A World Without Black History...

This timely informative nugget is brought to you by MTV Decoded, hosted by the irrepressible Franchesca Ramsey -- and as usual, the hate spewed in the comments section is even more entertaining than the actual video.

Happy Black History Month!

For a brief history of Black August, click here.

Happy birthday, James Baldwin

A very happy 90th birthday to you, Jimmy. You are sorely missed. 

If this doesn't sum it up, nothing will.

“I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me.”  -- Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

Juneteenth!

• Hope you had your celebratory fun in the sun on our Fourth of July. To locate Juneteenth celebrations worldwide, please click here.

Black History: Pause and Reflect

This is a beautiful way to make historical facts into art. Jess Bachman created this meditative work as a means to pause and reflect on our history. It's not meant to cover everything by any far stretch of the imagination, but it touches on quite a few hotspots. 

My first thought was that slavery really didn't happen that long ago.  We weren't supposed to survive the trauma of the middle passage.  Slavery should have wiped us out. Reconstruction decimated us from the inside out -- and somehow we survived it all, miraculously...

The African-Americans: Many Rivers To Cross

If you've missed any of the brilliant six part PBS documentary series The African-Americans: Many Rivers To Cross, it isn't over yet. The next segment airs on Tuesday, 8pm - 9pm.

This particular segment is my favorite, so far. In it, we take a trip to The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, located on the campus of Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. To their credit, this museum isn't open to the public.  According to their website, "Visitation is offered only as part of a university-approved academic course, workshop or seminar." 

This is a jigsaw puzzle from 1874, made by the McLouglin Company called Chopped Up Niggers.  I don't know what's more offensive -- the caricatures (who looks like that?!?) or the threat of violence that the title implies.

It's quite breathtaking, how just how far white people went with this imagery and how hard, how tirelessly they worked to distort who we are so they could justify their hatred and ignorance. What am I saying. They're still doing it.

In the meantime, D.E.B. DuBois was presenting hundreds of beautiful portraits of dignified, educated, purposeful black people from the state of Georgia to Europeans during the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900.  

 

Nevermind the thousands of black performers that travelled internationally since the 1860s, giving the world a glimpse of our true collective blackness. We'll talk about that some other time.

Please check your local listings. This series is essential viewing. (And no, you can't see it outside of US territories.)

Happy birthday, James Baldwin

"To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time." -- James A. Baldwin

 What a profoundly brilliant man. His work is so alive, so relevant and so full of feeling, its almost heartbreaking to read it because I can feel his vulnerability -- and ultimately, my own. It stultifying to think that he wrote Go Tell It On The Mountain when he was 18 years old. Yet as an essayist, I can't think of anyone that could shine brighter, with an intelligence and an insightfulness that some have described as frightening. 

There's a reason why his essays aren't commonplace in this country. Still and all, it's pretty cool that he's on a postage stamp.

Happy birthday, Jimmy. You are sorely missed.

Ten Things Every Black Woman Should Have If She Lives in New York City

I've seen way too many of these "ten things" lists floating around -- and so have you. Most of them say things that are generally true for anyone, not just women.  None of them speak to me, especially when they say insist that's not the case.  Unless you're rich, independently wealthy or bankrolled in some other way (your parents bought your apartment! yay!), living in New York City is a very difficult proposition. The fabulousness of paying four figures a month to live in Williamsburg or Bushwick or Harlem just isn't enough after awhile. Something else has to soften the blow. 

If I didn't have all of these things, the quality of my life in New York City would take a decidedly downward turn. FYI: This list is not in order and it's totally in flux. Next week, it could morph into something else.

1. A strong sense of personal style -- By now, you should know the difference between fashion (what trends/a clothing designer/your favorite pop star tells you to wear) and style (self expression).  You and your closet shouldn't be at the mercy of what's in or what's out.  I'm aware of what's fashionable and a lot of it looks like (expensive) fun but if I can't look like myself when I put my clothes on, what's the point. As a performer, I'm in the business of expressing myself.  Being me when I get dressed is the natural order of things so maybe there's an unfair advantage in there somewhere.  New York City is the place where your individuality is an asset because it sets you apart from the common herd.  Then again, if you really don't love yourself enough to be yourself in the first place, the wheels are going to come off that bus pretty fast.
2. Excellent physical health -- You don't have to be in peak physical condition to live here but trust me, it helps. When I moved to Harlem, I lost weight and stayed lean in part because I suddenly found myself walking and riding my bike everywhere.  It was a drastic change from a place like Atlanta, for example, where everyone drives everywhere for anything.  Even going up and down the stairs to get on and off the subways will wear you out, if you do it on a regular basis. Then again, you can jump in and out of cabs to get around -- if you can catch one.  Aside from all that, being sick can be pretty expensive -- and what with all the money you're already throwing up in the air to live here, you really don't want to spend more on something that possibly could have been prevented.
3. A friend in the Garment District  -- When what is fashionable and trendy loses its luster, it gets sold -- sometimes for as much as 90% below what you would have paid when it was on the rack.  You can sign up for alerts for sample sales to your favorite designers -- but if you know someone who works there (and what with six degrees of separation, you probably do), they can let you into the sale before it happens.
4. A spiritual life
5. A strong connection to your family (how ever you define it) and your community (the world your family lives in).
6. A sister who will (lovingly and tactfully) tell you the truth and a brother who will always have your back.
7. Your Own Private Hair Guru -- I don't care what you've got -- a tight weave, a closet full of wigs, a blow dryer that's your hair's best friend or a T.W.A. When it's time to get your hair done properly, you've got to have your go-to person on speed dial.  They're affordable, they're convenient and they usually know your hair better than you do. You didn't open a phone book to figure this out. You asked a sister and she told you what's up. Black folks live and die by word of mouth. Period.
8. A well worn passport -- The importance of traveling internationally need hardly be stressed. Get out there. See the world. It will change your life. (Start here.)
   
9. A museum membership -- This is quite literally the gift that keeps on giving. There are hundreds of museums, cultural sites, historical establishments and the like in New York City.  Most of them are internationally recognized and much lauded, and quite a few are trendy little hotspots.  Some of them offer memberships. If you join at a certain level -- and yes, you can write most of your fee off on your taxes -- that's where the fun begins.  There are events, parties, galas, previews for openings and lots of other exclusive diversions, not to mention added discounts and free passes to other museums all over the country.
10. A diverse group of friends that includes at least one WASPy looking white guy -- Because when your fun night is over, someone has to put you in a cab. When there's some flak in any given social situation, someone has to smooth things over. And if there's a "problem", someone has to talk to the police -- and you and I both know that probably shouldn't be the black man in the room.

Envisioning Emancipation

Apparently, this somewhat celebratory moment that commemorates the Emancipation Proclamation isn't lost on Hollywood or the media. There are an avalanche of movies, documentaries, exhibits and the like that are to be released within the next two years. Here's a little something that caught my eye. 

The book Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and The End of Slavery -- released on January 1st by Temple University Press -- has me spellbound. I get lost inside those faces, their collective stance, the feel of it all. They are somber, elegant and in most instances, they are painfully well dressed. What's especially disturbing is that they look too familiar. I remember thinking, I know that look on that little boy's face. The way that soldier's shoulder is thrown back, the way her arms are folded. If I look at those pictures for too long, I can almost sense their thoughts. It's all so dignified, so full of self-respect and hope.

Many of the photos have never been seen before. God only knows where they were hidden or how they were found. 



Images in media are so much more important than we think they are.  As we are shown someone else's perspective of us, we are taught so many things  -- who we are, what we look like, where we stand, whether we truly matter.  For God knows how long -- for too long, really -- we have seen ourselves through the bluest eye. And now this: thousands of photographs taken by us, for us -- black photographers capturing snapshots of black people as they stand on the brink of freedom and true self-determination. I have seen other pictures from this era and when I look at these, I can feel the difference.

Black People CAN and DO Swim, Part 2: African-American Firsts

African-American firsts in competitive swimming history:

• ◆ The first African- American swimmer to score in an NCAA final was Nate Clark of Ohio State, in 1962.
  
• ◆ The first swimmer of African descent to win an Olympic medal was Enith Brigitha of Curacao, Netherlands Antilles. Enith won two individual bronze medals in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. The only swimmers to beat her have since been proven to have used performance enhancing drugs.
  
• ◆ In 1981 Charles Chapman became the first African American to swim across the English Channel.
  
• ◆ The first African American swimmer to make a US National Team was Chris Silva of UCLA, in 1982.
  
• ◆ In 1988, Anthony Nesty, of Surinam and the University of Florida upset favored Matt Biondi to become the first swimmer of African heritage to set an Olympic record and win an Olympic Gold medal.
  
• ◆ In 1997 Stanford’s Sabir Muhammad became the first African- American to break an American record.
  
• ◆ In 1999 Alison Terry became the first African- American female swimmer to make a US National Team.
  
• ◆ In 2000, Anthony Ervin became the first American swimmer of African descent to make the USA Olympic Swimming Team and win an Olympic gold medal.
  
• ◆ In 2004, Maritza Corriea became the first woman to make a USA Olympic Team.
  
• ◆ In 2005, Genai Kerr and Omar Amr become the first African-American men to make the USA Olympic Water Polo Team.

The Dr. King You (Probably) Don't Know

In order to make Dr. King suitable for mass (white) consumption, the media sanitized him so thoroughly that they've turned him into a magic negro of epic proportions. In a way, because he achieved the near-impossible in his lifetime and is arguably the reigning symbol of the civil rights movement, he is the ultimate magic negro. This is especially disturbing in light of the fact that towards the end of his life, he was considered a radical and a menace to the status quo. How did we get from there to here?

It was probably that one speech that everyone knows, the iconic "I Have A Dream" moment, the one that is the stuff of legend, the one that is played so often, it's become synonymous with who he is and what he believed, that really sealed things shut. Black and white children holding hands, the table of brotherhood, blah, blah, blah. How shocking it must be for some to see clips like the one below. He's a different Dr. King than the one we've been taught to know and love. He is angry, impassioned. Defiant, really. And black. Really really black -- and proud of it. We can see his hurt and despair. And his rage. Kind of makes you wonder what else they're not showing us, doesn't it. (Thank God for youtube.com!)

Why isn't this Dr. King ever quoted? You can certainly glimpse him in his Letter From A Birmingham Jail when the local clergy asked him to wait before he initiated another civil rights march:

We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward the goal of political independence, and we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, 'Wait.' But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking in agonizing pathos: 'Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?'; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading 'white' and 'colored'; when your first name becomes 'nigger,' your middle name becomes 'boy' (however old you are) and your last name becomes 'John,' and your wife and mother are never given the respected title 'Mrs.'; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tip-toe stance never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of 'nobodiness'; then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

Ah, Dr. King -- it's so nice to meet you...



PS: Here's something you should read very carefully: The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. You Don't See On TV.

A NYC Memory

Since today is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, I thought I'd post a rather sobering top 10 list. But first, a New York City memory.

I met this sister on the bus a few years ago. I was headed home from 125th Street, so it was a relatively short ride. I don't know how we started talking. Maybe it was something that I was reading, something we both saw and laughed at. I don't know. What I remember is her telling me that it had been 11 years since she'd been to a gynocologist or a doctor of any kind -- and at this point, she was sort of afraid that something was probably wrong with her and there was nothing that she could do about it. The look on my face compelled her to explain, with a wave of her hand, that she didn't have money to see a doctor, she barely had money to pay her rent and keep her lights on, that sure, she wanted insurance but she couldn't afford it unless she gave up buying groceries and she couldn't do that because she had kids and kids need stuff every five minutes. And on and on she went.

I have been going to see a doctor at least every 6 months ever since I left my parents' jurisdiction. As a college student at UT (Austin), there was the clinic on campus that served 60,000 students more or less. When I decided that I didn't like them anymore, there was another one off campus, a community center that was run by what seemed to be educated, well-intentioned, bilingual hippies. I remember in particular that they nailed a bin to their door and stuffed with condoms, free of charge. They would sit and talk to me -- as opposed to the campus doctors who treated me like I was on a conveyor belt. I was so sad to see that, upon my most recent visit to The Nation's Capital, they were gone. But I digress.

When I moved to New York City and whined to my daddy that I didn't have health insurance because I didn't have a corporate job and I couldn't afford to purchase it a la carte, he told me that in this town -- to sort of quote the Stones, man -- I couldn't always get what I wanted but if I tried hard enough, I would get exactly what I needed. And you know what? He was absolutely 100 percent correct. He would know. He came to this town during the Great Migration North just as the Depression hit the nation, and he left during the Great Migration South, when African-Americans began going home in droves.

When I decided to finish my BA at The New School and they decided I needed a booster shot that I was missing from my childhood records, I opened the Yellow Pages and found a clinic somewhere in Chelsea that gave me that shot for free. You should have seen me, standing in a long, seemingly endless line with all those other black 9 year olds. You should have seen the doctor's face, when I came in without a little kid in tow and turned around and hiked up my dress and put my panties down. You should have seen the nurses' face when I insisted that she give me a lollipop, too. You should have seen the way the parents looked at me as I left.

Ah, memories.

I told my black sister on the bus that there was a clinic in the Adam Clayton Powell building that's run by a huge conglomerate of a hospital on the upper east side, specializing in mammograms -- but you can see a gynocologist and get a pap smear and anything else you can think of, if you want. And it's completely and utterly free.

She looked at me like I just threw up in her lap.

Look. There are a lot of variables floating around out there that can tell you why African Americans are infected with HIV/AIDS at such a high rate. Ignorance. The stigma of homosexuality and bisexuality in the black community. Lack of healthcare. Poverty. Incarceration rates. Higher prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases. Ghetto miasma. But the bottom line, really, is that this is a lifestyle disease. What that means is, if you live a certain way -- that is, having unprotected risky sex with multiple partners -- you are more likely to get this disease than if you don't.

We have to educate ourselves, we have to protect ourselves and we have to stop lying to ourselves. Don't stay in the dark about AIDS because you're delusional enough to think it's a gay white man's disease -- because the stats say that at this point, it's definitely an African American disease, and it's getting worse. Figure out what it is and get tested -- for everything and anything, actually -- so you'll know if/how it affects you. Don't have unprotected/unsafe sex with anyone -- ever, ever, ever. But instead of pointing at black people and asking, why can't they get it together, there's something we should all realize.

Lifestyle diseases are a phenomena of this modern industrial age. Think about it. With cars and subways and such, we stopped the all-day physical labor that comes with working on farms for example, or having to ride a bike or walk everywhere. We started eating way more dairy and meat and stuff like margarine and way less fresh vegetables and fruit. And surprise! We got fat. And then fast food happened, and we got really fat. And then junk food came along, and we collectively hit the couch as a nation, and we've been getting progressively fatter ever since. Throw in smoking tobacco, recreational drugs and unprotected sex and you get a real picture that shows most Americans what they look like. And apparently, thanks to fast food franchises all over the Western world, Europeans aren't too far behind. My point is this: all of it is within the individual's control.

It's not complicated. Stop eating garbage. Lay off the pork. Quit smoking (crack). Excercise. Use a good astringent to clease your skin, and then moisturize. (Yes, that's right! Acne is a lifestyle disease!)

But then again, it is complicated.

I think about that sister on the bus, how hard she works. I think about how difficult it is to find fresh fruit and vegetables in the ghetto -- and when you do, how expensive they can be. I think about how there are not one but three 24 hour McDonald's restaurants within a 10 block radius of my apartment -- all of them doing a brisk business with that ominous glowingly friendly dollar menu. Before Fairway came to my neck of the woods, I had to go all the way behind God's back to get the food I needed. And then I had to drag it all the way back home. And I did it, week after week. But it would have been so much easier to just throw up my hands and get a double cheeseburger for a buck.

It's like my trainer at my gym says about weight loss: You have to want it. But really -- don't you have to know what it is before you can really want it in the first place? I've worked in enough kitchens to know how to steam and saute vegetables until they're piping hot and brightly colored and crunchy. When I go down south and cook that way for my friends and a lot of my family members, they swear that none of it is ready to eat.

*sigh*

I've had the same gynocologist since I did my first national tour and went legit but I still go to that free clinic for mammograms. I hope sister woman took my advice and went there. Maybe I'll see her in the lobby one day, and we'll find something else to laugh about.

Here's that list. Enjoy.

1. According to the 2000 census, African Americans are 13% of the population (40.3 million, more or less) -- but as of 2006, we're 49% of all HIV/AIDS cases.
2. Over 200,000 African Americans have died of AIDS, over half a million are living with HIV and African Americans are 10 times more likely than whites to have AIDS.
3. Over half (52%) of African Americans living with AIDS and 58% of newly diagnosed cases amongst us are -- where? -- in the South. And we are only 19% of the population there.
4. ...then again -- in DC, more than 80% of all HIV cases are amongst black folk. That's 1 in 20 people.
   
5. Of all the black men living with HIV/AIDS, the primary transmission category was sexual contact with other men.
   
6. In 2006, Black gay and bisexual men between the ages of 13 and 29 accounted for more new HIV infections among gay and bisexual men than any other race or age group. And more than half, or 52 percent, of all Black gay and bi men infected that year were under 30 years old.
7. Of all the black women living with HIV/AIDS, the primary transmission category was high-risk (unprotected) heterosexual contact.
8. HIV/AIDS is the number one cause of death amongst African American women aged 25 to 34.
9. The HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study (HCSUS) -- the only nationally representative study of people with HIV/AIDS receiving regular or ongoing care for HIV infection -- found that Blacks fared more poorly on several important measures of access and quality than whites; these differences diminished over time but were not completely eliminated. Blacks were more likely to report postponing medical care because of a lack of transportation, were too sick to go to the doctor, or had other compelling reasons.
10. If we were our own country, we would rank above Ethiopia (420,000 to 1,500,000) and below the Ivory Coast (750,00) in HIV population.

guess what?

you're probably not going to believe this, but i got a callback on that "opportunity of a lifetime" situation. it's for a doc series called "black to my roots" and here's the kicker: an exec at BET is producing it. and you know what i think of BET.

heh.

i am more than a supposed african-american anomaly. to tell you the truth, i just might be the epitome of everything that they are not expecting. this week, i do a 15 minute on-camera interview. this should be interesting.

...and yes, i have to admit it. i really am kind of happy that i went to the new york reality tv school. twice.

the opportunity of a lifetime?

A brother and fellow Southerner sent me this notification the other day. He found it on Craigslist. Needless to say, I couldn't resist the urge to apply. When I responded to this, they sent me a questionnaire. When I sent the questionnaire, they gave me a call. A hearty round of phone tag ensued. I'm not sure, but I could be "it" at this point. Let's see what develops.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

HAVE YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO VISIT AFRICA? THIS CAN BE THE OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFE TIME.

A diverse group of African Americans (rich, poor, Northern, Southern, College Grad., High School Grad., Suburbia) are united on a trip to Africa to explore the Homeland. From townships and shanties to modern cities and skyscrapers, watch what happens when African Americans come face-to-face with the real Africa. Black to My Roots is a pilgrimage of personal and cultural discovery.

We are searching for a diverse group of applicants (Lawyers, Doctors, writers, hip hop artists, teachers, actors, nutritionists, fashionistas, etc). Please email a paragraph describing yourself and what makes YOU the ideal candidate for this opportunity, essentially what makes you UNIQUE.

Also, attach a photograph and your contact phone number. All entries must be received by 1/30/09. Openfocuscasting@gmail.com

a panel discussion in brooklyn about black women?

On Saturday, January 31st, from 2-4 p.m. the Brooklyn Museum will present a panel discussion entitled “What’s Black Got To Do With It?”

Moderated by Elvis Mitchell, film critic and writer of the HBO award winning film, The Black List Project, this panel will discuss how race, history, and individual striving have shaped Black Women’s stories of success, as well as what the next four years might hold for Black women now that Michelle Obama and her daughters have moved into the White House. Panelists include: Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum of Harlem; acclaimed artist Lorna Simpson, who is featured in the Black List Project; and Lola Ogunnaike of CNN’s American Morning.

For more information, click here.

watch night and freedom eve

i can't ever remember not going to church on new year's eve when i lived down south. even now as a southern stranger in a northern strange land, it feels more than just a little odd when i don't make my way home to pray through the new year, surrounded by loved ones. the church that i attend doesn't have a new year's eve service, probably because of its proximity to times square. i would go to black churches that i knew of in brooklyn or queens or even harlem but once i settled into the ghetto, my big brothers made it plain that i was never to leave the house on certain nights of the year -- and after awhile, what they insisted upon became one of my city rules to live by, because it made a lot of sense. new year's eve was definitely one of those nights.

i spent this new year's eve with my friend and Grandma the Clown at Big Apple Circus (sooooo fun!) but waking up on new year's day and hearing the news reports of how many people got murdered in the tri-state area the night before was sobering enough to fill me with even more "stay home on new year's eve" resolve than ever -- at least, while i'm up here. i don't care how clean and safe they say new york city is. i don't care if they do turn times square into disneyland. i don't care how low the murder and crime rates drop, or how comfortable they make this place. it's still new york city. praying through the new year was something i did when i went home.

i didn't know that this tradition had a name. it was simply something that our entire family had always done, ever since anyone could remember.

so imagine my surprise when my friend shows me an article in the New York Times about the history of this african-american time-honored tradition, and why it resonates so deeply for so many of us black folk this year. although he is white with southern roots on his father's side of his family, he grew up in new jersey and had never heard of anyone going to church and praying through new year's eve until i suggested it.

it's important to note that according to bartelby.com, the definition of watch night is "a religious service held on new year's eve" and that there are many churches in this country who have services on this night. in fact, it was john wesley, founder of the methodist church, who started watch night services in america. and he got it from the moravians -- a small christian sect from the czech republic (bohemia, actually) that held the very first watch night in germany, 1733. the idea was to pray that God watches over everyone's souls into the new year. however -- that long wait in 1862 by so many for word from abraham lincoln on the last day of the year to confirm that he had emancipated millions of slaves all over the country gave watch night an entirely different meaning, one that black folks have embraced ever since.

here's an exerpt from the article in the Times:

Though barely known to most white Americans, Watch Night as observed in black churches holds a place among the highest holy days, surpassed only by Easter and Christmas. Originally an 18th-century Methodist addition to the calendar — and still observed in many Christian denominations — its special significance in the black religious tradition was cemented by its link to the New Year's Eve of 1862, when free blacks and abolitionists gathered to pray that President Abraham Lincoln would carry out his promise to sign the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863.

to read more, click here.

colin powell rocks out!

how amazing is this? i love how impassioned he is in these shots...

this is president bush the younger's 71 year old former secretary of state colin powell at the royal albert hall last night, in an impromptu dance/performance with a nigerian hip-hop group called olu maintain. he was there to speak as a part of THISDAY's 3rd annual africa rising festival, a celebration of african style, fashion and culture. apparently after powell left the podium, he was so inspired by the music that he joined in to sing and do a version of the nigerian dance yahoozee.

this is a side of colin powell i never imagined i'd ever see. he may be a republican and a conservative but apparently, he is truly blacker than black -- and proud of it. that gives me a lot of hope.

what's so exciting about this?

this festival is all about pan-african unity, involving models and musicians and leaders and activists from the entire black diaspora -- from alek wek and naomi campbell to lionel ritchie and beyonce, from king sunny ade to busta rhymes and then some. this is the first year that the festival has gone international. they were actually stateside, in DC! anything that brings all of us together to celebrate our accomplishments, that's focusing on "sustainable solutions" instead of problems, and that raises awareness of the good things that africa -- and africans everywhere -- are bringing to the table is a wonderful thing.

and here we stand as americans, on the brink of electing the first african-american to the presidency. the whole world is watching. it's so important that every eligible voter show up and do their civic duty on november 4th. perhaps it's true that africa is about to experience a renaissance. all africans, worldwide.

it's interesting to note that olu maintain's guitar-playing father is a medical doctor with the nigerian army and that olu studied accounting at the polytechnic in ibadan and has his own label, reloaded records.

here's a part of what mr. powell told the audience:

"I stand before you tonight as an African American.

Many people have said to me -- you became Secretary of State of the USA, is it still necessary to say that you are an African American or that you are black, and I say yes, so that we can remind our children.

It took a lot of people struggling to bring me to this point in history. I didn't just drop out of the sky, people came from my continent in chains.

A lot of wrongs have been done to the continent of Africa by Western powers faced with an iron curtain and a bamboo curtain. These barriers have now fallen and the world is being driven now by new financial forces.

Asia is expanding, it created jobs for people, and Eastern Europeans are doing the same, in my continent - in Latin America, it's happening also. It's now Africa's turn.'"

senator john mccain's black gaffe

when the GOP began to take senator john mccain seriously as a presidential candidate, i began to do my homework on the black hand side -- because God knows the media wouldn't. and besides, i love a good fact check. as it turns out, what i found was more than unsavory: the man is nothing short of a privileged, spoiled rich kid, a womanizer and a heel. he's old. he's sickly. he's reckless. sure, he's no ivy league elitist -- but thanks to his wife's $100 million dollar beer fortune, he's loaded, with 7 homes. or 8. or is it 11? no one seems to know for sure, least of all senator mccain. (how many homes does barack and michelle obama have? one.) he and his wife cindy have 13 cars. if you want to see them, click here. (how many cars does barack and michelle obama have? one. and yes, it's a ford.)

think of it: if senator mccain becomes president, he won't need air force one. he already has his own jet!

nevermind that carefully handcrafted homespun myth about him being a war hero or a rebel maverick in congress. or a faithful husband. his record -- with a special emphasis on the way he has become the presidential candidate that he rallied against so self-righteously in his initial bid for the white house -- speaks for itself. here's a case in point that i found especially bizarre: take a look at which side he stood on concerning a national holiday for the iconic, internationally recognized civil rights leader dr. martin luther king jr.

sure, we're all human, we all make mistakes. sure, i forgive him. but this one was kind of a whopper. and the gist of it all is, it reads volumes into his character -- the man he really is, not the one he or the media pretends that he is.

in the video clip below circa 1983, someone queries senator mccain as to what he intends to do to make dr. king's birthday a state and national holiday. in spite of his vow to rectify the situation, he spent the next 11 years opposing it.

that's right -- senator mccain opposed a national holiday for dr. king as recently as 1994. and arizona republican governor evan mecham deserves some special neoconservative award for simply being who he is. to their credit, the congresspeople of arizona did impeach him eventually -- but that was only after they realized his racist idiocy cost their state over $500 million dollars. once they felt the financial heat, a national holiday for a black man became a great idea.

how can he explain away this voting record? here's the real question: how can he think that thinking black folk will vote for him in spite of it?

don't get me wrong. senator mccain certainly wasn't the only congressperson that opposed the bill initially in 1983. a holiday honoring dr. king was ratified state by state throughout the 90s and was officially a national holiday in 2000. only 17 states participated initially. but supporting and aligning yourself with a republican state governor that openly used the word pickaninny amongst other racist remarks (and defending this), and that went on record as saying that although he thought dr. king did a lot for "the coloreds," he didn't think he did much for anyone else, didn't help then. and it definitely doesn't help now.

so why did mccain vote against a national holiday for martin luther king, jr?

in the following video clip, he attempts to explain himself by saying that he "wasn't familiar with the issue." a remark like that is usually vague enough to give any politician a free pass but this guy is running for president, so we deserve a real answer on this one. i mean, seriously -- doesn't everyone in the world know who dr. king is and what he did? what didn't senator mccain know about dr. king and the civil rights movement, exactly? in his rosier moments while waxing poetic about his time as a POW in vietnam, doesn't he go on about how his tormentors told all of the captives about the assassinations of both dr. king and robert kennedy, to somehow break their morale?

ew.

i especially enjoy the way senator mccain justifies his stance on this issue by referring to his career in the navy. the military isn't racist, so neither is he -- is that it? the truth is, the military is one of the most racist and sexist places there is. frankly, if he doesn't know something that basic, he's way more out of touch than i thought.

maybe he should ask a black man in the military about what it's like to be in the service. or a woman. or a black woman. does senator mccain even know any black women?

hm. watching the following video clip might be helpful -- it's a CNN expose about the neo-nazi invasion in the military and how officials have turned a blind eye to their activities for years.

a national boycott

i got this email a few days ago. it seriously piqued my interest. after i sent it to all the black folk i know, i thought about it for a long time.

when it comes to buying power (also referred to as disposable income), we have a lot more financial muscle than we think. current stats say $892 billion, projected at more than $1.1 trillion by 2012. our total income after taxes increased from $318 billion in 1990 to $688 billion in 2002. in 18 years, we have increased our buying power by 189% -- as opposed to 128% for the buying power of white people. if you combine this with the buying power of hispanics (frankly, i thought they were black like me -- but that's another conversation), we are formidable.

here's the kicker: affluent (with an average income of $122K) african-americans make up only 17% of all black households but account for 45% of the buying power. the marketing pundits are stymied by us -- they are scrambling to figure out how to sell us things. in the meantime, we are making our great migration back to the south, we refuse to shop online for the most part, we shop at beauty supply stores 3x more than anyone else, and we buy/collect black art.

i wonder how many african-americans know these stats?

when i got this email notice, i couldn't stop thinking about the montgomery bus boycott -- 42,000 black folk simply refusing to take the bus. this happened four days after rosa parks refused to give up her seat on the front of a bus and was summarily arrested. the entire black community convened in their churches, strategized, decided on a plan of action, spread the word amongst themselves and that was it. they walked some pretty vicious hostile streets. they carpooled. they rode bicycles. they took taxis. whatever it took to stay off of that bus, that's what they did. it took more than a year -- 381 days! -- but it broke the system, not just in montgomery but nationwide.

think of it: each one of those 42,000 participants changed national policy, changed the law, changed the world -- by refusing a bus ride. they are all civil rights heroes. what a beautiful legacy to give to your children.

if my not spending any money for a week can in some small way contribute to encouraging some sort of conversation on a national level about police brutality against black and hispanic people, then whatever sacrifice i make will be worth it. i can go a week and not spend money. i'll ride my bike everywhere. i'll pack a sack lunch. it's the folks out there that gas up every other day to commute to work or get around their cities that are going to struggle with this.

looks like i'll be shopping for groceries sooner rather than later.

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There are approximately 23 days left to the NATIONAL BOYCOTT (May 19 - 23). As many of you may know, the NYPD detectives in the Sean Bell murder trial were acquitted on all charges. The judge in the case had made his decision based on the fact that the demeanor and background of Mr. Bell and his friends had warranted the detectives to shoot over 50 times. This judicial decision cannot go unanswered. Go back to the 80's with the death of Micheal Stewart and Eleanor Bumpers to name a few. Go back even further to a time when it was legal to lynch African Americans. For too long we have sat idlely by while we let the 'establishment' shoot our leaders (Malcolm/Martin/Medgar) and our young black/hispanic men (Stewart/Baez/Bell) and have done NOTHING about it.


Now is the time to move to action. We must make this stand because if we do not, they will continue to just kill our leaders and young men when it suits them knowing they will not be held to the same judicial consequences as the average citizens. We can no longer turn a blind eye, because it may happen to us. The only thing that the establishment understands is the almighty dollar.


So remember, do all necessary shopping prior to the MAY 19th (May 17 & 18). Buy no gas; fill up before. Do grocery shopping before. Carpool to work, if possible ride a bike or walk to work. Bring bagged lunch to work or leftovers. Spend not one penny that week. Make a donation of at least $5.00 to a Black/Hispanic organization. God Bless.

PLEASE PASS THIS ON.