5 Things I Think

[stealing Justin's idea from last year...]

• Watching Sarah Tiana vs. Earl Skakel in the semi-finals of the Roast Battle last weekend is the closest I'll ever come to being someone in the audience when B. Rabbit obliterates Poppa Doc in the final battle of 8 Mile.
  
  
• There are three categories of Trump supporters: (1.) The willfully ignorant. These are the cretans being led by their noses, susceptible to the the fear-mongering his campaign has hosed them down with . (2.) The white nationalists. These are the political racists, all too happy that someone on so grand a stage has given their extremist views a voice. (3.) The greedy capitalists. These are the 1%ers, who are willing to turn a blind eye to the ignorance and overt racism, because Trump being in power will mean they can enjoy more tax cuts and more absurdity of wealth without having to contribute anything back to society.
  
  
• Trump didn't invent GOP fearmongering. Let's not kid ourselves--we're witnessing the evolutionary byproduct of Karl Rove's political strategies, the blueprint that led to eight years of Dubya sitting in the oval office, repeatedly embarrassing our country.
  
  
• I miss writing. I really do. The past few days I've found myself wistfully reading through old On the Rocks posts. Though the feelings of longing that those tales bring about have as much to do with missing my youth as much as missing my keyboard.
  
  
• Parties should never have structure. Some people have a hard time with that. They want parties to have themes, and each guest to have an all-in mentality. You can't structure fun. Just let people get together, pour a drink, and relax.

Damnit White People, You're Mad at Star Wars Now?!?!?!

This just has to be Trolling...it HAS to be.

So #‎BoycottStarWarsVII‬ is a "thing" and it makes me want to slap someone. By thing I mean people are trying to start a movement to boycott the movie because a black Storm Trooper is somehow unfathomable and the fact that he is a main character is somehow an affront to white people (again this just HAS to be trolling).

Space Darkies in a fictitious cinematic universe threatens the power of white people in America.

JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL

Look, let me explain this to you. Happening to have a Darkie in a lead role in a fictional movie that exists in a galaxy far far away is not White Genocide. Nevermind genocide has a very specific meaning 

genocide

the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.

Last time I checked no one was ethnically cleansing white folks in America. No one is rounding white folks up and sending them to gas chambers. So stop that silly shit.

Mind you this isn't the first time this has happened in film.

So let me get this straight

This bothers you                                    

This bothers you                                                     

This bothers you                      

This bothers you                        

But this shit is totally acceptable

What kind of ass backwardness is this? Especially when you are busy white washing ancient Egypt, you're doing it at a place that ACTUALLY EXISTS. WITH REAL PEOPLE WITH REAL FUCKING FEATURES.

This brand of racism pisses me off not because it's racist but because it's lazy as fuck.

If you wanna get worried about the position of white people in this country because black and brown people will soon outnumber you. AT LEAST THAT SHIT IS BASED IN REALITY. 

This is just lazy in every sense of the word.

Step your game up lazy racists.

#Start Nerd Rant

Don't give me the bullshit about black Storm Troopers not being canon because of the Clone Wars. 

1. everything you know about canon is no longer so due to the jettisoning of the Expanded Universe. 

2. the time period of the new movie is like 30 years after the events of Return of The Jedi. Fett Daddy's clones would be at least 50. 

3. Unless you kept making clones of the same fucker you are going to need new recruits and in a galaxy with multiple life having planets it's pretty plausible one of those systems had break dancing watermelon eating darkies on it.

#End Nerd Rant

This just HAS to be trolling. 

And it works because people have actually gotten pissed about shit like this mind you people actually argued if a black storm trooper was possible.

Lawd help these idiots

Senseless

I'm trying to gather my thoughts. I just watched a murder.

But please don't think I'm in shock. I'm neither shaken up nor am I confused. And I'm much too numb to be horrified—that one might say the most.

The video was footage from the body camera of a University of Cincinnati police officer, Ray Tensing, as he shot an unarmed black civilian, Sam DuBose, in the head. At point blank range. You may have heard of the case. Then again you may not have; these things have a way of eluding some people's radars. Blissful ignorance will always have an appeal.

But, being black, I don’t have the luxury of ignorance. So instead, I’m trying to gather my thoughts.

I want to point to the blatancy of Tensing’s act. Here is a law enforcement officer plainly ignoring standard written procedure; procedure that’s taught and drilled into police officers around the country every day. Procedure that far too many police officers choose to forgo when the face they encounter is African American. But pointing out the obvious inevitably feels empty, especially when we’ve seen it all before.

Over the past 354 days since Michael Brown’s murder at the hands of Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, MO we’ve seen what seems like 354 unarmed, presumably innocent black men and women die at the hands of police officers across the country. An endless, devastating crawl of hashtagged names have crossed social media timelines. Tamir Rice. Akai Gurley. Sandra Bland. Freddie Gray. Trayvon Martin.

It’s not even the first time we’ve seen an act of brazen murder on video. The chokehold that suffocated Eric Garner and the gunshots to the back that felled Walter Scott were replayed on endless loops by news programs. Rice’s murder should have trumped all in the world of infotainment, as surveillance cameras focused directly on the scene captured a Cleveland police officer, without warning or cause, firing bullets into a 12-year-old boy who was playing in a park. What more can be said, what more naiveté can be clenched onto when the brutal murder of a child is videotaped, watched, replayed, digested, and forgotten by the mass populace?

I remember being horrified when Rice’s story broke, and the video was released. Eight months and one week later, I’m numb.

I have the strange, at times surreal perspective of being half white. The majority of people who surround me on a daily basis, both professionally and personally, are white. Most are open-minded, understanding, and sympathetic. Some are even outraged. But not all of them. And that’s when this entire dynamic gets awkward. Because that’s when I have to engage in, oversee, or willfully ignore the conversations. The latter doesn’t happen all that often, because I don’t have the luxury of ignorance.

I have one friend, a white male under 30, who met the Baltimore protests over Freddie Gray’s murder with an unyielding refrain of, “You have to respect the police.” No amount of reasoning would move him from this point.

No sensible black man, woman, or child doesn’t know and practice this. The irony is we often have no choice but to practice this. Fear of what would happen, if the mere impression of disrespect was even inferred, keeps us heel-toeing with sweat on our brows the second a police officer pulls us over. But it doesn’t work. Sam DuBose was anything but disrespectful. I dare you to even say he was confrontational. And yet he lost his life.

What’s more, for every case of a docile, respectful black citizen being killed by someone in a police uniform, there are five cases of belligerent, threatening white people unflinchingly attacking police officers and living to make bail.

The flaw in the “You have to respect the police” philosophy is that it’s predicated on a fairytale. It relies on the gullible belief that the police are always, and without exception, offering respect in return. But there are exceptions—thousands of them. And if you’re a person of color, you have to treat those exceptions as the rule.

I have respect for the police. But I also have rights as a human being. And while my friend can rely on his rights being recognized whether he is or isn’t being respectful, I cannot. Instead I have to deal with an armed individual who may very well let his or her thoroughly-uninformed expectations of who I am override the training that he or she has received, and the respect that he or she should instinctively maintain.

I’m not in shock. I’m afraid.

I’m afraid I’ll be Sam DuBose. Or Freddie Gray. Or one of the hundreds of other innocent black men and women murdered by police officers. I’m afraid one or more of my friends will die in a jail cell when all he or she did was change lanes without signaling. I’m even more afraid that a member of my family will suffer that fate. I’m afraid I’ll experience both the joy of having children, and the unimaginable sorrow of someday watching video of a police officer shooting them dead on a playground without provocation or thought. I’m afraid those who defend the police officers will never come to understand why I’m afraid. I’m afraid it’s never going to change.

I don’t have the luxury of not being afraid.

Race Bait

What if the biased stance, the pointed rhetoric, and the loaded questions were all focused on the white side of the spectrum?

Chris Hayes is a national treasure for this.



Props go to my buddy GG for bringing this clip to my attention by posting it on Facebook. The comment immediately after mine in the resulting thread was an older white woman of some familiarity with GG (who is also white). Her response? "People do crazy thing when in a crowd..regardless of their skin color".

I think that's the first time that someone missing the point has simultaneously served to highlight the point.

Negrotown

Key and Peele speak the struggle. Their wit is fearless, their wisdom is biting, and their execution is flawless.

Lone Star

If you had told me the voice of reason with regards to racism would be a white-haired white man from Texas, I would've told you to pass the L and sit out the next rotation. Beautifully spoken wisdom by Mr. Dale Hansen.

From Bleacher Report:

With the opportunity to try to make a difference, sports anchor Dale Hansen of Dallas-Fort Worth's WFAA recently used some airtime to deliver a powerful anti-racism speech.

American Media 101

Standing Tall

The world needs more Brad Knudsons, and fewer Deron Puros.

From Global Grind:

A Minnesota father took a stand against both bullying and racism when he took to YouTube to expose the students taunting his adopted African-American daughter.

In the heartbreaking video above, Brad Knudson explains that his daughter’s friend came to the family to inform them that twins at her Prior Lake school were sending Dierdra racist Snapchat videos. Knudson and his wife recorded the Snapchats from their phone — in the shot videos, the twins can be heard calling Dierdra a n****r and a fat bitch.

Knudson, who adopted Dierdra 11 years ago, says the family has “dealt with a little bit of racism, you know, stares, things like that when she calls us Mom or Dad,” but blew it off because “it was directed toward us.” But the videos were too much for the family — Knudson, who said he loves Dierdra more than his own life, decided to take a stand against racism and bullying because a close friend of theirs lost their 13-year-old son to bullying not long ago.

This guy Puro is pure scum, and yet another sterling example of why you should be required by law to get a license before being allowed to be a parent. Brad Knudson, though? He's the gold standard, and would never have to renew his license. He's good for life.

Monday Kickstart: The Best of the Worst

If you don't recognize someone from each of these categories, then odds are you are someone from one of these categories.



I feel like I've devoted a lot of recent posts to racism. Maybe the last several months in America have churned so much of it up from the surface, that it's now first and foremost in our minds. Let's hope 2015 is a first step in the right direction. And the best medicine, cliche as it sounds, is always laughter. Laughing at these ridiculous, ignorant souls who just don't get it, and who'll never get it. You're either in on the joke, or you are the joke.

Let's focus on things that make this world a better place. Such as our first inspiration of 2015—and one of the hottest women the UK has ever produced—Ms. Michelle Keegan:

Let's go.

No Justice, No Peace

I’m struggling to put together my thoughts. I’ve been processing this for days—really, for months. My conscience tells me there’s something I should be saying. My brain tells me there’s nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said—that hasn’t already been ignored.

I’ve been impassioned by the measures of the minority acting on behalf of a minority, those protesting peacefully-but-forcefully in Ferguson, MO and the glittering metropolises like New York City, Los Angeles, and London. I’ve been horrified, in turn, by their counterparts, a much more minor minority, that has attempted to lay siege to the former’s legitimacy by burning buildings and looting livelihoods that never truly stood in their way.

I’ve been intrigued by the intelligent study of the few, men and women of education and understanding who’ve lent their thoughtful analysis to the evidence put forward. And I’ve been haunted by the words of fewer still: my fellow members of this odd first-and-a-half-person-perspective citizenship. Like them, my flesh didn’t absorb the bullets and my neck didn’t get squeezed free of air, but my soul has nevertheless felt the weight of hopelessness and sorrow.

I can only speak on behalf of those with whom I share this bond, this feeling of disenfranchisement. And for us, the emotion of it all is an important factor. It’s what’s missing for those who coldly deny our right to anger, our right to express outrage. For them, the topic has nothing to do with emotion. It’s a police officer using his standard-issue weapon or training to bring down an aggressive suspect. For these people, the situation is cause and effect. It’s black and white.

It’s black and white for us, too.

As a black member of American society, you feel eyes on you with every moment that you live in public domain. I’ve often wondered what it must be like to be a white face in an American crowd, moving unnoticed amongst a sea of similarity. To walk one city block without feeling like the people walking past, the people driving by, and the people looking out of their windows are looking directly and most specifically at you. I’ve had white friends spend a couple of hours in a nightclub or a part of town that is predominantly black, and express to me how out of place they felt. How they felt like everyone was staring at them. And they’ve told me this without a slightest twinge of irony, and with no insinuation that maybe it felt so weird for them because our roles had reversed. Not once did they manage to observe the greater truth: That this minor inconvenience, this brief moment of uncomfortableness that might have accounted for 0.05% of their day, was the feeling that I had throughout the other 99.95% of it.

For white Americans, a police uniform is a symbol of safety, honor, and protection. When trapped in an uncomfortable situation, whether race-related or not, a white person—I assume—would gravitate toward that uniform, no matter the skin color of the person wearing it. To a white American, a cop’s uniform is a knight’s armor striding towards them.

For black Americans, a police uniform is a symbol of absolutism, oppression, and tyranny. When at peace in a comfortable situation, whether in a black neighborhood or a white one, a black person—there’s no assumption here—will feel a cold chill at sight of that uniform, no matter the skin color of the person wearing it. To a black American, a cop’s uniform is a menacing storm cloud advancing upon us.

So often, in the past several weeks, I’ve seen white men and women argue that this trepidation, this fear of the police is entirely our own fault. Why surely, if you’re not doing anything wrong, if you’re not acting like a “thug,” if you’re not committing a crime, then you have nothing to be afraid of. Until you understand that this line of thinking has no bearing when you’re black in America, you will never understand our fear.

Obeying the law does not guarantee your safety when you’re black in America. Until you’ve been pulled out of car and searched, while your friends—who are all white—sit in that same car, unmolested; until you’ve been stopped on a sidewalk and questioned, for no other reason than you were there; until you’ve been handcuffed and sat on the curb in front of the house you earned with years of blood, sweat and tears because you “look suspicious,” you will never understand our fear.

Tamir Rice was playing with a toy. Eric Garner was standing outside a store (and, though he was allegedly selling loosies, that deed is a misdemeanor that rarely attracts the attention of one patrolman, let alone six). Akai Gurley was walking down a stairwell with his girlfriend. These are not thuggish, menacing acts. Absent of race, these behaviors would barely register a raised eyebrow. Yet each has resulted in a loss of life. These are not hardened criminals taking their lives into their own hands. These are people going about their own business, just as white Americans do every day, without fear of losing everything that the Rice, Garner, Gurley, and Brown families, and countless others like them, have lost.

In these days, these hours, these nights, these lifetimes, we’ve found ourselves tied to the victims’ families by an unfathomable blood bond, one that goes deeper than last names and family trees. We feel one with them and their pain, if only because we know that they understand.

Monday Kickstart: Friend or Foe

If you want to find out who someone truly is, just be sure to ask the right questions.



Yeah, that new Key & Peele is going to be real. Season Four is just a few days away.

For this week's inspiration, allow me to introduce the intoxicating Alee Rose:



Let's go.

Monday Kickstart: The Taste of Self-Centeredness

This clip has been around the internet for a few weeks, but casual racism has been around for a lot longer than that, sooo...



Post-racial America, indeed. Shifting the focus towards more positive aspects of our society, this week's inspiration is a friend of a friend, who's doing her thing out there in the modeling world. I'm speaking, of course, about Pittsburgh's own Mia Bella:

(And for those of you wondering: Yes, she's just as cool as she is hot.) Let's go.

Justified Outrage

As usual, Jon Stewart just gets it. Faux News is a disgrace to this country.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook,Daily Show Video Archive

Hazardous Conditions

Excuse me, but I just need this right now.

Real Talk: John Oliver

They say that the best way to objectively look at a situation is to step back and view it from the outside. Perhaps that's why John Oliver, a native of the UK, is able to so keenly identify and address the problems surrounding what's going on in Ferguson, MO—and the United States in general—right now. If the people in Missouri's government and Ferguson's police department took the time to do the same, the tragedy of Michael Brown's murder may never have happened.

Deep Breath

It's 2014, and we still haven't solved the problem of the Blu Klux Klan.

From YouTube:

In the YouTube video 100 people wearing black T-shirts harmonized in a solemn hum while poet Daniel J. Watts recited a fiery poem entitled I Can’t Breathe — a reference to Garner’s fateful encounter with police.

On July 17th, Garner, a 43-year-old Staten Island man was confronted by police for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes. The police tried to handcuff Garner but when he refused they placed him in a chokehold. The incident was captured by an onlooker’s cell phone camera. The father of six can be heard telling police repeatedly that he could not breathe. However, the police officers ignored his plea. Garner died on the scene.

Shit White People Say

BuzzFeed knocks it out the park with this one.

Trailer: Dear White People

I will be purchasing this on DVD when it's released. ...On bootleg. ...At the barbershop.

Rumors that I helped write it, though are (unfortunately) inaccurate.



TJ with the find.

F.O.H.: Google

A few months ago, the sharing rights got screwed up on all of CS's photos (you can still see the wreckage in most of the pre-2014 posts in the archives). I tried time after time to contact Google for assistance with the issue, but never got so much as feigned interest in return. I found it strange that a company known for their "Don't be evil" slogan didn't seem the slightest bit interested in helping a customer in distress. Now, though...it's all starting to make sense.

Proud

Seriously, fuck Daniel Snyder.