Real Talk

Peace and blessings,

I came across a website a while back called

Freerice.com

, which is a sister site to

Poverty.com.

The goal the site is to increase people's English vocabulary while helping alleviate world hunger. The website basically consists of a ongoing vocabulary "test," and for every correct answer, 20 grains of rice is donated towards alleviating someone's hunger. You can play as long and as many times you want, and I guarantee you that it will get addictive, lol. Plus, you can track your "vocab score" as you go along to track your progress.

Once you try it, share your thoughts on it and let me know what you think. Take care, stay blessed, and speekonit...

Labels: education, humanity, world hunger

Peace and blessings,

Below is a conversation on what appears to be a Christian TV show and/or station, and a Professor of Religion about the

relevance of the bible.

Check it out and share your thoughts. Take care and have a blessed day.

Labels: Bible, Christian, education, TV

Peace and blessings,

As someone who was a former gamer, took a few years off, and is now a more refined gamer, I was intrigued to come across these two video games. With regards to the question "Does life imitate art or art imitate life," I am a firm believer that first and foremost art imiates life. Therefore, I believe that many movies, comic books, literary works, paintings, and music have deeper meanings attached to them than what we we normally ackowledge or give them credit for. With regards to the question "Do some video games go too far," my answer is an emphatic yes. Alittle over a year ago I got into a good discussion with a friend of mine over the video game "grand theft auto," and my position was basically that the game, as well as many other games, is inappropriate not just for younger kids, but for gamers of all ages. Anyway, back to the issue at hand....



I've recently had a chance to play this game, and as a first impression I would have to say that I like the set-up. It's more educational than action-based, more about consciousness-raising than cool graphics. I think that as long as the intentions are in the right place, certain video games can be used as tools to educate people on issues, people who probably spend more time playing video games anyway than reading about or watching the news. But then again, with all the bias and distorting of information going on in the (mainstream) media, who could blame them? Anyway, I think this

video game about Darfur has potential

This

video game about Columbine

however, is a different story. For some reason, I seriously question whether or not the intentions were in the right place when making this video game. From what i've seen of the video game trailer, I think that this video game was a bad idea. And even if the intentions were in the right place, one has to have a certain amount of respect for the victims and their families. With the Darfur game, I think that aims of the game are potentially benefical in terms of trying to end the conflict because it is trying to promote awareness and action and denouncing violence. With this Columbine game, I don't think that the ends justify the means.

What do you think? Do you think that a video game can promote awareness and positve action? What is your take on these two games? Weigh in and speekonit...

Labels: action, awareness, Columbine, Darfur, education, video game

Peace and blessings,

I pray everyone enjoyed their weekend. As we are approaching the last few days of the government-sanctioned "Black History Month," I thought it appropriate to acknowledge

Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950)

, an individual who not only revolutionized the importance of recognizing the history, struggles, and value of people of African descent, but embodied the spirit of what it means to use our gifts and talents for the benefit of our fellow brothers and sisters. Although the quotes that are to follow were taken from "The Miseducation of the Negro" and thus focus on people of African descent, I believe that the themes addressed in this book (which everyone must read) apply to people of all backgrounds, experiences, and ethnicities, as it deals with the emancipation of mental slavery. Come to think of it, I'll probably have to revisit this book again, because there is not enough room in one post to include all of the "food for thought" that is in this book. Without further or do, let's get into business...




This quote is probably one of the more popular of the book, as it not only highlights the potential danger of mental slavery as an idea, but it gives a stifling example of what mental slavery looks like in practice:

"If you can control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one." (pgs 84-85)

This next quote is also powerful, although insteasd of mental slavery, it focuses on the importance of service, not leadership in addressing society's ills:

" If the negro could abandon the idea of leadership and instead stimulate a larger number of the race to take up definite tasks and sacrafice their time and energy in doing these things efficiently the race might accomplish something....Under leadership we have come into the ghetto; by service within the ranks we may work ur way out of it. Under leadership we have been constrained to do the biddings of others; by service we may work out a program in the light of our own circumstances. Under leadership we have become poverty-stricken; by service we may teach the massess how to earn a living honestly. Under leadership we have been made to despise our own possibilites and to develop into parasites; by service we may prove sufficient unto the task of self-development and contribute our part to modern culture." (pgs 118-119)

Now I don't think that Carter G. would be against recognized leaders such as Martin Luther King or Malcolm X because they made it a priority to encourage the members of their respoective movements. More importantly, within both movements, especially the civil rights movement, everyone, regardless of "rank" played an active role in bringing about social change. For instance, teh bus boycott did not happen because of Martin Luther King, but because of the hundreds (and probably thousands) of people who chose to walk instead of taking the bus, organized carpools, raised money, got the word out, and so forth. In other words, service was at the core of the movement.

The most revolutionary figure, Jesus Christ, also put a high premium on service:

" But Jesus said to them, The kings of the Gentiles are deified by them and exercise lordship [ruling as emperor-gods] over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors and well-doers. But this is not to be so with you; on the contrary, let him who is the greatest among you become like the youngest, and him who is the chief and leader like one who serves. For who is the greater, the one who reclines at table (the master), or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am in your midst as One Who serves."
Luke 22:25-27 (NKJ Amplified)

As those who notice that "things aren't right" with regards to our local, national, and international affairs, let's pray that our God-given talents and abilitities be used in the name of service and not just in the name of leadership. Take care and speekonit...

Labels: African, Carter G. Woodson, education, God, history, Jesus Christ, Luke, Malcolm X, mental, Miseducation of the Negro, MLK, service, slavery

Pic courtesy of

Chessville

Peace and blessings,

A couple of months ago, a friend of mine sent me a

video of Cam'ron and Dame Dash on The Bill O' Reilly show

. The topic of discussion was whether or not hip-hop has a negative influence on youth. The question was posed by A principal of a middle school in Philidelphia. While watching the segment, I felt that Cam'ron and Dame Dash were "skating around" the issue and didn't want to really address the extent to which their lyrics and lifestyle influences the youth. Not knowing who the principal was who posed this important question to Cam'ron and Dash (and symbolically to mainstream hip-hop as a whole), I sympathized with him for a couple of reasons. One, I could tell that he was legitimately concerned about the youth in his school. Second, I felt that his concerns were dismissed by Cam and Dame.


Pic courtesy of

Wolfram MathWorld

About a month later, I came across this article on

All Hip-Hop

and learned alittle more about who the principal was, and the work he does with the youth at his school. In particular, I was fascinated to learn about how he

uses chess as a tool to teach his students life lessons

. Reading about his story reminded me of the many teachers who are dedicating their lives and resources everyday to impact the lives of youth.

In sum, this story, and other personal stories I hear about friends of mine who view teaching as their calling, lets me know about the power education, and how teaching and connecting with students go hand in hand. More on Salome Thomas-El can be found on

his website

. Also, it has been reported that

Will Smith will play him in upcoming film

. Below is the video segment on the Bill O'Reilly show. Until next time, speekonit...

Labels: chess, education, hip-hop, lyrics, Salome Thomas-El, youth

Peace and blessings,


Pics have been added to "Pt.2" of my summary of the Holy Hip-Hop Awards (posted January 16, 2007) and the post I did on the potential educational import of superheroes ("More than meets the eye?", February '06). Take care and have a blessed rest of the weekend. Enjoy and speekonit...

Labels: Christian hip hop, education, pics, Superheroes

Peace and blessings,

I pray everyone had a safe, blessed, and productive weekend. Below are a couple of links about rappers who are contributing to righteous causes domestically as well as internationally. Ahh, the power of the voice...


The first link is about rappers in the Bay Area, California who are tryiing to raise awareness of the struggling schools in the Bay Area, as well to raise money to improve those schoools. One of the rappers, Kontac, is also a teacher at a school in East Palo Alto.

http://www.allhiphop.com/hiphopnews/?ID=6597


On a similar note, 20 or so rappers are coming together for a "Save Darfur Tour," aimed at raising awareness of the past and current genocide going on in Sudan, and the plight of its refugees. Peep the website below for more info.


http://www.savedarfurtour.com/

Man, could you imagine a concert in the likes of like a summer jam, but whose sole purpose was to raise awareness about and pull resources together to address domestic and international injustices? Call me an idealist, but a pray that the actualization of such a vision is on that rear-view mirror steez: It may be closer than it appears! What do you think? Speekonit...

Labels: Bay Area, California, Darfur, domestic, education, Heart of Racial Justice: How Soul Change Leads to Social Change, hip-hop, international, revolutionary, teacher

I've added a couple of articles. One is on the first Chinese person to head a U.N. Agency, and the other is on this expert in the field of education who argues that Education alone cannot solve social problems. The first piece is in the "people" section, and the second piece is in the "education" section. Speekonit...

Labels: Chinese, education, news, people, United Nations

Peace and Blessings,

Recently, many people who are close to me have been experiencing the lost of life-long friends to cancer. Before I get into the purpose of this piece, I want to emphasize the importance of living and eating healthy, as cancer is constantly taking lives irrespective of age, race, gender, etc... So make sure you get regular check-ups and take care of your body, as it is a temple for God. While driving to campus yesterday morning, I was listening to the album "Crossroads" by Deitrick Haddon. I was thinking about the recent lost that my loved ones have recently experienced and I started to think about how I still struggle with the idea of people dying, especially when I feel like it was "before their time." God quickly reminded me, however, of something that as a believer I often forget...


Regardless of what ethnicity and culture you represent, I'm pretty sure that within every family there is that older cousin who often serves as the "nucleus" holding all the younger cousins together. For me, it was my oldest cousin on my father's side of the family. As a child I remember going over his house playing football, staying up all night playing video games, and so forth. On top of being one of the coolest people to spend time with, he was also one of the most gifted. He ran track, played football, and was an exceptional honor student. During his senior year of high school he got a scholarship (I think a full ride) to go to UCLA. So as you can see, it was not difficult to view him as a mentor and strive to be like him. After all. as young men we are always looking for guidance from an older male figure.


One day, however, everything changed in a blink of an eye. A few days before his graduation, he was walking home and was approached by a couple of people who tried to take his cd player. Realizing they were outmatched (like I said, my cousin was a football player so he was considerable bigger than them), they left. However, they shortly returned in a car and shot and killed him. I was in the third grade when this happened, and ever since then, I have always felt that my educational pursuits are not just for me, but they are for him and his parents as well. Actually, his passing was the reason why I wanted to go to UCLA as a youth. Not because I knew anything about the school, but because that's where he was going.


Fastforward about fourteen years and now i'm at Harvard's Graduate School of Education. While having a long conversation with with a young woman who went to the same undergrad as I did and it now at MIT, we found out that we were both from california and had plenty of similarities. When she asked me about what motivated my educational pursuits and I told her that the loss of my cousin plays a significant part, she told me that she remembered hearing about my cousin's passing on the news, and was talking to her friends about it when it happened. Now I figure by now that I had "dealed" with the loss of my cousin, but that conversation reminded me that I hadn't. There was still this weight that I carried around because I still could not understand why God allowed for my cousin, whose future and spirit was about as bright as can be, to go be with Him at such a young age. Till this day, I still think about where my cousin would be and what he would be doing right now if he were still alive.

These thoughts continued to resonate within me until one day, I was listening to a track called "After While" off of Deitrick Haddon's album "Lost and Found," and it is about dealing with the loss of a loved one. In short, the song basically says that although I cannot understand why you are no longer here, I know that I will see you again. It was at that point that I felt God ministering to my spirit, and finally giving me some "piece" about the situation. While I'm still living, I will never know why got took my cousin at 17, but what I do know is that I will see him again when God calls me home. When I think about the afterlife, I tend to view it like this. Just as we (belivers or not) are unable to fully explain where we come from (meaning we know how babies are made, but we don't know the full extent of God's reasoning behind it, or behind creation for that matter), the same goes for the afterlife. We cannot fully explain what happens to us when we die, therefore we are in no position to assume that once we die, that's it. As believers, however, that's where our faith comes in. As scripture says it is the "evidence of things not seen," thus we must trust that God has everthing in control, especially those things that surpass human reason and understanding, like what happens to us once we die. I pray that this is able to bless whoever reads it, but it sure does a number on me, lol. Also, although it doesn't include the song "afterwhile," below is a clip of D. Haddon performing live. Until next time, speekonit...

Labels: After While, cancer, Crossroads, culture, death, Deitrick Haddon, education, ethnicity, faith, God, Lost and Found, scriputre, UCLA

Peace and blessings,


Ever since I can remember, I have always been a fan of superheroes. It started with Voltron and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons. Around 9 or 10 years old, I also became interested in comic books, more specifically marvel comics. My all time favorite superhero group by far is the X-men, and my favorite solo superhero is Spiderman. It has since been over a decade later, and I still find myself buying comic books and watching classic superhero cartoons. As I get older, one of my goals is to become more purposeful in all I do, business and recreational. Therefore, the question arises: why am I just as, if not more interested in superheroes now than I was back when I would have had the costumes to match? Not surprisingly, the answer to this question led to more questions. I realized that my current fascination with superheroes stems from the fact that I actually learn from them. More specifically, when I watch an episode of X-men or Spiderman, I see more than just action-packed characters. I see individuals who struggle with complex issues of identity, relationships, and moral agency within a socio-political context. The following pics are courtesy of

Marvel

.




For example, I argue that the life of Peter Parker (a.k.a. Spiderman) somewhat mirrors the Christian Walk. Once he received his powers, he struggled with whether or not to use his powers for self-ish reasons or to help others. Similarly, as Christians God has entrusted us with wisdom, discenrment, and spiritual authority over Satan, but it's up to us to decide whether we are going to use what God has blessed us with to bless others. It may sound Cliche-ish, but it's on that "to whom much is given, much is required" steez.


On more of a social level, the X-men are a group of mutants who've dedicated their lives to working towards unity between humans and mutants. I believe that the X-men's decision to protect those who fear and hate them (i.e. humans) and their strivings for unity resemble the civil rights movement and the ills of racisim. This idea of racism and societal outcasts was made more clear to me while learning about the plight of a group of mutants known as the Morlocks in an episode of X-men. Like the X-men, they are feared and hated by humans. Unlike the X-men, however, their mutant characteristics are more visible (i.e. they have more physcial and facial deformities), therefore they cannot "pass" as human. As a result, they live underground, and have to steal food to survive. This dynamic of having one group of mutants who are more marginalized in society than another group relates to past and contemporary divisions bewteen people with darker skin and those with lighter-skin, and how "light-skin" black and brown people appear more acceptible in mainstream American media.




In terms of superheroes' political relevance, the Black Panther's name should speak for itself. The Black Panther is the first prominent Black superhero. He lives in an African nation that was unaffected by European colonization. He protects his nation from colonization and other countries' attempts to exploit his nation's resources. Sound familiar? He first appeared in issue #52 of the Fantastic Four in 1966, the same year that the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was formed in Oakland, Ca by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. Coincidence? Hardly. It doesn't take deep analysis to see there's a connection. In a recent Black Panther comic (part of a four-part crossover series with the X-men), the Black Panther addresses the issue of the death penalty in Texas. Such a comment would not have been necessary if he was simply an action-packed character, suggesting that there's more to many superheroes than what meets the eye.

The above examples have led me to the following theory: Although superheroes are often known for their special powers, they provide insight into moral, political, and societal issues. Moreover, I argue that because children are often fascinated with superheores, adults and educators should atleast consider the potential educational import of superheroes such as Spiderman, X-men, and The Black Panther as tools to promote critical thinking and the awareness of social and political issues among children. I am really interested in this issue, so I'm looking forward to hearing what others think about it. Peace, Blessings, and speekonit...

Labels: African, Black Panther, Black Panther Party, cartoons, children, comic book, education, moral, political, social, Spiderman, Superheroes, Voltron, X-men, youth