The way we were in 2012

Our brand new year is in full swing – full of promise and new beginnings. Even as we move forward with shining, new resolve, it's always fun to look back at our consumer behaviors and trends over the previous 12 months.

Let's start with how we rang in the New Year. No matter how you brought in 2013, chances are it involved an effervescent, grown-up libation. You are not alone. Consumers around the world celebrated with a lot of cork popping on New Year's Eve.

‘All My Babies Mamas’ and other insults

The latest negative programming coming from the dominant media is a ridiculous show about a black guy who has 11 children by 10 different women. "All My Babies Mamas" was planned for the coming season, but now it may be completely scrubbed, mainly because a sister, Sabrina Lamb, sent out a petition protesting the show in the most serious manner.

I say kudos to Ms. Lamb and others who have spoken out against this nonsensical and degrading show; I wish the same fate for some of those other so-called reality shows.

America’s gun problem is not a race problem

Massacres such as Newtown are horrifying and heart-rending. They are also nothing like the typical American gun murder.

The typical murder has one victim, not many. The typical murder is committed with a handgun, not a rifle. And in the typical murder, both the perpetrator and the victim are young black men. Blacks are six times as likely as whites to be the victim of a homicide. Blacks are seven times as likely to commit a homicide.

Wide girth could signal trouble ahead

Gaining weight around the girth is like being pregnant. We often hear, "How did this happen!" If we really think about those expanded girths, a lot of men would look pregnant due to an over abundance of belly fat, which causes some men's stomachs to look like those of gestating women.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity has become a national threat to society. One out of every three adults is obese. That is a whopping (excuse the pun) 35.7 percent. In a 2008 report, 42 percent of the U.S. population will be obese by the year 2030.

Wilmington Ten pardons: ‘Black Press’ at its best

When then-National Newspaper Publishers Association Chairman Danny Bakewell Sr. asked me to emcee the Black Press Week luncheon at the National Press Club in 2011, I had no idea that I would be witnessing history. At the urging of Wilmington Journal Publisher Mary Alice Thatch, the NNPA decided to launch a national campaign to win pardons for the Wilmington 10, a group of activists who were falsely convicted and sentenced to a combined total of 282 years.

Drug abuse, African Americans and jail

WASHINGTON – A recent study reports that treating substance abusers, especially African Americans, could save the nation billions of dollars at a time when all eyes are glued to debates over how to solve the country's national debt.

The study by researchers at Meharry Medical College School of Medicine in Nashville linked the prevalence of substance abuse disorders to the high rates of incarceration among African-American males. Published in the November 2012 edition of "Frontiers in Psychiatry," the study also suggested that spending more money on community-based treatment programs and improving mental health care in the African-American community could have an impact on substance abuse and crime among young African-American males.

Counting calories no answer to permanent weight loss

It seems like no matter how hard we try to change our attitude, our friends or our weight, it either gets undeniably worse or decidedly better. As the years continue to add up, we can become stuck in a time warp or become completely adrift.

Leslie is a prime example. In fact, she has a serious weight problem. She's 5 feet tall and weighs 280 pounds. In reality, her large frame really didn't bother her because she assumed, like the majority of individuals, that losing a pound wouldn't be too hard. Without trepidation, she continued to live life to the fullest, as if there was nothing to worry about.

The GOP’s suicide-bomb strategy

A suicide bomber walks into a bar. He shouts at the bartender, "Gimme the money, or I blow this place to bits!" The worried bartender hands him a wad of cash, and the bomber departs.

The next day, the suicide bomber returns to the same bar. He shouts at the bartender, "Gimme the money, or I blow this place to bits!"

"Are you nuts?" answers the bartender. "If I give you money every day, I'll go out of business. Plus, you're scaring away the customers."

‘True’ melting pot in U.S. by 2060

In 2060 America will become a true melting pot of ethnicities and races, the U.S. Census Bureau projects.

According to the first set of projections released based on the 2010 Census, minorities – including Asians, African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans – are expected to comprise 57 percent of the population, 20 points higher than their current population.

Things won’t change unless some of us do

How will African Americans improve our situation in 2013? Right now, we have higher unemployment than any other population in our nation, less wealth, higher school dropout rates, and more crime in our communities.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said that African-American communities had twice the number of negatives and half the number of positives in our country. While the numbers may have shifted somewhat, it is still true that we are more likely to experience negative consequences (teen pregnancy, incarceration, crime) and less likely to experience positives (college graduation, high net worth).

African-American homicides remain at alarmingly high rate

WASHINGTON – As the nation continues to ponder possible solutions to curb carnage that results from the easy accessibility to firearms, nowhere is the loss of lives from guns greater than in the African-American community.

According to "Black Homicide in the United States: An Analysis of 2009 Homicide Data," report by the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C., the African-American homicide rate in the year studied was more than six times that of whites.

Be it resolved, lose weight in incremental steps

It's that time again when many of us resolve to change our eating habits to lose those unwanted pounds and keep the pounds off – until next year when we resolve to do it again. Our resolve to lose weight, and keep it off, annually hangs in the balance up against our difficulty resisting food temptations.

Plain and simple, resolutions are difficult to keep. We don't always follow through. Still, change is inevitable, and as we get older women most likely will add a few pounds to their frame and their dress sizes will increase. Men will gain significant weight, too. Years ago, my weight reached 300-plus pounds and I was headed to the grave.