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| Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 | | 3:31 pm |
| | Monday, June 29th, 2009 | | 3:45 pm |
| | Sunday, May 31st, 2009 | | 6:02 pm |
| | Monday, March 30th, 2009 | | 4:32 pm |
| | Thursday, March 26th, 2009 | | 11:34 am |
| | Thursday, January 29th, 2009 | | 1:11 pm |
| | Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 | | 2:43 pm |
| | Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 | | 8:49 am |
| | Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 | | 8:53 am |
Nov. 5th Etiquette for Black Folk
After watching the final debate the other night, it dawned on me that Obama will most likely win this thing. If that happens, there will be a lot of people (some of our co-workers included) who will be afraid that an Obama presidency will usher in the end of days. They'll be watching us on November 5th (the day after the election) for signs of the end times. To keep the peace and keep a lot of folks from getting nervous, I think we should develop a list of acceptable celebrations and behaviors we should probably avoid - at least for the first few days: 1. No crying, hugging or shouting "Thank you Jeeeeeesus" - at least not in the office! 2. No high-fives - at least not unless the area is clear and there are no witnesses! 3. No laughing or jeering at the McCain/Palin supporters! 4. No calling in sick on November 5th. They'll get nervous if too many of us don't show up. 5. We're allowed to give each other knowing winks or nods in passing. Just try to keep from grinning too hard. 6. No singing loudly, "We've come this Far By Faith" (it will be acceptable to hum softly). 7. No bringing of barbeque ribs or fried chicken for lunch in the company lunchroom for at least a week (no chittlings at all this may make us seem too ethnic!). 8. No leaving Kool-Aid packages at the water fountain (this might be a sign that poor folks might be getting a break through) 9. No Cupid Shuffle during breaks (this could indicate a little too much excitement) 10. Please no "Moving on Up" music (we are going to try to remain humble) 11. No doing the George Jefferson dance (unless you're in your office with the door closed) 12. Please try not to yell----BOOOO YAH! 13. Just in case you're wondering, Doing the Running Man, Cabbage Patch, or a backhand spring on the highway is 100% okay! If anything was missed, feel free to add to the list. I just want to make sure we're all on the same page when Obama brings this thing home on November 4th. Now go get your early vote on and let's make this thing happen!!! | | Monday, October 20th, 2008 | | 12:07 pm |
| | Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 | | 8:34 am |
| | Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 | | 11:40 am |
Editorial: white women, y aren't U defending Michelle O.!? (snap!)
Subject: The Loud Silence of Feminists The Loud Silence Of Feminists By Mary C. Curtis Saturday, June 21, 2008; A17 Michelle Obama has become an issue in the presidential campaign even though she isn't running for anything. An educated, successful lawyer, devoted wife and caring mother has been labeled 'angry' and unpatriotic and snidely referred to as Barack Obama's 'baby mama.' Democrats, Republicans, independents, everyone should be offended. And this black woman is wondering: Where are Obama's feminist defenders? It's not as though they're out of practice. In 1992, Hillary Clinton was deemed too assertive and not first lady material. Similar, and worse, claims were made this year. But just as you didn't have to be for Clinton to decry the sexism in the coverage of her campaign, you don't have to be an Obama supporter to defend Michelle Obama against similar treatment. So I want to know: What does Gloria Steinem think? She was out front with her support of Clinton, promoting the importance of a female president. She has even endorsed Barack Obama. What's her reaction now that the knives are out for another strong woman? How about Geraldine Ferraro, the former vice presidential nominee whose racially tinged denunciations of Barack Obama sparked a media firestorm? Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, has said: 'We're going to keep watching because we think Michelle Obama will be the recipient of the same kind of attacks that Hillary was.' A feminist ray of hope. The campaign against Michelle Obama -- who went on 'The View' this week to prove her everywoman bona fides -- has not caused a rift between black and white women so much as it has exposed it. I've long been frustrated, as a black woman and a feminist, with our national conversation. I didn't hear the cause speaking up for women of color or for women who have always worked in blue-collar or service jobs. Choice was not their issue. The woman who employed my educated mother to clean her house never quite saw her as a sister in the struggle for equality. Still, I cheered Steinem when she spoke at my college. Her message could have been more inclusive, but it was a start. I'd like a little of that solidarity back now, not suspicion because someone of my race defeated someone of our sex. Michelle Obama is being demonized for things she allegedly said on tapes that are rumored to exist. She is a victim of sexism and racial stereotypes. Just as the Rutgers women's basketball team was miscast by Don Imus, Obama is being labeled something she clearly is not. Her achievements are being dismissed. But in America, there's seldom a cost for disrespecting black women. I'm waiting for feminists who speak of second-class citizenship and being pushed to the back of the bus to remember the civil rights movement that gave birth to those words. After all, it was a black woman, Rosa Parks, who took her seat up front and pulled others there, too. I'm not holding my breath, though. As a journalist, I have stayed neutral about political candidates. But as an American, I would have been excited about the historic first had Hillary Clinton emerged victorious from the Democratic primary battle. Yet when an African American made a different kind of history, it seems that feminists can't share in the triumph. They don't have to vote for the husband to defend the wife. Okay, I get it: Your candidate lost. You're angry. But frankly, I'm getting a little peeved myself. The writer is a columnist at the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer. | | Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 | | 5:16 pm |
2 quick comments on george lucas and Tuskegee Airmen
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/film_tuskegee_airmen1. COmics laugh when a person has no neck, but have you noticed that nobody says nothing about George Lucas' utter lack of a lower jaw. If that guy from Prince's "Under a Cherry Moon" stands out for that big mole in the middle of his forehead, why does no one ever talk about Lucas' stand-out jawls? That beard doesn't hide his utter lack of definition in that body area. 2. A year or two ago, President Bush was going to go to LA or somewhere and honor the Tuskegee Airmen. All kinds of folk came out of the woodwork in Chicago to call my employer's office and yell, "My father/uncle/grandad was a Tuskegee Airmen and how dare the gov't not invite us to this event!!!! Now how can we get a seat?????" I called the man organizing the event and he said, "Look! There were 15,000 Tuskegee Airmen and there are only 600 seats for this event." If most Tuskegee men went on to have 2.3 children, you can just imagine how many Black folk have some relative who was/is a Tuskegee Airmen! I really wonder if Fishburn's movie, with its 4 main characters, make African-American families say, "See, there were only 4 Tuskegee Airmen, and our father/uncle/grandfather was one of those four!" I love the Airmen, but I hate how honoring them can put work on my plate! | | Monday, June 16th, 2008 | | 8:11 am |
Best of Cheaters!!!! Right on!!!!!
I went to the video store and they had 4 discs called "Best of Cheaters: Uncensored." After renting one disc, I returned it quickly and rented two more. Unlike the show, they include all the cursing and all the nudity. And not just female nudity, they had booty and shaft and frontal shots too!!!! I hate watching the show 'cuz you have to wade through the surveillance section and I just wished they'd get to the confrontation. So with good, old "fast-forwrd," it's on! They never say where the parties are from, but one white woman finds out that her white man is dating a LatinO and I swear they said "Oak Park" in passing. Even some of the shots seemed like it was taking place in Chicago. Plus, so much was deliciously nasty! They show dudes eating out women! The narrator said, "The woman opened her car door for some reason" and you could guess that she was spitting out the cum load that her partner just blew in her mouth. One dude pissed in his boss' pot of coffee. It was da bomb! Question: why do white folk become Black when they get upset???? Each scene with white people started out with their speaking standard American English, but during the confrontation, it becomes all "Fuck you! Bitch-assed, stankin'-assed 'ho'!" "Aight! Aight! I got yo' trick-ass now, muthafucka!" (*THinking of "Undercover Brother" when one white character says, "Why is Black slang so darn catchy!?"*) As I mentioned before, one woman found her BF with a man. Whereas there were lesbians who found their GFs cheating from the jump, they had no case where a gay man said, "My BF is cheating on me with a man." I do wonder if a) the show deems straights and lesbians acceptable, but not gay men OR B) gay men brush off non-monogamy and so don't bother to call the show about philandering partners. Maybe a gay man is more likely to say, "Honey! You're cheating! Well move over, so I can join you guys!" | | Saturday, June 14th, 2008 | | 10:13 am |
| | Thursday, June 12th, 2008 | | 12:09 pm |
| | 8:26 am |
Why I say no to Mo'Nique's "Phat Girlz"
I think of myself as being supportive of comedienne Mo'Nique. She is a fantastic interviewee who makes comments that really get your wheels spinning. However, I refuse to see her film "Phat Girlz" and let me explain why. It doesn't even have to do with its placement on many "Worst Film Ever" lists. It has to do with her promotion of fat American women finding the answer in foreign men. I mean I accept part of that. There was a woman in the undergrad class behind me and even though she was a hefty girl, she had a thin boyfriend who worshipped her. She once gave me love advice and it was "Just find a man who doesn't care about a person's weight." So simple, yet so profound! But since finding a thin partner isn't really my goal, I'm just digressing here. Supposedly, Mo'Nique's character finds happiness when she meets an African man who said men in his tribe love fat women. Terry McMillan's divorce to Jamaican Jonathan Plummer has pointed to how gay or bi men may use Black American women to get to the US. However, it is not just gay guys who do that. I work in an office where every now and then, Black American women will come in crying and talking about "My African/West Indian husband won't kiss me, but will constantly ask me about the status of his immigration application." I doubt foreigners know much about the "Black man shortage" here in the States, but then again, maybe they do. My sister in England has said that Black men tend to light up when they hear her American accent. She said she can sometimes tell that "Cha-ching! I can bypass the UK and get to the ultimate prize, America, via that woman!" is running through their heads. Again, putting homosexuality to the side, Black big girls like Star Jones are susceptible to marrying any being with a dick. I wonder if foreign men sense this vulnerability and take advantage of it. I don't know if these West Indian and African men are saying, "I love you, BIG woman!" or are they saying, "I don't care if you're big, since I'm going to divorce you the second I acquire American citizenship anyway." I think Mo'Nique should have been careful in suggesting to big sistas that foreign men will answer their prayers. But there's also an equality issue. Sometimes it can be problematic when Group X takes partners from Group Y when they can't find their own in Group X. Now, I don't want to disrespect fat, white chicks, but there sure are a ton of thinblackmale-fatwhitefemale couples out there! A plump, white woman once told me that her mother only dated Black men and I could already tell what her mother's weight was. I was in a car with a gay, Cuban-American man in San Francisco once and before we got to his apartment, he said, "My female roommate likes Black guys!" I didn't say it out loud, but I sure was thinking, "Now of course, this woman will be fat." And sure enough, she was. Now, I bring this up not because I want to stop the fat, white women (like my aunt on my mother's side) from finding love, I bring it up because what Mo'Nique supports based on nationality, many white women practice based on race. Credo: "If no white man wants a fat woman, then I'll find a Black man who doesn't care about weight." Since many Black women, of all weights, resent seeing Black men "stolen" from them, it's surprising that Mo'Nique would champion a tactic that some Black women would say hurt other Black women. I'm not sure if siphoning men away from African or West Indian women is the answer to the man shortage; it just pushes the problem out the border. | | Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 | | 8:25 am |
"Asianized" College Names (Warning: a potentially sensitive subject)
Reports say that a new study says Asian-Am "model minority" stereotypes are untrue. In the report, they mentioned two common expressions: Nickname: UCLA Real Name: Univ. of CA at Los Angeles Asianized Name: University of Caucasians Lost among Asians Nickname: MIT Real Name: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Asianized Name: Made in Taiwan I had never heard that one about MIT, but here's two that I have heard: Nickname: UCB Real Name: Univ. of CA at Berkeley Asianized Name: University of China at Berkeley Nickname: UIC Real Name: Univ. of Illinois in Chicago Asianized Name: University of India in Chicago ARE THERE ANY OTHER COLLEGES THAT HAVE BEEN GIVEN ASIANIZED NAMES, PROBABLY BY THREATENED NON-ASIAN STUDENTS? I know this question is not PC. But I guess I'm curious or interested in how widespread the practice is. So far, I've seen Cali, East Coast, and Illinois. Does it end there? Boston College and USC are supposed to have large Asian-Am student bodies but I have never heard of them having such names. Anecdotally, I heard that IL's top public college, Univ. of IL at Champaign-Urbana is 25% Asian when the state of IL is 3% Asian at most. So I do think there are a ton of white and Black IL students that have never met an Asian-Am in their lives who are shocked to be on a campus with many of them. In no way am I challenging what is presented in the recent report, but I do think many non-Asians have no idea that there are places in the US, even outside of Hawaii, where many Asian-Ams live or study. I think Asianized names touch upon that utter surprise of many non-Asian-Ams. So is it just 4 schools that have such nicknames or are there more? The answer may be significant in ways that I am having trouble articulating. | | Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 | | 8:37 am |
on Co-Existence
At last night's Frankie Beverly and Maze concert, the DJs and other people pointed out that two men were in the audience: Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan. Fox News Chicago was there too, so it wasn't a press-free event. At the same time, almost everyone on stage said, "Let's give it up for Obama, the next president!" And when Obama was praised, neither Wright nor Farrakhan walked out in disgust. In the press, there's a lot of "Wright VERSUS Obama" or "Don't speak Obama's name in the same breath as any Muslim!" But in Chicago, Black folk love Wright, Farrakhan, and even Pfleger, as much as Obama. I haven't really heard anyone pick sides. If I understood correctly, Cleo Managa wanted Black gays to stop using "gay" and just say "same-gender-loving." At the GBM meetings I've attended, brothas used both and didn't see the terms as antagonistic. In "The Aggressives," no woman said, "I'm an aggressive, not a butch or a lesbian!" They used those terms interchangeably. I even read a study once where Black viewers watched a scene of "Good Times" with James and J.J. and then a scene from "The Cosby Show" with Heathcliff and Theo. The viewers went on to opine that both fathers were good ones with effective parenting styles. There was no assertion that Heathcliff was good and James was bad, or vice versa. At least in the Chi, there seems to be no redline divisions between this BIG MEN and their admirers. | | Monday, June 9th, 2008 | | 8:11 am |
Young, white guy feels the heat!
.....while working at a Frankie Beverly and Maze concert....... YOUNG, WHITE SOUND GUY: Frankie Valli should be on stage in about an hour. (awkward silence for about two minutes) ME: You do know you just said Frankie Valli, rather than Frankie Beverly? OLDER, SOULFUL, WHITE SOUND GUY: Yeah, maybe Franki Valli will come on stage with his wife Beverly. YWSG: Sorry, guys! I was a sperm in my father's body when this music came out! ME: Ahh, we're laughing WITH you, not AT you. OLDER, BLACK SOUND GUY: Fuck dat! I'm laughing AT you! You've seen all these people wearing Frankie Beverly shirts all day and you say that shit!?! Maybe you would have noticed my Frankie Beverly T-shirt if I wore it around my nuts! YWSG: Yeah, I would have cuz' it woulda smelled so damned funky! Y'all aren't going to believe this: but some people say that I can be an instigator. But for real, I had no idea how much the older guys were gonna be livid about that young guy's slip. And yes, it was probably more of an age thing. BUT, there is a way in which white people can put their foot in their mouths when they show how little they know about Black culture. For a whole bunch of Black folk, recognizing Mr. Valli before Mr. Beverly is tantamount to blasphemy or treason. One of the reasons I saw "Glitter" opening night was because a (probably white) critic said that Mariah remade Robert Palmer's song and the dummy had no idea that Robert Palmer remade some Black person's song! As soon as I heard the brutha say "my nuts," I was very fearful that the conversation would take a homophobic path. But sometimes straight guys bring up nuts and dick and ass without saying anti-gay things next. |
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