The Obama campaign will one day be an example of how a candidate can get Willie Hortoned in the new millennium.

It’s no secret that minorities are used to sink presidential candidates. To sheer up their base and drive them to the polls in droves, conservatives have been using the scare tactics for years now.  In 2004 it was the fear of homosexual hordes running through the streets clutching marriage licenses with cell phones in their hands putting their new spouses on the medical plans.  Oh the horror, the horror!  It was enough to help sink swift boated Kerry’s campaign.

So how do you get rid of Obama, someone who claims he’s not going to run the regular gambit and then has the audacity to give uplifting speeches?  Trump out a gay closeted lover?  They tried that and it didn’t work.  Point out to everyone that although he claims to have transcended race he is still indeed a black man?  Yep, tried that too and he was buoyed higher.

It’s obvious they decided to stick witht he black motif because being black is definitely a lot scarier than being gay in the minds of middle white America.  And if they can’t make calm and cool Obama show his angry black side then they have to show he’s angry by association.

Trump out the friends.

First it was Farrakhan.  Now, unlike other Americans it’s apparent that Farrakhan is not allowed to have his own ideas of who he should want in the White House.  It’s probably better that he came out for McCain than give a shout out endorsement to Obama, who has been whispered about being Muslim anyway.  Although Farrakhan belongs to the black American sect of muslims which is a lot different than the Sunnis, Shias and Shiites but just as angry at white Americans. 

Then there was 1960’s radical William Ayerswho was a member of the Weather Underground which is renowned for issuing a state of war against the American government and a botched bombing.  Although Ayers is now a professor and Obama was just a child living on a different landmass when the Weathermen were at their peak, his association with him was brought up to taint Obama’s character.

And now there is Reverend Wright, who just won’t go away.  Although Obama said that he wasn’t in the audience when Wright damned America it doesn’t matter.  He’s his pastor, right?  What probably angered Obama the most is when Wright said that Obama was saying what he needed to say as a politician just as he was saying what he needed to say as a minister, which kind of insinuated that Obama was just saying whatever he needed to say for political expediency.

And that caused Obama to go negative.  On Wright.

It’s sad that throughout his campaign Obama has distanced himself from seeming overtly black.  For MLK’s 40thmemorial of his death he didn’t make it to Memphis.  He also didn’t make it to Tavis Smiley’s”State of the Black Union”; he sent his wife but it still didn’t sit well with Tavis.  And now Obama has to put a marathoner’s distance between him and his former pastor.  Why?  Because he can’t seem to black.  Because white America has 24-second amnesia and we must all pretend that what has gone on in the past is so far behind us that it doesn’t matter one iota now.

I’m not saying that all that what Rev. Wright charged the American government withis true (putting AIDS and drugs in the black community to destroy us and only us) but looking at the past government’s dealing with African Americans like the Tuskegee experiment, then it’s hard to say that Wright’s fears are actually farfetched.  The black community has long been wary of the American government and I don’t know if Wright is actually speaking in the African American religious tradition but he is giving voice to different things and conspiracy theories that I have heard in the black community.

So, aside from Wright being the nutty Uncle that one must bear that Obama once characterized him as, I wonder if, in the long view, Obama will also turn on the rest of the black community, because I have heard those who are educated as well as uneducated voice those views.  He isn’t running to be the president of black America but of all America and he will be held accountable by those of many colors.  So, if he knows this then why is he pandering to the white working class vote?  Is it because he feels they are more likely to come to the polls than the average black American?  Or is it because he knows that the average black American will really vote for the democratic nominee, no matter what egregious thing they’ve done or said.  That is what the Clinton’s believe and African Americans proved it when they voted for Bill Clinton after his Sister Soulja moment.

Now all the talk around the media is how Obama is taking the initiative by putting Wright in check.  It’s sad he had to wail on his former political adviser to get these props.  Although in extending his 15 minutes Wright did bring it on himself so Obama had to check him.

So perhaps this is a sign for Clinton, who has been wanting Obama to play the game her way.  But then black on black negativity is something I’m used to seeing, so I doubt it.

After declaring hip hop as deadin 2006, Nas came back in 2007 with a PSA for cooning rappers. 

So what can Nas do to be more controversial?  Release a new album in the summer of ‘08 called Nigger and before it comes out drop a song that slurs nearly everyone; that will get tongues wagging.

At first I was set to hate it, but then I thought perhaps I should listen to it in relationship of the rest of the cd.  I’m willing to give Nas the benefit of the doubt since, unlike a lot of other rappers out there, he actually gives thought to what he says (and actually says something).

So, Nas, don’t let me down.

So, I haven’t found much time to write this weekend but I have found time to think.  Mostly I have been thinking about this article because it has recently come to my attention how big of a hold ghetto lit is in the black community. 

The other day a black mother came to me with a stack of books and I asked her if she also picked up Hotlanta.  She confided in me that she had been giving her 14 year old daughter ghetto lit to read because that’s what she has been reading and she has come to realize that all the sexual themes may be bad for her daughter’s psyche.  I gave her a couple of other black books that I absolutely adore and began to wonder how many other black kids preteens and young teens have turned to ghetto lit because they think that is the only thing that is written by black people.

She is not the first black mother I’ve encountered who think that way.  I respect mothers who want to find stories that reflect a black pov but I wonder if this is really the way to do it.  A few years ago I sent a friend of mine an article about how books by Donald Goines and Iceberg Slimhas been making a resurgence.  My friend likes to read herself (not necessarily street lit) and after reading the article thought of picking up one of the pimp lit novels for her straight laced 13 year old son who didn’t like to read.

“Which one do you think I should get him?  Which one do you think he’d like, what do you think?” she queried.

“I think he’ll wonder what type of message you’re giving him.” I typed back.  To circumvent her selections I suggested “We Beat the Streets” and “Think Big” instead.

What is the message young black readers are getting when they walk into bookstores and the African American book section is bursting with urban lit titles and crowding out books that doesn’t have heated scenes or provocative covers?  Although I’m worried about our literature legacy I can’t in good faith call for a book burning of titles I think are demeaning.  All I can do is hope and recommend more age appropriate books to mothers who come in for advice in hopes that one day young readers will grow to be just as prone to pick up Pearl Cleage as they are a Vickie Stringer book.

It can happen.

Baracky

I found this link over at Afronetizen.  Big ups to them.

I found this over on the Huffington Post in an article where H. Clinton wanted to chuck Reagan Democrats.  In 1995 she said to her then in office husband , “Screw ‘em.  You don’t owe them a thing, Bill. They’re doing nothing for you; you don’t have to do anything for them.”

To which B. Clinton replied, “I know how you feel. I understand Hillary’s sense of outrage. It makes me mad too. Sure, we lost our base in the South; our boys voted for Gingrich. But let me tell you something. I know these boys. I grew up with them. Hardworking, poor, white boys, who feel left out, feel that our reforms always come at their expense. Think about it, every progressive advance our country has made since the Civil War has been on their backs. They’re the ones asked to pay the price of progress. Now, we are the party of progress, but let me tell you, until we find a way to include these boys in our programs, until we stop making them pay the whole price of liberty for others, we are never going to unite our party, never really going to have change that sticks.”

That sounds so familiar… like something I just heard recently… but the speaker used another word in reference to whites with guns… religion… you know the one. 

Was it acrid?  Acerbic?  Sour?

I can’t remember but it will come to me.

I respect Bill Cosby and over the past few years I have even mostly agreed with him.

But this?  He is a bit off the mark.

In response to the profane and degrading lyrics, Cosby has commissioned his friend Bill “Spaceman” Patterson to create a rap CD of newcomers who rap about  the “…value of an education. The value of respecting one’s self and . . giving [listeners] a chance to raise their self-esteem and confidence.”

Which, of course, I can’t be mad at.  But there are a lot of rappers who are out there spitting who do exactly that.  Jean Grae, K-Os, Blackalicious, Aceyalone, Handsome Boy Modeling School, The Coup… heck just go browse the artist roster of Okayplayer.  The thing is these groups don’t get airplay.  Why?  Because they are positive and a lot of the record companies aren’t throwing money and strong arming the radio stations to play them.  So instead we get what we have on the radios now.

Years ago, in my halcyon rap-filled youth and before rap music went mainstream rap was more creative.  Rap was creative and people were willing to try different sounds and different styles to help get their point across.  We had the educated rappers and the comedian rappers.  The storyteller rappers and the bohemian rappers.  When the West Coast began hitting with gangsta rap that is when rap really began to take off and get more airplay.  Although Run DMC hit the top of the charts in the late 80s it took Dr. Dre, Eazy E and Ice Cube to bring it to a higher level.  Alicia Keys misconstrued statement on the genre weren’t too far off the mark.  By the mid 90’s gangsta rap became synonymous with rap music and all those who tried to diverge with more creative and thought provoking music became abnormal.  The same people who sought out rap before because it was a creative musical form still did so but those who made the music weren’t getting the accolades or attention as some of their “hardcore” peers were.

But then, the record companies aren’t fully to blame for it.  They only sale what moves units and the people wanted dross.  And because the people asked for it record companies put more of it out.  When you have mass marketed music then you will get easy, simplistic rhymes and beats, today’s rap is Wal-mart in musical form.

So people are asking if rap is dead and I will tell you know, no it isn’t.  Good rap is where it’s always has been, underground waiting for someone to find it.

If Cosby wants to help newcomers come out and throw out some hot lines with weight I can’t knock it.  I do wish that more people would throw money behind those who are out there trudging along saying what they have to say and no one is hardly listening .  Or buying.  But they rap it anyway.  I might even pick it up when it comes out, too.

But not before I pick up The Roots latest cd.  We have to support good black music.  If we don’t, then who will?

Can you really believe what she says?  You know those Chi-town South Siders with their hoity-toity ways.   They are all so rich and siditty and each one is born with a silver spoon.

(hiss) South Siders

Pic from TMZ.com

This is the thing that I don’t get, how is the federal government is going after  Snipes for $41mill.  Have they not seen the Blade series?  I’m surprised he isn’t bankrupt after that because I watched it on free tv and wanted to get my money back.

Point of the post: cute blasian kids (of course). 

I saw this interesting article in the Atlanta Constitution about a Korean American woman who is investing in the black community.

Suna Om is a Korean immigrant and entrepreneur who is investing in the Pittsburgh community of Atlanta.  She also lives there.

“We want to be part of the West End and live together in harmony,” said Om to the Atlantic Constitution. 

Many in the community see Om as being a trailblazer as well as a good business woman.   Her next project is to build a Marriott in her neighborhood with a rooftop garden.  She sees the hotel as a great place to stay for parents of students at Clark, Morehouse and Spelman.

To read more of this article go to this link.

It’s hard for H. Clinton’s supporters to get across the point that people are more sexist than racist when everytime they send someone out to bring it home their remarks inevitably come out sounding more racist than gender neutralizing.  B. Clinton did it and alienated black voters February.  When Ferraro did it people realized what really brings her to white sales.

So how can you get across the notion that it’s hard out here for a white chick when Three 6 Mafia isn’t offering to make you a theme song? 

How you ask?  Get a black guy to do it.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson on New American Media argues that H. Clinton’s biggest drawback is her gender.  In pointing out that Americans are more likely to laugh at a joke about women as opposed to one about minorities he concludes that the country is more sexist than racist.

The worst part of this is that if anyone dared make a racial crack about Barack Obama they’d be pounded into the sand. Yet, blatant sexist and anti-woman remarks are routinely spewed out, often unchallenged, and even cackled at. In the CBS News poll, though more said they have heard more racist cracks in the past few months than sexist cracks, they were less likely to be offended by the sexist ones than the racist ones.

I guess Hutchinson didn’t see the new CBS poll that they released last week on Apr 7 where they asked voters if the race of candidate mattered.  Although whites who said they were more likely to vote for a candidate who was white were outnumbered 6 to 1 by those who said race didn’t matter, those who used race as their guide ”were three times likelier to say they would only be satisfied with Clinton as the nominee than if Obama were chosen”. 

Although most white pollster’s said that gender was not a factor, for those that did consider gender H. Clinton got the slight edge.

For African Americans only one in three said race was significant in their decision.

BET founder Bob Johnson believes that Obama’s garners black votes only because he’s black.  Picking up where Geraldine Ferraro left off last month, Johnson backs Ferraro’s statements and claims that the Obama “campaign has such a hair-trigger on anything racial it is almost impossible for anybody to say anything”.

“What I believe Geraldine Ferraro meant is that if you take a freshman senator from Illinois called ‘Jerry Smith’ and he says I’m going to run for president, would he start off with 90 percent of the black vote?” Johnson said. “And the answer is, probably not.”

Meanwhile, Obama’s statements on disenchanted poor whites who “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations” has been called by both Clinton and McCain as elitist (which is funny since the Clintons have earned a tenth of a billion in the near decade since leaving the White House and McCain is one of the richest men in congress because of his wife’s money).  But really, it’s exactly to those anti-immigrant, gun-slinging people that the Clintons have been coquettishly been pandering to for the last few months by playing into their fear of a black President.

Wasn’t she something of the bitter one a few weeks ago because she couldn’t be femme enough for others to be misogynistic?  Well now Obama is looking blacker than ever, just ask the two black guys who keep pointing it out.

Well, Debra, is Obama black enough for you now?

Two seconds after we gained our freedom, pseudo social psychologists have been studying what is wrong with African Americans, why aren’t we succeeding, why are Asians surpassing us, why are our graduation rates so low, why are our families fractured?  In essence, what is it about African Americans that make us implode?

They claimed we lived in seperate but equal societies and long have we languished under the so-called parity.

So here we are in the first decade of a new millennium and the burden of the past is still beside us.  The greater of us tries to figure out how to help the least of us without capsizing the shaky boat called middle class stability in America.  First Bill Cosby critiques our woes which is then dispatched by Michael Eric Dyson whose comments are then scrutinized by Juan Williams just in time for all of us to go to the big pep rally for African American at the State of the Black Union with Tavis Smiley.   In the interim more African American males are heading off to jail than college, drugs and crime rule inner city black neighborhoods and we are at a loss to why the up and coming generation probably won’t surpass the previous one.  We look at race and class and it’s historical aspects and among the bickering we still can’t find a consensus.

In the meantime whites have moved past the issue of slavery and race. 

Meeting David Wilson is a documentary that addresses the issues of race and intraracial problems in the United States.  28 year-old journalist David Wilson goes in search of answers to America’s racial problems by sifting through his own family history.  Along the way he encounters another David Wilson whose family owned his ancestors.

It aired on MSNBC on April 11 but the DVD is for sale for all who want to watch this journey.

In these racially charged times in politics any misspoken word can be a landmine ready to blow up even if your last name isnt’ Clinton or Obama.

Kentucky Rep. Congressman Geoff Davis found that out the hard way this past Saturday night.  In giving a speech to the Fourth District Lincoln/Reagan Day Dinner in Boone County, Davis said, “I’m going to tell you something: That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button.  He could not make a decision in that simulation that related to a nuclear threat to this country.

Apparently, Davis is unaware of the connotation boy has when used in reference to adult African American males.

I can hear Michael Evans now opining, “Boy is a white racist word!”

“He simply misspoke,” said Jeremy Hughes, Davis’ campaign spokesman.   Davis is in the midst of running for re-election.

Davis’ poor choice of words are being blamed as just a blunder and not latent racism.  His supporters have also pointed out that along with his oldest daughter Davis has mentored African Americans in inner-city schools.

Calling adult African American males is a slur in the black community.  It’s a reminder to many that although they may be as old as Methusaleh they will never get the respect that is due to an adult male in this society.  It’s emasculating and pejorative, though many don’t see the connection even if it is unintentional. 

“Geoff Davis is absolutely not a racist,” said Fourth District GOP Chairman Kevin Sell of Alexandria.  He attended the dinner but didn’t recall the congressman referring to Obama as boy.

It’s hard to explain to some people why I stay in the Natti.  Everytime I do it kind of comes off as an abusive woman telling her family why she just can’t let go.

“You don’t see what I see… yeah, there was the Maplethorpe thing and the Ku Klux Klan on the square and the 2001 riots that happened because of 15unanswered killings by the police of unarmed black men.  But it ain’t like that with me.  Or it ain’t like that all the time.  You have to see the good in the city like Krohn Conservatory and the Zoo.  The Black Family Reunion and the Buzz.  The Natti is trying, can’t you see it’s trying?”

My friends’ response?

“Weeze free now!  Why are you staying in that plantation of a city when you can go anywhere else and get more?  You need to shake it off, man, and move on.”

Right here is where I should insert the ill-attributed Mark Twain 20 years behind the times quote but I won’t mainly because I’m tired of hearing it mostly from proud Cincinnatians who find the dig a badge of honor.  No, we aren’t ethnically diverse as many major cities and if someone ask you what school you went to they mean high school, not college.  We put chili on our spaghetti and anytime a rumor is whispered about Pete Rose inducted into baseball’s hall of fame it locks up the news headlines for days.  But I still think this city is one of the hidden gems that America has inspite of Bill Cunningham.   

My friend, Blue, has become my Cincinnati Cheerleader and if the city knew anything they’d make him the city’s official ambassador (how can you go wrong with a gay, Filipino musician?).  Born and raised here he is always pointing out the wonders of this city and telling me how much he loves it despite the fact it hasn’t always been gay and minority friendly. 

“I can leave and go live elsewhere,” he said. “I have gone elsewhere but how does it help it here?  I love this city and I want to stay and fight and change it.”

I said I would stay too, at least a few more years.

I believe the city is changing, slowly, but it is.  Just in this past decade I’ve seen a big jump in the racial landscape.   We aren’t where we were at the beginning of the decade with blacks rioting, police slowing down and gays made to feel unwelcome.   I think by the time we hit 2010 and get the results back from the census many will be amazed where we stand.  We will probably still be behind other cities, but not quite the Mayberry image many try to project upon us.

I heard this storythe other day on This American Life.  It amazes me that some are unaware of Jerry Springer’s resume before the “Jer-ry, Jer-ry” fame.  Many were even more surprised how Southwest Ohioans could entertain the idea of Springer coming back to run for public office.  But I think this story explains the complexity of thought here in the Ohio valley.

That and allergies. It’s hard to think things through when you are under a Benadryl haze.

When the Roots sang that ode to hip hop a few years ago I felt they were singing about my experience.  I love rap music but just like searching for a man you have to weed through the bad and the over hyped to find the good stuff. 

When you find an artist that is good you want to support them.  So to hear that Lupe Fiasco is thinking about quitting after his next CD is rather sad.

“I don’t want to say I’m 100 percent sure, like, ‘Yeah, this is it.’ But 85 percent,” he revealed to MTV. ”That 15 percent is the X factor. That could be bills. Like, ‘Lupe, you got to pay the bills.’ ‘Oh, man, I got to put out another album.’ “

Lupe is a throw back to old school late 80s rap, when some artists rapped about more than just loose women, firearms, and their expense accounts.  I’d even go so far as to say that Lupe is probably one of the few young brothers who can actually rap.  Yeah, I guess its interesting to see how many different ways Soulja Boy can say “Yooooouuuuuuu!” over a beat that will make you want to dance but for those of us who still have synapses that fire we want our words to actually have meaning and depth.

Like Lupe in this song right here:

Teenagers have two problems.

The first problem is they don’t know shit.  Their second problem is they believe they know everything.

I can concede that I was that way when I was younger and didn’t realize I didn’t really know anything until I hit my mid twenties.  I thought I knew everything and everything I didn’t know wasn’t worth knowing.  I remember feeling smug and thinking I was much more astute on things than my mother was only having to go back to her when I realized the expanse of my own stupidity to tell her that she was right.

So, by my estimation it will be the year 2016 when my daughter hits her own revelation.

The whole college process is a pain and my daughter is the biggest pain about it.  We all get on her nerves at home so she wants to go away but she took forever to fill out the college application forms.  Then when it came time to search for scholarships she claimed to have it under control?

Did you go to fastweb.com?

Yesssss mom.

Did you search the websites of the colleges you are interested in to see what they have?

Yesssss mom.

Have you written any essays?  Applied for any scholarships?  Turned in any forms?

She accused me of trying to keep her at home.  Me, the woman who has her foot up her ass about filling all this mess out.  Obviously she’s not getting the hint that I want her to go off to college just if only so she can at least be more proactive in washing her own clothes.

I’m not the only parent in a dither about financing their freedom child’s college expenses.  In today’s New York Times reporter Jonathan D. Glater writes about other families feeling the economy pinch and worrying whether the loan option will be able to subsidize their children’s education.

There are clear signs of potential problems in the fall. It remains difficult for lenders to sell securities backed by student loans, in turn making it harder to raise capital. One guarantor of private loans, a nonprofit company called the Education Resources Institute, filed for bankruptcy protection this week.

So we worry, we apply for everything we can and we wait.   In the interim I wait for my petulant teen to come around and see I kind of know what I’m talking about.   Factoring in inflation I wonder what I can charge her for that?

So, I can see his point but since he and his wife Kelis wore the t-shirts with the n-word on it to the awards show it’s kind of hard to fully concede where he’s coming from.

Sometimes no news is good news.

For the last several weeks McCain has been flying under the wire while all eyes and press has been glued to the Obama/Clinton feud… er, I mean race, race… the Obama/Clinton race.

Well, McCain is getting noticed again and not for good reasons.

MoveOn.org, a liberal public advocacy group, has put out a list called 10 Things You Should Know About McCain.   Number one on the list is that McCain was against establishing MLK as a holiday in Arizona (last week on the 40th anniversary he admitted he as wrong).  The list also notes that the Children’s Defense Fund has named him one of the worst senators for children because he voted against voted against the children’s health care bill last year and his answer to people losing their homes was to get a second job and skip vacations although he owns eight homes himself and is one of the richest men in congress.

I think my favorite was number 7 on the list:

Many of McCain’s fellow Republican senators say he’s too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: “The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He’s erratic. He’s hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”⁷

It’s that temper that has brought about another news story.  The website Rawstory got an advance copy of a forthcoming book “The Real McCain” by Cliff Schechter.  In the book Schechter cites 3 background sources for an incident 16 years ago when McCain was on the campaign trail.  The alledged story goes that Cindy McCain was playing in her husband’s hair and jokingly noted the thinness to which he replied, 

At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c___ (rhymes with hunt).

No word from the McCains yet denying the story. 

Perhaps he should think about making Rice his vice president.  It could possibly make inroads with female voters especially after that (deep sigh) “c” calling story.

But word to McCain,  even if she was Vice President I wouldn’t try calling Condoleeza out of her name.  She often gives looks that makes me thinks she knows a bit about torture and as a former POW and torture victim, I don’t think you’d want to go there with her.

Soul 2 Seoul is a 25 minute documentary about a long time married IR couple (BM/AF)  who are joined by their children to discuss their life as a bicultural/biracial family.  Although they seem as if they have it together, things become tense when the oldest son marries a white female.

I found the sound hard to hear but it was worth muddling through. 

Inja and James Yates have also started a foundation for biracial children.  To find out more about it go to Soul2Seoul.org.

I found this over at Disgrasian:

I think they sound like The Cure, my daughter thinks they sound like The Go!Team.  And yeah, I know only two are actually black kids (African American + Filipino to be exact) but they are tight.   Check them out on MySpace or at their official website and download the song “I’m Not Going to Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You” from their debut EP “The Wizard of Ahhhs”.

Things might be getting a big nasty soon.  It’s not like they’ve been cordial now but a quick perusal of news stories over the last 24 hours in the Clinton-Obama drama shows:

1) Clinton still can’t get over the Richardson endorsement of Obama.  Bill, you gave the man a cabinet job over 10 years ago, let it go.  People deserve to move on and have their own mind and career.  Haven’t you ever heard of the maxim, “If you love something, let it go… ” Let it go!

2) Jimmy Carter seems to be swinging Obama’s way.  I don’t think Carter ever really liked B. Clinton anyway.  Carter can expect some nasty comments coming his way from the Clinton camp after its done; perhaps downplaying his work for Habitat for Humanity or his work for Peace in the Middle East.  Do the Clintons even remember there’s another Democrat president still alive?

3) Clinton tells the Superdelegates that Obama can’t win.  Yeah, he might be winning the popular votes and the delegates but he can’t bring it home in November like she can.  Remember, she won Ohio, California and Rhode Island.  States that count (remember states whose votes count always vote for H. Clinton.  The other states who voted for Obama, their votes don’t really count.

4)Obama raised 40 million for his campaign in March.  The Clintons made 50 million since leaving the White House but aren’t releasing their tax forms to tell how.

But then, how much did she make in March?  Is she still lending her campaign money?

5) A recent shows the age gap in voting.  In a match-up between Obama and McCain, Obama has the upper hand with voters 18-29 with 57% showing preference for Obama, but at the other end with the 65+ set McCain has the edge with 51 percent favoring him.

A matchup with Clinton-McCain shows a closer race with H. Clinton barely edging out McCain with young voters and McCain narrowly escaping defeat over Clinton in the other age brackets.

The real question that I’m dying to find out the answer to is how H. Clinton can spin this to her advantage-disadvantage at the same time?  If anyone can do it, she can.

I remember back in the 80s local African American singers/bands who may have had a hit or two (or no hits at all) picking up and touring Asia for months that turned into years.  They love us over there, a band member told me.  You can be just a cover singer and have a good fan base. 

A lot of Korean American singers are following their lead.  One of the hottest singers on the K-pop scene right now is Pennsylvania native Tim Hwang.  His current album “Love Is…” is burning up the charts.  The 26 year old has a sweet and innocent look that resonates well with Korean fans. 

It’s a shift in styles that some Korean Americans aren’t able to make.  American Idol hopeful Paul Kim, who has been unlucky with American labels, also tried to make a go of it in Korea.  In an interview with KoreaAm magazine Kim discussed his short time in South Korea on a Korean record label.

 “It was just rough. They wanted me to do pop and R&B, which I didn’t want to do. Like ‘N Sync stuff. I guess that’s what sells over there,” Kim said.  Kim is a soul singer who wasn’t interested in changing his genre of music.  In the end the deal ended up not working out.

So if our edgier style doesn’t always hit over there can Korean Americans become stars there and come back and make a sweep here?  Doesn’t seem like it.  Towards the end of the KoreAm article it recounts Tim performed at a gala and some in the audience found the performance “pleasant but dull”.

Well, sounds like he won’t be opening up for Kanye West anytime soon, but he sounds like a perfect match for a Disney tween TV-show.  Ask Hillary Duff and Hanna Montana, that is really how you can break in hard nowadays.

With the success of street dance shows like American’s Best Dance Crew and, to a lesser extent, So You think You Can Dance I can see this movie Planet B-Boy being a hit.  Check your local listings to see when this movie is coming to a theater near you.

Just like with rap, it astonishes me how a something started in the streets by black youth has now reached world wide proportions.  Who knew?

In a grassroots struggle there comes a victory that soon becomes a clarion for those who have become weary and when it is uttered the warriors gird themselves and continue to fight on, in remembrance of that one victory that seemed somewhat elusive during the throes of battle.

The rallying cry for this year is Dunbar Village.

I vaguely remember hearing about Dunbar Village last summer on NPR’s News and Notes.  I was aghast but to me it seemed like an open and shut case when they finally caught the young men.

But it is never an easy case when someone wants to throw out the race card.

The case is so unspeakable it pains me to retell it here, but in a brief synopsis a 35 year old woman and her 12 year old son was terrorized in her home by 10 masked men.  For one night they beat her, raped and sodomized her and, as if it couldn’t get any worse, at gun point made her perform fellatio on her own son.  To cover up the act the young men (ages 14-1 threw cleaning agents on the woman

They were able find a couple of the young men and DNA linked them to the crime.  That should be it, case solved.  But no.  In early March, Al Sharpton and a crew of protesters stood outside the State Attorney’s office complaining that the punishment was too harsh and that the young men should be free on bond, similar to another case in Florida where a couple of young men from Boca Raton helped to intoxicate two young women and once inebriated raped them.

“To have different reactions to the same set of circumstances is a crime in itself,” Sharpton said.

The protesters believed the only reason the men in the Dunbar Village were still in jail was because they were black and the men in Boca Raton were white.  They wanted the black men back out on the streets.

For the last several weeks, what has started out as a slow Internet buzz has created a war.   So much so that on his radio show Al Sharpton clarified his position by saying he didn’t want bail for the alleged assailants and the West Palm Beach NAACP released a statement denouncing the crime and refraining from asking for the young men’s freedom.

The Palm Beach Post has also noted that a group of 30 black female bloggers is keeping this heinous case in the news.

In the meantime the women blog on and have issued their own statement for what they want to see happen to the case.  It has been posted on 30 different blogs for women who want change.

So what happened?  Al Sharpton and the NAACP are both staid fixtures of the civil rights movement.  But both of them are about as current as Sharpton’s ‘do.  The knee-jerk reaction has always been when in doubt, support the black male even when (or some would say especially when), as in this case, the victim happens to be a black female.  Before discovering whether release in this case would be the best thing for the alleged perpetrators and the community, it was quickly decided that the punishment didn’t fit the crime or couldn’t fit the crime because someone who had done something vaguely similar wasn’t in jail, too.  We are so used to believing that black males are victims of an unfair justice system that we erroneously side with the criminals instead of the victims.  Too often the victims are the weakest in our community: black women and children.

For those too lazy to click the link here is the open letter about Dunbar Village.  Please join your voice to those who have been silenced in our community for far too long.  To keep abreast of the latest information on Dunbar Village, click on one of the links below.

Open Letter 3/28/2008 Update: A New Underground Railroad is Born

As families gear up to celebrate the graduation of their children from high school new statistics have been released about the rate of graduation for students in urban communities. 

America’s Promise Alliance (APA), a foundation started by Colin Powell, released information on April 1 about the graduation rates of 50 different cities in the U.S. finding that Detroit, Indianapolis, and Cleveland had the lowest graduation rates in the country.

In comparison, students in suburban and rural school districts were more likely to graduate than their counterparts in public schools in the city. 

To help hold back the tide of drop outs, APA plans to hold summits in every state for the next two years to help prepare students for college and the workforce.

“When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it’s more than a problem, it’s a catastrophe,” said Colin Powell.

A new study from Northwestern University that says “whites who are particularly worried about appearing racist seem to suffer from anxiety that instinctively may cause them to avoid interaction with blacks”.

The study was performed by Jennifer A. Richeson, associate professor of psychology and African-American studies and faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research (IPR) at Northwestern, and Sophie Trawalter, post-doctoral fellow, IPR.  It appeared in the journal Psychological Science with the title “The Threat of Appearing Prejudiced and Race-based Attentional Biases”.

The participants in the study said they worried about appearing biased and the way they have learned to deal with the negative stimuli (black people) is by ignoring it.

So perhaps this is why as I’m walking down the street white folks have just brushed past me as if I wasn’t there.  But why is it they always seem to have a full description when a brother is committing a crime?

The study explains the stranger on the street but what about in other situations?  Like on bus rides or classroom settings or the work day?  I remember going up to a coworker in a different department and asking them a question about something.  I’ve encountered the person before and I consider myself to be pretty friendly, they asked me how long I had been working there and I told them 10 years and reintroduced myself.

Then there’s my daughter who recently complained about an incident in a dance class that she had.  She has been dancing for 10 years and has been in a couple of shows with the girls  but it seems like every school year they want to act “brand new” on her.  I told her to forget about them.  But last fall one of the girls was sitting around and discussing (with another white girl) how much fun they had over someone’s house. 

“Yeah, she was so nice,” said the second girl.  “I forget what her name is, do you remember it.”

“No, I don’t remember it,” said the first girl.  She turns to a black girl in class and asks her if she remembers her name.

The black girl doesn’t know what they are talking about.

“You know, she was in X play with us?  We went over her house and had a sleepover and made pizzas and stuff?  Don’t you remember?”

The black girl looked at them, confused.  She had no idea what they were talking about.  But my daughter did.  She was the “missing black” girl who shared in the slumber pizza party and they even exchanged gifts and pictures.

“And they just act like I’m not there!” my daughter said, crying on my shoulder. “I’ve been with these girls in classes every Saturday for years and they don’t see me.  In school this girl asked me when did I start taking Saturday classes and we were in several plays together.  What the hell is wrong with them?”

“White people are just like that,” I say by way of explanation, which is really not one at all.  How can an invisible person explain the ways of visible people?  Oddly enough, this subject came up with me and another mother (the mother of the “other” black girl in dance class).  One day she brought up to me that her daughter felt ignored/overlooked/invisible in the Saturday classes; she blamed it on race.  Right here I would like to point out that the mother is white and she adopted her daughter who is (fully) black.

“It’s the way some white people are,” she said, disgusted.

Perhaps we are wrong and it really is just a case of avoidance learning; they don’t want to see the girls because they are afraid their action may be misconstrued as being racist.

But it’s not comfort because it still comes off as a racist.