Going Hip Hop-less

After One Weeks Absence Venus Rocks Back

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The Culture of Disrespect:

From The Message To The Conversation
Why Black America's Self-Examination Needs To Go Beyond Hip-Hop And Get Real
By Bryan Monroe

This whole thing started with three words.

“Nappy-Headed Hos.”

We were outraged when a 66-year-old White man used the public airwaves to carelessly hurl that insult at the women of Rutgers University’s basketball team. America rose up, confronted his sponsors and his networks, and he was fired. And he should have been.

But, in the midst of the Imus storm, it was amazing how fast the conversations in the media shifted from the vile and awful things that came out of his mouth to the vile and awful things that sometimes come out of the mouths of rappers, entertainers and everyday people. “The rappers made me do it,” we were asked to believe.

But we know better.

We know that while there are elements of today’s music that celebrate the deprecation of Black women, there are also elements that celebrate the beauty and power and grace of Black women.

We know that just as we see some young people on the streets or in the clubs or at the barbecues using words that drag us down, there are many other young people on the playground or the college quad or the coffee shop who embrace words that lift us up.

Nevertheless, we also know that, across Black America, we do have issues. We have allowed parts of our culture to go downhill. We have become numb to the words some use to describe our Brothers and Sisters. And some of us don’t really care. click here for full article

Eyes Remain on the Prize

Battleground Minnesota

Bell Hooks on Rap

Bell Hooks gives an amazing acount of the machinary that produces

the vulgarity that we see and hear in rap

 

Happy Ending

Drugs have taken Chris's mom out of his life but not out of his heart. In this personal travelogue, he goes to Philadelphia in search of a happy ending.



This film is licenced under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by- nc-nd/2.0/legalcode). Credits: Director:Chris Irrizarry, Producer:HBO Young Filmmaker Lab (more) (less)

Experts worry that coed classrooms geared to girls put their counterparts at a disadvantage

For more than a decade, the conventional wisdom has been that schools have shortchanged girls, who were ignored in the classroom as they lagged behind in math and science.

But now a growing chorus of educators and advocates for boys is turning that notion upside down.

Boys are the ones in trouble, they say. They are trailing girls in reading and writing, are more likely to get in trouble or be labeled as learning disabled, and are less likely to go to college.

The educators, citing emerging brain research, say that the two sexes learn differently and that schools are more geared to girls than to their ants-in-the-pants counterparts. But they are adopting strategies to help boys succeed, from playing multiplication baseball to handing out stress balls and setting up boys-only schools. click here for article

Online resources

For more information about boys' and girls' learning styles and single-sex classrooms, go to:

www.gurianinstitute.com

www.singlesexschools.org

links.sfgate.com/ZHK

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BY THE NUMBERS

2.5: The number of times boys are more likely than girls to be suspended from school.

3.4: The number of times boys are more likely than girls to be expelled from school.

66: Roughly the percentage of special education students who are male.

10: Roughly the percentage of boys who have learning disabilities, compared with 6 percent of girls.

2.5: The number of times boys are more likely than girls to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

3: The number of times faster that women's undergraduate enrollment in college has risen compared with men since 1970.

57: The percentage of college students who are women.

E-mail Janine DeFao at jdefao@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Big Up Daddy-How to Be a Good Parent in these Troubled Times

By Jeff Carroll

When I heard there was an anthology about The Responsibility of Blackmen I immediately got excited. I forwarded the email to all my friends who are fathers and encouraged them to share their opinions. This subject is so important for us to discuss because of the growing number of shared custody families and the high number of single parent families that already exist. Since, I became father in 2002 I have been experiencing aspects of life differently. Call it parental instinct or assuming responsibility or whatever but I fully recognize the effect that having a child has on a person. I am the only child of happily married parents and being exposed to both the male and female parents in my life allowed me to see first the roles that both parents can play.

Today in America there is so much confusion around the importance of the male parent and his role. I remember when I was in College Sister Souljah organized the "GET BUSY" tour and it featured student leaders like Ras Baraka who was student body President of Howard University. The Tour also, featured rap artists like KRS-ONE and Doug E Fresh. Doug E Fresh said something I always think about when the subject of male parenting comes up. Doug described the role of father as FUR therhood from farther. He explained fathers are supposed to take their children further in the growth of a man then they are. I not only believe this is important for men but, women as well. There are many aspects of being a good father these are the aspects I feel are the most important.

The Challenge of being a parent.

African American parents and all parents have the responsibility to further their children's growth in the understanding of life and behavior as human beings. Due to the intensity of the years of captivity by Europeans, African Americans had to overcome circumstances that have driven their social behaviors, morals and ethics downward. The morals of Africans that African Americans once practiced are currently practiced by African Americans who study African Culture or who have reformed Christianity and other religions. These African practices which are referred to by Africans as tradition tribal behavior are what allow African Countries the opportunity to enjoy low divorce rates and less number of single parent families. Countries like Ghana which have a large "Traditionalist" community are just now dealing with higher levels of divorce and single parent families because of increased European social influence. As Africans in America it is our responsibility to learn from our African Tribal beliefs and practice ways to improve our social interaction and take society further and further to where single parented families are a distant memory.


What a child needs from the male parent.


When my wife was pregnant I would practice explaining things to my unborn child in my head. I thought of ways of how to get him or her to learn from my mistakes and stand on my knowledge and build on it. I also, thought of what my child would ask of me. When I look at the behavior of some fathers I don't think they think of their child's needs when they do things. All children need to play and learn from their parents. They need their fathers to talk to them and not just give orders. Many people believe the woman is the parent who should raise the children and that the man should just earn the money. Well, not only is it difficult but, it may not be the best way. Intimate interaction with one's father allows the child the opportunity to see more than just one dimension of male behavior. Children need to see their father's laugh and cry. They need to see the fathers be serious and be silly, strong and sensitive. Seeing all of the dimensions of man through their father's actions helps them get a better understanding of themselves. Many people suffer from gender confusion because they think men aren't supposed to cry or be sensitive towards pain. This is the very same aspect of manhood rapper Kanye West mentioned in a MTV interview. Female children need to see their fathers conducting themselves like responsible men so the can have high standards for the men they choose to bring into their lives. We need to adopt this present father philosophy instead the absentee father who doesn't think he needs to be active in their child's life until their teenage years. Children need their fathers to just be disciplined and to change diapers as well.

Your life must be an example.

It was after I came back from college that I had some of the best conversations with my parents. I experienced enough in my own life independently that I could share my own stories with them. Talking to my parents about their adolescent years helped me understand the reasons behind the rules they raised me under in high school. My parent's history was my history. Learning their histories helped me understand myself better. This self awareness helped me navigate my future. Parents especially fathers can use their history to guide their children through challenging life decisions. Stories about dating peer pressure and fighting are better than just laying down rules. Through stories a parent is able to guide not tell and for fathers it is an excellent tool to master. Using an educated critical analyst of one's life is a very easy way to positively impact the growth of your child.

The importance of being a good husband.

Now, I know single dads are mad at me for saying this but, it is true. It is important to not only show your child how to get up and go to work everyday and relate to other men but, it is just as important for men to show his child how he respects and relates to their mother and other women. Now, for single dads developing an honest relationship with a woman is invaluable. Shared custody fathers need to have a relationship with their child's mother. If these relationships are either underdeveloped or confrontational it will negatively impact the child. Even when the biological parents have irreconcilable differences fathers still need to seek out a woman to develop healthy relationship with and demonstrate the behavior of a good male companion.

The Importance of being a good son

As an only child I really had no choice of being an attentive child. When my father got ill with Alzheimer's disease my mother had to take an early retirement and I had to assist her. The period of caring for my father allowed me to be viewed as a different person by my mother. Knowing I helped take care of my father and made his transition easier makes me feel more of a complete person. My friends, family and other elders in my community now look at me in different way, a more responsible way. Loving your parents and displaying love helps young people around understand we are all connected. Being a good son is not a sign of weakness but, of maturity. What kind of man disrespects his/her own parents? Learning how to display this behavior doesn't mean you let your parents tell you what to do. Being a good son means you respect the things your parents tell you and listen to them. If you disagree with your parents, it's fine, just do it with respect you advise when they get old. Showing that you can be a good son will help your child be more respectful to their parents.

Our responsibility to each other

Parents do not parent in isolation. Society greatly influences our children. It is narrow to think a father should only parent or mentor their own children. Families function in communities and cities that are made up of a lot communities and society is influenced by what happens in our cities. Many of the negative values that our children pick up are from parents who raise their children one way and pollute the society with negative values. It's like crabs in a barrel when we treat other children different than we treat our own. Caring is caring. If a father really cares about their children's lives that caring feelings should carry over to their child's school, the play ground, their friends, the neighborhood and society in general. Children also learn from parents how to care for society and learn not to be selfish. We can't call each brothers and sister without treating them with the respect of brothers and sisters.

Being a father can help your understand life

Understanding and mastering the qualities of fatherhood help men learn their purpose in life. Humans are just a different species of animal and therefore just like animals we have a connectedness to the world and each other. Being a father helps a man learn how he connects to the past, present and future. We have a place in time and the universe. Parenting biological children or the children of the community is mutually beneficial. Understand your purpose in life can be learned through studying your history. Through understanding your purpose you can fulfill your destiny. Through understanding and fulfilling your destiny you are better able to help your children and other children learn and fulfill theirs.

The importance of analyzing your childhood.

Since, we only have one childhood in our lives it is important that we critically and honestly analyze our own upbringing if we are going to be good fathers and parents. A person's childhood gives them their personal bias or perspective which helps them understand how other people feel different from them. If you feel you were unattractive while growing up as an adult you maybe able to understand children who posses similar feelings. In addition when you understand firsthand your own perspective you can consciously seek out people who see things different than you and learn why they feel different from you. Children are individual people and your child may have a different view on life then yours. The better you are able to understand other perspectives the greater chances you have at being a father and relating to your child.

The valve of being a complete man.

Being a father did not complete me as a man but, helped me see how to become a complete man. There are many phases in life and of a human's growth and parenting is simply one of the phases. We are born not knowing how to go to the bathroom on our own. Our parents teach us. We then go through the phases of mastering what we have learned from our parents. Then it is our responsibility to teach the next generation. Teaching others makes you feel complete in your mission in life. This information wasn't only for you and it is not yours to keep. It is yours to share. Your life lessons are for you to pass on to your children and future generations. Participating in all of these phases help you become a complete man.

So, I give props to all of the men who are trying to be good fathers. To these men I say Big up Daddy and keep up the good work. To my brothers who give into counter productive ways and have excuses for why they aren't being fathers to their seeds I say no matter how hard it is, it is something we must do. It is a crime to have a child and not father them.

Peace,

Venus can taste the Coconuts

Another tasteful blend

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The Place for Fathers

Fathers Direct, the national information centre on fatherhood. We're here to help you harness the full potential of fatherhood with news, training information, policy updates, research summaries and guides for supporting fathers and their families.

FD is an excellent resource from the UK dealing with nearly every aspect of fatherhood

In the area that addresses African and Carribean fathers there's the article  Black dads drop the bling bling tag

"€œWhat we want to do is celebrate black manhood. From black men that drive the bus and those that go to the office to those that are providing emotionally and materially for their children. There are a great many men that do fulfil that role but there is this unending focus on the destructive element within the black man." click above for the article

Does it EVER end? Iberia Airlines Depicts Black Cuban Women as Sex Workers?

The ad violates a 1988 Spanish law that prohibits advertising that is denigrating to groups of people. In this case, Sánchez said, the video was demeaning not only to tourism workers, but Cuban women and Cubans. The organization complained about the ad last week and Iberia pulled it four days later, he said. Advertising professors are requesting copies so they can show them to students as an illustration of what not to do, he added.Wow. Yay. Consumers in Action Federation! They are known as FACUA in Spanish. You can find their translated page here. Wouldn't it be nice to have US consumer groups lead the battle against negative portrayals of African American women? Alas, it is not to be. We'll have to do it ourselves.

Alive & Well

In this interview BET president and writer Reginald Hudlin gives an update on the Black Panther

Tomorrow

If you are in Oakland CA

Venus is Afraid of Americans

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Cope Care Deal

Seeing the Signs

Understanding the warning signs for mental health problems may help you recognize if someone you care about is suffering from depression or another mental health illness. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, an agency that focuses on the health of Americans, warning signs of depression include:

• Feeling sad or down a lot of the time (Rather than feeling sad, some teens may have angry outbursts, feel cranky, or cry more.)
• Not being able to fall asleep, stay asleep, or feel rested
• Sleeping too much, taking naps, or going to bed early to avoid dealing with life
• Losing weight, gaining weight, or losing interest in food
• Experiencing physical symptoms such as feeling tired, headaches, or upset stomach
• Having problems at school such as dropping grades or getting into trouble
• Losing interest in favorite activities like sports, music, or art, or feeling bored all the time
• Not hanging out with friends and turning down invitations to do things
• Feeling hopeless about the future
• Having thoughts about death or suicide
  

Other mental health illnesses that are more common in teens include anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. Visit the Mind Zone to learn about warning signs and other facts.

Shift Happens

Davey D's List of Hip Hop Anti-War Songs

Below is a list of other anti-war songs that just aren't being played by the Clear Channels, Viacoms, Infinities, Emmis', Radio Ones and other corporate media outlets of the world.. Call up your local station and ask why?
If I missed any songs please drop me a line mrdaveyd@aol.com

WHAT ABOUT US?-Hard Knock Records compilation' 'PEACE NOT WAR' [www.peace-not-war.org][double cd compilation] WAR TIMES 'Reports From the Opposition' [Bay Area Compilation] 2PAC 'Never B Peace' 2PAC 'War' AK9INE 'Let My Nine Ring' AFRIKA BAMBAATAA 'World Destruction' AZEEM 'George Bush Is A Gangsta' BEASTIE BOYS 'In A World Gone Mad' BLUE SCHOLARS 'Back Home' BLUE SCHOLARS 'Blink' BROTHER ALI 'Letter From the Government' CHUCK D & FINE ARTS MILITIA 'Twisted Sense of God' CHUCK D & FINE ARTS MILITIA 'Twisted Sense of God pt 2' COMPANY OF PROPHETS 'Hush' [War Times LP] CONSOLIDATED 'We Gotta Have Peace' CRACK EMCEE 'Hoeing For George' CRACK EMCEE 'Red, White & Blue' DEAD PREZ 'Know Your Enemy' DEAD PREZ & The COUP 'Get Up' DEAD PREZ 'Revolution' DEAD PREZ 'War' DE LA SOUL 'Held Down' DENIZEN KANE 'Lost Found Nation' DIGITAL UNDERGROUND, PARIS, SWAY & TECH 'Time For Peace' DILATED PEOPLES 'War' DJ DISORIENTALIST 'Occident & Emergency' DJ KUTTIN KANDI '9-11' spoken word piece DJ SPINNA 'Fly or Burn' DJ VADIM 'Pacifist' DJ VADIM 'Ghetto Rebel' EMINEM 'Mosh' EUPHRATES 'Oil Slick' EUPHRATES 'Haliburton' EUPHRATES 'Spider in the Hole' EUPHRATES 'IRAQ' EYDEA and ABILITIES 'Murder of Memories' ERIC B & RAKIM 'Casualties of War' FELONIOUS 'Protest' FREDWRECK w/ WC, Defari, RBX, Dilated Peoples, SoopaFly, Daz, 'Down with Us' FREDWRECK w/ KRs, Mobb Deep, Cypress Hill, Westside Connection 'Dera Mr President' FUNDAMENTAL 'Rape [Tactic of War]' GOAPELE 'Red, White and Blue'[War Times LP] GRIME 'Everywhere is War' HANNIFAH WALIDAH 'Soldierman'[War Times LP] HASSAN SALAAM 'Speak the Truth' IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE 'Bin Laden' JAHI 'Neva The Same' JAZZY JEFF AND RAHIEM 'My People' J-LIVE 'Satisfied' JURASSIC 5 'Freedom' KNOWN ASSOCIATES 'World So Cold' KNOCTURNAL 'War' KOS 'Heaven Only Knows' KRS-ONE'Soldier' KRS-ONE'World Peace' LUPE FIASCO 'American Terrorist' MELE-MEL 'World War III' ME'SHELL NDEGEOCELLO 'God Bless America' MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD 'We Can Bomb The World to Pieces' MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD 'Water Pistol Man' MICHAEL FRANTI & DISPOSABLE HEROES 'Satanic Reverses' MR LIF 'Home of the Brave' MUD FAMILY 'Peace Not War' NAS 'Rule' NAS & JAY-Z'Rule'rmx NAS'My Country' NATIVE GUNS 'Treason' NIDIRAH SHAKOOR 'Winds of Karma' NO THE PIPER of FLIPSYDE 'God Bless America' NO THE PIPER of FLIPSYDE 'US History' PARIS 'What Would You Do?' PARIS'Sheep to Slaughter' PERCEPTION 'Memorial Day' PUBLIC ENEMY 'Son of a Bush' PUBLIC ENEMY 'Black Steel In the Hour of Chaos' PUBLIC ENEMY 'Make Love Fuck War' QUEEN LATIFAH 'The Evil That Men Do' RAPPIN 4TAY w/ Congressman Dennis Kucinich 'Weapons of Mass Distraction' RED GUARD 'United We Stand' [War Times LP] SAIGON'Kiss the Babies' SAGE FRANCIS 'Make Shift Patriot' SAUL WILLIAMS 'Not In Our Name' SAUL WILLIAMS 'Anti-War Freestyle' SAMANTHA LIAPES 'Masters of War' [War Times LP] SELF SCIENTIFIC'Better Days' SNOOP DOGG 'Brothers and Sisters' TALIB KWELI 'The Proud' THREE TIMES DOPE 'Peace Ya Self' WYCLEF JEAN 'War No More' ZACK DE LA ROCA 'March of Death'

Venus is Back on Track

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