Historical Perspective....

From Campbell Brown at CNN.....

Haters....

Well, you knew there would be haters......

Here are some folks already creating Impeach Obama paraphenalia.

And here is a summary of racially motivated incidents that have been occuring since the election....

There is still a lot of work to do....

Code words.....

So the latest thing that the pundits have been talking about it that, although Obama is ahead in the polls overall, when folks are asked clarifying questions, it seems that there are no specific issues that people are uneasy about Obama's position on, they are just trying to decide if they like his in general, if they think he will make a good president.

Key findings show that many don't think that they can relate to "his background and values." Okay, background??? You mean the fact that he is black???? And he has pretty traditional values --- married, 2 kids, worked his way through school, believes in giving back to society.......

I guess we knew it would come down to this. He is a professional, intelligent, compassionate, well spoken, diplomatic candidate with a great 3-point shot! What more do you want, people!?!? But I guess that all matter but so much.

The bottom line: Enough people just need to decide that they are comfortable enough with having this black man for president.

See the Wall Street Journal article http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121684823498078481.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

So did they really beat Harvard?

So I have heard varying things about whether or not the Wiley College debate team of 1935 actually did debate and beat Harvard University. After looking around it seems that the team did debate the national debate champions in that year but that year the champions were actually the University of Southern California. I guess debating Harvard Crimson makes for a better story....

But, according to the New York Times article, " For Struggling Black College, Hopes of a Revival" (December 5, 2007,) "the film omits one reality: even though they beat the reigning champions, the Great Debaters were not allowed to call themselves victors because they did not belong to the debate society, which did not allow blacks until after World War II."

It also seems that some license was taken in the composition and members of the debate team in the movie. Save James Farmer Jr, who went on to form CORE, the Council for Racial Equality, a integral organization in the civil rights movement, the other characters, Henry Lowe and Samantha Booke, seem to be amalgamations of other team members who competed during the early to mid 1930s.

For more information about the true history of the Wiley Forensic Society, read this linked article in the Marshall News Messenger.

There is no debate....

So if you had read a prior post , you know that my parents and I were planning to go see The Great Debaters on Christmas Day. We decided to go see the first showing and that I would finish cooking dinner afterwards.

Let me tell you, this movie does not disappoint. It was a great story about a group of history making college students who, inspired by a seemingly, slightly eccentric professor, proved that a group of black students from a small liberal arts college in depression-ridden backwater Marshall, Texas could develop the oratory skills to win debate after debate, and also eventually, beat a championship-winning white team.

The movie is just good film-making. Although, a few constructs seem a little too convenient and seem likely to have been the results of a little poetic license, it is a great, inspiring, and emotional story based on true events. I tried to finish my "ugly cry", as Oprah puts it, before the lights went up in the theater. I was somewhat successful....

Before hearing about this movie, I had never heard of Melvin Tolson or Wiley College or their debate team. And after seeing this movie, I can't help but be struck by how many other courageous stories may be out there in our history that we have no idea about whatsoever! I mean, this guy went on to Langston University and taught my mother English, and besides being the Poet Laureate of Liberia, she had no idea about his time at Wiley. It makes me wonder about how many other inspiring and unknown stories are out there.

Bottom line: Go see this movie before the weekend is out!

Watch NBC Nightly News this week!

News about this series has been going around but in case you haven't heard yet, Brian Mitchell is doing a 5 part series starting Monday on the problems facing African-American women in this country. Topics will range from education to relationships, the 2008 election to health, interracial dating to the portrayl of women through hip hop music.

Please check it out and encourage others you know to do so as well! On your local NBC station. You can also check www.msnbc.com for message boards and blog entries on the series.

Go see "Talk to Me!"

I urge you all to go out THIS WEEKEND and see the movie "Talk to Me" starring Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Taraji P. Henson, Cedric the Entertainer, Mike Epps, Vondi Curtis-Hall & Martin Sheen. The movie, currently in limited release with the promise of wider release with enough interest from the public, is directed by Kasi Lemmons of Eve's Bayou fame anf fellow sister in lockdom (See her below on the cover of the famous book, "Dreads" by Francesco Mastalia, Alfonse Pagano, & Alice Walker.)

The movie is about Petey Green, a controversial talk radio personality, in Washington, DC in the 60's and 70's. Petey, called the forefather of talk radio as we know it today, was the imperfect voice of a frustrated black community in turbulent and confusing racial times. He was a public figure who was not scared to say what need to be said in the most direct and irreverant way possible. But he was able to mobilize a community in a time when they felt they had no voice.

Check out trailers and more general information here.

If it is showing in your city, go see this movie and let the movie studios know that this is the type of film you want to see more of! And, give the folks in smaller markets the chance to see it themselves.

Addendum: I went to go see this movie myself last night and it is really a great movie! We all laughed out loud so hard at certain scenes (in fact the woman next to me laughed so hard she hit me a couple times --- and then apologized.) I don't remember laughing that hard at a movie in a long time! And there were really touching scenes as well that made me cry.... This is really just a great movie! My hats off to Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejifor and Taraji P. Henson for some really multifaceted performances. I didn't really realize that Ejifor's character was Dewey Hughes, the ex-husband of Kathy Hughes and co-owner of the radio station that would be the foundation of the black owned Radio One media empire. There is actually only one reference to Kathy Hughes in the whole movie, even though the end covers the time when she and Dewey were married, which makes me believe that the movie did not have her full support, but it was really interesting to learn about a portion of our more recent black history that I had no idea about, even though I lived in the DC area for 10 years. Also, read this story about how the movie got made, despite the odds.

Too many.....

Another case of unarmed black men being shot to death by police officers who are supposed to protect and serve......

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2007/04/15/0415manshot.html?COXnetJSessionIDbuild25=p6g6Gj6dGV1NYpPSFJ3GsHBmMwmPmRW0XWhLT1h9tPwJhX2vwkBz!233271245&UrAuth=`N]NUObNZUbTTUWUXUVUZT[UUUWU]U_UZUaUcUcTYWYWZV&urcm=y

The reason why police officers have guns is that they are supposed to have gone through training so that they know how to envoke protocal in highly charged situations and to only use these guns as a last resort.... But there are too many stories of inoccent poor black people being shot and/or killed in circumstances where quite likely no shots should have been fired at all. How does an unarmed man get shot in the back of the head and killed in the front of a club....... Or an elderly woman, scared to death, brutally shot when her house is bumrushed in the middle of the night by police serving a "no-knock" warrant because of "confirmed" drug activity. Or a man, at his bachelor party, shot at 50 times by cops with no evidence of shot being fired at the police.

This is not a Scarface movie! This is real life. I understand that being a police officer can be extremely stressful but the reason why they are allowed to patrol the streets with guns is that we assume that they will conduct themselves with higher standards than gansters!

My thoughts on the latest media Imess....

So I had wanted to post about this mess with Don Imus and his comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team but I didn't get a chance to yesterday and I had a feeling that one of my other blogger compatriots would get to the subject before I did --- and it happened. Bygbaby has done a great job of summarizing and quoting the comments by and about Don Imus in the past week in his post from April 8th. I know that when I first heard that something was said about the team and that they were called "hardcore hos" and nappy-headed hos" I was annoyed but not as offended as when I heard the entire conversation and all the comments that Imus made. As Bygbaby, mentioned he did go as far as comparing the Rutgers and Tennessee women's teams to the "Jigaboos" and "Wannabes" from Spike Lee's School Daze but he did additionally talk about all the tattoos on the Rutgers women and also went on to contrast to how the Tennessee women were "so cute." So now I am pissed......

The Backlash
So, initially, Imus has gotten a two-week suspension however, it won't start until Monday. And there has started to be some other public backlash, albeit small...... Cal Ripken, Hall of Fame Baltimore Orioles baseball player, declined to fulfill his appearance on the show scheduled for this week in light of these comments. (It is also worth noting that John McCain, Republican Presidential Candidate, said that an apology was good enough for him and has decided to still come on the Imus show as planned. He's not the one who needs the apology!!! Is this the kind of sensitivity you want in a president???) Staples & P&G have canceled their advertising on his radio show and MSNBC just announced that they will cancel the TV simulcast of his radio show in light of his comments. Barack Obama has called for Imus' firing and C. Vivian Stringer, the coach of the Rutgers women team, held a dignified press conference on the matter and the team has agreed to meet with Imus on the matter. But what I keep wondering is how come the NCAA has not come out to comments on these comments made about their players??? I would expect them to at least issue some statement taking about about how they don't support derogatory comments made about college athletes etc...... What signal is that sending about how it supports its athletes? And what about Pat Summit? Shouldn't she be making some comment in support of their rival team and the coach who has been a good friend of hers for 30 years??? Well, I suspect more reaction is yet to come but I am disappointed that it so slow in coming.....

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In an example of exactly why Imus' comments should not be taken lightly and should be approached with the appropriate consequences, a DJ in Allentown, PA thought it would be cute to make the phrase in his station's "Phrase that Pays" contest on Tuesday, you guessed it, "I'm a nappy-headed ho!" Three of the listeners who called were awarded tickets to a NASCAR promotion at a local club. Nice, huh? He was subsequently fired, with the justification that "he uttered the slur in a premeditated manner, 'with full knowledge of the reaction to Don Imus' use of the exact same phrase.'"

Why are we so hard on ourselves???

So as we all know, we have a black candidate running for the Democratic nomination for president. This is something worthy of note, of praise even. This is the third such time in history. This is actually a candidate that has some of the highest credentials of any black candidate to date and the highest potential to garner broad appeal across the country, save perhaps someone like Colin Powell. So....... why aren't black people coming out in droves to support this man?!?!? Isn't that what happened when Jesse Jackson ran? Al Sharpton even seemed to have more popular black support than we seem to be giving Barack these days.....

So, why is this? He has a funny name.... He isn't really black, his dad was African and his mom was white..... The fact is, to the general public, he looks like a black man. And what ever his actual ethnic heritage, he has made a name in Illinois and in the US Senate as someone who is dedicated to the issues that black people really care about.

It is funny how we as people hold our own leaders to higher standards than the majority..... True they do represent the whole race when they take that position or that office but do they not deserve our support unless they are a saint or an icon? Are we shooting ourselves in the foot waiting for the perfect candidate? The point is, no one is perfect and you don't have to be perfect to be president (George Bush and even Bill Clinton, as much as I like him, are evidence of that!) we need more representation so that we can even the playing field, so that each and every black candidate can stop feeling this inordinate burden.

Or maybe this is more of the "crabs in a barrel" effect.... The fact is, most black people don't know any more about Hilary Clinton's politics than Barack Obama's, they are just lazily giving her their support because of her association with Bill. Yes, she is smart but she seems to lack to ability to transmit charm and charisma in her speeches and to the audience like her dear husband could/can.... And that is what, in the end, drives people to vote and support you.

So I am not saying just blindly support Obama because he is black...... But what I am saying is do your research, black people! Vote for the candidate that is most closely aligned with your issues. But if you are going to follow someone blindly......let it be the black man..... because, yes, even with a white mama and a funny name. he is still one of us!