Volume1 Issue 3 Serving the San Fernando Valley and Beyond Sayitloudnews.googlepages.com March/April 2008

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BRAZILIAN MINIS-TRY OF TOURISM

SALVADOR, Bra-zil, March 14-- While on an official visitto Brazil, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made one of her lifelongdreams come true: vis-iting the capital of Ba-hia, Salvador, one of theglobal centers for Af-rican culture outside of the African content. “Coming to Bahia was a personal desire. I had been hearing about [it]for years; Salva-dor is a great city and all this is due to theAfro-Brazilian commu-nity here. Of course, I am of Afro-descent and I havealways believed that Bra-zil and the USA, in certain aspects, are more alikethan any other two coun-tries in the world,” stat-ed Rice, in an interviewwith Globo TV. “Here we find the traditions of the European, Latin andAfrican, everybody living side by side. So I wanted to come to Bahia and Ican tell I was not wrong. It is beautiful here. I

only regret having takenso long to come.” Rice’s trip began with a ceremonial dinner with key leaders andBrazilian officials, including the Gov-ernor of Bahia, Jacques Wagner, andthe Brazilian Minister of Tourism, Mrs. Marta Su-plicy. Highlights includedperformances from two famous Brazilian musi-cians, Minister of CultureGilberto Gil and s i n g e r / c o m p o s -er Carlinhos Brown. Rice’s cultural tour also involved a visit to the famous Nossa Senhorado Rosario dos Pretos church which was built in 1704 and serves as animportant symbol for the Afro-Brazilian commu-nity. She also visited theAfro Museum of Ba-hia in Terreiro de Je-sus where she watched a performanceby Olodum, one of the most famous Afro-Brazilian mu-sic and dance groups. Upon the conclusion of her trip, Rice promised

to promote Bahia andBrazil in the United States. Brazilian Minister of Tourism, Marta Suplicy,highlighted Brazil’s comprehensive com-munications strat-egy that promotesits cultural diversity in the American market. “Bahia is an important tourism destination for ethno-tourists and theAfrican community, as it combines the historical and cultural sides to animpressive range of at-tractions, such as beaches, gastronomy, artistry andsports,” explained Minister Suplicy. Interest in ethno-tour-ism, the exploration of ethnic origins, continuesto grow. With cultural di-versity that includes Afri-cans, indigenous Indiansand Portuguese, Bra-zil is one of the top, global ethno-touristd e s t i n a t i o n s . Brazil’s Ministry of Tour-ism will invest $16 mil-lion USD to promote thecountry and its culture to Americans in 2008.

Condoleezza Rice Wowed by Beauty of Brazil Rice experiences Brazil’s unique culture during South American trip

PG 7

According to a new na-tional study among 798 self-reported Democrats, Republicans and inde-pendents, the majority across all parties indi-cated that they are “less likely” to support Sena-tor Obama after viewing segments of his former pastor’s sermons. The study was con-ducted by HCD Research earlier today, to obtain Americans’ perceptions of video segments of ser-mons given by Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s former pastor, in which he makes ra-cially charged comments directed toward Hillary Clinton and other state-ments denouncing the United States as racist. While viewing seg-ments of the video, par-ticipants indicated theirlevels of agreement by moving their mouse from left to right on acontinuum. The respons-es were recorded in quarter-second intervals and reported in the form of curves. Participants were asked pre- and post-viewing questions regarding their support for Barack Obama. To view detailed results and agreement curves, go to: http://www.media-

curves.com Among the study findings:

Democrats Less Likely to Sup-port Obama after Viewing Pastor’s Sermons Majority Believe Obama’s Religious Ties will Hurt Cam-paign Efforts

CSUN Club Making Music For Today’s YouthAfrican American Music Association Host Annual Festival

TERRIN DEVON COLEMAN

Case Type: Endangered RunawayDOB: Dec 21, 1990 Sex:MMissing Date: 2/8/08 Race:BlackAge Now: 17 Height: 5’6 Weight: 140lbsMissing city/state: Red-lands, CA Eye Color:BrownMissing Number: NCMC1089988Circumstances: Coleman may have traveled to Los Ange-les, Calif. He has a scar between his eyes.

Members of the African A m e r i c a n Music As-

sociation at California State University North-ridge are hosting their annual African American Music Festival, giving youth around the com-munity an opportunity to participate in music, college, and leadership workshops. The festivities will begin March 24th at CSUN’s University Stu-dent Union located at 18111 Nordhoff Street with a writer’s workshop in Contemporary Wor-ship Music from six to ten in the evening, which will conclude on Tuesday evening. Wednesday and Thursday will include events for junior high and high school students with special concert se-ries workshops, leader-ship panel discussions and a writer’s workshop.Students from local schools will gain infor-mation on Gospel music, Rhythm and Blues, and writing. They will meet with some of today’s musicians and recording executives such as gos-pel recording artist Elder Rodney Posey. A recording session will be held March 29th

the last day of the festi-val where students will perform a concert for the community at Calvary Baptist Church in Paco-ima. Pan African Studies Professor and A2MA Advisor Deborakh Broadous said the festi-val’s main goal is to help educate students on the importance of music. “It’s just a conversation that will go along,” she said. “Everything from African music to the mu-sic that Americans have contributed to America.”Broadous said the festi-

val gives an opportunity to those students who are less fortunate than others. She said more and more schools are cutting back on its performing arts programs which leave those disadvantaged stu-dents, whose parents can’t afford private mu-sic lessons, in the dark with no where to turn. She said each year motivates the members of A2MA and herself to host a bigger and better festival. A2MA President Eri-qua Joseph said her mo-tivation in particular is

the students. “The kids that come every year are what moti-vate me,” she said. “The students that come and get the chance to experi-ence and learn what they can’t at their schools.” She went on to say that every year someone brings something new to the table. “We have a lot of new things coming this year,” she said. The association is cele-brating its ninth year and is continuing to make music for today’s youth.

FELICIA SERRANOSay It Loud! Contributor

25 under 25Say It Loud! is looking for young people under the age of 25 that are making a differ-ence in their com-munity. More in-formation will be available on our website Sayitloud-news.googlepag-es.com/

See OBAMA PG 3

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One of the main sticking points in this supposed conflict between our two communities is the scar-city of jobs, and the fact that African Americans feel that the incoming La-tino immigrants (whether legal or illegal) are tak-ing those jobs away that rightfully belong to them. There is also the feeling that Latinos are encroaching onto other societal territories that used to be predominated by African Americans, and are in a sense push-ing them out, or mak-ing them obsolete. These points, among others, should be thoroughly examined, and put into their proper prospective.

J o b s / E m p l o y m e n t So, exactly which jobs exist that only Afri-can Americans can do? I’m always at a loss when-ever I hear this particular statement. Personally, it makes it sound as if we are supposed to be genet-ically predisposed to do a particular task that no other race of people can do. And which jobs are they taking away from

us, exactly? I know plen-ty of brothers and sisters who work at city jobs; bus drivers, sanitation workers, DMV, social services, etc. Are they swiping those jobs from us? And, since when are low paying, low-skilled blue collar labor jobs relegated only to African Americans? Last time I checked, it wasn’t up to us as far as who got hired at certain low-skill level jobs. If a grimy busi-ness owner chooses to hire an immigrant (La-tino or otherwise) over a citizen just so that he can financially exploit that worker at these jobs, then that’s on the busi-ness owner. You need to hold that business owner accountable, not blame the immigrant worker. Another thing is that we don’t pool our resources together like we should, and create our own economy. If we created our own econo-my, we can create jobs for our own people. We wouldn’t have to rely on the mainstream society to provide us with jobs. If this sounds like I’m talking about national-ism, it’s because I AM! Other immigrant groups that come to this country practice some form of nationalism. That’s how you are able to have cer-tain communities (and I do mean communities, not just neighborhoods) that are able to prosper in some of this coun-try’s larger inner cities. You have a number of “Chinatowns,” “Little Italys,” “Little Koreas,” and so on, that exist in some of America’s ma-jor cities. Immigrants will come here, pool their resources together, and the next thing you

Blacks vs. Latinos: Competition is None

EARL OFARI HUTCHISONNew America Media, Commentary

A GOP presidential can-didate has had more of a chance of getting hit on the head by a

meteorite than carrying California in the general election. Bush, Papa Bush that is, in 1988 was the last one to pull it off, but just barely. In the two decades since then it was a rare sight to see a GOP presidential candidate – say Bob Dole in 1996 or Bush Jr. in 2000 and 2004 – traipse through the state in search of votes. The few times they came here, it was little more than a day trip to attend a pricey fundraising dinner and grab some campaign cash from a hand-ful of wealthy GOP-leaning CEOs. Democrats Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004 also made only a brief appearance to collect campaign cash from their Hollywood or Silicon Valley back-ers, and then they quick-ly sped off to the more lucrative vote hunting grounds in Ohio, Flor-ida, Pennsylvania and Missouri. These are the states that for the past de-cade have been consid-ered make or break states to win. In other words, a vote in South Los Ange-les is taken for granted, whereas Republicans

and Democrats fierce-ly battle over a vote in South Columbus, Ohio. This time around, things could be dif-ferent. The Feb. 5 pri-mary offered two tips that a competitive race could be in the cards and what that will mean for the state’s voters. In the month be-fore the primary, Hill-ary Clinton and Barack Obama battled across the state. There were Clin-ton and Obama sightings in Watts, Beverly Hills, East Los Angeles, Oak-land, the San Joaquin Valley and San Diego. They held rallies, town halls, and visited church-es. They spent tons of money on ads, put a small army of campaign workers in the streets, and furiously courted the state’s top African-American and Latino elected officials. Most importantly, they talked about health care, edu-cation, immigration, and the economy, and – even more importantly – vot-ers got a chance to probe them about these issues beyond mere sound bites. The other tip was the relative suc-cess John McCain had in getting the Hispanic vote. Latino voters make

up about 30 percent of the voters in California. If Obama is the eventual Democratic nominee, McCain will be in a good position to match or even exceed the number of Latino votes Bush got before him. His moderate stance on im-migration, which got him into hot water with some GOP conservatives, will be a plus with the state’s Latino voters. Latinos make up about 15 percent of the state’s Republican vote, and McCain got nearly 40 percent of that vote in the GOP prima-ry. The prospect of pad-ding his Latino vote total is too irresistible to pass up – even though there could be a risk of further alienating ultraconserva-tives. But it’s a risk he’d be foolish not to take. Especially since Obama has a problem that presents an un-dreamed of possibility for McCain. That’s the reluctance of many Lati-no voters to back Obama. That could include many Latino Democrats. Despite a huge blitz by Obama in California be-fore the primary, Clin-ton trounced him among Latino voters. Their vote for her powered her win. There’s absolutely no as-

surance that, with Clinton out of the picture, Latinos would stampede the polls with the same passion and numbers for Obama that they did for Clinton. He would still get the majority percentage of the Latino vote — most are Democrats — but it’s the numbers in a tight, hotly contested race that will determine the win-ner or loser in California. The prospect of a lackluster response from Latino voters in the state would compel Obama to campaign harder in the state to get Latino votes. He would have to talk about immigration re-form, health care, educa-tion and jobs. That would be the price to ramp up his weak Latino base of support in the state. If Clinton is the nominee, she will get the enthusiastic back-ing of the state’s Latino voters, but she will also single-handedly rev up the state’s GOP conser-vatives, and especially the evangelicals. The un-derwhelming enthusiasm of many conservatives for McCain would be in-stantly shoved aside. He would be the immediate beneficiary of their “any-body-but-Hillary” mania. The likelihood, no matter how remote, that

California could slip out of the Democrats’ orbit will also work well for the GOP in that it will force the Democratic Party to devote more campaign time and re-sources to the state. This will divert funds from the other battleground states. California is sim-ply too big and too im-portant to continue to be relegated to backwater status by the GOP and the Democrats in their slog to the White House. And this is the election that might change that.

New America Medianewamericamedia.orgEarl Ofari Hutchison, March 19, 2008Copyright©New America Media

know, their community has grown significantly. For African Amer-icans, we haven’t prac-ticed that type of soli-darity since Jim Crow. We’re so happy to inte-grate with massa, or be the HNIC, [head n****r in charge] that we choose not to work together, or support each other eco-nomically. People would constantly look at me funny if I were to tell them to support a black-owned business, or just ‘buy black’. They would consider my way of thinking irrelevant, and outdated. Yet, they are the first ones to complain that you have all of these ‘foreign’ businesses in our neighborhoods, and that we couldn’t get any black-owned businesses in our own neighbor-hoods to save our lives. Well, did you support them when they were in the neighborhood? Do you at least try to make it a habit to support a black business? I rest my case.

S p o r t s I’ve been reading recently in certain black publications about the lack of African-Ameri-can ballplayers in Ma-jor League Baseball, and how that has now become a major concern. They site the influx of Latino and Asian ballplayers now in the game, and how the lack of African-American representation is cause for alarm. It was a bit curious on my part, because they kept say-ing African American, and not black. Oh wait, that’s right…you do have black ballplayers in Major League Baseball! They’re just not ‘Amer-ican’. Well … North American, I should say … Remember Or-

lando “El Duque” Her-nandez? He used to pitch for the New York Yan-kees. He was a pitch-ing phenomenon out of Cuba. Both he and his brother Livan Hernan-dez defected from Cuba to play professionally in the United States. They were Afro-Cubans. How about Sammy Sosa, one of three people to break Roger Maris’ single-sea-son homerun record? Can you deny his African roots? There are many others that I can cite that are playing, or have played in the League. At the same time, is there really an interest among African Americans to want to play professional baseball? The number of African Americans that I have questioned about this issue have all stated how boring they found baseball to be. They would barely watch the World Series, much less the regular season. They would always be more in-terested in college or pro basketball, or be more caught up on the cur-rent football season. And now, with the influx of immigrants from the Ca-ribbean, Latin America, and continental Africa, soccer is gaining a grow-ing fan base in the U.S. Also, Little League teams are usually funded by the local city; if they cut the budget, they can’t play a season. Not to mention, it takes a lot of space, people, and equipment to play a game. Playing one-on-one can get you pitching and hitting…what about the fielding aspect of the game? With basketball, all that you need is a ball and a hoop; with foot-ball, all you really need is the ball itself. There were many days in my

youth that I remem-ber playing crateball, or street football. Base-ball was a wee bit more complicated to organize.

Competition is None So, who are we really fighting against? Should you be less up-set if the immigrant you were passed over for was black, or European? Let’s not try to act as if Latinos are the only ones that are coming into this country, whether legally or not. You have Euro-peans sneaking into this country just as much as everyone else. This is nothing more than about, both exploitation, and control. We’re not los-ing our homes, jobs, or neighborhoods to any-one (well…except to the Powers that be, of course). If we were truly handling our business, none of this would even be an issue. We showed how much of an econom-ic force we could be dur-ing the times of segrega-tion. Because of the fact that we’ve become so in-dividualistic now, we’ve become defenseless to those that choose to ex-ploit and suppress us. Maybe if we practiced a little more solidarity, we wouldn’t be dealing with some of these issues that concern us today. These issues are not new to us, and are not that compli-cated to figure out. These are the same old tactics, just dressed up in a new outfit. Let’s try learning from our mistakes for once, shall we?

New America Medianewamericamedia.orgKevin Alberto SabioFeb 2, 2008Copyright©New America Media

Could California Be in Presidential Play Again?

KEVIN ALBERTO SABIOBlacktino e-News Network, Commentary

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SAY IT LOUD! Be Proud. The San Fernando Valley’s Black Newspaper 3

The staff at Say It Loud! would like to congratulate the African American Mu-sic Association at Cal State Northridge on their 9th Annual African American Mu-sic Festival.

Thank you for your continued support of the arts. We look forward to 2009 as you celebrate your 10-year anniversary.

Dr. Mark Drum-mond, Chan-cellor of the Los Angeles

Community College Dis-trict (“the District”) re-leased the findings of the District’s investigation into allegations of racial profiling made by Afri-can-American students, faculty and staff of racial profiling, stemming from actions by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s per-sonnel on the campus of Los Angeles Trade Tech-nical College (“Trade Tech”). The Sheriff’s Department contracts with the District to pro-vide police and security services at all nine of the District’s colleges. On October 17, 2007, a contingent of Sheriff’s personnel conducted a “saturation” of an area of the campus in search of illegal narcotics sales and detained 33 people,

all African-Americans, as part of the “satura-tion”. Only one non-Af-rican American was de-tained, a Latino student who was videotaping the incident. The findings of the District’s investiga-tion have substantiated the allegations of racial profiling by the Sheriff’s Department Personnel. Dr. Drummond stated that when the District was notified of the in-cident, the District, the Sheriff’s Department and Trade Tech initi-ated immediate inves-tigations. Moreover, prior to the completions of these investigations, significant measures have been instituted to preclude recurrence of similar incidents. Sev-eral of those actions are:

A new District policy has been issued delineat-ing review and approval

procedures that governs policing activities on all nine college campuses within the district.

Meetings have been held with stakeholder groups to include faculty, staff and most importantly students, to discuss the incident and proactive steps moving forward.

Members of the Dis-trict and the Board of Trustees have attended meetings with com-munity-based organiza-tions, concerned citi-zen groups and the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission, to discuss the incident and proactive steps moving forward.

Volunteer task forces have been established at Trade Tech to enhance communications among campus stakeholder

groups and to act as an advisory resource for the college president.

Counseling services have been offered to the students involved.

In light of the findings of the investigation, Dr. Drummond issued the fol-lowing statement: “The Los Angeles Com-munity College District is the largest and most diverse community col-lege district in the United States. The policy of the District is to provide an educational, employment and business environ-ment free from any form of unlawful discrimina-tion or harassment. The incident occurring on October 17, 2007 at Los Angeles Trade Technical College was not in con-cert with our stated pol-icy or our commitment to our students. Addi-

tionally, the incident was embarrassing, regret-table and intolerable. We are taking all nec-essary steps on our part to limit and prevent the occurrence of any such incidents in the future.” “Upon requesting in-vestigations into the inci-dent, I promised that the findings of the investiga-tion would be transparent and publicized widely. Today, I am following through on that promise. The intent is that such an incident should never happen on any of the col-lege campuses within the Los Angeles Community College District. In ad-dition to the actions al-ready taken prior to the release of the results of the investigation, I plan to take other actions that increase the sensitiv-ity of the treatment and needs of all students.”

LACCD RELEASES FINDINGS OF INVESTIGATION INTO NARCOTICS “SATURATION” BY THE SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT AT L.A. TRADE-TECH

The UCLA African Student Union is host-ing a Black Pac X Statewide Conference for Black Student Leadership April 3-6, 2008. The theme is “The Struggle Inside” and will address issues faced by Black col-lege students on predominantly white cam-puses on the west coast. To find out more info visit pacxconference@googlegroups.com or sayitloudnews.googlepages.com/.

Join the 2M+ California Voter Education Proj-ect, www.BeThaChange.com, to become part of a growing movement of young people who are willing to change the future of their country and their communities through civic engage-ment and civic participation. Register now to participate at the “Leadership Summit” sched-uled for Saturday, March 22, 2008 at the USC Davidson Conference Center. Register early, seating will be limited www.bethachange.com.

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After viewing the video, are you more likely or less likely to supportSenator Barack Obama?

Democrats Republi-cans IndependentsMore likely 19% 7% 18%Less likely 52% 71% 54%Don’t know 28% 22% 29%

Do you think Barack Obama’s religious ties to Jeremiah Wright will help or hurt his cam-

paign efforts?Prior to viewing the

video segments:Democrats Republi-cans IndependentsHelp 6% 2% 5%Hurt 64% 71 % 65%Don’t Know 30% 27% 30%After viewing the video segments: Democrats Republi-cans IndependentsHelp 7% 6% 9%Hurt 77% 84% 78%Don’t Know 16% 10% 14%

OBAMA from PG 1

SAY IT LOUD! Be Proud. The San Fernando Valley’s Black Newspaper 4

In Celebration of Women’s History Month

Deborakh A. Edgerton Broadous Marie Lemelle

Meme Kelly

Shirley Martin

Sandra Crouch

LaRita Shelby is a proud resident of Studio City who ushers her son back and forth to Carpenter El-ementary while juggling her career as an actress & singer with a day job in radio. Yes, music has al-ways been a special part of LaRita’s life and she’s finally fulfilled her mother’s dream for her to pursue music professionally. Currently Miss Shelby is cel-ebrating the completion of her debut album with her co-composer Willie Daniels. The album is titled “A Date With A Song” and features production by her musical mentor Stafford Floyd, multiple Grammy Award Winning producer Andre’ Fischer and the ever wonderful Michael Wells. As an actress LaRita has appeared on television and in film projects such as the motion picture South Central, No Way Back,American Crude, Walk By Faith and the forthcom-ing Kings Of The Evening. Miss Shelby has also enjoyed a tremendous career in radio. She is chief journalist for Lee Bailey’s Radioscope and she has been a voice-over artist for Tom Joyner, Ta-vis Smiley, Faith Mate, Union Bank of California and numerous other clients. LaRita is also very committed to community involvement through-out greater Los Angeles. She is a member of Sig-ma Gamma Rho Sorority and is a frequent host of community events held by The National Council of Negro Women, The Black Chamber of Com-merce of Orange County, The New Frontier Dem-

LaRita Shelby

Carla Valentine

Pearl Jr.

Marie Y. Lemelle is the founder of Platinum Star Public Relations, a full-service public relations company. Her career covers the gamut from boxing to the music in-dustry and from corporations to nonprofit organizations. Ms. Lemelle is an activist about the issues affecting our communities, women, and the youth. For her unwavering commitment to the community, she received certificates of recognition from elected officials including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas, Congress-woman Diane E. Watson, and Assemblywoman Karen Bass. In 2008, Ms. Lemelle was appointed to the City of Glendale Commission on the Status of Women. She received the 2008 Women of Excellence Award for Com-munity Service from the National Association of Female Executives. In 2007, she was named Community Advo-cate of the Year by the National Council of Negro Women. As a journalist, her writing appears in the In-land Valley News, the Immigrant Magazine, Save the Date Magazine, Our Weekly, and other publica-tions. As a television producer, she hosted the pub-lic access cable show, “Beyond the News,” which guests included the late Yolanda King, and the South

Africa ensemble cast from the Disney production, “The Lion King.” Ms. Lemelle serves on the advisory board for the African American Fire-fighter Museum. She is a member of the New Frontier Democratic Club, National Association of Female Executives, Glendale For You Network, the National Asso-ciation of Black Journalists, the Los Angeles African American Women Public Ac-tion Committee, and a lifetime member of the National Council of Negro Women. An advocate for higher education and continuing education, Ms. Lemelle earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Excelsior College. She received a Profes-sional Certificate in Journalism and Public Relations at UCLA, and earned a MBA from the University of La Verne. She is a 2008 graduate of the Los Angeles Afri-can American Women Public Policy Institute’s Public Policy/Leadership Program.

Pearl Jr. (born May 6, 1963 in Los Angeles, California) is an American author, activist, journalist and producer. Pearl Jr. is the author of three books, one documentary and has suc-cessfully ran four websites (award-winning) and serves as the founder and owner of Elbow Grease Productions (EGP) and Pearl Jr. Publications. She is best known for her work in the African-American community. Pearl Jr. graduated from Cal State Northridge and majored in Radio, TV, Film with a mi-nor in African-American Studies. She finished in just 3 years.Before publishing her first book, Pearl Jr. was a sales per-son and was in the business of marketing and advertising. She produced the first- annual Rap Music Awards in 1994 but has sense completely changed her mind on rap music. Many years later, Pearl met activist/author Dr. Earl Ofari Hutchinson and he took her under his wing. After sev-eral successful protest with Dr. Hutchinson, her lifelong career as an activist was cemented in her heart and soul.In 2001, Pearl Jr. wrote and published her first book The

Climate: A Perspective Unvisited, which chronicles the development of race and the creation of racism. The book has been listed as required reading at several universi-ties, which is a major accomplishment for a self-published author. She also has been considered an expert on race-relations and has been an invited speaker at Univer-sity of California Irvine, California State University, Northridge, USC, Brown Uni-versity, West Los Angeles College, Cal State Dominguez, and many other colleges.In 2004, she produced a series of half-hour T.V. shows called, “TRU-talk: Straight Outta LA.” Also displaying her determination to control her own messages as an independent producer, she worked diligently to have her voice available to over 1,000,000 people in the Southern California areaand that lead her in February 2005, to cover the Michael Jackson Trial. Due to her hard-work and refusal to fail, she became fully-credentialed media at the trial. She and her company, Elbow Grease Productions also produced the documentary Behind The Scenes At The Michael Jackson Trial. The DVD has been sold to individuals in more than 30 countries. Pearl Jr. has also been a repeated guest on KCET’s [Life and Times] Television program for PBS in Los Angeles discussing the status of Black relationships.In 2006, she wrote her third book Black Women Need Love, Too!, previ-ously known as “How To Tame A Dawg.” After the books release, she went on an ambitious promotional trail, which paid off and lead to her being a recur-ring guest on several powerhouse radio shows with over 50 appearances on KABC talk radio. She has been interviewed more than 100 times on local and national news programs and has been a recurring guest on CBS radio as well.She has been on The Larry Elder Show, The Al Rantel Show, The Michael Medved Show, The Bev Smith Show, The Tavis Smiley Show, Stevie Wonder’s KJLH, Radio One’s KKBT, WAOK FM in Atlanta, GA (The Shelley Winter Show), XM Radio (GW On the Hill), Brown University (Brother R.A.), Christian radio stations, and a myriad of Internet radio programs, such as The Maxine Thompson Show & LIBRADIO.com. As an activist, Pearl Jr. has successfully challenged major corporations to re-spect the Black community, she has protested and forced major corporations such as Nissan Motors, Ebay, and the NAACP to change their ways to better rep-resent a positive image for African-Americans. Pearl Jr. has also led the charge against negative rap music. She writes widely published articles such as, “The Rap Crap Treason Act” and “The Golddigger lie leads to Black Male Failure”, which has awaken the sleepy giant in the hearts and minds of the Black public.She has been the Mistress of Ceremony at over 50 events, such as the Malcolm X Festival, Honor Thy Father, The African Marketplace, Black Chamber of Commerce, and Black Business Expo (combined attendance 165,000). She has established a name for herself as a force to be reckoned with in Los Angeles and has expanded her popularity nationwide. Most recently, EGP was fully credentialed media for a major speech in Los An-geles featuring Presidential hopeful, Barack Obama and offered to her view-ing audience (www.TRUtalk.us) more than a sound-bit, and made the entire speech available, so people can have a clearer perspective of the man that has a real shot of being the first African American President in U.S. History. Also, an up close and personal discussion with hip-hop Mogul, Russell Simmons.She has ran the successful websites TRUtalk.us, MichaelJacksonInsider.com, and BlackWomenNeedLoveToo.com with her business partner and husband, Cecil Holmes.Pearl currently resides in the San Fernando Valley and runs the very successful website, BlackMediaReview.com.

ocratic Club, The Spectrum International Beauty Expo and the Starlight Jazz Serenade Concert which benefits the North Hollywood based non-profit organi-zation Hands For Hope. Shelby is also a motivational coach with Inspiration 52, a team of speakers and educators who visit the L.A., Compton, Carson and Long Beach School districts in an effort to empower youth to complete their education. LaRita is a busy mom who’s devoted to her son Justin. In the ten years that she has been a mother, she has found parenting to be the most challenging and rewarding task of all. Shelby’s real power is in her pen and in her humor, she is able to deliver depth, wisdom and instruction in the written, spoken and lyrical sense that is characterized by a profound spiritual balance and immeasurable wit. The dream of all dreams would be to share her album A Date With A Song with a worldwide audience that believes in the power of love and craves the lure of jazz. These days she’s newly in love, an-ticipating her son’s journey in middle school and bracing herself for the career come-back of the century. LaRita recently signed with The Williams Talent Agency and she can be booked as an actress/ speaker and singer at LW@WTAagency.com. Of course a delightful sample of her music is just one click away at www.MySpace.com/RitaShelby. It’s been quite a ride but LaRita is still jazzing it up Studio City style!

Carla Valentine is a native New Yorker of Honduran de-scent who began her artistic training at HB Studios, New Conservatory Theatre and NYU’s Creative Arts Team. She has performed on various New York stages and was a founding member of “Creative Colors”-- a multi-eth-nic theatre company where she made her directorial debut. Carla teamed up with writer Touch Brandon to direct and produce the play The Nature of Man, which they devel-oped independently into a digital short feature. Since mov-ing to Los Angeles in 2003, Carla has made several com-mercials; appeared on the TV shows Untold Stories of the ER and Diagnosis X, starred in the shorts Traces of Trag-edy and Bertha Thinks Thin, co-starred in the indepen-dent films Gone, Bailando, The Pill, Night of The Dead, Bad, and Rich in Spirit and in the TV pilots Don’t Go and Worlds War One. Carla recently participated in Suzan-Lori Parks’ world premiere of 365 Days/Plays series with the Mad Scene Theatre Company and Meme Kelly’s play SHOUT! To view Valentine’s acting reel Youtube.com/ebgprods.

Deborakh A. Edgerton Broadous is professor of Pan Af-rican Studies at the California State University of North-ridge. While at the university she has taught a number of courses that include The Black Child, Composition & Writ-ing as well as African American Music. She has a number of other university activities besides teaching. Broadous has served on the Pan African Studies Department’s commu-nity outreach committee, the Freshman Connection team, the coordinator for the Black Family Specialist certificate program, the coordinator for training for the Department of Children and Family Services. She also advises univer-sity organizations which include the Dance Club Expres-sions, the African American Music Association ( A2MA), Everything “Black” History club and co-advisor of the Af-rican- American Deaf Studies/ Deaf Student Association.As a child advocate she feel it is her responsibil-ity to assist our young people to strive toward excel-lence; therefore, she has aligned herself with organiza-tions which actively advocates the rights of all children.

For the past thirty- two years Broadous has served as the Valley Coordi-nator/ Trainer for the Girl Scouts. She co-sponsored and designed a Cul-tural Exchange Day – “The Village” an annual educational play dayEach year Broadous and the members of A2MA host the African- Ameri-can Music Festival, an outreach program created by one of CSUN’s stu-dents The goals of the program were two- fold; first to increase awareness of a creative genre, as well as outreach and recruitment. Over four hundred col-lege, high school and middle school students attended the two-day workshops.Broadous gets up early each Saturday to help tutor children from the community with the Saturday Enrichment Program. The Saturday Enrichment Program was estab-lished in 1982 as a Summer Enrichment Program. After six years of “after school” tutorial and an eight-week summer enrichment, it was realized that many of our young people, from the community were not succeeding in the educational setting. Broadous is also on the San Fernando Valley NAACP Educational Committee. For the last 13 years she has served as a parenting instructor for the court system. She is a member of the National Black Child Development Institutes; during her 12 years as a member she has served on a variety of panels and has also presented material. Serving on the San Fernando Valley’s Primary Care Collaborative Broadous respon-sibility was to develop ways to make children aware of the AIDS crisis in the Unit-ed States with particular emphasis to minority youth in the San Fernando Valley. Deborakh A. Edgerton Broadous is making a huge impact on the today’s youth.

In 2000 Shirley Martin opened the MKM Cultural Center in North Hollywood. MKM is the home of the Martin Dancers for which Martin is the choreographer. Her studio is used by anyone that wants to learn how to become a real dancer. MKM has also been used for rehearsal by the stars of Dancing With The Stars. While instructing her dancer Martin teaches the basic classical dance techniques. Her NoHo studio was specifically designed to assist young dancers obtain the nec-essary skills in order to merge into professional dance companies, without having to go back east. The intense training, use of various world styles and nurturing at-mosphere make MKM a must for those with the drive to become true dancers. To find out more information about the MKM Cultural Center call (818) 752-2616.

Sandra Crouch was born in San Francisco. Crouch is a co-pastor with her twin broth-er Andrea at the New Christ Memorial Church in San Fernando. In 1984 she won a Grammy for Best Soul Gospel Perfor-mance, Female. The New CMC is located at 13333 Vaughn Strret San Fernando, CA 91341. Pastor Crouch can be reached at

PastorSandra@newcmc.org.

Say It Loud! March/April 2008

Meme Kelly is a dedicated wife, author, and a typical hard working, overextended mother of three boys. Orig-inally from Chattanooga Tennessee, she grew up in Ann Arbor Michigan then Detroit and came to Californian with her mother Dr. Georgia Williams Scaife a former superintendent of Compton Unified School District. She graduated from UCLA with a BS in Political Sci-ence. After graduating, she began teaching in Watts at the elementary school level. This experience provides to be rewarding, challenging and at times, even disturb-ing. Kelly has left that position, her experiential win-dow into that world has never shut and she continues to run a non-profit, Sisters Supporting sisters, which she founded while teaching to reach out to the needi-est families of her students. SSS is a community out-reach program for inner city women, especially par-ents of school age children. Kelly Founded Just Gotta Shout Communications with her mother who lost her battle against breast cancer in 2004. Together they

had extensive experience in writing, education, psychology, and varied com-munity development activities and Meme, in honor of her mother, is carrying on.Kelly has published, On Edge and Just Gotta Shout. Followed by recent-ly released, Shout Out Above Life’s Storms, I have Wings to Fly, which was the inspiration for her first original play SHOUT which premiered at the Bransdall Gallery Theater. To find out more information about Meme Kel-ly or her non-profit Sisters Supporting Sisters visit: Justgottashout.com.

As we celebrate Women’s History Month, Say It Loud! would like to celebrate the history and work being done by some of our own women from the San Fernando Valley. We celebrate and share their stories.

Business & Finance

Combs turned himself into a cash cow, branding a clothing line and men’s cologne with his name, capitalizing on countless mainstream releases, hosting an MTV reality show (Making the Band) and even changing his name from “Puff Dad-dy” to “P.Diddy,” chal-lenged in publicity only by Prince’s sudden name change years prior. The only thing that was left for Combs to conquer, was the acting world. We first saw Combs in Monster’s Ball, playing a convicted murderer awaiting electrocution. His performance was ee-rily calm, providing an insight into who Combs could be as an actor. Any-one, who knows they’re going to die, is not usu-ally calm, but his form of calm was surreal, be-lievable, brave, almost frightening. Though this role was brief, it sparked interest among Holly-wood, and Combs was soon respected as an ac-tor. It wasn’t long that he started getting ap-proached for various roles, however, he be-came consciously se-lective of the parts he considered, careful not repeat roles, and care-ful not to become type-cast. Combs wanted to challenge himself as an actor, and take on roles that were out of charac-ter, and would show his true acting abilities. “A Raisin in the Sun” on Broadway was perfect!Stage was different from film or TV so the challenge was greater. Though criticized for his performance as Walter Lee, Combs was able to pull it off, offering a land-mark performance and was well received by his audience. His cast mem-bers also praised his ef-forts and discipline as an actor. Not only was this a monumental moment in his career, but in my eyes, a monumental event for hip hop. Combs, up to that point, had already done so much for hip-hop. He jumpstarted the hip-hop entrepreneurial movement that still ex-ists today and popular-ized it. Though criticized for his production work, Combs also made it ac-ceptable to again re-sam-

LOS ANGELES, March 10 -- The NAACP and lead counsel Brian Ka-bateck filed papers Fri-day, March 7, that will fast track their federal class action lawsuit against Washington Mutual, Citi, GMAC and 15 other mortgage firms who sys-tematically steered Af-rican American borrow-ers into predatory loans. “The victims in this case had the same credit, the same income and the same qualifications as the lenders’ other customers. The only difference was the color of their skin. That’s why they were stuck with abusive loans,” said Kabateck, Manag-ing Partner of Kabateck Brown Kellner, LLP. “Quickly resolving this case is essential for victims who have ruined credit and who are losing their homes. This isn’t just about justice for the victims. This case is about making sure that this kind of discrimination is stamped out for good,” said NAACP General Counsel Angela Ciccolo.

The defendants in this case are CitiMortgage, Suntrust Mortgage, GMAC Rescap, JP Mor-gan, National City, First Horizon, Ameriquest Mortgage Company, Fremont Investment & Loan, Option One Mort-gage Corporation, WMC Mortgage Corpora-tion, Long Beach Mort-gage Company, BNC Mortgage, AccreditedHome Lenders, Bear Sterns Residential Mortgage Corpora-tion, Encore Credit, First Franklin Financial Corporation, HSBC Fi-nance Corporation and Washington Mutual, Inc. This suit is the first to have ever charged so many major mort-gage lenders with ra-cial discrimination. The suit is supported by a wealth of govern-ment and other research:

-- A 2008 study by United for a Fair Econ-omy finds cites federal data showing people of color are more than three times more likely to have subprime loans: high-

cost loans account for 55% of loans to African Americans, but only 17% of loans to Caucasians. The study estimated losses of between $164 billion and $213 billion for subprime loans taken by people of color dur-ing the past eight years. This is thought to be “the greatest loss of wealth for people of color in modern US history.”

-- A July 2007 report by Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation) showed that minority borrowers pay higher annual percentage rates on mortgage loans than non-minorities with equal income and cred-it risk. For instance, in 2005, African American borrowers paid an aver-age of 128 basis points more for loans than their white counterparts. In the subprime market, the dif-ference was even greater -- 275 basis points more.

-- A 2006 Center for Responsible Lending study that found when in-come and credit risk were

equal, African-Ameri-cans were 31 percent to 34 percent more likely to receive higher-rate, more expensive subprime loans than Caucasians.

-- The National Com-munity Reinvestment Coalition found in 2006 that lending institutions in six major metropoli-tan areas were engaged in “pervasive discrimi-natory and predatory practices” involving high-cost subprime loans to African-Americans. The metro areas were: Baltimore, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Atlanta.

-- In addition to finding discrimination nation-wide, the study found that people of all income lev-els -- not just low or mid-dle – were victimized. For example, the study found that in Boston, 73 percent of high income ($92,000 to $152,000 annual salary) African Americans received sub-prime loans in 2005.

-- The Federal Reserve Board has concluded that African-Americans were more likely to pay high-er prices for mortgag-es than their Caucasian counterparts. The United States Inspector General cited the Federal Reserve Board report as show-ing “significant” differ-ences, making it “clear” that African-Americans were “much more like-ly to get higher-priced loans” than Cauca-sians. Studies have also shown the “spillover” effect of these loans.

“Home ownership is supposed to build wealth to invest in communi-ties, pay for college and support peoples’ retire-ments. Instead, these predatory lenders have sent their victims spiral-ing backward into debt and foreclosure,” Cic-colo said. “Entire neigh-borhoods are dragged down when foreclosed homes sink property val-ues, attract crime and reduce the tax base.”

ple in hip-hop. No one in hip-hop has been able to accomplish what this man has done, nor have they been able to do it the way he has. He has never buckled under the pressure and never com-promised who he was for the almighty dollar. At that moment, on that Broadway stage, Combs in his own way, became a hero for hip-hop, silenc-ing the critics that said he, we, couldn’t do it. His appearance on open-ing night spoke volumes for what it represented for hip-hop. Combs was a part of the Broadway premiere of “A Raisin in the Sun,” 47 years after it had been on the stage for the last time. His stars once again had been perfectly aligned.It was no mistake I’m sure, to cast Combs in the part of Walter Lee. As I stated before, his stars had been perfectly aligned. Walter Lee in today’s generation rep-resented every voiceless black man, suffering in the ghettos of America. He represented every in-carcerated black man, every black man who had been released and was unable to find a se-cure well paying job, every struggling single father, and every father-less son. Walter Lee rep-resented the desperation for survival in this ra-cially unwelcoming and capitalistic world we all recognize; that same desperation that drives crimes rates up in urban communities; that same desperation many of us in the hip-hop genera-tion can relate to. He be-came the dealers on the corner, who slang to sup-port their children and feed their families. He became the gang banger who is simply in search of a family. He was all of these, and Combs be-came the visual repre-sentation of all of these things, all of these men and all of these voices. The reason “A Raisin in the Sun,” is such an im-portant work among Afri-can Americans is because of its common theme. It is a theme very relative and familiar to the Black existence. Walter Lee, Ruth, and even Beneatha can be found in every black family as well as

NAACP Mortgage Class Action Fast Tracked Discrimination Suit Against WaMu, Citi, GMAC and 15 Others

the stories they represent. But what is important, is that we find strength in these characters, because it is that same strength that lies within us. The best part of “A Raisin in the Sun,” is when Walter Lee finally comes into his manhood, as realized by his mother, sister and wife after he insists that his family challenge rac-ism and move into their newly purchased home located in an all white neighborhood. The choice to stay or leave was left up to him as the man of the house, and he was going to have to live with the consequences of his own decision. It was then, that Walter Lee be-came a man, realizing that being a man was about more than material gain or the $10,000 life insurance policy mon-ey he lost. He found out being a man was about love, family, and having the courage to stand up for what was right, fac-ing the consequences and challenges head on. Casting Combs in that role was symbolic of a message that needed to be heard and told to my generation, the hip hop generation. I’m sure it was also a role Combs could himself relate to as well. What impressed me the most however, was that not only was Combs cast in the movie, but he produced it as well, making it possible for a “A Raisin in the Sun” to be accessible to my generation. More impor-tantly, he took a classic African American tale of economic distress, and applied it to the hip-hop generation, allow-ing a new audience to discover a great African American masterpiece. I commend him for that. Many people believe that because of his chart-topping success, visual “arrogance” and eccen-tricity, and mainstream appeal, that Combs has sold out and forgotten where he came from. “A Raisin in the Sun” on ABC was evidence of the exact opposite. What I have written here today was never going to be a critique on the movie, the man, his act-ing skills or lack thereof. That would have been too obvious. He deserves

more than an attack on surface symptoms. Sean Combs deserves respect and credit where credit is due, and I’m here to pro-vide that. This piece was written to honor Lor-raine Hansberry for such a magnificent work of Black art, Ruby Dee and Sidney Poitier for bring-ing her story to life, and Sean “P.Diddy” Combs for his efforts and accom-plishments in a world with so little hope for the future. He again gave us Walter Lee....who in turn gave us Combs...who is making it possi-ble for his successors....who ARE our future!

DIDDY from PG 7

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Say It Loud! March/April 2008

Happy Birthday Daddy.

Luv ,

Saharra,Tunisia,Alexandria, Mekka, Elwood,Madinah, Taahirah, Timothy and Zuri.

Happy Birthday TUNISIA

Luv ,

your sisters Saharra Alexandria, Mekka, Madinah, Taahirah, and Zuri & your brothers Elwood and Timothy.

Say It Loud! March/April 2008Say It Loud! En español

Uno de los principales escollos en este supues-to conflicto entre las dos comunidades es la esca-sez de puestos de trabajo, y el hecho de que los af-roamericanos consideran que la entrada de inmi-grantes latinos (sean le-gales o ilegales) se están llevando a los puestos de trabajo que fuera legíti-mamente les pertenecen. También existe la sensación de que los la-tinos están invadiendo a otros territorios sociales, que solían ser principal-mente a los afroameri-canos, y son, en cierto sentido, empujando a cabo, o las hace obsole-tas. Estos puntos, entre otros, debe ser exami-nado a fondo, y poner en su debida prospectivo.

Empleo / Empleo Así, existen pu-estos de trabajo exacta-mente que los afroameri-canos que sólo puede hacer? Estoy siempre a una pérdida cada vez que escuche esta declaración. Personalmente, que hace el sonido como si se su-pone que son genética-mente predispuestos a hacer una tarea que nin-guna otra raza de las per-sonas que pueden hacer. Y que los empleos están te-niendo lejos de nosotros, exactamente? Sé que muchos de los hermanos y hermanas que trabajan en la ciudad puestos de trabajo; conductores de autobuses, trabajadores de saneamiento, DMV, servicios sociales, etc swiping ¿Son los puestos de trabajo de nosotros? Y, ya que cuando se baja de pagar, de baja cualifi-cación laboral de cuello azul empleos relegado sólo a los afroamerica-nos? La última vez que los consulté, no nos cor-responde a nosotros en la medida de lo que se con-trató a algunos de bajo nivel de capacitación de empleo. Si un propietar-io de negocio grimy opta por contratar a un inmi-grante (latinos o de otro tipo) más de un solo ciu-dadano para que pueda explotar financieramente a los trabajadores de que estos puestos de trabajo, luego de que el propi-etario de la empresa. Ust-ed necesidad de celebrar que la empresa respon-sable, no culpar a los tra-

bajadores inmigrantes. Otra cosa es que no aunar nuestros recur-sos juntos como debería-mos, y crear nuestra pro-pia economía. Si hemos creado nuestra propia economía, podemos crear puestos de traba-jo para nuestro propio pueblo. No tendríamos que depender de la so-ciedad que nos propor-cione puestos de trabajo. Si esto suena como que estoy hablando de nacio-nalismo, es porque SOY! Otros grupos de inmi-grantes que vienen a este país la práctica de algún tipo de nacionalismo. Así es como se puede tener ciertas comunidades (y digo bien las comuni-dades, no sólo en los bar-rios), que son capaces de prosperar en este país al-gunas de las más grandes ciudades del interior. Usted tiene una serie de “Chinatowns”, “Little Italys”, “Little Coreas”, y así sucesivamente, que existen en algunas de las principales ciudades de América. Los inmigran-tes que vienen aquí, pon-er en común sus recur-sos juntos, y la próxima cosa que usted sabe, su comunidad ha crecido de manera significativa. Para los afroamer-icanos, no hemos practi-cado ese tipo de solidari-dad ya que Jim Crow. Estamos tan felices de integrar con massa, o ser el HNIC, [r **** n jefe a cargo] que optar por no trabajar juntos, sí o apoyo económico. La gente constantemente me divertido mirar, si tuvi-era que decirles a apoyar un negro de propiedad de las empresas, o simple-mente “comprar negro”. Se consideraría mi forma de pensar irrelevante, y anticuada. Sin embargo, ellos son los primeros en quejarse de que tiene to-dos estos “extranjeros” las empresas en nuestros vecindarios, y que los que no hemos podido obtener ninguna negro propiedad de las em-presas de nuestros pro-pios barrios para salvar nuestras vidas. Bueno, ¿los apoyan cuando esta-ban en el barrio? ¿Por lo menos tratar de conver-tirlo en un hábito negro para apoyar un negocio? Yo descanso mi caso.

D e p o r t e s He estado leyendo recientemente en algu-nas publicaciones negro

sobre la falta de Afri-can-American peloter-os en las Grandes Ligas de Béisbol, y la manera en que se ha convertido ahora en una de las prin-cipales preocupaciones. Ellos sitio de la llega-da de peloteros latinos y asiáticos ahora en el juego, y la forma en que la falta de representación de África-América es motivo de alarma. Es un poco curioso por mi par-te, porque mantiene dici-endo afroamericanas, y no negro. Oh esperar, así es… usted tiene negro peloteros en las Grandes Ligas de Béisbol! Son sólo no ‘americano’. Bueno… en América del Norte, diría yo… Recuerde Orlando “El Duque” Hernández? Solía lanzamiento de la Nueva York Yankees. Fue un fenómeno de lan-zamiento fuera de Cuba. Tanto él como su her-mano Livan Hernandez desertado de Cuba para jugar profesionalmente en los Estados Unidos. Fueron los afro-cuba-nos. ¿Qué hay de Sam-my Sosa, una de las tres personas a romper Roger Maris’ solo homerun de la temporada? ¿Se puede negar sus raíces africa-nas? Hay muchos otros que puedo citar que de-sempeñan o han desem-peñado en la Liga. Al mismo tiempo, ¿existe realmente un interés en-tre los afroamericanos que quieren jugar béisbol profesional? El número de afroamericanos que he interrogado sobre esta cuestión han afirmado que la forma aburrida de béisbol que se encuen-tra. Ellos apenas ver la Serie Mundial, y mucho menos la temporada reg-ular. Ellos siempre es-tarían más interesados en la universidad o en favor de baloncesto, o ser más atrapados en la actual temporada de fútbol. Y ahora, con la afluencia de inmigrantes procedentes del Caribe, América La-tina, África y continen-tal, el fútbol está adqui-riendo una creciente base de fans en los EE.UU. Además, los equi-pos de la Liga Pequeña son generalmente finan-ciados por el local de la ciudad; si recortar el presupuesto, no pueden desempeñar una tempo-rada. Por no mencionar, que se necesita mucho espacio, la gente, y el equipo a jugar un juego.

Reproducción de uno-a-uno que usted puede ob-tener de lanzamiento y golpear… ¿qué pasa con el aspecto del terreno de juego? Con el balon-cesto, todo lo que usted necesita es una pelota y un aro; con el fútbol, todo lo que realmente necesitamos es la pelota. Hubo muchos días en mi juventud que me acuer-do crateball de juego, de fútbol o de la calle. Béis-bol wee es un poco más complicado de organizar.

La competen-cia es Ninguna Así que, ¿quiénes somos realmente luchan contra el? En caso de que usted sea menos molesto si el inmigrante que se aprobó fue de más de ne-gro, o europeo? Vamos a no tratar de actuar como si los latinos son los únicos que se realizan actualmente en este país, ya sea legal o no. Usted tiene europeos furtiva en este país tanto como to-dos los demás. Esto no es nada más que acerca, tanto la explotación, y el control. No estamos per-diendo nuestros hogares, puestos de trabajo, o los barrios a nadie (bueno… excepto a las Potencias que ser, por supuesto). Si fuéramos verdadera-mente manejo de nuestro negocio, nada de esto sería incluso un prob-lema. Nos mostró cómo gran parte de una fuerza económica que podría ser durante la época de la segregación. Debido al hecho de que hemos lle-gado a ser tan individu-alista, nos hemos vuelto indefensos a los que op-tan por explotar y repri-mir nosotros. Tal vez si se practica un poco más de solidaridad, que no se ocupan de algunas de estas cuestiones que nos preocupan hoy. Estas cuestiones no son nue-vas para nosotros, y que no son complicadas de averiguar. Son las mis-mas viejas tácticas, sólo viste en un nuevo con-junto. Vamos a intentar aprender de nuestros er-rores, por una vez, si?

New America Medianewamericamedia.orgKevin Alberto SabioFebrereo 2 2008Derechos de autor©New America Media

Los hispanos son ahora la minoría más grande en los Estados Uni-

dos. Con la mitad de su población hispana, al menos un tercio es mexicano o mexicano-estadounidense. Por lo tanto, que se encuentran estas personas que están haciendo nuestra ciudad un lugar más interesante enriquecer a vivir? ¿Qué mejor manera de con-ocer y saludar a nuestros semejantes por los veci-nos luego de buceo en un delicioso, entretenido li-bro que educa al lector so-bre la cultura mexicana, el idioma, y siempre en los alimentos indígenas Mexico’s Most Wanted los 10 libros de la cul-tura chicana, los amantes Latina , Y por el orgullo

hispano Boze Hadleigh. Hadleigh el libro adopta un enfoque inteli-gente en la expresión de la cultura mexicana y de todos sus pregunto y lo lleva a casa para el lec-tor en un Q & A estilo. El autor destaca la histo-ria de Mexico, desde su nativo famosa bebida a actores, actrices, pelícu-las, directores, cantantes y deportistas. Es in-cluso va tan lejos como para mostrar al lector la manera de pronunciar y usar diferentes palabras para saludar a los demás en español. Mexico’s Most Wanted es una gran manera de apre-nder sobre la gente de Mexico y de su belleza, su rica cultura, que debe ser celebrado y compar-tido con más frecuencia.

Vamanos a Mexico! MINISTERIO DE TURISMO DE BRASIL

SALVADOR, Bra-sil, 14 de marzo - Aunque en visita oficialA Brasil, la Secretaria de Estado Condoleez-za Rice hizo una de sus largo de toda la vidaSueños: visitar la cap-ital de Bahia, Sal-vador, uno de losCentros mundiales de la cultura africana fuera de África contenido. “Venir a Bahía era un deseo personal. Me habían oído acerca de [este]Durante años; Salva-dor es una gran ciudad y todo esto se debe a laAfro-Brasileño co-munidad aquí. Por su-puesto, soy de los afro-descendientes y heCreído siempre que el Brasil y los EE.UU., en algunos aspec-tos, son más iguales

Que cualquier otros dos países en el mun-do “, declaró Rice, en una entrevistaCon Globo TV. “Aquí nos encontramos con las tradi-ciones de la Unión Eu-ropea, América Latina yÁfrica, todo el mundo que viven uno al lado del otro. Así que yo quería venir a Bahia y yoPuede decir yo no es-taba equivocado. Es hermoso aquí. Sólo lamento haber tomadoTanto tiempo por venir “. Rice viaje se inició con una ceremo-nia de la cena con los principales líderes yBrasil funcionarios, in-cluido el gobernador de Bahía, Jacques Wagner, yEl Ministro de Tur-ismo de Brasil, la se-ñora Marta Suplicy. Destacados incluidoEjecuciones de dos fa-mosos músicos brasile-ños, Ministro de CulturaGilberto Gil y el can-tante / composi-tor Carlinhos Brown. Rice visita cultural par-ticipa también una visita a la famosa Nossa SenhoraDo Rosario dos Pretos iglesia que fue construida en 1704 y sirve como unSímbolo impor-tante para la comu-nidad afro-brasileña. Asimismo, visitó laAfro Museo de Bahía en Terreiro de Jesus, donde vi un desempeñoPor Olodum, una de las más famosas de música afro-brasile-ña y grupos de danza. Tras la conclusión de su viaje, Rice pro-metió promover y BahiaBrasil en los Estados Uni-dos. Ministro brasileño de Turismo, Marta Suplicy,Brasil destacó en la com-pleta estrategia de comu-nicación que promueva laSu diversidad cultural en el mercado americano. “Bahia es un importante destino para el turismo étnico y de los turistas -Comunidad africana, ya que combina el histórico y cultural de las partes a unImpresionante variedad de atracciones, como pla-yas, gastronomía, arte yDeportes “, explicó el Ministro Suplicy. El interés en etno-turis-mo, la exploración de los orígenes étnicos, siguePara crecer. Con la di-versidad cultural, que incluye a los africanos, los indios indígenasY portugués, el Bra-sil es uno de la parte superior, a nivel mun-dial etno-turísticoD e s t i n o s . Brasil, el Ministe-rio de Turismo inver-tirá $ 16 millones de USD para promover laPaís y su cultura a los es-tadounidenses en el 2008.

Rice Brasil experiencias únicas de la cultura de América del Sur durante el viajeFELICIA SERRANO

Say It Loud! Contribuyente

KEVIN ALBERTO SABIOBlacktino e-News Network, Comentario

America Ferrera

39a NAACP Image

Awards

Los afroamericanos frente a los latinos. No hay ninguna competencia.

SAY IT LOUD! Be Proud. The San Fernando Valley’s Black Newspaper 6

Los artículos en esta pá-gina han sido traduci-dos por Google Translate. Todo el artículo en este número se traducen en línea en http://sayitloud-news.googlepages.com/.

Art & Entertainment

SAY IT LOUD! Be Proud. The San Fernando Valley’s Black Newspaper 7

Snap Shot I Thought I Told Ya That We Won’t Stop A Raisin in the Sun Presents New Frontier for Hip-Hop

Down With ArmélMARISSA D. BELL

MARISSA D. BELL 39th NAACP IMAGE AWARDS

Tyler Perry

Taye Diggs

Megan Good

Stevie Wonder

America Ferrera

1959 saw the first pre-miere of “A Raisin in the Sun” on Broadway. It was in fact, the first Afri-can American play writ-ten especially for Broad-way. As it went for the recent production, all of the Broadway cast mem-bers reprised their roles for the silver screen even then, as “A Raisin in Sun,” by Lorraine Hans-berry first premiered Sept 18, 1961, starring bud-ding actors and actresses such as Sidney Poitier as Walter Lee Young-er, Ruby Dee as Ruth Younger, and Louis Gos-sett Jr as George Murchi-son. The aforementioned actors and actresses are legends in today’s Black Hollywood, respected for roles prior to and follow-ing, and now appreciat-ed for the controversies they overcame while at-tempting to solidify their place in Hollywood his-tory. 47 years later, a re-make of the beloved sto-ry, again of monumental proportions, would dis-cover a new generation, and would finally bring “A Raisin in the Sun” to its rightful place in Black Arts and Cinema. ABC’s premiere of “A Raisin in the Sun” on Feb. 25, 2008, was in my opinion a risky ven-ture, especially on ABC’s part. At first mention of the plan, I was rocked on my heels, wondering if ABC actually realized what it would be doing. However, even riskier, was the plan to re-cast the ensemble with its origi-nal Broadway stage cast from four years earlier, amongst whom would be Hip-Hop mogul, Sean “P.Diddy” Combs. Not only would Combs be cast, but he would re-prise the role of Walter Lee (previously played

Lil Kim, Junior Mafia, Mase and the infamous Notorious B.I.G./Biggie. They were on top of the world, until the unthink-able happened. 1997 saw the murder of its bright-est star and Combs pro-tégé, Biggie. At 24 years old, he was gunned down in a drive by in Los An-geles, Ca. Bad Boy would never officially recover. It would never again take such hold of the music industry, los-ing many on its all-star roster to various labels in the following years. It would never again im-pact the musical mar-ketplace the way it once had. Now this was not all Biggie’s fault. Time’s were changing, and the music was following suit. However, Biggie’s death did ironically have a positive effect on both Bad Boy and Combs. Had Biggie stayed alive, I’m sure Combs would not be the hip-hop ty-coon he is today. See, if Biggie had lived, Combs would have had to sus-tain his surge on modern hip-hop/rap music and remain a producer/writ-er/artist simply because Biggie was then, and probably would be now, his main concern. Basi-cally, Combs may not have been able to cross-over, because Biggie’s genre of music at the time was not commercial, nor do I believe Biggie would have approved of going mainstream. I think he would have wanted to uphold his “street” im-age. Thus, Biggie’s death provided room for Bad Boy’s crossover appeal and success and the ge-nius of Combs as an en-trepreneur to grow. Fol-lowing Biggie’s death,

by the legendary Sidney Poitier and Danny Glov-er), a disheartened shell of a man, desperately trying to assert his man-hood, by making a way out of seemingly no way to support his family like a man should, a story all too commonly familiar with today’s black male existence. Because Wal-ter Lee was the complete opposite of the egotisti-cal persona Diddy tries to portray in his actual star studded lifestyle, many were wary, apprehensive even, and it didn’t help that his co-star lineup in-cluded Felicia Rashad, Bill Nunn, Sanaa La-than, and Audra McDon-ald. However, the story doesn’t start or end here.Bad Boy burst onto the scene in 1994. It was evident from the begin-ning that its founder, Sean Combs had a knack for creativity, an ear for success and the mind of a true entrepreneur. Bad Boy would reign the bill-board charts for the next 3 years with acts such as 112, Faith Evans, Total,

Hi s p a n i c s are now the largest mi-nority in the United

States. With half of its population Hispanic, at least one-third is Mexi-can or Mexican Ameri-can. So, who are these people that are making our city a more interest-ingly enriching place to live? What better way to meet and greet our fellow neighbors then by diving into a deli-ciously, entertaining book that educates the reader on the Mexican culture, language, and indigenous foods pro-vided in Mexico’s Most Wanted the top 10 book of Chicano culture, Lat-

in lovers, and Hispanic pride by Boze Hadleigh. Hadleigh’s book takes a clever approach in ex-pressing Mexican Cul-ture and all its wonder and brings it home to the reader in a Q&A style. The author highlights the history of Mexico, from its native drink to famous actors, actresses, movies, directors, sing-ers and athletes. It even goes as far as to show the reader how to pronounce and use different sayings to greet one another in Spanish. Mexico’s Most Wanted is a great way of learning about the peo-ple from Mexico and its beautiful, rich culture that should be celebrated and shared more often.

Journee Smollett

Robin GIvens

Vamanos a Mexico! (Let’s go to Mexico)FELICIA SERRANOSay It Loud! Contributor

Hailing from Gardena, CA, Armél is the hot new R&B singing (and producing) sensation-causing shock-waves throughout the music industry. Armél is not your average songwriter/producer turn singer. At 22 years young, he has already made a name for himself, working with the likes of Trey Songz, B2K, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Beyonce and Omarion to name a few. He has also appeared on Access Hollywood, BET’s 106th & Park, and MTV’s TRL. Versatile in his talents, Armél holds many titles ranging from pia-nist to songwriter to producer. However, he has most recently focused on the vocal aspect of his budding career. His voice inhabits a combination of the soulful Donny Hathaway, commercial appeal of Usher Ray-mond, and remnants of the Black church, the most important foundation for some of the most successful black R&B artists to date. Currently, his debut single “I took it down” featuring Juelz Santana is blazing airwaves across the country. The release of his highly anticipated debut album is bound to raise the bar of the current R&B trend, and set Armél apart from all the rest, possibly bringing R&B back to its rightful place in music history. So stay tuned, because Armél could be coming to a city or radio near you. For more information about Armél, visit his myspace page at Myspace.com/Armelsworld or Armelonline.com

See DIDDY PG 5

Pan African Film Festival

(Photo: Marissa Bell)

Say It Loud! March/April 2008

How to Get Over Him and Learn from Your Mistakes SAHARRA WHITESay It Loud! Publisher

HOW TO GET OVER HIM

AND LEARN FROM YOUR

MISTAKES

A SURVIVAL GUIDE

DENICIAN ANGELEIA

Author Denician Angeleia in her book How to Get Over Him and Learn from Your Mistakes, gives readers pointers on how to pick Mr. Right from Mr. Wrong. The author dated a number of Mr. Wrongs. She has survived through some rocky situ-ations including date rape and a seven-year abu-sive relationship. In the survival guide Angeleia starts explaining how to get over

him. Getting over him takes four steps: taking care of your health, finding closure, finding out what keeps you from getting pass the relationship and acceptance. Angeleia dis-cusses making standard rules for dating, red flags that can let you know he’s Mr. Wrong as well as some pointers in self-improvement for the reader. The author shares her past experience

to help the read-er find their Mr. Right. The guide also includes po-etry, this poetry element adds a twist to the av-erage self-help guide. So girl what are you waiting for? Go get your copy of How to Get Over Him and Learn from Your Mistakes, and go get your Mr. Right. How to Get Over Him and Learn from Your Mis-takes, Denician Angeleia, $10.95. Available at www.iuniverse.com.

SPORTS & HEALTHMarch/April 2008 Say It Loud!

SAHARRA WHITESay It Loud! Publisher

(LOS ANGELES, Calif.) Villages in ashes, more then 200,000 slaughtered and the genocide in Darfur continue. “2.5 million have been displaced and aid workers are having an increasingly hard time get-ting supplies to many camps. Tens of thousands of women and girls have been raped, very often gang-raped, as an act of war,” said Hunter Payne, Founder of Aid Still Required. Aid Still Required a non-profit based in Los An-geles goal is to help rebuild communities that have been affected by natural disasters as well as human crises. To help keep the genocide in Darfur in the spotlight the nonprofit has issued a number of public service announcements (PSAs). “Athletes like ac-tors and dignitaries, are listened to by a large audi-ence. We felt running PSAs would be an effective means to get the word out,” said Hunter.

Aid Still Required is getting some help from Kobe Bryant and a couple of his friends. In March Bryant was featured in a PSA that aired on ESPN. “In Dar-fur hundreds of thousands have been murdered, mu-tilated-families torn apart,” says Bryant. “We have the power to save lives, to change the world.” Bryant joins several Laker players as well as other NBA players that have taped PSAs including An-drew Bynum, Baron Davis, Luol Deng, Grant Hill, Derek Fisher, Tracy McGrady, Steve Nash and many others that have been speaking up about the conflict in Darfur. Bryant is calling out for people around the world to help end the current genocide in Darfur. “If we can unite people who are willing to take a stand, miracles can happen,” says Bryant, asking, “What do you stand for?”

PALO ALTO, Ca-lif., March 13-- For better or for worse,you don’t usually get to pick your siblings. That’s why Lucile PackardChildren’s Hospital at Stanford is excited to an-nounce the formation of aformal “twinning” rela-tionship with Red Cross War Memorial Children’sHospital -- the only free-standing children’s hos-pital in sub-SaharanA f r i c a . Three nurse adminis-trators from Red Cross Children’s are visitingPackard Children’s through Monday (17) to formalize the twinning, a termchosen to reflect an atmo-sphere of mutual collab-oration and sharing, andplan for an ongoing nurse exchange project between the two institutions. The partnership rep-resents an international effort to reduce nursesmigrating out of de-veloping countries by fostering profes-sional developmentopportunities, enhancing job satisfaction and sup-porting clinical care ofchildren in South Afri-ca. It’s a two-way street, however, as PackardChildren’s expects to learn much from its sibling in the southernh e m i s p h e r e . “We live in a society that’s very rich in re-sources,” said SandraStaveski, NP, a pedi-atric cardiac intensive care nurse practitioner atPackard Children’s. “This is a chance not only to give back, but also tolearn.” Staveski initiat-

ed the relationship more than two years ago after amedical mission to India with Packard Children’s pediatric cardiac surgeonV. Mohan Reddy, MD. Keeping good nurses and other medical profes-sionals in South Africa isdifficult for a number of reasons: relatively low pay as compared todeveloped countries, dif-ficult social issues and concerns about crime andsafety. “There are lots of compelling reasons to leave,” said Staveski.“But most really love Africa and would stay if they could.” At PackardChildren’s, nursing reten-tion has been a focus of ongoing efforts and hasan overall turnover rate of 5% annually, a low to moderate rate compared tothe national average. The twinning relation-ship is sponsored by a grant from the medicaltechnology compa-ny Medtronic to Chil-dren’s HeartLink, an internationalmedical nonprofit organi-zation formed to prevent and treat heart diseaseamong children in the developing world. Red Cross Children’s selectedPackard Children’s over Birmingham Children’s Hospital in the UnitedKingdom. Both had expressed an inter-est in a partnership. “Packard Children’s was an excellent choice for this project because oftheir previous experience volunteering with Chil-dren’s HeartLink on anumber of missions. Also important was San-dy’s knowledge of the

organization, her wealth of experience at the bed-side and commitment tonursing practice and education,” said Andreas Tsakis-tos, the internationalprograms coordinator for Children’s HeartLink. Since 2006, Staveski andseveral of her nursing colleagues have traveled to Red Cross Children’sfive times to both learn and teach. “This will be a partner-ship where we grow to-gether and learn together,”agreed Pam Wells, Pack-ard Children’s vice pres-ident of patient careservices and chief nursing officer. “The energy and excitement that peopleexpress upon hear-ing about this oppor-tunity is phenomenal.” “The people at Red Cross do wonderful work in an environment that isnot as resource-rich as ours. And they’re do-ing it with passion,” saidStaveski. She cited a sim-ple and innovative solu-tion devised by Red Crossnurses that relies on foot pumps and pipe cleaners to solve what would bean unthinkable situation in the U.S.: the need to discharge a child with at r a c h e o s t o m y into townships. “It’s amazing what a dedicated group of peo-ple like those at Red CrossChildren’s can do,” said Staveski. “Helping them retain more nurses andtrain other hospitals in the area could make a significant and lastingdifference in their world.”

The Southern Ne-vada Black Nurs-es Association will

be hosting its 6th An-nual Men’s Health Pro-gram. The event Slam Dunk For Health “Res-cue The Stallions-Keep Them Fit For Genera-tions,” will be taking place Saturday, April 5, 2008. The sports-themed program will be held at the Doolittle Community Center. Slam Dunk For Health will feature health con-

sultations, presentations, as well as screenings and panel discussions. One panel open just for the guys will discuss the Male Ego and Health. There is also a panel ti-tled Our Role in Rescu-ing the Stallion for the ladies. Other organizations that help organize this year’s health program include. Alpha Kappa Alpha So-rority, Inc, Daughters of Isis Ophir Court # 201, Abbott Laboratories,

Delta Sigma Theta So-rority, Inc., Las Vegas Chapter or Links, Inc, and the 100 Black Men of Las Vegas, Inc.

Slam Dunk For Health. Doolittle Community Center, 1950 N. “J” St., Las Vegas, NV 89106. Sat, April l5, 2008. 10a.m.-5p.m., (free). INFO: (702) 968-1638 or snb-na@aol.com.

-SAHARRA WHITE

Hollywood’s larg-er-than-life per-sonalities enjoy

a privileged bully pulpit and they never shrink from using it to ad-vance their pet causes. Such is the case with Steven Spielberg’s high profile withdrawal as ar-tistic advisor for China’s 2008 Olympics. Ostensi-bly, Spielberg is protest-ing that China is not doing enough to stop the hu-man suffering in Darfur. It’s too bad Spielberg took the typical unilat-eral American approach, i.e., the Bush doctrine of my way or the highway. Had he genuinely been

interested in exerting an influence over China, he would have signed the contract that has sat on his desk for months. He could have seized the opportunity to visit Beijing regularly and express his concerns about Sudan. With rap-port, Chinese officials might have explained to him their long-stand-ing foreign policy of non-interference. Chinese officials might have explained to Spiel-berg the limits of what China can do to influ-ence matters in Sudan: Beijing works within the confines of the Unit-ed Nations, subscrib-ing to the notion that

crimes against human-ity, whether in Sudan, Iraq or by the Al Qaeda, are issues no one nation can correct—except pos-sibly the United States. Not every government behaves like Washing-ton and believes that it has a divine mandate to rectify wrongs around the world. In fact, if they were less diplomatical-ly inclined, the officials might have pointed out to Spielberg that Ameri-can involvement in Iraq has not exactly less-ened human suffering. Some Americans may celebrate Spielberg’s as-tute grandstanding on behalf of a worthy cause. The rest of the world

Cancel the Olympics, Spielberg Isn’t Coming

Bryant; Other NBA Players Hope to Defeat Genocide

GEORGE KOONew America Media, Commentary is just going to scratch

their collective heads, trying to understand the connection between an international athletic competition and the kill-ings in Darfur. But then, unlike America, others are not so ready to blame everything that is wrong in the world on China. Some speculate that Spielberg simply caved into pressure from Mia Farrow, who has been looking to launch a boycott of the Beijing Olympics in the name of stopping genocide. If that is the case, it makes about as much sense as Spielberg lead-ing a boycott of the FIFA

World Cup, the one event Europeans care about. The logic would be that the European Union is not doing enough to get the United States to stop wa-terboarding as part of its interrogation techniques and to stop committing human rights abuses in Guantanamo and Iraq. Certainly a strong case could be made that Eu-ropeans have more influ-ence on Washington than China has on Sudan.

New America Medianewamericamedia.orgGeorge KooFeb 15, 2008Copyright©New America Media

Stanford’s Packard Forms Parternship With Hospital in Sub-Saharan Africa

Nevada Black Nurses Slam Dunk Men’s Health

SAY IT LOUD! Be Proud. The San Fernando Valley’s Black Newspaper 8

Courtesy of Aid Still Required

Courtesy of Mia Farrow

The Valley Presbyteri-an Hospital is hosting a birthday party on Mon-day, March 24 for all ba-bies born at the hospital over the past 50 years. The reunion is part of a yearlong celebration commemorating Val-ley Presbyterian’s 50th Anniversary. For more info: Valleypres.org.