call and response

I received this in an email that a friend sent to me. A white woman who is engaged to a black man wanted to voice her opinion and she asked for comments from black men to answer her questions. This is a copy of the article from Sister to Sister magazine. I thought it was really interesting. Let me know what you think.

White Woman's Opinion of Black Women

Dear Jamie:
I'm sorry but I would like to challenge some of your Black male readers. I am a White female who is engaged to a Black male-good-looking, educated and loving. I just don't understand a lot of Black female's attitudes about our relationship.

My man decided he wanted me because the pickings amongst Black women were slim to none. As he said they were either too fat, too loud, too mean, too argumentative, too needy, too materialistic or carrying too much excess baggage.

Before I became engaged, whenever I went out I was constantly approached by Black men, willing to wine and dine me and give me the world. If Black women are so up in arms about us being with their men, why don't they look at themselves and make some changes.

I am tired of the dirty looks I get and snide remarks when we're out in public. I would like to hear from some Black men about why we are so appealing and coveted by them.

Bryant Gumbel just left his wife of 26 years for one of us Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, the model Tyson Beckford, Montell Williams, Quincy Jones,
James Earl Jones, Harry Belafonte, Sydney Poitier, Kofi Anan, Cuba Gooding Jr., Don Cornelius, Berry Gordy, Billy Blanks, Larry Fishburne, Wesley
Snipes...

I could go on and on. But, right now, I'm a little
angry and that is why I wrote this so hurriedly. Don't be mad with us White women because so many of your men want us. Get your acts together and learn from us and we may lead you to treat your men better. If I'm wrong, Black men, let me know.

Signed,
Disgusted White Girl, Somewhere in VA


RESPONSE

Dear Jamie:
I would like to respond to the letter written by A Disgusted White Girl. Let me start by saying that I am a 28-year old black man. I graduated from one of the most prestigious universities in Atlanta, Georgia with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Management. I have a good job at a major corporation and have recently
purchased a house. So, I consider myself to be among the ranks of successful black men.

I will not use my precious time to slander white people. I just want to set the record straight of why black men date white women. Back in the day, one of the biggest reasons why black men dated white women was because they were considered easy.

The black girls in my neighborhood were raised in the church. They were very strict about when they lost their virginity and who they lost it to. Because of our impatience to wait, brothers would look for someone who would give it up easy without
too much hassle. So, they turned to the white girls.

Nowadays, in my opinion, a lot of brothers date white women because they are docile and easy to control. A lot of black men, because of insecurities, fears, and overall weaknesses, have become intimidated by the strength of our black women. We are afraid that our woman will be more successful than us, make more money than us, drive
nicer cars and own bigger houses. Because of this fear, many black men look for a more docile woman. Someone we can control.

I have talked to numerous black men and they continuously comment on how easy it is to control and walk over their white women. I just want to set the record straight. I want A Disgusted White Girl to know that not all successful black men date white
women.

Brothers like Ahmad Rashad, Denzel Washington, Michael Jordan, Morris Chestnut, Will Smith, Blair Underwood, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Samuel L. Jackson, and Chris Rock all married strong black women And, to flip the script, there are numerous white men, in and out of the spot light, who openly or secretly desire black women over white women. Ted Danson, Robert DeNiro, and David Bowie to name a
few.

I just don't want a disgusted white girl to be misinformed Stop thinking that because you are white that you are some type of goddess. Remember, when black Egyptian Queens like Hatsepshut and Nitorcris were ruling Dynasties and armies of men in Egypt, you were over in the caves of Europe eating raw meat and beating each other over the head with clubs.
Read your history!

It was the black woman that taught you how to cook and season your food. It was the black woman that taught you how to raise your children. It was black women who were breast feeding and raising your babies during slavery.

It is the black woman that had to endure watching their fathers, husbands, and children beaten, killed, and thrown in jail. Black women were born with two strikes against them: being black and being a woman. And, through all this, Still They Rise!

It is because of the black women's strength, elegance, power, love and beauty that I could never date anyone except my black Queen. It is not just the outer beauty that captivates and draws me to them. It is not the fact that they come in all shapes, sizes, colors and shades that I love them.

Their inner beauty is what I find most appealing about black women. Their strong spirit, loving and nurturing souls, their integrity, their ability to overcome great obstacles, their willingness to stand for what they believe in, and their determination to succeed and reach their highest potential while enduring great pain and suffering is why I have fallen in love with black women.

I honestly believe that your anger is geared more toward jealousy and envy more so than snotty looks. If this were not so, then why do you continuously go to tanning salons to darken your skin? If you are so proud to be white, then why don't you just be happy with your pale skin? Why do you continue to inject your lips, hips, and breasts with unnatural and dangerous substances so you can look fuller and more
voluptuous?

I think that your anger is really a result of you wanting to have what the black woman has. BOTTOM LINE: If I were looking for a docile woman, someone I can walk over and control, I would give you a call. But, unfortunately, I am looking for a
Virtuous Woman. Someone that can be a good wife and mother to my children.

Someone who can be my best friend and understands my struggles. I am looking for a soul mate. I am looking for a sister and; unfortunately, you do not and CANNOT fit the bill.

No offense taken, none given.
Signed,
Black Royalty

commence the commencement

okay. in case you were like under a rock or destroying your hearing off in ipod world, you heard that the faculty of our esteemed university has decided to rescend the amendment made during kofi's reign. the "8 hour rule" as it was affectionately called, saved face for students who were () this close to graduation. it allowed students to march who were less than 8 hours away from completing their degree program. students, i'm guessing, like me, who may only have one class left after this semester, a class that could be passed in the summer semester. unfortunately, students have taken advantage of this privilege and haven't fulfilled their obligations. how do i feel? i'm pissed off because i've overcome more than most people know to get to this point and even to see that work come to some sort of fruition is a dream come true. not to sound cliche but it's the culmination of a lot of blood sweat tears and hair. yes even my hair has suffered these past 2 years. so i'm not really feeling like i've been done a service at all by being barred from marching across that stage at commencement. i realize that at commencement, i should be finished with everything but hey shit happens, and just because some dumbass that's been here forever can't finish his degree program, that doesn't mean that i shouldn't be able to walk my fat ass across that damn stage and then pass my one class in the summer so i can be at bowling green by august. i'm pissed. i'm protesting. yes people, a petition will be started asap. at least if you're gonna do it, wait until i leave this bitch. it's newport time people. gotta jet.

can i live?

so i'm watching cnn and they start talking about stanley "tookie" williams, who was one of the co-founders of the crips gang. yeah, from what they say he was a bad mutha back in the day, but he's changed his whole life around while he was incarcerated. no, i'm not saying that they should let him get out of jail, but i don't think the guy should be killed. he has written many children's books, telling them about the dangers of getting in gangs and how being in a gang can ruin your life. he was even nominated for a nobel peace prize for his work- the man has been putting some effort behind these anti-gang motives that he has.

i think that he deserves to live. the conflict arises when people start to talk about the families that were hurt during tookie's bad days. i'm sure most of them are awaiting his lethal injection, which has been scheduled for december 13th, but i honestly think that the guy deserves a chance to continue his work with the kids. we all make mistakes, but when we come to a realization and correct our wrongs then someone should lend us a helping hand. whether he dies or they let him live, i'm sure that his work will continue to serve as a demonstration for us all. sometimes turning your life around can help you and others in the long run, but if you wait too late your past will definitely come back to haunt you. you can read more about tookie's case by clicking here. until next time...

warm me up

i was reading the atlanta journal constitution and police in clayton county were warning people not to leave their cars unattended while letting them warm up. i have to admit that i do this all of the time. it's almost become a habit now but when i think about it i realize that this may not be a good idea. it's almost like giving thieves your car right? i guess i better pull out my jacket and sit in the lex while she warms up because if someone takes my ride, i'll be S.O.L. just wanted to let everybody else know. watch your ride while it warms up!

somebody cares

i was reading the newspaper the other day and came across an article that read FVSU AWARDED GRANT TO PUSH MATH AND SCIENCE. it was actually good to read the article because the money was given to a program that i was once part of. i changed my major because i realized what the members of sigma tau delta openly state- "english is better than math." it's just an opinion, but everyone is entitled to their own right? it's just nice to see that there's someone who cares about the direction hbcu's, especially fort valley state, are headed in. here's the article:

FVSU awarded grant to push math, science

By Ayanna McPhail TELEGRAPH STAFF WRITER


FORT VALLEY - Fort Valley State University has received a $1.5 million federal grant to encourage women and minorities to pursue opportunities in math and science.

For 22 years FVSU, a historically black university, has been recruiting, educating and preparing such students for high-tech industries that have sometimes gone overseas to find talent to fill a void of math and science skills.

"America has not been doing a good job of getting its students to major in these fields," said Isaac J. Crumbly, associate vice president for collaborative programs at Fort Valley State and director of the Cooperative Development Energy Program. "While these programs are targeting minorities, there should be an even larger effort by the nation to target all youngsters."

Crumbly attributes the lack of Americans entering fields such as engineering to a fear of math.

"Kids tend to think that math is hard," he said.

His mission has been to train students, starting with those in ninth grade, to embrace math and science, so they can prepare for such jobs as chemists, geoscientists and health physicists.

High school students are educated for free during summers at colleges in places such as Nevada, Texas and Oklahoma. They take field trips out of town and study math.

Some of the students later attend Fort Valley State with full scholarships and enter the Cooperative Development Energy Program, which allows them to pursue two undergraduate degrees - one from FVSU and one from an institution that offers majors unavailable at Fort Valley.

They are also groomed for internships where they create contacts for future jobs.

Students do not have to participate in the pre-college program to get involved in CDEP.

"FVSU has established a national niche among institutions of higher learning for recruiting and preparing minority and female students to pursue technical careers in the energy industry. This grant further solidifies FVSU's leadership in this area," Crumbly said.

CDEP has graduated 42 engineers, 18 geoscientists and four health physicists since 1997, according to a news release from the program. It was born in 1983 in response to an initiative by the Department of Energy's Office of Minority Economic Impact.

The government requested proposals from colleges and universities for academic programs that would open doors for blacks and women in the energy industry.

U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va., has been supporting the FVSU programs since 1993. The reason is simple, said Diane Noserale, a spokeswoman for the agency.

"Science has always been a field where you need a diversity of viewpoints," she said. "When you're a science organization, you have to look at people who can bring a different approach to a problem. Soliciting people who come from different backgrounds are going to bring you that."

Some FVSU alumni said CDEP was a good opportunity for students because they were groomed for jobs they heard about through the program, had the opportunity to travel and didn't have to worry about paying back school loans.

"I think I definitely benefitted from it. I really don't know how I could have gotten where I am without it," said Jason Lawrence, now an electrical engineer for a government contracting company in Las Vegas.

Since James E. Love graduated six years ago, he wants to keep the pipeline of FVSU engineers flowing.

"Doc's vision was to basically get us to graduate and get us involved in the energy field," Love said of Crumbly. "So once we got involved and moved up, it would be easier to get other people in. We have that responsibility as graduates to keep continuing to recruit academically talented minorities and to keep the pipeline going."

The two-year, $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration will support scholarships and the pre-college summer outreach program.

FVSU was chosen from a pool of 44 applicants. Seven other historically black colleges and universities also received grants.

georgy, georgy, georgy

the link

By Tracy Stokes, BET.com Staff Writer & Wire Reports


Did Bush deliberately mislead the public on Iraq having weapons of mass destruction? Take our poll and click on “Discuss Now” to talk about it.

Posted Nov. 14, 2005 – "Turns out, we were wrong" President Bush's national security adviser told CNN Sunday, speaking about the administration’s belief that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

The adviser, Stephen Hadley, told "CNN that Bush relied on the judgment of the intelligence community when he determined that Iraq had stockpiles of chemical and nuclear weapons.

But it should be emphasized that “allegations now that the president somehow manipulated intelligence, somehow misled the American people, are flat wrong," he said.

Republican lawmakers and other officials who appeared on the Sunday news shows echoed Bush's Veterans Day speech in which he defended his decision to invade Iraq.

Bush said congressional Democrats had the same intelligence about Iraq as his administration and agreed that war was necessary. Those contending now that information had been manipulated or exaggerated are merely playing politics with the war, Bush administration officials have charged in recent weeks.

But Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean rejected the criticism on Sunday, saying, "The truth is, the president misled America when he sent us to war."

:: AD ::

The president withheld some intelligence and some caveats about it, Dean said - on NBC's "Meet the Press."

While acknowledging that two commissions had found no evidence the administration had exerted pressure on the intelligence community, Dean said a Senate committee will ultimately determine how the administration handled the information that had been gathered about Iraq.


Dean also accused the Bush administration with being less than honest about the size of the deficit, as well as the war"This is an administration that has a fundamental problem telling the truth," Dean said.

But, Hadley said, "It is unworthy and unfair and ill-advised, when our men and women in combat are putting their lives on the line, to relitigate an issue which was looked at by two authoritative sources and deemed closed. We need to put this debate behind us.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Democrats have a right to criticize the war but that it is disingenuous to claim that Bush lied about intelligence to justify it.

"Every intelligence agency in the world, including the Russians, the French, ... all reached the same conclusion," McCain said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

In a column for The Washington Post, former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) said he was wrong to have voted to give Bush the authority to go to war and called the intelligence on which he made that decision "deeply flawed and, in some cases, manipulated to fit a political agenda."

Hadley told CNN that issues about the accuracy of U.S. intelligence have not impaired the administration's ability to pursue its policies regarding the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea.

"We've been able to move our diplomacy forward at the same time we're taking the steps we need to do to improve our intelligence," he said.

Asked why people should believe U.S. claims about the nuclear plans of Iran given the failure of intelligence about Iraq, Hadley told viewers that there has been international consensus about Iran.

Now that you've read the story, do you think that Bush deliberately misled the public about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction? Click on the top link to the left to take our poll and click on “Discuss Now” to talk about it more.

disappointed

this is what i heard in my nine o' clock class today... Charles Dickens blah blah blah blah blah and then my wife and daughter came by my house blah blah blah and did you see how Green Bay played blah blah blah so Dickens uses A Tale of Two Cities to showcase how the French Revolution blah blah blah. and i'm not exaggerating about these things. so let me ask you something, why am i wasting the government's money by sitting in this class everyday. i really demand a new teacher! and i'm not just bitchin about the situation, but i do live 30 minutes away from campus and tuition is around $1500 right now and the last time i checked, sam's club was only paying me like $8, so why am i busting my ass getting to fort valley state university everyday when this teacher in the english department is constantly wasting my time?

that's what's wrong with schools today. everybody wants to be a teacher just so they can seem important to their fellow colleagues, or the people that they graduated with. and the thing is, most people who hang around with me will tell you that i do my work according to my own schedule. i may appear to be a shall we call it "slacker" to some people, but i get all of my work done, whenever time permits. honestly, i am a hard-working student and i try to learn something new everyday, but i can't waste my time sitting in a class listening to the teacher bitch and moan about how his wife left him and how his daughter is black (as if that makes him able to understand the things that black people go through everyday) and how smart he was in undergrad because I'm sure that students don't have to listen to this at Georgia Tech or UGA. Students there would have started a petition to get rid of a sorry ass teacher, so today i proclaim my disappointment and i begin my quest to get rid of this sorry ass teacher! My petition starts here...

1.Greg G.
2.Nikki
3.
4.
5.

wake up nigger

and now that i have your attention...i'm sure that everyone who should know about the issues i'm having with my professors (see "school spirit muhfugha")... so it should be of no surprise that when i found that article i'd be almost giddy with glee. not because it proved i was right (i never need proof) but because it showed students what the real deal was. now mind you, i'm a member of an honor society here in the department, so you'd expect the more enlightened ones to be able to sit there, read the article and have something great to contribute. now mind you, i don't expect everyone to have the same views as i do, simply because that's just not feasible. i do however, expect people with a pulse to know when they're being used as variables in a damn experiment. someone in particular read the article and said,(i paraphrase)" you know what, i still like dr.(). i think you're blowing this whole thing out of proportion. i haven't had that experience with dr.(), so i can't be offended or otherwise swayed by this article, in fact i think it's positive." positive?POSITIVE??!! you can't be serious. then i looked at their face and they were i was shocked. appalled. dumbfounded. but then i thought about who it was and things just clicked. that person is asleep. and not so much physically. but she's what i like to call an "intellectual narcoleptic." they have periods when their intellect is otherwise indisposed... on snooze... hence the narcolepsy. and it's sad because at times like these, we need the smart ones to step up, unite and proceed to make positive, lasting changes in the way we live and what is this individual doing? uncle tomming?

my point is, we all have to wake up at one point or another. which would you rather do? have reality handed to you in a tangible form or fall flat on your ass because you've been rejected by those same people you thought were so "positive." wake up nigger. or everything you thought was sooooooooooo positive and great will run your ass over. and then again, you never experienced jim crow, was that positive? you never experienced the bubonic plague ,was that positive? you never lived through a world war, was that positive? and you weren't a slave, was that positive? were those things "blown out of proportion"? nigger wake up and give all of us a break from having to shake you to get you to see the shit you should smell festering beneath your nostrils.

FVSU and Katrina Relief

FVSU reaches out to disaster victims at home and across state lines

the link

Fort Valley State University moved quickly and decisively last week to extend both its hands to victims of Hurricane Katrina at home and in other states.
Following a Sept. 1 call from Interim President William H. Harris to provide “whatever assistance possible to the victims of this tragedy,” Fort Valley State University administrators,faculty, staff and students began providing help to Hurricane Katrina victims at both the institutional and personal levels.
Locally, the university provided food, shelter and other necessities to Peach and Taylor county residents who were victims of the tornadoes that struck Fort Valley and near Pickling Mill on August 29.

University officials have also identified FVSU students from Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama to provide counseling and other assistance they may need.
To reach out nationally, the university’s non-profit Foundation began raising funds and gathering non-perishable items such as bottled water, canned goods, blankets or household items to aid victims in the three storm-damaged states.
University spokespersons said cash contributions are being received in the university’s Foundation office and stations have been set up in major campus buildings to receive nonperishable items. While gathering humanitarian aid for hurricane victims, FVSU also joined other institutions in the University System of Georgia and across much of the Southeast in opening its doors to college and university students whose institutions were shut down by the disaster.

FVSU spokespersons said that more than 75,000 college students in the New Orleans
area alone are seeking ways to continue their educations and trying to bring some degree of normalcy back to their lives. Institutions affected by the storm include Dillard University,Loyola University-New Orleans, Our lady of Holy Cross College, Southern University-New Orleans, Tulane University, University of New Orleans, and Xavier University of Louisiana. Reports of similar problems in Mississippi have also been received.

Following the guidelines set up by the state’s Board of Regents, FVSU began waiving
out-of-state tuition and providing housing and other assistance to potential students on a case-by case basis. Students from the affected areas can enroll in FVSU online courses and/or as transient students. And while the deadline to gain admission to FVSU is Sept.10, university officials say that they – like other institutions – are considering a special second fall session to accommodate displaced students. They said more information about enrolling and admission can be found on the FVSU web page at www.fvsu.edu/katrina.asp. The University expanded its relief efforts the next week by teaming up with local churches through the Ministerial Alliance and Grace House to increase assistance to local and Gulf Coast victims of the storm.
Fort Valley State partnered with other local agencies and organizations to continue its efforts to raise money and collect non-perishable items such as blankets, canned goods, small household items and personal hygiene projects from the campus faculty, staff and students to provide survivors financial support and resources.In addition, the university began providing debris removal equipment to aid local victims in beginning clean-up activities for their homes and businesses and identified student volunteers to assist in debris removal and provide other forms of assistance.

The University will also create automobile flyer notices that will inform local people of sites where they can make donations to hurricane relief efforts and establish a computerized tracking system of area relief efforts that will enable area churches to do follow-up activities with local victims. “We continue to search for the most effective ways to aid our fellow citizens – both here
and in other states – who have suffered this enormous tragedy,” said Katéy Assem, FVSU vice president for advancement and research. “We will continue to explore every possible avenue of assistance that we can to alleviate to whatever degree we can the suffering this disaster has inflicted.”
--30--

a new revolution

we have decided to come together and create something that can have an impact on our school and let our voices be heard. too many times people censor what they have to say about a professor or what they think about a class or other ignorant stuff that's happening on campus, when in fact most of the time there are other people that feel the same way. this spot will serve as a place where students can release their frustrations and find other students who are willing to help them begin a revolution to change all the dumb shit that happens on campus everyday.

we also want to educate the people that come to our site by linking them to sites where cheap school books can be found, places where important documents from the past can be found, and other places that can keep people up to date and let them know what's going on in the world. it's time to save our HBCU's because if we don't turn things around now, things will continue to get worse as the years progress.

WELCOME TO THE REVOLUTION