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There is really nothing I can write here that can express this issue any better than these students have. 

 

As we still battle public and personal demons on a daily basis, as we feel the constant weight of needing to "prove ourselves" some how we must try to remember the words of Dr. Maya Angelou, "You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody". 

 

Easier said than done. Easier read than believed. But let's continue to raise awareness and continue to support one another because no matter how some may try they can never fully understand what it is like. They may empathize, and though the empathy is appreciated (as long as it is sincere and not for show), they will never be able to walk in our shoes. They will struggle to understand the weight and the pressure. They are not to blame. This is not a call to action against a people, it's a raising of awareness for our people. It's an acknowledgment, stating that it's tough, it's been tough and it will continue to be tough. 

 

We need to fill those gaps and have faith in ourselves as a culture and as a community because the pressure of being and feeling alone is too great a burden to bare. 33. It's not enough, yet it's more than enough. It's not enough to be an end but it's more than enough for a beginning.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Spread some chocolate love, y'all! 

Whether you're single, married, on-again-off-again, just keep spreading the love.

Thug Notes: Making Reading "Street" or "Trill"

Thug Notes is the main hookup for classical literature summary and analysis. What more can we say.

Your host, Sparky Sweets, PhD, takes you on a literary journey the only way literary journeys should be taken, like a thug, offering brilliant summaries and analyses of some of our favorite pieces of literature. From Hamlet to The Hobbit, Sparky Sweets tells it how it is once a week as he entertains and educates the masses. Minus the curse words, we wouldn't have it any other way.

More than just comedy, Thug Notes serves a legitimate purpose and has a following of well over 100,000. Started back in 2013, Thug Notes has produced over 45 videos and has received upward to 4.5 million views.

Some of our favorites:

To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee

Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Thug Notes is a prime example of "get in where you fit in". We ain't mad at ya! Keep 'em comin'!

Maya Penn: It's Never Too Early For Great Ideas

Naturally, when you see someone doing great things you want to help celebrate and help spread the word. When that someone is a chocolate drop set on making the world a better place you want to help raise them up even more and shout from the mountain top "There's hope for this generation yet!"

Maya Penn, age 13, is already deep into a career, something most people don't do until much later in life. She has yet to stroll the halls of high school but has already graced the stage of TED Talks,  The Steve Harvey Show and many other venues promoting Maya's Ideas, her Eco-friendly clothing and accessories as well as her educational animated cartoons (Maya Penn). 

Maya is proof that a little vision coupled with a sense of purpose can create something wonderfully grand. We love her heart, her spirit and, without a doubt, her hair and we can't wait to see what more she has in store. 

Good work, Maya! Chocolate Compass is proud of you! Way to be a part of the Chocolate Current!

Check out more on Maya: Maya's Ideas.

Just What The Doctor Ordered

When the animated children's show "Doc McStuffins" debuted, Dr. Myiesha Taylor, a physician with a 4-year-old daughter, was excited to see "child of color in a starring role... and she’s an aspiring intellectual professional, not a singer or dancer or athlete.” Taylor was inspired and later created an online collage featuring an image of little Doc surrounded by 131 photos of real-life African-American female doctors, writing: "We are trailblazers. We are women of color. We are physicians. We ARE role-models. We are Doc McStuffins all grown up!"

Since then, Taylor and other physicians have taken the "We Are Doc McStuffins" concept to a whole new level -- they founded an organization, the Artemis Medical Society, a new organization to support and nurture a "global sisterhood of women physicians of color," and have signed up more than 3,000 doctors and medical students from around the world. In addition to supporting practicing doctors and students, they also want to encourage more young girls of color to consider medicine.

In an interview with Ebony Magazine Taylor explains, “Doc McStuffins is important to me because I am that little girl. And it’s not just me. My female friends who are physicians have all been talking about Doc. We love what she represents... We didn’t have Doc or anything close to her on television when we were growing up. Many of the cartoons we watched contained stereotypes regarding minorities that would never be aired today.”

She continues, “In 20 years we should see the first group of medical school graduates who will say their dream of becoming a doctor began when they saw their first telecast of Doc McStuffins. Then someone can write the story or thesis about the Doc McStuffins effect on healthcare. Won’t that be amazing?”

To learn more about the  Artemis Medical Society, visit http://artemismedicalsociety.org/. To read the full article in Ebony, visit Ebony, "We Are Doc McStuffins".

The Chocolate Current

We love Black History Month here at Chocolate Compass, don't get it twisted. As you never know where you're going until you know where you've been, this year we'd like to focus not only on the history of our beautiful chocolate people but on the Chocolate Current, the present day chocolate people making history now.

We will never forget the blood, sweat and tears of our ancestors. To honor them we will highlight our chocolate warriors currently fighting the good fight and forging a path in the world, for without our chocolate past we would be nothing.