TheLoop21.com

Jay Sumlin: Standing up against low quality food Jay and Yolanda started Affordable Food Network for the exact reasons as Wilson and Walton. As far as we know, Affordable Food Network is the only African American owned Meat and Seafood Company in America. Affordable Food Network was created after Hurricane Ike, which hit the southeast coast line of Texas and Louisiana. During their evacuation to Memphis, TN, Jay Sumlin’s birthplace, they found the food quality to be poor yet expensive. ...

Gary Phillips: Stories about black soldiers Like a lot of kids growing up in the late 1960s and mid ‘70s along with blaxploitation and western movies, I watched more than my fair share of World War II movies and TV shows. I also read and collected the comic books of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and Sgt. Rock and Easy Company (DC) created by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert. While there were black characters in the Fury and Rock comic book squads; they didn't fit into the stories I'd heard from my dad about the all-bla ...

Mike Avery: Is Republican unity an oxymoron? The Republican party is comprised of millions of individuals throughout the country. Each of whom seem determined to express themselves at all costs, even if it means diluting the party to the point that it has no cohesive identity and little or no chance of winning major elections. Can we change that mindset? ...

Christoper C. Cooper: Preventing friendly fire The media has given great attention to academics and experts who cast blame on NYPD police officer Omar Edwards and suggest that the NYPD's policies and procedures are sufficient. Edwards was shot and killed on May 29 by Officer Andrew Dutton, a white officer, who assumed Edwards was a criminal. ...

Thomas Michaels: True Black Television launches Popular internet TV network True Black Television finally has a place to call home. Many know that the channel's streaming partner is Livestream.com (formerly Moglus), but there was never an official site to network with other viewers of the channel. ...

Veniece Wesson: Many blacks are co-depen-debt We're all a little codependent on debt. ...

Jules Lange: Rap is my beautiful catharsis, shameful paradox I get a rush when I hear brilliantly crafted words, and unfortunately they are often negative, in rap music. They are often cathartic to me. I guess like when you curse. It just clears my conscience as a man and as a black man, and as a civilized human, when I celebrate a positive rap poem, skillfully recited in iambic pentameter format. ...

Jeffrey Brown: Education equals power When are, we, as a people, going to start working with our youth to eliminate the lies that are fed to them by the media that prevent them from achieving to their full potential? When are we, going to stand up and fight the idea that if you excel in school you are “acting white”? ...

C. Steven Tucker: The best health insurance policy For many consumers, purchasing a health insurance policy on their own can be an enormous undertaking. Purchasing a health insurance policy is not like buying a car, in that, the buyer knows that the engine and transmission are standard, and that power windows are optional. A health insurance plan is much more ambiguous, and it is often very difficult for the consumer to determine what type of coverage is standard and what other benefits are optional. ...

Speak Out: Who's next after Calif.'s Prop 8 ruling? The court's Tuesday ruling on Proposition 8 held that a fundamental right can be stripped by a mere 30 percent of the electorate. As Justice Moreno points out in his dissent, "under the majority's view, it is not clear what sorts of state constitutional constraints limit the power of a majority of the electorate to discriminate against minorities." Thus, the operative question today is not about the outcome of same sex marriage in California, but rather "who's next?" ...