Is the US On the Express Train to Hell?

I don't make this stuff up peeps. Yesterday night I boarded the LLRR express train to save a lot of time. The NYC subway gets me into the City in 1 1/2 hours while the express LLRR train gets me to the same destination in 15 minutes. So I take it to save a lot of time although it is 3 times as expensive.

I boarded the train (which has had a number of derailments recently but on rainy nights). I sit down and hear an announcement "Conductor 666 report for duty" "Conductor 666 report for duty!"

In my mind I'm thinking: Oh freaking great I just boarded the Express Train to HELL! I'm beginning to get concerned wondering if this is more than a ironic coincidence. I was like thinking is this dayum train gonna derail tonight.

The train took off and it was reaching a real fast speed (faster than what I was comfortable with that night). As it speed towards its destination way off in a distance I see from the train window (which is elevated from the fact that we were speeding on high train tracks) a giant billboard on the side of a large building, miles away, which read "Remain Calm."

Again I don't make this stuff up. I got to my destination safely.

I don't consider myself a prophet or deep religious person. But I felt God was sharing a symbolic message with me, through that life occurrence, for those who will listen. The message is...

The US with the recent election, killings of people of color, xenophobism, corporate takeover of our country, and overall social malaise it may seem we are on a one way express train ride to hell! The Conductor may seem scary but God, the ultimate Train Driver, is in control.

Don't lose hope or panic and remain calm. God is in control.

I typed this while inadvertently listening to Donnie McClurkin's Stand. After you've done all you can do just stand and God will be with you.

Stand, and when you fall down get back up. God is in control!

Kamau's Qu!ps is Published by Kamau Austin. Austin is a popular Blogger with over 11,000 connections in social media.  Austin is an author, writer, and Internet Marketing Professional helping small businesses grow more profitable businesses online.

If you need web design, blogging, search engine or social media promotion contact him at Search Engine Plan

Did Integration Undermine the Black Community?

I see so many posts in social media lamenting that integration has undermined the Black community.  The devolution of the Black community is often attributed to integration. Integration is blamed for the lack of "Black Wall Streets" and viable communities.  

Integration forced Blacks to have children out of wedlock? Integration made Black men become unemployed? What's next integration causes me to call my wife and my moma out her name? I mean really?

This video montages I see circulated in social media going viral aren't exactly well researched like a visual social thesis.  They are based on more emotional appeal than facts.

I mean where can I begin on this one? In 1954, the US was at the height of it's economic/manufacturing power coming out of WW2, so a lot of White men and Black men were employed. Today the US is a service economy and many jobs are outsourced so a lot of men of all races are unemployed or underemployed.

I don't know how integration makes you have a baby out of wedlock. I don't get that one.

We have over 144,000 Black businesses doing over a million dollars we never had that during segregation. We certainly didn't have almost 1 million Blacks millionaires during segregation like now. We didn't have billion dollar black businesses either during segregation serving the government and corporations like now.

We didn't have large numbers of Blacks employed by city and state governments with segregation nor corporate CEOs. In a way you could say integration facilitated a transfer of income and in some cases even wealth from the federal government and corporate America to some Black households.

Plus where is all this integration at? I don't see a lot of whites living in Black neighborhoods unless they are going to try to gentrify them. But with gentrification they are trying to buy us out of neighborhoods they want to live in again.

Blacks live in largely segregated neighborhoods still today. Black neighborhoods have different social statuses now. But they are still largely black. If Blacks want to start businesses in their communities nothing is stopping them. There are plenty where I live NYC and ATL. I know a number of them that are packed all the time with Blacks supporting them. Some for decades. Probably what has hurt Black economic development more is wide spread usage of automobiles and the rise of the malls.

Blacks ride out of their community to the mall and buy from major corporations. That isn't because of this faux or quasi-integration we have since people move out of communities to avoid black people still today. That is because of branding and advertising by major corporations and many of us looking for self acceptance by the larger society and seeking it through acquiring status products. Corporations are good at taking everybody's money.

I'm not that impressed with these videos. As far as solutions if we want more businesses we should start our own finance organizations and don't rely on solely corporate banks and credit cards to finance our businesses. We should start national crowd funding and microfinance organizations to finance our businesses like Accion, Grameen, and GoFundme to get capital. They do it for other ethnic groups to the tune of billions each every year.

IMO Thug-e-ration has done more to destroy low income communities than integration. Integration produced for the 1st time some Black communities with higher average incomes than white communities.

However, when manufacturing jobs were outsourced to developing nations it left a lot of Black communities without good union jobs like in Detroit and Chicago. A certain element in these blighted communities started gangs, drug cartels, and criminal enterprises to generate income that also terrorize those communities.

In response the Justice system makes the situation even worst by making gun ownership illegal and taboo in these high crime areas and the two income families with more resources move to safer middle income Black communities leaving those communities with less resources overall monetarily and as far as human capital.

Blacks with business acumen and finances don't even want to start business in certain inner cities because of the criminal element in them. But there some middle income Black communities with a good number of Black business.

Let's stop making excuses on integration. Every movement has an upside and downside. Integration has some downsides but it has created a people with an aggregate income over a trillion dollars even with all the discrimination we face. We have the income of like the 13th largest nation on earth. We didn't have that collective wealth under Jim Crow segregation.

We have more of a challenge now of getting new skills for a techno-service economy and dealing with the Thug-e-ration in some of our communities not so much integration.

Also if we want to go deeper the Thug-e-ration was also facilitated by some elements in the government selling or allowing the selling of drugs to destabilize Black communities which actually is a form of dis-integration.

Money from the sale of guns and drugs in our communities helped to finance wars in developing nations against various forms of Marxism according to high ranking drug dealers and research reporters.

Lastly, it amazes me that we see these heavily militarized police units with body armor to stop and marginalize protesters like Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street. However, drug cartels operate in places like Chicago and Detroit many times in the open or at least pretty obvious to the community with little or no police presence. How ironic.

Kamau's Qu!ps is Published by Kamau Austin. Austin is a popular Blogger with over 11,000 connections in social media.  Austin is an author, writer, and Internet Marketing Professional helping small businesses grow more profitable businesses online.

If you need web design, blogging, search engine or social media promotion contact him at Search Engine Plan

Soul Food Sundays at Chocolat Restaurant

Harlem is the home to some great soul food restaurants.  One of the trendiest ones to visit and enjoy good food is Chocolat Restaurant, at 2223 Frederick Douglass Blvd, New York, NY 10026.  The restaurant has a modern faux industrial ambience and the wait isn't usually as long as cross town rivals Amy Ruth's or Sylvia's Restaurant.

It is more artisan soul food with a creative presentation.  It is very good cuisine.  On a couple of occasions I've had both the Shrimp and Grits, and  Scottish Salmon - very delish.

The Shrimp and Grits is cooked with bacon (you can ask to have it without) and cheese grits in a delicious shrimp and lobster sauce.  This grilled shrimp dish had explosive seasoning and taste.

On a prior occasion I had the Scottish Salmon and it is a flavorful dish served with a health sauteed kale, crispy leek, and mango coulis.  This is a tasty and healthy dish however I wished it was a little more filling.

My daughter likes the mac & cheese dishes like bacon and mac & cheese.  She gives the mac & cheese dishes at Chocolat a perfect 10! She also liked the boneless Fried Chicken strips.  She said the boneless Fried Chicken strips were good but I think she likes traditional less artsy fried chicken better. 

They also have some creative cocktails which run about $15 and are martinis and red velvet or Godiva mixtures are delightful.   Some good desserts are chocolate cheese cake dessert if you like cheese cakes.

The music is urban R&B and hip hop.  So this eatery tends to draw a 30 something crowd on up.  The music tends to be a little loud.  So I asked the staff if they could turn the volume down in that my daughter is hyper-sensitive to sounds due to her autism.  The staff were great in accommodating us.  The patrons are pretty cool and nice people the couple of times we've gone there.

The waiting staff in Chocolat restaurant is great.  And the overall experience of dining there was comfortable and a satisfying experience.  Chocolat Restaurant is one of my daughter and my favorite haunts in Harlem, NYC.  We strongly recommend going to enjoy a kwel soul food dining experience.

Kamau's Qu!ps is Published by Kamau Austin. Austin is a popular Blogger with over 11,000 connections in social media.  Austin is an author, writer, and Internet Marketing Professional helping small businesses grow more profitable businesses online.

If you need web design, blogging, search engine or social media promotion contact him at Search Engine Plan