Brother Ali

This week, NPR radio interviewed "Brother Ali". Brother Ali is a Hip Hop Rap artist, he recently released a new album "The Undisputed Truth". This story is not about his music. Although his music and words, are synonomous with other Black Hip Hop artist. The real story here is Brother Ali is a white man, not just any white man, he is Albino. Although he enjoyed "white privelege" while growing up, he does not identify with being white. "I was taken in, early on, by black folks," he says. "Those are the people who taught me the things that I needed to know to survive being who and what I am."

I found this interview quite interesting. I remember when I was in High School, we had an Albino in our classes. He was such a loner, I never saw him talk much to others. I think some, thought of him as some freak. Then later when I was in the Marines, we had a Albino in our detachement. He shun the white Marines and ran around with the Black Marines. I guess Racism and Disrimination comes in many forms. His story I found so odd!...I wish him success with his new album.

The following is a speech from Robert Kennedy, 1966. He was so brilliant, he had such perception and vision of the days that have past, and what the future must hold for all of us. This short speech highlighting rascism, slavery, war, and how we must all live together as "ONE".


Robert F. Kennedy
From the Address of Senator Robert F. Kennedy: Day of AffirmationUniversity of Capetown, South Africa, June 6, 1966
I come here this evening because of my deep interest and affection for a land settled by the Dutch in the mid-seventeenth century, then taken over by the British, and at last independent; a land in which the native inhabitants were at first subdued, but relations with whom remain a problem to this day; a land which defined itself on a hostile frontier; a land which has tamed rich natural resources through the energetic application of modern technology; a land which was once the importer of slaves, and now must struggle to wipe out the last traces of that former bondage. I refer, of course, to the United States of America.
In a few hours, the plane that brought me to this country crossed over oceans and countries which have been a crucible of human history. In minutes we traced migrations of men over thousands of years; seconds, the briefest glimpse, and we passed battlefields on which millions of men once struggled and died. We could see no national boundaries, no vast gulfs or high walls dividing people from people; only nature and the works of man -- homes and factories and farms -- everywhere reflecting man's common effort to enrich his life. Everywhere, new technology and communications brings men and nations closer together, the concerns of one inevitably become the concerns of all. And our new closeness is stripping away the false masks, the illusion of differences, which is at the root of injustice and hate and war. Only earthbound man still clings to the dark and poisoning superstition that his world is bounded by the nearest hill, his universe ends at river's shore, his common humanity is enclosed in the tight circle of those who share his town or his views and the color of his skin.
It is your job, the task of the young people in this world to strip the last remnants of that ancient, cruel belief from the civilization of man.
Of those who say that hopes and beliefs must bend before immediate necessities. Of course if we must act effectively we must deal with the world as it is. We must get things done. But if there was one thing that President Kennedy stood for that touched the most profound feeling of young people across the world, it was the belief that idealism, high aspiration and deep convictions are not incompatible with the most practical and efficient of programs -- that there is no basic inconsistency between ideals and realistic possibilities -- no separation between the deepest desires of heart and of mind and the rational application of human effort to human problems. It is not realistic or hard-headed to solve problems and take action unguided by ultimate moral aims and values, although we all know some who claim that it is so. In my judgement, it is thoughtless folly. For it ignores the realities of human faith and of passion and of belief; forces ultimately more powerful than all the calculations of our economists or of our generals. Of course to adhere to standards, to idealism, to vision in the face of immediate dangers takes great courage and takes self-confidence. But we also know that only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.
It is this new idealism which is also, I believe, the common heritage of a generation which has learned that while efficiency can lead to the camps at Auschwitz, or the streets of Budapest, only the ideals of humanity and love can climb the hills of the Acropolis.

Song of the Week

Speaking of "ONE". VH1 has rated this song in the top 10 of softsensational songs of all time. Darryl Hall and John Oates - "One on One".

Have a Good Week

Daniel