Question of the Week?

Is gold-digging a fair term? Or is it that some women look for security in the financial status of a man?

Thoughts?

If a man is looking for a woman that had certain physical features is he a "body-digger"?

Stepping Out On Faith

So I've decided to pursue this graphic design thing! It's fun, I really have become passionate about improving my skills and I think it's something I'm pretty good at. I've invested in making it a business and now I'm just praying for the business itself. If it goes well I'd like to exit this coporate world in under a year!

Longevity Does Not Mean Legitimacy

I heard a minister say this over the weekend and I began to apply it to my own life. No matter how long you've been doing something that doesn't mean you an expert. There is always something you can learn. I think of people in corporate American when I hear this quote. Many times, those in management and executive level positions perceive us to be naive either because of age and sadly sometimes because of color. We have to work twice as hard and do twice as well to get the same respect and praise as our older or lighter peers. I've been the youngest and usually only African American for almost every company I've worked for and have experienced this first hand. The funny part is that my experience and skill set is not that of the novice new worker. My pedigree is legit, yet I still get the same treatment as the rookie in every job. In my current position I probably have as much sales experience and management skill as anyone yet again the perception is that I don't.

Well longevity doesn't mean legitimacy. It's a formula that has a multiplier.

Experience + Intelligence X Achievement Drive = The Success Rating

That multiplier Achievement Drive is a variable that is as random as life itself. It's the innate gut determination to be and do better and it makes all the difference in this game called corporate America!

My Rap Single

For those who didn't believe I used to rap..

Here is the snippet...
My Rap Single... Click Here

Make Me Wanna Holla... 2008

The Price's High/So I Can't Drive
A nation/just trying to get by
Complacent/So We Don't Try
Watching/Our Brother's Die

Oh! Makes Me Wanna Holla
The Way They Do My Life
This Ain't Living..

Inflation/No Chance
To Increase/Finance
Bills pile up/Sky High
Send that child off/too die

Oh! Makes Me Wanna Holla
The Way They Do My Life
This Ain't Living..

Live free/no drama
Pray for change/Obama
Gun down/more peace
Violence/must cease

Oh! Makes Me Wanna Holla
The Way They Do My Life
This Ain't Living..

Marvin Gaye will live forever because history continues to show us that times of injustice are cyclical.

Heaven Watching

"HEAVEN WATCHING"
Heaven Watching Closely Waiting
For A Man To Take His Path
Heaven Watching Anticipating
Roadblocks A Rigid Path
Heaving Watching A Young Man Praying
For God To Direct His Path.
Heaven Watching A Young Man Saying
This World's Pain I'll Outlast
Heaven Watching Black's Laying
Their Lives on Broken Lines
Heaven Watching Society Slaying
Blacks With Unchained Minds
Heaven Watching Mother's Craving
To Save Their Kids Before They Die
Heaven Watching Initiating
Strength To Stop The Cries
Heaven Watching A Young Girl Lying
Down Before Her Time
Heaven Watching Our Leader's Raping
Our True Leaders Vision Of Civil Rights
Heaven Watching Closely Waiting
For us to Make Life Right
J

God Is!

I woke up today. I began to think about God's infinite blessings and resided in the fact that the very idea of waking up is a blessing. Some people didn't wake up this morning. Some went to sleep fully expecting to see tomorrow and they didn't that opportunity. It's by grace and mercy that we are able to be.

I just want you to take a secong and think of those you love. Those people God keeps everyday safe and out of harms way. When you think about that kind of grace it's very hard not to be overwhelmed by God's goodness.

Peace,
JB

Diddy is Poison ..:Have You Seen This:..

Hilarious but kinda true huh?

The "You Suck" Award of the Week

This was a tough one for me being that I've had one of the worst work weeks imaginable but I had to go with Joseph C. Philips a.k.a Martin Kendall from the Cosby Show. First, I didn't like you character on the show (I thought you were kind of lame then). Then I watch the "Black in America" documentary last night and I have to say I so strongly disagree with so many of your statements it's ridiculous. I too like you Mr. Philips grew up in what our race would consider a privileged class but I'm not too self-righteous to believe that all the ills in the black community are self-inflicted. No a kid from the hood can't go to Harvard as easily as a kid from the burbs. After watching yesterday employers said that being black was no better than being white with a felony record in terms of hiring. So tell me how self determination and self sufficiency will fix that problem? So winner of the First Weekly "You Suck" Award goes to Joseph C. Phillips.

Runner Ups

John McCain

Mayor Daley for talks of cancelling the Bud Billiken Parade

ADD YOURS NOW!

The Coporate Complexity....

Lately, I've been realizing how difficult it is for Blacks to assimilate into corporate America.
I had a pharmaceutical ride day (that's where your manager rides with you to observe your work) and my manager got in the care and asked me to turn to the old school rock station....
The interesting part is that is tottally acceptable but I wonder what would have happened if I turned on the new David Banner CD or Nas...

I wonder..

Where Are My Brothers?

So I was sitting in the parking lot of Walgreen's today and I looked next to me and I saw a young black woman with two kids, no husband or man visible and I watched her struggle to get the kids together, get inside the store and run her errand. Then I looked over at the car next to me and I saw almost the exact same thing, except this woman had three kids. I proceed to look at the faces of both women and I saw strength, frustration, and a determination to be and do for their children. I got out the car and helped both women put their groceries in the car and God told me to"bless the woman with three kids with gas money for the week." Being obedient I proceeded to give the woman $25 (all the money I had) and I told her God told me to do it and that her breakthrough was coming. The woman was in shock and with a face welled with emotion she said, "thank you, you have no idea how bad I needed this." I began to think, where are the men?"


I was a fortunate one growing up. My dad, despite being young and probably very scared, stuck in their with my mother. He raised his children and worked hard everyday to assure that my sister and I had the best he could provide. My father, like his father before him, aspired to be more than just sperm donors they wanted to be real fathers and real men. They were men who disciplined their children, worked tirelessly to make sure their kids progressed in career and education further than they did during their time. Therefore it's hard for me to watch so many black women do it on their own.

Where are the men? Where are the fathers? Where?... I can't help but ask the question after looking at the world outside my window. I watch children hang out on the street late at night and watch young women dress and act in very womanly ways and I wonder where is dad to say, "come home."

As I anticipate watching the upcoming CNN documentary "Black in America" I'm expecting to see a large part of the discussion to be the absense of the black father.

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)

Cubs Cubs Cubs

Isn't it funny how much the cubs franchise mimics real life? You work hard all the time and occasionally you get rewarded for it and just when you think it's all about to come together for you, you get hit with life preverbial plague of injuries and your facing last place again..
Thought of the Day

Is anyone out there (A Purpose Driven Thought)

What is it about getting older that makes you question purpose.  I'd like to think it's that with each day, as we inch closer towards old age and eventually death, we subconciously want to get closer to God and serving him.  Maybe it's due to the fact that humans need to know that there is more to life than working a 9 to 5.  The duldroms of grown-up life can annoy you at times.  Why is purpose important?  Was it so special to us before the best selling book? Did we discuss it before it was the basis of Will Smith's I-robot?  I don't know.  What I don know is that I must fulfill my purpose.  I will do it or die trying and I'm young and no where near ready to go! 

God grant me the strength to walk as your son did to live as Christ did here on earth.  Help me fulfill my purpose.  Hey there's never a bad place for prayer.  I want to commit myslef to a vision and see it through to fulfillment.  I must.  Enough for today..!

I'm Out

A Day In The Life...

What I don't get is humanity... People say they want to do better but continuously fall into the same pitfalls and traps over and over again.. I see this at church more than any other place.. If you're saved act like it, if not do your thing but stop straddling fences.. it's sickening.. Of course no one's perfect and I don't expect anyone to be but I'm really sick and tired of people who are holy on Sunday and forget God existed on Monday....
 
I'm a pretty normal guy.. I like what most guys like.. cars, video games, women, but I think that what seperates me is my moral intergrity.. People (especially guys) don't seem to have that anymore.. I've been stabbed in the chest and back by more "Friends" than should humanlly be allowed... Am I better than everybody else?? YES!  I am.. God says we are called to be part of a Royal Priesthood and how many royals have you ever know to be common... I don't want to be common nor should you, but you should use common sense in the decisions of everyday life..
 
Ranting is so theraputic..
I'm Out!
J. Oliver..