i stand by it

Whoo hoo, the end of, a well fight out, semester. I am very excited to see it end. The class was so blah! We did not have many discussion and the last part of class was fill up with presentation, that nobody seem to not wanted to do. I did but it was so disastrous that I too no longer care, no sound what the steaks! Everything I learned in class I learned on my own, reading at home. Black history, like any history, you have to care enough to do it on your own. So, as to come prepared for class, to have great discussions. The class really needs a better book, thanks instructor for the side articles and readings, because the one for the class is terrible. The cool part of class was meeting the people, and my group members. Flippin Wynn tried to make the class more interesting, but every time she would try and discuss a subject, the class would sit silent, except for a select few. And one, I know definitely known, did not even know what the hello she was talking about. I think Afam should be reserved for those who truly want to learn and never as a general class. The efforts made ,by instructor Flippin Wynn, in the , was what made me stay, but she was so disillusion about the lack of enthusiasm she too gave up and started to let us teach the class. Wrong, I do not even remember half of what the groups did in their presentation, I will tell you that! I wish I could have taken this class with the select few who really came to learn and in a smaller setting, like my African Aesthetics class. The coolest thing about the class, besides my awesome group, was the blogs because I got to write in a unconventional way, that was not as strict as papers and essay. I wonder because this is our last word, does it have to be as long as a normal blog, probably. Boo!
So I guess I will talk about other highlights in the class, I like the privilege version of red light green light. That rock! Hmm, Last word, is that like a last impression, oops! I am not changing what I wrote, it is exactly how I felt about the class. More discussions, More discussions. I like some of the speakers like Dean Evans and the black panther guy. I hate working in groups, I hate it when others dictated my grade it is stupid, but necessary, when receiving your Masters you almost always work in groups, so there you go. I hated the test, what ever happen to good old multiply Question test. While attending this class, I learn the difference between learning Black history at HBCU, than at Majority white college, it is easier to speak in class at a HBCU, one because you do not come across as a mad black women and two you do get asinine comments like, “way does color matter “, “ Why don’t you guys just get over” and “this does even apply to me I an not a races”. Yuck! But a good thing about learning about Black history here is the open-mindedness of some of my fellow student regardless of the ignorant ones. I like hearing about how some of the students were so eager to learn about the sub- Culture, as was I. I took this class because I thought it was necessary for my minor, but its not. I can take any six classes. Boo! I wanted to take hip hop maybe next time. peace

7 Occurrences 7 Opinions

Saturday
March 21, 2009
3:00pm
Down Home with the Neely’s
Food Network – 57 (Cox Cable)
Cooking- reality show
African America Family- Father, Mother, and two children (two teenage daughters)
Positive Image

Tuesday
March 24, 2009
12:00am
Bernie Mac Show
FOX- 12 (Cox Cable)
Situation Comedy
African America family- Uncle, Aunt, and three children (a teenage niece kid niece, tween nephew), also a never seen single mother.
Negative image

Tuesday
March 24, 2009
3:00am
Proud Family Disney- 38 (Cox Cable)
Cartoon
African America Family- Father, Mother, Grandmother, and three children ( teenage Daughter, Baby Daughter, and a baby son.
Positive image

Wednesday
March 25, 2009
11:00pm
Family Matters
Nickelodeon- 26 (Cox Cable)
Situation Comedy
African American Family- Father, Mother, Two kids (Teenage Son and Daughter)
Negative Image

Thursday
March 26, 2009
8:00pm
Akeelah and the Bee Lifetime- 25 (Cox Cable)
Cinema
African American Family- Single Mother, Four Kids (Two Sons and adult one and a teenager, And two Daughter a teenager and a tween Daughters)
Negative Image

Friday
March 27, 2009
6:00pm
News Channel 4
14 Year old abducted
KFOR- 3 (Cox Cable)
News
African America Family- single mother and one teenage
Negative Image

Friday
March 27, 2009
8:00pm
House Hunter
HGTV- 58 (Cox Cable)
Reality TV
African America Family- Father Mother, and two young Daughters
Negative Image

It was harder than I had expected to come up with seven natural occurrences on TV and in the news paper. Sometimes I think the media forgets about African Americans, as a whole, maybe, because of their lack of appeal and money source. Especially with the young people not watching TV but playing video games and surfing the internet. The image of African Americas have change a bit since the 1990’s, there are more positive images of African Americas on T.V. While watching the Neely’s on the Food Network I witness a family that not only love each other but help each in the family business and outside family too. Bernie Mac was a positive image in a way because it was family backing up family but the fact that the mother had to be a crack head was totally necessary she could have died or went to jail under false pretenses or something.

The New Negro and Beyond

How did it contribute to a different perspective of African Americans during the 1920’s and so forth? I took this Question two different ways, one being how I now see African America after learning about the 1920’s and how do African America see themselves 1929’s and beyond . So I will answer both questions. I see African America continuing to found who they are, reinventing themselves to find self justification, since the 1920’s. The prejudices that continue to keep the Blacks as second class citizens, deeming them incapable of helping themselves and need someone to help them out , is diminished more and more everyday in the black community. They went from slavery to President in just a little over a 100 years. And now I will answer the second question. Back in the 1920’s, more and more Negros was beginning to challenge the ideas of the white man by finding their own culture using the arts. Loads of writers were exposing the danger in the south in order to help stop the killings going on down there. Ernest J. Gaines is a great example of that New Negro thinking, I will give you a Quote from “A Gathering of Old Men”: Won't it ever stop? I do all I can to stop it. Every day of my life, I do all I can to stop it. Won't it ever stop?" In Relating to now has it stop? According to the 1950’s it has not but today, it is a different type of killing.

The civil right movement was a time of change, a true DIY showcase, no longer were blacks terrify of speaking or fighting for what they believed in. Like in the 1920’s B lack s were tired of living their lives with unjust laws like Jim Crow and faulty segregation laws. There were several organizations fighting for justices at this time, the most famous ones were The NAACP, SNCC, CORE, SCLC and the Black Panther Movement. It was a civil struggle to end unnecessary cruelty. It ended around the 1970’s.

The murder of Emmett Till and yes I have heard of this tragic story"I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby."Mamie Till Bradley

SNCC was a group of black college students from North Carolina A&T University. They refused to leave a white lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina where they were told they could not be served. They had started others to conduct sit-ins in at their colleges and around town in the South. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, was created on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh two months later to coordinate these sit-ins, support their leaders, and publicize their activities. (About .com) The Philosophy of the group started out as non violet but seeing that that was not enough to get justice fast, the soon begin the

Martin Luther King live a life of comfort and stability, education was in the fore front of his mind, and at a young age attend college, which eluded him from not knowing firsthand the struggles of the poorer blacks. Making his tactic for racial equity similar to that of W.E.B Dubois, that education and words would be enough to change minds. Well because of the lack of violence and anger in King’s development Non- Violence seem best. Contrary, to King’s life Malcolm X’s Life was not a bed of roses, First Experiences were filled with violent, his father being a victim of a hate crime, murder. He had to always be crafty and his young life in Harlem was at the university but in the streets hustling, he did time. I mean he lived every poor man life. Seeing firsthand how blacks lives would be better if they were to completely be independent from the mental need for white approval, similar to the ideals of Marcus Garvey‘s back to Africa movement. Regardless the similarity is that both of them started in a family that was fighting for the racial equity. Both men had had a father trying to better the lives of blacks, making the both destined to follow in their fathers legacy.

Some not all of the goals of the civil right movement were accomplished but a lot of their advancement s were undermined by hidden prejudge laws and white privilege.

I being an African America Will never have the “luxury” of having a single-minded thought. Bank on that.

Privilege and to whom

I believe, here in America, we are very privilege to live here, I guess. I don’t know. If African was never invaded would we have been just as privileged. I am so confused about this statement. So I guess I leave it as that. In America I see the privilege of some people not just whites, but well-off also. I grow up kind of poor; I think we were 5,000 dollars below the poverty line. So, it is very easy for me to see the privilege of others better of f, then me. So I decide to composite a list of privileges I have over others and then do ten privileges I have seen others have.
1. I know who my father is he lived with me every day of my childhood and in my own way I love him very much. Others do not know their father and thus takes a toil on their lives.
2. I have a "living" Family that include: Cousins that are like Uncles, Aunts that are like Moms, 2nd cousins that are like brothers, and of course sisters who are best Friends and a brother who is like a homeboy. Others do not have this. I feel very blessed.
3. I have the privileged to be able to attend this college, because just a few decades ago, Blacks folk were not even allowed to stay here after dark.
4. I also have the privileged to learn without disabilities or obstacles in my way. (knock on wood)
5. I had the privileged to be the granddaughter of Mary H. Lewis. I weep for those who do not have a grandmother as selfless as mine was.
6. I have the privileged to accept what I will tolerate, what I will not, without having threats on my life. Some do not, and slaves never did.
7. I am privileged to have gone to a safe middle school and high school. No, metal detectors, drug dogs or fear for my life. I know not everyone has this privilege.
8. I also have the privileged of buying decent clothing without hustling for them or stealing them or just not getting any of them, not all my life but my teenager years and up.
9. I have the privilege of having a warm shower in my own home, eating food and drinking fresh water.
10. And lastly, I have the power to make my dreams come true, because I have the mind set to complete my dreams, too many people never get the chance to dream.
11. Others have the privilege to have parents to buy them anything they need and/or want. I do not, like some I have to work for everything. Striving and saveing.
12. Others have the privilege of rarely thinking about their race. I do not have this privilege of going a whole day without remembering I am Black or being told that I am black.
13. Others can congregate without the police or someone calling the police to break it up. Even if it is just praying, I have been interrupted.
14. Others have the right to pleasantly live where ever their hearts desire, while others go through Gentrification and deed trickery.
15. Others have the privilege to be taught by a teacher of their same “race” and know that they are important, while others never will.
16. Others have the privilege to never worry if they will be consider less than someone because of skin color. “ Good old BLACK TAX”
17. Others have the privilege to have had a stay at home moms or nannies, while others have to take care of themselves and others, during a time when they should have been taken care of.
18. Others have the privilege to be look at as equals all their lives,while others only 75 or 30 %.
19. Others have the privilege to never have to justify, for other people in their race, they do not even know, because of the color of their skin.
20. Others have the privilege to never ever worry about skin color being a factor in their lives.

Tim Wise and McIntosh are two individuals who have decided to step outside the box and examine life holistically. Now if we could get more people to do this then, maybe Americans can finely get pass race.

Checkout this article: http://a.abcnews.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=5833322&page=1

NAACP And more

Though over sited by Martin Luther King in the 60’s, the NAACP played a dominated role during the Civil Right Movement. (Watson, Denton L. p 453) They were the silent crusaders that help “the right to justice, the vote, education, the abolition of Jim crow, equal treatment in the Armed Forces and enforcement of the 13th_, 14th_, and 15th_ amendments.” (Karenga 169) The NAACP Chapters can be found all over America, like Oklahoma. The Oklahoma chapter of the NAACP helped Clara Luper, who was the 1st_ women to ever orchestrate a series of sit ins, in her fight to end segregation. The legal movement was great in getting laws pass put not getting the implicated that is where the NAACP came in, like superman. NAACP helped with a case, which went all the way to the Supreme Court, to integrated interstate buses and trains. (http://www.ajc.com/) Reconstruction was a system to help transition the south after the civil war. It was to help ex- slaves find placement and help reconstruct what was lost, from the white southerners, during the war. It did work for the white southerners, they got money to build new houses and businesses, but for the Blacks, the ones who needed the most, no, it did not work for them. And the present for the NAACP looks very bright, just celebrating the 100Th_ Anniversary, a few days ago, it seem to still be helping in the fight for an equal America for all. Matter of fact, Rhonda William, the Youth Advisor of the NAACP Chapter in Oklahoma, implicated a reading program, for youth in Lawton, which is so powerful she doesn’t even have to be there to guide it. I think, as an America, you have the civil right to be taught correctly in a public school, not be left behind. There is also the Jena 6, The Jena Six are a group of six black teenagers chargedwith the beating of Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High Schoolin Jena, Louisiana, United States, on December 4, 2006. (Wikipedia) Before our recent speaker I always thought that civil rights movement was powerful everywhere but here, I use to think if I were to have live back then, I would want to have been in New York or working with SNCC. But, now I know a little bit more it makes me very proud that I live in the same state as Clara Luper, John Green, and Ada Lois sequel Fisher.

Systems: Black kids in education

I have been wanting to write about my feelings on the education systems in America for a long time. so I am taking this opportunity to do so. It sucks, why does it suck ? You ask ? Because to many minorities fall through the cracks of this jack up situation. And the situations is jack because of the media portray of Black men and women. Too many time I have heard about George Washington but not about George Washington Craver. It makes Black kids feel like there not important, in a way it makes everyone feel black folks are not important unless they are super geniuses the top of every class, athletes great at the arts or super funny. Being humdrum or little rowdy leaves you in either the sow class or the back of the class. which leaves the black child two or three grades behind the other children, but because of the "leave no child behind" laws. they go ahead and bump the insignificant child up to the next grade until 4th grade when they separated the elite children , the regular kids and the "doo doos " into separated classes furthering the gap. Now I know you are probably thinking how is this racism all colors are in these groups. Yes, but they are not all treated the same. For , example my little brother he is smart hard working and loves to learn, but he is also arrogant and hot tempered like most boys, well instead giving him time out or working with him. They meaning his White teachers, view him as monster and a criminal, because that is what the media says that’s what black boys turn into, and ships him on to the slow class, give him slow work, telling him who smart. Now mind you, The people he was in slow class with, did not want to do their work was borderline crazy and also incapable of the simplest task, and the catch is they where all white. Now other white boys act just like my brother did and stayed in their class. And Do not get me started on property tax and private school segregation. Thank god for charter school like Marcus Gravey.

Black Studies

I believe African and African America studies are very relevant because that information is not taught, in most schools, multimedia, or household, around the world. In the article, Why Black History is not just for blacks it states;”Most of us are reared in an intellectual climate that either disparages the contributions of African and African America people or neglect their contributions all together.” The relevancy of African and African America Studies and programs are critical to the well being of this world because to deny and abused one culture destroys every culture. It is like a burnt cookie, it is still a cookie but it does not taste as good, smell as good, or look as good. Even thought it still has good parts and you may probably still be able to eat, it is still flawed and unhealthy.
“Black Studies understood itself as not only a source of intellectual production and exchange, but also an agency of social change.” (Karenga 31) Knowledge is power and if you have knowledge then you can change the world. Because blacks were first slaves, when they arrived to America a system was started, a need if you will, to keep the slaves in check, by stripping them of their culture and giving them only enough information to work and talk to their masters. They could not learn how to read and they could not congregate outside of religion and worshiping the master as God. I believe that started the neglect of Black study. But now we all can attain the knowledge of who Africans and African Americas are and you can begin to see the flaws stereotypes in the black community and then begin to fix them. With student s learning about African and the Diaspora studies, it would change the dynamics of the world more people would have a proud sense of self and hopefully people will no longer deny Being African.