Black Jesus.com

Happy 87th Birthday Malcolm X

In face of the recent changes in the voter ID laws, its important to look at the past to better understand what's happening today.

Melissa Harry Perry of CNBC has written a very insightful perspective on what we're facing as a people and as a country today in view of Malcolm's historic speech.

Click here to read.

The fear (dislike) of Black skin by some whites and some blacks

Update June 30, 2011

 

Research study shows that lighter skin Black inmates get shorter prison

sentences than darker inmates, when imprisoned for the exact same crime.

 Click Here To See Study Results. 

 

 

Racism and colorism has continued to marginalize many dark skin people through out the world in countries where whites or light skin people are the dominant culture. As a consequence, we are seeing a continued growth of dangerous skin lightening creams and hair relaxers in these societies, where some dark skin people, based on overt bias and their own insecurities, are trying to assimilate and be accepted by attempting to adopt the appearance of the more dominant culture.

 

Click here to see the Tufts University study on skin tone preference

 

 

I have seen white people who are as pale as a glass of milk, yet I have never heard someone white talk about how white and pale another Caucasion is. Yet I have heard a few whites as well as many blacks talk about how dark an athletic, model or celebrity is. (See Study: Whites Prefer Light Skin Black Males)

Some of you may be to young to remember how Negros in college sororities in the 50"s and 60's would be given the manila envelope test. If you were darker than the manila envelope then you couldn't get in.  A recent report by John Stossel on ABC 2020 showed that many producers of music videos primarily select light skin black females to be the devia's and dark skin girls to be the hoochies. On this segment, young black boys indicated their preference for light skin girls. It's apparent that white racism has lead to colorism among most people of color as evidence by the below clip.

Our kids are to young to realize that they are the victims of brain washing. Ask the average African American teenage boy to describe a beautiful girl and you will see what I'm talking about. By having so few dark and brown skin Black women who are displayed as beautiful in magazines ,commercials and movies, this allows someone else to impose their standard of beauty on you. What makes it worse is that so many people of color globally have internalized this racism keeping us at odds with one another.

 

The Black Church And Some Ministers Who Lead Us Astray

As I've traveled across the US in recent years, visiting most inner city Black communities, the only new construction I see are Black Churches surrounded by run down neighborhoods. Yes there are exceptions, but there are few. I don't see new housing, retail stores, new play grounds. Don't these ministers think that the same financing that builds a church can be extended to these other services.  As I flip the channel on Sunday morning , I see more Black preachers in custom made suits, but few are talking about how we improve the economic, educational or physical condition of Black people.

Many talk about what we must do to save our souls but even fewer talk about saving our children, our communities and ourselves with a real plan of action.

   

The Millionaire Pastors!

This 3 Part Video Below Will Give You Insight Into the Business Of Today's Black Church And The Ministers Who Drive It.

 Ever wonder why banks are willing to lend money to Black Churches for expansion and not Black owned businesses that would create a capital base and jobs in the Black comunity?

How Do You Feel About Properity Preachers?

 

Who profits from Black consumers & How much we buy?

Update, February 2012

Click Here To See What Black People Can Do To Help Ourselves.

 

2011 Neilsen Black Buying Power Update. If we only spent

some of this in our own businesses think about how many Black

jobs we could create... Click Here! (This is a pdf document so give it time to load.)

 

 

African Americans are proportionately the largest users of mouthwash, deoderant , soap, toilet paper, cough medicine, laxitives and lotion. We spend over $10 billion yearly on our hair. We spend $60 billion on food in the grocery stores annually and this doesn't include fast food where we spend around $25 billion annually. Proportionately, we are major purchasers of athletic shoes and apparel. Yet, can you name for me any products sold in your local supermarket or drug store that come from Black own companies? Maybe 1 or 2. Lets look around our communities. Do you see any Black owned retail stores. Think about your average week. Do you spend any money with businesses that you know are Black owned? Even franchises, how many of those are Black owned, proportionate to what we spend. Very, very few. There are less than a handful of Black owned BMW, Toyota and Mercedes Benz dealerships nationwide, yet we love to buy these cars. Don't get me started about the diamond ear rings that young brothers like to wear in both ears.

Why do we love companies and their products that don't love us back? Our purchases create companies, jobs ,opportunities and wealth for everyone else but ourselves. Foreigners coming to America know that the easiest and cheapest place for them to set up a family business is in the Black community. They are told that African Americans really don't care who they buy from. We don't seem to really understand the basic principles of economics and survival. If we don't begin to do business with ourselves, then who will. Now lets look at other minority groups. Every major city has a China town where many Asians shop. Furthermore these shops hire Asian employees. The same is true for Hispanics who are now the largest minority group in America. A recent survey in the Wall Street Journal says employers increasingly prefer to hire Hispanics over Blacks. This is only going to get worse as Black consumers continute to patronize everyone else but ourselves.

Target Market News Report On How Much Black Consumers Spend:

The report analyzes spending for black households in 2008 and finds that African-Americans began showing signs of the pending economic turmoil that would hit the entire nation. The pattern of purchases shifted dramatically in some categories. Contributions to churches and other non-profits dropped 16% to $11 billion. Expenditures on personal care products and services declined 10% to $6.6 billion. Spending on alcoholic beverages decreased 6% to $2.8 billion.

Purchases of items related to the home continued to increase despite the need for economic sacrifices. Appliance purchases grew 27% to $2.2 billion. Computers for home use climbed 28% to $3.5 billion. Consumer electronic expenditures went up by 32% to $4.5 billion.

"African-American households are facing this economy by being more focused in the purchases they make," said Ken Smikle, president of Target Market News and editor of the "Buying Power" report. "In 2008 black consumers had total earned income of $803 billion. They ranked 17th among the economies of the world in comparable gross national income. They continue to be a critical part of the American marketplace, and will contribute substantially in the economic recovery of American business."

The "Buying Power" report's 100-Plus Index section shows how black households continue to spend on average more than their white counterparts in categories such as food, apparel, appliances, personal care products and services and phone service.

Estimated Expenditures by Black Households - 2009

Apparel Products and Services	$29.3 billion
Appliances	2.0 billion
Beverages (Alcoholic)	3.0 billion
Beverages (Non-Alcoholic)	2.8 billion
Books	321 million
Cars and Trucks - New & Used	29.1 billion
Computers	3.6 billion
Consumer Electronics	6.1 billion
Contributions	17.3 billion
Education	7.5 billion
Entertainment and Leisure	3.1 billion
Food	65.2 billion
Gifts	9.6 billion
Health Care	23.6 billion
Households Furnishings & Equipment	16.5 billion
Housewares	1.1 billion
Housing and Related Charges	203.8 billion
Insurance	21.3 billion
Media	8.8 billion
Miscellaneous	8.3 billion
Personal and Professional Services	4.1 billion
Personal Care Products and Services	7.4 billion
Sports and Recreational Equipment	995 million
Telephone Services	18.6 billion
Tobacco Products	3.3 billion
Toys, Games and Pets	3.5 billion
Travel, Transportation and Lodging	6.0 billion

Source: Target Market News, "The Buying Power of Black American - 2010"

 

 The above statistics should be enlightening to both blacks and whites showing

how much Black consumer buying contributes to the overall well being

of the US economy toward the creations of jobs and wealth even for many

companies who refuse to hire us at all levels.

 

 

It also tells Black Americans that in comparison to third world countries,

we aren't as poor as the media would like America to believe.

Our major problem as Black Americans is we have yet to use

our buying power to create jobs and opportunities for

Black entrepreneurs in our own communities and as leverage with

corporations who don't respect our buying power.

We must stop seeing ourselves and our ability to control

our own destiny and communities as powerless.

Black athletics and white coaches and all white cheer leading squads

Lets look at the real numbers. In college division one football there are only 5 Black head coaches despite many of the starting players being African American. This is even more true for division one basketball.  Many of these coaches are making well over $2 million a year.

The University of Texas, accoording to CNBC, made over $63 million off of its football program this year. Its coach makes over $3 million a year. If you extended this over all the division one foot ball teams, then these colleges are making millions off of these Black student athletics. But they don't want to hire any of their former players as head coaches or assistants, once or if they graduate.

The college boosters concede that you need these young black bucks to be competitive, but they have told the schools, just make sure that this doesn't bleed over to the coaching ranks, because we are the one who write the checks.

The NFL is a little better better. 68% of the players are African American and they finally do have a handful of Black head coaches. But when they had 9 vacancies this season, most owners decided to hire all white first years coaches who never had NFL coaching experience before. The message seems to be clear.....Black man, you can perform on the field, but when your playing days are over, we have no more use for you...What do you think?

New Orleans clean up and other headlines

A recent survey indicated that over 80 % of African Americans who were flodded out of New Orleanswon't come back. Despite the willingness and generousity of blacks and white from across the country to help, it still takes money to start a new life. Money comes from jobs. I think knowing this survey, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was desperately finding a way to get more Black New Orleanians to come home:

In his speech, he said, "It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans - the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans." Nagin added, "This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans."

I think this is a comment that should have been kept at his dinner table. By stating this publicallythere will now be those who will want to make sure the demographics will never be the way they were. What do you think?

Hurricane Katrina - Hurricane Song

Million Man! Stop Marching And Start Doing. Time Is Running Out.

I was deeply moved by the last Million Man March in 1996. As a Black man, I knew that the over 1 million Black men who decended on Washington DC came out of the hurt and pain they were feeling but more importantly they came with the desire for change. What kind of change? Economic.

All men, no matter what race, want to have the money to provide for their families. Earning a living is not easy for anyone, but it has been increasingly more difficult for many Black men. I watched CNN that day and heard all the speechs. I heard all the wolf  tickets about what whites need to do for us. But I did not hear a plan of what we are going to do for ourselves. There was no system in place to collect the names. address, phone, numbers or email address of every Black man that was there to follow up with a plan.

Who made money from the march? Let me see.....the airlines, bus, trains and gas stations made money from Black men who needed to get there . The hotels made money from the folks who needed a place to stay. The restaurants, street vendors and convenience stores made money feeding these hungry Black men. But after it ended what happened...NOTHING.

Jump ahead 9 years and there is another Million Man March. Do you think the organizers and the speech makers learned from the mistakes of the past and decided that this time we are going to offer a plan. Better yet an economic plan to help Black people to better direct the $800 billion we spend in this economy toward impowering ourselves. Again, there were wolf tickets and chest beating but nothing came out of it.  And the same people who made money on the first march, were there to make money again.

Oh I forgot to mention, the shoe companies also made money from all the brothers who needed new shoes after marching...What do you think?

How Important Is Black History Month?

These eye opening interviews were recently done for Black History Month at BYU February 2012 clearly showing not only the ignorance and sterotype that most whites still have about Black people, but also what some of us have about ourselves.

Most students, black and white go through 12 years of school learning very little about Black History beyond the fact that we were slaves. Students know little of the significant political, social and scientific contributions African Americans have made in the building of America. This lack of knowledge leads most whites to a false sense of superiority and black children to a sense of inferiority.

Black History (click here) is American history and until it is incorporated in all American History classes for all grade levels, we will continue to have a lack of understanding and respect of African Americans. What do you think?

Today is National Black HIV/Aids Awareness Day

We are 12% of the US population ,yet we now account for over 50% of all HIV cases. Recently, the New Black Leadership Coalition applauded President George Bush's call during last Tuesday night's State of the Union Address to reauthorize a modernized and improved Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act. Up for reauthorization by Congress in 2006, the Ryan White Act must be modernized to alleviate inequities in treatment, primarily affecting the poor and minority Americans, according to the PR Newswire.

But the least we can all do today is buy a package of condoms . Use them and give them to our friends and relatives who aren't married and who are sexually active. We must constantly warn our young people of the dangers of unprotected sex. Our future as a people depends on it. What do you think...

Thank You Coretta Scott King. You will be greatly missed.

Behind every great man is truly a great women.  She carried on the torch of freedom for Black people and all people.  She was not content to be the widow of one the greatest men history has ever known. She knew it was her responsibility to carry on and that she did with dignity and strength. If you need to be reminded of just how great she was, please visit and listen to this page.Click Here.

Over 1 million Black Males In Prison or Paroled In the US and Growing.....

Have you ever thought about the long term implications of what it means for a race of people to have over 1 million of their males locked away during their most productive years?  At this time lets not address whether they belong locked up or not. Let's just concentrate on the numbers and what they could mean to the future of Black people in America.

Black Male Incarceration Up Date, April 2011

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

For smoother viewing, hit start, then hit stop, waiting 10 minutes for the video to load onto your hard drive. You should then be able to watch without the video starting and stopping.

Based on the rate of incarceration, 32% of Black males will enter the state or federal prison system during their life time. And we wonder why are there so many Black single mother households. Some will tell you that Black people, especially Black males, are more prone to crime. Some how it must be in our genes. But they will never tell you that the prison industry is a $41 billion a year market, that creates jobs and business for construction , food , furniture, uniform and personal care product companies who are primarily white and who hire very few Black employees.

They won't tell you that many white communities beg to have prison facilities built near by because of the amount of jobs and supply contacts they generate.  But in order to keep all of this going, you must have a steady flow of customers....prison inmates. Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest publicly traded prison operators in the country, generates over $3.5 billion a year. Nationally, an average of  $60,000 a year in tax dollars is spent on incarcerating each inmate.

There are mothers and fathers who don't have sons, children who don't have fathers, Black women who won't have husbands, and young Black women who are increasingly finding it harder to find a mate, because so many, who might have potential, are locked up. Look at the hard numbers that tell the real story... http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/crimoff.htm ...and tell us what you think.

America's Prison System is a 47 Billion Dollar Business. The United States has 5 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of the world's incarcerated population. We rank first in the world in locking up our fellow citizens.

Is the white man to blame for so many brothers being in prison or have so many of us chosen the easy way out? Experience some times can be a hell of a teacher. But Are there really more Black men in Prision than in college? We must change how we think about ourselve first. What do you think?

Break A Leg Nigger..that's was posted on Gold Metalist's Shani Davis' website in 2006.

 
UpDate February 2010 Vancouver Olympics: Shani Davis U.S. Gold Metal Winner. Congratulations Shani, Success Speaks Louder Than Words!

Maya Angelou was thinking of you Shani Davis, when she wrote the historic poem "And Still I Rise". Despite few commercial endorsements and support from some of your USA team mates, you are now in the history books as a gold metal winner from the South Side of Chicago. While most of the recent posts of Shani's great accomplishment are supportative, here is just one example of what he had to deal with as he kept his eyes focused on the prize.

BREAK A LEG NIGGER
SELFISH BASTARD LOOKS OUT ONLY FOR HIS SELFISH PERSONAL GOALS AND COULD GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THE TEAM, LET HIM BREAK A LEG, FAIL TO MEDAL AND DRAG HIS NIGGER ASS HOME.
Posted by snowhound on 14 February 2006.

I invite you to visit Shani's website but please come back and share your thoughts.

Life Without Black People- Black Inventors

Kareem Abdul Jabbar talks about his new book and the exlusion of Black Inventors from the history books and the classrooms of America. 

Update, February 2012

Click Here To Learn More About Kareem's New Book.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I had a friend of mine sent me this excellent piece of prose about Black History for me to share:

LIFE WITHOUT BLACK PEOPLE

A very humorous and revealing story is told about a
group of white people who were fed up with African-
Americans, so they joined together and wished
them away. They passed through a deep dark
tunnel and emerged in sort of a twilight zone where
there is an America without black people.

At first these white people breathed a sigh of relief.
At last, they said, no more crime, drugs, violence and
welfare. All of the blacks have gone!

Then suddenly, reality set in. The "NEW AMERICA" is
Not America at all--only a barren land.

1. There are very few crops that have flourished
Because the nation was built on a slave-supported
system.

2. There are no cities with tall skyscrapers because
Alexander Mils, a black man, invented the elevator,
And without it, one finds great difficulty reaching
higher floors.

3. There are few if any cars because Richard Spikes, a
Black man, invented the automatic gearshift, Joseph
Gambol, also black, invented the Super Charge System
for Internal Combustion Engines, and Garrett A.
Morgan, a black man, invented the traffic signals.

4. Furthermore, one could not use the rapid transit
system because its predecessor was the electric
trolley,
which was invented by another black man, Albert R.
Robinson.

5. Even if there were streets on which cars and a
rapid transit system could operate, they were
cluttered with paper because an African American,
Charles Brooks invented the street sweeper.

6. There were few if any newspapers, magazines and
books because John Love invented the pencil sharpener,
William Purveys invented the fountain pen and Lee
Barrage invented the Type Writing Machine and W. A.
Love invented the Advanced Printing Press. They were
all, you guessed it, Black.

7. Even if Americans could write their letters,
articles and books, they would not have been
transported by mail because William Barry invented the
Postmarking and Canceling Machine, William Purveys
invented the Hand Stamp and Philip Downing invented
the Letter Drop.

8. The lawns were brown and wilted because Joseph
Smith invented the Lawn Sprinkler and John Burr the
Lawn Mower.

9. When they entered their homes, they found them to
be poorly ventilated and poorly heated. You see,
Frederick Jones invented the Air Conditioner and Alice
Parker the Heating Furnace. Their homes were also dim.
But of course, Lewis Later invented the Electric Lamp,
Michael Harvey invented the lantern and Granville T.
Woods invented the Automatic Cut off Switch. Their
homes were also filthy because Thomas W. Steward
invented the Mop & Lloyd P. Ray the Dust Pan.

10. Their children met them at the door--barefooted,
Shabby, motley and unkempt. But what could one expect?
Jan E. Matzelinger invented the Shoe Lasting Machine,
Walter Sammons Invented the Comb, Sarah Boone
invented the Ironing Board and George T. Samon
invented the Clothes Dryer.

11. Finally, they were resigned to at least have
dinner amidst all of this turmoil. But here again, the
food had spoiled because another Black man, John
Standard invented the refrigerator.

Now, isn't that something? What would this country be
like without the contributions of Blacks, as

African-Americans?

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "By the time we leave
for work, Americans have depended on the inventions
from the minds of Blacks."

Black history includes more than just slavery,
Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm
X, and Marcus Garvey & W.E.B. Dubois.

What do you think..........

"America's High Tech "Invisible Man"

Having worked in the media for years where I saw and see very few African Americans in highly visible news editorial positions, you can understand why very few stories about us as hero and victim ever get much exposure. But when we are the assailant or perpetrator, only then do we get the front page or the lead story, as if to say I told you so. Stories about our accomplishments make some of those who have a false sense of superiority feel very uncomfortable. In this age of technology, here is an African American you need to know about and applaud.

"America's High Tech "Invisible Man"
By Tyrone D. Taborn

You may not have heard of Dr. Mark Dean. And you aren't alone. But almost
everything in your life has been affected by his work.

See, Dr. Mark Dean is a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He is in the
National Hall of Inventors. He has more than 30 patents pending. He is a
vice president with IBM. Oh, yeah. And he is also the architect of the
modern-day personal computer. Dr. Dean holds three of the original nine patents on the computer that all PCs are based upon. And, Dr. Mark Dean is an African American.

So how is it that we can celebrate the 20th anniversary of the IBM personal
computer without reading or hearing a single word about him? Given all of
the pressure mass media are under about negative portrayals of African
Americans on television and in print, you would think it
would be a slam dunk to highlight someone like Dr. Dean.

Somehow, though, we have managed to miss the shot. History is cruel when it comes to telling the stories of African Americans. Dr. Dean isn't the first
Black inventor to be overlooked Consider John Stanard, inventor of the
refrigerator, George Sampson, creator of the clothes dryer,
Alexander Miles and his elevator, Lewis Latimer and the electric lamp. All
of these inventors share two things:

One, they changed the landscape of our society; and, two, society relegated
them to the footnotes of history. Hopefully, Dr. Mark Dean won't go away as
quietly as they did. He certainly shouldn't. Dr. Dean helped start a Digital
Revolution that created people like Microsoft's Bill Gates and Dell
Computer's Michael Dell. Millions of jobs in information technology can be
traced back directly to Dr. Dean.

More important, stories like Dr. Mark Dean's should serve as inspiration for
African-American children. Already victims of the "Digital Divide" and
failing school systems, young, Black kids might embrace technology with more enthusiasm if they knew someone like Dr. Dean already was leading the way.

Although technically Dr. Dean can't be credited with creating the computer
-- that is left to Alan Turing, a pioneering 20th-century English mathematician, widely considered to be the father of modern computer science.
-- Dr. Dean rightly deserves to take a bow for the machine we use today. The computer really wasn't practical for home or small business use until he came along, leading a team that developed the interior architecture (ISA systems bus) that enables multiple devices, such as modems and printers, to be connected to personal computers.

In other words, because of Dr. Dean, the PC became a part of our daily
lives. For most of us, changing the face of society would have been enough.
But not for Dr. Dean. Still in his early forties, he has! a lot of inventing
left in him.

He recently made history again by leading the design team responsible for
creating the first 1-gigahertz processor chip.. It's just another huge step
in making computers faster and smaller. As the world congratulates itself
for the new Digital Age brought on by the personal computer, we need to
guarantee that the African-American story is part of the hoopla surrounding
the most stunning technological advance the world has ever seen. We cannot afford to let Dr. Mark Dean become a footnote in history. He is well worth his own history book.

The Angry Black Woman?

Updated 2012

70% Of Black Women Are Single!

What we're failing to deal with is the intentional marginalization of the Black male. Our choices as a people are playing into our own demise. Our choice to no longer see education as a way up and out. Black men who choose to marry white women. Black women who may have unreasonable expectations.  And our choice to ignore the extent to which our indifference and growing Black male genocide continues over the next 20-50 years, making us a footnote in the history books. Connect the dots. Wake Up!!! This is happening to us globally.

It really is up to us to save ourselves. Black male unemployment globally is only going to get worse. There are those who are watching our disintegration and hoping that we don't wake up.

Here's an insightful post that challenges the 70% figure and offers another perspective on the serious issues facing Black male, female relationships. Click Here.