Education- Created on 31 January 2013
101 Practical Ways to Be a Real Man in New Self-Help Book
"Man Up, Man: 101 Ways to Be a Real Man, Really" is a book that shares concepts of personal accountability, self-mastery, and practical common sense. Readers are offer suggestions to guide them in a journey towards responsible freedom.
"Irresponsibility is rampant in America," says author Ed Cawley. "Parents are disheartened because their adult children aged 20 to 40 something are still living at home or have moved back. Recently, a letter from a military man, expressing his disappointment in his children's continuing failure to become responsible adults, went viral on the internet."
Impelled by these realities and the desire to help people grow up and be accountable, Cawley developed his book.
Cawley offers a serious guide for men, yet with a lighthearted touch that can make readers smile when they least expect it. Through his years in leadership positions and his participation in personal and professional development, Cawley has established a unique set of guidelines that should help readers understand health, finance, business, and relationships and hopefully instill a sense of humanity and humility.
"The topic of how adult males need to behave as men is very timely," says Cawley. "To date, no one has written a guide specifically targeted to young men and how our rational society expects them to behave. This is THE 21st Century Guide for What a Man Should Be."
For more information, contact Xlibris at 1-888-795-4274 or on the web at www.Xlibris.com.
- Created on 30 January 2013
Magic Johnson Foundation Scholarships Available; Deadline Feb. 2
(BlackNews.com) - In 1998, Magic Johnson, through his Magic Johnson Foundation, created the Taylor Michaels Scholarship Program, named after Taylor Michaels, one of his former employees who passed away during that year. Throughout her life, Taylor was known for displaying an intense passion and commitment to youth development, and so for the last 14 years, he has carried her passion forward via the scholarship program.
Each year, they select approximately 30 scholars who demonstrate a strong potential for academic achievement, but face socioeconomic challenges hindering their full expression. Winners will get $2,000 - $5,000 annual tuition assistance-renewable up to 5 years, and a free laptop during their freshman year. They will also have access to internships and mentors.
Applicants must be graduating high school seniors that are planning to attend a four-year college in the fall, must have and maintain a minimum Grade Point Average (GPA) of 2.5 on a 4.0 system, and must reside in certain metropolitan areas.
The deadline is February 2, 2013. Incomplete and late applications will not be accepted.
For more details about the Taylor Michaels Scholarship Program, visit:
www.scholarshipsonline.org/2012/11/taylor-michaels-scholarship-program.html
For more 2013 scholarships, visit:
www.ScholarshipsOnline.org
- Created on 25 January 2013
Black Nostradamus? Book from 1885 Predicted a Black US President
Perhaps because Antenor Firmin wrote in French and not English, or perhaps because he was Haitian and not French, his work was ignored, became obscure and was out of print even in Haiti until 1968.
-Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Professor of Anthropology, Rhode Island College
For several generations, leading historians, scholars and intellectuals have often times quoted and recited the following almost prophetic words written by Dr. W.E.B. DuBois in his classic The Souls of Black Folks (1903: “The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color-line.” The book had its greatest impact in the United States among Black and White Americans, but its influence also extended beyond America’s shores to the Caribbean islands and continental Africa.
According to an illuminating essay authored by Playthell Benjamin in Reconsidering the Souls of Black Folk (2002), French-speaking Black intellectuals such as the Haitian scholar Jean Price-Mars, the poet Leon Damas of Cayenne, and the poet/statesman Leopold Sedar Senghor who along with Damas is a founder of the “Negritude” literary movement testified to having been inspired and influenced by The Souls of Black Folk. In short, it can easily be seen as the most influential of the early texts that forged a sense of racial consciousness for African descendants in the diaspora.
But now, thanks to the deep persistent dedication and scholarly rigor of two academics, Carolyn Lobban and Asselin Charles, we have knowledge about another landmark and groundbreaking book written in 1885 by Haitian intellectual and anthropologist Joseph Antenor Firmin.
Firmin’s little known but masterful treatise, The Equality of the Human Races; Positivist Anthropology, was basically researched and published by the author to intellectually defeat scientific racism, racist writings and stereotypical views about modern racial humanity during the closing years of the 19th century.
Firmin’s pioneering and revolutionary book was written, in essence, to intellectually challenge and refute the pseudo-scientific claims of the so-called father of modern racism/White supremacy, Arthur DeGobineau, who’s four-volume work, The Inequality of the Human Races, was also written in French between 1853-1855.
Firmin’s scientific rebuttal was especially directed at the racist theoretical writings of DeGobineau whose work was the first to assert the racial superiority of Aryan peoples. It was also one of the earliest of the many influential texts to support and reinforce dangerous ideas about purported inherent Black inferiority. In The Equality of the Human Races, Firmin’s magnum opus, he powerfully and positively affirmed just the opposite idea. He wrote, “All men are endowed with the same qualities and the same faults, without distinction of color or anatomical form. The races are equal.”
As anthropologist Ashley Montagu, author of Man’s Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race, has noted, “It is a fact worth remarking that throughout the nineteenth century hardly more than a handful of scientific voices were raised against the notion of a hierarchy of races.”
Fortunately, for all of humanity past, present and future, Joseph Antenor Firmin was such a voice courageously raised in a herculean effort to eliminate negative racist ideology and mythology, and to bring racial healing and harmony to the global human family.
It is only fitting that as we inaugurate President Barack Obama, who happens to be another brilliant son of Africa, that we recall a prophetic prediction made by Antenor Firmin in his profoundly provocative book more than a century ago.
“Appearance to the contrary, this big country is destined to strike the first blow against the theory of the inequality of the human races. Indeed, at this very moment, Blacks in the great Federal Republic have begun to play a prominent role in the politics of the various states of the American Union. It seems quite possible that, in less than a century from now, a Black man might be called to head the government of Washington and manage the affairs of the most progressive country on earth….”
Antenor Firmin was indeed an intellectual trailblazer in the long line of scholars who have become part of what has been called the vindicationist school of great African thinkers.
Gershom Williams is currently editing a special edition of the Journal of Pan African Studies celebrating the intellectual life and scholarly legacy of J. Antenor Firmin. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
- Created on 30 January 2013
Atlanta Community Leaders Institute Brings Influencers Together
Dozens of prominent regional leaders will participate in The Atlanta Community Leaders Institute to be held Friday, Feb. 8 at Morehouse School of Medicine.
The free event is among a series of institutes sponsored by the Department of Energy and the Medical University of South Carolina. Hosted at the Morehouse School of Medicine's National Center for Primary Care Auditorium, the institute convenes professionals who have a role in shaping policies that create and sustain healthy communities.
Topics to be discussed include: the role of federal, state, and local governments; youth issues and challenges; economic development, transportation, housing, community development; and health disparities/health issues.
The information sessions foster in-depth discussions and collaborative idea sharing. These activities can lead to financial and other support for projects with proven success metrics or demonstrable potential for achieving healthy communities.
Additionally, the institute promotes networking and relationship building at the local, regional and national levels.
A wide-range of influential panelists and speakers include: Cassius Butts, regional administrator, Small Business Administration; Edward Jennings, regional administrator, Region IV, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; Dr. David Satcher, director, The Satcher Health Leadership Institute; Stacey Abrams, minority leader for the Georgia General Assembly; Ceasar Mitchell, president, Atlanta City Council; and Brian McGowan, president, Invest Atlanta (Atlanta's Economic Development Authority).
Dozens of other regional government leaders, educators, agency directors, criminal justice experts, and civic activists also are on the two-day program that begins at 5p.m. on Friday, Feb. 8, 2013, in Morehouse School of Medicine's National Center for Primary Care Auditorium, located at 720 Westview Drive, S.W., Atlanta, GA 30310. The event continues Saturday, Feb. 9, at 8:30 a.m. with a continental breakfast and welcoming remarks at 9 a.m.
The registration deadline is Feb. 1. Register online at http://pico.library.musc.edu/ .
- Created on 24 January 2013
Dekalb County Board Approves New School Construction Plan
Scrapping an earlier plan that sparked outrage among parents, the DeKalb County school board on Wednesday authorized a new school construction plan for the next five years.
The new plan will not include school closures and says nothing of the previous plans redistricting.
In November, Dekalb County Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson fast tracked a school "organization" plan that included school closures and changes to attendance lines. One of the most controversial elements involved sending some middle school students to expanded high school campuses.
The construction plan adopted Wednesday was approved by a 6-3 vote.
It removes a proposal to stretch some elementary schools from fifth to sixth grade, and dismisses a proposal to convert Chapel Hill Middle School to a "theme" school for select students.
"It appears they listened to us," said Jennifer Hatfield, the PTA president at Evansdale Elementary in north DeKalb. "They've taken out everything that could potentially trigger controversy or opposition."
Hatfield said the new plan will satisfy parents in her area. The old one called for the closure of Livsey Elementary and would have shifted some Evansdale students into a different middle school attendance zone.
DeKalb officials said the new plan had to be completed quickly to qualify for state construction funds. It was previously presented in conjunction with a redistricting plan and a December deadline.
The facilities plan will be funded in part by local sales tax revenue and calls for the expansion of several buildings.
Austin, Fernbank, Pleasantdale and Rockbridge Elementary Schools will increase to 900 students, while Smoke Rise Elementary expands to 600. McNair Middle will now be home to 1,200 students and Chamblee High School will expand to 1,600.
A number of several schools will add an undisclosed number of students.
