In Sheri Parks' "Fierce Angels" she writes the story of black women, not of one mired in the usual pain and pathology, but one that is proud, hopeful and very accepting of who we are as black Americans and women. It is a book that celebrates how black women being the way we are has enabled our survival through some of the bleakest periods of our history.
I thought when we elected a black president, we were going to get a black president. You know, this [BP oil spill] is where I want a real black president. I want him in a meeting with the BP CEOs, you know, where he lifts up his shirt where you can see the gun in his pants. That's — 'we've got a motherfu**ing problem here?' Shoot somebody in the foot.
I think Bill Maher is confusing all black politicians with President Camacho from Idiocracy. Also, corny stereotype of thuggish black men with guns? Lame. Maybe he's been drinking whatever Bill O'Reilly was drinking when he told Marc Lamont Hill he looked like a cocaine dealer. Of course, this is Bill Maher. He used to date Karrine Steffans. Do I really need to elaborate? I have a feeling his definition of blackness is a little skewed.
There's been a lot of chatter in the news about aspiring politician Rand Paul and his bid to become a senator from Kentucky. He's best known for using the spirit of the Tea Party to push him past the Republican establishment, leading the way for a general election run. (He also has the brand name value of being the son of former presidential candidate and Internet sensation Texas Rep. Ron Paul.) Paul, the younger, recently cancelled an appearance on Meet The Press after the proverbial shit hit the "Are you some kind of racist?" fan when Paul expressed something that sounded an awful lot like he took some issue with the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Last week I got a long crazy letter from a reader reacting to a post I wrote a year ago telling me that the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery. Oh, OK. That whole slave state/free state thing was just an accident? A misunderstanding? The fact that pro-slavery factions and abolitionists flocked to territories that could potentially become states to tilt them in one favor or the other causing terror and bloodshed was just incidental. The Missouri Compromise had nothing to do with all those people KILLING EACH OTHER over whether or not former territories would be "slave" or "free" states. Politicians didn't beat each other up on the floor of Congress over slave or free states. It was "state's rights!" And it just HAPPENED that the right the government was threatening to infringe upon in the South was the ownership and sale of black people. OK. Sure. Great. You want to take history and put it in rewrites, let's rewrite it. Still doesn't explain all those slaves and all those people who were "afraid" of what would happen if they were freed. But yeah. STATE'S RIGHTS! (To own slaves)
From a concert he gave the following evening after his crazy-pants Playboy interview. He says he's giving up the media as ... you know? His attempts at being "clever" got four-thumbs down.
Latoya Peterson at Jezebel (who gave me a shout in her post on my response to John Mayer's comments about Kerry Washington), offered these words:
Racism is not clever. Trying to lampoon racism by perpetuating racist stereotypes about black women, using racial slurs, and claiming to have a pass is just idiocy masquerading as wit. Or, as Farai Chideya explains at the Huffington Post: "The reality is that, it's insulting to say black people love you and then profoundly misunderstand the difference between entitlement and humor."
Presumably Mayer has People, publicity-minded types who will keep him away from doing any embarrassing blog-bait magazine interviews for a while. Though one hopes that someday we'll get in the in-depth sit-down that explains why Mayer became so enthralled by this examined life. Is he a lonely man-child looking for connection? Is he a fame-hungry exhibitionist? To some degree probably both those things are true. But we also wonder, now that his media-gaming is supposedly done, if he maybe just didn't understand what he was doing. So protected by wealth and some kind of reverent cool-guy fame as he was just a few short years ago, Mayer maybe didn't really get how exactly people pay attention online, how we never forget anything, how the whole thing isn't actually some kind of equal-sided conversation. Not when you're John Mayer. When you're John Mayer the media game is saying ridiculous things for an audience that wants, because what do they have to lose, to watch you fail. Naively, Mayer seemed to figure that everyone is cool and open these days, that we'd respect his candor, that we'd want to be his friend. Which is not how any of this works!
Well, we'll see how long the press embargo lasts before he tweets, blogs, talks some weed-fueled nonsense again.
I get that it's a periodical dedicated to pornography and the proclivities of the heterosexual male. Totally understand that. But what shit was John Mayer ON when he gave this bizarre, narcissistic, misogynic, N-word dropping, TOO-MUCH-INFORMATION Q & A to Playboy?
For those who don't have time to read the whole thing ... here's the Cliff Notes version:
Chris Matthews EVERYONE! Give him a hand. Come on! Give it up!
Why is this offensive? Because it assumes that something was wrong with someone being black giving an awesome speech. Not acknowledging color isn't some magical compliment. Black people don't mind being recognized as black people. Most of us really like being black people. What we DON'T like is when we do something really amazing, like, become President of the United States and give a good speech and you're all, "That speech was sooooo good I forgot you were a Negro." It's like telling someone "You're smart for a girl!" Or "I don't see color!" Or it's like saying "You're a great lover for a guy with such a small penis. I didn't even NOTICE the lack of motion in that ocean!" Why can't you just say the speech was good? So good you wanted the President to get off that podium and make sweet, hot, half-Mandigo love to you, Tweety? I would have respected you more!
I'm no fan of Harry Reid, mostly because I think he's useless. But I think his "Negro dialect" comment is about as dumb as Vice President Joe Biden calling Obama "clean" and "articulate" during election 2008. Meaning -- what the hell, old dudes?
LIMBAUGH: I got two more stories in the stack today about how black unemployment is through the roof. Black unemployment is terrible. The black frame of mind is terrible, they're depressed, they're down -- Obama's not doing anything for 'em. How is that hoax and change workin' for ya? They're all livid. I mean, they thought there were gonna be an exact 180-degree economic reversal and it's done nothing but get bad for everybody, but they're especially upset about it because they look at him as one of them, and now they feel abandoned. And I'm sure Tiger Woods' choice of females not helping 'em out with their attitudes there either.
Monday, June 14, 2010 at 11:15AM in 
In Sheri Parks' "Fierce Angels" she writes the story of black women, not of one mired in the usual pain and pathology, but one that is proud, hopeful and very accepting of who we are as black Americans and women. It is a book that celebrates how black women being the way we are has enabled our survival through some of the bleakest periods of our history.
