Category: Media

My Mother Survived a Walmart Shooting

Sunday, September 1, 2019, my mom went shopping at a neighboring city’s Walmart around 3:00 in the afternoon. She heard loud popping noises and witnessed people running with fear.

Sunday, September 1, 2019, my mom went shopping at a neighboring city’s Walmart around 3:00 in the afternoon.  After making her purchases, she walked to the basket area to return the basket she was using.  While there she began a conversation with a lady entering the store. As they were talking, both ladies heard loud popping sounds coming from inside the store.  Looking around in search of the noise, they witnessed hundreds of people running out.  All of these people were running out, with a look of panic and utter fear across their faces.  Leaving the conversation, my mother also ran for her life, as gun shots continued to ring in the air.

I thank you God for getting my mother out of the store just in time.  Thank you for the hedge of protection you placed around her and the many others that were able to escape death’s door.  She’s still a little shaken up, but doing fine.

My mother was born and raised in Chicago but left after joining the Army and beginning her own family.  She eventually came back home after being away for about 25 years.  Unfortunately, Chicago is a beautiful city plagued with Gun Violence every day.  She recently relocated to an Indiana suburb, to be safer and to no longer have to deal with other issues within the city.  This Gun Violence in Chicago, and in other major cities, has been out of control.  Where can people go now, when the “safe” suburban cities are now places of local war-fare?  When will there be laws set aside to make sure that these copy-cats are handled justly? What is going to be done to make sure that people can not feel comfortable going into places with weapons and attacking?

This true story didn’t make the news due to what was already headlining: the Odessa/Midland, TX shooting, the boat off California that caught fire with 30 people on board, and the devastation of Hurricane Dorian engulfing Grand Bahama Island.  Is that fire still destroying the Rain Forest in Brazil?

There’s too much going on in the world, but remember even in the midst of all of the chaos, God is still Good.  He still has a plan and it will be accomplished.

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What should be done to protect the innocent on stores and schools?  Please comment your ideas.

I Miss the 90’s & A Different World

I Miss the 90s is a new series that I am starting to talk about what I miss from growing up in the 1990s. Do you miss A Different World?

In the 1990’s, there were a ton of sitcoms and movies starring African Americans.  They were given different roles that depicted the diverse backgrounds of all black people.  As a little black girl growing up in this time, this was exciting.  I was able to see people that looked like me living their fictional life on a television show and not just as a sad looking case on the Evening News or Cops.

Black people weren’t only given the roles of the house maid or the drug dealer.  We were doctors, lawyers, beauticians, teachers, and stock brokers.  We were shown to be business women that still had a life outside of work.  We were students trying to have a voice in America and trying to make a difference in the world.

A Different World, was a spin-off of the classic Cosby Show.  It featured the fictional college of Hillman.  Seeing all of those young, hip, black students, thrilled me and I too wanted to attend.  I didn’t know it was made up; I just wanted to experience that type of college life one day.  A Different World was a show that was ahead of its time. It showcased the many ups and downs that come with being a college student.  What made it even more special was that the characters were brown like me.  Black like me, whatever; they were African American like me.  These students were trying to navigate  through the rocky and sometimes unstable waters of friendship and on time graduation.  They were finding love and learning about who they were and wanted to be.  Has there ever been a successful television show that displayed young adults in college?  Not interns, but as actual students.

After Season 1, the show changed it’s focus from Lisa Bonet’s character, Denise Huxtable, to the spoiled, southern, and sheltered Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy) and the determined, and sometimes uncertain, flip-up glasses wearing Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison).  Their journey of love brought more humor to an already hilarious show.  Sprinkled throughout the story lines of Whitley and Dwayne, were issues affecting black people in the world at the time like  HIV/AIDS, the injustice of Apartheid in South Africa, Interracial Dating, racial profiling, and the moral decision to continue to be financially supported by companies or organizations that don’t support YOU.  These were issues discussed in the early 90’s, but what’s changed?

With the direction of Debbie Allen, this show helped to make its black viewers even more proud to be black.  For the non-black viewers it taught many lessons on the rights and privileges that are not always easily given, based on the brownness of ones’ skin but with a youthful and mature perspective.   A Different World helped to celebrate the African American’s place in this country by showing that our history didn’t start with slavery and “the struggle”.  That we will continue to make our mark in this country and around the world.  Because of this show, many people were introduced to the dancing style of Alvin Ailey, to the beautifully talented acting chops of Diahann Carroll*, and the power of Step and camaraderie within the African American Fraternities/Sororities.

A Different World was a show before its time.  A realistic story on the plights of the educated African American.  Before the days of social media and internet stardom, young people wanted to achieve the American Dream by going to college and allowing education to “take them places”.  I desired to attend college because of A Different World. Hey TV Writers, please bring back the trend of television shows that inspired young people to dream of being successful with their brain and hard-work. Not just from going viral.

Then and Now
Now along with Debbie Allen and Lisa Bonet
Diahann Carroll
Diahann Carroll as “Julia”
Diahann Carroll as Whitley Gilbert’s mother
Diahann Carroll as Dominique Deveraux on the show Dynasty
An Alvin Ailey Dancer

*Diahann Carroll had her own television sitcom, Julia, where she played a single parent and a nurse.  Many believed she was a  white woman with brown make-up on because she was thought to be too beautiful to really be a black woman.  She was also starred in the show Dynasty.

Catch A Different World on Amazon Prime.  Thank you for reading.  Like, Comment, Share, and Subscribe.

All images of Diahann Carroll found on Pinterest, Diahann-Carroll.com, IMDB

Images of A Different World found on Pinterest and its-a-different-world.com