830 WESTVIEW...the magazine...the blog

Kat Edmonson - Be The Change That You Want To See

2008-03-19T18:38:00.000-07:00

MYSTIQUE MAN

2008-03-08T22:18:00.000-08:00

By: Donovan X. Ramsey

Prayer For A Random Black Man

2008-03-08T22:07:00.000-08:00

Prayer For A Random Black Man
the search for-- and loss of -- a birthright
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
By William Jelani Cobb

I have been high on Obama for the last month, rambling on about new eras and dividing lines of history. And these are intoxicating times, days when hopes we were afraid to harbor have come so close to harvest.

But I crashed hard last week the day I was told that a student I knew, a brilliant, beautifully gifted young Morehouse brother was dead, the victim of a gunshot wound that resembled a suicide. Two days later I learned that my first cousin, a member of the Bloods, had been shot dead in his home and the house set ablaze. It was then that I remembered that the world is not so well choreographed, that we drag fragments of awful into our dreams and the bitter past is always, always with us. This is the second time I've had to pick up my pen to exorcise the grief of two black men killed in the same week. Forgive me if I repeat myself.

These are the moments that make our contradictions apparent, like what it means to come closer than we ever dared imagine to fulfilling the dream while one million of us languish behind bars and forty percent of our children live in poverty.

There were other unruly contradictions: one black man gone, leaving a body of mournful students in his wake. Another lived such a life that his eulogy would be gunspray and homicide and malt liquor libation. And they were both lives that were reaped before they ripened. I find myself asking open-ended questions: What does a prayer weigh and does it have an expiration date? Do they bear fruit in the summer and turn brittle in the winter night? And what is your debt to those who have prayed for you?

These days when people ask my religion I tell them I'm an apostle of history and they wonder if I am cracking a joke that they didn't get. But I know that history cannot be revoked and we have 389 years of it on these shores. I also know that before law or statute or judicial decree, integration in America began when the first African's bones were laid to rest in this hostile soil. We have only gained ancestral momentum since then.

I did not have the foresight to offer this sermon to my student or my kin and I will write it now as a psalm or an editorial prayer or a sad rambling for whoever finds use in it. Were I a wiser man, I would have told them this:

My own history has taught me that the devil is a black dog named despair; he stays on your trail like the slave hounds after a fugitive. The old spiritual tells us to Wade in the Water; I am sure this was meant in hopes that the dogs would lose the scent.

I would have said with all certainty: your life is not your own, it is a culmination of prayers and longings voiced before your grandmother was born. You fulfill this debt not by what you do for us, but by how you live your life and what you bequeath to those yet unborn. Your laughter is the deferred joy of your ancestors and your sorrows are a leftover from the even greater trials buried in the past.

I once read that a woman never stops carrying her children, that residual cells from each life she brings into this world remain inside her for life; I wondered if history worked the same way, that part of your life remains embedded within us and binds you to us. We give you the best of our flawed selves and this is the only real inheritance you will ever gain. Your task is to take that and make of it what your talents tell you. This is the meaning of tradition and it is the only way we know to bring the black dogs to heel.

I know of what I speak. I am a black man with a Ph.D. raised by a black man with a third-grade education. I took the backwater Georgia wisdom he left me and used it to write books. And in turn I leave those who come after a legacy of folk knowledge and book knowledge as raw material for their own doings.

We are nineteen generations deep in America and there is a generation of us that rests beneath the Atlantic Ocean. The could tell us that the obstacles behind us loom much larger than those in front of us. And that the only way those dogs ever catch you is if you stop moving forward.

William Jelani Cobb, Ph.D. is an associate professor of history at Spelman College. His third book, now available from NYU Press: To The Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic

Erykah Badu - Honey

2008-03-08T18:05:00.000-08:00

Erykah Badu's video for her single, "Honey", off her new album "New Amerykah: Part One [4th World War]."

Estelle Feat Kanye West - American Boy

2008-03-08T18:01:00.000-08:00

Bush’s Veto of Bill on C.I.A. Tactics Affirms His Legacy

2008-03-08T17:44:00.000-08:00

By Steven Lee Myers
March 9, 2008

New York Times

President Bush on Saturday further cemented his legacy of fighting for strong executive powers, using his veto to shut down a Congressional effort to limit the Central Intelligence Agency’s latitude to subject terrorism suspects to harsh interrogation techniques.

Mr. Bush vetoed a bill that would have explicitly prohibited the agency from using interrogation methods like waterboarding, a technique in which restrained prisoners are threatened with drowning and that has been the subject of intense criticism at home and abroad. Many such techniques are prohibited by the military and law enforcement agencies.

The veto deepens his battle with increasingly assertive Democrats in Congress over issues at the heart of his legacy. As his presidency winds down, he has made it clear he does not intend to bend in this or other confrontations on issues from the war in Iraq to contempt charges against his chief of staff, Joshua B. Bolten, and former counsel, Harriet E. Miers.

Mr. Bush announced the veto in the usual format of his weekly radio address, which is distributed to stations across the country each Saturday. He unflinchingly defended an interrogation program that has prompted critics to accuse him not only of authorizing torture previously but also of refusing to ban it in the future. “Because the danger remains, we need to ensure our intelligence officials have all the tools they need to stop the terrorists,” he said.

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Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video

2008-03-08T17:41:00.000-08:00

Song & video featuring an all-star cast, By Will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas. Inspired by Barack Obama's 'Yes We Can' speech.

The One's We've Been Waiting For

2008-03-02T21:54:00.000-08:00

By: Donovan X. Ramsey

On February 5th 2008, a man that very well could be the next President of the United States, stood before a crowd of Americans as diverse as this nation and proclaimed that, “we are the one that we’ve been waiting for.” He could not have been more right. The upcoming Presidential election – in particular the candidacy of Barack Obama- has produced and highlighted many things. It has been a sounding board through which people have had overdue conversations about race and gender in the context of political power. This race has encouraged Black Americans to take stock of our problems, priorities and personal politics. It has brought to light issues and policies that have too long gone ignored by the ruling class and most importantly it has reminded Americans that we do still have a choice. We are reminded that life, like hope, is not some intangible idea or far-off finish line but a choice that we make everyday.

Brothers, there are those who see the electorate that we represent; young, educated and, Black as less than substantial. They believe that having existed so long out of the political processes of this country that we are easily hypnotized by pretty words and lofty promises. Some believe that we do not have the experience to recognize the change that we wish to see, let alone to be it. To them I answer that no generation knows more intimately the crisis that we face. We have never existed in a world where global warming wasn’t a threat. We have never seen a day where suicide bombers didn’t menace the prospect of peace in the Middle East. We have never inhabited a time where weapons of mass destruction didn’t sit poised ready to put an end to this fragile blessing that we call life. I answer that this generation, as much as any other, realizes that we have a loaded gun aimed straight at our future and we are compelled by the mistakes of the past to live in what Dr. King referred to as, “the fierce urgency of now.”

The winds of politics have, and will continue to, tug at the hearts and minds of the American electorate as I have seen them do here, in this microcosm of Morehouse College. I do not in any way claim that one candidate has a monopoly on the hope, will, or the resolve to pull this world out of our “improved means to an unimproved end.” What I do know for sure though is that this nation is starting to feel again. Something is shaking the foundation of this country like it hasn’t in years and we cannot miss our opportunity. The naysayers will always have their mouths full with words of doubt and complacency but what if the time really is now? What if we really are the ones that we’ve been waiting for? I have believe deeply, as Bruce Barton stated that, "Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance." Unequivocally, our circumstances are daunting and the risk is great but in the face of unprecedented adversity, we are the ones that we’ve been waiting for and we must be greater.

Bridging the Generation Gap: My Problem With Old Black People

2008-03-02T21:29:00.000-08:00

By: Donovan X. Ramsey

There have been numerous incidents in recent years that have driven a wedge between the generation that I belong to and the generations that have proceeded. The most notable being when "America's father," Bill Cosby asked at the 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, "Who are these sick Black people and where did they come from and why haven't they been parented to shut up?" The sick Black people referred to, and the topics of his rant and a subsequent book, were the youth of Black America. "These people" who apparently stopped being our people somewhere around the early 90's are consistent subjects of controversy and conversation. From nightly news sound bites to the many panel discussions on Hip-Hop, the message is clear: "these people" are f*****g up.

Those who pose questions like Cosby's would ask us to take a break from contextual analysis. They would have us believe that somewhere circa 1980; black babies sprung up from the ground (much like Cabbage Patch Kids) to wreck havoc and destroy all the gains of the Civil Rights Movement. They would have us believe that after every Black person over 60 banded together and walked shoulder to shoulder with Dr. King and created a perfect launching pad for the race, young people with the help of Rap music, began subsequently dismantling it. Somewhere in between that time; they also created the n-word, child illegitimacy, and crack. While this may be the most convenient answer (however improbable), the simplest one is that they came from those who came before.

While Cosby's comments represent an extreme, he is just the tip and one facet of the iceberg. Another facet is how the conflict between the old guard Black leadership and Black youth culture has been heightened by the 2008 Presidential election, one that has proven itself to have special significance. In a race that has become increasingly about a shift of generations, ideas, and perspectives, it was no surprise to me that prominent Civil Rights leaders like former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young and Georgia Representative John Lewis expressed support for Senator Hillary Clinton despite the groundswell of support among Black voters for Senator Barack Obama (young people in particular). It is also no surprise to me that the one group that I have had the most hostile debates with, about the election, have been Black Americans 45+. In short, this is indicative of a fundamental difference between the worldviews of two generations and the struggle it has produced.

On one hand you have a generation that lived with and, in many cases, personally experienced the brutality of pre-Civil Rights America. They fought the good fight and carried the torch of advancing Black interests in a time when doing so could prove lethal. They appealed to the system and worked well within it. For that, they deserve our abiding respect and gratitude. What they don't deserve, however, is to hold the torch forever. They shouldn't carry that torch forever not because they aren't able (our elders have been tested and have earned their stripes) but because the world is changing and it is no longer their cross to bear. On the other hand, you have members of a generation who have benefited from the gains of the Civil rights Movement and have had to come of age in a society with a much more sophisticated racist power structure. We have a higher profile and through Hip-Hop have been given the most powerful voice in all of media (partly because we "haven't been parented to shut up.")

The difference in our experience and the contrast in our approaches have seemingly caused a rift but is the generational gap really that wide? I believe not and I think the first step to bridging it is in remembering that "these people" are indeed our people. Although a recent graduate of Morehouse College may not think, speak, or dress like Dr. King, it does not mean that he is less qualified to lead because after all, this hour doesn't need another Dr. King. In the words of that great man, "This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed non-conformists." So I ask anyone 45+ and within eyeshot of this page to realize that "these people" came from you people and to focus less on the package and more on the content because the dedication that Dr. King spoke of could very well come in the form of a rapper just as it could a Southern preacher.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: More Than A Day Off

2008-01-20T19:25:00.000-08:00

Any number of historic moments in the civil rights struggle have been used to identify Martin Luther King, Jr. — prime mover of the Montgomery bus boycott, keynote speaker at the March on Washington, youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate. But in retrospect, single events are less important than the fact that King, and his policy of nonviolent protest, was the dominant force in the civil rights movement during its decade of greatest achievement, from 1957 to 1968.

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Dr. King's "I Have A Dream Speech" video.

Say What?!: Lupe Overdoses On the Cool?

2008-01-16T15:25:00.000-08:00

When the gangbangers would try to pull it, I was like, ‘Yo, I will f**k you up. And if you wanna call your cousin, call him. I’ll call me! I’ll call me right now.’ We were shooting TEC-9s when we were babies, so the whole gangsta image, that ain’t nothing.” - - Lupe Fiasco for Entertainment Weekly

Marion Jones, Stripped of Medals, Talks to Oprah

2008-01-16T15:14:00.000-08:00

Olympic champion Marion Jones appeared on Oprah today and told the talk-show queen that she took responsibility for lying to the government about steroids and a money laundering scam, lamented the impact it had on her friends and family, and is fretting about how she is going to tell her two sons about having to spend six months in jail.

"I have no regrets for doing what I did on October 5," she said of pleading guilty and admitting on national television that she lied. "I want people to understand everybody makes mistakes." She continued, "I truly think a person's character is determined by their admission of their mistakes and beyond that, what they do about it."

Oprah asked the disgraced former sprinter why she lied in the first place, to which Jones responded, "I made a mistake. I made the choice to, at that time, protect myself, to protect my family, and I've paid the consequences dearly."Aside from her jail sentence, the 32-year-old Jones was also stripped of the five medals (three of them gold) she won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and has also seen all of her performances since September of that year erased from the record books.

"I've returned the medals, the performances have been taken away. But they pale in comparison to seeing my husband cry," she said. "They pale in comparison to have to see my mother have to stand there in the courtroom and bawl."

Top Flight Security of the AUC

2008-01-12T10:31:00.000-08:00

By: Donovan X. Ramsey

Janet Jackon- "Feedback"

2008-01-12T09:45:00.000-08:00

Despite lingering controversy from the Super Bowl fallout and dismal sales of her last album, Janet (Ms. Jackson if you're nasty) is back and as hot as ever. With the release of her new single and video for "Feedback," she remind us why she has 20+ years in the game. Her new album "Discipline" is slated for a February 26th release date.

Air Jordan XX3: End of An Era?

2008-01-10T16:49:00.000-08:00

There are rumors that the AIR JORDAN XX3 will be the last of the almighty breed of JORDAN sneakers. Jordan’s jersey was, of course, number 23. But Nike, nor Jordan, will say if this is the last shoe, the AP reports.

JORDAN'S are about as iconic as fitted New York caps. Back in the day, you were shot and killed for them. Cut class to be the first to wear them out the store. You floated down the school hallways and the hood like a proud parent when you rocked them, and kept them in the box when they weren’t jeweled over your feet.

The original shoe, which was unveiled in 1985, came behind a handsome $2.5 million dollar Nike deal. They quickly left the public consciousness as being an appurtenant basketball shoe, to a fashion accessory that cost around $150.

Today, Jordan, 44, is a grown man with other ideas besides marketing fashionable sneakers. So it’s no surprise that the XX3’s is the first line of basketball shoes to fall under Nike’s new “Considered” design ethos, which focuses on using eco-friendly materials.

"The AIR JORDAN XX3 is deeply meaningful to me, as a celebration of both my life and career,” Jordan said in a press release. “The number 23 is obviously of great significance to me and the release of the XX3 is a pinnacle moment in the Brand’s history. I’m honored and humbled by the AIR JORDAN franchise’s loyal following after all these years. The release of this shoe is exciting and a dream come true for me.”

Jordan comes from a long line of athletes who have launched successful and unsuccessful kicks, but many are called— few are chosen.

The AIR JORDAN XX3— priced at $230 at 23 retailers for limited editions, and $185 nationally thereafter— will be released in three rounds from January to February. They launched Tuesday (Jan. 8).

The first Nike Air Jordan I Commercial

Ron Paul: Racist?

2008-01-10T16:17:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A series of newsletters in the name of GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul contain several racist remarks -- including one that says order was restored to Los Angeles after the 1992 riots when blacks went "to pick up their welfare checks."

CNN recently obtained the newsletters -- written in the 1990s and one from the late 1980s -- after a report was published about their existence in The New Republic. None of the newsletters CNN found says who wrote them, but each was published under Paul's name between his stints as a U.S. congressman from Texas. Paul told CNN's "The Situation Room" Thursday that he didn't write any of the offensive articles and has "no idea" who did.

"When you bring this question up, you're really saying, 'You're a racist' or 'Are you a racist?' And the answer is, 'No, I'm not a racist,'" he said. Paul said he had never even read the articles with the racist comments. "I do repudiate everything that is written along those lines," he said, adding he wanted to "make sure everybody knew where I stood on this position because it's obviously wrong."

But that's not good enough, says one political veteran. "These stories may be very old in Ron Paul's life, but they're very new to the American public and they deserve to be totally ventilated," said David Gergen, a CNN senior political analyst. "I must say I don't think there's an excuse in politics to have something go out under your name and say, 'Oh by the way, I didn't write that.'"

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Lupe Fiasco- "Dumb It Down"

2008-01-04T15:56:00.000-08:00

Because Barack Is Black

2008-01-04T15:37:00.000-08:00

By: Donovan X. Ramsey

Last night I did something that I've never done before, I prayed. Not that praying is something that I don't do often but it was what I prayed for- rather whom. Last night I took a moment out of my day and prayed that Barack Obama would come in first in Iowa.

That's right kids, I prayed for the outcome of a political election. I've been considering why in the middle of my usual CNN watching and book reading (I'm not a nerd. Your mom is a nerd!), I turned off the TV and prayed to God that a man that I have never met in my life would progress in an election.After careful consideration, denial, and intellectual maneuvering, I came to a conclusion that I knew all along, I prayed for him because he is Black. Barack Obama is getting my vote because he is Black and I'm proud to say that. Think about it, what are the major issues of the campaign and how do the Democrat's platforms differ? They're pretty much the same person. Whether in a $400 haircut, pearls, or with a hot wife but Barack Obama is Black and that means something to me and should mean something to this country.

I want to be clear that I am not voting for Barack Obama solely because he is Black just as colleges don't admit students simply because of their skin color. If that was the case, I would write myself onto the ballot but it does tip the scale. Barack is a great candidate, a good man, and just in his being has done more for racial discourse in this country than any other candidate.

The Democrat inside of me is dedicated to voting for whoever can win the election, that is, after all, the point of political parties. I was gonna vote Hilary because White women have historically been extended rights first thus could win. The uppity negro in me is screaming, "All that are my skin folk, ain't my kin folk." But the optimistic American in me;

the part of me that descends from slaves that were denied free life- let alone the right to vote,

the boy who has held onto King's dream and Malcolm's passion,

the man that has plans of his own in this great land,

that part of me just wants this country to give it to a Harvard educated, world traveled, empathetic US Senator, and Black man who just might be able to save this country from war, economic disaster, and a history marred with too many promises of equality only to be met with "it's too soon."

Obama's Iowa Caucus victory speech.

Jay-Z - Fallin' (Live Performance)

2007-12-18T12:56:00.001-08:00

Cartoon: Gloster Madness!

2007-12-18T12:48:00.000-08:00

By: Donovan X. Ramsey

Spelman Women Ponder Clinton Vs. Obama

2007-12-18T12:33:00.000-08:00

By SONJI JACOBS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The dozen or so Spelman College women had come together in a basement classroom, after hours, to hash over a choice unimaginable just a few generations back.

Fliers posted across campus summed up the thrust of their conversation: "Should you vote for Barack Obama because of your race, or should you vote for Hillary Clinton because you are a woman?"

With Democratic primaries quickly approaching, black women throughout Atlanta and across the nation are asking each other that question. They are debating it as they post blogs, meet for political round tables, host fund-raisers and whip out their checkbooks.

It's an ongoing discussion that, for many black women, stirs visceral emotions as they weigh their racial and gender identity.

At Spelman that evening, Shayna Atkins, 19, cut to the chase, pointedly asking her peers: "Would you feel like a sellout if you didn't vote for Barack?"

"Maybe if it were 1963," shot back Marquise Alston, another 19-year-old who is a Clinton supporter.

The conversation rarely turned to former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, the other top Democratic presidential contender, or to any Republican front-runners.

For some black women, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) embodies a strong leader who, if elected, could open doors for all women, black and white. They admire her intellect and political acumen. In some ways, they identify with Clinton because they see gender as more of a hindrance than race.

For others, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) represents the ideal candidate. They like his intelligence and willingness to work across racial and party lines. They also identify with his wife, Michelle, an African-American woman from Chicago's South Side. They believe the presence of the Obamas in the White House would help shatter racial and gender stereotypes.

Desiree Pedescleaux, associate professor of political science at Spelman, said the majority of black women in Atlanta will vote for Obama because of their strong identification with race.

She says some black women may support Clinton because of deep admiration or because they view her as the Democratic candidate most likely to succeed. But on an emotional level, Pedescleaux argues, race will trump gender.

"When an African-American woman walks into a room, what do most people see first?" she asked. "They see race. They see her as black before she is a woman."

National polls, however, indicate that black women are leaning toward Clinton. While black men are more evenly split between the two candidates, black women appear to support Clinton in far greater numbers.

In an October CNN Poll of registered Democrats, 68 percent of black women said they would vote for Clinton, who has enjoyed strong support from women overall.

Some political pundits speculate that blacks may feel that an African-American candidate, no matter how qualified, will not win the general election.

Others say former President Clinton's popularity among blacks may be giving his wife a boost.

In Georgia, prominent African-American women such as Valerie Jackson, the widow of Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson, and Billye Aaron, the wife of baseball legend Hank Aaron, have contributed several thousand dollars to Sen. Clinton's campaign.

Vivian Creighton Bishop, wife of U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), said she has admired Clinton for years.

"Senator Clinton is a brilliant woman," Bishop said. "She's very stately. She's independent and strong."

While her husband is supporting Obama, Bishop wants more African-American women to come out for Clinton.

She is trying to recruit supporters across the state, especially in Atlanta and Columbus, where she lives.

African-Americans make up 27 percent, or 1.2 million, of Georgia's registered voters. And of black registered voters, 60 percent, or 720,567, are women.

Still, with less than two months left before the state's Feb. 5 Democratic and Republican primaries, Obama is leading his Democratic rivals in Georgia fund-raising.

So far, his campaign has raised $1.1 million, more than any other candidate, Republican or Democrat.

Clinton, by contrast, has raised $589,000.

Much of Obama's support has come from Atlanta's black middle class.

Henrietta Antoinin, an Atlanta native and vice president at the Atlanta Life Financial Group, said she has been puzzled by polls and news reports that indicate black women may be torn between Obama and Clinton. She said she and all of her friends are Obama supporters. Antoinin has written a few checks — $50 here, $250 there — to his campaign.

"I think he's smart. I think he's capable. I like what I'm hearing from him," Antoinin said.

She said she respects Clinton and went to her campaign appearance at Paschal's restaurant last month, during which the senator received an endorsement from Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon. But Antoinin left still believing Obama is the better candidate.

Patricia Wilson-Smith, a 42-year-old information technology specialist who lives in Lawrenceville, contends that Obama would be the best leader because he reaches out to all Americans. She argues that Clinton is too divisive and too much of a Washington insider.

Six months ago, Wilson-Smith built a Web site, blackwomenforobama.org, started a political blog and founded an organization to support the Obama campaign.

Earlier this month, the group held its first fund-raiser at the Atrium at Sweet Auburn.

On her blog, Wilson-Smith confronts many of the mixed emotions black women have about the candidates.

She dismisses the idea that Obama can't be elected because he is black.

"The reason we've never been close to running that truly feasible black candidate is because we've never had one who was interested in governing the entire nation," she wrote, "and not just championing the cause of blacks."

Wilson-Smith also is critical of those who would vote for Hillary Clinton because of an affinity for Bill Clinton.

In the 1996 presidential election, national exit polls showed Bill Clinton received 84 percent of the votes cast by African-Americans.

Some say his wife's experience as a Washington insider who has tackled major policy issues may be one of her biggest strengths.

Alston, the president of the Spelman chapter of the Young Democrats of America, explained that she supports Clinton because of her strong stance on health care reform and women's rights. She said she believes a woman in the White House will break the proverbial glass ceiling for women in business.

"My mother is a business owner, and one of her biggest struggles is because she's a woman in a male-dominated field," Alston said.

Mary Long, a member of the Democratic National Committee who lives in Atlanta, has trailblazed as both a woman and an African-American, and her accomplishments include heading Georgia's WIN List, an organization that supports Democratic women candidates.

Long said she likes the top three Democratic candidates — Clinton, Obama and Edwards — but has not yet decided whom she will support.

"You think, do I have more trouble with discrimination as an African-American or as a woman?" Long said. "Do you not support Obama, such a strong African-American candidate running for president? Or, are you going to abandon a good woman?"

Long paused. "I'm not sure sometimes, as African-American women, we know where we are. We are constantly straddling that fence. And no matter what you decide, you're going to be criticized."

Cartoon: A Scholar & A Theologian

2007-11-07T17:36:00.000-08:00

By: Donovan X. Ramsey

Dude, Where's My Spelman Sister?

2007-11-07T17:27:00.000-08:00

There is a war going on, a cold war to be exact, one between Spelman and Morehouse Colleges. No one is exactly sure when the first shot was fired but they’ve been steadily ringing out ever since. The AUC is really just a battle front on which a larger war is being waged. It’s the battle of the sexes, man vs. woman. I became a casualty of this war when I decided to draw a simple cartoon last year and submitted it to the Maroon Tiger. It was a basic sketch, really. The illustration pictured a female student complaining of sexist oppression and simultaneously deciding on whether to wear “short” or “short-shorts” to Morehouse’s campus. Maybe it was funny. Maybe it wasn’t but it was definitely a statement. Unbeknownst to me, I was crafting a lightning rod. I mean, it was like the equivalent of drawing the Prophet Muhammad in a Muslim country.

The Tiger received responses condemning it as “demeaning, misogynistic, and vicious” Worse yet, it was described as, “silencing.” Although I wanted and expected people to examine the contradiction, I didn’t think that pointing out irony would align me into a group with rapists and wife-beaters. I could have never expected that my simple drawing would be perceived as a tool of silence rather than the instrument of dialogue that it turned out to be. After reading the responses and with the help of some very helpful Spelmanites, I came to a few critical questions. I asked myself, when did we stop giving each other the benefit of the doubt? When did we stop seeing ourselves in each other and at what costs do we assume the worst?

If the discussion is of men and women then I would place the blame somewhere in the Garden of Eden but I am speaking of Black men and women specifically and what better microcosm for the Black community than the AUC? Popular culture, marriage trends, and the condition of the Black family all point to the bitter fact that somewhere along the years; Black people fell out of love with each other. I myself don’t know what it’s like to have brothers. I am the only boy of three children and sandwiched between two sisters. They taught me to fight, how to read, and how to draw (I’m proud to say I do all three like a girl.) I’ve drawn countless cartoons of both of them and regardless of the mustaches and big feet that I’ve given them; they’ve always been received as lovingly crafted comments and never as demeaning and vicious attacks.

That could be because they truly know that I love them and, in the end, their mustaches and big feet are problems for all of us (they like spa certificates and new shoes for Christmas.) That certainly wasn’t the case with my other cartoon. In lieu of last year’s infamous “rally” debacle, we’ve all been able to see just how great the divide between the sexes and our respective institutions actually is. The rift becomes dreadfully deeper in the actions and dialogue that we’ve engaged in following. There are too many conversations among ourselves about how disrespected we feel and "they just don’t understand" and that is precisely the problem. We (meaning Morehouse and Spelman) sometimes speak in a way that underscores the fact that we’ve forgotten that our conditions are intrinsically tied as men and women but even more so as Black people.

I find it distressing that I’ve heard more Morehouse and Spelman bashers along the Strip than I have visiting any other institutions. It would seem to me that we’ve internalized the hostility that has been directed toward us and turned it on each other and don’t pretend like you haven’t witness and/or engaged in it. With all of that said, I can see easily how a simple cartoon with a simple comment could be misconstrued to be something “demeaning, misogynistic, and vicious” because ultimately, not all of the readers know me. I could be some knuckle dragging, woman hating caveman with a sinister agenda (I’m not.) What they did know, however, was that I am student, a student attending Morehouse College, and cared enough to craft a cartoon that may have not been funny but certainly made a statement. When it comes to giving the benefit of the doubt, when did that stop being enough?

Fox News Hates Black People & Barack Obama

2007-11-07T17:19:00.001-08:00

Below are a few clips of "fair and balanced" journalism.

Nigger Pie

2007-11-07T17:16:00.001-08:00

The Unites States of America has many great symbols, the flag, the eagle, and of course apple pie. Apple pie is so popular in our great land that whenever someone wants to describe how American something is they judge it against the delicious dessert. I was one of those people until one Forth of July, while enjoying a slice; I discovered that apple pie is, in fact, not American. It dates back to England around the year 1381. Needless to say, I was horrified. What will I compare American things to, I thought until it hit me like…a ton of pies. There is no single entity more American than the Nigger. It is probably the lone truly American invention. Now, I don’t mean Nigger in a “nigga” or “niggah” way (that’s a different discussion.) I mean it as those that created it do, “nigger-nig.er-noun; a person of African ancestry regarded as contemptible, inferior, ignorant, etc.”In recent years, the usage of the word in the English lexicon has grown increasingly troublesome. Some people are afraid to say it. Some want it dead and others, Black and white, still want to use it (if they didn’t then why the fuss?) So what to do with the nagging and niggling Nigger that seems to hop into so many mouths and remains undying, still grasping to our collective vocabulary? Are we really done with the Nigger? Despite wishful thinking, I think not because our belief and fear of him keeps him alive. In that way, the Nigger is like Tinkerbelle. The sad truth is that the Nigger is alive and well in the hearts and minds of the American people. He is apparent in every schoolhouse, courthouse, jailhouse, and even the church house. It is fair to say that more Americans believe in the Nigger than they do Jesus. The Nigger keeps purses tightly clutched and doors firmly locked. He’s the reason for suburbs and he drowned people during Katrina.
And the Nigger is on the move. The Nigger found a new home in Rap videos and on television sitcoms. He’s been packaged, bling-blinged, and given sex appeal (maybe he already had it but again, another article.) The Nigger can sell anything from gold chains to home security so naturally, it has become our nation’s chief export. As pervasive as the Nigger is, I hate him because he keeps us afraid and trapped. Because of the Nigger, some are afraid to wave at their neighbors or speak freely. Some have been defeated by him and know that regardless of what they accomplish he will always lurk in the watchful eyes of coworkers, neighbors, and fellow citizens. Others are forced to smile and speak mildly lest be confused for him.

The Nigger is America’s version of the Boogeyman, created in its infancy and I can only hope that peeking into enough closets and under enough beds can make him go away. James Baldwin wisely proclaimed, “What white people have to do is try to find out in their own hearts why it was necessary to have a nigger in the first place.” In the many years since Mr. Baldwin’s death, the nigger has been steadily challenged but that question has still gone unanswered. Now I ask, why did we need the Nigger and why do people of all races perpetuate him? When we can answer to that, then and only then, will burying the Nigger be as easy as pie.