The Black Informant

The need for banking services for the urban poor

(marketplacemoney.publicradio.org) At a strip mall in the Watts section of Los Angeles, there’s a supermarket, a grocery store and a public library. The community is predominately African American, and the average yearly house hold income here is under 18,000.

What’s missing from this shopping center is a bank. Instead, there are two check-cashing businesses in the strip mall.

No surprise really. The Ford Foundation reports that there are 22,000 Payday loan shops in the United States. That’s more than the number of McDonald’s franchises nationwide.

Meanwhile, the number of regulated banks in low-income communities is flat. That’s according to John Taylor. He’s the CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

JOHN TAYLOR: When you don’t have full-service, mainstream bank branches, the ones who replace them are these . . . many of them are subprime, often . . . too often predatory, high-cost lenders who end up offering only products that, you know, are really designed to strip wealth and not designed to help the person.

There are plenty of factors keeping traditional banks away from these urban communities. There’s the crime risk — and then, Taylor says, there’s business.

TAYLOR: Banks would rather make a million dollar loan to one person than 10 hundred-thousand dollar loans, because financially it’s more economically feasible for them. Instead of 10 transactions and 10 files and 10 meetings with loan officers, there’s one.

But the people in the community aren’t necessarily sold on the usefulness of banks either.

Lincoln Bostick is the assistant manager for Operation Hope, which has a branch in Watts.

It’s a nonprofit that teaches people about managing their money. He says all too often, young people here spend what they have on expensive shoes, car rims, jewelry and the like — anything to alleviate the reality of poverty. (more…)

The security piece is no joke. In my neck of the woods I use a bank where customers just walk up tellers who are stationed all over the main floor. I can physically touch the teller and the computer he/she is using. I have never seen a security guard on the floor. That same bank in Crenshaw: Bullet-proof glass and at least one security guard. The same bank in downtown LA: Bullet-proof glass, security guards and a set of doors that only allows a handful of folks at a time with a guard standing nearby with a wand.

Hank Hill: The anti- “TV Dad”

Since the days of the Cosby show of the 80’s, I have lost a lot of interest in about 99% of sitcoms–especially the family-based ones. One of the things that I liked about the Cosby show was that the father (Bill Cosby) was not a weak punk whose wife is the only one with both the brains and maturity in the household. John Amos’ character in Good Times was also a great one: a strong man who didn’t have to be a buffoon to make us laugh.

Unfortunately, the weak male image seems to play pretty well on many of the cartoons my kids watch from time to time. Cartoons like Jimmy Neutron, Proud Family, Fairly Odd-Parents and Kim Possible all contain bumbling Dads who oftentimes are clueless and are left to figure out the antics of their children through their perpetual ignorance.

Not too long ago I stumbled across the cartoon/sitcom “King of the Hill” after seeing a clip of it on You Tube. Now I have seen bits and pieces of the cartoon in the past, but I already wasn’t trying to feel it because I assumed (not always a good move) that the show was corny due to the fact it featured a White family in the middle of Texas dealing with everyday issues. Here is a brief description of the show:

Hank, who works as the assistant manager at Strickland Propane, likes to proclaim proudly that he sells “propane and propane accessories.”

Hank is a stereotypical conservative, pick-up truck driving, beer drinking Texas redneck, a political conservative who loves his wife and son but is uncomfortable expressing or demonstrating his affection. He is far more comfortable standing in the alley drinking Alamo Beer with his buddies, Dale, Bill and Boomhauer.

Hank idolizes his boss, Buck Strickland, at Strickland Propane, despite Buck’s drinking, womanizing and gambling — all activities that are anathema to Hank’s old-fashioned world view.

Hank’s narrow urethra is a source of embarrassment and shame to him, but an acceptable topic of conversation to his wife, Peggy. It is because of the narrow urethra that Hank and Peggy have only one child, Bobby.

Hank is often uncomfortable with Bobby’s interests, which tend to center around television and video games, in contrast to Hank’s own high school football career. (source)

I typically like gut-clinching comedy that is more on the clean side (Martin, The Jeffersons, The Bernie Mac Show, Everybody Hates Chris, etc. are pretty much in the general ball park), so King of the Hill for me was an instant write-off.

The episode that lured me into fanhood of King of the Hill dealt with the Hill’s search for a new church and ending up at a megachurch. My wife and I laughed throughout the whole episode because much of it we could relate to on our own quest for a home church and megachurch experience.

Hank is very old school when it comes to his views on marriage, fatherhood, his friends, his jobs and all other areas of his life. He can be a bit extreme at times with those views when faced with situations that require 21st century street smarts, but in the end the man continues to have the high respect of both friends and family members. Bobby (his son) may get very frustrated with his dad’s old fashion reasoning, but he always knows that his dad will do just about anything for him. Same goes with his wife, Peggy. He shows himself as a true friend as he is oftentimes the main one who is bailing them out of trouble at the expense of his own comfort zone.

When it comes to the protection of his family and friends, Hank will waste no time jumping into his red pick-up truck to kick somebody’s you know what. He is a straight shooter and you know from jump where he is coming from.

Although the humor in the show tends to be on the dry side (compared to the shows I mentioned earlier), I often find myself surrendering more than a few chuckles as I watch this southwestern family deal with many of the same issues many of us have deal with in life without making the Dad look like a bumbling idiot.

Hank Hill is a guy I would love to have in my neighborhood, I tell you what

Related links:

HankHillQuotes.com
Black sitcoms

Soccer in our neck of the woods

(BLACK PR WIRE) Soccer continues to slowly and quietly grow in the African-American community. Until just a few years ago, in the U.S. in particular, the game of soccer remained popular in the Suburbs, mainly among Anglo, middle-class Americans; ergo the term “soccer moms”. Today, however, soccer (similar to basketball) is one of the biggest sports being played in U.S. neighborhoods, and (world-wide) by professional athletes.

While it’s not uncommon to walk on to a basketball court in urban and Black communities to join a pick up game; today, nor is it uncommon to join a soccer game already in progress. The difference has been that, in most cases, the “Black” men on the basketball court were typically African- American, and the “Black” men on the soccer field, were typically from around the world. African, Caribbean and many Blacks living in Europe (and around the world) prefer soccer, and have played it all of their lives. In fact, soccer far surpasses all American sports in terms of interest and support world-wide for any culture.

However, as children of immigrants’ become second generation Americans, enthusiasm seems to be growing more and more for the sport of soccer as a “mainstream” sport played by African, Caribbean and the African- American community. In fact, soccer is steadfastly being embraced by so many that highly structured youth clubs in the “suburban” communities are now starting to transport players from urban areas, and also provide “scholarships” for players who cannot afford fees.

The National Soccer Coaches Association has a Black Soccer Coaches committee, many of whom are first generation immigrants who now consider themselves “African-American”. The Black Coaches collectively agree that there is an increased interest in soccer among African-Americans. However, they also agree that there has been an increased interest throughout American Society as a whole. As a result, the Coaches lament that they are still attempting to make inroads into better professional positions in soccer. (more…)

Now we are talk’n!

Back in high school I was a league, state and national all-star in our soccer league. I could have extended my budding career in college, but decided to attend a school that did not offer a soccer program at the time (in those days, i was about making money instead of re-creating a “Different World”/“School Daze” experience. Our city just came out with the fall brochure for sports and recreation the other day and I saw men’s soccer. I’ve been tossing it around in my brain ever since. I’m thinking that if I do not play this season, i will at least coach my son’s team this fall. We’ll see.

Website: worstpills.org

This is why I think Black folks suspicion of the medical field is rooted more than just the Tuskegee experiments.

Sorry, Grandma may be old, but she had some sense!

From website (link):

Each year, more than 9.6 million adverse drug reactions occur in older Americans. The referenced study found that 37% of these adverse reactions were not reported to the doctor, presumably because patients did not realize the reactions were due to the drug. This is not too surprising considering that most doctors admitted they did not explain possible adverse effects to their patients.1

The following national estimates are based on well-conducted studies, mainly in the United States:

# Each year, in hospitals alone, there are 28,000 cases of life-threatening heart toxicity from adverse reactions to digoxin, the most commonly used form of digitalis in older adults.2 Since as many as 40% or more of these people are using this drug unnecessarily (see discussion on digoxin), many of these injuries are preventable.

# Each year 41,000 older adults are hospitalized—and 3,300 of these die from ulcers caused by NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, usually for treatment of arthritis).3 Thousands of younger adults are hospitalized. (See list of drugs that can cause gastrointestinal bleeding.)

# At least 16,000 injuries from auto crashes each year involving older drivers are attributable to the use of psychoactive drugs, specifically benzodiazepines and tricyclic antidepressants.4 Psychoactive drugs are those that affect the mind or behavior. (See list of drugs that can cause automobile accidents.)

# Each year 32,000 older adults suffer from hip fractures—contributing to more than 1,500 deaths—attributable to drug-induced falls.5, 6 In one study, the main categories of drugs responsible for the falls leading to hip fractures were sleeping pills and minor tranquilizers (30%), antipsychotic drugs (52%), and antidepressants (17%). All of these categories of drugs are often prescribed unnecessarily, especially in older adults. (See section on sleeping pills and tranquilizers, antipsychotic drugs, and antidepressants.) The in-hospital death rate for hip fractures in older adults is 4.9%.7 Multiplying this times the 32,000 hip fractures a year in older adults attributable to drug-induced falls, 1,568 older adults die each year from adverse drug reactions that cause hip fractures. (See list of drugs that can cause hip fractures because of drug-induced falls)

# Approximately 163,000 older Americans suffer from serious mental impairment (memory loss, dementia) either caused or worsened by drugs.8, 9 In a study in the state of Washington, in 46% of the patients with drug-induced mental impairment, the problem was caused by minor tranquilizers or sleeping pills; in 14%, by high blood pressure drugs; and in 11%, by antipsychotic drugs. (See list of drugs that can cause or worsen dementia.)

# Two million older Americans are addicted or at risk of addiction to minor tranquilizers or sleeping pills because they have used them daily for at least one year, even though there is no acceptable evidence that the tranquilizers are effective for more than four months, and the sleeping pills for more than 30 days.10

# Drug-induced tardive dyskinesia has developed in 73,000 older adults; this condition is the most serious and common adverse reaction to antipsychotic drugs, and it is often irreversible. Tardive dyskinesia is characterized by involuntary movements of the lips, tongue, and sometimes the fingers, toes, and trunk. Since most of the older people taking these drugs were not actually psychotic, they have a serious side effect from antipsychotic drugs prescribed without justification.11 (See list of drugs that can cause tardive dyskinesia or other movement disorders.)

# Drug-induced parkinsonism has developed in 61,000 older adults due to the use of antipsychotic drugs such as Haldol, Thorazine, Mellaril, Stelazine, and Prolixin. There are also other parkinsonism-inducing drugs, such as Reglan, Compazine, and Phenergan, prescribed for gastrointestinal problems.12 As mentioned above, most (about 80%) older adults receiving antipsychotic drugs do not have schizophrenia or other conditions that justify the use of such powerful drugs. (See list of drugs that can cause parkinsonism.)

Represent?

(latimes.com) Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke, who was elected to represent some of the county’s poorest neighborhoods, is living in a gated Brentwood home, despite laws requiring her to reside in the predominantly South Los Angeles district she serves.

In an interview with The Times two weeks ago, Burke said it was only on weekends and special occasions that she used her Brentwood home — a 4,000-square-foot residence with a swimming pool and tennis court that she and her husband have long owned. She said she lived at a 1,200-square-foot townhouse in Mar Vista, on a busy street just inside the border of her district.

But over a three-week period in which she was observed by Times reporters, Burke spent every weekday evening at her Brentwood house, in the district of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. When confronted by reporters Wednesday, Burke changed her story and acknowledged that she has rarely slept in the Mar Vista townhouse, which she has declared as her primary residence since she purchased it more than a year ago.

She conceded that the time she has actually spent there amounts to “maybe a month or two.”

Asked whether voters would consider her primary residence as the place where she sleeps, Burke replied: “So I’ll start sleeping here if that’ll make you happy.” (more…)

How do you….what??

(northjersey.com) PATERSON — Someone stole 1,000 gallons of water from Daisy Valdivia’s backyard. And they didn’t spill a drop.

Valdivia woke Wednesday morning to find that her family’s inflatable pool, hip high and 10 feet in diameter and filled with water, was stolen from her backyard in the middle of the night. There is no evidence that the water was poured out, pumped out, evaporated or drunk.

“I’ve never heard of a pool being stolen, let alone one with water in it,” Valdivia said.

According to Valdivia, the theft must have occurred between 1 a.m., the time her husband went to bed, and 5 a.m., the time she woke to put out the recycling.

“For them to do something that fast, that’s what amazes me,” she said. (more…)

Now I have seen the need to chain up bikes, park benches, TVs. But dang! Do we now have to start chaining up pools?

There’s got to be more to this story.

Watermelon science experiment

(ars.usda.gov) Just in time for bathing suit season: a leaner, meaner watermelon that boasts all the refreshing flavor and good-for-you nutrients of many conventional varieties, but contains more than 50 percent less sugar.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plant geneticist Angela Davis in Lane, Okla., is the chief breeder of two new low-sugar melons that should be a welcome treat for dieters, diabetics and everyone else wishing to curb their sugar or carb intakes.

Davis, who works at the ARS South Central Agricultural Research Laboratory in Lane, is currently sharing the new watermelon stock with interested growers. And while their official debut will depend upon farmers’ receptiveness, the seeded watermelons could start showing up in produce aisles by summer’s end.

Davis embarked on the quest for a naturally low-sugar watermelon after realizing the popular fruit was off limits for many consumers, including the nation’s more than 20 million diabetics.

But don’t blame the melon for its current sugary taste. Over the decades, breeders have increasingly selected for sweeter and sweeter fruit. In fact, heirloom watermelons that might have rolled out of Granddad’s garden contained about 25 percent less sugar than their contemporary cousins. (more…)

You know, all of this is starting to make some sense to me now. I’ve lived in the southeast and I live here in the west and typically the melons back east taste much better—until this year. For some reason California watermelons seemed to taste much sweeter than in the past. Our rain level has been pretty low this year so this never made any sense to me. Perhaps there is some connection.

(I know I just scared off at least a handful of y’all talking about Watermelons in the “open” [gasp!]).

Spock lives!!

(foxnews.com) SAN DIEGO — Leonard Nimoy isn’t through with Spock yet.

The 76-year-old actor will don his famous pointy ears again to play the role in an upcoming “Star Trek” film due out Christmas 2008.

“This is really going to be a great movie. And I don’t say things like that lightly,” Nimoy told a gathering of 6,500 fans Thursday at Comic-Con, the nation’s largest pop-culture convention.(more…)

Good lawd! Is the man going to be in a wheel chair?

“…the biggest voter-registration-fraud scheme in state history”

(seattletimes.com) Workers accused of concocting the biggest voter-registration-fraud scheme in state history said they were under pressure from the community-organizing group that hired them to sign up more voters, according to charging papers filed Thursday.

To boost their output, the defendants allegedly went to the downtown Seattle Public Library, where they filled out voter-registration forms using names they made up or found in phone books, newspapers and baby-naming books.

One defendant “said it was hard work making up all those cards,” and another “said he would often sit at home, smoke marijuana and fill out cards,” according to a probable-cause statement written by King County sheriff’s Detective Christopher Johnson.

Prosecutors in King and Pierce counties filed felony charges Thursday against seven employees of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, claiming they turned in more than 1,800 phony voter-registration forms, including an estimated 55 in Pierce County.

The defendants have not entered pleas. They are scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 2.

[…]

The defendants faked cards as an easy way to get paid, not as an attempt to influence the outcome of elections, said King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg. None of the phony registrations led to illegal voting.

“This is the worst case of voter-registration fraud in the history of the state of Washington. There has been nothing comparable to this,” state Secretary of State Sam Reed said at a news conference with Satterberg, King County Executive Ron Sims and acting U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan. (more…)

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Tour the ghetto in Chicago

(AP via blacknews.com) CHICAGO — The yellow school bus rumbles through vacant lots and past demolished buildings on a tour of what was once one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the country.

For the woman with the microphone, the “Ghetto Bus Tour” is the last gasp in a crusade to tell a different story about Chicago’s notorious housing projects, something other than well-known tales about gang violence so fierce that residents slept in their bathtubs to avoid bullets.

“I want you to see what I see,” says Beauty Turner, after leading the group off the bus to a weedy lot where the Robert Taylor Homes once stood. “To hear the voices of the voiceless.”

Turner, a former Robert Taylor Homes resident, has been one of the most vocal critics of the Chicago Housing Authority’s $1.6 billion “Plan for Transformation,” which since the late 1990s has demolished 50 of the 53 public housing high-rises _ including Cabrini-Green _ and replaced them with mixed-income housing.

City officials have heralded the plan. But Turner believes the city once accused of leaving residents to be victimized by violent drug-dealing gangs is now pushing those same people from their homes without giving them all a place to go.

“I have people becoming homeless behind this plan, people that’s living on top of each other with relatives,” said Turner, who has given informal tours for years before the community newspaper she works for began renting the bus in January and charging tourists $20 for the ride. “For some it has improved their conditions, but for the multitude of many it has not.” (more…)

Health care professionals needed!

(sfbayview.com) I was more than a little irritated that none of the people caring for him were African American. Why, I wondered, were there no African Americans in vital jobs that are critical to our community’s health and, moreover, provided good salaries and incredible self-fulfillment? I looked for an answer.

Here’s what I learned: California is facing a serious and dangerous shortage of personnel in every health care field. In fact, from 2000 to 2010, more than half of the 30 fastest growing jobs in the U.S. are expected to be in allied health. One reason is that health care workers, like the rest of us, are aging and many are retiring. Few people, it seems, are taking their place.

This creates a tremendous opportunity for people of color to enter a profession that promises a myriad of opportunities to find work in a well-paying field that also provides great self-esteem. So why are so few African Americans entering these jobs? Particularly when there are so many African Americans who need good jobs.

Perhaps we don’t know there is an urgent need for health care personnel. Or perhaps we assume that these jobs require years of expensive education to achieve. Yet some 200 allied health care professions require only a two-year degree or a vocational certificate of training.

We need to fill health care positions now. Not simply because we need jobs. But we also need to be there for patients like my elderly friend who would feel much better if someone on his health care team looked like him. Also, studies indicate that health care providers of color frequently practice in their own communities, thus increasing access and quality of care in those communities. (more…)

Black college president lends her support against a education boycott that targets Israel

(ynetnews.com) The president of one of America’s best known African-American colleges has added her voice to the chorus of condemnations coming from the US of the academic boycott against Israel being waged by Britain’s main academic union, the University College Union (UCU).

In a letter sent this week to an American-Jewish leader, Marvalene Hughes said: “It has come to my attention that an effort is underway to boycott Israeli academics. We find such efforts antithetical to the values of academic freedom and civility. Dillard University is an historical Black University that unequivocally detests the effort to silence, isolate, discount and ignore academic values of free expression and open discourse.”

Hughes’s letter was addressed to Rabbi Marc Schneier, President of The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, who responded by saying: “We are encouraged by President Hughes’ strong, principled position, similar to the one taken recently by Columbia University’s President. We are certain that the ideologues behind this effort in the UK will think twice about their totally unacceptable initiative when they see where mainstream America, represented by Dillard University and others, stand on this issue.” (more…)

Related article: “Boycott leader: I’m being vilified”

Schools should stay out of the boycott game and stick to teaching. The actions of this union sound very similar (minus the boycott) to the actions taken by Duke University professors who took out a full page ad condemning the Lacrosse team for a crime they did not commit.

Lil’ entrepreneur

(newsday.com) Not many entrepreneurs are told to do their homework before they devote time to their business.

But that’s the rule laid down by the parents of Leanna Archer, who at the age of 11 owns Leanna’s Inc., a Central Islip mail-order and on-line business that sells hair-care products.

Leanna is the persistent entrepreneur, according to her dad, Gregory. Since the age of eight she had bugged her parents about selling a hair-care dressing her mother, Maritza, mixes up using such ingredients as almond and avocado oils. Leanna felt her long tresses had benefited from her great grandmother’s recipe for hair oil and conditioners, and that others might, too.

But her parents considered her interest a whim.

“We didn’t take her seriously,” Gregory Archer says. “She was only eight at the time.”

The answer was “no” for two years. But Leanna didn’t give up, he says. “She kept talking about it so much that we had to give it a try.”

So she began selling the products to classmates. And her mother started selling them at work. They say the products work on any kind of hair. (more…)

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Pr. George’s county experiences change

(washingtonpost.com) Prince George’s, a county that underwent a seismic population shift a generation ago as it became the nation’s wealthiest majority-black suburb, might be on the cusp of another demographic change.

In the past decade, Prince George’s has become a destination for many working-class and foreign-born families because of its relatively affordable housing. At the same time, thousands of middle-class people, many of them African American, have left for neighboring counties in search of better schools, less crime and bigger houses.

The population swings — documented in a recent report by the Brookings Institution and in census data — have not made a significant difference in the overall socioeconomics of Prince George’s, which has a population of 840,000. And county officials say a recent surge in commercial and residential development will continue to bring amenities that will attract affluent residents.

But the changes are visible in northern parts of the county, where several communities such as Bladensburg, Edmonston and Langley Park have become heavily Latino.

Also, the migration patterns are transforming several of Maryland’s outer suburbs, notably Charles County. With 140,000 people, the county has one the nation’s fastest-growing black populations, census data show.

The patterns detailed in the census data and the Brookings report confirm a trend suggested for years by anecdotal evidence: On the whole, upwardly mobile African American families who have left Prince George’s for bordering suburbs are being replaced by people with lower incomes. (more…)

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Bob Johnson on HGM

From EURweb.com

“As far as the ‘Hot Ghetto Mess’ issue, [BET President/CEO Debra Lee] has got the same problem that I had in that BET, for all practical purposes, is the only preeminent voice for African Americans in media and because of that it is given a greater responsibility and obligation by certain people that BET has to be a little bit ‘holier than thou,’” Johnson said. “We’ll let Jerry Springer get away with that or we’ll let Morton Downey get away with that or we’ll let the people at VH1’s ‘Flavor of Love’ get away with that. But when it’s black folks making the decision to do that, all of a sudden people start saying you can’t do that because you have a greater obligation. And then they go to advertisers and many white advertisers will head for the hills the moment they see themselves in the middle of a black controversial issue. They will stop, [partly] because they don’t really want to be on it; don’t value it; or they don’t know how to handle it.”

Johnson called the fallout surrounding ‘Hot Ghetto Mess’ a “knee-jerk reaction that has a chilling effect on creativity.”

“All of a sudden, creative people who want to tell stories or produce shows like ‘Hot Ghetto Mess’ are saying, ‘I don’t want to work on BET because they can’t doing anything that’s innovative or pushes the envelope,” he said. “I think that would be detrimental to creativity. I think it would be detrimental to the black community in allowing us to mature and let a lot of voices be heard.”

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Review: Hot Ghetto Mess/We Got to Do Better

Side One

Well after all the snap commentaries and protests and threats of boycotts the night finally came for the show that would doom ALL Black people back to the days when Chicken George roamed the plantation.

The show was a mixture of street interviews, off the wall home videos highlighted by brief comments by host Charlie Murphy. The guy who conducted the street interviews asked questions such as “When did slavery end?”, “What does N.A.A.C.P. stand for?”, “Who is Barack Obama?” and other simple questions that proved to be quite tough for the folks featured on the show (mind you, interviewees consisted of both White and Black individuals). The interviews reminded me of the street interviews that I conducted years ago for various video projects in Atlanta. Trust me when I say that it was not hard to find folks who were not knowledgeable about basic history or current events. In fact, this show favored a combination of America’s Funniest Home Videos and Street Smarts.

The featured videos (which also featured Blacks and Whites doing some really dumb stuff) were as silly as you could imagine. Again, it reminded me of a Black version of America’s Funniest Home Videos (which can be very funny minus the host–which leads me to Side 2).

Side Two

Okay, the following are things that I did not like or would change:

#Charles Murphy’s whole presentation I thought was very…strange to say the least. I did not know if he was trying to be funny or serious most of the time. I dunno, maybe it was his script.

#If he says “We got to do better” one more time…! (speaking of which, when the show states “WE” got to do better, are they talking about Black folks? White folks? Rednecks? Who?

#DEFINITELY change the title of the show. I personally think that the title alone is what threw a lot of folks off on their pre-judgment of the show.

#”Bid ‘em in” was a good short, but it just didn’t ‘fit’ for some reason, IMO.

Bottom line, I think the show does have some potential—just not in its present form.

Conclusion

I think that all the pure hell that was raised over this show was a complete over reaction (especially with Home Depot and State Farm Insurance pulling out as sponsors). As I have said on this site several times already, much of the criticism came out of this fear that when White folks see it, they will feel empowered to perpetuate Black stereotypes (as if some of us have not done a good job doing that without their help). Trust me when I say that this show would not have ‘empowered’ them. Mind you, these are the same Negroes that will laugh their heads off at the dumb actions of a White person on shows like America’s Funniest Home Videos or Jackass, but will feel some level of “shame” if the next clip features the equally dumb antics of a Black person as if this individual was hired to represent the intelligence of an entire race and screwed it up. (yep, I’ve been guilty of that MANY times).

Personally, I think we are long overdue for a Black version of America’s Funniest Home Videos–just without all the social commentary as served in HGM/WGTDB.

[updated 6:36pst]

Real estate stuff: Break out of your rut and do something!!!

My wife and I are determined to come out of this real estate slump with a few more properties under our belt. This is truly a buyer’s market — especially if you are looking to make a good investment. Here are some quick links.

# An In-Depth Look at the Atlanta Housing Market
# The Austin, Texas Real Estate Market
# California Market Defines, Defies Stratosphere
# Smart Time to Buy a New Home?, Yes or No

Gangs find strength in unity

(washingtontimes.com) The international street gang MS-13 is unifying its violent members across the U.S., including the D.C. area, attempting to strengthen its criminal operation by creating a single organization.

“Traditionally, the gang consisted of loosely affiliated groups known as cliques; however, law enforcement officials have reported increased coordination of criminal activity among Mara Salvatrucha cliques in the Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York metropolitan areas,” states a confidential letter sent out earlier this month from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Illinois.

“MS-13 is attempting to become a unified criminal enterprise operating under one leadership.”

[…]

MS-13 is also the largest gang in Northern Virginia and groups associated with the gang are growing in Montgomery County, Md., as well, said Virginia state Sen. Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, Fairfax County Republican.

“At my level of government, what frustrates me the most is that so many people stand in the way of tough policies against illegal immigration,” Mr. Cuccinelli said. “They either ignore it or don’t understand the connection to public safety, security and the community’s well-being.” (more…)

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Yes, the cab ‘thing” is getting a bit old

Dinesh D’Souza addresses the whole Obama ‘can’t catch a cab because I’m Black’ thing:

I interviewed a number of cabdrivers for that book, and here is what they told me. Driving a cab is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country, because drivers are routinely picking up people they don’t know. The law requires cabdrivers not to discriminate, and yet it seems that cabbies of all backgrounds are willing to circumvent the law when they believe there is a risk to their security. Cabdrivers know that the average black male is not a criminal, but given what they perceive to be the increased likelihood of being mugged or held up by a member of this group, they don’t want to take a chance. My conclusion is that this kind of discrimination is hard to eradicate because it’s not based on mere prejudice; it is also based on behavioral differences between groups.

Does Barack Obama–who likes to be considered Mr. Straight Talk–have the guts to address this issue? I highly doubt it. Here’s what I’d like to hear him say: of course the law-abiding black male who can’t get a cab has a right to be angry, just as the law-abiding Muslim has a right to object to being considered by airport security to be a possible terrorist. (As a brown-skinned native of India, I too am sometimes mistaken for a Middle Eastern Muslim and given the full-body search.) But the legitimate anger that we minorities feel is best directed not at cabdrivers and airline security personnel, who are only trying to exercise caution, but rather at criminals and terrorists who give African Americans and Muslims a bad name. (source)

Thank you Mr. D’Souza!

The great Cuban health care system: So great, folks are swimming from it

But Michael Moore knows better than Cubans, right?

From: Cuban American National Foundation

Health Care in Cuba: “Medical Apartheid” and Health Tourism

Of course, not everyone in Cuba receives substandard health care. In fact, senior Cuban Communist Party officials and those who can pay in hard currency can get first-rate medical services any time they want.
This situation exists because the Cuban Government has chosen to develop a two-tiered medical system–the deliberate establishment of a kind of “medical apartheid”–that funnels money into services for a privileged few, while depriving the health care system used by the vast majority of Cubans of adequate funding.
Following the loss of Soviet subsidies, Cuba developed special hospitals and set aside floors in others for exclusive use by foreigners who pay in hard currency. These facilities are well-equipped to provide their patients with quality modern care. Press reports indicate that during 1996 more than 7,000 “health tourists” paid Cuba $25 million for medical services.

Cuba’s “Medical Technology Fair” held April 21-25 presented a graphic display of this two-tier medical system. The fair displayed an array of both foreign and Cuban-manufactured medicines and high-tech medical equipment and services items not available to most Cubans. The fair showcased Cuban elite hospitals promoted by “health tourism” enterprises such as SERVIMED and MEDICUBA.

On the other hand, members of the Cuban Communist Party elite, and the military high-command are allowed to use these hospitals free of charge. Certain diplomatic missions in Havana have been contacted and told that their local employees can be granted access privileges to these elite medical facilities–if they pay in dollars.
The founder of Havana’s International Center for Neurological Restoration, Dr. Hilda Molina, in 1994 quit her position after refusing to increase the number of neural transplant operations without the required testing and follow-up. She expressed outrage that only foreigners are treated. Dr. Molina resigned from her seat in the national legislature, and returned the medals Fidel Castro had bestowed on her for her work.

In 1994, Cuba exported $110 million worth of medical supplies. In 1995, this figure rose to $125 million. These earnings have not been used to support the health care system for the Cuban public. In fact, tens of millions of dollars have been diverted to support and subsidize Cuba’s biomedical research programs–money that could have been used for primary care facilities. (more…)
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Also check out “Re-examining the Cuban Health Care System: Towards a Qualitative Critique” by Katherine Hirschfeld (pdf file) –hat tip: Marc of Babalu blog