Sunday, December 02, 2007

Gangster America

Spoiler Alert: I discuss some background about the feature film American Gangster of which you may not be aware before seeing the film. I myself wasn't fully aware of it, nor that the film dealt with it so, I wanted to forewarn readers who might wish to see the movie and enjoy finding out for themselves the many levels this excellent movie traverses.

There are a number of films this year being touted as Hollywood's reaction to the war and political crisis in Iraq and here at home. Most notable among these perhaps are Lions for Lambs, Rendition, and Charlie Wilson's War. The films critics and commentators probably will not and as of yet have not included on this list is Ridley Scott's American Gangster. Starring Denzel Washington, American Gangster is the story of Frank Lucas, heir apparent to Harlem organized crime leader Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson. Lucas would establish a heroin distribution network that outstripped any existing in the U.S. at the time, baffling New York police, federal narcotics enforcement, and competing organized crime operations.

It is not the story of Frank Lucas himself however, but its backdrop that warrants American Gangster's inclusion in, and placement at the top of the aforementioned list. It is the America of Vietnam and Nixon. An America still reeling in the wake of the civil rights struggle and the upheaval of national Jim Crow and international Jim Crow in the form of colonial rule. It was also an America led by an individual who by accounts of close advisors as well as his own audio recordings was perhaps the most powerful, drug/drink-addled paranoiac of the modern age. A man whose attempted heist of the U.S. presidency would precipitate his downfall. America was a gangster on foreign shores being led by no less than a gangster.

Through Lucas' story, we are reminded of Major General Smedley D. Butler, USMC, who wrote I was a racketeer. A gangster for capitalism. We are haunted by the warnings of former President and General Dwight D. Eisenhower who stated in his farewell address we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. Lucas' ascendancy to dominance of the Eastern U.S. heroin trade was facilitated by the U.S. military presence in southeast Asia during the Vietnam Conflict. In that way, legitimized gangsterism opened the path to more nefarious gangsterism. Exchange Abu Ghraib for Harlem housing projects, water-boarding for no knock warrant, BlackWater for Special Investigation Unit, War on Terror for War on Crime. Where war-making ends do war crimes begin, or is war-making itself the war crime?

The irony of Frank Lucas' story lies in its conclusion. The heroic efforts and character of Richie Roberts, New Jersey Detective and co-prosecuter in Lucas' case, ultimately brought Lucas to justice. Despite the years they spent as adversaries the two found more in common with each other than their respective peers. They bonded, and together uncovered and brought down one of the nations biggest police corruption scandals. Strangely enough, Robert's first case as a defense attorney would be that of Frank Lucas, defending Lucas against the very crimes for which he'd originally prosecuted him.

I hearken back to the whistle-blowers of the late 90's and early 00's. Their own steadfast integrity, crises of conscience, or both, coupled with herculean struggle called to account some of our country's most powerful organizations including Enron, WorldCom, big tobacco (ironically featured in another Russel Crowe film, The Insider), and the FBI. It is a parallel I can only hope and pray continues into our present day as another gangster presidential administration winds to its own conclusion. If only that means we too will conclude our collective chapter as American Gangsters. That the Lucases and a Roberts, or other Insiders within us will come to the fore. Maybe then can we finally enter our own second act and call to account the gangsters whom we as a nation - in politics, business, military, religion and other global affairs - have ourselves supported and/or created.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

A Screed of Blogs: Collective Nouns Revisited

In honor of James Lipton's appearance on NPR's Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me. Lipton wrote the classic compendium of collective nouns An Exaltation of Larks. Mr. Lipton, here are my submissions should you ever decide to do an update:

U.S. Politics

  • Congress-persons: A lout of congress-persons.
  • Democrats: A simpering of Democrats.
  • Environmentalists: An ostentation of environmentalists (my apologies to the ostentatious-ostentation of environmentalist peacocks everywhere).
  • Lobbyists: A usurpation of lobbyists.
  • Polls: A babel of polls.
  • Republicans: A bluster of Republicans.
  • Senators: A quibble of senators.
  • Voters: An exasperation of voters.

World Politics

  • Allies: A fluster of allies.
  • Contractors: A fusillade of contractors.
  • Dictators: A scrotum of dictators.
  • G8 Leaders: A crust of G8 leaders.
  • Opposition Parties: A squelch of opposition parties.
  • Peace Accords: A phantom of peace accords.
  • Summits: A fog of summits.
  • War Crimes: A roost of war crimes.

Media

  • Blogs: A screed of blogs.
  • Bloggers: An excretion of bloggers ;-)
  • Internet Porn: A tumescence of internet porn.
  • Medical Experts: A quack of medical experts.
  • Podcasts: A tympany of podcasts.
  • Previews: An molestation of previews.
  • Pundits: A carbuncle of pundits.
  • Reality Shows: A desperation of reality shows.
  • Talking Heads: A bobble of talking heads.

Monday, November 05, 2007

Chicken Curry Inna Hurry

HA! No such thing, SUCKA!!! But, I give you my best effort at remembering my mom's curried chicken recipe straight from Trinidad & Tobago (by way of London, Lagos, Brooklyn, Nashville, Detroit...)! It has served me well in impressing dates, cheering friends, and smiting enemies (...with the 'itis!). Enjoy this rendition. If I had any readers, I'd worry that some of you would comment on how your mama has a better recipe and blah, blah, blah, but since I know that you're not out there, eat a habanero fool! Love, peace, and curried chicken grease!!!

Curried Chicken (serving 3-4)

Ingredients

  • 1 whole cut up chicken (bone in) – if leaving skin on, try to use less oil: better with skin off
  • 2-3 tbsp yellow curry powder (Avoid the “generics” – Durkee, Spice Island, etc.. You want de real ting, neh mahn! Go to your local “ethnic shop” – Indian, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, SouthEast Asian, or whatever passes in your area these days – and get what they’re selling. No, if you live in Weymouth and the shopkeep's from Holbrook, that doesn't count!)
  • 0.5-1 tbsp ground cumin
  • 2-3 celery stalks chopped or celery seeds
  • 4-6 Idaho potatoes – skinned and cut into 8ths
  • 1 red pepper chopped
  • 1 yellow pepper chopped
  • Chopped white mushroom (optional)
  • 1 tsp. of habanero or scotch bonnet pepper sauce or 1 whole habanero or scotch bonnet pepper (optional)
  • 1 whole medium onion chopped
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic (crushed) or 2-3 tsp. minced garlic
  • 1-2 spring onions
  • Optional Seasonings: Thyme, marjoram, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, chives, salt, paprika, red pepper, bay leaf (?-maybe 1)

Instructions

  1. Prepare ingredients listed above (cut, chop, skin, dice, grind, etc…)
  2. Pre-season chicken with: Worcestershire Sauce, 1 tbsp curry powder, 1 tsp ground cumin, onion powder and/or garlic powder, light celery salt, and optional seasonings.
    Place in container seal and shake around a few times.
    Preseason up to day before, leaving seasoning chicken in fridge.
  3. In large pot, heat oil (olive or canola or whichever) just covering bottom of pot.
    Ready when piece of onion or celery dropped in sizzles immediately.
  4. Add garlic and celery to the pot and heat in until you begin to smell them strongly.
  5. Depending on size of chicken and amount of oil in pan, add 2-3 tbsp. of curry powder and 1 tbsp or less of cumin to heated oil and stir in thoroughly with oil (until mostly dissolved, oil deep yellow, and you smell the spices).
  6. Add the onion, red pepper, yellow pepper, mushrooms, and optional seasonings and mix thoroughly.
  7. Add chicken parts to heated oil.
  8. Stir frequently.
  9. Watch for chicken pieces to turn mostly white on outside.
  10. Meanwhile: Boil kettle full of water.
  11. Add cut potatoes to pot.
  12. Add up to 2 cups of boiling water.
  13. Stir ingredients together and watch sauce thickness. Want it to be gravy or thick soup-like, not thin. If too thin, add potato, or mix cold water and corn starch, potato starch, or wheat flower to thicken.
  14. Add whole habanero or scotch bonnet to curry.
    Fish out when just beginning to soften. Keep a sharp eye out! DO NOT allow the pepper to burst, otherwise it will ruin dish.
    If using pepper sauce, add by the drops, stir in and taste frequently to make sure not adding too much.
  15. Taste frequently, adding pepper, salt or other seasonings to adjust taste to your liking.
  16. Cook partially covered for 10 minutes.
  17. Check chicken and add time if not yet cooked through.

Goes well with:

  • Fried plantain (like frying French fries. – until golden brown each side)
  • Curried Chick peas – roughly same steps above:
    Reduce the ingredients in accordance with size of can of chick peas.
    Skip pre-seasoning and habanero/pepper sauce steps.
    Drain can of chick peas before adding to oil!
  • Plain white rice
  • Okra and rice
    Boil rice with 1-2 chopped okra per 2 cups rice, and pieces of ham (ham w/bone preferred if available) and pepper to taste
  • Roti – you’ll have to buy this from a shop. There may be some Trini’s in your town if you're lucky. Maybe not. We're everywhere...just like us Nigerians. (Wait a second. Did I just refer to myself in the second person, plural? Separately? Twice? What would that be, the fourth person triplicate???)
  • Curried string beans (see chick peas).

Bon apetit!

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

A Special Reminder to ALL Bloggers...

Through our scientific genius, we have made of the world a neighborhood; now through our moral and spiritual genius we must make of it a brotherhood.
- Dr. Martin Luther King

Monday, July 30, 2007

Buy an iPhone, Kill a Kitten

The iPhone craze with an Open Source viewpoint. Questions whether we are witnessing a new technological epoch or simply the results of staffing a well-funded marketing squad. Some of its points are known to many in the Open Source community and others remain in dispute. The dialog in the comments section is what's truly compelling.

read more | digg story

Friday, July 13, 2007

Free Your Mind, and Your iPhone Will Follow: an open letter

I wrote the following in response to an email I just received from freetheiphone.org c/o freepress.net. I applaud their efforts to pressure Apple and the FCC to play fair with the release of the iPhone on a proprietary network. Supposedly we own the telecommunications bandwidth and the companies are just renting, but for the past 6 years at least, it's felt like it's the other way around. As I said, I applaud their work thus far and I urge you to take the time to read up on the issues. But as you'll see below, I implore freepress/freetheiphone both that it's time we made our own game and instead let them play catchup.

Apple will continue to work with proprietary software and make sweetheart deals with whomever they choose as it suits their interests and those of their shareholders. As Microsoft didn't feel the pinch until Linux came along and exposed the naked emperor, Apple will sit on its pedestal meting out its favor to those who prostrate themselves until something puts the magnifier to its nethers and reveals that indeed there is no there there.

I give you, OpenMoko: http://www.openmoko.com/

Take REAL action. Create a fund to hire developers full time to make this a project real working reality - one that works with all GSM/GPRS networks globally, that is not enslaved to iTunes, MusicMatch, or the other media mongers, and that transcends whatever bandwidth the FCC (Federal Communications Cyndicate [sic]) seeks to control.

You must leave the matrix to fight The Matrix. With mindfully dedicated backing Neo1973 (http://www.openmoko.com/products-neo-base-00-stdkit.html) can be that red pill.

I endorse your efforts to reign in the FCC and return them to service of the people, for the people, and by the people. Michael Powell is gone but his ghost yet remains. Exorcise him and the rest of the flunkies from all our airwaves and bandwidth!

As far as Apple and others like them are concerned, corporations are no longer beholden to the people who issue their charters and allow them their 14th amendment "right" to operate as citizens (http://www.thecorporation.org/), Thus, like any torch wielding mob does to unrepentant sociopaths, you've got to hit 'em where it hurts. Hit 'em hard. Then bite it off. I know a mad little window smashing penguin that'd be awful proud.

Yours,
The AFroNaut

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Auntie Virus 2007

My dad just asked me what the best Anti-Virus software is now. "No %&#@$! clue," says I. (Not in so few words of course). Anyhow, I did some searching and found a buncha useful links that will help him make an informed Anti-Virus decision. The smartest one always being: wrap your tool, fool!

The following are the latest Top # Lists for Anti-Virus Software (in no particular order):

The only other thing I'll add is that most of the sites above have a shopping section where you can do your own side-by-side reviews and see what other folks using the given products have to say about them. You can purchase the products through some of these sites, but they should also include links to the home pages of the software companies or products themselves. What do I use?

I'm cheap, they're free, and they do what I need them to so far. I particularly like ClamWin/ClamAV because they are Open Source, and their philosophy is that the internet is safer when everyone has high quality anti-virus tools. If you do download, give 'em a donation. May I suggest what you would have paid to renew your old Norton or McAfee license?

Friday, May 18, 2007

Schilling v. Bonds...part 1

The best thing about sports is that it gets everyone around the water-cooler sharing recaps and opinions on the latest happenings on and off the field. And there is no shortage.

Rather than add to the dogpile that is this particularly stinky episode between the Red Sox's Curt Schilling and the Giant's Barry Bonds, I'll just point you to my two favorite postings on the subject so far:
Okay okay. I'll add my opinion. Curt Schilling's a boob. Francona is right. Long live Big Papi!

P.S. Schilling's still a fucking boob!

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Destroy the Draft...

...and replace it with something better.

I've been thinking about lifelong dreams and how to achieve them. Some of them, you can keep quietly to yourself, and through your own hard work, see come to fruition. Others, need the power of the whole cosmos to make it happen. Draft for Peace. I feel like this is one of them.

Why is it, that the only opportunity has to serve one's country, get trained, fed, clothed, and paid for it is through the military. There programs and organizations like The Peace Corps, AmeriCorps/CityYear, and TeachForAmerica. But neither individually nor combined do these programs have the span, the reach, nor the spending of the U.S. Military.

To think that when men and women were drafted for WWI and WWII, it wasn't just to serve as soldiers. Farmers were drafted to grow crops. Workers were drafted to build ships, vehicles, armaments, and other wartime supplies. So that the draft was not defined solely to place men in the battlefield.

I got to thinking. Why can't there be a similar selective service, draft, and for that matter full-fledged service corps to serve our society's needs and obligations (to democracy, social justice, and liberty) domestically and globally during peacetime? Is it only when our government fails - vis a vis failed foreign policy that creates the necessity for war - that we can find the funds, resources, and wherewithal to mobilize people to action?

Why is it that there should be any shortage of manpower to renovate schools, to update public utilities like bridges or sewer systems, to maintain a park, or sweep up a sidewalk? Why should non-profit public service organizations struggle to find willing capable individuals to help with projects or even operations?

I bet if you asked a young person if they would like to get paid to learn logistics and communications and give them the choice between implementing for civilian support (disaster and recovery, public events, recreational safety) versus battlefield support, the majority would choose civilian support.

The demand I'm certain is there. Where are the opportunities? Where is the communication and coordination that internet connectivity has enabled? I'm not the first person to have thought of this. The existence of the Peace Corps, Doctors Without Borders, and CityYear speak to the need for such citizen service. However, the recruiting, development, and maintenance of a standing citizen service corps is until now and for the foreseeable future no match to that of the military's.

Yet when we talk of defending Democracy, we immediately think war, guns, tanks, fighter jets, battleships, bombs, and waves upon waves of young soldiers. Yet the defense of Democracy takes place every day in civilian citizen actions, that far outnumber and outstrip any actions taken in aggression. This is what separates Democracies from Military Juntas and Dictatorships, yet to look at the investment our government and our economy makes in military aggression you would think that we as a nation defending a junta or oligarchy instead of a democracy.

Why do we fight? When there is so much work to be done? Soldiers do what they can, and in the desperate situations we place them in, they do what they must. But hammers are near useless with a phillips head screw. And it's plain to me that we are desperately short on phillips head screw drivers. And if that's the case, what really is there left for a tank or a gun to save?

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Double the Standards. Double the Fun.

It seems that in the wake of the Don Imus dust up, an ongoing town meeting has been making the circuit across the media spectrum. Subject of this public referendum? Why do black rappers get a pass for insulting black women with offensive language while white infotainers like Imus are publicly cowed, forced to make apologies, then summarily shit-canned? Well, I guess Chuck D truly is prescient. His pronouncement that rap is the ghetto (read: Black people's) CNN has been seconded and carried. At least that's what I'm hearing if the talking heads at EVERY news organization from Fox News to NPR have been asking the question "Why does Imus get in trouble and Snoop Dogg doesn't???" And if that question sounds to you more like a self-pitying whine than a genuine intellectual curious query, then sister you ain't alone.

When I first heard about Imus's off-color (har-har!) comment, it steered me towards the ol' way back machine. I drifted back to the late 90's, back when our current president's dear old dad made the rounds on the news circuits deriding the "Welfare Queens", whose simpering gold-digging was sucking the lifeblood from our nation's T-bills. Their gaggles of bastard kids buying up Air Jordans and crack with food stamps. Their chinchilla coats worn to the welfare office to sign for their monthly checks and laugh in the faces of bedraggled case-workers who desperately pleaded for them to seek employment. The project palaces that beyond the graffiti-plastered piss-smelling hallways, held plush living quarters whose luxury Louis XIV had never even imagined. These nefarious welfare queens, these succubi, scourge of the government teats. They were not the white single parent women whose numbers were (and remain) far greater than the minority women populating the nation's welfare rolls. Of course not, nay. These women were the urban ghetto hordes descended from the slave plantations of the American South, the West Indies, and of Latin America. They had invaded our country with their questionable citizenship to shop, bank, walk, talk, eat, drink, and breath their lives away, all at the hardworking American taxpayer's expense. At least, this is what every segment discussing this on the nightly news and the evening news magazines sought to corroborate at the time with pictures that made it seem like only the swarthy urban poor bloated our overburdened welfare rolls.

Sure, old G. Herb Walker didn't call any of those women nappy-headed-hoes, but I guess back then, but I guess back then, folks were left with just enough room to draw their own conclusions. And if you look at the four year cycles of welfare reform rhetoric we've been subjected to since, he really left no room for guessing.

So maybe this just means that Don Imus's real mistake was not being President before firing off his missives. Or maybe that instead of going after something as demonic and loathsome as poor minority women struggling on public assistance to make a nasty oppressive life something more livable he instead went after young women (some of whom born of and raised by those in the aforementioned category) who are champion-level athletes, and who unlike their male counterparts have to make something real of their college degrees since multi-million dollar professional athletics and endorsement contracts await them at the end of their sophomore and junior years.

And even if Imus wasn't the president or the head of the RNC, why villify the man who isn't a real, truly responsible news media figure, but merely a source of bawdy entertainment sprinkled with commentary on current events and tacit nods from those in political power who time to time need to slum on shows like his to seem more like men of the people? Why harp on this poor soul making him lose his credibility and source of income and speaking platform into the cars homes and earbuds of millions of ClearChannel/Viacom/Sirius/XM public airwave consumers out there, when dastardly RAPPERS call not simply women, but Black African American Women People of Colors dirty words like hoes and bitches and a host of so many other naughty things that we dare not repeat except in gangster movies (gee, no paternalistic chauvinism in these choir boys!), college-panty-raiding comedies, public bathrooms, rest-stop bumper stickers, the in'ernets you've seen? Why should they get away scot free, their only punishment being to straighten up the house before the MTV Cribs camera crew arrives? Well, believe it or not, I've thought of several reasons:

  1. Great Expectations. Once upon a time we could take an area of endeavor, say like news journalism and commentary, and say that we can expect the practitioners of said field to be held more accountable to antiquated ideas like professional responsibility and truthful reporting than say...hmm, let's see...popular music? Perhaps in this age of jaded cynicism, such perceptions would be deemed prejudicial if not simply naive. But if I had to bank $1000 as to the social acceptability of a given line in a popular rambunctiously-youth-oriented song than that of a talk radio program, perhaps it's the fogey in me, but I'd bet on the talk radio program. News radio, even talk radio, still depends on the FCC for use of its primary distribution channels far more than popular music. And moreso still than rap music which developed a long way away from the watchful ears of the FCC before breaking into the public airwaves. Considering it was roughly 3 generations back that issued the battle cry sex, drugs, rock and roll, it seems pretty funny to me that talk news programs seek to imply that expectations of an equal or greater sense of decorum should be placed on music (artists) as they are for talk/news (broadcasters). I hope they are expecting my reply that it takes huge balls for them to suggest something so self-serving.


  2. Ignorant Assholes. They're not just for breakfast anymore. Nope, they are everywhere. In every field of endeavor. In business, in sports, in politics, in academia, in journalism, and yes, even in entertainment. Believe it or not, assholes have not yet seemed to overplay their hand. Nay, as a community, their currency, especially in the field of entertainment has only seemed to grow. The beauty of assholes is that they are equal opportunity. Doesn't matter how far you climb up the social strata they abound, and profusely at that. As for ignorance, one would think that the more one were educated in general knowledge and public manners required to hold conversations for longer than five minutes that the probability of wholesale ignorance would diminish at an equal rate. Naive optimism? Blind faith? Dumb luck? Maybe all three as it seems more than our fair share of talk radio personalities slipped through the cracks of what one would have assumed the simplest requirements of their chosen profession. And I put ignorance in there as a possibility, but was truly being generous. No one is so ignorant that they wouldn't realize that on talk radio, no matter how shock-jockey, would the expression nappy-headed-hoe be anywhere close to acceptable. No. This was strictly an asshole, move, because only an asshole could be so up on him or herself to believe that they could defy such basic rules of public decorum. And even if Imus were trying to sound street as it were, he was an asshole for thinking he, a half-century-old middle class white guy (Armenian? Yeah, whatever. He's white.), could pull off sounding street enough to say something insulting to a group of women he does not know from Adam, Eve, or the Queen of Sheba - all of whom were Black as it were.

    Here's the thing that white folks often fail to understand and thereby make themselves look/sound silly when trying to act cool around Black people. Even with something as seemingly crass, vulgar, and uneducated as sounding hood or street there are rules, a vocabulary, and a usage of said vocabulary that if you have not been around long enough to truly observe it (because, no, the book has not yet been written that will teach you - sorry, no foreign service tapes either...I've checked) then you will sound stupid, and very likely say something stupid and possibly insulting. Likelier still, that in your effort to monkey street slang, you will seem condescending and therefore be insulting practicing this behavior by default. It's not that it's a no win situation. There are plenty of white folks who, like ANY and EVERY minority person you've ever seen in the United States, grew up within a dominant ethnic culture other than their own and tacitly learned it's mechanics and how to manuever within it. Thus that Don Imus and the rest of the dominant news media are not versed in the verbal sparring that takes place within urban and rural Black American culture and have neither the grounding nor ethnic credentials (by virtue of birth or experience) to pull off such sparring, is not the acute racial injustice so many people are trying to make it out to be.


  3. It takes one to know one... One of the most basic comebacks of the playground insult games, whether or not you grew up calling it the dozens, or capping, or bagging, or just good old fashioned teasing. For me to call another Black person nappy-headed would be like me calling them darkie or thick-lipped. In American cultural parlance, these descriptors ceased a long time ago to be about actual physical traits and were instead fashioned into some of the many pejoratives used to refer to Black people. As I have distant white ancestry in my background, my hair isn't as kinky, and my skin isn't as dark as some Black people. But little does that matter where these particular words are concerned. They refer to what Black (Americans in particular) may consider the royal we. Therefore any Black person trying to hurl these as insults can be regarded as ridiculous. The trouble with white people saying such things is that it makes them sound hateful. Whether or not it actually insults me (far from, since I like my nappy hair, my dark skin, and thick lips), it does a whole lot more to make me despise a person who'd say that. If they mean it as an insult, then I feel sad and hurt that they have prejudiced themselves to judge me and therefore close themselves off to me socially because of who I am being a Black person (yeah, I could say just because of my skin but biologically and metaphorically speaking, my skin is a huge part of who I am and how I exist in the world, so far be it for me to use diminutive language in describing it). There's nothing you can really do about that. And it's problematic for them for you, and for society. And when you face a problem that you can't really do anything about (anything to fix, that is) you really get frustrated. At least I do. Alternatively, if the person is trying to be funny and familiar, then they've done exactly the opposite. Apart from the immediate affront of having someone try to act more casual and familiar with you than they really are (how many of us would walk up to a stranger, fake like you were going to knee him or her in the groin and shout Think Fast!!!? Not unless you're dumb as a brick or a huge asshole would you try to pull that one off. It's the same thing!). It's problematic because, here's someone who's trying to be clever who is showing complete ignorance and putting you in the terribly awkward position of telling him what he should know better. Again, frustration, which leads to anger which leads to a lot of Black people who simply say fuck white people mean it sincerely, and call it a day - which also frustrates the hell out of me and makes me more acutely aware of how fucked up this country can be.


  4. Your kids hate you. Because of your stupid double standard that you think allows you to call women bitches and hoes, call any and all middle easterners potential terrorists, welcome to America! every white person with a European accent...basically all that stuff that you get embarrassed about when one of your older relatives does it around you and you can't correct them because their older and family...you should and more than likely will be ashamed of yourself. And if you're not ashamed now, then that shame kharma, when it comes around will hit you like a fucking freight train. The rule applies equally to rappers as it does radio personalities.

    I think of Common and Kanye West. Two Chicago emcees. Fellow Mid-Westerners. Both in recent years have become highly outspoken about the use of gay-bashing language in hip hop. I say from experience that I go home and still hear the words fag, faggot, and homo used there for describing anyone or anything that's corny, stupid, or otherwise distasteful. I see it among Black and White people there equally. I try to tell folks, but most of the time I just cringe. Well. It doesn't surprise me, that Common and Kanye would be among the folks in Hip-Hop to start raising attention and awareness on the issue since like me, it's something that hit close to home with respect to our geographic culture. And they could see how the language shaped the attitude and therefore the callousness and ambivalence if not outright disdain felt towards gay people out there.

    What am I saying? Your kids know better than you. The sons and daughters of your loins, of your soul, or of your soil. They know better than you and will be and are sorely ashamed of you when you fuck up. It doesn't matter whether you're a blinged out rapper or a boozed out shock jock even though your kids may still love you (if they do) you're ignorance is giving them plenty of reason to and plenty of fuel to want to disown you, and leave you in the nursing home stewing in your own crap-filled diapers when you need them most. So whine about what's fair and what's not but remember that you're playing yourself in the end. And when that end has been covered in pee and diarrhea for more than a couple hours that rash turns into a MRSA ridden bedsore pretty damn fast.


There's a lot more where that came from, but I've gotta fuckin' get to sleep. Don't feel sorry for Imus. And don't be so quick to think those rappers just get a pass. Chances are the one's whose songs you've actually heard whom you hate with a passion, most Black people hate with a passion too. Mostly because rappers that have outgrown the 3rd grade name-calling and girl-hating and toy-showing-off don't get radio/MTV-play, and we're stuck having a bunch of shitty, no-talent bastards represent a whole group of artists more mature and creative and skillful than they'll ever be. But unlike sports, who crosses the finish line first in the whimsical world of pop entertainment doesn't coincide except rarely with who has the talent. All the more reason why Don Imus can go to hell, since the women he saw fit to try to be cute with had proved their mettle in the one arena that wasn't as subject to prejudice as all the others they'll face in life. And there he goes, stealing their thunder of their accomplishment and salting their wounds with his bullshit. Way to go you wrinkle-assed fuckface!!! And no, Don, I'm not trying to be cutesy and familiar. I mean that from the bottom of my nappy-headed heart.