Sometimes I express myself better verbally rather than writing.
My kitchen is often where I do my best work.
It is the room that my mother loved the most. We had many talks as she peeled potatoes or stuffed a lemon roast chicken. The arrival of fall inspired me to buy pumpkin scented candles and spiced tea. Eucalyptus plants also add soothing aromas to the atmosphere.
In November it will be a year since the election of 2008. The election that gave America its first president of color. It does however, come as something of a surprise that I would have to make a video asking Barack Obama to bring an end to the “post-racism”. There are more crucial issues for Americans today than our wasting precious time on false claims of racial frustration.
Film Still of Negro League Baseball 1946 (American Film Archives)
Several days ago, I wrote a post comparing politics to America’s greatest past time – baseball. Particular emphasis was placed upon “the rookie” players as being those in which we place great hope and expectations. A story today in the Chicago Tribune about Cubs outfielder Milton Bradley and racism made me realize that I neglected to mention that of course we place high expectations on players that are seasoned as well.
Image of negro League baseball catcher Josh Gibson throwing mask into air. Gibson (1911-1947) played professionally for the Homestead Grays and was called the "Black Babe Ruth" (Carnegie Museum)
But Chicago Cubs outfielder offers no examples of such abuse
By Paul Sullivan
August 27, 2009
An angry Milton Bradley lashed out at his treatment from Cubs fans Wednesday, suggesting he has been the victim of racial abuse at Wrigley Field.
But Bradley declined to give specifics, saying no one wanted to listen to him.
“America doesn’t believe in racism,” he said sarcastically before repeating the remark.
Speaking to beat writers in the Cubs clubhouse Wednesday before their 9-4 victory over the Nationals, Bradley was asked to clarify his comments from Tuesday night, when he said he faced “hatred” on a daily basis.
To what exactly was Bradley referring?
“I’m talking about hatred, period,” he said. “I’m talking about when I go to eat at a restaurant, I have to listen to the waiters bad-mouthing me at another table, sitting in a restaurant, that’s what I’m talking about — everything.”
In January, Milton Bradley signed a 3 year contract with the Cubs for $30 million dollars. In Chicago, that comes with a lot of expectations. Baseball fans can be loyal, especially Cubs fans. Things can get a little nasty late in the season. Experiencing harassment from exasperated and intoxicated fans is not something that is endemic to being a baseball player of color. Every sports player experiences it on some level- even the great Babe Ruth. Which brings me to the seasoned player. Back to politics. Facing declining poll numbers New York governor David Peterson, an African American alluded to racism as the cause for his woes.
Prominent African-Americans and officials in the administration of the first black president are trying to rein in what some are calling the racial rants of New York Democratic Governor David Paterson.
Friday in the New York Daily News, the governor blamed his political woes and those of Massachusetts counterpart, Deval Patrick, on race: “We’re not in the post-racial period. The reality is the next victim on the list — and you can see it coming — is President Barack Obama.”
The New York Post reports the White House was quick to send a private and pointed message to the governor to keep the president out of Paterson’s political problems. White House spokesman Bill Burton said publicly: “Whether or not race plays into [criticism] I don’t think it is the case. The president doesn’t think it’s the case.”
Paterson continued the theme Monday saying to NY1.com that some people are uncomfortable with too many powerful African-Americans: “Part of what I feel is that one very successful minority is permissible, but when you see too many success stories then some people get nervous.”
Satchel Pages ALL STARS 1946
I do not feel that any of these comments are productive no matter how valid the claims. Like manic sports fans, political constituents will get critical. Poll numbers go up. Poll numbers go down. Unfortunately that comes with the life of being a politician. It has nothing to do with race.
But then again doesn’t everything have to do with race nowadays in this post-racial America that we are so blessed to live in?
Josh Gibson slides into home base at East-West All-Star Negro league baseball game in Chicago, 1944
Again, can someone tell me why in the age of electing an African American to the presidency, have the claims of racism against blacks increased rather than decreased?
I have been to a few Chicago Cubs games. Admittedly, there are more African Americans who are Chicago White Sox fans. The White Sox reside on the city’s South side which is predominately blue collar, African American and has large Irish constituency near what used to be Kominsky Park (now Cellular Field).
The Chicago Cubs play at Wrigley Field on the North side of the city which is predominately Caucasian professionals.
President Barack Obama has openly claimed to be a White Sox fan, as well as Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley- who are black and Irish respectively. Being the trend breaker, I living in the middle of the city,somehow gravitated towards the Cubs.
Quickly, I noticed that I was on wrong side of the bleachers. I was in the minority at the games I attended but I never heard any racists comments hurled at black players or myself.
Cubbies home run king Sammy Sosa was well loved in Chicago. African American shortstop Ernie Banks is known as being “Mr. Cubs.”.
1939 Negro Laegue All Star Team. (Image from Center for Negro League Baseball Research)
According to sources on Negro League baseball, Caucasian major league players made $2,000 in 1905. A minor league player made, $500, and Negro League players made $466.
What any typical major league baseball player makes today, such as Milton Bradley’s 3 year $30 million dollar contract with the Chicago Cubs is a far cry from what Satchel Page of Josh Gibson made in 1946. Satchel or Josh would have never imagined the financial success of Sammy Sosa, Daryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Barry Bonds, Reggie Jackson, A-Rod, Tony Gwynn, Albert Puljols or the many other famous baseball players of color that would follow his career in the Negro league.
I would hope that African American baseball players and politicians alike would experience financial success of today without the racism faced by their ancestors during yester-year. I must explore this further. There are only 40 or so games left in the season but I will attempt to secure a ticket to a Cubs game in order to witness any racism towards Milton Bradley or other black players for myself. I will keep you posted.
I thought the kitchen table conversations I overheard between my mother and grandmother about how cruel whites are towards blacks were over. To my dismay they are not. It is unfortunate that I am beginning to wonder if my fellow African Americans want those conversations to be over. Isn’t that what post-racism is about?
In 2009, I can walk on a bus and sit anywhere I please. I am told by the liberals that I owe this to the Democratic Party.
In 2009, certainly I would have to search high and low in a Macy’s department store for that “colored” rest room. Hurry up, I need to find it. Afrocity’s gotta pee.
Didn’t we elect a black man as our president? Aren’t two little black girls swing setting in front of the White House while a Portuguese Water Dog is eating caviar and slurping Evian Water from George Washington’s spit bowl?
What’s going on? CNN is running it BLACKS IN AMERICA PART 432. What is this nostalgia for the pre-civil rights days that is plaguing liberals?
The hyped up ideological importance that has been given to race and gender over the last two years is proof that we have issues in America. Of course we do. We are not alone in this. Take a look at the women protesters in Iran. Where ever there is difference, there will be division and conflict. That can be differences in skin color, class, gender, religious beliefs etc. It is also human nature.
When confronted by Sarah Palin women, particularly those who identified themselves as feminists faced the uncomfortable questions of gender loyalty. Again I ask, as women are we more unified by gender than we are divided by political ideologies, race, class, or religious beliefs? Judging from the woman on woman criticism waged towards Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton, I would answer that question with a qualified NO.
Yes we are all women but we are individuals.
While one woman was raised by devout Baptist minister in Texas, a man who spent his Saturdays standing on I-35 with huge posters of bloodied aborted fetuses; another woman may have been raised by an atheist single mom, who grew medicinal herbs in her Brooklyn brownstone window box, while working a day job at Planned Parenthood in Queens. Both women share identical genitalia in the sense that yes they pee sitting down, and they have a vagina. Does it mean that they will be best buds, trading feminist cards over gazpacho and tapas? No.
Let’s bring race into the mix. How can we not? Our president loves doing it so much.
I am African American, which makes me a person of color. President Barack Obama is Kenyan American, which makes him a person of color. In generic terms, we are both black.
I am a conservative. Barack Obama is not.
Can someone please explain to me why people assume that I voted for him? The only ones who don’t are PUMAs and my Republican friends.
I am the one on the left with the white hood on.
No one asks me if I am an Obama supporter because they see my skin color and assume that I am a liberal and a Democrat. They also assume that I am voting for Obama because he is black- like me. Just once I would like someone to ask me what my political affiliation is- just once. I should not hold my breath because it will never happen. When faced with the raving Obamabot who bashes Sarah Palin in front of me or calls Hillary Clinton a post menopausal racist, there is this temptation on my part to blurt out “I AM A REPUBLICAN” . Scrap the temptation part. I have done it. What happens? The O-bot launches verbal attacks against anything that comes from my mouth, they assume that I supported Bush, they assume that I am pro-life. In effect they put up a shield. Or they attempt to convert me to liberalism.
No one leaves the party of ass without ripped clothing and hoof prints on their backs. No one leaves without being stalked by the well meaning friend who checks up on you.
“Did you hear Obama’s press conference last night?”
“Yes, the one that was about health care? I saw it.”
“Isn’t Obama great? And my gawd what is happening to black people in this country. Racial profiling in 2009, I mean come on. “
“Well, I do not believe it was racial profiling, just an unfortunate event that was exploited by Barack Obama as a means to distract from the issue of health care.”
“I do not agree with that. Having Obama as president has proves that we still have problems with racism. Look at the nasty things he and his wife faced from right wing extremists like Sarah Palin- yelling KILL HIM at McCain rallies. I know that you are a Republican but surely you must agree that the party only attacks Obama out of deep seated fear of change and diversity.”
“ Hmm, I don’t see it that way. What I do know is that every since Obama’s inauguration, I have found is myself talking about blacks and being black more than I ever have in my entire life. What I am seeing now is blacks being portrayed as victims of society again. I did not realize how oppressive it is to be black until Obama reminded me of it.”
Sorry readers, I can’t go on anymore. I have an underground railroad train to catch.
A shepherd-boy, who watched a flock of sheep near a village,
brought out the villagers three or four times by crying out, “Wolf! Wolf!”
and when his neighbors came to help him, laughed at them for their pains.
The Wolf, however, did truly come at last.
The Shepherd-boy, now really alarmed, shouted in an agony of terror:
“Pray, do come and help me; the Wolf is killing the sheep”;
but no one paid any heed to his cries, nor rendered any assistance.
The Wolf, having no cause of fear, at his leisure lacerated or destroyed the whole flock.
There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth.
-Aesop from “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”
The subject of this post is so hilarious that I was elated when someone finally loaded the following clip from the O’reilly Factor on You Tube. It is about charges from the African American community that the media being racist in its coverage of recently deceased pop music icon Michael Jackson. I warned you in my Sunday Soliloquy post that this would be coming. While watching television interviews of African American celebrities who discussed the passing of Michael, I noticed a certain …..ummm…defensiveness whenever they were asked about Michael’s use of prescription drugs, the allegations of pedophilia that were brought against him, or his ever lightening skin complexion. There is no doubt that Michael Jackson was a very talented artist and like most artists: Van Gogh, Elvis Presley, Picasso, Woody Allen, Mr. Jackson led a very colorful or colorless life depending on how you look at him. Michael had some issues (you know he did) and I see nothing wrong with the media bringing up those controversial issues during interviews. There is nothing racist about it. Michael’s iconic status is not only about his musical gifts and tremendous dancing ability, it also encompasses our memories of him as a person- a human being who was indisputably talented but like all of us, not without sin or mistakes.
This clip explores accusations made by Sean “P Diddy” Colmes and Jamie Foxx at Sunday’s Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards that the media coverage of Michael Jackson’s death is racially biased against him and his legacy. I cannot believe that Fox News commentator,Dr. Lamont Hill charges that white deceased entertainers are treated differently or in this case given more respectful coverage by the media than black entertainers
Elvis Presley died about two weeks after my birthday in 1977 since then I have not seen the media cover the death of a musical celebrity so extensively until Michael Jackson. In fact, I would argue that Michael is receiving more media coverage due to technological innovations. Before August 16, 1977, I had never heard of Elvis Presley and did not know a hound dog from a blue suede shoe. My mother was not a fan of his. As an adult , I would find out that she held animosity for Elvis, alleging that he had stolen most of his music and moves from African American entertainers like Chuck Berry. That August day remains clear in my mind because while mother was not a fan of Elvis, she had lost a piece of her past.
The main crux of Dr. Hill’s argument relies on media coverage comparisons of Elvis Presley and his one time son-in-law Michael Jackson.
Both Michael and Elvis are music icons, both died during the summer, relatively young and under similar circumstances -i.e. heart attack via pill and needle peddling greedy handlers. However, one died in 1977, the other in 2009. That is a 32 year difference. Do you know how much the media has changed in 32 years? In 1977, you never would have heard about Monica Lewinsky and her navy blue Gap dress on NBC News. You would not have known that Rock Hudson or the 2nd Darren on Bewitched was a homosexual. Even pianist Liberace would not commit to that label at the time. That is what STAR Magazine and the Enquirer were for. That is what tell all books were for. Two weeks before the death of Elvis a book was published by several members of his entourage the “Memphis Mafia” about Elvis’s drug use. It was entitled Elvis What Happened? Here is vintage footage of an interview of Sonny West:
Golly gee did they say DEMEROL??????PILL POPPING??? Wasn’t Elvis white? How could they say those things about a white man? I was a child and I knew that the death of Elvis was drug related because that was all that was talked about. Of course it was not from the lips of Walter Cronkite or Dan Rather but somehow I knew about.
We live in the time of the first black President of the United States of America. The memo said we are officially living in POST-RACIAL America. Yet I have seen more bullshit phony racism/faux discrimination claims on the part of African Americans than I ever have before in my life. Everyone is a racist now. If you are against affirmative action because you feel that there is no longer a need for racial quotas and group preferences then by golly you are a racist. If you bring up the child molestation charges that Michael Jackson faced, you are a being a racist.
And by the way damn-it, according to Jamie Foxx, Michael Jackson belongs to black people anyway.
It is surprising to me that in this day and age many of my fellow African Americans are alluding to Obama hater drama and race card shuffling in every minute aspect of everyday life. Phony racist outrage in particular, such as the one surrounding this Michael Jackson coverage are so ludicrous and based in speculation that we are diluting any efforts to truly combat real racism such as the example depicted in the photo with which this post began.
2009 is not 1977.
This should be a watershed year for healthy and balanced racial relations. Instead it is a bullshit year of faux outrage and gratuitous accusations of racism. Yesterday the Supreme Court ruling on the Ricci case sent liberals whining that our civil rights are being eroded because the court ruled 5-4 that white fire fighters were treated unjustly due to the city of New Haven throwing out test results that did not favor minorities. Do you get that just because the black fire fighters did poorly on the test, it does not , mean that the results should have been thrown out for the white firefighters? That is racism. What if the blacks had done well on the test and the results were retained? Would the actions of the New Haven FD have then been satisfactory?
Is America taking crazy pills? Suddenly I am on liberal blogs arguing “hey in my opinion we no longer need affirmative action. I feel that there is enough equal opportunity out there that I don’t need AA.”
Isn’t this the change Obama was seeking?
Yet liberals are still basically arguing that America is inherently racist and yes Afrocity you poor black girl you do still need to be “helped” by racial quotas.You are so weak and helpless and no white person would hire you without this after all SCOTUS nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayer admitted that her test scores were not good enough to get into Princeton:
Sotomayor: Affirmative Action Sent Me to Princeton
FOXNews.com
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Judge Sonia Sotomayor says she is a “perfect affirmative action baby,” and that she was accepted to Princeton and Yale despite her lackluster test performance compared to other applicants.
She made these comments in a video dating back to “early ’90s” that she submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week as part of her Supreme Court nomination process.
Sotomayor admitted that her acceptance to the Ivy League schools would have been “highly questionable” if not for affirmative action.
“My test scores were not comparable to that of my colleagues at Princeton or Yale,” she said on a panel for a nonprofit law organization.
(shakes head)
Thanks liberals for the vote of confidence that only a warped mother would give.
Autographed Letter Signed,
AFROCITY (yes, I can read)
A shepherd-boy, who watched a flock of sheep near a village, brought out the villagers three or four times by crying out, “Wolf! Wolf!” and when his neighbors came to help him, laughed at them for their pains.
The Wolf, however, did truly come at last. The Shepherd-boy, now really alarmed, shouted in an agony of terror: “Pray, do come and help me; the Wolf is killing the sheep”; but no one paid any heed to his cries, nor rendered any assistance. The Wolf, having no cause of fear, at his leisure lacerated or destroyed the whole flock.
There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth.
I am very pleased with the recent Supreme Court decision in the Ricci v. DeStefano case in which seven Connecticut firefighters charged the New Haven Fire Department with reverse racism. Interestingly, today’s decision overruled a previous lower court decision handed down by Supreme Court nominee Judge Sotomayer as part of a three judge panel.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.
The ruling could alter employment practices nationwide and make it harder to prove discrimination when there is no evidence it was intentional.
New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said Monday in a 5-4 decision. The city said that it had acted to avoid a lawsuit from minorities.
The ruling could give Sotomayor’s critics fresh ammunition two weeks before her Senate confirmation hearing. Conservatives say it shows she is a judicial activist who lets her own feelings color her decisions. On the other hand, liberal allies say her stance in the case demonstrates her restraint and unwillingness to go beyond established precedents.
Coincidentally, the court may have given a boost to calls for quick action on her nomination.
The court said it will return Sept. 9 to hear a second round of arguments in a campaign finance case, and with Justice David Souter retiring there would be only eight justices unless Sotomayor has been confirmed by then.
In Monday’s ruling, Justice Anthony Kennedy said, “Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer’s reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions.” He was joined in the majority by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the white firefighters “understandably attract this court’s sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them.”
Justices Souter, Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens signed onto Ginsburg’s dissent, which she read aloud in court Monday. Speaking dismissively of the majority opinion, she predicted the court’s ruling “will not have staying power.“
I have made many efforts on this blog to defend my decision AGAINST affirmative action. I believe that it began in a time when it was neededbut has now become distorted and a tool of reverse racism. Ginsberg says that the white firefighters “had no vested right to promotion”. If that is the case why were the promotions given to African Americans who could obviously not pass the test. Does merely being African American give a fire fighter the right to a promotion? As Justice Kennedy stated, you should not deny a white person’s right to a promotion because you are afraid of being sued by minorities who may be less qualified. This is where my problem with affirmative action begins. If a woman or minority is hired or promoted simply because of their race or gender, you are not really advancing them. You are perpetuating the idea that they are weaker than the majority and need help. Affirmative action is only a license to say you cannot climb that high on your own, so let me help you a little bit. In the end it all evens out right? After all whites have so many more advantages.
How many voted for Obama during the Democratic primary knowing that Hillary Clinton was the more qualified candidate? Yes she was a woman, but she was a white woman and he was a black man. It is like a game of cards…race and gender cards. Race trumps gender and many voters did not want to “see the same ol’ white faces” in the White House including Hillary Clinton’s. It was all just dandy because it was time for diversity and Hillary was just on the wrong side of the diversity issue.
Yesterday’s “Sunday Soliloquy” touched on this Obama nation myth of a “post-racial America” . We are now told that Obama is our president, he is of color and there is no more racism. So really there should no longer be a need a for affirmative action. Obama won the election- a sure sign that we can trust white Americans to uphold ideas of diversity, women’s rights and racial equality. White America help put Barack Obama into the work force and they will continue to practice this by hiring people who aren’t white men.
The dissenting opinion in the Ricci case and the subsequent liberal criticism tells a quite a different story. We have a black president, two black former Secretaries of State, black Supreme Court Justices, female justices, etc. . Is it still true that we need help to get where we are going? If the answer is yes, then when won’t we need help? Will it be when we have had three African American presidents or six? One female president? One Jewish president?
As a black woman when will the government think I can walk on my own two feet? I have an education. I am articulate (snark). I can get a job on my own. I did. I have, I think.
I hate that doubt in the back of my mind. That doubt that I am not where I am because of what I can do but rather what my race means I can’t do. That is what being black meant for my mother and grandmother. Being black means what you cannot do. Color is a like a preventative film or a condom that keeps you from really “making it” . You feel socially and politically impotent as a woman or a person of color so you need some affirmative action. Social justice in the form of government Viagra. YES WE CAN MAKE IT with that extra stroking and lubricant and we can just slide right in there. That’s affirmative!!!!
Composers and Collaborators, Duke Ellington (left) and Bill Strayhorn
The study of the African American collective consciousness can be one of great complexity. To say there is a collective assumes that we are all bounded by race exclusive of the black individual. No matter who we are or what we do as African Americans, we are all going to die black.
As I observe the goings ons surrounding pop singer Michael Jackson’s death, I find great dissimilarities between the verbal reflections of his Caucasian associates verses those of his African American associates.
Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest, most likely due to the overuse of prescription drugs. There is not much controversy in that. So why all of the hoopla? Because there is much controversy in the way Michael Jackson live his life which was very let say ‘un-black’.
Historically, the African American community has not been very welcoming to gays and lesbians. Nor have they been very open or honest about mental illness within the community. The idea was that homosexuality and mental illness was something only white people experienced. Let me just pause here to say that I am in no way correlating homosexuality with mental illness, I am simply bring up two subjects that are taboo within the African American community.
When a black celebrity is gay, everything is usually done to erase the societal memory of that. Recently, when I visited the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History, there was an exhibit on African American composer Duke Ellington and his collaborator Billy Strayhorn also an African American and openly gay. Strayhorn composed “Take the A Train” but he was also friends with Martin Luther King Jr. and did much to advance civil rights. While I can understand that the Smithsonian exhibit was about music, there was nothing mentioned about Strayhorn’s sexuality which was an paramount part of his music and associations.
There is also Bayard Rustin, a gay civil rights activist that was gay. I have mentioned Mr. Rustin in previous posts. Rustin was a close adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. and organized the epic “March on Washington”. Do you hear much about Bayard Rustin?
Much of black leadership has come from the religious wings. The black church has been viewed as the cornerstone of the black community. This can be traced back to the days of slavery. Look at the leaders in the black community today. Michael Jackson is dead. Who shows up to the home of his family? Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson. A black person is wrongfully accused of something or murdered by the police who shows up to defend them Rev. Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. Some innocent political cartoonist draws something about President Barack Obama that is perceived as racist (whether it really is or not) who leads the calls for the publication to fire the cartoonist? Rev. Al Sharpton.
Racial profiling, youth violence, and media racism can all be colored as political issues. So where does religion come into this? Why do we need these “reverends” to come out for us? They do a lot more than praying. They speak for African Americans as a race. This disturbs me because I feel that my views are often not in alignment with theirs. Incidentally as a little anecdotal side note, when GOP chairman Michael Steele or former Secretary of State Condi Rice were referred to as “uncle toms” by blacks and whites alike, you never heard so much as a peep out of the reverends. Black gays, conservatives, and the mental unstable are kept in the closet. The National Organization for Women (NOW) also keeps its mouth shut when conservative women such as Gov. Sarah Palin get mauled by the media. In both cases it is an awful but unfortunate double standard.
With Barack Obama in office, many of the religious reactionary and conservative African American voices are now empowered. We are seeing this with the passage of Prop. 8 in California and we are also seeing this with regards to the shaping of Black collective memory. Reverend Jeremiah Wright is being called upon for public appearances more than ever. Rev. Wright’s well known “God Damn America” speech hardly makes him one that should be consulted as a speaker on the black community.
I am by no means condemning the black church.
While I do not attend Sunday services, I consider myself to be “spiritual” . I pray and I read the Bible. I am just not a believer in organized religion. I am a proponent of the separation of church and state, which means separation of church and politics.The black church in my opinion has overstepped these boundaries.
Having a forum for black dialogue is important especially in the public arena. But there is more than one avenue we can take in order to achieve that. At the oresent moment, there is no balance. Something bad happens to a person of color, the media calls upon Rev. Al Sharpton to speak for all blacks. Sharpton will not defend a black conservative or gay, so where is the diversity in that?
During the election, it was clear that Rev. Jesse Jackson did not care for Barack Obama but he backed him anyway. Where is the freedom of choice in that? Jackson felt pressured to support Obama because they are both of color. I encountered quite a few African Americans that did not agree with Barack Obama. Hell, they did not even like Obama but they voted for him anyway. Colin Powell turned his back on the Republican Party and his long time friend Senator John McCain to support Barack Obama. Why would Powell do this when Obama has little respect for the military or the policies he instituted under the Bush administration.
When you throw legacy and collective memory into this, you are left with this sort of myth making on the part of our so called African America leaders. A famous black person dies and you see this rush to create some weird white washed revisionist black history. Oh, no Martin Luther King never cheated on Coretta. Writer Richard Write loved black women. Josephine Baker was not a lesbian and Langston Hughes was not gay. Michael Jackson was not “off the wall”.
I am bringing this all up specifically because the recent approach by the African American community on Michael Jackson’s legacy is to erase the fact that man while talented and an American icon, demonstrated behavior that was incredibly bizarre.
What I am hearing from the AA side is “Oh, Michael was not taking drugs…let’s remember his accolades.”
So that is what we are saying now about Michael Jackson
Is it just me or do anyone else recalled that most of the parodies an fodder made of Michael Jackson during his life came from African Americans like Eddie Murphy or African American shows like In Living Color…
WARNING THESE CLIPS CONTAIN EXPLICIT LANGUAGE AND CONTENT
So now Michael is suddenly normal again and in the closet?
Welcome to the Black Image Makeover Awards. I loved Michael Jackson the way he was and I will remember him for his talent as well as his faults. Perhaps if the African American community intervened more in his life and been helpers rather than turning their backs and making light of his personal situations, he would still be alive today. Now the leeches or ” friends” will come out claiming to know him for a lifetime even though all they did was share airspace with him for two seconds.
The press called upon Barack Obama to “say a few words” about Michael Jackson. WTF? Why? Would you have asked George Bush to say a few words about Michael Jackson? Didn’t I once see “W” do the moonwalk? You are only asking Obama to say something because Michael Jackson is black like Obama. On FOX News, Geraldo Rivera repeatedly emphasized how “post-racial” Michael Jackson was. WTF? Post-Racial?
Yes MJ was so post-racial that he dramatically altered his skin color and Barack Obama is so post-racial that the media feels he should comment on the death of a performer just because they are both of color.
Suddenly now Michael Jackson in death, is an honorary black person again.
In closing here is the video to my favorite Michael Jackson song and video “In The Closet”
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