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  • Politics Is Like Hiring A Hitman
    by Scott Woods inPolitical on2020-08-13

    For me, politics is like hiring a hitman. I have values and things I care about. I care enough about them to at least bother voting for 5 minutes every year for one issue or another. And because I care at least that much, I vote for people who align with the ability to realize the things I care about.

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  • Punching Above Our Weight
    by Roger Madison Jr. inPolitical on2020-07-24

    I believe our vote is the punctuation of our voice. Without that resounding exclamation mark, I believe our voices are just incoherent noise.

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  • BLACK PROGRESS AMIDST SOCIAL CHAOS
    by Roger Madison Jr. inPolitical on2020-06-16

    Recent events have raised the profile of historical injustice and inequities here in the USA. The entire world has taken note of the fact that BLACK LIVES MATTER.   We invite all of our friends to engage in actions that result in the greatest movement for change in our history. It is imperative that we take advantage of this opportunity to affect a positive change by ACTING IN OUR SELF-INTERESTS.

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  • Living in a Black No-Man's Land
    by Roger Madison Jr. inOur Community on2019-10-28

    There are many narratives that define the Black experience in America in this 2nd decade of the 21st century. Our striving over the centuries of our sojourn in this nation is a tapestry of every human experience -- oppression, enslavement, forced assimilation, dehumanization, exclusion, segregation, isolation, struggle, perseverance, achievement, excellence, celebration, mourning, despair, progress, setbacks, lynching, assassination, genocide, terror, self-hatred, low esteem, pride,...

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  • Fighting Racism
    by Scott Woods inOur Community on2018-10-25

    I had a boss who was racist. Not an outright bigot, of course; her toolbox was more subtle than most. We bumped heads a lot over inconsequential things. She frequently couldn’t keep my name out her mouth. Lot of gaslighting. You know…2018 style. I tried a lot of ways to combat or navigate her issues. None of them worked, and that’s saying a lot because I’m really good at fighting racism. But at the end of the day – every day – she was my boss, I had to deal with her, and that was that. Finally I...

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How We Make Billions for Yahoo!. . . . AND Get Nothing. . . .

How We Make Billions for Yahoo! Gmail and Others AND How They Give Us Nothing In Return! It is estimated that African-Americans spend upwards of $800 billion dollar per year! While I am no stranger to double speak, I do realize that in that figure someone [and that may well be a collection of someones] is receiving $800 billion dollars from that spending AND making 3 times the amount per salary paid to the African-American workforce. Now the salary thing is something I read regarding becoming an independent contractor back in 2006. It stated, in effect, that unless a company can stand to make at least 3 times the amount that they pay an employee for work performed, they don't hire! But this topic isn't about being employed by the internet giants its about working for them, for free, as in voluntarily enslavement, and making billions of dollars for them. Now....think for a second. Where do these internet giants get the majority of their revenues from? Advertising!!! That's right...advertising. There is an Estimated $25 BILLION spent in online advertising for 2008 in the us-of-a alone! Advertising pays their bills. Advertising helped them grow into the goliaths that they are. Advertising generates their profits. Advertising supports top executives' 'life styles of the rich and famous!' In fact - there would be no internet, as we know it today, without advertising. And who reads these ads? We do of course! We read the ads - they make the profit - we make nothing at all!! It really is that simple. The next time you proudly give out your Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, Mail.com, MSN or AOL email address remember: you are voluntarily aiding and abetting our collective financial enslavement. Your support of these 'free' email services directly supports the advertising and marketing campaigns ran by the descendants of the very same organizations and corporations [aka yurugu in non double speak] that created chattle enslavement centuries ago. Google Adwords makes $1 billion per quarter! The CEO of Google, Terry Semel, was 'compensated' $56.8 million, though his 'official salary' is $1 and has been that since 2004. Semel was the highest-paid executive in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004 and 2005, according to a survey released by the San Francisco Chronicle. Semel's salary and bonus were $600,000 last year, and total compensation, including restricted stock and the estimated value of options, was $56.8 million, down from $131.2 million the year before.1 Dan Rosensweig, Yahoo's chief operating officer, and Susan Decker, chief financial officer, each will continue to receive an annual salary of $500,000 through 2009, according to the SEC filing. Each will also be eligible for a $1 million bonus, the option to purchase 2.1 million shares of stock at $31.59 each and a performance award of 50,000 restricted stock units.2 Rosensweig's total compensation was $24.4 million last year and Decker's was $24.3 million, ranking them fifth and sixth, respectively, in the Chronicle's executive pay survey.3 It is reported in the Jan. 2008 online report of paidContent.org, “Yahoo is investing in its advertising platform, continuing with an emphasis on building internally supplemented by acquisitions Right Media and BlueLithium. Yang[CEO]: “With portions slated to be launched in the back half of the year, it’s our goal to accelerate our overall advertising revenue growth by the time we exit 2008.” “ The 'overall advertising revenue' for Yahoo! in 2007 was $1.403 billion! And exactly how much of that recycles back into the pockets of loyal African-American Yahoo! and Google users? $0.00! That's right, except for those of us that own Yahoo! or Google stock, there is no dividend as in 'pay back' for supporting and perpetuating these exorbitant revenues! What we ARE doing, when we subscribe to Yahoo! or Gmail or Mail.com, is chaining our buying power and financial resources to corporations whose top paid executives collectively [and some individually] could easily adopt and support 1,000,000 small African villages or people groups! Of course, if we were to choose to demand appropriate financial 'give back' from these companies WE could easily adopt and support the entire African Diaspora and a great portion of the Motherland! Yet, the majority of us don't even equate the 'free email' offered by these vampires as 'money in the bank' for them and their advertisers! As a result of our 'capitalism 101 mis-education' along with our need to feel we're on the 'cutting edge' of technology use when we 'get a good something for nothing' we are, AGAIN, being played! Advertising spending on media outlets that reach African-American consumers totaled almost $2.3 billion from October 2006 to September 2007, according to The Nielsen Company. Therefor it is safe to say that those 'free email accounts' are monitored routinely so that 'targeted' ads are delivered to your sign in page -- your email account! Apparently, we are failing to realize that not all 'Cointelpro' tactics result in physical imprisonment – our buying power which regulates our wealth building capacities are also subject to surveillance and infiltration WITH OUR PERMISSION! While I've only been able to locate 1 Pan-African free email service that is ad sponsored and African-American owned, The Drum Collective, I have offered ad-free, free web based email via my own website, S.U.R.-B.E.T. for more than a year with virtually no response from the community! There are other African-American 'owned' services: Afro-Poets, and Black WebPortal to name a few. So what's the big deal about which email service a person uses? It's a very big deal in light of the earnings generated by the providers, yet there is ANOTHER big deal that hasn't been mentioned. We can have Yahoo!, Google and virtually any other internet advertiser PAY us for space on our personal emails! That is just 1 aspect of Affiliate Marketing [in this case 'eMarketing'] which I wrote about in a previous discussion. The next time you log into your 'free email' account that isn't African-American owned ask yourself, 'Who's zooming Who?' because hopefully, that will lead you to thinking about being paid for anything YOU do that generates money for another person, corporation or entity. If we're serious about nation building, we better begin looking at 'any means necessary' when it comes to redirecting or purposefully directing the $800 billion buying power that we have as a collective. “With a population exceeding 38 million and with buying power projected to exceed $1.1 trillion in 2012, African Americans remain a crucial part of the American consumer economy.”4

Looking 4ward 2 RECOVERING Our Collective Black Financial Mind with you,

YE is Here!

 

1.U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 2007

2.U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 2007

3.San Francisco Chronicle May 21, 2006.

4.African American Market, Packaged Facts

©2008 S.U.R.-B.E.T. Publishing