Image via Wikipedia. I'm only adding this picture because I couldn't find any of black women soldiers on the WordPress photo finder widget. Really.
This is a kind of interesting piece from the great New York Times on how black women are outpacing black men (and just about every other group) in military recruitment and enlistment; because they want to go to college and they recognize early on that enlisting will help stagger (if not cover) college tuition, provide training, and job experience that they may not otherwise get in a Depression-era economy rife with institutionalized racism and little prospects of improving any time soon.
Given those obvious circumstances, it doesn’t really answer why there shouldn’t be more black men enlisting, since the odds are more stacked against them finding decent jobs or finishing college than even black women….unless you take into consideration that fewer black men go on to college as black women (which is not my humble widdle opinion but fact) so the selling point of help with college tuition is not as great a factor.
Obama paints a beautiful picture of all the things we want done and once in office doesn’t do a single one. There’s nobody (at least not yet) in the Dem field to oppose him, and many people feel Hillary would just be
Image via Wikipedia. Don't ask me, I'm just running for President.
more of the same old song and dance, a different personality and approach to doing the same things for the same elite people and corporations.
Republicans, the party that openly embraces corporate love and elite wealth (in my estimation) don’t have much to offer that would be different, with Romney being a handsome wind-up automaton, Gingrich being so egotistical and with such a rich history of ethics violations and affairs as not to be taken seriously by any of the power-brokers pulling the levers in the NWO, Rick Perry being a handsome and well-connected hydrocephalic, Bachmann being a gimlet-eyed incongruent anachronism better suited for the Dark Ages of anti-reason, and…that leaves….um….
Part of me likes his anti-establishment stance(s) of minimizing governmental powers and influence at a time when the US seems to be inching closer and closer each day toward some kind of Orwellianpolice state (complete with TSA microwave body scanning devices that other countries ban, internet monitoring, tracking devices put on cars for no reason, police departments across the country arming themselves like small militias, protestors getting the proverbial beat-down, on and on) and staying out of other countries’ affairs; while I know fully well he will never win the presidency regardless of how events may turn for the GOP field.
Another part of me is downright suspicious of Paul’s racist newsletter rants from (to be fair) more than 20 years ago. To his defense, Mr. Paul has admitted them and stated repeatedly that they weren’t written by him personally but by some kind of marketing staff hack and he doesn’t agree with them.
Here’s an interesting piece by Shikha Dalmia from Reason.com, expressing some increased insight into the pieces and why they might have been written in the first place and an informed opinion on how he should respond to the the rants being brought up again:
Image via Wikipedia. Now Ice-T I could see pulling some "gangsta sh**t." And that was 20 years ago.
Image via Wikipedia. Chris Rock’s love affair with Obama is just beginning. Good for him.
Let me be clear that I like Chris Rock, always have, even when he was on SNL pushing that weak pabulum they call “writing” on that show.
He’s a funny, quick-witted dude who is great at stand-up, makes (without exception) sadly unfunny movies, is a bad actor, and apparently thinks that if we give Obama a second term he will shock everyone planet Earth and completely do the opposite of what he’s been doing in his first term thus far, and pull some “gangsta sh**t.”
Obama’s “gangsta” like Ice-T is an interior designer and flower arranger.
If only I believed you, Chris. Either you are incredibly politically-inept, socially very naive, or paid in full. Either way, as much as I volunteered for Obama, donated money (that in retrospect should have been used to double-up on bills) to his masterful campaign, and wanted the guy to win; I know that a very strong indicator of future behavior is past (and current) behavior. Obama is not going to go from representing the tycoons who manipulate Wall Street and run the Federal Reserve and being apathetic about a national health care program, to suddenly developing a conscience and passion for activism because he was elected to a second term.
Let’s face it, we’d all like to see Obama care about working-class Americans; but you can’t grow a tree from a turnip and you can’t make someone who identifies with the power-brokers and uber-elite suddenly change course and start caring for and about those who do not have influence and power over him. He cares about his retirement fund, his family’s mansions and security fortresses that will be built once he leaves office, not Joe Blow down the street living on spam and Oodles of Noodles trying to hold down 3 jobs to pay his rent and afford chemo. Actions speak louder than words and his his actions tell me to take a hike.
But Chris Rock is a millionaire many times over and is funny (on stage at least). What do I know?
Image via Wikipedia. Beware the big scary man with the club and the legal right to use it.
There’s an interesting editorial piece written by Adisa Banjoko, West Coast Editor of website NewsOne.com, about the seemingly-endless trend of police brutality toward African American men in the US, that brought up a specific memory I’d long since thought was buried under years of newer experiences and friendships:
While in college, I vividly recall driving with a friend in Virginia. We were both college-age men in our mid-twenties. I’m a white guy and he’s a black man who at the time had a bad gherri curl hairdo. But we were childhood friends who grew up together and were on our way to go hand out, get some lunch, go see a movie, and maybe go club-hopping later. I was a careful driver, because I’d racked up my fair share of speeding tickets and couldn’t afford more. Within minutes of getting in the car, we were pulled over by a police car.
The officer pulled us over, asked to see my license and registration and asked my friend if he had any outstanding warrants or if they’d met before. I asked the officer if I was speeding. No. Were my plates or tags expired. No. Did I have any lights out? No. Turned out the officer wanted to get a look at my friend, just pull us over, and do a little intimidating. How nice.
Image via Wikipedia. Here's Maya Angelou reading at Bill Clinton's inauguration.
When I was a kid, calling someone “common” was an insult. It meant that you were just like everybody else and nothing special. In common modern English, it means something is everyday or seen all the time.
So it always surprised me that a rapper would wish to call himself that as a name. Yes, the rapper Common has done well for himself, appearing in movies, putting out CD after CD, even getting Obama to fawn over him at the White House.
Apparently, Common thought it was fine to take recordings he did with Maya Angelou and then use them in a “song” wherein he uses the “n” word several times during it. He can use that insulting and degrading term all he wants to, that’s his right, but to use it in the same track as readings from Maya Angelou debases her writing and legacy as something….common.
The question to me is not whether or not women should see this movie.
It’s a shallow question as to whether or not someone wants to see a formula sitcom movie with an attractive cast or if they have something more productive and enlightening to do with their time and/or want to save $15-$20 bucks for something else. The question should be, why is it not okay for women to actually think like, and be, women?
I don’t know Steve Harvey. Never met him. Never went to any of his shows. Saw him on “Kings of Comedy,” but didn’t laugh at his chitlin circuit jokes. Earthquake and Bruce Bruce were funnier in my humble estimation. And at least they were comedians and not trying to peddle themselves as self-help gurus pushing a meaningless and impossible to fulfill slogan on people.
When you tell women to “Think Like a Man,” you are also telling them that they’re not acceptable as they are. It’s not a cute slogan or catch phrase and it’s not funny. If I had a daughter who was told to “think like a man” by someone, I would tell that person to go talk a wandering stroll off a short Jersey pier somewhere. If someone said that to my wife, she’d tell that person to go set up a picnic in a busy intersection.
I have no reason to believe that Steve Harvey is an expert in relationships or marriage any more than the drunk down the hallway. He’s been divorced and re-married like many people these days, which is no big deal. He has an angry ex-wife (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzX2D0yfDUs) and brother (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvzGX1IHdrM), which kind of lead me to feel he must not know how to do that much better than most people from what I can see in terms of results.
“Thinking Like a Man” might have gotten Steve Harvey a bestseller and a movie deal and got him on talk shows he otherwise would never have been on, but it also got him a resentful ex-wife and brother, and some depressing movie reviews (http://jezebel.com/5867730/think-like-a-man-is-everything-that-is-wrong-with-the-world-and-will-make-you-want-to-stab-your-eyeballs-with-a-fork). The whole “Think Like a Man” concept is wrapped up in egotism and sexism; that women are not good enough and have to think like men in order to be happy. It sounds cute when we live in a shallow and materialistic time, but it’s nothing more than a hollow slogan and (to me) a ridiculous demand.
I say let black women think like women and let Steve Harvey go sell his supper club jokes, strip mall clothing line and whatever else he can hustle. Booyah!
For many, Mr. Conley is merely stating the obvious, but as a credentialed and professional sociologist repeating what Ralph Richard Banks said in his bestseller “Is Marriage for White People?,” his opinion is just one more in a chorus of informed and educated professors stating that black women remain statistical outliers in terms of turning their backs on interracial marriage as a whole and as a practice while black men leave them en masse.
Of course it’s everyone’s individual right and choice to do with their lives as they please, and if black women in America as a whole wish to remain single that’s fine, as Tracee Ellis Ross said in a previous piece.
And here’s a brief redux of Ralph Richard Banks’ comments from his bestseller that’s ticked off so many people, but his comments nonetheless are fairly straightforward, factual, and devoid of opinion:
So, what is it that ticks off so many people? That Mr. Banks dares to state the obvious and thereby airs some kind of secret dirty laundry the masses shouldn’t talk about? Is it racism, stigma, or just resistance to logical suggestions at helpful change?
Image via Wikipedia. Tracee Ellis Ross looking like she's gonna have to kiss Malcolm Jamal Warner.
In a very brief little segment from The Root, Tracee Ellis Ross ( star of the sadly defunct sitcom “Girlfriends“) tells it like it is, basically saying that it is nothing wrong with being a single black woman as long as that same woman is open to expanding her available pool of available men if she wants a serious committed relationship and open to trying
Image via Wikipedia. One of the best sitcoms ever.
something new if need be.
For those of you who don’t believe me or think this is a huge shocker, here’s a link to the piece:
Never a fan of Condoleezza Rice (as if she were capable of caring) after the story of her shopping for designer shoes while New Orleans sank became public; but personally, I have a difficult time understanding the particular pathology of African-Americanswho embrace Republicanism-supposedly “conservative” values (even at the risk of shutting out and
Image via Wikipedia. Everybody loves Condee. Except Mrs. Bush and people who worked with her.
dehumanizing whole segments of our population and gutting public education so that corporate heads can better ensure their lush lifestyles) while turning their backs on the state of black America and the system of institutionalized racism here. It’s akin to “Uncle” Clarence Thomas wanting to dismantle affirmative action all the while knowing full well that had it not been for affirmative action he probably never would have been able to have acquired the education and public stature he enjoys now.
Anyway, here’s a cute little piece speculating on Condee’s chance at getting a VP nod from the Republican NWO power brokers, which I think is realistic (if not akin to trying to eat a heaping pile of bat guano):
Image via Wikipedia. Wouldn't it be great if this is what people did before they spoke?
From the (I’m assuming) good folks at PsychCentral, there’s a recent post by psychologist and family counselor Dr. Marie Hartwell-Walker addressing a concerned teenager in an interracial relationship, and surprise surprise, saddled with disapproving parents.
While I can’t disagree with Dr. Hartwell-Walker’s measured and logical response, I kind of wish she’d told the young teenage eighth grader to tell her parents that she’d date whomever she liked and would theretofore establish her own independence as a young woman.
But I guess that might be why I’m not a therapist like Dr. Hartwell-Walker.
Who Loves You, Baby?
