Barack – So, I was asked to facilitate a dialogue regarding the speech Barack made in Philadelphia this past week in response to his distancing himself from the remarks of Rev. Wright. For this, I took a bunch of notes and read the hell out of the speech and I must say it’s a glorious piece of work, its rhetoric is absolutely stunning and the group noted that the media really hasn’t done a ‘comeback’ to it... as this piece is absolutely impenetrable. As far as it goes in regards to his notions or race and what have you. He was great in the fact that he treated the Black context fairly, with respect, love, and honor. He told America that the anger and resentment is a part of all of us. And that individuals and incidents such as these should be treated dynamically and with complexity that riddles the whole national discourse of race. What he has done, which I think counters European notions of grasping knowledge in simple form (race as a tool to commodity/oppress people) is to re-complicate items that racism, sexism, and other isms attempt to simplify. He took a situation that was oppressive (to him as a presidential candidate) and reappropriated it for his survival as a person, which is a means of survival across all oppressed peoples (spanglish, jazz, hip-hop, the pink triangle, etc.).
BUT!! In my literary critical lens there are several points about Barack’s speech that should encourage you to see that he is human, we are all subjective, and that he is still a presidential candidate. Which there is nothing wrong with this, but must be told. 1. This was a speech that reinfornced his candidacy as the man for ‘change’ which he said towards the end like a million times. 2. He really appealed to white audiences by using the speech to declare his distancing from Rev. Wright, citing his white grandmother and mother as sources of struggle, and using the Ashley anecdote where a Black man reached out to a White woman… all these show him distancing himself from connections of ‘Blackness’ he may have (which sort of counters his earlier embrace of it). As a person of color, I feel these resentments, deal with struggles, and hear words by Rev Wright all the time, and I’m not too mad about Barack because my suspicions lead me to believe that he knows this about us oppressed peoples and took the opportunity to reach out to those ignorant of struggle. But we’ll see.
Boomerangs – I woke up and heard on the radio that scientists threw boomerangs in a gravity free environment. And the suckers came back!! They actually work without gravity, which was an assumption held for the longest and left the scientists dumb. It got me thinking about the pyramids, Mayan sculpture, Incan masonry, and other feats that western civilization can’t replicate and I just wonder how can these imperialists teach us to believe us to be primitive, but yet they can’t do what we did… Instead they spend my tax money finding out for themselves that they can’t figure us out… LOL!!
Cigarettes – Embarrassing story… but all I gotta say is that I’ve been trying to quit smoking (I’m down to just “weekend smoking”) and I REALLY didn’t want to quit until I kissed this girl who smokes… LMAO… In the words of Jay-Z “WHAT MORE CAN I SAAAAYY”!
The ‘WHATS IN MY BOX’ portion: Movie “Streets is Watching” and “Rize”. Dubstep: Chef (March 4th on Rinse). Other Music: Konono No 1, Erykah Badu, and The Cribs. Book: “No One Belongs Here More than You” Miranda July.