Russell Simmons, hip hop mogul extraordinaire and money grubber, went on a fact finding mission paid for by the Diamond Industry and has come to the conclusion that he has a problem with the “current misinformation around diamonds.”

Simmons, who also sells diamonds through his Baby Phat line, went to Southern Africa to draw his own conclusions about this Blood Diamond-hoopla.

And according to him, it is all good in the hood…continue with the bling. And the Diamond Industry is just happy they could get a Black person to say what they have been saying all along.

NY Times “A Hip-hop Mogul Is The Diamond Industry’s New Best Friend”

Tiger Woods just renewed another contract with Nike for an un disclosed amount of money. In 1997 his deal was for 40 million dollars and in 2001 he signed a 100 million dollar deal and now who knows. But now he’s making more money as an athlete than any other athlete ever. Tiger Woods is GOLF in my opinion and though he’s not Black he’d be picking cotton along side me 200 years ago. Good to see a desendent of a slave making money for being marketable.

Show me what cha’ Got.

Mayor Frank Melton of Jackson, Mississippi was elected in 2005 with a tough-on-crime campaign platform. Sure the city of 184,000 has a crime rate that is double the national average, but perhaps the mayor has taken it a little too far.

After gaining national attention for taking part in police raids and roadblocks, Melton pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges for carrying a weapon into a park and a church and no contest to a reduced charge for what would have been a felony - carrying a gun onto the campus of the Mississippi College School of Law. He received a six-month suspended sentence on each count, a year’s probation and a $1500 fine. The plea deal on the reduced felony charge allows the mayor to stay in office.

Melton still faces unrelated charges for a case in which he and his two police bodyguards are accused of ransacking a duplex he claimed was a drug haven. The property owners deny this charge and have filed a lawsuit. The ACLU has also accused Melton of civil rights abuses and racial profiling.

It’s too early to tell whether the Wyatt Earp theatrics are reducing Jackson’s crime rate, but one wonders whether crime in Detroit would go down if Kwame Kilpatrick walked into Greater Grace or U of D Mercy with a shotgun.

I am not quite sure where author, NPR commentator and screenwriter, John Ridley is going with this one…

It sounds like one of those ‘being Black and worrying about Black folks can kill you’-type moments that some of us are known to have. His basic point is that “niggers” have forgotten what really matters in this world–accomplishment. And accomplishment is empowerment.

A little Bill Cosby-ish…a little neo-con…but worth reading.

“So I say this: It’s time for ascended blacks to wish niggers good luck. Just as whites may be concerned with the good of all citizens but don’t travel their days worrying specifically about the well-being of hill billies from Appalachia, we need to send niggers on their way. We need to start extolling the most virtuous of ourselves. It is time to celebrate the New Black Americans—those who have sealed the Deal, who aren’t beholden to liberal indulgence any more than they are to the disdain of the hard Right. It is time to praise blacks who are merely undeniable in their individuality and exemplary in their levels of achievement.”

Is John Ridley having a breakdown?

Nigger v. Queer: How gays got it right

Unsafe schools, stygma and a Black history void have lead more African American parents to homeschool their children, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. From 1999 to 2004, homeschooling has increased by a third and researchers say the number of African Americans who homeschool may be growing at a faster rate.

“Black public school students are three times as likely as white students to be categorized as needing special education services, a 2002 study by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University found. “

San Francisco Chronicle

Bill Cosby is asking every American to donate $8 to support a U.S. National Slavery museum. In a nation of some 300 million people even a small response would help the organizers reach their $100 million goal, Cosby told CNN.

Why $8?

“The figure 8, in shape, is both of the shackles, which is the symbol of slavery,” says former Governor and current Richmond mayor Douglas Wilder who has been working on a museum project for more than ten years.”If you turn it on its side, it’s the symbol of infinte freedom.”

NYTimes’ bloggers go ape crap over Black Enterprise’s current cover story “75 Most Powerful Blacks on Wall Street.” The Black Enterprise article tackles a familiar topic to most on this site–examinig the strides/setbacks African Americans have made in the corporate world. As most know, the question of economic empowerment still looms large for most Black folk. Yet, equal opportunity comments (yes, even Black people) go a little something like this:

• It is not enough to decry the shortage of Blacks in top level jobs. That may be the case, but are qualified applicants really being passed over? I have seen no reports indicating this. As a black woman and a recruiter I can tell you that I review a depressingly small candidate pool of minorities for most positions advertised by my firm. It has led me to believe that they just aren’t there in large numbers and the makeup of most firms’ management teams seems to lend credence to this. Educated and accomplished blacks where are you? You need to start showing up - we’re stuck at bemoaning your absence - account for yourselves.
• I am sick and tired of the incessant complaining by all minorities about the lack of representation in government, corporate america, etc., etc. It’s important to recognise that the opportunities have been created and it’s then left largely to the population of minorities to seek to take advantage of those opportunities. Stop your bloody complaining and work to earn that place.
• Well, if I was an African American I would be worried. While the African-Americans sit around bickering and complaining about lack of recognition, the Asians and Latinos in business are going to continue climbing business ladders without screaming “Look at me I’m climbing!”.
• When is the article on the lack of diversity, subtitled “The Discrimination against Asians in the NBA and the NFL,” coming out? I am also still waiting for the article on “The Highly Qualified Asian Students Who Do Not Get into Elite Schools so that Utterly Unprepared and Unqualified Affirmative Action Students Can Steal Their Rightful Places, which Is Futile since They Never Graduate Anyway.”

Despite 2002 photos of Black preachers gathered expectantly around President George W. Bush, faith-based initiatives haven’t meant bunches of dollars for Black churches. According to a study by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Black churches account for less than three percent of the $2 billion spent on the program. Also, the Black churches that actually have benefitted are politically ‘left’ writes the Washington Post. Since the left-leaning churches believe they need to actually help somebody.

In the meantime? Prosperity ministers’ are getting their private planes waxed.

When we remember 9/11, let’s not forget the African Burial Ground Project. During the 1700’s, almost 20,000 African slaves, mostly children, were buried seven blocks from where the World Trade Center (WTC) stood. In 1991, the burial grounds were rediscovered. Community pressure forced the federal government to treat the remains not just with human dignity but historical respect.

The WTC housed the office that held the records and artifacts of the African Burial Ground Project. Although some of the artifacts were lost in 9/11, including a musketball lodged in the skeletal remains of a woman’s chest, miraculously, many of the artifacts were recovered.

A testament: This history will not be forgotten.

GSA

Washington Post

Trees now grow where African American slaves lived on the old Wye House Plantation in Maryland. Owned by a single family since the 1660’s, the site allows excavators a rare opportunity to look for the artifacts that were once used in the daily life of enslaved people. It is also the planataion that Frederick Douglass lived and worked as a child.

NYTimes

Huffington Post’s Trey Ellis gives a succinct analysis on chocolate cities as a function of a healthy democracy and our inability to talk about race like ‘grownups’

Huffington Post

Former US Congressman and past NAACP president Kwesi Mfume is running for the Senate as a Democrat in Maryland, but you’d never know it. Top Dems have endorsed his (white) rival US Rep. Benjamin Cardin despite Mfume’s record and his obvious appeal to Black voters.

But the kick in the head is that hip hop mogul Russell Simmons is endorsing the other Black guy in the race, Republican and Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. Simmons appeared at a Steele fundraiser, attended mostly by young Black folks, and claimed the GOP candidate is leading the charge in “The last leg of the civil rights movement” which Simmons identifies as the economic empowerment step. (Read as “the pro-business and rich brothers step”.)

Early in his campaign, Steele took great effort to distance himself from the leader of his party, but has reversed that move of late, referring to Grandwizard GDub as his “homeboy”.

So where does that leave Mfume? He is the progressive horse in the race - antiwar, pro-liberal values - but with even his buddy Min. Ben Chavis Muhammad stumping for Steele on Simmons’ coattails, will Kweisi be able to mount a significant challenge come November?