Welcome to the 5th anniversary issue of The Positive Community magazine. As we begin our 6th year publishing monthly, we take this opportunity to offer our gratitude to everyone who has contributed to our survival and growth and for your loving support.

Above all, we are grateful for God’s grace and mercy as we journey along this road less traveled. We have come this far by faith. Our goal is simple and straightforward: to earn, invest, and share. The Positive Community is a leadership chronicle with an emphasis on progress—spiritual, cultural, collective. The words and images on each page in each issue reflect the Truth, Beauty and Goodness of a loving and gifted race. Today, however, there is sadness among many African Americans as we witness Black pride; dignity and self-esteem turn into self-hate in little more than a generation. The image of Black people in America is being challenged unlike any other time in our history. This fall our children will wake up and prepare for school tuned into radio stations on which other African Americans refer to themselves and their audience as nig#*rs, ho’s bitches, killa’s, haters, thugs, gangstas and pimps.

In the afternoon, when they come home from school, they can watch images on TV music videos glorifying Black on Black crime and violence, misogyny, sexual promiscuity, idleness, drunkenness and all manner of anti-social retrogressive behavior. The results are appalling. Today, there are more African American males in prison (1.2 million and rising) than in college. HIV/AIDS is the #1 killer of African American women, with America’s fastest growing cases being Black women ages 15-25.

Granted, the owners and the advertisers that support these radio and TV stations that target our young don’t really care if Black people should live or die—they’re in it for the money. They will be quick to point out that they are only playing what your kids want to see or hear.

If the world views the African American community with haughty disdain, it affects every single one of us, regardless of income or status. We owe it to God, to the future of our children and to all who have sacrificed, suffered and died for freedom, to keep Black beautiful.

For African Americans who claim to speak for a generation to use the public airwaves to refer to Black people as nig#*rs is unacceptable. We were called that name on the slave ships that bought us here; we were called that name when families were ripped apart and sold on the slave auction block; we were called that name when we were lynched in the Jim Crow South; we were called that name when we were jailed, beaten and killed for the right to vote.

The temple of great African American achievement and culture must be cleansed of the unjust few who would, without mercy, exploit the masses of the young, the ignorant, and the untaught for personal, selfish gain.

We believe that the crisis in African American culture and cultural leadership looms larger than the Civil Rights struggle of a generation ago. Now, more than ever, our story of struggle and achievement, our immense contribution to American and world culture must be told by us and for us.

At St. Paul Community Baptist Church in East New York, Brooklyn they are doing just that. Our cover story (please read pages 34-35 ) features Rev. Dr. Johnny Ray Youngblood and the ministry of St. Paul Community and Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church, both under his pastorship.

St. Paul Community is mounting its 11th anniversary production of the Commemoration of the MAAFA (September 17-24). It is an educational, emotional, spiritual experience aimed at dealing with and healing our collective memories and building community reconciliation. The centerpiece is the thrilling theatrical performance MAAFA Suite…A Healing Journey. Bring the family. Bring the children. Bring a friend. It is absolutely awesome!

Finally, let us move forward together, affirming our faith in the reality that we are created in God’s image, and that Black is beautiful, inside and out.