Strengthening The Black Community: Strategies for Reducing Violence

To this day, it is sickening and saddening that some of us are so mentally disturbed with a “plantation mentality,” where we have to await for a signal from somebody else to determine what is in our own best interest. This is the reason why there is trouble in our communities.

To this day, it is sickening and saddening that some of us are so mentally disturbed with a “plantation mentality,” where we have to await for a signal from somebody else to determine what is in our own best interest. This is the reason why there is trouble in our communities.

Our young people want examples to look to that will give them strength and counsel and guidance. But our young people do not find in their elders the guidance, the counsel or the example that they would like to follow; so they are given to the streets because we have not given them what they need.

The schools have failed in their stewardship of the minds of our young people; and the teachers have failed in their responsibility to the children, because the teachers are not growing; therefore, they cannot grow their students. We are a part of a system that is a plantation educational system, a plantation political system, and a plantation social system, and unfortunately, a plantation religious system.

Our young people want examples to look to that will give them strength and counsel and guidance. But our young people do not find in their elders the guidance, the counsel or the example that they would like to follow; so they are given to the streets because we have not given them what they need.

The schools have failed in their stewardship of the minds of our young people; and the teachers have failed in their responsibility to the children, because the teachers are not growing; therefore, they cannot grow their students. We are a part of a system that is a plantation educational system, a plantation political system, and a plantation social system, and unfortunately, a plantation religious system.

Look in the ‘mirror of Truth’ for needed personal change

What went wrong? Oh we are not here to cast blame—but there is enough blame to go around. What we need are solutions to The Problem.

These young Black males that the Black nurses see coming into their hospitals shot up and wounded over nothing: There never was a generation like this one! We have never produced a generation so cold and brutal as the generation that represents “our future” and “our children.” Even during the worst times in slavery we were never as violent and vicious towards one another as we see happening today in our communities. Is that correct? The court system and the penal system marvel at the fact that children today are committing some of the most heinous crimes. Have you ever stopped to consider why?

Rents soar as foreclosure victims, young workers seek housing

Few new units and tight standards for home loans add to the pressure. The average monthly U.S. rent is at an all-time high, and a 10% jump in Los Angeles County over the next two years is forecast.

A nation still struggling to clear up one housing debacle has run smack into another — soaring rents.

The foreclosure mess has pushed millions of former homeowners with tarnished credit into a competitive apartment market across the U.S. Add fresh demand from young workers, few new units and tight standards for home loans, and the result is rental sticker shock not seen in years.

Rents are surging from New York to Los Angeles. The average monthly U.S. rent for apartments hit $1,008 in the first quarter, pushing past the all-time high set in the third quarter of 2008, according to the data firm RealFacts. USC's Lusk Center for Real Estate forecasts a 10% jump in Los Angeles County rents over the next two years. In certain markets, it is now cheaper to own a home than rent.

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Renting Prosperity

Americans are getting used to the idea of renting the good life, from cars to couture to homes. Daniel Gross explores our shift from a nation of owners to an economy permanently on the move—and how it will lead to the next boom.

In the American mind, renting has long symbolized striving—striving, that is, well short of achieving. But as we climb our way out of the Great Recession, it seems something has changed. Americans are getting over the idea of owning the American dream; increasingly, they're OK with renting it. 

Homeownership is on the decline, and home rentership is on the rise. But the trend isn't limited to the housing market. Across the board—for goods ranging from cars to books to clothes—Americans are increasingly acclimating to the idea of giving up the stability of being an owner for the flexibility of being a renter. This may sound like a decline in living standards. But the new realities of our increasingly mobile economy make it more likely that this transition from an Ownership Society to what might be called a Rentership Society, far from being a drag, will unleash a wave of economic efficiency that could fuel the next boom.

Howard advises graduates to keep moving forward in difficult time

 “You’re going to spend a whole lot of time trying to put petals back on the flower once it’s dead, trying to put leaves back on the tree once the leaves have fallen,” Terrence Howard said.

 

The actor told almost 500 graduates at South Carolina State University on Friday night that the biggest challenge they’ll face in life is to keep moving forward after they make mistakes.

“God knows you’ll make mistakes,” he said. “But ... don’t make the mistakes that people have made in the past by not believing in themselves, by trying to put dead leaves back on a tree.”

There’s a theory that everything in the universe moves in waves, Howard said. He told students when they’re accomplishing things and moving up on the wave, everything is wonderful. But then they’ll hit the crest and start falling.

He told the students they’ll have to reorient themselves when they fall.

“The way you reorient yourself is a little thing I call ABC,” he said.

“Always be comfortable. Always be calm. Always be cool. Always be comported and collected, and always be comfortable with the consequences of an action,” he said.

“If you are not comfortable with the consequences of an action, stop right there,” Howard said.