(Akiit.com) Last year the federal government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta issued a report showing that the steady increase in the HIV/AIDS infection rate for African Americans had actually declined.

This was very good news! It suggested that at least in the area of slowing down the spread of a killer disease Blacks as a group were doing something right. Thus, as a journalist who stays pretty well abreast of what is taking place in the media, I was saddened and disappointed when this news received virtually no mention in the mainstream media and very little coverage even in Black media.

History teaches that if the news had been negative or the HIV/AIDS infection rate had increased significantly, it would have been given widespread coverage. The episode prompted the following question: Why is virtually all the news receiving massive coverage and specifically relating to African Americans usually negative?
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(Akiit.com) I will be the only one to determine who and what I am

I believe that I am black.

It wasn’t always so. You see, during the course of my life I have been called, by others, colored, negro, Afro-American, black and the latest, African-American. These are of course the polite terms. I’ve been called worse.

As a young child I rode a city bus into downtown with my grandmother. We sat in the back of the bus. In those days, before suburban sprawl and the shopping mall, everyone went downtown. It was a bustling center of shopping and business. I discovered that I was different. I was colored. This was a startling revelation since growing up in the ghetto you assume the whole world is just like you.

When President Kennedy was killed, I was a Negro. They let school out early that day. I think that at the time I understood what death and tragedy was but I couldn’t understand what drove adults to tears and why he was considered such a friend to us, the Negroes.

For a while I was Afro-American. This, my first hyphenated era, was a wild one. It was during the heady days of black power and “Say it loud: I’m black and I’m proud.” We wore dashikis and read Before the Mayflower while grooving with the flower children, since our rebellion complimented their revolution quite well.

I spent my college days at the business school of an enormous state university in the South. Approaching graduation, I signed up for an interview on campus with a visiting corporate recruiter. Years later, that scene replays in my mind like the scene from the movie Lethal Weapon where Danny Glover sits down with a minor government functionary at the South African consulate and requests a visa. The functionary says, “But you’re black.” The words went unsaid, but I understood. I was black.
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(Akiit.com) It is a thing of immeasurable ugliness that the Black male image is besieged to great proportions, yet we are supposed to join in and rage against ourselves, ostensibly, in support of the Black woman’s empowerment.

We are asked, in essence, to bow down to the Black woman.

It would be one thing if we were bowing down in praise to the beautiful women who uplift and stand with Black men to create loving partnerships and families. However, in many cases, Black men are asked to bow down to Black women in an act of self-deprecation and self-destruction.

We are asked to ignore our own pain in deference to the pain of Black women, allegedly all caused by us.

Some sisters are even offended that we speak of our issues with Black women, even though the air is loaded with their complaints about Black men.

It is as American as apple pie to deride Black men, but let me say it now: I will not participate in the decimation of the Black male image.

Black men do not have such sophisticated vehicles as Essence and Oprah to rage against our adversaries, lament our woes, or declare our power and might—real or imagined. We have few arenas to discuss any of our issues outside of politics and sports.

While so-called Black feminists rage against Black men for the oppression we supposedly dole out, we are still the last to be hired and the first to be fired; yet, we are the only group without a vehicle. There is no Black man’s movement, or even a masculinist movement at large for us to take part in.
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(Akiit.com) Essence magazine is officially a joke. Just in case you are already of the opinion the magazine had “joke” tendencies, it went on ahead and jumped the broom and made it official.

Having nothing to do with the fact that they played themselves, selling out to give Juanita Bynum a platform for more foolishness in the wake of her “new face of domestic violence” campaign, in the same issue they released their “Top 25 List of Most Influential African-Americans for 2007.”

Not that there aren’t some people on this list below who Mo’Kelly both respects and admires … but there are some absolutely ridiculous inclusions that just can’t and shouldn’t be ignored.

Props to my girl Gina McCauley over www.whataboutourdaughters.org at she’s definitely movin’ and shakin’. She did and continues to do tremendous work in 2007 and Mo’Kelly is proud to have worked with her in fighting to chin-check BET. Nothing wrong with showing love for the next generation of leaders, Mo’Kelly’s all for it.

But there are some simply unconscionable inclusions in this list. Lord have mercy. Lord, Lord have mercy.

Barry Bonds? The one who was just indicted … THAT Barry Bonds? No, his syringe was influential, but not the ballplayer. His syringe owns the most hallowed record in baseball, not the baseball player. No syringe, no asterisk record. The syringe got robbed and should be given its due credit.
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Columbus, OH (Akiit.com) - The horrific news of Dr. Donda West’s tragic demise has rocked the African American community. Once again, we have lost a very inspirational leader unnecessarily. The most difficult aspect to accept about this tragedy is that it was undoubtedly preventable.

Let’s face it, today’s society dictates how we should look, what we should have, what we should do to make ourselves look better, and ultimately feel better about who we are. We turn on the TV, ride down the freeway and see billboards of beautiful models and buff bodies with wash board abs. We see this and of course we want instant gratification. With such proliferation amidst, and perhaps facing our own belly-fat demons - tummy-tucks, liposuction and other fat removal surgeries suddenly become an attractive viable option for shedding excess weight. Make no mistake about it, the risks accompanied with these types of procedures far outweigh the benefits!

Tummy tucks have been on the rise since the year 2002. In 2002 surgical procedures made up 23.5% of all cosmetic procedures. However, the most significant increase in this category was the abdominoplasty (tummy tuck), which rose 17%. What we hear propagated is that these types of surgeries are extremely safe and effective even with its inherent risk.

The reality is that surgery related death’s like Dr. West’s is not uncommon at all; despite the fact that this is not highly publicized. According to The Psychiatric Times (2000), only a fraction of medical errors are actually reported due to fear of lawsuits and public pandemonium. Even if death does not occur there are some high stakes to consider.
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