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Jonathan L.

…I am no one, and at the same time I have to be someone. I am a nameless faceless generation rising up from the depths of “teenage complacency.” I am the rich man sipping his wine on a summer afternoon in the Bahamas, and I also am the poor homeless women that gets passed by millions of people each year who don’t want to know that she exist. I am all the mistakes from the past, the franticness of the present, and the beauty of potential in the future. I am intelligence wrapped up into a cocoon of stupidness. I am stupidness surrounded by an uncountable amount of peers with more wisdom than this world can handle at one time. I am justice when unfairness is the only thing available, I am unfair. I am contradiction, hypocrisy, and redundancy. I am what people say I shouldn’t be. I am an agape lover, a helpless romantic, a passionate leader. I am no one, and at the same time I have to be someone. I am Jonathan Lykes…

Follow on Twitter: @jonathanlykes

Follow Jonathan L. on Twitter: @jonathanlykes

Posts by Jonathan L.

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Maryland’s Marriage Equality, The Ballroom Scene, & Legends

This past week Maryland became the 7th state to pass an equality in marriage bill. While many of the LGBTQ community celebrate this triumph, I remain skeptical that this gesture will bring any form of substantive change, particularly to those who are most marginalized—queer people of color. Marriage is nice, but will that bring more [...]

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What Black History Month Doesn’t Teach You About the Harlem Renaissance

As one looks more into the politics of respectability—a discourse that displays how many members of the black middle class strive to silence what they deem to be the moral inadequacies of those most marginalized—we are able to identify historical instances that were stifled in their time period and still today. We must reclaim the [...]

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Cory Booker, Mumbai India, & the Sedimentary Agitation in Education

Tonight I got the opportunity to meet and speak with Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark. Yes the rumors are true—he is quite inspiring. And even though he is having a hectic week due to Whitney Houston’s Funeral (RIP) occurring in Newark this Saturday, he took time out of his schedule to speak at the [...]

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California’s Marriage Battle, The Black Church and Remnants of Homophobia

In California, the fight for equality in marriage continues. Even though I have conflicting thoughts about marriage in general, I still believe that homophobia and intolerance is what drives decisions like prob 8. These issues as we all know, are nothing new. And many of the remnants of homophobia are just as strong in the black community as any [...]

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Occupy who exactly?— The History of Class Tensions in Black America

Two individuals in different situations, both black, both innocent. Each individual gets pulled over by a white police officer that is notorious for racial profiling. They both are wrongfully discriminated against, they both are wrongfully put in jail, but both do not become heir to the same fate. One individual remains in jail. The other [...]

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Community Schools as a Solution to the Educational Dilemma

“I’m a Democrat. But I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: That Government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more. That’s why my education reform offers more competition, and more control for schools and States.” In President Obama’s state of the Union address, education was one of his [...]

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Educational Systems, Parental Guidance and the Stress Levels of Black Children

At my job there are specific rules that may seem contradictory to norms that exist in society. A particular rule that I was once confused about relates to parent-child contact during youth development activities. We basically don’t allow parents in the room while we’re conducting their post-school day activities. In a world where everyone is [...]

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The New Media Revolution Within a Queer-Subculture: Martin Luther King and Visibility Through Video

In 1994, (when I was four years old) I remember the day that I moved in with my grandmother. The geographical context of my situation was found on the south side of Chicago in Marquette Park (67th Street), where my grandmother had owned a home for a couple of decades. 28 Years before this day [...]

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The New Media Revolution Within a Queer-Subculture: The Downside & Legitimate Cynicism

In this series, I have discussed the potential, possibility and overall positive promise of new media in the queer community of color. From health and education on bgclive.com, to using Facebook as a tool to break down decades of invisibility within identity politics— I now must ask myself, is it all just a bunch of [...]

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The New Media Revolution Within a Queer-Subculture: Part 2- BGC (bgclive.com) & When “Hook-Up” Sites Have the Potential for Community Organizing

It is no secret. The Internet and new media have single-handedly shifted the way we live our lives. This revolutionized form of media has changed politics, social life and international relations. What I want to examine is a how new media impacts the queer community of color. What does new media mean for those who [...]

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