From TheGrio.com:

By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III

Once again RNC Chairman Michael Steele has taken his rhetoric a bit too far. Last Thursday while speaking at a Republican fundraiser Steele said he found the dismissal of Gen. Stanley McChrystal “comical.” Steele went on to say “Keep in mind … this was a war of Obama’s choosing, ….This was not something that the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in … the one thing you don’t do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan …Everyone who has tried over a thousand years of history has failed, …”

As a result of these comments Chairman Steele has come under heavy fire from within the Republican Party. Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol among others has called for Steele’s resignation. “I ask you to consider, over this July 4 weekend, doing an act of service for the country you love: Resign as chairman of the Republican Party.” Sometimes, as with Steele, the problem is the messenger and the message.

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Since the Superbowl we’ve been inundated with commercials for the video Game Dante’s Inferno.

The song featured in the clip is “Ain’t No Sunshine”  by soul legend Bill Withers from his 1971 album Just As I Am. The song was released as a single in September 1971, becoming a breakthrough hit for Withers, reaching number six on the U.S. R&B chart and number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also won a best R&B song Grammy in 1972.

Withers told Songfacts.com that he was inspired to write this song after watching the 1962 movie Days of Wine and Roses. He said that “I was watching…Days Of Wine And Roses, with Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon. They were both alcoholics who were alternately weak and strong. It’s like going back for seconds on rat poison. Sometimes you miss things that weren’t particularly good for you. It’s just something that crossed my mind from watching that movie, and probably something else that happened in my life that I’m not aware of.”

Many of Withers’ songs including “Sunshine,” “Lovely Day” and “Grandma’s Hands”have been sampled numerous times for popular recordings. For example, the drums alone to “Kissing My Love” have been used by at least a dozen artists including Dr. Dre. (“Let Me Ride”) and Eric B & Rakim (“The Ghetto”).

In 2009 a documentary about Withers was released aptly titled “Still Bill.” It’s a must see for any fans of music or Black history. You can find or host a screening in your area by going to  stillbillthemovie.com or pre-order the DVD.

The Black Panther Party was a force to be reckoned with during an era in American history where African-Americans fought to prevent their own subjugation.

During the 1960s and 1970s the Black Panther Party functioned as an organized front, ready and willing to militantly combat violence against black people. Their contributions to the development of a more liberated environment for African-Americans within a racist American society is immeasurable. Their importance to the process of building the societal structure that we now know is undeniable. As we celebrate another Black History Month, Hello Beautiful honors the influence that the Black Panther party has had in the Civil Rights historical canon.

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As we remember their historical importance, and look back upon the Panther experience, we especially honor the strong, bold, powerful image of the Panther woman. The women of the organization were in many ways the coal that kept the engine running. They served an imperative purpose, and helped to propel the Panther message, but they always did so with style. The Panther women’s distinctive style holds its own place in our memories.

In honor of the characteristic urban military look that the Blck Panthers are not famous for, we’re giving you a look back at some vintage panther photos.

If you are interested in recreating the Panther look, we’ve got you covered! Take a look at some of our Panther inspired looks with a modern twist. Check out the originators of “All Black Everything” in our gallery, and dont forget to equip your self with a good pair of these:

2010’s Woman To Watch: Janelle Monae

VIA:  SmokeyRobinson.Com

The dictionary defines the popular term “comfort food” as “food prepared in a traditional style having a usually nostalgic or sentimental appeal.” It has been known to have a buffering effect as it soothes the soul and spurs memories of more “comforting” times. If that concept holds up in the kitchen, then it makes perfect sense that it should hold true in the living room with its aural equivalent. While it’s already a known fact that popular songs often connect with listeners in a highly personal way, often recalled alongside life’s more personal moments, only a few distinctive voices in popular music can achieve that same effect with instantaneous familiarity. With his eternally smooth and instantly recognizable falsetto alone – without the strings, bass, guitar or drums – legendary singer/songwriter/producer SMOKEY ROBINSON’s honey-coated voice absolutely is the audio equivalent of comfort food…comfort food for the soul…with soul. In following with the aforementioned definition, the Motown legend’s forthcoming ROBSO Records CD, Time Flies When You’re Having Fun has certainly been “prepared in a traditional style,” while that oh-so-familiar, highly identifiable crooning has an indisputable “nostalgic or sentimental appeal.”

Indeed, the “traditional” element of Time Flies When You’re Having Fun had already been determined while Robinson was recording his last CD, 2006’s pop/jazz standards collection Timeless Love. Just as that particular project had been recorded live in the studio with musicians – the first time he had recorded a full LP that way in years – Smokey knew he wanted to record his newly-written contemporary R&B songs in the very same fashion. In fact, he was so inspired by recording the “old school way” that the recording schedule for both projects actually overlapped. “I was having such a ball making that project (Timeless Love),” he explains. “I hadn’t intended on doing them simultaneously because I knew that Timeless Love was the one I was going to come out with. But things were going so well with that project that I said, ‘I’m gonna start putting in some of the original material I’d written for my new CD (Time Flies When You’re Having Fun) and record it this way too.’ I knew I was going to do these particular songs, but I didn’t realize I was going to wind up recording them live like I did with Timeless Love. So I did and we had a ball.” Though he’s the first to acknowledge and appreciate the technologically advanced way that recording for most releases are done today, like the cleaner sound and creative lee-way afforded by ProTools, Robinson was steadfast in his penchant for live instrumentation for this CD. “I think that you still don’t get that feeling that you used to get in the old days when everybody was in the studio together,” says Robinson, whose early Motown classics were recorded in this fashion. “That way was like doing a concert, because everybody was feeding off of each other. It’s just that live vibe.”

Click here to read more on Smokey Robinson…

Check out “Ebony Eyes” by Smokey Robinson and Rick James:

“I could not have told you then that some sun
would come,
somewhere over the road,
would come evoking the diamonds
of you, the Black continent–
somewhere over the road.
You would not have believed my mouth.”

The above stanza echoes, poet and author Gwendolyn Brooks’ confidence in the potential of African-Americans. In 1950, Brooks was the first African-American to win a Pulitzer Prize. Brooks did more than illuminate the Black experience; she transcended racial boundaries, paving the way for transformative Black figures that would come after her.
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Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas on June 7, 1917. Six weeks later, her parents, David and Keziah Brooks, moved to Chicago, Illinois. As a teen, attending a leading white high school, Brooks was no stranger to racism and prejudice. She transferred from the all-black Wendell Phillips to the integrated Englewood High School. She graduated from Wilson Junior College in 1936. Brooks developed profound insight on racial dynamics, which later influenced her work.

At 13, Brooks’ first poem, “Eventide,” debuted in the American Childhood Magazine. By 16, the shy Brooks had compiled 75 published pieces. As a teen, she met two of Harlem Renaissances iconic poets, Langston Hughes and James W. Johnson, who encouraged her to read modern poetry extensively.

In 1945, Brooks won critical praise for her first published book of poetry in, “A Street in Bronzeville.” By the end of the decade, she had become a Guggenheim Fellow, and in 1950, Brooks became the first African-American to win the Pulizer Prize, for her book “Annie Allen.”

In 1962, John F. Kennedy invited Brooks to read at the Library of Congress poetry festival, she later began teaching creative writing at several notable institutions.

1967 marked a pivotal change in Brooks career; she attended a Black Writers’ Conference at Fisk University, where she said she rediscovered her Blackness. This consciousness is notably portrayed in “In The Mecca,” a long poem about a mother’s desperate search for her missing child in a Chicago housing project.

Gwendolyn Brooks was made poet laureate of Illinois in 1968, a title that she held until her death, of cancer, on December 3rd 2000, at age 83. Brooks’ resilience lives on far beyond Chicago’s South Side. Whether it was via ballads and sonnets or blues and rhythms in free verse, the poet’s words reverberate loudly. She once said that in order to create “bigness” one doesn’t have to create an epic. “Bigness,” Brooks proclaimed, “Can be found in a little haiku, five syllables, seven syllables.”

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By now, everyone’s seen Shaft and Superfly, the ultimate blaxploitation films, but the relatively shortlived film genre produced hundreds of low budget action and comedy films that allowed filmmakers like Spike Lee and Robert Townsend to have successful careers in film.

Take a look at the trailers for a few blaxploitation films that are essential viewing!

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)

Although it wasn’t really considered a blaxploitation film, Melvin Van Peebles’ magnum opus blew open the doors for black filmmakers and opened the doors for the new school of cinema.  Released with the tagline, “Rated X by an all white jury,” Sweet Sweetback tells the tale of the title character, played by Peebles, on the run from white authority.  Peebles couldn’t get a major studio to finance the film and mostly spent his own money to produce it, along with a $50,000 loan from Bill Cosby.  The soundtrack of the film was provided by Earth Wind & Fire, before they became one of the biggest bands in black music.

The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973)

This controversial film, based on the novel by Sam Greenlee, tells the story of a black man named Dan Freeman (get it?  free man…) who becomes a top spy for the CIA with a secret agenda: destroy the agency from the inside and start a revolution.  He uses his espionage training to educate young black men in Chicago.  Soon after its release the film disappeared from theaters and remained a difficult movie to obtain until it was finally released on DVD in 2004.

Dolemite (1975)
Rudy Ray Moore’s classic character Dolemite made his film debut in 1975 after appearing on several of his comedy albums.  Dolemite is a poetry spitting pimp who is released from jail after being framed by a couple of corrupt cops.  The film is full of quotables, and several scenes were featured heavily in Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Got Your Money” video.

Detective: Now, I know you think you’re smart, see, cause you got all them flashy clothes, you got that big car there, you got all them black b*****s working for you.
Dolemite: You forgot about the white ones.

Truck Turner (1974)

A blaxploitation film starring Isaac Hayes as a bad-ass, ass kicking bounty hunter looking for a guy named Gator.  That’s all you need to know.  This is classic!

Welcome Home Brother Charles (1975)

One of the most unintentionally hilarious blaxploitation films ever, Welcome Home Brother Charles details the post-prison life of a man who is subjected to a bunch of incredibly ridiculous experiments while in jail.  Once he’s released, he vows to get revenge on those that put him in jail.  How does he go about getting his revenge?  He seduces their women and kills them.  The real kicker is the murder weapon he uses……… SPOILER ALERT (Highlight to find out what the murder weapon is) He strangles them with his freakishly large penis.  Yup!

Sheba Baby (1975)

Pam Grier was the undisputed queen of Blaxploitation films.  She appeared in several of its classics: Foxy Brown and Coffy to name a few.  In nearly all of them, she also managed to lose her shirt to the delight of any man who watched.

In Sheba Baby, the title character returns to her hometown of Louisville to fight some thugs who are trying to strong-arm her father’s family business out from under him, and just like in all of her films, Pam kicks a*s and takes names later.

Willie Dynamite (1974)

Willie Dynamite has the distinction of having Roscoe Orman playing the title character.  Who exactly is Roscoe Orman, you may ask?  Well, Roscoe also played Gordon on the children’s educational show Sesame Street.

Willie Dynamite is a pimp who’s doing what pimps do, and on his quest to be the number one pimp in New York City finds himself at odds with his league of fellow pimps, the cops, and a former prostitute turned social worker named Cora.

This is one of my favorite Blaxploitation films if only for it having one of the greatest moments of a pimp losing his cool and turning into a total simp. WATCH THAT SCENE HERE.

Trouble Man (1972)

Trouble Man is mostly known for it’s score which was written and performed by the legendary Marvin Gaye.  The movie itself is pretty substandard and pretty forgettable.  But, no blaxploitation film collection would be complete without it.  After years of being unavailable, it was finally released to DVD in 2006.

BONUS:

Black Dynamite (2009)

Black Dynamite stars Michael Jai White as the title character in this brilliant homage to the blaxploitation genre. From the costuming to the intentional production mistakes to the kind of film its shot on, Black Dynamite is nearly indistinguishable from the films it parodies.  The film co-stars Salli Richardson and Tommy Davidson and features cameo appearances from Arsenio Hall, John Salley, Brian McKnight and many more.

What are some of your favorite Blaxploitation films???

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“Someone said that people don’t give to charities, they give to the person that asks them,” he says. “I think that literacy is such an important issue. I always remind young people when I talk to them that when I started in this business I didn’t have any formal training…but I could read well. I was able to let my natural abilities come through. Here I am 49 years later because I had soul that could be interpreted through words on the page.”

Over the decades Mr. Fargas has created many memorable characters. From the popular “Huggy Bear” from Starsky and Hutch to “Fly Guy” from I’m Gonna Get You Sucka and  “Doc” on Everybody Hates Chris, Fargas has successfully remained relevant in Hollywood.

After telling us about his work with Safari’s Song, The Urban Daily had the veteran discuss his influence on hip-hop,  whether Huggy Bear was really a “snitch” and what it was like being Black in Hollywood in the 1960s, 70s and today.

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“What we have to realize is that the struggle is not over, particularly in TV. Back in the day the Black male or female filled the “ethnic” slot in a TV series.  Now you have Hispanic, Korean, even women in general. It used to be a male dominated scene. The Pam Griers were rare. In order to survive we have to share now.”

As Black History Month comes to an end, it is important that we remember the African-Americans who fought and died for America during its many wars. Few people know that the man credited to be the first one to die in the Revolutionary War was a Black man by the name of Crispus Attucks. During the War of 1812, Black soldiers helped defeat the British in New Orleans.

By the end of the Civil War, 10% of the union forces were Black. The 54th regiment, which was an all Black fighting unit, was immortalized in the movie “Glory” and fought a number of important battles, eventually losing more than half of their troops. Two of Frederick Douglass’s sons also fought in the Civil War and Harriet Tubman severed as a scout for the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers.

During World War I, Black soldiers were given full citizenship, although they still fought in segregated units. Many credit Black soldiers for bringing Jazz music to Europe and France.

In World War II, Black soldiers had an increased presence. The NAACP pushed for the War Department to form the all-black 99th Pursuit Squadron of the U.S. Army Air Corps, otherwise known as the Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee airmen were the only U.S. unit to sink a German destroyer. Like the 54th Regiment, the Tuskegee Airmen were immortalized in a movie of the same name.

The Marines first opened themselves to Black volunteers in 1942. To the dismay of the Marines only 63 African Americans joined.

Black officer, Lieutenant Colonel Campbell C. Johnson, decided that he would actively recruit Black Marines. Due to his efforts African Americans began joining the Marines at a rate of more than 1,000 a month in 1943.

Despite the opposition to the Vietnam war from Black leaders and athletes like Martin Luther King and Muhammad Ali, many Black soldiers both volunteered and were drafted to fight in the Vietnam war. Colin Powell joined the ROTC at City College and would go on to be a Captain in Vietnam, later becoming a major. Powell would go on to be National Security Adviser (1987–1989), Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Army Forces Command (1989) and as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–1993) and eventually as Secretary of State for George W. Bush in 2001.

Another Black Vietnam veteran who would go on to success was Col. Charles F. Bolden. After graduating from the United States Naval Academy in 1968, he became a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, flying over 100 sorties in Vietnam. Bolden’s flying skills made him an ideal candidate for NASA, which he joined as an astronaut in 1981. After a long and impressive career as an astronaut, President Barack Obama name Bolden the head of NASA.

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