I’ll be the first to admit that my kids love going to McDonald’s. From a very early age, both of them could identify the logo as we drove down the street and this was amazing because it showed how powerful the McDonald’s brand really was. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has long opposed the deceptive marketing of unhealthy foods to children. That is why they decided to sue McDonald’s if they continue to use toys to market the Happy Meal to young kids.

Now, I’m all for keeping kids healthy, but this is ridiculous. While my boys enjoy getting the toy in their Happy Meal, they usually end up playing with it for less than a day. After that it ends up broken, lost or left in the car (which causes it to be thrown in the trash).

McDonald’s is the king of brand marketing and they should not be blamed for what they do best. It’s up to the parent to decide when, if and how often their child should eat at McDonald’s. And even if the CSPI, sues, wins and gets the toys banned, I doubt consumption of Happy Meals will decrease.

CSPI, please trust the parents to make the best food decision for their children. We know the food is far from healthy and filling up the U.S. Court System with these types of lawsuits is a waste of time.

It’s hard to believe it’s already 2010. But we’re here and there are still new things in store for this blog. When I started blogging, the main goal was to share information and hopefully open up dialogue on issues that affect the black community. I think I did that in some way this year, but it wasn’t to the extent that I’d done in previous years.

The goal for this year is to continue on the track of keeping the site informative. I plan on opening it up to others who are interested in sharing their point of view with the readers of this site. There are some talented, well-written people out there and I want to showcase them and get some real discussions going.

Late in the year, when I got swamped with projects for work, I fell off the blogging scene for a couple of weeks. Blogging can be a daunting task and coming up with things to write about can be time consuming (especially when it isn’t one of my strengths). So this year, I’m going to solicit your help. If you or someone you know are interested in blogging, but don’t want to manage their own site, email me at info @ theotalks.net. I’m always in need of someone to write and it usually turns out to be a win-win situation for both parties.

This year, I also want to focus more on minority small businesses. In these turbulent economic times, a lot of people are turning to owning their own business. I think that’s great, so I decided to start a list of some of my favorite small businesses. I’ll be highlighting small business owners throughout the year, so contact me if you’re interested in participating.

Finally, here are some websites that you need to keep an eye on for 2010. I’ll be blogging a lot about them and hope to be visible on most of them as time permits. Check them out when you get the chance:

• Liberate Magazine
• Tech Relations Firm
• Dallas South News
• Barter My Biz

Have a Happy New Year and God Bless!

Be suspicious of doctors, health care providers, or suppliers that tell you the following:

• The equipment or service is free; it won’t cost you anything, and they only need your Medicare number for their records
• Medicare wants you to have the item or service
• They know how to get Medicare to pay for the item or service
• The more tests they provide, the cheaper the tests become

Be suspicious of doctors or plans that do the following:

• Don’t charge copayments without checking on your ability to pay
• Advertise “free” consultations to people with Medicare
• Claim they represent Medicare or a branch of the Federal government
• Use pressure or scare tactics to sell you high-priced medical services or diagnostic tests
• Bill Medicare for services you didn’t get
• Use telephone calls and door-to-door selling as marketing tools
• Offer non-medical transportation or housekeeping as Medicare?approved services
• Put the wrong diagnosis on the claim so that Medicare will pay
• Bill home health services for patients who aren’t confined to their home, or for Medicare patients who still drive a car
• Bill Medicare for medical equipment for people in nursing homes
• Ask you to contact your doctor and ask for a service or supplies that you don’t need
• Bill Medicare for tests you received as a hospital inpatient or within 72 hours of admission or discharge
• Bill Medicare for a power wheelchair or scooter when you don’t meet Medicare’s qualifications

Watch Out For These Common Fraud Schemes:

• People who approach you in parking lots, shopping centers, or other public areas and offer free services, groceries, transportation, or other items in exchange for your Medicare number. Just walk away!
• People who call you claiming to be conducting a health survey and ask for your Medicare number. Simply hang up the phone
• Telephone marketers who pretend to be from Medicare or Social Security and ask for payment over the phone or Internet. Don’t do it! They may want to steal your money.

The funny thing about these Congressional bills is that they seem to be subject to interpretation and everyone seems to “read into it” differently. I’m glad the President is pushing the issue of reform. There’s no perfect way to do this and I hope that Congress can come to an agreement on what it will take to get every American health insurance.

Jon’s Intro of McCaughey

I saw some of this on CNN, but the Prospector also has some informative links on his website for you to check out. I heard the officer had the taser and gun switched on his hip and pulled the gun by mistake. The police have a difficult job when they’re on patrol, but they have to be held accountable for mistakes like this. However it turns out, an innocent life was lost and a family is in mourning.

Young unarmed Black father Oscar Grant killed by police

by darrell.holmes

Many people may remember the case of Marcus Dixon from several years back. If not, here goes…

In 2003, Marcus Dixon was an 18-year-old HS senior who had consensual sex with a 15 year old schoolmate. After conflicting testimonies between the alleged victim and Marcus Dixon, Dixon was found not guilty of rape, battery, assault, and false imprisonment. However, he was found guilty of aggravated child molestation and statutory rape. Due to a loopy law in the state of Georgia at the time, Marcus Dixon received a mandatory 10-year prison sentence even though he had no criminal history. Dixon was also a 3.96GPA football star with a scholarship offer to Vanderbilt University at the time of his arrest. After Dixon’s sentence was announced, public uproar commenced from groups like the Children’s Defense Fund to the jurors in his case. Some of them complained that they weren’t aware of the mandatory statutory sentence nor did they expect the judge would enforce such a sentence in this case.

Rap artist MURS and producer Danger Mouse(half of the group Gnarls Barkley) even recorded a track in honor of Dixon and his case. After roughly one year in prison, Dixon’s case was overturned in Georgia’s Supreme Court and I would like to think that reactions from the media, the public, Murs, and Danger Mouse along with blogs like this one all contributed to Marcus being set free short of his full term. With his Vanderbilt schollie being rescinded Marcus was able to attend Hampton University on another football scholarship.

On April 27th Marcus signed a rookie free-agent contract for 3 years with the Dallas Cowboys worth $1.1M dollars. The Cowboys have been in the spotlight along with a handful of other teams over the past few years for signing players with alleged discipline concerns. The Cowboys pride themselves on being separate from the pack for their Player Development Program. Former player Calvin Hill heads up that program and has been spotlighted for his work and dedication to helping all incoming rookies and free agents acclimate to playing in the NFL. Here’s to wishing Marcus the best as he pursues his dream.

Update Sunday, September 6, 2009 –

Marcus Dixon was cut September 5, 2009 and re-signed to the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad.  We wish him all the best.

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.

Dictionary.com describes discrimination as treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit. My problem, along with many others, is the last line of that definition “rather than on individual merit”. The hardest thing to define is whether the person claiming discrimination actually can qualify for said reward despite their race. That’s where organizations like The Project On Fair Representation step in. They are the organization involved in this particular case. In this instance they must ultimately argue that our society operates within the parameters of equal opportunity while arguing for equal opportunity in other cases. Their whole quandry is laughable, but let’s go back to earlier to the fact that I attended Texas A&M with one of my scholarships being race-based. We were a small class of students that stayed close up unto and past our senior year. Though I can’t quote statistics the majority of us graduated and almost all have had successful careers. To suggest that a university that was 76% Caucasian denied around 300 White students admission to accept 300 minority students based strictly on race incredulous.

A friend who works in admissions at Texas A&M now mentioned to me after this news hit the AP that thousands of qualified students are denied entry into A&M every year regardless of race. There are several factors that go into a student’s college selectability such as whether they are a Top 10% student, participation in extra-curriculars, participation in athletics, high school GPA, etc. All this is considered along with the students’ essay, references, and presumed choice of major. I don’t know all the criteria used at the University of Texas but I do know that the Sugarland teen suing UT fell outside of her graduating class’s Top 10 percent.

Quite possibly this student has a legitimate beef but more often than not Admissions counselors have to listen to sour grapes from denied students. Despite what the AP might lead you to believe, there is a strong base of qualified, Black students who can compete academically at colleges and universities. Unfortunately, many of those students are still not making it to top schools because of several factors with finances being a primary one. Without minority-based financial aid, many minority students don’t even apply because they know they can’t attend if they are accepted.

The purpose of race-based exceptions is to provide a diverse working environment and to “level the playing field” with the thought being that as Corporate America and Academia are diversified they will continue to feed themselves with more diversity. There are numerous societal cues that point to the fact that the playing field isn’t level and no policy has been able to undo what years of slavery, discrimination, and racial genocide have caused. Think about it; why would a school need to make exceptions for itelf on how it recruits students? Race-based admissions are not enacted to fill in a minority in where a qualified, non-minority would be. They are there to give an opportunity for minority students to attend when they wouldn’t otherwise be able to. It’s not a perfect system but until a better system is found it’s all we have and it should be preserved.

For more information visit http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5682324.html or http://www.projectonfairrepresentation.org/

I was listening to a radio interview with Watkins and I was impressed with his plan to make the system better. He has received a lot of criticism for is actions, but has stated his job is to seek justice for the people. If it means going back to verify the innocence of a few convicted prisoners, then he believes it is necessary. He said the systems has flaws and hopes to fix as much of it as he can.

Chatman has lost 27 years of his life and is now 47 years old. He has a lot to catch up on and I hope he gets the help he needs to reenter society.

My pre-collegiate education was in majority black schools and I’ve talked to friends of mine who’ve graduated from majority white schools. Trust me when I tell you there’s a difference. It’s not that the kids there are smarter, they just have more access to information and funding. They also have a different way of thinking, which is something I’m learning even today (I’ll get into that later).

While we try to remain politically correct and keep everything”fair” for all, we also have to admit race does matter. When you meet someone, the first thing you notice is their race. Let’s be honest with each other. If two people are applying for a job with equal credentials, subconsciously we’re going to choose the person we feel we’ll more comfortable with. And in most cases, it’ll be based on race. I know first hand the Good Ol’ Boy Network is alive and kickin’ and a lot of times who you know makes a big difference.

High Court Limits Use of Race in School Assignment

To some in Paris, sinister past is back (Full Article)

This is not about getting special treatment for someone of color. This is not about a little girl getting in trouble and not wanting to take responsibility for her actions. This is about an unfair justice system, in a small Texas community, that sentenced a 14 year old girl to prison for pushing. All I want for Shaquanda is for her to be out of prison and offered a fair trial. Seven years in prison for pushing is ridiculous. Especially when that same judge sentenced a 14-year old white girl convicted of arson to probation. Even as a sit here and type this up, I’m still in disbelief over what happened. On 97.9 a local Dallas radio station, they were asking everyone to call the Governor’s Office to express your disgust in the matter. I’ve provided the information below for you to call.

Governor’s Office Phone: (512) 463-1782
Governor’s Main Switchboard: (512) 463-2000
Governor’s Website: http://www.governor.state.tx.us
Contact the Governor: http://www.governor.state.tx.us/contact
[office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CST]

I called and was forwarded a couple of times, but it took less than five minutes for me to get someone. All you do is say “I am calling to express my concern/disgust with the Shaquanda Cotton incident in Paris, Texas”. They will know exactly what you are talking about. The operator is keeping a tally of how many people are calling. Let’s clog those phone lines with calls!

97.9 was also able to get her mom on the phone. She told them the correctional facility was giving her medicine for depression. According to her mom, the medicine made her worse and led to her attempting suicide. On Tuesday morning, 97.9 will be going to Paris, Texas to broadcast live and have a peaceful, organized demonstration. They’re in need of church buses to transport people to Paris from Dallas for the protest. Big ups to Rickey Smiley and the Morning Team.

Shaquanda needs your support. If you would like to send her a letter or card to lift her spirit, mail it to:

Shaquanda Cotton – 1125308
Ron Jackson Correctional Complex
Unit 2 Dorm 4
P.O. Box 872
Brownwood, TX 76804

If you are a blogger or podcaster, I ask that you mention this article on your site. Racism is still alive and it’s going to take everyone as a collective unit to show them we won’t stand for it. If you do not live in Texas, I still urge you to call. Let the officials in Texas know where you live and tell them you are upset over what’s happened. There’s stuff like this happening all over the country and it’s time to expose it and put an end to it. I’ll keep you all up to date on what transpires.

Leave comments or call the voicemail hotline. I want to know what you think. I’ll also be talking about this on my podcast scheduled for this coming Sunday.

Update: She has a blog at http://freeshaquandacotton.blogspot.com where you can show your support.