So there’s a “Django” action figure being sold now; and, of course, some of my cousins are upset about it — yep, yet another reason yo hate this movie for some. The action figure isn’t actually a stocking stuffer, but I hope it doesn’t have a Kung Fu grip like G.I. Joe. Nope, no need to get Spike Lee any angrier about the movie than he already is at this point. Seriously, how much more disrespectful can they get with this thing? Oh well, it could have been worse. Yes, somebody could have had the bright idea to start selling a crack head action figure after the movie Do The Right Thing.

Oh, and speaking of “angry black men who hate white men with the audacity to make movies that illustrates what it was like for black folk back in 1853″. Did you hear what Tavis Smiley had to say about Tarantino and the movie Django Unchained? Well, like Spike Lee, he too hasn’t seen the movie nor intends to “pay to see it,” like he said in a recent interview featured on The Daily Beast. Like Lee, he too takes issue with a white movie director using his craft to bring to the big screen a film that revels in the painful but often avoided legacy of slavery. Responding to a question about his first reaction to the film, Smiley opens up the interview with the following:

Quentin Tarantino’s film, Django Unchained has as much to do with the history and culture of American descendants of African slaves as Dumbo has to do with the plight of Weimar Jewry. Spike Lee says that it disrespected his ancestors. It does not. It has nothing to do with them. It has everything to do with one white man’s fevered, second-hand vision of what it would be like to be something he probably can’t conceive. It’s like me attempting to write an intimate account of the pains of childbirth. I may have held a baby and changed a diaper, but one would doubt my authority on the subject.

Tarantino obviously knows black people, but only a white man in America could believe that this provides him with the authority to speak on the black American experience. Like 99.9999 percent of the white population, he has minimal intimacy with the culture of the descendants of American slaves. That culture, imbibed from birth by American blacks raised in black American households, involves an intimate, often subconscious acknowledgment of history, of a unique place in the American hierarchy, of a struggle against mainstream paradigms of who and what we are. These are intimacies of which whites are necessarily ignorant — they’re white. Just as I, as a male, have no intimate knowledge of birthing pains, whites have no knowledge of being black. They can gain an abstract conception, but that’s it.

Um, excuse me, I know Tarantino is white and all, but I sincerely doubt whether anyone alive today — including black folks — are able to have more than an abstract conception of what slavery was like. Yes, though many of its scars still run deep throughout the diaspora, to suggest that by virtue of one being charged with melanin comes with a certain esoteric knowledge of slavery even if we’re fifty years removed from Jim Crow. Which is funny because it’s as though being able to endure “the struggle” was woven into our cultural and biological DNA — it’s as if unlike any other race, we’re predisposed to endure any struggle. And thus, we’re exceptional or something.

Of course, Tarantino has every right to make a film on any subject he chooses, and he knows his audience well. The film has become the white literati’s preferred lens into the forbidden territory of black rage (a sort of reverse Uncle Tom’s Cabin). But when blacks discuss it as if this product of white Hollywood is a legitimate expression of our culture or our rage, we do ourselves a gross injustice; we follow the pattern of outsourcing our history and self-image to the majority; we marry ourselves into the grotesque self-images that their history has tried to stamp upon us.

Django Unchained is nothing more than one white Hollywood director’s fantasy of what black revenge would look like. It would be no more to us than another big screen cartoon if we dealt honestly and independently with our own history — a history white studios or directors would never touch. Such history puts the lie to the frames and simplifications with which Americans maintain our halo of historical innocence on matters related to race.

If we lavished similar imagination upon the history of the blacks who fought for the British during the American revolution to escape slavery, the German Coast uprising, the Prosser and Vesey rebellions, the ‘Crazy as St. Paul’ Nat Turner rebellion, the Black Seminole rebellion of 1835, the innumerable anecdotal tales of black resistance against slave-owners, perhaps we wouldn’t glom onto the work of a white director who (with his infantile insistence on his right to fling the word “nigger”) seems frightfully similar to the clueless character in Lou Reed’s infamous, “I Wanna be Black.” If we taught ourselves to regard the Civil War as “a failed war to protect and extend slavery,” and not “a war to free the slaves,” we would be less seduced by the siren song of second-hand revenge fantasy. If we debated among ourselves the virtues and vices of real old-west outlaws like the notorious Rufus Buck Gang, Cherokee Bill and Isom Dart, perhaps one white man’s notion of blacks in the old west would be less noteworthy. If we knew that black freedman populated Indian Territory and that a black lawman named Bass Reeves served as a Deputy U.S. Marshall for “Hanging Judge” Isaac Parker, we’d have a far richer, more complex view of our history than that promoted by the likes of Hollywood and Tarantino.

Yes, blacks are giving this film too much credence, but it’s our own fault. We have outsourced our history to the majority and failed to devise the means to teach our history to ourselves. In a country in which we have been historically subjugated and reviled, we accept instruction about our history and our place in it from those who subjugated and reviled us. That’s a bit insane. As long as we continue to do so, the likes of Django Unchained will rise from the level of mainstream curiosities from black-cultural dilettantes, to fake nipples mimicking the teat of cultural sustenance.

Listen: We can only imagine just what it must have been like for African slaves not just in America, but also those spread all throughout the new world; but even so, we have no earthly idea, despite the documented research, of just how bad it actually was. So what is the point to this post? That I can’t wait for Tarantino to do the sequel where Django and Madea try to bust John Brown the abolitionist, out of prison for killing white folks so everyone can be happy. Yep, let’s try to rescue a white man in the next one, since folk wanna act like he had Harriet Tubman giving lap dances in this one. as cathartic as this film isn’t for some, maybe my suggested sequel will be received with open arms only if a black guy produces, writes, and directs it. Because quite naturally, who else is there better to tell stories of the black struggle than black people, right? After all, last time I checked, black kids are still picking white dolls over black dolls; and, it ain’t like y’all Negroes supported Akeela And The Bee anyway.

So yeah, blame Tarantino for that too.

The post Slavery, Django Action Figures, & Why Tavis Smiley is Wrong appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Hollywood has again deigned to allocate space for a movie set during slavery to be disseminated for public consumption. It has debuted to mostly positive reviews and a massive PR machine is doing its best to make sure everyone takes in the movie for the “holidays”.  Which is what they should do because its a business venture and the priority is to make money.  Making money is all well and good, retelling accurate portrayals of history, in this country with each day becomes more crucially important.

Post-Racial America – NOT

This last year especially has shown the ugliness of racism rear its ugly head during one of the most contentious presidential elections in recorded history.  We were able to bear witness to how, one demographic group willfully could and would ignore any information based on facts, and instead opt to create whatever facts would suit their beliefs and position.While on the one hand this country had managed to get to the point of electing, and re-electing a black man to hold the highest office in the land, the journey to get there has been hallmarked by a serious uptick in intolerance coupled with an astonishing show of ignorance and bigotry that has not been seen in this country for quite some time.

This would not be of much significance if it weren’t for the fact that this has manifested in attempts to change what is put into the textbooks that our children use in schools. It really wouldn’t matter much if there were not people like GOP Rep  John Hubbard from Arkansas - who reiterated a theme that has been getting a lot of airtime in conservative circles of late – “slavery was good for black people”.

Letting Others Tell Our Story Has Consequences

Folks are up in arms about Quentin Tarantino’s(Django Unchained) comments regarding “Roots”which was just run in its entirety on BET. His comment was that “Roots” was not an authentic representation or telling of slavery. Basically he’s right. There was no way in this universe that the TV network back then could have aired an accurate telling of slavery – it would never have made it past the network censors.  Additionally, one can argue that many are still not ready to hear the awful truth or brutality that was a common component of slavery. There was nothing pretty about slavery in this country.  There are many “authentic” stories that are available to read if one so chooses.  What is amazing is that people would get upset with Tarantino for making this statement. He made a movie. His purpose was not to provide an authentic retelling of slavery. His purpose was to make a movie to make MONEY – period. I don’t see too many people upset with the notion that he choose to make money by making an “entertaining” movie about the slave trade. Then again I don’t see too many getting upset with the portrayals of blacks in the entertainment business much anyway. That whole – well they are making money, they are making a living, they are providing for their families etc. with a nice dose of calling haterade just is way overworked.

I have seen this line of reasoning used to justify the upcoming “reality” series that is based on a“rapper” who has 10 baby mama’s and loads of kids which is being brought forth by Oxygen network  – really ??

When you entrust a vital part of your history to be retold by those who have no vested interest in accuracy and who’s sole motive is to make money, what exactly do you expect?  If  a Nazi decided to do a movie about the Holocaust with an “entertaining” spin to it – there would be all kinds of hell to pay if it ever even got released or distributed in the first place. It is not a false equivalency, but an apt comparison of a period in history where an entire ethnic group was subjected to horrors which included extermination and that continues to impact the group to this day. The major difference being the need in the black community to find a way to make slavery entertaining instead of accurate.

Don’t Get Mad – Get Busy

I don’t see why anyone should get mad at Tarantino, especially the black community. When there are large numbers of us watching shows that depict black women acting in ways that perpetuate negative stereotypes, and WE spend money on “entertainment” that continues to perpetuate negative stereotypical behavior – why get mad?  Getting mad at Spike Lee for publicly saying he would not go to see THIS movie accomplishes what exactly?  All this energy expended in pointless action – how about asking  Spike or some of the other directors when they are going to do a movie based on “Incident’s In the Life of a Slave Girl”.  Where is the “petition” asking Oprah when she is going to back a movie production of the Tademy Family saga – Cane River and Red River. Both of which are REAL stories based on the lives of real individuals.  For entertainment, get a director to do Some Sing, Some Cry, which is fiction but is based on the REALITY of the times it takes place in.

The money we spend on supporting negative imagery could just as easily be spent in supporting directors, producers, and programming that at the very least is not always based on the least common denominators in our community.  The expectation of moral conscience being expressed by network executives and any other profit driven entities is completely ridiculous. Placing blame on them for airing these shows is misdirected – REALTALK – they only air what people WATCH. IF we were not watching this stuff  and spending our money supporting advertisers who buy ad space on these shows – they would never see the light of day.

The time and effort spent going back and forth on this could be better spent in trying to get some of this stuff actually done. Which is what I plan to do by working on a compilation of African American Art and making it available via mobile devices.

Ya’ll have fun with the arguing and debating back and forth.

The post Django Unchained: No Thanks, I’ll Pass appeared first on Madness & Reality.

OK, let’s get something straight: Django Unchained is not about Martin Luther King Jr, nor is it the black version of the epic The Birth Of A Nation. However, it’s a very timely film.

I doubt very seriously whether it was Quenten Tarrantiino’s intent to spark a conversation on race. But with his new movie Django Unchauined, boy did he ever. Having said that, I’m just going to go on record and say that if Jammie Foxx wins an Oscar for his role as Django, that’s when I’m going to start believing all this post-racial talk I’ve been hearing for the last four years. Now, about the movie, I’m not offended that the word “nigger,” is used 110 times. I have yet to see the movie, so I’m not sure why this may be offensive to some.What offends me, however, is that Django has excellent command of the English. No diss to my ancestors, but I’m having a hard time accepting the fact that a slave in the 1950s is able to understand that the ‘D’ in his name is silent. But hey, maybe I shouldn’t complain; yep, at least they didn’t make him come off a bit Green Mile-ish when there are black folks today who you’d swear they’re looking for Harriet Tubman when you hear them speak.

Now of course this movie has seen it’s share of controversy even before its Christmas Day release. In fact, I blogged about how “certain people” were a bit put off by a joke told by Jamie Foxx while hosting Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago. Yes, and apparently it’s beyond reason for an enslaved African with a gun to “kill all the white people,” like Foxx does in this movie. I suppose, to some, the notion of a slave murdering the un-melanined seems to be bad for race relations in America. Of course this was all bullshit, as I’ve already pointed out. That said, you can imagine my surprise when I heard that there were more than a few black folks who took issue with a few things in the movie. Not surprising, however, was the critique that came from my man Spike Lee, who believes the film is “disrespectful,” to his ancestors who were slaves.

This from Rolling Stone:

Although he hasn’t seen the movie, director Spike Lee tells Vibe that Quentin Tarantino’s new Civil War-era Western Django Unchained is “disrespectful to my ancestors.”

Lee, whose latest film Red Hook Summer deals with race and class in the South Brooklyn neighborhood, said he has no plans to see Django Unchained. He elaborated on his dissatisfaction on Twitter, writing, “American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust. My Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa. I Will Honor Them.”

This isn’t the first time Lee has taken issue with Tarantino’s films, particularly when it comes to the use of a racial epithet that is used myriad times in Django and appeared frequently in Tarantino’s 1997 film Jackie Brown.

Lee spoke out about the film after apparently telling Django star Jamie Foxx that he wasn’t going to. In a separate interview withVibe, Foxx recalled an encounter with Lee at the BET awards saying, “You know Spike, he’ll let you have it whether it’s good, bad or ugly. And he said, ‘I’m not going to say anything bad about this film. It looks like y’all are getting it.’”

Now I respect Spike Lee, and I’m a huge fan — hell, can’t you tell from the banner above? — and he is of course entitled to his opinion. However, I don’t agree with his assertion. Why? Well, maybe I’m wrong, but I’d like to think that African slaves had more important things to worry about other than being called “niggers.” Was it degrading to them? Assuming that they had a grasp of the English language like “Django,” I’m sure it was. However, I’d like to think that they were more concerned about escaping the horror that was slavery, and maybe even trying to get a paycheck. The way I see it: What better way is there to “honor” our ancestors than to use a film to illustrate just what they endured for a very long time? Sorry, Spike, you’re my man and all, and like you I love the Knicks; but, until Kunta Kinte comes forward and says he feels “disrespected,” I’m not hearing you, bro. But Spike isn’t the only one, as I found out while watching Melissa Harris-Perry last weekend

Case in point, check out this from Melissa Harris-Perry:

So, for Melber who writes:

Django is fighting for his life against slavery, torture, rape, and murder, arming him with a moral clearance to go on a killing spree…

[...] The spectacle is more like pornographic violence than a dénouement, and even if the corpses are not total innocents, the nation’s tolerance for wanton, mass shootings is quite low right now.

[...] There is nothing to be gained from sanitizing our nation’s violent, racist history, to be sure, but Tarantino has shown that sensationalizing it is not worthwhile, either. That is unfortunate, because Django Unchained ultimately boils down to a tragedy in search of a point.

I suppose for him and others who share his opinion, the fact that a black man is doing the this killing makes them a little uneasy. I mean, lord forbid if someone makes a movie about John Brown, the white abolitionist who enacted his “vengeance” upon white men for no reason. Yep, for some, it’s as though Django should have employed Martin Luther King Jr’s strategy of non-violence. Because we all know how well that worked out for black folks during slavery. I’m sorry, but something tells me that Dr. King wouldn’t be above bussin’ a cap in more than a few asses to get back to Coretta.

The post Django Unchained Isn’t About Martin Luther King Jr. appeared first on Madness & Reality.

But seriously, how dare a slave with a gun “Kill all the White people,” in a movie? A few days ago, Sean Hannity had a huge problem with Janie Foxx and his Saturday Night Live opening monologue last weekend. As you may know by now, in the upcoming film Django Unchained, Jamie plays a slave with an itchy trigger finger — imagine that, a slave with a gun. Yep, leave it to Jamie Foxx to play the first slave with a gun in a movie, who doesn’t start a revolution, right? Yeah, how’s that for Black History? I’m sure Nat Turner would be so proud.

In his monologue, Jamie most pleasurably jokingly mentioned that he kills all the white people in the movie. Now I’m no fan of Jamie Foxx, but even I — though I struggled — had to laugh because it was pretty funny. I mean, if you’re a slave with a gun in the 1850s, um, what else are you supposed to do? Exactly! It’s really a no brainer, right? But no, don’t tell that to Sean Hannity. Forever in search of the elusive Black Bogeyman, Hannity took offense and found Foxx to be racially offensive. Um, isn’t it hilariously funny how a host on Fox thinks that Foxx was racist.

JAMIE FOXX: My name is Jamie Foxx. Give it up, give it up, New York City, Saturday Night Live. Come on, make some noise, man. New York City, New York City, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, it’s crazy. I’m black, and I’m dressed all black cause it’s good to be black. Black is the new white. I’m telling you, how black is this right here? Nice fly, I’m saying. You know how I know black is in right now? Cause the Nets moved to Brooklyn. How black is that? They got black jerseys, black court. I mean, how black is that? And Jay-z is the owner, a rapper. How black is that? And Jay-z only own about this much of the team. But he act like he own all of New York. How black is that?

And I got a movie coming out, “Django,” check it out. Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson. “Django Unchained” I play a slave. How black is that? And in the movie I had to wear chains. How whack is that? But don’t be worried about it because I get out the chains, I get free, I save my wife, and I kill all the white people in the movie. How great is that? And how black is that?

And of course, Hannity found two not-so-unchained folks to have a discussion:

How does it help race relations in this country when a black actor jokes on national television about killing white people?

One has to believe that his opening monologue was approved by SNL’s writers, meaning they were in on it.

Imagine the uproar if a white actor joked about killing all the black people in a new film he was starring in.

That would probably be the end of his career.

By contrast, for Foxx, this will probably win him another Oscar.

It’s a grave new world isn’t it?

Yes, it is a “grave new world,” indeed; but, obviously not much has changed since there’s a black family living in the White House. The truth is that neither Sheppard nor Hannity are interested in helping race relations in this country. If anything, what we’ve seen for the last four years especially, is that black is not the new white as Jamie Foxx suggested. But that may be my penchant for the tragicomic coupled with my ever-present Negro cynicism coming through. Forgive my pessimism, but when I look at the right-wing’s new black fetish, and how they rarely miss any opportunity to demonize people of color. Let’s just say that though it has been four years, I’m not feeling very post-racial. Case in point, check out the following video. Maybe it’s me, but the obvious appeal to the racial sensitivities of “certain people” in America, is blatantly obvious.

Yep, whether in movies or real life, black folks have done a lot of things in America since slavery. Hell, we’ve even been to space for crying out loud. That said, is it too hard to imagine or accept that we’re at a place in history where a black person can simultaneously be president of the United States, while another one uses a gun to “kill all the White people,” in a movie? Or is that, like truth, too much too fast for some to accept? Sorry, but the days of Blazing Saddles are long gone.

The post Django Unchained: How Dare a Slave with a Gun “Kill all the White people” in a Movie? appeared first on Madness & Reality.

So I just found out that the world is coming to an end on December 21st, 2013. Yeah I know, we’re not gonna even have Christmas this year. Even worse is the fact that there will be no inauguration to attend in January. It really sucks because, even as historic as the last one was, I missed it. This being the last time they’d ever let a black man swear an oath to being POTUS, I was damn sure I wasn’t going to miss this one. But, none of you people told me about the world ending before now, so I suppose that’s not going to happen. Hell, who knew the Mayans were Republicans?

But anyway, speaking of end of times and apocalyptic events. Did you hear that Tea Party darling and slave-catcher extraordinaire, Allen West, lost his Congressional seat in November? Yep, fortunately for us, we won’t have to be assaulted with his ignorance in the next Congress. And of course after losing a requested ballot recount, West is now asserting that his loss was due to his opponent cheating – yeah, like all Democrats are obviously known to do.

Appearing on Mark Levin’s radio show last Thursday, West accused his challenger Patrick Murphy, of cheating: “I’m not going away just because of a congressional race where he seems to have to cheat to beat me.” Of course being no stranger to controversial statements, West never offered an explanation of how Murphy cheated. But in true self-aggrandizing albeit narcissistic fashion, West chose to beat his chest in defeat like the deranged “warrior,” and deluded nutjob that he is.

Check it out:

LEVIN: You are a national treasure. You are way too important to have something like this to happen and off you go. That can’t happen. So I’m really curious to know. Do you have further public service in mind, potentially?

WEST: The most important thing everyone has to understand is my voice is not going to be lost. We’ve gotten a lot of opportunities, a lot of offers, and we’re going to make sure we continue to have that platform. [...] I’m a warrior and I’m a statesman and I’m a servant of this republic. I’m not going away just because of a congressional race where he seems to have to cheat to beat me.

LEVIN: He sure as hell did. It’s disgusting.

Allen West suggesting that he lost his Congressional seat because his opponent cheated, sounds eerily like Marion Barry’s, “The bitch set me up,” line. Negro, you lost because you GOP pals through redistricting put you at an electoral disadvantage. Nope, they didn’t give a damn about your black ass. So, go sit’cho ass down somewhere and have a hot cup of STFU, with a “Nigga Please,” shit sandwich on the side. Of curse I have to give West credit for not blaming his loss on an Obama-created Mayan conspiracy with help from the Kenyan Mafia, and those Chicago gangsters.

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I like Melissa Harris-Perry, but yesterday she let me down. On her show yesterday she discussed what is being reported as a “riot” on the Ole Miss campus which erupted in the wake of President Obama’s victory on election night. Now I would agree that what occurred was hot a full on race riot; after all, it wasn’t like 50 years ago when the school’s first black student attempted to step foot on the then lily-white campus.

Yes, let’s be honest: This country hasn’t seen a real race riot since maybe the Rodney King verdict. However, for her to downplay the actions of several students to be anything less than racially motivated was disheartening. Why? Let’s just say it wasn’t an accident that Obama didn’t win any southern states.

Now I didn’t expect her to tie up her braids, snatch her earings, and slap some Vaseline on her face while throwing up a black fist before going to war — let’s be real, she’s no Angela Davis. But to treat the event like it was just the typical frat boy behavior we’ve come to be used to at college campuses, was bullshit. To me, it was as if she deliberately took caution so as to not “upset” her new southern neighbors in New Orléans. After all, why would she rep hard for a southern city that’s often forgotten and not bring up the ugly side that is riddled with racial animus. Yeah, why would she go out of her way to play the, “See, not all southerners are racist,” card like she did?

Well it’s simple: Melissa was mindful of her husband’s political aspirations. Yep, Melissa’s husband — James Perry — recently ran a unsuccessful mayoral campaign. And quite conveniently, her husband was also a guest panelist on yesterday’s show to discuss poverty — which was excellent, by the way. Having said that, do you get the picture? Oh c’mon, do I have to spell it out for you?

James Perry & Melissa Harris-Perry

Yep, it’s kind of hard to push the argument that racism is still strong in the south when your husband wants to be mayor of a major southern city right next door to Mississippi. Listen, this is just another example of her — a prominent black person and scholar — selling out for political expediency. The thing about it, however, is that you won’t hear many of my Negro cousins calling her out on it like they do my man Dr. Cornel West. And they won’t because maybe as black people we all understand that selling out is part of the process when it comes to our advancement.

But we know the truth, folks. We know that the south is still the south. We know that though there may be more black faces on predominantly white southern college campuses, the long-held beliefs and traditions of these schools still exist today like they always have — after all, it’s their legacy.

But don’t tell that to Melissa…

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Board of Directors, Pacifica Foundation:

The fact is, it’s not WHAT Tavis and West are saying that has the Black community up in arms, it’s WHY we suspect they’re saying it. After all, couldn’t they wait until AFTER the election, and AFTER we’ve made sure that we’ve protected the Black community and poor and middle-class America from corporate fascists, and THEN have this “intelligent and passionate” discussion? But of course, Tavis and West would argue that once reelected, President Obama wouldn’t have an incentive to listen. But that’s not true. Every president is concerned about his legacy, and as the first Black president that’s even more true of Obama than most. In addition, President Obama has two daughters who’ll have to live with his legacy for the rest of their lives. Thus, President Obama’s actions in office will determine whether they live their lives as American princesses, or pariahs. Certainly the highly intellectual Cornel West recognizes that fact – doesn’t he?

So what’s so important for us to discuss at this particular time that it’s worth sabotaging this election, and possibly, the future of America? After all, it’s not like we have a viable alternative to President Obama. So personally, I can’t think of a thing, and neither can many others in the Black community. The only thing we can see is a personal agenda – and then, when you put that together with Tavis Smiley’s all-consuming penchant for self-promotion, and his close ties to Walmart, Nationwide Insurance, Wells Fargo, and other corporate interests, that leaves the Black community very suspicious of these two characters. In addition, the Black community is not nearly so dense that we don’t recognize that every time these two go on one of their “poverty tours” that they have something to sell under their arm.

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I like Dr. Boyce Watkins — yes, I really do. It is for that reason only that he isn’t this week’s recipient of my Slave-Catcher of the Week award. Not that what he said in a piece over at Kulture Kritic isn’t slave catcher behavior. But after thinking long and hard, truth is, the last few strands of respect that I have for him as the “People’s Scholar” just won’t allow me to go there. Having said that, the good doctor has been treading the fine line that is black intelligentsia and fuckery to my disappointment, for quite some time. And the last thing I’d hate to do is to finally write him off as one of those Negroes that I refuse to fuck with anymore because of his ill-formed misguided opinions.

To be frank, Dr. Watkins has been on some bullshit.

I don’t know what’s happening with the brother, but I hate to start believing what I wrote about him recently. That is, I hate to believe that much of his screed of late is motivated by a need to feel relevant. You know, with the likes of Cornel West, Tavis Smiley, and even Melissa Harris-Perry getting some shine, I’d hate to think that my man is feeling left out like the kid who never got picked on the basketball court. Even worse, I’d hate to think that the good doctor is putting out much of what he wrote recently for page views for any one of the many sites upon which he leaves his internet footprint. Yes, I’d hate to think that I’m being bamboozled. And, I especially feel the way I do because Boyce has been putting in work in the black community for quite some time. But, after reading the following, what am I to think? Not trying to be judgemental, but dude’s trippin’.

As we approach the 2012 presidential election, I quietly ask myself: Regardless of who is elected, is black unemployment going to dip below 10% over the next four years? Is the prison industrial complex going to get any smaller? Are black teens going to continue to die from guns being made available on every corner in our communities?

Then, I realize that when we fight to keep “our guy” in office, we’re kind of like prostitutes trying to keep their pimp out of jail. The hookers know that the pimp isn’t going to make their lives any better, but his incarceration might possibly make it worse.

I would not go to the extreme of agreeing with WEB Dubois, who once said that he was not going to vote, since neither party cares very much for the African American community. But I am certainly in favor of African Americans being as selfish as every politician in Washington who simply does what’s best for him or her, without any regard whatsoever for the needs of the African American community. The fact is that you should care about them about as much as they care about you, end of story.

Whew! I’m so glad he’s not going the W.E.B. DuBois route of telling black folks not to vote. I am because if I recall corrently, DuBois in his infamous passage even noted that in voting for third-party candidates, he often voted against his own self-interest as a black man. But Bouyce is right, no matter who we vote for in Novemeber, there’s not much that will change overnight as far as black unemployment, the prison industrial complex, or even the long-standing problem that is black on black crime and violence. The problem I have with this melancholy self-defeatist position, is that no one presidency can, has, or will ever fix these issues. Indeed these are issues that negatively impact the black community. However, let’s stop it with the bullshit fantasy that this was all supposed to change with the swearing in of America’s first African-American president.

Yep, because Mitt Romney’s policies are best, right Boyce?

There is nothing wrong with supporting third party candidates, since most of us can agree that the two party system simply isn’t working. What offends me most is the determination with which the Democratic Party relies on fear and seeks to undermine individual freedom when it comes to how we vote. The fear is driven by reminding you that if you don’t give them your vote, horrible things are going to happen to you. Their subjugation of freedom comes from the fact that they are seriously threatened by the notion of anyone telling black people to think for themselves. They are accustomed to doing the thinking for us.

Negro, please!!

I’ll admit that, while I like Barack Obama and hope that he wins the election, I find myself unable to be as excited about this election as some of my friends. In fact, it’s downright depressing. I’m sad to look around me and see a world where anyone who doesn’t want to line up and have Barack Obama’s baby is somehow defined to be a traitor. It is also a world where anyone who tells our politicians to help battle against the diseases of poverty, violence, inequality and mass incarceration is told that they are peeing on the Negro Juneteenth Political Parade. No one wants to hear about black people who are suffering, since we’ve been trained to believe that a certain segment of our community just doesn’t deserve any better.

I am firmly against the consumption of alcohol, but this election is driving me to drink. To know that your vote isn’t going to have much of an impact on those you love is, admittedly, downright devastating. Perhaps it’s time that we demand something more, for our politicians have us bamboozled.

Boyce is right — the politics of fear is very powerful. However, the politics of fear isn’t one-sided — no, the fear mongering Boyce speaks of isn’t exclusive to Democrats. As a mater of fact, the very third-party candidates he suggests supporting employ the very tactic of fear mongering themselves. Shit, fear will always be a [art of our politics for as long as heaven is used as a better option than hell. The bottom line is that as long as the political narrative is dominated by the plutocratic power structure as it always has, things will never change. And there’s nothing wrong with being idealistic; but, if Boyce is going to be borderline suicidal and depressed about voting or the election cycle, then he might as well kill himself. I’m just sayin’, does he get this depressed about every presidential election? Shit, I’m only asking because, well, the two-party system has been around a long time. I mean, it’s not like the system or the problems affecting black folks have popped up overnight, no?

OK, so I’m not advocating that he ends his life. However, I am suggesting that he gets his shit together and stop feeding our people the slow poison that he has been serving up lately. You see, this isn’t about Barack Obama being black. This is about an ethnic group of people with a long history of marginalization exercising the right to vote after years of struggle. More importantly, this is about the very group of black people Boyce claims to love, mobilizing, and being a part of the democratic process. What pisses me off about Boyce’s tripe, is that he’s projecting the idea that voting is the end all be all to our struggle for equality. Quite naturally it’s easy for one to be depressed if everything was to be solved by simply casting a vote. But, that’s not how it works.

Listen, voting is important; yes, it is. However, as the late Howard Zinn said: Democracy is what happens between elections. Democracy doesn’t stop at the ballot box; no, it doesn’t. Democracy is us continually speaking truth to power and organizing ourselves so as to influence change. Yes, we have to become the change we believe in. Yes, it sounds cliché as hell, but it’s the truth. And believe it or not, Dr. Boyce Watkins knows this. How do I know that he does? Well, if he didn’t, he would have never started the program Building Outstanding Men and Boys (BOMB). If he didn’t, he wouldn’t traverse the country promoting his family empowerment series that targets the parents of young black males. That said, surely Boyce believes in himself as being a person being able to affect change. It’s just sad that he too is an infected crab in the bucket of black academia starving for relevance. I don’t know what’s up with this brother, but either he stops listening to that Emo Hip Hop (yeah dude, Drake sucks) or refrain from writing stuff to be published on the internet after having a fight with his baby momma. Seriously, get it together, Boyce — this ain’t you. Sheesh!!

Seriously Boyce, you’re better than this….

The post Dr. Boyce Watkins Likens Obama Supporters to Prostitutes appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Looking for your very own handmade Grandpa Golliwog doorstop? Or perhaps you’ve been looking for a “cute” handmade Mammy doll or Baby Girl Golly? Well according to an online petition that’s being circulated by a woman named Raquel Mack, virtual artisan marketplace, Etsy provides a whole slew of racist nostalgia for purchase on its website despite recent revisions to their policies, which were implemented in January 2011, prohibiting the sale of items that promote and glorify hate and that demeans people based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, disability, and/or sexual orientation.

“In May of 2012 the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP attempted to reach out to Etsy only to receive this response” -  ‘[…] our members come from all walks of life, and may hold differing opinions of the legitimate collectability of certain types of historical items.’ Read the petition’s statement.

“Perhaps one of the most disturbing aspects of this issue is that that one would be hard pressed to find racist items of any other demographic on Etsy, which begs the question, Why is it okay to sell items that dehumanize and denigrate those that fall into the category of ‘black people’; and would there be the same lack of response were these items offensive toward the LGBTQ community, or Asian community, or any demography that is “more likely” to be shopping or selling on Etsy? Etsy receives $0.20 for every item listed on their site by merchants and they collect a 3.5% fee on the sale of every item, racist or not. Since Etsy has failed to address this issue it may be safe to assume that they have no scruples about profiting from the very items they prohibit.” The petition continues.

Once again, we have the issue of  re-appropriation of anti-Black artifacts being used for enjoyment, sh!ts, and giggles without regard for their historically offensive contexts and the social impact they still have on Black people. Golliwog is Europe’s rendition of the Sambo or Pickaninny caricatures of yore here in the United States. Depicted as an often mischievous character with dark black skin, bugged-eyes, red lips, and shock of unruly hair, Golliwog rose to popularity in 19^th century Europe as a character in a series of children’s books based around “The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg” illustrated by Florence Kate Upton, who was born to British parents and inspired by a minstrel doll she played with as a child in New York. Upton later moved back to England with her mother (after her father’s death), and used the doll as a model for her Golliwog illustrations. Her mother Bertha Upton penned the verse for the book and it was published in London, where it was widely embraced.

Florence Upton recalled of the doll, “Seated upon a flowerpot in the garden, his kindly face was a target for rubber balls… the game being to knock him over backwards. It pains me now to think of those little rag legs flying ignominiously over his head, yet that was a long time ago, and before he had become a personality. We knew he was ugly!”

In the book, Golliwog was described by as “a horrid sight, the blackest gnome.”

Following the Uptons’ success with the Golliwog character, un-trademarked, it would later be mass produced as a doll by toy manufacturers, used as a symbol for Robertson’s jams until 2001, and recreated as a character device by other children’s books authors. The dolls are still sold in toy shops around the UK and Brits insist that the doll is a symbol of cheer, love and happiness however, Black Britons would be loath to agree with that assessment, especially since the word “wog” is used as a racially insensitive slur in England (Germany, Australia, and Greece) to describe Black or darker-skinned people. In 2009, Carol Thatcher (daughter of former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher) was axed from a BBC show after referring to an unnamed Black tennis player as a “golliwog.”

**BLOGGER NOTE: video clip of a Robertson’s Jam advert –> (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJnzCs1l5Wk)**

Sellers are peddling these items via Etsy and many of them are apparently handmade to order, as opposed to being (old) collectible artifacts from the past… “Made in Black Felt with Jet Black ‘Rasta’ style wool hair and cord dungarees […] I also have other Golly Door Stops listed, some with more “traditional” hair styles. Note this is meant to be used as a doorstop and not intended to play with.” Read one seller’s description of her “Golly” creation.

That Etsy allows these wares to remain on the site, despite what they’ve outlined in their policies is  just wrong and goes against their promise to reconsider racially and culturally insensitive items on the site — “If you are selling items that violate the new policies, we ask that you take them down. If you have questions about a particular item in your shop, you can contact us at. […] we also want to recognize that tolerance and respect have to be part of the norms of our community. We feel that the kinds of items we are now prohibiting violated that spirit.” Many of the items being sold on the site, seem to (predictably) ship from the UK and Australia.

You can sign the petition to “Tell Etsy to Stop Profiting from Prohibited Items” here.

The post Petition: Etsy is Profiting From Racist Memorabilia Despite Policy appeared first on Madness & Reality.

I’ve been trying to “get over slavery,” as some of my Conservative friends who I prefer to call racial enablers of the Republican party always say. But the problem is that I’m not rich. Because of this fact, I cannot afford to spend the kind of money it requires to law on a shrinks couch in an attempt to, “get over it.” Be that as it may, with me being a professional racism chaser, my Conservative friends aren’t making getting over it any easier. Take Arkansas lawmaker, Jon Hubbard for example. Hubbard who is white, just so happens to be a “frustrated” conservative. Gotta love post-racialness…

Not that I know Hubbard personally, but the fact that he wrote a book in 2010 entitled Letters to the Editor: Confessions of a Frustrated Conservative, tells me that he has a lot of pent-up frustrations to get off of his chest. And according to The Arkansas Times, some of it has to do with his feelings about African-Americans. In particular, it would seem that part of his frustration has to do with our lack of collective gratitude for the genocidal institution that was slavery.

Slavery was good for black people:

“… the institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise. The blacks who could endure those conditions and circumstances would someday be rewarded with citizenship in the greatest nation ever established upon the face of the Earth.” (Pages 183-89)

If you think slavery was bad, you should have seen Africa:

African Americans must “understand that even while in the throes of slavery, their lives as Americans are likely much better than they ever would have enjoyed living in sub-Saharan Africa.” “Knowing what we know today about life on the African continent, would an existence spent in slavery have been any crueler than a life spent in sub-Saharan Africa?” (Pages 93 and 189)

Black people are ignorant:

“Wouldn’t life for blacks in America today be more enjoyable and successful if they would only learn to appreciate the value of a good education?” (Page 184)

You kno’ if you stop wit dat runnin’ away they’s gon’ give us BET, Kunta?

Hubbard has since come under fire from the Arkansas GOP who has decided not to continue funding his current re-elction campaign. But in true “I’m white and I can do no wrong fashion,” Hubbard says his writing is being taken out of context: “They attacked me because I’m a conservative, and they’ve taken small portions of my book out of context, and distorted what was said to make it appear that I am racist, which is totally and completely false.” Context? What other meaning is there to be drawn from his words? Surely he isn’t suggesting that slavery was atrocious, was he?

Now I don’t know about you, but if you were black like me it would be nearly impossible to “get over slavery,” as long as racist minds like Hubbard’s exist. What’s even more troubling is that this man works in Arkansas state legislature. But of course for many of you reading this, his expressed views aren’t problematic. In fact, I’m willing to bet that many of you reading this, actually agree with Hubbard’s opinion. How do I know, you ask? Because the sophistry of the position that slavery was a blessing in disguise for black folks, is one that is rooted in White Supremacy.

And of course, when you’re white, you’re right:

“If slavery were so God-awful, why didn’t Jesus or Paul condemn it, why was it in the Constitution and why wasn’t there a war before 1861?” – Rep. Loy Mauch (R-AR.)

Yep, what’s a little oppression and dehumanization for centuries when it gives you the privilege of being called an American, right? After all, “the blacks” were a people who could “endure” the circumstance of slavery in the new world and should be grateful because Africa didn’t have BET.

Forgive me for being an ingrate, but I wasn’t sure whether laws permitting me to read still existed.

The post Jon Hubbard (R-AR): Slavery Was A “Blessing In Disguise” For “The Blacks” appeared first on Madness & Reality.