I am sure many of them actually do more than you know. I know that Michael Jordan always did for the kids in Chicago. He actually founded a Boys and Girls Club.

Wonderful...where is this happening? I have to go to Reliant tomorrow.

Never mind...just found it....it was on 288

What a stupid thing to do.

Yeah think I am to tired to follow anything right now :)

I can't for the life of me see how anything that has come out has made Zimmerman a racist or Trayvon Martin a racist or any different from any of the hundreds of children that were killed by gunshot last year in Chicago.

There are now violent protests going on in LA on Crenshaw. So far one has been arrested. They are vandalizing cars and I think I heard marching on the freeway. How is this the right kind of protesting?

Clearly it's not. This is people who have no clue what they are doing besides raising hell. Just ridiculous.

Akon wants to move back to Africa, because apparently "we're not safe in America". You do that, Akon, have fun. What a moron.

Let’s move to Africa, we are not safe in America after Zimmerman acquittal - Akon | Entertainment News

But they need some leaders to work with them regularly - some men of note to look up to. I've heard of all their foundations but it's not really helping if hundreds die of gang violence that much, is it? Look at Alex Rodriguez and Prince Fielder and MLB players and rappers dripping in gold and stables of fancy cars and Tiger Woods - all who make more millions upon million than they can spend who form foundations to shelter part of their money but aren't working directly with the gang children in urban areas themselves at all. They leave the foundations for women and others to run. I think these kids who don't have that much structure or fathers in their lives need some one on one work and something to aspire to. They all could band and pay them to go to school or do some work that was meaningful to help their own poor. Passing money down from the Ivory Towers and Tweeting and making rap songs and violent movies doesn't seem to be helping American gang children that much. I'd say to them put your own self back into your culture and your culture's kids and help them one on one if you really want to "give back" as you all claim.

That's exactly the problem. A lot of these celebrities give to charity for tax write offs. If they really cared, they'd be there more often. But they have more important things to do. So who do these young men look up to that they see everyday? Well, could be the guys with the gold jewelry and nice cars. How did they get them? I'm pretty sure it wasn't from going to college and getting a degree and then getting a job with a nice salary. In these poor neighborhoods, if they see people around them robbing and stealing or dealing drugs and getting lots of money, what do you think they are going to do? And if you don't want to be in that life, and you want to study, what do the gangs do? They bully you! It's not fair if you grow up in a place like that. But really there isn't anything we can do about where we were born and where we grew up. We could have been born in a poor village on another continent or we could have been born a Hilton. Sometimes you have to work really hard to better your life. Sometimes you don't have to do a damn thing.

Where is Akon originally from? Edit: I see he IS originally from africa.

A lot of people were not happy when George W was re-elected and they said they would move out of the country. Well did any of them? I don't think so. This country has it's share of problems, but what country doesn't?

But seriously, a famous, rich entertainer thinks he's not safe in America? oh puhleeze.

From the article, one of the comments:
“I don’t understand why African Americans are so mad about slavery the Jews had it worse in WWII and it was more recent than slavery n I never hear them saying “it’s because he’s Jewish” so stfu n stick to making music.”

One cannot reason with ignorant people - those who are rioting are ignorant to so many things and I'm pretty sure the majority of them do not have law degrees. Where are Al, Jesse and Barack now? They should be telling these people that rioting is not going to solve anything.

You know I've heard it said that just showing up is half the battle and if the gang children had some one-on-one by these millionaires profiting wildly from our culture, why aren't they in there with those poor children elbow to elbow helping them learn to do something other than deal drugs and steal and work at menial jobs. Inspire those kids with your own butt sitting down beside them to help them with their life - their homework or fix their bike or take Granny to the doctor. Nope. Mr. Labron James, JZ and their ilk are too busy making and spending $$$ to help gang kids face to face in their off seasons and days off. I'll bet Sharpton or Michael Jackson hasn't helped a black kid from the slums with his homework or helped him wash his apartment windows of soot anytime recently. How many gang kids recovering from gunshots that didn't die have famous black leaders or athletes visited in the hospital and watched TV with them all evening? Oh, I forgot, they are on TV himself making appearances railing about one kid. There's a whole other young generation out there hurting, dirt poor, in big trouble and no men of note with time to go work faithfully with them to give them a little inspiration and face time, to love them in a meaningful way.

Is George Zimmerman a racist?

-His maternal grandfather was black.
-The girl he took as his date to his high school prom was black.
-His business partner - black.
-His wife's best friend - black.
-He tutored children for free after school that were black.
-He invited a black neighbor to stay at his house indefinitely after her house was broken into.
-A black homeless Sherman Ware, was beaten by the son of a white police lieutenant from Sanford. Zimmerman stood before city commissioners and read a protest statement. He was the ONLY person that stood up in defense of the black homeless man.
-51% of his neighborhood is black/brown.

FBI report: No evidence George Zimmerman a racist - National Crime & Courts | Examiner.com

What black celebrity can say that they did this?

Yep, don't let the door hit you in the backside. I have zero patience for people who complain about our country. They seriously need to leave if they think it is so bad.

The school was predominately black. The conversation I had with the officer was crystal clear to me...I honestly don't remember the entire conversation but he admitted he made a comment about the baggie and also admitted that the light that my son supposedly ran was a guess on his part.... that really pissed me off. He could not see it from where he was...my son had told me that. So WHY did he follow them and stop them??? It's a long story...but bottom line....white kid driving three black kids. Officer had bad attitude and ended up in the end realizing he was wrong and left them after scaring the hell out of them. He made comments to me about the "kids in _______". Black inner city type kids. Officer was white. He really did make other comments, but I don't recall them now...just know it was what it was.

Michael Jordan raised a lot of money for charitable causes, but he was well known in Chicago and the sports community for being a cheapskate, and for donating very little of his own $ while betting hundreds of thousands on his personal golf games.

And for rich people like him, they CAN leave. What about all the poor people who he supposedly is talking to? You think they can just go, whelp Akon said for us to move, so yeah let's pack up all our stuff and get the first flight to Africa. That plane ticket's gotta cost what close to a $1000?

Wow.

Well, at least he made a few appearances. Jay Z and his wife should take note on that.

I'm sure Dr. King would be sickened by this. He'd have spoken out and stopped it!

Jordan made a lot of appearances, contributed a lot of himself to raising money. He was genuinely generous in that regard. It wasn't for self-promotion because his star couldn't possibly get any bigger than it already was.

Have you seen the new pic of MLK circulating? They photoshopped him in a hoodie! :eek:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending...9838.html?vp=1

Oh, I see now that you explained the different races and predominance of ethnicity in the school mentioned. Yes, as I said earlier tonight, there is so much racism left in this country and you can see it raising its head in this case, with so many wanting it to be racial. But I never did see this Zimmerman case of killing as racist, even at the first. Just because NBC had edited the 911 tape and Zimmerman said Trayvon Martin was black, stating "He's black" over and over and over and over every time the networks played just those words, it doesn't make him racist. Following a kid doesn't make you racist. Criminal profiling of youths doesn't make you racist. "He's black", that part of the tape all the networks played all day and night for days just said to me the guy was describing the youth's ethnicity and turns out, it was in answer to a question from the 911 dispatcher and all of that question had been carefully edited out.

I think that "He's black" phrase alone probably started so many people thinking this was a race case - that and the following for some reason. But to someone knowing what neighborhood burglaries can do in a neighborhood to raise fear and suspicion and how alone the victims and residents feel because police are of little help, it just sounded like plain old neighborhood watch volunteer in hunter mode to look for suspicious kids in the neighborhood and try to see what they were up to. It sounded to me like they got in each other's face, started fighting and the one guy was in fear of becoming a vegetable due to brain trauma or dying and fired his weapon. But he never made a racist statement or did a racist act that night that I could see. I think if the young man had been white or hispanic and walking looking about in the rain at night, GZ have profiled and followed him too. And some even thought me a racist for not thinking this was a race-related crime!

I doubt Zimmerman would have ever pulled his weapon and fired if his head weren't getting banged over and over and he feared a serious brain injury or death. That's going to terrify any adult.

But sadly, since so many have made this racial, George Zimmerman, I fear, is a dead man walking. Now his premeditated murder will be a hate crime and will violate the dead man's civil rights.

Rank exploitation!!!

These kids need in Chicago and urban areas mired in gang violence need way more than some star's money tossed from his stretch or wire-transferred from his penthouse office to some charity - they need them to personally care, need them to show up and help show them they really matter, can be somebody and to work alongside mentoring these kids. They need some face time with strong, positive, successful, driven and goal-oriented men who take and take from the culture and then just want to throw money at the problem. Money is good, does lots of fine things. These children need more. They need are the men themselves - their idols. There are enough stars and celebrities and black and hispanic leaders to band together to give of themselves and show up in those communities en mass every chance they get to organize and to work alongside those gang children and poor children. I've heard some of those poor kids sell drugs and rob small store owners to get money to buy LeBron James' athletic shoes and go to a rapper's concert! If these ultra ultra rich men who get wealth rolling in from the culture and fanship of those kids want to really help gang children, they can "give back" of themselves with some "me" time and show up with regularity and teach, inspire and love on those kids and teach them how to be real men.

They needed it long before now. They needed parents. I don't see how we can blame celebrities for this, nor can we really expect them to fix it. By the time these kids are old enough for gangs it is far too late for most of them.

Yeah, I definitely don't think celebrities should be obliged to fix such problems, nor do I think they have any obligation to help those less fortunate. It's nice when they do, but I really could care less if they don't. It's their money, their life, they can do as they please, and it doesn't necessarily mean they're bad people if they don't either. With that said, what I have an issue with, is if you're GOING to get very publicly involved in a case such as this, I think you should be interested or be talking about other cases as well. To single out one case, to me, just seems a bit unfair, and they're only doing it because it's the 'cool' thing to do and what's hot in the media right now. Can you imagine if Jay-Z or Beyonce said they maybe felt different? That they agreed with the verdict? They'd probably lose 80% of their fanbase! Their marketing people also know what is going to grace covers of magazines and get attention.

John Stamos does a lot of work (and is personally involved, not just writing a check) for Project Cuddle -- a place that moms (often young) can bring their babies safe and legally, rather than dumping them, or whatever. He's constantly helping get the kids adopted, and hanging with the kids themselves, etc. You really don't see a whole heck a lot about it in the media. I'd be curious if anyone else had heard about it.

Denzel Washington used to go and visit the soldiers and spent lots of time chatting, taking pictures, and just hanging out. You never really saw that in the news. Another (funny) story, one time a homeless man was begging for money, and Denzel was walking with some friends, and handed the guy the $100 bill he had in his wallet. The guy exclaimed "Will Smith just gave me $100!" lol.

I've read lots of other positive stories but they weren't necessarily easily found, or ever a headline on a popular magazine cover. Another was George Clooney taking care of a whole restaurant's bill because he felt bad, and felt like his table was too loud, so he didn't want to interrupt everyone else.

Bottom line is, there ARE a lot of celebrities that do a lot of good, and I don't think they're obligated to try and fix our gang problem in the US, nor that they could, or even want to be involved. Going into some areas is very scary to be honest. I wish there was more I could do, but to be honest, I fear for my life in certain areas of Baltimore and DC. It's just kind of a sad cycle that repeats over and over again. And once you're in that lifestyle, it's hard to get out.

The case received so much attention because it wasn't even going to be a case. Just like your friend got justice for her child Trayvon parents wanted the same thing. My heart goes out to your friend because no parent should have to plan a funeral for their child under these circumstances.

Its a great to hear that the people in Houston are protesting for Trayvon and all other kids justice. I saw on the news were a lot of places would be blocking off certain freeways for the protesters. I havent figured out why but I agree there has to be a safer place for them to protest.