Groovin’ to…

Utada Hikaru

Sorry, there is no video for this song.  It’s off her latest CD, This is the One which has been getting very little attention or airplay (at least not in my city).  She does have a video for that album but it’s not one of my favorites.  Poppin, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and This One are the ones I constantly listen to because they highlight not only her musical ability but her quirky personality.   

I love this song.  If you don’t pay attention to the words it sounds like a lament for a relationship gone bad but once you follow the lyrics you realize the song is about a young woman who is either stalking her favorite singer or is delusional about him.

Check out her website; she’s embarking on an eight city tour which is already sold out but you might be able to score tickets.  Hopefully no one resembling the above song will be in her audience.

What Black People Think of Blacks, What White Folks Think of Blacks

We are living in odd times.  What constitutes a cutting racial remark?  Should every reference to skin color make us cringe?  What about stereotypes?  Should every racial allusion by a white person be met with anger and every enactment of a black stereotype be overlooked?

These questions are too hard to deduce on a Monday.

First off we have Senator Harry Reid’s comment about Barack Obama being palatable to white voters because of his light skin and the lack of black slang in his speech.  I read people calling it “racially tinged” but really,  it’s not racist.  I’m not really sure who it’s a slam against: white voters who are unable to accept a black candidate unless the skin color is close to their own.  Or was he really taking a swipe at blacks who can only proffer light skinned candidates to get their foot in the door (now where in history have I seen that?). 

Republicans are calling the remarks racist, with Michael Steele leading the way.  “There is this standard where Democrats feel that they can say these things and they can apologize when it comes from the mouths of their own,” Steele said to “Fox News Sunday.” “But if it comes from anyone else, it is racism.”

This of course, is highly entertaining, since Steele’s own view of his fellow African Americans comes across as minstrelsy.  He seems to think that to be black one must “be down” and although he hasn’t explicitly said what it was it seems to follow closely to the Hip Hop male posturing and eating soul food.

I guess if we really want to know what it’s like to be black we should ask a white guy who is an ex-politic cum media whore.    According to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich being black means growing up poor, and I guess like him, have a tendency to hustle folks.

“I’m blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived,” Blagojevich said. “I saw it all growing up.”

Of the three I find Blago and Steele a lot more offensive than Reid.  In Reid’s America white folks are apprehensive about the black folks that Blago and Steele claims make up the black community.  Hell, I’d be afraid of them, too.  Blago thinks all blacks are poor and probably on the take like his ass.  Then with Steele we have Kermit the frog frontin’ like he’s 50 Cent.

Damn, how many times can we say this: blacks are not a monolithic group.  We all didn’t grow up poor with single mothers in the hood and for those of us who did we all don’t sit around eating fried chicken trying to get over on the system.  For many people black people are nothing but caricatures that can be summed up by watching a weeks worth of BET.

My black is deep and expansive; it covers all and reaches wide.  It can’t be held in a box, it cannot be contained.  Just like we come in cafe au lait to deep purplish brown so are we also gang members and judges.  We are the mother of many and childless.  We are rich and we are poor.  Any one who speaks for us is only a ripple is the loud throng of voices that tells different stories.

But, Lord knows, someone always has to try:

Glenn Beck Speaks on “African American”

Just found this on Media Matters for America via HuffPo.  Glenn Beck, a man who has no thorough understanding of history, genetics or, really, anything, thinks that African American is a PC term.

(Click link to hear Beck’s words)

News flash to Glenn Beck: all racial/ethnic identifiers are man-made.  No, African Americans are not a race, but neither is negro or white.  Repeat: white is not a race!   It’s a carefully constructed social grouping that has been given weight by laws that the people in power enforce. 

If African Americans weren’t ripped from the motherland, stripped of their culture and kin we’d probably be calling ourselves Bantu Americans or Tutsi Americans or Kenyan American or Nigerian American (yeah, Nigerian even after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab).  But since we don’t have those things we made up our culture mixed in with the plantation mindset your white American forefathers left us with.  And even though you have been trying to name, categorize and belittle us for over 200 years you don’t get a say in whether we call ourselves Negro, Black, African American, Afro American or the Hip Hop Progenitors.  You just call us by whatever incarnation we decide we are going to be that decade.

Or if you ever got to know  any of us a personal level you can call us by our first name.

Except for me.  It’s Ms. Sardonic Sistah to you.

NAACP Announce Image Awards for 2010

It’s been a long time since I have watched an award show.  I think the last one I watched from beginning to end Michael Jackson was sending love to the people in the balcony and I screamed like a fool although I wasn’t even in the balcony.

I can’t remember watching a complete NAACP Image Award show, even before they toyed with the idea of giving R. Kelly an award at the height of his pedophile accusations.  But with the current list of nominees it seems that NAACP is expanding their idea of whom should be acknowledged.

First, maybe it’s just that last year was a really good year for African Americans on film but a lot of good movies were nominated.  American Violet, Medicine for Melancholy, and Precious were all nominated for best films with most of the cast from the movie Precious getting nods for Best/Best Supporting actors and actresses. 

Second, they’ve gone multicultural.  Director Justin Lin was nominated for his episode of the TV show Community, Sandra Oh for Grey’s Anatomy, and James Roday for Psych.  (The episode of Psych that was a shout out to New Edition was hilarious).

They still have the obligatory nominations for Tyler Perry and I’m very conflicted at the nomination of Michael Jackson’s memorial in the category of Outstanding Variety (series or special).   But I guess the “C P” for Colored People really has expanded past the African Americans.

I just might have to watch the award ceremony.  It will air Friday 26 February on Fox at 8pm.  But if they sneak an award to R. Kelly I will be done with them forever.

But He Fits the Color

Well, I guess it doesn’t matter how many b-boy stances you strike in pictures with kids from the burbs or fried chicken and potato salad picnics you have to lure blacks some people just aren’t buying it.  If it doesn’t bring in people, no one is going to be happy with your performance.

An article in the Washington Times reports that many Republicans are voicing discontentment and link it to Michael Steele’s performance.

“I don’t plan to give to the Republican National Committee this cycle, and no other major donor I know is planning to either,” Christine Toretti, a Pennsylvania RNC member and a longtime major donor to the RNC and other GOP campaign committees and causes, told The Washington Times.

Mrs. Toretti said that she and other major donors have never received a telephone call from Mr. Steele soliciting money for the RNC, the GOP’s chief campaign fundraising committee.

Lawrence Bathgate, who served a record three times as RNC finance chairman during and after the Reagan era, told The Times, “No, I haven’t given to the RNC this cycle.”

Washington Times Steele’s side pursuits drive away big donors 7Jan10

A columnist in the Sonoran Weekly Review calls for Steele’s resignation, also citing his peformance:

As time went on, Michael Steele increasing showed himself to be clueless on policy, devoid of ideas and bereft of a competitive political philosophy – this at a time when Americans are clamoring for one.  Most of all, his organizational skills, of primary importance to the position which the party chairman is elected to fill, were shown to be all but nonexistent.  As I watched on with dismay, I hoped against hope that Steele would grow into the job.  Regrettably, this was not to be the case.

Sonoran Weekly Review An Open Call for the Resignation of Michael Steele, 6Jan10

Steele responds to critics by telling them he’s done with Old Washington ways.

“I’m telling them and I’m looking them in the eye and say I’ve had enough of it,” Steele told ABC New Radio. “If you don’t want me in the job, fire me. But until then, shut up. Get with the program or get out of the way.”

I’m still pondering how he got the job over Ohio’s Republican Ken Blackwell, except I guess Steele could stoop and pander lower than Blackwell.  It seemed the only qualification the Republicans were looking for was black and they got the man to shuck and jive on the airways and shut up when the real head of the party spoke.

Someone needs to tell Steele the Amos and Andy schtick is over now, especially before he goes off on his book tour.

Take Note of Blasian Baby

Nikki (aka Euphoria Luv) and her son Daniel

Just wanted to give folks interested in all things Blasian a heads up about an article on the Watermelon Sushi blog about Nikki (aka Euhporia Luv).

If you’ve done even a cursory search on Blasian issues you’ve undoubtedly run across Nikki and her Yahoo forum (ABC).  Or Nikki and her many blogs.  Or even Nikki on Facebook. 

So now if you want to know more about the woman behind the movement check out her interview on Watermelon Sushi. 

Actually, Watermelon Sushi is a good blog to add to your favorites.  It’s run by writer/film maker Yayoi Lena Winfrey who is also Blasian (Black and Japanese).

Tragic Tiger

I wasn’t going to say anything about the Tiger Woods/Vanity Fair magazine cover because I am truly tired of Tiger and the media’s fascination with his whoring.  But then someone sent me this tidbit from Media TakeOut that has an excerpt of the article:

The interview was largely a series of profane quips by Tiger, such as “What I can’t figure out is why so many good-looking women hang around baseball and basketball. Is it because, you know, people always say that, like, black guys have big dicks?”

At another moment, during a photo shoot where four women attended to his every need and flirted with him as he flirted back, he told a joke: He rubbed the tips of his shoes together and then asked the women, “What’s this?” They were stumped. “It’s a black guy taking off his condom.”

Then there was the comments he made to his mistress Jamie Grubbs:

Jaimee: very true … I only watch football

Tiger: Figured you would say that. Big black guys

Jaimee: u are my first, last and only black guy! U should feel special

Tiger: why do I not believe that?

And

Jaimee: well I appreciate you not wanting to wake me up but if y couldn’t sleep I would have rather sat up and talked to u more … find out why I keep falling more and more for u

Tiger: Because I’m blasian

So it seems that the person who didn’t want to take a stand on race or behave as if he’s more than just one race thinks a lot about black.  A bit too much about black men and how he might not measure up.    Black males and their swagger do seem to represent American male masculinity.  At one point he’s curious about it then the next minute he’s deriding it.  And the photo, which mimics a lot of black male posturing looks like a sad attempt to capture the black male mystique with the scowl on his face registering more as a “Why not me?” instead of “Yeah, I Got This”.

Some folks are chalking his comments up to self-hate but I see it more as envy and desideration. But it’s not to be with a black man but to really be a black man.

Just my take.

Inappropriate Sign: Teabagger Epic Fail

Dale Robertson, Teabagger

Someone needs to explain to Robertson that as a white dude he can’t use any variant of the spelling and not be seen as a racist.  N-word yes, but no nigger, niggar, niggahs, or nigga even if you are speaking inclusively of all races.  Even David Howard learned you can’t even use a word that begins n-i-g-g-a-r but has not to do with the racial epithet and get away with it.

I always thought there was a racial subtext in the whole Teabagger movement.  Maybe Robertson is letting us know something that was really there all along.

This Ain’t Set it Off, Y’all: Teen Girls Pull Off Bank Robbery

Yesterday I read the story on Enquirer.com about a couple of teen girls robbing a bank and from the location of the bank I assumed, badly assumed, the girls were white.

But now more information comes out and I’m like, are you kidding me?  These girls robbed a bank?  Was Gomer and Barney pretending to be bank tellers this episode because how did they pull it off?

The girls were black, one was 14 to 16 years old and the other 12 to 14.  The older girl was heavy set and caught on surveillance camera passing a note to the teller while she talked on the phone. 

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office released a grainy black-and-white bank surveillance photo of one of the alleged robbers and slightly expanded the age range of the robbers: 14 to 16 and 12 to 14 years old. Barnett, said the younger girl was about 20 feet from the teller and her image was not captured on tape. No weapon was seen nor implied in the heist.

Cincinnati Enquirer, Suspected teen bank robbers still on the loose after Cincinnati holdup 6Jan2010

Did you catch that?  No weapons.  The girls are young.  What kind of note did they write that made the teller want to hand over the cash, aside from give me the money?  I think a teller needs to be thoroughly cross examined on this one.

Loleini Tonga Speaks: Chris Henry Jumped

Before people start disparaging her they need to remember that bystanders on the street overheard Chris Henry threatening to jump if she didn’t stop.  She was probably going faster than she remembered or wants to remember but I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.