Read Them And Weep

The numbers are in for 2006 and I must they are more surprising than I could have even imagined. In three different categories black people committed more crimes than their white counterparts. In the category of murder and non negligent manslaughter white people committed 4,595 crimes (46.9%) compared to 4,990 crimes (50.9%) committed by black people. In the category of robbery white people committed 39,419 crimes (42.2%) compared to black people’s 52,541 (56.3%). And finally, in the category of criminal gambling, white people committed 2,358 crimes (26.2%) compared to black people’s whopping 6,467 crimes (71.8%). Click here to see Table 43 for yourself.

Now let’s get to the really surprising part.

Out of the 10,437,620 crimes committed in the United States 7,270,214 were committed by white people while 2,924,724 were committed by black people. In terms of percentages that means 69.7% of the crime in 2006 were committed by white people and 28% committed by black people. According to the numbers published by the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigations, black people should be far from being America’s number one problem.

It is true black people are the main culprits in the three categories mentioned in the first paragraph. But in twenty eight other categories the white community is seriously out of hand. White people rule such categories as forcible rape (65.3% to 32.5%), aggravated assault (63.2% to 34.5%), burglary (69% to 29.2%), larceny (68.6% to 28.9%), motor vehicle theft (62.7% to 34.9%), arson (76% to 21.6%), arson violent crime (58.5% to 39.3%), arson property crime (68.2% to 29.4%), other assaults (65.2% to 32.2%), forgery and counterfeiting (70.1% to 28.2%), fraud (68.7% to 30%), embezzlement (65.7% to 32.2%), stolen property (64.6% to 33.7%), vandalism (75.4% to 22.2%), weapons (57.7% to 40.6%), prostitution (56.7% to 39.6%), sex offenders (with the exception for forcible rape and prostitution, 73.3% to 24.5%), drug abuse violations (63.6% to 35.1%), family offenses (66.9% to 30.7%), driving under the influence (88.4% to 9.2%), violation of liquor laws (85.4% to 10.7%), drunkenness (84.3% to 13.2%), disorderly conduct (63% to 34.7%), vagrancy (56.7% to 41.6%), suspicion of crime (58.7% to 38.2%), curfew and loitering violations (61% to 37.2%), runaways (68.5% to 25%), and all other offenses with the exception of traffic (67.5% to 30%).

Time and time again we hear about black on black crime rates and how black children are out of hand and how single parent homes are tearing apart the very fabric of the black community. Let the media tell the story and black people are downright insane with criminal activity. Unfortunately, in the past, the only numbers I could ever find were the numbers associated with murder where black people out number their white murdering associates by 395 crimes. But according to these numbers from Table 43 it looks like white criminals are in a league of their own compared to their black counterparts when the full measure of criminal activity is applied. William Bennett may have been correct when he said that if one wanted to reduce crime all one had to do was abort every black baby. But if someone really wanted to reduce crime to an even greater degree it would be far more efficient and far more effective to abort every white baby.

But, the people in the news only want to bring attention to the murder rates where the number of crimes committed per race is compared to the overall population of the race. To stand back and listen to the media tell the story, and most of us do, black people are seven times more likely to commit crimes or black people crime rates are seven hundred percent higher then white crime rates. This is automatically translated to mean that black people are committing more crimes and deserve a disproportionate amount of scrutiny from the public and law enforcement. And although everyone makes the assumption that the correlation between rates and numbers is directly linked, the reality is that the black community is far from being the only purveyors of gloom and doom.

When the suggestion is made that rates and percentages can be manipulated, people pop out the woodwork to defend the system. How many times have I heard someone say something like I simply couldn’t handle the truth? How many times have I heard someone say something along the lines of it is a given that black people commit more crimes? When asked for the raw numbers broken down by race, white mindset defenders howl like a wolf to the moon.

At best all I could do is take the percentages and the population numbers and do the math to get some estimates of the raw numbers. From this exercise it appeared certain that white people were the criminals more often than people wanted to admit. But without the true numbers from some governing body few people would be converted by my statistics. But Table 43 is here and we should finally be able to put all this nonsense to rest. All that is left to say to those people who insist on keeping the propaganda that the black community is some kind of threat to society is read’em and weep.

So will we see more news stories about the proliferation of white on white crime? Will we see more articles about the criminality of white people? Will we see anything that will suggest that white people commit more crimes than anyone else here in America? In all honesty I would have to guess that this will mean nothing. The reality is that the status quo will remain regardless of any evidence that it is built on a foundation of lies. Too many people in key places want to adhere to the subjugation of black people that they will continue to spread the misinformation. Regardless of any evil anyone else commits black people are the most evil.

House Party

WARNING: Although it is not my intent to just flat out and insult anyone, some people may find this article extremely offensive. If merely the suggestion of behavior that people with a white mindset may find disgusting is enough to offend you, then may I suggest you stop reading now and move on. However, if you are intelligent enough to keep the message of this article in its proper context and read it completely to its end, then welcome.

When Martin Lee Anderson was murdered by the seven guards and a nurse at the Panama City, Florida boot camp I was taken aback by the number of painfully insensitive comments coming from people in the white community. The cover up that ensued after his murder started with the county coroner attributing his death to a latent sickle cell trait despite the fact that the guards were seen on video standing around Mr. Anderson and beating him. The guards even confessed to shoving ammonia tablets up his nose and holding his mouth shut in order to suffocate the young man and gain his compliance.

But what was more troubling was the fact that so many people with a white mindset were actually celebrating because the juvenile judicial system had taken another one of our black children out of the picture before he had the opportunity to become another thug terrorizing America. So many good white people are so afraid of Mr. Anderson and the potential trouble from “his kind” that the emerging thought process can be summed up as any time a black child is killed society should rejoice. One good white Christian said that they prayed for Martin Anderson’s soul to be redeemed from his evil ways so that he can get into heaven, but they still considered his death a good start for something positive for our national community.

It’s no longer enough for white mindsets that our black youth are given a separate and less than equal sorry form of American public education. It is no longer enough that our black children have a greater chance to be impoverished and grow up in single family homes. It is no longer enough that black children receive less than adequate medical care. White people in America now party when black children are wrongfully killed by a system that refuses to have compassion for the black community.

In the early morning hours of Sunday, October 28th, seven college students were killed in a massive house fire in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. Six of the students went to the University of South Carolina while the seventh is said to be a student form Clemson University. According to the news reports one of the students who lost their life was related to the owner of the home. Six other students were treated for burn injuries. Reportedly, the students were affiliated with the Delta Delta Delta sorority or the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Ocean Isle Beach is a popular resort area along the Atlantic coast. The daily population of the island town is only four hundred, but it will swell to twenty five thousand at the peak of the tourist and vacation season. The area sounds very affluent and disassociated from the black community. In fact I’m willing to bet that this community is the type with people who are more likely to overlook people in the black community and to celebrate the death of our children.

What if people in the black community actually celebrated the death of these young white people? After all, these kids sound like the type of people who would graduate from college and go on to be managers and executives in corporate America. Chances are these students would have been the type of people that would have been more comfortable around their white mindset peers and would have little incentive for helping people in the black community. Sure it might be true that some of their best friends are black. But would they or their so called black friends lift their fingers to help the black community? If these students made it to their management positions would they compound the problems of the black community by excluding black people?

Or maybe these students would have gone into politics and helped pass the laws that would make the observance of racial conditions in a school or place of employment some form of hate crime. The law could be designed to say anybody who would dare mention the disparity in racial communities would be a criminal. Or these students would become the judges and law enforcement personnel that would work diligently to keep low life black people in their place. Or maybe they’ll just become boot camp guards and nurses and work to alleviate the social problems of America by activating black people’s latent sickle cell trait by suffocation.

With so much racist potential from these students and “their kind” the black community should be in fear just like white people were in fear from Martin Anderson and “his kind”. And just like white people whooped it up when Martin Anderson was killed and his murderers were exonerated maybe black people can celebrate the death of these white young adults. After all, we don’t know what kind of damage these people were going to do to the black community. There’s just too much at risk here. But if it is any consolation to the white community black people could pray for their potentially racist souls to be redeemed so they can go to heaven. And just like so many white people called for more boot camps and more guards so that more black kids can have their sickle cell activated with the business end of a baton maybe the black community can call for more fires in affluent houses full of rich drunk white kids.

There is little doubt that people would find the celebration of the loss of life in the Ocean Isle Beach house fire reprehensible. A lot of people can identify with the loss of a white American life. People will have compassion for the grieving families. There is no doubt somebody is going to be offended over my fictional suggestion even with my disclaimer. But day in and day out people in the black community have to deal with white mindset insensitivity from people who hate black people so much that they call for our murder and our exclusion from mainstream America and there is nothing fictitious about them. If someone is offended by just the suggestion of black people having a party at the expense of seven white young adults who lost their lives then hopefully this will give pause the next time someone feels the need to voice their gratification over the loss of another young black person.

Black People Want Handouts

Everybody in America knows that a black person trying to find a job is trying to get a handout. A lot of people are more than happy to make the assumption that any black person searching for a job is unqualified for whatever job he or she is applying for regardless of experience or training. Since black people are ethically, morally, socially, and intellectually inferior to their white counterparts there is always some white person available somewhere who is much more capable to do the job. The black person who applies for a job with a wish to be hired is wishing on a wing and a prayer. A black person might be able to make themselves more employable if he or she would just take the time to study and improve themselves so that they are more competitive in the job market.

But everybody in America knows that any black person who tries to go to school is looking to get a handout. A lot of people are more than happy to make the assumption that any black person looking to go to school is unqualified for whatever schooling he or she is applying for. Black people are ethically, morally, socially, and intellectually the inferiors to white people so there is always some white person somewhere who is much more deserving of educational opportunities and much better at getting the good grades than any black person could ever hope for. Therefore the black person who wishes to improve themselves by going to school is only wishing on a wing and prayer. A black person might as well skip school altogether and just go into some form of entrepreneurship.

But everybody in America knows that the black person trying to start his own business is looking for a handout. A lot of people are more than happy to make the assumption that any black person looking to be their own boss is unqualified for entrepreneurship. Black people are too ethically, morally, socially, and intellectually inferior to white people and so there is always a white business somewhere that is much more capable and much more efficient at performing whatever job the black business could ever hope to do. Therefore the black business person who wishes to compete in the business world would be better off taking a few classes to learn to be a better entrepreneur. But we already know that the black person wishing to go to school to be a better entrepreneur doesn’t deserve to go to school so maybe the black person is better off just applying for some type of social welfare.

But everybody in America knows that the black person wants to do nothing more than to sit at home and look for a handout. A lot of people are more than happy to make the assumption that black people are looking to sit on their ass at home, collect a fat welfare checks that they use to pay for the brand new Cadillac they use to drive to the welfare office, stay in their section eight government funded home, and watch Jerry Springer episodes on their flat screen forty seven inch liquid crystal television with high definition. Black people are too ethically, morally, socially, and intellectually challenged to even try to earn a living. But somehow, black people are clever enough to cheat the government out of thousands of dollars and live life as royalty in the urban ghetto. Therefore, it only makes sense to assume that black people should not be allowed to apply for welfare.

Only in America can a black person trying to find a job or get an education or start a business or do anything else to help themselves would be considered looking to get a handout. It has been ingrained into our collective conscience that the black person is so unworthy that we are contemptible even when we are trying to work our hardest.  American society makes the assumption that no matter what a black person tries to do there will always be a white person that is more deserving or more capable to do it. Yes there are black people who excel at what they do. There are some black people who are wonderful actors, athletes, entertainers, politicians, soldiers, business people and a multitude of other areas of profession as well. But the relatively few black people who are capable of excelling at what they do to a point that very few white people can compete are the rare exception to this widely accepted and rarely perceived to be wrong rule even though there is woefully little evidence to substantiate its existence.

Everybody in America knows that all black people want is a handout. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the form of employment, education, entrepreneurship, justice, medical care, compassion, consideration, understanding, government representation, decency, history, culture, housing, recognition, acknowledgement, or, heaven forbid, some kind of social welfare or government assistance. People in the black community don’t deserve anything from anybody. All we can ever hope for is that some benevolent white people open their hearts and bestow some kind of charity our way. The black community should be thankful to the good white people who tolerate our existence. Everybody in America knows this as a fact regardless of how mistaken it actually is. But then again, black people who simply wait for white people to bestow a little charity their way are simply looking for a handout.

Oya’s Winds Of Change

Change is inevitable. The winds of change blow constantly and there is no stopping them. You can’t bargain, plead, buy more time nor force it, when it happens it happens and at the perfect time. Too many people are afraid of change, when change can be one of the best things that can happen for a person. The one thing to stop doing is internalizing change and feeling that it is happening to you and not for you. All you have to do is think of all the things that have changed in your life, which must be thousands by now, and think of the consequences that might be if it had or never happened. For example you may often think about a lost love. But what about that lost love? If you were still with them, you have no basis to know that it would have remained a great love. If the winds of change have blown it out of your life, then you no longer needed it.

Problems handling change are mostly due to the internalization of outside forces. Handling change shouldn’t be something taken lightly. In order for you to have a successful life you must be able to handle the changes that come your way. These changes are usually telling you something if you cared to stop and take a look at how they manifest. Most change that occurs might not be intended for you. As things change for others they sometimes have implications for those all around them. So if you are in doubt about how to handle change that is occurring in your life, by all means seek the guidance of Orunmila.

Change isn’t something that one must deal with alone. It is encouraged to share your lives and get help with things. The objective isn’t a test of strength, will, or bravery. It is just another part of life nothing more and nothing less.

When change happens and you feel that somehow this was unfair, since you liked the way things were meaning you were comfortable, you need to take a step back and stop internalizing everything that happens in your life. It is undoubtedly human to feel that everything is all about yourself. But like it is said previously not everything that changes in your life is due to you. Sometimes it is for someone else and it affects you as well. If you are so comfortable that you wish change away, you were stagnated on your path and need to see the change as a boost to keep moving forward in life. You can’t make it to your destination if you are sitting still. Change, even if painful, is still nothing more than a scenic view of life. If a loved one passes on, shouldn’t you rejoice that they are moving on, even if it is without you? Why should this be a bad time in life? would you have them become stagnate just so you can be selfishly happy?

When change doesn’t come and you feel that your situation is unbearable, you also need to take a step back since you might be missing a lesson in the predicament. Or maybe the change isn’t for you but it is dependant upon another. You have to take life at the pace that is set for you. Sometimes it may be fast, sometimes slow, and it all depends on where you are on the path. Remember life is like a road trip, sometimes you will get stuck in traffic.

Knowing your path is the key element to weathering change without too much fuss. When you know where you are going it is a lot easier to see when the changes in the road are coming up. If you are running blind on your path then absolutely you will be blindsided when changes occur. If you are not on your path at all then you will find yourself running into changing situations that end up causing you extreme pain and anguish. It is vital to make sure that you stay on your path and keep change as well as non change into there correct perspectives. Hopefully by reading this it will have some kind of change on the way you think and walk your path.

Racist Comments by White People

The word nigger has as much power over me as some benign word such as boy. It is not the word that is the problem. The problem is the sentiment behind the word.

White people profess to have no idea why black people would probably accept the word nigger from another black person but would get angry at being referred to as a nigger by white people. Yet, if I were to be pulled over by a police officer and called him boy, a term of endearment if it came from his parents, I’m sure my opportunity for a favorable outcome would be negatively impacted considerably. Why would a police officer take offense to being called boy? Obviously, the cop would interpret this black man calling him boy as a challenge to his authority and, possibly, his manhood. In the language of certain people the word boy can be interpreted as an attempt to demean, dominate, and humiliate. For many people it is possible and understandable for a police officer to take offense of something so benign as the word boy in just an instant why would it be difficult for people to understand why black people would take offense to white people using the word nigger when the word has been used for centuries as a derogatory tool for the humiliation and denigration of the black race?

The white community has a tendency to choose not to understand the black experience or apply the same consideration to the black community that they would give to each other. They claim to be obtuse to the insults they are constantly making against the black community. And since there are so many black people who are super quick to dismiss any offenses made by white people and come to their defense at the drop of any hat the opportunity for the black community to actually educate the white community and give clear guidance for proper racial etiquette in such a confusing topic becomes lost in a forgiving cloud of tolerance of their indifference. There are a number of instances for that support my supposition:

When Don Imus made his disparaging comments about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team on his television show the black community responded by demanding his removal. Initially the black community was rebuffed as nothing more than the latest nuisance by people with little influence on corporate America. But when black people started to use a strategy with economic repercussions for the sponsors Mr. Imus’ show was cancelled. Stanley Crouch and Jason Whitlock popped out of the woodwork to focus their criticism of the black community for ignoring the language of rappers but coming down hard on poor Mr. Imus.

When Wolf Blitzer was doing one particular episode of the Situation Room during hurricane Katrina the contributing reporter was making a remark on how poor people were unable to evacuate the city. The corresponding video showed an image of black people wading through chest high water. The reporter talked about the poverty of the people left behind. Mr. Blitzer had to add his two cents and made a comment on how the people were so very black. Mr. Blitzer’s comment was inappropriate and unnecessary. Mr. Blitzer has never made a comment about how somebody in a news article was so very white. But Mr. Blitzer thinks it’s unfair that the black community reacts to what he said of the blackness of the people in the article. Mr. Blitzer defends his lack of discretion by saying something that continues his contempt by saying, “Well gee, I don’t know what to call black people now.” So much for all this bull about a colorblind society.

It is not the words that hurt. It is not the word that is offensive. It is the intent of the people using the word. The idea of a white person using the word nigger or even the word boy is offensive. The long history of white people using these words and many others in an attempt to demean the black man and to injure his masculinity is not easily forgotten with just a lame confession of racial ignorance. Mr. Blitzer knows exactly what he thinks of black people and just happened to slip out one day. Mr. Imus can claim that he didn’t know black people get offended at having our women referred to as nappy headed whores. He’s heard too many gangsta rap songs that gave him the wrong impression. But the millionaire radio talk show personality is far from being the impressionable neophyte who made an honest mistake. Don Imus made a conscious choice to be racially offensive to black people that particular day.

And lastly, and sadly, when the racially offensive white person garners too much public attention for their racial transgressions, they can quickly find a flaccid black person who is all too willing to advise other black people to look the other way and to not react to what we may hear. Words have no power. The only power that words have is the power we give them. Many high profile blacks do much to defuse an opportunity for the white corporate community to learn to take the black community more seriously and simply give white people carte blanche to do and say whatever.

Bill O’Reilly can say so much about how he visited a black restaurant and was so impressed that black people behave no differently than white people and Juan Williams wants to give him a pass because Mr. O’Reilly was trying to pay black people a compliment. With so many black people giving so many flippant white people an excuse for the small opinion of black people white people have no incentive to treat African Americans with the same respect the bestow each other.

It is not the words they use. Whether or not the word is boy or the word is nigger isn’t even close to being the issue. Whatever words are chosen the people need to remember that the words are just another tool white people use to show the black community just how little they think of us.

Affirmative Action Is My Boot Strap

Affirmative action refers to policies and programs designed to promote access to education or employment of a historically socially and politically non-dominant group such as minorities and/or women. The reason for such programs is usually to rectify the effects of past policies of discrimination and to encourage public institutions to have a more diverse population. Like Newton’s first law of motion that says an object in motion will remain in that particular motion unless acted upon by an external force, discrimination in motion will continue down the path of discrimination until it is acted upon by some external pressure like the programs rooted in affirmative action.

Because of the racial discrimination that can be traced all the way back to America’s institutionalized slavery, the black community has been hampered. While many in the white community were able to earn a wage and accumulate wealth, many black people did not have the opportunity to gain assets or capital. When white people passed laws that ended their practice of institutionalized slavery of the African with the stroke of another white man’s pen, black people were left with nothing but the rags used for clothing on their backs while white people were allowed to keep the spoils of the African’s labor. The freed descendants of Africa had nothing to pay for housing, medical care, food, or clothing. Our ancestors had to start where they were and work to get where they wanted and needed to be.

If one thing our ancestors who were freed proved to America was their ability to adapt. Our Africans ancestors were snatched from their land, transported across the Atlantic in conditions no other race of humans had to endure, lost their language, lost their identity, lost their ability to practice their pagan spirituality without interference, became the property of another human, had their family members sold away on the white man’s whims, and were thrown into the American economic system to fend for themselves. And many of our ancestors set out to do just that.

But one thing some white minded people cannot tolerate is black people who don’t understand or refuse to stay in a role that is subordinate to white people. Black people who refuse to operate within the parameters of acceptable blackness as defined by white people are not welcome in America. The only black people that are permitted to prosper are the members of the black community who have demonstrated some type of allegiance to the superiority of white America. Black people will get ahead, but only if they dress the way white America wants them to, talk the way white America wants them to, walk the way white America wants, and so on. White America is more than happy to integrate the subservient black person into their economic system, but only on white America’s terms. One black person here is good enough. One black person there is more than enough. But anything more than that and we may have issues.

With this in mind it should become obvious that the black community is not free to prosper on its own. Too many white minded individuals are at the controls of the economics that could actually liberate the black community from white America’s yoke. These people prefer to exercise control in a manner that keeps the black community repressed and in economic bondage. Black people who make the choice to affiliate with the black community are black people who make the choice to be affiliated with failure, crime, poverty, inactive government, police harassment, limited services, depressed property values, despair, and hopelessness. It matters not if the choice is made consciously or through circumstances beyond the individual’s control. The resulting stigma from the association is the same. The stigma associated with the black community is tangible, very real, and manifest itself physically as the conditions in the black neighborhood.

Now its common procedure that when people are physically handicapped they are given crutches. When we see people using crutches or in a wheelchair in order to gain the mobility that most people take for granted the last thing that should enter people’s mind is some form of shame or ridicule for the condition. Yet, when similar circumstances are attributed to the black neighborhood and its plethora of substandard conditions compared to the white neighborhood, suddenly we are supposed to be ashamed of using the crutch of affirmative action in order to force the white community to allow more people in the black community to earn a living or an education and not just their handpicked token.

Affirmative action actually takes away the white mindset’s ability to ignore the plight of black people. As the vast majority of employers and educators and governing bodies in our society the white mindset actually holds all the economic cards in the relationship between black and white people. Keep in mind that the current conditions between blacks and whites is a product of the ancestors of white people who brought the ancestors of black people here to America kicking and screaming. But now white people want to say they never owned any slaves and that they are not responsible and have no obligation to help their black neighbors who have actually been prevented from being able to compete in white people’s games.

Some people like to point to affirmative action programs and say that they are just a crutch on the black community. These people claim that black people can compete and any affirmative action program robs the black community of any dignity in the job market, school, or whatever you may have. But when white mindset people refuse to allow black people who are just as capable and talented to compete fairly what is the point? The crutch of affirmative action may appear unnecessary because we are so able to compete, but we also need to remember that there are a lot of people who would rather keep us off the playing field altogether and the threat of affirmative action is the only thing that can influence their thinking down a less racially discriminatory path.

Now affirmative action is just one of my boot straps. In a society where white mindset people would rather not see me, a black person who is more than comfortable being outside of white people’s definition of a comfortable black personality, darkening their office I’d rather take a chance of having my dignity suffer over having to rely on a crutch to force corporate America to do the right thing for the black community rather than keep my dignity intact and suffer the type of racism that would prevent me from trying to earn a living.

Western Burkas

There have been a number of reasons passed around for the liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq and any other country America deems to be practicing the subjugation of its people.  One of the more common reasons for war against certain Islamic cultures has been the subjugation of their women. And one of the most visible signs of subjugation of Islamic women is made apparent by forcing the women to wear burkas, the free flowing black outfit that many Islamic women wear that covers them from head to toe. Some women enjoy a version of the burka that allows them to show their face and a little of their hair other women have made the choice to wear burkas so severe that the woman’s eyes are hidden from public view. And while it may be true that some women are forced to wear the traditional female form of dress from their family members or from some of their governments, many of the women who don the burka do so voluntarily in honor of the traditions of their culture.

Without an honest appreciation for the traditions of Islamic culture the understanding necessary to value the burka’s contribution to their way of life cannot be fully recognized. Yet, many good Americans feel that they are sufficiently knowledgeable of Islamic culture with their cursory, two minute education from the network nightly news to justify the liberation of Islamic women at the end of a military gun. Never mind the fact that with collateral damage and overzealous military personnel half the women that we intend to liberate from the burka will also have their souls liberated from their body.

Now that the good people of America are so focused on liberating people who are being forced to wear certain traditional outfits with absolutely no benefit to society other than to conform to somebody’s favorable opinion of the past, maybe someone will take it upon themselves to liberate the people in the white dominated corporate world who are being forced to wear ties, business suits and other attire that have absolutely no positive influence to job performance. And yet all too often many company managers, business representatives, and other corporate personnel who are the gatekeepers to employment, promotions, or potential business relationships feels justified to judge a candidate’s value or potential to their company by the their conformation to western business attire. No matter how much we admire the company that thinks outside of the box in their working environment the standard practice is that job applicants had better dress the part to get the part.

Nobody is planning to drop a bomb on any corporate entities for their adherence to corporate traditions. In fact, many people happily defend the company’s right to demand that their employees conform to the traditional corporate attire. Corporate headhunters cannot stress enough to prospective job applicants that they send to job interviews the importance of adhering to strict rules regarding corporate attire. White or lightly colored business shirts with a dark colored suit and conservative tie are mandatory corporate job attire for the male applicant. Throw in a conservative haircut and you would have a potentially job winning, or at least non job loosing, appearance. Although somewhat more lax the female job applicants have their own rules of appearance that must be followed to prove their devotion to corporate tradition.

If the logic used to justify the opinion that the Islamic culture is barbaric and insistent on outdated rules of behavior and dress in order to subjugate its people, does not the same logic apply to the corporate mindset that insist on holding fast to its own set of outdated and conformist regulations. But our collective hypocrisy allows us to overlook our American adherence to outdated rules and appearances while we judge the rules of other cultures as too insufferable for their own good. Such thinking is the exact same mindset that we mistakenly believe give us the right to impose our views on other countries as our own country fails to follow our own standards of behavior when it comes to the subjugation of certain members of our community. If the people of America are so ready to correct outmoded thinking we really don’t have to travel halfway around the world and drop bombs and justify another war of aggression against a perceived weaker nation of the Islamic faith. All we have to do is change our own outdated thinking and reject our own adherence to the western culture’s version of the burka.

The Mandated Medical Coverage of Massachusetts

The state of Massachusetts has implemented a mandatory health insurance system. People who do not have health insurance have to pay some seriously heavy fines for not being able to obtain healthcare. Now I won’t try to cover all the details of the plan. But, I do know that it’s something that the corporate insurers working to make as large a profit as possible can live with. I also know that it’s something that the heavily Democratic state legislators can live with. And finally, I know without question, it is a plan that the people of Massachusetts have no choice but to live with.

In Massachusetts all state residents are required to have health insurance. Supposedly, there are huge government subsidies to help low-income individuals buy insurance. All companies with eleven or more workers are required to help pay for health insurance. The aim is to cover ninety five percent of the five hundred thousand uninsured residents within three years. In order to do that, the residents are split into three categories. The first group is comprised of nearly a hundred thousand poor people who qualify for Medicaid but have yet to sign up.

The second group numbers about two hundred thousand and consists of low income families and individuals who don’t qualify for Medicaid but can’t afford health insurance. This group represents the core of the uninsured across America where more than seventy percent of the forty five million uninsured Americans have family incomes under fifty thousand dollars. Those earning up to the federal poverty level would be completely covered. These people would not have to pay any premiums or any deductibles. Those making three times the poverty level would pay part of their premiums based on a sliding scale.

The third and last group consists of another two hundred thousand or so uninsured high income individuals who are the prime target of the individual health insurance mandate. The state will create a “health insurance connector” that will allow individuals and small businesses to buy insurance as if they were a large company.

Beginning next year, individuals who don’t have insurance will be subject to a penalty equal to half the cost of health insurance based on figures developed by the Kaiser Family Foundation. According to their data health insurance coverage runs about four thousand dollars a year for an individual and nearly eleven thousand dollars for a family. Those numbers can translate into some seriously healthy financial penalties. The poverty level in the United States is about $16,700 for a family of four. That means any family of four with an income of over fifty thousand dollars a year would be subject to some steep fines. In many instances over a fifth of pre-tax income would have to go to medical coverage.

Now this is an ambitious plan that has a great deal of promise. It has a great deal of promise of income and profit for insurance companies. For example: the number of people being beaten over the head to get insurance in the third category is two hundred thousand. Multiply that by the minimum annual cost for health insurance and it creates another billion dollars of income for the insurance company at best, or a half billion dollars of income for the state in the form of financial penalties.

And this is the minimum coverage. It is a sure bet that nearly every medical procedure that cost more than a Band Aid would probably by declined or requires a healthy co-payment. The insurance company isn’t about to let all that mandated by law income disappear by paying for medical treatments. There should be little doubt that doctors will be strong armed into keeping medical treatment to the absolute minimum. The rules for coverage will require adherence to such asinine regulations like patients must receive approval for emergency room treatment no later then one hour prior to any accident.

The real key to getting universal medical coverage is to get the incentive for making profit out of the system. Insurance has got to be one of the largest and most profitable industries in America. People can pay out the nose for automobile coverage and when their car is in an accident the insurance company is quick to write the car off and give the insured half what the car is actually worth. People pay for years for their homeowner’s coverage. After a hurricane that utterly destroys the home the insurance company wants to give the insured a check that would barely cover the cost to replace a door knob.

Medical insurance pretty much follows the same process. Regardless what the commercial says the insurance company isn’t your friend and the insurance company isn’t looking out for your welfare. The insurance company isn’t in the business to pay claims. The insurance company is in the business to make money for its shareholders and they cannot do that by paying for quality healthcare coverage.

If governments want to make medical coverage affordable then it could start by taking the profit out of the process. We have been programmed to believe that government managed healthcare is a bad thing. But it is not. Medicare and Medicaid are government sponsored healthcare programs that are able to function without lining anybody’s financial pockets. Nobody makes a dime off the healthcare programs provided to the President, all the Congressmen, and a gaggle of other government officials and workers. Without a doubt they have access to the best medical coverage on the planet and it is run by the government. Government sponsored healthcare may not be a bad thing after all.

Come On Bill

Bill Cosby has just released a new book. I know this not just because I watched Mr. Cosby and his long time collaborator Alvin Poussaint talk about their new book on Meet the Press with Tim Russert, I know this not just because I watched Misters Cosby and Poussaint on Larry King Live promoting their new book and trying to explain some of the social ills that prompted its authorship. I know that Come On People is one of the latest new books for sale on Amazon.com because Christina Stewart’s letter to a couple of people named Chris and Shaver appeared on my list of comments awaiting approval earlier this week. I have no earthly idea who Ms. Stewart is.  But her letter says this book “combines messages of personal responsibility with practical solutions.” She goes on to say “Come On People is for all those who are tired of being used, neglected and undefended folks who wish to see changes in their governments, their neighborhoods, on their streets and within the walls of their living spaces.”

It would’ve been nice if Ms. Stewart or whoever left her message on my blog’s electronic doorstep would have made a relevant comment about my blog. But it seems she or whoever was in a bit of a rush to promote Come On People. The comment came with three links to some excerpts from the book as a sample of the prolific and profound writing that would inspire changes in governments, neighborhoods, streets, and inside the living spaces. I took a bite and read what was made available. To see the excerpts for yourself click the following links: Excerpt 1, Excerpt 2, and Excerpt 3.

If these excerpts are indication the writing for this book is very simplistic and unimaginative. The book could’ve been titled How To Raise Black Kids for Black Dummies. This book makes such propositions as black parents need to serve good food to their children. Black parents need to engage their children in conversation. Black parents need to reward the good behavior of their children. Black parents need to make sure that the children’s punishment fits the crime. If the samples are any indication black parents are demonized, criticized, slandered, and vilified in this book. What evidence do the authors offer to support the supposition that black parents are not talking to their children or that black parents aren’t doing their best to provide good food? And for the black parents that aren’t feeding and raising their children properly how exactly does this book provide the tools necessary for these parents to learn these habits?

Bill Cosby is somewhat hypocritical in his implications and insinuations. Mr. Cosby has made a fortune pushing some of the white corporate icons that now permeate the black community. For years Mr. Cosby has told us to have a Coke and a smile. For years Mr. Cosby has pushed Jell-O pudding pops down our children’s throats. I know I spent a number of Saturdays sitting in front of the television watching Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids and I know for a fact that not all the characters on the program spoke the standard English dialect that his new book now emphasizes. Not only did Mr. Cosby help market the sugar laden and/or chemically enhanced brew of Coca Cola. Mr. Cosby became one of the major owners of the Coca Cola Bottling Company of New York back in 1993. He’s not just the spokesperson, he’s the owner.

There’s little doubt that Mr. Cosby made, and is making, a ton of money with his endorsements and business investments. And now that he has his, Mr. Cosby, along with his partner Mr. Poussaint, want to reverse his position on nutrition with an excerpt telling the black community to make better choices for their children’s sake. The book itself is allegedly targeting the lower class of black people. Yet, Come On People isn’t likely to become part of the library of the lower class household with its nearly twenty dollar retail price tag. More likely than not this book is intended reading for the type of people who believe that people in the black community already have more than what they need to pull themselves out of their predicament by their own means.

Come On People offers an overly simplistic solution to the black community’s problem. The message that black parents simply need to do better fails to address the societal forces that have been created and that have evolved to make conditions in the black community what they are today. Black unemployment and black low employment are real factors that cannot be dismissed with a black parent asking their child how was their day. Black people who have worked hard to obtain their degrees in their chosen field of study have to settle for unskilled jobs because the opportunity to put their knowledge to work simply doesn’t come their way. For black people who do manage to improve their economic conditions, abandoning the traditional black community is standard operating procedure. Too many of our black celebrities and wildly successfully business people leave the traditionally black community for more ethically diverse pastures. Black people like Tiger Woods and Venus and Serena Williams got plenty of attention from their parents. But now that they have theirs these black celebrities are so removed from their racial peers that they are now racial eunuchs. Why would this happen if these black people’s parents did everything by the book.

It would be nice if all black parents had to do is feed their children better, talk to their children better, and do other basic things better. But the reality is that the black community’s problems are much more complex. If anything, Come On People could help some black people improve their relationship with their children. But this book will fall extremely short in any other measure of the black community. The overwhelming and overriding message in this book is that black parents need to focus on their relationship with their children. I think a black parent can always do more to improve their relationship with their child. However, that is nowhere close to being the end all and be all to correcting the social issues that effect the black community. As far as offering practical solutions to those of us who are tired of being used, neglected and undefended who wish to see changes in our governments and neighborhoods, this book isn’t even close to addressing any of the real socially charged racial issues.

Don’t Take the Odu Literally

The last time I got a reading from a traditional priest of Ifa was a few months before my initiation. That would be about three years ago. I can’t remember what it was for exactly. More than likely since I was about to be initiated I’m sure it was something regarding the details of the final preparation. I probably got a reading saying I needed to have a chicken slaughtered to remove any remaining spirits or such nonsense. Back then my only role models for the development of my spirituality and my understanding of ancestors and Orisas was the people in the ile who had a very strict and a very traditional interpretation of Ifa and I was anything and everything to learn.

I don’t remember which odu fell but I remember hearing something like I had to give Orunmila about forty thousand cowries and something big like an elephant or something else that’s pretty impossible to find these days, those days, or any other days in between. I had to give praise to my babalawo and my babalawo had to give praise to Ifa. But has anyone seen the price of cowry shells lately? Forty thousand cowries could cost as much as four thousand dollars these days. And to this day I still have yet to find a suitable elephant on eBay! Not a problem! The leaders of the ile interpreted the odu to mean that I had to have a chicken slaughtered and give pay the ile so many dollars. That was a load off my mind.

Like I said that was three years ago. Now that I have a little experience under my belt, and a much better appreciation for the spirituality of Ifa, I am able to understand things much more clearly and interpret the mechanics of spirituality without the interference of adherence to traditional thinking. Like most spiritual text written for the benefit of the masses, the odus of Ifa are not to be interpreted literally. The two hundred fifty six verses are little more than stories that are supposed to inspire and guide people in their own lives. Odus should never be interpreted literally. My teachers knew this to be true but only to a certain extent. They knew that nobody is going to show up at any ile with an elephant in tow. So the odu can be modified and the elephant can become a chicken and the forty thousand cowries and become a hundred dollars or so. And the part about giving these sacrifices to the Orisa can be modified to giving the money to the ile. Nobody has a problem with such interpretation.

Odus that inspire and guide people to take the spiritual plunge and go through an initiation ritual may say that the subject of the story may have gotten a haircut. But that should not be interpreted to mean that the haircut is mandatory for the future initiate. The manifestation of the haircut is by no means a requirement for spirituality. In the grand cosmos of things, sacrificing one’s hair makes little impact in the development of one’s character or one’s spirituality.

People who want the haircut to be part of their initiation are by all means welcome to indulge in the symbolism. For those people who need to separate themselves from the masses with overwhelmingly obvious signs of differences. It’s easy to point to the bald person walking around in all white and say there goes a student of Ifa. But it isn’t the outward experience that makes for the proper development of spirituality. Spirituality is based on character. The outward manifestation of our spirituality is based on our behavior and the choices we make for ourselves, our family, and our community. It is easy to see the person walking down the street sporting a new do and wearing all whites. It takes a lot more to recognize a person’s character and make the determination if it is of substance or not. Once has to be willing to invest the time necessary to actually to get to know the person.

Anybody can don a new appearance and parade themselves up and down the street. But the initiation is a spiritual rebirth not of appearance but of understanding. The need for a haircut is designed to make it easier for other initiates to recognize the newbie across the room, market, or whatever the case may be. Combine this with the fact that many people who are looking to be initiated aren’t looking for spiritual development as much as they may be looking for prestige and status. Over time, the individual who might not be so focused on their manifestations of their character but on their appearance can easily pass for the genuine article if we are taught to see and recognize the genuine article as the white clothes and the haircut.

But the students of Ifa who want their spirituality truly developed mustn’t rely on such obvious signs. Real students must learn to develop their character so that their behavior makes the difference and not the clothing. If an initiate wants to go the whole nine yards and get the haircut and the white clothes to go along with the change in their behavior then by all means go for it. But don’t think that an odu telling a story that someone getting a haircut just before, after, or during the initiation ceremony means that everyone who has made the decision to be initiated is required to get a haircut. If you are going to take the odu literal then may I suggest that you not only get that haircut, but start collecting cowry shells and start looking for an elephant to sacrifice as well.