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Sports Commentary
I was reminded of this quote recently by the firestorm of criticism heaped upon television mogul/philanthropist Oprah Winfrey for building a $40 million school for impoverished girls in the small South African town of Henley-on-Klip, south of Johannesburg. Most of the criticism came about because of Winfrey’s statement on why she chose to build the lavish academy in South Africa instead of the United States. "I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools (in America) that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn't there," she said. "If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don't ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school." As expected, conservative pundits such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News commentator John Gibson dishonestly pounced on Winfrey’s comments to make invalid points as if the problems that afflict the inner-cities of America are regular topics of debate in their columns and/or shows. And to that, all I simply say is: Shut your bitch ass up! You may not even realize it, but through your misguided criticism, in a lot of ways, you’re actually proving her point because it seems as if she can't spend enough or participate enough in positive causes that directly affect our condition in this country. Yet many of us blindly idolize athletes, rappers, etc...who could care less about anybody but their damn selves, yet actually find fault with somebody who actually does give back. Niggas can make a whole album about how many women they’ve fucked, how big their rims are, how much dope they’ve sold and how much their jewelry cost yet we don’t find the gumption to drag them through the mud for doing nothing but fueling the fire of conspicuous consumption, which Winfrey alluded to in her comments, that permeates our communities, when this woman has:
Aside from the unprecedented monetary donations, she’s been outspoken on topics ranging from the slaying of James Byrd to the reasons behind the L. A. riots to the scourge of HIV/AIDS in Africa. She made it possible through her book club that the world was exposed to the majesty that is the literature of Zora Neale Hurston and has devoted innumerable shows to personal economic, social and spiritual growth. However, it’s almost as if we have learned to take all of this for granted and talk as if Winfrey hasn't done a thing. How absurd is it that so many of us can spend countless hours on MySpace, yet not realize that globalization is shrinking our world. Africa is a continent full of untapped resources and if we were smarter, we would be reaching out to nations in Africa and investing in them not only monetarily but socially as well. South Africa, despite being freed from apartheid not long ago, is one of the most diverse countries in Africa with a modern infrastructure that is primed for various forms of development from Western sources. Winfrey’s school, which was built upon a promise she made to Nelson Mandela in 2000, could be the first salvo that sparks a fire among those that were in attendance at the school’s opening such as Spike Lee, Sidney Poitier, Chris Tucker and Mary J. Blige, to find ways to also invest in South Africa’s future. How beautiful would it be if through these ventures, we were to stake a claim in the nation of our origin and further shrink the divide between us and the people that still share our blood lines, no matter how faint they may be? How beautiful would it be if we finally began to see money as a tool for economic empowerment, both here and abroad, instead of a tool used solely for the exchanging of goods on a consumer level? How beautiful would it be if were to ditch the entitlement mentality that somehow allows us to demand goods and services for which our incomes don’t match? How beautiful would it be if we were to embrace the inherent value of education, which would in turn help our children understand the value in it as well, since they are indeed direct reflections of our ideals? How beautiful would it be if bitch ass motherfuckers found better ways to waste their time and energy than to criticize a woman that has accomplished as much as Winfrey has for not doing enough yet allow those that do nothing off the hook? In closing, I’ll leave you with another gem from Garvey: “Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself.” Think about it, then shut your bitch ass up!
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Marcus Garvey, a brilliant man whose ideas on self-empowerment were light years ahead of its time, once said, "How dare anyone tell us that Africa cannot be redeemed, when we have 400,000,000 men and women with warm blood coursing through their veins? The power that holds Africa is not divine." 