by Dr. Boyce Watkins, YourBlackWorld.com – Scholarship in Action
Donald Trump and Barack Obama will be in the same room tonight. The White House Correspondents dinner has Trump on the guest list, with President Obama delivering a stand up routine that pokes fun at himself and his presidency. While almost no topics are off limits during the dinner, Trump doesn’t expect the president to talk about him.
"I wouldn't think [Obama] would address me" during his speech, Trump said to ABC News.
You never know what you’ll see walking through a random antique store. I’m speechless
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, YourBlackWorld.com – Scholarship in Action
If there were a royal wedding being held in Africa, would CNN spend an entire week covering it? If not, what does that say about race, if anything at all?
I couldn’t help but feel entirely disconnected from the ceremony that was being shown all over our television sets at the same time hundreds of people were being killed in an Alabama tornado. I kept wondering if the fantasy of the British fairytale had more relevance to news producers than the reality of death and devastation.
Watch as YBW’s Eshe White interviews a former football star about the realities of playing in the NFL
BOSTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's father was forced to leave Harvard University before completing his Ph.D. in economics because the school was concerned about his personal life and finances, according to newly public immigration records.
Harvard had asked the Immigration and Naturalization Service to delay a request by Barack Hussein Obama Sr. to extend his stay in the U.S., "until they decided what action they could take in order to get rid of him," immigration official M.F. McKeon wrote in a June 1964 memo.
Roland Martin has begun calling out Donald Trump on his Twitter page. This is what Martin had to say:
"Do not support Trump's #CelebrityApprentice. He's a travesty. I refuse to stay at Trump hotels; will NOT watch #CelebrityApprentice or buy products that continue to advertise on his show. He's pathetic."
Donald Trump Then Replied:
“I am the least racist person on the planet. I have a great record on that, especially in terms of my friendships. And I have never heard of Roland Martin.”
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World – Scholarship in Action
Like nearly every other black man in America, I’ve been taken aback by the manner through which Donald Trump has used racist code language to undermine the presidency of Barack Obama. After first wondering if he was born in the United States, Trump has made reference to Obama playing too much basketball to pay attention to the price of gas and even questioned whether or not he truly earned the grades necessary to get into the Harvard Law School.
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World – Scholarship in Action
The NAACP of Detroit has committed what appears to be an incredibly sad act by giving it's Great Expectations Award to Kid Rock during it's annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner. It's ironic that the NAACP is giving an award to someone who regularly uses the Confederate flag during his concerts. The civil rights supporter in me doesn't understand the NAACP's actions, but the Finance Professor in me understands their actions perfectly.
Here are some questions for the NAACP as they honor one of their greatest heroes, Kid Rock:
1) If Kid Rock were not a donor to your organization, would you have given him this award? Probably not.
“The President invited the living participants in the Memphis Sanitation Strike to honor their courage, and their fight on behalf of all workers for safe conditions, respect in the workplace and a better life for themselves and their families. As workers across the country continue to face challenges to their rights, the issues for which these men fought continue to be relevant and the President remains committed to the causes for which they marched.” – from the White House
By Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World – the picture above (left) is from the press conference held for Father Pfleger in Chicago
I went to the press conference being held on behalf of Father Michael Pfleger, the respected Catholic Priest on the Southside of Chicago. In case you don’t know, Father Pfleger’s church, St. Sabina, is a predominantly black church and his members love him. He has served the South Side of Chicago with the kind of courage only shown by a true spiritual soldier. He has stood strong with mothers as their sons have died and has put himself in the middle of nearly every kind of devastation that plagues inner cities across America.
by TEWire
Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Afro American Newspapers
Originally posted 4/27/2011
Only two out of every 10 African-Americans are on a path to achieve their retirement goals, according to a six-month-old survey of Blacks conducted by a major wealth manager.
In this episode of Your Black Love, Deborrah Cooper and I ask whether or not black women have a preference for dating men that are not good for them.
Do you know a woman who dates one bad guy after another and then seems to spend all of her time whining about the fact that she can never find a good man? Yea, I have too. Well, it seems to me that, at some point, we must all have some degree of accountability for our relationship choices.
Posted April 26, 2011 | 06:25 PM (EST)
I woke up thinking about a person I met just two weeks ago. I was thinking about this man because he is going to die unless we find a way to help him. He is paralyzed from the neck down, has one working lung and that lung has enough blood...
773 Comments | Posted April 24, 2011 | 10:28 PM (EST)
When I heard about the case of Tanya McDowell, the homeless mother sent to jail for sending her 5-year-old son to the "wrong" school district, I immediately thought back to the case of Kelley Williams-Bolar not long ago. I wondered how the world has gone mad...
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, YourBlackWorld.com – Scholarship in Action
I had to keep myself from getting sick when I turned on the TV this morning to see some random people walking down the street wearing clothes too expensive for nearly all of my friends to afford. I wondered why the world has become captivated and frozen over such a disgusting exercise of extravagance. So, I thought I would list at least four of the reasons that I won’t be watching the royal wedding:
Watch the video below to understand the nature of Fox News Racism. There’s a historical context to all of this, whether we’re talking about the Birther Movement, the Tea Party or any of the other activity coming from the Right Wing. Check it out below or click here to watch.
From the Voice of Detroit
DETROIT – In an interview with VOD, Ashley Matthews, 17, described the heroic student-led occupation of her school, Catherine Ferguson Academy on April 15. She spoke of the wholehearted support the young mothers received from the community, as well as the vicious physical and verbal brutality police visited on them during their arrests.
She said two toddlers, there with their mothers, watched the events.
I’m sitting here watching this MTV show "Son of a Gun," about a rapper, Cory Gunz, who is deciding which hip-hop label to join. I admittedly become annoyed with media feeding these bullsh*t dreams to black men, when 99.9% of them never end up making money as rappers or athletes. Brothers please understand this: Your best options for success are education and entrepreneurship - not busting rhymes and dribbling basketballs.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World – Scholarship in Action
Auburn University’s Cam Newton capped off his stunning win of the Heisman Trophy by being the #1 draft pick by the Carolina Panthers in this year’s NFL draft.
I’d like to make some quick recommendations for Cam as he begins his life of fame and fortune:
1) Save your money: Most of your fellow NFL players were sweating out the lockout because they weren’t able to make payments on all the cars and houses that they can’t afford. Get a good financial manager you can trust, learn to start your own business, and make sure you’re educated enough to understand what other people are doing with your money. If you lose everything, no one is going to care.
To have Dr. Boyce Watkins commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, YourBlackWorld.com – Scholarship in Action
Republican State Rep from Oklahoma Sally Kern seems to think that black people don’t work as hard as whites and that we are more likely to go to prison because we think the government will take care of us.
“We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that's tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don't want to study as hard in school? I've taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn't study hard because they said the government would take care of them."
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by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World – Scholarship in Action
Today, I stood in the presence of a true soldier. I went to the hospital in Chicago to visit Rasul “Rocky” Clark, the young brother who was paralyzed 10 years ago in a football accident at the age of 16. Rocky was paralyzed from the neck down, only able to move his head and nothing else. His legs and arms are thinner than anything I’ve ever seen, he can barely breathe, and he’s dying right now because his insurance company decided to kill his policy.
Rocky’s mother, Annette, has stood by her son day-in and day-out every single day since the accident. She has a bed right next to him in the hospital and repeatedly told me that “I’m not gonna leave my baby.” Every normal day seems to be abnormally tragic, with nurses cleaning bacteria out of Rocky’s one remaining lung, and the young man quietly repeating the words, “Mama, I can’t breathe.”
by Frank Igwe – Your Black World
"Appeasement is like feeding the crocodile, hoping that it will eat you last.” -Winston Churchill
As Hitler’s Third Reich expanded across Europe, and leader after leader sought to placate and temper his appetite for war by surrendering territory in the hope for peace, Winston Churchill took a stand, and stated: "Appeasement is like feeding the crocodile, hoping that it will eat you last.”You see, Churchill understood a basic truth that has been around since the beginning of time: A bully will continue to be a bully, until you take a stand and fight. Hitler’s aggression was built on a platform of racial superiority, of dividing the world into “in-groups” and “out-groups”, the chosen and “the others”, slaves and slave masters. He may have succeeded in his quest for world domination, and global ethnic cleansing had it not been for one courageous leader who said, ENOUGH!
Your Black World Reports
It appears that Whoopi Goldberg has had enough. The host, who normally defends men accused of racism (i.e. Mel Gibson and Ted Danson), found herself highly offended by Donald Trump’s reference to President Obama playing basketball and then stating that Obama was not qualified to get into Harvard.
Your Black World Reports
On a recent appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show, President Barack Obama was asked about the birth certificate issue. The president recently released his birth certificate to the public in order to squash growing controversy about his birthplace.
"Why did you wait so long, though?" Oprah asked. "When it first came up, were you thinking, I hope I was born here?"
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World – Scholarship in Action
If there were ever a human being who best embodied the words “What would Jesus do?” it would be Father Michael Pfleger out of Chicago. Father Pfleger has put it on the line for 30 years as the head of the St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church in the south side of Chicago. The church is predominantly black, but Father Pfleger connects with his parishioners as if they were his family.
by Janell Ross, Huffington Post
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- In the decade leading up to the Great Recession, Wanda Nolan grew accustomed to steady progress.
From an entry-level job as a fill-in bank teller, she forged a career as a commercial banking assistant, earning enough to become a homeowner. She finished college and then got an MBA. Even after the recession unfolded in late 2007, her degrees and her familiarity with the business world lent her a sense of immunity to the forces ravaging much of the American economy. Nolan was an exemplar of the African American middle class and the increasingly professional ranks of the so-called New South.
But in September 2008, everything changed.
A bank human resources officer called her into a private conference room. “All I heard was, ‘Your position has been eliminated,’” says Nolan, 37, who, despite being one of the more than 13 million officially unemployed Americans, still spends most days in her self-styled banker’s uniform of pearls and pants and practical flats. “My mind started racing.”
More than two years later, Nolan is still looking for a job and feeling increasingly anxious about a future that once felt assured. Her life has devolved from a model of middle class African American upward mobility into an example of a disturbing trend: She is among the 15.5 percent of African Americans out of work and still looking for a job.
For economists, that number may sound awful, but it’s not surprising. The nation’s overall unemployment rate sits at 8.8 percent and the rate among white Americans is at 7.9 percent. For a variety of reasons -- ranging from levels of education and continuing discrimination to the relatively young age of black workers -- black unemployment tends to run twice the rate for whites. Yet since the Great Recession, joblessness has remained so critically elevated among African Americans that it is challenging longstanding ideas about what it takes to find work in the modern-day economy.
Millions of people like Nolan, who have precisely followed the oft-dictated recipe for economic success -- work hard, get an education, seek advancement -- are slipping backward. Even as they apply for jobs and accept the prospect of a future with less job security and lower pay, they remain stalled in unemployment.
Trading down has become a painful truth for much of working America, but this truth becomes particularly stark when seen through the prism of race. Only 12 percent of all Americans are black, but working-age black Americans comprise nearly 21 percent of the nation’s unemployed, according to federal data. The growing contrast between prospects for white and black job-seekers challenges a cherished American notion: the availability of opportunity and upward mobility for all.
HARTFORD -- State lawmakers are wondering why a homeless Bridgeport woman is being prosecuted on felony charges for enrolling her son in a Norwalk school.
Rep. Bruce V. Morris, D-Norwalk, said Wednesday that since Tanya McDowell's 5-year-old son A.J. was withdrawn from Brookside Elementary School in January she should be held accountable for no more than half the $15,000 she has been charged with stealing.
Quote of the day: "The birthers are now going to have to change their name since the birth certificate has been release. Instead of being called 'the birthers,' they are now going to be called 'the after birthers," because they simply aren't going to quit." - Mark Thompson, host of “Make it Plain with Mark Thompson”
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World – Scholarship in Action
Tanya McDowell, the mother in Connecticut who was charged with larceny for allegedly stealing an education for her son, has pleaded not guilty today in court. McDowell faces up to 20 years in prison and a $15,000 fine for sending her child to a school outside his district. The problem is that no one seems to know where McDowell was living because she is homeless.
McDowell’s son, AJ Paches, was sent by his mother to Brookside Elementary in Norwalk, CT. As a kindergartner, Ms. McDowell wanted to ensure that her son had access to a high quality education. The problem is that when school officials found out that AJ didn’t belong, they put him out. The school system that he was sent to, in nearby Bridgeport, CT has significant problems, where many of the schools are in danger of being taken over by the state.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Eye-level watermarks, gutted buildings and rows of mobile classrooms linger as reminders of the flooding from Hurricane Katrina that nearly wiped out Southern University at New Orleans in 2005.
Now the predominantly African-American university faces what students and administrators view as a new threat: Gov. Bobby Jindal's proposal to consolidate the school with the nearby, mostly white University of New Orleans.
In the episode below, Your Black World Coalition founder, Dr. Boyce Watkins and Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network discuss the Birther Movement and whether or not it’s racist. They also discuss the case of Tonya McDowell, the homeless mother who was arrested for sending her child to the wrong school.
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World – Scholarship in Action
I watched Tyler Perry last night on the Mo’Nique Show on BET. It was an interesting interview, with Mo’Nique fawning over Tyler’s brilliance in the way you would expect an actress to kiss up to one of the most powerful filmmakers in the world. I fully expect that Mo’Nique will get some coveted roles in future Tyler Perry films.
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World – Scholarship in Action
Tricia Fraser filed suit last Tuesday against a Texas-based pro-life group that used her daughter’s face on a billboard that ran in Harlem earlier this year. Beneath the face of her child were the words “The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb.”
In the lawsuit, Fraser claims that the use of her daughter’s image was “defamatory, unauthorized and offensive.” She also said that it was racist. The image was obtained legally, however, as Fraser had allowed her daughter to be photographed by a modeling agency.
NORWALK, Conn. -- A homeless single mother arrested for allegedly enrolling her son in the wrong school district is set to make her first court appearance Wednesday morning in Norwalk Superior Court.
Prosecutors say Tonya McDowell, 33, stole more than $15,000 worth of education by using her babysitter's Norwalk address to enroll her 6-year-old at Brookside Elementary School.
McDowell told police she was living in her van and sleeping at a Norwalk shelter, or staying at a friend's Bridgeport apartment when she enrolled her son in Norwalk last September.
To support Tonya McDowell’s case, please visit the YBW Virtual Command Center at EqualEducationNow.com
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World – Scholarship in Action
I just spoke with Kelley Williams-Bolar, the mother in Ohio who’d been arrested for sending her child to a school outside her district. Her goal had been to go to Connecticut this week to support Tonya McDowell, the second black mother in months to be prosecuted for the same offense. To our surprise, the judge in Kelley’s case, Patricia Cosgrove, denied Kelley the right to travel across state lines.
I find it interesting that this law-abiding mother, who simply wanted a better life for her children, finds herself forced to go through life with a probation hanging over her head, having her freedom restricted by judges and prosecutors who are determined to perpetuate the nightmare for Kelley and her family.
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World – Scholarship in Action
I can personally confirm that Donna Brazile, the well-respected Democratic strategist, is a really nice person. When I say a “nice person,” I mean really nice. Not, the fake, polite kind of “nice” that people use to reference those in power, but the honest-to-goodness “nice” that you get from a guy (me) who doesn’t care much about keeping famous or unethical friends.
Donna once did something very kind for my brother years ago, long before anyone knew who he was. I respect any big shot who is willing to help a young black man trying to achieve his goals. I don’t think Donna knew that my brother was related to me at the time, which makes her kindness all that more special.
Donna is on my mind, because she reached out to Your Black World the other day to give me some clarifying points about her meeting with Cornel West at Princeton University. I’ve written a bit about the meeting between Brazile and West, particularly as it pertains to the perception that the meeting was structured in response to the well-known blow up on MSNBC that occurred between Prof. West and Rev. Al Sharpton. In seeming contrast to my personal interpretation of the meeting, Ms. Brazile let me know that the meeting had been planned back in February and not in response to the events that took place on MSNBC. I’ll admit that even though I take Ms. Brazile at her word, it’s hard to imagine that she wasn’t happy to use this meeting as an opportunity to deal with Prof. West’s vehement opposition to the most recent activities of the Obama Administration.
With that said, Ms. Brazile also made a point that I found to be quite accurate and noteworthy.
"We have to have an inside, outside strategy. We have to do defense and offense,” she said. “The fact that Brother West is on the outside makes my job easier.”
This is the point that should be remembered by every Obama loyalist who somehow thinks we are helping the president by squashing anyone who is remotely critical of the administration. The fact is that by surrounding the Obama Administration with “yes” men and women, we are going to find our community ignored by political insiders who only give oil to the squeakiest wheel. So, by speaking up on behalf of the black community and making sure that our issues are placed firmly on the table of discussion, we are helping President Obama do his job better.
In the video conversation below, Dr. Wilmer Leon and I discuss the Brazile/West/Obama dynamic and what it means for black America. Enjoy!
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
From NBC Connecticut
A homeless, unemployed mom from Bridgeport has gained a lot of attention after she was arrested for sending her 6-year-old son to school, and now the school is saying they did not go after her.
Tanya McDowell, 33, has been accused of stealing $15,686 worth of education for her son from Norwalk when they were staying in Bridgeport.
McDowell told police she was living in a van and occasionally sleeping at a Norwalk shelter or a friend's Bridgeport apartment when she enrolled her 6-year-old son at Norwalk's Brookside Elementary.
As I mentioned last night on the Bev Smith Show, saving the black male in America is one of the most critical problems being faced by our community today. Over the last 30 years, black males have been subject to mass incarceration (mostly due to drug felonies after the Reagan Administration opened the door for the crack cocaine epidemic), subject to massive handgun violence (as guns followed the flow of drugs), and poor educational systems (we know how bad inner city schools are in America). As a result, many of these men are poorly equipped to become good husbands and fathers later in life, leading to the suffering of an entire community. The majority of black homes are fatherless, and our boys are bombarded with media that tells them to emulate the behavior of self-destructive hip-hop stars, or to toss away educational opportunities in exchange for an athletic lottery ticket. Something needs to be done.
Dr. Tyrone Bledsoe and his organization are working to solve these problems. Fighting for the black male is not popular in a society that is designed to destroy us. But even if society wants to see us dead and gone, that gives us no excuse to endorse the idea of killing ourselves and each other. It is for his outstanding work in the black community that Dr. Bledsoe is today’s Dr. Boyce Spotlight on Your Black World:
1) What is your name and what do you do?
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, YourBlackWorld.com
Let’s hope that the Birther Movement is on its way out the door. If it isn’t completely out the door, it’s on its death bed. CNN has engaged in an all-out assault on the Birther Movement by doing a detailed investigation on whether or not President Barack Obama was born in the United States.
In the video below, the network goes to the extreme to settle the question once and for all. Personally, I found the investigation to be quite compelling. There are others, however, including Donald Trump, who’ve spent all of their time engaging in their own investigations and coming to “very interesting” conclusions.
From Yahoo News
Education activists are rallying around a homeless woman who may face jail time for enrolling her son in kindergarten under a friend's address. Supporters say the woman's story is yet another dismaying example of inequality in the U.S. education system.
Tanya McDowell, a homeless single mother from Bridgeport, is charged with first-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny for signing up her 5-year-old son to attend nearby Norwalk schools under the address of a friend. (Her son went to the school for four months. Her friend has been evicted from public housing for letting McDowell use her address.) McDowell may face up to 20 years in prison and a $15,000 fine if convicted.
Gwen Samuel, a Connecticut education activist, is organizing a press conference to try to get the charges dropped and raise awareness about parents who are criminally prosecuted, rather than dealt with individually by the school district, for using false addresses.
Your Black World reports
Talk show host Tavis Smiley spoke publicly about President Obama this week on the Today Show, as he promoted his new book about how to overcome failure. The host, Ann Curry, gave Smiley an opportunity to discuss his concerns about the Obama Administration, and this is what he had to say:
The Obamas celebrate Easter Sunday at the historic Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, DC.
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Huffington Post – Your Black World Coalition
When I heard about the case of Tonya McDowell, the homeless mother sent to jail for sending her 5-year-old son to the "wrong" school district, I immediately thought back to the case of Kelley Williams-Bolar not long ago. I wondered how the world has gone mad enough to somehow think that it should be against the law for mothers to find ways to get their children access to a high quality education.
As a result of this homeless single mother having the audacity to get her child into a good school, she is being charged with first-degree theft and also being asked to repay the $15,686 it allegedly cost to educate her child in the Norwalk, Conn. school district. No one cares that this family has no home. No one seems to care about what will happen if this child grows up without the only woman on earth wired to love him unconditionally. No one seems to care about the massive costs to the state of prosecuting this mother and eventually the child, as we deliberately trap them in an intergenerational cycle of poverty and criminal justice. All that seems to matter is that they keep this little boy out of their school.
Growing up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Lynn Whitfield first watched the likes of Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's"and Bette Davis in "All About Eve" from her grandmother's lap. She loved classic movies and with child-like confidence, she could see no reason she could not become an actress and some day play those same types of roles. Over the course of nearly three decades, the talent of the little girl who dreamed of being on the silver screen has taken her to the heights of the acting profession and earned the respect of the public and her peers.
After gaining attention on the stage as one of the young women of color in Ntozake Shange's poetic panorama of the black female experience, "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf", Whitfield began appearing in supporting roles in such films as "Doctor Detroit" (1982) and "Silverado" (1985) but did not achieve real success until starring in television films ("The George McKenna Story", "Johnnie Mae Gibson: FBI", both CBS 1986) and miniseries (the acclaimed "The Women of Brewster Place" ABC 1989).
Is it possible for the music industry to learn something from an artist who hasn't had a hit song since the mid-'90s?
In the case of MC Hammer, it just might.
To many in the music industry, Hammer is a has-been rapper who squandered a fortune and eventually faded into musical irrelevancy. But in Silicon Valley, he's a respected entrepreneur, investor and adviser with a reputation as a savvy early adopter of new technology.
That's quite an achievement in a region that views most celebrities with suspicion.
From Dr. Boyce Watkins
I just spoke this morning with Richelle Carey from CNN HLN. Richelle mentioned that she has a strong interest in the Tonya McDowell situation and wants to remain updated. I appreciate Richelle, for she has always been conscientious in her desire to keep the world aware of critical issues that face black people across the country.
