That question matters because vague stress can make everything feel worse than it is and, sometimes, easier to avoid than it should be. A practical plan replaces fog with facts. It tells you what comes in, what goes out, what obligations are fixed, and where the pressure points really are. That kind of clarity is valuable whether you are trying to improve daily habits or dealing with larger issues that make people explore options such as debt relief in Arizona. Either way, a real plan is built on what your life costs, not what you wish it cost.

Practical planning is powerful because it works with reality instead of against it.

Start With the Full Picture

The first step is not cutting spending. It is seeing the whole picture. Income, rent or mortgage, utilities, transportation, food, debt payments, insurance, subscriptions, and irregular costs all need to be visible. If something keeps getting paid, it belongs in the plan.

Many people underestimate the value of this stage because it feels basic. But clarity alone can lower stress. Uncertainty tends to make money problems feel shapeless and constant. Once the numbers are visible, your next steps stop being guesses.

The Social Security Administration’s money and retirement planning resources help people think beyond the immediate month, and Benefits.gov can be useful for identifying support options or programs that may reduce financial pressure in specific situations.

A Practical Plan Solves Actual Problems

One reason money plans fail is that they target the wrong issue. Someone may think they have a spending problem when the deeper problem is uneven income. Another person may think the answer is more discipline when fixed debt payments are the real strain. Someone else may blame groceries when convenience spending triggered by exhaustion is what keeps breaking the budget.

A practical plan asks where the real friction is. Are your essentials too high? Is your debt load too heavy? Is your income unstable? Are late fees and timing issues creating unnecessary damage? Is avoidance preventing good decisions? Once you know the real source of strain, your plan can become specific.

Generic advice is rarely enough because people do not all have the same financial bottleneck.

Make the Plan Simple Enough to Follow

Complexity is one of the biggest enemies of consistency. If your plan requires constant calculations, too many categories, or a level of attention you cannot realistically sustain, it probably will not last. A practical plan is simple enough to use on a tired Tuesday.

That may mean broad categories instead of tiny ones. It may mean one weekly review instead of constant tracking. It may mean automatic transfers instead of repeated decisions. The goal is not a perfect system. It is a repeatable one.

Simple systems often look almost too basic, but that is part of their strength. They survive low energy better.

Leave Room for the Irregular and the Human

Another reason rigid plans fall apart is that life is not perfectly monthly. Car repairs, gifts, school costs, medical expenses, and random household needs show up whether you plan for them or not. A practical plan anticipates that irregular costs are normal, not exceptional.

It also makes room for being human. If your plan treats every small pleasure like sabotage, you may rebel against it quickly. Practical planning is not about becoming joyless. It is about making sure comfort and convenience exist in a form your finances can handle.

A useful plan should reduce shame, not increase it.

Action Matters More Than Theory

Once the plan is clear, the next step is not endless analysis. It is choosing a few specific actions that directly improve the situation. Maybe that means canceling unused subscriptions, setting bill reminders, moving due dates, creating a small emergency cushion, cutting one consistently wasteful category, or negotiating a payment arrangement.

These actions do not need to be dramatic to matter. In fact, smaller actions often build better momentum because they are easier to repeat. Progress becomes visible, which makes the plan feel more real.

Review and Adjust, Do Not Abandon

A practical plan should be reviewed regularly, but review is not the same as self attack. The purpose is to notice what is working and what needs adjusting. Maybe a category was unrealistic. Maybe income changed. Maybe a habit improved enough that you can set a new target. Maybe stress made one week harder than expected.

Adjustment is part of practicality. If a plan only works under ideal conditions, it is not very practical at all. Real planning includes revision.

Practical Means Sustainable

The best money plan is not the one that looks the most disciplined on paper. It is the one that creates steadier outcomes over time. Practical plans build stability through visibility, simplicity, and realistic action. They do not rely on fantasy, guilt, or constant intensity.

If your money feels messy right now, that does not mean you need a genius solution. You may need a practical one. See the full picture. Identify the real pressure. Simplify the system. Take a few direct steps. Then keep adjusting as you learn. That is often how money gets calmer, and calm is where better decisions begin.

Staff Writer; Lee Jackson

Nana Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s mother and father, of the same spiritual faith and a similar generation as my mother and father, taught him the dignity and worth of work in its service to humanity, as my mother and father taught us, drawing from a long and honorable tradition of work. In his classic speech on this topic in Memphis, supporting the strike and demands for decent wages and working conditions of the sanitation workers, Dr. King reaffirms this position, saying to the striking workers and their supporters, that they are rightfully “demanding that this city will respect the dignity of labor”. And he noted that “So often we overlook the work and the significance of those who are not in professional jobs, of those who are not in the so-called big jobs. But…whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity, and it has worth”. Thus, in the best of our ethical sensibilities, thought and practice, all workers deserve respect, just pay, appropriate conditions of work, and the right to organize and assert their interests.

We stood and stand in active solidarity with the millions in this country and around the world who participated in marking May Day (International Workers’ Day) in demonstrations, deliberations and resolute commitment to continue the struggle against war, ICE, genocide, injustice, fascism and all forms of oppression. For at the heart of all these labor and other struggles must be, and is for us, the collective and collaborative commitment to achieving a shared and inclusive good for everyone, everywhere and the sustained well-being of the world and all in it.

What I want to do here, then, in uplifting and linking Mother’s Day and May Day is to center the legacy of labor struggles in our history, especially those led by Black women that form a core of  our larger struggle for freedom, justice and a shared and inclusive good and those that are caringly attentive to the overlooked, undervalued and vulnerable, as my mother and father taught. Let us first pay rightful homage to our ancient ancestors, the original world builders, working their will on the world to extract and share good from the earth – the early gatherers, farmers and fishermen and fisherwomen, herbalists and healthcare workers, the builders of houses and temples and all other workers who worked to bring a shared good in the world. We pay homage also to the workers who launched the first strike in recorded history at a worksite in ancient Egypt called Set Ma’at, the Place of Justice c. 1170 BCE. Indeed, artisans and ordinary workers stopped work, sat in, marched, petitioned and disrupted the regular order of things. They told the officials that they were not only striking because of the late wages and the hunger that this caused for them and their families, but also because “There is injustice in this place”. Their concern was beyond the essential need for wages and centered the issue of the dignity of the worker and the respect and just compensation due to them.

We pay rightful homage also to the women and men free of mind and heart who did not accept their status in enslavement and resisted being objects of labor, sex and entertainment by striking, breaking tools, destroying crops, escaping and returning to free others, and exercising the right and responsibility to revolt and be free. And we pay homage to the Black washerwomen or launderers who built a labor union, the Washing Society, and organized a strike in Atlanta, Georgia in 1881 to win higher and uniform wages; and to Nana Nannie Helen Burroughs, an educator and organizer, who founded the National Association of Wage Earners in 1921; and to Nana Rosina Corrothers Tucker, labor organizer, civil rights activist, and educator who worked as a union organizer for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and served as the first president of its International Ladies Auxiliary, 1938. Also, we pay homage to Nana Dorothy Bolden, founder of the National Domestic Workers Union of America in 1968; to Nana Clara Day who co-founded the Coalition of Labor Union Women in 1974; and to all other labor and life waymakers and bridges who carried us over and led us forward.

Finally, we pay homage to the labor leader and activist Nana Fahari Jeffers who with her husband, Ken Seaton-Msemaji, co-founded the United Domestic Workers of America in 1977. They were grounded in Kawaida philosophy and its organizing thought and practice and linked their work to the United Farm Workers movement given that both were primarily composed of women, people of color and immigrants and not rightly valued by the larger labor movement. Indeed, Nana Fahari said in being inducted into the San Diego County Women’s Hall of Fame, “It’s an honor as a woman and it’s an honor as an African-American woman. There are many women who make groundbreaking, enormous contributions to our community that we will never meet or hear of, and I want them to know that their work is valued and recognized and that it has made a difference”.

Here she reaffirms the dignity, centrality and sustaining character of Black women’s labor and our need to recognize and respect them, their work and their role in bringing good into the world. And I thought here of how my mother was both a domestic worker and a farmworker, and I remembered and rejoiced in the many other roles and responsibilities she joyfully assumed for our family and our community. And I reflected again about our moral obligation to seriously and joyfully honor and live the legacy of our foremothers and forefathers by continuing the sacred work and struggle for freedom, justice and a shared and inclusive good for all of us and for all the earth.

Written by Dr. Maulana Karenga

Official website; https://www.maulanakarenga.org/

 The gaslighting and lies are at tsunami strength and energy levels; if we don’t think for ourselves, we will be permanently bamboozled and lobotomized into falling for their Bizzaro World okey-doke. For example, take the war in Iran, Trump is telling us the US is winning, the US and Israel have obliterated Iran’s war making capacities and crippled its ability to fight back. But the reality on the ground is, prior to the ceasefire, Iran was pounding Israel relentlessly, hitting Gulf state allies who host military bases in the region with devastating accuracy and inflicting massive infrastructural damage on all of them.

Trump and Netanyahu, in their arrogance and hubris, thought their sneak attacks and decapitations would render Iran fully discombobulated, in total disarray, that their attempted color revolution would topple the regime and they could install compliant compradors as their vassals.  The warmongers thought their initial attacks would be so devastating, Iran would collapse, crumble and capitulate.

Alas, they thought wrong! Iran circumvented the CIA and Mossad’s color revolution by disconnecting the country’s Internet and blocking the Starlink satellite signals the CIA and Mossad were sending to their provocateurs inside Iran. The protests immediately fell apart and fizzled. This enabled Iran to track, locate, arrest and neutralize them as they needed to do to preserve their national security and sovereignty.

Iran has ingeniously changed the rules of engagement and innovated modern warfare against a superior arrogant military force. By designing and manufacturing thousands of low-cost military drones and highly accurate supersonic missiles Iran has successfully neutralized the advantages the US and Israel presupposed they had! Iran has destroyed the GCC’s early detection radar and defense systems provided by the US; thus, rendering them defenseless against Iran’s blistering attacks!

Now the US can’t protect the GCC and they see Israel is America’s top priority which will not bode well for the US as this war rages on or when it finally ends. The Iranians have rendered US aircraft carriers totally ineffective due to their fear of Iranian missiles and drones! If Iran destroyed a US aircraft carrier in the region, it would be a devastating psychological blow to the US Empire. The US hypes their aircraft carriers as their invincible global projection of military force; if one or several were destroyed that would be catastrophic for the American Empire’s image.

 Trump is so desperate to extricate himself from this fiasco, he had to press for a ceasefire because of the immense pressure Iran has put on the global oil, LNG, petrochemical trade supply chains! The economic aspect has proven to be Iran’s trump card and they are playing it to the hilt! Iran has Trump over the proverbial barrel with his pants down around his ankles. Trump’s options are limited so in his frustration don’t be surprised if he resumes military action.

The fact Iran survived the massive assaults on its leadership, civilian infrastructure and Iran has fought back so valiantly totally surprised the Israeli and American aggressors who thought this war would be a wham- bam type operation. Iran’s lethal military and economic strategies have shaken Trump to his core. He is unable to rally NATO, Europe, Japan or any of his erstwhile allies to come to his aid. (One reason is his trade wars and tariffs against them have come back to bite him) This has also devasted his narcissistic psyche.

 The economic shock coupled with Iran’s uncompromising resilience have taken the bully’s heart. Now Trump is trying to find a way to extricate himself from his war of choice.  But Israel will not allow it! Israel is seething, the ceasefire is a major setback for them, even though they are being pounded relentlessly (and rightly so) by Iran, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Young brothers, let an older Black man tell you something from experience.

Do not let temporary pain convince you to walk away from permanent responsibility.

I know life can wear a man down. I know what it feels like to stare at the ceiling late at night while everybody else is asleep, trying to figure out how you are going to keep carrying everything on your shoulders. A lot of us grew up watching men suffer quietly. Nobody asked them how they were doing mentally. Nobody checked on their spirit. They just kept working, kept stressing, kept aging right in front of everybody.

That kind of pressure leaves marks on a man.

Some of you younger fathers are carrying things your friends do not even know about. Trying to provide while feeling emotionally exhausted. Trying to stay calm while your mind feels crowded. Trying to be strong while secretly feeling like you are drowning. That does not make you weak. That makes you human.

There is a difference.

I think one of the biggest lies Black men were taught is that suffering in silence somehow makes you stronger. All it really does is make you feel alone. Then once a man feels alone long enough, he starts disconnecting from the people who need him most.

I have seen it happen too many times.

A father starts pulling away little by little. He stops talking as much. Stops laughing as much. Stops being mentally present. Physically he is still around, but his mind is somewhere dark and heavy.

That is why I wanted to speak directly to the brothers carrying that kind of weight.

Your children need your presence more than your perfection.

Read that again if you need to.

A lot of young fathers think being valuable means having all the money, all the answers, all the control. But children remember something deeper than that. They remember who was there. They remember who listened. They remember who stayed around even when life got hard.

Years from now your child may not remember every gift you bought, but they will remember your voice. They will remember car rides, conversations, jokes, lessons, and those random moments that seemed small at the time.

That stuff matters.

I learned that as I got older.

When my children were younger, I thought being a good father mostly meant making sure material things were handled. Keep food in the house. Keep bills paid. Keep clothes on their backs. That is important, do not get me wrong. But now that I got some age on me, I realize emotional presence carries just as much weight.

Sometimes more.

Kids can feel when a father is emotionally checked out.

They notice when you stop engaging.

They notice when your patience disappears.

They notice when stress changes your tone.

Even when they cannot explain it with words, they feel it.

That is why you cannot keep ignoring your mental state and expect everything around you to stay healthy.

One thing I had to learn myself was how to slow down before reacting. I did not always get that right. Coming up, most of us were raised around yelling, tension, frustration, and people carrying anger they never dealt with. If you are not careful, you end up repeating those same patterns without even realizing it.

I caught myself doing that before.

Not because I wanted to hurt anybody, but because certain habits become automatic when you grow up around them long enough.

That realization humbled me.

It forced me to start paying attention to how I spoke, how I handled stress, and how I responded when life frustrated me. A child learns emotional behavior by watching adults. That means your son is learning manhood from watching you. Your daughter is learning how men handle pressure from watching you.

That responsibility is serious.

But do not let that thought scare you. Let it wake you up.

A lot of fathers are trying to build healthy homes while carrying wounds they never healed from themselves. Some brothers never had real guidance growing up. Some barely knew their own fathers. Others grew up watching addiction, violence, emotional distance, or nonstop struggle. Then society expects those same men to magically become emotionally balanced overnight once they have children.

Life does not work that way.

Healing takes time.

Growth takes honesty.

And becoming better requires effort every single day.

I know some brothers feel embarrassed because life did not turn out how they imagined. Maybe the relationship with the mother failed. Maybe finances are rough. Maybe mistakes from years ago still follow you mentally. Some fathers carry guilt so deep it changes how they see themselves.

Do not let shame turn you into a stranger around your own children.

That is a dangerous road.

Kids do not need a flawless father standing in front of them pretending to have everything figured out. They need somebody real. Somebody who keeps trying. Somebody willing to grow instead of disappear when life gets uncomfortable.

There were times I had to apologize to my children. That was not something older men talked about much when I was younger. Back then fathers were expected to always appear right even when they were wrong. But I learned something important over time.

Children respect honesty more than ego.

Saying I handled that wrong does not make you less of a man.

It makes you accountable.

And accountability is something young people desperately need to see nowadays.

Another thing I want younger fathers to understand is this. Stop trying to carry everything alone. Too many Black men isolate themselves when life gets heavy. They stop talking. Stop reaching out. Stop connecting with people who care about them.

That silence can become dangerous after a while.

You do not need a crowd around you, but every man needs somebody he can talk honestly with. Could be an older relative. Could be a close friend. Could be another father dealing with similar pressure. Just having one solid conversation can lighten your mental load more than you realize.

Sometimes another man reminding you that you are not alone can help pull you out of dark thinking.

I wish more brothers understood that earlier.

I also had to learn how important rest is. Not laziness. Real rest. Mental rest. Emotional rest. Some fathers are running on fumes every day and wondering why they feel disconnected from everything around them.

You cannot keep pouring from an empty cup forever.

Take care of your health too.

Go for walks.

Get outside sometimes.

Pray if that brings you peace.

Turn the noise down when your mind feels overloaded.

There is nothing weak about protecting your mental stability.

Matter of fact, your children benefit when you are healthy enough emotionally to truly be present around them.

And let me say this too.

Do not underestimate how much your child watches you fight through difficult seasons. One day they may look back and realize their father was carrying way more than they understood at the time. They may realize you kept showing up even while struggling internally.

That example stays with children.

Strength is not pretending nothing hurts.

Real strength is continuing to show love and effort while dealing with life honestly.

I know some days fathers feel unappreciated. Society talks about Black fathers like they barely exist unless something negative happens. Meanwhile millions of brothers are waking up every morning trying to hold their families together quietly without recognition.

I see you.

A lot of older men see you too.

Do not let negative stereotypes make you forget your value.

Your child seeing you stay involved matters more than public opinion ever will.

There is power in a father being present consistently.

Power in a father listening.

Power in a father teaching.

Power in a father simply staying.

That presence shapes lives in ways you may never fully understand while your children are young.

One conversation can stay with a child forever.

One moment of encouragement can change their confidence.

One father staying around can completely alter the direction of a family.

That is real.

So to every Black father sitting somewhere feeling mentally exhausted, emotionally drained, or questioning his worth, hear this clearly from an older brother who understands life a little more now.

Do not give up on yourself.

Do not walk away from your children emotionally.

Do not let hard seasons convince you your life has no meaning.

Keep going.

Even if all you can do some days is take things one hour at a time.

Keep showing up.

Your children do not need perfection standing in front of them.

They need love.

They need effort.

They need presence.

And whether you realize it right now or not, that matters more than you think.

Staff Writer; Lee Walker

This brother is a fitness trainer with 12 years of experience, focused on building strength, clarity, and real health within the Black community. Through his writing, Mr. Walker hopes to uplift younger Black men and men in general through honest conversations about fitness, financial pressure, fatherhood, discipline, mental wellness, and the importance of brotherhood.

Have questions? Reach me at LeeW@ThyBlackMan.com.

The “We the People” reference did not apply to certain groups, such as Native Americans, Blacks, women, and poor whites. These marginalized groups were consistently denied inclusion as equal citizens deserving of rights. As decades and centuries passed, incremental steps toward inclusion were taken to make the nation a more “perfect union.” Those incremental steps, which were met with aggressive and cruel resistance, included the abolishment of slavery (13^th amendment), defined citizenship (14^th amendment), prohibiting race as a qualification for voting (15^th amendment), prohibiting citizens the right to vote due their sex (19^th amendment), ending school segregation (Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling), forbidding discrimination in public facilities (Civil Rights Acts of 1964), abolishing literacy tests and other forms of voter suppression tactics (Voting Rights Act of 1965), and prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing (Fair Housing Act of 1968).

“We the People” eventually evolved into becoming more inclusive in practice, thanks to individuals like Charles Hamilton Houston, who is known as “the man who killed Jim Crow.” Houston was an attorney who trained a generation of lawyers, including Thurgood Marshall, to systematically dismantle segregation laws in court. Despite the string of legislative victories that ended the legal application of the Jim Crow system, the legacies of cruelty, injustice, and inequality have never ended. There will always be a gap in society between the goal we are striving to achieve (an all-inclusive society) and our current position (a society that continues to embrace the exclusion of others). As we saw the gap start to effectively close with each incremental step taken, it gave us evidence and even hope that America has the willingness (under duress) to follow its moral compass. A society without a moral compass eventually evolves into a nation where wrong becomes right and what was once considered right becomes ignored.

You can change government laws, but new laws do not change a person’s hard heart and narrow mind. In its recent ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court seriously wounded the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in Callais v. Louisiana. The 6-3 conservative majority’s decision ruled to eliminate one of Louisiana’s two majority-Black districts, limiting the scope of the VRA provision that creates majority-minority districts. The decision opens the door to redistricting across the South that will likely decimate Black and Latino representation in Congress, as well as state legislatures and municipal governments.

Two nonpartisan election handicappers identified seven districts that could be at risk of being redrawn to favor Republicans following the Callais v. Louisiana decision. Both Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball, which is published by the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said the court’s ruling – which deemed Louisiana’s current map an illegal racial gerrymander and ordered it to be redrawn—could ultimately jeopardize all of the Democratic seats in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and South Carolina. In Alabama, where Democrats hold two of the seven congressional districts, both Reps. Shomari Figures and Terri Sewell could be at risk if the state were to redraw its map. The only Democrats representing Mississippi, Tennessee, and South Carolina –Rep. Bennie Thompson (Miss.), Rep. Steve Cohen (Tenn.), and Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.) –could be in jeopardy. Thompson, who represents Mississippi’s 2^nd Congressional District and is the only Black member of the state’s congressional delegation, said Black residents make up 38% of Mississippi’s population and should retain at least one House seat. He said the ruling “has moved us back over 60 years.”

For decades, a dedicated movement of conservative activists, legal scholars, and politicians campaigned to overturn Roe v. Wade. This effort involved building a conservative judicial majority, passing state-level restrictions, and securing federal judicial appointments. Ultimately, the goal was achieved with the Dobbs v. Jackson decision in 2022. Overturning Roe v. Wade was a 40 to 50-year concerted campaign focused on appointing “pro-life” judges.

Anti-abortion groups became a powerful base for the Republican Party, with abortion becoming an effective rallying cry for political mobilization. Conservative networks like the Federalist Society worked behind the scenes in prioritizing judicial nominations and targeting candidates who supported federal abortion rights. While all the public attention and debate centered on overturning abortion rights, many people didn’t realize that dismantling the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were next in the conservative pipeline. The long-term judicial strategy of conservatives was a counterpunch to Charles Hamilton Houston’s work in dismantling Jim Crow through the courts.

From his first job as a young aide in the Reagan Justice Department, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was intensely determined to dismantle the VRA. The culmination of John Roberts’s 50-year crusade to destroy the VRA also dealt a severe blow to the true spirit behind the words “We the People.” America, where is your moral compass?

Written by David W. Marshall

Official website; https://davidwmarshallauthor.com/

One may purchase his book, which is titled; God Bless Our Divided America: Unity, Politics and History from a Biblical Perspective.

Soap operas began as radio programs that morphed into TV series with the advent of television in the 1940s. They were mostly watched by women because men were away at work in the factory or on the family farm plowing the fields.

Major soap manufacturers were the primary sponsors since women did all the household chores during this time.  The sponsors were companies like Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and Lever Brothers.

Soap operas explored themes like love, betrayal, sex, social issues, corruption among the elite and political class.

Modern day soaps have an intense focus on dysfunction, tearing down of traditional social norms (the concept of man and woman) with an obsessive focus on how “racist” America is.  In many ways today’s soaps are anti-America.

Listening to the hysterical freaking out by radical liberals over last week’s U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the Voting Rights Act, you would think America is on “The Edge of Night.”

As I have written in previous columns, the international intelligence consensus, led by our CIA, about the Black community is that “they are very emotional…if you get them emotional, they will lose sight of their objectives.”

So, like clockwork, it was no surprise that after the U.S. Supreme Court released it’s 6-3 ruling in the Louisiana v. Callais case that radical Black liberal media appointed leaders and organizations lost their collective minds.

Democrat shills like Roland Martin, Joy Reid, Don Lemon, Laura Coasts, Whoopie Goldberg, Sunny Hostin, Jemele Hill, Barak Obama; and radical liberal organizations like the NAACP, The National Urban League, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Black Economic Alliance, the United Negro College Fund, the Thurgood Marshall Fund, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Bar Association all claimed that white racist Republicans like Donald Trump were trying to put Blacks back in slavery.

The court did not, let me repeat, DID NOT overturn the 1965 Voting Rights Act!  They simply said that you cannot base the drawing of a congressional district with the sole intent of packing enough Black voters in a district so that it guarantees a Black will be elected.

Implicit in what these radical Black liberals are saying is that the only way for Blacks to win an election is for them to receive only Black votes.

In other words, whites will not vote for a Black candidate.  Nothing could be more anti-American.

There are currently four Black Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives:  Byron Donalds (FL), Wesley Hunt (TX), John James (MI), Burgess Owens (UT).  They each represent a majority white district.

And what radical liberals always seem to forget is that America voted twice for Barak Obama, each time with a majority of the white vote.

So where is the political racism?  I will wait for your answer…

The Supreme Court basically said that it is perfectly fine to gerrymander based on party affiliation (Democrat, Republican); but you cannot do it to guarantee an outcome based on race (majority-minority districts).

Can someone please tell me how this is devastating to the Black community?

Another question for my radical liberal sycophants, I have seen you all over the media ranting about how Republicans and conservatives have been chipping away at voting rights, affirmative action, and other liberal programs for decades; so why did you not do anything legislatively to protect these programs or update these programs for the 21^st century?

In Bill Clinton’s and Barak Obama’s first terms in office, Democrats controlled the House, Senate and the White House and you did nothing.  Were they also racists?

To the NAACP, The National Urban League, the Congressional Black Caucus, Black Economic Alliance, the National Association of Black Journalists, the Thurgood Marshall Fund, the United Negro College Fund, the National Bar Association, why were you not forward thinking enough to be proactive versus reactive?  Since radical liberal Black leadership “knew” Republicans were attempting to eradicate these programs why did they do nothing?

Herein lies the problems with the media appointed radical Black leaders in the Black community, they are worthless.  They are supposed to be the “talented tenth,”  “the boule,” “the bourgeoisie.”

How much of the blame for the Black community’s plight fall at the feet of these weak, radical, liberal organizations and their bought and paid for leadership?

The Supreme Court’s decision is going to force both Black and white, liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican to work together in coalitions based on a shared agenda.

This is what these crazy radical Black liberals refuse talk about.  By getting rid of the minority districts, whites will pick up a considerable amount of Black voters that will necessitate dialogue and interaction.

Who would argue that this is a bad thing?

These white and Black elected officials will now have to build relationships with people under the new maps they would normally never have to engage with.

In majority white districts, elected officials could ignore their Black constituents; in majority Black districts elected officials could ignore their white constituents.

Under the new maps Black and white elected officials will be forced to interact with the new voters of their districts.

These once useful laws and programs from the 1960s began with the intent of creating equality and justice specifically for Blacks; but they have morphed into guaranteed outcomes (majority-minority districts, all but guaranteeing that a Black would win the election).

That is the singular issue the Supreme Court was addressing in its ruling last week.  Nothing more, nothing less.

The right to vote, still there.  The right to pick your representative based on your political values, still there. The right to guarantee that you have a Black representative, gone!

If you want a Black representative, build coalitions and meet at the ballot box.

According to Pew Research, “the number of Black eligible voters in the United States is projected to reach 34.4 million in November 2024 (the latest year data is available) after several years of modest growth. And Black eligible voters stand out for turnout rates that are higher than among Latino and Asian eligible voters.”

According to this same research, Blacks comprise 14% of all voters.  Half of Black eligible voters live in one of eight states. Texas has the largest number, with 2.9 million, followed by Georgia and Florida (2.6 million each). Rounding out the top eight are New York (2.4 million), California (2.0 million), North Carolina (1.8 million), and Maryland and Illinois (1.4 million each). Together, these states account for 52% of Black eligible voters in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Regionally, more than half of Black eligible voters (57%) live in Southern states. The Midwest (17%) and Northeast (16%) have the next-highest shares of the nation’s Black eligible voters, while relatively few live in the West (10%).

Black eligible voters are more likely than eligible voters to be women (53% vs. 51%). They also tend to be younger than eligible voters overall: 60% of Black eligible voters are under the age of 50, compared with 52% of all U.S. eligible voters.

Only 64% of eligible Black voters actually voted in 2024.  This is the problem, not racism.

So as opposed to giving Blacks a reason to vote,  radical Black liberals keep trying to force Black voters to accept amnesty for illegals, boys in girl sports, homosexuality, no punishment for crimes, higher taxes and radical feminism.  Black voters continue to show they are not in agreement with these media appointed leaders, so an increasing number are now voting Republican.

As the soulful singer, Michael McDonald told me, “what a fool believes he sees; no wiseman has the power to reason away; ‘cause what seems to be is always better than nothing at all.”

Staff Writer; Raynard Jackson

This talented brother is a Pulitzer Award nominated columnist and founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to get more Blacks involved in the Republican Party. BAFBF focuses on the Black entrepreneur. For more information about BAFBF, visit www.bafbf.org. You can follow Raynard on Twitter; RealRaynardJ; on Gettr: RaynardJackson.

Can also drop him an email at; RaynardJ@ThyBlackMan.com.

]]> https://thyblackman.com/2026/05/05/supreme-court-voting-rights-act-ruling-black-voters-analysis/feed/ 2 https://thyblackman.com/2026/05/01/ideological-echo-chambers-education-political-violence-analysis/ https://thyblackman.com/2026/05/01/ideological-echo-chambers-education-political-violence-analysis/#comments Fri, 01 May 2026 05:05:46 +0000 https://thyblackman.com/?p=139560 (ThyBlackMan.com) Much has been made of the advanced education of the latest would-be assassin of President Donald Trump, whom the suspect described in a manifesto as a “pedophile,” “rapist” and “traitor.” He graduated from the California Institute of Technology, one of the most selective schools in the country.

As to Caltech, Daniel McCarthy of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute writes: “In the most recent City Journal college rankings, Caltech took the top spot for ‘value added to career,’ but languished at a dismal 95th place for ‘student ideological diversity.’

“The rankings noted the school’s ‘disproportionately large Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion bureaucracy’ — with ‘roughly ten DEI staff members per 1,000 students’ — and its ‘overwhelmingly liberal’ student body, ’16 liberal students for every conservative.'”

Education, by itself, is not the problem. The problem is something else: ideological certainty reinforced in environments where dissenting views are scarce.

In 2024, The Duke Chronicle wrote: “In the Harvard Crimson’s spring 2023 faculty survey, 31.8% of respondents drawn from Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences identified as ‘very liberal,’ while 45.3% of respondents identified as ‘liberal.’ Fewer than 3% of respondents identified as ‘conservative’ (2.5%) or ‘very conservative’ (0.4%).”

What happens when smart people are surrounded mostly by others who think the same way? Often, it produces not wisdom, but moral certainty — an unshakable belief that one’s conclusions are not just correct, but righteous.

A survey from the Skeptic Research Center suggested those with graduate degrees are nearly twice as likely to believe “violence is often necessary to create social change.” The Skeptic Research Center wrote: “In the politically tumultuous Summer of 2020, PEW reported the results of a survey indicating that 80 percent of Americans have ‘none’ or ‘just a few’ friends with political views different from their own. A few years later, the American Psychiatric Association found that around 20 percent of Americans had become estranged from family due to political disagreements, with an additional 20 percent skipping family events because of political disagreements. Another recent study found that around 1 in 6 Americans have ended or considered ending a romantic relationship because of a political disagreement.”

My closest friend — someone I had known for more than 40 years — ended our friendship over Trump. A law professor, he received a perfect score on his SAT. He has a son with special needs. But he became convinced that Trump had mocked a disabled reporter out of cruelty.

I explained that Trump did mock the reporter, but not because of the reporter’s disability. Trump ridiculed the reporter because, in Trump’s opinion, the reporter distanced himself from his own article when Trump used it to corroborate an assertion Trump made that on 9/11, some Muslims in New Jersey were seen cheering the collapse of the Twin Towers. I referred my friend to a website called Catholics4Trump with a video from several other instances where Trump used his hand waving “mocking” gesture to make fun of himself, an able-bodied general and others.

“Why,” I asked my friend, “would I support someone who would do such a thing? Why would his supporters? And what politician would think it is a good idea to get votes by mocking a disabled person?”

But this narrative stuck. In 2016, before the election, NBC News wrote: “When asked in a recent Bloomberg poll what bothered them most about Donald Trump — of a slew of controversies — likely voters picked one action above all others: When the candidate mocked a reporter with a disability last November.”

Trump, of course, denied the accusation and insisted he was unaware of the reporter’s disability. The reporter, in fact, is a calm, articulate speaker who does not wave his hands in the comic fashion as Trump did.

None of this mattered to my friend. And it struck me. Once someone, no matter how intelligent or well-educated, is invested in hating Trump, no amount of information or alternative explanation would make him unhate Trump.

As to the would-be assassin, the question is not how much he learned, but whether he ever learned to question his beliefs — and whether in his environment this was encouraged, tolerated or punished.

Columnist; Larry Elder

Official website; http://www.larryelder.com

Why Results Can Quietly Work Against You 

Most people are taught to focus on results. Set a goal, measure the outcome, and evaluate success based on whether you achieved it. This approach sounds logical, but it has a hidden flaw. 

Results are delayed. 

You can put in consistent effort for weeks or months without seeing a clear outcome. During that time, it becomes easy to lose motivation. If progress is not immediately visible, your brain starts questioning whether what you are doing is working at all. 

This is where frustration builds. Not because the system is broken, but because the feedback is too slow. 

Shifting your focus from results to systems changes that experience. Instead of waiting for a final outcome, you start paying attention to what you are doing every day. 

This creates a different kind of progress. One that is visible, immediate, and easier to sustain. 

You can see this in practical situations as well. When someone begins organizing their finances or exploring structured solutions like National Debt Relief, the end goal may feel far away. But focusing on the daily system, reviewing expenses, following a plan, and staying consistent, creates a sense of movement long before the final result appears. 

Systems Give You Something You Can Control 

Results depend on many variables. Some are within your control, but many are not. Timing, external circumstances, and unexpected changes can all influence outcomes. 

Systems are different. 

They are built around actions you can repeat consistently. Writing for a set amount of time each day, reviewing your budget weekly, or practicing a skill regularly are all examples of systems. 

When you track systems, you are measuring what you can directly influence. This reduces uncertainty. 

According to research summarized by the Stanford Behavior Design Lab on habit formation, consistent behaviors are more reliable drivers of long term change than focusing solely on outcomes. Systems create stability, which makes progress more predictable. 

Why Systems Build Momentum Faster Than Goals 

Goals often create a start and stop cycle. You work toward something, reach it, and then pause. After that, you need a new goal to regain momentum. 

Systems remove that cycle. 

They are ongoing by design. There is no finish line for a system. You continue because the process itself becomes part of your routine. 

This continuity builds momentum. 

Instead of relying on bursts of motivation, you create a steady rhythm. Each day you follow your system, you reinforce the behavior. Over time, this becomes easier and more automatic. 

Momentum, in this sense, is not something you chase. It is something that develops naturally through repetition. 

The Psychological Shift From Outcome to Process 

Focusing on systems changes how you experience progress. 

When you are focused on results, your attention is always on the future. You are thinking about what has not happened yet. This can create pressure and impatience. 

When you focus on systems, your attention shifts to the present. You are focused on what you are doing right now. 

This reduces stress. 

Research highlighted by the American Psychological Association on goal setting and behavior shows that process-oriented thinking can improve persistence and reduce performance anxiety. When you are engaged in the process, you are less likely to become discouraged by slow results. 

Tracking Systems Makes Progress Visible Immediately 

One of the biggest advantages of tracking systems is that it creates immediate feedback. 

Each time you complete a part of your system, you have something to record. This could be as simple as checking off a task, logging time spent, or noting consistency. 

This feedback loop is important. 

It gives your brain evidence that you are moving forward. You do not have to wait for a large milestone to feel progress. You can see it in small, consistent actions. 

Over time, these small actions accumulate into significant results, but you are not dependent on those results to stay motivated. 

Adjusting the System Instead of Blaming Yourself 

When results do not match expectations, it is easy to take it personally. You might assume you are not working hard enough or that something is wrong with your approach. 

Tracking systems shifts that perspective. 

If something is not working, you adjust the system. You change the process, refine the steps, or experiment with a different approach. The focus stays on the method, not on self judgment. 

This creates a more constructive feedback loop. 

You are continuously improving how you operate, rather than questioning your ability. 

Why Systems Are More Sustainable Over Time 

Results based thinking often leads to burnout. The pressure to achieve a specific outcome can create stress, especially if progress is slow. 

Systems distribute that pressure. 

Because the focus is on consistent action, the workload becomes more manageable. You are not trying to achieve everything at once. You are building it over time. 

This makes it easier to sustain effort. 

Instead of pushing yourself in short bursts, you create a pace that you can maintain. This is what leads to long term success. 

Turning Systems Into a Personal Framework 

To make this approach work, you need to define systems that fit your goals. 

Start by identifying the actions that contribute to your desired outcome. Then turn those actions into repeatable steps. Make them specific and manageable. 

Track these steps consistently. The goal is not perfection, but continuity. 

You can also review your system regularly. Look at what is working and what is not. Make adjustments as needed. 

This turns your system into a flexible framework rather than a rigid plan. 

Letting Results Become a Byproduct 

The most interesting part of focusing on systems is what happens to results. 

They still matter, but they become a byproduct rather than the primary focus. 

When your system is consistent and effective, results tend to follow naturally. You do not need to chase them as aggressively because they emerge from the process. 

This creates a more stable and less stressful way to achieve your goals. 

You are no longer waiting for success to validate your effort. Your effort is already structured in a way that leads to progress. 

A More Reliable Way to Move Forward 

Tracking systems instead of results changes how you measure success. 

Success becomes about showing up, following your process, and making consistent improvements. Results still matter, but they are no longer the only indicator of progress. 

This approach creates a stronger foundation. 

It allows you to keep moving forward even when results are delayed. It reduces frustration and builds momentum through repetition. 

And over time, it leads to outcomes that are not only achieved, but sustained. 

Staff Writer; Peter Wall

Thus, I find it strange — and hypocritical — that McWhorter suggests that racism does in fact keep Blacks from being acknowledged for our achievements. However, McWhorter makes this argument differently than most of us do. The following is from the column that I referenced:

“McWhorter goes on to criticize Dr. Gay’s lack of scholarly output — as defined by academic articles and books written — in comparison to some of her predecessors. In short, he believes that Gay’s relative dearth of academic bona fides, especially in light of allegations of plagiarism, suggest that she was selected for her role due to her race rather than her qualifications.”

I wrote this in the context of McWhorter speaking out against Claudine Gay, the first African American, and second woman, to be selected as president of Harvard University. McWhorter strongly favored Gay resigning her role, which she eventually did. As he often does, McWhorter gave cover to racist presuppositions regarding alleged Black inferiority. But he is a hypocrite.

McWhorter is silent regarding mediocre white Americans who assume lofty leadership roles. As far as I am aware, he has said nothing about the menagerie of President Donald Trump’s appointees, many of whom do not come anywhere close to having the qualifications of their predecessors. These include Pete Hegseth, Linda McMahon, Robert Kennedy, Jr., Pam Bondi, Stephen Miller and many others.

Where is McWhorter’s outrage in those instances? To his “credit,” Trump frequently doesn’t even bother to pretend that his appointees are, by historical standards, qualified to hold their positions. Indeed, the only prerequisite is blind fealty.

I raise this issue after having read McWhorter’s recent essay titled “What A.I. and DEI have in common.” His argument is that AI casts a cloud of suspicion over students, causing professors, of whom McWhorter is one, to wonder whether their work is authentically theirs. He writes:

“A.I. will put artistic and intellectual achievement under a cloud of doubt, a sense that the creator did not do it all on their own, and possibly could not have. And this is the burden that D.E.I. policies often saddle its intended beneficiaries with. Call it diversity, equity and inclusion or affirmative action or racial preferences, it is rooted in a quest to give people an opportunity to compete more easily against straight white people, especially men.”

McWhorter doesn’t stop there, writing:

“Adjusting standards for admission or hiring in view of a group’s past handicap is a unique moral advance. But it should be applied for as limited a time as possible because of the side effects. Under a policy that allows certain people to be judged even partly on who they are rather than what they bring to the table, people of color are often suspected of being ‘D.E.I. hires,’ brought on with lesser qualifications than their white equivalent would be permitted to have.”

I have to point out the glaring logical flaw in this argument. McWhorter is so hyper-focused on policies that are intended to attenuate historical racial discrimination that he ignores the reality of contemporary discrimination against people of color.

And, more to the point, he ignores the unfair advantages that wealthy (most often white) people take advantage of without any concern whatsoever that they did not earn their privileges. Consider, for example, the scandal that erupted a few years ago when several elite schools were found to have admitted children of the wealthy and famous — children who would not otherwise have been admitted. The scandal included Stanford University, an alma mater that McWhorter and I have in common.

McWhorter also writes:

“D.E.I.’s good intentions come with the cost of a kind of benevolent overstep, which will inevitably leave onlookers skeptical of Black competence in general, as a mere five minutes on X can illustrate. Black college students often complain that their white and Asian peers assume they were admitted on the basis of affirmative action. And despite the Trumpian quest to eliminate D.E.I., my guess is that its basic imperatives, to even the playing field for people who aren’t white or male, are too ingrained in blue America’s DNA to fall completely by the wayside.”

Why should such efforts “fall completely by the wayside” given that the racism that gave rise to such efforts hasn’t done so? I am constantly astounded by how the concern about Black people being “qualified” does not extend to whites who benefited from power, proximity and privilege. If white people don’t feel guilty about taking advantage of such opportunities, why should Black people? Though, to be crystal clear, I am not arguing that DEI and affirmative action constitute discrimination against white people.

In effect, McWhorter, and countless others, are arguing that Black people are at fault for accepting corrective measures that were created to combat the racism that we still experience — nearly always from the people who oppose said corrective measures. This is a nonsensical tautology that inevitably results in aiding and abetting racial discrimination. It is pure fantasy to believe that centuries of racial discrimination will vanish when the policies that address said discrimination are dismantled.

I will never accept that the way to combat racial stereotypes is by giving in to those who perpetuate them.

Written by Larry Smith

One may contact this brother at; Larry@leaf-llc.com.

Also find more of his articles over at; Indianapolis Recorder.