Justin Dawkins

On the morning of my 26th birthday I’ve come across some fairly disturbing instances of people, even friends, ruling out President-Elect Obama before he even gets started. This is somewhat troubling so I decided that I would say a few things, something I rarely do in detail.

Before I get started I would like to take a moment to thank all of my peers for voting and stating your position. It is our responsibility to help define our future, instead of sitting back and allowing our elders to be the only voice heard. Furthermore, I want to say that I do not intend to offend anyone and if I do, I’m sorry. This will not be a long note and I will not fill it with fluff and meaningless information, so here we go. The following is a list(short list) of the things I won’t do regarding the recent outcome of the 2008 presidential election.

1. I WILL NOT boast and brag. Though there is an extraordinary amount of pride and triumph that fills my spirit (feelings for my parents and grandparents that I can’t even describe) because Obama’s victory, it is not my responsibility to run around as if I am any better than the next person. Yes African-Americans/Black People often times start in a hole, and once again, we have proven that kicking us, beating us, and even killing us is/was not enough to kill the spirit as strong as ours. Period.

2. I WILL NOT argue with McCain supports about the negative impact they believe President-Elect Obama will have on our economy, education system, energy policies, foreign policies, or any other issues. At this point we all, especially Christians, should CONTINUE to pray for our leadership regardless of their color. Furthermore we should all stay centered and work to find ways to make our local communities, including our families and homes, safer, smarter, more accountable and more politically sound. Period.

3. I WILL NOT let you take my joy. I am proud that for the 3rd presidential election I have been a part of, I can stand up and say that my choice actually won (I would continue to vote regardless of the outcome, so do not be discouraged if your candidate didn’t win). My first voting experience was not a pleasant one, and the second wasn’t any better, so I will not let ANYONE take this moment away from me. If you try, I WILL take it personal. Period.

4. Finally, I WILL NOT be satisfied. For African Americans and Blacks, Barack Obama’s election is not the finish line, rather a milestone. I will admit that this a huge milestone, but not the last. With that said I will say this. As a black man I will continue to hold ALL men responsible for their actions, and for black men you officially have NO excuses. Let’s focus on supporting one another,investing in one another, including Obama, and work to get our families, homes, and communities back in order. Obama can’t do it alone. Period.

I could go on, and on, but I just wanted to take a moment to define my intentions so that I can set the record straight and establish a line of expectation. With the line now drawn, I’ll say these final words. If; I ignore you when you attempt to argue, defend my joy when you attempt to take it, continue to support my friends, neighbors and family in the failures and success or shake my head in disappointment when you(Men of ANY color) let our families, neighborhoods or communities down, know this. You have been told. This election means more to this country than many can fathom, and the major issues that plague our country right now, have NOTHING to do with color. We are all citizens of this country and WE should stand up and act like it, and it all starts with self. Period.

Be blessed, I love you, and thanks for tuning in.

In other news, this is the best birthday I’ve ever had, because I’ve been blessed to experience it with you in my life.

-Justin

Hello all,

I just wanted to share something with you, as you make that transition from “Job A” to “Job B,” or move into a relationship where you feel equal and treated as part of whole. This was written by a good friend of mine, who wanted to share a few words about relationships, purpose and the pursuit of your passion. Read on and tell me what you think.

In life, business and relationships your greatest asset is vision.

Your biggest liability is Doubt.

Doubt is conquered by taking the steps that your vision has brought you to.
Many times I’ve felt like being busy was the most important things to do and the key to success.

Conversations would begin with the question “what’s up man? What’s going on?”

And I would always answer, “man staying busy just making it happen”. I thought that’s what made a person successful. One day I asked myself the question, “what is it to be busy if you’re not working toward your purpose?” I knew then that being consumed with the “hustler” mentality was not bringing me personal fulfillment, which is true success. All it did was earn the validation that I sought from my peers. Many times people can be so busy performing for the world that they don’t take the time to see the vision that God has deposited into their spirit. Success in relationships, business, life etc. can be simple. Seek the vision, sketch the blueprint and follow through. I use to always hear wealthy men say “the key to a great business is a great business plan.” Your vision is that business plan; use it. Faith is your strongest tool and “follow through” is the best strategy.

-L. Norsworthy

What do you think? Are you implementing your business plan with the right tools, are you executing your divine strategy?

Dear Black History Month,

Please listen, as I have a few things to say. I know that we have done you little justice, and to be honest we have fallen short of your expectation, and have even questioned your purpose. We have degraded ourselves, and abandoned our beliefs. We have made attempts to make ourselves better, but the truth is we have created more ways to poison ourselves than to uplift ourselves. Furthermore, we are poisoning our communities and have left little for those that will come after us. I am sorry, but I would like to take this opportunity to recommit myself to you, and my community.

I promise to search for my identity that was stripped away hundreds of years ago. I promise to dismiss the stereotypes that have precluded me, and rise up beyond the voids of yesteryear. I promise to not allow the gap between my elders and my generation to increase. I promise to not settle for what society deems to be the path of a black man. I promise to respect; myself, black women, my elders, and my community. I promise to embrace Black History Month, and to use it as an opportunity to learn more about my heritage, my history, my beliefs, my identity and the legacy you left me, so long ago. To Black History Month and those that came before me, this is my vow to you.

Love,
Justin Dawkins

As you may recall, I recently wrote a post about the observation that black people don’t read and unfortunately, to some degree it’s true. Though I remain optimistic about this observation, and would hope that this will change, I must admit that I didn’t necessarily supply a solution. Well have no fear, a solution is here. A friend of mine sent me a link to a pretty cool website and to be honest, I think it is a great tool to use for someone looking to make reading a more social event. Shelfari.com is a website that allows you to share books that you have enjoyed reading with others, particularly your friends or people within your network. The other cool thing is that it allows you to recommend books to your friends, which brings the traditional “book club” element online. Of course the service allow you to search by author, ISBN, or subject, but you can also search for subject matter in a huge tag cloud which are very useful and creative web 2.0 element. This cloud also allows you to see what other people find interesting and maybe spark you interest enough to see what all the fuss is about. My initial reaction is this service is great and hopefully will be the start of something bigger. Of course this is just my opinion, why don’t you check it out, and come back and tell me what you think.

-Justin

Family,

Despite the fact that this information came to me in an email forward, I feel that it is incredibly important to share an article I received in my email today. The information below is a small writing from Dee Lee, a Caucasian woman, who shared and expressed her view of Black People/African Americans. The information below is an observation read on the radio by DJ Dee Lee, a black radio personality. I previously stated that this was stated on the air by a Caucasian woman and that was in error, and I should have researched the information a little bit more before posting. My apologizes to Ms. Dee Lee.

Be warned that this is a very broad generalization, and that this is not my personal opinion. I just decided to share because, I believe that there is some truth in what she is saying. Take a read and tell me what you think. Is it true? Do black people only think of themselves? Do we avoid reading?

THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES We can continue to reap profits from the Blacks without the effort of physical slavery Look at the current methods of containment that they use on themselves: IGNORANCE, GREED, and SELFISHNESS.

Their IGNORANCE is the primary weapon of containment. A great man once said, ‘The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book.’ We now live in the Information Age. They have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com, not to mention their own Black Bookstores that provide solid blueprints to reach economic equality (which should have been their fight all along), but few read consistently, if at all.

GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolition of slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal. Last year they spent 10 billion dollars during Christmas, out of their 450 billion dollars in total yearly income (2.22%).

Any of us can use them as our target market, for any business venture we care to dream up, no matter how outlandish, they will buy into it. Being primarily a consumer people, they function totally by greed. They continually want more, with little thought for saving or investing. They would rather buy some new sneaker than invest in starting a business. Some even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU, And they still think that having a Mercedes, and a big house gives them ‘Status’ or that they have achieved their Dream.

They are fools! The vast majority of their people are still in poverty because their greed holds them back from collectively making better communities. With the help of BET, and the rest of their black media that often broadcasts destructive images into their own homes, we will continue to see huge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. (Tommy Hilfiger has even jeered them, saying he doesn’t want their money, and look at how the fools spend more with him than ever before!). They’ll continue to show off to each other while we build solid communities with the profits from our businesses that we market to them.

SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the major ways we can continue to contain them. One of their own, Dubois said that there was an innate division in their culture. A ‘Talented Tenth’ he called it. He was correct in his deduction that there are segments of their culture that has achieved some ‘form’ of success. However, that segment missed the fullness of his work. They didn’t read that the ‘Talented Tenth’ was then responsible to aid The Non-Talented Ninety Percent in achieving a better life. Instead, that segment has created another class, a Buppie class that looks down on their people or aids them in a condescending manner. They will never achieve what we have. Their selfishness does not allow them to be able to work together on any project or endeavor of substance. When they do get tog ether, their selfishness lets their egos get in the way of their goal Their so-called help organizations seem to only want to promote their name without making any real change in their community.

They are content to sit in conferences and conventions in our hotels, and talk about what they will do, while they award plaques to the best speakers, not to the best doers. Is there no end to their selfishness? They steadfastly refuse to see that TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE (TEAM) They do not understand that they are no better than each other because of what they own, as a matter of fact, most of those Buppies are but one or two pay checks away from poverty. All of which is under the control of our pens in our offices and our rooms.

Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as they refuse to read, continue to buy anything they want, and keep thinking they are ‘helping’ their communities by paying dues to organizations which do little other than hold lavish conventions in our hotels. By the way, don’t worry about any of them reading this letter, remember, ‘THEY DON’T READ!!!!

I will share my personal opinion shortly, but I wanted to get this up quickly so that we could all read it and gain our own perspectives on the issue.

Love and Peace,
Justin

Well I can honestly say that I never thought I would see the day when I worked a 15 hour day. Well at least not for anyone besides myself. The truth is though you don’t notice the time, when you actually enjoy what you are doing. I can honestly say that I enjoy what I do. It’s 70% tactical and 20% strategic but it’s cool nonetheless (The other 10% percent is made of up by the administrative and operational task of the company… of course). But the recent 15 hour work days did allow me to take a step back, tonight and ask myself, “Why do I work so hard?” Am I just not working any smarter, or am I just that too committed to my job. Well I can honestly say it’s none of the above. It’s actually just maintaining a consistent level of work effort. The same level of energy that I have always put into the work I do. I have always considered myself a hard working person and though I am often in need of sleep, I don’t regret the long hours. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe in giving my life to any company, but I believe that the occasional 10+ hour day opens your mind up to exploration. An opportunity to sit back and realize whether or not you like what you are doing. If you hate every minute you work past 8-9 hours, then it’s a possibility that you don’t really like the career path you have chosen. The fact of the matter is I do and that’s why I work so hard. Now my question to you is this. Why is that Americans find themselves reaching so far pass their capacity for work happiness, that friends, family and responsibilities often take the back seat? Why do you work so hard, but know you aren’t happy in you current place? Just a few words to think about, and believe me I’m stepping off the soap box, I just thought I would ask. Feel free to comment and I look forward to talking with you soon.

-Justin

Ok so I know it has been a while but I have two serious things to talk about. One is the latest news from Iran and what our government’s intentions may be. Two is the closing of one my favorite restaraunt (In Atlanta). 3:45pm –> I’ll check back in later this evening!

This was a message that I recieved from a good friend of mine and all I can say is Well said… God Bless!

“Not a day goes by where we don’t miss our friends and family that were lost due to the tragic events of September 11th, 2001. Four years later we are experiencing further tragedy. Today, I’d like to take a moment and ask that you all walk through this day in rememberance. Life is a precious gift, and should be treated as such. Today, offer your thoughts and prayers to those that are experiencing hardship.”

“As times continue to drive great hardship through our country, let us
all walk in peace and remember the lives that mean so much to us all.”

I think that this is a wonderful article, and is shows that there is an opinion from Hip Hop and Hip Hop isn’t happy. Thus far the consensus is that there are two disasters that have happened in the past week. The first is that of the Hurricane itself which is something that only God can control, and the second was the government dropping the ball on the help that is needed. I have a slightly different view regarding certain elements of this article but to say the least I LOVE the fact that HIP HOP is standing UP!

HIP HOP STAND UP