Peace,

The following is an article that I've had in the stash for quite a while. Check it out and tell me what you think!


Is the Nation of Gods and Earths a Muslim Community?

I Majestic Allah

Within and outside the Nation of Gods and Earths (NGE), many are unsure as to the relation of the NGE to the religion of Islam as practiced by over 1 billion adherents throughout the world. Understandably, perspectives on the matter are varied, ranging from inclusion (those who see the NGE within the Islamic scope) to total exclusion (those who see the NGE having no relation to the religion of Islam). There are also those who see the NGE not as Muslims, but a group with ideas in the vein of Shiite and Sufi sects. The primary consequence of this argument is the way in which we define ourselves in relation to other cultures/religions in society. Furthermore, it begs the question: is the NGE merely an offshoot of the Nation of Islam (NOI), and by extension, orthodox Islam; or is it a new value system unique to itself? The answer to this question is one that incorporates many factors and connects varied cultural and social dynamics.


In order to look deeper into the question, it is imperative that we first evaluate the ideas and value system of the respective cultures/religions to see if they are indeed similar. The primary reason that many accuse the NGE of being quasi or Proto-Islamic is the use of the terms Allah and Islam. Although both groups use the terms, the meanings and context in which they are used are strikingly dissimilar.

In the traditional Islamic context, Allah is used to refer to an omnipotent, omniscient, astral God who is the object of adoration and worship in western monotheistic thought (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). God in Arabic is Ilah, so the prefix Al (meaning the) was added on to indicate a shift away from polytheistic culture/religion, as was the norm in pre-Islamic Arabia. In the paradigm of the NGE, Allah is the Blackman, who after gaining an acute awareness of his positive qualities, history, and the world around him, actualizes these positive qualities in order to be the creator of his own destiny and a positive enriching influence in his family and community (global and local). This worldview is not unlike the concept of the “perfect man” in Sufism and the Kabbalah. While many would hold that Allah is a term exclusive to the religion of Islam, it is actually an Arabic term that is also used by Arab Jews and Christians when speaking of God. Our use of the Arabic term is not only related to the history of the NGE (and our evolution out of the NOI, but also on the profound affect that the term carries when speaking of a change in the worldview from the Christian perspective held previous by many in the African-American and Latino community. While the Terms Allah & God are similar in religious usage, when used among a population that has been oppressed by a mix of white supremacy and religion (in this case Christianity), the term Allah often signals a stance of independence and separation from their previous cultural and religious experience.

The term Islam in the traditional Islamic context means “peace through submission”, and refers to the religion and culture developed by Muhammad Ibn Abdullah in 7th century Arabia. From the perspective of the NGE, Islam bespeaks the cultural filament of high civilization practiced and maintained by people of the Afro-Asiatic Diaspora. Even in orthodox Islam, it is acknowledged that Islam as an ideal championing the existence of the oneness of God predated the emergence of Islam as a religion. Similar to the term Allah, the NGE does not use the term Islam to be seen as Muslims, but to underscore the correlation between a civilization’s development of character & humanity, and it’s development of science & mathematics. It is well documented that the religion of Islam was a catalyst for the development of science, mathematics, and philosophy for hundreds of years, even influencing the enlightenment period in Europe. Within Africa, cities such as Djenne and Timbuktu are testimonies to Afro-Islamic achievements in mathematics and science, as well as human development and spirituality. In the African- American community, Islam (in it’s myriad of manifestations) usually indicated a system that improved one’s character, as well as one’s knowledge of and standing in the world. By seeing oneself within this ethno-cultural framework, the mental paradigm is developed where people of varied backgrounds can transform the behaviors that many of us suffer from (lack of motivation, defeatist behavior, anti-intellectualism). This is why within the NGE community, you will find terms such as “science/scientist”, “mathematics”, “right and exact”, and so forth. The NGE use of the term “Mathematics” is of particular importance as it relates to the Hindu-Arabic numerals we use. The history of the Hindu-Arabic number system is an example of the historical and social bond that connects civilizations and promotes human development by way of cultural and intellectual exchange. By seeing the filament that runs through the high civilizations of people of color, one can develop a universal worldview that champions and relates to the achievements of people of color all over the planet. While some may dismiss this framework as underdeveloped and imaginary, it is no more fantastic than the Zion of Rastafarian thought, or the “glory days” of Kemet of some Afrocentrists.

On a religious level, however it is important to note that orthodox Islam and the NGE are in no way the same. There is no veneration of Muhammad as the last prophet in the NGE, and the NGE has no set amount that is required to be distributed to the poor. Due to the view that man is the creator of his individual and collective destiny, prayer in the form of Salat is not required. Fasting is encouraged in the NGE, but not in a structured and mandated form as is Ramadan in orthodox Islam. Conversely, most Muslims would consider it anathema to call themselves God, and there is no outward expression of ethnocentrism present in the religion of Islam. Historically, there have been Islamic groups/sects that held views similar to the NGE, such the Zaydis of Yemen, the Druze of Lebanon, and the Baye Fall sect in Senegal, but these groups are the exception and not the rule. While comparisons to Sufism are fair (Exemplified by famous Sufi Al Hallaj, who was beheaded for exclaiming Anal Haqq, or “I am the truth”), it is important to note that many of the Sufis that advocated self-actualized Godhood identified with Gnostic and Neo-Platonic thought and often ran afoul of traditional Islamic tenets.


While it is understandable why the NGE is identified with Orthodox Islam given the history of the NGE as well as the usage of selected terms by both groups, the truth is that the NGE espouses many concepts that do not fit neatly within an Islamic scope. In fact, after Allah, the founder of the NGE left the NOI, he went to great lengths to identify the NGE as a separate community, even going so far as to order sweeping name changes so that the Gods and Earths would not be mistaken for Muslims of the NOI. While one may be tempted to dismiss this change as slight, it is no less indicative of a new worldview than Muhammad changing the direction of prayer from Jerusalem to Mecca. It is also important to note that Allah, when asked about Islam, remarked, “that’s just I-Self-Lord-And-Master”, again speaking to the process of self-actualization rather than submission. Ultimately, to place the NGE in an Islamic scope does a disservice to both groups. One, it forces the NGE to fit it’s values within a previous but unparallel framework. Secondly, It compels Orthodox Islam to include a group with values that are dissimilar to their own. It also infers that there will be no “new” value systems, and that no cultural/religious development can take place after the last revelation of the western monotheistic tradition (Islam). Following this train of thought, Christianity would be seen as “Quasi-Judaic”, and Protestants would be known as “Pseudo-Catholic”. The NGE is a new value system that has similarities to and influences from a variety of Cultures/Religions (Islam, Buddhism, Gnosticism, Christianity), but is a unique ethno-cultural response to the condition of people of color in contemporary society. It is no less valid due to it originating from another group than Protestantism, being a response of the excesses of another group (Catholicism in this case). Building upon the legacy of Cultural/ Religious Nationalism left by the Moorish Science Temple and the NOI, the NGE and the ethno-cultural worldview that we espouse deserves the respect and consideration afforded to other Cultures/Value Systems and should be seen as adding another dimension to the contemporary Afro-Asiatic Diaspora.

Already, within the last forty years, the NGE has made a considerable impact on urban youth worldwide and is well known through its influence on Hip-Hop Culture. The ideas and values projected by many NGE musicians (Rakim, Wu-Tang Clan, Poor Righteous Teachers) has influenced youth culture, serving as the impetus for tens of thousands of disaffected youth to learn about and research the history and culture of aboriginal people across the globe. Viewing the NGE outside the limited parameters of “Proto-Islam” will allow many to gain greater understanding and appreciation for the ideas and concepts found therein.

Show & Prove

Peace,

For those of you who don't know, we in the Nation of Gods & Earths have a yearly event entitled the Show & Prove, which commemorates the life of Allah the founder of the NGE. This event is a testament to the life and vision of Allah, as it relates to what he wanted for future Gods and Earths. The event began in 1971 and was centered around a science fair in which the young Gods and Earths could exhibit their awareness and competency in science and mathematics (the subjects in which Allah placed much of his focus for the Gods and Earths). The event also featured singing, dancing, drumming, and a fashion show.

The past weekend, I attended our 35th annual show and prove. Gods and Earths from all across the country attended to see the universal family. As I looked around and saw the thousands in attendance, I marveled at the power of an idea(Knowledge), and the majesty of proper application and implementation(Wisdom). When those two elements come together, a positive result often emerges(Understanding). Both elements must be present to insure success; An idea w/ improper application will be dead on arrival, and the best intentions can't mask a bulls(!T idea.

That premise leads me into the importance of the concept "Show and Prove". To show is to exhibit, demonstrate, or make visible. Prove means to verify or establish by means of fact or reason. The use of the term compels one to not only speak of something, b.u.t. to provide supporting details or proof as well. This is one of the steps that allows us to set a standard of excellence for all of the human families to follow. It also ensures that your exhibition is aligned with the means to verify your assertion. Just as we demonstrate and establish that the Blackman is God and the Blackwoman is the Earth, so should you show and prove whatever your premise is. By doing that we will be able to interact and build as civilized people and change the world that we live in today.

Stop Snitchin'

Peace,

Today's mathematics is Power. Power is the ability to affect and change your environment. There are many types of power (coercion, influence,domination), however when using power in the most supremely mathematical sense, it is the abilty to move something in a positive direction based on a righteous way of life. One's power should always create equality (balance, homeostasis) in the environment.

I wanna talk about snitching for a minute. I must say in advance that I have a perspective that won't go over well with some segments of the population that read my blog. What I'm finding is that if you have a perpesctive that is in line with the Black "intelligensia", you're probably out of touch with the "common folk". Okay civilized people, here we go: I am anti-snitching as it exists in a contemporary sense. Enter a hypothetical conversation/debate with a person who is pro-snitch:

I: I can see where the kids are coming from with this "stop snitching" thing

T: How can you say that? Drugs and violence are tearing apart our communities. How can you say that someone shouldn't tell on criminals?

I: When I say that, I mean that people who engage in criminal activity should not tell on others who engage in criminal activity to get a "get out of jail free" card. I'm perfectly fine with civilians reporting criminal behavior to the police; that's part of the game.

T: Still, how can you condone crime and intimidation? That's part of destroying our communities!

I: I don't condone intimidation, b.u.t. I also don't condone lack of accountability or responsibility. People know what they're getting into when they get into the game, and they don't have much remorse when they out there hustlin', so dont get holier-than-thou when you get caught. Besides, snitches are notoriously bad pipelines of info, and are replacing real police work in many cases.

T: Don't you agree that we should get drug dealers off of the streets?

I: What I think is that we need to look at the problem realistically. First of all, the drug game has become a industry in our communities, and it ain't because our youth are out to destroy us, either. As a people, we still haven't adjusted to post-industrial America, so our children are making due with anything that they can. Add in the institutional racism that permeates all fibers of our society, and you get generations who really believe that hobbies and crime are the way to go (See Basketball, Hustling,& Entertainment). So while I do think that we need to reduce the negative impact of open-air drug markets and the resulting violence, locking them all up and throwing away the key isn't the solution. The larger issue is that we need to start policing ourselves, b.u.t. that would be getting off topic a little.

T: All I know is that drugs is choking the life out of our community

I: To me, unprincipled drug selling, use, and the resulting behavior is chocking the life out of our community. All communities have drug sellers, users, and abusers, b.u.t. ours is out of hand due to the absence of any rules or morals when dealing with that cipher. In Washington Heights, they sell more powder than a little bit, b.u.t. every block isn't a drug market. This idea can be extended to other aspects of our community as well. We need to establish rights and wrongs and convey them to our children so that the youth don't continue to terrorize the elders and the larger community. If we want the youth to stop hustling we have to advocate for better education, create industries in our communities, and change the way that we look at a communities survival in the wilderness

T: On to the next topic...

Rap Game/Crack Game

Peace,

Today's Supreme Mathematics is Wisdom Power all b.b.t. God. Through my Wisdom you will see my Power, and through my Power, you will see my Wisdom. Being intelligent with your ability to affect & change your environment is what seperates the men from the boys. We see the children running these streets and using power in the wrong ways. It is up to the Blackman with knowledge of self to show his community and the world how to be wise and intelligent with the power that we have.

I wanna talk about hip-hop for a minute. There are a lot of reasons that hip hop is worth talking about, b.u.t the main reason that I want talk about it is the role it plays in our community. In 2006, hip hop is central to the identity of many of our people (specifically the youth). In addition, you can't minimize it's role as a medium for communication for/about our people (good or bad) In taking a look at everything, here's what's standing out:

- You know where hip-hop really went wrong? When hip-hop became a viable alternative for a career for our youth (alongside crack and basketball). When poverty is widespread, schools aint workin, and the family unit has beeen destroyed, you damn right people will sell negative images for money. It took a while for the major record labels to totally commodify it, b.u.t. when they did, they did it to death. Remember, broke people w/out knowledge of self will do almost anything.

- If we date hip hop back to the early-mid 70's, that would make it about 30 -35 years old. There are alot of confused 30-35 year olds out here, and you should look at hip-hop the same way. How many black people do you know who will talk about how the government is shafting them, and then go right ahead and give all their money back to them? That's Hip Hop.

- The regional chasm that we've created are reminiscent of the Malcolm/ Martin, Black Panthers/US, Dubois/Washington divisions. New York is'nt losing because of any grand con-spiracy; They're losing cause of the holier than thou attitude of many in new york. Note to all: just because you started it doesn't mean that you'll always be seen as the best. Just like Dumar Wa'de Allah says "There's no 401(k) plan for a five percenter", there's no 401(k) plan for creativity. There's a wealth to experiences to be heard within different regions; let's appreciate it all.

- Speaking of which, am I the only one who notices an elitist attitude in the conscious/progressive circles? There's nothing wrong with critical analysis; hell I think I'm pretty critical, b.u.t. I'm not coming off like Bill Cosby out this jawn either. Remember, Hip Hop does not exist in isolation of the rest of our issues. It actually is sitting right in the middle of them at the date of this writing. Hip Hop won't grow up until Black Men grow up.

- What's up w/ shooting rappers? Majestic says that rappers should stop talking to the people like they're somebody they're not. We always hear the analogy between music and movies, b.u.t. here's the difference: Nobody takes Tom Cruise seriously when he does MI3. If you're speaking to the hood, tell the truth about your character. Our youth see no distinction between fantasy and reality when their reality is depressing. If you don't want it to happen, stop selling the fantasy. Why don't we ever hear about Mos Def getting shot?

- Lastly, I want to say this: Jay Z (Cocaine) vs. 50 (Crack). More to be revealed

Tale Of Two Cities

Peace,

I like to travel. B.U.T. I don't necessarily like to go to the tourist spots or cities that have been identified as the best places to travel to. No ,I like to go to where the "Niggas" are; the spots where people don't like to go. The places where you can get a home-made lemonade or Iced Tea from the Chinese store; The places that have shirts with the neighborhood's name on the front. Neighborhoods like Northwest(Uptown) & Southeast D.C.; East Baltimore; East & West Oakland; The Eastside of Detroit; Scarborough (T.O.); Brownsville and East New York. I don't travel to these places to get some sort of visceral thrill from traveling through these "dangerous" places; I travel there because these are the places that I feel at home. When you step foot in these places, you often feel like your in another city, where everybody knows your name and their damn happy that you came. For many years, there were de facto borders that made this more reality than fantasy. The faces, names and accents change, b.u.t. the situations are the same. As far as the history of the aforementioned places, they tend to fall in two categories:

1. Neighborhoods that were once thriving Black communities until social (the MLK riots) and economic (Post-Industrial America) factors brought about their demise
2. Neighborhoods that were European enclaves until Black migration (and subsequent White Flight) changed the demographics of the 'hood

In either case, what's happening in a lot of the hoods all across the country is what I call "The Great Yuppie Land Grab". After these places being left to rot for over 30 years, they are being pegged as the new "hot spots". There are a myriad of reasons for this phenomenon, b.u.t. I'm going to focus on two:

• The dissatisfaction with sub and ex-urbia, in economic and social costs;
• The redevelopment and scarce space in American cities

As gas goes up and the housing bubble deflates, no one wants to live in the boonies. Additionally, many of these "bedroom communities" creates a fake facsimile of true neighborhood living. Also, as cities become inviting again, more people want to live in them. No major American city outside of the Sun Belt is getting any bigger, so guess who gets the heave ho? You got it homeboy: The renters, the project dwellers, and the otherwise unwanted. Instead of blatant racism, this one has a new twist: Market Forces. I put it in bold because we have to understand that this is the "new bogeyman", the force that will dictate change all across America while being shrouded in economic jargon and mystery. And since no one understands it, they won't blame it.

The Knowledge Degree in the Student Enrollment states that we are the makers and owners; it is past time that we actualize that concept. If nothing else illustrates my point, look at Exhibit F: New Orleans. The city of New Orleans will never be the same and we must accept some responsibility for that. To go from one hand to another, Harlem (Mecca) or Fort Greene(The Head of Medina) will never be the same, and we must also accept responsibility for that. Don't be content with moving to a first-ring suburb when you were sitting on a gold mind that you didn't properly develop. If we're not careful, the "hood" will be but a fairy tale, thanks to gas prices and the new bogeyman.

Between Iraq and a Hard Place

Peace,

Pardon for the delay in adding on. As you become more productive, you get busier. As you get busier, you have to become even more productive, and the cycle goes on. I've been doing alot, which will be manifested to you in the very near future. While I'm here with you on this day of Knowledge Knowledge all being born to Wisdom, let me share some things in the atmosphere:

• Universal peace and love to the Rajee Family regarding the new addition to the universe, Laya Wisdom Rajee Earth! Laya was born on the God day to Justice Rajee Allah and Equality Rajee Earth out there in Portland, OR. I tip my crown to the both of you!

• Last week, the US scored next to last of all developing countries regrading newborn deaths. In the richest country in the world, that shouldn't be a problem. Black families actually had three times the national average, so you draw it up (28, 1-40).

• As you've read on other NGE blogs this month, some of the Gods are raising the rod. Let it be known that Allah had the dream in May, b.u.t. it was made born to the Gods in July, and since it was too late to start that month, they did it in Allah You God (August). Due to that fact, many brothers observe in August.

• This week in Newsweek, there is a feature article on African-Americans and AIDS, as Black people are now disporportionately affected by the virus. How the hell did a virus that was known as the "gay disease" become a Black disease? There are numerous reasons, and if you're reading this blog, you already know. The bottom line is that Knowledge is the foundation. b.u.t. you must have Wisdom, Understanding, and Culture if it's going to be a lifestyle. You can tell people not to have unprotected sex all you want, b.u.t. if the environment doesn't reflect that, then it's not going to change. This concept can be applied to many ciphers, and is one of the main reasons that we are in the condition we are in. You can tell kids to go to school, b.u.t. if they dont see how to do it and the fruit of going to school, and a environment where it can work, then forget it homeboy/homegirl. Knowledge is not Power; Knowledge applied in an environment to affect change is.

• Get a hybrid vehicle; better yet, get a bike like my brother Born Shamir. Please remember, economics is based on scarcity. We are not living in the times of the Beverly Hillbillies; don't assume that there will be oil at this level of demand forever, and even if there is, you won't find it in America (More to come regardng that subject).

• This goes out to most New York rappers and their fans; stop complaining! Do you know why the south is winning?

1. They have sound business tactics. They actually run their own labels and know the ins and outs of how to market and promote themselves.

2. They are more creative. Besides the Harlem Shake (A dance modeled after a fiend), when's the last time New York came up with a dance? or a new sound? They can't even come up with there own gangs, and you want people to listen to you. Understand, New York is the Mecca (In more ways than one), b.u.t. for people to respect you you have to get your swagger back in a way besides arrogance. The south is a fountain of creativity and struggle. Put those two together, and you've got good music.

3. See answers 1 and 2.

• How about the Gods and Earths on podcast?
• How come there aren't Halal Chinese spots all across the country?

Movement or moving mentally?


Peace,

Today's supreme mathematics is Wisdom Equality all being born to Build or Destroy. When judging your ways and actions, one must always identify if your words, ways, and actions create balance or a limitation in self and others. You must always do your best to add on to which is good and destroy that which is bad.

Now, I watched Cam'ron's new movie Killa Season last night. It was my expectation that I would get a few laughs, be appalled at the treatment of women, talk about his acting and go along my way. Well, it just so happens that on my way to the parliament, I came to some other conclusions. Please see below:

1. The Dips are some of the funniest rappers on the planet, as some of you already know from listening to their music or watching any of the Street DVD's out now. They're not coonish funny, they're your cousin from the projects funny, or your uncle john-john funny. Even if they don't mean it, they got a lot of jokes.
2. They are very charismatic. "conscious" rappers, and community folks take note: One reason that negativity spreads faster than positivity in this day in time is that the "bad" folks are more fun to be around than the "good" folks. We can't be lame, and then expect the youth and the community to be magnetically attracted to us just because. For references, please see Fred Hampton, El Hajj Malik Shabazz, Brand Nubian, etc..
3. For all of the dumb s#!t that they say on record, If you have insight, you could see morals and values within the flick. For example, In the movie, stick-up kids killed Cam's 7 year old niece. When he had the opportunity to retaliate and kill the dude's young family member, he chose not to. While I don't advocate what he did (spit on her), the streets are out of hand right now regarding bringing the family into street beef (a violation of a rule handed down through the ages: Don't kill women & children!), and Hip Hop has a lot to do with that, as rappers say lines like "If I don't kill you, I'ma kill your kids" in songs. Remember: Kids pay attention to these guys. At another point Cam cleaned up a smoker (crackhead for the slang impaired) who was previously in college, and compassion is not an emotion you see in the average "murder, kill, homicide" street flick.
4. The # 1 problem with independent street films is that they eventually run out of money. Just when the plot takes an interesting turn...The screen goes black and the credits roll. To Cam and the dips: Yall dudes is sittin on a lot of change (As evidenced from your jewelry and cars), so go ahead and put another $200,000 in. Your fans will appreciate it.

A common theme in Hip Hop is "This is a movement", and some are turned off by that kind of statement. The criticism is true if you compare it to the Black Power Movement or the Civil Rights Movement, b.u.t. it is important to remember that in the absence of something good, people will settle for something bad. That's why you see the youth hanging on to whatever they see and calling it important, even if it's just cliches and a shell of it's former self. Hell, even the elders will do it given the right situation (See contemporary civil rights and black power).

Since we're speaking on morals and values, one last thing: How in the hell did we let R. Kelly come back and do the "I'm in love with a stripper" remix? From the lessons I learned on the soil, there were three things that were/ are inexcusable: Snitches, Child Abusers, and Rapists. Well, we see that the hood is hard on #1 and #3, so how the hell does R. Kelly get a pass. Regardless if we want to admit it or not, a lot of people saw that tape, and you know that it was him, so don't front. This guy had the audacity so say (and I'm paraphrasing) "I wanted to stick my head in her a@#". First, that's not civilized. Second, your record is scarred homeboy, and you need to stick to gospel. One thing that will change our community is the establishment of high standards. You'll be surprised to see how many people fall off when we expect more than they're used to giving.

Are You "Conscious"?


Let me begin by informing you that I picked up "La-La means I love you: The best of the Delfonics", and I'm going to strongly suggest that you do the same. Do not pass go, do not collect $200 dollars! (Full Disclosure: I'm from Philly and I think that Philly Soul was the best thing to ever happen to R&B since they invented the microphone). If you can't set the mood with that, then the mood ain't in you (or you don't have any magnetic).

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let me ask a question: Are you conscious?

I'll wage a dollar to a dime that most who read this blog will answer "yes" or "indeed so". When we think of the term, we usually associate it with knowing that Jesus wasn't white, being aware of the "African-American" presidents, or being able to wax eloquently about the Kemetian contribution to science, religion, and culture. Now, please allow me to raise the stakes: Let's say that you being "conscious" was predicated on you correctly answering the following three questions:

1. What is the Laffer Curve?
2. What is the Median home price in your area? Has it gone up or down in the last 3 years? By how much?
3. Who are the top 5 oil producing countries in the world? (For extra credit: what percentage of the world's oil supply does the United States consume)

After thinking about them, would you still be "conscious"? I will that 90% say "yes" or "indeed so". Unfortunately, from my personal experiences as well as reports on the financial and business literacy of Black & Brown communities in this country, the answer is mostly no. Individual and collective ignorance on these issues directly impacts the quality of life for our people all over the planet. You can talk about melanin all you want, b.u.t. if you're not aware and well informed about the state of the global economy, then you're not totally "conscious". Moreover, you are dooming those you know less than you to not be able to see the larger picture and how it affects them on a day to day level.

In order to make comprehensive change, consciousness has to be a wholistic framework, not one that includes what we want to know about, and excludes that which we perceive as "white" (As if original people didn't create economics and politics) or "devilish" (Which is scarier because it infers that we're afraid to confront the oppressor on any level that we see them). We have to be informed and have a perspective on every science that impacts our quality of life.

As a add-on, I suggest that you check out "The Undercover Economist" by Tin Hartford. It takes very complicated concepts and explains them in a simple way. For the babies, you can google "economics for children", and get access to info that can teach them about money.

Scientists & Builders

Peace,

Let's go back a couple of years: 1990. March 1990 to be exact. The School District of Philadelphia held it's annual High School Fair at the Philadelphia Civic Center. As a 13 year old, it was a sight to see. Kids from all over the city coming to check out what the high schools had to offer, boys and girls coming to check out what each other had to offer, and neighborhoods looking to revive old beefs. In the end all three were accomplished; prospective high school students saw various high schools, numbers were exchanged, and fights broke out all across the fair.

At that time in Philadelphia (Pre Charter School Era), Public high schools fell into the following categories:

The "Good" Schools - Central, Girls High, Masterman

The "Pretty Good" Schools - Engineering & Science (My Alma Mater), Bodine, GAMP

The specialty Schools - Saul, Creative & Performing Arts,Franklin Learning Center

The Vocational Schools - Bok,Dobbins

Everywhere Else

Among the "Everywhere Else" schools was West Philadelphia High, a school that was renowned for Basketball and not much else. The stratification had already begun, and West (as it is affectionately called) was becoming a school that you went to because:

1) Your grades weren't good enough to go anywhere else
2) You family didn't push enough buttons for you to go anywhere else

Now, in reality West had many good teachers and supportive staff members (And a large contingent of young Five Percenters, I may add), b.u.t. due to the state of the schools, it was looked at as a "neighborhood" school and not given much support by the district or anyone else. As I walked around the High School Fair, I wandered to the booth for West; A couple pamphlets and a car chassis. The pamphlets championed the "Automotive Technology Academy" at West. I took a pamphlet and kept moving. A couple of dudes from the hood I was from ended up going there and participating before getting into their own trials and tribulations in the streets.

Fast Forward 14 Years:

West Philadelphia High has the Best Automotive Academy in the area, and one of the best in the country. So Saith the Philadelphia Daily News:

One of the most impressive cars at this week's Philadelphia Auto Show doesn't come from Japan, Germany or Detroit.

It came from the auto shop at West Philadelphia High School.

The car - designed and built by students in the school's Academy for Automotive and Mechanical Engineering - delivers more horsepower than some Porsches and gets gas mileage comparable to a Toyota Prius. It runs on fuel made from soybeans. (2/15/06)

Last year, the team won the Tour De Sol, a competition for Eco-Friendly cars, amongst competition from high school and college teams. Helluva achievement right? One would think that the program would be one of the centerpieces of the Philadelphia School District, Correct?

Emphatically no.

Last year, the program had to fight for it's funding to continue based on school district money constraints. In fact, the program (100%Black & Asians) would have been closed if not for concerned community residents and area auto dealers, who see the importance in having a space where young people can learn the finer points of automotive engineering.

It seems like everyday, there is another person bemoaning young black men and their lack of marketable skills that will enable them to make it in the "new" economy. We all talk about the losses, and never mention the wins. Allah the Father urged his young five percenters to become skilled in science and math so that we could become pacesetters of the world. Since 9/11, there have been cries from the the tech world to prepare more American students for the changing economy; look no further than the customer survive and IT jobs that have been moved to India due to lower costs and a more educated workforce. When you look at those points in a international context, making sure that young people here are skilled in math & science becomes a no-brainer. I tip my crown to the team of scientists & builders from West Philly High; We should all be proud of you. Below is an article that speaks to the glories and the struggles that they will face in this years competition.

Clayton Kinsler, auto mechanics teacher at West Philadelphia High School, scanned Locust Street to make sure it was clear of pedestrians, then hammered the throttle, rocketing the mean little coupe down the 4800 block.
The car's rear-mounted engine unleashed a primal, metallic roar, temporarily drowning out the jet-like whistle of the car's turbocharger.
A video crew from Discovery Channel Canada was also on the street that Saturday in March, filming what is arguably the country's fastest, most efficient eco-friendly sports car - and the West Philadelphia High School team that created it.
The asphalt-hugging, gunmetal-gray roadster was going through its paces in preparation for the Olympics of environmental auto competitions - the May 10-14 Tour de Sol in upstate New York. And much was riding on this car. The students were pretty sure they had worked out the major bugs.
Last year, the car won the race, garnering national attention for the team of about a dozen mostly African American vocational education students.
In February, the hybrid - which boasts 50 miles a gallon on soybean-based biodiesel fuel - got more media attention at the Philadelphia auto show.
If it won a second Tour de Sol victory, there'd likely be scholarships and well-paying jobs in the auto industry for the students - and badly needed grants, sponsorships, or even lucrative partnerships with major automakers for the city school's automotive academy.
Maybe Hollywood would come knocking.
For the moment, though, on Locust Street, it was time to cut loose and show off for the film crew.
At each high-speed pass by Kinsler, 47, the car's student builders whooped and cheered.
Then, zooming down Locust, Kinsler suddenly felt a loss of power. When he pushed the pedal, the engine revved, but nothing at the wheels. He coasted to a stop at 48th Street.
And sat there.
The students looked at one another and began walking, then running toward the car, as the realization dawned that something had gone horribly wrong.
Even as the video rolled, they swarmed around the car with pit crew precision and removed the engine cover.

Simon Hauger, 36-year-old head of the school's Electric Vehicle Team and mastermind of the project, peered into the tangle of wires, pipes and hoses.
"The axle's done," he announced. As he had feared might happen, the car's unorthodox axle had sheared in two.
Over the last year, the team and their instructors - Kinsler, Hauger, and shop teacher Ron Preiss - had overcome all kinds of obstacles:
How to instill in these urban students the value of hard work, responsibility, and a passion for learning when their environment outside of school often encouraged the opposite.
How to get the money to support the endeavor, which was beyond the school district's ability to fully fund.
And how to use unconventional thinking not just to succeed, but to blow away the world's expectations of them.
The axle - a thick metal rod that transfers engine power to the wheels - had required a lot of unconventional thinking. This was the fourth time in less than a year that it had broken.
The team had custom built the car from a kit called the K-1 Attack, with parts coming from different car makes. The axle presented a peculiar engineering challenge - the car's Volkswagen engine needed a way to spin its Honda rear wheels.
And so, the two rear axles are an amalgam of Volkswagen, Honda and parts-bin bits welded together. The left one, shorter and less flexible, is constantly breaking. A section of cheap steel pipe held its VW and Honda ends together, but the pipe tore under the high torque forces of acceleration. The car goes from zero to 60 in four seconds.
A thicker, higher-quality sleeve might do the trick, Hauger surmised.
A half-dozen team members pushed the stricken vehicle backwards, uphill to the school's garage, and gingerly rolled it onto the cradling metal arms of a power car lift.

Devereaux Knight, the 2005 team captain who'd gone on to one of the area's best technical schools, Automotive Training Center in Warminster, and a job at Central City Toyota, had dropped in. He draped an arm around Kinsler and teased him about his penchant for breaking axles: "Two for you, one for Hauger."
The atmosphere in the garage was a mixture of adrenaline and disappointment, with team members half-jokingly asking that the mechanical failure be edited out of Discovery's video.
The only thing to do now was saw off new axle halves from whole VW and Honda units, send them out to be welded... and wait.
"We didn't expect it to break again," said a disappointed Joseph Pak, a lanky, earringed 10th grader with gel-spiked hair. Still, he said, he was relieved that it had happened well before the May competition.
For Pak and other team members who'd struggled with school, the car was an "in-your-face" affirmation of their talents and dreams.
Pak, the team's only Asian member, admits he used to skip more school than he attended. "I was just hanging out." Now he gets straight A's and wants to be an engineer.
"I've seen the extreme of not doing things when you should," Pak said. With the Attack, he said he's seen the extreme of what happens when you stay the course.
It was now midafternoon and the French Canadian director was setting up his final shot.
"What you want to do is -" he began.
"Cry," Knight interjected.
Hauger, though, was upbeat. "This is actually pretty good news," Hauger said. Their more complex engineering of the axle had held. This was a simple weld.
The ideas that come out of West Philly's auto shop aren't rocket science, Hauger says, but they do require imagination and some risk-taking - traits he thinks Detroit could use.
He envisions the high school program sharing the team's know-how of building hybrid cars on the cheap. No major automaker sells a performance car that gets such outrageously high mileage.
With oil prices high and demand for hybrids soaring, the timing could not be better.

Developing a car model costs automakers about $1 billion. Even adding back the discounts and freebies the school team received - such as carbon-fiber body panels and custom wheels - the Attack would still have clocked in well under $100,000.
Hauger estimated their two-seater, if mass-produced, could sell for about $50,000.
But before such lofty ambitions could be realized, the Attack's axle had to be repaired.
Sixteen days later, during fourth-period auto mechanics class, a handful of team members gathered in the school shop. On a metal worktable sat the newly welded axle assembly. Machinists at Drexel University had augmented the original design with a beefier, higher-grade steel sleeve.
Kinsler motioned to the damaged axle, lying on the same table and looking like a broken femur.
"If you can't shift into second gear without something breaking, it ain't right," he said.
A student got under the car to pop the axle in place, much like pushing a tight toilet paper holder into place. Kinsler yanked on the suspension to create clearance. But, after many tries, it hadn't connected.
Quietly, Calvin Cheeseboro, a tall, athletic-looking 11th grader with neatly twisted braids, took over. Cheeseboro, who'd twice installed axles in the Attack and can practically assemble its complicated shift linkage in his sleep, now wrestled with the greasy metal rod.
First, the wheel-facing side popped into place. Then, with Kinsler again pulling on the suspension, the inboard side mated to the transmission with a satisfying clunk.

Classmates Bruce Harmon, a quiet senior who becomes animated when the talk turns to cars, and Jeffrey Daniels, a stocky 11th grader with nimble hands, ducked under the car to tighten clamps and make sure the piece was securely in place.
Cheeseboro, who has struggled to maintain passing grades so he can work with the team, said it felt good to be the guy to put in the critical part. Still, he said, he'd sooner not face such drama, especially with the May race fast approaching. "I don't want to break another axle."
The team had hopefully resolved their thorniest problem.
They'd find out that afternoon, out on Locust Street, if their solution had worked.

Land Snatch

For those 25 +, do you remember the Damon Wayans Jail Character on In Living Color? You know, the one who talked like "The manifestation of the calibration jumped on the expose of my testicles"? Subtly, that had two effects:

1. It devalued the positive, life changing experience that many black men go through during their time in jail by reducing the idea of those brothers to a unintelligible sounding fool

2. It continued the devaluation of consciousness in general

Subsequently, you started to see images in other movies and television shows that showed the conscious brother as the lame outcast (Menace II Society) or as the chauvinist pig (A Different World). While this might seem slight, the fact that intelligence has been maligned among black men, plays a large role in how our children are easily led in the wrong direction, hard to lead in the right direction, and glorify ignorance and uncivilization (Pimps and Gangstas). It's important that we perpetuate the image of knowledge and awareness being beneficial and "cool", if you will. If a kid perceives you as lame, It's not likely that he'll take you as a role model. In my estimation, the Gods and Earths have done a good job of popularizing knowledge and consciousness, b.u.t. even that can get misconstrued when everyone and their brother calls themselves "God" with no thought of the responsibility inherent in that claim. Kids, take note: Being God is more work than fun (b.u.t. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world).


On another note, If you don't know anything about the immigration debate and the subsequent rallies, protests and marches over the past two weeks, then you probably fall in 1 of 2 categories:

1) A person who doesn't watch anything other than BET and VH1 Soul

2) A person who doesn't care about anything that doesn't have "Black" in it

Either way, you're in a bad space. This issue has become the hot-button issue in politics across the board. News articles across the country are speaking of the "Sleeping Giant" that has awaken due to this issue. Additionally, unlike most issues in this countries, this one can't be neatly divided and defined by race, gender or political persuasion. Republicans (Those courting the Hispanic vote vs. Those representing paranoid white conservative districts) are just as torn as Democrats (Those looking for a leg up in this fall's elections vs. Unions paranoid about the legalization of millions of non-unionized workers). As if that ain't enough, many so-called African Americans are up in arms, saying that the immigrants are "taking our jobs and not speaking English".

*Newsflash*

You weren't doing those jobs anyway! Ask a black man to work on a farm, and he'll accuse you of trying to put him back in slavery (As if we really got out). Thinking that we're in competition with each other obscures the larger point that we are both suffering under global capitalism and social oppression, and would do better to come together than to separate ourselves and our struggles from a larger goal. We have more things in common than different. When we start see ing ourselves as different (7th degree in the 1-14), then chaos and destruction will soon follow. This issue, as well as the recent Abramoff scandal involving Native nations ("Tribes" is a derogatory term) underscores a deeper concept that many of us are missing: This is their land. Let me write it again:

This is their land.

The 5th degree in the 1-14 states: Why did we take Jerusalem from the devil? How long ago? When I look at the recent mobilization of the Native Nations as well as the so-called Latin@, it's obvious to see that they are striving to reclaim what is rightfully theirs. About a year ago, I was listening to a NPR segment regarding a Mexican Charter School where the students were being taught their original languages and didn't speak English in the school. When they interviewed the principal, he basically said that they were preparing the future generations to take back Atzlan (The original name for most of the area that are now the west/southwest parts of the country). At that point, I didn't think too much of it, b.u.t. now with the benefit of seeing the rallies as well as the recent Black/Brown problems in the California prisons and school, I now see the bigger picture.

Two nights ago, on the Bev Smith Show, Chris Moore interviewed a representative of a large Latino group in Las Vegas and commented on reported fears from whites on the border areas and in cali that Mexicans are essentially attempting a political and economic Reconquista of all the areas that were lost in the Mexican-American War.

The representative said "Well, that's basically true".

You add that with the Natives who are constantly fighting for sovereignty and economic development here and in Canada, and you get a certified movement. Another thing that stands out in this whole thing is the involvement of the youth. Thousands of kids walked out of school and joined the protests waving Mexican flags. Having assisted in the coordination of a student walkout here in Power Born (Pittsburgh) years ago, I knowledge the potential power of youth becoming organized for a common cause. So-called African Americans need to see civil rights beyond Jesse Jackson, Voting for Ray Nagin, and Affirmative Action, and acknowledge that you either change or die. When we all come together with common goals in mind, it's much more likely that we'll be victorious. We are all original people and the fight is a collective fight.

Peace!

We Finally Got Our Piece Of The Pie?

Peace,

Today's supreme mathematics is Understanding Knowledge all being born to Culture. Put simply, what is the fruit of your knowledge? How has knowledge improved your way of life and the life of your family? Your community? If it hasn't, then you need to evaluate your foundation and what it consists of.

Last week, the New York Times and other media outlets reported that Bob Johnson (of BET infamy) plans to start a new retail and financial services company. The bank, which will be named Urban Trust, will be opening locations in Washington D.C. and Florida initially, with branches in other urban centers to follow. Now, I'm aware that any original person with a ounce of common sense or consciousness will cringe at Bob J doing anything to "help" black people, however we have to look at this in light of other factors. Consider the following

• A Operation HOPE study reported that in a survey of 4,000 students, 86% of Black High School seniors failed a basic literacy exam, compared with 57% of White students
• Black families have a larger rate of being targeted by sub-prime predatory lenders
• The poverty rate among Black children is 37%
• In some cities, over 50% of African American men are unemployed

When you look at our economic condition and see it's connection with health, education, culture, etc.., then the need to do something about our financial standing becomes clear. Will Bob Johnson be able to solve all this? Of course not! Fundamentally, financial literacy is a inside-out kind of thing, meaning that people learn it from others in their social circles. If the people around you aren't financially literate, chances are you won't be either. Also, it isn't like this is a non-profit altruistic venture here: The primary purpose here is to grow the business. There's also the issue of the term "Black-Owned Business". It's not entirely clear if he's doing this with his own money or even black money, due to his relationship with the Carlyle group and other financial giants. (Let's not forget, the largest investor in BET for many of the early years was white). More likely, it's an investment into a segment of the population who hasn't been targeted by others due to their spending and saving habits by a multi-racial group of investors with a black face.

Do we need Black-owned banks? I think there's a place for them if they are really looking to act in the best interests of the black community when it comes to loans, policies and outreach. We're way past the point where being black is enough. As Imam Jamil Al-Amin put "Being Black is necessary, but it's not sufficient". If true financial independence is the goal, then we have to start one family at a time. Things that we can do:

1. Save 10% of your pre-tax income. You'll be surprised at how fast it grows
2. Look to own vs. Rent. Home ownership is one of the primary ways to get out of financial bondage. In fact, home ownership (along with the GI Bill) was one of the chief ways that lower and middle class white families were able to escape poverty after WWII (redlining the suburbs so that only white families could move there and own homes)
3. Invest. Look at the financial stability of all the companies that you support by buying their products. If they look to be healthy, why not invest? Someone else damn sure is!

Until the next time, P.E.A.C.E.!

Do You Remember....

Peace,

Today's mathematics is Wisdom Understanding all being born to Power. Through speaking and communicating with clarity, you affect environments to the highest degree. Wisdom should always be manifested for the sake and cause of understanding. When your Wisdom is understood, the power of your idea is recognized.

Earlier today, I had a conversation with my Earth (www.imedinapeaceful.blogspot.com) regarding black talk radio. On many of the shows (Al Sharpton and Bev Smith in particular), no matter what the topic, many of the callers complain about the state of the youth and wax poetic about the "Good ol' days" (As if original people in america have ever had them). At times, some of them sound like someone rounded all of the black people aged 15-35 and turned them into zombies in some large laboratory. To them, and anyone who thinks like them, I ask...

Where the hell were you doing in the 1980's?
What were you doing?
Were you somewhere trying to be "upwardly mobile"
Did you have a dry curl (The predecessor of the jeri curl)?
Were you reading about the prospective job market in 20-25 years?
Did you vote? Who did you vote for?
Were you aware of the black man's disappearing act from the home?
Were you watching Prince and not thinking that it was a bit strange that a man was looking and dressing like a woman?
Were you advocating for equity in the schools?
Were you preparing for the post-industrial age when you couldn't get a job with only a High School Diploma?
Did you predict the breakdown of inner cities in advance?

The abovementioned questions may seem a bit harsh, b.u.t. my point is that the development of the institutional forms of racism that we see today took place not so long ago. The older generation can rightfully object to the perversion present in much of today's music, b.u.t. we sure didn't make it up (See the question regarding Prince). The situation that youth find themselves in today is based on a subtle and consistent process that can be dated back some years. For example, when the industries that provided jobs and livelihoods for much of Black america in the urban and industrial centers shipped the jobs overseas and crippled our community, why didn't we see the long term effects and work to combat it?

On a political level, you can see that perception of Carter as a spineless and ineffective leader opened the way for Reagan to come and re-establish "Traditional American Valeus". With that tacit support, Reagan took tax money, reduced social programs, and filtered money to wars in distant lands to insure american empire (This has gotta sound familiar). At the end of his term, Inner - City America is flush with cocaine and guns, all the while hobbling from a destroyed infrastructure. While people may have spoken out against Ronnie Ray-Gun (Remember star wars and all the money funneled into defense against our "super-enemy", the USSR for a war that never happened), we were not prepared for Bush, AKA Reagan II! If we aren't on our toes, our children will be facing a situation 10x worse. As many of you know, planning and funding for prisons is based on the third grade test scores in many of our communities,b.u.t. we've even surpassed their predictions for their new cash cow.

I'm not shifting all of the blame on our elders, only showing that we have to be vigilant so that the same thing doesn't happen to us in this day and time. As you know, I'm solution oriented so here they go:

1) Let's predict our history well in advance by developing a comprehensive plan that cover all aspects of life in our community

2) It is imperative that we be honest with ourselves about the possible effects of what's taking place today from politics to the economy to education.

Below is a repost of a NY Times article regarding the plight of Black Mne and how it's worsened over the last 20 years. Please take heed and share it with whomever you can.

Plight Deepens for Black Men, Studies Warn
By ERIK ECKHOLM
BALTIMORE — Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics, a flurry of new scholarly studies warn, and it has worsened in recent years even as an economic boom and a welfare overhaul have brought gains to black women and other groups.
Focusing more closely than ever on the life patterns of young black men, the new studies, by experts at Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and other institutions, show that the huge pool of poorly educated black men are becoming ever more disconnected from the mainstream society, and to a far greater degree than comparable white or Hispanic men.
Especially in the country's inner cities, the studies show, finishing high school is the exception, legal work is scarcer than ever and prison is almost routine, with incarceration rates climbing for blacks even as urban crime rates have declined.
Although the problems afflicting poor black men have been known for decades, the new data paint a more extensive and sobering picture of the challenges they face.
"There's something very different happening with young black men, and it's something we can no longer ignore," said Ronald B. Mincy, professor of social work at Columbia University and editor of "Black Males Left Behind" (Urban Institute Press, 2006).
"Over the last two decades, the economy did great," Mr. Mincy said, "and low-skilled women, helped by public policy, latched onto it. But young black men were falling farther back."
Many of the new studies go beyond the traditional approaches to looking at the plight of black men, especially when it comes to determining the scope of joblessness. For example, official unemployment rates can be misleading because they do not include those not seeking work or incarcerated.
"If you look at the numbers, the 1990's was a bad decade for young black men, even though it had the best labor market in 30 years," said Harry J. Holzer, an economist at Georgetown University and co-author, with Peter Edelman and Paul Offner, of "Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men" (Urban Institute Press, 2006).
In response to the worsening situation for young black men, a growing number of programs are placing as much importance on teaching life skills — like parenting, conflict resolution and character building — as they are on teaching job skills.

These were among the recent findings:

¶The share of young black men without jobs has climbed relentlessly, with only a slight pause during the economic peak of the late 1990's. In 2000, 65 percent of black male high school dropouts in their 20's were jobless — that is, unable to find work, not seeking it or incarcerated. By 2004, the share had grown to 72 percent, compared with 34 percent of white and 19 percent of Hispanic dropouts. Even when high school graduates were included, half of black men in their 20's were jobless in 2004, up from 46 percent in 2000.

¶Incarceration rates climbed in the 1990's and reached historic highs in the past few years. In 1995, 16 percent of black men in their 20's who did not attend college were in jail or prison; by 2004, 21 percent were incarcerated. By their mid-30's, 6 in 10 black men who had dropped out of school had spent time in prison.

¶In the inner cities, more than half of all black men do not finish high school.
None of the litany of problems that young black men face was news to a group of men from the airless neighborhoods of Baltimore who recently described their experiences.
One of them, Curtis E. Brannon, told a story so commonplace it hardly bears notice here. He quit school in 10th grade to sell drugs, fathered four children with three mothers, and spent several stretches in jail for drug possession, parole violations and other crimes.
"I was with the street life, but now I feel like I've got to get myself together," Mr. Brannon said recently in the row-house flat he shares with his girlfriend and four children. "You get tired of incarceration."
Mr. Brannon, 28, said he planned to look for work, perhaps as a mover, and he noted optimistically that he had not been locked up in six months.
A group of men, including Mr. Brannon, gathered at the Center for Fathers, Families and Workforce Development, one of several private agencies trying to help men build character along with workplace skills.
The clients readily admit to their own bad choices but say they also fight a pervasive sense of hopelessness.
"It hurts to get that boot in the face all the time," said Steve Diggs, 34. "I've had a lot of charges but only a few convictions," he said of his criminal record.
Mr. Diggs is now trying to strike out on his own, developing a party space for rentals, but he needs help with business skills.
"I don't understand," said William Baker, 47. "If a man wants to change, why won't society give him a chance to prove he's a changed person?" Mr. Baker has a lot of record to overcome, he admits, not least his recent 15-year stay in the state penitentiary for armed robbery.
Mr. Baker led a visitor down the Pennsylvania Avenue strip he wants to escape — past idlers, addicts and hustlers, storefront churches and fortresslike liquor stores — and described a life that seemed inevitable.
He sold marijuana for his parents, he said, left school in the sixth grade and later dealt heroin and cocaine. He was for decades addicted to heroin, he said, easily keeping the habit during three terms in prison. But during his last long stay, he also studied hard to get a G.E.D. and an associate's degree.
Now out for 18 months, Mr. Baker is living in a home for recovering drug addicts. He is working a $10-an-hour warehouse job while he ponders how to make a living from his real passion, drawing and graphic arts.
"I don't want to be a criminal at 50," Mr. Baker said.

According to census data, there are about five million black men ages 20 to 39 in the United States.
Terrible schools, absent parents, racism, the decline in blue collar jobs and a subculture that glorifies swagger over work have all been cited as causes of the deepening ruin of black youths. Scholars — and the young men themselves — agree that all of these issues must be addressed.
Joseph T. Jones, director of the fatherhood and work skills center here, puts the breakdown of families at the core.
"Many of these men grew up fatherless, and they never had good role models," said Mr. Jones, who overcame addiction and prison time. "No one around them knows how to navigate the mainstream society."
All the negative trends are associated with poor schooling, studies have shown, and progress has been slight in recent years. Federal data tend to understate dropout rates among the poor, in part because imprisoned youths are not counted.
Closer studies reveal that in inner cities across the country, more than half of all black men still do not finish high school, said Gary Orfield, an education expert at Harvard and editor of "Dropouts in America" (Harvard Education Press, 2004).
"We're pumping out boys with no honest alternative," Mr. Orfield said in an interview, "and of course their neighborhoods offer many other alternatives."
Dropout rates for Hispanic youths are as bad or worse but are not associated with nearly as much unemployment or crime, the data show.

With the shift from factory jobs, unskilled workers of all races have lost ground, but none more so than blacks. By 2004, 50 percent of black men in their 20's who lacked a college education were jobless, as were 72 percent of high school dropouts, according to data compiled by Bruce Western, a sociologist at Princeton and author of the forthcoming book "Punishment and Inequality in America" (Russell Sage Press). These are more than double the rates for white and Hispanic men.
Mr. Holzer of Georgetown and his co-authors cite two factors that have curbed black employment in particular.
First, the high rate of incarceration and attendant flood of former offenders into neighborhoods have become major impediments. Men with criminal records tend to be shunned by employers, and young blacks with clean records suffer by association, studies have found.
Arrests of black men climbed steeply during the crack epidemic of the 1980's, but since then the political shift toward harsher punishments, more than any trends in crime, has accounted for the continued growth in the prison population, Mr. Western said.
By their mid-30's, 30 percent of black men with no more than a high school education have served time in prison, and 60 percent of dropouts have, Mr. Western said.
Among black dropouts in their late 20's, more are in prison on a given day — 34 percent — than are working — 30 percent — according to an analysis of 2000 census data by Steven Raphael of the University of California, Berkeley.
The second special factor is related to an otherwise successful policy: the stricter enforcement of child support. Improved collection of money from absent fathers has been a pillar of welfare overhaul. But the system can leave young men feeling overwhelmed with debt and deter them from seeking legal work, since a large share of any earnings could be seized.

About half of all black men in their late 20's and early 30's who did not go to college are noncustodial fathers, according to Mr. Holzer. From the fathers' viewpoint, support obligations "amount to a tax on earnings," he said.
Some fathers give up, while others find casual work. "The work is sporadic, not the kind that leads to advancement or provides unemployment insurance," Mr. Holzer said. "It's nothing like having a real job."
The recent studies identified a range of government programs and experiments, especially education and training efforts like the Job Corps, that had shown success and could be scaled up.
Scholars call for intensive new efforts to give children a better start, including support for parents and extra schooling for children.
They call for teaching skills to prisoners and helping them re-enter society more productively, and for less automatic incarceration of minor offenders.
In a society where higher education is vital to economic success, Mr. Mincy of Columbia said, programs to help more men enter and succeed in college may hold promise. But he lamented the dearth of policies and resources to aid single men.
"We spent $50 billion in efforts that produced the turnaround for poor women," Mr. Mincy said. "We are not even beginning to think about the men's problem on similar orders of magnitude."

Blast From The Past


Peace,

On this day of Knowledge Equality all being born to God, I want to send a shout out to all the Gods and Earths in the blogsphere making knowledge born about who we are, what we teach, and what we will achieve. I want to send a special shout out to my brother and alike in Living Mathematics, Justice Rajee Allah, who's celebrating his Understanding Cipher (30th) degree day today. We call them degree days because when you get a year older, you move to another degree in development. Justice was the first brother I taught here in Power Born almost 11 years ago and has stayed just and true to our culture since his day 1. I can't forget my brother Knowledge Build who flipped to his 30th degree ("Tell us what and how everything is made?") on the build or destroy day of March.

While I'm at it, I want to take the time to welcome my sister Aymara Islasia Earth and her sun Justice to the cipher in Power Born. Finally, much respect to my brother Aru Self Allah who completed 120 degrees today. I tip my crown to you my brother!

For those who may not have done the knowledge to it, below is a piece written by Michael Muhammad Knight, a writer for MuslimWakeUp! last year regarding the cipher here in Power Born. Please know that the best is yet to come and that the babies truly are the greatest!


I don’t care much for conferences, since I’m not a scholar or an activist and writing for me is just a matter of spilling guts. Scholars can find value in your work only by relating it to things that have already happened (Oh, you live your Islam like a heretic? You must be heir to the Qalandars and Hassan bin Sabbah). Activists, meanwhile, would rather a piece remain ideologically correct than reveal its author’s ugly parts.
But still there was a panel: “Islamic Anarchism: Pipedream or Reality” at the National Conference on Organized Resistance in D.C., arranged and moderated by a white convert named David who regularly says “peace be upon him” after the Prophet’s name. His group consisted of a professor, a guy from Farid Esack’s clique, a South Asian girl and me. When it came my turn I spoke about the Five Percenters as a movement against the use of religion for power and exploitation, with W.D. Fard’s whole theory of how unseen mystery-gods were sold to the masses as a means of controlling and pacifying them. During the question-and-answer period, a white woman stood up and warned me about the dangers of a white man speaking about “Five Percenterism,” apparently because I had missed out on some important facet of it. She didn’t know where I was coming from.

After the panel I drove from D.C. to West Virginia, running over her comments in my head and returning to the same question that I’d been asked enough times by Muslims, non-Muslims, Gods and Earths: Irish on your mom’s half, Austrian on your dad’s, how’d you get into this? Why do you wear that pin with a black man’s face and the word “ALLAH?”
I don’t have to go back four hundred years to find the devil in my blood.

My dad’s house sits atop a wooded hill, just beyond a gas station that sells pickled pig-knuckles. It was dark so I had to pass the hill a few times before finding his hidden driveway. I parked alongside the road because my car would never make it up; I can barely survive that hill on foot. At the top I stopped to catch my breath and stared down Dad’s kingdom. Outside he has stacks of firewood, a shed with the Lord’s Prayer carved into its door and buckets catching the rainwater, scattered salvaged junk and two pickup trucks, one black and one white.
He seemed glad enough to see me. Turned out he has a TV now and we were in the third quarter of the Super Bowl. “They have to stop McNabb,” he said. Later in the conversation he told me that people had black skin because they were cannibals. “And also,” he added, “if you have sex with a white girl on a freshly covered grave, her skin will turn black too.” Dad’s a racial separatist. I first met him in 1993, when I was fifteen years old. By then I had already devoured Malcolm’s autobiography and watched the movie three times. The director of Afropunk theorized to me that some Caucasians may come to Islam as a means of acquiring oppression and becoming the Other, which I can see, but sometimes we just need to murder our fathers.

My hurting Buick’s odometer passed 170,000 miles on the way to Boston, current center of the professional sports universe, where I met up with the Kominas. Basim’s calling himself Basim SWT now, and Shahjehan has become Shahjehan PBUH. Joyriding through the city with Basim SWT behind the wheel, he built for me on the history of Irish-Americans and Boston’s uniquely Irish punk scene.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ve got a fetish for your culture.”
“That’s okay, I’ve got one for yours.”
I spent a few days with him and ate all the spicy food in his house. Then it was back to the road and sleeping in parking lots. That Sunday I arrived in Pittsburgh, which the Gods and Earths called Power Born, for parliament.
My Power Born connection was a God named I Majestic, respected as one of the more prolific teachers in the region and maybe the Nation as a whole. The parliament was held at the home of Zyhier, one of the earliest Gods to teach in Pittsburgh.

I immediately recognized Abu Shahid as he walked in—he’s an Elder going back all the way to the Father’s time at Temple #7. I couldn’t help but pester the God and ask him the same questions he’s been hearing for the last forty years. Abu Shahid introduced me to his seven-year old daughter Jhonaziya, who already knew her lessons. When Jhonaziya recited the earth’s distance from the sun, she watched me write it down to make sure I had it right.
According to I Majestic, “colored men” (Caucasians) that study with the Gods often fall into one of two categories: either they’re suffering from racial guilt and want to repent for their ancestors, or they want to be Gods themselves. The exact place that a colored man can find with Gods and Earths has not yet been defined. The Nation hasn’t seen enough white converts to make it an urgent issue, but there have been a few. I Majestic told me about one named Gadreel whose father had actually tried to join the NOI before him, even writing a letter to Elijah Muhammad; and he knew of one God that had encountered a young John Walker Lindh. As a teen the American Taliban would lurk in online chat rooms, pretending to be black.

Upstairs I stood at the periphery of a circle and watched Gods building in turn. A Puerto Rican “yellow seed” named Sha-King built on the day’s math while watched by his two-year old son, Shaborn. The children in the room were repeatedly showered with praise; the NGE’s self-deification seems its most pure and true when applied to kids. At a Harlem parliament, one Five Percenter pointed at a toddler and told me, “he’s God.” Why contest that?
After the parliament broke up I thanked Zyhier for having me in his home, and I Majestic for opening this particular gate, and Abu Shahid for building on his forty years in the desert. The Elder wished me a safe trip. It’s a long ride, insha’Allah, from a jagged sun to a quarter-moon. We just so happened to be in the first ten days of Muharram, so I drove to a Shi’a function in Monroeville with plans to slap a dent in my chest.

SOCIAL EQUALITY (OR ENGINEERING)



Peace,

First things First: How many newspapers do you read? If the answer is 0-1, step your game up for the good of yourself, your family, and your community. If that sounds extreme, look at it from this angle: business and political leaders read 5-6 papers a day (that includes international papers like the guardian, or bbc.com). Ideally, one should read papers from a liberal, moderate, and conservative slant in order to be aware of what's being discussed in a given day. I guarantee that you'll see things in some papers that you won't see in the others. If you don't know, how can you possibly teach? Access to information is one of the first ways that the haves are separated from the have-nots. Watching television is no substitute either, as that medium is suited for entertainment and not information. If you can, do the knowledge to www.blackelectorate.com (Peace, Brother Cedric!) or check out NPR (Stations vary according to the locale. If you don't do it for yourself, do it for your children who have to grow up in a world that you aren't really doing your best to stay abreast of.

Moving on to the subject of children, as a child, I attended a number of independent nursery and pre-schools. The schools were multicultural and very open. Later in life, I noticed that many of the people that I attended pre-school and elementary school with tended to be successful in their endeavors. I now recognize that a child's early education in an integral aspect of that child's development. The decisions that you make regarding their education can define their attitude towards education, their social networks, etc. Today they are select pre-schools in major cities that are actually rejecting kids, asking for admission essays, and charging up to $10,000 a year for 3 and 4 year olds! If someone is paying that much for finger paints, there's a bigger picture. In this case, where you go to pre-school influences where you go to elementary school, which affects where you go to middle school which affects ... you get the idea. You can't underestimate the impact of the socialization, networking, and access to resources that an environment like that can afford you.

On the other side, imagine the impact that underfunded head start programs have on children in Black, Brown, Yellow, Red, and poor White communities. Low quality early education programs tend to funnel our children into other low quality schools which seriously impact the earning potential and by extension, quality of life for many in our communities. If you don't dig where I'm coming from, go to the "hood school" in your city and see if the children there are being prepared to lead our community or country in the coming years. As globalization continues to entrench itself in all aspects of our life (more on that later), a two-tiered society is continuing to develop, where the haves and the never-hads are so far apart, you couldn't tell them that they were from the same country. Please take this seriously; it's one of the first aspects of social engineering (after unfair access to healthcare for expecting mothers,mind you), and creates an environment where the social equality of the poor and impoverished only reinforces the dysfunctional environment that they already see, whereas the social equality of the rich gives them perpetual access to more money, power, and respect internationally. Rich men usually marry rich women, and poor & uneducated men usually marry poor & uneducated women.

Here's a link to the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/education/03preschool.html?ex=1142139600&en=025e197284eadd0c&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Just because I don't like venting and not adding on, I'm going to end by giving some practical solutions to this:

1) Get your children into the best schools possible to increase their access to people, places, and things
2) Advocate for educational equity for the school in low income communities. If possible, volunteer your time and expertise to the schools so that the youth can see school as an community
3) Act with the goal of making sure that our children are balanced and skilled in a number of areas.

Please add on!

P.E.A.C.E.!!

Peace,


If you've never read my writings, welcome!! If you've done the knowledge to my writings @ www.imajestic.blogspot.com, welcome back!! I have returned from an extended hiatus in which I saw and did a number of things. When I looked at coming back, I decided to make a cyber-space move.

Q: What does Author of Change mean?

A: Simply put, an author of change is one of the descriptions of the Black Man with knowledge of himself. An author of change takes control of his destiny and writes his history to create the world that he wants to see for himself, his family, his community, and ultimately the word.

Q: What about Get Money, Teach Kids, Add on?

A: That is the most basic breakdown of the blueprint that I'm following at the date of this writing. It's not necessarily in order, b.u.t. it's the order that catches the eye and ear. It represents the following:

Get Money - Economic Development

Teach Kids - Youth Development

Add On - Building & Destroying/ Community Infrastructure Development

In order to bring about Allah World Manifest (The realization of what we teach and what we will achieve) in particular and Freedom, Justice, and Equality for all human families of the planet Earth in general, these are three integral components. Many champion one over the others, b.u.t. without all three, you don't have a self sufficient community. Most of what you read on this blog will relate to one or more of the above mentioned topics. I build that you find it informative, insightful and challenging. More to be revealed!