Back in the day I could remember as an immigrant from the Caribbean myself when "being Haitian" was the butt of all jokes. What can I say, everybody has to have somebody to pick on I suppose. Considering that Haitians have been placed in such an inauspicious position among us West Indians and practically everybody in the western hemisphere if not the world. It's really great to see the outpouring of support here in their darkest hour. It truly gives me hope and a renewed sense of optimism that one day, the realization that we're all citizens of the world becomes obvious. So much so that we may never compromise the humanity of others as we all share space on this planet.
Honestly, my mind has been all over the place as I watch the portentous media coverage. Watching from a distance as we sit comfortably in our lives, I guess we can agree that there's a sense of helplessness which overtakes our being. A feeling which compels us to act with the greatest of humanitarian spirit, hence the outpouring of support financial and otherwise. I have some thoughts swimming around in my head about this event, but before getting to them, I just want to say that it is truly awesome to see that within the first 48 hours of the earthquake, people have donated funds to the Red Cross in record numbers. Numbers that have surpassed the initial 48 hour response period in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the Tsunami in Miramar back in 2004.
You know, sometimes there are things that just makes my jaw drop, but then I'm able to pick it up off the floor quickly. The STAGGERING ignorance, and RACISM, displayed by the human piece of walking shit that is Pat Robertson has rendered my jaw pretty much locked to the floor. I cannot even begin to understand his latest vitriolic rant against people of color.
Yes, folks. He blames the Haitians' fight for independence against SLAVERY and OPPRESSION at the hands of French masters--of course after likening it to a "pact with the devil"--as the reason for the 7.0 earthquake that shook an already poverty stricken Haiti, to its knees.
Okay, so the Palin ladies chose life. Good for them, however I am tired of them using their decisions like a battering ram to shame women who decide for various reasons that motherhood is not for them. I can give Bristol a little bit of leeway because she is clearly under her mother’s thumb but eventually my patience is going to run out.
What these women fail to recognize, is that when women choose abortion, they are also choosing life. Women who make the painful decision to abort are doing so because making themselves a priority is important and it is something that we have been taught to forgo from birth. Let face facts shall we, ovaries and a functioning uterus do not make one a mother. Perhaps if more people realized that they were incapable of dealing with the responsibility of raising children, there would not be so many of them abused and neglected.
The pro birth movement uses women like Sarah and Bristol to suggest that women who choose to abort are chronically depressed and living with shame. Simply because they are happy in their decision, does not mean that women who choose not to become mothers are not happy in theirs. Motherhood is not a biological imperative like breathing or eating, it is simply one option out of many that we may choose in our lifetime.
Contrary to Obama Nazis’ fantasies, racism is no relic. There is nothing “post-racial” about America or any other country in our historically white supremacist world. Millions of Americans of all races worship President Barack Obama/GWB 2.0 preciselybecause he has yellow skin and reads eloquently. Initially, Obama’s darker skinned wife Michelle was far more ruthlessly attacked racially simply because she is visibly blacker than Obama.
Harry Reid has accidentally and belatedly given the world a teachable moment about the ongoing and rabid colorism and racism that poison all arenas. Young black men are arguably far more colorist than Reid. Have you really watched any music videos lately? Have you heard about how Fluff Daddy/P-Diddy contractually rejects brown women in his liquor ads? Are you aware of a wannabee rapper named Yung Berg and how he brazenly degrades women with “dark butts”? Have you heard the similar and typical lyrical worship of women who are only“half black” in songs like Nelly’s “E.I”? Heard the hit song “She Fine” by country rap star Hurricane Chris that uniquely reveres the yellow skinned bi-racial Halle Berry? Did you notice that only all of the yellow skinned people in the film “Precious” were angelic? Ever witness the constant brutally racist and eurocentric misogyny that poisons countless black men’s websites like: http://www.byroncrawford.com/ ?...
I created, produced, and hosted popular talk radio shows in Atlanta from 1986 until 1996. As a native Chicagoan, I am still traumatized by the shameless colorism and racism that callers incessantly flaunted. I distinctly recall every dark skinned black person who ran for mayor being brutally slandered and disrespected during every election cycle. During that unforgettable decade, any candidate that did not have yellow skin and “good/(read: curly/straight/silky…) hair” need not apply. It is refreshing to see the new mayor of Atlanta finally look like most of the black voters.
It seems that the former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has taken a break from feeding his chia pet like hair to get down with the peeps. Blagojevich was arrested last year after it was alleged that he engaged in corruption, which included the attempted sale of Barack Obama’s senate seat. Clearly this a person for whom service and honour mean volumes.
Since then, Blagojevich has engaged in a campaign to garner respect and to paint himself as a sympathetic victim. He has repeatedly asserted that all of his actions were for the benefit of the people. In a recent statement to Esquire magazine, Mr. Blagojevich chose to invoke race to certify his persecution.
I need to work on perfecting my "Negro Dialect" - can't have Rod Blagojevich outshine me. Besides, it's not like I have aspirations of becoming POTUS anytime soon, nor do I have plans of bleaching my skin. Damn you RiPPa, you won't let this Negro sh*t die won't you?! Nope because the word Negro isn't racist, and unlike my Neo-Negro buddies (yeah, that's my new soon to be copyrighted word ), I refuse to allow the white media, liberal or otherwise, trick me into believing that they actually care to protect or promote political correctness and a meaningful discourse on race.
Sorry, I'm not gonna fall for the banana in the tailpipe or the tricknology my friend. Besides, you wanna know how I know the word Negro isn't racist? I never get the spell check squiggly lines as I do when I type Barack Obama. However, I wanna talk about what Senator Harry Reid said; in particular, let's talk about what has everybody's draws up their asses. Yep, let's talk about light-skinned blacks having a more favorable advantage for success in any endeavor especially if they do not posses that "no Negro dialect" as is the perception.
See the guy in the picture above? That's Yaphet Kotto; he's an actor. Haven't seen him in years, but you might remember him from back in the day if you're my age or older. Like Barack Obama, he's American, but his father was the Crown Prince of Cameroon, which makes him a Prince. Yes, just like Obama he is of direct African descent. As cultured as he is, having studied theater and all, but as dark as he is, do you think he would have a chance running for president? Well, he might given the fact of him being cultured and an actor; never mind him holding a gun and looking like a criminal, he played Othello for crying out loud. But what if he sounded like the rapper Gucci Mane, and his big lips proved to be a a speech impediment like that of "Dumb Donald" from the cartoon Fat Albert?
I have yet to weigh in fully on the current whirlwind surrounding the now infamous "Negro Dialect" comment made by Senate majority leader Harry Reid. But please believe that I have a lot to say, and what I have to say will most certainly offend and insult a few of you. Why? Because it's what I do mayne! Mayne? Uh-huh, liked the way I threw my "Negro Dialect" into the mix? No seriously, stay tuned to this blog as I know you will to hear just what I have to say. Until then, lemme "set it off in this muthaf*cka," as a prelude of what's to come - dammit if that "Negro Dialect" thing is so inescapable for me that I've already used it twice in one paragraph.
Since America has been deemed post-racial, there has been a renewed interest in Black America; yes, a renaissance of sorts. Everybody wants to now know what we eat - which apparently has caught on in Australia by the way - how we dress, how we talk, how we do our hair...you get the picture, right? It seems like every week something is or becomes the new black which gives credence to what my man Paul Mooney said some time ago...
"Everybody wanna be a nigger, but don't nobody wanna be a nigger."
That line has stuck with me for a few years now as I am a longtime fan of the man and his work. Let's be honest, Mooney is a comedic genius who is often not heralded as such, but his work is timeless. Shit, I know some of you Neo-Negroes still laugh at those Richard Pryor jokes you had to sneak and listen to when you were kids. Well, Paul Mooney had a lot to do with those Richard Pryor jokes and he has released a memoir of his life as an ode to Richard Pryor titled "Black Is The New White".
Since everything is the "New Black" these days, just the title alone made me laugh. As Michael E. Ross puts it, the book is also a reflection of the struggle for acceptance and self-determination in our private American lives. Off top the title struck me as one of careful calculation and purpose. If you know Mooney and his work, the title alone creates an insatiable desire for the blend of irreverent humor as a crackhead would before taking his first hit. Yes, Mooney is just that damn powerful as a comedian, and I plan to pickup this book before the week is out as I can imagine just what it has to offer. What can I say, I have a thing for people who are controversially outspoken with the ability to make people laugh as they think.
Speaking of which, I caught the following clip of an interview he did with well known hip hop journalist and activist, my man Davey D (on twitter @mrdaveyd) as he spoke about the book, race, celebrities and life in America for people of color. It's a three part interview, but this one I thought spoke volumes as he praises Kanye West as his new hero, and goes in hard on Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and Oprah Winfrey. Do yourself a favor and checkout Davy D's channel on YouTube for the entire interview and more, will you?
"You can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a nigger" - James Baldwin
Look, I got some shit to get off my chest; yes, a good rant is in order. I don't know, but maybe my mood today was set by the 4am call from Memphis City Schools informing me that the kids would be out of school today due to...EXTREMELY COLD TEMPERATURES! Yeah, apparently the brains of children go dead as hypothermia sets in while sitting in warm classrooms. So what it's only 10 degrees here in Memphis which is unusual. Try calling in to your job and telling your employer that you're not gonna be there because it's too cold outside, but anyway....
And now I hear Negros are upset and going ape-shit (pun intended) all because the US Census bureau is going to use the word NEGRO as a racial/ethnic category on this years census. No shit, I've even heard some of them talking about boycotting the census this year because of it. Now if that's not the dumbest shit I've ever heard? Boycott the fuckin' census?! Are you kidding me? Especially since Blacks cannot afford not to be counted in the census?? Yes, counting black people in the census is that important. The distribution of federal funds to state, county and municipal governments and the distribution of political power at every level of government depend on the Census dumb-asses.
I'm sorry, I'm aware of the change in American lexicon from back in the day to now. But when did Negro become a pejorative? Was Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and just about every other Black leader in America insulting "certain folks" when in fighting for freedom, justice and equality they referred to them as Negroes? When did we ever get together and vote for the term African American to identify us as a people? Was it "us" or "them" who came up with that one? I mean the way some people are expressing disgust over this you would swear that for the purpose of the census, we're being officially identified with the label Monkey, Jigaboo, or Nigger by the US government. But naw, as a government conspiracy, this years census will be collecting the DNA of every person of African descent for government use and storage - yeah, it's a setup y'all.
Negro is not the only word/term used to identify people of African descent on the census as they would have you believe. But I guess as a people we're so "image conscious" that we can't help to express disdain over the use of the word Negro - that internalized oppression is a bitch, ain't it? Oh well, I guess black folks are gonna boycott and protest the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), or the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), because, well, they're insulting and outdated, right?
“The Black masses must demand and refuse to accept nothing less than that proportionate share of political jobs and appointments which are equal to their proportion in the electorate.” - Congressman Adam Clayton Powell
Yesterday I woke up to Morning Joe on MSNBC to hear that my man Harold Ford Jr. is considering running for a senate seat in a New York district. As a New York transplant currently living in Memphis TN., his hometown, I thought it to be a good move for several reasons. Some of you may not be up on the brother, but if you remember the midterm election in 2006. The GOP's racist tactics as he ran for the senate against Bob Corker in his home state of Tennessee, played heavily into the campaign; enough so, to create controversy nationally.
“He who warned uh, the British that they weren't gonna be takin' away our arms, uh by ringing those bells, and um, makin' sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be sure and we were going to be free, and we were going to be armed.” -- Sarah Palin on Paul Revere
