Black Jesus.com

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 better direct the $500 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 shoes companies also made money from all the brothers who needed new shoes after marching...What do you think?

Is Obama Black Enough?

A few years ago, I had a gracious white woman tell me in quiet honesty,  as we attempted to talk openingly about race relations between blacks and whites, and why Sunday was still the most segregated day of the week, she said, "What most whites fear and especially white males is that if we allow you to have any kind of power in making decisions over us, you will do to us what we have done to you." I believe that when most white Obama supporters see pictures of him with his maternal white grand parents, and they found out his mother was white, this,unfounded fear of retaliation, gives way to a willingness to listen to him as a highly intelligent presidential candidate, who is worth all of our consideration. And since he's not to dark, many believe he is less threatening. By the way, my grand mother was half white, but it still doesn't make me or most African American's less black. But I think,  if we did a DNA check on many whites, the reverse would also be true. No one in America is 100% anything. Ask Vice President Cheney who has recently been found through DNA testing, to be a distant cousin of  Senator Barack Obama.

As Obama Rises, Old Civil Right Leaders Scowl

Here a very insightful article that appeared in the January 18, Washington post. I believe its time for the old guard to step aside...what do you think:

As Obama Rises, Old Guard Civil Rights Leaders Scowl

By William Jelani Cobb
Sunday, January 13, 2008; B01

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when "black president" was synonymous with "president of black America." That was the office to which Jesse Jackson appointed himself in the 1970s -- resigned to the fact that the actual presidency was out of reach. In 2003, Chris Rock wrote and directed "Head of State," a film about the first black man to win the presidency. (It was a comedy.) And in the ultimate concession, some African Americans have attempted to bestow the title of black president upon Bill Clinton -- a white man.

In the wake of his strong showing in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, Sen. Barack Obama has already permanently changed the meaning of that term. It is no longer an oxymoron or a quixotic in-joke. And this, perhaps more than anything else, explains his tortured relationship with black civil rights leaders.

The most amazing thing about the 2008 presidential race is not that a black man is a bona fide contender, but the lukewarm response he has received from the luminaries whose sacrifices made this run possible. With the notable exception of Joseph Lowry, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference veteran who gave a stirring invocation at Obama's Atlanta campaign rally in June and subsequently endorsed him, Obama has been running without much support from many of the most recognizable black figures in the political landscape.

That's because, positioned as he is between the black boomers and the hip-hop generation, Obama is indebted, but not beholden, to the civil rights gerontocracy. A successful Obama candidacy would simultaneously represent a huge leap forward for black America and the death knell for the reign of the civil rights-era leadership -- or at least the illusion of their influence.

The most recent example of the old guard's apparent aversion to Obama was Andrew Young's febrile YouTube ramblings about Bill Clinton being "every bit as black as Barack Obama" and his armchair speculation that Clinton had probably bedded more black women during his lifetime than the senator from Illinois -- as if racial identity could be transmitted like an STD. This could be dismissed as a random instance of a politician speaking out of turn were it not part of an ongoing pattern.

Last spring, Al Sharpton cautioned Obama "not to take the black vote for granted." Presumably he meant that the senator had not won over the supposed gatekeepers of the black electorate. Asked why he had not endorsed Obama, Sharpton replied that he would "not be cajoled or intimidated by any candidate." More recently Sharpton claimed on his radio show that the candidates' recent attention to issues of civil rights was a product of pressure from him.

Although Jackson is not entirely unfamiliar with the kind of thing that's happening to Obama -- Coretta Scott King endorsed Walter Mondale over him in 1984 -- he also got into the act. He criticized Obama for not championing the "Jena Six" cause -- the case of six young black men in Louisiana charged with beating a white classmate -- vigorously enough. After Obama's Iowa victory, Jackson demanded that the senator bolster "hope with substance."

Taken as a conglomerate, Jackson, Young, Sharpton and Georgia Rep. John Lewis represent a sort of civil rights old boy network -- a black boy network -- that has parlayed its dated activist credentials into cash and jobs. Jackson, a two-time presidential candidate, has become a CNN host; Young was mayor of Atlanta and sits on numerous corporate boards; and Lewis is essentially representative-for-life of the 5th Congressional District in Georgia. Sharpton is younger than the others but a peer in spirit.

To the extent that the term "leader" is applicable, these four men likely represent the interests of Democratic Party insiders more than those of the black community. Both Young and Lewis have endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton; Sharpton and Jackson have acted ambivalent, alternately mouthing niceties about Obama and criticizing his stances on black issues.

It may be that, because they doubt that he can actually win, the civil rights leaders are holding Obama at arm's length in an attempt to build their houses on what looks to be the firmer ground. And there are certainly patronage benefits should Clinton win. She owes black pols, starting with Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), who first suggested that the party endorse her for a New York Senate seat. Rangel has also lined up behind Clinton.

There is far more to politics -- even racial politics -- than skin color. Still it is counterintuitive to think that Lewis, whose political career began when he was bludgeoned in Selma, Ala., fighting for black voting rights, is witnessing the rise of the first viable black presidential candidate and yet opts to support a white machine politician.

One of the most telling aspects of Young's YouTube commentary was his statement that he'd called his political connections in Chicago about Obama and been told "they don't know him." There are certainly reasons not to support Obama, but not having friends in common isn't one of them. Young went on to announce that Obama was too young and should wait until 2016 -- a curious statement considering that Young was apprenticed to Martin Luther King Jr., who was 26 when he launched the Montgomery bus boycotts that eventually toppled segregation.

The cynical braying about Obama's prospects has not been confined to the liberal civil rights quarters of black America. The conservative commentator Shelby Steele argued in his book "A Bound Man" that Obama isn't perceived as "black" enough to win over African American voters.

In fact, Obama strategists have been struggling to convince black voters that Obama can actually win over white voters and be a viable candidate. Many blacks want to support a winner and hope that Obama will become more attractive to white voters, not less.

Part of this disconnect is a generational divide, one that is apparent in Jackson's own household. Following Jackson's criticism of Obama in the Chicago Sun-Times, his son, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., wrote a passionate defense of Obama's activist credentials.

As polls show increasing black support for Obama, Jackson, Sharpton and Young begin to look like a once-wealthy family that has lost its fortune but has to keep spending to maintain appearances. Obama's tepid early showing among blacks in the polls had more to do with name recognition and concerns about his viability as a candidate than with Jackson or Sharpton withholding their endorsement.

Ignoring Sharpton or Jackson is not the same thing as taking the black vote for granted. It is a reasonable calculation that neither of them can deliver many votes and certainly not enough to offset the number of white votes that their approval could lose Obama. Jackson and Sharpton might be holding out for a better deal in exchange for their support, but with Oprah Winfrey and Chris Rock among Obama's list of supporters, they have little to bargain with.

If Obama makes a strong showing in the South Carolina primary -- the first with a substantial number of black voters -- it will become apparent that the black boy network has begun bouncing checks.

The irony is that for generations of black "firsts," the prerequisite for entering an institution was proving that you were just like the establishment that ran it. (Think of Jackie Robinson's approach to the major leagues, or the host of "articulate Negro" roles in Sidney Poitier's body of work.)

Obama has been vastly successful by doing just the opposite: masterfully positioning himself as an outsider. In the process, he's opened the door even wider for black outsiders. Too bad his predecessors refuse to help push him the rest of the way inside.

Jelani9@aol.com

William Jelani Cobb is an associate professor of history at Spelman College and the author of "The Devil & Dave Chappelle and Other Essays."

Hillary Clinton Accomplishments: Bob Johnson- Crab In A Barrel?

I don't quite understand why it was necessary for Bob Johnson to denegrate Obama in an effort to elevate Hillary Clinton.

But I found this characterization quite appropritate. What do you think?

April 15, 2008 Wading back into the Democratic presidential race, billionaire businessman Bob Johnson said Monday that Sen. Barack Obama would not be his party's leading candidate if he were white. Johnson's comments to the Observer echoed those of former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro. She stepped down as an adviser to Sen. Hillary Clinton last month after saying Obama wouldn't be where he is if he were white. "What I believe Geraldine Ferraro meant is that if you take a freshman senator from Illinois called `Jerry Smith' and he says I'm going to run for president, would he start off with 90 percent of the black vote?" Johnson said. "And the answer is, probably not... ." "Geraldine Ferraro said it right. The problem is, Geraldine Ferraro is white. This campaign has such a hair-trigger on anything racial ... it is almost impossible for anybody to say anything." Johnson, who made a fortune after founding Black Entertainment Television and now owns the Charlotte Bobcats, is a longtime friend of Clinton and her husband, the former president. Commentary below by Charles Johnson of BlackJesus.com. Bob Johnson let me pose this question to you. Do you think John Malone gave you $500,000 to start BET because he was really interested in helping a poor black disadvantage entrepreneur launch a Black Cable Network? Do you really think he felt it was time for diversity in cable television programming? No, he and the other white cable operators knew they needed to have a marginal company like BET, that they partly owned and controlled, to sell to the city councils of the major urban areas, if they were to get the cable tv expansion nod of cities with large black populations. They needed to have at least one so called black network to point to, to show they had diversity in programming. For the next 15 plus years, you were happy to fit the role of the house negro, playing largely offensive, derogatory music videos in a repetitive loop 12 hours a day and direct response ads the rest of the day. In the name of share holder value, you were not willing to use this opportunity to provide any quality black programming that would change the negative image of African Americans and create real jobs and creative opportunities for so many others. You of all people would not be in your position if you weren't Black. You have every right to support Hillary Clinton, but you have no right to say Barack Obama is where he is because he is black. What ever monetary promises the Clintons have offered you for your support, it isn't worth selling your soul for. P.S. I suggest you take a cue from our Jewish brethren. They may disagree in private, but they always show a unified front and make no apologies for it.

Yes We Can- We Are One People!

The Yes We Can Song
by will.i.am
   
I was sitting in my recording studio watching the debates...
Torn between the candidates

I was never really big on politics...
and actually I’m still not big on politics...
but 4 years ago, me and the black eyed peas supported Kerry...
And we supported Kerry with all our might...
We performed and performed and performed for the DNC...
doing all we could do to get the youth involved...

The outcome of the last 2 elections has saddened me...
on how unfair, backwards, upside down, unbalanced, untruthful,
corrupt, and just simply, how wrong the world and "politics" are...

So this year i wanted to get involved and do all i could early...

And i found myself torn...
because this time it’s not that simple...
our choices aren’t as clear as the last elections ...
last time it was so obvious...
Bush and war
vs
no Bush and no war...

But this time it’s not that simple...
and there are a lot of people that are torn just like i am...

So for awhile I put it off and i was going to wait until it was decided for me...

And then came New Hampshire...

And i was captivated...

Inspired...

I reflected on my life...
and the blessings I have...
and the people who fought for me to have these rights and blessings...

and I’m not talking about a "black thing"
I’m talking about a "human thing" me as a "person"
an American...

That speech made me think of Martin Luther King...
Kennedy...
and Lincoln...
and all the others that have fought for what we have today...

what America is "supposed" to be...

freedom...
equality...
and truth...

and thats not what we have today...
we think we are free...
but in reality terror and fear controls our decisions...

this is not the America that our pioneers and leaders fought and
died for...

and then there was New Hampshire

it was that speech...
like many great speeches...
that one moved me...
because words and ideas are powerful...

It made me think...
and realize that today we have "very few" leaders...
maybe none...

but that speech...

it inspired me...
it inspired me to look inside myself and outwards towards the world...
it inspired me to want to change myself to better the world...
and take a "leap" towards change...
and hope that others become inspired to do the same...
change themselves..
change their greed...
change their fears...
and if we "change that"
"then hey"..
we got something right...???...

1 week later after the speech settled in me...
I began making this song...
I came up with the idea to turn his speech into a song...
because that speech effected and touched my inner core like nothing in a very long time...

it spoke to me...

because words and ideas are powerful...

I just wanted to add a melody to those words...
I wanted the inspiration that was bubbling inside me to take over...

so i let it..

I wasn't afraid to stand for something...
to stand for "change"...
I wasn't afraid of "fear"...
it was pure inspiration...

so I called my friends...
and they called their friends...
in a matter of 2 days...
We made the song and video...

Usually this process would take months...
a bunch of record company people figuring out strategies and release dates...
interviews...
all that stuff...
but this time i took it in my own hands...
so i called my friends sarah pantera, mike jurkovac, fred goldring, and jesse dylan to help make it happen...
and they called their friends..
and we did it together in 48 hours...
and instead of putting it in the hands of profit we put it in the hands of inspiration...

then we put it on the net for the world to feel...

When you are truly inspired..
magic happens...
incredible things happen...
love happens..
(and with that combination)

"love, and inspiration"

change happens...

"change for the better"
Inspiration breeds change...

"Positive change"...

no one on this planet is truly experienced to handle the obstacles we face today...
Terror, fear, lies, agendas, politics, money, all the above...
It’s all scary...

Martin Luther King didn't have experience to lead...
Kennedy didn't have experience to lead...
Susan B. Anthony...
Nelson Mandella...
Rosa Parks...
Gandhi...
Anne Frank...
and everyone else who has had a hand in molding the freedoms we have and take for granted today...

no one truly has experience to deal with the world today...

they just need "desire, strength, courage ability, and passion" to change...
and to stand for something even when people say it's not possible...

America would not be here "today" if we didn’t stand and fight for
change "yesterday"...
Everything we have as a "people" is because of the "people" who fought for
change...
and whoever is the President has to realize we have a lot of changing to do

I'm not trying to convince people to see things how i do...
I produced this song to share my new found inspiration and how I've been moved...
I hope this song will make you feel...
love...
and think...
and be inspired just like the speech inspired me...

that’s all...

Let's all come together like America is supposed to...
Like Japan did after Hiroshima...

that was less than 65 years ago...
and look at Japan now...

they did it together...
they did it...

"We can't?...

Are you serious..?..

WE CAN!!!

Yes we can...
A United "America"
Democrats, Republicans and Independents together...
Building a new America

We can do it...
"TOGETHER"

Thank you for reading and listening...
will.i.am

Yes We Can! Yes We Can! Yes We  Can!

 

America's Secret Black President s- No Not Clinton

On President's Day, Remember Your 5 Black Presidents

Compiled by the DiversityInc staff. Date Posted: February 15, 2008

We keep hearing that this year will mark the first time a major political party in the United States nominated a woman or a Black person as its presidential candidate. For women, that is true, but some historians say Sen. Barack Obama, if elected, would not be the nation's first Black president. They say he certainly won't be the first president with Black ancestors--just the first to acknowledge his Blackness. Which other presidents hid their African ancestry? Well, it's not Bill Clinton, even though the Congressional Black Caucus honored him as the nation's "first Black president" at its 2001 annual awards dinner. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge all had Black ancestors they kept in their genealogical closets, according to historians. Harding did not deny his African ancestry when Republican leaders called on him to deny his "Negro" history. He said, "How should I know whether or not one of my ancestors might have jumped the fence?"  Does African ancestry make these men Black? If the bar is the one-drop rule, then yes. The one-drop rule is a historical term used during the Jim Crow era that defines a person with one drop of sub-Saharan-African ancestry as not white and therefore must be Black. If that's the bar, then there have already been other Black presidents, says historian Leroy Vaughn, author of Black People and Their Place in World History.The first president with African ancestry was Jefferson, who served two terms between 1801 and 1809.

Jefferson was described as the "son of a half-breed Indian squaw and a Virginia mulatto father," as stated in Vaughn's findings. Jefferson also was said to have destroyed all documentation attached to his mother, even going to extremes to seize letters written by his mother to other people.

President Andrew Jackson, the nation's seventh president, was in office between 1829 and 1837. Vaughn cites an article written in The Virginia Magazine of History that states Jackson

was the son of an Irish woman who married a Black man. The magazine also stated that Jackson's oldest brother had been sold as a slave. Lincoln, the nation's 16th president, served between 1861 and 1865. Lincoln was said to have been the illegitimate son of an African man, according to Vaughn's findings. Lincolnhad very dark skin and coarse hair and his mother allegedly came from an Ethiopian tribe. His heritage fueled so much controversy that Lincoln was nicknamed "Abraham Africanus the First" by his opponents. President Warren Harding, the 29th president, in office between 1921 and 1923, apparently never denied his ancestry. According to Vaughn, William Chancellor, a professor of economics and politics at Wooster College in Ohio, wrote a book on the Harding family genealogy. Evidently, Harding had Black ancestors between both sets of parents. Chancellor also said that Harding attended Iberia College, a school founded to educate fugitive slaves.

Coolidge, the nation's 30th president, served between 1923 and 1929 and supposedly was proud of his heritage. He claimed his mother was dark because of mixed Indian ancestry. Coolidge's mother's maiden name was "Moor," and in Europe, the name "Moor" was given to all Blacks, just as "Negro" was used in America. It later was concluded that Coolidge was part Black.

Michelle Obama Understands How Racism Has Effected Black People

When Barack Obama first began this journey, the biggest obstacle he had to overcome wasn't white racism. Obama proved that many whites across this country are now finally ready to move beyond race.  But as Michelle Obama found early on and knew so well, the biggest challenge was to get  Black people not only to believe in her husband, but more importantly Black people must believe in themselves.

Hurricane Katrina

Friends,

When I saw the folks who were left behind when Hurricane Katrina struck, I was shocked, saddened, angered and ashamed.

I knew what I saw was wrong. Now I'm determined to do what I can to make sure this never happens again.

I wanted to let you know about a group that recently formed to make that happen. I just signed on to their pledge, and I wanted to invite you to do the same.

ColorOfChange.org is working to mobilize a group of 250,000 people -– Black folks and their allies -- who are willing to take a simple pledge: to protect those of us who are struggling at the margins, to make sure they're not left behind again, and to help them gain a political voice.

You can read more and sign it, here:

http://www.colorofchange.org 

When a large number of us speak up in a loud voice, it's hard to ignore. The goal of ColorOfChange.org is to help us bring about political change by pressuring elected officials, keeping everyone informed, and creating simple ways for us to come together and take action using the Internet.

Together, we can change the balance of power in this country--and make sure what we saw on TV, we never see again. I hope you'll check it out.

Thanks!

Hurricane Katrina - Hurricane Song

First Black President

I had a friend of mine pass along this insightful piece of prose that addresses the concerns by some as to whether Barack Obama is ready to be president. Please read and feel free share your thoughts:

A Black Man 

Why is it that a Black Man can create a tiny piece called a filament (electric light - Lewis Latimer)
that allows people to see in the dark?

But can't be seen fit to lead a country to the true light.

Why is it that a Black Man can create an instrument (clock - Benjamin Banneker) that all
people use to tell time?

But people don't think it is time for him to run a country.

Why is it that a Black Man can design a place for the high authorities to meet in & a place for the
president to live in (The Capital & the White House Phillip Reid (a slave) & Pierre L'Enfant)?

But not good enough to lead these meetings or live in himself.

Why is it that a Black Man was brilliant enough to do the first open heart surgery (Dr. Daniel Hale Williams)
and show the world how to get and preserve plasma (Dr. Charles Drew)?

But not good enough to put a program in place where everyone can afford this surgery.

Why is it that a Black Man was creative enough to design an instrument (traffic light - Garrett Morgan) to bring multiple people (traffic) to a halt?

But not seen creative enough to design a plan to bring all this unnecessary and worthless
fighting between countries.

Why is it that a Black Man could create the soles (shoes - Jan Matzeliger) that people
walk on everyday?

But not seen good enough to fill the shoes of a bad president.

Why is it that a Black Man was smart enough & brave enough to teach himself (Fredrick Douglas &
Thomas Fuller - both slaves) and others how to read, write and/or calculate math?

But not seen smart enough and bold enough to calculate a platform to be President to a country
that sure needs another first by us.

So you see my Brother and Sisters what I am saying is let us not forget our past,
which led us to ,our present and can definitely be the backbone to our future. 
We were good enough, smart enough, creative enough, and bold enough then, so
lets all give Obama the chance to show that we are still these things and more. 
We all are as strong as our weakest link, so don't be that weak link that denies
our people that chance to show we still can OVERCOME & BE THE FIRST

Will I Am -We Are The Ones

The singer, whose music video featuring celebrities speaking a Barack Obama speech in New Hampshire became a YouTube sensation, is back with a follow-up that debuted today. This one sets to music a campaign crowd chanting "Obama, Obama!" and shows a series of celebs and voters talking about what they hope an Obama presidency would bring -- a cleaner environment, a united country, etc. Others join in the chant, inadvertently providing fodder, perhaps, for critics who say the enthusiasm for the Illinois senator verges on cult-like. The video features several Hispanic voters and celebrities, including comedian George Lopez, when Latino voters could swing the crucial Texas contest on Tuesday. The video is titled "We Are The Ones" and comes from will.i.am, the frontman for the Black Eyed Peas.