When?
By: Jeff Beckham Jr.


When will they stop killing our innocent children? When will black men step up and take their place as kings and leaders in this country? When will we as African Americans stop waiting for this country to atone for the injustices we have been subjected to for over two hundred years? Personally, I’ve decided to take a stand and I ask you to join me.
Siretha White and Starkesia Reed are the names of two little girls that will forever be implanted in my heart. They are the names of two little girls that will never get married, go to college or get to experience motherhood. Siretha and Starkesia are two little girls that woke up on the mornings of March 11th and March 3rd fully expecting to live out the promise exemplified by their lives. Those girls won’t have that opportunity to see tomorrow, next week, or next year. They won’t have the opportunity to pursue life, liberty, and happiness because that was all snatched from them due to gun violence in their community.
When I began writing, I thought about writing another letter calling for action from the police and local politicians. Then I began considering where the change needs to start and I looked in the mirror and found my answer. Blacks must begin to rely on self as they once did pre-integration. Blacks must stop looking for others to come in from the outside and fix the problems within our own culture. There is no doubt that the government we fund and country we live in have systemic oppressions targeted at keeping African Americans in a permanent underclass, but if things haven’t changed thus far, we can ill afford to wait on change to occur. In the 1880’s blacks owned .5% percent of all the wealth in the United States (Lee Jenkins, Taking Care of Business: Establishing a Financial Legacy for Your Family, 2001). Despite many millionaires in the NBA, the mass fortunes of Oprah Winfrey, and wealth of Robert Johnson that number hasn’t changed in 2006. So what are we waiting on? It is time for the people reading this to stand up and take back our communities and neighborhoods. We can start at home with the children in our family. I call you to be mentors, big brothers, and big sisters to those children in our immediate and extended families that may not have a positive influence in their lives. We must not allow BET to raise our kids any longer. Young women are more than gold-diggers and prostitutes and young men need to know that they can do more than hustle and be gangsters (I do wish they would stop awarding Oscars for portraying these in movies.. but that’s a separate issue), but who will tell them these things? Young people need us. Black youth need young black professionals, educators, entrepreneurs, and construction workers to show them they can be more. They need to see us interact and innovate right now. Close your eyes and imagine the change that could occur if we work together.

Siretha and Starkesia didn’t die in vain. Their lives are the catalyst for at least one young black man to be an agent of change in his family and community. I’m going to start with the young people in my family. Will you join me?

The Chappelle Theory: Crazy Huh!

I'm not an old man, 25 to be exact, but I am wise enough to know fact from fiction when I see it. I was born with a God-given discernment and wisdom to view things and see things in the way they are and the way they are going to be. Even at an early age I was able to see people and concepts for what they were.That's why I look at things with such a keen eye.

This brings me to this Chappelle theory. If you haven't read it, (www.chappelletheory.com) you should. It is a theory basically saying that The Black Crusaders, an elite group of African Americans in entertainment, politics, religion, and finance, collectively conspired to stop Dave Chappelle from airing the 3rd season of his Chappelle Show due to its offensive content and what they call derogative effect on race relations in America. This group of elite African Americans including but not limited to Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, Louis Farrakhan, and Robert Johnson sought to do this by engineering a clever plot to brake Dave down mentally and spiritually using their power of influence and counsel to convict him from ever wanting to air his show again. Now I won't go into the theory but I will write on another topic, the ability of African Americans to work together to accomplish this feat.

It's clear that if this theory were true it would require African Americans of influence to do something they rarely, if ever, do willingly, work together for a cause that is greater than themselves. Think about it; when have African Americans of supreme influence worked together? We can recall the great leaders during Slavery, Jim Crow and the civil rights movement but since African Americans were given their stated equality (yeah right!) the black elite really haven't worked for a cause since.

It reminds me of a recent episode of The Boondocks on the CartoonNetwork (which Al Sharpton, one of the Black Crusaders, is suing) inwhich the cartoon examines what would occur if Dr. King was still alive. In the end African Americans are so appalled by the glaring mistreatment of our people that we stage a revolution. One in which rappers refuse to use misogynistic lyrics and even NBA players strike on till American truly honors the promises of it’s Constitution. Could you imagine that? Could you imagine a nation of people so strong in which they truly live out the core of altruism etched in their very fiber? I don’t believe the theory to be true, but it does make you think about the power this group could have if they did unite. --

J. Oliver Beckham
The Vision Group

A New Dream: Thank You Dr. King

Fourth two years ago, a great American, in whose family's shadow we stand signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This momentous decree came as a light of triumph to millions of Blacks who had been burned in the flames of the inferno of Jim Crow laws and pricipalities. It came as joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But 40 some odd years later we must face the fact that the black is still not free.

forty years later, the life of the black in America is sadly crippled by the vice of segregation and the chains of discrimination. Fourth years later, the black lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. Forty years later, the black is still suffering in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.

So today I write, to highlight a sickening condition. Not because of reparations or some form of restitution for our suffering, but by the means of faith we come here to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given Black people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we continue to send the same check back through even though the bank is seemingly low on funds. We continue to rely on the idea that the vaults are full of limited opportunity of this nation.

So we have come to cash this check-- (Part 2 Tomorrow)