A Bite of Chocolate News

I am a fan of Chocolate News, and had to post this because it shows how left field David Alan Grier can go with his comedy—a huge lesson future afro-comedians can learn from when searching for material.

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A Chunk of "Scream"

A book promo job is never done. And so the push continues... The good folks at blackpower.com are running an excerpt of my book today. It's chapter 7, Gangsta Chic, where I discuss Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and the growth/mass marketing of the gangsta's life. Take a look and tell me what you think...

Serving Up the President-Elect on a Platter

I knew the commercial below existed for about a week, but never paid much attention to it...until this afternoon. I figured the new president-elect would complete the holy trinity (King, Kennedy and now Barack) hanging on the living room wall's of big mamas—do they still exist—everywhere. But now those commemorative plate folks have made it official, especially for white consumers. This is one of the funniest examples of white people patting themselves on the back for voting in the black guy...LOL. (Note: check out the dude looking up proudly at his new Obama plate propped up on his desk.) I only say this because there are hardly any black folks—or their sentiment—in the commercial, except, briefly, at the end. And so when the white guy, seated with his family on the couch, says, "I never thought this day would come," you kind of chuckle at the irony. Not to mention at the bottom of Barack's photo, the plate reads, "Change Has Come." But, judging from this commercial, not much has in their company's marketing strategy. What, they couldn't find an Asian and Latino family to round things out...LOL. Enjoy, if you haven't seen it already.

Screamin' On Brooklyn College

On Wed., November 19, 11AM, your's truly will be speaking in the Woody Tanger Auditorium at Brooklyn College Library. I was invited to speak by Professor Philip Napoli (who adopted my book for his course on American Popular Culture) and the History Department to talk about Somebody Scream, pop culture as barometer for change in society, and hip-hop and the election of President-elect Barack Obama. As always, it should be live.

R.I.P. to Damon Dash's Days of Big Pimpin'

The collapsing stock, credit and housing markets aren't the only indicators that the iced-out chickens have come home to roost. Now the New York Daily News has reported that Damon Dash, Roc-a-Fella Records founder and pioneer of hip-hop's bling era, is flat broke and dodging debt collectors. I guess Chris Rock was right about his assessment of those who are rich ("some shit you can lose with a crazy summer and drug habit") and those who are wealthy. Too bad we have to learn the hard way....Ah well, in honor of the, uh, good ole days, when we were all drinking the ghetto fab Kool-Aid, let's remember Dame's former fortunes the right way: by watching him pour liquor on big tittied video models in our favorite video, "Big Pimpin."

To the Break of Dawn: Are We Officially in the Post-Hip Hop Era?

In the wake of Obama’s victory, we all heard the chorus of black punditry telling us what the victory meant for African Americans. Along with predictions like “smart will be the new cool” and that growing up poor and fatherless will no longer be an excuse for idiotic behavior, there were ones obviously aimed at the power of hip hop. “Brothers are gonna have to start pulling their pants up,” I heard one talking head say (a sentiment even uttered by the president-elect). Gangsta rap will no longer be relevant. Rappers, along with singers, ball players, and other entertainers will no longer be THE role models to follow. Although I think many of the predictions are a bit lofty, I do agree, at least that the era of hip-hop being black America’s cultural and social center is passing with the arrival of a new, black president. Note: for all the purists, gangsta rap heads, and true-schoolers out there, this isn’t another declaration that hip-hop is dead but that, yes folks, we’re officially in the post-hip hop era.

Only, contrary to popular belief, what signals this shift isn’t that Obama’s win will eclipse hip hop, but that hip hop’s ultimate victory was it’s ushering in a Barack Obama. And when all movements accomplish their monumental task(s) they fade from the limelight, becoming another part of America’s cultural tapestry. The Harlem Renaissance went out with the coming of the Great Depression, but it’s leaders, ideas and works fueled the freedom struggles of the ‘60s. The civil rights movement, victorious after the passage of the Civil Rights Bill of ’64 and the Voting Rights Act of ’65 (and other bits of legislation), died with the assassination of Martin Luther King. Though America is still living to fulfill “The Dream.” Moreover, the Black Empowerment movement, ultimately killed by the U.S. government, waned during the years following its most shining moment, the National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana. Yet the movement’s ideals of black pride and empowerment are a major part of black America’s thinking (whether we manifest it or not is debatable…LOL). So, too, it goes with hip hop.

Hip hop, started in the ’70s as a revolutionary cultural movement to give black and brown (and, hey, some white) urban youths a means to shake up the world’s idea of style, creativity and beauty. And, over the next 30 years, its music and style not only changed America’s cultural paradigm (not to mention becoming the new affirmative action for a post-civil rights generation), it became the banner under which a new reality of race was beginning to form. Particularly with white kids, along with a global community of colorful youth, who adopted hip hop as their cultural voice, arriving at black culture not only as pedestrians but also, as writer Carl Hancock Rux wrote in the case of Eminem, being “born into it.” While this “wigger” fascination with hip hop—fueled by that youthful need to scare the hell out of their parents—did feed off stereotypes, it socially disarmed this new generation of young “White Negroes” and their peers not only about ideas of black culture, but also notions of black identity and black people “keeping it real” and blacks with money and blacks with enough intelligence to beat a corrupt system and, most of all, blacks in power. And, when it came time to beat back the Republican Party monster and possibly change the course of history, who did they get behind? A young negro candidate who listened to Jay-Z, brushed off the haters at rallies, fist-bumped his wife, and promised to make a change. While, ultimately, it took a multi-culti coalition of voters to get Barack in, it was the enthusiastic support of young white, black and brown youth that got the Obama phenomenon rolling. And while the movements of yore laid the major groundwork for such an event, hip hop, at least I think, helped seal the deal.

So with that said, I think hip hop should be given major props. But, as new social and cultural standards are being discussed and set following Barack’s victory, I think we also need to deal with the fact that the best and most influential days of hip hop have past. It’s gone from Bronx playgrounds to mansions, from mom and pop labels to the boardrooms of multinational corporations, from grassroots organizing to major political events like the Nation Hip Hop Political Convention. But it’s also gone from “Fight the Power” to, well, take your pick of self-degrading lyrics involving the n or the b or the h-word (a debate we’re all simply tired of) and you get my point. With new things on the horizon, hip hop’s not going to die in this wave of optimism, but it will have to share the space with a fresh idea—from where, we don’t know—that will definitely be thrown in the mix.

Why Jesse Cried a River

Among the multitude of reactions news cameras caught on the night of November 4, none reflected the historic moment more than Jesse Jackson. Standing in the crowd of dazed and overly ecstatic Obama-supporters, Jackson, with finger in mouth, cried uncontrollably. Almost, and I hate to say, like a 5-year-old boy who’d dropped his ice cream. While his outpouring of emotions was understandable—being an icon of the civil rights movement—him crying a river for a man he’d said he wanted to castrate baffled as many people as it touched. And it posed the question to many who watched: while Jesse wept, was he honestly crying for Barack’s win or was he tearfully mourning the passing of his own legacy.



History clearly states Obama wouldn’t have won had there not been a Jesse Jackson. Two decades ago, HE was the first black candidate to seriously have a shot at the White House. He’d built his international profile by negotiating the release of two captured American pilots in Syria. He’d assembled a national Rainbow Coalition out of folks—blacks, working class, progressive whites, Latinos, gays, youth, etc—standing outside of Reagan’s Revolution. His 1988 campaign raised millions, registered millions to vote, and out of the 54 primary contests, he came in first or second in 46 of them. Most notably, Jesse opened the door for a Barack nomination when, according to writer William Jelani Cobb in a September 2008 issue of Vibe, he “negotiated for the Democratic Party to switch from winner-take-all primary elections to distributing delegates proportionately,” which is how Hillary Clinton lost to Obama.

Unfortunately, after his ’88 run, Jesse’s legacy and relevance seemed to diminish with each mishap and misstep. The child produced by an extra-marital affair. The growing image of Jackson as an “ambulance chaser,” not really wanting to confront substantial issues but rather chase the racial topics that get maximum media coverage. (One topic being at the top of his past agendas was criticizing hip-hop music and rap artists). Then there was his mercurial reaction to Obama. He’d outwardly supported the candidate until the truth came out during that interview on Fox News. You know the one, where after the cameras supposedly stopped rolling, Jackson complained about Barack “talking down to Black people,” then pantomimed the famous nut cut. Many had speculated then that the civil rights leader simply couldn’t contain his jealousy of the young politician who could possibly go where he couldn’t. And given how Obama got past Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Jesse couldn’t really get beyond Farrakhan (ya’ll remember that association coming to head with “Hymie Town”) you could see how far skillful campaigning by a black candidate had come.

But I think when Jesse watched Barack become President-Elect Obama, his torrent of tears was the melting of his burdens. Him being overwhelmed by the history of the moment was a given. However, over the last 20 years, he’s been a man searching for a cause and a substantial place in history. Not as someone who almost got to the mountaintop, but as the person who took folks there. (Remember, Jesse got an ego, too.) And on election night, he got to witness the fruits of his greatest moment—beyond the ill- conceived marches and movements and, hm, relationships—come true. And so he cried like a kid who dropped his treat, then looked up and saw a younger, smarter kid offering him a tastier one.

The Day After: They Still Call It the White House, But...

That's a temporary condition. Can ya dig it, CC! I'm like everyone else: speechless and amazed. So the only way to express my feelings is to let the folks who sold me this idea 33 years ago, Parliament/Funkadelic, remind us of their prophecy. President Obama. Damn, that sounds like the future....

If Barack Wins, Black Folk Get the Leftovers Again!

Funny how the lack of money changes everything, especially the dynamics of an election. Weeks before America’s economic free-fall, Barack Obama is head-to-head (some even say trailing) with John McCain in the polls. The biggest factor: white working class voters unwilling to vote for an African-American. Now we’re headed into —gasp!— a depression and the polls start turning in Obama’s favor. Whether you believe in surveys or not, the shift in numbers, while possibly signaling a change in voter attitudes (don’t believe it), also point to America’s tradition of handing off power to black folks when the well has run dry. A possible Barack win during these uncertain times, with America’s economic and fiscal landscape pretty much in ruin (not to mention the War, inflation, growing unemployment and jobs moving overseas), eerily reminds me of the rise of African-American mayors starting in the early 1970’s.

A number of major American cites had become “Chocolate Cities” following the rebellions of the ‘60s and early ‘70s. The population change—along with one major legislative one (the Voting Rights Act)—helped empower blacks to elect African-American mayors in record numbers. Kenneth Gibson in Newark, NJ. Maynard Jackson in Atlanta. Coleman Young in Detroit. Richard Hatcher was tagged as one of the “black power mayors” when he was elected in Gary, Indiana. Finally the dreams of the civil rights and black power movements seemed to be coming true now that folks with dark faces were in charge politically.

But what these mayors, and their constituency, had inherited were no longer power centers. They’d won power in cities beginning to suffer from abandonment, on the way to becoming, according to a 1971 report by the National Urban Coalition, “black, brown and totally bankrupt.”

Manufacturing jobs, once the economic rock of urban centers, were now moving to suburbs and rural areas. Services in these cities were cut. Buildings and streets suffered from neglect. And crime, along with all other social ills (take your pick) began to rise. So while these political wins were great for the history books, they were, in truth, hollowed victories. Why? Because, while black people may have gained political power, what we gained power over was dying when we took the reigns.

Thus lies the dilemma of Barack possibly winning the White House. Chris Rock recently joked that, if he wins, the next day, what ever services you need a black person to do for you won’t get done. Why? Because we’ll be celebrating in the street.

But judging from the economic and political shambles America is in right now, will we be, once again, celebrating that one of us has made history but has won power over a land whose expiration date has passed?

Waaasuuuup! Then and Now...

Who says pop culture isn't a barometer for checking the climate of change over the last 10 years. Check out the Waaaasuuup guys commercial, then and now. Makes ya wanna holla, laugh and cry.

1998


2008

What You've Always thought: Undecided Voters Are, hmm...

For anyone still trying to figure out what an undecided voter is, the New York Times sketches a pretty detailed picture of them with this report . Interviewing several undecideds, you can actually see what the dog Brian from Family Guy was saying when he opined that this segment of the voting population (roughly 4%) are "the biggest idiots on the planet." Just check out the internal struggles of these swingers:

Mr. Finke lives in a red state, Kentucky, with his wife, Shelley, who is also a gray state citizen. She works out of their home, where she helps manage her husband’s second career as a jazz trombonist.

“I tend to be a procrastinator,” said Ms. Finke, 44, who said she operated best with deadlines.

She voted for Mr. Bush twice and describes herself as “a conservative person at heart.” At the beginning of the campaign, she was suspicious of Mr. Obama “because of the whole Hollywood thing,” but she has since warmed to him.

“My opinion of Obama has definitely risen during this campaign,” Ms. Finke said. “And my opinion of McCain has fallen.”

So it sure sounds as if Ms. Finke is moving toward Mr. Obama, the Illinois Democrat, right?

Not so fast.

“I’d say I’m leaning towards McCain,” she said. “For as awful as things are with this Republican administration, there’s something about the whole conservative thing that appeals to me.” Put her down as “leaning McCain” then.

“But maybe I’ll vote for Obama,” she said. “How many days are left?”

Two, as of Sunday. While many people in this campaign-saturated country are relieved that the election will soon be over, some of the undecideds figure, What’s the rush?

“I might flip a coin,” said Vasilios Gerovasiliou, 64, of Concordville, Pa.

So, there you have it: the definition of a swing voter is a white, conservative voter yanking your change. I say let's move on....