Rarely Seen Film "King: A Filmed Record" Traces MLK’s Struggle From Montgomery to Memphis

Brilliant Dumb: Notes on a Lost Generation

The temporal distinction between the generations in terms of temperament and belief orientations is vastly opposite today. So much so that the purview of a man approaching 50 in the African American community is a diametric contrast to a man in the same community approaching the age of 30. In years past this was not the case either in the 1960s or the immediate decades to follow.

Just yesterday I had a discussion with a man on a social media platform which started when I noted that young African Americans appeared to be more excited and interested in the release of a rapper from prison than Mumia Abu Jamal remaining in prison. Our back in forth in which he defended and justified this interest , ended with him suggesting that I did not include white supremacy in my asserting that such an interest is why young black men can’t read or do math yet adore a man who’s music basically encourages sociopathic behavior among them as being appropriate and acceptable.

Truth is that white supremacy was the context and barometer of the time in which I was raised more so than his and always will exist as such. More importantly it was not an excuse for inaction as it seems to be for this current generation.

The differences are several. First reasoning and critical thinking has been lost and the current generation is much less serious about attending to the problems confronting our community. Historically reading in itself was a revolutionary act making education our best weapon in the fight against inequality. I was raised in a family that read voraciously. Even to this day I read the “weekly standard” and “National Review” – republican slanted publications that many around the age of 30 who are black will never pick up simply because they disagree with republicans. Information has no political affiliation and if one ignores the views of others because you disagree with them, we limit our intellectually capacity to recognize and solve our problems strategically. But if such is stated, this generation will likely get defensive as opposed to respect and address this concern openly in an objective fashion.

This generation has tools that past generations did not have. Martin King or Rosa Parks or the Black Panthers did not have fax machines, email or face book was were way more effective organizers and getting issues of civil rights dealt with on behalf of our community. Yet with these tools, they do not or are unwilling to mobilize the masses for social change because they are not serious and ignore the fact they place celebrity, entertainment and other mundane abstractions as paramount over collective community well-being. Maybe even because selfish dispositions care more about appearance and swagger than substance and the issues that matter.

Unlike the youth in Egypt and Syria for example, who use social media for revolutionary change, we use it for flash mobs to rob and attack people in the name of fun. We can go to a movie and learn that we can drive a truck through a window and steal but ignore such behavior as being a form of psychopathy. Yes the new generation is smart but in a morose stupid and brilliant dumb way.

I say this because it is dumb to attend to applauding a man like T.I., who initially went to prison for weapon distribution, weapons [ his guns in picture from arrest] that would likely be used against other black men as opposed to members of the Aryan nation, while at the same time giving him a pass and complaining that there are too many guns in the hands of young black males and all we do is aim them at each other.

bling bling but no books

I am no better than anyone else, but I do know that the majority of our society has lost their way, are selfish, materialistic and socially irresponsible. This is not a criticism but an objective reality. I can see this through simple observations whether it is the massive drop out rates of African American young folk, the high incarceration rates of African American men in prison, or the exorbitant rates of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases in our community.

Truth is that while America spits its anger and venom over the fact that a man of African descent is President of the united States, we are aiding this attitude via our ignorance and none concern to the point that we don’t see it. This troubles me for we can make time and take the time to see that Lil Wayne is in prison or what a bevy of unmarried women who call themselves basketball wives are up too, Brandy and her brother and a washed up gold digging actress by the name of Lisa Raye, but nothing else really of substance.

We know more about the lives of women like super head and Kat stacks and their sordid bedroom activities, women who we dare raise our daughters not to be like or venerate but can’t name what is in any proposal outlined by our current President or proffered via the legislative branch of government unless we hear about it on television. We couldn’t even tell you one amendment of thee constitution which our very freedom and liberty is buttressed upon.

Unfortunately, we think we are free and seem to be more concerned with clubbing and who is the VIPs and what we wear than our intellectual development and education and worse, how we dedicate ourselves to our families. The women and men who raised us, at least many of them, after living and seeing the struggle would never support or practice such behaviors. Unlike days of past, ours is a sexual degenerate culture. In one word we despise drug dealing, gangsters and thugs and folk calling us nigger and bitch, but the reality is we buy the music of those that do such and shack our little butts off in our cars each day singing every word. Music that treats life as being worthless and regards women as merely pieces of meat.

Ours is a problematic state of being, for we lack knowledge of self which is what causes us to participate in our own self destruction. We enslaves ourselves for their was a period when the Likes of Carter G. Woodson, Fred Hampton, Shirley Chisom and Martin King and their words were more wide spread and popular than any musician and this was during the time of the last poets and Marvin Gaye. Even folks Like Marvin Gaye sang about the conditions of our folk and displayed some social responsibility, but such is lacking or no existence today for we don’t value knowledge or understand that information is power. Martin Luther King Jr. once said that “nothing in this world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” Maybe that is why we sing and have the bling-bling and no books.

I have no problem speaking my mind and I know that some will take this as an affront to modern culture, but it is not . I just never have nor will concede my human dignity for popularity but I do know that they of the minstrel variety will complain and even defend vile, lewd and self destructive behavior as pronounced so vividly in our culture. It was not I but Carter G. Woodson Who said:

“If you can control a man’s thinking, you don’t have to worry about his actions. If you can determine what a man thinks you do not have worry about what he will do. If you can make a man believe that he is inferior, you don’t have to compel him to seek an inferior status, he will do so without being told and if you can make a man believe that he is justly an outcast, you don’t have to order him to the back door, he will go to the back door on his own and if there is no back door, the very nature of the man will demand that you build one.”

No wonder we are as we are, today I wouldn't be suprised if an unknown rapper was more reconizable and know about than somebody really worthy of attention, for it is a shame that folk recognize Lil Jeezy more than Neil Degrasse Tyson. Now I know how and what Harriet Tubman meant when she wrote “I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves."

thought amnesty (11.15.2008)

First wanna say good look to my folks at There ….Already for giving me the Superior Scribbler Award. I wanna pass it on to: Rich, averge american patriot, Love Babz, Kelso, Slappz, Ms Lady D, Curious, The Rippa, Boss Mack, Buelahman, 12kyle, Zack, monroe anderson & the Glamazon.

Now. Was thinking, After November 4^th, 2008, my most historical memories in my life outside the birth of my seeds – my order hear goes.

1] Martin Luther King Jr. Assignation – I was there.

2] Obama election – would have, or maybe would have been number 1 if I was there.

3] Planes flying in the twin towers (was teaching class at Emory at the time. Cut TVs on in class and saw second plane fly into 2^nd tower. They cleared school reports were one was heading toward the CDC. My building was next to it.

4] Hurricane Katrina (can’t say I expected to see in America, what I have only seen in Africa)

5] Falling of the Berlin Wall (Amazing is all I can say).

6] Million Man March (speechless)

7] John Thompson winning National Championship in 1984

8] Rodney King Verdict (Can still see that coward throwing a brick into the head of Mr. Denny and raising hands like a touchdown.

9] Arthur Ashe winning Wimbledon (I will never forget that Sunday - July 5, 1975)

10] Tony Dungy winning the super bowl (really two African American coaches paring off in the Super Bowl).

So what are yours? Full life, ey?

bling 4 a king

I am not ashamed to say it but to me, most folk who seek fame over character have little or no integrity and low self-esteem. This is particularly true by my speculation for entertainers and athletes.

Many of us know that we are in a very different era in America. For the first time, a man that looked like me is being honored via a memorial in Washington, DC and his name is Martin King Jr. I look very highly at Dr. King, not only for his astuteness as a scholar, or the fact that he is like myself, an alumnus of Morehouse College, or even his letter from a Birmingham jail, but because with all of is faults, he was a man of character and integrity.

People say that we need to support the memorial to Dr. King and I agree. They are holding concerts and asking for loot left and right. I just don’t know why it is so hard for us to get the loot we need with all of this so-called new money in our community. So I just say this as a challenge. I Mean, I would like for folks to show me they aint fuck boys and want to be gangsters. So this is to you, TI, Lil Wayne, 50 cents, Nelly, Young Joc and Young Jeezy – represent like men do for what is great and what is right. Give up your chains and bracelets or at least one for the King. What’s the matter, are you to selfish to give up some bling for the king? So represent, or continue to risk nobody’s like me calling yawl fuck boys. And that’s what yawl are, if you don’t stand for the betterment of our historical legacy as opposed to being greedy and selfish.