Today we followed President Obama to Cape Coast where he toured the slave castle and met with the Paramount Chief of Cape Coast. The journey to Cape Coast was a magical moment unto itself. Driving along the two lane coastal highway I found myself stopping to wonder about my connection to Ghana. For the first time I wondered if my ancestors might have traveled on the very ground I was exploring.
Things here, especially when you get out of the hustling city of Accra, become strangely familiar. Familiar not by scenery but by sensation. For example, I noticed that the roadside vendors sold ginger snaps, a life long favorite of my 92 year old father. One lady sitting in the doorway of her brother’s business looked like the reincarnation of my older half sister. She even smiled at me the same way my sister did when she was alive. Can a place be so strangely familiar that it feels like home? In many ways my logic disconnected itself from my brain and attached itself to my spirit today.
With each passing mile we encountered Ghanaians wearing hats, playing music, eating food. When I would greet them they simply smiled and said “Obama!.” Obama whose message to Ghanaian Parliament and the people of Africa was more symbolic than tactical has become a powerful unifying force for Africa. I just hope beyond hope that he can facilitate the change that Africa is yearning for. But how can one man from whom we expect so much do enough for Africa or Africa-America? When you visit Africa all the commercials with the sweet, angelic faces of malnourished children dotted with the hollowed eyes of hopelessness begin to find a broader perspective. Kids will play anywhere, in the street, in a polluted river, on a battlefield, meanwhile misery awaits their return. The villages of Ghana are no exception.
Kudos to Blackamericaweb.com for a piece today on two-year old Jada, from Portage, Indiana, a young girl of color who has gone missing but has not benefited from the national outrage that occurs when others turn up gone.
With Vermont and DC joining in the number of states who either legalize (Vermont), or recognize the legality of gay marriages done elsewhere (DC), there is an equal and opposite -and predictable- effort to turn back any gains as soon as they are won. While I am not one to join the chorus of those who equate gay equality with racial equality, the parallels embodied by commercials like these are too similar to ignore.
The commercial above, from the National Organization for Marriage, bills itself at being a “Rainbow Colaition” of advocates for traditional marriage. Not quite sure how Jesse Jackson feels about them mashing up his signature term in this manner. It is typical scare politics - and not very good scare politics at that. A dark cloud? Lightning? Armageddon?
But thhere is one point made in the commercial that I must admit resonates with me personally, and that’s the issue of how the issue of gay marriage gets taught in schools. MORE AFTER THE JUMP.
Now comes the documentary film New World Order, and just in time. It’s likely this film has been in the can for a bit so it probably stops in the Bush era, but I have been wondering what the response from the conspiracy theorist fringe would be to a victory by Barack Obama.
It always seemed to me that part and parcel of the conceit of a “New World Order” was that it was led by a (white) elite that has passed on power from generation to generation, wreaking havoc for centuries for their own ultimate wealth. And certainly I’ve fallen for a couple of the urban legends myself over the years.
But how does all that square with a Black man as the current center of power in the contemporary world? Is there some cabal of staff people in the White House holding information from the Prez on behalf of the Illuminati? Can a Black man be part of the world ruling class in the eyes of the theorists? And if Obama is the kind of man who would be a party to all that, what does that say about our collective role in getting him elected? Are we all pawns in some elaborate Masonic chess game?
From my point of view, a Black President tends to negate all of those theories, but what say you theorists?
There’s something I’ve always liked about Ron Reagan, probably that healthy skepticism he always seem to have about the public image of his Mom and Dad as well as their politics. Even when I’ve disagreed with him, the guy’s always carried a sense of decency and fairness.
In the pretty amazing video where he comments on McCain’s VP choice, his Mom’s opinion about Obama and his general feelings about Republican shenanigans, he proves my theory correct.
A fascinating photo essay with audio in Mother Jones magazine called Aryan Outfitters (love that title) on Ms. Ruth, a woman who hand sews the latest in fashionable garments for the KKK. I guess the David Duke line at Target must not have gone so well.
There are many many reasons to not trust trust the pharmaceutical companies, but here just one that I just irks me to no end.
Consider, if you will, the case of Red Grapefruit.
According to a 2006 study by Israeli scientists (and other subsequent studies) testers who ate red grapefruit for a 30 day period saw reductions of anywhere from 15 to 30% in their “bad” cholesterol levels. Wonderful to hear for people with high and borderline cholesterol, right?
Well, here’s the thing that’s confusing. Those who have been prescribed cholesterol lowering statins like Lipitor are warned not to consume grapefruit while taking the medication because of an adverse “grapefruit interaction” that may harmfully increase the effectiveness of the drugs. Say what? Read the rest of this entry »
The Rev. Jesse Jackson stopped in our office the other day to talk about a number of things but one thing he mentioned stood out. A month ago we commemorated the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., and there was some attention, though not a lot, paid to the reason why King was at the Lorraine Motel. Which, as most people know, was to march in solidarity with striking Memphis garbarge workers, famously known for the dramatic I AM A MAN signs they held during the strike action. That was in 1968. You knew that.
What I did not know - and I’m sure many people did not - is that 15 of those striking sanitation workers are still working on the trucks for the Memphis Sanitation Department 40 years later.
I guess it’s not entirely surprising. If anything it puts into shocking perspective the notion that the civil rights era and its struggles happened a relatively few years ago. Commemorating a death in some ways puts a psychological end to that area - civil rights vs. post civil rights/King vs. post-King. But that these men are still in Memphis and still working the trucks is information that stands and an unbroken continuum from then to now. For some reason, that kind of blew me away. But maybe I’m overreacting.
Jackson says mainly the men are there because pensions and some of the other things that were striking for in the first place never really got settled in a way that was meaningful.
At the Rainbow PUSH Convention in late June, Jackson and the organization will be honoring the Memphis sanitation employees at a special ceremony.
Late again on this announcement by about a week. Guess I gotta start reading my mail on BisonRoundup.com.
Anyhow, the photos is of Sidney Ribeau, PhD, the new and 16th president of my alma mater Howard University. Had to do a little due diligence to get some info on Dr. Ribeau, and the word is all good. He comes to Howard from the presidency of Bowling Green State University. And I’ll get corrected if I’m wrong about this, but I think he’s the first modern Howard prez not to be a graduate of the school.
Which is not a bad thing at all because one of the first things that needs to happen at the school I love is the”culture of Howard” all too often perpetuated by grads with way too much nostalgia for shit that needs to change. Tops on that “need to change” list is Great and Powerful Wizard-style presidency Howard (and frankly, most HBCUs) has been known for.
Used to be a time when parents sent their kids to a Black college precisely because of that outsized level of paternalism toward the students. People wanted to feel their kids were safe and getting the best education, and the way to that was sending them to a school where professors and administrators acted much more like your Aunt Helen and Uncle Junebug who could spank you if they felt like it, as opposed to people you felt a personal connection with and who could serve as friends and mentors later in life.
That’s all well and good, but particularly at the president’s level that’s always meant you could wave at the president when he walked across the campus, but he’d never know your name unless the gym was named after your Daddy.
At Art Chicago last week I got a rare chance in the U.S. to see and meet briefly the emerging “starchitect” (he’s got to hate that word by now) David Adjaye from London. Adjaye was there to participate in a seminar on ‘The Perfect Blend of Art & Architecture” from the framework of his much-hailed design of the new Denver Museum of Contemporary Art (pictured above).
The seminar was planned as a “conversation” between Adjaye and Denver MCA director and curator Cydney Payton, and unfortunately that’s what the first half hour turned out to be, with Payton peppering the session with self-consciously intellectual hoohah and $2 word combinations like “minimalist interrupts” and “bespoke moments” (a phrase I’m still trying to figure out).
Sensing they were losing the audience Adjaye politely opened the conversation up to the audience and it all got better after that, with the reasons for Adjaye’s amazing rise to the upper echelon of global architects becoming evident as the event went on.
Adjaye let everyone in on the competitive process of choosing an architect for a major commission, which in this case involved participating in fundraising activities to get the building built - something Adjaye was astounded by given the boatloads of old money in Europe to fund architecture. He also spoke of the challenges of green design (the museum is Gold LEED certified) and his goal to seek “transformative materials” or materials common to other industries that he can apply creatively for use in buildings. In the case of the Denver MCA, he used a plastic generally used to line refrigerated trucks as the “skin” of the building because of its unique ability to diffuse light in a city where there’s 365 days of sunshine.
I’ll spare you too many details, but it would be a mistake to take lightly the importance of having a young brother be considered as someone in the pantheon of Philip Johnson, I.M.Pei and other major architects whose work is studied and admired. Architecture is one of those things that can’t really be denied when it lasts. You can certainly tear down a building, but as long as its up, the history is told visually and not subject to a historian’s interpretation. It’s deeply critical for Black folk to have that kind of lasting and visible impact on the face of the world.
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