O.k. It is time for the madness to stop!! If you have hair growing out of your head it is GOOD HAIR!! This is not about the ladies. It is about us as African American Men! We need to tell our women that they are beautiful just the way that they are!

As African American Men we need to tell our women that they are talented, beautiful, smart, capable. We need to tell them that they are the queens that they are! And we need to do it NOW! Brothers Look at this!

Brothers there is a war and it is us against ourselves. What are you going to do today to show a Black woman that she is beautiful!

Start NOW!

Alex

Being new to town can be very difficult. Being black and in a new town takes it to a whole new level. Many Black people feel lonely and lost in a new community and in the age of the worldwide web there is no need for this. So where do black people meet? We all know the usual response. The usual answer or response is “Join a church or a mosque or a synagogue and you will meet great people.”

The only problem with that is that the last time I checked you were suppose to be going to those places to find communion with your higher power. Churches, Mosques, and Synagogues are not designed for you to meet a good person, husband, wife, business partner, etc. These places are by definition and design houses of worship, praise, or communion with your higher power. Am I right or am I right? When you base your spirituality on who you can meet at church you might be looking at bigger problems in the future. Think about it.

So where do black people meet? Let me tell you places that I have found to be very successful. Well there are multiple meet up groups in your city and you can visit them or monitor their activity for free. Visit meetup.com for more information. When you are there search for groups that you might be interested in. You can find African American entrepreneurs, African American Book Clubs, African American Singles Groups any type of group that you want to find. You can find a group for anything that you might be interested in, and memberships are free.

Visit Facebook, or Twitter and search for social groups. These sites are easy ways to …. wait for it. WAIT FOR IT! Social network! Stay away from Myspace. In short it’s time has passed and there is a lot of junk on that social site. Also it is popular and populated with teenagers.

If you are interested in creating business relationships in your community you should look into joining your local chapter of the Black Chamber of Commerce, 100 Black Men, 100 Black Women, Linkedin, Search Yahoo for groups or Google. You can also search Black Business Association in your area and do your research on the organizations. These are very easy ways to find places where black people meet.

O.K. Black folks a word to the wise about all of these groups. Spend some time learning about them and their members. Don’t just go because black people are there, go or join an organization that will help you achieve your goals. Just because they have members who are black does not mean that they are headed in the same direction. And the Church says Amen! Where do you meet black positive Black people?

Kanye West? Bad! MEAN! or Just HONEST!

Ok. So everyone is jumping on the Kanye West is bad bandwagon.  No surprise sometimes we as African Americans act like sheep and believe everything we are told by the news or our friends or our parents. This incident is no exception. So you all know about the Kanye incident and if you don’t know about the Kanye incident….

Welcome to America the year is 2009. It is September.  We just had the MTV Music Video Awards, the world is moving towards a global economy wether you like it or not, and Kanye West just said what many of us were thinking and got in “Trouble” for it. I think Kanye was RIGHT! There I said it

KAAAANNNNYYYEEE WWAAASSSS RIGHT!!

What?!?! How can you say that Roosevelt. All of the pundits are saying how horrible he is.  All of the news papers are condemning this act.  Fox News said that Kanye should not be allowed to any more MTV events. (For all of you African American Folks out there I would like to caution you to Be careful when you are on the same side of the argument as Fox News is. ) Everybody thinks Kanye West is bad. You Say?!?  Shouldn’t I think the same thing. I mean after all PINK said Kanye was a waist and she is my idea of an upstanding young woman.

Well, as my grandaddy use to say. “Be careful of what everybody thinks.  Because when everybody thinks it it is usually wrong!!” and you know what usually Grand Dads are right!

Up until last year EVERYBODY thought we would never have an African American president! (WRONG!) There was a time when EVERYBODY thought that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.  (WRONG)
There was a time when EVERYBODY thought that the world was flat. (WRONG)
There was a time when EVERYBODY thought that slavery was an acceptable norm. (WRONG AGAIN!)
And now EVERYBODY thinks Kanye West is out of control.

So before I say wrong, my friends let us consider two very strong facts in the argument of

“Kanye West was telling the truth. Deal with it!”

Exhibit A:      Beyonce wins Video of the YEAR! (Check!)

Exhibit B:      Beyonce is Female! (Double Check!)

Exhibit C:      Taylor Swift wins Best Female Video. (What?!?)

You do the math! You know I am not one to stoke the racial fires that are on a slow simmer here in the United States, but isn’t MTV the same network that refused to play Michael Jacksons Video Billy Jean because Michael Jackson was a black artist and they didn’t think he would appeal to white america?

At the time they said that black music was not “Rock Enough!”   (I.E. Too Black!) I guess appealing to black america wasn’t enough.

So I have to ask why do we get upset with an artist that is tired of the insanity that is the MTV Music Video Awards?  Or MTV period! I think inappropriate behavior begets inappropriate behavior.  Maybe it is time more people started using their voices for what they believe in instead of muttering it under their breath or speaking about it in safe circles. Maybe, just maybe, if we started openly talking about it our issues our issues will start to go away.

Oh and Jay Leno should be thankful that he didn’t ask me a question like “What would my mother say?”  Especially if she would have passed.

Black People I would have shown him what she would have done to me had I asked someone that stupid of a question.

Congratulations Beyonce!

I’m just saying Black People..

Written by R. Smith