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Showing posts from February, 2009

Fighting racism: Mr. President, please step forward!

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Last Wednesday the New York Post cartoonist Sean Delonas published a racist cartoon that consisted of two white police officers firing gunshots into a chimpanzee. The caption read, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” When I saw the caricature I was pissed! Being an African American that’s conscious I’m astute enough to know if they feel that way about the President they feel the same way about me! Just because we=2 0have an African American President doesn’t mean racism is on the decline folks. This situation is a reflection of racist attitudes that still exist in America. I suggest you all wake up and smell the coffee. After some public pressure from protesters and Rev. Al Sharpton the New York Post issued a half-hearted apology. They suggested they meant no malice towards President Obama. Yeah right! The newspaper even had the nerve to take exception with those who believed their cartoon was racist. The Post stated it was “most certainly was not its i...

The mythology of Abraham Lincoln lives on

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President Obama appeared at the Ford Theatre on Feb. 11 where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in 1865. Before a star-studded crowd Obama showed a great deal of respect for the man he views as the gold standard of Presidents. Obama stated, "For despite all that divided us — North and South, black and white — he had an unyielding belief that we were, at heart, are one nation, and one people," Obama continued. "And because of Abraham Lincoln, and all who've carried on his work in the generations since, that is what we remain today." Surprisingly the Lincoln mythology continues. I strive to look beyond the obvious. I've concluded Lincoln has been molded to fit his mythic image many have been conditioned to embrace. History has hailed Lincoln as the great emancipator and the sympathetic liberator of slaves. But history reveals otherwise. I hate to let the facts get in the way of a good story, but white historians have consistently provided t...

The time has come to revamp Black History Month

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What is Black? It’s a description of what we (African Americans) look like but doesn’t tell us who we are as a people. What’s history? History is a series of events that transpired in the past. But many of the events that have transpired in African American history have been distorted. What’s a month? It’s a number of days that are distributed to a represent 1/12 of a calendar year with February being the shortest of them of all. I think it’s time to rename Black History Month and revamp the way it’s celebrated. First of all, African Americans are not Black and we need to better understand History to know our total existence cannot be defined in a Month. African American descendants didn’t come here on the Mayflower. They weren’t on vacation from Africa and decided to stay. Africans were tricked and then forced into bondage thus planting the seeds of American oppression. To truly understand African American achievements we first must understand what Africans were before the rise of Ame...

Mike Tomlin leads the Pittsburgh Steelers to Super Bowl title

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On February 1stead coach Mike Tomlin led the Pittsburgh Steelers to its sixth Super Bowl title in franchise history. The Steelers defeated the resilient Arizona Cardinals 27-23 in one of the best games in Super Bowl history. I picked the Cardinals to win. I felt the persistence they demonstrated in the playoffs would be enough to beat the Steelers. The Cardinals nearly pulled off the upset, but as fate would have it the Steelers were destined to hoist the trophy. Tomlin was the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl. He’s also the second African American to raise the Vince Lombardy trophy in victory. Tony Dungy was the first when he led the Indianapolis Colts over the Chicago Bears in 2006. Dungy played for the Steelers from 1977-78. His first NFL coaching job was with the Steelers in 1981. In 2001 Dungy, then head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, hired a 28 year old Mike Tomlin as his defensive backs coach. Now just eight years into his career and second year as head coach he’s a c...