Ban the N-Word

The Impassioned Writers

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:46:16 PST

The Impassioned Writers

We officially introduce BN-W's The Impassioned Writers column, which will feature essays by several writers on a regular basis. Because we can't cover every issue and subject, we found some writers who are willing to write about their passion (sports, arts, history, and the like) with the knowledge, dedication, enthusiasm, and love that will "educate to empower" us and our readers. A nice, warm welcome to The Impassioned Writers...

Dedication, Passion, and Family - Two Coaches for the Ages

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:52:51 PST

PJ Rain
Dedication, Passion, and Family - Two Coaches for the Ages

In today’s coverage of sports, we frequently find ourselves captivated by the lavish victory celebrations, inordinate symbols of wealth, and the air invincibility surrounding our athletes. In fact, there is a tendency to allow the initial portrayals of high-profile superstars and their amazing athletic feats to fool us into believing that they are immune to the everyday transgressions that permeate all lifestyles indiscriminately.... It is important that we remember to acknowledge those among us who have neither been dragged through headlines full of negative imagery nor commanded and received excessive fanfare for their incredible achievements. Two of our individuals who have consistently exemplified all that is good about sports while at the same time positively impacting the lives of scores of future leaders are the late Eddie Robinson...and C. Vivian Stringer.... By simply conveying and reinforcing the simple principles of dedication, passion, love, and family, each of these outstanding coaches has taught several generations of young athletes to be winners in life.... They have shared what they know about family and community to lead their teams to be successful, and they have demonstrated by example how love and commitment can carry individuals to achieve greatness.

Remembering Others After the MLK Holiday - A Peek at Jackie Robinson

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:27:24 PST

PJ Rain
Remembering Others After the MLK Holiday - A Peek at Jackie Robinson

Although the Dodgers were based in Brooklyn, Spring Training was held in Florida, and life in the civilian “Jim Crow” South required a different type of navigation through racial hatred. It consisted of a level of restraint that [Jackie] Robinson had not yet experienced, and it involved a degree of sacrifice that would take its toll. The tests began right away, with Robinson and his wife being inexplicably bumped from their flight to his first Spring Training in Daytona Beach.... This continued repression was difficult for Robinson who had never been docile or passive. It was so difficult that he would occasionally explode into private outbursts among confidants. There was even a point during the 1946 season, while Robinson was playing for the Dodgers’ Triple-A Montreal Royals farm team, that he sought medical attention, and was directed to rest away from the ballpark. The diagnosis was that his fatigue-like symptoms were related to the prolonged stress that he was enduring.

BN-W eNewsletter #100

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:39:36 PST

Film(s) Monitored: The Princess and the Frog; Invictus; Armored; The Blind Side

TOPICS: Kwanzaa; BN-W Suggested Reading - Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present (Deborah Willis) and Celia, A Slave (Melton A. McLaurin); Puzzles For Us; BBC Four Documentary - Racism: A History; Princess Amira (the pre-Tiana princess); and more...

BN-W eNewsletter #99

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:47:34 PST

Film(s) Monitored: Precious; 2012; Skin; This Is It; Law Abiding Citizen; Black Dynamite; Good Hair; Fame

TOPICS: DIVAS (Digital Interactive Visual Arts Sciences) for Social Justice; Theatre - Broke-ology and Fela!; Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie speaks on the stereotyping of African culture; Black hair industry, Koreans, and Aron Ranen's "Black Hair Documentary"; Target Market News and Black spending power; 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma race riot (Black Wall Street); Regina Kimbell and "My Nappy Roots"; and more...

BN-W eNewsletter #98

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:28:50 PST

Film(s) Monitored: Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself; The Taking of Pelham 123; Imagine That

TOPICS: Fela! on Broadway; Jonathan McCoy (youth speech against the N-word); BN-W's Imagery & Its Power!; Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine (LASM) scholarship opportunity; Anthony T. Browder and the IKG Cultural Center presents the campaign for the John Henrik Clarke Commemorative Stamp, Van Sertima Cultural Circles, Asa Hilliard and the ASA Restoration Project, Elena Pischikova and the Kushite tombs, and Will Smith and The Last Pharaoh connection; Ivan Van Sertima; John Hope Franklin; and more...

Imagery & Its Power

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:19:01 PST

BN-W/Educate-Empower Presentation: Imagery & Its Power!

Media manipulation, propaganda, caricatures, critical thinking, history, education - and how the past and the present connect the dots.

Happy Juneteenth Day 2009

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:15:40 PST

Happy Juneteenth Day!

BN-W eNewsletter #97

Fri, 29 May 2009 18:38:32 PST

BN-W FIFTH YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Film(s) Monitored: Dance Flick; Next Day Air; Fighting; Obsessed; The Soloist; American Violet; Fast and Furious; Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail

TOPICS: BN-W/Educate-Empower; Imagery and Its Power presentations; new chart format with one-word overviews and DVD spending; and more...

BN-W 5th Year Anniversary

Fri, 29 May 2009 09:42:04 PST

BN-W 5th Year Anniversary - 5/29/09 [TOPICS: BN-W/Educate-Empower; Imagery and Its Power presentations; new chart format with one-word overviews and DVD spending; and more...]

What the Mainstream Media Won't Tell Us About Somalia...

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:08:37 PST

What the Mainstream Media Won't Tell Us About Somalia... Illegal fishing at a profit of hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Tons of illegal nuclear and other toxic waste dumping into the waters of the Somali coast.

BN-W eNewsletter #96

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 12:20:43 PST

Film(s) Monitored: Not Easily Broken; Notorious

TOPICS: Black History Month; "Gifted Hands" film about neurosurgeon Ben Carson; Schomburg Center; Paul Obinna and the Hogarth-Blake 8000-year African and European history Timeline; President Barack Hussein Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, the White House, and Air Force One; and more...

Barack Obama - Al Arabiya Interview - 1/26/09

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:42:58 PST

Barack Obama's First Presidential Interview - Al Arabiya TV
January 26, 2009

And so what I told him [Middle East Special Envoy George Mitchell] is start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating -- in the past on some of these issues --and we don't always know all the factors that are involved. So let's listen. He's going to be speaking to all the major parties involved. And he will then report back to me. From there we will formulate a specific response.... I do think that it is impossible for us to think only in terms of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and not think in terms of what's happening with Syria or Iran or Lebanon or Afghanistan and Pakistan. These things are interrelated.... Now, my job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the well-being of the Muslim world that the language we use has to be a language of respect. I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries.... W e're going to follow through on our commitment for me to address the Muslim world from a Muslim capital. We are going to follow through on many of my commitments to do a more effective job of reaching out, listening, as well as speaking to the Muslim world.

[Full video included]

Barack Obama - White House Rules - 1/21/09

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:00:25 PST

Barack Obama on New White House Rules - January 21, 2009

However long we are keepers of the public trust we should never forget that we are here as public servants and public service is a privilege. It's not about advantaging yourself. It's not about advancing your friends or your corporate clients. It's not about advancing an ideological agenda or the special interests of any organization. Public service is, simply and absolutely, about advancing the interests of Americans.... But the American people deserve more than simply an assurance that those who are coming to Washington will serve their interests. They also deserve to know that there are rules on the books to keep it that way. They deserve a government that is truly of, by, and for the people. As I often said during the campaign, we need to make the White House the people's house. And we need to close the revolving door that lets lobbyists come into government freely, and lets them use their time in public service as a way to promote their own interests over the interests of the American people when they leave.

[Full video included]

Barack Obama - Inaugural Address - 1/20/09

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:43:26 PST

President Barack Hussein Obama - January 20, 2009
Inaugural Address

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.... For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

[Full video included]

BN-W eNewsletter #95

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:31:44 PST

Film(s) Monitored: Doubt; Seven Pounds; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

TOPICS: Barack Obama's change.gov, transition team, and Cabinet/key staff picks; Gaza massacre; Israeli occupation/settlement; maps and history of Israel/Palestine conflict; Zionism - Malcolm X, Benjamin Freedman, Theodor Herzl, Balfour Declaration, and the taking of Palestine; New York Times, CNN, Al Jazeera, and media bias; Cynthia McKinney, Gaza, and 1967 Israeli attack of the USS Liberty; and more...

BN-W eNewsletter #94

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 03:00:19 PST

Film(s) Monitored: Soul Men; Quantum of Solace; Cadillac Records

TOPICS: President-elect Barack Hussein Obama; Obama's upcoming global issues (Middle East and Africa) - Occupation 101, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land, AFRICOM; John Henrik Clarke's "A Great and Mighty Walk" narrated by Wesley Snipes; 16th annual African Diaspora Film Festival (ADFF) in New York City; The Great Harlem Debate (The Obama Election, Was It Good For Black People); William Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and the Weather Underground; Lil Wayne's eight Grammy nominations for N-word usage and misogynistic lyrics in his "Tha Carter III" album; Robert Downey Jr. Golden Globe nomination for blackface performance in "Tropic Thunder" film; Davey D on Busta Rhymes' apology for song about Arab money (but what about to Black women) and the Sean "Diddy" Combs and Clive Davis interaction on the word Hebrew; PETA, Agriprocessors, and The Fall of the House of Rubashkin (worker/animal abuse and the kosher deception); and more...

Alice Walker - An Open Letter to Barack Obama

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:54:14 PST

Alice Walker: An Open Letter to Barack Obama

I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters.... We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no way to lead.... From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many people in the world really want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone.... I would further advise you not to take on other people's enemies. Most damage that others do to us is out of fear, humiliation and pain.... It is understood by all that you are commander in chief of the United States and are sworn to protect our beloved country; this we understand, completely. However, as my mother used to say, quoting a Bible with which I often fought, "hate the sin, but love the sinner." ....finally, it is the soul that must be preserved, if one is to remain a credible leader. All else might be lost; but when the soul dies, the connection to earth, to peoples, to animals, to rivers, to mountain ranges, purple and majestic, also dies.

Barack Obama - Election Night Speech - 11/4/08

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:24:56 PST

President-Elect Barack Obama - November 4, 2008
Election Night Victory Speech: "This Time Must Be Different"

I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last sixteen years, the rock of our family and the love of my life, our nation's next First Lady, Michelle Obama. Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much.... So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers - in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.... America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves - if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

[Full video included]

BN-W eNewsletter #93

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:53:38 PST

Film(s) Monitored: Miracle at St. Anna; The Express; The Secret Life of Bees; W.; High School Musical 3: Senior Year

TOPICS: Election Information Special; Knowing Your Voting Rights-State By State fact brochure; What Not to Wear on Election Day; Video the Vote; and more...