You know what? I think we got sidetracked. THe fight was supposed to be about the right to integrate, not necessarily the act of integrating. Well actually, the fight WAS about the right, and in order to affirm the validity of the legal right, it was necessary to physically integrate. However, somewhere along the line, it seems that physical integration became the goal instead of the measurement of the maintainence of the law. That’s where we fell off. Proximity to other groups is not necessarily better, it’s just different. Systematic exclusion of a group is, and should be against the law. However, I don’t know that exposure to another group should be any kind of a proxy for quality of life.
So if Bill Cosby changes the style of his critique, but not the message…and the people respond…does it mean that the Black middle class really hasn’t lost its mind?
From the same article, this is gonna be the last word you hear here about M. Vick.
Apparently, if the Michael Vick case is any indication, you have to be a dog to get anyone to care. If you want jail time, kill a dog.
But black folks? Nobody seems to care that they are being killed every day. There’s no outrage from our public officials, not from our residents, not even from the disproportionate number of African American men the violence affects.
“I literally cry out every day [about] the idea of black men dying being normal and not even noteworthy,” says Marc Lamont Hill, professor of urban education at Temple. “What [Cosby] has done is model the type of outrage we’re supposed to have.”
Cornel West on “nigga” and the difference between -a and -er:
“There is a rhythmic seduction with the word,” West says. “If you want to say ‘cat’ or ‘companion’ or ‘comrade,’ that doesn’t have the same rhythmic resonance as the word ‘nigga’ . . . The rhythmic seduction goes hand in hand with how black people use language . . . you’re just not going to get folks to stop using words like that. It just ain’t gon’ happen. The question is, when these young people use ‘nigga’ with an ‘a,’ are there elements of self-hatred—dishonoring each other, disrespecting, distrusting each other, which is part of the history of the word with an ‘-er’? It’s really about, “Show me the love and the respect and the honor and the dignity, and you can basically use any word you want.” But if I see these young folk using nigga with an ‘a,’ and they still disrespecting one another, dishonoring one another, mistreating one another, and player-hating one another—then I know the effect of the ‘er’ word is still operating in the ‘a’ word.”
I’m still not sure how I feel about the Eagles cutting Trotter. On the one hand, yeah, his production was decreasing, but is he completely washed up? Now I ain’t gon’ lie, generally speaking when the Eagles let somebody go, they don’t come back and start beasting. Having said that, for some reason, I just don’t like this move.
Remember this?
Well today’s the day. Coming soon to a teacher near you: The Perfecto.
Entries (RSS)