I didn’t watch the Eagles on Thursday night, but I worried about them a little bit. I shouldn’t have. They crushed the Cardinals. But that’s a big part of what frustrates me about them. They’re totally schizophrenic. If the offense shows up, the defense stinks. When the defense plays well, there’s no offense. If you look at all their losses, with the exception of the Ravens game, the offense played well enough to win. Well, maybe not against the R*s, but the rest of those games? Definitely. It was the defense that gave up farrrr too many points. I mean, with Donovan being the lightning rod for controversy that he is, it’s understandable that nobody’s talking about it, but I’m here to tell you: the primary reason the Eagles are where they are is that the defense is stinking. It’s mediocre, at best. Except for that game when they served Pittsburgh, they’re just not very good. They give up way too many big plays, and they can’t control a game when they need to. Everybody, including me, talks about the Eagles inability to convert a 3rd-1 (and I’ve been talkin about that for years), but this year, their inability to STOP a 3rd and 1 has just as much to do with their record. One stop in those Cowboys, Giants, and Bears games, and we’d be talkin about a whole nother season. Even with the tie.
Having had a couple days to think about it, I think I wanna do organize my list of beauties around the underrated theme. That is, there are certain names that are almost guaranteed to come up in a discussion of all-time beautiful Black women. We all know who they are, and my goal is to kinda stay away from them. Now some of the ladies here might already be on your personal favorites list, but if I have em listed here, that means I don’t think they get as much acclaim as they deserve.
So here we are:
Jill Marie Jones
Nona Gaye
Denise Nicholas
Helen Folasade Adu
N’Bushe Wright
That’s for starters. We’ll keep this up sporadically.
Around this time of year, one of the common memes is a list of things for which to be thankful. I could do that too, but I’m thinking a little bigger than that. Specifically, I’m back to thinking about the difference in ideological mindsets. One of my homeboys likes to challenge me on the degree to which our lives are determined by our choices. To the extent that I could be labled a conservative (and that’s a limited extent), it’s because I firmly believe that our situations are primarily a result of our own choices, both active and passive. That is, some things happen to us because of a positive or negative choice that we made (positive and negative in this simply meaning ‘yes’ and ‘no,’ not ‘good’ and ‘bad’); some things happen because of choice we didn’t make. If I had to assign a numerical value, I’d say that our choices account for 75% of our circumstances. No science behind the number, it’s just a number. But for the sake of argument, let’s say it’s valid. That other 25%, while a much smaller value, is very significant. That’s where I’d like to put the focus on the thankfulness for a while.
Implicit in the conservative mindset is the ‘I can handle my own business’ mindset. I would probably even go so far as to argue that it’s a quintessentially American mindset; it’s one of the underpinnings for rugged individualism. I ain’t gon’ lie, I’m right on board with it, especially when it comes to the individual vis-a-vis the government. For the most part, I don’t believe that even when the willingness to do the right thing is present, the government is the most effective entity at effecting the types of change we’d like to see. Especially in the Black community. Some things are better done in a bureaucratic structure. Most things are not. Where I differ from most conservatives is that I don’t take that agovernmental very far. “The government that governs best governs least?” Maybe. Depends on the characters in the government and what types of things they’re trying to apply the least governance to. All that’s just to say that I firmly believe in the idea that we shape our own destinies. But that’s not all there is to it.
One category of things that many people are not cognizent enough to be thankful for is things that could have happened but didn’t. I think of this specifically when I talk to some of my more conservative brethren who ride what I’d consider to be hard on the illogical choices that people make. Obviously, it’s impossible to know what one person would do in another person’s circumstances, but what I personally try to always keep in mind is that I’m probably not as far from being the person that I critique as I like to think I am. That tempers my critique a lot.
For instance, in general, I have no sympathy for drug dealers, gang bangers, and thugs in general. The choice-outcome connection is too clear in their case to ignore. Moreover, because I’ve been at the point of having to make the decision to engage in those very activities, I can speak with first-hand knowledge about the choice. At the same time, my self-righteousness has to be tempered by the fact that even with being in the same general circumstances, we’re approaching it from different perspectives. Yeah, I had the opportunity to do that stuff, but I knew even before the choice presented itself that those activities didn’t mesh with the person I see myself to be. If I had self-identified as a thug in the first place, when it came time to make those same decisions, I might have chosen differently because that’s how I saw myself. But there’s still a level of choice involved there, even if it’s not necessarily conscious. So let’s move on.
It seems like every few months, there’s a publicized case of some man (usually Black) who gets exonerated after 20+ years in prison for a capital crime that he didn’t commit. People can spout all the platitudes they want about ‘it’s not what happens to you, it’s how you react to it,’ but that’s quite a bit about what happens TO you. It’s not his decisions that put him in jail, it’s nothing that has anything to do with him. It’s just that he was there. My thing is this: I’m always, always, always conscious of the fact that that could be me. Yeah, the majority of our circumstances are self-inflicted, for better or worse. But some of them aren’t. I can’t speak for everybody, but I can say that I’ve done some stuff that could have gone way wrong and gotten me dead with the quickness. I also know that some of the situations a lot of brothers experience with the police are situations I’ve never had to deal with. I mean, yeah, I’ve been stopped unnecessarily before, but one of those times, I was actually lost, so I needed the police. And even in the other cases, I’ve never been physically accosted or even talked to harshly. Where lots and lots of brothers have horror stories about the police, I don’t. Surely, some of that is because of the way I comport myself when I’ve been stopped, but I don’t doubt that some of it is also because I was fortunate enough to get the right officer at the right time.
So this Thanksgiving, while we’re being thankful for all we have and all the good things that have happened to us, let’s remember to be thankful for the things that could’ve happened to us but didn’t. And let’s try to maintain the humility of thankfulness when it comes to dealing with people who haven’t had the same fortunate circumstances that we’ve had — and even the ones who have and have made knuckleheaded decisions all along the way. Cuz the truth is, we’ve all made some knuckleheaded decisions, some folks just hafta pay more for them.
I took the Civil Literacy Civics Quiz which has been getting a lot of attention because of how many people have failed it. I’m surprised to report that I got a 90.91%. Let’s round up and call it a 91. That’s B+/A- territory. I’m not really surprised at the score, I’m surprised by which questions I got wrong. As is typical, one of the ones I got wrong, I knew I didn’t know, one of the ones I got wrong, I thought I knew, and some of the ones I got right, I didn’t know I knew. That is, I really didn’t know the answer, but I can tell the ones that ain’t right.
I guess I’m really not that surprised that a good number of college graduates failed it, because most of the stuff I remembered from high school. I don’t remember too much history/civics from college. I’m sure I had to have taken some courses, but even then, the governmental stuff that I remember came from specialized courses. And really, while I think the assumption that college graduates as a group would know ‘X’ about the government is sortakinda valid, what people really pay attention to in college is what’s going on in their major. So if a person’s major didn’t really involve civics, there’s a good chance they didn’t really care what was going on in that class outside of getting enough info to pass the next test or write the next paper.
Having said that, some of the answers were fairly intuitive. Even I found myself lookin at some of the answers like, ‘how could somebody get this wrong?’
Bijan has posted his list of all-time Black beauties among famous people. Early day tomorrow, but I’m definitely gonna be doing a riff on this one. Just gotta figure out my angle and commence to downloading my pictures.
But I can tell you a couple people who are gonna be on there:
- Jill Marie Jones. (son. f’real.)
- Tracy Reed (Mona from Car Wash. Bij gets awwwlll the props for that.)
Soooo, I’m not watching the Eagles and the Ravens today. We’ll see what happens when the R*s come on.
UPDATE
!!!!!! So I come home from the grocery store, hoping for the best, and what do I see? Donovan’s been benched?! Looks like I picked the right week to boycott. Nooooo WAY I wanted to see that.
So obviously, Dono’s done in Philly. I certainly don’t think he’s totally washed up, but he’s now at the stage of his career where he’s gonna need good players at the skill positions. Before, he was practically supernatural. He could win with no running game and no receivers. Now? Not so much. So I’ma hafta take the next couple days and figure out what team I think would be the best fit for him. Off the top of my head, I’m thinkin’ Chicago and maybe Kansas City. Obviously, I’m more for the Bears than the Chiefs, but I’m not sure where else he could go.
1.Put your iPod on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
What is your Motto? Let A Woman Be A Woman – Let A Man Be A Man – Dyke and the Blazers
What do your friends think of you? Save Their Souls – Hamilton Bohannon
What do you think about very often? Listen And You’ll See – The Crusaders
What is 2+2? Open Up Your Soul – Erma Franklin
What do you think of your best friend? Speculation – Oscar Pettiford Orchestra
What do you think of the person you like? Because of Love – Janet Jackson
What is your life story? Sport – Lightning Rod
What do you want to be when you grow up? Ain’t No Sunshine – Kashmere Stage Band
What do you think of when you see the person you like? Thank You Baby For Loving Me – Soul Brother Six
What do your parents think of you? Checkin’ My Style – Ultramagnetic MC’s
What will you dance to at your wedding? Crazy Love – Alton McLain & Destiny
What will they play at your funeral? What’s Your Name – The Moments
What is your hobby/interest? Smokin – Nas
What is your biggest secret? A Day In The Life – Les DeMerle
What do you think of your friends? Lovin’ It – Little Brother
What’s the worst thing that can happen? Master Blaster (Jammin’) – Stevie Wonder
How will you die? Hung Up On My Baby – Isaac Hayes
What is the one thing you regret? Dream Merchant – New Birth
What makes you laugh? Love Can – Carman
What makes you cry? You Don’t Mean It – Ohio Players
Will you ever get married? Without You – The Doobie Brothers
What scares you the most? Gracias Mi Amor – Danny Rivera
Does anyone like you? (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear – Elvis Presley
If you could go back in time, what would you change? Out The Window – Count Basie
What hurts right now? Julia – The Beatles
What will you post this as? San Francisco Lights – Bobbi Humphrey
The dude, Blackink done put an idea in my head. He don’t appreciate RZA’s mic skills too much and estimated that he’d fall into the bottom 3rd of any breakdown of the Wu. That, of course, got me wondering what the full breakdown would look like. Let’s here The engine and caboose are easy. That’s GZA and U-God, for sure. It’s those ones in the middle that make it tough.
9. U-God. Worst of the bunch by far.
8. Masta Killa – I have some friends who’d rank him higher, but nah, B. I never, ever liked his flow.
7. RZA. I went from the bottom and then from the top, and here’s where he landed. I guess he is in the bottom third. But I will say that the distance between him and the other two is probably greater than the distance between, say, Method Man and Ghostface.
6. Ol’ Dirty Bastard. Obviously this ain’t based on who my favorite is, otherwise he’d be first.
5. Method Man – On flow alone. He could probably go a little higher, but I’m really not seeing him top out over Ghost or Rae.
4. Raekwon. This could go either way. It could be either Ghost-Rae or Rae-Ghost. Only because I’m trying to break it up in 3rds do I even bother.
3. Ghostface Killa – Even though I didn’t always like Ghost, I think he always brought it.
2. Inspectah Deck. There’s a reason he usually went first. Only one with more scientifically-structured lyrics was GZA.
1. GZA. There’s a reason he usually went last. All I got to say is, disciplinary action was a fraction of strength that made me truncate the list one-tenth.
I really can’t comment on 100 singers, partially because that takes way more time than I have. Second, because I don’t listen to that much of every kind of music. My tastes are eclectic, and I have representatives of most genres in my collection, but I don’t know enough about, say, John Lennon, to compare him to Aretha Franklin. I know some Beatles songs, but I can’t tell you who’s singin.
At any rate, here are the top 10:
1 | Aretha Franklin
2 | Ray Charles
3 | Elvis Presley
4 | Sam Cooke
5 | John Lennon
6 | Marvin Gaye
7 | Bob Dylan
8 | Otis Redding
9 | Stevie Wonder
10 | James Brown
If James is in the top 10, then it’s obviously not about singing per se. And y’all know that ain’t no dis to James. I can probably count the number of people who dig James as much as I do, but he ain’t no singer in the same way that Aretha is a singer. They both got soul, and they both can jam, but Aretha is, as her father said on the Amazing Grace album, “a stone singer!” James was more about gettin down than singin.
All in all, I don’t really have any complaints about the list, but there are a lot of people I don’t know. Elvis over Sam Cooke, though? I may hafta go back and check that one out. That one seems a little suspect. Oh. And Mike at #25? MIKE? Nah, B. Mike’s work with the Jackson 5 — shoot, on Maybe Tomorrow alone — sons most artists’ whole catalogs. I’m not sure who you’d take out, but he should at least be in the top 15
Of the insane number of expectations that have been foisted upon President-elect Obama, one of the ones he didn’t self-create is the idea that his presidency will somehow open the eyes of the lost and allow them to believe that they, too, can achieve anything if they would only put their minds to it. Charles Barkley suggested it a while ago, and I thought it was an interesting perspective, but back then…well, suffice it to say that I didn’t know we’d be here now. At any rate, for some reason, it’s actually surprising to me that people wanna hitch their personal wagons to President-elect Obama, as if his win two weeks ago means something specific for their personal lives. Like it’s supposed to give them hope that they did not have before. That’s shaky enough as it is, but shakier still is the idea that it’s actually gonna do something to their decision-making process.
From a Reuters article: “The only way that he (Obama) can make a substantial change is if he addresses things like poverty and joblessness and those deep pervasive factors that affect black boys and men,” said film maker Byron Hurt.
Word? The President is supposed to do something about poverty, joblessness, and the deep pervasive factors…? That sounds to me like some very specific, very individualized actions, not the general result of broad policy decisions. I mean, it was funny on the Richard Pryor show, when everybody was asking the new Black president what he was gonna do about such-and-such, as if the President actually controls any of those situations. Well, Ms. RO-berta DA-vies did ask a legit question about who he’d name as the head of the FBI, but the other cats, talkin about whether there’d be more Black astronauts, or Black quarterbacks in the League, of course the President can’t do anything about that stuff. But like I said, that was on the Richard Pryor show, so it was funny. The not-so-funny thing is that there are people who actually believe something similar; like the fact that the President is Black actually means something in their day-to-day lives.
I’m reminded of that scene in the 10 Commandments when Joshua said to Moses, “Stand at the top of the rock so the people can see you and have hope.” But Moses standin on the rock wasn’t actually gonna move the people. They still had to walk. Unfortunately, I think that there are still folks who think President Obama is gonna magically levitate them somewhere. Hope is wonderful and it can be a sustaining force, but hope without action is pretty much dead. And maybe I’m being pessimistic about this, but my guess is that most of the people who were bojanglin this time last month are still bojanglin. The result from two Tuesdays ago ain’t gon’ change that. What’s more, I’m not sure if hope isn’t like self-confidence in that it’s something that can’t be given, only self-generated. Certainly, there can be incidents that can cause a person to generate more hope, but I’m thinking that hope probably has to come from inside, otherwise it’s just a good speech or inspiring performance.
Honestly, I hope I’m wrong. I hope jokers look at somethin, anything, and decide that they want to get it together. But to act like everything’s supposed to change because of one man is unfair to him and robs the people of agency.
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