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.
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I saw Cornel West speak at the Smithsonian some years ago. I was standing and listening to him speak when he said something about the “Black boooooo zwhaaaaaa ZE!” and my mind started racing and then it came down to, “He’s one of the people he is complaining about!” and that was it. Since then, I think West is full of it 98% of the time.
I’m going to keep hammering this point home: the way he first said what he said,likely turned off more people than it turned on. Just yelling “stop it!” doesn’t work. There is a need for one on one interaction.
IMSHO (In my strongly held opinion), those who keep saying, “This needs to be said because it’s only talked about in ‘private’” are full of it. It’s been in the Black media for years, but that’s considered “private” when the whole world can listen/read/see it? Some of the same people say we don’t need to validate “ourselves” based on white people, but the Black media ain’t good enough and it is considered private until it’s in the white media?
(1) I’ve always found it ironic that the collective assault that black folks made against segregation was so easily dissipated once integration was “legally” acheived. I’m just sayin’…
(2) Interestingly, I don’t think it’s just black folks’ deaths that are getting casually dismissed when juxtaposed to dog fitting sh*t. I mean, you’ve got wives killing their husbands who walk, celeb-utaunts getting arrested for multiple alcohol/drug charges walking, and the like. But let yo a*s get caught operating a dog fighting ring.
(3) I’m a Cornel West fan but even I find his observations incredulous. But then again, nothing can be more endearing and ‘rhythmically seductive’ than callin’ your boy the same thing that some racist as*hole called a man right before he lynched him. Oh, ok.
(4) I could care less about the Eagles. It’s all about the Cowboys baby!
Yeah. I have to admit that I’ve been baffled as to how to respond to, or discuss the Ron Mexico-thing. I mean, I don’t know anybody who would condone what he’s admitted to, and I’m as big a sucker for dogs, etc., as the next guy, but it seems to me that the whole thing’s kinda representative of how much society’s out of whack in terms of our relative outrage over the abuse of animals, versus our collective “meh” over the acts of cruelty and wanton violence (abortion, drive-bys, pastor-murdering spouses, etc.) committed against, y’know…actual people on a daily basis. Something’s seriously off-kilter here.
As to NFL? Well…let’s just say I’m ready for the Jay Cutler era to begin in earnest, and I think my Broncs are going to miss Al Wilson more than they think they are.
I got down with the perfecto in the second and third grade; Arnold and Willis couldn’t hang with the amount of effort I put into that whole format on a daily basis!
The segregation/integration paradox is an interesting one. Right now, the Black “community” seems to be on this path of “just enough”. What is it that is slowing us down and holding us back? I can’t place a finger on a solid identifier, but, clearly we’ve got to re-examine our priorities. We seem to settle and I believe that the relaxed position we take opens us up to some unnecessary whoopin’s.
And why you cats comin’ at me like the Seahawks aren’t the best in the world! I may be in BOS, but, around this way, it’s still about the home team.