Category Archives: African American

How Much Is A Black Youth Worth?

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black youthI want to bring your attention to three recent tragedies that seem to have three things in common, their race, age, and gender. They were all young, African-American males, who were attacked because of their race.  Most recently seventeen year old, Jordan Russell was killed by a white man in Florida because he was playing his music too loud.  Ironically another seventeen year old unarmed Trevon Martin was shot dead in February in Florida holding nothing but a can of iced tea and a pack of Skittles.

Twenty-one year old, Chavis Carter was shot in the head with his hands handcuffed behind him while in the back of a police car in Arkansas in August.  While the police say that he committed suicide, the evidence does not support how the left-handed Chavis shot himself with his right hand while handcuffed.  He was with two friends when the police apprehended him. They were let go. They just happened to be white. He was arrested for giving a false name and reports say he had  $1o worth of marijuana on him.  Some states have now made that legal, but too late for this young man is dead.

How much is the life of a black child worth? These stories are not isolated cases.  There are others.  But it seems the frequency or severity of these types of atrocities do not faze people anymore. They just shake their heads and go back to their regularly scheduled programming.  Few will even comment and show that they care or feel anything.  I empathize with the mothers who are mourning their children today.  Today I think about those lives changed forever or snuffed out entirely and I try to make sense out of senseless brutality, hatred, and cruelty.  I appease my own conscience by shining the light on these cruel injustices so that their pain was not in vain and that they are not forgotten.  After that, I too shake my head and think, what now?

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.

(Quote by Martin Niemoller)

I’m Barbara Talley, The Poet who speaks and inspires.   To find more about me, check out my promo sheet or visit  my website.

Allegations of Race over Record

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“Collin Powell Endorses Obama,” the headlines read a few days ago.  The media pounced on it and many were shocked and very critical of Powell.  But why? Was it because this well-known Republican was endorsing a Democrat.  Unfortunately, “No!” The criticism wasn’t so much party switching as about race.  Then Lee Iacocca, a well-known Democrat Governor endorses the Republican candidate Romney.  But, the difference was, he was not accused of voting “race over record.”  Check out a few of these links

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/29/why-colin-powell-endorsed-president-obama.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/25/usa-campaign-powell-idUSL1E8LP31320121025

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/29/colin-powell-can-support-obama-because-he-s-black.html

http://www.humanevents.com/2012/10/19/lee-iacocca-endorses-romney-for-president/

http://patriotupdate.com/31253/lifetime-democrat-lee-iacocca-endorses-romney

Notice the absence of any allegations of race in the coverage of Iacocca!  I wanted to remain silent but just couldn’t. I  couldn’t remain silent after so many commentators were saying Colin Powell switched, “because he is BLACK!” and that his endorsement was “race over record.”  Another reason I bring this up is because a black friend who is a Romney supporter said adamantly to me just last week, “I’m NOT voting for Obama just because he is black!” His other reason was because the Democratic Party was originally the party of the KKK.  To me, that excuse is like not living in a town because certain individuals USED TO live there.

In several conversations, I’ve found that too many blacks feel that they have to justify voting for a man who happens to be black or for that matter, against a black man.  It doesn’t seem to matter if you bring up ten reasons for voting for your candidate of choice, still the belief is that you are not a conscientious voter familiar with the issues and that you’re only voting color.

Now I’m wondering, “Whites vote for white people all the time and it’s not assumed they are voting JUST because of color!

Collin Power and Lee Iacocca, one black, one white.  One was Democrat and the other Republican, different coverage!

I am an Independent and I vote my conscience and hope that everyone else does the same. I don’t like to talk politics because they are divisive. Now, even though I don’t get into partisan politics doesn’t mean that I don’t follow it to get facts so that I can vote responsibly. I’m praying you’ll do the same.

There is some good and some bad in everyone.  It seems though during elections, so many people are looking for the worst in their opponent and highlighting it. Also, many vote their party line even if they disagree with their stances on issues that affect their lives and principles. Voting is a basic human right, so vote your conscience too.  That’s why it was so refreshing today to hear a Republican not put down the opposite party and vote his conscience too, even if they happen to be the same color!

I’m Barbara Talley, The Poet who speaks and inspires.   To find more about me, check out my promo sheet or visit  my website.

Black hair products may sacrifice safety for style

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Lye, phthalates, placenta and parabens are among the hazardous chemicals found in a multitude of hair care products marketed toward African-American women. Lye, or sodium hydroxide, can cause chemical burns, scars and blindness. Phthalates, sometimes listed simply as “fragrance” on product ingredient lists, is also linked to endometriosis, or when uterine lining grows outside the uterus. Phthalates, parabens and animal placenta can mimic hormones and disrupt critical processes in the body, scientists have said.

“African-American women, compared to their white counterparts, have higher levels of phthalates and they have higher levels of BPA,” said Dr. Ami Zota, an environmental health researcher at the University of California San Francisco. BPA is used in plastic manufacturing and has been linked to cancer and reproductive abnormalities. “Nobody has really figured out why,” Dr. Zota said. “But I think the hair care products are part of that story.”

The hormone disruptors in beauty products may have already had an effect on a generation of young girls. The onset of puberty for all girls in the U.S. has gradually increased by a few months since the 1950s, while breast development has accelerated by up to two years, according to a 2009 report from the Collaborative on Health and the Environment.

via Black hair products may sacrifice safety for style.

First- Protect The Children

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What I learned at last month’s Congressional Black Caucus’s Braintrusts and Issue Forums:

Everyone deserves a quality education, but a quality early childhood education is not available to all children.  Clearly the odds are not in favor for poor children.  Budgets are being cut despite  the decades of research affirming without a doubt that early childhood educational programs like Head-start can give at-risk children the chance the succeed.

Other Daunting Facts:

Ten thousand black and brown children are imprisoned every day.  “The annual cost of detention can average around $50,000 per minor while most community-based programs cost less than one-fourth that amount.”  “Research shows that incarcerating youth does not make us safer—in fact, it undermines public safety. Detention often propels a youth in a direction that leads to behaviors responsible for the recidivism rates of 50% to 80% for incarcerated youth. ”

The Rebecca Project states: “There are now between 100,000 and 300,000 adolescents in the American sex trade market, most between 12 and 14.” We continue to punish those who have already been punished by society.

A flyer distributed by the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth: Racial Inequality in Youth Sentencing‘ and their website offered these facts:

  1. “In schools, youth of color are more likely to be expelled or suspended, but there is no evidence that they misbehave more than their white counterparts.”
  2. “They are, however, punished more severely, often for behaviors that are less serious.”
  3.  “45% of all incarcerated youth are African American even though they only make up 17% of the population.”
  4. “The United States is the only country in the world where a person under the age of 18 can be sentenced to a life without parole. “
  5.  “Youth crime rates have dropped steadily since the 1990s, yet rates of incarcerating youth have increased.
  6. “According to the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, the number of youth held in pre-trial detention has increased 72% since the early 1990s.”
  7. “African American youth are 10 times more likely than their white peers to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  This is just one example of disparities in sentencing: a 2001 Journal of Law and Economics empirical study of sentencing in federal courts found that, on average, African Americans of all ages are given sentences twice as long as whites.”

Congressman Scott representing Virginia’s 3rd District has introduced the Youth Promise Act as a solution.  I’ll discuss his and other successful projects you can support in an upcoming post.

I Lead: I Serve

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I attended the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) last month and am still processing the overwhelmingly high number of  distressing statistics and information that was presented.  From unprecedented unemployment and foreclosures, unequal application of justice, distorted and stereotypical images that lead to esteem issues, the critical importance of astuteness with technology, the politics of fear, the importance of entrepreneurship for wealth creation, to the guiding and protecting our young folks, the challenges facing people of color far exceed those of white America.

The theme of the CBC was I Lead: I Serve.  True service is in finding a need and filling it.  The topics presented at the CBC offered many paths of service for anyone who wants to make a difference.  Most people have grandiose dreams of being successful and great, but real success comes from being a leader.  And, if you want to be a leader, the path is through service, just find a need and fill it. Too much of present day propaganda pushes us toward looking out for self only.  But true fulfillment comes from meaningful pursuits, and those usually  involve serving others.  As the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, ” Anybody can be great because everybody can serve.”  Although all the topics are worthy of discussion now, it is the sobering plight of our youth that haunts me the most.  If you think the adults have it bad, check out my next post about the children whose future is even more dismal if we don’t do something now!

I’m Barbara Talley, the poet who speaks and inspires.  To find out more about me check out: What Does Barbara Do? or visit  my website.