JovanMiles.net

I think I’ve mentioned before how I live in the hood. I try not to characterize my neighborhood in a disparaging light, but sometimes that characterization is unavoidable.

Recently, I’ve had two bags and two large CD cases stolen from the trunk of my car. The car was parked right in front of my townhouse no less. I wasn’t all that torn up about the bags. Those can easily be replaced…however…one of the bags did contain a journal. I was a little pissed about that….but I digress.

The largest loss to me is the theft of my CD’s. I’m not so upset about their monetary value because I can easily hit the web and find all of my missing music in a few minutes. However, I feel like someone stole a large portion of my childhood and adolescence by taking those discs.

I began collecting music back before CD’s were affordable or common to most people. I still have my bootleg tapes from Fordham road and my pause tapes that I made by dubbing songs from the radio. I’ll be able to show those to my kids and when I listed to those tapes I’m transported back in time.

My CD collection did the same thing for me. It chronicled my foray into high school, my first real girlfriend, my favorite teachers, my first job, and so many other life events that really only come back from the edges of my memory when a particular song is played or phrase uttered by my favorite MC.

Hip Hop, Jazz, Soul, R&B, and even a little Rock and Roll were stolen from me….but the loss means so much more. It means I’ll never play MY original copies of Ready To Die, Illmatic, or Reasonable Doubt ( the holy trinity in Hip Hop if you didn’t know).

Right now, I’m debating whether or not I’ll actually purchase another physical CD again.

I’m not even terribly upset at the person or persons who stole from me. I assume that they have to be really bad off financially, psychologically, or spiritually to do something like that.

What’s a young brother to do ?

(sorry for rambling all over the place with this topic…the wounds are still fresh)

Tags: the hood

This is the TI that I want to hear. I always thought he was a much better rapper when he talked about something real rather than simply perpetuating that “dope boy” persona the he worked so hard to invent.

This TI has longevity…the other…not so much.

Enjoy

Tags: TI

Dear Mr. Gates,

It has been one hell of a ride with you at the helm of arguably the greatest and most influential corporation humanity has seen since the East India Trading Company. Your innovations and leadership have transformed the world in a speed unparalleled since the Industrial Revolution. And to think, you’re a philanthropist to boot!

I don’t have else to say but thank you. Thank you for creating a medium that allowed the world to become a smaller place. Thank you for creating a medium that would give birth to the greatest deluge of the spread of information since the Renaissances.

On this, the day of your retirement know that you will be missed and surely your name will be written into the history books.

Mr. Miles

Tags: bill gates, retirement

I love things like this

Tags: I will derive

Hard Times at Douglass High - Clip 4
by HBOclips

Hard Times at Douglas High, an HBO documentary, purports itself to be an expose on President Bush’s failed No Child Left Behind act. The film is more of an indictment on concentrated poverty and castrated school systems who have neither the desire nor the tools to assist in solving the problems facing their students. However, the more important message has very little screen time in the film.

Individuals who have not taught or lived in the conditions exposed in the film, may wrongly be critical of the very real efforts of the teachers and administrators in the film

What is not discussed or addressed in the film is the perpetual sense of hopelessness, lovelessness, and general apathy so rampant in impoverished areas in inner city America. Dr. Cornell West refers to this urban milieu as nihilism. The teachers who work in this environment every day are not immune to the effects of this nihilism either as the basketball coach admits his personal belief to his players that they have been “fucked” out of a win in a basketball tournament.

Some would argue that these are problems that we all know about and that we should move beyond. Policy makers who have never personally encountered any of the issues facing these children act as if having a PhD in every classroom will somehow inspire children who live in poverty, with no family structure to speak of, and unstable home lives to reach to amazing new heights. Teacher quality is highly important, but more important are the students’ basic needs.

Our basic human needs of shelter, warmth, love, safety, family, and stability must all be fulfilled before focusing on achievement or personal growth of any kind.

I do not subscribe to the victim-hood school of thought where I am doomed to failure because I am in a bad situation that I did not create. However, to totally dismiss other contributing factors in a person’s life when deciding how much that person should be able to achieve is simply a foolish idea.

Teachers are influential to children, but parents, family, friends, and the environment where the child spends the majority of their time is much more influential to that child’s outlook on life and personal success.

Our children are failing because we are expecting them to thrive in an environment that does not nurture their growth and we expect an external force, namely schools, to somehow “fix them”.

What part of the game is that ?

Tags: Education, Hard Times at Douglas High, HBO

I started playing the trumpet again recently and I’ve been youtubing some Dizzy and Arturo when I came across this little gem.

Wasn’t it great that our A list celebs would all do the muppet show and sesame street ?

Imagine lil wayne doing a segment with elmo

Tags: dizzy, elmo, lil wayne, sesame street

I decided to start a group on My.BarackObama.com called bloggers for Obama. My goal is to raise $1000 for the campaign…any donation you make can help out.

Just click on the picture in my sidebar to contribute to the group and the campaign.

Tags: bloggers for obama, fund raising

Statistics can say whatever you want them to. Let’s take a look at some of the only stats I consider factual…the US census from 2004

Population of American Blacks - 36,121,000

Percentage of married American Blacks - 55.6%

Percentage of single mother households - 44.7%

Two parent households - 46.5%

Percentage of the population 25 or older with college education - 44.6%

Percentage of Black population that are employed - 89.3%

Percent below poverty level - 24.5%

What do you think ?

Tags: census, statistics

I decided to weigh in on this after perusing the blogoshphere and seeing some of my blogging brethren insinuate that Obama called out deadbeat dads, and deadbeat Black dads in particular, for not doing what they’re supposed to do as a way to placate his White constituents and I call shenanigans.

The truth of the matter is there are TOO many Black fathers who are absent in their children’s lives. Almost all of my students…all…do not know their father or their father is not an integral part of their lives. My biological father is also included in that stereotype. It’s real and it’s terrible and it needs to be pointed out.

I’m going to take 3 major complaints to task and explain why I think each and every one of them is complete and utter crap. First, Obama is somehow putting family business out on the street. Second, Obama did not talk about those Black fathers that are in their child’s lives doing what they can to assist. Finally, Obama is doing this appease White folks.

The truth of the matter is it is almost the norm among many Black people to just have babies without being married. The truth of the matter is that census statistics reveal this harsh reality. Obama isn’t putting family business out in public…what he is doing is sitting that crazy cousin down who is always drunk at the family reunion and trying to have an intervention. He, and I, are tired of that cousin messing up their life and the lives of their children.

Second, if you’re a Black father and you’re doing what you’re suppose to…so what? Why do you deserve to be singled out and praised ? If you are a father then you are supposed to raise your children. You are supposed to provide for them. You are supposed to help them with their homework and encourage them to do well is life. If you and their mother are not together you are supposed to make it a point to stay in the child’s life. You aren’t applauded for breathing so why should you be applauded for taking care of your own responsibilities ? Stop fishing for compliments and do what is right because it is right….you’ll get all the thanks and praise you need for doing what daddy’s are supposed to on Father’s day.

Finally, Obama said what he said for our benefit. We wanted a Black President and we better be ready to deal with the fact that that brother is going to take us to task on some serious issues we have in our community. Malcolm called us out for bleaching our skin, frying our hair, and eating foul foods…and we loved Malcolm…and he did not posture for the White man at all.

Have we gotten soft ? Are we so morally and spiritually bereft that we can’t take real honest criticism from one of our own ? Has nihilism truly set in in our communities ?

Let the brother breathe Black people. We’re stronger than that.

Tags: black fathers, Obama, real talk

I just watched an awesome video over at dy/dn and became very inspired to refocus on my craft.

I’ve been building and running websites since I was about 17 and have always foused on rich content as well as well thought out design as a means to reach my users. I ran forums, blogs, etc. and always achieved moderate success by making sure that my content was rich, relevant, and current.

The same attitude should be adopted by all teachers, because, after all we are creators of content ( the good ones anyway )

So…off I go to work on something new for the upcoming year.

Thanks Dan, for the inspiration.

Tags: creating, learning, teaching