I grew up listening to Bill Cosby. My dad had almost every album he put out and I remember sitting around the record player with my younger brother laughing at his comedy routine. I grew up on Fat Albert & the Cosby Kids, the stories of him and his brother Russell and Buck, Buck. As a teen I watched Cosby Show and a Different World. And even as an adult, I watch Little Bill with my son. So I can honestly say, I had high expectations for the book Come On People and knew there would be a lesson for everyone who read it.

I have to admit, while reading it I received a lot of mixed messages. You can tell they were trying to get their point across without offending too many people. It was definitely a toned down version of Cosby’s usual rants about the black community and I feel a lot of what they wrote was common sense. But along with the criticism, they gave a lot of advice on things we can do to improve our lives and lives of those around us. The book included topics on parenting, health, finances, community involvement and personal responsibility.

The first chapter covers the topic of the black male (or lack thereof) and offers advice on some of the things we can do as men to benefit our families and the community. I thought this was a great way to start the book because I think the role and concept of a real black man has been skewed. They ask the question, “What’s going on with black men?” and encourage men to build on the legacy of the those in the past. They ask men to re-dedicate themselves to the family and rebuild relationships that may have gone bad in an effort to be with their kids.

I was also glad to see some advice in the book for ex-offenders. Those who are looking to change have a hard time after they are release and there is a word for them in various chapters of the book. No one in the book was free from criticism, but everyone received some advice. Black men, woman and kids can get something out of the book, but you really have to take it as constructive criticism. There’s a lot in this book to take in, so I thought I’d list the topic of each chapter. Each chapter has different subtopics that touch on different things we face as a people.

Chapter 1: What’s Going On with Black Men?
Chapter 2: It Takes a Community
Chapter 3: We All Start Out as Children
Chapter 4: Teach Your Children Well
Chapter 5: The Media You Deserve
Chapter 6: Healthy Hearts and Minds
Chapter 7: The High Price of Violence
Chapter 8: From Poverty to Prosperity

My overall opinion is that Come On People gives the same general message as every other book I’ve read regarding the black community. It’s going to be up to us to make a change in what happens in our community. Dr. Cosby tends to get a lot of flack for what he says. But sometimes we need to hear the tough words. I’m sure this book will catch a lot of criticism, but if he didn’t care about our community, I’m sure he could just sit on his mounds of money relaxing on the beach. Many may not agree with their methods in how the message is presented, but Drs. Cosby and Poussaint have gotten people to talk about the issues. While this book may not apply to the majority of people who read it, I hope it does move us to get out there and make a difference where we can. It’s going to be up to us to take what’s said here and us it to help empower others.

I’ve provided some links below, if you would like to read a few chapters from the book. If you’ve read it, then I’d like to know how you feel. If not, then it’s a book worthy of adding to your collection. I’ll be giving some additional comments of Come On People on the next podcast.

http://treasures.billcosby.com/pdf/ComeonPeople-pg77-88.pdf
http://treasures.billcosby.com/pdf/ComeonPeople-pg124-132.pdf
http://treasures.billcosby.com/pdf/ComeonPeople-pg168-174.pdf

In keeping with full disclosure, I did want to let everyone know the reason for this review was because I received a copy from Team Cosby. The only requirements were that I read and post an open and honest review in a month’s time. You can rest assured that I did just as they asked.

It was last night that I heard about the passing of legendary UGK hip-hop artist Pimp C. I’m a native Houstonian so I’m aware of the impact he had on the city as a pioneer of the Houston rap scene. If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that in every death, there’s a lesson in life. Born Chad Butler, this young brotha was only 33 years old and was on his way to opening new chapters in his life and business.

I’m 31, so this hits close to home because it reminds me that life is not promised. We get mad at people over little things and we hold unnecessary grudges and beefs that could easily be resolved. We fight, disrespect and kill each other without realizing the impact it has on our society and community. On the radio this morning I was listening to an interview with Pimp C and how he was talking about the benefits of working together. There’s power in numbers and there’s no limit to the positive impact we can make if we only work together.

I can’t say that I agree with everything he’s said and done, I hope to have an impact on the lives of others as he did. It’s evident that his loss will be felt in the hip-hop community. So continue to pray for his family and those close to him that they’ll be able to have strength through the grieving process ahead.

With Thanksgiving being tomorrow, I caught myself thinking about a recent visit to my old neighborhood to see my mom. While there, I was helping my her recycle some old telephone books and newspapers at one of the local schools. The bins are there to allow the community to leave their recycled goods to be picked up at a later date. Needless to say, that date must have been forgotten because all of the bins were full and overflowing with paper. My visit was during the school year, so I’m pretty sure someone had noticed it was full. Out of frustration, I called the number on the side of the bin and told them all three bins were full.

I didn’t think much would happen, but about two weeks later on another visit the bins were empty. I wondered why someone else hadn’t done it earlier. In school I remember learning about the Freerider Problem where people benefit from a service/product, but expect others to maintain/pay for it. In this case a lot of people used the bins, but no one was willing to make the call to get them emptied. Now maybe this was a rare occurrence, but all it took was a two minute phone call to make a small difference in the appearance of our neighborhood.

It doesn’t take a lot to make a difference in your community. I hear a lot of people say they don’t feel they have the time to get involved with things in the community and I can feel them on that at times. If that’s your situation, then focus on the small things you can do. Take an hour to help an elderly person clean the dishes. Talk to a group of kids on your street for 30 minutes one week. Write a letter to your local politician about your community concerns. The one thing I’ve learned is that doing somethin good for others is addictive. Once you start, it’s hard to stop. So start small and serve with a positive attitude and a heart of compassion.

Remember “Thanksgiving” has two words in it. Giving back to others is very important and even the smallest amount of your time can make a difference. All it took in my case was a phone call.

Happy Thanksgiving!
One more thing. While on the subject of doing good, the bloggers over at blackweb20.com are raising funds to donate a laptop computer to a child in their community. The crew over at Liberate Magazine are raising funds to help feed needy families during the holiday season (call 832-577-0941 for more info). In both cases, no amount is too small. You don’t have to go broke to help someone.

Over the past couple of days, there has been a couple of incidents where this word once again rears it’s ugly head. The first incident was at Richland High School in North Richland Hill, Texas where 17-year-old Ibrahim Mohamed was offended by the word in class while reading Huckleberry Finn. He informed the teacher that he was offended by the students use of it in discussing the book and requested that they say the “N-Word” instead. The teacher responded by saying ‘Does it offend you? It hurts, doesn’t it?’. Ibrahim is the only African-American student in the class.

In the second incident, Duane “Dog” Chapman, star of A&E television show “Dog the Bounty Hunter” was recorded using the N-Word repeatedly in a conversation with his son about his choice in women. Dog’s son is dating a black woman and sent in the recording of his father to a tabloid for a substantial amount of money. Dog issued a statement and said he likes black people, he just isn’t fond of the one his son is dating. In an act to make things right Chapman is looking to meet with black leaders to discuss what happened. Al Sharpton was contacted and said he would consider a meeting.

Hip-hop superstar, Nas has plans to release his album titled Ni**a in December. Island Def Jam reps have denied claims that it will happen. But only time will tell. I’ve heard mixed comments on this situation. Nas is a pretty creative brotha, but I doubt he could do something that would justify the title of his record. I hope he uses his creativity to come up with something else.

And as a bonus, Don Imus is set to return to the air waves by December 3rd. New York-based WABC-AM, said he would return to his morning time slot to bring his unique brand of humor to the radio. Sadly I’m not surprised he’s back. It was only a matter of time because we all know the dollar is what matters in America.

While I feel no word should have this much of an affect on a person, the bottom line is that it does. Ni**a was born out of the hatred of one race against another. It has the same bite as any other racial slur for any other race and if we don’t want to hear others use it, we should refrain from using it ourselves. I have yet to hear any other race argue over a word that degrades their people. We don’t own the word! We never did. If you want to address me using something other than my name, try some other term of endearment.

It just doesn’t make sense to me. What do you think?

I meant to send an e-mail out to everyone, but didn’t get a chance. I was given the opportunity to be on the Blogger’s Roundtable on News & Notes this past Monday and jumped at the opportunity.

I’d never done something like that, so I didn’t know what to expect. We were scheduled to be on at noon and I had to go to the local Dallas KERA station to get set up in the studio. I used to pass the station a lot when I was working downtown, but I never had a reason to go in until yesterday. The participants were the host Farai Chideya and fellow bloggers Earl Dunovant of Prometheus 6 and Liza Sabater of Culture Kitchen. The cool thing was that our segment followed an interview with Julianne Malveaux about personal finance (I would have enjoy talking to her). Later that night my wife and I got a chance to listen to it on KERA.

There’s a lot more to come from this blog and podcast. Big thanks to the News & Notes crew on giving me the opportunity to participate. Hopefully there will be more chances to do this again. To hear the Bloggers Rountable portion of the show, click the link below.

Bloggers Roundtable - 10/29/07

Marvin Gaye was right on the money when he asked this question? The words to this song still sadly apply to what’s happening in today’s society. We’re in a war that we can’t get out of anytime soon, kids are being man-handled for minor offenses and racism is still being ignored as figments of our imagination.

Times have surely changed, but the issues remain the same. To get something done it’s going to take everyone getting involved in the name of change. I’ve always thought the change needs to happen first in our homes. From there we can branch out to our communities and then the world. How can we expect to change the world when our own homes aren’t in order?

I got a lot on my mind and luckily I have a podcast scheduled for this Sunday. I guess I’ll wait and vent more there.

MARVIN GAYE
What’s Going On

(Al Cleveland/Marvin Gaye/Renaldo Benson)

Mother, mother
There’s too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There’s far too many of you dying
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some lovin’ here today - Ya

Father, father
We don’t need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some lovin’ here today

Picket lines and picket signs
Don’t punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what’s going on
What’s going on
Ya, what’s going on
Ah, what’s going on

In the mean time
Right on, baby
Right on
Right on

Father, father, everybody thinks we’re wrong
Oh, but who are they to judge us
Simply because our hair is long
Oh, you know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some understanding here today
Oh

Picket lines and picket signs
Don’t punish me with brutality
Talk to me
So you can see
What’s going on
Ya, what’s going on
Tell me what’s going on
I’ll tell you what’s going on - Uh
Right on baby
Right on baby

If you listen to the podcast, then you know that I am a tech junkie. This is what originally got me into the blogger and podcaster world and I’ve met some really good people in the process. There is a major trend on the Internet dealing with social networking and the we now have the ability to communicate with people all around the world. The technology industry has come a long way and this is only the beginning. Marketing products and services is also changing and it’s easier to get the word out to more people than ever. Which brings me to the point of this post.

Through a contact of JD’s at Black in Business, I’ve been asked to help build up the African-American community for a new social networking site called Cre8buzz.com. When you sign up, you are able to showcase yourself, showoff, post your pictures, blog your opinions, and share your videos. As people view your content, they are able to provide their own ranking which allows for even more exposure (if it’s good). It’s like myspace, meets, youtube, meets flickr. The ranking system is pretty amazing and meeting people in other communities has been cool. I’ve been there for a couple of weeks and have personally talked to the Antman (yes, he’s real) and he’s all about getting exposure for the little guy. As of now, I’m the only one in the African-American community, so I’M #1!!!

I’m not trying to lose that position, so sign up and let’s create some buzz. They are still in the beta stages so the time is good to get involved. To sign up, you need an invitation, which I can email you. Just send your request to podcast[at]theojohnson.net and I’ll get it to you. I’ve already started publicizing the blog and traffic has increased. If you have any comments or suggestions on the site, let the Antman know.

Finally, when you sign up, I’m in the cre8Buzz > People > African American community. My name is tjohnson3. See you soon

As a blogger, website owner and enthusiast, I check my statistics for the site at least once a week. You can get a ton of information about your site and the people who visit, which helps in letting me know the type of content to blog or podcast about. One of my most favorite stats is the search engine phrases. It shows what visitors typed in a search engine (google, yahoo, etc) to get to my site.

On March 27th I wrote a post about my feelings on renting rims. It was just something that had been placed on my heart and it’s pulled in a lot of traffic to the site. In looking at my stats, I noticed for the past couple of months, renting rims has been in the top ten search results for my site. If you search for “renting rims” in Google, out of 1.6 million results I’m on the first page in the top ten!

Now I have no issues with that because a brotha needs the ranking, but it did make me realize how big this renting rims thing really is. We are a society of bling (thanks CMB). If you don’t have it, there are ways to get it. It’s all about show and being the biggest baller. Is it no longer cool to save for retirement and not live in debt? Is it so important to keep up with the Jones’ and get yo shine on, that we put our fiscal priorities on the back burner?

Sure you can’t take it with you, but a lot can be done with $5000. That’s the beginning of my kid’s scholarship fund. I could invest it and have even more money in the same time it would take me to pay off leased rims. There are a lot of things I want (rims included), but I’ve also been practicing delayed gratification. Something worth having is always worth waiting for. We all want to look fly, but if the checkbook can’t handle it, I don’t need it right now. Check out the article below. I thought it was very fitting for this post. It was actually #1 on the Google search. What do you think?

cbs13.com - With Expensive Rims And Wheels Bling’s The Thing

mypaydayloan.com (They even have special loan advertisements for us)

Technorati Tags: renting rims, leased, rims, savings, finances, delayed gratification

I have been tagged by Vanessa, blogger of On the Black Hand Side and vanessabyers.net, with the Thinking Blogger Award. I appreciate it a lot and am humbly honored to receive this award. The award was started by ilker yoldas and in receiving it I am to select 5 blogs that make me think. If you check out Vanessa’s post, my list would be similar to hers, but I think I can come up with some others.

The participation rules are simple:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog).

Here’s my list:

• Benin Mwangi - I’m really interested in learning how to do business in Africa. I think the media in the U.S. has given us a skewed view of the country and in the process, we’re missing out on the opportunities they have to offer. Benin does a good job in discussing and informing his readers about the potential for entreprenuers who seek to do business overseas.
• Black In Business - I’m a black business owner, so this one caught my eye the first time I visited the site. JD has some informative posts about being an African-American in the business world. I enjoy reading about some of his personal case studies and there’s always something good to comment on.
• Dallas South Blog -Shawn does a great job about keeping me informed about things going on in the south side of Dallas. Even if you’re not from the Dallas area, the posts he writes covers topics regarding things that every black community faces at some time or another. Definitely a quality blog.
• Who is M.L. Hodges? - I don’t consider myself to be a writer, but if I had to model myself after one, Martin would be it. I enjoy reading his posts because he writes them exactly as I hope to do someday. He’s also one of the guys that participates in my Brothas Podcast.
• Our World My Perspective - Jimmy is new to the blogging world, but I know him personally, so this will be a blog to keep an eye on. He’s definitely a thinker and I can’t wait to see what he has for us in the future.

Well, that’s my fave five. Thanks again Vanessa for the award and I hope you all enjoy the blogs I’ve mentioned. I plan on putting together another podcast this weekend, so be on the lookout for it.

I’ve really been slacking on the blogging. Having two blogs and the podcast is taking it’s toll on me. I’m going to get back soon, but to get you all through the weekend I wanted to share a post on my site at theojohnson.net. I’m testing out a theory of using child exploitation to drive more traffic to the site. If it works I might use it more when I get in these slumps. Hope you enjoy.

Cute Clip: First Laptop