It takes More than just Oprah and Tyler's blessing...

As the movie Precious ascends to the top of the movie rankings this weekend, much will be said about the marketing power of Oprah and the film production wizardry of Tyler Perry. While both lent their names and followings to the promotional effort, the producing couple Sarah Siegel-Magness and her husband Gary Magness deserve equal credit as they acquired the rights to the novel PUSH from author Sapphire. It was the Magnesses who conducted the casting that landed Gabourey Sidibe, believed in director Lee Daniels and got the movie to Sundance where they made a deal with Lionsgate (5mil) who brought in Perry. I am not naive enough to say that having Oprah and Perry out in front of this movie doesn't enhance the profile or insure good draws at the box office, but I am for fair coverage and acutally find it interesting that at the heart of this gritty story about abuse in a black family, you have a white couple from Colorado believing in it enough to believe in Lee Daniels enough to sink the money to get it made. Having read this story, I will be happy for Mr. Perry and Ms Winfrey should Oscars come out of this film, but I'll also be looking to see how the Magnesses bask in their moment of glory on the dais.

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Using the Masters Tools: Students at WashU

When Regis Murayi (in the P-coat) set up the culminating party for his trip to Chicago with 200 of his classmates, I'm sure the senior class president at Washington University in St. Louis didn't think he was going to be the one who wouldn't get into the party that night. Unfortunately he in fact didn't get in because apparently the jeans that he and six of his friends, also African American, were wearing were too baggy according to bar officials at Original Mother's. Needless to say Murayi and his peers found this "dress code" peculiar so they got one of their white classmates to put on Murayi's jeans and see if he could get in the club. Fernando Cutz had no problem with entrance, and he took a commemorative pic from inside the club with his baggy jeans so there could be no disputing his entry.

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This story is beautiful to me because as inexcusable as the behavior of the bar officials was, the response of the students is a classic example of using new millenium tactics to combat age-old ideologies of privilege and race. It would have been simple for the Black students to resort to violence or act out in some way that would have landed them in jail, creating a police record that would have trailed them as they tried to transition into the professional world. Instead they took advantage of new media to expose the behavior of the bar staff and shape the narrative that would be told as the story hit the national news. It is also of note the role of the White student, Mr Cutz, who was willing to use his privilege as a white dude for justice. His actions underscore the idea that it takes EVERYONE to combat racist ideologies. Now two weeks after the incident, the students and the bar owners are reported to be close to a "resolution" of the matter. The requests of the students have not been released, but it should be understood that the willingness of Original Mothers to negotiate is in part driven by the fact that the negative press they have received has affected their bottom line ($$$). Kudos to the WashU students for using their education instead of raw emotion to combat the racism they faced in Chicago.

Raising an Urban Chameleon

One of the blogs I follow is Home of the Urban Chameleon (HOTUC) edited by a serious sista named Haj, whom I'm honored to know. I dig the site because the idea of an Urban Chameleon is a modern twist on the Duboisian ideal of Double Consciousness. The way I internalize it, an urban chameleon has the distinct ability to morph and change "colors" at a moment's notice to adjust to the context he finds himself in. This ability gives the chameleon the ability to survive and thrive in numerous environments. As I follow the insightful posts on HOTUC, I try to relate the issues raised to my life, a great deal of which is dedicated to ensuring the safe passage of my son through the educational pipeline. So it got me to thinking, how does an old head chameleon teach his young to use the powers encoded in his DNA? These are the lessons I've come up with so far:

1. TEACH THE YOUNG CHAMELEON ABOUT COLOR

Even at 2, my son already recognizes differences in skin color, so it is important to help the growing chameleon understand what color means in this country. My little man must understand that he is never to allow people to put him in a box because of his primary skin color. He is also never to judge others based on their differences from him. As he gets older, he will come to understand that the idea of race is also not about color, but of power and privilege. His color does however link him to a cultural history and lineage which he must also learn because an understanding of this ancestry will give him a sense of how to use his multiple colors wisely.

2. IT IS OKAY TO BE MULTICOLORED

It is a blessing to have the ability to move in and out of a variety of contexts seamlessly. This skill does not come without practice. The parent chameleon must be able to provide support as the young one struggles with "color expression". The parent must also help the young one understand why they are placed into various settings meant to help enhance their "color quality". As a youngster this meant understanding why I had to take piano lessons when all I wanted to do was play basketball. Why did I have to take Latin in 7th grade when I was already taking Spanish. Why did I have to go to a private school when most of my friends went to public ones? With each new color that the growing chameleon masters, the parent must continue to reinforce that they are not "selling out" who they are at the core, but instead are learning behaviors and skills that will be of benefit throughout their lifetime.

DAMN! Can We Respect Our Women Please

When the news broke that Rihana and Chris Brown had an incident this past winter, it shined a white hot light on the issue of domestic violence which continues to be a pervasive problem across the nation. Later sports fans learned about Denver Broncos' wide receiver Brandon Marshall's stormy past with girlfriend Rasheedah Watley. Just last week, Cleveland Cavaliers guard, Delonte West, already facing charges for being stopped with an arsenal of weapons, added a domestic violence charge to his resume as his wife filed a report against him that they fought after he tried to take her wedding ring. One would think that the mounting instances of domestic violence in the public eye would cause discussion that might lead to greater awareness on how to curb these issues, but clearly this is not the case as I read about the HORRIFIC GANG RAPE involving an estimated 20 students at Homecoming dance in Richmond, CA.

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My reaction is simple, this is disgusting...If it doesn't do something to you emotionally to hear that a 15 year-old girl was raped for over 2 HOURS by at least 4 men, and there were witnesses, then you have no soul. It says to me that clearly the way masculinity is portrayed in pop culture has gone over the top, and that women, particularly those of color, have been objectified to the point where they are regarded as little more than targets of sexual conquest.

The Richmond Gang Rape indicates that WE as a culture have done a poor job of engaging youth in critical conversations about sexuality and how to explore it responsibly. Wrap It Up PSAs during TRL and 106& Park aren't going to make a dent when 8 out of the Top 10 videos of the day feature either a woman being showcased for her parts or an artist celebrating his ability to be a attract any woman he wants. The same is true for our print media. On top of that some of our school systems implicitly give the okay to risky sexual behavior by preventing students from being taught about abstinence. I'm not calling for the banishment of visual forms of expression in any medium, as troubling as they can be. Music videos were a major form of entertainment for me as a teen (as was after hours HBO), but I got checked on what I was watching constantly and sat through many a lecture from John C. Carroll about the responsibility of becoming sexually active before I was ready. These critical conversations are what I'm calling for now and I hope that every young person who gets arrested in connection with this heartless act is forced to sit in and listen to women trying to piece their lives back together after being violated in this way. I can't even begin to imagine the psychological scars, but I can easily see how if it were my daughter, they would have to put me in lockup for at least a week to keep me from committing a more serious crime. The quote below from the parents of the young girl, read in a statement by their pastor, succinctly details what everyone should make time to do in their community. Mass media will not change as long as their are dollars to be made from objectifying the human form. So that leaves it to consumers to make sure that they are responsible and make sure that their young loved ones are just as responsible as they engage with media. The coldness of character needed to perform this act, or standby and witness it is not born overnight. We must all think about how we can help prevent another young girl's life from forever being altered.

"Volunteer at a school. Go help a neighbor. Be courageous in speaking the truth and in holding people accountable. Work toward changing the atmosphere in our schools and in this community so that this kind of thing never happens again. Please do not let this happen again."

Celebrating What Hip Hop Was...Def Jam at 25

I was excited to watch how VH1 would put on their annual Hip Hop Honors event this year with Def Jam Records as the honoree. As I grew from youth raised on Anita Baker to adolescent spending my weekly lunch money on bootleg tapes (yep, Germantown Ave) and later Rap CDs, I became fully immersed in the culture of hip hop and continue to claim it now as a 30+ father. The Def Jam tributes and later the BET Hip Hop awards pushed me to think about how my relationship with Hip Hop has been complicated over the years and is now very much a situation where I sit on the thin line between LOVING & HATING the music and culture which sustained and educated me as an adolescent, entertained me as a young adult, and still often soothes me as an emerging grown a$$ man. So I'm going to do my best Radio Raheem and lay out some of the things that I currently LOVE and HATE as I survey the Hip Hop landscape.

LOVE: Jay-Z still doin' it -- Instrumentation at Hip Hop shows -- Hip Hop is Global -- New Boyz representin' a new style on the West Coast -- Goodie Mob reunion performances

HATE: Hyper-Consumerism (is Gucci Mane's iced out EGG BEATER the new Flavor Flav clock?) -- the death of labels that set the trend as opposed to being dictated to by radio and record labels -- Songs like "By The Time I Get to Arizona" and "Burn Hollywood Burn" are now the exception and not the norm

LOVE: MCs who still have cipha skillz -- DJing is NOT a lost art (I see you DJ Premier) -- Fatima Robinson gets some shine from BET -- MCs who try to give back to their community (good job on the profiles BET) -- Drake owning his publishing rights

HATE: Where are the hits from Rap-A-Lot Records, No Limit, and So So Def? -- How come Talib Kweli and Dead Prez can't get the same number of spins as Soulja Boy? -- What happened to the night time Hip Hop show on local radio (grew up on Radioactive in Philly)? -- Not seeing lady emcees getting a shot -- MCs who have no clue how to do a live show.

New Black Man? I'm working on it

One of the pieces of my dissertation proposal that I felt needed the most fortifying was an examination of the accepted ideals of masculinity. As I begin my project on what a Black Male uniquely brings to the field of teacher education, I felt it necessary to have a grounding in the ways masculinity has been written about in general so that I might better be able to describe the ways it plays out in teacher education in particular. An Amazon.com search on "Black Masculinity" lead me to the book New Black Man by Mark Anthony Neal. What drew me to the book was the way Neal, a self described Black Male Feminist, sought to renovate the long standing archetype of the Strong Black Man and upgrade some of his characteristic features. I come away from my reading of this book feeling challenged yet optimistic that while I have work to do distance myself from paternalistic practices, I'm on the right path.

What struck me early in the book was how closely Neal ties a progressive Black masculinity to themes from the Black Feminist movement. I wondered how could a man explore his masculinity while paying a great deal of attention to the plight of women. Neal describes how his foundation as a male feminist was laid spending time in the beauty shop as a youth, and soaking up the adoration of a range of females. The simplistic question that I asked myself as I read was "So am I a feminist because I read and enjoyed Terry McMillan novels in high school?" Ultimately Neal comes to describe Black Male Feminism as being committed to anti-sexist, anti-homophobic politics, and dismantling patriarchial practices in the Black community. The later chapters of the book clearly describe the struggle Neal has faced to match his Male Feminist theories with practice. He notes how becoming a father has had a tremendous impact on his commitment to these ideals as they have a direct impact on the way his daughters will be raised and experience the world.

While New Black Man was a little more progressive than I thought it would be when I read the synopsis, the takeaway lessons are no less valuable. Neal hits the mark with his description of contradictions that arise from being a pro-feminist "Hip Hop Head". What does it mean when you espouse the equal treatment of women, but yet bob your head to "Drop It Like It's Hot"? How do you embrace Black homosexuals as part of the community and not just tolerate and encourage their closeted existence? Finally, how do you fight against paternalistic behavior in the church and other sacred institutions for the advancement of the community? I recognized upon completion of the text that there is no set formula for what it takes to be a New Black Man, but instead, there are guiding questions leading to an ideal. These questions serve to "check" ones behavior. The question each Black male must ask of himself is: Am I willing to hold myself accountable for behavior that might reinforce status quo notions of gender that will affect the women of my life (be it daughter, sister, wife, cousin, baby mama)? If the answer is NO, then continue to be disappointed by the male depictions promoted by pop culture. I know I've got to do something because I know I don't want my son learning how to find a life partner watching For the Love of Ray J or Real Chance of Love.

We CANNOT Forget Derrion Albert

I was all set to write about how making my way through Mark Anthony Neal's New Black Man, was exposing me to a new lens on masculinity. Very much like when you get a new eyeglass prescription and the optometrist plays with the lenses in front of your eye until he finds the one that allows you to see the fine print clearly. I wanted to write and sort my thoughts on Dr. Neal's depaprture from the archetype of the Strong Black Man. Following a chat with my man Lu, I got up the nerve to watch the graphic footage of Derrion Albert being beaten to death in a Chicago street by fellow high schoolers. Immediately I knew I had to write about this incident which gave us an All-Access pass to the types of murders that occur in major urban centers daily. The tears welled up immediately as I watched the wooden board come crashing down, realizing that a life had just been ended senselessly. The event made me think about how helpless I would feel if my own son were involved in such a situation, and the immediate despondency I'd fall into were I to lose him in such a way. As my man Lu noted in our chat, this event and it's filming was like the facing the open casket of Emmet Till. Having to face that raw visual should be more than enough to spur action to ensure that it never happens again. I worry that based on what we have seen so far, the fallout from this tragedy will not cause the kind of reform that needs to take place in order to avoid a repeat performance.

Now two weeks after the event, myFox Chicago had a story about a student-lead Town Hall meeting where young people were allowed to voice their concerns for their safety as well as talk about the event. Police, politicians and concerned community members were also in attendance. But where were the buses full of protesters coming into town to demand justice like in Jena? Where were Rev. Al and Michael Baisden? Where's the statement from the President? He can defend Gates right away, but to comment on this he has to call a huddle so that he can release a statement "soon"? Does the fact that this is a Black-on-Black crime make it less of an atrocity than the Jena 6 beating up a White kid? All I know is that listening to the clips of youth speaking out at the Town Hall Meeting, clearly they feel that very few people are there to support them. The inaction of the larger Black community to support this hurting group of students and their families speaks volumes.

So I won't be forgetting Derrion Albert anytime soon, in fact ever. That video is imprinted permanently. It means that whatever I need to do to protect my little one from such a situation, I'll do it. It means that if there are less hours of sleep for me because I'm spending more time trying to develop interventions aimed at helping male youth of color navigate the K-12 pipeline, so be it. Derrion Albert deserved better, and I pray that we never have to see another video like that again.