Black History Month: Malcolm X

Malcolm X (pronounced /ˈmælkəm ˈɛks/) (born Malcolm Little; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Arabic: الحاجّ مالك الشباز‎), was an African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist.

To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. His detractors accused him of preaching racism, black supremacy, antisemitism, and violence. He has been described as one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.

Click here to read the entire article from Harlem World News

Real Open Talk For Life with WJC

The New Year’s Round Table!
By: Rev. W. Jeffrey Campbell, Houston, TX

The year 2010 has arrived! A new year and a new decade!

Nancy Wilson recorded a song many years ago entitled, “What are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” What a wonderful song of romance and budding love. I remember making a cassette tape (yes, cassette tape) years ago for someone who I had fallen for. The tape included Nancy’s tune and other love songs and I wrote a nice little love note suggesting that we bring the New Year in together. I never mailed the tape or the letter and although our whirlwind two day romance was wonderful, it never moved past that point. No baby’s breath and no lace!

This New Year’s Eve found me in church, which is quite usual for me. I do think it is something quite awesome to ring in the New Year while singing God’s praises and in prayer and reflection. After church I gathered with 10 wonderful friends for breakfast and great conversation. This has become somewhat of a tradition for me and some of my in-town best and close friend circle. This year’s breakfast was held in the home of one of my best friends and his partner of 5 years.

Let’s take a look at what the breakfast crew looked like. The youngest guest was 31. The oldest 46. The relationship status of our breakfast crew included: two couples; one friend who just recently entered into a long distance relationship with plans of his boyfriend moving here later this year; 4 single guys; and then there was me and the great guy that I have been “talking to” for the past 2 months who lives in another state.

We sat at the round dining table and talked about a plethora of topics but we intentionally landed on two very necessary topics for an early morning breakfast on the first day of the New Year: What had we accomplished in 2009 and what were our goals for 2010.

During this time of the evening we gratefully poured our souls out detailing successes of 2009. One crew member began 2009 stating that he was going to lose weight. When by February he had not gone near a gym or cut back on any starches or red meats, most of the crew thought that he was not going to achieve his goal. I however, being one of the smarter crew members (LOL), remembered that this one was very goal oriented and very stubborn, so if he said he was going to do it, he would definitely accomplish it. (Five years ago he said that he was going to buy a home and get into a relationship. He has accomplished both!) So, I was not surprised when in November he had lost 25 pounds and by mid-December he had lowered his weight by 29 pounds. What was his secret? I suggested that he had gotten his stomach stapled but, in actuality he had used the Quick Weight Lose Center Program. He is now tucking his shirt back into his pants and sporting quit a waist line! Congratulations!

I had spent a great deal of New Year’s Eve day trying to remember what I had accomplished in 2009. Just about the time I was ready to throw in the towel and say “nothing”, I remembered the commitments that I had made during our 2009 New Year’s breakfast. I said that I would work more with my African American GLBT community, particularly Black gay men. Light bulb moment! In 2009 “Brothas Speaking I” and “Brothas Speaking II”, my idea to create safe and healthy spaces for African American same-gender loving men to discuss subjects live relationships, health and spirituality and sexuality came to life with great success. I had the opportunity to preach on the Ebony Pyramid Entertainment Cruise in October, yet another event for same gender loving members of the African American community. I also spoke during several events at the DFW Pride Movement and I was asked to serve as a contributing writing for The Future Forward. I am grateful to God for not only giving me these opportunities to connect with my community but also for bringing these achievements back to my memory when I was almost convinced that the year had gone by and I had done nothing.

I do not believe in a creature embodied in red skin with horns, a pitch fork and a spiked tail named the devil. I do however believe in the presence of evil in our world that sometimes attacks us and causes us not to be able to focus on what is important, to remember the things that we have accomplished and force us into a period of discouragement. It happens to all of us at some time or another. It is just something that we don’t like to talk about or that we discuss with no real idea of what is causing our struggle.

If the enemies of depression, low self-esteem and discouragement have caused you to not be able to recall your past accomplishments or have you stuck and not wanting to move forward into your present and future assignments, I encourage you to seek God for deliverance over these strongholds. You, my friend, are a gift to this world that is priceless. You are filled with potential much of which has gone untapped. Do not waste another minute wandering in the fog.

Begin to walk in your truth, your gifting and your call! Seek God for personal revival! Get focused or re-focused! We have goals to achieve, lives to touch, relationships to enter into, families to birth and nurture. 2010 is here let’s take it by storm!

Happy New Year!
Until next week…ROTFL with WJC!
Please contact me at realopentalkforlife@yahoo.com for further discussion.

Play Defense and Offense on the Field of Business

The MEGA World of Lil Mogul
Most companies now realize how important social media guidelines are for setting the ground rules for employees' usage of blogs, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, etc. The best guidelines encourage users to be responsible and respectful, indicate how confidential information should be handled, and reiterate the corporate rules of business conduct. But even the most robust guidelines are written and used primarily as Defense. The intent is to protect the company and its brand name.

Companies need to play Offense too. Social media and networking are ideal ways to promote the company and the brand but how does the brand promote itself with these new tools. To take full advantage of the brand-building opportunities in social media and networking, companies need to play more Offense.

In recent years, many companies have cultivated the role of employees or members as brand ambassadors. Front-line employees and members in particular are recognized by many as critical brand touchpoints; "friends and family" discounts or coupons are often distributed through employees and members in order to generate broader awareness and positive impressions in the community. Why not extend these efforts to the new social platforms and encourage and enable employees and members to use these tools to promote the brand?!

I'm not talking about showing how to use trademarks and logos. Companies need Brand Guidelines to inspire and instruct employees and members how to generate excitement and interest in the brand. Brand Guidelines include:

• How to talk about the brand -- the messaging and themes that communicate what the brand stands for, what the vision is, and what the key differentiators are. Leaders shouldn't assume that employees and members know this information and how to articulate it. Relay the brand strategy in a way that's accessible and understandable to employees and members at all levels and in all functions. Explain the background and rationale behind the strategy since people are more likely to buy into the "what" if they understand the "why." Plus this knowledge helps them figure out how to represent the brand in unexpected or unusual situations.

• What the brand personality is and ways to bring it to life in writing style, images, etc.
Explain how the brand would act if it were a person -- that way, employees and members can personally relate to the brand and understand its defining attributes. Include writing samples, images, stories, and videos that capture the personality of the brand. These help people express the brand appropriately when they use similar methods.

• Examples and ideas showcasing creative ways to promote and interpret the brand.
Since using social media and networking as brand ambassadors may be new to employees and members, they need inspiration in addition to instruction. Provide thought-starters and "straw man" ideas as fodder to get their creative juices flowing. Share best practices from the few companies whose employees and members are already doing it well. Disseminate brand-building posts and content from your own employees and members who are on the forefront of the movement.

• How to foster relationships with customers that contribute to a great brand experience.
Ensure employees and members know who your key target segments are and what's important to them. At the same time, ensure they know what the current brand campaign or sales focus is and they have accurate information (e.g., website URL, promotional offer, new product announcements, etc.) to share with customers. Help them make the connection between what customers are looking for and what the brand has to offer.

Brand Guidelines promote proactive and productive engagement in social media. The combination of playing Offense with Brand Guidelines and Defense with Social Media Guidelines makes for a winning strategy.




The NFL has awarded $1 million in grants to 89 player charities during NFL Charities Week in 2009. Five organizations are being singled out this week to publicize the substantial philanthropy done throughout the league. Those players include Dallas Cowboys TE Jason Witten for his SCORE Foundation, brothers Torry and Terrence Holt, both current free agents, for their Holt Foundation, the New England Patriots’ Matt Light for his Light Foundation, Miami Dolphins QB Chad Pennington for his 1st and 10 Foundation, and New York Jets RB Tony Richardson for his Rich in Spirit Foundation.

Ex-Foster Child Now $1 Million Scholar

AOL News

Derrius Quarles cuts a sleek figure on the Morehouse College campus in Atlanta, GA. The 19-year-old freshman favors tailored suits, reported the Chicago Tribune, and hands out business cards emblazoned with the words "Student/Entrepreneur/Leader." But his route to higher education has been a rocky one, said the paper. His father was stabbed to death when Quarles was four, while his mother struggled with drug addiction.

He spent the rest of his childhood with relatives or in foster homes, the Tribune reported. At times he and his older brother would steal bread and snacks from nearby convenience stores. And by the time he turned 17, Quarles was living on his own. Yet he was determined to pull himself up by his own bootstraps, the Tribune said. "I've had people tell me that I ain't never gonna be s---," he told the paper. "That's not a scratch, that cuts deep. After so many people put me down, I said, 'I'm gonna show you.'" To that end, Quarles pushed himself to the limit when he enrolled in Chicago's Kenwood Academy High School. Not only was he earning straight A's by his junior year -- he also scoured the Web for information about scholarships.

His efforts paid major dividends, said the Tribune. Quarles won more than $1 million in scholarship offers, a rare feat accomplished by only about a dozen students nationwide each year. Along with his full ride at Morehouse, Quarles won a Gates Millennium Scholarship worth $160,000 and two others worth $20,000 each. As for his ambitions, Quarles is just getting started, reported the paper. He hopes to attend medical school, set up a tutoring program for low-income students in Chicago, get involved in public-health policy, and eventually become U.S. surgeon general. "I have no time to play around," he told the Tribune. He added: "I want to make a difference. I want to show people that I can be all those things people said I could never be."
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Black Relationships & The Media

Black Think Tank was founded on January 21, 1979, by individuals who had been at the center of the late 1960s birth and battle for black studies. The Black Think Tank pioneered a Black Male/Female Relationships movement, including "black love" (Kupenda groups, Kupenda being Swahili for 'to love') designed to help our people learn to love again, to feel loved, to love ourselves and, therefore, one another, in as much as we already know how to hate one another. The Black Think Tank then issued The Call and was the catalyst for the contemporary Rites of Passage movement for African-American boys in the popular manual, bringing the Black Boys to Manhood: The Passage, which promulgated lectures and workshops nationally and internationally, including in London and the Caribbean islands. Related books of importance and influence followed quickly: The Endangered Black Family and The Miseducation of the Black Child.

This is Dr. Julia Hare speaking at the State of the Black Union (2007) on education, destruction of the Diasporic African family in America, incarceration, and other issues.
WE MUST WATCH



Dr. Julia Hare is widely regarded as one of the most dynamic motivational speakers on the nation's podiums today. The Black Think Tank has decided to turn her loose on the lecture circuit this fall. If you have ever had the satisfaction of hearing this sista speak, you already know why she is gaining so much notice and popularity at conference gatherings and campuses across America and even creating excitement in other lands. The largest black newspaper in London, The Voice, recently dubbed this genteel woman of class and charm a “lady Malcolm X” in a feature story of how she is, quote, “setting the black world on fire” after she electrified the Tavis Smiley “State of the Black Union Conference” with her breakout blast of velvety tough-talk about the difference between “black leaders” and “leading blacks.”

So Future Readers which one are you?