My Thoughts On The State of The Black Union

I was truly inspired Saturday at the State of the Black Union. The even itself was cool because I am a big fan of Cornell West and Michael Eric Dyson. Plus, I got to see Dick Gregory act totally ghetto in front of all those intellectuals. That was great.

I think there could be more ideas exchanged during the event if the format was different. The way the event is setup lends itself to many applause grabbing lines. After awhile it seemed like everyone was trying to out do the other person for an ovation. I would have given everybody two minutes to answer and kept it moving. I didn’t hear too many reasonable solutions come up. It’s funny that I watch this thing every year on television and never picked up on this until I was actually there. I love W.E.B Dubois but that was a hard stretch making him the theme of a 2008 discussion on race. They could use a few radical cats mixed in there just to shake the panel up a bit.

Out of all the speakers I saw, Donna Brazile, Michael Steele and Nicole Lee from Trans Africa impressed me the most. Dr. Akbar is the person I want to have a one on one conversation with.

Our local leadership was on full display. Mayor Ray Nagin is crazy. Did he know he was on national television? Why was Cynthia Willard Lewis standing up and applauding comments about people struggling when she votes against struggling people all the time on the city council? Cleo Fields being up there made it hard to take the whole thing seriously. Me and my boy kept wondering if they checked his pockets for cash. It's a wonder I still vote. We should have let Pastor Jones, Ms. Harrison and Ms. Woodard represent the city.

Barak Obama’s nomination dominated the whole conversation. I actually have some new respect for Hillary Clinton for putting herself in front of that hostile crowd especially after they had been worked up into a frenzy. The most amazing thing about the whole Obama phenomenon is how the new school black agenda and the old school civil rights crowd have all come together for the audacity of hope. You need serious game to bring these two groups together. That tells me in the end they are all fighting for the same thing to begin with. If they can keep that understanding after the election is over and listen to one another we might get something done.

Here is what inspired me. I was sitting in the middle of the auditorium on the third level and got a good view of the entire crowd. There were elderly people. There were scores of college kids. There were men and women with their kids. There were church groups and youth groups. There were serious men and serious women. There were even some white brothers and sisters. (That must be why the local media didn’t cover it much. We are not supposed to support one another.) A large majority of these people were from the city and the Gulf Coast. When I first came back to see the city in October of 2005, the hood was so empty that me and my friend stood in the middle of St. Bernard and Broad St. and there was not a car or person in sight except for a Red Cross truck handing out water. If someone would have told me that day that in two years time we would have enough people here to host anything let alone fill an auditorium I would have thought they were crazy. It felt good to see that. I know everybody who wants to be home isn’t here and I know not everyone who should have been taking care of has been. Saturday afternoon was a moment to give ourselves a pat on the back and say we have probably come back further along than we should have with the way things have happened. For that display alone the day was great to me.

Sitting On My Porch Part VI

I am writing this edition drinking a long island tea and waiting for the Suns/Lakers game to come on. Please add drive through daiquiri shops as reason number 343 why I don’t want to leave the city. I am not ashamed to say that I am a Shaq apologist. Even if he plays ten minutes and runs out of breath I will only harp on his one dunk. I like how the analyst talk about Shaq not being able to run like he works in a coal mine or something. If Shaq came to a pick up game he would not only dominate, we would all be scared of him. Anyone who has negative words about Shaq, Iverson, Kobe, Donovan Mcnabb, Chris Paul, Drew Brees or Stephen A. Smith is no longer allowed to read this blog. There is an open invitation to talk about Tony Romo, Tracy McGrady, or any Atlanta Falcons except for Warrick Dunn. Why does the media like to keep black male beef going? Didn’t Shaq and Kobe kill that two years ago?

They have started tearing down the C.J. Peete and the St. Bernard housing projects. I feel safer already. All this time I thought lack of quality education and disenfranchisement was the reason for the amount of crime in the city. It turns out that living in a brick building instead of a new wood one with light colored paint was the reason. Way to go City Council! If we tear down every brick building in the city we can have a utopia.

I would like to thank Jefferson Parish for proving this area is 40 years behind in race relations. I think it's funny how some people get so upset when accused of playing the race card but stuff like this comes up. Here is an idea, since all the schools in question are public, how about if we make a pledge for all of them to receive equal funding and resources. That way a parent won't feel the need to send their kids 10 miles away just for computer access and new books. It won't matter where any kid of any color goes. We can call the plan No Child Left Behind. Wait........nevermind.

This question may seem out of place where I have it but how many black women from New Orleans are nicknamed Keedy, Teedy or Deedy? I have two in my family and know three more. Is there a local historian who can tell me when this tradition started? My nanny is 60 and that’s her nickname so I know it’s at least that old. I think I just created the next PBS special for Black History Month. African American Nicknames: From Pookie to Teedy.

This city has to be the only place your social agenda can swing far left to far right in a one block radius. You can literally be on one corner, see a homeless guy and think to yourself “I need to get out and give that guy my jacket and money for a meal. Katrina really did him in” ; then go to the next corner see another guy and roll down your window to yell out “get up and go to work you lazy bastard”. That sounds harsh but it really is that bad. Somedays I drive up Claiborne Avenue and get depressed. Other days I want to find out where the hell all those extra tents come from.

I have been working out lately and it’s a weird feeling when your body starts to come back to you after years of abuse. I can tell you this. If your body would hurt as much getting out of shape as it does getting back in shape no one would ever gain weight. Exercise is biology's sick joke on the people who like to eat.

Have you seen the video of the young sister in Texas dunking the basketball? If I see her on the playground where I am playing I am catching a charlie horse. No teenage girl is going to embarrass me.

They also played one of those Before the Dinosaurs shows where they show all the pre-historic creatures. I am all into science and everything but some of that stuff is crazy. How do they know that a group of giant scorpions chased a school of walking fish into a pool of desert water. I wonder if someone is going to find my bones a million years from now and can tell what I did. If they do my name will be Clifferous Crowndrinkerous. I challenge anyone that reads this to come up with their own name.

The last few weeks recent events in the country have made me a little confused about how I view the state of the country. When a wave of optimism takes over it makes you wonder to yourself if you are missing something. Today I took the long way home. I went through Central city then mid city. I went through the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Ward. Then I hit Gentilly, the Ninth Ward and finally New Orleans East. I realized that not only is my opinion justified, I might have been too nice.

The video below is dedicated to me because it’s my favorite hip hop song of all time.

Sheer Stupidity

Recovery schools say they're owed millions

08:58 PM CST on Wednesday, February 20, 2008

WWLTV.com

The Recovery School District says it is owed about $67 million from tax money and insurance proceeds from the New Orleans school board and that without payment; it may be forced to layoff teachers and increase class size.

The revelation was made as the RSD presented its first budget to the State of Louisiana.

The problem is that the New Orleans school board says it is owed $72 million from the RSD for money it fronted for school repairs and employee benefits.

The State Department of Education is trying to step in by getting an auditor to help settle the dispute.

Each side believes that they are on the wrong side of the ledger sheet.

“We actually believe that we don’t owe them that money, but they may owe us a great deal,” said Orleans school board member Jimmy Fahrenholtz. “It’s a dispute that needs to be resolved.”

Unless it is resolved to get the RSD more money, its superintendent says it will have to cut back.

“I’m going to have to start increasing class size, cut after school programs and summer school programs,” bemoaned Paul Vallas.

I would make a comment but I don't know what to say. This is why my parents are in Memphis right now.

One More All Star Piece

This story wasn't posted on their website this morning but I read it this afternoon and I thought this was an excellent article about the city.

All Stars In The Hood

By all accounts the All Star Weekend was a good success for the city. We almost made it through the entire weekend without anyone getting shot. I won’t claim that incident for the city. One shooting is pretty standard for functions with a majority of young black people. That’s a sad but true statement. I wasn’t worried about chaos in the streets because crowd control during events is the NOPD’s specialty. The All Star game wraps a two month stretch of good events for the city including the BCS Championship, the Sugar Bowl and Mardi Gras. Now, we have to figure out a way to generate the same positive energy ourselves for the rest of the year. It makes no sense that the only time we tend to feel good about the city is when we have a large group of visitors.

Here is one positive thing for you. Kermit Ruffins, Trombone Shorty, and The Rebirth blew the soul out of that arena last night. The cool part is that if you live here you can go any night of the week and see a performance just like that. It was good they didn’t use a zydeco band like they always do. They should have gotten Fire Ya Ya and his drummer to march around the arena during timeouts. I am sure he would have scared some tourists but that would have been pretty entertaining to watch Marv Albert trying to explain that.

My only wish now is that the next time we host something on a national scale; everyone can come in their best clothes and have a good time without the need for all the volunteering. I like the days of service but that also means that there are still hundreds of things that need to be done. I think it would be nice for the media to come down and take a ride around some of those neighborhoods to show how well they are doing as opposed to what hasn’t been done. Sooner or later the story needs to be how things have turned around and improved.

Should I be thankful or sorry that I didn’t see any national stories about that colony of homeless people under the Claiborne overpass?

Here is a good column for Scoop Jackson at ESPN2 about the playground situation. He should have added that one of the reasons the playgrounds are still messed up is because some of them were trailer parks after the storm. We had to protect those golf courses.

Here’s a real conversation I had with my cousin during the slam dunk contest.

Him: What’s up with Dwight Howard?

Me: What do you mean?

Him: He’s always smiling and showing his teeth.

Me: Well, he’s young, rich, has a good family, no trouble, tall, athletic, handsome, lives in warm weather, and he’s about to win the slam dunk contest. Wouldn’t you be smiling?

Him: Oh Yeah……………I need another drink.

I try to show people the differences in America regarding race without making it a personal thing. Racial problems in the country have more to do with the system than individual people. Let’s take this Roger Clemens hearing for example. Here is a guy that is claiming he’s never been around illegal drugs and that his former trainer is lying on him. This same trainer gave shots to his former teammates including one of this best friends Andy Pettitte. The trainer in question also had the opportunity to shoot Roger Clemen’s wife in the booty with a needle full of growth hormones. All that is true but this guy would risk going to jail just to lie on Roger Clemons.

Here’s where the racism part comes in.

If Barry Bonds had the balls to sit in front of Congress and lie with a straight face like that, they would have put him in cuffs and taken him to jail right from the hearing.

There should be a website where citizens can fill out a claim form for return of all the tax dollars that are wasted on shit like this.

My Last Word On Obama Until It's Over

Before I post this let me say that I reserve the right to post something else if it's so big that it changes the race. Right now the writing is on the wall....

Barak Obama is closer to being the president than any man of color has ever been. Tonight my be the death blow to Hillary Clinton. I wasn’t going say anything else about it. The wave of momentum is just too great. I knew it was over Saturday morning when the lady at the car wash asked me if I had went and voted for Obama before I started washing my truck. Who am I to kill the dream? I don’t want to kill it. I’m voting for Obama since Jon Edwards dropped out. I wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t take the time to tell the truth about what’s really happening here. After we finish dancing in the streets celebrating his nomination, we need to tell the truth about what’s going on. I hope I don’t get the Tavis Smiley treatment. It’s okay if I do.

• There is no mistake about it to me. Barak Obama’s campaign is no longer a revolution for change. He is running so far to the left and has so many endorsements from the establishment of the Democratic party, he is now the establishment of the party. He had to take that position from Hillary in order to keep the money flowing to win. With the large percentages of black voters casting ballots for Obama, we have now married the Democratic party for at least the next four years. That’s right, the same party that’s been taking you for granted since the Civil Rights Bill was passed. Now Obama has to win because if he doesn’t we are screwed. We better hope that all the white men that chose the brother over the woman also hate McCain because it will be rough.
  

• Since the key to winning is white voters, please don’t get upset when Barak Obama won’t show up at events like the State of the Black Union or answers questions geared towards the African American agenda. It’s obvious we are going to vote for him anyway so he doesn’t have to speak on those things. I am all for a candidate that wants to run for everybody. I love the idea of a true united country. However, there are two Americas like John Edwards said and we happen to be mostly in the poorer one. It’s a good thing for Obama that most black people with a little money don’t want to be reminded that their cousin’s don’t have any. A candidate of any color running for president should be able to speak on the disparity and a black man isn’t being racist if he questions that. How we are we going to be united if everything isn’t even? If this was two white people running we would be ready to shut down any campaign that took these issues for granted. Now we don't care anymore and that's disheartening.
  

• If this election was a game Oprah Winfrey would have to be the MVP. Why? Because she told white and black people that Obama was safe to vote for. There is no one with the appeal Oprah has. White people love her and she’s everything most black people hope to be. She’s rich, she isn’t judged by her color, and she rarely acknowledges the “element”in the community. Most black people outside of Illinois never heard of Barak Obama. Half of them still don't know anything about him now. Oprah told them and white America he was a safe black man approved by her and he ran with it. I’m not sure what position he could give her but it needs to be something good.

I am voting for Barak Obama because he is the best candidate left for me. I am also voting for him because of the historical significance. That bothers me somewhat because I am long past voting for inspiration. I have been living in a city ran by black people my whole life and it hasn’t been a paradise. I can only imagine if this national thing goes wrong. I just need this thing to work if it happens. If nothing changes then I’m going to be heartbroken.

I'm Going To The State of The Black Union

I am registered to attend the State of the Black Union in New Orleans, Louisiana. I would like to invite anyone to read this to attend. I will be there with my Covenant book and my post Katrina attitude.

You can register by clicking on this line.

Hope to see you there.

Sitting On My Porch Part V

I am back from my Mardi Gras and family visit hiatus. This years coconut count from Zulu stands at 7. That’s a new record for me. The power of a four year old sitting on your shoulders cannot be measured when it comes to catching parade throws. I have to say that I enjoyed this carnival season more than I have in the last few years. It would have been perfect if not for the rainstorms and the occasional senseless violence on the parade route. Which leads me to my next point.

New Orleans is hosting the All Star game next week. That’s usually a weekend where the best and worst of the hood comes together to party and get in trouble. I am begging all the cats who tore up Las Vegas last year and scared people to the point they were worried about having the game here. Please, leave the foolishness at home. I will give you two good reasons. The first reason is that New Orleans can ill afford any extra national publicity for something bad happening especially if it was caused by someone who doesn’t live here. Somehow all of those stories end up being our fault. The second thing is that there are a lot of young men in New Orleans who will bust a cap. They won’t care who you came here with or where you are from. They are not easily impressed by that kind of thing. Don’t get yourself hurt. Come on down, meet some pretty girls and have a good time.

I am not saying I totally believe in the whole global warming phenomenon yet. I will say that when it’s the first week in February, and we are running the air conditioner, girls are wearing booty shorts at the parades and I am starting to see male mosquitoes something isn’t quite right. There was a report a few weeks ago that said global warming would slow down hurricane activity. I am so confused.

African American Lives on PBS should be shown in every inner city school. It’s the best program I have watched in a long time. The lesson to be learned from this program is that you can't beat the feeling of knowing where you come from. It's empowering. My only wish is that somehow we could do this kind of thing on a large scale. Maybe Barak can try to fund this when he becomes president. This program has inspired me to make an attempt to find out my own lineage. I think I have a good idea of where to start. I just need to get pass the obstacle of not having all the information Katrina took and not having a PBS budget to travel to all of these small towns. Maybe Dr. Gates will read this and hook me up.

I am not voting for him but I will give him credit. Mike Huckabee is a great politician. What he is doing with no money and mainstream support is remarkable. His campaign is what Obama’s was supposed to be. I have one more Obama posting to make and after that I will no longer say anything about the man because I don’t want the hate mail.

It was cool enjoying the holiday with my parents and my crazy brother (when he wasn’t running the streets). I was glad they could make it down to the city. In light of that I am dedicating the song below to my brother Walter. He may be the only dredlock wearing, mixtape making, Newport smoking, Lower Ninth Ward representing young cat who digs the saxophone and music like Cannonball Adderley. I love you and miss you but don’t move back to New Orleans yet.

My Favorite Candidate is Gone

I am very disappointed in the John Edwards campaign. I thought he was the best candidate for the future of New Orleans. I am not sure if the other four people in the race have us on their mind like John did. At the risk of pissing off the black blogosphere and Tom Joyner, I can’t understand how John Edward’s platform was totally ignored by black people for the most part. We should have at least used his platform to bring out the ideas in the other two people running against him. I realize Obama and Clinton’s opportunity is a first in our lifetime but could we at least acknowledge the fact that Edward’s agenda was closer to the needs of our community than anything else presented during the race? By the way, don’t tell me go to Obama’s website. I know what’s on the website but he’s on television all day long. I’m not dismissing hope but it doesn’t pay for anything. I think Edwards doesn’t have the charisma to make people vote for him. He should have realized that when he couldn’t beat John Kerry for the nomination in 2004 because Kerry is a walking mannequin. Maybe I am biased for Edwards since he started his campaign around the corner from my home and ended it in the Ninth Ward. My concern for the faith of my city trumps all other issues in this election. Edwards should have stayed in it at least until the debates were over. Tonight’s debate is going to make me dizzy from all the talking in circles.

Doing the Small Stuff

I helped a brother outside of my job get his car started after dozens of people had passed him by. Although I had one of my good outfits on, I didn’t mind the greasy hands to help him and his pregnant girlfriend get out of the weather. The cat I helped was so glad someone finally stopped that he tried to pay me. I couldn’t take his money. I try to help people out of jams like that when I can. I figure that’s all a part of trying to be a decent guy. That scenario got me thinking about by so many guys drove right pass the man. I think it’s because we are too busy trying to live up to this larger than life definition of manhood the media has trapped us into. We are so busy trying to shine that we can’t even take pleasure in the little things that make the community a little easier to live in. What good is all that climbing going to do if we can’t help a brother out? Besides, we are not all going to get a Masters degree, or move to the suburbs, or send our kids to private school. There is going to be a whole lot of us spending our lives in the same old hood. You better start lending a hand to one another and making the best of it. Do traffic duty at the school. Drive the elderly lady down the street to the supermarket. Put up a basketball for the kids in the neighborhood or show them how to build things and use their hands like my grandpa used to do. That is every bit as manly as having a big bank account or driving a Benz. Plus, when people speak of you in high regard there will be no greater sense of pride than that. That’s really all we can do to work through this foolishness.

Sometimes things happen that make you so upset words won't do it any justice.

My prayers and condolences to Ms. Cotton and her family. I don't feel like blogging anything else for awhile.

Carnival Memories and Helpful Hints

Our culture is beautiful. Play that clip and learn something.

It’s Mardi Gras time again. It’s time for thousands of people to descend on the city, get totally wasted and show their bodies for pieces of plastic. That has to be the greatest marketing tool for an event in the world. Since we need all the money we can get, I won’t be too negative about how carnival season has been watered down to a drink fest. Anybody that wants to come down and fight for their lives on Bourbon feel free. You won’t see me down there. The best thing about the commercialization of Mardi Gras is that it didn’t trickle over to the neighborhood festivities. We still have a little tradition if you can get pass the pit bulls and the guys rolling blunts right in front of your babies. The one thing that sucks about living in the East is that you can’t go out your door and see Indians walking around at 6:00 AM like the old neighborhood. When I was growing up Mardi Gras was serious stuff. Families would dress alike or have costumes. Every school had a royal court and parade. My elementary school, Thomas Edison had a big ass parade that used to walk the entire Lower Ninth Ward. I always thought that was cruelty to children to make us walk that far. The parade used to pass right in front my door and I wanted to jump out of the line and go lay in my bed. Remember when you had to make those stupid floats out of a shoe box for class? There was always that one kiss ass kid who’s parents spent way more money on the thing and made your aluminum foil and tissue paper decorations look trifling. The kid with the overly decorated float was usually the first jackass to also bring a king cake to class. When you went to a school full of poor kids like I did, nobody wanted to get the baby (that‘s who buys the next one). When I realized that I had the baby I would always chew it like it was a piece of the cake and spit it out later so I wouldn’t have to buy the next one. At least back then you could get a 3ft. cake from McKenzie’s Bakery for five dollars. Now you need to spend at least ten dollars to buy one big enough to feed more than two people. I remember staying up to watch the ball when King Rex met King Comus just to see if I was going to see somebody black in the royal court or Dorothy Mae Taylor charging in to stop the whole event. Me and my boys used to walk the entire Zulu parade route with an ink pen and a sheet of paper for girls’ phone numbers. I don’t think I ever got one. I used to love that day.

Here are some unwritten rules for Mardi Gras:

Mardi Gras day is the only day that heterosexual men are allowed to dress alike and walk down the street together. It’s also the only day you can get away with dressing like a woman or wearing a leather g-string without no one really bothering you.

All kids must save their beads from previous parades so they can ride around the day of Mardi Gras and play parade. If no one in your family has a truck, you are allowed to play from a porch or apartment balcony. If you were raised here and never played parade, please turn in all of your New Orleans paraphernalia now. Your tribal membership has been revoked.

The best strategy for drinking while hanging out is to make friends early in the day with someone near you that has a portable toilet. People are willing to share the facilities with you if you have been talking to them for awhile. Please do not walk up on a group’s private potty and get a beat down.

The best method for getting a Zulu coconut on Orleans Avenue without knowing anyone on the float is to surround yourself with as many little girls as possible. Then, when the float passes, scream out “WHAT’S UP COUSIN !!” No one in New Orleans keeps track of all their cousins. They will think you are one they can’t remember and hand you one for the babies. If the rider doesn’t have any coconuts, you will at least get some stuffed animals to give to the little girls.

Finally, always remember that all drama on Mardi Gras day usually takes place after 5:00 PM. New Orleans people can have a good time together without any problems until there has been too much alcohol consumed. If you are not from around the area, too tipsy to realize what’s going on, or don’t have good running shoes, this would be a good time to go home and rest up for Ash Wednesday. If you are partying with locals you don’t need to be out all night long.

Honoring the Legacy

Today is the day we officially celebrate Dr. King’s life. There will be lots of speeches, marching and the singing of Lift Every Voice and Sing. All of that is cool but we need to get a deeper meaning from this day.

Everyone should remember that Dr. King had a doctorate. It wasn’t one of those honorary kind they give people for speaking at graduations. He also was a pastor. That means during the time of his life he was among the best and brightest we had to offer.

He could have lived a very long life preaching and raising his kids, yet he chose to put his life on the line to speak out for everybody. When he was assassinated in Memphis he was there to help sanitation workers. He gave his life trying to help his people. It didn’t matter if they were educated, or Baptist, or lived in a certain area of town. Imagine if we had that today? What if we still had that sense of community that we pretend to have now? We don’t really want to admit that the old neighborhood is a ghetto because many of us left it and never came back. That’s understandable to me because we were taught that way. Remember in school when there was a career day. They would always bring in that guy who went to your school and was highly successful. He would give you that speech about how he had made it out of that raggedy ass place you live and never came back. Then you went home and looked at your family like a bunch of losers. You go to school with your mind solely on getting the hell out. It’s no wonder poor black people have such a hard time getting support from their own. That’s why Dr. King’s death was so tragic. He didn’t live long enough to explain that the dream didn’t mean to split your own community. People took that one phrase, exploited it and buried the rest of his message. I think we need to do something to help another person that may not have it as good as we do. That could be something as small as helping a child in your family learn how to read or helping one of your friends get their GED. Making the lives of everyone better is how you honor the man. If we can’t do that then we all should have went to work today.

Happy Birthday To You

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars... Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobile rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to mankind.

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.

Let This Go

Do black people in this country really know what they want?

Everybody is on the Obama bandwagon because he gives us hope and he is not like the old school black leaders. So why are we being suckered into this Clinton race angle?

For the last sixteen years you negroes have hailed Bill Clinton as the first black president. Now, him and his wife make one confusing comment and they are defending themselves all over TV instead of talking about things that matter. I know all you educated people know what an analogy is. She might have chosen a bad example but you can’t tell me you honestly think she was trying to disrespect Martin Luther King. Even if the Clinton’s were bigots, don’t you think someone should have noticed that when Bill was the leader of the free world for 8 years? We weren’t worried about that because he played a saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show and if that’s all it took to win our support then we are stupid anyway and probably shouldn’t be voting.

We have to be bigger than that and keep focused on more important things. No matter how hard the media tries to bring this to the forefront we should resist and focus on the things we need to get our problems in order. Personally I think that if you are a black politician and all it took was one comment to move your support then you haven’t heard any issues and must be doing a bad job. Support Obama because of his agenda. Don’t support him because of this foolishness. Also, if Barak Obama believes all that noise he talks during those speeches he would silence this entire conflict now and move on to bringing people together. If he uses it to his advantage he’s not better than Jesse or Al. He’s just a professional politician like the rest of them and he’s trying to get elected. He’s playing to the same emotion Hillary Clinton did when she cried. He’s supposed to be Bobby Kennedy. He’s not supposed to need to entertain this kind of thing.

I’m not the brother that doesn’t believe in racism. I grew up in the deep south so I know it’s a very real thing. It’s so real and so volatile when you are faced with it, it’s impact should never be weakened by exploiting it where it isn’t. Let’s say Obama plays this race card and wins. One day there’s going to be a real racist jackass who’s going to say or do something that we really need to address. How is mainstream America going to accept that after watching us go crazy behind a few comments from a family we adopted as our own years ago.

Great But A Little Too Real

The Wire is the best and most addictive show on television that no one watches. It’s almost at Sopranos status. The difference between The Wire and The Sopranos is that some things on The Wire are so realistic about inner city life that the shit is depressing. You can almost tell who’s going to die before it happens. There is something too real about the addicts, the senseless killing, the rules of the game that are life and death, the pain, the hopelessness and the realization there’s another generation getting prepared to start the cycle all over again. If I hadn’t seen some of these things before here in New Orleans and didn’t have so many kids I grew up with laying in the cemetery, I would say the writers on this show are genius. The truth of the matter is that this is going down in cities all over America. The producer of the show wants to create another show based on New Orleans. I hope he changes his mind because people like to use stuff against us and I would hate for the tourist industry to fall apart because of a few hours on HBO. Why can’t we just leave this craziness in Baltimore? They are close enough to Washington D.C to withstand the bad publicity.

We are the murder capitol. What kind of dumb ass name is that to give a city? This title has got to go. The worse part about living in the city labeled the murder capital I that you have to hope a large number of black men in another city get killed to take the name from here. I’m going to the Field Negro’ site every day to check the murder count in Philly like that’s going to make me feel better about this bullshit down here. I guess that will BET’s next show. They’ll have some kind of contest between all the major cities to see who can get the most ignorant the most often. It will come on right after American Gangster since we can’t have enough glorification of street violence.

At Least They Let Her Keep Her Citizenship.

Aside from a Katrina victim, is there another person having a worse two year run than Marion Jones?

Talk about losing everything. She just went to jail for six months. She lost all of her medals. All of the men in her life turned on her. She’s banned from competing and is probably dead broke. At least Mike Vick gets to play football again and make some money back. I feel so bad for her. I like Marion Jones. She might as well get some meat on her bones and figure out what she’s going to do when she gets out. I bet you those sisters who had to give up their 4x100 meter relay medals are blowing her phone and email up with all kinds of nasty and hurtful messages. I suggest that when Marion gets out she heads down to New Orleans to live. There are two reasons. One reason is that New Orleans residents rarely get star struck and she can walk around the grocery store and sit on her porch without little fanfare. The second reason is that it takes a lot more than lying about steroids to get ostracized in this city. Come on down Marion. Send me an email when you get here and I will help find you a job.

Sittin On My Porch Part IV

Since Mardi Gras is quickly approaching, this blog is dedicated to Professor Longhair. I know you young cats like to ignore heritage but check out the video at the bottom.






When I was a little boy there was no cable in the Ninth Ward. I would put on my Spiderman pajamas, stick socks in the shoulders for pads and listen to Jim Hawthorne call LSU football games on my AM radio while I ran back and forth. Back then it was all about Dalton Hilliard, Gary James, and Eric Martin. I am going to enjoy LSU winning the national championship. This is the best consolation price you can have when the Saints choke.

I see the Hornets worked a new lease deal that will allow them to leave after 2009 if fan support doesn’t get better. The Hornets need to average over 14,000 fans a game to save the team. Where so I sign up to volunteer for the moving team? There is no way this is going to happen. Suburban folks in the New Orleans area like football, football, baseball and football. If the Hornets do leave I think all the blame should be placed on the Northshore. Those people drive dozens of miles everyday just to keep from living in the city. They take all the big money back and build a paradise but can’t buy a damn Hornets ticket. If they don’t want that kind of blame then they shouldn’t act all high and mighty.

Speaking of suburbanites………Don’t you hate it when you and a co-worker are having a conversation about something going on in the city and somebody who thinks they are all that because they live in some subdivision locked away from the rest of the world sticks their nose in the conversation to tell you how that doesn’t happen in Flower Gardens where they live? You just know half the kids there are making crystal meth in their garage but she wants to come and pass judgment on my hood.

She’s probably the same person that keeps leaving half eaten cans of food with the spoon still in it right in front of the refrigerator at work. One of those containers had roots and stems growing out of the fungus.

Why are there murders in The Lower Ninth Ward. This has to be criminals driving victims to the neighborhood and killing them. There is no way this can be people who live down there. There are only 20 people in the whole neighborhood. Listen, if you can’t get along now with a handful of people, what’s going to happen in the year 2050 when they finally start helping Brad Pitt to rebuild. You guys have forty years to get it together.

I am not saying this happen because he was black. I’m saying that I have been following politics since I was 11 years old and I have never seen a man lose 15 points in the polls in one day. John Kerry flip flopped everyday and didn’t lose that much ground. Kerry endorsed Obama today. If I was Obama I would pretend I didn't know about that.

The presidential race heads to South Carolina where black voters make up 49% of the Democratic vote. This means that Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton should not be able to escape issues that affect Black America like they did in Iowa and New Hampshire. They have to answer questions on poverty, black on black crime, education, and the unfair justice system. If they can’t then I say vote for John Edwards. If the black candidate runs his race without ever speaking of these issues in a specific way then how can we get mad at anyone else for not doing it.

My Obama Confusion

First of all let me state my personal view on blacks running for political office. I personally think that politics were the worse thing that happened to black leadership in American history. There has been more disappointment and more people have been bamboozled because they related election wins with overall progress. We really have nothing to show for political gains. That’s why I don’t back any candidate just because of skin tone.

The presidency is a different set of circumstances. He is the leader of the free world and the symbol of what we stand for as a nation. Unless Obama tattoos a confederate flag on his head and dances a jig with black face in front of the Lincoln Memorial, the symbolism alone is worth it to vote for him in my view. Seeing his victory speech tonight was a good feeling.

I just wish I was really on the bandwagon. What is it that I am missing about his message? I may not be listening objectively. I am going to call it the Ray Nagin/Oliver Thomas/ William Jefferson/ Marc Morial/Cynthia Willard Lewis/ Eddie Jordan/Ellenese Brooks-Simms/ Insert your local black political here Syndrome. I’m just tired of getting played by my own folks.

However, do you know that Iowa only has a 2.3% black population? That brother is reaching more people than just ones that look like him. That has to count for something. Am I wrong for thinking he still can’t win in the long run?

Michael Savage made a good point on his show (Yes, I listen to the Savage Nation. I‘m a radio talk show and MSNBC junkie.) He said that the reason Obama couldn’t win was because all the white males that haven’t been voting would come out and vote just to vote against him. Maybe that’s true, but what about all the black people who haven’t voted since Jesse ran in 1984?

You know my favorite candidate is actually Jon Edwards. In a perfect world Barak would make him his running mate and then it’s all good.

Tavis Smiley said that Mike Huckabee would be one Republican candidate that would not concede the black vote to the Democrats. I need this race to happen just for the dialogue. The debates alone make me excited just thinking about them. America might not be ready for big change but we need to have the conversation.

The question now is how is Hillary going to attack this man in New Hampshire without pissing off all these black people.