Black Tuesday Collective

A battle over the injustice of nation's war on drugs (Leonard Pitts op-ed)

2010-07-20T07:07:00.000-07:00

Ron Allen probably thinks Alice Huffman has been smoking something.

Huffman, president of the California Conference of the NAACP, recently declared support for an initiative that, if passed by voters in November, will decriminalize the use and possession of marijuana. Huffman sees it as a civil rights issue.

In response, Bishop Ron Allen, founder of a religious social activism group called the International Faith-Based Coalition, has come out swinging. "Why would the state NAACP advocate for blacks to stay high?" he demanded last week at a news conference in Sacramento. "It's going to cause crime to go up. There will be more drug babies." Allen wants Huffman to resign.

But Huffman is standing firm, both in resisting calls for her head and in framing this as an issue of racial justice. There is, she notes, a pronounced racial disparity in the enforcement of marijuana laws. She's right, of course. For that matter, there is a disparity in the enforcement of drug laws, period.

In 2007, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, 9.5% of blacks (about 3.6 million people) and 8.2% of whites (about 16 million) older than 12 reported using some form of illicit drug in the previous month. Yet though there are more than four times as many white drug users as black ones, blacks represent better than half those in state prison on drug charges, according to the Sentencing Project.

The same source says that though two-thirds of regular crack users are white or Latino, 82% of those sentenced in federal court for crack crimes are black. In some states, black men are jailed on drug charges at a rate 50 times higher than whites.

And so on.

So while the bishop hyperventilates about blacks "staying" high, he ignores a clearer and more present danger. As Michelle Alexander argues in her book, "The New Jim Crow," those absurd sentencing rates, combined with laws making it legal to discriminate against even nonviolent former felons in hiring, housing and education, constitute nothing less than a new racial caste system.

Allen worries about a baby being born addicted to pot, but the likelier scenario is that she will be born to a father unable to secure a job so he can support her, an apartment for her to live in, or an education so he can better himself for her -- all because he got caught with a joint 10 years ago.

It is a cruel and ludicrous predicament. And apparently Huffman, like a growing number of cops, judges, DEA agents, pundits and even conservative icons like the late William F. Buckley Jr. and Milton Friedman, has decided to call the war on drugs what it is: a failure. It is time to find a better way, preferably one that emphasizes treatment over incarceration.

You'd think that would be a no-brainer. We have spent untold billions of dollars, ruined untold millions of lives and racked up the highest incarceration rate in the world to fight drug use. Yet, we saw casual drug use rise by 2,300% between 1970 and 2003, according to an advocacy group called LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition).

And as drug use skyrocketed, we find that we have moved the needle on addiction not even an inch, up or down. All we have managed, and at a ruinous cost, is to relearn the lesson of 1933, when alcohol Prohibition collapsed: You cannot jail or punish people out of wanting what they want.

I've never used drugs. I share Bishop Allen's antipathy toward them. But it seems silly and self-defeating to allow that reflexive antipathy to bind us to the same strategy that has failed for 30 years. By now, one thing should be obvious about our war on drugs.

Drugs won.

Embedded: Mos Def in Japan

2009-10-15T07:56:00.000-07:00

"Fighting on the Lie"

2009-09-26T11:09:00.000-07:00

An Examination of The Wire
HBO’s Mutiny Against the Police Drama

On June 2nd, 2002 the Home Box Office network premiered their groundbreaking and in some ways revolutionary series, The Wire. The program was of the type that would easily defy passing definition as it transcended the genre of police and crime drama; the show itself was, after all, about much more. Over time, The Wire remained a little known, highly appreciated and yet unrecognized chronicle of the plight of an entire city, it presented Baltimore through the eyes of an amazingly diverse group of characters and stories. Though the show itself went without being honored with its due, during its run, it truly became a certain kind of cultural phenomenon among a few, as the work to which people looked when it came to depicting reality, complexity and hardship entering the realm of overdetermination as masterpiece. The Wire, was not only a mirror, in the unflinching examination of a city in the throes of rapid self destruction, but also a reaction to the lack of reality and sociopolitical accountability on network television and the news media in general. The Wire exists specifically to deconstruct the somewhat irresponsible myths popularized as reality by most television entertainment.
Over the course of its five seasons, The Wire strove to depict the human condition in its truest urban form, therefore maximizing the potential of television as the “People’s machine… a populist apparatus [which, at its best] subverts patriarchy, capitalism, and other forms of oppression.” (Miller and Johnson 265) Treating its characters as family members and embracing the deep fundamental flaws in good people and the warmth and creativity among the bad, all the while refusing to let any character be defined by either adjective. The Wire begins, following a group of police officers and the criminal organization that they are pursuing, it continues on, making a statement about its postmodern intentions with each season, by adding equally complicated worlds and expanding its universe to encompass the lives of heroin addicts, judges, shipping union workers, politicians, teachers, students, social workers and finally newspaper reporters. What may be the true antagonistic focus of the show are the particular bureaucracies that restrict each and every character in every world that The Wire examines, even down to the criminal enterprises. In short, The Wire, is a show about adults from a perspective that is intensely professional and adult in its detail and focuses, being completely within the perspective of the breathing environment that is Baltimore.
Television, as a medium is certainly no stranger to the genre of police drama. The genre has continually been defined and redefined with the onset of several so-called revolutionary series. A prime example of this re-designation is the CBS program CSI: Crime Scene Investigation which premiered in 2000 and has since remained atop the critical and popular pedestals as one of the best shows on television. The years before The Wire premiered, network television audiences were captivated by “gritty” programming such as NYPD: Blue, and CSI, which depicted a specific amount of realism in their respective worlds, deciding cases in single episodes and maintaining a fairly simple morality among their characters. It was precisely this “neatness”, perhaps forced upon these series by the parameters of network television that creator David Simon hoped to work against, he writes about The Wire,
Suddenly, the police bureaucracy is amoral, dysfunctional and criminality in the form of drug culture is just as suddenly a bureaucracy. Scene by scene, viewers find their carefully formed presumptions about cops and robbers undercut by alternative realities. Real police work endangers people who attempt it. Things that work in network cop shows fall flat in this alternative world. Police work is at times marginal or incompetent. (Simon 36)

The market of dramatic entertainment is built on the idea that those who are chosen to be followed in these series’ are individuals who are quite clearly the best at the jobs that they do, especially in the police force. With The Wire, the audience is faced with a group of officers at its center who are foolish, brash and very admittedly, the individuals who were deemed undesirable to their own divisions.
Criminals are neither stupid nor cartoonish, and neither are they all sociopathic. And the idea-as yet unspoken on American TV-that no one authority has any reason to care about what happens in the American ghetto as long as it stays within the ghetto… (Simon 36)

David Simon, the so called “Angriest Man In Television” (Bowden) is a retired newsman from the ranks of The Baltimore Sun. Simon, in an interview for The Atlantic was quick in focusing his anger, and probably his inspiration toward the “editors and corporate owners of [The Baltimore Sun who had, in his view] spent the past two decades eviscerating a great American Newspaper.” (Bowden).
Television’s mad creation also owes a great deal to David Simon’s writing partner, Ed Burns. Burns, was a police detective for twenty years and soon after his retirement, he wrote a book with David Simon and subsequently went into teaching at an inner city school. In an interview given with HBO, Burns compares his experiences, teaching in the Baltimore Public School district to his preparation for Vietnam. His observations concerning the fact that the vast majority of the pre-teens in the school had not only been criminally neglected by the school system, to the point that they were, for the most part unable to read anywhere close to their age level; but they had also by en-large been emotionally scarred by their experiences at home or in the streets. “Lots had been stabbed. All of them had been abused, one way or the other. So when you put them in a classroom with a curriculum that doesn't compute with their world, everybody has a way of surviving, right?” (Burns) In this, the realization of anger that speaks to the restriction of power at the hands of knowledge, the shameful economic drawbacks of urban environments are mentioned, undeniable in their purpose.
It is precisely the anger and confusion that both men display that lends The Wire its realistic, cynical and responsibly objective stance. The Wire is a supremely logical step from Simon & Burns’ book, turned Emmy Award winning HBO miniseries, The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, which chronicles the tribulations of a family of drug addicts on the streets of Baltimore. During the run of The Wire, Burns and Simon would collaborate with the accomplished likes of writers such as David Mills, Richard Price (Clockers) & Denis Lehane (Mystic River); in addition to attracting directors like Ernest Dickerson and Clark Johnson.
Instantly as the series begins, even in the first conversation of the pilot, the audience is faced with an idea, that what follows is to be witnessed and considered but will not be simplified, digested or explained at length. The conversation is between a police detective and a witness in the murder of a man known as “Snot Boogie”. What is demonstrated is a very certain brand of logic that defies logic. This logic is not, however without its own meaning and truth, it is simply that it has remained unseen or perhaps unexamined on television or cinema. It then becomes the audience’s plight to move forward with the series in hopes if grasping the several kinds of logic and natures at work, herein lies much of the genius of The Wire.
For the spectator, the series exists as a kind of assault of representation of a culture of destruction, manifested in every facet of the community, even those who strive only to improve it. It can be said that it is at times difficult to understand, precisely because of its sense of authenticity which is quickly achieved by the fact that it refuses to decipher its codes; from the vernacular of the street, to the show’s lack of explanation of the bureaucratic events unfolding, such as the labyrinthine lengths that officers must navigate in order to acquire the necessary means to do their work.
In this spirit of hardship and reality, The Wire manages to establish itself completely against the trends of television police drama. Post CSI, in an effort to breed success, nearly every police drama was either based in forensic science (CSI Miami, Crossing Jordan, NCIS, Cold Case) or on an obscure crime-solving technique involving recreations, unique skills and precise tests (Numbers, The Mentalist). Liberated by the so-called “Digital Revolution” television was able to augment and visually sensationalize the world of criminal forensic science. Filmmakers of all kinds found that, “instead of building a miniature spaceship, practitioners could create one on the computer and it could then be [animated] on the computer and finally composited on the computer.” (Berger and Hollander 587) It seemed to be almost a protest when two detectives, McNulty & Moreland (Dominic West & Wendell Peirce) play out an entire scene, examining an old murder, using nothing more technologically advanced than a pen and a marker.
What is perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the show is that every character in the show is intelligent enough to recognize the problems and the causes of Baltimore’s social decline, but even those in the positions of most influence and power are utterly unable to do anything about those problems because of red tape, monetary limitations or urban politics. It is then perhaps most fitting that the new subject of the final season of the show is the news media which would ideally be reporting and commenting on the troubling phenomena at the center of the city’s problems. It is a testament to the minds at work that it is made especially apparent that each world is very firmly connected to each of the others which adds an epic scope to the spectacle that is difficult to find even in film.
True to form, however, the fifth estate is not the original or sole sources of insight. The Wire tends to comment on its worlds subversively; entire concepts and ideas, frustrations held by all can be expressed by people who are on the outside of each respective world. In a way, it therefore refuses to establish an ideology, thus allowing the audience a simplistic morality. Capturing the essence of the continuum, a character by the name of Slim Charles once said, “It’s what war is, you know? Once you’re in it, you’re in it. If it’s a lie, then we fight on that lie!” (Glover) Charles’ quote is very specific to his particular situation; however it can also be compared and applied to nearly every character that graces the vast stage of The Wire. A particular example of this concept occurs in the third season, in which the mayor, desperate to improve the numbers in terms of murders committed, issues an order to produce those numbers by any means necessary. In doing so, the police Majors are forced to massage the numbers, or in the case of one of the city’s worst districts, the Major strikes an agreement with the drug dealers, creating a place that becomes known as “Hamsterdam”. “Hamsterdam”, is a section of a neighborhood in which the police agree to allow the sale of illegal drugs in exchange for the promise that no violence will occur among the murderous organizations that plague Baltimore’s streets. Though the legality of the area is of course non-existent, it’s very concept is one that raises countless controversial problems concerning ethics, none of which are necessarily simple enough to simply dismiss the specific benefits of the action.
It is not in spite of the fact that things are messy and criminally handled, but perhaps because of this fact that the soldiers put forth by each group must charge ahead. All of the characters have found themselves in the middle of something, at times they cannot understand the beginnings in terms of the necessity for things as they are, what is known is the immediate circumstance and the means that must be utilized for their survival. This understanding, or perhaps lack thereof, makes The Wire dirty, but that honesty can yield the kind of truth that is often missing, “what the public wants, unfortunately is the blonde who gets lost in Aruba, rather than the daily grind of agony in the slums of the city.” (Klien)
That is not to say that it is any secret to even the masses that the information given by most news organizations is digested and sensationalized at best, at worst it is generally trivial and narrow in focus, completely ignoring the ugliness that many people of affluence are able to ignore. The information presented to those who can avoid being confronted with the grime clinging to the masses seems to be more about the forays of “decent people” into war with that filth. For instance, a moment indicative of the opinion held by The Wire about the brass of the Baltimore police, in which a commanding officer, Lt. Daniels orders his unit to stage a large scale raid on a number of possible stash houses. The commanding officer makes this order because of pressure exerted upon him to produce visible results in the war on drugs, yet knowingly almost ensuring that the true progress of the case would be hindered because the Barksdale organization would be made aware of the police interest.
The series offered an extremely progressive look into life, especially in its representations of characters that would otherwise be "token" in nature, marginalized or made into undue spectacles. In addition to employing perhaps the largest African American cast onscreen in television history (somewhere around 60-70%), the series offers large roles to its addicts, on the edges of every society and it pays particular credence without special treatment to its characters of another kind, namely, “queers”.
A perfect example of this is a character named Omar, played by Michael K. Williams. Omar appears in the universe of The Wire in the third episode of the first season, known as a criminal who robs drug-dealers in a bullet proof vest, a trench coat and from behind a sawed-off shotgun. Instantly distinctive, Omar has a long defined scar that crosses his face. Though details of Omar’s personal life were never shielded from audiences, actor Andre Royo, who portrays “Bubbles”, revealed that after the third episode aired, he was approached by a number of men, “hard cats” identifying themselves with Omar’s profession and style. It wasn’t until subsequent episodes that many of these individuals would renounce their personal similarities with the character upon the discovery of his homosexuality. (Royo) According to Williams, it was made clear to him that Omar was a character who was intended to be limited to the first season; however, the writers found themselves bringing the character back to play substantial roles in each of The Wire’s five seasons. (Williams) This is a clear statement because the series refuses the marks of conventionality, seemingly at every turn by working completely against whatever stereotypes may arise for each character.
Another of these clear protests is one of the show’s most beloved characters, a man known as Stringer Bell, played by Idris Elba. Stringer is the second in command of the Barksdale crime organization. At first glance, he seems simply to be a quiet observer, unwilling to trouble himself with the bloody business of heroine beyond its financial element. As the show continues, the audience discovers that he is in fact somewhat of a genius, taking business classes in his free time and applying the techniques of his study to legitimize the money of the enterprise. Bell’s efforts are set toward the aims of betraying his gruff nature. His partner, Avon Barksdale, on the other hand, aims specifically to stay within the parameters of his nature, sealing himself within the tragedy of the world which he could have potentially escaped at the hands of Stringer Bell. Though Bell is a mastermind, he is not stereotypically omnipotent he is more of a man without a country. (Harris) Though his intellect and temperament gains him entry into new strata of legality, in the third season, he finds himself the victim of a white collar scam, which ultimately leads to his demise.
The last element of the “perfect storm” of contributions to the shows creation is, of course the existence of the Home Box Office network (HBO). Being that the station is a cable network, it is effectively un-restricted in comparison to network television. Because it does not suffer from the content restrictions of an NBC or CBS, its shows are free to explore the darkness and vulgarity of their worlds. It is this element that allowed The Wire to be so truthful. In terms of its structure, it allowed the show to progress at a much slower pace than would be tolerated on a non-cable station but was imperative in order to establish the amount of detail that gives The Wire its emotional power and bite.
Research within the television industry suggests that most viewers typically only [see] around 1/3 of the episodes of a favored series, and that event ardent fans could not be guaranteed to see more than 1/2 of a series during its first run. Thus producers realized they could not assume that a viewer had seen previous episodes or were watching a series in sequential order, leading to a mode of storytelling favoring self-contained episodes and redundant exposition. (Mittell)

Because of HBO a narrowcast media station, the writers of the show were therefore able to assume that the episodes of the series would be shown several times and that the series would be released on DVD and VHS so that even the most uncommitted viewers would have multiple opportunities to view and fully appreciate the details at work. In fact, since the creation of HBO On Demand viewing, The Wire had, in 2007 been one of the top performing series ever to be displayed in that particular format. (Kaufman 20)
For the most part, the critical reception of The Wire has been uniformly favorable, but not only has the show been praised, it has been rested on a pantheon unseen by almost any work; all without receiving television’s top prize, the coveted Emmy Award. Ken Tucker, of Entertainment Weekly wrote, after viewing part of the third season of the show ““Game done changed,'' says a character early in the third season of The Wire. ''Game the same,'' comes the reply. ''Just got more fierce.''” Tucker continued, “They're talking about running drugs, eluding cops, and staking out gang territory in inner-city Baltimore. But these words also apply to the series itself, an on-going thriller packed with street-smart socioeconomic theories; it's TV's richest, most satisfying experience.” (Tucker)
The unabashed praise, however, truly reigned in with the arrival of the fourth season of the show, in which the focus is shifted to include four inner-city eighth graders who are caught in a system that does not serve nor understand them. With this addition, though The Wire made a clear statement as to its aspirations as an anthropological text (Russell, Duffy and Leonard) with its second season, the show truly solidifies its own relevance, if not in the lexicon, in annuls of television history.
When television history is written, little else will rival "The Wire," a series of such extraordinary depth and ambition that it is, perhaps inevitably, savored only by an appreciative few. Layering each season upon the previous ones, creator David Simon conveys the decaying infrastructure of his hometown Baltimore in searing and sobering fashion -- constructing a show that's surely as impenetrable to the uninitiated as it is intoxicating to the faithful. In its fourth year, the program adds the school system to cops, drugs, unions, the ailing middle class, and big-city politics. Prepare to be depressed and dazzled. (Lowry)

Interestingly, the largest complaint with the show is how densely it packs its story, at times moving at a deliberately slow pace and at times remaining somewhat exclusionary in terms of the edification of the viewer. It cannot, however, be said that those who watch The Wire are unwilling to engage the program, even within material that they do not understand.
Among the much relevance brought through the text of the show itself, there have been several instances in which people have used the show in order to educate or begin discussion on the political, legal, and socioeconomic matters of the day. For example, with the coming of The Wire’s final season, New York Times columnist Sudhir Venkatesh began a series, titled “What do Real Thugs Think of The Wire?” in which he enlisted the help of several individuals who are identified as “gangland acquaintances.” Over the course of the columns, Venkatesh conducts a group interview as they view episodes of The Wire, revealing countless accuracies and nuances taken for granted by the average viewer, revealing the show to be authentic, and the men to be savvy and much more informed than the normal person might think (somewhat reflecting gangland counterparts on screen).
Perhaps the most remarkable development to come from the run of The Wire is a college course, at Middlebury College in Vermont. The course is entitled “Urban American & Serial Television: Watching The Wire” the goals of which are to examine The Wire in the context of television and to use the show as the groundwork to examine social problems in urban America such as the economy, urban education, urban journalism, urban politics, American racial politics, and the drug war. (Mittell, Watching The Wire: Course Info)
Though The Wire may never have reached its rightful, award winning pantheon as a crowning achievement in television during its run, to those who chose to follow it, it has served as an irrevocable triumph. The show, in its five, short seasons, has not only managed to captivate the hearts of its followers, but it has dared to take hold of their minds as well, creating a world that is every bit as complicated, muddled, confusing, hilarious, heartwarming, cold, calculating, untrustworthy and poetic as any world, on or off screen. All that remains is for those on the outside, to “Tap In.”

Works Cited
Berger, Lee and Richard Hollander. "The Digital Revolution." (n.d.): 587.
Bowden, Mark. "The Angriest Man In Television." The Atlantic January 2008.
Burns, Ed. A Teacher in Baltimore HBO. 3 November 2006.
Kaufman, Debra. "The Wire: Too Black to Be A Hit." Television Week (2007): 20.
Lowry, Brian. Variety.com. 7 September 2006. 5 May 2009 .
Miller, Toby and Mariana Johnson. "Gilda: Textual Analysis, Political Economy, and Ethnography." The Oxford Handbook of Film and Media Studies. n.d.
Mittell, Jason. "Watching The Wire." 3rd February 2009. Middlebury College. 28th April 2009 .
—. "Watching The Wire: Course Info." 10 October 2008. Middlebury College. 5 May 2009 .
Russell, Ernest Roberts, et al. "Watching The Wire." 4 March 2009. Middlebury College. 4 May 2009 .
Simon, David. "Letter to HBO." Alvarez, Rafael. The Wire: Truth Be Told. New York: Pocket Books, 2004. 36.
The Wire. Prods. David Simon and Ed Burns. 2002.
The Wire. Perf. Anwan Glover. 2004.
The Wire. Perf. Wood Harris. 2004.
The Wire Odyssey. Perf. Andre Royo. 2007.
The Wire Odyssey. Perf. Michael K. Williams. 2007.
The Wire: The Last Word. Perf. Joe Klien. 2008.
Tucker, Ken. "The Wire." Entertainment Weekly 17 September 2004.

Call for Papers: Words. Beats. Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture

2009-09-19T05:17:00.000-07:00

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

The editorial staff of Words. Beats. Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop
Culture seeks high quality manuscripts, literature, poetry, book reviews
and artwork for a general topic issue to be published in July 2010. We
invite innovative submissions that consider hip-hop music and culture
from a wide range of critical perspectives. In-depth studies of
individual artists and texts are welcome. In particular, works from the
fields of ethnomusicology, gender studies, interdisciplinary studies,
cultural studies, technology and sociology are encouraged. We also
accept research on areas that influence our work as academics, including
hip-hop pedagogy and curriculum, as well as the place of hip-hop studies
in the university. Additionally, Words. Beats. Life welcomes
provocative essays that will stimulate thought on the current and future
role of hip-hop culture and music in the 21st century.

Words. Beats. Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture is a
peer-reviewed, hybrid periodical of art and hip-hop studies published by
the 501(c)(3) non-profit, Words Beats & Life, Inc. The Journal is
committed to nurturing and showcasing the creative talents and expertise
of the field in a layout that is uniquely hip-hop inspired. We publish
issues twice a year with the intention of serving as a platform where
the work of scholars and artists can appear in dialogue with one
another. Since 2002, Words. Beats. Life has devoted its pages to both
emerging and established intellectuals and artists. As the premier
resource for hip-hop theory and practice, we hope that the scholarship
we publish will serve as a resource for the field of hip-hop studies and
the work of hip-hop non-profits, helping each to elevate to the next
phase of their respective growth in America and around the globe.

Words. Beats. Life adheres to APA style. The maximum length for articles
is 5,000 words. Complete guidelines for contributors can be found in
each issue of the journal as well as on our Web site at
http://wblinc.org/Journal_callforsub.htm.

Please send any questions and submissions to submissions@wblinc.org.

Deadline: January 4, 2010

Graham Eng-Wilmot
Editor-in-Chief
Words. Beats. Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture
1525 Newton St. NW Washington, D.C. 20010
T 202-667-1192 | E graham@wblinc.org
http://wblinc.org/Journal.htm

Constructing the Blueprint for Black Male Success by Demetrius Walker

2009-09-16T04:40:00.000-07:00

Prior to September 12th 2009, had someone told me the blueprint for Black male success would arise from the state of Iowa I would have labeled them mentally deficient. Invited to share my expertise on the topic “The New Grinding: Expanding Your Consciousness as Your Life’s Work,” I was nonetheless excited to impart the merits of entrepreneurship to a group that seldom receives this message. It mattered not that this Fall retreat, titled “What’s Stopping Us Now?”, was being hosted for an assemblage of less than 50 students. I was eager to participate in The Hubbard Group’s revolutionary approach to fostering a sense of Black collegiate community.
Read the rest of the story.

Dat Mixtape Project for New Media Literacy

2009-07-31T07:11:00.000-07:00

By: Derrais Carter (This is the first draft of a larger project. It needs YOUR feedback)
In “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century” Henry Jenkins, Katie Clinton, Ravi Purushotma, Alice J. Robinson, and Margaret Weigel report on new media literacy and participatory culture in the digital age. New media literacy is defined as “cultural competencies and social skills that young people need in the new media landscape.” Jenkins et al’ provide a list of eleven new media skills including appropriation and distributed cognition; both of which are central to this project. I use appropriation and distributed cognition to evaluate the generative potential of www.datpiff.com, an online free mixtape website. I have two guiding questions for this analysis. First, how do mixtapes utilize appropriation at the juncture of history, memory, and time? Second, how can datpiff be used to promote distributive cognition in the digital age? To answer these questions I first explain musical sampling in hip hop and the role it plays in mixtape creation. I then provide numerous mixtapes from datpiff.com on my blog in order to make a case for their importance to distributive cognition. By placing them on my blog, I am providing a public forum for people to openly engage and discuss their interpretations of what is being done on these mixtapes. It is similar to the comment function of datpiff, however my comment section reflects what aspects of these mixtapes can help class exercises.
Throughout this project I include various multimedia clips to illustrate my method, and I offer no definitive conclusion. Rather, I present the reader/listener with a productive space for his/her own mediation in the continuation of this endeavor.
Datpiff is an online free mixtape download community dedicated to promoting hip hop music. The name, datpiff, meaning “that superior” is meant to position the website as THE mixtape authority. Generally, datpiff is aimed at the free circulation/distribution and evaluation of mixtapes. Guests may browse the entire site, but uploading and downloading privileges are reserved for registered users. Uploaded mixtapes are created by professional deejays (djs) and producers as well as amateurs. The mixtape upload feature helps level the professional playing field for up-and-coming djs and producers because their work is not separated from the more experienced artists. Also, underground, or independent, producers can showcase instrumental beats while artists provide users with remixed and unreleased lyrical verses. I am analyzing datpiff because the free content, in conjunction with sampling websites and free audio software, provide free educational tools for classrooms in the digital age. There is no “standard” mixtape on datpiff, thus my analysis is not meant to be exhaustive. Rather I use datpiff to present an “opening” of what the website offers for classroom media literacy.

Dat business
When the datpiff homepage loads, the advertisement at the top of the page offers a bit of irony. The ad is for www.Lawyers.com. This specific ad highlight’s divorce (although it seems plausible to place copyright at the center of the ad). Other advertisements on the homepage are powered by videoegg which is a rich media ad company . Red Robin family restaurant and Superpages use the same ad space at different times. Whenever the user holds the mouse over the ad for three seconds a multimedia commercial loads. Refreshing the page, however, exposes the user to a new set of ads. A Suntrust ad replaces the Lawyers.com ad and videoegg is replaced with an interactive ad where the user can make Susan Boyle slap herself by clicking her hand as she cries.
The left side of the homepage is roughly divided into five sections which provide users with a list of featured mixtapes and videos. The first section features three mixtapes that may not gain the exposure of mainstream rappers and djs. These mixtapes feature more local/underground rappers. The second section promotes the eight most popular mixtapes of the last 24 hours. The next section highlights the top eight videos for that day. The fourth section focuses on the top eight mixtapes being steamed live and reloads every five minutes. The final section highlights the week’s top videos. Users can also vote on mixtapes with a 1-5 star rating system.

Dat Techne

As an interactive endeavor, this project seeks to engage readers/listeners and provide spaces for their input. The aim of this section is to define terms and ideas that are key to making this project generative: remix, blend/mash-up, sample, and flow.
A remix is an altered version of a song. An authorized remix, in the popular music genre, includes added lyrical verses from featured guest artists, but it can also contain a reconstructed instrumental track . Also, popular music remixes tend to be very similar to the original song. A blend, or mash-up, is an unauthorized remix that has been created from a variety of sound resources in a collage-like fashion to invent a new product . Sampling refers to “the act of taking a portion…of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song.” Sampling makes blends/mash-ups possible:

“Unpack the meanings, unstuff the fragments and the logic remains the same: the part speaks for the whole, the whole is an extension of the part. It’s a holographic thing” DJ Spooky

Adam Haupt argues that “hip-hop artists make informed artistic and political choices when using samples during the construction of new music texts.” Haupt politicizes hip hop sampling practices too quickly, for not all sampling choices are political. According to 9th Wonder, a major hip hop producer, Haupt’s claim is not always true: click here for Soul Culture Video

Haupt generalizes the complexity of the sampling practice by making it SO political. In fact, it is the contentious relationship between samples and historical configurations of identity that make samples important, and not all songs containing samples have such political complexity.

Samples typically make up the core of the song, yet they augment, diminish, loop, or fragment aspects of the original composition so that something new might be created. Some samples, though, change the pitch and/or tempo of the original song and change the lyrics. This is the case with “My Way Home” by Kanye West featuring common. In “My Way Home” Gil Scott-Heron’s song “Home is Where the Hatred Is” is the core of the composition (audio clip).

Kanye West and Common - "My Way Home" (instrumental)

Gil Scott-Heron - "Home is Where the Hatred Is"

The Kanye West track is a slowed down version of Gil Scott-Heron's song. A more complex example is "Fragments" by Wu Tang featuring Del Ta Funkee Homosapien samples Marvin Gaye's "Flying High"

Wu Tang and Del The Funkee Homosapien "Fragments"

Marvin Gaye "Flying High"

A major term in this datpiff techne is flow.

“Flow. Machines that describe other machines, texts that absorb other texts, bodies that absorb other bodies. It’s a carnivorous situation where any sound can be you, and where any word you say is already known. Flow, counter-flow. The idiot as processing device, slave to the moment, outside of time because for him there is only the moment of thought. No past, no present, no future” DJ Spooky

“Rembrandt, Rouke, I am art with the flow…the way I put it together tear em’ apart wit the flow” Jay-Z

“There’s something bout the way the Nina Simone piano flow. It's like a Michaelangelo painted a portrait of Maya Angelou and gave it to a sick poet for the antidote. If music gets you choked up, this is the tree and the rope" Kanye West Get By (remix)

Flow, or the term formally known as appropriation. To Flow is to play with language and time. In terms of hip hop and sampling, flow results in a composition of linear fragments and looped recordings which come together on a sonic terrain. Flow diminishes historical chronology and memory because it respects neither. In fact, flow operates on two levels. On one hand, flow is about the creative moment which seeks not to bring forth some nostalgic iteration, but to relish the potential of NOW. When DJ Spooky writes that flow has “no past, no present, no future” the present is assumed to be an arbitrary descriptor of one’s embodied position. On the other hand, flow is FIXED in time because it provides continuity in rap music. With flow, the arrangement exists in a temporal chamber of fluidity and continuity. Without the temporal rhythmic balance, or the beat, flow fails. Flow’s chronological discontinuity can create a rhetorical moment. It can also “open” a space for new ideas which I explore below. One debate that is continually rehashed in American culture is the way in which the Civil Rights Movement leaders are represented in contemporary black popular culture, especially in hip hop. In 1999, the rap duo Outkast was sued by the managers of Rosa Park’s estate because they named a song after her.

Likewise, cartoonist Aaron McGruder received scathing criticism for his use of Martin Luther King Jr in the animated series The Boondocks.

Two issues are at stake in both scenarios. On one hand, members of the Civil Rights Movement are fighting to maintain their legacy. On the other hand, a generation of artists are claiming and reimagining history on their own terms. In addition to the two scenarios described, I remixed a song by rapper Jean Grae by incorporating a clip from a Studs Terkel interview with Martin Luther King Jr. I use King’s statement on hate and haters as an introduction to Grae’s song titled “Hater’s Anthem.

Analyzing mixtape mash-ups often requires knowledge of sampling and remixing, which I have provided above. In addition to the terminology, I have found and utilized free websites and programs for this particular project. Since datpiff is structured around free access to digital materials, these same free tools should, and could be, incorporated into a classroom. It is with this “free” logic that I used the following websites and software as resources for engaging creative work using mixtapes:
the-breaks (sample info)
whosampled (sample info)
youtube
Audacity –music editing software
Windows Movie Maker

Your TURN
Prior et al’s Cultural History Activity Theory, or CHAT, emphasizes how activity is positioned within a network of systems which are both concrete and discursive, so understanding activity depends on how people, institutions, materials, and language position a person(s). Activity is central to CHAT. Prior et al state that in mediated activity “action and cognition are distributed over time and space and among people, artifacts, and environments and thus also laminated, as multiple frames or fields coexist in any situated act. In activity, people are socialized…as they appropriate cultural resources, but also individuated as their particular appropriations historically accumulate to from a particular individual…[which] opens up a space for cultural change, for a personalization of the social.”
The reader/listener’s task is to interpret, evaluate, and comment on the embedded mixtapes below. Your feedback will work like the comment section on Datpiff. The main difference between datpiff’s comment section and my comment section is you are expected to analyze each original song as well as the mixtape hybrid. So, for instance, how does “Fools Rush In” differ from “Ten Crack Commandments”? What happens when both songs are blended? The intent here is to create a pool of evaluations and try to form a general consensus. Why comment? Your engagement and feedback is part of a large endeavor called distributive cognition which uses technology to expand cognitive processes. So, by using technology to think through and evaluate this material, we are DOING new media literacy.

Blue Eyes Meets Bedstuy

Download Mixtape | Provided by DatPiff.com

Frank Sinatra - "Fools Rush In"

goes with...

Biggie - "Ten Crack Commandments"

Hannibal King Presents American Gangsters
Starring: Jay-Z and Frank Sinatra

Download Mixtape | Provided by DatPiff.com

Frank Sinatra - "Glad to Be Unhappy" goes with "Pray"

DJ Swindle Presents: AlMatic (Al Green and Nas)

Download Mixtape | Provided by DatPiff.com

Author E. Lynn Harris dies at age 54

2009-07-24T12:59:00.000-07:00

By JOSH L. DICKEY (AP)

LOS ANGELES — E. Lynn Harris, a pioneer of gay black fiction and a literary entrepreneur who rose from self-publishing to best-selling status, has died, his publicist said Friday. He was 54.

Publicist Laura Gilmore said Harris died Thursday night after being stricken at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, and a cause of death had not been determined. She said Harris, who lived in Atlanta, fell ill on a train to Los Angeles a few days ago and blacked out for a few minutes, but seemed fine after that.

Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said only that a man matching Harris' name and date of birth had died Thursday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, which was confirmed by hospital spokeswoman Simi Singer. Gilmore said an autopsy would be performed Monday or Tuesday.

An improbable and inspirational success story, Harris worked for a decade as an IBM executive before taking up writing, selling the novel "Invisible Life" from his car as he visited salons and beauty parlors around Atlanta. He had unprecedented success for an openly gay black author and his strength as a romance writer led some to call him the "male Terry McMillan."

He went on to mainstream success with works such as the novel "Love of My Own" and the memoir "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted."

His writing fell into several genres, including gay and lesbian fiction, African American fiction and urban fiction. But he found success in showing readers a new side of African American life: the secret world of professional, bisexual black men living as heterosexuals.

"He was a pioneering voice within the black LGBT community but also resonated with mainstream communities, regardless of race and sexual orientation," said Herndon Davis, a gay advocate and a diversity media consultant in Los Angeles. "Harris painted with eloquent prose and revealing accuracy the lives of African American men and the many complicated struggles they faced reconciling their sexuality and spirituality while rising above societal taboos within the black community."

Harris published 11 novels, 10 of which were on The New York Times best-seller list. There are over 4 million copies of his books in print, according to his publisher, Doubleday.

"We at Doubleday are deeply shocked and saddened to learn of E. Lynn Harris' death at too young an age," said Doubleday spokeswoman Alison Rich, his longtime publicist. "His pioneering novels and powerful memoir about the black gay experience touched and inspired millions of lives, and he was a gifted storyteller whose books brought delight and encouragement to readers everywhere."

In an interview last year, Harris recalled the first time he realized he was poor, when as a young boy his family was invited to the housewarming of a well-to-do family in his hometown of Fayetteville, Ark. Fresh from an afternoon of playing outside, he tried desperately to tuck his bare, dusty feet underneath the sofa after another guest remarked on his appearance.

"I didn't grow up in the kind of environment that my characters grew up in, or the kind of environment that I live in now," he said. "It was one of the things that I always aspired to."

His 1994 debut, "Invisible Life," was a coming-of-age story that dealt with the then-taboo topic.

"If you were African American and you were gay, you kept your mouth shut and you went on and did what everybody else did," he said. "You had girlfriends, you lived a life that your parents had dreamed for you."

Harris was not living as an openly gay man when "Invisible Life" was published, and could not acknowledge the parallels between himself and the book.

"People would often ask, 'Is this book about you?' I didn't want to talk about that," he said. "I wasn't comfortable talking about it. I would say that this is a work of fiction."

Harris said that the courage readers got from the book empowered him to be honest about himself. He continued to tell stories dealing with similar issues, to tell black middle class readers about people they knew, but who were living secret lives.

For years, he was alone in exposing the "down low," but the phenomenon exploded into mainstream culture in 2004, a decade after "Invisible Life." That year, J.L. King's "On the Down Low: A Journey Into the Lives of 'Straight' Black Men Who Sleep With Men" hit bookstores and the author appeared on Oprah Winfrey's TV show.

His 10th novel, "Just Too Good to Be True," focused for the first time on a straight relationship, telling the story of a 21-year-old football star, his mother, and his cheerleader love interest. Harris taught writing classes at his alma mater, the University of Arkansas, and leaned on his students there to gather material for the book.

The last book Harris published, "Basketball Jones," focused on a hidden relationship between a successful business professional in New Orleans and an NBA star.

Janis F. Kearney met Harris when the two were among a handful of black journalism students at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The two became fast friends and their relationship deepened as they both evolved into authors. Kearney, who now lives in Little Rock, Ark., recalled Harris' huge heart.

"I've seen him help so many people," Kearney said. "He was very open, very giving, very caring, someone you felt so fortunate to have in your life. He's just one of those people I'll never stop missing."

Associated Press Writers Bob Jablon and Solvej Schou in Los Angeles; AP Writer Michelle Locke in San Francisco; AP Writer Errin Haines in Atlanta; AP Writer Noah Trister in Little Rock, Ark.; and AP National Writer Hillel Italie in New York contributed to this report.

Black Camera: An International Film Journal

2009-07-21T12:47:00.000-07:00

Edited by Michael T. Martin

ISSN: 1536-3155
E-ISSN: 1947-4237

Black Camera is devoted to the study and documentation of the black cinematic experience and is the only scholarly film journal of its kind in the United States. It regularly features essays and interviews that engage film in social as well as political contexts and in relation to historical and economic forces that bear on the reception, distribution, and production of film in local, regional, national, and transnational settings and environments.

In addition, Black Camera includes research and archival notes, editorials, reports, interviews with emerging and prominent filmmakers, and book and film reviews and addresses a wide range of genres—including documentary, experimental film and video, diasporic cinema, animation, musicals, comedy, and so on. It challenges received and established views and assumptions about the traditions and practices of filmmaking in the African diaspora, where new and longstanding cinematic formations are in play. While its scope is interdisciplinary and inclusive of all of the African diaspora, the journal devotes issues or sections of issues to national cinemas, as well as independent, marginal, or oppositional films and cinematic formations.

Volume 1, number 1 will be available fall 2009.

Sizzling African American Literature

2009-03-30T06:46:00.000-07:00

“Pleasure” by Eric Jerome Dickey

Ladies and gentlemen, I thought I had a favorite author. I was 100% sure that “he” was the best. I had read all of his books and I was hooked! That is until his latest novels seemed as if they were trying too hard. They no longer sparked a curiosity in me. They no longer kept me excited, intrigued, and wanting more. So I set off on a mission. I was determined to rekindle that flame and desire to read. I was determined to find that addicting brain food we call literature. I stepped out of the box and read pieces that friends suggested. They were okay, however they didn’t come to life for me. I had heard the author Eric Jerome Dickey thrown around a few times so I decided to see what he was about. This became my most pivotal moment in reading.

When I read one of his novels for the first time, I no longer wanted to call it “reading.” I wanted to call it living! His novels came to life right in front of my eyes. It was as if I were apart of the situations and I knew the characters personally. This man is truly gifted you guys! I struggle to put these feelings in words as I type this. His novels paint pictures, tell stories, and pull you in strong and hard! The day I stared reading his art is the day that I truly found my favorite author. Ever since then I have read each and every single book that he has written, each one topping its predecessor.

Here recently I have read his latest called “Pleasure.” This is clearly the best book he has written thus far. (I’m sure his next will top this as well) This steamy, fantasy filled romance will have you up, late night reading, when you have to be up at 5:30 a.m. in the morning for work! It will have you sneaking a peak at the next page while you’re at work or home preparing dinner!

The novel is about a woman named Nia Simone Bijoux, a ghost writer of erotic novels, living single in Atlanta. She is constantly on the verge of seeking sexual satisfaction however often comes up short. This problem continues in her life until she meets these two gorgeous identical twins jogging in a park one day. Later, caught in a hot love triangle, she discovers their deep dark dirty secrets at all cost. She receives the pleasure of a lifetime but finds herself wondering is it all worth her life?

Indulge yourself in this breathtaking, page turning, eye popping drama. I read this book in a few days while juggling my home life and my full time career as a high school teacher. This is truly a treat worth making time for. Eric Jerome Dickey is a phenomenal writer and will take you on that long awaited vacation that you’ve been yearning for. Allow him to do so! If you are looking for an author to stick by who will satisfy your brain food craving each and every time, “he” is you man ladies and gentlemen. Start with “Pleasure” and I promise you won’t regret it! I’m heavily anticipating his next!

Biological determinism vs. social identification vs. crazy psycho tennis coach

2009-03-20T16:31:00.000-07:00

Just check out the link:

http://www.aolhealth.com/condition-center/womens-sexual-health/gender-controversy-intersex-conditions?icid=aimDBDL2_image-b

Obama's Education Reform Leaves Little Room For Optimism

2009-03-20T10:53:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of last week, I made the following comments regarding Obama's education reform proposals:

"I read yesterday the Free Press' brief account of Obama's response to the education crisis, and found myself a bit concerned. A couple of his direct quotes stood out to me when reading the article. Obama explained, 'The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens.' He then further explains,

'We have everything we need to be that nation ... and yet, despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in the world, we have let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short and other nations outpace us.'

I think, first of all, that this identification of a problem - several problems - that has catalyzed the education crisis is myopic in nature. He in no way addresses systemic inequities that have perpetuated the failure of teachers and students to perform at specific levels of success and enabled to structural compromise of many of the schools that deteriorated. Moreover, he has overlooked financial mismanagement - and for what purpose this mismanagement has occurred - that also enabled this deterioration. I also believe that, as I will address in a minute, he has placed an unfair onus of responsibility on the shoulders of individuals who are now being told to be responsible for the crises they face rather than exploring creative, alternative methods for everyone to be responsible for one another. At the end of this quote, Obama explains that 'other nations outpace us' in terms of education production. I suppose my assessment could be off-base, but it seems that the same stimuli that have led to the crisis we are now experiencing are the driving factors successful educational production internationally. Seemingly, students are continuing to be trainined in vocational and technological skill-sets so that they can take over production responsibilities for consuming nations. It appears that transnational outsourcing of resource production has, in part, led to the need and desire for 'successful' academic performance. The incentives that once existed in this country to satisfy literacy and math requirements in order to pursue industrial labor is now, seemingly, paralleling incentives elsewhere to academically succeed. If our standards are to be examined comparatively with the endeavors of others nations, the ultimate result will seemingly be an extension of the problems that catalyzed the current predicament."

I realized that I neglected to assess the other half of this puzzle. Obama's assessment of other nations' academic output is not comparatively one-dimensional, but an expression of how this achievement will save our economy. Once again, Obama explains that "the future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens." The simple fact behind this statement is that the President is equating economic recovery with educational performance; or, quantifying our youth in terms of economic utility as opposed to socially conscious citizens. These proposals are in no way a reform, but rather a perpetuation of the current state of systemic commodification and how to most effectively maximize its utility. In order to address the paradigmatic shift this country needs to make - educationally, politically, economically, environmentally, etc...... - we cannot continue to remedy a system that has been failing for years upon years. We need to address to core concerns by shifting away from an automatous redress of those problems to a more humane one.

Conservancy is not a traditional option...

2009-03-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

Mike Davis wrote an article about two years ago entitled “Home-Front Ecology” (which can be found here) in which he presents conservancy efforts in the World War II climate and its correlation with patriotic fervor. I had a few thoughts about this article and his identification of such efforts during the 1940s climate. Furthermore, I was initially enamored with the patriotic ideal associated with conservation and how this correlation could be drawn and applied in a contemporary political and economic climate. Unfortunately, I came to a hypothesis that indicated a much more dramatic shift in paradigm than the one that stimulated the desire to cut salaries, build and live in modest homes rather than glamorous ones, grow carrots and cabbage on the white house lawn, and make social concessions in order to promote economic sensibility.

One of the most explicit – ostensibly – contradictions of these initiatives was: 1) the idea of creating, at the very least, a socialist economy (definitely moving courageously towards communism) during World War II; 2) the correlation between patriotic fervor and the perpetuation of this socialist-communist state; and 3) the combination of the first two principles in order to more effectively combat communism. However, I believe that in order to reduce the impact of this contradiction, an ultimate goal antithetical to this type of economy needed to be in sight. That ultimate goal was the maintenance not only of "democracy," but, more importantly, of capitalism.

Generally, I was amazed at the level of capital sacrifice this country was willing to make in order to preserve "democracy" at home. This level of sacrifice largely surpassed textile and food conservation, but even led to Roosevelt's signing of XO 8802 (desegregating defense industrial plants) and eventually the desegregation of the armed services - both unprecedented in nature. Again, however, I believe that this sacrifice was only mandated insofar as it was economically sensible. I was curious in understanding why this same level of sacrifice is not being espoused contemporarily as it was during the "crisis" of the 1940s. I have come to the hypothesis that this is simply a matter of “sacrificial endurance” – that is, promulgating a political and economic policy through the temporary sacrifice of capital and resources. Responding to today’s crisis (crises), there would be no goal of a return to capitalist values and their application to democratic principles. Such principles would need to be redefined and capitalism abandoned, and many are unwilling to accept this inevitability. I am in no way concluding that the situation is hopeless, but certainly a reversion back to those ideals espoused during the World War II era would only extend the simple fact that our political and economic system is dying and cannot be resuscitated. I see this reversion in the AmeriCorps program and benefits extension, comparing revisionist initiatives to those similar to the G.I. Bill. The domestic incentives, though, after civil-service "troops" return from fighting on the home-front will not exist as they did in the mid to late-1940s. Industrial and vocational jobs will not be available, educational institutions will not be accessible, traditional domestic work will nowhere near be what it was and certainly not typified. The dramatic changes that seemingly need to occur are not being addressed, and it is rather troublesome.

Sound of the Times: Glam Hop :_(

2009-03-07T16:41:00.000-08:00

Not too long ago, I lamented the turn that Hiphop had taken towards pop music. While I have begun to reconcile my frustrations with the filth it produced--largely by avoiding the radio altogether--I was perusing my ought-to-be-expired subscription to Rolling Stone and found out that "Flo' Rida Smashes Sales Record" with his new single "Right Round" sampled from the 80's band Dead or Alive's single "You Spin Me 'Round (Like a Record)"--selling "636,000 downloads [in] its first week." I've been planning to write this blog post for awhile, but it has suddenly taken a turn in approach, so bear with me and don't judge without seriously considering what I've said:

Hiphop has finally publicly sold-out to white kids. And you can quote me on that, but only if you give some kind of detail on my explanation.

Honestly, I wouldn't care if that didn't include some kind of bizarre disdain for the white people themselves. I've met a wealth of white kids who have a encyclopedic knowledge of Hiphop...the kind of depth of knowledge that inclines me to think that, if a rapper were pandering to them, Hiphop would be much better off than it is. But rappers aren't appealing to these proud examples of sonic integration--they're appealing to the kids they don't really like, the ones they want little to do with: the B*tches and the W*ggaz. Hiphop is appealing to the white kids whose only contact with black people involves sneaking off and watching Oz in the wee hours of the night or slumming on BET. They're appealing to the white kids who genuinely believe that there is a way to "act black" and that the two or three black kids at their school aren't really "black" enough to serve as examples of the "black experience" in America.

In short, rappers are stereotyping their audience as white-flight produced, suburban white kids--and forsaken me!

Thus far, I sound like I'm the only one doing the stereotyping, right? Not the rappers, they're doing what they do best: entertaining. Right?

Wrong! Consider one of my favorite rappers, Jay-Z, and his best album, "The Black Album." I'm not enough of a conspiracist to believe that the title was a conscious statement that this is an album made for his black audience--but it was the last album he ever made which consciously included the scrutinizing black audience which had once been the core of Hiphop.

"If you can't respect that, your whole perspective is whack, maybe you'll love me when I fade to black?"~ December 4th

Jay-Z more than frequently uses double and triple meaning in his lyrics and that line, after he returned to rap with "Kingdom Come," stood out to me. I wasn't sure how to take it. I realize that in context he's merely saying "don't judge me for my past" and that you have to respect his rise from the dirt. But the question is who is he speaking to? Who is the audience? And regardless of the audience, does that line gain some meaning upon his return?

My answer is yes. He did "fade to black" and many people do "love him" now that he has. He receives all of the same praise, but he's clearly downgraded his lyricism--the quality which the core audience cares the most about. But, I contend, the core audience is a transracial (as in transcendent of race--alternately post-racial) group. The core audience isn't just black, and it hasn't been since Run DMC "Rock[ed] This Way." But if we grant meaning to that particular line, and the title, and consider the quality of Jay-Z's work since then, it would seem that he's "fad[ed]" to his core "[honorary] black" audience.

Yeah, he has a right to expand his audience. Please do. I want to see Hiphop grow and evolve as much as any 'head, but not this way, Hov. Not this way.

I'm not done though. I'll give you another example of one of my favorites. Cee-lo.

How many people listened to Cee-lo before he became the bizarre lead singer of Gnarls Barkley? I did. How many Gnarls Barkley fans realize that Cee-lo is a member of the "Dungeon Family" which happens to be led by Outkast? How many Gnarls Barkley fans know that Cee-lo's career began with a group called Goodie Mob, in which he was the bizarre character--similar to Andre 3000 of Outkast? Probably quite a few know all that now, but it has probably become a bizarre bit of Gnarls Barkley trivia which is quickly becoming unfashionable to acknowledge.

Cee-lo's been weird. And I actually LOVE Gnarls Barkley. So my beef isn't with the lyrics as much as what Cee-lo has had to sacrifice to be on top--and who he sacrificed to get there.

"Their god's only a graphic, the sky's computer blue/ There is a moral malfunction, what will the machine do to you/ They maliciously monopolize the mass/ Niggas sleep rap and fuck they surprise you last/ when you sell them your soul they supply you cash/ But you can die for all they care, with your expendable ass/ Because they know a new nigga, a brand new nigga/ Will jump right in them tap shoes even if his feet bigger/ Ain't shit sweet nigga, it's deeper than the street nigga/ You and I just a virus they gonna delete nigga/ Some people say go on and join what you can't beat nigga/ I won't take the mark so I can't eat nigga/ Holla if I'm talking to ya, (AH!)"~ Microhard from "Pefrect Imperfections"

Or better yet, consider this one:

http-equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.0 (Win32)">

"Let's get started shall we, cause you know it's time gone/ Every time these niggaz rhyme wrong/ So uhh, lights, camera, action I'm on/ I'll have them standing in line to get their mind blown/ I'm selling soul/ Rapping and singing and screaming and yelling soul/ Manufacturing, marketing, pricing, packaging, and e-mailing soul/ With no rehearsal, this one verse'll whole hearse you/ Now a commercial, but what I must first do/ is make my presentation a bit more personal/ Everything must go - for a small price you can have the heart of me/ There is no part of me that can't be calculated into a commodity/ My musings amount to a milestone a million miles above monotony...But isn't it amazing, how the antenna ain't nothing but a sinner...And I give it to you at God-speed, but yet it's gentle/ And when I rhyme I make reading fundamentals/ or even black and white/ My lyric is live in living color/ my flow is fluorescent/ Like scripture highlighted in bright yellow/And all this for $9.99, shit that's wonderful/ And the great thing about it is, if you disagree you're money's refundable/ But there's always something rewarding, about every Cee-Lo Green recording/ Cuz even after all your expenses people still aspire affording/ It's incredible how convincing I can be with a camera pointed at me/ But really sometimes rapping feel like tapping to make a cracker happy/ But when the ??? play and the beat get bumping like adolescent acne/ It's kinda sad but it's SHOWTIME/ my sentiment exactly/ So don't get mad, everybody's doing it/ You know you wouldn't mind a commercial with your own tennis shoe in it/ Whether you're selling a dream, selling a scheme, or playing a role/ Like it or not we're selling soul"~ I am Selling Soul from "Cee-lo Green's the Soul Machine"

This is coming from the album that begins with Cee-lo saying he's literally the "soul machine" and that you should push his button to "start him up." Cee-lo makes it more than abundantly clear where he is being pushed for economic success. The following album wasn't a solo album, it was Gnarls Barkley. This is not to say that he has completely downgraded his talents, but merely shifted gears. His songs have become more obtuse and radio friendly. If you haven't noticed, when Gnarls Barkley dresses up for photo shoots, Cee-lo, more often than not, dresses up as some white guy from pop culture. He's actively chosen to minstrel for the hoards of white kids who don't want to hear the true depth of his music.

Or as Andre 3000 said: "You don't want to hear me/ You just wanna dance!"

What it amounts to, to my white readers, is that rappers know you're out there. They are making music "for you." Or at least they think they are. I would like to think that you are all smarter than that. In fact, I know that a lot of you are--because a lot of the Hiphop audience left for Indie Rock; it's gotta mean something, right? It implies that they don't think very highly of you. They hate you--in a way. But they'll take your money. Just like black entertainers always have when they have no other choice to survive in their field. If they want to continue making music, they have to pander to you. And really, it's not entirely the artists--though in the case of Jay-Z and Cee-lo, I think it is--but also the labels and their "market research." They've turned you into a mindless-horde demographic. They assume that you'll buy anything that makes you move, without ever questioning where it comes from or what it means. And far too many of us have. We all share the blame somehow. But anymore, the power rests in the hands of that cinematic stereotypical crowd: 3-4 white kids and the token. When you all turn your backs on the insults lodged at you from the music industry, Hiphop will be resurrected.

Or you'll bury it for all eternity...like ragtime or something.

And so it was.

As exemplified by these two titans of Hiphop, rappers had to downgrade their talents in order to succeed. They had to appeal no longer to their core perceived-black audience, but to the bubblegum popping, colorblind-by-ignorance, "speak so well" suburban white young adult audience. (If you'll pardon my malice and vitriol.)

I've watched in anger as Jay-Z, Cee-lo, Common, and many of my favorite rappers gave way to 50 Cent (who measures the greatest rapper by profits), Kanye West ("pop is a good thing. you're popular!), Soulja Boy (OMG!), and now Flo Rida (have you seen that video! does that sh*t make ANY sense?).

And so, what I think has happened, is that Hiphop--my beloved genre--has transitioned into its creative dark age (linguisitic irony! pun not intended). It has become Glam-hop. It will someday be remembered as an embarrassment to the genre, much like hairbands are to rock fans today. I hope that real Hiphop heads will partition this phenomenon out of our minds.

(I realize I'm a little all over the place here. I'm placing the blame in a lot of places. I'm really not blaming "white people"--it's just that "white kids" are the demographic I feel certain the labels are speaking to anymore. What else could explain the creation of Flo Rida's "Right Round"? Which means the problem/solution lies in the source of that perception. I imagine there's a grain of truth in there somewhere, so how can we as fans answer that?)

CFP: Obama-Mania

2009-03-04T11:45:00.001-08:00

Looking for essays about President Barack Obama in Popular Culture for a book anthology

Title of manuscript: Obama-Mania: Critical Essays on Representations of President Barak Obama in Popular Culture

Contact:

ObamaInPopularCulture@gmail.com

Editors: Derrais Carter & Nicholas Yanes

Publisher: McFarland

Deadline for Abstracts: May 25th, 2009

Description of the Book:

The 2008 Presidential Elections was one of the most intensely debated and commented on race in modern history. The passionate standpoints expressed in this election not only stems from ideological conflicts, but from Barack Obama’s uniqueness as a Presidential candidate. This book collects specific examinations of President Obama in popular culture with the hope of creating a scholarly record of Obama’s presence in popular media free of historical revisionism. With this in mind, Obama-Mania will bring together essays that examine how Barack Obama’s image has been used in comic books, music, television shows, movies, and how talk shows and radio programs have commented on Obama’s campaign and election. In short, the focus of this book is not specifically on Obama and the politics surrounding the 2008 Presidential election, but on the conversation between popular culture and President Obama.

Expectations for Proposals and Essays:

Ideal proposals will contain a clear thesis, an abstract which is two to three paragraphs long and a list of potential sources. Additionally, we want a clear thesis, not an overview of a medium. For instance, if one is to talk about Obama in comic books, we will not accept a paper discussing every Obama comic book appearance. Additionally, if a person wants to write about the President’s influence on music, we will not accept an essay simply documenting every song which was used in the campaign or that makes reference to Obama. We are looking for papers of academic quality.

The collection will include 10 to 12 essays between 6250 and 7500 words - this includes each work’s bibliography. Essays need to be in MLA format – parenthetical citations, not footnotes. And it is up to the author(s) to get permission to reprint copyrighted material.

Proposed Topics:

1) Comic Books & Science Fiction: Depictions of Obama as Superhuman

2) Music: How have musicians addressed Obama and the 2008 Election

3) Television and Film

a. Movies: The Cinematography of Change

b. Scripted Fictional Television: How Escapist Television Predicted and Has Been Influenced by Political Reality

4) Non-Fiction Political Programs: News Shows and Radio Programs

5) Internet: To Obama Girl and Beyond

A New Way of Responding to Crisis

2009-02-25T14:13:00.000-08:00

The column below was printed in the "Fresh Ideas" section of the March 1st-March 7th edition of the Michigan Citizen, which can be found here:

“This is a breath of fresh air. It's a new way of looking at a crisis,” Frank Hammer explained as he introduced the film, The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil at the February 21^st. Swords into Plowshares' “Living with Scarcity, Visions of Hope” meeting.

The film depicts how Cuba's adapted to a lack of oil following the demise of the Soviet Union in the early 1990 by replacing large scale industrialized farming with small urban farms that empower the community.

“In a way,” Hammer continued, “this [response] by the Cuban people is an advanced example of what people all over the world will have to do.”

When Cuba was no longer able to count on an unending supply of oil, Cuban agronomists recognized that large scale farming, involving the chemical treatment of crops, the use of air-conditioned and media-equipped tractors, and the transportation of nationally-produced crops domestically and/or internationally, was no longer a viable option. As a result, subsistence urban agriculture supplanted industrial government farms, transforming the farmers' relation to the land and with each other.

In the last few decades industrialized agriculture created in the global south by corporations from the global north has dominated food production, single-handedly destroying not only the subsistence of local communities but the earth's fertility. This was also taking place in Cuba until it was no longer able to depend upon oil from the Soviet Union and found it necessary to create another model in which local, private farms are primarily responsible for agricultural production. Now, “in small cities and towns, urban agriculture provides 80-100% of food needed.”

An agricultural revolution of such magnitude in Detroit would not only provide the stimulus our city needs. It would also resolve a slew of problems from obesity to interconnectivity.

After watching the film, panelist Malik Yakini, director of Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, opened his presentation with a similar conclusion. “It is my hope,” he said, “that we can use the urban agricultural movement to empower people. We are not just victims; we can begin to reshape our society.”

Malik explained the goals of his organization: farming, policy work, and food co-operatives designed to strengthen communities through re-building our relationship to the land. For more on Malik’s views and activities, I recommend the interview with him on “A Breath of Hope, ” the current issue of FLYP which can be found here.

Lisa Richter, a panelist representing the Capuchin Soup Kitchen and Earthworks Urban Farm, emphasized the power of cooperative relationships, especially in urban agriculture. She pointed out the need to create interactive learning environments in Detroit in order to strengthen and further build the urban agricultural movement. “ We need to learn from and teach others in our communities so that the evolution of cooperation in urban gardening can be maximized. There is more than enough opportunity for everyone to contribute. If communal and individual transformation is to occur, everyone must contribute in some capacity. “ “A Breath of Hope” also includes an interview with Lisa.

Before the floor was opened up for discussion, Malik pointed how “Cooperation gives us a mirror, a way of looking at ourselves.”

The opportunities for reflection provided by urban agriculture cannot be over-emphasized. A few months before his assassination in 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote a little book “Where do we go from here?”whose title reminds us of the urgent need for reflection in this period.

It resonates in the indefatigable dedication to pursuing communal and individual transformation at the Boggs Center in Detroit . It is echoed in organizations such as Friends of Detroit in the Hope District, Detroit City of Hope, and the Catherine Ferguson Academy. Each in its own way demonstrates our growing need to develop our relationships with each other and the Earth.

Let us reflect on where we have been and move towards a healthier, more communal, more sustainable way of life.

Blues Surfing YouTube vol. 1: John Lee Hooker

2009-02-24T21:05:00.000-08:00

Community (Dis)Service

2009-01-27T19:47:00.000-08:00

The (Un)Sustainability of Community Service: A Service Worker's Assessment

As we witnessed a historic presidential election, one devoted to, among myriad other platforms, national service, I embarked on a one year commitment to Detroit and its surrounding communities via AmeriCorps. Primarily, my job would be tutoring students in Detroit's public schools in hopes of creating a functional and quantitative parity between Detroit's students' cognitive development and national averages. As the program progressed, it became apparent to me that the notion of “community service” was merely a concept of utility. Seemingly, the premise is designed for an individual to satisfy a temporary commitment to communal values, then pass the proverbial torch on to another individual or group. Performing “community service” has become as mechanical as assembly production; in my case, tutoring a child from 8-5 is ostensibly no different than the robotic production of any commodity. Consequently, community values such as mutualism and interdependency are absent from community-based volunteer service. More disturbingly, though, is the absence of humanism from what has turned out to be a statistically-oriented sector. Ultimately, my program's litmus for success is quota satisfactions: teams are placed in schools assigned with the tasks of increasing students' grades through tutoring and enticing them to attend after-school programs; at the end of the year, each category is compared against minimum–corporate–statistical standards which determine whether or not specific teams receive funding and are invited back the following year; if an invitation is not extended, or corporate sponsors philanthropically withdraw, the schools receiving service become jetsam, left for decay amongst other jettisoned community buildings in order to maintain institutional financial buoyancy.

Contrary to my program's proclamation that its primary concern with combating systemic impediments prohibiting students' “potential” is its collusion with systemic inequities that perpetuate the growing problem of drop-outs and collegiate unpreparedness. In addition to the problem of quota prioritization, an equally, if not more, eminent concern is the concession to pedagogical impotence. As teams enter their schools, team members' primary focus is shadowing classroom pedagogy in tutoring sessions. Rather than having the latitude to relate to students in ways that are uniquely applicable to their communal and environmental circumstances, tutors must replicate the monolithic indoctrination of students with mind-numbing information. Unfortunately, the concept of educating students is predicated on repetition and mimesis. Learning basic skills is important and in order to do so often involves repetitive learning; unfortunately, curricula beyond early cognitive development do not break from this pattern. It is no wonder, then, that students, as many have before our current generation, prefer more stimulating alternatives to memorizing facts that serve no purpose in their lives. While, indeed, government subsidized community service is an important aspect in fulfilling humanistic obligations, its misdirected nature tends to both arrest the development of meaningful community relationships and promulgate a diffuse social climate (note: I should point out that the concern expressed with my government program does not imply all similar programs are deficient; just the same, I believe that there is a lesson to be learned regardless of their competence or incompetence).

The point of contention underlying automatous government programs is seemingly veiled behind the notion that a simple one or two year contract filling vacant jobs or dedication to ailing economies is part of a collective panacea in resolving social issues. However, a collective group of national volunteers being placed in community homes, schools, and offices in an effort to either enhance employment qualifications, react to sympathy, minimize leisure time, or simply contribute to “the cause” can often times possess a superficial aura. In my experience with AmeriCorps since the job began, the work that is accomplished daily tendentiously perpetuates this superficiality: it is not sustainable, but rather a maintenance of the institutional deficiencies that continue, for example, to promote poor academic performance and academic apathy. A veteran Detroit activist aptly explained to me recently that one of the program's biggest flaws is that it is remedial. As a result, it is more inclined to regress and eventually stagnate because its primary focal point is retrospective. Until recently, I also ascribed to remediality in attempting to address and resolve social problems. What has become apparent, though, is how inadequate this approach truly is. This is not to say that engaging in historical legacies and inequities is malapropos, but it is to suggest that historical recovery is not what is needed in pursuing progress. Contemporization of social problems that have hypertrophied due to historical neglect is much needed at this nexus of history and future. Recognition of what has not worked in the past in order to move forward is how history should be addressed. We are in need of creative dynamisms that will propel developmental progress, even if that means the disruption of pre-existing systems onto which many of us still grasp. Education is one field in desperate need of this transformation. In order for sustenance to be realized, programs such as mine must pursue new paradigms that will impede the stasis it is maintaining.

One of the primary factors contributing to the terminal nature of the service I perform is that, again, there is no immediate goal identified to buttress the students' performance. As high-school drop-out rates continue to rise at exponential rates, a greater level of importance needs to be associated with education beyond anachronistic explanations that suggest making these motions is the only option available if one is to be successful. These blanket statements, though, neglect the possibility of more meaningful education. As technology grows and plays a larger part in our daily lives, incorporating technological advances into school curricula would be one emendative option that associates greater significance to the material being learned. Indeed, technological equipment is expensive and difficult to acquire, especially with a drying resource budget. However, incorporating cinematographic media in developmental learning, or at least granting students the flexibility to respond visually to assignments, may enhance the value placed on education. Moreover, moving beyond archaic pedagogies that produce proficiencies in histories, mathematics, and language arts that are inapplicable to students' lives is of immediate importance if education is to be considered worthwhile. These subjects must not be grappled with abstractly, but concretely: how do they apply to the students' daily lives at home and in their communities? Most importantly, the lessons must not be restricted to traditional classroom settings; they must be conducted outside of the classroom, in local and peripheral communities within the city's radius. Lastly, providing students the opportunity to teach their lessons, establish their pedagogical styles, will create a more dynamic, engaging, and developmental class from which all–faculty included–will benefit.

Beyond attempting to overcome pedagogical inadequacies, my program has made little effort in transcending the systemic contradictions that preclude meaningful communal transformation. Moreover, its participants–myself included–have been effectively eliminated from contributing to a positive transformation. Despite numerous efforts to understand and work with my program's philosophy, those of us interested enough in seeing it become better than it is have simply been silenced. While this is indeed frustrating, such experiences lend further credence to the ineffectiveness of government sponsorship. At an orientation session during the early stages of my program, one of the directors explained that in pursuing the program's mission, its goal was to create the most effective, idyllic democracy in order to maximize its objectives' efficacy. Similar rhetoric was espoused during my interview, during conversations with recruitment managers and other volunteers, and continues to be articulated on websites and other promotional media. Not only do such conceptual abstractions leave one confused–as I have been–as to how to reify success, but the question to be asked following such lofty articulations is: whose democracy, and how is democracy defined? Given the democratic failures of so many individuals and communities, is the gratuitous development of democratic principles appropriate, and will it be effective? Indeed, democratic values and principles effectuated the blighted conditions many Detroit public schools experience and the reason my program exists in the first place. Are democratic principles truly the foundation on which service organizations should be built? Or possibly, this democratic promotion is in the interest of government subsidized programs as blight secures jobs and revenue. As democracy in the critical context is correlative with capital gain, is profiteering and, its counterpart, exploitation, a sustainable service for communities' welfare?

In addition to abstract manifestations regarding realizing success, the program appropriates the values of notable figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi in its endorsement of community-based work (i.e., “the beloved community”) and embodying love (i.e., “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”). While on paper the program's values seem to match mine in numerous ways, its praxis, paradoxically, contradicts its theory. As many of us have learned, though, the pen of the law and spirit of the law do not always parallel one another. The (mis)appropriation of committed humanitarians such as King and Gandhi has created a sour taste in the mouths of quite of few of my co-workers as they question whether or not its utilization of these images can possibly be idyllic or merely a matter of duplicitous exploitation. Unable to maintain King's ideological beloved community, my program's commitment to the communities in which it is placed is negligible, rarely working outside of the schools served to build the strong community relationships it suggests is important to forge. In the name of “being the change we wish to see in the world,” the question I pose to my program is how can you possibly catalyze change while simultaneously satisfying corporate financiers, who themselves have no obligation to the communities in which they are embedded? How can mere words, not action, produce a meaningful transformation in any community?

In attempting to resolve the dichotomy between actively developing community relationships and promoting community sustenance, and perpetuating the machinations of impersonal community interactions, I believe it is important that government subsidized community service programs devote significant time to a tripartite agenda:

Create a venue for honest, meaningful discourse, that will identify both the incipient and immediate missions of the organization, and how those missions will be able to immediately impact the communities with whom the organization is working, as well as build a foundation for moving forward.
Narrow the scope of the mission so that it is not as abstract, diffuse, and incapable of being realized; goals should be established, but ones that are easily attainable within the duration of the program's contract. It is important to keep in mind that these goals should be concrete, not intangible concepts such as promoting and perpetuating an “effective democracy.”
Most importantly, government subsidized organizations must work with existing programs in communities that are being “served.” One of the most vicious agents of division is the sense of anonymity, arrogance, and self-interest (e.g., directors at my program recently acknowledged that my program was the premier service organization in Detroit; not only is this statement hyperbolic, but it is illegitimate as my program neither collaborates nor is familiar with all community-based programs in the city). Government sponsored community service programs must understand that in order to transform the communities in which they work, such an arduous task presupposes the cooperation with all other community organizations and members. Additionally, the discursive venues that are created should be open to all organizations and members, and the missions of the subsidized organizations should be synchronized with those groups and individuals.

While government sponsored volunteer programs are positive steps towards progress, they also have the potential and tendency to inhibit the type of progress that must occur at this point in post-industrial history. Institutional processes are mechanistic, like rotating cogs, so maybe it is not terribly surprising that government subsidized “community service” programs are mechanical as well. However, in order to humanistically enhance such programs, there must be greater collaboration amongst all communal agents; there must be a contemporary assessment of the direction of these communities, and of this country; and there must be a greater commitment to conflating the espousal of ideals and their practice. In order to fully benefit from the programs that we will see in greater prominence over the next few years, there must be increased accountability amongst these programs, not just to their federal and corporate sponsors, but to the communities they serve.

Open Letter to President Obama (featuring Black Popular Music)

2009-01-18T19:38:00.000-08:00

In two days Americans will laugh, cry, and spit (depending on your racial tastebuds) in recognition of the next American President Barack Hussein Obama.

In honor of the 44th President I offer a few words on Hope and Change...

President Obama,
Last November I was "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" thinking that you might not win. When the results came in I screamed OBAMA all the way home. With that I say Thank You for giving the American Presidency a Black "I".
"For All We Know" people will always say "U, Black Maybe" but I don't care. All I ask, Mr. President, is that you "Be Real Black For Me." Be intellectual, smooth, political, human, encouraging, insightful, and positive. Most importantly, "Stand":

In the end you'll still be you
One that's done all the things you set out to do
Stand
There's a cross for you to bear
Things to go through if you're going anywhere
Stand
For the things you know are right
It s the truth that the truth makes them so uptight
Stand
All the things you want are real
You have you to complete and there is no deal
Stand. stand, stand

You hold the highest office in the land and many people will clamor for you time, energy, and power. The "Backstabbers" are there and "Smiling Faces" tell lies. Often times "Whatcha See is What You Get" and you'll find yourself saying "Hey You, Get Off My Mountain" to many people. You know from all the Chicago drama that "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City" so don't let them get you trapped in keeping it real (Compared to What?).

"Keep Your Head to the Sky" Obama because Tuesday will be a "Lovely Day"

Peace love and soul Pres

D. Carter

University of Iowa MLK Celebration of Human Rights

2009-01-17T18:12:00.001-08:00

Check the link below for a list of MLK Celebration events at the University of Iowa
(click here)

Berry Gordy on the Tavis Smiley Show

2009-01-15T21:02:00.000-08:00

Click here to view the full Berry Gordy Interview.

peace

City of God's Son: Hiphop Cinema

2009-01-14T19:37:00.000-08:00

Natalie Dylan: Accidental Hero!?!

2009-01-14T19:26:00.000-08:00

I've avoided reading news about Natalie Dylan for a long time now. I really didn't want to know anything about the famous "virginity auction" going on, but I was drawn in by the most vulgar aspect of the exchange: the price! As of today, the Huffington Post is reporting that the bidding has reached $3.7 million. So I was finally suckered into checking out the "news."

I'm still investigating the phenomenon. But here's where I stand on the issue:

I find nothing exceptional about her except that she sounds like she might be the most compelling conversation on the planet right now. At this point, I'd pay for dinner just to discuss economics with her.
She's obviously working with Second Wave logic as far as her justification for making this "indecent proposal"
I support her generally.
I support her entirely under particular conditions
She disgusts me.

I'll explain: I don't think she's all that "gorgeous"--whatever that means--at least not 3.7million hott. I don't understand the appeal. Then again, she's not necessarily my "type." (as if i really have a type) But what I do know is that she has a Bachelor of Science in Women's Studies. I presume, since she is a virgin (taking her at her word), that she was "saving" her virginity for some reason or other. Most likely for marriage, but just as likely because she simply hadn't found anyone worthy of her flower. (this chivalric virginity-lust crap annoys me probably more than the vulgar bid) Nevertheless, she's giving it up after completing a degree in women's studies. Likely, she's studied second wave feminism--which happened to include a lot of discussion about sex, its meaning, its power and means for women to reclaim their bodies through it. (I haven't studied it much, but I have a working knowledge of the logic.)

I imagine that she, in part concluded that capitalizing upon her virginity was one way of reclaiming her sexuality since, no matter what the top bidder thinks, he hasn't claimed anything by his expensive conquest because she has retained her sexual autonomy in the exchange--as proven by profits; alternately, giving your virginity to your husband for the rest of your life, while a very romantic gesture, is meaningless unless the gesture is returned. It also is inevitably a means of sacrificing your sexuality to a person, and thus, a forfeiture of your body and your corporeal autonomy. More or less, by selling her body for a night, she is able to own it for a lifetime. The more they pay, the more proof she has that she has the power is in her hands since I imagine that there will be some sort of contract involved with some sort of legal limitations upon the highest bidders lust. (not to mention that there's a fairly decent statistical chance that the winner will be impotent, but that couldn't possibly be her luck?)

If, by some chance she's lying about her "plans to finance her graduate school education in marriage and family therapy from the proceeds of the virginity auction," and chooses to continue studying women's studies, she would, naturally, have more material than is reasonable to work with in regards to her graduate studies. She could re-ignite the flames of the second wave by herself! She could, hypothetically, launch herself to the forefront of the field simply by studying...well, stuff like what I'm writing now. If she were able to procure and analyze all of the media--including blogs and comments to those blogs--regarding her deflowering she could write an encyclopedia on women's sexuality in the new millenium. And she'd probably be a best seller when the book was published. And her memoirs! She'd make as much or more than Superhead.

Here's where she loses me: I think that she failed to anticipate the attention she's receiving from the media. Due to the reckless eyeball of the media, she's become something just short of a household name. She might, by accident, gain Paris Hilton notoriety and incidentally encourage young girls to take advantage of "the world's oldest profession" to turn a profit. There's nothing empowering in a copycat! By Natalie's actions, she runs the risk of further running the dreams of ambitious little girls into the gutter. Though I don't feel that it is Natalie's responsibility to care for the sexual well-being of the younger generations, she will have some impact. That's now unavoidable, whether she goes through with the auction or not. The most significant aspect for future generations will be the legitimacy of the bids; thus, stealing her rhetorical agency on the world stage. While she still has a chance at becoming a commanding leader in (feminist) academia, she has little control over where it will go after the deed is done. I am disgusted, not really by her, but by what the auction will mean in the future--speaking from a present when even children keep up on all of the celebrity sex tapes, and all of their idols are making one.

If Natalie Dylan just so happens to pursue a career in academia, rather than becoming a marriage and family counselor, as she bathes away the ripe stench of baptismal sweat from her newly liberated body in a golden bathtub full of rose petals, she will sincerely ask herself: Where do WE go from here?

Three Icons and the Worlds They Left Behind

2009-01-14T15:09:00.000-08:00

From Negritude 2.0 by Mark Reynolds (popmatters.com)

Much was made of how Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes were linked by more than just their deaths on the same August weekend. They both represented a certain generation and caliber of strong black man, proud and solid citizens enjoying respect and admiration for how they both performed and handled their business. But aside from the movie Soul Men, they came from different quadrants of the black pop universe, and otherwise weren’t usually mentioned in the same context.

Miriam Makeba, Odetta and Eartha Kitt, on the other hand, share much more in common than the proximity of their passings (Makeba shortly before Thanksgiving, Odetta shortly afterwards, and Kitt on Christmas Day). They broke new ground in their respective corners of the musical universe. They had their greatest impact in an era charged with upheaval across racial, geopolitical and cultural lines. They provided new images of what strong, self-assured black women could look like. They enjoyed respect and admiration years after their heydays.

(read more)

Gordon Parks (1912-2006)

2008-09-02T19:09:00.000-07:00

Photo of the Week:

Apr. 1943, New York, New York. A trio of musicians from Duke Ellington's orchestra during the early morning broadcast.

By Gordon Parks

Book of the Week:
A Choice of Weapons by Gordon Parks

Website of the Week:
Farm Security Administration (FSA) and Office of War Information(OWI)
Unit on Gordon Parks

Film of the Week:
The Learning Tree (1969)
based on a novel by Gordon Parks

2008-08-26T10:17:00.001-07:00

Quote of the Week:
"Books more than anything else taught me to be a drunkard long before I knew how to drink. The state of drunkeness--that extended sense of well-being and power that floods the soul and makes it hard to walk straight, or to think straight at all--became as familiar one to me as I imbibed a heady brew of literary glories--and was equally intoxicated by magazines, newspapers, movies, whereever stories were found, all stewing around in my mind in a wash of dreams. And out of it all, I almost became a writer. Almost, but not quite."

Ossie Davis

Book of the Week

With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together
by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee

2008-08-11T16:50:00.000-07:00

Book of the Week:
Is Bill Cosby Right? (Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?)
by: Michael Eric Dyson

Quote of the Week:
"Therefore, you have this pile up of these sweet beautiful things born by nature, raised by no one. Give 'em presents. You're raising pimps. That's what a pimp is. Pimp act nasty to you so you have to go out and get 'em something. Then you bring it back and maybe he or she will hub. And that's why pimp is so famous for them" Bill Cosby on black family values (see the entire speech)

Guess who's back...............

2008-08-11T16:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time...

After a very productive spring and summer semester, I'm back! I am beginning my PhD in a couple of weeks and I am very excited. In order to keep myself in line and make sure I share the great information I'm coming across, I'm dedicating myself to reading at least 2 books a week (with written reviews). I will present one of the texts online every Tuesday along with a quote. Every now and then I will try to introduce a theme of some sort so stay tuned.

til tomorrow...

D

Book CFP: Reflections on the N-Word: Black Females Speak

2008-03-30T19:33:00.000-07:00

FP Deadline: November 1, 2008.

Purpose of Project
Through writing and visual art, this project will help to give voice to the Black identified females who want to express their perceptions of, experiences with, and concerns about, the word “nigger”.

Theoretical Framework and Influences

bell hooks' black looks , Tim Wise , Audre Lorde's Sister Outsider , Maya Angelou's powerful keynote speech at the Rhinebeck NY Women and Power Conference of September 2005, and James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time and my interests in Critical Race Feminist Theory have been my primary motivators for this project. I also draw from Michel Foucault's theories on power and Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I must thank Maya Angelou for her encouragement and inspiration. At the September conference, with engaging passion, she recited Countee Cullen's Poem, “Nigger” , and from there, the initial concept of this project was born.

The first time I remembered being called a “nigger”, I was the age of twelve. Though it took me more than a decade to fully articulate my experience of that day, it had always astounded me how much rage and fear that word had instilled in me. It wasn't until fifteen years later that I began to understand how profoundly emotional and often traumatic that this one word has been to a majority of Black identified people who have been survivors of it, including myself. It was through reading bell hooks, June Jordan, W.E.B. DuBois, Lorraine Hansberry, James Baldwin and other "resisters of oppression" as well the expression of fiction book writing that I was able to explore my emotions as well as my understanding of my social status as a Black female in a country in which institutionalized sexism, heterosexism, classism and racism is embedded in the institutions and policies of the status quo. It was in the pages of bell hooks that I first ran across her critical consciousness paradigm, inspired by her mentor, Paulo Freire. Through this practice, I was able to understand my relationship with race, class, sexuality, and gender status within a United States steal healing (and in denial) about its sordid history of racialized oppression. Simultaneously, I also wanted to understand these systems of inequalities but not be solely defined or limited by them. I stopped thinking of my position as a "victim" and realized that I am a "survivor" capable of making positive change through the voicing of my experiences.

"I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood."
- Audre Lorde

"We are the ones we've been waiting for."

- Sweet Honey in the Rock

Black identified women and girls, come forth and share your experiences, critiques and reflections on “the n-word”.

Call for Papers/Materials!! Submit Your Voice

This is a call for narratives, poetry, photography, other types of visual art, and critical essays for a book anthology about Black identified females who want to :

* creatively convey their experience(s) of being called a n*gger
* Reflections on the word n*gga
* How experience with the n-word has affected your emotional and or physical health
* Share their experiences of when they had heard or seen the word even though it may not have been directed towards them.
* Explore how did being called the n-word as a child shaped your consciousness as an adult?
* Reflect on how you felt when you read the n-word in required school readings such as Huckleberry Finn and Grapes of Wrath.
* Analyze David Chappelle's use of the n-word in his comedy
* Share your reactions and feelings when hearing the n-word in a public space, such as in a movie theater by a character in the movie.
* Critique your experiences with the n-word or hearing it by a friend or family member.
* Teaching your child about the n-word.
* If you read Randall Kennedy's book, Nigger, or any other book with the n-word in it's title, what was it like for you?
* These topics are just for brainstorming purposes. The sky's the limit!

Who is invited to submit their voice :
All Black identified girls and women from all sexual orientations, educational levels, nationalities, countries, ages, etc. Please send to breezeharper@gmail.com. Remember to include a bio at the end of you contribution, email and phone number.

Citation Style: MLA Bibliography
Document Format: 1” margins; 12 Point Font; Double spaced; Times New Roman
Word Processing Software: MS Word or Apple Pages is an acceptable document format. Please do not send PDFs.

About the editor: Amie Breeze Harper is a PhD student at the University of California, Davis, in the Geography Graduate Group. Her emphasis is understanding how critical race and feminist theories can be used to analyze the African Diasporic female experience within alternative spaces of nutrition and wellness (i.e.: veganism, vegetarianism, raw foodism, community gardens). She is the editor of the upcoming Lantern Books anthology, Sistah Vegan! Food, Identity, Society and Health: Female Vegans of the African Diaspora in the USA and the author the 2008 Arch Street Press novel, Scars.

I look forward to reading your contributions!

Amie Breeze Harper
breezeharper@gmail.com
A. Breeze Harper
breezeharper@gmail.com
(617) 877-2096
Email: breezeharper@gmail.com
Visit the website at http://web.mac.com/sistahvegan98/iWeb/research/Reflections_on_the_N_Word_Anthology.html

Men Speak Out

2008-03-30T19:02:00.000-07:00

Well folks,
I'm completing my final semester of undergraduate study! Since I have devoted most of my time to my remaining coursework, here is my belated plug for Men Speak Out.

Amazon:
Editorial Reviews
Book Description

Men Speak Out is a collection of essays written by and about pro-feminist men. In the essays, which feature original, lively, and accessible prose, anti-sexist men make sense of their gendered experiences in todays culture. And since the interrelations between gender, race, class, and sexuality are central to feminism, Men Speak Out prioritizes such issues. These authors tackle the issues of feminism, growing up male, recognizing masculine privilege, taking action to change the imbalance of power and privilege, and the constraints that men experience in confronting sexism. They describe their successes and challenges in bucking patriarchal systems in a culture that can be unsupportive of or downright hostile to a pro-feminist perspective. In these chapters, a diverse group of men reflects on growing up, shares moments in their day-to-day lives, and poses serious questions about being a pro-feminist male living, working, thinking, and learning in a sexist society.

Call for Papers: Black Star's 10th Anniversary

2008-03-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

In honor of Black Star’s ten-year anniversary, Proud Flesh is calling for
works that speak to the impact and legacy of their masterpiece album, Mos
Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star, for an upcoming journal
(www.proudfleshjournal.com).

Released in the fall of 1998, Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star
re-energized the b-boy and backpacker face of Hip Hop with a heightened
analytic and deep consciousness of self and community. Taking their name
from Marcus Garvey and the UNIA’s 1920s shipping company (established to
move Black Americans to a Black state located in Liberia), Black Star,
conceptually and sonically, presented a wide and colorful depiction of
Black life and Black identity.
In contrast to much of the mainstream Hip Hop of that period, they
stressed that life should be more about “the struggle” than “the hustle,
”and critiqued viewpoints that conceived of Black culture in only singular
terms. On “Definition,” Mos Def raps: “Manhattan keep on makin it,
Brooklyn keep on takin it, so relax we're takin it back, Redhook where
we're livin at. Plenty cats be struggling not hustlin and bubblin, if it
ain't about production and -- what else we discussin?” Black Star
chronicled Black folks’ ability and tenacity to produce via work,
language, the arts, communal culture, and cultural production.
A decade has passed since the release of this monumental album. More than
a hot album, this thirteen-track masterpiece continues to offer a
theoretical and practical analysis of urban Black culture and politics,
and a grass-roots base of knowledge that is not adequately engaged. By
stating in their album’s introduction that their music was not meant to
“stand still,” the group signaled that their conception of time and space
did not adhere to the linearity of common epistemological standards.

Acknowledging their point that the music cannot and should not stand
still, Proud Flesh is calling on writers, academics, artists, community
activists/organizers, and fans to submit essays, poems, prose,
photography, graphic artwork, etc., detailing how this album has impacted
your work and your life. Included in this are critical analyses of the
album and/or individual songs, works that place the album and/or songs
within a broader context and legacy (historical, political, social,
artistic), and works that speak to the album's continued relevance.

We are asking that all works be submitted by May 1, 2008 to:

blackstarproject@gmail.com

Visit Proud Flesh at http://www.proudfleshjournal.com/
for more information.

N(as)igger

2008-02-27T23:19:00.000-08:00

Nas upcoming album, "Nigger," is set to release on April 22.

1. Intro
2. Black Legends
3. Rest In Peace
4. You A Nigger Too
5. The Fear Of A Black Man’s Dick
6. I’m Blessed
7. The Truth
8. Realise
9. Just Memories
10. This Way (featuring Jay-Z)
11. Kisses & Hugs (featuring Kelis)
12. Based On A True Story (featuring The Game)
13. Take A While
14. Nigger
15. Publicity (bonus track)

Call for Paper: Imagining the Black Female Body

2007-10-26T17:57:00.001-07:00

Text and Contexts in Literature and Culture

Hortense Spillers said it best when she proclaimed: Let’s face it. I am a marked woman, but not everybody knows my name. ‘Peaches,’ and ‘Brown Sugar,’ ‘Sapphire’ and ‘Earth Mother,’ ‘Aunty,’ ‘Granny,’….or ‘Black Woman at the Podium.’ I describe a locus of confounded identities, a meeting ground of investments and privations in the national treasury of rhetorical wealth. My country needs me, and if I were not here, I would have to be invented. Spillers’ posturing points to the complex and delicate challenges black women encounter in the minefield of mental, spiritual, and cultural “codings” that, as Spillers stresses, create markers of identity so loaded with mythical prepossession that there is “no easy way for the agents buried beneath to come clean.”

But what is it about black women’s identity that makes them marked women? What is it about their presence—their essence—that makes them a threat in some social circles? Much of this uneasiness can be traced to the tension that exists between the real and imagined properties of black womanhood that circulate in America’s Grammar book (borrowing from Hortense Spillers). This book, a virtual roadmap of the history that has created and sustained the false imaginings of a culture bent on promoting whiteness and its privileges, distorts the ideal of black womanhood.

What this volume proposes to do is explore the various “imaginings” of the black female body in print and visual culture, sports, America’s iconic landscape (i.e. the mammy figure and the video vixen), politics, and law. Contributors can also write on literature, science, music, photography, or the fashion industry. Papers should discuss not only how this black female body is framed, but also how black women (and their allies) have sought to write/rite themselves back into these social discourses on their terms. It is my hope that this volume will create a dialogue with other outstanding volumes on the black female body.

If you are interested in being a part of this book, please forward to me an abstract by January 15, 2008. Entire papers will be due by September 1, 2008. You can send your abstract via email to ceh@udel.edu. Or you may send your abstract by landmail to:

Dr. Carol E. Henderson
Associate Professor of English and Black American Studies
212 Memorial Hall
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716.

Hip Hop Jam

2007-10-15T16:58:00.001-07:00

We seek engaging and accessibly written essays for a proposed edited collection of close analyses of hip hop music. Tentatively titled, The Hip Hop Jam: Messages and Music, this collection examines hip hop music from multiple micro-level, up-close perspectives. We seek to help the music and its messages come alive one song at a time.

Each submitted essay should focus on one song by any artist in any hip hop musical genre. We welcome submissions from scholars across disciplines that apply their tools of interpretation, their ways of reading and listening, to the analysis of one song each.

Each close reading should examine lyrical and/or musical form and content in detail as well as consider how history, gender, sexuality, race, class, political, geographical, religious, and/or economic issues inform the song. Essays should be free of esoteric discipline-specific argot. Aim for an undergraduate readership. The goal is to illuminate what can be made of the rich complexity of hip hop music if one stops and takes the time to listen and to analyze.

Authors should submit an abstract of 250 words and a CV by December 15, 2007. The abstract should contain the author’s name, contact information, and the working title of the proposed analysis. Proposed manuscripts should be original work not concurrently submitted elsewhere. Only electronic submissions will be accepted. Accepted authors will be notified by January 31, 2008. Ten to twelve page MLA formatted manuscripts will be due on May 31, 2008.

Abstracts and inquiries should be forwarded to the Hip Hop Jam Editorial Board: Ebony Utley, Jordan Smith, Christina Zanfagna, and Loren Kajikawa at hiphopjam08@gmail.com.
Email: hiphopjam08@gmail.com

2007-10-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

Quote of the Week

If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive

Audre Lorde

Event of the Week
KU Press Release

Civil rights leader, congressman to receive Dole Leadership Prize

LAWRENCE — Legendary civil rights activist U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., will receive this year’s Robert J. Dole Leadership Prize from the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. Roll Call magazine has called Lewis “a genuine American hero and moral leader who commands widespread respect in the chamber.”

The program takes place at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21, at the Lied Center. Tickets are required but are free.
(click here for more info)

Goal of the Week:
Undergraduates!!!
It is time for midterms. Most of you have probably taken your exams and many of you are recovering from them as I type this message. Your challenge for this week is to make an appointment with 2 or more of your professors and discuss your progress. If you are having a rough time in class, this is the time address your strategy for the remainder of the semester. This is your second chance (should you need it) so take the initiative and be progressive.

Peace

KU Libraries receives grant to help fund jazz programs

2007-10-05T21:11:00.001-07:00

LAWRENCE — The Thomas Gorton Music and Dance Library at the University of Kansas has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to present a series of six jazz programs in partnership with the Lawrence Public Library. All of the events are free and open to the public.

“Looking at Jazz: America’s Art Form” is a video-and-discussion program for libraries that examines the development of this uniquely American musical genre. Every Friday for six weeks, different jazz topics will be explored through documentaries and expert panel discussions. Faculty members from KU’s Interdisciplinary Jazz Studies Group will lead discussions following each film.

Dates and topics of discussion:

Oct. 5 — New Orleans and the Origins of Jazz
Oct. 12 — The Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance
Oct. 19 — Jazz Vocalists
Oct. 26 — The Swing Era
Nov. 2 — Jazz Innovators: From Bebop, to Hard Bop, to Cool and More
Nov. 9 — Latin Jazz and International Jazz

Each event will take place at 7 p.m. at the auditorium in the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St.

Recordings and other materials from the Gorton Music and Dance Library and the Sound Archive will be on display at each of the events. George Gibbs, head of the Gorton Music and Dance Library, said he hopes the programs will alert the public to the extensive jazz collections the library holds.

“We are incredibly fortunate to have one of the most comprehensive jazz archives in the Midwest right here at KU,” he said. “I hope that these programs will shed light on this amazing collection and on the art form itself.”

The programs will be presented by Re:New Media in collaboration with the American Library Association and Jazz at Lincoln Center, with major funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. An application submitted by the KU Libraries brought the program to Lawrence.

The Gorton Music and Dance Library contains more than 111,000 scores, books, sound recordings, videos, microforms and serials. It has the leading music collection in the Great Plains region.

-30-

The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.

Oh, Lino Graglia...You Bitch!!!

2007-10-05T14:02:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this in retrospect, and I don't feel very secure that I'll remember what I wanted to say well enough to express my disgust sufficiently enough, but I'll try.

Yesterday, 4 October 2007, Professor Lino Graglia from the University of Texas, a constitutional law professor, was invited to lecture on the horrors of Affirmative Action by the Federalist Society of the University of Kansas. That nigga is a bigot! I generally try to conserve such accusations for those who might be offended by such suggestions. Lino Graglia, perhaps, would not care about being labeled as such. Anywho, I wouldn't be fair if I didn't at least give a brief synopsis of his arguments:

"Affirmative Action...blacks...blacks...blacks...blacks...blacks...blacks...blacks...blacks...racial preference...blacks...blacks...blacks...Italians...blacks...blacks...blacks in the 12th grade at the level of 8th grade whites...blacks...blacks...blacks..."

If you haven't caught my first complaint, it's the abnormal fixation upon blacks. Gragley justified his obsession in the question and answer section by stating that "if it weren't for blacks (whining?) there would be no affirmative action." He then went on to say that Latinos and Asians merely jumped on the race preference bandwagon after schools began to develop programs for blacks.

Gragley's central argument was that blacks in the 12th grade, at some point in time, were only educated to an 8th grade level. Such an academic disparity did not warrant "racial preferences" because "race preference" programs merely placed inferior black students in Ivy League schools that they can't handle. At no point did Gragley suggest a solution for the root problem of academic disparities. In fact, if I recall, he actually suggested that there is no solution for such a racial disgrace. He instead supported the ending of affirmative action so that "blacks" can go to schools where they can compete.

End of his lecture!

Racial insensitivity aside, Graggs must be stupid if he thinks that everyone in the audience isn't at least minutely aware of the number of black youths who disproportionately suck at life. What astounded me, is that despite the glaring fact that white women have been the leading beneficiaries of affirmative action programs ever since they fanagled their way into being a minoritized group (which I'm not denying that they are, but white women need aff. act. in the workplace so much more than in undergraduate colleges, but that's a separate discussion), but he proceeded to bypass all other minority groups, saving his most scathing attacks for "blacks." (he NEVER mentioned white women.)

Furthermore, Graggila made it a point to first make an erroneous distinction between "race mixing" programs and diversity programs--as if by having a diversity of races, you don't automatically acquire diversity. And then, after making the distinction, he proceeded to attack the importance of diversity in general! (That man must have wet dreams of his experiences at CSU--Caucasia State University.)

I call Grag-gizzle a bigot because: 1) his unusual desire to lay all of the blame on "blacks" reveals an internal conflict between himself--as a white male--and black people in general. 2) The only possible explanation for why he would carry such opinions of affirmative action, while simultaneously declaring that the central cause of his objections is the academic disparity between the races, is a (perhaps subconscious) desire for racial self-preservation--the man is languishing in his own white privilege and white supremacy, the simple fact that he chose not to research the causes of black under-education but instead the birth pains of black over-education is evidence that his concern lies not with blacks, but with whites; his concern is not with education, but with race; he cares little for collective progress, and denies the potential for collective oppression (simply put, ivy league blacks threaten white privilege and superiority over time).

Attacking affirmative action is a defense mechanism that overprivileged whites develop to justify their privilege. Attacks on affirmative action that are based upon the failures of the American public (secondary) education system are merely a defense mechanism to support and maintain notions of white (academic) superiority. Attacking the scores of blacks in high schools--most of whom never make it to Universities, sadly--says nothing of the blacks in college. Such statistics have no place in College Affirmative Action discourse!

He disacknowledges claims that blacks deserve affirmative action if for no other reason than they weren't granted the right to an education by law at one time. (Alternately, blacks could deserve affirmative action because it generally will improve competition in white collar arenas (that is if whites were willing to hire highly educated blacks that are not conservative) but Graggle Rock apparently is not interested in competing with blacks--at least not on an equal footing. Also, one could argue that the reason for Groggles opinions is because when he was in school, he was drowning in a sea of white opinion. Perhaps, a little diversity would have saved him from the sin of ignorance. But he addresses none of these ideas either.)

One of the more frustrating discussions was about a timeline. Graggy Bear didn't even suggest timelines, the more moderate Federalist Society guy did. He asked "When are affirmative action programs supposed to end?" This is all I have to say on that matter: Blacks were not supposed to be legally treated as equals under the law from the first time black slaves walked on colonial American soil until the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. No one has any right to discuss timelines until we get close to the same number of years. If actual equality is achieved--not just in law, but in society--there should be a discussion regarding the ongoing merits of affirmative action policies. Until then, shut your goddamn bigot mouth!

My greatest indictment of the whole concept is this: Why are school admissions programs a matter of law subject to the constitution? Education is not guaranteed by the constitution. If it was, no one would ever PAY to go to college, it would be completely subsidized/socialized. Since schools receive government funds, but are not government entities, I imagine that they should receive the same legal treatment as any other non-governmental BUSINESS that receives government aid. If the federal government can give billions to the airline industry without controlling basic hiring procedures, if the federal government can subsidize farmers without telling them what and when to plant, then why is the government sticking their greasy palms in my education. If a school wants to increase diversity, then let them do so. Don't ride the University of Michigan's dick just because they create a quota system that WORKS.

As an aside, I don't know a single white person that has a right to complain. Let's talk rhetoric: if a white person chooses to attack a school for creating a race-based affirmative action policy while simultaneously maintaining that "blacks" anything, they are rhetorically subjecting themselves to racial grouping as well. In that sense, we can talk raw numbers. Because he (or she) is white, and 70% or more of the college is white anyway, they have no complaint. If I am supposed to be grouped in with my black brothers and sisters whenever you make a flagrant generalization about my race, I too reserve the right to generalize about yours. And white people single-handedly dominate college campuses. So shut your trap and be glad that white supremacy still stands.

~Thank your lucky stars that Harvard, Yale, or Princeton doesn't decide to go entirely over to merit based admission. The moment the United States decides to suppress race admissions in favor of pure merits, I personally will make a movement to have minority students of excellence enroll in those schools. I will demand that they flood traditionally white Universities with brown faces until white students are the minority of the freshman...sophomore...junior...and someday Senior class. What could they do in a merit based system? They would have to let us in. Eliminate legacy programs, balance the financial aide programs, tame the athletics privileges, and BOOM! Be prepared to lose your much coveted spot to SUPERIOR minority academics.

But that would never happen. I just thought I might suggest the possibility. There's no way I could rally that many black, latino, and asian academics to a single school for four years. But if it were possible, if there was that much unity, I think affirmative action programs would be largely unnecessary. But there's not. And black people need a real reason to come to a school with a hostile racial environment. And yea, from what I hear, Ivy Leagues do not favor middle and lower class black youth. So suck it up white people, in the general sense, it's not so bad.

Oh, and Lino Graglia is a BITCH!!!!

And here's a general list of arguments from his lecture:

1. the only reason for race preference is because blacks underperform
2. the gaps (between the races) are too great to be ignored or overcome
3. the root (of the problem) is poor black academic performance
a. there is a 4 yr gap in reading and math between white and black students
4. the gap IS NOT decreasing--that is "pure fantasy"
5. without "preferences" the number of blacks (at ivy league schools?) would drop below 11%
6. instead of going to schools where they can compete, blacks go to schools where they are academically inferior
7. "Ethnic Studies" (was created) to (try to) prove white racism and conceal inferiority

And here's a link to one of his essays, ***warning, it is not for the egalitarian of heart***:

"The Affirmative Action Fraud"

2007-10-01T18:37:00.000-07:00

Quote of the Week:
Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn't mean he lacks vision.

--Stevie Wonder

Book of the Week:
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Event of the Week:

"African-American Male/Latino Empowerment Summit" AALO
(How do you do you in Academia Successfully?)

Keynote addresses by Michael Eric Dyson and Joe Hernandez-Kolski

Next on the Mic!!!

2007-09-25T05:47:00.001-07:00

Featuring Sir AMP (The Cunning Linguist of KU)

Apathetic Desires:

guiltless appetites, consuming neophytes
consumptive apathy, reductionist strategies
messianic deliveries in the church of greed
emotional bulimia succeeding gratuitous feed

antipathetic collectivists, antiseptic strategists
hygienic demagogues white-washing moral fabrics
prophesied enlightenment? heliotropes are morally anemic
cathartic practices oxygenate while you morally asphyxiate

guilt subsumed within the democratic machinations
squeeze the lungs tighter constricting inhalations
air pressure rises and release becomes imminent
consumptive fires spread through the bellows exhalations

omniscient eyes prime
seismographic paradigm
more, but why?

pandora’s box opens
unfulfilling prophecies
dreams startled awake

the omniscient eye of a free-market conspiracy
emblazons subliminal visuals inside and outside the enigmatic psyche
mass-produced psychology syncopating automatons’ rhythms
producing mechanized didacts propagating cloned seeds

guilt at the vanguard of the battle scence
white-washed stigmas legislate proper hygiene
pseudonyms make the planet shine - they wanna keep the race clean
kaleidoscopic imperialism shining underneath the green

supplemental cultural narratives are replacing moral imperatives
hermeneutic context is industrial appeal
unsung questions capitulate to tyrannical prerogatives
get past the mask to find what the subterfuge reveals

helplessly we wait
apathy consumes action
guilt sheds like snake skin

manumitted emotions enslave sovereigns’ burgeoning potential
inaction fuels the embers of the fires
what refuge remains is ostensibly inconsequential
the appetitive gluttony of apathetic desires

AMP is new to the Black Tuesday Collective. Bringing an Environmental/Literary/Activist approach to the African American experience, AMP is a true scholar and gifted linguist.

Guest Poet Coming to the Stage...

2007-09-18T07:34:00.000-07:00

Real Talk Vol.3

I was birthed to a generation that has conditioned itself to promote selfishness
A generation that prides itself in screaming "look what i got!" and broadcasting what you dont have
Flossin
And instead of seeing that we all struggle
We steady tossin ourselves to the sharks of vices and big businesses
When what we missin is that our culture, in itself, has become big business
See execs sit at long tables, debating over ways to maximize their profits off of our ignorance
And we let em
We’ve divided ourselves senselessly, a people that once had the
Potential to be the supreme example of unity
Now, black youth grow up with a distorted view of "by any means", coming up with dreams of cars and big necklaces that, to me, resemble slave chains
Something went wrong
Somewhere in between all those old church songs and today's 50 Cent
We lost our common sense on how to maintain
But honestly, who do we blame?
Cause I dont think its just rap music
And hip hop never asked to raise our kids
So maybe we should step up and take responsibility for our own, or we'll keep missin out on what the real problem is
Understand that before all the Don Imuses and Micheal Richardson's, the problem still remained
And if every rapper in the world disappeared today, things would still be the same
But, this game has never really changed
Way back, slave masters use to put us to shame by tearing apart the family
Removing the male and disrupting the mother's sanity by forcing her to breed more workers
With no man in the home, women were left alone with the task of raising boys into men who would one day grow up to be fathers
And today, black fathers are now viewed as an endangered species
Standing as a testament to Willie Lynch's means of destruction
Corruption now sweeps through our neighborhoods
Leaving no trace of name or identity
And it leaves me to question if this is how God meant it to be
Because, how could a people so beautiful and gifted, so easily be lifted out of our natural course
I dont have all the answers, but I do know that, unless we force ourselves to become our own biggest critics, then young black boys and girls will continue to turn up as statistics on the daily news
And we'll continue to be misviewed as a people without hope
...But I'm not having it
Because for every drug advocate, there's a college graduate
And for every pacifist, there's an activist
We just have to decide that we will no longer hide behind the shadows of self-destruction
Because somewhere, there's and 11 year old child who's silently screaming for instruction
His eyes are as big as the Moon
And his imagination has the type of innocense that would move masses
As he sits in his room, he slowly puts on his glasses and his backpack to get ready for school
In his left hand is a revolver and in his right hand is a textbook
And if none of us are strong enough to stop him, we'll look up and lose this child who used to believe that he could grow up to change the world
And I cant live with that on my conscience
....Can U?

David Abdullah Muhammad aka "Brotha Newz" 2007
David was born in Kansas City, MO and currently resides in Overland Park,KS
He is a Senior at Emporia State University, majoring in Secondary Education (Social Sciences). David has aspirations of teaching high school and running a successful martial arts school. Beyond that, Brotha Newz continues to write dope pieces, make Hajj, and search for a woman who will be his queen, mother, and father.

Texts on Colorism

2007-09-17T15:08:00.000-07:00

Brief book/film list on the color complex/race changes. Enjoy!

Books

Passing by Nella Larson

The Blacker the Berry by Wallace Thurman

Black No More by George Schuyler

The Color Complex by Kathy Russell

Trick Baby by Iceberg Slim

Caucasia by Danzy Senna

Don't Play in the Sun by Marita Golden

The Black Notebooks by Toi Derricotte

Mulatto America by Stephan Talty

Films

The Jerk

Imitation of Life

Black Klansman

The Landlord

School Daze

Whiteboys

Cosmic Slop

These are just a few to get you going. Please feel free to add more items in the comments section or email me: cartertwin@hotmail.com

A Letter to My Elder(s)

2007-09-08T11:41:00.000-07:00

I wrote this e-mail to a gentleman who I met in this last year who shows a genuine interest in alleviating some of the problems of the black community. Most importantly, he is interested in ending the cycle in which the black youth are encapsulated. I wrote this to him as a response to something we (Black Men of Lawrence) were discussing only the night before. I was writing it, and it blew-up into something very important, but unexpected. So, I'm offering it to you here:

I wanted to e-mail you about what was being discussed last night at the black men of lawrence gathering. Mostly, I wanted to discuss the education thing. Derrais and myself were discussing what your associate was saying about the youth and we agreed that a drastic difference between your generation (or at least his) and our generation is that the black community had more control over the school system. One of the greatest sacrifices that black people made to facilitate integration was selling their children to the machinations of a white dominated educational system. Rather than the school board having to answer to a black majority, the schools now have to answer to a white majority. The white majority never did--and still doesn't--care about or desire their children to learn black history. Derrais and my experiences both attest to that reality. I would assume that it is no better anywhere else in the midwest, and probably worse as you approach inner-city schools that are controlled more directly by the state. I think that No-Child-Left-Behind is a part of that. By having a federal program that decides what kinds of information a student must know in order for the school to be accredited, the schools are pressured even more to ensure that the black students assimilate. Since the black students are not interested in assimilation, drop out rates are only more likely to increase.
I asked Derrais how much black history he had in his youth, and it appears to me that if you asked all of the more advanced black students to find a commonality that explains their status as academics in contrast to their dropped-out counterparts, you'd probably find that most of us had parents that were engaged in our education. Furthermore, and most importantly, they taught us black history where the school system didn't. I contend that, either it is job of the black community to demand that some alternate history and racially respectful curriculum be added in the school systems--or at least the black community provide that black history base to their pre-pubescent child's home life.
I think an important way of developing the black youth, would be to create a short book list of "must-reads." A list of books that will give black children the kind of background that they need to love themselves and respect what they are learning. The only book that I'm certain of is the Autobiography of Malcolm X, which should probably be read during the middle school generation. I think that a brief black inventors book should be a part of the elementary school period. Also in high school should be the alternative history of the United States, such as Howard Zinn's People's History or something along those lines.
To me it seems that black youth fail to embrace education because it is white washed. They teach that the Greeks invented math, science, and philosophy. They teach that everything of value in our lives is white. I guarantee you that no more than 1% of black youth know that math, science, and philosophy was originally taught to Greeks by Africans. Even fewer think of Egyptians as black--because they are consistently presented as white. Astronomy is just as African as it is European. They don't teach that the Mayan calendar included eclipses--which means that astronomy existed in the "New World" at least a 1000 years before Columbus. The school system is denigrating towards minoritized histories. Whiteness is treated as fact, and imperative. Black youth have nothing to love about themselves, and even less to love about a school system that teaches that for white students but not black students.

Think of it this way. How do white people learn their identities? How do black people learn their identities? White people learn it everywhere, and all the time. Black people have to search for it. If black people are inundated with sensory information that tells them that the nature of blackness--authentic blackness--is criminality, ignorance, and irrelevance, and no one is correcting that sensory information, then it should be no surprise that the black youth are on the purely survivalist level. Why should they develop beyond that; they've been told their whole lives that they should aspire to nothing more than survival.

As I said in my last e-mail. Black people have all of the skills necessary for success, it is merely misplaced energy. When black people are doing for self, you can see the abundance of talent, focus, determination, dedication, and discipline that we all inherently have. When black people feel like they're not benefiting from their efforts--like white-washed schools--you can literally watch their energy turn from enthusiasm to exasperation. Then, when they are punished for their disinterest--because the whole of society tells them they should be interested in whatever it is that white society is inundating them with--they are traumatized.

My generation is only one generation removed from social revolution. Our heroes are at most ten years removed from the Civil Rights Movement. We only know the aftermath of those efforts. What black people really need is to take a cold look at the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement and see how much has changed. I can say, and see, that while the laws have changed, little else has. Even the laws are getting reversed--into de facto forms of archaic Jim-Crowism.

Watch the supreme court decisions in regards to integration, affirmative action, and civil rights legislation. Ask yourselves, how much of Martin Luther King's work is sticking around? School integration? White flight fixed that, and the supreme court is ending it now. Affirmative Action? George Bush and congress have taken care of that--but the supreme court got first bite. Civil Rights legislation...such as the Voting Rights Act? How many of us actually vote? Not enough to matter as a political block. Our voting has been destroyed by gerrymandering, gentrification, the electoral college, and direct bigotry. To my generation, we don't see the glories of the Civil Rights Movement. To us, it was nothing more than a failed black unity movement...cause we don't even have unity.

My point is, your generation saw it all. You saw the good, ran with it, and in-between all of your success--the rest of us slipped through the cracks. While the black middle class rose, the black lower class fell. The black youth that you are concerned with are not (necessarily) the children of the black middle class. They are the children of the people who DID NOT benefit from the Civil Rights Movement. They are the second generation of integration losers. Our grandparents were farmers, and ghetto residents. We felt the sting of the neo-conservative movement; and the bitter loss to the neo-liberalist movement. While the black middle class shakes their head at the losses and changes. The black lower-class is racing through the ghettos keening with their guns, tears streaming down their hardened faces, wondering where hope went.

I'm sending you a set of song lyrics attached to this e-mail. It's a song by the Hiphop group Dead Prez. The song is titled "They Schools." It's uncensored because I think it's important to our understanding of their perspective. I honestly don't think that any of the black youth comprehend their problem on the level of Dead Prez--many of them probably FEEL that, but are incapable of comprehending or articulating what's wrong in their world. I'm also giving you a link to something I wrote called the "Black Student's Manifesto." I wrote it a while ago when a childhood friend of mine insinuated to another friend of mine that being an AAAS major was anything but worthwhile. It only speaks to the idea of black identity. Hopefully some of this helps to make sense of the perspective and problem of black youth today. It's no easy task that you're pursuing. You're not only battling against the hardened hearts of black youth, but in order for you to reach them at all, you must be willing to put up a fight against the white majority who might be the foundation of your income. To win this fight, you must have a healthy fear of the battle.

Black Student's Manifesto

I hope this wasn't too long. I wasn't thinking very linear. But I hope it helps some. I'll drop by your office sometime next week.

Chris

2007-09-06T18:06:00.000-07:00

For those who don't know me, I spit. When I say I spit, I mean I rap...on occasion. And, I'm not bad. At least I think I'm better than most of the people you hear on the radio. Needless to say, when Docta' Carter invited me to write on his blog, it was perfection. It fit. But as of yet, I have not placed any of my work on here. I'm usually afraid to. I like what I write and have every intention of using any worthwhile bar I put together. However, I wrote a set the other day. It will inevitably be an album opener in the future, but I wanted to put it on here. So, as Missy Elliott once said, "copy written so don't copy me." I can't stand biters, as if anyone on here is prepared to take on my lyrics in a public arena. You'd have to be an idiot. Thank God I am.

There's a title for this, but I'm never going to say it outright. I want people to choose their own titles. It will mean different things to different people. Any questions, just ask:

I pledge allegiance
To the salvation of the nation
The end of brown incarceration
To the death of assimilation
I swear my dedication
To equalitarian integration
Even if it means separation
Cause I will neither hate
Nor wait
On any caucasian
For my emancipation
My soul's vexation
Is false representation
Borne of ofay media motivation
H.E.R. commercialization
A product of capitalist dollarization
My persistent dis-representative spiritual taxation
Will only turn this slow burn
Into a cultural conflagration
My small ax
Will fight back
Without the slightest hesitation
I embody individualization
But have never forgotten my communal originations
Though you attempt my homogenization
I will not fall prey to your monolithic presentations
Force fed criminal acculturation
And societal dreg inebriation
I will not be your photo negative imitation
Nor your self-indulgent propogandation
Through our collective demonization
I will uproot the very foundations
Of your glorified civilization
Not liberal but independent
Revolutionary 'til we finish...

~Complex

Call for Papers

2007-08-28T19:17:00.000-07:00

Pacific Sociological Association: The Crossover: Hip-Hop, Commercialization and American Culture

2008 PSA Meeting – April 10th-13th, 2008 at the Marriott Hotel in Portland, OR.

Presentation proposals are now being accepted for The Crossover: Hip-Hop, Commercialization and American Culture session of the 2008 Pacific Sociological Association meeting in Portland, OR, April 10th -13th 2008. The session organizer seeks presentations from faculty and/or graduate students who are currently involved in research on the effects of commercialization on Hip-Hop music and culture and also on how the commercialization of Hip-Hop has affected the broader American culture in the last 25+ years. All disciplines are welcome!

Please send presentation titles and abstracts of 200-250 words via e-mail or mail (e-mail is greatly preferred) by November 1st 2007 to Michael Barnes at the addresses below. Make sure to include home department and institutional affiliation with your proposal.

Michael Barnes
Session Organizer: PSA 2008
Department of Sociology
University of California-Berkeley
410 Barrows Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
mpbarnes@berkeley.edu

For additional submission information from the Pacific Sociological Association and more details on the conference:
http://www.pacificsoc.org/2006/06/2008_annual_mee.html

Michael Barnes
Session Organizer: PSA 2008
Department of Sociology
University of California-Berkeley
410 Barrows Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
Email: mpbarnes@berkeley.edu
Visit the website at http://www.pacificsoc.org/2006/06/2008_annual_mee.html

2007-08-27T16:38:00.000-07:00

Quote of the Week:
I've always been proud to be black. But proud and obsessive are different things.

- Jacob Lamar

Websites for t-shirts

Urban Profile

Artistic Tees

House of Nubian

Book of the Week:

Their Own Receive Them Not
by Horace L. Griffin

Opportunity of the Week:

I have a call for submissions list for all writers. Contact me for more information

carterda@ku.edu

NYC here I come!

2007-08-08T04:40:00.000-07:00

I am at the airport right now waiting to board my flight to NYC. Just ahead of me is a tv with a CNN news alert. Apparently, the east coast has has some weather issues (i.e. tornado warnings). How bout that?

Call for Submissions: Words, Beats and Life Journal

2007-07-26T18:11:00.000-07:00

Call for Submissions: Words, Beats and Life Journal

It Ain’t My Fault: Blame it on Hip-Hop
Many believe rap music to be culpable for the failing within black communities. Jay-Z and Lil’ Jon have become more popular targets than racism and poverty for political pundits and self-appointed race men. The WBL Journal staff is looking for submissions that address this re-emerging phenomenon. The overarching theme for this issue is “It Aint My Fault: Blame it on Hip-Hop,” but below you will find themes to guide your research.
From C. Delores Tucker to Bill Cosby: Conservative Attacks in Black Face

In the past 10 years, we have seen a record number of Black men and women running for elected office as Democrats, Republicans and Independents. The writer can delve into explanations for black and Latino leaders’ support of more conservative candidates, such
as Russell Simmons backing Michael Bloomberg in New York and Michael Steele in Maryland. Authors could also explore why some hip-hop artists, such as 50 Cent and Eazy E, and “activists” like Jeff Johnson are slowly beginning to support more conservative candidates. One can also address Mr. Cosby’s disparaging remarks about hip-hop dialects and the lower class communities of color. One can also examine the Citizen Change and
Vote or Die campaigns, their agendas and effectiveness. (Russell Simmons’ work with the Urban League traditionally conservative Hip-Hop Reader project).

Panthers: Hip-Hop’s Black and Brown Radical Roots
Many people refer to hip-hop as “multicultural movement.” Interestingly enough, very few hip-hop artists have made it a priority to move beyond discussing this phenomenon as a movement of multicultural consumers. The author should look at how hip-hop generation activists and organizers are moving beyond the black/white racial dichotomy of the 20th century. With the immigration debate, terror bills and the general xenophobia pumped out of your local TV and radio station, how are hip-hop generation youth moving beyond, working through or navigating around personal racial politics? What effect is this environment having upon the state of the individual communities in America across color lines? Ideally, authors should place hip-hop within a historical context of Black radical activists who worked across racial boundaries.

Parental Advisory: A History of Censoring Black Speech
The author can investigate and build a timeline of censorship of Black music and political speech. One can also explore the ramifications of such censorship. We are trying to convey a link between the two, and show that Black music and political commentary are often one in the same. Writers can also look at how government agencies such as the FBI and local police have followed rap artists such as NWA and 2 Live Crew, much like they did individuals and organizations like Amiri Baraka and the Black Panther Party. Tipper Gore, Bill Clinton, and Rush Limbaugh have all tried to use their influence to silence rappers.

Ridin’ Dirty on 85: Rap’s Great Migration to the South
On their most basic level, articles covering this topic should look at how New York-based rap artists have responded to the great remigration of Black people and culture to the South. This section is intended to provide a contemporary look at the state of rap music and its migration to the south. This phenomenon should not be looked at in a vacuum but rather be tied to census data outlining the impact of African American Migration from the Northeast to the South and Midwest. This migration of culture need not just be tied to the music itself, but to the democratization of access to the necessary means of production, promotion and distribution of music and culture.

Same Old Song: The Blues, Gospel and Hip-hop
Firstly, one can document the critique from the religious establishment of Black popular music and contemporary gospel. In this section, we are especially interested in the effect of denigrating Black popular culture in African American Churches. It would also be important to look at examples of how churches have appropriated Black popular culture in the creation of “gospel happy hours,” “hip-hop choirs,” and even “hip-hop churches.” In addition, the author could explore the explosion of Christian hip-hop and the fusion of traditional gospel styles and hip-hop. One can also write about how fringe religious sects such as the Nation of Islam and the Five Percent Nation exploit hip-hop as a vehicle for proselytizing their dogma. It would be appropriate to examine the use of hip-hop to promote Islam, and how that stands in opposition or solidarity with Muslims and Christians. This article can consist of interviews, essays or scholarly reviews outlining the history of condemnation of contemporary Black music by Black churches or mosques.

From Bridging the Gap to Passing the Torch: Where Do We Go From Here?
This article should examine bonds made between civil rights generation and current youth activists in attempts to make mutual progress.

Submission Forms
Scholarly Submissions
Multimedia
Creative Writing
Research Papers
Visual Art
Essays
Interviews
Photography
Poems
Short stories

Process of Submitting
All submissions are accepted on a continuous basis and need not be limited to the themes outlined below. All submissions designated as scholarly require an abstract of 150 words or less and up to five key words. All scholarly submissions should also follow the APA style guide. Please send all submissions to: submissions@wblinc.org, or in the case of compact discs:
WB&L Journal / 1524 Newton. St. NW / Washington, D.C. 20010. Deadline for submission for this issue is October 19, 2007.

Personal and Academic Progress

2007-07-24T14:55:00.000-07:00

Quote of the Week:

To be black is to live with anger as the defining emotion of a racial experience. To be successful is to learn how to keep the emotion from consuming or debilitating black ambition.

Audrey Edwards and Craig K. Polite

Book of the Week:

Know What I Mean? Reflections on Hip Hop
by Michael Eric Dyson

Event of the Week:

University of Kansas McNair Scholars Programs will host a research symposium this Friday. Scholars from various academic disciplines will present research on topics ranging from Biology to Poetry Therapy.

(Click here for details)

The Black Student's Manifesto (work in progress)

2007-07-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

This entire post...from another blog...could be equally applied to anyone who does not identify themselves (or cannot identify themselves) as white in America. That doesn't mean that it is irrelevant for white people, simply that it takes an "enlightened"--yeah, I know that sounds really offensive. i'll change it when i think of a better word choice. until then, sorry--white person to accept what I'm saying as potential truth and ACT accordingly. I don't mean to exclude anyone, I just got caught up in a thought and pursued it. I mean what I'm saying, but I did want to be completely clear that I could have equally called this the "Minority Student's Manifesto", I simply don't feel as though I have any right to speak for a group that I only remotely identify with. And there's plenty of black conservatives who would disagree with me anyway. So I'm not universal with mine's. But too the meat!--------->

A friend of mine, when he found out that I was an AAAS major, asked, "So did Chris become the typical African-American Studies major?" My response was, "there's an AAS archetype/stereotype?" Apparently so. Or at least I suppose so. I'm not upset by that, because that requires an admission of a black intellegentsia--somewhere--that whether he agrees with the premises of that intelligentsia, he has to acknowledge its existence, thereby acknowledging me as a member of the "talented tenth." (Did I forget to mention that my friend is a moderately conservative, white Republican?) Anyway, so I thought to myself, if I were the one who told him of my major, what would he have said to me? I think he would have asked something along the lines of "why?" So here it is:

I can't imagine surviving as a black person in America without at some time or another examining my identity. White people don't share that anxiety. There is no question of whiteness--despite the existence of whiteness studies, which is an attempt to problematize whiteness in the same way that blacks have problematized their negrescence--it is an accepted fact. There is no standard of whiteness. Despite thousands of years of art, cultural development, and recorded history, whiteness is maleable and virtually transcendent of the racial signifier that is "white." Blackness doesn't have that. Not in America at least. When I go to class, I learn about the triumphs of western civilization. My classes glorify the tyrannical nature of western expansion. The enlightenment is seen as an era of intellectual growth; as opposed to the period that produced western racism and dogmatic white supremacy. The Greeks created philosophy; rather than Greek philosophy being a product of Greek conquest in Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia. We laud western civilization in American schools rather than critique it, more often than not. The western world is designed to reaffirm the whiteness of every white person that is fully immersed within it. Which, to me is...okay(?). I'm not complaining about the fact that white civilization actively promotes and affirms white identity. What should I expect? But when white people hear my major and ask me, "what are you going to do with that?" My first thought is, "how can you believe that an active, scholastic, search for identity is an impractical endeavor?" The successes of white students over black students in America just might be, in part, a result of an undefined identity. A certain dissatisfaction with whom one is and can become. True, white people can REdefine their identity; but the fact is, it has been defined once--if not numerous times--already. Black people do go to college to learn, but every adult will admit that college is just as much about education as identity assimilation. It is designed to put you in a successful frame of mind. To mold you into a confident, intelligent human being. And I find it sad and oppressive to think that so many people don't understand the importance of tracing my...identity.

Here is a compelling metaphor. A black man in America is a human on Mars. Sure, presuming that Martians are humanoid, a human could get along on Mars. You could learn Their history, Their culture, assimilate to the way They do things; but that won't get You through the day. At the end of it all, you still have to come to terms with the fact that you are not a Martian, but a (wo)man. And that that reality must be realized, recognized, and accepted by the Martian world for you to be comfortable living there. If Martians wore boots on their ears (and I don't mean earrings) and expected you to assimilate, you might not like it. But given 400 years, you wouldn't think twice about it. There would be a loss, that once discovered, would have to be unearthed in its entirety. You must be developmentally satiated to survive life in a foreign environment.

I know...I'm an "American." I was born here, I live here, and I'll probably die here. But the fact is nobody has said what that means. And if they did, I wouldn't agree. I don't like dogmatic definitions of identity factors. While I may be American by birth, we still haven't had a president who looks like he could be related to me. When I make moves to pursue my future, I do it through people who see my skin color first--and my work and ideas second. When the world thinks about Americans, they know that there are black people--hell they know there are indigenous people, but they imagine white flesh. Part of the reason they integrated the military during Vietnam is because the Viet-Cong wouldn't shoot black soldiers. (Divide and conquer?) Imagine sending segregated black troops into an occupation in Africa. Who would the black soldiers sympathize with? Am I an American? By the text book definition yes. Am I an American in reality...not yet. With problems like white flight, privilege, supremacy, I'm at an integrative loss. I can't integrate into a society that doesn't want me as me. I can't assimilate into a society that tells me that assimilation equals glorifying the past of their forebears--but mine were immaterial, inferior, and primitive. For all of your intellect, Chris, I'm more afraid of you than admirous of you. I would rather shun you than compete with you. The world I live in DEMANDS me to find me. If I can't learn it the same way that white people learn their identity--everywhere--I'll learn how black people learn their identities--anywhere.

Can You Taste the Bitterness?

2007-07-24T12:11:00.000-07:00

There was a guy on another blog I post to who was writing about Michael Moore's movie "Sicko"--the link is connected to the title above. He was discussing how f***ed up Americans must be to allow the kind of corruption that exists in American politics and business. He went on to say that both the media and politics have sold themselves to the corporate world. So...I couldn't resist the urge to reply. And here it is:

I once wrote a blog entry about the town I'm living in. It was a rant. I referred to it as: "A petit-bourgeoisie society with a 1960's hangover."

My point is, after Reagan, America resigned revolutionary actions to the past. Post-Reagan politics have been about portraying America as THE model of democracy and success, even if we can't get our domestic stuff straight. It's not that our politicians our liars...it's that they're in politics. They don't work for what they believe in, they work to get re-elected.

Politics isn't a convocation anymore, it's a business--not a calling.

In the first generation after America's "founding" the "founding fathers" had jobs! Politics was their pasttime. They practiced politics part time, and did other stuff full time. America didn't have full time politicians who were paid gross amounts of money to debate crap that's not really very debatable. How do you argue against universal healthcare...really. Other than the fact that it's a socialist program in a quasi-democratic state (which isn't mutually exclusive despite the ignorance of many Americans), why would anyone be against it. The only answer is because capitalism comes before democracy. America has been, since its inception, less about what is right than about the right dollar.

Take the 3/5 clause in the constitution for example. The only reason it exists is because they didn't want southern cash to take a hit. Many of the "founding fathers" owned slaves, which they released upon their deaths. One of them, Madison, was adamantly against slavery. If it had been up to him, everyone would have been free after the "American Revolution".

My point is, C.R.E.A.M. applies to politics just like it does our lives. America is a fucked-up-repugnant nation because we have misappropriated our energies. We are the wealthiest nation because we put energy that should be given to our neighbors into ourselves. We've sold the soul of the nation for money, and there's no sign of change. We decided that revolution belongs to other countries, with "dictators," like Iraq, Iran, North Korea, countless African nations, Cuba, and Venezuela under Hugo Chavez...but we're controlled by a post-Reagan legacy of dictatorial manipulation. We're taught to believe that we HAVE TO vote democrat or republican. We're raised in families with ties to one or the other. We pay them! our politicians, to be partisan rather than American. And it's all b******t.

I'm ranting on your blog. Ignore me anyway. I'm a "Black Nationalist" revolutionary type. The media doesn't like what I have to say anyway. And you do whatever the media says right?

The N-Word

2007-07-18T23:47:00.000-07:00

So, the NAACP recently buried the N-word.

I would like to give an unenthusiastic cheer for the talented tenth. You have truly saved me from the harsh realities of being a black, male, hip hop head in America. Now that the N-word is symbolically stricken, I guess the cultural myopia I continuously face will come to an end.

For all intensive purposes, the "n-word" will now substitute n***** and n****.

I recently read an opinion piece by critic (and hip hop antagonist) Stanley Crouch (article). The article is entitled Good riddance

Burying the N-word, driving stake through the heart of hip-hop's demons

Although very catchy, the whole "driving the stake" thing would be more applicable had the current hip hop generation been actively engaged in this issue. We can easily look at figures such as Chuck D and say that there are prominent artists who are contributing, however, even Chuck knows that there are generational differences in hip hop. I applaud Crouch in his desire to consistently castigate whenever possible, but in all honesty, disrespect didn't start with hip hop. We can bury all of the negative words we want, but as long as people can begin a sentence with "yo mamma..." somebody's feelings will get hurt.

The burial of the "n-word" will help a lot of people sleep well, but it will also hinder an understanding of the business of popular culture. In the aftermath of Imus vs. Rutgers, record industry execs met to discuss the use of offensive language in rap albums. During a Rapsessions Town Hall Meeting (which aired on C-SPAN), T. Sharpley-Whiting called the meeting a "moment of White supremacy culture, patriarchy, and capitalism coming together to discuss black women’s bodies". At the end of the day, that's what it came too. Finding ways to justify moral crusades against art is like pouring water out of a boot with instructions on the heel. There must come a critical look at the business behind the art. As much as we argue about hip hop and art, the business aspect has been there since Kool Herc's sister was throwin' parties back in the day.

Crouch also notes a comment made by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick:

"we are not just burying the N-word, we're taking it out of our spirit. We gather burying all of the things that go with the N-word. We have to bury the pimps and the ho's that go with it."

One would be hard-pressed to think that one generation will get rid of centuries of pimping. Sure, it sounds good, but where would America be without the pimp mentality (google Beth Coleman's essay "Pimp Notes on Autonomy").
Finally, rappers do need to step their intellectual game up; but so do hip hop fans and critics. In the Souls of Black Folk W.E.B. DuBois writes "[w]ords and music have lost each other and new and cant phrases of a dimly understood theology have displaced the older sentiment". With the burial of the n-word, we have found yet another topic to store in Black America's closet of sacred cows (just below colorism, and 3/5 of an inch above O.J. ). This event should not be used to escape the contradictions of black life. It sould be used to address the "real" concerns of the community. We should see how education, arts, and commerce all make the "n-word" real.

A Letter to a Government Official

2007-07-12T17:40:00.000-07:00

I sent this letter to Charlotte, NC mayor Pat McCrory after he had this to say about black youth:

"too many of our youth, primarily African American, are imitating and/or participating in a gangster type of dress, attitude, behavior and action."

Here's my letter:

Mayor McCrory,

I'm not in the regular practice of writing e-mails to government officials. I usually don't consider it necessary. I don't even live in North Carolina, but I've been keeping up more with politics because I feel that it is important to do so. Needless to say, I came across your comment in regards to black youth and took note of your attitude towards apologizing. I think that what you had to say about my generation of black youth was despicable. Your treatment of Hiphop culture is offensive, and I would like to establish a brief dialog with you in hopes that perhaps I can convince you of your wrongdoing.

I'll be the first to admit that under normal conditions I would be far more...aggressive in my expressions of discontent, but whereas I am trying to establish dialog--and it is better to attract bees with honey--I'll restrain my typically militant tendencies, and merely speak to you as I would anyone that I honestly believed was worthy of my attentions.

As an example of what I would like to note about your statement, I want to explain what your indictment sounded like to me: your characterization of Hiphop style and culture as cultural gangsterism hearkens back to the long-standing characterizations of black men as "brutes" and "bucks." The approach you have taken to Hiphop culture is extremely reminisceient of the writings and speeches of American Nazi party founder George Lincoln Rockwell. Similar statements about black people, men specifically, have been made by racists throughout America's political history. The statement you have made aligns you with people like Rockwell and Trent Lott in the minds of black people--and any white person who heard what I heard behind your statement when I read it. There is such a thing as latent racism, and I can more than see it in you by your statement.

It is my firm belief that most politicians desire to cleanse their spirits of racism. I would hope that you would like to. For that to happen, it becomes imperative that you see what you have done wrong. And whether you apologize to the black constituency in North Carolina or not becomes irrelevant to me as long as you learn from your mistake and learn to articulate what you truly mean in a way that does not demean an entire populace.

You're better than that Pat McCrory, and only by choosing to be above sweeping indictments and mild forms of racism can you help to bring about the kind of racial harmony that was once America's dream. I hope you're listening.

Sincerely,

Chris De La Cruz

The angrier version of my comments appears in my personal blog. But I thought that the Black Tuesday crowd might be interested in my little side project. I expect to receive a half-hearted e-mail from his secretary telling me that he meant no offense and blah, blah, blah, he's not apologizing and doesn't feel that he's wrong. Regardless, this should be interesting. I've never tried to discuss anything with a government official. I'm not fond of politicians, but I hope there's more to them than bs. There's flesh in there somewhere.

Oh, and I do not have any intention of posting his e-mails (if I get any) on here. That would be wrong, even if he is a public figure. But if he pisses me off...

Just Read This

2007-07-08T10:56:00.000-07:00

(to read the associated article, click on the title)

I am completely against American mythologizing of history. Romantic notions of both the "founding" (raping) of America and the "Gone With The Wind" and "Song of the South" spin on ante-bellum America make me just as sick as white and black bullsh*t concepts of the Civil Rights Movement. Even I, at times, fall into the trap. But I think that the link I'm giving might help whomever a little to free their mind of lies and spin.

I'll say this a million times: history is linear. At no point does it completely fracture so that the time line itself ceases to be a single history. Africa's pre-colonial history is just as much of the global narrative as China's, India's, the Aztec's, Mayan's, Olmec's, and Europe's. The appropriate timeline is global in concept. Not regional. We are learning history wrong. Nothing in history occurs in a vacuum. It all goes back to someplace or something. That being said, the Civil Rights Movement didn't "begin" in the late 50's and "end" in the late 60's. It began when Africans were first brought to America, and ends whenever the dreams of the African slave are fulfilled. So, what congress is talking about doing is exactly the same thing we've done to historical figures like Christopher Columbus, and George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. We're creating clear-cut binary figures of good and evil, when that has never been real. We need a postmodern perspective of history for our people, American people, all people to grow up mentally healthy. Read it, and decide. Speak out, think in.

the black student

2007-07-08T10:24:00.000-07:00

(to read the associated article, click on the title)

I set up my personal blog so that it would be easier to check the news for relevant black issues. Today I came across news about black graduates in X state. I really didn't care about the state, because black male dropouts are a nationwide phenomenon rather than a regional one.

When I was in the 8th grade, there wasn't one black male graduate in my hometown. That is a fiasco. It is a failure of the school system, and more so a failure on the part of black culture. No matter how racist a school system is, it takes genuine disinterest to just drop-out in a society that requires a high school diploma for even the most remedial of jobs.

I realize that there are no black parents that want their children to dropout. But there must be someone other than the school system that has to take responsibility for establishing a sense of dedication and will in a child. You don't have kids, you raise them.

I also realize that countless black parents are incapable of spending a lot of time with their children because they are forced to work multiple sh***y jobs just to get by. That's systematic: but just because the parent is trapped in the system doesn't mean the children have to be. If black parents today would show the kind of dedication to education that black parents had fifty years ago, we just might be better off.

Here's how I see it: The Black Power movement gave us something we desperately needed and we bastardized the message and robbed ourselves of something equally necessary. We needed our pride, we need a strong sense of history, we need to know that the school is structured for white kids and that if we want to know some Truth...we can't get it there. But the lies in school are no excuse for ignorance. If you aren't learning what you want to learn in school, don't choose to be stupid. Use that thirst for knowledge. Go to the library. READ A MUTHAF***IN BOOK!

I have to question whether black parents are doing what they need to do to create that thirst for knowledge in their children. I'm not sure how my mother pulled it off. I know plenty of black parents who were able to do just as well as my mother in far worse conditions. I suppose it's all in the attitude.

Don't confuse it, you can be militant and intellectual, but being militant and stupid makes you a pawn. The question is: is my generation a generation of pawns to be used by the racist, military-industrial, capitalist machine; or is my generation to grow and become a class of strong, intelligent, autonomous black people capable of dethroning the power-structure that has long kept our people under the yoke of oppression.

You cannot stop what you don't know exists. Learn something.

And to my black brothers who are getting an education: If you aren't doing anything for your people after you get that cash...you might as well put on some white gloves and cork. And I mean that!

Reversing the Revolution

2007-07-05T17:22:00.000-07:00

This is my first post on the Black Tuesday Blog...hopefully you'll like it: actually, I hope you don't.

In a recent search of google news I discovered that the Supreme Court has voted to eliminate affirmative action programs in the public school system. This is only years after the windfall decision to eliminate affirmative action programs in all public instituions of higher learning. What this means for anyone who is not a white male--and in primary school just white--is that now, thanks to the glories of white flight, good schools can no longer give you entrance into their school for the purpose of creating diversity. Without directly saying it, the Supreme Court has singlehandedly rejected the importance/relevance of an ethnically diverse student body to a rounded education. To the rest of us, non-white people, that means that the ignorance that somehow survives the already "diverse" educational system will only get worse. Get ready for it.

Under normal conditions, as a "black nationalist", the idea in and of itself doesn't bother me. I've long thought that it was a stupid idea to bus black kids out of their neighborhoods to go to school with a bunch of white kids, without first improving the schools that remain in the black community. If the government doesn't improve the inner-city public school system, how does integration really benefit anyone. So granted, integration didn't do anything but make sure white kids knew a few black kids. Good. Okay. We're on the same page. The problem with the Supreme Courts decision is multi-faceted: It eliminates the only real benefit that came with integration--an answer to the ignorance component of racism (to the detriment of the long traumatized black children who integrated, but that's beside the point), it results in de facto segregation--the long-standing way of the North--thanks to the post-Civil Rights white flight phenomenon (which has actually existed as long as n****'s been free), it cripples the very root of the Civil Rights movement--Brown v the Board of Education, and it sets the tone for a reversal of all of the economic and political progress that had been made in the last forty years.

What I want to emphasize is the Brown v BOE decision and the economic and political progress component of my thinking. Look at it like this: Brown vs the Board of Education was meant to prove that segregated schools were mutually detrimental to both black and white students. Racially segregated schools are inherently unequal. That is still the case today when you look to inner-city schools versus suburban schools. Even with de facto segregation you can still observe the disparity between the white haves and the minority have-nots. By suddently arguing that it is more important to return to region-based student selection (which is likely to be what it becomes) than it is to use race-based student selection, the doors are opened to treat regional racial demographics as the ultimate out for white communities who don't want blacks. What will inevitably happen, is that black parents who want their children to get an education in predominantly white communities will have to prove that their children are academically superior enough to be around the white students--thereby affirming white superiority--and find their own way of getting there--because the government will inevitably no longer bus a bunch of minorities from the inner-cities to outside communities for their education. If the government were to invest in poor communities, it wouldn't be so bad. But they won't. Nothing will change except demographics, and whites will have all the reason in the world to reduce integration to pure tokenism. (As if it wasn't that way already.)

My other main point is this: over time, twenty/thirty years or so, the inferior education of inner-city schools will reach the point that it will again become a 1950's style academic divide. It is a statistical fact that the more educated an individual is, the more likely they are to vote. By leaving all of the minorities in communities which are notoriously non-voting, and then under-educating those children, when they become adults, there will be an entire generation of lost voters. You've disempowered an entire generation of minorities by one single action. You've also economically disempowered an entire generation of minorities by one single action. This is not to suggest that the world is better because a few black kids get into white schools, but rather, the world is worse when very few minority students, from academically inferior communities are rejected entrance into academically superior communities simply because conservatives have found a way of spinning things to make it sound like race-based affirmative action is discriminating.

I'll end with this thought: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS REVERSE-DISCRIMINATION!!! Reverse-discrimination is a neo-conservative, white privileged tool of establishing an undeserved victim status to a race of people who have been, and continue to be, collectively, empowered. Conservatives use "reverse-racism" to point the finger away from themselves and blame minorities for their inability to re-establish their global superiority. Reverse-discrimination is white people upset that they don't get their privileges and minority empowerment tactics. They don't want to pull their hand out of the cookie jar. They're standing up screaming, "N*gger get your hand out of my pocket!" But telling us that if we don't we're racists. Okay.

It's not that I don't understand their logic. Meritocracies sound nice on paper, but doesn't equality come first, and a merit-based society second? I think that the conservative movement is destroying the world for black people (in the Malcolm X sense of the term black). True, it is due time for race-based legislation and codes to be abolished, but it is the failures of society that have perpetuated the need for such legislation. Change society, then the laws. Stop reversing a revolution that has yet to be completed!

Making it blend

2007-06-27T05:11:00.001-07:00

Last week, I gave a lecture on how to incorporate hip hop into a liberal arts education. When I hit the English/Cultural Studies portion, I discussed the ways that hip hop music and history could be incorporated into an English courses. This leads me to the final entry for Black Music Month:

Artists of the Week:

Al Green and Nasir Jones

Album of the Week:
DJ Swindle Presents...Almatic (listen)
Almatic blends the Nas' lyrics with Al Green's music. It is an interesting combination. Check it out.

Event of the Week:

DMX @ the Granada
Lawrence, KS
Thursday June 28th
(details)

The Temptations

2007-06-19T17:49:00.000-07:00

Movie of the Week:

The Temptations

Video of the Week:

I Love the 80s!!!

2007-06-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

Billie Holiday

2007-06-12T11:01:00.000-07:00

Quote of the Week:

"If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling"
- Billie Holiday

Video of the Week:

Book of the Week:

If You Can't Be Free, Be A Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday
by: Farah Jasmine Griffin

B-GIRL BE: A Celebration of Women in Hip Hop

2007-06-09T21:34:00.000-07:00

Building on the last two years’ wildly successful festival, Intermedia Arts is proud to present the third annual B-Girl Be: A Celebration of Women in Hip-Hop, a multimedia festival encompassing the four elements of hip-hop: MCing, DJing, breakdancing and graffiti at Intermedia Arts, 2822 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis.

The mission of B-Girl Be is to influence and inspire leadership to change the perceptions and roles of women in hip-hop for current and future generations. This annual event is a place to make connections, build confidence, sharpen skills and gain access to the tools to create music, film, poetry, rap, aerosol art and dance.
(more info)

Art and Craft: The Northwestern Summer Writers' Conference

2007-06-09T19:46:00.000-07:00

August 9-11, 2007

Summer Session is pleased to announce the third annual Northwestern Summer Writers' Conference, a noncredit summer institute in writing and revising novels, poetry, short stories, and nonfiction for adult and young audiences. This four-day conference is tailored to new writers, established writers, and anyone seeking a fuller understanding of the craft - and business - of writing. Participants have the opportunity to select from a host of seminars, panels, workshops, and optional manuscript consultations, all designed to give participants new perspectives on their work in the supportive company of other writers. "Creative jumpstart" sessions focus on brainstorming, free writing, and experimentation and thus are useful to writers at all levels. Other workshops run concurrently and address a variety of genres so that participants may work in smaller groups with other writers who share their interests.(more info)

Black Music Month!!!

2007-06-07T19:17:00.001-07:00

For those of you who didn't know, June is Black Music Month. I just wanted to share a few lines from Kanye West:

There's somethin' bout the way the Nina Simone piano flow,
It's like a Micelangelo painted a portrait of Maya Angelou
And gave it to a sick poet, for the antecdote
If music get you choked up
this is the tree and the rope
Get By Remix

Peace

Summer Reading

2007-06-05T10:19:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody,
I must apologize about last week's entry (or lack there of). Summer has officially began and I challenge everyone to read at least 5 books. It doesn't matter what genre you prefer; share it with friends and family and keep this cycle of knowledge going.

This week's focus is Melvin Van Peebles.

Book of the Week: The True American by Melvin Van Peebles

Film of the Week: How to Eat Your Watermelon In White Company (And Enjoy It)

Web articles about Melvin Van Peebles internet article

Soul Flicks

2007-06-03T19:26:00.000-07:00

Hip Hop, Japan, & the War on Terror: Locating Politics in Japanese Language Rap Music

Lecture by Ian Condry, Associate Professor of Foreign Languages & Literatures, M.I.T.
------------------------------------------------

Cultural anthropologist Ian Condry will discuss his new book Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization (2006, Duke Univ. Press) to explore the relationship between language, performance, and politics. Examples will include Japanese rap songs that critique America's "war on terror." How and why do Japanese rappers creatively deform and reinvent their own language? How do the cultural and linguistic flows of hip-hop influence America's image, and the image of African-Americans, on the world stage? What can Japanese rappers teach Americans about transnational perspectives on media and culture?

The event is co-sponsored by the UCLA Discourse Lab and free and open to the public.

Date: Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Time: 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

UCLA
352 Haines Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095

2007-05-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

Book of the Week:
White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty

Film of the Week:
Watermelon Man

Quote of the Week:
"I am because we are"

Black Athletes Forum @ Morehouse

2007-05-10T05:18:00.000-07:00

By Gene Wojciechowski

You know how sometimes you see a movie like, say, "Syriana," and you walk out of the 40-plex two hours later not knowing what the hell you just watched? I mean, no clue. So you try to fake it with your wife and mumble something about "geopolitical fissures," whatever that is, and hope she buys it.

But here's the thing: Sometimes, even if you don't get it ... you get it. Something clicks.

Anyway, that's exactly how I felt about the Black Athlete Forum held earlier this week at Morehouse College. The forum, moderated by Morehouse Man Spike Lee (Class of '79), was supposed to focus on, among other things, the glaring disparity between the number of African-American athletes (a lot) and the number of African-American sportswriters (not so much). And it did -- for a little while. (read more)

2007-05-07T17:23:00.000-07:00

Quote of the Week:

Be thankful for what you got

Album of the Week:

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Gil Scott-Heron

Book of the Week:

Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip Hop's Hold on Young Black Women
By: T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting

Thoughts on Rebirth:

This is not the first time I came to the planet
But everytime I come, only a few could understand it
I came as Isis, my words they tried to ban it
I came as Moses, they couldn't follow my commandments
I came as Solomon, to a people that was lost
I came as Jesus, but they nailed me to a cross
I came as Harriet Tubman, I put the truth to Sojourner
Other times, I had to come as Nat Turner
They tried to burn me, lynch me and starve me
So I had to come back as Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley
They tried to harm me, I used to be Malcolm X
Now I'm on the planet as the one called KRS

KRS-One "Ah Yeah"

Islam Awareness Week

2007-05-02T14:53:00.000-07:00

Tonight!

Imam Mahdi Bray presents

Why I Became A Muslim
7:30 @ the Centennial Room of the Kansas Union

2007-04-30T17:26:00.000-07:00

Movie of the Week:

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Book of the Week:

Caucasia by Danzy Senna

Quote of the Week:

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth.
Kahlil Gibran

Event of the Week:

George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic
May 9th
The Crossroads KC, 417 E 18th Street, Kansas City, MO

2007-04-23T17:38:00.001-07:00

Event of the Week:
Flores A. Forbes, author of “Will You Die With Me?: My Life and the Black Panther Party,” will speak at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, at the Big 12 Room in the Kansas Union. The Hall Center for the Humanities and the KU Department of Theatre and Film are sponsoring his talk. (read more)

Quote of the Week:
“learning is for liberation, and knowledge must be turned to social benefit if we are to justify the faith placed in us by our forbrears”
Michael Eric Dyson

Book of the Week:

The Vulture
&
The Nigger Factory

by Gil Scott-Heron

Rahzel speaks about sexism in hip hop music

2007-04-23T04:50:00.000-07:00

Brought to you by Professor Kim...

Grammy winning beatboxer Rahzel spoke with me today about the latest controversy over sexism in hip-hop. In this 18-minute interview, he rejected Don Imus' comparison of his scurrilous remarks about the Rutgers Women's basketball team to rap lyrics, but added that rappers who use terms such as "ho," have a responsibility "to clarify what they're talking about."
He also talks about how he has held true to his artistic vision despite the pressure to "come hard."
(Click here for the rest of Prof. Kim's piece)

Black Panther Party leader turned urban developer to speak April 24 at KU

2007-04-20T21:21:00.000-07:00

LAWRENCE — An author and urban developer who was a leader in the Black Panther Party of the 1960s and ’70s will speak about his new book and the turbulence of those years at the University of Kansas.

Flores A. Forbes, author of “Will You Die With Me?: My Life and the Black Panther Party,” will speak at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, at the Big 12 Room in the Kansas Union. The Hall Center for the Humanities and the KU Department of Theatre and Film are sponsoring his talk. (read more)

Moment of Silence

2007-04-16T17:35:00.000-07:00

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Thirty-three people, including the gunman, were killed on a Virginia university campus Monday in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. At least 26 other people were injured, some of them as they leapt to safety from the windows of a classroom building. (read more)

Song of the Week:
Someday We'll All Be Free - Donny Hathaway

The Color of Comfort?

2007-04-12T06:53:00.000-07:00

Check out this article by Jim Wilkes of the Toronto Star

When the new chocolate-coloured sofa set was delivered to her Brampton home, Doris Moore was stunned to see packing labels describing the shade as "Nigger-brown."

She and husband Douglas purchased a sofa, loveseat and chair in dark brown leather last week from Vanaik Furniture and Mattress store on Dundas St. E.

Moore, 30, who describes herself as an African-American born and raised in New York, said it was her 7-year-old daughter who pointed out the label just after delivery men from the Mississauga furniture store left.
(Read More)

2007-04-09T16:57:00.000-07:00

Book of the Week: Shadowboxing by Joy James

News: Hip Hop Figure Skating? (read more)

Event: Relay for Life @ the University of Kansas

Album of the Week: Birth of the Cool by Miles Davis

KU Pride Week 2007!!!

2007-04-02T16:12:00.000-07:00

University of Kansas student group, Queers and Allies, is hosting the 2007 Pride Week. (more info)

Book of the Week: Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Quote of the Week: "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house"

Event of the Week: Talib Kweli @ The Grenada (Lawrence, KS) tomorrow night!

Need skills? Need money? Check out these internships (get it)

Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes

2007-03-23T18:18:00.001-07:00

Once again, filmmaker Byron Hurt will be at the University of Kansas on Monday March 26th. Hurt will be showing his film Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes. For those of you who haven't seen this documentary, you should get access to it immediately (suggestion: do an inter-library loan asap). There will be a discussion panel immediately after the film. The event is free and open to the public.

For more info on the film click here

Ten Years After Biggie's Death

2007-03-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

Great article from Village Voice writer Tom Breihan about the late/great Notorious B.I.G. (read more)

2007-03-12T16:11:00.001-07:00

Book of the Week:

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Movie of the Week: The Jerk starring Steve Martin

Scholarships - No GPA Requirements:

Alvin Cox Memorial Scholarship

BlackNews.com

Daylon E. Kinney

Byron Hurt at KU

2007-03-12T15:24:00.000-07:00

University of Kansas Press Release

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas graduate students will join award-winning film director Byron Hurt for a panel discussion following a free and public screening of his documentary “Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes” at 7 p.m. Monday, March 26, in the Kansas Union ballroom.

After the screening, Hurt, who recently appeared on a CNN special titled “Hip-Hop: Art or Poison?,” will moderate a discussion with the audience.

Shown at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, Hurt’s documentary provides an in-depth look at machismo in rap music and hip-hop culture. His candid interviews present divergent voices of fans and social critics speaking about the struggle to negotiate the exciting creativity, seductive rhythms, blatant violence and homophobia in what is now an international music form. (read more)

Al Sharpton's Family Ties

2007-03-07T04:18:00.000-08:00

I found an interesting article in Slate (online publication)on Al Sharpton's family history.

read more...

The World Outside...

2007-03-05T17:16:00.000-08:00

Book of the Week: Angry Black White Boy

Artist of the Week: Jill Scott

Album of the Week: Jill Scott Collaborations

Challenge of the Week: Get a Passport!
To undergraduates:
I encourage you to look up study abroad programs at your school. It's important that we all venture out into the world and understand that education occurs outside the classroom. Many of us take college for granted, so we fail to look for other opportunities outside of job fairs and "multicultural" events. They are $97 at your local post office. Don't let life pass you by.

Just a thought

2007-02-26T16:53:00.000-08:00

Quote of the Week:
"Everybody is somebody. But nobody wants to be themselves"
Gnarls Barkley

Book of the Week:
Yo' Mams's Disfunktional! by Robin D.G. Kelley

Song of the Week:
Tennessee by Arrested Development

Documentary of the Week: Bastards of the Party
This is a great film on the history of L.A. Gangs.

Event of the Week: Dayton Contemporary Dance Company presents Color-ography at the University of Kansas Lied Center on Wed. 28th.

A personal note:
I would like to advocate the spread of cultural histories throughout the year. Many people act as though Black History can only be openly advocated through these 28 days in Feb. To me, that's like saying that Black people are only influential for a month and no more. It is up to us to further they ways in which Black history can be learned, taught, and promoted. This is something I encourage via Black Tuesday. We are key players in the construction of future interpretations of Black culture. If we don't take it seriously; who will?

Ankh Presentations

2007-02-14T08:06:00.000-08:00

Here's some info on my next presentation. It well be at Emporia State University on Feb. 21st. It's free and open to everyone. If you can't make it, tell somebody who may be interested.

Keepin' It Real: Authenticity and Hip Hop

"Keepin' It Real" has become a popular metaphor for truth. This dialogue hopes to probe the very construct of "real-ness" by exposing some of the falsehoods associated with it. We will also discuss the role authenticity plays in arguments about the gap between the Civil Rights Generation and the Hip Hop Generation.

Attention all Dangerous Negroes!!!

2007-02-14T07:48:00.000-08:00

BlackNews.com recently sent me a press release about a Black Empowerment Apparel Company called Dangerous Negro. I checked it out and I'm really feelin' the content. Not only do you get clothing which reflects black empowerment, but you also get reading lists. There's also a section for young black entrepreneurs. So folks, when you get some free time (NOW!) be sure to check out the site and spread the word.

Dangerous Negro Website

Peace

2007-02-12T17:07:00.000-08:00

Quote of the Week:

I was born underwater,
With 3 dollars and six dimes.
Yeah, you may laugh,
but you did not do your math.

Erykah Badu

Give your interpretations of the quote in the comment section please. Thanks

Book of the Week:

From Black Power to Hip Hop
by Patricia Hill Collins (I'm reading it right now and I'm really feelin' it)

Event of the Week:

Def Poetry Jam (it's back!)

Liberate the mind people and be yourself

Also, for those of you who missed the State of the Black Union last weekend; hit up cspan.com and search it. I'll comment more on it later.

Psychadelic Blackness

2007-02-05T21:21:00.000-08:00

Quote of the Week:

"Diversify your bonds" - Wu Tang Financial

Artist of the Week: Jimi Hendrix

For those of you who haven't heard Jimi or act like he's only for rock n roll fans; check out the books. He played with James Brown, Bobby Womack, and a the Isleys; and that's just the beginning.

Books of the Week: Room Full of Mirrors
by: Charles R. Cross

Midnight Lightning: Jimi Hendrix and the Black Experience
by: Greg Tate

2007-01-29T15:41:00.000-08:00

Book of the Week: Flyboy in the Buttermilk
by Greg Tate

From Publishers Weekly
This collection of 40 essays on music, literature, art and politics confirms Tate's role as a chief progenitor of a New Black Aesthetic, what Gates calls "a body of creativity unfettered by the constraints of a nationalist party line." Consistently interesting, often brilliant, Tate--a staff writer for the Village Voice --modulates funkadelic street argot with a fierce intellect, taking on subjects as diverse as Miles Davis, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and Lee Atwater's embrace of black music. Reviewing the rap group Public Enemy, he observes, "To know PE is to love the agitprop (and artful noise) and to worry over the whack OK w-out comma?/no comma/pk retarded philosophy they espouse." Some music essays and a foray into hermeneutics may be heavy going for the uninitiated, but Tate skillfully enlivens writers like black SF fabulist Samuel Delany, and deftly criticizes essentialist curators who deny the "ambiguity and complexity" of black visual art. The political pieces cut to the bone, sparing neither a white power structure that devalues black life nor blacks who cry racism to excuse sexism; too many blacks, he says, "get more upset over being disrespected than they do over being disempowered."
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Song of the Week: Summer Soft (Songs in the Key of Life)
by Stevie Wonder

Event of the Week: A Civil Rights Reader
by Daniel Bernard Roumain
featuring DBR & THE MISSION SQ UNIT
and DJ Scientific
Friday, Feb. 2, 7:30 p.m., Lied Center

Welcome to the South

2007-01-25T07:36:00.000-08:00

Special Entry:
I'm currently taking a course which analyzes the intersections of race, love, and sex in America. A woman in the class told me about this campaign ad which was aired to discredit Harold Ford. Check out the ad and tell me what you think.

2007-01-23T12:44:00.000-08:00

Book of the Week: The New H.N.I.C. by Todd Boyd (aka The Notorious Ph. D)

Quote of the Week:

Whatever's happening with hip hop is whatever's happening to us. If we smoked out; hip hop is gon' be smoked out. If we doin' alright; hip hop is gonna be doin' alright. People talk about hip hop like it's some kind of giant coming to visit the townspeople...
We are hip hop...so the next time you ask where hip hop is going; ask yourself "where am I going?"

Mos Def - Fear Not a Man

Songs of the Week:
Carry on Tradition - Nas (from Hip Hop is Dead)

A Letter of Thanks

2007-01-22T08:17:00.000-08:00

Today, I would like to thank Vh1 for creating Ego Trip's White Rapper Show. This must be what hip hop has been waiting for (notice my sarcasm?). I would like to express my gratitude for allowing John Brown, aka "King of the Burbs" to infiltrate the show.
Brown claims to be an entity. I don't what that's supposed to mean, but it's apparently part of the "Ghetto Revival".

How does one go about this revival? Let's stake a stab at it shall we.

First, remove yourself from people involved in the culture by making yourself an entity, not a rapper.
Second, secure a slot on a reality show who's goal is to create the next white rapper to clasp onto Eminem's coattails.
Third, create a concept like the "ghetto revival", act like the city is economically and spiritually bankrupt, and spit vague sentence fragments about being the "King of the Burbs" without actually doing anything for the "ghetto".

Once you have done this, the John Brown School for Urban Policy/Renewal will award you with it's coveted "Ignorance is Bliss" award for academic fraudulence.

---------------------------------------------------------

On the real side, I do honestly salute VH1 for making the history of hip hop such an important aspect of the show. It's great so see figures like Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow, and Grandmaster Caz on this show. I hope that viewers realize that we must go beyond the gimmick of the "white rapper" and come to understand the

Halleluah, holla back - JB

Undrgraduate Research

2007-01-22T07:44:00.000-08:00

There are various programs throughout the US that host students over the summer for Undergraduate Research Experiences. I cannot stress how important these programs are for students who wish to attend graduate school (MA and Ph. D). These programs offer students the chance to introduce themselves to the world of academia. Some students will be allowed to shape their own projects while others may opt join a faculty endeavor. Either way, students have the option of presenting their research at the end of every summer at various National Research Conferences (It looks beautiful on a CV).

Now, there are an overwhelming amount of programs which look for candidates in the biological sciences. However, those interested in the humanities and social sciences should not feel left out. There are many opportunities for you. For those who are interested, here are a few websites to get you started. Many of the deadlines are approaching, so hurry.

Committee for Institutional Cooperation (look under students)
UC at Berkeley
Duke University (Life Sciences)
Google things like SURP, UROP, SROP, or McNair Scholars. These should bring up some possible programs as well.

Lastly, don't worry about the cost. Most, if not all of these are paid and come with a substantial amount of perks.

Good luck!!!

KU Honors MLK

2007-01-21T21:33:00.000-08:00

The University of Kansas will honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. with a luminaria walk. (Click here for the full story)

New Category

2007-01-17T16:32:00.000-08:00

I really love old school music. By having so much appreciation for the history and culture it represents, it pains me to see such an overabundance of sampling (or down-right stealing) going on in hip hop. Granted, there are some excellent samples out there. There are also, really good remakes. However, we gotta give props to the originators because it's easy to bootleg a cd, but I've yet to meet anyone who bootlegs liner notes.

In an attempt to educate those who visit this sight, I'm doing my best to give you'll some hip hop track titles and their old school predecessors.

Past/Present Parallel Track:

Present
Jay-Z f/ Scarface
This Can't Be Life (The Dynasty)

Past
Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes
I Miss You (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes)

Happy MLK day!!!

2007-01-12T06:14:00.000-08:00

Quotes of the Week (all by MLK Jr.):

"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?"

"Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude."

"A doctrine of black supremacy is as evil as a doctrine of white supremacy."

Book of the Week: I May Not Get There with You by Michael Eric Dyson

Album of the Week: The Colored Section by Donnie

Video Clip of the Week:
Common and Will.I.Am "A Dream"

2007-01-10T22:55:00.000-08:00

Since Black History Month (or as some prefer Rent a Negro Month) is right around the corner; I thought I would give everybody some satire.
Before we begin, satire (according to dictionary.com) is defined as:

1.	the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.

2.	a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule.

This in mind, let the games begin.

Movies of the Week: Bamboozled by Spike Lee

C.S.A. (Confederate States of America) by Kevin Willmont
What would America be like had the south won the Civil War? See the movie and find out.

Books of the Week: Black No More by George Schuyler

Amazon.com Review
This satirical Harlem Renaissance-era novel by black conservative intellectual George S. Schuyler (1895-1977), who wrote for the Pittsburgh Courier and contributed to the NAACP's influential Crisis magazine, is a hilariously insightful treatise on the absurdities of racial identity. Dr. Junius Crookman, a Harlem-based African American physician, mysteriously returns from Germany with a formula that can transform black people into whites. "It looked," Schuyler deadpans, "as though science was to succeed where the Civil War failed." One of the first to enlist Dr. Crookman's services is an insurance salesman named Max Disher, who as the white Matthew Fisher is now free to pursue the white women who once rejected him and otherwise bask in Euro-American social privilege (including a top position in a hate group called the Knights of Nordica). Schuyler unveils the futility of this electro-chemical form of "passing" through the emptiness the Disher/Fisher character encounters in the white cultural world, which doesn't measure up to the Harlem nightlife--revealing the poison behind the notion of wanting to be something you're not. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Websites your pondering pleasure:
Rent-A-Negro.com (also a book)
Black People Love Us (Thanks Dr. M)

Album you gotta hear: The Minstrel Show by Little Brother

Last, but not least, I'm sure many of you know about the infamous Boondocks skit with MLK (click here). If anyone would like to give their feedback on the clip, please leave it in the comment section or e-mail me (cartertwin@hotmail.com)

May the blackness be with you

Happy New Year!!!

P.S. Enjoy the Video

2006-12-20T12:48:00.000-08:00

I have bad news everybody...

Blac(K)ademic is signing off. I would just like to thank her for providing a place where people could express themselves. I hope that others will follow in her footsteps and articulate their own unique voice. Peace Nubian. We'll miss you...

2006-12-12T19:27:00.000-08:00

Book of the Week: Can't Stop, Won't Stop by Jeff Chang

Website of the Week: Can't Stop, Won't Stop the Blog

Song of the Week: You Must Learn by KRS-One

2006-11-28T04:33:00.000-08:00

Quote of the week: "The price of one's hat isn't the worth of their intelligence"
African-American Saying

Book of the Week: Deconstructing Tyrone

Resource of the Week: Undergraduates, contact me if you are interested in graduate study and money!!! I have resources available for you, so you can earn money and conduct research. It looks good on your resume/cv and you get early exposure to your field.

Song of the Week: Can't Knock the Hustle
Jay-z and Mary J. Blige

2006-11-20T19:53:00.000-08:00

Quote Request:

"I'm so far ahead of my time I'm bout to start another life,
Look behind you I'm bout to pass you twice" Jay-Z

2006-11-20T19:45:00.000-08:00

Quote of the Week: "Knowledge is the founding of everything in existence. If you're not droppin' knowledge, you're violent because you're ignorant" Papoose

Book of the Week: A Piece of Cake by: Cupcake Brown
Album of the Week: Tamia - Between Friends
Movie of the Week: School Daze