Heaven Help Us

Whenever, I personally broach the subject of church I always feel compelled to offer the fact that I am the grandson of a Bishop and the grandson of a longtime Deacon.  I am also the cousin of several and I mean several pastors as well as a tithe paying every Sunday going church member.  Matter fact in terms of my own church credentials I find a surreal pleasure of going to church on Sundays and if my schedule permits I often find myself at midweek meditation.   Therefore, my critique of the church comes from a place of both love for the institution and the service it has given to our community and a level of disdain for what it has become in terms of that same level of service to those very same communities that have turned pastors in millionaires and churches into franchises for both Jesus and Heaven Inc.  With that in mind I offer you this point to ponder. 

In the pre Civil Rights era churches were the bedrock of the black community. The social, economic and spiritual well-being was at the heart of what they did and by in large our community was better for it.  In the post Civil Rights era a lot of churches have morphed into major corporations disguised as churches and Jesus and heaven and all that comes with it is the product.  Therefore, all black people should immediately realize what their place of worship is and act accordingly.  No disrespect to the men and women of the cloth that I have grown to respect, but there is a distinct difference between pastor and CEO and very few people can be both. 

In my scholarly work surrounding my dissertation I have had the pleasure of reading countless hours of research surrounding the Black church, what it is, what it ain’t, does it even still exist and in this day and time is it still even relevant.  While I won’t engage you in the gory analysis of the aforementioned let’s just say in my humble opinion yes it still exist and its relevancy is at best TBD.  However, I would suggest that our expectations of the church have shifted from one of both social and spiritual to one of merely spiritual.  In the earliest of times the Black church was the source of Freedman societies and benevolent societies, which served as the lynchpin for helping African-Americans get acclimated to their newfound freedom and even get adjusted to life in the North during the Great Migration.  Transition to the Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968) and the Black church was once again the catalyst for social change.  All of this happened while still not losing site of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Matter of fact an entirely new theology was born out of the Black church called liberation theology (See Dr. James Cone).  No matter the denomination or the convention the Black church was at the forefront of battling for human equality. 

Transition to today’s spiritual landscape and the church’s dual role as both social agitator and spiritual way shower is about as big of a myth as Osama Bin Laden was hiding in a cave in Afghanistan. The gap between the needs of the African-American community and what we can expect and should expect from the Black church is widening everyday, yet there are more places of worship than any other time let alone anything else within African-American communities.  I have often suggested that the number one growth industry in the African-American community is church.  Yet our expectation of both the institution and the men and women who head them are either very small or none existent.  Am I suggesting that every pastor leading Black churches be Martin Luther King Jr. or Dr. Joseph Lowery obviously no. Even during their days they were met with criticism and resistance from the clergy within the African-American community.  However, what I am suggesting is that if you have the same expectation for your pastor as you do for your company’s CEO when delivering the company’s annual report then you don’t have a church you have a business you go to. 

The last thing communities that are suffering from double digit unemployment, high dropout rates, increasing incarceration rates, an ever increasing HIV and AIDS rate is a great weekly speech.  We need men and women of the cloth to stand up and speak out and be the CHANGE communities of color need.  I will caution you though this might impact your, Rolex watch, Mercedes Benz, tailored suits, gated community home, private schools for YOUR kids, your jet setting and all the other luxury items “God” Inc. has so conveniently blessed you with.  I’ll end with the words of Speech from Arrested Development:

            Sitting in church hearing legitimate woes.
            Pastor tells the lady it’ll be alright.

            Just pray so you can see the pearly gates so white.

            The lady prays and prays and prays its everlasting

            There’s nothing wrong with praying, it’s what she is asking.

She should be praying for changed circumstances, but church doctrine suggest she simply cope

Instead of concrete social transformation too many content themselves with emotional release through worship

But shouting only makes them lose their voice.

Again no disrespect to all the Rev. Dr. Bishop, Apostle, _____________(inset name here), CEO’s that may read this, but we have created a theology around God hooking people up and not in an emotional or socially transformational way, but in a way that leads to mo money, mo money, mo. 

This is my truth and I AM sticking to it.

A Kid Name Phillip

For those that I talk to on a regular know that I talk a lot about how we have to do a better job of serving humanity, which allows us to see the God in each other.  As a part of that I AM personally big on random acts of kindness.  Now before you read any further this is not to toot my own horn, but more to set the bar for others to emulate.  Based upon Facebook alone I got over 2000people who call me friend and probably close to that many on Twitter who are “FOLLOWING” me.

On yesterday I had the pleasure of celebrating my goddaughter’s 7^th birthday with her classmates at Ruth Upson Elementary School and met one of her classmates.  A nice enough kid for a 1^st grader, but what immediately caught my eye was his kicks.  Not because they were the latest Jordan’s or anything like that, but because of the gaping hole in the front of them that said to me I need some shoes.  Now of all the things my work has afforded me to learn was a few things about the psychosis of a family that is struggling economically and with that sometimes the ability to buy new shoes or clothes gets passed because it’s just not enough money to go around.  Therefore, JEA, food and transportation supersede one’s ability to buy something as vital as a decent pair of shoes.  Given what my eyes were telling me I made the decision to go and get my man a pair of fresh new kicks and “socks” for him to have.  The look on his face was one of pure pleasure as he got a new pair of shoes from what amounts to being a total stranger.  Not only was his look a Kodak moment, but so was the look of the people in the office who only know me as Tori’s relative who comes from time to time to the school to have lunch with her.

I said all that to get to this.  I will blow what I paid for shoes and socks for a 1^st grader in a night at the local watering hole and don’t or won’t get nearly the personal satisfaction I did by giving that kid those shoes.  I don’t know him or his family personally, nor does he live in the area of town I do most of my work and I probably won’t see him again as the school year comes to an end.  He didn’t have a sign that read “Will Work for Shoes” nor did he give some lame excuse about how he was just trying to get a couple of dollars to buy him some shoes, not that any of those things are any less legitimate, but what I do know is that he allowed me to make a deposit in the Bank of Life and for that I AM personally grateful.   

Hopefully by reading this you feel encouraged to do the same for some random kid or person.  Who knows when you personally may need to make a withdrawal from the Bank of Life.

That’s My Story and I AM Sticking to It…

I AM

Irvin PeDro Cohen 

Hope, Hopeless and Hopeful

I want to talk to you today about the idea of HOPE, HOPELESS and HOPEFUL:

Webster defines the primary root word of HOPE as one of the 3 Christian virtues.  Furthermore it goes on to define it as the general feeling that some desire will be filled.

To give you an example, which many in this room don’t need but for purposes of this message so of you will be graduating and your parents HOPE that you will go to college, the military get a job and never return home.

Some of your parents HOPE that many of you are prepared for the realities that when you graduate your desire to be grown will now be realized and every 30 days and in February it gets cut to 28 you will be ready for the responsibilities for things called bills. 

However, as a generation I have to be honest as I and many other adults like me will tell you we are increasingly left with feelings of HOPELESSNESS as we look at a generation of young people who are not prepared for the realities of life by the sheer permanence of the decisions they make.  Young and younger people are making decisions that have consequences that will far exceed their lives.  Therefore, leaving older generations to simply wash their hands and reside to trying to save the babies as if somehow you all don’t even exist.    

Now before you tune me out let me say for many of you it’s not your fault.  Matter of fact whenever I get a chance to speak to young audiences like yourself I always say I AM sorry. 

I AM sorry in particular for my generation and for our inability to generate a spirit of HOPE in you that extends beyond the material trappings that you have come to desire.  See our love affair with stuff from Gucci to Queens Harbor and the instantaneous manner in which you can get it has created a void in the social universe that has left the idea of AM I my brother’s keeper trapped in a mandate that says you must serve in order to even graduate.

Therefore, if I could sing in my best Ruben Studdard voice I would say forgive us for we knew not what the road to today would lead us to. 

However, as I look around this room and reflect upon why we are here I AM increasingly HOPEFUL for you and your peers.  See what your accomplishment here today says is there is HOPE permeating within the next generation.  There is HOPE that walks the halls of this great place we call William M. Raines High School.

What your accomplishment today says is the HOPE that was passed down from our African ancestors when they made the journey from the shores of Africa to the shores of America is still alive and the HOPE that was passed from the slaves to the soldiers of the Civil Rights movement who fought and bleed and in some cases died for the right for you to attend some of the best colleges in the world is still alive. 

See what I see in this audience today that makes me HOPEFUL for you is that by virtue of your accomplishment you understand that being good is not good enough.  You do not get to be on the National Honor Society by virtue of who you or your parent know.  Your parent’s relationship with Mrs. Brown or Coach White can’t get you here.  Your cute smile or good looks can’t get you in.   You have to put in the work. 

Your accomplishment today says that you understand that you must burn the midnight oil, you have to be great when everybody else is being good and that ordinary is not going to get me where I need to go and for that as one of the current carriers of the baton for our people each of you make me real proud to look over my should at who I have to pass the baton to and say we collectively got reason to be HOPEFUL. 

I say HOPEFUL because the race of life is not a sprint, but more like a marathon filled with ups and downs and curves and winding roads and in the words of Langston Hughes places where there ain’t been no carpet, bare.  However, you accomplishment says that you understand that.  Therefore, I am simply reminding those who may have forgotten.       

Finally, as I prepare to take my seat know that your parents or guardians are proud of you, your school and all of the people who call William M. Raines their Alma Mata are proud of you, I AM proud of you, but most of all you should be proud of you.  For it is you who put in the work to get here so celebrate a real accomplishment.  But never forget you are here because you stand on the shoulders of people that came before you and the people who came before them and by virtue of your induction into the National Honor Society you to have become shoulders for those behind you to stand on.

Again my name is Irvin PeDro Cohen a 1987 graduate of Raines High School

Namesake and thank you for having me…

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.