BLACK WOMEN ARE..........  

Posted in , ,



NOT PUTTING ALL BLACK MEN IN THE SAME CATEGORY




Recently, I went to see the movie "For Colored Girls" with my girlfriends, who happen to be a phenomenal group of black urban professional women. We are all single but all yearn to be married one day.

Some people have accused this movie of extreme male bashing. As a black women, I disagree and this is why....

I have not lost hope in the black man.

There are people of all races who are bad and good. Their circumstances are based on a variety of things including environment, social class, education, and psychological state. This mix of factors means that the people we will encounter in society will be a mixed bag regardless of race. To keep it simple - There is no standard for being human. So, when one movie shows the trials of black men and women, it is not speaking for all black men and women. There are good black men but that wasn't the focus of this movie. I know they are out there so when I see a movie like this, I don't automatically think that it speaks to all black men. One of the best examples of that is the filmmaker himself, Tyler Perry. Tyler Perry rose from a background of homelessness and tragedy to be the most bankable man in hollywood in addition to being a talented playwright and director. I know that is a highly opinionated statement but when you take away your personal opinion of his work, and you look at the man behind it, you have to give him credit for being a good black man.

Art is about exposing various sides of real life

The play, book, and now movie "For Colored Girls" was meant to highlight the struggles of black women in their relationships with black men. These struggles are real and have clearly been around since the play was written in 1975. I think that if this real struggle between black men and women has been going on for this long, it is something that begs for an artistic outlet and greater exposure.

I have seen the good and bad side of black men. I give credit to my father and the father's of my friends for showing me strong black men who marry the women they love, have children and take care of their families.

I have also seen black men who abandon all responsibility for their own selfish pride. This movie highlights one side but does not take away my knowledge of the existence of good black men and my belief that there is one out there for me and all of my single friends.

Tyler Perry I want to thank you for bringing these scenarios to the light. Good Black men, I want to thank you for being who you are despite the struggles that you face on a regular basis.

Yours in Truth,

Black Urban Observer


0 comments »

I'M BACK  

Posted in

Hola beautiful black people and also people of all races. I would like this site to be a voice from the black urban professional community to the world. Therefore, I hope that people of all cultures would read and understand the realities of black people. Rather than using the stereotypes and the untruths.

I want to start my new posts with a series of posts I will call "Black Women Are..."

I will also intersperse this series with other posts. I wanted to start here because I am a black women and I have found that the realities of black women are being skewed by various Media Outlets. Reality TV, Movies, etc..

ENJOY!!!

0 comments »

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR.....  

Posted

I decided to take a trip to the dark side and look at John McCain's website so that I could compare his policy information with the information on Barack Obama's page. However, before I could even get there, I stumbled upon this article that asked me to tell John McCain what I think about Senator Obama's record. It would not have been blogworthy if not for the article heading and some choice statements inside of the article. Here is what was written:





Well, I attempted to put my comments into the article and SURPRISE SURPRISE: I got an error message. so I decided to use my own forum to do the deed. This is my response:


1. We don't need you to ask us about Barack Obama's Record. This is a childish tactic. If I were in a job interview, I would be asked questions about my qualifications based on the experience that I posted on my resume because when I present that, I am saying "this is why I am qualified for the job." If you feel that your military experience qualifies you for the job, then tell us why!! I want you tell us why Mr. Clark's statement is wrong and not why Barack Obama is wrong.


2. Fareed Zakaria posted the following statement about National Security in Newsweek Last Week:

"The administration does deserve some credit for its counterterrorism
activities. The combined efforts of most governments since 9/11—busting cells in
Europe and Asia, tracking money, hunting down jihadist groups—have been
extremely effective. But how you see the world determines how you will respond,
and the administration has greatly inflated the threat, casting it as an
existential and imminent danger. As a result, we've massively overreacted. Bush
and his circle have conceived of the problem as military and urgent when it's
more of a long-term political and cultural problem. The massive expansion of the
military budget, the unilateral rush to war in Iraq, the creation of the
cumbersome Department of Homeland Security, the new restrictions on visas and
travel can all be chalked up to this sense that we are at war. No cost-benefit
analysis has been done. John Mueller points out that in response to a total of
five deaths from anthrax, the U.S. government has spent $5 billion on new
security procedures."

You would be a continuation of this threat inflation and overreaction to terrorism. Barack Obama is the one that is coming in with a DIFFERENT and more hopeful view of the World. If there is someone with a more hopeful and realistic view of the world than America will begin to act in ways that are better and more realistic to the needs of America and the World while you will still be acting based on perceived threats and fear. We have had this looming over our head for the past 7 years and the American people ARE DONE WITH IT! We want to move towards progress for our society rather than focusing on external issues that are not primary to our wellbeing.


3. YOU ARE A HYPOCRITE!! If you were truly running a campaign that was not destructive you would have never made this statement:

"With no record to rely on, all the American people can hold Senator Obama to is
a promise – the promise of a different kind of politics".


This is far more destructive than what Wesley Clark said. The reason being that Clark only questioned why one part of your experience would qualify you for Presidency. However, Barack Obama has had no problem ACKNOWLEDGING the experience that you have. He has never DIMINISHED your military experience. When Wesley Clark talked about this, he clearly noted that the experience was there. However, you have not acknowledged ANY of Barack Obama's experience and that is truly destructive since your goal is to tear down all of his accomplishments in order to make yourself look better. The reason you feel okay doing this is because you know that if his accomplishments were mentioned it would make you look less qualified.


Again, this type of behavior is reprehensible because if you cannot, like Obama and Wesley, measure your opponent's qualifications for President against his REAL LIFE ACCOMPLISHMENTS, rather than spread a falsehood claiming that he is not accomplished at all, then you are clearly not the straight talker you claim to bet but a mere spin doctor like all of your cronies including Karl Rove and George W. Bush.


Signed,
A citizen that is tired of this.



Let me know what your thoughts are on this issue...........

0 comments »

 

Posted

What is Blackness?

This is a question that has been posed in the MEDIA concerning Presidential candidate, Barack Obama, and as a Black Urban Professional, I find it to be offensive. I would like the media to show me the unanimous checklist that black America has given to them to use as a judge of one’s blackness. I would bet that it differs based on class level and not just across race.

The only qualification that I use to judge a black politician is how far he will go to sell his soul. The question that I ask is, "will he lose sight of what I believe is his original plan?” To maintain or better the life of his constituents. Or, "Is there evidence that he has ever planned to help his constituents to maintain or better their lifestyle?" The question of his "blackness" only comes into play when I think about whether he has taken measures to improve the black community. I don't believe that a politician needs to or should give favoritism to a particular group simply because he is in it. However, if he feels like he will get further in the political realm by playing to the stronger influences in his term which are probably older white men, in a way that ignores the needs of the black constituency, and is strictly for his political benefit, than I have a problem.

There is a good example of "black enough gone wrong" in the media right now. Detroit's mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was deemed the Hip Hop mayor because he was young and "hip". However, having the qualities of what could be considered” "a real black men” by society’s standard have proven to be disastrous in the political world. I won't go into details but I'll direct you to the rap videos on 106th and Park.

Although, I want my candidate to still have his hand on the pulse of the black community, I expect that he has a certain level of education. He has to actually have learned the various aspects of the government, including, the economy, international relations, legal ethics, and management skills in order to be successful at the job. So while, its nice to think that anyone with street cred can step out onto the scene and work as a politician while keeping one foot in the hood, it’s not practical. As many Black Urban Professionals know, with education and exposure to other cultures comes a certain refinement in many cases. We as black people would be doing ourselves a great disservice if we asked our politicians to be less than stellar in those areas in order to play to a certain demographic. Instead we just need to make sure that our politicians have our needs in mind and continue to work toward their goal to maintain or better the life of his constituents. He should only be questioned when he strays from that fundamental goal.

0 comments »

 

Posted in

The purpose behind " The Black Urban Observer"


I am starting this post as a supplement to the channels that currently allow black people to express themselves.

Black Urban Professionals lack representation in the media. Often, we see the worst of the black community, or we see highly educated "representatives" as talking heads on channels such as CNN.


These "representatives" usually have insightful things to say but they are still a part of the mainstream media.


That being said, I am a member of the young professional citizen category. I have a perspective that a talking head will probably not be able to communicate even if they were once a Buppie.


In this blog you will see a variety of topics that represent my interests and also the interests of other professionals that I am acquainted with including:


Politics

Fashion

Current Events

Our Leaders

Music


Feel free to add your two cents in at anytime. Dialogue is what allows us to grow!

ENJOY!!

0 comments »