“Curses” have been pronounced since thousands of years. There’s  one curse…if you self-pronounce. If you say bad things to your children; [you ain’t never gonna amount to nothing] make deadly prognoses on their future it hinders them. ... read more »

The National Action Network (NAN),one of the nation’s leading civil rights organizations with chapters throughout the entire United States, is focused on promoting a civil rights agenda that includes the fight for one standard of justice and equity for all people regardless of race, religion, nationality or gender.  ... read more »

The Sacramento African American community has been holding its collective breath, our fingers crossed, hanging on to the unlikely hope that either Ann Marie Schubert, our county district attorney, or Xavier Becera, our state’s Attorney General, would do the right thing and bring charges against the officers who shot and killed Stephon Clark.  ... read more »

How many people want to kill God? Beyond counting! None are successful. When we look at the many acts of wrongdoing committed by people, the bottom line is that they just want to kill Almighty God, ... read more »

Despite added focus on Black males in recent years, fundamentally, their plight is unchanged and they remain largely a rhetorical priority. Seemingly endless research and publicly proclaimed concern, few, if any, sustainable programs specifically intended and/or designed to benefit Black males exist. ... read more »

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter proclaimed the first week of March as Women’s History Week.  Seven years later, Congress declared the entire month of March as Women’s History Month. I find it sadly ironic that we need legislative reminders to celebrate and remember the accomplishments of various people and communities.  However, I am grateful that the work of women is being celebrated nonetheless! Across the country, March 8thhas been designated as, “International Women’s Day” where people celebrate and honor women worldwide. ... read more »

As an African people, a caring and committed people, we can never get used to the passing of those we love, respect and honor. We imagine them always with us, laughing and lifting us up, bringing the dawn and opening the way for us to see and assert ourselves in dignity-affirming, life-enhancing and flourishing-directed ways and we are duly disoriented if not undone when they leave us. ... read more »

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SURPRISE! You’re the best single dad! Some single dads rejoice. Others reject responsibility, justify neglect; leave their first family without resources and take on a new family. Sometimes telling the children “I’ve got a new family now.”  How devastating! This article is dedicated to those great single dads who accept their responsibility now... having thought about the effect on their children of their absence away… accept responsibility. ... read more »

So, whenever I have to work in L.A., I always look for local spots to hold meetings. One of my favorite locations has always been Harold & Belle’s Restaurant.  I even had my own special table where the staff would seat me whenever it was available. Long before I ever had the chance to meet the family, Harold & Belle’s felt like a second home to me. ... read more »

Reparations for the descendants of African slaves has been talked about ad infinitum, yet there has been virtually no legislative action taken to make this happen.    (Congressman John Conyers could not even to get a reparations bill out of committee for more than twenty years—to simply do a study on reparations.)  Today’s column summarizes a “major” conference at Harvard University about slavery, universities and reparations.  A New York Times article by Jennifer Schussler, Confronting Academia’s Ties to Slavery, recaps the conference. ... read more »

“America has an ugly history of racism,” Senator Elizabeth Warren said after addressing Democrats at an annual state dinner in New Hampshire, according to The Boston Globe. “We need to confront it head-on. And we need to talk about the right way to address it and make change.” ... read more »

In an increasingly competitive global economy, highly skilled workers have a sharp advantage in securing and keeping employment. And as technological advances result in life-long learning in many occupations, many worker-students turn to federal student aid, the largest source of funding for higher education, to expand and/or hone their value in the marketplace. ... read more »

I moved to Los Angeles in 1982 with my first partner, Chris Brownlie. In addition to being happy to get away from the Chicago winters, we were filled with hope and excitement. And like most people, we were completely unaware of the health tsunami we were about to encounter. 1982 was the year that the first cases of what we now know as AIDS were identified in Los Angeles. Over the next decade, I would watch too many of my friends, including the love of my life, Chris, die from AIDS related complications. ... read more »

If we are to know ourselves rightly, honor our history, radically improve our present and forge a future worthy of the names African and human, then we must reaffirm and renew our moral and social vanguard role as a people, wage righteous and relentless resistance to evil and injustice everywhere, and put forth in plan and practice a new history and hope for our people and humankind. In the months of February and March, which we of Us have designated as Black History Month I (General Focus) and Black History Month II (Women Focus), our people have set aside time and space to celebrate ourselves inhistoryand ashistory. For we are producers and products of this sacred narrative, and the subject and center of this awesome record and struggle, the most ancient of human histories. ... read more »