The thrill. It still moves. The anticipation of an inauguration reminiscent of the emancipation in significance. What a journey. He is our Joshua galvanizing the Joshua generation with every speech, and inward smile. He is, in a word, extraordinary. More importantly he makes us feel extraordinary. Are we?
The Inauguration is January 20, 2009. I wish I could write for a living then maybe it might be less than a year between posts. But according to my leader, Barack ("racki") is my leader, the pursuit of money exemplifies a "poverty of ambition." I do not want my ambition to be poor. I want my ambition to be rich! Therefore I CAN write for a living YES I CAN YES I CAN YES I CAN! Right?Economy. The hilarity of the Bush treasury raids throughout his presidency has now snowballed into a stupefying turn of money-wasting events. All those working class goood ol' boys who voted for Bush are looking at their pink slips, pick-up truck payments and NRA membership bills and asking,"Waat the heyull hap'nd!?? I am $%% unemployed!!!" The war has made all the beltway government contractors wealthier for the next 100 generations - including George's brother Marvin Bush - who lives loaded and in luxury in McLean, Virginia. In the hood they would call these hook-ups the gangster kinds of moves which would make Scarface proud. Enter Paulson, bailing out and more bailing out. More pink slips. All of America is looking forward to Inauguration Day, barely breathing, hoping a change will come while we still have our jobs. THEN I will write for a living. NOW I work and thank God for the income.
There is a great longing to be within the inner political circle. To be a friend of a decision-making lawmaker - for some - means appropriations, invitations, inaugurations, adulation and higher income bracket taxation. But who cares? You're in! Receiving the invite, on the list, at the convention, on the floor, at the luncheon, making the speech and getting the press, the connection the contract or the support which might help the next few generations of your family. How badly we hope and pray and connive and scheme to be in the inner circle. Traveling to Washington for the Inaugural? How much money did you give? $50,000? Well the Inauguration committee will take excellent care of you. Yay!
Shiloh Baptist church of Washington is a 145 year old church. Amazing history, founded by slaves, the whole bit. They are hosting inaugural viewing for the community on big screens. I believe there are balls and a host of other happenings there with dignitaries and others who wish to observe the moment on a more spiritual historic note. What would the slaves think. Can you picture them hovering above the mall which they helped build, looking at Obama being sworn in? I am sure they are proud of the growth of their church over this century but are they shouting for joy at last? If you had been a slave, would you be?I would.
Barack's candidacy is about what is possible and the providence that moved with every step he took to put the people, resources, messages in place to allow this to happen. What if he'd quit upon the Clinton announcement? What if he had folded under the Jeremiah Wright flap? what if he refused to stand and risk and address and reach and ask and know? Would he be President? What if he knew because someone may have whispered in his ear,"Keep going. You will win." that pressing forward at all costs was the only answer? What if we all lived this way?
I have a day job and poverty of ambition coupled with the stability of complacency.It is January 1, 2009. I intend to press forward as if someone had whispered in my ear. I am not connected. Yet, I am not alone. I am not a Bush nor am I a donor to the level which will provide me VIP passes to the Inauguration. But I have a dream, that one day black words on white paper will flow from my fingers and people will judge on the content of their character and seek them out. I will one day get to the promised land of doing what I love and being able to live from it. Yes we can, ladies. Barack has told us so.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
The Debate for Black Women: Sisterhood vs. The Dream
Many articles are touting a dilemma facing black women: Hilary or Barack? Decisions. Decisions. And then, after solving the problem of which one to choose with our ever-powerful vote, there is an even greater question: Why?
Looking at Hilary, she is the kind of All-American woman many black women love to hate. The upper middle class upbringing in that meticulously manicured kind of Illinois neighborhood we love to drive through on Sundays with envy. Where the houses are really huge but modestly designed so as not to look "showy." Then, after being the popular one in high school, it was on to the Ivy leagues for Hilary, where she accomplished even more, including but not limited to: marrying a smart, ambitious southerner with a high sex drive who goes on to become President of the United States. Yes, we saw you when we were in high school, Hilary. We were the girls you rarely spoke to, unless there was a plan of action on the table and then you rallied us into the student government meeting demonstrating that you were the "inclusive" one. But us sistahs, never got invited to the sleepover did we, dear?. No matter how perfect we tried to be. Actually, I am speaking on behalf of my Mom's generation, here, but it is true to all of us no matter what year we graduated.
Fast forward in our candidates life to a point when, despite achievements and controversies two things happened to Hilary. First, in the esoteric realm that the world judges her by, she aged. Then, as in the sharp painful world of black women who do not receive marriage proposals from their perfect guys in their 20's because black men are endangered and unwise in this regard, Hilary experienced something black women know very well: being "dogged" by your philandering husband.
Ahhhhhh, we said. Now. I know you Hilary. I am you. Have been embarrassed like you, sad like you, shamed like you for all you were going through, said women of color (and colorless ones), all over this nation.
And so black women everywhere watched her (and him) with a new feeling of kinship. We shook our heads in disgust as we read the sordid Lewinsky mess (the tramp), to learn more about the behaviors of our horny power-craving men and the enticements of the dreaded "other woman." At the same time, a sly smile crept up as we thought about whether or not Hilary would ever leave Bill. The answer was obvious: Leave? Never. Never Happen. One must never concede the marriage or the man to the sleazy vixens who've enticed him. We think this as we wrap ourselves with denial. We laughed as we imagined the kind of woman who said to herself stupidly, "I am so bad, I'm going to leave the President." Now THAT is laughable, generally speaking, but the President of France's wife left her leader for another man. Now this is a woman with some confidence! No, Hilary was not going to leave Bill and we knew it. So we watched and felt that sting you feel, when the thought of the person you love lipping it up with another female, hits your stomach. We said to ourselves, go ahead.
Fast forward again, Hilary runs for Senate and Bill is a doting and devoted husband. I mentioned before that I met Bill Clinton and the charisma is staggering. They really are a powerful duo and it takes a strong woman to be married to a man like him. You have to have the ability to see the big picture - the really big picture. Now Hilary is running for President and women everywhere feel inside that success is the best revenge, so they are cheering for her - even those who say they vote the "issues' and choose candidates on the merits. Them too.
Again the question, who will black women voters choose? Will they back Hilary? Yes they will. Unless...
The power of being black, influential and a political candidate is a double-edged blessing. On the one hand, the black race as a whole has lacked leadership since the days of King and Thurgood Marshall. Starving, famished, we've clung to anyone who even pretended to have our interests at heart, only to be disappointed in the end upon learning the person was empty, vain and motivated by personal grand standing ops. No, we are NOT shallow enough to think the affirmative action rollbacks and welfare reforms had nothing to do with the Clinton Administration. On the contrary, we know they did. We also know about American food conglomerates crushing black economies in the Caribbean and beyond, so that farmers were driven into poverty, dependent on the US and made way for loads of American food products to be imported - not to make our American black farmers rich either - a double insult. This was designed and executed by those who could afford to pay lobby dollars. The Clinton's and Bush's (don't get me started) let it all happen. We know this.
Enter Barack Obama.We are clear on his story and have read his books. Integrity. He screams it from his pores. Yes, his wife is an angry black woman, but you can't half get anywhere in the US without becoming one if you happen to be born female with brown skin. Yes, we've all mentally taken our pass at him, meaning that some are naive enough to think that given the right circumstances he might have chosen us had he not been buried in his Chicago firm trying to find his way. He is our Mr. Tibbs, our movie star, our man whom we can get behind as he fights the battles for justice. We dream of him raiing the Treasury for good and Robin Hood-style uplifting of the poorest neighborhoods. He takes it to them domestically, where African-Americans battles are still fought. He wins becuase just like Bush and Cheney, his boys are running thangs! It is a sexy vision. I know you are thinking everything does not go back to sex, but you know it does; way down in the place people dare not acknowledge.
Okay so, we see him, desparately want a change and quietly hope that Hilary and Barack just make a deal. Then he can be the Ambassador-like Vice President who actually helps accomplish quality foreign relations with all of the brown nations of the world. Peace at last. And Hillary can carry out her vendettas as the most powerful woman in the free world who will get the healthcare thing done. What if college tuition were free? I ask only to allow us to think for a moment of the possibilities.
Yes, I can very much see Barack as President. Who needs another decade of Clinton Bush deals, right? Has America trusted in the new and youthful to serve in the White House before? Well look at Kennedy. My point exactly. All black women have fears for Barack's safety and that of our world should he win.
My former boss used to quote Frederick Douglass all the time saying,"Fear and Faith cannot occupy the same space." Actually I've heard a lot of people say this. Faith is what those people who vote for Obama for President have. Faith, not only that he can do what he says, but that he will grow old doing it. If you have to choose one, let it not ever be fear.
Obama has Oprah, but he also has watered down his rhetoric of late, don't you think? I mean even if he could do nothing, his words were provocational and new...that is, until lately. I think a deal is coming and Bill is not going to let his wife take 2nd chair to anyone. Bill OWES her this. But America is strong and young and college students are more conscious than they have ever been. If the youth vote their passions, Barack will be President.
And I am still in awe of the fact that Bush knows that the entire nation and world is on to what he and his cronies have done. Blackhawk making billions. Carlyle Group even more for their contrived war. Pillaging the Treasury and rolling back affirmative action in education on Martin Luther King's birthday! Do you think no one NOTICED that, Georgie? There is a well known story out of Texas about how Karl Rove crushed the opponents of HIS candidate by having them sent to jail on campaign law technicalities. He had the judges and the power and these men, tyring to be public servants, serve hard time at his behest. The man was a scorned little tortured nerd in high school and not unlike Columbine, Karl Rove has exacted his revenge for decades, on all of us. As out men and women in uniform die, he rests comfortably - as does Cheney who fell asleep in last week's wild fire briefing. We can only pray that what goes around comes around for all of them and that we elect someone brave.
Barack, stop making deals and stand all the way up. And then you will have all of us.
I understand, as we all do that the issues are vast and complex. What of McCain and Mr. 911 who up and left his wife for his staffer and now wants to put her ass in the First Lady chair. Please vote against Giuliani for that reason and her existence alone. The bad judgement to ho it up with you boss while pretending to serve he and his wife is reason enough to give "Judith" no respect. His kids won't. Kids smell character and I don't care who he saved or led on 911. His choice of "better halfs" makes him a suspect rather than a prospect.Listen,
I write on behalf of all my sisters in their varying roles: wife, mother, striver, professionals, aid recipients, survivors, dreamers, adulterers, leaders, intellectuals, winners. We have opinions based in things ancestral. It is how we move.
Looking at Hilary, she is the kind of All-American woman many black women love to hate. The upper middle class upbringing in that meticulously manicured kind of Illinois neighborhood we love to drive through on Sundays with envy. Where the houses are really huge but modestly designed so as not to look "showy." Then, after being the popular one in high school, it was on to the Ivy leagues for Hilary, where she accomplished even more, including but not limited to: marrying a smart, ambitious southerner with a high sex drive who goes on to become President of the United States. Yes, we saw you when we were in high school, Hilary. We were the girls you rarely spoke to, unless there was a plan of action on the table and then you rallied us into the student government meeting demonstrating that you were the "inclusive" one. But us sistahs, never got invited to the sleepover did we, dear?. No matter how perfect we tried to be. Actually, I am speaking on behalf of my Mom's generation, here, but it is true to all of us no matter what year we graduated.
Fast forward in our candidates life to a point when, despite achievements and controversies two things happened to Hilary. First, in the esoteric realm that the world judges her by, she aged. Then, as in the sharp painful world of black women who do not receive marriage proposals from their perfect guys in their 20's because black men are endangered and unwise in this regard, Hilary experienced something black women know very well: being "dogged" by your philandering husband.
Ahhhhhh, we said. Now. I know you Hilary. I am you. Have been embarrassed like you, sad like you, shamed like you for all you were going through, said women of color (and colorless ones), all over this nation.
And so black women everywhere watched her (and him) with a new feeling of kinship. We shook our heads in disgust as we read the sordid Lewinsky mess (the tramp), to learn more about the behaviors of our horny power-craving men and the enticements of the dreaded "other woman." At the same time, a sly smile crept up as we thought about whether or not Hilary would ever leave Bill. The answer was obvious: Leave? Never. Never Happen. One must never concede the marriage or the man to the sleazy vixens who've enticed him. We think this as we wrap ourselves with denial. We laughed as we imagined the kind of woman who said to herself stupidly, "I am so bad, I'm going to leave the President." Now THAT is laughable, generally speaking, but the President of France's wife left her leader for another man. Now this is a woman with some confidence! No, Hilary was not going to leave Bill and we knew it. So we watched and felt that sting you feel, when the thought of the person you love lipping it up with another female, hits your stomach. We said to ourselves, go ahead.
Fast forward again, Hilary runs for Senate and Bill is a doting and devoted husband. I mentioned before that I met Bill Clinton and the charisma is staggering. They really are a powerful duo and it takes a strong woman to be married to a man like him. You have to have the ability to see the big picture - the really big picture. Now Hilary is running for President and women everywhere feel inside that success is the best revenge, so they are cheering for her - even those who say they vote the "issues' and choose candidates on the merits. Them too.
Again the question, who will black women voters choose? Will they back Hilary? Yes they will. Unless...
The power of being black, influential and a political candidate is a double-edged blessing. On the one hand, the black race as a whole has lacked leadership since the days of King and Thurgood Marshall. Starving, famished, we've clung to anyone who even pretended to have our interests at heart, only to be disappointed in the end upon learning the person was empty, vain and motivated by personal grand standing ops. No, we are NOT shallow enough to think the affirmative action rollbacks and welfare reforms had nothing to do with the Clinton Administration. On the contrary, we know they did. We also know about American food conglomerates crushing black economies in the Caribbean and beyond, so that farmers were driven into poverty, dependent on the US and made way for loads of American food products to be imported - not to make our American black farmers rich either - a double insult. This was designed and executed by those who could afford to pay lobby dollars. The Clinton's and Bush's (don't get me started) let it all happen. We know this.
Enter Barack Obama.We are clear on his story and have read his books. Integrity. He screams it from his pores. Yes, his wife is an angry black woman, but you can't half get anywhere in the US without becoming one if you happen to be born female with brown skin. Yes, we've all mentally taken our pass at him, meaning that some are naive enough to think that given the right circumstances he might have chosen us had he not been buried in his Chicago firm trying to find his way. He is our Mr. Tibbs, our movie star, our man whom we can get behind as he fights the battles for justice. We dream of him raiing the Treasury for good and Robin Hood-style uplifting of the poorest neighborhoods. He takes it to them domestically, where African-Americans battles are still fought. He wins becuase just like Bush and Cheney, his boys are running thangs! It is a sexy vision. I know you are thinking everything does not go back to sex, but you know it does; way down in the place people dare not acknowledge.
Okay so, we see him, desparately want a change and quietly hope that Hilary and Barack just make a deal. Then he can be the Ambassador-like Vice President who actually helps accomplish quality foreign relations with all of the brown nations of the world. Peace at last. And Hillary can carry out her vendettas as the most powerful woman in the free world who will get the healthcare thing done. What if college tuition were free? I ask only to allow us to think for a moment of the possibilities.
Yes, I can very much see Barack as President. Who needs another decade of Clinton Bush deals, right? Has America trusted in the new and youthful to serve in the White House before? Well look at Kennedy. My point exactly. All black women have fears for Barack's safety and that of our world should he win.
My former boss used to quote Frederick Douglass all the time saying,"Fear and Faith cannot occupy the same space." Actually I've heard a lot of people say this. Faith is what those people who vote for Obama for President have. Faith, not only that he can do what he says, but that he will grow old doing it. If you have to choose one, let it not ever be fear.
Obama has Oprah, but he also has watered down his rhetoric of late, don't you think? I mean even if he could do nothing, his words were provocational and new...that is, until lately. I think a deal is coming and Bill is not going to let his wife take 2nd chair to anyone. Bill OWES her this. But America is strong and young and college students are more conscious than they have ever been. If the youth vote their passions, Barack will be President.
And I am still in awe of the fact that Bush knows that the entire nation and world is on to what he and his cronies have done. Blackhawk making billions. Carlyle Group even more for their contrived war. Pillaging the Treasury and rolling back affirmative action in education on Martin Luther King's birthday! Do you think no one NOTICED that, Georgie? There is a well known story out of Texas about how Karl Rove crushed the opponents of HIS candidate by having them sent to jail on campaign law technicalities. He had the judges and the power and these men, tyring to be public servants, serve hard time at his behest. The man was a scorned little tortured nerd in high school and not unlike Columbine, Karl Rove has exacted his revenge for decades, on all of us. As out men and women in uniform die, he rests comfortably - as does Cheney who fell asleep in last week's wild fire briefing. We can only pray that what goes around comes around for all of them and that we elect someone brave.
Barack, stop making deals and stand all the way up. And then you will have all of us.
I understand, as we all do that the issues are vast and complex. What of McCain and Mr. 911 who up and left his wife for his staffer and now wants to put her ass in the First Lady chair. Please vote against Giuliani for that reason and her existence alone. The bad judgement to ho it up with you boss while pretending to serve he and his wife is reason enough to give "Judith" no respect. His kids won't. Kids smell character and I don't care who he saved or led on 911. His choice of "better halfs" makes him a suspect rather than a prospect.Listen,
I write on behalf of all my sisters in their varying roles: wife, mother, striver, professionals, aid recipients, survivors, dreamers, adulterers, leaders, intellectuals, winners. We have opinions based in things ancestral. It is how we move.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Tale of Two Marions: Great ones Going Social
I awoke to find two Marions in the news this morning, two black Marions. Neither received 
coverage for celebratory g
ood news. Nothing uplifting and no great achievements to announce either. Au contraire. The news? The usual "been-caught-so-I confess" despair, of course, of the self-inflicted kind. Their plight, these two Marions, reminded me of the label this teacher used to place on promising students who were clearly doomed to this kind of self-inflicted failure. He would look up from his desk, eyes lifted beyond his bifocals and lean into the student to impart a particular warning: "You, my dear, are going social, " he would say, "Stop yourself now or your life will never be the same."
His name was Mr. Sikkrut or Sliprutts I think. He was a gym teacher, (or was it speech?) who really had an eye for the ladies - especially the nubile cheerleading ones. Whatever his lecherous defects, he did have a sense about people. And if there was one thing Mr. Sikkrut could spot, it was someone heading for a fall from grace because of their inner insecurities, single tragic flaws and, as he put it, "Going social" behavior. The students who began high school wide-eyed and well intended, seeking popularity, enticed by vanity, quickly became members of an "in" crowd, or an "out" crowd of cleverly disguised misfits, and would one day meet their social demise. He could spot them from the very first day of school. Lacking backbone, wrapped in trends, huge potential and a propensity for going social to fill a void hidden deep within.
Sikkrut-the-great-psychic-Swamee, was fired one day, for placing a male student in a headlock, choking this popular football player until it caused the student to pass out. This took place during a classroom standoff/pissing contest incident, prompted by a mutual desire to impress the females in the classroom. Idiotic, testosterone-oriented, bad judgement. He eventually became an alcoholic and a victim of his own prediction. Bad decision makingin order to floss for an external no one. He was never heard from again. The male student? He, of course, became a state legislator representing a major US city. Still wanting to be seen and still cleverly disguised.
I think the world turns slowly, purposefully, to allow balance to yin-yang us. what goes around, ladies...
Washington, DC has never been a model city. Rather, it is actually two cities that share two cultures, unified under one zip code. The Washington government "mother", who has two children of different races and, because of the laws of the time, one child is indisputably inferior, never to be given the same rights and privileges of the other, much lighter, sibling. Marion Barry became Mayor of DC's dark side. befriending the worker, the home-owning grandmothers, the voters, by being there. He also curried enough favor on the lighter side of town, making sure key big business figures ate off the land so that his power remained - though often challenged - always just beyond their reach. Talk to the parents of baby boomers in DC who were there back in the Marion Barry hey-day, and you will find that to them Marion Barry is still: "My Mayor!" they proclaim proudly. The Pastor of [insert any major DC Baptist Church here] welcomed the good "mayor" into the pulpit just last week. And he spoke like the leader, the deliverer, he sees himself to be. Proud Marion. Unapologetic for the days of crack use and b's who set him up in hotel rooms which are long behind him. The American memory and black pseudo-leadership is tragically flawed, having "gone social" long ago.
Marion Barry+Youth jobs="He's got a good heart...what is so corrupt about that? All them politicians do something. At least he's bringing it home to the kids." says Mr. Amtrak worker. That is a big deal for working-class black America. But...what of the future.
BUT when the inner city DC boys turn 17, cannot read in spite of their summer yard work paid for by the Barry plan, and they return to the NE side of town rejected and unwelcome by the world of t
heir lighter brother other side of town, their lives (most of their lives) have but two destinations. One is prison. The other is death - by drugs and the killing of the mind, destruction of the community and spirit and death by bullets. Yes, many have left Washington's prestigious black educational institutions and thrived beyond the confines of poverty. Exceptional models of black excellence. Exceptional. Exceptions. But what of the Mayor's Washington? Deal making, my-main-man...The chocolate city was swept up by the crack epidemic. Street 'soldiers' marched the narcotic into the community and the elite used it for the "social" entertainment. Living high - even at the Mayor's mansion. God bless you Effie Barry for staying by his side for as long as you did. Can you imagine the things she endured being the wife? Living the lies? Peace to her. The new mayor, Adrian Fenty grew up watching the tragedies unfold. I think a change is coming.
Can I be a wife? If my hubby "goes social" God forbid, can I save him?
Okay, I will stop here again just sooooooooooo disappointed about the state of our black people and what it all means for the women and black girls. Does DC have strong black girl leadership? Eleanor Holmes Norton has been the occasionally powerless DC representative in Congress who is angry, with heavy emphasis on the rhetoric, but comfortable. Likable and rarely capable of blocking the unacceptable, but has she ever delivered the improbable? Don't think so. Not taken seriously. Bush laughs at lawmakers like her. Would, say President Obama view her differently? Does she bring anything to be viewed differently about? I know, I digress.
Marion Jones. another beautiful black girl with the civil rights name, who let us down today ladies. Not unlike the infamous Marion Barry, whose 50 pairs of cuff links and six Rolexes were stolen in a newsworthy break
in the other night. Today, after winning her five medals (3 of them gold) in the Olympics and smiling her way into the hearts of sisters everywhere, she confessed to illegal steroid use to "enhance" her performance. She adamantly denied it. Bewware of adamant denials. And today, confession and apology. Who's next?Say it isn't so Serena! I am holding on to the hope that the Williams sisters remain goddesses of sports power. Marion, how could you? Who was so greedy and influential that they got into your mind, heart and vanity convincing you to run faster, better longer and stronger, by rubbing your body with "the clear" without regard for "the crime?"
No one can ride your back, or MAKE you carry them, if you are standing up straight. Bending over is the problem. Weakness and yes, the proverbial lack of knowledge of self, causes destruction to pile on. Many of walk around with a whole lotta monkeys on our backs. Stress self-inflicted. Stand up straight at all times girls. Find your gifts and use them preciously, carefully, cautiously no matter what the temptation. Do not go social and place others intentions before your own integrity.
Going social.
The Supreme Court went social at one point. Yes, I said the Supreme Court. Delivering a crushing blow to black people, the brunt of which was bourne by black women. The evolution of Supreme Court’s expansion, retraction and then expansion again of “national power” via the Commerce Clause, was clear in Gibbons v. Ogden (1824). When wealthy magnate Conrnelius Vanderbilt wanted to use the river with his steamboat and was challenged by NY state and a steamboat license holder. The court jumped in and said Vanderbilt deserves the freedom to sail where he wishes. He deserves that freedom! It is good for commerce! We are the great protectors of interstate commerce. Go and sail on! They ruled he should pay no attention to state of NY who want to control and limit his come and go. That showed backbone ladies. History changing backbone. But strangely, in 1883, under the question of racial discrimination, the once strong and mighty court which protected man's freedoms suddenly became weak and deferential. The case? Black people wanting to stay in motels, or eat where they chose. Spending of their money where they wished. Still good for interstate commerce? Oh, ha ha...uh, no. Thsi same court said: We musn't overstep into the states decision-making authority and force people to treat blacks equally. Equal? Well, this is not for us to decide. (Oh, really?) The FRONT of the bus? Hey, now we've heard the back is quite comfortable. Can't you blacks be happy with that? Come now.
The weakness and failure of the court to defend us and their cow-towing to racial "going social" peer pressures wrapped in legal misinterpretation, set the race back hundreds of years. Blacks who became educated landowning citizens after the Emancipation, were reduced to doing the tap dance of segregation. How courageous it must have been for Martin and Ralph and Rosa and Coretta, Thurgood and John Hope to work in the face of oppression. They had to at one point DECIDE not to go social and accept the whims- even the 100 year old ones- of the nation. Little girls speaking. Little girls marching. Four little girls ascending, so YOU and I would not have to take it anymore. And what did you do with THAT MARION?!! Steroids slap God in the face and undermine the incredible talent he gave you. Look how far you'd come without them! You felt you needed "the clear," huh? Are you insane?
How could throw away your leadership, accomplishment, role modelship, presence, gift and achievement away in one peer pressure moment? We laugh when elders talk about the Civil rights movement. We roll our contact-lensed eyes when the NAACP releases yet another f#$&ing STATEMENT proclaiming something unjust, just after they have hit up corporate America to sponsor their annual chicken dinners. But what about the reality that the only reason your one-crooked-front-tooth-having self would still be running from racists and lynch mobs and Jim Crow and bus back-seats was because someone refused to bend over and stood up straight through the segregation wind and rain and dogs and jail....for YOU?
I am weak. We all are week. And the road straight to hell is paved with good intention. I live every day trying to watch those moments when I catch myself compromising. An event, an opinion, a credential, a project, a conversation, a commitment, a relationship - that we know we SHOULD do without. It's a fight for your soul girls and we are losing.
I do not know where the next army of soldiers will come from. Where are you Ida B. Wells and Fannie Lou? Speak to us. Keep us away from "the clear" and help us be clear about our mission that every free moment we have in the "My Mayor" city should be spent saving other little girls from the weak and teaching them strength. It does not matter what you did before today. You can redeem yourself. Even the Supreme court, prompted by irrefutable arguments by brilliant and brave black minds, regained it's back bone and passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 ending segregation based on the marches, sit-ins, protests, sacrifices and the Heart of Atlanta Motel v U.S (1964) hotel case among others.
Yeah, I know we cannot change the world, when America's Next Top Model is on. We cannot look for fresh politics and men who can stand up straight, when McDreamy with no lips, smiles at us through the TV screen. Move a mountain? Get a pedicure? Decisions. Decisions. That is equality, right? Wrong.
Run and don't get weary girls. Start now or your life will never be the same. You can stand up...to anything. Don't you bend to what is sexy and social and surrendering your soul. You can stand up...to anything.
I believe in you.
coverage for celebratory g
ood news. Nothing uplifting and no great achievements to announce either. Au contraire. The news? The usual "been-caught-so-I confess" despair, of course, of the self-inflicted kind. Their plight, these two Marions, reminded me of the label this teacher used to place on promising students who were clearly doomed to this kind of self-inflicted failure. He would look up from his desk, eyes lifted beyond his bifocals and lean into the student to impart a particular warning: "You, my dear, are going social, " he would say, "Stop yourself now or your life will never be the same."His name was Mr. Sikkrut or Sliprutts I think. He was a gym teacher, (or was it speech?) who really had an eye for the ladies - especially the nubile cheerleading ones. Whatever his lecherous defects, he did have a sense about people. And if there was one thing Mr. Sikkrut could spot, it was someone heading for a fall from grace because of their inner insecurities, single tragic flaws and, as he put it, "Going social" behavior. The students who began high school wide-eyed and well intended, seeking popularity, enticed by vanity, quickly became members of an "in" crowd, or an "out" crowd of cleverly disguised misfits, and would one day meet their social demise. He could spot them from the very first day of school. Lacking backbone, wrapped in trends, huge potential and a propensity for going social to fill a void hidden deep within.
Sikkrut-the-great-psychic-Swamee, was fired one day, for placing a male student in a headlock, choking this popular football player until it caused the student to pass out. This took place during a classroom standoff/pissing contest incident, prompted by a mutual desire to impress the females in the classroom. Idiotic, testosterone-oriented, bad judgement. He eventually became an alcoholic and a victim of his own prediction. Bad decision makingin order to floss for an external no one. He was never heard from again. The male student? He, of course, became a state legislator representing a major US city. Still wanting to be seen and still cleverly disguised.
I think the world turns slowly, purposefully, to allow balance to yin-yang us. what goes around, ladies...
Washington, DC has never been a model city. Rather, it is actually two cities that share two cultures, unified under one zip code. The Washington government "mother", who has two children of different races and, because of the laws of the time, one child is indisputably inferior, never to be given the same rights and privileges of the other, much lighter, sibling. Marion Barry became Mayor of DC's dark side. befriending the worker, the home-owning grandmothers, the voters, by being there. He also curried enough favor on the lighter side of town, making sure key big business figures ate off the land so that his power remained - though often challenged - always just beyond their reach. Talk to the parents of baby boomers in DC who were there back in the Marion Barry hey-day, and you will find that to them Marion Barry is still: "My Mayor!" they proclaim proudly. The Pastor of [insert any major DC Baptist Church here] welcomed the good "mayor" into the pulpit just last week. And he spoke like the leader, the deliverer, he sees himself to be. Proud Marion. Unapologetic for the days of crack use and b's who set him up in hotel rooms which are long behind him. The American memory and black pseudo-leadership is tragically flawed, having "gone social" long ago.
Marion Barry+Youth jobs="He's got a good heart...what is so corrupt about that? All them politicians do something. At least he's bringing it home to the kids." says Mr. Amtrak worker. That is a big deal for working-class black America. But...what of the future.
BUT when the inner city DC boys turn 17, cannot read in spite of their summer yard work paid for by the Barry plan, and they return to the NE side of town rejected and unwelcome by the world of t
heir lighter brother other side of town, their lives (most of their lives) have but two destinations. One is prison. The other is death - by drugs and the killing of the mind, destruction of the community and spirit and death by bullets. Yes, many have left Washington's prestigious black educational institutions and thrived beyond the confines of poverty. Exceptional models of black excellence. Exceptional. Exceptions. But what of the Mayor's Washington? Deal making, my-main-man...The chocolate city was swept up by the crack epidemic. Street 'soldiers' marched the narcotic into the community and the elite used it for the "social" entertainment. Living high - even at the Mayor's mansion. God bless you Effie Barry for staying by his side for as long as you did. Can you imagine the things she endured being the wife? Living the lies? Peace to her. The new mayor, Adrian Fenty grew up watching the tragedies unfold. I think a change is coming.Can I be a wife? If my hubby "goes social" God forbid, can I save him?
Okay, I will stop here again just sooooooooooo disappointed about the state of our black people and what it all means for the women and black girls. Does DC have strong black girl leadership? Eleanor Holmes Norton has been the occasionally powerless DC representative in Congress who is angry, with heavy emphasis on the rhetoric, but comfortable. Likable and rarely capable of blocking the unacceptable, but has she ever delivered the improbable? Don't think so. Not taken seriously. Bush laughs at lawmakers like her. Would, say President Obama view her differently? Does she bring anything to be viewed differently about? I know, I digress.
Marion Jones. another beautiful black girl with the civil rights name, who let us down today ladies. Not unlike the infamous Marion Barry, whose 50 pairs of cuff links and six Rolexes were stolen in a newsworthy break
in the other night. Today, after winning her five medals (3 of them gold) in the Olympics and smiling her way into the hearts of sisters everywhere, she confessed to illegal steroid use to "enhance" her performance. She adamantly denied it. Bewware of adamant denials. And today, confession and apology. Who's next?Say it isn't so Serena! I am holding on to the hope that the Williams sisters remain goddesses of sports power. Marion, how could you? Who was so greedy and influential that they got into your mind, heart and vanity convincing you to run faster, better longer and stronger, by rubbing your body with "the clear" without regard for "the crime?"No one can ride your back, or MAKE you carry them, if you are standing up straight. Bending over is the problem. Weakness and yes, the proverbial lack of knowledge of self, causes destruction to pile on. Many of walk around with a whole lotta monkeys on our backs. Stress self-inflicted. Stand up straight at all times girls. Find your gifts and use them preciously, carefully, cautiously no matter what the temptation. Do not go social and place others intentions before your own integrity.
Going social.
The Supreme Court went social at one point. Yes, I said the Supreme Court. Delivering a crushing blow to black people, the brunt of which was bourne by black women. The evolution of Supreme Court’s expansion, retraction and then expansion again of “national power” via the Commerce Clause, was clear in Gibbons v. Ogden (1824). When wealthy magnate Conrnelius Vanderbilt wanted to use the river with his steamboat and was challenged by NY state and a steamboat license holder. The court jumped in and said Vanderbilt deserves the freedom to sail where he wishes. He deserves that freedom! It is good for commerce! We are the great protectors of interstate commerce. Go and sail on! They ruled he should pay no attention to state of NY who want to control and limit his come and go. That showed backbone ladies. History changing backbone. But strangely, in 1883, under the question of racial discrimination, the once strong and mighty court which protected man's freedoms suddenly became weak and deferential. The case? Black people wanting to stay in motels, or eat where they chose. Spending of their money where they wished. Still good for interstate commerce? Oh, ha ha...uh, no. Thsi same court said: We musn't overstep into the states decision-making authority and force people to treat blacks equally. Equal? Well, this is not for us to decide. (Oh, really?) The FRONT of the bus? Hey, now we've heard the back is quite comfortable. Can't you blacks be happy with that? Come now.
The weakness and failure of the court to defend us and their cow-towing to racial "going social" peer pressures wrapped in legal misinterpretation, set the race back hundreds of years. Blacks who became educated landowning citizens after the Emancipation, were reduced to doing the tap dance of segregation. How courageous it must have been for Martin and Ralph and Rosa and Coretta, Thurgood and John Hope to work in the face of oppression. They had to at one point DECIDE not to go social and accept the whims- even the 100 year old ones- of the nation. Little girls speaking. Little girls marching. Four little girls ascending, so YOU and I would not have to take it anymore. And what did you do with THAT MARION?!! Steroids slap God in the face and undermine the incredible talent he gave you. Look how far you'd come without them! You felt you needed "the clear," huh? Are you insane?
How could throw away your leadership, accomplishment, role modelship, presence, gift and achievement away in one peer pressure moment? We laugh when elders talk about the Civil rights movement. We roll our contact-lensed eyes when the NAACP releases yet another f#$&ing STATEMENT proclaiming something unjust, just after they have hit up corporate America to sponsor their annual chicken dinners. But what about the reality that the only reason your one-crooked-front-tooth-having self would still be running from racists and lynch mobs and Jim Crow and bus back-seats was because someone refused to bend over and stood up straight through the segregation wind and rain and dogs and jail....for YOU?
I am weak. We all are week. And the road straight to hell is paved with good intention. I live every day trying to watch those moments when I catch myself compromising. An event, an opinion, a credential, a project, a conversation, a commitment, a relationship - that we know we SHOULD do without. It's a fight for your soul girls and we are losing.
I do not know where the next army of soldiers will come from. Where are you Ida B. Wells and Fannie Lou? Speak to us. Keep us away from "the clear" and help us be clear about our mission that every free moment we have in the "My Mayor" city should be spent saving other little girls from the weak and teaching them strength. It does not matter what you did before today. You can redeem yourself. Even the Supreme court, prompted by irrefutable arguments by brilliant and brave black minds, regained it's back bone and passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 ending segregation based on the marches, sit-ins, protests, sacrifices and the Heart of Atlanta Motel v U.S (1964) hotel case among others.
Yeah, I know we cannot change the world, when America's Next Top Model is on. We cannot look for fresh politics and men who can stand up straight, when McDreamy with no lips, smiles at us through the TV screen. Move a mountain? Get a pedicure? Decisions. Decisions. That is equality, right? Wrong.
Run and don't get weary girls. Start now or your life will never be the same. You can stand up...to anything. Don't you bend to what is sexy and social and surrendering your soul. You can stand up...to anything.
I believe in you.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Who Gets My Black Girl Vote?: Don't Give it Up Too Soon - Make Them Buy That Cow
What is politics to us? Is it the same politics that our forefathers and mothers gathered in church basements to create? Is it the same distinguished activism to change public policy? Marching, you remember, in pencil skirts and pearls? Class within their carriage, were our black women of that day. No MTV in sight. Pre-Bad Boy and 
Mo'Nique's Charm School exploits.
No, Jackie-O had nothing on the women of the Civil Rights Movement. Peace be to them. And so, a half century later, where pray tell, are we?
Remember when Mama (or mother, if you grew up in the burbs like me) told you that no brothers will "Buy the cow if they get the milk for free?" I know you remember what that meant. Of course it was about power - your power, GIRL POWER, the intoxicating power that makes the male species behave in all manner of unconscious and irrational (Clinton/Lewinsky) ways -- ways that are still beneficial to you, little girl. Mama meant for us to know that when you have something of value, (like say, sex) something people want (like say, sex -from you), there is power in preserving it, making someone earn your sacred treasure. Because, (and here is the life's lesson killer that most girls have learned the hard way:) once you give it up, the power changes hands and you can never get it back again.
Never.
And for those of you who have already given up that virginity and that "tail" on one too many occasions, it is time to reclaim your dignity. You still have a power you can cling to, one that should be sought by the highest of the high. A power that somebody very much wants. Oh yes, the potent power of your sweet, black... VOTE. Yes, your black female, discerning, neo-pencil- skirt-wearing VOTE. And don't give it up to anyone (any candidate) who has not fully earned every corner of your precious ballot.
Let's talk grassroots politics for a moment. Educate ourselves by looking at what the giant republican machines accomplished by controlling local politics: the school boards, the local agencies, zo
ning and other decision-making-with-local-impact areas. They built a closed good ol' boy infrastructure based on grassroots. The rest was like water running down a hill. Easy. This made it easy for republican controlled businesses. republican controlled revenue (cash flow) and ultimately, power.
Today, it is claimed that our black politicians just "look into things" when an issue arises. NAACP other black leadership rendered ineffective by their meaningless pushings of paper and back-slapping conversation. They are under too much scrutiny to be effective and are too weak to make decisions based upon being on the side of what is right. Jesse Jr. is viewed as a maverick for going against the political grain. Yet, his wfie Sandy just became a local Chicago alderman (a City Council seat). The Jacksons have a home in Morocco and more money than their grandchildren can ever spend. Do you think there was not a strategy involved? Create millionaires boys (girls), and you will never ever be broke?
Control ladies. Smart, strategic control. This is how power moves. Who controls the treasury? Jewish people. Who controls the Fire Departments, overwhelmingly? The Irish people. (polarizing examples? Maybe. Truth? Definitely.) No girls, I am not putting people in a box. I am demonstrating that there currently is no area where African-American women (black girls) reign. Unwed single motherhood notwithstanding.
Mo'Nique's Charm School exploits.No, Jackie-O had nothing on the women of the Civil Rights Movement. Peace be to them. And so, a half century later, where pray tell, are we?
Remember when Mama (or mother, if you grew up in the burbs like me) told you that no brothers will "Buy the cow if they get the milk for free?" I know you remember what that meant. Of course it was about power - your power, GIRL POWER, the intoxicating power that makes the male species behave in all manner of unconscious and irrational (Clinton/Lewinsky) ways -- ways that are still beneficial to you, little girl. Mama meant for us to know that when you have something of value, (like say, sex) something people want (like say, sex -from you), there is power in preserving it, making someone earn your sacred treasure. Because, (and here is the life's lesson killer that most girls have learned the hard way:) once you give it up, the power changes hands and you can never get it back again.
Never.
And for those of you who have already given up that virginity and that "tail" on one too many occasions, it is time to reclaim your dignity. You still have a power you can cling to, one that should be sought by the highest of the high. A power that somebody very much wants. Oh yes, the potent power of your sweet, black... VOTE. Yes, your black female, discerning, neo-pencil- skirt-wearing VOTE. And don't give it up to anyone (any candidate) who has not fully earned every corner of your precious ballot.
Let's talk grassroots politics for a moment. Educate ourselves by looking at what the giant republican machines accomplished by controlling local politics: the school boards, the local agencies, zo
ning and other decision-making-with-local-impact areas. They built a closed good ol' boy infrastructure based on grassroots. The rest was like water running down a hill. Easy. This made it easy for republican controlled businesses. republican controlled revenue (cash flow) and ultimately, power.Today, it is claimed that our black politicians just "look into things" when an issue arises. NAACP other black leadership rendered ineffective by their meaningless pushings of paper and back-slapping conversation. They are under too much scrutiny to be effective and are too weak to make decisions based upon being on the side of what is right. Jesse Jr. is viewed as a maverick for going against the political grain. Yet, his wfie Sandy just became a local Chicago alderman (a City Council seat). The Jacksons have a home in Morocco and more money than their grandchildren can ever spend. Do you think there was not a strategy involved? Create millionaires boys (girls), and you will never ever be broke?
Control ladies. Smart, strategic control. This is how power moves. Who controls the treasury? Jewish people. Who controls the Fire Departments, overwhelmingly? The Irish people. (polarizing examples? Maybe. Truth? Definitely.) No girls, I am not putting people in a box. I am demonstrating that there currently is no area where African-American women (black girls) reign. Unwed single motherhood notwithstanding.
What is our definition of politics and how does it touch you? White politics gets them land ownership, access to the best schools, development deals. What do our politics look like? The answer: A one day event. Think about how often we dress and shop and plan for the "one day" forum, conference, black women's expo or political event. CBC? See-Be-Seen. It would serve us to think about it. What do we support and how serious is it? Who values our judgement, because black girl support doesn't come easy?
In the current - I need a word here for "a parade of pompous clown candidates who are over privileged and under concerned about their fellow man" - except maybe one.
In the current...um...phalanx of vain candidates vying for attention (can you imagine vying for attention -- for a living?? Takes a special breed, right? But, breed of what?) there are very few who have black women on the agenda. Certainly not our republican friends. They recently skipped the all important Republican 
debates held by the talky Tavis Smiley in Baltimore, MD. Just no-showed. Then on Meet the Press (yes, Tavis was on Meet the Press with monster-head Tim Russert. Peace to his mother for that), Pat Buchanan crushed black vote value and Tavis' points about how insulting they've been by saying, in paraphrase: Blacks are only 13% of the population (so, you actually don't friggin count for anything in this country, he implies) and second of all, only 10% of those blacks even vote (because most of you ninnies can't navigate your way around verb conjugation much less electoral complexities).
Okay, I am going to stop here to call Pat Buchanan a CLASSIC white male ASSHOLE!
But back to my story: So we have blacks at 13% of the population, 10% of them voting and less than 10% of those voting would even consider voting Republican. His point? Y'all nigs are minuscule to us. A blip that, if placed on my ass, would not cause me to even scratch much less notice you. This constitutes typical Republican thinking. Blacks don't matter. And, black girls are for syrup bottles.
But, in reality we get no love on the Democratic side either. the Democrats treat us black girls - (yes you beautiful, educated, African-American success story with money in the bank and good credit - you too) like that proverbial boyfriend who gets a!@ from you anytime he feels like it and totally takes you for granted. Like Eddie Murphy said in his "RAW" stand up routin
e. When a guy hears the girl make the wooooo-woooooooo noise during sex, he knows he has got them forever and no matter what he does, she will never leave him. Ever. Girls, ladies, educated black women of America - we cannot keep making the wooooo-woooooooooo noise for the Democratic party!! We are now getting dogged. A very public-the-whole-campus/block-knows-about-it, old-fashioned dog out. I won't keep getting played like this by people we have the power to elect. We are too smart. At least get something out of it. Don't let me start illustrating the goods we should be getting when we allow ourselves to surrender something so precious. Any clues?
Okay, now I know you have been waiting for me to ask: Should we give it up to Obama? Okay, the innuendo stops here. Well, with him we know that the keys in his hands means square and fair treatment for African-Americans. Now, I know you white people are thinking: black people in power equates to hell in a handbasket, but think about this example: Pension Funds. The article in the New York Times today outlines the fact that hardly any of America's (in general) and Illinois (in particular) pension fund money went to black investment firms. In Illinois, Emil Jones, State Senate President, had been asked for years to help black firms get access to the money. He told them: "I'll look into it." Meanwhile, he did not want to rock the boat for himself and did nothing. Enter Obama. He noticed maybe, that 1) government workers and labor union members are over 80% BLACK! So, that means that your Auntie who paid faithfully into her pension fund for d
ecades would not have any of that money invested by a black firm. Until Obama.
Obama, got with his brother-in-law (an investment banker) and his friend John Rodgers of Ariel Capital Management (home of Good Morning America's Mellody Hobson) and now over 20% of Illinois pension fund money is minority managed. The old guard it seems is maintaining the status quo. While Obama is quietly and with great aplomb, kicking doors in and making the way fairer for people. Nothing different than what the Republicans do. Or the Clintons do. I like it. 
And what about Hilary? Is she worthy? Can we get past the excitement of the rise of the Clintons? The in-your-face reclamation of the White House by the man who left office in disgrace? Um I mean, the first woman President who defeats her detractors, and any h's who tried to sleep with her husband, by becoming the frigging President of the free world? I met Clinton once. Pressed my business card into his hand and did he call? You decide.
While we're at it, let's look at an Obama-is President world shall we? Now this should be fun:
Okay a black President. Blacks in the cabinet. 8,000 DC decision-making policy influencing jobs will be controlled by a person of color who is not beholden to special interests. I can see it now, sistah's and brothers running with degrees in hand to be vetted by the background checkers for a chance to be a Special Appointee in "The Administration."
And what an administration (...day of rejoicing...) that will be! Brown people in Muslim countries will no longer want to bomb the US (and themselves in the process). But will approach the US Commander-in-Chief with a modicum of respect. Which is more than the "America-must-burn-in-the-fiery-pit-of-hell" world that most anti-American Middle Easterners live in. Respect. Clerks are now Chairs. Staffers are now Assistant Deputy Secretaries and profilers have become Special Appointees to the Obama Administation. I like the sound of it. You?
Sidebar: I confess that my recollection of the many times I have heard: "I was a special appointee in the Administration" from DC black prima-donnas, makes me ill every time I think about it. Mainly because the person usually offers that half-true assertion during some kind of cocktail reception when standing in a circle with others vying for the attention of the biggest muckety-muck within earshot. OR they just want to rise above the others standing there. Same goes for people with titles like Assistant Deputy Secretary to the Special Assistant to the Special Appointee. The title comment floats and, after a moment of fake "I'm impressed" silence, the sound of "Ahhhhhhh. Really? That's interesting. Must have been exciting. Do you know....?" Questions and name-dropping wafts over the semi-circle. Someone leaves, yet others now want to befriend and move closer. PATHETIC. Sorry. I just hate that about DC (Desperate Conversation).
YES. That makes me a hater. I know this. But hear me out, real players never have to announce their credentials. Ever. Think on that. Important point for the refrigerator magnets: Just be. Without empty self-promotion. I am amazing and people can see it in my character without me advertising my credentials. Okay yes, I am feeling a bit inferior and would I like to be a political appointee? Sure. But, I can't right now. So I choose to harbor some Hate-that-bitch, internally. Harmless and we all do it.
Okay, but I was talking about Obama being president and got sidetracked by some haterism. Foreshadowing of things to come? Maybe! Can blacks get along enough to capitalize a la Vernon Jordan on what power truly means?
Please read the Autobiography of John Hope Franklin. Now, here is a man who came from nothing. But, due in part to a combination of his own ability, c
onfidence, some vanity and willingness to actually put in work (yes, I know that is determination, but no one is moved by the word determination anymore. It has been over used in black history month ads). But he went to Harvard in the 40's when most blacks couldn't walk down Harvard Street in a major city. He is the epitome of the talented tenth and after becoming a leading historian and professor, author and presidential advisor, he finished his career as an internationally known authority on all things black and his researched helped Thurgood with Brown v. Board of Education. He was a beast. And so are you little black girls and so is your VOTE.
So we know that neither D's nor R's really care about us. Thus, my point. Do not just surrender your vote to the lesser of the two evils. Think, listen then speak and be heard!
You can live life differently. Government belongs to you. Did you know you can drive to the hill (Capitol Hill) enter any Congressional or Senate office (after going through the metal detector) without appointment? Or a security guard stopping to have you sign-in or asking you a question? Walk right down the impressive marble halls where King, Thurgood, Kennedy and others walked. See their names on the door: Obama and Clinton (on the Senate side) and Jackson and Waters (on the US House of Representatives side). You can open their unlocked office doors and pop right in to see what is happening. Why? Because THEY work for YOU!! You didn't realize you have employees did you? Take the field trip (or web trip) to learn who is doing what. Then call the hill, 202-255-3121 and ask for the member you want and say:
The black women will not have their vote dogged anymore. If you want my vote, I need to see the plan and your public commitment for - [insert your wishes here]
Maybe they touch on the key ingredients to live, liberty and the pursuit of happiness: Housing Employment, Education and Healthcare: HEEH. (I wonder if that means something in Swahili?
So...make your wish and get involved:
Scholarship Money for all kids
Free tuition for single mothers who want to go to (or back to college)
Free daycare
Healthcare
Mortgage first time buyer funding...
You feel me. They have to pay the cost to be the boss. God says we have not because we ask not. So we ask, we vote, we show up for speeches and debates, we ask questions, We serve on school boards, we educate ourselves, we run for office. Harriet would have. Why no you? she was a SLAVE and she did it? You are free. Start with that. We let Pat Buchanan know that nobody is looking like the syrup bottle today. Pat, we salute you (middle fingers up ladies). We live, we will succeed in spite of you and we watch for our opportunity to shine.
I am watching too. For my girls.
The Maturation of a Black Pen: Marriage and the Men Who Won't
"Yeah, we had bought our second house, to use as income property, and then she said to me, 'You know, we might as well get married now, James.' So then I said, "Oh what the heck?"
You have just read a typical African-American marriage proposal. Now, before the bourgeoisie get bent out of shape and blast me with video of their romantic marriage proposals under the Eiffel tower, please wait. I said TYPICAL African-American marriage proposal. Where the women wait around for many years too long as the men keep an eye out for that one more piece of ass before they take that funeral march to the altar.
Survey black couples today and you wil find a number of these non-traditional proposals. Couples who have ated for many years or men who, after several long term relationships and even a child or two by another single person, they decided to settle down. It smacks of last resort, ultimatims and pathetic childish behavior on the part of men who know, after all, that the sister will wait for me. Hell, she has waited this long.
I have surveyed black men over and over while having cigars at Shelly's and watching the game (yes, girls to FIND the men you must GO to where they are!). They all say the same thing. They are accomplished degree professionals who are identical in thinking to the baby-daddies running the streets of the hood. They want it all and the perception that they have women in every port: on the Vineyard, in Miami, at their law firm or at the alumni reunion, and they are living the life of Riley is greater than committment, conscious and consideration for their community. They do not even deny, when you ask them why at 38, 39, 40 they remain single, that they are selfish and living for superficial things and gains. Some even father children with successful women out of wedlock to fulfill vain desires. But, marriage? No.
We as women feel embarrassed and humiliated. The chip on our collective shoulders grows bigger each year as we age not having been chosen in our twenties, or even thirties by a man. I know the women who have been prentending this is a perfectly fine circumstance will take issue with my every word. But I am allowing you to peek behind the curtain here. Women want marriage and the partnership whether a picket fence is involved or a condo in Manhattan, we were reared to expect love and family. We sompensate for this loss in many ways. Unfortunately, the less money one has, the more destructive our solutions to the challenge.
Who suffers? Back in the day, there were families of teachers and professionals living alongside single, lower income, workers and apartment dwellers. There were models within the community that people aspired to and achieved. We cannot apologize that the destruction of our black families begins with men and perpetuates the fatherlessness that they all have endured. It is as if men are asking themselves, "Why did my father leave us? Why was he so selfish?" and then without realizing - or maybe intentionally - they exhibit the same behavior. "Ahhhh. I see." The women, the vanity, my life my way..." Sad.
Okay so why is this issue not as prevalent in White America? Why does any self-respecting non-gay man on the fast track marry his college sweetheart and have kids and a mortgage as the foundation of their climb up the corporate ladder? Do they cheat? Sure! These are the men for whom strip clubs were invented. Business travelers! Not the seedy druggies who also worm their way in. No, trust me it is the corporate dollars that keeps that industry humming.
Can black men take a lesson from the white ones? I am smiling now because I knwo my activist readers are going to challenge me to stop jocking white people. I am not. I am "jocking" marriage an the family, a concept that our community - our men in particular - fail to grasp.
The bottom line is: if you do not lok at exceptions and seek the rule, our communities are much stronger ith married couples and black families in it.
On the horizon are men who understand this. And they may not be chocolate flavored ladies, so keep your eyes out for the vanilla ones too!
You have just read a typical African-American marriage proposal. Now, before the bourgeoisie get bent out of shape and blast me with video of their romantic marriage proposals under the Eiffel tower, please wait. I said TYPICAL African-American marriage proposal. Where the women wait around for many years too long as the men keep an eye out for that one more piece of ass before they take that funeral march to the altar.
Survey black couples today and you wil find a number of these non-traditional proposals. Couples who have ated for many years or men who, after several long term relationships and even a child or two by another single person, they decided to settle down. It smacks of last resort, ultimatims and pathetic childish behavior on the part of men who know, after all, that the sister will wait for me. Hell, she has waited this long.
I have surveyed black men over and over while having cigars at Shelly's and watching the game (yes, girls to FIND the men you must GO to where they are!). They all say the same thing. They are accomplished degree professionals who are identical in thinking to the baby-daddies running the streets of the hood. They want it all and the perception that they have women in every port: on the Vineyard, in Miami, at their law firm or at the alumni reunion, and they are living the life of Riley is greater than committment, conscious and consideration for their community. They do not even deny, when you ask them why at 38, 39, 40 they remain single, that they are selfish and living for superficial things and gains. Some even father children with successful women out of wedlock to fulfill vain desires. But, marriage? No.
We as women feel embarrassed and humiliated. The chip on our collective shoulders grows bigger each year as we age not having been chosen in our twenties, or even thirties by a man. I know the women who have been prentending this is a perfectly fine circumstance will take issue with my every word. But I am allowing you to peek behind the curtain here. Women want marriage and the partnership whether a picket fence is involved or a condo in Manhattan, we were reared to expect love and family. We sompensate for this loss in many ways. Unfortunately, the less money one has, the more destructive our solutions to the challenge.
Who suffers? Back in the day, there were families of teachers and professionals living alongside single, lower income, workers and apartment dwellers. There were models within the community that people aspired to and achieved. We cannot apologize that the destruction of our black families begins with men and perpetuates the fatherlessness that they all have endured. It is as if men are asking themselves, "Why did my father leave us? Why was he so selfish?" and then without realizing - or maybe intentionally - they exhibit the same behavior. "Ahhhh. I see." The women, the vanity, my life my way..." Sad.
Okay so why is this issue not as prevalent in White America? Why does any self-respecting non-gay man on the fast track marry his college sweetheart and have kids and a mortgage as the foundation of their climb up the corporate ladder? Do they cheat? Sure! These are the men for whom strip clubs were invented. Business travelers! Not the seedy druggies who also worm their way in. No, trust me it is the corporate dollars that keeps that industry humming.
Can black men take a lesson from the white ones? I am smiling now because I knwo my activist readers are going to challenge me to stop jocking white people. I am not. I am "jocking" marriage an the family, a concept that our community - our men in particular - fail to grasp.
The bottom line is: if you do not lok at exceptions and seek the rule, our communities are much stronger ith married couples and black families in it.
On the horizon are men who understand this. And they may not be chocolate flavored ladies, so keep your eyes out for the vanilla ones too!
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Identity Crisis: All My Problems are Self-Inflicted
Dinner last night. He is a lawyer. She is a lawyer. They are as happy as two clams in a toxin-free Chesapeake Bay. I am... having an identity crisis. Repeat after me: It does not matter what you do, how educated you are - you are great little black girl, and you are happy too.
Yeah right. Is your pedigree and corporate affiliation the equivalent of identity?
The crisis is not that I don't know who I am as a human being. Clearly, I have arms, legs, relatives, a BMW and a purpose in life. The crisis lies in the human inclination to feel inferior and then to say things that, at the very least, preserve our standing in the eyes of others and, at the very most, may even advance our position in the eyes of others. Both indicate flawed composition or damaged self esteem - a trait very common among black women. Contrived calculated speaking. Not lies (the opposite of truth) but almost. Hype. Why do we hype, oh God of great-keeping-up-with-the-Joneses? Why do we care whether or not people know we have flaws and debt and fragile raggedy relationships? What is the worst that could happen if people somehow saw that we were not altogether perfect? Fear. The fear of having our weaknesses outshine our strengths makes people do all manner of fake bullsh$%ty things - especially in Washington. I hate that. I should just be quiet. Forever.
In other words, if all that you speak and say and do is done with consideration for what other people will think of you, then one is (I am) not being (favorite black phrase alert:) "true to self." Therein lies an identity crisis.
Question: Do black girls have a harder time being "true to self" than other people?
Answer: I do. (Don't you like that I answer my rhetorical questions?)
The reality is many of us do not know who "self" is. We ALL have
Marsha Brady syndrome. Don't get angry black women, hear me out. Yes, we feel at home on the pews of an amazing gospel church. But we also feel at home discussing the cost of the new Prada bag, weekends in Rehoboth and the pros and cons of Martha Stewart having a spin-off of "The Apprentice." We all WANT to be in the Junior League somewhere in 0ur soul. We all know that if you can rock (wear) pearls and a button down with blue pinstripes, then white men will be less intimidated by and more accepting of us. Blue is the color of white. Light blue and pearls are the uniform of white girls. Everyone knows that.
I have yet to find a place in the world where I feel fully accepted just for being me. In my mature analysis of the situation I realize that nobody else cares about this. I am the complex crazy one.
Lost?
Me too. The fruits of colonization strike again. It is al about perception.
Are my lawmaking friends with multiple degrees, who are seated at the pinnacle of black professional life REALLY all that they seem on the exterior? Multiple homes, traveling, socializing, well-read (well, some of them). OR is it just a ruse (sp) to make everyone else think they have got it all together? WHERE IS THE TRUTH? What if all of us black people trying to prove we have arrived and can live just as comfortably as white people (our barometer of success is white American comparatives) stopped doing that? Contentment would burst from every mind and heart. Happy with self. In love with self. Secure with self. It is possible, yes? In Black America?
A man whose mission I admire is Ron Daniels. He runs a think-tank and civil rights policy advocacy place based in New York called The Institute of the Black World. It might be "for" the Black World. I'll check for you. but here is a man not trying to be white. The website alone (do not skip intro) is enough to replenish empty self-esteem reserves. The IBW is trying in fact to achieve justice through blackness. He is aided in his mission by fellows (with ships) who are white, uber-liberal and some of the sharpest Constitutional minds in America. He is always hanging out with Congressman Conyers. I feel better somehow thinking about his tireless and fearless wrok of which there is an endless amount to do.
Maybe black women can draw self-esteem from men and women like this. I have to read more. What makes Angela Davis so confident? I want ADC (Angela Davis Confidence) to speaktruth not just to power, but to self.
I learn something everytime I write to you little black girls. Keep that head up. TELL THE TRUTH AT ALL TIMES. To thine own self be true...and joy will follow.
Yeah right. Is your pedigree and corporate affiliation the equivalent of identity?
The crisis is not that I don't know who I am as a human being. Clearly, I have arms, legs, relatives, a BMW and a purpose in life. The crisis lies in the human inclination to feel inferior and then to say things that, at the very least, preserve our standing in the eyes of others and, at the very most, may even advance our position in the eyes of others. Both indicate flawed composition or damaged self esteem - a trait very common among black women. Contrived calculated speaking. Not lies (the opposite of truth) but almost. Hype. Why do we hype, oh God of great-keeping-up-with-the-Joneses? Why do we care whether or not people know we have flaws and debt and fragile raggedy relationships? What is the worst that could happen if people somehow saw that we were not altogether perfect? Fear. The fear of having our weaknesses outshine our strengths makes people do all manner of fake bullsh$%ty things - especially in Washington. I hate that. I should just be quiet. Forever.
In other words, if all that you speak and say and do is done with consideration for what other people will think of you, then one is (I am) not being (favorite black phrase alert:) "true to self." Therein lies an identity crisis.
Question: Do black girls have a harder time being "true to self" than other people?
Answer: I do. (Don't you like that I answer my rhetorical questions?)
The reality is many of us do not know who "self" is. We ALL have
Marsha Brady syndrome. Don't get angry black women, hear me out. Yes, we feel at home on the pews of an amazing gospel church. But we also feel at home discussing the cost of the new Prada bag, weekends in Rehoboth and the pros and cons of Martha Stewart having a spin-off of "The Apprentice." We all WANT to be in the Junior League somewhere in 0ur soul. We all know that if you can rock (wear) pearls and a button down with blue pinstripes, then white men will be less intimidated by and more accepting of us. Blue is the color of white. Light blue and pearls are the uniform of white girls. Everyone knows that.I have yet to find a place in the world where I feel fully accepted just for being me. In my mature analysis of the situation I realize that nobody else cares about this. I am the complex crazy one.
Lost?
Me too. The fruits of colonization strike again. It is al about perception.
Are my lawmaking friends with multiple degrees, who are seated at the pinnacle of black professional life REALLY all that they seem on the exterior? Multiple homes, traveling, socializing, well-read (well, some of them). OR is it just a ruse (sp) to make everyone else think they have got it all together? WHERE IS THE TRUTH? What if all of us black people trying to prove we have arrived and can live just as comfortably as white people (our barometer of success is white American comparatives) stopped doing that? Contentment would burst from every mind and heart. Happy with self. In love with self. Secure with self. It is possible, yes? In Black America?
A man whose mission I admire is Ron Daniels. He runs a think-tank and civil rights policy advocacy place based in New York called The Institute of the Black World. It might be "for" the Black World. I'll check for you. but here is a man not trying to be white. The website alone (do not skip intro) is enough to replenish empty self-esteem reserves. The IBW is trying in fact to achieve justice through blackness. He is aided in his mission by fellows (with ships) who are white, uber-liberal and some of the sharpest Constitutional minds in America. He is always hanging out with Congressman Conyers. I feel better somehow thinking about his tireless and fearless wrok of which there is an endless amount to do.
Maybe black women can draw self-esteem from men and women like this. I have to read more. What makes Angela Davis so confident? I want ADC (Angela Davis Confidence) to speaktruth not just to power, but to self.I learn something everytime I write to you little black girls. Keep that head up. TELL THE TRUTH AT ALL TIMES. To thine own self be true...and joy will follow.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Maturation of a Black Pen - The Congressional Black Caucus: Waste or Worth Somethin?
It is Congressional Black Caucus week in Washington. That means all of the black people elected to Congress throw themselves parties with celebrities and friends (and the public can attend some things too - if they must) to show how broad-based and popular they are. 'Come constituents and see why you donated to my campaign. Let me wine and dine you, kindly sponsored by my corporate friends.' Panels are held during the day, vendors display wa
res and info is shared. That part sounds okay, right? Then there are the panels with angry black - but rhyming - educators like Michael Erick Dyson (what does he teach people exactly? The Black Experience 101? Someone please share with me the syllabus) who cry out: "We NEED to unite as a people and...and we NEED to STOP being so....and THEY need to..."
You know, I have to stop here and say when people on panels say "We need to..." they are always pointing out what work "others" should be doing to combat oppression. Yet, they never have a "for instance" that begins with "I have just..." DONE anything or "what I am DOING is..." pretty much nothing but trying to sell my books. Worthless vanity. But they come, they talk, they wander around the lobby of the Grand Hyatt Washington - photo, photo - and they party. What an amazing use of resources. How is the school book count back in the rough side of your district, Mr. Lawmaker?
By the way, has anyone bailed that JENA6 boy out of jail yet? I read that none of the marching "Enough is Enough" t-shirt sellers have offered any money to his legal defense or bail. 8,000 blacks riled up nationwide and not a cent? But...it's party time in Washington!! "That is a bad suit you got on, Jack." Said Rollo from Sanford and Son to Congressman So-and-So. The "Rollo's" (see photo), flock to town for CBC week. Pah-TAYs and free food and drink make it irresistible.
Okay, corporations wishing to demonstrate their support of the African-American members of Congress who have worked sacrificially, to strive for a better nation and rights to liberty and advancing the plight - while putting money in their freezer like Congressman Jefferson - ...uh, I mean...excuse me.. while advancing and preserving... GIVE ME A BREAK@! Brotha, $90,000? In the freezer. And you are the former CBC Chairman? Corporate America knows this CBC week is a joke. Despite the many SHAKEDOWN checks they write.
So in honor of this spectacle, I attended a hearing on Capitol Hill this week entitled: "From Imus to Industry: ...and blacks degrading blacks in public and over the airwaves is bad." Or something. Actually, the post colon language went something like: "looking at the media and lyrics that are foul and derogatory." It was, in my humble view, a silly and fruitless waste of taxpayer dollars if I've ever seen one.
Congressman Bobby Rush, Chairman of this Commerce sub-committee, is a former
Black Panther - or so they say - who is now as kind, tame and foggy as your neighborhood mailman. I like him. Does he have fire in his belly? Um, I doubt it. I once saw him walking around Hecht's (now Macy's) with his wife. I thought to myself: Is that her purse he's holding? But, I digress. He called this hearing after Imus made the infamous "Nappy Ho's" comment. If I am a black woman and was mildly amused (quietly in a place where no one dares to laugh) by the comment, am I wrong? Of course I am! Even though black women lovingly joke about each other needing perms, this is a public outrage! Not a Howard Stern-esque joke. You should never find these things tolerable, you politically incorrect slavery deny-er! Shame on me! But c'mon. Nappy is a funny word. To me. Because I've been colonized by the white man, of course.
Okay, now I find myself funny.
The purpose of the hearing was to call record companies and media conglomerates to account and to have them explain themselves for the authorizing and "co-signing," as we say in the hood (neighborhoods of suburbia as well) of all raunchy misogynistic rap lyrics which degrade women, are an affront to society and various menacey, crimey, delinquenty, negativey. oppressivey, sculdugery, harlotriousness...
The whole spectacle is fascinating. The world will come to an end soon you know. So, this is a priority.
If you have never been to a Congressional hearing, the members of Congress, representing their various states, sit behind this large elevated panel looking down over their glasses at the audience and the table of lowly witnesses. Hill staff members sit behind each elected official and, at times, whisper something of great importance - or not - into the ear of the member. Anyway, I could go on about these people and their pseudo-important paper-pushing business. I admit they sometimes get stuff done. But generally it is all a bunch of posturing. Fawn over people for what? Because they can -only when they can rarely decide to agree on something, which is never - pass a law that makes some big company rich -- or not? I'll pass on that. I just have not known members to really do anything. But then, I'm not "connected" enough to really know who is getting revenue (paid) from various ventures (hook-ups) which allow their businesses (bank accounts) to grow and prosper.
I digress again.
Okay, so the Presidents of Viacom (this french guy named Philippe Daumane - or something- who kind of looked like he thinks minorities might have at one time been closer to primates than any of his superior francaise ancestors. And yes, I am judging him sheerly superficially. So?) and
Warner Music (Edgar Bronfman, who used to be married to a sistah! woo-hoo for Edgar! -Left photo)
I was trying to catch his eye (should I admit that? I am a pretty black girl and we don't have shots at millionaire handsome psoul-passioned Caucasians too often. Bronfman Ex-Sherry - photo right) and Universal Music Group, Doug Morris all arrived to answer question sput to them by the members of Congress sitting high above them in judges chairs. Debra Lee was there from BET and Alfred Liggins whose mom owns TV and Radio One (the newest black cable channel and many radio stations). And Hilary Rosen who left her RIAA job to launch a gay woman's meet-up website. I am totally not lying about that. It is called Ourchart. Gay is fine. She has just been a bit obnoxious in her career trying to bully people is all. So...I learned of her website. Explains nothing. I am just mentioning it. But she was there sitting next to RIAA president Cary Sherman like she was still working there. And there were a bunch of lobbyists.
The questions were as inane as the witnesses for the first panel. Do they expect anyone making money off of hard core rap, to ask any artist to start rapping clean, James Taylor lyrics because it is good for society? Will never, EVER happen. Then they had rappers come up to the witness table. Why Master P (Percy Sutton) from "Dancing With the Stars" as the spokesperson for rap music? Could they not have asked an articulate brother with an original thought like the guy from Tribe Called Qwest, Q-Tip, who used to date Nicole Kidman (irrelevant fact that I just threw in)? Master P's English is sooooo bad, as my grandmother would say, cringing. Who is he master of? Not language, surely. But couldn't they? Find someone else to truly debate the issue?THEN this...person named David Banner from rap group 'The Firm" defended his lyrics by saying: if you change the things that go on in my hood, I'll change what I rap about. Oh, well then. Of course! That's the solution! We'll just clean up your hood and Eureka! Problem solved.
Nobody cared.
Yes. I am angry today. Once again, because of the black girls.
I went to a cookout at the home of an affluent relative. Young black boys in high school were standing around talking about how they INTEND to marry a white girl "or maybe an Asian" when they grew up they said - with other ones nodding in agreement. Why? I asked. Didn't they come from a black woman? Weren't they raised around great black women? Yes, they said. But black girls are ghetto - not the ones in our family - they went on to say. The OTHER ones. (On TV?). They are just NOT GOOD ENOUGH one of the boys said.
The black girls at the table, who are otherwise confident and outgoing sat - to my surprise - in silence. Esteem melting away like the polar ice caps.
This is why I think the lyrics are in fact shameful. Because for those kids with no filter, it does impact behavior and impressions, decisions, self-respect, how they treat themselves and each other. It makes a HUGE difference and white executives would not like white artists do this to white women. It would not happen. Alfred Liggins dates white women almost exclusively. SO - sisters were not spoken for defended or accounted for in the hearing.
The one good thing about this hearing is that maybe somebody somewhere will think about the "impact" before writing a rhyme. Or even better, somebody might think twice about playing. But, based on their "I stand behind the products of my company" position, it will likely never, EVER happen.
In the end, everyone touted their first amendment flag waving (or burning) rights and went home. Nothing accomplished. Rap playing on the black radios. Classical in the chauffeur-driven executive ones.
I saw it all. So, you did too.
But sisters we know that we are better than any rap lyric, and better than any confused little boy who wants to call us an H or a B or says we are not good enough. Get degrees. Get money. Get married. Get on around whatever the world tries to put in your way and do it with a smile.
res and info is shared. That part sounds okay, right? Then there are the panels with angry black - but rhyming - educators like Michael Erick Dyson (what does he teach people exactly? The Black Experience 101? Someone please share with me the syllabus) who cry out: "We NEED to unite as a people and...and we NEED to STOP being so....and THEY need to..."You know, I have to stop here and say when people on panels say "We need to..." they are always pointing out what work "others" should be doing to combat oppression. Yet, they never have a "for instance" that begins with "I have just..." DONE anything or "what I am DOING is..." pretty much nothing but trying to sell my books. Worthless vanity. But they come, they talk, they wander around the lobby of the Grand Hyatt Washington - photo, photo - and they party. What an amazing use of resources. How is the school book count back in the rough side of your district, Mr. Lawmaker?
By the way, has anyone bailed that JENA6 boy out of jail yet? I read that none of the marching "Enough is Enough" t-shirt sellers have offered any money to his legal defense or bail. 8,000 blacks riled up nationwide and not a cent? But...it's party time in Washington!! "That is a bad suit you got on, Jack." Said Rollo from Sanford and Son to Congressman So-and-So. The "Rollo's" (see photo), flock to town for CBC week. Pah-TAYs and free food and drink make it irresistible.Okay, corporations wishing to demonstrate their support of the African-American members of Congress who have worked sacrificially, to strive for a better nation and rights to liberty and advancing the plight - while putting money in their freezer like Congressman Jefferson - ...uh, I mean...excuse me.. while advancing and preserving... GIVE ME A BREAK@! Brotha, $90,000? In the freezer. And you are the former CBC Chairman? Corporate America knows this CBC week is a joke. Despite the many SHAKEDOWN checks they write.
So in honor of this spectacle, I attended a hearing on Capitol Hill this week entitled: "From Imus to Industry: ...and blacks degrading blacks in public and over the airwaves is bad." Or something. Actually, the post colon language went something like: "looking at the media and lyrics that are foul and derogatory." It was, in my humble view, a silly and fruitless waste of taxpayer dollars if I've ever seen one.
Congressman Bobby Rush, Chairman of this Commerce sub-committee, is a former
Black Panther - or so they say - who is now as kind, tame and foggy as your neighborhood mailman. I like him. Does he have fire in his belly? Um, I doubt it. I once saw him walking around Hecht's (now Macy's) with his wife. I thought to myself: Is that her purse he's holding? But, I digress. He called this hearing after Imus made the infamous "Nappy Ho's" comment. If I am a black woman and was mildly amused (quietly in a place where no one dares to laugh) by the comment, am I wrong? Of course I am! Even though black women lovingly joke about each other needing perms, this is a public outrage! Not a Howard Stern-esque joke. You should never find these things tolerable, you politically incorrect slavery deny-er! Shame on me! But c'mon. Nappy is a funny word. To me. Because I've been colonized by the white man, of course.Okay, now I find myself funny.
The purpose of the hearing was to call record companies and media conglomerates to account and to have them explain themselves for the authorizing and "co-signing," as we say in the hood (neighborhoods of suburbia as well) of all raunchy misogynistic rap lyrics which degrade women, are an affront to society and various menacey, crimey, delinquenty, negativey. oppressivey, sculdugery, harlotriousness...
The whole spectacle is fascinating. The world will come to an end soon you know. So, this is a priority.
If you have never been to a Congressional hearing, the members of Congress, representing their various states, sit behind this large elevated panel looking down over their glasses at the audience and the table of lowly witnesses. Hill staff members sit behind each elected official and, at times, whisper something of great importance - or not - into the ear of the member. Anyway, I could go on about these people and their pseudo-important paper-pushing business. I admit they sometimes get stuff done. But generally it is all a bunch of posturing. Fawn over people for what? Because they can -only when they can rarely decide to agree on something, which is never - pass a law that makes some big company rich -- or not? I'll pass on that. I just have not known members to really do anything. But then, I'm not "connected" enough to really know who is getting revenue (paid) from various ventures (hook-ups) which allow their businesses (bank accounts) to grow and prosper.
I digress again.
Okay, so the Presidents of Viacom (this french guy named Philippe Daumane - or something- who kind of looked like he thinks minorities might have at one time been closer to primates than any of his superior francaise ancestors. And yes, I am judging him sheerly superficially. So?) and
Warner Music (Edgar Bronfman, who used to be married to a sistah! woo-hoo for Edgar! -Left photo)
I was trying to catch his eye (should I admit that? I am a pretty black girl and we don't have shots at millionaire handsome psoul-passioned Caucasians too often. Bronfman Ex-Sherry - photo right) and Universal Music Group, Doug Morris all arrived to answer question sput to them by the members of Congress sitting high above them in judges chairs. Debra Lee was there from BET and Alfred Liggins whose mom owns TV and Radio One (the newest black cable channel and many radio stations). And Hilary Rosen who left her RIAA job to launch a gay woman's meet-up website. I am totally not lying about that. It is called Ourchart. Gay is fine. She has just been a bit obnoxious in her career trying to bully people is all. So...I learned of her website. Explains nothing. I am just mentioning it. But she was there sitting next to RIAA president Cary Sherman like she was still working there. And there were a bunch of lobbyists. The questions were as inane as the witnesses for the first panel. Do they expect anyone making money off of hard core rap, to ask any artist to start rapping clean, James Taylor lyrics because it is good for society? Will never, EVER happen. Then they had rappers come up to the witness table. Why Master P (Percy Sutton) from "Dancing With the Stars" as the spokesperson for rap music? Could they not have asked an articulate brother with an original thought like the guy from Tribe Called Qwest, Q-Tip, who used to date Nicole Kidman (irrelevant fact that I just threw in)? Master P's English is sooooo bad, as my grandmother would say, cringing. Who is he master of? Not language, surely. But couldn't they? Find someone else to truly debate the issue?THEN this...person named David Banner from rap group 'The Firm" defended his lyrics by saying: if you change the things that go on in my hood, I'll change what I rap about. Oh, well then. Of course! That's the solution! We'll just clean up your hood and Eureka! Problem solved.
Nobody cared.
Yes. I am angry today. Once again, because of the black girls.
I went to a cookout at the home of an affluent relative. Young black boys in high school were standing around talking about how they INTEND to marry a white girl "or maybe an Asian" when they grew up they said - with other ones nodding in agreement. Why? I asked. Didn't they come from a black woman? Weren't they raised around great black women? Yes, they said. But black girls are ghetto - not the ones in our family - they went on to say. The OTHER ones. (On TV?). They are just NOT GOOD ENOUGH one of the boys said.
The black girls at the table, who are otherwise confident and outgoing sat - to my surprise - in silence. Esteem melting away like the polar ice caps.
This is why I think the lyrics are in fact shameful. Because for those kids with no filter, it does impact behavior and impressions, decisions, self-respect, how they treat themselves and each other. It makes a HUGE difference and white executives would not like white artists do this to white women. It would not happen. Alfred Liggins dates white women almost exclusively. SO - sisters were not spoken for defended or accounted for in the hearing.
The one good thing about this hearing is that maybe somebody somewhere will think about the "impact" before writing a rhyme. Or even better, somebody might think twice about playing. But, based on their "I stand behind the products of my company" position, it will likely never, EVER happen.
In the end, everyone touted their first amendment flag waving (or burning) rights and went home. Nothing accomplished. Rap playing on the black radios. Classical in the chauffeur-driven executive ones.
I saw it all. So, you did too.
But sisters we know that we are better than any rap lyric, and better than any confused little boy who wants to call us an H or a B or says we are not good enough. Get degrees. Get money. Get married. Get on around whatever the world tries to put in your way and do it with a smile.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
From the Mind of a Black American Woman
I toyed with ideas for phrasing in this blog, whether to use "African-American" or not. Casually speaking, everyone thinks in terms of "black girl" or "white people," or "the black vote" and "the white vote." Listen for the references on the news, in daily conversation and you will notice how often colors are used. So America thinketh, so are we -- and therefore, so go I. Thus, there is no politcal correctness here. Uncompromising black girlness only.
I am a professional of sorts, having worked in education, politics, corporate marketing and entertainment (on the seedy, superficial front end of performers and events), as well as in entertainment policy (on the seedy, superficial back end of vain, egomaniacal politicians, media business executives and their lobbyists). So, I know much about many things which is ultimately useful for absolutely nothing. I have Congressmen on my resume only because I know who some of them are, have, or may still be sleeping with. I say that in jest (partially), because I have been fortunate to work with people who are truly driven to do good things, but are just worn down by the struggle - and not the Harriet Tubman struggle of old. The new struggle.
I confess I really hate the word "struggle." It makes me envision a person tied up inside a canvas draw string bag trying desparately to get out. Picture with me if you will, the lumpy bag jerking and rolling around with someone writhing awkwardly fighting it. It smacks of both domination by one force and unrewarding efforts of futility by the dominated. STRing hUG uGLy E. (A puzzle for you.)But black people are trained to honor this word representative of our historic overcoming. No disrespect. I am however, on a quest to find a better word that represents the winning and not the losing.
Over the coming weeks, I will muse on various topics - and one will have to be how very much I hate the word "muse" as a verb. Being black and all(smile), I suppose you could say it will be written from a black perspective. I am very in touch with the hood in me, but was raised (mostly) in the suburbs. So, I speak "Oh My Gaaaawwd" and "Here he is!" as well as anybody. Bilinguistics of culture will be another topic. Just as several white people use the "N" word privately (oh come now, admit), within every black woman is the inate ability to turn a phrase with a sing-songy southern cadence not unlike the black maid in the Tom & Jerry cartoons. This applies to EVERY black woman, trust me. Even the Ivy-league ones you know. They can do it too. It's ancestral.
I am 38.
I was compelled to write this blog because though I have a novel, helpful how-to-manual, screenplay and, at the very least, a radio show inside me - I am not compelled to make it happen. I was somehow convinced at the tender age of eight that Ed McMahon would come to my Grandmothers house where I was babysat each day, and deliver unto me a check for $1Million dollars courtesy of Publishers Clearinghouse. I watched a thousand commercials between episodes of Young and the Restless where people were ecstatic. I wanted to be ecstatic. Then I saw my Grandad go our to the mailbox with his crutch - which he used as a cane because he was so tall - and mail the sweepstakes envelope. That was it. I have accomplished many fantastic things in my life, but whenever one thing approaches too closely to my true calling, I procrastinate and delay, shelve and postpone. There you have it: my tragic flaw. Publisher's Clearing Paralysis. Thinking that one day all of the planets will line up financially and personally, professionally and publicly for me to do the things I was meant to do.
Did I mention I am 38?
I bet you began reading thinking there might be some cutting poltitical commentary about the failings of the President. Or a black girl's perspective on some conspiracy theory as to why Mr. President's buddy, and maker of the voting machines at Diebold, promised he would deliver the numbers in the last election. Well, the numbers were delivered and Ohio pushed him over the top. Did America really choose him twice? Please rule from a condescending viewpoint and raid the treasury for your colleagues -- again? We love it that every-(Republican)-body eats at dubya's White House? Right? Just curious. It is so hard to believe. But then again it is America - and who is your ally? is the only question people care about. The answer is usually the one who is keeping money in your pocket and food on your table. I get it. Hey, We black women want our boy (or girl) in power just as much as the next man. I love those who keep me employed and income-earning as well. You know, the one who helps you preserve your lifestyle. To that end, Karl Rove helped amass enough people of power, a based just above the majority line to keep his man winning. And win they did. So who were the losers?
Black women.
Condi's Italian maker knee boots notwithstanding, WE are losing. Yes there are those above the suck-up line who are rising in corporate America by playing along and living the dream. But for those who will not ever get such a shot - and their children - they are not above water, above poverty, above failing via struggles (!) that wear them down. So, with their new outfits and latest dances and Beyonce facts they find joy where they can. They have sex, have children. They haven't heathcare, basic food group essentials or education quality and they sink.Thank God the world is flat and the playing field might be leveled -- one day.
Until then, I continue to live in many worlds, peeking in for the sisters who cannot be here, just to see what is going on and report back.
I am a professional of sorts, having worked in education, politics, corporate marketing and entertainment (on the seedy, superficial front end of performers and events), as well as in entertainment policy (on the seedy, superficial back end of vain, egomaniacal politicians, media business executives and their lobbyists). So, I know much about many things which is ultimately useful for absolutely nothing. I have Congressmen on my resume only because I know who some of them are, have, or may still be sleeping with. I say that in jest (partially), because I have been fortunate to work with people who are truly driven to do good things, but are just worn down by the struggle - and not the Harriet Tubman struggle of old. The new struggle.
I confess I really hate the word "struggle." It makes me envision a person tied up inside a canvas draw string bag trying desparately to get out. Picture with me if you will, the lumpy bag jerking and rolling around with someone writhing awkwardly fighting it. It smacks of both domination by one force and unrewarding efforts of futility by the dominated. STRing hUG uGLy E. (A puzzle for you.)But black people are trained to honor this word representative of our historic overcoming. No disrespect. I am however, on a quest to find a better word that represents the winning and not the losing.
Over the coming weeks, I will muse on various topics - and one will have to be how very much I hate the word "muse" as a verb. Being black and all(smile), I suppose you could say it will be written from a black perspective. I am very in touch with the hood in me, but was raised (mostly) in the suburbs. So, I speak "Oh My Gaaaawwd" and "Here he is!" as well as anybody. Bilinguistics of culture will be another topic. Just as several white people use the "N" word privately (oh come now, admit), within every black woman is the inate ability to turn a phrase with a sing-songy southern cadence not unlike the black maid in the Tom & Jerry cartoons. This applies to EVERY black woman, trust me. Even the Ivy-league ones you know. They can do it too. It's ancestral.
I am 38.
I was compelled to write this blog because though I have a novel, helpful how-to-manual, screenplay and, at the very least, a radio show inside me - I am not compelled to make it happen. I was somehow convinced at the tender age of eight that Ed McMahon would come to my Grandmothers house where I was babysat each day, and deliver unto me a check for $1Million dollars courtesy of Publishers Clearinghouse. I watched a thousand commercials between episodes of Young and the Restless where people were ecstatic. I wanted to be ecstatic. Then I saw my Grandad go our to the mailbox with his crutch - which he used as a cane because he was so tall - and mail the sweepstakes envelope. That was it. I have accomplished many fantastic things in my life, but whenever one thing approaches too closely to my true calling, I procrastinate and delay, shelve and postpone. There you have it: my tragic flaw. Publisher's Clearing Paralysis. Thinking that one day all of the planets will line up financially and personally, professionally and publicly for me to do the things I was meant to do.
Did I mention I am 38?
I bet you began reading thinking there might be some cutting poltitical commentary about the failings of the President. Or a black girl's perspective on some conspiracy theory as to why Mr. President's buddy, and maker of the voting machines at Diebold, promised he would deliver the numbers in the last election. Well, the numbers were delivered and Ohio pushed him over the top. Did America really choose him twice? Please rule from a condescending viewpoint and raid the treasury for your colleagues -- again? We love it that every-(Republican)-body eats at dubya's White House? Right? Just curious. It is so hard to believe. But then again it is America - and who is your ally? is the only question people care about. The answer is usually the one who is keeping money in your pocket and food on your table. I get it. Hey, We black women want our boy (or girl) in power just as much as the next man. I love those who keep me employed and income-earning as well. You know, the one who helps you preserve your lifestyle. To that end, Karl Rove helped amass enough people of power, a based just above the majority line to keep his man winning. And win they did. So who were the losers?
Black women.
Condi's Italian maker knee boots notwithstanding, WE are losing. Yes there are those above the suck-up line who are rising in corporate America by playing along and living the dream. But for those who will not ever get such a shot - and their children - they are not above water, above poverty, above failing via struggles (!) that wear them down. So, with their new outfits and latest dances and Beyonce facts they find joy where they can. They have sex, have children. They haven't heathcare, basic food group essentials or education quality and they sink.Thank God the world is flat and the playing field might be leveled -- one day.Until then, I continue to live in many worlds, peeking in for the sisters who cannot be here, just to see what is going on and report back.
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