Earlier this month, the Electronic Village presented ‘The Arte y Pico Award‘ to this blog. I’m definitely honored because the Villager has one of the top black blogs out there and it is a testament to what online activism should entail. If you search my blog you will find a number of references to his site. He’s also one of the workshop presenters at the Blogging While Brown Conference in Atlanta this weekend.

Here are the rules of the Arte y Pico Award:

• You have to pick 5 blogs that deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.
• Each awardee has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
• Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
• Each award winner should provide a link to the Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award

Here are five (5) blogs, in no particular order, that I think show Creativity, Fabulous Design, Interesting Material or Contribute to the blogging community:

1. Black In Business - JD is one of the first bloggers I’ve gotten to meet in person. His blog is full of good advice for business owners and he’s open and honest about his views regarding our society. I’m always interested in seeing what he’ll post next. A good guy and a good site.
2. Vanessa: Unplugged - Vanessa (I always want to call her V) has a blog that is very well written and designed. Her topics are right on point and most of the time we have the same views on things. I admire people who can write because it’s something I’ve been working on for a while. Another thing that got me hooked on her site was her commitment last year to blog every day for a year. That’s not easy to do!
3. Dallas South Blog - Shawn is a fellow Aggie, but that’s not why I selected his site. If you want to know what’s happening in South Dallas, this is the blog for you. This is another site that is well-written and he stays on top of the issues that black people need to be concerned about. Even if you don’t live in Dallas, his blog is one you should definitely check out. He will be an attendee at the Blogging While Brown Conference.
4. Black Web 2.0 - I like all things technology. This is one of the sites where I go to get my tech news fix when the need arises. Technology changes daily and there’s always something new to blog about. Angela and Markus are good at staying on top of the newest tech news and gadgets. When you visit the site you have to check out their podcast. They’ve gotten some really good interviews with some major players in the technology industry. They will also be presenting a workshop at the Blogging While Brown Conference.
5. Geeky Cyber Mom - Geeks are cool and so is this website. Anyone who carries a 4-port USB hub in their purse is alright with me. I “e-met” the Geeky Cyber Mom on Twitter. Her blog is fun to read and very informative. She also manages another blog and podcast called Tales of a Single Parent which is equally as good.

So this is my list of bloggers that deserve the award. I have more I’d like to add, but the award only calls for five. Visit their blog and let me know what you think. Thanks again to the Villager for choosing lil ol’ me.

It’s been a while since I’ve featured a post and after reading one at martyblogs.com, I knew I had to share this one with you all. In a post called Black Men and Cancer, Marty gets on us about knowing our family medical history and taking cancer exams more serious. I’ve blogged about my health before and how I get annual physicals because my family has a history of high blood pressure, diabetes and stroke. I agree with him 100% because we tend to have a thing with self-diagnosing and not getting the medical attention we need.

I also know a lot of people who don’t go to the doctor because they lack health insurance or don’t trust the doctor all together. But that’s something we need to get over soon because our health depends on it. There are many programs out there to participate in, but you have to do the research. If you search the blog, you’ll even see a couple posted here.

So brothas, it’s time to step up when it comes to our health. Sure there are plenty of things other than health than can take us out. But if taking care of myself keeps me here a little longer, I’m all for it. Check out the post and take heed to what Marty is telling us. Also check out this track from Nas’s new CD. He understands the health struggle as do I. Yes, there is profanity on this track.

According to a Proclamation by the President of the United States of America made last year, the month of June is Black Music Month (I wonder what G.W. has on his iPod). This is a time where we recognize the outstanding contributions that African-American singers, composers, and musicians have made to our country, and we express our appreciation for the extraordinary music that has enriched our Nation.

I was watching VH1 Soul this weekend and they have some special programming this month highlighting the accomplishments of musical greats like Sam Cooke and Ray Charles. Black people have made major contributions to the music industry and the VH1 programming was very informational. Music plays an important role in black history and the sacrifices made by those before us should be honored.

If you have any other Black Music Month activities, you’d like to share feel free to post them in the comments.

History of Black Music Trivia Quiz

According to the Office of Admissions, record numbers of Hispanic and African-American students are expected to attend Texas A&M University this fall. Confirmations to attend A&M for Hispanic students have increased 20 percent and confirmations for African-American students have increased 19 percent. This increase is due to more aggressive and personal attention in the recruiting process both on-campus and through the university’s eight Prospective Student Centers.

I have to admit the only reason I’m an Aggie is because they recruited from my high school. In order to build diversity on the campus, these type of recruiting methods are important and very effective. Whenever I meet a college-bound student, I share my experiences at A&M and ask them to consider them in their search for higher education. That one-on-one meeting with a recruiter (or former student) makes you feel you’re more than a number and shows how much the school cares about diversity on its campus.

Congrats to everyone involved in reaching this milestone. Your hard work is not in vain. To college freshmen everywhere congrats and enjoy the summer. Gig ‘Em.

Read the entire press release here

A lot of people have been upset about the comments Rev. Jeremiah Wright has made in his sermons, one of the biggest being the one about the United States spreading AIDS in the black community. While I don’t personally feel this is true, I cannot blame him or anyone else in his generation for having those feelings. Wright, born in 1941, lived during a time when rights weren’t always equal and segregation was a normal part of life. He was well-educated and after two years of serving in the United States Marine Corps, joined the United States Navy and entered the Corpsman School at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. As a preacher, he seems to have had a monumental effect in the black community where his Chicago church is located. So it’s interesting to me how a 10 second clip can overshadow the accomplishments of the past.

While the numbers of those infected with HIV/AIDS are high in the black community, I honestly don’t feel the government had anything to do with it. At the same time, I can see why Wright and so many others feel this statement is true. Over 70 years ago, an experimental study took place that I feel may have caused some of the distrust between our government and the black community.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website:

In 1932, the Public Health Service, working with the Tuskegee Institute, began a study to record the natural history of syphilis in hopes of justifying treatment programs for blacks. It was called the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.”

The study initially involved 600 black men – 399 with syphilis, 201 who did not have the disease. The study was conducted without the benefit of patients’ informed consent. Researchers told the men they were being treated for “bad blood,” a local term used to describe several ailments, including syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. In truth, they did not receive the proper treatment needed to cure their illness. In exchange for taking part in the study, the men received free medical exams, free meals, and burial insurance. Although originally projected to last 6 months, the study actually went on for 40 years.

While many laws have been implemented to prevent another Tuskegee Experiment, the distrust still remains. If you’re thinking “ya’ll need to get over it”, let’s do the math. 2008 minus 1972 (the year the study was ended) equals 36 years. These men participated in this study and were mislead by the very people we look to for help when we’re sick. Time heals all wounds, but this is one instance where the time has not been long enough. I’m all for getting medical attention when needed and hope the black patient/doctor/government relationship improves. When the trust is broken, it takes time and effort from all sides to repair it.

There was one time when a black doctor came to our men’s Bible study class asking for volunteers to participant in a study for diabetes. He explained to us the importance of getting involved in these types of medical studies and urged us to spread the word. He told us when African-Americans don’t participate, the medicines created aren’t well-tested for our people. The doctors then have a harder time choosing the best medication for us and we end up having to try out more combinations than everyone else. But in the end, I doubt the good doctor had anyone participate in his study (including me).

Is Wright right for spreading the AIDS belief in his sermon? I think it’s up to his church and the members to make up their own minds on how they feel about it. Wright is free to believe and express what he feels is true, but all he did is say what many people are saying behind closed doors. For more information on the experiment, check out the sites below:

Remembering Tuskegee

Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male

The Tuskegee Timeline

Inside the National Archives

This is one question that has always baffled me because I’ve heard so many different opinions on the best type of life insurance to purchase. I’ve seen in more than one instance what happens when you don’t have enough and it’s not a pretty picture. Funeral arrangements aren’t cheap and it’s a tough situation when the burden falls on a loved one left behind. Not only do they have to deal with the loss, they also have to find a way to get you buried.

I think a lot of people tend to overlook life insurance because they feel it’s either not important or too expensive. The reality is that it’s something we shouldn’t live without. A quality $250,000 20-year term policy for a healthy non-smoker can cost under $300 a year (a little under $6 week). If you have some health issues the price goes up, but that’s all the more reason to buy it.

I personally have a mix of term and universal variable life insurance. I’ve heard all the arguments for and against this, but for right now this is our current strategy. If I die, it’ll be enough to cover my arrangements, pay for the house and start my kid’s college fund. With my next son on the way, it’s something that I’ll have to revisit when he gets here (only 2 more weeks). Having these policies adds a little more comfort in knowing that they’ll be fine if I’m no longer here.

It’s a grim topic to discuss, but death is inevitable. So why not be prepared? Read “What Kind of Life Insurance Should I Buy?” along with the comments when you get a chance. There’s some good information there that will start you on the path to finding the best type of policy for you.

* Finally, so I won’t get sued. I am not offering financial advice. Find a professional in the industry to help answer your questions. This website and the Internet should only be used as informational sources to help you build the right questions to ask a pro. Do your research.

Just this past week a teen in Sugarland, TX decided to sue Texas-Austin because she was not accepted for admission into the University. Problem is she is suing based on racial discrimination…oh, yeah she also happens to be Caucasian.

If this case sounds like deja vu then that’s because it has happened before. In 1996, Cheryl Hopwood was the first person to win a lawsuit against an institution of higher learning based on race since Cal v. Bakke in 1978. The resulting aftermath of that lawsuit meant that race-based admissions and scholarships were no longer allowed in Texas. I remember that lawsuit well because one of my scholarships was race-based along with several friends of mine. I remember the Hopwood case spurring the exodus of minority students from Texas to Oklahoma (see OU’s football record from 1997-present). Later Grutter v. Bollinger reversed the Hopwood Decision.

I’m actually not 100% for race-based exceptions. I think in some instances they are used with too much liberty and without boundaries or criteria like the ones sometimes used in corporations. Policies such as these have hearts the right place but they are not managed or policed properly. The core difference with race-based admissions in colleges and universities versus the corporate sector lies with the schools themselves. A corporation’s ability to recruit and secure a diverse talent pool is only as good as the organization itself. Many corporations fall well short of the mark and most have only recently begin to realize that only the healthiest, most successful corporations have a racially diverse structure from the top down. For a university it has to be a core competency. Universities need a diverse student body to further their research initiatives as well as to attract more prospective students. Public universities need to maintain a diverse student body, but those students also must be able to maintain the rigors of college life. It’s a very thin tightrope for universities; diversity, challenging curricula, financial well-being, and maintaining a respectable dropout rate.
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There’s a new project being started by Roxanne Evans and Michael Hurd called the Texas Black History Preservation Project, where they will cover almost 500 years of the black experience in Texas. Being a native Texan, I’m happy to see something like this and I’m sure many will benefit from their efforts. There’s a lot more to Texas than people realize and they have a big undertaking in collecting all of the history for their book.

They’ve posted a 30-minute audio interview for you to learn more about the project and they are seeking any information you may have regarding your family and their roots in Texas Black History. Here’s more information from their website describing the project:

That’s what the Texas Black History Preservation Project intends to ask thousands of African Americans with Texas roots over the next few years as we put together the most comprehensive documentation ever undertaken for the Black experience in Texas. We’re talking about almost 500 years of history, dating from 1528 when a Moor servant, Estevanico, waded ashore at what would become Galveston Island with a group of Spanish explorers.

Our series – in book and DVD form – will provide in-depth interpretive essays and profiles for the series, but we also want to include undocumented family histories and other stories relating to Black history in Texas that have yet to be told. We will aggressively seek out and collect those stories and hope you will help us.

Black Texans have made significant contributions in shaping this state and it is our intent to make as many of the stories created along the way more accessible through this series of books. We’ll talk about lawmakers and public officials, preachers/the Black church, educators, Black colleges and universities, fraternities/sororities, athletes and coaches, entertainers, media (Black newspapers, journalists, radio stations, etc.), and much, much more.

Through the course of this project, we fully expect you will find your families, your friends, your neighbors … you’ll find yourself.

Over the next few years, we hope you’ll get in the habit of checking in with us here to chart our progress and help us uncover the rich history of African Americans in Texas.

So, what’s your story?

Just a quick reminder that the CNN documentary, “Black In America Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assasination” is on tonight at 9 p.m. ET. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the day Dr. Marin Luther King, Jr was assasinated at a Memphis, Tennessee motel. In this first installment of CNN’s Black in America series, Soledad O’Brien investigates how James Earl Ray, an armed robber and escaped convict, had already spent an uncommon year on the run just a month before his path collided with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In viewing the CNN website, they seem to have a lot of interesting information on what happened the day he died. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Harvard University has recently revamped it’s financial aid program to ensure families with incomes below $60,000 are not asked to contribute to the cost of sending their children to Harvard. I blogged last year about Texas Tech having a similar program and wanted to spread the word about this program.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of great colleges out there and I do believe HBCU’s also offer a quality education. I just feel this is another opportunity for a struggling student to get a degree without having to go into debt. College can be expensive and it doesn’t always guarantee you a job after you graduate. But a quality education can benefit you in ways you’d never imagine.

At any rate, if you or someone you know falls within the income range and has the scores to get accepted, please pass this on. My momma always told me, the worst they can do is say ‘no’.

Harvard announces sweeping middle-income initiative