Huffington Post, cel mai mare portal de ştiri din SUA îşi întreabă cititorii: Credeţi că Băsescu a lovit copilul?

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Chaman Sharma asked:


Many websites include a section or two with the “Ads by Google” above it or below it. These are ads displayed via Google’s Adsense. When you do a search on Google and see ads in the search results pages, they are generally Adsense ads.

Adsense – The Yin:

Google’s Adsense is programming that “senses” the content of a page or search. It finds keywords on a web page or in a search phrase to determine the subject of the content. It does this by either “reading” the page, or taking a look at the search term that was typed into Google Search. It can “Sense” which ads in the system are relevant to the content or search and display them – thus: “Adsense.”

Before ads on a page are displayed, Adsense searches its database of advertisers and finds ads that are associated with keywords on the page or in the search. For more details go to www.instant-adsense-dollars.com. Now Adsense needs to decide which of the thousands of ads vying for position are actually displayed. To make this decision, Adsense looks at the advertiser’s bids for the relevant keywords. The advertisers that have a combination of the highest bid, keyword relevance and best click through get displayed first.

Google tracks clicks on ads and advertisers pay Google the bid price for each click. When the Adsense ad is on someone’s web page, Google pays the website owner a portion of the payment for each click. The term “monetizing” your site refers to taking your existing site and placing ads like Adsense on it to make money (or finding other way to make money with websites). If you get 10,000 visitors and 10% of them click an ad that pays you, theoretically, $0.75 per click, you just made $750! Not bad for just copying some Adsense code (which Google provides) into your popular website’s HTML (if your site is not popular, learn about SEO – Search Engine Optimization – from sites like AcmeWebResources).

AdWords – The Yang:

The other side to Adsense is Ad Words. Adsense ads have lists of relevant keywords associated with them. Each keyword is bid on by the advertisers for placement in the results pages and on web sites around the world. The words that will prompt a display of an advertiser’s ad are bid on by the advertiser. To know more about it login to www.guardadsense.com. When an ad matches the words on a page, the ads are displayed; thus: Ad Words. Ad Words is the system in Google that is used to place ads that display in Adsense.

You can enroll in Ad Words to pay for Adsense ads to drive traffic to your site. The first step is to sign up with Google. The next step is to associate keywords to associate with your site.

The idea is to drive traffic to your site through the use of relevant ads. The more relevant the ad to your content, the more targeted your traffic will be. Compose your articles around your list of keywords. Next, write an ad based on the keywords and assign keywords to the ad. You will bid on the keywords at the time you associate keywords with the ad. If one of your keywords is searched for or relevant to a site, and you have a good bid and relevant ad, your Ad Word ad will be displayed. Only when someone clicks your ad are you charged by Google.

A popular site can make a lot of money, however, a lot of money and time can be wasted. To avoid waste, you have to learn as much as possible and get the right tools to do the research.

About The Author:- www.googleincomemachine.com www.googleatmcash.com

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Brian Mcgregor asked:


Have you heard of Google Base?

It’s Google’s new database. Get it? Google Base.

It went live in mid-November. Just in time for the Christmas holiday period.

What’s interesting about Google Base is that you can upload just about any kind of information into it – for free.

Google database has categories, and creating an item for upload is much faster than generating your average eBay auction. If you have a lot of entries you’d like to upload, Google Base has a bulk listing capability.

Sound familiar?

The reaction to Google Base has been incredible among the PowerSeller community. Always seeking new selling channels, many PowerSellers have taken to this new opportunity like ducks to water.

Within hours, with the help of auction management services company ChannelAdvisor, PowerSellers uploaded tens of thousands of items.

As you probably know, you’re not permitted to include a hyperlink to an off-eBay site within your eBay auctions. There’s no such prohibition with Google Base listings. Link away! So within their product listings on Google Base, PowerSellers have included links to their web stores, where transactions could be completed.

What kind of traffic can you expect to drive to your stores (or your eBay auctions for that matter) through your Google Base listings? It’s a little early to tell but the potential is tremendous.

Considering that in August, Internet users conducted 448 million local searches, and Google sites captured about 44 percent of those. That’s a lot of people searching on Google. If Google Base listings show up on Google.com and Froogle, as is the plan, all those eyeballs can be yours.

QuikDrop International, the chain of eBay drop-off stores, started listing its sellers’ items almost immediately on Google Base, and reported “Google Base and Froogle are driving several thousand new potential buyers to our listings every hour.” Given these early estimates and the tremendous potential, why wouldn’t someone use Google Base to drive customers to their listings, whether they reside on their own ecommerce sites, on eBay, or some other auction venue?

Whilst the potential is there, Google Base is not quite ready for prime time. There are some bugs to be worked out – porn showed up within hours and security breaches were reported too.

If Google is going to allow transactions right from Google Base, it’s going to have to address trust and safety issues. PowerSellers wonder how Google sellers will be identified, verified, and vetted. Without vetting, PowerSeller Mowery said, “reputable sellers could be lost in a sea of frauds.”

You can be assured that Google will resolve these weaknesses. And Google Base will prove to be a great way to drive traffic to your auction and/or websites.

Maybe even eBay will have to watch out! After all, why pay to list an item on eBay when you can advertise it for free on Google Base?

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Cheow Yu Yuan asked:


Traffic is the most important thing that you need to have if you want to make use of your website to generate more businesses and make money. The point of having a website to represent your business is to be visited and viewed. If there is no traffic, there will be no use of having a very well-designed and attractive site.

When there is a substantial amount of traffic to your site everyday, you will be able to make use of the traffic to get yourself more businesses, either directly online or offline. But not all traffic is successful in getting you more businesses. In order to get quality business leads from your website, you need to drive laser targeted traffic to your site first.

So what do I mean by laser targeted traffic? It is the kind of traffic that is hungry for your products or services, and is willing to buy from you if you are able to show them what they are looking for.

One of the greatest ways to drive laser target traffic is to advertise on search engines. As search engines became the best tool for people to search for information online, it will be ideal if you are able to make known your business to the right group of people who are searching for your products or services.

Right now, there is no other advertising channel that would be worth every cent than using Google Adwords. Google Adwords is fast becoming the most widely used advertising method on the Internet. By typing a general search terms like flowers or chocolates in Google, you will be able to see a large amount of advertisers competing with one another to get good spots on the sponsored listing space.

So how does Google Adwords work? To advertise on Google, you need to pay a certain fee depending on the number of keywords your ad is targeting to. Each time a person does a search on Google using the keywords that you have selected, your ad will appear on the right hand side of the result page. If the person does not click on your ad, you will not pay. You will only pay when someone clicks on your ad and visit your site. This is called the pay-per-click advertising model.

In order to drive targeted traffic to your site, use keywords or keyword phrases for your Goggle Adwords that pertains to your company and to your products. There are many online internet tools that can help you in choosing keywords and keyword phrases that are currently in demand, which could help drive laser targeted traffic to your site.

Other than featuring on Google, your ad can also be seen at sites such as AOL, AskJeeves and other websites that are partners of Google. These sites also show Adwords ads that react to searches done by visitors. To feature on these sites, you need to choose the Content Network option in the Adwords system.

Using Google Adwords definitely can bring an enormous amount of targeted traffic to your website. As long as you do not overspend, you will be able to use your advertising money to make more money.

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alex2xlnc asked:

That dog’s name is Michael Scofield. )

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Raisa Raima asked:


 

His mother, Ann Dunham, on the other hand grew up in the small-town locality of Kansas. Her father was a worker in the oil rigs during the days of Depression in the 30’s; and then enrolled himself for World War II after the nationalistically percussive Pearl Harbor incident. There he marched across the whole of Europe in Patton’s army. While her mother went on to work in a bomber assembly line. After the war, they got their education in the G.I. Bill, purchased a house with the help of Federal Housing Program, and moved west to settle in Hawaii.

In fact it has been the richly varied experiences of Barack Obama’s life–growing up at different places in the company of those people who had differing opinions– that have animated as well as facilitated his political journey which has almost taken him to the forefront of greatest political glory in the world. Pleasantly embroiled in the tentative partisanship and bickering of today’s public debate, the new political star still believes in the capability to unite all people of all castes, creeds and classes around a mammoth and powerful focus of ‘politics of purpose’–a brand of politics that puts resolving of the challenges of common Americans ahead of partisan politics and narrow-minded gains.

While in the Illinois State Senate, it meant working constructively with both the Democrats and Republicans to help the working families move on by creating plans like the State Earned Income Tax Credit, which in a span of three years bestowed over $100 million in tax cuts to the really needy families across the state. Following the path of political prudence, he also successfully saw through the expansion of early childhood education; and once a number of inmates on death sentence were found to be innocent, Senator Obama collaborated with the law enforcement officials to make it mandatory for the videotaping of all the interrogations and confessions in most of the capital cases.

Working very diligently in the U.S. Senate, he focused on squaring up to the challenges of a globalized society in the 21st century using fresh thinking and a type of politics that no longer aims for the lowest common denominator of narrow and parochial demands. His first and most important law was cleared with Republican Tom Coburn. It dealt with a measure to reconstruct trust in the government by enabling every American to go online and watch how and on what every part of their tax dollars is spent. He has also been the leading voice in championing the cause of ethics reform that rooted out Jack Abramoff-type corruption in the Congress.

Barack Obama The New Face of American by Martin Dupuis And Keith Boeckelman is a great book capturing the politically active masterful saga of the great politician. It is really a fantastic tribute to the pre-eminent political personality of the current times.

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McStupido asked:

Amazing footage of season 5!

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Aaron Taylor asked:


gest thing happened the other day. I know this may sound like a stretch, but Barack Obama actually visited my family to personally elicit our support for him. Let me tell you that the experience was otherworldly. The whole time I’m thinking why is Barack Obama visiting us? I live in a middle class neighborhood and don’t have any connections with rich and influential people. What’s Barack Obama doing in my house?

Two days later, another bizarre incident happened. After saying goodbye to an old friend that came to visit my wife and me, I looked outside and saw that our visitor had accidentally totaled my car while backing out of the driveway?and then fled the scene of the crime! The next thing I remember happening is I called the local repair shop and guess who answers the phone? Ron Paul! I actually haggled with Ron Paul on the phone for about five minutes only to find out that my car was irreparable. The whole time I’m thinking is it really that easy to get a hold of Ron Paul?

If you find these two stories unbelievable, you can breathe a sigh of relief. The universe is still shifting on its axis. For the record, the above incidents never happened?except for in my dreams?literally. I’m reasonably sure that the whole Barack Obama dream comes from a CNN episode I watched the night before about John McCain’s first run for congress where he literally knocked on people’s doors to solicit votes. Now as to why Ron Paul is working at a local auto repair shop and living in my aunt’s old house, beats me!

It seems like since the start of the Democratic National convention, and the Republican convention that immediately followed, politics has invaded nearly every area of our lives. No matter how hard we try, we just can’t seem to escape! Watching bits and pieces of the conventions over the past few weeks, I couldn’t help but notice the glitz, the glamour, and the adulation that goes into elevating our political leaders to near godlike status?and how their star-struck fans so easily bask in the glory of their would be saviors.

John McCain’s adoring fans seem to believe that if only they can get their guy elected to the White House, righteousness and morality will be restored to the land, America will be spared the horrors of a left-wing socialist panzie?and how could I forget?evil will be defeated. Barack Obama’s adoring fans seem to think that all they have to do to end poverty, heal the nation’s racial divide, and save the nation from Bible toting war mongers is put a check mark next to a drawing of a donkey in November. Can it really be that simple?

Enter into human history, Jesus of Nazareth. One of the things I love about Jesus is how He refused to be awed by the powers that be of His day. I would love to have been around when Jesus called Herod a fox, or when He referred to the religious leaders?who held a similar position to modern day mullahs in Iran?brood of vipers. Even more, I’d love to have been a peasant in the crowd watching Jesus ride into Jerusalem on a donkey. Author Shane Claiborne in His book Jesus for President compares Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem to a U.S. president riding into the inauguration ceremony on a bicycle. If Claiborne is right, then Jesus was a lot more of a prankster than I’ve ever imagined Him to be. The question is why would Jesus go out of His way to mock power?

I’m not a psychoanalyst, but I’d be willing to risk a guess. I think that one of the reasons that Jesus came into the world was to crush the all-too-human tendency to look to political rulers for earthly salvation. When Jesus took up a towel to wash His disciples feet, His disciples were offended because they didn’t want their master behaving like a slave, but what they failed to realize is that was exactly Jesus’ point! In Jesus’ value system the powerless is superior to the powerful. Like His mother, Jesus embraced a value system that elevated the poor over the prince, where God puts down the mighty from their seats and elevates the humble (Luke 1:52). Rather than embracing political power to bring about earthly change, which is what Satan tempted Him to do, Jesus put His faith in the upside down Kingdom of God, a Kingdom that puts faith not in the power of the sword, but in the power of self-sacrificial love.

As tempting as it may be to be awed by the power of modern Caesars, followers of Jesus are never to forget that the Word of God tells us not to put our trust in princes (Psalm 146:3). Rather than trusting in the coercive power of the sword to effect moral change in the world, followers of Jesus put their faith in an otherworldly kingdom that rules not with the power of a sword, but with the power of a towel. As eloquent and sincere as they may be, neither McCain nor Obama are going to save the world, let alone America. True power flows from the cross, not from Caesar’s throne.

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Andrew Rondeau asked:


 

The First-Class Barack Obama Campaign

If you want to see this movie played out to its full effect on a national stage, look no further than the Barack Obama campaign. Barack Obama has assembled a first rate political campaign – the best of all the remaining presidential candidates, and it’s starting to pay huge dividends.

Barack Obama isn’t winning because he’s a great inspirational speaker – although that doesn’t hurt. He’s winning because his campaign is better managed and organized. Plain and simple.

How They Run Their Campaign…

In fact, I think the way Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are running their respective campaigns is a snapshot into how they would each run the country. Obama’s campaign is exciting and extremely well organized and he reaches across political, gender and ethnic lines. His campaign is a well-oiled machine.

And the fact that he’s an amazing speaker makes people want to follow him even more.

Hilary Clinton Is So Disorganized

Hillary’s campaign on the other hand is extremely disorganized, rife with juvenile in-fighting and she is a very polarizing candidate. Not only that, in her attempts to stave off Obama’s steam roller like momentum, she changes her message every week. She started out with “Ready from day one” being the theme of her campaign. Now it’s “Speeches vs. solutions.” Where’s the managerial consistency? Good managers don’t panic at the first sign of adversity. But that’s  exactly what her campaign is doing and that’s why Obama is winning.

What Environment Would You Prefer To Work In – Barack or Hilary?

Does that sound like some of the work environments you’ve been in? According to the website The GoodManager.com,  ”It is the job of the manager to coordinate the work of others and is held accountable for their work.  The five main jobs of managers are planning, organizing and staffing, leading and motivating the organization, coordination through communication of objectives and plans, and assessing and measuring the work of employees.  Effective managers are able to use their skills in each of these areas to attain the goals of the organization.”

Learn For Free…

The above statement describes Barack Obama management abilities to a “T.” Barack Obama’s campaign is a successful business model that every manager can learn from. And you don’t have to pay a dime to do it, because he’s on the internet, on television and in the newspapers every single day.

Watch and learn!

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TheLastMasterJedi asked:

the new episode prison break season 5 episode 1

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adi003 asked:

Toma Caragiu

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SD Lawyer asked:


As you may know, the AOL unit at Time Warner has been thrashing around for the last year while trying to find a way to remain relevant. The problem for AOL, of course, is the continually decreasing use of dial-up modems as a method for accessing the Internet. Depending on the study you look act, dial-up modem access now accounts for approximately 40 percent of all Internet users. This number is consistently dropping as DSL and cable Internet access systems become more popular. The resulting struggles at AOL are having an interesting impact on the search engine wars.

Google and MSN are trying to position themselves to dominate online search. The situation boils down as follows: Google is the king, MSN wants to be it. This situation takes on particularly interesting impact when one considers that Google now supplies ads and search results to AOL. In doing so, Google derives roughly 10 percent of its revenues from the AOL relationship.

In the summer of 2005, rumors started that AOL was for sale. MSN and Google were obvious buyers. The only problem was both companies realized AOL was a good short term play, but a terrible long term one given the death of dial-up modem systems. So who would buy AOL and how much would they be willing to pay? Would Google let MSN swipe 10 percent of its business? If so, how high could Google drive up the price of AOL for MSN?

Google Makes Major Mistake

If rumors are to be believed, MSN and Time Warner have reached a deal on the AOL platform. So, how much will MSN pay Time Warner for AOL?

Nothing. Not one penny.

By the end of December 2005, MSN and Time Warner are expected to announce a partnership wherein the two companies will intertwine their Internet units and pursue joint advertising efforts. In turn, Google will be kicked off all AOL listings, to be replaced by MSN or some AOL-MSN mix of search results and advertisements.

The executives at Google are making a major mistake, a critical blunder. Google will lose 10 percent of its business to MSN without MSN being required to expend any resources for the business. The Google Adwords program, the primary revenue source for Google, will no longer be on AOL. Surely Google could have come up with something more enticing to AOL or at least forced MSN to pay some serious cash for the acquisition. Instead, it failed on both accounts.

Google is a great search engine, but this is just one in a number of business mistakes made by the Internet giant. How could it lose 10 percent of its business without making MSN pay for it? If MSN pulls this off, one will wonder who is at the controls at Google and what they could possibly be thinking.

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Keisha Wright asked:


2008 marked one of the most momentous races for the U.S. Presidency, one fueled by intense passion and determination. Use the suggestions below to celebrate President-Elect Barack Obama’s historic victory by hosting an inaugural ball at your home!

Décor & Tabletop suggestions

Pave the entry to your home with remnant red carpet purchased from your local carpet store, or rent a red carpet from Red Carpet Runway.

As guests enter, have a photographer snap a photo of them next to a life-sized cut-out of President-Elect Barack Obama. This will make a fun party favor. Place photos in glossy, quality stock paper photo frame imprinted with the host’s name and the date of the party (e.g. Debbie’s Inaugural Ball, Jan 18, 2009).

Place vases with white roses around the home for added drama.

Suggested Invitation Copy

(Host Name) requests the pleasure of your company

at the Yes We Can Inaugural Ball in celebration of

Barack Obama

44th President of the United States of America

DATE

TIME

PLACE

RSVP

Semi-formal Attire

Cocktail Recipes

No celebration would be complete without champagne. Serve cocktails with custom imprinted napkins featuring the Presidential seal and date of the party. A few patriotic themed cocktails include:

Red (Serves 10)

Ingredients

3 cups chilled Arizona green tea

6 cups chilled pomegranate juice

10 – 20oz Gin or Vodka

5 oz amaretto

Toothpick

Garnish: Strawberry, blueberries and mini-marshmallows

*Prepare Garnish before beginning

1. Mix the green tea and pomegranate juice into a bowl

2. Line up 10 glasses filled with ice.

3. Pour 1oz (full shot glass) of Gin or Vodka and 0.5oz (half a shot glass) of amaretto in each Glass with ice. *You may also add an extra shot of liquor for a kick.

4. Pour 7oz (less then a cup) of the green tea and pomegranate mix into each cup.

5. Garnish and Serve

WHITE (Serves 1)

Ingredients

1 oz vodka

1 oz peach schnapps

fill with Sprite or 7up

Garnish: Blueberries and raspberries on Toothpick

Mix vodka, peach schnapps together and pour in glass. Fill the rest of the glass with Sprite. Garnish with Blueberries and raspberries.

BLUE (Serves 1)

Ingredients

1/2 oz. Light Rum

1.2 oz. Vodka

1/2 oz. Blue Caracao

3 oz. Pineapple Juice

1 oz. Sweet & Sour Mix (or margarita mix)

Garnish: Pineapple and Cherry

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Serve in a tall glass. Garnish with a slice of pineapple and a cherry.

Hors D’ourves Recipes

Red & Blue Chips with White Cheese Dip

White Cheese Dip (Serves

Ingredients

4 cups monterey jack cheese or asadero cheese or chihuahua cheese, shredded fine

16 ounces green chilies

1 cup half-and-half

8 tablespoons onions, chopped fine

2 tablespoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons salt

4 serrano peppers, chopped fine (optional)

4 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped fine (optional)

Tortilla Chips (Blue & Red- organic)

Directions

Put all ingredients in a double boiler and heat on medium. Cook until melted and well blended, stirring occasionally. Serve with fresh chips.

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Gian Fiero asked:


When I was a boy, I would overhear older black men talking about this evil, mythical figure called “The Man.” I thought there was Batman, Spiderman, Superman, and The Man.

The Man was accused of selfishly hoarding power and resources that prevented black men from getting jobs, owning businesses, and having greater opportunities in general. As a young impressionable child, The Man seemed like one bad mutha. It took me some time for me to figure out that The Man was the white man.

As humorous and antiquated as this notion may be, it surprises me that The Man still lives in the minds of many black men today. After listening to Barack Obama make his presentation at the Democratic National Convention, which coincided with the 45th anniversary of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, there is a palpable energy, optimism, and pride that I’m sensing in my conversations with other black men. An awakening that’s almost spiritual. A fertile synergy that can produce the seeds of a movement – a black male movement.

While the women’s movement has been legitimized and publicized in the press since their struggles for liberation began, there is a potential – and much needed – black man’s movement that’s underway. Of course the media has not picked up on it because they don’t consider it newsworthy or noteworthy, but conscious black people, especially those who desire and seek financial, mental, and vocational liberation for themselves and their children, are well aware of it.

It’s the effect that Barack Obama’s campaign and legacy will have on black men.

To really understand the magnitude of this effect you have to go back in history to another speech. It was given at a graduating ceremony for Howard University in 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson in the aftermath of John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the passage of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin.



“You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: ‘Now, you are free to go where you want, do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.’ You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying, ‘you are free to compete with all the others,’ and still justly believe you have been completely fair…This is the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity-not just legal equity but human ability-not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result.”

The bill was later amended to cover discrimination on the basis of gender. That amendment largely benefited white women and opened the floodgates for their entry into the workplace.

As more white women migrated into the workplace in 1964, occupying jobs they were “allowed” to have and armed with new legislature and a spirit of liberation that would gain momentum and evolve into the women’s movement, black women would soon follow suit and be deployed in less desirable roles while black men would essentially be displaced; spawning an employment imbalance in the black community where the men consistently have higher rates of unemployment and underemployment than black women.

This statistic holds true to this very day.

When I Juxtapose today’s work environment with yesterday’s, I see that black men still comprise the bulk of the work force that’s relegated to manual labor or undesirable jobs with marginal pay. I searched, but did not find, statistical data on the ethnic composition of the labor force of FedEx and UPS, but through observation, I’m willing to bet they are among the top – if not 1 and 2 – employers of black men, closely followed by any company that provides security (guard) services.

They are all jobs that place physical demands on their employees. Black men have always been used and valued for their physical strength since they stepped (chained) foot into this country. After all this time, we are still more likely to be paid millions for our muscles than our minds.

The Barack Obama Effect will cause the pendulum to swing in the other direction.

In the 60s, gainful employment was denied due to racism, fear, and distrust. Racism is not what leads to unfavorable employment conditions that black men have to overcome, it’s negative perceptions about black men as a group that have proven to be a greater economic and psychological barrier to our success. It’s the internalization of these perceptions that impact us. There’s extensive research that proves how devastating these perceptions can be when internalized by young black males.

According to Dr. Alvin Poussaint, psychiatrist and author of Lay My Burden Down: Unraveling Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis among African Americans over the last twenty years, suicide rates among young black males between the ages of 15 and 19 increased 114%. Head coach of the Indianapolis Colts lost his 18 year old son to suicide in 2005 and finally the epidemic caught the media’s attention, albeit for a fleeting moment.

With commonplace scenarios such as fragmented families that are often headed by single mothers, lack of male leadership, negative influences, and continued discrimination in our schools from teachers who do not embrace, nurture, or support young black males as readily as their white peers, it’s no wonder that so many young black males fabricate false bravado and a cool facade to camouflage low self-esteem, and often seeking validation through sports, entertainment and sexual conquests. Even worse, it creates a fixed mindset.

Author Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., who is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading researchers in the fields of personality, social psychology, and developmental psychology, notes that psychologists know that negative stereotypes and labels are harmful, but they are still discovering just how negative labels harm achievement. She writes in her book Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success, that a fixed mindset limits achievement. It fills people’s mind with interfering thoughts. It makes effort disagreeable, and it leads to inferior learning strategies. What’s more, it makes other people into judges instead of allies.

My father told me at an early age that black men have to work two to three times harder than white men to achieve the same success. We also have to work smarter to be as successful. There are political, psychological, racial, and legal elements at play in every arena that we thrive in. It behooves us to know how to best navigate through situations that pose a threat to our success.

Whether it’s working harder or smarter, extra “work” is inevitable. Dealing with the inertia that stems from apathy in many of our neighborhoods, communities, and homes; dealing with lingering fears and stereotypes, and having to exert constant effort to fit in with white men who don’t feel as comfortable with us or in our presence. Historically, our prosperity as black men has always been tied to our ability to successfully interface with white men.

I imagine that living life as a paraplegic or without one’s sight is probably harder in terms of difficulty and adaptability, but certainly not capability. That’s where the line gets drawn and a new way of thinking can begin. Yes, being a black man is harder for some black men and it certainly has some societal drawbacks, but like those with the aforementioned physical challenges, we must view them as just that; challenges not disabilities, and certainly not handicaps. Being a black man is hard, but being a black man who is president will be inconceivably hard.

What do we find when we delve into Barack Obama’s background? Let’s see:

Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to a Kansas-born mother, Ann Dunham (who is a distant relative of Robert Duvall) and a Kenyan-born father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., who met while both were attending the University of Hawaii, where his father was enrolled as a foreign student.

His mother and father divorced when he was two and his mother re-married and they relocated to Indonesia. His father attended Harvard, traveled around the world on official business for Kenya and saw Obama only a few times by the time he turned 10, at which point he was sent back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents so that he could attend the highly-regarded non-sectarian private Punahou School where he graduated from.

Obama studied for two years at Occidental College in California before transferring to Columbia University, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations. He became a community organizer for a small Chicago church-based group for three years, helping poor South Side residents cope with a wave of plant closings. He then attended Harvard Law School, and in 1990 became the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review.

He turned down a prestigious judicial clerkship, choosing instead to practice civil-rights law back in Chicago, representing victims of housing and employment discrimination and working on voting-rights legislation. He also began teaching at the University of Chicago Law School. Eventually he ran as a Democrat for the state senate seat from his district, which included both Hyde Park (where he currently lives) and some of the poorest ghettos on the South Side, and won.

In 2004 Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat, representing Illinois, and gained national attention by giving a rousing and well-received keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston; won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word for the CD version of his autobiography “Dreams From My Father” (2006); won his second Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for “The Audacity of Hope” (2008); sought the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Presidency (2008).

It’s a brief overview that highlights great accomplishments, but his origins are similar to most black men I know: He came from a single parent household, had a strained relationship with his father, a close relationship with his grandparents, and had to make choices.

Law school, community organizer, civil-rights activist, Grammy award winner, member of the U.S. Senate, Presidential candidate – they are all talent and value based decisions. None of them would be feasible if Barack Obama did not truly believe that these goals were possible and put forth the consistent effort to reach them.

What will happen if Barack Obama gets elected president? What will happen when black men stop blaming the man, and start being The Man? Every door will be open. Every American dream – including being president – can be a reality.

Our view and definition of The Man will finally be flipped; replaced by a positive self-image and greater awareness of the super powers we possess, but seldom activate. We will become more motivated to utilize resources, get better jobs, start successful businesses, and capitalize on opportunities because the leadership and role model that so many of us have lacked, will have emerged in the highest visible position in the country – the presidency.

In short, The Barack Obama Effect will mean that our statute of limitations on excuses will have officially run out. The fixed mindset that has plagued black men for centuries from the aforementioned internalization of negative perceptions will be repaired. The Effect Of Barack Obama will germinate a growth mindset which will benefit black men for centuries to come.

Dweck writes: The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. The growth mindset takes the teeth out of stereotypes and makes people better able to fight back. They don’t believe in permanent inferiority. She also writes: Prejudice is a deeply ingrained societal problem…a growth mindset helps people see prejudice for what it is – someone else’s view of them.

The Barack Obama Effect will inspire little black boys to find the courage to choose the road less traveled and explore the many options available to them. The Barack Obama Effect will motivate the parents of little black boys to instill an authentic, deeply rooted confidence which allows and enables them to have personal and professional lives that are only limited by the boundaries of their imagination and efforts, not lack of opportunities. The Barack Obama Effect will linger because black men and black boys will know that in their hearts and in their minds, they are The Man – the only man – who controls their own thoughts, actions, and destinies.

 

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