Vision Circle

Hatin' On Kwanzaa

This is to the people who write "anti-Kwanzaa" screeds this time of year.

• Kwanzaa is a made up holiday.

  1. Yes, it's made up. Karenga has said that from day one.

  2. Other "made up" celebrations include Mardi Gras, Mother's Day, Valentines Day, and St. Patrick's Day.

• Kwanzaa is not an African celebration.

  Karenga never said it was an African celebration. He said he took parts of different African cultures and created a "harvest festival" like celebration.

• Christians shouldn't celebrate it.

  OH, do you really want to go here?

  1. The birth of Christ, Our Savior, did not likely happen on the 25th of December. It was "created" to overtake the pagen rituals that occured during the time.

  2. How many Christians celebrate Christmas singing about Santa Claus and Rudoloph?

  
  

• It's a separatist event.

  1. I've been to one Kwanzaa celebration. I attended in Philly and Karenga was a speaker. At this point, I'll mention that there were a fair number of whites in attendence, and it wasn't just news reporters.

  2. Many people come from different parts of the country to celebrate Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Did you know that there are actually 2 separate Mardi Gras parades happening at the same time? One done by whites, the other by Blacks? Did you know that until 2004, I think, they never even "greeted" each other?

• Most American Blacks have never even been to Africa

  1. Most American whites have never been to Ireland but does that stop them from celebrating St. Patrick's Day?

  2. Most Americans, period, have never left the country.

• Kwanzaa replaces Christmas.

  No, it doesn't. Some "Black churches" even celebrate both.

Take the Kwanzaa hating and step. Ya'll are just spouting nonsense.

For the record: I don't celebrate it. I'm just sick of the silliness the haters go through on trying to shut it down.

Forgotten Favorite Song Line

At work I was listening to a Prince 3 CD set, "The Hits and the B Sides".

All of a sudden, the song hit and I forgot how much I liked this one line in Pope:

"You can be the president,
I'd rather be the pope.

You can be the side effect.
I'd rather be the dope!"

A Telephone Call

<ring>
<ring>
<ring>

'lo?

Mike. Michael Irvin?

Yeah?

This is Whitney.

'sup?
CRACK IS WHACK!

<click>

The Real Meaning Of Christmas

The "real meaning of Christmas" appears to be a man jumping line at Wal Mart and getting the beat down by off duty cops.

The "real meaning of Christmas" appears to be people racing into a store at 6 AM on "Black Friday", falling down, and having other people run over them. ( Did you see the video of the Black woman who feel down, then instead of getting up, grabbed her wig that fell off in front of her, and put it back on her head, and straightened it, before attempting to get up? )

The "real meaning of Christmas" appears to be people fighting for items, getting in line at 4 AM, and getting caught up in consumerism.

What is it about a culture that does that?

Two songs come to mind: "The Real Meaning of Christmas" by the Winans, and "Remember Why" by Alexander ONeil.

Music

I made some music purchases recently that I want to share with you.

I brought George Clinton's, How Late Do U Have 2 B B4 U R Absent?. Please, people do not waste your money. It stinks and I don't mean funky! It does absolutely NOTHING for the funk juices. I rate it a 1 out of 10. The 1 is just because it's George Clinton.

On the other hand, Kirk Franklin's Hero, is not only good for your soul, but some of it will get the funk juices MOVIN! Right now, "Looking for You" is getting some play on secular radio, and with good reason. The groove is based on a secular song of years gone by, "Haven't You Heard" by Patrice Rushen. And there is a song on the CD with Stevie Wonder that is nice. In fact, it should have also been on Stevie's CD. I give it a 8 out of 10. Speaking of Stevie...

Steve Wonder's new CD, A Time to Love was a long time in the making. And, frankly, for it to have taken so long, it should have been much better. It is a good sound with solid music. It just doesn't move me too much. I give it a 6 out of 10.

Finally, there's the new CD by Earth, Wind, & Fire. The CD is named Illumination. This is a good CD.

It's a CD with multiple producers and writers: Will. I. Am., Raphael Saadiq, Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam, Floetry, and Brian McKnight.

I must say that Jam and Lewis do the best job of keeping the classic EW&F sound but keeping it fresh as well. Their production, "Pure Gold" will not disappoint old school EW&F fans. It's a winner. It's too bad it's only getting play on "old school" stations.

Next in line is the final "new" cut that is written and produced by Brian McKnight, "To You." McKnight keeps the EW&F feel and produces a winner for the group.

Raphael Saadiq gets a hand at doing some writing and production work for EW&F. I must say that he holds his own and gains some respect from me. "Show Me the Way" is a good EW&F song, but the only draw back is Saadiq gets some vocal work on the cut. I'm not a fan of the man's voice, so I just want to hear Phillip and Maurice work their chops. But, the song is good. Saadiq did 2 other songs as well. Overall, he does a good job.

Last, but not least, the BEST cut on the CD, one that had me dancing in my seat at work, and had my CD player on single loop, is "The One". Folks, that song is GOOD!

The CD is a solid 8.5 out of 10. If it weren't for Floetry and Big Boi being on the CD, I'd rate it higher.

OH, don't let me forget Public Enemy. I just brought New Whirl Odor today. I got it on "g.p.". I was disappointed by the lyrics, but the beats are STILL BANGING. The beats alone make me give it a 7 out of 10.

A Keeper Of The Funk

Kirk Franklin.

Pat Robertson's Fatwah and the Emergence of Medieval America

One of the best said Malthusian libertarian summaries of the current state of affairs that I've come upon to date. It begs the question of whether we can stop distracting ourselves long enough to concentrate and generate a feedback loop of sufficient intensity to alter our trajectory into the economic phase transition. Note this is only about altering our trajectory because there's no question that we're coming to ground shortly. All that remains in question is whether we execute a landing or whether we crash.

It is a bitter truth to swallow that the American peace movement, by itself, did not end the Vietnam War. It ended, primarily, because the Vietnamese people fought tenaciously, purchased freedom with their own lives and bloodied America's nose. It ended because America's soldiers, mostly Black, began to mutiny, and because college-aged boys, mostly White, declined to fight or die for a war that meant nothing to them. It ended because of the massive stresses in the American economy, the inflation, the devaluation of the dollar, the crisis caused byskyrocketing oil prices due to the 1973 oil embargo. It ended because the feedback loop of the Vietnam War threatened to rip apart the carefully engineered society of America.

Pat Robertson was right when he suggested that the United States would assassinate Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

Robertson, of course, is a hypocrite and one of this country's most effective ad men for atheism. In the main, Pat Robertson is a medieval, witch-burning, fool. However, he moves among people who are either within or near to the circles of power. They are not nice people, but they are not fools. Robertson has either heard directly from this country's rulers' own lips, or heard from reliable sources close to them, that the US does, indeed, have President Chavez in its cross-hairs.

Robertson sees himself as a prophet with a direct line to God. All medieval witch-burners do. He is a fool because he could not resist opening his mouth and blabbing to the whole world that he had foreknowledge about America's black bag operations to assassinate yet another democratically elected foreign leader. By speaking so brazenly -- and prematurely -- Robertson caused two immediate effects: First, he provoked sanctimonious denials from other political witch-burners like Minnesota's Republican Senator Norm Coleman and Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld. Second, Mr. Robertson's intemperate prattling has, in essence, spilled the beans about the all-too-real US plan to kill President Chavez. Thus has Pat Robertson unwittingly spared Hugo Chavez from the death that was, indeed, prepared for him -- at least for the time being -- and earned Mr. Robertson a public scolding from those liars whose dark secret he has disclosed.

There are numerous wonders associated with what Mr. Robertson said. Why, for example, are so many Americans shocked by the notion that, covertly or overtly, their leaders would assassinate another country's head of government?

It is one thing to have forgotten our history from the last century, when the US helped to violently overthrow the popularly elected governments of Chile (Allende) and Iran (Mossadegh) and nearly every country in Central America from Panama (Omar Torrijos) to Guatemala (Jacob Arbenz). Can the majority of Americans have already forgotten that even in this century we have forcibly removed Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the duly elected president of Haiti, and unhesitatingly supported undemocratic governments in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the Philippines and Kazakhstan? Political assassination, of course, is not an exclusive tool of American foreign policy. This country's readiness to covertly kill political leaders who offend us puts the US in league with Ariel Sharon, Stalin, Rome's Caligula, feudal Europe and the medieval despots of the declining Byzantine Empire.

It is no surprise that Mr. Robertson and his fellow medievalists have most in common with the theocrats of Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the Taliban in Afghanistan. The word “assassin”, after all, is derived from the medieval French word, “hassassis” (hashish takers) given to Muslim fanatics who committed to “assassinate” Christian crusaders who had occupied the Middle East. Thus has Mr. Robertson eschewed the peace-extremist teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and endorsed the tactics of medieval, anti-occupation, Crusader-killing, dope-smoking, Islamic insurgents.

The Administration's more-or-less official response to Mr. Robertson's statements was that such an assassination would be “illegal” under US law. But why would the public accept that explanation when it is obvious that the 'rule of law' in America applies only to the lesser classes, and not to them at the highest level of policy making? Political and social leaders have been assassinated within and without the United States for decades, usually without the sanction of law; and if the US government had not its own finger on the trigger, then it found the usual collaborators who, for the purchase of power or money, would pull the trigger as America's proxy.

Meanwhile, America's perpetually vacationing medieval king says nothing while he shakes spears at the world and mutters disingenuously, like Henry II, “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome chaviste?”

The election of Mr. Bush and the influence of Pat Robertson and his dominionist ilk are markers of a degenerate medievalization of America. So, too, are the efforts in some quarters to push Science back into the Middle Ages and to undermine evolution with oxymoronic notions of “intelligent design”. Notwithstanding advances in technology, America is regressing backwards from its Enlightenment origins into medievalism. The people who scream their patriotism the loudest seem to be the most determined to destroy the Founders' dreams by creating a medieval theocracy like only Torquemada could love.

History often shows that blind religious fervor, superstition, sectarian violence, witch hunts and intolerance increase in society commensurate with increasing economic stress. Thus, “technology”, in and of itself, does not protect a society when economic surpluses start to disappear and the competition for depleting resources becomes sharp. Technology will not brake the superstitious, frightened flight into medieval religious irrationality when the people find their jobs disappearing, their purchasing power devalued, their houses becoming too expensive to heat, their cars too expensive to fuel, everything costing more for less value -- in short, as the brief historical blip of American middle class prosperity between the age of coal and the age of the Internet evaporates. It is in times like these, historically, that the people turn to charismatic religious leaders.

Why do we seem so unable to arrest America's backsliding from modernity? Other than the occasional demonstration, protest march or election between greater or lesser evils, concerned American citizens cannot seem to gain any traction. Except for the spontaneous actions of people like Cindy Sheehan, organized resistance to the witch-burning medievalists has, at least in these United States, resulted in more disappointment than quantifiable success. Why is this?

Partly, it is because beginning around the time of the First World War, America has been a laboratory for very successful social engineering on a grand scale. By a deliberate, decades long, coordinated training of the American people -- through print, film, radio and television and their infusion into the institutions of education -- the most powerful business/political interests have thoroughly inculcated the citizenry with a medieval serf's docility and acceptance of authority. Our colleges and universities have been re-made into incubators for obedient corporate employees and consumers. Whereas once we were a wilder, more independent pack of dogs, now we tend to bark when told to bark, shut up when told to shut up, and lick the hand that merely refrains from striking us. We have been trained to be collared, to walk on a leash, and to think of it as though we were walking the master and not the other way around. We eat the kibbles that trickle down to us and we have been trained not to bite.

In part, enlightened Americans have become politically impotent because we have been purchased with the excesses afforded by abundant, cheap energy. Like peasants in Pieter Bruegel's Land of Cockaign, we luxuriated in a relative life of ease and forgot that we were once a revolutionary people who had to wrest our Enlightenment from an empire by blood, force and strength of will. Now, when the hard labor of political effort beckons to us, we can, instead, do the institutionally approved, time-consuming things like go shopping, go to the movies, watch a baseball game, play the slot machines, drink a beer, play a video game, anything that entertains and distracts us from the task of democracy. There is Michael Jackson to titillate, Pat to pontificate, American Idols and more American idles.

In part, even the Enlightened portions of the citizenry have been enervated by the soma of this Brave New World. Some think that occasional charitable deeds, or a few dollars contributed to this NGO or another, or a weekend demonstration (time permitting), or effusions of love and understanding will change the world. While they cannot hurt, by themselves, none of these actions will accomplish anything. In fact, the control tendrils of surveillance, monitoring, and foundation grants, we should have no doubt, have already so vascularized, so infiltrated into even the highest levels of the most noble appearing organizations such that only the spontaneous, non-hierarchical actions of the Cindy Sheehans of this world can hope to effect real change. It is as though the Powers tolerate, even indirectly fund, the ineffectual organized protest that they do permit to take place because these are a social pressure release mechanism that dissipates resistive energy, a controlled burn intended to prevent a larger conflagration.

It is a bitter truth to swallow that the American peace movement, by itself, did not end the Vietnam War. It ended, primarily, because the Vietnamese people fought tenaciously, purchased freedom with their own lives and bloodied America's nose. It ended because America's soldiers, mostly Black, began to mutiny, and because college-aged boys, mostly White, declined to fight or die for a war that meant nothing to them. It ended because of the massive stresses in the American economy, the inflation, the devaluation of the dollar, the crisis caused byskyrocketing oil prices due to the 1973 oil embargo. It ended because the feedback loop of the Vietnam War threatened to rip apart the carefully engineered society of America.

As painful as the end of the age of cheap, abundant energy will be, it may allow Americans to bust out of their gilded cages. It is, after all, in the less affluent countries of today's world -- where there is less time for social foppery and fewer resources for idle consumerism -- where we find the lessons Americans must learn if it is to avoid descending into a new medievalism.

In Mexico this year, more than a million citizens turned out, effectively shutting down the capital city. They prevented the ruling mainstream parties from contriving, through judicial machination, to extinguish the presidential ambitions of its popular, left-leaning politician, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. In Ecuador, the people rose, first to oust their unrepresentative president and, second, to shut down the oil industry until it renegotiates its national contracts. In Bolivia, in June 2005, a coalition of indigenous and working class people threw out a leadership that had sold off the nation's mineral and energy patrimony to western corporate interests. In the years while Americans disputed the limped electoral contests of Bush versus Gore or Bush versus Kerry, the citizens of Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina and Uruguay also practiced enlightenment and swept their political houses clean.

In Europe this spring, the EU proposed a constitution that was, in essence, a carte blanche for multinational corporate rule. Overriding the cajolery of their leadership, the citizens of France and Holland overwhelmingly voted NO, thereby extinguishing (for the moment) big business's attempt to undo Europe's social safety nets and remake the continent in America's neo-liberal/neo-conservative image.

We can relearn lessons in enlightenment by looking abroad. The lessons will not mean anything, however, until the economic stress in this country equals that of the nations we would learn from; until the seductions of a surplus society yield to the reality of scarcity. That time could be coming sooner than you think: as soon as your next trip to the gas pump, as soon as your next winter heating bill, as soon as your next electrical power outage.

It is then that America's descent into medievalism could begin to be seriously checked. May the Enlightenment prevail.

Zbignew Zingh can be reached at Zbig@ersarts.com. This Article is CopyLeft, and free to distribute, reprint, repost, sing at a recital, spray paint, scribble in a toilet stall, etc. to your heart’s content, with proper author citation. Find out more about Copyleft and read other great articles at www.ersarts.com.

Article source at dissidentvoice.org

I'm Better than the Average Fucking Movie

Teri Woods is making LOOT writing hard core urban fiction. While some wonder whether this is good for "African American Literature" (and peep Raymond Williams on the creation of "literature") I think they're missing the mark. Woods isn't looking to knock out Ellison.

She's looking to knockout Bay.

Giving The People What They Want

On the most segregated day in the country, a thought just occurred to me.

Some accuse "Hollywood liberals" of being racist because Blacks and other "people of color" have a very hard time getting roles. But Hollywood is a very capitalist system, meaning those who generate money, get money to generate more money.

If "Hollywood liberals" give Blacks and other "people of color" fewer roles, maybe it's because they think that Blacks and "people of color" won't generate the type of revenue that they are seeking. And if that's the case, is it Hollywood, or the audience, who is to blame?

Watching the Wiz

My wife and kids are watching The Wiz while i'm working or at least trying to work. I've been thinking about world-building for some random reason or another. Reading The Lord of the Rings for example, can give you a very clear sense of how the different languages develop across time....but there is absolutely no discussion about either economy or state formation.

(What the hell does this have to do with The Wiz?)

The only part I caught was the introduction of the Wicked Witch. Don't go bringing me NO BAD NEWS.

We have a very clear idea of WHY homegirl is the Wicked Witch. Remember, the world of Oz (in the Wiz) is decidedly urban. Homegirl is feared because she's got them damn munchkins WORKING. Ain't had no lunchbreak in MONTHS.

I am not sure I recall why the Wicked Witch (in the traditional movie) had juice.

On the other hand, the Wiz? He's got them mugs so caught up, they're engaging in widespread fashion changes every two minutes!

An overlooked classic.

Bill Cosby, What's Not Being Addressed

The Cos is on the case:

Bill Cosby might be embroiled in a doping-and-groping scandal, but that's not going to stop him from talking morals.

In an interview with ABC's Nightline airing Wednesday and previewed on Good Morning America, Cosby's first TV sit-down since being sued for sexual assault, the entertainer says that any mistakes he may have made in his personal life will not keep him from urging African-American to take more personal responsibility. Such comments provoked a firestorm of controversy last year.

I find it interesting that some want to ignore the messenger, in this situation, and focus on the message. That doesn't get said from some of those people about Jesse Jackson or Lewis Farrakhan.

But that's not the point of this entry. The point of this entry is to mention, again, what I've mentioned before:

Chances are, the people who need to hear "Cosby's message" and to take it to heart, are not the people going to hear him speak or take it to heart if they do.

Here is something for you to consider: Blacks formally and informally adopt children of family, and friends, at a rate that is higher than white people. As has been the case in my family, it could be because of a tragic circumstance that leaves the children without parents, or it could be a temporary situation while the parent gets their living situation in order, or it could be a situation where the parent is in jail or on drugs or living a criminal lifestyle.

In the cases where the parent is living a criminal lifestyle or is on drugs, what would they care about what Cosby has to say? My suspicion is that they could not care less.

From what I have witnessed and/or heard and/or been a part of, are people close to the situation trying to encourage those lacking appropriate parenting skills to do a better job.

From what I have witnessed and/or heard and/or been a part of, are people close to the situation taking over the parenting role.

I want you to think about what it takes to handle a situation where you tell someone that they aren't parenting correctly AND get it to be heard, thought upon, and the behavior changed.

Do YOU think Cosby's tactics will work?

Or, if you have seen the situations I have, you already know that it will probably take a long period of time before things change for the better. (That could be the parent changing how they handle their duties, or the parent getting help to help themselves, or the parent giving the parenting duties to someone who could do a better job).

In that context, think about what I mentioned earlier: Blacks formally and informally adopt children of family, and friends, at a rate that is higher than white people.

Booker Rising gets not onehat tip but two tips.

$$$ - It's a Hit

don't give me that do goody good bullshit...,

The inadequacies of Tool Theory can be overcome, and the phenomena that it fails to explain can be integrated, by asserting that money also acts as a Drug. That is, we conclude that money derives some of its incentive power from providing the illusion of fulfilment of certain instincts.

Money as tool, money as drug: The biological psychology of a strong incentive

And Copy Machines Turned out Song after Song...

If I were to choose one group without whom much of hip-hop, electro, house, techno (Detroit and otherwise), and related electronic musics would be possible....I'd probably choose Kraftwerk. The idea that a few German classical musicians could later inspire a former gang leader from the Bronx (Afrika Bambaata), and a trio of metro Detroit DJ's (Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson), doesn't quite jibe with our understanding of black cultural production. Asking a similar question I asked about Detroit Bass (now "Baltimore Club"), how is it that these productions grab hold of us not letting go even in case of emergency? I remember where I was vividly when I heard Rapper's Delight for the first time. We were driving across the railroad tracks past the Satellite Bowling Alley on the way home.

I also remember where I was the first time I heard Kraftwerk's "Numbers". Talked about it all next day in Mr. O'Kray's class.

Thinking about our role as agents (rather than passive consumers), what are we mapping onto these productions ourselves? What do we see in them? What did I as a working class black kid growing up right outside of post-industrial Detroit see here?

As an aside, I didn't realize the degree to which Kraftwerk themselves were influenced by free jazz innovations from here in the states. Completing the circle...and giving Wynton Marsalis even more fits.

Smut City

Tonight at Nerve Ryan Kennedy talks about Baltimore Club a type of song that mixes 2 Live Crew type lyrics with house music percussion and pace.

I remember the first time I encountered house music within the pages of a Chicago newspaper. The year was 1991. Considering that I'd been a house music acolyte for six years already, and the scene had been hot (in Chicago, mind) for at least another four before that, you figure that being ten years late was better than being 11 years late.

Here? I thought Nerve was supposed to be hot. Supposed to be on it.

Baltimore Club? This is nothing but Detroit bass music...which had replaced house and Detroit techno on the airwaves and most club playlists by 1992. Strippers used to shake to it, young undergrads and high schoolers used to move to it, and a white Michigan undergrad by the name of DJ Assault made himself quite a name on it. Think of house music on a combination of speed and Viagara and you get the picture.

I just don't know why the hell it took so long for Nerve to get the picture. I hope Kennedy didn't pitch the story to someone else too. No need for two news magazines to get took.

For me Baltimore and Detroit have a great deal in common. I don't think it's a coincidence that the music grabs a hold of Baltimore the same it did Detroit.

Man Up 102

and on the liminal tip, Lucas joins his fellow georgean Galloway and shows precisely how to lay the P.I.M.P hand down on The Man.

Viewed with several hundred other nerds playing hookie y'day morning at a mega-auditorium in Kansas, and despite the plague of simplemindedness wreaking havoc across the state - this pop-cultural screed against neocon tyranny received a standing ovation at the end.

Dave Chappelle

Time magazine has a feature on Dave Chappelle, who recently left his show on Comedy Central. People speculated that he'd had a mental breakdown.

I thought otherwise.

What struck me about the Chappelle show was that is was extremely edgy. Literally skirting the edge between sly racial commentary and cooning in some cases. In fact, talking it over with my wife last night I am surprised no one has made the comparison between Chappelle and the character from Spike Lee's classic Bamboozled. Chappelle's problem seemed to me to be a simple one to diagnose--he was successful.

We all WANT success. We think we work hard at it. We think we yearn for it. But I believe that most of us are really very comfortable working in relative obscurity. Every now and then we get our fifteen minutes of fame, but not only do we not want to work for it, but if we get it we have no idea what to do with it.

Think about Lotto winners. You ever read follow up stories about them? About how they end up being extremely depressed, often times losing their friends, their family, and THEN their loot in the bargain?

I think this is what is happening here. And the fact that Chappelle has made his loot doing racially edgy comedy makes it even harder. I'm not convinced that he had a strong grasp on when his comedy was pandering to racism BEFORE he blew up. I'm thinking it's got to be even HARDER for him to keep that vision in mind now.

Car Dreams

I'm starting to get into the mode of looking for a new car. My car is now 8 years old with 160K miles on it. It's a decent car and I'm sure I could get another 100K out of it easily, but I have to admit that cars are a weakness of mine.

I can delay big financial purchases easily, but with cars, it's a different matter.

I was looking at the Acura MDX and the Lexus 330, but the idea of paying $40K for an Isuzu Rodeo or $40K for a nice looking, but small, SUV didn't sit too well with me. Besides, it's the Toyota Highlander.

It irks me that the luxury cars provided by the Japanese car makers are plushed out versions of their more pedestrian line.

Then I started thinking, I could get a nice car for that price, even though, sometimes, I really need the space of an SUV. But if I'm going to pay that kind of money, let's go with BMW or Mercedes Benz.

The new 3 Series looks nice, especially since they are going to give the car more room. I really like the 5 Series, but the comments about the "I System" have turned me off.

The Mercedes Benz C class always catches my eye. But the amount of horse power for the car is a concern. I've had enough weak engines. My wife's car is a V6, and though it's not fast from stop, once it's up to speed, it goes.

Then I think about the recall the BMW and Benz's have had and I wonder how such "German engineered" cars can be in the state that they are in. I won't even consider Audi, though they are pretty cars. The track record for finding a good mechanic for Audis, and Volkswagons, is not good.

I guess I should consider American iron. Uhh.... Then again, they have been having recall problems as well, right?

NEXT!!!!!

Back to the Japanese lux-cars again, and what do I see? The new Lexus GS.

Oh, and look at the Infiniti M!

Queue Christopher Williams...
Don't wake me.
I'm dreammeennnnnnnnnnn

How To Download RNC Audio To Your iPod

Which Podcasts Can I Download From The RNC?

Right now the RNC is offering "BookCast," an interview show with Conservative book authors, and "Off The Record," a web interview series with Republican leaders, for download. Additional podcasts will be available soon.

Jacko and "Lewinskis"

If this madness is true, then I have a question:

Why wait years before speaking up that you saw this kind of act?

Some people besides Jacko belong in jail: the kids' parents who let them go over Jacko's house and sleep in the man's room, the people who saw things but didn't notify the police, and the lawyers who took part in the pay offs.

He Got Game

I saw He Got Game for the first time in seven years just a few minutes ago. The last time I saw it was the weekend it came out. Caused me to resurrect the dead so to speak, and bring this old piece out. My ideas on it haven't changed much.

Ruminations

4/26/98

I checked out a piece in Esquire about Denzel Washington, and He’s Got Game , the newest movie from Spike Lee. Given that Washington and Milwaukee’s Ray Allen are starring, I figured that it’d automatically be the greatest basketball movie ever made, with the probably exception of Hoop Dreams on one side, and Hoosiers on the other. At first I thought that this one was probably a keeper—the first Spike Lee movie I’d seen at the theaters since Malcolm X.

Reading John Edgar Wideman’s piece made me think differently though.

This is the plot in a nutshell. When Jesus (Ray Allen, the central character of the film) is a young boy, his father (Washington) pushes him mercilessly, in order to make him a better player. In an argument with his wife about the way he pushes the boy, Washington inadvertently kills her. He’s sent to jail, presumably for life—or near enough to it.

Years pass.

Jesus becomes the best player in the country, pursued by dozens and dozens of college coaches. Washington is given an opportunity to get out of jail early. The only thing he has to do is convince his son to choose the college of the warden (and governor’s) choice. The movie then deals with the various pressures that Jesus faces, from unscrupulous agents, to unscrupulous coaches, to drug dealers, to women. Basketball is used then as the background whereas the tale really deals with fatherless children and their attempt to navigate the concrete jungle.

I still think I’m going to see it, but moreso in order to check out my prediction skills. The tale Spike is trying to tell here doesn’t interest me much, because it plays into the same type of movie that black people have been forced to see themselves in for much of the eighties. The victimization movie. The social pathology flick. Why?

My feelings for basketball are almost as great as if basketball were my child. It is undoubtedly the greatest game I’ve ever had the pleasure to see, the greatest game I have ever participated in. My father, who was all-city back in his day, has been trying to get me to play golf (his basketball playing days were cut wayy short after a broken hip in ’84). He’s even offered to buy me clubs. I had to tell him to put those clubs on hold for a bit, because I just couldn’t see myself taking any of my time playing basketball, and using that time to learn golf. Not that I have a thing against golf mind you—I’ve been watching it with zeal ever since T.C. Chen hit a triple bogie that cost him the U.S. Open back in the mid eighties.

But basketball is my thing. And I’ll be playing until they have to cart me off….

Now from what I know, Spike feels the same way as I do—though I’m pretty sure he hasn’t ever really played. So my question is simple. Why in the hell is he using basketball to tell a pathological story about black people? I’m not saying that Jesus’ story here is one that doesn’t happen. There are people who attempt to live their lives through their children, and basketball is a particularly strong venue. There are also agents, coaches, and other shadowy figures who attempt to corrupt players just so they can ensure themselves an NCAA bid. Furthermore, colleges and universities make a killing economically, off the bodies of their star athletes. But in focusing on the mundane in this case, Spike really misses the point.

The reason why basketball is fast becoming America’s game—and only time will be needed to replace the stories of Joe DiMaggio with those of Magic, Bird, Isiah, and Michael—is because represents the most heroic endeavor, individual improvisation within the confines of group responsibility—made sport. It is the athletic equivalent of jazz, whereas baseball can be likened to European chamber music, with some improvisation but a great deal more of orchestration from above. The effort of taking the raw stuff given to us by life, and transforming it on the fly into something grand and wonderful, truly represents the greatest act of the human spirit, other than giving life. Watching one person do this is joy enough—Michael Jordan for example raising up head and shoulders above the Los Angeles Lakers, his right hand extended for the flush, then changing hands in mid air at the last second and finishing it off with a layup. Or better yet, Julius Erving dribbling on the baseline (again against the Lakers), trying to find a seam, an opening, a gap he can use to go to the hole. Finding no such seam he jumps. From one side of the baseline (underneath the basket) to the other. Making a sure turnover into a reverse layup. Wait, not simply a reverse layup, but one of the greatest individual moves ever seen in sport.

Watching one person do this is joy enough. But to watch an entire team think, respond, modify, change, shift, fuse, all at the speed of thought?

If Spike is in love with the game, as I am, why didn’t he make this movie? A movie about the triumph of the human spirit, about the will to create order out of chaos? The grand dialogue between the individual and the group? By remaining mired in a discourse driven more by current social thought about the African American family in alleged crisis, Spike misses the grand nature of the game that has been molded and changed by the very group pathologized! People don’t play basketball to get out of the "ghetto," they play it because of its transformative potential.

They play it because of the chance to test their improvisational skills. They play it because every time they get on the court, they know they can be part of something truly special. Something dreams are made of. They play it because it truly is the greatest game on Earth. And they play it because they know that this is so, because they made it so.

Maybe if Spike actually sat and watched the games played in the playgrounds of NYC, rather than read about how so-and-so was exploited by so-and-so college, he’d know this. Because as it stands, though Ray Allen’s got game, Spike’s needs a bit of work……..

Addendum 5/4/98

I just checked out the flick today. Spike’s movie was…ok. But it wasn’t about basketball as much as it was about relationships between fathers and sons, as well as between individuals and corporate machines—in this case a basketball prospect and the college recruiting machine. As such it was decent, but Spike’s script has at least three serious problems. The most glaring is the lack of character development. We don’t know what Washington’s character (Jesus’ father) did for a living, we don’t know what McKee’s character (Jesus’ mother) did for a living, in fact we don’t know what any of Jesus’ family members actually do. It’s as if every responsible adult in the film is jobless. Except of course for those adults tied somehow into the machine. The characters’ flatness takes much of the complexity and richness out of the story. And the one time we do get a glimpse into Dawson’s character (Jesus’ girlfriend) for example, it occurs in one scene only.

The second problem has to do with Jovovich’s character—the prostitute that Washington befriends. Her character (which was as maldeveloped as the rest) didn’t really fit within the context of the story. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why she was there—except possibly as a compromise with studio execs who may want to see a white love interest in order to attract a white audience that allegedly won’t watch "black" films without them.

The third problem is a familiar one—the gender dynamic. The most visible female characters in this movie are both prostitutes; Jovovich’s literal one, and Dawson’s figurative one. We do get to see more, but mostly through the extended pathological vision of Jesus’ Big Willie friend, a vision which conveniently allows Spike to show even more women in various acts of sexual degradation. I didn’t see either "Clockers" or "Crooklyn" but I’ve seen every other Lee movie, and I find it more than interesting that you can count the number of real love scenes in ALL of his movies put together, on one hand.

The movement of the film was also somewhat stunted, but it’s difficult to say whether Spike did this on purpose— another way to show how claustrophobic the environment around Jesus was—or on accident.

On final analysis this movie, for me, is like most of Spike’s other movies. Entertaining enough on first glance, but painful to watch afterward. And given that this movie is supposed to be about the glorious game of basketball, I was even more disappointed to find out that this movie was no different..

Steveland Morris

Ladies and gentlemen, "So What the Fuss" by Stevie Wonder.

I love my pc subwoofer.

Enter the Wu

I picked up the Wu-Tang Manual after checking it out on Amazon.com I think. The RZA can't play chess for a damn, but the book contains layers upon layers. Then I hear this interview conducted by Terry Gross. I remember an interview Kevin Powell conducted with Wynton Marsalis, and Powell gave Marsalis a softball that allowed Wynton to go off on one of his anti-rap tangents. Listening to the interview with the RZA it is clear that Wynton's problem is that he has a very different conception of disciple--again that word. And that he doesn't have the ear to hear what's going on with something like Enter the 36 Chambers. Now granted, it isn't necessarily like Ludacris has an ear for The Magic House either...but you know what I mean.

Eulogy For Tony

A friend of mine died earlier in the week. One of Saint Louis' true house heads. When we think about black struggle, we often don't think of the people who are responsible for bringing us joy. For giving us the strength to go back and fight. More even than hip-hop, I think for a number of people born between say 1957 and 1987, house fulfilled that role.

.....

“House is our release, house is our sanctuary…can you feel it like I feel it?”

The quote above is taken from a track that I play every now and again. For those of us whose lives have been changed from exposure to house music, the quote captures a great deal. I am a father, a husband, a professor, a writer. But with the exception of the birth of my children, the closest I’ve come to God was on the dance floor.

When I moved to Saint Louis, I didn’t expect to find house here. Imagine my surprise when I stepped into a club on a Sunday night of all times, and found it. I’ve been trying to figure out exactly how the scene developed the way it did, again in Saint Louis of all places. Best I can figure there were a couple of influential DJs, some promoters, and some entrepreneurs who’d realized that there was money to be made in bringing house music into the Saint Louis club scene.

But at the center of it all are the house heads. The people who fill the clubs. The people who raise their hands. The people who know when a DJ is on…and when the DJ is off.

Tony was at the center of this group, acting as kind of a reverse black hole projecting light outward. Projecting love for the music, love for the culture, outward. As far as I can figure it for the last ten-thirteen years Tony (and Luan) have been bringing up a generation of club kids. Different races. Different nationalities. Different sexualities. Different classes. People grew up and found their mates through hanging out with Tony. They became connected through Tony and Luan.

Saint Louis is one of the most segregated cities in the country. In the end, that’s one of the reasons why I am sending this from Baltimore rather than being there in person. In Saint Louis it was often harder for me to get water from a rock than it was to find a place where people from different backgrounds could come together.

One of the only exceptions was the space I found Tony and Luan in the center of.

In paying respects to him, it is important to realize that he wasn’t perfect. Far from it. MAN, did he gossip!

And in the end while house and the culture that grew up around it offers us sanity, love, light, life…it can also take much. Then having taken, it often moves on…like the groove we ride on. While some of us realized this, Tony probably came to this conclusion when he didn’t have a great deal of time left.

I, along with many others, am sad for his family, for his fiancé, and for the people who truly knew and loved him. But at the same time I feel blessed that I was able to come into his circle, albeit briefly. We’ve all come into contact in one way or another with the darker spaces in Saint Louis. What house music BRINGS us, what Tony BROUGHT us was a little more light. I am hoping that people who were touched by him realize what that light meant, and share it themselves.

Randy Moss

Is an ass.

Kwanzaa Madness

LaShawn Barber is commenting on Kwanzaa. She isn't the only one and this is not a direct response to her, except in one instance.

Every year around this time, there are a flurry of comments about Kwanzaa, what it is, it's origins, etc. And each year, there are the same comments made about it.

So, let me "respond" to a few of the more common comments.

"It's a made up holiday."

Correct. It is a made up holiday. So what? Name one holiday that isn't made up.

"Karenga is a felon."

Correct. If you can show he is still doing illegal activities, then you will have a point. Otherwise, it doesn't matter. If you think it matters, here are some names for you: Don King, G. Gordon Liddy, and Oliver North.

Don King killed a man, but he was good enough to be used as a Bush backer, wasn't he? Liddy was a central figure in Watergate. He helped plan the break in. Oliver North was convicted for his part with the Iran-Contra scandal. Does it matter for them?

"Kwanzaa is not an African celebration".

True. But Karenga never said it was a genuine African celebration. He said he made it up. So, duh.

However, this last one, concerning Christians celebrating Kwanzaa, is one that has the greatest merit. This one comes from LaShawn.

[Kwanzaa] attempts to spiritualize [Black] history, replacing Christ-centered theology with pagan principles. For Christians, the only principles by which to live are found in God�s word, the Bible.

That is truth. That is firm ground.

To "respond" to this, all I can say is there needs to be more consistancy in speaking out against other celebrations. For example, Mardi Gras is straight debauchery. It's a celebration before the period of Lent. The over indulgence of alcohol, food, and foolishness should be called what it's is.

Then there is the current celebration of Christmas with the idols of Santa (and the forgotton Moor Pete), Rudolph, "The Grinch", etc. I'm not a wordsmith by a long shot, but I used the world "idol" for a reason. Then, to add on this, is the commercialism of gift giving. The commercialism so important that it is said that many businesses do not make a profit for the year if they don't make money during the time between Thanksgiving and the end of the year.

So, how about some consistency in the criticism?

Booker Rising gives another view.

Parents On Strike? WT...

What is this mess about parents going on strike against their kids?

Ummm... Have they tried?

Revoking privileges?
No allowance?
Kicking the 17 year old son out of the house?
Not washing their clothes so that they have to go dirty or clean their clothes?

"We've tried reverse psychology, upside down psychology, spiral psychology and nothing has motivated them for any length of time," said Cat Barnard, 45, as she sat in a lawn chair at an umbrella-covered table.

How about spanking their kids?

How about kicking THEM out of the house!

I'm paying the mortgate and I'M OUTSIDE!?!?!?!?

And to top it off, the parent's aren't ashamed!

Posted by at 05:35 PM | TrackBack

Where does "hip" come from?

John Leland in his book on "hip" notes that the term derives from Africa. In this piece Jesse Sheidlower argues that this is bunk.

He's most likely right.

Now I believe there are a variety of loan words and concepts that do come from Africa. If you check out Sheidlower TODAY for example, you'd see a picture of Miles Davis blowing. If you listen to Kind of Blue, you can hear a distinct African influence. Miles was trying to capture a very specific kind of sound that he'd heard there.

But the type of sensibility that makes African American culture special should be understood as a thing that has roots that stem back to Africa...but as a distinctly American enterprise.

Tavis

Let me see if I understand this correctly.

You sign a deal with an organization that you know is "people of color" challenged. You know the audience matches the people heading the organization. Then, you quit after your first contract is up?

We had agreed on the destination we were to arrive at, but somewhere along the line NPR wavered in the journey. Our show is the most multiracial in NPR's entire history, it has the youngest demographic of any show in NPR's history, so progress was being made. My concern was the pace the network was moving at-- it wasn't fast enough.

Uhhh....
Kneee. Grow. Please.

Respect on what he did at NPR.

Because I wanted to hear the show, I tuned in to WEAA. It is Morgan University's radio station. I knew it had jazz, but I was unfamiliar with it's talk programming.

They have some decent talk shows. Instead of listening to the jazz every now and then, I became hooked on the station's evening programming. Now I contribute money to the station.

I wonder how the end of Tavis' show will affect WEAA.

Filling Wiley's Shoes?

Wiley isn't coming back. And more times than I care to count, I wish he was around. But a couple of articles by Ric Bucher and Skip Bayless give me hope. For sports journalism, if not for the rest of the world.

Slept On CD

George Clinton's, Hey Man, Smell My Finger!

What in the world was I thinking?

My Turn On Artest

OK, it's my turn concerning the basketbrawl.

Artest is a knucklehead. He should have never gone into the stands over a thrown beer. However, I am NOT one of the... what's the phrase? ... class warfare IDJIOTS who say that as a person making that sort of money, Artest should have just taken it.

HELL NO!!!!

I earn a decent living, but let some fool throw a beer in my face and we are battling. And, believe me, I'm going to do my best to bring a beat down as a statement.

Period.

And to hear folks who normally speak out against class warfare actually take part in it,...

The man should be thrown out of the league. The same with Sprewell.

Adios. Bye. Gone.

Here, LKS weighs in on the matter. We are in line with the punishment aspect of it.

So, as I catch up from my Thanksgiving with the sister-in-laws in Florida, I'm scanning blog country and it seems like brother Cobb hits it in a similar fashion.

Of course, race plays a factor.

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh and he metioned the "Hip Hop" culture as being to blame.

Yet, he lists similiar out of control actions of fans and sports players in soccer, baseball, and hockey. I seem to remember a tennis player mooning the audience or a line judge.

And then there are rioting fans and "fans" in a Europen country who killed a coach in a pub.

But Limbaugh went so far as to say that the NFL is incorporating GANG COLORS in their uniforms.

What the huh?

Someone explain that one to me.

Still, Artest needs to be gone. If I were the owner of the team, he would have received a season suspension on g.p. of wanting time off to promote a CD. For me, it doesn't matter the genre of the CD. Wanting time off for that?

No.

See you next season.

Oh well.
I'm done.

Why Conservatives Won't Defend Ron Artest

My man Mike jumped into the metaphorical fray noting that Artest's fine was wayy too harsh, and conservatives should defend him. I believe that Stern's judgment was appropriate. If it is overturned and replaced with something far more lenient, I'll be ok with that too. Cobb's central argument is correct. If the fan(atic) doesn't throw the beer, NOTHING HAPPENS.

But of course conservatives will not only sit idly by, they will be on the other side.

The first reason is the obvious one. There's this sticky issue of white privilege going on here. Of COURSE black people who make millions of dollars by performing for white audiences should simply take whatever derision is laid upon them. What? Did I say something wrong? Drunk? So what. What Ron Artest should do in that situation is to TAKE IT. He should be happy to be there. Lucky they don't throw his ass out.

This is the obvious one. One that folks like Mike who emphasize blackness in their conservatism have to recognize.

But the second reason? This incident represents the further coarsening of American culture writ large. In as much as conservatives really do want to stem the tide of uncivilized behavior, I don't see how they can make a call for more civilized discourse and behavior and at the same time defend Ron Artest and protect him from sanction.

This is actually why I actually support punishment, but at the same time support Ron Artest's right to contest the ruling. Because at some point we have to begin to act humanely...and reclaim those Old School Values that make us different and unique.

A Dirty Rotten Shame

So we now know the punishments. Artest? Gone for the season. O'Neal? 25 games. Jackson? 25 games. Wallace? 6 games.

I believe that Artest acted as we all would have, and that O'Neal did as well. Jackson? I am not too sure. But even though Artest acted in an understandably human fashion Stern was correct in punishing him like he did.

What about the fans though?

I don't hear any calls to limit beer sales, and I don't know how in the hell you can mouth off about the culture of disrespect without also talking about the culture of liquid courage.

I believe the best way to deal with the fans (short for "fanatics") in this case is not simply to ban them for life, but to take their photographs and purchase a full page ad in Sports Illustrated outing them for what they are. The person who threw the cup, Ben Wallace's brother--the one that drilled Fred Jones, the person that threw a chair off camera, take public pictures of all of them.

Shaming works.

Updated: Here is the chief culprit. The front page of today's Free Press has a mug shot. A self-employed contractor with long criminal record. He has been banned from the palace. I don't think that is enough.

Detroit: I Do Mind Dying

Just saw the tape of the Detroit Pistons-Indiana Pacers game. 45.9 seconds left, Ben Wallace goes to the hole and is fouled hard by Ron Artest. Wallace mushes him in the face, the benches clear. Artest moves away from the melee and reclines on top of the scorers table.

He is struck in the head by an object from the stands....and it's on.

Artest goes into the stands after the fan. Takes the wrong fan out. Another fan attacks him, Stephen Jackson rushes to his aid, as do other Pacers.

Over to the left (from the standpoint of the television viewer) a larger fan coldcocks Fred Jones, twice. Almost levelling him. And then back to the right a chair comes from off camera and hits someone in the head.

Artest gets away and is on the court trying to compose himself...when a fan walks up on him. Hands moving to form fists. Ron Artest mushes him, socks his boy, then an injured Jermaine O'Neal comes running and clocking the fan.

Larry Brown picks up the mike to calm the crowd down. But what the hell is HE going to say? He drops the mic in disgust.

As the Pacers leave with security covering them, fans through everything but the kitchen sink at them as they exit.

A few thoughts come to mind.

I've been in brawls like this. Not as a participant...usually I'm the voice of reason. The last one off the top of my head was in 1997...the year Michigan went undefeated to win a share of the National Championship.

Only they didn't REALLY go undefeated that year. They took a loss at the hands of my fraternity. My younger chapter brothers still have the tape.

Something like that has a trigger, but the trigger while being the catalyst doesn't quite explain everything. This isn't at all like what happened in LA--there were no gang rivalries bubbling close enough to the surface that knowledgeable folks should've known what was going on. And the Palace doesn't have a history of violence. Hell, I might have to go back twenty years or so to the last major act of violence at some type of entertainment event.

But once the contagion spreads, you've really got no choice. You have to either throw hands yourself, or move back. You protect those that cannot protect themselves--move those unconnected out of the way, as well as women and children in general. Once I knew I couldn't prevent Charles Woodson, and the rest of the squad from taking a loss, I took a seat. The only time I got up was to tell the person taping the scene from above to stop the damn tape, because I figured folks could get kicked out of school if the tape got out.

Artest will probably get the brunt of the punishment, but he was protecting himself.

I have to think about this some more--I just saw the tape fifteen minutes ago.

Perhaps those who wonder whether the dynamics of European style soccer brawls would ever hit the US have their answer. Either the NBA is going to end up installing draconian mechanisms of fan regulation, or I think something like this is going to happen again.

Jiffy Mix

Someone in another place in the internet wilderness reminded me of past comments about Jiffy Mix.

See, I see nothing wrong with it. While I appreciate the home made stuff, I'll still throw down with the Jiffy.

So, if you want to read some of me clowning around, keep on reading.

DarkStar's Jiffy Mix Rap

Key:

[ No Jiffy No Peace! ] - background rappin'

*szz szz szzz szzzzzzzzz* - turntable scratchin'

===================

Yo!

Are you readay?

[ Hit MEH! ]

Chorus:

[ Jiffayyyyyyy!!!!

Jah jah jah

Jiffayyyyyyy!!!! ]

Yeah boyeeee!

[ Jiffayyyyyyy!!!!

Jah jah jah

Jiffayyyyyyy!!!!

No Jiffy No Peace!]

Verse1:

Kick up your heals

juz chill to da beat

kick on back

take a load off da feet

DarkStar's bout tah do ya

double time

DarkStar's breakin' yah

off a new Jiffay rhyme!

Verse2:

Ain't dis a trip?

Don't it just figgah?

When your numba 1,

somebody gotta try ta be bigga?

Sellin' tickets

sayin Jiffay ain't all dat

What dey know?

Jiffay gottem all on dey back

Well let me tell yah a story

Juz let DarkStar flow

let me tell yah a story

juz to let you playah haters know!

Verse 3:

Walkin' down da street

checkin the new WooTang beat

Juz gettin my thrills

yo! the Woo got skillz

And then an image!

Yo whadda I see!

Lovely

Beautiful

A baby boo brown walkin' ta me

She had on a mini

Fellahs, she was wearin' it well

I am droolin'

I know that she could tell

She gets next to meh

I say

"Yo slim, how yah doin?"

She juz iggs meh

her gum she keeps on chewin'

I say, "Excuse meh ladaaaaay...

May I speak with thee?"

She stops and looks, and those

browns juz stare at me.

I say, "Baby boo, you fine, you all dat"

She smacks her lips and says,

"That line is whack!

If you wanna know me,

you gotta come stronger than that!"

"Okay boo, let me just speak my mind.

You're lookin good... Screw that,

baby you're PHAT!"

"I wanna know, just how it could be

a baby boo gets tah look so healtheeee!"

Verse 4:

"Let me tell yah

yah look like a country girl!

let me tell yah

yah makin the menz head's swirl"

"what cha' mamma feed yeah?!?!

I gotta know her trix"

She just said,

"Chicken, greens, and Jiffy Mix!"

Hold up baby!!!!! Whatcha' sayin to a fellah?

Yah know now yah soundin' like some

Fuzzy Zeeeellllllaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!

Verse 5:

"Fuzzy?

Me?

No. Not the T. Traaayceeeeeeee.

Juz come on

home with me

and babeeeeeeeee

you will see"

Now I'm walkin' with Traaaayceeeeeee

How more soupped can I beeeee?

Let me tell you

this ladeee is so fly

10 car wreck cuz she's walkin' by!

We gets to her mom's place

just in time for the

blessin' grace

the table is real packed

and all of the ladees are stacked

stacked with cornbread so high

fellahs to you I would not

could not

won't tell no lie

cornbread all over dah place

some plain, some flavored,

I just can't belieeeeeeeeve this space

[ Hit meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!

Ja Ja Ja

Jifaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!! ]

I just can't believe this scene yo!

Blueberry, raspberry, green chile

[ Jalepenyooooooooooooooooooooooooo ]

They be dunkinnnnnnnnnnnnnnn'

dunkin' it like doughnutzzzzzz!!!!

They be sopinnnnnnnnnnnnn'

Like maids be mopppppppiiiiinnnnnnn'

They looked like junkies!

Junkies gettin' there fix!!!

And then I seened it!

[ JIFFFFFFAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY MIX!!!!! ]

Then it all came together

Like that ying and that yang...

It was all about that taste

That Jiffy Mix Thang!!!!!!!

DarkStar broke you off a new one

and I'm keepin' it real

Just say no to the corn bread bigots

And do what yah feel

'cuz I know you be feelin' me

[ JIFFFFFAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY ]

'cuz you know it's real

[ JIFFFFFAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY ]

'cuz I know you be feelin' me

[ JIFFFFFAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY ]

'cuz you know it's real

[ JIFFFFFAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY ]

The Vibe Awards--when will "we" ever learn?

Got that question on an email list I'm on.

In as much as I don't know Young Buck from Adam, he isn't from Detroit, isn't related to me, isn't related to anyone who IS related to me, and I've already got sense....I don't know who the "we" is in the above question. WE have already learned.

But I have another question. You've got a long history of gang warfare in the LA Corridor. A lot of that warfare has bled into hiphop, particularly on the West Coast. The epicenter is Knight. Over the last several years, Knight has lost both Dre and Snoop to competitors, and is left in the position of making money off of Tupac's vault.

How are you going to have an award show an hour south of LA, have Knight, Dre, and Snoop there...and have Dre get a Lifetime Achievement Award for service in front of Knight and his entourage, without having precautions in place?

RAY

The wife and I just saw Ray.

It was very close to living up to the hype.

It's a good movie. Jamie Foxx does well. By far this is the best acting performance he has done. Reginia King is very close to breaking through.

[ on edit ] The woman who played the mother, Sharon Warren, did a good job.

I give the movie a 9 overall.

Jamie Foxx get's a 9 for acting.

Kerry Washington, as Ray's wife, gets a strong 8.

Sharon Warren is the mother. She gets a strong 8.

Regina King gets a strong 8.

Clifton Powell gets a 7.

Larenz Tate gets a 5, but his role as Quincy Jones wasn't big. I wanted to see more of their relationship.

Eminem's newest

I know my man S-Train doesn't care much for Detroit. But I know he has respect for its musical history, from Motown to the Detroit Emeralds to the Floaters to the P-Funk All-Stars to Rhythm is Rhythm to Reese and Santonio to Eminem. Seeing Mathers' latest all I can say is: what.

Well...no. I can say more.

Detroit. What.
Saginaw. What.
Inkster. What.
Pontiac. What.
River Rouge. What.
Ecorse. What.

WHAT!

KIMBERLY ELISE

The wife and I saw "Woman Thou Art Loosed, the Movie".

The writing was just "ok" but the acting by Kimberly Elise was POWERFUL!

She deserves a nomination for her acting.

Sister girl came with it!

Player calls journalist a Tom...sparks fly

Thanks again to Dr. Robert Brown.

ABOUT 1,800 miles from here, a black baseball player called a black reporter an Uncle Tom, invoking the deepest culture cut one African-American can inflict on another.

Milton Bradley, the Dodgers' right fielder, called the veteran baseball reporter Jason Reid of The Los Angeles Times an Uncle Tom in front of his peers Wednesday. Reid had asked Bradley about being booed by St. Louis fans, and Bradley took offense to the question.

The slight was so deep and personal that Reid had to be restrained.

More here.

Now let's be clear. I don't think I'm saying anything controversial here when I say that Toms exist. People don't always apply the term accurately, but it operates as a convenient informational shortcut that I think is right most of the time. With that said, I don't know whether homeboy in question is a Tom. But I do know that one problem with the article is that it conflates race and class. It is naturally assumed here that black means not just black, but black and working class/poor. Which leaves a number of brothers and sisters who don't know jack about poverty in the lurch.

Remember Bubba?

It's been a full twenty years since the Detroit Tigers won the World Series, fueled by Parrish, Whitaker, Trammell, Gibson, Herndon, Morris, and a blazing 9-0 start.

While we celebrated part of the city burned. And the picture that most accurately captured the experience was of a young white boy standing in front of a burning car smiling for the camera.

In the twenty years since the Free Press was able to hunt Bubba down. This is his story.

As the debates come to a head tonight in Saint Louis (on my yard, though I won't be there), I wonder who Bubba would've voted for? My gut tells me Bush. Though I can't see anything in Bush's policies that would've done anything for Bubba besides make him feel manly.

"Group Think"

Collective thought, aka group think.

What a concept.

At a GOP convention, Colin Powell said he supported affirmative action and he was booed. No group think there.

Better yet, let a white person agree with Blacks on issues and sooner or later, someone will accuse that white person of being a "guilty white liberal."

So tell me why those who call people "guilty white liberals" are NOT taking part in group think. Aren't they assuming that all whites should think alike?

And if conservatives believe that Blacks don't need Black leaders, why are conservatives trying to pass off people like Jesse Lee Peterson as a Black leader?

Identifying as a "Black conservative". That's not "group think"?

Isn't it interesting that "Black conservatives" seem to have a scream of "victimology" when stating certain things? What's not "group thinking" on the misuse of such a silly phrase?

The Price of Hiphop

I saw the hiphop documentary on VH1. Though I think they may have overplayed the scenes of desolation--but they always do when it comes to hiphop. But overall i thought they got it right with the little bit of time they had. What stood out to me though were three images--DJ AJ's grill, DMC's throat, and Mike D.

Another Wiley moment.

Read this piece on Bonds.

Then read this one.

(Real quick. Yes I'm a political scientist. Yes I can talk about the debate. But it is pretty clear to me that one candidate looked like he had a firm grasp of the issues. And another candidate was more interested in projecting strength and focusing on platitudes. If you don't know which one is which...then maybe you shouldn't be voting.)

So back to Bonds.

In both cases the columnists are grappling with a historical fact. Bonds isn't loved by the press corps. At all. And he won't ever be...until he's dead. Then people will probably come out of the woodworks praising his gruff shell that hid a heart of gold.

But look at the very different pieces.

Damn I don't want to just attribute it to race, because that perspective ignores Wiley's greatness, and it diminishes Bayless' marked LACK of greatness. If it was all just a matter of race, then Bayless Ric Bucher and the rest of them can just hang it up because they'll never get the black bodies they routinely find themselves writing about. And in their stead we'd hire every black head with skills at NBA Live.

BUT....

Just look at the pieces. You tell ME why in the hell the greatest baseball player that probably ever lived should have to kiss the ass of a Jim Rome just BECAUSE.

Man I wish Ralph were still here.

Roy Jones

I'm surprised that no one has written more about Roy Jones going down. It's times like this that I wish Ralph Wiley was still around. Jones needs to hang them up. Don't think he will because it's hard for us to acknowledge when the body won't do what the mind wants it to.

It's particularly hard for someone who for so long has been one of the best ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET at what he does.

I think I gained an adult appreciation for excellence sometime in the mid-nineties. Part of it was related to Jordan's comeback--even though I wasn't a big Jordan fan the first go around. A big part of it was related to my increased dissection of my own game (basketball). And other random and sundry bits and pieces (you ever played a full 82 game season on nba live? if it's hard as hell to get up for the clippers in the virtual world imagine how hard it would be to get up for them in real life and STILL drop 30 and 10?).

So even though I wasn't a big boxing fan, I admired what Roy Jones was able to do. I don't ever think I'll be able to do anything in my arena like Jones did when he played a pro basketball game in the afternoon, then defended his crown in the evening.

Boondocks Censored

The Washington Post decided not to publish this week's Boondocks.

The thing is, they didn't say they weren't going to publish it. They just did another series. Then I find out about this week's strip and I'm mad The Post censored it.

Punk a****!

Twinkies Lost the Twinkle

Who would have thought that the company that makes Twinkies would go bankrupt?

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Interstate Bakeries Corp. (IBC), the nation's largest wholesaler baker whose products include Twinkies and Wonder Bread, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early Wednesday. The company also named a new chief executive.

The electronic filing, made shortly after midnight with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City, listed assets of $1.626 billion and liabilities of $1.321 billion.

360 epm

Bill Jemas left Marvel comics to form his own company.

What does his new company deal in? Marketing cultural product. I remember seeing Chuck D. back in 1993 at the University of Pittsburgh. Talked a lot about Africa, and about black politics, and black economics. He dropped a sentence about an agency he wasn't quite able to put together with Ice Cube and some other folks, then talked more about black power.

Now there are a whole lot of folks my age who owe their livelihood to Chuck D. to some degree. I am one of them.

But Chuck D. knows a helluva lot more about music and the music business than he knows about black politics, or black economic power. If he'd have spent his time talking about the agency he wasn't able to create, rather than half formed ideas about black power, he'd have gone a lot of the way in producing those 10000 leaders he talked about back when Spike edited an edition of SPIN Magazine.

Reading this article about Jemas though made my head spin. Think about the branding opportunities within hip-hop, and black produced electronic music forms alone.

The Sound of the Universe

Sounds remarkably like scratching. Almost 100 years ago, Dr. Ernest Everett Just was interested in cell division. Although contemporary wisdom posited a strict hierarchical process, Just believed something else was at work. Something akin to the individual improvisation he found in jazz. He used his knowledge of jazz to spark a hypothesis about biology that led to an intellectual revolution in the field.

What will hip-hop tell us?

Oprah's phat ride

Oprah's 19th season began yesterday.

And damn if she didn't start her show off with a bang. She gave 11 lucky viewers a car...then told the rest of the audience that one of them held a key to a car themselves. When she asked them to look into their gear to see which one held the 12th key, the audience members were shocked to find they ALL held keys.

Oprah (through GM) gave each of her audience members cars.

She also bought a house (complete with Crate and Barrel and Best Buy makeover) for a mother of 8 foster children.

She had Tyra Banks give a personal makeover to a college student who was formerly homeless, as well as a photoshoot in Lucky (i THINK that's the name of the magazine).

I came to the conclusion a few years ago that Oprah wanted to start her own religion. I think she's well on her way.

There is a relationship between the Oprah dynamic, and the Cosby critique that is worth fleshing out. I don't think I have the time to do it though.

Blacks Can't Get A Break

The "Black left" seem to think of Blacks in dire straits, that we all are poor, unable to process any complexities.

The "Black right" seem to think of Blacks as sheep, stupid, and lazy.

Is it no wonder that the "Sterotype Threat" rings so true?

I'm going to get into this pretty soon. The silly season seems to be bringing this out in full force, and I'm friggin' sick and tired of the Black self-hatred -- YEAH I WROTE IT -- from both sides.

Jill Scott's 2nd Release

Peeee yewwwww
'nuff said.

Music

"Awwwww we want the funk!
Gotta have that funk!"

Where's the funk?

Who has the funk?

Where's it at?

"Awwwww we need the funk!
Give Up That Funk!"

Help a brotha out!

Where's the bass line?

"We're gonna turn
this mutha, out!"

Where?

These young bucks have some decent sparse beats, but where's the funk!?!?!?!

Where's the beats and bass line from ConFunkShun?

How about the bass and lead guitar work of Slave?

Or the random keyboard, guitar, and bass lines swirled together to make serious music of P-Funk?

Where's that hard line bass of the 2nd generation of The Bar Kays?

What about the melodies and bass of the Average White Band?

"You don't like my music.
You don't have to use it,
Funkin is a thing that
all of us release"

Where's the melody and hard bass lines of Cameo?
Wheres Thunder Thumbs and Lightening Licks of The Brothers Johnson"?

"All through the morning rays I gaze
The sun doesn't shine
Rainbows and waterfalls
Run through my mind"

Where's Rick James bass line?

If you've listened to a collection of James Brown's music, you know how much he's been sampled! And it's a damn shame!

"So if you wanna stretch out
And find out what it's all about.
Get on down, Get on down
See what funkin can do!"

Where's it at?

[Update] Cobb does a nice job with this list. I'd quibble with the rankings of a few, but all in all, top notch.

Al Sharpton and Rap

Recently, I was involved in a mini-discussion with some members of The Conservative Brotherhood concerning "Black leaders" and what they have said vs. what the mainstream media reports they have said.

One of the things I mentioned was, despite the claims, Al Sharpton and some other "Black leaders" had spoken out against the filth in rap.

To that end, I quote Something by Al Sharpton as it appeared in Davey D's website.

With all the stuff going on in this world, all they're worried about is being able to call a woman out of her name?! That's their cause? First of all, it's wrong. But second, it is insulting. These rappers and "hip-hop impresarios" weren't worried about unemployment or the financial conditions of those who support their records and made them stars. They weren't worried about the education system that keeps too many of their fans and families in poverty. They weren't worried about voting rights. They didn't have any conferences on any of that. There wasn't one seminar entitled "Economic Empowerment" or "Jobs for the 21st Century."

No, they want the right to call somebody a ho or a bitch - somebody who brought them into this world. As far as I'm concerned, they are low-down devious things who aren't worth the millions of dollars young people spend t o make them stars.

USA Basketball

I've moved. For the last week I've been in the process of moving from Saint Louis to Baltimore.

I caught the last two minutes of US-Argentina somewhere in West Virginia on a K-Mart television screen obscured by a blue light.

I've been reading a LITTLE bit of commentary on the squad. As a lifetime baller with middling skills, I've got one question particularly for the conservative commentators.

Has anyone suggested COMPETING for slots the next time around?

Open the team up to International players like Scoonie Penn, or even folks like Jarvis Walker. Open it up to high schoolers, to college players, and to pros. Make cuts. Hell, make it a reality show. Then put them on the road against competition a year ahead of time at least.

The Flintstones Bit James Brown!

So, I'm listening to my James Brown 50th Anniversary Collection CD at work. (Or, should I say the licensed copy? :-\)

Anyway, I'm doing my thing when I hear a familiar riff.

So I think.

Then it hits me!!!!

The Flintstones "Bedrock, Twist Twist" song!

".... In Bedroooooooccccckkkkkk!!!!!
Twist
Twist"

Dang! The Flintstones bit James Brown!

Now I'm listening to the CD to get the song...

[Edit] The song is Night Train

What's In A Name?

What's in a name? To me, other than the means to address a person, not much.

If parents decide to attribute more to the means of addressing their child, that's fine.

This piece by The Black Informant provides his insight into giving Black children a "Black sounding name".

In the end, since all names are made up, all names are legitimate, even if they do seem silly.

Booker Rising gets right to the point. One that seems to be untouchable.

Hip Hop and Basketball

ESPN's Page 3 has a column by Bomani Jones newest addition to Africana.com. I believe that hip-hop is the most powerful form of popular culture on the planet. I also think that if the Olympics were to go down the way I think they're going to, my favorite wouldn't be Amanda Beard (who is fly), or the little gymnast that could, but rather it would be Allen Iverson. Who has exemplified the best of what it means to be an urban patriot.

Being Hip Hop

KRS-One came to the yard a couple of years ago as part of a lecture series. Most people my age, a little bit older, and a little bit younger, owe their careers to KRS-One somehow. It'd be hard to find anyone claiming hip-hop even a little bit that doesn't owe a debt to the Blastmaster.

When he spoke, he used hiphop to weave a much larger narrative about youth culture than perhaps was warranted. Arguing that hiphop extended farther back than Afrika Bambaata and the Zulu Nation, farther back than Malcolm X even. I understand what he was trying to do--until very recently universities didn't think that hip-hop was a valid artform worth studying on its own. And this wasn't just the white boys talking. Even brothers and sisters were likely to compare hip-hop to bebop in order to grant hip-hop "legitimacy."

Like hip-hop needs legitimacy at this point.

Anyway, over at allhiphop.com, one of KRS-One's former boys challenges KRS to a debate. KRS-One demures. The central beef seems to be KRS-One's attempt to make hiphop an ethnicity/religion. Adisa doesn't buy it, and thinks its dangerous to even make this attempt.

I'm not really sure why the debate is even important. Take a group of 100 people, split them in two and make them the same in every way except one. One group claims hiphop as an ethnic identity, and one doesn't.

Are there any substantive differences between the two? Does the police treat them differently? Do they engage in different behavior? Do they have different attitudes?

Hip-hop is the most powerful popular cultural force on the planet, bar none. And the fact that people take the artform seriously enough to engage in a debate about its contours is a good thing. But damn, aren't there more important things even within hiphop to debate about? I believe that hip-hop began with Afrika Bambaata and that the first hip-hop crew was the Zulu Nation. Malcolm X couldn't have been hiphop anymore than I could've been a seed in someone's head two years before I was born. But so what? KRS-One isn't writing an academic treatise on this shit.

Thanks to Jimi for bringing this up.

The Black Rorschach

It all started with this picture above. Cobb argues that this is a litmust test. He's definitely right. You either feel this picture like we do, or you don't. The same way that you either felt Ali back when he first changed his name, or you didn't. The same way you either felt the Fab Five or you didn't. The same way you felt Jack Johnson, or you didn't. The same way you felt Tommie Smith and John Carlos, or you didn't.

Remember the big tiff about how the Harlem League Little Leaguers were whooping it up a bit too much? I didn't think so. I didn't remember it either until I read Ralph.

Make that RE-read Ralph.

But many of these same folks would've cut out their spleen to be there when Babe Ruth called it.

S-Train posts the picture...and gets almost 15 emails telling him to go to hell.

Kid, you should strip those emails of their identifiable markers, and post them mugs.

Damn, I wish Ralph Wiley were still here.

But since he isn't coming back, I'll leave you with an extended quote.

Let me suggest this to you. Babe Ruth was a hot dog. Only nobody ever says he was. They say he ate a lot of hot dogs, but baseball historians, most of them, never say he was one, and TV baseball analysts and commentators unanimously never say he was one.

Who was Fernando Frias, knowingly or not, emulating in the first place, when he pointed with his bat to center field? As many times as I've heard it reverently said to be "Ruth's called shot" against the Chicago Wildebeest Cubs in the World Series, nobody has ever called it "hot dogging." And then when the Babe trotted oh-so-slowly around the bases, he was laughing, cackling, pushing out with his arms, signifying, "Get off me, get off me!" You might hear this scenario called "amazing," but not "hot dogging."

No "hot dog." No vitriol. No revulsion. No hate. No editorials demanding someone be held accountable. For what? Hot dogging? Or being poor, non-white, yet still daring to be good at baseball?

He was talking about the Little Leaguers, but what he wrote could've easily applied to mo greene and the rest. This isn't war...it's a track meet. You want them to stop?

Strap on some gotdamn spikes and get on the damn track.

Thought so.

Simple Minded Comments

All Blacks should think alike is an example of a simple minded comment.

Democrats best "defend" Blacks is a simple minded comment.

The idea that any politician, no matter their party, can greatly help or hinder a group of people, is a simple minded comment.

The belief that Blacks blindly follow a "Black leader" is a simple minded comment.

The belief that Blacks sit around and do nothing while depending on the government to do something, is a simple minded comment.

It takes no thought to say it. It takes little thought to believe it.

It takes more thought and observation to understand that it ain't so.

On the Necessity of Knuckleheads

You know, I gotta admit when I am wrong, and I think I've been caught in something of a dilemma. That being the case, I tend to think the subject is exhausted. I keep torquing the nut until it doesn't move, then I back up off it a half-turn. And so I have to talk about it.

Spence, whom I salute again, mentions the following:

It was the knuckleheads that taught me the dozens--the value of using wordplay as a means of attack and defense. The knuckleheads taught me to stand up for what I believed in. The knuckleheads taught me what it meant to be confident in myself when all around me doubted. And it was the criminally minded knucklheads that taught me the value of having game even as they gave me strong anti-role models.

There's talk, now and again, about how many black middle class parents feel the necessity of sending their kids to live with their grandparents down South for the summer, or to stay with their ghetto cousins for a spell. Assuming these parents aren't complete idiots there is a reason I could agree with although I'd probably try to accomplish it a different way. That reason is to toughen up their otherwise dainty suburban offspring.

I know my kids ain't black. And when it comes to their adulthood, they won't need to be. They're brown - like the zillions in Africa, India and South and Central America. That's a good enough sample, and it's only skin color. They can't be black like me because my blackness was born of the times, not an essential, inescapable box, but a response to a condition. But so much of who I am is locked into that alternatively golden and grim experience. I wish I could teach them things I learned the way I learned them. I cannot send my kids back to the neighborhood I grew up in, but I understand why somebody might want to.

In the three-bedroom house I was raised in, we had Measles, Mumps, Chicken Pox, Rubella, Impetigo and Roaches. Every one of us five kids who bunked there survived them all and most of us, excepting my sister and I, grew taller than six foot two. In my neighborhood school, "Meet me after class" was most likely followed by "so I can kick your ass". I've played bicycle chicken with the Ice Cream Truck and been chased by more stray dogs and gangbangers than I care to think about. My sister swore to me last week that we used to jump from rooftop to rooftop. I don't know about that but we did make zip lines from the transformer level of power poles and hogtie each other for fun. I've talked about all kinds of ghetto games from suicide to slapboxing to stomp - but I never really wrote about 'Hide & Go Get It'. Use your imagination.

One of the reasons I don't back down about talking about my Black Nationalist roots is because, like my neighborhood, all that shit made me tough. And yes it was shit. You can't get that just by reading Ulysses. You get it from surviving the risk and the danger. Perhaps the Baby Boom was the lone exception in the struggles of life, and perhaps that cannot be compensated. Perhaps some folks feel the need to run with bulls in Pamplona, but I don't. Don't get me wrong, I got out of my hood before the Crack Wars. I would have needed a different kind of level of toughness, one perhaps completely incompatible with the life I live now, were I stuck back with Frankie, Mountain, Boo, Tissino, White Jerry, Nudie, Twin (and Twin), Shabazz, Ralphie, Rabo and KK. But I learned, and I overcame.

What do we owe our adversaries? What do we owe those thugs, knuckleheads, triflin' niggas (yeah that's what we called 'em), skanks and skeezers? We owe them not to punk out. They couldn't take us out of the game, so we shouldn't quit the game. I'll get mystical for a moment and talk about Lord not taking away my stumbling block. I don't thank God for creating temptation, but I understand purpose in the overcoming. But back from the abstract to the people. What do we owe them? I think we do owe them a little bit of respect for forcing us to deal with their reality.

After all, we know that achievement is real because we look at those who fell off. We faced the same choices they did and our choices landed us standing. And we've learned that the good are punished and the bad escape because of those knuckleheads. But we also know what works in the long term.

Birth of a Nation

Anybody hear about Reggie Hudlin and Aaron MacGruder's Birth of a Nation?

Hudlin and McGruder have written a couple of scripts and a graphic novel together. The book, called �Birth of a Nation,� reimagines the 2000 Florida election fiasco in East St. Louis, Illinois, and has the city seceding from the union to form its own country, Blackland. (In Blackland, Denzel Washington is on the twenty-dollar bill.) It will be published this summer.

If anyone is around the San Diego area for the Comicon they will be on a panel talking about it, along with Denys Cowan and Dwayne McDuffie of Milestone fame, and Kyle Baker (of Why I Hate Saturn fame). Saturday from 4:30-6:00pm. Should be interesting.

Coach K

With the exception of 1992 when they took out my boys, I considered myself a Duke guy. I liked most of the players, liked their approach to the game (even as I revelled in the Fab Five), and liked Coach K. That changed somewhat when I found out that K was supporting W, even as Dean Smith down the road was fighting to end the death penalty in NC. But still, K has done an admirable job in building an institution like Duke.

Note that I didn't say, build a strong athletic program at Duke...because the impact he has had on Duke has been far more significant.

So when it turns out that he is considering coaching the Lakers, what are we to think?

Most of the folks I've read focus on either "new challenges" or on being able to provide for his kids' kids. 40 million is nothing to scoff at...and as I grow older I recognize the important role of setting goals in staving off senility and ennui...but both of these accounts miss the mark. Kobe isn't all that important either.

Want to know what happened this week?

Duke installed a new President.

What he decides to do will make K's decision for him.

Duke's political science department is now one of the top ten in the nation. A number of factors come into play, and of course this stuff is even fuzzier than the Coaches College Basketball Poll...but usually some combination of faculty productivity (measured by number and quality of publications), peer assessments, and graduate student placement all play a role. I am fairly positive that if we were to trace that ranking over time (as well as the rankings of other prominent departments) that ranking would rise as Duke's basketball program rises.

The more successful the basketball program is, the more money donors give. The more students beg to get into Duke--increasing its ability to be selective, and charge more for tuition. The more money the institution has to spend on infrastructure and on human capital, the better the school is, the better the individual departments within the school are.

The former President of Duke realized this, giving K a lifetime gig at Duke as well as the title of Special Assistant to the President.

I'm thinking the new President may be loathe to give a basketball coach the same type of power and deference as his successor. The fact that K is thinking about the Lakers (and I'm not all that sure the gig would be a step up except for the pay) is an indicator that he's not sure about the President either.

Fahrenheit 911

Caught Moore's movie the other night. While my erstwhile colleague thinks Moore and the movie are wack, I have a very different perspective.

First things first. I didn't like the movie that much. I'll buy it on DVD, and still think that my daughter should see it...but a lot of it left me flat. I would've preferred that Moore focus more on Florida and the last election. Obviously doing this would've meant much less time focusing on the meat and gristle of war, but the audience needs to see that the way Bush conducts his foreign policy is the way he (and his staff) conducts domestic policy.

Now when Cobb says the movie is off, I'm at a loss. No film is perfect obviously, but I didn't see that many errors. Moore fudges a bit--note that neither Kerry nor Edwards nor Leiberman (all DNC Presidential candidates) signed the CBC's petition. And his interpretation of the facts may be wrong (I'm not sure that money drove Bush's desire to attack Hussein, nor were his contacts with Saudi Arabia responsible). Perhaps this is enough though.

What really got me about the movie was the response to it. I barely got a ticket, as the movie was continuously sold out of the two simultaneous showings run during the day. I went to a MoveOn event afterwards and there were some 250 people there. This election is going to be interesting.

Detroit Basketball

I'm a professor. I'm a parent of four. I'm a husband. Why the hell does Detroit's championship matter, above and beyond the fact that I'm from Detroit?

I've been reading ESPN's Page 2 while working on a paper about The Green Mile...trying to conjure Ralph Wiley up. And I run across a column by The Sports Guy.

While Wiley was my MAN (it still hurts like a bitch that he's gone, and I suspect it will for sometime), I don't really like Simmons that much for one reason--he can't stand Isiah Thomas. And if I'm a fan (short for fanatic) about any sports figure it's Zeke. But check it. While figuring out exactly why he missed the boat on the '04 Pistons, Simmons goes back to an interview Thomas had with Dan Patrick while checking out the '88 Lakers/Pistons series...the series Thomas put up 25 on a bum ankle, only to lose the series on a phantom call against Laimbeer. Thomas had never seen the game on tape, and while watching it damn near ten years later he starts to cry. Patrick gives him a second, then asks him what seeing thet tape brings up. This is a part of Thomas' response as written by Simmons:

"You know, like you said, to see Dennis, the way Dennis was, to see Vinny, to see Joe, to see Bill, to see Chuck, and to know what we all went through and what we were fighting for ... I mean, we weren't the Lakers, we weren't the Celtics, we were just, we were nobody. We were the Detroit Pistons, trying to make our way through the league, trying to fight and earn some turf, you know, and make people realize that we were a good team. We just weren't the thing that they had made us."

Patrick steps in: "You weren't Showtime, you weren't the Celts, you were the team that nobody gave credit to."

"Yeah," Isiah says, nodding. Now he knows. He knows what to say.

"And seeing that, and feeling that, and going through all that emotion, I mean, as a player, that's what you play for. That's the feeling you want to have. When 12 men come together like that, you know...

I think Simmons is channelling Wiley now because he's never written anything this poignant.

That feeling of being alone against the world, with only a few good men to stand against the hordes, is one of the things that drives me to do what I do. And to look for likeminded individuals. Often I turn back to my grandfather's example, my father's example, the example of my fraternity brothers. But often I turn back to Isiah...and to the Pistons. They represent the modern day spirit of Invictus. Detroit...WHAT!

That's why I care.

Ralph Wiley

Ralph Wiley died over the weekend.

Of heart failure. Of HEART FAILURE. He was only 52 years old, and according to his fiance "worked like a madman."

I'm going to Baltimore to study health disparities, as a number of foundations have not only recognized the severe disparities between men and women of color and their white counterparts, they have also recognized that in order to grapple with this issue we not only need MDs and Public Health specialists, but also political scientists, psychologists, sociologists, and economists on the case as well. But for Wiley this all comes too late.

This hits me pretty hard. As I've written here, here , and here, Wiley was a tremendous writer. Nope.

Make that the best fucking writer I have encountered over the last five years. Not just on baseball, basketball, boxing, and football, but on issues of race and American life. Absolutely brilliant. Every day his column would come out on Page 2, I'd be on it like a fiend...just looking for snatches of text that I could jack use, or insight that I could apply here or to my scholarship.

I was just waiting to here him talk about the Lakers/Pistons series--he was one of the first writers I was aware of to get it right (he figured that if the Pistons brought their A game it'd be a full on series and very tough for the Lakers). And I figured that soon enough I'd blow up enough to be able to meet him personally and shoot the shit with him.

This hurts. Like a fucking punch to the stomach.

DAMN.

I cannot believe this.

If you are at all interested in the life of the mind, sports, writing, or general excellence, please check out his archive at ESPN's Page 2. Wiley was old school.

The Playoffs

So my man over at Prometheus6.org says Karl's the problem. He's only part right, and for the wrong reason. Karl is a problem not because he freezes, but because he's hurt. He can't check Wallace, which diminishes the amount of energy Wallace has to exert on D. And in a game like tonight, where Medvedenko (sp?) gets a lot of minutes, Rasheed will go to WORK.

No. The problem, and I don't really like saying this, is Kobe.

Shaq shoots 16-20. That's .800!!! Now I was doing the radio show thing with Cobb during the second quarter so I could only pay attention on ESPN Gamecast (ah! the joys of DSL! )...but from what I understand there was a 7 or 8 minute stretch where Shaq doesn't even TOUCH the rock but once. This is absurd.

Kobe's stats? He gets 20, BUT HAS TO TAKE 25 SHOTS!

Now if Jackson is right, the problem is that the refs are swallowing the whistle. So maybe some of those shots would've resulted in free throw attempts. But DAMN. If Shaq gets the rock it's a closer game. He should've had 50, easily.

I still say trade Shaq (Kobe's still got an upside, Shaq's got a lot of wear and tear), but if the Pistons pull this out (can Ward Bell verify that I called this at the beginning of the seas?) the blame will lie on Jackson and on Kobe.

A White Man's Game?

One of my favorite players in NBA history is Isiah Thomas. He put Detroit back on the map. Not Yzerman, not Sanders (both of whom I like for similar reasons). Thomas. Hard as a rock...had more game than a little bit.

Thomas gets a bad rap because of a number of reasons. But I think it all stems from the time he bumped for Dennis Rodman...who uttered a phrase that will go down in history. HAS gone down in history.

"If Larry Bird were black, he'd be just another good player."

Ralph Wiley has gone that route, on ESPN2 and because i'm in a writing mood I don't have time to track down the link.

But in an interview that will appear soon Larry Bird ups the ante.

A lot of stuff jumps out about the interview. I'll hit on some of it later. But to me?

The greatest insult of all is that they held the interview in the gym depicted by the movie Hoosiers. I say insult because Hoosiers is to basketball movies what Mississippi Burning is to Civil Rights Movies. (Only the drama was a better.)

Oscar Robertson had a piece in Men's Health about piece of sh*t historical revisionism that was Hoosiers. About how the all black school that played Muncie in the semi-finals was the creation of segregation. About how the majority of the crowd supported the little team that could because they were all white. About how tattered their uniforms and equipment was in comparison to the little team that could because of segregation.

Again, there's interesting stuff in the interview and in Larry's assessment. But the layout is where the real message is.

Movement 2004

For the last few years, Detroit has hosted the Electronic Music Festival during Memorial Day Weekend. And while I was able to make the first two, I didn't make it last year, and I'm not going to be there this year. But listening to the simulcast (registration required but worth it!) a few things struck me.

1. Whenever we talk about black popular culture and its contemporary effects good or ill, we talk about hip-hop. And quiet as its kept, we don't really talk about hip-hop...we talk about MC'ing. This approach neglects the role of house, techno, electro, bass, and garage in underground culture. There's a mode of blackness working within techno and house in particular that's on some other shit to be frank.

2. Yesterday I talked about Detroit and philanthropy. If I would've asked folks to name the city that gave the most, there's no way in HELL anyone (not even me) would've offered up Detroit. Just doesn't fit with our conceptions of the city. Similarly, who would've thought that musics as life-affirming and powerful (did I mention that house music is my religion?) could emanate from such blown-out spots as Detroit on the one hand or Chicago on the other?

3. The Dutch ministry of culture is sponsoring part of the festival. The DUTCH GOVERNMENT!!!!

4. I've talked about how I think we ought to be about "real political change" that is about using the apparatus of government to make life materially better for all of us. Living wages, free post-secondary tuition, you name it and I'll be dat. Thinking about the potential of cultural events and phenomenon to expand our vision of what is politically possible, maybe I need to rethink my strict adherence to this notion.

5. Damn these beats are banging.

Hip Hop in Soweto

I am coming to realize that the way I study Race and Politics, Black Politics, and Urban Politics in the American context is flawed in at least one important way. By focusing on an N of 1 (that is, by only looking at the way race plays itself out in American urban spaces), I am neglecting the fluid nature of people, ideas, and institutions. While geographic borders in the West are pretty much fixed...I don't see Canada trying to annex Seattle anytime soon...people and ideas cross borders with a great deal of ease. Even in these times. Michael Hanchard is one of many scholars responsible for bringing this to light. How can we understand the particular plight of black men for example, without looking at the way that globalization has impacted manufacturing processes throughout the west and the south?

While I don't believe that something like hip hop should somehow be thought of as "naturally" political, I do believe the studying the forms hip hop takes on as it crosses borders may aid us in understanding the transnational aspects of black politics.

Motown Sells Out

This is bad news.

Twenty years ago today, Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father. The first song I can consciously recall hearing was Let's Get It On. I had just moved from Detroit to Inkster, was all of three years old maybe a bit more, and I was in what was probably a rent party given by my neighbors down the street. Today's news that Gordy is selling the last bit of Motown is utterly appropriate, and similarly tragic. Even though Gordy is as old as dirt...and to quote one of the Detroit Three, I am more interested in Ford's robots than I am in Motown (Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder being the exceptions), I cannot help but be saddened by this development.

Woodrow Nash

One day when I get rich, I would very much like to own a sculpture of Woodrow Nash. I encountered some of his work several weeks ago and I still find it mind-blowing. His work is the most stunningly beautiful statuary I have ever seen. I'd really love to see it done on a monumental scale.

Surveillance in Hip-Hop

Check this out:

March 10, 2004 | MIAMI (AP) -- Police say they are secretly monitoring hip-hop stars P. Diddy, DMX and others in South Florida to protect them, but celebrities and critics see the surveillance as unnecessary and racist.

Officers in Miami and Miami Beach have photographed rappers and their entourages at Miami International Airport and staked out hotels, video shoots and nightclubs while consulting 6-inch-thick dossiers of rappers and associates with arrest records in New York state, The Miami Herald reported.

More here. (Subscription may be required, but it is worth it!)

For their...PROTECTION. Right.

More on The Passion

I talked about The Passion last night with my sister. As soon as I saw the depiction (sidenote...Gibson's Jesus does NOT have blue eyes), I decided not to go.

The truth is the TRUTH. We don't accept anything less than the truth when we talk about fraternal matters. We don't accept anything less than the truth when it comes to our families. We don't accept anything less than the truth when it comes to our children.

Why should you accept anything less than the truth, when it comes to the matter that is most important to you?

Think about it another way.

Gibson originally filmed the entire movie in Aramaic, because English didn't exist at that time period. He was so dedicated to getting the details right, that he had the entire film performed in a language that few people on the face of the planet can still speak. That fewer probably know how to read.

He was so dedicated to getting the details right that the crucifixion scene lasted almost a full HOUR. While some may say that this fixation on violence borders on the pornographic I disagree. The time period of The Passion was an extremely violent time. Furthermore, Gibson wanted to be sure that the viewer understood exactly what Jesus was buying into when he agreed to die. He agreed to die in one of the most painful ways imagineable.

So it isn't like Gibson himself isn't down with the truth as he understood it. He was so down for the truth that he risked the entire movie on it.

BUT....he wasn't so down for the truth that he'd accurately depict the people of the time period.

He wasn't so down for the truth that he'd accurately depict the person he believes is the savior of all of humanity.

....

Now some would argue that race is unimportant. That Jesus didn't have a color.

To a certain extent this argument has merit. "Race" didn't exist 2,000 years ago. People weren't known as "blacks" or "whites" but rather as Ethiopians, or Romans. But during his time on Earth, Jesus HAD A PHYSICAL APPEARANCE. Jesus wasn't colorless. His skin wasn't translucent. His hair wasn't made of fire. If accuracy is your goal and the truth matters at all, I say depict him as he WAS. Furthermore, given the routine discrimination visited upon black, brown, red, and yellow peoples in America, I'd think that an accurate depiction of Jesus may actually get Christians to reconsider their daily practices.

I've already made my decision. I won't give Gibson a cent for his movie. I won't even watch the bootleg copy.

The day I watch The Passion is the day they show the uncut version on Saturday morning television smack dab between The 21st Century Smurfs and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

The truth matters. If it matters on your job, if it matters in your home, if it matters in your personal relationship...it should matter when it comes to your God.

Wiley on Bonds

If you're about supporting upholding and representing the Old School, then your aspirations are excellence. To the stars through perseverance. Ad astra per aspera. You might not hit it...you might not even get CLOSE. But that's your goal.

And if you're about supporting and upholding the Old School then you recognize that excellence comes in many forms and many exteriors. I remember talking to a young brother about Tiger Woods, and whether he could get into an all-white private golf club NOW.

"Of COURSE he could," was my reply. If those old white men knew anything about the game of golf, if they'd ever spent a few hours on the back nine, there is no way they could deny his greatness. They'd let him in (and then keep US out) with the QUICKNESS.

Ralph Wiley wrote a piece on Barry Bonds today, that should pretty much . The Detroit Tigers have sucked too much these past 17 years for me to be a baseball guy...but I'll be damned if I don't recognize how hard it is to hit 658 home runs over the course of a 20 year career. I might not have game YET, but I recognize it in those that do.

Gates and the Color Line

I can't stand it anymore. I told my students they should watch Henry Louis Gates' series on PBS tracing the lives of black Americans some forty years after the dream. And I could get through the first hour and a half without gagging. Then, when Gates began to interview a brother from Chicago stuck in the joint I lost it.

Gerald Early wrote a review about The End of Blackness. Cobb wrote about it. You've got to know Gerald to know what that last paragraph (quoted by Cobb) means. See...Gerald has got to be one of the most humble and straightlaced men I've met. I've never heard him utter a cross word...never seen him take out someone in print. Reading that last paragraph I...I think I shouted out loud. Damn.

"The author does not know enough, has not researched enough..."

This is how I feel watching Gates. When was the last time a white English Lit professor was asked to comment on the budget deficit as if he were an authority? Better yet...when was the last time Paul Krugman was asked to speak on Shakesphere?

So what we have are half baked analyses told "by the people" as if it were more authentic to hear poor men and women talk about how their friends are poor because "they don't want to do nothing." At least in Dickerson's case she can come up with an excuse. She didn't know better.

Gates?

The Washingtonians

Historically speaking, many cities like Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, and Washington D.C. had hidden societies largely populated by upper crust African Americans. Though WEB Dubois was talking about these cats when he came up with (and later discarded) the idea of a "Talented Tenth" and the first black fraternities and sororities were largely populated with their progeny, for much of the twentieth century these men and women operated in a world of their own. We can (rightly) critique them for the degree to which many of them placed skin tone (cafe au lait vs. ebony) above character. We can also rightly critique them for their unwillingness (in many though not all cases) to deeply engage the problems of black America (Dubois jettisoned the idea of a Talented Tenth largely because the Tenth was so damn trifling and random).

But in today's Washington Post we can get a glimpse of their majesty and power. Perhaps some would argue they were mimicing or aping their non-black peers, I'm thinking that's giving the forces of white supremacy wayy too much power.

On the Kobe Trial

It had to come out sooner or later. Today's Espn NBA page (which I check out four or five times a day like a schmoe) has this as a headline "RACE CARD COMES OUT."

I guess I should've known. Before I played ball today someone asked me how I thought the case would go down. I have NO IDEA. I believe the evidence is suspect, and under other circumstances the case would've been thrown out...I don't know what is going to happen. Too many moving parts. We've got a wealthy man against a middle-class woman....a black man against a white woman...a rural resident v. an urban(e) one. Running the permutations in my head makes me dizzy.

What I do know is that the entire concept of a "race card" is based on a shibboleth. I wish that term, and horse-race centered discussions about political campaigns would go the way of the Brontosaurus. To act as if race doesn't play a role in this case explicitly and implicitly is to believe that up is down, red is green. I suspect I'll be bringing this up again.

Thanks Rush

P6 beat me to it. I know McNabb ain't old school (his GAME is, but he isn't...doesn't mean I don't like him though) but I wish to God he was. If he were old school when he was first asked about Rush wayyy back when Limbaugh stuck his oxycontin filled foot in his mouth, he'd have asked why the hell ESPN would hire someone with no professional football experience at all to do commentary.

Idiots.

From Hip Hop to Movement

In this week's Village Voice there is a piece by Ta-Nehisi Coates on Russell Simmons' attempt to make hip-hop into a political force. Coates is one of the few journalists that "get it right" I think. It is not necessarily a coincidence that Coates appears in the Voice rather than in the Post or the Daily News or even the Times. A snippet:

Simmons hopes he can add a coolness factor to social insurgency. "The most important thing we gotta do is make it cool to show up at the rallies, make it in style to pay attention," says Simmons. "At the hip-hop summit in Philly, we had tremendous success. It was the place to be. LL Cool J was there, Wyclef was there, Damon Dash was there. But no one could get in unless they registered to vote."

Like most brothers and sisters of my age, hip-hop is my life's soundtrack (though to be fair, I'm really a househead). But here's where I get off.

Ever since Bambaata created the Zulu Nation in part to shift the energy of New York youth towards beats and breaks, there's been a political component to hip-hop in general. You can't properly talk about the growth of hip-hop without talking about the budget cuts during the Reagan era that decimated cities left and right. And even now you can't talk about the supposed thematic shift in rap without in turn talking about the political-economy of popular music (Norman Kelley's puts his foot in it in his RHYTHM AND BUSINESS).

But to make the step from this to the type of movement that Russell is involved in (along with Benjamin Chavis)? I'm not buying it. Not because the intentions are off...though they very well may be. I'm not buying it because the theory is way off.

Check out this path:

Inform people of their material reality
-->people participate and-->mobilize
Give them the tools to change their reality

If you both tell people what's going on around them, how politics at a local and a national level is having an adverse impact on their life chances AND educate them about their options...you will THEN get people to not only participate, but odds are those people will in turn mobilize others. Teach a man to fish....

We don't see this in Simmons' account. This is the logic we're seeing:

Create mass events
---->people will vote
Make these events cool

See the difference? I acknowledge that the first path has more moving parts, and is harder to pull off. But the payoff is much richer isn't it? Or is it?

This is nothing new, really. There's always been a difference between the rich organizing style of black folks on the left, and the pseudo-organizing of the integrationists on the one hand (King stands out) and the nationalists on the other (Farrakhan stands out). The pseudo-organizing approach is about one thing....getting enough votes to be able to take them to some cat and say "give ME something, because I've got THESE [shows votes]."

Maybe I should start calling this the bling-bling model of politics?

Hey YA

I'm listening to a couple of tracks from Outkast's new double cd. Hey Ya and The Way You Move. Some of the heads are screaming that this isn't hip-hop, the same way that some made noise about how Lauryn Hill's Miseducation didn't quite fit that bill.

Once any artform begins to congeal it becomes easier and easier to pigeonhole and exclude.

But damn these tracks are hot. If the heads aren't claiming this, then there's a problem.

I consider myself a democrat. I believe in expanding structures of opportunity such that everyone gets a chance to fulfill his/her destiny. I believe that the public sphere should be truly public, with every citizen given a chance to participate and express him/herself. But I also believe that democracy isn't moved forward by "the masses" but by cell groups, who are dedicated and driven by the pursuit of a new vision.

I think what we have here with the work of Outkast is an attempt (probably not a conscious one but an attempt nonetheless) to expand hiphop past the tyranny of the bling dynasty.

Misogyny in Black Popular Culture

I've participated in a number of listservs devoted to discussion about black popular culture for around 10 years or so. Recently on a list devoted to detroit techno, a number of heads started talking about Outkast and Hey Ya. I can't remember the last cd I bought, but I'm thinking hard about picking Outkast's cd up. They're refreshing in so many ways...not just in comparison to hip hop.

Anyway, the subject of misogyny in hiphop came up. I think the issue is a compelling one to wrestle with and it neatly ties into some of the questions we've been dealing with...particularly questions of class. Anyway, I jotted off a response that is fairly representative of my position on black pop culture as it relates to issues of politics.

To give you further context, the question is "to what degree is hip hop misogynistic?"

When I think about these issues this is what I try to keep in mind.

*As African Americans live in the American context, it is important that we keep in mind the impact that larger processes that impact ALL Americans influence them.

So here we're talking about the commodification of women largely for the purpose of profit that has the added "benefit" of keeping women subjugated. This dynamic isn't unique to African Americans, but is part and parcel of the larger American culture. Take a look at a Victoria Secret ad that 25 years ago could've never made it to the screen.

*While popular music is considered to be the raw undiluted voice of the
young (and in hip-hop's case the black young), popular music is SOLD AND
MARKETED.

Chuck D. said that rap is black America's CNN. He's both right and wrong. Rap is not news. It is entertainment. Rap isn't an undiluted image of what is "really going on" in black communities whether they be working class, or blueblood. But in as much as CNN's news is itself highly packaged and marketed, rap too has been niched in order to sell product.

I'm working on a book about youth and politics in American cities, and I'm including a substantive section on pop culture (hiphop). Thinking about this in depth I'm realizing that it just isn't possible to refer to hiphop as an artform without taking the political economy of it into consideration.

There is a REASON why my students know that 50 Cent has been shot nine
times. And it has nothing to do with truth telling.

*While African Americans are indeed Americans, they also serve as
America's Other.

In the past, miners used canaries as an early warning system. The gases the miners had the most to fear were both odorless and invisible. The only way they would know whether the gas was present was by the behavior of the canary. When the canary keeled over...the miners broke camp.

Black people (and other "people of color") serve as America's canary. The fault lines in the American project usually become most visible in these communities. But rather than taking the troubles of black people and using them to predict, contain, and cure problems of the wider community, a very different route is taken. These troubles are used to sell "black" product for the culture mill, and at the same time are used to further justify black exclusion.

Just trying to keep these three ideas (blacks are american, blacks are the other, pop music is an economic product) in my head simultaneously is a difficult feat. but suffice it to say that because of these dynamics I'm willing to bet that the following assertions hold true about misogyny in hiphop:

1. Misogyny in hip-hop is a hyperextension rather than an accurate reflection of misogyny in black life.

2. Misogyny in hip-hop may be more pervasive than misogyny in rock... depending on how we are measuring it. Only looking at the use of the terms "bitch" or "ho" for example would be an overly conservative measure.

3. The social ills impacting black men in America are beginning to impact their white counterparts. So in as much as #2 holds true, I don't expect it to hold true for long.

Priest Returns

I've been a voracious reader of comics for the last 30 years of my life. Contrary to the belief of some, growing up reading the exploits of Superman, Batman, and the X-Men did NOT make me want to be white. It did NOT make me less "proud" of being black. It did though expose me to a life outside of the mundane, a life rich in possibilities.

Christopher Priest is one of the best comic book writers in the business. But for factors some of us understand all too well, his work does not get the credit from what he calls TPTB (the powers that be). The penultimate smack in the face was the cancellation of his work THE CREW....which only lasted seven issues.

For a while Priest thought about quitting the game. In comic book terms he's getting a bit long in the tooth to be still fighting the good fight. Think about it...who the hell WANTS to be still fighting the good fight into his forties?!? But he held out...and now he's back. Writing CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE FALCON of all books.

I write about this here, because I think Priest's plans for the comic remind me of the curious relationship we have with American values and with America. And the way he plays with time and space remind me of the best of African American high culture. So check out his plans, and his views. I think it would be worth it.

And if you hadn't picked up a comic in some years, that might be worth it too.

The Death of Savoy

Last week it was announced in the New York Times that Savoy, Honey, and Heart and Soul would be shut down. While I liked Honey (kind of a hip-hopped out Essence), I thought Savoy was horrible. It was bad on its own terms, and in no way could it hold the jock strap of its predecessor, Emerge. I'm glad it is gone, and knew this moment was coming. If anything, the story of Emerge and Savoy tells us about the pitfalls associated with large scale black capitalism and black power.

First a bit of history is in order.

Emerge magazine was founded in 1989 as an attempt to deliver a hard hitting black-centered newsmagazine to the homes of black folk. Though there were some problems (a few of my colleagues criticized Emerge for their hiring practices, and some for its content as well), for my money Emerge was the best thing since Black World (a seventies attempt to do the same thing). George Curry's covers (and stories) about Clarence Thomas were legend. And Emerge's cover article about Kemba Smith (who was originally sent to prison for 25 years for her peripheral role in a drug deal involving small amounts of crack cocaine) arguably played an important role in the commutation of her sentence by President Clinton. It wasn't like Emerge didn't have a faithful consumer base--the magazine had a circulation of 150,000 which rates favorably in comparison to other news magazines--but was losing money at the rate of 1 million/year. So after eleven years, Bob Johnson cut his losses, shutting Emerge down and bringing in Keith Clinkscales (formerly associated with Vibe) to ring in a new era.

Keith's response to Emerge? Savoy.

Reading Savoy was like watching a train wreck. Instead of hard hitting articles about how the Contract With America was a Contract ON black folk, we got....Tom Joyner butt nekkid in the American flag. (I'm not making this up.) Clinkscales vision of Savoy was simple--neuter the political content, and make it a lifestyle magazine for middle to upper-income African Americans. Have puff pieces about pop stars, and fill the rest with new age self-help mantras.

Now to be fair Clinkscales had a plan that made sense. The reason that Emerge lost money was NOT because "black people didn't support it" (could we toss that tired phrase out?!?) but because the way magazines make money is ADVERTISING REVENUE. Circulation doesn't mean DIDDLY--except for the identification of prominent niche markets for advertisers. Clinkscale believed that advertisers didn't support Emerge because of its content. Create a magazine with different content but geared to the upper-income black market and ad revenue should POUR in right?

Nope. Though advertising execs will create niches where they didn't exist before and shill all sorts of products (does the phrase "metrosexual" ring a bell?), there are some niches that will continue to be woefully underserved. The sophisticated black market is most likely not deemed large enough to compete for or to sell to (as an entity in and of itself) with the exception of donations to super promoters.

This is key. For all the talk about starting our own and supporting our own, when we are dealing with large scale corporate enterprises (as opposed to regional or local ones) it is very very difficult to promote the old school values of integrity and pride, unless we're talking about Kwanzaa Cadillac commercials. We supported Emerge as much as our counterparts supported Time or US News and World Report, but because advertisers run the magazine business we were simply out of luck.

The more I think about it, the more I think that the future lies in cell-networks and regional ties, at a political, economic, and cultural level.