by Rupe | Jul 19, 2016 | Deep Thoughts, Reflections, Social-Race Issues, what the...?
Jimmie Williams joins demonstrators in a protest outside of City Hall calling on Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign on December 11, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. A recently released video of the shooting of Laquan McDonald by Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke has sparked protests and calls for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez to resign for allegedly trying to cover up the circumstances surrounding the shooting.SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES
I was a grad student at the UCLA film school, getting my MFA in screenwriting, when a consumer-trends company asked me to work for them. Why did they want me? Well, they advised major corporations on how to best situate their products for the African-American consumer market, and in order to do that effectively, the company needed people who understood African-American values and behavior and could turn those factors into macro trends. In essence, my job was to predict the things black people did today to hint at future behavior and, from that info, identify the strategies companies should use to reach black people.
Source: Black America Is Leaving While Staying Put
My Comments: Well written – captures the sentiments of the majority of black folks. We’ve got to start tending our own gardens – there is no sustenance in hope, no love in fear and the hot rage and meanness of racism knows no bounds. We are way too beautiful for this shit!
by Rupe | Jun 3, 2016 | Deep Thoughts
Five small steps to help you plan for life’s surprises. #PromotedPost
The Washington Post dives into a theory originally put forth by Paul Janet in 1897: We perceive the first years of our lives to be much longer than the years that come later because our point of reference for time is smaller when we’re younger.
When you’ve only lived four years, one year is a big chunk of time — it’s 1/4 of your life!
Source: Time waits for no one. How can you plan for the life you want to live?
My Comments: Absolutely loved this piece; will fold it into my life plan!
by Rupe | Jan 5, 2016 | Deep Thoughts
Read Gary Wu‘s answer to
I feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m reading. Is that wrong? on Quora
by Rupe | Sep 17, 2015 | Deep Thoughts
Politicians are suddenly eager to disown failed policies on American prisons, but they have failed to reckon with the history. Reconsidering Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s report on “The Negro Family,” 50 years later.
“lower-class behavior in our cities is shaking them apart.”
By his own lights, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, ambassador, senator, sociologist, and itinerant American intellectual, was the product of a broken home and a pathological family. He was born in 1927 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but raised mostly in New York City. When Moynihan was 10 years old, his father, John, left the family, plunging it into poverty.
Source: 50 Years After the Moynihan Report, Examining the Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration
My Comments: Thank you so much Ta-Nehesi for these labor of love for our people. Thank you for these consciousness raising pieces that brings to the fore the numerous inequities suffered by the people called blacks. With deep sadness in my heart – thank you.
