Kwanzaa has seven core principles, or Nguzo Saba. The following represents my application of the principles over the last year:

The council has before it a law establishing mandatory minimum sentence of one year for carrying a handgun near places of public assembly; despite sufficient research indicating that the use of mandatory minimums is ineffective.

Black dance students have shared instances of racial insensitivity at the least and better yet outright racism at the worse

Mother's Day while driving home, I witnessed what could have been a tragedy. A few children were riding bikes along the sidewalk in front of the demolition site that was the location of four Baltimore brownstones. The demolition site had a gaping hole in the ground--approximately six feet deep--and security fencing was not set up to prohibit unauthorized access to the property. If any one of the children had lost control of their bikes, they could have fallen into the hole and been seriously injured.

Real talk, our money is funny. To keep it short and simple: we not saving enough, we are not investing enough and our money doesn’t circulate in our community long enough.

If Patti's Pies can generate over 1 million dollars in sales in one weekend ; we can certain leverage our spending collectively over the upcoming holiday weekend to mint some new multiple thousandaires among black business owners

Recently, I watched The History Channel's The Men Who Built America. Although the documentary is very informative about the accomplishments of those men it profiled. The programs title is disingenuous.

As a citizen of the State of Maryland, I am writing you to inquire about how your administration plans to address a number of important issues.  During your campaign, you openly courted African-Americans for our support and our votes; which is something that the party to which you belong often fails to do

This summer I was given the opportunity to travel to Nairobi, Kenya to visit a friend interning with IBM Research Africa.  As I prepared for the trip I outlined the places to see and things to do while in Kenya. At the top of my priority list was visiting Mary Help of the Sick Mission Hospital (MHSMH). 

As we watch parents daily on the news or in our families and communities kill, abuse and abandon their children I think we need to start speaking the whole truth about parenting. In my estimation, these are the truths that are missing from our promotion of parenthood:

At first it may seem so but after you strip away the apple pie nostalgia and battle hymn patriotism there lies a simple truth in America; one's freedom is tied inextricable to access to capital and the ability to manipulate it to one's benefit.

I have been known to be very black or white in my perceptions but as it pertains to fear I think that fear is both.  The trick is discerning
 the nature of our fear in a given situation.  

Fear is your foe when it is rooted in a desire to avoid change or challenge. 

I don't seek to trade one group of "control-crazed" maniacs for another simply because the one happens to share the same genitalia. 

It doesn’t matter if you’re Ray Rice or Marissa Alexander - once the police decide to arrest you, the presumption of innocence goes out the window and the perception of guilt is applied.