thaFormula.com - What do you feel is the difference between the racism of back in the day, compared to the racism of today that they say no longer exists?

Paul Mooney - Because it was overt and now it's covert. They hide it now. If you believe in spy movies and all that crap, when you decode America, it decodes IAMRACE. Race is the most powerful thing in America. When OJ was on trial these white folks went crazy. The verdict made them crazy. This white boy that could have killed a baby with his wife, look how casual their energy was about him. He might have got off. It shows you there that white folks have a subtlety about them. What do we want? We want our reparations right? We want that mule and 40 acres right? They gave us our mule in Eddie Murphy, a talking mule. They said here nigga, here's a talking mule. Now try to get your 40 acres. I pick up on all that.

thaFormula.com - Man you and Chapelle are one of the last real comedians out there?

Paul Mooney - Well Chapelle was a Mooney student. He doesn't even count. I love him and all that and he's wonderful but I'm the professor and he's the student. I been doing this a long time. I been on the frontline and I been doing this when it wasn't popular. I'm the Davey Crockett of comedy.

thaFormula.com - Do you feel that Biggie or 2Pac's killers will ever be found?

Paul Mooney - No. The police killed them. I have hip hoppers in my house and they are just as crazy as everybody else, talking about 2Pac is still alive and that other one Biggie. I said please, dead niggaz stay dead. They both are dead. The police got the biggest gangs in America and are the biggest liars. Jail is full of niggaz. The white man that created DNA is probably somewhere dead in the dessert because DNA was supposed to put niggaz in jail, not free them. DNA has freed a bunch of niggaz who were innocent of what they were accused of. White folks don't even have any regret for it.

thaFormula.com - What do you think when you see someone like Michael Jackson being accused of molestation?

Paul Mooney - Michael is our modern day Jesus. First they say he's black, then they say he's white. Now they are getting ready to crucify him. Michael is not a pedophile. If Michael was a pedophile it would almost make him normal. He's X-Files brother, he's out there.

thaFormula.com - What about Eminem. What are your thought on Eminem's status in hip hop?

Paul Mooney – Oh Please! I told you, I don't like white folks who pretend they are niggaz. It's hard enough being a nigga. Give me a rope when they start hangin' niggaz and I'll find out who is black and who is white, trust me. They will all turn white if they get to hanging niggaz again.

thaFormula.com - An argument that many whites and blacks have had for years is, why is it okay for blacks to use the word cracka, but not okay for whites to use the word nigga?

Paul Mooney - Because we have never lynched them, that's why! We have never terrorized them. They have been terrorist in our lives for 500 years, that's why. We use the word nigga to defuse it. The same way it's okay for a whore to call a whore a whore. You call one a whore and they will run across they street and knock you in your head, because you don't live their life. I say nigga every time I want to because I was called it enough. I was called nigga enough so I can say it any time I feel like it. When it meant something nobody gave a fuck and now that it don't mean shit, everybody has something to say about it. It gets on my fucking nerves. I been a nigga to long. I got to go to Japan and get the operation because I been a nigga to damn long.

thaFormula.com - There seems to be a split in the black community over the word nigga and it being used or not being used. Where do you stand on that?

Paul Mooney - Imma say nigga until I die. I'm gonna always say it. I say it a hundred times every morning, it makes my teeth white. Nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga. I'm gonna always say it. A nigga is the one that wouldn't work and wouldn't do what the master wanted him to do. So I love a nigga. A nigga fought back. A nigga was like that mule, okay. Stubborn. Saying nigga is like saying Africa, you'll get a room real quiet. That's why I don't like black people or Afro-Americans. I like Negroes, color people and stolen Africans. Because black people and Afro-Americans kill each other. Negroes and color people didn't do that. If you don't believe me ask your mom and your grandmother. They didn't do that shit. They didn't walk up on no other color person or Negro and shoot them in their head. When they ran into a color or Negro neighborhood, they felt safe. It ain't like that now. They feel safe in the white neighborhood. So you know it's all twisted.

thaFormula.com - It's the same also within the Latin community. You got Hispanics, Latins, Chicanos, etc...

Paul Mooney - Puerto Ricans and Cubans ain't nothing but niggaz that can swim. Let's get real ya'll. I come from Louisiana. The white folks made the rule. You got one drop of nigga in you, that's what you are. I don't give a fuck where you from. I'm telling you what the reality is. They took slaves everywhere. You got a drop of black blood in you that makes you a nigga. I don't care what language you speak. This is a foreign language to me. This is not my native language. You got that nigga in you, you got that Africa in you and that's what they all fear and all don't want to bring up. Everybody wants to talk about their Indian Grandmother & their Swedish cousins. Everybody is all fucked up. Them god damn Jews too wanna be white folks. That's all nothing but niggaz. All of them. We were at war with Germany, they dropped the bomb on Japan. They ain't gonna drop the bomb on Germany because they could have blew up their cousin or their brother. They have the complexion for the protection. Their white skin protects them and niggaz had better wake up, because they are getting their wake up call. All Niggaz!

thaFormula.com - But Paul, they say that times have changed and things are better now?

Paul Mooney - Yeah things are real better, Bush is president. Kiss my ass!

thaFormula.com - But Paul, what about the ones that say slavery ended a long time ago, so what are you still mad about?

Paul Mooney - No it don't work that way when you reap the benefits. I'm like the witch. When you burn the witch she is gonna say I hope your head fall off and I hope your dog die. The witch says I curse your sons, sons, sons. The witch wants all you mutherfuckers to pay. So a hundred years from now, your muthafuckin' blood is still being punished. That's the way I feel about South Africa. They been doing that shit to niggaz since the 1800's. I want all them muthafuckas to pay. Not just now. You see how they are forgiven. I told you about that complexion for the protection. Look how they forgive them. Every time I hear South Africa I cringe and America was in on it to. Then they want you to forgive them, but we don't get forgiven. Huey Newton ain't forgiven, Angela Davis ain't forgiven, OJ ain't gonna be forgiven.

thaFormula.com - Do you think that we will ever see an era like the 60's where we had people like Malcolm, Huey, George Jackson, etc.?

Paul Mooney - No. Time is running out. The Black Panthers and I mean the real ones that was in those neighborhoods made anybody who tried to come in their and try to pimp us pay. Those people are in there pimpin' us now. The Black Panthers would never have allowed that and that's why there are no more Black Panthers. The Black Panthers were teaching niggaz okay. When the smart dog goes to the dog pound, they put him to sleep. Because they don't want that smart dog to teach them other dumb ass dogs nothing. So that's how that goes down.

thaFormula.com - Voting seems to be something that many people disagree on. Does voting matter in your eyes?

Paul Mooney - Voting does change stuff. You just have to get enough people to do it. They wanna get people to feeling that they can't vote. Be a slave to voting or just be a slave.

thaFormula.com - Some people feel though that voting has never done nothing for the the poor communities.

Paul Mooney - That's because those niggaz won't vote and most of those niggaz are felons and that's why we can't have no civil war because half our army is locked up. That's why nigga! They have to have a legalized slavery. They got that now. They spend more money on prisons then they do anything.

thaFormula.com - Were you surprised that a movie like Bamboozled was able to be made in this day and age?

Paul Mooney - I was stunned. You know because those niggaz are all still cooning and that's why they got upset at that movie.

thaFormula.com - How did Spike Lee even approach for you for this movie?

Paul Mooney - Well they screen tested me and they said to me that they wanted me to be a drunk and they want me to talk about Hollywood. So I talked about Spike Lee and that's why I got the movie.

thaFormula.com - I thought it was a great movie, but many people I spoke to hated that movie...

Paul Mooney - Because of the cooning. People don't like to look in the mirror. Look how they went crazy on the Black Comedy Awards when I gave the coon award out. Those niggaz went crazy. They were so scared that they were gonna be up there. They were so happy to see them two niggaz I had up there and that's why they applauded. They were just happy it wasn't them.

thaFormula.com - Who got your award?

Paul Mooney - Cuba Gooding and Michael Clarke Duncan. I turned that muthafucka out. They called and asked me if I would come and be on the show. I said yeah, if I can give out the coon award. They went crazy man. Everyone there was scared to death. I said, the list is so long in Hollywood, we don't have enough time to name the nominees. I said give me the envelope. Oh my god, it's a tie. I drove them niggaz crazy. Snoop Dogg and Little Dogg, and Big Dogg and all the rest of them was on the floor crying.

thaFormula.com - The scene where Damon is surrounded by a room full of white writers for a Black show was hilarious. Is that really how it goes down?

Paul Mooney - All that shit was brilliant brother. That shit was almost a documentary, I loved it. I fucking loved it. I sat in a room and cursed out white writers before and producers behind that bullshit. Thinking these white folks no more about comedy and niggaz then I do, nigga please. But they consider the truth hostile and bitter, but they can say what they wanna say. That white man has the complexion for the protection so he can say whatever he wants to say. He gets away with murder, loses billions of dollars and shit. Well shit happens, let's move on. Let a nigga lose that much money.

Has the American Dream for cream been masked over top of Dr. King’s? These days unity between the races is easy to see, but is it truly the vision of he who gave his life for the civil rights movement?

Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to see White and Black hands held together… only they’re clasping grands in partnerships that often exploit our worst behaviors. What part of King’s dream had us providing entertainment in exchange for the flashy ‘chains’ and ‘whips’ of PC enslavement? What part of his vision foresaw the very soul of our people as an emblem for others to dangle from a chain on their chests?

We may have many successful and positive businessmen and entrepreneurs; but for every positive that exists, more negatives are portrayed in the media. But the media can’t portray material that’s not put out by the source first. The irony of it all is that to truly keep the dream alive – we need to wake up first.

“Requiem for a Dream Deferred”a.k.a.“The Wakeup Call”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.Proctored a spark in the future esteem of freedom pursuers.Freed from subduers, the dream’s being neutered by newer blockades.Today’s obstacles make me wonder if it was worth it –For the rights of our people mean nothing if we can’t preserve it…Sold cheap in street circuits – they’re choked by looser noose knots and chains

No longer behind the scenes,Black folks get light lime and heavy creamWhile Whites lie kindly behind and beneath -from days of slavery, this is an incredible feat!Blacks and Whites now intermingle to enrich pay scales –But at what price do we continue to mix the grayscale…Jacob and Kanye chains may sell – but such jewels evoke an ineffable breach.

It’s ironic how King’s envisioned views of how we’d end upHas turned a platonic coexistence into a new dilemma.His prescription’s been delivered at toxic levels.While common economy tells me we had to fight for civil rights –What part of equality’s comes at such a pivotal price?…The part where our autonomy gets ritually slighted by accosting with devils.

I wonder if the tone of this noble fella would’ve turned hurtfulIf he’d known vanilla ice would melt into his own fraternal circle –White out stains Alpha’s Jewels eternal within its prestigious walls!Our fraternities formed out of a lack of resourcesTo become a safe haven for Black recourses…So how does a shield against anti-Black forces now consort withsuch an egregious flaw?!!

I’m not on some Booker T./Black Panther revolt.Even Malcolm X left that answer revoked.I know that among God’s grander yolks, there can be no discrimination.Jesus died to end such deeds of separation.So I’ve got no reason to deny His desegregation…But I can’t help my deep-seeded hesitation –rooted in the 60’s vivid scenes of civic demonstrations.

Forty years of an ongoing march –Yet even for these tears, I know I’ve not done my part.In 2000, voting wasn’t once embarked, but I complained on a regular basis.I allowed injustices in slack-jawed officesTo keep me disgusted in the acts of Congress’…Forget Black caucuses – my causes were marauded by secular hatred.

As disdain hastily drove what I was often ignited and infused with,I wasted the souls laid in coffins of righteous movements.Dr. King’s life wasn’t designed for amusement – yet we take it lightly everyday.If he could’ve seen our wasteful disintegration,Would he have fought so hard for racial integrationJust to see us become so faithful to assimilation –as we sacrifice Black anthems for the ways gray medleys pay?

Just because we can achieve the impossible,Doesn’t mean we’re no longer responsible.We should cultivate the best traits possiblebefore letting the world merge with our worst feet first.But instead, we let vultures borrow the productOf our culture’s most sorrowful conduct…Giving praise to the hollow constructs that media circuses seek first.

In the wake of King’s dream – this is horrible nonsense.We can’t keep exploiting ourselves without moral conscience.Some seem to have forgotten what our struggles were all about.Too busy taking care of self,We lay with snakes in snares of wealth…Trading a visionary’s travails for a dream of greed that reeks of troubled clout.

What we need now is sleep-deprivation.There’s a better dream out that needs better representation.If the rest of us would just awaken, we could grasp Martin King’s deep words.But until we can remain true to our own worthBy resisting the urge to dilute our souls dispersed…Maybe we ought to totally disown it to preserve a martyr’s dream deferred.

Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries… But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.’– Jude 1:8; 10-13 KNJV

Never Forget We Inherited the Struggle of our Fathers, to do our best to make it easier for our children. 

The Numbers Beyond the BlingIn the streets of America, people are worse off, and more of them are in jail
by Ward Harkavy

While hiphop's being celebrated, life on the streets during its 30 years of existence has gotten much tougher. Income inequality in the U.S. began climbing 30 years ago, reversing a nearly 50-year trend. And the prison population has soared. Hardest hit have been African Americans, whose folk culture has made cash registers ring. America is now No. 1 in the percentage of its population in prison and No. 1 in income inequality among industrialized nations. Here are a few statistics:


Approximately 1 million African American men under 40 are behind bars. Twelve percent of African American men ages 20 to 34 are behind bars, compared with 1.6 percent of white men in the same age group.

Thirteen percent of Black male adults, 1.4 million total, are disenfranchised. In a dozen states, 30 to 40 percent of young Black men will permanently lose the right to vote because of being convicted felons.

Fifty percent of New York City's Black males are unemployed.

Black people are 13 percent of drug users, about the same as their percentage of the U.S. population, but 35 percent of those arrested for drug possession are Black, 55 percent of those convicted of drug charges are Black, and 74 percent of those sent to prison are Black.

Sale of five grams of crack means a five-year minimum sentence under federal guidelines; it takes 500 grams of powder cocaine to warrant the same sentence. Crack is the only drug whose sale as a first offense can trigger a federal mandatory minimum sentence.

In 1994, 90 percent of those convicted of federal crack offenses were Black, 6 percent were Latino, and fewer than 4 percent were white. Powder cocaine? 30 percent Black, 43 percent Latino, and 26 percent white.

In 1986, shortly before federal mandatory minimum sentences were imposed, the average federal crack sentence for African Americans was 11 percent higher than for whites. In 1990, after the guidelines went into effect, the average sentence was 49 percent higher for African Americans than for whites.

The average crack defendant is sentenced to 115 months, compared with 77 months for those in powder cocaine cases. The majority of crack users, however, are white.

Despite similar or equal rates of illegal drug use during pregnancy, African Americans are 10 times more likely than whites to be reported by social-service agencies for prenatal drug use.

People die younger in Harlem than in Bangladesh. The leading causes of death in poor Black neighborhoods are not AIDS, drugs, or homicide. They are "unrelenting stress," "cardiovascular disease," "cancer," and "untreated medical conditions."

In the past 25 years, one-third of public hospitals in the U.S. have closed, mainly in rural areas and inner cities.

Wealth disparity is even more pronounced than income disparity. The top 1 percent of all U.S. households own 38 percent of all wealth (property, cash, savings, stock value, and insurance policies—minus mortgage payments, credit card debt, and other debts). Wealth inequality generally fell from 1929 to the mid '70s. Since then, it's doubled.

Five percent of Americans own 59 percent of all wealth; the top 20 percent own 83 percent of all wealth. The bottom 20 percent have zero wealth. Excluding owner-occupied housing, the inequality is worse: 1 percent of families hold half of all non-home wealth.

Ten percent of families own 85 percent of financial securities and 90 percent of all business assets.

The average African American family has 60 percent of the income of the average white family. But the average African American family has only 18 percent of the wealth of the average white family.

In the U.S., 1 percent of American families own 38 percent of all wealth. In Great Britain, it's 22 or 23 percent. Until the early '70s, we had less wealth inequality than Britain.

More than 34 million Americans are officially "poor," a class including nearly 25 percent of all African Americans and more than 20 percent of all Latinos.

The minimum wage has fallen by about 35 percent in real terms since its peak in 1968.

Overall, American female infants' life expectancy is 19th in the world; male babies' is 31st, tied with Brunei. Of the 13 wealthiest countries, the U.S. is last or near the bottom in terms of infant mortality and birth weight.

African Americans are 12.2 percent of the population but account for 37 percent of all AIDS cases. Latinos are 11.9 percent of the population but account for 19.2 percent of all AIDS cases. The fastest-growing population of those infected with the AIDS virus is African American women.
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Sources include Multinational Monitor, Drug Policy Alliance, Edward N. Wolff (Jerome Levy Economics Institute), New England Journal of Medicine, Economic Policy Institute, United for a Fair Economy, U.S. Bureau of Prisons, Jonah Goldberg (The Philadelphia Inquirer), The Washington Post, The American Prospect, and Gary Fields (The Wall Street Journal)

The media doesn't just sell newspapers anymore. 

By Herb Boyd
Managing Editor, TBWT
New York--Expressing their outrage against a war in Iraq they feel is unjust and immoral, thousands of protesters assembled in Marcus Garvey Park here on Saturday morning and then marched to Central Park. The large banner held aloft and at the front of the contingent said it plainly: Harlem's Legacy is Fight Back!

We are giving voice to a new direction in the anti-war movement, declared Nellie Bailey, founder and executive director of the Harlem Tenants Council and one of the march's key coordinators. And there is now way they can take this away from us.

On the second anniversary of the war in Iraq, where more than 1500 U.S. soldiers have been killed and thousands of Iraqi citizens, the protesters in Harlem were joined by rallies and demonstrations against the war all over the world, including massive turnouts in Europe.
There were also a number of acts of civil disobedience in front of U.S. Armed forces recruiting stations throughout the New York metropolitan area. After bearing hundreds of coffins draped in American flags and representing U.S. troops killed in the war, marchers gathered at Times Square, where 37 people were arrested and hauled away in police vans. Each one of the volunteer protesters wore a vest with the image of dead soldier.

In Harlem, the marchers stopped in front of the recruiting office and began chanting "Armed forces out of Harlem!"According to some reports, this recruiting station is one of the busiest in the city for recruiting new army personnel. We don't want our young people to become cannon fodder, Councilman Charles Barron told reporters.

At Central Park, Congressman Charles Rangel was among the speakers. He charged that while the demonstrations might be unpopular, but it's the right thing to do.
Most of the protesters agreed, including a young Harlem couple with their children in tow. Instead of spending millions of dollars in a war they seems without endand certainly without purpose we could use that money here in Harlem to take care of the homeless and people suffering from all kinds of problems, the man said, requesting his name not be used. This war is not being conducted in my name.

One observer at the Harlem rally was concerned that the number of African Americans was small compared to whites. Where is Harlem? We got be more involved, said Sekou Abdallah, a book vendor.

But as the marchers moved from Marcus Garvey Park and up 125th Street to Malcolm X Boulevard, an increased number of Blacks joined the demonstration. It was by far the largest anti-war march in Harlem in recent times.

And we are going to keep marching and protesting until the war is over, Bailey told reporters

Heaven  

The Realest Gangster Out There 

The Manifesto