There is a war currently being waged in a predominately black and poverty stricken neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois named West Washington Park. The battle grounds are located between 56^th and 65^th street from Cottage Grove to Martin Luther King Drive. This war has not garnered much media attention except for the obligatory short paragraph in the Chicago Sun-Times and other media outlets.  Since September 1, several people have been shot in the 6400 block of South King Drive, the block I reside on.  All were under the age of 26 and all were black.

Urban terrorists have taken over inner-city minority neighborhoods in Chicago and no one is safe.  It matters not if you reside in Beverly or Chatham: no family is immune from gun violence.  My heart breaks for the families of who have lost loved ones to violence because I am a mother and can imagine ...

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I cannot speak for other cultures but I do know that in Black culture, there is a lot of pressure on young men to be ladies men with several women scattered in every zip and area code. From the time they are five-years-old, young Black boys are asked this question by various male relatives and friends: “Do you have a girlfriend?” Not about what career or college they are interested in but how many hoes they have.  Because of this mentality, it is no wonder why our community is plagued with fatherlessness since young Black boys are socialized to be pimps, not husbands and fathers.

It is amazing to me that in almost all cultures, there is instense pressure on females to remain chaste and pure but men are encouraged to spread their seed with as many women as possible without any ramifications and this paradigm of thinking is dangerous ...

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Living in the inner-city will suck the joy out of life if you have the misfortune to live there. Who wouldn’t be depressed about being surrounded by ignorant male youth lounging aimlessly on the corners bragging about the women they used to have, foul-mouthed, uncouth young women fighting over unemployed men, and older folks so beaten down by life that they spend their remaining days living in a bottle? Every where I go, I see desolation, grit and grime but I still manage to see beauty in my surroundings.  The beauty of seeing a grandmother taking her grandchildren to school at time when she should be chilling out somewhere in Florida but like the good solider she is, knows her duty. The beauty of watching working mothers take their daughters to work with them during the summer break from school, reminding me of the times I went to work ...

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In the United States, disparities between rich and poor have risen sharply and individuals are increasingly unlikely to escape from their economic position. The poverty rate in this country has risen to 15 percent, the highest it has been since the U.S. Census Bureau has been tracking it. There are few stories of how someone made it from “rags to riches,” and families are losing their annual working hours, if they have jobs. According to research, income inequality is far greater in America than in other major countries such as Great Britain, Australia, and Canada. Current statistics show that the rich is getting richer and the middle-class and working poor are being left in the dust.

Although America is thought of as the land of material wealth and success, poverty has existed persistently since its inception. Large numbers of Americans have been and still are poor. They lack the ...

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Gender inequality has maintained the suppression of women worldwide and unfortunately has impacted Sub-Saharan Africa with the greatest magnitude.  Everyday in these countries are countless occurrences of physical, emotional, and psychological abuse that must be acknowledged as a primary concern for governments across the world.  A prime example of gender inequality is the use of rape as a weapon of war.  For women in Darfur, it is a permanent scar of war; a painful reminder which will never go away.  Girls as young as eight will never sleep well again or be able to have a normal relationship with a man because of this issue. There are many ways to commit murder, and for these women and girls, they may as well be dead.

For the past five years, the Islamist government in Khartoum, Sudan has given the Janjaweed militia a free hand in putting down a rebellion by Black ...

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Ever since President Obama was elected, I have noticed a lot of insanity from a certain segment of the White population.  President Obama has been accused of the taking away the civil liberties of “real Americans” to not actually being an American at all but a Kenyan socialist communist fascist who is going to put White children in boot camps and indoctrinate them with all types of socialist, evil thoughts. He is also having too many barbeques and basketball tournaments in the White House with Jay-Z and Diddy and taking too much vacation time when he should be working.  The most ludicrous thing he has been accused of is being an advocate of the poor (code word for Black folks).

Let me tell you one thing:  having a Black president has not done shit for me (excuse the slang).  As a Black person, my wallet has not gotten any fatter ...

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Last year, I turned forty-years-old and that is totally  mind-blowing to me because a small part of me will always be the young, idealistic girl who wanted to make a change in the world, although she has taken quite an ass whipping in the past couple of years.  In the months since my birthday, at times, I feel as though I can conquer the world with energy to burn.  During darker periods, paranoid thoughts plague me, telling me no one cares about the opinion of a middle-age, fat, unemployed black woman.  My best days are behind me and all I can do is look forward to is dying.

But those kinds of thoughts seldom linger because I have too much to do with the rest of my life.  According to statistics and the death rate of women in my family, I have at least forty more years on this planet ...

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