Fathers and Gangs

In Chicago recently, a 16 year old honor student was killed. The teenager, Derrion Albert was supposedly walking to a bus stop when he got swept up in a mob street fighting. The young man was beaten to death and it was all captured on video. What motivates teenagers to use a 2 by 4, fists, and feet to beat another individual?

It would be interesting to find out how many of the kids involved in this death of a teenager are being raised by their fathers, and how many of the fathers are gainfully employed. Out of all the fathers that are gainfully employed, how many are trying their hardest to keep their children active in after school activities that add value to their lives. Keeping youngsters busy is one of the best ways to lower the risks of them finding trouble.

Derrion was obviously at the wrong place at the wrong time because all reports to this point say that he was not a target. We cannot say the same for the other teenagers who decided to go after him in such a brutal way.

There are too many children in the America's school system dying every year. Many of the kids involved in the killings are involved in gangs, drugs, and guns. Too many of them are not employed and have given up on school. Unfortunately, following the wrong path and making one bad decision in life after another is normal for them. It would be interesting in knowing exactly how the lives of these kids would be different if their fathers where involved in their life in a loving and nurturing way and the fathers were also gainfully employed.

President Obama, Professor Gates, and Kanye West

President Obama recently weighed in on the Kanye West and Taylor Swift MTV awards show situation. He basically called Kanye a Jackass for his stunt while Taylor was receiving and accepting her award.

What is interesting is that it became a big, negative media story in many parts of the country when President Obama weighed in on the Professor Gates arrest. President Obama mentioned that the police officers acted stupidly for going to Gates home to check out a call they received about unknown men possibly breaking into the house and ultimately arresting Gates who owns the home.

After the backlash from the media and many Americans for criticizing the police, President Obama decided to have a beer summit at the White House with himself, the arresting officer, and Professor Gates. The President goes further in judging Kanye West and there is no backlash whatsoever from the media or Americans.

Many people want to know if the police are above criticizing or was the situation with Professor Gates being arrested at his own home a grey area which is why so many folks jumped on the President for becoming involved in a local policing issue.

Although Kanye West did not do the right thing the night Taylor Swift won her award, he realized his mistake and publicly stated so. As humans, there is good in realizing an error in judgement and admitting it.

Previous Little River Golf Club Owner Settles Racial Lawsuit

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), had charged that the previous owner of the Little River Golf Club located in Charthage, NC unlawfully discharged six African-American employees because of their race and national origin.

In August 2009, a racial discrimination suit filed against the previous owner of Little River Golf Club has been settled out of court.

According to the regional attorney for the EEOC's Charlotte District office, Lynette A. Barnes said that "it is an unfortunate reality that some employers are willing to discriminate against one racial or cultural group in favor of another. Employers must remember that people of all races and colors are entitled to equal treatment in the workplace." - Read Story

Nike Settles Racial Discrimination Lawsuit for 7.6 Million

In July 2007, The Nike Company reached a $7.6 million settlement in a class-action race discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of 400 black employees of the company's Chicago Niketown store.

The lawsuit, filed in 2003, claimed managers at the retail store used
racial slurs to refer to black workers and customers. They also said
the store segregated black employees into lower-paying jobs as
stockroom workers and cashiers rather than giving them lucrative sales
jobs. - Read Story

Kroger Settles Discrimination Suit for $16 Million

In June 2008, the grocery chain Kroger Co. agreed to pay $16 million to settle a racial discrimination and harassment lawsuit.

The suit claimed that Kroger blocks the promotions of black employees and pays them less than white workers. - Read Story

Coca-Cola Settles Racial Bias Case

In the largest settlement ever in a racial discrimination case, the Coca-Cola Company agreed in November 2000 to pay more than $156 million to resolve a federal lawsuit brought by black employees. Read Story

FedEx Settles Racial Discrimination Suit

In April 2007, The package delivery company FedEx said that it had agreed to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit against its express unit, FedEx Express, for $53.5 million. - Read Story

L'Oreal Found Guilty Of Racial Discrimination

L'Oreal, the French cosmetics company was told by France's highest court in June 2009, that they had used a policy that was illegal under the French employment law. The company was found guilty of racial discrimination for considering black, Arab and Asian women unworthy of selling its shampoo.

The court was told that the word went out to hire sales people the colors of the French flag which are red, white, and blue. The expression is widely recognized in the French recruitment world as a code for white French people born to white French parents.Read Story

Life Expectancy for African Americans in New Orleans Rivals some Third World Countries

A Portrait of LOUISIANA: Louisiana Human Development Report 2009, shows that Louisiana ranks 49th among U.S. states and Washington, D.C. on the American Human Development Index, with wide disparities within the state. This new study examines disparities by parish, race, and gender in Louisiana, and calls for action to address the acute human vulnerability that persists today, four years after Hurricane Katrina.

It is hard to understand why in America today, there are cities where there are African Americans that have a life expectancy rate that is lower than some third world nations.

The average life span for African-Americans in Louisiana today (72.2 years) is shorter than that of Colombians, Vietnamese and Venezuelans. The average life span of an African-American in New Orleans is 69.3 years, nearly as low as life expectancy in North Korea.

Teen Births Highest in Southern Bible Belt States

A new study by LiveScience.com states that states in the U.S. that have the most conservative religious beliefs tend to have more teenagers giving birth every year than teenagers living in other states.


States With Highest Teen Birth Rates:

Mississippi
New Mexico
Texas
Arkansas
Arizona
Oklahoma
Nevada
Tennessee
Kentucky
Georgia

Most Conservatively Religious States:

Mississippi
Alabama
South Carolina
Tennessee
Louisiana
Utah
Arkansas
North Carolina
Kentucky
Oklahoma

Lockheed to Pay 2.5 Million in Racial Discrimination Case

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced on January 2, 2008 that its largest settlement for an individual racial discrimination case for $2.5 million is against Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, MD. - Read Story

U.S. Only Number 37 in Ranking

Here is a rankng by country of the world health systems according to the World Health Organization. The main message from this report is that the health and well-being of people around the world depend critically on the performance of the health systems that serve them. There were several performance indicators used to measure health systems in the 190 member states

1 France
2 Italy
3 San Morino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
8 Oman
9 Austalia
10 Japan
11 Norway
12 Portugal
13 Monaco
14 Greece
15 Iceland
16 Luxembourg
17 Netherlands
18 United Kingdom
19 Ireland
20 Switzerland
21 Belgium
22 Colombia
23 Sweden
24 Cyprus
25 Germany
26 Saudi Arabia
27 United Arab Emirates
28 Israel
29 Morocco
30 Canada
31 Finland
32 Australia
33 Chile
34 Denmark
35 Dominica
36 Costa Rica
37 United States of America
38 Slovenia
39 Cuba
40 Brunei
41 New Zealand
42 Bahrain
43 Croatia
44 Qatar
45 Kuwait
46 Barbados
47 Thailand
48 Czech Republic
49 Malaysia
50 Poland
51 Dominican Republic
52 Tunisia
53 Jamaica
54 Venezuela
55 Albania
56 Seychelles
57 Paraguay
58 South Korea
59 Senegal
60 Philippines
61 Mexico
62 Slovakia
63 Egypt
64 Kazakhstan
65 Uruguay
66 Hungary
67 Trinidad and Tobago
68 Saint Lucia
69 Belize
70 Turkey
71 Nicaragua
72 Belarus
73 Lithuania
74 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
75 Argentina
76 Sri Lanka
77 Estonia
78 Guatemala
79 Ukraine
80 Solomon Islands
81 Algeria
82 Palau
83 Jordan
84 Mauritius
85 Grenada
86 Antigua and Barbuda
87 Libya
88 Bangladesh
89 Macedonia
90 Bosnia-Herzegovina
91 Lebanon
92 Indonesia
93 Iran
94 Bahamas
95 Panama
96 Fiji
97 Benin
98 Nauru
99 Romania
100 Saint Kitts and Nevis
101 Moldova
102 Bulgaria
103 Iraq
104 Armenia
105 Latvia
106 Yugoslavia
107 Cook Islands
108 Syria
109 Azerbaijan
110 Suriname
111 Ecuador
112 India
113 Cape Verde
114 Georgia
115 El Salvador
116 Tonga
117 Uzbekistan
118 Comoros
119 Samoa
120 Yemen
121 Niue
122 Pakistan
123 Micronesia
124 Bhutan
125 Brazil
126 Bolivia
127 Vanuatu
128 Guyana
129 Peru
130 Russia
131 Honduras
132 Burkina Faso
133 Sao Tome and Principe
134 Sudan
135 Ghana
136 Tuvalu
137 Ivory Coast
138 Haiti
139 Gabon
140 Kenya
141 Marshall Islands
142 Kiribati
143 Burundi
144 China
145 Mongolia
146 Gambia
147 Maldives
148 Papua New Guinea
149 Uganda
150 Nepal
151 Kyrgystan
152 Togo
153 Turkmenistan
154 Tajikistan
155 Zimbabwe
156 Tanzania
157 Djibouti
158 Eritrea
159 Madagascar
160 Vietnam
161 Guinea
162 Mauritania
163 Mali
164 Cameroon
165 Laos
166 Congo
167 North Korea
168 Namibia
169 Botswana
170 Niger
171 Equatorial Guinea
172 Rwanda
173 Afghanistan
174 Cambodia
175 South Africa
176 Guinea-Bissau
177 Swaziland
178 Chad
179 Somalia
180 Ethiopia
181 Angola
182 Zambia
183 Lesotho
184 Mozambique
185 Malawi
186 Liberia
187 Nigeria
188 Democratic Republic of the Congo
189 Central African Republic
190 Myanmar

High Health Insurance Costs

Almost everyone in America knows that health insurance reform is necessary in the country. The costs of health insurance continues to rise annually at rates that are much higher than the rate of inflation. As a matter of fact, according to the Henry Kaiser Family Foundation, 2008 Annual Survey on Employee Health Benefits, health insurance costs have increased more than 100 percent over the last 10 years.

American paychecks are not rising anywhere near as quickly, and Americans are struggling to keep up with big increases in health insurance costs. Companies are also finding it more of a challenge to pay for the health insurance costs of their employees.

There are many companies that do not provide coverage to their employees today because they simply cannot afford it. The same Annual Survey on Employee Health Benefits study showed that an average family of four has to pay about $13,000 annually to health insurance companies for coverage. The employer usually pays about 70 percent or $9,100 and the employee pays the remaining 30 percent or $3,900 on average.


Why is America the only industrial country in the world that does not offer universal healthare coverage to all of its residents? This is hard to understand for a couple reasons. First, America is the wealthiest nation in the world so we know that America can afford it if other countries can. Second, according to the World Health Organization, America is ranked 37 on the list of countries providing health care. One of the reasons Americans spend more than any other country on health care is due to all the paid to the middle man (health insurance companies), and Americans do not even receive the best value for their money based on the number 37 ranking



When we think about health insurance companies, we have to remember that they are simply middle men that do not make or manufacture anything. So Americans have to ask why should these middlemen reap billions of dollars in profits which is making everyday healthcare costs very expensive and life a struggle for the average American. The more money Americans have to pay for health insurance, the less they have for other basic needs that are also a priority.



Health is so important to life that Americans should ask why they should lose health care coverage if they lose a job or change a job and cannot afford to pay for coverage until the new job's coverage begins. The thought of losing health care coverage is also stressful and unsettling. Americans should not have to feel this was about something so critical to living when they live in the wealthiest country in the world.

Trespassing

Everyone wants to feel safe in their communinty. In the name of safety, are brothers ready to give up some of their rights as a resident of a community. Would you believe that there are some brothers who have been arrested and/or received a trespassing ticket as a resident of a particular housing complex.

This issue has been raised by retired NYPD detective Carlton Berkley who is currently running for a City Council in District 9. Mr. Berkley is also a co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care.

Trespassing in one's own community is another issue where most residents do not understand the law, and how best to respond when approached by a police officer regarding this issue. Many people in this situation simply believe that the officer does not have the right to ask them to move along. Without knowing the law and possibly responding to a police officer as though they are simply singling you out can lead to tension laced dialogue with an officer. This kind of dialogue has often times placed a person in the officer's mind within the crossing the line category. This is one of the ways that brother's find themselves arrested.

If only brothers knew and understood the law, life between brothers and the police would not have to lead to an arrest for matters that are not serious or criminal when the are first approached by an officer.