Carmelo Anthony visits Syracuse to show off basketball court

Carmelo Anthony waves to fans at Wilson Park in Syracuse

By Stephanie Claytor

Syracuse, New York—Denver Nuggets basketball player and former Syracuse University star Carmelo Anthony visited Syracuse’s southside on Monday to show off a new basketball court in Wilson Park. Anthony

sponsored the refurbishment of the court through the Courts for Kids program.

Anthony was supposed to watch young players compete in a basketball tournament on the new court. But, due to an  extreme lack of planning and security, that was quite impossible.

Carmelo Anthony's vehicle trying to get to basketball court

Anthony’s vehicle couldn’t even get in the parking lot before the fans mobbed him. They screamed at him, shouting demands for him to roll down the Escalade window. 

Once Anthony exited the vehicle, the fans ran towards him and followed him onto the court. The kids were jumping up and down, cameras in hand, some shouting out ob centities,  demanding an autograph. The four police officers tried but they couldn’t hold off the crowd as the mob pushed towards him. Even his bodyguard was helpless.   

Carmelo was able to say a few words, mainly that he was happy to be able to re-do the basketball court and he thanked his fans and former teammates. It was also mentioned that Anthony will continue the Courts for Kids program in Puerto Rico, where Anthony says his family is from. 

On that note, while Carmelo Anthony was signing autographs in the crowd, we asked him to speak in Spanish. He smiled and didn’t say a word. Hmmm sounds like he needs to go back to Puerto Rico, show off the new court and get a Spanish lesson while he is there. 

After saying a few words, Carmelo pushed his way through the crowd and got back in his Escalade. He signed a few autographs through the window, and left. 

Also in attendance were Coach Jim Boeheim, and former NFL star Dorsey Levens. Levens says he will be back in Syracuse in the spring, around May or June, to dedicate another basketball court in Thornden Park in Syracuse. 

It’s a shame. There was such chaos that Carmelo Anthony didn’t get to see the youngsters play. And the kids didn’t get to show off their skills. Maybe next time.

Michelle Obama makes Forbes’ World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list

By Stephanie Claytor

 First Lady Michelle Obama has been ranked at 40 on Forbes’ list of the world’s 100 most powerful women. Forbes magazine says this list isn’t about being a celebrity. The number one slot went to Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany.  Forbes says the list is consumed of women who are in charge, and can easily capture the media’s attention.

Forbes magazine says Obama ranks 40 because of her involvement with military families and her accomplishments dealing with working families. But, also because she is the first African American First Lady of the United States of America.

Let’s think about that.

                                                                       

If she really wants to make a statement, I would like for her to let her hair go natural. I appreciate the fact that she allows her girls to wear their hair as they please.

But let’s think about the statement it would make to all the other black women out there who feel they have to get weaves, or painful relaxers just so they can be accepted in the workplace or live up to someone else’s ideals of beauty.

In every corner of this Earth, whether in the U.S., Africa, Latin America, etc., black women (if they have the money…or not) attempt to straighten their hair, wear weaves, etc., just to fit in.

The media and fashion critics have already said Michelle Obama is beautiful. So, I think she should take on the challenge for us and go natural. For all we know, she may not get a relaxer. But I’m talking real change. We want to see the hair in its natural state, not straightened with the hottest Chi iron available. 

Maybe Black History Month is a good time to start.  She can do it for all of us sisters who are still afraid to do it, for the fear  that we may not find a good job, etc.

If the First Lady of the United States of America decides that a short afro, a curly afro, twists, braids, locks, etc is beautiful, then it will become more acceptable in society and will be eventually acknowledged as beautiful.

I challenge Mrs. Michelle Obama to take a stand, and wear her natural hair. This will do wonders for the self image and self esteem for black women worldwide! Yes We Can, si se puede.

What do you think? I want to hear your comments!

LeBron James talks about challenges he faced in life

LeBron James at NABJ Tampa Convention

—Tampa, Florida

By Stephanie Claytor

Americas finest group of journalists gathered today to listen to the NBA’s MVP LeBron James talk about the documentary, “More Than A Game”.

As James arrived, he greeted the National Association of Black Journalists board members and signed basketballs. They seemed delighted to meet him, and even took pictures. James came with his girlfriend Savannah, his coach, and film writer/producer, Kristopher Belman. And there was even one other NBA star in the group, apparently James’ new mentee.

When there was nothing to do, James started dancing to pass the time.

Then he went on stage, and was stiff as a rock. It wasn’t clear if he didn’t like press conferences, or if he was disappointed that the room was only half full, with a few hundred people at best.  

During the press conference, we learned that the film isn’t just about LeBron. It’s about him and his former teammates- Willie McGee, Sian Cotton, Dru Joyce III, and Romeo Travis- and their travel to fame.

In a sit down interview with Coach Dru Joyce II and Willie McGee, we learned that each of the teammates, who called themselves the fab 5, had common dreams. The coach was a family man, who worked in corporate America, but wanted to coach basketball. While working as an account manager by day, he held practices at night and ended up leading a team to becoming national champions.

Willie McGee wanted to get a college scholarship, playing basketball. He now is getting his master’s. The other two players are playing in Germany, and Cotton is still playing football, hoping to be an NFL player.

The only way to get through the adversity was to focus on basketball, and pray, which they did together before and after every game. But sometimes, they fell into teenage temptations. 

  LeBron James talks to Blacktino Connection Reporter Stephanie Claytor

During our sit down interview with LeBron James, we asked him about the pressures he faced in high school, that caused him to try marijuana in high school. He said  yes, everyone expected them to win, but wanted them to lose. He said he didn’t use the marijuana to cope with the pressure. It was just “something they did as kids,” that didn’t know any better.

The film premieres October 2nd in select theatres. We will have a review for you shortly.

What do you think? Are having good frienships the key to success? How do we teach our children to stay away from drugs, even when things get tough?

President Clinton becomes a Sigma

New Orleans, LA —- Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., in session, at its 95th Anniversary Conclave in New Orleans, LA, voted to induct the Honorable William Jefferson Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States of America, as an honorary member of the organization. Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity’s International President Paul L. Griffin, Jr. commented “It is a high privilege and a matter of great significance that we the members of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. accept and welcome the Honorable William Jefferson Clinton into our wondrous band.”

President Clinton has been focusing on the activities of the William J. Clinton Foundation since he left the White House. He wanted the Clinton Foundation to address the areas where he could make the most difference as a private citizen. The Foundation has grown into a global non-governmental organization with more than 1,400 staff and volunteers in more than 40 countries and with offices in New York City, Little Rock, Ark., Boston, Mass., and other cities around the world. The Foundation, working in collaboration with governments and other partners, makes a significant impact in the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world. Phi Beta Sigma’s programs, including Bigger and Better Business, Social Action and Education are compatible with the mission of the Clinton Foundation. The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a partnership between the Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association to help combat childhood obesity, is in alignment with Phi Beta Sigma’s partnerships with the March of Dimes, and the American Cancer Society. The Clinton HIV/Aids initiative is right on target with Phi Beta Sigma’s partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which provides awareness and prevention strategies through its Conversation Among Brothers Series (CABS). Clinton’s Economic Opportunity Initiative embraces the same values that have been core to Phi Beta Sigma’s Bigger and Better Business program since its inception in 1925.

Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), a long-time member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. responded “I am so pleased and delighted that President Bill Clinton has accepted membership in my fraternity. As a true servant-leader it is fitting for him to join the ranks of civil rights activist and labor leader A. Philip Randolph, Atlanta businessman Herman Russell, former U. S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, former NAACP Leader James Weldon Johnson and renowned scientist George Washington Carver. My heart is warmed today.”

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity is an international organization dedicated to the principles of Brotherhood, Scholarship and Service, founded in 1914 at Howard University in Washington, DC, comprised of college and professional men, predominantly of African American origin, open from its inception to men of all race, religion, class and national origin. The Fraternity holds as its motto, “Culture for Service and Service for Humanity.” With over 150,000 alumni and collegiate members, located in over 500 chapters throughout the United States, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia, the organization has its international headquarters in Washington, DC. It conducts national programs in the areas of Education, Social Action and Bigger & Better Business, a youth mentorship program of Sigma Beta Clubs for young men from 8 to 18, and a Sigma Wellness program in partnership with the American Cancer Society and the March of Dimes. Notable members include James Weldon Johnson, George Washington Carver, Congressman John Lewis (GA), Congressman Edolphus Towns (NY), Former Mayor Harold Washington (Chicago), and African Presidents: Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria) and William Tolbert (Liberia). For more information, visit www.pbs1914.org.

We will always miss you Michael

It’s 6:15 pm and news has spread that Michael Jackson has passed away. I’m still in the newsroom, getting ready to leave. Everyone is running around frantic, debating if they should broadcast the news because TMZ..a celebrity gossip blog..seems to be the only one confirming it.

So it didn’t hit me because who believes them.

Then I drive home, and his music is all over the radio…even the Caucasian stations. And they call him a “pop icon”. That’s when I realized the impact his music had..on the entire world.

I listen as everyone chimes in on how he made such an impact on their lives. And I remember his impact on mine.

Back when our family was together, we used to dance to him all night long. I used to play with my neighbor and my little sister, and we would have karaoke contests…to the Jackson 5. And I swore I could sing. And what about the dance contests…where I had the moondance down pat. As a family, we watched the Jackson 5 movie at least one hundred times…together!

I remember the family reunions and the soul train lines…even marching band..where I jammed on my saxophone to Thriller and created the dance. Yes I remember…

Driving to work..I listen to all of his music “You are not alone” , “ABC”, “Rock my World”…it goes on. And I just want to get out of my car in the middle of the highway and dance. I don’t even want to go to work…I just want to be around other people to celebrate his life and music…

Yes he had problems, serious problems. But he is dead. So for now, can we just remember his impact on music?

Listen to his songs! The rhymic compilation of various instruments and synthesizers, attached to his voice…and then he could dance, popping to every beat. And the variety of his lyrics..from love to saving and healing the world..his videos..done worldwide.. Who can top that? No one! His music didnt even need “ningun” (no) translation! Everyone worldwide understood it..(partially because almost everyone knows a little bit of English)

Let that be a lesson to everyone worldwide! Do you want to be remembered worldwide? He was a genus at his craft.

And we as people should work hard to be genus at ours! Whatever we do!

-Stephanie Claytor

Twin heads off to Boarding School

By Stephanie Claytor

Cleveland Heights——Most 14 -year- olds are just happy to be entering high school, a stepping stone in life that involves more freedom, new friends and Friday night football games. But, Alexis Crayton, of Cleveland Heights, chose a different route.

Crayton is headed to Dana Hall, a boarding school in Wellsley, Massachusetts. And she is leaving behind not only her mother, and brother, but her twin sister.

“It might be harder, the separation as the months go by, but I think at first, I won’t miss her at all,” said Alexis Crayton.

Shockingly, her twin sister, Aleigha, doesn’t seem too teary eyed either.

“I hope she has a good time in boarding school. I’ll see her on Thanksgiving,” said Aleigha Crayton.

But, it is nothing new for Alexis and Aleigha to go their separate ways.

“We’re just two people that were born on the same day and we’re sisters,” said Aleigha Crayton.

The two say teachers tell them they are like night and day. They stress that one likes the indoors while the other loves to play outside. And that divide is the reason why one twin is moving away from the other for the first time.

Three years ago, Alexis and Aleigha had the option to attend Aspire, an academic and leadership summer program for middle- school- aged girls from low income families. Aleigha thought it was nothing more than summer school, but Alexis saw it as a great opportunity.

So, Alexis sticked with the program, heading to Hathaway Brown every summer. She took pre-algebra and algebra classes before she even learned the material in school.  By the time she left Monticello Middle School, she was in all of the gifted classes.

It was the Aspire program that persuaded Alexis to apply not only to private schools in the area, but also boarding schools hundreds of miles away. After she applied, she received her acceptance letter in the mail, wrapped in confetti.

“All I saw was congratulations. I just called my mom,” said Alexis Crayton . “I didn’t even read the letter.”

Alexis’ mother, Tera Crayton, and her got together that evening, read the letter and realized that not only was Alexis accepted to the ninth grade class at Dana Hall boarding school but also that the school gave her a $49, 000 grant to cover the majority of the expenses.

 
The two visited the school and decided it was a done deal. Alexis has only one slight fear.

“I’m not sure how hard it will be coming from eighth grade at Monticello going all the way to Dana Hall in a different environment,” said Crayton.

But her mother has confidence that she will succeed.
“I know she is capable of doing the work because she applies herself,” said Tera Crayton.

For now, Alexis is looking forward to her boarding school shower later this month to collect items she needs for school. If you would like to help her, send her an email at teracrayton@yahoo.com.

Obama goes back to Buchenwald- a site of terror

President Obama toured Buchenwald with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, in effort to remember the lives of so many who died at the hands of a destructive sick mankind as well as to honor the courage and resistance of those who survived.

“We reflect on the human capacity for evil,” President Obama said. “This site is a reminder that people were deemed inhuman because of their differences.”

Chancellor Merkel spoke about the Germans’ disbelief that their own people could have been the mastermind of the murder of millions of Jews. Merkel said this dark past in German history forces Germany to cooperate with the West in its quest to end terrorism worldwide.

But, the most powerful segment of the press conference was the remarks from Elie Wiesel- a holocaust survivor who lived in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. He reminded us that “every war is absurd and meaningless” and that “hatred is not an option.” Wiesel said there must come a time when people learn to come together. Wiesel hopes our new President will change the course of America’s questionable path to end terrorism abroad, which has killed innocent civilians in the process.

“I have high hopes for you Mr. President…I am not so sure the world has learned,” Elie Wiesel said.

America must reflect on these words. Has America learned? If we look at the last eight years, one wonders how could we sit back and allow our government to attack Iraq, kill thousands of civilians, detain people without a trial, and torture them overseas. There seems to be a fine line between deeming someone is inhuman because of their differences and detaining them in a torture camp because we have deemed them a “terrorist”. How do we know they are a terrorist if we never put them on trial and tortured them during questioning in order to obtain evidence? Or are we simply detaining people because they are Muslims, who may have been around or connected to some “bad guys”.

Are we improving the human condition or are we going around the world killing innocent people? Have we learned from the past? What do you think?

Secretary of Education Elect Arne Duncan plans to harvest the Obama Effect in Education

By: Stephanie Claytor
During the Senate Confirmation Hearing for the position of the U.S Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, the former CEO of Chicago Public schools, pledged to spread Obama’s example of educational excellence to the nation by rewarding and locating better teachers for the nation’s schools, lowering the high school dropout rate, creating more Early Childhood education opportunities, and making college more affordable.

Duncan worked and tutored in the black community from a very early age with his mother on the south side of Chicago. He met Obama playing basketball pick-up games and shares the same ideology of giving back to the less fortunate. He even spent a year off from Harvard to return to tutor in his mother’s after school program-Sue Duncan’s Children’s Center, which tutors inner city children.  

Duncan claims we can’t lower the nation’s percentage of citizens in poverty without bettering our education system.
“Quality education is the civil rights issue of our nation. It’s the only way out of poverty. When we fail to educate our children, we perpetuate poverty,” Duncan said.

Duncan began his speech to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions by using the example of how the Obamas worked hard to get out of the unflattering economical situations they grew up in to become where they are today through education.

“Barack Obama and his wife are two people who embody education. Children around the country look at these two and say they worked hard, I can too,” said Duncan.

Duncan claimed that never before have children around the country viewed being smart as being cool. He claims we must harvest this excitement for education by bettering America’s school systems.

HBO and Winfrey’s production company reaches deal

• Yahoo reports that Oprah Winfrey is ending a long-term relationship with ABC by taking her production company to HBO for a three-year deal to make movies, documentaries and TV series.

Kate Forte, head of Harpo Films, said Tuesday that Winfrey’s company wanted to make a more eclectic mix of programming than was available on broadcast TV, working with people who did not like the restrictions of commercial interruptions. She would not detail any of the future projects.

Winfrey has worked at ABC for 15 years, and her “Oprah Winfrey Presents” series has focused largely on movies positive or inspirational in tone. The most recent was an adaptation from a Mitch Albom book, “For One More Day,” about a drunk about to commit suicide who is saved by the ghost of his mother.

Winfrey’s movie starring Halle Berry, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” was the most-watched television movie in six years at the time of its 2005 airing on ABC.

ABC wanted to extend the deal, but Harpo Films believed HBO was a better fit, Forte said.

“This is really a dream come true for us,” she said.

The premium cable network doesn’t usually make such individual deals with production companies, but network co-president Richard Plepler said that “Oprah personifies excellence and quality in everything she does.”

Neither side would discuss financial terms of the deal. They said some of the projects on which Harpo is working would become known  very soon.

Winfrey has not discussed acting in any of the projects for HBO, the executives said.

The HBO deal has nothing to do with Winfrey’s agreement with Discovery Communications for OWN — the Oprah Winfrey Network — that will debut next year, replacing the Discovery Health network.

Black Middle Class Families Gaining

Two-Parent Black Families Showing Gains

Sam Roberts from the New York Times reports that the number of black children being raised by two parents appears to be edging higher than at any time in a generation, at nearly 40 percent, according to newly released census data.

Demographers said such a trend might be partly attributable to the growing proportion of immigrants in the nation’s black population. It may have been driven, too, by the values of an emerging black middle class, a trend that could be jeopardized by the current economic meltdown.

The Census Bureau attributed an indeterminate amount of the increase to revised definitions adopted in 2007, which identify as parents any man and woman living together, whether or not they are married or the child’s biological parents.

According to the bureau’s estimates, the number of black children living with two parents was 59 percent in 1970, falling to 42 percent in 1980, 38 percent in 1990 and 35 percent in 2004. In 2007, the latest year for which data is available, it was 40 percent.

For non-Hispanic whites, the figure in 2007 was 77 percent, down from 90 percent in 1970.

While expressing skepticism about an increase so large in such a short time in the number of black children living with two parents, a number of experts said the shift was potentially significant.

“It’s a positive change,” said Prof. Robert J. Sampson, the chairman of Harvard’s sociology department. “It’s been hidden.”

The 2007 figure, itself, was more or less hidden among the nearly 1,400 tables in the 2009 Statistical Abstract of the United States, a portrait-by-numbers of the nation released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.

Andrew J. Cherlin, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University, said that before 2007, a child living with two unmarried parents was usually classified as living with either a mother or a father, depending on who was the head of the household.

“The unmarried parent was invisible,” Professor Cherlin said. Given a new category, “living with both parents, not married to each other,” he added, “I think the news is that the Census Bureau estimates that about 3 percent of American children are living with two unmarried parents. Because of the increases in living-together relationships, this is probably a higher figure than a generation ago.”

Other experts generally embraced the direction of the statistics, if not the dimension of the changes they suggest.

“What we might be seeing is more cohabitation,” said Kay S. Hymowitz, a scholar at the Manhattan Institute, a research group.

Douglas S. Massey, a sociology professor at Princeton, cautioned that “a bad economy does not make for stable marriages, so it is possible that we may see a reversal in 2008.”

Professors Massey and Sampson recently edited a retrospective for the annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science on Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s seminal study of the black family.