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A friend of mine in my blog network posted some information about a psychological coping strategy I’d never heard of before: normalcy bias. It refers to a mental state some people experience in the face of an impending disaster and underestimate the possibility of devastation or destruction. Think Hurricane Katrina. Tornado Alley. The black out-of-wedlock rate.
73 percent–yes, 73–of black children are being born without the benefit of two married parents living in the home, and our collective, sluggish response to an epidemic that most surely will destroy us is usually outrage–at the messenger, not the problem. And while being a baby mama or daddy may seem normal, the result of our cavalier attitude is leading to a major devastation. Maybe not today. Maybe not in a year. But as sure as I write, it’s coming. Just look around.
Recently, a 16-year-old boy killed his single mother with a claw hammer because she took away his Play Station. Ninety students at a Memphis high school are either pregnant or lactating as we speak. Baby mamas are brawling at Chuck-E-Cheese over trifling baby daddies. Well-fed fourth grade black boys can’t read as well hungry, poor white boys. The C.D.C. recently conducted a study that said family structure can negatively influence children’s health. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
The storm isn’t coming, it’s already here. The winds are whipping, the dams and levees are breaking, and bodies are floating right by us, and yet, some of us keep saying, “Well, it’s not that bad! I was raised by a single mom/dad and I came out all right!” Well, how lucky for you. And you be the problem.
We have become a society that is so completely self-centered and self-indulgent that we just don’t seem to give a crap. It’s an “I got mine, the hay-ell with you!” mentality that is eating us alive, swallowing us whole into an abyss so dark and dismal we may never crawl out of it.
The 73 percent out-of-wedlock eclipses all other races. The closest is Latinos, at 51 percent. Our shameful numbers overshadow all other negative statistics attributed to blacks, including the drop out rate, men and women in prison, homicide, poverty, H.I.V./A.I.D.S., drug use and unemployment. Our “black leadership” is quick to complain and cite EVERYTHING EXCEPT the out-of-wedlock rate, likely because they are afraid of the backlash and fear of offending our delicate constituents if they actually hold us accountable for a factor that we, indeed, can control.
“The African-American community has a high rate of children born in single parent homes and domestic violence because of historical trauma but more so now because of a generation who is heavily influenced by negative images of what it means to be black,” says Lyn Twyman, domestic violence advocate, radio personality and founder of CourageNetwork.com, “It’s time that African-Americans take back their communities and start promoting healthy images, healthy relationships and healthy families. We can’t let the negative define who we are as a people.”
And mesdames, the world is watching. And they are laughing at us, or shaking their heads in pity. Someone once asked me during an asinine Twitter battle why they should care what someone, for example, from France, thought of black people. To her I say this: we are living in a global economy. The world is now a very, very small place. You may not care what France or China thinks of you, but how about when it’s time for your child to find a job and can’t because someone at an international company thinks all black people look act the folks on B.E.T. rap videos? Will you care then?
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Speaking of Tyler Perry, he is set to release his movie For Colored Girls on November 5th. The all-star cast includes Whoopi Goldberg, Thandie Newton, Phylicia Rashad, Kimberly Elise, Loretta Devine and Macy Gray. Early critiques of the movie have not been good. The movie was released early for Oscar consideration, but the West Coast critics have not been kind. One reviewer called the movie a train wreck, and another said the movie was beyond his reach. For the record, critics have never been crazy about Perry’s movies. We will have to judge for ourselves. Another point of criticism is the lack of positive black male characters in the movies, but Perry stated that he strived to create a balance with the character Hill Harper is playing. Perry has a lot riding on this movie as he continues to expand his movie career. This was not an easy project, but he knew he was up for the challenge.
In more Tyler news, his newest project will involve The Rock, a.k.a. Actor Dwayne Johnson. In the movie, Take My Wife, Perry plays a divorced man who doesn’t want to pay alimony to his ex-wife so he goes about finding her a new husband. When he finds the perfect suitor for his ex, he realizes he still loves his wife and wants her back.
The soundtrack for Tyler Perry’s latest movie For Colored Girls will feature the music of Gladys Knight, Lalah Hathaway, Leona Lewis, Estelle, Laura Izibor, Macy Gray, Janelle Monae and the late Nina Simone. The soundtrack comes out on November 2nd. The movie with Janet Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Kimberly Elise, Loretta Devine, Phylicia Rashad and Thandie Newton opens in theatres on November 5th. The movie is based on the 1975 play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange. Tyler’s newest project will involve The Rock, a.k.a. Actor Dwayne Johnson. In the movie, Take My Wife, Perry plays a divorced man who doesn’t want to pay alimony to his ex-wife so he goes about finding her a new husband. When he finds the perfect suitor for his ex, he realizes he still loves his wife and wants her back.
You are now awake! Keep reading, because it’s true “a mind is a terrible thing to waste”. This year has been a big learning curve for you dear Capricorn. Learning is fundamental, but for you it was your chosen spiritual path of enlightenment. Judge not unless you be judge. Your mind is bright and spiritual access.
Material things have always been important to you, and now you see, there is no needing or wanting, just is. Everything does happen for a reason, to reveal itself when it is time. There are decisions that have to made by the end of the year. Know these decisions paint a portrait of who you are, and what you want in this life. I would say like Nike “just do it”, and it will happen faster than you realize. You like your sign the goat is always climbing new areas of life, which is good, just remember to stop and smell the roses. Sometimes dear Capricorn you become to driven, and your body surely let’s you know that OK! You are learning to think with your mind, not your body or ego, and thru this you are becoming who you really are.
Enjoy the holidays, and that new love just around the corner, or is in your life at the present time.
Life sometimes is like a roller coaster you ride that puppy, sideways, up and down, curves, until it comes to the end, what a ride I say, glorious and magnificent ride.
There are a number of holy books or sacred texts in the world. They constitute the core of some of the world’s major religions. It is generally thought to be, at the very least, simple good manners for people who have a strong belief in one of these holy books not to derogate, at least publicly, the holy book reverenced by another group. And most certainly it is thought to be but plain decency not to deliberately and ostentatiously set out to abuse, mock, defile or destroy the holy book of another group. For example, by burning a pile of them publicly after alerting the world to your deliberately disrespectful intent.
This is, indeed, what one cunning or dim-witted, rabid or naive, publicity genius or blundering innocent, self-proclaimed Christian pastor, Terry Jones, declared he was going to do with some 200 copies of the Koran Saturday, being the ninth anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. That announcement set in motion an extraordinary story and one which opens troubling questions about the war on terror and the current engagement of Western military in Afghanistan and Iraq.
First, the story tells us that in some rather difficult-to-articulate sense, this war has taken on aspects that are fundamentally not serious. When extraneous, or circumstantial, or ancillary matters occupy centre stage, it is a clear sign, by definition, that the main business has been sidelined.
And what or who is more extraneous or ancillary, more truly irrelevant, than Pastor Jones? How could a genuine world issue, of cardinal depth and significance, be hostage to such a trivial player, to a pathetic and obvious publicity ploy by a man the world had never heard of?
Why is anyone paying attention to this guy? He’s not a new version of Billy Graham or even Jerry Falwell. He has no earned iconic standing. He’s a non-entity of a splinter church with a piddling 30 or 50 followers. What he does or intended to do is of no social, symbolic or geopolitical consequence whatsoever.
But what was really odd was how the great and powerful of the world reacted. All week, he was being beseech-ed by the mighty of the Earth to stop what he and his little band of true believers were proposing to do. There was the Vatican, there was Tony Blair. In Canada, Stephen Harper, Peter McKay and Michael Ignatieff weighed in. And General David Petraeus, the overlord of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, astonishingly proclaimed that Terry Jones’ stunt would undermine the “total effort” of the war in Afghanistan.
This sideline preacher’s gruesome little barbecue would jeopardize, in other words, the main front in the war on terror. In fact, Barack Obama himself has been publicly pleading with Jones to put off the event. And most tellingly, Obama’s Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, undoubtedly under orders from the White House, went into direct personal discussion and negotiation with the Florida-based pastor to get him to change his plans.
What a spectacle. How did a publicity stunt in Florida become a fulcrum for success or failure in the war on terror?
There is something profoundly unserious here, undignified and immensely off base. The first General of the United States, and the Secretary of Defense of the greatest war machine in the history of the world are both deferring to some fringe evangelist for fear that he might … what? Might lose the war for them? If this is the splinter the war on terror is hanging on to then it is, I fear, a house of cards in both theatres.
Nor is it irrelevant that by Friday another, better known exhibitionist, Donald Trump, had inserted himself into this story. “Unreality” doesn’t come in single doses. So now (the cast was assembling), it was the Imam, the Pastor and the Donald. It’s like a parody apocalypse.
Nine years out from the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001, there will be people marking this day with all the solemnity that grief and memory can bring to it. There will be military families ruminating on their sacrifices. I’m not sure how the weird, absurd and — I think — irrational events out of Florida fit with these observances. The whole saga has usurped the great messages of determination and purpose that filled the months and days after 9/11.
by Rex Murphy
The release date for Tyler Perry’s movie For Colored Girls has been moved up. The movie was supposed to come out next January, but the movie is now being released on November 5th. The movie, based on the 1975 play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange, stars Janet Jackson, Anika Noni Rose, Whoopi Goldberg, Kimberly Elise, Phylicia Rashad, Loretta Devine, Thandie Newton, Macy Gray, Michael Ealy, Hill Harper and Khalil Kain. Tyler Perry wrote and directed this movie version, and Oscar buzz and hype is already surrounding the film.
As season two gets underway for The Wendy Williams Show, you will notice new set changes. Behind the scenes, a new producer has been put in place. Word has it the show is being toned down. Don’t change Wendy! There is no one else like her on TV, and that is what makes Wendy Wendy. If the show took a ratings hit, blame it on all the reruns and long hiatus breaks. Let Wendy shine and do her thing!
Now that she has been embarrassed on TV, Evelyn Lozada of VH1’s Basketball Wives wants to leave the show. In the season finale, Lozada got into an altercation with Tami Roman when she revealed she slept with Roman’s husband. Lozada claims she was set up by producers to get attacked for ratings. A lot of people feel Lozada is trying to leave the show so she can do a show with Football Star Chad Ochocinco Johnson. Lozada and Ochocinco are looking to strike out on their own, and they are willing to do anything, including faking a relationship, to keep the reality show money coming in.
Mark Adams, the bass player for the 70’s funk band Slave, has died. Details of Adams’ death haven’t been released yet. Slave’s hits include Just A Touch Of Love, Watching You and Slide.