Version 2.0

Culture, healing, politics and bullshit - Not necessarily in that order

The general, socio-political and very personal rantings and ravings of a hip hop head from the hood hustling for change... Of himself.

You all know me and are aware that I am unable to remain silent. At times to be silent is to lie. For silence can be interpreted as acquiescence.
—Miguel de Unamuno



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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Damn Idiot Box... Or Damn Idiots?

My foolish ass listened to CNN last night on my XM joint as I drove...

the 'Black In America' joint I already held as suspect because of who put it together.

I'm not disappointed but that was bad TV right there, even though my wife and cousin in Cali told me over and over again that ol' girl the host (half Cubano/half Irish and non-related to the hood) was connected to us...

Yeah, she was a deer in the headlights and black folk randt (yes, that's a new word I made up) her stank ass over with sorrow and struggle.

I've struggled. I've been in sorrow but...

That bullshit I listened to last night does not represent me. There is more to my beloved family, friends and even enemies that look like me.

Utter bullshit.

Like we need to be presented to America like some anomaly. People already know us. Let's not let a bi-racial presidential candidate paint us in a corner where we feel like we need to be re-presented to the rest of the world like we're some secret or something. We ain't never hid ourselves and no one has to hit the reset button like we just popped up. We've been here and we are Americans. And we have triumphed and succeeded a numbers like you never know if you were never taught. And we are only 12%. And that's down from being damn near 40% right after slavery.

Respect yourself.

If you do, then folks won't continue to get tasered to death, or shot 50 times while unarmed, or our blind grandmothers won't get tasered or shot in her front yard and the folks that get away with it won't get away.

And quit being mad at Sharpton, Jackson, Madison and others for trying to do for you because you're too lazy to stand for yourself.

A question:

Why is it we push our elders to the side and other cultures just don't do that?

It seems that I've heard more folks tell Jesse to step aside and that he's too old and is outdated when he JUST pushed legislation to get the mortgage industry to get back to focusing on us. Interesting. John McCain is 71 and 68% of a new polling audience (which include black folks in said poll) said he is more presidential than Obama because of his age.

No respect for the black man or woman. No respect for ourselves. Fools we are.

And now you let someone outside of the hood put a program on TV that objectifies us?

Then God damn us.
God damn America for that matter.
God damn being 'Black In America'.

We continue to damn ourselves. It makes great TV though.

Ask Flavor Flav.

Or Soledad O'brien.

Same shit, different channel, right?

13 comments:

chele said...

I don't know how Soledad is connected to black folk but I'm betting that she is less threatening than say ... Robin Roberts or any other sister with dark skin.

I don't know.

I watched last night's installment and I was disappointed. I probably will not tune in tonight. I was disappointed because I didn't see what the point was ... maybe it's just me. Nothing new was reported. How 'bout a plan to fix some stuff. How about that? Okay, the Harvard guy is paying kids to study ... but if a kid is about to get evicted from his home will that $61.40 really make a difference?

LadyLee said...

Well both of you all are better than me. I refuse to look at Fox, CNN, MSNBC until waaaay after the election. Way after the election.

Didn't see the show, and not trying to.

Gallis said...

I only caught the one on Martin Luther King. You're on a tear dude.

Kit (Keep It Trill) said...

Every black blog I've read hates the special, and that's a lot. It sucked so much that I emailed CNN the complaint that they never would have dreamed of having a "White or Jewish In America" covered by anyone other than their group, so why the hell didn't the get a black person to do "Black In America"? By now I hope they know they goofed big time.

No offense, Brown, because I do like your blog, but 'we' didn't let CNN do this to us. Blacks have no control over their decisions on covering issues the way we would like, any more than anti-war activists had control over stopping the Iraq invasion in early 2003 or possibly, the coming invasion of Iran and CNN's complicity in not covering what's leading up to this.

Re: Jesse Jackson and the mortgage thing; I haven't read or seen a word of this anywhere until now, and you know why? Cause the damn media has swept it under the carpet so we don't know about it, yet they flooded us with his personal comment when Fake News intruded his privacy.

I too was pissed that a lot of us dissed him over this. So what if he privately disagreed on an issue and was didn't think Fox would go so low as to do what they did?

Hell, if wasn't for Jesse and others of his generation, Obama would still be a Chicago civil rights attorney and most blacks, who consistently vote Democrat, would be cheering for Hillary to win the Presidency.

Darius T. Williams said...

I saw the first part last night...I'm not sure I feel the EXACT same way as you, but I can understand where you're coming from. I'm still wondering whey they had Soledad doing it too.

Bananas said...

Black People! What's wrong with you? Don't you know that CNN thing was the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I know it was, because a fine white controlled media outlet produced it. Come on now, all of us here in "white land" know that's how black people are. CNN said so and we believe it by god. After all, they added creditability with that O'Brien woman. I'm not sure what color she is, but she isn't white, so that must mean she's black at least a little. Otherwise, why would they have her host the show?

No, we think CNN told all of us here in "white land" what was really up with black people. You are all poor, underprivileged, uneducated, socially neutered, depressed, anti-social, bitter people. CNN would never lie. If they say everything is doom and gloom in your neighborhoods, it must be true.

It's sad really, and we feel sorry for you too…and we'll help where we can. But if you're a Single Mother with teenagers….well, we don's have a gang problem in "white land", and CNN kinda said that you all don't have it together…so, with all due respect…could you stay in the hood?

***

Yeah…no harm; no foul. It was just a crappy news series. I'm sure it didn't do any damage at all. After all, every white American in this country is totally in touch with the Black Community right? So we knew it was all bull shit.

Yeah right!

The Brown Blogger said...

Pay the man Shirley.

nikki said...

no t.v. in my spot means no exposure to shows like this. sounds like a good move...

So...Wise...Sista said...

"Like we need to be presented to America like some anomaly."

And therein lies the problem with thinking there is a need for such a show. And the lack of context is the problem I had with the execution.

As for the elders...I need to think on that bec it's a question I wonder myself.

Aly Cat 121 said...

"Suspect" is right. And one sided and typical and "we shall overcomish" *shaking head* The hubby and I half watched the first segment. We didn't watch the other 2 segs for obvious reasons. "ENOUGH NEGRO STUFF" - Dr. Khalid Muhammed!

The Second Sixty-Eight said...

I don't feel bad about having missed CNN's special report. I was turned off by the commercials.

Everybody I saw was either my shade or involved with somebody white. that right there told me all I needed to know.

Anonymous said...

The show was not for us. CNN made that show for Whites. The reason:

White people do not see us.

They really do not. No matter what we accomplish, they do not see us as a part of society. Whites can be successful and not know anything about our culture. Yet all minorities in this country must know something about their culture to be successful.

So the CNN piece was suppose to provide a snippet into being Black in this country. It was not suppose to be a full picture; just a glimpse. I saw how I used to live in one segment. I did not see my current status as a Black man just starting a career. The sad thing is that this may have been many people first glimpse into Black life.

I think it is a lose-lose for CNN. If they show Black life as all happy without any struggle, then people would complain. Show all struggle and nothing else and they also lose.

Anonymous said...

Didn't watch the special either. Epsil was right. We're not seen, although we're uniquely American because of our history.

As I posted on my blog, why not do a damn special on the people and their forebears who made being Black in America a living hell?

I'm sick of being an object of someone else's sociology studies.