Vision Circle

My American Journey - Oona King MP

Fear of the "other" drives people further apart, and I'm surprised to find that even my Dad lives in a segregated black enclave. When I ask him why, he says, "It's not so much that it's black, it's just that whites won't live here." The irony for most middle-class African-Americans like my Dad is that they have been detached from the rest of the black population. They can't live with white people, and they can't live with (working-class) black people - or if they do, they choose to live with a level of insecurity that is anathema to the middle classes the world over.

Originally in Tuesday's Guardian an interesting British perspective on Katrina - full story under the fold.

I Listen to Conservative Radio

[ Edited for corrections aplenty ]

I listen to conservative radio. I also listen to "liberal" radio, but that doesn't seem to a problem for some.

Of course, for others, listening to "liberal" radio is a problem. But that's not what this is all about. What this is about is responding to the idea, to me, that listening to conservative talk radio is a "bad thing".

News and Notes with Ed Gordon

I've had a couple more commentaries air on News and Notes with Ed Gordon.

One on homeschooling.

Another on the difference between looters and finders.

A couple of my boys have lightly joned on me for not sounding how i really sound. I don't listen to the stories after they air, I just tape them and move on. Too much work to do. And I get pissed when they delete important sentences (my looting commentary ended with the following phrase. "Maybe rather than spending time on looters, reporters should examine why FEMA's response time was so shoddy." It got cut.)

But they have a point. When I usually give a lecture, or an academic presentation, I usually use a modified form of BEV. It allows for more improvisation, warmth, and humor than standard english. I can do this pretty well on radio interviews, and the few times I've been interviewed on television.

It's a bit different when I'm taping a commentary though. The most important things are enunciation, sticking within the 3 minute or so time limit, and nailing the commentary within the production window. I get maybe three or four takes, then loose editing work afterwords. So I'm taking this as a challenge. Because lord knows I'd be talking MASSIVE sh*t if one of my boys was on television sounding like Bill Bonds.

T. D. Jakes

Does T. D. Jakes deserve to be put into the same category as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, or Lewis Farrakhan?

Is T.D. Jakes leading Christians astray?

Just What We Need, Another Jackleg Preacher

I've had a chance to wade through some of the comments so far.

Maybe it's the time of year? It's hot as hell out these parts...perhaps the heat has addled my partner?

To wit:

They were subversive but what was the aim? The aim was integration, it wasn't to defeat the enemy. The aim was bourgeois brotherhood, not control of the resources of the enemy.

The aim was to defeat white supremacy. Find me a citation, a quote, where someone actually STATES "the aim was brotherhood." The bourgie part is just goofy so I'll let that slide. And in as much as cities like Detroit, Cleveland, Gary, and Atlanta, were resources controlled by the enemy, the aggressive actions of folks like the Black Slate out of Detroit certainly seem to rise to the standard set here.

Let me put it this way, you cannot be militant and also for 'non-violent social change'.

So exactly why was King and his ilk referred to as militants? Why exactly did Hoover spend so much capital surveilling him?

You are taking 21st Century realities and porting them backwards. Damn Coretta was fucked up for not emailing Betty when Malcolm got put down. She should have at LEAST called her on her cell.

Sheesh.

What I'm saying is that the Old School ought to be about rescuing black consciousness and black nationalism from the knuckleheads who have been coddled by the Left. The kind of knuckleheads who would say that people like Assata Shakur are the heirs of the black progressive agenda.

Could you even name a single knucklehead here? Who are you talking about?

What the Old School should be about is preserving the best of our history, and our knowledge. What you're doing here, ain't old school kid. By consistently playing loose with the facts, you're on some new jack shit here.

Wait, wait. See you can't just compare pre- and post-Reconstruction and post-Brown.

Oh. But you CAN put Steve Cokely--a CONTEMPORARY knuckleheaded conspiracy theorist in search of a theory--and the Black Panthers in the same sentence? Even though they lived in two totally differrent time periods?

The crack must've worn off for a second.

Flunking Black Militancy 101

In two different pieces, black bloggers have evinced a startling disdain for the rudiments of black political history. To the point that I feel it necessary to slap some sense into some folks. I'll start with my boy. Kwanzaa? The holiday he defends to the death? Black militancy. NSBE? The organization he was elected National Finance Officer of? Black militancy.

Oh.

Cobb's hanging out in Detroit this weekend if I remember correctly. His wife's high school anniversary is coming up. She went to Cass Technical High School--one of the most prominent high schools in the country. All black now, but black kids were getting rejected from Cass like they had the plague. What stemmed the tide?

You know the answer.

If I knew Ed's backstory (and that of Baltimore) better I think I could run the same game. And of course we all know about McWhorter's dalliance with Affirmative Action.

Slapping around knuckleheads like Steve Cokely is no substitute for thinking long and hard about the triumph and tragedy of black militancy.

Be better.

"Black Militancy"

Bear with me for a few minutes please.

Can someone tell me exactly what came out of "Black militancy" other than a lot of hot air?

This is asked in response to Booker Rising commentary and P6.

[ Update ]

lks said the question should be phrased a different way, so here is the question phrased a different way: What would we as individuals have today WITHOUT black militancy?

And now I guess I should ask, what do you define as "Black militancy"?

Again, bear with me. I'm going somewhere. Just hang on for the ride.

I Keep Saying

So, I'm home a little early from work, stretched out on the bed, with my headphones on, listening to sometimes talk radio. (The kid is asleep at the head of the bed, I'm at the foot of the bed).

I wake up from a catnap to hear Black people talking about the Republican vs. Democratic party thing.

One person gets his facts twisted and states "Republicans" when it should be "Democrats". The Republicans in the discussion jump on him.

Should I mention this was an all Black panel?

Anyway...

What got me is one person said that parties don't matter, it's the policies that matter.

That's where I'm at in this stage of my life.

To hell with the party labels, I'm going to support the PERSON who is saying things that most align with my views.

Alan Keyes and Michael Steele and Olympia Snowe are all in the same party. (Shouldn't Keyes be pissed about the GOP pushing Steele as a star?)

Mfume, Ford, Teddy Kennedy and Zell Miller are all in the same party.

Screw the labels, I'm staying independent and will support the person not the party.

Footnote: I find it a damn shame that some people can't handle a person being critical of a party but that not meaning that a person supports the opposition party. How many people realize that the U.S. political system is not a 2 party system, but a multi-party system with the 2 primary parties rigging the game against all other parties?

Spence on News and Notes with Ed Gordon

During my month and a half long sojourn back to Detroit, I attended an event in Chicago on behalf of the Charles H. Wright African American History Museum in Detroit. I talked about the museum's innovative fundraising technique in today's News and Notes with Ed Gordon.

Fishing Fill-os-o-fee

So, my friends and I chartered a head boat from Chrisfield and went off to do battle with the Croakers, Spot, and Sea Trout of the Chesapeake Bay.

While waiting for the fish to realize that we had placed squid, blood worms, night crawlers, and peelers in their domain for their feasting, we touched on a lot of topics.

Music and lack there of in rap, getting our children to be more responsible, a knucklehead who was running from the police and was captured because "his damn pants were falling off of his ass!"

We hit upon immigration. The two people most impacted by illegal immigrants didn't blame the illegal immigrants. "After all, they are just trying to earn some cash". But they mentioned that their bosses are now hiring nothing but illegals, some having multiple pieces of the same identification, each with a different name. They also mentioned that it appears many can't understand English until they are put into a rough situation, like someone mentioning that if no one understands, they will call a policeman so the police can get someone who speaks Spanish.

Of course, there was the conversation about women, cars, the housing market and the like.

So what is the point?

None really. Just a part of life that keeps going.