Do You Know Darden?

Darden Corporate Headquarters, Lakeland, FL

A few words about the restaurant giant Darden Restaurants. If you've patronized Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Longhorns or Capitol Grille, you've eaten in a Darden owned restaurant.

Darden seems to be engaging in some egregious employee practices. See here and here. Seems par for the course; yet another company short changing their employees.

"I'm convinced that the only edge we have on our competition is the quality of our employees as reflected each day by the job they do."- Bill Darden, Founder

Mr. Darden's words seem contradictory given the charges leveled by advocacy groups in recent months. Check out the video below.

For more insight read this NY Times interview with Darden's CEO, Clarence Otis Jr.(an African-American) in 2009. See his philosophy on hiring employees. He stated "it's less and less about getting the work done, but more and more about building a team..." So Darden wants to build a team by paying them low wages and cutting hours to avoid paying healthcare benefits?

The employees are the most valuable commodity a business has. Without them there would essentially be no company! Employees deserve respect! They're not just employees, but human beings working for wages to provide for themselves and their families.

Companies should give employees what they need most; competitive compensation to allow a sustainable living, affordable health benefits, sick time, vacation time, a company wide matching savings plan and a chance for vertical promotion.

It's less and less about getting the work done, it's more and more about respecting your employees that's part of your team. Take care of them.

The African American Jockey

Later today the 139th running of the Kentucky Derby will take place. Out of the 20 jockeys in the race there will be a woman and an African American, Kevin Krigger. He is the first black jockey to win the Santa Anita Derby in the 78 years of it's history and, on saturday, Mr. Krigger could be the first African American jockey to win the Kentucky Derby since 1902. That distinction is held by one Jimmy Winkfield (who will be featured in a Reverence post very soon).

Get this, the first Derby 13 of the 15 riders were African American, including Oliver Lewis who won the Derby. The fact that blew me away; African American jockeys won 8 of the first 16 and 15 of the first 28 Kentucky Derbys ran in the United States. Shortly after, the Jim Crow laws abruptly halted African American accomplishments across America and African American jockeys were driven from the track.

Today Terence Meyocks, national manager of the Jockey's Guild, estimates that out of 1,000 jockeys in the U.S. 50 are African American.

Mr. Krigger is the first African American jockey to run in the Derby since 2000, when Marlon St. Julien competed finishing seventh. Marlon St. Julien was the first African American in 79 years to compete.

Around 5 PM Saturday I'll be tuned in to watch the most exciting two minutes in sports. I'll be pulling for Kevin Krigger to make history and add to the extraordinary legacy of the African American jockeys before him.

Kevin Krigger will be riding Goldencents at 5-1. Place your bets!

A Rape Epidemic in India!

Manish Swarup/Associated Press

This post finds Pro Se deeply vexed, outraged and sickened! Rape in India is out of control!

On April 30th a 4 year old girl, who was raped and left for dead on April 17th, died from her injuries.

The NYTimes reported yet another rape of a young girl on April 20th, just 3 days later. This girl was just 5 years of age. The men lured her with chocolate, raped, assaulted (it is reported they put part of a bottle and a candle inside of her), tortured and left her for dead! WTF?

What would make someone commit an act like this? And, why is the rape of young girls happening at epic proportions in India?

When the parents of the young girl reported the crime to the police, the police offered the equivalent of $37 dollars to keep quite about the case. This case, as with other cases and, especially the horrific case in December, the police seem unwilling or uninterested in conducting investigations or enthusiastically pursuing the suspects that commit these crimes.

This brutal crime takes place on the heels of the brutal gang rape of a young medical student in December of 2012. She later died from injuries sustained by the brutality of her rape which caused global outrage!

Women and advocates against violence took the streets protesting the brutality of the crime and a call for sweeping reforms and, yet just 5 months later, another heinous act of brutality is committed against a young girl!

Read this NYTimes opt-ed piece by Sonia Faleiro about rape in India. The facts are staggering! 

• 48,338 cases of child rape have been committed in India from 2001 to 2011.
• The annual cases have tripled since, 2,113 in 2001 to 7,112 in 2011.
• The majority of child rape cases are rarely reported.

A human rights report states that Indian women report domestic violence and rape fewer than most other countries. Men outnumber women and women are sorely mistreated in India. Across India women are looked upon as subservient and girls are less valued, less cared for in general. These are just a few of the reasons why most women are reluctant to report crimes of domestic abuse and rape against them.  

These crimes have to cease, especially the raping of children! There is no excuse for someone to sexually assault and abuse women or sexually violate a young girl or boy! 

Reformation is urgently needed, now!

Reform starts with holding police accountable for their lackadaisical investigations and nefarious arrest efforts. Independent prosecutors should be assigned to an investigation and fastidiously prosecute not only suspects, but any police officials found of wrongdoing or impeding an investigation.

It's hopeful that human rights advocacy groups will continue to apply more global pressure to force the Indian government to implement comprehensive reform across India and regulate stringent punishment against these perverted perpetrators! 

NBA Playoffs Y'all!

Carmelo, Spike and the Knicks poised to make a NBA finals run!

From now till mid June, the NBA Playoffs will be in full swing! This is the biggest sports event besides the NFL playoffs (see the NFL post). What's better than some b-ball in the summer?!

Let the spirited debate commence about Lebron, KD, Carmelo, and no Kobe (damn!).

You can see the schedule here. Games will be televised on NBATV, ESPN, TNT, and ABC. So make sure to catch your favorite team give a beat down or get a beat down!

The Lakers may not advance past the first round and the Knicks look like they can get to the Eastern Conference Finals, but whatever happens, I'll be tuned in! I got the fever, but I refuse to watch another Heat/Thunder final!

So allow Pro Se to lay its first round predictions down even though we're past all of the game ones!

Eastern Conference
Heat- 4-0 over the Bucks
Bulls- 4-3 over the Nets
Pacers- 4-1 over the Hawks
Knicks- 4-2 over the Celtics**

Western Conference
Lakers- 4-3 over the Spurs**
Clippers- 4-3 over the Grizzlies
Nuggets- 4-1 over the Warriors
Thunder- 4-1 over the Rockets

Pro Se will drop second round picks when the first round is over, duh!

Share your predictions in the comments section!

Reverence: Bud Fowler

Bud Fowler stands in the middle, back row.

Welcome back to Pro Se!

With the return of Pro Se, I've added a new addition, Reverence. Reverence's intent is to shed light on untold stories and reexamine stories of relavent African Americans that contributed to the struggle and to the social fabric of the United States.

Reverence was inspired by the "Props" articles found in the back of Vibe Magazine back in the early nineties. Excitement abounds with the educational potential of this new addition!

Let's get started!

So, who was Bud Fowler? Admittedly, I had no idea until I came across this short, informative NYTimes article . Bud Fowler was the first African American to play baseball on an all white professional team in the United States, pitching first for the Lynn, Mass., Live Oaks in 1878.

Mr. Fowler pitched, catch and played second base through 10 seasons with various minor league teams with a .308 batting average. He never made it to the major leagues however and his story faded into the annals of baseball history, well until now!

Undoubtedly, the inspiration for this article was intertwined with the recent release of the film "42", which tells the story of Jackie Robinson, who is credited with breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball. His legacy is rightfully cemented in history, Bud Fowler's is not.

In fact, Jackie Robinson was not the first African American to play in the major leagues, that distinction goes to one Moses Fleetwood Walker , who played catcher for the Toledo Blue Stockings in 1884. His story has been forgotten, but illumination is rightfully needed!

Moses Fleetwood Walker

This Saturday there will be a street dedication for Fowler in Cooperstown, NY, finally honoring Mr. Folwer's legacy.

With the NYTimes article, a written biography coming soon, the Pro Se Blog, along with the Cooperstown's dedication this should prompt baseball fans and historians to reexamine and expound on Mr. Fowler's somewhat enigmatic past.

Please check out the NYTimes article when you have a chance.

Reverence will be a regular addition to Pro Se. If you have any suggestions for a reverence post please email me keithrobinson1@gmail.com

The Case of Kermit Gosnell

Dr. Kermit Gosnell (in photo above) is on trial for murdering one woman, and seven infants! That's 7 babies! What started out being an unthinkable bizarre case is quickly gaining notoriety because the media has discovered the appalling details in this case. 

There are several strories about this horrific doctor performing atrocious late term abortions.

Opinions vary on what this case means for abortion in this country, for sure, upon reading these articles, Gosnell clearly practiced dangerous illegal late term abortions.

He often displayed blatant prejudices against women of color, and allowed incompetent staff to perform medical acts that endangered the patients. Gosnell and staff kept the facilities disgustingly unsanitary, used antiquated equipment to pass venereal diseases, perforated wombs and bowels and used dangerous drugs to over medicate patients. 

And those are just a few of the egregious practices committed.

The most heinous of all acts Gosnell committed was the killing of premature fetuses, in some cases babies that were alive. Gosnell would instruct or commit himself the act of "snipping", in which he would literally use scissors to sever the infant's spinal cords! 

No matter your stance on abortion, this is without doubt, the most reprehensible and criminal of all acts committed by Gosnell!

Reading the details of the atrocities committed are heart breaking! It's unconscionable any person with a shred humanity could willingly commit those acts.

It seems Gosnell committed these acts for years with impunity without any implications from local health officials or local law authorities. 

What's extremely disheartening is how these women were treated, cast aside and forgotten because of their skin color and their soci-economic status. 

And after all that, Gosnell has been accused of, he plead not guilty! Unbelievable!

You should read the links below to gain some clarity about this case. The acts Gosnell is accused of committing shakes the soul to the core. 

Atlantic Monthly

Huffington Post

New York Times

Washington Post

Please leave comments or share your feelings.

Stuff You Should Need to Know Ed. 1

Deciding what to write in a blog can be a daunting task, so i've decided to create a weekly curatorial to help comb through all of he muck and glut, satisfying my jones to keep you informed!

Welcome to the first edition of "Stuff You Need to Know." 

Allegedly, Ray Lewis, linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens, used Deer Antler spray to help him recover from a torn tricep injury. Yeah, a torn tricep and yes, Deer Antler spray! Should you need to recover from your injuries- get some here.

Get your ass to the Museum of the Moving Image to see screenings from L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema. Screenings run from February 2-24.







A magazine for the "hispter dad"! Lol, ok it could be useful. Kindling Quarterly. Kindling, hmmm... okay, so men are combustable twigs?

YouTube has decided to experiment with a fee for content model. Here's the deets. How much would you pay for YouTube videos?

On April 7th, Mad Men returns. Last season was one of it's best! The promo stills are retro noir cool. Matt Weiner, you still need some brothers on the show.

If you smoke weed, get a GPen! This is how you use it.

This week Twitter launched Vine, a 6 second looping video app. You don't know about this? Really? Well, here's how to use it.










See you next week.