The Cafe' [Think Tank]

The lynching and torture of blacks in the Jim Crow South weren’t just acts of racism. They were religious rituals. The cliché is that Americans have a short memory, but since Saturday, a number of us have  been arguing over  medieval religious wars and whether they have any lessons for today’s violence in the Middle East. For those still unaware, this debate comes after President Obama’s  comments  at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, where—after condemning Islamic radical group ISIS as a “death cult”—he offered a moderating thought. “Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ … So this is not unique to one group or one religion. There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith.” It’s a ...

"Comcast has not been a good business partner." 130,575 views Another major voice is speaking out about cable giant Comcast and its shaky relationship with Black business owners- and this time, it’s a company insider. On Friday,  Paula Madison , a former NBC Universal executive, released a statement alleging that the company left Black cable networks to fail, even while it touted them as examples of diversity. Comcast owns NBC Universal. Madison was present during MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) negotiations in 2011, in which Comcast agreed to launch channels led by Black entrepreneurs such as Sean “Diddy” Combs (REVOLT) and Magic Johnson (ARISE). However, Madison says her concerns about a lack of meaningful distribution (I.e. guaranteed subscribers and revenue), fell on deaf ears. “COMCAST MADE IT CLEAR THAT IT WAS ONLY COMMITTED TO LAUNCHING THESE NETWORKS, AND NOT GIVING THEM THE NECESSARY DISTRIBUTION AND ECONOMIC SUPPORT TO SUCCEED. PERIOD.” “I sh...

Nationwide  — Over the years, a disturbingly disproportionate number of Black women and girls across the United States have gone missing. What’s even more alarming is that the media coverage and legislation that missing Black girls are getting seems to be lacking compared to missing white girls. A  2010 study  about the media coverage of missing children in the United States discovered that only 20 percent of reported stories focused on missing Black children despite it corresponding to 33 percent of the overall missing children cases. Conclusively, the report said that missing Black youth — especially Black girls — are underreported in the news and it seems that many people don’t even care. According to reports, when Black girls go missing, it’s often unclear whether they have run away from home, were inflicted violence, abducted, sent into the sex industry, among others. Basically, their safety and assurance to be brought back home was commonly ignored and n...

Malcolm X was and will always be one of my heroes. I honor people willing to speak truth to power and have the courage of their convictions, but there is more to my admiration of this man. His economic views were and still are spot on with what the black community needs to do. In this video, X quickly breaks down what we need to do with our $20 billion dollars in annual spending power. That was in the 1960s when he was giving this speech. Today this number is over $1.2 billion dollars of spending annually. He even gives examples of others who have done it themselves without an education and no money. It’s a shame we don’t commit to doing the things he suggested in this video 50 odd years ago. We have the same leaders he spoke of then not using their influence to move the people into economic empowerment. It’s a shame we have all these intelligent people and still haven’t figured it out.

The Missouri House this week passed a bill that would allow public schools in the state to teach elective social studies courses on the Bible. The bill, sponsored by state Representative Ben Baker was passed by the Republican-led House with a 95-52 vote on Monday, according to  The Associated Press , and awaits passage by the Senate. The bill would allow Missouri public schools to offer Bible classes to their students as an elective, although institutions cannot make the courses mandatory. It also requires state education officials to set clear guidelines and standards if they chose to offer classes on the Old and New Testament. Baker, a minister and dean of students at Ozark Bible College, said the proposal was intended to clarify existing law, which had been inconsistently interpreted across the state to signal that Bible classes were prohibited. "The Bible is simply a part of the fabric of life," Baker told the Missouri House Special Committee on Student Accou...

African-American businessman William Holland's royal ancestors were subjected to slavery in Virginia — but they were handed over into slavery by Africans. Now a descendant of those tribespeople has issued a formal apology to Holland for his ancestors' role in the 18th-century slave trade. The head chieftain for the Cameroonian town of Bakou, Ngako Ngalatchui, told NBC News that he signed the statement on Saturday. "We are sorry and issue an official apology for our involvement and the involvement of our ancestors in the horrible institution of transatlantic slavery," the statement read. "The United States of America, France, and the United Kingdom should issue similar formal apologies for this evil institution that broke up families and caused generational hardships that continue to the present day." This isn't the first time Africans have acknowledged the historical role their forefathers played in slavery. It's long been known that, in ce...

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West arrive for the 2019 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 6, 2019, in New York. ANGELA WEISS | AFP | Getty Images By Jade Scipioni In 2016, rapper Kanye West made  headlines  when he begged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg via Twitter to invest $1 billion into his “ideas,” because he was personally $53 million in debt. West never got that billion from Zuckerberg (though they apparently became friends and  did karaoke together ), but it appears West has now healed his own financial woes: His apparel brand Yeezy is a billion-dollar empire, according to  Forbes , and over the past 12 months,  Forbes  estimates West has earned over $150 million (pretax). His income is due largely to Yeezy’s Adidas deal, a line that is expected to top $1.5 billion in sales in 2019. The rapper-turned-designer negotiated an unheard of 15% royalty on the wholesale price of his sneakers with the German shoemaker Adidas, pl...