Negroes with Guns - A documentary

[VIDEO] I tweeted about being at ICE Theaters when I saw The Dark Knight Rises one night. Early next month well August 1st at their Lawndale cineplex and then August 2nd at their Chatham location they will show a documentary about Robert F. Williams entitled Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power as part of their monthly Black World Cinema series.

While in general the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s were often portrayed as non-violent - even when they were attacked by a power structure that sought to keep the movement from succeeding - there are those activists who were at odds with the movement. It seems people like J. Edgar Hoover back then wanted to talk Williams in the same vein as Malcolm X or even Dr. King. Now I wonder how many people know who Williams is.

This ought to be something worth watching and it was also noted at the blog Concerned Citizens of Chatham.

BTW, Jack Hunter - aka The Southern Avenger - had done a commentary on Williams back in May 2008 you may watch below. It was posted here on this blog at that time [VIDEO]

What's a liberal arts degree worth nowadays?

I went to a liberal arts college - Morehouse College - and well I hear a lot about those students who graduated and are doing very well in their lives. What most students who attend and eventually graduate may not hear the reality. That is how to many of them start off before they do very well? 

Doomsayers be damned: America’s higher-education model, and its price tag, ain’t broke. So says Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro. In a recent op-ed for the L.A. Times, Schapiro and Lewis & Clark College President Barry Glassner argue that the college premium — the ratio of college earning to high school earnings — justifies the investment in higher education. Individuals with a college degree now make almost 85 percent more over a lifetime than those with only a high school diploma.

But statistics are tricky — while one economist opts to focus on the long-term returns, another is focused on the immediate future, which, for many recent college graduates, is bleak. More than 50 percent of bachelor’s degree-holders under the age of 25 were jobless or underemployed in the last year. So if and when a college graduate gets a job, he’s likely to earn, on average, $20,000 more annually than a person with a high school diploma. But when the average student is graduating with $25,000 in student-loan debt, he or she might be a bit more focused on getting a paycheck, any paycheck.

This might explain why, as Ohio University economics professor Richard Vedder is quick to point out, there are 80,000 bartenders and 115,000 janitors with bachelor’s degrees.

Looking at a graphic at the WBEZ article, I chose the wrong major. Should've majored in a science or engineering related field. If only I hadn't been so intimidated by science and math when I was in school!

BTW, to be fair I wasn't as aggressive as other graduating seniors when it came to looking for the next step in their futures. I never thought seriously about law school or graduate school in any way. It was more important to me to find a job, however, my search didn't really start until I finally graduated. Safe to say the ball was dropped and the situation today is what it is. 

Via Newsalert!

In honor of Sherman Hemsley

[VIDEO] I had little idea that he had an album Dance back in the early 90s. We mostly know him as George Jefferson from the sitcom The Jeffersons and another sitcom Amen. Since both of those series are no longer in production whenever we see Hemsley make an appearance his characters weren't much different that the personas he had been most famous for.

In the video above he performed one of the songs for his album on Soul Train in 1992. Ya know I wonder how many albums he sold at that time.

I'm doing all this to note that Hemsley died yesterday, he was 74.

Should I shoot for a million hits here?

In 2010 I was the recipient of an Instalanche. In fact it was in May 2010, this blog got more hits over the course of two or so days than it ever had in its history. The only time that could've come close was when Rich Miller linked to here from the Capitol Fax.

I even wrote a post about the Instalanche the next day and shared some links about how it can happen to you. Then I realized another popular blogger Stacy McCain of The Other McCain had written about about now to get a million hits on your blog in less than a year. It makes me wonder if that goal is achievable not only for this blog, but on The Sixth Ward as well.

To be sure, I consider this blog nothing more than a hobby. This is my own piece of real-estate on the World Wide Web and while I do have to find an audience this is for me to do with as I please although it has to be done with the audience in mind. The Sixth Ward on the other hand is more serious and not just a hobby, but not quite a business or whatever as there is certainly a specific audience for that blog which covers a specific City of Chicago ward and other communities around it.

Now the question here in noting the million hits plan is, whether or not it's doable. And what steps must I take to make that happen. Also is it necessary to follow "The Other McCain's" steps?

Kotkin: Are Millennials the Screwed Generation?

This column - via Instapundit! - by Joel Kotkin is very depressing when you continue to read the whole thing. I'm a long way from saying the "millennials" are screwed, but certainly things aren't looking good for them right now as many of them graduate college. There are a lot of issues worth tackling here, but let's just show a quote from this piece first:

Today’s youth, both here and abroad, have been screwed by their parents’ fiscal profligacy and economic mismanagement. Neil Howe, a leading generational theorist, cites the “greed, shortsightedness, and blind partisanship” of the boomers, of whom he is one, for having “brought the global economy to its knees.”

How has this generation been screwed? Let’s count the ways, starting with the economy. No generation has suffered more from the Great Recession than the young. Median net worth of people under 35, according to the U.S. Census, fell 37 percent between 2005 and 2010; those over 65 took only a 13 percent hit.

The wealth gap today between younger and older Americans now stands as the widest on record. The median net worth of households headed by someone 65 or older is $170,494, 42 percent higher than in 1984, while the median net worth for younger-age households is $3,662, down 68 percent from a quarter century ago, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center.

The older generation, notes Pew, were “the beneficiaries of good timing” in everything from a strong economy to a long rise in housing prices. In contrast, quick prospects for improvement are dismal for the younger generation.

One key reason: their indebted parents are not leaving their jobs, forcing younger people to put careers on hold. Since 2008 the percentage of the workforce under 25 has dropped 13.2 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while that of people over 55 has risen by 7.6 percent.

“Employers are often replacing entry-level positions meant for graduates with people who have more experience because the pool of applicants is so much larger. Basically when unemployment goes up, it disenfranchises the younger generation because they are the least qualified,” observes Kyle Storms, a recent graduate from Chapman University in California.

Consider me one of those who graduated from college within the last three years who hasn't found the job necessary to comfortably pay off those student loans I took during my time in school. It's frustrating although hey I chose to do those loans, no one else forced me and still I'm very appreciative of my degree. Still I consider myself underemployed and it's not for lack of trying. The jobs aren't out there and there are plenty of people who are looking. At that it's certainly an employers market as they have a tough job of picking and choosing who they want to work for them and they also know there are many looking for work so they look for an excuse to get rid of one a worker and then add someone else. It's tough out there!

Read the whole thing!

The Board of Trustees response to the #MorehouseLetter

Well actually the response of Morehouse College Board of Trustees Chairman Robert Davidson to attorney Imar Hutchins to his original letter and his collective statement. Mr. Hutchins isn't going to get his audience with the Trustees, but at least the concerns of the Morehouse community are being heard. Also check out Hutchins response to Davidson's letter. Perhaps the talk needs to only continue!

Previous posts

• #MorehouseLetter: Morehouse in a downward trajectory?
• Remember that #MorehouseLetter...

Chatham from the Red Line

Sometimes on the train I snap photos on my iPhone. Post them either to my Twitter or instagram. For today a pic of Chicago's Chatham neighborhood along the Dan Ryan expressway. Chatham has historically been a bastion of Chicago's Black middle-class.

VIDEO Julius Rosenwald: A Force for Change

[VIDEO] I'm watching this video about Julius Rosenwald who was an executive at Sears in its early days. What's highlighted here was his philanthropy not just towards people of his Jewish faith, but also towards Black Americans. In fact I found this documentary in a post over at Chicagoist that talked about attempts to restore this development known as the Rosenwald Apartments in the Bronzeville neighborhood on 47th Street.

He has used his wealth to help building not only high schools for Blacks throughout the south, but also sent some money to Tuskegee Institute. They also mentioned Booker T. Washington's book Up from Slavery also. And that may well have inspired him to help Tuskegee which is a school founded by Booker T. Washington.

 This documentary is a great story!

Some student loans to become more expensive despite deal

Washington Post has the story about student loans:

College students are facing a roughly $20 billion increase in the cost of their federal loans, despite a much-heralded deal in Washington to contain the expense of higher education.

Starting Sunday, students hoping to earn the graduate degrees that have become mandatory for many white-collar jobs will become responsible for paying the interest on their federal loans while they are in school and immediately after they graduate. That means they’ll have to pay an extra $18 billion out of pocket over the next decade.

Meanwhile, the government will no longer cover the interest on undergraduate loans during the six months after students finish school. That’s expected to cost them more than $2 billion.

These changes have received little attention as lawmakers instead focus on preventing a spike in interest rates on federal student loans. They are the fallout of earlier political battles and compromises over broader issues such as the federal budget and the national debt ceiling. And they are forcing students such as Clarise McCants to make tough choices about how to pursue academic goals without jeopardizing financial security.

At least for college I hope that students going to school in the near future are much smarter about how to pay for it. Save some money at the very least!

'Hooray for Captain Streeter!'

'Hooray for Captain Streeter!'

I'm up in this neighborhood call Streeterville all the time. In this posts by John Schmidt, we find out the story behind this Chicago neighborhood located north of the Loop. It's the location of some of Chicago's most expensive real estate!

When you read it, it's seems like a really fun story although Capt. Streeter doesn't get to keep his land. Just one of the many colorful characters in Chicago history.

Remember that #MorehouseLetter...

That I posted on June 20th. Now the author of that letter wants Morehouse alumni, students, and other supporters to add their names to a collective statement to be sent to the Morehouse College Board of Trustees. 134 names totals have signed onto this letter so far! Sooner or later my name will be on it!