THANKSGIVING 2021: I HAVE AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Hello All:

Thanksgiving or being Happy to Give Thanks,  or maintaining an Attitude of Gratitude, is a time when we step back and honor God, The Living Spirit Almighty, for all that He has done for us, in us, as us, through us, and through each other, over the year.  And though I say GOD, others may say Yahweh, Allah, Buddha, Shakamuni, or any other name we hold for the Most High God.  Surely, by now we know and recognize that we didn't get here on this planet under our own steam.  We all had to come through someone to get here (also known as the Great Chain of Being), and none of us would be here on this planet, had it not been for GOD, the First Cause. Our very breath is because He first provided it for us.

I AM SO HAPPY TO GIVE THANKS FOR ALL OF THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE IN MY LIFE! STAY BLESSED & ECLECTICALLY BLACK - GLORIA

So whether we're millionaires, or currently financially embarrassed; whether we're highly successful, or still have out foot on the bottom rung of the ladder; whether we're Black, white, red, blue, green or yellow; African, African American, African Caribbean, African South American, African European or African Asian - we have much to be grateful for - apart from the tradition as it's practiced here in the US. And it's about time we began putting it into effect.

Whether you roast a turkey, or if you're rolling out the traditional collard greens and mountains of macaroni and cheese,;or if you just sit down to the so-called vegan tofurky, it's not about that.   Yes the food is delicious, and we spend hours preparing it with love, and It's delicious, fun and wonderful to share - it's so much more than that.

For us, it's about being grateful for making us the most talented, resilient, creative, loving, intelligent, courageous, people on the planet. 

It's about gratitude for making it through in spite of - and because  - of the trials and tribulations we have faced and withstood despite the efforts of the meanstream media, and those who are hostile to us. 

It's about coming closer and closer together and learning more about ourselves and each other.

It's about gratitude for the love we share amongst us, even when we're furious with each other for not being 100% of who we can and should be.

It's about gratitude for the powerful DNA, that is not easily broken or destroyed or altered.  We are awesome people.  And we've created some awesome offspring, who now have offspring of their own and carry forth all that we have taught and will teach them.

When you sit around the table today, take time to hold hands, look around at each one of your loved ones and say GOD BLESS BLACK PEOPLE!   Thank you God for having chosen me to be one of them.  And look at those beautiful faces around the table, reflecting every hue and flavor of chocolate to caramel to vanilla - all making up who we are and Give Thanks that we're moving forward.

 

November is also now designated as "Native American Heritage Month," and for those of us who have ancestors that are part of the realm of the ORIGINAL Americans - including yours truly - I express my gratitude for my Maternal Grandmothers, and all those who fought, and continue to fight valiantly for their culture and way of life.  

 

Give Thanks that our Ancestor/Angels have paved the way for us and are watching over us, guiding, guarding, directing and protecting us as we pick up the baton and carry their mission forward.  

Give Thanks for each and every one of us - whether you know them or not on a personal level - and while you're giving thanks pray for a hedge of protection around us; for due season prosperity, and love, honor, happiness, health and wealth for each and every Black person on this Day of Gratitude.  

Over the past year, I've had some major health challenges that could have taken me off the planet - and culminated in my being rushed to the emergency hospital by the EMS.  I am eternally GRATEFUL to GOD THE LIVING SPIRIT ALMIGHTY for the ambulance drivers, the doctors, nurses, technicians, hospital, MYIAH, and for my friends and relatives and the many prayers that went out in my behalf.  I'm not totally out of the woods - so I'm Grateful for your continued prayers.  And I'm happy to pray for all my friends who find themselves facing challenges as well.  We all need each other to make our lives worthwhile.

So I'm Happy to Give Thanks for each and every one of you, known and unknown ... 

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY OF GRATITUDE - FOCUS ON YOUR BLESSINGS AND THE FACT THAT YOU, YOURSELF, ARE A BLESSING AS WELL!!!

Stay Blessed & 

ECLECTICALLY BLACK

Gloria DULAN-Wilson

  

  

NOW THAT YOU KNOW

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

Stay Eternally Blessed &

ECLECTICALLY BLACK 

 

Gloria DULAN-Wilson

 

 

 

The End of Black Harlem??? Let's don't make this a self-fulfilling prophecy

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Hello All:


I am reprinting this post in its entirety.  It is of vital importance that we all pay attention to what is going on under our very noses, with our consent - to some extent - the decimation of our communities, our living spaces, our culture - deliberate dismantling of the Black communities - and we're allowing it to happen. 

Many will say it's not true - but by our very inaction, concomitant with our verbal consent, we have brainwashed ourselves into co-signing the demise of our neighborhoods.  Not only are being pushed out by egregious rent increases, we are not doing what we can to prevent it; and neither are our elected  officials.  What good are they if they are not going to be the ones to prevent this from happening.  There is a disconnect between what they say they are about, and what they actually do.  But just as bad is the fact that we, in the majority in many cases in our own communities, are not taking action - civil and legal - prevent rampant gentrification and desecration of our homes.

Read the article - it's not just Harlem - it's a national move to push Black people out - and we have to be as vehement about not letting it happen!  There is an organization called Save Harlem.  There needs to be an organization on a nationwide level called SAVE BLACK PEOPLE!!   Because we are under siege - physically, mentally, spiritually, psychologically, environmentally, politically, educationally, financially, morally - and we've been buying in to it,  or cowering from it.  It's not just to say "Black Lives Matter."  We have to make it matter to ourselves. And we have to stop operating in the victims' role. 

I wrote an article 4 years ago entitled, "Gentrify it Yourself."  It was aimed at Black people utilizing their creativity and skills to clean up, improve and control their own communities, instead of allowing their surroundings to degenerate to such a level that it looked as if we had no sense of our own humanity or self worth.  We sometimes allow our neighborhoods to deteriorate to such a level of squallor, and then blame others for not cleaning it up for us, that those looking at us from other cultures view us as either subhuman, or depraved.  It's not that we don't know how to do the improvements; it's that we have become so subconsciously mired in the mentality that "they don't want us to have this or that" that we have become paralyzed by our own cynicism.  

If Black Harlem is dying, it's partly suicide and partly murder - genocide.  We should not be helping them destroy us.  The same is true for Black America; Black Africa; Black South America; the Caribbean.  We've always had the wherewithal to work for them - do their dirty work; we now have to take those same muscles, powers, and creativity and build for ourselves.  The buck has to stop right here - we are either going to survive and surpass or go out of existence.

It would do each of us well to stop vetching and pick up the autobiography of MARCUS GARVEY - and begin to take huge lessons from his example and apply them to our situations right now.  In New York, Philadelphia, Connecticut, Baltimore, DC, Virginia, Chicago - UP YOU MIGHT RACE - YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH WHAT YOU WILL!  If anybody should be honored and remembered this Memorial Week end, it must be Garvey.  Take his techniques, methodologies, examples, and begin to apply them, teach them, share them, utilize them - make them work now - or you will see more and more buildings, communities, and neighborhoods and lives destroyed by these racists.

And this time, we will all be Garveys - so it won't be so easy to pick us off the way they did our original, valiant leader.

Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria

Invisible Man: A Memorial to Ralph Ellison by Sculptor Elizabeth Catlett, 2003. Riverside Park at 150th Street, in Harlem. CreditJoseph Michael Lopez for The New York Times 

The End of
Black Harlem

Newcomers say gentrification is about wealth, not
race. But that’s a distinction without a difference.

By MICHAEL HENRY ADAMSMAY 27, 2016

I HAVE lived in Harlem for half my life — 30 years. I have seen it in all its complexities: a cultural nexus of black America, the landing place for Senegalese immigrants and Southern transplants, a home for people fleeing oppression and seeking opportunity. Harlem is the birthplace of so much poetry and music and beauty, but in the eyes of many who have never set foot here, it has long been a swamp of pain and suffering.

It is also changing, rapidly. A few years ago I was on Eighth Avenue, also known as Frederick Douglass Boulevard, picketing a fund-raiser for a politician who was pushing for denser mixed-use zoning along 125th Street, the “Main Street” of my sprawling neighborhood. Harlem has seen an influx of tourists, developers and stroller-pushing young families, described in the media as “urban pioneers,” attracted by city tax abatements. New high-end housing and hip restaurants have also played their part. So have various public improvements, like new landscaping and yoga studios. In general all this activity has helped spruce the place up. Not surprisingly, on that day a few passers-by shot us ugly looks, as if to say, “Why can’t you accept a good thing?”

Photo

In Harlem, The Frederick Douglass Memorial statue, by Gabriel Koren at 110th Street and Central Park North. The lighter building in the background is the new luxury building, One Morningside Park. While a portion of the apartments are supposed to be allocated as “affordable housing,” two bedroom condominiums there are listed starting at 2.5 million dollars.CreditJoseph Michael Lopez for The New York Times 

But even then, a few boys passing by on their bikes understood what was at stake. As we chanted, “Save Harlem now!” one of them inquired, “Why are y’all yelling that?” We explained that the city was encouraging housing on the historic, retail-centered 125th Street, as well as taller buildings. Housing’s good, in theory, but because the median income in Harlem is less than $37,000 a year, many of these new apartments would be too expensive for those of us who already live here.

Hearing this, making a quick calculation, one boy in glasses shot back at his companions, “You see, I told you they didn’t plant those trees for us.”

It was painful to realize how even a kid could see in every new building, every historic renovation, every boutique clothing shop — indeed in every tree and every flower in every park improvement — not a life-enhancing benefit, but a harbinger of his own displacement.

In fact, it’s already happening. Rents are rising; historic buildings are coming down. The Renaissance, where Duke Ellington performed, and the Childs Memorial Temple Church of God in Christ, where Malcolm X’s funeral was held, have all been demolished. Night life fixtures like Smalls’ Paradise and Lenox Lounge are gone.

A few ask, isn’t this a good thing — or, at least, the price of a good thing? “You and all the others had better get over your grieving, we need Whole Foods,” said my friend and fellow Harlem resident James Fenton, the noted English writer.

Photo

Left, the Lenox Lounge in Harlem after its renovation in 2000; right the Lenox Lounge in May.CreditJeffrey Henson Scales/HSP Archive 

But this is the problem with gentrification — what James, with all due respect, doesn’t get, but what that boy on Eighth Avenue did. For so many privileged New Yorkers, like James, Whole Foods is just the corner store. But among the black and working-class residents of Harlem, who have withstood red-lining and neglect, it might as well be Fortnum and Mason. To us, our Harlem is being remade, upgraded and transformed, just for them, for wealthier white people.

There is something about black neighborhoods, or at least poor black neighborhoods, that seem to make them irresistible to gentrification. Just look at U Street in Washington or Tremé in New Orleans. “Everywhere I travel in the U.S. and even in Brixton, in London, a place as culturally vibrant as Harlem, wherever people of color live, we and the landmarks that embody our presence, unprotected, piece by piece, are being replaced,” said Valerie Jo Bradley, who helped found the preservation advocacy group Save Harlem Now!

This isn’t a new story. As the historian Kevin McGruder explains in “Race and Real Estate: Conflict and Cooperation in Harlem, 1890–1920,” an assessment of how Harlem came to be America’s “black Mecca,” African-Americans began moving north in large numbers into the area in the early 20th century after Macy’s, Penn Station and the theater district replaced what had been black neighborhoods farther south.

The extension of the subway to 145th Street gave black leaders an opportunity, within the nation’s leading metropolis, to set up an autonomous black city. Black churches strategically relocated here, and prime residential properties were bought for settlement by black residents. In the early 1920s followers of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association, promoting political and economic independence, built a complex of shops, a theater and dance hall they called the Renaissance Theater and Casino. It quickly became a centerpiece of the neighborhood. (It was demolished in 2015.) With slavery scarcely a generation behind, the audaciousness of this plan was staggering.

By 1930 hundreds of thousands of blacks (and not a few whites) lived in Harlem. And yet, even then, residents understood that the black hold on Harlem was tenuous. That same year the author James Weldon Johnson asked in “Black Manhattan,” his classic account of Harlem’s early years, “The question inevitably arises: Will the Negroes of Harlem be able to hold it?”

After all, Harlem is a broad, flat section of northern Manhattan, poised just above Central Park with easy access to high-end jobs farther south and La Guardia Airport to the east. It is a mix of stately Victorian rowhouses and miles of apartment houses, the former ripe for adaptation, the latter for destruction and replacement by gleaming glass-cube condos. As Horace Carter, the founder of the Emanuel Pieterson Historical Society, insisted to me, “I tell you, they have a plan. Harlem is too well placed. The white man is ready to take it back.” It’s possible to remember a short time ago when this warning seemed pathetically alarmist.

Photo

Smalls’ Paradise, Harlem, 1955, at 2294 Seventh Avenue; right, the International House of Pancakes located today at the same address.CreditLeft, Austin Hansen/Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, New York Public Library; right, Byron Smith for The New York Times 

Today the pace of change is bracing, as is the insolence of the newcomers. A local real-estate speculator who specializes in flipping buildings in the shrinking Little Senegal section of Harlem told me that new tenants complained, “We’re not paying that much money to have black people living in our building!”

That’s what happens in the rentals, he said. But, he added, “What really upsets them is having blacks freeloading in noneviction co-op conversions. Blacks are paying $800 a month for the same four-bedroom, two-bath unit the newcomers bought for $2 million. Whites pay $2,000 just for maintenance! It’s not the blacks, but their poverty that’s resented. They ask me, ‘How come they didn’t buy this building when it cost nothing?’ ”

These are just some of the myths newcomers like to tell themselves, that gentrification isn’t about race, but about wealth and social class. But especially in Harlem, is this not a distinction without a difference? It’s not just that blacks happen to occupy the lower ranks of America’s wealth tables. It’s that the economy and our political system, even as they promise equality, are stacked against us: From America’s beginning, slave labor funded the affluence of those who counted as citizens. Political reform has not yet brought economic parity. The median white household is worth around $141,000 today, but a typical black household’s wealth is only $11,000.

Interestingly, not all gentrifiers are comfortable with the change they’re bringing. “I couldn’t afford it, and I’m relieved,” Rene Gatling, who moved to Harlem in 2009 but left in 2014 for Connecticut, told me. But it wasn’t just price that persuaded her to leave. “Suddenly I thought, Why is there no anger, no push back? Our being here is pushing people out.”

Blacks who relocated here when Harlem was still affordable have been disillusioned, too. When I told Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, who wrote the elegiac book “Harlem Is Nowhere,” about the group Save Harlem Now! just the name made her respond, “It’s too late.” She said that she and her young son were moving out. “It costs too much.”

Still Harlem endures as a community with high hopes, and in 2013, we felt sure we had found a champion. Bill de Blasio ran as the mayor for everyone, which we figured had to include Harlem. Black voters were crucial to his victory, and we thought we were covered and cared for. He even has a likable son, as liable to get stopped by the police as ours might.

We were wrong. The man we saw as “our mayor” may talk about housing affordability, but his vision is far from the rent control and public housing that President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia once supported, and that made New York affordable for generations. Instead, he has pushed for private development and identified unprotected, landmark-quality buildings as targets. He and the City Council have effectively swept aside contextual zoning limits, which curb development that might change the very essence of a neighborhood, in Harlem and Inwood, farther north. At best, his plan seems to be to develop at all speed and costs, optimistic that the tax revenues and good graces of the real estate barons allow for a few affordable apartments to be stuffed in later.

Photo

The bar at Red Rooster on Lenox. CreditByron Smith for The New York Times 

And so even under “our mayor,” the dislocation of minorities continues apace. Gentrification in Harlem might well be likened to the progress of the British Raj, where the most that “civilizing” interlopers could muster was a patronizing interest in token elements of local culture. Thus: Yes to the hip Afro-fusion restaurant, but complaints to 311 over Sundae Sermon dances, barbecues and ball games in parks or church choir rehearsals.

These are people who, in saying “I don’t see color,” treat the neighborhood like a blank slate. They have no idea how insulting they are being, denying us our heritage and our stake in Harlem’s future. And, far from government intervention to keep us in our homes, houses of worship and schools, to protect buildings emblematic of black history, we see policies like destructive zoning, with false “trickle down” affordability, changes that incentivize yet more gentrification, sure to transfigure our Harlem forever.

But when we friends gather at a restaurant like Cheri for a convivial romp hosted by the owner, Alain, or on a Friday, at the Rooster, presided over by the D.J. Stormin Norman, we are every color, every race, every age, identity and class. In the moment, laughing, drinking and dancing together, it seems marvelous. This Harlem, this is what New York is supposed to look like, to be like. Only, most of us know that our fun times together are doomed.

NOW THAT YOU KNOW - WHAT ARE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT???

Stay Blessed &

   ECLECTICALLY BLACK

  Gloria 

HAPPY NEW YEARS - KWANZAA KIZURI - DAY SEVEN - IMANI/FAITH

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

HELLO ALL :

HAPPY NEW YEARS TO YOU AS WE ENTER DAY SEVEN, OR IMANI, IN KWANZAA JANUARY 1, 2015.

I received this beautiful quotation by F. Scott Fitzgerald from my Sister/Friend Terrie Williams, PR Diva Supreme, and I wanted to share it with you all as you enter 2015:

We all are blessed with imagination, dreams, talents, skills, abilities, just waiting to burst forth -

Some of us are fortunate to have shared them with great success

          Some of us have latent talent just bubbling under the surface, waiting for the right catalyst              to  propel it into action. 

Some of us are geniuses in training - regardless of what our age, financial or educational status happens to be -

God put the good on the inside before society came along and tried to put a stamp on the outside.  If we all follow the nguzo saba (7 principles) of Kwanzaa daily throughout our lives, individually and collectively, we can change our lives and the entire world for the better.

NGUZO SABA ( SEVEN PRINCIPLES) OF KWANZAA

 Creativity and imagination comes from the inside out - and we are all CO-CREATORS WITH GOD THE LIVING SPIRIT ALMIGHTY!   Right now! Not just yesterday, or some far off tomorrow, but RIGHT NOW -

My Mom, Ruby Love Dulan used to day:

"TODAY IS THE TOMORROW WE WERE TALKING ABOUT YESTERDAY!!!"

Not only are we embarking on a New Year, but I feel that as Black People, we are also embarking on a NEW ERA - individually and collectively - and it's so exciting, because this time we're all awake, aware, alert and alive, and active - and can amalgamate our considerable strengths to make it happen - so that our next Fifty years on this plane of action will be absolutely amazing.

I am so happy to have each and every one of you in my life as friends, relatives, loved ones at this very moment.  And I am totally looking forward to this great new adventure - my own, yours and ours.

I can't wait to see how it turns out - because I know that if we continue this movement together - 
as we have already begun, then we are already WINNERS!!!

IMANI MEANS FAITH IN SWAHILI - AND IF WE STAY IN FAITH WITH GOD THE LIVING SPIRIT ALMIGHTY AND WITH EACH OTHER,

                         IT'S GONNA BE AWESOME!

STAY BLESSED &

ECLECTICALLY BLACK

YOURS IN VICTORY AND TRIUMPH
(no more struggle - we are Victors not Victims)

GLORIA

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Having and Attitude of Gratitude or Happy ThanksGiving

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By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Every year some one of our politically savvy Black activist leaders will come up with question of whether or not we should be celebrating Thanksgiving.  And this year is no different.  That weird question  reared its ugly head in the guise of a joke, and there was the nervous laughter to open guffaws around the room, which set me thinking:
 "Hmmmm...don't we - individually and collectively - have something to be thankful for in our lives?  Are we now so cynical that even when things go right we keep looking for something bad to happen.  Can we be grateful for another day of life (remember the song, "I just want to celebrate another day of living"?)  Wonder what would happen if we all assumed an attitude of gratitude, as opposed to the overwhelmingly ascerbic, snarky tones we've been imparting as of late?"

Metaphysically speaking - according to the LAWS OF ATTRACTION & ASSUMPTION - you get back what you send out.  If you send out gratitude, you generally attract more blessings and more things to be grateful for.  If you continuously send out complaints, suspicion and negativity, that's what you'll keep getting.  Even as little kids we were taught to say "grace" before eating - a form of being thankful for having food to eat.  I.e. a form of gratitude for being provided for. 

I think we are the only country that actually sets aside an entire day to show our gratitude.  Interestingly enough it was started by Pilgrims who were so grateful for being out from under the thumb of oppressive British rule, for having survived the rigors of a perilous passage to what was then the New World; and for having been befriended by the original Americans (a/k/a Indians - "natives" in caucasian parlance), who showed them how to survive here.  The first Thanksgiving celebrations actually included all the people.  They all sat down and all shared in the bounty.

Now, today, we got let's get the meal done so we can go shop for Black Friday Bargains.  We got family feuds; who hates whom, who's doing what to whom; who cooks better than whom, or who can't cook at all.  It can run the gamut soup to a 25 lb. Turkey, depending on your budget.

I say it's time we put the THANKS back into Thanksgiving, and show our gratitude for loving, being loved; the fact that we are not only blessed to be here another day, but have another day to be blessed and do things differently.  Smile folks, we re-elected the Best President Since Roosevelt! Smile, we don't have to deal with "Mitt-Twit Romney".  Smile - Good things are coming your way now.  You're twice blessed if you have your family and friends around you.  Triple the blessings if they are also loved ones who love you in return.

Smile if you have grandchildren who love and respect you and are well behaved.  Be grateful if you still have all your teeth and can enjoy the good food prepared for this special day.   Let's send up a prayer for those who suffered Hurricane Sandy, as well as gratitude for the help they are receiving so they can rebuild their homes and their lives.  And, yes, you can likewise be grateful if you were spared the tragedy.

If there's something that you don't have, that you want, be grateful that it's on its way; if there's something that you don't want that you have, release it in peace and send it on its way.

We have to learn to celebrate every good thing that happens to us, every accomplishment, every victory not just on Thanksgiving Day, but each time it occurs.  That's one thing I learned from my Japanese friends that I try to practice regularly - celebrate now, so the good can keep coming.

So in answer to my comedic friend, "Yes! We owe it to ourselves to celebrate Thanksgiving.  No matter who we are or where we are - especially we Black people, though - we can look back and see how far we've come, and look forward and see how close we are, and give thanks in advance for smooth roads and bountiful blessings in our lives from this moment on (as long as we do what we are supposed to do, individually and collectively.  The only way we can go from this point on is up.

So have a happy, joyous, wonderful, prosperous, blessed fun filled and loving Thanksgiving - and don't over spend on Black Friday - even though they're calling it Black, make sure you spread some of that Green with the Black merchants and business owners so they'll have something to be thankful for too.
Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson

New York Beacon's Walter Smith Opens a Can on Herman Cain

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

You know, I heard the rather acerbic, insipid remarks Cain, who is an ersatz presidential candidate hopeless, has been making in reference to President Barack Obama.

He is yet the clearest example of what we mean when we speak of the ability of the meanstream whites to use divide and conquer to keep Black people off balance and fighting each other. Actually, divide and conquer does not work with Black people at all. Black is not just a color, it's a quality of consciousness, a state of mind and being that belongs to those of us who have truly evolved from slavery, servile mentalities, and the need to please and appease our oppressors. In point of fact, the people who fall prey to the tactics of divide and conquer are negroes, who feel that their existence is not relevant with out the approval and acknowledgement of mainstream whites.
Such an individual is Herman Cain. And of course, who better to set against President Obama, a Black man, than one who has had a slight measure of success in the realm of the meanstream, and can speak negro-ese so eloquently and authoritatively. The meanstreamers speak of how "articulate" he is - and that means a great deal to the rest of our negrified sychophants who have not totally mastered the lingo, or who have mastered it so well they walk around sounding like dictionaries and encyclopedias. They will not doubt NOT be reading my blog, nor will they be reading the New York Beacon or any of the other relevant Black newspapers that we work so hard to write for and publish every week.

So, even though I know you Black people, as well as myself, try very hard not to put ourselves in the company of the UnGodly, I am asking you to make an exception, and forward a copy of this treatise from Walter Smith, publisher of the New York Beacon, to them. It might just wake some of them up. Of course, please forward it to your colleagues, family members and friends as well. I know it's like preaching to the choir, but they may know some of those miscreants as well.

We've got to keep the consciousness focused on the truth, and focused on making sure that nothing and no one is able to prevent Barack Obama from doing what he is trying to do to save this country from Rep-ugh-blicans, and bring it back (forward???) to the level of humanity that speaks to the needs and well being of all of us.

I am including Walter's article below, but feel free to chime in with your own message to the negro, Herman Cain. Now if you happen to be "pro-Cain" - and you're reading my Blog, then all is not lost, and there's hope for you yet. Take a deep breath, you're just waking up to the fact that you've been took, you've been had, you've been "hoodwinked" - but if you just calm down a moment, it will all become perfectly clear - Cain is a contrivance who has had the opportunity to realize a little wealth and has now got the vapors - and has had all this go to his head.

Once you compose yourself and have absorbed the veracity of Mr. Smith's statements; I urge to not run in hide, but take the information you've just learned and share it with others of your ilk who need to hear the truth, and take the chains off their brains as well.

Your sharing this statement, which is published below, with them may well be deemed an act of heroism, and could make up for the time when you yourself were brainwashed as well. Now is the time to take that next step and begin the process of refuting the hostile commentaries made in reference to Barack Obama.

Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson


MESSAGE TO HERMAN CAIN
by Walter Smith, Publisher New York Beacon

The greeting on your web site says, "we are looking forward to hearing from you", but I'm not sure you will be looking forward to hearing from me, Mr. Cain.

I saw on the Internet that you called the President a liar. I deplore what you are doing and the things you are saying about the President in order to gain favor with these greedy, thieving, selfish, Republicans. How dare you call President Obama a liar. You are a pathetic, obviously brainwashed black man who has lost his way and his mind. You have had opportunity and a smattering of privilege in America that has made you forget your roots. I despise people like you and Clarence Thomas, and you both have Georgia roots.

What is it with you black men from the south who grow up in an oppressed environment and end up siding with the oppressor? The recent case of Troy Davis in Georgia is an excellent example of the present day oppression and legal lynching that still takes place in that state and in this country. The political party that you praise so highly is presently enacting laws to suppress the black vote, the student vote, and many elderly voters across this entire country. Yet, you choose to stand with people who display such obscene and un-American behavior. You would throw black people (including the President of the U.S.) and others under the bus to curry favor with these non-caring and hedonistic people.

You were there when your Republican cohorts cheered about the death penalty which disproportionately affects black men and women in this country - some of whom have been proven to be innocent. You should be ashamed to stand with these people and yet, you appear to be proud of such an association.

Yes, President Obama does believe in fairness and sharing the responsibility of the tax burden, it is not socialism nor is it class warfare, and he is not a liar for saying it. That kind of rhetoric from you and those with whom you identify is nothing more than a weak defense for the greedy and despicable philosophy that you choose to embrace.

You had the unmitigated gall to tell Wolf Blitzer on CNN that two thirds of African-American people are brainwashed and incapable of thinking for themselves. You are surely touched in the head. The millions of us who are capable of thinking for ourselves - we know who is really brainwashed - you - brainwashed whiter than snow.

Do you really think those people with whom you stand on the debating platform really respect you and see you as their equal? They as well as others see you as a joke and a person who is engaging in buffoonery. A Republican majority House and Senate would never pass your "so called" 999 plan. They would never deem it in their best interest. Besides, there are many who believe your plan is a coded message from Satan. If you flip the numbers they become the 666 plan.

You will never be President of this country, and I thank God for that. I must say, you certainly live up to your last name. Just as Cain in the Bible so blatantly slew his brother, you are equally willing to do the same politically and economically to millions of black and middle class citizens of this country. Such behavior is extremely ugly, and need I remind you, Mr. Cain, that God does not like ugly.

P. S. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm having a nice day, I would tell you what I really think about you.

IF YOU ARE TIRED OF WHITE AND BLACK REPUBLICANS CALLING PRESIDENT OBAMA A LIAR--PLEASE FORWARD THIS SO OTHERS MAY KNOW THE TRUTH.


As I Mentioned Earlier, Walter published this in the New York Beacon. If you live here in NYC, you should be able to pick it up on the newstand. If not, you can definitely make a copy of this statement from my Blog and pass it on. The more you swat these lies when they spring up, the fewer lies you have to contend with later on, the more opportunity truth has to get through despite the efforts from so many meanstream media and newspapers to distort it.

Together we can make sure that Obama has an even greater landslide and mandate.
Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson

RACISTS IN SOUTH EXECUTE TOY ANYWAY - SO MUCH FOR JUSTICE

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Just received this notification from Ben Jealous that Troy Davis was executed in Georgia. And I had a "why am I not surprised" reaction to the news. Even though I had signed the petition to save this brother's life, I knew these racists had already set their minds on killing him. It's an interesting game of pushme/pullyou - the more we beg, plead, present arguments, reason, and logic, the more pleased they are that they have a certain power, and the less likely they are to be - what - "merciful, reasonable, compassionate" ?? They love it when we beg, it makes their "no" even that much sweeter to them. They could give two sh-ts about justice when it comes to Black people, and they've proven it over and over and over and over... you get my drift.

So this is the response I penned to brother Ben Jealous, at 5:00 AM, September 22, 2011:

Cut to the chase Ben:

It was the racist south thumbing their noses at Black people, showing who and what they really are - for all the world to see. They still hold to their statement that a Black man has no rights that a white man is bound to respect. And so it goes on and on and on. We have to stop anesthetizing Black people to this b.s. and get them to see the evil for who and what it is.

Two cops in New York City, who were patently guilty of rape, were set free -- and they were seen on video tape!!!!

A french "duplomut" was allowed to walk after accosting a Black African woman who stood up for her rights as a woman. Their excuse, she told too many stories. Oh, really??? Let her have been a white woman and he a Black diplomat - they would have detained him until hell froze over.

I know you get it my brother. I know you understand exactly what happened here. But it's hard to admit that 40+ years after the Civil Rights Act was passed in these United States, that the beat and the racism goes on unabated.

What drove it home for me was the percent of Black people living in the US. When I was a kid in high school, we were 23% of the population -nationally - we have, in 40 short years gone from 23% to 12%. Where are the other 13%? Did they evaporate? Did they move out of the country? Where are they? or rather, where are we? Between drugs, accidental shootings in the back; diseases we never heard of before; medical mal practice, environmental racism and a whole host of things, they have managed to quietly decimate the Black population. (Of course, some of this is self inflicted, via Black on Black crimes, gang activities, abortions, etc.)

I guess I was kind of hoping against hope that the red necks would back off for once in their little miserable lives. They've been so busy lately. But apparently they never tire of making other people's lives miserable. (Sorry, I'm being a little blatantly Black - I'm also quite infuriated that they had the audacity to go forth with the execution. So, in reality, I'm writing with a great deal of restraint - I have other more graphic terms, but it would sully my Blog.)

So, no Troy's name won't be forgotten - But more importantly, let's not forget what the circumstances were, and who had a hand in making it happen; as well as who did nothing to prevent it from happening. Time to take a new tone - take a new stand - come to a new reality - overcoming some day is definitely not soon enough. I also want Black Americans (as well as the rest of our Black people) to also begin to really screen the stuff they watch on TV. There is a not-so-subtle form of brainwashing going, and we're buying in to it. No more Vampire shows - we got enough blood suckers in Congress - spend your time on how to exorcise them. No more just allowing them to feed you their version of the "news". Time to question motives, reasons, options, and what it means to, for, and about us.

And we have to change the verse to the song "We Shall Over Come". It puts our victory in a perpetual state of futurity - We need to; must; have to; had better over come NOW!!! Some Day ain't soon enough.

Later will definitely be to late. They are like dogs; once they bite you and taste your blood, they never stop, because, quite frankly, they enjoy it.

Also, any and all individuals who do not support Barack Obama for re-election in 2012, may as well take the gun and shoot themselves in the foot now - and it doesn't matter which one, right or left because you will be just as lame regardless. Don't sit there and let these vultures in the meanstream media convince you that the President is not doing his job. It's all part of the propaganda to show that "the white man's ice is colder" and you don't have the complexion for the connection (got that from Paul Mooney).

Time for the New NAACP to move the agenda forward.

Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Ben Jealous's Letter Follows:
On Thu, Sep 22, 2011 at 12:09 AM, Ben Jealous, NAACP wrote:
NAACP
Dear Gloria,
Tonight the State of Georgia has killed an innocent man.

In recent weeks, we fought hard for the commutation of Troy Davis' sentence. More than one million of your petitions were delivered. Protests, rallies and vigils were organized around the globe. Tonight, we fasted and prayed together as a community.

I have spent the past week with Troy's family. He wanted the world to know that he understood that this struggle goes beyond just one man. Troy was prepared to die tonight. As he said again and again, the state of Georgia only held the power to take his physical body. They could not take his spirit, because he gave his life to God.

Let's remember and heed Troy's words: We must not let them kill our spirit, either.

Troy's execution, the exceptional unfairness of it, will only hasten the end of the death penalty in the United States. The world will remember the name of Troy Anthony Davis. In death he will live on as a symbol of a broken justice system that kills an innocent man while a murderer walks free.

The world will remember Troy's name, as the death penalty supporters who expressed doubt in this case begin to doubt an entire system that can execute a man amidst so many unanswered questions.

The world will remember Troy's name, as death penalty opponents who remained silent in the past realize that their silence is no longer an option.

The world will remember Troy's name because we will commemorate September 21st each year as both a solemn anniversary and a call to action. The night they put Troy Davis to death will become an annual reminder that justice will not be achieved until we end this brutal practice of capital punishment.

"This movement," Troy said, "started before I was born." After tonight, our movement will grow stronger until we succeed in destroying the death penalty in the United States once and for all.

I know you will join me. Together we will secure his legacy, and the world will remember the name Troy Anthony Davis.

In solidarity,

Ben Jealous
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OPEN LETTER TO DR. HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.

OPEN LETTER TO DR. HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR.

September 2, 2009
Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Professor
Harvard University
Boston, Massachusetts

Dear Dr. Gates:

It is with a great deal of consternation that I write this open letter to you in reference to a set of mis-information that you continue to promulgate to the Black Community: During your receipt of the Louis Sullivan Award at the Kennedy Center, you alleged that there are no Black and Indian family lineages amongst African Americans in the US. That is totally bogus, incorrect and inappropriate.

As a native of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and of Black and Indian heritage, I was highly insulted. Where do you get off making such a statement? My great grand parents, grand parents, parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, cousins, aunts, and a host of friends are all proud of our American Indian (native American for those who want to be “politically“ correct), bloodlines with the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chikasaw, Seminole, Creek, Crowe and other nations.

Your allegations are especially offensive and insulting to those of us who have grown up personally knowing our relatives intimately; just as they are also likewise offensive to those who know they have “Indian in their family,” though it may have been generations back.

Of course we are cognizant of the great rape of Africans by whites that gave us the variations in pigmentation that has caused us to be called “children of the rainbow.” There are probably those who have both Caucasian and Native American bloodlines, too. The difference being that the relations between Blacks and Indians started out as symbiotic -- with Indians helping slaves escape from whites. Even when Indians "owned" slaves, they generally ended up marrying them after a year or two.

I expected better from you, because you hold yourself out as being a master scholar in Black history. However, even with your considerable amount of learning, knowledge, and accomplishments, you are not qualified to deny the heritage that has so long been a part of my family and countless thousands of others here in the US. And truly, it’s not like anyone is escaping the oppression of racism by being either Black or Indian. Both of us have suffered greatly through disrespect, deprivation, and genocide.

African American/Indians (descendents of Freedmen) are currently embroiled in a racist dispute in Oklahoma at the hands of a Cherokee mixed-breed (white and Indian) who is trying to deny our heritage. It seems to have stemmed from the fact that considerable sums of monies are pouring in at the casinos, and they don’t want to include the Blacks who helped make it possible. Yet another divide and conquer issue.

Even with this letter that I am forwarding to your attention, I have no intention of getting embroiled in a long term harangue with you, my brother. We saw that between Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois, which served to keep us from saving Africa from an additional 70 years of colonialism. So, while I personally consider your assertion arrogant and ignorant, it really is your opinion, and the facts belie your erroneous statements. I think it would best serve us all if you refrain from making such allegations, because people are relying to their detriment on your expertise.

I recommend that take a visit to Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Olkmulgee, Guthrie, MacAllister, Anadarko (Oklahoma had 27 all Black Towns), and meet some of those people you claim do not exist. My brother and mother, as well as several classmates still reside there, and they would be more than happy to take you around.

In fact, as a family, we’ve been there for quite some time, since the Trail of Tears in the 1830’s; through the Oklahoma Land Grab (also known as the Oklahoma Run); through statehood in 1907 where they installed the jim crow laws; through the riots on so-called Black Wall Street,where we kicked their butts; through the dust bowls, where we hung in and continued to thrive; through the sit-ins and NAACP youth council, where we marched for equality; through the bombing of the Murrah Building, and we are still standing.

We have Black/Indian heroes who have led us through the Civil War and Civil Rights. We have produced wonderful people like John Hope Franklin, Nathan Hare, Rafer Johnson, Ralph Ellison, among others. Additionally, I am recommending some books for you to review: Staking a Claim: Jake Simmons and the Making of an African- American Oil Dynasty Jonathan D. Greenberg; Black Indians by William Loren Katz.

You also might want to watch a PBS documentary: “How the West Was Lost.” These are just a couple of the many resources you can look up to enlighten yourself about our American Indian heritage and ancestry. I truly recommend that you avail yourself of the info, for you own enlightenment as well as the edification of the people you interact with.

I appreciate your programs and the productions you have developed to inform and enlighten the world about the viability of Black people and our heritage. I would hope that you use that same professionalism in this instance as well.

Thank you and Stay Blessed

Eclectically Black

Gloria Dulan-Wilson

OPEN LETTER TO DR. HENRY LOUIS GATES JR.

http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/

AFRICA RISING: LEON SULLIVAN HONORS THREE AT DC KENNEDY CENTER GALA

AFRICA RISING: LEON SULLIVAN HONORS THREE AT DC KENNEDY CENTER GALA

BY Gloria Dulan-Wilson

What do a Harvard Professor, an actress of stage, screen and television, and a 14 year-old boy have in common? They’ve each made monumental impacts on the lives and well being of thousands of Continental Africans. Their dedication and action brought them together to receive the LEON SULLIVAN HONORS, which celebrates advocacy, humanitarian efforts and contributions to the poor and disadvantaged.

Rev. Dr. Leon Sullivan, an iconic trailblazer, had a major impact, both nationally and internationally, through the establishment of his Sullivan Principles and business enterprise training programs. The SULLIVAN HONORS were inspired by his life and principles, which continue to be promulgated by The Leon H. Sullivan Foundation, which promotes the “political, entrepreneurial and intellectual leadership of the African Diaspora and friends of Africa,” as well as to advocate on behalf of Africa’s most vulnerable.

Each year the Sullivan Foundation host a week-long African Summit Conference in a different country in Africa that is working to advance the principles for which the organization stands. The effectiveness of Dr. Sullivan’s legacy shines brightly through his daughter, Hope Masters, who serves as President/CEO of the Foundation, and who MC’d the fifth annual LEON SULLIVAN HONORS at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C, The Sullivan Awards recognizes individuals who have had major impact on the lives of African and African American people. Held in the Eisenhower Auditorium, the elegant event brought individuals and dignitaries from all over the world, to celebrate the work, life and times of Dr. Leon Sullivan and his influence on African leaders.

For those not familiar with Rev. Dr. Sullivan, he initially founded the Opportunities Industrialization Center or OIC, which provided free professional job and career training to African Americans and people of color. Originating in Philadelphia, the program quickly spread to neighboring states (including Brooklyn), and provided the appropriate skill sets that made it possible for participants to obtain career-track positions, or become entrepreneurs with businesses and employees of their own.

While OIC still proliferates throughout the United States, though the Brooklyn branch is no longer viable, and there is no OIC in any other part of New York (one has to wonder why that is?). In the mid sixties, as Africa was liberating itself from oppressive colonialism, Dr. Sullivan saw an opportunity to develop business and manufacturing relations between African and African Americans and soon began making regular trips to different parts of Africa to interface with leaders who likewise saw the need and value.

The 2009 award recipients include Henry Louis Gates, Scholar and educator; Actress/Activist Mia Farrow and Founder, Wheels to Africa, 14 year old Winston Duncan. Dr. Gates, who noted how stunning Ms. Masters was, (the statuesque spokesperson wore a stunning red fish-tail evening gown with white rhinestone trim); he spoke of the intense need for a continued relationship between African Americans, Africans and the rest of the world.

He credited the capacity of DNA testing now to provide direct linkages to ancestral lineages heretofore unavailable to scientist. Interested individuals should contact the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African & African-American Research. Ambassador Andrew Young, Chair Board of Directors for the Sullivan Foundation, and Chairman of Good Works Inc., made the presentation.

Ms. Farrow, who spoke of the importance of becoming mentioned that she had adopted several African American children. She is integrally involved in providing food and services to African villages. "To ignore their plight would be to turn your back on half your family, to not be involved in the rescue of Africa from oppression is unthinkable." Having made two visits to Darfur as well as nine visits to refuge camps, she writes consistently for the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe and other online programs about the plight going on in such areas as Rwanda, Chad, Darfur, Central African Republic, Congo, and other terror ridden areas. (http://www.miafarrow.org/ in case you’re interested in reading or contributing to her efforts).

Neither last, nor least, is the rising star of Winston Duncan, a young man who actually founded his charitable organization at the age of 11, after having visited South Africa with his father and seeing a lot of people having to walk everywhere they went, because of the lack of public or private transportation facilities. After learning that it takes one day for someone to walk from one locale to another, and paralleling that with the fact that his grandmother often needed wheels to get around, he began taking his birthday gift money, and monies from his college fund. He sent his first bikes to Africa in 2006, and to date has sent thousands of bikes to Africa.

He is now looking to expand his organization world wide to begin getting contributions from all over the US to even more African countries. (dDuncan@comcast.net in case you’re interested in contributing to his effort).

In addition to the awardees, the introduction of the 2010 Sullivan Soldiers: Gene Banks, Asst. coach of the Washington Wizards, Raheem DeVaughn, Grammy nominated singer; Dr. Marc Hill, Assoc. President of Columbia University, Jeff Johnson, Social Activist, and T.J. Holmes, CNN news anchor. Entertainment provided by local groups included South African vocalist Ana Mwanalagho, the Prestige Steppers, Spoken Word artists and choreographers, Status Quo; KanKouran, West African Dance Company, Motown artist, KEM.

The newest concept to come out of the Sullivan Foundation is that of the AFROPOLITAN. The concept of the “Afripolitan” has evolved to describe the swelling ranks of those who care about Africa and are engaged in efforts to advance the continent and its countries in joining the global economy of the 21st century. The term is a melding of “Africa” and “metropolitan.” Africa, of course, centers this concept on those who see the continent’s importance to the world at large.

The metropolitan aspect conveys the sense of worldliness that understands the interconnectedness of all societies and the need to ensure that no society is left to languish. But the Afripolitan does more than see Africa; he or she makes an effort to help in whatever way they can.

Those who may be interested in becoming an Afripolitan, can contact Howard Sullivan of the Sullivan Foundation at http://www.sullivanfoundation.org/.

Previous recipients of the Sullivan Honors include President Kikwete of Tanzania, and Congressman Donald Payne, Chair of the Congressional Committee on Africa.

Stay Blessed

Eclectically Black,

Gloria Dulan Wilson

AFRICA RISING: LEON SULLIVAN HONORS THREE AT DC KENNEDY CENTER GALA

http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/

WELCOME TO GLORIA DULAN-WILSON ECLECTIC BLACK PEOPLE VIP BLOG

ECLECTIC BLACK PEOPLE VIP

Black people have come through so much. We are prime examples of the saying "only the strong survive," which, as a child, I thought was just a great dance song by Jerry Butler. We are at a stage in our lives where we have to demonstrate to ourselves and the rest of the world that we not only have learned the important life lessons, but are now also prepared to put them in action for the benefit and blessings of our selves and each other.

We are at source for all the good that we say we want, so why do we continue to either blame others, or wait for others permission to realize the good we say we want? We have learned to make something out of nothing; to provide for each other though others would deprive us. To foster our creativity under the most dire circumstances. Yet we continue to resonate to those who would put us down as not being worthy of the best.

My mission is mani-fold to educate and inform, to inspire and motivate, and to activate and report. Who we get our news from is as important as what they say about us. How we're depicted is as important as whether there is any mention of us at all; and the spirit in which we do what we do, is as important as whether or not we do anything about our circumstances.

As a result, I fully take the liberty of being a participatory journalist, and, as such, reserve the right to care about and be integrally involved with my people. I reserve the right to tell the truth when the main stream media lies and distorts who we are, to show the full measure of who we are, what we mean, what we've accomplished and where we're going.

As an Eclectic Black Journalist the Eclectic Black People VIP (Views Interests & Perspectives) Blog focuses on our multi-faceted, multi-dimensional, multi-talented from the good and the not-so-good, but never from the indifferent.

Stay Blessed And Empowered

Eclectically Black...

Gloria Dulan-Wilson

ECLECTIC BLACK PEOPLE VIP

http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/