Archive for August 24th, 2004

Jared has a thought-provoking post on his reaction to seeing an argument between a man and a woman that had abusive overtones. He writes,

What I saw this morning has been bugging me all day, really, which is why I’m writing about it. Makes me want to go beat the devil outta that guy…and hold the door open for his girl. I know, I know…violence begetting violence, etc. You know what, though? Some people need a beatin’. A guy who’ll abuse his spouse is definitely in that category, if you ask me.

I’m with him in principle, but I will think twice before I step into any domestic situation. I know of too many situations where the “hero” winds up catching it from the “damsel.” My “little brother,” who’s a police officer tells me that when he goes to a call for a domestic situation, he lays it out for the woman as soon as he walks in the door: “If you hit me or my partner, you will be wearing these cuffs and you will be going to jail.” He has to say that because there’s a decent likelihood that she’ll try to do something.

And it’s not even so much about thinking that the woman is being ungrateful, it’s a simple matter of personal safety. Fortunately, I didn’t grow up in that type of environment, but my grandmother was a hairdresser. I grew up getting all the low-down. For whatever reason, some people are just at home in that type of situation. As strange as it seems to me, there are some people who think that physical abuse is proof of affection. Or something. And I know there are other circumstances that have to do with it, like financial dependency and having grown up in households where abuse is prevalent that confound the situation. It’s bad all the way around.

What’s just as bad but seems worse in some ways is the scene when it’s the woman who’s beating the man. Mary Mitchell had an article about it a few weeks ago, but apparently I can’t link to it any more. But suffice it to say that I feel bad for guys who are in that position. Obviously they’re conscientious enough to keep from hitting a woman, but that woman takes his non-physicality as a sign of weakness.

Just throwing this out there to see if anybody bites:

1. Would you/ have you ever intervened in a domestic situation involving strangers?

2. Would you be more or less likely to do so if the woman were beating the man?

3. What, in your opinion, should a man do when he is being physically accosted by a woman?

Somebody needs to break this down for me.

August 24, 2004 — LAURA Bush delivered a diss to Sean “P. Diddy” Combs by refusing to appear alongside the hip-hop heavyweight at last night’s grand opening of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, sources said.

Combs was supposed to join the first lady, actress Angela Bassett, U2 frontman Bono, Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, Sen. Mike DeWine, Black Entertainment Television CEO Bob Johnson and other dignitaries at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, but Bush’s office nixed the photo-op with Combs.

“Her reps made it very clear to Freedom Center that they would not have Laura Bush appearing in the same photo-op as P. Diddy,” tattled our source.

Now let me get this straight: there were supposed to be several people in the picture and she refused to take the picture because of Puffy P. Diddy? I could see it if they were supposed to take a picture together, but as a part of a large group? Come on. What’s that all about, really?

I’m not gonna get all deep on this situation with the Miller Brewing Company’s lack of foresight in recognizing Black musicians in their 50th Anniversary of Rock & Roll campaign. For a minute, I was thinking I was gonna go to town on this whole thing, but I’ma pull back for a couple reasons.

1. I’m not mad that they’re not putting a Black man’s face on a beer can. The fact that there would be no rock ‘n roll without Black folks notwithstanding, I’m cool with not seeing a brother’s face on a container of alcohol. If we could cut down on the number of brothers lookin’ at the can in the first place…

2. It seems ludicrous on its face, but there has to be some science behind this move. It’s hard for me to believe that this marketing campaign went through the entire chain and nobody realized that there weren’t any Black artists being honored. At best, I’m thinking that they meant rock specifically as a genre and therefore didn’t think of Black folks, although that in itself is a major misconception…

I just hope they don’t try to rectify the situation by putting pictures of rappers on 40 oz bottles.

I’ve probably said 100 times that I don’t do politics. There are too many things in this world that I enjoy and too much that I really care about for me to hitch myself to a party. That doesn’t mean I won’t express political thoughts, but even then, my intent is to to frame issues as challenges to be worked on, not ideas to volleyed. Don’t know if I always succeed, but that’s my goal, at least. I like to talk politics at the concrete level, where ideology takes on much less significance.

Having said all that, I know some people who loooove to talk politics. If you’re at my crib, then I know you’ve been around the corner to La Shawn’s. If you haven’t been already, then you need to check out the rest of the members of the Conservative Brotherhood, too. There are some sharp political minds in there. They got that.

I bring all that up because I got wind of this editorial by Robert Oliver, Save The Drama For Your Mama, the other day and it’s definitely worth reading. It separates the truth from the rhetoric with regards to the Democratic Party’s claims of historic inclusiveness. When pressed, I can do politics, and if I did it would probably look something like this piece, but since there are people who actually talking Republican v. Democrat, I’ll leave it to them.

But here’s a quote from the article that had me rolling on the floor laughing. And Bill Clinton (who was sued while Governor of Arkansas for violating the 1965 Voting Rights Act and signed into law “Confederate Flag Day”) is a member of the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame? If Clinton was our first Black president, wasn’t he an Uncle Tom and an Oreo cookie?

Now that’s funny.

Hip-hop hating conservatives are gonna have to step to the rear because looking at recent statements and events, we got a chance. A couple months ago, I did a point-by-point breakdown the platform of Russell Simmons’ Hip Hop Summit Action Network. I’m not wild on the polemics, so I just kinda pointed out some areas where the agenda could stand some refining from being a nebulous idea to an actionable achievable plan. I ain’t gonna lie, though, in my own mind, I was quietly convinced that the HHSAN was just as much a front door for the Democratic party as the NAACP. I was wrong, though.

Watch this:

In addition to the registrations, the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network honored Maryland’s Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich and Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, also a Republican, for their work on the drug laws in Maryland and their efforts to improve businesses in the African-American community.

Now, to be fair, I seem to recall the NAACP giving Condoleeza Rice an Image Award two or three years ago, but I don’t know how much weight that carries now. I’m not so sure Dr. Rice would have been welcome at the NAACP Convention a couple months ago, but I can’t say that the NAACP has shown utter contempt for Black conservatives…just a general dislike.

Anyway, Russell Rush’s organization is in its nascent stages of formation. It has no real victories and no real defeats with which to cement its ideological focus. If we stand to the side and do nothing, then it will shrinky-dink down to being a vehicle for one party over the other. It doesn’t have to be that way, though. “The Democrats do not own Hip-Hop,” Simmons said. Now I’ll be the first one to tell you that not all of Rush’s ideas are compatible with a conservative/moderate mindset (man,I hate labels) but we can’t really hash those issues out as long as we stay away from the table.

But it’s not just Rush. LL Cool J performed at Clinton’s first inauguration and he performed at the Democratic convention this year, and maybe at some other events in between. Here’s what he had to say:

AllHipHop.com: Did you recently just go to the Democratic Convention in Boston?

LL: I went to the convention, but I went to [perform at] the Rock to Vote concert. And what I said after I finished performing was, I’m not here to endorse any particular candidate. I said that if there is any candidate that is looking for my endorsement, we have to meet face to face and I need to know what their plans are and how they are going to affect my community, and then America as a whole, and then my community within America. I have to know what the plan is. I’m not going to lend my name and my credibility. I respect them of course. And I said it respectfully because you have to respect the people that are running for the leadership of our country because this is a great country. And I do love this country because it has given me a great opportunity. Regardless of what our ancestry is, ultimately we are all here because of our ancestry. So whether good or bad, at the end of the day we are here now and we need to take advantage of this opportunity of being Americans. At the same time, if I’m going to endorse somebody, I can’t just endorse him or her just by default. We have to sit down and talk. I have to see what’s going on, and how what you do affects the people I love.

AllHipHop.com: Have you followed any of the candidates?

LL: A lil’ much. I haven’t been stimulated to that point. When I hear someone talking about something other than what Bush has done wrong, then I can listen a lil’ better. But at this point I don’t know anything about what anyone is saying but what Bush did wrong. That doesn’t help me. There’s a whole focus on the problem but what’s the solution?

Now let’s not jump the gun and give LL some kind of ideological label, but let’s recognize the fact that there are some inroads to be made. I’m telling you, if we can emphasize the economic benefits of the conservative agenda, we’re in there. I don’t think there would ever be a conservative majority within hip-hop, but I think that we can have a significant presence. But for me, it’s not even about some ideological version of Stratego, it’s about doing something. If we’re out there doing what we’re supposed to be doing; the things we talk about and the things we know are right, the rest of that will follow.