Racism Alive and Well

I work for the public school system in my little town of L.C. and the first week of school there was a fight a racially motivated fight. There is the teacher allowing her kids to speak openly about racial issues in class.....then it got personal. Here is a white kid who was home schooled and by what he was saying in class he is very proud of being white. He is part of that white is right group and niggers need to get back.  well he was messing with this black kid the biggest one in the class mind you, this kid used to be on the football team. Well this black kid kept warning the white kid that he was going to far with his comments especially the ones he was making personally to him. The white kid kept on egging the black kid on even talked about the kid's mother. Well it finally happened on a Friday we are already just 10 days into the school year and my teacher and I are getting our class started when all of a sudden we heard this big boom desks sounded like they were being thrown. The big black kid had finally had enough and he had the scrawny white kid around the throat and body slammed him hard into the desks..... The black kid beat the white kid bloody in the face and he told him he was going to kill him..... Well if it wasn't for the quick action of the teacher I work with and 2 students who was friends with the black kid that white kid would have been drawing his last breath. He made the black kid so angry he went into a blind rage.  The teacher of that class was frozen she did not move or blink the other kids in the class both black and white were afraid looking to her for leadership and they did not get any. This teacher by the way I believe had a little hatred in her because of the way she talked to me and would barge into out class like she had no up bringing. It took all I had to keep from telling her off about barking at me when making a request and I don't even know the lady nor did I deserve that.  Well after that incident happened in a staff meeting with the teachers she decided to tell the other teachers to keep this white kid away from the black kids because he was home schooled and don't like blacks in other words segregate your class if this kid is in your class. My teacher got up and walked out because she was mad and thought the comment was stupid, the other teachers sat there with their mouths agape because they could not believe she formed her mouth to say something like that. Well word must have gotten back to the principal because she stopped barging into our classroom and stopped talking so condescendingly at me.  Life is good at my high school for now.....tension is still there because some kids won't let it die, there were rumors that  this white kid was going to retaliate against the black kid by having his posse jump him..... well the black kids say this black kid has family that will descend on you like locus if you have a beef with any of them.  I have even heard other white educators and counselors say that this black kid did that because he was angry for not being on the football team. They just don't get it do they.

Me Venting

I was watching the news and I was actually getting a little bit angry over what I was seeing. I was watching the politicians bicker over the job that the president is doing. Why do we as a people expect imperfect people to correct other imperfect peoples mess? While the public is falling for the okey doke from all political parties the people are suffering. Many of us are losing jobs, many of us have jobs that don't pay well, many of us don't have and never had a job because of inexperience. So we the people struggle along relying on payday loans and other means of getting money just to pay the rent/mortgage, buy food, pay water and light bills, pay for TV(remember when TV was free) , we are paying for phone bills both land lines and cell phone either via contract or prepaid we still paying for that service, we are all pawns in a game that seems to be a win win battle for the wealthy and politicians, the rest of us carry them on our backs, Some of the wealthy claim to remember when they were broke and poor, they may remember but to tell those of us who has to choose between food and rent, electricity or clothing, car payment or water bill, not to mention any insurance we may need what good does that do us to know that they remember when.....?  Has it changed your life?  When you see politicians and their families go on exotic vacations and the media screams it was stolen from the people, that is a bunch of crap we pay for everything via our taxes, we pay for their health care we pay for their maids we pay for the cream of the crop of everything and we can't even afford a trip the MacDonald's because that is a luxury for some of us. Republicans and tea party people screaming pull up your own boot straps, what boot traps ? how can you pull up something that you don't even have?  Most people don't want hand outs so they can sit leisurely at home..... we want a leg up a little help with out all the red tape and high qualifications,  all people with bad credit are not dead beats  they have had to choose between necessities in order to keep from completely drowning. This economy is getting worst nobody or I should say the majority of us can't catch a break but we get all the stress and drama and financial wows and the turn downs and all the ethnic and racial hatred thrown at us all in a days survival.  None of the powerful people are willing to give up their salaries are they? This whole situation is like being in a very bad marriage. It is in some sense very abusive. Politicians playing the blame game but nobody will stand up and say I will give up my salary for a year. None of them will stand up and say I will live off of minimum wages and no insurance or lot less and pay a fee from your HMO like 20 bucks and try to survive on that. Or how about they try to live on social security money and go through those hassles, how about they try to live on unemployment or not have any money at all. They won't do it because at the end of the day none of them care they just like the hype between party lines to keep the people hood winked . Many of us go to bed stressed out about where we will get the money to pay just our monthly have to bills, many of us are at the end of our ropes and we pray and ask God to help us. Every now and then he does .... he makes a way for us to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Then here comes Jody again wrecking havoc on our wallets again. But here is the point none of the politicians really gives a rats booty about us at all, while we struggle they live it up. When do we get our turn to reap the benefits of our slave labor?

El Debarge

I don't know if any of you have seen the Bet Awards 2010 but there was so much going on in that show. One was a flash back from the past for me. I don't know if any of you remember the group Switch they were on the Motown label. They had the hit songs: I Call Your Name, There'll Never Be, I Wanna Get Closer, etc.  Well This group had 2 brothers in it Tommy and my favorite Bobby Debarge. Well It was Bobby who helped his sibblings Debarge  get on at Mowtown, This group produced solo artist El Debarge, A lot of music companies or peer sharing sites like to place Switch, Debarge and their little Brother Chico Debarge all in the same category but they are not the same. All three have a totally different sound. Switch has that old school Jazzy R&B sound Debarge were more pop with a soulful twist and Chico had his own spin to the thugged out hip hop maybe more gritty urban sound than hip hop sound.  Well my flash back moment was watching El Debarge sing. He made me cry. Why do you ask? Well it goes back to the music machine at Motown. Instead of saying that this family racial background was biracial , their father was white their mother black, they told us they were Portugese. I found out about their true ethnicity during the airing of a show on TV One called UnSung. They did the Debarge story amoung many others. They talked to some of the sibblings and the people that knew them. It is an Urban version of VH1's Behind The Music.  I love shows like this. The only difference is that they showcase the music stars that were somewhat famous and had the potential for superstardom but they crash and burn before they even get that far in some of the cases and in other cases they just did not make it because of some other reasons.  What made me cry was that on the show Unsung they brought out about the very violent lifestyle and very abusive and disfunctional this family was, How all these kids really wanted was to fit in and be loved and accepted. They were all very talented and it went into the details of how all of them except of El for a long time did not indulge in drugs. He was the real workaholic and the song writer. He was the rock until oneday he ended up abusing prescription drugs first due to an illness he had I forget if it was headaches or he had back pain  but it was because of some physical pain. That was the begining then the show went into the recovery how some of them were back into the church and El was still lost at that time of taping. He was in and out of trouble for drugs abuse and spousal abuse. It was pretty bad. I even remember my last TV sighting I saw of El Debarge and I knew something was wrong then. He had grown his hair really long and left his clean cut image and was wearing one of those heavy down jackets that the Gangster Rappers made popular and he was sitting with them during an interview on a music show on BET at the time. He was trying to go hardcore and then we did not see him any more. It was pretty sad to me. So when I saw him singing and playing the old hits he wrote or co wrore it was bitter sweet to me and I just  began to cry. I loved his performance by the way and he looked good but you can tell that his expereinces had taken a toll on his apperance, You could tell he was on the mend and on the way back.  I also discovered his son's website El jr. He is a gifted musician as well and he is an independant artist you should check him out, On his page on facebook he said he was working on some music with his dad and I was happy to hear that, seeing El Debarge made me think of all the tradgey we have had in the music industry.  I feel that the music industry has lost touch with the music fans. Why do they continue to give us garbage and say it is art when they know full well how music and poetry and fine art affect our very core? We were created that way. Music is supose to relax us and uplift us make us feel good and inspire us. Music does that. This is why musicians get all the women because music touches us almost like a sexual experience I mean a meaningful one. It is really soul peircing and deep and words can not express what you feel at that moment in time but it speaks volumes to you. That is what music does and those who produce this talent with the use of song have a powerful gift. When I saw El Debarge share with the public his gift I was truly moved it gave me hope that the industry will please give us our musicians back. I miss the time when music had meaning when love songs were romantic and meaning full when artists really showcased their talent when rap music gave us the message with out being vulgar to people when it was fun not a liability to promoters to have rap concerts.  We need a music revolution people. We need the old skoolers like El Debarge to show the new skoolers how it is really done.  What I found sexy about El Debarge was the fact that he and other artists and musicians like him let me create my own image and atmostphere of being sexy with that special person in my life. I did not have to pay money to see him hump the stage or see him half naked in a magazine to see what he was all about he let his talent do the talking.  I like to take time to give the Debarge family props because so many have not come close to recoverying from their addictions and experiences  of abuse.  I pray that they have continued success. If you would like to see more on El Debarge Jr google him and you will see his web pages and music listed for you listening pleasure. Have a great day all.

Alyson Williams

I love R&B music and I have to give props to another unsung singer....her name is Alyson Williams.  She was born on May 11, 1962 in New york City , NY. She is the daughter of bandleader/ trumpeter Bobby Booker. So music was in her blood. She started her career as a background singer. She made her way around the vocalists circuit by singing for many artist you may know like Melba Moore, The BBand Q Band, Cash Flow, Unlimited Touch, Bobby Brown and many others before joining the group High fashion which also featured another New York singer Melisa Morgan. When the group broke up she began to sing with one more group called The Affair before embarking on a solo career. Her first single as a solo artist was called " Yes We Can Can" this was released on Profile Records in 1986. In 1987 she was the first female singer to join the Def Jam label. She worked hard at making herself an in demand singer and sang many duets with various artists one such artist was her label mate Chuck Stanley. They had a single called Make You Mine Tonight. She also sang a duet with Oran Juice Jones called How To Love Again. She then released her first Album entitled Raw in 1989. The album produced the single My Love Is So Raw which featured female rapper Nikki D. and the other single was called Sleep Talk. In addition the single Just Call My Name was a hit on the R&B charts reaching #4 .  The song picked up many Quiet Storm formats is now considered a cult classic and is still being played.  The album also included a duet with The Blue Magic vocalist Ted Mills called  We're Gonna Make It.  Her single  I Need Your Lovin  was #8 in the UK as well as another hit for her on the R&B Charts.  Alyson then recorded with artist Tashon on the track Do You Wanna Know taken from his album The Horizon Outing.  She ended up touring with him in the UK. In 1991 Alyson then recorded She Not Your Fool for the sound track  for the movie Livin Large. The song was included on her1991 self titled album. Here are some of her musical accomplishments: 1989 Raw charted 25 on the US R&B Charts and 29 in the UK on the Def Jam Label, 1992 Alyson William Charted 31 in the US R&B Charts and it was on Columbia Records, 2004 It's About Time on the Three Key Music label.  Her singles were Yes We Can Can in 1986, Make You Mine Tonight in 1987, it charted 66 on the R&B Charts, 1989 Sleep Talk #3 on the R&B Charts, #3 on the US Dance Charts, #17 UK Charts, My Love Is Raw Feat Nikki D #12 US R&B Charts, #28 US Dance Charted,#34 UK Charts, Just call my Name, #4 on the R&B Charts. In 1990 I Second That Emotion #44 In The UK, I Need Your Lovin, #5 in the R&B Charts, #8 UK. Not On The Outside #35 In the US R&B Charts, Can't Have My Man(1992) #7 on the R&B Charts, Just My Luck(1992) #6 on the Us R&B Charts, Every Body Knew But Me #63 On The US R&B Charts. You can go to www.amazon.com and type in Alyson Williams under the category music and you will find downloads etc.

KathyM14-House Of Music-Kathym14: The Deele Where they at?

KathyM14-House Of Music-Kathym14: The Deele Where they at?: "I have been a follower of music my whole life. My mom exposed me to some of the greats like Issac Hayes and The Temptations and my dad intro..."

Alyson Williams - Just My Luck [1992]

The Deele - Crazy 'Bout 'Cha [1983]