My sista's and brotha's

I feel that. Many of us spend the majority of our lives chasing after money, cars, clothes, and even booty! It takes awhile for people to realize that only a small percentage of us make it and become famous and acquire those things easily. But even the people on the TV have to go home and pay bills, raise kids, make business decisions. Many of them want their children to excell in school. Many of them take time out to pray or meditate or find their spirituality to keep them sane in the chaos of the world. Many of them take time out to excercise and keep their body right. Many of them have moved their families into a better situation than before. We forget that TV, movies, music is all a business. Even reality shows are reality. If the black community could stay ahead of that concept and know that we have a choice to either make it in this life or get left behind, then maybe we can stop being consumed by all of these illusions. We need to stop throwing our lives away to reach an unattainable goal. We need to take up the opportunities that our ancestors and past generations have struggled for us to have. There is so much more to life than STUFF. We need to get our priorities straight. ~Angi

I agree with all that was said. We as a people, somewhere in between the 400 years of slavery and oppression and the present, came to believe that it was ok to degrade women and the only thing to work for in life is power among men, but once we come to realize that GOD is the real man that has the power and that WE will be judged by our actions and that all the material things can be taken away within seconds, that is I thing we will begin to see change.

I'm glad everyone felt where I was coming from, for minute I thought I was the only one that realized what was goin on.

Good Blog, Matthew. Keep voicing what you feel and I'm sure you'll enlighten many. You are a great voice for your generation.

Mama Mo

You are correct. I am also upset at how the media portrays us. What is sad is that those are the images the rest of the world see when they watch CNN or MSNBC. You would think since the Tavis Smiley state of black america was shown on c-span there would be a re-awakening of awareness in our community. It would have been nice if HBCU's invested in the book "Covenant with Black America" Great Blog.

I agree with all the responses listed above. Young, black people need to change their whole mentality. Videos back in the day had that one woman who was chased throughout the whole video, fully dressed and was viewed as a goddess. It was ok to play hard to get because we knew our worth and guys knew that whatever that was worth waiting for is worth having. Now in days, young women do not know they worth and men don't remind them. Young men were not raised to praise a black woman. Ladies lets remind these men that we more than objects. We are mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, wives, the backbone to a strong man.

Again my brother, this is the oldest trick in the book. We as a people who have lost sight in our knowledge of self buy into this projection of the "looking-glass-self". This theory states that we perceive ourselves not as who we truly are, but as what others see us as being. The media makes us think that we are something, and not knowing our true identity, we allow ourselves to be deceived. The image of buffoonery that was projected centuries ago with the supposedly ignorant slave is again seen today in the guise of celebrity and glamor. The solution? We must change the image, and give a true representation of self so that children of tomorrow may model themselves after a positive and influential archetypical character. In the end, the power is in the hands of the people. If we stop being so easily deceived, our image will shine through any deceit that the media has to offer.

Jasmine couldn't have said it any better. We as young African Americans need change the way we live mentally. And its not the "white man" holding us in this mentality, it's ourselfs! But we as college African Americans have the power to change this nasty cycle and make it for the better....