Category Archives: Black History Month

Are We There Yet?

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Don't Be Silent in the Face of InjusticeIn these remaining few more days of Black History Month and beyond, let us not forget the message of unity, love, and justice of Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King. Dr. King was a servant leader, fully aware of the injustices, and yet was able to work towards justice in a spirit of love. He was truly a voice of conscience that rings beyond the grave. By his example I learned that while I must be aware of the goings on in the world, at the same time not let it steal the joy in the moment. Ignorance is not bliss and neither is anger or hate. We must be aware; be sensitive; speak out against injustice; be loving even to our enemies, be encouraging to those who are grieving or being persecuted, and most importantly, we must DO what WE can to change the world.

This week a Facebook post really got to me.  It was of a young African-American being harassed, beaten, restrained, and kicked.  He kept screaming, “Why are yall doing this to me?” He was being treated like an animal. Evidently he’d stepped off a bus and was immediately accosted by two police.  I was so visibly moved that I wrote the following FB post.

This made me cry for two reasons!!!! 1) Because this is still happening. 2) Because it’s a reminder of when one on my son’s on his Spring break from college had something similarly humiliating done to him! Handcuffed, made to get on the ground, cops being verbally abusive, and yes he was scared to death. Yes! And he was innocent, and NO he didn’t have his pants hanging, and NO he didn’t have on a hoodie, and NO, he doesn’t drink or smoke AND IT DIDNT MATTER! It’s hard for wounds to heal when the scab keeps getting ripped off! The only difference is he kept quiet. BUT, some caged birds have to scream though!!! If you scream though, it makes things worse, as you see in the video links below.

Why was this man being harassed for just stepping off of  a bus? Thankfully someone recorded it. Two other police come to the scene and one ends up putting his foot on the guys face while he’s on the ground and is kicking him in the face. And it appears like one is almost sitting on the guy’s head. The poor young man is screaming, “Why are you doing this to me?,” but to no avail. Bystanders are watching and walking by, but feel helpless to help.  This is the police; what can they do? Are we there yet? Watch the Video and You decide!!!!!! The language is foul, but so is the indignity put upon this young man.  Then I learn that this is routine for NYC if you are Black or Latino. They missed one young man who videoed it, but not this one, eight cops just arrest him for videoing the atrocityy.  Are we in a police state? Where are our freedoms?  What about due process, human rights, and human respect?

“An analysis by the NYCLU revealed that innocent New Yorkers have been subjected to police stops and street interrogations more than 4 million times since 2002, and that black and Latino communities continue to be the overwhelming target of these tactics. Nearly nine out of 10 stopped-and-frisked New Yorkers have been completely innocent, according to the NYPD’s own reports.”

“We will have to repent in this generation, not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.”

It looked like something out of Dr. King’s era. I can only wonder if we are breeding an endless cycle of hatred. What came first the chicken or egg? I’m thinking about those kids being harassed day after day and wondering if they are going to grow up loving or hating whites. In some places those chickens will one day come home to roost if they ever get in a position to return the hate that has built up in them from so many years of being powerless. In other cases led by the example of numerous people of every color disgusted by the old guard and preaching and demonstrating love and peace, (like many Bahai’s and others I know), the system will slowly but surely be changed for the better. We are one human race and there is just one planet and one people. I have to keep in mind always that while there are many horrific examples of humans at their worst, but I’m happy to say, I do see so many examples of humans at their best too!  Thank you Dr. King for showing us how to love our enemies, to stand up for justice, and to not remain silent, yet we be guilty too.

Another message that matters from Barbara Talley

Why African Americans Need to Learn Strategies for Building Wealth?

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This is Black History Month, so I’m focusing this article on African Americans but the knowledge contained herein can benefit anyone.  The wealth gap is widening and African Americans need to learn new strategies for building wealth. “Median black household income was 59% of median white household income in 2011, up modestly from 55% in 1967; as recently as 2007, black income was 63% of white income.” [Source: PEW] It is often said that African Americans are a nation of consumers instead of creators. However, our survival depends on us changing from primarily being consumers to being the suppliers and creators of the products and services we consume.

money

African Americans have a projected buying power of $1.1 trillion by 2015. That’s a lot of dough to be distributed. Wealth is not a dirty or evil word reserved for those who are lucky, greedy, or lazy and seeking to take advantage of others!  Wealth is a vital birthright that offers the freedom to make choices that allow us to live joyful and fulfilling lives. Everyone has the right to life in dignity and to pursue their dreams.  

Watching my stepmother get denied medical services at age 85, and watching her toes blacken and almost rot off as she screamed in pain, taught me a very valuable lesson. Poverty is not pretty, spiritual, or dignified. She could not afford the care she desperately needed to live in dignity and I was powerless to help her. It takes money to help those you love, to choose the medical care of your choice, to buy the materials, training, and resources we need to excel in our crafts, to invest in our businesses, to give to charity, to tithe generously, to eat healthily, to travel, to vacation, to be there mentally for our families, or to live in safe and beautiful neighborhoods.

Growing up, I had only been trained how to trade time for dollars, which rarely if ever, builds wealth. At times my father was an entrepreneur, and during those times we worked even harder. I realized that if I kept following that old paradigm I would be destined to end up like those written about in a recent Forbes article, The Greatest Retirement Crisis in American History, which dismally projects that 75%  of those now approaching retirement have less than $30,000 in savings. And, that paltry amount won’t last that long, with the average nursing home stay (God forbid) being around $248.00 a day or $90,000 a year. So for that reason,  as well as, the dollar declining since 1972, and the cost of living projected to double over the next decade, the vast majority of people today are forced to delay their retirement. I did not grow up around wealth nor did my parents talk about wealth or teach me about it. They taught me to work hard, so I know how to do that. They worked hard their entire lives and still only barely eked out a living and died practically penniless.  They could not teach me what they did not know.  They did not know that the only way to build wealth was to have money work for you or people work for you.  That explains why the majority of small black entrepreneurs fail to build wealth either. They are primarily sole proprietors and thus still trading time for money.  To continue to part two, click here.

Warren Buffet advises aspiring wealth builders to have multiple streams of income.  Speaking, authorship, and training is my passion work.  I love doing it! But, I’ve learned that if I stop speaking or training, the income also stops.  I too want the freedom that comes with wealth, to be able to work with populations who can’t afford me, to be able to help my children and grandchildren, and to not have to worry about retirement after raising six children and working over 50 years already. 

Email me for more information about how to bring me in to speak to your group, OR train your employees. Luck has very little to do with wealth, but timing has everything to do with it. What if you had been able to be part of the beginning of Google, Facebook, and Microsoft?  How would your life be different now? You missed them but you haven’t missed them all. Email me to learn more about Talkfusion, a disruptive technology poised to be the next billion dollar brand. I’ll direct you to an on-line presentation that explains it all.

Barbara Talley
To your wealth
barbara.talley@gmail.com

Slow Down

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A yellow light means that we should prepare to slow down. Yellow lights are different for each of us. To some they may appear as illnesses, broken relationships, unhappiness, or feelings of  depression or of  just feeling disconnected  or uninspired.   Some of us are moving way to fast and could even cause an accident if we tried to stop too abruptly at the speed we are going.

Let’s say you’re driving down the road of life at high speed and you notice a desired destination just as you are passing it.  If you stop too quickly, you can cause an accident.  That’s why we have yellow lights in our lives.  Some of us are speeding down the road of life so fast that we are missing life itself.  We’re missing out on the important events in our children’s lives.  We’re missing out on capturing those stories our elders have to impart to us while they are still with us.  We’re missing appointments to take care of our physical health, to exercise, and to eat healthily.  And, we’re missing out on building that spiritual connection that only prayer, meditation, and service can provide.

Do yourself a favor. Take time now for your spiritual development, your family and relationships, and more importantly your physical health.

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.
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Part 10: May Day- Seven Wonderful Wisdom Quotes From Will Smith

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From Wikipedia Public Domain

Continued from Part 9: Life Tests Us  To Perfect Us.  http://wp.me/ppImQ-sG

In reviewing videos, bios, and books on some great motivators this month, I happened across some videos of Will Smith.  And while my initial goal was to focus on a certain era, I was so impressed with some of his wisdom that I had to share it with you.  You know him as a comedian, actor, and musician, but check him out as the motivator.  In the following quotes, Will Smith speaks on, Talent and Skill, Being Realistic, Making a Choice, Focus, Fear, Preparedness, and Protecting Your Dreams.

1. Talent and Skill

“The separation of talent and skill is one of the greatest misunderstood concepts for people who are trying to excel, who have dreams …  There is no easy way around it. No matter how talented you are, your talent is going to fail you if you are not skilled.   If you don’t study, if you don’t work really hard and dedicate yourself to being better every single day, you’ll never be able to communicate with people the way you want.”  “Talent, you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.”

2. Being Realistic

“Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity.  Why would you be realistic?  What’s the point of being realistic?  I’m going to do it.  It’s done!  It’s already done the second I decide to do it.  It’s done.  Now we just have to wait for yall to see it.”

3. Making a Choice

“There’s a redemptive power that making a choice has.  Rather than feeling like you’re an effect to all the things that are happening.  Make a choice. Just decide, what’s it going to be, who you’re going to be, how you’re going to do it?  Just decide and from that point the universe is going to get out of your way.”

4. Focus

“I realize that to have the level of success that I want to it’s difficult to spread it out and do multiple things. It takes such a desperate obsessive focus.  You’ve got to focus with all your fiber, your heart, and all of your creativity.”

“You don’t have to have a Plan B because it distracts from Plan A.”

5. Fear

“I’m motivated by fear.  I hate being scared to do something.  I think what developed in my early days is that I started attacking things I was afraid of.  You can’t be scared to die for the truth.”

6. Preparedness

“Stay ready and you don’t have to get ready.”

7. Protect Your Dreams (from the Movie, ‘Pursuit of Happyness’) 

“Don’t ever let somebody tell you, you can’t do something, not even me.  You got a dream, you got to protect it.  People who can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you, you can’t do it.  You want something, go get it. Period!”

Barbara Talley is a keynote speaker, author of six books, and trainer on value-based living themes.  She also offers Effective Communication, Diversity, Leadership, Time Management, and Goal Setting workshops.  Visit her at www.thepoetspeaks.com or contact her at 301-428-4831.  You may email her at Barbara@ThePoetSpeaks.com.

Black Healthcare Crisis

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The CDC states: “For blacks in the United States, health disparities can mean earlier deaths, decreased quality of life, loss of economic opportunities, and perceptions of injustice. For society, these disparities translate into less than optimal productivity, higher health-care costs, and social inequity.” The following excerpt on the black health care crisis was taken from BlackNews.com:

“African Americans die at a much more alarming rates from HIV, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and even lupus – compared to their white counterparts.”

Is There Such Thing As A Black Health Crisis?

“Absolutely. There is a black health crisis that many African Americans face everyday. This is partly because of miseducation or the non-existence of health education in urban communities. Many African Americans are born into bad habits, and neighborhoods that do not offer healthy lifestyles.”  For more information about African American health disparities, visit: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5401a1.htm

There are over 55 organization dedicated to the black health care crisis. Please visit the BlackNews.com site at http://www.blacknews.com/directory/black_african_american_health.shtml