The AC Phoenix
January 2006
Page 3
Happy New Year!
It’s that time again, when most people make those New Years
resolutions. As a YMCA fitness director/personal trainer I have
noticed that most resolutions are to lose weight, I have also noticed
that resolutions for 2006 are the same as 2005 and 2004. We have
great resolutions, but the key is to find the solution. Ask yourself,
“why am I not the size I want to be?” Maybe your idea of exercise
is changing channels with the remote control or walking to the car
before driving to your favorite restaurant. Seriously, why are we in
the shape we’re in?
Weight loss doesn’t always mean starving yourself or strict diets
that we don’t stick with. Let’s just try eating healthier. I know those
fast food commercials are so convincing that we have to stop by,
but do we always have to super size it? Or buy the fried foods? Let’s
try making more healthy choices. Look for the grilled item or the
salad choices. Check the nutrition labels.
If we would just change simple things we would probably lose a few
pounds. Sure the elevator is a luxury but try taking the stairs every
other day. How about instead of family television time you take
family walks. Stop sending the children out to play and join them in
a basketball game or a game of tag (ever tried walking tag where
everyone walks). I’m sure they would get a kick out of that and you
would burn a few more calories.
Everyone should make a New Year’s resolution but most importantly
find a solution you can live with and stick to it!
Charles Kearns
Health Enhancement Director
Winston Lake Family YMCA
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Social Crisis And
Social Demoralization
The Dynamics Of Status In American Race Relations
Book Review
By: Kam Williams
“But American political democracy is a sham when
viewed through the lens of race relations. Liberty is bogus
when scrutinized through the African-American experience
and opportunity is a delusion when professed under con
ditions of racial prejudice, discrimination and oppression.”
—excerpt from Conclusion
Eleven years ago, when he wrote “The Rage of a Privileged
Class," Ellis Cose uncovered a little known social phenomenon, namely the widespread
anger and psychic pain experienced by many of the best-educated Blacks, despite their
being well-respected and relatively prosperous, at least in comparison to the rest of the
Black community. His seminal bestseller exposed the diminished dreams of a seeming
ly successful set of overachievers who he found to be bitterly disappointed about the
racial discrimination they had encountered, especially in terms of careers at the corporate
level.
I refer to Mr. Cose’s thought-provoking opus by way of introduction because it
appears that it is precisely this same alienated group of individuals now being courted by
Ronald Kuykendall in “Social Crisis and Social Demoralization: The Dynamics of Status
in American Race Relations.” Mr. Kuykendall, a professor of Political Science at
Greenville Technical College in South Carolina, argues that the United States’ body politic,
as currently constructed, is perfectly comfortable with Black people being ostensibly rel
egated to a permanent, second-class status.
The author blames deep-rooted bigotry for the malingering complacency about the
plight of Blacks in this country, contending that they emanate from a trio of unfortunate
beliefs about Blacks; biological inferiority, cultural dysfunction and an inability to figure
out how to overcome the stigma of slavery.
Building a brilliant case with copious quotes from dizzying number of esteemed Black
thinkers, the book arrives at the idea that the great masses of poor Blacks are simply so
utterly oppressed that it’s impossible for them to ascertain the extent to which they have
been bamboozled to believe in an unattainable “American Dream,”
Prof. Kuykendall, aka W.E.B. Dubois’ Talented Tenth, calls upon the exceptional
among the Black intelligentsia to forge a new political mindset, upon agreeing that they
have been denied meaningful participation in this society. While this book is undoubted
ly one of the better-informed examinations of this subject in recent years, time will only
tell whether the comfy class of Blacks will heed the author’s incendiary call to challenge
the status quo. (Originally published on AALBC.com.)
TME
An Associate Consultant’s Newspaper
Established 1982
Rodney J. Sumler, Publisher
Sartia Beverly, Managing Editor
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