Julius Speaks

Soul Train Line

2012-02-02T08:29:00.001-05:00

RIP Don Cornelius 1936-2012

2012-02-01T23:11:00.001-05:00

Shadows and Light Now Available on Amazon.com

2012-01-30T08:35:00.003-05:00

One of My Favorites by Etta James: Sail Away

2012-01-29T18:32:00.001-05:00

Etta James with Nina Simone in the Audience

2012-01-29T14:34:00.001-05:00

Call Jan Brewer and Tell Her About Wagging her Finger

2012-01-27T11:01:00.001-05:00

602-542-4331,The Honorable Janice K. Brewer
Arizona Governor
Executive Tower
1700 West Washington Street
Phoenix, AZ 85007 and the website is www.azgovernor.gov

My Book, Shadows and Light, is OUT!!!

2012-01-26T22:40:00.001-05:00

Buy it here

Adieu, 2011

2011-12-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

2011 was not a bad year for me....some things did happen though that did define the year and may prove monumental....I lost my grandmother in February, Hello Thelma, wherever you may be in the universe....I did feel it a great privilege and honor that the universe chose me to take care of you in your final chapter....I finally put into play my first publication as a writer. My poetry collection, Shadow and Act is due to be published in January by Llumina Press. I am glad that I pushed forward to bring my destiny into reality....and I have hope for my future....I learned a lot of things about myself this year...as I am continually doing throughout this life...and finally I am beginning to feel a bit of pep in my step to go out and do what needs to be done....This new season will see PHD applications and hopefully lots of movement, TONS of movement....I am going to throw myself onto the universe and consciously ride it to where ever destiny takes me....One thing that I have decided is that I will celebrate more...and celebrate myself.... to use the words of Nikki Giovanni "this is about us....celebrating ourselves...and a well deserved honor it is...Light the candles Essence...this is a rocket...let's ride...."

President Obama: Veto Indefinite Detention

2011-12-27T02:26:00.001-05:00

From the ACLU

As I write this, the Defense Authorization bill is on its way to President Obama's desk. The bill contains dangerous, sweeping worldwide indefinite detention provisions.

Leading members of Congress have already indicated that they believe that these provisions could be used by this and any future president to indefinitely detain people without charge or trial — even American citizens and others picked up within the borders of the United States.

According to reports, the President's advisors are recommending that he not veto this legislation despite earlier promises to do so. We need to tell the President to listen to the American people.

There are moments in America when our freedoms depend on the willingness of a President to act firmly and decisively to sustain our fundamental values; moments that decide the course our nation takes for years to come.

This is one of those moments. Tell President Obama you’re counting on him to veto indefinite detention and uphold the freedoms and values America was built on.

A Birthday Song, For Me.

2011-12-22T07:45:00.001-05:00

A Great Analysis on the Cult of Ayn Rand

2011-12-18T09:47:00.002-05:00

Whoopi Goldberg and Jackee in the New Mame!

2011-12-17T22:12:00.000-05:00

Ok, this is just a dream in my head--but wouldn't it be a wonderful remake of Mame--with Whoopi Goldberg as Auntie Mame and Jackee as Auntie Vera? Ohhh someone in Hollywood ought to make this film!

Mrs. Elaine Saliba

2011-12-17T09:02:00.000-05:00

This post is in homage to my fifth grade math teacher, Mrs. Elaine Saliba, who is in a very large way responsible for me turning out as a writer. Even though she taught me math, she always brought me these writer's books filled with prompts and exercises and other writer's whatnots. I spent my time in her classes writing...and then she'd read my stories and give me feedback....Thanks you, Mrs. Saliba.

Newt Gingrich's Views On Poor People

2011-12-14T19:08:00.003-05:00

The Cover for My Upcoming Book, Shadows and Light

2011-12-14T17:34:00.001-05:00

A Statement on The Help by The Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH)

2011-12-10T00:00:00.001-05:00

Saturday, December 10, 2011
Member Login

ABWH Logo

An Open Statement to the Fans of The Help:

On behalf of the Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH), this statement provides historical context to address widespread stereotyping presented in both the film and novel version of The Help. The book has sold over three million copies, and heavy promotion of the movie will ensure its success at the box office. Despite efforts to market the book and the film as a progressive story of triumph over racial injustice, The Help distorts, ignores, and trivializes the experiences of black domestic workers. We are specifically concerned about the representations of black life and the lack of attention given to sexual harassment and civil rights activism.

During the 1960s, the era covered in The Help, legal segregation and economic inequalities limited black women's employment opportunities. Up to 90 per cent of working black women in the South labored as domestic servants in white homes. The Help’s representation of these women is a disappointing resurrection of Mammy—a mythical stereotype of black women who were compelled, either by slavery or segregation, to serve white families. Portrayed as asexual, loyal, and contented caretakers of whites, the caricature of Mammy allowed mainstream America to ignore the systemic racism that bound black women to back-breaking, low paying jobs where employers routinely exploited them. The popularity of this most recent iteration is troubling because it reveals a contemporary nostalgia for the days when a black woman could only hope to clean the White House rather than reside in it.

Both versions of The Help also misrepresent African American speech and culture. Set in the South, the appropriate regional accent gives way to a child-like, over-exaggerated “black” dialect. In the film, for example, the primary character, Aibileen, reassures a young white child that, “You is smat, you is kind, you is important.” In the book, black women refer to the Lord as the “Law,” an irreverent depiction of black vernacular. For centuries, black women and men have drawn strength from their community institutions. The black family, in particular provided support and the validation of personhood necessary to stand against adversity. We do not recognize the black community described in The Help where most of the black male characters are depicted as drunkards, abusive, or absent. Such distorted images are misleading and do not represent the historical realities of black masculinity and manhood.

Furthermore, African American domestic workers often suffered sexual harassment as well as physical and verbal abuse in the homes of white employers. For example, a recently discovered letter written by Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks indicates that she, like many black domestic workers, lived under the threat and sometimes reality of sexual assault. The film, on the other hand, makes light of black women’s fears and vulnerabilities turning them into moments of comic relief.

Similarly, the film is woefully silent on the rich and vibrant history of black Civil Rights activists in Mississippi. Granted, the assassination of Medgar Evers, the first Mississippi based field secretary of the NAACP, gets some attention. However, Evers’ assassination sends Jackson’s black community frantically scurrying into the streets in utter chaos and disorganized confusion—a far cry from the courage demonstrated by the black men and women who continued his fight. Portraying the most dangerous racists in 1960s Mississippi as a group of attractive, well dressed, society women, while ignoring the reign of terror perpetuated by the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens Council, limits racial injustice to individual acts of meanness.

We respect the stellar performances of the African American actresses in this film. Indeed, this statement is in no way a criticism of their talent. It is, however, an attempt to provide context for this popular rendition of black life in the Jim Crow South. In the end, The Help is not a story about the millions of hardworking and dignified black women who labored in white homes to support their families and communities. Rather, it is the coming-of-age story of a white protagonist, who uses myths about the lives of black women to make sense of her own. The Association of Black Women Historians finds it unacceptable for either this book or this film to strip black women’s lives of historical accuracy for the sake of entertainment.

Ida E. Jones is National Director of ABWH and Assistant Curator at Howard University. Daina Ramey Berry, Tiffany M. Gill, and Kali Nicole Gross are Lifetime Members of ABWH and Associate Professors at the University of Texas at Austin. Janice Sumler-Edmond is a Lifetime Member of ABWH and is a Professor at Huston-Tillotson University.

Word Count: 766

Suggested Reading:

Fiction:

Like one of the Family: Conversations from A Domestic’s Life, Alice Childress

The Book of the Night Women by Marlon James

Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neeley

The Street by Ann Petry

A Million Nightingales by Susan Straight

Non-Fiction:

Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household by Thavolia Glymph

To Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors by Tera Hunter

Labor of Love Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family, from Slavery to the Present by Jacqueline Jones
Living In, Living Out: African American Domestics and the Great Migration by Elizabeth Clark-Lewis

Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody

Any questions, comments, or interview requests can be sent to: ABWHTheHelp@gmail.com

ABWH Statement The Help (pdf) pdf button

Have You Heard of the National Defense Authorization Act?

2011-12-02T13:33:00.001-05:00

This is worse than the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Act.Passed by the U.S. Senate, but thankfully facing a veto from President Obama, this bill truly would erode every right of every citizen in the United States. Read here .

Black Like Jesus: A Photo-Interview with Thomas Sayers Ellis

2011-11-29T15:18:00.001-05:00

Thomas Sayers Ellis is one of the premier African American poets in the United States today as well as a distinguished college professor who teaches at both Sarah Lawrence College and Lesley University. A founder of the Dark Room Collective,a writer's collective that produced many of today's notable Afro-American writers, Ellis has won numerous honors and awards and is a contributing editor for the prestigious journal, Callaloo. Ellis won the Whiting Writer's Award in 2005 and the John C. Zacharis First Book Award in 2006. Mr. Ellis is also a photographer. Three of his pieces are included in this interview. Recently, I contacted him and asked him if he would like to conduct an interview with JuliusSpeaks, an idea which he enthusiastically endorsed. The following is what transpired.

Gentrification Is Dangerous, TSE 1986

1. Tell us something of your background. Where are you from? Are you married? Family?

I am from Washington, D.C. and many of the facts of my life are in my poems, real and imagined. I am not married in the same way that I am not metaphor. I am not single because poet means plural, a collective process and many collective utterances. I do think that it’s too bad that the places we are ‘’from” have to stay in one place forever. Yes, I wish land, the notion of local, were more mobile. Prosody, prose and song, must move.

2. What inspired you to become a poet?

I don’t think I was ever inspired to be one, but I am sure there were a great many other things that I could not be, so many so that poet was there waiting. It was always there––in the widest way. I was never without the possibility of it. I was full of it before I was anything else. At a very early age I was chased in my dreams and in my play by images and sound. A new definition of inspiration: the day images and sound caught me.

3. What does it mean to you to be a person of color and an artist in the United States at this time?

It means too many things to write but I am a Black writer in America and that means that I am Black and American, a double strengthened force, not an America who has been weakened or burdened by Blackness. Blackness adds range and elasticity to my American-ness. The task, however, is to write poems that continue language and poems that do not need the wave of time to become pertinent to readers. The struggle is to “live now” and to be relevant now, to look forward-back, and not backward-forward. We non white poets must also do a better job at defending our organic aesthetic handbooks. Too often those of us who don’t walk the way (in our lines) of academic logic get left out. Now is the time to make room for a vaster range of intelligences, triflin’ and proper.

4. You seem to be very aware of your audience. Do you have a target audience that you approach through your poetry? What is the audience that reads you?

I really am only aware of ears and there are too many of them to target. I approach each poem trying only to satisfy it, the poem. I hear it with my ears. We know poets read poets, mostly, and anyone else is extra. I try not to think about anything but the language and I am often also working against the poem being “about” a thing or one thing, but I always fail at that. There is something about English that traps you in the land of about which leads you to target by use of subject. Traditionally, a poem about Race has an audience and a poem about avocados has another audience. All I want is wholeness, for both audiences to come together and come apart in my odd body-toolbox, but only when I want wholeness.

5. You seem to play a lot with language in your poetry. Do you have a background in linguistics or philology?

No, but I am sensitive to the edges and insides and connotations and denotations of words. I believe in the syllabic integrity of every body part of every word. The front of a word is just as important as the end of a word, and the middle where the vowels often hide is both sonic and creamy. It may be fair to say that I have a front-ground in listening and that I am constantly trying to unlearn feeling.

6. Do you consider the technique and construction of a poem more important than the essence or the delivery?

I believe in Equality.
The Creative Process is the original Religion.
Poetry (not the poem) is
the echo of prayer.

Brown Girl,Brown Church, TSE 2011

7. Explain your approach to poetry- both in its written form and in regards to performance.

I sit down, in surrender, when I write.
I stand up, in triumph, when I read.
First I crawl
then I perform-a-form.
Must be the dog in me.

8. What would you say is the state of poetry in America today? Is there a vibrant poetry scene to be found? Is there innovation?

There is not a state of…
Poetry can’t be mapped
or polled or even populated.

The moment it vibrates
or nears “vibrant”
it becomes a disaster and people call FEMA.

It invents loss
but no one wants
to know that,

what, that earthquakes
are innovative.

9. How would you define yourself as a social and political being?

I signify one step ahead of those who gentrify aka my Party has not begun. It ain't late enough yet and the music ain't loud enough yet. Quietly poetry pumps up the volume!

10. The poem "Sticks" seems to be your most personal poem. Your poetry, unlike some others, does not reflect a lot of you in it. Why is that?

“All art is autobiographical.” I think Vincent van Gogh said that.

I am there, in the work and all over it. Americans are just lousy at reading nonlinear behavior in writing. I am there but not in the easy costumed way of “Confession.” A poem has to be visual and lyric but not necessarily a secretary to reality, or solely a service to experience. I would like to give the reader a reading experience that has its own breathing walk. Reader, surrender.

11. What is next for you?

It would be nice to turn my back on me or to meet me before “next.” I am going to try to be before me. I feel like my “next” has already happened and now I am going to spend some time running in the other direction ––away from intelligence, toward…

Black Like Jesus, TSE 2011

Thanks for this interview. It was a pleasure.

2011-11-08T08:20:00.001-05:00

Save Jimmy Baldwin's House

2011-11-06T10:47:00.000-05:00

A call has been sent out recently to help save and preserve Jimmy Baldwin's house in the south of France. Here are some images of that beautiful house.

Check Out Christopher de la Torre's 40 Years After Stonewall Commemorative Series

2011-11-01T14:47:00.000-04:00

2011-10-28T18:25:00.001-04:00

2011-10-22T21:28:00.001-04:00

Wedding Photo of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr and Hazel Scott

2011-10-22T18:59:00.001-04:00

A Powerful Article in Tribute to E. Lynn Harris Written by L. Michael Gipson

2011-10-19T22:57:00.001-04:00

On July 24, 2009, E. Lynn Harris went into cardiac arrest and died at the age of 54 years old. Lynn, as he was known to friends and associates, was a 10 time New York Times bestselling author with over 4 million books in print. This distinction made E. Lynn Harris the first commercially successful, openly Black gay writer in America since James Baldwin. While he stood on the shoulders of a spare number of pioneering Black gay writers who came before him, including: Essex Hemphill, Joseph Beam, Assoto Saint, Yulisa Amadu Maddy, Wallace Thurman, Richard Bruce Nugent, Samuel R. Delaney and other members of this exclusive club, Lynn would go further than any of them in cultural impact and financial reward. Like Harris, all of these writers described the lives of closeted and openly gay Black men, some long before Harris was even born, but Harris fortuitously arrived at a time when the culture was hungry for different, more sophisticated stories about Black people. The public proved eager for operatic tales of Black affluence, celebrity success, and salacious sexual diversities, not the previously dominating stories of poverty, racial animus or traditional sexual and family relations. For them, Lynn delivered, changing the national dialogue about Black gay men forever.

The debut of Invisible Life and its numerous sequels benefited as much from the times as it did from the earnestness of Harris’s fresh, confessional tales of closeted Black male life on the down low. In 1991, when Harris arrived on the scene, America was in the middle of its fourth Black literary renaissance, only this one was better known for its commercial achievement rather than its literary cred. In the late 80s, early 90s, mainstream publishers (again) discovered that Black people do indeed read books and were a considerably large portion of the untapped literary market. The stratospheric success of Terry McMillan’s Waiting To Exhale proved prescient, shepherding in an explosion of Black writers delivering what some derisively be termed “sistah girl fiction” and the vaguely dismissive “urban lit” by others. Simultaneously, Hollywood realized (again) there was an untapped market for urban romantic comedies starring post-Civil Rights buppies in situations parallel to their professional white counterparts. Popular music was just experiencing its split between b-boy rappers and thug crooners and those “queer-oriented” dance music artists like RuPaul, C.C. Penniston, C&C Music Factory, and Crystal Waters whose tribal beats were fostering a revival of the sexually diverse discotheque. In these anything goes nightclubs, straights and gays and everything in between together partied like it was 1999 and tried to live out try-sexual movies like Threesome. The organized gay rights movements were becoming more vocal and visible, but thanks in part to queer racism, was largely a white identified movement. Black gay life was limited to bars, gyms, clubs, parks, bathhouses, fraternities and telephone chatlines—there was no Internet and you could count the national number of Black gay organizations on your hands.

Then came E. Lynn Harris, a former IBM executive, telling stories that married all the energy of the roaring 90s for Blacks: the gay nightlife, the dual lives of closeted men, neo-Black bougie life from fraternities to boardrooms, the pressures and ambitions of instant millionaire artists and athletes in the entertainment industry, all without the specter of racism and only the occasional touchstone about AIDS. Lynn fed readers a sepia-colored Dynasty with all the camp, family melodrama, and delightful sexual triangles and quadrangles still intact and little of the harsher realities of poor and working class Black gay lives.

By ensuring parallel Black straight love stories were formulaically included in nearly every novel and initially marketing them to Black beauty salons, Harris got Black women readerships’ attention and kept it. Almost overnight Black women were aware of the existence of Black homosexuality beyond the stereotypical Blaine and Merriweather from the Men on Film skits from the then uber-popular In Living Color. Before J.L. King’s memoir, before Oprah Winfrey’s infamous D.L. Men’s Show, before Terry McMillan was bamboozled by her bisexual hubby, Jonathan Plummer, there was Harris educating millions about a phenomenon centuries old. It seems laughable today, but when Harris first lifted the veil, some Black women were completely stunned to learn that their man could love sports, drink beer, be fit, be sexy, be successful, speak in baritones, and exercise complete control of his wrists and still like, love and lust after men. Before Lynn, this shadow society of men was a whispered secret between some urbanite gay men and their straight girlfriends, and even then there was a sense among these women that their gay friends were exaggerating the scale of heterosexually identified men who chased after them (and not necessarily the other way around). But all of that was before Lynn. With books, stage plays and musicals, and several forthcoming movies of his work, Lynn changed everything.

After Lynn, Black male heterosexuality is less likely to be automatically assumed based on masculine presentation. After Lynn, many Black heterosexual men who were not on the D.L. resented the implication that they could harbor same sex desires, assisting some in embracing hyper-masculinity as a distancing response. After Lynn, the conversation about HIV/AIDS shifted and black women realized that a wedding ring would not protect them from a pandemic. After Lynn, there was an unscientifically founded belief that gay men and their DL lovers were primarily responsible for the precipitous rise of HIV among Black women, a myth repeatedly proven false by the Centers for Disease Control. After Lynn, Black women and some Black straight men realized that they had more in common with their Black gay brethren than they didn’t and began to dialogue with their gay brothers as people, not as a social problem. After Lynn, Black women realized Black gay men weren’t dismissible freaks, but competition and willing accomplices in their husbands and boyfriends infidelities—causing rifts and suspicion. After Lynn, Black gay youth no longer had to read white gay or Black straight fiction to identify a broad range of well-packaged reflections of their racial and sexual identity, both “out” and closeted. After Lynn, Black gay youth would see those reflections as romantically high bars of idealized male beauty, ostentatious wealth, preternatural talents, academic superiority, and bourgeoisie values coupled with wavering morality on participation in marital duplicity and infidelity. After Lynn, Black gay writers write and publish often, laudably believing their much needed voices are viable, valuable and marketable—regardless of literary quality. After Lynn, no publishing house could ever reject another Black gay writers’ stories as commercial suicide and be taken seriously. After Lynn, no one could say that Black gay and bisexual men didn’t exist and weren’t indeed vibrantly alive, and ever be taken seriously. Flaws and all, positive and negative, E. Lynn Harris changed American views, perspective and conversation, about Black gay men forever. And for that I thank my dear, sweet associate of fifteen years. May he rest in peace.

2011-10-08T01:40:00.001-04:00

On my way home this evening, Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" came on the radio and took me aback a bit as I listened to the clear, crisp, and magnificent voice that delivered each powerful note of the song. It was Whitney at her best. and it started me to thinking about Ms. Houston, her remarkable talent, and her gold-dusted career that has seen such highs and such lows as she could once reach with that magnificent range of hers. Undoubtedly, Whitney Houston is the best female vocalist of her generation. No one could even compete with her vocal range, her vocal mastery, And she still holds court as one of the best-selling female recording artists of all time.

When Whitney started out in the early eighties, following her brief, Afrocentric moment at her debut when on the

cover of the album she sported a fade, Clive Owens and the rest of her team worked hard to produce the Whitney magic and introduced her onto the pop scene as the quintessential Black Barbie doll. Oh, she wanted to dance with somebody.... and her outfit was replete with big hair and leggings that read very middle class and feminine. The consuming public LOVED it and in no time she had carved her niche inside the music industry and was accepted as a pop princess holding her own against the likes of Madonna and even finding herself on MTV, one of the few Black artists who did at the time. For more than a decade after that, Whitney was THE most prominent Black female singer in the world. Her superstar status was cemented in 1992 with The Bodyguard. The film, crafted personally for her out of a 1970s chucked vehicle for Diana Ross and Steve McQueen, cemented her reputation as a movie star, shelling in over $400 million dollars at the box office, making it one of the most successful films of the time. The soundtrack coinciding with the film, also called The Bodygaurd, debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 setting a record at fourteen weeks in that position and went seventeen times platinum, landing it as the best selling soundtrack of all time.

There is something to be said about girls, and particularly about Black girls, from good, middle class homes who are always fixated with thugs/bad boys/ and generally unwholesome and unsavory figures. Although Whitney had been using drugs ever since the beginning of her career probably, her downfall started when she met and married Bobby Brown. I, for one, believe everything she told Oprah. She was totally committed to Bobby(good girl syndrome-trained well by her mama) and subsequently they spent a lot of days in bed snorting and shooting and watching TV. Although, though this explains her loss of control over her career( didn't mama at one point take over her finances with a court order ala Natalie Cole?) , by no means does this account for her loss of voice. I, for one, was quite befuddled over the entire brouhaha about Whitney's losing her voice. Everyone was speculating--drugs, Bobby, stress, etc, etc.. I think not. I think more it runs in the genes....It seemed no one remembered it wasnt that long ago people were yelling "Hey Dionne, sit down and shut up, please!" I wasn't surprised at all. Fortunately for Whitney, her legacy is already set....I just hope she can spare herself more embarrassing moments and that, if all she can find is the thug or the bad boy type, that she chooses to remain single for the rest of her .life.

My Faith Has Been Renewed: Michelle Obama, Our First Lady, Is a Wonderful Leader

2011-10-07T12:41:00.001-04:00

In this month's issue of Ebony, First Lady Michelle Obama renewed my faith when she spoke with Kevin Chappell about the power of movements. She said, "nothing is ever built in a day. The only thing that happens in an instant is destruction...Build something...earthquake; it's gone. But everything else requires time....Don't let the struggle discourage you because it's hard. It's supposed to be hard." As an example, she spoke of Nelson Mandela, whom she just visited with in South Africa. "There must have been moments in that jail when he (Mandela) thought, ' This is never going to work,,' but if we see Mandela as hope, we would see the slowness not as a reason to stop and be impatient but to keep moving and not get so caught up in the immediacy." Bless you, Michelle Obama....

Community Healing Days--Listen Up Black People

2011-10-06T12:45:00.003-04:00

October 15-17 are Community Healing Days

We’re coming up on an annual celebration that not everyone is familiar with, but is tremendously important to the Black community.

It’s called Community Healing Days, a three day period on the third weekend of every October designed to focus Black people on eliminating the tired, but powerful, myth of black inferiority. The celebration is sponsored by the Community Healing Network and championed by Dr. Maya Angelou.

This year, on October 15, 16 and 17, Dr. Angelou is asking folks to wear something sky blue during Community Healing Days to show “our collective determination to turn the pain of the blues into the sky blue of unlimited possibilities.” That’s right, Sky-Blue, like the beautiful, limitless sky above, a reflection of the positive way we need to view ourselves.

But unfortunately –for many African Americans– how we view ourselves is a byproduct of how others view us. Case in point. In the compelling new book entitled Whistling Vivaldi by psychologist Claude Steele, he references a scenario involving an African American journalist and former grad student at the University of Chicago.

As a student walking down the street in his Hyde Park neighborhood each evening, he would see white folk either clutch their belongings or each other, stare straight ahead, or switch to the other side of the street. Noting that white people were “frightened to death of him,” the young man internalized this treatment and began taking side streets to avoid making his white neighbors fearful or uncomfortable.

Eventually he stopped doing this after he noticed that whenever he whistled as he walked–especially tunes by classical composers like Vivaldi—his white neighbors would treat him differently. Some would even smile at him.

Psychologists reason that whites figured that if this guy knows Vivaldi, he must be okay. The point here is that we sometimes begin to behave in a way that responds to stereotypes.

It speaks both to the sickness in our society and, more importantly, in this case, to the sickness in us. When we start pretending – acting in ways that play into what others think or expect of us, then the sickness is no longer their’s… it becomes ours.

Think about the stereotypes that suggest young black males are criminals, or can’t do well in math… how young black girls are merely video vixens, or can’t do well in science.

You see, when media and society peddle stereotypes –especially those inaccurately characterizing our impressionable youth and children—the damage is both serious and real not just because of the sick folks promoting them, but because of those growing sicker every day by receiving, emulating and perpetuating them.

That’s the thing about stereotypes. They start out as mostly false statements but gain steam if not challenged immediately, and ultimately gain credibility when perpetuated by its victims. The fact is that media and society have been peddling stereotypes about us for centuries.

In Whistling Vivaldi, Steele shows how stereotypes affect our perceptions of ourselves and influence how we act in certain situations, be they professional, academic or personal. As a people, we need to be intentional about overcoming the negative stereotypes about who we are and what we can do. Especially for our children — we need to positively affirm our self-worth, our accomplishments and our beauty to combat those stereotypes and ensure we are defining and viewing ourselves positively.

This is what Community Healing Days is all about. And that ain’t just Whistlin’ Vivaldi.

So let’s be sure to celebrate Community Healing Days – in our sky blue – on October 15th through 17th. You can get more info on this at communityhealingnet.org

Stephanie Robinson is President and CEO of The Jamestown Project, a national think tank focused on democracy. She is an author, a Lecturer on Law at the Harvard Law School and former Chief Counsel to the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Stephanie reaches 8 to 10 million listeners each week as political commentator for the popular radio venue, The Tom Joyner Morning Show. Visit her online at www.StephanieRobinsonSpeaks.com

Rick Perry's Niggerhead

2011-10-03T11:25:00.000-04:00

Looking at the different components that come together to make up a person will always provide a key to that person's personality and perspective. The idea that Perry's white, privileged family would name their hunting lodge Niggerhead speaks to where they fit socially, politically, culturally. One has to ask did he not think this might cause problems for him if he chose to run for president as he did not even attempt to hide this knowledge--which either spells carelessness or a lack of concern on his part. What part of this man and his background do we want in the white house? Only those wishing for a clear return of white male capitalist patriarchy would even think that Perry, with his track record, would be suitable to lead such a huge, diverse nation such as this. Meanwhile, I wonder when was the last time a soiree was held at Niggerhead?

2011-10-02T18:06:00.001-04:00

My Life and My Direction

2011-10-01T18:59:00.001-04:00

Ever since I was very young, my ambitious brain had two goals which were absolute amongst everything else. I would trailblaze Barbra Streisand's path, only in my own way, and be a famed and published writer by the time I was nineteen. I also was going to get my doctorate by the time I was thirty, because I wanted to be Angela Davis(as much as I could be). However, my reasonings for all of these things were quite something else. Oh the joys of a young Black boy wanting to emulate Barbra! Major differences...but still I bask in the light of Barbra. In terms of my doctorate, I will get it one day. As I have thought on it, at first my reasoning for wanting a doctorate was two fold: One, I like to learn, and on that point I will still attain a doctorate (sooner rather than later), but secondly, I was trying to compete with my ancestors, who were all educators, filigreed and degreed--wanting to best them one by doing something like I will not only get my doctorate but I can be Angela Davis too! Well, I have since figured that my ancestors have one up on me...they have the benefit of being dead and no longer here....I can take my time.... All of that said, I will be published very soon, and will start that merciless process of phd applications....but will do it in my own way and in my own time.....because I will not be rushed....

2011-09-26T23:07:00.001-04:00

Open Letter to Angela Davis from James Baldwin: From One Powerful Icont to Another

2011-09-26T20:53:00.003-04:00

A Y. Davis
by James Baldwin

Dear Sister:

One might have hoped that, by this hour, the very sight of chains on Black flesh, or the very sight of chains, would be so intolerable a sight for the American people, and so unbearable a memory, that they would themselves spontaneously rise up and strike off the manacles. But, no, they appear to glory in their chains; now, more than ever, they appear to measure their safety in chains and corpses. And so, Newsweek, civilized defender of the indefensible, attempts to drown you in a sea of crocodile tears ("it remained to be seen what sort of personal liberation she had achieved") and puts you on its cover, chained.
You look exceedingly alone—as alone, say, as the Jewish housewife in the boxcar headed for Dachau, or as any one of our ancestors, chained together in the name of Jesus, headed for a Christian land.
Well. Since we live in an age which silence is not only criminal but suicidal, I have been making as much noise as I can, here in Europe, on radio and television—in fact, have just returned from a land, Germany, which was made notorious by a silent majority not so very long ago. I was asked to speak on the case of Miss Angela Davis, and did so. Very probably an exerciser in futility, but one must let no opportunity slide.
I am something like twenty years older than you, of that generation, therefore, of which George Jackson ventures that "there are no healthy brothers—none at all." I am in no way equipped to dispute this speculation (not, anyway, without descending into what, at the moment, would be irrelevant subtleties) for I know too well what he means. My own state of health is certainly precarious enough. In considering you, and Huey, and George and (especially) Jonathan Jackson, I began to apprehend what you may have had in mind when you spoke of the uses to which we could put the experience of the slave. What has happened, it seems to me, and to put it far too simply, is that a whole new generation of people have assessed and absorbed their history, and, in that tremendous action, have freed themselves of it and will never be victims again. This may seem an odd, indefensibly pertinent and insensitive thing to say to a sister in prison, battling for her life—for all our lives. Yet, I dare to say it, for I think you will perhaps not misunderstand me, and I do not say it, after all, from the position of spectator.
I am trying to suggest that you—for example—do not appear to be your father's daughter in the same way that I am my father's son. At bottom, my father's expectations and mine were the same, the expectations of his generation and mine were the same; and neither the immense difference in our ages nor the move from the South to the North could alter these expectations or make our lives more viable. For, in fact, to use the brutal parlance of that hour, the interior language of despair, he was just a n-----—a n----- laborer preacher, and so was I. I jumped the track but that's of no more importance here, in itself, than the fact that some poor Spaniards become rich bull fighters, or that some poor Black boys become rich—boxers, for example. That's rarely, if ever, afforded the people more than a great emotional catharsis, though I don't mean to be condescending about that, either. But when Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali and refused to put on that uniform (and sacrificed all that money!) a very different impact was made on the people and a very different kind of instruction had begun.

The American triumph—in which the American tragedy has always been implicit—was to make Black people despise themselves. When I was little I despised myself; I did not know any better. And this meant, albeit unconsciously, or against my will, or in great pain, that I also despised my father. And my mother. And my brothers. And my sisters. Black people were killing each other every Saturday night out on Lenox Avenue, when I was growing up; and no one explained to them, or to me, that it was intended that they should; that they were penned where they were, like animals, in order that they should consider themselves no better than animals. Everything supported this sense of reality, nothing denied it: and so one was ready, when it came time to go to work, to be treated as a slave. So one was ready, when human terrors came, to bow before a white God and beg Jesus for salvation—this same white God who was unable to raise a finger to do so little as to help you pay your rent, unable to be awakened in time to help you save your child!
There is always, of course, more to any picture than can speedily be perceived and in all of this—groaning and moaning, watching, calculating, clowning, surviving, and outwitting, some tremendous strength was nevertheless being forged, which is part of our legacy today. But that particular aspect of our journey now begins to be behind us. The secret is out: we are men!
But the blunt, open articulation of this secret has frightened the nation to death. i wish I could say, "to life," but that is much to demand of a disparate collection of displaced people still cowering in their wagon trains and singing "Onward Christian Soldiers." The nation, if America is a nation, is not in the least prepared for this day. It is a day which the Americans never expected to see, however piously they may declare their belief in progress and democracy. Those words, now, on American lips, have become a kind of universal obscenity: for this most unhappy people, strong believers in arithmetic, never expected to be confronted with the algebra of their history.
One way of gauging a nation's health, or of discerning what it really considers to be its interests—or to what extent it can be considered as a nation as distinguished from a coalition of special interests—is to examine those people it elects to represent or protect it. One glance at the American leaders (or figureheads) conveys that America is on the edge of absolute chaos, and also suggests the future to which American interests, if not the bulk of the American people, appear willing to consign the Blacks. (Indeed, one look at our past conveys that.) It is clear that for the bulk of our (nominal) countrymen, we are all expendable. And Messrs. Nixon, Agnew, Mitchell, and Hoover, to say nothing, of course, of the Kings' Row basket case, the winning Ronnie Reagan, will not hesitate for an instant to carry out what they insist is the will of the people.

But what, in America, is the will of the people? And who, for the above-named, are the people? The people, whoever they may be, know as much about the forces which have placed the above-named gentlemen in power as they do about the forces responsible for the slaughter in Vietnam. The will of the people, in America, has always been at the mercy of an ignorance not merely phenomenal, but sacred, and sacredly cultivated: the better to be used by a carnivorous economy which democratically slaughters and victimizes whites and Blacks alike. But most white Americans do not dare admit this (though they suspect it) and this fact contains mortal danger for the Blacks and tragedy for the nation.
Or, to put it another way, as long as white Americans take refuge in their whiteness—for so long as they are unable to walk out of this most monstrous of traps—they will allow millions of people to be slaughtered in their name, and will be manipulated into and surrender themselves to what they will think of—and justify—as a racial war. They will never, so long as their whiteness puts so sinister a distance between themselves and their own experience and the experience of others, feel themselves sufficiently human, sufficiently worthwhile, to become responsible for themselves, their leaders, their country, their children, or their fate. They will perish (as we once put it in our black church) in their sins —that is, in their delusions. And this is happening, needless to say, already, all around us.
Only a handful of the millions of people in this vast place are aware that the fate intended for you, Sister Angela, and for George Jackson, and for the numberless prisoners in our concentration camps—for that is what they are—is a fate which is about to engulf them, too, White lives, for the forces which rule in this country, are no more sacred than Black ones, as many and many a student is discovering, as the white American corpses in Vietnam prove. If the American people are unable to contend with their elected leaders for the redemption of their own honor and the loves of their own children, we the Blacks, the most rejected of the Western children, can expect very little help at their hands; which, after all, is nothing new. What the Americans do not realize is that a war between brothers, in the same cities, on the same soil is not a racial war but a civil war. But the American delusion is not only that their brothers all are white but that the whites are all their brothers.
So be it. We cannot awaken this sleeper, and God knows we have tried. We must do what we can do, and fortify and save each other—we are not drowning in an apathetic self-contempt, we do feel ourselves sufficiently worthwhile to contend even with the inexorable forces in order to change our fate and the fate of our children and the condition of the world! We know that a man is not a thing and is not to be placed at the mercy of things. We know that air and water belong to all mankind and not merely to industrialists. We know that a baby does not come into the world merely to be the instrument of someone else's profit. We know that a democracy does not mean the coercion of all into a deadly—and, finally, wicked— mediocrity but the liberty for all to aspire to the best that is in him, or that has ever been.
We know that we, the Blacks, and not only we, the blacks, have been, and are, the victims of a system whose only fuel is greed, whose only god is profit. We know that the fruits of this system have been ignorance, despair, and death, and we know that the system is doomed because the world can no longer afford it—if, indeed, it ever could have. And we know that, for the perpetuation of this system, we have all been mercilessly brutalized, and have been told nothing but lies, lies about ourselves and our kinsmen and our past, and about love, life, and death, so that both soul and body have been bound in hell.
The enormous revolution in black consciousness which has occurred in your generation, my dear sister, means the beginning or the end of America. Some of us, white and Black, know how great a price has already been paid to bring into existence a new consciousness, a new people, an unprecendented nation. If we know, and do nothing, we are worse than the murderers hired in our name.
If we know, then we must fight for your life as though it were our own—which it is—and render impassable with our bodies the corridor to the gas chamber. For, if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night.
Therefore: peace.
Brother James
November 19, 1970

2011-09-25T12:11:00.001-04:00

Did You Know Wall Street Was Under Occupation?

2011-09-24T20:04:00.001-04:00

2011-09-23T21:20:00.001-04:00

Thoughts Running Through My Head...

2011-09-22T23:29:00.002-04:00

"It is our duty to undermine systems of oppression"-to quote myself.....does this make me an anarchist?..I have never considered myself such...it is as natural for me as Corrie Ten Boom hiding Jews in the walls of her house....and her legacy has been a deep influence on me...Papa Ten Boom didn't think twice...because he knew what was right...and died on a hospital gurney outside of his bed...

Elizabeth Warren on America and Wealth

2011-09-22T14:58:00.001-04:00

2011-09-22T14:55:00.001-04:00

2011-09-22T10:52:00.002-04:00

RIP Troy Anthony Davis....May your spirit live and be infectious....

Interview with Daniel Joseph Baker

2011-09-19T22:16:00.000-04:00

Daniel Joseph Baker is clearly the most talented person to have graced the stage of this season's America's Got Talent. It came as a jilting shock to all of us who embraced this magnificent spectacle of talent and actually decided to tune in every week just to see him when he was eliminated. No matter. Daniel is a raw talent, possessing an animal magnetism that puts him in the tradition of Labelle, Grace Slick, and Lady Gaga. I recently got in touch with him via Facebook and asked him if I could interview him for my blog. Graciously, he agreed. This is what transpired.

1. How long have you been a singer and performer?

Since I was 6 years old at Church baptisms.

2. What made you try out for AGT?

I was very unhappy with the status of my life. I feel like it was worth continuing. I had a dream of performing on television, so that unhappiness drove me to audition for AGT on a whim.

3. What is your greatest aspiration?

To have a career in the entertainment industry.

4. Who are the major influences on your music?

Nicole Scherzinger, Lady Gaga, & Christina Aguilera. These are the only 3 people I look towards for ideas & inspirations for my next performances!

5. What is your background and where are you from?

I was raised in a mormon household & was born in Washington state.

6. Did you like the environment you grew up in? Did it nurture your creativity?

I loved my childhood. My parents never got mad at me for singing & banging on the piano during all hours of the night. They wanted me to continue perfecting my talents.

7. Have you been embraced by any gay celebrities? Which ones?

Raja from drag race tweeted me. That was my favorite!

8. How has fame been treating you?

I don't consider myself famous at all.

9. How would you describe your personal style? Where did the leg-on-the-piano thing come from?

My personal style: FIERCE. Foot on the piano: (any monster knows this) GAGA

10. How was your experience on AGT?

Best experience of my life so far. No negatives to list at all. It gave me so much confidence.

11. Where did you normally perform before AGT?

I performed in church and school growing up. But in recent years, only in my house.

12. Were you shocked when you were eliminated?

I was shocked at first. But I've always kept in mind that anything is possible. I want to thank my fans for supporting me through it.. Everything happens for a reason.

13. Of any artists past or present, who would you want to emulate in terms of your career?

I love Liberace & Elton John. I also love Cher & Nicole Scherzinger. I WANNA BE A PUSSYCAT DOLL!

14. Do you have anything in the works?

.I've been booking gigs & am moving to Hollywood! Danfans should look out for me!!

Thanks, Daniel!

Rafael Nadal Still Has The Best Ass In Tennis

2011-09-14T10:50:00.002-04:00

Thanks, Corey, I am STEALING!!!

2011-08-26T14:21:00.004-04:00

Wonder what's being said in THAT conversation?

Powerful Video

2011-08-17T11:24:00.001-04:00

"I AM A MAN": Black Manhood & Sexual Diversity from American Truth on Vimeo.

Elizabeth Warren, the next Senator from Massachusetts

2011-07-25T15:24:00.003-04:00

Run, Elizabeth, Run!

2011-07-19T11:54:00.000-04:00

ALEC Exposed
John Nichols
The Nation
July 12, 2011
This article appeared in the August 1-8, 2011 edition
of The Nation.
http://www.thenation.com/article/161978/alec-exposed

"Never has the time been so right," Louisiana State
Representative Noble Ellington told conservative
legislators gathered in Washington to plan the radical
remaking of policies in the states. It was one month
after the 2010 midterm elections. Republicans had
grabbed 680 legislative seats and secured a power
trifecta-control of both legislative chambers and the
governorship-in twenty-one states. Ellington was
speaking for hundreds of attendees at a "States and
Nation Policy Summit," featuring GOP stars like Texas
Governor Rick Perry, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Convened by the
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)-"the
nation's largest, non-partisan, individual public-
private membership association of state legislators," as
the spin-savvy group describes itself-the meeting did
not intend to draw up an agenda for the upcoming
legislative session. That had already been done by
ALEC's elite task forces of lawmakers and corporate
representatives. The new legislators were there to grab
their weapons: carefully crafted model bills seeking to
impose a one-size-fits-all agenda on the states.

Founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich and other conservative
activists frustrated by recent electoral setbacks, ALEC
is a critical arm of the right-wing network of policy
shops that, with infusions of corporate cash, has
evolved to shape American politics. Inspired by Milton
Friedman's call for conservatives to "develop
alternatives to existing policies [and] keep them alive
and available," ALEC's model legislation reflects long-
term goals: downsizing government, removing regulations
on corporations and making it harder to hold the
economically and politically powerful to account.
Corporate donors retain veto power over the language,
which is developed by the secretive task forces. The
task forces cover issues from education to health
policy. ALEC's priorities for the 2011 session included
bills to privatize education, break unions, deregulate
major industries, pass voter ID laws and more. In states
across the country they succeeded, with stacks of new
laws signed by GOP governors like Ohio's John Kasich and
Wisconsin's Scott Walker, both ALEC alums.

The details of ALEC's model bills have been available
only to the group's 2,000 legislative and 300 corporate
members. But thanks to a leak to Aliya Rahman, an Ohio-
based activist who helped organize protests at ALEC's
Spring Task Force meeting in Cincinnati, The Nation has
obtained more than 800 documents representing decades of
model legislation. Teaming up with the Center for Media
and Democracy, The Nation asked policy experts to
analyze this never-before-seen archive.

The articles that follow are the first products of that
examination. They provide an inside view of the
priorities of ALEC's corporate board and billionaire
benefactors (including Tea Party funders Charles and
David Koch). "Dozens of corporations are investing
millions of dollars a year to write business-friendly
legislation that is being made into law in statehouses
coast to coast, with no regard for the public interest,"
says Bob Edgar of Common Cause. "This is proof positive
of the depth and scope of the corporate reach into our
democratic processes." The full archive of ALEC
documents is available at a new website,
alecexposed.org, thanks to the Center for Media and
Democracy, which has provided powerful tools for
progressives to turn this knowledge into power. The data
tell us that the time has come to refocus on the battle
to loosen the grip of corporate America and renew
democracy in the states.

"Business Domination Inc.," by Joel Rogers and Laura
Dresser
http://www.thenation.com/article/161977/business-domination-inc

"Sabotaging Healthcare," by Wendell Potter
http://www.thenation.com/article/161975/sabotaging-healthcare

"The Koch Connection," by Lisa Graves
http://www.thenation.com/article/161973/koch-connection

"Starving Public Schools," by Julie Underwood
http://www.thenation.com/article/161971/starving-public-schools

"Rigging Elections," by John Nichols
http://www.thenation.com/article/161969/rigging-elections

(2)
A Discreet Nonprofit Brings Together Politicians
and Corporations to Write `Model Bills'
by Lois Beckett
ProPublica
July 15, 2011
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/a-discreet-nonprofit-brings-together-politicians-and-corporations-to-write-

Calling the EPA's attempts to regulate greenhouse gasses
a 'trainwreck,' ALEC crafted a model resolution for
states that was later the basis of legislation in at
least 13 states, according to a press release on its
website. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

This week, both the Los Angeles Times and The Nation put
the spotlight on a little-known but influential
conservative nonprofit that creates "model" state
legislation that often make its way into law. The
organization has helped craft some of the most
controversial-and industry-friendly-legislation of
recent years.

The American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC, crafted
a model resolution for states calling the EPA's attempts
to regulate greenhouse gasses a "trainwreck" and asking
Congress to slow or stop the regulations, the Times
reported. A press release on ALEC's site says that at
least 13 other states have passed resolutions based on
their model language.

Latest Episode: Child abuse and death cases can be
particularly difficult to solve. Everyone wants to make
sure justice is served, but when emotions run high and
evidence can be misleading, innocent people sometimes
end up behind bars for the most heinous of crimes.

ALEC was also involved in the writing of Arizona's new
immigration law, which gave police officers broad powers
to detain anyone suspected of being in the country
illegally.

Brought into being by a legendary conservative who also
founded the well-known Heritage Foundation, ALEC has
been around since the early 1970s. It calls itself a
"policy making program that unites members of the public
and private sectors in a dynamic partnership" based on
"Jeffersonian principles." Critics say it has devolved
into a pay-for-play operation, where state legislators
and their families get to go on industry-funded junkets
and major corporations get to ghostwrite model laws and
pass them on to receptive politicians.

In a multipart report this week, the Nation profiled
ALEC's influence on state legislation related to
privatization and anti-union efforts, fighting Obama's
health care reform, privatizing public education and
enacting voter ID laws, which critics say are designed
to disenfranchise voters who are more likely to vote
Democratic. The Nation also provides a deeper look at
the financial and ideological links between the Koch
brothers and ALEC.

ALEC representatives tell reporters that its mission is
fundamentally "educational." ALEC spokeswoman Raegan
Weber told the LA Times, "Legislators should hear from
those the government intends to regulate."

"ALEC allows a place for everyone at the table to come
and debate and discuss," another ALEC official, Michael
Bowman, told NPR last year. "You have legislators who
will ask questions much more freely at our meetings
because they are not under the eyes of the press, the
eyes of the voters. They're just trying to learn a
policy and understand it." Neither Weber nor Bowman
immediately responded to our requests for further
comment.

Corporations pay hefty fees for the opportunity to
discuss policy with legislators at ALEC's conferences,
and they also host banquets, open-bar parties and
baseball games. Legislators, on the other hand, pay a
nominal membership fee, and can be eligible for
"scholarships" that pay for their conference attendance.
When the legislators bring the model bills back to their
state capitals, the role played by ALEC-or by the
corporations-seems to be rarely, if ever, disclosed.

Crucially, ALEC says it is not a lobbying organization,
and thus because of its nonprofit status, it does not
have to disclose its donors or the amount of their
donations. (The Times says Common Cause is trying to
challenge ALEC's nonprofit status.)

Perhaps the most striking example of this process is the
involvement of officials from the Corrections
Corporation of America, the nation's largest private
prison company, in the creation of Arizona's immigration
law.

As NPR reported last year, officials from Corrections
Corporation were in the room when Arizona State Sen.
Russell Pearce discussed his ideas about immigration at
a 2009 ALEC conference.

Reports from Corrections Corporation reviewed by NPR
indicated that their executives saw immigrant detention
as their next big market, and that the company expected
to bring in a "significant portion" of their revenue
from Immigrations and Custom Enforcement.

What role the corporate officials played in the ALEC
discussion is not known, but the "model legislation"
that emerged from that session soon became the bill
itself-"almost word for word," according to NPR. The
influence the private prison industry may have had on
the law was not widely reported or discussed during the
heated nationwide debate over the bill. (An "In These
Times" reporter, whose early findings on the ALEC-
Arizona connection were consistent with NPR's later
reporting, recently provided a more detailed look at the
ALEC scholarships provided to Arizona legislators.)

Portions of the Arizona law are being challenged in
federal court and have never been implemented. But, as
NPR reported last year, similar bills were later
introduced in eight other states.

ALEC has been in the media spotlight this week because
the Center for Media and Democracy obtained and released
an archive of more than 800 of ALEC's model bills and
resolutions. Their wiki site, ALEC Exposed, encourages
readers to browse ALEC's model bills by topic and share
their findings about the documents using the hashtag
#ALECexposed.

ProPublica intern Nicholas Kusnetz contributed to this
report.

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My Review of Manning Marable's Malcolm X

2011-06-10T10:56:00.003-04:00

The biography of Malcolm X written by Manning Marable has been the subject of great controversy on the public airwaves and in newspapers, magazines, and blogs across the globe. Even before the book was published, a loud harangue against it was heard from every direction as Black public figures denounced it as slanderous and heretical for subjects it broached that they would rather not see in the light of day, namely Malcolm's homosexual activities during his youth. Malcom's daughters took to the airwaves to condemn the book for destroying the rosy picture of their parent's marriage that was consecrated in Spike Lee's Hollywood biopic, Malcolm X. Many saw Marable's biography as a betrayal, an attack on Malcolm and his legacy. The kindest of Marable's critics diagnosed him as misguided. Very few within the Black community came to Marable's defense. Having just put the book down, I must declare that almost all of Marable's detractors truly have no basis for their assessments of the book. I would further assess that those who have most adamantly denounced this book, particularly those within the Black community and in Black activist circles, all harbor beneath their criticisms a guttural pathos deeply rooted in patriarchal coda. This book triggered in them deeply held fears concerning the public face of the reconstructed Black man who, defiled by slavery, must be defined in every manner possible as masculine and as a man, leaving no room for such things as homosexuality. In this light, any construction of Malcolm X as having same gender sexual experiences is an act of betrayal. This line of thinking was championed by Amiri Baraka who lambasted the book for 'mentioning things that are irrelevant and unfounded.' I wonder what these keepers of the flame make of the Eddie Long scandal?

Those disturbed by Marable's references to Malcolm's homosexual experiences, which constitute little more than two pages out of a five hundred page book, have sought to weed out Marable's "agenda" in airing such things. After reading the book, I find Marable to bear no agenda in his assessment of the man we know as Malcolm X except to present a truthful and complex portrait of a complex historical figure who played a major role in shaping the Afro-American community and the world at large during the 20th Century. This book is a tribute to Malcolm X and his legacy. The only agenda I can see coming forth from this book is a slight socialist bent with Marable not failing to reference such figures as Jack O'Dell and the iconic publication Freedomways. Baraka did not fail to address this either as he declared that Marable had been "duped" by communists, socialists, and other radical leftists in his writing of the book.

What this book does most successfully is answer a question I posed to Angela Davis through correspondence via email several years ago and that is what ever happened to Malcolm X's plans to take the United States before the World Court in The Hague and have the country charged with crimes against humanity for its treatment of Blacks and other minorities. Marable, perhaps for the first time in a major scholarly work, documents the fate of Malcolm's two organizations, the Islamic Moslem Mosque Inc (MMI) and the secular, political Organization for Afro-American Unity (OAAU) and their rapid decline after his assassination in 1965. Marable develops Malcolm's image as a major political force in revolutionary, Third World, and global politics as he reconstructs Malcolm's travels throughout Africa and the Middle East and his courting of African and Middle Eastern leaders such as Nasser in Egypt, Sekou Toure in Guinea, and Julius Nyerere in Tanzania in an attempt to get the newly liberated African nations to support his plan to condemn the United States before the World Court. In the end, the OAU passed a weak resolution praising the passage of civil rights legislation in the US, but criticising the slow movement of racial progress in the country. Marable paints a vivid picture of Malcolm X as a venerated dignitary and political leader hosted by the governemtns of African and Middle Eastern nations including Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Egypt during his lifetime. He also underscores the idea that since his death, Malcolm has also been embraced by billions of muslims, Third World and African descended peoples across the globe; the government of the Ayattolah Khomeini was the first government in the world to issue a postage stamp bearing Malcolm's image. The United States government has since issued a commemorative Malcolm X stamp as well. Malcolm, in his role as a political emissary acting on his own accord, set the stage for the Black Panther Party and other Black revolutionaries in the United States that followed him who established their own political connections with governments in Africa and the Middle East, China, Cuba, and other parts of the Third World. Marable highlights the connections between Malcolm's legacy and such figures as Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro, and Huey Newton.

Malcolm X's legacy as a leader in the struggle for civil and human rights in the United States is also clearly defined in the book. Marable draws Malcolm's image from under the shadow of Martin Luther King, that of the budding integrationist as defined in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and definitively articulates Malcolm's basic positions that held constant throughout his lifetime. That fundamental belief can be summarized as a belief that all people have a right to self-determination and can righteously act upon that right even to the point of violent struggle. The playwright Lorraine Hansberry, a friend of Malcolm's, articulated this position well in response to a question posed to her by a white student with regards to her position on civil rights. Hansberry told the student "we must argue, beg, petition, and shoot through the windows until we get what we justly deserve." This legacy of self-actualization is Malcolm X's present to the world. Manning Marable's biiography of this venerated, iconic figure is highly commendable and should be embraced by everyone.

Written by Ira Grupper

2011-05-24T17:50:00.002-04:00

CCDS is greatly saddened by the news that Al Fishman of Detroit, Michigan, a life-long stalwart for peace and justice, died suddenly last week. Al served in many roles over decades of struggle. Among them, Al was state chair of the New Democratic Coalition of Michigan that supported the anti-war candidacy of Eugene McCarthy and opposed the U.S. war on Vietnam from 1966-71. He was a member of the National Board of Peace Action, a leader of Michigan Peace Action and a member of CCDS’ Peace and Solidarity Committee.

Al was a member of the Communist Party until he and hundreds of others left and formed the Committees of Correspondence in 1992. He was also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Al was also my co-worker at Wayne County Community College in Detroit in the early 1970s and a friend of nearly 40 years. He was also my dear comrade and mentor. It is fitting that he had a meeting arranged with Sen. Carl Levin’s office this week. He often arranged group meetings with elected officials pressing for nuclear disarmament, an end to U.S. wars of aggression and was relied upon in matters of the peace movement by a number of elected officials. Al and his wife of 60 years who survives him, Marge Fishman, were instrumental in the campaign to elect Detroit’s first African American Mayor, Coleman Young, in 1974.

Al will always be remembered for his clarity on two important issues of strategy for the peace movement: in order to make any significant advance for peace and justice, the two most important forces for change must be joined in the struggle - labor and the African American people’s movement for equality. And secondly, the widest possible front must be formed targeting the far right-wing, particularly in the electoral arena.

Al lived his life until his very last days with this mission at the fore. He had been at a Peace Action meeting the day before he suffered a massive heart attack, complaining about a pain in his knee. His fellow Peace Action members urged him to go to the doctor the next day, where he died.

It is hard for me to believe that Al is not with us anymore. I so treasured my visits back home in Detroit to spend the afternoon with he and Margaret around the kitchen table, going through a couple pots of coffee, discussing the movement in Detroit and the world – always with optimism and resolve. I will miss him so.

There will be a memorial for Al at the church renowned for its place in the peace and justice movement - Central Methodist Church in downtown Detroit, Friday, May 25th at 12:00 noon.

Al Fishman, Presente!

2011-05-21T00:47:00.002-04:00

When I was younger, I swore to preserve my brain even at the expense of my body. I am learning to listen to my body too.

Don Lemon Coming Out on The Joy Behar Show

2011-05-18T12:40:00.000-04:00

Exquisite Photos from Michael Henry Adams' Homo-Harlem Post

2011-05-17T13:00:00.045-04:00

Yesterday, I posted a link to Michael Henry Adams' post on Homosexuality in the golden age of Harlem. I hope everyone got a chance to look at it. Other than speaking about the various relationships that took place (such as that between Marlon Brando and James Baldwin), and discussing the politics concerning homosexuality at the time, he also provides some great photographs as well. I want to share some of them with you here.

James Baldwin

Marlon Brando

Adams reports that Baldwin and Brando were apparently lovers at one time.

Jimmy Daniels, singer

Jimmy Daniel's lover, Philip Johnson

Jimmy Daniel's other lover, Kenneth McPherson and his wealthy lesbian wife, Bhyner, with a friend.

Truman Capote

Archie Savage, actor and dancer

Apparently, according to Adams, Capote and Savage were also lovers.

Arthur Mitchell

Tallulah Bankhead

"My father(Governor William Bankhead of Alabama) always warned me about men and booze, but he never said a goddamned thing about women and cocaine).

Among Tallulah's many lesbian relationships was a well-known love affair with Billie Holiday.

Langston Hughes and Dorothy West

Langston Hughes was a gay man and Dorothy West was a lesbian. However, West wanted Hughes to father her child.

Langston Hughes

Cole Porter

Clifton Webb

Barbra Hutton's socialite cousin and rampant homosexual, Jimmy Donahue with the Duchess of Windsor

An early cover of Jet Magazine

Famous Performer and nightclub owner, Bricktop

Among her famous lovers was Josephine Baker.

The legendary singer and performer, Gladys Bently and photographer Prentiss Taylor

Gladys Bently was known for her larger-than-life lesbian weddings and her extravagant lifestyle. Prentiss Taylor was popular in Harlem's homosexual crowd.

Drag Balls, the most famous of which was the historic Hamilton Lodge Ball in Harlem.

Final two set of photos: Earle Hyman, the grandfather from The Cosby Show

Edward Perry, social secretary, "Harlem's Elsa Maxwell"

An Intriguing bit of Gay History with a Nice Photo Collection

2011-05-17T01:38:00.000-04:00

Ever Wondered About Who Had Open Marriages?

2011-05-13T19:56:00.001-04:00

Check out the gallery of famous open marriages linked above. Ruby Deee and Ossie Davis....I am about to faint...

On Homosexuality in Conservative Areas

2011-05-13T16:39:00.002-04:00

Ever since college, I have taken note of how gay men conduct themselves with regards to their sexuality and the public images of themselves. What I have observed has not been pretty. Most gay men in Alabama and in Indiana, the two places that I have observed, only expose their true selves online on such sites as gay.com or Adam4Adam. In public, their project the straightest images possible, ranging from posting pictures of themselves with women on facebook profiles to claiming to like women in every public place where asked. It baffles, befuddles, and bemuses me to observe and to see such things. I have never been one to let social orders and dogmas dictate anything I do and it truly baffles me as to why other people bow to such things. I am more likely to tell someone to go to hell. There needs to be a broad and very publicly engaged conversation about homosexuality and how homosexuality is acted out in conservative areas. I have never seen two men kiss in public in either Alabama or Indiana. Nor have I seen two women. It is time we trouble the dogmas that exist in these places and start to change the ways in which allow ourselves to exist.

I'm listening to My Husband this Morning...

2011-05-12T11:09:00.000-04:00

2011-05-11T20:22:00.000-04:00

Peter Simon, brother of Carly Simon, on their biracial mother (Black & Jewish) and their multiracial family

2011-05-09T23:59:00.004-04:00

2011-05-06T18:33:00.001-04:00

Best Black Film Actresses By Decade:1930s&40s

2011-05-02T08:25:00.038-04:00

The 1930s and 40s are combined here as they represent a time when most Blacks who even managed to work as actors in Hollywood were uncredited and mostly worked as extras on screen. Those few who bursts through the racial barriers were truly bright stars, enjoying immense visibility and popularity with wider audiences and especially with the Black community. In the 1930s, most Black women who appeared on screen played maids. The first Black actress guaranteed dignified roles and winning a real contract with a major studio was Lena Horne, who signed with MGM in 1942.It was a major milestone in cinema history and in Black history. Outside of mainstream Hollywood, Oscar Mischeaux was a successful, independent Black filmmaker who spotlighted several Black actresses. Josephine Baker took her talents and went to France where she became one of the greatest superstars in the universe, admired around the world. With all of this in mind, here are the ten best actresses of the 1930s and 1940s.

1. Lena Horne

One of Hollywood's greatest icons, the legendary singer, dancer,Civil Rights activist, and actress, Lena Horne blazed the trail for Blacks in Hollywood when in 1942, she became the first Black actor to sign a contract with a major studio. Signing with MGM, she appeared in ten films during the 1940s. The most significant of these have all become classics, including, Panama Hattie,Cabin in the Sky, and Stormy Weather. The title song of Stormy Weather lent Lena her signature song, a song with which she would be identified for the rest of her life. Read a fuller biography of her here.

2. Ethel Waters

A star on Broadway and in Harlem during the 1920s, at one point the highest paid performer on stage, Ethel Waters earned the nickname of "Sweet Mama Stringbean," for her sultry and seductive persona and her performances in the theatre and on the concert stage. Establishing a career as a singer as well as an actress, Waters came into Hollywood already a star. During the 1940s, she appeared in six films, including the iconic Cabin in the Sky in 1943. In 1949, she starred in the epic race drama, Pinky.

3. Nina Mae McKinney

Nina Mae McKinney first became known as the seductress, Chick in the first all-Black musical, Hallelujah! in 1929. She remained a prominent actress throughout the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, appearing in a string of films throughout the decades, including seven films during the 1940s. In 1949, she had a supporting role in the iconic race drama, Pinky starring Ethel Waters.

4. Ethel Moses

A popular Harlem star of the 1920s, Ethel Moses began her career as a dancer and a singer and as a chorus girl on Broadway. Moses rose to cinema fame as one of the leading ladies in the films of legendary Black filmmaker Oscar Mischeaux. With Mischeaux, Moses made several classic films, including Temptation in 1935, Underworld in 1937, God's Stepchildren in 1938, and Birthright in 1939.

5. Hattie MacDaniel

The legendary Hattie McDaniel will be known to history as the first Black person ever to win an Academy Award. After enjoying a steady career in Hollywood playing a domestic, in 1939, she won a part in the classic film, Gone With the Wind playing the part of Mammy. For her performance, she was awarded the 1939 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She later was heard in the iconic Amos and Andy and starred in the 1950s TV sitcom, Beulah.

6. Fredi Washington

A popular actress of the 1930s, Fredi Washington appeared in two iconic films during the decade, Emperor Jones with Paul Robeson in 1933 and Imitation of Life with Louise Beavers and Claudette Colbert in 1934.

7. Josephine Baker

One of the world's first superstars, Josephine Baker got her start working Vaudeville and the chitlin and TOBA circuits around the country. By the time she was 15, she was on Broadway and starred in the iconic all-Black cast Broadway shows Shuffle Along in 1921 and Chocolate Dandies in 1924. Extended the opportunity to go to Paris and work, Josephine jumped at the opportunity, making her debut on the Paris stage in the classic La Revue Negre in 1925, appearing on stage wearing nothing but a string of feathers. She was an overnight sensation and proceeded to embark on a career that would land her as one of France's most treasured possessions and one of the world's greatest stars. In the middle of the Twentieth Century, Josephine Baker was the wealthiest Black woman in the world. She starred in ten films between the late 20s and the mid-fifties. Three of these became classics, Siren of the Tropics in 1927, Zou Zou in 1934, and Princess Tam Tam in 1935. After World War II, she was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French government for her role in the French Resistance. She received the Legion of Honour in 1961. Baker was also one of the leaders of the American Civil Rights movement. At her death in 1975, she was given a state burial in Paris with full military honors.

8. Alice B. Russell

The wife of the legendary and pioneering Black filmmaker, Oscar Mischeaux (Russell is the actress in red that appears in the picture above), Alice B. Russell appeared in eleven films between the late 20s and the late forties, often appearing as the stern and wise maternal figure. Russell also worked behind the scenes as director and producer.

9. Dorothy Van Engle

Dorothy Van Engle was a popular actress in the 1930s and 1940s, one of Oscar Mischeaux's leading ladies. She starred in four of Mischeux's most popular films during the 1930s, Harlem After Midnight in 1934, Murder in Harlem in 1935, Swing in 1938, and God's Stepchildren in 1938.

10.Louise Beavers

Louise Beavers enjoyed great popularity as an actress in the 1930s and 1940s, playing domestics in Hollywood films. One of the most constantly working Black actresses in Hollywood, she appeared in 133 films between 1930 and 1950. Her greatest role came in 1934 when she played Annie Johnson opposite Claudette Colbert in the original version of Imitation of Life.

Honorable Mentions:
Lucia Moses
Julia Moses
Hilda Simms
Hazel Scott
The 2000s

Best Black Film Actresses By Decade:1950s

2011-05-01T14:17:00.043-04:00

The 1950s saw a burst of Black talent in Hollywood and in the world of entertainment in general. Seeing the start of the Civil Rights Movement, most of the better opportunities open to Blacks were found on television. Hollywood made its concessions as well, however, and several Black actresses found their names etched across the American pathos. The following are the top ten Black actresses of the 1950s.

1. Dorothy Dandridge

The phenomenal Dorothy Dandridge was the brightest Black star in the universe during the 1950s. A successful actress and singer, with a major career in the nightclubs and supper clubs, her first notable role during the fifties came in 1953's Bright Road, a film that was heralded by the NAACP. On landing the title role in Otto Preminger's all Black 1954 classic, Carmen Jones, Dandridge was catapulted to instant celebrity and became, for a brief time, the highest paid actress, Black or white, in Hollywood. Her performance as Carmen Jones garnered her a 1954 Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture. She was the first Black actress to be so honored. She had a score of other significant films after Carmen Jones, including Island in the Sun in 1957, Tamango in 1958, and Porgy and Bess in 1959. Her last major film in Hollywood was 1960's Malaga. Tragically, she died of a blood clot resulting from an injury in 1965.

2. Pearl Bailey

One of the most successful entertainers of all time, Pearl Bailey began her career as a successful Vaudeville and Broadway actress. By the 1950s, she had emerged in Hollywood as a popular actress and singer,landing the plum role of Frankie, the best friend, in the all Black 1954 classic Carmen Jones. She appeared in three more films that decade,including That Certain Feeling in 1956,St. Louis Blues in 1958,and Porgy and Bess in 1959.

3. Ethel Waters

The legendary Ethel Waters was already a superstar, famous as a Vaudeville and Broadway actress and as a blues singer by the 1950s. With decades behind her in the extent of her fame, in the fifties, Waters adopted the on-screen persona of the matron and saint-a huge contrast from the reputation she had earned as a sultry and seductive Black Venus during the 1920s. She appeared in four films during the decade, The Member of the Wedding in 1952,the all-Black film Carib Gold in 1957,The Heart is a Rebel in 1958, and Sound and the Fury in 1959.

4. Juanita Moore

Juanita Moore rose to instant fame in 1959 playing Annie Jane Johnson, the distraught Black mother of a biracial girl who passes for white in the classic remake, Imitation of Life. She appeared in twenty films during the 1950s, mostly with uncredited appearances. Her most significant roles during the decade include Affair in Trinidad, Witness to Murder,Women's Prison,Ransom! and The Girl Can't Help It.

5. Ruby Dee

A successful Broadway actress and an outspoken Civil Rights activist, Ruby Dee started off the 1950s playing the wife of Jackie Robinson, opposite Jackie Robinson himself, in his 1950 biopic, The Jackie Robinson Story. She appeared in eight more films that decade, including No Way Out in 1950, The Tall Target in 1951, Go Man Go in 1954, The Great American Pastime in 1956, Edge of the City in 1957, St. Louis Blues in 1958, Our Virgin Island in 1959, and the iconic Take A Giant Step in 1959.

6. Beah Richards

The formidable Beah Richards began her career in film during the 1950s. Her first significant role came in the iconic 1959 race drama, Take A Giant Step starring opposite Ruby Dee, Frederick O'Neal, and Johnny Nash.

7. Hazel Scott

Hazel Scott was one of the most prominent African Americans of the 1930s, 40s and 50s. One of the premier pianists of her time, she traveled the world playing classical and jazz music. Scott began appearing in films in the 1940s and by the 1950s was such a popular presence that she earned the distinction of becoming the first Black woman to host her own television show, The Hazel Scott Show, which aired in 1950. Her career waned soon after the start of her television show, however, as she was blacklisted because of her criticism of McCarthyism and her public defense of friends and colleagues who had been targeted by McCarthy and because of her Civil Rights activism. In the 1950s, she appeared in two films, A Bullet in the Gun Barrel and The Night Affair, both in 1958. In 1945, Scott married New York Congressman, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr with whom she had one child,Adam Clayton Powell III. They divorced in 1956.

8. Eartha Kitt

The sultry seductress, Eartha Kitt, who rose to fame in the 1940s in Paris, was one of the biggest stars in the world during the 1950s. Along with a successful recording career, Kitt made numerous appearances on American television during the 1940s and 1950s and appeared in three motion pictures during the decade, The Mark of the Hawk in 1957 and St. Louis Blues and Anna Lucasta in 1958.

9. Diahann Carroll

Diahann Carroll made her start as an entertainer in the 1950s when a friend sent her photograph to Ebony Magazine, which subsequently led to a modeling contract. In 1954, she made her Hollywood and Broadway debuts in the iconic all-Black film Carmen Jones and House of Flowers respectively. In 1959, she appeared in another iconic film with an all-Black cast, Porgy and Bess.

10. Louise Beavers

Louise Beavers had a steady and active career in the 1930s and 1940s playing domestics on screen. By the 1950s, she was a well-known and well-respected presence in Hollywood. In 1950, she appeared as the mother of Jackie Robinson in The Jackie Robinson Story alongside Jackie Robinson and Ruby Dee.

Honorable Mentions:
Lena Horne
Carol Channing

The 1930s&40s

Best Black Film Actresses By Decade:1960s

2011-04-28T21:39:00.032-04:00

The 1960s saw an explosion of Black female faces on the American cultural scene. The 1950s had introduced the American public to the Black leading lady in the person of Dorothy Dandridge. The 60s prepared the American public for a series of firsts: Diahann Carroll became the first Black woman to star in her own television series with the hit sitcom, Julia and Eartha Kitt became the first Black female superheroine when she took on the role of Catwoman in the iconic television series, Batman. With regards to film, Diahann Carroll was clearly the most successful and lauded Black actress of the decade, landing prominent screen roles throughout the decade. Beah Richards etched her name into cinema history when she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Sidney Poitier's mother in 1967's Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. Indeed, the 1960s saw the beginning of Black women receiving wider recognition and visibility in dignified roles on both the silver and the small screens.

1. Diahann Carroll

In the 1960s, Diahann Carroll was the most successful Black, female star in Hollywood.A triple threat with successful careers on the Broadway stage, as a singer, and in Hollywood,Diahann was a fierce presence who, more than any other Black actress, commanded substantial roles on screen. In 1961,she starred in the classic Paris Blues alongside Sidney Poitier, Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman and in 1967, she co-starred with Jane Fonda in the race drama Hurry Sundown.

2. Diana Sands

Diana Sands' was a fresh, joyous face on the Hollywood scene. With enormous talent and vitality, she rose to instant fame in 1961,starring as the strong-willed, determined, and ambitious Beneatha Younger in the iconic screen adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry's celebrated play, A Raisin in the Sun alongside Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, and Claudia McNeil. She starred in two more films during the 1960s as well as originated the role of Doris Wilgus on Broadway in the play The Owl and the Pussycat, which Barbra Streisand brought to screen in 1970. Tragically, Sands died from cancer at the age of 39 in 1973.

3. Ruby Dee

One half of the most legendary acting couple in history, Ruby Dee has earned the reputation of being one of the finest actresses in the industry.She is also one of the pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement and an outspoken activist on human rights and social justice issues. An accomplished Broadway actress, Dee made a string of movies throughout the 1940s and 50s and earned her highest praise in the defining role of Ruth Younger in the 1961 film version of A Raisin in the Sun opposite Sidney Poitier,Diana Sands, and Claudia McNeil. Her performance as Ruth in the film was Oscar-worthy and is one of the most memorable performances in Hollywood history. After A Raisin in the Sun, she continued to make films during the sixties, her most notable appearances being in the iconic films, Gone Are the Days in 1963, The Incident in 1967, and Up Tight in 1968.

4. Paula Kelly

The multi-talented dancer and actress, Paula Kelley, made her film debut in the 1969 musical Sweet Charity opposite fellow dancers Shirley MacLaine and Chita Rivera. The film, which also starred Sammy Davis Jr., Ben Vereen, and Ricardo Montalban,was nominated for three Oscars and launched Kelly's career in Hollywood, leading to a very prominent career for her during the 1970s.

5. Abbey Lincoln

The legendary jazz singer, Abbey Lincoln was also an actress and one of the most important actresses of the 1960s. Beginning her career as a singer in the supper clubs, Lincoln was quickly discovered by Hollywood, making her screen debut in the 1956 film The Girl Can't Help It opposite Jayne Mansfield. In 1964, she starred in the politically significant film, Nothing But A Man opposite Ivan Dixon, famously giving up her cherished Afro (a very personal political statement on her part) and adopting a processed look to play the role of Josie. She followed this up with another iconic film, 1968's For the Love of Ivy, starring opposite Sidney Poitier. She received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in the film in 1969.

6. Gloria Foster

Best known for her roles in the Matrix, Foster first gained fame as the girlfriend and caretaker of Ivan Dixon's father in the iconic 1964 classic Nothing But A Man. She was prominently cast in two other films during the Sixties, 1964's The Cool World and 1967's The Comedians alongside Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

7. Beah Richards

In the 1960s, Beah Richards personified the dignified Black woman in Hollywood. Appearing in five films that decade, including The Miracle Worker and Hurry Sundown, she rose to her greatest fame playing the mother of Sidney Poitier in the 1967 classic, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner alongside Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. She received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film. She also starred in the iconic 1967 film, In the Heat of the Night with Sidney Poitier.

8. Isabel Sanford

Isabel Sanford, who became known to history as Louise Jefferson in one of the most popular sitcoms of all time,The Jeffersons, made her screen debut after a long career on Broadway in 1967 in the role of Tillie, the opinionated maid alongside Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, and Sidney Poitier in the classic Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. The role made her a star and she subsequently appeared in three more feature films during the 1960s, The Young Runaways, Pendulum, and The Comic.

9. Cicely Tyson

Over the years, Cicely Tyson has earned a reputation as one of the most regal actresses in the entertainment industry. During the 1960s, Tyson made a name for herself on television and also scored a number of film roles as well, beginning with 1966's A Man Called Adam. Appearing in two more films that decade, her most notable role came as Portia in the film adaptation of Carson McCullers' novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

10. Eartha Kitt

The sexy, sultry, and consummate seductress, Eartha Kitt got her start in the early 40s as a dancer in the Katherine Dunham troupe and rose to fame as a singer in Paris in the years following World War II. In the 1960s, Kitt became a legend in the role of Catwoman in the iconic Batman television show. She also appeared in three films that decade, Saint of Devil's Island in 1961, Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1965, and Synanon in 1965.

Honorable Mentions:
Leslie Uggams
Claudia McNeil
Estelle Evans

The 1950s

My Response to the Birther Issue

2011-04-27T11:27:00.002-04:00

It is time we stop privileging white capitalist patriarchy in this society.The world is tired of white male bullshit and ain't gonna take much more.

Best Black Film Actresses By Decade:1970s

2011-04-26T14:50:00.037-04:00

The 1970s were a wonderful decade for Black filmmakers with the onslaught of Blaxploitation and an all around revolution, building off of the 1960s, in the ways that Blacks were heard, seen, and thought of in the public mind. In that vein, hundreds, perhaps thousands of films were made by Black directors and Black actors, both male and female,gained greater visibility. The following are the top ten Black actresses of that decade.

1. Diahann Carroll

The magnificent Diahann Carroll was the brightest Black star in the universe for most of two decades from the 1950s to the 1970s. Carroll made her film debut in 1954 in the legendary Dorothy Dandridge vehicle Carmen Jones in the role of Myrt and made her Broadway debut that same year in the Truman Capote play House of Flowers. After winning a Tony Award in 1962 for the Broadway play, No Strings, her career hit a new high when she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for the film Claudine in 1974.

2. Diana Ross

Former lead singer of the most successful girl group in history, The Supremes, Diana Ross burst into the 1970s with ambitions towards a successful film career as well. She recognized these ambitions with a string of successful films in the 1970s beginning with 1972's Motown classic, Lady Sings the Blues, the powerful biopic in which the life of the legendary Billie Holiday was brought to screen. For her performance in the role of Billie Holiday, Diana Ross was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1972. Ross followed up the success of Lady Sings the Blues with two more classic films, Mahogany,in 1975 and The Wiz, the Black version of The Wizard of Oz in 1978. All three of these films were wildly successful in the 1970s, with the first two putting Motown and Berry Gordy on the scene as producers of films.

3. Cicely Tyson

Cicely Tyson began her career as a television star in the 1960s. By the 1970s, she had developed a successful film career as well. She established herself as a movie star in 1972 when she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for the role of Rebecca Morgan in the film Sounder. Her other noted film from that decade was 1978's A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich.

4. Pam Grier

Pam Grier was one of the queens of cinema in the 1970s, rightfully earning her title as the Queen of Blaxploitation. In the 1970s, Pam Grier personified the tough, assertive, ass-kicking Black woman who commanded respect and dealt punishment to those who refused to give her props. Beginning the decade with a bit role in the radical film, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Pam Grier headlined two films in the women-in-prison genre in 1971, Women in Cages and The Big Doll House. In 1972, Grier starred in the cult classic, Black Mama, White Mama and another women-in-prison film, The Big Bird Cage. With 1973's Coffy and 1974's Foxy Brown Grier established herself as the Queen of Blaxploitation, with Coffy wildly beating Tamara Dobson's Cleopatra Jones at the box office, which was released the same year. Grier enjoyed a string of successful films in the Blaxploitation genre during the 70s, enjoying tremendous popularity until the genre died out in the early 1980s.

5. Rosalind Cash

Rosalind Cash's was one of the most prominent and recognizable Black faces in popular culture during the 1970s. Making her film debut in 1971's Klute with Jane Fonda,Cash appeared in a series of films throughout the decade. In 1974, she was cast as the female lead in Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby's hit film Uptown Saturday Night. Her other major film roles that decade came in 1974's Amazing Grace alongside Moms Mabley and Slappy White and 1975's Cornbread, Earl, and Me alongside Moses Gunn and Laurence Fishbourne.

6. Paula Kelly

Making her film debut in 1969 in the fabulous musical brought to screen,Sweet Charity, alongside best friends Shirley MacLaine and Chita Rivera, Paula Kelly entered the 1970s as one of the most prominent actresses on television, the Broadway stage, and on film. In 1971, she was prominently cast in the hit film, The Andromena Strain and in 1973 she starred in the prominent Black film, The Spook that Sat by the Door. In 1974, she starred in the Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby classic Uptown Saturday Night.

7. Debbie Morgan

Debbie Morgan, an acclaimed television actress, was one of the most celebrated Black actresses of the 1970s. Appearing in the 1971 classic film, Mandingo, she made her name during that decade playing Elizabeth Harvey in the legendary miniseries, Roots.

8. Irene Cara

A prominent singer and actress, Irene Cara saw her most prominent film in 1976's hit film, Sparkle in which she played the title character. Building off of the success of Sparkle, she went on to star in the iconic television miniseries,Roots.

9.Lonette McKee

Lonette McKee saw her rise to fame in 1976 when she costarred with Irene Cara and Mary Alice in the hit film, Sparkle. With the success of Sparkle, she went on to enjoy a prominent career in the 1980s and 1990s.

10. Nell Carter

Nell Carter is one of television's most iconic figures, having carved out her place in history with the 1980s hit sitcom, Gimme A Break. Accomplished as an actress on Broadway,on television, and in film, Carter established herself as a superstar with her film debut in 1979's blockbuster rock musical,Hair.

Honorable Mentions:
Leslie Uggams
Mary Alice
Tamara Dobson

The 1960s

Best Black Film Actresses By Decade:1980s

2011-04-25T20:07:00.040-04:00

The 1980s were an interesting time in terms of growth of opportunity for Black Actresses in Hollywood. At the same time, however, there were still limits and glass ceilings that Black women faced in the movie industry. As opposed to the 1990s and the 2000s, only a slim few Black actresses consistently headlined major films in Hollywood. A lot more found themselves in Made for TV films. This list takes that into account while at the same time trying to remain in the realm of Hollywood cinema and film. With that in mind, here are the top ten Black actresses of the 1980s.

1. Alfre Woodard

Alfre Woodard best known as the mother, Carolyn, in Spike Lee's Crooklyn held court in the 1980s as one of the premier actresses of that decade. Landing an Oscar nomination for her performance as Geechee in 1983's CrossCreek, she was also a strong contender for the role of Miss Sophia in The Color Purple and made splashes across the small screen with major roles in Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere. Starting off the decade in Robert Altman's film HealtH, she then delivered a powerful performance in the 1982 screen adaptation of Ntozake Shonge's celebrated Broadway play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Was Enuf. In 1986, she portrayed Winnie Mandela in the HBO film,Mandela.

2. Lynn Whitfield

The incredibly talented Lynn Whitfield, who brought Josephine Baker's life to the screen in 1991's The Josephine Baker story, was one of the most visible and lauded Black actresses of the 1980s. Beginning the decade with a powerful performance in the screen adaptation of Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf, she became highly visible with major television roles on Hill Street Blues,Cagney and Lacy,Miami Vice, and St. Elsewhere. In 1989, she added a major credit to her name with her portrayal of Ciel in Oprah Winfrey's television miniseries,The Women of Brewster Place. She also appeared in two other major films of the decade, Silverado in 1985 and Jaws: The Revenge in 1987.

3. Lonette McKee

Lonette McKee, who has made her career portraying the struggles of African American women of mixed heritage, was one of the most visible and successful Black actresses of the 1980s. Between 1980 and 1989, she appeared in four feature films, The Cotton Club in 1982,Brewster's Millions in 1985, 'Round Midnight in 1986, and Garden of Stone in 1987, a major feat in a decade where even the most celebrated of Black actresses, such as Cicely Tyson, were relegated to the realm of Made for TV movies and the occasional sitcom. McKee scored a major credit in 1989 when she portrayed Lorraine, a lesbian school teacher, in Oprah Winfrey's celebrated miniseries, The Women of Brewster Place.

4. Whoopi Goldberg

It could be argued that Whoopi Goldberg was the most commercially successful Black actress of the 1980s with three blockbuster hits in that decade, The Color Purple, Jumpin' Jack Flash, and Clara's Heart. 1985 was a pinnacle year in Whoopi Goldberg's career with her defining role as Celie in The Color Purple and her subsequent Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

5. Oprah Winfrey

The reigning Queen of Daytime Television and the wealthiest Black woman in the world, Oprah Winfrey made her own indelible mark on Hollywood in the 1980s. Hand-picked by Quincy Jones to play the character of Sophia in 1985's The Color Purple, Oprah etched that character and her own image into the public mind, setting herself up to become one of the most powerful people in the world. After landing an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for The Color Purple and appearing as the mother of Bigger Thomas in 1986's screen adaptation of Richard Wright's novel, Native Son, Oprah set up her own production company and produced the most celebrated miniseries of the decade, The Women of Brewster Place, starring herself, Jackee, Lynn Whitfield, Lonette McKee,Robin Givens, Mary Alice, Cicely Tyson, and Paula Kelly.

6. Jennifer Beals

Jennifer Beals burst out onto the Hollywood scene as the star of the 1983 surprise hit film, Flashdance, which grossed over $100 million dollars worldwide and was number three at the box office that year, behind Return of the Jedi and Terms of Endearment. Flashdance, was her only major film during the decade, but with this film she established herself and the film into the cultural iconography of American cinema.

7. Margaret Avery

Margaret Avery etched her name into pop culture with her unforgettable performance as Shug Avery in 1985's The Color Purple alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. She along with Oprah and Whoopi were the three Black women nominated for Academy Awards in 1985.

8. Irene Cara

Irene Cara was a major star of the 1970s and 80s, modeled somewhat in the fashion of Donna Summer, a double threat with both an amazing music career(she received the Oscar in 1983 for Best Song for "What a Feeling"-the theme song to the hit film Flashdance and won several Grammy awards) and a lauded career as an actress. Her appearance in the iconic film, Fame in 1980 as Coco Hernandez, lands her on this list. Unfortunately, after Fame, Cara never appeared in another major film.

9. Debbie Allen

Debbie Allen, the dancer, choreographer,director, actress makes this list for her memorable performance as Michelle, one of the wives of Richard Pryor in his 1986 biopic, JoJo Dancer Your Life is Calling. The scene of her dancing on stage at the nightclub is one of the most sensuous scenes in cinematic history and the car scene with Pryor is also quite memorable. Allen also appeared in the 1980 hit film, Fame as well as in the television series of the same name.

10. Rae Dawn Chong

Daughter of comedian and actor, Tommy Chong, Rae Dawn Chong enjoyed a very rewarding career as a film actress in the 1980s, starring in fourteen feature films between 1980 and 1989. Her most memorable roles that decade came in 1985's The Color Purple in the role of Squeaks/Mary Agnes and in 1986's Soul Man playing opposite C.Thomas Howell.

Honorable Mentions:
Jackee
Robin Givens
Paula Kelly
Phylicia Rashad

The 1970s

Best Black Film Actresses By Decade: The 1990s

2011-04-25T17:02:00.046-04:00

The 1990s were a great time for Black actors and Black moviegoers looking for representations of Black images on screen. From the visions of Spike Lee and John Singleton being translated onto the big screen, to the prominence of talented Black actors in Hollywood, the 1990s were a decade of a thriving Black Hollywood. The top ten Black actresses of that decade were

1. Whoopi Goldberg

Starting off the decade with an Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as psychic Oda Mae Brown in Ghost, Whoopi dominated Hollywood in the 1990s, even enjoying a brief time as the highest paid actress in the industry. Following the success of Ghost, Whoopi scored several times throughout the decade with powerhouse dramatic roles as Odessa Carter in The Long Walk Home, Mary Masembuko in Sarafina,Corrina Washington in Corrina, Corrina and her depiction of Myrlie Evers in 1996's Ghosts of Mississippi for which she was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. In the midst of creating such meaningful and powerful dramas on screen, she also starred in some amazing comedies including, Soap Dish and the box-office-busting megahits Sister Act and Sister Act II: Back in the Habit, two of the highest grossing films of the decade. Whoopi finished out the decade with another notable performance as the best friend in the film adaptation of Terri MacMillan's How Stella Got Her Groove Back. Over the years, Whoopi has far exceeded every measure of success in the entertainment industry, proving herself not only in Hollywood, but on Broadway and in other venues as well. Whoopi Goldberg is one of the most successful entertainers in the world, having earned the rare distinction of winning the EGOT (meaning every major entertainment award in every category-Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony)-something that has been accomplished by only a handful of entertainers throughout history.

2. Angela Bassett

Angela Bassett is one of the most talented actresses to ever appear on film. This Yale graduate made a name for herself in the movie industry nabbing role after juicy role portraying images of strong, powerful Black women on screen. Beginning with her first notable role as the concerned mother, Reva Devereaux in John Singleton'sBoyz in the Hood, she engraved her name into cinema history with her portrayal of Civil Rights icon Betty Shabazz in Spike Lee's Malcolm X and scored an Oscar nomination for her depiction of Tina Turner in 1993's What's Love Got to Do With It. Bassett further entrenched her name into cultural memory of the decade with her crafting of the character Bernadine in 1995's Waiting to Exhale and her performance as Stella in 1998's How Stella Got Her Groove Back, both major vehicle's depicting the lives of Black women. Throughout her career, Angela Bassett has portrayed several significant Black women in American history on screen including Betty Shabazz, Tina Turner, Katherine Jackson, and Rosa Parks.

3. Robin Givens

Robin Givens' career thrived in the late 80s and early 90s, suffering a major decline after her divorce from Mike Tyson and seeing a major come back in 2008 with her appearance in Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys. In the early 90s, however, Robin Givens' was the star to watch, as her stardom headed straight to the top of the industry, placing her above almost every other Black actress in the business. Two roles, her appearance as Imabelle in A Rage in Harlem and her performance as Jacqueline Broyer in Boomerang placed her at the top of the heap as far as Black actresses are concerned. Her portrayal of the savvy, competitive and emotionally detached go-getter opposite Eddie Murphy's playboy who got played in Boomerang was permanently etched into public memory. With that one role, she dominated early 1990s Hollywood and held rank as far as Black actresses are concerned.

4. Lela Rochon

Sweet and sultry are the words that define the image that Lela Rochon created for herself on film throughout the 1990s. Schmoozing off from her role as the sultry Sunshine in 1989's Harlem Nights, she splashed into the 1990s with a memorable cameo role in 1992's Boomerang as the naive dog lover with bad feet, Christie. Rochon followed that up with the role that cemented her reputation as an actress and etched her into the cultural pathos, the high-powered executive with man problems, Robin Stokes in 1995's commentary on Black women's lives, Waiting to Exhale. She finished off the decade with a major role in Mr. and Mrs. Loving, the screen adaptation of the love story between the interracial couple responsible for ending miscegenation laws in the United States and with another notable role as the wife of Frankie Lymon in Why Do Fools Fall in Love.

5. Halle Berry

The illustrious Halle Berry has been a marvel on screen ever since her first notable role as the crackhead Vivian in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever. Throughout the 90s, Halle built momentum in her career, starting with her praiseworthy performance as Angela in Boomerang and building on that as she gained laurels for her performances in Alex Haley's Queen, The Flinstones,B*A*P*S,Bulworth,and Why Do Fools Fall In Love. Her acting career in the 1990s culminated in her winning the Emmy Award for the HBO film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, the story of Dorothy Dandridge,who was the first Black actress to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Halle Berry has proven herself to be one of the most formidable and most bankable actresses in the business. One of the highest paid stars in the world, she is the first Black actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture.

6. Vivica Fox

For a time, no one was hotter in the world of Black Hollywood than Vivica A. Fox. She was Foxy Brown and a bit more. Playing Will Smith's leading lady in his 1996 blockbuster hit,Independence Day,Vivica sprang onto the Hollywood scene grasping major role after major role in Set it Off,Booty Call,Batman and Robin, the epic Soul Food, and Why Do Fools Fall in Love. After the late 90s, her career fell into a major slump, but picked up briefly with 2001's Two Can Play that Game and 2003's Kill Bill: Vol.1.

7. Vanessa Williams

Vanessa Williams is one of the most versatile and successful people in the entertainment industry. Williams began her career by winning the Miss America pageant and being crowned as Miss America for 1984, holding the distinction as the first African American to hold the title. From that vantage point, Williams set off on a successful music and film career, scoring several major hits in the 1980s and 1990s and keeping momentum in her career up to the present day. Two roles defined her career as one of the most successful actresses of the 1990s, her performance as Francine Hughes in 1997's Hoodlum and her noteworthy performance as Teri in the Black epic, Soul Food.

8. Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston carved out for herself a solid film career in the 1990s appearing opposite some of the most popular leading men of the decade including Kevin Kostner in 1992's blockbuster hit The BodyGuard and Denzel Washington in 1996's The Preacher's Wife. All three of her films that decade were popular and have become classics. Had she chosen, she could have matched the success of her music career with her career in film. As it stands, she has still made an indelible mark on cinema and earned her place as one of the top actresses of the 1990s.

9. Lonette McKee

Lonette McKee came into the 1990s with an already solid career built off of two decades of compelling performances such as 1976's Sparkle, 1984's The Cotton Club, and 1989's Oprah vehicle and miniseries The Women of Brewster Place. McKee laid her claim to 1990s cinematic history in two roles,as the avenging wife, Drew in 1991's Spike Lee classic, Jungle Fever and as Louise Little, the mother of Malcolm X, in Spike Lee's epic film, Malcolm X.

10. Lynn Whitfield

Building on a solid career established in the 1980s, Lynn Whitfield emblazoned her image into cinema history with her praiseworthy, Emmy-winning performance as Josephine Baker in the 1991 HBO biopic The Josephine Baker Story, based on the life of Josephine Baker. Whitfield scored again twice in the 1990s with her portrayal of Roz Batiste, the troubled wife and mother in 1997's Eve's Bayou and as the wealthy,scorned wife and mother in 1998's The Wedding opposite Halle Berry.

Honorable Mentions:
Loretta Devine
Janet Jackson
Alfre Woodard

The 1980s

Happy Birthday Barbra!!

2011-04-24T01:14:00.003-04:00

Best Black Film Actresses of the 2000s

2011-04-23T14:03:00.019-04:00

This post begins a series of posts where I will showcase my selections of the top ten Black Actresses in American cinema for every decade since the 1930s. In coming up with this list, I have had several revelations about Hollywood and its history with Black women, especially those Black women who sought to become actresses in the film industry. This list considers for these best of lists those actresses who constantly capture the big roles and deliver incredible performances on the big screen. Where these qualities get to be somewhat impractical as qualifiers, namely in the decades preceding the 1970s, those actresses whose images are most prominent in the public eye are considered. And so without further ado, this list will begin with the most recent decades and move backwards, listing actresses in no particular rank or order....

1. Queen Latifah

This Oscar nominated actresses has proven her mettle over the past two decades and has emerged as one of the most sought after Black actresses in the film industry. With her acclaimed, Oscar nominated performance as Big Mama Thornton in Chicago and scoring major hits with such films as Beauty Shop, Last Holiday, Hairspray, and The Secret Life of Bees Queen Latifah has dominated the Hollywood scene and proven herself to be one of the greatest actresses of her generation.

2. Halle Berry

Halle Berry is truly one of the most talented actors in the world. From her striking first appearance on the big screen as the crackhead Vivian in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever to a string of notable roles and powerful performances throughout the nineties, Halle Berry has grabbed her privileged position in the new millenium by nabbing the Oscar for Best Actress in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball and earning herself the distinction of being the first Black actress to win that distinguished award.

3. Kerry Washington

Kerry Washington is perhaps the best actress, in terms of sheer talent, in Hollywood today. Delivering incredible, Oscar-worthy performances in such films as Ray, The Last King of Scotland, and For Colored Girls, Kerry Washington has earned her spot as one of Hollywood's most bankable leading actresses. An Oscar is most certainly somewhere in her future.

4. Kimberley Elise

Establishing herself in the 90's with memorable performances in Set it Off and Oprah Winfrey's Beloved, Kimberley Elise soared in the 2000s delivering powerful performances in Diary of a Mad Black Woman, The Great Debaters, and For Colored Girls. Elise delivers a sweet vulnerability to the screen that adds a complex flavor to every role she brings to the screen.

5. Regina King

The little girl from 227 is all grown up and has made her way to the Hollywood A-list, pegging her stake into such franchises as the Legally Blonde series and the Miss Congeniality films. Her Oscar-worthy performance as Margie Hendricks in 2004's Ray alone stands to make her one of the best Black actresses of the new millenium.

6. Jada Pinkett Smith

The other half of one of Hollywood's royal couples, Jada holds her own crown as one of the most talented Black actresses in the business. Her most powerful performance to date has been as gun wielding defender of integrity, Sloan Hopkins in Spike Lee's hit film Bamboozled. She has also gotten her share of some major franchises, including prominent roles in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Jada also delivered a powerful performance in 2001's Ali as Sonja Roji.

7. Jennifer Hudson

Jennifer Hudson is by far the most versatile and talented actress in Hollywood today. With her meteoric rise to fame in 2006's smash hit Dreamgirls and her subsequent Oscar win for her performance as Effie White, Jennifer's track record is comparable to that of Barbra Streisand in terms of her versatility and her staying power. She has maintained momentum in her rise to the top with an appearance in 2008's smash hit, Sex and the City and a noteworthy performance in The Secret Life of Bees. She is scheduled to play Winnie Mandela in the upcoming biopic Winnie.

8. Thandie Newton

Thandie Newton's is a quiet, yet powerful force to be reckoned with on the Hollywood scene. From her first tantalizing appearances on screen as Sally Hemings in 1995's Jefferson in Paris and her role as the title character in Oprah Winfrey's Beloved, Newton's career has blossomed into one of the most promising careers in the industry. Her performance as Christine Thayer in 2004's Crash was both unforgettable and Oscar-worthy.

9. Taraji P. Henson

Taraji has solidified her reputation as a serious dramatic actress and one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood. Scoring an Oscar nod with her performance as Queenie in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, she has also made an impact with such films as Not Easily Broken, Talk To Me, Hustle and Flow, and The Family that Preys.

10. Monique

Who would ever have thought that the incredibly funny and outrageous comedienne from all of those B grade movies in the 1990s and early 2000s would not only blossom into a full-fledged actress, but also go on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mary in Lee Daniel's 2009 hit Precious? Monique has amazed us all with the depth of her acting ability and leaves us wanting for more from her incredible talent. She is scheduled to play Hattie MacDaniel in the upcoming biopic about the life of that famed actress who was the first Black person to win an Academy Award.

Honorable Mentions:
Alicia Keys
Keshia Knight-Pullman

The 1990s

Does Anyone Remember from the Wendy Williams Show?

2011-04-18T18:28:00.001-04:00

When some fine ass boy hit on Wendy. She went up to him with the microphone and he said, "I think I can handle you, Wendy." And She had to remember who she was and where she was and that she was married, then she came back with "I don't think so!" and walked away! Ha!

2011-04-14T09:51:00.001-04:00

The Underlying Argument: Tavis

2011-04-12T08:49:00.001-04:00

Me Discussing Privatization

2011-04-08T12:46:00.000-04:00

The 1980s, Pt. II

2011-04-05T00:20:00.003-04:00

Mornings in Harvey
My mother headed to work
bright and early leaving
me and my sister to
get ready for school
my sister with a curling iron
in her hair listening to toni toni tone
and Atlantic Starr and me watching television
and listening to the radio before we head out
Nikki with Toni walking to school
on their own,independent,
so they can sneak boys back to the house after school
and me and Patricia waiting for Mrs. Cobbins to take us to school
Patricia stuffing her purple bag and watching Rainbow Brite
as I wander aimlessly around their kitchen
breaking the handle off of the kitchen drawer
because I didn't know that it served no kind of purpose,
just stuck there,glued to the counter
for some kind of decoration.
Throwing that handle under the sink and
heading to the television because they
didn't have to know I had been in there anyway
so I just plop down in front of the tv
and wait for Mrs. Cobbins to once again ask me
if I want some McDonalds so I can politely refuse
because that is what I'm supposed to do
even though I would like some of those
hotcakes with syrup that Patricia will gobble down
before we even turn the corner.
Out of the car and into the school
where Patricia will cease to know who I am
and I will once again be thrust
into the middle of contained chaos.

RIP Manning Marable

2011-04-01T17:26:00.000-04:00

Here is a link to the announcement on the New York Times Blog.

2011-03-30T07:22:00.001-04:00

Free Troy Davis. Send him to Cuba if nothing else.

Remember Triangle

2011-03-27T13:15:00.005-04:00

2011-03-21T16:55:00.000-04:00

New Video from USSF. June 2010

2011-03-18T13:28:00.002-04:00

2011-03-15T15:53:00.006-04:00

Don't Be A Drag, Just Be a Queen...
I love the creativity...the inventiveness...and the worship of the feminine...the universal...the god of humanity that is in this video....Lady Gaga is beyond incredible...

Workers of the World, Awaken!

2011-03-11T15:58:00.000-05:00

Written while Joe Hill was in prison, this song speaks to workers on an international level.

Lyrics:

Workers of the world, awaken!
Break your chains, demand your rights.
All the wealth you make is taken
B y exploiting parasites.
Shall you kneel in deep submission
F rom your cradles to your graves?
Is the height of your ambition
To be good and willing slaves?

Arise, ye prisoners of starvation!
Fight for your own emancipation;
Arise, ye slaves of ev'ry nation, in One Union Grand.
Our little ones for bread are crying;
And millions are from hunger dying;
The end the means is justifying,
'Tis the final stand.

If the workers take a notion,
They can stop all speeding trains;
Every ship upon the ocean
They can tie with mighty chains;
Every wheel in the creation,
Every mine and every mill,
Fleets and armies of the nation,
Will at their command stand still.

-Chorus-

Join the union, fellow workers,
Men and women, side by side;
We will crush the greedy shirkers
Like a sweeping, surging tide;
For united we are standing,
But divided we will fall;
Let this be our understanding-
"All for one and one for all."

-Chorus-

Workers of the world, awaken!
Rise in all your splendid might;
Take the wealth that you are making --
It belongs to you by right.
No one for bread will be crying,
We'll have freedom, love and health,
When the grand red flag is flying
In the Worker's commonwealth.

-Chorus-

2011-03-11T15:55:00.001-05:00

Do Read These Important Posts from Corey@Ill Keep You Posted on the rigors of Colonialism in Africa

2011-03-04T08:54:00.001-05:00

Part I

Part II

There's A New Day Comin'

2011-03-03T00:20:00.001-05:00

Interview with Don Siegelman

2011-02-15T02:11:00.002-05:00

Legalized gambling has been a hot button issue in Alabama politics for decades. Many advocates have argued that the revenue from these endeavors could be put to use to fund educational opportunities for the children of the state of Alabama. There efforts have been fought at every step of the way by religious groups as well as vested political and economic interests from surrounding states who depend on the revenue brought in from Alabamians who choose to gamble in their state. The political maneuvering around this issue is filled with intrigue with power plays brought about not only by factions seeking to keep gaming out of Alabama, but also by those who wish to control the politics of this state.

In ironic twists, pro-gaming advocates and elected officials have been targeted twice in this state for federal indictments on corruption charges. In 2004, Don Siegelman was indicted and later convicted on corruption charges tied to his advocacy for legalized gaming in Alabama. In 2010, eleven indictments were brought against elected officials and other pro-gaming interests in the state. The two cases are eerily similar and both brought a resounding close to efforts towards legalizing gambling in the state of Alabama. I recently contacted former Governor Don Siegelman and asked if I could interview him about legalized gaming, his own prosecution , and the current indictments surrounding legalized gaming in Alabama. This is what transpired.

1. With regards to political maneuvering, especially around the issue of legalized gambling in Alabama and the opposition to it, what do you think is going on in this state?

There is an orchestrated effort to shut down gaming in the state of Alabama to protect the economic interests of the Indian casino owners in Mississippi and the casino owners in Louisiana.

2. Who is involved with this political maneuvering, particularly in driving the criminalization of pro-gaming advocates and lobbyists?

Jack Abramoff, Mike Scanlon, Grover Norquist, Ralph Reed, Karl Rove, and the gaming industries in Mississippi and Louisiana. Senator John McCain outlined their involvement on the floor of the senate when he exposed the “Give Me Five” emails exchanged between Mike Scanlon and Jack Abramoff.

3. The GOP now has control of every branch of state government in Alabama. Has the entire political system in Alabama been co-opted by the conservative right? What do you make of this?

Alabama has some difficult days ahead. Like all pendulums, I believe this one will swing again-and Democrats will be electable, particularly as issues of education and economic and social welfare arise in this state.

4. Was there some kind of grand strategy at play in Alabama politics in terms of taking power in the state and going after pro-gaming advocates?

It is a confluence of economic and political operatives. Karl Rove’s stated goal was to control politics in America for the next fifty years. It was Rove and the Mississippi and Louisiana casinos who funneled the money into Alabama in an effort to defeat me in 1999. Both he and former special assistant to George H. W. Bush, Billy Canary are married to women from Alabama. He and Rove ran George H.W. Bush’s presidential campaign in 1992. Bill Canary ran Bob Riley’s campaign for governor in 2002. Canary and Rove also previously tried to take over the Alabama Supreme Court. It was Canary’s wife, Leura Canary who served as prosecutor in my corruption trial.

5. Do you see connections between your prosecution and the 11 indictments handed down last year against public officials and others advocating for legalized gambling in Alabama?

The same people that were involved in indicting me are now involved in the current indictments targeting Alabama Democrats and other pro-gaming advocates.

6. Do you believe Bob Riley had any part in any of this?

No. Riley was not apart of any of this. He was selected because he would play along with the interests of outside casino money from Mississippi and Louisiana.

7. What issues do you feel need to be highlighted with regard to these indictments? Where should people be looking for the hands of extralegal and political influences in these indictments?

The question needs to be asked why an investigation wasn’t brought about looking at the corruption amongst those who opposed me and my efforts to bring the lottery into Alabama in order to provide a free education to all students in Alabama.

8. My observations of the state of Alabama are that a very small, wealthy minority exists at the top in a state that in many ways resembles a third world country. Education, civic engagement, and economic growth are all impeded for the sake of maintaining the social and political order that exists here in this state. Would you agree with this assessment?

It’s not that sinister. Although, the establishment in this state does not care to spend money to educate the poor.

9. Thanks for agreeing to this interview.

2011-02-09T00:07:00.001-05:00

MUBARAK LEAVE NOW!!!!

RIP My Grandmother, Thelma Deramus Waller 1921-2011

2011-02-05T22:46:00.000-05:00

2011-01-28T23:47:00.001-05:00

Blessings on the Egyptian Revolution and all of the revolutions taking place worldwide!

Interview with David McReynolds

2011-01-15T17:22:00.008-05:00

David McReynolds has been one of the leading voices in progressive politics since the 1950s. He has been affiliated with the War Resister's League, the Peace and Freedom Party, and the Socialist Party of America. In his lifetime, David has run for president twice, once in 1980 and again in 2000. He has twice placed bids for the U.S. House of Representatives, once in 1958 and again in 1968. In 2004, he ran against Chuck Schumer to represent New York in the U.S. Senate. I met David through our mutual affiliation with Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS). Recently, I asked David if I could interview him for JuliusSpeaks. This is what transpired.

1. How long have you been active in Socialist organizations?

I've been active in the Socialist movement since I joined the Socialist Party in 1951 in Los Angeles.

2. Where are you from?

I was born in Los Angeles in 1929 and lived there until leaving for NYC in 1956.

3. What is your social and ethnic background?

My ethnic background is Scottish, English, Welsh, Dutch, French, German. The class is middle middle.

4. What would you say most influenced your political ideology?

Hard to say what "most" influenced my political ideology. Certainly reading The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffans while in High School played an important role. Also the influence of friends at UCLA, and hearing Bayard Rustin speak in 1949.

5. What was Liberation Magazine?

Liberation magazine, founded in 1956, was a monthly publication committed to a radical nonviolent viewpoint. I served, from 1957 to 1960, as the editoral secretary (which really meant the guy who bundled the magazine for the post office, handled the mail, etc.)

6. How did you become involved with the War Resister’s League?

I became involved with WRL before leaving California, as I moved toward a CO position in relation to the draft.

7. When did you become involved with the Peace and Freedom Party?

My only involvement with the Peace and Freedom Party was as their candidate for Congress in 1968 here in New York City.

8. What is your political philosophy?

My political philosophy is democratic socialist, with libertarian leanings, and of course with a pacifist underpinning.

9. What compelled you to run for president on the two occasions that you posed a bid?

Nothing compelled me to run for office, but Maggie Phair encouraged my bid in 1980. I was, in 2000, more genuinely drafted (but happy to accept).

10. What was the platform you ran on in 2004 against Chuck Schumer in the New York Senate race?

The main platform in 2004 in New York was the Iraq War - plus the general Green Party platform.

11. What was your association with Bayard Rustin?

My association with Bayard was his impact on my from 1949 on. He was my boss at WRL from 1960 until he left in his "turn to the right" in 1965.

12. You were the first openly gay man to run for president. You also wrote one of the first exposes on life as a gay man in 1969. What was it like to be one of the lone openly gay public voices before Stonewall?

I did not become an "open gay" until the article in WIN magazine in 1969 - though I had not, with friends and associates, made any secret of my life. And my piece in WIN came just after Stonewall - not before. If the question is what was it like to struggle with "gay identity" that is complex. There was a combination of guilt, confusion, etc. and one must realize that when I "came out" in 1949, and admitted to myself that I was homosexual, that was a period when the whole gay community was - without exception - "underground".

13. Bayard Rustin was both political and openly gay in the 1950s. Do you see your life as parallel to his in any way?

Bayard's life and mine are not parallel. He was not, by the way, "openly gay" in the 1950's, despite his arrest in 1953. Everyone in the movement knew Bayard was homosexual but he himself never made any public statement about it (of course, given his morals charge arrest in 1953 he hardly needed to make a public statement!). His
first response on reading my piece in WIN magazine was to call Ralph DiGia and urge I be fired. I did NOT take offense at that, and understood it very well - Bayard was one generation earlier than me. Later in his life he was open about his homosexuality.

14. Did you know James Baldwin?

I met James Baldwin once when I got him out of the Community Church after a talk he had given for WRL there. I got his cab and went down to the Village with him to Folk City. That doesn't constitute knowing him. His writings are very important.

15. It has been said that you were in a long term relationship with the choreographer Alvin Ailey. What was the nature of your relationship with Ailey?

I did NOT have a long term relationship with Alvin and as noted earlier I've got to write this up before I die and Alvin's own life history gets in any way confused with mine. We were friends from May of 1949 on. But I saw him rarely after he came to New York. I had seen him often in Los Angeles, visited him in San Francisco and in New York, and saw him in London when he was there and we met by accident on the Underground.

16. What are your thoughts on the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?

I think the repeal of DADT is a very good thing but the more important thing is getting rid of the economic draft which forces youth into the military.

17. How would you grade President Obama on the job he is doing? How would you advise him?

I think Obama has been somewhat of a disappointment but I think he was always part of the establishment- he'd never have gotten the nomination otherwise. He has accomplished more than those of us on the left realize, but he has not met the challenge of the economic crisis and his foreign policy, while better than Bush
(marginally better), is basically very much the same. One has to judge Obama in the context of how he has been "bounded in" by the right wing of the Democratic Party and the fierce (and incredible) attacks on him from the Republicans, driven by racism. Aside from advising him to be tougher with Israel and getting out of Afghanistan, I am not in the business of advising him but of shifting public opinion so that whoever is President has new pressures to face.

18. What do you say is the most pressing issue for progressives and activists today?

There are so many pressing issues. I don't even begin to know what should be done to get the economy moving. I don't think socialists have quick answers to this. Certainly the military - its budget, its role in the culture- is a major (really very major) problem, but so is the environment, and so is the problem of how to get the US to adjust to the fact our role is "sliding downward" in the world.

Thanks, David!

Revisionist Tea Party in Tennessee

2011-01-13T22:15:00.002-05:00

A coalition of Tennessee Tea Party groups has formulated a list of "demands" focused on the state's educational curriculum and political agenda that they want the state's legislature to heed this session.

As far as their educational concerns, the panel writes that they want to "compel the teaching of students in Tennessee the truth regarding the history of our nation and the nature of its government," a failure that they claimed had been brought about by "neglect and outright ill will," The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports.

Hal Rounds, spokesman for the group, recently claimed at news conference that there was "an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the Founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another."
As a result, the Tea Party organizations argue, there should be "no portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership."

"The thing we need to focus on about the Founders is that, given the social structure of their time, they were revolutionaries who brought liberty into a world where it hadn't existed, to everybody -- not all equally instantly -- and it was their progress that we need to look at," Rounds explained of his interpretation of the legacy of the Founding Fathers.

The issue of revising curriculums to teach history in a manner that encourages the glossing over of the uglier factors of the past has popped up in other states over the past year.
In Texas, an ultra-conservative faction of the Texas State Board of Education succeeded in pushing through a drastic overhaul of the state's textbooks and educational agenda. Among those proposals was an effort to replace instances of the "slave trade" with "Atlantic triangular trade."

In Texas, an ultra-conservative faction of the Texas State Board of Education succeeded in pushing through a drastic overhaul of the state's textbooks and educational agenda. Among those proposals was an effort to replace instances of the "slave trade" with "Atlantic triangular trade."

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In Tennessee, Tea Party groups have also waded into the ongoing debate over health care reform, attempting to make efforts to repeal the measure a matter of state policy. The Commercial Appeal reports that members of conservative movement call the measure "an insult to Constitutional principles."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/13/tennessee-tea-party-demands_n_808508.html

Interview with Cheryl Kilodavis, Author of My Princess Boy

2011-01-13T10:09:00.002-05:00

One of the fresh, new voices leading the call for acceptance and tolerance is that of Cheryl Kilodavis,author of the children's book, My Princess Boy. Discovering that her son liked to wear girl's clothing and expressed himself in ways that fell outside of the social norm, Cheryl and her family chose to embrace their son's difference. Cheryl wrote, My Princess Boy as a way to teach tolerance and to spread the message that being different is O.K. Recently, I contacted Mrs. Kilodavis and expressed my interest in interviewing her for JuliusSpeaks. The following is what transpired.

1. As a multicultural family, your family encounters several different cultural attitudes and dogmas on a regular basis. How has your son’s choices and your family’s choice to embrace him been accepted in the various communities in which you interact?

It’s been a mixed bag, but 95% have been supportive. I’d say 3% have respectfully disagreed with our decision but also admit that we put loving our child first. The other 2% have personally addressed us with negativity, which we ignore because it’s not constructive conversation. Not surprisingly, the toughest audience has been the African American community, in large part because of religious and cultural norms. Having close extended family in the south, we knew this would happen when we decided to go public and publish the book. What is refreshing is many men in the African American community are sticking up for love and acceptance, regardless of disagreeing or agreeing with our parenting choice. Dean and I have led African American groups and diversity committees since college so we understand the discomfort. The hope is that the constructive conversations continue so all children who feel different, are different, or choose to be different are accepted for who they are.

2. We’ve recently seen H&M, the fashion brand, come out with a new line of skirts for men. Gender conformity codes are constantly being broken down in society. Despite this, most gender codes remain strongly in place. What do you make of the pace at which these codes are being challenged and torn down? How would you advise others to work towards eradicating these cultural dogmas?

As a family, we use children’s books to help our kids learn about many things – how to share, how to live in a different country, how to cross the street. To my surprise, there weren’t any books about little boys dressing up, so I created one. Girls dressing in traditional boy clothes are much more accepted than little boys dressing as girls. I feel the pace is slow to change on that front. But books like My Princess Boy and the fantastic first step by H&M helps people like my son Dyson to feel that it is ok to go with what feels natural.

3. Do you agree with the concept that there are more than two genders, that the definition of gender should be expanded to include transgender and other forms of gender identification?

I really don’t have enough knowledge to say; I am learning more every minute. However, I do agree with what the psychologist Dr. Vilhauer said on our first TV appearance in Seattle on New Day Northwest with Margaret Larsen – “there is more than one way to be a boy and more than one way to be a girl.”

4. Has your son begun to develop a gender identity?

Dyson is happy being a boy. He actually coined the term Princess Boy when I told him boys were not princesses. In response he told me, “I am a Princess Boy!” Early on we went to doctors because we wanted to know that Dyson was happy within himself. The verdict – we have a healthy and happy little boy. He just loves to dress up and all things pink and sparkly.

5. How old is your son?

Dyson is 5 now.

6. Self-expression is often lauded in this society. However, this society is weighted down by hegemonic and patriarchal dogmas that condition people to conform. How would you propose that we as individuals and as a society break away from hegemony and patriarchy in order to live more fully and freely?

This is a tough one. I do believe dialogue changes suppressed societal norms so conversations are crucial in the transformation of accepting self-expression. However, I am not sure there is one way. At the basic level, when I see something different, I ask myself two questions to use as barometers to my decisions: 1) Why is this bothering me? To answer where is this discomfort coming from? and 2) Is it harming anyone? The first question is a deep dive and when the second answer is no, it allows you to move forward. I also think we need practice on how to be compassionate parents. Learning from children’s choices does not mean we lose our position as strict parents, it means we are accepting the unique person within our children and showing them that their own internal radars are something they can trust. Again, if it’s not harming anyone we should accept and move on.

7. You wrote this book as a means of showing love and support to your son and to teach others the value of acceptance. Has this book helped your son develop as a person?

My Princess Boy has helped our entire family develop as individuals. The story is much more than a boy in a dress. It’s a story of hope, and of the simple need to be liked, accepted – to be friends. Before I self published, I used the book as a tool to help other adults who spent time with my child -- teachers, educators, camp counselors -- so they would accept him and not crush his spirit. Both of my sons carry the book around and used it as a tool for their friends to read, which then extends on to their parents. It really is a story about accepting differences, learning how exclusion hurts, and teaching children how to prevent bullying before it starts.

8. What advice would you give to other children dealing with issues of gender and sexual identity?

I am not a specialist qualified to answer this question -- I am just a mother trying to make the world a kinder place for my child. But I will say that every family is different. Talk to a doctor or someone you trust to point you in a direction for advice and support.

9. What advice would you give to parents dealing with issues similar to yours?

Again, it’s hard to give advice when all parents, children, families are different. But again, talk to a doctor of specialist -- and please know, you are not alone.

10. What does your son dream about? What does he want to be when he grows up?

Dyson has many answers. I just asked Dyson right now and here’s what he told me (as of today)
What do you dream about?
“I dream that the world will let Princess Boys dress up and that I will have friends in the whole world”.
What do you want to be?
“I want to be a Princess Boy model, a gymnast, an artist and a dancer and a Princess Boy who wears dresses when I want to.”

Thanks for agreeing to this interview.

2011-01-03T12:58:00.001-05:00

ROSES AND RAINBOWS
(Carole Bayer Sager / Marvin Hamlisch)
Julie Budd

So here I am, alone again.
Not at all like I thought that it would be,
Guess I lost my way,
Seems like yesterday,
Somebody promised me the sunshine,
Somebody promised me the moon,
Somebody told me there'd be roses and rainbows,
I only hope they'll get here soon.
Seems I've been waiting here forever,
Thinking that love would come for free,
Someone's still waiting for those roses and rainbows,
I hope that someone won't be me.
So let go now, you're on your own,
It's okay to be lonely now and then,
Open up your eyes, You are much too wise,
If someone promises you sunshine....
YOU BETTER KNOW THERE'LL STILL BE RAIN!
If someone says he'll bring you roses and rainbows,
You'd better take a look again.
You'd better find out who you are girl,
Before you run to someone else,
instead of waiting for those roses and rainbows,
You'd better give them to yourself.
Somebody promised me the sunshine,
Somebody promised me the moon,
Somebody told me there'd be roses and rainbows,
And now I know they're coming soon!
And now I'm ready for the sunshine,
And I'm as happy as can be,
And all my days are filled with roses and rainbows,
My life belongs to me!
My life belongs, To me!

2011-01-03T12:55:00.001-05:00

FBI Subpoenas Four More Anti-War Activists in Chicago

2010-12-22T11:58:00.003-05:00

The FBI came unannounced to knock on doors at two apartments in Chicago this morning. FBI agent Robert Parker, under orders from U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office, delivered a subpoena to Maureen Murphy. Murphy, like several other individuals served subpoenas, is an organizer with the Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago.

This continues the repression unleashed by Fitzgerald on the anti-war movement since September 24th, when fourteen subpoenas were delivered to anti-war, labor, and solidarity activists in coordinated raids involving more than 70 federal agents. Armed FBI agents raided homes, taking computers, phones, passports, documents, notebooks, and even children’s artwork. A total of 23 subpoenas have been served to activists around the country.

Maureen Murphy said, “Along with several others, I am being summoned to appear before the Grand Jury on Tuesday, January 25th, in the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago. We are being targeted for the work we do to end U.S. funding of the Israeli occupation, ending the war in Afghanistan and ending the occupation of Iraq. What is at stake for all of us is our right to dissent and organize to change harmful US foreign policy." Ms. Murphy is also the Managing Editor of the widely-read website, The Electronic Intifada.

In addition, three women in Minneapolis - Tracy Molm, Anh Pham, and Sara Martin - are threatened with reactivated subpoenas by Fitzgerald’s office and new Grand Jury dates. Tom Burke of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression explained, “It is likely the three individuals, like all the others so far, will continue to refuse to take part in Fitzgerald’s witch hunt. Fitzgerald can then call for putting them in jail as long as he wants.”

For more information: www.stopfbi.net

Contact: Tom Burke, Committee to Stop FBI Repression, 773-844-3612

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I Stand In Total Solidarity With The Georgia Prisoners Now On Strike

2010-12-16T15:57:00.002-05:00

2010-12-16T13:37:00.002-05:00

An Open Letter to the Left Establishment

2010-12-10T18:45:00.002-05:00

This letter is a call for active support of protest to Michael Moore, Norman Solomon, Katrina van den Heuvel, Michael Eric Dyson, Barbara Ehrenreich, Thomas Frank, Tom Hayden, Bill Fletcher Jr., Jesse Jackson Jr., and other high profile progressive supporters of the Obama electoral campaign.

With the Obama administration beginning its third year, it is by now painfully obvious that the predictions of even the most sober Obama supporters were overly optimistic. Rather than an ally, the administration has shown itself to be an implacable enemy of reform.

It has advanced repeated assaults on the New Deal safety net (including the previously sacrosanct Social Security trust fund), jettisoned any hope for substantive health care reform, attacked civil rights and environmental protections, and expanded a massive bailout further enriching an already bloated financial services and insurance industry. It has continued the occupation of Iraq and expanded the war in Afghanistan as well as our government’s covert and overt wars in South Asia and around the globe.

Along the way, the Obama administration, which referred to its left detractors as “f***ing retarded” individuals that required “drug testing,” stepped up the prosecution of federal war crime whistleblowers, and unleashed the FBI on those protesting the escalation of an insane war.

Obama’s recent announcement of a federal worker pay freeze is cynical, mean-spirited “deficit-reduction theater”. Slashing Bush’s plutocratic tax cuts would have made a much more significant contribution to deficit reduction but all signs are that the “progressive” president will cave to Republican demands for the preservation of George W. Bush’s tax breaks for the wealthy Few. Instead Obama’s tax cut plan would raise taxes for the poorest people in our country.

The election of Obama has not galvanized protest movements. To the contrary, it has depressed and undermined them, with the White House playing an active role in the discouragement and suppression of dissent – with disastrous consequences. The almost complete absence of protest from the left has emboldened the most right-wing elements inside and outside of the Obama administration to pursue and act on an ever more extreme agenda.

We are writing to you because you are well-known writers, bloggers and filmmakers with access to a range of old and new media, and you have in your power the capacity to help reignite the movement which brought millions onto the streets in February of 2003 but which has withered ever since. There are many thousands of progressives who follow your work closely and are waiting for a cue from you and others to act. We are asking you to commit yourself to actively supporting the protests of Obama administration policies which are now beginning to materialize.

In this connection we would like to mention a specific protest: the civil disobedience action being planned by Veterans for Peace involving Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, Joel Kovel, Medea Benjamin, Ray McGovern, several armed service veterans and others to take place in front of the White House on Dec. 16th.

Should you commit yourselves to backing this action and others sure to materialize in weeks and months ahead, what would otherwise be regarded as an emotional outburst of the “fringe left” will have a better chance of being seen as expressing the will of a substantial majority not only of the left, but of the American public at large. We believe that your support will help create the climate for larger and increasingly disruptive expressions of dissent – a development that is sorely needed and long overdue.

We hope that we can count on you to exercise the leadership that is required of all of us in these desperate times.

Best Regards,

Sen. James Abourezk
Michael Albert
Rocky Anderson
Jared Ball
Russel Banks
Thomas Bias
Noam Chomsky
Bruce Dixon
Frank Dorrel
Gidon Eshel
Jamilla El-Shafei
Okla Elliott
Norman Finkelstein
Glen Ford
Joshua Frank
Margaret Flowers M.D.
John Gerassi
Henry Giroux
Matt Gonzalez
Kevin Alexander Gray
Judd Greenstein
DeeDee Halleck
John Halle
Chris Hedges
Doug Henwood
Edward S. Herman
Dahr Jamail
Louis Kampf
Allison Kilkenny
Jamie Kilstein
Joel Kovel
Mark Kurlansky
Peter Linebaugh
Scott McLarty
Cynthia McKinney
Dede Miller
Russell Mokhiber
Bobby Muller
Christian Parenti
Michael Perelman
Peter Phillips
Louis Proyect
Ted Rall
Michael Ratner
Cindy Sheehan
Chris Spannos
Paul Street
Sunil Sharma
Jeffrey St. Clair
Len Weinglass
Cornel West
Sherry Wolf
Michael Yates
Mickey Z
Kevin Zeese

Please sign the Open Letter to the Left Establishment.

2010-12-10T16:47:00.001-05:00

God Bless the youth of England and God Bless Bernie Sanders....

2010-12-10T10:09:00.003-05:00

The military is one of the last bastions of patriarchy...and is exemplary of patriarchy falling apart at the seams.... You have Bradley Manning, a disgruntled, homosexual soldier maligned in the military with DADT and other discriminations and fed up with the acrimony involved in U.S. foreign policy who decided to leak classified information for the world to know....the U.S. military is also loosing in Afghanistan and is stretched and pulled to the max....Oh Rome?...

2010-12-07T18:23:00.000-05:00

RIP Elizabeth Edwards

2010-12-02T18:10:00.001-05:00

2010-12-01T08:14:00.004-05:00

Julius Assange...Angela Davis...Harriet Tubman....