We Count! The Black Agenda is America's Agenda

Earlier this evening, I was checking out some things online when I came across something that I wish I had watched the first time, but am ecstatic that I can now view in it's entirety.  Back on March 20, 2010, at Chicago State University, Tavis Smiley hosted a round-table meeting of some of the most intellectual minds in Black America.  Watch the conversation in full here:  We Count!

"We Count! The Black Agenda is the American Agenda" included the following panelists: 
Rev. Jesse Jackson 
Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan 
Dr. Cornel West, Princeton professor 
Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, Georgetown professor
Dr. Ron Walters, former Howard University professor (died in September of 2010)
Bennett College President Julianne Malveaux 
Policylink CEO Angela Glover Blackwell 
Former Alderman City of Chicago Dorothy Wright Tillman 
Author of "Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority" Tom Burrell 
Chicago State U Student Government Association President Raven Curling
Dr. Michael Fountroy, George Mason University professor


Also invited to attend, but declining:


Rev. Al Sharpton 
NAACP President & CEO Benjamin Jealous 
National Urban League President & CEO Marc Morial
Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL)
White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)


I just think that it is very remarkable that African-American leaders have not lost the will to challenge simply because Barack Obama became president.  While I believe great strides have been made in this nation, I still feel that to be Black in America is to be limited in America.  


(And all those people who say well you can be President, you need to be slapped in the face with reality.  Out of the hundreds of millions of people who have lived in this nation, only 44 have been President.  And up until President Obama, none were Black.  He is less than 1% of less than 1%.  Now comment on that!!!)


The only way to change our society is to educate.  Only then can we plan for the future.  No matter what race you are, please, check out this discussion, and more importantly, start your own.  Unity cannot be reached without understanding.


Marcus Jamison, the Rare Poet