The Black Informant

Along with civil rights came the Great Society. Liberal Americas answer to reparations for past grievances. Mothers and children were moved into public housing husbands and fathers were moved out. Family structure went out the door to be replaced with free rent, food stamps, and free medical care, subsistence payments were based on the number of illegitimist children a woman could produce. After a generation words like husband and father were replaced with words like “My Man and My Baby Daddy”. The family authoritarians became Grandmothers and Aunties. The neighborhoods were taken over by Rappers, drug dealers pimps and ho’s,. How is it possible to raise families with dignity in this environment? It isn’t, who’s to blame liberalism. There’s no such thing as mandated Affirmative Pride.

(full article)

The church in the Black community has historically played a key role in encouraging Blacks to read. There was one church in the Ohio/Illinois area (I will furnish the specifics of this church in a later update) that not only taught the people how to read, but also taught them how to debate what they read (in other words, they were trained to be critical thinkers). The church has also played a major role in the lives of many of our early Black American leaders because of its commitment to reading and critical reasoning.

The church in the black community has come quite a long way since those times. This institution has evolved from the days in which the people were just struggling to read to the Bible to the present where pastors, missionaries, evangelists, etc. are witting books on a regular basis. People like T.D. Jakes, Creflo Dollar, and others have written many books that are widely read throughout their congregations and beyond. It is not an uncommon thing to find Black churchgoers that have read several books within a 12 month period (well above the national reading average of the black community).

With all of this reading going on in many of the mainstream Black churches, one must still ask the question if this trend is contributing to the pool of critical thinkers in our communities.

If one were to scan many of the Christian books that are on the market today, you will find that most of these books obviously deal with Christian/spiritual themes. However, when it comes to discussing the everyday issues (the economy, government, law) that affect the common man (non-church goers), many of these books come up short. What you end up with is a group of people that are well versed in church culture, but find it very difficult to bridge that culture with the general culture around them (with the exception of issues such as abortion, gay marriage, school prayer and related issues). This is contrary to the earlier mission of the church as I discussed in the first paragraph of this posting. Even though there are churches that are actively taking part in the everyday health of their community (job creation, benevolence, etc.), this is not a common practice in today’s church. What the typical non-churchgoer wants to know is how does church practically help them in their everyday life. Another question may be “What does God have to say regarding the war in Iraq?” This is where the critical thinker can be helpful to the church. Simply telling someone that “God will take care of it” may not be a satisfying answer that this person is looking for.

Part of being a critical thinker is having the ability to debate various issues with someone who does not agree with your point of view. In much of church culture today, there are hardly any forums provided for people who may disagree with an issue that church leadership may have discussed. Parishioners go to church under the assumption that what the pastor is telling them is always correct. This is why it is easy to assume in the black community that if you are a pastor, or you have a Rev. in front of your name, you are community leader (or spoke person of the people). If the truth be told, many Black church-goers know that if they were in any way critical of their church leadership, their membership would be short-lived. This kind of environment is not conducive for a critical thinker.

As I stated earlier in this posting, the church has played a major role in molding many of our earlier Black leaders by not only teaching others how to read, but how to debate the issues their books discussed. Today’s church must return to this mission of raising up God-fearing critical thinkers if it is to still be considered truly effective in our community.

***Please Note: The next part of this posting will be up sometime during the day on Thursday, so I will not add any other posting until then. I want this posting to carry over to tomorrow because this is one of those subjects of great importance and I want to make sure that everyone has a chance to read and comment before I post the next part of this discussion. As always, please add your comments below. Thanks!

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If you are familiar with the Old Testament, you will read about the never-ending cycle of the Israelites making a covenant with God, and years later forgetting that a covenant even existed. The big reason behind this was because the parents did not teach the young about the wonders of the Lord. Today, the African-American community has been making the same mistake for the past few generations.

Ask the typical Black student in one of our public schools anything about Black history beyond Martin Luther King Jr., and all you will get in most cases is just a black stare. We live in a time now that unless Hollywood produces a film on a significant Black person in history, our children will never know about that person as well as the impact they made on history. The days of slavery is the mental picture that most blacks have of their history past the 1950’s. Isn’t it something that if you look at most films that feature Blacks in a historical setting, they all center around the days of slavery? Further proof that the textbook of today’s black youth is the theater screen.

Some time ago, I mentioned the recent study on reading conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts entitled “Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America“. Here are the conclusions of that study:

Reading at Risk presents a distressing but objective overview of national trends. The accelerating declines in literary reading among all demographic groups of American adults indicate an imminent cultural crisis. The trends among younger adults warrant special concern, suggesting that – unless some effective solution is found – literary culture, and literacy in general, will continue to worsen. Indeed, at the current rate of loss, literary reading as a leisure activity will virtually disappear in half a century.

And of course, Black folk came out near the bottom again. Below, I have included some graphics of this study:

This first chart reveals that out of all the Blacks included in this study, only 37.1% have actually taken the time for a literary reading within a 12-month period. Twelve (12) months! This chart also shows a significant decline between the years of 1982, 1992, and 2002.

This chart breaks down the 37.1% in further detail for us. Here you can see that out of that 37.1%, only 29.8% of Black males did any kind of significant reading within the same 12-month period. If our kings are not reading, then how in the world can they lead?

In black barbershops and beauty shops across America, you will not see books in the reading rack. Instead you will see mostly pop culture magazines that are filled with mostly pictures. I think it is safe to say that most people are drawn to magazines because of the pictures and not the words behind them.

During this election, when the candidates wanted to appeal to the Black community, they always had to go to the Black leaders. This was due to the fact that we are known as a people that are still in search of a spokesman (someone that is supposedly familiar with the facts). People that have a habit of reading and finding out the facts for themselves do not need a spokesman. When was the last time you heard the American press use the phrase “Grecian leaders”, “Japanese leaders”, or “Italian leaders”?

The church (in the Black community), on the other hand, historically encourages its parishioners to read. However, does this help the situation in any way? I will talk about that tomorrow.

***Please Note: The next part of this posting will be up sometime during the day on Thursday, so I will not add any other posting until then. I want this posting to carry over to tomorrow because this is one of those subjects of great importance and I want to make sure that everyone has a chance to read and comment before I post the next part of this discussion. As always, please add your comments below. Thanks!

________________________________________

If you are familiar with the Old Testament, you will read about the never-ending cycle of the Israelites making a covenant with God, and years later forgetting that a covenant even existed. The big reason behind this was because the parents did not teach the young about the wonders of the Lord. Today, the African-American community has been making the same mistake for the past few generations.

Ask the typical Black student in one of our public schools anything about Black history beyond Martin Luther King Jr., and all you will get in most cases is just a black stare. We live in a time now that unless Hollywood produces a film on a significant Black person in history, our children will never know about that person as well as the impact they made on history. The days of slavery is the mental picture that most blacks have of their history past the 1950’s. Isn’t it something that if you look at most films that feature Blacks in a historical setting, they all center around the days of slavery? Further proof that the textbook of today’s black youth is the theater screen.

Some time ago, I mentioned the recent study on reading conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts entitled “Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America“. Here are the conclusions of that study:

Reading at Risk presents a distressing but objective overview of national trends. The accelerating declines in literary reading among all demographic groups of American adults indicate an imminent cultural crisis. The trends among younger adults warrant special concern, suggesting that – unless some effective solution is found – literary culture, and literacy in general, will continue to worsen. Indeed, at the current rate of loss, literary reading as a leisure activity will virtually disappear in half a century.

And of course, Black folk came out near the bottom again. Below, I have included some graphics of this study:

This first chart reveals that out of all the Blacks included in this study, only 37.1% have actually taken the time for a literary reading within a 12-month period. Twelve (12) months! This chart also shows a significant decline between the years of 1982, 1992, and 2002.

This chart breaks down the 37.1% in further detail for us. Here you can see that out of that 37.1%, only 29.8% of Black males did any kind of significant reading within the same 12-month period. If our kings are not reading, then how in the world can they lead?

In black barbershops and beauty shops across America, you will not see books in the reading rack. Instead you will see mostly pop culture magazines that are filled with mostly pictures. I think it is safe to say that most people are drawn to magazines because of the pictures and not the words behind them.

During this election, when the candidates wanted to appeal to the Black community, they always had to go to the Black leaders. This was due to the fact that we are known as a people that are still in search of a spokesman (someone that is supposedly familiar with the facts). People that have a habit of reading and finding out the facts for themselves do not need a spokesman. When was the last time you heard the American press use the phrase “Grecian leaders”, “Japanese leaders”, or “Italian leaders”?

The church (in the Black community), on the other hand, historically encourages its parishioners to read. However, does this help the situation in any way? I will talk about that tomorrow.

I mentioned these interviews in an earlier posting. They feature 3 African-American women that are registered voters and plan to vote for Kerry (age range 18-32). All three could not answer basic questions regarding the elections. This ties in to the previous post regarding the sad truth that many Blacks do not take the time to find out the facts for themselves BY READING!

Here is the link to the audio clip (about 10 minutes)

This is a piece that I found on the net while gathering up some info on a future posting that I am going to do on the same topic of the article below. This is one of those “letters” that is slightly dated written by an “unknown”; however, the message is holds true today. Later today, I will provide links as well as some commentary on this topic.

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THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES We can continue to reap profits from the Blacks without the effort of physical slavery. Look at the current methods of containment that they use on themselves: IGNORANCE, GREED, and SELFISHNESS.

Their IGNORANCE is the primary weapon of containment. A great man once said, “The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book.” We live now in the Information Age. They have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com, not to mention their own Black Bookstores that provide solid blueprints to reach economic equality (which should have been their fight all along), but few read consistently, if at all.

GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolition of slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal. Last year they spent 10 billion dollars during Christmas, out of their 450 billion dollars in total yearly income (2.22%). Any of us can use them as our target market, for any business venture we care to dream up, no matter how outlandish, they will buy into it. Being primarily a consumer people, they function totally by greed. They continually want more, with little thought for saving or investing. They would rather buy some new sneaker than invest in starting a business.

Some even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU. And they still think that having a Mercedes, and a big house gives the “Status” or that they have achieved the American Dream. They are fools! The vast majority of their people are still in poverty because their greed holds them back from collectively making better communities. With the help of BET, and the rest of their Black media that often broadcasts destructive images into their own homes, we will continue to see huge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. (Tommy Hilfiger has even jeered them, saying he doesn’t want their money, and look at how the fools spend more with him than ever before!). They’ll continue to show off to each other while we build solid communities with the profits from our businesses that we market to them.

SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the major ways we can continue to contain them. One of their own, W. E. B. Dubois said that there was an innate division in their culture. A “Talented Tenth” he called it. He was correct in his deduction that there are segments of their culture that has achieved some “form” of success. However, that segment missed the fullness of his work. They didn’t read that the “Talented Tenth” was then responsible to aid the Non-Talented Ninety Percent in achieving a better life. Instead, that segment has created another class, a Buppie class that looks down on their people or aids them in a condescending manner. They will never achieve what we have. Their selfishness does not allow them to be able to work together on any project or endeavor of substance. When they do get together, their selfishness lets their egos get in the way of the goal. Their so-called help organizations seem to only want to promote their name without making any real change in their community. They are content to sit in conferences and conventions in our hotels, and talk about what they will do, while they award plaques to the best speakers, not the best doers. Is there no end to their selfishness?

They steadfastly refuse to see that “TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE (TEAM)! They do not understand that they are no better than each other because of what they own. In fact, most of those Buppies are but one or two paychecks away from poverty. All of which is under the control of our pens in our offices and our boardrooms.

Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as they refuse to read, continue to buy anything they want, and keep thinking they are “helping” their communities by paying dues to organizations which do little other than hold lavish conventions in our hotels. By the way, don’t worry about any of them reading this letter, remember, ‘THEY DON’T READ!!!!’

This is a piece that I found on the net while gathering up some info on a future posting that I am going to do on the same topic of the article below. This is one of those “letters” that is slightly dated written by an “unknown”; however, the message is holds true today. Later today, I will provide links as well as some commentary on this topic.

—————————

THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES We can continue to reap profits from the Blacks without the effort of physical slavery. Look at the current methods of containment that they use on themselves: IGNORANCE, GREED, and SELFISHNESS.

Their IGNORANCE is the primary weapon of containment. A great man once said, “The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book.” We live now in the Information Age. They have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com, not to mention their own Black Bookstores that provide solid blueprints to reach economic equality (which should have been their fight all along), but few read consistently, if at all.

GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolition of slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal. Last year they spent 10 billion dollars during Christmas, out of their 450 billion dollars in total yearly income (2.22%). Any of us can use them as our target market, for any business venture we care to dream up, no matter how outlandish, they will buy into it. Being primarily a consumer people, they function totally by greed. They continually want more, with little thought for saving or investing. They would rather buy some new sneaker than invest in starting a business.

Some even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU. And they still think that having a Mercedes, and a big house gives the “Status” or that they have achieved the American Dream. They are fools! The vast majority of their people are still in poverty because their greed holds them back from collectively making better communities. With the help of BET, and the rest of their Black media that often broadcasts destructive images into their own homes, we will continue to see huge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. (Tommy Hilfiger has even jeered them, saying he doesn’t want their money, and look at how the fools spend more with him than ever before!). They’ll continue to show off to each other while we build solid communities with the profits from our businesses that we market to them.

SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the major ways we can continue to contain them. One of their own, W. E. B. Dubois said that there was an innate division in their culture. A “Talented Tenth” he called it. He was correct in his deduction that there are segments of their culture that has achieved some “form” of success. However, that segment missed the fullness of his work. They didn’t read that the “Talented Tenth” was then responsible to aid the Non-Talented Ninety Percent in achieving a better life. Instead, that segment has created another class, a Buppie class that looks down on their people or aids them in a condescending manner. They will never achieve what we have. Their selfishness does not allow them to be able to work together on any project or endeavor of substance. When they do get together, their selfishness lets their egos get in the way of the goal. Their so-called help organizations seem to only want to promote their name without making any real change in their community. They are content to sit in conferences and conventions in our hotels, and talk about what they will do, while they award plaques to the best speakers, not the best doers. Is there no end to their selfishness?

They steadfastly refuse to see that “TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE (TEAM)! They do not understand that they are no better than each other because of what they own. In fact, most of those Buppies are but one or two paychecks away from poverty. All of which is under the control of our pens in our offices and our boardrooms.

Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as they refuse to read, continue to buy anything they want, and keep thinking they are “helping” their communities by paying dues to organizations which do little other than hold lavish conventions in our hotels. By the way, don’t worry about any of them reading this letter, remember, ‘THEY DON’T READ!!!!’

Well, the sub-field hands (because the national leaders of the NAACP are the head field hands–just thought I would make that distinction) of the NAACP have done it again. They are so desperate to have Massa Kerry in the big house that they are willing to sell crack to get it done.

A Defiance County man has been arrested for allegedly filing more than 100 false voter registration forms in exchange for crack cocaine from a Toledo woman working on behalf of the NAACP’s voter registration drive.

…Toledo police searched Ms. Pitts’ home and discovered drug paraphernalia along with more voter registration forms. Police said that Ms. Pitts admitted to paying Mr. Staton in crack cocaine, in lieu of cash.

…Ms. Pitts, working on behalf of the NAACP National Voter Fund, submitted the forms to the voter fund, which in turn submitted them to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. (full article)

The NAACP is dismissing Ms. Pitts as just a volunteer; however, they still should come out with some sort of statement condemning her actions. Oh well, they made Massa Kerry look bad on this one…Uh oh.

I saw this story on multiple sites, so thanks all

The following was a headline on the Al-Jazerrah website:

US Mutiny Soldiers Say Army Ignored Their Complaints About Broken Down Trucks, Non-Armored Vehicles, and Contaminated Fuel

Here are some other excerpts from the same article (full article):

FRANTIC CALL

The 18 soldiers refused to accompany fuel tankers on a supply run from southeastern Iraq to Baghdad on Wednesday, arguing the fuel was contaminated and their unarmored vehicles were in bad shape.

…”Hi mom, this is Amber. This is a real, real big emergency. I need you to contact someone, I mean raise pure hell. We yesterday refused to go on a convoy. … We had broken down trucks, non-armored vehicles and we were carrying contaminated fuel,” said McClenny in the message aired on U.S. networks on Monday. Hill told NBC’s “Today” show her daughter referred to the convoy as a suicide mission.

“She felt like the Army was just leaving them out there to drown,” said Hill, who said her daughter feared the contaminated fuel might be put in a helicopter that could ultimately crash and add to the U.S. death toll in Iraq. (emphasis are Al-Jahzeerah’s)

This is not a soldier. She is nothing more than a wimp. I do not care how many missions she has been on, she is still a wimp! Throughout history, soldiers had to endure times during the battle not having the equipment that they needed for various reasons (equipment held up due to attacks, sudden shifts in battle plans, etc.). Her mom isn’t any better. She took this message to NBC (who did not have the sense to refuse playing it on national television). As far as I am concerned, this soldier, her mom, and NBC should be treated and punished as traitors.

Meanwhile this wimp soldier has just made it that more difficult for the rest of our soldiers. If our military is made up of people like this, then I know this country is in big trouble.

Below (as well as the picture above) are just some of the posters that our REAL American soldiers from WWII had to abide by:

The following was a headline on the Al-Jazerrah website:

US Mutiny Soldiers Say Army Ignored Their Complaints About Broken Down Trucks, Non-Armored Vehicles, and Contaminated Fuel

Here are some other excerpts from the same article (full article):

FRANTIC CALL

The 18 soldiers refused to accompany fuel tankers on a supply run from southeastern Iraq to Baghdad on Wednesday, arguing the fuel was contaminated and their unarmored vehicles were in bad shape.

…”Hi mom, this is Amber. This is a real, real big emergency. I need you to contact someone, I mean raise pure hell. We yesterday refused to go on a convoy. … We had broken down trucks, non-armored vehicles and we were carrying contaminated fuel,” said McClenny in the message aired on U.S. networks on Monday. Hill told NBC’s “Today” show her daughter referred to the convoy as a suicide mission.

“She felt like the Army was just leaving them out there to drown,” said Hill, who said her daughter feared the contaminated fuel might be put in a helicopter that could ultimately crash and add to the U.S. death toll in Iraq. (emphasis are Al-Jahzeerah’s)

This is not a soldier. She is nothing more than a wimp. I do not care how many missions she has been on, she is still a wimp! Throughout history, soldiers had to endure times during the battle not having the equipment that they needed for various reasons (equipment held up due to attacks, sudden shifts in battle plans, etc.). Her mom isn’t any better. She took this message to NBC (who did not have the sense to refuse playing it on national television). As far as I am concerned, this soldier, her mom, and NBC should be treated and punished as traitors.

Meanwhile this wimp soldier has just made it that more difficult for the rest of our soldiers. If our military is made up of people like this, then I know this country is in big trouble.

Below (as well as the picture above) are just some of the posters that our REAL American soldiers from WWII had to abide by: