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The purpose of the AfroBlog echoes the mission of AfroDaddy.com - to express our thoughts on the black community, and to try to elevate it through information and knowledge.  Many of these posts are my latest musings about "the game" that we call life, who holds which cards, and how we can improve our odds of winning.



There are so many strong voices out there that have important things to say in their blogs.  On our links page we have listed some of our favorites that you should check out.  If you want us to link to your blog, or you want to be a guest blogger for AfroDaddy, let us know.

The media does a great job of giving kudos to the rich and famous.  When a young man becomes successful he deserves credit, but behind many of these men there is a foundation of family - often times a family of one.

Today we celebrate the single moms who raised famous black men that have achieved great heights in movies, music, politics and philanthropy.

The thing that all these women have in common is that they worked damned hard with little or no recognition to raise their sons to be the fine men they turned out to be.  Today we salute these single moms, all single moms, and all mothers in general who put so much effort into raising their children - famous or not.

It has been 20 years since the LA riots sparked by a not guilty verdict for the police who savagely beat Rodney King.  It has been three years since police shot and killed Oscar Grant, an unarmed 22 year-old laying face down on the concrete.  This week the grand jury convened in the 2011 police beating and death of Kelly Thomas, an unarmed, mentally ill, 31-year old who begged for his life while the police literally beat it out of him (see the Kelly Thomas story here).

Many say we have evolved as a society, but those who are sworn to protect and serve us have a horrific track record of beating and killing unarmed citizens.  In many of these cases it’s 5 or more police officers against 1 civilian and if it were not for the advent of video this police brutality and gang violence would never be seen by ordinary Americans.

There are reports around the web that Shaunie O-Neal, the ex-wife of Shaquille O’Neal, is trying to turn her VH1 show Basketball Wives into a movie.  Most respectable black people wish this fake, denigrating and stereotypical show would go off the air, but now they want to expand the audience from tv to movies? 

WTF?!?

Basketball Wives Savages

(Notice the people in the background staring in disgust and laughing at the spectacle)

I started our last blog post "The Top 10 Best Rappers of all Time" by stating that I am a big hip hop fan.  I am actually a  huge fan and I have much respect for the artform and thus I tried to keep the article focused on the celebration of the best of hip hop.  I think we succeeded, but now its time to talk about the other side.

The current state of "mainstream" hip hop is in a shambles, largely due to media influences that is forcing rappers to make (and forcing us to listen to) the worst that hip hop has to offer.  

There are as many flavors of hip hop as there are flavors at Baskin Robbins.  People rap about love, war, politics, partying, drug use, sex, and religion.  They also rap about everything in between.  To listen to radio today however you would never know it.

I am a big fan of hip hop and like so many other people I recognize its place in music history.  Unfortunately like so many other musical styles the corporate machine has infiltrated hip hop and in some cases watered it down and in other cases turned it against its own people. 

Today we forget about the negative and celebrate the best of hip hop and present the top 10 best rappers of all time.  There are 4 elements that were consider when choosing the top 10 rappers. Each act on the list has created music with a message and has stood the test of time.  Some have had more commercial success than others but they all have created songs that are as strong and relevant today as the day they made them.

Pop Culture is nice and certainly can be interesting, but by definition it’s all style and little substance.  You read it, digest it and by tomorrow it’s forgotten.  It’s like substituting popcorn for your dinner every night.  Tastes good, but after a week you realize you’ve gotten no real nutrition. 

There’s a lot of pop culture on the web designed to keep you eating the popcorn every night.  On the other hand there are a host of African American bloggers giving you the real meat and potatoes that will feed and nourish you.  Without further ado here is the new list of top black bloggers 2012.

American Idol had William Hung and the "Pants on the Ground" guy.  The Republican Party had Herman Cain, Mr. "9-9-9".  It looks like hip hop now has its idiot genius: Lil B, AKA "Based God".  With millions of views on YouTube, hundreds of memes and guest lectures at NYU the million dollar question is who the heck is Based God?

I firmly believe that America is the greatest country on the earth and it is truly a land of opportunity for all.  The American dream is alive and well and many people of all races have had tremendous success.  With these positives in place, it is no wonder why there have been so many incredible achievements by African Americans in the 21st century to include the obvious - the first black president.

It is also true however that for far too many black men and women there is a shadowy specter of racism that impacts every aspect of life from schooling to employment.  This institutional racism forms an invisible barrier that many white people cannot see, many black people do not understand and many African Americans cannot avoid.  Today we shine the light on institutional racism so that we can know it, avoid it, and ultimately eliminate it.

AfroDaddy.com - The Black Man Survival Guide is a community project website that exists to provide tools, resources and information to help black men, black fathers and all African Americans succeed and prosper in America.  Since our launch 18 months ago we have produced hundreds of articles, and other pieces of content all with the hopes of helping African Americans and all people of good will to be a little healthier, happier, more successful and more informed.  

Your help in getting us this far has been invaluable and we thank you all for your support.  We are happy to announce that we have reached the completion of our Phase 1 milestone and are ready for Phase 2.