Thursday, July 24, 2008

 

Dear CNN

Dear CNN,

F*ck you!

Sincerely,

Moya Bailey

j/k j/k! but no really. I mean seriously, what was up with Black in America?

I have to start even before the show with the months of hype, the screenings at movie theaters, the word poetry magnets with choice words like “struggle,” “pride,” and “Comcast,” the t-shirts, and then the countdown clock to airtime! CNN, don’t you think that’s all a bit absurd? So how many viewers did you get from this “unprecedented” event? How many more folks ended up watching this “CNNannigan” than would have without your hype men dispatched to the four corners of the earth?

When you begin with a black male spoken word artist to talk about “black women and the family” you are saying something about how you see “Black America.” Sunni Patterson, Staceyann Chin, Sarah Jones are all black women poets who could have offered something about black women, oh excuse me, “black women and the family” because apparently black women don’t warrant their own two hour special.

In a special called “black women and the family” I expected to see and hear from more black women. Soledad’s omniracial ass notwithstanding, the black women of “black women and the family” were in the last part of the segment. There was only one black woman was presented as an expert and that was Julianne Malveaux, who awkwardly tried to say that it’s not all bad for black women but there was no footage that was used to support her claim. What we saw, were black women failing to keep their kids motivated or in school, failing to keep a roof over their heads, failing to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS, failing to find and stay with black male husbands (because apparently there are no queer black women in America), failing at life in general.

My brilliant friend Alexis who coined the term “CNNannigan,” also watched and had this to say:

“Since this first segment seems to me to be all about the danger of the black deviant mother (from the slaveowner's mistress to the absent mother of the soon to be homeless kids, to the struggling mother (also being evicted) whose life difficulties are explained by her unfulfilled craving for a strong male figure, to the regretful woman in the interracial marriage to the woman who's nails are highlighted while her paralyzed son's words are subtitled as if they aren't English) and how to insert a patriarchal figure
(from the obnoxious Harvard guy playing test-score sugar daddy, to f*cking "marry your baby daddy day", to the generous doctor who swoops in to save young men from the mothers who have failed them) reinforced by the highlighted black male preacheresque figures stating how if you are raised by a woman you're going to have bad sex and kill everyone and die of salt saturation or whatever...”

I don’t pretend to know your intentions CNN but I’m wondering if you thought that someone (or groups of black women) would see this in the segment. Furthermore, do you care?

I’m at a loss as to how you can talk about black women and not talk about the sexism and misogyny that black women endure on a day to day basis. You’ve done stories on Sakia Gunn, not the Jersey Four but Megan Williams, not the attacks in Dunbar Village or the woman gang raped in her Philadelphia apartment, but covered the woman who died on the floor of an NYC ER while hospital staff looked on. Yet, these assaults on the humanity of black women are not part of the segment.

The systems that collude to demonize black womanhood remain obscured. Welfare reform, no living wage, the lack of affordable housing, gentrification, environmental racism (an important term you could of introduced when highlighting that a black woman can’t get a tomato in Harlem), inefficient public transportation, could all have been brought to the fore as opposed to the conclusion that black folks bring their hardships on themselves.

After watching this segment, I’m sure that this letter from a radical, single (and happy), queer, black woman may not be intelligible to you, as it was pretty clear from the segment that I don’t exist. But I’d like to send it anyway just so I know that I responded to my erasure by saying I’m (We are) still here.


Sincerely,

Moya Bailey

Friday, July 18, 2008

 

F*ck Darryl James!

THE BRIDGE: The Hole In My End Of Our Boat
from EUR Report - http://www.eurweb.com/
By Darryl James
July 15, 2008

We can say that the Black woman has carried a great deal throughout our time in America.

Because the Black family has been under siege for that entire time, much was required of the Black woman.

Quite frankly, her strength is one of the reasons we have survived as a race where other races could not have.

We know that even up to and through the first half of the last century, the Black woman was holding things down while her man left psychotic violence and stark oppression in the South to pursue jobs and freedom for his family in the North before standing on the front lines in the Sixties to secure rights for his people.

But we also know that Welfare came to destroy the Black family by making it easier for the family to survive in the man’s absence.

And we know that integration helped to destroy the Black community, which was not prepared for Black flight or the devastation of Crack Cocaine nor the privatization of prisons.

We also know that feminist propaganda has silently polluted the minds of many Black women, who now view Black men as the enemy.

As a race, we’ve come through a great deal. And for the most part, we did it together.

The difference was that in previous times when Black men were under siege, Black women worked with them to hold the community together and we were all better for it. Now, many Black women feel that they have it all together, that they have done enough for “us” and that it’s time for Black men to get it together.

Any Black woman who is alive and under 50 today is under some beautiful delusion to pretend to be tired of suffering anything at the hands of Black men or tired of doing anything for Black men, because it just hasn’t happened in their generation.

Frankly, Black people as a race haven’t done anything for themselves in decades—it’s been all about self-preservation as individuals.

If you are a Black woman under 50 today, the heavy lifting was done by your grandmother, not even your mother. You haven’t run any slaves through an underground railroad, no one has legally raped and/or forcibly impregnated you, and you haven’t carried the burden of the race on your back.

Many of the Black women who claim to be tired haven’t even held a family together, if they even have a family of their own.

We didn’t begin to seriously deteriorate as a race—men or women—until the end of the Sixties, when many Negroes decided to become shiny and new and abandon everything remotely connected to the community.

Really, any contemporary Black woman who feels that she has been carrying the race is crazy because the race is doing worse than ever.

Yet, some of today’s Black women act so terribly put upon, as though they are perfect and Black men are holding back the race.

In response to my column called “Man Up,” chastising men to stand up and be men, one insane woman wrote “not only are we (Black women) ready…but a lot of ‘outsiders’ are ready for Black men to finally get their sh-t together, too.”

Really? Black women and the world are simply waiting for Black men to stop being lazy bags of crap? The answer, of course, is no.

But what is most disturbing is such a sentiment accompanied by little concern about the lagging of Black men.

Black women, even if you believe yourselves to be ahead of Black men, why aren’t you concerned about the hole in MY end of OUR boat? If you believe that we are sinking, you must realize that you will sink as well.

And while no thinking Black man has a problem with Black women working to improve the condition of Black women, the destruction comes with pretending that Black men are in some way holding Black women back.

Some Black women are even retelling the story of the Civil Rights Movement, claiming that it was oppressive to Black women, yet the only “evidence” of that is a quote from an obscure member of the Black Panthers, who admitted to being a rapist and a lover of white women, but who never represented any great portion of Black men--then or now.

In order to truly believe this lie, we have to ignore the Black women who were a vital part of the Movement. We would also have to ignore the FACT that the Civil Rights Act of 1965 was the first time that the rights of women were mentioned since they were enfranchised.

And, we would have to ignore the FACT that Affirmative Action benefited Black women more than Black men.

But, really, the question is this: Why are we even having that discussion?

The answer is that some Black women find power in their own victimhood, which gives them an excuse for poor behavior, while accepting no responsibility.

If they can assert that Black men fail to protect Black women and are generally the oppressors of Black women, then there is less responsibility for Black women in their own foibles, including out of wedlock pregnancy; inability to find and sustain relationships; promiscuity leading to sexual diseases; and so on.

These are the same problems we find amongst Black men, but instead of coming together to resolve these issues for the community, too many women are choosing to lay the blame at the feet of men, while attempting to solve the issues solely for women.

We can only resolve these problems together, because they affect us all—men AND women, instead of pretending they are the sole issues of Black women caused solely by Black men.

Sadly, too many Black women have spent time telling the world how horrible Black men are.

But guess who has been listening and who has bought into that?

A number of today’s Black men and Black boys, many of who have been raised by single Black women.

We all know that there are a number of Black men who are weak, sad and sorry. The problem is when Black women pretend that those weak men represent ALL Black man simply because these crappy men are all the men they know.

Evil, ignorant Black man haters take this to extremes, vacillating between telling men how horrible they are and demanding that those same men deliver the things they desire. In search of something called the “Benevolent Thug.”

If we believe what these women say, we must pretend that over the past thirty to forty years, the male side of the Black race has either by sheer will or by force of nature simply fallen down, while the female side has become better than ever.

Whatever the case, no one is asking Black women to fix Black men.

And no one is asking Black women to stop working to improve the lot of Black women.

Really, there are only two things that Black men need Black women to do.

1—Stop telling the world and us what horrible bags of crap you think we are.

2—Stop dating and having children with Black men you know are weak and sorry, so you won’t think we are all that way.

Now, before we all take sides and line up to lob more grenades across the gender divide, let me ask one simple question of the Black women who come off as singularly concerned about the plight of Black females: “Do you really believe that the race can survive if many of us are torn between raising the condition of the community and raising the condition of one sex within the community?

And, if you seriously believe that Black women are far out in front of Black men, are you concerned enough to take decisive and affirmative action to bridge the gender divide?

Contemplate these questions before you accuse me of hating Black women.

Unless you are willing to work for both men AND women, then you care nothing about our people.

This is about getting more of us to see each other. This is about getting more of us to talk to each other instead of at or about each other.

It is about us, which means that most of us should stand together.

The good news is that Black men across the nation are starting to realize that we must come to our own rescue and that we must take action, no matter who is coming to diminish us.

And, Black men are standing up. For the truth. For their families. For each other and contrary to popular opinion, for Black women.

Black men are creating mentoring programs, rites of passage programs and other programs designed to place more Black men in front of Black boys.

The only real assistance we need is to be left alone.

Even if you disagree with us, you should support us by stopping the lies and hate wherever they appear.

Or, you can sit back, hate us and do nothing.

I’m okay with that.

Just, please, don’t get in the way. And stop telling the world how much you hate us. It makes you look bad, too.

Black women, ask yourselves: Are you concerned with the hole that is in the bottom of my end of the boat?

If you are not, then do not complain, as we both continue to sink into a river of despair.


"We ourselves have to lift the levels of our community, the standard of our community to a higher level, make our own society beautiful so that we will be satisfied. We’ve got to change our minds about each other."

-Malcolm X


Darryl James is an award-winning author of the forthcoming powerful anthology “Notes From The Edge.” Discounted Autographed and Numbered Pre-Release copies can be ordered at www.darryljames.com. He released his first mini-movie, “Crack,” and this year, will release his first full-length documentary. View previous installments of this column at www.bridgecolumn.proboards36.com. Reach James at djames@theblackgendergap.com.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

 

WTF?!

I'm about to get a gun. no really i'm about to!

check out the latest from Plies.

My hands been gettin me in a lot of trouble so...

(Chorus)
Please excuse my hands
They just wanna touch
They just wanna feel
They don’t mean no harm
Baby just excuse my hands (whoa whoa)
Baby please excuse my hands
I apologize they have a one track mind
To squeeze on your behind
Baby just excuse my hands (whoa whoa)
Please excuse my hands

(Plies)
Wit my hands I can make u do a lot of thangs
Have u engagin in some activities u can’t explain
Leave my fingerprints on every inch yo damn frame
Wit dis one finger I could make u get off the chain
Get to lickin n my hands they get they own brain
They wanna touch ya they wanna rub ya they wanna feel yo frame
Run my hands through yo hair n go against yo grain
Let me message ya baby and help ease yo pain
You wanna get comfortable take your shorts off I can help you change
Wanna take my hands off but I cant they jus gon call yo name
If I can’t squeeze ya and I cant hold ya it don’t feel the same
It aint my fault baby my hands is the one to blame

(Chorus)
Please excuse my hands
They just wanna touch
They just wanna feel
They don’t mean no harm
Baby just excuse my hands (whoa whoa)
Baby please excuse my hands
I apologize they have a one track mind
To squeeze on your behind
Baby just excuse my hands (whoa whoa)
Please excuse my hands
[ Please Excuse My Hands lyrics found on http://www.completealbumlyrics.com ]

(Dream)
Imma do ya like this and do ya like that
I promise u gon like the way I touch on you
So jump up on dis biz and let me see that
I promise u gon like da way I feel on you
I’m gonna hump til yo body say "ohhh"
Imma do it til yo mouth breathes "no more"
I said excuse my hands she said "boy stop playin n make love to yo number one fan"

(Jamie Foxx)
Please excuse my hands

(Verse 2)
Before I kiss ya or make love to ya I wanna touch
Can you please face the wall u bout to get strip searched
My hands talkin to me they want now what’s under yo skirt
Let me be the one who do the honors n help u wit yo shirt
My hands don’t like to be unememployed they like to work
I been told my hands are lil Manish they like to flirt
God knows woman the sexy thing u put on is us
My hand cravin yo lil sweet body its gettin worse
I wanna thank you and your body fo helpin me write this verse
My hands will neva leave yo body baby they so loyal
Do me a favor look on the dresser and grab that baby oil
Aint got to be the one that do it my hands gon spoil ya

(Chorus)
Please excuse my hands
They just wanna touch
They just wanna feel
They don’t mean no harm
Baby just excuse my hands (whoa whoa)
Baby please excuse my hands
I apologize they have a one track mind
To squeeze on your behind
Baby just excuse my hands (whoa whoa)
Please excuse my hands

(Dream)
Keep doin it keep doin it keep doin it to me
Keep doin it keep doin it I swear I’ll neva leave
Keep doin it keep doin it keep doin it shawty shawty
Woke up in the spot ah
Yea the boys on fire
I’m wit my nigga plies


Here's what I sent to v103:

To whom it may concern:

I'd like to lodge a complaint as a listener. The new Plies song "Please excuse my hands" is beyond offensive; this song suggests something just short of rape! Are we as women supposed to "excuse" men's unwanted groping of our bodies?! Are we suppose to be cool with men feeling like they can touch us whenever they want? It really shows how men don't even think of women as human beings. If a man said to another man "please excuse my hands" you'd understand that to be a problem. Beyond the homoeroticism implied, men understand that you don't violate another man's personal space like that. Why is this same courtesy not afforded to women? Do women's hands, independent of their owner's instruction, find themselves groping men? Just about every song on the radio suggests that women are only valuable because of how they look and their sexual availability to men. The worse thing you can call a man is a woman or gay, which in our community is read as synonymous. This is crazy! Please read bell hook's essay "Reconstructing Black Masculinity" in her 1992 work Black Looks. she writes, "What might black men do for themselves and for black people if they were not socialized by white supremacist capitalist patriarchy to focus their attention on their penises?"

Saturday, July 12, 2008

 

Hancock--some bull

Sooo problematic: race, class, gender, disability, magical negro syndrome. "Yessa massah, iz go ta jail fo' ya maaasah." The worst movie i've ever seen in my whole black life! Action: Write a letter and say a prayer

Thursday, July 10, 2008

 

Michelle Obama


Sunday, July 06, 2008

 

What's happening to humanity?

Woman Dies in Hospital While Staff Looks On

Thanks for fwd. this amy. What is wrong with the world today?!!

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?