Reality Bytes and Pieces

Now that Black History Month is over, I was just wondering if anyone can answer the 10 questions at the bottom of this post that were selected from the Black Heritage Trivia Game by the Chicago Daily Herald.

If you can, then I guess you paid attention to whatever commercials were airing on television during NBA and college basketball games, or during sitcoms on the networks. If you fail the quiz, I’m guessing that you’re no different than anyone else — black or white.

Hopefully, school kids came away with some new knowledge this past month, but some us were kids not so long ago and most of the facts and figures learned during Black History Month are just as fresh in mind as trigonometry and foreign languages.

You can argue that keeping black history relevant in the minds of kids is just a matter of teaching black history year-round, but I think the reality is that kids know what they need to know when they’re expecting to be quizzed and graded. It all just gets fuzzy when you’re an adult and no matter what type of history you’re taught — black, American or European — you can’t remember everything with the same clarity as you get older.

That said, Black History Month should not be so much about teaching history as it should be teaching the next generation to understand the struggles of past generations so they can work towards achieving a brighter future together in a colorblind America.

The quiz below means something, but it doesn’t teach understanding, tolerance, mending fences and building bridges. How many teachers probably pay lip service to Black History Month and just throw out a bunch of facts as included in the quiz below? Probably more than you’d believe, especially when so many white teachers have little or no connection to black culture, people and history outside of a textbook.

Maybe the focus of Black History Month needs to be re-focused on the message and not memorizing the facts and figures. Just my opinion, but that’s something kids can remember throughout their lives.

Here’s the quiz:

1. What were the black soldiers who helped protect pioneers during the settlement of the American West called?

2. The Amistad mutiny took place in what year?

3. What was Malcolm X’s given name?

4. Which U.S. president signed the bill that made Martin Luther King Jr. Day a national holiday?

5. How long did the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott last: six weeks, six months or more than a year?

6. What U.S. Supreme Court ruling declared that school segregation is unconstitutional?

7. Who was the first African American to win baseball’s Most Valuable Player award?

8. Who was the first African American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize: Ralph Bunche, Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X?

9. Who was the first black woman nominated for an Academy Award for best actress?

10. What was the first hit song for Motown?

Answers: 1. Buffalo Soldiers. 2. 1839. 3. Malcolm Little. 4. Ronald Reagan. 5. More than a year. 6. Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. 7. Jackie Robinson, in 1949. 8. Ralph Bunche. 9. Dorothy Dandridge. 10. “Shop Around” by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.

Know Thy Neighbor - I live within a few blocks of a pedophile, a rapist and a stalker! How’s your neighborhood looking?

Ride ‘Em, Cowgirl! - As of yesterday, Texans can now legally purchase and use sex toys.

Gaybonics Conference in D.C. - Apparently, sounding gay and talking gay are two different things, and the brilliant educators at American University in Washington, D.C. are putting on a conference this weekend to prove it.

90 Day Jane - “I am going to kill myself in 90 days. What else should i say? This blog is not a cry for help or even to get attention. It’s simply a public record of my last 90 days in existence. I’m not depressed and nothing extremely horrible has lead me to this decision …”

MpgGenie.com - For those of you who buy automobiles based on how much gas they guzzle. You can also find out how much it’ll cost to commute to and from work.

Wacky Scholarships - If you’re fat, tall, Klingon, left-handed, smoke dope, etc. and maintain good grades, chances are, there’s financial assistance out there for you.

Carnivorous Dog Eats “Vegetables” - Read the link and it will all make sense. Trust me.

Rapper Q-Tip of Tribe Called Quest, which I’ll admit sounded pretty hot back in the day, believes Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has the power to “change” America for the better, just like rap music has done for ending poverty, reducing drug use and raising the self-esteem of those caught up in the ghetto culture. Sure, I’ll entertain the notion that Sen. Obama might have the power to influence positive change if elected, but taking a page from the rap industry playbook to generate succesful results is downright ignorant.

“Hip-hop culture was the product of the impoverished who found strength and solace in this music phenomenon. It is a transformational art form born of neighborhoods where crime and drugs were on the rise and self-esteem was sinking. The education system was failing, and the odds were against us,” states Q-Tip in his endorsement of Obama. “But as a people, we persevered. I know about having true substance, new ideas and a desire for fundamental change like Senator Obama … I am endorsing Barack Obama because I feel that we can benefit greatly from a leader that offers sound judgment and experience rooted in the lives of real people.” 

Wow! I had no idea rap music had achieved such great success in transforming the lives of so many, aside from making millionaires out of music industry moguls and a select few rappers who manage to remain on the scene after their first albums are released. And, now, Q-Tip would have us believe that a President Obama will offer the same “sound judgement” as enlisted by the rap industry to ”change” America for the better? Surely, Sen. Obama is smart enough to realize that rap music is anything but a vehicle for promoting positive change … and, you’re kidding yourself if you truly believe any of Q-Tip’s unfounded rant that attempts to equate the so-called positive of influence of rap music with the power of Sen. Obama to influence positive change across our diverse nation.

As far as rap music’s positive effects on raising the self-esteem of listeners and helping them to persevere when faced with tough challenges, no matter where they come from, let’s consider the fact that we still see and hear:

1. Rappers dropping lyrics about women being “bitches,” “sluts,” “whores,” etc.
2. By his own admission, rapper Ludacris, while addressing college students about safe sex and condom use with Sen. Obama in 2006, said, “I talk a lot about sex in my music, but you don’t ever hear me talk about condoms.”
3. The prolific use of the “N-word,” but we are told to believe that’s just a term of affection among blacks, though not a single person who is not black should ever let it slip from his lips without the expectation of a physical beat down, getting fired from your job or expelled from school, a visit from the Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton … or all of the above.
4. Ghetto life being glamorized in rap videos as we watch gangstas roll down the streets of neighborhoods most sensible people know better than to drive on during the daytime even with a police escort.
5. Album titles such as Nas’ latest release, “Nigger,” being met with initial media controversy, then peddled by merchants for profit with not so much as a whisper from anyone further condemning the album’s release on shelves within clear view of kids who will be the next generation to embrace the “N-word.”
6. Drinking Cristal at the club or sipping 40s on the front porch with your homeboys is the thing to do if you want to be a true playa’.
7. Toting a gun is nothing but a sensible means of protecting yourself and the ones you love, because you never know who might want to bust a cap in your ass.
8. Smiling is an absolute no-no, unless you’re showing off your golden or platinum “grill” because you always need to look tough and intimidating, never friendly and thereby risk giving the impression that you’re weak.
9. Smacking your bitch is just a means of spousal discipline to ensure your mutually loving and respectful relationship endures through troubled times.
10. Prison must be portrayed as a right of passage in to adulthood, and the more times you’re locked up, the harder you get, which is a good thing.
11. It’s not a party unless there are dozens of scantily clad women and you’re the only male.
12. Driving your parents old car just isn’t cool because by the the time you reach the ripe old age of 19, it’s logical that you should be able to afford a pimped-out Cadillac Escalade through your “entrepeneurial” endeavors, like freelance pharmaceutical sales on street corners. Working as a waiter or store clerk will get you nowhere quickly, and that’s just not gonna fly if you want to get with the honeys.
13. Smoking a fat joint chock full of the “chronic” is just a means of relaxation and harmless fun.
14. Getting more tattoos than an Eagle Scout has merit badges is a true sign of your accomplishments.
15. Mimicking every cool new phrase or terminology crafted by Snoop Dogg, like “fo-shizzle,” will come in handy on the SAT verbal section, and possibly during interviews with potential employers who think their companies need to embrace diversity by hiring someone who wears his pants hanging off his ass, has a chain around his neck with a oversized medallion that mesmerizes anyone who gazes at the spinning replica of a tire rim, and has an amazing global business sense because of the numerous watches dangling on both of his wrists (each one telling time in a different global time zones so he knows when the opening bells ring on the stock markets in New York, London and Frankfurt, of course).  

I’m sure I forgot something, but the rap industry is so inventive, a new trend will certainly arise in the near future that glamorizes every parent’s worst nightmare, or manages to put money in the pockets of people exploiting the vulnerability of America’s youth by making them believe they can have it all if they try really hard to find shortcuts on the, more often than not, long and winding road to success.

So, Q-Tip, if electing Obama will create positive “change” just like rap music has done for so many young, impoverished and vulnerable young Americans struggling to improve their lives, I’m dying to hear about how the rest of hard-working, goal-oriented Americans will fare under a President Obama, because you’re pretty much telling them that they should quit their days jobs and not give a shit about pursuing the American Dream the old fashioned way — by working hard and earning it, all while having a strong sense of respect for others and self.

Whether you realize it or not, Q-Tip, you just described how to achieve the American Nightmare, and that’s probably not the endorsement that Sen. Obama was hoping to receive or the inspirational message to voters that he’d like to promote. Bling-bling! It’s time to wake-up to reality.

Related News:
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Obama Employed Farrakhan Followers, Still Has Ties to Radical Islam
Obama Wants to Use “Bully Pulpit” to Advance Homosexual Agenda
Obama “Proud” of Militant Muslim Brother
Salvation Army to Reap Rewards of Obama’s Alleged Man-whore
Obama’s Global Anti-poverty Bill Could Cost U.S. Taxpayers Billions
MEDIA COVER-UP: Man Claims He Had Sex, Used Drugs with Obama
O.J. Endorses Hillary Over Obama
Obama Assassination Would Cause Riots Across U.S.
Media “Pimping” Obama Assassination Idea to Radicals

In order to combat a forty-percent dropout rate among black high school teens in Toronto, Canada, school board trustees voted 11-9 to make schools “more relevant to black students” by opening an “Africentric” school in September 2009.

Urging support for the proposal, white school board Chairwoman Susan Ward said, “I don’t know what it’s like to be a black parent, but I do know pain when I see it and recognize despair when I hear it, from the deepest part of the soul of those who believe time is running out,” while a black mother of a high school student countered, “[T]his black school thing – no, it ain’t right.”

Supporters claim the all-black school with black teachers and “africentric” curriculum will plug the “school-to-jail pipeline.” Interestingly, the Toronto District School Board says the bulk of the black students they’re trying to help are Caribbean-born or hailing from east Africa, which makes it sound like they need to look in the mirror and realize they’ve done a miserable job of integrating these foreign-born kids in to Canadian society and that segregating them will only serve to increase the cultural and academic divide between black and white Canadian youth. Further, how is an “africentric” curriculum going to help black Canadian teens prepare for promising careers in “whitecentric” Canada?

If you want to close that “school-to-jail pipeline,” teach these black kids something that will empower them to excel in the future and not dwell on the past, which most likely will harp on past racial tensions and historic discrimination against blacks. Sure, you can fire-up the kids by telling them about how whites oppressed blacks throughout history, but that is not the inspirational message Canada should promote in its efforts to build a color-blind society that lives, works and plays in racial harmony.

Conservative parents across the U.S. have good reason to be concerned about what their kids are learning in so-called “sex-education” classes taught in the public schools as evidenced by a new report that reveals thirty-percent of Illinois’ sex-education teachers “had never received sex-education training.” Here’s the real kicker …  The report continues to cite that the national average for those teaching your kids about issues including “abstinence until marriage or older, HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases, and contraception” without any formal sex-education training is eighteen-percent. This report makes you wonder what criteria these uncertified instructors have to meet in order to teach someone else’s kids about human sexuality and disease prevention — real world experience? You can get that from a prostitute.

“Good morning, Jackass!” - Well, who said you can’t make your boss’ life miserable when he insists on calling for early morning meetings? I applaud the geniuses who created this FREE online wakeup service that dials on demand. It’s the perfect way to make sure your boss isn’t late for the meeting, even if he’s reminded about it at 2am or every half-hour thereafter. This website has limitless potential for wreaking havoc on your worst enemies, or those who’ve yet to earn that honor.

Tiny “Bundles of Joy” Could Bring So Much More Joy - Not that I’m in the market or even remotely interested, but don’t you think this woman who creates lifelike re-creations of still-born babies could make a “bundle” selling lifesize sex dolls? Jan, the Gepetto of dead baby dolls, needs to stop peddling her current lineup of morbid dolls and realize her true potential for bringing joy to the masses in the sick and twisted world of sex toys. Sorry Mom, but this had to be said.

Translate Webpages into Funky Freshpages - Here’s a blast from the past. Anyone remember “The Dialectizer?” Well, it’s still alive and kickin’ it old school. Just copy the URL of a website and paste in to the prompt for a rough translation of how the website would look if a smooth jive-talker or Walt “Clyde” Frazier was in control of content management.

Guarantee Your Kid Gets Bullied - If you want your kid(s) to stand out from the rest on the playground, there’s no better way to guarantee they’ll be excluded and/or beat to a pulp than enrolling them in one of the “Profound Awareness Alliance’s” programs for “psychic kids.” Yep, Harry Potter is alive and well here in the “Enchanted Forest Intuitive Camp” where kids are taught to embrace their “sixth sense, second sight, natural mystic, clairvoyance, guardian angels, ‘imaginary friends’, other dimensions, just being different or any other experiencing expanded awareness.” Note to parents: Stock-up on bandages. It’s gonna be a long school year for Little Johnny and his imaginary friend.