You Won't See Me on TV

"Because I ain't shucking and cause I ain't jiving, some of these crackers won't stand beside me, And cause I ain't killing and don't support pimping, some of these niggas wanna call me a Cosby" -Phonte; Rapper, Singer, Songwriter

Remember when we Claire and Cliff AND Martin and Gina? Remember we had Will and the Banks family, but we still had Jazz? Remember when we had a majority black woman cast that were dating tastefully (You can pick Living Single or Girlfriends) while also being professional women? Remember when we had A Different World? Now ask yourself why these are such distant memories? Do we need these exact shows? It would be nice, but no. That's not the point. The point is we had representation. Broad representation. Respectful representation. So the real two questions are:

1.) Why don't we have an equal amount of balanced representation now?

and

2.) Why don't we care about it?

For all the trivial daily outrage I see on social media, why aren't we really attacking this issue. We, being black people, and the issue being, not having proper representation of us. Bias or not, black people are such a diverse people. But all I see representing us on mainstream tv is "ratchet-ness". I'm neither naive nor oblivious to the fact that we do have our "ratchet" side and I'm also not dismissing the fact that it can be entertaining in moderation. But there's no moderation. There's a landslide. More specifically, as a black man, I only can think of one positive representation of myself on a major network. A black man that cares about more than his next sexual conquest. One of honesty and integrity that prevents him from cheating on and lying to every woman he deals with. One with a career that doesn't involve working on his next mixtape (I love rap. Don't confuse my point). One that isn't, or once was, heavily involved in drug dealing. That one example is Dre Johnson. The father on the hit show, Black-ish, played by Anthony Anderson. I love Black-ish but I also know there's more than one type of cohesive black family in the world. I know there's more than one black man in this country capable of loving a black woman monogamously. I know there's more than one group of intelligent black kids that didn't come from a broken home!!! But "All I see is victims", to quote Pusha T. All I see is {no}Love and Hip-Hop and it's offspring. Is there a place for shows like this on television? Of course. I'm no monk, I have guilty pleasures. My biggest issue with these shows is the fact that they run year round, with entities in different major cities that rotate by season, and in essence, corner the market. If we had one Black-ish for every Love and Hip-hop entity, Black Ink, and Empire, you wouldn't hear a word from me. But the writing is on the wall. The very criteria of being on love and Hip-Hop isn't that you actually have to be a formidable working artist in Hip-Hop, you just have to have 6 degrees of separation from someone who WAS, and either be dogging and degrading black women or being one of the black women being dogged and degraded. You have to either be cheating or being cheated on. You have to be either a regularly drunk and belligerent and physically fighting black woman, or a gossiping naive one with poor taste in mates.  So news flash, you can't have a positive lifestyle and be on this franchise. Which again is fine, but if you don't live like these people, where's your representation?

Let's dissect another angle: other than "Bow" Johnson (Dre's wife, played by Tracee Ellis Ross) how many other positive images of black women on a major television show are dating a faithful black man? I'll wait. The closest thing to it would be "Cookie" played by the stunning Taraji P. Henson. However, Cookie dates black men on the show, but they're always temporary characters as she somehow always leaves them indirectly because of her ex-husband Lucious Lyon. Lucious and Cookie aren't bad representations of black people. While Empire is more of modern day Soap Opera, in my opinion, I wouldn't label them bad representations. They are successful and family oriented. But they had to be sullied. Both are former drug dealers who became successful off of drug money first, and then the music business. A common tale in the music business, specifically hip-hop, tho.   Lucious is a lying (Lyon), cheating, unethical, immoral, murderer that also is a shrewd, effective businessman. Ehhh. Then you have Ghost and Tasha. Another black couple, from the show Power that started in drug dealing. Not to mention, Ghost is cheating on Tasha with a white/ Italian woman, and Tasha was cheating with a younger black man. Cheating and drugs. We are more than that. While I love Power and love what the success that Empire quietly represents (and the amazing job Taraji P. Henson does), why can't we "get right" on TV? Olivia Pope, played by the beautiful Kerry Washington, on the hit show Scandal, only dates white men. I have no, absolutely no, problem with interracial dating, I just want them to stop putting the poison in the candy. I also want us to open our eyes to the subliminal messages.

As a black man, I constantly feel attacked, in the media. From the examples I just gave you I feel like the message is, I, a black man, will never be good enough (for the public). Because I can't be successful without a drug background or music career. And because I'll cheat on every woman that loves me. That Dre Johnson is an anomaly. Also, whenever we see a black man on the news who has allegedly committed a heinous crime, he's a thug. Or every rapper or fan of rap is a thug (See: Bill Blanton's comments). However, when a caucasian adult or young adult is guilty of similar acts they're considered "troubled" or "mentally ill". It's privilege at work. We are all aware of this; even the ones that don't care to publicly admit it. Personally, I'm not one of those people who try excuse, without accountability, crime just on the merit of "a white person would get away with it". But I don't think this perspective is extreme. I don't think I'm overstating. Somebody has to say it. Somebody has to change it. Somebody has to care. We need equal representation. We also need accountability. We air our dirty laundry proudly; and we support every second of the clothesline, it shows in the ratings. So why would they change the formula? When will we get tired of it? When will we wake and see the social engineering? Where's the writers? Where's the trailblazers? Where's the real activists and community organizers? I just want the balance. I want critical acclaim worthy representation. I want positive influences. I just want to see {me} on TV!

Just My Thoughts,

Travis Cochran

Why You Shouldn't Let Your Child Work for Chick Fil A

I usually don't eat fast food because it makes me feel horrible after. It's also expensive as hell and the prices keep going up. But I'm not here to bash fast food because in some ways it makes the world better. What I am here for though is to tell you why as a person or parent you should never want to or let your kids work for Chick fil A...

Yesterday at work I got a coupon for a free chicken sandwich. Never the one to turn down free food I went to get my sandwich and I planned to get some fries and a Coke which totally violated my no fast food rule. I noticed that Chick fil A has the absolute very best customer service I've ever had in a fast food spot. I literally waited 2-3 minutes for my food and when I got it they called me by name, (not sure how.. Unless the digital coupon had my name on it) thanked me for my business, and apologized for my wait. I was absolutely blown away because most places won't apologize no matter how long you've been waiting. Everyone was so happy and upbeat! As I was walking to my car I really wondered how does Chick fil A maintain its high, energetic, almost flawless customer service.. Then it hit me! Chick fil A only hires super young kids who don't know anything about the world let alone customer service. The difference between them and other restaurants is that you either see high school aged kids or 30 plus adults, nothing in between. This is probably the first job for most of them and I'm sure you can remember how excited you were for that first job. How you were on time everyday with your shirt tucked. And I'm sure somewhere along the way the excitement faded and turned to "I hate my job." It happens to everybody because you can tell when somebody doesn't want to be at work. Not in Chick Fil A though! They've developed the perfect system of making kids believe that work is always supposed to be like this. How else can you explain the amazing service and hot food. If you go in and close your eyes I'm sure that's what heaven sounds like. These bright eyed teenagers don't know how good they have it because just on the outside of those friendly walls, with pictures of happiness and joy, is a miserable world that is ready to drain every ounce of joy they have. I almost feel bad for them because Chick Fil A is sheltering them under a building where nobody is unhappy. They make you happy to eat fast food everyday because you want that warm feeling inside that comes from an eight count nugget and waffle fries and not having to deal with an attitude to get it. I've never even seen a drink spilled in Chick Fil A. The place is nothing short of a perfect world only to be realized once you leave it. The real world is no joke and Chick fil A doesn't prepare these teenagers for that at all. 

Wake The Fuck Up

I struggle a lot with whether I should speak on certain issues because I feel that people are going to judge or just not listen. Now I am the point that I do not even care anymore, because of sick of the shit. You would also think that African "Americans" really are terrible people. At that moment I decided that I was not going to shut up about what was going on in "OUR" country or community. The first thing that I am going to speak on is this whole election going on here. Like wtf are we doing? Are we really going to let Donald Trump represent us as a whole? I really hope people have a little more fight in them. You can add your candidate in on the ballot the day of the election as long as your state is not a swing state.(google this term) Please do! I think it is important that we take voting serious. If you have black(or any shade of black) skin & don't vote... you are basically spitting in your ancestors faces who went to bat for your black ass to change the world.

Look at all these people doing something other than complaining.
Wonder what that would be like? 

We have to gain knowledge of a system that has oppressed us for years and play them at their game. We have to sweep out congress and get new people in there will be for the people. All revolutions started off slow but it can be done when the movement is backed by people willing to put others before themselves. I am putting the well-being of my son & family before mine. I can not imagine my kid or the kids I teach still being treated differently because of their skin color.

Black people we have to wake the fuck up! What are we doing? Is really that hard to fuck with your own people? How can we support everyone and show no love to each other?  It's time we start sticking up for each other. It's time we start linking up. Loving each other. Teaching our own kids again. Building a community. I feel like it is going to be a time when we are going to need this & now is a perfect time to start. Start talking to your friends and family. Find like minded people who will share your vision, plan, and then MOVE! All this praying to God is a totally waste if we do not put in ACTION behind it. I know it sound like I am a dreamer, but I feel it all in reach if we finally forgot our differences among us & work towards a common goal. I think something that we can all agree on is that we want peace. Do you really want to get free? Stand your black ass in your power then & ride. 

I don't want to sit here and chastise people because what is done is done, but everything change. We will get it together. I have faith in us.  

You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.

-Malcolm X                                                                    

Who you talking to???

"I liked it better when the 'Net was still a novelty, cause now people who ain't found themselves get an outlet, yet don't know how they sound themselves. They like me better when I'm silent and don't have an opinion, pretending to blend in like I'm a minion" -Joe Budden; Rapper


​Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Snapchat. Tinder. Tumblr. Periscope. These are the most dominant social networking sites in today’s society! Millions upon millions of users simultaneously are glued to these sites/apps every millisecond of of every minute of every hour of the twenty-four hours that we are privileged to. "Pulls down to refresh phone" Daily people log on to bounce thought after thought off of stranger and friend alike! I’m sure there are more sites that I’m forgetting but, as the rapper Wale famously named one of his mixtapes, it’s just More About Nothing! Not to be misunderstood, I’m not anti social media. I’m actually a very avid user myself! I just really pay attention to the trend of where it is going, and that trend is what scares me! And there’s not much that scares me​

​In an era of mass information consumption and networking people are talking to each other less than ever. Literally and metaphorically, everything is about doing the least as possible to get the point across. Emojis, acronyms, and 140 character tweets are engineering a social consciousness that being able to thoroughly express yourself is no longer a necessity! Everything is abbreviated. Everything is aggressive. And last but not least, everything is outrage! Whether it’s a disgruntled lover passive aggressively "subtweeting" venting on the timeline instead of having a direct conversation with their mate about their feelings, an inability for the majority of society to respectfully disagree with each other, and how aggressively and abrasively the internet has become as a warzone to hurl insults at people with no recourse.

​“I’m from the 80’s”, late 80’s but 80’s nonetheless, and my generation is the middle ground now. By middle ground I mean, we’re the last generation that was pre- internet but also are naturally affluent in the life of the internet because we have been here and been in tuned with it since it’s inception. This lends to varied perspectives. First, for more perspective, I personally think generations are typically four year blocks. From my scattered unconscious and undocumented research, experiences are typically based on who you were in high school with. Of course there’s a gap between the experiences of a senior and a freshman but that’s the smallest consistent block I’ve noticed so I’m running with that. Back to the topic. My generation is the middle ground, so I’ve seen how people, myself included, communicated with each other pre internet and how it has grown over the years. Modern day communication is more texting than calling. More memes than letters. More emojis even… than words! Everything about communication has been about getting the message across the quickest, not the best. Not the most thorough. Just the quickest. Very cool example of this is the Coach K’s (Duke University basketball coach) commercial where he tells his son to relay a message to former Duke player, Justise Winslow, and his son takes his words and relays them in emojis. No words used. Another example of this would be memes. If you’re out of the loop, google the word “memes” prefaced by any emotion you want and watch the plethora of memes, which are pictures with short captions that are intended to quickly display sentiment, pop up as a result of your search. A lot of times when a girlfriend has gotten her feelings hurt by her boyfriend, don’t get me wrong men do it too, you’ll see her post memes on one or all of the before mentioned apps with captions like “Never give another man a chance to make your woman smile” accompanied by a beautiful woman looking sad. Or if a man thinks his girlfriend should be doing certain duties that she’s not, he may post a meme with a caption like “A real Queen knows how to treat her King” or something overtly misogynistic with a picture of a man holding money or wearing a lot of jewelry. Or a woman performing a sexual or "domestic" act. Disappointment not being the only sentiment memes are used to display but it’s definitely one of the most used. Anything from #RelationshipGoals to #BodyGoals or just pure comedy and insult can be and more times than not are used… instead of words. This also showcases another factor in this which is, now more than ever, people don’t mind putting their personal life on full display for the world to see. People have also gotten into the habit of even when they use their words, they don’t calibrate their aim. This is commonly known as a subtweet. This is when I have a problem with Jamie because he owes me money, it’s past the return date he said he would return it, and he hasn’t called to make the exchange or ask for an extension but instead of contacting Jamie indirectly I tweet “Don’t you hate when people owe you money and you don’t hear from them” or “I promise I’m not helping people anymore”. All the while I know that Jamie is one of my “followers” on these sites and he will almost surely see these post and know I’m talking about him. Which, warranted or not, will only make the issue bigger because no one wants to be sucker punched. This happens all day up and down timelines back and forth until boiling points are reached and two parties are fed up with being indirect or the timeline has figured out the culprit so now guns are blazing directly. But why not tell your boyfriend or girlfriend what’s on your mind? Why not directly address situations amongst friends, or enemies for that matter? How have the limitations of a tweet that is restricted to 140 characters (I’m currently at 4,441 in this piece) and emojis devalued the usage and importance of the English language affected literacy? What happens when the meme is misinterpreted?

​Secondly, when did having an difference of opinion become the mark of the beast? Who’s the best rapper, Jay-z or Young thug? Who’s the better basketball player Jordan or LeBron? If I say Jay-z and you say Nas, is that not ok? If Jay Z drops an album today, and I love it but majority of the people on twitter think Jay Z is old and out of touch does that make me old and out of touch or an idiot or just too biased or was I blessed with my own ears and my own mind? I regularly say Groupthink is the worst epidemic to hit America in my natural life. Groupthink is when people form their opinions, solely or close to it, off of popular opinion? A product of groupthink becoming so prevalent is that when a person that doesn’t aspire to it contests a popular opinion, they’re attacked or dismissed from that moment on. I personally don’t want to live in a world where everyone wants to agree more than they want to think.  I also don’t want to live in a country where you’re exiled because you don’t agree with everything status quo. An example of this is the current case of Bill Cosby, which up until recently have only played out in the court of public opinion. I’m not here to argue guilt or innocence, that’s not my place, my argument is people reserve the right to disagree on it. People also reserve the right to say "I need more information". There’s people who are more educated on the evidence that has been presented who will attack anyone that doesn’t automatically presume Bill Cosby is a rapist. Because the general consensus is, "Bill Cosby is guilty because there’s no way this many women are lying on him." Which very well could be true, but one day watching my timeline and anybody who disagreed with that rhetoric or dared to say “let’s wait until we hear both sides” was immediately attacked or ostracized.  I used this example because of it’s sensitivity. Just follow me.

​This leads into my third gripe, which is, the internet has taken bullying to all time high levels. People that disagree, people that produce content, or just people who challenge a point of view are often, very often, insulted beyond belief online. Have you ever looked in the comment section of any post of content? People have taken the general anonymity of the internet to say the worst things they can think of to people. About people. About people’s work. And about people’s kids. It opens the window to how much unprovoked hate there is that’s being concealed until an outlet lends way to express it. It’s alarming. What’s more alarming is the infatuation that “we” have come to have with seeing and commenting on hardships. How in moments of mistakes or misfortune our society feeds off it. Blogsites, gossip sites, and the “ordinary joe” alike take to keyboards hourly to not only document missteps but to vilify and persecute people. As much as we like to conveniently attempt to forget celebrities are still people, that’s what they are, people! For no reason at all we engage in dialogue completely aimed at inflicting pain or exciting a negative reaction. This practice has been coined as “trolling”. The aforementioned rapper Wale, is a consistent victim of this. Deemed emotional, and living in that reality willingly, Wale has become a target. Not because he wishes ill will on people or because he’s attacking people but simply because they know he, being his “emotional” self, will react! So daily people contemplate the most demeaning, harsh, and provocative insult they can say to him about his appearance or music or prior actions in hopes of getting him to simply respond. This “trolling” practice isn’t limited to Wale or even to celebrities but it’s just a very well known example of a sadistic trend. It’s alarming that this is how we are communicating with each other more and more!

​So to say all of this is unnerving is a bit of an understatement. I worry about how common good will being an endangered concept amongst such a beautiful concoction of people that is the United States. I worry that even though it can be fun, effective, and convenient our growing devaluing of the English language will have a domino effect. That concept is justified by the fact that it’s almost a surprise when I see people use the proper usage of there, their, and they’re! I worry about us becoming a culture where people have been shamed into not thinking for themselves. A culture where dialogue can’t be had unless the parties are like minded without getting disrespectful. I worry that we are consistently losing respect for how we speak to people. How we aren’t being held accountable for our words because the keyboard is a mobile conduit where you can flow insults into a person’s head space without being anywhere near their personal space. These things worry me. I can’t fix them. I can only hold myself, my family, my friends, and my colleagues accountable but that doesn’t feel like nearly enough! I could go on but, in essence, until the majority becomes conscious of these things and the dangers of them, I would just be going on More About Nothing! The irony, I want the group, in this case, to think like me!

Did Cam Newton "Let Nas (the hood) Down"?

By now, everyone knows who won this year’s Super Bowl, the Denver Broncos. Not Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers. I took some time to release this because I wanted to see how things played out in the aftermath. If you are a NFL fan you know that Cam Newton was the most polarizing player of the year. You either love him and what he stands for or you hate him and think he’s arrogant and disrespectful. For US though, Cam embodies what we term being “Unapologetically Black”. He was successful at playing his way and being proud of it. But he lost. So the question is, did Cam let us, “hood’, down? I would say no!

Cam put a target on his back for being so unapologetic in the face of political correctness so he will take a bevy of criticism from the press. However, the most common thing people say about the NFL is that it’s the ultimate team game. No one player can takeover a game like basketball or even baseball where a pitcher can dominate a game. Even as a quarterback, you need your offensive line to give you time to make the passes, you need your receivers to catch said passes, and you need your running backs to run effectively and not fumble the ball to keep the balance and manage the clock. Cam had neither of those the night of the Super Bowl. That will go lost because in this world the biggest star shoulders double the blame because they get so much praise for the success. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Do I feel Cam looked lethargic and beaten well before the game was out of reach? Yes. Do I think Cam should’ve dived on the ground for that fumble? Debatable. Do I think his body language and lack of visible accountability on the field and sidelines contributed to the play of his team? Yes. Because leaders lead by example first and by voice second. Cam’s polarizing personality could’ve helped light a fire in his team. I believe that. So I’m not absolving him of any responsibility. But he didn’t “Let Nas (the hood) Down” because he still was a great inspiration to black young men all year. He won league MVP as the 6^th black man in this century. He still has not broken laws or done anything morally wrong to paint black men in a bad light. Cam learned a lesson on a national stage that you have to get the job done. So even in his defeat there was a valuable lesson that may resonate to all the people that follow him and that is that you have to finish the job. Also, when you talk the talk and don’t finish the job, the world will remember your failure far more than they remember your accomplishments.

In the end, Cam will go back and become a better player and hopefully a better man as we all should aspire to be on a daily basis. And hopefully he will still, “Dab on them folks”. Unapologetically. But humility isn’t weakness, hopefully he'll use the lessons as strength and let it fuel him to finish the job next time. He's a young man trying to figure life at a faster pace than most of us and with a way bigger audience than most of us. Even grass grows.

96 Days

I really think that no matter where I live my toilet has special powers. I really do some of my best thinking there. So last night I was thinking about how life can pass you by... By doing what you have to do to survive and that's working. Of course it depends on the type of job you have but for the average person their job doesn't pay them enough to live the exciting adventure filled life that they dreamed of. If they're lucky enough to get a job where they can afford it they usually don't have the time. I fall into both categories in the wonderful world of retail sales. Now before I say anything let me first say I'm thankful for this job because it's allowing me to bring this post to you. Whether you apply it or not is up to you.. (Definitely rambling slightly) But the retail life is terrible because your pay is never the same and you work crazy hours and the holidays make you suicidal. I don't know about anybody else but after being away from my bed and my toilet for 12 hours is stressful enough without the added stress of the 9-10 hours spent working. Once I get home I'm spent. Mentally and physically. So much of the day is spent with customers who quite frankly need you to think for them and that's not calling them dumb but we're "specialists" so we have to know everything about everything and what's best for them. I'm an introvert so I'd rather spend most of the day alone thinking about whatever so after not being able to get lost in my own thoughts the only thing I want to do after work is sit on my toilet eat then get in the bed. I also write, read etc. (can you end a sentence with etc? I'm sure Trav knows) Not to mention I was probably up around 6:30 am. I say that to say this. That was one day and I still have 4 more of those. So the 2 days I get off I have to sleep, socialize, workout, get a haircut, drive home to see everybody, work on a business, pay bills, think about paying student loans and clean up. What if I want to take a trip? What if I wanted to see the world? If you follow my snapchat you would've saw me calculating the days you have off per year and I came up with 96. Feel free to check my arithmetic. I'm not counting staycation days either. To me... 96 days isn't enough time to see the world. 

New Year... New... Me?

"I started at the bottom, blind leading the blind... I did it by myself, so it took me some time" -Rick Ross; Rapper


It's that time of the year. The beginning of the year where everybody is gearing up for change... and others are gearing up to discourage it. One of the most discouraging ills of this beautiful country is that we have a society that prefers to criticize more than they prefer to congratulate. Discourage more than encourage. Don't get me wrong, I know some of it is jokes, but more often than not people actually are critical of those people who set goals for the new year.

Let's dissect it though. I wonder if people ever stop to think about why some people wait for the new year to try to change. Because not only is change hard... it's scary! A new year is symbolic of another chance and that's motivating. Change is a very scary thing because often times the only thing people fear more than death, is failure. It's such a scary thing to put your all into something and it not work out how you hoped. It's also hard to be consistently disciplined enough to resist what ever temptation can detour you from the goals you have set.

For example, if your goal is to get out of a toxic relationship right? You tweet it, you talk about it, you put it in the universe, you actually try to but the feelings unfortunately are still there right? people not only wait for you to go back to that relationship just to say "I told you so", they rarely will try to help you with the process of getting away. But what are friends for? Why aren't we there for each other more without judgment? Why don't we give each other more positive reinforcement?

Another example, your "new year, new me" goal is to relocate to a new city. You tweet it, you talk about it, you put it in the universe, you actually try to but the reality of life is that relocation isn't easy.   If your family is where you currently live, even with money and a job lined up it's hard to detach enough to leave. But instead of giving you positive reinforcement, people will tell you and anybody else that will listen that you're not going nowhere. Those same people will wait for six months to pass with you not relocating to bring back up in your face that "you still here". Now I'm not one for excuses at all, but I know we, as a society, would rather pull you back in the water, than to help you get out.

There have been many crossroads in my life that I had to face. Decisions had to be made that shaped my relationships, my career, my family and my happiness. Some helped two of those and ruined another,  helped one and ruined the other three, and otherwise. The point is at all of those crossroads the one constant was disruption. Meaning, however things were before said crossroad, they would never be the same after. Some people would have just turned around and went back into their comfort zone, I too have done so a few times, but why? Because a disruption is exactly that and a lot of times we wonder why shake the boat if everything at the time is manageable. That fear of the unknown is realer than a Mike Tyson punch in the 80's, ask Michael Spinks. It takes the perfect combination of bravery and faith to take a leap... of faith! Which is essentially what being open to change is!

So while there's "new year, new me" posts from people who are in the same position with the same habits as this time last year, people who will be in the same predicament next year, and people with brilliant and hilarious jokes about said people, don' be ashamed to at least attempt to better yourself with the genesis of yet another year you're here! Even if you don't even believe you're capable of doing the things you're professing, say it enough until you do believe it. Encourage people around you to do the same thing. Share your goals, your vision boards, and your lessons learned overtime that will help this year be better. And if December 31, 2016 comes around and not much have changed... thank God you have the chance to try again! It's a marathon, not a sprint.

 My thoughts


"As long as I'm breathing, can't knock the way a nigga eating!"