Sheila E. turns out the Prince tribute as does others, however the show stopper was Jesse Williams, best known for his role as Dr. Jackson Avery on t Grey's Anatomy. However now more known for his activism.

About Wearing Brands

​This is what I have seen within my experience:
Slavery in some form still exists today. Not only is there true trafficking of slaves and prostitution in your sphere, but look on the TV and see if there are good examples representing the natural you. I’m not talking about afros or locs, because that is another conversation. If you do not have the Africa Channel, or other uplifting channels you may not even see much of any good Black people at all. Sometimes what is being represented on the news and other programs is not us. Visions of news reports projecting us, particularly Western African people, in an unsavory light often seeps into our own subconscious mind-television and induces a negative behavior and mindset.  Try turning off the news when you see your African family projected in this way. Reality TV is escapism, but it is NOT your life. We watch them, knowing that they are not us. We watch them for the entertainment, but slowly sometimes the behavior of these folks seep into our psyche. We must wean ourselves off of the thinking that they reflect on us, because they covertly damage unconscious thoughts we are presently healing. It is a difficult thing though. I watch these shows too! I was watching a wedding of a person on cable TV and saw the amount of money spent on one wedding. This is not your reality on TV. Do not aspire to it. Watch it if you must, but don’t aspire to it. When we see the waste, we must realize that this is not what our inheritance was meant for. This is not what our ancestors made for you. Make your own reality! But you know this already.
That is not to say that many of our ancestors have not wasted. However, to have not learned the lesson is harmful.
If you are privileged enough to own a television, do you ever, when you hear a horrific thing that someone has done, pray and say aloud, “Oh please don’t let that be a Black person” or “Please don’t let that be a Latino”? And when it comes over the TV that the person who killed all those children in the school was not of African descent, you breathe a sigh of relief. But, there should not be so few Black and beautiful Africans on TV that we have to pray for a horrific crime not to have been committed by us. We should have many positive representations to offset the negative in TV, Internet, newspapers, books, video games, apps, and even cartoons. Have you ever noticed in a dominant cartoon that when there is a mix of colors, very very rarely is the main character of African descent? 

Use television, if you do, to soothe; not to create anxiety and browbeat yourself. There are television programs and newspapers, not always in the mainstream programming, that show our children doing well, particularly on the public channels, so try to seek them out.
Just think, if you were born in the 1600s what your journey would be like. It is through our foremothers’ and fathers’ patience, endurance, and survival that you now ride. What if you were born in the 1600s, not yet taken from the shores of the motherland; imagine the day that you were kidnapped and placed in a boat with no room to move, shackled, and chained if you made it, if your bones were not thrown off the boat to the Atlantic Ocean bottom, you survived! And today, we all have our own personal demons or wounds within our present lives; we have survived. You are a survivor! That child has survived and you made it through. It is the strength, the determination, the persistence, the practice; it is the ancestral survival that today you ride on.  Count your blessings, because you are blessed. You are already blessed. So act with confidence that you are.
There will be many things I will ask you to forget, as you read, in order to gain your inheritance and true blessings. But just take one moment to know that your ancestors were wealthy, imagine it. See it as clear as the picture on a television screen —the riches. But not only that, also the wealth of all good things on this planet. You have descended from a rich wisdom of culture and knowledge. This is the knowledge you must take away from reading here. YOU have a duty to re-claim your fortune.

Celebrate! You are Victorious, you came through it.

Some of us are lucky to be in a place where you see many Black people in power. In some areas there are Blacks in government all of your lives. They may not be all good and they may be puppets, but you see a reflection of yourself in power. However, you may say, “Even with Blacks in all places, as police and government, all of my life there is still not anything happening for me.” This could be true, but your esteem and thinking of what you can be is greater than those who grew up with mostly non-African images and non-Black people in power. Yet, in the Western sphere, one Black person in power does not erase the low percentage of Black people in power, and consequentially doesn’t absolutely help to diminish our lack of self-esteem.
 
What To Do About Television, Video Games and the Like

​These commercials are going in the right direction

As I am - commercial

Dark and Lovely Au Natural commercial

Blackout for Human Rights and the Campaign for Black Male Achievement (CBMA) has hosted “MLK Now,” a special MLK Day event to celebrate and honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and explore how his message and vision continue to resonate in today's racial, social and political landscape. 

This took place at Harlem’s Riverside Church – where Dr. King performed his famous 1967 speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence” -- the event featured historic speeches performed by some of today’s leading actors/influencers -- including Actor and Civil Rights Icon Harry Belafonte, Actor and Comedian Chris Rock, Oscar-Winner Octavia Spencer, Creator and Star of the hit Broadway Musical "Hamilton" Lin Manuel Miranda, CREED Actors Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson, Tony Award Winner Anika Noni Rose, Actor Andre Holland, Actresses Condola Rashad and Adepero Oduye, and more. VICE  served as media partner on the event.

“MLK Now” featured musical performances by Rose, Grammy-Nominated Artist Bilal, Acclaimed Poet/Performer Saul Williams, and Grammy-Winning Artist India Arie, and closed off with an interactive panel discussion addressing the most pressing human rights issues of today – including police violence, racial and social injustice, economic inequality, the prison industrial complex and grassroots and political mobilization.

​Panelists included Filmmaker and Blackout Member Ryan Coogler, Grammy-Nominated Hip Hop Artist J. Cole, Urban Cusp Founder and Publisher Rahiel Tesfamariam, Arab American Association of New York Executive Director Linda Sarsour, Million Hoodies Movement for Justice Executive Director Dante Barry, Filmmaker/Activist and Sakofa.org Co-Director Gina Belafonte; and Activist Leon Ford, Jr. The panel was moderated by MSNBC National Reporter Trymaine Lee.
​​(Standard YouTube License)

This is an update on a blog I wrote a few years ago...
Happy Kwanzaa Everyone!
It’s 2015 and we are entering the new year of 2016 and I am celebrating Kwanzaa again this year. I love my holiday season. Many people do not celebrate… but my friends that do, bring such joy and the conversations that we have during that time about Africaness is so invigorating. Have you ever celebrated Kwanzaa?
This is a wonderful song that Teddy Pendergrass created outlining the 
7 principles. 
Have a listen. I love it!

“The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords is an engaging historical account that tells the story of the pioneering men and women of the Black press who gave voice to Black America.”

In New York (1827) the first Black newspaper “Freedom’s Journal”  was started. Because of the vilification in the white press and even proliferation of disgusting stereotypes of African Americans, the African American newspapers brought independent and an autonomous voice to many. This brought about pride, information, train schedule for those migrated up north for jobs, real measurement of black lives, and even etiquette. (As a side note: Because of the need of advertisements to publish some papers, some of the ads were not healthy for Black people). Churches were involved lending their printing presses. The Newspapers became a weapon. Hence ‘Soldiers Without Swords’.
Have a watch, the videos are very short:

Excerpt of the first part:

Excerpt of the second part: