Greetings everyone, for those of you all who do not know, President. Obama recently delivered a motivational speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia to motivate the student body and students on the national level about the incumbent, importance and necessity of receiving an education in today's society of modernization, technological advancement, scarce job opportunities, a financial recession and other events that reverberates in today's American society. For the most part conservatives, Republicans and anti- Obama critics had a problem with his speech claiming that he was indoctrinating the youth to have no options but to solely go to school and enter into the workforce for the benefit of government. They claim that even though he is the President of the United States of America, he does not have the authority to speak directly to American students in regards to his aspirations and goals for them to achieve when they have their own parents or family to be the motivation for them. Obama was called a "socialist", a "fascist", a "communist" and other "derogatory" terms when it comes to American political jargon. In closing, this is a generalization of the feedback given because of the speech and below is the text of the speech and after that, my personal feedback, so attentively read the speech and my afterward remarks.
"Hello everyone - how's everybody doing today? I'm here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we've got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I'm glad you all could join us today.
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it's your first day in a new school, so it's understandable if you're a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you're in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could've stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.
I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn't have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday - at 4:30 in the morning. Now I wasn't too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I'd fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I'd complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I'm here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I'm here because I want to talk with you about your education and what's expected of all of you in this new school year.
Now I've given a lot of speeches about education. And I've talked a lot about responsibility.I've talked about your teachers' responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn. I've talked about your parents' responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don't spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox. I've talked a lot about your government's responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren't working where students aren't getting the opportunities they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world - and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself. Every single one of you has something you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide.
Maybe you could be a good writer - maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper - but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor - maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine - but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life - I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You're going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can't drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You've got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.
And this isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.
You'll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You'll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You'll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don't do that - if you quit on school - you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country.
Now I know it's not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that's like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn't always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn't fit in.
So I wasn't always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I'm not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn't have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don't have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there's not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don't feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren't right.
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life - what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home - that's no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That's no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up. No one's written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future. That's what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn't speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.I'm thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who's fought brain cancer since he was three. He's endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer - hundreds of extra hours - to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he's headed to college this fall.
And then there's Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she's on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren't any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.
That's why today, I'm calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education - and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you'll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you'll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you'll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you'll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don't feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.
I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you're not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won't love every subject you study. You won't click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won't necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.That's OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who've had the most failures. JK Rowling's first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
These people succeeded because they understand that you can't let your failures define you - you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn't mean you're a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn't mean you're stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one's born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You're not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don't hit every note the first time you sing a song. You've got to practice. It's the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it's good enough to hand in.
Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn't a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don't know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust - a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor - and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you're struggling, even when you're discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you - don't ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story of America isn't about people who quit when things got tough. It's about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
It's the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I want to ask you, what's your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?
Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I'm working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you've got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don't let us down - don't let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America."
-President Barack Obama
From my analysis, after reading over this speech, I see the speech as motivational, inspirational, enlightening and judicious on President Obama's viewpoint. As the President of the United States, he's doing what he supposed to be doing and that is to educate and empower the next generation to become innovators, politicians, scientists, educators, doctors, scholars, law enforcers, firefighters, musicians, artists, and to enter other occupations so that they could have individual success and collectively, national success. The building block for a successful nation starts with "you" or should I say the individual so I say that there is no problem with President Obama motivating the students on the importance of staying in school and receiving an education and in my opinion, anyone who disagrees with his message and sees it as unacceptable and deplorable is anti-American itself. Education, come from the latin word educure which means to know and the accumulation of knowledge is a birth right given to all Americans according to the Constitution and for the President to encourage students to pursue a free government-funded public education is fulfilling the role of government which is to make laws, enforce them and protect, preserve and serve the people to make them independent and interdependent and contributive American citizens.
I am not speaking as a conservative, moderate, liberal, socialist, fascist or communist but a human being who analyzes various ideologies because between various parties and points of views; the truth lies in between. In closing, the encouraging of students to stay in school, receive their education, edify, refine and better themselves in a specific skill, craft, field or subject matter is the duty of a President or anyone who wants the posterity of a nation to succeed. In the meantime, everyone is entitled to their own opinion or belief and mine is that "Education is the key to success."
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
Back to School edition
Greetings everyone, I am confidently aware that you all know that it is indeed back to school season. You as a student will or may have already returned to your respected high schools, college campuses or may have been matriculated, accepted and admitted as incoming freshman on the high school or college level. For some they are excited to return to school for nuances of reasons which may include to see reunite with old friends and classmates, to show off your material possessions like back to school clothing apparel, they are tired of their boring summer vacation, etc. Evidently and assumptive speaking the normality of the “back to school” agenda is that students are not interested in going back to school or school in general. In this blog, I maybe address you. In today’s society I am well aware of the family, community and self crises, the distractions in the media which generally or in the most part doesn’t advertise getting a world class education and on the inconsiderate, parsimonious, disrespectful, mischievous and inconsiderate teachers/ professors in the classrooms who do not possess the will, determination, purpose, drive or mission to motivate, educate, edify, inculcate and empower students preferably African American and Hispanic students to achieve academic excellence and to return to their respected communities to bring about a positive social, political, economic and educational and cultural change.
Evidently, because of the complacency which reverberates prevalently within society on a universal standpoint, we as a people need to know the importance of education inside and outside of the classroom. We as a people are stigmatized as being imbecile, lazy and illiterate and we cannot take that from society when we as a people are inherently placed with the potential to become scientists, scholars, teachers, politicians, rhetoricians, entrepreneurs, lawyers, philosophers, architects, magistrates/ presidents, etc. We are the parents, innovators and builders of civilization and the crisis that most of us students and people are experiencing is the culture crisis. We lack knowledge of self; we lack a cognizance of our history, contributions and accomplishments of civilizations in antiquity. We are not told the full story of our merits in our history classes and that is why it’s imperative for us to learn as much as we could about ourselves as a people besides relying on the social and political power structure to interpret and tell your story. Once we gain knowledge of self and learned that we as a people civilized the whole world and gave birth to humanity then our self identity, self esteem, self discipline and self assessment will increase and become radically positive and edified.
In closing, I am encouraging you as a student to come to school with the right attitude, to learn knowledge of self and come to school with a purpose in mind. The purpose should be positive and should catalyze towards the liberation and freedom of yourself from procrastination, failure, mental enslavement or whatever is stopping you from achieving academic excellence. More than likely all but way more is holding most of us as a nation back from achieving collective success and to rectify the problems affecting us in the educational and intellectual paradigm. Leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Medger Evers, Fannie Lou Haimer, John Lewis,A. Phillip Randolph, Huey P.Newton, Kwame Ture and many other warriors fought for us to have the somewhat equitable rights to attend intuitions of higher education, to receive middle and upper middle class job positions and for President Barack Obama to become the 44th President of the United States of America. In the meantime, education is imperative and the best and most paramount and mandatory education to receive is knowledge of self. In the meantime take care, have a successful school year and stay in school. Your forefathers died for the day you live to receive your education and your children are depending on your decision today to get an education to extricate and free us from poverty, failure and mental enslavement.
EDUCATION =LIBERATION.
Peace,
Baruti N.K.
Evidently, because of the complacency which reverberates prevalently within society on a universal standpoint, we as a people need to know the importance of education inside and outside of the classroom. We as a people are stigmatized as being imbecile, lazy and illiterate and we cannot take that from society when we as a people are inherently placed with the potential to become scientists, scholars, teachers, politicians, rhetoricians, entrepreneurs, lawyers, philosophers, architects, magistrates/ presidents, etc. We are the parents, innovators and builders of civilization and the crisis that most of us students and people are experiencing is the culture crisis. We lack knowledge of self; we lack a cognizance of our history, contributions and accomplishments of civilizations in antiquity. We are not told the full story of our merits in our history classes and that is why it’s imperative for us to learn as much as we could about ourselves as a people besides relying on the social and political power structure to interpret and tell your story. Once we gain knowledge of self and learned that we as a people civilized the whole world and gave birth to humanity then our self identity, self esteem, self discipline and self assessment will increase and become radically positive and edified.
In closing, I am encouraging you as a student to come to school with the right attitude, to learn knowledge of self and come to school with a purpose in mind. The purpose should be positive and should catalyze towards the liberation and freedom of yourself from procrastination, failure, mental enslavement or whatever is stopping you from achieving academic excellence. More than likely all but way more is holding most of us as a nation back from achieving collective success and to rectify the problems affecting us in the educational and intellectual paradigm. Leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Medger Evers, Fannie Lou Haimer, John Lewis,A. Phillip Randolph, Huey P.Newton, Kwame Ture and many other warriors fought for us to have the somewhat equitable rights to attend intuitions of higher education, to receive middle and upper middle class job positions and for President Barack Obama to become the 44th President of the United States of America. In the meantime, education is imperative and the best and most paramount and mandatory education to receive is knowledge of self. In the meantime take care, have a successful school year and stay in school. Your forefathers died for the day you live to receive your education and your children are depending on your decision today to get an education to extricate and free us from poverty, failure and mental enslavement.
EDUCATION =LIBERATION.
Peace,
Baruti N.K.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Happy Birthday to Our Father: The Honorable Marcus Garvey
Em-Hotep Brothers and Sisters, today on August 17th, 2009 we celebrate the 122nd birthday of the Honorable, charismatic and brilliant Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr. Marcus Garvey was born in August 17, 1887 on a farm in St. Ann's Bay Jamaica to Marcus Garvey, Sr. and Sarah Jane Richards. Marcus Garvey had 11 siblings and he gained appreciation, admiration and inclination in reading books because of his father enormous and extensive home library and this embarked on his search and accumulation of knowledge.
Marcus Garvey started working at the age of 14 when he moved to Kingston, Jamaica at a printing house called P.A. Benjamin, Limited and was blacklisted and fired for his participation in a strike and in 1909, he started his own newspaper publication called "The Watchman" which only lasted for a couple of issues. In 1910, Marcus Garvey moved to the Central American region to Costa Rica at a banana plantation as a time keeper then Panama where he would create and start newspaper publications for the clientele of the workers. Afterwards in 1912, he moved to London, England where he began to do his own studying on politics, history, geography, journalism, current events, etc. Garvey began to network with journalists and community leaders who advocated the ideology of Pan-Africanism and Black nationalism and from Garvey's various travels he realized from the Carribean, to Central America and all the way to Europe that people of African descent were mentally enslaved, economically impoverished, politically and physically suppressed and for the most part inferior as a people. Garvey also studied at the Birbeck College and worked for the African Times and Orient Review. Garvey's scope began to expand during his travel's and his only thought of solution for the liberation of African people universally was the unity of African people into one nation controlled by Black people.
While in London, he read the book "Up From Slavery" which is an autobiography by Booker T. Washington who was a prominent and paraount African American leader at the time who started and built the Tuskeegee Institute and who's main advocacy for Black people was accomodationism to the American system, economic independence for Black people nationally and for self reliance. Garvey was well intrigued by his philosophy and by the idea of Black nationhood and he wanted to take his new found knowledge and this philosophy back to Jamaica.
In 1914, he moved back to Jamaica where he started the Universal Negro Improvement Association- African Communities League (U.N.I.A.-A.C.L.) for the purpose uniting the Black race universally, continentally and internationally into one "Grand Racial Hierarchy." The motto was "One God, One Aim, One Destiny." The organization was a social self help group which wanted to develop the Black race socially, economically, politically, mentally, spiritually, and all means which would lead to independence and Black nationhood. Between the years of 1915-16, he was in communication with the great Booker T. Washington and eventually he gave Garvey the invitation to come to the United States to work with him and to raise money to build a school tantamount to the Tuskegee Institute in Jamaica.
In 1916 when he arrived to the United States, he missed Washington because he had already died. When he arrived to America, he visited the Tuskegee Institute visited the various Black leaders throughout America, moved to Harlem to work as a printer during the day and as a street corner minister during the afternoon and night. Garvey went on a 38 state tour around the United States to raise funds for the U.N.I.A. back in Jamaica but instead, membership in the United States began to rapidly and exponentially increase. African Americans were well impressed by Garvey's grandiloquent and fiery oratorical style which captivated and attracted people to him and this help expanded his popularity and the opulence of the U.N.I.A.
In 1918, Marcus Garvey started various business and enterprise programs to vitalize the program and notion of economic independence for Black people and started the newspaper publication entitled "The Negro World". and in 1919 membership of the U.N.I.A. grown to two million people. The publication was distributed internationally and the popularity of the group was recognized internationally by African people across the Caribbean, South America, and Africa and in Europe. Since the Garvey movement gained international recognition, Garvey incorporated the Black Star line Steamship so that Black people could interdependently trade amongst one another to practice economic independence and self reliance.
The U.N.I.A. also started and converted Black churches into the doctrine of Black Zionism and nationalism where the depiction of all of the prophets and the messiah would be people of African descent. Garvey knew that "all men regardless of color were created in the image of God" and that in order for a people to have respect and admiration for themselves then they should unite under one God and worship a messiah that looks like them so that African people as a whole could move forward under one faith. Garvey started grocery food chains, restaurants, Laundromats, publishing houses, the Negro Factories Corporation, and the Black Nursing group to model the American Red Cross. In October of 1919, Marcus Garvey almost lost his life when a man by the name of George Tyler and fired a 38 caliber revolver and fired 4 shots that hit Garvey's scalp and right leg and he arrested the next day after committing suicide from the third tier of a Harlem jail.
By 1920, the U.N.I.A. claimed four million members when 25,000 members assembled and filled the Madison Garden for its international convention. In 1922, Marcus Garvey married Amy Jacques after divorcing the U.N.I.A. activist Amy Ashwoood after a four moth wedding. During that same year, Garvey devised a plan called the Liberia Program too industrially to develop the country and to colonize the county under the U.N.I.A. Garvey and U.N.I.A.'s popularity began to expand tremendously, and the movement not only caught the attention of Black people but of J.Edgar Hoover and the F.B.I. In 1923, Garvey was also criticized and accused of being a "sellout" because the U.N.I.A. did a joint conference with the Ku Klux Klan. They meticulously scrutinized Garvey's movement and thoroughly infiltrated it from the complacency of the Black Star Steamship Line, to the disunity within the movement, to A. Phillip Randolph and W.E.B. DuBois denouncing the Garvey movement, money y mismanagement and him eventually being arrested, charged and convicted for mail fraud.
His trial ended in 1923 an he was sentenced to five years in prison in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. Garvey continuously wrote letters collectively to the U.N.I.A. members and during his sentence, the group remained strong and loyal to Marcus Garvey while he was in jail. In 1927, President Coolridge ended Garvey's prison term and agreed to deport him from New Orleans to Jamaica. In 1928, Garvey travelled to Geneva to present a petition to the Negro Race for universal equal rights for Black people, Garvey temporarily taught classes on African history in Toronto, Canada, moved back to London to work on this magazine called "Black Man". After Garvey was deported the U.N.I.A. dwindled in popularity but there were still some loyal Garveyites who kept the group alive and until Garvey's death on June 10, 1940 he remained loyal and lived for the liberation of his people. Garvey lived a life in solitaire, depression, unpopular and isolated.
Marcus Garvey will always be remembered for being the father of Pan-Africanism and to have ever lead the largest Black movement ever in world history with 9 million members internationally. Garvey created the red, black and green flag which is adopted and known as the Black Liberation flag. His ideology influenced the Rastafarian movement in which its followers look canonized Garvey as a "Black John the Baptist" and his ideology of Black Nationalist also influenced the Lost and Found Nation of Islam. Garvey's philosophy was revitalized by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who founded an independent Ghana in 1957 and the O.A.U. in 1960 in order to extricate Africa from neo colonialism to form a "United States of Africa." Even though Garvey didn't completely fulfill his goal, his philosophy is still alive and it is up for us to free "Africa at home and abroad." In closing, let that Garvey whirlwind repatriate us back into our brilliant “Afrikan” minds which would lead to our unity and liberation and in the words of Marcus Garvey, "a reading man is a ready man and a writing man is exact." Once we learn a knowledge of self, then we will be able to embark on a road to actualize a "United States of Africa.
"With confidence, you have won before you have started."
Marcus Garvey
Marcus Garvey started working at the age of 14 when he moved to Kingston, Jamaica at a printing house called P.A. Benjamin, Limited and was blacklisted and fired for his participation in a strike and in 1909, he started his own newspaper publication called "The Watchman" which only lasted for a couple of issues. In 1910, Marcus Garvey moved to the Central American region to Costa Rica at a banana plantation as a time keeper then Panama where he would create and start newspaper publications for the clientele of the workers. Afterwards in 1912, he moved to London, England where he began to do his own studying on politics, history, geography, journalism, current events, etc. Garvey began to network with journalists and community leaders who advocated the ideology of Pan-Africanism and Black nationalism and from Garvey's various travels he realized from the Carribean, to Central America and all the way to Europe that people of African descent were mentally enslaved, economically impoverished, politically and physically suppressed and for the most part inferior as a people. Garvey also studied at the Birbeck College and worked for the African Times and Orient Review. Garvey's scope began to expand during his travel's and his only thought of solution for the liberation of African people universally was the unity of African people into one nation controlled by Black people.
While in London, he read the book "Up From Slavery" which is an autobiography by Booker T. Washington who was a prominent and paraount African American leader at the time who started and built the Tuskeegee Institute and who's main advocacy for Black people was accomodationism to the American system, economic independence for Black people nationally and for self reliance. Garvey was well intrigued by his philosophy and by the idea of Black nationhood and he wanted to take his new found knowledge and this philosophy back to Jamaica.
In 1914, he moved back to Jamaica where he started the Universal Negro Improvement Association- African Communities League (U.N.I.A.-A.C.L.) for the purpose uniting the Black race universally, continentally and internationally into one "Grand Racial Hierarchy." The motto was "One God, One Aim, One Destiny." The organization was a social self help group which wanted to develop the Black race socially, economically, politically, mentally, spiritually, and all means which would lead to independence and Black nationhood. Between the years of 1915-16, he was in communication with the great Booker T. Washington and eventually he gave Garvey the invitation to come to the United States to work with him and to raise money to build a school tantamount to the Tuskegee Institute in Jamaica.
In 1916 when he arrived to the United States, he missed Washington because he had already died. When he arrived to America, he visited the Tuskegee Institute visited the various Black leaders throughout America, moved to Harlem to work as a printer during the day and as a street corner minister during the afternoon and night. Garvey went on a 38 state tour around the United States to raise funds for the U.N.I.A. back in Jamaica but instead, membership in the United States began to rapidly and exponentially increase. African Americans were well impressed by Garvey's grandiloquent and fiery oratorical style which captivated and attracted people to him and this help expanded his popularity and the opulence of the U.N.I.A.
In 1918, Marcus Garvey started various business and enterprise programs to vitalize the program and notion of economic independence for Black people and started the newspaper publication entitled "The Negro World". and in 1919 membership of the U.N.I.A. grown to two million people. The publication was distributed internationally and the popularity of the group was recognized internationally by African people across the Caribbean, South America, and Africa and in Europe. Since the Garvey movement gained international recognition, Garvey incorporated the Black Star line Steamship so that Black people could interdependently trade amongst one another to practice economic independence and self reliance.
The U.N.I.A. also started and converted Black churches into the doctrine of Black Zionism and nationalism where the depiction of all of the prophets and the messiah would be people of African descent. Garvey knew that "all men regardless of color were created in the image of God" and that in order for a people to have respect and admiration for themselves then they should unite under one God and worship a messiah that looks like them so that African people as a whole could move forward under one faith. Garvey started grocery food chains, restaurants, Laundromats, publishing houses, the Negro Factories Corporation, and the Black Nursing group to model the American Red Cross. In October of 1919, Marcus Garvey almost lost his life when a man by the name of George Tyler and fired a 38 caliber revolver and fired 4 shots that hit Garvey's scalp and right leg and he arrested the next day after committing suicide from the third tier of a Harlem jail.
By 1920, the U.N.I.A. claimed four million members when 25,000 members assembled and filled the Madison Garden for its international convention. In 1922, Marcus Garvey married Amy Jacques after divorcing the U.N.I.A. activist Amy Ashwoood after a four moth wedding. During that same year, Garvey devised a plan called the Liberia Program too industrially to develop the country and to colonize the county under the U.N.I.A. Garvey and U.N.I.A.'s popularity began to expand tremendously, and the movement not only caught the attention of Black people but of J.Edgar Hoover and the F.B.I. In 1923, Garvey was also criticized and accused of being a "sellout" because the U.N.I.A. did a joint conference with the Ku Klux Klan. They meticulously scrutinized Garvey's movement and thoroughly infiltrated it from the complacency of the Black Star Steamship Line, to the disunity within the movement, to A. Phillip Randolph and W.E.B. DuBois denouncing the Garvey movement, money y mismanagement and him eventually being arrested, charged and convicted for mail fraud.
His trial ended in 1923 an he was sentenced to five years in prison in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. Garvey continuously wrote letters collectively to the U.N.I.A. members and during his sentence, the group remained strong and loyal to Marcus Garvey while he was in jail. In 1927, President Coolridge ended Garvey's prison term and agreed to deport him from New Orleans to Jamaica. In 1928, Garvey travelled to Geneva to present a petition to the Negro Race for universal equal rights for Black people, Garvey temporarily taught classes on African history in Toronto, Canada, moved back to London to work on this magazine called "Black Man". After Garvey was deported the U.N.I.A. dwindled in popularity but there were still some loyal Garveyites who kept the group alive and until Garvey's death on June 10, 1940 he remained loyal and lived for the liberation of his people. Garvey lived a life in solitaire, depression, unpopular and isolated.
Marcus Garvey will always be remembered for being the father of Pan-Africanism and to have ever lead the largest Black movement ever in world history with 9 million members internationally. Garvey created the red, black and green flag which is adopted and known as the Black Liberation flag. His ideology influenced the Rastafarian movement in which its followers look canonized Garvey as a "Black John the Baptist" and his ideology of Black Nationalist also influenced the Lost and Found Nation of Islam. Garvey's philosophy was revitalized by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who founded an independent Ghana in 1957 and the O.A.U. in 1960 in order to extricate Africa from neo colonialism to form a "United States of Africa." Even though Garvey didn't completely fulfill his goal, his philosophy is still alive and it is up for us to free "Africa at home and abroad." In closing, let that Garvey whirlwind repatriate us back into our brilliant “Afrikan” minds which would lead to our unity and liberation and in the words of Marcus Garvey, "a reading man is a ready man and a writing man is exact." Once we learn a knowledge of self, then we will be able to embark on a road to actualize a "United States of Africa.
"With confidence, you have won before you have started."
Marcus Garvey
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Happy Birthday Bro. Dhoruba Bin Wahad and Rest in Peace to Michael Jackson
Em-Hotep everyone, for those who don't know, during this past week on June 30, the Black nationalist and leader during the Black Power Movement, Dhoruba bin- Wahad celebrated his 65th birthday. Unfortunately most of us in the African/ Black community are not knowledgeable on who Dhoruba bin-Wahad (formerly Richard Moore) is or his impact on Black History and the liberation and liberty of us people of African descent. Dhoruba bin Wahad was a former Black Panther who was a leader of the New York City chapter, he was a charismatic rhetorician, a fiery speaker and a notable figure within the Black Power movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Dhoruba was also a victim of the Cointelprogram created by J. Edgar Hoover which was devised at first surreptitiously to eradicate, divide, incarcerate and obliterate all Black nationalist, liberal, social, and religious groups/ cults that could potentially radicalize the order of the United States of America for the betterment of "minorities" and most of the country. The program was responsible for the division of the Nation of Islam, the Organization of African American Unity, the Republic of a New Afrika, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the US Organization, the Nation of the Gods and the Earths , the Black Panther Party for Self Defense and other groups.
The programs also falsely imprisoned political activists and nationalists like the New York 20, who were 20 Black Panthers in 1969 who were accused of bombing New York monuments. Dhoruba bin Wahad was a victim of this program, and was accused of robbery of a social club and attempted murder on police officers and in 1973, he was given a guilty verdict and was sentenced to 19 years in prison. While in prison in 1975, he filed a lawsuit against the FBI and New York City Police Department. Concomitantly, the FBI released 300,000 pages of documentations and on March of 1990, the verdict was reversed do to the lack of evidence of him committing either of the crimes. Eventually, the United States government settled to pay Mr. Wahad $400,000 and an additional $490,000 in damages. Mr. Wahad continues his work for the benefit of the Pan-African community and currently resides in Newark, NJ.
Peace to Dhoruba bin Wahad and may we thank him for his persistence, dauntlessness, courage and discipline to sacrifice his life for our liberation and to come out of a close to 20 year prison sentence with the same advocacy of universal liberation for our people.
Peace.
Dhoruba was also a victim of the Cointelprogram created by J. Edgar Hoover which was devised at first surreptitiously to eradicate, divide, incarcerate and obliterate all Black nationalist, liberal, social, and religious groups/ cults that could potentially radicalize the order of the United States of America for the betterment of "minorities" and most of the country. The program was responsible for the division of the Nation of Islam, the Organization of African American Unity, the Republic of a New Afrika, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the US Organization, the Nation of the Gods and the Earths , the Black Panther Party for Self Defense and other groups.
The programs also falsely imprisoned political activists and nationalists like the New York 20, who were 20 Black Panthers in 1969 who were accused of bombing New York monuments. Dhoruba bin Wahad was a victim of this program, and was accused of robbery of a social club and attempted murder on police officers and in 1973, he was given a guilty verdict and was sentenced to 19 years in prison. While in prison in 1975, he filed a lawsuit against the FBI and New York City Police Department. Concomitantly, the FBI released 300,000 pages of documentations and on March of 1990, the verdict was reversed do to the lack of evidence of him committing either of the crimes. Eventually, the United States government settled to pay Mr. Wahad $400,000 and an additional $490,000 in damages. Mr. Wahad continues his work for the benefit of the Pan-African community and currently resides in Newark, NJ.
Peace to Dhoruba bin Wahad and may we thank him for his persistence, dauntlessness, courage and discipline to sacrifice his life for our liberation and to come out of a close to 20 year prison sentence with the same advocacy of universal liberation for our people.
Peace.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Happy Juneteenth Everyone
Hotep everyone and Happy Be-lated Juneteenth. When it comes to the antiquity of African American and American history, this is indeed one of the most important and paramount dates for one to be cognizant and knowledgeable of. I will not post and extensive blog on this date like I normally would so in the meantime, I will give you all a homework assignment and that is to attentively read the links under my synopsis about the Juneteenth holiday. So keep an open mind, and plant the seeds of true knowledge to liberate your mind from the pervasive and daily distractions, temptations and indoctrinations of mental enslavement.
Peace.
HAPPY JUNETEENTH DAY!6/19/09
JUNETEENTH.COM <http://www.JUNETEENTH.COM> Please link to the Web sites below for more detailed information on the history of Juneteenth. We can very briefly tell you that it is the oldest known celebration for the “official” end of slavery – when, on June 19, 1865, the enslaved individuals of Galveston, Texas were the last to be informed of the Emancipation Proclamation that was signed in 1863.The Middle Passage Pictorial <http://www.juneteenth.com/middlep.htm> by Tom Feelings with an Introduction by John Henrik Clarke is also quite interesting with a few selected written samples below:“Nowhere in the annals of history has a people experienced such a long and traumatic ordeal as Africans during the Atlantic slave trade….millions of African men, women, and children were savagely torn from their homeland, herded onto ships, and dispersed all over the so-called New World….”[note: the “new world” includes north america, south america, and the caribbean islands.]“It was not atypical to see a massive school of sharks darting in and out of the wake of the ships filled with human cargo plying the Atlantic….If the Atlantic were to dry up, it would reveal a scattered pathway of human bones, African bones marking the various routes of the Middle Passage.”“Every morning, perhaps, more instances than one are found of the living and the dead fastened together,” a quote by John Newton (a former slave ship captain who, years later, became a minister and wrote the very popular hymn – “Amazing Grace” – which includes the line “…that saved a wretch like me.” The following link gives more detailed information on the background of this story: Amazing Grace <http://www.snopes.com/religion/amazing.asp> Juneteenth and Emancipation Day Celebrations: USF Africana Heritage Project <http://www.africanaheritage.com/Juneteenth_Emancipation.asp> African American Registry: Juneteenth, National Freedom Day observed! <http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/240/JunteenthNational_Freedom_Day_observed> Juneteenth Recipes <http://www.cinnamonhearts.com/junteenth.htm>
WWW.BANTHENWORD.ORG <http://www.BANTHENWORD.ORGR>
WWW.EDUCATE-EMPOWER.COM <http://www.EDUCATE-EMPOWER.COM>
BN-W MAINSTAY PHILOSOPHYif it’s not acceptable, ok or cool to use kike, hooknose, wetback, spic, honky, cracker, paleface, peckerwood, blue-eyed devil, dago, wop, greaseball, guinea, chink, slant-eyes, gook, then, remember, it is not acceptable, ok or cool to use the n-word.
if you know others who want to be included or you’d like it sent to a different e-mail address, send an “add/change” e-mail to bannword2@yahoo.com. if you’d like to be deleted, send a “delete” e-mail to bannword2@yahoo.com.
Peace.
HAPPY JUNETEENTH DAY!6/19/09
JUNETEENTH.COM <http://www.JUNETEENTH.COM> Please link to the Web sites below for more detailed information on the history of Juneteenth. We can very briefly tell you that it is the oldest known celebration for the “official” end of slavery – when, on June 19, 1865, the enslaved individuals of Galveston, Texas were the last to be informed of the Emancipation Proclamation that was signed in 1863.The Middle Passage Pictorial <http://www.juneteenth.com/middlep.htm> by Tom Feelings with an Introduction by John Henrik Clarke is also quite interesting with a few selected written samples below:“Nowhere in the annals of history has a people experienced such a long and traumatic ordeal as Africans during the Atlantic slave trade….millions of African men, women, and children were savagely torn from their homeland, herded onto ships, and dispersed all over the so-called New World….”[note: the “new world” includes north america, south america, and the caribbean islands.]“It was not atypical to see a massive school of sharks darting in and out of the wake of the ships filled with human cargo plying the Atlantic….If the Atlantic were to dry up, it would reveal a scattered pathway of human bones, African bones marking the various routes of the Middle Passage.”“Every morning, perhaps, more instances than one are found of the living and the dead fastened together,” a quote by John Newton (a former slave ship captain who, years later, became a minister and wrote the very popular hymn – “Amazing Grace” – which includes the line “…that saved a wretch like me.” The following link gives more detailed information on the background of this story: Amazing Grace <http://www.snopes.com/religion/amazing.asp> Juneteenth and Emancipation Day Celebrations: USF Africana Heritage Project <http://www.africanaheritage.com/Juneteenth_Emancipation.asp> African American Registry: Juneteenth, National Freedom Day observed! <http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/240/JunteenthNational_Freedom_Day_observed> Juneteenth Recipes <http://www.cinnamonhearts.com/junteenth.htm>
WWW.BANTHENWORD.ORG <http://www.BANTHENWORD.ORGR>
WWW.EDUCATE-EMPOWER.COM <http://www.EDUCATE-EMPOWER.COM>
BN-W MAINSTAY PHILOSOPHYif it’s not acceptable, ok or cool to use kike, hooknose, wetback, spic, honky, cracker, paleface, peckerwood, blue-eyed devil, dago, wop, greaseball, guinea, chink, slant-eyes, gook, then, remember, it is not acceptable, ok or cool to use the n-word.
if you know others who want to be included or you’d like it sent to a different e-mail address, send an “add/change” e-mail to bannword2@yahoo.com. if you’d like to be deleted, send a “delete” e-mail to bannword2@yahoo.com.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Happy 38th B-Day Pac
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Greetings everyone, today would be the 38th birthday for the lyrical martyr, poet, rapper, revolutionary, actor and entertainer, Tupac Amaru Shakur a.k.a. 2Pac a.k.a. Makaveli. Tupac Shakur was born from a lineage of Black Panther and Liberation Army revolutionaries who were a part of the New York 20 from 1969 who was accused for conspiracy and murder, like his mother Afenni Shakur, his biological father (who was a former Black Panther); Billy Garland, his stepfather Mutulu Shakur who is currently restrained in prison for being accused and charged for robbing a Brinks truck and murdering a police officer, his godmother; Assata Shakur who is currently in exile in Cuba and his godfather "Geranimo" Pratt who was a high ranked Black Panther from Los Angeles, California was charged and convicted in 1968 for murdering a high school teacher. At a young age, 2pac innately was brought up in the doctrine of Black nationalism and liberation, and was given birth in New York City in Harlem, New York. He is named after a Peruvian or Incan revolutionary named Tupac Amaru II which means "shining serpent" and the name Shakur is an Arabic name meaning "thankful to God".
During his childhood he moved from Harlem, Brooklyn to Baltimore where he attended various performing arts schools and at the age of 12, played in the play, "Raisin in the Sun" in the Apollo Theatre on 125th street in Harlem, New York. During his high school years Tupac and his family moved to Baltimore because there were no job opportunities for Tupac's mother in New York because of her "criminal record" and he attended the Baltimore School of Performing Arts where he met Jada Pickett Smith and they befriended one another. Times became turbulent within Tupac's household because his mother became addicted to crack cocaine, his family became impoverished and at the age of 15 he started rapping after while still writing poetry and he went by the name of M.C. New York because of where he was born. To escape the poverty in Baltimore, Tupac and his family moved to Marin City, California to extricate and escape from poverty but found themselves deeper into poverty so since Tupac didn't have enough credits to graduate from school, he dropped out, became a street hustler for a couple of weeks until the hustlers stopped him from engaging in the illegal activity and to pursue his dream of rapping and poetry. Prior to that time, Tupac became the national president of the teen revolutionary party; The New African Panthers and at the age of 20, he networked with someone who introduced him to the rap group "Digital Underground", he was hired to be a road dancer and made his first guest rap appearance on the song entitled "Same Song."
In 1991, Tupac Shakur, signed to Interscope Records and released his solo album "2pacalypse Now" which had a revolutionary and political message about the problems of racism, classism, ghettoization and victimization inflicted on the Black community by the government and the police. His hit singles were "Brenda's Got a Baby", "Trapped" and "If My Homies Call". Shortly after the release of his album, Tupac was brutalized by the Oakland Police Department and was charged for resisting arrest for "Jay Walking", Tupac filed a $10 million suit but it was eventually settled with him receiving $40, 000.
Tupac eventually played in the movie "Juice" which was a movie about the appurtenance of the inner city "gangsta" lifestyle. Shortly afterwards, 2pac released the album, "Strictly for my N.I.G.G.A.Z" in 1993 which according to him stands for Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished and he started a rap group called Thug Life which stands for THE HATE U GIVE LITTLE INFANTS F&$KS EVERYONE. The group consists of Tupac Shakur, Mopreme Shakur (his older brother), Big Syke, etc. Tupac released his hit single, "I Get Around" and his album became a viable commercial success. At the same time Tupac was stigmitize by the media for being the thuggish and rebellious rapper and he complied with the stigma which catalyzed for the increasing record sales. On the other hand, along with his thuggish persona, he was involved in various legal issues from fights, altercations to him being accused of sodomizing a 19 year old female who performed oral sex to him on the dance floor. He was accused of mass or "gang" raping a woman when what really happened was that he fell asleep shortly after she came and just so happened to be in the room with Tupac's entourage. At the same time, on November 20, 1994, Tupac Shakur was shot 5 times while on his way to this New York City studio to meet up with his fellow artist and friend at the time Biggie Smalls and The Junior Mafia group. The circumstances involving the shooting are still nebulous and questionable and Tupac ended up accusing Sean "Puffy" Combs and Biggie Smalls for the murder attempt. Tupac checked out of the hospital that same night and during the next day, was convicted for the sodomy case for sexual harassment and in February 6, 1995 to a year and a half to four years at the Clinton
Correctional Facility where he wrote a play, poetry and read books on political philosophy like "Machiavelli’s The Prince" and Sun Tzu's "The Art of War", and additionally, Tupac's "Me Against the World" album was released and was a number #1 billboard chart album for weeks and went double platinum in 7 months.
While in jail, Suge Knight and Death Row Records gained an interest in Tupac Shakur and he agreed to post a $1.4 million bail for him with the agreement that he will sign to Death Row Records and release two- three albums under the label. After 8 months in jail, Tupac was released the album "All Eyez on Me" which he recorded in two weeks and went 7 times platinum. While he was successful on Death Row Records the East Coast and West Coast Hip Hop Rivalry exacerbated throughout the nation involving rappers like 2pac, Snoop Dogg, the Dogg Pound, Suge Knight, Nas, Mobb Deep, LL Cool J, DMX, Biggie Smalls, Lil Kim, Ja Rule, the Fugees, Chino Xl, etc. The media kept promoting this so called "beef" and on September, 1996, 2pac released his last album under the moniker Makaveli with the album entitled "The Don Killuminati: 7 Day Theory", started Makaveli Records and signed the dexterously lyrical group; "The Outlawz". On September 7, 1996, on the way from a Tyson fight in Las Vegas, NV, and an altercation in the MGM Grand with Death Row Records against South Side Crips from Compton, Tupac and Suge Knight were shot and rushed to the hospital where Tupac Shakur was pronounced dead, seven days later. Tupac acted in various movies prior to his death like "Gang Related", "Bullet", etc.
Tupac Shakur is arguably the most prolific, famous, most talented, outspoken, radical, flamboyant, debonair, versatile and controversial entertainers in music history. Prior to his death, he planned on uniting the hip hop community, alleviating the so called regional rivalry in hip hop and creating/ funding social programs to keep inner city youth occupied in educational and recreational programs to keep the out of trouble. Tupac was more than just a typical "thuggish" rapper but a brilliant entertainer and business man who stood up for what he believed in and was amenable to positive changes to elevate himself as a man. Even though his messages were filled with nuances of contradictions from misogyny, gangster life, violence and negativity, he was just emphasizing to the world the point of view of the rejected, stigmatized and neglected Black man in America and what he had to go though in order to survive the street life. Tupac was unethical in various parts of his life and in a lot of his songs but no man is perfect and he dies in his prime. No one knows that changes that could have made in his life which could have potentially had a positive impact on the world. He came from a family full of revolutionaries and politically minded brothers and sisters so innately, he could have played a role in bettering the world for the Black and world community. He was only 25 years old during his murder and may him and Biggie Smalls Rest in Peace.
During his childhood he moved from Harlem, Brooklyn to Baltimore where he attended various performing arts schools and at the age of 12, played in the play, "Raisin in the Sun" in the Apollo Theatre on 125th street in Harlem, New York. During his high school years Tupac and his family moved to Baltimore because there were no job opportunities for Tupac's mother in New York because of her "criminal record" and he attended the Baltimore School of Performing Arts where he met Jada Pickett Smith and they befriended one another. Times became turbulent within Tupac's household because his mother became addicted to crack cocaine, his family became impoverished and at the age of 15 he started rapping after while still writing poetry and he went by the name of M.C. New York because of where he was born. To escape the poverty in Baltimore, Tupac and his family moved to Marin City, California to extricate and escape from poverty but found themselves deeper into poverty so since Tupac didn't have enough credits to graduate from school, he dropped out, became a street hustler for a couple of weeks until the hustlers stopped him from engaging in the illegal activity and to pursue his dream of rapping and poetry. Prior to that time, Tupac became the national president of the teen revolutionary party; The New African Panthers and at the age of 20, he networked with someone who introduced him to the rap group "Digital Underground", he was hired to be a road dancer and made his first guest rap appearance on the song entitled "Same Song."
In 1991, Tupac Shakur, signed to Interscope Records and released his solo album "2pacalypse Now" which had a revolutionary and political message about the problems of racism, classism, ghettoization and victimization inflicted on the Black community by the government and the police. His hit singles were "Brenda's Got a Baby", "Trapped" and "If My Homies Call". Shortly after the release of his album, Tupac was brutalized by the Oakland Police Department and was charged for resisting arrest for "Jay Walking", Tupac filed a $10 million suit but it was eventually settled with him receiving $40, 000.
Tupac eventually played in the movie "Juice" which was a movie about the appurtenance of the inner city "gangsta" lifestyle. Shortly afterwards, 2pac released the album, "Strictly for my N.I.G.G.A.Z" in 1993 which according to him stands for Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished and he started a rap group called Thug Life which stands for THE HATE U GIVE LITTLE INFANTS F&$KS EVERYONE. The group consists of Tupac Shakur, Mopreme Shakur (his older brother), Big Syke, etc. Tupac released his hit single, "I Get Around" and his album became a viable commercial success. At the same time Tupac was stigmitize by the media for being the thuggish and rebellious rapper and he complied with the stigma which catalyzed for the increasing record sales. On the other hand, along with his thuggish persona, he was involved in various legal issues from fights, altercations to him being accused of sodomizing a 19 year old female who performed oral sex to him on the dance floor. He was accused of mass or "gang" raping a woman when what really happened was that he fell asleep shortly after she came and just so happened to be in the room with Tupac's entourage. At the same time, on November 20, 1994, Tupac Shakur was shot 5 times while on his way to this New York City studio to meet up with his fellow artist and friend at the time Biggie Smalls and The Junior Mafia group. The circumstances involving the shooting are still nebulous and questionable and Tupac ended up accusing Sean "Puffy" Combs and Biggie Smalls for the murder attempt. Tupac checked out of the hospital that same night and during the next day, was convicted for the sodomy case for sexual harassment and in February 6, 1995 to a year and a half to four years at the Clinton
Correctional Facility where he wrote a play, poetry and read books on political philosophy like "Machiavelli’s The Prince" and Sun Tzu's "The Art of War", and additionally, Tupac's "Me Against the World" album was released and was a number #1 billboard chart album for weeks and went double platinum in 7 months.
While in jail, Suge Knight and Death Row Records gained an interest in Tupac Shakur and he agreed to post a $1.4 million bail for him with the agreement that he will sign to Death Row Records and release two- three albums under the label. After 8 months in jail, Tupac was released the album "All Eyez on Me" which he recorded in two weeks and went 7 times platinum. While he was successful on Death Row Records the East Coast and West Coast Hip Hop Rivalry exacerbated throughout the nation involving rappers like 2pac, Snoop Dogg, the Dogg Pound, Suge Knight, Nas, Mobb Deep, LL Cool J, DMX, Biggie Smalls, Lil Kim, Ja Rule, the Fugees, Chino Xl, etc. The media kept promoting this so called "beef" and on September, 1996, 2pac released his last album under the moniker Makaveli with the album entitled "The Don Killuminati: 7 Day Theory", started Makaveli Records and signed the dexterously lyrical group; "The Outlawz". On September 7, 1996, on the way from a Tyson fight in Las Vegas, NV, and an altercation in the MGM Grand with Death Row Records against South Side Crips from Compton, Tupac and Suge Knight were shot and rushed to the hospital where Tupac Shakur was pronounced dead, seven days later. Tupac acted in various movies prior to his death like "Gang Related", "Bullet", etc.
Tupac Shakur is arguably the most prolific, famous, most talented, outspoken, radical, flamboyant, debonair, versatile and controversial entertainers in music history. Prior to his death, he planned on uniting the hip hop community, alleviating the so called regional rivalry in hip hop and creating/ funding social programs to keep inner city youth occupied in educational and recreational programs to keep the out of trouble. Tupac was more than just a typical "thuggish" rapper but a brilliant entertainer and business man who stood up for what he believed in and was amenable to positive changes to elevate himself as a man. Even though his messages were filled with nuances of contradictions from misogyny, gangster life, violence and negativity, he was just emphasizing to the world the point of view of the rejected, stigmatized and neglected Black man in America and what he had to go though in order to survive the street life. Tupac was unethical in various parts of his life and in a lot of his songs but no man is perfect and he dies in his prime. No one knows that changes that could have made in his life which could have potentially had a positive impact on the world. He came from a family full of revolutionaries and politically minded brothers and sisters so innately, he could have played a role in bettering the world for the Black and world community. He was only 25 years old during his murder and may him and Biggie Smalls Rest in Peace.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
My Birthday: Another Year of Elevation
Hotep everyone, today is my birthday and is another year on this Earth in which I will continue to build, elevate, cultivate and culminate myself into a righteous, prosperous, respectable and moral man in society. My name is Baruti which is an Afrikan name for the word teacher and my ideal and definition in life is to teach others about the knowledge and wisdom so that they could have greater understanding of their culture so that they could know about their place in society and their obligation to contribute greatness to make themselves and the world a better place. What I will continue to do while I am on this Earth is to do my best to fulfill happiness so that I could live a life of self- contentment by fulfilling my purpose in life which is being a social entrepreneur to create and build institutions for the improvement, benefit and betterment of society and to do as much as I could to educate and reform people in this chaotic, unpredictable, malicious and dichotomized world that we are living in. Concurrently, I will continue to adapt to this world that we living in because with all of the negativity in society, there is also positivity, so I would have to do what I could to live a peaceful, enjoyable and glamorous lifestyle to also look after my own individual pursuits. In the meantime I live by various proverbs, adages and philosophies but the main thing that I could say to the reader is to learn from yesterday live for today and plan for tomorrow. The body is basically the prison house for the soul and as long as we control our minds, desires and passions by thinking rationally, cultivating the mind in arts and sciences to eventually find out your purpose and passion in life, then you will ascend to greatness and happiness. In closing, The World is Yours and reach for the moon and if you don't land amongst the moon, then you will land amongst the stars.
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