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Fredric is a web developer based in Chicago who hopes to one day start a foundation to support young, Black males in programming and computer science.

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keep your head on a swivel

October 18th, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

if you’ve ever played football, coached football, or deem yourself an avid fan, you know the saying:

when running down the field, keep your head on a swivel!

what does that mean exactly? well, if life is the playing field, keeping your wits about you and opening up your eyes to see everything coming at you is the appropriate extrapolation. the young, black professional (ybp) meme that echoes throughout all of our articles reflects this sentiment. as young members of our society, we must resist jumping on the bandwagon of worldwide issues and find out the whole story. as black americans (or europeans or africans), knowing our path is a journey afforded to us by our history. as professionals, navigating the corporate and societal landscape built upon the capitalism of others and helping those who need it when possible.

in that sentiment, i laughed at an article i found in the tribune this morning about a renowned scientist, in fact a nobel prize winner, Dr. James Watson, who commented:

[I]nherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa … all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really

oh word?

young black professionalafrica, and all the billions of people on the continent aren’t as intelligent as those that created normal ’social policy’? i’ll let the community read the rest of the article and see the other idiotic comments this cat has made.

i point out the article to say one thing: all of the degrees and world-renowned prizes don’t make you superior to anyone. society is full of educated ignorance.

keep your head on a swivel. stay lean, green, and financially clean, ybp.

(pic via gettyimages)

There Are 6 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Fredric on 18 October 2007:

    cnn has more here.

  2. Comment by denis miller on 18 October 2007:

    This fool obviously does not know his history, Leopold II, Englsih, Portugeese, Arab slave traders, apartheid! Some times it is truly remarkable how foolish the oppresors really are.

  3. Comment by Martin Lindsey on 22 October 2007:

    He should have been nominated for ingnorance or stupidity.

    Hey fredric, how do you spell check a WordPress post? Seems like not much is standardized and everything is customized on this template.

    I like your comment preview too. Is that a part of the template you use or did you tack it on at some point?

    Thanks…..Martin

  4. Comment by Martin Lindsey on 23 October 2007:

    One more thing on a different subject though. I wrote a post yesterday that I’d like you to share with your readers and send it to ten of your favorite bloggers. Comment on it and ask them to comment as well.

    Feel free to post a reponse to it on your blog and ask some of your favorites to do the same. Maybe spread it around amongst the YBP Guide team and have everyone take a crack at it?

    I’m using the “bloggers I read” approach to making this one as viral as possible. I’m that passionate about the subject as you’ll see when you click thru the link.

    http://www.martyblogs.com/?p=30

    Thanks……Martin

  5. Pingback by World’s Top Black Mind on Racism in America | Young Black Professional Guide on 7 November 2007:

    [...] and his opinion of the controversial comments the recent Nobel laureate James Watson had made about Africans being inferior to whites genetically. What makes this opinion so profound, however, is who this man is and what he represents in the [...]

  6. Pingback by Hip-Hop + Chess = WuChess | Young Black Professional Guide on 2 June 2008:

    [...] moments (pawns), how to seize opportunities with the least obvious tools (knights), and always keep your head on a swivel when all about you are losing their head (loss of queen). RZA, inventor of [...]

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