Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Remembering Black People We Lost in 2014

The death of people we love and admire in the news helps to remind us of our own mortality. This year  brought to an end the lives of so many impactful people.  Some of the people below are more well known than others, but each were part of our lives due to their talent, their activism, and/or their commitment to humanity.
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Wayne Pharr, former member of the Black Panther Party fought the Los Angeles Police in a historic gun battle in 1969, passed away on September 6, 2014 at age 64. After Pharr and his fellow Panthers defended themselves from the long violent attack by the newly formed LAPD SWAT unit. He became a political prisoner who was exonerated of attempted murder and all other serious offenses. Pharr eventually became a successful realtor in Southern California, a subject of the documentary, “41st and Central”, and most recently authored the well received autobiography, Nine Lives of A Black Panther: A Story of Survival.
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Marion Barry was an active member of the civil rights movement and an icon of D.C. politics for more than 40 years. Despite his personal challenges, he remained beloved by D.C. residents because of his integrity and commitment to helping residents. He died November 23 at age 78.
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Jimmy Ruffin was one of Motown Records’ most memorable voices. The balladeer died at a Las Vegas hospital November 17 at age 78.
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Henry ‘Big Bank Hank’ Jackson was a founding member of the pioneering Sugarhill Gang founder which produced the first mainstream rap hit Rapper’s Delight in 1979. He died at age 57 from cancer.
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Juanita Moore, the Oscar-nominated star of Imitation of Life died at home January 1 at the age of 99.
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Comer Cottrell had an incredible impact black hair care. The entrepreneur brought the Jheri curl to the masses. He made millions with a cheap kit that made the glossy hairstyle, popularized by celebrities such as Michael Jackson, available to average Black Americans. He died Oct. 2 at age 82.
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Geoffrey Holder - The man who pitched 7UP as the “uncola” and brought “The Wiz” to Broadway died in a New York hospital of complications from pneumonia October 5 at  84. Geoffrey Holder had an eclectic show business career, winning Tony Awards in 1975 for directing and designing the costumes for an all-black retelling of “The Wizard of Oz.”
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Alice Coachman Davis – The first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal, Alice Coachman Davis, died early Monday morning on July 14 in south Georgia at age 90. Davis won Olympic gold in the high jump at the 1948 games in London.
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Meshach Taylor, who played a lovable ex-convict surrounded by boisterous Southern belles on the sitcom “Designing Women” and appeared in numerous other TV and film roles, died of cancer at age 67 June 28.
Bobby-Womack
Soul singer Bobby Womack career spanned seven decades and included ’80s hit “If You Think You’re Lonely Now.” Womack began his career in the early 1960s as the lead singer of his family musical group The Valentinos. He died June 27 at 70 years old.
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Tony Gwynn, a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest athletes in San Diego’s history, died June 16 at age 54 of oral cancer, a disease he attributed to years of chewing tobacco.  Known as “Mr. Padre,” Gwynn spent his entire career in San Diego amassing a .338 career average with 3,141 hits and only 434 strikeouts over nearly 10,000 at bats. The lefty slugger was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.
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Ruby Dee, an acclaimed actress and civil rights activist whose versatile career spanned stage, radio television and film, died at age 91, on  June 11 at home in New Rochelle on Wednesday night of “natural causes.” an Academy Award nominated actress (American Gangster) who was also active in the civil rights movement in the US, has died of natural causes. The formidable actress, who appeared in movies like A Raisin In the Sun and Do the Right Thing, had a career that spanned seven decades and brought her, in addition to the Oscar nomination, Emmy and Grammy Award wins. She was 91.
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The Electric Company star Lee Chamberlin has died of metastatic cancer at the age of 76. The actress, who lived in Paris, passed away on May 25 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina while visiting her son Matthew.
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Maya Angelou, a Renaissance woman and cultural pioneer, died  May 28 at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, her son, Guy B. Johnson, said in a statement. The 86-year-old had been a professor of American studies at Wake Forest University since 1982. Maya Angelou, an author and poet considered one of the most important writers on her generation, has died. Perhaps best known for the novel “I Know Why the caged Bird Sings”, Dr. Angelou also appeared in the TV series “Roots” and won three Grammy awards for her spoken word albums. The recipient of an honorary National Book Award was 86.
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DJ Rashad ( Rashad Harden), a house music and footwork pioneer who performed as DJ Rashad, was found dead this weekend of an apparent drug overdose. He was 34, April 26. Chicago Police spokeswoman said a friend found Harden’s body in an apartment on the city’s West Side.
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Rubin ”Hurricane” Carter, the middleweight title contender, whose murder convictions became an international symbol of racial injustice and inspired a Bob Dylan song and a Hollywood film, died April 20 at age 76. Carter, who had suffered from prostate cancer, died in his sleep at his home in Toronto.
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Amiri Baraka, a poet and playwright of pulsating rage, whose long illumination of the black experience in America was called incandescent in some quarters and incendiary in others, died in Newark, N.J. He died January 9 at age 79.
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Frankie Knuckles, the legendary a record producer and DJ was known as the Godfather of House music. He died March 31 at age 59.
Photo via CBS
Photo via CBS
Spiritual leader of the Israel-based Black (African) Hebrews, Ben Ammi Ben-Israel, who taught that Black people in America were descendants of the Tribe of Judah died suddenly on Dec. 27 at age 75.

About the author / 

Toure Muhammad
Author Toure Muhammad is the head bean, publisher and chief strategist of Bean Soup Times. He has written front page cover stories for The Final Call and N’digo. He has been featured in the Chicago Reader, Upscale magazine, rolling out newspaper, and N’Digo magapaper. He’s been featured on Tavis Smiley’s radio show on NPR, on Chicago’s WBEZ (Chicago public radio), and many other radio shows.

courtesy of
http://beansouptimes.com/remembering-black-people-we-lost-in-2014/

Jamie Foxx Talks About Being Black in Hollywood, Police and Trying to Have a White Day

courtesy of
bean soup times
Comedy, drama and singing makes Jamie Foxx a triple threat in the entertainment industry. But his career challenges and a recent encounter with the police remind him that being rich, Black and male make him a triple threat in American society as well. In a recent interview with RollingOut.com, he shared his struggles being Black in Hollywood and his recent tense encounter with police.
“Keenan Ivory Wayans taught me a lot of s—” Foxx recalls, before relaying the best advice the eldest Wayans star gave him. “Whatever you do — as an African American entertainer, you’ve got to be the best at it. We don’t settle for mediocre. Being on ‘In Living Color’ gave me the DNA and the work ethic to get things done. When you talk about the struggles of Black Hollywood, there was always a struggle. They would always pick one. In the ’60s, there was Redd Foxx. Seventies, it was Richard Pryor. Eighties, it was just Eddie Murphy. [But in the] ’90s? ‘In Living Color,’ the Wayans [family], [Chris] Rock, the Kings of Comedy, Chris Tucker, Kevin Hart, [Dave] Chappelle — there [are] a lot of people on the comedy side really flourishing now. Things are opening up and I know Chris Rock did a great article about the struggles of it, but also the hope at the end of it; because if you look at Tyler Perry, he’s doing his own thing,” Foxx explains.
Foxx is careful not to dismiss the progress that has been made, but he knows more progress can be made.
“Although it’s still a struggle, we’re headed in, I think, a great direction. If you look at the movies that are being made now … [and actors like] Michael B. Jordan, Chadwick Boseman, these dudes are coming. Now it’s time for people like myself, who’ve been in it for a while, to make sure we turn around and make sure we support them and give them the opportunity to keep moving things along,” he says.
“My record company says ‘Well, Jamie, you’re an urban artist …,’ ” Foxx says, shaking his head. “But my audience is everybody. I worked hard to make that. I’m in Rome, walking around with kids who are 8 or 9 and know me. I’m pitching something to some executives and they’re like ‘Maybe, it’s too urban.’ And I said, ‘let me take you to a Lil Wayne concert — the rapper. So we go. It’s sold out and I ask the executive ‘Turn around and tell me where you see the urban section.’ And he looked around and sees 20,000 White arms [in the air.] They [the kids] ain’t trippin’ on it.”
Although today, you see young and middle age white people admiring Black athletes and entertainers, unfortunately, that does not always translate to that white person’s entire family and definitely not the police as recent racial unrest centered around police brutality proves.
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Jamie Foxx in London via Facebook

“We gotta be able to see it from each other’s lens,” he says. “Me being an African American entertainer — [I] still get nervous when the cops pull me over,” he says, before telling Rollingout.com a story about a recent experience he had while driving with his friend, actor Tyrin Turner (best known for playing the lead in 1993’s Menace II Society). “I got stopped a few weeks ago. I’m driving in my neighborhood, which is predominantly White. And I’m feeling White — I got my top down and my Rolls Royce like ‘Wow, this is a great, White day!’ With my boy … we’re riding down 101 in L.A., chilling [on a] Sunday. All of a sudden, the cops get behind me. And I’m like ‘OK, the cops are behind me, but it’s a great day and I’m really mainstream.’ But he turns his lights on and I’m thinking ‘It couldn’t be me.’ And I actually move over and say ‘Yeah, go get ‘em! Go get those guys’ and he was like ‘It’s you — pull it over!’ and when he yelled at me, he yelled like I was crazy. He talked to me like I wasn’t human.”
Now, here’s the challenge of being Black in America. Really, the first goal when encountering a police officer is surviving the encounter. This is the wise thing to do and something that every Black male must learn to deal with. Even the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has discussed how do deal with wisely with a racism police officer.
“But I said ‘let me look through his lens right quick and how he’s seeing me.’ So I said ‘Foxx, de-escalate.’ Had I not … there’s no telling what could’ve happened.”
A Black man can see things from the perspective of a white officer, because most Black men have been educated in a school system that taught respect of white men and it’s reinforced in every institution in this country, but can that same white officer see things from a Black male perspective when they have not been properly taught about who Black people are and how we went from pyramid builders to project dwellers.
“So you pull up and there’s a kid who’s jaywalking — no big thing,” Foxx says, referencing the Brown murder. “But when you do tell him to get out of the street, let’s say he is an a–hole. Let’s say he’s rapping and all the things you believe a Black person to be — but you know he’s a teenager. Why not take that moment to teach? Say ‘Listen, I’m going to [call backup to] take you downtown and I’m going to call your parents and have your parents come down and I’m going to explain to them that he was disrespectful to me today and I wanted you guys to know that and I wanted to have this conversation because six months from now I don’t want to see him back here in a different situation …’ I want to use this moment to teach.
“And then, we would’ve never heard of this cop. And 15 years from now, that kid who was graduating from high school and went on to college and maybe he was being rambunctious that day, he sees that cop in the community and he says ‘I f—- with dude because when I was a kid, I was acting like a whatever and he taught me a lesson.’ That’s what you do as an authoritative figure.”
“What was the infraction?” he asks, rhetorically. “Guy selling cigarettes — he ends up dead. Guy was jaywalking — he ends up dead. Now, is it something going on with the way police are trained? Look at the kid who was in Aurora, Colorado, who came in and sprayed and killed 12 people. How many times did they shoot him? They didn’t shoot him — they just apprehended him. He just murdered 12 people. [It’s the] same with the other kid who was 23 years old, who murdered six people. They apprehended him.”
“What that tells me, is we have to have an uncomfortable conversation about race,” the star says. “I know I can say ‘when I see a police officer I get nervous.’ And I’m Jamie Foxx. As soon as they stop me, I tell ‘em, ‘You know I’m panicking. I’m nervous. Tell me what to do.’ But can a police officer say ‘I’m afraid of every Black person I see?’ Or ‘I don’t like that Black person?’ Can we really have that conversation?”

 http://beansouptimes.com/jamie-foxx-talks-about-being-black/

Friday, December 19, 2014

Obama Talks About His Own Experience With Racial Profiling


How many men have this problem? Too many! Especially for men who look like me!
This is a human problem.
People need to think before they speak.
Those who think they are priviledged have much to learn.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/17/obama-people-interview_n_6339972.html?utm_hp_ref=black-voices&ir=Black%20Voices

Monday, December 15, 2014

A Man of God on a mission who can help you, help yourself!

Very seldom does someone come along who REALLY has YOUR BEST INTERESTS
at heart!

Very seldom can you walk up and have a serious conversation with someone like that!
That someone, that man who has your back is running as an INDEPENDENT Candidate for Mayor of Chicago!
(Because he owes no favor to NO MAN BUT GOD ALMIGHTY)
and who is SINCERE about making your life one worth talking about!

 Here's a man with a 7th grade education who grew up in the South in the JIM CROW
era to become an extremely successful businessman.

Here's a man who's worked in the community for over the past 30+ years!

That man can help you, but you've got to help yourself first!

Be INDEPENDENT in your thinking!
Be INDEPENDENT in your choices!
Chose a Mayor who is not IN BED with any political parties, (Democrat or Republican)
who is for ALL PEOPLE of Chicago!

Stop complaining about Jobs, School closings, etc. and GET BEHIND a man who has been committed to the Community AT LARGE (People of  all walks of life!)

He owes no POLITICAL FAVORS and can help you help yourself!
Help his team, help us!

44th President Barack Obama did it!
So can you!
Where will you begin to help?

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Saturday, December 6, 2014

is your son, nephew, uncle, husband, father, grandfather next?


God is.


Violence in Ferguson and Police

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

America's Favorite Dad, Bill Cosby

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raynard j
Raynard Jackson

TBTNEWS COMMENTARY

Friends’ Desert Bill Cosby

Special Correspondent: Raynard Jackson/ NNPA
Even Fat Albert knows Bill Cosby is getting a raw deal. As a public relations/crisis management professional. I have worked with some of the biggest names in sports, entertainment, and business. So, let’s deconstruct this media frenzy engulfing the man who was once America’s favorite TV dad.
Many of these allegations have been around for more than 30 years. Cosby has never been charged with a crime and deserves the presumption of innocence. Simply because several people – okay, eight and counting – provide a similar salacious account doesn’t make it true. Until now, Cosby and his lovely wife, Camille, have not had to defend their hard-earned good name. They have given north of $50 million to educational institutions, especially HBCUs. Cosby has opened doors to many of the top actors and comediennes in the industry.
At the ripe old age of 77 years, at what point does one’s body of work require one to be given the benefit of the doubt? Cosby is, and in my book, will always be “America’s Dad.”
And the media’s hands are not clean in the smear campaign. Why would respected news organizations even give these women a platform when they offer no proof or evidence to support their allegations? Corporate America has also taken the guilty until proven innocent approach toward Cosby, a former corporate darling.
NBC officials announced last week that that they were no longer working with Cosby to produce a new series that was supposed to launch next summer. Mind you that Cosby made NBC billions of dollars with his hit TV series The Cosby Show in the 80s and the successful spinoff, A Different World. Even more surprising than the reaction from Hollywood and Corporate America is the paucity of people willing to defend Cosby or at least insist on a greater burden of proof from his growing list of accusers. To be blunt, true friends don’t desert friends based on unsubstantiated rumors.
I am not aware of one public statement of support from any former cast member of Cosby’s shows. I am not aware of any statement of support from any comedian on the scene today whose career took off because of Cosby. I am not aware of any statement of support from any civil rights group or college that have gladly taken millions over the years from Cosby and his wife.
I have spoken to a few of my A-list Hollywood friends about this issue and I found their explanations repulsive. They are all afraid of being “blacklisted” by white, liberal Hollywood. As much as I love money and success, I love my integrity more.
How can you not support someone who has been instrumental in your being the very person you are today? How do you justify leaving someone like Cosby out to hang by himself? Even Fat Albert doesn’t think Cosby deserves this kind of treatment.
(Raynard is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a Washington, D.C.-based public relations/government affairs firm. He can be reached, www.raynardjackson.com)
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Jay Z on Michael Brown


Men Taking Responsilbilty


I made this widget at MyFlashFetish.com.