We Need a Sharpton/Nas Channel.

Doesn't it seem like at least once of week, at least
one of these negros appears in the news talking about
some version of the word negro?

Ta-Nehisi got some grown
man Washington Post shine analyzing.

Al Sharpton as the LEADER OF BLACK AMERICA.
Congratulations fam, WE don't get to write about US in
THOSE papers, ABOUT us very often.

Coates makes a some interesting points. The first thing I noticed is
how he put Sharpton into the context of Black Leaders in general.
He writes:

Still, once upon a time, to qualify for the title of "black leader," you had to actually lead and, more important, have a following. Harriet Tubman was the paragon: Black people quite literally followed her out of slavery. W.E.B. Du Bois helped create the NAACP, then godfathered the Harlem Renaissance. More than any single figure, Malcolm X arguably rebuilt black America's collective self-esteem, eliminating "brown bag tests" (the color caste system among blacks) and making the rest of the world safe for dreadlocks.

In more modern times, black leaders could point to real events to show their worthiness. Louis Farrakhan resurrected the Nation of Islam as a mass movement and reached his zenith in 1995 at the Million Man March. During his presidential run in 1988, the Rev. Jesse Jackson won five primaries in which almost all blacks voted for him, an accomplishment that Obama may find hard to repeat. More important, the momentum from Jackson's bid helped New York elect its first black mayor and Virginia its first black governor.

Sharpton's resume isn't even in the same pile.

OUCH. He also hones in on why Sharpton is so meshes so well with the media. He states,

But the many competing and cooperating strains of black activism are impossible to capture in a sound bite or a five-minute "Crossfire" segment. Thus Sharpton is invoked as shorthand, as a way to avoid the time it takes to show complexity, nuance and humanity.

There's another reason why the media have elected the reverend president of black America. For cable networks, Sharpton is the gift that keeps on giving. He provides an easily disposable villain, a simple out for his most loyal constituency: white racists. For those who already doubted the humanity of black folks, who believe that we spend our days counting the ways white people owe us, who think we chant "Reparations now!" at least once every seven minutes, the bombastic Sharpton is a perfect confirmation.

"Every seven mintutes." He wrong for that.

Then Coates went for the gusto bringing up the comment
that O'Reilly made in Harlem a few weeks back. He surmised,

This is America's racial rift transformed into a reality show -- a place where Sharpton can cross swords with O'Reilly one day and take him out for fried chicken the next. O'Reilly was, of course, widely criticized for his dim comments. In his defense, he summoned the very man whom he claimed African Americans weren't listening to: Sharpton.

Memo to everyone everywhere: Al Sharpton isn't a black leader, he just plays one on TV.

Daaaang gina. To the face hunh?

And our dear homie Nas is in the news as well. In an INTERESTING
TWIST, an Assemblyman in Brooklyn, Hakeem Jefferies is going to
argue for the NY state pension to divest its funds from Universal
if NAS doesn't change his title.

Meanwhile, Brooklyn assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries has asked that the New York Comptroller withdraw an $84 million state pension fund invested in Universal Music Group, home to Nas' label Def Jam, unless the rapper changes his title.

"[They are] profiting from a racial slur that has been used to dehumanize people of color for centuries," Jeffries said. "It is time for Nas and other hip-hop artists to clean up their act and stop flooding the airwaves with the N-word."

Universal has yet to respond to those demands.

CORPORATE INSTITUTIONAL ACTIVISM MEETS HIP HOP.

I think I just drooled.

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What WOULD O'Reilly do without Negro's?

What would Al do without, um, the media?

Isn't it nice to see hip hop being provacative again?

Nas wrong? right? This is stupid?

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High Achieving Low Income Kids are Invisible.

High Achieving Low Income students are all around us.

They remain silent/invisible because they don't have a lobby.

Corn has a lobby, and their interests are served.

Oil has a great lobby. China has one. The Insur has one.

Internet radio has a f*cked up one, but you get my drift.

In reading this article about a homeless high achieving African
American student I wondered to myself whether some White
People get their kicks by talking shit about Black parents.

The student Nicholas Bounds is impressive. I mean. He is THAT
DUDE.

Nicholas Bounds is one of the top students in my Senior English class. He attends school every day, and often arrives to our first period class early. He works dutifully in class and faithfully completes his homework every night. He writes with honesty, intelligence and intensity. He scored a 23 in Math on the ACT. Nicholas is a shining star in the otherwise stormy night of black male education in the West Side of Chicago.

Nicholas Bounds also lives in a homeless shelter for teenagers. Every day, he leaves the shelter at 7 a.m. for school and arrives back at 11 p.m. after his part-time job at U.P.S. He was telling me the truth; he has been his own parent since he was 15 and in the eighth grade

Nicholas’ mother was a drug-addict and his father was neither stable nor involved. Despite his family upbringing, Nicholas is proud that he has always succeeded in school.

“Since we started getting grades in elementary school, my report cards were A’s and B’s. I have natural intelligence but I always worked hard. I had to push myself,” Nicholas remembers. “I’ve been lucky to have good teachers who believed in me and had a big impact on me. I also benefited from all the clubs I was in like the Boys and Girls Club, where I would go after school to play and receive help with my homework.”

Then I got to the comments section.

The majority of them were warm, receptive, encouraging.

Then there were the "BLACK PARENTS NEED TO ACT RIGHT" comments
that reminded me of that Bill Cosby koolaid. Feel me.

Trill talk.

October 23rd,
2007
11:24 am

Here is an example of a person who has far better resilience than kids from money and family.

However, black parents should know how black girls and boys are going to wind up if they don’t step up to the plate in terms of parenting and mentoring. If you go to any black-plurality city, there’s crisis that is NOT in the hands of everyone else, but black parents and black sisters, brothers, families.

Nick is an example of someone who defied the odds. Most fail and never make it out of high school. What are black people going to do about this????

— Posted by G

But you know what. The majority of the comments were so f*cking positive
that I can't even continue on with my the intended tone of my argument.

But then again......
Another comment came along and said it for me.

GOD. I love when people feel me.

October 24th,
2007
10:41 am

Its all cool to want to start a scholarship fund for Nick, and I would gladly contribute, but I think you’re all missing HIS point. He is calling for change in the system so that others in his situation can get the help and support that was instrumental in his survival against all odds. So call upon your state and local representatives to provide funding for such support, or volunteer at a local support organization, or do SOMETHING! Just helping Nick is not enough.

— Posted by Gene Tee

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Dear Bill Cosby,

Your brilliant, warm and generous. And I know you mean well.

But.

Please write more about OUR success stories and
specific strategies on how to address the problems
that we face, rather than rant about how our pants hang low.

Otherwise you sound like a crankety old man.

- Model Minority

=========
=========
What is one thing, you would tell Bill Cosby
during a sit down?

What is one thing, one measurable thing,
you would change about education?

About Hip Hop? About Black people?
DID I MENTION MEASURABLE.

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Drunk and Hot Girls

I remember the first time I listened to Drunk and Hot Girls.
I kept waiting for the rape or something outta pocket to happen.

Its like, I wanted to like the song, then I thought of a 15
year old girl listening to it, and about the message it was sending her.
Sh*t. I thought of the message that it was sending 15 year old boys as well.

The message, I concluded isThat ITS cool if a dude gets you "drunk"
and for you to acquiesce sexually, even when all of your faculties
ARE NOT FUNCTIONING at the level that the situation requires.

This rationale runs counter to my idea that
Sex is about choice, and most importantly, as young women,
making healthy choices. Many of us have made some NOT
TOO COOL decisions slurred in that 3-4 drink gray area.
The problem is that THAT GRAY area is precisely the site
where assault takes place.

Back to Ye Ye's song.

The song would flow different if there was a woman on it.
MIA, Keyshia Cole, Mary (okay, maybe NOT Mary), Foxy (from solitary)
or Jean Grae in a verse or two, presenting the other side of the
drunk and hot coin. Related to the drunken hotness,
Gotty sent me an article about a study on the impact of music
videos on young Black women.

The conclusion was:

Watching hip hop videos that amplify sexually explicit and violent themes can lead to alcohol abuse and promiscuity among young black girls, according to a new study of sexual stereotypes in rap music footage.

Girls want to be video vixens. Its cool to want to model. Who doesn't
want to feel glamorous, fly, bad as sh*t? We all want to at some
point or another.

However, the problem is when there is an OVER emphasis
on how far being CUTE is going to take a young lady in life.

I'm quick to tell someone who talks to me about acting/
modeling that Life is not a beauty pagent. In fact when
I returned to Oakland, I heard n*ggas saying model this,
model that, and I thought, IS THIS HOW THEY get into the
young ladies? Well but of course. And of course I open my
mouth and all this feminist sh*t comes out and
they look at me like "tha fuck she so serious about?"
I tell them that what I have learned from my albeit limited exposure to
industry types is that there is always some more prettier
than you who is willing to be MORE GREASIER than
you to get that gig, photo shoot, contract.

And they respond with some old, "yeah, that can happen, but if you
try really hard..." bullsh*t.

And in an ironic illustration of my point is an Times article on
the disappearance of Black Faces from the 2008 runway.

“It’s heartbreaking for me now because the agents send the girls out there to castings and nobody wants to see them,” said Ms. Hardison, referring to black models. “And if they do, they’ll call afterward and say, ‘Well, you know, black girls do much better in Europe, or else black girls do much better in New York, or we already have our black girl.’”

Last month in New York, Ms. Hardison convened a panel of fashion experts at the Bryant Park Hotel to discuss “The Lack of the Black Image in Fashion Today,” an event she will reprise Monday at the New York Public Library on 42nd Street. “Modeling is probably the one industry where you have the freedom to refer to people by their color and reject them in their work,” she said.

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What would you do if our child was obsessed with 50/Kanye/Weezy videos and Top Model? Sh*t, some of ya'll obsessed with that ish, lol.

Is Drunk and Hot Gurls the theme song for the "soft"
date rape? OR. Am I misreading it?

Would it "read" if there were a female reppin' on the song?

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New Guru, Bleek AND Common Joints. A Good Day for Hip Hop.

Yall know I love me some Bleek.



Look at'cho BOY G-U-R-U still rappin'.



Kerry Washington so damn bad its ridic.

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You like the VID's?

I WANT OUTKAST. THATS IT.

What is it about the Fall that makes it seem like Outkast Season.

Like Winter is now Jay/Nas season, smell me?

======
======

Mina mina mina mina, say what...

Y'all wake up with hip hop in ya' head. I do.

What songs do you hear in your head at random times?

I hear the following:

A Doom song, IF I am having a good day OR if I hit a stride at work.

Ice Cube, Death Certificate ERA if sh*t is all bad.

Jay Z, on pay day, no matter where you go you are who you are player.

Shorty Hit the Brakes Too Late, Being w/ SJ in Dall for my b-day.
N*gga stay pumping LB.

MC Lyte, if an ex-bf crosses my mind.

Freeway, when I think about running.

This morning I clearly woke up with the mina, mina, mina, say what.

Speaking of this morning.

I have BEEEEEN to test something out that I read in news papers
but never did here.

You know how you see a number, then it is followed by an explanation.

Well, I am going to do a version of that here.

For example,

6, The number of yogurt, blackberry, rasberry and strawberry containers
I made ahead of time last night for breakfast this week.

$5.50, the cost of the Honey Dew Melon that I had to put back
AT THE CASHIER, because that b*tch was too expensive.

2, The number of months its gonna take for Obama and Gore to GET
RIGHT and announce the partnership.

3, The number of hours I spent last night and this morning
preparing lunch/breakfast for the coming week.
^^^Sh*t makes me feel like an organized grown up.
14, The amount of my first pedicure in the town.

10, The number of hours in the day that I am going to have to work,
according to SJ, to demonstrate that I am impressive.

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What song do you hear and when?

Any relevant numbers in your life?

Hours spent sleep, awake?

Number of times you went over budget last week? <<
folks BI right thuur.

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======

Craigslist, Gold Diggers and Baby Mommas.

Right a around the time tho' some d's came
out last winter, S.bot and I had a conversation
about women and money. Her rationale was that
you gotta either have D's or papes.

Meaning that as women, if we we want to live RIGHT, we have
to have one or the other.

I responded that I wanted BOTH.

She told me I was gonna be messing with
some white ceo types, lol.

I was reminded of our conversation over D's v. papes
when I came across the discussion about the women
who openly requested assistance on Craigslist with finding a
banker or a C-level to date/bag.

Then an alleged banker responded, and shit really got poppin'.

It was ironic that, mildly depressing that the conversation that S.bot
and I had, was timely then, is relevant now, and will probably
be so in the future.

What am I doing wrong?

Okay, I'm tired of beating around the bush. I'm a beautiful (spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I'm articulate and classy. I'm not from New York. I'm looking to get married to a guy who makes at least half a million a year. I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City , so I don't think I'm overreaching at all.

Are there any guys who make 500K or more on this board? Any wives? Could you send me some tips? I dated a business man who makes average around 100 - 150. But that's where I seem to hit a roadblock. 150,000 won't get me to central park west. I know a woman in my yoga class who was married to an investment banker and lives in Tribeca, and she's not as pretty as I am, nor is she a great genius. So what is she doing right? How do I get to her level?

Upon reading this it made me realize how practical she is being.

It also symbolizes how much NYC IS "Millionaire City" because
"150,000 won't get me to central park west."



Oh. Did I mention that an alleged investment banker responded.
He wrote:

I read your posting with great interest and have thought meaningfully about your dilemma. I offer the following analysis of your predicament. Firstly, I'm not wasting your time, I qualify as a guy who fits your bill; that is I make more than $500K per year. That said here's how I see it.

Your offer, from the prospective of a guy like me, is plain and simple a crappy business deal. Here's why. Cutting through all the B.S., what you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party and I bring my money. Fine, simple. But here's the rub, your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity...in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won't be getting any more beautiful!

And so it goes.

Could you imagine our cousin Shaquetta going on craiglist talkin' bout,

I want to bag a mid level D boy/college ball player/ rap producer
Must have his own crib, two baby momma's max,
and a extra S class for me to drive.

The above comment is so loaded, I can't BEAR to unpack it.

========
========

Do you think that old girl is being practical or an EPMD
straight UP and DOWN Gold Digger.

Do you think she was being honest or was it a hoax?

Why do you think the media responded the way it did
as pretty women and women in general marry wealthy all the
time.

Perhaps it is the fact that she was so UNABASHED about it.

========
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Wednesday's Spare Change

Isn't Edgar Allen Floe at dope ass*d name?

Yall know Redman got a new album coming out titled Gangster Flow?
Is he even on Def Jam? Tha' f-ck?

Boom Bap Alert.
Evil Dee has a pod cast.
NICE.

NAS is naming his new album N*gga.
Say what you want, but the Virgo knows how to go hard at being controversial.

Nas has a new album on the way before the end of the year, and its name is sure to be a conversation starter. During an Oct. 12 concert at New York's Roseland Ballroom, the rapper told the crowd the album would be called "N*gga."

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Obama and Cheney are Cousins.

So says the vice president's wife, Lynne Cheney, who said she discovered that her husband of 43 years is eighth cousins with the senator from Illinois.

The two men could hardly be more different. Cheney is an advocate for pursuing the war in Iraq to try to stabilize the country, while Obama wants to get U.S. troops out of Iraq.

Mrs. Cheney told MSNBC on Tuesday that it was "an amazing American story that one ancestor ... could be responsible down the family line for lives that have taken such different and varied paths."

Creepy.

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Like that spare change in the bottom of yo' mommas
purse with the mint and lint stuck to it.

What do you do w/ your spare change?

You put it in a container at the end of the night.
You got a coin purse?

You take them sh*ts to Commerce Bank once a month
to have 'em converted to dollars?

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Obama/ Gore '08: Set it Straight.

You heard it here first.

Would you vote for a Obama Gore ticket?

That sh*t is real sexy.

The Times has a video up on Black women in South Carolina
and what they think of Obama.

“I’ve got enough black in me to want somebody black to be our president,” she said in her tiny beauty shop, an extension of her home, after a visit from an Obama organizer. “I would love that, but I want to be real, too.”

Part of being real, said Ms. Vereen, whom everyone calls Miss Clara, is worrying that a black president would not be safe.

“I fear that they just would kill him, that he wouldn’t even have a chance,” she said as she styled a customer’s hair with a curling iron. One way to protect him, she suggested, would be not to vote for him.

And Mrs. Clinton?

“We always love Hillary because we love her husband,” Ms. Vereen said. Then she paused. Much of the chitchat in her shop is about whether a woman could or should be president.

“A man is supposed to be the head,” she said. “I feel like the Lord has put man first, and I believe in the Bible.”

Wow.

Is all I have to say.

I understand that Ms. Vereen trying to reconcile her faith
with her politics, but she is making a very dangerous inference
about whether or not a woman should
be authoratative positions of power.

Protect Obama from snipers BY NOT VOTING FOR HIM.

COME ON FAMILY.

I don't think I can ride for that.

Thats like, a med school admissions committee not admitting me
because they believe that people are not going to want to be my patient.

NOT COOL.

I do however feel her on being fearful of HIS SAFETY.

We have a violent history when it comes to Black leaders.

Peep his ground troop strategy:

In trying to reach these voters, the Obama campaign has organized a network around beauty salons, a central gathering spot for black women, particularly in rural areas like this one.

Ashley Baia, 23, the Obama organizer here in Horry County, is like a modern-day circuit rider, traveling from salon to salon on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, the busiest days for getting a hairdo. Ms. Baia makes repeated visits, hoping to develop relationships with the owners and customers and giving spiels in which she notes that after law school, Mr. Obama skipped going to a big firm and went to work instead on the South Side of Chicago as a community organizer. [That n*gga SJ as well].

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Breihan waxes poetic about 50's "I got money."

Up until I saw the video at Nahright, I never heard the song
before.

Then I realized that ol boy took the Audio Two break,
sh*t is nastee.

Say what you want about Bre, at the end of the day,
I can tell when he is really excited to be writing about
something. As a music lover, that sh*t is priceless.

I love the third verse where 50 basically quits rapping and lapses into a playground-taunt singsong. And then he quits that and busts out the "Hip-Hop Hooray" chant, like words can no longer express just how much money he has and he just has to wave his wrist under your nose because he's sick of talking about it. Curtis might've been an absolute mess, but absolutely nobody is better at this sort of supervillain fuck-you than 50.

Supervillan f*ck you.

Nice.

What would be a really dope video would be ground footage of the
Iraq war, footage of foreclosed houses, Mychal Bell sitting in jail,
Obama going door to door stacking votes in Iowa, the noose
hanging on the door of the Teachers College professor.


I don't suggest these images as a means to down play
his intended message.

What I am interested in is the juxtaposition his words, along with the
historicalness of the beat with some OTHER images that are clearly related
to money.

======
======

Mychal Bell is back in jail. Why? I don't know, and the news is not
reporting about it clearly.

Why I do know is that Earl Ofari Hutchinson has a dope piece
about WHY civil rights leaders didn't get Mychal out of jail.

The DA claims that several other scrapes with the law helped keep him there. But he's there in bigger part because his family couldn't raise the portion of the $90,000 bond the courts slapped on Bell. For a working class, black family, in a low wage small Southern town, this seems like a King's ransom. But as bail goes in felony conviction cases, this is not exorbitant.

So why didn't civil rights leaders, the black celebrities, and the marchers that made Bell a cause célèbre and eagerly mugged for the TV cameras pony up the cash to get him out?

The painful answer to that is that civil rights leaders let Bell down. They filled the air with harsh rhetoric about a new civil rights movement, hawked and wore black T-shirts with slogans like "Enough is enough" and "Free the Jena 6," and saber-rattled the DA with talk about hauling him before a Congressional committee. Instead, they should have filled baskets with checks to spring Bell. British rocker/actor David Bowie pointed to this shameful failure when he did more than shout and fist wave. He put up $10,000 for the Jena Defense legal Fund.

My answer is simple, in their eyes, he is not their son.

When you look at a child and you see them as (potentially) your
own you make decisions wearing a completly different lens.


======
======


Would you vote for a Obama/Gore ticket?

Why not?

Why didn't anyone else come up with the Mychal Bell $?

Why did it take David Bowie, an Old School White Rocker
to do it?


======
======

CLIFFORD'S MACHINE GUN FUNK.

Hip hop is so f*cking fresh.

The good thing about being a nerd is that you are completly
content with sitting at home on a Saturday night, chomping your
warm TJ enchilada's, im'ing with your blog homies (what up e.dot)
and getting INNERNET SCOOPS.

Full disclosure, It is easy to do this after running around like a free slave
in Dallas last weekend, and then settling into the NEW GIG this week.

So our friendly swagalicious dog Clifford was trying to ante
up and got caught,

Rapper T.I. was arrested Saturday as he allegedly tried to add three machine guns and two silencers to what authorities said was an "arsenal" of weapons that, as a convicted felon, he was not allowed to own.

Three other guns were found in the vehicle he was driving, authorities said, and police executing a search warrant at his home in suburban College Park, Georgia, found six additional guns, five of them loaded, in his bedroom closet.

"Machine guns pose a serious danger to the community, which is why they are so carefully regulated, said David Nahmias, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

WHY is her personally buying gats, LET ALONE mach's?
Ain't that what goons are for?

WHAT does he need a machine gun for anyways?
This ain't '89? The block ain't THAT hot?

Man, I need photoshop so that I can do an interactive
chart of all the folks in the game that are caught up in
the system as of Jan-Oct '07.

===========
===========

Holy sh*t Rass Kass got out of his deal.

The West Coast rapper, born John Austin, reached a settlement with Capitol Records/EMI. The terms of the agreement are unknown, but Ras Kass is now free to legally seek out new recording agreements, according to a statement on the rappers' MySpace page (myspace.com/raskass).

"I am just relieved and thankful to my management team, all the magazines that showed me love since this started and everyone that showed their support for me over these past few years," Ras Kass said in a statement.

The release came after years of litigation between the emcee and his now former label.

Ras was originally signed to Priority Records where he released two critically acclaimed albums, Soul On Ice (1996) and Rasassination (1998). When the label merged with Capitol, the album the rapper had currently been working on, Van Gogh (2002), was pushed back twice and then permanently shelved. His third project, Goldyn Chyld was also blocked from release after bitter disputes between the rapper and Capitol. The animosity, coupled with Ras Kass' incarceration later that year, made the prospect of future records with Capitol dim.

Gotty needs to do a smoking section with this n*gga.

He is so lyrical.
But such tormented artist alcoholic as well.

I hope he can get right and put out the music that both
we and HE needs.

=======

Because I love y'all, go head and f*ck with flight bliss.com.

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Im not really feeling the new Jay.

And no this is not another blogger hatin'on jay.

It was just based on folks comments about the new jawn
I expected some poppin' phenomenal shit.

Maybe I need to experience in a whip doing 80, "Dear Summer."

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Illseed and Allhip hop is trying to geterdon

Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan will address issues within the Hip-Hop community during a private, invitation-only brunch for hundreds of music industry professionals this weekend in Atlanta.

The event, which is sponsored by AllHipHop.com, is scheduled to take place at 12 p.m. on Sunday (Oct. 14) at an undisclosed location in Atlanta, Georgia to discuss "The Evolution of Hip-Hop" and the overall direction of the music industry.

To read the whole story:

http://allhiphop.com/blogs/news/archive/2007/10/11/18719442.aspx

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======

For the record, why is it that along with my nahright, smoking section,
washingtonpost, NYtimes, dallas morningnews, san jose merc cluster f*ck
of daily reading, I rocks for the illseeds blog?

I mean. Cover to cover.
Which is a rarity for my high functioning A.D.D @ss. It takes A LOT to
keep m.dot's attention. Word to that young man sj. *wink*. Tap.

I can hear dudes voice when I read, and THAT, my dear watson is what
I look for in a writer.

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======

There is an article in the Times about gentrification/ n*gga removal in Harlem.

Here is my favorite comment, so far:

• 9.
  October 11th,
  2007
  9:03 pm

  The area that is featured here were abandoned buildings and crack houses. How does that displace people? And for working class people - that is what this housing is for. It is for teachers, policemen, city employees to buy below market rate. This initiative is the best thing to happen to Harlem. Harlem has suffered and still suffers from the welfare mentality that the government is partially responsible for by by giving practically free housing and food stamps to families and then builds parking lots for them to park their Cadillac Escalades. Get real people! It is about priorities. Don’t have a kid if you can’t afford it and don’t bitch about gentrification and housing while driving around in your SUV with fifty cent blasting. The real “working” class is just arriving in Harlem. It is about time!

  Please.

  • — Posted by Harlem

Now lets unpack that.

The area that is featured here were abandoned buildings
and crack houses. Nary nurse, teacher, police officer or
social worker on the block. 'Cuz black folks don't work.

Sounds like Bill O'reilly's Harlem to me.

October 11th,
2007
2:51 pm

While investment in the Harlem community is certainly a welcome change. The gross d

isplacement of working class people does nothing for the community. When a new market rate residential development goes up in Harlem who moves in? Only people that can afford the seven figure mortgage. Gentrification by definition is about displacement. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gentrification) . And there is no mistake that it is and has been taking place over the last two decades uptown. While I am all for community improvement, the gentrification which is in full swing will only lead to the neighborhood formerly known as Harlem to be “re-envisioned” as Battery Park North.

— Posted by Harlem Refugee

Harlem as Battery Park North. NICE!

While I was finishing up this post,
I came across this article in the post.

Delish.

Move over hipsters, the "Williamsburg 2.0" crowd is taking over.
Elena Dahl
On a near-desolate street in north Williamsburg, a noncultural renaissance has begun. Till recently, the signs of gentrification on this block consisted of a cheese shop, a hookah bar, and a Mexican fast food restaurant opposite graffitied trailers and abandoned lots. But when Oulu (170 North 4th Street, Brooklyn) opened a month ago, hipsters finally entered their promised land and became old school. The lounge, named for the northern Finnish city, introduces us to what the owners call "Williamsburg 2.0," a neighborhood of creative professionals, dwellers of the future luxury condos sprouting up along North 4th Street.

Whats bugg outt about this entire article is the lack of recognition of
WHO Williamsburg 1.0 replaced and how symbolic it is of Harlem
and the eminent domain issues there and at the Atlantic Yards.

Ha. So goes the artists, so goes the poor.

Ya'll don't hear me tho.

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How difficult would you be for you to feel sympathy if
old "wefare queen" from above got jacked.
I mean crime is crime...but when your perception of my
people is laden with so many THICK ass*d sterotypes
isn't he/she asking for a self fulfilling prophecy?

Are you looking forward to the Common Tip sh*t?

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Black Men, Anger and Violence: The Toxic Combo.

For my loyal readers, you know that Sweet Jesus (SJ) is in Dallas,
and I went there last weekend for the born day - OU/Texas festivities.

Walking around at an OU event with this negro is like kickin'
it with Obama. I swear.

Shaking hands and kissing babies (okay, so he wasn't kissing babies
but you get the picture).


Women hugging him, FLY women, n*ggas in benzes honking at 'em,
and I am thinking to myself, tha' f*ck I got myself into?
It became VERY clear to me how well regarded he was by his peers.

It was like I was he was running for campaign
and I was the chief of staff trying to keep the boss on schedule.

LOL.

So. Imagine my surprise when we get into the spot and this random
dude me assaults me.

Some dude tapped my @ss but at first I though it was SJ.

Then I stood there thinking that it was weird that SJ would do
something so vulgar IN public, see, IM the WILD one.

SJ was walking ahead of me, and ain't see it happen.

Once I realize that it wasn't a flirtatious smack, I am standing there
shocked.

Then the n*gga says to ME, " I don't see why you
looking shocked, he ain't gone do nothing."

I was stuck and I was scared y'all for two reasons.

I felt like he was testing me. I am not really to keen on being tested
at the juncture of my life.

Me telling SJ meant violence. I knew it.


SJ was standing there talking to his homie and best friend, BIG FUN.
I actually nudge him BF, but I ain't think he felt me, and its
best that he didn't.

Me saying something could easily mean a felony for me,
SJ and BIG FUN. Our futures could all be f*cked.

But then there was my pride.

Y'all know I come from violence.

Shoot first and ask questions later violence.

But I knew, based on how SJ was regarded, by how people treated him
when they saw him, that shit would be a melee.

I did not want to be the cause of that.

Furthermore, Big Fun struck me as a dude keeps access to heat,
or who at the very least would not mind stomping a n*gga out.
I erred on the side of caution and put my pride aside.
Now I was shaking.

SJ asked me whats wrong, I told him I wanted to go outside to the patio,
get a drank, and I would tell him then.

So we walked past dude, AGAIN. This time I faced him and looked
dead in his face and he TOTALLY was trying to test me.

He actually nudged my HAND after I passed him. Bugged out!

Once outside I gave SJ the censored version. Said that
someone touched me inappropriately and I didn't say anything
before because I ain't wanna start shit.

I later learned that the function we attended was held at a location
that had OU/TEXAS folks and the g.p. Saturday night folks as well.

I just met BIG FUN the night before.
Ol' boy struck me as a suburban dude, who was a lil rough
round the edges.

And thank god for intuition, because in the car later
that night, over hat post club meal SJ casually mentioned that
that BIG FUN keeps TWO GATS on 'em at
all times. (Texas concealed weapons laws are greasy.)
And if they ain't on 'em, they in the trunk.

Can you imagine how drastically our lives could have changed that night?

I rides for my intuition always, and that experience was a further
confirmation of how necessary it is.

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When was the last time you had to put your
pride aside to protect the group?

Do you know how difficult that is?

Why does reacting feel so good?

How do you avoid reacting?

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White Folks HEART Affirmitive Action.

The interesting thing about working in academia is you
learn a lot about human beings when you look that the distinction between
the choices that their students and the choices that they make for
their children.

In fact, on my rules when dealing with institutions is,
analyzing whether the person in a position of authority (PIA)
is recommending something for young brown/black person,
that they would recommend it for their own YOUR DAUGHTER.

Imagine my surprise when I came across this article on
Affirmative Action and White Folks by Peter Schmidt.

Now, lets look at the "own daughter" rule and Affirmative Action.

How different is a legacy or sports admit from an "affirmative action" admit?

I guess your answer depends on who you ask.

The author makes some salient points. He writes:

Surf the websites of such institutions and you will find press releases boasting that they have increased their black and Hispanic enrollments, admitted bumper crops of National Merit scholars or became the destination of choice for hordes of high school valedictorians. Many are bragging about the large share of applicants they rejected, as a way of conveying to the world just how popular and selective they are.

What they almost never say is that many of the applicants who were rejected were far more qualified than those accepted. Moreover, contrary to popular belief, it was not the black and Hispanic beneficiaries of affirmative action, but the rich white kids with cash and connections who elbowed most of the worthier applicants aside.

Alumni are so incredibly powerful.

And here come the numbers to support the assertions.

Researchers with access to closely guarded college admissions data have found that, on the whole, about 15 percent of freshmen enrolled at America's highly selective colleges are white teens who failed to meet their institutions' minimum admissions standards. Five years ago, two researchers working for the Educational Testing Service, Anthony Carnevale and Stephen Rose, took the academic profiles of students admitted into 146 colleges in the top two tiers of Barron's college guide and matched them up against the institutions' advertised requirements in terms of high school grade point average, SAT or ACT scores, letters of recommendation, and records of involvement in extracurricular activities. White students who failed to make the grade on all counts were nearly twice as prevalent on such campuses as black and Hispanic students who received an admissions break based on their ethnicity or race.

A larger share, however, are students who gained admission through their ties to people the institution wanted to keep happy, with alumni, donors, faculty members, administrators, and politicians topping the list.

Applicants who stood no chance of gaining admission without connections are only the most blatant beneficiaries of such admissions preferences. Except perhaps at the very summit of the applicant pile - that lofty place occupied by young people too brilliant for anyone in their right mind to turn down - colleges routinely favor those who have connections over those who don't. While some applicants gain admission by legitimately beating out their peers, many others get into exclusive colleges the same way people get into trendy night clubs, by knowing the management or flashing cash at the person manning the velvet rope.

Interesting. Elite Colleges favor The Connected.

I wonder what Ward Connerly has to say about that?

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Did you go to an HBCU? Are you happy?
Did you regret it? Having been at OU/TEXAS weekend,
I witnessed first hand
the power of a robust Black Alumni network.

There is nothing like it. Now that I am older I
understand that we attend a school both to
LEARN in the classroom and to have access to an alumni network.
These networks can open up doors that last names can't. Who knew?

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Is Nelly Right? Rappers and their Problems with Accountability.

Man. Isn't hip good when its good?


I like hip hop.

And I presume that if you are reading this, that you do to.

Because I like hip hop I always keep my eye open for
any intergenerational dialog that music fosters.

Case in point. Two things have arisen in the last few
weeks that I caught my attention.

First it was Nelly's comment about Hip Hop at the Town Hall
Meeting.

The second was David Banners comments at the Congressional
Hearings on Hip Hop.

I have a special interest in Nelly's comments because I am a feminist,
a b-girl. I addition one of VERY FIRST POSTS here ON THIS BLOG was
about Tip Drill. The following is an excerpt from an article from SOHH
about the Town Hall Meeting on Hip Hop

"People wanna say that rap is glorifying the problems from the neighborhood," Nelly continued. "The thing is, even if you gon' glorify it, it's still a problem. People wanna end the glorification and not end the problem. We're attacking hip-hop as a copout and it's an easy way to diverge everybody because older people don't like it. When we first started listening to hip-hop, my granny and them thought Run-DMC and them was straight hoods. She didn't get it. She's from a different era in music and it's the same thing as what's going on right now."

At one point during the discussion, former Essence Magazine editor Diane Weathers, who had previously been "angry with Nelly" because of his controversial "Tip Drill" video, acknowledged that she had misjudged the rapper.

"You know Nelly, it's nice to sit here and see how intelligent you are and that your children are doing well, because I was very angry with you over 'Tip Drill,'" Weathers told Nelly during the telecast.

"That's the whole point. When she said that, that should have been the end of the show," an animated Nelly stressed. "Because that's all you gotta do. Nobody comes to us and talks to us. Nobody gets our perception because they take in our entertainment."

What Nelly avoids is the gray area.

While I agree yes, in many ways the Elders ARE attacking the messengers,
however Nelly is a messenger who is getting crazy cake AS a messenger.

Its like me for instance.
Say I wanted to work at a war profiteerer.
Knowing what I know about
corporate america, the annals of power, and how wealth is
distributed around the world
I would have to sleep at night knowing that SOME of
my 5/6 stacks is directly correlated
to negotiating on the behalf GE, BOEING or god knows who else has a major
DOD contract (that is more than likely related to the Irag/Afghanistan) war.

I would have to sleep at night knowing that part of my cake was war cake.

I call it working for the dark star.

People do it every day. Its the game.

BUT, we ALL owe it to ourselves to be honest w/ the position that WE play
in the grand scheme of things.

Nelly gets off to an ambitious start, but falls short of stating exactly HOW he
contributes.

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Last week I was pollyin' with the folks Gotty about how
folks hate on Chris Brown.

And I responded that I don't have a problem with him.

And for the record, that back packers gonna hate on teenie boppers,
main stream gone hate on bpr's and around 'round we go.

He was listening to Uncle Murder, and was saying how he likes his ignorant
music from time to time.

I was like, Uncle Murder. Dudes name is "family member" murder?
What part of the game is that.

Then I turned around and acknowledged that I am a bigged @ssed Clipse head.

But here is the rub. He was making an argument about how ALL MUSIC doesn't
have to be political.

And while I agree that it doesn't it, the type of images that are allowed
to THRIVE WARRANTS being analyzed.

Think about it. If Ye ye were LESS arrogant would he get the shine that
he does? I belive that he would do respectable numbers in that
SOB's album every 2 years, but mostly cakin' as a producer.

Yeye wins, and for that matter Jay as well BECAUSE so much of
his work is about class mobility and reconciling where he came from
with where he is going.

Gotty retorted that Common sold, Yeye sold, Kweli is selling.

BUT my response was that they are on the margins
in the grand scheme of things.

Therefore when it comes to media representations,
Black men who's momma's have Ph.D's,
will not EVER represent the core of what Hip Hop means
to the masses.

Our culture, American culture, has a major investment
in ensuring that Black men remain perceived as
thugged out-sex crazed n*ggas who can't handle life
stress, anger or money.

Think about it. Why would a culture be SO fascinated by an alleged
OJ robbery or Michael Vicks case?

Why did the Jena 6 case take SO long to gain traction?

Ask your self who's interests are served by seeing
their cases played out incessantly in news papers and cable news
channels?

Surely ain't mine.

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Go Brooklyn.

Yessir.

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Shout out to my girl, the Super Leo, whose baby girl arrived
on my born day. <<<------ Goes to target.com and spends cell phone
bill money on pink booties and onsies. But then again, I was just thinking
of stacking chips and getting the baby a share of google stock. Naah mean!

Do you think Nelly is pointing fingers and refusing to admit
how he contributes to the issue?

Or do you think that emcees get free reign and that it is up to parents
to raise thier kids?

If you think the latter, do you believe that you would be where you are
in life if people OTHER than you parents would not have looked out
for you?

I realize that I totally dropped the ball on David in this post.
I will have something on that later this week.

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M Dot Does Dallas: Birthday Gristle Edition

If you would have told me last year that I would be living in
the Bay and spending my born day in Dallas, I would have been like,
shut the f- up.

But I am, and its interesting.

The dope thing about coming
home is that you are around people that love you NO
matter what. They don't care about a fancy job,
law degree, your career aspirations. They just love you on g.p.


They are also obnoxious as SH*T, but hey, thats my fam.

Living in New York, I forgot what that felt like and I was never home long
enough to let those sentiments bubble to the surface.

Last year, Mean Sexy and I had a birthday jump off.
Our birthdays are a day apart.

I drove BL crazy last year. Buying balloons, schlepping Trader Joes
chicken and lemon grass fritters, veggie dumpling hor'd'eroes,
mixing a BIG -SSED Pot of Sangria.

Have you ever tried driving in a car full of balloons? Tons of fun!

Birthday parties are hard work.

And now we are at a new year.

I came to Dallas for this one and its dope.

Its warm, the Barnes and Noble is Big as sh*t and
its my first OU/TEXAS weekend. <<<---I just wanna see the Cowboys. As far as life in general goes, Im in a New/Old City, I got a new gig, and Sweet Jesus appears to be positioning himself to be filing taxes
with me, lol.

Speaking of men, why your boy the graduate gonna e-mail me
last week talking about "I saw someone last week reminded me of
....." I just looked that the screen like, you ain't want me, but you liked
having me around and now you send THIS Messages?
I didn't respond to his last e-mail in August talking about
"Can I asked what happened?", so I hope he doesn't
think that I am going to start doing so now.

My rationale has always been, MUCH to the CHAGRIN of N*ggas
that if you ain't my DUDE then you can't expect shit.
CONVERSELY, if I ain't yours the same applies.
And trust, that led to some VERY disappointing summer holidays
for me.
But, my code was "he ain't mine" so I had to stand by that,
nah mean?

N*ggas bugg me out with they unsolicited-Asperger-influenced
random-e-mails.

I guess he misses me and that is his way of communicating it.

Men. Go figure.

Back to life changes. In the grand scheme of it all, honestly,
I am just happy to be able to read a West Elm catalog
and go into Ikea without thinking about all the lovely
furniture that I had hobbled together for my BK apartment,
then gave away when I moved.


I will say what was really helpful was talking to TMR
(the resident Katrinian), my momma, and my aunt about
how they recovered from losing mad sh*t when
they moved or just LEAVING ENTIRE apartments/houses behind.

With regard to the gig, it is with a non-profit, and they want me. So that
feels good. For the record, why do employers think its okay to
treat employees, temp or otherwise like WARM BODIES?


Talk about divesting in your OWN human capital.
CEO's and Human Resources NEED TEACHIN'.

Any hoo.

After working in the M & A in an investment bank for the first time (for
a VERY short period of time) in my life
I realize that the only way I will thrive in that environment
is if a white man with authority has a vested interested in my remaining there.
Otherwise, I can see myself- albeit talented, shrewed and hardworking,
getting FROZE the F*CK out.

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What new changes y'all going through?

You watchin' college ball?

Y'all heard the new 9th Wonder?

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