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07-29-08 EUR ALL ON ONE PAGE
NELLY THE NEW FACE OF DIDDY'S DRAWLS: St. Louis rapper signs on as spokesman for Sean John Underwear.
*Diddy has tapped rap superstar Nelly to be the spokesmodel for his upcoming fall collection of Sean John Underwear.
In the past, Diddy has featured such celebrity models as Dwayne Wade, Nas, Snoop Dog, Lil' Wayne, Penelope Cruz, Cassie, and Lauren London. But Nelly will be the brand's first ever spokesmodel.
"I have known Nelly for many years and I really admire his work," said Diddy in a statement. "To me, Nelly is the quintessential definition of the Sean John man. He has the attitude, the swagger, and most of all the physique that our customers can both aspire and relate to. And let's be honest, all of the ladies out there are going to be thanking us for this campaign. The images are so strong; they speak for themselves. We are truly excited to welcome Nelly into the Sean John family."
Shot by Randee St. Nicholas, the photos feature Nelly in both interior and exterior shots at a modern home overlooking Los Angeles.
'I AM LEGEND' PREQUEL BEING PLANNED: Director confirms effort during annual Comic-Con event.
*Director Francis Lawrence has confirmed that he is working on a prequel to last year's Will Smith blockbuster, "I Am Legend," reports the Web site Digital Spy.
"Absolutely, we're actually trying to crack that," the filmmaker said during his trip to Comic-Con International in San Diego last weekend. "We're trying to figure out some ideas for it, but yes, it would be a prequel."
Lawrence said Smith's character Dr. Robert Neville would return for the new movie, but filmmaking headaches that gave him trouble during the first shoot – such as shutting down New York's busy streets – would be less of a hassle the second time around.
"The first time you go out there and shut down 6th Avenue, it's like, 'How are we going to do this day after day after day?' But by the end, it's just like you know how to do it," he said.
"You got the PAs who know how to shut it down, how to let the traffic through in between set-ups and you just sort of get the routine down, so that's not the issue."
WHITNEY AND RAY J, STILL GOING AT IT: Paparazzi footage shows 'couple'
hugged up in backseat of a car.
*Within hours of her new track being "leaked" onto the Internet, Whitney Houston was snapped by paps being softly kissed by her rumored boy toy Ray J in the backseat of a car in Los Angeles.
Various cameras caught Houston, 44, hours earlier going into Villa nightclub in West Hollywood, then later emerging and climbing into a car with Ray J, the 27-year-old artist who is rumored to be her main squeeze. That's when the smooching took place.
Also last weekend, Houston's new track "Like I Never Left," found its way onto the Internet. There's no word if the song will appear on her long-awaited comeback album, expected to be released in the fall.
CHUCK BERRY PULLS OUT OF SOLD-OUT GIGS: Rock legend cancels without explanation, raising concerns over his health.
*The health of rock legend Chuck Berry has been called in to question after he pulled out of two concerts in Spain at the last minute and without explanation last weekend.
Berry, whose hits include "Johnny B Goode" and "Roll Over Beethoven," was scheduled to perform in Estepona on Spain's Mediterranean coast Saturday and in the northern city of Leon a day later.
The 81-year-old had already been paid for the gigs when his agent called the promoters just one hour before his gig in Estepona to inform them that Berry had left the country, leaving behind over 4,000 disappointed fans. Organizers have already discussed a possible lawsuit against the entertainer.
While they said no explanation was given for his no-show, British newspaper Daily Mail quoted an unnamed source close to the entertainer in Paris as saying ill health may have been the cause.
"There were rumors that he's not been feeling well during his current tour, and suffered pain on stage at a concert. We are not sure of Chuck's exact whereabouts at the moment," the source said.
Berry turns 82 in October.
VING RHAMES JOINS SPY FLICK: Actor cast in indie comedy alongside Ellen Barkin and Rob Corddry.
*Ving Rhames booked a role in the upcoming indie comedy "Rogues Gallery," a spy romp set in an underground government intelligence agency.
Ellen Barkin and Rob Corddry are also in the cast, which began shooting July 21 in Los Angeles. Michael Ohoven and Kevin Turen are producing via their Infinity Films shingle.
Other cast members include Joe Anderson, Odette Yustman, Bob Odenkirk, Jeffrey Tambor, Maggie Q, Emilie de Ravin and Adam Scott.
In he mid 1800s, Rogues Gallery referred to the photographs of criminals and suspects kept by police stations for identification purposes.
IT'S ABOUT 'TIME' FOR LEBRON JAMES: Baller covers Aug. 4th issue of weekly news magazine about top Olympic athletes.
*He may be sidelined right now with a mild sprain to his right ankle, but that hasn't stopped Time Magazine from putting him on the cover of its next issue celebrating the top 100 athletes to watch at the Olympic Games.
The Cleveland Cavaliers superstar is depicted in the photo holding a basketball and wearing a white headband and Team USA jersey.
The cover follows his controversial April appearance on the front of Vogue that featured him in mid scream while holding supermodel Gisele Bundchen. The image was criticized by some as racially insensitive for its depiction of James in a King Kong-like pose.
The Time issue with James on the cover hits newsstands on August 4th, which falls four days before the Olympic Games begin in Beijing.
DR. J. WOULD LIKE TO BE A PEPPER, TOO: NBA legend joins other famous "doctors" for new ad campaign.
*Dr. J (a.k.a. basketball icon Julius Erving) joins actor Kelsey Grammer as his former character Dr. Frasier Crane in a new spot for soft drink, Dr Pepper.
The "Trust Me, I'm a Doctor" ad campaign, developed by Deutsch LA, will tap many of pop culture's biggest doctors to promote the 23 flavors discovered within the beverage.
"Scientific research proves that because there are 23 flavors in Dr Pepper to experience, it tastes best when you drink it a little slower. We figured we've got the research, so who better to deliver the message from Dr Pepper than a doctor?" said Jaxie Alt, director of marketing for Dr Pepper. "This is big news, so we're bringing in the experts to spread the word that drinking it slowly makes a Dr Pepper even better."
The commercials launched yesterday on network and cable television stations across the country. The fully-integrated initiative will also include billboards and the drpepper.com Web site, where visitors will be able to view Dr. J's "no special effects were used" shot from the TV spot.
In related news, Kelsey Grammer, 53, was hospitalized in New York yesterday with an irregular heartbeat. The veteran TV star suffered a heart attack two months earlier that "nearly killed him," he told reporters recently. As of press time, he was in fair condition.
'EVENING OF STARS' TURNS 30: UNCF celebrates anniversary with salute to Patti LaBelle.
*UNCF–the United Negro College Fund– celebrates its 30th Anniversary with a salute to Patti LaBelle during its upcoming television special, "An Evening of Stars (AEOS) presented by Target."
The Grammy-winning R&B/soul singer will receive UNCF’s prestigious Award of Excellence in recognition of her distinguished career as an artist and performer and for her longstanding support of UNCF.
“Throughout her career, from the first notes she sang in her church choir through her four decades as a renowned vocalist, Patti LaBelle has exemplified the dedication to excellence that UNCF honors and supports,” said Michael L. Lomax, president and CEO of UNCF. “Through her best-selling books and the numerous businesses she has started and seen through to success and, most of all, through her generous support of UNCF and many other charities, Patti embodies the spirit of UNCF’s iconic motto, ‘A mind is a terrible thing to waste."
Previous AEOS Award of Excellence honorees include Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin, Steve Wonder, Quincy Jones and Lou Rawls.
The two-hour tribute will honor LaBelle before a live audience at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Sept. 13 and will be televised nationwide in January 2009.
KEKE PALMER PREPS FOR 'VP' ROLE: Teen actress stars in new Nickelodeon series to debut this fall.
*Keke "Akeelah and the Bee" Palmer will topline Nickelodeon's newest live-action series "True Jackson, VP," which was just given a 20-episode commitment from the network.
The actress stars in the title role of a 15-year-old who is tapped to head the youth division of a major fashion label. True soon learns that corporate life has the same highs and lows as high school, complete with cliques, mean girls and crushes -- but with cool perks like designing for up-and-coming rock stars and casting super cute models.
The series begins shooting in September in Los Angeles with a cast that includes Ashley Argota, Danielle Bisutti, Matt Shively and a recurring role by Greg Proops.
The first episode introduces True Jackson as a no-nonsense teenager selling sandwiches outside the offices of a major fashion label. When the head of the company Max (Proops) is solicited by her, he notices True's young yet marketable fashion sense and offers her a job on-the-spot as Vice President in charge of his youth apparel line.
She accepts and soon encounters the office politics: her older -- and bitter -- executive assistant Cricket and resentful colleague Amanda (Bisutti). But with the help of her high school friends, Lulu (Argota) and Ryan (Shively), True quickly acclimates to the corporate culture and deals with it as if it was just another day in high school.
"True Jackson, VP" will join the TEENick line-up this fall, which includes hits "Zoey 101" and "iCarly," the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked shows with tweens on all basic cable.
JOHN LEGEND'S 'EVOLVER' TAKING SHAPE: New studio album expected in stores Oct. 28.
*Kanye West, Estelle and Andre 3000 are just some of the artists appearing with John Legend on his upcoming album "Evolver," which is still in the recording process and is expected to be released on Oct. 28.
Legend's first full-length studio album since "Once Again" in October 2006, "Evolver" includes the lead single "Green Light" feat. Andre 3000, "It's Over" (Teddy Riley Mix), "Everybody Knows," "No Other Love," "Satisfaction," "This Time," "Cross The Line," "I Love You Love," "Good Morning," and "If You're Out There."
The Grammy-winner sampled tracks off the new album at an exclusive "Unplugged 2008" concert at Manhattan's Highline Ballroom on Friday (July 25).
In 2007, Legend launched the Show Me Campaign (ShowMeCampaign.org), a grassroots movement whose mission is "to fight economic and spiritual poverty through fostering sustainable development (personal, social, educational, economic) at the individual, family, and small community levels."
ITTY BITTY BITS: Georgia church gives kids 'a Chance'; Obama's hip is hurting; Winehouse hospitalized; Harlem man arrested by 'black doll head cops'.
*Canaan Land Church International in Snellville, GA is offering relief to local families this school year with its first “Give a Kid a Chance” event. Nearly 1000 elementary and middle school students are expected to come out to Snellville Middle School (3155 Pate Road) on Saturday, (Aug 2) from 9:30 a.m. -1:30 p.m. to walk from classroom to classroom and receive book bags packed with school supplies, haircuts, as well as dental, hearing, and eye exams all for free made possible through locally donated items and services. Canaan Land was profiled in the EUR in 2004 for its efforts to help displaced residents of Hurricane Katrina.
*Barack Obama visited a doctor at the University of Chicago Medical Center on Sunday night to deal with a sore hip that was exacerbated earlier this month during his round of hoops with U.S. troops in Kuwait. "His hip has been sore from basketball for a few weeks, so he's going to see an orthopedic doctor," Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said. As he left the hospital, Obama told reporters: "I had small X-rays. Everything's OK. I think I'm going to be good in about a week."
*Amy Winehouse was rushed to the hospital in London late Monday over a bad reaction to her prescribed medicine, her rep announced. The troubled singer "suffered a reaction to medication at home this evening and was taken to the hospital. Doctors have advised that she will be kept under observation overnight and is likely to be released tomorrow," her rep said yesterday. The 24-year-old star was taken by ambulance from her home to University College Hospital. No other details were provided as of press time.
*Clarence Jones, the 28-year-old Harlem man who said he witnessed a display of police racial insensitivity last week, was arrested Saturday morning on counts of opposition to government authority and disorderly conduct. Last Wednesday, Jones made headlines when he said he saw an unmarked police car with a black doll's head attached to the antenna, and attempted to take a picture of it with his cell phone camera. According to reports, Jones was in the midst of receiving a court summons for his Lincoln Navigator, which was parked illegally on 116th Street and Madison Ave. when he drove away. Police finally stopped him on 116th and Fifth Avenue. Jones got out, becoming loud and boisterous, authorities said, and started taking pictures of the cops. Police then arrested Jones and his mother, who had also become involved in the altercation.
EUR DVD REVIEW: Mardi Gras: Made in China
Powerful Documentary Contrasts Globalization with American Decadence
DVD Review by Kam Williams
*If you’ve ever witnessed the annual New Orleans ritual of wanton women baring their breasts for beads at Mardi Gras,
you probably were too engrossed by the sordid spectacle to stop to think about where all those shiny necklaces came from.
Well, Mardi Gras: Made in China traces the gaudy jewelry back to the source, factories in China where very young women
are virtually enslaved, forced to work extremely long days literally for pennies an hour while being virtually imprisoned in
gated dormitory-style compounds they’re only allowed to leave once every two weeks.
Director David Redmon (Intimidad) deserves accolades galore for crafting this damning expose’ which brilliantly
contrasts the plight of obviously impoverished and utterly subjugated Asian females with the embarrassing behavior of all
those drunks and bimbos floating up Bourbon Street on Fat Tuesday.
Perhaps now proverbial Ugly Americans will be persuaded to reflect upon the role which their decadence plays in an
exploitation simply for the sake of disposable trinkets.
Girls Gone Wild meets globalization.
Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
In Mandarin and English with subtitles
Running time: 75 minutes
Studi Carnivalesque Films
DVD Extras: PG version, deleted scenes, worker’s diary and clips from upcoming Carnivalesque films.
To see a trailer of Mardi Gras: Made in China, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kCxvbBsv00
EUR DVD REVIEW: Never Back Down
Shades of Karate Kid in Mixed Martial Arts Drama Coming to DVD
DVD Review by Kam Williams
*After her husband dies in a car accident while driving under the influence, Margot Tyler (Leslie Hope) decides to
relocate from Iowa to Orlando, Florida for a fresh start with her two teenage sons.
Plus, there’s the added incentive of enrolling her younger one, Charlie (Wyatt Smith), in a tennis camp catering to
promising prodigies.
Unfortunately, the grieving widow failed to factor in the toll the move might take on her elder boy, Jake (Sean Faris),
a sensitive soul who has been beset by unaddressed anger management issues ever since the tragedy.
It isn’t long before his sensitivity reaches the ears of Ryan McCarthy (Cam Gigandet), the ringleader of a sadistic
gang of ne’er-do-wells at his new school who like to fight for fighting’s sake.
So Ryan has his girlfriend, Baja (Amber Heard), feign a romantic interest in Jake and invite him to a party, never
letting on that he’s coming over just to take a bloody beat down. Soon after he arrives, Ryan callously plays the “Your dead
dad was a drunk” card, and Jake predictably pops his cork, unaware that his opponent has a black belt in brawling.
A rescue squad arrives in the person of 98-pound weakling Max Cooperman (Evan Peters). He who peels Jake off the floor
and directs him to the Combat Club, a mixed martial arts dojo run out of a rundown warehouse by Jean Roqua (Djimon Hounsou),
a spiritually-oriented sensei from Senegal.
Like a latter-day Mr. Miyagi, he allows the lad to enroll with the understanding, “No fighting outside of the gym, no matter
what.” Yeah, right.
While Never Back Down has few surprises for anyone familiar with The Karate Kid, it does add a few 21st Century
elements to the mix (like the use of YouTube) which at least serve to make the familiar formula feel refreshed.
Excellent (3.5 stars) Rated PG-13 for mature themes, intense violence, profanity, teen partying and premarital sexuality.
Running time: 113 minutes
Studi Summit Entertainment
2-Disc DVD Extras: 11 deleted and extended scenes, commentary by the director, the scriptwriter, and co-star Sean Faris, plus
5 featurettes.
To see a trailer of Never Back Down, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGdJAhRj54Q
STEVEN IVORY: Etiquette for a Brave Rude World
*The 40-something woman in front of me at the supermarket checkout line had shopped as if she were expecting Armageddon any day now. The contents of her grocery cart, filled to capacity, was her business. But her phone conversation became the business of everyone within ear shot.
Throughout the checkout process, not once did she get off that phone. She never acknowledged the young lady behind the register pushing can goods, two-for-one items and People and the Enquirer across the scanner; never said boo to the young man who packed her groceries into plastic bags (because she never answered his "paper or plastic?") before he loaded them into the cart and followed her, still cackling, out the sliding doors and into the parking lot.
When it was my turn, I asked the cashier how it made her feel to be ignored. “Oh, I could {sic] care less,” she said, sliding my bottle of green Gatorade across the scanner. “When I first started this job, it used to make me angry. Now, it doesn't even phase me.”
She said this as if acceptance of her presence by a stranger was an annoying wont she'd finally conquered, like cigarettes or trans fats. “She doesn't owe me anything but the money,” she said with a smirk that was supposed to signify triumph.
I can understand how she would say that. This is where we are now. Cells. Blackberrys. IPhones. Blue Tooth technology as a fashion accessory. Pocket sized communication devices have taken over society.
Progress is a good thing. However, unlike the movie “Invasion of The Body Snatchers," where aliens from outer space take over the minds and bodies of humans, in real life we have been commandeered by our addiction to mobile communication.
Unfortunately, the words "manners" and "mobile communication" aren't mutually exclusive.
Thus, people will enter a room filled with other people, talking on a phone. I've done it. They'll answer their phone during dinner with a guest they've only just met and have a cellular conversation at the table. Like mindless androids, they'll bump into things and one another while feverishly texting and walking down the street.
Next time you're somewhere among strangers who are by chance not using a communication device, say in a restaurant or bar, pull out yours. Just the sight is powerful enough a suggestion for them to pull out theirs. It's like crack.
And when they are not talking or texting, they are wearing it on their hip like a weapon--or a security blanket. They are holding it. Looking at it. Fooling with it.
In some states it is now illegal to physically hold the phone to your ear while driving. There are laws against, robbery, assault and murder, but people still do those things, too.
The law governing people and cell phones is called common courtesy. Can you hear me now? I didn't think so.
“The etiquette hasn't caught up with the technology,” reasoned a friend of mine who is a nurse's aide. “Most people know what fork to use when eating and how to say excuse me when they're supposed to. We've learned that all our lives. But cell phones are still new. We're still making the rules. I've put needles in people, have taken their blood, and they never put down their cell. I don't mind. They don't know what's rude. It's uncharted territory.”
I agree with some of it. General manners and the concept of what is polite, like anything else in a society, has a history of evolution. When did “Please” and “Thank you” come into form? Those words certainly weren't around in the days of the troglodyte.
Etiquette and manners are shaped by culture, and when you consider where popular culture currently is in America--the land of reality stars, fast food chains that compete to see which one can put the most prefab food between two buns, and the waning days of the frightening Bush Administration--you get an impression of where mobile communication etiquette sits.
However, anyone who let's a person take their very blood without making cordial contact, suffers a lack of decorum way beyond cellular technology.
It IS ironic that with all the technology, we actually communicate less. It's easier to be in touch by email and text because we don't have to socialize: make the point, add a smiley face to soften it up, and it's done.
Nevertheless, unlike the supermarket cashier and my health care buddy, I don't think it's okay that they accept being ignored by patrons on cell phones.
You can't force the people on phones to be hospitable. But the day we stop expecting courtesy from one another is the day cell phone etiquette becomes just one more thing we lost in the brave new world--forever relegated to the so-called good ol' days, back when a cell phone was the size of a small shadeless table lamp. Oh, yeah. It's true. Ask your mother.
Steven Ivory's book, FOOL IN LOVE (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster) is in stores now or at Amazon.com (www.Amazon.com) Respond to him via STEVRIVORY@AOL.COM or MYfeedback@eurweb.com
THE BRIDGE: Money--The New Religion
By Darryl James
*They called it the big eighties—the decade of decadence.
This was the time when Africans in America officially embraced the dollar as god.
Negroes en masse first started internalizing Dollarism in the seventies and by the eighties, the new religion of the almighty dollar was in full swing.
Prior to that, we were mostly still playing a game our own way and the sixties had shown that it could work. There were always a few of us who sold out and we hadn’t fully punked out yet as a race.
But the eighties wasn’t called the “ME Decade” for nothing.
And the new religion of Money had already changed every game.
The new religion changed the way some Blacks thought of themselves with the illusion of inclusion.
During this time, we saw many so-called Black Republicans became such not purely because of politics, but because they assumed that there was something for them based on having money and/or privilege. This was the first time that large numbers of Blacks were open about separating themselves from other Blacks based on the pursuit of individual goals, which they placed above concerns for the race.
Of course, white people had been doing it, but as a race whites could fall back on being white and having white privilege. Without a community, what could blacks go back to? Slavery?
The new religion of Money even changed religion.
Those of us with independent thinking already knew that many religious figures were in it for the money, but with the new religion kicking in, we began to see more religious icons embrace their new god unashamedly. This is why today we see so many disgustingly huge mega-church structures in the Black communities and pimped out preachers, who don’t care about hiding their avarice.
As religious people go, many Americans pursue a relationship with a church that will praise them and promise to reward them with prosperity for being faithful to the church, as though they are better than the average person who may be a good person, but not dedicated to the church.
The new religion of money also changed the concept of being smart.
I knew that we were at a new point in time when people claimed that Puffy was smart--not because he did anything clever that they could point to, but smart because he had the aura of having money. Intellectuals be damned—people would rather take their advice from Cosby, Oprah and Wendy Williams, rather than someone who thinks and does research.
To celebrate the likes of Sean “Puffy” Combs is horribly backward. This is a man who rhymed about “money hanging out his anus,” yet had a roster of artists who were getting pimped out of their anuses. He is such an empty human. His real claim to fame is that everyone around him got killed, locked up or financially raped.
At least Suge Knight bailed Tupac out of jail, before using him to breathe new life into Death Row. Puffy used Shyne, then when trouble came, separated himself from the rapper and completely abandoned him to languish in prison after Shyne placed himself in harm’s way for Puffy.
For people to openly revere that kind of man, shows what a debauched world we are in.
But why wouldn’t people celebrate the likes of Puff Diddy? Even so-called “leaders” have shown that they are all about the money. Take one Jesse “Cut the nuts” Jackson, who discovered early on that he could get favors and Burger King franchises as a result of threatening to boycott. Now, we see that Civil Rights is becoming as big a career as preaching—wait—he’s doing both.
Someone sells out and dead brained defenders of sellouts are quick to exclaim: “At least he got paid.” I’m sure Dave Chappelle is living a tortured life if he really had the epiphany he claims to have had. He claims that he realized that he was being used and was being laughed at, not with. Yet, some silly Negroes are still quick to celebrate his success, while dismissing his negative actions, because “at least he got paid.”
It’s so sad and so ridiculous that people see very little pure joy without finance.
Now it’s all about celebrating the rich and crapping on the poor. Those of us who worship money celebrate the message of 50 Cents—get rich or die trying. Most will die.
The rich white establishment has one game and it always works. That game is to pit the poor against the not so poor in each race—poor white trash against white elitists and impoverished Mexicans hated by Mexicans who want to become white and rich.
Now, we’ve come in to that game, where wealthy Negroes hate poor Blacks. Many of us celebrated when Cosby blamed everything on the “lower economic people.” And why not? They are fair game during a breakdown of society.
On a human level, people’s lives and hearts were broken by social circumstances. Initially, it was by design, when crack cocaine was inserted into poor communities, but the worship of money found the crack epidemic affecting all levels who then became the new rich and the new poor.
Crack did what heroin could not do, because when heroin came along, the nation still believed in God. By the time crack came around, America had embraced money as god.
Crack cocaine created fake commerce in the urban communities across the nation, and even changed the pimp game. Where pimps previously preyed on the broken humans who had fallen, crack cocaine broke women and men, turning them into hoes without pimps who began to use their bodies as commerce in exchange for the addictive substance or a few dollars to make the purchase.
And since we have seen that anyone can fall, we celebrate those at the top, simply because they are at the top.
No matter how they come to it, people with money are taught that they are special. They are taught that their success is all about them, not about the backs of people they stand on in order to become what they become. They begin to believe that they garnered whatever success they achieved as special individuals and that those without success are lesser human beings.
We know that anything is possible in this society, so when someone poor rises, they no longer think about where they came from, they are taught to hate whoever they left behind.
Where we once aspired to become wealthy without changing, we now aspire to change even before we become wealthy, and/or even if we never become wealthy.
This is why we see poor people pretending to be of means. The goal is not really to work hard to get there anymore, if you can fake being there. Instead of “Fake it ‘til you make it,” the motto is now “Fake it.” Period. Even if you aren’t really trying to make it.
That’s also why now we have more people who crash financially and go absolutely buck nutty. Its one thing to crash and still have something to rely on, but when you crash and everything you have had has been empty, you crash and know that there is nothing left and nowhere to turn to. You lose touch with reality and freak completely out.
And that’s why we now have more Blacks who have become things we never thought we could become—mass murderers, hateful idiots, gangsters without conscience, criminals for nothing and hoes for free. We were once traditionally conservative, but now we’re all over the place depending on what we think we can get.
What was once a community that sought to rise itself has splintered into groups of people who use each other for what they are worth and then blame each other for what they can not have.
That’s why we see Black women blaming Black men for conditions they have inherited from people who did not care, including Black women who began to believe in money more than self esteem and self respect.
“Exotic Dancer” (Stripper) has become a career for women to pimp a bunch of horny idiots and then portray themselves simultaneously as victims of sexual stereotypes and strong independent women who are making bank, baby.
“Video Ho” has become a fake career for women who degrade themselves, often for nothing and then blame the powerless morons in the front of the videos.
But those powerless morons are also looking for someone to blame, claiming that conditions of their childhood environment, or the white man, or lack of opportunities or some other lame excuse “forced” them to sell their souls for a bad record deal.
These same powerless morons use the same excuses when choosing to sell drugs or participate in gang activity.
The bottom line is that too many of us would rather do anything than work hard and risk facing broken dreams.
Broken dreams are the legacy that many Americans from two and three generations ago have bequeathed to their children, having mortgaged the future of those children for their own selfish guilt-free pleasures.
Parents fail to plan for the future of their children, because they are too interested in planning for their own present. In the present, they want to look good and live happily, even though at any given moment, the house of cards they lived in may fall apart and leave their children with no house or home, no real family ties and no future to speak of, because they have been handed a bill for the follies of their parents.
In the age of money as god, family, friends and anything else previously held near and dear comes secondary to keeping up with the appearances of the Joneses who are faking themselves.
For more than twenty years, Americans have been witnessing the mayhem, destruction and social decay that occurs when God and love are supplanted by greed and money, which are now the American way.
Does anyone care?
Or all we all waiting to get down on our knees?
Darryl James is an award-winning author of the forthcoming powerful anthology “Notes From The Edge.” Discounted Autographed and Numbered Pre-Release copies can be ordered at www.darryljames.com. He released his first mini-movie, “Crack,” and this year, will release his first full-length documentary. View previous installments of this column at www.bridgecolumn.proboards36.com. Reach James at djames@theblackgendergap.com.
THE JOURNAL OF STEFFANIE RIVERS: The FDA is DOA Part 2 of 2
*The Food and Drug Administration wants everyone to believe that jalapeno peppers from Mexico are to blame for the salmonella poisoning of nearly 1,300 people across the United States and Canada.
The agency came to that conclusion last week after discovering one tainted pepper at a Texas produce distribution plant which came from Mexico. Before that, the agency blamed the outbreak on tomatoes and warned everyone against eating them. U.S. tomato producers have lost millions of dollars over what has turned out to be a costly rush to judgment by the FDA.
Yet, when it comes to regulating U.S. pharmaceutical companies and the tons of new drugs produced every year in America – which would be the most appropriate time to over-react – the agency seems to turn a blind eye.
Veggies aside, the FDA regulates over $1 trillion worth of products, which account for 25 cents of every dollar spent every year. As part of the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency regulates our food and blood supply, cosmetics and medicines. It also is supposed to insure truth in product labels, so companies won’t claim their products cure ailments when in fact they don’t.
You can’t watch a thirty-minute television program without seeing commercials hyping the latest in prescription drugs, not cures, but rather pills to dull the pain. It leads me to think the goal of most drug companies is to create millions of prescription drug junkies while making a profit along the way.
But who’s minding the front door to the store that leads to the health and well-being of Americans?
In a recent article FDA officials admitted they are not living up to its mission, and there are plenty of statistics to prove it.
Half of the women and 40 percent of the men in the United States have recently used prescription drugs. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency says 9 million Americans use prescription drugs for non-medical purposes including weight loss and sexual enhancement.
When it comes to approving new drugs, the FDA doesn’t do the research itself, it examines the results of studies done by the drug companies. That’s like trusting the New York City Police Department to investigate it’s own police brutality. Some important details probably will be left out of the paperwork.
Aside from living under the cloudy and unrealistic influence of drugs most people ignore the dangers of side effects. Near the end of most of those drug commercials are the long lists of side effects which include irregular heart beats, head aches and night sweats, four-hour erections, loss of vision and hearing. It’s not worth it?
When it comes to what we eat and drink we are at the mercy of others. Even if we cook our own food we don’t know if the hands that produced it were clean or if the crop was laced with salmonella.
Most people have more control over their drug consumption and should think about the consequences of their actions, not just the possible loss of money, but their lives as well.
The older I get the more I appreciate my grandmother’s backyard garden and home remedies – God rest her soul. The only side effects were a fat belly and satisfaction guaranteed.
Steffanie Rivers is a free-lance journalist living in Dallas, Texas. Send your questions and comments to her at teamtcbadvertising@hotmail.com.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Black Is Back” In America*
(*If You Don't Need A Job or Run Into The Police)
Anthony Asadullah Samad
*The Presidency aspirations of Barack Obama has caused a renewed discussion on race in America. The prospect of a black President has cast America in a different light throughout the world (as demonstrated by Obama's highly successful trip to the Middle East and Europe last week). But here, at home, America wrestles with the notion of the first black President in the history of the United States. In what should be, by all accounts, a run-away lection season--with an unpopular sitting President, a Republican Party embroiled in controversy, a failing economy and a war the America people are tired of--Barack Obama still finds himself running even with a tired old man that is a maverick in his own party. How can John McCain run also even with the most exciting political figure of the last two generations. It is clear. White people in America are confronted with a choice not even they imagined. So, now they have had to reacquaint themselves with that 400 year old problem they once called “the American Negro” but now simply refer to as “Black America.” Having relegated its historical dilemma of racial animus to the least priority of society, and rather than engage in any semblance of racial reconciliation chose instead to simply dismiss race as an irrelevant and outdated construct, the emergence of Barack Obama has forced new generations of Americans to discuss their parents and forefathers racial history and face up to the current dilemmas of race, particularly with respect to the African American. Black is back in America. At least for now, while Barack is in the running and dominates global media.
There is much fanfare around the two-part, six hour CNN special, Black In America, which ran all weekend (literally). America hasn't looked at race in so long it has to even ask itself, “what is this thing called Black America?” Often referred to in an antiquated paradigm, most of America still ties Black America to the civil rights movement and its leaders to that same movement--largely cause many of them are still around. As the generation that won't sit down, the civil rights generation still thinks it speaks for Black America (and the two generations that have come after them). The question of “Who speaks for Black America?” is as convoluted as the question of “Who is Black America?” The fact that America acts as if they don't know us (because they don”t--Ralph Ellison's “Invisible Man” still plays out in many facets of this society) and have to study Black America every 20 years, like they're some new phenomenon or something. Stands to reason that the same issues--socio-political inequality, economic subjugation, systematic and institutional discriminations--that went unresolved after slavery, and went unresolved after Reconstruction, and went unresolved after Jim Crow, and went unresolved after the Civil Rights movement, and went unresolved during the Reagan “White Backlash” Revolution and went unresolved in the Colorblind movement, would still be unresolved. The problem of black America are rooted in America historical race conflict and its refusal to correct it. America thinks it owes Black America nothing and that Black America's dilemmas are self-contrived and self-inflicted. Much of the discussion revisited in Black In America are not new. Most of the statistics are “turn of the millennium” studies manifested out of two events; the 50th Anniversary of the Brown Decision, and the 40th Anniversary of the Kerner Commission Study (Two Americas). There have always been successful Blacks, black families, black poverty and black conflict. There has also always been white supremacy, white privilege, white denial and white separation from the “black dilemma (the so-called “Negro Problem”). The issues that once faced Black America still face Black America, namely the absence of work and the forms of abusive social control, namely police interaction. As long as you're not trying to find serious work or don't have an interaction with law enforcement, it's great being black in America. You can live within the constraints of this society's limitations. It's like freedom with an asterisk--just a few small caveats (inconveniences). But being President of the United States wasn't one of em, so America has to get to know us again.
What has changed is America's bi-focal racial dynamic (black/white). It is now a multi-focal dynamic (white/black/Asian/Latino) with a social pecking order that has literally buried the equality prospects of Black America. The population growth of the nation's largest minority, Latinos, has caused white America to shift its attention to this new “minority” while Asians have proved economically self-sustaining as they dominate minority access to America's higher education and technology industries. America's new minorities know what it is like to be “black” in America because Black America is the case study for race relations in the United States. “Black” in America is something few aspire to be. Even as “black” culture is the dominant influencer of American culture. Unless it's emulating black culture and black dialect, it's a jacket nobody wants to wear. As Paul Mooney once said, “Everybody wants to be black, but nobody wants to be Black.” Comedian Chris Rock said it better, “No white man would change places with any black person in America because for white people the sky is the ceiling, but for black people--the ceiling is the sky (meaning anything over their head is a barrier to success).
So what's the renewed interest in Black America? It's simple…the prospect of a black President. If America is going to elect one, I guess they have to get to know black people--beyond the negative images and stereotypes they helped perpetuate (like they don't already know). Black is back in America. What that really means… we really don't know. We just Americans are curious today as to what it's like to be “black” in America. Again.
Anthony Asadullah Samad, Ph.D., is a national columnist, managing director of the Urban Issues Forum (www.urbanissuesforum.com) and author of the book, Saving The Race: Empowerment Through Wisdom. He can be reached at www.AnthonySamad.com
HEALTHY YOU! The Federal Government wants to teach you how to read food labels.
By: Tibberly G. Ríchard
*The goal of this column is to research health information that will be of use to you in your quest to live healthier. Being healthy means eating right and exercising with hopes off fighting off disease to live longer, healthier, assistance free lives. Once you decide to be healthy, one of the first changes that many decide to make is to stop eating out and start cooking at home. The purpose, to control what you eat and how the food is prepared. This allows you to control your caloric intake which is an important factor for weight loss and weight gain, or to simply maintain your weight.
One very important dynamic to consider when doing the cooking yourself is to remember to read the labels. According to the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) knowing how to read labels can help you make more informed decisions about your food purchases. The following information is taken from the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition website. The information on the website describes different label sections, how to read them and what they mean.
According to the FDA, people look at food labels for different reasons. But whatever the reason, many consumers would like to know how to use this information more effectively and easily. The following label-building skills are intended to make it easier for you to use nutrition labels to make quick, informed food choices that contribute to a healthy diet.
The first place to start when you look at the Nutrition Facts label is the serving size and the number of servings in the package. Serving sizes are standardized to make it easier to compare similar foods; they are provided in familiar units, such as cups or pieces, followed by the metric amount, e.g., the number of grams. The size of the serving on the food package influences the number of calories and all the nutrient amounts listed on the top part of the label. Pay attention to the serving size, especially how many servings there are in the food package. Then ask yourself, "How many servings am I consuming"? (e.g., 1/2 serving, 1 serving, or more) for example, one serving of macaroni and cheese equals one cup. If you eat the whole package, you would eat two cups. That doubles the calories and other nutrient numbers.
Calories are important because they provide a measure of how much energy you get from a serving of food. Many Americans consume more calories than they need without meeting recommended intakes for a number of nutrients. The calorie section of the label can help you manage your weight (i.e., gain, lose, or maintain.) Remember: the number of servings you consume determines the number of calories you actually eat (your portion amount).
General Guide to Calories
40 Calories is low
100 Calories is moderate
400 Calories or more is high
The General Guide to Calories provides a general reference for calories when you look at a Nutrition Facts label. This guide is based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Eating too many calories per day is linked to overweight and obesity.
Limit These Nutrients
Eating too much fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, or sodium may increase your risk of certain chronic diseases, like heart disease, some cancers, or high blood pressure. Important: Health experts recommend that you keep your intake of saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol as low as possible as part of a nutritionally balanced diet.
Be sure to get enough dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron in their diets. Eating enough of these nutrients can improve your health and help reduce the risk of some diseases and conditions. For example, getting enough calcium may reduce the risk of osteoporosis, a condition that results in brittle bones as one ages. Eating a diet high in dietary fiber promotes healthy bowel function. Additionally, a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and grain products that contain dietary fiber, particularly soluble fiber, and low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease.
You can use the Nutrition Facts label not only to help limit those nutrients you want to cut back on but also to increase those nutrients you need to consume in greater amounts. To see the full text of this research including labeling examples, log onto www.FDA.gov and search for food labeling and nutrition. You may also print a copy of the Nutrition Facts Label brochure, by clicking on this link, http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~acrobat/nutfacts.pdf.
Tibberly G. Ríchard served as an entertainment writer for EURweb.com for a number of years. She also served as an on air personality with RadioScope, the Entertainment Magazine of the Air. Ms. Ríchard currently does a weekly television segment called The Parents' Corner, and runs a consulting business. She received a BA in Mass Communications from Southern University A&M College , Baton Rouge , Louisiana and completed Masters Degree courses in Public Administration from Southern University, Baton Rouge , Louisiana and the University of Maryland , College Park . She also received a Certificate of Completion, Charles Hamilton Houston Law School Preparatory Institute, Georgetown University Law Center, Summer Program.
Contact her via tibberlyrichard@eurweb.com, or tgr@vit-com.com. "My greatest joy is my two-year old ‘hand-full’ of a son Caleb W. Cox. He inspires me to be better in every aspect of my life. He is my reason for writing this column. I love you sweetheart. I thank God that you chose me!" Mommy.
EUR MOTIVATIONAL NOTE
"Fixing your objective is like identifying the North Star - you sight your compass on it and then use it as the means of getting back on track when you tend to stray." — Marshall Dimock
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
July 29: Singer Wanya Morris of Boyz II Men is 35. Musician Danger Mouse of Gnarls Barkley is 31.
WEBSITE OF THE WEEK
Need your Eric Benet fix? Well then www.TrueEBfans.com is the official fan club of Eric Benet and the BEST place to get Eric Benet news.
Submit your favorite Web site to us along with a 15-20 word (or less) description to info@eurweb.com.
BLACK HISTORY
July 29, 1919: First convention of the National Association of Negro Musicians, held in Chicago. It awarded its first scholarship to the young Marian Anderson. (Source: www.BlackFacts.com)
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