The Power of Community

A question that is often asked is if the rich have a duty to help those who are less fortunate. The answer to this question often varies, depending on individual attitudes towards philanthropy. It's all built around helping those who need help in their times of distress. Often, distress might not be the issue, but rather, the idea is being able to appreciate the greater good and blessing in helping someone solve a need they have. This weekend, I had started off having what began as a civil conversation with someone I was newly acquainted. A few minutes into the conversation, two individuals within close proximity asked why I was yelling. I didn't realize I was, but all of a sudden as the topic of discussion veered from general politics to inequality and poverty in Nigeria, my voice went several decibels up. When I was finally cautioned and lowered my voice, I realized that I felt tired just from talking about what seemed to me like a problem with no real solutions.

The idea that poor countries should be allowed to wallow in their misery is a dangerous one because at the end of the day, the West suffers when poverty goes unchecked in developing countries. Just like it is often said that when the West sneezes the whole world catches a cold, so also, when poverty is left unchecked the West pays a high price. Besides religious fanaticism, I am deeply convinced that acts of terrorism that befall the United States and a great number of Western states is a result of unchecked extreme poverty in developing countries. In the words of Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, "You can never win a war against terror as long as there are conditions in the world that make people desperate - poverty disease and ignorance." Desperation leaves individuals feeling disempowered and lost, without viable options and choices. At least I can substantiate the last sentence because the times in my life when I have felt the least empowered have been times when I believed or felt I was without the ability to choose.

The lack of choice and the link to development is not lost on Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen whom I read extensively while studying for an advanced degree in international development. Sen has often stressed that extreme poverty limits the choices of individuals with the result that they feel hopeless. Hopelessness creates vulnerability and those who are vulnerable in my opinion are more likely to become potential recruits for acts of terrorism. While this connection between global terrorism and extreme poverty still remains unsubstantiated by scholars, it almost seems like a perfectly logical connection, one that take only a mild sprinkling of common sense and a critical eye to make.

Thus, I do not want to be all talk. I have a desire to be part of the problem of alleviating global poverty and this week, I will be traveling to Haiti, a country I became deeply acquainted with my senior year in college as I worked on an independent research paper that explored the origins of AIDS in Haiti. I will be traveling with a group of eleven people from my church and will be journaling extensively and look forward to sharing my travel diary on the blog upon my return. So, please keep me in your prayers and thoughts and if you would like to make a donation to support my trip please visit... http://www.gofundme.com/73mvdo. Your donations are tax deductible.

Charity Tuesday {How to Get Involved with a Charity Cause - Part 2}

Continued from last week...

4. Time. The quickest way to help is often simply by showing up. You will be surprised how far 30 minutes to an hour of your time can go. Volunteers who go the extra mile are not easily forgotten like Sonya Spann whom Jones credits for managing and coordinating FACE Africa’s annual gala and fundraiser held every March to commemorate World Water Day.

5. Money. You may not be making a lot of money now, but you can give financially in a way that is tangible. While you may have to wait a while longer for that luxury item that $500 you planned on spending on an Hermes belt or a pair of Christian Louboutin pumps may change the lives of thousands of people. Further, you can either give to a cause directly, or you can fund others who are involved by supporting them in their endeavor.

6. Publicity. Using social media as a tool to spread information about your favorite charity can be very helpful. Repost, retweet, and spread the word about your favorite charity. Your laptop is a powerful tool and you can create awareness about a cause and share a story from behind your desk simply by liking or reposting a link. One of the most compelling stories of the power of social media on spreading awareness was the KONY 2012 saga. By coordinating volunteers who wielded all avenues of social media, the organization, Invisible Children was able to get 3.7 million people to pledge their support for the arrest of Joseph Kony and members of the Lord’s Resistance Army with the help of a video that was shared extensively on several media outlets. 

Good deeds beget more good deeds so use these tools to get started on building a charitable lifestyle.

Women and Late Night Television

A reprint of my article published in Levo League. For the original publication, click here. 

With Jay Leno leaving the Tonight Show and Jimmy Fallon stepping in to fill his shoes, there was much speculation about who would replace Fallon in his slot on Late Night. After the round of late night musical chairs, NBC will bring in Seth Meyers to host Late Night while Fallon will move over to host The Tonight Show. 

According to Nielsen Co. ratings, women make up the majority of the audiences for most major late night shows leading inquiring minds to wonder why women are not hosting the shows. 

The failure of major networks to crown a queen of late night is not for a lack of candidates. Names that have been thrown around for the crown include Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler, Aisha Tyler, Tina Fey, Sarah Silverman, Amy Sedaris, and Samantha Bee. However, despite these women possessing what many perceive to be the elements for late night success, it seems like we might even get a female president before we see a woman host a late night talk show on a major network since Joan Rivers got nixed from the spot years ago after a short stint deemed a failure by the network. Sadly, women are not the only losers in the game, minorities such as George Lopez, Wanda Sykes and Monique were also handed pink slips by their respective networks. 

Late night talk show hosts wield a revered place in popular culture. They bring to the table a passive-aggressive sort of charm and they not only define pop culture, but also become the epitomes of pop culture themselves.

At first glance, the required ingredients to dominate the late night spot seems to be a mix of approach, unique quirks and personal style of delivery. 

However, it has been argued that the bottom line to getting hired for a late night talk show slot is having a comedic bone and the contention then follows that having two X chromosomes does not make for the snarky grit required of late night talk show hosts.  

The typical television show host is the quirky white male, reminiscent of the class clown, a role that some argue doesn’t fit the female persona quite seamlessly. The late night talk show host is supposed to be the unapologetic potty mouth whose jokes might be cringe worthy on daytime television but lauded past 11:30PM. Thus, the slapstick humor, wise cracks and fun poking seem like skills guys hone on the playground and in the locker room as they prepare to navigate a world where they go for the verbal kill with their wit. The claim is that these are skills females do not perfect at slumber parties or at ballet recitals and are certainly not encouraged to hone. 

There is a difference when compared to daytime television where there is the need for more wholesome family friendly programming, where audience members might get cars and hidden treasures under their seats. Late night television does not bother with being politically correct or swaying audiences to sample new treats but is about the funny guy who is brash and witty at the same time and can get quick laughs in a matter of seconds.

Besides the argument that women lack the comedic skills to thrive, another claim is that the networks are delivering the personalities that audiences want. 

Late night talk shows often rely on one-liners that seemingly have no plot and get quick laughs from the audience, and it seems as though this genre of comedy may come more easily to men. Daytime talk shows that have been dominated by women like Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, and lately Queen Latifah and Bethenny Frankel rely on topical plots and in depth conversations with guests on the show. Audiences flock to these shows because the hosts have a persona that becomes a cult of sorts, just ask Oprah adherents. 

In that regard, Chelsea Handler seems to be getting the job done as her appeal and sense of humor is similar to that of the boys, resting on one-liners and the same wise cracking jokes that male hosts deliver. Thus, Handler shows that women can thrive on a late night slot debunking the idea that a female cannot rock the late night spot just like Steve Harvey is thriving on daytime television in a role that has been dominated previously by women. 

However, the biggest game changer that will catapult women to the frontlines [and is often overlooked] is what goes on behind the scenes. 

Late night talk show hosts are just one part of the well-oiled late night machine whose role is to deliver the punch lines that teams behind the scenes spend grueling hours fitting together. At the end of the day there is a need that the joke when delivered sounds like it is coming from the mouth of the writer. So, when male writers dominate, the tendency is to write jokes for other males to deliver and the battle to see a woman delivering these jokes may not be successful until there is a change in the gender of the writers behind the scenes. Women still struggle to get the jobs behind the scenes and the fact that Amber Ruffin just became the first ever black female writer for a late night talk show gives a glimpse of the magnitude of the challenge.

So, since women have proven that they have the comedic skills, personalities with mass appeal, and excellent writing skills why are they still not hosting the shows and why the glass ceiling? Seriously, networks have to be more honest about why they are building the late night circuit as another old boys’ association because really finding the right host should be about someone with the proper work ethic who is the right fit for the show and can hold the audience’s attention irrespective of gender.

Charity Tuesday {How to Get Involved with a Charity -Part 1}

In a Google search for the word charity, over 300 million responses were retrieved in 32 seconds. Unquestionably, charity and philanthropy are an important element of American culture and have defined several important moments in the history of this country. American history is replete with great examples of charitable endeavors such as the founding of the American Red Cross by Clara Barton that was instrumental in providing much needed assistance to American troops during the Spanish-American War to modern day efforts by philanthropists like Oprah Winfrey, Bill and Melinda Gates and Ted Turner who have used their wealth and influence to enhance lives across the globe. 

However, charity does not have to involve great wealth or influence. Anyone can give because we all have something that someone elsewhere needs and it is never too late to build a life that is designed around being charitable. Like other habits or behaviors, charity can be learned by constantly looking beyond ourselves to meet the needs of other. So you might be thinking, I don’t have an account the size of Warren Buffet’s and I have not won the lottery recently. For those of you that are short on funds or are novices to the culture of charity, here are a few suggestions that can help you jumpstart a rewarding lifestyle of philanthropy. 

1. Passion. The most important thing to consider when seeking to get involved with a charity or a charitable cause is to find out what makes you tick. It is easier to make a worthwhile contribution to a cause when you have a level of passion that is unmatched. Passion is what fills up buses and fuels picketers who leave their jobs, families, and comfort of a warm and cozy bed to make the drive of several hundred miles in some cases to Washington D.C. to campaign on the lawns of the mall. Finding what you are passionate about answers the questions of what kind of charitable efforts to get involved in. 

2. First thing first. So you have the passion, now what’s next? Do your research on the organization you choose especially if you are getting involved remotely. Do not be afraid to ask for annual reports or audit documents that show where the money is going, how much the staff is being paid and how much actually goes to funding the actual cause. If you are going to donate your time or other resources to a charitable cause make sure the organization you are serving operates in an ethical manner both from the place of operation and in the field where they carry out their work. Do they use sweatshops, are their workers underpaid, do they overlook abuse, are they comfortable with gender inequality? In essence, be a socially responsible philanthropist. 

3. Skill. Once the charity you are interested in receives the green light, the next step is an inventory of your skills. If you are an expert in the kitchen, consider using your skills to help in a soup kitchen. Saran Kaba Jones, founder of FACE Africa, a non-profit that provides clean water in Liberia, notes that individuals with specific skills and expertise in areas such as accounting, communications, grant proposal writing amongst others are invaluable to organizations such as hers that are young start ups with limited funding to hire talent. 

Loveless on Valentine's Day

Few things in the world beat fresh floral arrangements and I have been able to indulge in actually stopping and smelling the roses more actively in the last couple of days because I've seen them at every turn. Initially, I was lost until I had my Aha! Moment. It's almost that day, the one day called Valentine's Day. I've never really considered it to be a big deal, but for some people, it is indeed a big deal and there's no use convincing them otherwise. Days before Valentine's Day approaches, some people either start to fall physically ill or check out mentally because they do not have a special person in their life to share the day with. A special day to show love or celebrate love seems to me like the biggest hoax ever cooked up. Why do we need a day to show love to the people in our lives? Reading through some of my social media feed, it seems like some people are actually losing sleep and super unhappy about today. If that's you, read on...

In March last year, I went to Jamaica with two of my sisters and a few friends for a couple of days. While there, I bought a bottle of rum for my brother as a souvenir. Upon my return, I mailed the rum to his address in Chicago and waited a few days for him to call me and announce that he had received the bottle. Two weeks later over a phone call, I finally asked if he had received the package and he said he had not. I mailed the package via Priority Mail and at this point the delivery was way overdue. Nothing had been returned back to my address and the concierge in his building did not have the package and it certainly was not in his mailbox either. I then asked him to recite his address to make sure I had the correct address and then I discovered my mistake. Now, the numerical portion of his address was '5650' but I thought it was '5600' so I mailed it to the latter. Well, turns out the 5600 building has an apartment number identical to his and the package got delivered to that address. At this point, it was almost three weeks since the package had been delivered.

My brother then decided he would go to the 5600 building to make some inquiries. He got there and after some conversation with the concierge he was directed to the apartment that was the same number as his. He knocks on the apartment door and crazy lady answers. He told her he thought a package might have been wrongly delivered to her. Crazy lady said she had the package and had kept it. Now, why would anyone keep a strange looking package that clearly belonged to someone else in their apartment for three weeks? I thought the proper thing was to return it back to the post office or leave it in the mailbox with a note for the post master. My brother and I were shocked and amused by crazy lady and laughed our heads off at her antics. I'm not sure why I thought about this story, but it brings me to an important question. Which would you rather be? Crazy or 'loveless' on Valentine's Day? To feel unloved today is quite a shame because no one really is unloved. Try dying today and you'll be amazed at the love. People will speak all sorts of niceties about the person you were, even though they may not all be true (but I digress). Even the homeless man is missed when he dies. If this does not cheer you up, then hopefully knowing you are loved by The Harriet Project might do the trick. So, for what it is worth, Happy Valentine's Day.

Happy Love Week!

It's love week and I'm sure you've been swarmed by seas of reds and pinks in all shades. I found the above animation of a Brooklyn couple share the endearing story of their love and loss on a blog I visit quite often. I hope that all looking for love someday find the love that's the best fit. Happy Love Week! {Animated by Story Corps}

Charity Tuesday {End It Movement}

Modern Day Slavery and human trafficking are much larger issues than the mainstream press has given any attention to in the past decade. It is astounding that in our present day, humans, mostly women and children are being trafficked across local and international borders and sold in a manner that some have argued rivals the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. I highlighted an organization last week that was doing its part to rescue slaves that have been caught in this unfortunate market. I can be much of an optimist in some situations, however, I am weary of slogans and attempts at ending or eradicating ills of any sort. I do not believe such feats are possible because honestly they are not. What I believe we can do is educate people on the ills that plague our world from enslavement to hunger and diseases and hope that every human who is aware will play a role in rescuing [a] person from whatever prison walls they are trapped behind. If one person is rescued, that is one less slave, one less hungry child...I believe you get the idea. Thus, today, I am featuring an organization I am familiar with, Generation 268, that is affiliated with Passion City Church in the city of Atlanta. Generation 268 began a powerful movement, "End It Movement" that seeks to rescue enslaved individuals. On February 27, 2014, the End It Movement hopes to spur individuals across the globe to join in an awareness drive on the issue. To find out more information on how to join the movement please click here.