The Greats.

  

There are lot of people who changed history and culture for centuries and millennia. He is one human being who changed basketball forever not only with his athleticism and skills on the courts. He is one of the most well-known promoters of business and sports in human history. He is Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan wasn't the first athlete to do what he has done. Yet, he was the first basketball athlete who took his athletic basketball gifts to the next level of prominence that inspired the national and international growth of basketball. Also, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player in NBA history without question. With him playing 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association, Jordan won six NBA Championships with the Chicago Bulls, he was a 14-time NBA All-Star, he won 2 Olympic gold medals, he was a 2-time NBA Slam Dunk Contest Champion, and he won the NBA MVP 5 times. These are just some of his many accomplishments. Like us, Michael Jordan isn't perfect. To accurately describe the story of a human being, you have to honestly talk about the good things that a person did and the mistakes in order for people (especially people in future generations to learn lessons to avoid the pitfalls of life). Michael Jordan's philanthropy has been extensive, and his life documents how powerful fulfilled dreams are. Dreaming is great, and you have to legitimate actions in light to get your dreams accomplished (filled with determination, hard work, kindness to others, courage, and standing up for justice for all). Michael Jordan has been on this Earth for almost 60 years being an inspirational cultural icon. 

 

Serena Williams is the greatest woman tennis player of all time, and she is one of the greatest athletes in human history period. She made massive contributions, and she gave inspiration to current women athletes to accomplish their goals. From being involved in fashion and fighting for pay equity, regardless of sex. Serena Williams has always been on the side of the people. Serena Williams has stood up for people spanning years and decades now. From Compton to Florida, her life stories have been filled with overcoming obstacles and existing in triumph. Her dreams have been fulfilled involving tennis, philanthropy, and other arenas of her own life. Right now, she is forty years old. Legend is an understatement to describe her outstanding tennis career. She has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most of any player in the Open Era. She has ranked Number One on 8 times by The Women's Tennis Association between 2002 and 2017. Not to mention that she has many records involving the sport. She was born in Saginaw, Michigan. Serena has the most Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles combined among active players. Her sister Venus Williams is an excellent tennis player in her own right too. Her father and her mother inspired her to achieve her goals. Serena Williams is known for being a baseline player with a strong serve and great agility. She once had a serve of 128.6 mph which is the 3rd fastest women's serve in human history. Her professional career started in 1995. In 1999, she defeated No. 1 Hingis to be the 2nd African American woman (after Althea Gibson in 1958) to win a Grand Slam singles tournament. Serena Williams grew more accomplishments in winning the 2003 Australian Open. She made a comeback to be the Number one player in the world in 2013. She won the Australian Open in 2017. She loves her children, her charity work, and her family. Serena Williams is an expert in fashion, supporting Black Lives Matter, etc. She has invested in women's soccer and won 4 gold medals in the Olympics. Both Serena and Venus give honor to the black tennis legends who came before them like: Althea Gibson, Arthur Ashe, Zina Garrison, Chanda Rubin, Lori McNeil, Katrina Adams, Ora Washington, and other unsung legends. Serena Williams represents Black Excellence and the power of human perseverance completely. 

 

Pam Grier was born on May 26, 1949, at Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Her parents are Gwendolyn Sylvia Samuels (a homemaker and nurse) and Clarence Ransom Grier Jr. (a mechanic and a technical sergeant of the United States Air Force). She has one sister and one brother. She was raised Catholic and was later baptized as a Methodist. Grier said that she has African American, Latino, Chinese, Filipino, and Cheyenne heritage. Her father had a long military career, so the family moved around the world during her childhood. By the time she was 6 years old, they lived in Swindon in South West England, United Kingdom. Her father worked on an airfore base. Grier was the only black families in town. Pam Grier said that she faced on racism or segregation compared to America. She said that, "They didn’t care that I was black since they hadn’t been raised to hate blacks. Instead they’d been raised to hate Germans... In the U.S., especially in the South, we were never able to get buses to stop for us, we couldn’t eat in certain restaurants, couldn’t use certain bathrooms. Up until 1969, there were department stores in which my father and I weren’t even allowed to try on clothing."

After two years in the UK, the family came back to the United States of America. They settled in Denver, Colorado. Pam Grier spent part of her upbringing on her maternal grandparents' sugar beet farm in rural Wyoming where their ancestors had homesteaded after fleeing west via the Underground Railroad to escape slavery. Grier attended East High School in Denver and appeared in many stage productions. She also participated in beauty contests to raise money for college tuition at Metropolitan State College. In 1967, Pam Grier moved to Los Angeles, California. She worked at the switchboard at American International Pictures (AIP). She is believed to have been discovered by director Jack Hill, who cast her in his women-in-prison films The Big Doll House (1971) and The Big Bird Cage (1972). While under contract at AIP, she became a staple of early 1970s blaxploitation movies, playing big, bold, assertive women. Later, the movie Coffy was released in 1973. Coffy changed the whole world. You can make the case that Pam Grier is the first woman superhero crime fighter in modern American film. The movie of Coffy was about Pam Grier playing Coffy, who is a nurse who seeks justice against drug dealers harming the black community. Coffy was a hit and it had violence, sexual themes, and a lesson about confronting injustice in communities. Pam Grier was the first African American woman to headline an action film. This was part of the Blaxploitation movie genre movement.  In his review of Coffy, critic Roger Ebert praised the film for its believable woman lead. During the 1970's, she played similar roles of a black woman fighting the establishment and drug dealers in society with roles like Foxy Brown in 1974, Sheba, Baby (1975), and Friday Foster (1975). By the 1970's, Pam Grier dated prominent and famous men. 

She met basketball player Ferdinand Lewis (Lew) Alcindor before he became a Muslim; soon after they began dating, he converted to Islam and changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Abdul-Jabbar proposed to Grier but gave her an ultimatum to convert to Islam. He said, "If you don't commit to me today, I'm getting married at 2 this afternoon. She's a converted Muslim, and she's been prepared for me," adding, "once you become Muslim, you might appreciate another wife." Grier declined, so he got married that day. Grier met comedian Freddie Prinze while promoting her film Coffy in 1973. They began a relationship and considered marriage. Prinze wanted her to have his baby, but she was reluctant due to his history of depression and drug addiction. They remained in touch after she left him. She was one of the last people Prinze spoke to before he died in 1977.

Grier met comedian Richard Pryor through her relationship with Prinze, but they did not begin dating until they were both cast in Greased Lightning. She helped Pryor learn to read and tried to help him with his drug addiction. After six months of sobriety, he relapsed. In her memoir, Grier described how her sexual relationship with Pryor caused cocaine to enter her system. Grier confronted Pryor about protecting her health, but he refused to use a condom. Pryor married Deborah McGuire while dating Grier in 1977.

Grier was formerly romantically linked to Jimmie “Big Wheel" Wheeler, a famous boxing promoter, Soul Train host Don Cornelius and basketball player Wilt Chamberlain.

By the end of the 1970's, the game has changed. Blaxploitation films started to end, sci-fi films increased in power, and the country was changing politically plus socially. Pam Grier wanted to play more diverse roles. So, he played a prostitute in Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981) and a witch in Something Wicked this Way Comes (1983). In 1985, Grier made her theatrical debut in Sam Sheppard's Fool for Love at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Grier returned to film as Steven Seagal's detective partner in Above the Law (1988). She had a recurring role in Miami Vice from 1985 to 1989. She had a recurring role in the TV series Crime Story between 1986 and 1988. Grier was diagnosed with stage-four cervical cancer in 1988 and was told she had 18 months to live. Through vigorous treatment, she made a recovery and has been in remission. That was certainly excellent news. 

 

People have wondered now, what has happened to Kanye West? He went from talking about supporting opposition to the policies of George W. Bush involving Katrina to being one of the biggest disappointments in music history. This started with years in the making. From the start, he is one of the most talented musicians and producers of the 21st century. His contribution to music is well known from making albums to producing beats from across genres (especially in hip-hop music). The turning point was when broke off the relationship with his black American fiancé Alexis Phifer and the passing away of his mother. People like to attribute mental health to his antics, but the vast majority of people with mental health issues don't act like Kanye West at all. At the end of the day, Kanye West seeks white acceptance so much (in praising white business leaders on a massive scale without praising black geniuses on an equal footing), that he made irrational statements about life and culture. Kanye West said self-hating, anti-black words like slavery is a choice, George Floyd didn't die by a neck on his neck, white straight men are judged more than any other group of people, glorifying Confederate T-shirts, loving the White Lives Matter T-Shirt, etc. These actions are reflections of a pro-Trump alt right extremist who Kanye West is now. Kanye West (like Charleston White) promote a false conscious exterior (in claiming to be pro-black), when their interior views are filled with far-right anti-Blackness. He said that he wants to go def con 3 against Jewish people without making a distinction between good and evil people found in every ethnic group. Without making those distinctions, Kanye West made an anti-Semitic statement, and he admitted that his comments are anti-Semitic. Kanye West believes that Jewish people run the industry and that they revel in exploitation, terror, and glorification of violence (and disrespect of women) in hip hop. The truth is that one ethnic group doesn't control every aspect of the industry. For example, Lucian Grainge of Universal Music Group is not Jewish. Vincent Bollore of Vivendi is not Jewish. Jeff Bezos is not Jewish. Many heads of corporate power are found in the Pilgrim Society, the Knights of Malta, and other groups that people like Kanye don't talk about. It is clear that we condemn and oppose anti-Semitism, anti-black racism, and any form of bigotry period. There are no excuses for these evils. Therefore, we are clear that Kanye West lost his way, and many of the Kardashians aren't innocent either. Khloe Kardashian never apologized for placing the chains on the necks of black women years ago. The Kardashians have a well-known history to economically and sexually exploit low self-esteem black males in order to gain prestige, profit, and power. Kris Jenner has a known history of cultural appropriation and blackfishing. Today, many people want to distance from Kanye West because of his controversies. Many people are criticizing N.O.R.E. for giving Kanye a platform to speak, but they are silent on Pierce Morgan and Tucker Carlson giving him a platform to speak because of the obvious reason. I don't have to spell it out. N.O.R.E., Morgan, and Carlson should be equally criticized. Kanye West lusted after white privilege so much that he made a voluntary decision to show self-hatred at the expense of his own dignity. It is what it is. You notice that Kanye West doesn't talk about solutions like revolutionary black activism, Pan-African unity, going out to support black musicians to have economic independence, building institutions controlled by black people, and seeking out to advocate for reparations for black Americans. His stances are always about appeasing the interests of far-right white racists. Kanye's actions have nothing to do with Jesus Christ or real Christian teachings, despite his claims. Stereotyping every Jewish person as an exploiter is not Christ-like, going about to dismiss the truth about George Floyd's unjust death is not Christian, and going out allying with the far-right extremist Candace Owens (who agrees with European colonialism, disrespects Native Americans, and lied about George Floyd's passing) is not righteous either. Candace Owens lied and said that current black culture is about gangbanging being cool, lax educational standards, saying the n word, and hatred of exercise. The reality is that real black culture is about education, tolerance, building music, and advancing truth. Owens forgets the unsung black heroes standing up for integrity in the black community for decades and centuries. Black people and black culture are diverse, not monolithic. Owens hypocritically believes that white people are not a monolith, but she believes that black people are monolithic mostly. Owens lied and said that leftists caused the October 2018 mail bombing attempts, she lied saying that Russia created Ukraine. Kanye's lust for white validation is clear for all to see now. Kanye forgets that freedom for black people is more than about words. It's about deeds to advance the black collective in seeking independence and human liberation. 

 

We have a new election year in 2022. Still, polarization consumes American politics. With the record turnout of early voting in Georgia, we already know that voting is a very important action to pursue. As others have conclusively mentioned, voting helps to invest in communities, gives people opportunities to be on school boards, helps to promote fair representation in American locations, and promotes more power in helping to change lives for the better. The 2022 United States elections are one of the most important elections in our lifetimes. The Supreme Court recently passed extreme decisions, we have a strong far-right backlash that threatens democracy as we know it, and we witnessed even innocent voters being arrested in Florida (just like in the Jim Crow era when innocent black people were arrested for just wanting to vote in the South). During this midterm year, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested. There are 39 state and territorial gubernatorial elections too. States and local elections are abundant. Many GOP election deniers are part of the campaigns during this cycle as well. This will be the first election affected by the redistricting that followed the 2020 Census. What we see now is another crossroad during the middle of the first term of the Presidency of Joe Biden. Even some Democratic candidates want Biden to just serve one term. The GOP primaries saw far right extremists winning them. Donald Trump has toured the nation to promote election denialism, xenophobia, and other forms of nihilistic extremism. President Biden's approval rating is at 45 percent which is steady. The theme of the midterm election is that many still have underestimated the persistence of the far-right movement in harming democracy with election workers being intimidated and quitting (because of them being threatened by cowards). This is an inflection point in history. The issues prominently shown during the 2022 Midterm elections are about democracy, immigration, abortion, the economy, crime, gun control, the Presidency of Joe Biden (in a referendum), the Russian invasion of Ukraine, student loan forgiveness, book banning, the environment, and other issues. Protecting democracy is a huge priority. Without democracy, we won't have basic human rights to flourish in any society. Human equality is the ideal that we believe in. We have to fight for that ideal in an earnest, progressive fashion. We accept the results of any election without violence. Whether we win or lose an election, we build institutions and power to grow our communities, our families, and our nation. That is certainly a true, august point that we accept 100 percent. 

 

In life, there is always hope and the opportunity to be better as human beings. We are fortunate to live in this time and generation to not only live but to grow. Growing means treating people right, helping our neighbors, caring about ideals of justice and truth, and being a light for righteousness. A long time ago, I always wondered about my ancestry beyond my grandparents. I tried to research my family tree at a higher level in 2015 and 2016, but it wasn't very successful. Everything changed in 2018. That year, I went to Ancestry.com to find information about my ancestry. I took many DNA tests from Ancestry.com and from 23 and Me. In that year, I found out more information than I could imagine. I discovered that I was a descendant of both Zilphy Claud and George Perkins. I understood the concept of a haplogroup as it relates to humanity and DNA. From 2018 to the present, I learned about so many of my cousins. I found many of my cousins being found in places from across the world, some are activists, some are teachers, some are celebrities, and others are athletes. Yet, we share the common bond of being part of one single family. Families make the world go around, and I appreciate learning this information at the right time. Like always, learning doesn't stop. Even in 2022, I learned even more information about my relatives found in the four corners of the Earth. 

One of my greatest relatives was Ernest Lee D. Sr. (1935-2015). She lived from June 29, 1935, in Halifax, North Carolina to July 10, 2015, in Cranbury, Middlesex County, New Jersey. He was my paternal 1st cousin. Many of my paternal relatives came from Halifax, North Carolina at Scotland Neck. Later, many of them migrated from North Carolina to the Eastern Shore of Virginia, other places of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and other places in the United States of America. In April 1955, Ernest Lee D. Sr. married Myrna Mae Wilson (1939-2002) at Cranbury Township, Middlesex, New Jersey. Ernest D. Sr. was a great man. He was employed as a truck driver with LTL Services in Dayton, New Jersey for many years. He was a father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, and nephew. He always gave back to his family and his community. His parents were Annie Mae D. (1910-1984) and Herbert Lee (1908-1976). Ernest Lee D. Sr. and Annie Mae Wilson had the following children of: Clifford A. D. (1956-2014), Gwendolyn Merle D., Sandra E. D. (1958-2022), Dorothy L. Bing (b. 1952), Ernest L. D. Jr. (b. 1954), Anthony Q. D, James D. D. (b. 1961), and Carl R. D. (b. 1966). Ernest D. Sr. had 9 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. Ernest's wife of Annie Mae Wilson lived to be 62 years old and was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Also, she lived in Cranbury for the majority of her life being a crossing guard at Cranbury Township for many years. Her parents are Carrie and Reginald S. Wilson Dr. Her brother is Reginald S. Wilson Jr. Ernest Lee D. Sr. and Annie Mae Wilson's grandchildren are: Kyndrich Rashad D., Brittany D., Michael D., Regina D., Matthew D., Ernest L. D. III, Danielle Bing, Latoya Bing, and Beanna Bing. 

By Timothy