Taking back the Black hair care industry
A few weeks ago I was contacted by Aron Ranen via e-mail. If the name does not ring a bell then perhaps you have seen his documentary on the state of the Black hair care industry either here or somewhere else on the net. Apparently he found a post I did on the same topic (”Are they taking over or did we give them the keys“) and like what he read. He, along with some other folks within the industry have been working for some time now putting together the Black Beauty Supply Association. The main goal of this association is to regain much of the position in the Black hair industry that has been lost over the years.
Last week they had a phone conference for folks who wanted to either join or just find out more about the association. Today they are scheduled to be on The Michael Baisden Show.
If you have the time today, check out the radio show and pass on any ideas you may have for Aron and the BBSA.
In the meantime, here is the blueprint of the association. Link to their website is at the bottom of this post.
If you have not seen any of Aron’s documentaries, click on the ‘Research’ button on the top of this page and scroll down towards the bottom. You should find a link to all of them. More »
Representation with little results
Black councilmembers have done little to help the black community
Low-Impact Representation
by Barney Blankeney
charlestoncitypaper.comIn a couple of weeks the madness will be over. Charleston voters will have cast their ballots. And I’m thinking not a whole lot will have changed. At least not as far as minority representation is concerned.
Three of council’s five black members are up for reelection, and I’m betting they will each be sent back to council. That would be a good thing if it meant black constituents in their respective districts would somehow benefit.
For the past 32 years, blacks in Charleston have had significant representation on City Council. Until four years ago, half of its 12 members were black. But that’s never translated into significant advantages for the black community.
It’s amazing that significant political representation never seems to benefit black people. Despite having five black representatives on council, the per capita income of blacks in the city remains at roughly about half that of whites while black students are about twice as likely to drop out before graduating than their white classmates. That’s been true since Charleston adopted single member district representation in 1975.
Even in areas where black representation on City Council can have a direct impact on social or economic policy, it has failed to make its weight felt.
[SNIP]
The benefits of black representation on City Council have been equally as dismal on social issues. Violent crime and illegal drug trafficking continue to ravage black communities, but few initiatives to reduce crime in the black community have come from black councilmembers.
Municipal government has been virtually absent when it comes to the city’s predominantly black public schools or recreational opportunities for black kids. While the city has a number of partnerships with public schools in its domain, they all seem to be paper tigers, especially if you consider that all the city’s predominantly black schools are failing schools. (more…)
See, and when someone says this, the assumption is that this is some sort of inditement against ALL Black people everywhere–classifying the person as a “self-hater”. I beg to differ. This is an inditement against all of those out there who feels that ethnic representation alone is the silver bullet against injustice. As a resident here in California, I can assure you the same thing happens in many of the mostly Hispanic communities.
Killing off the death penalty
Lawyers Move to Kill Death Penalty
American Bar Association Says ‘Serious Flaws’ Warrant Stay of Executions
By CHRISTINE BROUWERUnderfunded, understaffed and plagued by racial bias, the nation’s system for executing inmates is deeply flawed, and should be stopped until improvements are made, the American Bar Association said in a report released Sunday.
The report, which was based on research conducted in eight states, including Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Ohio, examined the “fairness and accuracy” of death penalty systems, and found “serious flaws in every state,” according to the authors.
“We just do not have confidence in the capital justice system after studying it,” Stephen Hanlon, chairman of the ABA’s Death Penalty Moratorium Project, told ABC News. “Capital defense systems are being underfunded, and unqualified and underresourced lawyers are defending death row inmates.”
“In determining who gets the death penalty,” Hanlon added, “all too frequently, it seems to be not the person who has committed the worst crime, but the person who has the worst lawyer.”
Sunday’s report, compiled by former judges, prosecutors, defense counsels, and other legal experts over a period of three years, detailed 13 separate sets of problems, including sloppy gathering and testing of DNA evidence, underfunded forensics labs, false confessions leading to convictions, and unreliable eyewitness testimony. (more…)
While I am a supporter of the death penalty, I am also for a defendant’s right to a fair due process. I have even heard that some of these DNA labs aren’t even certified not to mention cases where the defendant was given an ill-prepared attorney.
Here is a case in Indiana where the cost for just trying it is astronomical.
“The cost of trying to put Daniel Ray Wilkes to death in a triple murder case is approaching $300,000.
If convicted, Wilkes, 39, faces the death penalty in the April 2006 deaths of an Evansville mother and her two young daughters.”
[SNIP]
“…the average defense cost for a death penalty case in Indiana is about $375,000. She said that accounts for expenses through trial.” (source)
I don’t know if I am totally on board with a complete moratorium on the death penalty considering all the attention each execution is given these days, but I do agree that some serious and forceful reform is needed.
Clinton on a hot tin roof
Clinton got both barrels (Obama/Edwards) last night. Still I believe that it will not make a bit of difference in her lead within the Black voting block, at least. For that, they would have to take the “Clinton doesn’t care about Black people” route.
The Politico: “Obama, Edwards attack; Clinton bombs debate”
Real Clear Politics: “Edwards Shines, But Clinton Still Leads”
Brah-man ALWAYS has the hook-up
‘AMERICAN GANGSTER’ BOOTLEGGERS RUN AMOK: Industry deals with pristine qualities of Denzel flick already selling for $5 on the streets.
eurweb.com“Apparently, you can’t stop them; you can only hope to contain the bootleggers who continue to put hot product on the streets despite the film industry’s reinforced preventive measures on piracy.
A report in the Wall Street Journal calls attention to bootlegged copies of “American Gangster,” which opens this Friday starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. But as some folks already know, the film has been available since at least Wednesday at various file-sharing sites on the Internet.
High-quality, crystal-clear DVDs of the film were also being sold for $5 Thursday morning in Los Angeles, the newspaper reported.”
LA? I have to make sure to get my hair cut in the city this weekend (wink, wink).
What’s science?
Science courses nearly extinct in elementary grades, study finds
Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer
sfgate.comThe third-graders looked puzzled when asked what they liked best about science. No answer.
OK, then, next question: “What is science?” a visitor asked the children in a hallway at Bessie Carmichael Elementary School in San Francisco.
“Science is like art,” said Manuel, 7, who let that cryptic response hang in the air as he ducked away.
He might have meant that both can open the heart to beauty. Or maybe he was saying that science, like art, is something students don’t get much of these days in elementary school.
If it were the latter, a new survey of 923 Bay Area elementary school teachers would agree.
About 80 percent of those teachers said they spent less than an hour each week teaching science, according to researchers from the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley and from WestEd, an education think tank based in San Francisco.
In contrast, a national study seven years ago found elementary school science instruction averaged more than two hours per week, said Rena Dorph, the lead researcher on the new study.
“It’s alarming because it’s a very short amount of time per week dedicated to a subject that’s considered a core subject in schools,” said Dorph, who is director of the Center for Research, Evaluation and Assessment at the Lawrence Hall of Science. (more…)
#
Costume not needed for this candy
I posted at least one of these in the past, but it is worth doing it again.
#
Yes, that is a man.
Now, let’s go ol’ skool: “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Chapters 1 -3“
A simple doll test
This afternoon while I was working with our kids with their homework in my office, I asked my beautiful 6-year old daughter to come to my desk because I wanted to show her something. It was the picture you see to your left. I asked her “If I were to ask you which one you think is prettier, which one would you pick?” As the kool-aide smile on her face began to slowly grow, she pointed to the brown one. I asked her “Why?”. She simply replied “Because it is brown.”
Now I’m quite sure that if her choices was between a Sambo and Barbie doll, her choice would have been the other way around.
Bottom line, this all points back to self-esteem–something that my wife and I work hard at fortifying everyday in the lives of our children.
A little over a year ago, my daughter got the bright idea to grab some scissors and cut off a few of her little afro puffs. After my wife regained consciousness, her only option was to style our daughter’s hair into an mini afro that made her look like a boy (for you natural sistahs out there, her hair was too short to style it like an Angie Stone). We would add bright colored hair bands to make her feel pretty, but after a while the bands were not enough to convince her that she was a pretty girl. Oftentimes she would come home and tell either me or my wife that she wanted hair just like (insert White girl here). Why? Because at the time, most of the girls her age in our old neighborhood were either White or Hispanic.
As her father I did everything I possibly could to convince her that she was still pretty, but it just seemed like nothing would really stick. It wasn’t until my wife stepped in that she began to see herself and feel like a pretty young girl despite her hair. You see, my wife did things that as a man I could not do. Together they would do things like apply makeup, style each other’s hair, look through Black hair magazines, etc. While all my hugs, kisses and other forms of affirmation are always much needed ingredients, my wife influence here was very crucial.
Now don’t get me wrong here, my daughter still loves long hair (as just about every other woman out there). But she is very confident in herself without feeling that she has to be something else in order to be pretty.
Today she has enough hair on her head to wear it in braids. My afro picking days with her hair are over.
Need free money? Work for Los Angeles city government and cry “racism”
Recently, the city of Los Angeles decided to quickly settle a “discrimination” lawsuit filed by a former Black firefighter by the name of Tennie Pierce. For those of you who are not familiar with the story, here is a very quick version.
“Pierce, a 19-year veteran of the fire department, sued the city in November 2005, claiming racial discrimination. He claimed other firefighters at his Westchester fire station fed him dog food mixed in some spaghetti in October 2004.” (source)
The problem with his story was that he conveniently left out the fact that he himself had participated in similar pranks against other firefighters. In fact, he was known to be a big prankster in the firehouse. According to the other firefighters, he was given dog food because he used to always say during volleyball games “Feed the big dog”. So as a joke, they honored his request. The first picture here is Pierce participating in a prank where a fellow firefighter is strapped down covered in a white sheet inscribed with the words “Oy Vey! I’m Gay”. Looking at the picture, Pierce thought it was funny. However, when it came time for him to be the butt of the joke, he cried “racism” and slapped the city with a $2.7 million dollar lawsuit. Just when city council was getting ready to settle (mind you, they had access to a whole series of similar pictures of Pierce), word of the possible pay out hit the radio airwaves and taxpayers got angry. Even LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa declined to settle the case.
Early this month, this was the headline that greeted Los Angelenos one morning: More »
Guess what came to America from Haiti some years ago?
Study shows AIDS came to the U.S. via Haiti, and earlier than thought
By Jia-Rui Chong, Los Angeles Times Staff WriterA genetic analysis of 25-year-old blood samples has outlined a new map of the AIDS virus’ journey out of Africa, showing that today’s most widespread subtype first emerged in Haiti in the 1960s and arrived in the U.S. a few years later.
The analysis fills in a gap in the history of the virus, whose migration has been known in only a sketchy form from its origin in Africa in the 1930s to its first detection in Los Angeles in 1981.
Dr. Michael Gottlieb, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at UCLA and one of the original discoverers of AIDS, said the analysis placed the virus in the U.S. nearly a decade earlier than previously believed.
“It’s pretty clear evidence for Haiti as a steppingstone,” he said. “The suggestion that the infection was further below our radar than I’d previously suspected is kind of unnerving.”
The analysis, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focused on a variety of HIV known as subtype B, which is the most prevalent form in most countries outside of Africa.
Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona and senior author of the study, analyzed five blood samples collected in 1982 and 1983 from Haitian AIDS patients in Miami. The samples had been stored in a freezer by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Worobey and colleagues looked at two viral genes and compared their sequences with virus samples from around the world.
As a baseline, the used virus samples from Central Africa that are considered some of the earliest forms of HIV.
Because viruses are constantly mutating, the researchers could construct a rough timeline of development by measuring how much the genes in later samples had drifted away from their ancestral forms.
The team found that the Haitian samples were genetically the most closely related to the African virus, indicating that they were the earliest to branch off.
Statistically, the researchers found a 99.7% certainty that HIV subtype B originated in Haiti as opposed to elsewhere, Worobey said. (more…)
Yes, there will be idiots out there that will try to pin the whole thing on Haitians. Just remind them that AIDS is a disease where oftentimes its victims have multiple sexual partners–something that cannot be blamed on Haitians.
In any event, this is a very interesting find.
Minority-owned businesses receive majority of SBA loans in N.J. for the first time
(nj.com) For the first time, minority- owned businesses have received the majority of New Jersey’s Small Business Administration loans, with Asian-American-owned firms taking the lead.The SBA said yesterday 52 percent of New Jersey’s 3,557 loans went to minority-owned firms in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 — the first time that’s happened since the SBA made its first loan to a New Jersey business in 1960, according to James Kocsi, state district director for the agency.
Asian-American loans jumped 13 percent last year, to 1,110 loans totaling $175 million. Hispanic- American firms received 433 loans for $43 million, up 3 percent, while African-American small businesses saw a 7 percent increase, to 257 loans for $29.4 million. (more…)
#
A whole city on life support
Long before hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was already a city in need of massive government intervention thanks to a population that has largely on welfare, a very corrupt police department, and a public housing department that was taken over by HUD back in 2002. Now it appears that the state may have to take over the DA office.
La. Mayor: State May Take Over DA Office
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Mayor Ray Nagin says the state could take over the New Orleans district attorney’s office as early as Monday as the agency faces a multimillion-dollar civil judgment.
A federal judge ruled this past week that district attorney office assets could be seized to pay off a $3.65 million judgment pending from a 2005 case in which dozens of white office workers successfully sued District Attorney Eddie Jordan for replacing them with black workers.
Jordan is not personally responsible for the payment.
And in an opinion released Friday, City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields concluded after reviewing state and federal laws that “the city of New Orleans has never been required to fund any judgments rendered against the Orleans Parish District attorney or any other state official.”
Kris Wartelle, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Charles Foti, said Saturday she did not know whether the office is defined as a state or city agency.
Council President Arnie Fielkow said the DA’s office gets money from city, state and federal sources.
Members of the City Council noted that the judgment isn’t against the city itself and resources are spread thin as New Orleans struggles to recover from Hurricane Katrina. (more…)
#
“I told you I’ll be back, sucka!”
From his upcoming album: Xcape
Gangster (No Friend of Mine)
Whatareyadoing?
Man (sigh!), there was something going on with the previous template that was causing the backend to screw up big time. Buried in the coding was a script that was overloading my database and frankly I do not feel like spending the hours to look for it. It is going to take me about a week of monitoring to see if this template works. If so, you are looking at the new layout for Blackinformant.com.
What socialized health care looks like in the U.K.
“But everybody gets access.”
Record numbers go abroad for health treatment with 70,000 escaping NHS
dailymail.co.ukRecord numbers of Britons are travelling abroad for medical treatment to escape the NHS - with 70,000 patients expected to fly out this year.
And by the end of the decade 200,000 “health tourists” will fly as far as Malaysa and South Africa for major surgery to avoid long waiting lists and the rising threat of superbugs, according to a new report.
The first survey of Britons opting for treatment overseas shows that fears of hospital infections and frustration of often waiting months for operations are fuelling the increasing trend.
Patients needing major heart surgery, hip operations and cataracts are using the internet to book operations to be carried out thousands of miles away.
ndia is the most popular destination for surgery, followed by Hungary, Turkey, Germany, Malaysia, Poland and Spain. But dozens more countries are attracting health tourists.
Research by the Treatment Abroad website shows that Britons have travelled to 112 foreign hospitals, based in 48 countries, to find safe, affordable treatment.
Almost all of those who had received treatment abroad said they would do the same again, with patients pointing out that some hospitals in India had screening policies for the superbug MRSA that have yet to be introduced in this country.
Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said the figures were a “terrible indictment” of government policies that were undermining the efforts of NHS staff to provide quality services.
The findings come amid further revelations about the Government’s mishandling of NHS policies, and ahead of official statistics that will embarrass ministers. (more…)
As many of these folks know, there are some great risks when trusting a doctor in a country who may not have strict medical malpractice laws. However, when you are sick and tired there is no telling to what great lengths a person will go for treatment.
While it may be true that our current system is not the greatest as it can be, the fact of the matter is that folks from all around the world still come here for both treatment and training. Should every person in America have health care coverage? Not if government is managing it as demonstrated by this trend in the U.K.
Some Republicans love nanny goverment, too!
Connecticut School District Wants Report Cards for Parents
By Catherine Donaldson-Evans
Foxnews.comParents in Connecticut might be the ones getting the report cards if a proposed plan makes the grade at a Manchester public school district.
Steve Edwards, a Republican member of the Manchester Board of Education who’s up for re-election Nov. 6, wants parents to be evaluated on a handful of what he says are objective measures — including if their child does his or her homework or has eaten a good breakfast.
“I tried to design something modest [measuring] things that virtually everybody would agree parents should do to help their kids,” Edwards said. “We don’t have our staff making any subjective evaluations.”
The idea has angered parents, and the local PTA vows to fight the plan.
“People are going to be extremely offended by it,” said Jackie Madore, president of the Manchester Parent Teacher Association Town Council. “I don’t feel the report cards on parental skills is the way to go. … It’s going to be the parents against the Board of Education, basically.”
Edwards says parents aren’t properly preparing their kids for school. He’s proposed evaluations on whether parents get their child to school on time, if they have completed homework each night and if parents attend the twice-yearly parent-teacher conferences about the child’s report card and academic progress.
The other two categories — which Edwards admitted are more a matter of interpretation — would give parents a positive or negative grade on if the child is appropriately dressed for the weather and seems to have been fed an adequate breakfast.
“If a student complains that he or she is hungry and the teacher can hear the student’s stomach grumbling, why? What’s the story? How can we help with that?” explained Edwards, who has 13-year-old and 10-year-old daughters in the district.
[SNIP]
This isn’t the first school district to propose the idea of parent report cards. Chicago tried it — and failed. So did a district in Lebanon, Pa., which wound up broadening the concept into a larger program to get parents more involved.
Edwards, who has been talking about implementing the reverse report cards for the past year, said his policy isn’t nearly as far-reaching as Chicago’s — which graded moms and dads on things like how much quality time they spent with their children. His plan, he said, aims to help parents who need it the most. (more…)
I predict that the following will be proposed in the next 10 years in some school district:
# Free hair cuts
# Laundry care
# Sleeping quarters for students that appear to be too sleepy to concentrate in class
# Free dinner program
# Sex ed classes to include “Best positions 101″
# Free iPhone
# Monetary awards issued for flushing toilet (bonus cash for wiping)
# How to be “Green” in the ghetto
# Open student bars for the underprivileged (virgin drinks standard—-non-virgin with signed permission slip)
# Free Segway for every student
Yet another example of how the media likes to portray Blacks as “confused”
Black voters torn: Obama or Clinton? [Link]
Well suh, I jus don knows what I’m ‘pposed to do. Do I’s vote for a colored man, or do I’s votes for Mister’s wife?
I don’t know about you, but I have had my fill of articles talking about how Blacks are “torn” between two candidates. Last I checked, all of America is “torn” between Republican and Democratic candidates.
Just an observation.
-
African-American News
-
-
Blackinformant.com EXPANDED
This link will take you to the Blackinformant.com News & Politics Aggregator. This is still a work in progress, so continue to check this link and forward your suggestions to me on how this can better serve your news media needs.
This link will take you to the Blackinformant.com Black Mayor News Aggregator. Click the link below to keep up with news surrounding Black mayors around the country.