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La Shawn had the hot conversation jumping yesterday when she wrote abou an artist’s plan to lynch the confederate battle flag at the Republican National Convention. In the comments, there was a roiling discussion on whether the cbf is improperly associated with the Republican party, since most of the people flying it in its hateful heyday were hardcore Democrats. Now, that’s historically accurate, but I don’t think any of us seriously believes that the Dixiecrats of yesteryear would belong to the same party as Jesse and Al without a major paradigm shift.

I wrote about my feelings on the cbf earlier this year, but I think I want to expound a little bit.

Basically, the cbf belongs in the same category as Saddam’s flag and the Nazi flag, among others, as the representative of an opposing force that was crushed by the American Army. Period. I would be willing to bet big money that no cbf apologist would fix his lips to say “Iraqi citizens who were loyal to Saddam have the right to fly his flag if they want.” What’s the difference? Moreover, we’re not talking about one of the other flags used in the confederacy, we’re talking about the confederate battle flag. The one they flew as they were fighting to maintain slavery. (And I know, the “War Between the States was not about slavery, it was about States Rights.” Wrong. I may break down the reasons why at some point when I really talk about why DC is the beginning of Down South and express my dismay at the fixation some people have on the Civil War, but that’s not my point here.) And I know, I know, “it’s not about believing in what they were fighting for, it’s about recognizing their bravery in fighting for what they believed in.” But that’s just stupid. What they were fighting for is wrong, and whatever bravery they displayed is sullied because they were being brave in an unjust cause. Put it like this: when you see a Palestinian throwing rocks at a tank, you don’t think about how brave he is, even though I’d say that it takes a certain amount of bravery (and foolishness) to go against an armored vehicle with some hand-sized stones. That ain’t no adulterating woman. Ain’t no stoning a tank. But because most of us side with Israel in that conflict, we see more foolishness than bravery in the Palestinian’s actions and condemn him because he’s fighting for the wrong thing.

The other argument I hear cbf apologists make has something to do with some nebulous Southern heritage. Now, I’ll be right up front and tell you that I love it Down South. Ever since undergrad, I have been planning to move down there at some point, and not to Atlanta. I’m talking about back in the cut Down South. But let me tell you, nothing that I appreciate about the South is represented by the cbf. That’s a piece of the history of the South, but that’s not its heritage. I wouldn’t care if my great-great granddaddy owned a plantation and worked his way up to general in the confederate army, I would still refuse to capitalize confederate and I would still say that no matter how brave he was, he was pure-d wrong. That would be a part of my family’s history, but that don’t make it my heritage; my legacy would not be that of a slave-owning Black man unless I chose to embrace that.

But okay, let’s switch the focus off the past and look at the present. What does that flag represent that’s worth arguing about in 2004? To my friends who are cbf apologists, I ask this question: if you came to my spot and saw the flag of the Black Panther Party, would you make some assumptions about my ideology what I think about white people? What about if I commemorated Huey P. Newton and H. “Rap” Brown’s (still the best nickname ever) birthdays and talked about what great men they were? After all, the Panthers did some good things like feeding children before they went to school. Is that what you remember about the Panthers, though? Could be, but I doubt it. But just to take it up a notch, let’s say that there was an organization that not only voiced rhetorical opposition to whites, but actually had the power in the community to systematically subvert justice away from them; they could drag a man outside in front of his family and kill him, and even though everybody in town knew who did it, nobody would be penalized. And then let’s say that I flew their flag and posted their emblems. You wouldn’t even come to my virtual home, let alone want to associate with me in person. But just to sew it up, here’s the logic: “The klan flew/flies the confederate battle flag…I despise everything they represent….let me fly the same flag as they do.” Come on, now. We can do better than that.

Look, people can do what they want with their private property. If somebody wants to fly the cbf, that’s his prerogative. I’ll even admit that flying the cbf or being an apologist for it doesn’t necessarily mean a person is a klan sympathizer. But why play in that gray area in the first place? Because just like it’s his right to fly that flag, it’s my right to keep a suspicious eye on him and to keep my hand on the nearest (decimal point-named) implement.

Thinking about Miller’s celebration of the 50th anniversary or rock ‘n roll made me think of something: Rapper’s Delight came out 25 years ago. Now it should go without saying that Rapper’s Delight did not mark the beginning of hip-hop, but it was the first rap record to achieve major sales. As such, I don’t think it’s entirely out of line to say that it’s the beginning of rap as a commercial genre.

In the intervening quarter century, hip-hop has undergone a couple major paradigm shifts and several other smaller adjustments. I tried to do a general overview in my posts on the hip-hop generation gap, 1 and 2. Neither of those was completely exhaustive. There are lots more factors to be accounted for and reconed with in order to paint a completely accurate picture. However, suffice it to say that nobody involved in making Rapper’s Delight could have possibly imagined that hip-hop would be the global behemoth that it has become. For the longest time, rap was condemned as a fad. Nay-sayers predicted its demise every year for the first 10 years. It’s still here and stronger than ever. How strong is it? It’s gone from being a passing fad to carrying the blame for the ills of society. How’s that for a passing hoax?

In his poem, “The Domino Theory (Snoop Dogg Rules The World)“, Kenneth Carroll puts the game in the proper perspective:

[...]
snoop dogg started the
transatlantic slave trade
doc dre was captain of a
slave ship & easy motherfuckin
e led the south to secede

it is all so clear
let the pundits come forth
let the congressional hearings begin
we have found the enemy &
they are dressed in chinos & plaid shirts
& county blues

gangsta rap did it
tupac was responsible for jim crow
it was ice cube not gov. Wallace that
tried to deny us equal rights
it was som forty oz drinking
jheri curl wearing
indo smoking
low riding conspirators that
pulled off watergate

will someone call NOW
gangsta rappers,
screaming bitch, ho, skeeze
defeated the equal rights amendments
will someone call c delores tucker
tell her we have found the enemy recording
on death row records backed by a funky ass
george clinton groove
it wasn’t capitalism, racism, sexism, homophobia
hell naw

it was ice-t & ice cube & just ice
& all them refrigerated gangsta niggas
that screwed up america

spice 1 imported all the cocaine
to america, elect ollie north!
it was the south central cartel
that traded for guns in nicaragua

before he died
eazy e bashed in nancy kerrigans knee
killed nicole simpson & ronald goldman
& caused the peso to plummet

let the pundits come forth
call jesse jackson
gangsta rappers are threatening affirmative action
call dick gregory
gangsta rap causes obesity & malnutrition
call ralph nader
gangsta rappers invented the corvair, the chevette, & the pinto
[...]
(c) Kenneth Carroll

Not bad for 25 years, huh? Only thing is, that poem is 10 years old. Gangsta rap had accomplished all that in just 15 years. Since then, we have uncovered 50 Cent’s role in Three Mile Island, Eminem’s spreading of the smallpox virus to the Indian population, and Jay-Z’s connection to Al Qaeda. The Blueprint did drop on 9/11/01. Hmmm….

Of course, the gangsta/hustler paradigm of hip-hop is problematic and I’m gonna fully explore that in the coming week. (I don’t know exactly what I’m gonna do for day 1 of averytooley.com, but it’s gonna be hot. At least, that’s what I’m hoping.) Either later on today or tomorrow, I’m gonna try to get at misogyny in hip-hop. But for right now, just reflect on those lines. Did gangsta rap really do it? And if it didn’t, why do we try to lay the blame at its feet?

Jared has a thought-provoking post on his reaction to seeing an argument between a man and a woman that had abusive overtones. He writes,

What I saw this morning has been bugging me all day, really, which is why I’m writing about it. Makes me want to go beat the devil outta that guy…and hold the door open for his girl. I know, I know…violence begetting violence, etc. You know what, though? Some people need a beatin’. A guy who’ll abuse his spouse is definitely in that category, if you ask me.

I’m with him in principle, but I will think twice before I step into any domestic situation. I know of too many situations where the “hero” winds up catching it from the “damsel.” My “little brother,” who’s a police officer tells me that when he goes to a call for a domestic situation, he lays it out for the woman as soon as he walks in the door: “If you hit me or my partner, you will be wearing these cuffs and you will be going to jail.” He has to say that because there’s a decent likelihood that she’ll try to do something.

And it’s not even so much about thinking that the woman is being ungrateful, it’s a simple matter of personal safety. Fortunately, I didn’t grow up in that type of environment, but my grandmother was a hairdresser. I grew up getting all the low-down. For whatever reason, some people are just at home in that type of situation. As strange as it seems to me, there are some people who think that physical abuse is proof of affection. Or something. And I know there are other circumstances that have to do with it, like financial dependency and having grown up in households where abuse is prevalent that confound the situation. It’s bad all the way around.

What’s just as bad but seems worse in some ways is the scene when it’s the woman who’s beating the man. Mary Mitchell had an article about it a few weeks ago, but apparently I can’t link to it any more. But suffice it to say that I feel bad for guys who are in that position. Obviously they’re conscientious enough to keep from hitting a woman, but that woman takes his non-physicality as a sign of weakness.

Just throwing this out there to see if anybody bites:

1. Would you/ have you ever intervened in a domestic situation involving strangers?

2. Would you be more or less likely to do so if the woman were beating the man?

3. What, in your opinion, should a man do when he is being physically accosted by a woman?

Somebody needs to break this down for me.

August 24, 2004 — LAURA Bush delivered a diss to Sean “P. Diddy” Combs by refusing to appear alongside the hip-hop heavyweight at last night’s grand opening of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, sources said.

Combs was supposed to join the first lady, actress Angela Bassett, U2 frontman Bono, Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, Sen. Mike DeWine, Black Entertainment Television CEO Bob Johnson and other dignitaries at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, but Bush’s office nixed the photo-op with Combs.

“Her reps made it very clear to Freedom Center that they would not have Laura Bush appearing in the same photo-op as P. Diddy,” tattled our source.

Now let me get this straight: there were supposed to be several people in the picture and she refused to take the picture because of Puffy P. Diddy? I could see it if they were supposed to take a picture together, but as a part of a large group? Come on. What’s that all about, really?

I’m not gonna get all deep on this situation with the Miller Brewing Company’s lack of foresight in recognizing Black musicians in their 50th Anniversary of Rock & Roll campaign. For a minute, I was thinking I was gonna go to town on this whole thing, but I’ma pull back for a couple reasons.

1. I’m not mad that they’re not putting a Black man’s face on a beer can. The fact that there would be no rock ‘n roll without Black folks notwithstanding, I’m cool with not seeing a brother’s face on a container of alcohol. If we could cut down on the number of brothers lookin’ at the can in the first place…

2. It seems ludicrous on its face, but there has to be some science behind this move. It’s hard for me to believe that this marketing campaign went through the entire chain and nobody realized that there weren’t any Black artists being honored. At best, I’m thinking that they meant rock specifically as a genre and therefore didn’t think of Black folks, although that in itself is a major misconception…

I just hope they don’t try to rectify the situation by putting pictures of rappers on 40 oz bottles.

I’ve probably said 100 times that I don’t do politics. There are too many things in this world that I enjoy and too much that I really care about for me to hitch myself to a party. That doesn’t mean I won’t express political thoughts, but even then, my intent is to to frame issues as challenges to be worked on, not ideas to volleyed. Don’t know if I always succeed, but that’s my goal, at least. I like to talk politics at the concrete level, where ideology takes on much less significance.

Having said all that, I know some people who loooove to talk politics. If you’re at my crib, then I know you’ve been around the corner to La Shawn’s. If you haven’t been already, then you need to check out the rest of the members of the Conservative Brotherhood, too. There are some sharp political minds in there. They got that.

I bring all that up because I got wind of this editorial by Robert Oliver, Save The Drama For Your Mama, the other day and it’s definitely worth reading. It separates the truth from the rhetoric with regards to the Democratic Party’s claims of historic inclusiveness. When pressed, I can do politics, and if I did it would probably look something like this piece, but since there are people who actually talking Republican v. Democrat, I’ll leave it to them.

But here’s a quote from the article that had me rolling on the floor laughing. And Bill Clinton (who was sued while Governor of Arkansas for violating the 1965 Voting Rights Act and signed into law “Confederate Flag Day”) is a member of the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame? If Clinton was our first Black president, wasn’t he an Uncle Tom and an Oreo cookie?

Now that’s funny.

Hip-hop hating conservatives are gonna have to step to the rear because looking at recent statements and events, we got a chance. A couple months ago, I did a point-by-point breakdown the platform of Russell Simmons’ Hip Hop Summit Action Network. I’m not wild on the polemics, so I just kinda pointed out some areas where the agenda could stand some refining from being a nebulous idea to an actionable achievable plan. I ain’t gonna lie, though, in my own mind, I was quietly convinced that the HHSAN was just as much a front door for the Democratic party as the NAACP. I was wrong, though.

Watch this:

In addition to the registrations, the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network honored Maryland’s Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich and Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, also a Republican, for their work on the drug laws in Maryland and their efforts to improve businesses in the African-American community.

Now, to be fair, I seem to recall the NAACP giving Condoleeza Rice an Image Award two or three years ago, but I don’t know how much weight that carries now. I’m not so sure Dr. Rice would have been welcome at the NAACP Convention a couple months ago, but I can’t say that the NAACP has shown utter contempt for Black conservatives…just a general dislike.

Anyway, Russell Rush’s organization is in its nascent stages of formation. It has no real victories and no real defeats with which to cement its ideological focus. If we stand to the side and do nothing, then it will shrinky-dink down to being a vehicle for one party over the other. It doesn’t have to be that way, though. “The Democrats do not own Hip-Hop,” Simmons said. Now I’ll be the first one to tell you that not all of Rush’s ideas are compatible with a conservative/moderate mindset (man,I hate labels) but we can’t really hash those issues out as long as we stay away from the table.

But it’s not just Rush. LL Cool J performed at Clinton’s first inauguration and he performed at the Democratic convention this year, and maybe at some other events in between. Here’s what he had to say:

AllHipHop.com: Did you recently just go to the Democratic Convention in Boston?

LL: I went to the convention, but I went to [perform at] the Rock to Vote concert. And what I said after I finished performing was, I’m not here to endorse any particular candidate. I said that if there is any candidate that is looking for my endorsement, we have to meet face to face and I need to know what their plans are and how they are going to affect my community, and then America as a whole, and then my community within America. I have to know what the plan is. I’m not going to lend my name and my credibility. I respect them of course. And I said it respectfully because you have to respect the people that are running for the leadership of our country because this is a great country. And I do love this country because it has given me a great opportunity. Regardless of what our ancestry is, ultimately we are all here because of our ancestry. So whether good or bad, at the end of the day we are here now and we need to take advantage of this opportunity of being Americans. At the same time, if I’m going to endorse somebody, I can’t just endorse him or her just by default. We have to sit down and talk. I have to see what’s going on, and how what you do affects the people I love.

AllHipHop.com: Have you followed any of the candidates?

LL: A lil’ much. I haven’t been stimulated to that point. When I hear someone talking about something other than what Bush has done wrong, then I can listen a lil’ better. But at this point I don’t know anything about what anyone is saying but what Bush did wrong. That doesn’t help me. There’s a whole focus on the problem but what’s the solution?

Now let’s not jump the gun and give LL some kind of ideological label, but let’s recognize the fact that there are some inroads to be made. I’m telling you, if we can emphasize the economic benefits of the conservative agenda, we’re in there. I don’t think there would ever be a conservative majority within hip-hop, but I think that we can have a significant presence. But for me, it’s not even about some ideological version of Stratego, it’s about doing something. If we’re out there doing what we’re supposed to be doing; the things we talk about and the things we know are right, the rest of that will follow.

It was a divinely beautiful Sunday morning, and double-murder suspect Lyndell Swinson thought he’d go to church.

It was unclear why Swinson chose the church on Ogontz Avenue, which has a congregation of more than 4,000 people; more than 1,000 typically attend Sunday services. He wore a red-and-white football jersey, baseball cap and jeans, and had shaved off his beard, cut his hair, and trimmed his eyebrows, police said.

But check the clincher

Philadelphia Police Lt. Norman Davenport had just finished preaching his first sermon - on dealing with difficult circumstances - when one of the deacons told him someone had recognized Swinson.

What more can I say? (c) Shawn Carter

This is a short list, but I it’s a work in progress. These are not songs by gospel artists. These are songs by secular artists that have an overtly gospel message. No euphemism and double-entendre, where the “you” could be God or some chick, it’s out there plain.

Save Their Souls - Hamilton Bohannon
Help Is On The Way - The Whatnauts
Is Anybody Gonna Be Saved - The Ohio Players

Told you it was short. But as I go through these 6100 songs on my mp3, I’m sure we’ll uncover some more.

On 1 September 2004, we will be heading over to averytooley.com. We’ll try to have the blog nice and categorized for easy viewing, as well as a few more goodies like some creative writing, and whatnot. I’m in the process of putting together the new design right now.