Black Jesus is searched for online thousands of times per day. Is Jesus Black if you apply the 1% drop of Black blood rule? Why does Jesus continue to be portrayed as white, blond and blue eyed, when there is scientific and biblical proof that he was a man of color with wooly hair? Why do so many people refuse to acknowledge this truth? What does this cover up have to do with the problems of race throughout the world? Let us talk honestly. "Black Jesus" is searched for over 550,000 times a month, so clearly others are seeking the truth. Help spread this conversation world wide, by telling others about this site. If you seek and are not afraid of the truth, lets also share info affecting people of African decent globally, on a daily basis. We welcome intelligent observations and opinions from all races. The internet is the modern day drum, that can send out unfiltered messages globally, but you must be willing and ready to hear. Click on the 'Proof BlackJesus" link at the upper right to discover the Black Jesus facts and find out what motivated me to launch this blog. Thanks and peace to all of God's people.
Political scientist Jane Junn examines shifting views on racial categorization in the United States. Junn notes the increasingly common use of the "Multiracial" designation on the U.S. Census, and discusses what it may mean for American society.
Barack Obama's success so has fostered optimistic rhetoric in mainstream media about race relations in the United States. But does Obama 's Presidency transform Martin Luther King Jr.'s American dream into a reality?
A recent New York Times/CBS poll found that Americans are sharply divided by race on their views of Senator Obama and the state of race relations. In addition, with an increased presence of other minority groups, issues regarding race in political and social life are no longer black and white.
What role does race play in the 2008 election and beyond? Can America ever truly be a color-blind society? - The Century Foundation
Jane Junn is Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University. She holds a joint appointment with the Eagleton Institute of Politics. She received her A.B. from the University of Michigan, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Her primary interests are political participation and elections in the U.S., political behavior and attitudes among American minorities and immigrants, theories of democracy, survey research, and social science methodology. Her research has been supported by the Russell Sage Foundation, CIRCLE, the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Spencer Foundation, and the Educational Testing Service.
In 1998 she was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Hanguk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Korea. She has been a member of the 2004 Social Science Research Commission on National Elections following the contested 2000 election, and a member of a National Academies of Science panel evaluating the redesign of the U.S. Naturalization test. Her latest book is New Race Politics in America: Understanding Minority and Immigrant Politics. Her book, Education and Democratic Citizenship in America won the 1997 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Book Award from the American Political Science Association for the best book published in political science in 1996.
Comedian: Russel Peters On The Whole World Is Mixing.
Would you like to see a world without blacks or whites, where everyone is one color?
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — They worked long hours doing often menial labor for meager pay on America's railroads, and paved the way for the civil rights movement in the process. Now, the unsung men known as Pullman porters are getting overdue recognition for their historical legacy.
On Saturday, May 9th, in conjunction with National Train Day, a handful of surviving Pullman porters in their 80s and 90s are being honored during a ceremony at Philadelphia's historic 30th Street Station. Similar gatherings have been held in Oakland, Chicago and Washington.
"The stories and the history we have shows the job these gentlemen did, and their dedication to top-notch service, was just incredible," said Darlene Abubakar, Amtrak's national advertising director. "We wanted to recognize them for that and share their stories."
At least four men are expected to attend the Philadelphia event. Porters still living may only number in the dozens, Amtrak officials said.
Pullman porters not only were role models in their community, they also helped change race relations in America, said Lyn Hughes, founder of the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum in Chicago.
"These men were often the only exposure white Americans had to the African-American community," Hughes said. "They were articulate, well dressed, dignified, and they made that impression upon the general public."
The first Pullman porters, hired after the Civil War, were former slaves. Their ranks reached 20,000 in the early part of the 20th century, making them the largest group of African-American men employed in the country. They formed the first black labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, in the 1920s under the stewardship of A. Philip Randolph, who also was a civil rights leader.
Percy Lee, 86, rose from fourth cook to head chef during his 38 years working the Illinois Central Railroad line. In a telephone interview from his home in Fulton, Ky., Lee said he put six children through college from his work on the railroad. He had to retire in 1979 after being injured when his train derailed.
"But I appreciate every day, every minute I worked on that train," said Lee, who plans to attend the Philadelphia event. "It was the best train in the world — with the best food in the world. Now everything comes frozen."
Listen to NPR Radio's report on why George Pullman only wanted to hire dark skin Black men as train porters.
Who's flooding our inner cities with cheap, available guns? No one seems to be able or willing to answer this question. When I grew up in Harlem in the 60'sand 70's very seldom did you hear of someone being gunned down, let alone children killing children. When ever there is a call for restricting gun sales, the NRA quickly steps forward to say "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."
Bill Cosby says that our children are trying to tell us something. We must begin to listen.
CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- The Rev. Michael Pfleger has ordered the American flag at St. Sabina Church hung upside-down -- a historic sign of distress -- to symbolize the growing death toll among the city's youngsters.
So far this school year, 36 children and teens have been murdered -- more than one a week -- and Pfleger is among a chorus of weary Chicagoans who say the slayings aren't getting the attention they deserve.
Had 36 kids died of swine flu this year, "there would be this great influx of resources that say, 'Let's stop this, lets deal with this,' " Pfleger said.
Instead, because violence is driving the epidemic, "We're hiding it. We're ignoring it. We're denying the problems," he said.
Pfleger is not the first Chicagoan to express the sentiment. In 2007, after the city recorded 31 murdered children during the school year, Arne Duncan, then-CEO of public schools, expressed similar disappointment.
Duncan, who now serves as President Obama's secretary of education, said "all hell would break loose" if these killings took place in one of the metro area's upscale enclaves.
"If that happened to one of Chicago's wealthiest suburbs -- and God forbid it ever did -- if it was a child being shot dead every two weeks in Hinsdale or Winnetka or Barrington, do you think the status quo would remain? There's no way it would," he said.
Yet the problem has only worsened since Duncan publicly shared his observation. With about a month left in the school year, Chicago's public schools have topped the number of students slain in the 2007-2008 and 2006-2007 school years -- 27 and 31, respectively.
One of the most disturbing slayings came last week when the family of Alex Arellano found the 15-year-old's body. He had been beaten, burned and shot in the head.
"It's sad because they didn't have to torture him that way. He never did nothing wrong, never. He was a good kid. It just gets to me. It's crazy," Alex's friend Ashley Recendez said.
Indeed, police say the teen had no criminal record, no gang affiliation. His family says he was well-behaved and shy, almost fearful of strangers. They had recently taken him out of school to protect him after gang members threatened him.
He was last seen May 1, leaving his girlfriend's house. His girlfriend told his family that several young men chased him and beat him with baseball bats. She didn't know why.
The family found his brutalized body in an alley the next day, which at the time made Alex the 34th child slain this school year in the city, according to an unofficial tally kept by the Chicago Tribune.
"Why would they do this to a child that has nothing to do with nothing, and just, on top of that, brutally killing him?" asked Alex's uncle Juan Tirado.
Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis said scuffles among youth have become more violent and a conflict that 20 years ago would have warranted a pushing or wrestling match now sometimes results in gunfire.
"There's simply too many gangs, too many guns and too many drugs on the streets," he said. "We've got a problem with some of our young people are resorting to use of weapons and violence to solve any type of conflicts they may have."Weis said he concurred with Duncan's remarks from two years ago and bemoaned that society had become desensitized, almost to the point of acceptance, by the violence in some of America's major cities.
"That is a very sad state of affairs," he said. But not all officials are convinced the level of violence against children is unique to Chicago.
Mayor Richard Daley said the numbers appear worse in his city because the public school system considers teenagers students even after they drop out.
The rest of America doesn't count them. You're a dropout forever. We don't think they're dropouts. They're students," he said.
He further said Chicago's problems are no worse than those in any other American city.
"It's all over, the same thing," he said. "You go to a large city or small city, it's all over America. It's not unique to one community or one city."
Despite Daley's remarks, CNN has learned that none of the city's 36 victims this year was a dropout.
Also, Daley's statistics on the number of youths killed in other cities don't appear to match reports from American cities.
Los Angeles, California, notorious for its gang problems, is larger than Chicago. It has reported only 23 child slayings this school year. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is about half the size of Chicago, but it has witnessed only a ninth of the child slayings: four this school year.
In 2007, Diane Latiker, founder of the community group Kids Off the Block, began a memorial on a vacant lot in Chicago. She bought 30 landscaping stones and wrote the name of a slain school-age child on each of them.
Her hopes were that the stark sight of the memorial would shock the city into action.
Today, the memorial includes 153 stones, some for children as young as 10, and there is little indication the pace is waning, as at least two children were killed since Alex Arellano's body was found Saturday.
"They come by here and they do this, and they come by here in cars and families come and cry," Latiker said of the burgeoning memorial.
Asked who was failing the kids -- police? schools? city officials? -- she replied flatly, "We all are."
Other community activists said they're at a loss to find any simple explanation. In May 2007, public outrage overflowed after the death of 16-year-old Blair Holt, an honor student and aspiring songwriter.
According to various media reports, Holt was riding a city bus when a gunfight erupted between two gang members. Holt tried to shield a young girl who was in the line of fire and was fatally shot in the stomach.
His death sparked public protests, and grieving family and activists listed a host of scapegoats: lax gun laws, insufficient policing, bad parenting. But two years later, families and activists say they're tired and discouraged by the torpid pace of change.
Lakeesha Stevens, whose son was shot as he slept in the car last year, said, "It can happen to anyone... you can be walking, you can be anywhere."
Fortunately, Martrell Stevens survived the shooting, but kindergarten proved a lot tougher for the youngster after the bullet left him partially paralyzed.
Weis said Chicago police work tirelessly to keep the violence out of the schools, and he expressed relief that the city is "providing a safe place for our young folks to learn."
However, he acknowledged that the conflicts sometimes begin in the schools and are finished off-campus. The violence will continue to be a priority for Chicago police, he said.
"I can promise you the Chicago Police Department is outraged and we will continue to work these cases with high energy and a great deal of enthusiasm," he said
What Do you think needs to be done to stop the violence?
I was just 10 years old when 3 civil rights workers, Goodman Chaney and Schwerner were killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi. It was hard for me to believe that one human being could hate another because all they wanted was the right to vote and be treated fairly. Two of the three civil rights workers who died were white. That taught me at a very young age that hatred and good come in all colors. But I never would have thought that 45 years later this small southern town, known primarily for its racist past, would elect a Black Mayor.
PHILADELPHIA, Miss., May 22 (UPI) -- Philadelphia, Miss., where the Ku Klux Klan killed three civil rights workers in 1964, has elected its first black mayor, polls show.
Results from this week's Democratic primary runoff showed James A. Young defeated incumbent Mayor Rayburn Waddell, 1,021 votes to 975 votes, the Neshoba (Miss.) Democrat reported Friday. Young got 51.15 percent of the vote.
Young, 53, is unopposed in the general election on June 2 because no Republican has filed to run.
Young is a Pentecostal minister, former county commissioner and paramedic who led the county ambulance service for nearly 20 years.
The community of 7,300 is 56 percent white, 40 percent black and 2 percent American-Indian, U.S. Census Bureau demographics indicate.
On June 21, 1964, three civil rights workers -- one black and two white -- who were registering voters in Philadelphia were murdered, an event that captured headlines across the country and was depicted in the 1988 film "Mississippi Burning." In a 1967 trial, seven of 18 defendants were convicted of conspiracy. In 2005, Edgar Ray Killen, an 80-year-old former Klansman, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
"This shows a complete change of attitude and a desire to move forward," Young said.
Since America operates under a capitalistic system, we must look at who profits
from this annual $50 billion prison industrial complex. We must keep in mind that while
Blacks and Hispanics represnt the largest percentage of inmates, we are no where to be
found as suppliers of all the goods and services purchased to operate this country's
county, state, federal and private prisons. There are also very few of us who are employed as guards and prison employees.
When it comes to issues plaguing Black and low-income communities, a White senator from the South is the last person we'd expect to go out on a limb and sound the alarm. Senator Jim Webb from Virginia just did exactly that when he boldly called out the over-imprisonment of Black folks and the serious problems with our prison system. Most importantly, he's demanding big changes.1
Now it's up to us to seize the moment and create the pressure necessary to achieve true reform.
The first step is publicly thanking Senator Webb. Our praise will show other politicians that when they take risks and step out on critical issues like prison reform, we will have their backs. It will also show that everyday people stand with Webb and are serious about this issue. Please join us, and ask your friends and family to do the same:
In recent years, politicians have lacked the courage to create meaningful prison reform. They've been paralyzed by the fear of being branded as "soft on crime." They've been held hostage by prison guard unions and industry lobbies. And the communities most affected--Black and low-income communities--have had a hard time getting a seat at the table and making our voices heard.
Our country has a clear problem. With just 5% of the world's population, America holds nearly 25% of the world's reported prison population. Our prison population has quadrupled since 1984, and most of the increase comes from people being imprisoned for drug offenses--mostly minor and nonviolent.2
Despite the fact that there is no statistical difference in drug use between different racial groups, harsh drug laws have had a devastating, disproportionate effect on Black communities. While only 12% of the U.S. population is African-American, Black people make up 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted, and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.3
It's surprising and encouraging that someone like Senator Webb is speaking out in this way. Webb is a White politician from Virginia, a Southern "law-and-order" state that has abolished parole and executed more people than any state besides Texas.4 He has nothing to gain politically from this--it's an act of true conviction.
By eloquently making the case for reform and calling for a National Criminal Justice Commission, Webb has created a major opening to address these issues. And it comes at a time when there are increasing signs the country is ready for reform. New York's governor and state legislature just struck a deal to reform the state's "Rockefeller drug laws"--some of the harshest laws in the country, and a great example of the failed status quo.5 A panel of federal judges has just told California it must reduce its prison population by a third to alleviate the torturous conditions stemming from overcrowding.6 And at the same time that more people are recognizing the deep injustices in our system, the economic crisis is forcing elected officials at all levels of government to realize they can't afford to keep directing so many taxpayer dollars toward law enforcement, jails, and prisons.7
We need to make the most of this moment. Take a minute to thank Senator Jim Webb for his courageous stand and support his call for a meaningful commission. And when you do, please ask your friends and family to do the same.
-- James, Gabriel, Clarissa, William, Dani and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team April 9th, 2009
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