Two Stories About Young Black Men

hat tips-RobM

From Philly.com

Teen 'Jeopardy!' champ wants to buy a guitar, study medicine

POSTED: Tuesday, February 19, 2013, 10:06 AM



Leonard Cooper won $75,000 for taking a title home from the teen tournament on Jeopardy!—the culmination of which aired last week. The clip of Cooper's Final Jeopardy answer, "Who is some guy in Normandy but I just won $75,000" has been played no fewer than a billion times in every corner of the Internet, by now

Cooper spoke with the Daily Beastto discuss his new fame and fortune and his plans for the future. He applied to Brown, but couldn't disclose that he had won the tournament. He says that he didn't cram for his performance.

I pretty much winged it. It’s funny, because the 15 contestants there were all talking. Apparently, there’s a website that has every single answer from every single Jeopardy! game all categorized. A lot of them had been looking at the site. I had no idea it existed. So they were all studying the questions. I wasn’t focusing on getting information. I was focusing on getting faster than everyone else.

Cooper says he wants to buy a guitar and study medicine. Oh, and Steve Harvey told him to neaten up his afro. Check out the rest of the Q&A over at the Daily Beast.

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Media Alert -Any folks in Atlanta? ' Black Men in the Age of President Obama' - CNN would like for you to come to Morehouse

CNN has partnered with ESSENCE Magazine to produce an hour-long special on the one year election anniversary of President Barack Obama. The show, entitled, “Black Men in the Age of President Obama,” will be moderated by CNN Newsroom weekend anchor Don Lemon and will include six panelists who will discuss various issues related to the African American community.

Morehouse College has been selected as the site for the taping of this historic event. We are fortunate to have been asked to host this taping in the word-famous, Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel during our Homecoming week.

You and a guest are cordially invited to attend this special taping on
Wednesday, October 21, between 7-9 pm.
Please plan to arrive in King Chapel no later than 6:30 p.m.

Confirmed Panelists include:

Tyrone McGowan—Morehouse Senior
Dr. Steve Perry–CNN Education Contributor
Bishop Eddie Long–Pastor New Birth Missionary Baptist Church
DJ Drama(Tyree Simmons)–Youth/Hip hop generation/ biracial perspective
Orrin Hudson–Founder of Be Someone
Dr. Farrah Gray—Author/youth/wealth builder

Lost Potential

Over at The Loop, I've got a column up on the lost potential of so many young black males in prison. Check it out.

A Message From Morehouse

Hat tip: Prometheus 6

From The Washington Post:

A Message From Morehouse
By Colbert I. King
Saturday, May 2, 2009

Eliminate young African American men, and what would police, jailers, social workers, and sports and entertainment moguls do for a living?

After all, young black men live to get in trouble, make babies, act out on stage, slam-dunk and dance in the end zone. That, at least, is the mass-media-influenced image that is accepted as "authentic" by people who should know better.

Someone who does know better is Robert M. Franklin, the president of Morehouse College, the venerable, all-male, historically black Atlanta college noted for building up and turning out generations of outstanding leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., the theologian and writer Howard W. Thurman, and prominent D.C. lawyer James L. Hudson.

Franklin's remarks to students at an April 21 town hall meeting on the campus didn't make headlines. But excerpts from "The Soul of Morehouse and the Future of the Mystique" are making the rounds in African American homes and in social settings, thanks to the Internet and a communications phenomenon called the "black express," which preceded and outlives the Pony Express.

Franklin's speech focused on Morehouse students. But his message has caught on because it speaks to a larger community of up-and-coming young black men who are studiously ignored by arbiters of popular culture.

He translated the mystique into eight simple words:
"Renaissance men with social conscience and global perspective."


Franklin said that after two years at the college, he had recognized a critical ingredient that bonds Morehouse men: a fundamental sense of discontent with mediocrity and nonsense. He encouraged the continued development of young black men "so sensitive to the presence of disorder, mediocrity and injustice that they cannot sleep well at night." And he used the moment to take on what he views as the corruption that threatens the soul of young men and women "inside and outside the Morehouse village": the young black male antics so celebrated by popular culture. That conduct, he suggested, represents the behavior of "the spiritually ill and disoriented."

He demanded, that students instead embrace his "Five Wells": well-read, well-spoken, well-traveled, well-dressed and well-balanced. And he highlighted three: reading, speech, and dress.

"I have seen too many students standing in lines wasting time. You should carry something to read and make good use of your down time. Read books, not just summaries of books. Choose an accomplished and prolific writer as a role model," he declared. "But just as important -- if not more -- study grammar and syntax and the art of composition. Learn the power of accurately constructed sentences and well-positioned words."

"It matters," he said, "how well you write."

Read rest of the column at link above.

Hi! I'm Back...Musings from vacation

Hello Mirror On America!

I tried to go through an entire week without internet connection, but I couldn't do it. Found it by accident - I'm technologically challenged, so I had no idea you could connect to the internet through a telephone. I was playing with my niece's Blackberry, and saw the internet icon, and found myself on Mirror On America! It was so good to see this place..LOL

Well, I'm going to say that Orlando is the biggest touristy place outside of Las Vegas in America. And, boy are they scamming you, everywhere you go. Disney and Universal are getting over like fat rats, and the consumers are endless pieces of cheese.

I'd like to give a shout out to the women of Delta Sigma Theta Sororty, Inc. I can't tell you the little bursts of pride I got as I saw groups of Delta women over the past week. There's something about seeing those beautiful Black women, spanning generations, that just made me smile. Though I am not one, I come from a family of Delta women, and seeing red and white all over Orlando was terrific.


I spent the better part of this afternoon in the airport, waiting for my evening flight, having discussions with two 18 year old Black men, both family. It was interesting. The three of us, plus an elderly cousin who was knitting, surrounded by White folks. As you can already surmise, it got hilarious.

One of the young men began quoting Huey, yes, Huey. I knew what he was doing, but I played along anyway. You know that folks wanted to move, but they couldn't?

We waxed philosophical on:
Barack Obama
Ronald Reagan as the Devil
Michelle Obama
Inter-racial dating
Colin Powell vs. Condi Rice
Arab vs. European enslavement of Africans
Conspiracy theories
Malcolm vs. Martin

I was so proud of the young men, considering we know how Young Black Men are denigrated in this society. I loved my nephew's diatribe to me about forcing him to go to the 'American' Pavillion at Epcot and listen to the 25 minute flag-waving ' I love America' history lesson. Yes, I understood every word he said against it, after all, my sister and I have been the main ones giving him the ' supplemental' history books, but sometimes you don't think they're listening, and then, WHAM, you realize that they do read; they do listen. And, it made me proud. Some of our youth have their heads on straight, and we should give them credit.

When we were going to board the plane, my elderly cousin shook her head.

" You should be ashamed of yourselves...messing with those White folks like that."

But, she was smiling as we boarded the plane.