, if they lived long, if they loved... This is the only record of their existence. A photograph and a slave name. "John."
So much of our history is gone. Millions of stories like this that will never be told...
Slaves weren't important. They weren't human. Records of their births, their names, their marriages, etc, etc wasn't important enough to keep up with or even record.
We were stripped of our history, our heritage, names, our spirituality, our childhoods, our mothers, our fathers, our brothers, our sisters... Our very humanity was taken from us.
And they debt has yet to be repaid.
So don't you dare tell me to "just forget about it" or to "let it go." Until the sounds of my ancestors cries are heard by everyone and not just me, I cannot let it go. Until my ancestors have been honored... Until my people are TRULY free... I cannot, I will not let it go...
And I shall never, ever forget.
Written by: Genesis/Queen Tiye
In between these past few weeks all three major indexes (DOW, NASDAQ, S&P 500) fell below 3%. The third worst slide of the year. The DOW closed under its 10,000 mark. This week it closed roughly 200 points above the 10,000 mark. One day WSJ reports the 300 point loss making it seem like the world is falling apart. Then the next week the DOW did an amazing 200 point jump, and the world is becoming better. The investors can stop pulling their hair. In my opinion, we don’t even know if we are in a bull or bear market.
No matter what major, there is probably only a hand full of African American students who could understand what I just said. And what I just said wasn’t even deep. At all.
I’ve been slowly reading up on the markets, figuring out how the market works and learning different investing tips. What it means to invest in mutual funds, bonds, and stocks. What will make me lose money, and what will make me some profit.
Reading up on the financial news sometimes gets me excited (nerd yes I know) but when I turn to find someone to talk to so I can get an opinion… I realize I have no one to talk to. We’ve become lazy in learning. If it isn’t in our books at school, why should I bother understanding anything else? I’m beginning to slowly learn that what has tortured us in this new generation is not the other races or our country, but ourselves. I don’t think we understand the fact that people who we think “get over on our race” do it with the strength of their minds. What they know. Using it against what we DON’T know. If you haven't learned, our nation and Wall Street work hand in hand. Whether we like it or not.
The richest people in the world make money off of investments. It’s almost impossible (unless inherited) to make millions without investing. And as hard as our African-American community works to do better and provide for their families, why do I feel like not even 5% of our race is living the wealthy life.
You know how they say “If there’s something you don’t want the black person to know, put it in a book.”? Well if you don’t want the black race to build wealth, don’t let them learn about the market and financial industry. Now I am definitely a beginner. Sitting at the front seat in this Investment 101 course. But in the very short time that I’ve taught myself the ways of this system, I’ve made over a grand. Now the motivation for most is money. I’m not going to lie and say that I didn’t become interested in finance because of the money I can make. But in the middle of my researching I began to learn so much about our government, economy, and the businesses that literally control our nation. You begin to build your intellectual capacity about the country you live in. And just by understanding the American financial industry. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
What I plan to do about it? Since every criticism I chose to make should be put into action – I plan on obtaining my CPA while continually working for one of the top 4 accounting firms. So when I’m finished messing around with corporate America, I can come back and be of assistance to the black community. I plan on opening a private accounting and consulting firm for the middle class. Maybe even for the African-American upper class. Since many of the rappers, artists, and professional players we see have someone working their money for them… Which means they don’t know where in the world their cash is flowing.
I’ll continue this post after more research…
The link below is a research/survey done relating African American and their Financial Literacy level. Just a source to see how bad our race is against others in saving money, spending less, investing more, and even being knowledgeable in the field of money.
"I'm afraid... It's your hair..."
Imagine being a child and hearing that from your teacher, as she escorts you out of your honors class. Then imagine being removed from honors classes and shoved into regular classes, as if you've done something wrong.
The only crime being that you're a natural hair having, black girl.
The 8-year-old girl had been in class, without problem, for half of the school year and suddenly (in the past 2 weeks) it's affecting the teacher's allergies. She's allergic to the girl's hair... I'm allergic to bullshit. Is this teacher allergic to the hair product, or is she allergic to blackness?
To add insult to injury, the school actually stood behind the teacher, by allowing this to go on and removing the child from her honors classes.
Natural hair tends to offend Caucasian people (not all, but a good portion). I have experienced this first hand time and time again. The stares, the glares, the dirty looks... Even rude comments. It's as if our natural hair is threatening or menacing.
Us embracing our blackness and our natural beauty is threatening to white supremacy and the eurocentric beauty standard/ideal. All throughout the media you see beautiful, black women who are pressing, perming, dying... And trying to be less than black. There aren't a lot of natural hair wearing women shown in media.
Even the commercials are full of black women with long, straight, relaxed hair blowing in the wind. I very rarely see (and it's only recently that I've seen it at all) any commercials of black women with beautiful, natural hair.
Top black movie actresses and entertainers? Straight, relaxed hair... Or wigs and weaves that are long, blonde, straight... No traces of natural hair.
A lot more of us are going natural. This is a beautiful thing... But there are even more of us who are giving into a standard of beauty that we can never meet.
"The relaxer makes white people relax."
To me, this is a sign or gesture meant to show our willingness to assimilate and to conform. It symbolizes us "renouncing our crowns" and rejecting our blackness. It shows how we, too, believe in the eurocentric ideal of beauty.
This 8-year-old little girl has had what is probably her first taste of discrimination and hatred of her blackness. We black women should be up in arms about this and any instance of a little girl being made to feel unpretty for who she is.
The message we are constantly sending to little black girls, is that they are not pretty and they are not good enough. We are not teaching them to value themselves or see that they are beautiful. They are queens! Yet no one tells them nor shows them this.
Some people think that hair isn't a big issue. I argue that it is a big issue. It may not be the largest obstacle we face, but it is an important issue, none-the-less. It is one way that we act out our oppression on ourselves. Sistahs not being able to find the beauty in themselves is a very big issue.
Furthermore, I consider the outward appearance a reflection of what is going on within the person. If I wear blue contacts, dye my hair blonde, try to make my nose thinner, relax my hair... What am I saying to the world about what beauty really is? What am I saying my ideas of beauty are? (Read my blog on natural hair HERE)
My thoughts on the teacher: She should be fired. She needs a job where she doesn’t have to be around people and their “chemicals” (melanin). This doesn’t just need to be “looked into,” as the school said. This needs action. Why would we trust the school to “look into it,” when they’re the ones who allowed this to go on?!
In closing, let me say, kudos to the mother. I have never seen a caucasian and black mixed child that had a caucasian mother who knew the importance of natural hair. So, give thanks for that. That will be one less bit of confusion for the young girl.
Peace, Love and Elevation.
Written by: Genesis/Queen Tiye
Written By: Sam Floyd
As you all know, Steve Jobs unveiled Apple's next "big thing" on Monday: the iPhone 4. Personally I'm stoked about the thing, and plan on getting it the day it comes out. (smiley face). This is one of the those times that Apple actually releases something that's actually different enough for people to actually run out and go get it. Other times...eh, not so much.
How much cash do you think Apple has at it's disposal? Around...uhhh $40 Billion -ish. Do you know how they acquired so much capital? RAPE. Good, clean, old-fashioned rape. They lube us up real good with their awesome "trendy" commercials, then give it to us in the rear with their high prices (paying for the brand) and new releases.
...and you know what's crazy?
We like it.
I'm a total Apple freak (a part of their small, but loyal, market share), and don't know what I'd do without my MacBook Pro or my iPod. Their stuff is damn good and is the epitome of the word "functional". Simple, yet great technology.
But the reason Apple's revenues are so high isn't planned obsolescence, but planned upgrades. They take advantage of their loyal fan base, which they know is gonna go out and buy whatever new thing they come out with, by strategically planning when and what to put out next, while it's already developed. (just my opinion, course)
Take the iPhone for example.
First it was the regular iPhone. Then they add 3G capabilities and GPS, lower the price, and release the iPhone 3G. Then, they add video recording and voice control (which many other phones had by then), make it faster, and you have the iPhone 3Gs. Now we have the amazing iPhone 4, which in my opinion as stated earlier, is actually an upgrade.
Rape.
Like the video feature...come on. I don't believe for one second that the geniuses over at Apple's lab couldn't figure out how to put video recording on the freakin ORIGINAL iPhone. These guys are pioneers. They're always the first. But, they want the $$$, so they PLAN to just add that feature on later so they can make even MORE money off of you. Simple. (Like I said in my last post, "gotta get the dollas, baby!")
There's ALWAYS a new iPod, a new MacBook, a new iMac, a new whatever. It's just the way they do it. (rape). And it's always little, yet important shit. Like adding more gigs of memory, or making them faster while keeping the price the same. (rape).
And don't even get me started on the freakin iPad. They gave us an amazing super-portable labtop, an amazing phone that does absolutely EVERYTHING, and then gave us something in between. There is no need at ALL for an iPad, yet they're selling 1 every 3 seconds. 2 million in 2 months. (rape.) And think about this. That new amazing screen that the iPhone 4 has, the iPad doesn't. So look for a new one coming sooner than later. ;-)
They're only being released about 3 months apart. Is that long enough to develop THAT kind of amazing screen? Hmm...(rape.)
I'm not writing this to bash Apple, but to give my opinion. I love that company, I'd invest in their stock, and I buy their stuff. But I'm also AWARE of their evil ways. (and you should be too!)
...but like I said, I DON'T CARE. Because the stuff they make is awesome, to say the least.
