New Rules for Blacks During the Obama Era

It is a new day in America. An African American has risen to the highest position a person can have in the United States. As a people we must follow the example set by Michelle and Barack in order to restore our greatness. That said, here are The New Rules For Blacks in The Obama Era.
1. Leave the Guns and the Knives Alone MC Lyte, Self Destruction
Black on black crime has been a problem for some time. In some ways, we can blame the government for allowing so many guns in the community and creating the social factors that create drug dealing and gangs. We must pressure the government to stop the the gun trade that stems from Virginia and the poverty that breeds violence, but also pressure our young people to stop turning to guns and violence. We must value the lives our fellow African Americans so they can not be taken away. We can no long glorify people who kill or are involved in violence. The word gangsta should be replaced by murderer, the word hustler should be changed to community poisoner. We should no longer glorify criminals who harm our community.
2. Time to Heal Our Women, Be Real to Our Women Tupac, Keep Your Head Up
Misogyny is a problem in the black community and the Hip Hop community in particular. We should not refer to our women as words that mean prostitutes or female dogs. Women should not be valued simply as sex objects. We have seen the the accomplishments and shining light that Michelle Obama has presented and should realize that any African American women can reach those same heights. Women should longer be valued as strippers, video girls and jump offs but as partners, mothers and sisters.
3. Put a Ring On It Beyonce
Way to many black men are judged by the amount of women they fornicate with. Men are glorified as pimps or pimpin when they get a lot of girls. A pimp is someone who demeans and demoralizes women to use them as commerce.
"Pimpin ain't easy it's sleazy, grimy, slimy, slouchy sleazy." Intelligent Hoodlum, Arrest the President.
Men should be judged by how they take care of their women and children. Barack and Michelle were stronger as a team of equals then any man could be by themselves. In order for black people to move on the black family must be the core unit. We should have wives and partners not babymothers and wifies.
4. Don't Be a Fool Like Those Who Don't Go to School. Slick Rick, Hey Young World
No longer can we say the only way for black people to succeed is slinging crackrock or having a wicked jumpshot. Education and knowledge are the key to success in life. We must fight to make sure our children have the best education possible and make sure they are willing and driven to accept that education. John McCain said one thing I agreed with during the campaign, that education is the civil rights issue of the 21st century. We must fight for our education as hard as we fought for our right to vote. The high school drop out rates in the black community is hovering around 50%. This is unacceptable. If were are to change this, we must fight on two sides. We must fight so to make sure our children are provided with the education they deserve and we must fight to make sure our children our ready and willing to try their hardest to take advantage of it.
5. Give Something Back to the Place Where You Made it From Ice Cube, True to the Game
Many in the black bourgeoisie attribute African American problems to the lower class. Still the black upper-class is partly responsible for the state of black America. Too many of our talented bright, African American professionals abandon any choices of working to develop the black community to get high paying jobs in the corporate world and integrate themselves into white society.
The African Americans lucky enough to get an education should follow in Barack Obama's footsteps and work to make the black community better. After graduating from Columbia, Barack Obama bypassed a chance to make six figures on Wall St. to make $12,00 dollars as a community organizer. WEB DuBois had the idea of the Talented 10th that would uplift the black community. Unfortunately, many of the Talented 10th have used their privilege to line their own pockets and not help out their fellow African Americans. If we are to succeed as people, those who have become educated help bring up those who aren't. If we had more qualified teachers, community organizers mentors to help out underprivileged African Americans, we would create many Michelles and Barack's to lead our people
6. Stop Being Greedy, DMX
Materialism is big problem in the black community. People feel they are defined by their chain, car and clothes rather than what they do as human beings. To many parents make sure their kids are dipped out in Jordans and Prada without investing in a college fund for their kids. Too many men have rims on their car but do not pay their child support. We need to value education, property and our children's future more than we do name brand name clothes, jewelry and cars.

PEACE.LOVE.HAPPINESS

No News Flash: Legalized Segregation is Over (Racism is Not).

Observations on the language of race at the inauguration of America's first Black President.
by Damali Ayo

First off, let me state for the record, I am thrilled that Barack Obama has started his tenure as President of the United States. It was not the inauguration I most anticipated since November 4th but his initiating the change that this country needs and that his vision holds dear. Wednesday was the day that brought me the most thrill as I realized that I would see a true leader and an incredible role model for all citizens, who shares the vision of our Founding Fathers for this country take the reins and lead us back onto a course of true American values that we have long strayed from- not only during the Bush years, but for many years before that.

But the tone of the inauguration struck me repeatedly as awkwardly out of touch with reality. It was strange to me that reporter after reporter, citizen after citizen and finally the president himself evoked memories of lunch counter segregation as the sign that we as a country have progressed beyond the 'evil trappings' of racism to the dawn of a new day where a man of color can be our leader.

It's an odd image to evoke. They all might as well have said "150 years ago we were in chains." But of course this image was evoked as well, though not as frequently.

The images of racism that were not evoked, and in fact have been patently omitted from the story of our first Black President are the very real examples of racism that not only continues to exist in our culture but that surely plagued Obama in every step of his rise to this high office. We've heard little discussion of the racism that Obama's mother was so certain he would face in school that she drilled him in *English* lessons every morning. We have not heard the stories of Obama being tokenized by his teachers and peers. We have not heard the stories of his fighting for acceptance among his black colleagues. We've heard very little of how he developed his understanding that people of color need to work together on our collective struggle. No one has mentioned that Barack Obama was at Harvard during one of the school's most radical fights for race and gender equality, and that he was a prominent speaker in that movement. No one has mentioned the afro he sported during that time, when trust me, afros were not in style but rather a statement of a political agenda. We have not talked in depth about the anti-racist and anti-poverty struggles he worked on for most of his professional career. We gloss over those moments with the confusing phrase "he spent many years as a community organizer on the south side of Chicago" a euphemism for "Obama dedicated every day of his work and personal life to fighting racial and economic inequality." We talk about his work in Chicago as if it were the choice of a man of middle-class luxury rather than the inner burning passion of a person who has faced racism throughout his entire American experience.

We cannot bring up these images for many reasons- not the least of which is that our country is terrified of people who "fight" racism, poverty and injustice, witness the strangle-hold we have on Martin Luther King Jr, while we relegate the rest of the black activists during MLK's time to an outcast 'radical' camp.

We also cannot bring up these images because if we do we cannot get the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from saying that the American experience of racism for people of color is over.

I would have loved to hear Obama say "this is an incredible moment because only a few years ago, I went to a school where they would barely allow people of color to hold a job, and now I hold this highest office." or "I've been fighting my whole life to help black people get food, shelter, and just treatment at work, and now I am in the position to ensure that food, shelter and just treatment is given to all American citizens." These truths of our countries racism are much more relevant in a contemporary sense because they are the struggles that the current generation has faced and that we continue to face. But it seemed the consensus among the crowd, reporters and the President himself that this is too difficult for us to admit.

It is often what is not said that tells us the truth of a situation. So I take the omission as an admission- the evoking of something so clearly in our distant past and ignoring that which is our present shows that we still have decades of racism that is still alive in our culture.

PEACE.LOVE.HAPPINESS

Black Man by D Mai Roberts

Black Man
Beautiful Wit’ Electric
Toffee Eyes
Givin’ Me Chills
N’ Thrills
As U Caress My Spine
Yes, I Need A Massage
2 Ease Away
Da’ Daily Stress
Dis’ Life Brings
Make Love 2 Dis’ Body
My Black Adonis
Allow It 2 Sing
Sing Songs Of Yesterday
When The Livin’ N’ Lovin’
Was Easy
As We Lay On Da’ Island Sand
Enjoyin’ Da’ Breeze
Waves R’ Crashin’
Against Swimmers’ Bodies
Jellyfishes
Tryin’ 2 Sting My Ass
When I’m Tryin’ 2 Achieve
A Bronze Tan
Da’ Things He Does 2 Dis’ Body
Wit’ His Tongue
Hands N’ His Gift
I Can’t Deny Him
He Makes My Temperature Rise
Like Sean Paul
With Da’ Tips Of His Fingers
Tongue N’ How He Makes

Black Man

His Gift Perform
Stunts N’ Tricks
Oh, It Does Have A Brain
Of Its Own
How Can I Get
A Full Body Tan
When Dis’ Black Man
Won’t Allow
My Body 2 Rest
Please, Black Man
If I Should Succumb
2 Another One Of Those Full-Bodied Orgasms
My Face May Stay Flushed
My Love Nest Dances 2 An
Unstoppable, Succulent Throb
Perspiration May Leak
Out Of My Body Continuously
My Wetness
B’tween Those Sweet Thighs
Of Mine
May Never Be Da’ Same
I’m A Changed Woman
Creatin’ My Own
Vicious Current Under Ur Touch
U R’ Da’ Captain Of My Ship
My Ocean May Swallow U
N’ We’ll Both Suffer
Da’ Sweetest Death!

PEACE.LOVE.HAPPINESS

IF MY BODY WERE A CAR...

If my body were a car, this is the time I would be thinking about trading it in for a newer model. I've got bumps and dents and scratches in my finish and my paint job is getting a little dull ... But that's not the worst of it.
My headlights are out of focus and it's especially hard to see things up close. My traction is not as graceful as it once was. I slip and slide and skid and bump into things even in the best of weather.
My whitewalls are stained with varicose veins.
It takes me hours to reach my maximum speed. My fuel rate burns inefficiently.
But here's the worst of it --
Almost every time I sneeze, cough or sputter ...either my radiator leaks or my exhaust backfires!
AUTHOR UNKNOWN

PEACE.LOVE.HAPPINESS

When Are WE Going to Get Over It?

Dr. Manis:

When Are WE Going to Get Over It?
For much of the last forty years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African Americans finally going to get over it? Now I want to ask: "When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?

Recent reports that "Election Spurs Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes" should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in "Bombingham, " Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk the talk." Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.

We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was a non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster. But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we're back in the sixties again.

At this point in our history, we should be proud that we've proven what conservatives are always saying -that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president. But instead we now hear that schoolchildren from Maine to California are talking about wanting to "assassinate Obama." Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, "How long?" How long before we white people realize we can't make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us? How long until we white people can -once and for all- get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color? How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior? How long before we white people get o ver our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites? How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin? How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations? I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners? How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do? How long before we starting "living out the true meaning" of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that "red and yellow, black and white" all are precious in God's sight?

Until this past November 4, I didn't believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. But here's my three-point plan: First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built I'm going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people. Second, I'm going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama. Third, I'm going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can "in spirit and in truth" sing of our damnable color prejudice, "We HAVE overcome." Andrew Manis is author of Macon Black and White and serves on the steering committee of Macon's Center for Racial understanding. It takes a Village to protect our President!!!

PEACE.LOVE.HAPPINESS