Here’s more on the case. For my thoughts, you can check here.
Category Archives: magazine
Michelle Obama Almost White?
Enjoyed this conversation, and this article. Clearly, some of us (think they) are becoming American. Fascinating.
A True Example
Many, many activist groups and people try to compare themselves to the now-legendary activists of the (1955-1980) Civil Rights Movement. As someone who’s read a couple of CRM books (and who played a minor role in writing one), I thought this “Democracy Now!” segment served as a tutorial for those who want to legitimately make that claim in the 21st century.
A young man by the name of Tim DeChristopher walked past the “symbolic” protests and actually took direct action that:
a) disrupted, stalled or thwarted the status quo, and
b) met his very specific goal
He wasn’t engaged in the symbolic pouring of blood (or red paint) on a bomb or bomber. He wasn’t trying to “draw attention to the issue.” He wasn’t trying to “generate discussion.” He had a specific activist goal, did his research, found a way to act (courageously) and then acted, accepting some real consequences.
Now THAT’s the CRM I read about. 🙂
A New Pan-Arab Hero :)
Yes, Cast My Vote For…………
……the return of the Federal Writers Project. It’s a great idea. There is SO MUCH documentation of the 20th century left to do professionally, and thousands of unemployed journalists, so there ya go.
Let’s call it the (Studs) Terkel–(Zora Neale) Hurston Writers Project, and get busy right away! C’mon, Obama! Hook up America’s literary class! 🙂
Asante Sana, NPR's "News And Notes"
Mumia Abu-Jamal (And Me) On Obama's Victory
Yet another powerful commentary. Here’s the link.
I like the online cross-section of Black opinion I’ve been able to post here. 🙂
Dec. 10TH UPDATE: I wrote the following on Nov. 5th.
NOVEMBER 5TH BROADCASTING
Three hours after the fact
I woke up still not believing
Fighting past the ghost of Morpheus to the radio
NPR would validate my reality
Making it really-real
I heard the voices but
still thought I might be dreaming
Two hours later
I cried along with the Black people I saw on the Tee Vee “Today”
Before drifting in and out of sleep
Fading in and out, half-absorbing the modulated joys
of the Talking Heads
And slowly accepting as the morning sun began to squat
that it might be true
I laughed at my own jokes while getting dressed
The giggled uncontrollably through a couple of sponsor breaks
But then I thought a new thought:
Time to be reunited
To feel The Rush
and smell the stink of Limburger“Time to rebuild,” Limburger bellowed
Claiming he was happy that Daddy-O got the nod
Which felt a little odd
But I forgot: revolutionaries like defeat
because the fight gets to last a little longer
I decided to be a real revolutionary to myself
Leaving the radio in the house
Going outside myself
To hear the just-fallen leaves rustle
To hear the young mother singing to her baby in the stroller
And to wave in solidarity
to my spot’s mostly Latino maintenance crewThen one of those brothers made me focus my reality
On him
When he smiled and shouted to me
“Obama!”
And I shouted back
“Yep! Si, su puede!”
(the only Spanish I knew)
And the sun made the still-new day a little warmer.
(c) Copyright 2008 by Todd Steven Burroughs, Ph.D.
A Female Black Panther!
Hmm….so the title comes back in February 2009 with a female Panther. Being that it’s comics, I guess all I can say is, “Well, let’s see how this goes.” I just hope that this time it won’t take 38 issues for Hudlin to get it right.
The Three Presidential Debates, In Summary :)
Special thanks to Greg Adamo for showing me this!
Did You See…….
“Torturing Democracy” when it slipped onto public television this month? If not, PLEASE go to the site and watch it, and you’ll see why the PBS folks are not that thrilled. Of course, this level of cowardice from PBS isn’t exactly new.
