Here is a hilarious edition of This Week in Blackness by Elon James White. This week’s BET awards were … interesting… here’s his take

I was at conference when I received the news that Michael Jackson had transitioned to the ancestral realm and i immediately entered into denial. Telling my good friend, “No, you’re wrong, that’s just a rumor.” After I got over the denial and thought of all the jokes that were no longer appropriate I got to really thinking about Michael Jackson and what legacy his work had for me. It wasn’t just dancing hard and infectious tunes, his perspective on race and race relations was different from mine, but I learned a great deal from him.

I remember watching Michael Jackson’s skin tone lighten and nose narrow before my very eyes. As I came of age and was told, “The only two things you have to do are be Black and die” I watched MJ challenge on of those conditions … or did he? While many will point to Jackson as the prototypical case of self-hate and embodiment of lack of self awareness, I think Michael was painfully aware of who he was and made that message a continued part of his life’s work. Jackson was unequivocally a child of the Civil Rights movement and a humanist in his approach towards issues of inequality. While folks over look it, he was very much concerned with inequality and saw his stardom as a platform to infuse the political in the popular.

From his humanitarian work on “We are the World” to this treatise on personal and social responsibility “Man in the Mirror” Michael had a subtle way of asking his listeners to draw on commonality to increase human treatment and dignity. While I appreciate MJ’s public project now, I definitely appreciated it much less so in my younger days. When he released Black or White in 1991. While I thought the song was banging, I was becoming more politicized and felt that it did matter whether you were Black or White. The video presented race morphing which made many think about the commonality of humanity, but I saw it as an embracing of a post-racial worldview. This however was never the case for Michael. In my read of his work he desired that race would not carry meaning, but acknowledged it still did.

In his early and mid-career years, MJ remained publicly connected the Civil Rights establishment via his relationship with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. As a child of civil rights he advocated for a multicultural egalitarian world. In his later years, he developed a burgeoning relationship to Islam via his brother Jermaine Jackson and the Nation of Islam via legal support and management. I remember attending the Millions More March rumors floating that Michael was going to come out, perform and publicly announce his reversion to Islam, but this public day never came. MJ’s affiliations to Islam and the NOI undoubtedly lead to a more explicit racial lens which he later used to “call out” Tommy Mottola president of Sony. People wrote off his public outcry as a link in the media weaved “chain of insanity” and Jackson suddenly moved from “humanist” to “race baitor” in the public imagination. Unfortunately, Jackson’s career was already at a low point and his allegations were not taken seriously, but I’ve always wondered what would have happened if the world took MJ’s cry of unfair treatment seriously? What if the King of Pop was able to raise questions of equity within the industry that resulted in different representation, power, and access? Did his invocation of racial injustice invalidate him in the eyes of many who hung on his humanist messages of equality for all?

No matter whether old Michael or young Michael, he should also be remembered for his project of highlighting and challenging inequality of all forms. Even though to many he was considered “racially transcendent” he did not buy into this image. Instead, he used his popularity as platform to the political. Jackson was an amazing artist but his subtle genius around infusing a brand of social justice into his music should also not be forgotten. The media bonanza behind Jackson will soon die down, but I hope his legacy of social justice will not.

I’ve been traveling for work, but trust me, this could not wait until next Friday for a Friday Funny. I have one questions, 1) “where the hell were the ushers!?!”

question 2) “what the hell!?!”

Yes, you did just witness “Hurricane Chris” perform Halle Berry in the Louisiana house chamber in a suit.

hat tip to SUSG

“I was raised like a Muslim, praying to the east” -Guru of Gang Starr

My first real introduction to Islam came from Hip-Hop, as is the case for many of my peers. Coming of age on the east coast in the late 80s and 90s meant that Islam became part of the songs you listened to, the names children were given, and was part of “fighting the power.” As a teenager, my naive understanding of the deen of Islam was small, but Hip-Hop showed me that being Muslim and a rapper demanded a different set of standards for living, from not eating pork to dropping knowledge in rhymes. In short, I was in love, but from a far. Fast forward and I find myself in my 30s and have seen the influence of Islam come and go in Hip-Hop culture, but was I reminded of the power of spirituality and creativity merged when watching New Muslim Cool which premiers tonight on PBS POV. Check your local listing.

Continue reading Check the fresh: New Muslim Cool

There are many things to be fearful in this world bears, H1N1, back taxes, but certainly not Black leaders. From the title of the post, you may be confused. We’ve elected Barack Obama, we have a Black RNC chair, so what could possibly be the fear of Black leaders? Well the catch is I’m not talking about Black elected officials, I’m talking about the now “passe” Black leaders of old and present. You know, Marcus Garvey, Fannie Lou Hamer, Khaled Muhammad, Assata Shakur, Louis Farrakhan, Winnie Mandela, Jeremiah Wright, and all the other folks you were taught weren’t worth listening to. Those who get washed out of Black History month, those who get forgotten and replaced in national memory with more convenient or palatable leaders. I’m talking about organic leaders, the ones whose names you may be familiar with, but mysteriously their work is downplayed and their legacies remain silenced and often hazy.

Continue reading Lions and Tigers and Black Leaders! Oh my!

This week, I’ve got a nice set of deep and thorough posts on some things you may have seen recently, but not really thought about what was happening beneath the surface.

Up first, a really thought provoking analysis of Top Chef and the racial divide provided by Tamara Nopper of Temple. I love watching Reality TV, not just because I like to melt my mind, but also because there are so many raced and classed things occurring. This post marries sociology and bravo tv… I’m in heaven.

I love the show Top Chef. I watch it religiously and regularly chat about it with fellow fan and friend Kevin Eddington. Although more of a foodie than me—he actually knows what sous vide means—we share concerns about the show’s racial dynamics, some of which I want to discuss here. Specifically, I want to explore how Asian Americans and African Americans are represented on Top Chef and in the process, draw from approaches emphasizing the Black/non-Black divide.

Asian Americans are present as contestants, chefs, judges, and of course, hosts, and Hung Huynh won the title on season three. Yet Asian Americans face particular racial expectations: they’re encouraged to talk about their ethnicities or immigration histories, badmouthed for cooking too many Asian-influenced dishes, or expected to cook Asian food regardless of training. For example, Huynh was told that despite his skill and “technique,” his food lacked “soul.”

White head judge Tom Colicchio, reminding Huynh of Huynh’s Vietnamese background, said he didn’t “see” him in his food. Such comments reinforce the model minority myth, which celebrates “Asian” work ethic and mechanical productivity while denying us unconditional subjectivity, sociability, and authority automatically afforded whites.

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This past week, in my opinion, President Obama gave a really amazing speech at the University of Cairo. But more than just words are needed. Here is a very in depth and insightful post by Number 2 written before and after the speech from There is No Spoon. By the way, that blog is so dope that it’s banned in China … not to mention it’s one of my other blog homes, so bookmark it!!!!

This is a general problem with most US foreign policy types. They are interested in improving America’s image, without addressing the reasons that image has slipped with a less-than-acceptable level of honesty. They also are either completely ignorant, or disingenuous, about the Muslim world. I’ve spent time in some of these countries, and let me tell you, they know their politics. I’m not talking about the rich, well-to-do, professional class. I’m talking about the peasants, the street vendors, the cab drivers…the “people”, if you will. Unlike mainstream America, which knows less about history and current politics than it does about the previous round of American Idol (something I largely attribute to a poor education system and a press that I at times consider somewhere between Pravda and Hearst’s New York Journal), Muslims are much more aware of politics, even if they throw some conspiracies into the picture.

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Lastly, the death of David Carradine got some media attention but one thing that I expected to see, but didn’t hear much of was a commentary like this. Racialicious publishes a controversial analysis entitled, “David Carradine’s Legacy of Shame” by Atlasien, here’s a taste:

He was a famous and much-loved actor. Tributes to Carradine are pouring in. In discussion threads devoted to Carradine, you’ll find many nostalgic accounts of childhood evenings spent watching his TV show, Kung Fu.

Some Asian-Americans, such as myself, may find these tributes quite upsetting.

I remind myself that David Carradine was an actor. He was doing a job for money. It’s difficult to draw a work/life dividing line when it comes to celebrity actors, but the line does exist. And I cannot presume to judge the moral worth of David Carradine’s life. He was a human being whose life is just as worthy of respect, just as precious, as the life of any other human being.

But I can judge his career. Fuck David Carradine’s godawful racist career!

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Alright, you all should be full off of that. Leave some thoughts… and not just over on facebook, on the original blog post too… don’t worry you can use your facebook login

This morning on Good Morning America, I was greeted with a disturbing story on a “gang” murder in suburbia, but I was less disturbed by the details of the death, which are sad, but more disturbed by the way it was reported. GMA went through great lengths to paint a portrait of perfect suburbia being impinged upon by a deadly gang force. Without using the words, the story signaled and screamed race. The practice of not talking about race explicitly but talking about race is common, but particularly dangerous in this case. The loss of Chris Jones’ life is one matter, but the underhanded sentencing of the lives of the boys who are alleged to have committed the crime is another.

The segment opens trying to draw viewers in by introducing the silent danger in suburbs … gangs!

“We have an interesting story for you. Many of us believe that gang violence is old news, you know about it, it’s in the inner cities, it’s about drugs. That’s not true, that’s not accurate, there’s a whole world of violence out there that puts kids in suburbs at risk. We want to tell you of this one mother in Maryland who did everything she could to protect her child from bullies, turned out they were gang members. And just a block from their home her son met a fate that even his mother had never imagined …”

Voice overs to the story give you information like townhouses in the area cost “350,000 dollars” and that Chris was an  “all American boy” who loved things like baseball, hockey, and wanted to be a police officer. The way the story is framed and unpacks it is meant to scream whiteness, suburban safety, and crisis. Chris’ death is discussed and eventually the “suspects” are splashed across the screen, they are Black youth. While the story doesn’t discuss it, the boys alleged in the attack attended the same school and presumably lived in the same community as Chris. The reality is that suburban Crofton, Maryland is like many areas, it is not all White and likely has not dealt well with the incorporation of non-Whites (in this case Black) into its community. While suburbia is painted as perfect, the reality is that suburbs are engineered spaces that have been used to “escape” some urban hazards and buffer their residents from the social world around them. Regardless of Crofton’s public image and its besmirchment, I am most disturbed that the reporting of Chris Jones’ murder serves exacerbate racial tensions; rather than open for spaces of dialogue.

Continue reading Danger! Your Suburban Bubble is Under Attack!