Pastor Ray Hagins - Where Does the Negro Come From?

First lady Michelle Obama

Declaring herself "first mom," Michelle Obama got right to work on the defining issues of her children's generation: obesity and improving the health of America's kids.


Her Let's Move campaign put obesity in the headlines in part because Americans under 25 are the first generation expected to live shorter lives than their parents because of diet-related illnesses. But Obama, 47, urged people to get up and do something.
 She convinced her husband to establish America's first Childhood Obesity Task Force. She planted a teaching garden at the White House and reminded Americans that to know their farmers is to know their food. She enlisted the country's leading chefs to work with local schools and start cooking; at last count there were more than 1,000 such partnerships.
She's encouraging mayors around the country to embrace obesity-prevention programs. And perhaps most incredibly, she's had frank and challenging dialogues with some of America's largest corporations and persuaded them to change their business practices for the sake of the children.
While she knows none of these changes are easy, she's stood firm in her conviction that if we all just eat better and move more, then we can fight obesity. For her inspirational work, I salute First Lady Michelle Obama — a true revolutionary.


 First lady Michelle Obama warned in remarks that the nation is seeing “a groundswell of support” for curbing childhood obesity, and she is unveiling new ammunition from current and retired military leaders.


“Military leaders … tell us that when more than one in four young people are unqualified for military service because of their weight,” the first lady said in prepared remarks, “childhood obesity isn’t just a public health threat, it’s not just an economic threat, it’s a national security threat as well."


“We can all agree that here in the wealthiest nation on earth, all children should have the basic nutrition they need to learn and grow and pursue their dreams. Because in the end, nothing is more important than the health and well-being of our children, ... and our hopes for their future should drive every decision we make. These are the basic values that we all share. They’re the values that this bill embodies. And that’s why we’ve seen such a groundswell of support for these efforts — not just from members of Congress here in Washington but from folks in every corner of the country.

“From educators working to provide healthier school meals, because they know the connection between proper nutrition and academic performance. From doctors and nurses who know that unhealthy kids grow into unhealthy adults — at risk for obesity-related diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. From business and labor leaders who know that we spend nearly $150 billion a year to treat these diseases and worry about the impact on our economy. From advocates and faith leaders who know that school meals are vital for combating child hunger, feeding more than 31 million children a day.

It's Friday but Sunday's coming!

It's Friday but Sunday's Comin'

That's My King - S.M. Lockridge

Jehovah You are the most high God (African Gospel)

God Bless Africa (Nkosi Sikeleli Africa)- Children of Africa

The Staple Singers - Respect Yourself

BeBe Winans - I have a dream

In defense of Isiah Thomas

  In defense of Isiah Thomas

By Jason Whitlock

Updated Mar 31, 2011 1:58 PM ET
Yep, I’m going to defend Isiah Thomas.

I’m sure that sounds as crazy as traveling to Jena, La., in 2007 and defending the people who thought six black boys jumping and stomping a white boy was a vicious, cowardly crime worthy of serious jail time.

I did that. I don’t mind being viewed as crazy. I don’t mind pointing out that we in the media often get things wrong, get caught up in our biases and inaccurate narratives and use people and communities as punching bags for profit.

So let me begin my defense of Isiah Thomas with the story about his alleged suicide attempt and his alleged blaming of his alleged suicide attempt on his daughter.

On the day of his alleged “crimes,” Thomas and his wife took their daughter to the hospital for some sort of medical emergency. Later, in the early evening, Thomas went home and, by all accounts, accidently popped too many sleeping pills. He fell into a state of unconsciousness and had to be rushed to a hospital in the wee hours.

Later that day, before he was released from the hospital, a New York Post reporter called Isiah’s cell phone. Thomas, in an attempt to explain he hadn’t tried to commit suicide, said he hadn’t overdosed and expressed concern about his daughter’s health.

Just think about it. In less than 24 hours, you leave your wife and daughter at a hospital. You go home to get some sleep. You wake up in a hospital bed. A reporter calls you asking for comment. In a brief cell-phone conversation, you quickly try to explain your sad, bizarre day. A New York tabloid newspaper takes a couple of sentence fragments and paints the picture you’ve accused your daughter of attempting suicide.

It “wasn’t an overdose,” Thomas told the New York Post reporter. “My daughter is very down right now. None of us are OK.”

The New York Times takes the Post’s sensationalized characterization of Thomas’ comments and gets a New York police chief to blast Thomas for blaming his daughter.

Isiah Thomas has a brief conversation with a reporter trying to explain he didn’t try to commit suicide and that his daughter’s illness has him and his family concerned.

The nation scoffs, laughs and is further convinced Isiah Thomas is a scumbag.

Maybe you’re good with it because Thomas is rich and famous and too arrogant for your liking. Maybe you’re good with it because you believe Thomas destroyed the New York Knicks. Or maybe you believe Thomas deserves it because Anucha Browne Sanders won a wrongful termination lawsuit against the Knicks and claimed Thomas sexually harassed her.

It’s not all good. It’s wrong. It’s why smart people place no faith in the American media. We’re broke, irresponsible, reckless and unfair.

Sanders’ lawsuit was a joke. People in New York know that. The media know it.

I don’t pretend to know the ins and outs of Isiah’s tenure as president and coach of the Knicks. As best I can tell, he and Knicks owner James Dolan hatched an immature, quick-fix plan to make the Knicks relevant and it predictably backfired.

That failure falls on Isiah more than Dolan.

A true innovator, a savant, a courageous visionary ignores a well-intentioned, irrational boss and gives him something far better than what he childishly wants.

Isiah flopped as president of the Knicks. So what? Bill Belichick flopped as coach of the Browns.

No, what troubles me is the media-led destruction of Isiah’s dignity. You’d think he’d strangled his coach, blown through millions making it rain at strip clubs, negotiated a pay-for-play scam while at Indiana and operated a dogfighting ring that doubled as a front for a Colombian drug cartel.

Let’s see. According to Magic Johnson, Isiah went from kissing Magic on national TV to privately spreading rumors that Magic was gay. This makes no sense. Isiah was Magic’s best friend. Isiah would be outing himself.

Isiah’s problems with the media began in 1987 when he got swept up in Dennis Rodman’s post-game rant about Larry Bird being just an average player. Rodman was wrong. Thomas tried to clarify Rodman’s statements and offer nuance and context to the legitimate beef that the overwhelmingly white reporters and broadcasters who covered professional sports relied on stereotypes to define black and white players.

Stereotypes like this one:

Bird was smarter and worked harder than the black players he dominated in the 1980s.

That suggestion justifiably bothered Thomas. He was trained by Bobby Knight. Thomas was an Indiana legend just the same as Larry Bird. Thomas was a little man who relied on intelligence, courage and work ethic to compete against bigger, stronger players.

Everything that was said about Larry Bird could be said about Isiah Thomas. The Pistons’ super-physical, “Bad Boy” style of play was identical to Boston’s.

In trying to cover Rodman’s idiocy, Thomas repeated Rodman’s quote in his answer to reporters and the media hung Isiah with Rodman’s words.

It’s fun and it’s good business to ridicule Isiah Thomas. Is it the right thing to do?

He pulled himself up by his boot straps, embraced education, involved himself in sound business decisions throughout his career, maintained a marriage, won championships, invested some of his wealth in the education of others and remained loyal to his family and friends from the west side of Chicago.

Is Thomas perfect? Hell no. I don’t know anyone who is, especially not anyone with the kind of fame and wealth Thomas enjoys.

But Isiah Thomas is not Charlie Sheen or O.J. Simpson. Thomas is what we say we want inner-city athletes to become.

Spearhead - Positive

Nuttin but stringz

        Thunder - Nuttin but stringz

Nuttin' But Stringz, also known as N.B.S., consists of brothers Damien and Tourie Escobar who both play violin. The musicians from Jamaica, Queens play a blend of classical music, hip-hop, jazz and R&B.

        Nuttin but Strings Finals Performance - America's got Talent 2008


In 2005, the duo entered and won a talent competition at the Apollo Theatre in New York. Their victory on Showtime at the Apollo led to media attention and appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Today Show with Katie Couric, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Around the same time the duo showcased their talents at Carnegie Hall and performed for President George W. Bush at The White House.

        Broken sorrow by Nuttin but Stringz


The brothers' big break came when they auditioned for the third season of NBC's America's Got Talent in New York City and received a unanimous yes from all three judges thus advancing to Las Vegas. They were subsequently named to the Top 40, advancing to Hollywood.  They made it through subsequent rounds and were one of the five acts to make it to the finals. The duo ultimately placed third.

        Nuttin' But Stringz - Beauty Of aFar


        Nuttin' But Stringz "Dance With My Father"

Oscar Brown Jr - This Beach

Def Poetry - Oscar Brown Jr - Children Of Children

Def Poetry: Jill Scott

Egypt Scene "Richard Pryor Show" 1977

Powerful Scene from "Mandingo" - 1977 - Black on Black Crime

Public Enemy - Fight The Power

Frederick Douglass

         Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, known for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing. He stood as a living counter-example to slaveholders' arguments that slaves did not have the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. He became a major speaker for the cause of abolition.

           Frederick Douglass was one of the foremost leaders of the abolitionist movement, which fought to end slavery within the United States in the decades prior to the Civil War.
A brilliant speaker, Douglass was asked by the American Anti-Slavery Society to engage in a tour of lectures, and so became recognized as one of America's first great black speakers. He won world fame when his autobiography was publicized in 1845. Two years later he bagan publishing an antislavery paper called the North Star.

           Douglass served as an adviser to President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and fought for the adoption of constitutional amendments that guaranteed voting rights and other civil liberties for blacks. Douglass provided a powerful voice for human rights during this period of American history and is still revered today for his contributions against racial injustice.

          Frederick Douglass was born in a slave cabin, in February, 1818, near the town of Easton, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Separated from his mother when only a few weeks old he was raised by his grandparents. At about the age of six, his grandmother took him to the plantation of his master and left him there. Not being told by her that she was going to leave him, Douglass never recovered from the betrayal of the abandonment. When he was about eight he was sent to Baltimore to live as a houseboy with Hugh and Sophia Auld, relatives of his master. It was shortly after his arrival that his new mistress taught him the alphabet. When her husband forbade her to continue her instruction, because it was unlawful to teach slaves how to read, Frederick took it upon himself to learn. He made the neighborhood boys his teachers, by giving away his food in exchange for lessons in reading and writing.
Douglass is noted as saying that "knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom." As Douglass learned and began to read newspapers, political materials, and books of every description, he was exposed to a new realm of thought that led him to question and then condemn the institution of slavery. In later years, Douglass credited The Columbian Orator, which he discovered at about age twelve, with clarifying and defining his views on freedom and human rights.At about the age of twelve or thirteen Douglass purchased a copy of The Columbian Orator, a popular schoolbook of the time, which helped him to gain an understanding and appreciation of the power of the spoken and the written word, as two of the most effective means by which to bring about permanent, positive change.

            Returning to the Eastern Shore, at approximately the age of fifteen, Douglass became a field hand, and experienced most of the horrifying conditions that plagued slaves during the 270 years of legalized slavery in America. But it was during this time that he had an encounter with the slavebreaker Edward Covey. Their fight ended in a draw, but the victory was Douglass', as his challenge to the slavebreaker restored his sense of self-worth. After an aborted escape attempt when he was about eighteen, he was sent back to Baltimore to live with the Auld family, and in early September, 1838, at the age of twenty, Douglass succeeded in escaping from slavery by impersonating a sailor.
He went first to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he and his new wife Anna Murray began to raise a family. Whenever he could he attended abolitionist meetings, and, in October, 1841, after attending an anti-slavery convention on Nantucket Island, Douglass became a lecturer for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and a colleague of William Lloyd Garrison. This work led him into public speaking and writing. He published his own newspaper, The North Star, participated in the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, in 1848, and wrote three autobiographies. He was internationally recognized as an uncompromising abolitionist, indefatigable worker for justice and equal opportunity, and an unyielding defender of women's rights. He became a trusted advisor to Abraham Lincoln, United States Marshal for the District of Columbia, Recorder of Deeds for Washington, D.C., and Minister-General to the Republic of Haiti.

                 In addition to his oratory, Douglass wrote several autobiographies, eloquently describing his life as a slave, and his struggles to be free. His first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, was published in 1845 and was his best-known work, influential in gaining support for abolition. He wrote two more autobiographies, with his last, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, published in 1881 and covering events through and after the Civil War.
After the Civil War, Douglass remained very active in America's struggle to reach its potential as a "land of the free". Douglass actively supported women's suffrage. Following the war, he worked on behalf of equal rights for freedmen, and held multiple public offices.
Douglass was a firm believer in the equality of all people, whether black, female, Native American, or recent immigrant. He was fond of saying, "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."

1.Douglass, Frederick. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. New York: Collier Books, 1962.
2.The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave electronic text.
3.Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1960.
4.Foner, Philip S. The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass: Early Years 1817-1849. New York: International Publishers, 1950.
5.Foner, Philip S. The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass: Pre-Civil War Decade 1850-1860. New York: International Publishers, 1950.
6.Foner, Philip S. The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass: The Civil War 1861-1865. New York: International Publishers, 1952.
7.Foner, Philip S. The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass: Reconstruction and After. New York: International Publishers, 1955.
8.Huggins, Nathan Irvin. Slave and Citizen: The Life of Frederick Douglass. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980.
9.Quarles, Benjamin. Frederick Douglass. Washington, D.C.: The Associated Publishers, Inc., 1948.

James Brown - "Say It Loud - I'm Black And I'm Proud" (1968)