In case some of you don’t know, I work in the field of Information Technolgy. Specifically, I support payroll for over 7,000 people and we JUST got finished processing W-2s for the year. Needless to say, this has been a week from hell (and it’s only Wednesday). With that being said, I should be freed up to do a lot more blogging.

I just need to exhale first.

Also, you might notice a new look for the site.  I wanted to find something a little easier on the eyes.  I hope that I’ve accomplished that.

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Most of us are too young to remember real minstrel shows but, we know that folks parading around in blackface is a no-no.

So, what makes white college students think that it’s cool to show up at parties, emulating black stereotypes, complete with blackface? Earlier this week, I shared a story about party thrown on MLK day at Tarleton University in which people came dressed in their favorite black stereotypes. One white student attending the party came as Aunt Jemima, complete with a red/white checkered “mammy” dress. The same web site that broke this story also brought another story out about a similar party held by University of Connecticut Law Students (let that soak in) a few days later. Those attending this party came dressed as gang members with do-rags, gold teeth, gang signs and fake guns.

Well, completing the trifecta was a party held by Clemson University students a couple of weeks ago. The party was held on the eve of Martin Luther King Day and its theme was “Living the Dream”. Like the other two parties, the pictures got out because they were posted on Facebook.com (when will people learn?).

This one is probably the most disgusting of the three because it included at least one person in blackface, women who put padding in the back of their pants to make their butts look bigger (mocking black women) and attendants with 40 oz. bottles duct-taped to their hands.

According to the the students involved, they threw the party “to show unity.” (Okay, now we’re supposed to be stupid enough to believe this?)

For its part, the Clemson University is working to stem the tide of negative reaction (i.e. “bad press”) that this party has generated and is hoping to act as a mediator between the partygoers and the folks they offended.

Well, since parties like this seem to go on all over the place, I’m sure we being seeing this incident play out again at another school in the near future. Remember, Black History Month is beginning tomorrow. That gives somebody 28 days to come up with something really offensive.

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“I Ain’t No Joke” from the album Paid in Full

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In Bush’s ideal America, all things have a price tag. So, it’s not important to put competent people in positions of authority. What’s important is that they are loyal, compliant and keep the political contributors happy and they country be damned.

Therefore, it should come at no surprise that Bush is pushing an executive order to allow him greater sway in the policy-making of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. We should, also, not be surprised read things like the following:

Business groups welcomed the executive order, saying it had the potential to reduce what they saw as the burden of federal regulations. This burden is of great concern to many groups, including small businesses, that have given strong political and financial backing to Mr. Bush.

Consumer, labor and environmental groups denounced the executive order, saying it gave too much control to the White House and would hinder agencies’ efforts to protect the public.

…

Besides placing political appointees in charge of rule making, Mr. Bush said agencies must give the White House an opportunity to review “any significant guidance documents” before they are issued.

…

Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California and chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said: “The executive order allows the political staff at the White House to dictate decisions on health and safety issues, even if the government’s own impartial experts disagree. This is a terrible way to govern, but great news for special interests.”

In the end, this means poorer air/water quality for Americans and poorer working conditions so that Bush’s rich buddies can profit even more. What this also means is that the President has no problem putting a price tag on the health, and maybe lives, of us and our children.

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Hello…anybody remember New Orleans? It’s that city in America that was mostly black, too poor and suffered through the worst natural disaster in our nation’s history. It’s that place that George Bush stood in and swore to make the lives of the affected whole.

In other words, it’s the city that America forgot.

In a Senate hearing on the status of the rebuild effort in the Gulf, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin did not ask for more money. Instead, Nagin asked for the money that the federal government has already allocated to the rebuilding effort. Some $110 billion has been allocated for rebuilding the Gulf region but little of that has actually made it to the residents needing to rebuild their lives.

While Nagin feels the neglect to his city has a lot to do with class, he also says that there’s a racial component to this, as well.

So, Mr. Bush…Congress…FEMA…where’s the money?

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My mother is a very light-skinned black woman who grew up in Maryland in the 50’s/60’s. She can remember a time when people threw “paper bag parties” — a party where you couldn’t get in if your complexion was darker than a paper bag. She never told me about these when I was younger but, when I was old enough to understand, she made it clear to me — black is black. We deal with enough without trying to divide ourselves into color classes.

As I got older, I noticed something. I noticed how some white folks treated black people differently based on skin tone. In college, I had a friend who could almost pass for white and people would appear much more comfortable around him than they would around the rest of us. They knew he was black but, I guess because he wasn’t “too black” they didn’t have the same visceral reaction to him that they did others in my crew. I’ve seen similar reactions given to people in every walk of life from corporate America to Hollywood. In some circles, it’s the old adage “if your light, you’re all right. If you’re brown, stick around. But, if you’re black, get back!”

The results of a study of immigrants seems lend creedence to the notion that this belief not only exists but, is actively practiced.

Joni Hersch, a law and economics professor at Vanderbilt University, looked at a government survey of 2,084 legal immigrants to the United States from around the world and found that those with the lightest skin earned an average of 8 percent to 15 percent more than similar immigrants with much darker skin.

“On average, being one shade lighter has about the same effect as having an additional year of education,” Hersch said.

In other words, if you take two immigrants and make all other things the same between them, the lighter-skinned on will, on average, make more money. Furthermore, it takes a greater education on the part of the darker-skinned person to overcome this difference.

Growing up, many of us are taught that we have to be more educated and harder-working than our white counterparts in hopes of getting nearly as much as they. Now, I think we can understand a little better why our parents said this.

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Takin’ it back to the roots!

“Planet Rock” from the album Planet Rock: The Album

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My wife and I used to go to the movies nearly every weekend. However, since our son was born, my wife and I have found our movie-watching to be much more limited. As a result, we now only catch a flick, on the average, once a month. So, we scrutinize our movie picks a little more.

A few nights ago, my wife asked me what I knew about the movie “Freedom Writers”. I jokingly told her it was about a white woman who saves black kids through writing. She laughed and shook her head knowingly — it’s another movie about white folks rescuing black folks.

So, today, I come across an article by Kai Beasley, a senior at Emory University, writing for the Black College Wire. His article, “Hollywood Says Only White People Can Save Us”, was right on time for me.

In it, he speaks about movies like “Dangerous Minds”, “Freedom Writers” and “Blood Diamond” all having a common theme: white folks coming to the rescue of black folks who couldn’t otherwise do it for themselves. (I would add “Mississipi Burning” to that list, also).

He lays out the fallacy in pushing movies like this as standard fare:

But seriously, are we as helpless and naive as our characterizations in film portray us? No! Do white people really care about our problems as much as they do in films? No! That’s the reason things are they way they are. If people cared as much as they do in the movies, there wouldn’t be any more movies like that, because society would have changed. (emphasis mine) But what really grinds my gears is that few movies give black people credit for the things we do for ourselves. In fact, the only thing they do give us credit for being good at is drug dealin’, rappin’ or pimpin’.

So, Kai, wherever you are today, thanks for the message.

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Kudo to the National Conference of Black Mayors for bringing more light to a couple of incidents that are near and dear to them.

Last month, the new Mayor of Westlake, LA (the town’s newly-elected and first black mayor was found dead from a gunshot wound in a former high school parking lot just days before he was to take office. Officials ruled the case a suicide but the family disputes this claim.

Earlier this month, the mayor of Greenwood, LA, Ernest Lampkins, had someone fire two rounds from a shotgun into his home. Fortunately, none of his family was harmed.

Both of these incidents have prompted the Conference to call for state and federal investigations into these incidents. They are not calling the incidents related but, there is a concern because of the circumstances around the two incidents and the fact that they both occurred in Louisiana.

We need to keep our eyes on this one.

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“Shut ‘Em Down” from the album Apocalypse 91…The Enemy Strikes Black

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