Stop the Track!

For a week I have been trying to write this post.  There is so much to say and yet, my thoughts kept getting in the way. 

This was where my mind was at:

Everyone has had plenty to say about Lebron’s 1 hour special, his decision marketing stunt, and then the letter from his previous owner…yes, his previous owner. If they missed it…I can refer them  to about 4 great blog entries on the internet.

People know about Oscar Grant.  Many of my fellow bloggers have written about him…if they missed it…I can refer them to about 4 great blog entries on the internet about him.

As you can see…this was my challenge with this post…the recent news had overwhelmed with emotion and thoughts yet, I didn’t want to re-hash the information and message of other bloggers.

And just as I decided the moment had passed and there was no need or value to write about these things, enters…Mel Gibson…the endless coverage on him!

STOP THE TRACK…STOP THE MOTHERFUCKING TRACK!

This isn’t happening…tell me this isn’t happening…tell me what I preach about hasn’t happened to me too! Oh, but yes, for a minute it had! Okay, now I’m ready to write a post…Urban Bailout style.

The Republicans and others powers that be are spending millions if not BILLIONS of dollars to silence our people.  Their design, insist we remain systematically distracted.  They make us think that everything is okay, that “it”…whatever our “it” is being take care of.  Here we are in 2010, we have a black President and a young black man getting paid millions of dollars to announce he’s going somewhere…surely, we are okay! Oh, and that we can’t say that they don’t care about racism because after all…they are covering the Mel Gibson rant…clearly they are about going after racists…right?

No. Wrong. Very Wrong.

Last week, a white officer’s verdict for MURDERING  a young unarmed man, laying on his back was reduced to involuntary manslaughter, this summer millions of young black and Latino boys and girls are wondering if they will go back to their subpar dropout factories or if this is the summer they decide to just not show up, hundreds of thousands of boys will seal their fate and enter the prison system, while hundreds of thousands of men will seal theirs as they exit…there are millions of young black and Latino women raising children on their own without a shred of a clue or insight as to the research that can show them how to better raise their kids and no one will show them, and the fast and processed food industries are massively spending millions of dollars to aggressively target black and Latino kids and their mothers…not to mention what’s happening to our AIDS/HIV rates, our senior’s issues, and much more.

And then there is Mel? Why are we going after him so hard? Yes, what he said is terrible. But he is no more dangerous that the police officer and the department than is responsible for killing Oscar Grant. He is no more of a bigot an elected official that refers to the poor as stray dogs that breed!

The games they play:  You want us to be outraged at racism? Here you go, Niggers, let’s burn someone at the stake and prove our solidarity! Let’s burn Mel at the stake! Burn baby burn.

Which would have made sense if…he wasn’t already toast!

My take: Mel was ALREADY on the black list for ranting against the Jews last time, he is unbankable, and completely powerless…this is why the media goes after him and not the Oakland police department and racist policy writing public officials!

Go after the food manufacturer that only distributes in the inner city or spends that much more marketing dollars on “diversity advertising” … go after those that matter media and I’ll believe you.  But you won’t!

How is it that I fell into the trap? I silenced myself. I forgot that the very reason I have read blogs and opinions of Lebron and Oscar Grant is because I have selected my circle of influence, that I select my twitter friends, and the blogs that I read…it is not that there is “enough” information out there. 

I compared my opinions to others out there and rather that joining in to make a higher impact and to release a stronger vibration, I silenced mine. As if it the collective was in a competition for new ideas instead of collaboration for justice.  Yes, this too is a lie of the Oppressor, of this Establishment…this surreal competition amongst ourselves.

The system does not have ONE commercial, ONE policy, ONE opinion, ONE essay, ONE police officer, ONE teacher, ONE editor, ONE recording artists…they have legions of players working together.  Yet, many of us have been conditioned to believe that we need ONE leader, ONE organization, ONE revolutionary, ONE blog, ONE messenger…as if one, or two, or three was enough.

The Revolution needs ONE vibration, ONE goal, ONE focus, ONE concern, ONE love…yes, but legions of soldiers.

So read this…and when you are done…let me direct you to 4-8 blog entries that you should also read also.  Then what you should do is direct 4-8 people to each entry and then, you should each write 4-8 more.

‘Nough said, let’s go!

When Real Isn’t Real At All: Our thoughts on Rick Ross, Rap Industry, and the Real Dope Game

Back before…Kiss Me Through the Phone and Chicken Noodle Soup and Tip Drill and the saga of make it rain rap songs…we used to have this thing…a culture…her name was Hip Hop.  Back then hip hop had rappers. And those rappers were real or at the very least, rapped about real ISH. (insert the word SHIT here then take it out because this is a public blog and I’m trying to teach you to do better!).

As I write this, it all makes sense to me, I’ll come right back to hip hop in a minute.

In the 80s The Establishment introduced crack-cocaine to the inner city…okay…we don’t have PROOF they introduced it so I won’t make that statement (then again, you don’t really think people in the hood were trying out different recipes of cocaine, baking soda, water, and heat in order to find a way to make a drug that was more potent even though it meant that they were losing merchandise-cocaine-every time they tried out just because they just happen to think of it—do you?) Let’s say…they LOOSELY introduced it and/or allowed it to take its course…and we do have proof of that…ask the REAL Rick Ross.
Since no one really knew what a CRACKHEAD looked like (it was NEW remember?) a lot of people did crack…entire families were broken and well…we’ve all seen New Jack City…

Fast forward it a few years later to 1986 in the middle of a rushed election (elections means time to make things that make people look good…well, look good!) and the same Establishment passed the Federal Mandatory Minimums Sentencing Guidelines, which basically says, if you are charged at the Federal level you have a MANDATORY sentence of say, 10yrs to Life In Prison and you actually have to SERVE that time (no good time off, probation, etc.).  This includes the conspiracy charge which means, you didn’t actually have to get caught with the dope and they don’t have to PROVE that you sold or distributed the dope to get charged, indicted, and sentenced.  Suspicions behavior (coming in and out of buildings) which counts as “irrelevant conduct” or someone’s testimony of your involvement, could in it of itself count as a conspiracy to charge and get a defendant the mandatory minimum.  They also added clauses to make hard/cooked cocaine (in other words what black men sold) carry heavier weight and time than soft/uncooked (what white men sold) cocaine.

Let’s see if you are following…the Establishment introduced a drug that was more potent and addictive and had never been seen before (so people didn’t really understand how severe it would be), the population got cracked out and increased the demand (crack heads DEMAND crack) for young black males to deal/sell crack, and then they created and passed a law that would give out large, MANDATORY, sentences that would put away males for decades at time.

At this point it’s safe to say, we have an inflow of black fathers going to prison and deserting their children for decades…enter the single black mother and the breakdown of the black family nucleus.

That was the 80s.

The 90’s came and we had a stronger economy.  And because black people are who they are, surviving, beautiful, smart, tenacious, people out of the tragedy of the 80s (see above), came an equally strong, beautiful, smart, tenacious culture that would span the world with its influence, lyrics, and beats.  This thing was called Hip Hop.  The world was mesmerized by its raw power, its lifestyle, its clothing, and its language.  The protagonists of that Hip Hop story where rappers and even black fashion artists (remember Karl Kani and Phat Farm?).

Some of you have forgotten, but I remember there was talk about the black buying power, the future of America.  Blacks were getting MBAs and were taking over business.  Magazines like Black Enterprise where thriving.  There was this thing…in the air…it was black progress.

10 years into 2000…you have to ask yourself…what happened?

Could it be that in a time of the internet and the Smoking Gun and investigative reporting, the Establishment could not get away with introducing a drug to the inner city again without being unmasked before the world with ease?

And that given this fact, in order to kill the rising strength of the black empowerment and business movement of hip hop and the 90s, the Powers that be, would have to find another, smarter more clever way to kill, steal, cheat, and destroy black people and their progress?

What if the Establishment could influence that which they held so dear? Which was the distribution of everything black…Hip Hop?  What if it could influence record companies and what they wanted? Selected? And Signed?

And just like that…it happened slowly…so slow, that we barely noticed…what was once about reflection, and voice and progress…became…FUN. We had fun beats, Annie was singing on a record, we could make songs about video hoes, and instead of gold necklaces we wanted to be laced with…diamonds! Yes, diamonds…blood draped, African, bling.

With this new shiny, diamond wearing BLINGED out world of hip hop came excess.  This Establishment paid out more money than they had ever paid black artists in history for any sort of entertainment!  Rather than screaming community wealth and fashion creativity, we suddenly traded urban fashions.  We wanted designer European fashions! Gucci, LV, Channel…We also became less employable!  Artists promoted grills and tattoos because nothing makes you poorer than…not being able to get a job!  How lovely!

Guys, this is way better than crack!  Yeah, crack was too messy!

Oh, wait…yes, Hip Hop…Rick Ross…

A follower on Twitter today popped off a conversation about how Rick Ross has kids rapping and singing about King Ping this and that…

It reminded me of how Hip Hop isn’t real anymore.  Not at all. Not when you have a guy like Rick Ross making records and hit singles and tours.

For one, we DO know, his raps are not autobiographical.  We do know, the guy was accused and then confirmed to be a CO, under the name of William Leonard Roberts.  Now, if you live in the hood for real you know that CO’s and PO’s touch dope too so let’s say, that in respect, we can’t just toss that he’s touched dope because he was a CO…okay, we can give him that, maybe. But, I’m sorry, kingpin? Um…not so much.  (By the way, here’s the info about Rick Ross http://bit.ly/9S0J0w )

For two, Kingpins don’t rap. They don’t work on an image. They don’t send out demos.  They don’t take other men’s names…living men…in prison at that…no matter how big the rep is.  It would have been totally different if the Real Rick Ross had christened him before his first album, and put him out into the world like, “this is the real deal, he’s from the streets, I’m giving him my name.”Not the case.  And, by the way, Jay was Jay before he became iconic. Now that’s real.

But my point is way past Rick Ross, I can care less about him.  I mean, we could have picked Nicky Minaj and gotten to the same place.

My point is this…I want people to question what has happened to Hip Hop and why.  I want us to see that the influence of Hip Hop as it is today is as dangerous as the introduction and distribution of crack-cocaine in the inner city.

I want us to see that it isn’t real to glorify dope selling…when it isn’t real at all.  The numbers don’t add up.  Their quantities don’t add up.  Their prices and numbers don’t add up.  Ask a real dope boy.  People moving that much dope and not getting caught doesn’t add up.  Unless, they are old white men or Mexicans with established government connections, businesses, trust funds, and attorneys. It sure the hell isn’t Rick Ross.

These rappers are the pied pipers of our black boys and they don’t live the real street life.  They are on the same Establishment’s payroll as the DEA agents that sat in the sidelines in the 80s.  Their kids don’t go to the Title I schools you’re kids will go to.  They won’t face a 50-60% dropout rate. They won’t sit in a class with 40 other kids and no heat.

Put some real numbers in your rap and talk about the Federal mandatory minimum and then I’ll tell you if you are real.

And for the record boys and girls, a Federal charge of CONSPIRACY to distribute 5kilos or more (remember rappers are rapping about 20-30 bricks in weeks or days, or whatever fit their rhyme) with a “Kin Pin” title, will get you 13 years. Just FYI. Now what’s real.

Check out Families against Mandatory Minimum’s website: www.famm.org

A Slave that Did Not Know How to Read…

When I was in high school I had a teacher that told me that slaves owners didn’t want their slaves to read because they did not want them to learn that they were equals, they did not want them to experience beauty, they did not want them to learn the law, or to read and understand God’s love, since all these things could be found in books.  Most importantly though…slaves that did not know how to read, where easily caught because they could not read the signs on the road and would become disoriented and lost.  She also made me read the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.

16 years later, I think about our conversations all the time when I look outside my window and I read through the statistics of urban education.

In some of our urban inner city schools, the high school drop-out rates are at 60% for black boys.  Yes, up to 60% of black boys do not graduate from High School.

Now, let’s take that a step further.

Statistics as old at 2004 show that 72% of black male high school dropouts in their 20′s were jobless — that is, unable to find work, not seeking it or incarcerated. And that by their mid-30′s, 6 in 10 black men who had dropped out of school had spent time in prison.

We can only assume that in 2010 these numbers, in the middle of our biggest recession in history, are that much severe.

Prisons are big business.  This is not a “black” conspiracy theory.  Major business magazines and networks like CNN have openly reported the profitability of the 37+ BILLION dollar business of prisons.

I’m no rocket scientist.  The numbers speak for themselves. There is a financial, economic benefit to having ANY 37+BILLION dollar industry in ANY economy—what about a recessionary economy? What do you think?  A 37+BILLION dollar industry means jobs, it means taxes, it means economic activity.  The United States of America would not be in the position that it is today, had it not been for economic benefit of the cotton & tobacco industry and SOMEONE had to fuel it, aka black slaves.  People fought to the death to protect that economy.  Remember?

Fast forward to today, and we are pushing black boys out of schools, into juvenile detention and into the streets.  And yes, the last thing that this country is dedicated to is teaching black boys how to read. Believe that.

Is it safe to say then, history has repeated itself and we are breeding modern days slaves to fuel a 37+Billion Industry and that whether we want to admit it or not (remember they south has always claimed it was about “state rights” not about defending slavery), people will fight…I mean legislate, to the death to keep it from collapsing?

I’m asking you…specially if you are a black man or a black man’s parent (even if that black man is just a boy), are you ready to be a slave and let them make a slave out of your sons?

Remember, the slaves that did not know how to read, where easily caught because they could not read the signs on the road and would become disoriented and lost.  Teach your sons to read.  Encourage them and yourself to read the right things and read them all the time.

Freedom depends on it.

Don’t Forget To Check Out This ACLU School-To-Prison-Pipeline-Game Below!

http://www.aclu.org/school-prison-pipeline-game

“Successful People Don’t Feed Their Kids Honey Buns –and You Shouldn’t Either” PART IV

Story behind my WAKE UP CALL and “non-expert expert” status for all things Parenting and Nutrition

When I was 5 wks pregnant my husband left to the Feds. I almost lost my son, I was so stressed out. For almost a year prior to him leaving my husband had been on house arrest and I was pretty isolated during that time.  After he left, I was pregnant, working from home, I was all alone, my closest friend lived 35-40 minutes away.  So when the nurse told me about a new parenting program sponsored by a major university hospital, I was game! 

I became obsessed with learning everything about the health of my pregnancy and my son.  The more I found out the more diet became an issue.  I never thought about childhood obesity as a major problem for blacks and Latinos—I always thought about drugs, crime, violence, and education.  I never thought about food being responsible for kid’s learning and behavior disabilities.  I never really actually realized how drastic their numbers are to OURS when it comes to diseases and concerns for OUR kids.  Or that food leads to problems and problems lead to kids being labeled as “bad” by teachers and then those teachers push them out of school and just like that…you have 40, 50, 60% of kids dropping out of High School and into welfare and prison!

As a community we just don’t think about that stuff.  I learned so much from being around those people in class. That’s one of the reasons why I’m going all in on the Urban Bailout and other place that gives me any opening to talk about our kid’s diets.

Because they are really killing us. As a group, as a community. This food is killing us.  Just by keeping information from us and stocking our stores with garbage.   It’s GENOCIDE!

And we have to WAKE up! Wake the HELL UP!

Let me give you a perfect example…at my health clinic they told me, take a pre-natal vitamin, any pre-natal and if it upsets you just take a few Flintstone vitamins it’s the same thing.

But it’s NOT. The mothers I went to class with were taking medical grade multivitamins with OMEGA 3! Omega 3 is found in fish oil and it develops the BRAIN of a baby! Every pregnant and nursing mom should be taking and every child should be having it in his/her diet (yes, my son STILL takes Omega 3).

People need nutrients to work function right! A Balanced diet even calms you down and deal with stress better.  In a child it makes a HUGE difference. Actually, it is the single most important factor that you can control when it comes to learning disabilities.

It’s not just about eating your fruits and vegetables to be strong or not be fat. It’s about…getting cancer and having a stroke from eating this food. It’s about your kids getting cancer, and diabetes, and getting strokes from eating this food. It’s about your kid being able to learn and do math and deal with stress like any other kid, one of “their” kids.

You see, what our kids go through, what we go through…it turns out that is NOT normal.

Some studies show that a kid that is breastfed does better in school, has higher IQ, is less likely to be overweight and have high cholesterol…for LIFE! When he’s a baby and then a child he’s also less likely to get cancer, asthma, ear infections, and so many other things.  But it seems like, in our culture from our friend’s to WIC encourages that we give them formula! Women that breastfeed their kids are less likely to get ovarian and breast cancer…again…they want US to give them formula.

Got to a Chinese restaurant, look at what THEY are eating…you will not see a family in a Chinese restaurant eat the food they give you. They are eating plain rice, vegetables, and fish.

Yeah, Americans as a whole are fat and getting fatter and sicker…a lot of people say that when I bring this issue up…I hate to break it to you, but there’s just some stuff that they don’t sell anywhere but in the hood. No one is stupid enough to eat this stuff but us.

That bothers me.  It should bother you. If you take only one thing away from this series is that it should bother you if not for yourself then for your kids.

There’s a reason rich, successful people don’t eat this stuff. No one should.

So what can you do? Healthy food is expensive!  I feel you and it’s true.

Here’s my affordable and will even save you money list:

• Kids don’t need all those snacks anyways–If anything use, candy, desserts, and chips (snacks) as treats for them doing good things (chores, reading a book, picking up their toys). This saves you money too! Remember, they really don’t need all those snacks.
• Kids (or YOU) don’t need all that soda and they don’t need all that ‘fruit drink/Kool-Aid” none of that. EVER—you did READ the other posts right? They need water! They don’t even need that much JUICE—Juice-REAL 100%-once a day is fine.
• Kids SHOULD be breastfed 6 months to a year.  Follow celebrity news and see most celebrity women BREASTFEED their babies, it gets you back into shape faster and it’s the very best.  They know this and so should you!
• After they are 2, kids don’t need WHOLE milk, give them Skim/NON-FAT milk. No chocolate or strawberry “pink” milk.   Would you give your kid a glass of milk that you just put 18 spoons of sugar into? NO! But that’s exactly what you are doing when you put that chocolate/strawberry mix in it!
• Hot dogs…all beef or turkey if you most…don’t get the super cheap kind. PLUS, if you can…avoid hotdogs—remember Gwyneth!
• Making your OWN mini pizzas is not difficult or expensive, do that don’t buy Tostinos and frozen mini-pizzas. You are killing your kids!
• If you HAVE to use hamburger, use half hamburger and half ground turkey.
• Get NATURAL no sugar added applesauce and light syrup or juice fruit cups as snacks and freeze them for frozen treats.
• Use BROWN rice and WHOLE wheat bread. NOT White or White Wheat bread!
• Don’t use 1 minute or those little packaged oatmeal with flavor oatmeal, get quick cooking whole oats.
• Don’t give them any cereal that tastes good. (Okay, I’m so serious right now) or comes in a bag! You are just hurting your child. This means, pops, lucky charm, captain crunch, cinnamon toast…none of that!
• When you buy pasta buy whole wheat pasta! Do not buy regular pasta! Even if you are going to make macaroni and cheese form box…throw away the pasta they give you, keep the seasoning, and use the wheat pasta with the boxed seasoning. 

There are lots of other changes you can make of course.  These were some of the once I made that I know anyone that wants to change can make.  Are these changes easy to make? NO!  Will everyone around make the “stupidest” comments ever to you for making them…yes! Are they inconvenient? Yup!

Are they worth it? You tell me.

Real Talk.  My role is to inform you and build you up. You have the info so you are no longer ignorant. If you choose not to make changes…then you are just ACTING ignorant and you are everything they say you are.

NOTE: We’ve added a page dedicated to parenting on this blog and have a parenting blog coming out soon! Stay tuned! And don’t forget for $10 a MONTH membership you have unlimited access to classes, coaching, tips, and access to experts that include parenting topics! Make an investment in yourself and your family today!

“It Can’t Be Corny!”

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS LANGUAGE THAT I WONT USUALLY USE ON THIS BLOG. THAT BEING SAID, I’M RETELLING AN INCIDENT THAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT AND AS I RETELL THE STORY, I’M GOING TO TELL IT IN ITS ORIGINAL CONTEXT.

I have friends. From all walks of life. ALL.

Some of those friends are in the entertainment industry. I can’t say I know A-list artists personally. My pond is more a mid-size fish pond. But, my mid-size fish run with some BIG fish and my folks will stick their heads out for me because of what I’m about.

That being said, I don’t like anyone to blow smoke up my XXX!

So I broke the Urban Bailout out to one of my dudes and I asked him, REAL TALK, what are your thoughts about the UB? What’s the word on what I’m trying to do?

He said, “I feel you and I’m not worried about YOU being corny…I’m just saying, you gotta see how you try to sell it to folks.  I mean, the whole thing is cool…but it  can’t be corny. You just gotta remember you are talking about hood.”

I said, let me ask you this…do you have a mentor?

“Yes.”

Does your mentor have a mentor?

“Yes.”

When you guys deal with the real big wigs, white folks, rich folks, successful folks…do they carry themselves different than people in the hood?

“Yes.”

You think they use life coaching, they read self-help, and they have dreams and goals and plans to keep them focused?

“Yes.”

Shit, all I’m saying is the hood needs that just like ya’ll need that. That’s not corny. That’s real.  Cats are out here taking penitentiary chances for chump change. They fuck around and risk their entire probation, freedom, and their kids having their daddy  and  go get a QP that ain’t going to make them no kind of real money just to have a couple dollas in their pockets…and let’s not even say that they are thirsty to get their hands on an 1/8 on any given day. 

These broads are out here having kids and they don’t even know what they hell they are doing, they don’t know how to read to a baby, how they are going to feed this kid, buy clothes for it, if this dude going to be around, they don’t know that their district school only had a 40% graduation ratio and that’s the education they are going to exposing their kids to…they don’t know. Come tax time, these broads are selling their kids, they are bringing out 6, 8, 10 W2 tax forms and you add them all up and it adds up to 8-13k. That’s , 8, 10 job interviews, first days of work, going to pick checks up, getting to work…for 8k in year—-you know me and you have walked away from deals just cuz we can’t make 8-10k in one deal…these folks are making that in a year?

This shit is in-fucking-sane and you’re worried about this shit I’m doing being corny? You industry dudes kill me man, you guys make money off this hood life, and you don’t live it no-more and it seems to me, ya’ll should be breaking your NECKS to get some shit like this together just off these being black people.

I can put together professional contacts that are motivational speakers, authors, teachers, college professors, business men, lawyers, and doctor and there is little to NO chances that they will ever share what they know with the REAL urban market.

 I’m going to tap into that urban market that is on the internet that does want to do better and we are going to put everyone together using internet tools.

We are going to get the information to people, and teach them how to do better, because for the most part it’s not about the people in the streets not being as good as anyone else.

Daily coaching, weekly calls, and classes twice a month about motivation, goals, and focus and then the same thing about other topics like career, interviewing skills, parenting, education, nutrition…man, we need this.

People in these streets need to know dope law, they need to know what political issues are on the table, they need to know how to start a business, how to raise their kids, black history and culture, what what to eat and what to feed  their kids!

Okay, some people won’t like it and some people aren’t interested but some people are going to tune in cuz everyone in the hood doesn’t want to just stay living this bullshit.

People in the hood have dreams too. We have more talent and genius and strength in our streets than White America could ever pay for! We just need help, structure, coaching, and education…just like everybody else. We need to learn to think and problem-solve and make money.  Everybody ain’t grimy. Everybody ain’t stupid.

Yeah I’m making them pay. But what’s the fee for everything? $10 a month? You can’t get a ride across town without having to break someone off with a $10.  I’m not running some bullshit ghetto ass operation here, I’m bringing real professionals on board and we are taking real time out to do daily chats. There’s a cost to that.

I’m also putting a lot of stuff out there free too.

If the members want to grind and make money, they can join a business and promote the program, and get all that plus make money for the same $10. I can take a single mom and help her make an extra $500-1,000 for promoting and she’s learning to focus and she’s learning to help her kids. I can take a felon and tell him to go get busy and make $500-1,000, same thing.

What’s corny about that? You tell me? You tell me something better?  

“Nah, Nah, Nah babe it’s cool. I mean it’s a good idea. You’re right. I was just saying.”

 

Check this: For everyone that I have come on, for every professional, for every life coach…I have 14 that tell me no. I’ve been trying to put this thing together for 2 years. I don’t need people to tell my project’s hot, I’m grown. I wanted to hear his opinion. That’s why I asked.

But, the idea of even thinking of it in “corny” terms fired me up. Because while we are busy being “cool” we are busy dying, we are busy getting locked up, we are busy not getting educated, we are broker than ever…and guess what?  Those low end jobs we used to get, 10-15 years ago, they are taking them overseas and the ones that are staying here in the U.S., with the unemployment the way its…they’ll give them to some white mom from the suburbs with a degree that’s willing to take it before they give it you or me!

I’m bringing real knowledge, real caring, real love, and putting money on the table!

So, corny? Kiss my ass! I’m doing what no one else is going. 

Real Talk.

NOTE: We are still not done with the “Successful People Dont’ Feed Their Kids Honey Buns –You Shouldn’t Either” we just wanted to address last night incident. Look for the final post tomorrow!

Successful People Don’t Feed Their Kids Honey Buns…and Neither Should You! PART III

I have a Part III blog to post but, I wanted to give you some of the facts about kids and our diets.

Just for kicks…maybe you’ll start understanding what’s at stake…we’re not just typing this ISH for no reason.

Diet and Learning Disabilities

Kids with bad diets (and ours are very bad) that include little to no fruits and vegetables, high sugar, high processed food (honey buns, luncheon meat, hot dogs, chips, etc.), food that turn into sugar (sometimes they call them simple carbohydrates and they are white bread/potatoes/white rice), high fat, and high sodium have a bigger chance of having a learning disability and behavior problems. 

1. Kids do not “outgrow” learning disabilities.
2. Kids with learning disabilities are more likely to use drugs and alcohol and go to prison in their lifetime if they are not supported and treated early.
3. Kids with learning disabilities usually get less of an education and are at greater risk for dropping out of school which means high likelihood of living in poverty.

Most of this can be AVOIDED and handled if you just eat a better diet while pregnant and watched their diets as good as possible…specially their first 5 years!

     Diet and Obesity and Weight Problems

1. Black girls are most affected by obesity than any other group.
2. The highest group of children getting diabetes type 2, which used to be a disease of adults, are all obese, and the majority are black.
3. 12 percent of White children are obese compared to about 21 percent of Black children. But, Blacks only make up 10 percent of the population.
4. Obese and overweight children are more likely to get Asthma and children with asthma are more likely to have behavior problems and problems concentrating in school.
5. Obese kids are more likely to get gallstones.
6. Obese kids are more likely to get Heart Disease and/or have a stroke by the time they are 35 and have High Blood Pressure.
7. Young girls that are overweight or obese are more likely to develop their periods early and have problems with their periods throughout their entire lives.
8. Overweight and obese girls are more likely to start having sex early, have sex with a lot more boys and have more unprotected sex than other teens.

Now on top of all the bullshit that your child will deal with in his/her lifetime just by being black or Lation, you wanna throw this on their lap because you can’t learn how to work with your budget and feed him/her what he/she need?

Real Talk?

Stay tune for my next blog post on this series where I share how I became a “hood” expert on this topic. And I promise…I am going to get to some solutions and things for you to learn so you know what to do…because that’s what we at Urban Bailout are all about!

Successful People Don’t Feed Their Kids Honey Buns…and Neither Should You! PART II

I kicked off this blog post with a title “Successful People Don’t Feed Their Kids Honey Buns “ right?

One of the things, we like to do at Urban Bailout is to compare what “we do” and then what other people, we’ll call them “they” do. Because if you want what “they” have, you have to do what “they” do—right? I mean, that’s one way to approach it at least.   

Take Jay and B for example, Hip Hop and R&B’s royal couple…they don’t have kids but their BFF’s Gwenyth Patrol and Chris Martin have two.

For this sake of this part of the post Gwenyth and her family will become our “they”  (young,  What does Gwenyth feed her family?  We dug up two interviews and found out that for her red meat and processed foods are out of the question (Processed foods = anything that comes out of box or plastic. For example, American cheese, hotdogs, luncheon meat, oh, yes, and HONEY BUNS!).  She stays away from sugar and dairy (milk, ice cream, etc.).  Some of her kid’s favorite recipes include her banana-nut muffins but made with maple syrup and brown rice syrup instead of sugar.  She’s dedicated to eating fresh foods, mostly organic, cooks at least 5-7 times a week at home, and has a huge vegetable garden (because she likes fresh). She also uses whole grains (brown rice, oatmeal, brown bread, etc.) instead of the regular stuff (white bread, white rice, etc.)

One of the things I found very interesting is that she said, it’s important to eat this way and that one of the reason people in this country get sick is because they eat processed food(—you think, Gwenyth?).  She also said that she has her kids help her in the kitchen so that they are involved in process.

Hmmm…cook at home, use fresh food, eat lots of fruits and vegetable, use whole grain (brown), stay away from boxed food and stuff that comes in plastic…oh, and do it with your kids so you can do something fun together and they can learn…sounds like everything we ARE NOT doing!

Listen guys, we don’t give a two flying Xs who Gwyneth is, who she’s married to, why she’s close friends with B and Jay…we don’t really care about what SHE eats or her kids eat. We have our own kids, business, life, to deal with and so do you.

But in a sense, we do care. Because it’s very important to think and pay attention to how your living and compare it to how others are living it. You want different ISH you have to do different. It’s that simple.

From what we eat to how we carry ourselves, we can all agree that some of us are getting different results than the rest of the country…the world at that.

It doesn’t get more basic than what you put in your mouth.

Rich, educated, successful people care about what goes into their body because THEY matter. THEY make themselves money. THEY are an important part of their plan. THEY don’t want to break down. If THEY break down, the show stops and they have some ISH on the line.

When you don’t think about things like that, you are saying YOU don’t think YOU matter or are important. YOU can just do whatever, and let it be.

Rich, educated, successful people care about what they put in their kid’s mouth because THEIR kids matter.   Their kids carry on their legacy, their name.  They know that what kids eat affects how they look, how they act, how smart they are, how healthy they are.

When you don’t think about things like that, you say the exact opposite.  Whether you are doing it on purpose or not, you say that to the world and you say that to your kids! 

At Urban Bailout we like to say that:

An uneducated mom + Stores & food in the hood + A food stamp card = WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION!

It’s a SET UP! 

Not to say that EVERYONE in the hood is on food stamps either…we are just making that statement!  

Here’s another statement…don’t be a pawn in “their game.” Don’t let them kill you without a homicide investigation to follow.

Tune in tomorrow for our final Part III to give you tips and helpful links on this topic!

Successful People Don’t Feed Their Kids Honey Buns…and Neither Should You!

I have nothing personal against honey buns—well actually I do. It’s NOT just honey buns. Its Little Debbie snacks, its .25 “juices,” its “hip hop snacks.”

It’s not just snacks. It’s fried chicken, its Chinese food, and its pork skins…its snoots! (shout to the ESTL with that one). It’s every food you can’t find outside the hood.

Check this…in general, Black and Latinos get more diabetes, high blood pressure, have more cases of obesity (yes, we are fatter), and here’s the most important one—we get more of different kinds of CANCER than other groups!

We’re are talking about black people…descendants of kings…descendants of the very first people on the planet… the richest lineage…and all of a sudden…we have the shortest life spans and have the most diseases than anyone else? Why does that not add up? That’s why I can’t eat that certain things any more (at least not all the time) because there is no way in the world those statistics add up to me. If I can’t drive up to ‘burbs and get that in one of their shops, I’m not eating it. Point blank. And even if and when I eat I eat stuff like that, there is no way, I’m feeding them to my 2 year old.

And here’s why: Do you realize that from time they are in the womb to their first 5 years of a child’s life is when the brain and all their other organs are forming? Those 5 yrs + 9 months set the tone of their health for their entire LIFE. What do I look like feeding my son some damn pork fried rice, with no onions, and gravy with a fruit soda to go with it? There’s no telling what that’s doing to his brain.

No wonder, an increasing number of our kids are getting ADHD and learning disabilities and other diseases, because these people let all this garbage food into our stores, don’t teach a young woman a lick of nutrition, then they give her $300-800 of free money a.k.a. food stamps to buy all that trash!

“Oh, what do you say, you’re having a baby? Oh, you have kids? And you are poor? Here…go kill yourself! Let your kids eat all that garbage while you are pregnant and better yet, while they are little and they need nutrition! Let’s see what happens! Yeeeyy!”

Oh, and it gets better, when your kid is actually born with a disease or develops one or has behavior or obesity problems or has a hard time reading at school or doing math…they will also make you feel guilty and look like an irresponsible mother in front of the world. It’s a double whammy there. So let me get this right…you don’t teach me about food, you give me free money to buy food, then you put junk food in the hood for me to buy, THEN you say I’m irresponsible for buying it when they have consequences? Bingo! That’s exactly how it works!

I’m telling you, it used to not be like this. No one ever heard of all these autistic black and Latino kids, and kids with ADHD, and kids with dyslexia, obesity, high cholesterol, asthma…now that’s all you hear. Our mothers and aunts, in their 50-60s, are falling apart health wise. It doesn’t make sense. Our young men are dying in the streets or going to prison. Our young women are contracting HIV/AIDS at larger rates than anyone else. And whoever they miss with that bull…they get with this damn food that’s in our neighborhoods!

 At some point, you have to see that for what it is. And recognize you’ve been feeding into it.

COME BACK TOMORROW FOR PART II

We’re going to break this issue down some more, look at what rich and successful DO feed their kids, and what are some of the things we do need to eat/not eat and why.

What’s Good Kinfolk?

Seriously, you have not seen anything like Urban Bailout.

Shit is bad in the hood. You can let someone else try to tell you different if you want to.

There’s a lot of educated, progressive people that admit it.  People know that things are worst now than they have ever been.  Many of these people have solutions, they have knowledge, they have information…but they are talking to each other! They aren’t coming in the hood and talking to us!

There’s a lot successful people in this country, enjoying life, wealth, career, health, and good relationships…Some of them even have books and give seminars on how to get all this to work for together.  But when’s the last time YOU heard about it?

Who talks to the Urban market? Who teaches us? Who says, this is what you need to know, these are some of the things you need to do, this is what you need to read, this is how to help your kids? 

The hood needs money, who’s teaching us how to make it? The hood needs help with their kids education, who is teaching us? The hood has more weight and weight related health issues than anyone else but who is teaching us how to eat, what to do eat, what not to eat, and why?

Who?

Government is not. Educators are not. White folks aren’t. Black successful people aren’t. The people that have left and now live in the ‘burbs aren’t coming back. Black actors live their own lives. The black music industry makes money off sex and drugs you know they sure the hell are not.

Everyone is so busy pointing the finger and living their lives and spending their money to say, hold up…let me put YOU on, let me teach you something. No  one is saying “I don’t believe you want to live like this for real.”

That’s what Urban Bailout (UB) is about.

We want to give you some things to think about. No bull just real talk.

We want to teach you to make money (and keep it).

We want to be here to help you raise and teach your kids.

We’re here to support each other in a positive way and move in one same direction. In other words…were are in this B’ together!

If you are a grinder and you are ready for some change, don’t settle, and bail yourself out!