Every day, I get emails and MySpace messages from people who say that they check out the blog but never leave any comments. Since the blog gets as many as 25,000 hits a day but most posts only receive 20-30 comments, I’m sure that this is true.

Today, I’d like you “lurkers” out there to drop a comment telling me how often you read, what topics you like, and why you don’t usually post. In addition to satisfying my curiousity,  I’d like to know how I can make the Barbershop more interesting and engaging for the silent majority. Don’t be scared!!!
Of course, if you’d rather remain in the shadows of the blog, there’s no hard feelings. Just keep reading and supporting the page.

Thanks!!!!

As many of you know, I have forgone the many pleasures of summer in order to complete some major writing projects. Unfortunately, personal tragedies, stress, writer’s block, summer school teaching, and an unexpectedly busy speaking schedule all conspired to make me less productive than expected. A few weeks ago, I asked you to send your prayers, thoughts, and other good energy in order to help me regain my swagger.

It worked.

While out in Chicago at the National Hip-Hop Political Convention, I was able to complete 95% of a major chapter in the snitching book. Although the book won’t be done by September as hoped, it’ll be well along the way. Also, Columbia University professor Lalitha Vasudevan (my dear friend and colleague) and I are putting the finishing editorial touches on Media, Learning, and Sites of Possibility this week, which should be out in the early part of 2007.

Overall, I’m about 4 weeks behind schedule based the plan I made in May. Nevertheless, I’m picking up steam and hope to make up some ground in August.

Thanks so much for your help! Keep sending the good energy!!!!!!

“I love Black people… But I hate niggas” – Chris Rock

I know some of y’all are gonna be mad about this quote. Still, don’t we all have these moments?

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to meet up with BJ Bernstein, the attorney for Genarlow Wilson. As many of you know, Genarlow is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for having consensual oral sex with a fellow teenager –Wilson was 17 and the girl was 15. Although the laws have recently been changed to prevent future recipients of consensual oral sex from doing 10 year bids –largely because of Genarlow’s plight and Bernstein’s tireless adovcacy– there is no retroactive law that can free this young man.

Bernstein met me in Chicago at the National Hip-Hop Political Convention in order to spread the word about his unjust incarceration and rally support. She reminded me that Genarlow, who is now 19, has already spent nearly two years in jail for a crime that now carries a 12 year maximum. It is essential that we not forget that this young man is set to lose 8 more years of his life if we don’t do anything soon.

After the Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed Genarlow’s conviction, Wilson’s legal team filed a Petition for Certiorari asking the Supreme Court of Georgia to consider the case. This is a critical decision!

What can you do? Please visit www.WilsonAppeal.com, sign the online petition, donate to his legal/education fund, and contact politicians in the state of Georgia to express you disgust with this law.

According to the Alternet’s Kai Ma, the answer is yes. According to Ma, a woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy is not the equivalent of a man’s choice to financially opt out of fatherhood.

The Difference Between a Womb and a Wallet
By Kai Ma 

Millions of men are forced to financially support children they never wanted. Matthew Dubay, a 25-year-old computer technician in Michigan, decided that he shouldn’t have to do that.

Dubay didn’t want to pay child support for the daughter he conceived with Lauren Wells, his 20-year-old ex-girlfriend. During their three-month relationship, Dubay allegedly told Wells he wasn’t ready to have children, and she replied that she was infertile but using birth control anyway. After they had unprotected sex, she got pregnant and chose to raise the child. Dubay promptly received a court order to pay $500 a month in child support.

On his behalf, the National Center for Men filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Michigan last March, contending that if a woman has the legal right to abort, give up for adoption, or raise a child from an unintended pregnancy, a man should be able to choose to decline the financial responsibilities of fatherhood. The case, nicknamed “Roe v. Wade for men,” equates a woman’s decision about her body to a man’s right to decide whether he wants children. Last week, U.S. District Court Judge David M. Lawson dismissed the lawsuit, writing in his decision, “[Dubay] had difficulty accepting the financial consequences of his conduct so the state came to his assistance.” Still, the NCRM, which plans to appeal, has managed to provoke a national conversation about “reproductive rights for men.”

From the beginning, the case was a longshot. The courts have never sided with men like Dubay, believing that a child’s interest in receiving financial support from two parents outweighs a father’s claim of being duped into financial responsibilities for which he was unprepared. Matthew Dubay has sparked debate over whether men can claim the right to terminate all parental responsibility, based essentially on the verbal equivalent of an informal prenuptial agreement.

Glenn Sacks, a commentator on father’s issues who supports Dubay, recently wrote, “When it comes to reproduction, in America today women have rights and men merely have responsibilities.”

For the rest of the story, click here.