In Pursuit of Perfection

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What Black Men Think

This preview has been making the rounds since last November on YouTube.  The premiere will be this Wednesday, July 25th in DC.   

Contact: Janks Morton

Director, What Black Men Think

301-627-6780

JanksMorton@verizon.net

For Immediate Release

July 15, 2007  DC MOVIE PREMIERE — IYAGO ENTERTAINMENT GROUP Presents WHAT BLACK MEN THINK — An In Depth View of How Myths, Stereotypes and Misrepresentations render Black Men Non-Necessities in their Communities and Families

PRODUCER/DIRECTOR Janks Morton’s Exploration of How Black Men Feel About themselves and Their Portrayal in Society, Wednesday, July 25, 2007 at 8:00pm/ET at Washington, DC’s Historic AVALON Theatre(WASHINGTON, DC)

July 15, 2007 — On Wednesday, July 25, 2007, iYAGO ENTERTAINMENT GROUP will premiere the thought-provoking documentary, WHAT BLACK MEN THINK at Washington, DC’s historic AVALON Theater. This 83 minute “Docu-logue” style film brings you candid conversations about the many myths, stereotypes and misperceptions of being Black and male in America. Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint, Dr. Shelby Steele, Dr. John McWhorter, Michael Steele, Juan Williams, Armstrong Williams, Joseph C. Phillips and many others give definitive opinions as they share their intimate feelings on a variety of issues, important to Black men. Join PRODUCER/DIRECTOR Janks Morton as he tackles this provocative subject matter – This event is a private screening by RSVP only  Wednesday, July 25, 2007 at 8:00pm/ET, at the AVALON Theatre, 5612 Connecticut Avenue, Washington, DC, 20015. WHAT BLACK MEN THINK challenges many of the negative myths, assumptions and ideas that have been linked to Black Males. For example, “Are there more black males in jail than in college?” or “Are black women contracting HIV at an increasing rate because of down-low brothers?” WHAT BLACK MEN THINK gets to the bottom of many of these myths and dispels them. Additional controversial topics discussed include; “Educational Attainment”, “Interracial relationships”, “Black Male Identity”, “Hostile Male Environments”, “The symbiosis of Media, Government and Black Leadership”, “Black male homosexuality” and a variety of tough topics that the Black Community has parroted continuing the diminishment of Black Men’s roles in American Society.

“In the documentary, filmmaker Janks Morton argues that misinformation about Black men cannot be allowed to continue“- BET.com Staff: BET News

“Janks Morton hopes to bring some pride back to the tarnished reputation of black men in America with a new film” – Benjamin Ryan: HIV Plus MAGAZINE

“I had taken as gospel all the negative things said about black men. How arrogant was I to believe that the men that I love and care about were different than those featured in the usual reports of black men doing wrong” – Robyn McGee: BlackProf.com

“We can’t stop the AIDS epidemic until we stop the lies that fuel the epidemic” – Keith Boykin: Former Aide to Bill Clinton

“In Morton’s public service announcement and documentary “What Black Men Think”, real men challenge the Black community to take responsibility for the images of Black men” - Staff Writer: Mybrotha.com

Please join iYAGO Entertainment Group on July 25, 2007 at the historic AVALON Theatre in this ground breaking effort restoring and reclaiming the distorted image of the American Black Male.

FOR RSVP INFORMATION CONTACT: Janks Morton of iYAGO Entertainment Group, Office +1-301-627-6780, Fax +1-301-560-5560
JanksMorton@verizon.net 

I'm Black and I'm Proud!

My Father taught me that.  No doubt passed down to him from the venerable James Brown!  36 years my mother and father have been married.  I'm proud of my heritage and our traditions.

I'm proud to come from a tradition of sober, intellectual, and forward thinking brothers and sisters.  Read the following.  Now realize that it was written 100 years ago!  Way to go Black Men in America!

12 Things The Negro Must Do For Himself by Nannie Helen Burroughs

 

(Circa Early 1900's)

 

     

1.  The Negro Must Learn To Put First Things First.  The First Things Are:  Education; Development of Character Traits; A Trade and Home Ownership. 

 

• The Negro puts too much of his earning in clothes, in food, in show and in having what he calls "a good time."  The Dr. Kelly Miller said, "The Negro buys what he WANTS and begs for what he Needs."  Too true!

 

2.  The Negro Must Stop Expecting God and White Folk To Do For Him What He Can Do For Himself. 

 

• It is the "Divine Plan" that the strong shall help the weak, but even God does not do for man what man can do for himself.  The Negro will have to do exactly what Jesus told the man (in John 5:8) to do--Carry his own load--"Take up your bed and walk."

 

3.  The Negro Must Keep Himself, His Children And His Home Clean And Make The Surroundings In Which He Lives Comfortable and Attractive. 

 

• He must learn to "run his community up"--not down.  We can segregate by law, we integrate only by living.  Civilization is not a matter of race, it is a matter of standards.  Believe it or not--some day, some race is going to outdo the Anglo-Saxon, completely.  It can be the Negro race, if the Negro gets sense enough.  Civilization goes up and down that way.

 

4.  The Negro Must Learn To Dress More Appropriately For Work And For Leisure.

 

• Knowing what to wear--how to wear it--when to wear it and where to wear it, are earmarks of common sense, culture and also an index to character.

 

5.  The Negro Must Make His Religion An Everyday Practice And Not Just A Sunday-Go-To-Meeting Emotional Affair.

 

6.  The Negro Must Highly Resolve To Wipe Out Mass Ignorance.

 

• The leaders of the race must teach and inspire the masses to become eager and determined to improve mentally, morally and spiritually, and to meet the basic requirements of good citizenship.

• We should initiate an intensive literacy campaign in America, as well as in Africa.  Ignorance--satisfied ignorance--is a millstone abut the neck of the race.  It is democracy's greatest burden.

• Social integration is a relationship attained as a result of the cultivation of kindred social ideals, interests and standards.

• It is a blending process that requires time, understanding and kindred purposes to achieve.  Likes alone and not laws can do it.

 

7.  The Negro Must Stop Charging His Failures Up To His "Color" And To White People's Attitude.

 

• The truth of the matter is that good service and conduct will make senseless race prejudice fade like mist before the rising sun.

• God never intended that a man's color shall be anything other than a badge of distinction.  It is high time that all races were learning that fact.  The Negro must first QUALIFY for whatever position he wants.  Purpose, initiative, ingenuity and industry are the keys that all men use to get what they want.  The Negro will have to do the same.  He must make himself a workman who is too skilled not to be wanted, and too DEPENDABLE not to be on the job, according to promise or plan.  He will never become a vital factor in industry until he learns to put into his work the vitalizing force of initiative, skill and dependability.  He has gone "RIGHTS" mad and "DUTY" dumb.

 

8.  The Negro Must Overcome His Bad Job Habits.

 

• He must make a brand new reputation for himself in the world of labor.  His bad job habits are absenteeism, funerals to attend, or a little business to look after.  The Negro runs an off and on business.  He also has a bad reputation for conduct on the job--such as petty quarreling with other help, incessant loud talking about nothing; loafing, carelessness, due to lack of job pride; insolence, gum chewing and--too often--liquor drinking.  Just plain bad job habits!

 

9.  He Must Improve His Conduct In Public Places.

 

• Taken as a whole, he is entirely too loud and too ill-mannered.

• There is much talk about wiping out racial segregation and also much talk about achieving integration.

• Segregation is a physical arrangement by which people are separated in various services.

• It is definitely up to the Negro to wipe out the apparent justification or excuse for segregation.

• The only effective way to do it is to clean up and keep clean.  By practice, cleanliness will become a habit and habit becomes character.

 

10.  The Negro Must Learn How To Operate Business For People--Not For Negro People, Only.

 

• To do business, he will have to remove all typical "earmarks," business principles; measure up to accepted standards and meet stimulating competition, graciously--in fact, he must learn to welcome competition.

 

11.  The Average So-Called Educated Negro Will Have To Come Down Out Of The Air.  He Is Too Inflated Over Nothing.  He Needs An Experience Similar To The One That Ezekiel Had--(Ezekiel 3:14-19).  And He Must Do What Ezekiel Did

 

• Otherwise, through indifference, as to the plight of the masses, the Negro, who thinks that he has escaped, will lose his own soul.  It will do all leaders good to read Hebrew 13:3, and the first Thirty-seven Chapters of Ezekiel.

• A race transformation itself through its own leaders and its sensible "common people."  A race rises on its own wings, or is held down by its own weight.  True leaders are never "things apart from the people."  They are the masses.  They simply got to the front ahead of them.  Their only business at the front is to inspire to masses by hard work and noble example and challenge them to "Come on!"  Dante stated a fact when he said, "Show the people the light and they will find the way!"

• There must arise within the Negro race a leadership that is not out hunting bargains for itself.  A noble example is found in the men and women of the Negro race, who, in the early days, laid down their lives for the people.  Their invaluable contributions have not been appraised by the "latter-day leaders."  In many cases, their names would never be recorded, among the unsung heroes of the world, but for the fact that white friends have written them there.

 

"Lord, God of Hosts, Be with us yet."

 

• The Negro of today does not realize that, but, for these exhibits A's, that certainly show the innate possibilities of members of their own race, white people would not have been moved to make such princely investments in lives and money, as they have made, for the establishment of schools and for the on-going of the race.

 

12.  The Negro Must Stop Forgetting His Friends.  "Remember."

 

• Read Deuteronomy 24:18.  Deuteronomy rings the big bell of gratitude.  Why?  Because an ingrate is an abomination in the sight of God.  God is constantly telling us that "I the Lord thy God delivered you"--through human instrumentalities.

• The American Negro has had and still has friends--in the North and in the South.  These friends not only pray, speak, write, influence others, but make unbelievable, unpublished sacrifices and contributions for the advancement of the race--for their brothers in bonds.

• The noblest thing that the Negro can do is to so live and labor that these benefactors will not have given in vain.  The Negro must make his heart warm with gratitude, his lips sweet with thanks and his heart and mind resolute with purpose to justify the sacrifices and stand on his feet and go forward--"God is no respector of persons.  In every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is" sure to win out.  Get to work!  That's the answer to everything that hurts us.  We talk too much about nothing instead of redeeming the time by working.

 

R-E-M-E-M-B-E-R

 

• In spite of race prejudice, America is brim full of opportunities.  Go after them!

 

 

 

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Nannie H. Burroughs

 

 

 

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**Afrosphere Action Alert** -- Louisiana Nooses

I've been monitoring conversation about a trial beginning in Jena, Louisiana today.  I think the reason why this has been bothering me so much is due to the question that is raised when I see these kinds of situations.  (Take a look here,  here, here, and also here to name just a few.)  Thank you.

The original article written by Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune is clipped below. 

 

clipped from english.people.com.cn

Racism on trial again in America's Deep South

In the cool courtroom in Jena, Louisiana, three black schoolboys - Robert Bailey, Theodore Shaw and Mychal Bell - are about to go on trial for a playground fight that could see them jailed for between 30 and 50 years. Jena, about 220 miles north of New Orleans, is a small town of 3,000 people, 85 percent of whom are white. Tomorrow it will be the focus for a race trial which could put it on the map alongside the bad old names of the Mississippi Burning Sixties such as Selma or Montgomery, Alabama. Jena is gaining national notoriety as an example of the new 'stealth' racism, showing how lightly sleep the demons of racial prejudice in America's Deep South, even in the year that a black man, Barack Obama, is a serious candidate for the White House.

The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time.
-Terry Tempest Williams

Fox Attacks Black America

I spend a lot of time listening to talk radio.  Fox News Talk as well as others.  Gotta say that I agree with the assessment that Fox News is one sided in it's presentation of African Americans as a whole.  There's a lot of time spent on what's wrong; not much spent in the other direction.  However, in my opinion, the news business as a whole stopped giving us "just the news" a long time ago.

Take a look and judge for yourself.  Then peep Fox Attacks website.  Hat tip: Prometheus 6.