How do we really feel & what do we really believe about ourselves?

#SELFREFLECTION #INTROSPECT

How we feel about ourselves usually determines who we want to become in life.

- Who do we believe we are right now?

- Who do we believe we can become in the future?

#ENTREPRENOURISHMENT #PERSONALGROWTH

YOUTH ACHIEVEMENT --- CHRISTIANA OSHOTSE!!!

*Our future is still bright with young people like Christiana working towards greatness!

Let's love, raise, train, teach, expect & discipline our children into awesome overall people & very productive adults!!!

I salute you Christiana Oshotse and your parents!!!

One Love!!!

*From my friend Chantrise Holliman --- High School Educator in Metro Atlanta, GA

This is my former student Christiana Oshotse.Tonight she was recognized for being Valedictorian, AP Scholar with Distinction, a meme "We of The Top 25", and a Gates Millennium Scholar. When she was a freshman, her mom was worried that she wasn't ready for high school. I told her that she would be fine and that God has her. Indeed he did, and still does! And did I mention she's only 16?

Do You Dislike Successful African-Americans? Are you Black Enough?

*Thoughts by Barry Brown


In 2014, it is amazing that we have gotten to a point as African-American/Black people where we have a large segment of our population that actually believes that being smart, setting goals, working hard to achieve those goals and being successful is not what black people do.

This type of mind-set breeds self-hate which makes one person truly not like another person because that successful person chose to improve themselves and work towards a better life!

When someone chooses to not value learning, education, hard work, personal development and being smart; that decision usually leads to terrible results like homelessness, not eating everyday, wearing worn out clothes, etc.

Our young people must learn & truly understand that a basic education and graduation from high school is essential to their long-term earning potential success. They must also understand that learning a skill and trade that someone is willing to pay you for over and over again is very important!

My father and mother are being honored this upcoming weekend for their roles in the Civil Rights Student Movement of the 1960's when they attended Clark College (now Clark-Atlanta University). My brother and I would not be who we are today if it wasn't for our parents instilling certain values within us and having certain expectations of us. I am very grateful to my parents for loving me enough to teach me, discipline me and love me some more!!!

Parents, let's teach our children how to love themselves and want to be something positive in life, so that they will want to see other people be positive and successful in life!!!

LET'S BREAK THE CYCLE!!! READ WHAT CHARLES BARKLEY HAS TO SAY BELOW. ONE LOVE!!!

(CNN) -- Charles Barkley hasn't met a sensitive topic he couldn't dig into, and now he's speaking on what he calls a "dirty, dark secret" in the African-American community.

During an interview with a Philadelphia radio station, Barkley expounded on claims that Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson wasn't liked by some of his teammates in part because he wasn't considered to be "black enough."

Barkley said he wasn't at all surprised.

"There are a lot of black people who are unintelligent, who don't have success," Barkley said. "It's best to knock a successful black person down 'cause they're intelligent, they speak well, they do well in school, and they're successful. It's crabs in a barrel. ... We're the only ethnic group that says, 'hey, if you go to jail, it gives you street cred.' "

The concept of "crabs in a barrel" isn't new, and it's universal. If you've ever seen a bucket of crabs at the market, the ones at the bottom will try to pull down the crabs that are closer to the top.

"I lived this, and if it weren't for my parents I wouldn't have pushed through it," one Twitter user said in response to Barkley's comments.

Education advocate and CNN contributor Dr. Steve Perry is another observer who agrees with Barkley.

"Unfortunately, as I tell my white friends, we as black people, we're never going to be successful not because of you white people but because of other black people," Barkley said. "When you're black, you have to deal with so much crap in your life from other black people. It's a dirty, dark secret; I'm glad it's coming out."Others have been irked by Barkley's delivery. When Perry tweeted that he applauded Barkley's remarks, some responded that they bristled at Barkley's tendency to generalize the experience of an entire group.

The controversy began with an item from Bleacher Report's Mike Freeman, who said some of Wilson's Seahawks teammates don't care for him because "they think he's too close to the front office," he "doesn't always take the blame with teammates for mistakes he makes," and "some of the black players think Wilson isn't black enough."

"There is ... an element of race that needs to be discussed," Freeman said of Wilson's relationship with his teammates. "My feeling on this -- and it's backed up by several interviews with Seahawks players -- is that some of the black players think Wilson isn't black enough. This is an issue that extends outside of football, into African-American society, though it's gotten better recently. Well-spoken blacks are seen by some other blacks as not completely black. Some of this is at play." (Bleacher Report shares a parent company with CNN.)

The report has been denied by Seahawks player Richard Sherman, who said the accusations were "made up," and Wilson too has shaken off Freeman's point of view.

"Black enough? I don't even know what that means," Wilson said. "I'm just an educated, well-spoken male."

But to Barkley, Freeman's assertions are a very real part of being successful and black.

"For some reason we're brainwashed to think if you're not a thug or an idiot, you're not black enough. If you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent and don't break the law, you're not a good black person," he said. "It's a dirty dark secret. I hate to bring white people into our crap, but as a black person, we all go through it when you're successful."

PARENTS, DO YOU KNOW HOW YOUR CHILDREN ACT AT SCHOOL?

*Commentary from Barry Brown (Business, Education & Entertainment Consultant)

--- Senior Program Coordinator/Trainer/Presenter with The "Make A Way" Education Program 

As I travel around the country keynoting, conducting breakout sessions and sharing "Make A Way" Education Program materials with education conference attendees, I usually hear the same stories no matter where the school is located in the United States.

In a recent visit to a high school, I was informed that two upper-class football players are facing tribunal for having sexual relations with a female sophomore on the school elevator.

I was also informed that a substitute teacher got into a physical altercation with a student that physically challenged them.

You see, these are just a couple of examples of what is going on in our schools across the country.

PARENTS, DO YOU KNOW HOW YOUR CHILDREN ACT AT SCHOOL? 

One of the ways to find out what your children are doing at school is to physically visit the school on a frequent basis. All of the top performing schools have one thing in common for sure, parent volunteers and participation.

With the tremendous advancement in technology, parents of a particular class (i.e. Class of 2014) may choose to start a Facebook Group to highlight successes and to discuss issues and brainstorm on solutions.

Expectations of our young people is very important! As parents and adults, we literally cannot afford to continue to coddle them because they will actually grow up and not be able to handle any type of adverse situation. We have socially promoted too many young men and women that end up being these very disruptive 17-18 year old 9th graders. We have to teach them to be accountable for their actions and push, pull and encourage them to move forward in their lives in a positive and productive manner!

Now parents, I understand that many of you are out here working your behinds off to take care of your family, but we have to take the time to invest in our children. It is a sacrifice, but it is more than worth it. If we do not show our children that education is important, then they will not take education seriously:

- Do you know if your child can read well or at all?

- Do you know your child can't verbally express themselves very well?

- Do you know your child is late to school everyday?

- Do you know your child is late to every class, every day?

- Do you know your child refuses to be a student at school?

- Do you know your child wears a headset and listens to music in class all day?

- Do you know your child is texting and using social media all day at school?

- Do you know your child talks on the phone during school all day?

- Do you know your child uses profanity in front of and at adults everyday?

- Do you know your child is in the stairwell or at their locker kissing?

- Do you know your child is walking around the school all day or leaving campus frequently?

- Do you know your child is in a gang?

- Do you know your child is selling drugs and stolen merchandise?

- Do you know your child is using drugs?

- Do you know your child has a gun?

- Do you know your daughter is pregnant?

- Do you know your son is about to become a teenage father?

- Do you know your child has a STD and/or HIV?

- Do you know your child is FAILING almost every class?

This is what is going on at too many schools across this country everyday! It's embarrassing and terribly sad!

I can go on and on, but I digress because we can save a lot of our children as long as we are willing to love, teach and discipline them.

Instead of buying our children designer shoes, clothes, and phones, let's invest that money into tutors and/or a professional learning center to at least get our children up to grade level, and preferably well above grade level!

We actually have an epidemic, and there's not enough people talking about the situation in our public schools across the country. If we continue socially passing our children, not holding them accountable and not disciplining them. What should we expect from them as a adults? It's actually very scary. I am really understanding that this rising generation may truly be the 1st generation that does not do better than the one before it. That's a dim view of the future for a lot people. What skills do they possess now? What kind of professional skills are they capable of learning and developing? Where are these young people going to work? What kind of businesses are they going to start?

If your child is one of the young people that is achieving and coming to school to be an actual student, then it is imperative that we create and maintain high level learning environments for the young people that want to learn and grow! We have to nourish our best minds and students putting forth effort just as much or more than the energy we put into the young people that literally run around the school all day and cause our better students to suffer.

I understand that a lot of parents are in denial, but once we face reality and decide to put the work in with our children to make sure we give them the best educational support and encouragement that we can; we will see the light shine in our children! It's us as parents and adults that make the difference, and we can do it!

Schools are being consolidated (*closed) and more prisons are being built. Parents, guess who they are building these jails for, our children ---

• Data reported (Ed Week) for the 2010-11 academic year marks the first time all of the states used a uniform measure to calculate graduation rates, in accordance with a compact signed by the nation's governors in an effort to improve accuracy and accountability.
  Significant jumps in the percentages of black and Latino students graduating were an important factor in the improved nationwide graduation rate, according to Ed Week. The full report, and the spotlight stories focusing on efforts to get dropouts back in school, is well worth reading. I was particularly interested in the data on young adults ages 16-21. Here's what that group - 27 million -- looks like nationally:
  
  
  • More than 20 million are in school, either K-12 or higher ed;
  • 5.1 million graduated but are not enrolled in a post-secondary institution;
  • 1.8 million young adults (which, not surprisingly, includes a disproportionate percentage of minorities) have left school without a diploma. Of those 1.2 million of them -- 66 percent -- are not working.
    
    - EMILY RICHMOND

 

Parents, get involved, stay in tune with your children and set expectations for your children. We all have to do it. Superintendents, Administrators, Teachers and Staff, we all have to want our students to learn and not just prepare for standardized tests. Let's truly educate our children so that they grow into skilled and productive adults. Our children have the capacity to learn, and will learn if we LOVE, TEACH & DISCIPLINE them.  

 

JORDAN DAVIS (The Dunn Trial) - Is Your Child Next? Target Practice ...

Commentary & Thoughts By:  Barry Brown - The "Make A Way" Education Program

The Dunn Trial (Jordan Davis)

Is Your Child Next? Target Practice ...

Let me start with saying that this Dunn character & Zimmerman are dead wrong for murdering Jordan Davis and Trayvon Martin. Dunn & Zimmerman should 30 feet under the jail. That's my opinion, the horrific thing is that there are a lot of people that agree with Dunn and Zimmerman's action and believe they did act in self-defense. Ok, that's their opinion.

I want to address the idea that both of these young men could possibly still be alive if they were able to control their emotions and respect themselves enough to keep it moving instead of confronting, talking back and basically "bucking" at adults that were ready and willing to take their lives.

You see, I share with my daughters and any young people I get to speak with, that if they cannot control themselves, you give someone else the right to control you. There lies one of the biggest issues that our young people face on a daily basis, controlling their emotions.

Let me form an image in your mind as a parent & adult. You are not emphasizing education in your home. You do not discipline your child consistently and you actively attempt to be friends with your child instead of a parent. You reward your child with $100.00+ tennis shoes, but they are failing several classes if not all of them. Has a picture formed in your mind?

These are the same young people that believe it's ok to use profanity in front of adults or anybody for that matter. They believe it's ok to wait until the late bell rings and then go to class. And if anyone, including an adult, says something to them, that's a huge problem for the young person; because in their mind no one should restrict their actions or speech in any form or fashion. The problem with this way of thinking is that these young people are usually setting themselves up for jail or death.

With society moving closer and closer to an "everything goes" wild wild west throwback mentality, our young men and ladies of color are being set-up to be target practice. If we do not counter-act the societal woes that are being established along with the laws that are already on the books with better quality parenting with an emphasis of helping our children find their purposes in life as soon as possible; we are going to continue to get the short-end of the stick with our children being buried at early ages and hauled off to jail where they become 2014 slaves. The 13th Amendment did not totally abolish slavery. Read it for yourself. You may be surprised!

I will finish this blog with a story from one of my recent visits and work in a high school. The class was reading the updated version of Romeo & Juliet. It's called ... wait for it ... Romiette & Julio ... lol ... So first of all, I had to almost beg students to read out loud. They wanted to listen to the audio book. The interesting and sad part about getting the students to read out loud is that the smart students do not want to let the other students know that they are smart. It's amazing, I believe the opposite. I believe that the students that need to improve should be working diligently on improving attempting to learn from the smart students, but now a culture has started where the not so bright students pick on the students that are smart and putting forth effort. Call me crazy ... So during one of our discussions, the term "lame" came up, and the students told me that a lame person is someone that isn't popular. I asked them do they know what lame actually means? I had a student look the word up on their phone of course ... Lol ... and when they found out what it means not being able to move or use a part of your body; they just had blank stares on their faces. I shared with them the fact that they were wrong for picking on students that are putting forth an effort to learn and to improve because the actual lames in this scenario is them, because they are not using the most important part of their bodies, their brains!

It was a good learning experience for me and the students.

Parents, let's step our game up and choose to invest in our children so that we may stop this school to death and school to jail pipeline.

One Love!

Why are our young people so violent?

Thoughts By:  B. Brown (BREG)


On June 23, 2012 when my brother and his family were in town visiting, we went down to Underground Atlanta to get something to eat, checkout some vendors and hangout.

As we were preparing to leave, we saw a large gathering of young people coming together and then we saw two female teenagers begin to argue with each other and then of course a fight broke out.

Now, I understand that some fights are totally unavoidable, but the overwhelmingly majority of them are very avoidable, and we as adults have to teach our young people how to walk away from confrontations and live to see another day of life. When our young people fight in this day and time, they usually want to literally kill the other person because that's their mentality. So there's a high probability that someone may pull out a gun or a knife and end someone's life. As in the case of Bobby Tillman in Douglasville, GA, he got "stomped" to death by several male teenagers while over 70 people watched. What does that say about our mentalities and the value of life in general?

I don't know about you, but I am going to really start focusing on teaching my children about loving themselves and loving, respecting and caring about other people because if they love themselves and feel good about themselves, there's a great chance that they won't be so eager to end the life of another person because they value their own lives.

I have a speaking engagement coming up in August and I am going to highlight "Teen Violence" in my keynote address and challenge the young people and their parents alike to love themselves and to love others in spite of hard times and confrontations.

We can collectively stop the violence in our homes, communities and schools if we actively communicate with each other better, be honest with each other and love each other on a daily basis!

Yo, we can do it!!! Let's go ........!!!  

TRAYVON MARTIN - Racism, Profiling & Hatred strikes again!

Thoughts & Opinion By:  B. Brown - BREG & HUSTLE UNIVERSITY


I write this blog with a lot of thoughts running through my mind. First and foremost, I send my Prayers and Love out to TRAYVON MARTIN'S family and friends.

We have lost another young man to Racism, Profiling and Hatred! You see, this type of behavior has been taking place for a very long time in this country and it is imperative that it stops immediately. It appears that the Sanford, FL police department was tremendously negligent and/or outright racist themselves when they allowed George Zimmerman to go free after fatally shooting Trayvon, claiming self-defense.

Now, I understand that Florida has a "Stand Your Ground" law, but does it actually mean that a person can shoot down another person just because they look suspicious and a confrontation ensues? In this case, Zimmerman actually followed Trayvon after being told by police dispatch (911) not to pursue the suspicious individual. This "Stand Your Ground" law must be re-evaluated because if Zimmerman gets off without any charges being brought against him, a precedent of this nature could open the door for our young black men to be shot down in cold blood at any given time in any given place just because another person says they look suspicious. We all know if a young white male was shot in this same situation, there would be a totally different conversation being held right now. And that's REAL TALK!!!

I would like to thank everyone who has put on a hoodie, signed petitions, written blogs, tweeted, sent out Facebook posts, etc. in support of Trayvon and justice actually taking place!

To the parents of the hip-hop generation, we must continue to educate our youth and equip them with the knowledge to handle themselves properly in as many situations as possible. Our youth must be able to think quickly on their feet and make life & death decisions without feeling like they are being men. They must learn the importance of being able to "fight-another-day."

President Obama has made comments regarding Trayvon, and has initiated a Federal Investigation. Thank you Mr. President! Several high ranking officers in the Sanford, FL Police Department have stepped down already, and I believe that they along with a lot of other people know that the "ish" is about to hit the fan and it is going to spread around to cover a lot of people and things that need to be cleaned up!

Once America truly acknowledges that racism still exists in a major way, then we can start fixing (if possible) the relationships that we have between the many diverse races and cultures that exist in our country, but we must get started now!

Parents, are we too hard on ourselves?

Thoughts By: B. Brown of Bar-Red Entertainment Group (BREG)


As parents, we have egos that can be larger than any pro athlete or entertainer in the world when it comes to dealing with our children. The mantra is usually "Do what I say because I'm your father or mother!" Have you heard that before from someone you know very well?

The truth of the matter is that we as parents and adults make mistakes, and we have to learn how to cope with those mistakes so that we become better because we made the mistake. I do not believe it is healthy for us to dog ourselves out totally and then be no good to anybody.

My suggestion is that we acknowledge the mistake, analyze and determine what we could have done better and then move forward to a solution that helps all parties involved. This way, we are setting a great example for our children, and keeping everything moving forward.

Checkout the outstanding article below from Makayla Sadamori! I'm sure you will find it to be very interesting!

One Love!

Parent! Don’t Judge Thyself

Written by Makayla on July 7, 2011 · 1 Comment

If there was a parenting Bible the title above would be a part of its Holy Commandments! As parents we are all bound to make mistakes. After all we are human and as such we are not perfect. We are actually expected to make mistakes because that is what leads us to look at what we don’t like in ourselves as parents and what corrections we want to make. Unfortunately most of us are conditioned by our own parents and by society that mistakes are bad and the only way to pay for the sin of making them is to feel bad, incapable and guilty. In fact we often feel the more severely we judge ourselves the more we show how regretful we are of what we have done.

Unfortunately, falling into the trap of judgments leads to no good end. The only effect it has on us is that it throws us into negativity and brings our emotional tone down. On the other hand, allowing the impact of a mistake to lead us to a desire to correct it allows us to improve our situation. In the mode of correction, we tend to focus on the desire to improve, which helps us release our guilt and put our energy into the betterment of the situation at hand.

Allow yourself to compare how you feel when you judge yourself for the mistakes you have made and how you feel when you focus on the desire to be a better parent to your child. Which of the two feelings inspires you to change and improve? Which one of them comes from your heart and gives you hope and joy? Which one of them will you choose to align to and follow?

Parents, be kind and loving to yourselves, especially when you feel you need correction. The love and compassion you find for yourself when you err will help you be even more loving and compassionate to your children when they err too.

By Makayla Sadamori, Joy Parenting Coach

http://coachmaven.com/conscious-parenting/parentdontjudgethyself