MSNBC drops simulcast of Don Imus show
Wow, who would have thought this would happen? People are tired of the excuses and I’m glad to see MSNBC stand up and make the move and drop the simulcast of his show. In watching interviews with Imus, I didn’t feel he was sorry for what he said. His main goal seemed to prove that he was a good person and what he said was comedy. Then he went to blame the black community for using those words for black women to justify his point. It was frustrating, but it helped me realize his being fired is the only way to get the point across. People are tired of the excuses.
I’ve seen interviews with NBC News President Steve Capus and he seemed to be bothered by Imus’ comments. He said his decision to drop the show was partly based on the feedback from NBC employees. But I’m sure the their major sponsors dropping out also had something to do with the decision. The only way to make a company listen is to hurt their bottom line. It worked in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and it looks like it’s working here also. As a person of influence, Imus needed to be aware that his words had power. I guess this time his influence wasn’t strong enough. Now we wait to see what decision CBS will make.
I seriously don’t think Don Imus is done with this. When someone is truly sorry, they apologize and begin the healing process. They don’t make excuses and point the finger at other people doing the same thing. Expect a fight out of him. Expect him to criticize every negative move made in the black community that doesn’t get challenged. Let’s get ready to rumble!
If there was any other time to fix some of the issues in the black community when it comes to disrespecting women, now is it. We need to do a better job of holding each other accountable. I hope the dialogue started will not stop since action has been taken. As a community we need to learn to respect each other. While people look to rap music as the problem, this language was a part of our community long before hip-hop was around. Hopefully we’ll see the light and realize the power our words have on society and learn to use them for good.
MSNBC drops simulcast of Don Imus show
Rutgers Team to Appear on Oprah
Texas Tech is Guaranteeing Free Tuition
While I may believe Texas A&M is a better choice (I’m biased) free is free.
Texas Tech is Guaranteeing Free tuition Texas Tech has a new program called the Raider Guarantee. Incoming freshman (new students, not transfer students) whose family has less than $40,000 AGI can receive 8 semesters (4 years) of free tuition. If you know anyone who is eligible please have them go to the following link and research the opportunity.
I think the deadline for Fall 2007 is May 1st 2007. Get your applications in now!
http://www.redraiderguarantee.ttu.edu
Update: A couple of days after the post I received a call from Kent Hance the Chancellor of Texas Tech reassuring me the program was official. I think this is great and I wish more universities were willing to do something like this. I fell into that income level at one point and wish the program was available for me. Please let everyone you know about the program.
MeMe, Thinking Blog Award
Filed under: Black Blogger Postings, Blog Entries, General
JD at Black in Business has awarded me a Thinking Blog award. This award is for those blogs that cause you to pause and think. JD had some of the bloggers on his list that I would have added to mine, but it’s all good. I had no problem at all for finding other quality thinking blogs to share with you. Here’s my list of some of the blogs I’ve found in my journey through the blogosphere.
Vanessa – Vanessa is a Fiscal management professional, freelance writer, poet and activist. Man this sista is deep and has some very thought-provoking posts that make for some very good discussions. She actually manages three blogs Vanessa: Unplugged, On the Black Hand Side, and Don’t Just Play Barbie, Be Barbie. Man, I can barely manage one blog.
Tisha – I just found Serenity Quest this week and I’m already hooked. She has some great posts that make me think and laugh at the same time. She’s very interactive with her readers in the comments area which in my opinion adds character to the site.
David McQueen – Author of davespeaks.wordpress.com. According to his site, he is a speaker, writer, youth worker and mentor and a Christian! He has a keen passion for education and youth development. He used to be good at badminton, but he sucks now. I like his site a lot and admire his passion for helping others. Check out the projects he’s got going. I’ll be blogging about one in particular later this week. Check him out!
JayEss – He has a fairly new blog about technology and how it relates to culture, economics, and everyday living at tightbrain.com. He’s started out with some good tech posts and I hope to see more as the site grows. Anyone who has a passion for technology is alright with me.
Martin Hodges – A college friend of mine who is making his mark on the blogging/commentary scene with the Lead Media Network. He also has a personal blog with some of his older posts at mlhodges.wordpress.com. This brotha is very insightful when it comes to social issues and I value his opinion on the issues we see in America.
Alright blogger peeps. If you get the chance, leave your five thinking blogs in my comment area or on your site. Thanks!
Rutgers’ Women’s Basketball Respond at Press Conference
Filed under: Blog Entries, Community, Entertainment & Sports, Society & Culture
I’m sitting here waiting to hear the press conference with the Rutgers’ Women’s Basketball Team, happy that they are getting their chance to express their feelings on the issue. Everyone has gotten their chance to put their two cents in and this controversy has brought out a lot of attention to the issues with race and gender discrimination that we face in America.
As the young women walked out on the stage, they were greeted with a round of applause. The Athletic Director and the President stated the position of Rutgers University and how they felt about Imus’ comments. They agreed that racism and sexism shouldn’t exist on the air waves in any manner and stressed how they support the women both on and off the field. They hoped that this incident would stress the importance and the need for civility, tolerance and equality in our society.
Don Imus: Here We Go Again
First Michael Richards, now this. Don Imus, a syndicated radio talk show host whose program is broadcast on MSNBC, made some derogatory and ignorant comments about the black women on the Rutgers Basketball team. He was talking to three guests when he said about Rutgers, “That’s some nappy-headed hos there,” after his executive producer, Bernard McGuirk, called the team “hardcore hos.”
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are calling for MSNBC to fire him and cancel his radio show. But how realistic is this? NBC is making a ton of money from his show and we all know the power of the dollar, so what are we to do? Boycott the show? I never even heard of this guy until now. I’ve seen arguments on other websites saying we should leave it alone because he apologized. What??? I am so tired of people apologizing for expressing how they really feel. In the Bible Matthew 15:18-19 says “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:”.
We are so quick to blame things on “mispeaking” and it’s getting to be very annoying. If you said it in fun, leave it at that and not give an apology if you don’t think you were in the wrong. Don’t look us in the face and tell us what you think we want to hear. When you really look at the situation, I am not the one who deserves the apology. It’s up to the young ladies on the team to forgive him.
You can’t tell me that racism doesn’t exists. The problem is that people are better with keeping it under wraps. I’m not done with this issue. If you read his apology, there are definitely more things to discuss. We’ll see what comes out of this. I want to know how you feel. I need to go calm down.
Imus Show Under Fire After Racist Comments
Imus Tries to Explain His Remarks Again
Sharpton, Critics Demand Imus Ouster
The Al Sharpton Show
What I’m Talkin’ About – #19 – 04/08/07
Show Notes – Episode 19 – Covenant Issue 2: Education
Covenant with Black America Topic for April – Education
Is it the teacher’s responsibility or the parents to make sure the student learns what he/she needs to be successful?
What I’m Talkin’ About
My thoughts on education
Are Schools Improving or Lagging?
Acting White?
African American Males in Education
Black History Hero
Mary Jane Patterson – Educator
Independent Music Artist Showcase
“Belated†by Fionna Faulk
Cleveland, Ohio
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The intro & closing music clip was written and performed by PsykoSoul Music
Woman arrested for throwing grapes at school board
Filed under: Black Blogger Postings, Blog Entries, Community, Education
This month on the podcast we are covering the topic of education. I found this post at The “d” Spot and thought it was interesting to hear about some of the issues that other cities are facing at their schools. According to the post, Detroit is going to be forced to close more than 30 schools this year.
I hate to see this because the kids forced to change are going to have to deal with adjusting to a new school, new classmates and new teachers which could easily affect their learning. I would hope it wouldn’t be a long-term effect, I just hope they are taking that into consideration. Kids have enough to deal with and I hope the powers-that-be are being fair about the schools they decide to close. Check out the post and let me know what you think.
Woman arrested for throwing grapes at school board
Education and the Black Child
If you’ve listened to the podcast, you know I’m a big proponent of education. Most of my educational career was spent attending predominantly African-American schools. It was not until college that I decided to break my comfort zone and attend college at Texas A&M University. It was there that I learned a lot about myself and the fact that an education doesn’t always take place in the classroom (I’ll blog about that later).
The next podcast, scheduled for this Sunday, will cover the second covenant issue of education. I’m calling out all parents, teachers and students. I want to know what you think of our educational system. What issues do you see in our inner-city schools? Is the issue the school, the parents, the kids or everyone? As a teacher, what do you need to be successful at your job? As a student what do you need to be successful in class? As a parent, what do you need to make sure your child is successful in school? Leave me a comment or call the voicemail hotline at 972-464-1899. Tell everyone you know to call in and I’ll play (or read) the responses on the show.
meme: Gotta Get Goals
JD over at the Black In Business blog tagged me to respond to his meme on goals. The original meme was started by Alex Shalman. I told him, I’d have this at the beginning of the week, but things have been pretty crazy and I wasn’t able to get it out. I’ve found it works for me to put goals in writing because I’m able to come back later to see how much I’ve accomplished. JD had a good post about being able to measure the goals you set, so I’m going to do that for some as I list them.
In no particular order.
- Be a better husband, father, son. Although I’m not listing this in any particular order, I’d have to say this is one of my top goals. I can always rely on my family to be there for me, so I want to make sure I do the same for them. I feel I do a good job at this, but there’s always room for improvement. My measure for this is my wife (you married guys know what I mean). If she’s happy, then everyone in the house is happy
- Grow business and clientele. I’m a contract computer programmer, so I’m always looking for ways to expand my business. It’s small now, but I can see it being bigger. Some of the most successful business ventures started as a vision/dream. If you can see it, then you can achieve it. My measure for this is increased business through referrals. If you are getting referrals, then your current clients must be happy with your services.
- Be an effective role-model. There are a lot of good role-models out there, but how many are really making a difference in someone’s life? An effective role-model causes people to change for the better. It’s not about show or for publicity. It’s about one person, doing the best they can to help others.
- Be more active in the community. Life gets busy and time is limited, but I want to do more. Even if it’s just an hour or two a month, I urge people to give what time they can. Just think if everyone in America donated one hour of their time a month to help someone in their community.
- To have friends from every part of the world. I might be closer to this goal than I think. But wouldn’t it be cool to be able to travel around the world and have someone to visit. I love learning about different cultures and meeting new people. I think that’s why I enjoy blogging so much. Someday I’ll have to map out where my friends are from to see how far along I am on this goal.
- Financial independence. I’ve been trying to get out of debt since I made my first dollar! I think I’ve finally come to the realization that I am the cause for my debt. That’s changing this year. By the end of the year I plan to be done with credit cards. Delayed gratification is key. Then I can really make some moves through investing and making my money work for me.
- Close the digital divide in Black America. I can’t do this by myself, but I do have plans on shrinking that gap a little. The key is to get to the younger kids. Catch them while they’re young and willing to put the time into learning about computers and technology. They just need the access and someone willing to come teach.
- Travel to Africa. I don’t know where I’m going, but I’ll make it one day. My wife and I got a passport a couple of weeks ago and I can’t just let it sit in the desk drawer.
- Conquer fear and uncertainty. I’m going to measure this based on the amount of risks I take in life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about taking dumb risks. I’m talking about stepping out of my safety zone. There are opportunities out there that I miss out on because I’m always letting the “What If?” hold me back.
- Keep God first. I told you, this is in no particular order. This is one of the things I strive to do, but sometimes lose focus on. I was raised in the church and it’s made me who I am today. My belief in God is important to me and I hope that others can see that in the things I do. I’m far from perfect, but each day I pray to get another chance to do better.
Whew! That’s all I got. I want to thank JD for tagging me to reply to this meme, so I guess it’s my turn to tag someone else.
My three choices are:
The Villager – The Electronic Village
Vanessa – Vanessa: Unplugged
Benin – The Benin Epiloge Part 1
Tag you’re it.
Former Grambling Coach Eddie Robinson Dies
Former Grambling State University football coach Eddie Robinson died on April 3, 2007, at Northern Louisiana Medical Center in Ruston, Louisiana, after being admitted earlier in the day. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease shortly after his retirement from football in 1997.
Robinson was at Grambling State for 57 years and was the first college football coach to win over 400 games with an impressive record of 408-165-15. Coach Robinson motivated and pushed his players to be the best they could be. He is definitely a legend and a hero in college football and will be missed by many. I’m inspired by his life and the impact he made in the lives others.
Coach Robinson was 88 years old. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Doris, until his death, two children, five grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.
Official Press Release from Grambling State University
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