Saturday, April 30, 2011

HBCU Student Not Allowed to Graduate Because of Facebook Post

HBCU student sidelined from graduation for Facebook post

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, YourBlackWorld.comScholarship in Action 

Roman Caple is a senior at St. Augustine’s College.  He was set to graduate this weekend until he was informed by the school that he wouldn’t be allowed to walk with his classmates.  Caple says that his punishment was due to a Facebook post that allegedly "jeopardized the integrity of the college."

Caple argues that the reaction of school administrators came as a result of his posts following a tornado that hit Raleigh, NC two weeks ago.  But he says that most of his comments were meant to be uplifting.  One of his posts said the following:

"We all need to set our differences aside and help one another. Falcons we will continue to fly high because that's what we do. Help your neighbor, if need be, Falcons are one."

The Reality of Being a Football Star

 

Watch as YBW’s Eshe White interviews a former football star about the realities of playing in the NFL

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWeut5p3pLE]

Friday, April 29, 2011

Report Says that Obama’s Father Was Forced Out of Harvard University

 

 

BOSTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's father was forced to leave Harvard University before completing his Ph.D. in economics because the school was concerned about his personal life and finances, according to newly public immigration records.

Harvard had asked the Immigration and Naturalization Service to delay a request by Barack Hussein Obama Sr. to extend his stay in the U.S., "until they decided what action they could take in order to get rid of him," immigration official M.F. McKeon wrote in a June 1964 memo.

Roland Martin Has a Back and Forth with Donald Trump on Twitter

 

Roland Martin has begun calling out Donald Trump on his Twitter page. This is what Martin had to say:

 

"Do not support Trump's #CelebrityApprentice. He's a travesty. I refuse to stay at Trump hotels; will NOT watch #CelebrityApprentice or buy products that continue to advertise on his show. He's pathetic."

 

Donald Trump Then Replied:

 

 

“I am the least racist person on the planet. I have a great record on that, especially in terms of my friendships. And I have never heard of Roland Martin.”

 

Why I Honestly Feel Sorry for Donald Trump

 

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black WorldScholarship in Action 

Like nearly every other black man in America, I’ve been taken aback by the manner through which Donald Trump has used racist code language to undermine the presidency of Barack Obama. After first wondering if he was born in the United States, Trump has made reference to Obama playing too much basketball to pay attention to the price of gas and even questioned whether or not he truly earned the grades necessary to get into the Harvard Law School.

Detroit’s NAACP Honors Kid Rock and His Confederate Flag

 

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black WorldScholarship in Action 

The NAACP of Detroit has committed what appears to be an incredibly sad act by giving it's Great Expectations Award to Kid Rock during it's annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner.  It's ironic that the NAACP is giving an award to someone who regularly uses the Confederate flag during his concerts.  The civil rights supporter in me doesn't understand the NAACP's actions, but the Finance Professor in me understands their actions perfectly.

Here are some questions for the NAACP as they honor one of their greatest heroes, Kid Rock:

1) If Kid Rock were not a donor to your organization, would you have given him this award?  Probably not.

click to read

President Obama Meets with Participants in the 1968 Sanitation Strike

obama_sanitation

“The President invited the living participants in the Memphis Sanitation Strike to honor their courage, and their fight on behalf of all workers for safe conditions, respect in the workplace and a better life for themselves and their families. As workers across the country continue to face challenges to their rights, the issues for which these men fought continue to be relevant  and the President remains committed to the causes for which they marched.” – from the White House

Is the Catholic Church Racist?

IMG00090-20110428-1053

By Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World  – the picture above (left) is from the press conference held for Father Pfleger in Chicago

I went to the press conference being held on behalf of Father Michael Pfleger, the respected Catholic Priest on the Southside of Chicago.  In case you don’t know, Father Pfleger’s church, St. Sabina, is a predominantly black church and his members love him.  He has served the South Side of Chicago with the kind of courage only shown by a true spiritual soldier.  He has stood strong with mothers as their sons have died and has put himself in the middle of nearly every kind of devastation that plagues inner cities across America.

Do Black Women Have a Preference for Thugs? (Video)

thugs

In this episode of Your Black Love, Deborrah Cooper and I ask whether or not black women have a preference for dating men that are not good for them.

Do you know a woman who dates one bad guy after another and then seems to spend all of her time whining about the fact that she can never find a good man?  Yea, I have too.  Well, it seems to me that, at some point, we must all have some degree of accountability for our relationship choices. 

Cam Newton is the top Pick; Now the Questions Begin

The lights shined on Cam Newton after the Panthers made him the first overall pick on Thursday.

By Jason DeCrow, AP

NEW YORK — At least one major question about Cam Newton has been answered.  The lights shined on Cam Newton after the Panthers made him the first overall pick on Thursday.

The lights shined on Cam Newton after the Panthers made him the first overall pick on Thursday.

Dr. Boyce Watkins on the Huffington Post – 4/29/11

 

Rocky Clark Is Dying From a Lack of Health Insurance

Posted April 26, 2011 | 06:25 PM (EST)

I woke up thinking about a person I met just two weeks ago. I was thinking about this man because he is going to die unless we find a way to help him. He is paralyzed from the neck down, has one working lung and that lung has enough blood...

Read Post

Fighting the Arrest of Tanya McDowell: Educating Your Child Should Not Be a Crime

773 Comments | Posted April 24, 2011 | 10:28 PM (EST)

When I heard about the case of Tanya McDowell, the homeless mother sent to jail for sending her 5-year-old son to the "wrong" school district, I immediately thought back to the case of Kelley Williams-Bolar not long ago. I wondered how the world has gone mad...

Read Post

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Malcolm X’s Interpretation of Fox News Racism

 

Watch the video below to understand the nature of Fox News Racism.  There’s a historical context to all of this, whether we’re talking about the Birther Movement, the Tea Party or any of the other activity coming from the Right Wing.  Check it out below or click here to watch.

 

12 Airport Employees Charged in Drug Smuggling Ring

 

A federal criminal complaint charges 12 people in two separate drug smuggling schemes involving baggage handlers at Detroit Metro Airport. Federal drug agents called it a significant drug smuggling case.

BY TRESA BALDAS

Twelve people were charged today in two separate drug smuggling schemes involving baggage handlers at Detroit Metro Airport who allegedly helped sneak in suitcases filled with marijuana and cocaine from Jamaica and Houston.

According to two criminal complaints unsealed today in U.S. District Court in Detroit, six individuals were charged with running a drug smuggling scheme between Jamaica and Detroit by using baggage employee codes and insider knowledge to get drugs past security.

The complaint alleges that Northwest/Delta Airlines baggage handlers at Detroit Metro Airport were in cahoots with airport employees in Jamaica who helped sneak the suitcases full of marijuana and cocaine into Detroit. The scheme was discovered on Jan. 23, 2010, when a federal agent learned about a drug seizure by Jamaican Customs involving roughly 53 pounds of marijuana. The drugs were in a suitcase headed for Detroit, which triggered an investigation that revealed an inside job.

Click to read

Dr. Boyce Thought of the Day: Cory Gunz, Busting Rhymes and Dribbling Basketballs

Boyce Watkins

I’m sitting here watching this MTV show "Son of a Gun," about a rapper, Cory Gunz, who is deciding which hip-hop label to join. I admittedly become annoyed with media feeding these bullsh*t dreams to black men, when 99.9% of them never end up making money as rappers or athletes. Brothers please understand this: Your best options for success are education and entrepreneurship - not busting rhymes and dribbling basketballs.

 

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition.  To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

Dr. boyce: Cam Newton Goes Number One - Some Quick Advice

 

Cam Newton, Roger Goodell

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World – Scholarship in Action 

Auburn University’s Cam Newton capped off his stunning win of the Heisman Trophy by being the #1 draft pick by the Carolina Panthers in this year’s NFL draft.

I’d like to make some quick recommendations for Cam as he begins his life of fame and fortune:

1) Save your money:  Most of your fellow NFL players were sweating out the lockout because they weren’t able to make payments on all the cars and houses that they can’t afford.  Get a good financial manager you can trust, learn to start your own business, and make sure you’re educated enough to understand what other people are doing with your money.  If you lose everything, no one is going to care.

click to read

To have Dr. Boyce Watkins commentary delivered to your email, please click here. 

 

 

GOP Rep Says Black People Don’t Work as Hard as Whites and Expect the State to Take Care of them

 

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, YourBlackWorld.comScholarship in Action

Republican State Rep from Oklahoma Sally Kern seems to think that black people don’t work as hard as whites and that we are more likely to go to prison because we think the government will take care of us.

“We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that's tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don't want to study as hard in school? I've taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn't study hard because they said the government would take care of them."

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My Visit to See Rocky Clark

 

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black WorldScholarship in Action 

Today, I stood in the presence of a true soldier. I went to the hospital in Chicago to visit Rasul “Rocky” Clark, the young brother who was paralyzed 10 years ago in a football accident at the age of 16. Rocky was paralyzed from the neck down, only able to move his head and nothing else. His legs and arms are thinner than anything I’ve ever seen, he can barely breathe, and he’s dying right now because his insurance company decided to kill his policy.

Rocky’s mother, Annette, has stood by her son day-in and day-out every single day since the accident. She has a bed right next to him in the hospital and repeatedly told me that “I’m not gonna leave my baby.” Every normal day seems to be abnormally tragic, with nurses cleaning bacteria out of Rocky’s one remaining lung, and the young man quietly repeating the words, “Mama, I can’t breathe.”

NFL Player Albert Haynesworth Allegedly Put Credit Card in Woman’s Cleavage

 

 

AP Photo

By JESSICA GRESKO
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Redskins defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth allegedly slid his credit card into the bra of a waitress and then touched her breast, according to court papers filed Wednesday offering Haynesworth a plea deal in the sexual abuse case.

Haynesworth's lawyer, however, said the deal was not one he'd take and that his client would fight the charge. Prosecutors filed paperwork in Superior Court in Washington saying that if Haynesworth agrees to plead guilty to simple assault they would drop the misdemeanor sexual abuse charge. Both charges carry the same maximum penalty, however, up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

Denver Broncos Player Jason Hunter Stabbed by His Girlfriend

Your Black World Reports

Jason Hunter of the Denver Broncos was stabbed by his girlfriend Wednesday morning, according to police.  Hunter is currently in stable condition.

"There case is still being investigated, so there are a lot of details we don't have yet," Detroit Police Sgt. Eren Stephens said.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Black Unemployment Reaches Depression Levels in Many Major Cities

by Janell Ross, Huffington Post 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- In the decade leading up to the Great Recession, Wanda Nolan grew accustomed to steady progress.

From an entry-level job as a fill-in bank teller, she forged a career as a commercial banking assistant, earning enough to become a homeowner. She finished college and then got an MBA. Even after the recession unfolded in late 2007, her degrees and her familiarity with the business world lent her a sense of immunity to the forces ravaging much of the American economy. Nolan was an exemplar of the African American middle class and the increasingly professional ranks of the so-called New South.

But in September 2008, everything changed.

A bank human resources officer called her into a private conference room. “All I heard was, ‘Your position has been eliminated,’” says Nolan, 37, who, despite being one of the more than 13 million officially unemployed Americans, still spends most days in her self-styled banker’s uniform of pearls and pants and practical flats. “My mind started racing.”

More than two years later, Nolan is still looking for a job and feeling increasingly anxious about a future that once felt assured. Her life has devolved from a model of middle class African American upward mobility into an example of a disturbing trend: She is among the 15.5 percent of African Americans out of work and still looking for a job.

For economists, that number may sound awful, but it’s not surprising. The nation’s overall unemployment rate sits at 8.8 percent and the rate among white Americans is at 7.9 percent. For a variety of reasons -- ranging from levels of education and continuing discrimination to the relatively young age of black workers -- black unemployment tends to run twice the rate for whites. Yet since the Great Recession, joblessness has remained so critically elevated among African Americans that it is challenging longstanding ideas about what it takes to find work in the modern-day economy.

Millions of people like Nolan, who have precisely followed the oft-dictated recipe for economic success -- work hard, get an education, seek advancement -- are slipping backward. Even as they apply for jobs and accept the prospect of a future with less job security and lower pay, they remain stalled in unemployment.

Trading down has become a painful truth for much of working America, but this truth becomes particularly stark when seen through the prism of race. Only 12 percent of all Americans are black, but working-age black Americans comprise nearly 21 percent of the nation’s unemployed, according to federal data. The growing contrast between prospects for white and black job-seekers challenges a cherished American notion: the availability of opportunity and upward mobility for all.

Click to read

Richelle Carey on CNN Discusses the Case of Tanya McDowell (Video)

 

 

Ron Artest Wins NBA Good Citizenship Award

 

Your Black World reports

Ron Artest of the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA’s J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award this week.  His teammate, Lamar Odom, was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year.

"I think it's great recognition that the NBA sees what I've been doing outside of basketball," Artest said. "I'm definitely grateful for the award.

"It's something that's not on people's minds as far as me getting a citizenship award, but it was something that I wanted and I'm definitely happy I got it."

Quote of the Day: The “After-Birthers”

Quote of the day: "The birthers are now going to have to change their name since the birth certificate has been release.  Instead of being called 'the birthers,' they are now going to be called 'the after birthers," because they simply aren't going to quit."  - Mark Thompson, host of “Make it Plain with Mark Thompson”

The Impact of Fatherless Homes

fatherlessness

Please watch this PSA that shows the devastating impact of fatherless homes on the African American community.  The video is incredibly powerful. 

 

 

Deion Sanders Fights to Help Kids Stay Fit

 

Your Black World Reports

Deion L. Sanders retired as a professional football player in 2001, but is scoring big points off the field for NFL Network’s Keep Gym in School Program. Sanders is conducting a press conference in New York today with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and 4 middle school kids who will be receiving awards for their participation and improved dedication to fitness. The announcement shines a spotlight on The Keep Gym in School Fitness Program, which was developed in association with the National Association for Sport and Physical Education.

Luther Campbell Raises Just $250 for His Mayoral Campaign


Your Black World Reports

It looks like the phrase “Too legit to quit” doesn’t quite apply to Luther Campbell.  The former leader of “2 Live Crew” has raised a reported $250 for his campaign to run for Mayor of Miami. Campbell was hoping that a recent fundraiser would bring him $5,000 to $10,000, but he was wrong.  Campbell is now $150,000 behind the fourth-highest fundraiser, Jose "Pepe" Cancio. 

Dr. Boyce Watkins and Rev. Al Sharpton discuss Tonya McDowell and the Birther Movement

sharpton_watkins

In the episode below, Your Black World Coalition founder, Dr. Boyce Watkins and Rev. Al Sharpton  of the National Action Network discuss the Birther Movement and whether or not it’s racist.  They also discuss the case of Tonya McDowell, the homeless mother who was arrested for sending her child to the wrong school.

Famous Athletes Who Went Broke

 

Mike Tyson and Latrell Sprewell (Getty Images)

In 2008, the NBA Players’ Association claimed that 60 percent of pro basketball players go broke within five years of retirement. It’s not hard to see why. In the annals of “easy come, easy go,” few people see it come and go like professional athletes.

While it’s true that many take their salaries and invest them in sensible and enduring business ventures, many others squander their multimillion-dollar salaries on expensive cars, jewelry and mansions, and when the checks stop coming in, they have little to show for it.

Rapper Jim Jones Arraigned for Suspended License

From the Associated Press

Rapper Jim Jones has made a return to a venue he'd rather avoid: a New York City courthouse.

"I'm trying to stay out of this place!" the hip-hop artist said with a smile as he left court after his arraignment Tuesday on charges of driving with a suspended license. In 2009, he pleaded guilty in the same courthouse to a misdemeanor assault charge for a punching a friend of R&B star Ne-Yo in a Louis Vuitton store.

President Obama Releases His Official Birth Certificate

White House releases Obama birth certificate

Your Black World reports

President Barack Obama has officially released the long form of his birth certificate in response to the questions about whether or not he was born in the United States.  Originally, the president had only released the short form copy, which led to speculation that he was born abroad.

Things I Learned about Tyler Perry While Being Interviewed by Mo’Nique

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black WorldScholarship in Action 

I watched Tyler Perry last night on the Mo’Nique Show on BET.  It was an interesting interview, with Mo’Nique fawning over Tyler’s brilliance in the way you would expect an actress to kiss up to one of the most powerful filmmakers in the world.  I fully expect that Mo’Nique will get some coveted roles in future Tyler Perry films.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Rocky Clark is Dying: Unless We Find a Way to Help


by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse UniversityScholarship in Action 

To join our coalition for Rocky, please visit SaveRockyClark.com

I woke up thinking about a person I met just two weeks ago.    I was thinking about this man because he is going to die unless we find a way to help him.  He is paralyzed from the neck down, has one working lung and that lung has enough blood clots in it to kill him.

Meet Rasul “Rocky” Clark, a 27-year old man living in Illinois.  Rocky was once a promising young high school athlete at Eisenhower High School in Blue Island, Il.  His future came to a halt when he took a bad hit on the football field that left him with the inability to ever use his arms or legs again.  As you can probably imagine, the earth-shattering transition from being a healthy 16-year old boy to becoming a quadriplegic is beyond daunting, and many of us could never recover from this kind of devastation.

Dr. Boyce Spotlight: Dr. Tyrone Bledsoe Works to Save the Black Male in America

Dr. Bledsoe_Pic

As I mentioned last night on the Bev Smith Show, saving the black male in America is one of the most critical problems being faced by our community today.  Over the last 30 years, black males have been subject to mass incarceration (mostly due to drug felonies after the Reagan Administration opened the door for the crack cocaine epidemic), subject to massive handgun violence (as guns followed the flow of drugs), and poor educational systems (we know how bad inner city schools are in America).  As a result, many of these men are poorly equipped to become good husbands and fathers later in life, leading to the suffering of an entire community.  The majority of black homes are fatherless, and our boys are bombarded with media that tells them to emulate the behavior of self-destructive hip-hop stars, or to toss away educational opportunities in exchange for an athletic lottery ticket.  Something needs to be done.

Dr. Tyrone Bledsoe and his organization are working to solve these problems.  Fighting for the black male is not popular in a society that is designed to destroy us.  But even if society wants to see us dead and gone, that gives us no excuse to endorse the idea of killing ourselves and each other.  It is for his outstanding work in the black community that Dr. Bledsoe is today’s Dr. Boyce Spotlight on Your Black World:

1) What is your name and what do you do?

A Man Shares His Story About Being Investigated for Sending Child to "Wrong" School

 



Dr. Watkins,

What you see happening in Norwalk , CT is not an isolated incident in my state.

My name is Jim Zygmont, I was investigated, staked out, and brought before a judge by the Fairfield (CT) Board of Education because of my desire to have my brother receive a high school education at a considerably good school.

I was born and raised in the projects of Stamford (CT). My brother is White/African American and I am white. He looks more African American than he does white, if you know what I mean.

Long story short, my brother lived in a home that was broken, influenced by drugs, and supported by a single mother.. When my brother was in high school, my mother moved out of state. He became dangerously at risk of not finishing high school. That’s when my other brother and I took action.

CNN Kills the Birther Movement Once and For All

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, YourBlackWorld.com 

Let’s hope that the Birther Movement is on its way out the door.  If it isn’t completely out the door, it’s on its death bed.  CNN has engaged in an all-out assault on the Birther Movement by doing a detailed investigation on whether or not President Barack Obama was born in the United States.

In the video below, the network goes to the extreme to settle the question once and for all.  Personally, I found the investigation to be quite compelling. There are others, however, including Donald Trump, who’ve spent all of their time engaging in their own investigations and coming to “very interesting” conclusions.

Flavor Flav Is No Longer Making Fried Chicken

 

Your Black World reports

Flavor Flav will no longer be selling chicken.  We know this is incredibly disappointing to you, but it’s true.  Flav made the announcement recently, stating that the mismanagement of the organization was just too much for him to bear:

"Let me be straight up with you," Flav told TMZ. . "I found potato salad that expired on 28 February," he explained, "and it's then when I realized I can't do business [there] and I really hope no one ate those potatoes."

Flav is now removing his name from the franchise, citing the fact that he has to protect the reputation of his valuable personal brand.

"I have to do whatever is possible for me to save my name and that's to shut the business down," he told Iowa network WQAD. "[Manager] Nick Cimino isn't running the business right."

Monday, April 25, 2011

Tyler Perry Speaks on Spike Lee…..Again

Your Black World Reports

Tyler Perry keeps answering questions about Spike Lee, who has been critical of his films as of late.  After his latest film, “Madea’s Big Happy Family,”  Perry had this to say about Spike:

Tavis Smiley Breaks His Silence About Obama

 

 

Your Black World reports

Talk show host Tavis Smiley spoke publicly about President Obama this week on the Today Show, as he promoted his new book about how to overcome failure.  The host, Ann Curry, gave Smiley an opportunity to discuss his concerns about the Obama Administration, and this is what he had to say:

Donald Trump Says Obama Was Not Qualified for the Ivy Leagues

 

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black WorldScholarship in Action 

It appears that Donald Trump just won’t give up.  In an interview this week with the Associated Press, “The Donald” said that President Obama was a poor student who didn’t deserve to be admitted to Harvard University.  Trump doesn’t actually have proof of his assertions, but that’s never stopped him before.

"I heard he was a terrible student, terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?" Trump said to the Associated Press. "I'm thinking about it, I'm certainly looking into it. Let him show his records."

Diamond Breland: Spike Lee vs. Tyler Perry

Listen to Your Black World’s Diamond Breland give her take on the battle between film icons Tyler Perry and Spike Lee.  The video is below!

MC Hammer Reinvents Himself in Silicon Valley

 

Is it possible for the music industry to learn something from an artist who hasn't had a hit song since the mid-'90s?

In the case of MC Hammer, it just might.

To many in the music industry, Hammer is a has-been rapper who squandered a fortune and eventually faded into musical irrelevancy. But in Silicon Valley, he's a respected entrepreneur, investor and adviser with a reputation as a savvy early adopter of new technology.

That's quite an achievement in a region that views most celebrities with suspicion.

Jalen Rose Didn’t Seem to Know that He was Under Arrest

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black World 

It appears that Jalen Rose of ESPN (and the Fab Five at Michigan) wasn’t aware that he was being arrested when he was stopped for DUI. Here is a transcript of Jalen’s interaction with the police officer in the back of a squad car on the night he was arrested for drunk driving:

Jalen: "So what are we doing right now?"
Cop: "We're gonna go to the police station right now."
Jalen: "To do what?"
Cop: "You're under arrest."
Jalen: "For what, sir?"
Cop: "For drunk driving."
Jalen: "But I wasn't really drinking."
Cop: "Um, okay."

Bishop Eddie Long Tells His Accusers “You Ain’t Messing with Me”

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black WorldScholarship in Action 

The Bishop Eddie Long spoke to his congregation on Easter Sunday, stepping back into the public eye after a period of silence and detachment from the media. For whatever reason, Long decided to address the young men who are suing him for sexual misconduct, telling them that he refuses to be messed with.

“You ain't messin’ with me. I shall rise again and I ain't going through this,” Long said.

It is being reported that Bishop Long is close to reaching a settlement with the young men and his public remarks may be in response to frustrations over the negotiations. Four men who were once mentored by Long have come forth and accused him of using his influence to obtain sexual favors. Using Easter Sunday as his opportunity to share the message, Long continued to make comments about his ordeal to the audience.

Student Gets Life in Prison after Harvard University Murder

2011_04_jcopney.jpg

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black WorldScholarship in Action 

When most of us think about Ivy League universities, we picture places of higher learning, tranquility and inspirational endeavors. Most of us don’t think about students getting shot over bags of marijuana. But it still stands that Jabrai Jordan Copney is going to prison for a murder that took place on the Harvard University campus.

The murder occurred in 2009 and Copney has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The jury took three days to come to its conclusions, and sentenced the 22-year old Copney to spend the rest of his life in prison. He was also convicted of possession of a firearm, but not of armed robbery.

Meet Rocky Clark: His Insurance Company Has Left Him to Die

Rocky Clark

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black WorldScholarship in Action 

The story of Rasul "Rocky" Clark is a cautionary tale to all the mothers who send their sons to the football field on Saturday afternoon. Ten years ago, Clark was living the dream of many African American males: he was one of the stars of his high school football team, playing the game as running back.
Rocky's dream came to an end with one hit too many. The player was paralyzed from the neck down, rendering him unable to move, walk, stand up, or use his arms for the rest of his life. He will never run down the field, experience sex, wash himself or even breath properly again. He has one lung, and his life expectancy dropped dramatically on the day of his horrible injury. In fact, part of the reason his family is now broke is because medical experts and insurance companies didn't expect him to last for even a decade.
Rocky just found out that his $5 million dollar insurance policy has reached the lifetime maximum, meaning that his insurer is not going to pay anymore of his expenses.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Tyler Perry and Madea Come In Strong at #2 In Their Opening Weekend

Easter went to the birds. Fox's animated adventure "Rio" led the box office for the second weekend in a row, earning $26.8 million according to studio estimates. That's a slim 32 percent drop for the G-rated film, which was produced for $90 million by Blue Sky Studios, of "Ice Age" fame. The tropical toon held up so well in part because most kids were out of school on Friday, giving the film a larger-than-normal start to the weekend. In just two weeks, "Rio," which features the voices of Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway as the world's last two blue macaws, has collected an impressive $81.3 million.

Janitor Gives $40,000 to High School He Worked for

WHITE CENTER, Wash. -- The lunch hour is over and Evergreen High School custodian Tyrone Curry gets out his broom for a quick sweep up.
"I try to make sure it's spotless and it's ready for the kids," he said.
After cleaning, he's off to his second passion: coaching the track and field team.
"I just like staying busy," Curry said with a laugh.
But in reality, he doesn't have to work. He's a millionaire.

 

Tupac Shakur’s Lost Jailhouse Interview

 

Your Black World reports

The late Tupac Shakur Spent a lot of time in jails and prisons before his death.  In the interviews below, he candidly discusses life as a prison inmate, the inspiration for his music and life as a young black male in America.  Check it out.

25% of All Americans Don’t Believe President Obama was Born in the United States

Barack Obama 

From CBSnews.com

A quarter of all Americans incorrectly think President Obama was not born in the United States, according to a new CBS News/ New York Times poll.

Among all Republicans, 45 percent believe he was born in another country, as do 45 percent of Tea Party supporters, the poll shows.

Since the start of Mr. Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, rumors have existed that he was born outside of the United States. The"birther" myth has steadily persisted through Mr. Obama's presidency, in spite of overwhelming evidence he was born in the United States -- including his 1961 birth announcement, printed in two Hawaii newspapers.

Businessman and television personality Donald Trump has pushed the issue into the spotlight in recent weeks, insisting that he is unconvinced of Mr. Obama's origins. While Trump has used the issue to bring more attention to his possible Republican presidential bid, other Republicans are trying to tamp down the "birther" talk.

House Tea Party Caucus Chairwoman Michele Bachmann said recently that it's time to "move on" from the issue. Additionally, Arizona's Republican Gov. Jan Brewer recently vetoed a bill, penned in response to questions about Mr. Obama's origins, that would have made Arizona the first state to require presidential candidates to provide proof of their birth before getting on the state ballot.

The myth seems fated to live on, however, as a new book will come out next month entitled,

 

Click to read

Visit Your Black World for more news. 

Rep. Allen West’s Sloppy Words about President Obama

 

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Your Black WorldScholarship in Action 

Below you can watch the video of Allen West, a black Republican, engaging in a highly-disrespectful attack on President Barack Obama. West seems to swim like a happy little pig in the attention he is receiving from Fox News for his willingness to undermine the credibility of another black man in ways that would be maligned if he were white. Because he’s black, it’s hard to accuse West of racism. But he can certainly be accused of being a tool for racists to promote an agenda built on sloppy, malicious rhetoric feeding on white American fears of black men in true positions of power.