What Blacks Need to do NOW

[CrimsonTide4]

WHAT BLACK PEOPLE NEED TO DO NOW
by Tavis Smiley

What Black people need to do now ... not worry about stem cell research or cloning, cause they ain't thinking about using us on any one of them.

What Black people need to do now ... invest in businesses in Harlem while Clinton is still there and then sell it before Hillary moves his behind back to Manhattan.

What Black people need to do now ... support Ilyanna and Amanda the way that white folks supported Rosie. perhaps they mean Iyanla and Ananda

What Black people need to do now ... stop wearing Capri pants when your ankles look like you been kicking white flour.

What Black people need to do now ... is realize there is a difference between being Ghetto and being tasteless. There is a difference, y'all.

What Black people need to do now ... recognize that Spike Lee and Keenan Ivory Wayan's true legacy might not be in film making but in discovering talent and granting opportunities. I challenge you to look at their resumes these guys have put forth for Black America and America to consider.

What Black people need to do now ... be afraid right now of the next Eminem.

What Black people need to do now ... don't let white America hold Jesse Sr.'s infidelity against Jesse Jr.'s burgeoning career. Can't let that happen folks.

What Black people need to do now ... keep supporting FUBU, Sean John and Phat Farm. I think this plan is working.

What Black people need to do now ... somebody please find Starr Jones a man.

What Black people need to do now ... after the Gospel Slide we need to stop it right there y'all. We done gone too far now.

What Black people need to do now ... recognize that Jill Scott might be the Maya Angelou of our generation and hope that white folks don't try to steal her from us.

What Black people need to do now ... stop aspiring to Harvard while good schools like [Albany State University], [Clark Atlanta University], Howard, Hampton [and Tougaloo] are still open.

What Black people need to do now ... wonder why every color M&M's have gotten a commercial except the brown ones.

What Black people need to do now ... is stop calling our two year old kids smart and cute just because they know the words to the nasty songs on the videos.

What Black people need to do now ... stop going on job interviews dressed like you going to a party.

What Black people need to do now ... stop trying to win money on those survival type games on TV. Just like in the movies, we are always the first ones to get voted out. Get real, y'all.

What Black people need to do now ... they need to know as much about investing in the stock market as we do about all the characteristics of the Zodiac signs. Ask average Black folk what the NASDAQ is, they don't know nothing, but tell them you're a Scorpio and they will give you the low down!!!

What Black people need to do now ... need to get their bank accounts and credit cards out of the red instead of walking around with all their teeth covered in gold, especially if you're still riding the bus and living at 'yo Momma house'.

What Black people need to do now ... need to stop naming our kids after liquor and expensive cars. I've had enough of that.

What Black people need to do now ... need to stop getting mad when their boss tells them to get off the phone at work and you've been on a two hour personal phone call. 'Why you mad about that?'

What Black people need to do now ... need to learn how to dab just a little cologne and not the whole bottle.

What Black people need to do now ... turn down the volume on our TVs and CD players so we can stop walking around talking so loud all the time.

What Black people need to do now ... stop spending 40 to 50 million dollars to build a church and you walk outside on the same street stepping over homeless folks.

Can I get a witness!!!


This does not sound like TAVIS to me, but tell me what do you think BLACK FOLKS need to do now.

[ClassyLady]

Originally posted by CrimsonTide4
This does not sound like TAVIS to me, but tell me what do you think BLACK FOLKS need to do now.

I don't think that Tavis wrote this either, although it made some very good points. I just can't imagine Tavis being worried about whether or not Starr Jones has a man. I think this may be from the same source that wrote that "Maya Angelou" poem that has been circling the web for a century.

[CrimsonTide4]

What Blacks need to do now. . .

*Get their children to the library on a regular basis. I assigned a Black History Month project to my students and limited them to 2 internet websites. I told them they had to use books. I had a kid tell me he had not been to the library in 5 years. GTHOOH!! Another kid cannot find his library card, I told him to ask his mother for hers; she does not have one!! SAM.

*Teach your children about Black History beyond Martin, Malcolm, Harriet, Rosa. . . it makes no sense that these kids do not know who Gordon Parks is; have never heard of Lewis Lattimer or Garrett Morgan; that all the perm wearers of America have no clue who Madame C. J. Walker is.

*Show your kids ROOTS. . . oh and tell them that it is a book too. Last week, my Black fact was: Alex Haley, author of Roots, Queen, and Mama Flora's Family died. These kids were shocked that he wrote all of those books.

*Show your kids movies about the legacies of Blacks. This does not mean showing them Friday, Next Friday, and Friday After Next.
I mean show them ROOTS, QUEEN, ROSEWOOD, The Learning Tree, To Kill A Mockingbird, etc. etc. etc.

*Teach your kids some dayum manners. It pains me when I give a child something and they don't say thank you.

*Teach your kids that ignorance is NOT BLISS!!

*Value BOOKS and EDUCATION more than the BLING!!

[blueGBI]

What blacks need to do now:


Stop watching BET and MTV and start reading a book! That cannot be stressed enough!

Stop thinking that you can be like the rappers on tv.

Stop thinking that you can hustle your way through life.

Stop thinking that if you're cute and have a nice body you'll find a hustler/rapper/baller who'll take care of you and let you spend his money for the rest of your life.

Its sad to me as a college attending female to see my peers wasting their lives in the worthless pursuit of fast money that brings more heartache than pleasure.

[RedefinedDiva]

Originally posted by CrimsonTide4
This does not sound like TAVIS to me, but tell me what do you think BLACK FOLKS need to do now. [/B]

Actually, I think that Tavis did write these. He usually does these once a month or so on the TJMS. They are quite funny and factual. I also think that he has said something about Starr Jones because J. Anthony Brown an' 'nem are ALWAYS blowing on Starr! They love cracking on her!


Anyway, I think Black folks need to know that all Black folks that make it out of the hood are NOT stuck up and sell outs. Can Black people have stuff too? Why should we be comfortable in the hood forever?

[Afrochic]

What Blacks need to do now

Teach your children to respect adults.

Teach your children the value of money.

Realize that you don't have to make white folks rich to look good. Spending hundreds of dollars for shoes is not impressive, but having AT LEAST one hundred dollars worth of books that you have read in your home is.

Teach your children to love what they see in the mirror and don't be brainwashed into believing the media's standards of beauty.

Wake up and realize that when you named your child Boomqueisha Sakajaweiah, she has to work that much harder.

Teach your children about the great accomplishments and contributions Blacks have made and are making.

Teach your children to have a voice and question issues or ideas. Just because the school books says what it says doesn't necessarily make it the law of the land, i.e. Christopher Columbus.

Education opens doors. Don't let the door close in your face because being smart is not "cool."

[NinjaPoodle]

[CrimsonTide4]

I forgot some. . .

BLACK FOLKS. . . STOP going on talk shows looking like a straight up and down ignant azz. Some of you all are modern day minstrels on these shows.

If I see one more Black woman on there getting multiple paternity tests from multiple partners, I will scream.

If I see another Black man on the show vehemently deny that the child is his, yet the results come back and it is his and he still acts like an azz, I will scream.

If I see another paternity test grandmother on the show calling her grandchild's mother a hoe, slut, tramp, etc. but when the results come back she wants to be her best friend, I will scream.

If I see another lie detector test show, where dumb azzes had to come all the way to NY or CHI to get "proof" that the man really did cheat on you 9911 times even though you had tangible proof before the show, I will scream.

I will scream louder if you come on the show, find out he WAS cheating, but on a follow up show you two are still together.

[Dionysus]

Originally posted by Afrochic
Wake up and realize that when you named your child Boomqueisha Sakajaweiah, she has to work that much harder.

LOL! That one beats my LaShaquandra Tamika Jackson King!

Anyway, black men need to learn how to approach us with some d*mn TACT! "Psssssssst...hey girl...whacho name illlzzz?" doesn't cut it.

[Afrochic]

Originally posted by Dionysus
LOL! That one beats my LaShaquandra Tamika Jackson King!

Boomqueisha was named after her daddy.....Boomqueshon.

Here's more

You don't have to make every attempt to name your daughters after their fathers......Daryl-----Darylena.........Richard....Richelle

If you haven't gotten that English thing down pat, walk swiftly to the nearest exit anytime you see the news reporters looking for people to interview. Don't embarass yourself or let others embarass you.

Realize title loan and quick cash places are works of the devil lol. There's a reason why these places are in low income communities. Don't fall prey.

Get a bank account and stop cashing payroll checks at grocery stores. Also your mattress is not FDIC insured, so stop hiding your money there.

If your car note is twice the amount of your rent/mortgage, your priorities are not in order. If your car rims and/or alarm exceeds the amount you pay to take care of your child(ren), read the above about priorities.

[CrimsonTide4]

Originally posted by Afrochic
Richard....Richelle

DAYUMMIT I OBJECT!!!! My daddy's name was Richard and RICHELLE is my middle name.

[Afrochic]

Originally posted by CrimsonTide4
DAYUMMIT I OBJECT!!!! My daddy's name was Richard and RICHELLE is my middle name.

Sorry, I made it up. Your name is pronounced Rich-elle?
It's meant to be pronounced Rich-ail and not like the singer Rachelle Farrell.

If it's Rich-ail, oh well, cause I meant what I said about that lol.

[CrimsonTide4]

Originally posted by Afrochic
Sorry, I made it up. Your name is pronounced Rich-elle?

Oh well lol.

HAYLE no!! It is spelled that way but pronounced RI SHELL.

[Phasad1913]

"If you haven't gotten that English thing down pat, walk swiftly to the nearest exit anytime you see the news reporters looking for people to interview. Don't embarass yourself or let others embarass you."


Hi everyone, I haven't posted in a while, but I do still check in a read pretty much everyday. This thread is one that I felt I HAD to respond to. The one thing (right now) that really bothers me about my beloved people is how badly we speak. I work in an academic setting, a college to be exact, and as I walk down the hallway my ears hurt. I hear the most broken english and more four letter words than regualr ones. I cannot understand what we have to speak sub-standard english all the time. I also don't understand why it bothers me so much. I suppose it because I know we can do better and that all of us don't speak this way. But when we do, it gets so much attention and it feeds the already insulting stereotypes. I asked my mom about it and she told me that pretty much the way we talk is a dialect that has been passed down in various forms from the era when blacks were not able to read and write by law, then on to the times when we were unable to attend schools with qualified, educated teachers and the ones who were trained were not as adaquately trained, due to segragation, as white teachers. I understand this, but isn't there SOMETHING we can do about this now? I just hate that embarrassed feeling when I am around people who don't speak properly and whites because its like I can hear what they are saying in their minds about us. I feel the same way when I watch the news and they bring someone on live to comment on something that has occured. Its terrible. Don't get me wrong, I care more about us helping each other get pass the problems of the past which have led to many of the problems we face today such as literacy than I do what some white person thinks, but it is embarrassing and I have to admit that. For instance, when someone makes a generalized statement such as "black folks can't speak english" or "black people are ignorant and can't learn", it irritates me not only because I know it isn't true obviously, but more so because how can we continue top argue for all of the things we do as a community when our young people DO do the things we are joking about in this thread or like I see everyday which is sit in classes day in and day out but speak incorrectly in the classes and among each other. I have to cut this off now, but I think you all get my drift.

[CrimsonTide4]

Black Folks need to . . . stop blaming the girls in the R. Kelly porn and realize that R. KElly was the adult in the situation no matter how demented he is. They also need to stop thinking that because the girls looked like they were "enjoying" the sex that they are not still somebody's child who was violated.