Comic Genius Patrice O'neal Dies at 41

Comedian Patrice O'Neal, a popular stand-up comic who often appeared on Comedy Central, died on Monday following complications from a stroke he suffered back in October

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What happened to Black political power?

by William Reed

In 1964, Malcolm X said, "Anytime you throw your weight behind a political party...and that party can’t keep promises that it made...and you’re dumb enough to walk around continuing to identify with that political party, you’re not only a chump, but a traitor to your race."

So what do you think Malcolm X would say to radio host Tom Joyner’s "plea to the Black man" blog statement: "Let’s not deal with the facts right now...let’s just deal with our Blackness and pride – and loyalty. We have a chance to re-elect the first African-American president, and that’s what we ought to be doing...because he’s a Black man"?

What has Obama done?
Fifty years after Malcolm X preached Black Power and its concepts of economic and political equity, a Black family resides in the White House. People like Joyner want to keep them there without posing the ultimate question: "What have you done for me lately?"
Malcolm X’s "by any means necessary" pledge to Black equality holds great sway in the Black Power psyche. For Joyner to be willing to overlook the fact that Black Americans have the lowest average income of any large racial group in the nation, are incarcerated at alarmingly high rates, and are still segregated and profiled just to get Obama re-elected is a disservice to Black political empowerment. Wouldn’t Malcolm suggest that African-Americans take stock of what the Obamas being in the White House has accrued?

Issues in forefront
At the basis of political struggle are economic interests. The economic interests of Black Americans are not mutually aligned with the Democrats or the Republicans. In areas of social justice, economic development and public safety, the vast gulf between what is needed and what is provided from government demands re-evaluation.
President Obama’s tone toward Blacks’ problems is for us to "stop whining." And Herman Cain says to the Black and poor that "if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself!" African-Americans are a racial minority in a country where racism is a fact of life. Black-oriented issues are regularly put on the back burner. It makes sense to form African-American interest groups who are willing to bring our issues to the forefront of American political discourse.

Things can change for us, if we make a point of consolidating our own political voting power. Black Americans can no longer complain about how we are treated without adopting tried and true methods to take political power. Identifying with Black culture is necessary. Being part of a 2012 Black voting bloc would be a bold move to put balance back in the American political landscape leading up to the presidential election.
Some Black Americans will like lemmings go the Joyner "Keep a Black Man president" route. In contrast, others will become forces that make their own political fortunes.

Fifty-state strategy
The Black Political Party Media Fund is a Washington, D.C.-based 527 organization of note that is laying the foundation for a ticket of Black Power proponents to get on all 50 state ballots in 2012 and compete in a serious way with Barack and the Democrats and whomever the GOP nominates. For those able to think and act outside the mainstream ‘box,’ Black-oriented political pursuits can provide purpose, vision, and hope.

The Black Power 527 is paying petition gatherers in several states and working on a website and strategy that enables millions of people to conduct a "virtual primary" in mid-2012. The Black Political Party Media Fund’s projects include reaching out to Facebook and Twitter users to advocate Black Power objectives over their networks and in their various locales. The group seeks citizen journalists ready to advocate African-Americans’ interests and points of view.
The organization is seeking paid staffers and volunteers to work in every state Senate district in the country and on HBCU college campuses signing up ‘delegates’ to a Black Party convention. The Business Exchange is accepting inquiries at Busxchng@his.com .
Contact William Reed via www.BlackPressInternational.com. He is available for speaking/seminar projects via BaileyGroup.org

Heavy D gone to soon

Artist and Hip Hop Legend Heavy D, the self-proclaimed "overweight lover" of hip-hop, who became one of rap's biggest stars in the 1980s, has died aged 44.

He died on Tuesday after being found unconscious at his Los Angeles home.

Born Dwight Arrington Myers in Jamaica in 1967, Heavy D found fame with his band "The Boyz", scoring hits with such tracks as Now That We Found Love.

He appeared on Michael Jackson's 1991 song Jam and recently performed at the singer's tribute concert in Cardiff.

"My heart goes out to the family and [loved] ones of Heavy D," tweeted Jackson's sister La Toya, who appeared with Heavy D at the event on 8 October.

The charismatic MC was more often a seducer and a comedian. "What's it going to be, me or the TV?" he chided his lover on Now That We Found Love, his biggest UK hit.

With his band, The Boyz, he set the tone for New Jack Swing - sparse production, big R&B hooks and metallic drum loops - paving the way for the likes of Bobby Brown and Blackstreet.

Three of his albums - Big Tyme (1989), Peaceful Journey (1991) and Nuttin' but Love (1994) - went platinum in the US.

In the early 1990s, he duetted with the likes of Notorious BIG and Janet Jackson, cheekily branding the latter "a walking bank vault" on her hit single.

His acting career took off, with appearances on TV shows such as Law & Order: SVU and Boston Public in the early 2000s.

He also made select film appearances, with roles in The Cider House Rules and, most recently, alongside Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy in the comedy Tower Heist.

However, he continued to create music and his last album, Love Opus, was considered a return to form when it was released in September this year.

Rapper Ice T was among the rapper's peers expressing condolences, saying he felt "sick" at the news of the Heavy D's death.

"Stop for a second, take a breath and realize how lucky you are to be alive," he wrote after hearing the news.

"We had a lot of great times touring together," tweeted MC Hammer. "He had a heart of gold."

According to Lt Mark Rosen of the Beverly Hills police, the rapper experienced breathing difficulties while returning home from shopping.

After collapsing in an exterior hallway, he was transported to Cedars Sinai Medical Center where he later died.

The musician is survived by family members including his daughter Xea.

50 Cent launches Street King

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www.streetking.com

Heavyweight Champ Joe Frazier, Dies at 67

Joe Frazier, the former heavyweight champion whose furious and intensely personal fights with a taunting Muhammad Ali endure as an epic rivalry in boxing history, died Monday night. He was 67.

Known as Smokin’ Joe, Frazier stalked his opponents around the ring with a crouching, relentless attack — his head low and bobbing, his broad, powerful shoulders hunched — as he bore down on them with an onslaught of withering jabs and crushing body blows, setting them up for his devastating left hook.

It was an overpowering modus operandi that led to versions of the heavyweight crown from 1968 to 1973. Frazier won 32 fights in all, 27 by knockouts, losing four times — twice to Ali in furious bouts and twice to George Foreman. He also recorded one draw.

A slugger who weathered repeated blows to the head while he delivered punishment, Frazier proved a formidable figure. But his career was defined by his rivalry with Ali, who ridiculed him as a black man in the guise of a Great White Hope. Frazier detested him.

Ali vs. Frazier was a study in contrasts. Ali: tall and handsome, a wit given to spouting poetry, a magnetic figure who drew adulation and denigration alike, the one for his prowess and outsize personality, the other for his antiwar views and Black Power embrace of Islam. Frazier: a bull-like man of few words with a blue-collar image and a glowering visage who in so many ways could be on an equal footing with his rival only in the ring.

Frazier won the undisputed heavyweight title with a 15-round decision over Ali at Madison Square Garden in March 1971, in an extravaganza known as the Fight of the Century. Ali scored a 12-round decision over Frazier at the Garden in a non-title bout in January 1974. Then came the Thrilla in Manila championship bout, in October 1975, regarded as one of the greatest fights in boxing history. It ended when a battered Frazier, one eye swollen shut, did not come out to face Ali for the 15th round.

The Ali-Frazier battles played out at a time when the heavyweight boxing champion was far more celebrated than he is today, a figure who could stand alone in the spotlight a decade before an alphabet soup of boxing sanctioning bodies arose, making it difficult for the average fan to figure out just who held what title.

The rivalry was also given a political and social cast. Many viewed the Ali-Frazier matches as a snapshot of the struggles of the 1960s. Ali, an adherent of the Nation of Islam, came to represent rising black anger in America and opposition to the Vietnam War. Frazier voiced no political views, but he was nonetheless depicted, to his consternation, as the favorite of the establishment. Ali called him “ignorant,” likened him to a gorilla and said his black supporters were Uncle Toms.

“Frazier had become the white man’s fighter, Mr. Charley was rooting for Frazier, and that meant blacks were boycotting him in their heart,” Norman Mailer wrote in Life magazine following the first Ali-Frazier bout.

Frazier, wrote Mailer, was “twice as black as Clay and half as handsome,” with “the rugged decent life-worked face of a man who had labored in the pits all his life.”

Frazier could never match Ali’s charisma or his gift for the provocative quote. He was essentially a man devoted to a brutal craft, willing to give countless hours to his spartan training-camp routine and unsparing of his body inside the ring.

“The way I fight, it’s not me beatin’ the man: I make the man whip himself,” Frazier told Playboy in 1973. “Because I stay close to him. He can’t get out the way.” He added: “Before he knows it — whew! — he’s tired. And he can’t pick up his second wind because I’m right back on him again.”

In his autobiography, “Smokin’ Joe,” written with Phil Berger, Frazier said his first trainer, Yank Durham, had given him his nickname. It was, he said, “a name that had come from what Yank used to say in the dressing room before sending me out to fight: ‘Go out there, goddammit, and make smoke come from those gloves.’ “

‘Occupy Atlanta’ Denies Rumors Of Partnership With Nation Of Islam « CBS Atlanta

‘Occupy Atlanta’ Denies Rumors Of Partnership With Nation Of Islam « CBS Atlanta