...racist in chief? (a few thoughts)...

So I'm willing to admit it, I usually get my news second hand, already filtered through a reliable source. I don't watch the news, I consider newspapers with a wary eye and usually just troll around my favorite websites, especially blogs, for the hot topics. The only real problems I've found with this method is that I'm always super up to date on pop culture (score) but nothing else (damn), it's hard to stay current with international events, and when crazy stuff happens on cable news it takes me a while to decide if it's interesting enough to write about because I didn't see it firsthand.

For instance, apparently Fox and Friends anchor Glenn Beck called Pres. Obama a racist. I have been hearing this from Republicans for a while so at first I thought, whatevers. (I think that's my default response...) But then I started thinking about it, especially in reference to my last post about Gates.

So here are some thoughts (incomplete) about the whole "Is President Obama a racist?" situation:

1. If he were (and I'm not saying that he is) how would that make him different than his presidential predecessors. I'm not saying that it's right that we've had so many (all?) racists leading this country, but I'm wondering why it's such an issue now.... for Republicans? They didn't give a shit that "George Bush doesn't care about Black people" so why do they care that Obama may not (but obviously does) care about white citizens? And when was the last time these people defined racism, if ever?

2. I thought there was some study that showed that everyone was racist? If not, then I'll say that I think, at some level, everyone is a racist in this country. The mark of that person's humanity is how they try and stryggle against it.

3. My fave political blogger/journalist The Black Snob just posted the NAACP's official response to Glen Beck's statement that, for the most part is pretty ok. Really there's just this one sentence that irks me. But first I should say that they're right, this discussion of the President's supposed racism is, like a lot of other more frivilous issues, detracting from the real work that needs to be done to approve a health care plan, create jobs, lower the unemployment rate, strengthen the economy, etc. For me the problem is really just this one part:

How could the President be a racist? A man of both African American and
white heritage; a man who inspired millions of Americans to unite across the
divide of race, religion and age in his historic run for the presidency.

Um seriously, I've known more than a few mixed people who were completely and utterly racist towards one part of their "racial makeup" so... Essentially my point from the previous post stands: There's absolutely nothing in being mixed that precludes racism mostly because to be mixed is not a choice!

3. People like Beck are lazy!

I voted for Obama and my assessment of this administration is a mixed bag. Naming Hilary Clinton as the Secretary of State... WTF! Her crappy ass foreign policy agenda was one of the reasons that I didn't vote for her in the primaries! OMG... Why is Guantanamo Bay still operational? Why wasn't the U.S. at Durban II? And I need a better goddamn answer than Ahmadinejad because having to deal with crazy people you don't trust is a part of LIFE!!!! L.I.F.E. If I have to be cordial to those freaking diplomatic historians in my office then godammit the U.S. should have been in Geneva!

But on the other hand, I think the President should be commended for trying to push through a new health care plan. I'm not going to lie to you I'm a little hazy on the details (please inform me) but since that was an important piece of his campaign I'm glad to see that he's not abandoning that with his election.

And while I would prefer that the U.S. take a harder stance against Israel, I do appreciate that they are beginning to say that Israel is not allowed to do whatever it wants. That country should not feel free to decide that it can go completely against global opinion but still receive the bulk of U.S. foreign aid. It should not be allowed to disenfranchise countless numbers of Palestinians within their borders AND build on stolen land AND cut off an entire (displaced) nation from humanitarian aid AND participate in a bloody war but be the victims. WTF? And while I want to commend the U.S. for just starting to say no to Israel, I want to urge them to begin to say hell no, because this situation has been dragging on for too long and the West has helped create a fucking clusterfuck (best Daily Show gift to me) in the Middle East, maybe it's about time those countries really tried to fix it. (And I'm totally looking at you Britain...)

So I guess what I'm trying to say to people that would call our president a racist is: there are other more effective ways to criticize him. The trope of calling him a racist is beyond lazy. It was just as lazy as calling him a militant, or a foreigner, or a terrorist, or a Muslim (as if that was a bad thing). Let's pretend like we're all thinking, feeling human beings and do better.

* um, so I realize that my critiques are based on the Obama Administration's foreign policy. People should admit their biases and mine is that I'm always focused outward. Domestically... not so much. So feel free to tell me things that the Administration is doing well/not so well on the home front or call me to task on my discussion of the international issues. Discuss...

...don't be afraid white folk...

So, I originally decided not to handle the whole Henry Louis Gates fiasco on this blog because honestly, I'm not a fan. That dude, like a lot of the African American intellectual elite rub me the wrong way. I think some of their scholarship can be useful, just not to me because they largely ignore Black women. And sometimes they have good things to say, although I have a problem with how they tend to "speak for" the Black community but rarely get specific or support everyday movements on the ground. Like the Sharptons and Jackson we only hear from these people when something big happens, a death or a racist celebrity, but unlike those two I've yet to figure out where Gates stands on specific social movements like the problems with education for poor communities of color. And not by saying that it's a problem (we got that) but how to fix it, specific programs that he thinks are doing a good job, etc.

But to be fair, my critiques may be misleading because, for the most part, I ignore these people. I only glance at their work (at best) and I don't research their politics. They're not speaking to me or the issues that I think are important. I'm always angry that when people talk about Black leaders they always mean men. And honestly when was the last time you say them getting their hands dirty? For me, they're symbols, and I don't do idol worship... hell I don't do religion of any sort. So I'm bitter at these men and their (lack of real) leadership.

Because of all of this I decided to keep my own feelings to myself and defer to good friends who handled the topic, click here for my friend Bennett's discussion of the situation, and my friend Angela posted this interesting query as her facebook status yesterday:

"Angela Francis has serious problems with where the emphasis has been placed in the dialogue regarding the Gates arrest. The problem is not that a black man with high socioeconomic status can be arrested after he is reported to have broken into a home and then proceeds to argue with and insult a police officer. The problem is that an AVERAGE man without special status can be arrested or killed WITHOUT doing any of those things."

It seemed as if other people that I trust were dealing with the issue quite well and I was going to leave it alone until... I read a pretty middle of the road, not very well-written article by Maureen Dowd about the whole controversy. It started off so bad I almost didn't finish it, is it just me or does she not actually seem to be saying much? And is she not saying it in a ghastly way? Whatever, thankfully there was a little nugget of "WTF" at the end. In the second to last paragraph there's a gem I just had to share:

"And Gates says that if anyone thinks he’s a fiery black militant, they’ve got the wrong guy, considering he married a white woman, has mixed-race daughters and has white blood himself."

Oh sweet lord in heaven. SAY WHAT?!

My mouth is salivating this is so ridiculously juicy. Uh, uh!

This right here is why I don't want anyone speaking for me. First of all, no one who feels the need to reassure white people that he's not a black militant knows shit about my life. As someone who idolizes Malcolm X and the Panthers for their ability to say in various ways "You're not going to run over me and kill me without a fight," a comment like this from Gates is a slap in the face. I would think that with the current situation what all communities of color need (here and globally) are a few more militants and people willing to stand up for the right to not let others oppress us!

Second, this is the equivalent of saying, "I'm not a racist, most of my friends are Black." It's just as empty of a statement and it's just as insulting to people with brains. Not only can someone who marries and have children with someone of another race be racist and militant, but what kind of fantasy land is Gates living in that he thinks otherwise.

If I see one more white woman complaining at the hair shop that her mixed race daughter's hair is "too kinky" and she "obviously got that from her dad's side of the family." Or one more Black man who has children with light-skinned or white women (Black women do this too) so that the kids can be "light, bright, and almost white" or have "good hair" or even just be "pretty" I will go off!

In his rush to placate white people he denies that race and racism have very little to do with any of the things he mentioned. The fact that he "has white blood himself" (whatever the fuck that means) was not his choice, but so what, so did a lot of Black militants throughout African American history. Surely Gates knows this! For many Black people "white blood" speaks to complex issues of race, racism, slavery and the rape of Black women and has been used as a rallying cry rather than an integrationist tool. (Although, I will be fair and say that this line of reasoning is so fraught with problems that I've argued against using it for a while now.)

From my own history, my family is very mixed and my Creole grandmother left Louisiana because as a lightskinned (historically mixed) person she refused to pass for white or condone a system where so many of her family members did. From what I can tell my grandmother picked a darker skinned man because he was beautiful and couldn't have cared less that her children pass the paperbag test, and I often wonder if this was directly related to the world in which she grew up.

And my half-white father was made so ashamed that he was mixed (when his siblings were not) that he never even told me of the fact. He wanted to be seen as a Black man, not a Black man who was also white. He also was, not surpisingly, overly concerned when my oldest niece was born very light, always wondering "if she'll get darker." And every time I see white and Black people marvel at my youngest niece and nephew's "beautiful" eyes (green and blue) while ignoring my oldest niece's brown eyes I'm reminded that people are fucked up! And if I have to cuss out every one of those people for their blatantly racist responses to my babies I'll do it. Every time. And you can call me a militant or a bitch, I don't give a shit!

I also have lots of white friends, some of whom are closer to me than family, and I am a militant. I study Black nationalists and radical Black women activists because they are the people that I would like to imitate, not someone such as "Skip" Gates. It doesn't mean I hate all white people, but it sure as hell means that making white people feel comfortable around me isn't just at the bottom of my list, it's not even on it!

Having "white blood" is not a panacea, nor does it (obviously) erase racism or preclude militancy. How dare this man even suggest that this would ever be the case?

And lastly, but most hurtfully, Gates should be ashamed of assuming that the only sure-fire way to know that someone is not one of those dreaded millitants is by checking their partners. As if those Black men with white women are the real leaders our community needs, because they've done so much for us. For those of us from California I have two words to unravel that whole argument: Ward Connerly. This would also mean that President Obama's choice to marry an African American woman is a sign. Maybe just the sign that those Republicans need to continue to denigrate our President and First Lady as militants/racists/unAmerican, etc. As if Black women are just not good enough America, they're angry and they make their men angry. Best just leave them alone lest they start a revolution.

I really only have two words to say to this man.

Negro please!

I would prefer that Professor Gates stop talking to the press or at least think a little more critically the next time he does. So, here's to seeing this whole situation leave the limelight so I can go back to my life. So people can continue doing good work attempting to end the real tragedies of racial profiling by the nation's police so that we don't have another Sean Bell or Oscar Grant.

in struggle,
N

...NOLA...

So... last weekend I went to New Orleans to hang out with a couple of friends on a mini-vacay! Now, personally I would have preferred to stay longer but I couldn't... Even though I like my job... jobs suck...


Anyway, the night/early morning I got to New Orleans our first stop was, and had to be, the world famous Cafe du Monde for some beignets and coffee!

And those motherfuckers were tasty!!! (But on a side note, I'd barely eaten that day and the sugar overload upset the hell out of my stomach AND kept me up until like 6am the next morning!)

Then, all hyped up on sugar, we went to Bourbon St.! I only have three words to say about that:


HOT.ASS.MESS. I was 100% sober that first night and I was not happy. If you know me then you know that physical contact is completely unnecessary. I mean really unnecessary. There's no real reason to try and hug me. Please don't. Sorry tangent... Anyway, all those drunk people, especially the scantily clad women in unfortunate/ill-fitting outfits and uncomfortable shoes, crammed together wandering from cheap-looking establishments (but not actually cheap booze prices) just about did it for me. I was mad uncomfortable.

But we learned our lesson. The next night we went to Bourbon tipsy and continued to drink once we got there. And in that environment, Bourbon was... Well it was still a HOT.ASS.MESS, but it was hilarious. The clothing was still unfortunate, I think we saw some people having sex outside of a club, and there were a lot of women in panties and t-shirts as the official uniforms for their jobs (sigh) but at least I could laugh. As awkward as that was if I'd expected anything more from Bourbon I would have been a damn fool... So I'll just chalk that up to experience....

Here are some interesting things about going on a trip with a bunch of historians. First, most of the stuff they want to see and do center around historical buildings/places/people. So on Saturday we went around the French quarter in search of Marie Laveau's tomb without a map and only my hilarious friend Noel's (damn good) memory to guide us. While heading there we stumbled upon this building that Tony liked. And when we read the plaque that marked this structure as Madame Laveau's former family home, we were ecstatic (seriously) with our find. STFU... Look I said we were historians... not great historians (whatever).

While there we met some really nice white folk who asked if we'd been to Congo Square. We all looked at them like.... (blank stare)... "Damn! We almost forgot Congo Square!" Like I said, we're not that great at our jobs, but in my defense... forget it... there's no defense.

So of course we immediately walked the 2-3 blocks (!) to Congo Square and basked for a second in all of the history contained in that place. Well my friends did, I however kept my eyes on the homeless people scattered around and the obvious crackheads who looked like they were up to... well you know what crackheads do...

From there we made our way to Saint Louis Cemetery #1 to see her grave and... it was closed! Damn... But we did run into those white people again. So we just went back the next morning and spent about an hour wandering through one of the coolest cemeteries I've ever seen.





















Look, I know I'm not the most sane person in the whole world, but this cemetery was crazy/beautiful. There were just strange things everywhere. Really new gleaming white tombs next to crumbling, falling down ones. The statues were insane. Anyway, I definitely want to go back and spend some more time there. Um... (cough)... because someone told us later that... um (cough) Homer Plessy is buried in that cemetery and...um... we didn't know... OK look we might be, in this situation, bad historians but I try not to study anything before 1900, so sue me!!!

The second thing about traveling with historians is: tour guides beware! HA! We eavesdropped on a couple of groups at the cemetery and this one guy was talking about voodoo. Well look, whatever, most people don't quite understand voodoo or it's connection to other syncretic, African-derived religions in the Americas and throughout the world so I'm not going to completely hold it against that guy. But voodoo is not praticed by millions of people in the world. Rather millions of people practice religions that are, like voodoo, derived from some West African religions blended with some form of Christianity, especially Catholocism. (It's a lot more complex that this I realize and this dude said some other inaccurate stuff but this one irked me the most!) But what makes this story hilarious is that my friends and I, who weren't on his tour, stood to the side of this guy whispering to each other every thing he said that was wrong like complete and utter douchebags!!!! hahahaha But, in our defense this guy did say that voodoo led to the Civil War... (blank stare)... talk about simplying history... We gotta do better!

But one tour that we so totally didn't have a problem with was the Haunted History Vampire tour of the French quarter.

I forget this dude's name, but he was fucking fantastic. He was funny, intense, and did accents. And he looked like a pirate!!!! A-MAZ-ING. We went around the quarter looking at sites where supicious deaths had occurred that seemed as if vampires could have been involved (suspicious blood loss, creepy people who never ate and had no food in the cupboards etc). It was super interesting (my mouth dropped open plenty of times) AND we stopped at a bar in the middle. Hells yea!
But on another note, one of the things I wondered was what New Orleans was like so many years post-Katrina. Honestly, we were only there for a couple of days and only left the Quarter twice. The first was to get breakfast and the second was to have dinner with our good friend Erin. But here are some things that we heard. First, rebuilding isn't even anywhere near being complete. Someone told us that most of the money used to rebuild New Orleans initially went to the Quarter. This, even though it was barely underwater (compared to other areas because it's on a slight hill). So why did they make this decision when people, real people who'd lived in the city, were homeless or displaced? MONEY. The Quarter is a huge cash cow and built for tourists, so like asshole capitalists will do, they eschewed caring for the city's residents (largely black people) and took care of the tourist area, which caters to largely white people (who are, not coincidentally, being catered by... black and brown folk). Seriously disgusting... There are also a lot of homes just outside the quarter a ways that still bear the scars of the tragedy, like the markings made by FEMA (about bodies found in the home etc.) and on some buildings you can still see water lines. It's very disturbing.

But disturbing is good. At least it can be. I would love to know what's being done to rebuild the city and what I can do help. I would also love to know what's being done for the people who have suffered and are still suffering (because make no mistake about it, that sort of trauma does not go away and African Americans are the most underdiagnosed population for mentall illness). So these are the things that I wonder, please let me know what you know...

But I don't want to leave you on a sour note. So, because I love you all I'm sharing a playlist of songs that I had on rotation on my way down south. Enjoy bitches!

*oh and btw... all the pics are mind EXCEPT the girl on the bull (ugh) and the exterior shot of cafe du monde...

...does this make me look fat...

I 've had a couple craptastical ass days. So today I left work early (whatever!) and I went to Kroger because I had a serious craving for lasagna. I'm all about comfort food, and lasagna for me (right along with macaroni & cheese, and ice cream, especially Loard's banana) are the definition of comfort. Putting something that I really love in my mouth (slightly sexually suggestive?) makes me relax. It doesn't make me happy (cause that would be weird!) but I'm content.

Whatever, maybe another day I'll blog about my problems with food or the hypocrisy in the fact that a curvy girl who likes to eat has food issues but a skinny girl who eats a lot (JEAN!) is a foodie. FUCK THAT...

Sorry I'm getting slightly off track...

Anyway, so since I've moved I live near a better class of Kroger, which completely puts my Short North Kroger to shame! And when I walked in today I spotted a nice, long, soft (again with the sexual innuendos) baguette. My last Kroger almost never had fresh baked bread and when they did it was of the "fresh" variety, if you know what I mean. So I completely picked one up and thought nothing of it.


Now that the lasagna is resting on my kitchen table I moved the bread to the side for when I'm ready to eat and I noticed a slogan on the packaging: "It's time to eat bread again!"

At first I thought, "well that's my last glass of merlot" because I must be reading that wrong" and then I thought, "when the fuck was I supposed to have stopped eating the grain!?"

mothafucka please...

So that all spawned this post, which isn't really a post so much as a rant.

If you don't like bread, don't eat bread. But if you're not eating bread or pasta because you believe carbs are evil, you're an idiot!

I'm not a nutritionist, I don't count calories and I have only the vaguest idea of what I should/shouldn't be eating. I'm more about a (semi) balanced diet and good food. I don't speak any other language.

But I hate, like really hate that women are made to feel that their bodies are never ending projects where perfection is the ultimate, but perpetually elusive, goal. I mean, there is really no other way to explain tummy tucks and face lifts. Who the hell would want to look like this:


So when my friends say they're going to start working out for valid reasons (like lowering their blood pressure or because they're having back problems, for instance) I support that. But when I see undergrads who are a size 1 and quite possibly malnourished/underweight talking about how big their thighs are I feel so disgusted.

Do you! Be happy being you, if that means you're a size 4 or 16 I don't give a shit and you shouldn't either... unless you like depression and a low self-esteem, in which case, hate yourself because you could always lose a couple pounds!

...about Jean...

6 fun things you may not know about my relationship with Jean:


1. Jean and I met in college.

2. Her poetry is absolutely, fucking, ridiculously amazing. I miss watching her perform.

3. I knew I would love her for life when she yelled my name loud enough to be heard across the SMC quad. I think that was her regular tone.


4. She's like the tiny Asian version of me, with even better clothes.



5. She's smart as hell and she's not afraid to shut some shit down!

6. She's fucking hi-larious!


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...sho is good...

So I'm on my last day in New Orleans and a longer post on my time here will follow, but here's an interesting snippet. Today I was looking in some souvenir shops for trinkets (things for my heathens... I mean nieces and nephew). When all the shopping was done my friend asked if I had gotten anything for myself. I said no because honestly, I have way too much shit. If I learned anything from my moving excursion is that I need to cut back on accumulating things... THINGS...EVERYWHERE! Things I don't need, don't serve a purpose, hell things I may not even like a few years later (say for instance those tacky name plates from random states...) but I buy 'em... So I'm trying to break myself of those hoarding tendencies. So this trip I decided that I'll only buy things for myself that are practical. Things that I like, can use or are decorative (I got these really weird pixie figurines in San Gimignano, Italy that I love but sort of creep other people out, which makes me love them more).

At first I wasn't finding anything to tickle my fancy until... in a random store on Decatur I hit the jackpot!


Yes, these are... interesting little figurines of... pickininnies? baby Mammy? Buck? Sambo? Hell I don't know. The minute I saw them I just knew I had to make them mine.
Why?

Um... well... maybe... gingham never looked so... that girl's barrettes are... their skin is so... well, you know I always appreciate when friends are so close they color coordinate.

Okay maybe not.

Well maybe it's because as a historian, as a black person these things are unbelievably offensive. Maybe it's because the man who sold them was pleased that people buy these things everyday. Possibly it's the fact that the majority of people in this country act as if these sorts of blatantly racist portrayals are relics of the past that you'd be hard pressed to find. And it's almost definitely because those jackoffs are wrong.

I don't know how to write this blog and be funny, because this situation is not funny... No, this situation right here is unbelievably tragic... And it makes me angry. And the next time a student tells me that racism doesn't exist anymore I'll bring these little dolls and tell them when I got them and where and ask: If images like these (which were also featured prominently on commemorative postcards advertised as nostalgic images of New Orleans history) then what the fuck is so passe about racism?*

as a parting note, some photos to make you think...


*Note: My computer dictionary defines nostalgia as "a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.

...and we're B(l)ack... or the Disney Corporation doesn't care about Black people... part 2

You would think that with all of the storms weathered in the creation process Disney's new movie The Princess and the Frog would be a genius, racially sensitive, illuminating but lighthearted fantasy for children to enjoy. I mean they did get the fabulous Anika Noni Rose to voice her. And...well, um... maybe, kids like all kinds of things like... playing in sand and some even enjoy bugs. But, if you're going to be the adult shepherding tots to see that movie... watch out!

Seriously, I'm not even joking, let's consider the trailer. The first time I saw this I thought "Wait a minute, that didn't just happen, lemme watch it again." And the second time I saw it I thought, "Ugh, maybe the girls can just go see it without me or, even better, they won't want to see it." Now, the last was actually really hard for me to say. I love my nieces and I love animated movies so pair them up... (We just went to see Up and I completely cried, and laughed, and stole some of Sierra's candy!) But this looks a hot mess and I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Some people are complaining because the princess turns into a frog and others are saying get over it. I can definitely see both sides of the issue. As a person commented on another site, if she turns into a frog and stays that way for most of the movie how is that better than the Lion King. Touche my friend! And the answer is that it's not. I mean, part of the outrage with that old chain email was that Disney seemed to equate Black people with animals and so it would seem that maybe they haven't shaken that off.

But then on the other hand, one could effectively argue that what Disney is doing is trying to revamp a tired (and let's face it, not that interesting) fairy tale, where the prince is turned into a frog who can only be turned back by the kiss of a princess, blah, blah... true love! So, by turning her into a frog, Disney is saying no maybe there's another lesson to be learned, something more for her to see. Like maybe, being a frog is how she was really meant to be and her prince is the one who loves her just as she is even when the sun goes down and his donkey.... wait a minute. That's Shrek!

So... maybe it's not so inventive after all...

Oh and then there's the voodoo. Come the frak on, Disney! Throw me a chicken bone... oops. This is such a mess. The villain in the movie is a voodoo priest (Papa Legba?) who's probably/obviously cursed the prince and is scheming to marry the princess (wait, was that the plot of Aladdin?) and his schemes are foiled by... I don't know... true love... and Christianity? Why is it that when white people think of Black religion they think of voodoo (and Baptist church ladies with big hats, huge digression!) and when they think of voodoo they think of dark magic. This is so played out for a variety of reasons.

First, voodoo is not, I repeat not, dark magic and if they're going to talk about it I would suggest that one of those trifling story editors do some research. Voodoo began, like Candomble and other related religions throughout the Caribbean, as a clear response to the dehumanizing effects of slavery. Those who practiced voodoo did so as a way to hold on to those cultural and religious practices that their enslavers attempted to take from them. So if you're going to deal with voodoo, you damn well better deal with slavery and the brutal racism that made it a necessity. But oh wait, Disney couldn't even get Pocahontas' husband right (easily accessible in pretty much ALL American history books), so the amount of time it would take to read a book on voodoo (a day, or less if you just read the damn introduction!) apparently couldn't be spared.

But that doesn't mean that I think that everything about this movie is some nefarious plot. The movie IS set in New Orleans during the Jazz Age (late nineteenth century into the 1920s), so I'm just going to excuse all the dancing Black folk. It just be's that way sometimes.

But here's what I'm not excusing. Someone on another site talked about the use of Black vernacular in Disney movies and how offensive it is and it brought back the old pain: Dumbo! I grew up loving Dumbo. I wanted a pet elephant (who could fly), I knew all of the songs and let's face it, that movie is wonderful. Well at least I thought it was until I was in the double digits. I was maybe 12 or 13 when Dumbo came on tv and I was so excited I settled in with a snack to watch. And I cried when Dumbo lost his mom. And I awwed at how all the animated little animals were freaking adorable even the little elephants who, I now know thanks to the Discovery channel are not cute at birth. In fact, no animals are cute at birth 'cause they're covered in goo! EW! (I'm including humans in that, btw.) Anyway, I digress, so I laughed and laughed when that spunky little mouse (from the NY?) got Dumbo so drunk that he woke up in a tree (that's so not legal right?). But then my mouth dropped when he met the crows.

Ooh I used to love those bad boys when I was a kid and knew all the words, but as an (almost) teenager they were not fun and all I could think was what.the.mother.fuck?

"I be done seen 'bout everything when I see an elephant fly!"

And did you know that the lead bird was named Jim Crow? I shit you not! Those are some jive ass turkeys! (I can't believe people said stuff like that...hehehe)

Look, like I said, I loved Dumbo and I also loved Peter Pan, so when I grew up and realized just how horrible they portrayed people of color, especially without offering any sort of alternatives, I was hurt. And it's this pain that I want to keep my nieces from. It's sad that there are so many movies that I grew up loving that I just can't bear to watch now (wat'chu say Shirley Temple?). Or those others that I've decided to ignore the lack of people of color and questionable images because... well I mean... it really could have been worse (oh Hayley Mills, I think you tried to make up for it on Saved by the Bell, with their one Black cast member).

There are lot of problems with this movie for me.

I have a general problem with movies that are historical (as pretty much all Disney movies are) and shit on that history. And this has nothing to do with my being a historian and everything to do with the fact that I respect people enough as HUMAN BEINGS with feelings, emotions and desires to not try and deprive them of a full and rich history. And you can yell all you want that this isn't what Disney's trying to do and this isn't their job, but when you're talking about kids that's exactly their job. My niece doesn't get European history in the second grade, but she damn sure understands that if there's a Queen of England, there damn sure better be some princes and princesses floating around her CASTLE! These movies convey to children what we can not; rich visuals of the world that surrounds them and that came before. So when you make a movie like Pocahontas and you tie that character into commercials about preserving the land and forest conservation (I remember those PSAs) you can't say that Disney doesn't have a message. And if Disney does have an agenda you have to look at their movies as a whole. And as a whole I'm disgusted.

So I finished this trailer on a sour note. That poor old woman near the end who bellows "dis gone be good!" pretty much does it for me. No ma'am I'm not sure that it is...

So what's the final verdict? What have I concluded at the end of this (hours long?) tirade. Two things. First, I'm almost certainly going to see this movie with my nieces because they're little Black girls who deserve to see a Black princess and know that girls with brown skin can be beautiful too. (If that isn't the message at the end of this movie I am going to go off!) Second, even though I've had an almost 20 year feud with Barbie dolls, and their generic knock offs (I'm looking at you Black Barbie and Bratz!) I'm going to make sure that the girls get a Tiana doll if they want one because one of the reasons I hated Barbie was because she was white (and I would never look like her) or the Black best friend with no real storyline and looked just like Barbie (but chocolate!). So they have the chance to have a doll with a (better be) fully developed storyline who isn't the forgotten best friend, or the token Black girl in a sea of white faces (maybe there's a silent Asian girl to keep her company huh Gossip Girl?) and I won't deprive them of the super expensive doll to go with it. Because, Tiana, this first Black Disney princess is a star!

And when it's all over I'll make sure that I ask them what they thought about the movie and the characters (silently searching for any hint of damage) and whenever they're ready I'll talk to them about our family's history in Louisiana, and I'll buy them jazz cds when they're cool teenagers rebelling against the top 40 music their friends listen to, and when they're old enough I'll give them books that present intelligent and interesting discussions of Black people in this country (and elsewhere) and I'll try and mitigate as much of the damage as this movie and all of the other media images of Black people have caused. I'll do what the adults in my life did for me and what I hope their forebears did with them.

And maybe that's the real tragedy...

... a long time coming, but maybe we shoulda waited a little bit longer...

So a few years ago I got one of those massively forwarded emails from god knows who that was apparently a letter that a (Black) grandmother sent to Disney after taking her grandchildren to Disneyland (or was it DisneyWorld, whatever). Essentially, the grandmother wanted to know why there weren't any Black Disney princesses. The company's response was that Disney had tried to represent all of the continents with their movies, so the U.S. had (among many many others) Pocahontas (they were trying to make a point), Asia had Mulan (I liked that movie, but the sequel was horrible) and Africa had The Lion King... hahahahaha (I laugh because I hurt)

Now, I don't know if this was real or just the product of someone's amazing imagination, but it sounds so believable. I mean, let's not play the game, Disney has a horrible, horendous, atrocious history of blatantly racist cartoons.

I mean you can not understand how my face fell when I sat down to watch Peter Pan with my niece Sierra and had to snatch the dvd out of the machine because of the red Indians with big noses ready to scalp somebody! My niece was disturbed at first but you know, she was three, she got over it when I put Cinderella in.

I wish I could say that was the end of the whole situation but it wasn't. Sierra has an intense love of all things Disney princess, which grosses me out (it's all so pink! and frilly!) but we indulge because I believe that if she can make a decision on her own she should be allowed that freedom (within reason). So when she started school and her mother asked her what backpack she wanted, she chose the princess bag. That night however, I got a phone call from my sister-in-law telling me that Jasmine was gone! She has a sister named Jasmine so I was momentarily confused but eventually caught onto the fact that she meant Princess Jasmine (from Aladdin fame, best Disney soundtrack ever! Peabo is that you?). Somehow, overnight it seemed, Disney had taken Jasmine off of the Disney princess merchandise which left Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White, Belle and Aurora (that's her name?) from Sleeping Beauty.

We were confused to put it midly, not least because not all of those chicks weren't princesses, or at least they weren't before they married the dude who saved them from some generic misadventure (god I hate these movies now). In fact, as far as I can reckon, the only one of them that was a princess was Ariel. So why these princesses and not... say... Jasmine, Mulan and Pocahontas...


Let's not play, we know what it was, even if that's not the official reason. Right from the beginning Pocahontas (a real princess) was only ever sometimes on the merch. Mulan also got the short shrift. And Jasmine (a princess as well) had been unceremoniously axed. This was all about 4 years ago and, to be honest, my 3 year old niece didn't care not one bit, if she even noticed. But we did (we being the adults meant to take care of her physically and emotionally). We realized how problematic it was for a little girl to crave white dolls, especially if she ONLY wanted the white dolls. So my sister became obsessed with finding Black dolls for her daughters and even branched out to those few Asian and Latina dolls (that's another post) so that the girls could have as many positive models of beauty as possible, because let's deal in the real, these are where our girls get their understandings of beauty from and for little girls of color that almost always, on some level, means that they understand beauty (outside of their family) to be white. (I realize this situation is immensely complex and not just about race but, like I said, another post.)

So a couple of years ago, I believe right after Katrina, Disney announced that there was going to be a new Disney movie, after a hiatus on Princess movies of about ten years if Mulan was the last movie (not counting craptastic, straight to dvd sequels and shorts). And Black folk were happy... and then really damn angry!

In the earliest drafts the first Black Disney princess was going to be a chambermaid named Mammy... I mean Maddy. hahahaha (again, it's hurts). And the first I heard the movie was going to be called The Frog Princess. People raised all kinds of hell! And thank god they did, because seriously Disney, wtf! I hope someone lost their job on that one, because that is no way to build a better relationship with the Black community! People who probably don't even care about this issue should have been ashamed on the company's behalf. Pathetic.

So Disney did an about face and has since changed the film's title to The Princess and the Frog and the princess is named Tiana (did they strike down Kameelah, cause I would have accepted that as well...)

Now I'm not following the whole issue, but the next controversy I heard about was that the prince was not going to be Black and it seems that no amount of hullabaloo would change this one. When the movie is released this fall/winter, Princess Tiana will be courted by Prince Naveen of the ambiguously raced, brown/sort of tan people with a name that I just can't place so he could be from anywhere just as long as you know that he's not white... and not Black... I guess...

At first glance I was like, whatever, what's the big deal. It's not like Disney hasn't gone interracial before (what's up Pocahontas and John Smith from the completely inaccurate and problematic 1995 movie). Besides, I've got my own issues with the way that interracial couples are (not) shown on tv, especially those concerning Black women, so at first I was all for it. But then, while googling the controversy for this post I came across a yahoo answers question about the situation. (Seriously, I don't know if you needed to post a question about it, just get some friends and take them out for coffee!) And some lady, who I assume was white based on her avatar, made a really great point. Just as there's never been a Black Disney princess there's never been a Black prince. Damn! That lady messed my whole analysis up, because she's right. So I wondered, why is no one as upset about Naveen's ambiguous, but not Black-ness as they were about Mammy... uh Maddy (oops)?

I think the answer is clear and sad all at the same time. I would imagine that most of the people complaining about this are the mothers (or aunts!) of little girls who love these movies. Little boys are not the intended audience, even if they will, whether they want to or not, see this film. (My nephew's the baby, he will probably have watched all of the Disney princess line by the time he's 5!) Does the muted outrage about Naveen mean that we don't care that our boys have positive role models in children's films? To be honest I can't even name an animated movie with a Black male lead (but again, I've got nieces who can be really girly, so it could be my blind spot covering most things male). It seems clear to me that if we're going to be outraged at Disney let's not stop halfway, let's take it there. Just as Nala aint good enough to represent Black women, neither is Simba, both of whom were, to my intense irritation, voiced by white actors! (Moira Kelly, Matthew Broderick and Jonathan Taylor Thomas) Seriously! yall got Ming Na-Wen but couldn't think of two Black/African actors to voice the leads in your most popular movie? (to be fair though, Niketa Calame voiced young Nala and she's Black). But still, whatever...

to be continued...

...segregation... or something like it...

So the media is all aflutter about the case of that segregated pool in Northeastern Philly. When I first heard about this to be honest I wasn't that surprised. And then when I started reading the stories I was struck by how complicated the issue was. It wasn't just that this summer camp paid their money but were then refused entrance into the pool. I mean it was, but there was other stuff going on. It's all that other stuff that for me really speaks to the state of American race relations. So let's deal with those.

In all of the stories the cute little boy who's the best witness for the papers ever says that he heard some white woman say "What are all these black kids doing here?" and "I'm scared they might do something to my child." Based on the pictures it looks like this little boy is no more than 10 and that's the tragedy for me. A kid, a freaking little kid, had to hear that racist idiot saying these things about him and his friends. Just think of what that must do to his psyche. They just wanted to go swimming, and considering what Philly must be like in the summer, that's a necessity. I haven't heard any one talk about that.

But the whole situation went to hell when the president of The Valley Swim Club released a statement saying: "There was a concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion... and the atmosphere of the club." Now, I haven't read the entire statement, only those lines that have been in newspaper articles, so I don't know everything he said. But it seems obvious, and understandable, that people have taken this line as unbelievably offensive. And really, I do understand why people would do that, but my first reaction to reading this line was:

"bwaahahahahahahaha... this dude seriously needs to lose his job, because... complexion... really?"

This is the most unfortunate word choice I've heard in a long time, whoever wrote this statement, spell checked it, edited it for errors and then released it to the public needs to start hitting the pavement on a job hunt.

But I don't think that these people kicked the kids out because they were black, I think they did it because they're a PRIVATE swim club that was wheeling and dealing with local summer camps trying to make some extra money and thought they could get that past their members. That obviously failed miserably. They got flack from their customers (who were mostly white and definitely much better off than these kids) about a whole bunch of summer camp kids coming to the pool (which if you've ever worked in a summer camp you know is pure pandemonium!) and the swim club kicked the kids out afraid that the pool would lose its yuppie clientele. I mean let's be honest, what establishment is going to act in a racist and segregated manner and then admit it in a public statement. Few people are that stupid, these people were not. They're just idiots! There's a difference, even though it doesn't always seem like it...

But the thing that I keep fixating on is that everyone is focusing their attention on the club and NOT on that imbecile who was worried about all those black kids. THIS is the problem with American race relations in this country. We spend all of our time focusing on institutions that are racist, trying to make them more "equal," but we let people be as racist as they want. How does that make sense? How does that solve the problem of racism? Why don't we hold people accountable for the things they say? And why (continuing our rants about motherhood) aren't we angry that this idiot is raising children who will likely be as entitled and racist as she is? And who is worried about how these kids will process this situation?

We can spend all of this damn time worrying about holding the Valley Swim Club accountable (but not really for the right thing) but no one's ever going to go to that woman and say she's a horrible person for saying what she said around those kids (including her own) and, in my opinion, she shouldn't be allowed to have children. No one will ever say to those people who, during the election and to the present, make the most racist statements about our President and First Lady because they're black.

Everyone always says "well those are just a few ignorant people, what can you do?"

They're not just a few ignorant people. In my opinion, they're the majority, we're a country completely fucked up about racism and ignoring it isn't helping. So really, what can we do?

...blogging on the sly...

In reponse to Jean's rent-a-baby rant:

This is so you. I feel like a few years ago you were over kids and hating on people who had them. Now you're all in love with kids and hating on people who have them. SMH

Anyway, I feel you though. I mean seriously why are so many people having kids? And all the people I know popping out offspring can't afford them, at all. I'm all for having chidren but you will never, EVER, see me with a mini-me unless I got the income to take care of them. (And I don't mean my man got a job, cause that's about as secure as the US-Canada border!) Also, I certainly will never have more kids than I can afford. There aint nothing cute about going on public assistance when you could have just not had them kids and stayed financially stable (of sorts). You knew you were poor before, what did you think would happen after you popped 'em out (I'm talking to you Octo-Mom!!!!)

I just read a report that having an uncomplicated birth (non-c-section) is over $7,000. Now I don't know about yall but I can't afford that. I can't even begin to afford that, so I would have to go on a payment plan. And if I did that and then (stupidly) had another kid I would be paying those little suckers off AND buying diapers, food, milk, rent, bills, etc. What?! No ma'am...
Also, and this is just my own private soap box, seriously if you want a kid so bad adopt. I will never in my life understand people's obsession with needing to have biological kids. Being a mother (and a father) is about so much more than genetics. If what you really want is to give someone a good life, do it for the millions of kids (in this country and around the world) who seriously need it. No need to make yet another crying helpless person.

And sex-ed in school. I could go a million different ways about how cutting that out is the most ridiculous thing in the world, but all I'll say is if you really want to make kids think twice about having unprotected sex and a boatload of kids they can't take care of, give 'em a real one. Everytime I think I want to have a kid now I go home and spend a day with my nieces and nephew or even just call them. I'm super selfish, I love to spend money on cheap wine, food and books, I like my apartment to be moderately noisy (not too quiet, not too loud), I'm messy and my apartment always looks like a bit of a train wreck, if left to my own devices I stay up until midnight or later and wake up around 7 but I try not to get out of bed until 10 or later, I spend entire days in my house reading books and watching tv (leaving only when I don't have any food), I come home tipsy/drunk often and... other things...

Essentially what I'm saying is to even think about having a child in that kind of life (or other worse ones) would be the most irresponsible thing I could ever think about doing. So since I'm not even willing to consider changing my lifestyle I don't need to have kids. What we should be teaching kids is that if they're not willing to be good parents (at least!)and do every selfless thing that that entails, WRAP IT UP!

As a depressing goodbye, everytime people think of being a parent they think of pretty, chubby smiling kids, they never think of malnourished babies, abandoned kids on the streets, children who are abused, poor kids who don't have enough food or clothing to really survive the winter, or kids who grow up to hate their parents. Because speaking from my own experience, my dad was horrible to me and my brother, he should have wrapped that ish up and my mom should have gone to college... (I'll disguise my complete sci-fi nerdiness and not ruminate on the alternative universe-I would never be writing this post if that had happened thing, but just know that I'm thinking about it...)

p.s.
I'm totally at my desk writing this, I so need to get back to work...

...some things to think about...

Letter from an Israeli Jail, by Cynthia McKinney

Saturday, 04 July 2009 13:47 Last Updated on Sunday, 05 July 2009 15:30 Written by Free Gaza Team

Original audio message available here:

http://freegaza.org/it/home/56-news/984-a-message-from-cynthia-from-a-cell-block-in-israel

This is Cynthia McKinney and I'm speaking from an Israeli prison cellblock in Ramle. [I am one of] the Free Gaza 21, human rights activists currently imprisoned for trying to take medical supplies to Gaza, building supplies - and even crayons for children, I had a suitcase full of crayons for children. While we were on our way to Gaza the Israelis threatened to fire on our boat, but we did not turn around. The Israelis high-jacked and arrested us because we wanted to give crayons to the children in Gaza. We have been detained, and we want the people of the world to see how we have been treated just because we wanted to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.

At the outbreak of Israel's Operation ‘Cast Lead' [in December 2008], I boarded a Free Gaza boat with one day's notice and tried, as the US representative in a multi-national delegation, to deliver 3 tons of medical supplies to an already besieged and ravaged Gaza.

During Operation Cast Lead, U.S.-supplied F-16's rained hellfire on a trapped people. Ethnic cleansing became full scale outright genocide. U.S.-supplied white phosphorus, depleted uranium, robotic technology, DIME weapons, and cluster bombs - new weapons creating injuries never treated before by Jordanian and Norwegian doctors. I was later told by doctors who were there in Gaza during Israel's onslaught that Gaza had become Israel's veritable weapons testing laboratory, people used to test and improve the kill ratio of their weapons.

The world saw Israel's despicable violence thanks to al-Jazeera Arabic and Press TV that broadcast in English. I saw those broadcasts live and around the clock, not from the USA but from Lebanon, where my first attempt to get into Gaza had ended because the Israeli military rammed the boat I was on in international water ... It's a miracle that I'm even here to write about my second encounter with the Israeli military, again a humanitarian mission aborted by the Israeli military.

The Israeli authorities have tried to get us to confess that we committed a crime ... I am now known as Israeli prisoner number 88794. How can I be in prison for collecting crayons to kids?

Zionism has surely run out of its last legitimacy if this is what it does to people who believe so deeply in human rights for all that they put their own lives on the line for someone else's children. Israel is the fullest expression of Zionism, but if Israel fears for its security because Gaza's children have crayons then not only has Israel lost its last shred of legitimacy, but Israel must be declared a failed state.

I am facing deportation from the state that brought me here at gunpoint after commandeering our boat. I was brought to Israel against my will. I am being held in this prison because I had a dream that Gaza's children could color & paint, that Gaza's wounded could be healed, and that Gaza's bombed-out houses could be rebuilt.

But I've learned an interesting thing by being inside this prison. First of all, it's incredibly black: populated mostly by Ethiopians who also had a dream ... like my cellmates, one who is pregnant. They are all are in their twenties. They thought they were coming to the Holy Land. They had a dream that their lives would be better ... The once proud, never colonized Ethiopia [has been thrown into] the back pocket of the United States, and become a place of torture, rendition, and occupation. Ethiopians must free their country because superpower politics [have] become more important than human rights and self-determination.

My cellmates came to the Holy Land so they could be free from the exigencies of superpower politics. They committed no crime except to have a dream. They came to Israel because they thought that Israel held promise for them. Their journey to Israel through Sudan and Egypt was arduous. I can only imagine what it must have been like for them. And it wasn't cheap. Many of them represent their family's best collective efforts for self-fulfilment. They made their way to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. They got their yellow paper of identification. They got their certificate for police protection. They are refugees from tragedy, and they made it to Israel only after they arrived Israel told them "there is no UN in Israel."

The police here have license to pick them up & suck them into the black hole of a farce for a justice system. These beautiful, industrious and proud women represent the hopes of entire families. The idea of Israel tricked them and the rest of us. In a widely propagandized slick marketing campaign, Israel represented itself as a place of refuge and safety for the world's first Jews and Christian. I too believed that marketing and failed to look deeper.

The truth is that Israel lied to the world. Israel lied to the families of these young women. Israel lied to the women themselves who are now trapped in Ramle's detention facility. And what are we to do? One of my cellmates cried today. She has been here for 6 months. As an American, crying with them is not enough. The policy of the United States must be better, and while we watch President Obama give 12.8 trillion dollars to the financial elite of the United States it ought now be clear that hope, change, and ‘yes we can' were powerfully presented images of dignity and self-fulfilment, individually and nationally, that besieged people everywhere truly believed in.

It was a slick marketing campaign as slickly put to the world and to the voters of America as was Israel's marketing to the world. It tricked all of us but, more tragically, these young women.

We must cast an informed vote about better candidates seeking to represent us. I have read and re-read Dr. Martin Luther King Junior's letter from a Birmingham jail. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined that I too would one day have to do so. It is clear that taxpayers in Europe and the U.S. have a lot to atone for, for what they've done to others around the world.

What an irony! My son begins his law school program without me because I am in prison, in my own way trying to do my best, again, for other people's children. Forgive me, my son. I guess I'm experiencing the harsh reality which is why people need dreams. [But] I'm lucky. I will leave this place. Has Israel become the place where dreams die?

Ask the people of Palestine. Ask the stream of black and Asian men whom I see being processed at Ramle. Ask the women on my cellblock. [Ask yourself:] what are you willing to do?

Let's change the world together & reclaim what we all need as human beings: Dignity. I appeal to the United Nations to get these women of Ramle, who have done nothing wrong other than to believe in Israel as the guardian of the Holy Land, resettled in safe homes. I appeal to the United State's Department of State to include the plight of detained UNHCR-certified refugees in the Israel country report in its annual human rights report. I appeal once again to President Obama to go to Gaza: send your special envoy, George Mitchell there, and to engage Hamas as the elected choice of the Palestinian people.

I dedicate this message to those who struggle to achieve a free Palestine, and to the women I've met at Ramle. This is Cynthia McKinney, July 2nd 2009, also known as Ramle prisoner number 88794.

---

Cynthia McKinney is a former U.S. Congresswoman, Green Party presidential candidate, and an outspoken advocate for human rights and social justice. The first African-American woman to represent the state of Georgia, McKinney served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1993-2003, and from 2005-2007. She was arrested and forcibly abducted to Israel while attempting to take humanitarian and reconstruction supplies to Gaza on June 30th. For more information, please see http://www.FreeGaza.org

There are Black Buckeyes too...

So yesterday I stopped into the Big Lots down the street from my apartment (looking for a pitcher for a sangria experiment). When I went to the counter to pay for my super cheap find (it has tumblers too!) everything went ok, well until right at the end. When my receipt printed out I reached my hand out to take it and the (white) woman at the counter reached past my hand to place it on the counter and then abruptly turned to help the next person.

Maybe, if it was any other day I wouldn't have minded but I was reminded of a professor who told me he once went off on a clerk for doing the same thing to him at a local coffee shop. As he was recounting the story to me I remember thinking "maybe you were over reacting", but when it happened to me I wasn't so sure. I was in such a good mood and smiling and looking the woman in the eye. Usually people love me when I do that or are at least so shaken by a happy black woman they get their ish together! But apparently not this woman.

Now, sometimes I have a hard time knowing the clear difference between the service industry in California (where that woman would have handed me the receipt with a fake smile at least) and Ohio (people here just really don't give a sh!+ about customer service, if they aint feeling it, they don't pretend). So I wonder, "did she do that to me because I'm black or is she just crazy rude!). Honestly, after three years here I've realized that it's probably both.

People may not want to hear this, but I have never met so many rude white people who are smiling along with the white woman in front of me, but lay eyes on me and suddenly it's all business again (seriously!?). Again, it is hard to tell if they're just rude or if it's racial. A lot of people would try and avoid a talk about race by saying "Well those idiots were just jerks." I would agree, but I'd like to point out that just like I can't separate the fact that I'm a black woman into parts, neither can people when they interact with me. It's impossible. So it really could be that these people are just rude and feel free being rude as hell while getting paid because I'm black and their super douche-y (using douche as an insult, BEST thing Ohio ever gave me).

And, one thing I've noticed is that, for me, it's usually white women. Not that every white man has been unbelievably nice to me, but I have noticed that white women are particularly more rude to me than white men. Made it's gender based (if I flash a smile most dudes let their guards down), but a lot of older women (mid-thirties and up) are not having it.

Not to always compare Ohio to California (I mean really, we know who's coming out on top), but this state always makes me uncomfortable. I'm very often the only black person in a sea of white faces. White kids stare at me in the grocery store (I can't stand kids anyway, so I chalk that up to them being irritating little monsters), a lot of white people I meet seriously think I'm an idiot, I mean a lot. My first year here was like an uphill battle ("No I can read and that's not what the author said." "No I have read Derrida, have you?" "Actually feminist theory completely refutes that idea" "How have you never heard of bell hooks?") I haven't ever seriously considered living here (in part) because being the only brown face and going all out of my way to get hair care products is not the way I planned to live my life, let alone start a family.

And sometimes on campus, as a person of color, I feel so isolated here. I've got a great group of friends but I've never been the type of person to necessarily be all in the cultural clubs and from what I've heard that might be a good decision. And as a black woman especially, I've noticed that a lot of efforts towards the minority populations are centered on men, supporting male students, providing outlets for their fellowship with their classmates and alumni as strong male role models. But women of color... nah... not so much.

It's something barely tangible but I feel like I fall through all the cracks here. I feel the absence of a community of women of color (and white women) who keep me in line and support me. Here, people of color seem to be beyond talking with one another. I have a friend who's half Mexican and she is really the lone non-black woman of color in my department who is connected with the Black students.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that this place is a whole new world, one from which I am dying to escape.

Best Get to Steppin'...

Yesterday my mom called to tell me that AC Transit, BART, Muni and the Golden Gate Ferry all raised their prices, like a lot. Now a one-way ticket on the bus costs $2 and a roundtrip BART ride from Berkeley to the City is over $7! I don't even know what to say about that... well except, HELL NAW!



THE FACTS:
In March the AC Transit Board of Directors raised the adult fare from $1.75 to $2; youth, disabled and senior fare from 85 cents to $1; and the 10-ride tickets went from $8.50 to $10. BUT, the 31-day passes remained the same prices ($15 for youth, $20 for seniors and disabled)
BART raised their fares 6.1%, the Golden Gate Ferry saw a 5% increase and Muni added 50 cents.

I mean look I get it, there's a recession and public transportation systems were hit hard by the recession and the inability of the California state legislature to get their act together and agree on a mothafucken budget (!), gas prices are high and have been high for what feels like forever, but this is just getting ridiculous. It used to cost sixty-five cents to get on the bus (remember those fifty-cent youth bus tickets?), so believe that I feel real old when I say $2, are you serious? Am I going to Emeryville via Vegas, because dayum...

This isn't a new situation. I know everytime AC Transit proposes a new fare hike people get real angry, especially for the disabled, elderly and youth. Until recently everyone has pretty much agreed that us grown folk can complain all we want, but for the most part we're employed and/or have ways to mitigate the costs. But for those who live on small fixed incomes or are dependent on others for their pocket money, the gradually skyrocketing prices of their main form of transportation stings... a lot.

But in this economy I don't think we should limit our outrage. When the unemployment rate in California is at about 11%, very few people won't be staring at an empty wallet or lean bank account wondering if they'll have to make a choice this month between electricity, food and that train ride to work. And whereas there may be a way to find some money to supplement your bills or food (I grew up on foodstamps and am not ashamed), where do you go when you can't afford that BART ticket? And if you can't afford to get there on Muni and you don't have a car, the situation probably goes down hill real quick. I mean, isn't everyone's financial situation at this point just a gigantic house of cards. One unexpected expense and that budget for the month is out the window and down the drain faster that I can sign my name on that check.

I don't understand money but I do understand poor and I want to know wtf our leaders (local, state, and national) are going to do to fix this ish right here!