Thursday, February 28, 2008

MY PATRIOTISM AIN'T LIKE YOUR PATRIOTISM


What's up with white people and flag lapel pins? How did they come to symbolize patriotism? Yes, I know, it's just a ploy by the right wing nut fools but dang, who the hell gives a rat's ass? Yes, I know too that it's a signal to other right wing nut fools that a black man who doesn't wear a flag lapel pin is not patriotic. You know white folks need to get over having symbols and using symbols for patriotism should mean something to black folks cause it don't. (See below). Conservative withes hate our guts and that's a fact. They haven't liked us since they set eyes on the first black man they enslaved so why do they pretend? They can barely contain themselves now, and the only thing that keeps them from fully despising us is political correctness, we all know this.

That damned lapel don't mean a thing to those people except when expedient. It's expedient for them to use it against Obama. He's not patriotic. He's not one of us. He's some kind of bi-racial foreigner. He can't even cross his heart for the Pledge of Allegiance, gasp! That's illegal! No, it's not. Blond witches and himbos sit on the sets of Fixed Noise giggling and tee hee heeing over the fact that the man doesn't cross his heart or wear the pin, and that not crossing your heart during the pledge is some rule or regulation that nobody but them ever heard of, pointing to the text that says nothing of the sort. More evil, ignorant and racist crap.

Right wingers are the very same folks who drove a wedge into the relationships between blacks and whites and they are the ones who keep it there. Their racial hatred of blacks in this country is almost a living thing, and if the young think they know something about racism they ain't seen nothing yet. If Obama becomes the party candidate the white gloves will come off and those white people will be ready to get their hands dirty in some good old fashion racial mud slinging. They will unleash every devious racial trick in the book on that man and his family and it's gonna get ugly in these United States. If they can, they will make it look like a throw back to the 1950's and 60's, when it was still alright, in their minds, to call black folks niggers. In fact, I fully expect them to invoke that word some way some how, just watch. Or colored boy, lol.

When you drive thro some neighborhoods you can find at least one or two Amerrcan flags (said bush style) planted in some yards. I'm sure that after the tragedy of 9/11 thousands were planted in patriotic fervor. To me, whites have this strange, obsessive kind of patriotism, that flag waving thing, that we as blacks, have never been allowed to have. We've never been allowed to fully participate in the patriotic rituals of this country, so they virtually almost mean nothing to us. We don't love our country any less, we just don't hang onto all the symbolism like whites do.

Yes, it's already started, lessons in Racism 101, and nobody does it better than white conservatives. They know how to practice racism really well, and do, every damned day of their lives. So Obama, if you are the nominee get ready, cause white people got something for your narrow behind, and they will tell you every chance they get that you're nothing but a water melon eating, seed spitting black boy, and don't you forget it. And save me a chicken leg, dammit!

Oh, since this writing a white right wing nut here is already starting stuff.

Friday, February 22, 2008

PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN


Recently that twit, Michelle Obama, made a remark that for the first time she was proud of her country, setting off a firestorm of controversy for some reason. I don't know what Obama meant and little do I care. But I can tell you what set white folk's teeth on edge. GUILT. Plain and simple. Why do they seem to think that blacks should feel the same flag waving national obsession as they do? I stopped saying the pledge of allegiance when I was ten years old. There was nobody I could ask as to why my country hated on me so much, why they wanted to destroy me wholesale, why they wanted to obliterate me, a child.

The year is 1964, and as a child in school part of our daily routine is to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. The Vietnam War is raging on, sucking up the lives of thousands of brothers, enlisting or drafted into this insane war. The civil rights movement is at it's height, with marches and sit-ins happening daily. Hoses, dogs, night sticks, were used on my people daily, black people, doing nothing more than demanding what belonged to them, the right to be free in the country they now called theirs, not through coming here with the settlers willingly, not by way of Ellis Island, and an invite, not through immigration, not through illegal immigration, crossing the border into this country. We came by slavery.

We were stolen, kidnapped, rounded up like cattle, hurled onto slave ships and dragged to this country in fear and terror, not knowing or understanding what was happening to us. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents, babies, children. Young, old, firm and infirm. Can you imagine what happened to you if you were found to be too old, sick, infirm? Can you? What kind of hatred and evil did it take to toss another human over the side of ship like so much unwanted garbage?

Of course you might get lucky. You might get sick from the ill treatment received on the voyage over, sick enough to die. You might get lucky enough to be able to kill yourself by hurling yourself overboard. Being really unlucky? Being raped. Being used and abused by the men of the ship if you are a female and they feel they want to do so. Was any newly captured African woman safe from the horrors of this crime?

Slavery comes and slavery goes. It is estimated that 200 million people of African decent were murdered during the course of slavery. Murder is my term, but murder is what it is. The numbers could be higher of course, but we will never know. Slavery existed in this country for 200 hate filled years, and Michael Medved need not tell us that they were years filled with happy slaves singing zippty do da as that freak Walt Disney would have you believe. He would have you believe that slaves were happy, well cared for, and that slavery was not the heinous institution we make it out to be. Dragged from your homeland by strange people; put in shackles so you can't escape; death and atrocities on the crossing; ripped from the arms of kith and kin; hard years of slaving in the fields of whites, on plantations, for their gain, not yours; no benefits package; kith and kin ripped from your arms, sold to others, never to see them again; oh happy damn day.

Slavery finally ends but the hate remains. So much so that Lincoln is assassinated. Thus begins the long journey of our nightmare, freedom. What's so free about it? Now the hatred really begins. Segregation begins in every aspect of black life. Housing, education, jobs, health care, transportation, you name it, we got Jim Crow for it. Suppressed, repressed, depressed, squashed and put down. Now even more hated than before when we were slaves, hatred is heaped on us for now merely existing.

With Dr. King and sister Rosa Parks, come hope and deliverance. Cedric the lardbutt entertainer(sic) needs to return to school to bone up on his black history studies. If Sister Parks had not refused to give up her seat on that bus on that day, his fat hide would still be riding the back of the bus. It is a moment that changed history. Dr. King delivered us from the oppression not of slave masters, but of those angry and hateful because we gained our freedom, and they still continued their anger and hatred. I should forget the ignorance of someone who didn't take time with their history or possibly didn't even care what ignorance came out of his mouth for the sake of comedy. He wasn't funny.

Unfortunately, Dr. King didn't live long enough to finish his work, and we have not continued it as well as we should have. EVERYONE has dropped the ball to a certain extent and to the detriment of us all. Racism, which is as deeply ingrained in this country as it ever was, had gone underground, under the detection of our radar, to the point that a few words said by Michelle Obama hit a nerve. Maybe she felt it the way people percieved it, maybe she meant nothing by the remark. But I can totally understand it because I lived it, felt it, that my country did not want or need my pride in it. Why, how, could I have pride in a country which openly hated me, having done what it's done to me, to my ancestors? How can I when I was never fully embraced by the country which enslaved and freed me, but still hated me afterwards? How?

Do you ever wonder why there were no blacks in Sex In The City? Because whites still can't manage to see blacks as basically normal human beings, with the same lives, same feelings, same wants and desires as their's. Guilt. It doesn't allow them to see us at all, too many times. Hate now comes from another reason as whites see it. Now that we've been free for more than a hundred years why can't we make it? Why aren't we better educated, better housed, better jobbed(!), in fact, why don't we have better everything now that we're free? And why do we keep committing so much crime, having so many out of wedlock babies, not getting married, filling up the jails? Because, tho they won't admit it, we are still locked down by their perceptions and their hatred. And their guilt.

Is any of the above what Michelle Obama meant? I neither know nor care. I do know the feelings can be out there, where they stem from, and why. I don't know if she has them so I don't claim to understand her or what she meant to say. I had been thinking about this for a long time, so she is just the catalyst for this post. I don't support her, and I most definitely don't support her husband. But I do support their right to say whatever they feel because that is who I am, and because of the sacrifice that went into gaining them that right.

I should have stated that this post was really in response to a post by Taylor Marsh on her blog, here.

Monday, February 18, 2008

LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING

James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871June 26, 1938) was an American author, politician, critic, journalist, poet, anthropologist, educator, lawyer, songwriter, early civil rights activist, and prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Johnson is best remembered for his writing, which includes novels, poems, and collections of folklore. He was also one of the first African-American professors at New York University. Later in life he was a Professor of Creative Literature and Writing at Fisk University.





Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered;
Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS LELA ROCHON?


Whatever happened the image of strong black women? All during the eighties we had some of the strongest singing sisters since the jazz age come through. Aretha, Chaka, Anita, Gladys, Minnie, Phyllis, (rest their souls). Then there were actresses such as Cecily Tyson, Diana Ross, Lela Rochon, and whoever else came through during those mid to late nineties. Of course, we were all over television during the mid to late nineties, in so many sitcoms you lost count. But where are we now? Why did we all of a sudden disappear from almost every venue, even music?

During the mid nineties Fox and WBFW vied to see who could run the most black shows, and while I don't know who won, I do know that for a time black folks did. At this point I suppose I should make a confession; I don't watch much commercial and I rarely caught the many shows on. I haven't watched much commercial tv in the last almost 28 years or so. Until the 70's it was very rare for blacks to appear as regulars in any major television production. Did you ever notice that if the production is all white there can only be one reoccurring black character? He/she never has a family or love interest, just there for comic relief. I see old Julia has a new love interest and he's black.

Sex in The City. Four incredibly skinny and not attractive white women and the stories of their lives. One day I'm going to write about why race matters, and this is part of it. I have had some really wonderful relationships with white women, very close ones, but not in recent years. Our lives, in too many deep ways, are nothing alike, and while we can get over this during childhood, by the time we're adults our lives have really diverged brought on by life experiences. Besides, whites see our sex lives in such outlandish and caricatured ways we could never have been in City. White people probably think that if a sister kissed on a white man the screen would burn down. Then they'd be ready to burn us all at the stake.

Let's see. UPN used to have some black shows on, but not any more I don't think. Tyler Perry is on tbs or tnt, can't remember which. Bernie Mack finally bit the dust as well he should have. I just don't know what fascinates people about public cursing. Is Dennis Hayesbert still on the Unit? Is the Unit still on?

Right now I'm following Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles. For the first time since I don't know when, I am actually following a t.v. series, and that is a feat for me. I wanted to follow Lost, but couldn't, and Ghost Whisperer, but didn't. I love Terminator 1 and 2, 3 sucks bad, but the the t.v. series? It's the bomb, lol. The thing is tight, just the way it ought to be, and I can't believe they did 3. O.K., in case you're wondering, on a certain level I am an Arnie fan, but just of the Terminator series, 1 and 2 being excellent scifi, which I really love. Otherwise, Arnie needs a face slapping for real, lol. Is Maria frigid? Isn't that what they used to call it? Frigid! Ewww, I shudder at the thought! I don't suppose tho, if girlfriend gave him some 365 she still wouldn't cool that thing down. I'm waiting to see how much the brother's character develops.

Martin Lawrence has a new movie coming out. Sigh. At least it ain't Friday. It looks like it should be funny, I've laughed at some of the ads for it. LL Cool J as a lover. Naw, it don't work! Soup Cooler Lover In Da House, lol. Denzel. I wish he would just make a romantic comedy or two, shoot do some remakes, Bringing Up Baby, Arsenic and Old Lace would be great, just so I could stare at him. Boy, he could hire so many black folks, all the ones they wouldn't hire for feature films back then.

Well, it seems as if they is one place you can find us in abundance now. Commercials. Ever notice how many of us are showing up in those things? I shouldn't complain, at least we can get work somewhere.