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Thank You Tyler Perry!

"Why Did I Get Married" should be required viewing for all Black people who are fed up with the negative images that others create for us and themselves about us. Mr Perry exemplifies what we can do when we believe in ourselves and the spirit of people of African decent. This is a must see movie. It was so good I saw it twice!!!

See the power of Black people when we use the net.

When Tyler Perry and Janet Jackson were on a promotional tour for

"Why Did We Get Married" a idiot TV reporter thought his disrespect

would go unchecked. See who got the last laugh!

http://www.tylerperry.com/wdigm/interview/

Black Women Must Protect Themselves

I tell my daughters, they must protect themselves first. What do you think?

When do white journalists cross the line between reporting and standing on a bias soap box?

And I though reporters were suppose to be unbias and just give the facts. Obviously that's not the case on Fox News.

Spike Lee Speaks On "When The Levees Broke."

Racial harassment lawsuits at work go up

Racial harassment lawsuits at work go up

By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY,

USA TODAY

Posted: 2007-10-26 07:13:10

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says it is filing several racial harassment lawsuits a year involving hangman's nooses in workplaces, a trend agency officials say coincides with rising numbers of racial harassment complaints.

The noose, a symbol of violence against blacks, was recently in the news because of the national attention surrounding the Jena 6 case in Jena, La.

Since fiscal year 2001, the EEOC has filed more than 30 lawsuits that involve the displaying of nooses on the job. Some have resulted in settlements topping $1 million. The latest settlement, for $290,000, came Thursday.

Racial harassment complaints filed with the agency have more than doubled the past 17 years, from 3,075 in fiscal year 1991 to about 7,000 in 2007.

"It's time for Corporate America to be more proactive in preventing and eliminating racist behavior in the workplace," EEOC Chairwoman Naomi Earp said.

Thursday's settlement grew out of a lawsuit against Helmerich & Payne International Drilling, filed in Jackson, Miss. The EEOC alleged nooses were displayed on a rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

Helmerich & Payne spokesman Steve Mackey says the company investigated and doesn't know if its own employees or those working for other companies using the rig were responsible.

Among other cases:

-- In May, the agency reached a $390,000 racial harassment settlement with Pemco Aeroplex in Birmingham, Ala., on behalf of a class of black employees. The EEOC says employees at the company were subjected to racist graffiti and the display of nooses.

Felicia Banks, 35, who is African-American, quit in 2004. "I had no idea they would go that extreme with prejudice," says Banks, in Maylene, Ala. "I was very offended."

Pemco officials declined to comment on the settlement.

-- The EEOC in January settled a racial harassment lawsuit for $600,000 against AK Steel's (Quote: aks) facility in Butler, Pa. The EEOC alleges a noose was displayed and Ku Klux Klan videos were shown in employee lounges.

AK Steel spokesman Alan McCoy says the settlement did not acknowledge breaking laws, and the existence of any noose was not reported to management.

-- In March 2006, the EEOC reached a settlement of more than $1 million in a racial harassment lawsuit against Commercial Coating Service of Conroe, Texas. It alleged that a black employee was subjected to racial epithets, and in one incident white co-workers placed a noose around his neck. The company did not return calls for comment.

Jena 6 refers to six black teens charged with beating a white teen in 2006. The beating came after white students hung nooses from a tree at the high school.

Copyright 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Black Men Must Reclaim Our Children!

Commentary: Black men must reclaim our children

• Story Highlights
• Martin: Nearly 70 percent of black kids are born to unmarried parents
• Martin: Black fathers need to stay on the scene, build relationships with kids
• Martin: We also should be telling black women not to lie down with any fool

By Roland S. Martin
CNN contributor

(CNN) -- As the mug shots of the alleged killers of NFL star Sean Taylor were shown on television, I kept wondering when we were going to see their parents step forward. I saw a couple of mothers, but their dads were missing in action.

Dads matter, and it's ridiculous for us to act as if all it takes is a loving mom.

Now, I don't know what it means not to have a father in your life. I'm not familiar with a mom being strung out on a crack binge. And when my parents were called to the school when there was a discipline problem, Mom and Dad didn't go off on the teacher or principal. In fact, I can still feel the pain of my elementary school principal's paddle being applied to my butt when I acted a fool. The principal could only pop me three times. Dad? He had no limit.

Bottom line: I can sit here today and celebrate them and enjoy a wonderful life because my parents were hell-bent on raising their children to do right by them, especially my dad.

We can spend all day talking about the ills afflicting urban America -- and there are plenty that are institutional -- but the decaying value of life in inner cities clearly can be traced to the exodus of fathers from the lives of so many young men. Excuses often are tossed about as to why black men leave their children (and their children's moms) to fend for themselves. But a lot of them are just sorry and refuse to accept the responsibility that comes with raising a child.

A lot of my colleagues will suggest it's too simplistic to assign such a high value to a dad being in the life of a child. But just take a visit to your local jail, juvenile hall or state prison. You likely will be confronted with a sea of black men -- strong, able-bodied, creative and restless -- who have spent or will spend years and years with a prison number identifying who they are.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, of all the black men in the U.S. between the ages of 25 and 29 in 2002, 10.4 percent were incarcerated. Hispanic and white men? Just 2.4 percent and 1.2 percent respectively. If a poll were done on how many grew up without fathers, I can guarantee you the numbers would be staggering.

The rampant poverty that exists has led many young blacks to a life of crime, choosing to sell drugs and involve themselves in gangs as opposed to focusing on education as a way out of the cellar of life.

But you see, when nearly 70 percent of black kids are born to unmarried parents, likely to a too-young mom, that puts tremendous pressure on grandmothers (and some grandfathers), sisters and brothers to take up the slack. But if the person who impregnated that woman were on the scene, not only helping to pay for the raising of the child but also serving as a strong influence, I just don't believe we would see such a chronic condition.

And the black men who have done their job are scared to death about what the tendency for black men to leave relationships means for their daughters.

The day before leaving for vacation, I got word that a good friend, Chicago attorney Reynaldo Glover, had died of pancreatic cancer.

He was 64.

In our last extensive conversation before he was diagnosed in July, Reynaldo pleaded with me to use my national media stage to be a voice to sound the alarm about what's happening to black men in America, because he wanted to know that his daughter would have a respectable man to marry one day. (I'm sure if she chose to marry someone who's not black, Reynaldo wouldn't mind, but he realized that as a nation, we mostly marry within our race.)

I promised Reynaldo that I would do all I can, because this has been an issue for me for many years. In fact, my mom gets angry because I'm always talking about my dad on television, radio and in my books. That's because when you see black men who have "made it," the accolades are plenty for their moms, and their dads are hardly mentioned. I just think it's critical to show daddy some love, too.

This is not an issue that black America can continue to sweep under the rug. I've heard countless folks talk about it, such as Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, who noted that his dad left his family when he was a toddler and didn't see much of him growing up. Even in the Republican CNN-YouTube debate, GOP candidate Mitt Romney said fathers are part of the answer to addressing crime in inner cities.

We shouldn't shame our young girls who get pregnant, but surely it shouldn't be seen as a blue-ribbon day. Teenage black girls and black boys should be focused on picking colleges, not the names of babies. When a young girl wants a baby christened, her pastor should be asking to meet with the father as well, even if the two don't get along. We also should be telling black women not to lie down with any fool. A moment of pleasure could lead you to a lifetime of raising that child. Alone.

A friend of mine suggested more black men need to mentor young black men. I agree. But that's a bandage. If we get black men to handle their business in the first place, no one else would have to stand in the gap.

Unless black America owns up to this problem -- and fast -- we are going to see another generation of young black men who are angry with their lot in life. And the result will be more discipline problems in school, which will lead to folks dropping out, and that is nothing but a one-way ticket to jail.

Black men, it's time to man up. Enough with the sperm donors. We need real men to stand up and accept their responsibility. The state of our boys is on us. And no one else.

Roland S. Martin is a nationally award-winning journalist and CNN contributor. Martin is studying to receive his master's degree in Christian communications at Louisiana Baptist University, and he is the author of "Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith." You can read more of his columns at www.rolandsmartin.com.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.

"The Great Debaters" Movie Is Truely Great!

When we are in 100% control of our images and our story then something magical can happen. The day following Christmas, I took 16 of of my relatives, friends our combined 8 teenagers to see this movie. Black people have been some of the most eloquent and articulate orators through out history, from Paul Robeson and Josephine Baker to Martin Luther King and Johnny Cochran, yet my kids come home telling me that they are sometimes critized by other black and white kids for talking white. Its one thing for others to judge us by a verb splitting sterotype and even worse when we negatively judge ourselves. I hope Denzel's "Great Debaters" sets the record straight on a number of issue. It is truly and excellent movie.

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