5 Things Malcolm X Said That Are Relevant Today About Sellout Negro Politicians
by moguldom

March 30, 2020

5 Things Malcolm X Said That Are Relevant Today About Sellout Negro Politicians

Civil Rights icon Malcolm X was always very wary of politicians, even Black politicians. And he warned the Black community to always hold their Black politicians accountable.

“The Ballot or the Bullet”

In his famous “Ballot or the Bullet” speech given in the spring of 1964 at King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit one month after splitting with the Nation Of Islam, Malcolm X said: “The political philosophy of Black nationalism only means that the Black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community. The time when white people can come in our community and get us to vote for them so that they can be our political leaders and tell us what to do and what not to do is long gone.”

Understand Politics And Politicians

In “The Ballot Or The Bullet” speech, Malcolm X said, “We must, we must understand the politics of our community and we must know what politics is supposed to produce. We must know what part politics play in our lives. And until we become politically mature, we will always be misled, led astray, or deceived or maneuvered into supporting someone politically who doesn’t have the good of our community at heart. So the political philosophy of Black nationalism only means that we will have to carry on a program, a political program, of reeducation – to open our people’s eyes, make us become more politically conscious, politically mature. And then, we will – whenever we are ready to cast our ballot, that ballot will be cast for a man of the community, who has the good of the community at heart.”

Democrat Or Republican: One In The Same?

During his “Ballot Or The Bullet” speech, Malcom X spoke of the mistrust he had for politicians, be they Democrat or Republican.

“I’m one of the 22 million Black victims of the Democrats. One of the 22 million Black victims of the Republicans and one of the 22 million Black victims of Americanism. And when I speak, I don’t speak as a Democrat or a Republican, nor an American. I speak as a victim of America’s so-called democracy. You and I have never seen democracy – all we’ve seen is hypocrisy. “

Is There Really A Revolution?

According to Malcolm X, the fight for Black people are their rights was being run by “outsiders.” He has been quoted as saying: “The Negro revolution is controlled by foxy white liberals, by the Government itself. But the Black Revolution is controlled only by God.

Sell Out

According to Malcolm X, both parties and politicians (white and Black) have sold out Black people. He once said: “We won’t organize any Black man to be a Democrat or a Republican because both of them have sold us out. Both of them have sold us out; both parties have sold us out. Both parties are racist, and the Democratic Party is more racist than the Republican Party.”

This article was written by Ann Brown for The Moguldom Nation.

by moguldom

March 23, 2020

Beyond The Return: 28-Year-Old African American Relocates To Ghana, Starts Food Truck Business

When I lived in Africa for nearly a decade, the question I most got from locals was: why would an American move to Africa? Many African-Americans are moving to Africa, particularly to Ghana.

For 28-year-old Deijha Gordon, her decision to leave Brooklyn, New York, for a life in Ghana was prompted by a sense of duty to help. When she visited Ghana the first time, she saw that it was nothing like the “negatives, starving children, dirty roads, huts” that people in the U.S. are fed about Africa.

Her impression about the continent changed the moment she landed at the Kotoka International Airport, she told ABC News‘ Adwoa Tenkoramaa. She felt a sense of belonging and a feeling that she’d been “here before.”

Gordon had been working an 8-to-5 job at the U.S. postal service for eight years. Even though she earned enough to live a decent life and cater for her travels and education, it wasn’t enough after her visit to Ghana. She wanted to become an entrepreneur and she wanted to do it in Ghana.

Now she’s the owner of a food truck business, Deijha Vu’s Jerk Hut at East Legon. She sells food including rasta pasta, rice and peas (what many in Ghana call waakye), and her “rather special spicy chicken with a doughnut,” ABC News reported.

“So Deijah Vu’s, apart from my name being Deijha, the meaning of deja vu is a sense of feeling like I am already here,” she said. “That is the feeling I got when I first set foot on this continent. When I got off the plane, I was kind of nervous simply because of what they show us in the States. There were so many things running through my mind but as I got off the plane and stepped out into the atmosphere, I felt OK and I was happy that I made the decision.”

The truck is located at Base Camp Initiatives, a co-working space for startups on a budget known in the residential area of East Legon, Accra.

“I don’t regret coming here. I feel like it’s the best decision I’ve made so far. I’ve met so many great people. I have had so many great opportunities. Coming here allowed me to go to South Africa. I made a lot of friends and I have no doubt that Deijha Vu’s will be very successful. So many people have been hitting me up about it and they are anticipating the grand opening. I’m just excited about it,” she added.

Her truck employs three permanent staff and several temporary staff.

This article was written by Ann Brown for The Moguldom Nation.

Former President Of Iran: COVID-19 Was Produced In A Lab. It’s A Biological Weapon
by moguldom

March 16, 2020

Former President Of Iran: COVID-19 Was Produced In A Lab. It’s A Biological Weapon

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tweeted sympathy to the people of China for the “#Corona lab-made virus,” suggesting the virus was created deliberately as a biological weapon by China’s enemies to halt the country’s progress.

“I hope the Chinese nation, contrary to the will of their ill wishers, will soon overcome this imposed problem and pursue their progress,” Ahmadinejad tweeted on Feb. 17 in what has become a popular conspiracy theory.

At least 291 people in Iran have died from the coronavirus — the third highest number outside of China, according to Worldometers. The dead include a senior adviser to the supreme leader. One of the country’s vice presidents, at least 23 members of parliament, the deputy health minister and other senior government officials are among the 8,042 people reported to have been infected.

Iran’s hospitals are struggling to cope with the coronavirus surge and the country has far more cases than it’s letting on, The Atlantic reported.


Blaming your enemies by way of a conspiracy theory is one way to deal with the coronavirus, Middle East Eye reported.

Iran’s president from 2005 to 2013, Ahmadinejad joined Twitter in March 2017 as part of an aborted effort to win a third four-year term. Ironically, Twitter was banned under his watch in 2009, as it was seen as tool for anti-regime activists and Western espionage. Nany prominent figures continue to tweet. Ahmadinejad has used the platform to denounce inequality in government policies, particularly in the U.S. He has taken shots at Trump. In August 2018 he criticized Trump for mocking LeBron James and CNN anchor Don Lemon. Ahmadinejad said at the time that he loved James and Michael Jordan.

Brothers Kamiar Alaei and Arash Alaei are Iranian health-policy experts and co-presidents of the Institute for International Health and Education in Albany, N.Y. Both worked for years as doctors in Iran’s health care system, which they described as one of the best in the Middle East — a decentralized system with thousands of medical centers across the country.

Lives could have been saved and the scale of the contagion contained if the Islamic Republic hadn’t made health policy subservient to its politics, the brother said in a New York Times opinion piece. Instead, Iranian authorities dismissed the danger of coronavirus. “Tehran did not risk slighting Beijing. Flights between Iran and China continued. Iran donated 1 million face masks to China,” they wrote.

When people started dying of the virus, the official Iranian response was denial of the size of the crisis. When a member of parliament from Qum contradicted official numbers, the deputy minister of health promised to resign if the death toll proved to be even one fourth of the MP’s claim. A day later, the health minister tested positive for the coronavirus and is under quarantine. A disproportionate number of members of parliament and senior government officials became infected.

Doctors and medical staff members at the smaller government hospitals were not alerted early on to take precautions.

“Tehran seems to have suppressed information about the coronavirus because it did not want participation in the elections to be affected,” the brothers wrote. They’re calling for Iranian authorities to get relatives of all the infected and the deceased tested, be truthful and transparent about numbers of cases, enhance protection for health care workers and target the worst affected areas.

Meanwhile, @Ahmadinejad1956 has doubled down on his conspiracy theory. He tweeted on March 9, “It is clear to the world that the mutated coronavirus was produced in lab, manufactured by the warfare stock houses of biological war belonging to world powers,& that it constitutes a threat on humanity more destructive than the other weapons that target humanity.”

Ahmadinejad’s theory has no shortage of co-conspirators, although not all agree on just who the enemy is, or whose lab the biological weapon was made in.

“Coronavirus is Made in China. #WuhanVirus,” @EdronChk tweeted.

“bill gates made it,” maelarkey tweeted @MaepleTrees.

“The virus is made in China CCP, Wuhan p4 laboratory, we Chinese know that, CCP want to make a virus world war against the whole world. Iran don’t understand if you deal with evil, you will get punishment back, that is why so many infected people in your country,” @Suomi201888 tweeted.

This article was originally written by Dana Sanchez for The Moguldom Nation.

by moguldom

March 9, 2020

Jay-Z Owned Tidal Now Offering 20% Discounts to Come Back

Tidal is living up to its name, but not in the way it hoped. A tidal wave of U.S. subscribers left Jay-Z’s music streaming service in 2018 and he returned to Spotify at the end of 2019. Now Tidal is offering former customers a 20 percent discount to return to the platform.

According to Music Business Worldwide, Tidal reported “a record operating loss in 2018 of $36.7 million and a net loss of $36.9 million” in the United States. The report also said the streaming service lost over 100,000 U.S. subscribers that same year.

When Jay made the move back to Spotify on his birthday in December 2019, some wondered whether that signaled the impending end for the once promising venture.

Forbes even said Jay-Z’s Spotify return “could be the nail in Tidal’s coffin.” “Is it genius marketing for the Tidal owner, or does this show he’s throwing in the streaming wars towel, as his company continues to struggle with growth?” CultureBanx CEO and contributor Kori Hale asked.

But recently released documents by Tidal’s parent company, Project Panther Bidco (PPB), painted a more optimistic picture. They reported “annual revenues in territories outside the US and UK rose considerably in 2018 – more than doubling to $84.5m.” They also expanded to Africa and in Europe and Latin America.

Despite this – and boasting a catalog of $60 million songs and having a presence in 54 countries – the company has still struggled to keep up with competitors Apple and Spotify. Hence the need for more subscribers.

The self-described “artist-owned global music and entertainment platform” sent an email to former subscribers Thursday, Feb. 27. It read “get 20% off a standard or family plan for 3 months” and reiterated the benefits of subscribing.

Is it the beginning of the end for Tidal? Only time will tell.

This article was written by Isheka N. Harrison for The Moguldom Nation.

The Rise Of Atlanta’s Reputation As A Black Tech Capital
by moguldom

March 2, 2020

The Rise Of Atlanta’s Reputation As A Black Tech Capital

More and more Black tech entrepreneurs looking for somewhere away from Silicon Valley to jump-start their brilliant ideas are setting up in Atlanta, making the city the fourth fastest-growing market for tech jobs.

Atlanta, now known as the “Black tech capital” according to a USA Today report, has become home for a growing number of top African-Americans weary of coastal hubs that do not reflect America’s diversity.

Atlanta’s potential as the Black tech capital

Dr. Paul Judge, also known as Atlanta’s “Godfather of Tech,” says there are more than 20 Fortune 500 companies, 20 Grammy award-winning musicians and over 200,000 college students in Atlanta — providing opportunities for major disruption of the tech space.

“If we bring those things together in the right way … we’ll surprise ourselves and make something really memorable,” Judge said.

With just one percent of venture capital dollars invested into Black startups, according to a study by RateMyInvestor and DiveristyVC, there are efforts to ramp up funding for startups in the Atlanta tech scene.

“I see such a big gap for entrepreneurs who are looking (for) and seeking funding (and) that (sic) the thing I really want to go and solve,” Jewel Burks Solomon, founder of Partpic, a startup that makes it easier to identify industrial parts, told 11Alive.

 

This article was written by Kevin Mwanza for The Moguldom Nation.

FreakNik To Return This Summer As 3-Day Festival Called Freak World
by moguldom

February 24, 2020

FreakNik To Return This Summer As 3-Day Festival Called Freak World

Get ready for it. FreakNik is returning. This summer. The legendary Black Spring Break event in Atlanta, Georgia, will return as a three-day festival called Freak World. It will feature more than 40 artists performing during the weekend.

Freak World will run June 19-21 at the Cascade Driving Range in southwest Atlanta.

Carlos Neal, of Atlanta-based promotion company After 9, decided last year to bring back the infamous Atlanta event “with a daylong concert at Cellairis Amphitheatre at Lakewood. A lineup featuring Project Pat, Uncle Luke, Da Brat, Foxy Brown, and many more nearly sold out the venue and attracted an adult audience old enough to remember the rambunctious Freakniks of the past, but young enough to still party responsibly,” WSBTV reported.

“For everyone who said, ‘This isn’t the Freaknik of the ‘90s,’ I’m like, look, we’re older now and most people got that and still had fun,” Neal told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This year’s event will be for 18 years and older.

The 2020 festival has been expanded to three days.

“I wanted to do it in a community where people embraced this event. I chose the community where I grew up because I wanted the dollars to impact that community,” he said. “So I wanted to do it in a predominantly African-American neighborhood.”

Nealis also working with Atlanta festival promoter Eric Barnes and they also plan to feature more than 100 vendors and schedule about 40-50 acts. Nealis expects the three-day event to attract more than 10,000 fans per day.

Freaknik originally started in 1983 as a small gathering but by the ’90s, hundreds of thousands of people flocked to the event. It was during this time then-Mayor Bill Campbell’s staff decided to stop Freaknik, as the community thought it had gotten out of control. Freaknik was initially conceived at Spelman College by club president Skyla Goodson. And at first, attracted HBCU students on spring break, eventually, people from all over the country began attending.

By 2010, then-Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed banned any Freaknik-related activities.

There’s even a podcast reminiscing about the early days of Freaknik called “Freaknik: A Discourse on a Paradise.”

Some don’t seem happy to see Freaknik return in any form. While some people tweeted about the chaos and potential crime the event could bring to the area, others tweeted that the culture has changed too much to revisit the event. As one person tweeted: “As much as I love the effort… The social environment that made freaknik legendary doesn’t exist anymore tbh.”

This article was written by Ann Brown for The Moguldom Nation.

Young Black Americans Can Take A Free Birthright Trip To Africa
by moguldom

February 18, 2020

Young Black Americans Can Take A Free Birthright Trip To Africa

Young Black Americans have in recent years been given the opportunity to travel to their ancestral African countries and connect with their roots by nonprofit organizations.

One such nonprofit is Birthright Africa which has its headquarters in New York City.

“This isn’t about validating Black identity. It’s about providing an opportunity for people to explore their ancestry,” Birthright Africa co-founder Diallo Shabaz told CNN.

Another nonprofit organization that does a similar thing is Birthright Israel. It was initiated in 1994 by Charles Bronfman and Michael Steinhardt in collaboration with the Israeli government.

Birthright Israel sponsors free 10-day heritage trips to Israel for young adults aged 18-32.

Since the trips began in 1999, more than 600,000 people from 67 countries have participated in the Birthright Israel program. Around 80 percent of the participants have been from the U.S. and Canada.

During the trips to Israel, Participants are encouraged to discover new meaning in their personal Jewish identity.

Other countries that do this include Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Armenia, Cuba, and Ireland.

Bright Africa’s goal is to give young people knowledge and understanding about Africa that the American school system does not provide.

To be eligible for a birthright trip to Africa, one has to be a U.S. citizen and between 13 and 30 years old. The person also has to be of African descent.

The trips are free. Flights, hotels, food, and the cost of museums are covered by Birthright Africa and its partners.

Register here for a Birthright Africa application.

 

This article was originally written by Kevin Mwanza for The Moguldom Nation.

50 Cent And Snoop Dogg Go After Gayle King Over Kobe Bryant Comments
by moguldom

February 10, 2020

50 Cent And Snoop Dogg Go After Gayle King Over Kobe Bryant Comments

CBS News anchor Gayle King got heat from 50 Cent And Snoop Dogg for comments she made about Kobe Bryant during an interview with a friend of the late basketball legend.

During a CBS This Morning interview with WNBA basketball player Lisa Leslie, King asked about Bryant’s legacy and brought up Bryant’s 2003 rape charge. The criminal case against Bryant was dropped on Sept. 1, 2004, after the accuser declined to testify, USA Today reported. In August of that year, the woman filed a civil lawsuit, which was settled out of court on March 2, 2005.

“It’s been said that his legacy is complicated because of a sexual assault charge,” King told Leslie, who was friends with Bryant. “Is it complicated for you as a woman, as an WNBA player?”

“It’s not complicated for me at all,” Leslie replied. “I just never have ever seen him being the kind of person that would do something to violate a woman or be aggressive in that way. That was just never the person that I know.”

On Twitter, King’s line of questioning was slammed.

Among King’s critics was 50 Cent. The TV producer, entrepreneur, and investor tweeted a clip of the interview with King and commented on it in a video.

“Gayle King, why would you do that to your people? You know what people are going through right now. Why would you ask a question like that, trying to tarnish somebody’s image? You do that to your own Black people. You sad. Black people need to stop trying to hurt Black people for success.”

Snoop also had some words for King and the media that were posted on Twitter.

“Gayle King, out of pocket for that shit. Way out of pocket,” Snoop said. “What do you gain from that? We expect more from you Gayle. Don’t you hang out with Oprah? Why are y’all attacking us. We your people. You ain’t coming at Harvey Weinstein asking those dumb ass questions. I get sick of y’all. I want to call you on it. How dare you try to tarnish my boy’s reputation. Respect the family and back off. before we come get you.”

The article was written by Dana Sanchez for The Moguldom Nation.

Oprah Is Busted For Promoting Colonized Book On Brown People By White Author
by moguldom

February 3, 2020

Oprah Is Busted For Promoting Colonized Book On Brown People By White Author

When it comes to the book “American Dirt”, the world is hearing from the lovers and the haters, but not too much from the voices in between. There may not be an in-between.

Released a week ago, the book quickly became a bestseller on Amazon AMZN and Barnes & Noble. However, it has been swamped in literary controversy, bringing it arguably the kind of publicity money can’t buy.

“American Dirt” was written by Jeanine Cummins, who is white, about a Mexican mother who flees the country with her son after a drug cartel kills their family.

Cummins has been accused of cultural appropriation because of her identity — she’s not Mexican or a migrant — by Latino readers and writers who say she perpetuates Latino stereotypes. Some say she may have copied the work of Latino writers such as Mexican-American poet and novelist Luis Alberto Urrea.

Cummins was born in Spain. She identified as white in a 2015 New York Times essay, Buzzfeed reported. In a 2019 interview about her new book, she identified as Latinx, according to Marketwatch.

Oprah loves “American Dirt”. She read the novel last summer before it was released to the public. “It was a visceral experience for me,” she said, praising its writing. “It had me riveted from the very first sentence.” When Oprah announced that she chose “American Dirt,” some wondered why she would support such a divisive book.

In a video posted Sunday on Instagram, Oprah talked about her latest book club selection, saying she’s heard the criticism from the Latinx community but she’s not dumping the novel. Instead she plans to lean all the way in, hosting a discussion that will bring together “all sides” of the debate for an episode in March of her Apple TV+ book club series.

In an open letter published Wednesday, 83 authors on the website Literary Hub asked Oprah to reconsider “American Dirt” as an official Book Club pick. That number is now more than 100 writers.

“This is not a letter calling for silencing, nor censoring,” the authors wrote. “But … we believe that a novel blundering so badly in its depiction of marginalized, oppressed people should not be lifted up.

“We are asking only that you remove the influential imprimatur of Oprah’s Book Club, as you have in the past upon learning that a book you’d championed wasn’t what it first seemed to be.”

Oprah removed the book “A Million Little Pieces” from her club in 2006 when it was learned that author, James Frey, had made up parts the memoir.

Publisher Flatiron Books hailed “American Dirt” as a “‘Grapes of Wrath’ for our times” and “a new American classic,” Marketwatch reported. Cummins was paid a seven-figure advance after nine publishers bid on the book. The movie rights have been acquired by Imperative Entertainment, which produced Clint Eastwood’s “The Mule.”

For Oprah, the book was eye-opening. “It woke me up, and I feel that everybody who reads this book is actually going to be immersed in the experience of what it means to be a migrant on the run for freedom,” she said on a video posted on Twitter. “I promise you, you won’t want to put it down.”

Publisher Flatiron Books was accused of being tone-deaf for displaying barbed-wire centerpieces as decorations at an “American Dirt” book party in May. On Thursday, the publisher said in a press release it had canceled a book tour citing “specific threats to booksellers and the author”.

In their letter, authors who hate the book claim that it “is widely and strongly believed to be exploitative, oversimplified, and ill-informed, too often erring on the side of trauma fetishization and sensationalization of migration and of Mexican life and culture.”

The letter was signed by writers including Tommy Orange, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist novel “There There“, Valeria Luiselli, MacArthur “genius” grant recipient and author of the novel “Lost Children Archive“, Jose Antonio Vargas, founder of the immigrant advocacy nonprofit Define American and author of “Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen“, and Myriam Gurba, a vocal critic of “American Dirt” and author of the memoir “Mean“, Mashable reported.

Oprah recently pulled the plug on her involvement in an upcoming #MeToo documentary featuring a woman who accused Russell Simmons of rape. Oprah backed off after being criticized for targeting Black men accused of sex crimes, but letting their white counterparts get a pass.

This article was written by Dana Sanchez for The Moguldom Nation.

10 Things You Need To Know About Akon’s Futuristic Crypto City In Senegal
by moguldom

January 27, 2020

10 Things You Need To Know About Akon’s Futuristic Crypto City In Senegal

Multi-platinum-selling music artist and producer Akon is planning to build a futuristic city in Senegal that will have its own digital currency.

The musician, who is of Senegalese descent, is in the process of building the city and its cryptocurrency which he hopes will be “the savior of Africa in many ways“.


Doing good in Africa is nothing new for Akon. In 2014, he teamed up with Thione Niang and Samba Bathily to provide electricity to multiple African countries including Mali, Guinea, Senegal, Benin, and Sierra Leone.

An official deal was recently struck

In January 2020, Akon met with Senegalese government officials to finalize an agreement for the establishment of “Akon City” in Senegal, according to Complex. Akon’s plans are to build in the village of Mbodiene, with climate-consciousness at the center of the city’s construction.

‘Akon City’ is already under construction

Original plans for the city were announced in 2018 and construction began on the project in March 2019. It is expected to take 10 years to build. The next phase of construction is set for 2025, according to Revolt.

The city will have its own digital currency

Residents of the new city will use an app-based cryptocurrency – dubbed AKoin – to build the city’s economy. Mentioning the digital currency for the first time in 2018, Akon said citizens of the city could “utilize it in ways where they can advance themselves and not allow government to do those things that are keeping them down”, according to SkyNews.

President Macky Sall is on board

The project has the blessing of the Senegalese government and its president, Macky Sall, who gifted Akon 2,000 square acres of land for his planned city and is supporting him in his plan to construct the new city, Dezeen reports.

Maybe the first of many

Akon has previously said that he hopes the city in Senegal will be the first of many that use cryptocurrency in Africa. “With the Akoin we are building cities, the first one being in Senegal. We’re securing the land and closing out all the legislation papers for the city,” Akon told Newsweek. “If it works, we will scale it out to all the other countries in Africa so all the cities are connected.”

It will be solar-powered

The city is expected to be solar-powered and sustainable without requiring assistance from an electricity grid. Akon owns and runs Akon Lighting Africa, which provides solar power to African countries, so he could leverage his company’s expertise to make solar power a major drawcard for his futuristic city.

It will be healthy to live in

As a green city relying on renewable energy, “Akon City” is expected to become Senegal’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified city, according to EuroNews. The certification system, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, encourages the construction of energy and resource-efficient buildings that are healthy to live in.

A ‘real-life Wakanda’

The futuristic city’s website describes it as a “real-life Wakanda“, comparing it to the hi-tech fictional African country which was home to Marvel superhero Black Panther in the award-winning movie of the same name. In the movie, Wakanda combines lush river valleys and mountain ranges with towering skyscrapers and state-of-the-art tech.

A city complete with universities and a stadium

The new city, which will reportedly be a short drive from the Senegalese capital of Dakar, is expected to include homes, shops, parks, universities, schools, and even its own stadium, according to SkyNews.

Tourists can fly in and visit

Once completed, the futuristic city will have its own airport for residents and tourists to fly in and out of. Those wanting to visit Akon’s city will, therefore, be able to fly there and experience the city for themselves. On a Twitter and Instagram post, Akon announced that he is “Looking forward to hosting you there in the future.”

This article was written by Peter Pedroncelli for The Moguldom Nation on January 21, 2020.