State Of Black-Brown America. What Next? All Hands On Deck Required.

Several months ago, Americans marked the national observance of the birth of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  As I reflect, I think about what a brave soul Dr. King was to transform his fight for “Negro” equality with White America and one that was based on Civil Rights, to a fight that was global in scope and based on Human Rights.

Like others have, I often ask myself what would Dr. King think about today’s America and the world as a whole?  Would he feel as though all of his efforts achieved their end goal?  Would he support the various Occupy and other social movements taking place the world over? The answers I keep coming up with are NO and YES respectively.

Given the continued disparities across every major aspect of life in America for Black Americans, I could not imagine Dr. King would be pleased with our progress.  Yes, we have a Black President and we certainly have achieved great success in many areas of the business, sports, entertainment, the arts and the social world.  However, we do not live in a “Post-racial” society.   As a collective group, the majority of Black Americans have not benefited from the accomplishments of a few.

Statistically, we are breaking records in all the wrong categories of life:

• We are #1 in Incarceration rates proportionate to the overall American population
• We are #1 in Healthcare disparities
• We are #1 in Education disparities
• We are #1 in HIV/AIDS contraction rates
• We are #1 in Quality of living disparities
• We are #1 in Divorce and Households lead by single mothers
• We are #1 in Sperm donors who happen to be males not being fathers
• We are #1 in just about any other negative thing you can think of as it relates to simply living

It is not my intention to bring anyone down or paint such a dismal picture of life for the majority of Black Americans, but this is not my subjective truth.  This is the reality of too many of our people. The bottom line, Dr. King’s goals have not been achieved.

We do not live in a “Post-Racial” America and we need to WAKE UP!!! (cont … Black and Brown News)

America The Land of the Free, Home of the Brave?

RANDOM THOUGHT: You can NEVER win an argument with a person when it comes to what they believe.  Belief often has very little to do with fact, reason, logic or objectivity.  But it has everything to do with subjectivity and emotion.  Just as people of various beliefs have no right to project their beliefs on to others who may not agree with them.  Those who do not agree with them have no right to insult their character for said beliefs.

Free people are entitled to their beliefs and opinions.  That’s what makes our democratic republic great.  But at the moment we stop learning from one another, at the moment we refuse to listen to one another, at the moment we are unwilling to extend the same courtesies to others that we would expect them to extend to us. ALL IS LOST!  Our society seems to be at a cultural crossroads.

We refuse to accept the realities right before us. So let me make this very plain, human beings who just happen to be gay are not going anywhere.  They have been here, are here and will be here in the future.  So get over yourselves with all the self righteous indignation.  If America is truly the land of the free and the home of the brave, then that means ALL Americans are free.  Not just the heterosexual ones. That’s all, carry on…