Kulture Kritic

Min. Louis Farrakhan Turns 80, Russell Simmons and Others Talk about His Impact

bowatkin — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:56:44 +0000

(FinalCall.com) – Chronicling the vast local, national and global impact of the nearly 60 years of consistent service, spiritual guidance and uncompromising advocacy for justice and truth exemplified by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan is both undeniable and quantifiable.

Decades of fierce opposition fueled by lies, false propaganda and misunderstanding has failed to slow the momentum of the man, who became a student of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and joined the Nation of Islam in 1955.

At 80 years of age, his influence continues to resonate with young, old, Muslim, Non-Muslim, Black and White. It permeates the realm of politics, economics, education, art, culture, theology, marriage, family and social justice.

Those who have known the energetic leader from his early days as a young Muslim in New York and Boston, to those who have recently met him, his influence is far-reaching and the over-riding theme many said describe Min. Farrakhan, is consistency.

“Minister Farrakhan fascinates many Black people because he represents a type of freedom and truth that they can only dream about. Even those who disavow him in public rely on him behind closed doors because he has the courage and capacity to confront obstacles that leave most Black Americans in fear,” said Dr. Boyce Watkins, an author, activist and college professor who hosted an economic, family and education forum recently with Min. Farrakhan.

Dr. Watkins, explained why people, particularly Blacks continue to flock to the Muslim leader’s message.

“He doesn’t bend, fold or change his tune due to corporate or political pressure, and he doesn’t spend his time tap dancing for White people. He also has a degree of ownership of his own being that is nothing short of extraordinary. The truth is that he has negotiated a relationship with White America in which they may not love him, but they do fear him and respect him. It is mutual respect from White America that Black people are lacking today, largely due to our inability to secure economic, psychological and social self-sufficiency. We get these things from Minister Louis Farrakhan.”

Dr. Byron Price Works to Kill the School-to-Prison Pipeline

bowatkin — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:47:15 +0000

There’s a disturbing trend taking place in our public schools, especially in high poverty neighborhoods – where hallways and grounds are patrolled by police and disciplinary problems are no longer handled by counseling and detention but by suspension and arrest. Known as the school-to-prison pipeline, the trend is turning our adolescent students into criminals at alarming rates.

To learn more about the school-to-prison pipeline,NEA Today spoke to author and scholar Byron E. Price, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Business and professor of public administration at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York in Brooklyn, New York, and and co-editor of Prison Privatization: The Many Facets of a Controversial Industry.

Can you briefly define the school-to-prison pipeline and talk about the students impacted the most?

The school-to-prison pipeline phenomenon can be characterized as a deliberate strategy to push at-risk children out of our nation’s classrooms and into the carceral state. Research shows that minority students are most impacted by this practice.

What is the cost to our society when we have such a large school-to-prison pipeline?

When youth are disciplined under severe school disciplinary policies, they are less committed to school, do worse academically, and drop out. These negative school outcomes increase the risk of delinquent and criminal behavior over the short and long term, and as a result, have a negative impact on the unemployment rate and the economy.

Julianne Malveaux: At Last

bowatkin — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:32:49 +0000

by Julianne Malveaux

When Beyonce Knowles sang the Etta James song “At Last” at President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, the song could have had several meanings. At last we have an African American President? At last, the muscle of the Black vote has been flexed? At last, there is some hope for our country to come together with the mantra “Yes We Can”.

Watching the President and First Lady Michelle Obama slow dance to the romantic standard reminded us that African American families have not often been positively depicted. This attractive image of an intact Black family had come “At Last”. Thus, the song was symbolic of what many folks, and especially African Americans, believed about the Obama Presidency.

Some of us blindly believed that with an African American president opportunity had come “At Last”. Some believed it so fervently that the least criticism of President Obama, no matter how mild and how lovingly conveyed, could cause you to be run out of the race. An alumnus of Morehouse College, Rev. Kevin Johnson, the selected baccalaureate speaker at his alma mater, wrote an opinion piece that was mildly critical of President Obama. As a result, former White House and new Morehouse President John S. Wilson, Jr. changed the format of baccalaureate to a panel, not one speaker, as is customary.

The purpose of baccalaureate is to have one speaker to focus on the spiritual dimensions of graduation. There is no way that Rev. Johnson would deliver a political speech. Still, he was essentially disinvited from the baccalaureate because of his views.

President Obama is the President of the United States of American, not the President of Black America. Yet, it seems that African Americans have been kicked to the curb in terms of focus and attention. Other groups – the LGBT community, the Latino community – have been mentioned explicitly. However, on African American issues, our President has been silent.

Now, some African American people are crooning “At Last”. Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx has been nominated to serve as Secretary of Transportation. If confirmed, Mayor Foxx, an outstanding an eminently qualified candidate would join Attorney General Eric Holder as the second African American to serve in the cabinet.

Similarly, the nomination of Congressman Mel Watt to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency is a step forward. FHFA regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and allows Congressman Watt the opportunity to implement some of the Obama initiatives about homeowner recovery from the Great Recession. The raging right has already come after Congressman Watt. The Daily Caller (a political blog) has reported an unsubstantiated claim by former Presidential candidate Ralph Nader that the Congressman disrespected him in a letter. Nader has never produced the letter. Thus, the purpose of the claim is to besmirch FHFA nominee Congressman Mel Watt.

If Watt is confirmed, this represents a step forward for both President Obama and for African American people, and for the entire nation. The issue is, of course, confirmation. Will the White House Congressman, be able to garner the votes Watt needs to be confirmed?

What does the White House gain or lose if Watt is not confirmed. The “At Last” segment of the African American community will credit the President for making the nomination, even if not confirmed. The more critical segment of the African American community will view the ways the White House embraces this nominee, and question commitment. Ask UN Ambassador Susan Rice what it feels like to be dropped, when Senate confirmation seemed unlikely.

During President Obama’s first term, his inattention to the African American community was understandable, though not acceptable. He was busy straddling lines, generating compromise, and leaving a legacy of health care reform. African Americans were patient in the hope that “as last” African Americans would get recognition in his second term. After all, as a lame duck President, he has much to gain, and little to lose in rewarding his most loyal constituency. At last some of us have our disappointment confirmed. Our President’s inaugural speech mentioned every community except the African American community.

President Obama and his supporters should not be thin-skinned. Philadelphia’s Rev. Kevin Johnson should not be “disinvited” from the Morehouse baccalaureate. Nor should a panel dilute his message, when the tradition is to have a sole speaker. Johnson is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Morehouse College, who deserves to be treated with respect. His column pointed out realities – President Clinton appointed seven African Americans to his cabinet, President Bush, four, and President Obama, just one. Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, who leads the Congressional Black Caucus, in a letter to President Obama, wrote, “The people you have chosen to appoint in this new term have hardly been reflective of this country’s diversity.

Are the Foxx and Watt appointments a response to criticism? Based on their appointments, should Black folks sing “at last” or “not yet”?

Lead Republicans Predicting Obama Will be Impeached for Benghazi Cover-Up

bowatkin — Mon, 13 May 2013 05:32:28 +0000

Republicans are pushing for the impeachment of President Barack Obama over the disaster at Benghazi. They are claiming that the White House’s efforts to cover up what happened there are worse than Watergate and worthy of seeking impeachment of the president. But one person who is not on board with this strategy is Senator John McCain.

“With all due respect, I think this is a serious issue,” said McCain on ABC’s “This Week.” “I will even give the president the benefit of the doubt on some of these things. We need a select committee.”

Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) has accused President Obama of what he considers “the most egregious cover-up in American history,” adding dramatic rhetoric to the fight. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee added to the ruckus, stating that this is a serious incident and will be the end of President Obama

“I believe that before it’s all over, this president will not fill out his full term. As bad as Watergate was because it broke the trust between the president and the people, no one died. This is more serious because four Americans did in fact die. And President Obama has yet to explain why did they die.”

McCain also defended Obama against impeachment during a late February town hall, saying, “I do not believe that the president has committed impeachable offenses – that’s high crimes.”

Still, the senator did tell ABC’s Martha Raddatz on Sunday that he does believe the Obama administration’s response to the terrorist attacks in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, constituted a “cover-up” because “there was willful removal of information, which was obvious.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was similarly reluctant to back impeachment talk during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

Witnesses Say Man Begged for His Life While Being Beaten to Death by Cops

bowatkin — Mon, 13 May 2013 05:25:25 +0000

A man was begging for his life as police beat him to death, according to witnesses. Police also took the cell phones of those who were watching, making witnesses believe that cops had something to hide.

The Bakersfield Californian reports that David Dal Silva died this week from injuries that came from the police beating. The 33-year old father of four was beaten when police got a call about a man who might be drunk.

According to the Kern County Sheriffs Office, the man resisted arrest and the canine unit was called in to calm him down. That’s when police arrived and beat the man with their batons. Afterward, he died after having difficulty breathing. There are nine police officers accused of being part of the incident.

Witnesses are telling a different story from police.

“When I got outside, I saw two officers beating a man with batons and they were hitting his head so every time they would swing, I could hear the blows to his head,” said a witness, Ruben Ceballos.

Ceballos claims that the man was on the ground screaming and police continued to beat him. Then, he stopped screaming and they were trying to revive him.

“His body was just lying on the street and before the ambulance arrived one of the officers performed CPR on him and another one used a flashlight on his eyes but I’m sure he was already dead,” Ceballos told the Californian.

“He wasn’t resisting arrest, he was begging for his life,” another witness said.

“They (deputies) jumped out, reached for their bats, and beat that man until they killed him right in front of my face,” witness Jason Land told Bakersfield Now.

Land says that after he called the media to report what he’d seen, he was being followed by police. He says that he had a friend drive him to the hospital, where he was arrested for being under the influence of PCP. But he claims he wasn’t high at the time.

“If I wouldn’t have said nothing, I wouldn’t have been in cuffs,” Land told Bakersfield Now. “But since I said something, I’m in cuffs.”

Whether Land is lying or not is not clear. But what is clear is that police took away the cell phones of anyone who recorded the incident as it was taking place. That makes it look quite suspicious.

Bill Board Magazine Discusses How Three Citizens Derailed Lil Wayne, Rick Ross and Mountain Dew

bowatkin — Fri, 10 May 2013 21:17:22 +0000

This article by hip-hop veteran Dan Charnas gives the background on how the deals with Mountain Dew were derailed by a group of concerned citizens who were fighting to protect their community from negative imagery. It talks about the direction that hip-hop is headed, and how we might be turning the corner. Those of you who are tired of the c**p that’s being played on the radio can hold out hope that tomorrow might bring a better day. This article also shows that those who are fighting negative artists aren’t doing so because they hate hip-hop. They are actually doing it because they LOVE IT. Read on:

Dan Charnas (@dancharnas) is the author of The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop (Penguin) and Def Jam: The First 25 Years of the Last Great Record Label (Rizzoli). Billboard.biz welcomes responsible commentary — contact jem.aswad@billboard.com with ideas.

Earlier this year, a handful of social media upstarts squared off against three rap industry heavyweights: Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, and Tyler, the Creator. Within weeks, those underdogs had delivered knockout blows to lucrative endorsement deals for each artist — ending Ross’ with Reebok and Wayne’s with Mountain Dew, and inducing Mountain Dew to remove a Tyler-helmed ad deemed offensive from the company’s site and his YouTube channel. The upset left the rappers reeling, and the business of hip-hop suddenly finds itself in the midst of a culture brawl unlike anything we’ve seen since the mid-1990s, when police unions demanded Time Warner part ways with rapper Ice-T over his “Cop Killer” lyrics, C. Delores Tucker held hearings on hip-hop lyrics in the U.S. Congress, and then successfully pressured Time Warner to sever its lucrative deal with Interscope Records.

But this time, some things are different.

In the ‘90s, rap’s prosecutors were outsiders, cultural conservatives both white and black, ignorant of and hostile to the culture and its fans. But in 2013 the people pursuing Ross, Wayne and Tyler are in many cases older fans of hip-hop (and, by extension, fans of older hip-hop), most often people of color, motivated by progressive politics and empowered by social media.

Syracuse University scholar-in-residence Dr. Boyce Watkins waged a two-year one-man campaign against Lil Wayne on black news sites and on his own blog, YourBlackWorld. But Watkins, 41, grew up on gangsta rap. After a public tangle with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly in 2008, one that Watkins says effectively derailed his academic career as a finance professor, Watkins found his calling online, positioning himself on the ramparts of black America, an earnest but sometimes hair-trigger sentry against injustice and inequity.

Statement from Malcolm’s Grandson Just a Few Months before He Died

bowatkin — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:04:06 +0000

I sincerely appreciate the care & concern of the People over my well-being after Press TV’s report of the most recent events which have transpired regarding the F.B.I.’s harassment of me.

Given the storm of lies, and half-truths that come with being associated with being the descendant of El Hajj Malik el Shabazz, also known as Minister Malcolm X, any and everything that I do; great or small, good or not so good, real or imagined is subject to controversy. However, in this missive I will take this opportunity to properly & fully disclose what transpired.

In the beginning of 2012 I had been informed that I was under investigation by the F.B.I.’s Counter Terrorism Task Force Unit located in Goshen, N.Y.

The agents of this division-and in collaboration with others-have visited several residences of which I was known by them to frequent. However, they would never come when they knew me to actually be there. They would leave their cards with the residents asking them to tell me to call them, and then would tell surrounding residents to observe the house and to notify them if they saw me.

These are the homes of long-time friends, and very close supporters. Yet, when federal agents begin knocking on someone’s door on multiple occasions to snoop, and ask questions, whether one is guilty of an offense or not, it’s enough to coerce people into distancing themselves from you. This cheap tactic employed by the F.B.I. is a means of agitation & harassment. They seek to neutralize my networking abilities.

They have visited locations in California, Chicago, Miami and most aggressively in New York.

People were advising me that if I had nothing to hide, then I should just contact them as requested and cooperate. Though I must say that in these kind of matters I am of a particular ethic. For one, I have been engaged in no criminal activity of their concern, and they could have located me if they so chose. Secondly, I don’t recognize the authority in them beckoning me.

It wasn’t even until my mother informed me that they had been contacting her that I truly became agitated. She advised me to see what they had to say, and so I obliged the next time they came around looking for me. My encounter was with 2 federal agents of Goshen, N.Y.’s Counter Terrorism Task Foci Unit. The primary agent identified himself as Special Agent Tom Brozicky.

They expressed concern over-as they put it-my “international travels”; I have lived & studied in Damascus, Syria for over a year, and now the U.S. is instigating conflict within the very same region; I went on ex-congresswoman/former presidential candidate Cynthia Mckinney’s delegation along with Dr. Randy Short to Libya, and met with Leader Muammar Gadhafi one week prior to N.A.T.O. intervention and I was most recently getting ready to travel to Tehran, Iran to be a participant of the International Fajr Film Festival and give a lecture addressing the issues of Hollywood and violence:

- Modern Violence & Terrorism,

- Provoking clashes between religions & populations

I was picked up by authorities after I filed for a visa to Iran, and 2 days prior to my departure. A detective squad from the City of Middletown Police Department surrounded me in the street about 2 blocks from where I was residing. They asked me my name, and I gave them an alias, but they were already well aware of who I actually was. I didn’t tell them my real name because I didn’t know what was going on. When I was brought before a Judge of City of Middletown court I was surprised to be informed that I was being charged with Grand Larceny, and False Impersonation charge. Then I was sent to jail, and told to appear again 7 days later. Then following court date the bogus charge of Grand Larceny, which they only put to justify stopping me in first place, was dropped. And they left me to face the False Impersonation. I was offered 90 days for the offense of giving the authorities the wrong name which I declined before bailing out after 2 weeks.

When I was being held within the belly of the beast on trumped up charges, to my rescue came the journalist at Press TV based in Iran. My relationship with powerful & progressive news outfit began in April of 2012, and prior to that I had discussions with their journalist regarding current events internationally. I developed a positive rapport with some of them, and as a result was invited to travel to Iran to discuss the impact of Hollywood in stereotyping Muslims, Iranians and African people. From January 15th through 18th, 2013, I was a featured interviewee for the Press TV documentary “The Façade of the American Dream”. And prior to my date of departure to Iran, Lifetime television released a television bio-picture called “Betty & Coretta” which was a sensationalistic misrepresentation of my grandparents, my mother and me. This film aside from being poorly acted, and shallow in depth also threatened to inflame old controversies, and open unhealed wounds and to remind the public of sad outcomes without ever identifying B.O.S.S.I., the C.I.A., F.B.I. and other forces that set the climate for my grandfather’s assassination, and made my family a long-suffering casualty of COINTELPRO, and other anti-Black repression programs. Naturally, anything done to stir up old hatred of The Shabazz Family will impact me as the name-sake, and first male heir of Malcolm X, and whether I am high or low in fortunes does not exempt me from this reality.

The formula for a public assassination is: the character assassination before the physical assassination; so one has to be made killable before the eyes of the public in order for their eventual murder to then deemed justifiable. And when the time arrives for these hits to be carried out you’re not going to see a C.I.A. agent with a suit & tie, and a badge that says “C.I.A.” walk up to someone, and pull the trigger. What they will do is to out-source to local police departments in the region of their target, and to employ those that look like the target of interest to infiltrate the workings in order to set up the environment for the eventual assassination (character, physical/incarceration, exile) to take place.

For several months prior to my arrest in late January, 2013 I faced a pattern of harassment from law enforcement which is usually reserved for important figures.

[[On Thursday, November 1, 2012 @ 11:53pm in the park circle area of Middletown, N.Y. I was stopped by officers of the Middletown Police Department, and given a ticket for "J-Walking" (crossing in the middle of the street), which then escalated into a "Disorderly Conduct" supposedly because of the exchange of words that I had with the officers. I told them that they couldn't possibly be serious for writing me a "J-Walking ticket", that I didn't appreciate how they were treating me and that they shouldn't be looking at me as less of a man because they were in police uniform. For this I was arrested, the officers stole the little amount of money that I had on me, they then stripped me and threw me in a freezing precinct cell for the remainder of that early morning. I was finally taken before the "Judge Steven Brockett" around 1:30pm. He gave me an unreasonable bail, and then ordered that I be remanded to the Orange county Jail.

This penalty may seem a bit extreme or harsh to most of you, but here is where it gets worse: On Tuesday, October 30th, exactly 2 nights prior to this incident, the same officer "J Berman" who wrote me the ticket for "J-Walking" & "Disorderly Conduct" stopped me coming from out of a store in the same area, and questioned me as to what I was doing. I told him that I was coming out of the store. He asked to see what I bought which was a pack of sun flower seeds. I had actually just so happened to be eating a few while he was talking to me, and I spit one of the shells on the ground. At this point officer "J Berman" threatened to write me a ticket for littering. Needless to say, I was dumbfounded, but I went home that night.

Yet, it still doesn't even begin there. I had an encounter with other officers of the Midletown Police Department one week prior to officer "J Berman's" threats to write me a ticket for spitting a sun flower seed on the ground: I was coming out of a restaurant with my mother, and her friend. As the 3 of us entered the car to leave 2 police cars converged on our vehicle, and boxed us in. My mother was petrified. With guns drawn I was then ordered to step out of the back seat. I asked them why to which they replied that I had several warrants for my arrest. I told them that they were mistaken, but I still complied with their request. Humiliated in front of all on-lookers I was then thrown on the car while the officers ripped through my pockets. After they were done they said that it was my lucky day because I actually didn't have any warrants at all, and so I was free to go! One of these officer's name was "R. Ribeiro"...

You may wonder if it could possibly get any worse than this. Well, it does! Approximately 3 weeks prior to the public humiliation of my mother, and me by "R Ribeiro" and another officer of the Middletown Police Department I found myself subject to the discrimination & prejudice of Mayor Joseph M. Destefano of Middletown, N.Y. himself. A friend, and I went out to eat at a restaurant in Middletown, N.Y. which is owned by the Mayor, and to our surprise he appeared from nowhere and asked us to leave. When we inquired as to why he stated that officials of the Middletown Police Department told him not to let us patronize his establishment. Mind you that this goes without incident. As I stand for the people, God-Willing, I would pray that the same people wouldn't hesitate to stand for me. If these unjust & heinous actions are tolerated & allowed to be done to me without recourse, then no one is safe. Just as Huewy P Newton of the Black Panther Party stated that police are in the white community to protect & serve, yet occupy ours like a foreign troop... I tell you that we shouldn't fall victim to the conditioning of feeling inferior or fearful at the presence of law enforcement for no apparent reason.]]

With that being said, I was not arrested by federal agents. I was taken in by a squad from the City of Middletown, N.Y.’s Police Department. I was not being held in an “undisclosed location” so to speak. I was actually being held in the Orange County Jail in Goshen, N.Y. However, from the time that I was booked at the precinct, to standing before a Judge the next day who told me to come back in 7 more, to being processed at the Orange County Jail and up until 7 days later I was not permitted to make any calls to notify anyone of my status; as though I had just been kidnapped from of the street.

Unfortunately, until this day my family hasn’t been fully abreast of my situation as I haven’t had the opportunity to properly consult with any of them. Dr. Randy Short who notified Press TV of my situation is a close comrade of mine who was on our delegation in Libya. Media reports from Press TV about my situation were not intended to create controversy. In reality, I have a few associates that are affiliated with this reputable International media outlet, and they had expected to meet with me in Iran. So when I disappeared, and rumors spread, the inability to get concise information from a credible source prompted them to rouse public attention on my behalf, for which I am grateful. In April of 2012 I had the opportunity to be a guest analyst/contributor on Press TV. This network has a large following all over the world, and millions find it’s news, documentaries and programming to be both an educational, and insightful alternative to the conglomerated, and highly biased mainstream American & British news media. Regarding the Source magazine, nothing that they published was vetted by me, and was made by persons, at best, vaguely familiar with my situation. Further, I have never had an affiliation or relationship with The Source, nor have they ever directly consulted with me about anything.

The US Has More People in Prison Than Corrupt Dictator Joseph Stalin Had in His Gulags

bowatkin — Fri, 10 May 2013 05:59:30 +0000

If you’re not aware of the infamous Joseph Stalin and his gulags in Soviet Russia, just consider him to be one of the first leaders to realize the economic benefits of incarcerating a large percentage of your population. Stalin was notorious for telling leaders of various villages to meet incarceration quotas at any cost, all so he could get the free labor that comes with it.

The United States, with it’s private and profitable prisons, has a greater incentive to incarcerate a large number of its citizens than Stalin had during his time as the leader of the Soviet Union. Those incentives are showing themselves in big numbers, with the US now leading the world in the number of people behind bars on both an aggregate and per-capita basis.

“Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today,” writes the New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik. “Over all, there are now more people under ‘correctional supervision’ in America – more than 6 million – than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height.”

Writing for Time Magazine, Fareed Zakaria lays out some facts that you need to know:

Is this hyperbole? Here are the facts. The U.S. has 760 prisoners per 100,000 citizens. That’s not just many more than in most other developed countries but seven to 10 times as many. Japan has 63 per 100,000, Germany has 90, France has 96, South Korea has 97, and Britain – with a rate among the highest – has 153….

This wide gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world is relatively recent. In 1980 the U.S.’s prison population was about 150 per 100,000 adults. It has more than quadrupled since then. So something has happened in the past 30 years to push millions of Americans into prison.

The author says that the culprit is the US War on Drugs, which led to a huge spike in incarceration rates, starting with sentencing reform in 1986. At that time, crack cocaine offenders were given sentences 100 times longer than those found in possession of powder cocaine. This led to a massive increase in the incarceration rate, with a disproportionate impact on the African American community.

Drug convictions went from 15 inmates per 100,000 adults in 1980 to 148 in 1996, an almost tenfold increase. More than half of America’s federal inmates today are in prison on drug convictions. In 2009 alone, 1.66 million Americans were arrested on drug charges, more than were arrested on assault or larceny charges. And 4 of 5 of those arrests were simply for possession….

Worokya Duncan: Of Coons and Men of Character

bowatkin — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:19:25 +0000

Let me preface all this by saying, I don’t need permission to speak the truth- just an occassion. Secondly, Charles Ramsey is a hero, not a c**n. He is not a joke and should not be viewed as one, but alas, we live in Gore Vidal’s United States of Amnesia……

On Facebook the other day, I saw a posting listing certain things one has to expect when they are the only Black person in a class. As I read, I reminisced about those instances at Duke University where that was the case for me, or in my Montessori class, while I was coming up. I thought about being a handful of people of color for a while at a 99.9% minority populated school with 75%+ Caucasian staff. Then, I started to think about Honey Boo Boo, Snookie, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills or The Real Housewives of New Jersey. It got me to thinking. When whites see depictions of themselves on television like the aforementioned, I’m 100% sure that they SELDOM IF EVER worry that their entire population will be seen as a Honey Boo Boo or her momma. As loud and obnoxious as Snookie is, she is seen for her gumption and career aggression, and not necessarily a horrible example of white ladyhood. That is definitely in contrast to Nene from The Real Housewives of Atlanta, whom I would argue differs little, except in age, with Snookie. I can’t say it’s all in perception. I choose rather to say, that it is all in those who CREATE a national perception of a population.

I won’t argue here that there are any ethnic or racial monoliths. We, as humans, have so much diversity, which is what can make life exciting. But what happens when entrenched racism is the lens through which some humans are seen? What happens when all that is portrayed, and adverstised, and fed to the public is nothing more than entertainment and fuel to a fire that believes that certain humans are less than intelligent, and are unworthy of being taken seriously, even when they do the heroic? What happens is that we get a Charles Ramsey.

See clip here:

Kirsten West-Savali: Mountain Dew Also Owes Women an Apology

bowatkin — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:11:36 +0000

As controversy surrounding the now infamous Mountain Dew ad created by Odd Futurefront-man, Tyler, The Creator, gained in intensity, in large part due to my friend and colleague, Dr. Boyce Watkins, labeling it “the most racist ad in history,” the many varied and nuanced responses to it began to form their own separate story.

Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, the fact that a woman appeared to have been violently raped has warranted little more than a dismissive mention in this post-deconstruction phase, pushed to the back in favor of debating the accuracy — of lack thereof — of distilling racism from a commercial featuring a talking goat.

After Mountain Dew pulled the ad, offering a flippant mea culpa on par with Lil Wayne‘s and Rick Ross‘ last-ditch efforts to appease their corporate ~~masters~~ sponsors, a Facebook friend of mine asked me how I felt about the ad and I gave him the abbreviated version:

Mountain Dew, a PepsCo company, may have taken away Tyler’s piggy bank and dapped it out with Black men offended by the police line-up trigger — because they “perceived” it to be racist — but there has still been little to no mention of the fact that a mockery was made of a woman being assaulted and raped to increase the product’s attractiveness to young men.

“You shoulda gave me some more, I’m nasty,” said Felicia, the Goat in a raspy voice. “”Keep ya mouth shut, I’m going to get out of here and Dew you up!”

Show of hands: How many of you have seen media space dedicated to the problematic nature of that statement — conceptualized in the mind of a man who thinks rape is nothing more than a clever line in a rap song?