Friday, July 18, 2008

'bout to be a big

I went to a meeting last night with the heads of UPPN and about 30-50 specially hand-picked people. Basically, its a movement within UPPN to start giving back to the community, so they picked about 50 guys and invited them to become . . . Bigs!

What's a Big? Its a nick-name for a Big Brother/Sister. So, i'm real excited about it. I put in an application, and if they can get past my armed robbery, extortion and other assorted charges, i'll be fine. Just kidding of course. It was a wonderful thing to see about 30 solid black men about to become Bigs. The organizers on the BBBS side of things said that in their years (about ten for the most senior employee) they haven't seen anything like last night.

They're also pushing that we invite other black men to become Bigs. So i called one, who said no, and i'll call another. I think that it would be more potent if/when i actually am a Big, you know, it's easeir to lead from the front, then you know where you're going.
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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Jesse . . WTF?

Yo, in the news, Jesse and other supposed 'civil rights leaders' are complaining that Obama is talking down to blacks when he talks of personal responsibility. Apparently they've never heard of anyone besides themselves. Now i don't like this, but i understand it. You, well really me, has got to realize that they are 'civil rights leaders', which by definition points their attitudes and attentions toward government and business policies and actions. They aren't 'personal responsibility leaders' which has them focus on what's happening inside of the black community. They are attending to what's happening to the black community.

This is a real important distinction. There's a big difference between figuring out what's happening inside of a context (community, business, etc) and what's happening outside of that context, and especially how that entity/context is interacting with its environment.

So, most of the media is forgetting that the role of Jesse and Al and others is not to speak to black folk about what black folk 'should be' or 'ougth to be' doing. Their role is to speak to non-black communities and institutions and telling them what they 'should' or 'ought' to be doing in relation to the black community.

So its is no wonder than people in the role of civil rights leaders would have a problem with Obama talking to his own folk about their behavior, simply because Obama isn't towing the civil rights part line. Makes sense to me, I see what the fuss is about, but i see what causes the confusion amidst the fuss also.

I also heard that Jesse's out-of-wedlock baby's aunt wrote a letter detailing how Jesse himself is a dead-beat dad. And by extension it is no wonder that Jesse doesn't want to look at personal and parental responsibility, simply because he has little ground or integrity to stand on and speak from.
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