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	<title>Heavy Mentalist</title>
	
	<link>http://www.heavymentalist.com</link>
	<description>Music, Writing, Life + More...Straight, No Chaser.</description>
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		<title>Empire of the Sun – Rise [New Hip Hop]</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/heavymentalist/posts/~3/2AkdeMbV9dw/</link>
		<comments>http://www.heavymentalist.com/2010/08/empire-of-the-sun-rise-new-hip-hop/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:37:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Cherryl</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[New Music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hip hop]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.heavymentalist.com/?p=3162</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Love this song. And this group. This song is&#8230;so beautiful. One of the better new tunes I&#8217;ve heard lately.

]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Love this song. And <a target="_blank" href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&#038;source=web&#038;cd=1&#038;ved=0CBIQFjAA&#038;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myspace.com%2Fsmooflow&#038;ei=xeF2TKvKIcPflgebycHtCw&#038;usg=AFQjCNE5USVP89RAXKuZQJHv3nlZyjm_uA">this group</a>. This song is&#8230;so beautiful. One of the better new tunes I&#8217;ve heard lately.</p>
<p><center><object width="540" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/72AQLDEXJv8?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;color2=0x999999&amp;border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/72AQLDEXJv8?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;color2=0x999999&amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="540" height="390"></embed></object></center></p>
<div style='clear:both'></div><img src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=3162&type=feed" alt=" Empire of the Sun   Rise [New Hip Hop]"  title="Empire of the Sun   Rise [New Hip Hop]" />
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		<item>
		<title>Brother D With Collective Effort – How We Gonna Make The Black Nation Rise [80s HipHop]</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/heavymentalist/posts/~3/naGvIr1sV28/</link>
		<comments>http://www.heavymentalist.com/2010/08/brother-d-with-collective-effort-how-we-gonna-make-the-black-nation-rise-80s-hiphop/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Aug 2010 07:09:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Cherryl</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[old school]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.heavymentalist.com/?p=3158</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This single was released by a little known group called Brother D With Collective Effort.
While the song&#8217;s track &#8212; which utilizes Cheryl Lynn&#8217;s &#8220;To Be Real&#8221; &#8212; is nothing spectacular, the fact that it is one of the earliest examples of a &#8220;conscious&#8221; rap record makes it something special.
With lyrics like &#8220;You dippy dippy dive, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This single was released by a little known group called Brother D With Collective Effort.</p>
<p>While the song&#8217;s track &#8212; which utilizes Cheryl Lynn&#8217;s &#8220;To Be Real&#8221; &#8212; is nothing spectacular, the fact that it is one of the earliest examples of a &#8220;conscious&#8221; rap record makes it something special.</p>
<p>With lyrics like &#8220;You dippy dippy dive, so-socialize, but how we gonna make the black nation rise?&#8221;, &#8220;the Ku Klux Klan is on the loose, training their kids in machine gun use&#8221; and &#8220;my people, people, can&#8217;t you see what&#8217;s really going on? Unemployment&#8217;s high, the housing&#8217;s bad and the schools are teaching wrong,&#8221; Brother D With Collective Effort were ahead of their time, but the group faded into obscurity after this one blacknificent single.</p>
<p>It is also one of the earliest examples of a rap record, period. When this was released, it was <a target="_blank" href="http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/best_rap-oldsch.html">one of thirty-two rap records</a> in existence.</p>
<p>Originally released in 1980 on Clappers Records, it was re-released in 1985 on the now defunct 4th &amp; Broadway label.</p>
<p><center><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="500" height="405" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/S-HQR2-s1J4?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;color2=0x999999&amp;border=1" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="500" height="405" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/S-HQR2-s1J4?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;color2=0x999999&amp;border=1" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></center></p>
<p>If you know anything else about this group feel free to leave it in the comments. I&#8217;m intrigued about what happened to this group, why they made this record, etc.</p>
<div style='clear:both'></div><img src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=3158&type=feed" alt=" Brother D With Collective Effort   How We Gonna Make The Black Nation Rise [80s HipHop]"  title="Brother D With Collective Effort   How We Gonna Make The Black Nation Rise [80s HipHop]" />
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		<item>
		<title>Want Eggs But Skurred of Salmonella? Here’s How to Find Eggs That Won’t Hurt You</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/heavymentalist/posts/~3/GOmbQYJqQgE/</link>
		<comments>http://www.heavymentalist.com/2010/08/want-eggs-but-skurred-of-salmonella-heres-how-to-find-eggs-that-wont-hurt-you-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:54:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Cherryl</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[green living]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.heavymentalist.com/?p=3136</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With the recent recall due to possible salmonella contamination leaving egg-lovers in a scramble, I&#8217;m sure many are now wondering where to find non-tainted eggs.
Luckily, there are still some small, local farms left all over the country that will be more than happy to have your business.

And the good news is, farm-raised eggs are healthier [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>With the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38741401/ns/health-food_safety" target="_blank">recent recall</a> due to possible salmonella contamination leaving egg-lovers in a scramble, I&#8217;m sure many are now wondering where to find non-tainted eggs.</p>
<p>Luckily, there are still some small, local farms left all over the country that will be more than happy to have your business.</p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_3138" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 442px"><img class="size-full wp-image-3138" title="egg-basket" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/egg-basket.jpg" alt="farm fresh eggs in a basket" width="432" height="324" /><p class="wp-caption-text">fresh eggs in a basket - photo from HomeSweetFarm</p></div></center></p>
<p>And the good news is, farm-raised eggs are healthier for you then eggs gleaned from corporate owned mega-farms, where chickens are penned up on top of each other in <a target="_blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd_pCS9N5Vg">deplorable conditions</a> &#8212; conditions that led to the national salmonella outbreak we now have on our hands. </p>
<p>Most small farm raised eggs however, are laid by hens that are allowed to roam and graze freely, hence the phrase <a target="_blank" href="http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/19/1/Free-range-chicken-and-eggs.html">&#8220;free-range&#8221; chickens</a>. </p>
<p>According to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.motherearthnews.com/Relish/Pastured-Eggs-Vitamin-D-Content.aspx" target="_blank">tests done by Mother Earth News</a> comparing farm-raised eggs to commercially raised eggs, the farm-raised eggs contain:</p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_3139" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 495px"><img class="size-full wp-image-3139" title="nutritioninfarmeggs" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/nutritioninfarmeggs.jpg" alt="nutritioninfarmeggs Want Eggs But Skurred of Salmonella? Heres How to Find Eggs That Wont Hurt You" width="485" height="137" /></dt>
</dl>
</div>
<p></center><br />
&#8230;and &#8220;anywhere between <strong><em>4 to 6 times as much</em></strong> <em><strong>vitamin D</strong></em> as typical supermarket eggs&#8221;.</p>
<p>You can even see the nutritional difference between the eggs.  Can you guess which egg below is from a small farm, and which one was laid by a chicken on a corporate owned farm?<br />
<center>
<div class="mceTemp mceIEcenter">
<dl id="attachment_3137" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 510px;">
<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><img class="size-medium wp-image-3137" title="002" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/002-300x225.jpg" alt="002 300x225 Want Eggs But Skurred of Salmonella? Heres How to Find Eggs That Wont Hurt You" width="500" height="425" /><p class="wp-caption-text">photo from Kilby Ridge Farm</p></div></center></p>
<p>If you know what color beta-carotene is &#8212; the same nutrient that gives carrots their orange color &#8212; you can easily tell that the egg from a small farm is the one on the right.</p>
<p>While farm-raised eggs are usually more expensive than store-bought eggs &#8212; around $5 a dozen, compared to around $3 a dozen for commercially produced eggs &#8212; their taste and  nutritional content makes corporate farmed eggs pale in comparison.</p>
<p>And when you eat eggs, cheese, milk and other products from small local farmers, not only are you eating healthier, you&#8217;re also helping to support local businesses!</p>
<p>Many family farms have unfortunately been shut down by these larger, mega-corporate farms, and the few that are left are struggling. </p>
<p>I&#8217;d like to see more Americans return to buying not only poultry products, but dairy and grass-fed meats from small farmers as well, like our parents and grandparents did.</p>
<p>To find a small, family owned farm near you in any state, check out <a target="_blank" href="http://www.eatwild.com/products/index.html">Eatwild.com&#8217;s national farm directory</a>.</p>
<p>If you can&#8217;t get to any of the farms listed in the directory, here&#8217;s a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.eatwild.com/products/farmsthatship.html">list of family owned farms</a> all over the country that will ship to you, so there are no more excuses! Support your local farmer and start eating healthier today!</p>
<div style='clear:both'></div><img src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=3136&type=feed" alt=" Want Eggs But Skurred of Salmonella? Heres How to Find Eggs That Wont Hurt You"  title="Want Eggs But Skurred of Salmonella? Heres How to Find Eggs That Wont Hurt You" />
<p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/3K-M126CAVoqIMhndKv85mqH6J4/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/3K-M126CAVoqIMhndKv85mqH6J4/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/>
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		<item>
		<title>Slavery Is Everywhere; So Is It Time for Blacks to “Disown” It? [+ Video on European Sex Slaves]</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/heavymentalist/posts/~3/BRujMFIpzAI/</link>
		<comments>http://www.heavymentalist.com/2010/08/slavery-is-everywhere-so-is-it-time-for-blacks-to-disown-it-video-on-european-sex-slaves/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Aug 2010 21:30:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Cherryl</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Film]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[prostitution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[race]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[slavery]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.heavymentalist.com/?p=3115</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You hear it all the time: American blacks hate white people, because we have the right to.
After all they enslaved us, beat us, raped us, dehumanized us, etc. for hundreds of years, so the hate is justified and there&#8217;s not a damn thing any white person can do about it!
And so it goes&#8230;

Over a 100 [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You hear it all the time: American blacks hate white people, because we have the right to.</p>
<p>After all they enslaved us, beat us, raped us, dehumanized us, etc. for hundreds of years, so the hate is justified and there&#8217;s not a damn thing any white person can do about it!</p>
<p>And so it goes&#8230;</p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_3116" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 337px"><img src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/field-slaves.jpg" alt="field slaves Slavery Is Everywhere; So Is It Time for Blacks to Disown It? [+ Video on European Sex Slaves]" title="field-slaves" width="327" height="350" class="size-full wp-image-3116" /><p class="wp-caption-text">enslaved Africans picking cotton</p></div></center></p>
<p>Over a 100 years after the official end of American slavery, most black Americans are still so attached to the subject, it&#8217;s as if we &#8220;own&#8221; the very concept of being enslaved &#8212; like we&#8217;re the only race of people who&#8217;ve ever been bought and sold.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s even to the point that, when most African-Americans even think of the word &#8220;slave&#8221;, we automatically picture a black person in our minds, as if black person = slave.</p>
<p>But I think perhaps its time for black people to get over it. Yes, I said it. Get.Over.It.</p>
<p>Not <em>forget</em> about slavery, but just not concentrate on it <em>so much</em> as something that <em>only </em>happens to black people.</p>
<p>Because while we&#8217;re running around blaming white people for every ill that&#8217;s ever happened to us, we are wasting a lot of precious time <em>not </em>contributing to the ending of this most heinous institution.</p>
<p>Slavery still exist today in many parts of the world. And yes, even right here, today, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-soodalter/slavery-is-alive-and-well_b_688377.html">in the United States of America</a>!</p>
<p>I just watched an hour long Frontline documentary about sex slavery in Europe that really helped expand my view of how foul and wide-reaching slavery really is, and I encourage you to watch it too.</p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_3123" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 560px"><img class="size-full wp-image-3123" title="enslaved Africans in Cumberland Landing, Virginia 1862" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/slaves.jpg" alt="enslaved Africans in Cumberland Landing, Virginia 1862" width="550" height="450" /><p class="wp-caption-text">enslaved Africans in Cumberland Landing, Virginia 1862</p></div></center></p>
<p>Watching it helped me, as a black person, &#8220;disown&#8221; slavery for lack of a better word, in that it taught me that mourning for what my ancestors went through, while it does give me a feeling of connection to modern day slaves, does not necessarily help me contribute today to the ending of slavery all over the world.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s time for black people to stop framing our whole existence in the context of being the descendants of slaves, because there are soooooo many people in this world who have it much worse than any black person in this country will EVER have it. And watching this documentary will help you see that.</p>
<p>As a side note, I find it interesting that most of the evil and destruction in the world is caused by the wants of men. If men didn&#8217;t want to stick their dicks into everything moving from 18 month old babies to 100 year old women and everything in between, there would be no need for sex slavery, because in that business, like in most other businesses, demand drives supply. </p>
<p>But as I said that&#8217;s just a side note and I&#8217;ll be sure to do a full post at a later date discussing how men, their evil appendages, their machismo and their weak bitch-ass female sidekicks are on the verge of destroying the world. </p>
<p>Anyway, the film is only an hour. Take some time and open your eyes to how bad some ofter people have it, then get off your ass and do something, even if you don&#8217;t do anything but share this on Facebook using one of my share links below, because just by doing that you will help enlighten others about this very serious issue. Check out the film below:</p>
<p><center><embed style="width:500px; height:426px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=456480507747515257&#038;hl=en" flashvars=""> </embed></center></p>
<div style='clear:both'></div><img src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=3115&type=feed" alt=" Slavery Is Everywhere; So Is It Time for Blacks to Disown It? [+ Video on European Sex Slaves]"  title="Slavery Is Everywhere; So Is It Time for Blacks to Disown It? [+ Video on European Sex Slaves]" />
<p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/pmDV6ETYeao8BDgzUMPq654-ln0/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/pmDV6ETYeao8BDgzUMPq654-ln0/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/>
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		<item>
		<title>Del Tha Funkee Homosapien – Catch A Bad One [90s Hip Hop]</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/heavymentalist/posts/~3/Oz27pq_7PnA/</link>
		<comments>http://www.heavymentalist.com/2010/08/del-tha-funkee-homosapien-catch-a-bad-one-90s-hip-hop/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Aug 2010 19:11:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Cherryl</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[hip hop]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.heavymentalist.com/?p=3118</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I miss music like this. And the crazy thing about Del today is&#8230;most kids only know him as &#8220;the rapper from the Gorillaz&#8221;, lol.

]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I miss music like this. And the crazy thing about Del today is&#8230;most kids only know him as &#8220;the rapper from the Gorillaz&#8221;, lol.</p>
<p><center><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/spcKBTfjW1M?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;color2=0x999999"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/spcKBTfjW1M?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></center></p>
<div style='clear:both'></div><img src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=3118&type=feed" alt=" Del Tha Funkee Homosapien   Catch A Bad One [90s Hip Hop]"  title="Del Tha Funkee Homosapien   Catch A Bad One [90s Hip Hop]" />
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		<title>Just Be Good to Me: Fantasia, Black Women &amp; Married Men</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/heavymentalist/posts/~3/U6Hxh5FBv-U/</link>
		<comments>http://www.heavymentalist.com/2010/08/just-be-good-to-me-fantasia-black-women-married-men/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:08:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Cherryl</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[African-American]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Love & Marriage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fantasia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.heavymentalist.com/?p=3098</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[From Shirley Murdock&#8217;s &#8220;As We Lay&#8221; to Atlantic Starr&#8217;s &#8220;Secret Lovers&#8221; to countless other songs, black music is full of songs about cheating or being cheated on.
Currently, R&#38;B sensation and American Idol winner Fantasia&#8217;s affair with a married man and Alicia Keys&#8217; dalliance with Swizzy before they got married are bringing this subject to the forefront [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>From Shirley Murdock&#8217;s &#8220;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9pONeuYuWU">As We Lay</a>&#8221; to Atlantic Starr&#8217;s &#8220;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe2UXqFo0DY&amp;feature=av2n">Secret Lovers</a>&#8221; to countless other songs, black music is full of songs about cheating or being cheated on.</p>
<p>Currently, R&amp;B sensation and American Idol winner Fantasia&#8217;s affair with a married man and <a target="_blank" href="http://missjia.com/mashonda-gets-at-alicia-keys.html">Alicia Keys&#8217; dalliance with Swizzy</a> before they got married are bringing this subject to the forefront of the black blogosphere.</p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_3100" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 332px"><img class="size-full wp-image-3100" title="Fantasia with Antwaun Cook" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/fantasia-antwaun-2.jpg" alt="Fantasia with Antwaun Cook" width="322" height="429" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Fantasia with Antwaun Cook in January 2010</p></div></center></p>
<p>I had a friend once who used to date married men. She was an attractive dark-skinned woman, who worked out and was into sports &#8212; and sports players &#8212; including her sometimes (when he wasn&#8217;t with his wife) man.</p>
<p>When I asked her why she would sleep with a married man, she said she liked &#8220;the gifts, casual sex and the lack of serious attachment&#8221;.</p>
<p>For a young lady on the go and about her business, I could see how that might <em>seem </em>like an ideal set up.</p>
<p><em>But what about his wife? And his kids? </em>I asked.<em><br />
</em></p>
<p>&#8220;What about &#8216;em?&#8221; my friend said, side-eyeing me with her left eyebrow high in the air. &#8220;I don&#8217;t care about them, as long as he&#8217;s good to me.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Just Be Good to Me</h2>
<p>When my friend said that, I immediately thought about the lyrics to another popular song about cheaters, the 80s SOS band smash, &#8220;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khj9jyNvhpQ&amp;feature=related">Just Be Good to Me</a>&#8220;.</p>
<p>The song, which features a monster R&amp;B groove rising and falling over heavy synthesizers, tells the story of a young woman enamored with a man who &#8220;may have many others&#8221;, but she shelves thoughts of him cheating as long as the man agrees to &#8220;just be good&#8221; to her.</p>
<p>Over the years, I&#8217;ve had more friends&#8230;mostly black women I might add&#8230;who&#8217;ll sometimes call to tell me about a great guy they just met, and in the midst of gushing over this man, eventually a small dent in this new knight&#8217;s armor will be casually revealed: &#8220;He&#8217;s perfect! Except&#8230;did I mention that he&#8217;s married?&#8221;</p>
<p>And just like a film director, I already know what my friend is about to say next. It&#8217;s the same phrase I hear over and over from friends who date married men, as if they all read the same script.</p>
<p>My friend adds quickly, pushing the string of words out so fast it&#8217;s almost like one: &#8220;ButHe&#8217;sSeparatedFromHisWifeSoIt&#8217;sNotLikeHe&#8217;s <em>really </em>married&#8230;&#8221;</p>
<p>Really?</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve often wondered why so many of my friends seem to find nothing wrong with dating married men, and when I say &#8220;married men&#8221; I also include men who claim to be &#8220;separated&#8221;, because <a target="_blank" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-trice/fantasia-barrino-5-steps_b_678309.html">&#8220;separated&#8221; does not equal &#8220;divorced&#8221;</a>.</p>
<p>Is the dating crisis for black women really that severe that we&#8217;re driven to share men? Or is there something deeper going on?</p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_3101" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 308px"><img class="size-full wp-image-3101" title="fantasia" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/fantasia.jpg" alt="Fantasia" width="298" height="368" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Fantasia performing</p></div></center></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasia_Barrino">Fantasia Barrino</a> is a dark skinned black woman of <a target="_blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WWtGpEqpV4">amazing vocal talent</a> from the south, North Carolina to be exact, who grew up poor with the black church as her backbone.</p>
<p>While I don&#8217;t know Fantasia or anything about her life other than the facts I&#8217;ve already mentioned, I&#8217;m going to venture to guess a few things about her.</p>
<p>1. She probably grew up having her hair fried with a straightening comb every week as a child before she was deemed &#8220;old enough&#8221; at age 8 or 9 to have her hair coated with toxic chemicals for 30 minutes every month in order to straighten it, with particular attention paid to straightening the &#8220;naps&#8221; in her &#8220;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.nappykitchen.com/blog/2008/11/what-does-kitchen-mean/">&#8220;kitchen&#8221;</a>.</p>
<p>2. More than likely, she was often made to feel inferior because of her dark skin, and may have even been advised to use bleaching creams or to &#8220;stay out of the sun so you don&#8217;t get darker&#8221;.</p>
<p>3. Someone may have even advised her to tuck her lips in so they didn&#8217;t protrude as much, or, as my grandmother used to tell me, &#8220;pinch your nose a little every night so maybe it&#8217;ll get straighter&#8221;.</p>
<p>How can I say these things? Because Fantasia&#8217;s upbringing, more or less, was my upbringing.</p>
<p>And while our stories are exactly not the same, I know one thing: the stories of black women who grew up poor in the South are, in many ways, more alike than they are different.</p>
<p>I have no doubt Fantasia&#8217;s low self-esteem caused by her &#8211;our&#8211; upbringing contributed to her extreme attachment and devotion to this married man, who, as a church-going woman, Fantasia should have automatically backed away from. But why didn&#8217;t she?</p>
<h2>Friends&#8230;Tell Me I Am Crazy&#8230;</h2>
<p>Ok. I&#8217;m not even going to front and act like I can&#8217;t see what the attraction is. Antwaun Cook is one fine brother.</p>
<p>When Fantasia met Antwaun at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.starmagazine.com/fantasia_affair_married_man_tattoo/news/16250">his T-Mobile store in Charlotte</a>, she no doubt was swept off her feet by someone that was attracted to her blackness, her full lips, wide hips and take-me-as-I-am Carolina girl attitude. (And maybe even her money and fame&#8230;shhhh&#8230;).</p>
<p>Fantasia, star of VH1&#8217;s <a target="_blank" href="http://www.vh1.com/shows/fantasia_for_real/series.jhtml">Fantasia For Real</a> and the Oprah Winfrey produced Broadway play <a target="_blank" href="http://www.vh1.com/shows/fantasia_for_real/series.jhtml">The Color Purple</a> is a young mom, and she may have been longing for a successful  man for years, but has had to devote most of her time to taking care of her daughter  and to her career.</p>
<p>Maybe she just wanted to be put on a pedestal for a  change by someone who could make <em>her </em>feel taken care of. As a black woman, I get it.</p>
<p>And in exchange for having this &#8220;He&#8217;s perfect! Except&#8230;&#8221; man in her life &#8211;who probably made this once little black church girl feel like the most beautiful woman in the world&#8211; she was willing to overlook the fact that this man was not yet legally free.</p>
<p>Now Fantasia&#8217;s life seems to be falling apart, and I wonder if she thinks it was worth it.</p>
<p>Apparently there&#8217;s a sex tape starring Fantasia and Antwaun in existence, Antwaun broke it off with her (though <a target="_blank" href="http://foreign.peacefmonline.com/entertainment/201008/70306.php">they&#8217;ve been spotted together</a> recently) and a lawsuit currently being brought against Tasia by the current Mrs. Cook <a target="_blank" href="http://www.examiner.com/x-21058-Cleveland-Celebrity-Headlines-Examiner~y2010m8d9-Fantasia-Barrinos-sextape-with-a-married-man-could-cost-her-millions" target="_blank">could cost Fantasia millions</a>.</p>
<p>The publicity surrounding the affair, sex tape and lawsuit has put Fantasia in a deep depression. She even made an attempt on her own life. And in the midst of her nightmare, some people have even joked that she&#8217;s learning lessons from the <a target="_blank" href="http://blogs.bet.com/entertainment/spotlight/2009/11/06/is-fantasia-dating-a-married-man/" target="_blank">Alicia Keys guide to dating</a>.</p>
<p>And through it all, I&#8217;m guessing that the worst part of this, at least for Fantasia, is the fact that the man who&#8217;s last name she has tattooed on her left shoulder is still married, albeit separated.</p>
<p><center><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-3102" title="Fantasiatattoo" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Fantasiatattoo.jpg" alt="Fantasiatattoo Just Be Good to Me: Fantasia, Black Women & Married Men" width="230" height="275" /></center></p>
<p>Where has he been throughout this controversy? Has he come to her rescue in the media? Where is her knight now?</p>
<p>Fantasia&#8217;s heartache saddens me, for several reasons. One, Fantasia is a fellow young black woman from North Carolina who reminds me a lot of myself because we both know what it&#8217;s like to grow up black and poor in this state.</p>
<p>Two, Fantasia&#8217;s story reminds me of the first friend I mentioned.</p>
<p>Eventually, my friend&#8217;s sometime man, who seemed to be in a perpetual state of &#8220;separation,&#8221; finally got a divorce. And soon after his divorce, he wasted no time in getting hitched again &#8212; to someone else.</p>
<p>My friend, who thought she had been &#8220;unattached&#8221; in their relationship, realized she had indeed become very attached, and was heartbroken.</p>
<p>Women become involved with married men for a myriad of complex reasons. I just wish Fanstasia the best, and if I could talk to Fantasia today I would say <em>Fantasia, please take care of yourself, and your child, and let that man stay where he is until he&#8217;s legally free</em>.</p>
<p><strong>Because when a man is truly ready to leave a woman, he doesn&#8217;t just get <em>separated</em>, he gets divorced.</strong></p>
<p>What do you think about women dating married men? Is it ever ok?</p>
<p>Do you think black women date more married men than women of other ethnicities?</p>
<p>Do you think Mrs. Cook is right in pursuing a lawsuit against Fantasia?</p>
<p>Other thoughts? Comments? I&#8217;d love to hear from you.</p>
<div style='clear:both'></div><img src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=3098&type=feed" alt=" Just Be Good to Me: Fantasia, Black Women & Married Men"  title="Just Be Good to Me: Fantasia, Black Women & Married Men" />
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		<title>Chad Ochocinco, Black Mexicans &amp; Afro-Latino Identity</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/heavymentalist/posts/~3/6DUGff1rj94/</link>
		<comments>http://www.heavymentalist.com/2010/07/chad-ochocinco-black-mexicans-afro-latino-identity/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 31 Jul 2010 15:22:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Cherryl</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[bi-racial & multi-racial]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[race]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Afro-Hispanic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Afro-Latino]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Afro-Mexican]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.heavymentalist.com/?p=2949</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In August of &#8216;09, Chad Ochocinco of the Cincinnati Bengals took to Twitter to ask for help in setting up his Xbox 360 gamer tag&#8211;the Black Mexican. And recently, the Ocho to the Cinco, while flirting with a half Puerto-Rican woman on his dating show The Ultimate Catch, told her that he was Mexican. So, is he?
Ochocinco&#8211;the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In August of &#8216;09, <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_Ochocinco">Chad Ochocinco of the Cincinnati Bengals</a> took to Twitter to ask for help in setting up his Xbox 360 gamer tag&#8211;<a target="_blank" href="http://kotaku.com/5338249/chad-ocho-cinco-wishes-to-be-called-the-black-mexican-on-xbox-live">the Black Mexican</a>. And recently, the Ocho to the Cinco, while flirting with a half Puerto-Rican woman on his dating show <a target="_blank" href="http://blog.vh1.com/2010-07-11/ochocinco-the-ultimate-catch-recap-episode-1-ten-things-we-loved-about-this-show/">The Ultimate Catch</a>, told her that he was Mexican. So, is he?</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.heavymentalist.com"><img style="display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-width: 0px;" title="chad-ochocinco" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/chadochocinco.jpg" border="0" alt="chad-ochocinco" width="225" height="272" align="left" /></a>Ochocinco&#8211;the former Chad Johnson<em>,</em> who had his name legally changed to Ochocinco during Hispanic Heritage Month in 2008 because he wanted to see his number written in words (just not English ones, I guess)&#8211;came under fire after the first episode of the show for only choosing two black contestants (he admits he <a href="http://theurbandaily.com/music/shamika-sanders/chad-ochocinco-defends-his-selection-of-lighter-skinned-women-on-his-dating-show/?omcamp=EMC-CVNL">has a preference</a>), and is now coming under some suspicion for his “Mexican” comments.</p>
<p>Many of you might be scratching your heads right now like, “Huh? GTFOH with that Chad!!”</p>
<p>But actually, it is quite possible for Chad to be Mexican, and as I watched that clip, I immediately thought about two things:</p>
<p>One, how rare it is to even hear the words “black” and “Mexican” together in a sentence unless that sentence contains news of racial violence between the groups, and two, the fact that Mexico also imported slaves—<em>before </em>America.</p>
<p>According to figures from <a target="_blank" href="http://www.afromexico.com/brief.htm">Afro Mexico</a>, the country was importing Africans as early as 1519, and they didn&#8217;t just import a few. Mexico imported so many Africans to work in silver mines, sugar plantations and cattle ranches that by 1553, “the black population soared to over 20,000”.</p>
<p><strong>By 1570, Africans in Mexico outnumbered Spaniards by 3 to 1.</strong></p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2963" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 410px"><strong><img class="size-full wp-image-2963" title="afromex06" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/afromex061.jpg" alt="Afro-Mexican descendants of enslaved Africans in Mexico" width="400" height="433" /></strong><p class="wp-caption-text">Afro-Mexican women. Photo by Bobby Vaughn</p></div></center></p>
<p>After 1570, the proportion of Africans to Spaniards fell slightly. Though their  numbers in Mexico were at an all time high of 35,089 in 1646, in that year, Africans outnumbered Spaniards by 2.5 to 1, down from the previous 3 to 1.</p>
<p>By 1742, black Mexicans had dwindled to a population of 15,980, though they still outnumbered the Spanish.</p>
<p><strong>68 years later in 1810, the number of Afro-Mexicans shrunk to around <a target="_blank" href="http://www.gbmnews.com/gbm/articles/where-did-mexicos-blacks-go.html">10% of Mexico&#8217;s population</a>.</strong></p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2964" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 410px"><strong><strong><img class="size-full wp-image-2964" title="afromex11" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/afromex111.jpg" alt="Afro-Mexican teen" width="400" height="277" /></strong></strong><p class="wp-caption-text">Afro-Mexican young man. Photo by Bobby Vaughn</p></div></center></p>
<p>In total, from the 1500s to the 1800s, Mexico imported <a target="_blank" href="http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/mexico/black-mexicans.htm">up to a half-million enslaved Africans</a>.</p>
<p>After <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_War_of_Independence">Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821</a>, the country abolished slavery and black Mexicans&#8211;who had their basic food, clothing and shelter needs met by slave-masters for over three hundred years&#8211;woke up one day kicked off plantations with nothing to call their own, and few willing to hire them.</p>
<p>Immediately, the percentage of their population to that of whites and other Mexican ethnic groups began a downward shift.</p>
<p><strong>Today their numbers, which also include some <a target="_blank" href="http://www.seeingblack.com/article_68.shtml">black Seminoles</a>, are around 1 million, making them about 1% of Mexico&#8217;s 111 million person population.</strong></p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2970" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 360px"><strong><strong><a rel="attachment wp-att-2970" href="http://www.heavymentalist.com/2010/07/chad-ochocinco-black-mexicans-afro-latino-identity/blackseminoles-2/"><img class="size-full wp-image-2970" title="blackseminoles" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/blackseminoles1.jpg" alt="black-seminoles" width="350" height="236" /></a></strong></strong><p class="wp-caption-text">Black Seminoles</p></div></center></p>
<p>What is happening to Mexico&#8217;s blacks? And why are their numbers getting smaller when compared to other Mexican ethnic groups?</p>
<p>Black life in Mexico is a one of facing harsh stereotypes, with little to no opportunity for advancement through hard work or education as African-Americans had after the end of US slavery. Scorned by the government, Afro-Mexicans aren&#8217;t even counted among Mexico&#8217;s official citizens&#8211;as if they don&#8217;t even exist. According to writer <a target="_blank" href="http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/places/alexis-okeowo/black-mexicans">Alexis Okeowo</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p><img src="http://moreintelligentlife.com/files/afro-americans3.jpg" alt="afro americans3 Chad Ochocinco, Black Mexicans & Afro Latino Identity" hspace="20" vspace="20" align="right" title="Chad Ochocinco, Black Mexicans & Afro Latino Identity" />Afro-Mexicans are among the poorest in the nation. Many are shunted  to remote shantytowns, well out of reach of basic public services, such  as schools and hospitals.</p>
<p>Activists for Afro-Mexicans face an uphill  battle for government recognition and economic development.</p>
<p>They have  long petitioned to be counted in Mexico&#8217;s national census, alongside the  country&#8217;s 56 other official ethnic groups, but to little avail&#8230;</p>
<p>In  response to activist pressure, Mexico&#8217;s government released a study at  the end of 2008 that confirmed that Afro-Mexicans suffer from  institutional racism. Employers are less likely to employ blacks, and  some schools prohibit access based on skin colour. But little has been  done to change this. Afro-Mexicans lack a powerful spokesperson, so they  continue to go unnoticed by the country&#8217;s leadership.</p></blockquote>
<p>Because of discrimination, some Afro-Mexicans whose color  and features allow them to hide their black heritage and claim instead a  mix of indigenous Indian and Spanish blood, do-–a survivalist breach of their  culture&#8217;s blurry color lines made easier by lack of knowledge about  black Mexicans—even by many Mexicans.</p>
<p>And for some, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.gbmnews.com/gbm/articles/where-did-mexicos-blacks-go.html">marrying into the larger, lighter population</a> is one of the only means of  uplift.</p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2962" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 410px"><img class="size-full wp-image-2962" title="afromex02" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/afromex021.jpg" alt="Black Mexican women" width="400" height="284" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Black Mexican women</p></div></center></p>
<p><strong>What&#8217;s happening to Afro-Mexicans is a travesty, and it&#8217;s important to know their story because Afro-Mexicans are <em>our </em>people. Their  stop was before ours, but we were all on the same ships.</strong></p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2972" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 425px"><img class="size-full wp-image-2972" title="Elder Afro-Mexican woman with boy" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Elder-Afro-Mexican-Woman-with-boy.png" alt="Elder Afro-Mexican woman with boy" width="415" height="404" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Elder Afro-Mexican woman with boy. Photo by Bobby Vaughn</p></div></center></p>
<p>The less open we are to exploring <em>all </em>of our cultures as a global black  people, our disparate populations around the world will continue to fall  under majority, usually white, or light, tyranny, and disappear in  quiet genocides fueled by ignorance of their existence.</p>
<p>Growing up, I would sometimes hear people self-identify as “black Indian”, “black Italian”, &#8220;black Spanish&#8221;, etc., and inevitably, someone in our circle would question their choice to be ethnically defined as something &#8220;other than just black&#8221;, as if being black <em>and </em>other was somehow a slap to black people as a whole.</p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2966" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 405px"><img class="size-full wp-image-2966" title="Afro-Mexican youth dancing" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Afro-Mexican-youth-dancing.png" alt="Afro-Mexican youth dancing" width="395" height="404" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Afro-Mexican youth dancing. Photo by Bobby Vaughn</p></div></center></p>
<p>As an Afro-Filipina woman, I too have faced this questioning of my identity choices from African-Americans.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s an issue that cuts to the core of multi-cultural black people on both sides of the Rio Grande.</p>
<p>Blacks who may be two, three or more ethnicities are often pushed by friends, families and communities to simply identify as one&#8211;usually &#8220;black&#8221;&#8211;regardless of the ties we may have to another culture, and regardless&#8211;at least in the US&#8211;if you only have a small amount of African-American ancestry.</p>
<p><strong>Why this resistance to people claiming all of who they are?</strong></p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2968" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 250px"><img class="size-full wp-image-2968" title="Black Mexican Man" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/BlackMexicans.jpg" alt="Black Mexican Man" width="240" height="170" /><p class="wp-caption-text">black Mexican man</p></div></center></p>
<p>Perhaps the media has something to do with it. After all, if the only images people usually see of Latinos, Indians, Asians, etc., are all on the lighter, if not white end of the spectrum, those images become associated with what people from these groups should look like.</p>
<p>For example: Have you ever seen a Mexican on TV darker than <a target="_blank" href="http://www.lopeztonight.com/">George Lopez</a>? And as far as &#8220;media Mexicans&#8221; go, <em>he&#8217;s</em> considered dark.</p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2969" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 507px"><img src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/black-mexican-woman1.jpg" alt="black mexican woman1 Chad Ochocinco, Black Mexicans & Afro Latino Identity" title="black-mexican-woman" width="497" height="354" class="size-full wp-image-2969" /><p class="wp-caption-text">black Mexican woman</p></div></center></p>
<p>Lack of inclusion from lighter Hispanics coupled with confusion from  black Americans places Afro-Latinos in an unusual place, and probably  has a lot to do with the skeptical rumblings surrounding Chad Ochocinco&#8217;s &#8220;Mexican&#8221; moments. As <a target="_blank" href="http://www.vidaafrolatina.com/The_Power_of_the_Afro-La.html">Miriam Muley writes</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>As  an Afro  Latina, Puerto Rican to be exact, I have always struggled to  find my  place in the world of Latinos and in the world of African  Americans.  Neither group has ever fully embraced my Afro-Boricua roots and desire to move freely from the world of salsa, mofongo and pasteles to the  world of jazz, collard greens and sweet potato pie.</p>
<p>Hispanics are always shocked when I speak Spanish without an obvious accent (“Where did you learn to speak Spanish so well?”) and are puzzled to learn both of my parents were born in Santurce, Puerto Rico. (“So one of your parents <em>must</em> be Black?”).</p>
<p>African Americans cannot fathom the idea of a Black Hispanic. There is no awareness of the fact that 95 percent of all slaves who came to the Western Hemisphere during the Middle Passage were enslaved in Latin  America, the Caribbean and Mexico. Only 5 percent were sent to the  United States, and this was 100 years <em>after</em> the slave trade to Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries began.</p></blockquote>
<p>While the &#8220;Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries&#8221; Miriam writes about are often depicted in travel brochures as sunny, multi-cultural paradises, a complex rubric entrenched during slavery placing whites or lights at the top and blacks at the bottom in social status and standards of beauty remains.</p>
<p>Many Afro-Hispanic people grew up rarely seeing positive portrayals of people who look like them.</p>
<p>Latino television is like a modern version of the highly segregated viewing experience our grandparents knew, filled with mostly white central characters and a background of black actors playing servants or    buffoons.</p>
<p><strong>And to see a celebration of dark Latina beauty was, and still is, even rarer.</strong></p>
<p>Even Latina, a magazine &#8220;<a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latina_%28magazine%29">dedicated to Latinas</a>&#8221; which has been in  business since 1996, only recently featured a dark-skinned black Latina  on their cover <em>for the first time</em>&#8211;in December 2009!</p>
<p>While the cover is a <a target="_blank" href="http://latina.com/blogs/inside-latina/best-reader-mail-ive-ever-received">wonderful moment for Afro-Latinas</a>, the question remains: What took so long?<br />
<center>
<div>
<dl id="attachment_2982">
<dt><img title="black-latina-cover" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/black-latina-cover.jpg" alt="black latina cover Chad Ochocinco, Black Mexicans & Afro Latino Identity" width="300" height="400" /></dt>
<dd>Latina Magazine&#8217;s first black cover model</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<p></center><br />
Without a doubt, issues of beauty equality and social inclusion from their larger culture are still pivotal issues among black Latinos.</p>
<p>Sadly, some Afro-Latinos whose genetic dice didn’t land on the side of them looking like their oppressors, succumb to self-esteem issues engendered by their society and alter their looks to, by using potentially toxic creams to lighten their skin. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/07/sammy-sosas-skin-photos-p_n_349602.html">Like Sammy Sosa</a>.</p>
<p><center><div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px"><img title="SAMMY-SOSA-SKIN-COLOR" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/SAMMY-SOSA-SKIN-COLOR1.jpg" alt="Sammy Sosa's new skin color" width="480" height="325" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Sammy Sosa&#39;s new skin. His hair is different too.</p></div></center></p>
<p>Today, through generations of activism, many <a target="_blank" href="http://www.vidaafrolatina.com/">Afro-Latin  people</a> have come to the fore in restoring a sense of pride among black Latinos by educating themselves and others on the tremendous contributions of Africans and their descendants to Latin culture.</p>
<p>And a similar movement is brewing among Afro-Mexicans.</p>
<p>Every year since 1996, dozens of towns along the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.afromexico.com/costa.htm">200-mile long coastal region known as Costa Chica</a> (one of two regions in Mexico with significant black population, the other being the state of Veracruz) have come together to celebrate &#8220;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/mexico/black-mexicans.htm">Encounter  of Black Mexico</a>,&#8221; featuring regional dance, music and round-table  discussions about black life.</p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_3037" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 249px"><img class="size-full wp-image-3037" title="costachica" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/costachica.png" alt="Costa Chica" width="239" height="183" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Costa Chica, in the red square</p></div></center></p>
<p>In 1999, the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.coax.net/people/lwf/MEX_MAMC.HTM">Museo De Las Culturas Afro-mestizas</a> or Museum of Afro-mestizo Culture, dedicated to the history of the Costa Chica, opened in its de facto capital, Cuajinicuilapa. The museum educates local people and tourists about the arrival of African slaves in the 1500s, and displays African clothes, food and musical instruments with explanations on how these objects were incorporated into Mexican life.</p>
<p>Afro-Latin and Afro-Hispanic cultures offer fascinating looks into the history of the majority of Middle Passage survivors&#8211;a history important for blacks on both sides of the border.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s common knowledge that many enslaved blacks escaped north via the underground railroad, what&#8217;s less known is that quite a few also escaped south, with Mexicans providing food and safe-houses for many on their way to freedom.</p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2965" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 288px"><img class="size-full wp-image-2965" title="Afro-Mexican children" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Afro-Mexican-children.png" alt="Afro-Mexican children" width="278" height="421" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Afro-Mexican children. Photo by Bobby Vaughn</p></div></center></p>
<p>To further explore the diversity of Afro-Mexicans, researcher and photographer Bobby Vaughn has a beautiful <a target="_blank" href="http://www.afromexico.com/album/">gallery of Afro-Mexican people</a> on <a target="_blank" href="http://www.afromexico.com/">his website</a>, which offers invaluable information on black Mexicans.</p>
<p><strong>African-Americans have dealt with, and continue to deal with many of the same issues as Afro-Latinos/Afro-Hispanics, and the similarities between the different groups are abundantly obvious.</strong></p>
<p>Are you a black Latino or Hispanic whose been questioned about your identity choices?</p>
<p>Have you ever been told that you &#8220;don&#8217;t look&#8221; Latino of Hispanic by members of your own culture?</p>
<p>What do you find most frustrating about the lack of understanding surrounding Afro-Latinos?</p>
<p>What do you love about being Afro-Latina or Afro-Hispanic?</p>
<p>Other comments? Let&#8217;s hear &#8216;em!  I&#8217;d love to hear from you.</p>
<p>*And for the record, the jury is still out on whether Chad Ochocinco is Mexican, unless someone probes the issue with him further. But I&#8217;m  guessing because he&#8217;s already planning his next numeric name change to <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_Ochocinco">Hachi Go</a>, in all likelihood, he probably isn&#8217;t.</p>
<div style='clear:both'></div><img src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=2949&type=feed" alt=" Chad Ochocinco, Black Mexicans & Afro Latino Identity"  title="Chad Ochocinco, Black Mexicans & Afro Latino Identity" />
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		<title>Heavy Linkage: News You Should Know For 7.22.10</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/heavymentalist/posts/~3/x-35nyrbBmc/</link>
		<comments>http://www.heavymentalist.com/2010/07/heavy-linkage-news-you-should-know-for-7-22-10/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 22 Jul 2010 05:31:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Cherryl</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Heavy Linkage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Haile Selassie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[military]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.heavymentalist.com/?p=2939</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Friday, July 23rd is Haile Selassie I’s Earth Day. On October 4, 1963, His Imperial Majesty gave a speech at the United Nations&#8217; General Assembly in New York City, part of which was turned into the song “War” by Bob Marley. Photo from An Ethiopian Journal
Happening Now

If you’re a conspiracy nut who believes the future [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h5 style="text-align: center;"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.heavymentalist.com"><img style="display: block; float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: 1px solid #9fc253; padding: 2px;" title="him-haile-selassie-i-with-a-lion1" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/himhaileselassieiwithalion1.jpg" border="0" alt="him-haile-selassie-i-with-a-lion1" width="459" height="382" /></a><center>Friday, July 23rd is <a href="http://snwmf.com/phorum/read.php?1,263669,264478,quote=1">Haile Selassie I’s Earth Day</a>. On<strong> </strong>October 4, 1963, His Imperial Majesty gave a speech at the United Nations&#8217; General Assembly in New York City, <a target="_blank" href="http://rastafusion.free.fr/4oct1963e.htm" target="_blank">part of which was turned into</a> the song “<a target="_blank" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPZydAotVOY&amp;feature=related" target="_blank">War</a>” by Bob Marley. Photo from <a target="_blank" href="http://tseday.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/the-lion-of-judah/">An Ethiopian Journal</a></center></h5>
<h3>Happening Now</h3>
<ul>
<li>If you’re a conspiracy nut who believes the future will be full of global pandemics, checkpoints, quarantines and biometric ID cards, a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.infowars.com/rockefeller-study-envisages-future-dictatorship-controlled-by-elite/" target="_blank">new study on future societies by the Rockefeller Center</a> gives you more reason to worry.</li>
<li>Sinn Fein Vet Views G-20 Arrests As <a target="_blank" href="http://www.infowars.com/g-20-arrests-a-dry-run-sinn-fein-veteran/" target="_blank">“Dry Run” For Government Detainment Strategy</a></li>
<li>New Military <a target="_blank" href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07/in-a-first-full-sized-robo-copter-flies-with-no-human-help/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29" target="_blank">Robo-Copter Flies Without Human Help</a></li>
<li>Alabama Tells Kids: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.infowars.com/no-shot-no-school-for-alabama-sixth-graders/" target="_blank">No Shot No 6th Grade</a></li>
<li>Facebook App Lets You <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1294649/Facebook-app-Indian-men-users-look-paler-face.html?ITO=1490" target="_blank">View a Lighter You</a></li>
<li>Cause They Treat Us Like Hos: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/business/18unboxed.html?_r=2&amp;partner=rss&amp;emc=rss" target="_blank">Bynamite Wants Websites to Stop Selling Personal Info</a> Without Paying</li>
<li>Billboards Sponsored by <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1295354/My-life-death-choice-Fury-roadside-billboards-advocate-suicide.html?ITO=1490" target="_blank">Final Exit Network Advocate Suicide</a></li>
<li>Green Energy Accounts for <a target="_blank" href="http://inhabitat.com/2010/07/15/half-of-new-energy-produced-in-the-us-last-year-was-green/" target="_blank">Half of New Energy Generated Last Year</a></li>
<li>Jezebel Poses <a target="_blank" href="http://jezebel.com/5588119/15-other-things-whoopi-goldberg-has-defended?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+jezebel%2Ffull+%28Jezebel%29" target="_blank">15 Questionable Things Whoopi Goldberg’s Defended</a></li>
<li><a target="_blank" href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100715/ap_en_mu/us_people_too_short" target="_blank">Too Short Likes ‘Em Too Young</a></li>
<li>Keeping It Unreal: <a target="_blank" href="http://forum.dancehallreggae.com/showthread.php/207011-you-see-how-the-fake-djs-get-bold" target="_blank">Fake Jamaican DJs Impersonating Real Artists?</a></li>
</ul>
<div style='clear:both'></div><img src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=2939&type=feed" alt=" Heavy Linkage: News You Should Know For 7.22.10"  title="Heavy Linkage: News You Should Know For 7.22.10" />
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		<title>What’s Behind the Spike in Black Male / Non-Black Female Interracial Marriage? New Study Shows Startling Stats</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/heavymentalist/posts/~3/G8v5CY5OTAI/</link>
		<comments>http://www.heavymentalist.com/2010/07/whats-behind-the-spike-in-black-male-non-black-female-interracial-marriage-a-new-pew-study-shows-startling-stats/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jul 2010 04:44:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Cherryl</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Love & Marriage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[race]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[interracial marriage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.heavymentalist.com/?p=2840</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sistas from songstress and actress Jill Scott to blogger and writer Sister Toldja have sparked quite a buzz over the subject of black men romantically involved with non-black women. But since the number of black men out-marrying hovered around a paltry 8% throughout the 80s and 90s, most media outlets have instead chosen to focus on [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Sistas from songstress and actress <a target="_blank" href="http://www.essence.com/relationships/commentary_3/commentary_jill_scott_talks_interracial.php" target="_blank">Jill Scott</a> to blogger and writer <a target="_blank" href="http://thebeautifulstruggler.com/2010/01/deep-cover.html" target="_blank">Sister Toldja</a> have sparked quite a buzz over the subject of black men romantically involved with non-black women. But since the number of black men out-marrying hovered around a paltry 8% throughout the 80s and 90s, most media outlets have instead chosen to focus on recycled &#8220;lonely black female crisis&#8221; news. However, a new study revealing a steep jump in black male out-marrying may prove Toldja and Scott right about the interracial elephant in the room that’s about to sit down on everyone in it.</p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2842" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 216px"><img class="size-full wp-image-2842" title="dave chappelle and family" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/davechappellefamily.jpg" alt="Dave Chappelle with Asian wife &amp; kids" width="206" height="176" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Dave Chappelle with wife &amp; kids</p></div></center></p>
<p>Cross-cultural love in the US is nothing new. Before the advent of slavery, the US was home to immigrants from all over seeking a better life, and it wasn&#8217;t unusual to see interracial couples among Native Americans and European and African immigrants.</p>
<p>It was only after slavery became a fact of American life that <a target="_blank" href="http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/family/cruz-berson.html" target="_blank">laws against inter-marrying were put into effect</a>, with most of these laws remaining on the books well after the official end of slavery in 1865.</p>
<p><strong>Some however, refused to bow to legislation telling them who they could love.  Like Frederick Douglass.</strong></p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2867" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 249px"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2867" title="Douglass_Helen_Eva_Frederick" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Douglass_Helen_Eva_Frederick-239x300.jpg" alt="Douglass Helen Eva Frederick 239x300 Whats Behind the Spike in Black Male / Non Black Female Interracial Marriage? New Study Shows Startling Stats" width="239" height="300" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Frederick Douglass with wife Helen (seated) and her sister Eva</p></div></center></p>
<p>After Douglass&#8217; African-American wife Anna died in 1882, he fell into a depression and turned to friends like Ida B. Wells and <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Pitts_Douglass" target="_blank">Helen Pitts</a>, his clerk in the office of the Recorder  of Deeds in Washington (to which he had just been appointed under President Garfield), to help him get his zest for life back.</p>
<p>Pitts, the daughter of Douglass&#8217; abolitionist friends Gideon and Jane Pitts, was a suffragist and had co-edited a radical feminist publication in DC called <em>The Alpha</em> prior to working for him.</p>
<p><strong>In 1884, Douglass, 70, incited a scandal by marrying the Caucasian Pitts, who was 20 years his junior.</strong></p>
<p>Blacks and whites across the country either hailed the Douglass-Pitts union as revolutionary, or decried it as an affront to both races. In addition to facing criticism from the  racially divided, post-slavery public, they also faced it from their own families.</p>
<p>Despite their abolitionist beliefs, Mrs. Douglass&#8217; parents were so against the marriage they stopped speaking to her, effectively disowning her; Douglass&#8217; children disapproved because they felt his marriage was <a target="_blank" href="http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0history/hwny-douglass-family.html" target="_blank">a &#8220;repudiation&#8221; of their late mother</a>.</p>
<p>When I look at the photo of Douglass and his white wife, at once, I can see their union as a marriage untainted by the barbarity that was slavery, <em>and </em>imagine myself as a black woman of the late 1800s just getting used to my white-mandated &#8220;freedom&#8221;&#8211;perhaps as a domestic worker, serving them at White House dinners or the homes of Douglass&#8217; wealthy friends&#8211;feeling a 19th century <a target="_blank" href="http://www.essence.com/relationships/commentary_3/commentary_jill_scott_talks_interracial.php" target="_blank">wince</a> seeing this good black man with this white woman.</p>
<p>And I can&#8217;t help but wonder if sisters in 1884 were having the same conversations surrounding interracial marriage many of us are having today.</p>
<p>Whites certainly were.</p>
<p><strong>In the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.historycellar.com/2009/01/frederick-douglasss-1884-marriage-of.html" target="_blank">Feb. 28th, 1884 edition of the <em>Nation Magazine</em></a>, marriage between black men and white women was actually posed as an answer to Caucasians&#8217; &#8220;negro problem&#8221;, and a black preacher ominously recounts reasons a rash of such marriages would be disastrous for black women.</strong></p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2868" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 333px"><img class="size-full wp-image-2868" title="douglass_Nation_article_1884" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/douglass_Nation_article_1884.jpg" alt="Nation Magazine article on Frederick Douglass' marriage to a white woman" width="323" height="712" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Article on Frederick Douglass&#39; marriage to Helen Pitts in the Nation Magazine, Feb. 28, 1884. </p></div></center></p>
<p>Translation:</p>
<p><strong>Black men marrying white women could solve our &#8220;Negro problem&#8221; and cause black women to go crazy because no one will marry them!</strong></p>
<p>An early version of the&#8211;insert negative adjective like [bitter, angry, bitchy] here&#8211;black woman crisis, anyone?</p>
<p>Whether or not this scheme of getting more black men to marry white women was ever set in stone, the idea certainly seems to have taken root.</p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2873" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 291px"><img class="size-full wp-image-2873" title="duke_ellington_wife" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/duke_ellington_wife1.jpg" alt="Duke Ellington and wife" width="281" height="214" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Duke Ellington and wife</p></div></center></p>
<p>In fact, a new <a target="_blank" href="http://pewsocialtrends.org/assets/pdf/755-marrying-out.pdf" target="_blank">Pew study, &#8220;Marrying Out&#8221;</a> (released 0n 6-5-10, updated on 6-15-10), reports that interracial marriage is on the rise, with 1 of out of every 7 new US marriages being interracial or inter-ethnic unions.  And out of those interracial marriages involving a black male,  <em>that </em>black male, represents 22% of all newly married black men in  the US.</p>
<p><strong>In other words, 1 out of every 5 black American men is now marrying a non-black woman.</strong></p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2855" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 298px"><img class="size-full wp-image-2855" title="richard-pryor-jennifer-pool" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/richard-pryor-jennifer-pool.jpg" alt="Richard Pryor with wife Jennifer" width="288" height="214" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Richard Pryor with wife Jennifer</p></div></center></p>
<p>Below is a graph I made by inputting the percentages of black men out-marrying since 1980, against the years these numbers were calculated (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/04/us/04interracial.html" target="_blank">1980, 2000, 2008</a>). The graph shows that within the last 28 years, the number of black men out-marrying has taken a swift  upward trajectory.</p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2869" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 610px"><img class="size-full wp-image-2869" title="Percentage of Black Men Out-Marrying in 1980, 2000 and 2008" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/20100714080621.jpg" alt="Percentage of Black Men Out-Marrying By Year" width="600" height="500" /><p class="wp-caption-text">This graph represents 7.9% of black men out-marrying in 1980, 15.7% in 2000 and 22% in 2008.</p></div></center></p>
<p>Although exact figures are difficult to come by, I can only imagine that in the 115 years from the end of slavery in 1865 to 1980&#8211;<strong>the  years during which most most US States had anti-miscegenation laws in place </strong>&#8211;that the number of black men out-marrying hovered well below 7%.</p>
<p>The closest statistic I could find on the number of black men  out-marrying before 1980 was from <a target="_blank" href="http://pewsocialtrends.org/assets/pdf/755-marrying-out.pdf" target="_blank">1960</a>, which stated that in that year, a mere 1% of  black male and female newlyweds <em>combined</em> married non-blacks.</p>
<p><strong>So what&#8217;s behind the sudden rise in black men marrying non-black women? The statistics beg the question: Was the reason black men didn&#8217;t marry non-black women in these high numbers in the past, simply because they couldn&#8217;t?</strong></p>
<p>Since the number of black men out-marrying jumped approximately 14% over 28 years (from 1980 t0 2008), this might represent a trend, and if it does, with this current trajectory black male out-marrying could grow at a rate of about 2% per year.</p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2849" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 249px"><img class="size-full wp-image-2849" title="dr_dre_andwife" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/dr_dre_andwife.jpg" alt="Dr. Dre with his non-black wife" width="239" height="426" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Dr. Dre and wife</p></div></center></p>
<p><strong>If this pattern continues, the number of black men out-marrying by 2025 could be roughly 1 out of 2 (52%). According to the Pew study, only 9% of black women married in 2008 wed non-blacks.<br />
</strong></p>
<p>And those numbers don&#8217;t even account for the number of black men just dating white women.</p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2851" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 212px"><img class="size-full wp-image-2851" title="ericbenetandgirlfriend" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/ericbenetandgirlfriend.jpg" alt="Eric Benet and non-black girlfriend" width="202" height="293" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Eric Benet and girlfriend</p></div></center></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><strong>Something about this just doesn’t feel right, though I’m hard-pressed to explain why.</strong></p>
<p>Especially considering that I&#8217;m already involved, so none of these men  or who they choose make a difference to me anyway.</p>
<p>And I know it&#8217;s 2010. We have a black president, and our first black Disney princess. These, supposedly, are signs that our country is racially moving onward and upward, beyond these petty  conversations about who desires who.</p>
<p>I get it.</p>
<p>But while my mind tells me I have no right to feel  anything about who these men choose to  love&#8211;because every couple falls in love  for different reasons&#8211;I&#8217;m still curious: Why do so many of our successful fathers, sons and brothers <em>not </em>seem to want us?<br />
<center><div id="attachment_2847" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 198px"><img class="size-full wp-image-2847" title="brianmcknightandgirlfriend" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/brianmcknightandgirlfriend.jpg" alt="Brian McKnight and non-black girlfriend" width="188" height="277" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Brian McKnight and girlfriend</p></div></center></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The burden for this phenomenon cannot, despite media attempts to  manipulate this as a &#8220;black woman&#8217;s problem&#8221;, be squarely placed on sista&#8217;s shoulders. And it&#8217;s gotta be deeper than black men being <a target="_blank" href="http://www.tiredblackman.com/" target="_blank">tired</a>.</p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2872" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 199px"><img class="size-full wp-image-2872" title="babyfaceandgirlfriend" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/babyfaceandgirlfriend1.jpg" alt="Babyface and girlfriend" width="189" height="297" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Babyface and girlfriend </p></div></center></p>
<p>So why does it seem like so many black men are flocking to non-black  women? Is it something we&#8217;re doing wrong? Or are some black men just not  right?</p>
<p><center><div id="attachment_2854" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 220px"><img class="size-full wp-image-2854" title="princeandgirlfriend" src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/princeandgirlfriend.jpg" alt="Prince and girlfriend" width="210" height="315" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Prince and girlfriend</p></div></center></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">And with the rest of America mixing so fast <em>outside </em>of the black population that a new beige majority is slated to replace the dominant white power structure over the next 100 years, what if black men are absorbed by the beige-dominant culture? Where will that leave  black women?</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><div class="simplePullQuote">&#8230;according to an analysis of the 1990 U.S. Census data for persons  ages 25-34&#8230;31.6 percent of native-born Hispanic husbands and 31.4  percent of native-born Hispanic wives had white spouses. The figures  were even higher for Asians: 36 percent for native-born Asian husbands  and 45.2 percent for native-born Asian wives. (In fact, Asian wives were  as likely to marry white Americans as they were to marry  Asian-Americans.)</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The highest intermarriage rates are those of American  Indians. Majorities of American Indian men (52.9 percent) and American  Indian women (53.9 percent) married whites rather than American Indians  (40.3 percent and 37.2 percent, respectively)&#8230;</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">In the 21st century, then, the U.S. population is not likely to be crisply divided among whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians and American  Indians. Nor is it likely to be split two ways, between whites and  nonwhites. Rather, we are most likely to see something more complicated: a white-Asian-Hispanic melting-pot majority &#8212; a hard-to-differentiate  group of beige Americans &#8212; offset by a minority consisting of blacks  who have been left out of the melting pot once again. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/16/magazine/the-beige-and-the-black.html?sec=&amp;spon=&amp;pagewanted=all" target="_blank">Source</a>.</div></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Thanks for reading this super long entry.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">All pics in this entry borrowed from, and many, many thanks are due to, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.afieldnegro.com/photos.html" target="_blank">A Field Negro</a>. Be sure to check out his gallery for an eye-opening look at dozens of black men historically and currently linked to non-black women.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><strong>Questions:</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Is this trend of black male out-marriage a problem? Or are people  just making it one?</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Were you aware of the growing numbers of black men out-marrying?</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Why do you think black women, even though there are more of us than black men, have not out-married as much as black men?</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Are you a brother who&#8217;s bothered when sisters date or marry out, even though you might date or marry non-black women?</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Other thoughts? Comments? Let&#8217;s discuss. I’d love to hear from you.</p>
<div style='clear:both'></div><img src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=2840&type=feed" alt=" Whats Behind the Spike in Black Male / Non Black Female Interracial Marriage? New Study Shows Startling Stats"  title="Whats Behind the Spike in Black Male / Non Black Female Interracial Marriage? New Study Shows Startling Stats" />
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		<title>RIP Influential Reggae Artist Sugar Minott</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/heavymentalist/posts/~3/B9yG8Bpbp0c/</link>
		<comments>http://www.heavymentalist.com/2010/07/rip-influential-reggae-artist-sugar-minott/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:33:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Cherryl</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[above the clouds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reggae]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.heavymentalist.com/?p=2858</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Dancehall.mobi is reporting that reggae legend Sugar Minott has died. His biggest  hits include the song that is credited with being the main influence behind the &#8220;ragga&#8221; sound, the Sly &#38; Robbie produced  &#8220;Tune In (Rub-a-Dub-Sound)&#8221; (1984).

One of my favorite Minott tunes is a lesser known song called &#8220;Hard Time Pressure&#8221;.

RIP Sugar Minott!
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.dancehall.mobi/2010/07/10/sugar-minott-is-dead/" target="_blank">Dancehall.mobi is reporting</a> that reggae legend <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Minott" target="_blank">Sugar Minott</a> has died. His biggest  hits include the song that is credited with being the main influence behind the &#8220;ragga&#8221; sound, the Sly &amp; Robbie produced  &#8220;Tune In (Rub-a-Dub-Sound)&#8221; (1984).</p>
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<p>One of my favorite Minott tunes is a lesser known song called &#8220;Hard Time Pressure&#8221;.</p>
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<p>RIP Sugar Minott!</p>
<div style='clear:both'></div><img src="http://www.heavymentalist.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&id=2858&type=feed" alt=" RIP Influential Reggae Artist Sugar Minott"  title="RIP Influential Reggae Artist Sugar Minott" />
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