The 2009 Washington Presidential Inauguration Fashion Show
January 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment
WASHINGTON DC - JANUARY 18, 2009 : DC Fashion Week presented the Washington Presidential Fashion Show on Sunday, January 18, 2009, to celebrate the official Inauguration of President Barrack Obama. Over 300 guests from around the country made it their choice event during inaugural weekend. Designers on the runway include Corjor International, Diallo, Yosoy Fashions, Tsyndyma, Studio D-Maxsi, Phillygurl, Betsy Johnson, Anthony Eastwick and Andrew Nowell. The show was organized by www.dcfashionweek.org.
All pictures by our fashion photographer TFlash.
To navigate through the image gallery, click on the first image and double click to move to the next image. The images are still being uploaded, please come back to see more pictures.
Inaugurating Hope and Pausing for Nightmares
January 22, 2009 | 2 Comments
As a human being, it is hard not to feel excited about the events of this week. As a black person, it is impossible not to feel giddy and light-headed with a thousand iconic images streaming out of Washington, DC. Beginning with an improbable journey on the steps of the Old Capitol in Springfield, Illinois in January 2007, Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a forbidden relationship between a pitch black man from the continental heart of darkness in Kenya and a lily white woman from the prairie heartland of America in Kansas, started an improbable journey that culminated this week in his inauguration as 
America’s president. These are moments that people would savor all over the world for a long time; the sort of moments where a 13-year old girl from Florida told CNN that she would tell her grand-children (not her children) what she felt when she came to DC for the Inauguration; the sort of moments that you remember for a lifetime what you were doing when Obama took the oath of office.
This is a moment that is hard to think about coherently, much less put down in words that make any sense. The hyperboles fly all around: the rock concert that took place on the Sunday before the inauguration was so star-studded it is impossible to head-line with any particular artist; super stars who ordinarily would be coaxed to go on paid concerts begged inaugural organizers to sing alongside Beyonce, Bono, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder. Two million people from all over the world braced frigid weather and massive security operations to witness the first African-American president take the oath of office on the bible that Abe Lincoln used. Conversations this week often start and end with, what would Martin Luther King say? What would Lincoln do? How would Franklin Delano Roosevelt respond? It is as if this black man is the ultimate embodiment of the hopes, deeds and dreams of George Washington, Lincoln, FDR, JFK and MLK rolled into one.
But if as a black person, the inauguration of Barrack Obama is a dream that you do not want to wake up from, there are continuing nightmares of the collective trans-Atlantic black experience that you cannot shake off. Admittedly, it may seem mean-spirited to speak of nightmares during a week that we are celebrating the triumph of hope over fear and bigotry. Even so, it is hard not to pause and consider what it was like for the four-year old daughter of Oscar Grant, the 22-year old black man who was shot in cold blood while lying face down by a white police officer in Oakland, California on January 1, 2009. It is a cold reminder that a black man may soon be the most powerful man in the world, but blacks are still at the rung of the political, social and economic ladder even in America. We may be hanging on to the words of one black man in the White House, but there are still too many anguished voices of black people all over America and the rest of the world.
And that world includes, first and foremost, Africa, where powerful Big Men lord it over the rest of the squalid populace. Nowhere else is this more evident than in Zimbabwe, where one of Africa’s nastier Big Men, Robert Mugabe has presided over the unraveling of what was once Africa’s bread basket and turning Zimbabwe into a vast wasteland and the continent’s most atrophied open sore. Zimbabwe’s best and brightest have fled the country, often to their bigger southern neighbor, South Africa. Instead of a little empathy however (the sort the Zimbabweans and other Africans gave anti-apartheid activists not long ago), what the desolate and fleeing Zimbabweans meet are gangs of out of control marauders who hack them to death in South Africa’s shanty towns. America may be burying the ghosts of the past, but in Africa proper, the devils are alive and wreaking havoc, from Congo to Darfur and just about any corner of the continent.
You have to salute the ingenuity of America to re-invent itself, and to once again, give the world exemplary hope, despite the original sin of slavery, Jim Crow and continuing vestiges of discriminatory practices. As Obama himself has continually said on the campaign trail, in no other country in the world is his story even possible. Certainly not in Japan, where there are virtually no paths to citizenship for minorities, despite a shrinking population increasingly relying on robots (makes you feel that the Japs would prefer robots to other humans). Certainly not in Latin America, where despite the much-talked about racial democracy in Brazil, there are 99 ways of describing a man’s color, and the blackest continue to languish in dreadful favelas. Certainly not in Europe where, despite the smugness of Europeans about social equality, minorities but especially blacks are treated as less than full human beings in Germany, France, Italy and just about every other European country. And most certainly not even in Africa where whole peoples are slaughtered just because they speak differently, look differently or worship differently; actually, during Kenya’s post-election violence between the Kikuyus and Luos early last year, the joke was that America would have a Luo president before Kenya does (Obama’s father was Luo).
So, yes let us celebrate Obama and our achievements this week. But when we get a bit sober next week, let us renew our commitment to the task of building our black communities from the cocaine-laced corridors of Brooklyn’s housing projects to the cholera-infested gutters of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe.
This article was written by our contributing editor Saint-James.
Martin Luther King Day 2009
January 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment
WASHINGTON DC - January 19, 2009 - Today is Martin Luther King Day and we are proud to bring you the text of the speech he read to a civil rights rally on the National Mall in Washington in 1963.
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I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “For Whites Only”. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
Stanford GSB Admissions Essay - What matters most to you, and why? - (Version 2).
January 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment
“One of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness - John Kenneth Galbraith”
In 2008 capitalism was challenged, the global financial system was in a turmoil and the world economy was on a brink. More than 99 financial institutions kicked the bucket and countless more were listed on the FDIC watchlist of banks in distress. Banks went bowl in hand one after the other for handouts from the government. Two government sponsored entities were rescued in a conservatorship that ended an era in which the duopoly of Freddiemac & Fanniemae operated simultaneously as private and public companies. The largest fraud in the history of mankind unraveled when an erstwhile non-executive chairman of NASDAQ confessed that his hedge fund was infact one big lie. Millions of homes were foreclosed after the prospects of owning a home was oversold to the unwary public by a mortgage industry that preys. 401ks plummeted in value while congress looked the other way and failed to regulate a self-destructive financial system. At the root of the above unfortunate incidents are greed, arrogance, ego, narcissism, insecurity, lack of integrity and ethical standards and an executive remuneration system that is dangerously tied to financial performance. We can no longer afford to let the core values that hold the social fabrics of our communities together be relegated to the background and all hand must be on deck to enforce changes in the ways our companies are managed. Like President Obama said, we must commit to a new declaration of independence — from ideology and bigotry — and vehemently denounce the old and discredited notion that only people of certain hue are capable of management and leadership.
The days of enforcing ethical behaviors by merely requesting business executives & middle management to fill out a code of conduct and conflict of interest form are long gone. Though, I agree with Professor Raghuram Rajan that executive bonuses paid in periods of boom be kept in escrow accounts and used to offset losses made in periods of economic downturn, this proposition erroneously assumes that greed and unethical behaviors are driven solely by monetary incentives, however, empirical evidence has shown that unethical behaviors are motivated both by pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors. Consequently, a mandatory attendance at a yearly Ethics and Leadership immersion program that uses creative teaching techniques such as role playing, visual aids and case studies like the one I am currently developing and planning to teach at the Black Herald Leadership Institute (BHLI) is a more holistic approach .
The most important thing to me therefore is ethical leadership and to this end, I intend to dedicate my life to the study of management & ethics and develop solutions to help executives act with integrity and in the interest of all stakeholders at all times whether they are making financial or non-financial decisions. I want to teach business executives my time tested decision making matrix to enable them develop competencies to navigate the deep gray sea of ethical decision making. In making any decisions, I will implore business executives to first analyze the consequences of their actions: who will be affected, who will be harmed, the short and long run effects of their actions, benefits and disadvantages. After analyzing the consequences of their actions, I will again implore them to consider alternative courses of action and determine how those actions measure up against moral principles such as fairness, equality, integrity, honesty and respect for the dignity of others.
I am confident that this yearly ethics & leadership immersion program will help us develop leaders who are the conscience of their organizations, always striving to do what is right. The Stanford MBA school prides itself as a place where people are helped to develop leadership mindsets and I look forward to leveraging my Stanford education to make a difference in our constantly changing world!!!
This essay is dedicated to Rosa Parks for standing up against tyranny. Because of her courage, we don’t have to seat at the back of the bus anymore and lets face it, that would be uncomfortable for everybody. Look at how far we have come.
NOTA BENE: This is a draft and designed to help you with your MBA applications. Created under the Creative Commons rule and it is copyleft. Use as a guide for your essays. I plan to collate and refine the essays I have posted on Black Herald and publish a book of MBA essays in the future.
If you like this essay, stay tuned for the following write-ups:
- Color of God.
- The Circle of Life - Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need.
- What matters most to you and why? Stanford essay (using Belief & Leadership as themes - I have written this essay twice now but I can write it in 20 different ways. I am probably going to write the third & fourth versions and move on to another topic)
