African popular music, like African traditional music, is vast and varied. Most contemporary genres of African popular music build on cross-pollination with western popular music. Many genres of popular music, including blues, jazz and rumba, derive to varying degrees from musical traditions from Africa, taken to the Americas by enslaved Africans. These rhythms and sounds have subsequently been adapted by newer genres like rock and rhythm and blues. Similarly, African popular music has adopted elements, particularly the musical instruments and recording studio techniques of western music.
The Afro-Euro hybrid style, the Cuban son, has had an influence on certain popular music in Africa. Some of the first guitar bands on the continent played covers of Cuban songs.
Mother AFRICA! There is no other continent on the planet that music and culture has not been derived from it. From chants, drumming, acapella, and tribal dance, join 3 ChicsPolitico as we explore the beauty, wonder, richness and SOUL of African music and dance.
Honest Toddler @HonestToddler
We’re at the health food store. I can tell because it smells like loneliness feels.
Maame @obaa_boni
I am so tired of people thinking that racism will be undermined when Black people act a certain way. You are wrong.
10:30 AM – 5 Jul 2013
……………………………..
15 Things Black People Must Do In Order To End Racism
1. It is the responsibility of the Negro to reject any history of America that includes slavery. Reminding the Negro of slavery will cause him to resent all white people, even though slavery ended years ago. Slavery must not be regarded as American history, and must be retroactively deleted from history and removed from any curricula.
2. It is the responsibility of the Negro to stop saying “nigga”, “nigger” or any variation thereof. When Black people use the word nigger, they are responsible for its usage by white people. This is especially true for Black Hip Hop artists, that have given the word mainstream credibility. The Negro cannot complain about other races using this term if they insist upon using it themselves. If Black people stop, it will go away overnight.
3. It is the responsibility of the Negro to never acknowledge the existence police brutality or racial profiling by law enforcement. The Negro must maintain the correct posture, articulation, appearance and professionalism as determined by whites, in order to avoid abuse and mistreatment by law enforcement. There is no such thing as racial profiling.
4. It is the responsibility of the Negro to always dress in a respectable manner. The Negro must, at all times, dress professionally with impeccably pressed trousers and non-threatening white button down shirts. Ties are preferred. The Negro should try to avoid sneakers, sweats, baggy jeans, hoodies, or any other apparel that may constitute a thuggish, frightening appearance or suggest that he may be concealing a weapon or drugs. These types of clothing, however, are perfectly suitable for whites.
5. It is the responsibility of the Negro to discontinue the use of slang, “Ebonics,” African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) or any regional dialect/vocabulary that is not universally recognized and accepted by American whites. This language is confusing and frightening to white people, and they will not accept this language or respect the Negro if he speaks this way.
6. It is the responsibility of the Negro to uphold the tenets of equality by not supporting Black-only media or enterprises such as BET, The NAACP Image Awards, Essence and Ebony magazine, or any entertainment that directly targets and celebrates Black people or has the word “Black” in it. When the Negro creates his own entertainment and media spaces or participates in them, he is perpetuating the exclusion of white people and enforcing the kind of segregation he is so fond of bemoaning. At the same time, the Negro must not acknowledge any exclusion of Blacks from mainstream media and entertainment enterprises.
7. It is the responsibility of the Negro to maintain hairstyles that are acceptable to American whites. This means discontinuing hairstyles such as Afros, dreadlocks, braids, cornrows, Philly’s, multi-colored hair, and other styles that may directly or indirectly suggest any sort of regional trends or cultural pride. For tips on definitive, acceptable hairstyles, the Negro must consult the expertise of white people and go to great lengths to control the texture of their hair to the extent that it mirrors that of American whites.
8. It is the responsibility of the Negro to never purchase property in white neighborhoods. Black people can only ever be visitors, and may still be subjected to suspicion from white people. The Negro must understand and accept his position in America as a second class citizen and must politely cooperate when his presence is questioned by white people.
9. It is the responsibility of the Negro to name his child appropriately. Names like Ebony, Kenya, Keisha and especially names that are more than two syllables long are unprofessional and difficult to pronounce. Additionally, names like Ahmad, Khalil or Muhammed suggest collusion with terrorists. Names like Sarah, Madison, Amy and Scott are much more acceptable and will ensure that the Negro is able to find a job, but only if spelled correctly.
10. It is the responsibility of the Negro to always maintain a kind, deferential attitude, even when confronted with antagonistic and harassing behavior from American whites. Expressing any sort of discomfort towards a white person, or challenging his views is threatening and unacceptable. The Negro must avoid giving in to provocation by white people, because he may be turned over to law enforcement or lose his job.
11. It is the responsibility of the Negro to abstain from engagement in Black History Month. It is not necessary for the Negro to have the entire month of February to learn about the history of his ancestors or celebrate the historical accomplishments of people that look like him. This, however, may not be a guarantee that any history of African-Americans will be integrated into any teachings or historical accounts year-round, and the Negro must never challenge that.
12. It is the responsibility of the Negro to accept that depictions of Egyptians as fair-skinned is historically sound. It is unrealistic to believe that glamorous, regal and wealthy Egyptians possibly had dark skin, despite Egypt’s location in Africa.
13. It is the responsibility of the Negro to never seek solidarity with other people of color, including but not limited to Asians, Latinos, Arabs and Native Americans. These partnerships are a major threat to white people, and only serve to reinforce reverse-racism.
14. It is the responsibility of the Negro to not express any sort of pride. Terms like “Black Pride” and “Black Love” and “Black Is Beautiful” are threatening to whites, as well as exclusionary. Black Pride is just as dangerous and violent as white pride, and has historically made white Americans justifiably uncomfortable.
15. It is the responsibility of the Negro to acknowledge that racial slurs against white people, such as cracker, honkey, and white devil, perpetuate and reflect the historic disenfranchisement and oppression of white Americans. The power behind these words are very wounding to white people, and are therefore unacceptable.
If the Negro wants to ensure the end of racism, he must follow these rules to the letter. It is not necessary for American whites to make any changes or adjustments to their perception of race, culture or history, since matters of race do not affect them. The Negro must ensure that his behavior, dress, hair, and language meet the strict definitions of acceptability, and he must also be grateful that he is allowed to exist in this country with American whites.
http://www.novaslim.com/2013/07/15-things-black-must-do-in-order-to-end-racism/
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/353204946235162626/photo/1
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The IRS ‘scandal’ evaporates into nothing
By Steve Benen
Fri Jul 5, 2013 11:00 AM EDT
I’m afraid I have some good news and some bad news for conservatives who’ve been so heavily invested in the IRS “scandal.” The good news is, there are some important new revelations about how the tax agency responded to groups seeking tax-exempt status. The bad news, the details reinforce the fact that literally all of the right’s allegations have been discredited.
But the political controversy that was already deteriorating quickly is now over. Every single political player — congressional Republicans, pundits, activists, et al — who said conservatives were targeted for partisan/ideological mistreatment was wrong. That’s simply not what happened.
GOP officials and commentators said conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status were singled out for excessive IRS scrutiny. That’s wrong. Republicans said conservative groups faced delays that liberal groups didn’t have to endure. That’s wrong. Republicans said President Obama’s critics were unfairly targeted. As the NYT reports today, that’s wrong, too.
So where are the political world’s apologies for having spent six weeks manufacturing a scandal for the public based on nothing?
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/05/19303851-the-irs-scandal-evaporates-into-nothing?lite
http://youtu.be/rynvewVe21Y
Who will get Baby Veronica?
By Editorial Board, Published: July 4
CHILD CUSTODY battles can be some of the most emotionally wrenching legal disputes any judge must sort through. Add the United States’ history of discriminating against Native Americans, and you get the case of Baby Veronica, a little girl caught between her biological Cherokee father and her would-be adoptive parents. After years of contention, the Supreme Court handed the adoptive parents a victory last week. It was the right call, but not the end of the story.
Before Baby Veronica was born, her biological father, Dusten Brown, gave up his parental rights in a text message to the girl’s biological mother, and he did not provide financial support to mother or child. The mother gave the baby up for adoption, finding a willing couple in South Carolina, Matt and Melanie Capobianco. The Capobiancos supported Veronica’s mother — they even attended the birth in Oklahoma — before taking the child home. Seems simple enough.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/who-will-get-baby-veronica/2013/07/04/b730797e-e349-11e2-80eb-3145e2994a55_story.html
How the Koch brothers screwed over the climate even more than you know
[….] In its multi-part report, “The Koch Club,” written by Lewis, Eric Holmberg, Alexia Campbell, and Lydia Beyoud, the Workshop found that between 2007 and 2011 the Kochs donated $41.2 million to ninety tax-exempt organizations promoting the ultra-libertarian policies that the brothers favor—policies that are often highly advantageous to their corporate interests. In addition, during this same period they gave $30.5 million to two hundred and twenty-one colleges and universities, often to fund academic programs
advocating their worldview. Among the positions embraced by the Kochs are fewer government regulations on business, lower taxes, and skepticism about the causes and impact of climate change.
The study recounts that the Kochs have influenced the congressional climate-change debate in other ways, too, which include funding an array of nonprofit groups whose experts have testified in Congress questioning the cause, the severity, and the necessity of, acting on climate change.[….]
http://grist.org/news/how-the-koch-brothers-screwed-over-the-climate-even-more-than-you-know/
Obama hits the links with old friends
President Obama is celebrating the July 4th holiday with a round of golf.
The president was seen in a white polo shirt, shoes and sandals early Friday morning at Joint Base Andrews, where he was hitting the links with old friends Marty Nesbitt and Eric Whitaker, according to a pool report.
Later Friday, the president is scheduled to fly to Camp David for the weekend.
On Thursday, the president and first lady Michelle Obama celebrated Independence Day with a barbecue at the White House where the guests included military personnel and their families.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/309321-president-obama-hit-the-links-on-friday#ixzz2YBijTIgG
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook
Diagnosis: Insufficient Outrage
By H. GILBERT WELCH
Published: July 4, 2013
HANOVER, N.H. — RECENT revelations should lead those of us involved in America’s health care system to ask a hard question about our business: At what point does it become a crime?
I’m not talking about a violation of federal or state statutes, like Medicare or Medicaid fraud, although crime in that sense definitely exists. I’m talking instead about the violation of an ethical standard, of the very “calling” of medicine.
Medical care is intended to help people, not enrich providers. But the way prices are rising, it’s beginning to look less like help than like highway robbery. And the providers — hospitals, doctors, universities, pharmaceutical companies and device manufactures — are the ones benefiting.
A number of publications — including this one — have recently published big reports on the exorbitant cost of American health care. In March, Time magazine ran acover story exposing outrageous hospital prices, from $108 for a tube of bacitracin — the ointment my mother put on the scrapes I got as a kid and that costs $5 at CVS — to $21,000 for a three-hour emergency room evaluation for chest pain caused by indigestion.
Of course, Medicare will have none of this — it sets its own prices. And private insurers negotiate discounts. So no one is actually charged these amounts.
Check that. The uninsured are. They are largely young and employed (albeit poorly) and have little education. So the biggest medical bills go to those least able to pay.
At what point does it become a crime?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/05/opinion/diagnosis-insufficient-outrage.html?_r=0
Chris Christie Threatened To Drop ‘F-Bomb’ During 2012 GOP Convention Speech
by Andrew Kirell | 1:00 pm, July 3rd, 2013
…W]hen organizers told Christie that they were scrapping a
three-minute introduction video before his speech due to time
constraints, the governor insisted they reconsider. When they pushed
back, according to Balz, Christie told a member of the production team
“to ask the director if he had ever heard anyone say ‘f***’ on live
television, because that’s what he was about to do if the video didn’t
run.”
After another sharp exchange, Christie said he wouldn’t deliver the
speech if the video didn’t run. Romney’s convention team leader, Russ
Schriefer, intervened, instructing the director to play the video.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/chris-christie-threatened-to-drop-f-bomb-during-2012-gop-convention-speech/
Dealing With Guilt: Iyanla Vanzant On Coping With The Difficult Emotion (VIDEO)
By OWN Posted: 07/01/2013 11:46 am EDT | Updated: 07/03/2013 10:12 am EDT
Accomplished author and inspirational speaker Iyanla Vanzant has counseled many people over the years — from gospel singers struggling with their weight to couples in dysfunctional marriages — and has become well-versed in the subject of guilt. It’s a tricky and powerful emotion, but Iyanla says that we’re not powerless against it.
In an episode of “Oprah’s Lifeclass,” Iyanla dismisses guilt as something totally useless. “Guilt is a wasted emotion,” she says bluntly.
“That’s what I say!” Oprah agrees.
The first part in the key to overcoming guilty feelings is to understand its root causes — what really triggers guilt? At the root of these guilty feelings, Iyanla explains, are actually three universal triggers. The first reason reason people feel guilty: You knew better, but you did something anyway. “That will then eat [you] up,” Iyanla says.
The second reason: You caused hurt, harm or injury to someone else.
“Shouldn’t you feel guilty about that?” Oprah asks.
No, says Iyanla. You may instinctively feel guilty for causing pain, but this doesn’t help the person you’ve wronged. “What does guilt serve?” she asks. “It doesn’t serve anything other than the ego.”
Armed with the knowledge of what triggers guilt, you can then overcome it by doing one conscious thing — substitute it with something active that can help you move on.
Iyanla explains, “It could be self-forgiveness, it could be asking for forgiveness [of someone else], it could be making amends and it could just be slapping yourself upside the head because you’ve just been wasting time and energy!”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/01/dealing-with-guilt-iyanla-vanzant_n_3472594.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl16%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D340045
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/353146078851379200/photo/1
Thanks for the close up. What a CUTIE!
Repost here
The right’s desperate search for more white voters
By Steve Benen
Wed Jul 3, 2013 3:04 PM EDT
Fox News’ Brit Hume has heard all the arguments about the Republican Party needing a more diverse voting base, but he’s not buying it. This on-air commentary aired the other day:
http://youtu.be/9vh7qLsiAmU
Rejecting the argument that the Hispanic vote is necessary to the party’s electoral fortunes, Hume called it “baloney,” adding, “If you look at the statistics, you find there was one significant bloc of voters who turned out in smaller numbers this time in a major way — way below expectations, below even their ’08 turnout — and that was white voters.” He added that the Hispanic vote “is not nearly as important, still, as the white vote.”
And why is that it interesting? In part because Hume said the exact opposite soon after the 2012 elections. As MSNBC’s Benjy Sarlin explained this week, on election night, Hume called the “demographic” threat posed by Latino voters “absolutely real” and suggested Mitt Romney’s “hardline position on immigration” may be to blame for election losses.
Hume apparently now thinks Hume’s argument is “baloney.”
But the larger point is that the Fox News anchor isn’t the only one making this shift. Shortly after the election, Fox’s Sean Hannity was on board with reform to improve the GOP’s fortunes, and he’s since moved to the right. More to the point, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in January he wants a “comprehensive” immigration bill and then said last month, “There’s this narrative being written in the press and by Democrats and, quite frankly by some Republicans, that I am pushing a comprehensive immigration bill, and that’s just not true.”
And what’s driving these moves is the growing sentiment in conservative circles that if the Republican Party can only improve its performance among white people — getting 70% of the vote instead of 60% — then its demographic death spiral isn’t too big a deal after all. It’s a thesis Real Clear Politics’ Sean Trende has touted for months, which has grown considerably in recent months as Republican opposition to immigration reform has grown.
Now, Byron York, Rush Limbaugh, Michele Bachmann, and Phyllis Schlafly are all making roughly the same argument: Latinos have become part of the Democratic coalition, so the smart move for the GOP is to stop going after them and start boosting white support (beyond where it already is).
——————————————————————————–
“Their idea seems to be gaining currency,” Frank Sharry, executive director of immigration advocacy group America’s Voice, told MSNBC. “Right after the election most of the conservative commentariat said they had to do something to get right with Latino voters. Now there seems to be this bizarre conversation that could only happen in the conservative bubble about how Romney didn’t win because he didn’t mobilize enough white voters.”
Sarlin and Mark Murray have pieces that dig deep into the data, and they’re well worth your time, but I’d just add one related thought: it’s not at all clear how Republicans can boost their performance among white voters so significantly without creating a significant and polarizing backlash that puts them in an even worse electoral position than they’re in now.
That said, the argument Hume presented appears to be gaining traction. As Paul Waldman noted, the GOP “might just stick with this ‘party of white people’ thing” and see what happens.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/03/19270416-the-rights-desperate-search-for-more-white-voters?lite
Good luck with going ALL WHITE, GOP.
@CNBC
BREAKING: June nonfarm payrolls up 195,000. Unemployment rate remains at 7.6%. #jobs
It’s ALL OBAMA’s fault.
Simply LOVELY…
Pres. Obama, First Daughter Malia Obama, and First Lady Michelle Obama watch the fireworks display from the roof of the White House – Pete Souza
Know it’s not July 4th, but I had never seen this video until yesterday.
http://youtu.be/mw_MbY7rfww
The Queen’s voice is ANNOINTED. Thanks for this.
Really have loved this African Music series…thank you so much for spreading the knowledge.
Cosign. Beautiful and inspiring music and history of our peoples.
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning, Everyone. Happy FRY-day! :-)))