The Hip Hop Anthropologist

In response to recent egregious examples of workplace violence, a renewed discussion has arisen among Human Resource, Personnel and AA/EEO executives about how they ought to be dealing with disguntled or disaffected employees in the workplace. David Abel and Jack Nicas for the Boston Globe reported: A truck driver caught stealing beer from the distributor where he worked killed eight co-workers before turning a gun on himself yesterday morning after company officials told him to resign or face being fired, employees and authorities said. The man, identified as Omar Thornton by police, went on the deadly rampage at Hartford Distributors, where he had worked for two years. He also wounded two people. In less than a day, two somewhat competing narratives, drawn from news accounts and Internet postings, have emerged to shape interpretations of this tragedy: 1. Thornton was a disgruntled psychopath who reacted violently after losing his job for good cause. The scenario of a disg...

I have long been an avid proponent of both lifelong as well as distance learning, which has been nurtured indeed fostered by enrollment at Empire State College where I was graduated with an associates in arts (1997), and bachelor of science (1999). It was simultaneously an exhilarating and liberating experience. The most memorable part of that experience stemmed from my relationship with my mentor, Dr. Rudy Cain. Cain undoubtedly helped shepherd me through an arduous process. I will never forget him once telling me that “you need a credential” then assigning readings. Those readings would inform my perspective while resulting in reports that were grounded in critical analysis. These exercises taught me not only about the material in question but how to deconstruct it. Like persons graduating from prestigious schools such as the Ivy League universities, I am very proud of my affiliation with Empire State College, because it is the first successful American distance learning institut...

Despite numerous high profile legislative successes to cap his first two years in office, President Obama has been dogged by negative reporting, which many pundits attribute to a puny White House communications office effort. In short, President Obama has been getting hammered by the right wing media, which dominates political discourse in these United States. Former White Communications Director Ellen Moran stepped down to take a role as Chief of Staff for the Secretary of Commerce. Her departure could not have come any sooner because by all objective measures, she has done a piss poor job of getting Obama's victories in print, radio or on television. Daniel Pfeiffer returned to a role he held during Obama's campaign. He has his work cut out for him with mid-term elections looming like a dark cloud over this administration. But there may be a silver lining in that cloud if Pfeiffer launches an all out media blitz championing Obama's accomplishments while cleverly using...

Corporate control of the media has become a problem of great import as of late – especially in the wake of the recent terrorist activity on American shores. Reactionary members of the Bush administration – i.e., Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, his boss, Donald H. Rumsfeld, and Vice President Richard Cheney - have taken a page from the Gulf War by effectively closing out the mainstream media in general and black press in particular. These men especially have always held extreme right wing views and seem to be the ideological brain swell of the Bush presidency; driving many of the excessive, some would argue, fascistic policies of this administration. Former DEA special agent Mike Levin, host and executive producer of The Expert Witness Show, which airs on NYC’s WBAI FM 99.5 every Tuesday evening at 7:00 PM, has had former high-ranking CIA officials on his show. These men have boasted on air how they have conscripted the fourth estate. All of this information comes straight ...

The Bush administration’s startling revelation released yesterday by the White House Press office in the person of Bush spokesman Ari Flesher admitting that the CIA provided the president with daily briefings, which included information foretelling the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as well as the Pentagon, is a dramatic departure from past positions. In the past, the administration’s official stance was that it had absolutely no knowledge of the voluminous intelligence known months ago by the alternative press clearly indicating that radical, fundamentalist Islamic fractions planned a “fatwa” or decree against the US. It persuasively illustrates that knowledge is empowering and why the government is assiduous in its efforts to deliberately keep its naïve denizens blissfully ignorant. The Bush administration did not release this information of its own volition. It did so in response to the mounting pressure heaped upon it by scathing, thorough, and relentless reporting...

Although it is true that unless an owner operator finds a lucrative niche market, he will not even earn what a union driver nets at say ABF, UPS, USPS, Roadway, Yellow, or New Penn per year @ close to $30/hour or $70,000/year, whose drivers are all represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, or even a good non-union local driver (I used to take home $800/week, drove less than 1,000 miles/week, and was home every night), but still have all of the responsibilities of an independent business person. Because of the country's current economic climate, some of those union drivers have recently experienced give-backs ranging from $1.90 or more per hour. The Master Freight Agreement, which governs salaries, benefits, and union member working conditions, is generous to a fault. But it can also be used as a broad barometer of what a good owner operator ought to be grossing on a monthly basis. After all what are you in business for if not to make money? To simply drive a ...

Many potential drivers have asked questions regarding past criminal convictions relative to employment opportunities in the trucking industry. Federal law has gotten stricter regarding hazardous materials endorsement. But other than that, the old rule still basically applies: No DWI/DUI, transportation related felonies, or homicide, rape, weapon or drug offenses. All other convictions are up in the air, and decided by the recruiter, company HR representative, on a case by case basis, which is usually dictated by company culture and hiring policy. Many companies will not hire a driver with a felony no matter what. Most of these companies are not worth driving for anyway. So, they are not hurting your prospects for a driving career. The Federal Trade Commission promulgates the minimum standards through the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) when a background check is done by a third party known commonly as a credit report agency (“CRA”). The FCRA does not apply to employers that conduct ...

Often as we navigate skillfully around preoccupied four wheelers pulling stunts on the big road, we hear uninformed chatter on our CBs relative to how our country, the trucking industry, and our way of life is going to hell in a handbasket. Some drivers unfairly lay blame for this situation squarely at the foot of our current President. But a great deal of the criticism of the Obama administration is simply misguided, motivated by racism, and, consequently, wholly inaccurate. Motor carrier deregulation was a part of a sweeping reduction in price and entry controls and collective vendor price fixing in United States transportation, which begun in the1970s with initiatives by the Richard Nixon Administration, carried out through the Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter Administrations; and, followed up on in the 1980s, collectively seen as trucking deregulation. Most of the problem stems from young, inexperienced, and unsophisticated drivers from the Deep South where there is little well pay...

It was a beautiful, warm and sunny, Wednesday afternoon on March 21st. I was traveling Eastbound in Jackson, Mississippi on I-20 at approximately seventy miles per hour in a tractor owned by my trucking company, Shipman Trucking & Transport, and a fully loaded trailer owned by Mystic Express. We were down a driver and I decided to go out myself. I have held a valid Class A commercial driver's license almost since the CDL Act of 1986 called for a single, federally administered commercial driver's license for all professional drivers; it was supposed to reduce fraud and increase accountability for bad drivers. The trip originated in North Brunswick, New Jersey with stop and a pickup in Chicago, Illinois, a delivery in Fort Worth, Texas and a backhaul in Tyler, Texas. I had just taken a nice, hot shower and eaten a small breakfast in Louisiana; routing myself to drive through Mississippi, Alabama - states I had never really spent any time in - before heading North back home....

On April 12th Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia) released a press statement critical of the Bush administration's actions in responding to 9-11. It raised serious concerns about the United States government's foreknowledge of the brutal terrorist attacks on both the World Trade Center in New York City as well as the Pentagon in Washington, DC. McKinney argued, "The need for an investigation of the events surrounding September 11[th] is as obvious as is the need for an investigation of the Enron debacle. The press release from McKinney's office further stated "news reports from Der Spiegal to the London Observer, from the Los Angeles Times to MSNBC to CNN, indicate that many warnings were received by the [US] Administration." There is considerable evidence that key players in the US intelligence as well as federal law enforcement community deliberately turned a deaf ear to persistent rumors that Mohammad Atta, who had been previously identified as a...

Tyrone Powers, a former African American FBI special agent announced on NYC's urban contemporary radio station 98.7 KISS FM's May 19, 2002 airing of the Open Line show, hosted by news director and morning personality Bob Slade, that he had credible evidence strongly suggesting the Bush administration did in fact allow the September 11th attacks to further a hidden agenda. Dr. Powers says that the administration miscalculated, though, and "didn't believe that [an attack] would be on this scale." Powers, author of critically acclaimed autobiography, "Eyes To My Soul: The Rise and Decline of a Black FBI Agent" is director of the Institute of Criminal Justice/Legal Studies and Public Service, and an assistant professor of law Enforcement and Criminal Justice at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Maryland. Powers stated that "arrogant" US intelligence agencies underestimated the resolve of the terrorists. They have the American people dup...

Since firing well known comedian DL Hughley late last month, New York's Adult Oriented Radio station 98.7 KISS FM, which is owned by Emmis Communications, has been quietly looking for a new morning drive host. Hughley was considered too offensive, irreverent and never really connected with the audience in spite of his brilliance as a comedian. His banter with co-host Jackie Reid sometimes made listeners wince in shame. One long time listener said, "it bordered on sexual harassment." Radio is a totally different world than stand-up comedy. Steve Harvey, who is marginally talented as a comedian and as an air on personality, has managed to successfully navigate that chasm on his nationally syndicated show, which is aired locally on Inner City Broadcasting’s flagship station WBLS 107.5. The best morning drive host KISS FM had was Ken "Spider" Webb followed by Comedian George Wallace and Jeff Fox. Their on air interaction was infectious, comical, and memorable. It w...

Dear Ms. Bev, Believing the LGBT community is entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is one thing; actively advocating for a lifestyle that you claim erroneously is found in nature is quite another. Homosexuality is indeed found in nature but only as an aberration much like a mutation. There are few asexual organisms and virtually all are single celled. The few asexual insects can hardly be characterized as homosexual. The one aquatic vertebrate or fish example you cited "seahorse" is neither asexual nor homosexual as you misinformed your audience. The male seahorse is equipped with a brood pouch on the ventral, or front-facing, side. When mating, the female seahorse deposits up to 1,000 eggs in the male's pouch, which the male then internally fertilizes with his sperm. The male carries the eggs for about two months until they emerge, expelling fully-developed, miniature seahorses in the water. The father continues to protect the young until they are ab...