I certainly don't need Cardi D to be the individual guiding African American on how to vote. Yeah, Megan the Stallion graduated from Texas Southern University but she the voice of reason in the community? What NBA players should lead the parade of African American voters to the polls after informing the community on the issues? How about Charlemagne the God is his voice the one we should follow? Steve Harvey? Why not educate our African American community to be independent-minded and issues-oriented? This is a passage from THE DEBT by Randall Robinson we don't need to drive a new political party which would in fact lessen our political power. We need to have educated African American voters, who decisions based on outcomes, programs, policies, and politicians who elevate our needs. No matter the skin color or political party. Right now we are stuck on stupid politically as a community as a whole. We vote against our interest or vote blue without a critical analysis of the blue candidate. You see if Biden, Trump, Harris, or Pence or any other candidate cannot pass our card of issues test and don't deliver after committing they are out. The first paragraph of Maynard Jackson’s test goes to The Debt to read the rest. I read this book in its entirety on THE BLACKMAN READ ALOUD HOUR:


“Maynard Jackson, when he was mayor of Atlanta, told me once that all African Americans should carry on their persons a laminated card listing the policies that would benefit our community. Whenever approached for support by a local, state, or national politician, the bearer would whip out the card and read it aloud to the candidate for office. The race of the candidate would not matter. All would have to face "the card." After all, this was business. The card would be blown up to poster size and posted in black churches, community assembly halls, barbershops, beauty parlors, restaurants, stores. It would be affixed to utility poles and streetlight stanchions. Black taxi drivers would display it in the plastic jackets holding their chauffeur's licenses against their dashboards. A national database would be created to facilitate the dissemination of the wallet-size cards. Millions would be mailed to blacks in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Hundreds of thousands would be sent to St. Louis, Kansas City, Mobile, Dallas, Detroit, and Memphis, with enough available to cover the handful of blacks in Maine, Vermont, Montana, and the Dakotas. Essence, Ebony, Black Enterprise, and Emerge, The Crisis, would run the card. African American social media sites would assist in elevating the card's exposure.

Excerpt From
The Debt
Randall Robinson


That way we wouldn't have this split that has arisen in our communities regarding who is viable or isn't a viable candidate. If Biden passed the card and his running mate passed the card test. They would have our unmitigated support, period. You are only viable no matter your skin color is you are committed to the 20 or so national issues on the card. If you don't pass the test you don't gain the community’s support. If matters not if you are Democrat or Republican. The only thing that matters is how you are judged by the card. We would eliminate entertainers, sports figures, and media types from influencing novice, or immature voters. Why because everyone African American in this nation would have access to the card of issues. You wouldn't need an entertainer or sports figure, paid to influence, to do the job you as an educated voter can do yourself. Number one on the list of demanded issues should be reparations. If any of the political parties or the political candidates buck that request no matter their skin color. They should immediately fail the test. Because all the history of the United States has shown absolute disregard for African American’s oppression from 1629-2020 and that needs to stop immediately. It's not too late to develop the card for 2020. We still have time to make our demands heard. We cannot wait any longer and the political objective of anybody but Trump isn't sound intelligent thinking.

Are these entertainers, sports figures who are political neophytes demanding anything other than simply getting rid of Trump? Are they working towards clear policy demands for African Americans other than getting rid of Trump? Are demanding reparations or simply saying getting rid of Trump? Are discussing educational upgrades in our communities or simply getting rid of Trump? Are they discussing economic development models or simply getting rid of Trump? Are they discussing saving the social net programs or simply getting rid of Trump? Are they discussing free or low-cost comprehensive healthcare or just getting rid of Trump?. Are they demanding anything other than getting rid of Trump? Are they working towards clear policy demands for African Americans other than getting rid of Trump. No, we need individuals who do the necessary homework and issue-oriented research beyond the singular issue of getting rid of Trump. Because once Trump is gone what will we have? More status quo and crumbs of change while the majority of African American communities continue to suffer societal disparities.

Our African American History with all the oppression our ancestors faced is simply amazing. It showed how the grit, determination, desire, and unbelievable fortitude and an inner sense of self-esteem allow them to overcome the challenges of the onslaught of white supremacy. They didn't have much but they damn sure had each of our ancestors back when it was needed. Where in the hell did that energy and love for each other go? Because right now the evidence is clear that we aren't anyways near having the desire and determination of our ancestors. You had better join me in sharing our majestic historical story with every young person in our African American communities. Not just in February as a supposed gift from a nation that never wanted us but every opportunity we have. My blog and other African American historical sites like Black Past, Black Facts, Smithsonian African American Museum, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture should have hundreds of thousands of visitors every day because we are in a desperate situation regarding unity in our communities right now. We also cannot depend on the current public and private schools to address our history curriculum needs. We must understand that each of us who are literate and educated has a responsibility like our ancestors to take the mantle and do the job of assisting our people in acquiring the knowledge.

Whether it's 5-4 or 7-2 the Supreme Court is in the hands of the Presidential Party that nominated them, right?

Republican nominated justices

John Roberts: Chief Justice George Bush 2 (65)
Clarence Thomas: Bush 1 (72)
Sam Alito: Bush 2 (70)
Neil Gorsuch: Trump (53)
Brett Kavanaugh: Trump (55)

Democrats nominated justices

Elena Kagan: Obama: (60)
Sonia Sotomayer: Obama (66)
Stephan Breyer: Clinton (82)
Ruth Ginsburg: Clinton (87)

That's a 5-4 majority for the Republican and the Supreme Court doesn't need anything other than a simple majority to rule for or against any rule of law it deems constitutional or unconstitutional. The oldest justice on their side is Clarence Thomas and his stripes aren't changing. What the Democratic ticket needs to focus on is emphasizing real change in African American communities. Not the political makeup of the court. Because unless 1 of those 5 Republican nominated judges dies suddenly they could be around for another 4 Presidential terms. We must demand real change for our votes, real substantive concrete community elevated programs.

OK, this is going to be 2 1/2 months with lies and misconceptions being tossed on a daily basis from sides of the aisle. The newest misconception is that the Crime Bill of 1994 did not start the era of mass incarceration of people of color, especially African American males. Or that the Crime bill Bill had all these great intentions to solve the mushrooming levels of crime throughout the nation. Well, American history doesn't bode well for well intentioned bills that are diverted to eventually oppress people of color. Well, need to step back from that crap because anyone with a sense of history knows that mass incarceration of African American men and women begin after the end of Black Reconstruction with all manner of laws meant to handicap our African American ancestors from gaining any semblance of freedom or independence in this nation. Southern states created vagrancy laws, convict leasing statutes, peonage systems, sharecropping, and miscegenation statutes to oppress and incarcerate our ancestors. Since 1877 there has been an all-out assault on black manhood in this nation. The early and mid-20th Century seemed to have a daily onslaught on ways to incarcerate and oppress African American men. This onslaught lead to a comfort zone and environment which created the 1994 Crime Bill authored by Senator Joe Biden, and signed into law by then President William J. Clinton. You will hear nonsense that the unintended consequence of this bill was the mass incarceration of African American males, the unintended consequence was the destruction of African American communities, the unintended consequences was the continued destruction of any sense of economic renewal of African American communities from coast to coast. Well, a bill calls for the expansion of penitentiaries and those penitentiaries have cells and those cells have to be filled. Anyone with any common sense knows that the target audience for filling those cells will include a great percentage of young African American males. They have always been the target audience of the white supremacists in this nation. So why wouldn't this bill leave them out of harm's way? Why would many state’s departments of education catalog deficient reading levels of 8 and 9 year-old children and use that knowledge to forecast the jail cells needed in the coming decade? Who exactly gets the lack of a quality education in nation? Last I looked it was African American boys. There were many aspects of that 1994 Crime Bill that targeted African American males:


1. Authorized the death penalty for 60 new federal offenses. Known as a “direct descendant of lynching,” the death penalty has always targeted and terrorized black and Latinx communities.
2. Imposed mandatory life sentences for individuals with three or more felony convictions. The crime bill implemented a rash of new three-strikes laws—laws that impose automatic life sentences for people convicted of certain felony offenses if they already have two convictions on their record. Dozens of states followed suit and enacted three-strikes laws, resulting in a ballooning of the incarceration rate in certain states, especially for black and Latinx Americans.
3. Levied harsh new penalties for justice-involved youth. The crime bill also expanded the school-to-prison pipeline and increased racial disparities in juvenile justice involvement by creating draconian penalties for so-called super predators—low-income children of color, especially black children, who are convicted of multiple crimes. Among other things, the crime bill allowed prosecutors to charge 13-year-old children as adults for certain crimes. As a result, today, two-thirds of Americans who were sentenced to life in prison as juveniles are black. Juveniles of color also constitute a majority of cases that are transferred to adult criminal court, regardless of the offense category.
(Rayna Shannon)

We need to do our own homework and not allow the voices of deception from both sides of the political aisle to influence our communities. We also know, or should know our importance in this coming election. We need to create our own platform. The ADOS demands are a great starting point and charge admission prices to both political parties to listen and commit to absolute change in our communities across this nation. We’ve been pawns of the political process of both the Republican and Democratic Parties way too long. It is time for each of us and that includes Kamala Harris to step to truly rebuild America. Until that happens this nation will always be in danger of being seduced by another Donald Trump. You see he isn't the first President to create havoc in this nation. He's simply the latest one. No need to fantasize that the Crime Bill of 1994 wasn't a bill with unintended consequences. It was what it was a continuation of the plot to oppress peoples of color.