diversifiedminds

Advocates for diversity across many areas of the political, social, economic and religious sectors have long been argued the moral necessity for diversity. Equality was vital for the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Rights Movement and as of late the Immigration and Gay Rights Movements. Moral diversity was on display in its most vivid degree yesterday at  the inauguration of Barack Obama. On Tuesday January 20, 2009 I was amongst 1.8 million friends and family on the National Mall celebrating the almost unimaginable election of the nation's first black president. It stands in my mind as one of the most seminal moments in my life. Four years later it was time to celebrate the validation of that election, epitomized by the re-election of our nation's 44th President. The profound nature of the moment was no less palpable than it was four years ago. I decided to stay at home and watch the inauguration with my grandmother and great grandmother. The chance to watch this hi...

Thank you sir. On behalf of people everywhere who have had to live in shame and secrecy because of who they are and who they love. Thank you on behalf of heterosexual people like myself and countless others who support the rights of those who may not be heterosexual to live as freely as they deserve. Thank you for showing another way to be black and masculine in a society often expecting black and masculine to be defined by the most nefarious of traits known to man. Thank you on behalf of people everywhere who believe in the creed we say with arms over our hearts in our American Pledge of Allegiance "with liberty and justice for all." Simply thank you. Yesterday, on a day that we celebrated our American Independence, you celebrated your own. You decided that at a time when the public's views on same sex relationships are beginning to shift, that it was your time to stand up. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to make that choice. Being entrenched in the hi...

This past weekend New York's Hot 97 radio station held their annual Summer Jam concert in New Jersey (yes there is clearly some irony in throwing a concert for a radio station based in NYC in the neighboring state, but I digress). Entertainer and hip hop star Nicki Minaj, herself a Queens native by way of Trinidad (big ups) was supposed to be the headline act. It was going to be Nicki's first chance at headlining one of the most iconic, (though of late dwindling in national prominence) concerts in her own home town. Hours before Nicki was to take stage with her Young Money label mates, one of the morning radio hosts of Hot 97, Peter Rosenberg, better known as simply Rosenberg, made the commentary that Nicki's music wasn't "real hip hop" (the irony of this white Jewish man questioning the authenticity of a music form created by black and brown youth in the streets of the Bronx in the 1970's isn't lost on this writer, but again I digress). Nicki upon hea...

I cried last week. One of those cries that you lock your room, get on your knees, pray to the heavens and ask the God you pray to why this happened...again. One of the cries that you hope no one walks in on because you won't be able to adequately put into words why you hurt. I hurt for Trayvon Martin, Ramarley Graham and all of the brothers and sisters who have been killed at the hands of white men and never receive justice. Call me racially incendiary right now. Frankly I don't care. The fact remains the same. A white man, followed a black boy who had no weapon, after being told by dispatchers to stand down. At the end of the confrontation, young Trayvon was dead, and a white man walked away without barely a slap on the wrist. Again... Some may say that Zimmerman is Hispanic. It is imperative to remember that one can be a white Hispanic as well as a black one. But frankly the race of the assailant has less to do in this story than the race of the victim. Furthermore what truly...

Allow me to share a secret that is often said in black and brown communities. Parents often tell their children that in order to be successful and rise up in America, they must aspire to be better than white people. And when I say better I mean better in every way. Better in intellectual ability, better in style of dress, better in mannerisms, simply better. This edict is told across socioeconomic lines, from the barrios of Los Angeles, to the projects in the Bronx, to the shacks in Alabama. It is a clarion call for black and brown people to strive harder and push themselves further than their white counterparts. Then and only then, it is believed will they ever be able to be on equal footing. This being the case, Herman Cain is an insult to every black and brown parent who has told their children to be better. During President Obama's rise to the presidency there was a feeling amongst many people, regardless of race, that there was something intrinsically good about his candidacy....

In today's edition of the New York Daily News it was revealed that for the 2010 year the homicide rate for black people jumped 31% while the homicide rate for whites dropped 27%. There is a lot in this data that is shocking on its head. One of the main things that shocked me is the fact that 25% of NYC's population is Black while 67% of the victims wee black. Even more shocking was that black males between the ages of 15-29 make up 3% of the city's population but a whopping 1/3 of all homicide victims. Having this data is sobering and informative but the larger questions we need to answer are why is this data so and what do we do with it? It is clear by this data that black people killing black people is an epidemic. The fact that the Centers for Disease Control labeled gun violence and deaths amongst each other as a national epidemic, not unlike cancer and AIDS is sobering. I believe that the economic downturn that occurred over the past few years has acutely affected the ...

Now I am sure that all of you who follow dancehall music have been paying attention to the recent controversy surrounding dancehall artist Vybz Kartel and the images of what appear to be lighter skin that have circulated in the media. There is so much that can be said about these images but what I want to focus on is the larger message that is being said by Mr. Kartel's actions. Now let's be clear. The idea of bleaching one's skin is not new to the black community. Since slaves came to the new world there was a systematic way that blacks were brainwashed to believe that white skin is better. Whether it was the story of Ham that were told to blacks to justify the institution of slavery in a religious context, to the clear favoritism that was shown to lighter skinned slaves, often referred to as house slaves, much of that impact filtered down through generations of black existence in this world. It's of utmost importance to remember that the reason slaves had different sk...

I know its been a while since I have written. Sometimes life comes in the way but I am back and in full effect. There has been so much to write about but I feel this is the perfect time to come back on the scene. Yesterday President Obama signed legislation banning the military policy historically known as Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I could not be more happy for this development, not only for those in the LGBT community but for this country as a whole. I was a child when President Bill Clinton passed this legislation. As a young kid I didn't know what it really meant at the time. As I got older and began to make my own opinions about things in life, this was one of the most blatantly hyprocritical pieces of legislation that America had on its books. There is something very wrong with a country that is supposed to be founded on the premise of men and women being created equal having a law on its books that didn't allow for members of its armed services to participate fully a...

Let me be clear from the onset. I do not believe that the Tea Party is intrinsically racist. Nor do I believe that Glenn Beck is intrinsically racist. But I do believe that there are elements of the Tea Party and elements of things Glenn Beck has said in the past that could lead one down the path to assume that both are racist. With that said I have a problem with Glenn Beck's rally in Washington DC today. I fully support his right to have a rally and march, much in the same way that I would support any organization wanting to do the same. I have supported the Nation of Islam's Million Man March and have even supported the rights of KKK members to hold rallies as well. But what concerns me the most is the clear co-opting and usage of Martin Luther King Jr. as a central image in Glen Beck's rally today. The reason I feel that the use of King is in poor taste is because much of what the rally claims to be simply is a perversion of everything King stood for. Glenn Beck stated ...

I would like to apologize to Shirley Sherrod. Not on behalf of this country that is so obsessed with race that we don't take the moment to look at the larger context of what a person says. Instead once we hear slightly offensive commentary we take it at face value and not look at the entirety of a person's statement or being. I don't apologize for an Obama administration that is so race sensitive that they were willing to fire a woman who did nothing wrong except for showing the true nature of humanity by learning from her past experiences and letting it shape her future. I don't apologize for the conservative media that has tried since the beginning of this presidency to use race as a prevailing factor in attempting to undermine not only the Obama agenda but Obama himself by using Jeremiah Wright, Henry Louis Gates, the New Black Panther Party, The Tea Party and now Shirley Sherrod to appeal to the inner racial stereotypes that we all tackle and fight each day. I apolo...

Jesse Jackson sure has hit a nerve with his most recent press release about the open letter that Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert released criticizing Lebron James. On the surface Jesse Jackson may seem to be a bit far-flung in saying that Gilbert is acting as if Lebron James is a runaway slave and he is a slave master. But digging deeper reveals a level of uneasiness with the way the situation has been handled that has even left me wondering about a lot of things. I have always believed that modern day sports has clear similarities to slavery. While athletes, more often than not black and brown ones, make exorbitant amounts of money, their livelihoods are often inextricably tied to the whim and fancy of owners, almost all white, who are making considerably more money. If athletes fall out of favor with ownership they are often shipped out without any consideration of how that may impact their lives. I see no difference in this sort of ownership and what occurred during slavery wh...

There was a recent study that surveyed the number of interracial marriages in the United States. Not surprisingly the numbers of interracial marriages have increased dramatically. According to the data 13% of new marriages are between people of opposite races. This trend seems to be increasing across all racial lines, even amongst racial groups that historically have been more hesitant than others to marry outside of their race. On its own this is great. Looking at the much bigger picture is crucial. Amazingly it has not been that long since interracial marriage was illegal in the United States. Miscegenation laws as they were called many years ago were in place in parts of the United States until 1967. Before then it was illegal to be in an interracial marriage and often times people were thrown in jail or forced to move to places where it was legal. In just 43 years things have changed quite a bit. Interracial marriages still have quite a huge level of taboo. Even though many more pe...

In one of the more shocking moments of recent political theater, Rand Paul, current candidate for Senate from Kentucky has went from the darling of the Tea Party Movement and is now the albatross hanging from the neck of the Republican Party in less than 24 hours. Rand Paul who is an ardent Libertarian much like his father Ron Paul was supported by the Tea Party Movement during his run for the Republican nomination for Senator. His views are very radical. The Tea Party Movement decided to align themselves with his candidacy for clear reasons. His viewpoints were on the fringe of what is expected, especially when it comes to government and its limitations or lack thereof on citizens and private businesses. He was able to make a huge push and win the nomination due to much of the anti-incumbent fervor that exists in the nation, as well as the push for more extreme candidates and views to come to the forefront. This is especially true for the conservative segment of the electorate. But a ...

In a recent article on www.racismreview.com the United Nations may investigate the incredibly low numbers for black employment in the U.S. The United Nations governing body is making the claim that the U.S. government is not living up to its commitment set up under previous human rights agreements. Among other absolutely sobering statistics listed in the article, the rate of unemployment for black men is at 20.2% in comparison to 9.6% for white men. These rates may be worse because the percentage does not include the numbers of people who simply stopped looking for employment. The rate of pay for black men is also lower than white men. The rate of unemployment is not monolithic. It goes across the spectrum of black life from the young, old, college educated, high school educated, urban or rural. If the facts in this report are true, there are some serious things that need to be addressed. Systematically and socially blacks have been at the bottom of the employment ladder since Slavery....

What is really going on in Arizona? As if creating an immigration law that can be perceived as racist wasn't enough, now the Arizona Legislature has decided that schools that teach courses about various races will lose state funding. The exact wording of the document states that schools will lose funding if they "promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals." Now there are some major issues with this policy. Of course I fully agree that if there are teachers and schools that are promoting overthrowing the American government they should lose funding. What American wouldn't agree with a policy like that? But I believe that comparing acts of treason to courses that "advocate ethnic solidarity" is completely ridiculous and frankly racist. Under this law if sc...

While I was sitting down watching Hardball with Chris Matthews, he had a segment on the resurgence of black people running for congressional seats as Republicans. There are currently 32 black people running for Congressional office as Republicans. This number is the most since Reconstruction. I believe that this resurgence has both good and bad aspects to it. On one hand its a great thing that blacks feel comfortable to run as Republicans. It shows that we have come a long way in our history that while it is a story that this many are running, its not as big a story as it would have been a few years or decades ago. I believe that the election of Barack Obama as President and the selection of Michael Steele to head the Republican National Committee both have played a huge role in blacks wanting to win political office, and believing that they can. While blacks have run for political office in the past and have done well, especially in regions that have a solid black population, the elec...

Imagine this scenario: You are walking down the street and a police officer asks you for your identification and proof of citizenship. You are unable to prove that on the spot. You are then arrested for being illegally in the country and thrown in jail. This may sound like Nazi Gernamy in World War II. Unfortunately if Arizona passes the new anti-immigration policy, this will be the new America that we live in. The new Arizona Immigration policy is one of the most blatant examples of racial profiling I have ever seen. For those of you who may not know, this past week Arizona lawmakers legalized the strictest anti-immigration ever passed in America. If signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer, police officers would have the right to stop people and ask them to show documents proving that they are in America legally. If they are not, then they can be arrested and charged with a misdemeanor. Furthermore it makes it a crime for anyone to willingly harbor an illegal immigrant. I believe that ...

This weekend was a throwback to the days of the 1960s that we often have seen on television and could not have imagined we would ever see again. I suppose we have traveled back in time to the days when being racist, bigoted, and anti-semitic have returned. As a young black male I have read stories of behavior like this. Never in my wildest dreams would I expect this to occur in 2010. And its not because I don't believe that racism and bigoted feelings do not still exist, but because I assumed people had more decency to do it behind closed doors. I guess I was wrong. What occured Saturday in Washington DC stands as one of the most disgusting forms of public behavior that this generation of Americans have ever seen. Young children, who live in a much more diverse and accepting world than any of their parents could ever dream of did not deserve to see this. Black and white kids who play with each other every day did not deserve to see this. GLBT people who have families and interact w...

Over the past few days, the debate about the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy has come to the forefront. For those of you who do not know, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is the policy that prohibits members of the LGBT community from openly serving in the United States Armed Forces. If members of the LGBT community are found to be serving in the military, they are often kicked out because "it would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability." In my opinion this policy is one of the most offensive policies that is on the books, jeopardizes the American military and is uniquely unamerican. Whether or not you support LBBT issues and causes, the issue of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" must be looked at in a more global sense. If the American military is supposed to be going into countries, instilling democracy and democratic ideals, while still havi...

One year ago today, many people experienced one of the most euphoric and amazing experiences ever. Being able to witness the inaguration of the first black president of the United States of America was a moving experience to say the least. Fast forward one year and the larger question of what has the Obama presidency done for diversity needs to be addressed. Having a black president in office has had a profound impact on how people of color view themselves as active members of the American body politic. Being able to see a President that looks very different than previous presidents goes a long way to making people who have felt disenfranchised feel a little less so. It may simply be a matter of aesthetics, but do not doubt how important aesthetics are to many people both nationally and internationally. Over the course of the year the image of the United States has improved greatly on an international front. President Obama made a duty to reach out to foreign countries, many of whom ha...