Blought #26: Why Did Trump Meet With Black Pastors Anyway?

Trump (Center) accompanied by Dr. Darrell Scott (right) Courtesy of: USAToday.com

 A few days ago Donald Trump shook up the media and news world when he announced that he had gained the support of 100 Black pastors and religious leaders from all over the country. Not long after that the facts became clear. Only about 50 or so pastors showed up to his meeting at Trump Towers with several of them signing endorsement cards for Trump‘s campaign.

What caught my attention was the fact that two pastors from Ohio were in attendance and here’s why. Ohio is usually a battleground state. Dividing the black vote has become a key strategy for the right wing with gerrymandering. Dr. Darrell Scott of New Spirit Revival Center Ministries Inc. based in Cleveland Heights, Oh was vocal in his support of Trump’s campaign.

He even made several phone calls to Senior Pastor Corletta J. Vaughn of Holy Ghost Cathedral in Detroit to get her on board. Pastor Vaughn declined stating that she felt “uncomfortable” with the meeting at Trump Towers. She said she would be open to meeting with Trump but on her own terms probably in her church so that the presidential candidate can hear her community’s concerns.

Jamal Bryant of Empowerment Temple in Baltimore tweeted "Prostitutes for Trump...don't let black pulpit become a pole". Pastor Scott responded with "If Trump called Black Preachers ‘Prostitutes on a Pole’, the entire nation would be in an uproar! #BlackPreachersMatter" and "For respectable Preachers to be called ‘Prostitutes on a pole’ is very insulting, demeaning, and misogynistic, to say the least." The divide and conquer rule definitely applies here.

Promotional flier for Trump's meeting

Bishop Victor Couzens of Forrest Park, Ohio near Cincinnati also attended the event. He voiced his concern for an apology towards his Black Lives Matter comments and incident at his rally where protester and activist Mercutio Southall was attacked and beaten. Trump stood by his earlier comments and said that he would not issue an apology.

Personally I don’t think Trump owes him an apology. Would you show up to a KKK meeting in a Black Panther uniform? I didn’t think so. Why go to a rival hood and cause disruption? It was sad that he was assaulted but Mr. Southall could have made better judgment.

On Tuesday Roland Martin host of  TV One’s News One Now spoke to Steve Parson PhD and former pastor of the Richmond Christian Center in Richmond, VA. Parson who is a supporter of Trump was on the show to discuss Trump’s plan for the black community. He talked in circles about the tax code until Martin hit him with the facts.

Martin, who recalled on his time as a city hall and county government reporter brought up the statistics that in 2008 black owned small businesses received 8.2% of all small business loans. By 2013 that number had dropped to 1.8% due to the foreclosure crisis that wiped out  53% of black wealth. Martin simply stated “no home, no loan, no collateral” as a cardinal rule of small business loans. Parson was never able to give Martin any straight answers on how a real estate mogul (Trump) couldn’t answer those questions himself.

Martin and Parson squaring off Courtesy of: RolandMartinReports.com

The main point to be taken away isn’t the fact that Trump’s camp spun a story about 100 black pastors meeting with him. It’s the fact that the Black Churches are not the go to leaders of the black community. Black millennials like most millennials don’t cling to faith and religion. Most of our parents are the same way, why do you think we feel the way that we feel?

It reminds me of the South Park episode “With Apologies to Jesse Jackson” where Stan’s dad Randy Marsh went onto the popular game show wheel of fortune. The clue was “People who complain too much.” The spots were N_GGERS. Randy hesitantly shouted “Niggers!” when the answer was actually “Naggers”.

Randy then had to go apologize to Reverend Jesse Jackson. Stan attempted to make peace with his friend and only black kid in School Token who responded with “Jesse Jackson isn’t the emperor of black people.” The same can be said about most religious leaders.

Let’s be honest, black pastors are always caught up in scandal about stealing money from the church. Steve Parson ran his ministry into bankruptcy and lost two luxury cars that he and his son leased with the church’s money. Trump is playing this game as smart as he can. With Rubio rising and Carson fading away it’s getting closer to do or die time for Trump.

Sources:
http://www.npr.org/2015/12/01/457930597/black-pastor-calls-trump-meeting-a-get-played-moment

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/22/politics/donald-trump-black-lives-matter-protester-confrontation/

http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2015/feb/26/pastor-gets-boot/

Blought #25: Let Greats be Great!

Last week Le Bron joined NBA Legend Oscar Robertson as the only two players to be ranked in the top 25 in both assists and points all-time. While this is a pretty amazing feat, the story to me isn’t about what Brondo did but rather what he said. Bron made it clear he didn’t want to be compared to Big-O, as we basketball fans know him by.

Le Bron issued a statement after the game saying "I think what we get caught up in, in our league too much, is trying to compare greats to greats, instead of just accepting and acknowledging and saying, 'Wow, these are just great players,'" (Courtesy of Dave Mc Menamin, ESPN). I completely agree.


After the NBA-ABA merger of 1976 there have been several perennial Elite players for each generation or era. The “Post Merger” era elite was Julius “Dr. J” Irving. Magic and Bird were the elites of the “New NBA Era” after David Stern became commissioner. Jordan reigned as the elite of the “90’s Era” while Kobe was the king of the “New Millenium” era leaving Le Bron as the elite of this current era.

It irks me when fans, real fans and not haters of a certain player compare Le Bron to Jordan or Kobe. It’s hard to compare a 6’8” 250 pound forward with a 6’6” 216 pound guard.

Let’s just focus on playing style for a second. If anyone should be compared to Jordan it should be Kobe. They’re the same size at 6’6” with Kobe being listed as four pounds lighter than MJ. Tale of the tape shows both of them were great shooters with unbelievable clutch factors and their slim frames made them finesse slashers versus bruising slashers like Bron.

Bron’s closest comparison in my opinion is Karl Malone. Malone was freakishly built making him a hard match-up for many of his contemporaries. The same can be said for Bron. Anything else used in this argument is irrelevant. Championship rings can never truly measure a great player. Basketball is still a TEAM sport meaning you need a good TEAM to win rings.

Courtesy of: NFLspinzone.com

Too often I hear people compare Tom Brady and Peyton Manning of the NFL. Sure Tom has four rings to Peyton’s one but that doesn’t necessarily make him better. Peyton owns more statistical achievements. Tom Brady always had a solid defensive unit while Peyton majority of the time had better offensive weapons. For every single argument on both sides you have a counterargument.

It’s like arguing with a friend over what food tastes better. You both have different palettes so nothing will taste the same to you as it does to your friend. The same can be said with sports. You’re going to favor what you like more than what you dislike

Like Le Bron said, let’s just accept and acknowledge great players. In a few years the “Big Business” era will begin and we’ll be sitting around talking about the good old days when Le Bron, D Wade, Kobe and CP3 ruled the league, and we’ll miss it.

Blought #24: The Division of Support for Paris

The terrorist attacks in Paris were unspeakable crimes against humanity. A total of 130 people lost their lives while hundreds more were injured making it the deadliest attack on France since WWII. The thing that got under my skin was the division of support for Paris. You had the people who showed support for Paris. There were the people who claimed no media outlets covered the attacks in Africa (You were probably more focused on America’s racial tensions more than Boko Haram kidnapping and killing Nigerian students.)

then there were the ones who had conspiracy theories about America helping ISIS expressing how “misinformed” Americans were or how changing your profile picture does nothing to help those effected. Think about a time your family member died. While your friend can’t bring that family member back, just saying “I’m sorry for your loss” can make you feel a lot better.


I wanted to get upset with many of my Facebook and Instagram friends, but there’s really no use in arguing over the internet. Then I realized something, the majority of Americans are severely misinformed about the World Human Rights Crisis that we are currently facing. The Middle East has been a hot bed of conflict for AGES. We’re taking biblical times son!

Support Paris and watch the world burn?

My mom once told me “the Bible says the Middle East will always be in some shit.” If history serves me right I think my mom had a point. From Greeks and Persians during the Greco-Persian Wars to the Catholics and Muslims during the crusades. The Middle East was even one of the main focal points of the Cold War. America wanted to keep communism out of the Middle East and the Soviets wanted to spread communism throughout the Middle East.

In later decades as America’s economy boomed we began to import most of our oil from over there as Russia went poor and lost pretty much all of their influence in the region. One of the main reasons Islamic terrorist cells hates America is because of our influence on their culture during the Cold War in addition to us raping them for oil.

These sentiments were the basis for both the CIA and World Trade Center attacks of 1993 and the September 11 attacks eight years later which became the deadliest terrorist attack in American history.

Despite how you feel about how Bush and Cheney (the real mastermind behind those eight years of fuckery) ran the country, going into the Middle East was a faint bright spot. Saddam should have been killed in the 90’s when he killed thousands of Kurdish people in separate genocidal acts during the late 1980’s in the Anfal genocide and the Halabja chemical attack. Osama Bin Laden could have been killed sooner as well but dead is dead right?


With no leader of Al-Quaeda and Iraq in a complete abysmal state after Obama pulled our troops out, ISIS had the perfect ingredients to begin their ascent to power. ISIS as we all should know is an Islamic Extremist Fundamentalist group formed in the late 90’s who wants to be recognized as the official state of Iraq. They claim to be the leaders of all Muslims in the world and they especially hate Shia Muslims, Alawites, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syrian and Armenian Christians, Yazidis, Druze, Shabaks and Mandeans. All ethnic groups native to the Middle East.

ISIS were the main culprits of the Paris attacks. ISIS has also participated in the Syrian Civil War, Iraq War (2003–2011), Iraqi insurgency, Iraq War (2014–present), Second Libyan Civil War, Boko Haram insurgency in Africa, War in North-West Pakistan, War in Afghanistan and the Yemeni Civil War.

The point wasn’t to shine light on Paris more than other countries. ISIS is a part of a world wide terrorist network claiming war on humanity. The time couldn’t have been better for ISIS. With so many country’s recovering from revolutions and over thrown dictators, it was easy for ISIS to take the reigns as the top dog in the world of terrorism.

I explicitly remember when Arab Spring became a huge world news topic. As a journalism major that was all we talked and read about during the 2011 Spring semester. It all started in December of 2010 when a Tunisian man set himself on fire after claiming that he had been bullied by local officials while selling produce to help support his family.

Not long after protests began happening all over the Arab world including Oman, Yemen, Egypt, Syria and Morocco, Tunisia's government was overthrown in early January of 2011 which led to Egypt's Tajir Square Protests a little over a week later. By March of that year Syria had also begun nation wide protests.

Arab Spring protest in Bahrain calling for Democracy

By 2012 Syria was in a civil war with ISIS acting as a main belligerent. Egypt wouldn’t be able to overthrow their government until the summer of 2013. Now the plot thickens. During these conflicts, many of which became full blown wars, displaced citizens of the Middle East and Africa sought asylum in the European Union or EU.

Hop on a rickety boat and ride across the Mediterranean where Greece, Italy and Spain are all waiting for you to start a new life in a developed European country. That is if the boat you and hundreds of others are riding on doesn’t capsize taking you all down with it. During this time ISIS operatives pretended to be immigrants escaping their home countries when what they were really doing was planning to attack France and Belgium.

This is bigger than what my social media friends made it out to be. This is bigger than the media. This is a new world conflict that has to be resolved. We aren’t fighting a country but a network. A network of between a quarter to a half million strong and growing everyday. A network with an ideology that we can’t fight or get rid of. So put you personal, pessimistic “woke” views behind you and realize what this world is facing.

Where are They Now?: Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce

Mad Men was a show that presented an era to us that many of us never got to live through. The 60’s were a time when America was holding it down as the top dog of the world, trying to find it’s way with race and politics and growing as a capitalistic society where every family had equal opportunity to get their piece of the American Dream. We followed the employees of Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency on 5th Avenue in New York for seven seasons spanning nine years.

We fell in love with Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss and Christina Hendricks every time we saw their characters’ lives unfold during the decade that was. When the show ended this past May I felt like I was saying goodbye to my high school classmates all over again. So I thought, "Why don’t I create my own timeline of how my favorite characters lived out their lives once 1970 rolled in?" So Here we go!

1. Don Draper - It was confirmed that Don returned to work presenting the Pepsi ad seen at the end of the final episode. He continues to work at McCann Erickson as a Partner until his retirement in the late 90’s. He remarries in the 1980’s and is survived by his young wife and children when he dies in the mid 2000’s.

2. Roger Sterling - After marrying Megan’s mother, Marie, Roger retired. He travels the world with Marie before returning stateside. Joan allowed Roger to be involved in Kevin’s life and he does so until his death in the late 90’s.

3. Peggy and Stan Rizzo - Peggy finally found her a man in Stan! Peggy goes into Business Journalism while study for her degree. She becomes a published journalist and marketing\advertising consultant while Stan works for an art journal and has his work featured around the world. They also raise a beautiful family in the New Jersey suburbs. Both are still living.

4. Pete Campbell - Pete becomes a venture capitalist increasing his personal fortune to over $150 million by 1985. He and Trudy have another girl in the 70’s. Pete and Trudy now live in California enjoying their lives as grandparents.



5. Joan Harris - Joan becomes a consultant for women’s product lines and starts her own cosmetics line. She raises Kevin jointly with Roger later sending him to College where he studies business and law. Joan dies in 2012.

6. Ken Cosgrove - Ken Raises his family and later becomes partner at Dow Chemical. He sells his stake in the company after leaving in the 90’s and retiring with his wife to a ranch in upstate New York where he currently resides.

7. Harry Crane - Harry leaves New York scorned and upset. He becomes a Hollywood Producer in the mid 70’s and later starts his own film company in the 80’s. His wife divorces him somewhere during this due to his inflated ego and infidelity. He is currently retired and living in Southern California

8. Sally Draper - Sally takes her mother’s death fairly well as they get closer during Betty’s last days. She lives with Don and her brothers after Don buys a new home in the suburbs. Sally goes to college to study law and focusing in Environmental law. She becomes partner of her law firm in the mid 90’s.

9. Bobby and Gene Draper - Bobby goes into politics after watching his country evolve in the 60’s and 70’s. He becomes a senator in the 2000’s. Gene follows his older brother and goes to college to study business and politics.