Thoughts For Food
Les Brown on the need for us to stop seeing ourselves as victims.
“We’ve got to stop making excuses and begin to face the reality that things are not going to get better for us until we get better. You can take people out of the ghetto, put them in the suburbs, in mansions, give them a million dollars apiece, take the people out of the suburbs, put them in the ghetto, and what do you think you’re going to have when you come back five years later?
“The people that are in the suburbs, in the mansions, who’ve been transferred there from the ghettos will convert that to the ghetto. Because it doesn’t matter what you have. If I give you two million dollars—you win the lottery and you have a $100-a-week self-image and self-concept, your image of yourself will bring you right back to where you are. What you acquire in life can never exceed your personal growth and development.
“You can never improve your circumstances or environment without first improving yourself. If you see yourself as powerless, I can give you the right to vote and at voter registration time I have to beg you to register, then I have to beg you to get out voting.”
Booker T. Washington
“We must not allow our grievances to overshadow our opportunities.” Booker T Washington
The Black Middle Class
Were it not for the black middle class, the civil rights movement and its victories we now cherish- never would have happened. Were it not for the black middle class:
*Many legal victories never would have happened.
*There never would have been a Motown.
*There never would have black radio stations.
*There never would have been black banks and small businesses.
*Those not in the middle class would not have had examples to aspire to.
Yet, despite these successes, the black middle class is often ignored and just as often unappreciated in the black community. It’s all about the
Crime: Do some of us make excuses for the wrong people?
A black Detroit female carjack victim responding to people treating her carjacker like a victim:
"These coalition people are pissing me off,” she said. “Nobody cares that he terrorized two kids. They are trying to make this a Trayvon Martin or Mike (Brown) case ... I'm tired of people making this a racial thing, and they're not looking at what he did to my family."
When she heard the carjacking suspect had called out to Jesus when he was apprehended, she said, “He's calling on Jesus? Where was Jesus when he pulled his gun on us? He put a gun in my face and said, 'I'm robbing you bitch.'”
Sidney Poitier.
“My generation was taught that educational achievement, moral virtues, and economic organization were far more important to our development than how whites treated us or how they felt toward us.”
Oprah
“I grew up like many of you. NO running water and no electricity as a little girl. You can overcome poverty and despair in your life with an education. I am living proof of that.”
Rap and what it has represented
Suppose the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups conspired to devise a weapon that would wreak havoc on black people and black culture. Those hate groups could try for years, trying to find that secret weapon. But they could never invent a weapon as lethal and as detrimental to the black community as rap.
In the rap world, the N-word is used so often you might think you were at a klan or skinhead rally. “N-this, N-that, my N-, N-please!” No doubt, rap as we know it today, would make both klan and skinhead members proud. That’s because those hate groups see Blacks doing it to themselves.
Les Brown on the need for us to stop seeing ourselves as victims.
“We’ve got to stop making excuses and begin to face the reality that things are not going to get better for us until we get better. You can take people out of the ghetto, put them in the suburbs, in mansions, give them a million dollars apiece, take the people out of the suburbs, put them in the ghetto, and what do you think you’re going to have when you come back five years later?
“The people that are in the suburbs, in the mansions, who’ve been transferred there from the ghettos will convert that to the ghetto. Because it doesn’t matter what you have. If I give you two million dollars—you win the lottery and you have a $100-a-week self-image and self-concept, your image of yourself will bring you right back to where you are. What you acquire in life can never exceed your personal growth and development.
“You can never improve your circumstances or environment without first improving yourself. If you see yourself as powerless, I can give you the right to vote and at voter registration time I have to beg you to register, then I have to beg you to get out voting.”
Booker T. Washington
“We must not allow our grievances to overshadow our opportunities.” Booker T Washington
The Black Middle Class
Were it not for the black middle class, the civil rights movement and its victories we now cherish- never would have happened. Were it not for the black middle class:
*Many legal victories never would have happened.
*There never would have been a Motown.
*There never would have black radio stations.
*There never would have been black banks and small businesses.
*Those not in the middle class would not have had examples to aspire to.
Yet, despite these successes, the black middle class is often ignored and just as often unappreciated in the black community. It’s all about the
Crime: Do some of us make excuses for the wrong people?
A black Detroit female carjack victim responding to people treating her carjacker like a victim:
"These coalition people are pissing me off,” she said. “Nobody cares that he terrorized two kids. They are trying to make this a Trayvon Martin or Mike (Brown) case ... I'm tired of people making this a racial thing, and they're not looking at what he did to my family."
When she heard the carjacking suspect had called out to Jesus when he was apprehended, she said, “He's calling on Jesus? Where was Jesus when he pulled his gun on us? He put a gun in my face and said, 'I'm robbing you bitch.'”
Sidney Poitier.
“My generation was taught that educational achievement, moral virtues, and economic organization were far more important to our development than how whites treated us or how they felt toward us.”
Oprah
“I grew up like many of you. NO running water and no electricity as a little girl. You can overcome poverty and despair in your life with an education. I am living proof of that.”
Rap and what it has represented
Suppose the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups conspired to devise a weapon that would wreak havoc on black people and black culture. Those hate groups could try for years, trying to find that secret weapon. But they could never invent a weapon as lethal and as detrimental to the black community as rap.
In the rap world, the N-word is used so often you might think you were at a klan or skinhead rally. “N-this, N-that, my N-, N-please!” No doubt, rap as we know it today, would make both klan and skinhead members proud. That’s because those hate groups see Blacks doing it to themselves.