The Purpose of the Blog

We are the people who have never had a shot in life. We are the black atheists, the black gamers, the black republicans. We are African Americans that are not supposed to exist. I created this blog as a means for us "specters" or ghosts to have a place to communicate about our hopes, dreams, and grievances for society. We specters are the ones who bring diversity to an otherwise homogeneous race and society. 

Profile:Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin-Rustin was a gay man who had been arrested for homosexual behavior early in his life. Because homosexuality was criminalized through the 1960s and stigmatized through the 1970s, Rustin's sexuality was criticized by some fellow pacifists and civil-rights leaders. From the 1950s through the 1970s, Rustin was attacked as a "pervert" or "immoral influence" by political opponents, both segregationists and Black power militants. To avoid such attacks, Rustin served only rarely as a public spokesperson. He usually acted as an influential adviser to civil-rights leaders. In the 1970s, he became a public advocate on behalf of gay and lesbian causes.

He recognized Martin Luther King, Jr.'s leadership, and helped to organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to strengthen King's leadership; Rustin promoted the philosophy of nonviolence and the practices of nonviolent resistance, which he had observed while working with Gandhi's movement in India. Rustin became a leading strategist of the civil rights movement from 1955–1968. He was the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which was headed by A. Philip Randolph, the leading African-American labor-union president and socialist. Rustin also influenced young activists, such as Tom Kahn and Stokely Carmichael, in organizations like the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Profile:Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler-was an American science fiction writer, one of the best-known among the few African-American women in the field. She won both Hugo and Nebula awards. In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant.

Profile:Steve Urkel

Steve was the epitome of a geek/nerd, with large, thick eyeglasses, "high-water" or "flood" pants held up by suspenders, multi-colored cardigan sweaters, and a high-pitched voice. He professed unrequited love for neighbor Laura Winslow, perpetually annoyed her father, Carl, and tried to befriend her brother, Eddie. Amongst the rest of the family, Harriette, Rachel, and "Mother" Estelle Winslow were more accepting and caring of Urkel.

Throughout the series' run, Steve was central to many of its recurring gags, primarily gratuitous property damage and/or personal injury as a result of his inventions going awry or his outright clumsiness. He became known for several catchphrases uttered after some humorous misfortune occurred, including "I've fallen and I can't get up!" after he accidentally got drunk in one episode and fell off the edge of a building, "Did I do that?" (previously used by Curly in the 1934 Three Stooges short Punch Drunks), "Whoa, Mama!" and "Look what you did" (if, rarely, someone else caused the damage). Additionally, he frequently insinuated "You love me, don't you?" to Laura Winslow, the usual object of his affection.

Profile: Cornel West

Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, author, critic, actor, civil rights activist and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America. 

West is a 1973 graduate of Harvard University and as of 2011 is a Professor at Princeton University, where he teaches in the Center for African American Studies and in the Department of Religion. West is known for his combination of political and moral insight and criticism and his contribution to the post-1960s civil rights movement. The bulk of his work focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society and the means by which people act and react to their "radical conditionedness." West draws intellectual contributions from such diverse traditions as the African American Baptist Church,pragmatism and transcendentalism.

Profile:Maurice Ashley

Maurice Ashley(born March 6, 1966 in St. Andrew, Jamaica) is a chess grandmaster. In the October 2006 rating lists, he had a FIDE rating of 2465, and a USCF rating of 2520 at standard chess, and 2536 at quick chess. Ashley is associated with Chesswise. In 2005 he wrote the book Chess for Success, relating his experiences and the positive aspects of chess. He was the main organizer for the HB global chess event, with the biggest cash prize in history for an open chess tournament. FIDE awarded him the grandmaster title in 1999. Ashley and Englishman James Plaskett are the only two grandmasters to have made it to the studio stage of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?," each in his respective country. In 1992, Ashley shared the United States Game/10 chess championship with Maxim Dlugy.

Profile:N.K Jemisen

N. K. Jemisin is an American speculative fiction writer and blogger. Her 2010 debut novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, was nominated for the 2010Nebula Award, the 2011 Hugo Award, and is nominated for the World Fantasy Award and was ranked #5 on Amazon's "editors' pick" list of the year's best ten works of science fiction and fantasy. Also in 2010, her short story "Non-Zero Probabilities" was a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

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