“Red Tails” brought in 19.4 million dollars its opening weekend finishing only behind the newest Underworld movie.

If you haven’t seen it, I truly think you should…especially if you are looking for a movie that both men & women will enjoy equally. For the men, the action-packed fighter scenes will keep you interested. For the women, the development of the movie’s main two characters through their own personal struggles and development will keep you emotionally engaged. I’m not telling you anything else. Don’t wanna spoil anything for you. GO SEE THE MOVIE!!!

For a movie with an all African-American cast bringing in almost $20 million dollars without men cross-dressing in fat suits, a random “Let’s break out and sing an ol’ Negro spiritual” inserted somewhere in the movie I count this as a HUGE victory for Black cinema.

Thanks George Lucas.

-Darius

P.S. Your move, Tyler Perry.

(Follow me on Twitter @DariusSaysDtCom)

Never saw George W. sing “Sweet Home Alabama” and no matter how cool Clinton was…my President’s got SOUL!!!

…Now look at me with a straight face and tell me he just didn’t treat the s*** out of those nay-Sayers.

And just in case you haven’t seen the original videos in question, they are posted below.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @DariusSaysdtcom and be sure to share with a friend.

-Darius

(Note: I’m saying this as a Greek. Not as someone on the outside looking in so save the excuses & if you can’t, should have paid more attention on-line.)

God-willing I will be celebrating 10 years in the Bond of Kappa Alpha Psi, initiated through the Kaotik Kappa Phi, on October 20th of this year. In my years in the Bond, I have been not only blessed to meet great and influential brothers in my organization but I have been also privileged to create other lasting relationships with men & women of all of the organizations of the Divine Nine that I would not have otherwise had if not for my Greek ties. While all of us thought our organizations was the best that created a level of competitiveness between us, there was still a level of respect we had for each other. In a short time, I have witnessed not only an increase in the amount of disrespect organizations have for each other but also an increase in the level of betrayal & backstabbing that individuals have for their OWN organizations.

There was just an unspoken code for things you did or didn’t do:

Respect a org on their Founders as you would like them to do on yours. I don’t care how competitive you are, there is NO excuse to disrespect on their Founders. That’s showing disrespect for the legacy of BGLO’s.

Fraternities NEVER disrespected sororities. They’re still women and a dude dissing a female was never cool.

Folks showed DEFERENCE!!! Even if you didn’t agree, you swallowed that s*** and respected those that came before you.

DROPPING YOUR LETTERS. If you paid for your letters with blood, sweat, and tears why would you easily just give up and rescind your membership? Never understood that one.

That’s just to name a few…

Somewhere, that got thrown out the window. When I look at those who have the torch now, our organizations look more like gangs than what our founders had in mind. It’s bad enough that those don’t know what we stand for already think we are gangs but we’re playing into the stereotype. Simple examples include openly drinking in your letters, fighting at every event, carrying yourself unbecoming of a member of your organization, etc. That s*** has GOT to stop!!! You represent your organization with your letters on or off, while you are in college and after your student days are done. Hell, to some people you represent Black Greeks as a whole because you are Black. They don’t know the difference between an A-Phi-A and an AKA. It’s a lot of responsibility but that’s what you signed up for when you turned in your application. It’s bigger than you & as an old head, I take responsibility in not letting you know that. The fact of the matter remains that we are at this dire situation in our histories and what do we do now?

What’s the problem?

Is is the quality of initiates that we let into our organizations nowadays? When we take that person with that reputation on campus, they now become a reflection of us. It’s harder to remove the stain from one’s past than it is to create it. Also folks are creating this facade in their own heads that because they were “made hard” they can disrespect you. You are no better than the next man because you “think” you took more wood than them or was “made harder”. Any dummy can take an ass-whooping.

Lack of an established and mentored membership intake process? I, for one, believe that there needs to be some sort of supervised membership intake process with EVERY organization. By driving hazing underground, you are creating a recipe for disaster.When unsupervised teenagers and immature adults are without supervision, chaos happens. Plus I laugh at the hypocrisy that hazing is allowed, publicized, and gratified in other professional organizations (i.e. NBA, NFL) but outlawed in fraternal organizations but that’s for another blogging day.

Old heads leaving without properly transitioning newer members? You can’t expect someone to keep up standards if they aren’t taught how. In the end, I don’t blame you…I blame myself and those before me for not teaching you better and properly preparing you.

I don’t have the end-all solution but I do know that I have a responsibility to make right the wrongs that we face today and it starts with looking in the mirror and asking ourselves, “Am I’m being the best member that I can be for my organization and my community?”

Yo!!!

-Darius

Follow me on Twitter @DariusSaysdtcom

(Dedicated to the brothers I have lost my years in my 10 years in the Bond: My football coach & one of my first mentors Byron “Steady B” Ricks, Corey from Kappa Phi, Funmi from Theta Zeta, & Steve from Epsilon Omicron)

The sequel to “S*** White Girls Say…To Black Girls”, the creator was recently on Anderson Cooper defending her video after she received dozens of remarks calling her everything from “racist” to the “N-Word”.

“There’s truth in every joke” I always say…plus this s*** is hilarious!!!

See for yourself.

…can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this one. “Oh, I can say what I want on here. Doesn’t matter…it’s just Twitter”. But therein lies the problem. It’s NOT just Twitter…not anymore. Twitter has evolved from 140 characters or less of “this lil’ quick thought I had” to a way for people to become who they always wanted to be but never could. If you felt you always had something to say but were never heard, you come say something quirky and quickly get a retweet from one of your friends. Say something to a celebrity & be one of the lucky few they respond to & you feel on top of the world. Twitter made people feel accepted when others didn’t. We were feens and Twitter was our drug…and here is where it spread like crack in the ghetto.

People started to change for Twitter. People you personally known for years developed this Clark Kent/Superman persona when it came to Twitter all in the name of “It’s just Twitter”.

Sooner or later, Twitter became the “Party Line” with pictures. You could be anybody you wanted to be and only a select few knew the truth. And if they didn’t like, f*** ‘em. They can unfollow you.

In real life, you’re the shy ambitious kid in the back of the class that gets good grades but no one talks to. But on Twitter, you say & talk more s*** than a lil’ bit because you know you’ll never come across these folks in real life.

In real life, you know your credit’s so f***ed up you need a cosigner for a gift card & can’t open a bank account in your own name but no one on Twitter knows that because you’re constantly stuntin’ about how big your savings account is or talking about how you’re going shopping in New York for the weekend or taking pictures of the stuff you bought that you know you’re gonna return tomorrow just to seem cool.

In real life, you’re actually lonely and looking for someone special but you can’t find them because your constantly at the club tweeting to your followers how much of a great time you’re having.

That’s the problem with Twitter…it’s not real life. But folks have blurred the lines.

See in the real world, you don’t have time to sit and think about the next thing to say. How many times have we written a Tweet only to delete it because we didn’t know how it would come across? Try doing that in everyday conversation without sounding like you belong in Special Ed.  Bet you’re following someone who may be funny as hell on Twitter but in real life when you talk, it’s like “blah”.

Twitter became a way thee way of life. Before we brushed our teeth in the morning, we are hopping on Twitter saying “Good morning” or looking at our mentions to see if some night owl mentioned us while we were sleep (I’m guilty of this too!!!). Twitter, and social media altogether as a matter of fact, is slowly replaced physical interaction. It isn’t about the about the quality of the people you meet anymore but the amount of followers you have on Twitter (#teamfollowback). Problem with that is then folks started getting reckless and rambunctious for followers. Bet a couple of you have ran across a Tebow/Jesus joke that you had to give the side-eye or came across those pictures on Facebook of Jesus & the Devil having sex (made me deactivate my account…for a while. I’m a recovering addict).

Can’t underestimate the power of the T-W-I-T-T-E-R. If Twitter was just Twitter, why don’t I just unfollow that person who constantly talks s*** that I ain’t feeling or is always retweeting EVERY SINGLE one of their horoscopes so much it made me forget I’m an Aries & start thinking I’m a Libra? Because people take unfollowing personal. If they didn’t, sites like FriendorFollow.com wouldn’t exist. “Oh, you gonna unfollow me? I’ll unfollow you back!!!” Now next time you see that person, it’s awkward as hell because people see you unfollowing them on Twitter like you not wanting to be their friend.

In a nutshell, my dear reader. Don’t get sucked into the Twitter world so much that you start not living in the Real World. Besides…they’ll be some new social media in a couple of years that will make Twitter the MySpace of 2014.

Yo.

-Darius

Here, we will talk about any & everything that affects my life from sports to politics. Most will be funny…some will be serious. Either way, enjoy the read!!!

I’ma make you smile.

I’ma make you laugh.

I’ma make you think…

-Darius

Unless you’ve been under a rock (or Hip-Hop isn’t your thing), you’ve heard that Common & Drake have this lil’ beef going on. Supposedly it started over Drake coming at Common’s on-again/off-again girl (Don’t know if they’re off or on right now though) Serena Williams even though Common said on Sway’s radio show it was over “Drake saying he’s the best in the game”.

Either way, I smirked when I first heard about it. The lil’ hip-hop head in me loved the fact that folks were beefing on wax again. You can turn on any major radio station in any major city and hear the same five songs fifteen times a day for three months talking about the same s*** just with a different beat. I like when I recite lyrics to a song, I can relate to what the artist is saying. I ain’t got a Beemer, Benz, and/or Bentley & ain’t never sold a brick. So having two of the hottest artists in the game NOT named Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, or Nicki Minaj having a lil’ scuffle raised my eyebrow. Plus it’s Common & Drake…C’MON!!! What’s the worst that could happen?

Then folks do what folks do and took it to the EXTREME!!! If it weren’t for the second coming of the Messiah aka Blue Ivy, this would still be the number one topic in Black America (with the premiere of The Game a close 2nd.)

Look here, folks… this is NOT gonna turn into a 2Pac/Biggie thing. You don’t have to worry about Hip-Hop’s light-skinned saviors trading bars for guns. C’Mon now!!! Let’s not forget this is Mr. I-Draw-Stories-On-Cue-Cards-For-Deaf-Girls & I-Can’t-Even-Look-In-The-Camera-When-I-Rap/Sing. This is Just Wright & “Wheelchair Jimmy”. This is Lonnie & Aubrey.

Neither one of these dudes lived “that life”. You’re not gonna see YMCMB waiting for Common to leave the MGM Grand to settle this in the streets. You might get a couple of responses on World Star in the next couple of days but after that it’ll die down. Watch. You’ll see them together hugging & head-nodding at the “Annual Something-Big-Happened-And-We-Need-To-Raise-Some-Money” benefit concert this summer. Might even f*** around and come out with a track together and REALLY throw folks for a Mickey.

Take it for what it is: A war on wax. The most it’s worth is four, maybe five, Tweets & a mention at the water cooler just to let folks know your Black Card is still up-to-date.