Is O showing the sisters enough love? And mass transit blues.

O, you better be careful, you don't want to play with the black female vote. I know that most sisters will still ride or die with you (Mrs. Field included) but you have got to start showing them some love.

Faye Anderson, a friend of mine, and a blogger who I respect, wrote a piece about it, and wouldn't you know it; today I noticed that Dr. Boyce Watkins wrote about it as well.

I saw Faye at a conference down in D.C. and she was telling me that quite a few sisters were pissed at O but none would go on the record. (Unlike moi, Faye is a real journalist.) Now I love Faye, but I am not sure who, exactly, O could have invited to represent the black female civil rights community? And why is this even an issue? Shouldn't we all be uniting around common goals about what is best for our community and A-merry-ca as a whole?
Dr. Watkins disagrees with me:

"Dr.Julianne Malveaux would have been a perfect choice, since you don’t exactly see scores of black women with PhDs in Economics from MIT. Given that the men had gathered to discuss job creation and economic growth within the Black community, I can only imagine that Dr. Malveaux might have something productive to say.

The fact that Dr. Malveaux, along with every other talented Black woman in America, is consistently left to the side in these important conversations should be disturbing to all of us. As we fight for the civil rights of our community, we might want to take a second to realize that we are not immune from the temptation of oppression. With all due respect to the men who’ve taken the time to meet with the president, I grow increasingly disturbed that the powerful Black female political voice has been largely kept in the background. Given that Black men are the most marginalized group of people in American society, it is clear that Black women led the way in building the passionate energy that gave our nation its first Black president.

Adding insult to injury, Dr. Height mentioned to President Obama that it is time that a Black woman be allowed to serve on the Supreme Court. Instead, the Obama Administration barely glanced at the thousands of talented Black female attorneys and judges across the country, and chose another Harvard University alum (Elena Kagan) with a horrifically racist hiring record. Kagan was the right political move, but the wrong ethical move, and President Obama surely knows this.

The goal in making these points is not to bash President Obama or the men who conduct meetings with him. It is to make it clear that Black men must take the lead in insisting that women be allowed to advocate for our community as much as our men. I hope and expect that Jealous, Sharpton and Morial are in agreement. I also hope that powerful Black women will speak up on this issue as well.

When fighting for what is rightfully yours, there comes a time when you no longer need to be diplomatic. Let’s move Black women away from the back of the political bus."

Thoughts?

The next time I go to San Francisco, I will be renting a car. The mass transit po po out there doesn't f&*^ around. Dead for not having a fare? WTF?

And, finally, speaking of mass transit. I know times are tough in A-merry-ca for you Negroes with the recession and all, but you have got to stop taking your anger out on white people. That s&^% is not cool. "Can't we all just get along"?

"A Bronx man was viciously assaulted and robbed on a subway train Sunday by four men who he says taunted him for being white.
Police confirmed they are investigating the assault and robbery of Jason Fordell, 29, but have not labeled it a hate crime.
They are seeking the four assailants, who fled the scene. A fifth passenger who police say spontaneously joined in the attack has been arrested.
"Everyone on the train was egging them on," said Fordell, 29, of the early-morning attack on the 4 train." [Source]

Mr. Fordell, let me be the first to apologize to you on behalf of all peace loving Negroes everywhere. That should not have happened. And, to be fair, if it had been the other way around I would probably be blogging about it. Probably....

Oh ohhh, there is an update to this story:

"Police were unable to find the gang, but they were able to find and arrest 54-year-old Barinthe Ramoutar, who Fordell fingered as the eager straphanger. Last night a judge released Ramoutar without bond.

“It’s simply physically impossible,” Ramoutar’s lawyer, Trudy Strassburger, said of the attack yesterday.

Her client, she says, is a balding fruit salesmen with no criminal record and arthritis, from 24 years working as a welder, so bad he cannot make a fist. She says that the arrest was just a case of mistaken identity.

Fordell identified him on the platform at Jerome Avenue and Fordham Road a good 45 minutes after the attack is said to have occurred.
The judge apparently agreed with Ramoutar’s lawyer enough to release him without bond. However, he still faces charges of robbery, assault and grand larceny.

Meanwhile, the four other attackers, three black men and a hispanic [SIC] man, remain at large—which makes it very hard for police to determine if the attack was in fact racially motivated, as Fordell has claimed.
Also not helpful to his argument?

The fact that Fordell has since admitted that, after being called names, he resorted to racial slurs himself on the fateful train ride. “They’re calling me cracker, and so I called him spic,” a beaten Fordell told WPIX.

When the station then asked, “If you’re using racial slurs, why should police call it a hate crime?” Fordell responded, “because they’re the ones who started with me.” [Source]

Mr. Fordell, those Negroes were still wrong, but your hands were not exactly clean. There was clearly some "color arousal" issues going on (thanks for that word, Francis)and being "color aroused" in certain situations is never good.

No barbecues for Dr. Boyce.

Some more thoughts about A-merry-ca's birthday from you black folks.

"When I think about the fourth of July, my mind is motionless. I don’t get happy, sad, angry or thoughtful. As a 40-year old man, I can’t even get excited about the fireworks anymore. The holiday means as much to me as the birthday of my biological father who abandoned me at birth. In fact, I don’t even know what day he was born.

The fourth of July has quite a bit of meaning for our nation at large, of course, given that it was the day on which the Declaration of Independence was signed. Black people were still slaves on that day, which highlights the core of persistent American hypocrisy as it relates to race. All the while, one has to respect the courage shown by Americans of all ethnic backgrounds who fought against the tyranny of the British to create the powerful nation in which we live today. If we actually had the courage to live up to the ideals of those who gave their lives for freedom, we’d be a much better country because of it.

For African Americans, we don’t quite have a true fourth of July. This is not only because the original fourth of July took place while we were still slaves, but because we have not yet earned our independence. Of course, we obtained some semblance of freedom in 1865, after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation; but being free is far from being truly independent. Despite the fact that slavery ended long ago, the descendants of our historical oppressors still control nearly every dimension of our lives:

1) Large corporations like Viacom and Time Warner control major black media outlets like BET and Essence, giving them the right to shape our collective point of view. We depend on these companies to tell us what to think.

2) Most African Americans are controlled by corporate jobs that mute their ability to speak out or stand up on issues of social justice. We depend on companies owned by others in order to feed our children.

3) Black children’s minds are obliterated at an early age by media giants who mass market hip-hop music that sells black boys a recipe for self-destruction by the time they reach kindergarten. Capitalist and shareholder-created monstrosities like Lil Wayne teach them how to kill themselves and each other by the time they become teenagers.

4) Our children have their futures thrown into the trash by school systems that put even the most brilliant black boys in special education at a rate that is five times greater than white kids.

5) The NCAA still earns over a billion dollars per year on the backs of black families, leaving many single black mothers in poverty. In fact, athlete compensation has been criminalized, while mostly white coaches and administrators sign multi-million dollar contracts without playing in any of these sporting events.

6) Black unemployment is nearly double that of white Americans, with no politician in Washington expressing any interest in alleviating the suffering with targeted policy. We depend on politicians and a Democratic Party that fills our minds empty rhetoric, while not respecting us enough to deliver on campaign promises.

The most glaring sign of our lack of independence is the prison industrial complex, which has served to decimate the black family in America. Black men are disproportionately incarcerated and used as slave labor to make expensive corporate products. In fact, the 13th Amendment, which allegedly abolishes slavery, actually includes a clause stating that slavery is still legal if the government can label you as a felon.

So, part of my ambivalence toward the fourth of July doesn’t rest on hating others or carrying the crippling burden of acidic anger. It comes from the fact that I know that my people are at least 100 years away from gaining their independence. Consider me to be a pessimist, but when I look at the world around me, I see very little independence for black people."
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the
Your Black World Coalition.  [Link]

Now before some of you patriotic A-merry-can folks go bashing the good doctor; just remember that only 58% of you know the actual year A-merry-ca won her independence, and a shocking one in four of you don't even know who we won it from.

But I do disagree with the Doc about one thing: I still get excited about fireworks.

*Pic courtesy of Newsone.com