'Where Are The White Heroes?'

A few days ago I saw a note about Tobey Maguire starring in a film about Brown v. Board of Education called "The Crusaders." I almost posted about it, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to say. The film is based on a book by Jack Greenberg (Maguire's role in the film) which tells his perspective as a member of the Legal Defense Fund under Thurgood Marshall. Greenberg's story is both admirable and noteworthy, as his crusading against de jure segregation and discrimination continued long after Brown. He appears to be, what my grandparents would have called, "a good white man." A white hero. The reason I finally decided to write about this is another story that popped up in my news feed. Danny Glover struggled to find funding for his film on the Haitian revolutionary Toussaint L'Ouverture who freed Haiti from French oppression and slavery. According to Glover, "Producers said 'It's a nice project, a great project... where are the white heroes?" He eventually got half of his funding from a foundation set up by Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan president, and U.S. side-thorn. What I'm getting at is this: in the black community, the tradition has been to tell our own stories, because no one else can or will. But if we want to tell those stories to a larger audience, we need capital, and the only way to get capital is to have a bankable white hero. Or Will Smith. While I'm glad the Brown movie is being made — though I'm less glad about the sexy, but one-note Terrence Howard playing Thurgood Marshall — I wonder if the story could have, or would have been told if it were from the perspective of, say, the only female member on the team. Constance Baker Motley, the first African American woman to argue before the Supreme Court. The first African American woman elected to the New York State Senate. The first African American woman appointed to the federal district court. But no one would fund that movie. Sigh. In the picture, I believe it's Greenberg who is third from the right.

'Black Women It Sucks To Be You!'

The ladies over at What About Our Daughters slay me. And more importantly, they do it while shedding light on an underreported subject: African American women and girls. You know how Nancy Grace loves to devote hours of airtime to missing (white) girls and children? Did you know she does it while completely ignoring women of color who have gone missing? Well, WAOD blows the trumpet on injustice regularly. And they still manage to maintain their humor. They pretty much hit the nail on the head as to why I wouldn't watch CNN's 'Black in America' special even if I had cable:

Will Black women be misrepresented yet again? Will CNN try to pull an ESSENCE and depress the heck out of us all or try to prey on our paranoia? Will they scratch beneath the surface and go further than the epidermis or will we just hear the same pablum regurgitated in the tradition of NBC New's African American Women Where they Stand also known as "Black women it sucks to be you!" Or are Black people inherently difficult to please and all other networks should avoid trying to tell Black folks who they are? Man I miss Ed Bradley. Now HE would have put together a heck of a series on Black people and not just rehashed and reheated the panels from Tavis Smiley's State of the Black Folk's Union presented by Exxon Mobil, McDonald's and Rudy Ray's Rib Shack and Waffles.

Seriously (also, Rudy Ray's Rib Shack and Waffles? *dead*). Because CNN ruins everything, it was inevitable that they'd do their best to ruin blackness. And as I've said time and time again, as there are no blacks who are also women, it's sure to have lots of hand-wringing about the endangered species: black men. If you catch it, let me know how awful it is. I refuse to subject myself to it (no matter how many chain e-mail messages I get from black people reminding me to WATCH CNN'S BLACK IN AMERICA SPECIAL TONIGHT). I don't care how cool Soledad O'Brien is, either. Bah.

Culture Clash in Harlem.

The new white residents in this one building in Harlem don't like the loud drumming across the street in Marcus Garvey Park (though, it's a park named after Marcus Garvey, for cryin' out loud). That's fine. In fact, I find it to be illustrative of the cultural difference between blacks and whites. H/T RaceWire for the link to this Times piece:

The drummers in the park are African-American and from Africa and the Caribbean. They form a circle and have played in the park, in one form or another, since 1969, when the neighborhood was a more dangerous place. The musicians, who play until 10 p.m. every summer Saturday, are widely credited with helping to make the park safer over the years.

Their supporters, who acknowledge that the drumbeats can pierce walls and windows, regard the musicians as part of the city’s vibrant and often noisy cultural mix. But some in the building at 2002 Fifth Avenue, most of them young white professionals, have a different perspective: When the drummers occupy a spot nearby, residents say, they are unable to sleep, hear their television sets, speak on the telephone, or even have conversations with their spouses without shouting. Some say they cannot even think straight.

While many African Americans may find loud drumming for hours on a Saturday night annoying, they probably aren't going to call the cops on the group that's been doing the same thing every Saturday night for thirty years. I think it's because most black people have a higher tolerance for plain-old cacophony. Also, most black people aren't about to call the cops. We're a loud people, no? And African drums include a subset called 'talking drums.' It's only natural that they're going to be ... attention-getting. (Anecdote alert: My mother used to get on my nerves because she was so loud when she'd talk to her friends. Then, I got to HU and saw that all my friends' mothers, and aunties, and sisters were like that.) Though I'm a pretty quiet person, noise, disorganized or organized, doesn't bother me. It all is part and parcel of the way we communicate. My initial reaction was to take the side of the drummers, but, then I remembered a piece I read recently about a black real estate agent in Harlem who is selling (out?) homes in the area to the highest bidder. This, of course, is her prerogative in a capitalist society. But it does make you wonder how much sacrifice will have to be made in a traditionally black area such as Harlem, where young white professionals move for both the affordability and flava'. As the people who made Harlem what it is are forced out by rising real estate prices, and whites move in (which makes sense, because white people gotta live, too), what happens? In short, does a 30-year-old drum circle have a place if the people who loved and appreciated it are no longer there? And are we asking too much of the new neighbors to adopt the habits of the neighborhood?

Jesse's Not (That) Wrong

I know most people who hear this story aren't going to know what the context was, so I've provided video... The 'nuts' part might have been rather crude. Or, as a friend said to me over the phone: "Seriously? How emasculating. That's some antebellum, 'Strange Fruit' shit right there. Score one for the white man." But. Jesse isn't wrong about the 'talking down to black people' part. That's what Barack has been doing on his personal responsibility tour. It's one of a few things he's been doing lately as the nominee that makes me feel uncomfortable. Poor black parents know their kids aren't gonna grow up to be rappers or ballers. But they also have to work crazy hours (if they can get a job) to put food on the table. It's all about priorities, and I don't think the blacks whom Obama is encouraging to 'do right' are purposely letting things slide in their homes. Sigh. Some things are getting hard to justify right now.

Centennial Boule + Centennial Barbie

I'm heading to DC on Saturday for Alpha Kappa Alpha's Centennial Boule. First off, Boule is always a huge event (it only happens every other year) and on top of that, this is our hundredth year, so... you get the picture. And since the Centennial Boule will be my very first one, I'm super-excited. Also, I haven't been back to DC since October for Howard Homecoming. In other words, I've been bouncing all week. Numbers vary, but there are something like 20,000 members of the org who are registered for the conference, plus innumerable unregistered members... and that number doesn't include our fans. Many greek men I know who live on the Eastern seaboard will be making their way to DC for as my Sigma co-worker put it: "AKA heaven!" And, um, we have a Barbie doll. It was announced earlier this year, but the pics have just surfaced. I love her features, though I wish she were a little darker (so she could be representative of more women in the sorority, while avoiding the brown paper bag stereotype), but eh... it's one of those things where you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. Isn't she purty? [Photo courtesy the Chicago Sun-Times] The other thing I love: her dress is actually in our colors, SALMON pink and APPLE green (not magenta and forest green, not hot pink and kelly green).

King Statue Overhaul ... Not Terrible

When I first heard that the Martin Luther King, Jr. statue was getting toned down from a having frown to a smile, I was pretty annoyed. The federal arts commission also didn't like that his arms were crossed, as that was "too confrontational." But come on, what was King, if he wasn't confrontational? It's like people want to turn him into the grandpa in the Werther's Original commercials, or something. But then I saw the picture which ran in the AJC. (Click image for a larger version.) On the left is the old, unfriendly version. On the right is the altered, more benign version. I think the new version is a definite improvement. Something in the brow was distinctly... not King-like. The version with a hint o' smile simply looks more like him. And they kept the arms crossed. King looks sorta like he's surveying the land, not expressing approval or disapproval, just observing. Me likey. Update: I wasn't familiar with the brouhaha over the statue having a Chinese sculptor until recently. To that, I say, pshaw. King didn't just make a difference in the U.S., he was an inspiration globally, even while he was being reviled at home ("Beyond Vietnam" speech, anyone?). King isn't the property of black Americans, and seeing him through the eyes of a so-called outsider can be nothing but beneficial.

Happy Juneteenth!

This is more of a Texas holiday, but I remember celebrating Juneteenth events out in California — probably because the majority of black Californians came from Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and other Dust Bowl states. For those of y'all who don't know what it is... from Wikipedia:

Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, is an annual holiday or holiday observance in 27 states of the United States. Celebrated on June 19, it commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas.

As the story goes, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1862, but it wasn't until 1865 that the erstwhile slaves in Galveston, Texas were alerted that they were... erstwhile. It's an official state holiday in Texas, and in 2005, the Governator declared June 19th "Juneteenth Day" in California (which is just another reason why my governor is more awesome than yours).

Militant Monday: Perhaps I AM My Hair + 'Malcolm X'

Ok, I promise this won't become a blog where I document the progress of my hair semi-monthly. But after more than 15 years with relaxed hair (son, I don't even remember my first perm), I'm going natural. But first things, first. It's Militant Monday! Last night, I watched Spike Lee's Malcolm X for the first time in close to ten years. Actually, I watched 2 hours of it. I still have an hour and some change to go. While I watched, between putting up the black power fist and snapping soulfully, I was chatting with Lauren on BlackBerry Messenger. I relayed, to her shock and glee, my plans to possibly cut off all of my hair, rather than do the slower transition. 'No more of the white man's chemical fire cream on my natural born black scalp!' I typed, forcefully. And so on. While I've been feeling an urge for natural hair for a while, the restriction the conk has put on my workout routine is the main catalyst. I want to go swimming and not spend two hours fixing my hair every single time. I want to wash and go. I want to stop planning vacations and events around when I do my hair. The list goes on. And it really isn't about getting 'back to my roots' (whatever that means). I went to Howard, where going natural was a aesthetic choice, and there was no guarantee that the fine brotha with the locks had read even a line of Marcus Garvey's, or that the sista with the fly 'fro was as interested in revolution as she was in how fierce she looked on the Yard. In fact, if being au naturel isn't as great as I think it is, I reserve my right to go back to the fire cream. With that said, there's a pretty dope exchange between Malcolm while he's in prison and the brother that leads him to the Nation. He's putting more conk on his head, because on the outside "everybody does it," to which the brother -- who's a bit of a buzzkill, truth be told -- responds, "Why don't you want to look like what you are? What makes you ashamed of being black?" During that scene, I wrote to Lauren.

Shani-o: I'm gonna show up to work bald. Shani-o: and they're gonna be like, "What happened?!" Shani-o: and I'll be like, "I watched Malcolm X, white devil!" Lauren: LMFAO!! Shani-o: This movie is bad. Shani-o: Black people shouldn't be allowed to watch it. Lauren: LOL. No they shouldn't. Lauren: Or 'A Time To Kill.' Shani-o: Or 'Rosewood.'

And so on. One of the benefits of not getting to the last hour of 'Malcolm X' is that you miss the denouement, in which Malcolm makes the Hajj and unpacks his extremist, all-white-people-are-devils mentality and takes a more moderate approach. Well, that, and the assassination. I'm one of those people who hopes that the ending changes whenever I watch a sad movie (like, in 'Love Story,' I'm always surprised and heartbroken at the end). But anyway, skipping the end means you get to stay outraged. I'm sure I'll calm down once I watch the end. But for now, happy Militant Monday everybody!!

How To Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is 101

Spike Lee should teach a class. First, he takes Clint Eastwood to task for whitewashing WWII, twiceover. And then a trailer for 'Miracle At St. Anna' comes out, and it looks awesome.

Clint Eastwood vs. Spike Lee: Is it 1993?

"A guy like him should shut his face," said Clint Eastwood, aging badass, referring to Spike Lee's criticism of the director's lack of black soldiers in Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. According to Lee, who is beginning promotion for his own WWII outing, Miracle at St. Anna, "Many veterans, African-Americans, who survived that war are upset at Clint Eastwood. In his vision of Iwo Jima, Negro soldiers did not exist. Simple as that. I have a different version." Eastwood dismissed Lee's comment in a recent interview with the Guardian (which misquoted Lee's original statement), saying "The story is Flags of Our Fathers, the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn't do that. If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people'd go, 'This guy's lost his mind.' I mean, it's not accurate." Because putting blacks in a historical film amounts to little more than affirmative action, apparently. Another Eastwood gem: "[Should I] make it look like a commercial for an equal opportunity player? I'm not in that game. I'm playing it the way I read it historically, and that's the way it is." He might as well have said Spike was pulling the race card. Oddly enough, two years ago, the Guardian ran an article detailing the 900 black soldiers who were at Iwo Jima, and made a direct correlation to the lack of blacks in Flags. 900 is a little bit more than the 'small detachment' mentioned in the Eastwood interview. From that article, Yvonne Latty (author of We Were There: Voices of African American Veterans):

"No one's asking for them to be the stars of the movies, but at least show that they were there. This is the way a new generation will think about Iwo Jima. Once again it will be that African-American people did not serve, that we were absent. It's a lie."

While blacks were mostly carrying ammunition in Japan, they were there, and to completely ignore the existence is totally irresponsible. My own grandfather fought in Europe during WWII, and if that weren't common knowledge in my family, I probably would have thought all soldiers ever (except for Bubba in Forrest Gump) were white. Update: A white woman on MSNBC's Morning Joe said Spike Lee was "really uppity." Either the person who wrote her lines hates her and wants her fired, or she's an idiot. Or both. Because, who even uses the word "uppity" anymore?

Tell 'Em Why You're (Not) Mad, Son!

I had a friend instant message me today, asking if I'd seen the Vogue cover with Lebron James and Gisele Bundchen. Of course I have. Stevie Wonder has seen it. Anyway, this friend happens to be a black man who is deeply offended by the cover. I saw the following alternate on Jezebel, and sent it to him. Nope, that's not better, he said. Less blatant, but just as bad. As I told him, I'm the first person to be on the lookout for racism. It's ALWAYS racism. But... this isn't as problematic to me as the fact that Lebron James is the first black man to cover US Vogue (and the first black man to cover French Vogue was a leggy crossdresser - meanwhile Men's Vogue has covered Will Smith, Denzel Washington, and Obama). More problematic is that J.Hud was only the third black woman to cover US Vogue. Vogue is not the most diverse or racially sensitive crayon in the box. But the James-Bundchen cover? It just doesn't scream 'King Kong' to me. They both look like they're having fun. (Oh, and why isn't LeBron in a suit, as my friend and others have asked indignantly? All of the sports figures in the mag are dressed in uniform, while the models, uh, model.) Ta-Nehisi Coates makes a good point about racism debates about magazine covers versus, you know, actual racism. And The Assimilated Negro agrees that this is all a bit much. But what's your take on it?

The Speech.

Perfection.

Did you see/hear Barack's speech? Click the link to go to the text. It was perfection. I literally sat there with my mouth open. He said everything that needed to be said, to everyone who needed to hear it. I'll admit, I was slightly terrified that he'd pull the old "denounce and repudiate" Wright to make 'the American people' feel better. And early on in the speech, I was kinda iffy about the Constitution stuff. I was even a little worried when he started talking about Wright's political views (with which I agree to a certain degree). But then... Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America. And then... I can no more disown [Wright] than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe. And then... (And this really knocked my socks off.) In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Of course, there was more. Read it yourself. Or better yet, find it somewhere and listen to it or watch it. Believe you, me, this speech is one of the best he's ever made, and one of the best I've ever heard. Forgive my effusiveness in this, but there's just no way it could have been better.

Michelle Obama on LKL

Larry King asks dumb questions. It's a fact. But that's probably why he's so popular. Last night, he interviewed Michelle Obama, and she was, as usual, matter-of-fact, down-to-earth, and straight forward. I don't know if I mentioned this on here, but she's the one who got me to back Barack. Months ago, when people were still asking that stupid question, but is he Black enough? she was interviewed by some talking head (I forget who). The numbers were showing blacks in favor of Clinton (pre-Bill's South Carolina meltdown) and the reporter asked Michelle about the lack of support in the black community. She said: "First of all, I think that that's not going to hold. I'm completely confident: black America will wake up, and get it. But what we're dealing with in the black community is just the natural fear of possibility. You know, when I look at my life, the stuff that we're seeing in these polls has played out my whole life. You know, always been told by somebody that I'm not ready, that I can't do something, my scores weren't high enough. You know, there's always that doubt in the back of the minds of people of color. People who've been oppressed and haven't been given real opportunities. That you never really believe. That you believe that somehow, someone is better than you. You know, deep down inside, you doubt whether you can do it, because that's all you've been told, is "no, wait." That's all you hear, and you hear it from people who love you. Not because they don't care about you, but because they're afraid. They're afraid that something might happen." There was a lot of backlash because of this answer. Anger from blacks who don't want to admit that blackness is a thing that lives, and breathes, and comes with its own set of insecurities; anger from whites who hate being reminded that racism has had lasting repercussions; and anger from women who think gender trumps race. But her words were exactly what I needed to hear. My favorite quote from last night's interview: LK: So you're ready for it. Ready to be the first black, the first female... MO: I am who I am. I'm ready for it. That's who I am. People want to make it about being the first this, or being the first that. Why can't it be about... being who you are?

Operating a hand drill at Vultee-Nashville

Operating a hand drill at Vultee-Nashville, woman is working on a "Vengeance" dive bomber, Tennessee (LOC), originally uploaded by The Library of Congress.

I'm sure this picture has been all up and through the blogosphere by now, but It's amazing to see a (color!) picture from the 30s/40s with a black woman working for the war cause. They didn't teach me this during BHM as a kid...

The Root

Recently, logging on to Slate as I do every day, I saw an interesting graphic in the middle of the page where there's usually a "clever" illustration or headline. "Welcome to the Root," it read. It's an African American e-zine (do people still use the term "e-zine?" No? Ok, I'll refrain.). The first thing that caught my eye was a piece by Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Princeton's own rising star in politics and African American studies (the intersection of two of my major interests). It seems like she's everywhere these days, or at least here on campus and around town. Poking around a bit more on the site, I noticed that Skip Gates was the editor. Hmm. Further exploration revealed myriad prominent African American writers (many of whom are affiliated with the WaPo, The Root's major sponsor) from both sides of the fence. Conservatives, moderates, liberals. In fact, I'd go so far as to say The Root covers every facet of African Americanism. Except one. Afrocentrism/black nationalism are sorely lacking here. I suspect this is due to the following: it's perfectly fine to be proud of being African American, because you're still acknowledging your American-ness. But being afrocentric, being black doesn't leave room for the bit of whiteness (large or small) we share. But hey, it's a Washington Post endeavor, so I wouldn't expect any less. (Note: is it bad that just looking at Stanley Crouch makes me shudder? And this reaction is not based entirely on his appearance.) With that said, this will definitely be on my list of sites to visit on the regular. We'll see. ____ Listening to: Judy Garland, "Stormy Weather."

Random thoughts on Super Tuesday

I'm still waiting on results from the West. But right now, I suspect that Clinton and Obama will split the delegates fairly evenly.

I'm kind of terrified that he's not going to get the nom.

I've been greeting one of my coworkers with: "YES WE CAN!"

When I said it to my dad today on the phone, he was like "We can... what?"

Me: I'm not entirely sure, but whatever it is, we can do it!!

I want this.

I'll admit, his blackness is a factor. It's not the only factor, or even a major one (if it were, I would have supported Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Alan Keyes). But it's there. Just...

I really want the "Yes We Can" and "There has never been anything false about hope" shirts from http://www.zazzle.com.

I'm wound up.

Can we?

I'm nervous; vibrating a little; anxious and hopeful. I talked to Wife today, and told her I didn't know what it was, but I'm a believer. I believe. He makes me believe. His wife inspires me. I want to believe so badly that this might actually happen. Either way, it's Black History. "In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." And I'll say it one more time before I go to bed: yes, we can.