CHICAGO

When you see the word Chicago, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? For me I think of home! It's the city I was born in. I think Southside versus Westside, Cubs versus Sox, Lake Shore Drive, Barney's Pizza, Harold's Chicken, snowy winters, beautiful summers, Sears Tower, and the Taste! I think of that Frank Sinatra song (my kind of town, Chicago is!). I think gangsters too, but that was just a part of the lore that is Chitown. You knew crime was possible and that some areas were gentrified and segregated, but you loved it because it was home. Lately, the perception of Chicago has been mostly negative. Violence in Chicago has been an issue for years, particularly in the impoverished neighborhoods that the Black and Latino population people. What has changed is the public perception of the city. Even though the statistics indicate that the homicide rate in the city (save for an uptick last year) has steadily gone down over the last 20 years, many pundits are lamenting the "epidemic" that plaques the city and it's youth.

Chicago has gotten a new moniker recently, Chi-raq. The idea is that more citizens in Chicago have been murdered than all of our troops fighting the War on Terror in Iraq. And your point?! I agree that any homicides that occur are tragic, and the statistics supporting this are very telling, but why so much media outrage now? Where was all this outrage and angst in the 80's and 90's calling for the National Guard to come to the city? Where were the people screaming for martial law at when there were nearly double the homicides in the city in the 90's? This wouldn't have to do with a certain President in office that has Chicago ties could it? Now way! It can't possibly be heightened national media attention to Chicago because President Obama has lived in Chicago and his wife is from the Southside! I will admit that I am being cynical, but it frustrates me to see the perception of the city taking such a hit. People love to love to showcase the rampant violence in Chicago yet nary a peep is heard nationally regarding what happens in Philly, Atlanta, Oakland, D.C./Baltimore, Cleveland, or New York. In fact, people swear up and down that New York is among the safest cities in the world! Worse still, is how we glorify the violence and wear it like a badge of honor. But is all this outrage highlighting the problem, or masking the root cause of a lot of the violence? Let's not forget the drug epidemic that plaques communities across the country, the discursive hiring practices that limit minorities, the gentrification of neighborhoods that led to businesses fleeing the area, the food deserts that don't offer citizens in these neighborhoods quality options at affordable prices, and the numerous budget cuts that have stymied young minds from blossoming into our future politicians, scientists, musicians, and skilled workers. I could not imagine where I would have wound up if my mother had not encouraged me to participate in programs that foster growth and development. I certainly would not have gone to the University of Illinois and earned my Bachelor's degree.

Chicago, like many cities, is struggling in a complex economic downturn that has affected millions. Despite all of the negative publicity surrounding the city, it is still the third largest city in the United States. All of the talk about the Midwest population being in a precipitous decline contrary to the twelve million that still call Chicago home. The talk of out of control violence would cease if over 50 Chicago Public Schools had not closed their doors and had the necessary tools to nurture our youth. Chitown is still a great city with great amenities and even better people. The people are who can change how our home area is perceived. Let's stop calling it Chi-raq and call it by its proper name. We need to rep our city and our region with pride. LeBron James had the right idea when he wrote his letter explaining why he returned to Cleveland. In that spirit, I'll end with this: Chicago was were I was born, Country Club Hills is where I'm from, 708 all day! I'll always be proud to say that until I die!




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/29/bomani-jones-donald-sterling_n_5233565.html

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/May-2014/Chicago-crime-rates/

TREAT YOU RIGHT

I used to hate Gay people! Not the people themselves, but I hated the agenda that was being promoted. I hated how men had to be on guard to check and see if the woman they were interested in was really a woman. I hated how the flamboyant, often ostentatious manner in which gay men acted could cast doubt on another man's own sexuality if he did not exude the extreme hubris that must accompany any man. I hated how lesbians wished that all men would die and how women should rule the world the way the mythical woman of the island Amazonia did. I hated how these women did not want to be women and tried to mimic how men behave. I hated bisexuals as well because I felt they were untrustworthy and misleading. But most of all, I hated how many in the gay community compared their struggle and the discrimination that they faced with the struggles of the Black community! How dare you queers who chose to be this way compare your struggle in anyway to what my ancestors had to endure and what we as Blacks continue to battle to today. If you are Latino and comparing your situation to ours, that makes perfect sense. If you are a woman and making that comparison, I was doubly sympathetic because you had to deal with the added sexism that comes with being a woman. It really offended me that gay people tried to create a kinship with other oppressed minorities when we were born this way and did not choose to be this way. I was never outwardly homophobic, yet I was no less prejudice than any extreme bigot would be towards me because of the color of my skin. That all changed once I joined the Army!

While it may seem corny, I served with people of all races from all walks of life. I served with some closeted homosexuals as well as some that were very open about their sexuality. As I got to know them, I realized that how they lived their lives has no bearing on how I live mine. More importantly, serving with them shattered all preconceived stereotypes that I previously had about the LGBT community. The gay men enjoyed sports as much as I did and could get into arguments about who the best rapper was with the best of them; they just happen to be attracted to men. None of them were salivating like zombies to rape us heterosexual men at every opportunity, and many were in committed relationships. Lesbians didn't want to eradicate men from the planet and were not our biggest threat to our ability to pull women. They were hard-working, professional women who just happened to be attracted to women. It was not a fad to be gay or lesbian, it was who they were. The more I encountered this truth, the more my fears and apprehensions waned until they were non-existent. Gay people were not trying to earn a seat at the table at the expense of the other disenfranchised minority groups, they were a part of our disenfranchised group.

I am not the most religious person in the world nor do I claim to be. I believe in God and Jesus Christ our Savior. I realize that the Bible states that sleeping with someone of the same sex is an abomination and can lead to condemnation in hell, but I also feel that the Bible can be construed to fit a truth that can be counteractive to the true human spirit. Do racist whites not use the Bible as justification to abhor interracial dating? Do they not compare it to bestiality? Do they not sight scripture to state how interracial dating is a sin against God? If this is true, are we not all condemned to damnation since we are all of mixed DNA? It is not our right to judge those among us on Earth since we are far from omnipotent. We are all God's children and it is up to him to judge us when we reach our day reckoning. Even if you do not believe in Christianity or Islam, it is simple common decency that is germane to every religion we subscribe to that preaches the Golden Rule. "Do unto others as you would have other do unto you".

Michael Sam (NFL Draft prospect and College Football All-American) and Jason Collins (13 year NBA Veteran) helped to push this discussion forward this year in the world of sports. The reaction to these two men coming out as gay has been met with a mixture of apathy, support, and derision. It was striking to me to read some of the negative comments about Sam and Collins. In many ways, they were similar to the negative and racist posts that appear whenever race is the predominant issue in the news story. Why do you guys gotta push your agenda onto us? You're making it a bigger issue than it needs to be by talking about race/gay issues all of the time. You don't hear us (White people/homophobic people) talking about our issues they way you guys do? We don't have a BET/LOGO type channel that supports us! These comments hearkened me back to my original stance against gay people. These rude comments and others like them prove beyond a doubt that the LGBT struggle is indeed akin to the struggles we face in the Black, Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Native Indian communities. This doesn't even include the sexism that women endure, the classism taking place all over the world, any religion that is not Christianity, or the discrimination against people with disabilities. I've heard the argument that the so-called Gay Agenda only serves to push the Black Agenda into the background and is a trick of the White man. This agenda is also a conspiracy to make all Black men gay (never mind that this same agenda is present for all to see); it is the same rhetoric use to explain the so-called Jewish plot to make all of us marry interracially. Alrighty then! Believe that if you want to but the fact remains that you are an uneducated, close-minded prejudice person. And to all the Black people that say the Gay Agenda is undermining our agenda, maybe if we rallied together in a more unified manner, we would be right up there with them. Or better yet, maybe we are right with them and instead of fighting them, the Latinos, Asians, etc., we can come together to truly become a world that truly would be in God's image.

This blog was inspired by my former high-school classmate's own blog post listed below.


http://jkwest.com/evolving-on-homosexuality/

NOTORIOUS B1G

As the clock ticked towards zero and the Michigan State Spartans flooded the field at the Rose Bowl to celebrate their triumph over the Stanford Cardinal, a wry smile crept across my face. Finally! As in finally, a Big Ten team won the Rose Bowl. Finally, it can be said that the league is a legitimate power along with the SEC, Pac-12, and Big-12. Finally, I won't have to hear about how the South has such superior athletes, coaches, standards of living, and love for football! Yet my elation was short-lived as Ohio State promptly lost a close game to Clemson in the Orange Bowl. Here we go again I thought. Let the criticism reign supreme about the virtues of the SEC and the general ineptness of the Big Ten. Our only real retort is that "at least our kids graduate!" (yea that's showing them!). While most of the SEC schools (save Florida, Vanderbilt, & Missouri) lack the mythical academic prestige of Big Ten member institutions, it's not like these fine schools are trade schools. Attendance at any of these universities provides you with a quality education in whatever field you choose. Smart SEC fans know this and quickly dismiss the weak taunt from the Big Ten. As Marshawn Lynch says, "I'm bout the action boss!"

Even casual football fans recognize that the SEC is the best conference in college football. Look no further than the upcoming NFL Draft or the most recent recruiting rankings for evidence of that. ESPN's new mega television deal with the conference is another example. If you have had a member school win seven out of the last eight national titles, you have reason to beam with pride and arrogance. Yet something about the narrative still gives me pause. While football is an integral part of the southern societal fabric, I cringe at some of the driving force behind some of the crowing. I could spew the usual rhetoric about population shifts and whatnot. I could burden you with statistics that demonstrate how and why the SEC is leaving the Big Ten in the proverbial dust on the football field. Those indisputable facts have been discussed ad nauseum and are not central to my disdain for the SEC fans braggadocio. I always get a visual of Confederate pride in my head whenever I hear about the superiority of the SEC. "Athletes" has become a pejorative for "Blacks" in much the same way "thug" has to describe any Black athlete that is a demonstrative personality. If you were to crash-land from another planet and land in Alabama, you would think that the NFL is filled only with SEC alums.

Football should not become the vehicle to espouse the return of southern dominance over the north. Too often the conversation focuses on this as oppose to the results on the field. If the SEC is beating the Big Ten, it's because of the organizational strength of the individual institutions. Alabama was mediocre before Nick Saban took over, Florida has been a mess every since Urban Meyer (now at Ohio State) departed, LSU has risen to new heights under Les Miles. All three are not even remotely from a southern state. The Big Ten must modify its' model in order to compete top to bottom with the SEC in football. The SEC would be mediocre if Vanderbilt was its' best team. As soon as Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Nebraska all are good at the same time, it will be a boon for the Big Ten conference.
There would be no talk of population shifts and just simply caring more about football than the north.Other than Florida, Georgia, and Texas, none of the southern states have near the population of the northern states. Some inherent advantages the SEC enjoys will never go away (weather, football-centric culture) but to be the best, you have to beat the best. Often times, the only way to do this is to beat the best at their own game. Until then, I'll continue to lament how the best linebacker in Illinois chose LSU!

EASIER THAN IT LOOKS

"This is gonna be a piece of cake!", "People say I write and speak well. They should start reading my blog no problem". If I only knew the difficulties involved in writing a blog entailed, I would have planned it out a little better. Having this be my side passion as oppose to my obligatory job has hampered the reach of my blog. The issue of what to write about to catch people's interests is always an issue. I have seen other blogs where guys are writing posts twice a day! Doesn't life get in the way at some point? I try to give you all a snapshot into my mind and hope to peak some of your interests. More often than not though, it seems like I have to pay to get my posts noticed!

Never mind my rambling, I'm just frustrated! I thought that this was gonna be so much easier than it has been. This blog was to serve as practice for the book that I eventually would like to write while also keeping my writing skills sharp in between grad school. I try to strike a delicate balance of keeping the topics interesting while not being too controversial. All it's produced so far are a few comments sporadically and a lot of discouragement on my part. This blog is a jack-of-all-trades blog. I do not have one singular interests so I decided to combine what they are: sports, race-relations, media and its' influence, and hip-hop. Yet it still goes unnoticed by the masses. Perhaps my blog is too unfocused and scattered. Perhaps I do not write enough content to consistently draw more readership. Or perhaps I should just come to grips with the fact that no one care and I need to just stop this blog all together.....Naaah!

 I won't stop because the goal remains the same. I have overcome too much to simply give up because I encountered some roadblocks. I have a much greater appreciation for what bloggers and writers have to go through since I have started blogging. It's a lot easier than it looks! Still in all, I welcome the challenge. Because if life was easy, it wouldn't be worth living. Check me out down the road for more to come.....

STAND UP LIKE A MAN!! Should we redefine what constitutes manhood?

I can remember it clearly even though it was eight years ago. The setting is Ft. Benning, Georgia, home of the infantry. It was 8 P.M. Eastern time and we were in our Army sweats. Sweat dripped from our bodies as we carried our bunks down three flights of stairs. Once that laborious task was completed, we had to line our bunks exactly as they were in our barracks. Next we had to bring all of our shoes and line them up "dress-right-dress" in the proper order from boots to Class A dress shoes. Did I mention we had to line our bunks up in the grass? What could possibly have been the cause of such unconscionable behavior & bullying? We were in Basic Training and that's just how it goes in Basic is the simple answer. The goal of any Basic Training no matter the branch is to toughen you up. As a platoon, you're taught that you're only as strong as your weakest link. There's no time for weakness of the body or the mind. If you had an injury, no matter how serious, your were labeled, ostracized, and ridiculed. But after nine hellacious weeks, your baby boy was now a man!

While my Basic Training experience does not exactly qualify me to discuss the culture of an NFL locker room, I can't help but see many similarities. More than any other sport, the football is depicted as being played by warriors and gladiators. They risk life and limb to make a living entertaining us and win a seven pound piece of silver. It's a man's game that takes a certain level toughness. Weakness is not tolerated and is often leads to ridicule and derision. The kind of derision that is coming Jonathan Martin's direction. For those that don't know, Martin is an NFL player for the Miami Dolphins who left the team under the pretense of bullying and harassment from his teammates, most notably Richie Incognito. By now you may have read or heard the transcript of the vulgar voicemail/text message that Incognito allegedly sent to Martin that included calling Martin a "nigger" (the breadth of the transcript is in the link below). Many were outraged and called for Incognito to be removed from the Dolphins and black-balled from the NFL. Accusations of bullying and ostracism conjures up thoughts of the uptick in teen suicides over the last decade. Martin instantly became a sympathetic figure while Incognito was demonized in the media. However, not everyone is painting Martin as the victim; if anything, Incognito is the sympathetic figure in NFL circles.

Martin broke a cardinal rule in locker room etiquette; he didn't keep it in house! The feeling is that Martin should have stood up for himself and handled the other Dolphins' teasing and ridicule like a man. It doesn't help Martin's cause that multiple Dolphins' players have come out recently in defense of Incognito, Black players included. It has even been reported that the Black Dolphins players consider Incognito an "honorary Black guy". Whatever that means! It seems given the conclusion that can be drawn is that Martin may be the one that will be black-balled from the NFL, not Incognito. If that is the case, is this right? Is this fair?

My personal opinion is that Martin should have been able to go about his business. How he gets up for football games does not have to mirror what the collective does as long has he's ready to perform on any given Sunday. With that said, I believe Martin has done more harm than good by walking away. That is what bullies want you to do. Walking away validates their skepticism of you and confirms their prejudice stereotypes of you. Even if he felt the need to file a grievance with the NFL against the Dolphins, he should not have simply run away. Not much is known other than what is being reported. Was Martin subjected to worse taunting than the public voicemail suggests? Only time will tell who is culpable, Martin, Incognito, other unknown teammates, or the Dolphins organization as a whole. The second layer to this is this idea of manhood. Boisterous hubris seems to be synonymous with showing how much of a man one is in our society. If men don't talk about sports, brag about all the women they sleep with, or their cars, guns, or other objects/topics that personify masculinity, they gain no respect and not real men. I like sports as much as the next guy and can converse about many of the topics most men do, but that does not define me as a man. A real man excepts responsibility for his actions, good or bad. A real man is confident without being cocky. Real men are accountable not because society says to be. Men confront a problem and deal with it the best way they know how. Without knowing the details of what happened, this is where Jonathan Martin erred. His reaction to the bullying is not what makes those question his manhood; his perceived cowardice in the face of adversity is. What defines a man? Only God truly knows that. Until then, we are left to walk this tricky tight rope of masculinity and if we sway too far in one direction, we face ridicule. Perhaps owning up to our fears and mistakes is real manhood.

 


http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9941182/jonathan-martin-issues-several-miami-dolphins-agent-rick-smith-says 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/06/richie-incognito-racist-dolphins-teammates_n_4227099.html?ir=Sports

THE FORGOTTENS

I've lived in several places throughout my childhood. Being an Army brat has that effect. Yet I've always called Chicago home ever since I could talk! Never mind that between the ages of 3 & 10, I did not even live in the Chicagoland area let alone the city limits. To me, those places I lived was never home the way the Chicago area is. Every chance we got, we went home to see family and friends. Not just my family in Country Club Hills, but everybody! I would be out of school for a month at a time to zigzag across the area. Whether it was going back to visit my aunt on 82nd & Elizabeth, my friends on the North Side, or get my haircut at Cliff's barbershop in Harvey, I knew that this was my home! So imagine my surprise when I moved to Country Club Hills full-time in 5th grade only to be ostracized as an outsider! I had trouble fitting in as I grew up because my military experiences did not mirror the experiences of my Chicago contemporaries. 

Over time, the Chi way of life became ingrained in my personality and psyche. I had the accent down, the music, the chip on my shoulder, I even had that "wait till next year" Chicago sports fan mentality. What I didn't have was a Chicago zip code! Me claiming the Chi didn't sit well with guys that actually lived in the city. You ain't from the city, you from the suburbs! You bougie! You out there with the white people, we over here in the hood! It was as if being in a poverty-stricken neighborhood in the inner city was the only way to equate the Black experience with being reality. Never mind that I was born in Chicago, lived there for 4 years, still had family that lived there, and was only 15 miles from the city at most! It doesn't matter; being suburban was almost an affront on your racial identity. As if my experiences with being black paled in comparison to theirs. Forgotten in this is that blatant racism that still exists simply because of my skin color (that never goes away no matter who you are. Ask President Obama). This was exemplified by the massive white flight that took place in the south suburbs in the 80's & 90's. By the time I had moved back to Country Club Hills, the perception of the neighborhood had completely changed. Now the entire south suburban region was seen as just an extension of the south side. It became a running joke about which suburbs to avoid at night. Save for a few neighboring towns to the east (Tinley Park comes to mind), the entire south suburbs is held in no better regard than Englewood, Roseland, Chatam, & South Shore.

That is the general perception if they're even noticed at all! I found this out once I got to college. Some of the kids were from different states or hailed from countries ranging from Great Britain to Bahrain (my freshman roommate). The majority were from Illinois. While some kids were from towns I had never heard of like Taylorville or Rock Island, most were from the Chicago Area. When I would mention where I was from, a puzzled look would come over their face. Even after I said it was in Cook county, they still had no idea where I was from. Kids from the city naturally laughed "you from the 'burbs". It was a relief when I'd encounter someone that was from Flossmoor, Oak Forest, or Matteson! Finally, someone that knows where I'm from! We're not just a nondescript spot on the map. Others spouted racists remarks when they found out. "you're from Country Club Hills? that's the ghetto! We try to avoid going there. You don't seem like you would be from there!" Right, as if every black person has to either act like Tupac or Carlton Banks. What stood out more than anything is how easy my home area is ignored. It is ignored politically, socially, and economically. I use to brush off complaints from small town residents being ignored as them over reacting. Now I understand why they do it. No matter where you are from, if you are ignored politically, you are part of a disenfranchised group. How are the south suburbs of Chicago any different from a small town in Tennessee?  

I'm proud to claim Country Club Hills as my hometown, 708 as my area code, and to be a subsidiary of the great city of Chicago! People from my town have a voice that should not be dismissed simply because of political corruption! Too many examples exists of this happening throughout our country. If they can forget about a region of over 200,000 people that easily, it's no wonder they can forget about the other marginalized groups!

DOUBLE STANDARDS

Should men be ridiculed for the standards they have for an ideal mate if women have similarly outlandish standards of their own? Don't get me wrong, I'm far from a chauvinist; I just feel that men sometimes are held to such a dated, unreasonable standard of excellence that must be met that I see good guys being ignored for this glorified idea of what a real man should be. While the traditional standards of what a man should embody are common sense, it is the physical/superficial ideologies of many women that don't get enough ridicule. I believe a man should have of the following attributes: be willing to hold himself accountable for his actions, be a gentleman (chivalry is not dead ladies), be a hard worker that strives to improve, and show toughness and resolve in the face of adversity. Ladies, if your man has all of these attributes, he's a keeper! Keep him, by all means keep him! Sure he may be a little overweight, sure he may only make $35,000 as oppose to $100,000, he may even be shorter than you (God forbid!). You choose your mate to be with you till death do you part, not till you find the guy with the best bank account.

I'll admit that men have some outlandish standards of our own. Often times we expect our women to work, cook, clean, raise the kids, and give us head every night on command. We expect this while also demanding that they stay in shape, let me watch the NBA without interruption, blow up my ego, and let me have my guys nights and man caves. Did I mention you gotta pop out junior for us too? Seems pretty unreasonable right ladies? Well isn't it rather unreasonable to demand that your mate be at minimum 6'2 when the average height for a man in America is under 5'10 (for the record my official height is 6'3 1/4)?  Isn't it unrealistic to expect a man fresh out of college to have a $75,000/yr job? How can you want a muscle bound Adonis yet complain about guys being too skinny and wanting something to grab on to? Why we going shopping? That's what you have girlfriends and your mom for! Women expect us to work long hours yet be home on command, be tall yet complain when they have to get on their toes to kiss us, give them sex on their time only, do every single do-it-yourself/yard project and chore, defend your honor, and tolerate your parents. All while staying in shape to keep your attention (not too much though cuz you might think I'm trying to holla at the cute secretary at my job right?) and earning six-figures. Talk about unreasonable!!!

In all seriousness, we let what the media and society tell us is pretty or best for us dictate our lives far too much. I'm not saying to not have any standards or that you can't be attracted to what you are attracted to physically. But be willing to understand that love conquers all. What happens when that guy that had all the money suddenly loses his wealth? What happens when your wife gains a little weight or starts to show her age? It should be about love and affection, and I don't mean the kine Future and Rhianna are talking about. The physical may have been what brought us together, but only seeking out your soul mate will bring true love and happiness.