Tag Archives: african americans

Would African American reparations be America’s stimulus package?

January 25, 2014 admin Leave a comment

Would African American reparations be America’s stimulus package?

By: Samori T. Swygert

What would you do if you opened your mailbox, and received a letter from the United States government? The letter read something like this, “a review of historical data by members of various levels of government and the treasury department concluded that being a descendant of African American slaves that were wrongly obtained, detained, forced to slave labor without wages or salary, and subjected to various forms of abuse, we would like to first apologize with sincere honesty and hope you accept the enclosed check for $100,000.00. We are aware that the reward is meager compared to the hardship, disadvantages, and disenfranchisement that has occurred over the years. However, due to rewarding numerous citizens that are eligible for this compensation, restitution, and reparation, we concluded this amount may help lessen the burden and show true contrition for the act of slavery.”

What would you do? The check is ready to be redeemed, cash money!!!

I pose this question because of a conversation a coworker and I had. What would be the best form of reparations? Would the best act of reparation lie in a check for a specific amount of money, free education, work and live as citizens without paying any taxes, or etc? My response to the question has a biblical basis. The book and passage of the bible I would rely on is; Romans 12:2- “and be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God”.

This is not a religious blog, but African Americans need a paradigm shift before receiving reparations. I may be accusatory or speculative, but I firmly believe that we have been groomed into an addictive consumer relationship with America. It’s not fair to paint the whole African American population with a broad brush, but you must concur that a great deal of us are groomed to be consumers and not producers. White Americans are large consumers also, but they differ from us because they are also largely the producers, owners and beneficiaries of various markets in the American economy.

I feel that $100,000.00 check would be a stimulus package to White America and other multinational groups. The music, music videos, commercials, magazines and billboard advertisements indoctrinate us to be gross consumers. This would be okay if we owned the majority of the products we consume or the sole proprietor of services we patronize. The truth is we do not own the majority of what we patronize. The contemporary culture overemphasizes and glorifies: luxury cars and aircrafts, designer clothes, top shelf alcohol, expensive electronics (new flat screens, Playstations, iPods, iPads, tablets, and computers), ostentatious jewelry, choicest restaurants, state of the art hotels and resorts, hi-tech fire arms, and then all the accessories, amenities and accoutrements to top off our purchases. Now this is not all blacks!! We must free our minds from consuming the symbols and byproducts of success, and really achieve true success! I am guilty myself, if this helps you settle into the honesty of these statements.

There are questions that need to be asked. How many black owned automobile and aircraft manufacturers exist? How many alcohol breweries and distilleries are black owned? How many cell phone, TV and electronics manufacturers are black owned? How many jewelers are black owned? How many black owned precious metals and diamond minds exist? How many choicest restaurants are black owned and franchised across the nation? How many gun manufacturers are black owned? What was the last black owned hotel or resort you’ve checked into? How many black owned fashion designers do you know and purchase from? What quantity of produce do you purchase from the black farmers? If you are being completely honest with me (keep it 100), your answers to these questions should be, few to none. I’m a pretty good dancer so I’m not trying to step on anybody’s toes, but this is done to force true introspection and self-evaluation. These questions also reveal where our hard earned money is squandered, and where we are creating millionaires by false visions of success and happiness they solicit to us via various mediums. These questions also reveal the various markets that we need to begin to compete in as owners and producers. Why should others take from the black community? Why must our dollars be everybody else’s stimulus package?

In the spirit of the Olympics, I would like to make a comparison of the Olympics to the African American community. In the Olympics, various countries compete for the gold medal in various sporting disciplines (boxing, track, gymnastics, swimming, archery, and etc). In our case, the gold medal translates into the “Black Dollar”. The various sporting disciplines translate into numerous industries (fashion, electronics, communication, recreation, entertainment, food, automobile, and etc). There are so many cultures from various foreign countries within and outside our neighborhood. They’re competing for the “Black Dollar”.

The conundrum is we are underrepresented in the competition for our own money. In lieu of the current economic, educational, and social conditions, we need to transform through the renewing of our mind. We need to begin learning these skills, technologies, business stratagems, and even create new markets and industries. This is the era of the inventor and entrepreneur. Unemployment is high, jobs are being outsourced, incarceration is increased, what are you going to do to get that gold medal? Do you have the innovation to create a new industry and market to captivate the black consumer, and command the black dollar? You have nothing else to lose if you’re already unemployed or underclass.

So we need to transform our minds to conserve our finances, pool our resources, plan and strategize. The chances of receiving reparations seem slim, but we can’t let our disposable income be everyone else’s stimulus package. We need to become more fiscally astute and financially scrupulous. If we do not read, apply our education, and think outside the box, we will be doomed to be permanent consumers, and cemented in the underclass. I’m starting by working on myself now. I just wanted to share my spirit with you, and God Bless!

Socio-Cultural Commentary

Black Apathy

January 24, 2014 admin Leave a comment

Dr. Samori Swygert: Black Apathy

There comes a time when your genuine care and concern brings your greatest frustration and disappointment. Merriam-Webster defines the word; Apathy, as a lack of feeling or emotion. The more time progresses, I find myself getting frequently frustrated with my conversations among people.

I can bring up Jay-Z, Real Housewives, Scandal, Kim Kardashian, Lil Wayne, some new song, some crazy trend/fad, who’s h**o$*xual, what designer dress Beyonce wore to an award show, a controversial statement made by a star, some Hollywood pregnancy, some Hollywood divorce, what Twitter war is happening, the latest Facebook post, and everybody has a comment. Everybody has a soapbox and everybody has a copious amount of dialogue.

However, when I initiate discussion on issues of substance that has a true impact and ramifications on our lives and future, people become mum. I mean people literally go mute, silent, and comatose.

If a tree falls in the forest does anyone hear it?

You can forward an email with an article about the erosion of your civil liberties and privacy, the misuse of your tax dollars, closing of schools, an elementary school kid gunned down, raiding of your pension plans, government fiscal plans that threaten your retirement, HBCUs closing, corporate control of our food supply and environment, the Neo-Colonization of Africa, urban gentrification, incarceration, police abuse, technology phasing out human labor, or something of historical significance that bares relevance to current conditions, and you’re lucky if you get 2 responses.

It’s like as long as problems don’t affect their immediate circumstance, and disturb the norm of their status quo, then they don’t care. The attitude is like: ”as long as my family ain’t shot”, ” well I have a house, and I ain’t homeless”, “well I’m employed so….”, “he must have done something for the police to arrest him so…”, “well I live in America, not Africa..”. This lackadaisical, cavalier, nonchalant disposition that a good portion of our people walk around with kills me.

I’m not stupid

I’m not stupid. I’m fully aware that people have the demands and responsibilities of their daily lives. Many people have the obligations of work, children, spouses, school, caring for aging relatives. The ease of watching TV, movies, listening to music, and just “kicking it”, allows for a release from the stress. I get it, I really do!! However, where is the balance????

Lawrence Fishburne Screams “WAKE UP!!!!”

We can’t continue to ignore real issues. Ignoring issues doesn’t remove them. At some point in time we have to be proactive and intervene on our own welfare, and the welfare of our fellow human beings. Am I my brother’s keeper? Where is our community? Does, “What you have not done for the least of my brothers” ring a bell?

We are in society where a conglomeration of forces are plotting, dictating, choreographing and orchestrating our future, and we are sitting back unconcerned and mute. Corporate, governmental, media, and social Think Tanks are steadily crafting legislation, laws, and policies to be incorporated into our daily lives and a good portion of us are sitting docile.

Moves are being made incrementally, and gradually, but we choose to smirk and laugh at the nuances as if they are nonthreatening. We sit and believe in this imaginary moral code of our politicians when they are bought by high-paying lobbyists. People even prefer that you not mention or talk about these issues with them.

What will it take for us to wake up? Will the government have to take away our right to vote, lock up our spouse, take our kid, ration our food supply, place us on curfew, move us to the far outskirts of town, prohibit our education, dictate who we worship, dictate how many kids we have, force feed us medication, and put us in a uniform before we click our heals and realize we are not in Kansas anymore? This has happened before you know…..slavery in America, Japanese camps in America, Vagrancy Laws, apartheid in South Africa, certain policies in China, Nazis in Germany. History does repeat itself you know. Don’t think this can’t happen!

The atrocities of dictatorship are only prevented by the vigilance, and diligence of the people it seeks to dominate. Currently we show little interest in vigilance and diligence. It hurts when you have to conveniently “dumb down” your conversation to sports, entertainment, gossip, and other BS to get any communication.

So many people got a wake up call when the debt ceiling and fiscal cliff happened. People were furloughed, out of work and crying. People were trying to figure out how to pay mortgage, student loans, buy food, pay car notes, pay child support, and etc. When congress came to a deal and ended the standoff, people receded back to their old ways and habits. Did anybody learn anything from that? Just as easy as that happened, it can happen again at a moments notice.

People please help me ring this bell. Do as they do in church and “nudge your neighbor”, and tell them ” it’s time to wake up”, sleep time is over.

Socio-Cultural Commentary

Author says black people are like chickens being fed into the prison industrial complex

November 19, 2013 admin Leave a comment

By: Dr. Samori Swygert

Chicken has long been an international staple in the dietary menus of many humans for centuries. Chicken provides a high source of protein in its daily nutritional value. In America, blacks have somehow been pegged with the stigma of chicken and watermelon eating folks (but we know that’s nonsense). However, if prepared correctly, this avian delicacy can play a part in a savory meal for all ethnicities in America, and yes whites are included!

However, the culinary processing of poultry is not what this article is about! There is a deeper tie in to this correlation between blacks and chicken. First, before taking offense, I challenge you to look deeper and have an honest introspective review of us as blacks in contemporary times, and the plots on our lives. The question I challenge you with is this, “Are you a chicken or an Eagle”?

Scan your local city terrain, and you will see pigeons, in parks you may see or hear the presence of owls and other birds that fly around. However, you will not see a chicken flying around the streets of L.A., Harlem, D.C., Miami, Chicago and etc. Chickens like Owls, Ravens, Eagles, Hawks, Doves, and Pigeons, have wings to fly, but you don’t see them flying. You can even go camping in your nearest forest or State Park, and you will not see a chicken flying around. Why is that?

Chickens have been mentally conditioned that they can’t fly, and/or don’t have the ability to engage in prolonged flight, or are fattened to the point that their wings can’t support their weight. Subsequently, they spend the majority of their life walking the grounds subjected to the will of their farmer. THEY HAVE BEEN DOMESTICATED! The farmer controls the farm and has constructed a chicken coop to warehouse his commodity, the chicken.

The chicken is unassuming and unassertive and relies on the farmer to provide chicken feed for its food supply. The farmer does not feed the chicken because he is nutritionally philanthropic. The farmer has goals and financial objectives for each stage of life of each chicken in his coop. The savvy farmer routinely feeds the chicken to fatten and plump it, to the maximum desirability for the consumption of his customers and profitability of his business. When the chicken is at maximum potential, it produces the highest quality and quantity of eggs and meat.

The unassuming chicken allows its offspring to be taken, processed, and sold to the market. The other plumped chickens are sold for the slaughter of wings, breast and thighs. Lastly, a select few are choicely preserved for the continuum of breeding and preservation of his business. By preserving some live chickens, he will always have production. When he slaughters or sells eggs, he will create two markets of commerce. This is quota control and inventory management. The chickens and eggs grow under a well regulated and controlled environment specifically for the financial aggrandizement of their master.

Furthermore, the female chicken is referred to as the Hen and the male chicken is the Rooster. The Rooster is known throughout the farming community for being a polygamous fowl and will have many Hens nesting at one time. The Rooster is also referred to as the, “c**k”. The farmer also will sell Roosters or breed Roosters for entertainment purposes of, “Cockfights”! This is where other Roosters fight each other and the winning owner gets paid.

Because chickens are unassuming of their ability, potential, and independence they are captured, caged and domesticated, and subsequently their whole lineage is subjected to domestication. In human terms, domestication equals incarceration and control.

Who are the customers of this farmer? The customers are now the private prison corporations, the military, careless educational systems, and other correctional facilities.

What does this American farmer feed his chickens to plump them for maximum desirability? The chicken feed is Crack-cocaine, alcohol and other designer drugs that keep us unassuming, noncompetitive, complacent, docile, and in violation of the law (fattened and prepared for prison).

Who are the Hens that watch over and control the coop? The Hens are preselected black leaders and entertainers that urge us to remain in the coop, or men that exert physical control of homes and communities, but provide no quality influence over family and community structure or future progress. We are engaged in “cockfights” as military soldiers for big government desires for global control, and domestic benefit of slave labor in prison when we kill each other.

I believe we are eagles, capable of our own freedom of flight, and keen perception of independence to feed and provide for ourselves and families. Eagles build their own nest, determine their future, and will fight to the death for their offspring. I favor the story of Rev. CL Franklin about The Eagle Stirs Her Nest. I encourage us all to be eagles and teach the power of flight to our fellow friends, and family to get off this farm. Peace!

Human and Civil Rights

J. Edgar Hoover’s 3-prong attack on black leadership is still alive today!

November 18, 2013 admin Leave a comment

By: Dr. Samori Swygert

Our black leaders have either been assassinated, incarcerated, or vilified. I was listening to the Warren Ballentine Show last week on the Empowerment Radio Network. Warren had reiterated that statement throughout the show, and it resonated with me because it was the truth.

I think of Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Fred Hampton, Assata Shakur, Angela Davis, Huey Newton, Geronimo Pratt, and a long list of others that were victims of those 3 MUTING METHODOLOGIES.

Warren also discussed how J. Edgar Hoover (Director of the FBI, and developer of COINTELPRO) had his own plan to stop the rise of a “Black Messiah”. Why are blacks considered a threat just because we choose to improve our situation, establish solidarity, foster camaraderie, develop economic sustainability, and gain equal rights and protection under the law?

That question reminded me of the story of King Herod in the Bible. I won’t go in depth, because you can read it at your personal leisure. However, I will give a brief synopsis.

A Brief Synopsis

Mary and Joseph sought private confines for the birthing of Jesus to avoid public scrutiny, because the conception was nontraditional. The word of Jesus’s birth got back to King Herod, and he sent out 3 wise men to conduct reconnaissance work for him. The 3 wise men arrived bearing gifts to the baby Jesus, and decided not to report back to King Herod. Joseph had a dream that the King would be sending for his family and fled to Egypt to avoid capture. King Herod got word of the betrayal, and then sent out his soldiers to kill each child 2 years of age and younger. This was done to prevent the possibility of any forecasted Messiah of taking his throne, and the deliverance of the people in his kingdom.

Translating this to the Black Experience in America

This seems so pertinent when you translate it to the black experience in America. For centuries a system of racism and white supremacy has dominated the sociopolitical and economic system of America. The barbaric violent system of slavery, and Jim Crow allowed white supremacists and their descendants to accumulate, and amass vast amounts of wealth and power for free, or pennies on the dollar. This imbalance of power resulted in the transfer of generational wealth and inheritance for the families, and friends of those in power. Moreover, even if you were not a slave owner, or even a racist, the system was engineered in way that just because you had white skin you were afforded the privileges, benefits, advantages, and accoutrements of a free society.

When African Americans were “freed” from slavery, that removed all free labor assets, and we became a liability to the system. We were now considered competitors for resources, because our food was no longer rationed, our domain was not a plantation shack, our bodies were no longer a free count for state representatives, and the poor working class whites had to compete.

Time progressed from decades to centuries, we deserved more rights, inclusion, representation, education, and to declare our inherent independent sovereign human rights that are divinely granted to mankind, and not just whites. However, this was considered a threat, and this resulted in vagrancy laws, night riders, Klan raids, nationwide lynching’s, voting restrictions, Eugenics programs, separate and unequal social programs, and etc.

The hunger in the voices for freedom and restitution became louder and more vocal as the quest for our GOD given human rights surged. Many prominent black leaders emerged from these voices. I assume that fear of insurrection, and a nationwide revolution scared many white supremacists who were reluctant to share or relinquish the power and authority they dominated for centuries.

This is the same type of fear King Herod had when he heard of Jesus coming to deliver his people. The same modus operandi that King Herod used to slaughter all children 2 years of age and younger, appears to be the same thought process that white supremacists had with our black leaders. This is the same type of fear and trepidation that J Edgar Hoover felt. What else would make you scared of a “Black Messiah”. This fear spawned a hatred that led to the sociopolitical castration of our black leaders. The moment when it seemed blacks were on the upswing to recalibrating the scales of justice, our leaders were slaughtered like the children under King Herod.

This became a recurrent theme that eventually neutered our drive for justice. This 3 prong attack method of assassination, incarceration, and vilification serves as a conditioning mechanism, because it discourages the black ambition. The potential pool of black leaders is thus diluted because many are afraid to take the helm, and be placed in the crosshairs of this strategy.

The King Herod Effect, and the practices of Hoover are still alive but are executed in a more stealth and subtle manner! Why kill our kids when they can lock them in a private prison for cheap labor? We can vilify and ostracize like the results of Rev. Wright, and Minister Farrakhan, with our TV and social media propaganda apparatus. Moreover, if it’s necessary to kill a generation, then flood our neighborhoods with drugs, guns, negative theme music, close schools and remove resources. That is a recipe for self annihilation, and removes the fingerprints of white supremacy. This profoundly reduces any chance of blacks achieving success and deliverance from our strife and plight.

Furthermore, by no means am I equating President Obama to a “Black Messiah”, but look what type of vitriolic hatred his election brought out of white supremacists. There were 43 white male presidents, and the one moment in history when protocol was broken, all h**l has to break loose? The other question to ask is, “is America paranoid of its’ own karma?” Lastly, this is about racist white supremacists. d**k Gregory always keeps me in check when he breaks down the contribution of John Brown and other whites that have helped through the ages.

THE TAKE HOME MESSAGE: “LET’S PROTECT OUR YOUTH AND LEADERS THAT HAVE A CLEAR VESTED INTEREST IN OUR PROGRESSION!”

Socio-Cultural Commentary

Hollywood is kidnapping our kids!!

November 18, 2013 admin Leave a comment

Hollywood is kidnapping our children?

by: Dr. Samori Swygert

It’s imperative that we become vigilant stewards and guardians of the quantity, and most important the quality of entertainment that our children ingest. Outbreaks of violence have become almost predictable and clockwork. However, as concerned citizens and family members we must take a proactive position in the intervention of the fate of our youth.

Routinely we hear about a massacre, a mass shooting, gang shootout, new recreational street drug, some new lewd and inappropriate dance, or behavioral trend. We must ask ourselves, “where is all this coming from?”. We can no longer expect the entertainment industry to have a moral conscious in the production of their material.

We are in an era where the family infrastructure is being redefined on a daily basis. Traditionally, we were accustomed to mom, dad, sister, and brother. Currently, these roles have been usurped and hacked by this digital age contagion. This has substituted the TV for mother, Computer for father, Cellphone for brother, Radio for sister, and has eroded the family bond. These new mediums consistently inundate and bombard our children with messages that are repeatedly proving to be hazardous for the youth.

The world has morphed into a narcissistic, attention driven, and instant satisfaction society. The entertainment industry is culpable in the deterioration of society, but rarely is the entertainment industry reigned in for responsibility of material and palatability of content.

Take a sober view and assess the covers of the magazines in your grocery store lines, the video games advertised, the movies featured, the records in rotation, reality shows aired, music videos produced, new age books published, and tell me if you see a recurrent decadent and destructive theme.

The entertainment industry is profiteering hundreds of billions of dollars off the demise of our children! Sexually explicit videos, movies, and books have pushed adolescent sexual promiscuity, teen pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases to a new plateau. When we fail to regulate, monitor, filter, and talk about this material with our children, we allow the entertainment industry to subconsciously impose hazardous behavior into our children’s psyche, and the children passively accept it as innocent entertainment.

Hollywood makes the profit, and we are left with the byproducts to deal with ( early pregnancy, teen abortion, STDs). The oversaturation of sex in books like 50 Shades of Grey, and other lustful ghetto street literature induce a dangerous curiosity into the minds of adolescents that are not yet mature, or responsible enough to manage all aspects of adult behavior by themselves. Sex is a beautiful thing with the right person, and most importantly in a marriage.

However, the ubiquitous and omnipresent emphasis of sex has to contribute to the scores of young children sexually abused, raped, digitally abused on the internet (via compromising videos and pictures) and trafficked.

Do you remember the Steubenville rape case, where these young men engaged in raping an unconscious high school female, and then posted the pictures all over the internet via cellphone pictures, and destroyed this teenager’s reputation and physically violated her without consent? The allure of trying to become famous by asserting their male sexual prowess got these young men serving jail time.

Look at videogames like: Grand Theft Auto, Black Ops Call of Duty, Thrill Kill, and Soldier of Fortune and observe how pervasive gun violence, and brutality are interweaved in the plot. Think about movies and TV shows like : The Purge, Blow, Kill Bill, Breaking Bad, Lock Up Raw and a plethora of others and ask yourself “why is drug culture, prison life, and random acts of violence so celebrated now?”.

We have arrived at the clichéd fruition of, art imitating life and life imitating art. When shooting episodes like Virginia Tech, Newtown, Connecticut, Aurora, Colorado, Columbine High school, and Jonesboro, Arkansas occur, think about what the youth are consuming. Think about what they are being conditioned and indoctrinated with under the veneer and alias of entertainment. We arrest adolescents on the streets for drug dealing and incarcerate them for the violent acts associated with the drug culture. However, we give Emmys and Oscars to the producers of shows that prompt youth to experiment with this dead-end lifestyle. NPR published an article this week detailing a research study in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The study revealed that as of 2009, PG-13 movies have more gun violence than Rated-R movies.1

The music has become the soundtrack to self destruction. When we can turn on the radio and they are rapping about shooting, killing, drugs, sex, and frivolous wasting money, we have a few seconds left before its all over. The music videos have become soft porn, and encourage our young daughters and sisters to mimic the mannerisms of strippers.

Reality shows teach our women nothing but raucous, ratchet behavior. Think about shows like Real Housewives of Atlanta , Love and HipHop, Bad Girls Club, and others. The shows basically demonstrate and instruct young women how to scream, argue, and instigate violent conflicts without any modeling of positive, mature, lady-like conflict resolution. The emphasis is this ultra-diva like female that is money hungry, argumentative, irrational, and self-centered. This is not the type of woman any man wants as a wife, but these shows have our young women believing this is the path to womanhood. The men depicted in these shows are just as bad. Routinely the males are father to multiple baby mommas, absentee, consistently delinquent, players with excuses and stories to explain poor decisions they made.

Ironically, I can express what I’m saying by using a movie. A movie came out a few years ago called, Inception. The plot involved an agent that performed a psychological manipulation called, Inception. While performing Inception on his target, he was able to implant thoughts into their mind without them knowing, and the person would then execute the desired goal.

What am I saying?

We need to press the reset button and return to family and community. We need to have regular communication with our family members and neighbors and redevelop concern about what our kids are doing. We need to actively and regularly review our children’s phones, tablets, computers, TV shows, radio shows, and videos on Youtube, World Star HipHop, and any other electronic/ digital forms of social media, because our kids are under attack. The results are devastating and the devil doesn’t leave his fingerprints at the scene of the crime. He just leaves you with the tragedy to clean up, and the bill to pay.

Who profits?

The financial profit lies in high yield earnings for the private prisons for those that engage in illegal drug activity, pay day for drug companies that get new patients on Plan B abortificient pills, Antibiotics, or Antiviral medication from high risk sexual activity, a stimulus plan for gun and ammo manufacturers. Every time a mass shooting occurs, gun sales skyrocket because people feel the government will ban firearms, and people buy as much as possible to avoid being gunless.

The fashion industry makes a killing from young teens purchasing clothing to mimic and emulate the characters or stars in movies, music, and magazines. The movie industry and gaming industry makes more for the production of more films and games. The whole time we as a community are suffering the collateral damage of reckless indoctrination of our youth. It’s 2013 do you know where your children are?

People are to scared to speak up and call BS (bulls$it) when it happens. Benefactors of the industry say it’s “creative and edgy”. That’s a lie, it’s self destructive BS, and people are scared to be called a hater for voicing real concerns. These actors won’t complain, and will call you a hater because you are interfering with their paycheck, reputation, endorsements, and contracts. I don’t care about these bought and paid for minstrels, the posterity of our black youth are not for sale!! I may be on my soapbox, but so what, somebody has to speak up! Like Gil Scott Heron said, ” we got to do something to save the children”. CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW!!!???

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