(ThyBlackMan.com) I noticed that the rapper Ja Rule is headed to prison this week to begin a two-year sentence on a weapons charge. Being caught with a gun in New York is no joke, especially when you’re black. The NYPD stops and searches black males at alarming rates, and the state has ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) Radical conservative politicians want to slash city, county and state jobs — and undercut the economic security of African-American families, says this union official. When I was growing up in Cleveland, some of the most respected people in my neighborhood were the folks who worked for the city, county ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) Gil Scott Heron (1949-2011) was more than a legendary entertainer. He was a social and political visionary that helped to inspire generations of young gifted and talent poets, spoken word artists, rappers, and a global cadre of musical and cultural satirists that have contributed to the irreversible, progressive transformations ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) The images are jarring. Photos of children with signs saying “NAACP, drop the lawsuit” and “NAACP, unite us, don’t divide us.” Video clips of parents, teachers and community leaders urging the NAACP to put the education of children first and to stop supporting the status quo. It was so ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) Each year I watch the McDonald’s High School All-American basketball game and try to determine who’s going to be the next NBA great. Watching LeBron James, Kobe Bryant or Kevin Garnett, it was easy to see they were going to be stars, but many times the potential for stardom ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) “Ok so I’m obviously not a racist, but there’s a bunch of black people at the beach by my building and a piece of watermelon just washed up on shore by me, just sayin’ ” (via http://notaracistbut.tumblr.com*) “Is it gay for a man to get a pedicure and then ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) “It started here in a log cabin and a cotton patch. If it hadn’t been for Benjamin Mays, there probably wouldn’t have been a Martin Luther King.” So said Ambassador Andrew Young as he spoke at the dedication of the Benjamin E. Mays Historical Preservation Site in Greenwood, South ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) I respect and appreciate Rev. Al Sharpton’s hustle and his commitment to Black America, and I can’t begin to challenge his accomplishments. But what I can challenge is his ongoing “us versus them” chatter, and his denouncing of anyone who disagrees with his views. Rev. Sharpton uses his radio ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) This month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its unemployment data for the month of May. The unemployment rate for the African American community went up from 16.1 percent to 16.2 percent. Black males, who already had the highest unemployment rate of any ethnic/gender category, saw their joblessness rise ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) It was April 4th, 1968 and a coward’s shot rang from the distance. The target: a brave man. It was a mild 90-degree’s on that day. If one searched, no breeze could be found from the east or the west nor the north or the south in Memphis, Tenn. ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) Former Black Panther Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt died Thursday in Tanzania, according to his attorney. Pratt spent 27 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. He died at the age of 63, and authorities do not yet know his exact cause of death. “He could’ve been a ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) On June 1st Kathy Hochul (D-NY) was sworn in as the newest member of Congress. She won her seat in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Republican Chris Lee in New York’s 26th District, pulling off what many consider to be the biggest political upset since ...