I know I'm a little late, but ...

... I just watched CNN's "Black In America" series in its entirety and all I can say is, WOW! I think Soledad O'Brien can expect to get a Peabody out of this one, that was just a wonderful piece of journalism.
Now that the accolades are out of the way, lemme just say that the statistics for single, professional women in the "Women and Families" episode are down right depressing. I had no idea that getting an education would cut my chances of being a wife and mother in more than half.
I heard those stats when Tyra Banks did her show, but damn! Something about hearing Soledad say it made it more concrete. I mean, dang, did she have to just spring it on us like that? Gah! I kinda did want to wait on my "IBM" (ideal black man) to jump the broom and have a couple lil' cute brown babies.
I think that every little girl grows up with the fantasy of having the great job, with the house that has a white picket fence, an awesome husband with two kids and a dog. But that's what it is, a fantasy. How many folks are actually living that dream and loving it?
My favorite quote by my shero, Oprah Winfrey, is "you can have it all but not at the same time." I believe that. I believe that I will have the husband and kids, I will have the awesome career and I will have my dream house. I was never sure if I'd have it all at once. Now, I'm even less sure of it.
If that weren't bleak enough, when I watched the second half, I spent most of the two hours shaking my head at the statistics of black men who are incarcerated. While I know not all of them are innocent, I am certain that not all of them deserve to be there.
Everybody in prison swears they're innocent, I wonder how many of them are really. Given the number of folks who have been freed with the help of DNA evidence and modern technology, it sort of makes me think that a lot of them are innocent.
Something else I found interesting is the number of folks in prison on drug offenses. They're in there for use, possession or for selling mostly crack. That one drug is responsible for the destruction nearly two generations of black folks. The jacked up thing is folks get more prison time for possession of crack than they do for possession of cocaine.
Why is that important? Well, crack is a poor man's drug, while cocaine is for those folks in the upper echelon of society. I'm not saying that anyone should get off for committing drug crimes but I'll bet if some of these folks were offered help, i.e. rehab and/or job assistance, they would be able to get themselves on the right track.
All in all, watching the special actually motivated me. You guys know I'm working trying to get my my non-profit organization off the ground. It will be an after school program for kids ages 10 to 14 in my hometown of Fairmont, NC. I even have a name for it, Levi Leadership Academy.
It's all about equipping these kids with the skills they will need to become the wonderful leaders they are destined to be. There are a lot of minorities in my rural hometown and a lot of the adults have never attended a college class or even dreamed that they could.
My goal is to not only allow the kids to dream about going to college but to help them get there. I want to expose them to people who look like them who have gone to college and become successful by using their education. I'm not going to bore you guys with the details but the piece has really reinforced and re-motivated (is that a word?) me to get this thing up and running.
To update you all, I finished my plan. The only thing it's lacking now is a table of contents and a good proofreader. I'm so excited, I'm rejuvenated and I'm ready to work!
If you didn't catch the special, do yourself a favor. In my opinion, it lived up to the hype.

Black In America

I know what it's like, the majority of you do as well, OK, all of ya'll, but for whatever reason, CNN has decided to "explore" it and create an entire series that will air in July.
Since this year marks the 40th anniversary of the Martin L. King Jr., assassination, CNN opted to do a special report that goes into detail about the events that led up to King's death. Producers and one of my favorite folks on the network, Soledad O'Brien, went back to Memphis and spent some time walking through what is now the National Civil Rights Museum. It used to be the Lorraine Motel and the building where the shot was fired that killed King.
She spent time talking to people who were present that day to get their personal accounts of what happened. Those folks interviewed include Jesse Jackson, Billy Kyles, several police officers and Jerry Ray, the brother of James Earl Ray, the man who served time for King's murder.
It was kind of strange to watch because I have been to that museum and it felt just as eerie to watch it on TV as it did to walk through there. For those of you who haven't been, please go. If you have been anywhere near Memphis, shame on you, that should have been your first stop.
Anyway, this documentary is the first of this series and I'm not sure how to feel about it yet. Since Barack Obama and his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright have made news, there's national talk about race more now than there has been since the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.
For the longest time, black folks having been saying that white folks just don't understand, or they don't care about us anyway. I'm not saying I disagree with that, but let's be honest, we don't care about them either until it starts to affect our bottom line.
I think CNN is opening up a can o' worms with this one. Eventually, they're going to have to do something about being Hispanic in America or being Asian in America or Middle Eastern or Native American. I'm not saying that I don't think they should do it, I am saying that they need to be fair.
Anybody who's not white has gotten an unfair deal in America and we all need to know about it. I applaud CNN's effort but I have a hard believing that they'll be able to capture the true essence of what it is to be black over one week.
If I had to guess, I would say that there won't be much diversity in the people they talk to and that sucks because black folks are as diverse as the rest of the world. I shouldn't assume, but I've been working in mainstream media for five years and that is long enough to know that the gatekeepers who matter can not make heads or tails of people who don't look like them.
In mainstream media, all minorities must fit into their respective boxes so that they can be properly glazed over and categorized for their comfort. It's hard to take but to quote one of the best bands of all time, Earth, Wind & Fire, "that's the way of the world."
What I really hope is that this series will start to break through some of these stereotypes and negative connotations of black people that the rest of America has. The primary goal for any sort of groundbreaking series like this is to incite some sort of change. While I'm not so naive that I believe that everyone who sees this will change their minds about how they feel about black people for the better, I do hope that this will at least make people think twice about where their negative feelings are coming from.
What do ya'll think? Do you have high hopes for the series?

And just when I needed another reason ...

... to not believe in monogamy, here comes Kwame Kilpatrick, Detroit mayor, FAMU graduate and certified Grade A DAWG!
Ol' boy got caught lying under oath about an affair that he had with his chief of staff Christine Beatty a couple of years back. Now they are trying to get him on felony perjury charges where he can face up to 15 years in prison. That's right, 15 years, for lying - about having sex.
You don't have to say it, I'll say it for you. "Day-um!"
I mean dag on, I know he lied but he was just obeying the first law of nature, self-preservation. Think about it, it is human nature to lie to get yourself out of trouble. And if there were ever a time when he needed to get out of trouble it was when he was sitting on the witness stand "testi-lying" about whether or not he slept with a staff member.
Usually when you tell a lie of gargantuan proportion, you do all you can to make sure that if you're caught, it can't be proven. It was almost like this dude wanted to get caught. They sent 14,000 text messages over the course of two months in 2002 and two months in the 2003. That's 14,000 text messages in four months, 3,500 a month and 1,750 each. That's a lot of messages. I don't believe I've sent or received 14,000 messages in all my 25 years. And I mean text messages, voice messages, e-mails and instant messages - combined.
And since that was in '02 and '03, I'm assuming that the messages were on two-way pagers. City-issued two-way pagers mind you. I know they had to know they were being monitored. Plus if they were using two-ways, I know their thumbs must have been hurting like hell!
Anyway, I am co-signing what Sam Jackson's character said on "The Boondocks."
Take a look:

I just consider this whole situation he's going through to be his payment to the "stupid tax."
OK, maybe I shouldn't call the brotha stupid, but that wasn't a smart thing to do.
I know we all make mistakes and deserve second chances, but if your mistake gets you a felony charge and disgraces your whole family, I think it is safe to say you're screwed. For once I'd like to see a man admit to his wrong-doing when asked the first time instead of people having to dig for it.
He could have admitted to it and just been a cheater. Now he turns out to be a liar and a cheater and he's gonna be forced out of his job too - for some booty. Umph, umph, umph. I ain't judging the brotha but I'm just saying, he should have been a little more discreet about his personal life. At any rate, I hope it all works out for him and he has another job lined up because he's gonna need one.
Speaking of somebody who needs another job, I think a couple of producers at CNN, Randi Kaye and my girl Soledad O'Brien are going to be perusing JournalismJobs.com in a few minutes. They did what I thought was a couple of nice pieces about the roles that race and gender are playing in this election. Take a look here: Black Women in Politics.

They did these stories and black women all over the country got pissed off saying that CNN portrayed them as ignorant and unable to vote the issues. I liked the concept but I think they should have asked about the issues that concern them rather than asking which do they plan to vote, gender or race.

Actually, I think it is a fair question. I think that a lot of women of color, particularly black women tend to vote for Democratic candidates. Well, the black women I know vote Democratic and we all have a lot of the same issues. We're concerned about the economy, education, health care, you know, everything the Republicans think we're too stupid to understand.

The bottom line is we can act like this whole thing doesn't hinge on race and gender or we can act like we live on Earth and realize that women will always be seen as week and black folks will be seen as inferior. Even if one or the other gets the nomination and the other is on the ticket as the vice president, they won't get elected. Granted we're long overdue for a change in leadership but this country is not ready. We all say we are but act like we aren't. And we all know, actions speak way louder than words.