“The cruel hoax of miseducation is that it denies to the miseducated the tools needed to detect the fact that they are miseducated, while emboldening its victims to confidently speak and write about matters which elude them, and while its victims vigorously fight to preserve the very system that miseducated them, completely oblivious to the glaring ignorance that they proudly display.”

Dr. Carter G. Woodson

Fall Concerts

Felipe Luciano

summer reading

hOw yOU dOin??

Teena Marie's Starchild

STARCHILD/A simple and yet complicated nine-letter attachment of man to the heavens/The positive force/significant?/ yes, for it counteracts the negative six/or man to the hells/Spiritual/even in rhythm music consumes me, and in my waking hours as well as my lullabied nights I have known there is purpose in pain as well as joy/for the fine lines on my face, remind me of the people who put them there/and though I quote the poetess wrong/the point is that her thought could have been mine/or yours/or anybody's/and that's what happens with antiquity/no one's new or innovative except the Creator, who puts all thoughts and blessings in our hearts and cerebrums in the first place/I mean I don't even write in this form/so the prosaic evidence of what is happening here is even new to me/Somewhere in this universe/perhaps not upon this planet earth/there lives a mirror image of you and I/not in the physical sense/But in the natural/We are Starchildren/We live/We breathe/We laugh/We cry/We die, and we live again/We are blessed/We walk upon the same hallowed ground that Jesus walked upon/can you imagine the intensity of a light so bright/can you fathom the place where the Gandhis/and the Yoganandas/the Chinmoys/and the Buddhas/the Shivas/and the blessed Virgin Mary dwell/Have you hear Steveland's "Higher Ground"/or Marvin Gaye's "If I Should Die Tonight"/Did you see Cicely Tyson in Sounder/Have you read Don't Fall Off The Mountain by MacLaine/Do you know why the caged bird sings/Ask Maya/or Labelle/or me/or Pennelope/Ask them about the heart/and the mind/and the soul/Ask them about the Steigers/and the Berthalyns/ and "The Great Pretenders"/Ask Mickey about raisin' my Godchildren/and sacrificin'/and how she keeps gettin' up/Though I am drained/I search/for Starchild

OBAMA MSU 2008

Woman tortured for at least a week, officials say

(CNN) -- Six West Virginia residents have been charged with kidnapping, torturing and sexually assaulting a Charleston woman for at least a week, the Logan County Sheriff's Department said Monday.


Danny Combs and Alisha Burton were charged in the West Virginia case.

1 of 3 Sheriff's deputies went Saturday to a Big Creek, West Virginia, residence in response to an anonymous tip that a woman was being held against her will, the department said in a news release.

As they spoke with a woman on the front porch, "a female inside the residence limped toward the door with her arms held out, saying, "Help me."

The 23-year-old woman had stab wounds on her left leg and bruises around her eyes, authorities said. The wounds were about a week old, the release said.

"Deputies found her with two black eyes, part of her hair had been pulled out, she had lacerations on her neck, and she had been physically, mentally and sexually abused," Logan County Sheriff W.E. Hunter said.

The victim was forced to eat rat and dog feces and drink from the toilet, according to the criminal complaint filed in magistrate court, The Associated Press reported.

Deputies arrested Frankie Brewster, 49; her son Bobby, 24; Danny J. Combs, 20, of Harts, West Virginia; and George A. Messer, 27, Karen Burton, 46, and Alisha Burton, 23, all of Chapmanville, West Virginia. All six were held Monday in lieu of $100,000 bond each, and all have asked for court-appointed public defenders, according to AP.

Charges range from kidnapping and torturing to malicious wounding and battery.

Those arrested are white and the victim is black, and the FBI plans to investigate it as a possible hate crime, according to AP. The sheriff's department requested the FBI's participation, an agency spokesman told AP. E-mail to a friend

Record Collection

So I'm finally doing it, starting a vinyl collection! I'm excited, I already have three albums: 1999 and Sign O the Times by Prince, and another by Elton John (That one was included in a gift bag, but it should be interesting cuz i like Elton John). however, I've recently been informed that I need a lhslhlwhti or something to digitize the sound. Clearly I'm not of the vinyl era...

Song of the Summer

Gnarls Barkley "Smiley Faces"

What did you do? What did you say? Did you walk - or did you run away? Where are you now? Where have you been? Did you go alone - or did you bring a friend?

I need to know this - cause I notice when you're smilin' Out in the sun havin' fun and you're feelin' free And I can tell you know how hard this life can be But you keep on smilin' for me

What went right? What went wrong? Was it the story - or was it the song? Was it overnight - or did it take you long? Was knowing your weakness what made you strong
Or all the above - oh how I love to see you smilin' And oh yeah - take a little pain just in case You need something warm to embrace To help you put on a smilin' face Hey, put on a smilin' face

Don't you go off into the new day with any doubt Here's a summary of somethin' that you could smile about: Say for instance, my girlfriend she bugs me all the time But the irony of it all is that she loves me all the time

I want to be you - whenever I see you smilin' Cause it's easily one of the hardest things to do Your worries and fears become your friends And they end up smilin' at you Put on a smilin' face

Song of the Day

Journey "When the Lights Go Down in the City"

When the lights go down in the City

And the sun shines on the bay

I want to be there in my City ooh, ooh

So you think you're lonely

Well my friend I'm lonely too

I want to get back to my City by the bay ooh, ooh

It's sad, oh there's been mornings out on the road without you,

Without your charms,

Ooh, my, my, my

Going to Ghana

It's official, myself and other members of MSU's African Atlantic Research Team will be travelling to Accra, Ghana July 30 through August 12. I'm excited, but the thrill hasn't set in yet. So much to do!There will be a conference on Afro-Hispanic Studies that the group will be attending and presenting at, so I have to get my paper together and on point. All in all, it should be a fun ride and a great experience, academically and otherwise.

I cooked dinner!

well not all that, but it was bomb! I made NY strip steak, potatoes and green beans. I'm not very proficient around the kitchen, so this was an important step towards adulthood...I'm proud:)

Shirley Chisholm

1972 was an extraordinary year. Richard Nixon was president, running for his second, ill-fated term. The voting age had just changed from 21 to 18, and millions of new voters were expected at the polls. The Vietnam War was in full swing, as were anti-war protests, a burgeoning women's movement, and the rise of the Black Panther Party. Into the center of this maelstrom — shocking the conventional political wisdom — stepped Shirley Chisholm, a determined, rather prim and unapologetically liberal black woman with a powerful message: Exercise the full measure of your citizenship and vote.

Announcing her candidacy for president on the evening news, Walter Cronkite quipped, "A new hat — rather a bonnet — was tossed into the presidential race today."

Chisholm championed the causes of the poor, the young, minorities, gays, women, and other marginalized Americans. In doing so, she prefigured Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition campaigns, not only in substance but in style. Chisholm saw the presidential race itself as an opportunity to draw people to politics who traditionally did not participate. In her words, "I ran for the presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo." In a race with 12 other candidates, Chisholm's ultimate goal was to reach the Democratic National Convention in 1972 with a strong show of support. Many reporters assumed she had no chance of winning and felt she was a spoiler. Feminists, who agreed entirely with Chisholm's politics, preferred a different strategy, looking to Senator George McGovern as the realistic Democratic candidate. (McGovern eventually won the nomination.)

All the while, Chisholm remained the "Unbought and Unbossed" candidate, poised and determined to direct the debate and news coverage of her candidacy to her stands on education, employment, health care, and the rights of minorities, women, and gays to full participation in American life. She won a Federal Court order to break the front-runners' lock on televised debates, winning the chance to talk directly to a national television audience. Chisholm, in fact, struck a populist progressive chord with many Americans. Managing surprisingly strong showings in some state primaries, she carried 151 delegates at the severely divided 1972 Democratic Convention in Miami and won the right to speak from the main podium.
"I had something important to explain," recalled Chisholm about her historic speech. "I ran because somebody had to do it first. I ran because most people thought the country was not ready for a black candidate, not ready for a woman candidate. Someday — it was time in 1972 to make that someday come."

"CHISHOLM '72" recaptures the times and spirit of a watershed event in American politics, when a black woman dared to take an equal place on the presidential dais.