I AM Trayvon Martin

I like every other rational human being find the murder of young Trayvon Martin a tragedy and the demands for justice that have stretched across all racial lines has me more hopeful about the prospects of justice than I have every been.  While the faces you see and the voices your hear are authentically African-American I find just as many of my white colleagues disturbed by the situation and just as vocal. 

However, the death of young Trayvon gives me pause as I reflect not only on his death, but the countless other young men who die within OUR very own communities that go noticed and unnoticed.  For those young men who die in the streets of Jacksonville, Atlanta, Chicago, DC and New York we should be just as outraged as their killers go UNPUNISHED and just as NOTICEABLE.  While I feel that justice will prevail in Trayvon’s case as a community we have not been a beacon of accountability when it comes to corporation with authority in terms of solving what amounts to senseless acts of violence perpetrated on our own by our own.  Far to often I have seen the faces of countless mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers as they plead for help and information surrounding the death of a love one only to be greeted with a deafening silence in communities that look like them. 

Accountability starts at home and while I AM encouraged by our resolve regarding my young brother Trayvon I am just as discouraged by the number of unsolved murders in our own neighborhood.  Does getting killed in a gated community at the hands of a white man bring anymore cache’ than getting killed at the hands of a black man in the hood?  Both are just as tragic and deserve just as much outrage.  However, we have become both complacent and tolerant of those who die on the street where houses are abandoned and poverty is evident. 

Trayvon’s death while tragic on many fronts brings to light the history regarding the caviler attitude that seems to exist when it comes to the life of African-American males.  George Zimmerman is just the face of the latest to take a life of the aforementioned, but everyday in some major city an African-American male’s loses his life and there is NO outcry for justice or accountability.  It’s just business as usual, but the pain and loss is just as real.

I AM 42

An African American Male

A Student

A Friend

A Son

A Brother

I Own A Cell Phone

I Like Skittles

And I AM Trayvon Marshall

That’s my truth and I AM sticking to it….

For the Love of Learning

There are a few things in this world I absolutely love.  Amongst them are the obvious family, friends and then there is my time alone, my aquatic farm and a few other things that don't warrant mentioning.  However, given all of those things there is nothing I love more than the gift of discovery i.e learning.  There is something almost spiritual about uncovering new information and the rush I get personally when I find out something that I didn't know or the tingling sensation I get when I am in a learning environment.  I am as giddy as a kid on Christmas Day. 

I choose to share this because we have to make learning the same way for kids at all levels K-12, urban and rural and of all nationalities.  Learning in many regards has been highjacked by our incessant appetite for data and test and the voiceless customer i.e kids are constantly being deprived of the opportunity to develop a true love for learning.  Thoughtful people must find a way to disrupt the routine of school for it is the routine portion that has completely turned kids off and often times relegated school and learning to a chore instead of the exciting adventure learning can be.  I AM a firm believer that learning can be cool. 

Kid's today are smarter than we ever were and kid's tomorrow will be even smarter.  They deserve to have a learning experience that will make them excited about all of the possibilities being a life long learner can and will bring. 

That's My Truth and I AM Sticking to it...

Irvin PeDro Cohen

6 Things About Rap Music

Let me start by saying I AM without a shadow of a doubt a product of the Hip Hop generation.  My first vivid remembrance of my love of Hip Hop goes back to the 4^th grade when all I can remember wanting for Christmas was my very own record player and the Sugar Hill Gang’s Rappers Delight 12’ inch.  I would listen to that song over and over again just to get to Beulah Beal Elementary School and recite it word for word to all who would listen.  In middle school I evolved to a more sophisticated and cooler version of RUN DMC.  Because I wore glasses I was always DMC and several iterations of friends played the part of RUN.  In high school as my brother Rudy would tell you I was more LL than LL.  I could not wait to get my dookie rope or my friends Schkenna’s or Jewel’s rope and sport it with my Kangol.  Towards the end of my high school tenure and right through my early college days I developed a love for the God MC Rakim that last till this very day.  I could go on and on and talk about other artist (Jay Z, Common, Biggie, The Roots, Mr. Al Pete, TI, Jean Grea, etc.) that I have developed such a deep appreciation for, but my point here is to do nothing more than to display my affection for the art and the music we call Hip Hop. 

That being said the art of Hip Hop has evolved into Rap thus making true Hip Hop artist as rare as a full service grocery store in an urban neighborhood or a check cashing store in a rich one.   In preparation for a speech to a group of high school students I thought about the state of Hip Hop and offer you these 6 things that Rap did to my beloved art form.

1. Rap champions the worse in us.  All you have to do is watch BET or listen to any rap song now and the idea of African-Americans as conspicuous consumers who are highly sexualized for the sake of becoming consumers and advocates for violent behavior is pervasive. 
2. Rap reduced the value of a formal education to a mere after thought.   The quest to get “on” supersedes any training to be functional in the “real” world even more so “NOW” trumps any thought of a sustainable “FUTURE.”  I bet if you look behind each of the cats making money in the industry you would find a cadre of educated folks guiding their decisions. 
3. Rap made deviancy the norm and the norm totally nonfunctional.  A good example of this would be Rick Ross.  Don’t get me wrong I will be the first to admit I like his music and when I hear B.M.F I go into a full two-step like any other music loving connoisseur.  But that notwithstanding he was a prison guard who had a JOB and benefits and was under no circumstances pushing the dope he claims to have been.  Matter of fact even his name belongs to someone else.  Yet the more dude weaves stories that are only tellable in a Scarface or Carlito’s Way movie the more we soak up his authenticity like it’s all true.  Dude was a working Joe like many people we know and love.
4. Rap created a prison going culture.  When I was younger it was cool to go off to college or the military and that was celebrated.  Now we have celebrations for people who go and come from jail as often as some folk go and come from the store.  I recently advised one young guy to just leave his stuff there rather than bring it home since he is in jail so often.
5. Rap made instantaneous success the expectation rather than the exception.  I recently came across Lil Wayne’s discography  and it looks like this and these are units sold: 2,000,000 in mixtapes, 700,00 for Hotboys, 600,00 for The Carter, 1,200,000 for The Carter 2 and 4,000,000 for The Carter 3 based upon this he is working and this doesn’t even account for all the other people’s music he was featured on.  I highlight this because this brother is working.  There is nothing overnight about him and the countless other cats making money in the Rap game.  I would venture to say between producing children he is working, thus he is putting in the work to be a star and oh by the way he did go back to school.
6. Rap has continued to redefine what African-American manhood is and what it should be and the latter has not always been presented in the best light.  Again turn on the TV and ask yourself is this the reality I want for my son, my husband, my son-in-law or my family member.  The thing that made me take pause is when I heard a really grown woman say she needed a “Thug” in her life.  It made me think what message is she sending to her son or daughter about what kind of mate they need or should be.

Finally, as I said earlier this is not an indictment on the culture of Hip Hop, but more of an assessment of what Rap has done to it.  I love the culture, but I constantly hate what it is continuously becoming.

That’s My Truth And I AM Sticking To It…

February's My Two Cents (From New Town Success Zone Newsletter)

February is always a special time for me.  In particular because it’s the time of the year the world gets to see and hear what I already know and that is African-Americans have made significant contributions to making America the country it is today.  It’s of particular importance in communities like New Town because the reality of many of the young people we work doesn’t support what we know and that is African-American’s contribution go beyond athletics, entertainers and Dr. Martin Luther King. 

Every time I walk down the halls of the neighborhood schools or talk to any of the students I try to remind myself that I maybe in the presence of a young African-American who may change the world.  Therefore, we must all be mindful of our contribution to young people.  Social issues like poverty, violence, lack of adequate food options and assess to healthcare are man made barriers that we have the opportunity to tear down.  Who knows with our help we may be nurturing the next great person who can change the world.

High Stakes Testing

Testing of some sort has always been a part of the evaluation process to determine if a student was properly retaining the information he/she was being taught.  As far back to the days of the one-room classrooms, to the current era of multi-building complexes, professors and teachers alike have labored over both test and its effectiveness in assessing a student’s level of proficiency. Therefore, the idea of high stakes testing has always been a part of the academic landscape.  All one has to do is simply walk into a classroom on the day of a test no matter the level elementary school, middle or high school or a college campus and the anxiety can be felt.  However, in this climate of high stakes testing the bar has been raised and the repercussions are far reaching.  In this research we will examine the ethics associated with the politics of high stakes testing, as well as the ethics of motivation of those very same test and the implications it has on all parties involved. 

History of High Stakes Testing

            In an era when so much is impacted by high stakes testing it’s easy to assume that this is a recent phenomena.  However, research shows that the premise of high stakes testing is one that dates back to the late 1840’s in Boston (Moon, 2009).  During the 1960’s high stakes testing took on a different twist as the government began evaluating educational outcomes and student performance.   This was in large part due to the perception that America’s education system had fallen behind the Russian’s with the launching of the Sputnik satellite (Donner & Shockley, 2010).  Therefore, prompting the federal government to pass the National Defense Education Act, which focused on the core areas of science, math and foreign languages.  Although the focus of the 1970’s shifted to science and math the 1970’s and through much of the 1980’s the system of education evaluation was stilled based upon students being proficient with the minimal level of skills.  However, it wasn’t until the late 1990’s, in particular during the George W. Bush administration did we transition to the concept of high stakes testing as we have come to know it today.  The No Child Left Behind Legislation, which passed and became law in 2002, fostered a culture of test as the measure of accountability in terms of whether or not schools were performing and students were accurately learning.  Born out of the idea that by setting high standards and holding all parties accountable including school administrators and teachers you get a better product (Beardsley, 2009).  Also, as part of that accountability model you attached sanctions and incentives to that achievement.  

            The NCLB legislation as it known today was a reaction to the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which gave way to Title 1.  The goal of Title 1 was to “provide financial assistance to local educational agencies for the education of children to low income families”  (Public Law 89-10, Section 201).  Therefore, at its core NCLB had the intentions of tying financial incentives to the notion of moving children who had been customarily disenfranchised (Donner & Shockley, 2010).  However, unlike its predecessor in 1965, NCLB looked to attach student’s success in those core areas previously mentioned to teacher and subsequently school effectiveness.  Therefore, equating performance on one test, given on one day during the entire school year with the quality or lack thereof education a student receives. 

Ethics and Politics of High Stakes Testing

            As with every other element of American life education is both politics and business, with a case that can be made for each being more important that the other However, in the case of the ethical political behavior surrounding high stakes testing one has to question is the greater good of the students being represented?  It is a common practice that each administration comes into office with its own educational agenda, but no administration has lead with such an arguably destructive agenda as George W. Bush.  Armed with the questionable success of his policies in Texas while governor, President Bush suggested that he be known as the “Education President” (Beardsley, 2009).    While as a candidate then Governor Bush presented enormous gains on statewide assessments as proof of his strong record regarding education.  However, what many failed to see was the success came at the cost of a large number of children being excluded from participating in statewide exams (Beardsley, 2009).  

            Although the initial aim of NCLB legislation and it’s over reliance on high stakes testing may not have had any political agenda attached to it since 2002 the process has become increasingly political.  The politics of high stakes testing has placed politicians at odds with teachers’ unions and public school advocates against alternative school advocates.  This narrow scope of learning evaluation has left each side with questionable behavior when it comes to the outcomes of children and their ability to learn.   As such what you are seeing from teachers and school districts alike is behavior that reflects:  (1) Gaming the System, (2) Teaching to the Test, (3) Narrowing the Curriculum, (4) Exclusion and Exemption, (5) Bubble Kid Focus, (6) Cheating, and (7) Administration Manipulation (Beardsley, 2009).  All of this with the end goal of appearing to have significant accomplishments to attract the dollars that often come with meeting NCLB federally mandated goals. Thus reducing both students and their schools to data points on the political trail for politicians looking to score points with voters (Behrent, 2009).

            The final element of the questionable ethics surrounding the politics of high stakes testing has to do with the business of it all.  Within a ten year period between 1997 and 2007 revenue from the sale of test and the accompanying materials has gone from $260 million to well over $700 million (Supovitz, 2009).  With that kind of revenue at stake one only has to imagine the level of political influence that has been given to test manufactures.   Therefore, introducing market driven priorities, where profits are the motive into an arena where learning outcomes are not often measured by one prescribed method.  What NCLB and high stakes testing has essentially done is politicized student needs through free market forces by channeling competition through standardization of test that fail to take into account individual learning modalities (Parkinson, 2009).

Motivation of High Stakes Testing   

            At any point where human interest is involved there can always be a question of ethics.  Although most teachers will say they entered the profession of education with the goal of educating young people; the pressure of high stakes testing has dissolved the profession into a revolving door of personnel changes (Supovitz, 2009).  Again putting the collective future of students in the hands of those who have reduced them down to mere data points.   However, some would argue that with the proper motivation teachers and districts alike could be motivated to improve student performance.  The author takes particular aim with this because it reduces the ethics surrounding the pedagogy of teaching to dollars and cents.  Again assuming that teachers lack the motivation to want to see students succeed (Supovitz, 2009).

            All one has to do is simply enter the halls of most urban schools and spend time with the teachers who have been there for a number of years and the question of motivation quickly goes away.  Many would suggest that the era of high stakes testing rather than the students has generally changed their perspective.  In many schools particularly those in areas dealing with issues of poverty, instruction has been reduced to nothing more than scripted reading and an endless cycle of test preparation (Parsons, Metzger, Askew & Carswell).   Teaching in this manner paired with the enormous pressure to move students based upon AYP have lead to many instances of unethical behavior.  Therefore, the motivation has moved from one of wanting to see students learn to one of survival.  Beardsley, Berliner and Rideau (2010) went as far to suggest that incidences of cheating on the part of teachers are underreported and underestimated.  Even going as far to suggest a sort of code of silence similar to the Blue Wall associated with many police departments throughout the country. 

            The final issue surrounding the ethics of motivation and its effects on high stakes testing leads the writer to question those that may game the system for personal benefit, power and control.  Without question the issues surrounding education and the way we go about educating students are some of the most difficult to address.  However, as long as we have a system in place that puts value over substance the question of ethics and motivation will always occur.  Matter of fact the imprecise and ambiguous nature of the current system will always leave room for a certain amount of unethical behavior (Beardsley, 2009).  One could also assume based upon the current system the motivation to maintain a state of economic disparity is the primary motivation, which is unethical within itself.

Implications of High Stakes Testing

             The implications of high stakes testing can be felt throughout all ethos of our society.  In major cities like Washington, DC and Atlanta, GA cheating on standardized test have rocked entire school districts.  However, when you attach such high rewards to students’ achievement then its only natural to expect artificially inflated gains.  Especially in light of the financial strain many large school districts are under.  Also, the precedent of unethical reporting surrounding high stakes testing can be traced back to the author of NCLB. (Beardsley, 2009).  Therefore, creating cottage industries under the guise of high stakes testing gaming and cheating the system has become the norm rather than isolated instances (Beardsley, Berliner & Rideau, 2010). 

            Another implication involving the ethics of high stakes testing that often gets mentioned is the water down nature of curriculum. Although, an unintended consequence of a high stakes testing environment the narrowing of the curriculum forced teachers to teach to what they ultimately thought would be on the test (Supovitz, 2009).  Rather than teaching a fact driven curricular, education in a high stakes testing environment has been transformed to one of coverage and pacing (Donnor & Shockley, 2010).  In essence reducing the learning and teaching experience down to a mere script (Parsons, Metzger, Askew and Carswell, 2011).  Therefore, leaving one to question if the pedagogy of teaching in today’s classroom environment even exist.  High stakes testing forces both teachers and administrators to remove the human element from the classroom again reducing students down to data.  Furthermore, this creates an environment in which faculty pours over for countless hours trying to create ways to improve the numbers (Behrent, 2009).   However, the efforts have only netted results that can be classified as shallow and not provided any deeper educational experiences for students (Supovitz, 2009).

            The final ethical implication of high stakes testing centers around what often happens to the surrounding communities in which many of the schools that are labeled failing come from.  Since it can be deduced that communities are built around schools and schools often become the identifier of those very same communities it is logical that the end or negative connotation associated with a school can spell the end of the effected neighborhood.  They both exist to keep the other vibrant and functional to some extent.  Therefore, the decay of one based upon high stakes testing generally spells the end for the other.  Again putting children and now the communities in which they come from as an unintended consequence of the NCLB legislature. 

            Accountability in a NCLB era has removed the brightest children from schools in their neighborhood for perceived brighter opportunities elsewhere, a fact that was echoed by Diane Ravitch, a scholar at the Brookings Institute (Ravitch, 2010).  This is by no means to suggest that teaching or lack thereof is not going on in their neighborhood schools.  This is just to point out the unintended community consequence of high stakes testing.   Furthermore, you will find most of the “failing” schools located in areas where there are high instances of both crime and poverty.  However, there is very little factoring of those social determinants into the equation of high stakes testing.  Thus what you have is African-American and Hispanic students being disproportionally impacted (Hanushek & Raymond, 2005). 

Conclusion

            Without a doubt no one questions whether or not there should be an accountability model when it comes to schools and the larger educational system.  Prior to NCLB and its introduction of high stakes testing the model was simply a concentrated effort on providing resources without a sense of reciprocity on the part of states and local school districts (Hanushek & Raymond, 2005).  Hence leaving an ethical hole when it came to fulfilling the obligation of making sure every child received a quality education.  Furthermore, very few would argue with a system of checks and balances that sought to bridge the gap between educational successes and failures.  However, the inability of high stakes testing to deliver a true sense of accountability has lead to what many have termed “default” education where test drive the curriculum (Moon, 2009).

            Again the ethical dilemma comes into play when you take a system of accountability and add an economic component that becomes punitive in nature.  Therefore, creating a system of rewards and punishments based upon an assessment that has some obvious ethical holes.  Very little if any value is attached to the things that schools, in particular those that deal with challenged populations do (Hanushek & Raymond, 2005).   Rather they are lumped together as if all student populations are equal.    As such those with resources continue to get resources and those without continue to be without.

As stated earlier anytime there is a profit motive the human condition of competition has the potential to soil the outcome.  No one wants to be seen as incompetent when it comes to their career endeavor.  Therefore, behavior such as cheating, gaming the system and teaching to the test become par for the course (Beardsley, 2009).  As such the behavior of many tasked with teaching becomes an ethical dilemma.  Furthermore, those that they are charged with teaching become victims of a system that has robbed them of an otherwise meaningful educational experience. 

Finally, high stakes testing does not under any circumstance provide or develop students to be competitive in a global economy (Donnor & Shockley, 2010).  Learning in the “real world” is a comprehensive experience that forces workers to mesh data with feelings and experiences.  None of which occurs with high stakes testing.  As such what high stakes testing does do is marginalize the learning experience of those involved.  It also robs communities of the steady presence that good schools provide through arbitrary rating systems (Ravitch, 2010).  Therefore, reducing communities down to data point and that is truly unethical.  

References

Beardsley, A.A. (2009).  The Unintended, Pernicious Consequences of “Staying the Course” on the United States ‘ No Child Left Behind Policy, International Journal of Education Policy & Leadership, Vol. 4, No. 6, pp 1-13.

Beardsley, A.A., Berliner, D.C.  Rideau, S. (2010).  Cheating in the First, Second and Third

Degree:  Educators’ Responses to High–Stakes Testing, Education Policy Analysis, Vol. 18, No. 14, pp 1-36. 

Behrent, M. (2009).  Reclaiming Our Freedom to Teach:  Education Reform in the Obama

Era, Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 79, No. 2, pp 240-246.

Donnor, J.K., Shockley, K. G. (2010).  Leaving Us Behind:  A Political Economic

Interpretation of NCLB and the Miseducation of African American Males, Educational Foundations, pp 43-54.

Hanushek, E.A., Raymond, M.E. (2005).  Does School Accountability Lead to Improved

Student Performance? Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp 297-327.  

Moon, T.R. (2009).  Myth 16:  High Stakes Testing Are Synonymous with Rigor and

Difficulty, The Gifted Child Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 4, pp 277-279.

Parkinson, P. (2009).  Political Economy and the NCLB Regime:  Accountability,

Standards and High-Stakes Testing, The Education Forum, Vol. 73, pp 44-57.

Parson, S.A., Metzger, S.R., Askew, J., Carswell. A.R. (2011).  Teaching Against the Grain:

One Title I School’s Journey Toward Project-Based Literacy Instruction, Literacy Research and Instruction, Vol. 50, pp 1-14.

Ravitch, D. (2010).  In Need of a Renaissance, Real reform Will Renew, Not Abandon,

Our Neighborhood Schools, American Educator, Summer 2010, pp 10-22.

Reich, G.A., Bally, D. (2010).  Get Smart:  Facing High-Stakes Testing Together, The Social

Studies, Vol. 101, pp 179-184. DOI: 10.1080/00377990903493838.

Supovitz, J. (2009).  Can High Stakes Testing Leverage Educational Improvements?

Prospects From the Last Decade of Testing and Accountability Reform, Journal Education Change, Vol. 10, pp 211-227. DOI 10.1007/s10833-009-9105-2. 

I Can See Clearly Now

Man I promise, I'm so self conscious

That's why you always see me with at least one of my watches

Rollies and Pasha's done drove me crazy

I can't even pronounce nothing, pass that versace!

Then I spent 400 bucks on this

Just to be like n_ _ _a you ain't up on this!

And I can't even go to the grocery store

Without some ones that’s clean and a shirt with a team

It seems we living the American dream

But the people highest up got the lowest self-esteem

                                                Kayne West All Falls Down

The above lyrics set the stage for a discussion I have been having all day with some folks surrounding the efforts of those engaged in Occupy Wall Street and the upcoming Black Friday shopping bonanza.

The greatest trick the 1% has ever perpetrated on mankind was to make the 99% aspire to have what they had.  What the 99% did was broke that down even further and got so gangster with it they separated the economic pie based upon race.  Therefore, removing the humanity from the concept of economic fairness.  What I have come to understand in my work is poverty has no color.  It looks the same no matter if you are living on the northside of Jacksonville, FL or in the mountains of West Virginia.  However, the culprit is different based upon those same locations.

What I have also come to understand is that given the right opportunity many of “us” would jump at the chance to be a part of the 1%.  Matter of fact as I suggested in a previous post the reason we go to work everyday and drug dealers even sell drugs is not to get by, but to get closer to the 1% and further away from the bottom portion of that 99%.  Why do you think we buy nice stuff and go into debt doing it? If I were to expand beyond the basic needs of survival and that being food, clothing and shelter and allotted for Maslow's hierarchy of needs which calls for physiological and safety needs, loving and belonging, self esteem and self actualization no where in the mix would Rolex, Gucci or Mercedes be included.  However, that learned was designed by the 1% to keep the 99% on the treadmill of life.   Furthermore, ensuring a permanent class system as identified by Karl Marx, father of capitalism.  

Now don’t get me wrong I like nice things and I AM committed to going to work every day and furthering my education to ensure I can have and afford them.  However, many in the 99% are now committing what I AM defining as “1% Envy.”  What I have concluded is the crime of the 1% is that they have grown their wealth at the expense of the 99%.  Thus pushing the 99% to see them as the common enemy.   Greed and excess has been the downfall of many great nations and a hungry man in Liberty City has the same hunger pains as a hungry man in Willacoochee, GA.  Therefore, what the Occupy Wall Street Movement represents for me is the 99% developing a collective consciousness that together we have all been hoodwinked.   The ability to earn the resources that allow you to fulfill your basic needs is not an option, but a right regardless of where you are on the economic pyramid or what shade of brown you are.

That’s my Truth and I AM sticking to it.

Occupy Wall Street

This may seem as if I have something against the idea of HOPE, but I really don’t.  I AM by and large as HOPEFUL as any one person can be.  Matter of fact HOPE is intertwined with as much of my being as my FAITH.  Although, at times own up to the fact I have the miniuim as suggested by the Bible (size of a mustard seed).  Hey don’t get mad with me I didn’t make the rules, but on most days my FAITH is as deep as the deepest ocean.

That being said in my latest revelation that occurred during one of my quite moments I thought about the profitability of HOPE. 

·      The 99% are really more like 35% because the other 45% are really envious of the 1% and truly HOPEFUL that if they work really hard their jobs won’t be sent overseas and they to can be in the 1% at some point.

·      Politics has drained us all of HOPE and confused so many in the masses that you have people who get Social Security and Medicare screaming for no more entitlements.  Last I checked there was a line on my pay stub that showed I did pay into both and that is called an investment not an entitlement. 

·      Schools are no better.  The very institutions we send our children to get HOPE for a brighter tomorrow are tuning them into HOPELESS test takers with no practical skills other than how to pass or maybe not pass a test.  No disrespect to the countless teachers who do their best everyday trying to keep young people HOPEFUL. 

·      Jessie Jackson suggested “Keep HOPE Alive” and President Obama simply said “HOPE,” yet one media outlet reported on the struggles of African-American men finding a job paying $8.00 an hour let alone finding ones that pay $100K a year http://2025bmb.org/.

See what many African-Americans know and many of my White brothers and sisters are just learning is despite where we are economically we are all one corporate merger, one bad encounter with a manager, one brother, sister or cousin away from starting over again.  Also, when your linage includes slavery and Jim Crow you are born with a DNA inclusive of HOPE. 

Therefore, when the question is asked “Where are the black folk during the Occupy Movement?”  Kindly let them know we been fighting Wall Street while trying to get a job on Main Street for a minute now and we thank you for showing up to the fight with the cameras in tow.  Your support is kindly appreciated.

By the way Keep Your Head Up and oh yea Keep HOPE Alive.

That’s my Truth and I AM sticking to it.