A Beautiful Fire

The Snake

2009-10-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

If I seem to take part in politics, it is only because politics encircles us today like the coil of a snake from which one cannot get out, no matter how much one tries. I wish therefore to wrestle with the snake.

- Ghandi

An artist's rendition

2009-10-24T13:41:00.000-07:00

PopTech artist Peter Durand at www.alphachimp.com painted during each session and his interpretation of my presentation is below. Click on it to enlarge. The rest of his work from the conference can be found here. So amazing!

Honeybee

2009-10-22T20:02:00.000-07:00

Malaysian artist and youtube sensation Zee Avi performed a set today and for some reason, as I logged off and closed my eyes a few minutes ago, this song was still in my head. Maybe its because I've been humming the melody since her performance today. Or maybe its because it reminds me of my own honeybee, who I wish could be here enjoying PopTech with me. Either way, enjoy and goodnight!

Pop Tech: Day 1 - 5 Words

2009-10-22T19:48:00.000-07:00

I can barely keep my eyes open, so I’ll keep this post short and sweet. I promise to give more detail tomorrow. For now, five words:

Inspiring.

Overwhelming.

Stimulating.

Provoking.

Inviting.

That was Pop Tech Day 1.

As I lounge around in this beautiful, historic bed and breakfast, wrapped in a blanket, looking at notes from today’s amazing speech and fighting back yawns, more than ever inspired to think creatively - to put my passion and entrepreneurial energy to use and come up with a political social innovation project that can change our nation. I know..it’s a lofty goal. But who’s gonna stop me? “There’s nothing so powerful as an idea who’s time has come.” (Victor Hugo)

In the meantime, I’ll continue to spread the word about politics for a new generation. The message seemed to resonate with the PopTech audience – both in person and online. For that, for this experience, and for the delicious lobster chowder that I ate tonight, I am truly grateful.

Pop Tech: Day 1 - The Beginning

2009-10-22T03:37:00.001-07:00

So today begins what I expect to be one of the most interesting and intellectually stimulating conferences that I've attended.

My experience last night with several other speakers on the ride to Camden from the airport supports that prediction. I rode in a van with essayist Anthony Doerr, photographer Chris Jordan, educator and school founder Dennis Littky, and eating designer Marije Vogelzang. The stimulating conversation on the hour long ride covered everything from learning models (Dennis believes that the age of everyone needing to know one set of predetermined information - reading, writing, 'rithmatic - is long gone), to patterns of consumption (our use of plastic is like a Greek tragedy in that we contribute to the pollution that ultimately leads to our own disease and demise). And that was only the beginning...

Starving from my trip (at least that was my excuse...the flight was only an hour and a half...), I went to dinner my dear, dear friend Michael Skolnik and sat at a table with the founder the Hip Hop Theatre Festival founder, the founder of Treehugger.com and one of its writers, a brilliant young real estate guy turned humanitarian who runs the Make It Right Foundation in New Orleans....the list goes on and on. The conference hasn't even begun and I'm already inspired by the sheer energy of the people I've come into contact with.

So my speech is this morning during the 11:00 session and I'll be following the humble sensation, Braddock, PA mayor John Fetterman. If I can give back a fraction of what I hope to receive at this conference, I will consider it a job well done.

Heading to Pop! Tech

2009-10-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

So I'm packing my bags and heading to the (supposedly) beautiful Camden, Maine to speak at and participate in a conference that I have heard much about for the past several years: Pop! Tech. According to its website "this three-day summit explores major trends shaping our future, the social impact of new technologies, and new approaches to addressing the world’s most significant challenges." I've seen it talked about it years past in the New York Times, Business 2.0 and other major publications, all of which describe is as a sort of TED conference with a much more eclectic selection of guests and speakers. Looking at the speaker line up this year, that appears to be true. Artists, activists, scientists, writers, tech-gurus - you name it, someone from that field is coming to talk about the theme "America Reimagined".

I haven't actually finished writing my "talk" yet (something about calling it a talk rather than a speech inspires me...), but as always, I'm sure it'll come to me in the late hours of the night, in the final inning before my speech tomorrow morning. I'll be blogging here from the conference, so make sure to check back to hear my take on the speakers and the participants. Not sure if they're live streaming, but if so, I'll throw that up here too. I can't wait!

In the meantime, here's their own short promo vid explaining the conference:

Intro to PopTech from PopTech on Vimeo.

8 Questions About Health Care Reform

2009-10-20T05:04:00.000-07:00

A good follow up to my video blog (4 questions about health care reform), here are 8 more questions answered from the Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/health-care-8-questions/index.html?hpid=topnews

Change has come to (am)Erica

2009-10-19T03:45:00.000-07:00

Change isn't just a campaign slogan or a political phenomenon - its a powerful process that we can each undergo to do our small part individually to change the world at large and the tiny one that we inhabit every day.

I'm working for health care reform - shouldn't I strive to be healthier?

I'm working for education funding and transformation - shouldn't I commit to learning more each day?

I'm working for clean energy and to stop climate change - shouldn't I resolve to add more to my environment that I take from it?

I'm fighting for more jobs in our communities - shouldn't I be pushing and stretching myself professionally?
The list goes on.

Ultimately, our nation will only be as good - as healthy, prosperous, innovative, and kind - as its people. Politics has its limits and as much as I believe in the power of good policy to change lives, I've seen the power of individual transformation do more to lift people out of mental poverty and desperation than any law and any election. I thought about all of the change paraphernalia that I've accumulated over the past year - health care reform posters, campaign buttons, youth vote key chains and the like - and realized that the universe is trying to send me a not-so-subtle message: CHANGE. So maybe I should....

What about you?

Speaker Pelosi, young people (and me) make special announcement about health care reform

2009-10-18T17:45:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, the Y.I. Want Change coalition for health care reform, participated in a press conference on Capitol Hill with Speaker Pelosi and Representatives Van Hollen and Dahlkemper, during which they announced a major policy victory for young people that will be included in the final House health care reform bill: a provision allowing young Americans to stay on their parents’ insurance through the age of 26.

The press conference also marked the official unveiling of the Y.I. Want Change coalition’s health care policy priorities for young people. Prior to the press conference, young people from 30 states met with their Senators to share these priorities, assuring them that young people are engaged in the health care debate, and that we are passionate about ensuring quality, affordable coverage for all.

A Fall Reminder

2009-10-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

The changing of the seasons from summer to fall, from warm to cool (and, for some odd reason this week, cold and rainy) always make me a bit sad. I can't help but think about all of the homeless people that I walk by on a daily basis. As I run with water splashing my boots, afraid to get my hair wet, wishing I had worn a thicker scarf, I think about the guy who sits outside the McDonalds, or the woman who wanders the Metro station, or the couple that sits in the bushes outside of the Safeway - they didn't get to run home to pick up their jacket, get an umbrella, and switch to a long sleeved shirt. The colors on the leaves don't make them eager for for pumpkin pie and apple cider. And they don't get to enjoy a chilly rainy Saturday like me -in the comfort of their warm apartment, curled up with a cup of hot cocoa and a newspaper.

Its strange but for some reason, out of all of the statistics that I hear on a daily basis, the anti-poverty organizations that I work with, and the rallies that I shout in, nothing reminds me of how much America must do better, quite like the changing of the seasons.

Blog Wars: My Challenge to a Young, Black Conservative

2009-07-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

This is a repsonse to The Hip-Hop Republican, Lenny McAllister's blog:
GG's Lenny McAllister Tells Us Why?

Why can’t you defend your party? Rattling on and on about values and Lincoln and diversity of ideas is intellectually dishonest and doesn’t do the job. I truly respect your right not just as a black person but as an American to be a Republican. You owe me no explanation. But if you’re going to build a defense, your case needs work.

Ideology is made up of values. And legacy is made up of history. A party, however, is made up of people and policies. And you have registered with a party. You vote for elected officials within that party and support the policies of that party. So your defense of the party should begin there.

Talking about values is irrelevant. Many of them are universal and have far more to do with humanity than a particular political ideology. On a side note, I don’t think that Faith and Family registered in the past several elections so I don’t understand know how you conservatives repeatedly claim them as your own. Nevertheless if you want to list those and other values to define social and fiscal conservatism, fine. That is not the same as being a Republican.

As far as history goes, I don’t give a rat’s behind that Lincoln was a Republican. He also suffered from clinical depression, wore a really tall hat, and had a pet turkey. So what? Legacy and tradition are never good stand-alone reasons to make decisions and they certainly don’t recruit. On the contrary, remembering that Lincoln was a Republican should challenge current Republicans to act more like Lincoln, not current Independents and Democrats to respect a party that behaves in a manner completely antithetical to said icon.

Last but not least, please stop telling me “Black people shouldn’t all belong to just one party”. That still doesn’t make your party right. Choosing to be a Republican for the sake of variety within the black body politic is an insult to our ancestors that fought and died for you to exercise your vote. They did so with the intent of advancing justice and equality – not just some theoretical ideal of political diversity.

I am tired of you telling me to ignore the sick, dangerous people and policies of your party and to instead just look at…well…you. “Hey,” you say, “I know that I support harsh immigration policies, block large investments in health care reform and education, don’t believe that women have the right to choose what happens to their bodies, and so on. And I know that many of the leaders that I support and vote into office are racist, sexist homophobes and use religion to spread intolerance and fear. But I’m cool.” Apples and oranges. In fact, it just makes me all the more confused as to why someone so “cool”, who professes to care about the needs of the poor and believes in choice and freedom and values diversity, would choose to be a Republican.

So stop trying to sell me and my fellow black people a fake bag of goods. On balance, I support Democratic policies and while I have issues with almost all politicians, I can at least say that I am not regularly embarrassed or appalled by the words and actions of the people that I vote for. If you can’t say the same (which it seems to me, you’re having a difficult time doing right about now…), stop defending the indefensible and just fix it.

The Civil Rights Act in a Post-Obama World

2009-07-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

originally posted on July 1, 2009: On the 45th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, where we stand and where we must go in continuing the struggle for civil rights in America.

As we commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 today, I am struck not only by how far America has come in her journey towards equality for all, but even more so by the unique challenge that we face to continue that journey in a social, cultural, and legal climate that prizes post-racialism over anti-discrimination and favors color-blindness and gender-blindness over equal opportunity.

Women leaders in fields where they are grossly underrepresented are discouraged from joining gender-exclusive professional groups. Equal opportunity programs are being challenged in ballot initiatives in a growing number of states. As we see in this week’s Supreme Court ruling in Ricci v. DeStefano, employers are still required to avoid policies that are discriminatory in practice but are given little guidance or legal coverage in making those determinations. And all the while the achievement and access gaps for communities of color, and in some fields, women, is widening.

Many progressives predicted that society would suffer from many unintentionally un-progressive consequences in a post-Hilary, post-Obama world. The diminishing value being placed on pro-active, preemptive anti-discrimination policies and their original intent are a prime example.

It is for this very reason that we can no longer solely rely on traditional “civil rights” law (although there is still a dire need for such policies to be protected, strengthened, and aggressively enforced). As Congress currently debates landmark legislation in the areas of health care, higher education, and energy, it is vital that discussions of disparities, disproportionate impact, access, and bias be seriously taken into account and yield tangible provisions woven into the fabric of these and any other legislation that has implications for fields and opportunities where equality has not yet been achieved.

For those of us not satisfied living in a society where diversity efforts are blasé, acknowledgement of race is passé, conversations about gender are cliché, and civil rights laws are perverted with the support of our nation’s highest court, time is of the essence. We must fight to ensure that the current rapidly advancing progressive policies in education, healthcare and energy maintain the same explicit spirit of justice and equality that the Civil Rights Act was designed to impart.

Revolution

2009-06-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

originally posted on June 18, 2009.

The news of Iranian university student protesters being attacked in a dorm by riot police and militia cut me to my very core. Up to 150 students were arrested, according to witnesses, and at least one was killed. Students were beaten and shot, and one of the buildings caught fire. I just can’t stop watching this raw demonstration of oppression, anger and power unfolding before our very eyes. It’s so far away, yet feels so close when so many of the protestors are my age or younger. As I watch them take to the streets, using their voices and bodies to fight the regime, I am broken out of my dramatic thoughts and prayers by a jarring pop culture reminder: Twitter is a part of the movement.

On the surface, Twitter just doesn’t seem to fit with my mental images of protest and upheaval. But everywhere I turn I am reminded that many of the stories that I hear and news that I read is coming not from traditional news sources. The Iranian government has blocked journalists that work for international news organizations and the Iranian media is telling an incomplete, at times outright inaccurate story (like saying that the University students are taking finals when the campus has actually been shut down for days). No, the stories of the beatings, attacks, and killings are coming from young Iranians cracking the codes of internet barriers put up by their government, and tweeting the truth in defiance.

Twitter and I have a love hate relationship. I find it slightly burdensome and self-important to tweet my thoughts every minute and like skateboarding and MySpace, it got old to me once everyone else – especially celebrities - hopped on. But it is unquestionably useful for news - especially in an environment of suppression. Iran has made me again proud of my generation owning technological innovation and using it for more than games and gossip. We can use and are using it to change the world.

As the days go by and Western media learns more about the protests, we find that even though Twitter has been a vital tool, it has been used to supplement traditional word of mouth, peer to peer organizing and SMS, which is also being used in even larger quantities. The organizers are using every tool at their disposal – old school and new - to rebel.

And if what we are seeing through Twitter is only a glimpse of the real turmoil, when will we hear the rest? The stories from outside of Tehran and the University, from people without internet and no way to break the censorship codes, and no voice other than the one they use to shout? I can only imagine…

These stories, told and untold, are quenching the thirst of my political soul. They remind us all that you can’t block a movement. It warns those that doubt the ability of our generation to incorporate technology into new models of social change and action, that times they are a’changin.

Living in the sanitized world of watered down, pragmatic U.S. politics, a good, take to the streets protest is just what I need to believe that regardless of whether the revolution is televised, facebooked, tweeted, or simply shouted from the rooftops, when people are oppressed and suppressed long enough, humanity will find innovative ways to fight the powers that be and inevitably, whether fast or slow, revolution always happens.

Hey Conservatives - Where is the Love?

2009-06-30T10:22:00.001-07:00

originally posted on Thursday, June 11, 2009.

Yesterday, shots rang out just blocks from my office and reminded me that hate is alive and well. At the National Holocaust Museum, a shrine meant to commemorate lives lost to senseless violence and hate, a life was taken by senseless hate and violence. Security officer Stephen T. Johns was shot and killed by a white supremacist. This comes only weeks after the murder of Dr. George Tiller in the doorway of his church by an anti-abortion “activist”.

So what is the connection between these two tragedies and my assessment of the conservative movement? Ever heard the phrase “the freaks come out at night?” Well night has fallen on the Republican party and the freaks – racist, sexist, homophobic, intolerant right-wing loonies - are coming out all around us.

Back in April, the Department of Homeland Security issued a report drawing attention to right-wing extremism and warned that "White supremacist lone wolves pose the most significant domestic terrorist threat…"

Call me paranoid, but as I look today for ways to channel my heartbreak over Stephen T. Johns death into action (I’m looking here and here), allow me to state the obvious: in a time when conservatives are feeling particularly cornered – outnumbered by progressives that have the will of the people on their side – the right wing extremists are losing their minds and have gone hate-mongering crazy – sometimes with a talk show. Other times with guns.

It is often said that violent acts such as these go beyond politics. Tragedy and the loss of human life is something that all people with dignity – on both sides of the aisle – can condemn. But does that mean there shouldn’t be any exploration into the cause or at least the context for such acts? Absolutely not.

This is more than a random occurrence that would allow us to shake our heads, shed a tear, and go back to business as usual. Its time for conservatives to look within their political leadership, examine their rhetoric and recognize their own role, be it intentional or accidental, in advancing hate and intolerance.

If human identity is part nature and part nurture, let’s take a critical look at the entities and social systems that nurtured these natural-born nutjobs and made them feel welcome. Many of the people that commit these politically motivated crimes of intolerance identify with a set of principles and sentiments (anti-immigrant, anti-affirmative action, anti-choice, anti-gay, etc.) that are shared by the Republican party. Support for intolerant policies + leaders like Rush Limbaugh and Bobby Jindal making racist, divisive comments every chance they get, add water and voila! A recipe for marginalized, isolated, and already deranged people to feel justified.

The racist language espoused by conservative leadership and media about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, the sickening message sent by a press conference being held today that said that Dr. Tiller’s death will “help the anti-choice movement” makes the connection clear. Change has not yet come to the Republican party….and neither has the love.

Why am I still angry?

2009-05-28T15:20:00.000-07:00

President Obama must’ve read my blog last month – I challenged him to not just pick a woman or a person of color for the Supreme Court but to go out on a limb and select a woman of color. And by golly, he did it. In Sonia Sotomayor we have the potential for the nation’s first Hispanic – and the third woman – Supreme Court justice of the United States.

The excitement that I felt – was quickly followed by a sudden sense of surrealism -WHERE ARE WE? Is this the same America that handed George Bush the presidency and suppressed countless voters? It’s amazing how far we come.

I was reflecting on this with two of my colleagues and friends from the League of Young Voters, formerly known as the League of Pissed Off Voters - a hot organization that’s been channeling the anger from youth in urban communities to effect change since 2003. It was their anger that propelled them to register thousands of young people to vote and achieve countless local victories in communities across the country. But what about now?

With as much positive change as we’ve seen in recent months, are we still pissed off voters? Should we be? And if we lose our anger, how active will we be? What happens when we no longer have the “enemy” – the clear cut opposition with a face and a name?

That line of thought drew me to the following realization: The enemy is not, and never has been, Republicans – a party, a Senator, a Rep., or a presidential candidate. It’s not the media, it’s not the police, and it’s not even a specific piece of legislation.

Those may very often be the targets of my anger, but they are never the cause. The cause of anger – of righteous, burning, passionate anger – is inequality, injustice, hunger, poverty, - the intangible wrongs that permeate the same communities year after year.

And so even in the midst of my joy and support and disbelief and utter pleasure at the swinging of the political pendulum back to the side of the people, I will remain angry as long as tragic health, education and economic disparities exist. As long as I can’t find fresh produce and clean parks between all of the liquor stores and check cashing places in certain neighborhoods. As long as little black boys remain the most socially isolated and disparaged children in America’s education system. As long as jails are overcrowded while schools are being shut down.

I have to have enough skepticism to keep searching for the answers, and uncovering the lies, and shedding light on the corruption, and just enough optimism to encourage young people to run for office, and believe that there are people in my generation that can be the change that we want to see in the world.

So yeah – I think I’ll stay a little bit pissed. It makes for a better world.

A Torture Apologist Invaded My Body...?

2009-05-17T17:28:00.000-07:00

So last Friday I got a call from CNN.com to come and do a quick segment on Pelosi and the CIA, with a short pivot to Obama’s announcement about military tribunals. Kind of random (since I don’t work on any of the above issues), but couldn’t be too difficult, right?

Wrong.

Despite my quick prepping on CAP’s stance on the two issues, and all of my learned experience doing 30 second sound-bite punditry, I still somehow managed to bring down my entire organization, excuse George Bush for war crimes, and overall destroy liberal politics as we know them. Well, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic, but it was still pretty bad.

When the conversation veered slightly off topic and turned into a yelling match about torture between two other bloggers, making it difficult for me to jump in, my talking point about “moving forward and taking the American people’s attention off Obama’s ambitious legislative agenda” (which I intended to say only in reference to the Pelosi/CIA who-dunnit) somehow came out as the following –

The American people right now are actually not interested in this sideshow and this discussion. The American people are interested in looking forward -- nobody is concerned anymore with what the Bush administration was doing and did. We decided it was torture. Conservatives may or may not disagree. None of that matters at this point and time.

What the heck did I just say? Dear God – A TORTURE APOLOGIST TOOK OVER MY BODY.

Looking back at the quote, I’m honestly not sure how I could have said something so wholly inaccurate and misrepresenting of my own personal opinion and the work of my organization and “the American people”. Me? A black woman who proudly wears her “Where are my reparations T-shirt” every Black History Month? Would I really suggest that America look away from and excuse its very recent and inhumane past? I think not. And yet, it appears as if I did.

In fact, the argument that she used (and yes, I’m now referring to the person using my mouth to speak as “she”) was straight out of the conservative playbook. Misspeaking has never hurt so much and 10 minute segments split between 4 people and 2 anchors don't leave much opportunity for on-air self-correction. All I could do was log off and hope that nobody was watching.....

Ummm...nope. Not that lucky.

Since then, progressive bloggers and several viewers have pointedly taken me to task on the quote – and rightly so….if it had been me. But it wasn’t. It was the renegade spirit of a wingnut.

As I spend the next 3 days restraining from all political commentary and confessing my liberal sin I ask for forgiveness from my fellow progressive bloggers and the millions (well, 8 to be exact) of Americans that have emailed me upset about my mischaracterization of American public opinion and my own. I am sincerely sorry.

And rest assured that if the torture apologist ever rears her ugly head around these parts again, aiming to trip up my words, I'll make sure to get rid of her swiftly and surely - especially before appearing on national tv.

Live From the People's House

2009-05-17T17:25:00.000-07:00

(originally published on 5/14/09)

I had the pleasure of attending the White House poetry jam on Tuesday night, and am still smiling. The event officially titled “An evening of poetry, music, and the spoken word”, brought together a diverse group of performers from all parts of the country for an intimate gathering filled with drinks, hors d’oeuvres, piano, bass, hip-hop and Shakespeare. From James Earl Jones to two young college slam champions, the performances were young, fresh, and surprisingly cultural. Many of the artists’ pieces celebrated their backgrounds, their ancestors, their unique life experiences, and the role that culture and identity have had in shaping them.

The next morning as I scoured through the news coverage of the event, I looked, hoping that one of the dozen or so stories would highlight the most important element of the evening. No luck. I found details of the performances, the food, the location, the attire, but the one most defining, perhaps indescribable element of the evening that few news outlets have covered was the atmosphere. The White House felt like home. A house more gilded and historical and bejeweled than any I have ever lived in, but a comforting, welcoming, beautiful, and kinetic, home just the same. And it was a home that felt like many neighborhoods in urban America – diverse, loud, filled with laughter and love.

As I walked through security a woman in front of me was pulling out her ID and said, “I’m so nervous!”. The security guard smiled and said “Why? This is the people’s house. Your house.”. I knew right then and there that this was going to be an experience unlike any other. And the event did not disappoint.

To sit in a room full of artists spitting fierce lines to people with afros dancing next to people speaking Spanish next to a group of hearing impaired guests excitedly signing to one another next to Angie Martinez waving at the first daughters next to Spike Lee and his lovely wife sitting at the same candlelit table as Joe and Jill Biden while Saul Williams and Hill Harper chatted with George Stephanopolis was a dream – live and in many, many, colors.

As the event drew to a close and I waited for my high heeled feet to stop throbbing before I began the walk home, I took a rest in the East Room and sat on an ornate bench near a friendly older woman with a thick Spanish accent. She was the mother of one of the spoken word performers. She turned to me, shaking her head and smiling from ear to ear, and said very simply: “My daughter in the White House. Who would have thought?” I looked around at the sea of young black and brown faces and said back to her “Certainly not me.” And I’m so lucky to have been a part of it.

Can't America's Judge Judy Be Black?

2009-05-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

(originally published on 5/7/09)

With Justice Souter announcing his pending retirement from the Supreme Court, heavy speculation as to who President Obama will pick as his replacement has begun in full force. Already, women’s groups and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the only female judge on the 9-member court, have spoken out very openly about the need for another woman on the court. Women everywhere are demanding that he use his choice to appoint a woman, and conventional wisdom seems to suggest that he will.

But have people forgotten that Clarence Thomas is the only person of color on the court? Should there not be some sort of representational parity there as well?

I mentioned this to a friend the other day and he immediately responded back with the question “If you had to pick, which do you prefer? A woman or a person of color on the Supreme Court?”

And there’s the problem.

Not only am I am once again having to “choose between my gender and my race” in society’s eyes (flashback Barack vs. Hillary) but I am supposed to value one identity over the other. is it more meaningful to have someone represent my concerns as a person of color or as a woman on our nation’s highest court? Knowing our nation’s history, both are of supreme importance.

But people seem to forget – we carry multiple identities. The idea that I am always forced to choose says that not only to people not understand or respect my full identity, but it also means that someone like me – a black or brown woman – is almost never one of the options. News flash: there are more people in this world than black men and white women.

What about the idea that I shouldn’t have to choose – that the Supreme Court and other high offices should have candidates that break traditional gender and racial categorization but instead represent a portion of America that rarely has strong role models in positions of power: women of color (and no, Oprah isn’t enough).

So here’s hoping that Barack Obama does the unthinkable with his one slot and appoints someone to the Supreme Court that adds not only gender or racial diversity in appearance, but also in the unique life experience that black and brown women across the world, and particularly in America, share.

What He Should Say the Morning After

2009-05-17T17:21:00.000-07:00

(originally published on 4/30/09)

I woke up this morning wondering if he remembers what he said to me last night...and more importantly, if he meant it.

Don’t worry - I’m not talking about some inappropriate, personal encounter. I’m talking about President Obama. I went to bed last night with his press conference on my mind and woke up to the fact that today is the first day after the first 100 days.

Now that the arbitrary time marker has passed, what is it that we want President Obama to whisper in the American ear to give us confidence that the path he has set us on will be filled with the effective follow through and implementation of the foundation that he has been laying since January 20th? What can he say to us now?

1. “I won’t back down.”
With the House and Senate both having passed the President’s unprecedented, budget just yesterday, many of the fights around the most important issues within it (i.e. a public option universal health care system and a Pell grant entitlement program) will continue into the summer. As the President’s proposals become increasingly bogged down between partisan bickering in Congress, those of us that support the most progressive aspects of his agenda, must be assured that he will not allow the spirit of compromise and pragmatism to water down his most ambitious goals in the months ahead.

2. “I’m not afraid. “
We have watched President Obama play the game like a pro – saying what he needed to say when he needed to say it and never going too far. But now we’re looking for him to say a little bit more. When is he going to stop talking about the middle class and start actually talking about poverty? When does he plan on touching the issue of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell? And need I ask again about crack/powder cocaine? How about looking big industry in the face and attacking the myth of clean coal? It’s time for him tell us firmly that he’s not afraid to take it there.

3. “I still need you.”
The President must continually remind the country of its own role in the process of turning our country around. Progressives – especially new young voters – are actively engaging in the civic and legislative processes and will continue to – especially if we feel as if our voices are valued and are being heard. We need the President to create an echo chamber between us and Congress that amplifies our effort and our stories. He must always remember that to get the work done, he need us just as much as we need him.

This is what I need to hear on day 101. What about you?

Why We Hate Black Republicans

2009-05-17T17:16:00.000-07:00

(originally posted on 4/23/09)

Let’s be honest – Carlton from the Fresh Prince was the only black Republican that ever won our hearts. Michael Steele, Clarence Thomas, Don King… There’s something about black Republicans that just gets under black liberals’ skin. Especially now. Show me a black man that didn’t vote for Barack Obama and I’ll show you a million more that are angry with him. But why is it? It can’t be a purely political dislike for conservatives because there are many African Americans that are just as conservative on social issues – particularly those with even loose ties to a religious community. And its certainly not a historical legacy, because Lincoln was Republican and, based on his policy record alone, Nixon was a more progressive president than Bill Clinton.

So why do we assume black Republicans are sellouts that have some element of self hate? And why do we respond so harshly their opinions?

The legacy of slavery in America tells us that if we’re not all together, we’ll never be free and that “them” being “over there” hurts “us” “over here”. Especially when “over there” is considered the big house”of American politics – the part with more economic clout, and, as of late, governing power. And if the Republican party is the house, the Democratic party is the field. Self-preservation tells us that we’ll never get out of the field, while some of us are still in the big house.

There is, of course, some truth to the idea that a group divided is never as strong as a group united…but that is assuming that the group has one common goal. And we don’t. No one does. But political ideologies clearly aren’t our greatest divide in the black community, so our anger is sorely misguided.

Class, educational background, age and generational identification, sexual orientation, religion, immigration status, are just a few of the frameworks that have set up cultural divides within the black community. We can’t even agree on the light skin vs. dark skinned issue, let alone a political philosophy.

Black Republicans are not the problem. The key isn’t to persuade, recruit, or attack those on the “opposite side”. Our task is instead to better mobilize the people who do share our goals to win victories for social justice. Period. The problem isn’t the people in the big house – it’s the people in the field not willing to run. If we actually got all the progressives together to exercise their power, we wouldn’t have time to hate on black Republicans. We’d be too busy loving ourselves.

If Loving You is Wrong...

2009-04-17T07:25:00.000-07:00

I don’t want to be right. And certainly not this week: The Obamas have an adorable new dog named Bo. The media has gone wild with its fascination over this pet, and I must embarrassingly admit that I have to.

My love affair with this dog has almost matched my infatuation with his owners. The media frenzy this week shows us that despite what some would have us believe, our love affair with the Obamas has not yet ended.

I know that as a political activist I shouldn’t admit to this. And in particular, as a black political leader, I am not supposed to admit that I’m in love with Barack, with Michelle, and with this Administration. But that’s because many of our social justice activists and leaders don’t understand how true love works.

When I love, I love fiercely. Sure lovers are loyal, supportive and protective. But in a healthy relationship, they are also honest, critical, challenging, and so connected and united that they are willing to work overtime for the success of their shared vision. The love affair that many in our communities have with this Administration doesn’t mean that we won’t question his decision to send troops to Afghanistan. It doesn’t mean that we won’t push him to address crack and powder cocaine disparities. It doesn’t mean that we won’t follow his every single move with our money on issues like health care, jobs, and education. On the contrary it means that we care and will pay attention and cultivate a political relationship of intimacy, honesty, trust, and passion – working hard to get things done together.

So for all of my fellow well intentioned activists, commentators and leaders who have come into my community and said to the excited, wide-eyed, first time voters “Get over the love for Obama”, you’ve been playing it wrong and are risking not only alienation from progressive people of color and our generation, but of souring the beauty of a transformative moment in politics that has the potential to bring people into a process that has for so long kept them locked out. Our infatuation with Bo, and the rest of his family, isn’t a hindrance to political engagement. It’s a motivator.

So stop trying to break us up. Just encourage us to be better lovers.

The Best Gay Week Ever

2009-04-17T07:19:00.000-07:00

reprinted from 4/9/09

If you are gay or a gay rights activist in America, this past week was the week for you. First, the Iowa Supreme Court legalized gay marriages. Then Vermont became the fourth state to recognize those marriages – and the first to do it legislatively instead of through the courts. Last but not least, the D.C. Council then unanimously voted to recognize the gay marriages performed elsewhere. To top it all off, Obama did specific outreach to gay families and designated a good amount of the coveted, already sold out tickets for the National Easter Egg Roll on the White House Lawn.

So what does this mean for the broader hip hop community? What's the lesson for those of us passionate about other issues like poverty, education, health care, and some tangible survival issues that impact our neighborhoods and our livelihoods?

Sure, it could spark a long conversation about homophobia, and equality, and the tide is changing for discrimination of all types in this country. But for the hip hop community, or anyone else that has been historically disenfranchised, oppressed, or written off, there are three more important, political lessons for us:

1. The underdogs can win.

Sure the conservatives want us to believe that “gays are taking over” and that everyone and everything is gay now, but the reality is, no matter how much visibility gay people have, America is still a largely, overwhelmingly heterosexual and homophobic country – both in population and in culture. Gay rights activists are then in essence, an interest group, a type of minority group if you will, that has worked to leverage their power, their resources, and their messaging to bring about real political change.

2. Everything isn’t a national battle.

Sure a federal law allowing same sex marriages would be a bigger victory than small state wins. But leaders of the same sex marriage fight are smart enough to know that state victories create political momentum, targeted areas to fight, and winnable campaigns. Rather than looking to Obama for everything, they are looking at local leaders, state houses, and courts to gradually, state by state, give the small victories that will one day lead to a national win.

3. Things can change.

If you had told my grandmother 20 years ago that same sex marriages would be legal anywhere in this country, she wouldn’t have believed you. Now she looks at the tv in disbelief and says “Well I guess anything can happen in America.” Power grows slowly but it does grow and you can be a part of a movement that will actually achieve political gains. It just takes time, dedication, and strategy.

Let’s learn some strategy from this past week so that you, your community and your issues can also have the best week ever.

No Love for Chocolate City?

2009-04-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

Imagine if your city didn’t have representation in Congress. There would be no one protecting and representing your interests in federal politics, even though everyone in the rest of the entire country had Senators and Representatives.

What if, after decades of battles, when a bill that would finally grant you a fraction of representation is about to pass, they tell you that the only way you can get it is to change the gun laws that your city created to protect your community, even though the two issues have nothing to do with one another?

What if at the same time, the Justice Department was challenging whether or not it was even legal for you to have representation?

The only place that this ridiculous, dysfunctional situation would occur is in our nation’s capitol, Washington D.C.

Two weeks ago, the DC Voting Rights Act, a bill that would grant the city one voting member in Congress, was stalled again – this time because a few pro-gun members of Congress slyly attached to the bill a random, unrelated amendment that would force D.C. to loosen their own gun laws. (As the former murder capitol of the U.S., D.C.’s gun laws are stricter than most).

Now the Justice Department is fighting over whether or not the voting rights bill is even Constitutional because D.C. is not really a state. So its looking like the bill won’t be considered again until May. So where is the public outrage from the rest of the country?

D.C., a city that is 60% African American, a city without a state, is a city with no true political voice. And no one outside of D.C. seems to care.

But the people and families that live here do have a voice. I’m not talking about the Washington that people think is a city of politicians and lobbyists from other states. I’m talking about the other part of the city – where the people have been living for generations, where the kids attend some of the worst public schools in the nation, where they gave us Duke Ellington, Howard University, Marvin Gaye and Dave Chapelle. Where they listen to go-go music, eat mumbo sauce, and have jobs, and friends, and churches. Obama’s new ‘hood. I’m talking about the D.C. of the people.

The powers that be are using loopholes, tricks, and laws to justify relegating that D.C. (an overwhelmingly Democratic population) to a lower political status than the rest.
So where are our national civil rights leaders talking about this? Where is that celebrity from the area (or the urrrea as we say) that’s going to pick up this fight the same way Russ did for Rockefeller drug laws and Clef did for poverty in Haiti?

And more importantly, where are you?

D.C. residents have hopped on buses and walked across state lines to protest civil rights violations for everything from Jena 6 to Amadou Diallo to the voter suppression in Ohio. This may not be as dramatic, but it’s just as important. And it’s time folks return the love.

President Obama supports the cause, but It’s your Congresspeople that hold the fate of the District in their hands. Which means it’s your voice that counts.

Make sure they hear it.

Watch the Money & Defend Your Title

2009-04-03T08:54:00.000-07:00

Many are calling the fight over the economy the fight for our future – and it indeed is. But it is also the fight over our political present. Do young people, the most promising, newly respected voting block, and in particular, the young progressives that propelled President Obama into office, still have the power? And can we keep it through the first substantive political battle of the new Administration?

If the rhetoric around newly engaged voters during the election was “You don’t vote. You never do.”, it’s very easy for the post election assumption, even after we voted in record numbers, to be an extension of that same message: “So you voted. You won’t stay involved and engaged. You won’t actually hold your elected officials accountable.”

The minute you win the title, even with a TKO, there’s someone coming for your spot.

It will be easy for underrepresented communities to be written off (again) if we remain silent during the debate over the budget and the distribution of the stimulus money.

The economy isn’t just Obama’s first challenge. It’s ours. The stimulus and the budget are our first opportunity to substantially weigh in on a contentious policy debate, the outcome of which will directly impact us and generations to come.

It's time to flex our new found political muscle by paying attention and speaking up.

There’s no doubt we’re paying attention to the crisis: It’s blasted all over every newspaper, magazine, blog, tv show, and paycheck. We see it with our unemployed family members, our friends dropping out of school, and our coworker that’s working three jobs to get by. So we do the easiest thing to do when we’re suffering: Shout loudly about what’s wrong. But are we being just as loud about how to make it right?

For a demographic of people that popular culture thinks can’t balance a checkbook and is drowning in debt, it’s a difficult issue to start off with. Not only is economic philosophy complicated, the idea of cracking open a 150 page copy of the budget isn’t at the top of my list of “fun things to do”. In fact, I know firsthand from being on Capitol Hill that there are freshmen Congresspeople who don’t even understand all of the ins and outs of the process.

But let’s at least find out the basics (how does all of this work and who are the major players) and then, perhaps the most important part, get some key messages and spread them like the chickenpox. Key messages are simply core ideas that support your position. So for example, one key message for me, as someone in favor of the President’s budget, is:

We need a budget that supports improving education, reforming health care, and investing in clean energy. The President’s version invests in the change we voted for and we demand that Congress protect those priorities.

Take that message, or any other that represents your own position, and get to work. Blog about it, call in to local radio stations…and the if-you-do-nothing-else-please-do-this step: Call/email your congressperson. It’s easy, effective, and if you do it once, you’ll be hooked.

Political power is all about participation and you’re only as good as your last fight. If we don’t make our voices heard now, not only could we lose the potential for bold, aggressive economic decisions that pay for what we want, we lose some of the political respect that we fought so hard for and deserve.

The Method, the Madness, the Message (we cannot lose.)

2009-03-25T09:54:00.000-07:00

Political elites want you to believe that in order to effect change, you have to understand the ins and outs of every bill, every policy, and every issue. In other words, you have to be a politician or a lobbyist. But that’s a problem. Do I expect anyone – let alone people that are young and in school or working one, two, and three full time jobs or are single parents– to read through Obama’s 150 page budget? Absolutely not. But if the political elites are right, the rest of us everyday folk would have nothing valuable to add to the discourse and could only make our voices heard on election day once every couple of years.

I fundamentally disagree.

There is another, equally important part of the political process that has the potential to engage and involve every single person in my generation: Knowledge may be power, but message is powerful. A message is the set of words that articulate a feeling, a desire, a need, a principle, and a demand. A good message is one that spreads. A great message is the one that millions of people, all across the country, are saying at the same time. The best message is the one that becomes a part of our culture, and makes things happen. Message, not just policy, is the key to politics.

Don’t get it twisted – civic education is an important part of my day to day job. Its absolutely necessary that we understand the system in which we live, especially since EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL – where we live, what we eat, what we get paid, even our music. But the average person has such limited time to be engaged at a high level in the political process that they stay silent, thinking that they’d rather not talk about something they know so little about. And if they’re not comfortable enough to talk about the process, do you think they’ll actually get out and do the hardcore work (signing petitions, lobbying their elected officials, organizing at alocal level) to impact the process? Probably not, because message inspires action.

So message is the first, most important step in getting folks involved AND representing people and their interests to the government and mainstream media in a true, honest, and effective way. Talk may be cheap, but an effective message, is priceless and ultimately, message makes the world go round. Here are a few recent examples:

Messages elect governments. Barack Obama didn’t sell us policy. He sold us the idea that America needed “change” and that young people were an important voting block. And not only did that message get him elected (and a record turnout from our generation), it got many other people at lower levels of government elected as well.
Messages start wars. All the Bush Administration had to do was tell us that we should be afraid, that we were unprotected targets, and that force is the best way to combat “evil”. We bought the message that saidnational security was our most important concern (despite crippling domestic poverty, a crumbling health care system, children who are getting shot and killed in our neighborhoods), and the rest is Iraq war history.
Messages hurt communities. Do you think that the people who support the so-called war on drugs have ever themselves had a loved one struggling with addiction? Or lived in a community where drugs was a primary economy as a result of a failing education system and bottomed out job market? Probably not. But they bought the message that the way to solve our drug crisis is to lock up poor black and Latino kids for life. We know how that turned out.
Messages make policy. Once the Bush Administration got us to believe their message of fear and protection, they used our “support” to tap phone lines, take our troops into an ill conceived war, spend billions of dollars and all other sorts of criminal acts. President Obama is counting on the same thing. Because we bought his message of dramatic change during the election, he was able to close Guantanamo, sign an equal pay for women act, and pass the biggest recovery package in American history, all before most of us knew what was going on. He didn’t need us to take action and make noise about every single decision – he (and Congress) simply made the priorities match the message.

Messages also uplift, transform, revolutionize…you get the picture. Messages to us and from us are what dictate the direction of this country. So we don’t just need to make sure that we take good messages from the top. We need to make sure that we’re giving out our own messages – ones that define who we are, what we stand for, what our country should look like, and how valuable we are as immigrants, people of color, young people, formerly incarcerated persons, and everyone else in between. The top needs to be using our talking points. But that means we need to actually have some.

Unfortunately, as communities underrepresented in the political process, we’re losing the battle. Our generation, able to text, tweet, and spit verses so lyrical it makes your head spin, has the potential to be the king- and queen- pins of messaging and unify our voices. But no one’s stepping up to do that work and start the national conversation. There are no PR firms and communications directors for the average American. But I can do my part.

Remember the 150 page budget I talked about earlier? You don’t need you to read it word for word, but you can’t be silent on it either. We need you be calling your senators, and talking to your city council, and sending emails to your school board, and calling into your radio stations, and blogging, and chatting in the barbershop repeating the messages that represent us: “The money needs to get directed to the communities that need it the most “ and “Its time to finally invest in education, health care, and the things that will impact our future, no matter what the cost” and “Big companies got a bailout. Where’s mine?” and “We’re not in this mess because poor people bought houses they couldn’t afford. We’re in this mess because the economic policies of this country protected the interests of greedy rich people.” and so on.

My purpose is to speak those messages of political empowerment to my people (and no I’m not going to define “my people” – ya’ll know who you are) and speak the messages about my people that make everyone else listen, take notice, and give respect.

There’s a battle going on in this nation over our present and our future that we cannot afford to lose. So let’s get the message right.

Bursting the Conservative Bubble

2009-03-17T09:55:00.000-07:00

A dear friend of mine, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, was on Bill Maher several days ago crushing the conservative, newly libertarian Andrew Breitbart.

Was it a rhetorical and, dare I say, intellectual mismatch? Obviously. And frankly, it amazes me that there are people still surprised by statements about the disparities between low-income, urban schools and well resourced suburban schools, or the realities that school teachers in those environments face, or the idea that there is such a thing as coded racism. But buried within the usual progressive vs. conservative arguments about science, racism, and education was a nugget of observation from Dr. Dyson that I found to be the most subtly profound statement of the entire show:

You live in a bubble…collectively, a right wing worldview that disallows interaction with other people.

There is something frightening and ~~saddening~~ maddening about a political ideology whose modern day practice stands on a foundation of utter rejection of truth and an isolation from not only “the least of these” but from anyone with functioning eyes. It is the denial of the Lower Ninth Ward before Katrina; the denial of police brutality before Rodney King; and while ignorance – the state of not knowing – is in and of itself a shame, the outrage is the denial of Lower Ninth Ward-like poverty after Katrina; the denial of police brutality after Rodney King. It is the denial of America’s glaring inequities and broken structures after generations of examples highlighting these truths that makes modern day conservatism baffling. Breitbart demonstrated (and thus exposed) not only an isolation from people that live the realities of the dark, hypocritical underbelly of the American Dream, but from people that speak of these realities and therefore, from any philosophy or ideology meant to transform them.

A difference in opinion about how to solve problems (big government vs. little government, religion vs. politics, etc.) is not only understandable; it’s a valuable part of what makes multiplicity of thought central and unique to our national conversation. In fact, arguing about how to solve problems inevitably creates the best solutions. But an argument about reality? Using Bill Maher’s definition of science as something unequivocal and indisputable in its existence (“evolution isn’t a belief,” he says. “It’s a process that happens” whether or not we choose to acknowledge it), a discussion of poverty, classism, racism, and any of America’s flawed systems is in essence the science of inequality. It just is. Operating under a logic that denies this currrent and historical science and purports to hold in its party a political philosophy for governing a nation without an understanding of its people is beyond stupid...its dangerous. (for reference see THE LAST EIGHT YEARS)

For progressives, particularly those with a mission of social justice, having to first jump the hurdle of acknowledging the existence of a problem (i.e. racism still exists, black children on average receive an inferior education, education policy is inherently tied to housing policy, etc.) before figuring out how to solve it – makes the road to progress long and hard.

Many thanks to Dr. Dyson and the other sharp needles who take on the added task every day of speaking truth, bursting bubbles and telling it like it t-i-is.

(Relevant reading: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas )

Michael Steele's Impotence

2009-03-05T09:24:00.000-08:00

Let me preface my disparaging rant about Michael Steele by doing the required disclaimer that comes if you actually know someone personally : After meeting Mr. Steele at an event this past weekend, I have tremendous respect for the man. His charm, affability, and determination to debunk the myth that African Americans are a politically monolithic group is impressive.

Now, let’s get on with the business of unabashed criticism.

For those not familiar with the recent kafuffle between Steele and conservative, shock jock radio host Rush Limbaugh, here’s a quick summary:

During an interview over the weekend with CNN’s D.L. Hughley, Michael Steele was quoted as saying that “Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh—his whole thing is entertainment. Yes, it's incendiary. Yes, it's ugly." When Hughley referred to the radio host as "the de facto leader of the Republican party." Steele replied decisively, "No he's not. I'm the de facto leader of the Republican party,"

Bravo, Mr. Steele for taking to task the biggest blemish on your party’s new and improving reputation. It was, I hoped, a forecast of other house cleaning to come.

But my excitement was short-lived.

Limbaugh promptly responded as most imbeciles do to the truth: with anger and incredulity. Within hours, Mr. Steele retracted his honest and courageous statements so quickly and completely, I had to google the story to make sure that it hadn’t all been a figment of my imagination.

“I looked back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren’t what I was thinking,” Steele said. "It was one of those things where I thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently. What I was trying to say was a lot of people … want to make Rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman, and he’s not. I’m not going to engage these guys and sit back and provide them the popcorn for a fight between me and Rush Limbaugh. No such thing is going to happen. … I wasn’t trying to slam him or anything.”

Seriously? Because the last time I checked, Rush Limbaugh was, actually, the boogeyman.

More insightful than that finer point, is this: To have the official, appointed head of the Party cow-towing to a hot-headed radio personality either dramatically inflates Limbaugh’s importance or actually confirms and exposes the reality that Michael Steele tried to disguise in his original statement: Steele is but a figurehead, beholden to the same old guard leadership, rhetoric, and one can assume, divisive and separatist strategies of the Republican party.

I have, up until now, given Mr. Steele the benefit of the doubt. I cringed when progressives and African Americans called him Unlce Tom and Sambo for daring to be a black Republican.

Perhaps my willingness to forgive him his place within an overwhelmingly racist and classist political party comes from my own religious experiences. Indulge me if you will this dissimilar but analogous comparison:

I have been a member of my non-denominational but Baptist/Pentecostal-leaning church since I was 9 months old. My parents, its founding pastors, started the church in our basement and since then have grown it, beyond my father’s untimely death in the pulpit nine years ago, into a small but thriving community. Throughout the course of the past 25 years however, and in particular during my academic and professional awakening, I have developed decidedly liberal political and thus theological views as compared to the rest of my congregation and its clergy (still led by our fearless pastor, my mother). Despite these differences of theory, and sometimes practice, I hold several leadership positions within the ministry due in part to my love for the people and the fundamental (not fundamentalist) principles which provided a foundation for my growth, spiritual maturity and wellbeing.

The justification for my staying despite some pretty significant differences in theological interpretation is that without me, I fear that the church I so desperately love might become more conservative on issues of choice and sexuality, and thus farther and farther away from where I believe they are actually called to be. In short, I love them too much to not believe in their eventual enlightenment.

It is with this background and context that I, perhaps foolishly, identified with Michael Steele. I believed his pleas that there could be open-minded, balanced, people – people of color, for that matter - within the Republican party just as I hope many believe my cries that there can be open-minded, politically progressive people within a largely evangelical religious institution.

So against my better judgement, I turned the other cheek during his 2006 Senate race when it was discovered that someone paid homeless people to distribute inaccurate fliers in my home county, an overwhelmingly Democratic precinct. The materials blatantly lied and said that the Ehrlich-Steele ticket was a Democratic ticket.

Maybe he wasn’t capitalizing on the ignorance of low-information voters and in particular voters of color in my neighborhood. Maybe the voter suppression ploy had nothing to do with him, and he was just a victim of the type of dirty politics that his colleagues played, just as well-meaning Hillary supporters were often victims of the guilty-by-association racism that was instigated by other anti-Obama Democrats.

I tried to turn the other cheek…again against my better judgement… several weeks ago when he began throwing around phrases like “bling bling” and talking about “off the hook” strategies to recruit young people to the Party. Maybe he wasn’t tokenizing young people and in particular, young people of color, and in particular, young people of color who identify with hip hop culture. Maybe he’s just an old guy trying to understand the MTV generation?

But I’ve now run out of cheeks to turn (or at least any that I’d like to include in this metaphor).

Michael Steele’s apology as the head of the party to Rush Limbaugh could be compared to me ascending to senior pastor, arguably the penultimate position of leadership within my church, and still espousing, allowing or supporting beliefs that wholly represent the congregation that are contrary to my own. Even worse, it would be like me as the senior pastor, cowering under the reprimand of a loud-mouthed usher who happens to have the meanest, ugliest church members behind her .

Why backtrack on the three kernels of truth said during the interview? 1. Rush Limbaugh is entertainment. 2. He says ugly things. 3. Steele is the confirmed leader of the party.

To say that this was a misstatement all but shouts that 1. Rush Limbaugh is more than entertainment – he is certified, significant leadership and the things that he says on his shock jock radio show are to be taken as serious, substantive views that represent your party. 2. What he says is not ugly, and even his most incendiary remarks are not worthy of reprimand. 3. Even you must answer to him, because you are an impotent RNC chairman.

How disappointing.

Mr. Steele, if you are going to continue to do your traveling road show, attempting to convince everyone, and in particular communities of color, that you are the breath of fresh air that the Party so desperately needs, we’re going to need some proof. (Or has us hip hoppers like to say – We don’t believe you. You need more people.) Start bringing to the forefront some fresh leaders – the ones who you swear up and down have been biding time during the Bush years feeling as if the rhetoric and policies of hatred, oppression and fear don’t represent them as loving, positive, open-minded Republicans. Because until I see you practicing what you preach and unveiling at least a solid contingency of your party that values diversity, equality, and civility as much as you say you do, you’re going to have a difficult time changing the party from inside Rush Limbaugh’s shadow.

Good Read: No More Excuses

2009-01-26T19:46:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday's NYT had a great op-ed by columnist Charles Blow - who finally said what I've been saying all along: Just because Obama is the president doesn't mean that every form of injustice, institutional racism, poverty, and structural inequity will disappear for black people. Especially for black people. Read as he puts Congressman Clyburn in his place after he made the ludicrous comment that "Every child has lost every excuse."

What? That’s where I have to put my foot down. That’s going a bridge too far.

I’m a big proponent of personal responsibility, but children too often don’t have a choice. They are either prisoners of their parentage or privileged by it. Some of their excuses are hollow. But other excuses are legitimate, and they didn’t magically disappear when Obama put his left hand on the Lincoln Bible.

He then goes on to list some really daunting stats about African American children and closes with this sharp comment:

So black people have to keep their feet on the ground even as their heads are in the clouds. If we want to give these children a fighting chance, we must change the worlds they inhabit. That change requires both better policies and better parenting — a change in our houses as well as the White House.

President Obama is a potent symbol, but he’s no panacea.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Check out the full piece here.

My President is Black!!!!

2009-01-21T18:06:00.000-08:00

(listening to Jay-Z's DC mix of this post's title on repeat right now...)

I can't even begin to explain yesterday - the excitement, the emotion, the fun, the people...it was truly a remarkable time to be in D.C., to be young, to be black, and, frankly, to be American. For the first time since election night, I didn't bother to pepper my joy with the cynicism and reality that colors my speech daily in order to temper expectations and be honest about the work that is to come. Instead I walked and stood for a total of 8 hours in freezing D.C. weather and partied all night long.

Check out live - and slightly shaky - footage from Barack & Michelle's appearance at our ball, the Official Youth Ball at the Washington Hilton:

To a Black Man Who Died Too Soon

2009-01-21T18:02:00.000-08:00

reposted over at CampusProgress.org

As the nation honors the legacy of one black man with a dream and anticipates the first black man in the White House, one in nine black men is in prison. Today, on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday and the eve of President Barack Obama’s inauguration, we find ourselves in this reality. I wish that you, the man who died too soon, were here to see this climactic and prosaic moment. But your life was cut senselessly short by the structural violence perpetrated by our education, health, and criminal justice systems. Today, even as we look at our stamps, and read our poems, and stay home from work, men that look like you are more likely to be murdered than graduate college. And I can’t get over that.

You could of course be Fred Hampton, who was killed by racism, Tupac Shakur, who was killed by urban discontent, or Oscar Grant, who was killed just this month by police brutality. You could also be any of the one quarter of deaths among black men caused by heart disease every year, brought about by the inequities in our food systems that disproportionately place more fast food than fresh produce in low-income neighborhoods. You could also be one of 21 percent of uninsured black men who didn’t have the “magical” healthcare that Magic Johnson can afford to buy, and instead died of HIV/AIDS.

You could also be my father, a man who would, if he were alive, truly understand the meaning of this moment—the acknowledgement of our history, the hope for our future, and the multi-dimensional but overwhelmingly dire state of black men in America. Daddy, you were a man who, like President Obama, raised two beautiful daughters. You are a man who, like Dr. King, was a minister working to better his community. You are a man who, like so many others, was pulled over often for driving in white neighborhoods, just for being black. You are a man who the media has never quite been able to capture—not in CNN’s two-hour long special focused on you or the Washington Post’s series covering the lives of men like you. You are a man of service and integrity that accomplished great things and achieved success—spiritual, familial, professional—in a nation fundamentally set up for your failure.

If you were here today, what would you say? You would undoubtedly have a more nuanced analysis of our times than that given by media outlets struggling to balance the ascendancy and historical significance of this moment with the present day context and realities in which many black men still exist. Without you here I am lost. Should I intellectualize the discourse and highlight the substantive differences between Dr. King and President Obama so that African American history doesn’t compress two great, but very different leaders to be one and the same?

Or should I instead use this moment as an opportunity to draw the stark contrast between the two of them and the alarming rate of social devastation that millions of other black men are facing … even as children read “Ode to Dr. King” poems and parents prepare for inaugural balls?

Or should I highlight the fact that there are also millions of other African American men just as great as Dr. King and President Obama, in cities and neighborhoods all around the country taking care of their family responsibilities and working hard for their communities? If too many comparisons have been made between Dr. King and President Obama, too few have been made between you and them both. You were the touchable Obama, the everyday Dr. King, a person that believed, like Cornel West, “Justice is what love looks like in public.”

I struggle with the question of whether celebration leads to complacency and a false sense of utopia or if it instead inspires and uplifts. You would probably see it as inspiration without the guarantee of redemption. After all, redemption only comes through justice. Maybe you’ve made me too cynical. I do not make the assumption that the color of President Obama’s skin guarantees the advancement of a full civil rights agenda, just as I am not confident that Dr. King’s belief of love and equality would have extended to transgender rights or full workplace equity for women. The vision of equality King proposed was incomplete, just as the vision Obama proposes today is. You would tell me to get to work fighting for a repeal of mandatory minimum sentencing, abolishment of the death penalty, equal prosecution of crack and cocaine, an end to the war on drugs, an end to police brutality and racial profiling, an increase of resources given to public schools in lower income communities, an increase in the Pell grant, universal and preventative health care, and many other policies that will close the gap between black men and the rest of society.

As I struggle with these questions and the daunting challenges that face our generation, maybe I should do more than stay home from work today. Maybe I should do more than party like a rock star for Obama’s inauguration tomorrow. Maybe I should ask the question to all black man who die too soon. What should I do to fight for you?

A new blogger, a new me

2009-01-17T20:53:00.000-08:00

Hey fam - First let me apologize for being AWOL lately. I wish I could say that its simply a result of me being ridiculously busy. Although I have been, without a doubt (New Orleans, New York, Denver, Oakland, etc.), the real reason that I haven't logged on is because...drumroll please...the blog intimidated me. There, I said it. See, when I speak, I rely on passion. Talking about politics and social justice and the world around me is so much easier than throwing myself into a written world dominated - much like mainstream media - by snide, liberal white men (and this "world" that I'm referring to is the progressive political blogosphere). I would write and be riddled with self-doubt, so much so that when one of my posts was "discovered" by a group of my political peers online, I was mortified and did not log back on for nearly two months.

Although thoughts, observation, commentary and recommendations flood my mind on a daily basis, popping open my laptop and putting fingers to keys has always been a challenge for me. I struggle with how to make my blog something that I would actually read...and therein lied the problem... and the solution. I am not Matt Yglesias. I am not Ezra Klein. Nor do I want to be. I am not all political, or all cutlural, or all black, or all woman, or all young and trying to find the voice of my blog reminded me that a category just won't work. I am a full woman who believes that politics are both policy and culture...that everyday injustices are found not just in state legislatures and prisons but in movie theatres and ipods and fashion magazines. Because injustice in all of these areas is what put out that beautiful fire that Sonia Sanchez talks about in her poem (one of my favorites) "Catch the Fire":

Where is our beautiful fire that gave light to the world? The fire of pyramids; The fire that burned through the holes of slaveships and made us breath; The fire that made guts into chitterlings; The fire that took rhythms and made jazz; The fire of sit-ins and marches that made us jump boundaries and barriers; The fire that took street talk and sounds and made righteous imhotep raps. Where is your fire, the torch of life full of Nzingha and Nat Turner and Garvey and Du Bois and Fannie Lou Hamer and Martin and Malcolm and Mandela.

Well I believe that the answer is right here in this generation. I believe that I and my peers are a spark in that beautiful fire, and that my blog doesn't need to be the Huffington Post to show it.

So from now on, the posts on this blog can be culture and political and public and personal and earnest and cynical and long and short and wordy and pictoral and whatever else they need to be to show the potential, and the hope, and the righteous anger and the hypocrisy and the frustration and the silliness and the innovation and the reality of the America that I see and the journey that we are walking through together in this next phase of American history.

So welcome to the re/launch. And thanks for reading.

Me in the American Prospect

2008-11-25T09:51:00.000-08:00

How do we keep Obama's youth mobilized?

The young people mobilized by Obama's campaign were politicized in a strongly personal way long before the election contest even began. Their politicization grew from the cost of their own and their friends' involvement in the seemingly endless Iraq War. It grew from their

increased college and credit-card debt. It grew with the realization that the air they breathe gets dirtier every day. It came from a very simple but meaningful desire to make their lives better. What the campaign did, along with the longstanding work of many progressive youth organizations, was channel that energy and passion into the electoral process.

It is now the responsibility of those same organizers to show youth the next step in that process. Civic education -- educating these new voters on the policy-making process and how their voice, art, technology, and activism can influence it -- is the way to transform into tangible results the decidedly progressive principles and values for which they voted.

At Campus Progress, we have spent the last four years working with youth to spread the word about what it means to be a progressive and how values like equality and justice can be affected through the political process. As representatives of the most diverse generation that our nation has ever seen, we are prepared to arm youth with the information and tools they need to move beyond engagement and onto results -- making our nation's laws and policies reflect the ideals that define our movement.

--Erica L. Williams, director of policy and advocacy for Campus Progress at the Center for American Progress.

For full article featuring Mattie Weiss, Ivan Firshburg, Sally Kohn, and others click here

Youth Policy Summit Rundown

2008-11-25T09:22:00.000-08:00

The youth policy summit of the Generational Alliance has drawn to a close here in beautiful Oakland, CA. It was a wonderful opportunity to bring together some of the youth movement’s most power leaders. We discussed building organizational capacity, looking back at the successes (and failures) of election ’08, strategies for keeping new voters from non-traditional communities engaged, and, most importantly, determining our policy focus for President Obama’s first 100 days in office – i.e. What policy victories can we legitimately expect and how soon? Which campaigns are worth our effort? We determined that health care, college affordability (which is mainly an issue about budget and appropriations) and green jobs were the top three areas in which we can get traction. But you know me. I can never stay focused only on the issue at hand. I’m constantly stepping back and critically observing. Here are a few thoughts :

I still hate the idea of a “youth movement”. To be a movement defined by identity and not goals is, in my view, shortsighted, self defeating, and unfocused. Shortsighted because unlike race and gender, people don’t claim this identity for life. This movement is based on a level of identification that numerically lasts at best between 7 and 10 years. And for many, that time line is actually not just determined by chronological age but by life circumstances. So the minute that “young people” get married or become parents themselves, they often stop identifying with carefree 19 year olds. Not a terribly well defined or dependable idendity to build a movement upon. Self defeating because we are creating our own kiddie table of politics instead of working to include “kiddies” at the big table. Unfocused because the name of the movement doesn’t define our values or goals. We should not be a movement of something (young, 30 and under, diverse, progressive people) but instead a movement for something (civil rights, human rights, economic equality, progressive polidy and values). The fact that I opened my post by characterizing the event as a gathering of “progressive leaders of the youth movement” rather than “young leaders of the progressive movement” says something. Reveling in our youth and our power actually does very little to develop and hone that power in a way that creates concrete policy goals and victories. The way to change the perception of young people as they relate to political power and change isn’t to state over and over again who you are (young) but instead to do what needs to be done (change policy, create new structures, enter and innovate the system) while you are who you are. While the subtext of much of the work that we do is that our generational identity actually is grounded in our principles, we must take the critical next step of articulating that in our language. I didn’t move into this segment of my life work to be a youth activist. I am a young activist that works to engage a new generation of leadership for civil rights, human rights, equality, etc. and I am so frustrated by being labled in such an unproductive way. Nevertheless…

This “movement” has some incredibly smart, passionate people in it. Seriously. Sitting daily in an office of white, buttoned up liberal men that have phd’s in nuclear proliferation and have been lobbying since a965, it was so refreshing to sit in a room of people that aren’t desperately in need of wrinkle cream, wear jeans, and reference the lyrics to T.I.’s “Live Your Life” right before explaining a sociological theory of self interest and self preservation. Smart, smart people. I was completely humbled. And unlike the people with whom I work – upper crust Washington – these people are not just book smart, they are people smart. And honest. And caring. And funny. And soulful. And passionate. And excellent communicators. And technologically savvy. And creative. Our leaders have the unique ability to be what so many of our elders in the movement have stuggled to become - a whole, complete person. We mix the political with the spiritual with the emotional with the philosophical and the FUN in ways that encourage full personhood and a bringing of ones entire self to this work. It also allows us to find the intersectionality of every issue that we work on and engage audiences on many different levels. It's impressive. I genuinely believe that my generation is in great, capable hands. If we can overcome the fact that…

Policy is the Achilles heel of the youth movement. Yes, that's right. Basic policy work. And that’s a big, big, big, unfortunate heel. We were a room full of smart, passionate, incredibly talented organizers – 80% of whom didn’t know the process of a bill becoming a law. 90% of whom had no idea what a committee is, let alone who resides in which committee. I was shocked - these were some of the basics that I was introduced to at LCCR and were the foundation upon which all of my work is built, whether my job title includes the words field organizer (as it formerly did) or policy and advocacy (as it currently does), these are the basics of our nation's system that are fundamental to this work. I worry that this lack of sophistication and focus is the core of our marginalization not just as a movement but as a demographic of people. Why is this the case? While many organizers want to remind policy folks that there is no change in policy without “the people”, the grassroots often forgets that there is no tangible, visible change without policy...and people don't stay involved without tangible, visible change. And while the movement is ready to acknowledge this point, as evidenced by the convening of this summit, there is a steep, steep learning curve. This is the core of the youth movement – an activist community that is adept at integrating the art, technology, and general voices of a young population into an energy that demands change and questions the status quo. But that energy will go no where without leaders that understand the inner workings of the game. (I wonder if this is because most of my peers have never worked anywhere except for the youth empowerment organization that they work in now…this also says something about the lack of professional mentorship in startup organizations) Now, to be fair, the purpose of this conference was to learn how to now integrate policy into the work that galvanized the youth vote and I think that there are some groups that have been doing it all along (USSA for example, who’s legislative director Angela is a fierce sister fresh out of college) and others like Hip Hop Caucus who has the right idea of turning their attention now to civics education. But we better get it in gear fast. Because empowering a generation to use their voice and demand change without teaching them the process by which change will actually come, is buildling a house on the sand. Especially when you acknowledge the truth that…

Who are we kidding? Many people voted because of Obama. Deal with it. I think one of the main failures of youth vote advocates this election season was in the shallowness and transparency of our messaging. The message that “young people voted on the issues” never broke through to mainstream media because it frankly wasn’t true. It was a message set up to support our organizational missions and demand legitimacy and credibility not just for our constituency, but mostly for our own work. And I understand that. But there is a difference between saying that young people care about the issues – that is true – and that young people voted because they care about the issues – not true. You can care about issues and stay your butt home on the first Tuesday in November, particularly in our communities (young, black, latino, disenfranchised). Because guess what? Young people have always cared about not having clean air to breathe, or money in their pockets, or their loved ones at war. And while yes, the past 8 years have brought us to a boiling point, logic would not tell our communities that voting is the solution. Obama is what made them channel their frustration about the issues onto the ballot. And denying that reality is going to make tomorrow a cold blast of water when we go back to our newly registered voters and find out that they actually know very little about “the issues” or how those issues will really be changed.

Just my thoughts.

Prop 8 & Black blame: Are we done yet?

2008-11-08T14:04:00.000-08:00

(crossposted over at Pushback)

We get it. It was ironic and problematic that African-Americans in Califonia voted largely in favor of Proposition 8. But much of the analysis surrounding the demographic breakdown of the loss has been completely superficial, divisive, and counterproductive. As a whole, we live in a homophobic society. Period. If attitudes around marriage equality and same-sex relationships have slowly and/or steadily shifted in a progressive direction over the course of the past decade (particularly among young people), let’s look at why.

It hasn’t been by accident or by some cosmic shifting of the civil rights stars. It has been in large part due to the tireless work of activists and the increased representation of gays and lesbians in the mainstream media. So what went wrong with African-Americans?

While I’m not discrediting the blood, sweat, and tears of LGBT activists that have worked hard for this movement, I do question the diversity of the work. Have you seen many ads about gay marriage geared towards non-whites? Seen many representations of gay people of color in the mainstream media? When was the last time you saw a gay black man on TV who wasn’t a side character in a hair salon? Anti-racist training is all good and well but, frankly, how many people of color actually work at the largest, most prominent, best funded LGBT organizations in the country? So is it any wonder that many African-Americans reside firmly in the socially conservative box in which most Americans have always lived with regards to sexuality?

People criticizing the black vote in Prop 8 have forgotten a fundamental organizing principle: on any issue, people respond when they are spoken to. As an organizer, when a large block of people that I expected to vote my way based solely on principle don’t, I blame myself and my assumptions, which, no matter how logical-seeming, were clearly incorrect.

For example, logic would have said that all white women would have supported the African-American voting rights movement because of their own fight for suffrage decades earlier, but that wasn’t always the case. Why? Because white women were still white. They clung to the racial identity with which they were most familiar and which society told them to prioritize. They still had to go home to their white husbands, and white churches, and white children and claim a whiteness that ignorance said was threatened by the black vote.

See the parallel? Straight black people are still straight. That is the sexual identity that we, like most other straight Americans, have been told to prioritize and that is supposedly threatened by gay marriage. While assuming that black people should automatically support marriage equality may be right on the merits (gay rights = civil rights), it is actually illogical considering:

the historic marginalization of people of color within the LGBT movement

the lack of inclusion and diversity in many of the larger organizations that were channeling money into California

the minimal and limited representation of gay people of color in the media

the more extreme and at times convoluted views on marriage and gender roles passed down as a legacy from slavery

and the large historical role of “the African-American church,” a stereotyped religious entity that is, at its core, theologically evangelical and conservative

Taking the African American vote for granted in this instance (and in any for that matter), presupposes that we live on a civil rights island, pray to Rosa Parks every morning, and are not influenced by the attitudes of the larger society around us. Don’t forget–some of our greatest civil rights icons of the 1960s were notoriously homophobic. That is the nature of American bigotry: it is selfish and separatist, causing many of our movements for freedom to be the same.

Do I understand the hypocrisy inherent in this vote? Absolutely. And and as a straight, pro-marriage equality African-American it frustrates me that the conflict is not readily apparent to many of my peers. But the correct response to this loss isn’t to blame a segment of people, but to realize the chasms in the movement and work to bridge the divide. The rhetoric of “white gays gave YOU guys Obama but black straights couldn’t give US a win on Prop 8″ is ridiculous, and insulting to everyone involved. We ALL won with Obama and we ALL lost with Prop 8. Now let’s all find a solution.

TV Clip: Youth Vote on "The Loop"

2008-11-06T18:33:00.000-08:00

Speechless.

2008-11-05T09:05:00.000-08:00

Insightful commentary coming soon. For now, just breathe.

Own Your Politics: Obama's 30 Minutes of Fame

2008-10-29T19:58:00.000-07:00

Long day. Long night. 30 good minutes from Obama. Was it worth it? And what does T.I. have to do with it?

For Some Young People, It IS All About Obama

2008-10-22T19:20:00.000-07:00

(reposted from May 12, 2008 at YoungVoterMag)

As if the Democrats need more constituencies in an uproar over the presidential contest, here’s one more: Youth activists. Recently, youth organizations have been angered by the media’s portrayal of young people as voting in droves simply because of Barack Obama. Youth leaders point to four intensive years of extensive field organizing, creative online outreach tools, issue education, and an impressive increase in political engagement through nonpartisan youth organizations, like the one for which I work.

But the honest truth is that many young people are voting this election simply because of Mr. Obama. And a second truth is even more important: If Mr. Obama is denied the nomination due to superdelegates and back room politics, many young voters will be alienated from the process and less inclined to vote again.

Many of my professional colleagues hope that every single young person who votes this year is doing so because of the great work that we have done. And some indeed are. A wide range of organizations committed to youth training and advocacy have launched or been revitalized since 2004, and have made a tremendous impact. But my community ties assure me that there are a chunk of 18-25 year olds voting simply because they are inspired by Barack Obama.

These young people are not the traditional student activists, the students who rally against sweatshops and volunteered for Howard Dean. These are not the young adults who intern at high profile progressive organizations in Washington D.C. or vote because of a cool online registration tool, an MTV ad, or a Facebook group.

Instead, these are the students who were like me in college – working 40 hours a week, going to school full time, with barely enough time to foster important relationships with my loved ones and community, let alone become a full time or even part time “activist.”

These are the students who, like me, commuted to campus. While my classmates were in protests and door-knocking for Kerry in ‘04, I was stuck in rush hour traffic on I-95. They are the ones that, like me (warning: confession of a liberal sin ahead) didn’t want to lose the wages to take off work and vote in the 2004 primary.

I know these young people, as well as the many who didn’t go to college at all. While I now work every day in downtown Washington , in a sea of politics and CNN, rubbing shoulders on the Hill, and flagging emails from politically savvy youth, I return home to friends who have never heard of the alphabet soup of organizations committed to youth organizing.

They aren’t interested in NAFTA, and chuckled when they heard Rev. Wright’s comments because their grandmother said something just as incendiary last week. They are smart and aware of the issues, but lack the time, money, or inclination to support a cause. They slap me five, are proud of the work that I’m doing, and go back to their everyday lives, far removed from the arcane debates over which of the candidates has a better health plan, because right now they’re not covered at all. They’re uninterested in how the troops will be brought home because their brother is already dead . They are only interested in a candidate who will ensure that they don’t have to take so much precious time away to address said problems. And they now believe that this time, if they vote, they won’t be disappointed.

It is these voters who will be especially turned off from our political process if Mrs. Clinton wins based on superdelegates. And what, pray tell, is wrong with telling that truth? Just as some honest African Americans have dared to say that they are voting for Mr. Obama because he is African American and some women have been courageous enough to admit that they are voting for Mrs. Clinton because of their long battle with sexism, there is nothing wrong with admitting that a candidate has garnered a percentage of votes simply on the merits of what he represents to marginalized, disenfranchised, and disillusioned young people.

One man collected all of the blood, sweat and tears that the youth movement has invested and, in the process of making history, became our most effective advocate.

Of course, the old guard response is that these new young voters should have been engaged long before Mr. Obama and that, if they can be lost simply because of party politics, they are stupid and naive and the youth movement is a failure. Not so. The fact that there is a non-partisan youth infrastructure able to arm these new voters with the tools needed to foster long term engagement is a huge victory. It is a privilege to have a candidate who appreciates, supports, and broadens the impact of this work.

The challenge now will be to keep these new voters engaged for the long haul. I am hopeful that we will. But if Mr. Obama loses the nomination because of superdelegates, my job will get a lot harder.

Own Your Politics: Don't Make Me a Liar

2008-10-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

On Affirmative Action

2008-10-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

Spent a lot of time writing an affirmative update for our activist newsletter today, tracking all of the dramatic ups and downs in Colorado and Nebraska this week - lawsuits, signature fraud, shady data...it all had me contemplating the amount of time, energy and resources that affirmative action opponents put into their opposition, yet cling to their adamant profession that affirmative action is responsible for every successful African American outside of sports and entertainment. Condoleeza Rice? Affirmative action. Oprah Winfrey? Affirmative Action. Colin Powell? Affirmative action. Barack Obama - you know the drill. It made me wonder: If they eliminate affirmative action, who/what are they going to blame for black achievement?

I ran across a relevant post today by my boy Ta'Nehisi over at the Atlantic that argues why Obama's rise to the top canNOT be explained away by affirmative action:

"Electoral politics are about showing and proving--no amount of
Affirmative Action can get you to the presidency. You have to
compete and win. If you're the sort of voter who shows up at one
of these dead-end rallies, who likely believes that Obama never
deserved the hype he got, that he was only a big deal because he
was the "black guy," then, yeah, you are liable to be stunned when
he Buster Douglasses that ass. When you're on the canvas searching
for you mouthpiece wondering, How the f***, did I lose to a nigger..."

Well said.

Michelle Obama's Bust: Your Call

2008-10-10T10:12:00.000-07:00

Interesting post over at pushback.

Entertainment Wise reports that sculptor Daniel Edwards has debuted an African-inspired bust of Michelle Obama. The sculpture is adorned with Barack Obama-logo earrings and an American flag emblazoned across her breasts (yes, people, there are boobs):

The controversial topless bust of Barack Obama’s wife Michelle Obama was unveiled to the public in New York yesterday.

“The goal is to create a look for Michelle Obama that eliminates excessive comparisons to Jackie Kennedy.”

As with anything else, there are two sides to this. On one hand, I can see how someone would think that this rendering of Obama is endearing and celebratory. I have to say that her face in this sculpture does look proud and regal… and I say that as someone who is semi-obsessed with the famed bust of Queen Nefertiti.

But on the other hand, I worry that this is just another situation where the black female body is being sexualized and made to be overly exotic.

My comments are, at first, in support of the piece:

Good post Loryn. African American women - and all women of African descent in the diaspora - have a particularly long and complicated history of dealing with the hyper-sexualization, commoditization, caricature, and objectification of our bodies. In particular, this piece and the exaggeration of Michelle’s chest reminds me of Sara Baartman. But the artist’s intent makes me give him the benefit of the doubt. It is an extreme depiction -breasts, head adornment, earrings and all - of her blackness. Frankly, I appreciate the resistance to depicting her as the black Jackie O. I know that the comparisons are intended as compliments. But somewhere in there is also the need for America to quickly label a beautiful, classy, clearly African American woman with distinctly African features as a black someone else – validating her unique beauty only by equating it with the icon of European aesthetics…As if the highest honor for her to attain is to look like the mainstream, white cultural ideal. She is black, and while the colorless rhetoric of that campaign would have us ignore that and pat ourselves on the back for not overtly acknowledging that, this piece does a wonderful job of claiming the black identity of this women that is so well respected. The black community has always had a particular investment in “claiming” any celebrity who’s ethnicity or race is in question (i.e. Lena Horne, Halle Berry, Tiger Woods, etc.) Now, I don’t at all think that the breasts are necessary to convey that point, but looking at the craftsmanship and the noble intent of the sculptor, this bust is at its core just a beautiful piece of art. Still, I understand how the society in which we live has made it difficult for it to be seen as that and only that.

But upon googling the artist, seeing his work and the fact that, frankly, he wasn't African American sang a slightly different tune:

Totally forgot who Daniel Edwards is! He’s the guy that did the Britney Spears giving birth on a bearskin rug and Paris Hilton dead and naked holding a dog and a cell phone and Sen. Hillary Clinton in a bra…. hmm…considering a large part of my argument was based on artist intent, let me just give the caveat that IF his intent was other than what I stated above, than he’s an annoying little sensationalistic, fame hungry artist that feeds off of objectifying the bodies of celebrities…and he could be preying off of the idealistic, earnest, desire of suckers like me to justify his work with my above argument.

That's the thing about art - its always open for interpretation.

BREAKING NEWS: A Slap in the Face from Wall Street

2008-10-07T12:51:00.000-07:00

Seriously? Less than one week after taxpayers like you and me bailed out AIG insurance company, executives from the wall street giant headed to a week-long retreat at a luxury resort and spa in California. And spent nearly $440,000 on rooms, massages, pedicures and other luxuries. Funds are so tight that I had to cancel my next hair appointment and fat cats are rolling like this?

"This unbridled greed," said Cong. Mark Souder (R-IN), "it's an insensitivity to how people are spending our dollars."

I have a few stronger words for them than that. This sort of arrogance and economic disparity says something about the shaky foundation on which this entire country was built: Debt, prosperity, oppression and elitism. Our government sings fairness, justice, and equality on the notes of the national anthem and turns around and spits a quick sixteen of "I Get Money" right on the backs of everyday low income and working class Americans.

Anybody else ready for a change?

Read It: The Green Collar Economy

2008-10-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

Definitely worth a read. It comes out today and is written by Van Jones, a groundbreaking environmental justice activist and comrade. Seriously. Get it to understand how this energy crisis can actually be turned around to benefit low-income communities and create a better world for our children.

Josh Howard & the Election

2008-10-07T10:55:00.000-07:00

I'm reposting on a friend's request, an old post I wrote over at pushback.org:

The recent story about Josh Howard, forward for the Dallas Mavericks, being caught on video making an inflammatory remark about black people not singing the national anthem, definitely gave me pause. Not just because I hate the Mavs for firing Avery Johnson. Not just because it’s another example of our TMZ-obsessed culture. The story actually terrified the mess out of me. And that fear deserved some contemplation.

Is it sad that as an African American and a progressive, I am terrified that every time a prominent black person does anything even slightly controversial in public during the next two months, Armageddon is coming to progressives and that as a race we’re going to be set back 50–if not 200–years? Hence my fervent bedtime prayers that the idiot that is O.J. Simpson doesn’t do anything stupid during his trial this week. Or that Al Sharpton stays hidden in a salon and doesn’t hold any rallies in October (valid and respectable as most of them are). Or that my favorite rappers stop calling themselves “the hood’s Barack,” no matter how hot the track is… even if they are Obama’s favorite rappers. Why are we, in 2008, in such a tenuous racial situation that I live in constant fear that the progress we have made can slip away with one cell-phone video?

The impulse that secretly made me relieved to find out that the Unabomber wasn’t black and horrified to find out that the 2002 snipers were, is the same one that made me a little peeved at the late Bernie Mac and irate at Jesse Jackson, despite being enormously humored by both incidents earlier this year.

This equal parts rational and irrational reaction is exacerbated in a political climate that daily scratches the surface of race like a chicken pox sore–-incessantly, compulsively, and superficially, not realizing that all of the scratching (the empty questions, the sound bites, the special reports) only make the thing more raw and irritated.

With all of America’s attention now focused on race, when something sticky happens, I not only have to prepare for strangers on the bus looking at me the way they did after Janet Jackson bared her breast next to the obviously innocent and corn-fed Justin Timberlake–I now have to worry about the political implications on a presidential candidate that has become the poster child for black achievement.

Admittedly, the problem isn’t just society. My well-rehearsed bravado and rather healthy ego makes me publicly say, “I couldn’t care less what racist people think of me or Star Jones (slightly embarrassing) or Young Berg (downright insulting). They are who they are and have a right to do or say whatever they want. I am my own person, with my own identity, living my own life. So suck it.” But at the same time, perhaps I should do some soul searching and figure out why I still identify with my race in a way that makes me secretly beholden to the opinions that a racist, mainstream media hold of my fellow African Americans.

In the meantime, please forgive Josh Howard. I’m sure with a little media training he would never have done this… so close to the election.

Donna Brazile Unplugged

2008-10-07T10:34:00.000-07:00

Not “over” Jim Crow and the civil rights movement yet? Can’t seem to “get past” segregation? You’re not alone. This a piece of what Donna Brazile had to say when she revealed her thoughts about race and election 2008 in a refreshingly candid, stream-of-consciousness statement during a forum at the New Yorker Festival.

“As a child who grew up in the segregated Deep South, we've come so far in this country....But I remember when I used to get on the bus: my mother would tell me, "Donna, when you get on the bus, you and your brothers go all the way to the back, and don't look at anybody." We have changed. This is a more tolerant, open, progressive society…What is wrong with us?...You can vote against him, but don't ever put me in the back of the bus. I'm not going to the back of the bus! I'm not going to be afraid! My black skin does not make me inferior! And may I add: being a female does not make me dumb!"

Watch the entire video here. (Donna begins her statement in full at 1:12:10)

The McCain Campaign

2008-10-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

Running out of time perhaps?

The Persistance of Memory, Salvador Dali

Funny....funny....not funny

2008-10-01T07:44:00.000-07:00

Daily Show clip of old Jewish people watching last week's debate. Really funny right up until the offensive bomshell at the end. Remind me never to hang out it an old Jewish nursing home during a presidential election. They probably wouldn't like my body.

If at first you don't succeed...

2008-09-30T17:13:00.000-07:00

Useful motto that Congress has apparently taken to heart in the second attempt at passing the $700 billion bailout plan. Dems and the mainstream media say its necessary. The majority of Republicans say their constituency won't go for it. Umm..excuse me, but where am I in this process? In a country that can log millions of text messages and calls to crown a new pop princess every three months, can't Congress figure out a way to solicit the opinions of the people they represent - or maybe, God forbid, take some actual time talking to me? And why is does the House financial services website keep freezing when I try to download the bill to read it word for word? Is it possible that Ryan Seacrest has figured out a way to manage public opinion in a way that the House of Representatives can't handle? Call me crazy, call me naive, but can I get a townhall meeting or a forum? Or at least a robo-call from my Senator or Reps telling me why on earth I should support a plan that's going to raise my taxes as I sit here eating a turkey sandwich for dinner? Or an "I'm sorry note" from the Fed Reserve? Or a "thank you note" from my Reps for not rioting as millions of people begin losing their jobs? Kudos to you Congress for your persistence tonight in working on this plan. Now how about a little customer service?

Back to the Future

2008-09-27T16:31:00.000-07:00

So I'm back from my historic trip to the historic campus of University of Mississippi and the historic first presidential debate (Am I the only one that thinks the word historic has lost a little bit of meaning with its overuse this election season? Doesn't anyone own a thesaurus?). It felt like a trip down my grandmother's memory lane - fried food dripping with trans fat, confederate flags waving, and racism. And you know what? I loved it. It was kitschy, and comical, and slightly amusing. I was safe in my car filled with white liberals and wore my northern intellectualism and elitism with pride - because wisdom is the end of all fear, right? So knowing that left is right and the south is wrong made me feel confident as we sat outside watching the debate surrounded..and I mean surrounded...by hundreds of southern white folks applauding McCain with fervor and booing Obama. This just isn't real life I chuckled to myself.

But as I packed up my bag this morning and hopped on a plane back to the safe liberal world of progressive Washington D.C. I paused for a moment and remembered that wait...it actually is real life for the people that live there and that the black student groups I met with last week told me stories of reality so frightening that they closed their eyes and dreamed of an imaginary land, far far away, where there could be a black homecoming queen, and Obama signs didn't get torn down, and professors didn't treat them like they were stupid. Their fairytale land was my reality - and their reality was my nightmare. So I said a quick but heartfelt prayer for that land of the past, good old Mississippi, closed my eyes, and flew back to the future.