raga recommends: style wars

easily one of the best documentaries i've ever seen, independent of my hip-hop bias. style wars, filmed in the early 1980s in new york city and subsequently aired on pbs, captured a moment in time. whether you believe that time reflected chaos or creativity is up to you. however, in the video above, new york times film critic a.o. scott tries to convince you of the latter.

in addition to providing a glimpse into the burgeoning youth subculture, the movie also includes the perspective of the city's establishment, including mayor ed koch and the head of the metropolitan transit authority, richard ravitch.

on a sad note, quite a few of the artists featured in the film aren't around anymore despite the fact that this footage is barely 25 years old and they were all fairly young at the time.

glenn beck: obama racist against obama

from the alternate universe that is fox news. following the announcement of the president's beer date with harvard professor henry louis gates and cambridge police sergeant james crowley, the "fox & friends" crew sits down with batshit conservative pundit glenn beck. and of course, it being fox news, hilarity soon ensues.

beck states that he believes obama has a "deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture". brian kilmeade promptly counters beck's argument by naming folks in the administration who are clearly of caucasian descent. expect for the most obvious person ... barack obama!

okay, okay. so he's biracial. but that's still a lot of euro-american blood and he's definitely no more african than he is caucasian. therefore, according to beck, obama must have a deep-seated hatred for obama. that's clearly where this brand of logic is going, right?

UPDATE: so wow, the video evidence has been removed from youtube. the good folks at huffington post know what's real though. peep this.

raga recommends: the battle of algiers

we all know that i'm a total film geek. and since i regret not properly watering the seedlings of what could've been a somewhat decent career in arts reporting, i might as well share my thoughts on some of the flicks i've been watching lately. i aim to keep it spoiler-free.

first up, the battle of algiers. tread with caution if you don't do subtitles. a brief synopsis: an algerian liberation movement takes hold against french colonialists in the 1950s. as with any violent conflict, both sides wind up being losers. but the drama definitely leaves one questioning the institution of imperialism.

also, it seems the pentagon screened this flick for troops in the early stages of the current operations in iraq to give them a sense of what they were up against. in short, this film's modern-day relevance solidifies its place as a classic.

a rat done bit my sister nell...

okay, before you start pointing the finger at me, i will offer a brief disclaimer. i didn't even remember this until i saw it on the website of 'the nation.' and there are plenty of caucasians associated with that publication, so there.

anyway, after a day of nonstop 40th anniversary lunar landing coverage, this oldie-but-goodie from gil scott-heron tries to put things in perspective.

'as soon as they get the watermelon, i'm in!'

the delicious title of this post comes from MM, who has started her own magnificent blog, one that actually has a substantial purpose, unlike my own.

i love how my friends have basically just chosen the blog topics for me. i'm just spreading it all around amongst the two and a half of you who give a damn.

our favorite RNC chair is back at it again, enticing people of color to join the GOP with "potato salad and collard greens." sigh. his misplaced attempt at diversity just bricked.

viva sonia sotomayor!

Viva Sonia Sotomayor! - watch more funny videos

found this on MO's facebook page. as an aside, when i was a kid, like 5 years ago, i totally wanted to be like MO when i grew up. i'm grown now and i still haven't mastered it. she's cool people.

anyway, this clip is to commemorate our first latina supreme court justice (i'm not being presumptuous. you know she'll be confirmed. they couldn't get her on ANYTHING. 'wise latina' doesn't count.)

'where's the love for brown girls?'

this comes from the astutely aware DPB, as does the title of this post.

and after i first watched this clip, i could only reply: 'this shit is crazy.'

i'm still trying to find out if such skin lighteners are sold legally in the US, but i damn sure know they aren't advertised on TV like this.

it'd be one thing if bleaching one's skin was promoted as just another cosmetic option as say, tanning. however, i've yet to see a spray-on tan ad showing some chick unable to get a job or a date because of her skin color. no one feels epidermically-challenged. it's mostly just folks frolicking on the beach or whatever.

here's a peek into what skin lighteners might actually do to one's appearance.

can it be i've stayed away too long...

a timely shout-out to the late MJ.

in my absence over the past few months, i've been wondering if this space was worth the maintenance. in addition to my regular obligations, posting started to feel like a bit of a chore. plus, was it disrespectful to my caucasian brethren? i don't think so, but when it comes to discussions of this sort, they seem to get most of the blame.

but i've realized ... this was an endeavor meant to show that laughter really can be the best medicine. we live in a complex world, folks. sometimes, we've gotta chuckle just to make it through the day.

and there is much more rant-a-rific fare out there than i'd originally anticipated.

with that, i'm going to try my damndest to keep this thing moving.

pickaninny for sale!

this one comes to me via my buddy DPB (by the way, her blog featuring amazing handmade jewelry can be found here).

i'll admit some naivete on my part, as i thought the days of the pickaninny were on the decline. i mean, with the rise of sasha and malia, how could one continue to view african-american children in such a way?

but gravity hit when i got this in my email. this is nuts. i guess this is what happens when your main source of inspiration is 'birth of a nation.'

the nose and lips clearly occupy most of the real estate on this doll's face, since that's what black folks look like. furthermore, there's NO shipping on this! get the ignorance that you can hug and squeeze while supplies last!

but what really ticks me off is the incorrect spelling of pickaninny in the tags at the bottom. wikipedia features alternative spellings, but here it's spelled 'pickannie'. pick annie? what the hell is that? it ties so nicely back into my ignorance begetting ignorance post.

chi-chi-chi-CHIA!!!

apparently, walgreens has decided to pull the obama chia pet from stores in tampa and chicago because of racism claims (i had my money on misplaced idolatry, but let's not go there).

hmm, i'm not personally offended by this, mostly because it's just a damn chia pet. i guess the big gripe is that once the buds begin to sprout from the obama bust, it starts to look like an afro. i don't know, i guess this one is just lost on me.

first of all, everyone is trying capitalize on this obama shit. you know, before he really screws up and they start burning more of these chia pet likenesses than buying them.

second, i'm wondering if people would be equally offended by a bush chia pet. i mean, it grows a bush (heh heh, bush). that's as dirty as you can get. i haven't yet seen this actual product, and hopefully we'll never see it.

third, i have no clue what type of seeds accompany chia pet pottery, but i'm sure it isn't a particular plant which would probably add more weight to the racism argument.

but i tend to respect the viewpoints of others so if you think the chia pet is indeed offensive, no probs. we'll just agree to disagree.

the ones cultural sensitivity left behind: eyewear edition

so originally, i was thinking about not doing a post on what could be this summer's hottest rage: slanties. there was no way i could express all the nuance and anger about this product as well as the ladies at disgrasian and racialicious. but something kept nagging me about this product, so i had to get it off my chest.

i'm seriously wondering who came up with this idea. i mean, did they not think that it could possibly be offensive to people of asian descent? and the product name? for real?

remember however, that it wasn't just the 'genius' who was inspired by the inuits (the true fucking geniuses) who's at fault. think of all the folks who went along with the idea, unwilling or unable to consider the implications. i mean, they managed to square away a production and marketing budget for this shit!

and these shits cost $75! during a fucking recession! they have the nerve to make you pay out the ass to be ignorant!

if you happen to be in the baltimore area on april 17, please don't go to this launch party. unless you're prepared to do battle.

black in america, according to cnn

so since i don't watch much television, i can be pretty late to the game on things. but i've spotted this cnn commercial for the umpteenth time and had to feature it.

first, it's set in a barbershop, one of three media-designated habitats for african-americans (the others being the beauty parlor and chuuuuuuch) so you know there's going to be some jovial jive talkin'. that's what happens in barbershops, right?

during campaign season, i hated reading stories on black folks' collective musings about obama that were set in either one of these three places. it was such bullshit. they're not the only places we hang, ya know. we also tend to hit up a starbucks every know and then.

but that doesn't quite fit with the exoticism associated with "the other." doesn't quite make us look so distinguishable from "normal, regular" people. and with tripe like this, it may be a while before we can start looking at our similarities rather than our differences.

going up?

one of the paradoxes of racism

so, i received an informative text message today from my pal TM. it was loaded with stereotypes about african-americans and played off a spoof of (what else?) the new prez. i'm almost certain another friend of mine has gotten it, because it seemed familiar:

i just received my stimulus package from obama. it was a 3 piece chicken basket, kool-aid, and a ounce of weed. did u get urs?

sigh. so you can obviously see the ignorance threaded through this text. however, it's not just the racial ignorance here, people. we've got factual and grammatical errors as well! let's take a deeper look.

first, it's yet to be reported that barack obama has issued any individual 'stimulus packages'. ignoramus must be referring to the bush stimulus checks, which were issued last year. obama signed a broad national stimulus bill, which may or may not give ignoramus a leg up in this economy.

and if ignoramus, you know, read every once in a while, he/she would know that obama's liquid crack isn't kool-aid. it is indeed honest tea, which apparently is brewed right here in maryland. and seriously, honest tea is the TRUTH (except that it costs like $2. it's an occasional treat). the new york times reports that obama has his fridge stocked with honest tea (and possibly its spinoff beverage, honest ade, also the truth. pun intended).

okay, now on to grammar. the three items referred to in this imaginative individual stimulus package are in a list. a list in a sentence usually doesn't have a comma before the last item in said list. i didn't make that up. strunk and white told me so.

the term 'and a ounce of weed' is also incorrect. ignoramus fails to realize that in the english language we generally use the article 'an' before a vowel sound. 'ounce' isn't an exception to that general rule.

and if '3 piece' is used to describe the 'chicken basket', we should hyphenate that term. it appears to be a compound adjective. speaking of adjectives, 'chicken basket' sounds like a basket made of chicken, not a basket containing chicken. it should probably read 'basket of chicken' or something of the sort.

and 'did u get urs'? that must be some new-fangled texting speak.

what did we learn today? we learned that ignorance generally fails to be smart/clever because one of its main components is stupidity. or at least that's what i learned...

food for thought

unintentionally, this space has attributed many inches toward common edibles. first, there was our fructose-related flare-up. we also had p. diddy's inquiry into which poultry product better suited his taste. and our chicken emergency in florida.

here we go again. except this time, we're going global.

first up, obama chicken fingers from our german friends. this came to me by way of MM by way of DA (thx!). the official word is that the company wanted to capitalize on the obama mania. um, why can't they just sell crappy t-shirts not unlike many a street hustler? these fingers get two thumbs down.

then we have this ice cream product from our (former) commie buddies. my biracial brethren, you may be thoroughly offended, or at the very least, mildly taken aback.

furthermore, the packaging features a pink-hued smiley face with a bow (we can deduce that it's some sort of symbolic female figure) and a brown-colored smiley face bearing a huge grin and cool sunglasses (representing some sort of male figure perhaps). on the left side of the ad, we see the words 'chocolate in vanilla.' not 'and' but 'in.' as in 'in'-tercourse. or am i reaching?

with our cool new president, should other nations take a look at their own stereotypes against people of african descent? should we further educate them on what's appropriate in american culture, since they've decided to use our leader's image?

polynesian baby! (i'm a FOB, i'm a FOB)

those who've been talking to me lately know that the australian comedy 'summer heights high' is my new favorite television show. most likely because i don't watch that much television.

though there are scenes i find too disturbing to actually watch thoroughly, the series overall is a triumph and a subtle social commentary. it's meant to expose the pervasive ignorance bubbling beneath society's facade.

which brings us to jonah takalua, a 13-year-old character played by an actor in his mid-30s.

jonah is basically every dumbass male class clown you had to endure growing up. at times he's hilarious, but he's always obnoxious. and of course, there are underlying factors to his erratic behavior.

as i OD'd on SHH for the past two weeks, i'm trying to determine why i find jonah much more stirring than the series' other two leads. for one thing, i'm not even totally sure that i'm not offended by aussie chris lilley portraying a polynesian teen (blackface, anyone?)

jonah, a tongan immigrant, is a self-described FOB (which means 'fresh off the boat'). he loves hip hop and breakdancing is his passion. we find out that he can't read very well (though he manages to make marvelous use of the word 'dictation') and can easily make the connection between that particular insecurity and his propensity to act out in english class.

jonah also experiences subtle racism and prejudice which may also contribute to some of his problems. not that the kid doesn't know right from wrong, but for some odd reason you end up feeling for him.

sound familiar? i've been to public and private school and definitely encountered some jonahs in my life of all backgrounds. interesting how from the other side of the world, educational and social issues translate so well.

and i don't think it's just me. my pal MM, along with almost every TV critic i've read, also mentioned empathy for jonah, who initially comes across as possibly the most loathsome character in the show.

whatever you do, don't sleep on 'summer heights high'.

answering age-old questions

since normal folks with scant financial resources don't have the means to conduct personal taste tests, leave it to sean 'p. diddy' combs to lead the way.

he humbly took it upon himself to determine who has the better chicken: kfc or popeye's. he even rates each chain's side dishes to round out the gamut.

as someone noted in the comments on new york magazine's grub street blog, we should all be on standby for the watermelon taste test. conceivably, that's what's next, right?

and besides, everyone's aunt jackie makes the best fried chicken, you f*ck!

a jealous guy in our town?

i've been away, due mostly to fatigue brought on by work.

anywho, seems our good friend (and alumnus from by brother's alma mater) jeremiah wright has returned to give us his take on barack obama's infant presidency.

if you don't quite remember reverend wright, the video above should refresh your memory.

is it starting to come back to you? then obama gave that speech on race in philadelphia/my hometown/reverend wright's hometown? then wright went all q-dog at the national press club? then obama 'threw him under the bus'?

apparently, wright has never recovered from the fissure with obama. as evidenced by his remarks in selma, alabama of all places:

barack's name ain't jesus. barack ain't gonna improve your child's reading score.

we shall overcome, reverend wright. not just institutional inequality, but also our own egotistical opportunism. mind-blowing, ain't it?

1-800-blk-frnd

Black Friend Finder - watch more funny videos

funny stuff. check it out.

the proper way to reinforce stereotypes

once upon a time, i lived in florida. i worked for a chain of newspapers in a relatively small town. i don't think i ever totally adjusted (i'm back in a city) and i'm hoping the misunderstanding outlined below isn't indicative of the type of environment i left behind.

today in fort pierce, one of the towns we covered, a woman called 911 three times when mcdonald's ran out of mcnuggets. i'd first seen the story via the associated press, who painted the incident as rather innocuous. until we find out the woman was black folk.

sigh. i must admit, i did shake my head in mild disgust as i imagined the racist fodder that such an event could feed into. what the hell kind of person treats the lack of mcnuggets as an emergency? a black person, that's who.

to be fair, the woman reportedly called the police because she wasn't offered a refund after being informed that her menu choice wasn't available. she was offered another menu choice which obviously couldn't satisfy her craving for mcdonald's dubious "chicken" product. it seems she was more pissed about not being able to get her money back.

but that's not what the headlines will say. we'll just see what happens when african americans are denied the chicken they covet so much.

the ones cultural sensitivity left behind: GOP edition

current republican party chairman michael steele, who's generally not one of the more irritating conservative blowhards, had an interview with chris sliwa on abc radio. now, if you've been following steele the past few weeks since he was christened with his new title by his GOP peers, you've no doubt been hearing a lot of crazy shit (bling bling in the stimulus?)

but this one...i don't know about this. the interview is focused on the party's so-called "hip-hop strategy". here's an excerpt i found striking, via ben smith's blog on politico.

sliwa asks steele about louisiana governor bobby jindal, who gave an extremely patronizing rebuttal to barack obama's address to congress last week:

SLIWA: now, using a little bit of that street terminology, are you giving him any slum love, michael? ... because he is — when guys look at him and young women look at him — they say oh, that's the slumdog millionaire, governor.

STEELE: i love it. (inaudible) ... some slum love out to my buddy. governor bobby jindal is doing a friggin' awesome job in his state.

*coughs*

this is ridiculous on so many levels, but let's try to point out a few.

first, who in the hell is referring to bobby jindal as the 'slumdog millionaire' governor? i don't really see how that works. oh wait ... he's of indian descent and the movie is about (gasp) people from india! and all indian people must be exactly alike!

in my personal experience (and i'm sure in the experience of many others) this just doesn't jibe. cultural heritage is something that should be appreciated, but it doesn't trump personal individuality. furthermore, jindal will never be a little cutie like dev patel.

plus, bobby jindal wasn't raised in the slums. he said so himself. didn't they catch his opening anecdote? perhaps chris mattthews' prescient comment before jindal began speaking prompted sliwa and steele to tune out.

(it's fair to note that jindal expanded on his narrative this past weekend on '60 minutes'. thanks to MM for giving me the highlights. it's easy to see that bobby jindal is what happens when assimilation goes horrifically wrong.)

not to be outdone, ann coulter decided to get in on the racist fun! she wrote a response to jindal's rebuttal adding in parentheses at the end of one paragraph:

wasn't bobby great in 'slumdog millionaire'?

so ann coulter only knows JUST ONE indian movie (we know her uptight ass hasn't seen 'kama sutra') and JUST ONE indian person. since her feeble brain is capable of making only the most narrow of associations, we can see how she arrived at such an imbecilic conclusion.

poor GOP. it appears their collective ignorance could be their undoing. we shall see.

ta-nehisi coates and the good folks at racialicious also have interesting takes on these comments.

if it smells like a chicken, and tastes like a chicken

it's a well-known fact that african americans LOVE watermelon! well actually, not really any of the ones i know. hmmm, now that i really think about it, we can pretty much take it or leave it.

but apparently since the conventional wisdom suggests watermelon is like crack to black folks, the mayor of los alamitos, california sent around an email with a picture of the white house lawn converted into a watermelon patch. the title of the illustration was "no easter egg hunt this year". now before you protest, the mayor claims it was all in good fun!

[Mayor Dean] Grose confirmed to the AP that he sent the e-mail to [Local businesswoman and city volunteer Keyanus] Price and said he didn't mean to offend her. He said he was unaware of the racial stereotype that black people like watermelons.

wait, unaware! now i'm just confused. if it wasn't meant to be funny in that horrifically distorted racial way, than where's the joke? no seriously. i have to plead ignorance on this. i just don't see the email forwarding value in this unless it's meant to be offensively amusing to your racist friends.

i'm just trying to understand this crazy world of ours...

UPDATE: turns out mayor grose resigned his post after the furor following the email fiasco. he'll remain on the los alamitos city council (if anyone cares).

UPDATE 2: so it's over for dean grose. he's now resigned the council seat as well.

did they try to mammify nell carter?

i recall a conversation a few years back with one of my old friends. at some point, the talk turned toward the 80s sitcom "gimme a break" and we joked how the show's creators basically took the mammy caricature and tried to apply it to the modern day. it's worth noting that the talented nell carter unfortunately died from heart disease complicated by diabetes in 2003.

the weird thing was, my friend and i developed our theory completely independent of the ego trip crew, who've been known for hip-hop geekdom and racial comedy. in 2004, vh1 aired ego trip's "tv's illest minority moments", which was one of the most eye-opening specials ever. given vh1's current line-up, that's mind-blowing.

we had "miami vice" detective tubbs not-so-discreetly addressing his partner crockett as "cracker." we had willona from "good times" as being a credit to her race. it was definitely an hour's worth of cackling.

but it's not on dvd! what the hell? if you haven't seen it, just hope upon hope that vh1 airs it again. i saw it in '07, so it's possible. better than watching "flavor of love" season 3453.

'the day of the geechee is gone, boy'

i recently rented "a soldier's story" since i haven't seen it since high school.

as soon as it came via netflix, i popped it into the television and watched it with a fairly critical eye. i couldn't help but imagine how charles fuller's script must have looked in its original form as a stage production. i loved how military rank paralleled the social hierarchy between the characters. and the cusp of change presenting both racial shifts and great opportunities was an amazing theme that pretty much resonates today.

but then, i watched it again. and now i feel like i've disrespected one of the most poignant stories about african americans told within the past several decades.

first, adolph caesar. oh...my. sgt. waters is definitely a great character. his sneer bordered on perfection and his assholishness was so visceral. sgt. waters has also introduced me to my new favorite verb: yassuh-bossin'. yes, it's spelled I-N-apostrophe. i took the meaning out of context, but it seems to mean some sort of grovelling to caucasians.

let's use it in a sentence! sgt. waters addresses cj memphis after having framed him, leading to cj's imprisonment (asshole!):

see, the black race can't afford you no more. there used to be a time, we'd see someone like you singin', clownin', yassuh-bossin'... and we wouldn't do anything. folks liked that.

and now unfortunately, i can't hear that term without doubling over with laughter.

also, pfc. peterson played by denzel washington. you have to love his defiance. he admittedly referred to sgt. waters as "stoneass" and was challenged by waters to a bare-knuckle brawl after questioning the sergeant's allegiance to his people:

i'm going outside to wait for you, geechee. and when you come out ... i'm gonna whup your black southern ass.

adolph caesar fighting the much taller, younger denzel? once again, i couldn't contain my chuckling.

goodness, looking at this script, i thought of the worst thing yet: the "a soldier's story" drinking game. a shot of rum every time waters says "geechee."

time for me to take a harder look at the struggle, i guess. as i do that, take a look at this piece of the racial harmony i so wish we could achieve.

'the big black country of africa'

i heard that quote at a party during the waning days of my collegiate life. a few girls had taken to mocking prevailing notions in the US of africa being one huge land mass with relatively homogeneous people.

apparently someone at that party took the sarcasm quite literally and came up with this shit here. thanks to my pal DPB for spotting it.

wowzer. there are so many directions one can take with these invitations. hmmm, let's start with the salutation. 'unga gawa ooba (you're invited to a cook-out).' seriously, i'm hoping that's a literal translation and not some bastardized version of this woman's notion of an african language.

and the outfits! actually, my polynesian brethren might be taken aback by this as well. grass skirts appear to hide the shameful genitals of these "primitive" folks, and the woman modestly hides her mammary glands behind some sort of spandex-looking tube top.

elongated necks! exaggerated lips! asphalt complexions!

so here's a question: if this invitation were in possession of a person perceived to not be of african descent, would it be offensive?

awww, you cold as ice, reezy

oh aaron mcgruder. how i lived to victimize you with my lovemaking.

for those that know me, i'm an incredibly huge fan of 'the boondocks.' the comic strip was genius. the show is one of the most brilliantly offensive things ever.

but after reading this report, it'll be incrementally more difficult for mr mcgruder to get at this.

i'm not a big fan of african-americans trying to quantify the so-called "blackness" of others who identify as african-american. in a sense, it can hamper one's individuality. and detailing such a rubric is damn near impossible, given the myraid of factors one has to consider. but that's just me.

come along and ride on a fantastic voyage

Humanity. It's a beautiful thing.

I'd love to believe there's a universal thread that runs through all of us and that on a very deep level, there's quite a lot that we all have in common.

But damned if we're not so fixated on our divisions. Especially ones along the lines of ... hmmm, RACE.

Generally a contentious subject (and I'm sure the heated debate on such issues isn't completely misplaced), I aim to look at the "lighter" (no pun intended) side of race and point out the absurdities, contradictions and hysterical bits that oft go overlooked.

Am I trying to soften the tone on a topic wrought with collective pain and misunderstanding? Not really. I get why people become emotional when race is raised in discussion. But let's be real ... there's some truly weird racial shit out there.

Plus, after this happened ... and this ... AND THIS, this stuff is damn near everywhere.

Such an unprecedented event threw all the country's (possibly outdated) perceptions of race issues into a tizzy. So this is perfect time to start re-examining our notions of race, I think. Just so happens it's also the perfect time for me to showcase my extremely rusty writing skills, in case I wind up in the freelance market (it's just one component of a multi-faceted plan).

This is a space to spark discussion among progressive-minded folks of various backgrounds. Hopefully I'll be able to eek out enough time to present topics in depth so the two people who'll follow this can walk around dropping knowledge at cocktail parties.

Also, please keep the vitriol to a minimum. It makes me ... uncomfortable (*shudders*).

With that, welcome.