Watching a Documentary...

...about Reconstruction and am mildly placated by one historian's linking of the era with the later civil rights struggle; he argues that "We see the legacy of Reconstruction. It took generations for [the promise of Reconstruction] to play out, but it never died."

Mmmm... That whole federal-abandonment-and-southern-rewriting-of-history thing still rankles though. Sometimes, there's a reason (or four million of them) that "Lost Causes" are lost.

Yet Another Note on Tyler Perry...

... because a friend posted this link on my fb page.

What I said to another friend on twitter:

I'm very, very bothered by the messages he puts out, particularly b/c so much of his audience is black women. it's how i feel about some blk churches. we go show our loyalty, spend our precious time and give our hard earned $ to hear everything that's wrong with us.

When I think about it, for Perry and some churches, it's an almost-perfect set-up. If you disagree with the messages, it's because you're deeply entrenched in sin, your views are tainted by "worldly" philosophies like feminism (rather than "rooted in the Bible"), or you're just angry because the pastor has "stepped on your toes."

Never is the problem the sexism/misogyny/homophobia/internalized racism* so apparent in the message. Nor, in the case of Perry, as my friend noted, is it the "minstrel show (held up as 'real') and... transvestitism played for laughs."

Previously-published reasons Tyler Perry makes me roll my eyes sometimes.
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*I've heard some sermons that leave me wondering, "Wow, how did he seamlessly combine the Bible and the Moynihan Report like that?"

How Small Is My Hometown?

Here is our section of the phone book: 6 pages back & front and includes info for two towns and one village.

Recipes!

*As you've probably noticed, particularly on Facebook, my "more healthful eating" plan has been shot since I've been in Louisiana. I'm getting back on the bandwagon next week. :-)*

Sunday is my family church's Homecoming. It's a huge event and we'll cook a big dinner for extended family and anyone who might drop by afterward. This is one day on which my mom takes lead; I'll be like the sous chef :-)

Anyway, Mama is cooking dressing, greens, cornbread, potato salad, fried chicken, sweet potato pies and pound cake. I'm going to make chicken and dumplings and I usually make mac and cheese, but I want to make something different. I also need to make a dessert. I'm determined to make something besides red velvet cake, peach dumplings, or strawberry shortcake (my standards) or cheesecake (which I make occasionally but I don't feel like that much effort, especially when they still sometimes get those fine little cracks in the top).

I thought maybe something with egg noodles... only because I'm looking at a pack now. The only thing I've found online that remotely interests me is another play on mac and cheeses, so it doesn't have to be that though. Go ahead; leave me ideas (or e-mail them). It doesn't have to be traditional southern food--I like to throw something new on 'em every once in a while.

Archives

So, one of the things I was researching was welfare cuts in 1960 Louisiana... y'all know I got some quotes for that ass!!

But, the rhetoric surrounding welfare has not changed much since then.

I Don't Think that Word Means What You Think It Means...

Yesterday, my son asked me, "Mama, what would you say if I told you I was going Gothic?"

Me: "I'd ask you what does Gothic mean."

The Kid: "It's when you dress all in black and sit under trees and read big books. I mean, bigger than the Harry Potter books! And you frown so nobody bothers you."

Me: "Well, as long as you know what's required..."

Is This What They Call Middle-Aged?

Packing for my archive visit and double-checking to make sure I have:
-My three prescriptions
-My vitamins
-A book
-Benadryl (tablets and cream)
-Panty girdle (not good, I know, but my mom and my grandmother spent years drumming into us the absolute necessity)
-Slippers
-Three similarly colored outfits to cut down on pairs of shoes needed, and ensure interchangeability in the event of an accident
-Comfortable underwear

Realizing fifteen years ago, I would've been making sure I had:
-Cute panties (you know, in case someone saw them :-)
-Six outfits and twelve pairs of shoes for a two-day stay (because you need to be able to change your mind)
-Lip gloss--lots and lots of lip gloss

How Addicted Am I to Social Media?

Twitter is down and I'm contemplating finding all my Twitter friends and making them my Facebook friends because I miss the conversations!!!

Important Announcement

So, last night I was talking to my cousin, Janna, my goddaughter's, Belle's, mother. Belle (seven-years-old!!!) interrupted our conversation with an important announcement.

Belle: Guess what?

Me: What?

Belle: T.I. is cheating on you with Tiny!

(I'm assuming she's caught some of Tiny and Toya)

Me: (dramatic gasp/sigh) I know. We gone have to find us somebody else.

Silence. Then,

Belle: You go ahead. I'm keeping T.I.

Where Is Aniysah?

From Document the Silence:

On March 3rd, 2009 six year old Aniysah was taken from her mother’s arms and thrown into a legal shuffle of unaccountability, instability and discrimination. There were no records verifying that she would be taken to a safe living environment or that she was enrolled in school. Questions about her health and well-being went unanswered. That was 150 days ago. To date, Aniysah remains lost in the legal system. A system where black and brown children go missing everyday. A system where black mothers like Aniysah’s are often left to fend for themselves in a brutal, dogged battle just to make sure their children are safe.



It’s time to hold the legal system accountable. Document the Silence asks that you join them in the “Where’s Aniysah?” campaign by posting information about this case on your blogs, online social networks and throughout your community. You can find out more about this campaign to stand against injustices against our children in the legal system by visiting the Document the Silence website .

Where’s Aniysah? What you can do!

* Show up! – Are you going to be in the NYcity area August 24th? Come to Aniysah’s court date and show the judge and the law guardian you care! Even if you can’t make it, invite your friends who can! The deets:The next court date is August 24th, 2009 at 11AM and the address is :IDV PartCourtroom E-123, Annex BuildingJustice Fernando M. CamachoQueens County IDV Court,Queens County Supreme CourtCriminal Term 125-01 Queens BlvdKew Gardens, New York 11415

* Spread the word!- send this website out to everyone you know. tell them why this is important. post to your facebook account. forward on your many list serves. post Aniysah’s mom youtube clip on your facebook page. write a blog about her story. email everyone you know and don’t know.

* Speak up! – do you know of other children of color who have been lost in the legal shuffle? Let’s document the silence of court sanctioned kidnapping that is happening to black and brown women and children across the country! email us at beboldbered@gmail.com and we will add your story to the website.

H/T Lex, format copied from VivirLatino

He's a Cute Kid and a Good Kid...

Presented with little comment (because I'm more interested in yours) about the nature of media coverage (and, of course, a much broader problem). You only have to watch the first three minutes or so of the first video if you're in a time crunch :-)




vs.



Also, when I heard about Jill and Kevin's wedding entrance, I know I can't be the only person who thought, had they been people of a different... complexion, that probably would've been perceived more like the joke in the first 1:15 of this video:



(i.e. "ghetto")

H/T Professor Rachel and MB via facebook and twitter

Random Observations

Now that Tiny and Kandi are trying out reality TV, when will LaTocha and Tamika Scott get their chance?

I watched "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" last night and thought it illustrated how precarious our economic situation is--the so-called difference between being "rich" and being "wealthy." I haven't watched any of the other "Housewives" shows, so I wonder if any of them have Sheree's problem of looming foreclosure or if the kind of rumor that circles NeNe's husband, Gregg (that he's broke/about to be broke), are spread about the other husbands.

mrs. o and my sister don't have Bravo as part of their cable packages and were hatin' on me last night. :-p

I'm having an allergy attack that causes mad itching, then mad scratching, and then hives and redness that make me look like I frolicked through a glade of poison ivy or something.

Summer school's almost over!!!!

My darling Kimberly got sucked in by HGTV's promises that yes, you can DIY!!! and has been painting for about 22 years now. :-) A short excerpt of a recent FB chat:

Kim: Do you watch HGTV?

elle: ummm... no.

Kim: DON'T! It's the debil.

elle: LMAO!! That's how Lowe's and them get you!

Speaking of which, one of my grad students offered a pretty good critique of Lowe's, Home Depot, et. al., advertising which purports to turn stereotypes on their head (by insisting women don't need a "handyman" or portraying women as the real decision makers behind home improvements). She thinks they support those stereotypes by either 1) positioning themselves as the exception or 2) expecting people to find it humorous that the companies have "switched" the gender roles.

I think this is a fine example of splitting hairs: "I didn't call you jungle momkey, the noun; I only used it as an ADJECTIVE to describe your behavior and writing!" For some reason, it reminds me of people I've met who claim "the n-word" can be used to described people of any color who possess certain "immoral" or "less-than-industrious" qualities. How do you say "You're missing the point" to people like that?

And, btw, can someone point Mr. "Yes-I-Used-Jungle Monkey Pejoratively* but I'm not a Racist" to a racism 101 course... or a bingo card... or J. Smooth?

I'm still thinking a lot about Michael Jackson.

As of today, I haven't seen my kid in three weeks. Longest time ever!

I had a phone conversation with Deuce last night. Well... in the sense that he understands a "question voice" and pause means it's his turn to babble.

Okay. Must slather myself with Benadryl Cream and pray no one comes by the office!

How Do They Do It? Pt 3

I also watched lots of news channels and was struck by:

Almost any coverage of the murder of Byrd and Melanie Billings who are primarily known, according to many media sources, "for adopting special needs children."

Nancy Grace and Jane Velez-Mitchell expressing mock sympathy and yelling, "What's going to happen to the kids now?" and being surprised when the family said the children would be kept together.

The ableist and underlying assumptions that 1) It is remarkable than people adopt special needs children and 2) the remaining family would perceive the children as burdens and not want to keep them.

Suffering for the Common Good

Gathering clips about eugenics for a fall class. Ran across this little tidbit:

Dr. Osborn could not even admit the claims of birth control advocates to a humanitarian consideration for the sufferings of women in childbirth. On this subject he said, in part: "The attempt to relieve womankind of what may be termed the prehistoric and historic burden of the female of the species naturally enlists the sympathy both of the individualists of our time, who are ready to support any measure to give women greater freedom of profession and of action, as well as of the sentimentalists, who do not realize that women's share in the hard struggle for the existence of the race is a very essential element in the advance of womankind."

Science News Letter, August 27, 1932

That Damned Eve Screwed All of Us!!!!

How Do They Do It? Pt 2

You might want to watch it for yourself to see if our impressions are similar. Most of the relevant stuff is in Part 3.

Anyway, the first episode of Meet the Browns I saw was "Meet the Ex" in which Will's old friend, a woman named Lynn, makes a pass at his wife, Sasha. Much homophobia/biphobia ensued--Sasha was suddenly scared of Lynn and didn't want to be near her. Lynn describes her feelings as, "I love men... women... everybody!" In other words, she's a slut. She's so low she'll come on to her best friend's wife.

Her bisexuality is explained as experimentation--no real attachment or attraction she just wants to "experience as much as I can," "live life to the fullest," "take a walk on the wild side," etc. Sasha is so repulsed and threatened, she is no longer even willing to go out to dinner with Lynn, and doesn't want Will to go, either. When Will speaks highly of Lynn the next night, Sasha must quickly point out that Lynn is not worthy of praise because she is bisexual--the exact words, "Lynn's not who you think she is." All of Lynn's work as a well-traveled, smart philanthropist was negated by her bisexuality.

Even after they confront Lynn, she still urges them to stop being uptight and "spice things up." She's also revealed to be immature--she says she just wants to have some fun like they did in college, at which point Will reminds her, "We're not in college." "Not everyone," Sasha tells her, "shares your lifestyle." Lynn admits that she doesn't like rules and the couple bid her a very definite goodbye.

So, Lynn as bisexual is promiscuous, mostly experimenting, a potential homewrecker, a rule breaker, trying to lure people into her lifestyle.

Yep, I think he covered all the bases. And this gets national coverage.

How Do They Do It? Pt 1

This post got so long, I'm going to have to put it up in parts!

One of the things I was determined to do during my brain break was engage in a little escapism, via the television. Now, I have a problem watching TV or movies outside the theater--I lose the thread of what's going on, I can't concentrate, I have an overwhelming urge to get up and do something else (I'm the same way about telephone conversations).*

Anyway, back on track--me--escapism--TV. Honestly, there's not a lot on. I found myself simultaneously craving the MJ coverage and being further saddened by it. Anyway, I thought there might be some comic relief in Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns on TBS.

Full disclosure--I didn't come to the series unbiased. I have my issues with Tyler Perry--most recently, I was so profoundly angry about the Sanaa Lathan character in The Family that Preys.

Which brings me to my first "How do they do it (and get away with it)?" question. The absolute aversion to educated, succesful black women in The Family that Preys and in T.D. Jakes's Not Easily Broken was breathtaking. I mean, I wondered who in the world had paged Sapphire!

To show how absolutely revolting Andrea (Sanaa Lathan's character) was, Perry went into overdrive. She was mean, selfish, derisive of her husband, and, the ultimate sin--a white man's whore!!! She cheated on her black husband with a white man and bore the white man's child. I don't think he could've made her any lower.

The real issue seemed to be that she had some sort of perceived power over her husband because she had a better job and more money**--but apparently, that would have been too easy to say. Andrea was totally out of her place as a woman and her world was corrupted by that.

Same thing with Clarice (Taraji Henson's character)in Not Easily Broken. There's actually a Dave (Morris Chestnut's character, Clarice's husband) monologue during which we find out that what's wrong with the world is that men have lost their place as protectors and providers, a position usurped by women who don't realize they need men. Clarice browbeats and scorns her husband; her mother is constantly there to affirm that Dave is not good enough for her daughter and they almost push him into the arms of a white woman, a mother--a role Clarice has resisted (evidence of her selfishness). It is not until Clarice's mom is revealed as a bitter meddler, Clarice meekly asks for her husband to come back, and Clarice changes her mind and becomes pregnant, that all is made right within the Dave and Clarice universe.

There was also the recurring theme in both films of irrevocably damaged black women--the women who are so hurt by one black man they can never again "appreciate" another one. Andrea was traumatized by the abandonment of her father, Clarice's mom had been abandoned by her husband. Because they didn't just get over it, their lives were ruined.

I've seen clips from Madea Goes to Jail, and Perry's insistence that women get over it was evident--one incarcerated woman was beginning to tell how she had been hurt by her stapfather and Madea interrupts to tell her, basically, that it didn't matter. Now, I think they were in a therapy session, the woman was trying to process something she had found traumatic, and she is told to get over it. So, there is this disconnect--being told to "get over it" but having the means by which one might "get over it" (therapy, talking, sharing, processing) dismissed.

I can't speak to anyone's church experience but my own, but this is part of the reason I had to distance myself from my attended-my-whole-life church. The Eve-and-Jezebel sermons, as my sister calls them, got wearying. It began to feel like an attack--pews filled with black women being told all that is wrong with us, with most of it rooted firmly in our efforts to survive and thrive. We transgressed by forgetting what our (subordinate) place should be. I don't know how Perry, Jakes, or my pastor get away with maligning so much of their audiences, ignoring criticism, and forging on in the same way--I guess because it works? I watched two episodes of Meet the Browns, didn't I?

Nothing about this critique is new, I know. I'm just working through these ideas as I try to explain, honestly, how I went into viewing "Meet the Browns" with some bias, while simultaneously admitting I have found the "Brown" character funny. Tomorrow, I really will get to the series, I promise.
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*As a side note, at my doctor's office, I had to do this depression checklist and one of the things listed was the inability to pay attention to television, to concentrate, etc. And I burst out crying right then because I felt like, "Oh my God, it's not just me." It's been hard to read a book, write as much as I should, etc, for the longest time! After I explained that my tears were actually ones of relief, my doctor asked me about any past diagnoses of ADD, too, but she and I will have to explore that more.

**At the end of the movie, when that power thing is flipped and Andrea is living in a run-down apartment and having to accept money from her ex-husband, that is acceptable. She deserved it, after all.

DC Vigil for Lei Tyree Johnson

Via Kismet:

Ignore domestic violence as someone else's issue #youdothis.
Agitate and Conversate on the damage being done in your communities #idothis

Come out, come out, please! And RT/Repost this widely:

Because my writing has had to take precedent over other projects over the summer I haven’t been posting here as much as I would like. However I just received an email that bears posting:

On July 1, 2009, Lei Tyree Johnson with a male friend was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend, who also attempted to suffocate her 12-year old son. A vigil honoring Johnson and the cause of Domestic Violence will be held on Wednesday, July 22, 2009 from 7pm-9pm at UDC-Denard Plaza. The event is co-sponsored by the Beta Iota Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta (Johnson crossed at Beta Iota in 2000) and the UDC Pan Hell. If you are in the DC/MD/VA area PLEASE come out and help take a stand against domestic violence.

Attire: Members of Fraternities and Sororities wear paraphernalia

Bring a white candle & a friend.

For further information please contact dcdelta4life@gmail.com

Those on twitter PLEASE tweet this. Those on facebook please share this. Those who are simply blog readers, please share this however you can. In times like these I fear this will become even more common than it (unfortunately) already is.

Kismet linked here.

Taking...

...a much needed brain break. With the 4th and summer school coming up in the next week, I probably won't be back for a week or so.

See you later!

She's Right: Why Not?

This year, I AM GOING (not going to say planning or trying to go) to the AMC.

Why not help send me and some other lovely ladies? Via Noemi:

AMC. We need to get there.We have fundraised, asked for grants, compromised, felt energized, asked for days off, gotten free airline tickets, borrowed time, overcharged credit cards and emailed/talked/made plans with friends and strangers across the lines.And still call us shameless, we ask for more. Y porque no?

please consider donating to these fine, chingona mujeres

Maegan “la Mala” Ortiz, raising chingona mujeres. Sending single mami love
laMamitaMala.com
mamitamala@yahoo.com

Elle, southern sistorian, who I shall meet one day even if we live closer than other folks. Oh we shall share a beer very very soon
http://elleabd.blogspot.com/
mselleg@aol.com

blackamazon Sydette otherwise known as the bad ass who I love
http://guyaneseterror.blogspot.com/
Sydette@gmail.com

Fabiola, fabmexicana who guest blogs here, leaving pedacitos de su corazon.
Otra mami soltera de Califabmexicana@gmail.com

Noemi Martinez
spiller of dreams-single mami hermanaresist.com
csdistro@gmail.com

ms. cripchick
a powerchair-roaring queer radical woman of color
cripchick's weblog
stacey.milbern@gmail.com

Many of us will be taking part in the Women’s Media EquitySummit on July 16th.At the AMC, we’ll be involved in several different caucuses, meetings and generally raisinga ruckus wherever you may find us. And OUR KIDS WILL BE CAUSING ALL SORTS OF MAYHEM AT THE KIDS TRACK AND IN GENERAL. It will be a sight to see. Things will happen. We will write/blog about it.

On Brisenia Flores

When I was working on my dissertation, I had to read quite a bit of “immigration” literature for my last chapter. One of the books I remember most was John Higham’s Strangers in the Land, because so many others referenced his assertion that throughout U.S. history, nativism and xenophobia have ebbed and flowed.

I remember that, because as I’ve said before, I think we are caught in a peak period and it seems we have been for well over a decade now.

But having the historical perspective to see it as part of a pattern, to know that it might recede some day, does not make it any less painful to live through, especially as we bear witness to the beating deaths of Luis Ramirez and Jose Sucuzhañay, the disrespect shown to the memory and family of Ana Fernandez,

And the murder of nine-year-old Brisenia Flores.

I heard about Brisenia Flores a few weeks ago, from the Sanctuary, VivirLatino, and via Twitter. She and her father were murdered, and her mother was shot, in their home, in the middle of the night, by people "associated" with the Minuteman Project.

I have been unable to get the words together to write about this child, because of all the thoughts racing through my mind:

Racists still come to our homes and murder us in the middle of the night.
Still.

This reinforces for people of color how tenuous the safety of our children is.
Still.

We live in a white supremacist patriarchy that claims to value a certain family structure while violently disrupting that structure in families of color.
Still.

How long are people going to deny the violence that permeates so much right-wing extremism? What do we expect from people fed on a constant diet of "us vs. them" and "retain-our-privilege-at-all-cost?" Why aren’t more of us repulsed that it’s cloaked in the language of love for “God and country?”

Beyond all the symbolic things, a nine-year-old child and her father were killed because of hatred. Even then, we can’t talk about that without feeling the need to air the murderers’ opinion that Raul Flores, Jr., Brisenia’s father, sold drugs.*

As if the Minutemen need justification to act violently against a Latin@ family and community. As Maegan notes:

The goal [of Shawna Forde and Gunny Bush] wasn’t to observe, document and report as Jim Gilchrist, the leader of the Minuteman Project, has said in trying to distance himself from his associates charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree burglary and one count of aggravated assault. The goal was to use violence against a family viewed as expendable to help further their cause of using violence against those viewed as expendable.

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*I have not read anything that backs the truth of that claim, and yet the NYT juxtaposes it with the local Sheriff’s observation that “there is ample drug activity between here and the border.” Now, he doesn’t say that Raul Flores, Jr., is connected to it, but that quote is somehow relevant when talking about the murder of a Latino man who lived near the border.