tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142438112024-03-07T03:00:33.043-05:00Model Minority "Thugs, Feminists and Boom Bap"E-mail me at m.dotwrites@gmail.com :::
aim, hummingbyrd89M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.comBlogger719125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-88195283165366364272010-01-13T02:44:00.002-05:002010-01-13T02:48:05.224-05:00New Model Minority<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.newmodelminority.com"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 360px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguZfjUrMheRBNymnf1QEwl817AulRxHdzlakzocNAZ-SGwQS1QvOefCEpm8_KsndQ_pI4wFagYmjj7sFBlbNUQH64yzjquN10sB0VVgXsnB4eFdCGt9FNQ3unDh8lbdA1Om8l59g/s400/sliderholder.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426127522830447490" border="0" /></a>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-39228582630963748402010-01-10T16:02:00.009-05:002010-01-11T11:16:42.849-05:00Race, Class Food and the Future of the City: A Manifesto<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaS_3ubnznEaNowGh9cyIUdMZNqXjW9x5wSF5EKQHpnwg4m2ycBOA71aUhYYPUSDbWIEroUmyP8MhUcVttjb9L5HtCbKhILQdX9sxnkDa2UopD8hxvN6cPSjlM_aRhN43P66uelw/s1600-h/FOOD..jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaS_3ubnznEaNowGh9cyIUdMZNqXjW9x5wSF5EKQHpnwg4m2ycBOA71aUhYYPUSDbWIEroUmyP8MhUcVttjb9L5HtCbKhILQdX9sxnkDa2UopD8hxvN6cPSjlM_aRhN43P66uelw/s320/FOOD..jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425515678168183682" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">By Renina Jarmon</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I always want to know where people will go and what will they eat.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Last December I was in Whole Foods on a Friday night, trying to read get through<br />some really hard material on "the saturated self', I resorted to reading out loud,<br />so that I could "hear the theory." A man who works</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">for the Environmental Protection<br />Agency over heard me, as I was astonished when I learned that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Parris_Moses">Robert Moses</a> was<br />considered a modernist. Knowing what I knew about Robert Moses, and then learning<br />what a modernist was, I had an out loud aha moment. He asked if I was a city planner<br />and I said no, I do "Race and the future of the city" and we started talking about his work on sustainable cities.<br /><br />I asked</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> him the million dollar question. If you are working to make the cities better,<br />how are you going to deal with a few centuries</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> of United States racism?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />He looked at me, and said, well, I don't know, but what I am advocating for</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">makes<br />sense for all of us, clean energy, efficient transportation and better local food. And<br />I responded, racism is irrational, and that he was going to have to fight tooth and<br />nail to impact the quality of lives of Black folks in the city. </span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />My conversation with him got me think about writing a piece about race, class, food,<br />and the future of the city, rooted in both a global and a local sense.<br /><br />We need a new system, because the current one does not work. This new<br />system</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">must be simultaneously global and local. Furthermore, if it is rooted<br />in the exploitation</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">of the people in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-South_divide">global south </a>it will fail. Systems premised<br />on exploitation </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">carry in themselves their own demise. The question is just when.</span> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-family:arial;" ><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Cheap Food Requires Cheap Labor</span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">In the article, <a href="http://www.grist.org/article/2009-12-08-choice-nuggets-food-class/"><span style="font-style: italic;">As the Economy Withers, </span></a><a href="http://www.grist.org/article/2009-12-08-choice-nuggets-food-class/"><span style="font-style: italic;">Thoughts on an Inequitable </span></a><a href="http://www.grist.org/article/2009-12-08-choice-nuggets-food-class/"><span style="font-style: italic;">Food </span></a><br /><a href="http://www.grist.org/article/2009-12-08-choice-nuggets-food-class/"><span style="font-style: italic;">System</span></a>,</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> Tomm Phillpot writes,</span><br /><blockquote style="font-family: arial;">In short, an economy hinged on cheap labor needs cheap food. And that’s the structural problem faced by Slow Food and other would-be reformers of the food system. The challenge of food reformers isn’t just to reform the food system; it’s to reshape the entire economy—to create new economic models that revalue labor along with food, so that people can afford the revalued food.</blockquote><span style="font-family:arial;">Phillpot goes on to write, quoting Julie Guttman,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><blockquote style="font-family: arial;">Those who complain about the use of food stamps to purchase cheap, junky food ought to set their sights elsewhere. They should consider the myriad policies that allow products laden with high fructose corn syrup, transfats, growth hormones and synthetic processing aids to be sold as food. In my view, the unemployed and poor shouldn’t pay the moral price for our collective failure to curb the excesses of the food industry.</blockquote><span style="font-family:arial;">Phillpot also mentions <a href="http://www.sfbg.com/printable_entry.php?entry_id=9490">Caitlin Donahue's </a>article, "</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" >Out of reach<i>: How the<br />sustainable local food movement neglects poor workers and eaters</i></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">"<br />in th</span>e Guardian, which essentially argues</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> that the slow food movement has<br />a class problem. She writes that it is a movement,</span> <blockquote style="font-family: arial;">that has yet to really confront its class issues. Though organic grocery stores and farmers markets have sprung up on San Francisco’s street corners, it remains to be seen whether our current mania for sustainable, local food will positively affect the lower classes, be they farm workers or poor families.</blockquote><span style="font-family:arial;">Phillpot goes on to make an incredibly astute observation about class when<br />he writes,<br /></span><blockquote style="font-family: arial;">Donohue hinges her story on a dismal paradox of the food system: Farm workers are so poorly paid that they can only reasonably afford the lowest-quality food. The same can be said for most of the other people who keep the food-system humming: slaughterhouse workers, dishwashers, line cooks, Wal-Mart clerks. There’s no generating vast quantities of cheap food without vast quantities of cheap labor.</blockquote><span style="font-family:arial;"> I am glad to see that Phillpot is thinking not only about food but labor as well, because they<br />are most certainly connected. </span><span style="font-family:arial;">Initially, I thought that local, green, sustainable economies<br />were the future. But, three things forced me to reconsider this idea.<br /><br />The first was reading Chandra Mohanty's <span style="font-style: italic;">Feminism Without Borders</span>, the second<br />was reading, Mike Davis's Planet of Slums, the third was hearing my professor say,<br />that "a unit for profit, requires exploitation."<br /><br />Mohanty forced me to see how the quality of life of people in the global north<br />is subsidized by the quality of life of people in the global south. In <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://books.google.com/books?id=7KXvAl_s6EgC&dq=feminism+without+borders&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=fd1Pd0_VAN&sig=yaMsBTQqU6fjtQ0J34N7T6g_rXE&hl=en&ei=pVZKS5P5A4unlAebzLgO&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=&f=false">Feminism<br />Without Borders</a>, she qotes <a href="http://www.ithaca.edu/zillah/books.htm">Zillah Eisensten</a> who writes, "Women do two thirds<br />of the worlds work, for one tenth of the income" and that "Women and girls are the<br />majority of the worlds poor and the majority of the worlds refugees."<br /><br />It is largely Women and children, working in factories, who make many of the items<br />that we shop for in our stores. In fact the cheap prices of the items that we buy is<br />directly correlated to their low wages.<br /><br />Our lives are connected.<br /><br />From <a href="http://feministtheorykeywords.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/an-elsa-barkley-brown-reading-comment/">Elsa Barkely Brown</a> I have learned that our difference is relational. This is important<br />to keep in mind when talking about who has <span style="font-style: italic;">which</span> job, who has access to <span style="font-style: italic;">which</span> resources.<br /><br />Mike Davis has both an article and a book titled <a href="http://www.versobooks.com/books/cdef/d-titles/davis_m_planet_of_slums.shtml"><span style="font-style: italic;">Planet of Slums</span></a>. His work has forced<br />me to rethink how my local, <span style="font-style: italic;">crunchy bougie Black girl sustainability idea</span> was going<br />to address the 100 million global street kids.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Mike Davis premise #1</span><br />"For the first time the urban population of the earth will outnumber the rural. Indeed<br />given the imprecision of the Third World census, this epochal transition may<br />have already occurred."<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Mike Davis premise number 2</span><br />"Cities have absorbed nearly two thirds of the global population explosion since 1950<br />and are currently growing by a million babies and migrants each week.<br />As a result, cities will account for all future world population growth, which is<br />expected to peak at a 10 billion in 2050."<br /><br />Essentially, globally rural folks are being forcibly removed from rural lands to the cities<br />to do jobs, that may or may not exist. These lands are extremely mineral rich and<br />valuable to multinational corporations.<br /><br />How does these women survive, in an informal economy? According to Davis, by<br />"selling water, carting nightsoil, recycling trash, delivering propane and so on."<br /><br />Mike Davis Premise # 3<br />"The Africa case was particularly paradoxical. How could cities like Cote d'Ivorie,<br />Tanzania, Gabon and elsewhere, whose economies were contracting by<br />2 to 5 percent per year still sustain growth of 5 to 8 percent per annum. Part of<br />the secret was that IMF, and now WTO policies of agricultural deregulation and<br />de-peasantization were accelerating the exodus of surplus<br />rural labor to urban slums even as cities cease to be job machines."<br /><br />Now do you get where I am going with sustainability for whom?<br /><br />Hence the statement about cheap labor and cheap food was incredibly interesting<br />to me, becuase I honestly to hear people make that connection often.<br /></span> <span style="font-family:arial;">I argue that the issue isn't green or local economies, but is far more global</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">in nature. </span> <span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br /><br />The City, Black People and American Democracy</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />The population of Black people in the city, historically, has been relevant</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">to the<br />ways in which America has been pushed to towards democracy,</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">for Black people<br />and for all of its residents who weren't legally citizens.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">This is not to discount the struggles that occurred in the Montgomery and Little Rock.</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" ><br />In fact given the fact that according to a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/us/07south.html">New York Times article</a> about a new report by<br />the Southern Education Foundation,<br /></span><blockquote style="font-family: arial;">The South has become the first region in the country where more than half of public school students are poor and more than half are members of minorities.</blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" >Keep this in mind, as I will return to it later.<br /><br />The city is increasingly becoming a place where only households with a </span> <span style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" >combined<br />income nearing 100k or more can live and enjoy the amenities,social status,<br />health care, eduction</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" > and benefits of being in the city.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">What happens to a city when it's workers can no longer afford to live there?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />According to another recent article in th New York Times, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/nyregion/06harlem.html?pagewanted=1">Harlem is no longer majority </a><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/nyregion/06harlem.html?pagewanted=1">Black</a>.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> In seeing the demography shift explained in the article above, I posit that those<br />low income folks who left Harlem and are now in the south. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/us/07south.html">Shaila Dewan </a>writes in<br />the New York Times,</span><br /><blockquote style="font-family: arial;">The shift was fueled not by white flight from public schools, which spiked during desegregation but has not had much effect on school demographics since the early 1980s. Rather, an influx of Latinos and other ethnic groups, the return of blacks to the South and higher birth rates among black and Latino families have contributed to the change.</blockquote><span style="font-family:arial;">The first thing I wanted to know was where did the people go who lived </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">there and<br />what are they going to eat?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">What are the political implications of Black and Latino poverty re-clustering in the South?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Back to Harlem. For me, the issue with Harlem, isn't race, but it is class.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />If the cities, have historically been, largely, the home of Black resistance, what</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />happens to our democracy when there aren't any more working class or low<br />income Black people in the city?<br /><br />Is this setting the stage for cities to become playgrounds for European<br />and International elites with euros?<br /><br />How bad will it have to get for us to decide to create a city that has housing and jobs<br />for working class folks, middle class and the elite?<br /><br />Will our ideologies shift so that minimum wage becomes the new middle class? </span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />What happens when the city is comprised of Black folks who have chosen</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">into the structure rather than change it openly choose to not be </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">apart of it.</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Farms, Food and Social Justice</span></span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" ><br /><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vandana-shiva/from-seeds-of-suicide-to_b_192419.html">Vandana Shiva </a>has dedicated her life to collecting seeds. Trained as a physicist,</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" >she is a </span><span class="mw-redirect" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" >philosopher</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" >, environmental </span><span class="mw-redirect" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" >activist</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" > and eco-feminist. Her central argument<br />is that the seed belongs to all of us, not corporations. She explains how the Structural<br />Adjustment program and international programs have impacted Indian farmers when<br />she writes,<br /></span><p style="font-family: arial;"></p><blockquote style="font-family: arial;"><p>In 1998, the World Bank's structural adjustment policies forced India to open up its seed sector to global corporations like Cargill, Monsanto and Syngenta. The global corporations changed the input economy overnight. Farm saved seeds were replaced by corporate seeds, which need fertilizers and pesticides and cannot be saved.</p> <p>Corporations prevent seed savings through patents and by engineering seeds with non-renewable traits. As a result, poor peasants have to buy new seeds for every planting season and what was traditionally a free resource, available by putting aside a small portion of the crop, becomes a commodity. This new expense increases poverty and leads to indebtness.</p></blockquote><p></p><span style="font-family:arial;">Currently </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805">Mostanto</a><span style="font-family:arial;">, is patenting seeds, and selling them back to farmers.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />According to <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805">John Barlett</a> in Vanity Fair,</span> <blockquote style="font-family: arial;">Farmers who buy Monsanto’s patented Roundup Ready seeds are required to sign an agreement promising not to save the seed produced after each harvest for re-planting, or to sell the seed to other farmers. This means that farmers must buy new seed every year. Those increased sales, coupled with ballooning sales of its Roundup weed killer, have been a bonanza for Monsanto.</blockquote><span style="font-family:arial;">Bartlett goes into the history of the courts and Mosanto when he writes,</span> <blockquote style="font-family: arial;">in 1980 the U.S. Supreme Court, in a five-to-four decision, turned seeds into widgets, laying the groundwork for a handful of corporations to begin taking control of the world’s food supply. In its decision, the court extended patent law to cover “a live human-made microorganism.” In this case, the organism wasn’t even a seed. Rather, it was a <i>Pseudomonas</i> bacterium developed by a General Electric scientist to clean up oil spills. But the precedent was set, and Monsanto took advantage of it. Since the 1980s, Monsanto has become the world leader in genetic modification of seeds and has won 674 biotechnology patents, more than any other company, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.</blockquote><span style="font-family:arial;">In India, the farmers are unable to make a living off of farming and one the </span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />devastating consequences of this is that <span style="font-style: italic;">two hundred thousand </span>Indian farmers</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />have committed suicide in<a href="http://www.amazon.com/This-What-Democracy-Looks-Like/dp/B00004U2L2"> the last twenty years.</a></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">To add on to the privatization of seeds, global corporations are buying</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">up international<br />farm lands for the purposes of outsourcing food production.</span> <a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/magazine/22land-t.html?pagewanted=all">Andrew Ri</a><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/magazine/22land-t.html?pagewanted=all">ce</a><span style="font-family:arial;"> writes in<br />The New York Times,</span> <blockquote style="font-family: arial;">In a series of meetings, Saudi government officials, bankers and agribusiness executives told an institute delegation led by Zeigler that they intended to spend billions of dollars to establish plantations to produce rice and other staple crops in African nations like Mali, Senegal, Sudan and Ethiopia. “They laid out this incredible plan,” Zeigler recalled. He was flabbergasted, not only by the scale of the projects but also by the audacity of their setting. Africa, the world’s most famished continent, can’t currently feed itself, let alone foreign markets.<br /><br /></blockquote><span style="font-family:arial;">Given all this, food, race, privatized seeds and lands, the removal of low and middle<br />income earners from the economy and the city, I am convinced that paradigm shift is<br />occurring, and the question is, in whose interests and what are we going to do about it?<br /><br />When are we going to engage it, name it and activlely work to direct it?<br /></span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />If we are able to simultaneously, think, act and plan locally and globally,</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />I hope that we will be in a better position than we are today.</span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-41357461288017641682010-01-07T13:40:00.011-05:002010-01-10T15:49:28.680-05:00Happy Black Girl Day x Assimilation x Whiteness<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHB1wApsJn9dWhGl5nzHSYXaFEZR7Rd4fUTQno6klggEDPTGHu3L7ixULXC40t8WzE9332DFwIjIkhuJk264YD2gQEXPoaiuP7nh4aByxOw85qcL-hfaDCtygz7ygfwX-1oxWhow/s1600-h/March+%2708-+Time+to+Get+Ill+062.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHB1wApsJn9dWhGl5nzHSYXaFEZR7Rd4fUTQno6klggEDPTGHu3L7ixULXC40t8WzE9332DFwIjIkhuJk264YD2gQEXPoaiuP7nh4aByxOw85qcL-hfaDCtygz7ygfwX-1oxWhow/s320/March+%2708-+Time+to+Get+Ill+062.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424093945791466738" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >Happy Black Girl Day</span><br /><br /></div> <span style="font-family:arial;">Black assimilation is premised on being accepted by White people</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">and making them feel comfortable.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />In reading Kevin Mumford's brilliant book, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=YnqVU-XBVoAC&dq=interzones&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=ANus4YFvpM&sig=_457y2VHfwE0m6Su5GaK1jx3NKs&hl=en&ei=B0tGS_D8FNSPlAe_3dkD&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=&f=false"><span style="font-style: italic;">Interzones</span></a>, I learned that the<br />Urban </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">League and the NAACP are historically rooted in making<br />sure that country </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Negros from the south, who moved to the north,<br />didn't make aspiring middle </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">class Black folks look bad.<br /><br />These two groups monitored Negro behavior on the</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">streets, went door to<br />door teaching folks about "personal cleanliness" and monitored</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Black sex<br />workers.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I am excited about <a href="http://thebeautifulstruggler.blogspot.com/2010/01/happy-black-girl-day.html">#Happyblackgirl</a> <a href="http://hashtags.org/happyblackgirlday">day </a>because it is about us<br />affirming ourselves</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">and not looking to mainstream media to do so.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I am grateful that </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://twitter.com/sistertoldja">@Sistatoldja</a><span style="font-family:arial;"> took the time to make it happen.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The 7th day of every month is now, Happy Black Girl Day. Wooter.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Last week I tweeted "</span><span class="status-body" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="entry-content">Black women are awesome on 55 million different<br />levels. CNN can't capture that and I don't expect them to. It ain't they job, its ours.</span></span><span style="font-family:arial;">"</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />I see those reports and roll my eyes because I know that when CNN does</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">their<br />Negro reports they are simply doing their job, which is to serve the </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">interests<br />of the shareholders and of the white power structure.<br /><br />Don't get me wrong, if CNN was like, can you come on and talk about<br />Black women's sexuality, global economy or gentrification, I would roll,<br />but I highly doubt that phone would ring, lols. Renina the pundit. Ha!<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Back to the hair. Black women needing to straighten their hair to increase<br />their chances</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> of getting a job or a mate, is a manifestation of <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=IdbEKu3QzzYC&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35&dq=%22structural+domination%22+race&source=bl&ots=9fWcSby8ol&sig=OKVyQ6R9wGLJpk7VVFTs-BnOP28&hl=en&ei=4DxGS4_rNYSLlAfVuJwD&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22structural%20domination%22%20race&f=false">structural domination</a>.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">In other words, if White women had to go through what we did ever 4-6 weeks</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">to turn <span style="font-style: italic;">their hair</span> into naps, in order to try and ensure their survival as employees</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">then the conversation about </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >Black hair</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> would be different.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Last fall when </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thehumancondition/archive/2009/10/09/Zahara-Jolie-Pitt-and-the-Politics-of-Uncombed-Hair.aspx">Alison Samuels was talking shit about Zahara Jolie-Pitts napps</a><span style="font-family:arial;">,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">all I could think was can this child live? Can I live? Sidebar I haven't combed<br />my hair since</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">late December, I never just rocked the fro, and it has been an<br />illuminating experience.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span style="font-family:arial;">I am more self-conscious, always touching it, and<br />it's just really BIG and unruly and I get stared at. Who knew? Talking<br />about the self presentation of Black girls the politics of respectability, Samuels writes,</span><br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;"><span class="BlogPostWords">But even the mothers who spare the hot comb still have to put time and effort into keeping hair healthy: Any self-respecting black mother knows that she must comb, oil, and brush her daughter’s hair every night. This prevents the hair from matting up, drying out, and breaking off. It also prevents any older relatives from asking them why you’re neglecting your child and letting her run around looking like a wild woman. Having well-managed hair is not just about style, it’s about pride, dignity, and self-respect. Keeping your daughter’s hair neat is an unspoken rule of parental duties that everyone in the community recognizes and respects.<br /><br />Hair that is nice, neat, and cared for also gives African-American girls the confidence that they can fit into the world at large without being seen as completely different.</span></blockquote><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">There is a lot to unpack here, so first lets have a little primer on whiteness.<br />George Yancy Writes in<span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ630413&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ630413"> Feminism and the Subtext</a> of </span>Whiteness, "whiteness<br />goes unmarked" yet "it assumes to speak with universal authority can truth."<br />He goes on to say,<br /><blockquote>Whiteness assumes the authority to marginalize other identities, discourses<br />perspectives and voices. By constituting itself as the center, non white voices<br />are Othered, marginalized and rendered voiceless.</blockquote>When we think about assimilation we have to think about whiteness because<br />the two are related, in this country. Furthermore, what are the political, social<br />and spiritual consequences for a Black person assimilating into a system<br />that is historically rooted in oppressing <span style="font-style: italic;">that person</span>. Yancey goes on to write<br />quoting Ruth Frankenberg,<br /><blockquote>First whiteness is a location of structural advantage or race privilege. Second, it is a<br />standpoint a place from which white people look at ourselves, at others and at society.<br />Third "whiteness" refers to a set of cultural practices that are usually unmarked,<br />unnamed.</blockquote></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Now that we have a working definition of whiteness laid out, we can get into Zahara<br />and assimilation.<br /><br />Black peoples respectability politics make my ass itch and Samuels comment<br />is the embodiment of Black respectability politics. </span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />There is no greater</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">freedom than being about to be yourself, and I cannot be<br />myself</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">assimilate for Whites at the same time.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Or perhaps I should say it is a<br />tenuous challenge to do so. Don't get me wrong, I understand that it is a dance<br />and I have changed my</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">self presentation in order to pursue opportunities<br />throughout my life.<br /><br />We constantly adjust our Blackness in order to make White folks<br />feel more comfortable.This is the essence of Quest Loves piece about<br />about <a href="http://www.racialicious.com/2008/10/09/quoted-uestlove-on-the-little-things/">"The Little Things" </a>and the ways in which he adjust's his presentation of<br />Black masculinity in the presence of White folks.<br /><br />We do what we have to do in order to survive. Wigs, perms,<br />weaves and God knows what else. Jonzey says that I put too much on White<br />perception of our hair in the workplace. And I may, however, if it comes down<br />to me and another candidate and her straight blond hair is perceived as more<br />attractive then my black napps, twists or straight hair, then I lose, and this, is<br />structural domination.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">What would our hair look like if we didn't need to straighten it in order to </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">keep<br />a job?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />The Gods to honest truth is that Zahara Jolie-Pitt, for all intents and purposes is<br />a member </span><span style="font-family:arial;">of the American elite, and one of the benefits of being member of the<br />elite is that your <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/500468/bad_black_mothers">"deviance"</a> is not</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> susceptible to being punished the same way<br />that it would be if you are low income.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Which brings me to the social costs of<br />assimilation.<br /><br />Assimilation has a price. This is</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> one of the reasons why I liked the conversation<br />around "<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/09/AR2009120904546.html">Bitch is the New Black</a>"</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> because I would frame it as a one about the<br />social costs of assimilation.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">As I read the article I thought, class wise, do working class heterosexual and</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">queer Black women have the same dating and marriage statistics and challenges?</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Do affluent queer and heterosexual Black women and have the same dating</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">and marriage statistics and challenges?</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />When I hear middle class heterosexual folks talk about the "dearth" of similarly<br />position Black men to date, I think of public education. What does it mean for<br />heterosexual Black women when Black boys are placed</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">by a White<br />school system on a punishment/jail track at six years old, in first grade, and<br />what</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> are we going to do about it? Why in the name of apartheid is this acceptable?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Historically, America has been premised on both the notion of Democracy and<br />the material reality of Black oppression and the denial full citizenship to<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">all</span> African</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Americans. <a href="http://www.brooklynrail.org/2008/02/express/from-black-power-to-barack-obama">Peniel Joseph's new book from Black Power to Obama</a><br />gets into this. The fact that we have been denied full citizenship is why the "Are<br />West Indians/Black beef is so deep?" This is why</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">all</span> immigrants are compared to<br />American Blacks.<br /><br />The notion is, if you can't BE White</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">you sure as hell don't want to be Black.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Which leads me to ask, when can we just be, just simply be able to live and be ourselves?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />We were never meant to survive, so for us to be talking about Happyblackgirlday</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">is<br />revolutionary on levels that I lightweight can't articulate right now but I am trying.<br /></span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />When will we be able to be happy, joyous and free?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />As Black women we put our lives on hold for our lovers, our mommas,</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">our families,<br />our kids, guess what, that life will never come unless we claim it.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Sitting in Tuesdays,<br />waiting for the Chicken Bone Bus on New Years Eve, White</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">dude who Loves Black<br />women strikes up a conversation with the me. He brings </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">up the "Bitch is the New<br />Black" article. I listen. And then while talking about his</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Black women friends, he<br />says something profound, when he mentions that we "seem to put our</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">lives on hold."<br />I get that sometimes we have to do it, to push through. However, every time we put our<br />lives on hold for someone or something else, this is a willful act. We are not objects,<br />we are human.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I could give a fuck about what a <a href="http://hiphopblips.dailyradar.com/video/abc-report-why-successfull-black-women-find-it-so-hard/">Steve Harvey</a> or anyone else has to say</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">about<br />Black women's marital statistics. Anyone paying their rent talking</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">shit about us<br />can miss me with those. Rather than tell <span style="font-style: italic;">our </span>story and reduce</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Black men to<br />being only worth what they can pay for on a date or in rent, how about writing<br />about his OWN</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> relationships with his family members, his mother, his daddy,<br />his children, his narrative, his journey. Hmmp.<br /><br />Happy Black Girl Day.<br /><br />With Love, Resistance and Desire.<br /></span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-14833010688069699462010-01-06T00:46:00.006-05:002010-01-06T02:02:49.602-05:00Chicken Bone Bus<a style="font-family: arial;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgUC34mTnehUDNI9bqZkhvwM6l1FX5uCEsO0M-KWsYidt1pZeGPCnT0L3PQgXnqHV4g78eDn4KAcGYXiae2LrSXEL1p36RI_qCBVJ2AzstmUIVCRGTA6uofPBmiYE75nRhw_iQFg/s1600-h/words.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgUC34mTnehUDNI9bqZkhvwM6l1FX5uCEsO0M-KWsYidt1pZeGPCnT0L3PQgXnqHV4g78eDn4KAcGYXiae2LrSXEL1p36RI_qCBVJ2AzstmUIVCRGTA6uofPBmiYE75nRhw_iQFg/s320/words.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423510436325919810" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-family:arial;">On everything I Love.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span style="font-family:arial;">I was on the bus from DC to NY on New Years Eve.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />This dude, sitting next to me after the Philly stop, was</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> sipping<br />something</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">in a 16 oz Pepsi bottle.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">He then gets up and announces<br />that he wants to "start a gambling jawn,</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">on the bus, give the driver 20%, who's in?</span>"<span style="font-family:arial;"><br />He was an older cat, with a fedora, glasses.<br /><br />Dude in the back is like "sit that shit down and shut the fuck up."</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />This cat, got a puff coat on, with fur around the collar, looking like</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Baby<br />with a tattoo tear.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">And fearless.<br /><br />You know how you can TELL that a person don't care</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">about shooting into<br />a crowd. BAD for me, because I was sitting next</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">to The Gambler.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />I'm like.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Lawd, we are an hour away, please, its New Years Eve. Come on boo.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />So.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Dude in the back is like "Sit down OG, ain't nobody trying to hear that."</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Gambling dude, is like "What, I'm trying to make some money, we can</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">all make<br />some money, give 20% to the driver."</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Before I know it, these cats are standing up.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />In fact, there are four Black men, standing up, on the middle of the bus, the </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">lights<br />on are at this time.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">The Gambler, stood up, reaching into his pocket, he was<br />holding </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >something.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The Baby looking dude, was like "What, whatchu gone do, watchu got?"</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">He had that wild<br />Freeway, "Who you" look in his eye.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Another man was was pleading, "My kids are on this bus, don't do this."</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">It was<br />really bugged out to see these four Black men, to see Black masculinity</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">be<br />performed and navigated in this instance.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Ummm hmmmp.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Philly.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">In some ways it was familiar, in some was it was absurd.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">It worked out.<br /><br />But really. On the bus ock?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Reminds me of how rap songs, be A song, but when faced with</span> the<br /><span style="font-family:arial;">real life issue of, "Do he have a gun?" it is totally different. </span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-79398026622847211522010-01-05T12:34:00.008-05:002010-01-05T14:41:00.113-05:00Bless Him, Change Me<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeKfJFcQJ2O-kf59OVDHdoFpgYCNKueCLsWWEenvgpQ-S28pMNBex1bDdu3bL9wdXphSYOjpTDPNNYDSczVhZAVtQZzjPfnwIkPhbRJQoBv5yE6Y-pfU_MDG97zdqLdxsRVqesaw/s1600-h/July+2009+005.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeKfJFcQJ2O-kf59OVDHdoFpgYCNKueCLsWWEenvgpQ-S28pMNBex1bDdu3bL9wdXphSYOjpTDPNNYDSczVhZAVtQZzjPfnwIkPhbRJQoBv5yE6Y-pfU_MDG97zdqLdxsRVqesaw/s320/July+2009+005.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423327651174391474" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;">Love. Resistance. Desire.</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">About a week or so ago FD said, "He couldn't do it anymore."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Ouch.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I thought it was just a strong response to the holiday season,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">but I ain't heard from him.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">It was a little rocky.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The tipping point for me, was didn't hear from him when we had<br />blizzard a couple of weeks back.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> He had a resentment towards me,<br />as I was venting about school and my land lord and not taking any actions.<br />The resentment was fine, but Black people</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> call Black people to check on them<br />when we get two feet of snow. That's</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> just gp Love.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I also got stranded in Maryland that day. The trains and buses just stopped</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">running. LP's loving partner gave me a ride home, in a stick shift, in a blizzard.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I was grateful.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">In the week preceding FD also spoke to me twice in a way, that I was like, dude,<br />where is my</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> friend, 'cuz the person on the other end of the phone don't sound like</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">love bears. The tone of his voice communicated what the words didn't</span><span style="font-family:arial;">, desire<br />had waned.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I didn't help any. I fucked up and pushed up on someone I had a thing with</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">years ago. I also mentioned it to FD. I know, Black girl fail. Things were</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">already fragile, then I went a did this. The awesome thing that came out</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">of that behavior is the next day I felt. Awful. I couldn't shake it.<br /><br />I told him about</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> it.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">It was in<span style="font-style: italic;"> that </span>moment that I learned that no matter what was happening</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">in my life that I would be responsible to the maintenance of my<span style="font-style: italic;"> interior</span> life.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I had a bottom, and tried to allow something material to fill a God sized hole.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">No bueno.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I now see that work, home, school, roommate issues, love life, my interior life needs</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">to be maintained and now one could really do that but me, via God.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I have worked hard on getting acclimated to school. It's really isolating.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I am also getting use to being around new people.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Making new friends, learning the culture of grad school.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Black girls had a lot of New in '09.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">At times, I was self absorbed and not checking for him. In fact, it was only</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">in talking with one of my homies that I realized the significance of FD's had a<br />career milestone. </span><span style="font-family:arial;">He finished his course work. However, I was deep in the<br /><span style="font-family:arial;">midst of learning how to do</span> APA citations. I didn't have the bandwith to really</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">reflect on the significance of this with him.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">S.bot insisted on me writing this, but also insisted that I didn't call.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I was like, I don't understand, why can't I do one and not the other</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">they BOTH constitute a communication. She was like, calling is a no</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">no, but your blog is your space. So write. Uhhhhhhhhh. Hate her. Love her.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Last Thursday, I had just come back from Brooklyn for Xmas on Sunday,<br />and I saw his Facebook status update said "Queens bound" I was like wow,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">you ain't speaking but you got status updates. I lost it.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">So, I was standing in my room, talking to my daddy, who is on the</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">West Coast. He was like you sound really sad. I was, plus I was suppose to visit</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">him, but I was working up the courage to tell him that am not up to it right now.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">He asked me, what I was going to do for NYE, I was like "make gumbo or lasagna</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">and watch CSI". He was like, "Are you sure." I mentioned that my support system</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">was in Brooklyn, and I just got an email from </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=sam+champion&init=quick#/album.php?aid=2038396&id=1024548740">my homie Ian</a><span style="font-family:arial;"> who is doing</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">a free party. I would just need to find a place to stay, if I went back."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">He responded saying "Go. Then." I was like "I just got back, doesn't that look</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">kinda crazy?" He was like "No. Right now you are in your own way, in your self</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">pity. OTHER people ain't in they self pity. Go, be around your friends and enjoy</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">yourself. Self pity leads to depression. Your four walls at home will be there,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">but right now you need to get out of your own way." "You may hear from him,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">you may not, but you need to go where the Love is."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">He was right, being around people that loved me, held me, fed me, was exactly what</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I needed.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Shaking her head at my scandalous silver leggings. Ms. Lovely, laid eyes on</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">me and said I looked like I came from the future. That moment was priceless.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">On the train, I found my mind returning to the hurt and, wanting answers, but I stilled</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">myself. And when it <span style="font-style: italic;">got</span> really real, I just said the first first part of the serenity</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">prayer on repeat, until I thought about something else<span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >.</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" > Interior life.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I was also able to reflect on what it was like for me when I moved to New</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">York. How at times it was a slow grind to make friends, and in other instances,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">it was real easy. My first little crew was comprised of Tiombe, Bilal and Robert</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Glasper and while we only ran together for a month or so, it was nice to have<br />running buddies. </span><span style="font-family:arial;">I also had homies at Barnard who were from Oakland.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> Shit,<br />I was spoiled.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Time takes time. Luls.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">In the same way that I waited for God to put Ms. Fancy from the post below,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">on my path, I remain the same with this, bless him, change me.</span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-57746803559335603342009-12-25T12:35:00.010-05:002009-12-25T13:45:26.440-05:00A Love Letter to Ms. Fancy.<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijxMrU7hGZiu5p-JFAwDhcRn1R8RzeRQpDfJHi8-ObXwdPQySoPH7QSLdpsV2BsvrbDNYVlWGy5H3qKbS1cPEV4viAa4oNO9vhR1UfOAJwJF2xoJ7gQ76DpQG62cIIeXjUKt9YCg/s1600-h/Black+Girls+Laughing.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 242px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijxMrU7hGZiu5p-JFAwDhcRn1R8RzeRQpDfJHi8-ObXwdPQySoPH7QSLdpsV2BsvrbDNYVlWGy5H3qKbS1cPEV4viAa4oNO9vhR1UfOAJwJF2xoJ7gQ76DpQG62cIIeXjUKt9YCg/s320/Black+Girls+Laughing.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419230441476493602" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.harrycutting.com/photos_people/minority-teen-pictures-thumbs.htm"><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;">Image courtesy of Harry Cutting. He has awesome stuff, check him out.</span><br /></span></a></div><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">A few weeks ago I woke up and realized that I am the person that I wanted</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">to be when I was thirteen.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">At thirteen my closest friend was Fancy and we were in middle school together</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">in East Oakland. We were nerdy, and skinny, not what the streets want, no?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">If the library had it we read it. I was partial to all the Judy Blume's,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Beverly Cleary's, Sweet Valley High's and when I found Walter Dean Myers</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I was home.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">We traded library books and <span style="font-style: italic;">Sassy</span> issues the way 8 year old boys traded<br />baseball cards.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">We rode that Emporium Capwells basement in downtown Oakland like</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">a Long Island Outlet mall the day after Christmas.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">It was through my friendship with her that I saw how people treated</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">brown skinned Black girls. In some ways we learned how to negotiate</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">our femininity together.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">By 15, we discovered Berkeley's Telegraph avenue, clothing stores, book stores,<br />used record stores, natural hair, sewing </span><span style="font-family:arial;">and fashion magazines. While I liked<span style="font-style: italic;"><br />The Source</span> magazine, more than Seventeen, we both shared our love of the glossies.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">In many ways I became myself in that era, or at the very least the ground was being</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">set for me to claim it in high school.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">She was always more of an alternative head than me, putting me on to Neneh Cherry<br />and being the first Black person <span style="font-style: italic;">that I ever knew </span>to bump Alanis Morissette.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Our goal was to become </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >Fresh Girls</span><span style="font-family:arial;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Fresh girls were natural, maybe wrote graffiti (or was at least cool with the crew<br />with the most ups), were smart, had cute clothes,</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> some of which they made<br />and their own style.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">After middle school, I left Oakland to go to high school in 'Frisco,<br />and a little after that she moved back East. We had a plan for her to move<br />to NY to model and design clothes and I would go to college and<br />design clothes, sell vintage clothes or write and just be AROUND hip hop.<br /><br />I move to NY for school and she got married and had a baby, and for a hot minute<br />I was like dude, what happened to our plan? Being young and immature<br />I had a resentment.<br /><br />Now that I am older I realize that all women have to make choices about<br />baby dreams vs. career dreams, especially when we live in society that needs<br />children, yet refuses to support the people who are<span style="font-style: italic;"> implicitly</span> charged with raising<br />them.<br /><br />I also now realize how much of a gift it is to think of something at 14 and actually<br />be able to do it 4 years later.<br /><br />Back then I wanted to be nappy, be around Black art, eat good food and read<br />a lot.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Three weeks ago I realized that I am in fact </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >this </span><span style="font-family:arial;">person.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I get to be nappy, write about Black women and pop culture (and my relationships)<br />and have the</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> things that I say be taken seriously by my blog readers and my professor's</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">and this is awesome.</span><br /><br />I googled Ms. Fancy a couple of weeks ago and found out she wasn't that far from me.<br />In a twitter conversation with <a href="http://twitter.com/prisonerswife">@prisonerswife</a> I talked about how I wanted to say<br />something, but I didn't want to come out the blue and the last few years of my life<br />have taught me to leave well enough alone when it comes to people. I try to live by<br />if it don't fit don't force it. This isn't hallways successful. I try to realize that people<br />will be bothered when they want to be, otherwise I should leave them be.<br /><br />@prisonerswife responded saying something along the lines of, "people say things<br />like that just because they don't want to step up" and I was like, "I'm pretty much a courage<br />bear. If God wants me to be in contact with her, we will cross paths."<br /><br />Ms. Fancy Facebooked me Tuesday.<br /><br />Merry Christmas. Woot.<br /><br /></span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-14982422136272622692009-12-17T10:35:00.006-05:002009-12-17T11:02:08.213-05:00Beyonce Incorporated: R&B, Thugs and Whiteness<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AEymwZVafKE&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AEymwZVafKE&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
<br /><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >Here is the thesis and intro ya'll. Peace to Birk and Jess for helping</span><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >me organize the beginning, I swear that's the hardest part, because the </span><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >rest of the framework flows from there.</span><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br />
<br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >In writing this I was reminded that its not enough to have something</span><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >to say. Its not enough to have read the books to be informed. It's only
<br />enough when</span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" > I can frame and deploy a convincing argument.</span><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br />
<br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >If you have any questions, leave them below, and I will try and work them</span><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >into the paper.</span>
<br />
<br /><span style="font-family:arial;">~Renina</span>
<br />
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<br /></span><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CRENINA%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} span.msoins0 {mso-style-name:msoins;} span.tickerlinx {mso-style-name:tickerlinx;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><b><span style="font-size:14pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Beyonce Incorporated: R&B, Thugs and Whiteness</span></span><u1:p></u1:p></span></b><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><u1:p> </u1:p><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">Since the 1998 crossover breakthrough of Destiny’s Child, Beyonce Knowles has
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">been a star on the rise. Since then she has released numerous albums, both with
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">Destiny’s Child and as a solo artist, she has starred </span><span style="font-size:85%;">in or served as a supporting
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">actor</span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;"> in several major motion pictures, and has married a multiplatnuim selling rap
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">artist. In short, Beyonce is everywhere, including the bank. In fiscal year
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">2007-2008, Beyonce reportedly earned an estimated $87 million dollars.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">Given that black wealth is incredible rare in the United States (Oliver & Shapiro, 2006),
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">the reasons for Beyonce’s incredible success are worth exploring. </span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style="font-family: arial;font-size:85%;" ><u1:p></u1:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><u1:p> </u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">In exploring the reasons for Ms.Knowles’ success, </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I am primarily concerned with
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">the intersection of popular culture and the day to day lived experience of African
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Americans. </span><span class="MsoCommentReference" style="font-size:85%;"><span style="line-height: 200%; display: none;"> </span></span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">Often times we listen to music without considering the fact that it isn’t
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">neutral and that it </span><span style="font-size:85%;">also </span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">has an affect on the ways in which we go about our lives. </span><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Beyonce Knowles is an accomplished, talented and attractive, singer, actor,
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">entertainer and fashion designer.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style="font-family: arial;font-size:85%;" ><u1:p></u1:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">She is also is fast becoming an entertainment empire in and of herself. While she
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">“grew up in a four-bedroom home in Houston's upscale third ward with her father,
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">Mathew, a salesman at </span><span class="tickerlinx" style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=XRX">Xerox</a></span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;"> and </span><span class="tickerlinx" style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=JNJ">Johnson & Johnson</a></span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;"> mother, Tina, a hair salon
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">owner, and sister, Solange Knowles, sings.”According to <i>Forbes</i> magazine, </span><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Ms. Knowles</span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;"> has “sold upwards of 118 million records, won ten Grammys,
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">starred in seven films and headlined three solo tours” (Rose, 2009). Her endorsement
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">deals are extremely lucrative. She has had them with “Tommy Hillfiger L'Oréal,
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">Giorgio Armani Diamonds perfume, Samantha Thavasa handbags” and in the last
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">year, “she's added deals with Crystal Geyser and Nintendo DS to her résumé” (Rose, 2009). </span><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Further more, the blue chip corporation, </span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">General Mills just underwrote her most recent
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">tour, I AM (Rose, 2009). Rose goes on to note that “Beyoncé constantly works and
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">reworks her act, watching every two-hour performance on tour--even after her
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">hundredth appearance--taking notes on how to improve. "I'm never satisfied," she
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">says, adding with a nervous laugh, "I'm sure sometimes it's not easy working for me."
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">Then, seriously: "I've never met anyone that works harder than me in my industry”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">(Rose, 2009). Indeed, given the fact that she employs four hundred people and
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">arguably many more through touring and merchandising, she, in many ways is a
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">corporation.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style="font-family: arial;font-size:85%;" ><u1:p></u1:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;"><u1:p> </u1:p></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">According to Marxist theory on cultural hegemony, “the class, which is the dominant
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">material force in society, is at the same time its dominant intellectual force”(Strinati, 131).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">Be</span><span style="font-size:85%;">yonce Knowles earned </span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">an estimated </span><span style="font-size:85%;">87 million dollars in </span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">fiscal year </span><span style="font-size:85%;">2007-2008 not
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">only because she is talented and attractive but also because her </span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">most </span><span style="font-size:85%;">popular work </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">serves the interest</span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">s </span><span style="font-size:85%;">of the </span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">w</span><span style="font-size:85%;">hite ruling class elites</span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">, such as the presidents of Fortune
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">500 corporations</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> and</span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">Madison avenue advertising firms, </span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">wall street investment bankers,
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">television and record executives. She serves the interests of the </span><span style="font-size:85%;">ruling</span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;"> class b</span><span style="font-size:85%;">y
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">normalizing and never questioning the impact that white supremacist patriarchal
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">capitalism has on black heterosexual relationships.</span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;"> Lyrics such as “pay my auto
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">bill, pay my telephone bill”, thug worship such as “ if his status ain’t hood, I ain’t
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">messing with him, he better be street if he looking at me”</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> and</span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;"> “them hustlas keep
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">on talking, they like the way I’m walking” reify the stereotype of the black</span><span style="font-size:85%;">,</span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;"> male</span><span style="font-size:85%;">,</span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">sexy thug. These lyrics also deploy the patriarchal notion that African American men </span><span style="font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">are </span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">only worth what they can contribute financially. Furthermore such lyrics are
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">problematic because they place the economic issues facing black heterosexual couples
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">squarely on the shoulders of individuals while obscuring the structural forces acting on
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">the lives of such couples such as a historically segregated educational system, a
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">segregated housing system, a discriminatory bank lending system, an oppressive
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">police system, historically discriminatory judicial system, the war on drugs, the war
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">on poverty and a largely self serving non</span><span style="font-size:85%;">-</span><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">profit industrial complex.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style="font-family: arial;font-size:85%;" ><u1:p></u1:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;"><u1:p> </u1:p></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;"> I am making this argument because I am concerned with the package that her
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">message comes in, the content of message that is deployed and the impact that
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">this has on the masses of society, as popular culture is where most people learn
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">about society by deploying lyrics that focus on black women asking black men
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">for money for utility bills, that celebrate black men as the mythic thug, Beyonce
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">Knowles both reifies the stereotype of rugged, violent, black men who work in the
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">underground economy. This is important because applying white hegemonic market
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">ideology is harmful to Black heterosexual relationships, given the fact that historically,
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;"><span class="msoins0" style="font-size:85%;">Black workers tend to be some of the lowest played workers in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region></st1:place></st1:country-region>
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" class="msoins0" >economy (Oliver and Shapiro). </span><o:p></o:p></p> <u1:p></u1:p>
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Thoughts?</span>
<br /><!--[if !supportAnnotations]--><div style=""><div style=""> <!--[endif]--></div> </div> M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-77683135550329071332009-12-14T10:38:00.006-05:002009-12-14T12:14:34.092-05:00Beyonce and Black Women's Empowerment<span style="font-family:arial;"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ikTxfIDYx6Q&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ikTxfIDYx6Q&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Educated Sistah Girl</span> asked me some really good questions about<br />the Beyonce Post</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> from a couple of weeks ago. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I kept trying to respond in the comments but blogger wasn't having it,<br />so I have made it into a blog post itself. </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Below is my response to her<br />comments.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Enjoy.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">ESG,</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Thank you for taking the time to comment.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Your<br />responses have me thinking. I am going to try and </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">respond to the<br />questions/comments that haven't been </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">answered already.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">You said: </span><blockquote style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-family:arial;">The up and coming artisits like Jazmine Sullivan and Melonie </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Fiona are sickening to me with songs like Bust Ya Windows and </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">that song on the radio abt 'I dont care if you are cheating I just </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">want to be with you'. They are pop artists. They are much more </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">detrimental to our culture byt not the White Ptriachal Capitalist </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">System that you speak of...more like in a Willie Lynch Kind of way.</span></blockquote> <span style="font-family:arial;">This is interesting. What do you mean by this?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Why is it sickening?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />What do you mean by a Willie Lynch kind of way?</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />You said:</span> <blockquote style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-family:arial;">I woudl argue that Beyonce says that she needs a baller because</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">she is a baller. Do you mean to tell me that a woman worth xxM </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">should be dealing with a guy worth xxH? It makes for an imbalanced </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">relationship and is much more unheathy.</span></blockquote> <span style="font-family:arial;">Why does Beyonce need a baller when she is married to Jay-Z and recently made<br />$87M 2007-08.<br /><br />Why</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">not sing about her marriage? Whose interest are being served by this?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />What does this mean given the ways in which Black women who date </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">ballers<br />wind up dead or in jail?</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" >You said:</span> <span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" ></span><blockquote><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" >I happen to think that Beyonce is close to the modern-day Tina Turner...</span> <span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" >to the media </span></blockquote> <span style="font-family:arial;">You are right and I am going to root Beyonce in a Tina Turner, Josephine </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Baker<br />and maybe even Lena Horne lineage.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> However, we must look at<br />image AND content.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> Tina and the Yonce ain't sing about the the same shit.<br />They were also </span><span style="font-family:arial;">produced by two very different historical moments and that<br />has to be </span><span style="font-family:arial;">accounted for to.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />You also made two really profound comments that I am going to respond to at length.<br /><br />The first:<br /></span><blockquote style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: arial;">Even Upgrade you is a testament to being with someone who is<br />"on your level" and bypassing those guys who will be bad for you.<br />Not because he can't give you anything but because you need to<br />have similar level of ambition (if not interests) to be in a HEALTHY<br />relationship. Many of her songs (Irreplacable, Me, Myself and I, Diva,<br />Put a Ring on It) are about empowering women to be independant.<br />This is needed in our community because there are way too many<br />women in unheathy relationships because they think they need a man.<br />Their ambition in life is to be someone's woman. The reason that </blockquote><blockquote> <span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" >Beyonce appeals to so many is because she can sing about that</span> <span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" ><br />strength, that fierce independance and then show vulnerability in love </span> <span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" ><br />with a song like Flaws and all.</span></blockquote> <span style="font-family:arial;">The second is:</span><br /><blockquote style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: arial;">Many of her songs (Irreplacable, Me, Myself and I, Diva, Put a Ring<br />on It) are about empowering women to be independant. This is needed<br />in our community because there are way too many women in unheathy<br />relationships because they think they need a man. Their ambition in<br />life is to be someone's woman.</blockquote> <span style="font-family:arial;">We have are working with different assumptions. I am glad that you </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">commented<br />because it is forcing me to think through my assumptions </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">and state them<br />explicitly.</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" ><br /><br />Assumption Number 1</span>:<span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />I do not assume a patriarchal view of the family or relationships.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070730/patriarchy">More about patriarchy here</a>.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Black women asking Black men for money for the rent is not<br />empowering.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />This is really akin to two people fighting for crumbs from 'Massa<br />bosses table.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Our economic system serves the interest of the ruling class,</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">a ruling class<br />made up of White people, to serve the interests</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">of White people.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Beyonce's music serves the interest of the ruling class because</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">it talks<br />about "empowerment", in terms of the most historically oppressed people<br />(aside from Native Americans) in the United States, arguing with each other<br />over paying the rent.<br /><br />Black men and women beefin' with each other about money,<br />instead of focusing on an economic system that is created by White<br />people to serve the interests of White people is the complete antithesis of<br />empowerment because it has us looking at ourselves, instead of the system<br />that creates these conditions.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">I'm realize in reading your statement that if I had a patriarchal view of<br />relationships THEN it would be true, this may seem empowering.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />In this society, if we were going to "ask" any men for money, logically it<br />should be gay White men. They are White men, so they tend to be better paid,<br />and because they are gay, they tend to choose when they have children, as<br />they are is less likely pregnancy accidents. This is material because having<br />children is a high predictor of poverty in the US.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Our American economic system presumes that a group of people will<br />be financially exploited. Historically, this group has been black men<br />and women.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Empowerment arises in a system that pays Black men and women enough money<br />to survive, or even one that pays Black men and women the same amount<br />that White men earn, for the same jobs.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Empowerment arises in a system that forces some folks to live simply so that<br />OTHERS may simply live.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Women do 2/3rds of the worlds work for 1/10th of the pay. I want MY<br />9/10ths of pay back.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> Black men didn't take it from me, so they can't give it back.<br />Getting it from Black men isn't the issue.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Assumption Number 2</span></span>: <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Black men have been woefully underemployed</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">since after WWII, so<br />walking around expecting them to have money simply isn't the issue.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Its an insult to measure ANY person by what they have, Black or otherwise.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Human beings are children of God.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">What you have and who you are are two different things and Pop music/culture<br />in general and Beyonce's music in particular is harmful because it normalizes<br />the idea that relationships are based on financial transactions, fuck love.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />This is not to say that we shouldn't have</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">standards and just date anyone but we<br />must ALSO</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">look at how the system limits the options that Black people have<br />in this society.<br /><br />I hear you, as women we are socialized to put relationships ahead of everything else.<br />I have worked VERY hard, and still work hard at making my spiritual life, my artistic<br />life, my work at the center of my day to day , not just my relationship. In order to do this,<br />I had to do a lot of unlearning what I was taught as a young girl about who was suppose<br />to be when I grew up. I wrote about it in this post titled, "<a href="http://modelminority.blogspot.com/2008/09/on-waiting-around-for-man.html">On Waiting Around for a Man</a>."<br /><br />I am going to repaste a part of the above quote again, because it reminds<br />me of something else.<br /><br />You write:<br /></span> <blockquote> <span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" >As far as the videos she has "Normalizing consumption and exchange-based<br />heterosexula relationships, she has plenty of other songs that are just as<br />popular, if not dancable (which doesnt realy mean much...ppl dont LISTEN<br />to dance songs for the lyrics), songs that speak to giving your all to a<br />relationship, appreciation for your partner, and recognizing the person<br />he/she is. Dangerously In love, Flaws and all, and Halo. Even Upgrade<br />you is a testament to being with someone who is "on your level" and<br />bypassing those guys who will be bad for you. Not because he can't<br />give you anything but because you need to have similar level of ambition<br />(if not interests) to be in a HEALTHY relationship. Many of her songs<br />(Irreplacable, Me, Myself and I, Diva, Put a Ring on It) are about<br />empowering women to be independant. This is needed in our community<br />because there are way too many women in unheathy relationships<br />because they think they need a man. Their ambition in life is to be<br />someone's woman. The reason that Beyonce appeals to so many is<br />because she can sing about that strength, that fierce independance<br />and then show vulnerability in love with a song like Flaws and all.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><blockquote style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></blockquote><span style="font-family:arial;">This is a profound statement.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Where is the middle ground for a heterosexual Black woman between<br />refusing to be a doormat and loving Black men in the face of limited<br />employment options that they have?</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Is the issue that we need to learn love ourselves?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />What is the connection between black women's empowerment and self love?</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Is the issue that Black men need to learn how to love themselves as well?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Would Black teenage boys kill each other the way</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">that they do if they loved<br />themselves?</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><a href="http://bit.ly/8TQoxk">Black men with Awesome credentials, Ivy League etc, have a hard time getting </a><br /><a href="http://bit.ly/8TQoxk">and keeping a job</a>.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">If Ivy League Black men can't get a job, and if we value men</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">by how much money they have, then don't we have a problem? Is the problem</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">us our the system that we live in? What will it take to redefine what it means</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">to love?</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />I am pushing this conversation to get us to think along the lines of the system<br />that we live in, along with, thinking in terms of individual relationships we have.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />All in all, I hope this was responsive.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />~Renina</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"></span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-18505370841529509132009-11-25T12:24:00.007-05:002009-11-25T20:16:10.137-05:00What Sarah Palin Taught Me About Beyonce<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/I0Cc5R4-SVo&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/I0Cc5R4-SVo&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I am working on a paper titled, "How <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Beyonce</span> and Capitalism Undermined</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">R&B's Ability to Normalize Black Love." </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The title may change to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Beyonce</span> Incorporated, as that is more focused<br />and more appropriate for academia.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">My professor wants me to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">l shift</span> my focus to the media's investment in, what I have</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">called, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Beyonce</span> Beauty Aesthetic, light skinned, size 4/6, curvy, blond hair.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I am not interested in just talking about the media, I am interested in how<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Beyonce</span> is a tool</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> for maintaining US hegemony and the ways in which<br />she normalizes really</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> fucked up, patriarchal, Black heterosexual relationships.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I am fascinated by a light skinned, middle class Black woman<br />from the Houston suburbs who sings about needing a soldier, who<br />she could upgrade, so that he can put a ring on it, and if he likes her he<br />can put her in his video phone.<br /><a href="http://globalgrind.com/content/837226/Just-how-much-is-Beyonce-worth/"><br /></a></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://globalgrind.com/content/837226/Just-how-much-is-Beyonce-worth/">Conversely, why is a woman worth tens of millions of dollars singing<br />about needing a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">baller</span></a>?</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />I'm intrigued by this binary of success that allows one Black woman at a time<br />to be a megastar, with the general prerequisite being that she is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">lightskinned</span><br />and talented, and while all the rest remain pretty marginalized.<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Kelis</span>. Amel.Tiombe.Georgia Ann <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Muldrow</span>.Algebra. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Aaries</span>.<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Goapele, Solange</span> etc.<br /><br />Estelle,<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Chrisette</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Erykah</span> may get some mainstream play, but for the most<br />part they are regulated to the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">VH</span>1 Soul channel and its requisite circuit.<br /><br />Mary may get some pop play.<br /><br />By and large Billboard-wise Alicia and <a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1586092/20080423/carey_mariah.jhtml"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Mariah</span></a> are presented to us<br />as Black Pop R&B stars. (Did I miss anyone? I may have, and I sure you<br />all will let me know in the comments.)<br /><br />Both are light <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">skinned</span>. Both keep their sizes in a 4-6-8 range.<br /><br />In trying to figure out how to frame this paper, I called<a href="http://quirkyblackgirls.ning.com/"> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Moya</span></a> and asked for her<br />advice.<br /><br />She suggested that I read Summers piece about how <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Beyonce</span> is simply<br />just doing her job.<br /><br />Summer <a href="http://mybestfriendgayle.blogspot.com/2009/11/upgrade-u-what-we-can-learn-from.html">makes the argument that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Beyonce</span></a> is doing her job, singing,<br />dancing, shimming and making work out music and that to expect<br />her to expect her to do anything else is <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">implicitly</span> naive.<br /><br />Her job is to be a diva, and she most certainly does it well.<br /><br />While, I agree that she most certainly is doing a job,<span style="font-style: italic;"> my job</span> is to show<br />how her efficiency is related to both the larger project of maintaining<br />white supremacist patriarchal capitalism and how the songs normalize<br />some really patriarchal, and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">implicitly</span> violent Black heterosexual relationships.<br /><br />How did I get to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Beyonce</span> from Sarah <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Palin</span>?<br /><br />I was talking with another professor about politics and Sarah<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Palin</span>.<br /><br />I mentioned that my issue with my generation is that they are far too focused<br />on Sarah <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Palin</span> and not on the people who are willing to vote for her in 2012.<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKKKgua7wQk">That calling those folks stupid will not <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">discourage</span> them, and that it may,<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">in fact,</span> embolden them</a>.<br /><br />She responded saying that there needs to be both a focus on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">Palin</span> and a focus<br />on the people who support her. Her rationale was that some people, because<br />of their platform, influence and power, need to be made to shut up, because the<br />things that they say are harmful and can cause other groups of people to do<br />harm. She used Rwandan genocide as an example.<br /><br />She made it clear that we need to see <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">Palin</span> as a willing participant in her<br />career.<br /><br />It was at that moment that I had a better idea of how to frame <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Beyonce</span>.<br />My <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">homie</span> Jess said that I should lay out the facts and then make my<br />argument, given the fact that multiple arguments can be made on the<br />same facts.<br /><br />I now understand that the argument section has to be <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">simultaneously</span> on the<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">Beyonce</span> and the culture that she influences and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">create's</span>.<br /><br />Culture is<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegemony"> US hegemony's </a>goon.<br /><br />Culture does hegemony's day to day dirty work.<br /><br />It was then that I realized that when I write this paper, that I will not<br />write about <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">Beyonce</span> per <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">se</span>, but about the power that she has, and<br />the harm that is done when Black women dating hustlers is normalized.<br /><br />All people need love. Hustlers too.<br /><br />Women of all races have dealt with people who operate in the underground<br />economy. I get that.<br /><br />However, this must be reconciled with the fact that the most popular Black pop<br />singer in the world is continually singing abou needing <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36"></span> a baller, and perpetually<br />valuing men for what they can give.<br /><br />If Black men are only worth what they can give, then they must be worth very little,<br />as they are woefully under or unemployed. There are nearly1 million of them in prison mainly<br />for non violent drug offense, largely selling small amounts of crack or other drugs.<br /><a href="http://www.diversityinc.com/content/1757/article/3148/?1_in_100_Now_Behind_Bars_Numbers_for_Blacks_and_Latinos_Bleak"><br />In a country where 1 in 15 Black men is incarcerated</a> this is a problem.<br /><br />Black and white women are going to jail at unprecedented rates too.<br /><br />Human beings deserve to be loved regardless of how much cake they have.<br /><br />Peep game.<br /><br />Folks want Jay Z to rap about being married.<br /><br />Jay Z will not rap about being married to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">Beyonce</span> because young<br />White men, other non Black people and perhaps some Black folks,<br />do not want to hear about it.<br /><br />Jay can be married to the game, but he can't be married to her.<br /><br />The reason why I am writing this piece for the women,<br />that I know of from East Oakland, California, who have gotten shot in the<br />face, kidnapped, stuff into trunks, have caught been caught hustling<br />or dealing with hustlers and are now doing dumb ignorant time or they<br />are dead.<br /><br />This morning, I woke up and while I was making coffee I remember my<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">patna</span> from <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39">elementary</span> school, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40">Tange</span>. In the early early <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">nineties</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42">Tange's</span><br />cousin got shot in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_43">Brookfield</span> while sitting in the car with her boyfriend,<br />who was a hustler. The killer murdered both of them. Peep game. When I saw<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_44">Tange, she</span> was spooked because she looked like her cousin. So when people<br />saw her they would say her and say, "Girl, I thought you were dead." They thought<br />she was her cousin because they looked similar.<br /><br />People may not care, because the lives of Black women are not important<br />to them. Or they may think I am putting ten on two.<br /><br />Their lives are important to me.<br /><br />So I write.<br /></span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-60454109775013993012009-11-17T09:30:00.005-05:002009-11-17T10:52:19.230-05:00Musing on Precious and Shaniya Davis<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs99yFcNWJomn3L8iPBKPLs6vYfbP2JSQOHoEubT_dHyGuLPM4cG48dLMmrbGVK6Q4ryi3XMBDfMK3TkfVTkAsZLHEiv9uBhQ-pmE9HuuYAhMW3AdBj2R58CvGnYiNhCmi7QqNmw/s1600/push.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 238px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs99yFcNWJomn3L8iPBKPLs6vYfbP2JSQOHoEubT_dHyGuLPM4cG48dLMmrbGVK6Q4ryi3XMBDfMK3TkfVTkAsZLHEiv9uBhQ-pmE9HuuYAhMW3AdBj2R58CvGnYiNhCmi7QqNmw/s320/push.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5405094142246082834" border="0" /></a><br /> <span style="font-family:arial;">Every scene in a movie represents a choice by the director, every<br />line in a </span> <span style="font-family:arial;"> book represents a choice by an author.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">A significant portion of my understanding of what it means to be an artist<br />in New York is rooted in the PUSH era. When I visited New York in '97 to<br />look at colleges, I stayed a couple nights at Barnard with my friends and<br />was able to watch Sapphire read from the novel way back then. When I<br />finally moved here I would see her around the city. For me, she was a<br />walking, living, embodiment of a Black woman writer.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I went to see Precious Friday night and on the way, I reread the<br />book</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">so that I would have proper context.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">I wanted to see it in<br />a theater made up of mostly Black people as I was concerned not<br />only with the film, but how the audience read it.<br /><br />It was sold out in Chinatown I trooped all the way down to Georgetown,<br />by the <span style="font-family:arial;"> water, which is pretty and reminds me of Brooklyn Heights.</span><br />The audience</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">was approximately 60 percent Black and 40 percent<br />White.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I appreciated the fact that Lee Daniels used the book as the main text<br />for </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">the screenplay. I also appreciate the fact that a young Black woman was<br />the subject of both the book and the film.<br /><br />However I wondered, like so many other people why does it take a teenaged<br />dark brown skinned, Black, pregnant, illterate, HIV positive, incest victim for<br />black womens subjectivity to make to the silver screen?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">In mainstream media, are we either marked pathological beings or video vixens?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Last Monday, I asked on Twitter, whether Black women (who follow me)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">would be going to see Precious. One friend had already went to see it,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">and two said that they wouldn't because they "weren't trying to deal with<br />all that" right now. The women on Twitter said that they had gone or<br />would be going to see it. However they were concerned with the ways<br />in which White people were reacting to it. I was immediately reminded<br />of this notion of reflected appraisal theory which involves a person<br />evaluating them selves through the eyes of another.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I wondered if by being concerned about White reception to the</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">film,<br />where we in fact doing that.</span> I <span style="font-family:arial;">also thought it was interesting</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">to ask<br />why White people enjoy Precious, but that we never talk about</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">why<br />white teenagers enjoy rap music.<br /><br /></span> <span style="font-family:arial;">I was biased towards the movie because of <a href="http://www.nypress.com/article-20554-pride-precious.html">Armond Whites</a> article<br />(and <a href="http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=632">Juell Stuart's</a> article in Color Lines.) But I realized that </span><span style="font-family:arial;">Armond may<br />have read the film differently had he read the book recently.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> His critique is<br />that the film lacked an analysis of the structural forces</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> that created both<br />Precious and her momma. And this is true. But the book</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> lacks this as well.<br />Sapphire clearly alludes to it through the scenes</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> where Precious is in the<br />reading and writing class, her meetings with</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> the social worker, and her<br />meetings with her middle school principal. But the state of the world and<br />Black women and never mentioned explicitly.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">If a viewer knew nothing about Black women and saw that film,</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">they<br />would think that we are crazy, diseased, pathological, animals.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">By<br />not explicitly talking about the forces acting on our lives, the film</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />runs the risk of placing the responsibility for the conditions of their lives<br />exclusivly on the shoulders of the characters.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Where did Precious's momma come from? What made her like that?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />The film and the book take place in 1986. There are three major sctructural </span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />forces acting on Black people in general and Black women specifically<br />across</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">the country in urban areas. The crack epidemic is at full tilt, piles<br />of Black</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">bodies were the streets, there is movement to sterilize low<br />income Black women,</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">and HIV, which is categorized as a both a White<br />gay mans and drug addicts</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">(of all races) disease, is killing Black people<br />on the low.</span> <br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Ironically, I last week I was also assigned </span><span style="font-family:arial;">to read Cathy Cohens </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" ><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Boundaries-Blackness-Breakdown-Black-Politics/dp/0226112896">Boundary of</a><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Boundaries-Blackness-Breakdown-Black-Politics/dp/0226112896"> Blackness:</a></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Boundaries-Blackness-Breakdown-Black-Politics/dp/0226112896"> <span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Boundaries-Blackness-Breakdown-Black-Politics/dp/0226112896"> </a>and the first two<br />chapters Cohen</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">lays out some the structural forces impacting Precious's life<br />such as the failure to provide adequate HIV care to Black people.<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Which brings me to <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091117/ap_on_re_us/us_girl_disappears_nc">Shaniya Davis</a>. I hope when reading about the lives</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">of<br />this little girl and her mother that we think about the structural forces</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">that<br />impacted a mothers willingness to sell her daughter into prostitution.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I told Jonzey two weeks ago that we are undergoing a paradigm shift.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />That the conditions will continue to worsen until we collectively do<br />something</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">about it.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The murder of Derrion Albert, the raping of the teenager outside of that high</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />school in Richmond, the Fort Hood killings a couple of weeks ago and<br />now</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">the prositition and murder of Shaniya Davis are all connected in that<br />they </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">reveal aspects about the status and detoriotion of our collective humanity.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Back to Precious. The the main structural weakness in the movie<br />ispresent in the book which is that</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> there is no explicit conversation<br />about the forces acting on</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> these womens lives.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />The film also has another structural weakness. The music video montage</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />scenes are exist with the specific intent of iliciting laughter from the audience,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">which in fact is what happened. These were the consistent scenes in the film</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">where folks laughed at Precious.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">These scenes were not in the book and I<br />would imagine Daniels inserted them to add some lightness to an otherwise<br />intense film. However, in doing so, he drowned out the subtle transformation<br />that Precious went through. Its like he went Hype Williams with The Color<br />Purple, in those scenes.<br /><br />The subtle transformation is what is special about the book. We have<br />all had subtle transformation. They don't happen overnight. They happen,<br />little by little, day by day, month by month, and "suddenly" we are a new person.<br /><br />Precious started out pregnant, and illterate, by the end of the book, she was<br />able to articulate that she was raped by her father, she questioned that fact that<br />the state wanted her to do workfare rather than continue her education,<br />she also articulated that she loved herself, her children and that she wanted an<br />education, and she moved out of her momma's house.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">In the film Precious "walks off into the sunset" with both of her children. Jonzey</span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;">points out that the reality is that this young woman is HIV postive, will<br />die soon and that</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> these children will be orphans. As Jonzey said, is<br />it possible that Black woman director would have dealt with that differntly?<br />Perhaps. Its hard to say given the fact that the book ended</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> with scene where<br />Precious has left her momma's house and is in a shelter, playing with</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> and<br />mothering her son.</span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-family:arial;" ><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-family:arial;" ><br />You see the movie, what did you think?<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-family:arial;" >What does creating a Black women's Bollywood look like?</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-family:arial;" ><br />We clearly have the money, we simply need the will, strategy and<br />fortitude to tell our own stories?</span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-4436426551612993962009-11-15T13:05:00.008-05:002009-11-16T14:01:05.123-05:00Crack and Hip Hop Politically Underdeveloped Young People<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WuU7bEqKcLk&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WuU7bEqKcLk&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />On a fluke a few of weeks ago, I picked up a dvd about</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">the<br /><a href="http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0080&s=black%20panthers">Black Panthers</a> and the student and employee strike at</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">SF<br />State that created the first Black Studies department in the country.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />It was in watching this video that realized that both crack and hip hop<br />politically underdeveloped young people.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Much of this statement comes<br />out of my reading two or three books a week</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">along with five or<br />six articles last month, while simultaneously watching the fall out</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />from <a href="http://www.thedailyswarm.com/headlines/sasha-frere-jones-foibles-cross-section-care-das-racist/">Sasha Frere Jones's</a> post about the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2009/10/26/091026crmu_music_frerejones">end of hip hop</a> and a post<br />about <a href="http://wearerespectablenegroes.blogspot.com/2009/10/problem-with-these-kids-rap-critics.html">rap critics</a>. Blog posts, long blog posts take a lot of work. At least<br />coherent ones do.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Reading and writing is labor and I am thinking about to which</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">ends, those of us who are in our twenties and thirties, are reading</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">and writing. </span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />While watching the responses percolate, I wondered what would </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">happen<br />if we invested the same time in rap blogs in making politics</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">to address our lives?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />What is our investment in a music that has made it clear that it doesn't</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />give a fuck out us in a time where we live in an unsustainable world?<br /><br /></span> <span style="font-family:arial;">For the folks who say that hip hop is related to a political project, I would</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">say,<br />place a link in the comment section. By political I mean a group of<br />people organizing to serve a communally determined group agenda.<br />This doesn't mean that it hasn't</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> served as a conscious raising tool,<br />in the past, but Post Chronic or even Post Blueprint, the music has<br />ceased being for itself and currently exists for Black respect and White dollars.<br /><br />Given that this is the case, what does this mean for Black people<br />and what does it mean for Black music?<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />To the extent that this applies globally, remains to be seen</span>.<br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Chuck D has argued extensively that young people <a href="http://stanford.edu/group/hiphoparchive/events/global_hiphop_film_festival.html">globally </a>have<br />used rap music as tool to make sense of their position is society. </span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Based a couple of documentaries that I have seen about hip hop<br />in Cuba and North Africa, to a certain extent this is true.<br /><br />Given the impact of AID's, mass incarceration and the systemic<br />undereducation of Black, White and Latino students, what are the<br />ways</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">in which that the music, at least since The Chronic, has helped</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />us make sense of our world?<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">I come from the<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Blues-People-Negro-Music-America/dp/068818474X"> Leroi Jones school of Black music,</a> which looks at<br />Black music both as it relates to our history in this country, and as being<br />representative of a particular point in time in this country. </span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Three month's ago, Rafi said that rap music use to be the street talking<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">to the street. In commenting on the ways in which Nike used </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Cube's<br /><a href="http://www.ohword.com/nike-p-rods-ice-cube-it-was-a-good-day/">Today is a Good Day</a> for a skateboarding commercial he </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">writes,</span> <blockquote style="font-family: arial;">It’s just another example of hip-hop’s transformation to lifestyle<br />marketing tool and its astonishing disconnect from the reality it<br />used to represent....Three years ago I saw a big <a href="http://archive.ohword.com/blog/532/reality-used-to-be-a-friend-of-rhyme-rock-the-bells-recap">hip-hop show in </a><br /><a href="http://archive.ohword.com/blog/532/reality-used-to-be-a-friend-of-rhyme-rock-the-bells-recap">New York City just days after Sean Bell’s murder</a>. The city was<br />buzzing with rage and confusion everywhere except inside the<br />show where the incident wasn’t even mentioned. I said back then<br />that there was “a time when rap was supposed to speak to and<br />speak for the streets”. But shows like that Rock the Bells performance<br />and ads like this one from Nike show how far we’ve come from that.<br />The acts and songs of that era are being used to market to aging<br />hip-hop fans like myself but it is all sound and no fury.</blockquote><span style="font-family:arial;">Rhythm and Blues affirms Black humanity, modern rap music</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">affirms<br />our subhumanity.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />This doesn't mean that Rhythm and Blues was all warm and fuzzy</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">as<br />Black humanity encompasses both the aspects that we are proud of</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />our collective darkside as well.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Birkhold thinks that this is really crude statement, and criticizes me for<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">saying so. Yes it is crude. But I stand by it, because Black music<br />has </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">changed from a being for itself to being for others. Rafi's comment</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">is an illustrations of this.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />This isn't a conscious vs. thug dichotomy. My argument is a little more</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />nuanced than that.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Cube, Dre, Too Short, were dudes, street or not,<br />talking to the street.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Peep the VH1 NWA documentary, <a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1822239/vh1_rock_doc_nwa_the_worlds_most_dangerous_group/"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Worlds Most </span></a><br /><a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1822239/vh1_rock_doc_nwa_the_worlds_most_dangerous_group/"><span style="font-style: italic;">Dangerous Group</span></a>. Popular gangster rappers wanted</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> to make some money<br />but they were trying to become corporations themselves. That wasn't an option,<br />so it wasn't a goal. </span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />I mentioned the content of this piece to Birkhold shortly after I wrote it and<br />he disagreed with my statement that rap use to exist for itself, and is now <span style="font-style: italic;">being<br />for others </span><span>(thuggin' for cash)</span>,<br /><br />His issue was with the fact that rap has always been, for the most part,<br />about Black men performing Black male, machismo, fantasy. Being for others.<br />Cold Crush brothers, Funky Four Plus One, Africa Bambaata were either on some<br />party shit, some machismo steez, or some super Black masculinity. He tried<br />to say that Cube was from the suburbs, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Cube">but he's from South Central</a>, according<br /><span style="font-family:arial;">to Wikipedia. However he did attend </span></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Phoenix Institute of Technology in the</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">fall of 1987, and studied Architectural Drafting.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> Chuck D, Russel and I believe,<br />Run DMC were middle class cats from Long Island and Queens respectively.<br />In rap, Black men have always been <span style="font-style: italic;">performing</span> some other 'ish and I<br />agree with that.<br /><br />However, I responded that, while it very well may be true that early rappers<br />were performing a macho, fantasy, partying, Black masculinity,<br />the scale, risk and harm in the1970's and 80's isn't analogous to<br />1990's and 2000's.<br /><br />The fact that Byron Hurt made a movie, <a href="http://www.bhurt.com/barackandcurtis.php">Barack and Curtis</a>, about Black<br />masculinity comparing 50 to President Obama is indicative of this.<br /><br />Currently, rap music is conflated with Blackness. As a result some Black<br />children who are not from the 'hood feel compelled to perform thuggery in<br />order to be accepted. After all the sacrifices their parents have made,<br />pursuing higher education, moving to the suburbs, working the corporate<br />gig, the children want to be exactly what their parents have been sheltering<br />them from, a thug. The pervasiveness of rap music in 1990's and 2000's<br />plays a big role in making this possible.<br /><br />The notion of acceptance and assimilation is an important one. In fact, much<br />of the homophobia that we observe in both American culture and in Black culture<br />stems from the resentment that a gay man or lesbian woman<br />has the audacity and courage to walk around being who they want to be,<br />not who others expect them to be. We have been socialized to resent the<br />courage to be queer. We are angry because they refuse to fit into the box that<br />society has created for them, and we are uncertain of how to get ourselves<br />out if it.<br /><br />Back to Huey. Watching the documentary on The Panthers, the irony of fact<br />that Huey Newton was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_P._Newton#Death">murdered in a dope deal gone bad</a></span><span style="font-family:arial;"> on the streets of<br />West Oakland isn't lost on me.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">In listening to Eldridge speak in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnCaO2ErCFQ">the documentary</a>, it became to clear that<br />while I was familiar with</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">his open and aggressive misogyny, as he famously<br />stated that <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=hxpCxS661Q8C&pg=PA353&lpg=PA353&dq=cleaver+practice+raping+black+women&source=bl&ots=_mZM2KSxSJ&sig=0Aa78CVumA-nvmcTcOJfRguPVoo&hl=en&ei=qFgAS5jhH8SUnQfHk7CSCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBQQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=cleaver%20practice%20raping%20black%20women&f=false">he practiced raping Black women, as preparation for raping he </a><br /><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=hxpCxS661Q8C&pg=PA353&lpg=PA353&dq=cleaver+practice+raping+black+women&source=bl&ots=_mZM2KSxSJ&sig=0Aa78CVumA-nvmcTcOJfRguPVoo&hl=en&ei=qFgAS5jhH8SUnQfHk7CSCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBQQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=cleaver%20practice%20raping%20black%20women&f=false">white women</a>. He was also charismatic, extremely handsome a</span><span style="font-family:arial;">nd in some<br />ways the clip of his speech reminded me of many of the rappers that I<br />grew up listening </span><span style="font-family:arial;">to.<br /><br />All these cats accomplished a lot in their twenties and their thirties.<br />What are we doing?<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />How can our generation build a movement when we can't even</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">be honest<br />with ourselves about where we are?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">There has been very little analysis about the ways in which </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Black communities<br />have been impacted by 20 years of the war on drugs.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">There has also been<br />very little analysis of the ways in which crack</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">wiped out the last vestiges of<br />60's and 70's era Black resistance.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">What does it mean that 30 years later our young people</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">and many older<br />people are more concerned with whether the music</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">is dead than with<br />whether neighborhoods that birthed the music</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">will survive over the next ten<br />years given the impact of globalized</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">gentrification of 'hoods in the US and<br />around the world?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Have you been to Biggies old block lately?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">How was the FBI able to eliminate the Black Panthers</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">but unable to contain<br />The Crips and The Bloods?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">If Black peoples contribution to this country has been music</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">and free labor,<br />what does it mean when our music is a lifestyle </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">marketing device, and that<br />Black men are <a href="http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/minorities_less-educated_workers_see_staggering_rates_of_underemployment/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+epi+%28Economic+Policy+Institute%29&utm_content=Google+Reader#When:14:11:51Z">systemically under and unemployed</a>?<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Thank you for reading this. Clearly, I am trying to work some thangs out.<br />In proofreading this piece it has become clear how Sociology of the Self<br />is teaching me how to look at the person and society simultaneously.<br />WOOT.<br /></span></span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-37276607782566336802009-11-10T09:39:00.008-05:002009-11-10T11:04:23.738-05:00Academic Capitalism: Moving from Talking to Doing/Being<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCnm5G0KOve960A9BbTa9qeNc8eqv6ASgvi22t67jxRUQ3mC03i7KOwuHar5sHiTfn-CAt_yFaQdhMg7hx5OgTmqlEpIOk8dEKJGXBAtTa5dOLK48C7_lhbLgnzRyJdqDPrQ0WOw/s1600-h/UMD.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 206px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCnm5G0KOve960A9BbTa9qeNc8eqv6ASgvi22t67jxRUQ3mC03i7KOwuHar5sHiTfn-CAt_yFaQdhMg7hx5OgTmqlEpIOk8dEKJGXBAtTa5dOLK48C7_lhbLgnzRyJdqDPrQ0WOw/s320/UMD.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402505103473400690" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Last Thursday, while I was doing a presentation on Academic Capitalism</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">in class,<a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.diamondbackonline.com/news/600-protest-diversity-cuts-1.863305"> 600 students</a>, mostly Black,<a href="http://www.diamondbackonline.com/news/provost-diversity-departments-are-safe-1.860906"> conducted a march protesting</a><br /><a href="http://www.diamondbackonline.com/news/provost-diversity-departments-are-safe-1.860906"> the firing of the associate provost of equity and diversity, Dr. Cordell Black</a>. </span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />In addition to this, not only are the departments and offices <a href="http://www.diamondbackonline.com/opinion/stare-meeting-behind-the-closed-door-1.890666">serving </a><br /><a href="http://www.diamondbackonline.com/opinion/stare-meeting-behind-the-closed-door-1.890666">marginalized</a></span> <span style="font-family:arial;">folks facing <a href="http://www.diamondbackonline.com/opinion/staff-editorial-the-urge-to-merge-1.890700">merger</a>, but <a href="http://www.diamondbackonline.com/news/classics-department-could-face-merger-1.890978">The Classics</a> and </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.diamondbackonline.com/news/two-major-science-colleges-may-merge-1.863346">The Chemical </a><br /><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.diamondbackonline.com/news/two-major-science-colleges-may-merge-1.863346">and Life Sciences andComputer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences</a><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />are as well.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The question for me is who is cutting, what is the unstated<br />and stated rationale behind it</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> and to what extent is this process<br />democratic</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">It was only slightly ironic that this erupted on the day in which<br />I did this presentation. </span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />I have found myself in the middle of struggle and in creating a democratic<br />process. </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">There appears to be a desire on behalf of my campuses<br />administration</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">to scalpel out the Negros and the "low earning" programs.<br /><br />I suspect that there</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">is a desire to raise the profile of the school, by<br />reducing the number of Black</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">students enrolled in the University. There<br />is a connection between US News and world report ranking and SAT and<br />GPA's of students.<br /><br />Been there, done that, seen it coming</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> a mile away.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">This process is both<br />scary and liberating.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Scary because a friend saw a facebook comment about academic</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />capitalism and sent me a message saying that I may want to reword</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />my comment because employers lurk on face book.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Its liberating<br />because I feel that I am an active participant in changing the </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">world in real time.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The way that I keep my mind right, if I have to go to zero,<span style="font-style: italic;"> again</span>, and I am forced<br /><span style="font-family:arial;">to leave school</span> I will move back upstate and waitress or move to Vegas</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">and waitress.<br /><br />It is hard to keep the fear of repercussions in check.<br /><br />But my </span><span style="font-family:arial;">only option is to walk timidly, and I didn't survive the crack epidemic,</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />law school and now grad school to walk timid. I am a child of God.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />This process is forcing me to respect people who have done this work before.<br />I was hella smug about the pride march in DC because I didn't see<br />sufficient evidence that the white gay movement did substantial</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">base<br />building with the LGBTQ movement of color in California and</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">nationally,<br />to be having ANOTHER march.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Now that I am in the middle of doing base building, I am far more<br />humbled.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">If I am learning anything about basebuilding, it is that you never<br />know</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">what you will learn, who will be useful. I am learning that I just have</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">to<br />be honest, let people know what I am doing, and that folks will either</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">join or<br />not.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I am learning to start small. Small is good, because small is how everything</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />starts.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">It's hard. It continually means meeting people where they are.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">I have to<br />meet with people, send emails to folks I don't know and do know<br />check my ego at the door, listen, wait for emails, disagree with folks. Stay<br />continually TRYING to meet with people, ask questions and continually check<br />the desire to be bossy.<br /><br />I am an old head. I sent and email to a professor saying that "I don't march"<br />but I want to be useful, not just complaining on the sidelines waiting for someone<br />to advocate for me. However, it seems like young folks seem to want to march<br />and meet with the administration.<br /><br />She responded saying,<br /></span><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:arial;">What does a march achieve and are those necessary goals at this point?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">For example, media attention, shame as a persuasive line of argumentation, </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">personal release of anger etc.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Is a march an effective strategy in relation to the nature of the administration?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Is the march the beginning and the end of political activity?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">What other types of activity should immediately be on the table to </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">supplement the march.<br /><br />In other words I think that this is important because it politicizes the<br />student population, it shows the admin. that students are alert, it can<br />potentially build alliances through media attention. If it fizzles out without<br />any additional work e.g. teach in, petitions etc. then it becomes easy for the administration to wait it out. So it's not everything but its also not nothing.</span><br /></blockquote><span style="font-family:arial;">I was relieved when I read her words, because she articulated my<br />concerns.<br /><br />I am more interested in seeing how power is laid out how, how has this process<br />has worked in the past, who has resisted this kind of thing successfully, and what<br />are peoples frame of reference?<br /><br />We all have a stake in how this plays out. The University is a microcosm<br />of society.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-family:arial;" >Thoughts?</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-family:arial;" >You been apart of a struggle before?</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-family:arial;" >Any suggestions or kind words will be appreciated.</span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-23724592574456586472009-10-28T20:36:00.007-04:002009-10-29T23:35:53.685-04:00It Was Racist<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihG_AcwelOMAR9B2FjR9dydMUEr3ZT0oQ9Gp1xGhUkE7PubKk0N6_POZhKZSUba6qJj5PT3lsIfwCyQGPJX3kbXErjEXqtVUjEpLIqmeVObXTCw1GK-ZseKjowNmd69wirCV8_8A/s1600-h/Fall+IN+003.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihG_AcwelOMAR9B2FjR9dydMUEr3ZT0oQ9Gp1xGhUkE7PubKk0N6_POZhKZSUba6qJj5PT3lsIfwCyQGPJX3kbXErjEXqtVUjEpLIqmeVObXTCw1GK-ZseKjowNmd69wirCV8_8A/s320/Fall+IN+003.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397848385597726322" border="0" /></a>
<br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I was reluctant about today's class going in.
<br />.
<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">We read Mary Waters Ethnic Options and her book Black Identity.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">I reviewed
<br />Black Identity which focuses on<a href="http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=p7Ei48CFmMwC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=%22Waters%22+%22Black+identities:+West+Indian+immigrant+dreams+and+...%22+&ots=2aftW5WQuO&sig=fQIySJMf3ZXAzn3fnqCSJwNAmqo#v=onepage&q=&f=false"> the process</a></span><a href="http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=p7Ei48CFmMwC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=%22Waters%22+%22Black+identities:+West+Indian+immigrant+dreams+and+...%22+&ots=2aftW5WQuO&sig=fQIySJMf3ZXAzn3fnqCSJwNAmqo#v=onepage&q=&f=false"> <span style="font-family:arial;">of West Indian Americans
<br />coming to identify</span></a><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CRENINA%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><a href="http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=p7Ei48CFmMwC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=%22Waters%22+%22Black+identities:+West+Indian+immigrant+dreams+and+...%22+&ots=2aftW5WQuO&sig=fQIySJMf3ZXAzn3fnqCSJwNAmqo#v=onepage&q=&f=false"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="State"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><o:p> </o:p><span style="font-family:arial;">or avoiding</span> </a><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Wingdings; panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:2; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 268435456 0 0 -2147483648 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} /* List Definitions */ @list l0 {mso-list-id:1971936551; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:644876170 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693 67698689 67698691 67698693;} @list l0:level1 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:.5in; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; font-family:Symbol;} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><span style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=p7Ei48CFmMwC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=%22Waters%22+%22Black+identities:+West+Indian+immigrant+dreams+and+...%22+&ots=2aftW5WQuO&sig=fQIySJMf3ZXAzn3fnqCSJwNAmqo#v=onepage&q=&f=false">identifying as Black</a>.
<br />
<br />The book contained lot's of qualitative interview's with West Indian
<br />folks talking about why they don't like African Americans,
<br />why they are Black, but not like Black Americans, that Black Americans
<br />are lazy, expect handouts etc.
<br />
<br />I had no idea how the class was going to react to this.
<br />
<br />Fascinating stuff, though, right?</span><span style="font-family:arial;">
<br />
<br />Especially when you look at the presence of African</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Americans vs. West
<br />Indian Americans on four year</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">college campuses and in graduate,
<br />law and business school in the Northeast.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">
<br />
<br />The book is awesome in how it gets at how first generation</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">verses second
<br />generation West Indian immigrants deal with</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">assimilation, with proving
<br />that they are not Black and also with</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">identifying as Black.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">The most
<br />fascinating part for me was learning that women</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">who worked as teachers
<br />and nurses in Jamaica, came to the</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Brooklyn, worked as teacher and
<br />nurses yet, class wise</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">their lives were not the same. </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">
<br />
<br />The material difference is the on their salary in Jamaica, they</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">were middle class,
<br />so they could afford nannies and house keepers,</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">and their housing was more
<br />spacious and safer.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">In the US, housing was more expensive, there was more
<br />opportunity</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">for jobs and education for their children but the housing dollar
<br />didn't</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">go very far.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">
<br />
<br />Which brings me to my classmate.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">
<br />
<br />Jamaica's system is based on the British system, which means that children</span>
<br /><span style="font-family:arial;">are tested and tracked at a very young age. They either go into vocational</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">
<br />track or academic track.</span>
<br />
<br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Apparently Germany and much of Europe is the same way.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">
<br />
<br />My Black classmate said, that he agrees with this.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">
<br />
<br />I responded saying that standardized tests are measures of familial wealth</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">
<br />not student aptitude. And the aptitude of a four year old cannot be measured</span>
<br /><span style="font-family:arial;">because they have only been on the earth 48 months.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">He responded saying
<br />that the British system is better because it separates the </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">students early
<br />and that there are some who shouldn't be in school and college.
<br /></span>
<br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I said that this was racist.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">We do not know what children are capable of at 4.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">
<br />
<br />They responded saying that it wasn't racist.
<br />
<br />I said, it was both racist AND classist because of the disparate
<br />impact that the same policy has on Black boys in the US. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Boys-Schools-Masculinity-Violence/dp/0472088491">Ann Fergusons
<br />Bad Boys</a> talks about this at length, if you want to read more about it. It's
<br />an awesome study on a public elementary school in Berkeley,
<br />hones in on the ways in which school policy and teacher subjectivity
<br />impact how Black boys are disproportionately disciplined and placed
<br />in special ed classes.
<br />
<br />I asked him how he reconciled his approval of early testing and prediction
<br />with the fact that standardized tests measure familial wealth not student
<br />aptitude.
<br />
<br />He responded saying "Yeah, tests are culturally biased but math isn't."
<br />
<br />My eyes rolled. That did NOT refute nor address my argument.
<br />
<br />Another classmate, a white woman who is in marketing asked, "Isn't it</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">
<br />better for us to asses the children at 4 rather than at 12 so that they
<br />don't languish</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">in the system?"
<br />
<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">I responded no. The issue isn't when they are assessed the issue is
<br />creating</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">a system that serves their interests not the interests of school
<br />administrators or corporations. We need to move out of binary
<br />modes of thinking and ask ourselves whose interests are served by
<br />that.
<br />
<br />She said aren't all children about the same at four? I said no, all children are not the
<br />same. Each child's education attainment is related to how much money her parents
<br />earn and how much social capital her parents have and lastly how much
<br />intergenerational wealth a family has.
<br />
<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">I only wish that I asked them, "What would you do if your child
<br />tests into the vocational track at 4?" I imagine, I hope the responses
<br />would have been more compassionate. </span>
<br /><span style="font-family:arial;">
<br />It isn't lost on me that these people will be future professors,
<br />bureaucrats, marketers, political advisers, researchers etc.</span>
<br />
<br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I see it as my job to say something.</span>
<br /><span style="font-family:arial;">
<br />I was proud of myself for calling a spade a spade, at least I was earlier,
<br />this evening. As the night has warn on I am tired. School is awesome,
<br />but in some ways the more I learn the more it appears that
<br />racism is manifested on a civilizational level.
<br />
<br />In some ways, this experience showed me the racism runs on
<br />a deep civilization level. I take this term from the paper "<a href="http://www.jstor.org/pss/1176879">Coloring </a>
<br /><a href="http://www.jstor.org/pss/1176879">Epistemologies: Are Our Research Epistemologies Racially Biased</a>?"
<br />
<br />In the paper, James Sheurich and Michelle Young lay out three levels of racism.
<br />I list them below:
<br /><blockquote>The first is institutional racism, which exists when instituitons or ogranizations
<br />have standard operating procedures, intended or unintended, hurt members
<br />of one or more races in relation to members of the dominant race.
<br />
<br />The second is societal racism exist when prevailing societal or cultural assumptions
<br />or norms, concepts or habits favor on race over one or more other races. For
<br />example, the OJ trial revealed societal racism.
<br />
<br />The third is epistemologoical racism comes from or emerges out of
<br />what we have labeled the civilizational level, the deepest, most primary level
<br />of a culture of people. The civilizational level is the the level that emcompasses he
<br />deepest, most primary assumptions about the nature of reality (ontology)...
<br /></blockquote>On one level these experiences remind me of just how privilaged
<br />I am, and have been, on another it reminds me of how other children
<br />get screwed by bureaucrats on the regular.
<br />
<br />It reminds me of how the teachers who stepped into my life when my city,
<br />Oakland, and my family were both submerged by the crack epidemic.
<br />
<br />It reminds me of how these angels saved my academic life.
<br />
<br />I hope I can be an angel for someone else.
<br />
<br />The social costs of being a model minority, of being a Black women are taxing.
<br />
<br />I hope I don't go crazy trying to make sense of it all.
<br />
<br />Pray for me.
<br /></span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-37713380683864667272009-10-23T09:03:00.010-04:002009-10-26T23:59:50.067-04:00Tyler Perry x Morehouse x Real Black Men<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhysbNGAYjAeGwKtqWcWQhx6ouJtSKu6q5uvvYrQU1MojsLNPuZIL7tga7HTs1edw1AYqeH6oornFShdTI1kf3JVibPv5QA9pbY6mIMib4kQ11B6me0BQm0vBTc__IwYAWsUBNgHg/s1600-h/madea_goes_to_jail.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 210px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhysbNGAYjAeGwKtqWcWQhx6ouJtSKu6q5uvvYrQU1MojsLNPuZIL7tga7HTs1edw1AYqeH6oornFShdTI1kf3JVibPv5QA9pbY6mIMib4kQ11B6me0BQm0vBTc__IwYAWsUBNgHg/s320/madea_goes_to_jail.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395800675804824690" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Speaking to my homie Jonzey the other night, I was trying to convince</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />her to go see <span style="font-style: italic;">Good Hair</span>, she refused.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span style="font-family:arial;">I said you must go to see<br />Sharpton's clear disdain for and anger towards Black </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">women<br />and our budgetary practices around our hair.<br /><br />She mentioned</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span style="font-family:arial;">that she wasn't going for precisely that reason. That she is<br />not interested</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span style="font-family:arial;">in seeing something where Black women get trashed.<br />I was silent because I have been there, in fact I live there.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">She is a filmmaker and she said that she is tired of other filmmakers projecting<br />their issues onto</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span style="font-family:arial;">Black people and Black women, Tyler Perry specifically.<br />Here is the line </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">that got me,</span> <blockquote style="font-family: arial;">"If Tyler Perry is more comfortable walking around wearing dresses then<br />he should make a movie about THAT, instead of projecting his shit onto us."</blockquote><span style="font-family:arial;">She believes that White filmmakers project their issues on to Black people<br />and Black male filmmakers project their issues onto Black women.<br /><br />I had one of those blog synergy moments and asked her, well have you</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span style="font-family:arial;">seen<br />what has happened at Moreouse this week with regard to their dress </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">code?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/morehouse-dress-code-seeks-164132.html">Morehouse </a>announced a dress code this week that was pretty much<br />no do rags, no sagging, then the last rule,states no pumps, no dresses,<br />no tunics.<br /><br />I instantly thought of Tyler Perry and how Morehouse's reaction to<br />how some men dress, as evidence of why he won't make<span style="font-style: italic;"> that</span> movie.<br /><br />Simply stated, Tyler Perry will not make that movie because the women</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span style="font-family:arial;">who<br />pay to see him dress up like a Black grandmommas would not support a film</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />where he<span style="font-style: italic;"> talks about why he feels most comfortable </span>dressing up like a<br />Black</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span style="font-family:arial;">Grandmomma.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span style="font-family:arial;">I then decided, after looking at the Sandra Rose<br />site and reading the comments</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span style="font-family:arial;">that I needed to have a conversation<br />with Moya, because this represented</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span style="font-family:arial;">a great teaching moment.<br /><br />Tyler Perry's movies make Black women and White people feel comfortable,<br />oh, don't trip, we aren't the only ones in the movie theater. If he makes a movie<br />about why he feels most comfortable with in dress, this would make many<br />Black women and White folks incredibly uncomfortable.<br /><br />Below is the interview with Moya, who runs <a href="http://quirkyblackgirls.ning.com/">Quirky Black Girls</a><br />and is a fellow Women Studies colleague and an incredible gender<br />theorist.<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Renina Jarmon</span>: Why is it acceptable for a Black school to heavily<br />regulate the gendered</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span style="font-family:arial;">nature of clothing?</span> <div style="font-family:arial;"><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Moya Bailey</span>: I don't think its acceptable though I do believe in a dress code<br />(sometimes). I think for k-12 and I could even say in college, a dress code<br />that's designed to counteract the hypersexualization of youth and to limit the<br />expression of certain exclusionary class markers makes a lot of sense to me.<br />Dress codes don't have to be gender specific and students could be able to<br />wear a range of clothing across genders regardless of their perceived sex.<br />Unfortunately, this Morehouse dress code is being used to reinforce a very<br />classed and heteronormative idea of what a black man should look like.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">RJ</span>:Does this have to do with the origins of the school as a place rooted<br />educating and grooming Black civil society?<br /><br /></div><div style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">MB</span>: I definitely think this policy is connected to some old school politics of<br />respectability. Black people have historically tried to model the norms<br />of dominate culture, hoping that this mimicry would afford equal treatment<br />as opposed to subjugation. "Good" black men don't wear high heels or<br />sagging pants. There's been a lot of talk about how heels or sagging<br />pants won't fly in corporate America, as if to say the ultimate goal for<br />Morehouse men is to become black versions of the CEO's and capitalists<br />that are destroying communities of color with unliveable wages, gentrification,<br />environmental racism, and hazardous working conditions. That said, a lot<br />of work has been done to ensure that folks can wear what they want to<br />wear in corporate America. Non-discrimination policies, while not<br />indicative of the work climate necessarily, provide employees rights<br />to dress as they see fit and if employers have a problem, provide legal<br />means through which employees can act.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">RJ</span>:Are the people on <a href="http://sandrarose.com/2009/10/19/morehouse-under-fire-for-asking-black-men-to-be-men/">Sandrarose.com</a> aware that they sound like white<br />folks who didn't want their children to attend integrated schools in the<br />1950's? [Sandra Rose's statement"A man can’t lead other men wearing a dress",<br />sounds like some of the birthers, denying the presidents right to BE the<br />president.]<br /><cite style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"></cite><blockquote><cite style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">"buttercup24 Says: </cite> <p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">I’m glad they are taking a stand. I’ve said numerous times I don’t have a problem with other people’s lifestyles but some people take it too far. If you are a gay man keyword is MAN. Act like one and the same thing with women. The saggy pants thing too. Save that for the knuckleheads on the street who aren’t going anywhere."</p></blockquote><p style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"></p><cite></cite><blockquote style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><cite>Dhoward1913 Says: </cite> <br /><p>They should withdraw!!!! Why the hell would you go to Morehouse with that tomfoolery? These folks are out of control. Gay is one thing, but dressing like a woman…..and to the point that the school has to give guidelines. Damn, if you going to Morehouse you obviously want to get a degree and work in the public sector. You can’t dress like that in the public sector. Only hairsylist can do that.</p></blockquote><p></p></div><div style="font-family:arial;"><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">MB</span>: "A man can't lead another man wearing a dress." this quote is so deep and so<br />problematic to me. I'll break it down.<br />1. What constitutes appropriate dress for men and women is always shifting.<br />What's masculine one day can be feminine the next. Don't folks know the<br />history of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-heeled_footwear#History" target="_blank">high heels</a>?<br />2. Read <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=hks9TucnmmwC&dq=bailey%27s+cafe&source=gbs_navlinks_s" target="_blank">Bailey's Cafe</a> by Gloria Naylor. Tell me then if a man can't lead<br />another man wearing a dress.<br />3. There's an assumption that for a man to be taking seriously he needs<br />to be marked as such. There's something silly about a man in women's<br />clothing. Why? Is it because men don't take women seriously? If we<br />change the phrase to " A woman can't lead another woman wearing pants,"<br />the statement very obviously breaks down.<br /><br /><b style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">What is it about masculinity that is so fragile that it becomes<br />questionable when cloaked in a dress?</b><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">RJ</span>: Why do we assume that just because Black men weren't visibly gay<br />on Morehouse's campus that they, haven't been there historically?<br /></div><div style="font-family:arial;"><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">MB</span>: Girl, I don't know! And this is the thing about all black institutions, the<br />church, school, family, community, etc. There is an understanding that<br />there are queer black folks in these spaces but traditionally folks have<br />tried to argue via politics of respectability, "Hide yourself." Black queer<br />people can be <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayard_Rustin" target="_blank">present just not visibly</a> so or at least not so visible as to<br />call attention to themselves. We have this false notion that hiding queerness<br />will some how make us more respectable more deserving of being<br />treated like human beings if we don't deviate from the norms that mainstream<br />(read: white) society created for us.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">RJ</span>: Is the subtext in the conversation that some hetero sexual black women</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">attend Spelman with the intent of finding a husband and a visible Black</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">gay male population stifles this possibility?</span><br /><br /></div><div style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">MB</span>:Maybe but I don't think this is about heterosexual black women as much<br />as it is about making the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosociality" target="_blank">homosocial</a> nature of a school like Morehouse<br />not be read as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homoeroticism" target="_blank">homoerotic</a>. What I mean is that Morehouse as a school<br />that wishes to claim a majority heterosexual student body, has anxiety<br />around the visible presence of gay students. What will people think if they<br />see black men rocking the latest jimmy cho's or sporting saggin' pants<br />etc. What is so interesting is that the dress code slices both ways.<br />They want to rid themselves of a working class hypermasculinity that is<br />expressed through baggy clothing as well as a feminine (read: queer)<br />aesthetic that also troubles a more conventional mainstream black<br />middle class masculinity. It seems much more prudent to begin to<br />have <a href="http://michaeljbrewer.blogspot.com/2009/10/on-appropriate-attire-policy-at.html" target="_blank">conversations about black masculinity</a> and all that could be<br />rather than create a reactionary policy that brings attention to<br />the <a href="http://www.theroot.com/views/morehouse-s-crossroads-has-nothing-do-ghetto-gear-or-cross-dressing" target="_blank">conservative and no-liberatory vision of the school</a>.<br /></div><div class="im" style="font-family:arial;"><div><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">RJ</span>:What are Black people scared of?</span><br /></div></div><div style="font-family:arial;"><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">MB</span>: I think black people are afraid of their own queer desires. It's so<br />interesting that homosexuality is so threatening in our communities<br />that we'd rather institute draconian policies that limit all that we are or<br />who we could be out of fear. Homosexaulity and heterosexaulity are<br />recent concepts that don't effectively convey the diversity of human<br />sexuality, gender or biological sex. We hold tight to the notion that two<br />sexes, produce two genders which lead to two orientations but history<br />and our current world refute this at every turn. but we hold on. We hold<br />to these notions that ultimately imprison us and do nothing to transform<br />the world into what it could be. It's our desire to hold onto values, that<br />were never ours by the way, that keep us locked in a push/pull that is<br />not transformational or edifying.<br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><br />RJ</span>: Any other thoughts?</span><br /><br /></div> <span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">MB</span>: I think Morehouse has a lot more to be concerned about than the<br />5 gay students who may or may not be wearing heels. How about<br />the number of sexual assaults that involve Morehouse students<br />and women in the Atlanta University Center? I can tell you it's way<br />more than five. How about the virulent homophobia and sexism that<br />goes unquestioned in the student body and in the administration? </span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />As a feminist, I also want to call high heels into question as not<br />necessarily being indicative of a liberatory politic. Heels hurt your feet<br />and can even destroy them over a long period of time. I think it's interesting<br />that this ultra feminine footwear can be reclaimed as transgressive when<br />in some ways I think it can be the epitome of a hegemonic hetero-patriarchal state.<br /><br />For more reading:<br /><a href="http://political-philosophy.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_the_difference_between_sex_and_gender">The difference between gender and sex</a><br />Elizabeth Gates's article in The Daily Beast: <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-10-20/morehouse-colleges-gay-travesty/">Morehouse College's Gay Tragedy</a><br />Article in the Paper Tiger, Morehouses newspaper:<a href="http://www.themaroontiger.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=181%3Agerren-gaynor&Itemid=6"> Is Gay the Way?</a><br />Latoya Peterson article at Racialicious: <a href="http://www.racialicious.com/2008/06/12/la-times-explores-being-gay-at-morehouse/">LA Times Explores Being Gay at Morehouse</a><br />Jason Harrell on Keith Boykin.com:<a href="http://www.keithboykin.com/arch/2004/12/09/black_and_gay_a_3"> Black and Gay at Morehouse</a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Interesting?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">What does it mean that this is what Morehouse chooses to focus</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">on?</span> <span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);"><br /><br />Why Black folks sound like white 1950's or 2009 birther racist?<br /><br />Did you know that Black MBA students can't wear locks or cornrows at Hampton?<br />This is material because they have a 5 year undergrad/MBA program.<br /><br />What are we scared of?<br /><br />Thoughts?<br /></span></span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-30676629090406205212009-10-12T19:24:00.004-04:002009-10-12T20:30:15.827-04:00The Classroom is a Political Space<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOqwJFA6GCYBNGdUUpagA_94TzlwAinhzjRQeYFqvtpX7OQ9iI4WWdgbLHgSKxuCFzY-0UOfNLJ5JCrgqfxLPBcNtWXzJtHb86QMhO8dDy4lAzBgHdj5wh8l8Ts8-950t2bObGyA/s1600-h/Im+alive.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 307px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOqwJFA6GCYBNGdUUpagA_94TzlwAinhzjRQeYFqvtpX7OQ9iI4WWdgbLHgSKxuCFzY-0UOfNLJ5JCrgqfxLPBcNtWXzJtHb86QMhO8dDy4lAzBgHdj5wh8l8Ts8-950t2bObGyA/s320/Im+alive.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5391873663821122978" border="0" /></a><br /> <span style="font-family:arial;">Over the last few weeks, one of the hardest things, for me<br />to navigate has been deciding when to talk and when to shut<br />up.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">This has been an issue in all of my classes.<br /><br />Yet, it has manifest</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">itself differently because of my familiarity<br />with the material</span>, <span style="font-family:arial;">my willingness to be vulnerable and ask<br />questions and my willingness</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">to be passively rather than<br />actively engaged.</span> <br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />In life and in the classroom it is much easier to complain about how<br />the class</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> is ran rather than to do something about how it is ran.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">It's much easier to complain about health care, rather than going </span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />down to your local senators office, with a few of your friends</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">and getting in their faces about how they are voting.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Its much easier to complain than to </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >elect that new</span><span style="font-family:arial;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Today, I rode for that new</span>. <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />The classroom is political because whose voice is or isn't heard,<br />who does or doesn't speak and whether a space is made for historically<br />marginalized voices all impacts the way that we learn in the classroom.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Today, I entered the classroom with the expressed intent of not</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">only<br />participating but moving the conversation towards one on focused</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />on providing a systemic critique, not simply focusing on the individual.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Because we read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Black-Body-Reproduction-Meaning/dp/0679758690">Killing the Black Body</a>, which is about the Black<br />female</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">body throughout history, from slavery to forced sterilization,<br />eugenics,</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">modern reproductive rights arguments, moms addicted<br />to crack, adoption and surrogate parents, I knew that it was going</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">to be a class ripe with emotional landmines.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">At one point we were discussing the coercive element involved with the<br />government forcing low income Black women to be sterilized if they<br />received public assistance.<br /><br />The notion that reproductive autonomy as a human right simply wasn't<br />on the table.<br /><br />Because of my Twitter interaction with Phonte last week about the ways<br />in which both men and women are socialized to hate women, I have been<br />emboldened. What I took from that interaction was, to the extent that I can<br />ask folks questions, I know that I can take them somewhere else.<br /><br />A classmate, a Black male classmate who self identified as conservative,<br />mentioned that if a woman is on welfare with several children, then the government<br />can tell her what to get sterilized. He rested his case on the individual and personal<br />responsibility.<br /><br />He went on to say that we are all here, in this classroom, we are given equal<br />opportunities<br /><br />This is material given the fact that the number one predictor of poverty,<br />in this country, is childbirth.<br /><br />That rugged individualism runs so thick both in our academic and<br />mainstream media discourse that not only am no longer surprised<br />when I hear it, in fact, I anticipate it.<br /><br />So, in order to get him to think about the system in which these women<br />lived in I asked him where he was from, and whether he felt that the ways<br />in which Black men are disproportionally sentenced for crack cocaine<br />rests on Black men or the system that they were in.<br /><br />He was consistent, he answered that it was up to the individual, who got<br />caught up in the system.<br /><br />I then said, if you are riding for individual responsibility answer me this.<br /><br />Our country no longer produces products, we live in a service economy.<br />Walmart is the second largest employer behind the government.<br />We are a nation of people, where the majority of us, earn minimum wage<br />or work in service jobs.<br />Minimum wage guarantees that you will live in poverty.<br /><br />How do you reconcile the need for individual responsibility with this economic<br />reality?<br /><br />I didn't tell him was wrong, because doing that is not helpful.<br /><br />I asked him questions to get him, and other students to think about other<br />factors.<br /><br />It makes me wonder what it will take, and what will happen when we stop thinking<br />the individual, and start thinking about the group?<br /><br />It felt good because I realized what Zora meant by "Speak,<br />so that you can speak again." I always thought that that statement was<br />over the top and corny, but today, it has real life meaning in my<br />world.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-style: italic;">What will it take to think about the group, rather than the individual?</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-style: italic;">Has the classroom been a political space for you?</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-style: italic;">Why is it so hard to claim my voice?</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-style: italic;">Is it possible that there is a connection between the writing voice and</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-style: italic;">the speaking voice?</span><br /></span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-83630256476061784162009-09-23T07:40:00.007-04:002009-09-23T20:08:24.224-04:00Single Ladies, Nasty Bitches and Interracial Hoes<span style="font-family:arial;"><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NwymnfMvZ84&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NwymnfMvZ84&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The sexual contradiction in American culture is both pervasive </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">and powerful.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">While doing research on Latina teen pregnancy last week, I came<br />across a narrative</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> where a young woman said, "I heard that, If my<br />boyfriend smoked weed before</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> we had sex, then I wouldn't get pregnant."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I thought, wow, she is really serious. We have very little healthy, teen based<br />sex ed, yet our pop culture land is dominated by songs about sex.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0PC5nZGKE4">I Wanna Fuck Every Girl in the World</a><br /><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Cobject%20width=%22560%22%20height=%22340%22%3E%3Cparam%20name=%22movie%22%20value=%22http://www.youtube.com/v/JGbOuZww14g&hl=en&fs=1&%22%3E%3C/param%3E%3Cparam%20name=%22allowFullScreen%22%20value=%22true%22%3E%3C/param%3E%3Cparam%20name=%22allowscriptaccess%22%20value=%22always%22%3E%3C/param%3E%3Cembed%20src=%22http://www.youtube.com/v/JGbOuZww14g&hl=en&fs=1&%22%20type=%22application/x-shockwave-flash%22%20allowscriptaccess=%22always%22%20allowfullscreen=%22true%22%20width=%22560%22%20height=%22340%22%3E%3C/embed%3E%3C/object%3E">Birthday Sex</a><br /><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Cobject%20width=%22425%22%20height=%22344%22%3E%3Cparam%20name=%22movie%22%20value=%22http://www.youtube.com/v/dyBI4Y7Dz6c&hl=en&fs=1&%22%3E%3C/param%3E%3Cparam%20name=%22allowFullScreen%22%20value=%22true%22%3E%3C/param%3E%3Cparam%20name=%22allowscriptaccess%22%20value=%22always%22%3E%3C/param%3E%3Cembed%20src=%22http://www.youtube.com/v/dyBI4Y7Dz6c&hl=en&fs=1&%22%20type=%22application/x-shockwave-flash%22%20allowscriptaccess=%22always%22%20allowfullscreen=%22true%22%20width=%22425%22%20height=%22344%22%3E%3C/embed%3E%3C/object%3E">Lol Smiley Face</a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The contradiction is interesting and dangerous.<br /><br />It's dangerous because, the combination of little teen sex ed,<br />pervasive pop songs about sex, and abstinence ONLY funded<br />sex ed in the schools systems leaves our young men and women<br />with limited information. Limited informed people make awful choices.<br />(<<<-- I sound like a sex ed expert, no?) </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Which brings me to my Black Sexual Politics class. On Monday some students</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">did a presentation on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Black-Sexual-Politics-African-Americans/dp/0415930995">Pat Hill Collins'</a> book of the same title.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">For the class we also read Audre Lorde's <a href="http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/lorde/erotic.htm"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Uses of the Erotic</span></a>.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The student presenters also played a <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Cobject%20width=%22425%22%20height=%22344%22%3E%3Cparam%20name=%22movie%22%20value=%22http://www.youtube.com/v/7dXZD__HuCU&hl=en&fs=1&%22%3E%3C/param%3E%3Cparam%20name=%22allowFullScreen%22%20value=%22true%22%3E%3C/param%3E%3Cparam%20name=%22allowscriptaccess%22%20value=%22always%22%3E%3C/param%3E%3Cembed%20src=%22http://www.youtube.com/v/7dXZD__HuCU&hl=en&fs=1&%22%20type=%22application/x-shockwave-flash%22%20allowscriptaccess=%22always%22%20allowfullscreen=%22true%22%20width=%22425%22%20height=%22344%22%3E%3C/embed%3E%3C/object%3E">Lil Kim</a> video for the song<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">How Many Licks</span>.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">In the video, Kim is </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >pussy</span><span style="font-family:arial;">, </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >dick</span><span style="font-family:arial;">, female orgasms etc.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">My professor pointed out that in comparison to little Kim's</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">video, Beyonce's <span style="font-style: italic;">Single Ladies</span> video looks tame. So I checked<br />out her VMA performance,</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> and it was confirmed.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">3 women, dancing in a leotard, not that risque. The most provocative aspect</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">of her performance is the costume. Tight and sprayed on. It looks like </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">she is doing Black Broadway Showgirls routine, which I imagine is </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">what she intended.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Historically, Black women were not allowed to BE Ladies. Jezebels,<br />Mammies, Men, Welfare Queens, yes, but ladies. No. So given</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">that this is a part of the title of the song isn't lost on me.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Lets take the Ciara video posted above. This video moved me </span><span style="font-family:arial;">largley<br />because of the element of female desire that is present.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The whole time I was watching it I thought, what is this woman </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">going to do next?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Ciara licks Justin's ear, 30 seconds in. When was the last time you<br />saw a Black woman do something</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> sexual TO someone else in a music video?<br /><br />We don't.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Audre Lorde says that,<br /><blockquote>"Pornography is a direct denial of the power of the erotic,for<br />it represents the suppression of true feeling. Pornography emphasizes<br />sensation without feeling."</blockquote></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Online </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.happynappyhead.com/2009/03/ciara-and-justin-timberlake-start-fire.html">Black folks </a><span style="font-family:arial;">had</span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://necolebitchie.com/2009/04/01/ciara-objectified"> a fit</a><span style="font-family:arial;"> about the Ciara video. The fact that Justin was white,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">bothered them. They thought she was being a hoe. The chain also bothered them </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">and in some ways took them back to slavery.</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.soulbounce.com/soul/2009/03/soulbounce_roundtable_beyond_justin_and_ciara.php">Folks over at Soul Bounce </a><span style="font-family:arial;">had an interesting roundtable discussion<br />about the video. They initially wrote a post titled, "How Can Justin Timberlake<br />Continue to Get Away with Fetishizing Black Women?" Implicit in this<br />line of thought is that it is permissible for Black artist who work for White<br />corporations to do this, but not a White artist.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">My response to this line of thought is a few questions:</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">1. Where is Ciara's agency in this line of thought?<br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> 2. What happens when we stop seeing Ciara as a victim?</span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">3. Where is the critique of rappers and they "50 million hoe's" in music</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">videos?</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Then they came back and did a<a href="http://www.soulbounce.com/soul/2009/03/soulbounce_roundtable_beyond_justin_and_ciara.php"> roundtable</a> with had a more<br />nuanced discussion.<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Peep the comments section.<br /><br />Its interesting to see people struggle with race, sex and capitalism.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">In some ways, what wasn't explicitly stated is that the video is powerful</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">because we see a Black woman being sexual, and because this is so rare</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">we don't know what to do with the feelings that arise when we see it.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Black heterosexual sex is everywhere and nowhere in pop culture.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">According to the dominant Black narrative, it is okay for us to</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">walk around asking for *patriarchal fulfillment, (putting a ring on it)<br />but for us to express sexual desire, or even the erotic, we are automatic<br />hoe's.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Sounds familiar? It is. The difference today is that WE are making a connections</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">and pushing back.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" >*No, all marriages do not constitute patriarchal fulfillment, however</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" >her body of work is about getting men to do shit for her, pay bills, be a solider</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" >etc. We all know that, in that this notion of Black male masculinity is </span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" >patriarchal and limiting. A man, a person, is more than their paycheck.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Katie Blancita, this one is for you Little boo.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Black Sex?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Single Ladies?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Sex Culture with no Sex Ed? Thoughts</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">?</span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-85270435713259985882009-09-22T10:56:00.009-04:002009-09-22T14:49:02.758-04:00The Futility or Perhaps the Profoundness of Whiteness<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixoUB0L0i1uyoDON1E7ChwuGnmB2C9rXnY4IJGHYOHHYJK_n0Nk2Mk6HLNMD_o1wJKncHfoM-rK8VBR3aZ-j-Y3I2K5HZt-KV2jWn2RPXLyxElpoi86diywk_qi38ZC0SIAzcnrQ/s1600-h/Bobbie.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 264px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixoUB0L0i1uyoDON1E7ChwuGnmB2C9rXnY4IJGHYOHHYJK_n0Nk2Mk6HLNMD_o1wJKncHfoM-rK8VBR3aZ-j-Y3I2K5HZt-KV2jWn2RPXLyxElpoi86diywk_qi38ZC0SIAzcnrQ/s320/Bobbie.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384328321861530434" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;">I searched for a Black and White image. I found Bobby K.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">You know I LOVE Bobby.</span></span><br /></div><div><span style="font-family:arial;"></span> </div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;"></span> </div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">Blackness can only be understood in terms of Whiteness.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;"></span> </div><span style="font-family:arial;">I came to this conclusion after reading Elsa Barkley Brown's</span><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">"<a href="http://http//books.google.com/books?id=EcgSDuc2bWQC&pg=PA272&lpg=PA272&dq=what+has+happended+here+brown&source=bl&ots=4YQiN-LBMq&sig=eUGEHxWMk1uHQ4WcyTA0BhvVw0I&hl=en&ei=luy4SvDJMoe1lAf-_9nIDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false">What Has Happended Here</a>."</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;"></span> </div><span style="font-family:arial;">She writes,</span><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;"><blockquote><p><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-family:arial;">We are likely to acknowledge that white middle class women<br />have</span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-family:Arial;"> had a different experience from African American, Latina,<br />Asian American,</span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-family:Arial;">and native American women; but the relation, the fact that<br />these histories</span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-family:Arial;"> exist simultaneously, in dialogue with each other, is<br />seldom apparent in </span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-family:Arial;">the studies we do, not even in those studies that perceive<br />themselves </span><span style="font-family:Arial;">as dealing with the diverse experiences of </span><span style="font-family:Arial;">women. The </span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><span style="font-family:Arial;">overwhelming </span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">tendency now, it appears to me, is to acknowledge then ignore the differences </span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">among women.</span></span></p></blockquote></span></div><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Barkley Browns general argument is that we can only</span></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;">understand Black women's history if we look at White women's</span><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">history because the two require each other to work.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">Whiteness ONLY works in relationship to Blackness.</span></div><div><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">This kinda shook me up.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">Because I believe this to be true, I am struggling with<br /></span></div><span style="font-family:arial;"> the Sociology readings that I have. Shit, its even hard </span><span style="font-family:arial;">for me<br />to read news paper articles or even to have conversations</span><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">with people about race.</span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial;"></span> </div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">Because a conversation about Blackness without mentioning Whiteness can<br /></span></div><span style="font-family:arial;"> only be half right.</span><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;"></span> </div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">In the same way that a conversation about Hip Hop without mentioning capitalism<br /></span></div><span style="font-family:arial;"> can only be half right.</span><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;"></span> </div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">Much of the discourse around race treats Male Heterosexual Whiteness</span></div><span style="font-family:arial;">as the norm and everything else deviates from that.</span><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;"></span> </div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;">Part of my ideas around the futility of Whiteness stems from reading work<br /></span></div><span style="font-family:Arial;"> by Black people, about race, that either implicitly or explicitly ask's</span><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">for White folks to see our humanity, to include us.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">I arrived as an intact human in East Oakland over 30 years ago.</span></div><div><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">Whether or not a group of people SEE or validate my humanity is none </span></div><span style="font-family:Arial;">of my business.</span><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">I haven't always been this way. Growing up in East Oakland, it was difficult</span></div><span style="font-family:Arial;">to remain an intact human being, especially after the crack epidemic.</span><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">Having just started graduate school, it has become clear to me the </span></div><span style="font-family:Arial;">ways in which my education has played a role in my ability to remain</span><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">intact because many of us don't make it and we simply charge it to the game.</span></div><div><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">Its difficult for any one who isn't a White Heterosexual Male (WHM) to remain intact,</span></div><span style="font-family:Arial;">because both our laws and our mainstream culture presume that WHM is </span><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">the norm.<br /><br />This norm in our society is reflected by the need to have a Civil Rights Movement,<br />a Women's Rights Movement, a Gay Rights Movement, an<a href="http://www.eeoc.gov/"> Equal Opportunities<br />Council Commission</a>, a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964">Civil Rights Bill</a> and Health Care Reform.<br /></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">All of this brings me to a conversation I had on Twitter Friday with, @<a class="tweet-url username" href="http://twitter.com/BlackNerds">BlackNerds</a> </span></div><span style="font-family:Arial;">about saving </span><span style="font-family:Arial;">hip hop.</span><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">Normally I don't respond to these statements, because most likely </span></div><span style="font-family:Arial;">they prove to be futile. But I engaged and I am glad I did because I made a </span><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">connection that I hadn't seen before.</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">I asked him:</span></div><span style="font-family:Arial;">Saving hip hop from what?</span><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">Why is there such an investment in it?</span></div><span style="font-family:Arial;">What does it mean to "save hip hop" when most artist want</span><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">Black kids respect and white kids money?</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">As a result of our conversation, I then tweeted and this the important<br />connection that I made. The tweet said, "In some ways, I</span><span style="font-family:Arial;"> think our<br />desire to like hip hop is </span><span style="font-family:Arial;">connected to our need to have White </span><span style="font-family:Arial;">folks<br />recognize our humanity."</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;">I am still working this out. What I do see today, is that both instances<br />involve looking</span><span style="font-family:Arial;"> for validation in places that have clearly stated they it<br />has not, and will not</span><span style="font-family:Arial;"> be offered. It can be struggled for, but it will<br />not be handed over. To struggle for it, would mean a new society.<br /></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div><br /><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);font-family:Arial;" ><em>You see the connection between Blackness and Whiteness?</em></span></div><br /><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);font-family:Arial;" ><em>Why is it so hard to accept that Rap music is now a tool to sell</em></span></div><br /><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);font-family:Arial;" ><em>products?</em></span></div><br /><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);font-family:Arial;" ><em>Why do we want to save it so badly?</em></span></div><br /><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);font-family:Arial;" ></span> </div><br /><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);font-family:Arial;" >It feels good to be back. Thank you for reading.<br /></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div><br /><div><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </div>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-44518160558158431102009-09-12T20:50:00.003-04:002009-09-12T21:00:52.508-04:00I Miss Y'all<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQr61L0OVLRxdf8u6FGB1jj2rEBmjT2yAQARMyu95Nel5hDLyVCnTeb7kDTvQXm8v3ovqwv8vHCPk4ABs3wFcwL67ncxmrfsBpvhQSIOXqK678x-184aKatFfcPrgvZ0fjgiaCHw/s1600-h/Light+in+dark+places.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQr61L0OVLRxdf8u6FGB1jj2rEBmjT2yAQARMyu95Nel5hDLyVCnTeb7kDTvQXm8v3ovqwv8vHCPk4ABs3wFcwL67ncxmrfsBpvhQSIOXqK678x-184aKatFfcPrgvZ0fjgiaCHw/s400/Light+in+dark+places.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380750176060681202" border="0" /></a><br /> <span style="font-family:arial;">Things have been busy.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Even if I don't write as much, I still think about<br />you all,</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">about writing, about the essays, the conversations.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Being in school has reminded me just how special it is to<br />have a </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">community to discuss ideas with. To talk about them,<br />even in their infancy.<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />In some ways the blog is an incubator.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">Right </span><span style="font-family:arial;">now I am working on a Van Jones/Jeff Chang/Glen Beck</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">post.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">I know go figure.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">I have been encouraged, from my colleagues<br />about Beyonce and </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">R & B rather than Lil Kim.<br /><br />I still may post the Kim post here.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">I am trying to figure out how<br /> to talk about Tyler Perry and </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">how an artist CANNOT buy<br />their way onto varsity.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Oh. And Chris Hedges.<br /><br />If you do not read anything that I have</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">recommended this year,<br />or shit, for that matter EVER on this </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">blog. Read the new<br />Chris Hedges. He writes with a ferocity</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">that I can only<br />aspire to. He calls out names, he stops short of talking about<br />peoples mommas. My only critique</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">of his book is that it is<br />heavy on the critique and light on solutions.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">However,<br />the ways in which he talks about reality TV,</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Pornography, the<br />Military industrial complex and the Ivy League</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">and Wall Street<br />is really quite remarkable.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">***Waves.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />I will be back.<br /><br />I promise.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">~R</span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-39374189171424773322009-09-09T20:35:00.005-04:002009-09-10T08:32:15.738-04:00Graduate School vs. Law School<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuNf_bAK2nMKB5J2t8j2fUnm5fUlPVIpdXhK7vqOyWu3CjM-P0qcbIXmaGmcyZTcrDz9DRoRwU1Vq6icJckTquqZrx7HEYbv0Xwn4JE8om2YTGRRL-7CkigGJZu9w5QDHyIQaoPA/s1600-h/Parks.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 283px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuNf_bAK2nMKB5J2t8j2fUnm5fUlPVIpdXhK7vqOyWu3CjM-P0qcbIXmaGmcyZTcrDz9DRoRwU1Vq6icJckTquqZrx7HEYbv0Xwn4JE8om2YTGRRL-7CkigGJZu9w5QDHyIQaoPA/s400/Parks.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379635822553611954" border="0" /></a><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/09/world/americas/09iht-obits.web.parks.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2">American Gothic by Gordon Parks<br /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I have started school.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">There are three material things that I see as being different</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">from grad school than law school.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">In law school, I had to read material that was abstract<br />and philosophical, and rarely dealt with race, class or gender.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Now I get to read material that is abstract, philosophical,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">and that deals with race, class and gender.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I wake up reading. I go to sleep reading. In law school, it took me<br />a year to engage with the material this way. This is a problem,<br />seeing that your first year grades in law school play a huge<br />role in your employment options after you graduate.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The second thing is that I have started school with the<br />understanding that it is my job to build community. To that<br />extent I have met with folks, to get institutional history so<br />that I can understand the lay of the land, who to stay away<br />from, who I must be in contact with, where the axis of power lies, etc.<br /><br />The third material difference is being around men and women<br />who do not automatically presume that others are heterosexual.<br /><br />I was kind of taken by surprise when talking to a colleague, who was<br />giving me the lowdown on a professor whom she suspects is homophobic<br />who said, "I don't know if you are LGBTQ identified but, this professor..."<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I thought to myself, wow, that was cool and really progressive of her</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">to not only think but to say that.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I read all the time. In fact, had I not taken a train to see Birkhold</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I never would have realized that I needed to (re)learn how to read</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">anywhere at anytime. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Last week, I had been telling myself, if I sit down to read, I need at least two </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">or three hours. FAGET THAT! Give me 1 hour and I am knocking out</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">at least one twenty page article with reading notes. ALL TIME IS VALUABLE.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Right now, I have estimated that I have 22 hours a week of reading.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Yup. 22. No joke, eh.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The school work isn't the hardest part of this. It's hard<br />but it's manageable. So long as you eat,</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> sleep, don't party and<br />not have some tragic 'ish happen in an intimate</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> relationship. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Oh, and a willingness to sit down and engage with the material. No</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">internet. No phone. No tv. Just you and the paper.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The most challenging part is engaging with humans, managing relationships,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">keeping track of deadlines and simply just showing up on time.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-family:arial;" >Have you started school?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-family:arial;" >How is it going?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-family:arial;" >Any questions for me?</span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);font-family:arial;" ></span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-37052568031888482052009-09-07T10:26:00.004-04:002009-09-07T11:53:25.047-04:0020 Questions Monday<a style="font-family: arial;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdbesLBEs-UqSmHW0wun2hcjHOgWN1w_9MZXJ5qbOhVADkbjp9KYTp19LHe5Yqmt_D6pO6PNtZ6XpDm2fU5vQoN6esD1WCFe6G1G_rrlZLXl-4Qd-P8C8VU43AeYS3B0SgV2mpJQ/s1600-h/hammer.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 278px; height: 275px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdbesLBEs-UqSmHW0wun2hcjHOgWN1w_9MZXJ5qbOhVADkbjp9KYTp19LHe5Yqmt_D6pO6PNtZ6XpDm2fU5vQoN6esD1WCFe6G1G_rrlZLXl-4Qd-P8C8VU43AeYS3B0SgV2mpJQ/s400/hammer.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378733251145594914" border="0" /></a><br /> <span style="font-family:arial;">1. What would have happened if,<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/06/obama.adviser.resigns/index.html"> instead of resigning Van Jones<br />forced</a></span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/06/obama.adviser.resigns/index.html"> </a><span style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/06/obama.adviser.resigns/index.html">the White House to fire him</a>?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />2. Have you seen this 2009 <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-kelly/van-jones-hearts-meg-whit_b_277637.html">Van Jones/Willie Hortonesque video</a><br />put out by Meg Whitmans opponent?<br /><br />2. Will I be able to write a blog post </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">in two weeks?<span style="font-style: italic;"> Hopefully yes.</span><br /><br />3. Why has my research interest shifted?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />4. Did ya'll see the Law and Order marathon on last night, good clean fun?</span> <br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">5. Would you volunteer, 8 hours a months at a year around farmers market<br />in your neighborhood?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">6. Would you like to read a little bit about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day">origins of Labor Day</a>?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">7. What were you doing this time last year?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">8. Did you know that I have a special connection to the song, Here Comes </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">the Hammer?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">9. Are you going to one of the Erykah Badu concerts?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">10. Do you even care about "journalism" anymore?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">11. Doesn't hurt when you go to another city/state and the groceries</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">are twenty to thirty percent cheaper?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">12. Did you know that <a href="http://bfsa.jhu.edu/bpexhibit/black_studies.htm">Black</a>, Women's and Chicano <a href="http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=Kljfm76ch7Sn2RL1Mw5hNBF8P7ShbZZpnF1jl9RTLbWfS1Pbw0kV%21968782365%21846852835?docId=5002000701">studies exist</a> <a href="http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:PFC661R0QLoJ:www.jpanafrican.com/docs/vol2no10/2.10_Remembering_the_Black_Campus_Movement.pdf+struggle+for+Black+studies+on+College+campus&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a">on</a></span><a href="http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:PFC661R0QLoJ:www.jpanafrican.com/docs/vol2no10/2.10_Remembering_the_Black_Campus_Movement.pdf+struggle+for+Black+studies+on+College+campus&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a"><br /></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:PFC661R0QLoJ:www.jpanafrican.com/docs/vol2no10/2.10_Remembering_the_Black_Campus_Movement.pdf+struggle+for+Black+studies+on+College+campus&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a">college campuses</a> because folks <a href="http://hnn.us/roundup/comments/21487.html">took over campuses</a>, sometimes with guns</span>,<br /><span style="font-family:arial;">and <a href="http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=101">demanded to be included</a>?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">13. [Statement] I have come to the conclusion that everything that we</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">have as a benefit, has been fought for. Everything. And if we are to achieve</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">anything else. We will have to fight for that too.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">14. What is the last movie you saw?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">15. Why is it so hard to look at my part in disagreements, rather</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">then just tell other people they are wrong? [Lols</span>]<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">16. Where is the album that will narrate my fall?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">17. Would you be interested in helping me choose the blog posts that<br />I published</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> in book form?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">18. Cook anything good lately? [Send me a recipe and a photo and I will</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">put it on Brooklyn Magic].</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">19. Did you know that much of my work on gender is rooted in the desire</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">to make a better world for my sweet, sweet, nephew, Baby Chris?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">20. Why people more interested in analyzing racial oppression than gender</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">oppression?</span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-10736629277300790202009-08-31T22:54:00.006-04:002009-09-01T00:08:00.890-04:0020 Questions Mercury in Retrograde Edition<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIwmE4LptYbxwDiSH_f_gZXeZq_PPqjaOXk6NboXfw-ixa8SeXKg9IiNre6BrXi_x41JJTP_X8RATGjFPyxJcXjIDyZcvWdGrmbQh9EdCSyEZWUynIMHsNmhHUasePUFAPZhO5Vg/s1600-h/We+match+any+color+smurf.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 242px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIwmE4LptYbxwDiSH_f_gZXeZq_PPqjaOXk6NboXfw-ixa8SeXKg9IiNre6BrXi_x41JJTP_X8RATGjFPyxJcXjIDyZcvWdGrmbQh9EdCSyEZWUynIMHsNmhHUasePUFAPZhO5Vg/s400/We+match+any+color+smurf.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5376331538531631746" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">1. Why don't we just run out of the grocery store with all of our<br />groceries</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">instead of standing in those long assed lines, houngary?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />2. What are you reading?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />3. Do you have healthcare?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />4. Why granola cost so much?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />5. Will Jay Z still rap about selling crack when he is a 50 year<br />old </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">hundred-millionaire?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />6. Why is it so hard to admit that we have allowed the white<br />consumption</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">of Black masculinity to define the terms of Black,<br />mainstream masculinity?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />7. Why do I feel like I am morphing into a community organizer?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />8. Why am I being forced, because of Saul Alinsky, to see that </span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />no person, or non profit is all bad or all good?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />9. Why I go to a Black wedding reception with Filthy, and was<br />reminded of how race is lived?<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">10. When will I have time to write blog essays again?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />11. What are you procrastinating on doing right now?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />12. What was the last sacrifice you made for someone you love?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />13. When was the last time you forgave someone for hurting you?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />14. How do you deal with friends you owe money to?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />15. What do you think of how some of the <a href="http://www.zenfortherestofus.com/pain.html">Buddhist view pain</a>?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />16. How do you ease out of someone else's life?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />17. How do you leave the door open for them to come back?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />18. Why do I look at some of my old posts and totally disagree<br />with my previous statements?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />19. Why is my lunch already made for tomorrow?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />20. When am I going to learn to drink more water?</span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-59109175468225027032009-08-24T13:15:00.005-04:002009-08-24T22:20:30.353-04:00Twenty Question 's Monday<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXMjwLcSb8-FK4r2vdtr1ieaDlHdYmDtR_nvwyLO-YYKkli4hWj1loNO9tIQr8ReGMyk_UkGRzgCB18TZdQP_4EaojQgXj8P91e3GAesTf8IEDNDzW-8htn5JZnCk57B8c16BsZA/s1600-h/BET.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 265px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXMjwLcSb8-FK4r2vdtr1ieaDlHdYmDtR_nvwyLO-YYKkli4hWj1loNO9tIQr8ReGMyk_UkGRzgCB18TZdQP_4EaojQgXj8P91e3GAesTf8IEDNDzW-8htn5JZnCk57B8c16BsZA/s400/BET.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373599019110598946" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://postsecret.blogspot.com/">Via</a> Post Secret</span><br /></div><span style="font-family:arial;">1. How you feel?<br /><br />2. When was the last time you were caught reading something</span> you<br /> <span style="font-family:arial;">had no business?</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />3. Why am I just now watching the Chappelle show?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">4. Why have I made headway with my anger by replacing vulnerability</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />with anger?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />5. Why ya'll never told me spinach artichoke dip went so hard?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />6. When is the new Jay Electronica coming out?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />7. If Black men were lynched to deter us from voting, then doesn't</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />angry white folk showing up to town hall meetings with guns make</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />sense?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />8. Why is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Central_%28TV_series%29">South Central</a> one of the realest shows I have ever seen?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">9. Why do I get the sense that if folks read more, they would<br />speak</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">and write less?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />10. Why does waking up in your own apartment feel so good?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />11. Will I grow some green onions this fall?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />12. Why is D.C. a big,' small city?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />13. How many Law and Order episodes can you watch in a row?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />14. How long will the liberals boycott of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/liberals-threaten-whole-foods-boycott-over-ceos-healthcare-stance-2009-8">Whole Foods</a> last?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />15. What impact would having indoor year around farmers markets</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">have on the 'hoo</span>d? <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />16. What would happen if the Congressional proponents said that<br />THEY were signing</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> up for the new healthcare plan they were advoca</span>ting? <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />17. Why Black men look at me crazy, when I am walking on the street</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">with a white man, but they refuse to give the same look to dope </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">dealers<br />on the block?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />18. Why <a href="http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2314">Saul Alinsky</a> gave me the wiggles and forced me to rethink</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />waaaaay too much?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">19. What are your three favorite blogs about news, art, books or music?</span></span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />20.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> Cook anything good lately?<br /><br />I have questions. You have answers.<br /></span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-83616687720877243442009-08-17T09:11:00.012-04:002009-08-17T11:19:35.129-04:00Capitalism is for Suckas: or, How Constructive Capitalism is our Future<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC5k0b2DKJ1E58SH3N5pSTNRicIW1y6WsTE-81WHNmNDKgpirct4O2KgY2QoCP5RZiy4otd2VsqlStSIxyH-er0XUc4W3olwo42-CYRmcugqVhLJ6uLboldlDKIQHFyM6GfNxtcQ/s1600-h/Jay+%26+Che.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 360px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC5k0b2DKJ1E58SH3N5pSTNRicIW1y6WsTE-81WHNmNDKgpirct4O2KgY2QoCP5RZiy4otd2VsqlStSIxyH-er0XUc4W3olwo42-CYRmcugqVhLJ6uLboldlDKIQHFyM6GfNxtcQ/s400/Jay+%26+Che.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5370920242801424818" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" >Note: This post grew out of two things. One is a post that I wrote</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" >last week on how the Crack Epidemic was in its essence pure capitalism</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" >and my personal transformation from a person who wanted to be an<br />investment</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" > banker to someone who aspires to be a scholar and community<br />organizer. The second thing was a kind of crowd sourcing that happened last<br />week. After I wrote the post Rafi and </span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" >I went back and forth on Twitter about<br />constructive capitalism. I suggested that</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" > we have a conversation about it.<br />Two people, <span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">@</span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" class="status-body" ><strong style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="screen-name">professorf</span></strong><span class="entry-content"> and</span><strong style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="screen-name"> @chartreuseb</span></strong><span class="entry-content"></span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:arial;" ><span style="font-family:arial;">, suggested that we continue<br />the conversation publicly, which would provide a transcript and </span>give Umair<br />(@umairh) a chance to respond. The blog seemed like a good space to<br />do this, so, here it is.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Renina Jarmon</span>:</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> How do you expect for constructive capitalism to survive<br />in a system</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> where profits at all costs have been the mandate<br />since the late 70's when corporations</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span><span style="font-family:arial;">mutated into multinationals?</span> <div style="font-family:arial;"><br /></div><div face="arial"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Rafi Kam</span>: First I should say that you really should do a thorough reading </span><br />of Umair's blogs because he lays these things down every<br />week, I'm just going to do my best to explain what I've taken<br />away from there.</div> <div style="font-family: arial;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial;">I think your question has it backwards because if you look in the<br />news for the past few years it's the short term profits at all costs<br />approach that cannot be expected to survive. Destroying the world's<br />resources only works for so long, having interests in opposition to<br />your customers only works for so long. Companies that don't solve<br />problems or offer any real value to the world have now been paying<br />the price in the marketplace, and (bailouts aside!) that will continue.</div> <div style="font-family: arial;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial;">Detroit failed because they ignored the fact that they needed to make<br />better cars and tried to make all their profits with creative financing<br />tricks. If they had spent the money and effort to make economical<br />cars to solve the world's problem that everybody knew about decades<br />ago, they'd be fine right now. Instead they tried to make their business<br />be about financing. Ok, so good riddance Detroit! May the next<br />generation of American car makers hopefully learn from your mistakes.</div> <div style="font-family: arial;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial;">The mortgage crisis grew out of banks screwing people. The lesson<br />people are beginning to learn is that this is never truly sustainable. If<br />your business is based on fucking over your customer you are ultimately<br />screwing yourself too. I mean this was particularly true with mortgages<br />where the stakes were so high. I expect sustainability to be the focus<br />for companies instead of short term profits because that is the landscape<br />we are looking at today. So you see a new lending model in a company<br />like Kiva, which is creating this healthy system of trade and tackling the<br />problem of global poverty. The company enables participation and<br />benefits on all sides instead of being there to just suck value from the<br />world.<br /><br />And these changes in theory will come about mostly because<br />they are the best means to compete, as Umair says "there is nothing<br />more asymmetrical than an ideal" meaning having an ideal to base<br />your company on is actually this insanely huge business advantage.<br />I believe in that very strongly and we have all witnessed it in action. It<br />trounces our traditional notions of positioning or economic advantages.<br /><br />We've seen in our lifetime the disruption of so many things, just in the<br />past ten years. So too this notion of old school capitalism. It will<br />change because it needs to and the shift has already started.<br /></div> <div style="font-family: arial;" class="im"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="gmail_quote"><div></div> <div> </div></div></blockquote></div><div style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Renina Jarmon</span>: I have taken the time to re-read some of Umairs posts,<br /><a href="http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/2009/07/today_in_capitalism_20_1.html" target="_blank">The Generation M Manifesto</a>, <a href="http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/2009/06/the_case_for_constructive_capi.html" target="_blank">The Case for Constructive Capitalism</a>,<br />(one of my all time fav's) <a href="http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/2009/06/jackson.html" target="_blank">Michael Jackson and the Zombie Economy</a>,<br /><a href="http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/2009/06/jackson.html" target="_blank">What Would a Fair Labor Ipod Cost</a> and <a href="http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/2009/07/the_nichepaper_manifesto.html" target="_blank">The Niche Paper Manifesto</a>.<br /><br />The central premise of capitalism is the endless accumulation of<br />capital, at all costs. It appears that what Umair is describing isn't<br />capitalism at all.<br /><br />For example, in the Generation M Manifesto, Umair says, "You wanted<br /><span style="font-family:arial;">to biggie size life: McMansions, Hummers, and McFood. </span><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;font-family:arial;" >We want </span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;font-family:arial;" >to humanize life."<br /><br /></span> </strong>Humanizing life is antithetical to capitalism.<br /><br />Capitalism turns on the expendability of workers and treating people<br />like property.<br /><br />If he has to call it Constructive Capitalism to sell it, than I can see the<br />benefits of that, as I am more concerned with building local sustainable<br />communities than I am with arguing over the semantics of a naming of<br />our new economy.<br /><br />I am excited that Umair is talking about a change in what institutions<br />value. In the the essay, "A Time to Break Silence", Martin Luther<br />Kind jr. talked about the need for a radical revolution of values in<br />our society. Perhaps the changes he is arguing for in our institutions<br />will also be mirrored in us individually. The possibility for this happening<br />is why I write, work, and in the near future, will teach.<br /><br />As a Black woman and a feminist who is interested in sustainable<br />economies my general contention is that the crisis that our<br />American institutions are facing around labor and our economy<br />is rooted in the United State's primary contradiction, which is the<br />forced free labor of millions of enslaved Africans.<br /><br />U.S. Capitalism is rooted in <a href="http://ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/06/for_the_slaverycivil_warreconstruction_buff_in_you.php">U.S. slavery</a>.<br /><br />It is brutal, bloody and treats workers like they are expendable, <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />when the workers are the </span><span style="font-style: italic;">ones creating value</span>. The notion of the<br />founding fathers and the planter class taking what it needed, in this<br />case, the forced free labor of enslaved Africans, for the purpose of<br />sustaining a new nation, while simultaneously declaring its freedom<br />from Britain has never been both acknowledged and dealt with.<br /><br />Perhaps the sustainable, local economies of the future can be an<br />opportunity to address this primary contradiction.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Renina Jarmon</span>: What are some examples of business that employ<br />constructive capitalism?<div><div> </div> <div><br /></div></div><div><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Rafi Kam</span>: As I said on Twitter, the most disruptive example is Google.<br />It was created to solve a pressing problem "organize the world's information",<br />it became a powerhouse of wealth because it solved another huge problem<br />to make advertising more relevant and accountable. This offered a solution to </div><div>a real problem for advertisers and web publishers. It stated a list of core<br />values about itself and how it thinks the web should work most famously<br />"Don't Be Evil".<br /><br />That isn't to say I'm comfortable with the amount of power Google has but<br />by stating that as their constitutional value they themselves created that<br />dialog/standard and asked to be judged accordingly. They've<br />stressed innovation and open-ness. Employees are required to spend<br />a big chunk of time creating their own projects. Google's free APIs and<br />free apps have changed the game, provided a foundation for developers<br />and forced competitors to change their models. And referencing your<br />first question, quite clearly, they don't act according to a profits at all<br />cost approach.</div> <div><br /></div><div>Some Umair favorites: Kiva, Etsy, Threadless, Flickr, Twitter, Netflix, Zipcar</div><div><br /></div><div>I think there's a connection here between Umair's ideas on Constructive<br />Capitalism or Capitalism 2.0 and so many things that are currently part<br />of the Zeitgeist: web 2.0, open source, local farming, local economies,<br />purpose-driven marketing, collaboration over competition, empowering<br />people, small is the new big and so on. People seem more aware than<br />ever of how destructive business as usual is, so I think these trends<br />and ideas rise in response to that. </div><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Renina Jarmon</span>: I agree, with regard to the new companies that have come<br />along with a different model that acknowledges the community and<br />human dimension of business. I am all for artisanal, robust, sustainable,<br />small, if you will, slow communities.<br /><br />However, if this crisis has taught us anything, it the importance of<br />considering the global implications of our actions.<br /><br />Capital is incredibly flexible. I see that it is quite possible for our U.S.<br />economy to become more green, local and sustainable while the<br />economy of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World">Gobal South</a> is turned into one populated by a<br />"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit">permanent untouchables</a>" class.<br /><br />The way of life of folks in the Global North is subsidized by folks in<br />the Global South. While I know that you hated the video that I<br />sent you last April, <a href="http://www.storyofstuff.com/" target="_blank">The Story of Stuff</a> about consumption, I found<br />it to be useful in demonstrating the ways in which the products<br />that we consume start someone where, and end up somewhere else.<br /><br />What I am getting it is that it is quit possible for Capitalism 1.0 to<br />absorb our sustainable "Green Economy" by making it profitable<br />at the expense of the "Third" World.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/10/opinion/selling-cigarettes-in-asia.html?scp=5&sq=vietnam%20teen%20smoking&st=cse" target="_blank">The first example that comes to mind is the Tabacoo industry</a>. Big<br />Tobacco was sued in the 80's over whether they lied about knowing<br />that cigarettes was inherently addictive. In the 90's teen anti smoking<br />advocates pushed for and Big Tobacco supported underwriting,<br />anti-teen smoking campaigns. Teen smoking went down in the US,<br />but it went up in Vietnam, China and arguably other places as well.<br /><br />I ask you, what is to stop this from happening?<br />Wouldn't businesses have to be willing to operate from a minimal<br />to zero profits perspective in order for this to avoid this happening?<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Renina Jarmon</span>: If as you say, we are in the beginings of a new era,<br />how does your notion of constructive capitalism take the fact that we<br />are moving towards an automated jobless society into consideration?<br /><br /><div><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Rafi Kam</span>: That's a loaded question! I don't know that we're moving towards<br />an automated jobless society and don't even really understand what that<br />means. Industries rise and fall, and automation and outsourcing have<br />replaced many jobs but I don't see how we are moving to a jobless society.<br />It's not cost-effective to replace every job with automation and it's downright<br />impossible for some. But speaking to low-skill manufacturing or service jobs<br />that may have been replaced by automation, there's different possible<br />answers I suppose. You have initiatives like the one Obama campaigned<br />on to create "green" manufacturing jobs. Ideally you'd want to see a world<br />where we're creating better jobs and preparing more people for them.<br /><br />But it's sort of this two-sided thing where having a whole bunch of people<br />in need of jobs is a problem for society to solve and also a potential<br />resource for people with capital. In a perfect world you would have<br />someone looking at the labor pool both those ways at the same time.<br />Maybe that's too optimistic. How's that for a perfect closing line to this Q&A.</div><br /></div><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Renina Jarmon</span>: </span><span style="font-family:arial;">We are in fact moving towards an automated society.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">My thinking about this comes out of a reading of <a href="http://historyisaweapon.org/defcon1/amreboggs.html">J</a></span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://historyisaweapon.org/defcon1/amreboggs.html" target="_blank">ames Bogg's The </a><a href="http://historyisaweapon.org/defcon1/amreboggs.html"><br /></a><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://historyisaweapon.org/defcon1/amreboggs.html" target="_blank">American Revolution, pages from a Negro Workers Notebook.</a><span style="font-family:arial;"> The<br />book, was written in 1963. His general contention is that based on<br />advances in technology, our society will become one in which automation<br />will force us to think about how to organize society based on our needs<br />instead of our wants.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">I wrote about his book in a blog post last month<br />titled, </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://modelminority.blogspot.com/2009/07/coming-jobless-society.html" target="_blank">The Coming Jobless Society</a><span style="font-family:arial;">.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />The notion of an automated society is a hard one to swallow, however<br />it is coming.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">For every place that you see a machine replacing a<br />human a job has been eliminated. The further technology advances,<br />the more automated our society will become, the fewer jobs will be<br />available.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> Every time you use a computer, instead of working with a human,</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">a process has been automated and job has been lost. </span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;">For instance,<br />in Detroit, the assembly line was automated in the '50's. Our current wars are<br />becoming<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle"> automated via unmanned land and aerial vehicles</a>.<br /><br /></span>For the most part email has eliminated both the need for receptionists<br />and the USPS. Garbage trucks are automated. Pay kiosks at<br />businesses, such as AT&T, the grocery store, the airport and Target,<br />have eliminated the need for customer service agents. Where there<br />was once 4 human employees you only need 2, or 1.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Taking all this into consideration, I come away from this Q & A with,<br />in many ways trying to reconcile the world that Boggs is talking about<br />with the world that Umair is advocating for.</span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-70748336808196173652009-08-16T13:55:00.007-04:002009-08-16T17:08:22.701-04:00The Term, Woman of Color: Race is Hard<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinPO0oMzZ8j__lAD53eRplAaRcjd7QF_KntIVMFJGfXwWIT4bfmkqfamp8mo2rl_nXx5k0a3it6PUUQzbfCkz3UOJ8n0NvlUVrWOREtJfD2-NkhPYH07Rzdm2HBjAUqDs1HYgNoQ/s1600-h/flesh.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 256px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinPO0oMzZ8j__lAD53eRplAaRcjd7QF_KntIVMFJGfXwWIT4bfmkqfamp8mo2rl_nXx5k0a3it6PUUQzbfCkz3UOJ8n0NvlUVrWOREtJfD2-NkhPYH07Rzdm2HBjAUqDs1HYgNoQ/s400/flesh.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5370669837680354946" border="0" /></a><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://zincplatepressblog.wordpress.com/">via Zinc Plate Press</a><br /></div> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Last week, I was watching a sex scene involving<br />three nude men in the film </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367027/">Short Bus</a><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> and said to my friend,</span><br />who is white, "Wow, white folks have called us colored but they have a<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">variety</span> of skin tones as well."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">He nodded, and said "Yes, you do have a point" and we continued<br />to watch the film.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Of course there are different skin hues and tones<br />amongst white folks,</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">but it is the kind of the thing that is really<br />apparent when watching folks, nude, on a screen.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I struggle with the notion of being inclusive. As you may have noticed,</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">I don't<br />use the term woman of color on my blog, at least not on a regular</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />basis. I usually write Black, Latina and Asian.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Back in January, Latoya put me on to a thread on <a href="http://myecdysis.blogspot.com/2009/02/who-you-calling-radical-conversations.html">My Ecdysis </a><br />about women of color and radical women of color on the internet.<br /></span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />So, today, I was on on </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://myecdysis.blogspot.com/2009/02/who-you-calling-radical-conversations.html">The My Ecdysis</a><span style="font-family:arial;"> blog, as I am starting a site<br />about</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Black feminism, so I was looking for the names of folks who<br />may</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">be interested in contributing. I noticed that <a href="http://nosnowhere.wordpress.com/">Nadia</a> responded<br />to a comment that I wrote, (where I mentioned the phrase, Black<br />Asian and Latina women). Her comment, in part, was that using<br />Black, Asian and Latina, erases Arab and Native Women.<br /><br />She is right.<br /><br />But I was also like, this is getting to be a little much. Then I was like, damn,<br />I might have to use women of color, or perhaps even non-white<br />women, in order to talk about Black, Asian, Latina, Native and Arab<br />women.</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />It was then that I saw the usefulness of the term Woman of Color.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The jury is out.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">I am thinking about what it means to be inclusive.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I am thinking about the ways in which our language not only</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">reflects but<br />also shapes our reality and the futures that we envision.</span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14243811.post-32009090977516359392009-08-15T09:49:00.006-04:002009-08-15T11:03:08.894-04:00Twenty Questions Saturdays 8.15.09<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhStfG0Zbuw_d6CcgXhI0aa5z9f3ZnrVCgRT4vv2NpSFzLoX5Pt7w8CX_BNcUM4y8UnczQEJtaTBSfz0a0lvuSsQjUeSqT1CHQNdDkJ-2uzUdfddZyaDJdKAq7M5Z5eKMqaGTNMnw/s1600-h/Darfur+White.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 284px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhStfG0Zbuw_d6CcgXhI0aa5z9f3ZnrVCgRT4vv2NpSFzLoX5Pt7w8CX_BNcUM4y8UnczQEJtaTBSfz0a0lvuSsQjUeSqT1CHQNdDkJ-2uzUdfddZyaDJdKAq7M5Z5eKMqaGTNMnw/s400/Darfur+White.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5370205735766466610" border="0" /></a><br /> <span style="font-family:arial;">1. Why they make the Asian dude in The Hangover</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">act like<br />a stereotypical, loud, Black, drag queen?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">2. What would Black bloggers write about if there was no<br />more</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">(institutional) white racism?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />3. Why do I find myself nodding in agreement, laughing and<br />thinking</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">about blog post ideas every time I read Michelle Wallace's </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://mjsoulpictures.blogspot.com/2009/08/black-macho-and-myth-of-superwoman.html">blog</a><span style="font-family:arial;">?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />4. Did you see the article about the nearly<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/health/13clinic.html"> 8 thousand people</a></span> <span style="font-family:arial;">who<br />lined up for free health care last week in Inglewood, CA?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />5. Why did I send out my babies v. dreams questions and </span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Moya<br />quickly let me know that the issue isn't parenting or policy<br />but thinking within the nuclear and not an extended family framework?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />6. Often times, when I hear people complain about the government,</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />I simply think or respond, </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2009/08/15/opinion/15herbert.html">what are you going to do about it</a><span style="font-family:arial;">?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />7. Why he bring me a pound of Peerless coffee back</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">from Cali and<br />I became a little less angry?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />8. Why salmon teriyaki and black beans w/ salsa taste so good</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">together?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />9. When is Wordpress going to be customizable like Blogger?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />10. Is the fact that the white folks are<a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/08/13-0"> boycotting</a> Whole Foods</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">an<br />indication of the contradiction sharpening?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />11. What are you currently reading?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />12. How different would our would be if we looked at people</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">as<br />humans first, then racial/gendered beings second?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />13. Did you see the last episode of Roseanne?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />14. Why am I excited about visiting the largest Buffalo Exchange</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">in the country in Las Vegas (so I have heard)?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />15. The year is almost over, has it been a good one?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />16. When am I going to have the courage to press publish</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">on<br />my critique of the Black blogosphere?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />17. Why am I just not rediscovering that I have been trying</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">to<br />impress <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrienne_Rich">Adrienne Rich</a> all along?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />18. Why am I really excited about this Q & A with Rafi about</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br />the sustainable of "constructive capitalism"?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />19. What would republicans complain about if they made Gay<br />marriage</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">and abortion permanently illegal?</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />20. Why are there so many similarities in how both<br />The Black Power</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">Movement and Hip Hop treats women?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Me. Questions. You Answers.</span>M.Dot.http://www.blogger.com/profile/05113752779973426025noreply@blogger.com8