How Can We Best Educate Black Children?

This is a great podcast from The Wilmer Leon Show.  

Wilmer Leon's guests were two educators who talked about their experiences of teaching Black children in the school system.  

Some of their experiences underline what I keep saying:  we need to learn from each other internationally.  For example, one of the guests talked about the fact that he went into teaching Special Education, only to find out that a lot of Black children are being put into that category.  

The same thing happened here in the UK in the 1960s and 70s, when Black children were often labelled "educationally sub-normal".  Nowadays, exclusions are often used to deny our children an education.  

Another point the guests made was that Black boys are often being raised by women, and they come into the classroom to find themselves being taught by women.  So where do they learn to be men?  Where are their male role models? 

The presenter also makes the point that HBCUs do not teach their students some crucial Black literature.  You can graduate from Harvard without having read Carter G. Woodson's The Miseducation of the Negro or Ivan van Sertima's They Came before Columbus. 

This podcast was very rich.  You need to hear it.  Click here to listen. 

And always, always Remember Your Greatness.  

Why We Need to Identify as Black

From time to time, I receive comments from people about the fact that I use the word “Black” to refer to people of African heritage. Thus, my books are called Black Success Stories, Success Strategies for Black People and More Black Success.

The history of the word Black is an interesting one. In traditional African spiritual practice, the colour black is considered to be the strongest, most powerful colour in existence. When we want to attract something, we use the colour black to attract it.

To take an example from nature, a black hole in space attracts everything to it.

My opinion – this is a personal view – is that white people, people of European descent, as well as other light-skinned people such as Arabs, were aware of the power of the colour black, and that is why they feared it. So they started to associate blackness with negativity.

However, as African people, we have no reason to fear the colour black or the word “black”. Plus, many of our ancestors were black, the colour of the earth, and there are still many black-skinned African people in the diaspora, all over the world.

The rich, deep dark blackness of Black skin - "coal-black, plum black, blue black" to quote Maya Angelou.

So Blackness is an important part of our identity.

As an African American, I am proud to identify myself as Black and I shall continue to do so.

This blog contains hundreds of Black history resources. If you type “Black history” into the search box, you can access them.

Please leave your comments below.

Financial Independence: What U Need to Know Preview

As the U.S.A. just celebrated Independence Day, we thought this would be a good time to talk about financial independence.

So many people are facing economic uncertainty these days. We need some strategies. You can listen to a preview below.

Plus, click below for more info on how to attract the money you want. We can achieve financial success.

Click here to listen to What U Need to Know this Saturday, 2 p.m. EST, 7 p.m. UK time.

Listen to internet radio with Zhana21 on Blog Talk Radio

Who Needs Affirmative Action?

Who needs affirmative action when your name is Kennedy or Bush?

Or Paltrow for that matter? But are we really jealous of Gwynnie? Click here to read Keli Goff's blog.

Loads of Free Stuff for Black Parents and Children

The Black Holiday Gifts Guide has loads of free resources for Black parents, children and families.

Online Fun for You and Your Children

We have lots of free online fun for your children, including free resources they can download and print out.

Print out and color a Kinara.

There's an online Black history quiz.

And lots more free resources.

click here to download the free Black Holiday Gifts Guide 2010 now.

African American Gifts

Plus, we have lots of children's gifts you can buy. We have gifts for all the family - toys, coloring books, Black history board games and more.

Our coloring books include:

African American Leaders Activity and Coloring Book
Famous Black Women
African Designs Coloring Book

and more.

Check it out: click here to download the free Black Holiday Gifts Guide 2010 now.

See also: A Christian Book for Teenage Girls.

We Are Spending 1 Trillion Dollars

That's right, African Americans are on course to spend $1 Trillion next year (2011).

Where are we spending it? Not in our own communities. We are lining everybody else's pockets.

For more thoughts about this, listen to the recording of this month's What U Need to Know.

I recently met this lovely sister, Naomi, from Nubian Heights, which is a website that promotes Black-owned businesses for free. She was one of our guests on the show. Click here for her site.

Blacktastic News is another great site helping to promote Black businesses. The owner was also on the show. Click here for her site.

We regularly publish free advice for Black-owned businesses in More Black Success, so grab your copy now!

For more articles to support your success and help you achieve your unlimited possibilities, see: Black Success.

See also: Making a Quantum Leap Part 2.

Honouring Your Deepest Values

What is the most important thing in your life?

Is it your relationships?

Having genuine heart connections with people?

Spending time with those you love?

Fun and excitement?

Having a healthy, fit body?

Creative expression?

Education and learning?

The opportunity to learn and grow spiritually?

Whatever you most value, make sure you structure your life around it, rather than trying to fit it into your life.

To read more, see 12 Ways to Be Successful.

Click here for my free 3-Step Success Formula.

Here's to your success!

Finding Creative Solutions - New Workshops

I hope you will join us for my next workshop on Finding Creative Solutions, which will be held in London on Saturday 11th September 2-4 p.m.

- If you have been working on a problem or issue for awhile, and are not happy with the results

- If you have tried different methods

- If you feel worried, stressed or anxious about

money and finances

your job/career

your relationships

your health

any other area of your life

This workshop can help you.

Click here for more information and to book.

Click here for the next workshop for the Black community.

Click here for my Amazon Author Profile.

Here's to your success!

Reminder: Education - What U Need to Know Tomorrow (Saturday)

As September means back to school for many people, we are looking at education. What can Black parents do to ensure their children get the best from the education system? And what kinds of educational resources are available?

This show is presented by two sistas across the Atlantic - my colleague, Joan E. Gosier of HBCU Kidz, author of Cotton Pickin' Paycheck, and myself.

Click here to listen.

Click here for more details and to listen to recordings of previous shows.

To join us, phone 001 (347) 637-1099 or login to the chatroom.

Click here for my Amazon Author Profile.

Black Film: "Babylon"

I recently attended a screening of "Babylon" at the NFT.

As you probably know, "Babylon" depicts life for young Black men in South London in1980, the year before the Brixton riots.

The film shows Black youth being hunted by their white neighbours and the police, who were eager to brutally beat them.

In "Operation Swamp", the police stopped a thousand Black men in Brixton in three days. Boys were stopped going to school as well as in school, beaten up and taken to jail.

In his novel East of Acre Lane, author Alex Wheatle described his experiences of living in Brixton before and during the riots, being pressured by the police and being thrown into a prison cell. To read more, visit: Alex Wheatle, Brixton Bard

At the same screening, the NFT showed a short film made by a group of Black and white young people called "Some Other Way Forward", about the "stop-and-search" procedure by the police.

Sir Paul Condon, former head of the Metropolitan Police, in 1999 justified the targeting of young Black men with stop-and-search, stating that these are the people most likely to commit street crime.

One thing he failed to mention is that young white men are those most likely to be involved in public order offences.

This fascinating film was made by the young people. It depicted them being stopped, sometimes four or five times a day, by police officers demanding their ID.

What this reminded me of the most were scenes from "Schindler's List" in which the Nazis patrolled the Jewish ghettoes, stopping the inhabitants four or five times a day and demanding their ID. People would be on their way to work or to the shops when they were stopped. They were often then made to perform menial tasis such as shovelling snow.

What most interested me was that, a few weeks earlier, I had attended a discussion about President Obama's success. We were shown film clips about what happened in Philadelphia in the 1970s and '80s, when the police targeted the MOVE organisation. In 1978, the police bombed the home of the MOVE members, killing 11 people including five children, and destroying an African American neighbourhood.

The fire department allowed the fire to burn for hours. The bodies which were recovered afterwards were really just ash. People said they looked like bodies from Beirut. They were also found to have bullets lodged inside of them.

During the discussion, I asked the question, "Is stop and search any different, in practice, from the old 'Sus' laws?"

These laws were used in the 1970s and early '80s to stop - you guessed it - young Black men on suspicion of committing pcrimes and throw them into prison cells. Often, there was no evidence of any crime having been committed.

People in the audience assured me that things are differeent now because you can take down the ID of the officers involved, and report them if necessary. But on the basis of this film, I would have to say, things are not that different now.

One of the very positive things about the NFT screening was the discussion that followed. I will blog more about this soon.

See also: What Are the Police Up To?

Overcoming Victim Mentality

When I was teaching at Holloway Prison, I had a lot of students who had bought into victim mentality. They blamed everybody but themselves for the fact that they were in prison. I had one student tell me she was a a thief because "god" had made her one. Another student told me that the only reason babies develop was to do with instinct - nothing to do with our determination to grow and thrive.

These are extreme views, but they indicate what can happen if we allow victim mentality to dwell within our minds and our consciousness.

To read more, see Overcoming Victim Mentality.

The Power of a Black Skin

Further to my previous blog about the BNP on the BBC, many people have said that when the head of the BNP appeared on Question Time lately, he came across as a bumbling idiot.

However, around 100 viewers phoned the BBC to complain that he was treated unfairly and even “bullied”.

I still say we need to learn the lessons of history and stop giving these people free publicity.

I felt torn about blogging about this issue and giving it more energy. Although there are other, better ways to overcome difficulties and create the things we want, sometimes we have to engage and directly confront.

Mr. BNP Head himself said that he had been treated unfairly because there were too many African and Asian people in the audience as the programme was broadcast from London, which had been “ethnically cleansed”.

It’s useful to know that we can “ethnically cleanse” an area – just by turning up! That’s the power of a Black skin.

But the final word has to go to the folks at the quiz show Have I Got News for You the same week as the broadcast. During a photo quiz, when asked to identify a photo of Mr. BNP Head, Ian Hislop, Paul Merton and their guests all shook their heads and said “We don’t know who he is”. At which point the host, Martin Clunes, moved on to the next item without identifying him either.

In other words, treat this man as the nonentity he should be.

Resources for Black Parents

Free online activities for children, crafts, make a kinara, African recipes, plus books and resources for parents - get all this and more from the new Black Holiday Gifts Guide 2009. Click here to download it now.

I'm on the Radio Saturday 5th September!

I will be interviewed by Diana Broomfield on her radio show this Saturday, 5th August, 4 p.m. EST (9 p.m. UK time). I hope you will join us! Click here to listen online.

I will be talking about my books, my courses, Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and much more.

Click here for more about NVC and empathy

Black Writers and Artists, Add Your Link

I am in the process of carrying over the links from the old Nurture Success site. They will appear on various lists including

African Heritage Resources and

Writers' Resources

If you are a writer or an artist of African heritage, please join Black Books and Stuff and add your link. You can also post news of any events you are holding on this site.

You will also want to check out this list of Resources for Black Writers and Readers.

Positive Cultural Reinforcement for African American Parents

How do African American people shop for gifts?

Probably the same way everyone else does.

But on top of all the other considerations, African American people often want to find gifts which are culturally relevant for us and our children.

Christmas and Kwanzaa provide excellent opportunities for positive cultural reinforcement.

Click here to read the rest of this article.

Click here for my free guide to Black holiday gifts.

Happy Birthday, America!

President Obama. The sound of this is resonating in my ears.

Got up at 5:30 this morning and turned on the TV. When I saw the news, I started to cry. I was so emotional. All these crowds cheering Obama.

This truly is a new day. A new dawn.

On a level, I realise, I never thought I would see this in my lifetime. A Black man in the White House. Now anything is possible.

Whole new possibilities have opened up. Things that were not conceivable yesterday can happen now. I felt like this when apartheid ended in South Africa and Nelson Mandela was elected. I feel it even more strongly now.

For the first time, I care about what the First Lady is wearing. I care about how she will decorate. We have a Black First Lady in the White House now.

When Michelle Obama tells her children they can grow up to be President, she really means it. And now, the rest of us can mean it too.

Obama had 93% of the African American vote, along with 40% of the white vote.

African Americans are full citizens at last. We can participate fully in the electoral process. We have the power to bring about change. And we have used our power.

At last, I feel proud to be American.

Well done, America. Congratulations. You have finally come of age.

Polling Day

I went to the doctor's this morning and he said, "Make sure you get it right this time. I've emailed all my American friends and told them to get it right this time." He also said, "It would have made a huge difference if Al Gore had won". And he is a white Englishman.

The whole world is watching the U.S. election today, even more than usual. The whole world could be affected by the outcome.

I've been speaking to friends and family on the other side of the pond, who tell me they feel both excited and apprehensive.

1) First, there are the mechanics of the voting process. Will they have to queue for hours? This could be very stressful, both for the voters and for those running the polling stations. Reports of understaffing are circulating. What if fights break out?

I don’t think anybody anticipated this high voter turnout, and the polling stations are unprepared for this.

Lawyers have been hired to help support fair voting practices. I am imagining teams of lawyers like SWAT teams swooping in to investigate. Who knew U.S. elections could be so exciting?

2) Will the voting machines work? Oprah’s experience suggests this could be a problem. How many other voters will struggle with this one? If an African American billionaire, the most influential woman on the planet, cannot cast her vote, what hope do the rest of us have?

Lots of problems in Nevada. Are the CSIs onto this?

3) The papers are saying Black people will riot if Obama doesn’t win. I say, yeah, right. But with record numbers of young people voting, maybe this is a real possibility.

Surely the time to riot was when Bush got put in the White House the first time without being elected.

So what’s going to happen? How was it for you? Phone in to my show tonight to share your opinions and experiences. http://www.blacksuccess1.com/radioshow.htm

My friend Adrianne George from Black Women in Europe is going to be up all night talking about the election. She has invited me (yeah, me!) to join her for part of that discussion. It starts at 8:00 UK time (so clashes with my show), but it will go on all night. To watch the live blog, visit:

Black/African British Identity and Young People

I read a piece in the Voice the other day which argued that young people in Britain lack a sense of identity.

They may have been born in the UK or come here at an early age. When they go back to visit their parents’ homes in Africa or the Caribbean, the place seems foreign to them. But in Britain, they don’t feel as if they belong.

Identity is clearly an important issue. In the 1970s, many young people turned to Rastafarianism as a way of reclaiming their cultural identity.

The article glossed over some factors. For example, a young person living in a big city might feel out of place on a farm, whether that farm is in a rural area of Britain or in the Caribbean or Africa.

Still, the article states that “nearly all youth projects only offer musical or sports-related activities”, which “reinforces the stereotype that Black males can only be successful if they are sports figures or musicians”.

It is so important that we reinforce positive cultural values and a sense of their African heritage and identity with our young people. Without this, many of them are lost. They often don’t do well in school, join gangs which offer a feeling of belonging, get involved in crime and end up behind bars.

In my book, Black Success Stories, I made a conscious decision to avoid featuring people in the fields of sports or entertainment. After all, people of African heritage are good at everything. I celebrate Black success across a wide range of fields. All of the people I feature in the book are based in Britain. To order your copy today, visit: http://www.blacksuccess1.com/blacksuccessstories.htm

We also celebrate Black success and talk about the need for positive Black role models on my Success Strategies radio show every Tuesday. To listen in, and to hear recordings of previous shows, visit: http://www.blacksuccess1.com/radioshow.htm

Report Back from the Democratic National Convention

Last night, on my "Success Strategies" radio show, two Black bloggers, African American Political Pundit and Adrianne George of Black Women in Europe reported back from last week's Democratic National Convention in Denver.

They described the "electric" atmosphere at the convention. They had expected only seven Black bloggers to be present, but there were at least 12 (out of 150). But at least 40% of the people there were African American, including delegates as well as people who had just come along because they wanted to be present.

They also talked about whether, and how, Obama will be able to represent the disenfranchised, particularly the homeless.

To hear the recording of the show, visit http://www.blacksuccess1.com/radioshow.htm