Byts and Bytes

As we remember the tragic and world changing event of September 11th 2001, let me share 2 articles from the New York Times which brings a “9 years after” perspective tied to that event:

1. “Building on Faith in Lower Manhattan” by Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf of the Cordoba Initiative

2. “The Healers of 9/11” by Nicholas D. Kristoff

An article of inconvenient truth by actress Regina King: The Emmys: As White as Ever 

The Passing of our “Undercover Black Man”: David Mills

David Mills, known within the AfroSphere as Undercover Black Man, died yesterday of an apparent brain aneurysm at the age of 48. He collapsed on the set of the upcoming HBO drama series Treme, about post Katrina New Orleans, set to air starting April 11th. He was a writer and executive producer on the show. He had previously written for such televison dramas as The Wire, NYPD Blue, Homocide, ER and The Corner (for which he won 2 primetime Emmys), and was the creator and executive producer for a shortlived NBC drama called Kingpin. 

I had occasionally read his articles on his blog, but I had no knowledge that he was such an accomplished and successful writer. I had no idea who he was beyond his moniker. I found his posts entertaining due to his blend of a unique perspective on issues with a “warped” sense of humour. If you have never read his stuff before, take some time and visit his blog. Here is an article on his life from theRoot. He will certainly be missed.

May God bring comfort to his family during their time of grief.

and they lived happily ever after….

Fb: just getting home from watching Disney’s “The Princess & The Frog” with my family. It is a crime if you do not take your little girls to see this movie. A great story and the introduction of a beautiful Black Princess… the SugarPlum loved it! The entire audience gave it rapturous applause at the end.
Asa: Not sure if I’m going to go see it. Here are a couple articles with a different perspective:
The Princess And The Frog Is Disney’s Queen Of Crap 
Now That Black Women Got Theirs Race Is Not Important 
Fb: asa, you can go see the movie… they won’t revoke your “Black card” for spending 90 minutes at a disney fairy tale. i have an 8 year old daughter who needed to see someone who looks like her live happily ever after… and disney more than brought that point home in the movie.
Asa: I’ll take your advice and go see the movie. I don’t have a daughter but I do have a son and I’ll take him to see it too. Then I’ll sit him down and explain to him that although he is a dark-skinned young Black man, he can get a Black princess too and live happily ever after. I will also tell him not to be ashamed of his “Black card”, which is his lovely dark black skin. Thanks for the perspective. Blessings!

I don’t usually comment on movies I haven’t seen myself. The above conversation was on Facebook between a friend and I. To be honest, I wasn’t trying to “bust his bubble” in regards to the movie. Since I haven’t seen it, but I consider this friend someone who is a critical thinker, I shared with him 2 thought-provoking articles by Brotherpeacemaker about the film. I was somewhat taken aback that he took offense to the articles and felt the need to defend Disney, as well as refer to my supposed “Black card”.

The converstaion brought home a couple of points to me. One is the issue of role models for our children. I believe in positive role models. Regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with the idea of role models, our children will have them. They will identify with and be influenced by those who they feel represents the best of themselves. The question then becomes who and what are they conditioned to identify with… to be influenced by? From the images that I see of the Black Princess in this film, she represents a dark version of Barbie or Elin Woods. Straight hair, straight pointy nose, red lips, thin physique. Most Black girls (and women) I know don’t conform to this image, but as my friend above is quick to state and re-enforce to his daughter, she is “a beautiful Black Princess”.

Then what does it also say to our Black boys. Unless you look like a Prince Naveen with straight hair, narrow nostrils and light-coloured skin, you are not good enough to get “a beautiful Black Princess” as a mate. However you can be a black villain, a black-skinned practitioner of black magic, since you do look more like a Dr. Facilier!

Can we really blame a Sammy Sosa if these are the messages we are condoning to be sent to our young Black men? (see here)  

Second, let’s not get it twisted. Disney didn’t make this film for Black audiences. They didn’t do it because of their concern of a lack of Black role models for little Black girls. They didn’t do it out of a sense of civic duty, so as to do their part to create a better and more inclusive society. They did it to make money. They did it to benefit financially from the notion of two little Black Princesses in the White House. They did it to cater to the dominant culture, especially the liberal, left-leaning, white progressives who will pay money to take their families to see this film and buy the merchandise, i.e., a little Black Princess doll for their little White Princesses as a Christmas gift. This targeted audience can then feel good (or better) about themselves, especially during this time of year, for promoting the illusion of diversity within their household, as well as living in the delusion of the American fairy tale way of life… “and they lived happily ever after…”

…and like sheep, negroes blindly follow along…

Sarah Palin daring to Go Rogue: A Case Study in the Art of Style over Substance

As I look down upon American society…literally and figuratively… from my perch up here in Canada, I must admit that it’s politics and political figures fascinates me to some extent. The higher up the political ladder one goes, its becomes more and more like following a t.v. reality show, where as we know, “style over substance” is the premise of all the various plots. The continuing drama surrounding U.S. presidential politics is the highest stage where this phenomenon plays itself out. Where “American Idol” meets “America’s Top Model”, to create figuratively, “A perfect storm”.

What I had found most fascinating about the 2008 U.S. presidential election but for whatever reason didn’t feel moved to comment on at the time, was the treatment that Sarah Palin received from the so-called “mainstream media”, made up primarily of the so-called “liberal” participants. For me, it was an intriguing contrast when compared with the A-list starlike adulation, Manchurian candidate Obama received. Maybe because the difference was so blatant I didn’t feel the need to state the obvious… and not surprisingly a year later, it still continues. 

Obama has always been the media’s “guy”. They created, nurtured, directed, marketed and protected, “The Obama Brand”. When he first popped up on the national scene during the 2004 Democratic convention, I remember saying to myself, after listening to the t.v. commentators heaping praise on his speech, that this dude is a media creation. However, let me be clear: Barack Obama was and is no mindless stooge. As a political strategist, the man is brilliant. He used them also for his political advantage. I saw during the 2008 campaign how, depending on the audience he was catering to, he would mesmerize them with conflicting speeches… and the mainstream media would fall all over themselves saying how inspiring he was, while never calling him out on his inconsistencies. Sure, the right-wing zealots over at Fox News like Sean Hannity and radio talkshow personalities, like Rush Limbaugh would rail against him, but outside of their diehard supporters, their rantings fell on deaf ears. No-one took them seriously… especially the majority of those within the Republican Party itself, much less the majority of Americans as was proven at the end of the election.

Obama’s greatest political feat was not winning the Presidential election against John McCain. That was a given. Whoever won the Democratic nomination was going to be the next President of the United States of America. Obama’s greatest political triumph was defeating the Clinton machine, (in February 2008 I wrote this post predicting that he would beat her). So after he won and Hillary got onboard “The Obama Train”, it was pretty much smooth sailing for the Obama campaign. Not only did he have the overwhelming majority of Democratic base in his corner, but more importantly, the Independents, primarily moderate conservatives, were supporting him. 

All was well until… “uh-oh!”… John McCain picked a nationally unknown female Alaskan Governor, a Sarah Palin, as his running mate. Although everyone was lambasting McCain on this choice, I saw it as a clever political move on his part. I still didn’t think he would win, but it was a choice he needed to make to put some life… to give his sinking campaign a boost… which it did! For a time at least. He desperately needed someone to galvanize the Republican base, especially the social conservatives. McCain is a moderate. He therefore appealed primarily to moderate Republicans and Independent conservatives, so having Joe Lieberman as a running mate would not benefit him much, plus it would alienate him even further from the more right-wing segment of the Republican base. There was no way he was going to get the Black vote, so asking Colin Powell would be a waste, plus there were already indications that Powell was going to support Obama. Mitt Romney’s religious beliefs would further alienate the more right-wing segment of the Republican base, so who was really left? 

Well as the saying goes: “desperate times call for desperate measures”. By choosing Sarah Palin, the McCain campaign hoped to solidify the support of the more right-wing elements of the Party, such as the social conservatives; gain the support of White middle and upper class women who felt betrayed by the Hillary loss; and win over the “Walmart” constituents, who were primarily conservatives, if not necessarily Republicans, but weren’t being inspired enough by the campaign to vote for John McCain. Most importantly however… and I don’t know if during the vetting process of Sarah Palin they took this into consideration… she was very photogenic! This added greatly to her appeal. Ever since the Kennedy-Nixon television debate in 1960, it is a given that within Presidential campaigns, being “camera friendly” is more important to getting elected, than any policy position a candidate may have! 

So it was very interesting observing how, as the “Palin phenomenon” took hold and gained momentum, the mainstream media, although rattled in the beginning, got it’s “shit together” to make sure that this upstart wouldn’t derail their guy. Did they really believe that Palin could seriously spark enough excitement into the McCain campaign to pull off the upset? I doubt it… but they weren’t going to take the chance! In the beginning no one gave the relatively unknown junior Black Senator from Illinois a chance against the Clinton machine… and look what happened! The lesson was learnt:
“Never underestimate your opponent!”

SNL- Funny but true Obama skit!

District 9: The future in the shadow of the past that is today

Every so often a film comes along which blows me away… as it stirs so much emotions and thoughts within me. Earlier this year it was “Gran Torino“. Now it’s “District 9“.

I don’t want to reveal too much of the plot, but here is the basic storyline. The movie starts with the arrival of a spaceship over Johannesburg, South Africa, with over a million sick and malnourished aliens on the brink of death. They are removed from the spaceship and placed in a internment camp near the city called District 9, while the authorities decides what to do about them. The camp disintegrates into a crime ridden and very dangerous slum where the aliens and the native South Africans engage in violent conflicts… and Nigerian gangs openly operate a variety of black market schemes. A private company which specializes in weapons research and security contracting called Multi-National United, is given the task of forcibly relocating the aliens to a new area called Distict 10, which is miles away from Johannesburg… and therefore away from humans.

Interestingly, the title and storyline are based on a real events surrounding a racially mixed area that was in Cape Town, South Africa called District 6. The inhabitants were forcibly removed in the 1970’s by the government who had declared the area a crime ridden and dangerous slum… (subsequently they made it a “white-only” zone). Approximately 60,000 people were relocated to an area 25 kilometers away from that city. 

The events which unfolds within the film, deals with the such issues as the mistreatment and marginalization of refugees and immigrants, apartheid type government policies, immoral scientific experimentation, media propaganda, as well as the personal and societal cost of doing the right thing. There were also elements in the movie which I found somewhat troubling, as it perpetuates the negative stereotypes we constantly see of Africans in the media… especially by Hollywood: tribal like conflicts, drugs and weapons dealing, violent and bloodthirsty gangs, prostitution, witchcraft and cannibalism.

Although in my first impression of the film I didn’t find it to be racist, I however understand why some people would and I have read a number of articles which takes such a position (and I agree with most of them on a certain level). With all this being said… as well as upon further reflection… I still really liked the movie and highly recommend it. There is an obvious set up at the end of the movie for a sequal… and I am looking forward to it.

I would be interested in hearing what others who have seen the film thought about it.

sat’day riddymz #15

I caught these kids on The Tavis Smiley Show. Amazing stuff!

sat’day riddymz #14