MF GALAXY

(Professor X, centre.) “A funeral was held Friday to mourn the passing of X-Clan standout Professor X, a.k.a. Robert ‘Lumumba’ Carson. “Rev. Al Sharpton, rapper Kurtis Blow and Afrika Bambaataa of the Zulu Nation were among the hundreds of people gathered at Antioch Church in Brooklyn, New York to remember Lumumba’s influence on hip hop and within the black community. “‘He made a difference. There is no doubt in my mind that the angels in heaven are saying 'Welcome home. You fought a good fight,’’ said Rev. Gaddy of Friendship Baptist Church. “According to Allhiphop.com, the service included hip hop performances, traditional African drums and a band, in addition to scores of motivational speeches that gave honor to Carson. “Kurtis Blow told mourners to remember the efforts Lumumba put forth in promoting cultural pride as part of the Blackwatch Movement , an arts-centered activist group the rapper founded. “‘I know that Lumumba would not have wanted people to be sad. He would not wa...

If you're planning to buy goods or services in E-Town , don't just flip through the White Pages--click on THE BLACK PAGES!

Whiny children, claims a new study, tend to grow up rigid and traditional. Future liberals, on the other hand ... Kurt Kleiner writes: "Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him , and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative. "At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals. "The study from the Journal of Research Into Personality isn't going to make the UC Berkeley professor who published it any friends on the right.... "Of course, if you're studying the psychology of politics, you shouldn't be surprised to get a political reaction. Similar work by John T. Jost of Stanford and colleagues in 2003 drew a political backlash. The researchers reviewed 44 years worth of studies into t...

I will share, sometime soon, my thoughts on the new films V for Vendetta and Beowulf and Grendel , as well as this season of Battlestar Galactica and my purchase of the 4-DVD boxed set The Best of the Electric Company . I will do so even if the plumber comes to fix the sink and dies after being harassed into cardiac failure by a parrot.

I don't often agree with CBC Cross-Country Check-Up host Rex Murphy, but he was dead-on when asking, in light of this case, whether Canadian troops should be in Afghanistan to protect this country's "right" to execute people for freedom of thought. As usual, the insightful Br. Sondjata at Garvey's Ghost has articulated some of the most distressing and disgusting problems inside the Islamic world (especially as faced by Afrikans). I've spent my life speaking up for underdogs, and for much of the time, that's included Muslims, especially when they're the victims of imperialist (i.e. Western) wars of murderous plunder and racist violence ; I'm proud to call many Muslims friends, and of course, my greatest hero, the honourable Malcolm X, was a Muslim. But when (certain) Muslims are the oppressors, then their actions, too, must be condemned in no uncertain terms. The issue must never be pro-Muslim, pro-Jew, pro-Christian, pro-Rastafari, pro-Ifa, pro...

Payment for Israeli soldier decried Hundreds of children have been killed since the intifada's start By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank Monday 27 March 2006, 18:18 Makka Time, 15:18 GMT "The outgoing Palestinian Authority government and the incoming Hamas-led administration have condemned the payment of compensation to an Israeli soldier after a court cleared him of killing a Palestinian schoolgirl in 2004. "The soldier will receive 82,000 shekels (roughly $17,000) as part of an arrangement reached between his lawyers and the Israeli military prosecutor, the Israeli press reported last week. "The compensation was awarded to cover legal expenses and damages. An Israeli army spokeswoman said the court 'agreed to compensate him because it was convinced that he was wronged'. Yousuf Rizqa, the new PA minister of information, described the acquittal in the killing of Iman Al Hams, 13, and the compensation as 'infinitely scandalous and defying logic and morality...

Orlando Patterson writes in The New York Times: "Why are young black men [in the US] doing so poorly in school that they lack basic literacy and math skills? These scholars must know that countless studies by educational experts, going all the way back to the landmark report by James Coleman of Johns Hopkins University in 1966, have found that poor schools, per se, do not explain why after 10 years of education a young man remains illiterate. "Nor have studies explained why, if someone cannot get a job, he turns to crime and drug abuse. One does not imply the other. Joblessness is rampant in Latin America and India, but the mass of the populations does not turn to crime. "And why do so many young unemployed black men have children — several of them — which they have no resources or intention to support? And why, finally, do they murder each other at nine times the rate of white youths? "...So what are some of the cultural factors that explain the sorry state of y...

Well, I hope not. At least, I mean, I hope this brilliant brother, the first ever Jamaican to become International Chess Grandmaster , won't shill for sweatshop lords [Addendum: Dr. Henry Martie Codjoe just informed me that Woods has opened the Tiger Woods Learning Centre ... so perhaps this Brother is not only giving back, but also making up. If so, good on him.] Somehow, I doubt that Brother Maurice Ashley will, especially since he spends so much of his time training young people in Harlem the city he called home after age 12. His programme is named (I love this) the Raging Rooks. (Someone else has a similar programme for young Brothers and Sisters called the Dark Knights.) His website is here , and you can read an interview with him here where he discusses his book Chess for Success . One thing's for sure: this aint Fresh . Also check out this article on Br. Orrin Hudson from USA Today , which says in part: "On a recent afternoon, Orrin Hudson , a former Alabama sta...

William Pitt writes: "I am going to find a china shop somewhere in the city and walk in with a free-swinging baseball bat. My goal, which will be clearly stated, will be to improve upon the place. I will spend the next three years meticulously destroying everything I see inside, from the cash registers to the display cases to the nice Royal Albert tea sets in the corner. "Along the way, I will batter the brains out of any poor sod unfortunate enough to get in my way. When I am done, I will claim with as much self-righteousness as I can muster that none of the mess is my responsibility. I will then, of course, refuse to leave.... "[T]he 'incompetence' thing is nonsense. The Bush boys got paid, got an issue to run on in two elections, put themselves completely and totally above the law on picayune issues like torture and the unauthorized surveillance of American citizens, obliterated the central function of the federal government, and ripped up any and all regula...

Click on THE TERRORDOME link at the left for the full audio programme. To the nitwits of the click-and-quip mediacracy, the woman is summed up her iconic hairstyle, a hairstyle once called “a natural” and then an “Afro” before the concept-clippers truncated the consciousness behind the cut into the slangism “fro.” But Dr. Angela Yvonne Davis, former fugitive, former member of the Communist Party, former potential denizen of death row, and very current human rights activist, is far more than a copywriter’s cute coiffure cliché. To millions, the author-intellectual Davis is a living hero from an era in which too many firebrands were extinguished all-too violently. Born 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama, young Davis took her parents’ social justice activism to her marrow, joining the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee as a teenager. A brilliant young student, she travelled at age 16 to Germany where she studied at the Frankfurt School under the guidance of German philosopher and critica...

Wednesday on The Terrordome: ANGELA DAVIS To the nitwits of the click-and-quip mediacracy, the woman is summed up her iconic hairstyle, a hairstyle once called “a natural” and then an “Afro” before the concept-clippers truncated the consciousness behind the cut into the slangism “fro.” But Dr. Angela Yvonne Davis, former fugitive, former member of the Communist Party, former potential denizen of death row, and very current human rights activist, is far more than a copywriter’s cute coiffure cliché . To millions, the author-intellectual Davis is a living hero from an era in which too many firebrands were extinguished all-too violently. Check out the full article in this week's Vue Weekly and the full half hour interview this Wednesday on THE TERRORDOME (see links on the left (naturally)).

Last Sunday night I watched parts of the Academy Awards ceremony on television, and was sickened to see the performance, celebration and victory of a song called “It’s Hard to Be a Pimp.” I discussed my disgust at length on The Bro-Log (see below). In short, I objected not only to the promotion of the stereotype of Black folks as criminals, exploiters and sexual deviants, but even more to the three groups who made this revolting display possible: the Black performers and music-makers who created presented the material, the Black folks in the audience who cheered the song and its sentiments, and the wealthy White Hollywood establishment that makes piles of cash by promoting these hateful and destructive stereotypes in albums, TV and films. Just a week before, I’d hosted a forum on that exact topic at the Edmonton Public Library, a forum called Get Rich or Die Slavin’ , an exploration of how corporate media in North America exploits images of Afrikan-Americans and Afrikan-Canadia...

A week from Friday, join celebrated African-Canadian author George Elliot Clarke and acclaimed African-Canadian playwright and actor Patricia Darbasie in an event called From Africville to Amber Valley. It’s an evening of Clarke’s spirited poetry from his new book Illuminated Verses and Darbasie’s remarkable play Ribbon . The event is sponsored by the Living History Group of the Council of Canadians of African and Caribbean Heritage. WHEN: Friday, March 17 at 7 pm. WHERE: Edmonton Public Library, Main Branch (Downtown). REFRESHMENTS: Yummy! ADMISSION: Free!

Who were the ancient Sudanese (Nubians) and Egyptians? Among other things, these Africans were perhaps the greatest civilisers of the ancient world, people who built cities, erected unparalleled monuments and vast temples and cities, established sciences and medicine ... in short, they helped make the world as we know it. And they may very well have invented writing itself. Ancient records say that the Nubians were the fathers and mothers of Egypt; both of these African civilisations had huge influence on societies in other parts of Africa, Asia Minor and Europe. So why, 250 years ago, did Europe launch the Big Lie that the ancient Egyptians were White? Come out for startling discussion, photographs, video and conversation. Hosted by Winston Hawthorne (NBCC) and Minister Faust ( The Bro-Log and FM88’s The Terrordome ) WHEN: March 24, Friday, 7 pm. WHAT: The first of six scheduled African Global History Sessions. WHERE: The Marcus Garvey Centre for Unity, 125th Street + 126th Aven...

Thanks to Dusty Bear for the link to this intriguing film . Can anyone verify if this is actually true? Oh, and by the way... the picture links to a joke site spoofing iPods and their owners. I wouldn't take that too seriously, so it makes me wonder whether the claims in the indie film "expose" are true. But if they are true... well.. then there's a problem.

Tonight’s Bamboozled Award for being the Most Loyal N-----s on the Plantation goes to... the idiots who wrote, produced, sang, voted for and cheered “It’s Hard to be a Pimp” for the 2006 Academy Awards! Hell’s bells, this shouldn’t need explaining to anyone, but pimps are just about the lowest form of life in the world ( ranking somewhere with arms traders, blood diamond merchants and booze dealers and tobacco manufacturers ). Pimps exploit girls (and sometimes boys), emotionally crippling them, virtually enslaving them, frequently assaulting and even raping them . Pimps are the people who make profits after the pedophiles inflicted the “gateway abuse.” Pimps are the people who will happily exploit and destroy to the last tear your sister, daughter, cousin or mother if it’s in their interest . Pimps are monsters. Vampires. Filth. Sociopaths . Somewhere in the last few years, some people took it upon themselves to employ the word “pimp” as a compliment, and “pimpin’” as a descrip...

"The number of hate crimes [in Toronto] reported to police dropped dramatically in 2005 , but Jews and [African-Canadians] remain the most-targeted victim groups , according to the Toronto Police Service’s 2005 Annual Hate/Bias Crime Statistical Report. "A total of 132 hate crimes were reported in 2005 – 19 per cent less than the year before – of which 33 involved Jews and 33 involved [African-Canadians], the report stated.... "Looking at the data since 1993, the report found that 'the most-affected victim groups , both in absolute terms and in their respective categories, have been [ African-Canadians ] (race), Jews (religion) and gay males (sexual orientation). [African-Canadians] and Jews continue to be significantly targeted in multi-bias occurrences. "Most incidents involve mischief (graffiti), threats, assaults and hate propaganda." Read the full story here.