Anthony Samad: The City of Los Angeles is trying to charge the festival over $180,000 to hold the African Marketplace for two weeks, in a public park. Now we know the City is having a hard time…but $180,000??? For what?
President Obama, BP, “Shake-downs” and Runaway “Joes:” Now I Know The Republicans Are Crazy
By
Anthony Samad: For a long time, we’ve known that the Republican Party was perceived as insensitive to the circumstances of the poor. We’ve seen it with Katrina, and with other policies that required special attention to the populous (including cutting off unemployment extensions this week). Now we can say that the Republican Party is just being unreasonable. I’d go as far as to call them, crazy.
Jury Selection “Blackout” in Oscar Grant Murder Case Troubling: LA Has Seen This Before
By
Anthony Samad: In the first week of the Oscar Grant – Johannes Mehserle trial, all five black juror prospects were dismissed. The racial make up of the jury was 100% non-black.
John Wooden: Understanding Race Equality and Character Through Sports
By
Anthony Samad: Coach John Wooden made players of various races and belief systems play together and forget about race and religion for forty minutes a game. The politics of race was well-known and well documented in college sports. While not as much of an issue today, in 1963, not many NCAA Division I schools had black players on their teams. Those that had one, only had one (or two). If they had one, the black player, in most instances, had to be the best player on the team—and could play.
Is America’s Second “Redemption Period” Coming To Fruition?
By
Anthony Samad: With a conservative court, you never know…we just may be witnessing something we never expected to see. Neither did those living during Reconstruction. Somebody is waiting to “redeem” America a second time. It may be the national debate of the 2012 or 2016 Presidential elections. We just need to know what that really means, in terms of the return to yesterday in America. It’s not impossible…
Qualifications of a Black Political Candidate?
By
Anthony Samad: The sophistication of the black voter is always called into question lately. The black community gets blamed when somebody’s issue (ballot initiative) doesn’t win or somebody’s candidate takes a fall…it’s the black voter’s fault. Voter turnout wasn’t high enough, or voters didn’t “get in” in time to make a difference. Most of the time, our community does get it.
Mutual Respect: The Passing of Bill Elkins and the Lessons of Growing Old
By
Anthony Samad: I’m sure many attended the service out of a deep love and friendship for Bill Elkins. I’m all were there in a show of deep respect to Bill Elkins. I know I was. A life lesson we often miss when we are young searching for respect, never understanding that it is earned in ways one least expects. Respect becomes mutual as time reveals the results of our stands. Sometimes it takes a passing to realize what the fight was really all about. We both wanted progress, just in different ways.
College Graduation Time: Family Pride & Commitment
By
Anthony Samad: While graduations have become passé’ and informal for some, the older generations dress up for the occasion like they’re going to church on Easter Sunday and praise, and shake, and shout, “Thank ya, Lordie” just as much. I always wondered why my Uncle Buddy always wore a tie to everybody’s graduation. He said it was to “honor them” for achieving something very special.
AB2727 – The Bradford/Bass Re-Entry Employment Opportunity Act: Addressing The Lifelong Challenges of Ex-Offenders (Not A Minute Too Soon)
By
Anthony Asadullah Samad: If California is serious at reducing its prison costs, ex-offenders will have to be re-trained and employers will have to be more tolerant of people trying to get their lives back on track. Is that even possible? One thing about American culture, as it relates to any offender, is that despite we profess to being a forgiving society, or want to redeem the best in those who have made mistakes, the truth of the matter is that it always lets the ex-offender know that they are just that, “ex-offenders.”
Republican Relativism as Radical Rhetoric
By
Anthony Asadullah Samad: It seems the Republicans need to pump themselves up every couple of months or so these days. It’s not so much that they are meeting that troubles me. It’s sorta like an AA meeting except here it’s where “ideologue-holics” come together and try to sober up on their 2008 Presidential defeat with new rhetoric that gets more and more extreme with each outing. This time, it was at the 2010 Southern Republican Convention in New Orleans that the more “radical” elements of the party come together to try to micromanage the Presidency and give a demented spin on the course of current affairs.
What Else Can Tiger Say? Just Play
By
Anthony Samad: Tiger’s always been a mass distraction to the PGA, but as long as it was favorable publicity that benefited the tour, raised purses and endorsement opportunities, it was okay. Tiger Woods is always going to be three things; Black, great and popular. I know Tiger thinks he’s Caublasian, but trust me on this one…that’s not working out real well for him.
21st Century Racism on UC San Diego’s Campus
By
Anthony Samad: For the past five weeks, one of the ugliest episodes of racism in recent years (before the Tea Partiers started spittin’ on people and calling Congress people “Nig**rs” and “Fag**ts” at the Congressional health care vote last weekend) has been playing out on a campus of one of the nation’s largest publicly funded university systems.
South LA’s Rail Transit Finally Breaks Ground
By
Anthony Samad: Both where the Crenshaw Line runs and where the Crenshaw Line stops should, and will, be at the center of community focus. The community made sure it got done. Now we all have to make sure it gets done right.
Black Leadership Succession: Diane Watson Did It Right
By
Anthony Asadullah Samad: People got mad love for Diane Watson, and she’s not one that we were going to let go the way of Dymally. She was going to go out on her terms. Nobody was going to force her out. But I, for one, am glad she did it right. It shows that black leaders can effectively ensure quality future leaders will continue their work.
Nothing But a (Tea) Party: Lessons in Obstructionist Politics
By
Anthony Samad: he Tea Party was no more than an attention grab. It was like a person who draws attention to themselves at the neighborhood block party by hoo-rawing. All the Tea Partiers said to the nation was, “Party over here!”
The Obamas’ First Year Living In The White House: And I’m Just Wondering…
By
Anthony Asadullah Samad: In fact, I wonder if the White House will still be “the White House” when the Obamas leave. You know America got that thing about living where we’ve lived and leaving once we come to the neighborhood. They might come back eventually…but usually not immediately after we’ve been there.
Has John Conyers Finally Conceded U.S. Reparations?
By
There seem to be some indications, however, that the sparse political will in Congress that has historically placed reparations on the legislative agenda may be waning. Michigan House member John Conyers may be giving up on his 20-year fight to legislate the case for slave reparations in America.
The White House Party Crashers: Now the Conspiracy Really Begins
By
I’m sure this is something President Obama will be mindful of from here on out. Was it truly a “mistake” or the beginning of another conspiracy?
LAPD’s New Police Chief Charlie Beck: Reformer or Redeemer?
By
Was Beck truly the best man for the job, or a nice parting gift to Bratton and a pacification gift the Police Protection League. We certainly shouldn’t be afraid to ask the question, as suspicious as it sounds.
The Black Men’s New “Little Black Book”
By
Changing the mindset of black men to see a doctor is a difficult one. Fear of doctors is tied to a vestige of slavery where black male illness was totally ignored. Distrusting doctors has a long history, even before the Tuskegee experiment.
One Year Later: Ten Things President Obama HAS Done Since He’s Been in Office
By
People need to stop complaining that he hasn’t done enough. Obama was elected President. He wasn’t elected Jesus. Like Al Sharpton said on Meet The Press this weekend, “we now realize that Obama doesn’t walk on water, but he’s still the fastest swimmer in America.”
Black Unity: Can It Ever Happen?
By
The fact is, if we had waited for Black unity to come about on the simple question of whether Barack’s candidacy was credible before we supported him, Obama would have never been elected, because the divide was in evidence and deeply entrenched.
Why President Obama Won The Nobel Peace Prize
By
Whether President Obama is to be tolerated or followed is still playing out, but what is clear is that the world is ready to follow his lead. The world is also watching to see if Obama’s election was a sincere transition toward a different “change” mindset or a false signal while America ideologically recasts itself.
Weighing In On “Black Strategic Alternatives” For Education (and Anything Else)
By
For the past three years, a group of black men within 100 Black Men of Los Angeles have been studying the successful publicly funded single-gender school of our New York chapter, The Eagle Academy for Excellence, as a possible solution to the dilemma facing black boys in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).
Community Compromise Sown By Revenge
By
So when the community went with Ridley-Thomas, Parks went to the feds and the newspapers. The L.A. Times, always willing to get in the middle of a good community fight, took it and ran with it.
Kanye, Serena and Dumb Sh*t
By
Yes, Serena is a rebel. She rebels in her dress, her intensity, and her ability to overcome unwarranted criticism. Yelling at the linesman “John McEnroe” style doesn’t become her. Hell, it didn’t become him. It was dumb sh*t when he did it, too.
PCL offers monthly Open House Events on the 2nd Saturday at 2pm and 3rd Thursday at 6pm. Click here to learn more.
Who’s Who In Black Los Angeles: Who Really Wants To Know and What Is This Really About?
Anthony Asadullah Samad: Guess who discovered Who’s Who In Black Los Angeles after two years? Before you ask, I really wanted to feature a Los Angeles Times editor in Who’s Who in Black Los Angeles. Really. The problem is, there is not a single African American among those who make coverage decisions for the paper. In hindsight, it probably was a mistake not to include the one black man on the paper’s full-time Metro reporting staff. That brother deserves a special award for what I imagine he goes through everyday. Well, maybe next year.