The Blindside II: White Folks Stealing Haitian Babies

It's often said that the road to hell is paved with bibles and people with good intentions. But don't tell that to the ten Christian missionaries from the United States currently sitting in jail in Haiti charged with conspiracy and kidnapping. And  from what I've been told, Haitian jail cells do not come with tropical resort-like accommodations. But hey, when you try and steal kids from a country cross the border without proper documentation other than the idea that God's on your side, it's to be expected:

Oh those Negroes and their dialect are hilarious!

I don't know what type of politician Illinois State Senator Rickey Hendon may be. But I know he is one of six democrats vying for the position of Lieutenant Governor, and he happens to be black. What I do also know thanks to the folks at the Huffington Post, is that they find this radio ad currently running in Chicago to be "hilarious", and tagged it as "ridiculous":


Now I don't know about you and where you live. But if it is anything like living in the city of Memphis, I'm sure you've heard your share of ignorant commercials on your local radio and television station featuring non-acting Negroes. That said,  I don't see the above commercial as "hilarious" as the Huffington Post puts it. Instead, I'll just say that they haven't been around many black people, or have had conversations with them.

Yes, what they heard was the equivalent of an episode of Good Times juxtaposed with the absurdity of David Alan Grier's Chocolate News. But of course some of our folk who may have heard this felt the unfortunate need to hang their heads in shame. Which is sad because it says a lot about how they've internalized many of the so-called "negative" perceptions of black people as representative of themselves, and a source of embarrassment.

The moral of the story? Be yourself, and never feel the need to apologize, or feel some kind of way for something someone else does because you share the same skin color. Chances are, unlike you, they were being themselves any damn way; and people will be who they are as individuals.

Stop putting salt on your watermelon, folks:

Is Beyonce a Race Traitor?

So this is a bit of a Beyonce overload after having written about the drama surrounding Beyonce's Grammy sweep, but I couldn't help but point this article out by Ian O'Doherty of Ireland's The Independent newspaper regarding Beyonce and her race games. 

The virtual clean sweep enjoyed by Beyonce at the Grammys was proof of one thing -- modern music is in bad shape.

Okay, a white, 30-something Irish bloke probably isn't the exact target market for a black woman who purveys a blend of soulless, poptastic R&B and while, in fairness, some of her songs are infuriatingly catchy, let's get real -- we're not exactly talking about Ella Fitzgerald here.


But she seems like a pleasant enough modern pop creation who is careful not to say anything that would alienate her fanbase.


So, you would think that after her success at the Grammys, she is an inspiration to black women. But you would be wrong. And quite possibly a racist as well.


Beyonce had blonde hair at the awards and this prompted black commentator Teshima Walker of National Public Radio to fume: "I know that blonde hair is associated with white women and beauty. I saw how men respond to girls and women with golden hair ... But now I think maybe black stars should help African-American women release the hold that blonde hair has had on us."

Hmmm....Definite food for thought.  I would say that the clean sweep by Taylor Swift AND Beyonce at the Grammy's indicates that the music industry, and pop culture consuming society, is in trouble.  Period.  And for an "Irish bloke" he seems to have hit the nail on the head.  He's not saying anything most of the black intelligentsia in these blog streets hasn't been saying for years now.  Welcome to the party, Ian!

SNL Failure: The Really Hot Black Girl

Transcript starting at :37

I got so laid last night.  I was at this club and I went up to this really hot Black girl and I was like hey, anyone ever tell you, you look exactly like Beyonce?  Then I went in for the kiss and I noticed that she had like a full mans moustache and I was like, let’s do this thing….

Can we just stop with the reductive jokes at the expense of Black women?  Really..didn’t John Hamm just take one for the team sleeping with a Black woman with a moustache?  Isn’t he courageous everyone? And honestly telling a Black woman that she looks like Beyonce is really going to work because lord knows we are all so desperate to get a man. 

This is not to say that there isn’t room to tell jokes about Black women; it is simply tiring to see that we are consistently the butt of the joke.  The fact that race became a factor when SNL decided to construct a woman as man-like is certainly based in the idea that the Black woman is understood to be the ultimate un-woman. 

Vanity Fair doesn't like black people

My 16yr old daughter has dreams of becoming a big star through acting one day. Like almost all teenagers she has the fantasy of living in Hollywood and living the glamorous life. But for her, it’s more than a fantasy; she has already started along a path to make this a reality. She has taken acting classes and is currently looking into enrolling at one of this countries prestigious school of the arts upon High School graduation. Oh to be sixteen again and have big dreams I tell ya. I love my daughter and it pains me that I have to tell her to give up any hope of success outside of being in a Tyler Perry movie; what father wants to do such a thing. But according to the good folks over at Vanity Fair there’s no future in Hollywood for black women or women of color – at least for the next decade, as evidenced by the obvious absence of any black women on the cover of their March “Young Hollywood” issue. Nine women on one cover and they couldn't at least photoshop a black person/woman into the shot?

The real irony of this is that they pulled this crap right at the beginning of Black History Month. The nerve of these people! They put a “brother” on the cover who doesn’t even consider himself black one month before Black History Month posing like an iron pumping convict in prison. And the next month they throw up a cover with nothing but white chicks as representative of the future decade of Hollywood? See what you did Soul Plane? Lemme guess, there’re no young black actresses to throw into the mix? Oh my bad, Gabourey Sidibie who played the lead in Precious is just a tad bit on the too dark and over-weight side, right? Yep, and that’s not good for Hollywood unless you win an Oscar because then you can be airbrushed like another plus size entertainer recently. That is, unless your mom and dad are Tina and Mathew Knowles, and you wear padded underwear when you perform on stage to make your booty look bigger than it actually is.

Meet Helena Andrews author of the upcoming book Bitch Is The New Black

Recently the internet or should I say the Black blogosphere was ablaze with discussions centered around the upcoming book Bitch Is The New Black by Helena Andrews. In case you missed it, this was all sparked by a Washington Post article titled Successful, black and lonely which profiled Ms. Andrews, and her upcoming book and movie. On this very blog alone we featured an entry written by Seattle Slim on the subject that of bitch being the new black; you can catch it right here, as well as a post written by myself [here] that really made for an interesting discussion.

Recently on our Freedom Through Speech radio show, Paul Carrick Brunson - The Modern Day Matchmaker & Relationship Coach - owner and operator of the matchmaking service One Degree From Me sat in on our discussion of the book, and the "phenomenon" of the lonely successful single black woman. Paul was able to secure an exclusive interview with Helena recently which I thought to be very insightful. I know how some of you just hate watching videos embedded in blogs. But do me a favor and check it out and tell me what you think:

Immigration reform will have a positive impact on the economy

My sister-in-law is working on a paper centered around the immigration debate this semester in college. Aside from the fact that I pretty much know everything, being an immigrant myself, she decided to give me a call to ask for input. We had a nice chat, and yes I dropped some jewels otherwise known as pearls of wisdom on her on the subject.

Then I got to thinking: with all this talk about jobs and the economy, how come nobody has mentioned immigration reform? Of course I know that's a different contentious debate therein and of itself. But even so, couldn't immigration reform create a positive impact on the economy?

Of course I know the answer, but I decided to ask an expert:



Hmm, $1.5 Trillion in economic growth over 10yrs?

So you tell me: what could it hurt?

TSA employee caught sleeping on the job

Look, I'll admit that I've caught a few Z's while on the clock - I mean who hasn't. That is, unless you're a airplane pilot cautious enough so as to not overshoot your next airport landing for 150 miles, of course. But in my case, I was cautious so as to not make it as obvious as the woman in the picture above. That woman just so happens to be a TSA (Transportation Security Administration) employee at LaGuardia Airport in New York City last week.

Forget about catching terrorists. This airport security agent was too busy catching some Z's.

The Transportation Security Administration worker was put on desk duty after she was spotted sleeping in plain sight at LaGuardia Airport - the latest black eye for the federal agency.

Brooklyn traveler Bucky Turco said he had just arrived at his departure gate on Sunday when he saw the uniformed worker snoozing in a chair, head resting in her hand.

"I was shocked," Turco, 35, said, of the 8:15 a.m. encounter. "I've never seen a Department of Homeland Security official sleeping inside an airport."

Turco, 35, snapped a photo of the worker, who woke up about 10 minutes later during an announcement that the Frontier Airlines flight to Denver was boarding, he said.

After rising from her seat, the groggy employee immediately joined her colleagues who were performing secondary security checks at the gate, Turco said.

Turco was flummoxed by what he witnessed.

"In light of their recent follies, it just seemed that a federal agency beleaguered by bad news of late should probably worry about their image a little more," said Turco, founder and editor-in-chief of the counter-culture magazine Animal.

"To be fair, she could have been on a break. But you don't go to a precinct and see a police officer sleeping at their desk."

Turco posted the picture on his Web site. Someone sent a link to TSA officials Tuesday and the worker was immediately interviewed, an agency spokeswoman said.

The guard was put on desk duty pending the outcome of an investigation.

"We recognize that our officers have very demanding jobs that require constant vigilance and hours on their feet," TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said.

"But nonetheless, it was completely inappropriate for her to rest in a public area while on her break as opposed to a nearby break room." (source)

Damn, and here all this time I thought New York was the city that never sleeps. This makes the second incident like this in the last few weeks. Recently I wrote a piece featuring a female correctional officer at Rikers Island who was caught sleeping on the job by one of her co-workers [read it here]. Her co-worker found it so funny that she was asleep on the job, that he decided to take pictures of her with a prisoner posing next to her. Now in that incident, though clearly against policy, it was revealed that the woman had worked seventy hours of overtime that month. In that story I hated the perception they gave of her as a single mom when they referenced her as "the 'Precious' of the Department of Corrections."

Too bad the same cannot be said for this one because, well, this woman was actually on break; yep, save those lazy Negro lines for someone else. If there was a designated break area or room, then that's where she should have been. When you have "certain people" traveling with bombs in their underwear on airplanes. The last thing needed is  for a TSA employee to be seen asleep at the wheel so to speak. Too bad she wasn't as fortunate as myself to have a private office with a huge walk-in closet at 8:15am after those hard nights on the town. Something tells me that she may be underpaid and overworked as are many people who work for the government in those "important" jobs.

Black History Month: I ain't from Africa, I'm from Crenshaw Mafia!

Here we go again; another February, another Black History Month. Frankly, for the first time in my adult life I'm a bit conflicted on Black History Month. Yeah, I know that's hard to imagine hearing this coming from "Mr. Fight The Power Kill Whitey Die Die Die," right? I don't know, maybe it's an age thing where the older I get, like Christmas, I see Black History Month as something for the kids, and for their benefit. Yep, and I say that with the realization that the more they know damn sure wouldn't stop them from wearing their pants on the ground, or continuing to kill each other in the streets. Also, how much has Black History Month contributed to the on going fight for equality in a society where said inequality is rationed systematically?

I mean let's face it, it's a month chock full of info about the proud accomplishments of Black people; and that's a good thing; recognizing those accomplishments, that is. But pick any twenty random Negroes and throw them on a game-show where they had to answer Black history questions Jeopardy Style for a million dollars? Yep, you tell me if this game-show was aired every-night for the next twenty eight days of the month how many people would walk away winners intent on donating to the United Negro College Fund.

I'm not saying that Black History isn't important, nor are the many contributions of Black folks to society at large. Instead, like my man Larry Wilmore, I'd rather we got Casinos so we would never have to worry about twenty eight days of trivia that isn't as important or culturally significant as the silly outfits worn by Lady Gaga at the Grammy Awards last night. But then that's probably the fault of white folks. If they paid reparations then they wouldn't have to worry about being made to feel guilty by re-runs of Roots three times a day for twenty eight days. But then again, they gave us Barack Obama and a few Black Ms. Americas, so...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know if you don't know your past you won't know your future and all of that. But why should we when there are folks among us who don't agree on whether to be called African Americans, Black or Negro. I mean if all that matters is the here and now and we should move past the dark days in our history as some believe we should. Hell, a significant number of Black people don't feel a connection to Africa anyway; and I'll be honest, this is very sad when we overlook our glorious past prior to the slave trade. That said, why then even celebrate Black History Month? If you're gonna tell history, Black history, why stop or start with slavery? Aren't we greater than that as a people? Oh well, maybe you can answer that question for me while for the moment I let loose my inner Republican:

Black History Month: I Love Black People

Well, it is February first and that means it is officially Black History Month. I will probably spend quite a deal of time this month dealing with the issues that I find problematic about Black history month but I thought that in honour of the first day, we could all use a bit of positive energy .  In that vein feel free to yell:

I Love Black People

See, didn’t that feel good?  I KNOW it did.  Ha ha ha…seriously folks happy Black History Month and hopefully the lessons learned this month will extend to the other eleven months of the year.