Charles Barkley swears he’s not a role model, but he thinks Barak Obama would make a good one. From an article in the Philadelphia Daily News, we get this goodie:

Sir Charles is prepared to lay his sword on Sen. Obama’s shoulder in part because of Obama’s pigmentation. But the thinking goes deeper than “I’m a black guy, so I’ll support another black guy.” Barkley believes Obama is uniquely qualified among the candidates to be a role model for African-American men, who are in desperate need of someone to emulate.

“I think he’d be a great role model for the bigger picture,” Barkley said, “because all our role models now are athletes and entertainers. And we’re lost.

“And I feel bad . . . I don’t know what you can do, but we’ve got to find a way to let young black kids know it’s all right to get your education. It’s all right to dress nice and carry yourself with great dignity.

“I want young black kids to see Barack on television every day. I think he’d make a fantastic President, but I look more at the big picture. We need more blacks who are intelligent, articulate, and who carry themselves with great dignity,” Barkley said.

I ain’t gon’ front, I hadn’t really thought of that angle, but on its face, that argument does seem to have some validity. Iff the idea of a distant role model really holds water at all. I don’t know that I’m quite sold on that, though. Not exactly. I agree that Obama, or another person like him, might make a good role model, particularly since he represents a path to success other than athletics or entertainment. Only limitation to the distant role model - or at least the main one, is that it represents a distorted perspective. I realize that when we use the term ‘role model,’ we’re semantically talking about a positive example of how to behave, but the truth is that role models actually come in both versions - positive and negative. And no matter which version is around a given person (not just children or adolescents. Adults have role models too.), the local role model will normally have significantly more impact than the distant one.

In a way, watching (listening to) people dissect people discuss race is painful to watch, but there is a certain familiarity to the dance. First there’s the event, whatever it is. Maybe somebody says somethin, maybe somebody does somethin, whatever. There’s an event. Then there’s the media coverage (or lack thereof). Then comes the question, and later charge of racism. Then comes the denial of racism. Then come the litany of historical precedents. Depending on the scale of the case, we might shimmy out with a comparison to the OJ Simpson trial. Then comes the “race card” accusation. Not necessarily immediately, but soon enough, “400 years of slavery” enters the question, with the inevitable answer being, ‘get over it.’ And at this point, we simply begin another iteration of the dance, with only minimal focus on the initial event.

In certain ways, I think this stuff is interesting. I mean, in general, I like watching and listening to people argue, just to hear how faithful (or not) they’re able to stay to the issue. For the most part, it’s too hard, because generally, the big “wow, there’s really a racial divide” situations quickly devolve into personal reflections — well there might be racists, but I’m not one of them, and I think… or such-and-such happened to me, and being Black (or not) had (or didn’t) THIS impact on the situation. At the same time, it’s frustrating, because I know that no real progress is being made. Once people start bringing out their own personal stories, it’s game over, because the tendency is to use one’s own personal experience as normative. That tendency really leads to a dead end, because first and foremost, a person’s experience cannot really be refuted. If it happened, it happened. Now, we could question the validity of their interpretation of the event, but once a person has exposed themselves enough to tell a piece of their own history, they ain’t really tryin to hear nothin else after that. Only problem is, not all personal stories are created equal. Some things are cogent, relevant, and illustrative of a larger point. Some things just happened to you.

The other thing I’ve noticed is the tendency for people to talk past each other. It’s like jokers come in with a ready-made opinion and look to see one or two words, then they’re off to the races, not even considering that there might be several points of agreement in what the other person said, or that the points of disagreement might actually be inconsequential in the overall scope of the discussion. But then, consensus is not really sexy, is it? It can’t be, otherwise the harpy-looking chick on Court TV wouldn’t have a show.

Thing is, I think it’s gonna get worse before it gets better. This is due to a confluence of many factors, but not necessarily that I think that there’s more or “better quality” racism. People have more access to each other’s attention, so in a sense there’s a great deal more interaction than was possible in the past. At the same time, with the trend towards the informal, we have another problem: we can talk to each other, but we don’t know how to talk to each other. That’s just in general. When it comes specifically to the ultra-sensitive issues of race, the problem is exacerbated, almost the exclusion of a solution.

Black Cat - The Ohio Players (Check out the horn break that comes from The 10 Commandments.)
Alphabet Soup - Masta Ace
Anything Can Happen - Souls Of Mischief
Little Old Money Maker - The Meters
Stir of Echoes - J-Live
A Little Bit More Conviction - Carman
Electric Avenue - Eddy Grant
Peepin’ - Lou Donaldson
Don’t Do It (Movas and Shakas) - Syl Johnson
Cry Baby - The Beatles
Take A Rest - Gang Starr
Rags to Rufus - Rufus, f. Chaka Khan
Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder) - Maxwell
Hiding Place - Lisa McCLendon
We Will Rock You - Queen
Born To Be Blue - Wes Montgomery
God Made Me Funky - Def Jef

Now this is more like it. I knew Donovan was due for a breakout game, but this was outta control. Now it’s easy to temper my enthusiasm because it was against the Lions, but still. They were 2-0 coming into the game, so it’s not exactly like they were pushovers. Not the offense, at least. The defense? Sheesh.

Now here’s the thing: I’ve been an Eagles fan too long to think everything’s gonna be all good from here. But this could’ve been the turning point. Maybe all that bad-playing McNabb was doing had to do with his knee brace and all that. I guess we’ll see next week.

Meanwhile, the Steelers are still undefeated. They’re back to having Ben manage the game while relying on the running game, but I’m sure that when they need to, they’ll open it up. The only question I have about the Steelers is what could they do against Randy Moss? Cuz somebody’s gonna hafta stop him, or else, the Pats are gonna romp to the Super Bowl. 38 points a week? Are you kiddin me?

Not to be morbid, but we’re gonna start with a list of b-and c- level Black celebrities who have died with little media recognition. In some of these cases, I was flat-out surprised. Here’s me wondering why I haven’t heard from them, assuming that they’ve decided to stay out of the limelight. More than I knew, I guess.

The other thing that surprises me is how many of them died from AIDS or AIDS-related complications.

Here’s an informational site about Black Cowboys - and I ain’t talkin about Terrell Owens ‘nem.

So the most confusing thing about the whole Jena 6 protest this week was the sign pictured at left. They stood for us? What? How? That’s all I wanna know. How did they stand for us?

So Donovan told it like it is, and people who don’t wanna be self-reflective can’t hear him. What else is new?

Here’s what I know: being an NFL fan in general, but an Eagles fan above all, particularly with the Eagles being my home team, I know what the deal is in Philly. It’s a given that Philly is a tough sports town, although some incidents, like the snowball assault of Santa Claus are a tad overblown. (I mean, yeah, it happened, but it wasn’t like the Santa in question was your regular, jolly, ho-ho-hoein Kris Kringle. If you look into the incident a little more, there’s some other stuff goin on. He wasn’t Black, either.)

Anyway, situations like this help to illustrate the fact that we are not as far along racially as we think we are. That is, there has been a great deal of progress, and we should be happy about that. However, the fact remains that the only racists in the world aren’t members of organizations that tout hateful beliefs. Naw, in some people, it lurks beneath the veneer of acceptance, waiting for just the right challenge to be exposed. Such is the case, I think, with many fans. As in, some of the people arguing against what Donovan is saying are inadvertently proving his point. It’s like when some Muslims were threatening to assassinate people for saying they are violent.

The funny thing is, the HBO show wasn’t about Black quarterbacks, per se. It was about where Donovan grew up. If people took the whole thing in context, it might have been easier for them to understand. But I’m fairly convinced that in most matters, not just issues of race, the last thing people want is for their thinking to be challenged. People like their categories neat and clean. White racists are in the kkk.

I think it’s kinda unfortunate that this interview didn’t air while Donovan was in the middle of an MVP-type stretch like he was last year, though. With the 0-2 start, it looks very current, when the interview was done last summer. And as far as the start goes, I got 2 words for you: Andy Reid. For the life of me, I cannot understand what this dude is doing. Last year, when the Eagles were winning with Garcia, the run-pass ratio was manageable. It was very close to even. The other night? Donovan passed over 40 times, with Westbrook only getting, i think, 17 carries. We already KNOW what works. We knew it last year. The rest of the League BEEN knew it. Andy Reid, though? I don’t know what the deal is. He seems to think Donovan is a Madden player or something. Not to mention that they keep calling plays that don’t make sense for the personnel they have. As in, they’ll have 3-5 and throw a 3-yard pass. Now I realize that the plays are designed for the receiver to get the ball and then make the extra yardage on their own, but they never get those receivers. They had one for ONE year. When they did? It was good night for the NFC. Avent, Brown / Pinkston Thrash, same difference. The Eagles’ X and Z are #3 receivers at best, and Reid refuses to run the rock. Wha’chu THINK gon’ happen? Sheesh.

So to summarize, yeah, being criticized goes along with being the QB. Everybody knows that. The criticism Donovan has gotten his whole career? Extra. But it’s not just about him. It’s about the whole system; it’s about how certified scrubs can get jobs as starting QBs before Black cats with winning records for their career get a call. Remember my premise: equality isn’t about excellence, it’s about mediocrity; it’s not about having the chance to succeed, it’s about having the chance to fail repeatedly. (And don’t fool yourself, the only way it’s possible to say that Donovan ‘failed’ is to say that he never won the Super Bowl. But in many ways, that’s a false measure of a player’s achievement; Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl, but even most crackheads know better than to say that they’d take Dilfer over Donovan.) Never forget, an equal sign has a high bar AND a low bar.

I Am Music - Common
Manteca - Dizzy Gillespie
Not Available - Shuggie Otis
I Love Music - Ahmad Jamal
Stratus - Billy Cobham
Trying People - De La Soul
I Can Hear You Calling - Three Dog Night
So What - Miles Davis
Swahililand - Ahmad Jamal
Get Out Of My Life Woman - Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Slip Away - Deniece Williams
Sh. Fe. MCs - De La Soul, f. A Tribe Called Quest
Barefoot Sunday Blues - Ramsey Lewis
Valdez In The Country - Donny Hathaway

In light of the extremely inauspicious manner in which the Eagles are starting the 2007 season and the discussion on anthropomorphic global warming (AGW), I figured I’d try to sew them together in a way that makes some sense.

It is established fact that home teams in the NFL tend to win more. About 58% of NFL games are won by the homers. What’s not completely understood is why. Is it home cookin’? Is it the fans? Is it not having to travel? I mean, it’s one thing in Denver, where they have some geological reasons, but for the rest of the league? What’s the deal? One thing we can be fairly sure of, it’s not somebody wearing his lucky drawls on Sunday when the game comes on. But what about the effect of the fans cheering?

Well, I think Global Warming is about the same. We can agree that over the past couple hundred years, the earth has been getting warmer, although as DarkStar correctly points out, we just know it’s getting warmer as long as we’ve been observing; we don’t really have a baseline to see where this lies in a real trend. Anthropomorphic Global Warming, or the idea that global warming is principally attributable to changes that man has made in the environment. To me, that’s like saying that home teams win more because their fans cheer harder. It’s possible, but that means that all the other variables have to be static, or at least controlled. I see a lotta talk about CO2, but not too much about S-U-N, which, I think, would be a major player.

One of the things I remember most clearly about my freshman year in high school was that my biology teacher, Mr. Richardson, warned us about the dangers of popular science. Not Popular Science the magazine, but popular science, as in scientific findings that are reported to news organizations for dissemination to the general public. He told us that the more popular the topic, the more likely it was that the researchers would be in more of a hurry to get the results out, and therefore more likely to turn up some specious results. Well, almost 20 years later, an article in the Wall Street Journal (jacked from Evangelical Outpost) is backing him up.

Here’s the money quote:

These flawed findings, for the most part, stem not from fraud or formal misconduct, but from more mundane misbehavior: miscalculation, poor study design or self-serving data analysis. “There is an increasing concern that in modern research, false findings may be the majority or even the vast majority of published research claims,” Dr. Ioannidis said. “A new claim about a research finding is more likely to be false than true.”

The hotter the field of research the more likely its published findings should be viewed skeptically, he determined.

Take the discovery that the risk of disease may vary between men and women, depending on their genes. Studies have prominently reported such sex differences for hypertension, schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis, as well as lung cancer and heart attacks. In research published last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Ioannidis and his colleagues analyzed 432 published research claims concerning gender and genes.

Upon closer scrutiny, almost none of them held up. Only one was replicated.

The article is careful to point out that this trend is not necessarily indicative of any malevolence; sometimes it’s just messing with the variables to make the work say something significant or different. Even when the error on the scientist’s part is not necessarily malicious, this jack rabbit reporting gets into the hands of people who will use it with a definite agenda, despite the fact that the data doesn’t really what they say it does.

Think about this next time somebody comes at you about anthropomorphic global warming with religious fervency.

I ain’t all Super Nationalist or whatever, but I guess I came up being inculcated into the “spend money in the Community whenever you can” mindset, so I do that. So as a couple of you know, I’m buying textbooks for my class, so instead of going with one of the major chain stores, I tried to buy at a smaller, Black-owned store. Actually, they have several locations, so I thought I was gonna be in good shape. But naw. I ordered the books 3 weeks ago. Still don’t have none.

Now the thing is, I can’t act like this is the rule, but I will say that I’m maaaaad disappointed that even when I came with a major order, I couldn’t get suitable service. As it turned out, the problem wasn’t with the store per se, so I imagine that I’ll give them another shot, but I’m certainly a little more gun shy. Especially when the store I’m actually buying from is also a small, independent bookseller. So I guess in a way, I’m keepin the money circulating, but not the way I had initially imagined.