Last year right before Mother’s Day I made a post to the women in my feed about how, on Mother’s Day, no matter how trifling and fucked up some peoples mothers were when they were growing up, or if they were absentee, you never, ever, ever see men spewing hate about their mother on or before that day. You never ever see men trying to lay claim to being their child/children’s mother too! Never Ever!

So my appeal was to have women think twice before they claim that they had to play father too to their kids, just because the father was a deadbeat and wasn’t around. It makes no sense at all! It doesn’t matter if someone else post it and you like it, stop it, You Are Not The Father! And feeling any kind of way that gives you the notion that you played the role of the father too is borderline psychotic. And if your child post it, correct them right away, it’s obvious that they’ve been raised to believe a lie!

You’re confusing taking them to play sports or going outside and playing sports with your child as being a “father figure” or as something that’s strictly thought of a s father’s duty. My wife takes my kids to activities all the time, and has occasionally shot a couple hoops with my son’s, but was she doing my duties, she wasn’t doing some holy fatherly thing that only fathers are allowed to do, she was bonding with her children as any mother should.

Get mad if you want to, call me whatever but stop laying claim to something that you have no capacity to be. I feel you, you had a tough time trying to raise them and keep things together, I commend you for that. My mother did the same, and I love here to death for trying to keep me level headed enough to not venture out and be part of the problem! She did a hell of a job raising 6 kids virtually on her own with no help at all from my father, and a little help from my siblings father.

But at no time ever did she lay claim to being my father too. She had enough wisdom to know that she wasn’t a father and enough dignity to not think she deserved that accolade, she was and still is all woman! A woman that was strong enough to hold shit down without a man, but never felt like she was a man.

A lot of y’all have it twisted, you’re letting these feminist movements and propaganda create an alternate understanding of feminism that seems to want to see women shown in a more masculine light, and Sisters, you are ground zero for the re-education.

Just take a look at how Black women are being portrayed in the media now; you’re wild, uncouth loud mouthed women who will beat each other into the dirt, just like men, a bunch of Sharkeisha’s. Reality shows have fucked up what a real woman (Black) is supposed to be by elevating the worst of the pack to the top of the pecking order, i.e. Nene Leaks! And no I’m not one of those every Black woman is a Queen kinda dudes, because that’s false propaganda too! Some of you are exactly who you’re supposed to be, just regular people, everyone can’t be Queens, and for damn sure, not one of y’all can be Kings, period! These chicks on the internet calling themselves King this to King that, or calling Beyonce, King Bey are a part of the problem. Stop that shit now and be a part of the solution!

At the end of the day, there is no way a woman can take the place of a man and be a father to their children, the only thing you can do is find a way to get them in front of a man that’s a good father who can teach them what a father is, and that’s it! And the real sad part about this, is that it’s only prevalent in our culture, amongst Black women, go figure!

A few days ago I ran across an article online where a teacher (http://activistteacher.blogspot.ca/2013/01/calculated-minimum-reparation-due-to.html?m=1) decided to do the math behind what black people would be owed if we got reparations adjusted for todays minimum wage values. He did his numbers based solely on a minimal economic value of free slave labor adjusted at the lowest reasonable rate of interest.

The number he came up with was $1.5 million dollars for every Black person in this country that descended from a enslaved ancestor, which is roughly, wait for it…………… $59.2 trillion dollars.  Yep approximately $60 trillion in reparations is owed to blacks in America and this is based off minimum values. This is why Congress will never seriously talk about reparations in a meaningful way.

Crazy isn’t it!

So after reading the article it got me thinking. If the newly freed slaves had gotten the 40 acres and a mule promised to them by Lincoln during the Civil War, how much land would we own?

After doing the math it was simple to realize why they went back on that plan almost immediately after the war was over, so here it is!

40 acres of land given out to approximately 4 million slaves would have came out to 160 million acres of land in the south owned by Blacks. Those 160 million acres breaks down to 256,000 square miles of land, which is 18,580 sq miles less than the size of Texas, yep we’d own Texas. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_area)

That’s a lot of damn land, and Black people would have owned that in 1865. It would have more than doubled by now, but even if it never increased by 1 acre that would still be a lot of land to own, especially if you take into account that by 1910 we only owned 15 million acres at our peak. It dropped all the way down to 2.4 million acres in 1997 but has steadily been on the rise again since then. Now we own somewhere around 7.8 million acres (2010) (http://www.blackisonline.com/2010/10/40-acres-crisis/) out of a possible 2.3 billion acres of land in the US.

Now that we know we could have owned land the size of Texas throughout the south, lets calculate what it would be worth today.

According to the USDA ‘s National Agricultural Statistics Service data of 2012, farmland across the US is valued at $2650 per acre on average.  And as I said above, if it would have stayed at 160 million acres, Black people in America would control $424 billion dollars worth of land throughout the 11 Confederate states that fought to keep slavery alive and well. But based on todays land ownership numbers we only control $20.67 billion, that’s $400 billion less than what we should have. Even if we take into account that 15 million acres was our peak, and now we own roughly half of that due to systematic racism we still would control 80 million acres or $212 billion dollars worth of land, which is still 10 times better than 7.8 million acres and $20 billion.

So to sum it all up, in 2013, if we were given 40 acres as promised, we would have owned $424 billion worth of land and if we received reparations we would be worth an additional $59.2 trillion. That comes out to $59.624 trillion dollars for 40 something million people. So now you see why we will never see any reparations and why they recognized that if we would have received that much land back then, we would have been a self-sufficient people, which they knew would eventually lead to a nation within a nation.

In 1850 this is what Texas had to say about why they wanted to secede from the Union; (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America#A_revolution_in_disunion)

Texas further stated: “We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.”

And again: “That in this free government all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights [emphasis in the original]; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding states.”

The racist of America never wanted us to be free and independent, they never wanted us to be self-sufficient! They wanted us to depend on them and continue to be slaves because they felt as if they were born superior and we were nothing more than a race of people that were born to be subservient to the mighty white race!

What’s your opinion?

On February 26th 2011, a young white boy was walking to his father’s house after coming from the store. He was wearing a hoodie and carrying a bag of skittles and ice tea, he was minding his own business.

Out of nowhere a grown Black man drove by and assessed that this white teenager was up to no good so he started following him. The teenager recognized that he was being followed so he ran, not knowing why this grown man was following him, he just knew that a creepy dude in a car was following him for no reason. Is it a crime for a white kid to go to the store to get some snacks? I think not! He was within his rights to be where he was and was doing nothing wrong, yet because he was he was immediately vilified by the Black guy in the car. This is evident in the fact that he decided to follow the kid because “he looked like he was up to no good”.

The black guy then proceeds to call 911 to report this “suspicious looking” white kid that was wearing a hoodie. He then told the 911 operator that he was following the suspect, and the operator immediately told him to stand down, do not follow him, the police are on their way. This grown Black dude then proceeds to get out of his car and follow the white teenager anyway, even though he was told not to. As he is following the teenager he can be heard mumbling about how they always get away with stuff. The call ends and he continues to pursue the white teenager.

By this time the white teenager has called his friend and is telling her that a creepy looking nigger is following him. He looks up and there he is, the Black man is standing there, and before he hangs up the phone with his friend, he is overheard saying “why are you following me”?

What happens next more than likely went like this!

The white teenager tried to leave the scene and the Black man decided that he wasn’t going to let him leave, so he tried to detain him until the police got there. A scuffle ensued and the white teenager got the ups on the grown man who then pulled his gun out and shot the white teenager in the chest, killing him. The police arrive and the Black man says he was acting in self defense because the teenager that he had been following and tried to detain knew how to fight, so he feared for his life.

Now ask yourself white America, if this incident occurred the way I just wrote it out and the tables were turned, and it was a grown Black man that murdered a white teenager, how would you feel about the verdict?

There is no way on this planet that you would not think that the grown Black man that was told to stand down and not follow the white teenager wasn’t the aggressor in this situation. The white teenager would be the one who was considered to be standing his ground. The thing is, Black Americans would have felt the same way. We would have wanted the Black man to go to jail because he was pursuing the white kid and then killed him.

If Zimmerman had done what the 911 operator told him to do, Trayvon would still be alive and this wouldn’t even be an issue. But an overzealous, prejudiced police wannabe decided to take the law into his own hands that night and the end result was a 17 year old Black kid losing his life. Gunned down in the streets like a worthless piece of crap.

We all know that Zimmerman killed him; we all know that he was the aggressor because he was the one pursuing Trayvon. He was the one that was carrying a gun! He was the one that was told to stay in his car and let the police handle the situation, but he didn’t care about what he was told. He was hell bent on not letting this one get away, like all the other ones. The question is get away with what? With being Black in a gated community, with not respecting the perceived authority of “neighborhood watch” captain, wannabe officer Zimmerman. What exactly was Trayvon getting away with, white America?

This is why Black Americans say the things that we do about white racism, white prejudice, white privilege, white justice, etc. These things are ingrained into the fabric of our society to the point that a white man can chase us down and if we resist, if we Stand Our Ground, it’s within the law that he can kill us in cold blood.

Where does this leave us? All we ever wanted from this country is to be treated fairly by the white inhabitants here. We started as slaves, you hated us, we fought for our freedom, you hated us, we asked to be treated equally, and you hated us! Back in the early 1900’s we tried to build our own communities and become self sufficient and you hated us for that. So you destroyed our businesses and homes simply because we were black and had more than the whites that lived around us. We’ve fought in wars to uphold American freedom and come home to hate! All we want is the basic freedoms provided to every other person by the constitution and you hate us for that! You hate the fact that we don’t hate you, so you keep reminding us that you hate us.

The acquittal of George Zimmerman on 07/13/13 is another reminder to us, that you hate us! Your justice system fails us at every turn; police kill one of us every 28 hours, white men kill us whenever they feel like it and everyone gets away with it. We’ve seen countless Black kids murdered by white men for whistling at white women, walking home, talking back and any other trivial reason.

So where do we turn, what do we do?

Is a Black life worth less than a white life?

Why do you hate us so much?

These are all questions that Black people wrestle with everyday while we try to navigate through this society that has imprisoned millions of us and killed 10’s of thousands of us just for being Black. So white America, can you please let us know why you hate us so much!

A Black American

BLK (Before Lil Kim) women in hip hop were uplifting the Black female with their lyrics. Most of the female emcees BLK were women of distinction and were a part of the Black power hip hop movements of the 80’s. You had women like Mc Lyte, Queen Latifah, Ms Melody, Salt and Pepa, Yo Yo, Monie Luv, etc. If you’re old enough to remember these women, if not google them, you will quickly realize that most of them were not sexy, half naked femcee’s but were for the most part, save one or two of them, overweight and wearing full garb. Salt and Pepa were the only ones out of this group of women who wore tight outfits but that was during the spandex era, which by the way is upon us again. These women wrote lyrics about being respectful women.

ALK (After Lil Kim) you will see that the vast majority of female emcees that were allowed to grace the stage as nationally respected women emcees had to fit the Lil Kim mold.

Hip hop had been usurped by the half naked gold digging hussy, as mom’s used to call them. Lil Kim ushered in an entirely new brand of hip hop for women. She was a firebrand, she knew exactly what she wanted and it was money, sex, and partying. Her lyrics were brazen and unapologetic for who she was. No endearing moments of motherhood, no uplifting lyrics of the Black Queen, she was by her own words, the Queen Bee-itch. But what she did have was the attitude of the independent woman who doesn’t know what being independent really is. She is the direct product of the use what you got to get what you want mind state that some black women teach their daughters. She was trying to escape her own reality by either getting a man with money or doing whatever it took to make money, as she willfully rapped about in her lyrics. For the most part she would write her own lyrics and Biggie would make sure that the words flowed properly to the beats and add his input to make sure she sounded good on her albums.

She rapped about having sex with guys for money, she got caught up in internet scandals of being rushed to the hospital and having cups, yes I said it cups of sperm siphoned from her belly, which was more than likely false, but still talked about, and various other scandals that for her improved her record sales, but would have sent a female emcee before her time to the poor house. But Lil Kim was resilient; her record sales soared and spawned many more wannabes and copy cats, i.e. Foxy Brown, etc.

In 1995 this was the image of Black women being distributed via the hip hop medium on video channels around the globe. Lil Kim, The Queen Bee-itch whose poster with her squatting down wearing a leopard skin lingerie outfit with her legs wide open became the poster of choice for Black boys and girls alike, was now the top femcee in hip hop. She was outselling a lot of the men so naturally she became an icon. Black girls whose parents allowed them to listen to Lil Kim were heavily influenced by her lyrics the same way Black boys were influenced by the lyrics of NWA and the other rappers who became household names during the early to mid 90’s, which by the way saw a heavy spike in drug and gang related crimes across the nation. This was the new image for the Black female who didn’t care about love and marriage as long as they were getting what they wanted, or so they said.

So let’s put this in perspective, the image of the Black woman that was going to get hers no matter what she had to do to get it is now the number 1 image being disseminated throughout the world and being beamed into the homes of millions of disenfranchised angry young Black women. Women who are angry because their mothers were angry. Black mothers who were angry because the Black man left them for another Black woman or for a woman of another race who were spewing hateful venom toward the Black man whenever they got a chance. These angry mothers were the ones who allowed their daughters to listen to The Queen Bee-itch and eventually imitate her.

To help to reinforce the Lil Kim attitude in young Black women they had to elevate other female emcee’s of her kind into the spotlight. Lauryn Hill was not a threat to this new mental state because she was part of a group and she didn’t really come to the light of young Black women until The Fugees released The score in 96, by then Lil Kim had been followed by Foxy Brown, another scantily clad female emcee who boasted about her “use what you got to get what you want” persona.

Foxy Brown was more of the same, she was introduced as the Ill Na Na, which was a reference to her vaginal prowess. She was quickly positioned on every hip hop magazine out during that time wearing small slithers of clothing promoting the new image of the Black female to the masses. The age of the overweight female emcee rapping about something of substance was officially dead, except for Missy Elliot, but she rapped about the same things as Lil Kim and Foxy Brown did.

After Lil Kim came the likes of Eve, sexy, but her lyrics weren’t as raunchy as her predecessors. She was an ex-stripper turned femcee and she enjoyed some years of fame that eventually spawned her a TV series.

From 1995 to 2000 you saw a myriad of female emcee’s being paraded in front of the cameras as the “first lady” of every record company on the planet. There were a lot of misses during this period that faded into obscurity without ever making a solo album but one who came into the spotlight by a southern emcee named Trick Daddy was able to make a name for herself just as Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, Eve, and Missy Elliot did, and her name was Trina, “The Baddest Bitch”.

There are 2 more chapters about this in the book The Pawn Queen that I will post at a later date, or you can just buy the book by clicking on the book cover to the right!

Arjuna

1.     Dear Lord, Who is better versed in Yoga – the ones who worship You in constant devotion with your form or the ones who worship You as the formless? 

Sri Bhagavaan (Sri Krishna)

2.     Those who fix their minds on me and worship me (with form) ever with supreme faith, I consider them as perfect in Yoga.(Yoga meaning– Union with God)

3.     But those who worship me as the formless, as the unchanging, the imperishable and the Omnipresent ONE…

4.       Those who have restrained their senses, who are even minded everywhere, who are engaged in the welfare of all the beings, verily, they also come to Me.

5.       But for human beings, it is more difficult to realize the formless God than the One with form.

6.       But those who worship me, renouncing all actions in Me, regarding Me as the Supreme Goal, meditating on Me with single minded devotion…

7.       For them whose thought is so set on Me, O Partha (another name for Arjuna), I will become very soon, the One to deliver them from this cycle of birth and death.

8.     Fix your mind on Me alone, Let your thoughts dwell in Me. (By doing so) You will live in Me here after. Of this, there is no doubt.  

9.     But if you are not able to fix your mind steadily on Me, O Dhananajaya (another name for Arjuna), then seek to reach Me by Abhyaasa Yoga (through constant practice). 

10.   If you are unable to do constant practice, be intent on doing all actions for my sake; even by performing actions for my sake, you will attain perfection.

11.   If you are unable to do even this, surrender thyself to me in love, not worrying about the fruits of actions with the self subdued. 

12.   Better indeed is knowledge than formal practice; better than knowledge is meditation; better than meditation is the renunciation of the fruit of the action (surrender in love); peace immediately follows this. 

13.   He who hates no being, who is friendly and compassionate to all, who is free from the feeling of I and mine, even-minded in pain and pleasure and forbearing…

14.   Santushtah Sathatham Yogi Yathaa-thmaa Dhrida Nischayaha
Mayyar-pitah Mano Buddhir Yo Madbhaktah Sa Me Priyaha

Ever content, steady in meditation, self controlled and possessed of firm conviction, with mind and intellect fixed on me, such a devotee is dear to me. 

15.   Yasmaanno Dvijate Loko Lokaanno Dvijate Cha Yaha
Harshaa-marshah Bhayo-dvegair Muktho Yah Sa Cha Me Priyaha

He by whom the world is not afflicted and whom the world cannot afflict, he who is free from joy, anger, fear and anxiety – he is dear to me 

16.   Anapekshah Shuchir Daksha Udaaseeno Gata Vyathaha
Sarvaa-rambha Pari Thyaagi Yo Madbhakthah Sa Me Priyaha

He who has no wants, who is pure and prompt, unconcerned, untroubled, and who is selfless in all his undertakings, he who is thus devoted to Me, is dear to Me

17.   Yo Na Hrishyati Na Dveshti Na Shochati Na Kaankshati
Shubha-ashubha Pari-thyaagi Bhakti-maan Yah Sa Me’ Priyaha

He who neither rejoices nor hates nor grieves nor desires, renouncing good and evil (treating both as the same), full of devotion, he is dear to Me 

18.   He who is the same to foe and friend and also in honor and dishonor, who is the same in cold and heat, in pleasure and pain, who is free from attachment… 

19.   Thulya Nindaa Sthuthir Mounee Santhushto Yena Kena Chith
Aniketah Sthirah Mathir Bhakthi-maan Me Priyo Naraha

To whom blame and praise are equal, who is silent, content with anything, free of selfish attachment, steady-minded and full of devotion-such a one is dear to Me 

20.   Ye Tu Dharmyaam Amritam-idam Yathoktam Paryupaasathey
Shraddha Daana Mat Parama Bhaktaastetiva Mey Priyaaha

Those, who follow this immortal dharma described above with devotion and faith, looking upon Me as the Supreme Goal, they are exceedingly dear to Me

Thus ends the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna in the Upanishad of the Bhagavad Gita, which imparts the knowledge of the Brahman, the Supreme and the science of Yoga, the twelfth chapter designated as Bhakti Yoga (The Yoga of devotion).

I added the actual Hindu words at the end of the quotes to show where the word Priyaha showed up in this chapter.

So as you can see the word is associated to Bhrahmana (Brahman – The One Supreme, Universal Spirit that is the Origin and Support of the universe and all that is in it). Priyaha (One Who Is Dear To Me – as the translation shows)

So I asked The Most High a question and a word that I had never heard of came to me. So I searched for the word and I found out that it was a Hindu word that meant, One who is dear to me, and the entity that was speaking this word was Sri Krishna who is a Hindu deity worshipped as the “complete” incarnation of Vishnu and Vishnu is the Supreme Being, Supreme Soul, or Supreme God.

So I asked a question that led me to the Supreme Most High God and He told me that The Yoga of Devotion was the answer to the question that I had asked.

Some of you that read this will say that the Hindu faith isn’t of God and that only Christianity is of God, but I Am from a different school of thought that KNOWS that all religions are of God that worship a Supreme Being that created humanity. And that is exactly why the word Priyaha came to me that night.

Had the answer come back simply as Devotion to The Most High, I would have easily dismissed it because it would have seemed like a cliché response to a question of that nature, so God had to give the answer in a way that could only be from Him and not an automatic response to the question. That’s why He chose a language I had no knowledge of, and a religion that I had little working knowledge about (although I have The Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita in my home and I know some things about it, but not to the tune of knowing chapters) to relay a message of TRUTH to me. He KNEW I would seek out the WORD and find the TRUTH.

DEVOTION TO THE MOST HIGH GOD OF CREATION IS THE ONLY WAY TO LIVE A LONGER, HAPPIER, AND BETTER LIFE. THIS IS TRUTH!

During his rookie season he was crowned King James by the marketing heads at Nike and as any 19 year old would have done, if put in the same situation, he accepted the title and ran with it. But regardless of what he did, anyone that knows endorsement deals know that they have a lot of control over your on and off the court image, so he had little to no input into the decision. Besides, if you were offered $90 million to endorse a shoe, and be crowned as a king, you would have made the same decision as he did with no hesitation.

Two years later, in 2005, he made another decision that had sports pundits, business execs and anybody with an opinion up in arms. The Internets was on fire. How could this young [black] athlete be so brazen? Lebron fired his agent and hired his long time friends to run his fastly growing empire. Everyone had something negative to say about this move. He was making the biggest mistake of his life, his career as a major endorser was dead in the water. How could he let these young [black] kids RUiN his career like this? But Lebron had faith in the abilities of his friends and they never skipped a beat, gaining more and more endorsements and helping their lifelong friend build an even greater empire. Once again things worked out the way he planned them!

The following year, in 2006 he led his team to the playoffs but they got knocked out in the Eastern Conference semifinals by Detroit. The next year, in 2007, he led his team to the Finals for the first time in franchise history but was defeated in 4 games by the San Antonio Spurs. The following year they were knocked out in the semifinals and the year after they got Shaq to help him out. They made it back to the conference finals but were defeated by Orlando.

In 2010, Lebron’s last year under contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers, they went back to the playoffs and were defeated by Boston in the conference semifinals once again. This would be his last year wearing a Cavalier uniform; The Decider had decided to use free agency to take his talents to a new team.

He staged an event that was televised nationally in a prime time slot to inform NBA fans of his decision. He walked us through his career as a player, talked about his family life and most importantly let fans know that the decision that he was about to make was based strictly off of the fact that he felt like the move he was about to make would give him the best chance to win a NBA Championship ring. He did not want to end his career and never have a chance to bask in the glory of winning a ring. He knew that retiring without a ring would always keep him in the, “yeah he was a good player, but he wasn’t great because he never won a ring category”, and that wasn’t an option for him. He wanted to be mentioned in the conversations involving Michael Jordan, Larry Byrd, Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson, Shaquille O’neal, Tim Duncan, and Kobe Bryant. Not Karl Malone, Allen Iverson, Patrick Ewing, and Charles Barkley. Isn’t that what fans want, don’t we want to see players that want to win? And Lebron wants to win! And the team he chose was the Miami Heat!

Once again the Internets and blogosphere were on fire. Every armchair, barbershop basketball guru on the planet had something to say and most of it was negative. The bobble heads that talk sports on the TV’s and Radio’s slammed him for his decision.

He’s diminishing his worth by going to a team that already has a star player. He’s hoping D Wade puts him on his back and carries him to the Promised Land! He needs 2 other alls tars to win a ring, because he can’t do it himself! He’ll never win one, he’s trying to ride on Wades coattails! I heard so much crap spew from people’s mouths about why he should have stayed in Cleveland and tried to win there, that you would have thought Lebron James had shattered their hopes and dreams. People were acting like he had divorced them and took the dog and the kids. I couldn’t understand how a decision he made could affect so many people to the point of them being as angry as they were. I understand why Cavalier fans were mad, but the rest of the country, I was dumfounded.

Then I realized that the people that were angry tended to be the same types. They were almost always, about 95% of them, basketball players who claim they were dogs when they played. It was hilarious, a bunch of, I never made it to the pro’s, didn’t even play college basketball “guru’s” claiming Lebron didn’t have the heart to win one on his own in Cleveland. Saying stuff like he should have stuck it out in Cleveland and wasted his career away until he was old; and then did what Malone and Barkley did, join teams with other star players so they can try to win one, which resulted in them being ring-less. That was the conventional wisdom coming from the streets.

This same type of venom was being echoed by sports pundits also. That’s when I realized that all you really need is to be very opinionated and have a little working knowledge of the game that you’re commentating on in order to be a pundit. What else could it be?

I’m no pundit but I’ve been watching basketball since MJ came into the league in 1984. It took him 7 years to win a championship ring and he didn’t win his first one until he got Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant, he couldn’t do it alone. Then you take a look at other NBA greats and you realize that none of them did it on their own. Larry Byrd had Mchale, Parrish, and a host of other good players, Magic Johnson had Kareem, Worthy and a bunch of all stars. Isaiah, Dumars, and Rodman. Shaq, Kobe, Fisher, and Horry. Duncan, Parker, Genobli, Robinson. Hakeem, Drexler, Casell and Smith. And the list goes on and on. Every great player that one rings had a host of great and very good players with them, especially when they won multiple rings. And this goes back throughout basketballs history, no player has won a ring without a championship caliber roster.

All these teams needed more than one all star to bring it home, and because Lebron knew this he opted to take his talents to South Beach where he knew that Chris Bosh would go also, to team up with Dewayne Wade and create a dynasty. He knew that Cleveland was never going to create that dynasty because they didn’t want to spend the money that it took to create it by bringing in top tier talent that cost top tier money. They kept getting second and third tier players and was trying to place the burden of winning the cities first championship ever, square on the back of that 19 year old kid from Akron Ohio. They wanted him to be their savior and he knew he couldn’t be that person at an early enough age to get out, and try to accomplish his childhood dream of winning multiple championships, and going down in history as one of the best players to ever play the game. Plus have the hardware to prove it.

The very next year after making that decision he took his team to the finals, which most of the pundits said he wouldn’t be able to do and lost. But this year June 21 2012 Lebron James did what he set out to do. The Miami Heat won the 2012 NBA Championship! Lebron led his team with 27.1 pts, 7.9 rebounds and 6.2 assist per game during the regular season which earned him his 3^rd MVP title. He then averaged 30.3 pts, 9.70 rebounds and 5.6 assist a game during the playoffs to win his first ever ring, then won the MVP of the finals trophy with 28.6 pts, 10.2 rebounds and 7.4 assist per game. Hands down some of the most impressive finals statistics ever, he almost averaged a triple double. I guess he made the right decision again!

So now that he’s got the monkey off his back we are about to see greatness unfold right before our eyes. All I can say is WITNESS!

So me being me, I decided to look at the numbers to see what they say. Are the officials really that bad or are angry fans placing their frustrations about losing square in the lap of NBA referees? So here are the numbers.

In the 4 games played as of 6-19-2012 the Miami Heat has attempted 10 more free throws than the OKC Thunder; 103 – 93. Proof positive that OKC is being shafted; the NBA wants Lebron to win a championship, right! Well if you answered yeah that’s right, then you’re wrong, and here’s why.

Game 1: OKC 20 – 27, Heat 14 – 18

Game 2: OKC 19 – 26, Heat 22 – 25

Game 3: OKC 15 – 24, Heat 31 – 35

Game 4: OKC 15 – 16, Heat 18 – 25

After 3 games Miami was leading by only 1 free throw attempt; OKC was 54 – 77 and Miami was 67 – 78. 1 more attempt but 13 more made over a 3 game span. Then in Game 4 when the complaining reached epidemic proportions the Heat went 18 – 25 vs. OKC’s 15 – 16. Those dirty referee’s were trying to help Miami win, David Stern should fire all of them and then be fired.

Well here’s a little something that you need to take into account before you go all nutty and claim the NBA is rigged. Although I think that the NBA is, and always has been skewed towards their superstar players and big market teams, the officiating still isn’t as bad as fans claim it is.

Why you might ask?

10 more free throw attempts in a 4 game series amounts to 2.5 more attempts per game which boils down to 1.25 more fouls called for Miami over the 4 game period, right.  Even if we just focus on the Game 4, you still have to factor in the fact that Miami was leading at the end of the game and OKC had to foul a few times to stop the clock.

So even though Miami got 4 more fouls called for them in Game 4 than OKC, which resulted in 9 free throw attempts, 6 of those attempts (3 fouls) were in the last few minutes of the game when OKC was fouling intentionally to stop the clock and get the ball back at half court.

Now let’s look back a couple of games and then you realize that each game was close till the end, all nail biters. Anybody that knows basketball knows that in the last couple minutes of a game when it’s close, teams will intentionally foul their opponents to stop the clock and get the ball back. This has been NBA strategy since I’ve been watching basketball. The same thing occurred at the end of the last 3 games, in which Miami won. So in reality, Miami really isn’t up in attempts or actual fouls being called in their favor, because NBA strategy dictates that you foul players in close games when the clock is winding down.

But that’s not what all the animosity is about is it; it’s about a bunch of Lebron hating NBA fans being pissed that their team by default, whatever team that plays The Miami Heat, is losing in the NBA Finals, and that’s about it!

So Gwyneth Paltrow Tweets out, “Niggas in Paris for real”, and the Black blogosphere goes up in arms, white blogs discussed it also, but Black bloggers seem to want to keep it on the front page for propaganda purposes. After seeing it x amount of times since the incident I decide to add my hundred billion cent opinion to it, yeah I said it, 100 billion cent opinion.

My first thought was niggas please, my second thought was niggas please and my third thought was, I just used the word nigga in written format more times than in one sentence than I have since I thought I was destined to be an MC. Casual T was the name, people call me Tab so I was Casual Tab, get it, then T Slang, Tab Slang. Don’t laugh T-Pain getting money, I wish I would have thought about auto-tuning myself back then, but oh well!

As I grew older and wiser, I decided to limit my usage of the word and my MC names transformed into Reign Philosophe, yeah that’s right with an E and Wizdom Manifest, with a Z. What kind of Hip Hop titan would I have been without corrupting the English language just a little bit right?  Sadly my career as the world’s greatest MC never took flight, probably because I only recorded 1 song and never went back to get it mastered, but I was cold I tell you, cold!

But anyway, back to Nigga, that infamous, diabolical 5 letter word that has caused this “uproar”. To the niggas that keep posting about how offensive it is, Niggas Please.

Historically ……………… blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada. Now that you are caught up on the historical meaning and significance of the word, let’s move on shall we.

For the past 30+ years of the existence of Hip Hop, the word Nigga has been used. We, Black men, hoisted the word into the stratosphere and said that we were going to change the meaning of it. We urbanized the spelling by subtracting the E & R and added an A to take it from nigger; a term of hatred spewed by whites, to Nigga a term of endearment when spoken amongst brothers. Hip Hop, which was quickly becoming the culture and language of the worlds disenfranchised youth translated this new meaning and spelling to people from New York, to England, to Japan, Africa, China, South America, Russia, Germany, and to every crevice of this planet that had the capacity to receive radio waves. At this point the word started to take on different meanings associated with the way it was spelled and with how a non-black person used it.

There are now kids, Black, White, Mexican, Asian, etc, that have lived their entire lives hearing that there are 2 ways to use the word. Nigger if you’re trying to demean a person and Nigga if you are referring to a friend.

So really, what did we, Black people, expect?

C’mon, Hip Hop is the largest cultural movement the world has ever experienced, period. Plus it is completely voluntary. You don’t have to force Hip Hop on people, it’s readily accepted by those who understand the struggle, and believe me, most of the world understands the struggle. Did we think that we were going to be able to claim that the word was transcending its old meaning and subsequently think that it wouldn’t catch on with other races over time? If that was the thought then as we, Black people seem to do often, miscalculated by the square root of Pi squared x 1000 to the 13^th power, suck on that Stephen Hawking.

Back to the subject at hand, Gwyneth Paltrow used the title of a song in a Tweet. I know that the 100’s of white Parisians at the concert that night song right along with Kanye, yeah Kanye first, Chicago stand up, and Jay Z’s song Niggas In Paris, and bellowed out those exact words in unison with the MC’s.

If you’re still offended by White people and other people using the word around you, don’t go to any concerts in the near future, and please refrain from watching any White, Asian, and Hispanic men and women fight each other on any video posted online.

Oh, and my personal opinion on this matter is, if you haven’t caught on by now, is:

1)      We can’t have it both ways, we can’t use it and say that it means something else but get mad when people of other races use it

2)      If the people that she was with didn’t think it was in malice, why should I or you, they know her and who she is at heart.

3)      If you’re advocating the non-usage of the word in anybody’s, Black or others, vocabulary then please explain to me how this would improve Black people and our communities as a whole.

Other than that Negus Please!

Tonight the Miami Heat are tipping off against the Oklahoma City Thunder in what is sure to be one of the most talked about finals in recent memory. Why? Because Lebron James one of the best players the game has WITNESSed, pun intended, will be appearing in his 3^rd championship series but has yet to win one. I believe this will be the one.

Lebron James has been cast as a villain every since he came into the league because he accepted a title that the league and his sponsors bestowed upon him. And that title was King James. The marketing material that followed pictured him in a crown and sitting on a throne just as a king would, and it was accompanied by a simple word. WITNESS!

Behold the best basketball player has arrived at 19 years old straight out of high school. Since then he’s been loved by many and hated by many, even though he had nothing to do with his branding, he accepted it just like any other 19 year old who thought they were the best player in the world would have done. I guess that was a mistake?

Then he realized that he would never win a championship with the team that he was on and exercised his right as a free agent to put together and become part of a team that had a far greater chance to win a title than his former team, which gained him the HATE of an entire city and the league brass. Every since that move he has been cast as a bigger villain and the aforementioned armchair, travel league and I used to play basketball, but now work a regular job super coaches and pundits can’t get enough of calling him everything but what he is, one of the best players that has ever played the game.

Here are a few myths that continue to be propped up by the league and the sports media:

1. Lebron Isn’t Clutch, he doesn’t want to shoot the ball in the 4^th quarter when the game is on the line – since 2006 Lebron has taken 12 shots with the game on the line with a few seconds remaining on the clock, he’s hit 5 of those. Kobe has taken 27 and hit 7, but that’s 1996, since 2006 he has taken 12 and hit 3. That’s 41.7% vs 25% in the same amount of attempts over the same period of time. I’m using Kobe because is widely held as the best clutch shooter in the game. click here for stats
2. Lebron Isn’t a Beast, he needs to play like he did in game 6 of the 2012 series against Boston all the time, a 45 pt, 15 boards and 5 assist night – the very next game he scored 31 pts, 12 rebounds and 2 assist. He is averaging 30.8 pts, 9.6 rebounds and 5.1 assist per game during the playoffs this year.  Compare that to Durant’s 27.8 pts, 7.9 rebounds and 2.8 assist and Kobe’s 30 pts, 4.8 boards and 4.3 assist per game and LBJ beats both of them out in every category. But he’s not a dog; he doesn’t go hard every night. Show me a player that has averaged 45 pts, 15 rebounds and 5 assist every night, especially in the playoffs, I’ll be waiting.
3. Lebron isn’t Great, until he wins a championship ring – Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, John Stockton, etc, etc, etc. These 4 players are considered 4 of the best players to ever play the game hands down, no one can dispute that, yet they have never won a ring. Lebron James career stats are better than all 4 of them, plus Kobe’s and KD’s; yet people continue to say that Kobe and KD are much better than him. Lebron James is the #3 all time leader in points per game at 27.6, only Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain have better per game stats. click here for stats (Durant isn’t featured because the amount of years he’s played)

So if you can look at these facts and still say that Lebron James isn’t clutch, a dog, or going to be considered one of the greatest players to ever play the game then guess what, you’re a HATER. No matter how you try to twist these numbers in your favor, you lose; you’re operating strictly off emotion because Lebron isn’t the player that you want him to be, even though he is better than the people that you claim he should be like. You just can’t see it because you are blinded by your HATE.

The first step to recovery is admitting that you are a HATER simply because that’s what you are; embrace it and give the man his props.

WITNESS!

Since I’m a man, my questions go out to the ladies. Why do you think a man should accept your flaws, especially a new man? What is it about your flaws that are so special that they need to be a part of the over all package? Are your flaws there to stay?

These are but a few questions that you need to ask yourself when venturing into a new relationship and if you cant answer these questions with impunity, then you will always find yourself in a relationship going bad, or no relationship at all.

As a matter of fact ask yourself this question, why should someone who is just meeting you accept the fact that you’re more than likely one of the following: an asshole, overbearing, too needy, etc.?

Really, if you met a man and a few months into the relationship you found out that he was a deadbeat dad, had no job and was a womanizer, should you accept those flaws, or should you suggest that he work on his flaws and try to become a better person?

Anyone who wants a relationship to grow should know that flaws are things that destroy relationships. When one party doesn’t want to change who they are for the betterment of the relationship all kinds of problems occur. And if you know you have flaws and are not willing to work on them, then you are an asshole, period.

And if you believe that someone is supposed to accept the fact that you’re an asshole and love you anyway, especially when they are just meeting you then you’re a bigger asshole than you think.

So in a nutshell, flaws are meant to be worked on and eradicated, and if you believe that your significant other has to accept those flaws before they become your significant other, then I’m sorry to report that you wont have a significant other for long, he’ll be your booty call specialist, you know the guy who only calls you when he’s horny in the middle of the night. If you’re okay with being the other woman or a booty call then defend your flaws tooth and nail and wonder why no one wants to make you their wife.

Well that’s at least what BW Writes!