Last Week’s Answers

1.       The Clinton Campaign was simply in trouble and needed to change focus and message. The move to an Africain American from a Latin might look bad, but it is a coincidence. Maggie Williams has been with Clinton forever, and is more a part of Hilaryland then Ms. Doyle. As far as the vote, I think that it is safe to say that the Africain American vote is Obama’s and the Clinton campaign needs a lot more then the support of Latinos to win Texas and Ohio the way they need to.

2.        Trust me if/when Clinton loses Mark Peen will get his share of the blame. However, as a pollster he had little to do with the amount of money that was spent /wasted by the campaign. The real reason that we are where we are is because of Barak Obama. Not even Hilaryland can beat hope.

3.       The white lady from London and the black man from America will probably never be given the same scrutiny. Also, Amy is hurting no one but herself; T.I. had enough ammunition to take out an Army.

4.       He certainly does, and he didn’t get the nod but I think he should of.

5.        I think Amy deserved album of the year. She had the best body of work for the year. Herbie Hancock won it almost as a life time achievement award. Rihanna I think won cause of the diversity of her work, rather than the quality of her work.      

6.       LOL

7.       It is because after 9/11 Islam became forever connected with anti-America. Whereas prior to 9/11 Islam in America was completely ignored. No one feels the need to defend Muslims, yet anyone with a mike feels the need to criticize it when something appears to go wrong. The fact if half of the people in this world that believe in a God or any religion do so cause that was what they were thought. They inherited it. Any of the terrorist or all of them could have been born anything besides Muslim. Osama Bin Laden was more influenced by what he say the USA doing in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia the anything he read in the Quran. It is ridiculous that ¾ of America can call themselves Christian and it be celebrated. However, a Muslim has to be defined by what someone else thinks of their faith. What happened in Tennessee is why I have no hope of the world is changing anytime soon.

8.       McCain can’t win and that is why he is going to get the nomination. He is a good sacrificial lamb to get the party back in a right direction. Huckabee will not win, but he is a good force in the race to represent a part of the party that cannot be forgotten if the GOP plans to win ever again.

9.       They do, but that depends on what you think opposites really mean.

10.   In America it is better to be attractive; it will get you, further but only to a certain point. The key is to master both. However,  you got to remember attraction is in the eye of the beholder while intelligence on the other hand is concrete.

 

Can He Deliver?

I was wrong about Senator Obama from the start. I was wrong about his electability, I was wrong about the candidate that Senator Clinton had devolved to. However, what I was not wrong about was the pulse of this race. Those democrats who had voted, fought and lost for the past 8 years and for 12 years want change, but they are voting for Clinton. Those who stayed home for the last 20 years and new voters are awaking for the Senator from Illinois. Over the past week, after Super Tuesday, Clinton has won nothing and Obama has won everything. With the Republican race as much as done, you would think Democrats would to stop their own infighting and proceed to wining. No such luck. Instead what has begun is a Civil War. Petting what seems to be a coalition of Women, Latinos, rural, and inner city Blue collar democrats. Against a coalition African Americans, young voters, Independents, and very wealthy white collar democrats and academics. What people have not been willing to say but what I am willing to see, is that Senator Obama coalition is not only growing more excited every day, but it is naturally bigger. He has and always had the numbers game on his side I think. At this point he is ahead on total delegates, actual delegates, and popular vote. If Hilary loses Wisconsin and then either Texas or Ohio, it is over and it’s time for Obama to pick his running mate (which will not be Clinton). There is no longer any quick fix for Clinton, the Super Tuesday firewall has been breached, if Obama does not put it away by Texas and Ohio this thing could all the way until May. That is a not good, because as long as McCain is the nominee we and we have no, they won. Hilaryland is broken for the first time in history. It is just not looking good for Clinton, so now what.

Here is my whole issue, I know what will happen if my horse loses, do the Obama supporters have more than “hope” and “yes we can” going into a general election. I know you can, and as long as there is a God there is hope. I am not asking this as Clinton supporter from New York, I am asking as a Democrat who wants to win not just in the fall, but four years from this point in time right now as well.

Ok, so Obama wins and then what? How does he bridge the gap to the Democrats that were not supporting him? Michelle Obama, who may be the first lady, said that she would have to think about supporting Senator Clinton if she was the nominee. What? What is that? If President Clinton had said that they would have been uproar. He would be called a racist. But, because it is the Obamas it does not matter. I am ready to support the democratic nominee for President, whomever it may or may not be. Can the supports of Barak Obama, who never can seem to point out a single policy issue were he beats Clinton, tell me the same thing?

We need no win more than we need a black President. Do I want both sure? Do I think there is a possibility we can get both? Yes we can. However, if I had to choose I would choose a win. I can’t help saying to myself that if I were a Republican running against Obama I would win. What is his foreign policy? How strongly does he believe in Democratic values such as: Equal right for all, including homosexual American and legal and illegal immigrants, a woman’s right to choose, Social Security and Medicare, Universal Medicare (not partial, not maybe, UNIVERSAL), Universal Pre-K, Reducing the Military and expanding democracy. Obama keeps saying he bringing together people on common ground, but he has not shown me the common ground yet. Has anyone stood on it? If he doesn’t wrap it up in the next three weeks, we as Democrats would give America the first brokered convention since 1952. The last nominee to come out of a brokered convention and actually win was FDR in 1932. What are we doing? We have an unpopular war, an unpopular President, and a candidate unpopular with his base, so what are we doing? I want to win.

The last real election that a united democratic party and its united democratic principles were able to win was 1964. Clinton was considered a moderate and never even reached 60% of the vote. He made more money for companies in America and restricted more New Deal and Great Society Programs than any other modern democratic President. Jimmy Carter was an outsider to say the least, and his performance in the White House showed it. So it was LBJ from Texas in 1964, who was the last liberal to win the Presidency. He won on Democratic majority and one of the biggest landslides in history because he was ready. In fact, the similarities in the story he wrote before 1960 and now is similar. Lyndon Johnson came in second to Kennedy in the 1960 Democratic Presidential Primary. Like Clinton today, but maybe more effectively, that he was more experienced the Kennedy (who many compare Obama to). Lyndon Johnson had been a congressman, a Senator, and Senate Majority leader under a Republican president. Though many people see the second coming of 1960 in Obama, you can give me 1964 any day. In the end the facts show that Kennedy with all the mystery, and majesty of Camelot won by 112,827 votes and LBJ won by 15, 951,287. Now, to be fair Kennedy ran against an incumbent Vice- President who would eventually be President himself in Nixon, and LBJ ran against Barry Goldwater. Now a give you that McCain is no Goldwater, but he is not Nixon either. (We ALL hope.)He is too old and not as politically vicious. But the facts are the facts. It took LBJ to pass the Civil Rights Acts that Kennedy had never fully, politically and publicly, supported. It was LBJ’s Great Society that pushed the refueling of programs that Democrats live by today. LBJ did this in a year and one full four year term. Kennedy was ready to run for reelection by the time he was tragically killed. I am not saying Kennedy was not ready (or that senator Obama is not), I am saying that history has shown us that in the most recent situation we can analyze nostalgia was good, but a proven doer on the national stage was defiantly needed. We didn’t learn from that time in history, and we are in another Vietnam we call Iraq. Now we are ready to ignore it again?

We know nothing about the people around Obama, at least not as much as the people in Hilaryland. Who would he have around him? Who would he nominate to the Supreme Court, Attorney General, or Sectary of State? He can say this bring America together all he wants, I know I want a liberal running the Justice Department and forming our Foreign Policy. I don’t want a President that wins with a collation that that forces him to nominate a moderate to the Supreme Court after Bush has nominated two hard core conservatives. I father have division now to sure up later, then nice now that doesn’t neutralize the damage done by the Bush Administration. Can he deliver if he wins? I don’t know if he can, but I damn sure know he needs to.

Grammy Predictions

Record of the Year: Rehab
Amy Winehouse
Mark Ronson, producer

Album Of The Year: Back To Black
Amy Winehouse

Song Of The Year: Hey There Delilah
Tom Higgenson, songwriter (Plain White T’s)
Track from: Every Second Counts

Best New Artist: Amy Winehouse
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance: Rehab
Amy Winehouse
Track from: Back To Black

Best Male Pop Vocal Performance: What Goes Around…Comes Around
Justin Timberlake

Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals: Hey There Delilah
Plain White T’s
Track from: Every Second Counts

Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals: Steppin’ Out
Tony Bennett & Christina Aguilera
Track from: Duets: An American Classic

Best Pop Vocal Album: Back To Black
Amy Winehouse

Best Dance Recording: Don’t Stop The Music
Rihanna
Stargate, producer; Phil Tan, mixer
Track from: Good Girl Gone Bad

Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals: Instant Karma
U2
Track from: Instant Karma – The Amnesty International Campaign To Save Darfur

Best Hard Rock Performance: The Pretender
Foo Fighters

Best Rock Song: The Pretender
Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel & Chris Shiflett, songwriters (Foo
Fighters)

Best Rock Album: Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
Foo Fighters

Best Female R&B Vocal Performance: No One
Alicia Keys

Best Male R&B Vocal Performance: Future Baby Mama
Prince
Track from: Planet Earth

Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals: Hate That I Love You
Rihanna Featuring Ne-Yo
Track from: Good Girl Gone Bad

Best Urban/Alternative Performance: Daydreamin’
Lupe Fiasco Featuring Jill Scott
Track from: Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor

Best R&B Song: No One
Dirty Harry, Kerry Brothers & Alicia Keys, songwriters (Alicia Keys)

Best R&B Album: The Real Thing
Jill Scott

Best Contemporary R&B Album: Fantasia
Fantasia

Best Rap Solo Performance: Stronger
Kanye West
Track from: Graduation

Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group: Better Than I’ve Ever Been
Kanye West, Nas & KRS-One

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration: Good Life
Kanye West Featuring T-Pain
Track from: Graduation

Best Rap Song: Can’t Tell Me Nothing
Aldrin Davis & Kanye West, songwriters (Kanye West)
Track from: Graduation

Best Rap Album: Graduation
Kanye West

Best Female Country Vocal Performance: Before He Cheats
Carrie Underwood
Track from: Some Hearts

Best Male Country Vocal Performance: If You’re Reading This
Tim McGraw
Track from: Let It Go

Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals: Proud Of The House We Built
Brooks & Dunn

Best Country Song: Before He Cheats
Josh Kear & Chris Tompkins, songwriters (Carrie Underwood)
Track from: Some Hearts

Best Country Album: Let It Go
Tim McGraw

Best Contemporary Jazz Album: River: The Joni Letters
Herbie Hancock

Best Rock Or Rap Gospel Album: HIStory: Our Place In His Story
The Cross Movement

Best Contemporary R&B Gospel Album: Free To Worship
Fred Hammond

Best Latin Urban Album: El Abayarde Contra-Ataca
Tego Calderón

Best Reggae Album: Mind Control
Stephen Marley

Best Musical Show Album: West Side Story
Nick Patrick, producer (Leonard Bernstein, composer; Stephen Sondheim, lyricist)(Vittorio Grigolo, Hayley Westenra, Connie Fisher & Others)

Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media: Love You I Do (From Dreamgirls)
Siedah Garrett & Henry Krieger, songwriters (Jennifer Hudson)
Track from: Dreamgirls

Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical: Mark Ronson
• Back To Black (Amy Winehouse) (T)
• Littlest Things (Lily Allen) (T)
• Rehab (Amy Winehouse) (T)
• Version (Mark Ronson) (A)
• You Know I’m No Good (Amy Winehouse) (T)

Ten Questions of the Week.

1. Does the Junior Senator from New York think that replacing young Latina Patti Solis Doyle with “experienced” African American female Maggie Williams will help her with the Africain American vote this late in the campaign? Does this mean she thinks she has the Hispanic vote locked up?
2. Why does the female in the feamale campaign lose her job, while Mark J. Penn the male gets to keep his while he has been “out coached” and destroyed this campaign by Obama’s David Axelrod. Dissention in Hilaryland?
3. Why is Amy Whinehouse rewarded for not going to Drug rehab, and T.I. rebuked for having guns? Hypocrisy?
4. Does Mr. West from Chi Town really deserve all the award nominations he gets? Do you hope he gets the nod to honor his Mom?
5. Who do you think deserves album of the year? Who do you think will win? Why is Rihanna all over the Grammy nominations list?
6. Why at Hampton University, do they offer campus limo service to another part of campus?
7. Why was there not more outrage at the burning of a, Columbia, Tennessee Mosque? Why did all four Presidential candidates say nothing, why did no one in the press care to ask?
8. Can a 76 Year Old or a man who doesn’t believe in evolution really beat the first chance to at a Female or Black President?
9. Do opposites really attract?
10. Is it better in America to be attractive or smart?

SC goes to Obama. Now the fun Begins, Really

If I had to pick a winner in last Monday’s debate it would have John Edwards, but I don’t know if he can “win” anything really at this point. From Senator Clinton’s no holds barred approach to everything Monday, I would have said she was conceding defeat in South Carolina, and in fact she sailed out of the state before even hearing about the whipping she had received. Imagine, if the polls had been right and she had lost New Hampshire? How different would the debate in Myrtle Beach have looked if she had to win it? How different would she have acted if South Carolina was her “Last Stand”? How different would have President Clinton acted. Which even more leads me to think that she is not the one behind what he is saying, what we see in Bill now is not over zealousness, but the frustration of a relatively young ex-President who has had to sit back and watch while the who never really beat his Vice-President ruin “his” country.  Frustration that that sees the Senator from Illinois as another stumbling block (not necessarily black or white) in the way.  I think the Clinton strategy was to bury the SC debate and unleash all she had. So, come 1/31, she can stay off the attack safely and try and force Obama to make the move. This shows an underline problem for the Senator from Illinois. Even though he won SC easily, he his fast running out of non answers. The “it’s not true” angle is getting old and is just not good enough. No one has ever been elected by just saying no. My state has a different system will not fly in Texas, New York, Ohio, or California.            

Can An Educated Brother Get Laid, Please?

Hampton University, a Historically Black college in the South Eastern part of Virginia, policy on restricting dormitory visitation between opposite sexes is both unrealistic and counterproductive to the University’s purpose for having the policy.

For some brief background. Hampton University does not have any coed dorms (for any year’s students) on campus. There is no way of selecting it as far as I have been told and, the University does not make any special expectations. (i.e. married students.) The freshmen male and female dorms are on two separate sides of the relatively small campus. (With one notable exception)They are separated by academic and administration buildings, the campus church and the President’s house. It reminds me a little of all evangelical Christian Liberty University. For at least half of their first college semester, Hampton freshmen both male and female must adhere to a curfew putting them, in their dorms for the night by 11pm during the week and 1pm on weekends. Even after the curfew is lifted, visitation in the rooms of dormitories is not granted. Upperclassmen do not have a curfew, but they do not all have room visitation either. The school handbook, which has been repeatedly called for review by student leadership, states when room visitation is granted it is for academic and social interaction. It does not go as far as specifically banning sexual intercourse between students on campus, but the act is implied as unnecessary or not the purpose of in room visitation by the language of the handbook. Visitation can be, but most times is not connected to continuous academic performance. “Honor” or athletic dorms may by virtue of status or location may have a more open policy. However, this is because of the situation and not because of school policy. And, as stated before, there currently are NO coed dorms at Hampton University. No matter what year you are in, how many credits you have, or your GPA.

My first among many problems is with the whole curfew situation, which I must admit I can live with. However, coming from New York City to lonely Hampton, VA I must question it. I was able to go out late at night in NYC, and I did well enough without a stated curfew to be accepted my Hampton. I don’t understand if my habits deemed could enough to get me here, why as soon as get here almost all of my habits must be changed in order to stay. The stated purpose of visitation is to install study skills. Then, in my opinion, it would be smarter to impose curfew on dorms or individuals that show they need to be treated as teenage adolescents, after midterm. Example, if the average GPA of a dorm, fall, a room, or a person falls below a 2.0 then the stated entity goes on curfew. This accomplishes a few things. First, it adds what is missing throughout Hampton University’s policies, intrinsic motivation. If I have to get above a certain GPA to keep a privilege I have been pre-bestowed, I may be even more motivated to develop good study habits and keep them. Rather than develop habits that I forget after Homecoming because I no longer “have to stay in the dorm”. Also by making the policy retroactive rather than proactive and attaching it to academic success, you enforce the very mature lesson of cause and effect outside the class room. You do this and you get this.

Visitation. I think ( and this is a guess because unlike curfew the Dean of Men nor my Dorm Director never really comes out and explains this) that Hampton does not have coed dorms or offer in room visitation because they want to limit the distraction one sex plays on another. I submit that all the current policy does is cause distraction. In our modern time young men and young women are going to have sex. At a certain age you have the right to decide how to use your body. Hampton does not advertise itself as a denominational or overtly Christian Institution. I know I probably would not have come here if it did. However, the schools Christian background and foundation can be felt in everything it does. Good thing for most, and not so good for others. Yes it is a “private institution”, but no it does not have the responsibility of placing values that are imposing on its students a specific way of life. So called “free”, educated men and women should be free to find this on their own. Educated, moral, value based young leaders of tomorrow will not be distracted by the presence of the opposite sex, rather encouraged by it. For Hampton University not to assume this shows a lack of faith in its admission department, and the kind of young men and woman they have selected to let in to the school.

Now I am no fool, and I know certain young people (like me) cannot control or choose not to control themselves at certain times. Like I stated with curfew what is missing in Hampton University is intrinsic motivation. If in room visitation for freshmen young men and women with the stipulation that if it were abused it will be lost, and then the young man or woman would be less likely to abuse it. We do not live in a world the separates the sexes. When a young man or woman leaves Hampton University, they will be in a world that is most definitely coeducational and multiracial. What good is an HBCU or any school of higher learning that does not prepare the graduate for the reality of the world he/she is going into? I do not know.

It is human nature that the more you someone not to do something the more they are going to want to do it. If a young man meets a young woman and they really do have nothing in mind but conversation, the overreaching policy limits the time, context, and environment of the conversation. There are just some things (negative and positive) that can be said between two people behind a closed door that cannot be said in a Student Center or a dorm lounge. Rather than relax in the room he is paying for, a young Hampton man that seeks to entertain the company of a young lady after a certain our must braze the elements, put up more money for other accommodations, or break the rules. I guess some rules are truly just meant to be broken. I believe that in certain instances the presence of the opposite actual encourages a healthier learning environment. Both males and females tend to exhibit their best rather then there worst around the opposite sex.

It does not have to be a heathen free for all. If you want to ban sexual intercourse ( and I have and will never support legislating a natural urge) go ahead and ban it and then allow in room visitation. Make a rule that the door must be keep open and the light on. You don’t even have to start big. How about having it jus Friday night through Saturday night. If responsibility is the real issue, how about having coed dorms for juniors, seniors, and athletes: They have earned their stripes and shown the academic and/or athletic excellence necessary. There is no real sound good reason why Hampton cannot and does not allow in room visitation. You pay for a room not a mother, why shouldn’t you be able to do what you want with it. Hampton is so big brother I wonder if CBS got the idea from President Harvey. There are no stats that I have seen that says schools that have a problem with, STDs, pregnancy, or academic failure, have it because students are engaged in sex everyday and not in class. And that is a world away from just being allowed to bring a girl in a room. In fact Hampton is the anomaly. Most schools private or public, conventional or HBCU, prestigious or “average”, have coed living and do not over regulate the dorm lives of their students.  My freshmen friends at Howard are struggling to get overnight visitation, and they think that is unfair. What makes the Hampton student worse then any of them? And if the argument is it makes us that much better why does it feel like we are getting that much less?

       

By D.W                                                             

More in line with the “word of God”

It is funny to me how the separation of church and state ends, for many evangelical Americans, was their personal church begins. Mike Huckabee, Republican candidate for leader of the free world, said something to the affect that we need to bring the Constitution more in line with the words of God. To this, I had to ask a few simple questions. First, was not the Constitution written so we did not have to do precisely that? Second, if elected what Mr. Huckabee does with all those tax- paying Americans that don’t believe in the Bible, take only parts of the Bible literally, or believe in some other book. Finally, how is what Mike Huckabee saying different from what any radical, extreme Muslim cleric in let’s say Iran or Saudi Arabia is saying to justify Sharia law. If you switch the word God with “Holy Quran”, Huckabee sounds like an Ayatollah.
However, no one is ready to call him on it. I listen carefully when the junior Senator from the great state of Illinois says that separation of church and state protects the church as much as it does the state. I would really like for a Huckabee supporter to explain his point of view to us. How is it at all helping the church to take a document that even people in the church interpret differently and use it as the rule of law?

Do the people in the red states want a President or a Minster?

2008 oscar Predictions

Visual Effects – “Transformers”

Makeup- ”Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”

Film Editing- ”No Country for Old Men”

Documentary Feature- ”Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience”

Costume- ”Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street”

Original Song-  Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz

Original Score- ”Michael Clayton,” James Newton Howard

Sound Editing- ”There Will Be Blood”

Sound Mixing- ”Transformers”

Cinematography- ”There Will Be Blood”

Art Direction- ”There Will Be Blood”

Original Screenplay- Tony Gilroy, “Michael Clayton”

Adapted Screenplay- Christopher Hampton, “Atonement”

Foreign Film- ”12,” Russia

Director- Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, “No Country for Old Men”

Supporting Actress- Tilda Swinton, “Michael Clayton”

Supporting Actor- Javier Bardem, “No Country for Old Men”

Actress- Cate Blanchett, “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”

Actor- Daniel Day-Lewis, “There Will Be Blood”

Best Picture- ”Atonement”

Nominees

Best Picture

“Atonement”

“Juno”

“Michael Clayton”

“No Country for Old Men”

“There Will Be Blood”

Actor

George Clooney, “Michael Clayton”

Daniel Day-Lewis, “There Will Be Blood”

Johnny Depp, “Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street”

Tommy Lee Jones, “In the Valley of Elah”

Viggo Mortensen, “Eastern Promises”

Actress

Cate Blanchett, “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”

Julie Christie, “Away From Her”

Marion Cotillard, “La Vie en Rose”

Laura Linney, “The Savages”

Ellen Page, “Juno”

Supporting Actor

Casey Affleck, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”

Javier Bardem, “No Country for Old Men”

Hal Holbrook, “Into the Wild”

Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Charlie Wilson’s War”

Tom Wilkinson, “Michael Clayton”

Supporting Actress

Cate Blanchett, “I’m Not There”

Ruby Dee, “American Gangster”

Saoirse Ronan, “Atonement”

Amy Ryan, “Gone Baby Gone”

Tilda Swinton, “Michael Clayton”

Director

Julian Schnabel, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”

Jason Reitman, “Juno”

Tony Gilroy, “Michael Clayton”

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, “No Country for Old Men”

Paul Thomas Anderson, “There Will Be Blood”

Foreign Film

“Beaufort,” Israel

“The Counterfeiters,” Austria

“Katyn,” Poland

“Mongol,” Kazakhstan

“12,” Russia

Adapted Screenplay

Christopher Hampton, “Atonement”

Sarah Polley, “Away from Her”

Ronald Harwood, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”

Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, “No Country for Old Men”

Paul Thomas Anderson, “There Will Be Blood”

Original Screenplay

Diablo Cody, “Juno”

Nancy Oliver, “Lars and the Real Girl”

Tony Gilroy, “Michael Clayton”

Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava and Jim Capobianco, “Ratatouille”

Tamara Jenkins, “The Savages.”

Animated Feature Film

“Persepolis”

“Ratatouille”

“Surf’s Up”

Art Direction

“American Gangster”

“Atonement”

“The Golden Compass”

“Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street”

“There Will Be Blood”

Cinematography

“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”

“Atonement”

“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”

“No Country for Old Men”

“There Will Be Blood”

Sound Mixing

“The Bourne Ultimatum”

“No Country for Old Men”

“Ratatouille”

“3:10 to Yuma”

“Transformers”

Sound Editing

“The Bourne Ultimatum”

“No Country for Old Men”

“Ratatouille”

“There Will Be Blood”

“Transformers”

Original Score

“Atonement,” Dario Marianelli

“The Kite Runner,” Alberto Iglesias

“Michael Clayton,” James Newton Howard

“Ratatouille,” Michael Giacchino

“3:10 to Yuma,” Marco Beltrami

Original Song

“Falling Slowly” from “Once,” Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

“Happy Working Song” from “Enchanted,” Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz

“Raise It Up” from “August Rush,” Nominees to be determined

“So Close” from “Enchanted,” Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz

“That’s How You Know” from “Enchanted,” Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz

Costume

“Across the Universe”

“Atonement”

“Elizabeth: The Golden Age”

“La Vie en Rose”

“Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street”

Documentary Feature

“No End in Sight”

“Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience”

“Sicko”

“Taxi to the Dark Side”

“War/Dance”

Documentary (short subject)

“Freeheld”

“La Corona (The Crown)”

“Salim Baba”

“Sari’s Mother”

Film Editing

“The Bourne Ultimatum”

“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”

“Into the Wild”

“No Country for Old Men”

“There Will Be Blood”

Makeup

“La Vie en Rose”

“Norbit”

“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”

Animated Short Film

“I Met the Walrus”

“Madame Tutli-Putli”

“Meme Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)”

“My Love (Moya Lyubov)”

“Peter & the Wolf”

Live Action Short Film

“At Night”

“Il Supplente (The Substitute)”

“Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)”

“Tanghi Argentini”

“The Tonto Woman”

Visual Effects

“The Golden Compass”

“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”

“Transformers

by D.W

Cause and Effect of African American Teen Pregnancy on Society

Cause and Effect of African American Teen Pregnancy on Society
Going back to mother Africa, the sentiment has been that it takes a village to raise a child. This cliché actually displays a virtue that says more than the words that build up the sentence. It states that, one, more than the family is needed to help a teen grow, and, two, the outcome of that child’s upbringing has a positive/negative effect on more than just that child’s family.
I am a big believer in the concept that only men can raise men, and I also believe that there exists some things that only woman can give to young woman. In his speech at Fisk University “The Filed and Function of the Negro College” W.E.B Dubois clearly describes an African village in which an adolescent’s education continues to be the responsibility of the entire village as “the perfect education experience”. Accepting this premise as ideal (if not necessarily true), I decided to write this paper on the causes and unfortunate effects of teen pregnancy on African- American society. My assumptions are as follows: Until the family is strengthen once again and communities begin to play their natural role as the sub-family in raising a child, African American communities in middle and lower class places will constantly suffer from lower educational standards, violence, and less people functioning as key players in our American society.
African American teens as well as American society as a whole (African and non-African) are responsible for the problem of African American Teen pregnancy. African American teens like all humans are natural beings and if put in the situation will feel the same natural desire to do the same things. Poor sex education and lack of comprehensive sex education leaves the African American teen ill-
Wright 2
equipped to deal with this natural urge. Combine that with an extremely oversexed society that is not that well educated on the matter themselves, and the absence of moral and spiritual authority in a teenagers life and you get disasters results almost every time.
You have young children basically trying to raise other young children. In this, the parent child respectful relationship is often replaced by a peer to peer antagonistic relationship. A “teen” parent has less responsibility put on their shoulders leaving an undue burden on the teen’s parents or the government. The effect can also be felt very strongly on the teen if they decide to take on the responsibility of being a parent. While 94 % of teens believe if they were to be involved in a pregnancy they would stay in school, only 70% of teens actually do. (“Teen Pregnancy, Birth and Abortion” 42) The most important and obvious effect of teen pregnancy on African- American society is unbroken cycle of poverty and lost dreams. Over a quarter of African American youth that were born as result of a teen pregnancies end up being involved in a pregnancy themselves before they reach the age of 20. That number is higher than other races in the same situation. (Weiss)
Take a brief break from the obvious and imagine for a moment. Does this scenario seem possible you? For some reason (maybe a few I have already outlined) a teen between the age of 15 and 18 has a child. This teen decides not to abort, but rather keep the child and raise him/her as their own. Thirty two percent of teens say they would consider an abortion, but half of unmarried teen pregnancies end in abortion. (“Teen Pregnancy, Birth and Abortion” 42) The teen gets little help from parents and eventually has to go on state sponsored welfare. Only 26 % of teens believe that they will need welfare to support a child if they were to have one. However, over half of teens receive some form of public assistance to cover just the cost of delivery and a quarter of teen mothers receive some sort of further public assistance by their early twenties. (“Teen Pregnancy, Birth and Abortion” 42)This teen a few years later wants to go back to school and finish or at least get a steady paying job. The child has no
Wright 3
father figure (or has a father and no mother to care for it). Fifty one percent of teens believe that if they were involved in a pregnancy they would marry the mother/father. Not the case, 81 % of teen age births are to unmarried teens. (“Teen Pregnancy, Birth and Abortion” 42)The child slowly becomes a “latch- key kid”, and is raised by friends as young as the child, society, and television. Is it hard to see that this child is now a product of his/her environment, not a family? The child becomes a teen in this manner. He/she is not educated about sex because of the lack of a parent at home, and the lack of comprehensive sex education in his/her inner city school. The child, now a teen, has come into adolescence without the tools (emotional, educational, and spiritual) necessary to combat his/her natural urge to mate. The teen’s body is ready to reproduce but the teens mind and spirit was not given an honest chance to get to the same place. The Teen (like all teens) is tempted, lacks the skill to combat the temptation, and becomes involved in a teen pregnancy as a result of unprotected sex. This is the cycle that plagues African American society today.
All humans are born with the natural desire to mate. It is what keeps us a live as a species and is as essential as it is taboo in Modern American society. For American women, 31% become pregnant before the age of 20 as of 2006. (Weiss) America has the developed world’s highest birth rate. (Weiss) In fact, the UNICEF report “Teenage births in Rich Nations” shows that the number of teen age births in the United States is 8 times the number in the United Kingdom. It also shows that the United Kingdom has the highest birthrate in Europe. So are Americans more over sexed then Britons? No, in fact 80 % of young Britons reported having sex while still in their teens. (Global incidence of teenage pregnancy) However, teenagers in America are more likely to have shorter and more sporadic relationships and are also less likely to use contraception. (“Sexuality Education”) Meaning while we may be as sexually active, American teens are a having more babies as a result of the same rate of sex that is going on among other countries teens.
Wright 4
The fact is remain, one cause of African American Teen pregnancy is that most adolescences want to and are tempted to have sex. Current data suggest that more than half of females and nearly two-thirds of males in America have had intercourse by their 18th birthday. (“Sexuality Education”) Society does not help either. Exposing teens to sex in movies, books, plays, newspapers, television shows and any other type of media you can think of. Introducing sex at an early age stretches an African American teen’s natural desire to mate before its time. Early sexual interaction is said to be a good indicator of teen pregnancy. Nearly half of teenage girls and about a fifth of teenage boys who lost their virginity before the age of 15 are eventually involved in a teen pregnancy. For teens that lose their virginity at 15 the number involved in teenage pregnancies is only 25% and the number goes down to nine when considering those that lost the virginity after 15. (Weiss) Sex leads to pregnancy at any age, and it is no different in African American teens.
African American teens are not educated enough about sex. The lack of comprehensive sex education is shooting the legs out from under African American teens. In public school districts in the United States that have a policy to teach sex education, only 13% don’t require that abstinence be promoted. A third of public school districts require abstinence to be taught as the only option. (“Sexuality Education”) Although I agree that abstinence is the only real 100 % way to prevent underage sex and pregnancy, I believe teaching it as the only option or as an option “better” than others is a waste of time. I have already stated that believe one of the causes of African American teen pregnancy is the human desire to have sex. We should not be regulating hormones or legislating arousal. Morality needs to begin at home , once we get into the school we should assume that a teen is being taught to be moral, remind them of it, but then proceed to do what it takes to protect society from the possibility that a mistake or lack of good judgment may happen. Rejecting the possibility or education that puts eliminating the possibility of that mistake or bad judgment as a goal is misguided. In
Wright 5
fact, it may be doing more harm than good. As young people are feeling the pressure of abstinence promotion and are resorting to anal and oral sex to avoid pregnancy and keep their “technical virginity.” Twenty four percent of teem males and 22% of teen girls who reported not having vaginal intercourse reported having oral sex. The number goes up if you count anal sex. (Dailard 2) Educators agree with me, 1 in every 5 teachers in America believe that restrictions imposed on sex education are preventing them from meeting their students needs. (“Sexuality Education”) African American teens are not getting the sex education they need. Of the top 25 African American Populated cities combined, 56% of public school districts with at least 5 junior and 10 high schools reported being unable to guarantee sex education because of lack of funding. (Morial 170) In the United States, 90% of teachers believe students should be taught about contraception, yet a quarter of them are forbidden to do so. (“Sexuality Education”) If an African American Teen can get no sex education because of a lack of funding or cannot learn about contraception as a lack of compressive sex education, the result is teen pregnancy.
Although the urge to have sexual intercourse is natural, society plays a hand in tempting African American teens to have sex. However, it goes far behind sultry rap videos, Sista Soulja novels and the chimera of the young, stupid, muscular, well-endowed, African American male after the former master’s whit women. No, it has to do with society we live in, poverty and the Victim-Client relationship between African American teens and society at large.
Eight million African Americans live in poverty. (Morial 171) The median weekly wage earned by African Americans in 2004 was $532 a week, compared to $677 a week for the white worker. (Morial 170) Of the Top 10 poorest cites in America, six have a majority African American population. Three, Newark, New Orleans, and Detroit are over 50% black. (“Richest and Poorest Cities”) Sixty seven percent of white teenagers listed as dependents on Tax returns had a job at or above minimum wage for
Wright 6
at least three weeks in 2004; in 2002 that number was 56%. In comparison, the same statistics report that only 34% black teenagers listed as dependents on Tax returns had a job at or above minimum wage for at least three weeks in 2004; down from 39% in 2002. (Morial 170) If you want some straight talk, the average cost of a one condom in the U.S is only $ .50, but with less than half of African American teens in 2004 without a job where is the money going to come from? (“Teenage births in Rich Nations”) Maybe more parents need buy their children condoms at a certain age, but my parents did not and I don’t think the times are ready for that. As long as blacks continue to be poor and play into the role that society wants them to play we will have teen pregnancy. The lowest rates of vaginal teen sex are among white adolescents and teens from high income households. (Dailard 3) Consequently, white adolescents and teens from high income households are the most likely subgroup to report having oral sex. (Dailard 3) However, 36% of male teens and 23% of females who have oral sex and abstain from vaginal sex say they do it to avoid pregnancy. (Dailard 4) This can reflect simple better education, or a “more to lose” attitude. When the question was asked to black teens who report to having engaged in oral or anal sex, only 21% of males and 13% of females said they did it to avoid pregnancy. Of all black teens that admit to having engaged in oral or anal sex only 45% had not also engaged in vaginal intercourse. This number is far lower than white American teens at 56%, but even lower than Hispanics at 49%, and way lower than Asian American teens 72%. (Dailard 4, Weiss) What this means is African American teens somehow are ignoring or being left behind in even the adolescent American trend of “sex substitution” (“Sexuality Education”) to prevent pregnancy. The cause of this is poverty, lack of education, but also society victimizes African American teens like no other group. Because the African American family is so impoverished and depleted society and environment affects our teens like no other. This is a society that is both uninformed about sex and oversexed at the same time. Both extreme ends of the spectrum are to blame. The free sex end that thinks because some of our closet genetic cousins are natural prone
Wright 7
to promiscuity it excuses it for or should be accepted by us. (Lehrman) And the staunch conservative wing of society that thinks abstinence is the only answer, and teens (or any unmarried individuals) should abstain from all and any sexual acts. (Dailard 2) The more society excuse promiscuity the more it will happen. The more society makes sex infamous by closing it off completely the more unsafe sex will be had. It is a fact that in countries that a more accepting of adolescent sex and in turn make comprehensive sex education a priority, teenagers have longer relationships and fewer sexual partners. Furthermore, because sex is emphasized as something that is acceptable (if not automatically compulsory) and childbearing is understood and educated as something to be delayed until adulthood teens in these other countries are keener on protecting themselves and their partners. (Dailard 2, Weiss) If American society wants to lower the rate of African American Teen pregnancy and Teen pregnancy in general it should take notice.
Another societal cause of teen pregnancy is the lack of a truly universal social moral norm. If you want to use the bible as the source for spiritual inspiration, it says that man dies for his lack of discipline and because of his great folly he is led astray. (New International Version, Proverbs 23) That means that a man who is not patient, discipline, and wise will come into to some sort of wrong in his future. The problem today is simple verses like this are being debated as generational differences. Sex has not changed in the three centuries that that African Americans have been in the Western Hemisphere. If you accept the fact that America is based on Judeo-Christian values, the bible has not changed. So where are the true generational differences? I believe the battle is really over freedom. My generation does not want to be told what to do. I know personally, of some girls that lost their virginity because they fathers sat down and told them not to ha e any sex until they left the house. They did not educate them, not have a conversation, apparently the fathers just said no and reported the punishment if caught. The problem with the generation before us is that they don’t like getting ignored.
Wright 8
This is why although most Americans and educators favor comprehensive sex education we do not have it nationally. For the teen pregnancy problem to end in African American community teens and the society playing a part raising them must be educated. Natural temptation and access temptation cause by society must be acknowledged and the tools to make the right decision must be provided. Finally, an acceptable realistic moral standard just be put in place. Parents must be parents, and the government needs to allow teachers to be teachers. In schools students need to be taught sex education, not whether to have sex. In the home parents need to have a decision not a lecture about sex. A healthy African American teen is not the smartest, bravest, or the most righteous. It is the one that makes the best possible decision with the tools and information given to him or her.
Over a quarter of African American youth that were born as result of a teen pregnancies end up being involved in a pregnancy themselves before they reach the age of 20. (Weiss) One effect of teen pregnancy on African American society is that we have African American children trying to produce African American adults and it just does not work. Only someone who knows what being a man or a woman is can teach a boy or a girl to turn into one. This responsibility is directly the parents, not extended family, teachers, mentors, or the government. No matter what someone else teaches who, the word of those that produce you remember. I have no facts to prove that, it is just what my heart tells me. Eighty percent of teen pregnancies are unintended. (Weiss) Well over half of all teens that are involved in a teen pregnancy do not think they are emotionally, economically, or mentally prepared to raise a child. The result when (if) these teens decided to give birth and raise their child is a unprepared, adolescent life that know has to try and prepare another life.
Less responsibility is put on a teen that has a child, when compared to an adult that has a child. In 2005, only 10 % of all births were teen pregnancies in the U.S, yet those births represented 45% of mothers requesting some sort of state assistance, and 70% receiving some sort of partial or full state
Wright 9
assistance. (Weiss, Dailard 2, “Teenage births in Rich Nations”) State assistance is taxpayer money, meaning right now you could be reading this paper knowing your son or daughter is educated and practicing safe or no sex and at the same time you are paying for someone’s son/daughter who did not practice safe sex. It is one of the reasons fiscal conservatives preach abstinence along with social conservatives, it’s the one sure fired way they can keep poor people out of their wallets. An effect of African American teen pregnancy is the lower expectation and less responsibility given to that teen parent.
Another effect is the emergence of the latch-key child. A “latch key kids” are children that come home from school, afterschool, or work to an empty house and use the key to get in at a young age, and put the latch on before they go to bed because no one is coming in after them. They are more prevalent in the vastly populated urban inner cities. Teen pregnancy produces latch key children because at a time when mothers who had their children after 25 are settled and established in life, a teen parent is just going through the process of establishing a career etc. (Weiss) As these kids grow up under these circumstances, they spend a very big chuck of their time unsupervised and alone or with friends. Many may be “adopted” by a friend’s family who is their afterschool, but my guess is most will not. Twelve percent of African American teens are at one point in time “latch key kids”. When limited to cities who’s median income is lower than 35,000 and population over 3 million, 49% of African American teens ages 14-17 considered themselves at one time “latch key kids”, as compared to 13% of white in the same exact environment. (Weiss, Morial 169) These black teens are not only unsupervised, but the lure of an empty house just adds to societal temptation as the child grows older. The pressure is to do less then have sex; peer pressure includes drugs, or simply not doing homework. A serious growing effect of teen pregnancy in the African American community is the immergence of the “latch key kids”.

Wright 10
The effects can be felt on the one or two teens involved in the pregnancy also. What a teen pregnancy takes away from the teens involved is the saddest effect it can have. About 3 out of every 4 teenagers who give birth between the ages of 18 and 19 graduate from high school or eventually get a GED. Thant number drops to 63% for those who gave birth before 18. (Weiss) These numbers are not extremely bad, but keep in mind that we live in a society in which post-secondary education is becoming a norm. By age 30, only 5% of young teen mothers and 10% of older teen mothers complete at least 2 years of college, even community level. Less than 2% of young teen mothers and 3% of older teen mothers ever obtain a college degree. In comparison, 21% of women who delay childbirth complete at least two years of college. (Weiss) The loss of dream and opportunity is a sad but real effect of teenage pregnancy. The more African American woman that do not or think they cannot go to college the worse it is for the African American community.
In Conclusion, the cause and effects of African American teen pregnancy are as follows. It is caused by temptation. As it naturally exists in the individual and is produced artificially by society. Lack sex education in the inner city schools and lack of comprehensive sex education nationally as a result of the over emphasis of abstinence only education is another cause. Also, the lack of a generationally and nationally accept moral and/or logical stand adolescent sex, is another cause. This all leads to the cycle of African American teen pregnancy. It leads to children trying unsuccessfully to raise children and the emergence of the “latch key black child”. Finally, it leads to many damaged lives and/or delayed dreams as the teen or teens are most affected by the pregnancy they are involved in.
By D.W