Tavis Smiley And Cornel West Want To See Peel And Stick “Black Agenda” Labels On Obama Policies

Today's topic at my blog "Resurgence" on BigThink.com:


Tavis Smiley And Cornel West Want To See Peel And Stick “Black Agenda” Labels On Obama Policies

To Cornel West, Tavis Smiley, and all other African American pundits who want to own the conversation about the black community - President Barack Obama is not Captain Save-A-Negro. He is the president of the entire United States. The way Smiley and West have been carrying on lately, though, you would think President Obama is supposed to wink his eye at the TV camera at least once a week and whisper, "I'll get that hook up for y'all when I get done with this announcement." What do these two commentators expect the president to do? Open up special branches of the U.S. Treasury in black communities that sell dollar bills for fifty cents?

Which is why I was pleasantly surprised the other day, while cruising through the Ta-Nehisi Coates blog at The Atlantic, to come across a video recording of professor Randall Kennedy's appearance on Tavis Smiley's PBS show. Kennedy, the author of The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency, provides an analysis of the dilemma Barack Obama faces as America's first African American president that is so rational and thoughtful that I took the time to transcribe some of his more illuminating comments.

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The Help Elbows Accepted Historical Narrative Of The South Aside

Today's topic at my blog "Resurgence" on BigThink.com:

The Help Elbows Accepted Historical Narrative Of The South Aside


For some strange reason, I ended up watching the new movie The Help yesterday, less than twenty four hours after viewing Driving Miss Daisy for the first time. The most enduring conclusion I could draw from the whole experience? General Sherman should have burned every god damned thing in the entire Confederacy down to the ground during the Civil War.

In my mind, Viola Davis had already earned the Oscar for best actress for her portrayal of maid Aibileen Clark as soon as I saw the look in her eyes, a soul numbed stare that America had invested over three hundred years of intense and unceasingly relentless physical and psychological terror to produce. The combination of outstanding cinematography and astonishingly precise dialogue in both films had me, a middle aged African American man who has lived in the South his whole life, short of breath and anxious, even though I knew it was all make believe. The brown skinned actors on the screen who so artfully brought these two scripts to life were not just actors, but people who looked and acted just like members of my own extended family. They are my great uncles and aunts, they are my grandparents, they are stand-ins for the stars of my family’s own sagas from this same era. Much of this family lore ends benignly, just like these two movies did, which has always led me to wonder about the unspoken stories with much, much worse endings.

Sean Yoes at WEAA still needs your vote!

My man Sean Yoes STILL needs your vote in the WEAA Talent Poll!!! His entry in the competition is a new radio show called The Dialogue.

Why am I asking you to vote for Sean Yoes and Dr. Renee Parks? I am a regular guest on Sean's current affairs show on WEAA, the AFRO's First Edition that airs on Sunday nights. Two years ago, I had never been a guest on a radio show in my life, but Sean made it seem like it was as easy as pie.

You can do this in less than 5 seconds from your desk at work - just click this link.

You can do this in less than 5 seconds from your IPhone - just click this link.


So VOTE for The Dialogue!!!

Debt Ceiling Deal Smells Like A Subprime Loan

Today's topic at my blog "Resurgence" on BigThink.com:

Debt Ceiling Deal Smells Like A Subprime Loan


With the nerve wracking threat of a default by America on its outstanding debt being broadcast on all the news channels practically twenty four hours a day, I am reading a lot of chatter on the web by progressive Democrats who are insisting that President Obama suddenly morph into Samuel L. Jackson and start kicking ass and taking names. Conversations at the more extremist conservative websites I’ve come across often veer off into John Wayne territory, with calls by staunch Tea Party supporters for the GOP congressional leadership to simply reject any compromise proposals and stand their ground. Neither one of these groups should be wasting their time on the charade of this artificial debacle, because the fix has been in for some time.