The Payback - James Brown
Dazz - Brick
Hydra - Grover Washington, Jr.
Disco To Go - The Brides of Funkenstein
Bad Mamma Jamma - Carl Carlton
Pneumonia - Kool & The Gang
House of Beauty - Isaac Hayes
Heartbeat - Taana Gardner
Just Kissed My Baby - The Meters
Climax - The Ohio Players
Time For Livin’ - Sly & The Family Stone
Swingin’ The Blues - Count Basie
Energy Blues - Biz Markie

I’ve talked about the use of the word ‘nigga’ before, so I’m actually kinda hesitant to bring it up again, only because I think I was pretty thorough in my last explanation. But to recap, I think that ‘nigga’ is, in whatever use, highly contexualized. That is, to in order to state whether it is a positive or negative term depends mostly on the situation in which it is being used. Everybody knows the history of the word, but every usage is not necessarily using the word in that sense. I concede that there’s a discussion to be had on this point, however.

One argument that I hear sometimes when some “newsworthy” person jumps off his rocker and uses the word in public is the old standard, “Well if Black people say ‘nigga,’ then why shouldn’t other people be allowed to say it?” Which is a red herring, at best. A weak analogy would be for me to say that my grandmother can call me “Boo-Boo,” but she’s the only person on the face of this earth who can. Perhaps more substantially, but with even less logic is the Bruce Hornsby response: that’s just the way it is. But I think I wanna break it down a little more precisely than that.

As I said up top, I think that in almost every instance where the word is used, the “positivity” or “negativity” can be determined by the context. In other words, the fact that I may use ‘nigga’ as a term of endearment at times does not mean that I don’t use it as a pejorative elsewhen. It just means that you’d have to know what was going on in that specific situation.

Now one thing that I think is important to understand is that English usage is not as robust as it once was. American culture is very informal, which is something that I appreciate most of the time, but as a result of this informality, many of us don’t really develop our vocabularies enough to speak with precision. I remember reading a little exchange over at Booker about this very thing. At any rate, my point in bringing this up is that when you speak with your familiars, much of what you’re actually saying is coded in words that don’t literally mean what you’re talking about. I mean, we all know political examples like “quota” or “diversity,” but it goes on even more frequently with the people we know. And so it is with slang and vulgar terms. The gift and the curse of cuss words (no pun intended) is that they can operate as several parts of speech. One of the things I love about reading Zora Neale Hurston is looking at the kind of invective they were able to spit. Even though it’s not the strongest example, “Happier than a pig in slop” gives me a lot better idea of how happy a person is than “Happy as shit,” which I’ve heard not infrequently.
So to bring it back to ‘nigga,’ and this latest professional utterance, I think that what’s happened is that ‘nigga/nigger’ has become, for many people, a permanent sore spot. Not necessarily saying that it shouldn’t be, but I am saying that in some cases, it seems to me that there’s an inherent weakness in having such a sensitive button that’s so easily accessed. As Cobb says, “See I just can’t get that offended about it. I’m a college-educated sophisticated man. I read the Invisible Man a long long time ago, and I remember the part when it was said that if you thought you could insult a sophisticated man by calling him ‘nigger’ you really weren’t important enough to mind.” What that basically boils down to is that “nigga,” when uttered as a pejorative is shorthand for “the most hurtful thing I can say to you if you’re Black.” But it only works because we keep that sore out there and accessible.

For as much as we fight over “nigga,” I’m still not sure it’s really a battle worth fighting. Of course that doesn’t mean I don’t think there should repercussions when people use the word ad nauseam, but it does make me wonder whether by scratching that itch every time, we keep the infection going, or maybe even spread it.

Well, for the 2nd year in a row, Donovan has suffered a season-ending injury.  I can’t imagine how frustrated he is, especially with the season he’d been having up to this point. I know in my senior year, I was undefeated in the League when I tore my ACL, so I can relate a little bit.  That’s pretty much it for the Eagles this season, and possibly next.  Unless Jeff Garcia or A.J. Feeley has some tricks up his sleeve that I just can’t imagine at this point.

Meanwhile, I ain’t even gonna lie:  I bought into all the Ohio State-Michigan hype.  I was marginally rooting for OSU because they have a Black quarterback, but I was mostly hoping that the game didn’t disappoint.  It didn’t.  At all.  From the Ohio State perspective, it was probably more exciting than it really needed to be, but it was a goood game.

One of the difficulties I have with some types of “protection” from acts of legislation is that they have the effect of infantilazing the people whom they’re purporting to help.  Case in point:  all this hand-wrangling over laws requiring voters to carry state-issued ID.  According to The Hill, now that the Legislative Branch has changed hands, that whole project is pretty much a dead duck at the federal level, as it has been at the state level.  If the people don’t want to carry ID’s and vote the idea down, I guess that’s up to them, but I’ll be dogged if I can figure out why it shouldn’t be a law. 

Critics have consistently claimed that such laws would disproportionately affect poor and minority communities whose members are less likely to have government-issued ID, such as passports or drivers licenses, or be able to afford them if they had to purchase them.

It would be different if the proposed laws were requiring voters to have a special ID card with which to vote.  Then I could see some resistance. Shoot, I would probably be against that, myself.  Who wants to carry around a whole bunch of unnecessary cards and whatnot?  What possible argument could there be against using the Driver’s License, though?  Wasn’t it not too long ago that the push was to allow people to register when they get their licenses? 

See, I think this boils down to the question of rights versus responsibilities.  Yes, voting is a right, but along with it must come some requisite responsibilities.  I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having some expectations of voters.  I mean, yeah, we want people to be free to vote and we don’t wanna make restrictions that inhibit any portion of the populace, but come on.  I could’ve walked into the booth and voted regardless of the fact that I barely knew who was running and what they stood for.  Nobody’s checking.  In fact, my guess is that both parties would rather that I blindly vote for their brand instead of selecting each candidate.  Either way, since we don’t require voters to actually know anything about what or who they’re voting for, they should at least be have to have some form of identification. I mean, for real.  You tryin’a tell me it’s okay to mandate ID to buy alcohol, but it’s not okay to mandate ID for me to vote?

This should come as no surprise at all.  Southern with a healthy dose of Philadelphia.  I’ve taken a few of these types of online quizzes, and I hafta say that this one is more precise than anything other than my  Myers-Briggs.

Jacked from Parablemania.

If I Ain’t Got You - Alicia Keys
Soul Food - Goodie Mob
Don’t Go - En Vogue
Passing Me By - The Pharcyde
Stand - Commissioned
All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm - Jimmy Dorsey
Takeover - Jay-Z
Glide - Pleasure
All This Love - DeBarge
Phuck U Symphony - Millie Jackson
There It Is - Ohio Players
Miss Me Blind - Culture Club
Sho Nuff Must Be Love - Heatwave
Wildflower - New Birth
Dance To The Drummer’s Beat - Herman Kelly
Parental Discretion Iz Advized - NWA, f. The D.O.C.

Yesterday, somebody asked me of Lynn Swann deserved to be in the Hall of Fame.  Of course,  I said yes.  Lynn Swann is an all-time great.  How WOULDN’T he be in the Hall of Fame?  All those Super Bowls?  All those catches?  That Catch?

“Look at the numbers,” he said.
So we did.  I was tremendously underwhelmed.  Staggeringly so.  How bout these…?  8 Years, 115 Games, 336 Receptions, 5462 Yards, and 51 Touchdowns. No seasons > 61 receptions, nothing particularly remarkable.  But it’s Lynn Swann.  And numerically speaking, I’m thinking that he got into the hall JUST BECAUSE he’s Lynn Swann.  But numbers are just numbers.  Let’s contextualize these by looking at the stats for some cats who are not now, and may likely never get into the HoF.  Then we’ll look at some cats who have NO SHOT.

Once again, to review, here’s Lynn Swann.

Year  TM |   G |   Att  Yards    Y/A   TD |   Rec  Yards   Y/R   TD |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+
| 1974 pit |  11 |     1     14   14.0    0 |    11    208  18.9    2 |
| 1975 pit |  14 |     3     13    4.3    0 |    49    781  15.9   11 |
| 1976 pit |  12 |     1      2    2.0    0 |    28    516  18.4    3 |
| 1977 pit |  14 |     2      6    3.0    0 |    50    789  15.8    7 |
| 1978 pit |  16 |     1      7    7.0    0 |    61    880  14.4   11 |
| 1979 pit |  13 |     1      9    9.0    1 |    41    808  19.7    5 |
| 1980 pit |  13 |     1     -4   -4.0    0 |    44    710  16.1    7 |
| 1981 pit |  13 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    34    505  14.9    5 |
| 1982 pit |   9 |     1     25   25.0    0 |    18    265  14.7    0 |
+———-+—–+————————–+————————-+
|  TOTAL   | 115 |    11     72    6.5    1 |   336   5462  16.3   51 |
+———-+—–+————————–+————————-+

Now let’s look at ohhhh….Gary Clark

|          Rushing         |        Receiving        |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+
| Year  TM |   G |   Att  Yards    Y/A   TD |   Rec  Yards   Y/R   TD |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+
| 1985 was |  16 |     2     10    5.0    0 |    72    926  12.9    5 |
| 1986 was |  15 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    74   1265  17.1    7 |
| 1987 was |  12 |     1      0    0.0    0 |    56   1066  19.0    7 |
| 1988 was |  16 |     2      6    3.0    0 |    59    892  15.1    7 |
| 1989 was |  15 |     2     19    9.5    0 |    79   1229  15.6    9 |
| 1990 was |  16 |     1      1    1.0    0 |    75   1112  14.8    8 |
| 1991 was |  16 |     1      0    0.0    0 |    70   1340  19.1   10 |
| 1992 was |  16 |     2     18    9.0    0 |    64    912  14.2    5 |
| 1993 pho |  14 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    63    818  13.0    4 |
| 1994 ari |  15 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    50    771  15.4    1 |
| 1995 mia |  16 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    37    525  14.2    2 |
+———-+—–+————————–+————————-+
|  TOTAL   | 167 |    11     54    4.9    0 |   699  10856  15.5   65 |
+———-+—–+————————–+————————-+

Now, I’m pretty sure that Gary Clark is not close to being in the Hall.  Same thing for his fellow Smurf, Art Monk.

+--------------------------+-------------------------+
|          Rushing         |        Receiving        |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+
| Year  TM |   G |   Att  Yards    Y/A   TD |   Rec  Yards   Y/R   TD |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+
| 1980 was |  16 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    58    797  13.7    3 |
| 1981 was |  16 |     1     -5   -5.0    0 |    56    894  16.0    6 |
| 1982 was |   9 |     7     21    3.0    0 |    35    447  12.8    1 |
| 1983 was |  12 |     3    -19   -6.3    0 |    47    746  15.9    5 |
| 1984 was |  16 |     2     18    9.0    0 |   106   1372  12.9    7 |
| 1985 was |  15 |     7     51    7.3    0 |    91   1226  13.5    2 |
| 1986 was |  16 |     4     27    6.8    0 |    73   1068  14.6    4 |
| 1987 was |   9 |     6     63   10.5    0 |    38    483  12.7    6 |
| 1988 was |  16 |     7     46    6.6    0 |    72    946  13.1    5 |
| 1989 was |  16 |     3      8    2.7    0 |    86   1186  13.8    8 |
| 1990 was |  16 |     7     59    8.4    0 |    68    770  11.3    5 |
| 1991 was |  16 |     9     19    2.1    0 |    71   1049  14.8    8 |
| 1992 was |  16 |     6     45    7.5    0 |    46    644  14.0    3 |
| 1993 was |  16 |     1     -1   -1.0    0 |    41    398   9.7    2 |
| 1994 nyj |  16 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    46    581  12.6    3 |
| 1995 phi |   3 |     0      0    0.0    0 |     6    114  19.0    0 |
+———-+—–+————————–+————————-+
|  TOTAL   | 224 |    63    332    5.3    0 |   940  12721  13.5   68 |
+———-+—–+————————–+————————-+

Now each of those guys have hardware.  Not four rings in 8 years, but they do have hardware.  Three rings, at least.  Not breathing on the Hall.  Also with three rings is Captain Cokehead, Michael Irvin.  Let’s see his numbers:

+--------------------------+-------------------------+
|          Rushing         |        Receiving        |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+
| Year  TM |   G |   Att  Yards    Y/A   TD |   Rec  Yards   Y/R   TD |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+
| 1988 dal |  14 |     1      2    2.0    0 |    32    654  20.4    5 |
| 1989 dal |   6 |     1      6    6.0    0 |    26    378  14.5    2 |
| 1990 dal |  12 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    20    413  20.6    5 |
| 1991 dal |  16 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    93   1523  16.4    8 |
| 1992 dal |  16 |     1     -9   -9.0    0 |    78   1396  17.9    7 |
| 1993 dal |  16 |     2      6    3.0    0 |    88   1330  15.1    7 |
| 1994 dal |  16 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    79   1241  15.7    6 |
| 1995 dal |  16 |     0      0    0.0    0 |   111   1603  14.4   10 |
| 1996 dal |  11 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    64    962  15.0    2 |
| 1997 dal |  16 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    75   1180  15.7    9 |
| 1998 dal |  16 |     1      1    1.0    0 |    74   1057  14.3    1 |
| 1999 dal |   4 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    10    167  16.7    3 |
+———-+—–+————————–+————————-+
|  TOTAL   | 159 |     6      6    1.0    0 |   750  11904  15.9   65 |

+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+

Obviously, Michael Irvin had some off-the-field issues that might keep him from being in the Hall, although I wouldn’t mind seeing him inducted just to see what he wears.  That brother has worn some SUITS in his time.  At some point, I might hafta do a post on him, because he was one of my favorite players for a young minute. At any rate, he’s got issues.  So does the next guy, Andre Rison.

|          Rushing         |        Receiving        |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+
| Year  TM |   G |   Att  Yards    Y/A   TD |   Rec  Yards   Y/R   TD |
+----------+-----+--------------------------+-------------------------+
| 1989 ind |  16 |     3     18    6.0    0 |    52    820  15.8    4 |
| 1990 atl |  16 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    82   1208  14.7   10 |
| 1991 atl |  16 |     1     -9   -9.0    0 |    81    976  12.0   12 |
| 1992 atl |  15 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    93   1119  12.0   11 |
| 1993 atl |  16 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    86   1242  14.4   15 |
| 1994 atl |  15 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    81   1088  13.4    8 |
| 1995 cle |  16 |     2      0    0.0    0 |    47    701  14.9    3 |
| 1996 gnb |   5 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    13    135  10.4    1 |
| 1996 jax |  10 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    34    458  13.5    2 |
| 1997 kan |  16 |     1      2    2.0    0 |    72   1092  15.2    7 |
| 1998 kan |  14 |     2     12    6.0    0 |    40    542  13.6    5 |
| 1999 kan |  15 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    21    218  10.4    0 |
| 2000 oak |  14 |     0      0    0.0    0 |    41    606  14.8    6 |
+———-+—–+————————–+————————-+
|  TOTAL   | 184 |     9     23    2.6    0 |   743  10205  13.7   84 |

And again, I’m not dissing Lynn Swann, cuz he was my man 50 grand.  What I am wondering is what the requirements are for making it to the HoF.  Like I said, Swanny got it done in the playoffs, and particularly the Super Bowl, but his overall career numbers leave much to be desired.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Jacked from Parablemania

Obviously, I’m not the only Avery Tooley in the United States, but I’m sayin’, though.  It’s definitely a rare combination.

In the past, I have questioned the notion of an “Uncle Tom,” saying that that kind of name-calling is not productive. Ad hominem attacks make an issue of the person, instead of keeping the focus on the issue. I still believe that. But boyyyyy, this dude right here!

See here’s the thing: I’m not absolutely sold on Affirmative Action, myself. That is to say, I appreciate the opportunities that I have gotten as a result of AA, but to borrow the football metaphor from J.C. Watts, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were consistently the worst team in the NFL, they consistently got help from the league, in the form of the first draft pick. When Tony Dungy changed them into a consistent playoff contender, they didn’t need the help any more. Well in my opinion, Black folks ain’t the 80’s Buccaneers, and we’re not the Cardinals. I will point out, however, that Affirmative Action is really not all about us, anyway. That is, even though we’re the most celebrated beneficiaries, we’re not the primary beneficiaries.

All that’s just to say that AA is a fairly complex issue. I really don’t have the patience to talk about it for ever and ever, but there are valid positions on both sides of the issue. I’ve heard convincing arguments on both sides of the issue. Personally, I don’t know that AA is as necessary in 2006 as it was in 1976, or at least not as necessary in the same way, so it should probably be restructured, at the minimum. I haven’t really put a whole lot of thought into it, so I can’t act like I have some great solution, or even a plausible one. That’s just me thinkin off the top of the head. However…

Even if I was STAUNCHLY against AA, even if I could hardly stand to put those two words next to each other in a sentence, there is no way on God’s green Earth that I could fix my lips to say something like

If the Ku Klux Klan thinks that equality is right, God bless them,” Connerly says. “Thank them for finally reaching the point where logic and reason are being applied, instead of hate.

Say what? If the ku klux klan what?! Now come on. I’m all for respecting a diversity of opinion, and I understand being dedicated to a cause. I even enjoy the use of hyperbole from time to time, but this is waaaaaaayyyyyy out there, bordering on the Dave Chappelle skit about the Black white supremacist. Only thing is, Ward Connerly is serious.

Again, I don’t have a problem with a person opposing Affirmative Action. That’s not the issue. Appealing to the kkk on an issue? That’s pretty much out of bounds.