Blacksmythe

In hindsight I’m pretty sure that P6 wrote a bit about this story. One bit caught me off guard–one of those interviewed moved from Detroit to Maine looking for “peace and tranquility” and it was this sister who argued that folks in Maine weren’t necessarily racist, but rather simply xenophobic (again as P6 notes, this is only a semantic difference). I suppose she did so because she has to somehow defend her choice to both readers and her daughter–who hates her all white high school. But what stands out are her stylistic choices–she wears an Afro, has taken the name Assata, and practices Kwanzaa. This probably shouldn’t bother me…but it does. I can understand leaving Detroit. But I’ll be damned if you put your daughter at risk for your peace of mind. And then defend the people who practice racism against you and yours.The other part is that the “threat” doesn’t seem to be that much of a threat at all. I’m not sure what the gun carrying laws are in Maine…but how much would it have cost to simply send word to the police that if that 75 year old man walks into the NAACP, given his prior statements, he would be met with force?  This type of story is usually written in order to show how much things haven’t changed, and can be placed alongside a number of other stories that pop up every now and again (”wow…racism exists HERE?!?”). But usually stories like this serve to increase the apathy and powerlessness that black people feel, rather than making them more aware of what they already know. 

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I was led to Anthony Bradley’s post on shattered family dreams by P6’s post. I am not dealing with the exact same issues, but I’ve got to say that I’ve been dealing with similar ones, about my job, about my capacity to do for my family, and for ME, what I imagined I’d be doing. I’m at a crossroads and the next couple of years will likely tell the tale. As I noted over at P6 I used to believe that my condition would get better when I got tenure. I now believe that my condition is more or less the permanent state of reality.I’ve blogged about this privately–Wordpress 2.3 has that option–but haven’t done so publicly for obvious reasons.But Anthony (whom I don’t know), P6 (whom I do), and actually a conversation offline with Craig has made me rethink that. I’m not going to put my private stuff out there…although if you want to get a sense my wife’s blog is up and running.

But in the spirit of beginning a much needed dialogue I wanted to ask two questions, particularly for black male readers:

1. Are you dealing with the same types of issues and pressures?
2. What do you do about it?

I’m creating a new heading for this one…one that I’ve used for my private posts.

Retrograde.

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By now this commercial is old school….but it really captures a sense of magic that I’ve been longing for.

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Now that the semester is over, I’m back at the Barbershop. In this episode, me, Jimi Izrael, Reuben Navarette, and Roland Martin talk about among other things the increasing rate babies born to single mothers. It got pretty heated, as this is something I feel pretty strong about. Hopefully they’ll offer the extended version on the web, because we kicked this topic around for at least 20-25 minutes….

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The last post was uncited because I received its contents from an email I received. But I now know who the author is, and what he’s doing. Phillip Jackson is the Executive Director of The Black Star Project. Although as I noted in a response to him I think his analysis AND prescriptions are off in some really important ways, at least on first glance his project is one worth supporting and perhaps duplicating.

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