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She Didn't Wear Red
1970-01-01 00:59:59
Did you notice how many women wore red, the color of conformity since the days of Nancy Reagan as First Lady, for the State of the Union address Tuesday? But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not wear red, a sign, it seems to me, that she wants to break out of that old political mold during the two years she will be in control, leading a Democratic agenda. President Bush, the leader of a fractured Republican Party, played nice-nice in his State of the Union address while still stubbornly hewing to his Iraq policy. But he says he wants to seriously address immigration reform, health insurance for more of the 40 million Americans who have none, better public schools for our children and tax breaks for regular folks. "Our citizens don't much care which side of the aisle we sit on, as long as we are willing to cross that aisle when there is work to be done," President Bush said.So you go, Madame Speaker! And I mean: Go to work.


State of the Union: What Can the President Say?
1970-01-01 00:59:59
When 88 people -- or more -- were killed in a single place on a single day, Iraqis vs. Iraqis?When other Iraqis were killed on that same day -- Monday -- by other Iraqis?When he's still stubbornly demanding that 21,000 or more of our men and women go to replace all those who are dying in Baghdad?Mr. President , the state of the Union is NOT good -- and that's just on the foreign affairs side!We have to let him know that in more ways than answering to pollsters that his favorability is low.
Read more: State

What Exactly Is Isaiah Washington Being "Treated" For??
1970-01-01 00:59:59
This actor has checked himself into some program after making homophobic remarks about his Grey's Anatomy co-star. Is there a Betty Ford Clinic-style Stars-R-Us place for homophobes? This seems like a stupid public relations move that diminishes the seriousness of seeking treatment for the abuses of alcohol and drugs and such. Through Halle Berry's disastrous marriage to Eric Benet, we learned about the "need" for treatment for sexual addiction to women other than his wife. Mama would have a name for that -- and the Scriptures to back her up! Not to mention something to knock him in the head or whip his butt! There are legitimate reasons to seek treatment, but too often these folks in the public eye seem to equate "I'm going into therapy" with cleaning up their public images. Give us a break!Homophobia exists in America and very much so in Black America. Washington needs to clean up his act but not pretend that going into therapy is the way ahead. Whatever this "therapy" is is mere
Read more: Isaiah Washington

The World Is Watching Us
1970-01-01 00:59:59
President Bush's "I like you" ratings are at an all-time low, but so is the US ranking in the world's sight. As I suggest to my journalism students, check out this website to get a sense of what the rest of the world beyond the standard US media is saying. It's quite sobering.http://www.watchingamerica.com/index.shtml
Read more: World , Watching

United Negro College Fund
1970-01-01 00:59:59
"A mind is a terrible thing to waste…""When my soul was in lost and found, you came along and claimed me…"The first quote is the slogan of the United Negro College Fund (www.uncf.org)The second is a line from one of Aretha Franklin's many hit songs, celebrated in recent days on cable TV's salute to her as a way to carry on Lou Rawls' dedication to raise money to make dreams reality for kids of color. Before his death a year ago, he helped raise $200 million for historically black colleges and universities. I kind of regret that I did not attend one of those HBCUs (www.edonline.com/cq/hbcu); maybe I'll wind up my teaching days by teaching at one of them - probably in Atlanta.In the meantime, think of contributing money or mentorship. Go to the website or call: 1-800-331-2244.


Academy Award Nominees
1970-01-01 00:59:59
Congratulations!:Dreamgirls for eight nominationsWill Smith for best actor in a leading role in The Pursuit of HappynessForest Whitaker for best actor in a leading role in The Last King of ScotlandJennifer Hudson for best actress in a supporting role in DreamgirlsEddie Murphy for best actor in a supporting role in DreamgirlsDjimon Hounsou for best actor in a supporting role in Blood DiamondWhat would Hattie McDaniel think! She, after all, was the first Black person to be nominated and to win the award for Best Supporting Actress for playing the role of Mammy in 1939's Gone With The Wind. A dignified woman, she had a retort to those who criticized her for playing so many roles as domestics. "I'd rather play a maid than be one."Yet, even in honoring her, Hollywood dissed her: When the awards were presented, she was relegated to the back of the Coconut Grove, where the ceremonies took place. Bursting through racial barriers had its limits even among this artistic and self-congratulatory
Read more: Academy , Award

Ruth Brown: "A Very Special Lady"
1970-01-01 00:59:59
Why does it often happen that we learn about the contributions and sacrifices people have made only after their deaths? I found myself asking that question yet again at a memorial service for the late Ruth Brown , the woman once credited with putting Atlantic Records on the map. That company, which will soon celebrate its 60th anniversary, was known in the 1950s as "The House That Ruth Built"At her memorial service at Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church on Jan. 22d were performers ranging from Little Jimmy Scott to Bonnie Raitt to Chuck Jackson to Paul Shaffer - and Ruth Brown's band. The Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts 3d described her as "a very special lady" and "one of the greatest entertainers of the last century." John Sayles, the director, was there to show a preliminary recording session for a movie he's making called Honeydripper, starring Danny Glover and Charles Dutton. She died shortly before scheduled to star as a kind of Ma Rainey character down on her luck in Alabama
Read more: Special

Commander in Chief - or in Desperation?
1970-01-01 00:59:59
To the dismay of many Americans, and no doubt people in nations allied with the United States, President Bush is thinking of putting into harm's way thousands more in our military services. Why, Mr. President? To be partisan about it, even members of your own party are questioning your judgment. And don't get the Democrats started."The public is way ahead of the Congress saying that enough is enough," Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) said a few days ago. That after Iraqi fatalities among Americans has exceeded 3,000 and the wounded far outnumber the dead. On New Year's Day, The New York Times ran the photos of 1,000 of the dead - teenagers, men and women in their 20s and 30s, a few in their 50s. They're mostly from small towns across the country, according to a report in The Financial Times.Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, (D-Nevada) said in a letter to the president: "Our troops and the American people have already sacri
Read more: Commander , Chief , Desperation

Hillary: She's In It To Win It
1970-01-01 00:59:59
Let's take her for her word. She wants to hear from us. "I want you to join me not just for the campaign but for a conversation about the future of our country -- about the bold but practical changes we need to overcome six years of Bush administration failures."I am going to take this conversation directly to the people of America, and I'm starting by inviting all of you to join me in a series of Web chats over the next few days."Chat. Scream. Speak out. Whatever.http://www.hillaryclinton.com
Read more: Hillary

Something's Happening Out There!
1970-01-01 00:59:59
The SuperBowl game is usually a yawner. But as of today, this year's game has got me ready to throw down with a big ol' party on Feb. 4. The two opposing teams, the Colts and the Bears, both victors today in their conference championships, are led by Black head coaches. I don't care which team ultimately wins SuperBowl XLI. We've all advanced.For more info: http://www.superbowl.com/features/general_info
Read more: Happening

Dreamgirls
1970-01-01 00:59:59
Why is Dreamgirls only NOW being widely released? What was Paramount thinking in only releasing it - pre-Golden Globes - to a few hundred theaters? Why didn't Paramount execs have confidence that such a stellar cast could WOW! the nation?' They obviously saw this as a Black film with no appeal to people who are not Black or are not interested in films involving Blacks. Three Golden Globes awards later, Paramount is distributing the film to 2,000 theaters.Hollywood should "Listen" to the film's soundtrack. It is still "Steppin' to the Bad Side" when it needs to "Move".


HIV/AIDS
1970-01-01 00:59:59
No, there's no big event coming up, no anniversary that I know of. But that's why I'm talking about HIV/AIDS . It's every day. 24/7. Coretta Scott King, God bless her soul, said: "Anyone who sincerely cares about the future of Black America had better be speaking out about AIDS."Mrs. King was my mother's generation, and Mama hasn't quite come to grips with the fact that my brother, John, and her brother, Richard, died of AIDS. Cancer? OK. Having Mrs. King say what she said was as profound as hearing the Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts 3d of the Abyssinian Baptist Church advising from the pulpit some years ago that folks -- especially men -- use condoms. The Black AIDS institute has great information (http://www.BlackAIDS.org). Phone: 213-353-3610. AIDS has become a Black disease, and we CANNOT deny that. Guys coming out of prison infect women -- many of them more older than younger and ashamed to say so. Teens often don't have a clue.Read this excerpt from "AIDS in Blackface":"Today, Bl


Mayor Nagin is not New Orleans' worst problem
1970-01-01 00:59:59
It was not the mayor or the police or the judges who committed all those murders in New Orleans . The people in New Orleans need to recognize that and do something themselves. The march on City Hall was a start this week, but come on! If a man kills his woman or vice versa, how can the mayor or the "system" prevent that? If a sociopath decides to shoot a man, woman and child, how can that be forseen and prevented -- unless, of course, said sociopath was already known to the "system." It seems to me that whether we are talking New Orleans or Newark, we are ignoring the power that individuals can have in monitoring what is happening in their own families, on their blocks, in their broader communities. If you see something, say something. DO SOMETHING.
Read more: Mayor

Civil Rights Era "Cold Cases" Apparently Warming Up
1970-01-01 00:59:59
One can only say: It's about time. There are many unsolved cases from that time, when men and women were killed or disappeared under suspicious circumstances. One of those cases now supposedly being seriously examined by the FBI occurred in the section of Georgia where my roots are deep: Four young black people, two couples, were slaughtered in Walton County, where some of my relatives still reside and where I've found the burial sites of relatives going back as far as some of my great-great grandparents. The lynching took place on July 25, 1946. The victims were Roger and Dorothy Malcom; Dorothy's brother George and his wife Mae. George was a veteran of WW2, one of those Blacks who, by their very exposure to the world beyond near-slavery that existed on the cotton farms, were considered "uppity" -- and, thus, a threat. White men were accustomed to having their way with their Black women servants; that may have sparked a fight that led Roger Malcom to stab the son of Dorothy's boss
Read more: Civil , Rights , Civil Rights

Florida Last Week; New Orleans So Many Months Ago
1970-01-01 00:59:59
Am I the only one who noticed that within hours - hours! - survivors of that string of tornadoes that brought death and destruction in their wake in Central Florida saw the US government swing into action? People may be receiving relief checks as soon as Tuesday.And back in New Orleans …..On television and in newspapers the faces of Central Florida have been White, except for some of the prisoners (we used to call them "chain gang") out there working on debris clearance. The faces of New Orleans have been Black. Even now, Black people are asking for help in rebuilding their lives and their New Orleans, as they did last week when US senators toured the Lower 9th Ward to see for themselves how destructive Hurricane Katrina was and how inadequate government response has been. Duh! What's taken so long?"Whatever response is needed, we will make it quick and sure," President Bush said in a speech over the weekend, even as relief was already on the ground in Florida, where his
Read more: Months

Obama's Blackness
1970-01-01 00:59:59
Why do so many American-born Blacks, who take on African names and don African or African-inspired garb, now question the authenticity of a true African-American: Barack Obama ? He is the progeny of a White American woman and a Black Kenyan man. How much more American and African can you get?Barack Obama has never denied his Blackness. He has embraced it, though he has never denied his White or Indonesian relatives. In his pre-Senator Rock Star career, he was a community organizer in Black Chicago neighborhoods. He lobbied for Black interests as an Illinois state legislator. He's married to a Black woman, and he has two Black children.Maybe it is fortunate that the Blackness issue is emerging so early -- even among well-meaning but patronizing folks like Joe Biden, who has been taken to task for thinking he was praising Obama when he described his fellow senator and potential presidential campaign rival as "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean an


Obama TOO Black?
1970-01-01 00:59:59
In an earlier post (Feb. 2) I examined the notion among some Black s that Barack Obama is not Black enough because of his parentage (White mother from Kansas; Black father from Kenya) and where he grew up (Hawaii and Indonesia). Now on the eve of his expected formal announcement of his candidacy for president Saturday, some White people are saying that he is TOO Black because he belongs to a Chicago church, the historic Trinity United Church of Christ, that is dedicated to uplifting Black people and especially to strengthening Black families. These critics are zeroing in on the church's 12-point Black Value System (www.tucc.org/about.htm) and its motto: "Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian" This too-Black salvo comes from a certain sector of White conservatism that is showing its true colors. (Illinois Review, www.illinoisreview.typepad.com)On its web site (www.tucc.org), Trinity says: "As a congregation of baptized believers, we are called to be agents of liberati


No Laughing Matter
1970-01-01 00:59:59
The meltdown of Lisa Nowak, the astronaut who went on a 900-mile trek by car from Houston to Orlando to confront the woman she thinks is in the way of a relationship she wants to develop with a fellow astronaut, has been good for laughs on the late-night television shows. I confess: I chuckled at a few Jay Leno jokes on the Tonight Show.But the reality is that this is really a sad story -- and one from which I hope more of us will learn. Nowak, like her confreres in NASA, is driven, intense, competitive, super intelligent and, to the world that sees only that side of her, she has a near-perfect life. But she knows differently. She is as emotionally fragile as any of us. And, like many of us, she hasn't managed to reach out for help in addressing that fragility before doing something so extreme and uncharacteristic. It's easier to laugh at her than to admit that we could BE her. Reach out for someone's hand.
Read more: Laughing

Obama Makes A Move Towards The Presidency
1970-01-01 00:59:59
Today Sen. Barack Obama announced plans to form an exploratory committee for a presidential candidacy. That's a step saying he seriously believes he has the chops to become President of the United States. I'm not yet convinced, based on his sparse track record. But I had a spirited debate with a friend yesterday who said that the very freshness that Obama brings to the political table makes him formidable. Obama himself says the U.S. is hungering for "a different kind of politics." Here's how you can see what Obama said today on his own website: http://www.barackobama.com
Read more: Presidency

First Black President? Hah!
1970-01-01 00:59:59
In fiction and in fact, we have already had several. I'll start with the fiction because if you don't already know this, you're perhaps not ready for the "facts.""The most famous Black President of this century is one Douglass Dilman: he is the hero of The Man, a 1964 best-selling novel by Irving Wallace, which was later made into a movie starring James Earl Jones. Thrust into the Oval Office after a crisis of succession, President Dilman swiftly finds himself the target of popular animosity and Beltway intrigue," the Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. wrote in a fascinating article in the New Yorker magazine some years ago, while profiling Colin Powell. At the time Powell was the Barack Obama of the 1996 presidential season.On the currently popular Fox series, 24, we have our second Black president within the span of a few years: The current president, Wayne Palmer, is the brother of President David Palmer, who was assassinated. Now, how much of a stretch is this? A kind of Bush
Read more: First

Black History Month
1970-01-01 00:59:59
Today marks the beginning of Black History Month . If you have your eyes and ears open, you will be bombarded with all sorts of images of Black heroes -- many of these images shaped by corporate America. Think of this not as a full course of history, however. This is a sampling of what should be a year-long menu. Enjoy, but don't feel satiated.
Read more: Black History , Black History Month

August Wilson's King Hedley II
1970-01-01 00:59:59
How often can one attend live theater in New York for $15? Grab your ticket -- fast! The tickets went on sale a few days ago. The performances, at the Signature Theatre, run from Feb. 20 through Apr. 15 at 555 W. 42d Street (bet. 10th and 11th Avenues). 212-244-PLAY (7529) or www.signaturetheatre.org
Read more: August , Wilson

Babies
1970-01-01 00:59:59
There's so much bad news these days about babies killed, babies abandoned, babies abused, babies kidnapped, babies with health issues that our various levels of government and our private institutions are not addressing.BUT...There are also good stories.I want to welcome into the world two babies born to moms in my apartment building within days of each other: Nicholas and Liam. At my church, Abyssinian Baptist, in Harlem, we have a tradition of taking responsibility for our youngsters. The second Sunday of each month children are brought forth to the congregation and we, in essence, pledge our allegeiance and our responsibility as part of the village needed to raise a child.How about making that a national pledge?Hello, babies!!!
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Get Over It?
1970-01-01 00:59:59
A Virginia troglodyte of a legislator recently said that Blacks should "get over" the slavery thing and its aftermath. But how can one do so when just this week - finally - a man with the blood of a 1964 Mississippi lynching on his hands was arrested? In so many ways, the past is still too much the present. James Ford Seale is 71. He's lived 43 years longer than he allowed two Black teenagers, Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, to live. They were kidnapped, strapped to a tree, beaten, driven to Louisiana, then tossed into the Mississippi River to drown.This incident caught my attention not only because of the issue of justice but because I am a Moore, maybe or maybe not connected genetically to Charles Eddie Moore given how Blacks took names after slavery. My folks and his folks were from the same neck of the woods.This from the Associated Press: "Forty years ago, the system failed," FBI Director Robert Mueller said in Washington. "We in the FBI have a responsibility


Obama Makes It Official: "Let's Get to Work!"
1970-01-01 00:59:59
Barack Obama stood in front of the statehouse in Springfield, Ill., where, like him, Abraham Lincoln served and in 1858 gave a speech known to history as "A House Divided" ("A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other") It was his justification for campaigning to save the US from its growing sectarianism. For Obama this was the setting for his justification for entering presidential politics - and winning - to save the Union once again by cutting through the partisan crap and bringing about peace and prosperity. To those who braved the wintry weather and, of course, who were watching on TV, he said: "In the face of war, you believe there can be peace. In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope. In the face of a p
Read more: Official

Iraq-- God Damn!
1970-01-01 00:59:59
I'm hearing Sister Nina Simone and her outrage about Mississippi in the 1960s, the loss of lives there and the hesitation if not full-fledged resistance of those in power. Her song was Mississippi God Damn! "Oh, but this whole country is full of liesYou're all gonna die and die like fliesI don't trust you any moreYou keep on saying 'Go slow!''Go slow!'"Iraq is are killing Iraqis by the hundreds on a daily basis -- and the US is still serious about sending in 20,000 more young American men and women to babysit and run the real risk of being killed or maimed?Republicans still beholden to President Bush say the Democrats have no plan for victory. Well, excuse me, what is Bush's plan? Cheney's plan? Rice's plan? For four years they have been in charge of this mess that most Americans seem to realize is a mess. About 40 Americans have been killed this month alone in Iraq, adding to the total of more that 3,100. Even more alarming is that more than 20,000 of our men and women -- ma


Hardaway's Big Mouth Costs Him
1970-01-01 00:59:59
Obviously, Tim Hardaway forgot to study the play book before going off on a homophobic tirade on a radio show just before the National Basketball Association's annual All-Star splash. So the former star player has lost a PR gig as an official representative of the league in the leadup to the big game, which will be held in Las Vegas this weekend."It is inappropriate for him to be representing us given the disparity between his views and ours," NBA commissioner David Stern said after Hardaway's anti-gay rant created a storm.Hardaway has a right to his views, but he doesn't have a right to represent the corporate NBA, which likes to make money and put forth a face of tolerance when, as everyone knows, a lot of folks associated with the league probably agree with Hardaway. Why do you think John Amaechi waited until he had retired from professional basketball to disclose that he is gay? (His newly published memoir is "Man in the Middle.")Hardaway, apparently not comfortable enough in
Read more: Costs , Big Mouth

The King Memorial Inches Forward in Washington
1970-01-01 00:59:59
A sculptor from China has been chosen to carry out the project along the Tidal Basin on the National Mall, and according to a report in The Atlanta Journal Constitution, 16 quotations have been selected to adorn the proposed structure. Among them: • "Say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter."— Feb. 4, 1968, Atlanta• "We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."— April 16, 1963, Birmingham, Ala.• "Make a career of humanity... commit yourself to the noble struggle ... you will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in."— April 18, 1959, Washington , D.C.• "If we are to have peace on Earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend race, our
Read more: Memorial , Forward

CNN As Arbiter of "New Black Leadership"?
1970-01-01 00:59:59
The new black leaders? What gives CNN the right to crown a new generation of so-called "Black leaders" as it plans to do this week in its focus on Blackness? God bless her. Soledad O'Brien seems earnest in "uncovering" the Black America that is undiscovered territory for her and so many others in the US. Why do so many of US have to be "uncovered" for the rest of US? My folks have been in this country from at least the early 1700s. Why haven't we and ours been "discovered" until now? To pick a group of people, mostly entertainers, as the "new Black leadership" is an embarrassment, an insult and a sign that corporate America, including mainstream media in the US, is not that far removed from two centuries ago when Blacks decided to form their own media to "plead our own cause" While you're "discovering", check out 1827 and the first Black newspaper in the US. If you don't know US by now, will you ever, ever, ever know US?Ms. O'Brien in the introdu
Read more: Leadership , New Black

Caught Between Heat and a Cold Place
1970-01-01 00:59:59
Granted, hundreds of thousands of US citizens are now pawns in a geopolitical competition between the US and Venezuela, as the latter's president does all he can to castigate and embarrass the Bush Administration. It's too easy to berate Joe Kennedy - mainly for his name than his actions - than to DO SOMETHING. If the US provided ways and means for the less fortunate among US to afford heating oil to stay warm this winter, Americans wouldn't need to call 1-877-Joe-4-OIL."I'm Joe Kennedy. Help is on the way," he assures in his ubiquitous television commercials. What galls people who themselves are benefiting from fuel from questionable places - including Venezuela, which sends oil to Kennedy's nonprofit Citizens Energy Corporation at a discount -- is that Kennedy gives credit to "our friends in Venezuela" That country's president, Hugo Chavez, is clearly no friend of President Bush, whom he has denounced at the United Nations as an incarnation of "the devil.
Read more: Caught , Place

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