MY OPEN LETTER TO MONA SCOTT-YOUNG REGARDING "LOVE AND HIP HOP"!!!

Dear Mrs. Scott-Young,


My name is Hassan Hartley, and I had the unfortunate displeasure of watching the rank, repugnant coon-fest that you produce called "Love and Hip Hop", in which you profit mightily and heavily from casting people, particularly Black and Latino folks,(my folk) in the worst possible light. You, along with other cutthroats like Shaunie O'Neal, Wendy Williams, and Andy Cohen, have fed millions a pathological diet of ratchet, ignorant, stereotypical imagery mainly centered around black women, chiefly being angry, bitter, uneducated, catty, bitchy and conniving with each other,while the men are cast as oversexed, unfaithful, dishonest, anti-intellectual(think: stupid) deviants that cannot fulfill even the most basic of obligations to their spouses/mates.

As an openly gay man, I am equally disgusted by the imagery of "my kind" on your shows(albeit brief imagery-blink and you may miss the finger popping, effeminate, flamboyant stereotype of a Funky Dineva-although funny as hell) that perpetuates a false narrative that black gay men's chief desire is to be a sassy, flip mouthed black woman. Turning black gay men into the new Mammy figures of reality TV is not cute.

I understand that you are not the network owner. VH1, along with MTV, BET and a host of other media outlets, are owned by Viacom, and Viacom is owned by the very wealthy and Jewish Redstone family. You may be nothing more than a mere pawn in a game far bigger than your imagination and intellect can comprehend. I get that. I also  understand the "get that paper, make those coins, make that money" aspect of television. No one is "hating" on you for being a financially successful, strong willed, capable  black woman in a white/Jewish dominated entertainment industry. We need more sisters(and brothers) on their hustle. Their grind. My issue is with the content and imagery, not your business acumen.

What bothers me, after watching your "reunion" special, is how you seemed to be feeding the discord and strife between these women for ratings...you are not an unfamiliar kind of black person to me. I have studied Negroes like you for most of my life. See, there were blacks like you, who, in the 1500's, sold others into the worst chattel slavery the world has ever known, for sheer profit. There were blacks like you who, while on the plantation, sought the favor of their white masters so much that you would be his informant, should any uprising occur. There were blacks like you, who in the 1960's infiltrated both Civil Rights and Black Nationalist organizations to sow discord and strife, for your individual profit, as well as your bosses collective gain.

I have decided to spotlight you and your program, along with several others, in my upcoming book, "THE NEW MINSTREL SHOW: COONERY AND BUFFOONERY IN 21ST CENTURY BLACK ENTERTAINMENT" under the chapter dealing with the "21st Century Sapphire/Negro Bed Wench Syndrome"...I will use footage from some of these shows-maybe even yours-in the interactive e-book edition of the book to highlight the ratchet mess that television has become.

Thank you for reading these words, and I am sure you will keep raking in the $$$ by throwing your own sisters under the heaviest of buses.

Hassan Hartley

R.I.P. BROTHER MALCOLM X: FEB 21ST,1965

Hey guys! Just dropping a quick note to pay homage and honor to one of our greats, El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz(Malcolm X), was was assassinated 48 years ago on this day... It occurred to me that Malcolm X is one of the only world figures I can think of, who is remembered more on the day he was murdered, than the day he was born.

 Only President Kennedy and Robert Kennedy fit into a similar mode that I can recall. It pains me that so many folks have such a distorted and watered down view of Bro. Malcolm's ideology and philosophy, both under his guidance and teaching from The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and later after his defection. Black nationalism has now almost been equated with socialism, to ask many mainstream media outlets. It is amazing how death cleans up a man's image. When Malcolm died,he was referred to as the "number one anti Semite in America"....yet 27 years later, a Jewish-owned film company pours 30 million dollars behind a biopic of his life titled, "X"....and  Malcolm commercialism exploded!

Spike Lee's movie essentially killed "Malcolm-mania" within the Black community,however...in the late 1980's and early 1990's, black social consciousness was re-emerging, largely through hip-hop, and everyone had a Malcolm X hat, t-shirt, chain, etc...after Spike's three hour, 20 minute biographical movie of Malcolm, an hour and 47 minutes of which focused on zoot suits, conked hair, and gave very little of what made Malcolm so feared by the white power structure... entertaining as a film, but a disappointment to those of us who were literally raised from the age of six and seven on Malcolm's speeches and pamphlets by our parents, who either sympathized with, or were devotees of Black Nationalist/Pan Africanist/"Pro Black" ideologies espoused by Malcolm.

 Months later, in 1993,after the movie enjoyed only modest box office success( or as we say...it did "so-so" at the theaters.....it did "aiight"), Gangster rap was stepped up to the next level, and into commercial overdrive with such artists as Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, Tupac, etc...and our young people have not been the same ever since.....


Coincidence? Hmm.....More on that later.....

 Anyway, much love Bro. Malcolm! RIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!



 P.S. MY BOOK, "WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT: THE TRUTH ABOUT BLACK MALE PRISON SEXUALITY" IS STILL ON SALE! GET YOURS TODAY!!
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CLICK THE PAYPAL BUTTON FOR PAPERBACK! FOR E-BOOK IN IPAD OR KINDLE, CLICK ONE OF THE TWO "ADD TO CART" BUTTONS BELOW...

I'M DREAMING...OF A WHITE PRESIDENT!

Hey guys!


OK,OK,OK, so the title was a tad dramatic. I needed to grab your attention, however. I read an article on www.yourblackworld.net about radio host Tom Joyner attacking Tavis Smiley yet again, saying he was, in words, "trying to be like Dr. King", and wondered to myself if this silliness will ever have an end to it. I have not seen Tavis attack "Tom"Joyner, but Joyner seems to be acting like a Rotweiler for President Obama, shielding him from any policy based critique coming from the likes of a Tavis Smiley, Dr. Cornel West, or anyone else.

It brings up a larger, more insidious point that goes unspoken in Black America. The code of silence surrounding black folks and this current President because he is African American, has proven to be, in my opinion, counterproductive. All Presidents, no matter their color, represent the power structure that black folks must keep pressure on, to further our collective agenda. This is not personal, no matter Democrat or Republican. If 96% of African Americans voted for President Obama in 2008, and 93% did so in 2012, then that voting bloc represents a constituency that has a right to present the "White"House with an agenda that is important to its own community.

Somehow, black folks, or "Negroes", do not feel that asking for a few things from this administration is appropriate.

We hear all of the popular excuses. I will outline a few and address them:

1). "He is busy trying to get this economy on track, settle these wars, get folks back to work and all this other stuff Bush left him". Well there is no question that he has a heavy job to do. Funny how black folks only bring this up when their issues need to be addressed.


Jews do not care whether or not this President is busy, and Obama MAKES time for Jewish interests and concerns.


I will repeat that.

"Jews do not care whether or not this President is busy, and Obama MAKES time for Jewish interests and concerns."

The Jewish community in the United States is much smaller in numbers than African Americans, with estimates ranging from 12 to 13.5 million, as opposed to between 45 and 50 million for African Americans. They voted consistently for President Obama around 70%. Obama's busy schedule never stopped them from putting their agenda before him, and he stops what he is doing to address their concerns.

Why doesn't POTUS do this for you, black folks?

Latinos/Hispanics voted for him around 70% as well, and they have no problem asking for certain agenda items that will benefit their community. The white LGBT community does the same. THIS IS HOW POLITICS WORKS. You vote for a candidate out of your community's self interest. Not because he is the same color. You petition said Administration for agenda items that will benefit your community. He or she addresses those needs or not. If not, you vote for his opponent and put him out of office. Other voting blocs understand this about politics;why not black folks?

2). "Black people are always criticizing each other. You all wouldn't go after a white President like that". Really? Have we been asleep for the eight years prior to Obama being elected?Black folks left and right were attacking Bush. Not merely criticizing, but attacking(yes it was warranted, but it didn't stop black folks from taking advantage). President Clinton has been roundly criticized for many of his policies that were detrimental to the African American community, while "Negroes" hailed him as the "first Black President". We won't even go into Reagan and that madness from 1980-1988. The nature of politics is to have a critical eye of any Administration's policies, no matter what. We seem to have lost that perspective.

3). "Obama can't wave a magic wand and solve all of our problems...".... Who the hell asked him to? Nobody. No one is looking for one man to ride in, and in Messianic fashion, heal black folks issues. To even suggest this is oversimplification at best, and childish in fact. If I vote for a candidate,I expect him to address certain issues that prompted me to vote in the first place. The mass incarceration of black men unfairly due to the "War on Drugs", disproportionate poverty among black inner city communities that has risen DRAMATICALLY since Obama has taken office, and better educational policies are all realistic things to require this POTUS to address, that will benefit the African American community. It doesn't take a magic wand to do this. Merely a press conference in which he uses his "bully pulpit" to turn the nation's attention to these issues would be a good starting point.

4)."Why you hating? You mad? Why you mad though?" This is the default retort that many Obama "fans"(not supporters) resort to, when they have no argument against sound, measured criticism of Obama policies or the lack thereof. It reeks of teenage taunt-filled childishness. There is an assumed thought process, that because Pres. Obama is black, and we are black, that we must not criticize his policies or lack thereof, because we don't want to help vicious, ignorant right-wing nutjobs in their attack of him. A silence that causes us to subordinate our issues for the sake of some silly "unity" that does not even truly exist in the black community to begin with. If you all were UNITED, then you wouldn't be begging for jobs, but creating jobs for our people, particularly our young men, who are so marginalized that it isn't even humorous.

To be sure, the right wing, especially the "Tea Baggers"(shade intended) has launched an unprecedented assault on this President. I thought the job they did on President Clinton was a beast....until I saw this mess. That should not stop us, however, from challenging the "White"House to address those things that the branches of Government can speak to and craft legislation to assist in.

If this man is smart enough, thick skinned enough, and sagacious enough to become the first African American President, then he can handle a few critiques from us.


 IT IS OK TO CHALLENGE THIS PRESIDENT, BLACK PEOPLE. YOU CAN STILL LOVE HIS DIRTY BOXER BRIEFS AND CHECK HIM WHEN HE NEEDS TO BE CHECKED.

I am beginning to believe that the worst thing for black people in 2013 is to have a black President. We have grown even more complacent. More divisive toward each other whenever normal critique of a President occurs. I can't speak to Tavis Smiley or Cornel West's personal feelings about Pres. Obama. What I can speak to, is their right to offer legitimate critique of his policies. Criticism that should not be met with childish personal attacks by Negroes like Tom Joyner, but should prompt thoughtful, nuanced discussion among us to get our needs met.


Maybe it would be better if we had an "adversary" in the White House, instead of someone we looked at as our own family.

Maybe a white President would be in order.


PLEASE NOTE: For all the Obama "fans" and "stans" that wish to engage in petty, childish attacks in regard to my analysis of this President, PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT YOU WILL BE BLOCKED IMMEDIATELY UPON YOUR ATTEMPT in whatever Facebook or other social media forum this blog is shown. NO EXCEPTIONS GIVEN.

NONE.

THE NEW MINSTREL SHOW: COONERY AND BUFFOONERY IN 21ST CENTURY BLACK ENTERTAINMENT...COMING SOON!

 

HEY GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 www.brohassansbooks.com

Also, just a quick note to inform you guys that I am currently working on my next project as well! It is a departure from my current project, but no less intriguing....the title of it is, "The New Minstrel Show: Coonery and Buffoonery in 21st Century Black Entertainment", and will focus on the ratchet, ignorant,(or as some folks say,"ignant"), stereotypical imagery of black folks on television, in Hollywood, in sports, and in music. It will be both deep and entertaining, so get ready! Look for it sometime in late summer 2013/early fall 2013!!!!!!!!!!!

Also,my book,"When The Lights Go Out: The Truth About Black Male Prison Sexuality", is now available on my website, http://brotherhassans.blogspot.com/2013/08/when-lights-go-out-still-on-sale-today.html as an instant download! For those who may remember, the way the old Paypal system I had set up only allowed you to purchase the e-book version, and I would have to manually email the book to you. That was beyond annoying for me, and I'm sure it was for some of you as well! The price is the same, but it will be far more convenient for all involved to safely, and securely, purchase the e-book formatted version of our book.

HOMOSEXUALITY...AS "POPULATION CONTROL"...SAY WHAT...?

Happy New Year people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May God bless all of you with a prosperous 2013. I have not blogged in a few weeks, but I stumbled upon (actually someone sent me this article but I was sworn not to say who did) an article written below entitled, "Homosexual Behavior as Population Control" by a man named Ridgley Muhammad. the article is listed below:

http://noirg.org/homosexual-behavior-as-population-control/



Here is my response to the good man's article:  


As-Salaam-Alaikum,


May Allah(God) bless you with the best of health and spirit. I came across your article about homosexual behavior, and had a few comments regarding  your views. This is one of the most short-sighted, uninformed perspectives on sexual orientation that I have ever read. If homosexuality were "population control", then why are there more humans on Earth now than at any time in history? This, despite the fact that more gay men and lesbian women are out and living their lives as they see fit.

Despite there being more black same-gender loving men and women as a part of the black community, it has not affected birth rates at all. In fact, some black gay men and lesbian women still have children and raise them,(because they wish to be mothers and fathers as anyone else would) albeit in silence from persons like the brother who wrote this article. This attempt to scientifically rationalize the Nation of Islam's anti gay stance is ridiculous. If your argument is theological, keep it as a theological argument. These wild-eyed, overly simplistic and off base conspiracy theories make sane minded brothers and sisters not take you all very seriously at all.

If the relationships between black males and females are damaged, then you may want to look into 400 years of dehumanizing chattel slavery, segregation, mass incarceration (that has more black men under criminal control of the Justice System now than black people were slaves in the year 1850, 10 years before the Civil War), and the disparity in education between educated men and women in the black community as contributing factors. You may wish to look into the cyclical generational death spiral that the black community has been in post "integration". Oh, and lest I forget, black on black murder rates having soared to gut wrenching levels in the last 35 years may be another reason there are not enough heterosexual black men for your women to find potential suitors and husbands. Add to that mix, a poverty rate that has scarcely moved since Dr. King's assassination in 1968, and I can sort of understand the disintegration of black male-female relationships. Can you?

Scapegoating gays and lesbians for the ills of the black heterosexual community shows that your ignorance blinds you and hamstrings you from taking effective action to deal with all of the myriad problems in black-male relationships. We are not the cause of your relationship woes. According to a 2010 report, the "DL" myth was debunked as the main factor contributing to black women contracting HIV/AIDS. Their studies found, as well as other studies, showed that black men having multiple female partners in a heterosexual sexual climate, was a much larger factor. Get your own heterosexual house in order.

Being gay is not a "lifestyle" or "preference", any more than heterosexuality is. There are over 1500 species in nature that one could find members of participating in same sex behavior. As a former member of your organization who is now openly same-gender loving, I had to suffer in silence for years because of the way of thinking presented in this article. Minister Farrakhan and many other Ministers/Student Ministers can be heard at any given point calling gay men "faggots", and yet with a straight face, say so innocently, "but we are not homophobic".  People who are not such would not use "baby language", as Master Fard Muhammad and The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, your spiritual benefactors, put it, to denigrate those with whom they differ.  I am so glad that I stumbled upon this website and decided to read your words.  I pray Allah bless you with the light of Understanding.

As-Salaam-Alaikum

Brother Hassan

When Chickens Come Home to Roost.....

Hello guys.....

By now, we have all cried, watched in horror,and shaken our heads in shock and disbelief over the tragic, senseless shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Adam Lanza, a 20 year old who suffered from mental illness his entire life, entered Sandy Hook Elementary School, armed with enough ammunition and weaponry to murder every child in that school, and proceeded to annihilate 27 human beings before extinguishing his own miserable life, 20 of them being ages six and seven years old.

 I keep listening to national news anchors covering this tragedy, who are predominantly white, and how different their tone is even from the local news anchors here in Chicago.  Nationally, I keep hearing how Newtown was supposed to be a "safe place" for those who live there. Many residents moved from major cities like New York because they wanted to escape "urban violence", thinking that if they moved away from "urban areas", they were indeed safe and sound.

Here locally,however, a much different tone was struck by media. You see, Chicago is well known-perhaps too well known-for senseless acts of gun violence. Chicago has been styled by many as a city where 52 people can be shot in a 40 hour period, all in random parts of the city, and where far too many children are murdered every single month. However, because their faces are black, the national media chooses not to give those stories such expansive coverage. That would interfere with the narrative that "urban violence" is gang related, and is essentially savages killing savages. Local media, whether white or black, get it that no matter what the race of the child, the deeper problem is violence itself and the proliferation of guns in the American culture. They get it, because we know that at any point, someone can be shot and killed, whether on the South side, West side, or in the whitest of suburbs.

This narrative that a white male must be only seriously mentally disturbed, while black murderers are callous, rational, cold blooded killers who are not worth saving or lamenting, despite the dramatically increased amount of mental illness within the African American community is disheartening. Viewing life and death through a purely racial lens allow many to say,"Their problems are not my problems. I am safe in the suburbs away from those savages." We join our voices with all of those who have condemned this as an unbridled act or terror, and do not minimize the horror of December 14th, 2012. I have heard, however, even blacks make silly distinctions between urban violence and what happened in Newtown. "Well with us, its young black men killing young black people!" I heard one lady tell me. I guess she ignored the fact that Adam Lanza is white, and all of his victims were white. 


White on white crime.

What those who choose to make distinctions will not say, is that we as a society, whether we are black or white, value white life more than black life. In fact, black life is not valued at all in this country, and that should be a surprise to no one reading this blog.


 Using this tragedy to begin a dialogue on gun safety laws is fine,but passing legislation to make laws stricter for those who seek to legally purchase semiautomatic weapons does not solve the problem of the millions of illegal weapons that magically funnel themselves into inner city black and Hispanic neighborhoods, allowing far too many children and young people in this nation to still remain at risk.

America is still a racist country.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW RACIST TWEETS TOWARDS PRES. OBAMA'S SPEECH TO THE VICTIMS!

America's racial subtext creeps into these discussions, and within a week or two, we will act as though this was a distant relic of the past. Many will go back to their insulated bubble, thinking that if they merely escape the stereotypical "gang banging, drug peddling black and Latino male", they can raise their children in quiet suburban areas, or isolated rural areas  without fear. For these people, Sandy Hook Elementary School's tragedy was, if nothing else, a chance to wake up and see violence and murder as an American problem, not a racial one. Since the murders of both Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Attorney General Robert Kennedy in 1968, over one million American citizens have been murdered.

Think about that.

America is the most violent nation in the Western world. 300 million guns-many legal, some illegal-flow through this country as we speak. Gun violence in the United States is twenty times higher than the combined rate of many other nations, according to the UCLA School of Public Health. A nation with its origin in genocidal violence now sees its own bloodstream infected with too much violence today. We must stop trying to compartmentalize Newtown,Connecticut from the South Side of Chicago, and making one set of rationalizations to justify one while acting in horror over the other. Violence is as American as apple pie. Deal with the entire problem, and America just may have a chance to avoid these chickens coming home to roost.

My Open Letter to the P.O.T.U.S. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Hey guys....below is the text of a letter I recently sent to the White House. Let me know what you guys think!)

Dear Mr. President,

My name is Hassan Hartley, and I am an author, activist, convicted felon, and  small business owner.  Congratulations on having been elected to a second term,so now let's get to business: there is a perception among many in black America that a “black agenda” has not clearly been outlined for you to incorporate into your policy decisions.  I have been reading your PDF file located on the White House website entitled, “The President’s Agenda and the African American Community”,and you make some great rhetorical points in the document. What troubles me as I read it, is that it appears to be little more than platitudes and glittering generalities. It appears as though some measure to scramble together bullet points to appease African Americans for election purposes was the intent behind the agenda. 

As a former convicted felon, who has authored a book on some aspects of social, cultural and political aspects of the Prison Industrial Complex, what troubles me is that more is not done legislatively to correct the damaging policies of the “War On Drugs” on millions of young black men who have been convicted of low-level drug crimes. Young black men who,socioeconomically, for all intents and purposes, are trapped in a cycle of recidivism that devastates the African American community exponentially. Family bonds are often strained, even destroyed, and children are being raised in marginalized subcultures that accept limited education and mass incarceration as real possibilities for their lives.

Lives ruined because of low level drug crimes, crimes that their white counterparts, commit with equal frequency, if not greater frequency, but who are not targeted, arrested, convicted and sentenced at nearly the rate as someone who looks like you or me.

No one expects you, Mr. President, from the Oval Office, to wave a magic wand to heal the ills of Black America. There are things that can be done, however, in terms of policy, to put us in a better position to be able to help ourselves. In her book, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”, Michelle Alexander astutely points out that more black men are under the control of the criminal justice system today, primarily because of the War on Drugs, than there were black people enslaved in the South after the 1850 Census (3.5 million).

The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 is a start, but far more must be done. Attempting to reduce recidivism with Reentry Councils is laudable, but legislation that allows an offender to vote, not have his or her criminal record impact their ability to gain employment, and be able to truly turn the page on the mistakes of the past, needs to be crafted as soon as possible. As an entrepreneur, I am glad to see more being done for small business owners like myself(although I am currently a one man LLC), but I haven’t felt the policies kick in yet, and getting a Small Business Loan for someone in my position is difficult, at best.

I would love to work with your Reentry Council to help ex-offenders not only get properly trained to enter or re-enter the job market, but be able to become legitimate small business owners as well. This seems more realistic than hoping other companies will offer us a job coming out of prison. Teaching these young men how to fish, instead of offering a fish, will help out tremendously. Many of these young brothers literally have reading levels at or near the third grade. This is particularly troubling to see young men ages 18-35 that cannot read on a fourth grade level, but who, if trained properly, could maximize a wealth of talents and skills to help make this nation even greater.

It fuels my cynicism to see the public school system so badly broken as it is. Schools in "urban" areas are a joke, even compared to my days as a teenager, and they were not a sparkling gem of a model even then. There is a direct relationship between a lack of education and crime/incarceration, and you can alleviate some tax burden on the American people by quoting the disparity between what it costs to incarcerate a citizen, and what it costs to educate one.

 I wonder sometimes if a dumber, less critical electorate becomes a more manageable one, particularly for corporate special interests who pillage the middle class and poor with ruthless efficiency. These same corporations invest heavily in privatized prisons, while the public schools become veritable wastelands. If the "underclass" is allowed to expand due to mass incarceration at this same rate, this great nation will fall to the ignominy of many other  nations before her.

I pray for your continued success, Mr. President, as your success will translate hopefully into America’s success. Thank you or your staff for taking the time to read these few words.

I am,

A Friend and Supporter,

Hassan Hartley