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I mean, I’ve tried to give this brother a number of chances, but he just continues to blow it at every turn. You could say that “Sexy Can I,” like a number of his songs, are catchy, but his persona and demeanor just screams “Somebody, slap the ridiculous out of me. I’ve been trying for years, and I just can’t shake it.”

His time on “Moesha” and “One on One” was the first strike, then his presence on “106 and Park” was strike two. The Kardashian era got him up outta there, but then you have all these other foul balls known as his music.

Dude just can’t win for losing.

I’m not a hood dude by any means these days, but I grew up in one. And in the few chances that I have to return to my roots, Ray-J’s name is usually synonymous with the following terms: silly, clown, buffoon, jackass, fronter, poser, loser, and corny.

Of course, I might be hating. I’ll probably never have the money, fame, or lifestyle that he enjoys. But I enjoy not being snickered at on television sets around the country at any given moment, either. Seems like an ample trade to be poor and anonymous than to be synonymous with cultural foolishness.

Is he a sex symbol? Is he representative of what young people are into these days? Am I that old that everything he stands for is a joke to me?

Nah. Ray-J’s just that wack.

In 2008, you have to have a new perspective on gaining attention and respect for our people. It’s no longer about common liberties such as riding a bus, enrolling in college, or choosing a profession.

It’s about equal opportunities in entrepreneurship, access to information, and the freedom from stereotypes in media and entertainment.

To that end, you have to be engaging. And not just in a way where people don’t mind talking to you. You have to draw people to you like a magnet, and get them to see that there’s a better way even in our perceived successes.

And if you want to do that, you want to pattern yourself after a timeless figure.

Al B. Sure.

Oh, there’s no reason to laugh, because the life and times of Al B. Sure can teach you more about how our people can progress in this country than a whole dance floor full of preachers, scholars and bloggers combined. I wouldn’t dream of containing Al B. Sure’s magnificence in words alone, but its just my offering to the world of how his example can bring about true change right away.

Think Outside of Your Success - It’s well known that Al B. Sure eschewed a chance at college football stardom and a career in the NFL for music. You have to follow this line of perspective and think outside of your success. Your talent may be in one area, be it professional or social, but your calling may be in something you might view as a hobby.

And that calling maybe the very thing our people will answer to.

Bring Someone With You - Al B. Sure could’ve rested on the strength of “Nite and Day,” but did he do that? No. He spawned the careers of bands like Jodeci, Tevin Campbell Faith Evans, and Usher. He didn’t generate success for himself and keep a forward view. He brought successors along for the ride with him.

Be willing to mentor and educate younger minds in the ways of our history. Encourage them that being black and advocating for our cause is not something left in generations past.

Diversify Your Brand - Al B. Sure has his hands in music, television, philanthropy, and community outreach. Don’t sell yourself to one avenue of commitment, but incorporate your talents into other forms of communication and exposure.

What may influence one person may not appeal to another, but you still have a message that is worth hearing.

The Setbacks Are Set-Ups for Success - P. Diddy stole Al B’s girl back in the day. Did that stop him from having two more kids? Absolutely not. Al B. moved on with his family commitments and his life after Diddy, and his doing his thing.

Bad things are going to happen. Trust that its God’s way of shaping character and keep on rolling.

If you follow these things, the impact you will have on your community and its growth will be like night and day.

While he would make you believe that he is a shining advocate for the progress of black issues in the American mainstream of conscience, Tavis Smiley knows full well that his position of “not giving Barack Obama a pass” is more shameless self-promotion than cultural integrity.

There is a bottom line that most people know, agree with and accept, and that is that no man can be a president to a specific demographic. Mainstream media has already succeeded in improperly designating certain figures as spokespersons for the black race; and it usually does nothing to change our positioning among the rest of the nation.

For Smiley to continually frown upon Obama’s unwillingness to address black concerns specifically prickles on a lot of fronts that he’s not ready to fight. His doctrine of the concerns and struggles of black people are well-founded and often logically explained, but his arrogance won’t let him see that he is slighting the rest of the country and black people in the process.

Asking any elected official or candidate to be frank about remedying centuries of injustice against one culture is unfair and unreasonable. The race of the candidate matters not, but to paint that person into a corner by leveraging systematic racism against them is downright dirty.

There is no answer from one man or woman that can alleviate the pressure of racial strife. That is a collective agreement that each individual must come to. Yes, leadership can start the discussion, but there is no strict and fullproof policy that can eliminate health disparities, educational gaps and social deconstruction.

But more important than the daunting task Smiley wishes to heap upon Obama or any other candidate for president, is the notion that black people, in all of our struggles and pain, are incapable of caring about issues facing the whole of America. Smiley, in his bluster and plethora of media exposure, takes every opportunity to lament the ills of the black community, as if they are troubles limited exclusively to our people.

Tavis, we care about homeland security as much as we care about racial profiling. We care about bad housing loans as much as the good folks located in parts uncolored. And we care about all of the troops coming home and their well-being.

So does everyone else.

Using his platform as an unpredictable weapon of misguided insight, Smiley is recklessly positioning the African-American conscience as a selfish, self-absorbed entity wishing that we could burn this mother down and get all of our needs catered to. Right now. His suggestions of our tribulations being more than those of white folks or immigrants, denigrates our essence as a community-minded people.

Not just our community, but the global community.

There is nothing wrong with advocacy at the grass roots level, but the expectation of Tavis Smiley in the name of helping black folks is irresponsible and poorly thought out. I applaud his work in advancing the black perspective, but blurring our perspective among us, and others, will leave all of us seeing the real issues a lot less clearly.

Here’s the thing about the Green Party’s ticket for the presidential election. I fully respect to sisters of color running for the presidency. I think that it is a testament to how far our country has come to see that anybody would nominate two women for any viable bid for government leadership.

Having said that, I really don’t know their purpose.

I listened to Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente this morning on Democracy Now! I tried desperately to align an open mind with what I’ve been classically trained to believe was a antagonize force in the country’s established game of glad-handing and promise breaking.

And for all of the bluster of what Democrats and Republicans do wrong, that’s all I heard. Bluster.

Tell me something I don’t know, sisters.

Tell me your side on foreign policy, health care and education. Tell me how you stand to be a serious voice for activism and the people’s right to govern themselves.

Don’t tell me what I already know doesn’t work. Because that makes you a bystander talking about how bad a house fire is when you could be fetching some water.

Are you unhappy interrupters? Are you an unbridled and unfiltered solution to many of the problems that plague the United State’s two-party system? Or are you content to be middle of the road?

If that does make you content, to just be a dissenting voice loud enough to distract others from policies and philosophies that will be enacted in spite of your message, then get off of the road.

Checking out the news everyday, you would think there’s a lot to be discouraged about as an African-American. A lot of us men are in jail and not going to school, many of our women are losing faith in us.

And children…Lawd, the children.

But there is hope. You don’t have to be depressed, angry, hungry, gully or a whole bunch of other things that can bring you down in today’s society. So here’s five steps that you can take today to be a happier black person, instantly.

And if you’re white, you should be happy that you don’t need five steps to instant happiness.

5. Look at your bank account - Even if you have nothing in it, and won’t have anything in it for a while, consider how many people don’t even make it to that point. Hand-to-mouth is no joke, and if you have an intermediary in that relationship, be thankful.

4. Listen to Donny Hathaway - Any song you choose from Donny Hathaway’s discography will speak to your life thus far, and where it can go.

3. Smell some popcorn - Take yourself back to summer days of childhood, awkward dates at the movies, and realize that you aren’t too old to recapture the best days you thought you left behind.

2. Taste and see - The goodness of God. Religion is never as necessary as faith is. And just a little bit of that can along with a real talk with the Creator can bring you renewed peace.

1. Touch somebody else - Not in the Michael Jackson, Neverland Ranch kind of way, but in the Michael Jackson “Remember the Time” kind of way. Be universally meaningful to everyone you meet.

There’s hundreds more things you can do to become a content Negro, but these are five sure fire ways to get happier right now. Just one of them will make a difference right away.

Promise.

For all of its bluster, ESPN will be but a blip on the media radar of this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing. Because the World Wide Leader is not a paid up broadcaster of the games, reporters and anchors that will be dispatched to Beijing will not be permitted to interview athletes inside the Games, or show highlights prior to the conclusion of NBC’s coverage.

From the USA Today report:

Like ESPN, which will deploy just eight staffers in Beijing — including Jeremy Schaap and George Smith as its only on-air types — trying to see what it can rustle up. It won’t be easy. Non-rights holders, even if they can get into official venues such as competition sites — where “mixed zones” allow athletes and media members to mingle — cannot bring in any recording devices — including cameras. The exception is the Games’ main press, but their footage or audio cannot be aired live. (And each day, ESPN can only air event highlights after NBC’s prime-time coverage ends — and then no more than six minutes on a news show.)

Talk about a slap in the face. The network that saturates our highlights, opinions and sports viewing habits can’t get into the world’s largest sports competition?

Oh well, guess there’s more time for the network to find ‘Titletown.‘

There is a mode of thinking that Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign for president signifies a turning point in the history of American race relations.

Problem is, Americans do not agree.

80 percent of black folks recently polled by the New York Times said they had a favorable opinion of the Illinois Senator. 30 percent of white folks share that sentiment.

60 percent of black folks say that race relations are bad compared to 34 percent of white folks.

The 1.796 participants were asked other questions regarding racial perceptions, treatment by police, and social and cultural opportunities, but each followed the same trend of white people having more positive perceptions on racial equality and relations than black people.

So what does that tell us?

Nothing that we didn’t already know, and nothing that we shouldn’t expect for many years to come.

The realization is that this country has only had integration and semblance of equal opportunity for a little more than 40 years; this after hundreds of years of slavery, segregation and inequality that favored white citizens. There is no reasonable logic that could fashion positive and overwhelming change to combat historical and generational angst among these two cultures.

Sure, stuff like athletics, the arts and education have bridged the gap slightly, but there’s nothing that can be done to erase the deep rooted shame of descendants of slaves or slave owners. There is a legacy that’s still close enough to touch, breathe and live by, and this legacy is made worse because we keep trying to fix it.

There is no fixing, only living.

We can only be pessimistic about our condition, because we are still close relatives of separatist thinking and behavior. However, there is room for optimism in future generations, as our grand and great-grandchildren will reap the benefits of desired peace between the races.

They won’t know what it’s like to have more educated family members than uneducated. They won’t look in history books and see tales of marches, demonstrations and rallies, see the year when they took place and think to themselves, “my mom and dad were six years old when that happened.”

They will have more heroes of varying hues to look up to. News about “the first black woman to….” or “the first Hispanic man to…..” will become more of the norm and less of a surprise.

White people will begin to realize that we don’t look at racism as a crutch or some kind of sick benefit to make white America give us more than what we’ve long deserved. Black people will begin to realize that opportunities are no longer attached to our skin color or nationality, but our working and moral code of ethics.

And we’ll all be jolly friends forever more.

But until then…

You keep clutching your purse when you see me coming on the street, and I’ll keep cursing you out (under my breath) when I see you do it.

First, Jesse Jackson wanted to cut Sen. Barack Obama’s nuts out for talking down to us. Then, in what he believed to be a more private conversation, he refers to us as “niggers being told how to behave” by Obama?

Just when everybody thought it was safe to begin attacking Obama on what seems to be wavering policy stances, Jesse comes along and makes it all right. A perfect deflection, a surreal distraction, all in time for the Senator from Illinois to shake up the world with comprehensive reform and planning for a new day in domestic and foreign policy.

And they, the news media, have to talk about it.

At first, I thought that Jackson was on the John McCain payroll, taking swipes at the very person he helped pave a way for. But you have to assume that the democrats, and particularly the black democrats, are becoming well-versed in the Karl Rove playbook of dirty politics.

Rule number one - attack their strengths.

And with media being a significant strength of conservative politics, with television and radio shows having such pull over informed and uninformed voters alike, what better way to draw attention from what the candidates are doing right and wrong on the trail then to completely denigrate them to distract focus from the issues?

Truth be told, Jackson’s remarks couldn’t come at a better time. Obama, preparing to embark on a fact-finding visit to Iraq and Afghanistan, was criticized for outlining potential policies on the international conflicts prior to his trip. It could’ve have tripped Obama up slightly in the court of public opinion, but Jackson’s remarks are more noose worthy than any perceived missteps Obama could make in foreign affairs.

Give it about two weeks and this will all blow over, but for right now, Obama supporters should take up a familiar cry from the 80’s.

“RUN (your mouth) JESSE, RUN!”

Baseball might be America’s past time, but football is king on this continent. And while most of us are gearing up for college and NFL football in the coming months, this year’s MLB All-Star Game and festivities might have positioned a disgraced sport into a more favorable light.

And back into national sports relevance.

The elements are all there. MLB’s biggest stars playing in it’s most well-known stadium in the world’s most famous city. The all-star game itself was one for the ages, an extra-innings marathon that saw the American League extend its winning streak to 12 straight.

But the biggest story from the all-star break was that of Josh Hamilton, a former drug addict three years removed from professional baseball, who has come back from his demons to ascend as one of the game’s most feared hitters and it’s most marketable feel-good story.

His life, and the last few days of it, are a microcosm for how baseball has postioned itself back into sports fans’ minds and hearts. Like Hamilton, drugs nearly killed the sport. Kids didn’t care, their parents didn’t want them to, and players were oblivious to it all. Some of the most popular names in the sport were implicated as cheaters and liars, not good for a sport that is symbolic with the purity of competition and roots of athletic hero worship.

But a few clean home runs, an intriguing all-star game and a fading fancy with who cheated and how long they did it, baseball is surging towards a fantastic regular season finish, complete with fantastic small-market success, star-crossed drama, and the usual drama of pennant races.

Major League Baseball still has a ways to go before it catches the NBA. Even with the one-and-done rule being challenged, the reservoir of young talent coming out of the NCAA will easily translate to marketable draft picks and high recogniazbility among casual fans. But if fans are continuously treated to solid baseball and captivating back stories, MLB might have something good on its hands.

And that’s a much better feeling than the thorn that been in its side the past few years.

First of all, why was Rick Reilly on the Home Run Derby panel? Is ESPN that desperate for us to think that he’s as funny on TV as in his in print? Anyway, dude blew it big time in his incomprehensible stance on the lack of Blacks and Latinos in the 2008 Home Run Derby.

Poor Karl Ravech. He actually was forced to dignify the garbage by explaining the simple fact that certain minority players were extended the opportunity, but declined for various reasons. Ravech could’ve easily come off like Black and Latino players didn’t deserve the invite, but masterfully navigated Reilly’s foolishness; even getting a dig in at Reilly’s ego towards the end of the video.

Kiwanis meeting? A train ride from Yankee Stadium?

Is he, and ESPN for that matter, for real?