(Akiit.com) OK, GIVE yourselves some credit. You had this Bonnie Sweeten abduction pegged for a hoax by morning coffee break Wednesday.

Anybody around the water cooler with an IQ of 65 or above was starting to sense that the by-now hardy perennial tale of the missing blue-eyed blonde being hijacked by those handy, hulking black men from Central Casting was bogus.

Don’t gloat too much, though. The odor of week-old carp was wafting off of this one from the moment the call came in from the damn’dsel in distress.

I can’t get a call through from an elevator but missy was able to get a clear signal from the trunk of a Cadillac. General Motors could build an ad campaign around that feature.

In the growing annals of hijack hoaxes, this one makes Susan Smith’s lame yarn look like the search for the DaVinci Code.

Smith, you may remember, was the young mother who rolled her car into a South Carolina lake, killing her two sons in 1994. She claimed that the culprit was a black man who sped off with the boys, aged 3 and 1, in the backseat of her hijacked car.

Even before the car was found, police were starting to see through the thinning fabric of this tired tale.

But my personal favorite from recent memory is the bizarre saga of Ashley Todd. She’s the overzealous, but under-intelligent McCain-Palin volunteer who spun a harrowing yarn about some huge black man who accosted her at an ATM.

She told police that he had demanded a specific amount of money from her, which she then peeled off of the larger bankroll she had just retrieved from the ATM. She also said that he had socked her in the eye.

Then, in an odd fit of political awareness, he was so outraged by seeing a McCain sticker on her car that he delayed his escape long enough to carve a “B” for Barack on her cheek. Or so she said.

Police, noting the backward “B” etched lightly into her face, started to suspect that she may have done it to herself while standing in front of a mirror.

She might have gotten away with it if only she had claimed her assailant was for Hillary. “H” spelled backwards is still “H.”

For some reason, my outrage quotient wasn’t very high this time. I had to get in touch with that as I decided on a tone for this column.
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(Akiit.com) Among people of color, the tragic problem of youth violence is a condition requiring serious introspection. In cities like Chicago, major news outlets report murder rates among teens as being at least one per week and in Los Angeles, violence between Latino and Black youth threatens the likelihood of Black and Brown coalition building. In order to address youth violence in our various communities, greater attention must be paid to the cause and effect nature of self-hatred, the reckless use of guns and a corporate driven popular culture that sells negative messages to young people.

As demographics continue to change into what some scholars have dubbed “the browning of America,” Blacks together with Latinos will outnumber whites in less than 50 years. While some may accept such change as nothing more than America’s natural growth and development, others are disturbed by the prospect of people of color inheriting the country.

In light of this inevitability, however, the consequences of self hatred among Black and Brown people handicap us from exercising our full birthright as American citizens. For Black people in particular, this problem is even more acute as high school dropout, unemployment and incarceration rates continue to increase. With a public education system that seems only prepared to fit Black youth into the lower echelons of an increasingly obsolete workforce, many will find few opportunities for advancement outside of illicit activity or wartime military service.

Either way, without the acquisition of an education stressing mathematics, the sciences or a useful trade, the options for young Black males in a 21st century economy will be limited at best. More often than not, those young men who have fallen through the cracks will face a deadly mix of unemployment and street life, and with the proliferation of firearms, drugs and gang warfare, the likely outcome is a harsh prison sentence or an untimely death.

If our youth receive proper guidance at an early enough age and they are taught to envision themselves as important fixtures for the future, they will see and better appreciate their educational and career path options. As the rule rather than an exception, by the middle of this century, Black America’s influence could expand to significantly affect both national and international trends. Whether social, cultural or political, positive and aware people make their mark on more than just their immediate surroundings.
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(Akiit.com) “Make me do it.”
-Barack Hussein Obama

The relevance of the above challenge issued by then Senator Barack Obama will soon become obvious.

For now, let me first congratulate Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Barack Obama’s nominee for the soon-to-be vacant seat of retiring high court Associate Justice David Souter.

Obama’s historic nomination of the first Latina to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) comes on the heels of a months-long full court press by Hispanic organizations like the Puerto Rican Legal Defense & Education Fund and the Mexican American Legal Defense & Education Fund, not to mention Women’s groups, all advocating for just such a groundbreaking pick.

No sooner than it was determined that Hispanics accounted for 7.4 percent of the 131 million people who voted in November–of which 67 percent cast their votes for the Obama-Biden ticket–the Hispanic judicial lobby moved into high gear.

Mind you, these numbers pale in comparison to African Americans who comprised a record 12.1 percent of the total vote, 95 percent of whom voted for Obama.

But who’s counting, right?

Ramona Romero, Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) president, certainly was. Almost immediately, the HNBA launched the Hispanic Appointments Project, and she reached out to President-elect Obama, only ten days after the election–and months before he took office.

“The presence of a Latino or Latina at the conference table could add a needed ’special voice’ to the Supreme Court’s deliberations and decisions– a voice that can speak about the law as it affects U.S. Hispanics with the authority that only firsthand knowledge can provide,” she wrote.

In other words, they “made” him do it…and good for them (and hopefully for all who would otherwise be marginalized judicially).

Of course, Team Obama insists that politics did not factor into the Sotomayor nomination, and that the president simply–organically– chose “the most qualified person for the job.” And, in all fairness, President Obama might very well have made the same choice, absent the very public lobbying effort.

But since Hispanics left nothing to chance, we’ll never know, will we?

Whatever the case–assuming that Sotomayor is confirmed to the SCOTUS–there will now be two representatives of the female perspective on that august judicial body, and one of the Hispanic. In my view, this is a beautiful thing.

What is profoundly problematic, however, is the fact that there is still not one solitary Black advocate.

Indeed, this is a glaring and unacceptable omission on the high court. Sure, there’s Clarence Thomas, but, in every way that matters, his is not a “Black seat.”

There, I said it.

I mean, we all know that his has been the deciding vote in a number of decisions that have all but wiped out affirmative action and other racial gains made during the tenure of Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to sit on the SCOTUS. (And isn’t it just the cruelest of ironies that Thomas was the Sr. Bush’s choice to replace Marshall, the civil rights lion?)

It is as Romero said, “being Hispanic doesn’t always mean that you are grounded in the culture.”

By the same token, and for all intents and purposes, Clarence Thomas should not count in the “minority” tally on the Supreme Court, as he has shown no evidence of being willing or able to articulate–or appreciate, even– the predominant African American world view, shaped by centuries of enslavement, Jim Crow, and continuing racial discrimination.

And am I the only one who finds it troublesome that, of the four widely reported finalists for the open SCOTUS seat–all women, three of whom were White–there was not one African American among the elite group?

Not one.

This is all the more vexing when one considers that, according to a Pew Research Center report, “overall, among all racial, ethnic and gender groups, [B]lack women had the highest voter turnout rate in November’s election [68.8 percent]–a first.”

So, are we to assume that there are no “qualified” African American female jurists worthy of even symbolic consideration for the Supreme Court? (And we are way beyond symbolism at this point.)

What about the Honorable Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson, the 57 year-old Rhode Island Superior Court Justice, who–in April–was recommended by both Rhode Island senators for the First Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals?

Then there is the Honorable Ann Claire Williams, the 59 year-old U.S. Seventh Circuit Appellate Judge and globally acclaimed legal scholar. Among her many public service efforts, Judge Williams lead and taught at the first Kenyan Women’s Trial Advocacy Program for domestic violence attorneys. Williams has also been a prosecutor and faculty member at both Northwestern and John Marshall Schools of Law.

Of course, President Obama knows of these and many other imminently qualified Black female esquires worthy of elevation to the high court-including several law school deans. The question is: Why did the Obama Administration not even float any African American names?
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(Akiit.com) It has come the time to clean house once again… Yes I must let go of a few friends and maybe even family members… So tired of being around negative people… I for one am trying to stay on the positive tip… Want to be around others, who feel the same way… To old for games, as the world is there for me to explore… On a down note, a co-worker has checked into drug rehab center… Didn’t know this person was a drug user… Hard to tell these days… I hope things work out for him… Well let me head over to youtube … Check out a few videos…

(Akiit.com) Inspired by actress Mia Farrow, members of Congress announced Tuesday that they were beginning a limited hunger strike to show solidarity with the people in Sudan’s Darfur region and demand President Barack Obama’s help in ending the suffering there.

“Among President Obama’s priorities, Darfur has to take its place,” Farrow, 64, told reporters on the Capitol campus, just after following her doctor’s orders and ending her own 12-day hunger strike.

More than a dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus appeared alongside her to announce that they, too, were taking up the “Fast for Life” campaign - going a few days at a time consuming only water - through Congress’ adjournment in August.

Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J., chairman of the House subcommittee on Africa, said he had fasted last week for three days and said the group has requested a meeting with Obama.
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