I am Malcolm X !

It's been 45 years since the death of Malcolm X. I chose to do a study on him for my history personal project while I was in high school, and reading his autobiography had a deep and profound impact on me. I consider him one of my heroes. He was fearless, intelligent, articulate, humorous, passionate and compassionate, and in the end he paid the ultimate price in his pursuit of freedom, respect, equality and dignity.

His fiery rhetoric and unwillingness to conform to the accepted 'discourse' of the 'Negro-issue' meant since his death in 1965, the establishment has tried to erase his impact and his wisdom, but thankfully his memory has been persistent and resistant and his words still inspire many today.

45 years on, Malcolm X still lives.

Here is an interview he had with Eleanor Fischer of WNYC Radio in the 1960s, while he was still with the Nation of Islam. Enjoy! (it may take about 30 seconds after your click the play button before it actually starts playing, so be patient)

Sojourner Truth Bust unveiled by Michelle Obama

America is embracing African-American history a lot more

This is a Black Poem or These Are Our Heroes

Inspiration comes in many forms. I haven't written a poem in months. Yesterday while on skype with the little sister- Laura, we were discussing black poetry and the meaning or lack of meaning of some poems. I came up with an idea of parodying poetry by writing a nonsensical poem and seeing how people will react.
However after I had written the first line, inspiration hit, my creative juices flowed and I could no longer just write a mocking pastiche, I turned it to a commentary (if you can ever call poetry commentary) of African-American victimhood, stereotypes and symbols while placing 'black' food as the centerpiece. Anyway, here it is, it is called 'This is a Black Poem' or 'These Are Our Heroes' whichever title means more to you, so it shall be:

This is a Black Poem or These Are Our Heroes

I reach for the rainbow
Bending its arch toward today
what is to be found at its end?
A Pot of Gold?
or a Pot of Big Mamas Chicken Soup
Aunt Jemimas Pot Liqour
Cooked by Harriet Tubman
Seasoned by Sojourner Truth
I sojourn for the truth
Searching under nooks and in crannies
Emancipating black cooks and nannies
I yearn for better days
Better ways
Chicken, collard greens and rice
Made by Uncle Bens and Fredrick Douglass
Drizzled with Booker T's hot sauce
This is the Kentucky Renaissance
I yearn for that essential blackness
That undeniable cool
That steadfastness
and vigor
The strong black back
Withstood the slave-masters whips
and the water-hoses of policemen
in Alabama
spraying little children
and they Mama

What University is all about

Although I'm studying Public Relations, the optional modules I do are not closely related to PR, I decided to do this to broaden my knowledge base, what's the point of coming out of uni and not knowing anything but Public Relations, so this year I'm doing a module on popular music, and since I'm a hip-hop aficionado, and African-American studies is a topic I have huge interest in, I decided to do my essay on the representation of Black women in Hip-Hop, hugely fun, and it is quite surprising that our uni has quite a number of relevant books on the issue, taking into account that we don't have a degree on African-American studies, anyway, I just thought I should blog about this, I'm taking the pics at a wedding tomorrow, so I got to go get my suit ready.

Thoughts on Black America

The United States of America has a recent and long history of racial intolerance. It would be a surprise to some that it was barely 43 years ago that the US government outlawed discriminatory practices in that prevented many African-Americans from voting.
In fact when US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama was born in 1961, many public places particularly in the south were segregated. So Obama’s possibility of ascending into the highest office in the land is a testament to the racial progress that America has made in the last forty years.
The problem with the race question in America today is that many people equate racial progress with a complete solution of the racial problem. Many people think that because schools are de-segregated, and there have been many African-American mayors and public officials the entire effects of slavery and Jim Crow laws have been wiped out.
However, it hasn’t been fifty years since African-Americans were ‘legally’ recognized as citizens in all parts of America, people who walked with Martin Luther King are still alive today. In fact Martin Luther King is only eight years older than John McCain, the Republican presidential hopeful. This illustrates the short time that the dynamics of race have changed in America. However the question is can we expect the abject material poverty, and psychological impoverishment resulting from been viewed as less than human to be wiped away within a generation?
The reason for the disproportionate poverty of African-Americans is a discourse that has largely been avoided by the American people, they prefer to highlight instances where a black person has overcome poverty as proof that African-Americans are on an even playing field as whites.
I guess this discourse is politically incorrect, and I was not expecting Senator Obama to raise it in his campaign, it is the elephant in the room, the ongoing problem that no one wants to discuss, Why?, well maybe it stirs up white guilt, it reminds them of the not too distant past, it reminds them of segregation, of slavery. What America should ask itself is: “If the government had to legislate in order to grant civil rights to a certain group of people, as late as the 1960s, how does one expect these people, within forty-something years to catch up in every aspect of society with the others”
When you suppress a minority, practice segregation, and limit their rights, you allow poverty to fester, you allow hatred of the majority to fester, because the black man can see the affluence of the white man, he can see it, but he cannot get it. Now add this notion of the American dream, you tell blacks that they are American, you allow them to compete in Olympic games for America, you put them in your army, they fight and die for you, but you deny them human rights when they return. In many states they cannot vote, in some states they cannot marry a white person, some states they have to give up their bus seat for a white person if the situation permits; surely you can understand the anger and the hatred that would brew in the black community. You are being told that you are American; you are being told that this is the land of the free, but at the same time, you are being denied your basic human rights.
The suppression of a race would naturally lead to segregation, and thus ghettoization in terms of housing. We’ve seen this in areas such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. A people with limited rights are naturally a poor people, a people facing discrimination are naturally a poor people, for they cannot alleviate themselves to affluence, as discrimination prevents them from getting better jobs or receiving higher wages.
Poor people are angry people, angry people may become violent people.
America has continued to ignore the problems of poverty in the black community, and has instead chosen to focus its attention on the results of poverty- mainly drugs and crime. So it’s natural that when black people are disproportionately poor, they will therefore disproportionately fill the police cells and prisons.
And then what happens, we see just one side of it, we don’t remember the causative factors, we forget slavery and racism, and all we see are black felons. The black man becomes synonymous with criminal, violent, insolent and indolent.
This partial amnesia of America is worrying, this refusal to accept that black people are still suffering from the legacy of slavery is the reason why America would never see past race, America would never become a post-racial society, until it accepts wholeheartedly the evils it has practiced and how it plagues the African-American society today. It’s much too late for monetary reparations, but to use Martin Luther King’s analogy: America has given the Negro people a bad cheque which has come back marked 'insufficient funds', and it’s about time American society starts paying up.
One cannot be forgiven until they have first accepted wrongdoing, America has only partially accepted its crimes, and until it fully accepts responsibility and takes the right steps to mend these problems, racism would forever be as American as apple pie.

Change We Can Believe In

Consummatum Est- at least for now. The fight against Senator John McCain begins. Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic Party Presidential Nomination after a long and hard fought struggle with Hillary Clinton. I believe a new chapter is opening in American history, in terms of the way it's percieved across the world, and also domestically, in terms of racial bigotry that has plagued the country since the first Africans set foot on American soil in 1619.
By God's grace, Barack Obama will defeat John McCain in the November elections, and usher in a new era in American History.

YES WE CAN

Click Here to read Obama's Victory Speech delivered at St. Paul, Minnesota

LeBron James: America in a Post-Racial Society

A World War I US Army propaganda poster and the infamous Vogue Cover

US Basketball star LeBron James is in the middle of a big media storm about his depiction on elite fashion magazine Vogue. This is only the thrid time that a man has appeared on its cover, and the fourth time a black person has appeared on the cover of Vogue which was first published in 1892.
James appears on the cover with Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen, a caucasian. He is clutching her with one arm, while his other bounces a basketball. On his face he has his characteristic grimace after scoring in a game.
The fury by many African-Americans over the picture stems from the depiction of LeBron. Most say the picture is animalistic, by him clutching a white woman he is perpetuating stereotypes of black men lusting after white women. Personally, when I saw the picture I was not impressed. I have an avid interest in both World Wars, and much earlier I had been exposed to the US. Army's propaganda poster, which depicted Germany as a great ape, clutching a female (representing USA, as seen by the clothing resemblance to the Lady Liberty) I noticed that the Vogue cover bore a startling similarity to that poster, and I prepared myself for the furore that was almost certain to emerge.
Now the question people ask is 'Was that similarity to King Kong or an ape done on purpose?' or was it innocent, did they just photograph LeBron in his element and Gisele in hers. Some people will say just that. They say if you look at the picture and see 'Ape and white woman' then you are subconciously racist, as far as they are concerned, the picture is innocent.
Is this true though? Has America genuingly moved on from the stark racism of 40 years ago. Has what happened on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965 faded completely into the past, Has the legacy of Rosa Parks completely vanished? Is America in a Post-racial society? Is race no longer an issue?
The finalizing of the Vogue cover is not a small issue, it is certainly not an issue that is dealt with by one person, several photographers and editors critique and enhance the photograph before it appears in the newstands. Didn't anyone at Vogue predict this backlash by African-Americans claiming Vogue is racist for depicting 'their own' in such an unflattering manner, or, did Vogue think that America has moved to a stage where a black man showing 'ape-like behaviour' should not raise any eyebrows.
Of course, it can also be argued that Vogue, by doing this, is pushing America toward a post-racial society, by 'normalizing' sensitive issues is Vogue saying "Look, black or white we are all the same"
As black people, not just African-Americans, we are constantly trying to put our best face forward when it comes to our depiction in the media. We want to be seen as beautiful, intelligent and articulate, and so often one famous black persons blunder becomes an embarrasment to the whole race. Similarly, one black person's triumph is shared by the race, for example the case of O.J Simpson or even Barack Obama's presidential race.
This attitude is brought about by an inferiority complex, in Afro-Americans due to slavery, and in Africans due to colonialism. We want to show white people that we have progressed to a level of equality, we want to show that their assumptions of us as being inferior were wrong.
So when Lebron James shows up on the cover of what can be described as a 'white magazine' looking unattractive, black people everywhere feel unattractive, we are angered that the 'white magazine' has chosen to show the ugliest picture. The Vogue cover is an important milestone for blacks and whites alike, and with this rare oppurtunity to present ourselves to 'white world'; we have chosen to put a 'terrible' picture of 'our own'- this summarizes the feeling of many people who did not like the Vogue cover.
Of course there's the other side: What do white people really think? When they see a black man screaming, do they really think 'Ape!' When they see a black man holding a white woman, do they really think 'Rapist!'
The sad fact is that even in academia we are taught to expect the worst, not only in terms of race, but also in terms of gender. Nothing is ever 'what it is', there is always an ulterior motive.
Girls are taught that advertising featuring men and women are inherently sexist, and black people are taught that any depiction of a black person displaying a negative trait is an extension of the general view held by white people.
We are in a vicious cycle, on one hand we want to combat racism, but on the other we look for racism in every single thing.
As far as reaching a post-racial society is concerned, I believe we would one day reach it, when black milestones are no longer counted, when we look at Denzel Washington as merely an actor, when Obama becomes just another presidential candidate, when there would be no need for a Black Entertainment Television channel.
Martin Luther King had a dream, and I share that dream too!