When I became a DJ, I started breaking some of the rules and talking about things I wouldn’t normally reveal, but even then I did have my boundaries.  But these days it’s hard to tell where the line is.

I blame the National Enquirer, reality shows, TMZ and YouTube for people wanting to read about and watch mess 24-7.  I know you might not believe it, but I try hard to steer clear of public fights, gossip and rumors.  But I also know we’re running a business and in the words of the Mighty, Mighty O’Jays,  “You got to give the people what they want!”

Last week I spoke at Fisk University and Saturday I address the graduates at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

As with all commencement speeches, my goal is to  motivate and inspire, something I struggled with this year more than others. I mean, there are always some proud moments that distinguish a class from previous ones.  In 1963, Vivian Malone and James Hood registered for school at Alabama State despite Gov. George Wallace blocking their way. In 1978, the Supreme Court upheld affirmative action.  In 1995, the Million Man March was held in Washington.  In 2008, Barack Obama was elected to the presidency of the United States.

But even with highlights like Gabby winning the gold and the re-election of the Big Chief, we have to face the fact that the class of 2013 will graduate facing major debt and high unemployment.

But I only had to wallow in this puddle of gloom and doom for a short time until I realized that in spite of the way the future looks, getting a four-year college degree is the first weapon in the fight for good jobs most graduates seek.

One article I read outlines the benefits of having a college degree including higher lifetime earning, access to jobs with better benefits, and the fact that it opens the door to networking opportunities that can turn into more. But even if this is true, and I believe it is, the bottom line is most college graduates are going to have to work longer and harder to achieve their goals, even if those goals are as basic as moving out of their mama’s and daddy’s house in two years.

“Four Morehouse athletes were arrested in connection with sexual assaults,” was the headline of the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s website.

Heartbreaking on so many levels, for the women who are victims, for the accused young men who at a young age have pretty much destroyed their lives, and for Morehouse College, a school that’s spent the last few years trying to restore its reputation.

Like most colleges, Morehouse has a zero tolerance policy to violence.

Morehouse is in the spotlight now, but it’s not alone. The rise of sexual assaults on college campuses is something every parent sending their child, male and female, should be aware of.

In HBCUs as well as mainstream colleges and universities, most  of these incidents involve drugs and alcohol.  We’re not talking beer and weed…the kind of stuff that might have been at parties when you or your parents were in school. It’s gone up to a new level, and today’s parents need to be on top of it.

High school graduations are coming up and families with college-bound kids probably have a long to-do list…clothes, dorm room supplies, even new cars for some.  But even if you had the talk about sex and drugs (and you should have) with your kids already, it’s time to put it on the top of the list before they leave for college.

Your sons need to read this story and realize that right now they probably can say for sure they’d never sexually assault a woman, but in the wrong environment with the wrong crowd, with the wrong drugs and alcohol, they’re capable of anything. One night of “partying” can bring consequences that will last a lifetime.

Your daughters should read the article too and be warned not to take any drugs or drink alcohol, especially at parties and clubs.  They should always attend functions with trusted friends and never be afraid to report a physical assault of any kind.

And let’s not forget the poison-laced letter sent to the White House, and even though no one has officially confirmed it, the grounding of American Airlines flights for a day.

That’s how terrorism is….the acts are horrible and the worry of what they might have been and the fear of what’s coming next is just as bad.

But one thing that comes to mind is how acts like the one in Boston really proves there are two Americas. There’s the part that includes me and a lot of you, the part that lives so far away from violence and police activity that there is shock and amazement at the very idea that a city could be held captive.
Then, there’s the other part in almost every black city in America where living like this has become the new normal.

Not to downplay the marathon bombing or its victims in any way.  But that one day of terror should make people think about the way so many people of color live every day.

The kind of America that a lot of people fear is on the way–helicopters hovering over head, curfews, metal detectors and armed security in schools, bars on the windows of homes—is already here in parts of L.A., Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans, Philly, and the list goes on and on.

It’s your “boy,” your “girl,” your “bestie, BFF, roomie,” anybody who cares enough about you to turn you around when you’re about to say or do something really stupid.

Man, could Tyrese have used one last week when he made some really mean comments about overweight people.

I don’t know if I’m more upset that Tyrese, who has been a great friend of the show, is so insensitive or because he was just on the Fantastic Voyage Cruise with me for seven days. Could I have triggered his tirade?

Here’s what he said when asked what responsibility he has to inspire people to live healthier lifestyles:

“No two situations are the same. If you are fat and nasty and you don’t like the way you look, do something about it. It’s simple. When you take a shower and you put your fat, nasty body in the shower and by the time you get out, the mirrors are all steamed up so you don’t look at what you did to yourself. That may sound offensive or insensitive, but ultimately, you are big as hell because you have earned that sh*t. You worked your a** off to eat everything in sight to get big as hell. If you got a problem with the way you look, then you need to do something about it. Excuses sound best to the people that’s making them up.”

There comes a point in almost every celebrity or high-profile person’s life when they’re asked about a topic that is bound to cause controversy. What people don’t seem to understand is that in most cases, it’s a set up. When you say the appropriate, expected, politically correct thing, you’re boring and it does nothing for the interviewer’s ratings, magazine subscriptions or the numbers of followers they have on social media.  Say something way out of the box and people can’t stop talking about you, the show or publication lucky enough to get you to say something foolish.

If you haven’t heard about it, they are accused of giving or changing answers on tests after they were turned in to boost their students’ grades.

They were wrong and they may be going jail.  But what does that solve, really? Will children be able to pass those tests? Will teachers still feel intimidated into making sure students perform better? Will schools stop pressuring teachers to do things that may be beyond their control?

Schools with good test scores get extra money to spend in the classroom or on bonuses, and everyone knows how rough it is for most public schools and public school teachers.

I believe with my heart of hearts that these educators were up against it and were doing what they thought was best for their students and their schools.  The best solution for everyone involved is to allow the accused teachers to pay back any money they received and get them back into the classrooms where they belong.

Think about it. Other people have gone free for much worse infractions. Cheating is a terrible thing but once again, follow the money. These teachers, for not much pay, are expected to do the impossible.

Day after day, they enter over-crowded classrooms with minimal supplies. Not to mention, they are the scape goats for the “No Child Left Behind” policy that, by most accounts, is failing.

We all want America to be competitive and to churn out students who will make remarkable contributions in math, science and literature. But we have to be realistic, too. There are some social problems that have changed the game and addressing them takes the kind of sacrifice few of us are willing to make.

The mantra at the TJMS is to “put the work in.” That means, if you say you want the best, most competitive schools and students in the world, put the work in! You can’t expect it to happen while turning your backs on Head Start and other programs that feed poor children and offer their parents assistance.

You can’t shut down drug rehab and mental health facilities. You can’t cut off money for after school enrichment courses, P.E. and summer jobs. You have to come up with a way to make kids ready to learn in safe environments. You have to face the fact that no matter how many times you blame the parents, some parents are just not present physically or mentally able to do what they ought to do.

The latest is that the surviving children of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King have refused to grant the MLK foundation a license to continue to use Dr. King’s name.  They’re not allowing it even though the foundation raised the $100 million dollars  needed to build the statue dedicated to the civil rights icon.

The King family, which consists of Martin III, Dexter and Rev. Bernice King, rightfully control the copyrights to their father’s images and words.  So, it isn’t so much what they’re doing that’s questionable. It’s the way they’re going about it.

In fairness to them they are the sole heirs of a man who gave so much to so many but died without a will and no instructions on how his financial affairs should be handled. In order to manage their dad’s estate, the King family formed a corporation, King Inc.

It doesn’t appear that any of the King children have great earning capacity, and I assume they receive their primary income from the family business.  I’m sure if anyone was to benefit from his legacy, Dr. King would want it to be his children.

But I wonder if the three of them have ever wondered what THEIR legacy will be? Right  now, it doesn’t look like one that brings honor and pride to the memory of someone as great as their father. While not perfect, no one can deny Dr. King’s commitment, dedication to the civil rights cause and the personal sacrifices he made.  I often say the reason so many people who came behind Dr. King could never live up to what he accomplished is because they were trying too hard to be great.

Dr. King wasn’t seeking to be great or to have a great fortune. But now it looks like money is the only thing his family is really passionate about.

The MLK Memorial Foundation has paid King Inc. $2.7 million to use the likeness of Dr. King and his words on the memoriam. According to an article in “Roland Martin Reports,” the King family has removed all of Dr. King’s books from the memorial’s bookstore because they wanted to reap all profits from the merchandising.

The problem is that all of a sudden, loans that were easy to acquire are coming under more scrutiny.  Poor credit ratings by parents are taken into account and sadly, we all know what that means for black folks.

What’s a family to do?  The economy is horrible, houses have been foreclosed on in record numbers and people are out of work.  The hopeful thing should be sending your child to college giving them a better chance at success.  For 90 percent of students at my beloved HBCUs, financial aid  programs like Parents PLUS made it possible.

The average net cost for a full-time student at an in-state public university according to some sources is $8,000 and $16,500 a private college or university.

To say that HBCU students need help
paying for higher education is an understatement. Now, just like that, more than 14,000 HBCU students were not able to enroll in school.

The worse part is that the kids and their parents say they were caught off  guard.

When we reported this story last week, the Text Tom Club blew up.  Here are a few samples:

“My son had one class to graduate. He was turned down after four years. He’s at home now.”
 
“I received a parent plus loan when my daughter started school. The next term I was denied.  I had been hospitalized and had to stop working so my bills got behind.  Now I have to pay monthly on her bill!”

Johnny C. Taylor, president of and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall Fund, says  HBCUs were blindsided by the new rules.  As a result, a court battle to force the Obama administration to reverse the changes may be in play.

President Obama’s administration tells a different story.  You know us.  We go straight to the source. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, talking to Roland Martin this morning, offered some light at the end of the tunnel.

He admits that the situation could have been handled better and assures parents and students that anyone turned away due to the changes will be offered a similar loan with lower interest rates. Duncan says that everything possible will be done to make sure that every student is back in school in record time.

He also maintains that there’s been no re-interpretation of the rules and the program has always taken into count credit issues.

To his point, any loan program that blindly lends money with no concern over whether it can be paid back starts to look like sub-prime lending. And no one needs more of that.

That makes about as much sense as that old NRA line “Guns don’t kill, people do.”

With all the gun violence happening almost daily in our community and other places as well, it’s time to start making sense.  The NRA and many of those who are supporters have a slick way of always sticking to their talking points, no matter what questions are asked. There’s something to be said for persistence, but for us to make any type of move toward making laws safer for citizens; there needs to be action. So, I’m going to skip right past their rhetoric about trying to take away citizens’ right to bear arms  and that new laws will protect the criminals and punish the good guys; because that’s just not the case.

We have a mantra around here that’s goes “follow the money.” Usually when a solution that seems simple isn’t addressed you can look deeper  and you’ll discover that someone is being paid to either make it happen or keep it from happening.

In this case, the NRA and others who benefit from the sale of guns have no intention of making changes that will have an impact on their bottom line.  The more guns being sold, the more money they make.  The more money they make, the more they have to spend lobbying politicians to make sure that there are no real changes in the gun laws.

The bottom line in my opinion should be human life.  If lives are being lost because of high-powered assault weapons then I say get rid of the high –powered assault weapons or a least make them extremely difficult to purchase.

But instead they want to add guns going so far as to say teachers in the class rooms should be armed.

But what I am saying is that the president knows better than any of us the mess this country is in and I believe he has a strategy for getting us out of it.
I’m just a D.J., but could it be that he’s thinking “white people got us into this and white people can get us out?” (My words, not his). It’s kind of like
playing the race card in reverse.  How many times have we seen major corporations and mainstream universities turn to a black man or woman when
things got their worst?

We’re in a financial sink hole, the result of the 2008 collapse of huge institutions like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, bad
banking schemes and crazy home loan scams…events that disproportionately hurt middle class and poor people.  If your house wasn’t foreclosed during this time, there’s a good chance that you’re probably upside down or underwater in the one you’re in now and probably the car you’re driving as well.

The president, it seems to me, is assembling a group of people who know where the bones are buried because this thing is nothing to play with and is going to take a lot of work to overcome.