HOPE and VICTORY

Well it may sound cliche, but Richmond has too many black men. Yes, too many black men who are incarcerated. While Richmond is not the only urban hub that seems to be conspiring to dispense of black men disproportionately through incarceration at 7.16 inmates per 1,000 it is number 1 on a top 10 list that include mega-hubs like Los Angeles County (2.01); New York City (1.64); Polk County, Fla. (4.23), population 562,000; and Maricopa County, Ariz. (2.34), It's closest rival is Baltimore at 6.58. Blacks are sent to prison at higher rates than whites after convictions in drug cases --Justice Policy Institute As Richmond is midst of developing plans for a prison new facility that will hold 500 to600 inmates, it seems perplexing to find the demand for the black and poor to be placed behind walls so fashionable in the 21st century. Recently a team of consultants came from the National Institute of Corrections to help assess the feasibility and the alternatives for making sure that there...

I must confess, I found C-Spans airing of the U.S. Civil Rights forum: 21st Century, interesting. It was so interesting that I feel a need to comment on some of the views aspired by, mostly, scholars, community leaders, progressive-minded thinkers and not-so-progressive thinkers. Taking place on September 14 at the National Press Club in D.C., the forum was entitled: "New Civil Rights Era or was it "Civil Rights in the 21st Century". Of course the underlying theme was finding ways to empower the ever chained black people. How can blacks, as a whole, finally experience progress and success in a white man's world. It is a Amy Wax , a law school professor at the the University of Pennsylvania, who came forward and proclaimed that nothing more can be done for blacks, they must do it for themselves. She stated that "Past Oppression can not be use as an excuse for bad behavior". He elaborates on this opinion in here reason book: Race, Wrongs and Remedies where s...

I have been advised by many--colleagues, friends, counselors, authors, family and others--that there is some truth to visualization. Visualizing is the prelude to manifestation. No matter what the present truths and realities may dictate, if you believe hard enough, a visualization can become a reality. The church mother always told me to "be careful what you pray for" when I mused about wanting stuff, like a house, a family, a education, etc. Believe it or not, when I am able to visualize and to focus many of my desires have been fulfilled--good or bad. This brings us to group- visualization. This is where the international community (mainly the Western powers and, of course, Israel) is visualizing Iran creating a nuclear bomb. While Iran has been steadfast in disputing the international community's atomic bomb visualizations for its country by declaring over and over that it will use its nuclear power for peaceful purposes. However, the power of group-visualization se...

Wal-Mart was one of the few beneficiaries when the Great Recession began, as shoppers traded down to save money. Now it's having trouble keeping customers in a slowly recovering economy. Cash-strapped shoppers are looking elsewhere for better deals such as dollar stores and local grocery chains. And some wealthier customers, feeling more flush, are starting to head back to the mall. After returning from a local Walmart today, I'm scratching my head wondering what's all the fuss about. Since when did reducing pricing on arguably unhealthy beverages warrant free advertising? Or maybe they are talking about the greasy potato chips that happen to be the nutritional centerpiece on every family dinner table? Now, I don't think it's anything in the healthy vegetable and fruit section. Did anyone check the price of onions lately? Their bananas keep going up, and, no good news for the holidays. Well I did see a few shoppers stacking up on the white bread--the hot dog and ham...

By Allen C. Guelzo – Christian Science Monitor Gettysburg, Pa. – “I am no minister of hate,” wrote the black abolitionist Frederick Douglass in 1871. But as he watched Northerners in the years after the Civil War turn to teary-eyed embraces of their former Confederate enemies at postwar reunions and veterans’ meetings, he was appalled. “May my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I forget the difference between ... those who fought to save the Republic and those who fought to destroy it.” Douglass can be forgiven a certain measure of resentment toward the Confederacy. After all, he was born a slave in Maryland, escaped as a runaway in 1838, turned to a public career as an abolitionist newspaper editor and lecturer, and sent two sons to fight in the Union Army. But he had a point that Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) might have been wise to ponder before Tuesday, when he proclaimed April as Virginia’s “Confederate History Month.” Just what is it, exactly, that Governor McDonnell is p...

Growing up in the segregated South, where my neighbors, community, churches and schools were exclusively Black, to this day I am still (no pun intended) mystified how blacks were (are) intrinsically enticed by whiteness. Oh, by the away, we did have a popular grocery owned by Chinese-Americans in the our neighborhood. However, besides the white transients who entered from time-to-time to sell their wares or to toss their dead animals on our streets, or to return our parents from maid service, it would appear our exclusive physical culture of blackness was in control of their destiny. So, the unsolved mystery is how was our supposed (Black) culture penetrated so thoroughly by the patois of a white majority? How was it that little dark skinned girls preferred white dolls or our exclusively black student body preferred light skinned beauty queens, etc? The white superman or white Mickey Mouse Club were just too enticing. While legal segregation was successful for intentionally keeping peo...

First let me applaud the work of two positive social and justice pioneers. The work of Judge Greg Mathis and that of Coach Tony Dungy speaks for itself. Both men are very successful in their respective fields where Mathis has become a succcessful judge and Dungy is a retired successful major league football coach. Both are African American and both have overcome odds that are not foreign to African American men who are striving to create a life of dignity and pride for them and their love ones and for the community at large. Through the Black Prisoner Initiative, PEER, (Prisoner Empowerment, Education and Respect), Judge Mathis is working to assist young (and old) African American men rebound after being criminalized and imprisoned for their alleged mistakes in life. The Initiative pushes for another chance for these individuals that would help them to redeem their place in society and attempt to replicate the success of other African Americans who have learned to overcome in envi...