Watch out Mary Jane, there’s a new woman in town and she seems to be taking the Hip Hop world by storm. Within the last year, rappers like Souljah Boy, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Rick Ross, and 2 Chainz have all mentioned a white girl named “Molly” in at least one of their songs.

No, she’s not a random white woman that’s being tossed around by musicians. Like Mary Jane, Molly is a street name for a popular drug. Molly is the purest form of 3,4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), an illegal, synthetic, psychoactive drug that has a strong influence on the body’s nervous system.

Synthesized and patented in 1914, some say it may be America’s most popular recreational drug. MDMA is taken orally, usually in tablet or capsule form and typically lasts from 3 to 6 hours.

In the 1970’s the drug was given to psychotherapy patients, but the treatment was halted because animal testing showed that it caused brain damage. During the 1990’s rave scene, the drug was quite common among  party-goers, but it’s reemergence in 2012 is causing many to worry. Already capable of several health risks on its own (seizures, anxiety, depression), it is often  laced with other, sometimes unknown, drugs  which make it even more dangerous.

“It’s like playing a game of chance…you have no idea what’s in it until you take it,” said Linda Surks at the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence of Middlesex County in an interview with New Jersey 101.5.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has classified Molly as a schedule 1 drug, which means it has the potential to be highly abusive and is, for the most part, not approved for medical uses. Marijuana (Mary Jane), Heroin, and all their derivatives are also listed in the schedule 1 category.

So now when you hear Juicy J rap, “take the blunt, dip it in the lean, then light it/Pop a Molly, drink some orange juice, get higher,” you know he’s promoting the use of an illegal substance that can be potentially fatal.

Want some good advice? No matter how nice she sounds, don’t trust that white girl!

About Albert Phillips

Albert Phillips is a freelance journalist and student at Morgan State University. He also manages www.realityspeaksbookstore.com. Check out his blog at http://freedumbnow.tumblr.com.

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As we slowly ease off the uneasy stomachs caused by Thanksgiving and the overdrawn bank accounts caused by Black Friday, there’s another significant celebration of culture and history all black Americans should be looking forward to. Started by author, activist, and scholar, Dr. Maulana Karenga in the 1960’s, Kwanzaa has grown to have an international audience and continues to reinforce the need for all people of African descent to embrace their roots and understand their history.

As great and profound as that sounds, many African Americans still aren’t buying into Kwanzaa. There are no official statistics on how many Blacks celebrate Kwanzaa, but most online searches state that less than 5 percent will celebrate this year, while nearly 30 million people will celebrate worldwide.

In light of the recent re-election of Barack Obama, you would think more black people would be eager to engage in activities that specifically deal with their blackness. When nearly 100 percent of black Americans support a black presidential candidate, it’s hard to believe that all those people of color voted for him simply because of his policies and promises (that’s another story). It is not farfetched to assume his race played a significant factor to his black constituency.

Is our black pride still alive or is it only temporary? Do we support our own because it’s the right thing to do or because it is convenient and commercialized? On one hand we overwhelmingly support a black president, but on the other hand many black businesses are suffering and poor black communities are undervalued. This duality of love/discontent for one another is what I think leads many of us away from Kwanzaa.

I’ve heard just about all the excuses. “Kwanzaa is nothing but a Black Christmas.” “We have Black History month, why do we even need another Black holiday?” “All that Black stuff is unnecessary, we are all one people and we have a Black president now.”

I could go on and on, but the reality is if black Americans were more involved with the principles and ideals intertwined in Kwanzaa, we would be more inclined to support one another and end the “love-hate” relationship we have towards things that are considered “Black” or “African”.

The week-long celebration of Kwanzaa brings the Nguzo Saba (seven principles) to light. Each day the participants are expected to practice the highlighted principle as a way of reconnecting spiritually, mentally, and physically with one another. The principles are Umoja (Unity), Kuji-chagulia (Self-determination), Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility), Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity), and Imani (Faith).

Regardless of your religious faith or what part of the African Diaspora you reside in, these principles can be used to empower your communities and invigorate change in your life.

Black people in America are called “African-American” for a few reasons, but one is because we are directly connected to the birthplace of humanity, Africa. We fully embrace the “American” side with the celebration of Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, and other holidays, but we hardly consciously embrace our “African” side. Some people treat it like a curse that they can’t get rid of. For some reason, the character Uncle Ruckus from the Boondocks cartoon (a self-hating Black man who disassociates himself from other African Americans as much as possible) comes to mind.

At the end of the day I’m not asking people to join a Black Nationalist/Pan African Movement (although they may want to consider it). I’m simply urging Black Americans and African people around the world to give Kwanzaa a chance. It’s only one of 52 weeks in a year and you don’t have to purchase any gifts for someone you don’t like just to show that you love them.

Visit the official Kwanzaa website for more information on Kwanzaa and learn how to start your own Kwanzaa celebration this year.

About Albert Phillips

Albert Phillips is a freelance journalist and student at Morgan State University. He also manages www.realityspeaksbookstore.com. Check out his blog at http://freedumbnow.tumblr.com.

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Malcolm X. What does the average person think of when Malcolm X comes to mind? Separation, Black Nationalism, the Nation of Islam, and probably his world renowned, classic book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. However, Manning Marable, a social critic and prestigious scholar of African American history, offered the world another version of the Malcolm X we once admired or resented, dependent upon your ideology.

In 2011, Marable and Viking Press released the best-selling, Pulitzer Prize winning, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, a biography of Malcolm X that has gained international praise, but also overwhelming scorn from notable black scholars and activists. The book is the result of over 10 years of work and extracts information on Malcolm’s life from interviews, letters, diaries, and surveillance conducted by the New York Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

As a response to the fallacies and inconsistencies they feel are present in Marable’s book, Todd Burroughs and Jared Ball, two professors at Morgan State University, assembled commentaries from numerous black writers to create a definitive reaction. The writers range from various segments of the black community, both young  and aged; the most notable being author, activist, and political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal.

During the interview below, co-editor Jared Ball discusses some of what it took to formulate A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X.

Albert Philips: A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X, why did you pick that title?

Jared Ball: We picked that title because we’re arguing what Marable and by association Columbia University, and Penguin Press, with its subsidiary, Viking Press, have done in claiming this title of their own reinvention is in fact a lie. We are arguing that it is a lie and a conscious, political decision on their part to re-frame Malcolm X as more of a liberal democrat than the Black Nationalist, anti-imperialist, freedom fight that he was.  We’re clear on why we chose that title and we’re being intentionally provocative but at the same time we’re being sincere; we do think it is a lie. It is an intentional reshaping.

Albert Phillips: What are a few of the main points that you want your book to hit on that Manning Marable may have been off on?

Jared Ball: Our primary focus is to challenge the world view or ideology behind Marable’s work. If you look carefully at what he’s done, he has offered consistent critiques of Black Nationalism of the Garveyite tradition, Marxism-Leninism, and offers a democratic, socialized, liberalized view of Malcolm X. A lot of our contributors, in different ways, argue that Marable wasn’t ideologically, situated in a way that can interpret, accurately who Malcolm was. We wanted to specifically talk about this Marable book, not necessarily his entire career or his entire body of work.

Albert Phillips: What do you say to the people who say, “You’re trying to get paid off the legacy of Manning Marable?”

Jared Ball: If you want to get paid, you do what Marable did. Those are the scholars who get paid. They’re the ones who get the Columbia University positions, the grants and the funding, the research team, and the decades of time to do this work. They are the ones who get top six publisher support and Pulitzer Prizes. When you get praise like that, that’s when you get paid. Publishing on Black Classic Press, which is a legend in its own right, is certainly no guarantee of money. Publishing a critique on an establishment academic and an establishment press, and an establishment book is not how you get paid.

A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X was published by Black Classic Press and is available at www.blackclassicbooks.com.

About Albert Phillips

Albert Phillips is a freelance journalist and student at Morgan State University. He also manages www.realityspeaksbookstore.com. Check out his blog at http://freedumbnow.tumblr.com.

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