You Make The Call.........

KUMBAYA / Sir Ivan / I AM PEACEMAN



I couldn't make the decision on if I should be mad at the condescending nature of this video, or laugh my butt off at the out right tackiness of the whole thing including the song.

What it looked like to me was some one with good intentions just making a mess of things, like a little kid who tries to cook breakfast for mom but burns the house down, kind of like liberal racism.

Hell, the truth is I was more pissed with the blacks in the video than the "musician" Sir Ivan.

I wanted to hit them over the head with a history book and say wake your ignorant butts up, or are y'all that hard up for some chump change?

As for Sir Ivan I am going to say that he might have been innocently trying send a peaceful message out their, unfortunately he failed miserably.

If anything he is guilty of making the "Soul Plane" of music video, and I got to question his future in music after this.

But than again I might be more sensitive to this type of stuff, might be seeing things that are not there.......maybe.........doubt it though.

What say you?

Guest Post by RKL: How To End Racism In America

One of the goals of Diversity Ink is to have differing viewpoints on the issue of race relations. Earlier this month, I came across the following post on the blog RKL Writes. I contacted the blogger (RKL) and asked him if he'd be interested in letting me use it as a guest post at Diversity Ink; he gave me the thumbs up. The following post was written by RKL on July 30, 2009:

If you ask me the simple question, "How can we end racism in America?" I'll give you a simple but true answer. "Stop making an issue of it." Think about it for a minute. Do you really know anyone who is driven by racism? I don't mean an off the cuff remark now and again. I mean do you know someone who defines their life based upon hatred of others due to race? I don't know anyone like that, and I never have even growing up in the south. The truth is, the largest majority of the people in the United States are long past racial issues. Whites especially. And yet if you were to believe the media or some activists you'd think that we were still living in segregation.

Here is the way I look at it. I would be willing to bet that a huge percentage (90% or more) of Americans live their daily lives with no thoughts of racism. If you go along with that, then who benefits from racial divisions in this country? When you look at it that way, it's easy to pick them out. I heard the term "Race Hustlers" a while back and I think it hits the mark perfectly. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, John Wiley Price, and many others build their entire careers off of just one issue, Race. And because Race Hustling works for them they keep churning up the same tired, false, hate-filled ideas and in reality, they do more damage to the people they are supposedly trying to help than does "the man."

So when I see our President who during his campaign styled himself as a person who could break down racial boundaries drinking a beer with an seemingly honest white cop and a black race hustler professor, it makes me sick. The truth is that Obama got caught trying to tow the line for the race hustlers. That's the kind of "racial healing" he gives, and he knew he had to backtrack. But honestly would you expect anything less from a man who spent time in Jeremiah Wright's pews?

RKL

Breaking Point

I believe that I've told you that I live in a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. I love living here and have never felt like an outsider. It is a friendly, welcoming neighborhood where the people are helpful and actually smile at you when you are in the store. I moved here for the schools, so my son would not be set up for failure, as I felt he was in the school district of Kansas City. So far, I've been very happy here.

Until I got that e-mail last week.

You see, I, along with every other parent in our school district, received an e-mail outlining the details of President Obama's speech today. As parents, we were told that participating in the speech was not a mandatory assignment, and any relating assignments were not mandatory either. The teacher emphasized that the discussions would not include any of his/her own political views, and if parents did not want their child to participate, they would be given an alternate assignment to complete in the Library.

I call bullshit.

I really cannot fault the school district or the teacher...they are simply trying to cover their asses. This whole situation, however, is weighing heavily on me. Why does it have to be like this? Why so much furor over the President addressing our students to stay focused on their school work and strive to be better?

All of this talk about President Obama trying to push his agenda on the children is a bunch of bullshit. These are just excuses to mask what the true issue is. It has been 8 months since President Obama took office and the opposition still cannot grasp the fact that the President does not look like his predecessors. I never thought that I would give in to the "racism" theory, but I have no other answer at this point. All of the socialism, Marxism, whatever-ism talk is code for the fact that there are some folks out there that cannot accept the fact that we have a biracial President.

And that saddens me to no end.

But the school thing? I have taken the stand that my son will be there, front and center. And he will not only complete the main assignment, but turn in the extra credit assignment as well.

The best way to fight ignorance is with education. It is my job to ensure that my son has that education. It is too bad that the parents who decide that their children shouldn't listen to this speech don't feel that way.

originally posted @ Conversations With Marva