While I hate to call another black person a “sellout” or “Uncle Tom,” just because s/he has an opinion or takes a stance that differs from mine, but I’ve got to got there with Bill Maxwell, a columnist for the St. Petersburg Times in Tampa Bay, for this piece [...]
“It’s been a long time. We shouldn’t left you, without a dope beat to step to.”—”Try Again”, Aaliyah from the Romeo Must Die Soundtrack.
I know I’ve been AWOL for a minute, but I just finished up classes for my fellowship program and had to get my house (and personal life) [...]
When it comes to getting service from a business or something I want in general, I have two policies: 1) I’ll willing to either kiss butt or pay money, but I won’t do both, and 2) I never accept lesser treatment from someone I’m giving money to, than I’d accept [...]
While anecdotal evidence demonstrates that HOPE VI developments improve the lives of the former public housing residents who reside in them, only a fraction of the public housing residents these new developments displace actually get to live in the new HOPE VI. For the majority of public housing residents, HOPE [...]
Yesterday the NOPD and mayor’s held a press conference to show off their new toys, which were a bevy of SWAT-caliber armored vehicles and high powered weapons, and personally, the whole thing was not just a little disconcerting. First, that the mayor and police chief’s PR people, as well [...]
When I was about 5 years old, I was so angry at my father for not letting me on the Pop Warner team he was coaching, that I decided to run away, Somehow, through my juvenile powers of persuasion, I convinced another playmate who was about the same age as [...]
The U.S. has a history of destroying poor and minority communities for the alleged sake of progress. The oft-repeated argument for this kind of community destruction is always that the rights of the few must sometimes be sacrificed for the well being of the many. From the permanent confiscation of [...]
I just heard Bob Johnson’s comments (watch the video here) comparing the respective contributions Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have made towards improving the black community, and I’m struggling to figure out what right he thinks he has to even comment on ANYONE’S actions or contributions. Mr. Johnson became [...]
“So let the sideshow begin. Hurry, hurry, step right on in. Can’t afford to pass it by. Guaranteed to make you cry.”—Sideshow, Blue Magic
The Mardi Gras season is upon us, and around the city blacks are stitching costumes; gluing sequins and ribbons on fans, umbrellas and hats; practicing dance routines [...]
We are tired of being united only in tragedy and fear, and being pitted against one another for scraps of opportunity. We don’t want to hate or fear our neighbors, or have our leaders tell us that our individual success is predicated on our neighbors having less. We, both Democrats [...]
In voting to approve HANO’s demolition permits for the Big Four public housing developments, the New Orleans city council found a way to “split the baby”, by crafting a set of “provisos” that call for some measure phased demolitions and a host of other measures that must be met before [...]
While I am extremely proud of Ben Franklin’s 17 National Achievement semifinalists, the most of any school in the country, I have little hope that they will be part of the group of future leaders that will rebuild New Orleans. As an African-American with an engineering degree from Stanford [...]
Secretary Jackson must love spending time in Vegas and Atlantic City, because the man clearly thinks he’s good at bluffing and bullshitting because this letter he sent to Mayor Nagin and his empty threats to the City Council are nothing more than bullshit and bologna. Being the truthseeker that I [...]
The pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won. The pastor was so Pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again, and it won again.
The local paper read: PASTOR’S ASS OUT FRONT
The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered [...]
While I agree that public housing in New Orleans needs to be improved, I disagree with HUD (yes HUD, because HANO is run by a ONE-MAN BOARD, handpicked by Secretary Jackson, so every decision that emanates from HANO’s offices is made in his office) that the only solution is wholesale [...]
One of the reasons we don’t see in cranes in the sky in New Orleans, is because Blanco and the State Bond Commission have been using the bond allocations to either 1) help her husband’s cronies in Lafayette (did anybody notice that the new Radisson that’s going up in Lafayette [...]
Jindal is off to a strong start at turning Louisiana into a de facto “Christian Conservative” (ChrisCon) theocracy. Not only is our new governor-elect’s first hire a “Christian home school graduate” with no college degree (he claims to be a “road scholar”), I think he might be a [...]
I’m tired of white people blaming the entire black community for the actions of one black person. My ire over this issue has been raised by the New Orleans white community’s racist response to the multitude of scandals, missteps and mistakes that have emanated from NOLA district attorney, Eddie Jordan’s [...]
As I watch governor-elect, Piyush “Bobby” Jindal, my thoughts vacillated between nausea and nostalgia—nausea over the level of pandering and bullshit spewing from his lips and nostalgia remembering the “late, (not so) great Harry Lee”. Although he was born 5 years before Lee became sheriff for life in Jefferson [...]
… you realize that you no longer look “cute” sitting on a barstool
… something in your closet comes back in style, but it’s now “too young” and “too small” for you
… you don’t have the energy to participate in drama or the time to entertain foolishness
… you [...]
Some people strive to move mountains, while others are just satisfied throwing rocks.–Conscious Daughter
[...]Most black activists and politicians living today missed the famous March on Washington, and after years of hearing John Lewis and the late Whitney Young brag about how phenomenal it was to be there and to “march with Dr. King”, they’ve been trying to recreate that experience for the last [...]
I think it is ironic, yet fitting, that the online discussion about the recent death of the Jefferson Parish’s “sheriff for life,” Harry Lee, would become so focused on race and racism, because the late sheriff made his mark (and became so “beloved” by the citizens he served) by playing [...]
This week thousands of black businessman, politicians, community activists and the groupies that love them, will converge on Washington, DC to “see and be seen on the scene” during the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Foundation’s Annual Leadership Conference. While the conference’s officially centers around a series of meetings and workshops [...]
The T-P, which I continue to read despite my better judgment, just did a feature story on the mortgage crisis in Louisiana, in particular how it’s playing out here in K-ville. Included was a profile of a woman in the Lower Nine, who’s stuck paying an ARM that reset to [...]
Once again, major media outlets have proven that the lives of black Americans have no value in their eyes. Although CNN, Fox News and MSNBC have spent DAYS of air time covering Michael Vick’s arrest for dogfighting, they have all chosen to ignore the following stories:
