the oswald interview

the retired assassin grimaced

as he tried to explain how he became

a spirit spent on a soul-less paradigm

he wore expensive glasses with both lens cracked

there were bird feathers

a string of baby saliva

and lord knows what else

that stood out on his junk-wire beard.

he had the face of a world

that gave birth to a still-born Africa

he spat that the only way to kill Ecclesiastes

was to write poetry from right to left on

parchment without lines

to change the flow of red rivers, he said.

with a mischievous grin and snicker he quickly added

that he stole the idea from one of his victims and

that he probably got the details mixed up, or left some out.

besides, he mumbled, the sun really doesn’t make a distinction

between whats old and whats new…

corporate america

it’s during the post-mortem days

of january that it is really felt

when winter becomes the trifling sister

with her razored, cold stares

then there’s the white tongue of frost

stuck out in mockery, just after derision,

licking away the distinguishable features-

we become frozen in the unity of nothingness

we rise beneath tears heavy with ice

but we become no wiser during

this unseasoned storm

the weight of what we absorb

is all that identifies us

as we melt into the numbing mire…

Make It Plain

 Note: This interview of Malcolm X took place in 1965 on CBC-TV’s (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) “Front Page Challenge” just a few weeks before his assassination.

he

who was

red

really ain’t dead

because his tone colors

what flows through

many veins

and arteries

sometimes clotting

because slogans

are slurred

during drunkenness

from dreams

or when

arteriosclerosis

becomes a

code name

for

agents

that infiltrate

the purification plants

and poison

the life-giving

sustenance

that is injected into

streams that are

red.

rosa verses/outkast

 

For Rosa Parks, who sued the rap group OutKast for defaming her name. Today is the 55th anniversary of her historic act of protest.

they should have

been able to sit themselves

in her space

they should have

been able to see the look

on her face

as she sat at the

threshold of birth

as she reversed the

spinning of the earth

but…no connection/no direction

trivializing

the struggle to fit

the rhyme

careless chants

do not echo from her time

she felt

the wetness on her face again

the spit and the spew and the

frost hurled from frozen lakes of blue

the complexities of their profane homage

deriving analogy from a historical stoppage

when a nation began to see itself through

the windows of mass transit…

something large, often empty and hungry for profit.

Big Pimpin’: No longer easy

“If the word has the potency to revive and make us free, it also has the power to blind, imprison, and destroy.”

Ralph Ellison  

In Ralph Ellison’s book Invisible Man the main character narrates the book as an unidentified black man who is invisible to society because he is seen as a stereotype and not as a living and breathing human being. The opening chapter of the book presents the main character as an exceptional student who was chosen as his high school’s valedictorian and was asked to give his graduation speech- which was based on a paper that he wrote about the struggles of the average black man- to the upper-class white people of the small southern town where he lived.

But before he was allowed to demonstrate the God-given ability and intellect that earned him the title of valedictorian he was forced to engage in a humiliating spectacle that featured him being blindfolded and made to fight nine of his classmates, all of whom were also black and who were also fighting blindfolded.

Mr. Ellison called the spectacle “The Battle Royal” and I believe that the powerful symbolism that he illustrated with that scenario can be easily applied to certain elements in the world of Hip Hop that have existed for some time now. When you reflect back on the MC battles and beefs that have taken place through the years and that have led to people being hurt and killed and consider that the tragedies stemmed from individuals being blinded by fame and fortune (as well as self-hatred), all the while providing a grotesque form of entertainment for many who were far removed from the realities of being black in America (i.e. white fans), I believe that one would be hard-pressed to argue with the analogy. Add to that the denigration and vicarious vixenization of black mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, wives, grandmothers, and lovers, through the use of lascivious lyrics and images in videos and you pretty much have the ingredients for a self-genocidal gumbo.

Which is why when I came across the article in The Wall Street Journal where superstar rapper Jay-Z expressed regrets about the lyrics of one of his biggest hits, Big Pimpin’, I took notice. Here is Jay-Z’s response to a question that he was asked during the interview regarding how it felt to see his lyrics written down on the pages of his book, Decoded:

Some [lyrics] become really profound when you see them in writing. Not “Big Pimpin.” That’s the exception. It was like, I can’t believe I said that. And kept saying it. What kind of animal would say this sort of thing? Reading it is really harsh.

Talk about profound. This very public, and apparently very painful, admission of egregious error is truly stunning, and it’s significance should not be lost in the trash heap of yesterday’s hot topics.

I’m not going to waste time speculating on just how genuinely disgusted Jay-Z is with the lyrics that he conceived that served to glorify what is probably the most vile and dehumanizing vocation there is this side of chattel slavery. Some have already cynically suggested that it’s easy to admit to mistakes when your estimated worth is $450 million and your wife is the beautiful Beyonce’, who is a superstar and icon in her own right.

But this goes far deeper than mistakes. This is about mentality. Rather than speculate on how for real Jay-Z’s regret is I choose to focus on the clout that he has amassed in the music industry and how he can use that clout to undo some of the damage that he and other rappers have done to the psyches and souls that they have affected with their words. As Mr. Ellison indicated, words can revive and make us free. Here’s hoping that Jay-Z doesn’t become invisible to the light that he has shined upon himself. 

Winter in America

It’s winter…winter in America…and ain’t nobody fighting, ’cause nobody knows what to save.

From the song “Winter in America” by Gil Scott Heron/Brian Jackson

Nowadays when I reminisce about being young and black in America back in the early 70’s I see it as a special time, a transitional period in different ways, on different levels. Personally I had successfully made the leap from grade school to high school and was reveling in my passage into the teenage years,  bolstered by the belief that manhood was just around the corner. 

But things were drastically changing in the world at large as well. Dr. King was assassinated in 1968, and I remember standing on the back porch on the second floor of the apartment building that we lived in and watching the sky turn reddish-orange and black from the flames and smoke during the riots that had broken out. Then a couple of months later I sat in front of our black and white television mesmerized by the news coverage of the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

From what I was told these were good men that stood for what was right and wanted to help make this society, this world, a better place for all people. The fact that they were killed because of their benevolent beliefs was a signal to my young mind that this world was not as nice a place as I thought it was. I guess that it can be said that I had developed a higher level of consciousness about people and the society that I lived in.   

 

Then there was the music. The songs began to reflect the prevailing spirit of the times, questioning and outright challenging long-held notions and beliefs about America and it’s commitment to the principles of justice and equality.

One of my all-time favorite songs of this genre of music is Winter in America, by Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson. Released in 1974, the song still powerfully speaks to the pain and disillusionment that stems from decimated dreams and perverted promises and the spiritual toll of struggling against complex forces that suppress and oppress.

One can only hope and pray that there will always be those that will never stop believing in and working towards a changing of the season that leads to the realization of the highest of American ideals…

The Real Story of the 2010 Election

For the leaders of this people cause them to err, and they that are lead of them are destroyed.

Isaiah 9:16

I believe that it’s safe to say that if the absence of knowledge can lead to destruction, then the absence of truth almost assures it. The video pretty much speaks for itself; but I also want to share a newsletter that I received from Media Matters on Oct. 29, 2010, which I believe will provide relevant narration for the video.

The focus of the newsletter is Fox News and its “…massive influence over the coming elections…” It’s a scathing indictment which takes the position that the emergence of Fox News upon the national consciousness is “…perhaps the most significant development in the country’s political landscape over the past two years.”

And it’s hard to argue with that point, when you consider the present climate in this country and the fact that Fox News has the power to influence millions of citizens “…with shameless smears, lies, misrepresentations, and fabricated stories.” The danger underlying this development goes far deeper than the violation of journalistic ethics.

When you have blatant hatred and bigotry being openly and freely expressed under the guise of objective reporting and malignant messages that are reaching the hearts and minds of millions who, for whatever reason, are receptive to those messages, to simply dismiss all of it as the behavior of a bunch of buffoons and clowns would be error of the highest magnitude.

For those of us who truly cherish the freedoms that we enjoy in this country, that’s a level of error that we cannot afford to engage in…

Media Matters: The real story of the 2010 election By most accounts, the Democrats stand to lose seats in both the House and Senate this coming Tuesday. There are, of course, a wide range of explanations for why this is the case.However, in endeavoring to explain how the GOP has seemingly managed to reverse its political fortunes in such a short amount of time, media outlets would be remiss not to mention one of the most important factors. In fact, we don’t need to wait for Tuesday’s results to pinpoint perhaps the most significant development in the country’s political landscape over the past two years.One of the two major political parties in the country is run by a “news” network.Since President Obama’s inauguration, Fox News has transformed from simply the mouthpiece and oppo research shop of the Republican Party into its headquarters. For the GOP, Fox fundraises, campaigns, gives strategic advice, picks candidates (and then provides them a comfortable platform to reach millions of voters, free of charge), throws and promotes rallies, gets out the vote, and, perhaps most importantly, sets the narrative.They do all of this while continuing their time-honored tradition of tearing down liberal initiatives and politicians with shameless smears, lies, misrepresentations, and fabricated stories. But before we get to Fox’s massive influence over the coming elections, some back-story is necessary. Less than two months after Obama’s inauguration, Fox News senior vice president Bill Shine gave an interview with NPR about how the network’s ratings were soaring at the time. During the interview, Shine noted that some people were “rooting for [Fox] to go away” after the election, but “[w]ith this particular group of people in power right now and the honeymoon they’ve had from other members of the media, does it make it a little bit easier for us to be the voice of opposition on some issues?” Fox’s programming has effectively answered Shine’s rhetorical question with a forceful “yes.” Right out of the gate, Fox led the charge against the stimulus, eschewing the views of economists to attack deficit spending and rewriting history to attack FDR and the New Deal. The network was certainly “the voice of the opposition” on health care reform, spewing countless falsehoods about both our broken health care system and the proposals to fix it while promoting disruptions of health care town halls and GOP initiatives to kill reform. And of course, Fox operates as a perpetual dishonesty machine, trotting out a steady stream of overhyped scandals and faux-outrages to dent the administration and Democrats (mustard on Obama’s “fancy” hamburger, anyone?) The network was integral to fostering discontent with Democrats and the administration through their relentless promotion of the Tea Party movement. Fox gave the Tea Party a huge assist last year in the run-up to the original protests, which Fox took ownership of by sending several of their top hosts to throw “FNC Tax Day Tea Parties.” Since then, Fox has shown that there is no Tea Party gathering too small to treat as a news event, and their personalities continue to regularly appear at Tea Party events around the country. But Fox has done far more this cycle than foster an environment conducive to a GOP electoral victory, having assumed a more hands-on role in Republican electioneering. In addition to Fox’s parent company donating $1.25 million to the Republican Governors Association and another million to the GOP-aligned Chamber of Commerce, more than thirty Fox Newsers have supported GOP candidates or organizations in more than 600 instances in at least 47 states, as we detailed in a report this week. While it would be nearly impossible to run through Fox’s influence in all of the individual races this year, their “coverage” of a select few races is indicative of the network’s complete transformation into GOP headquarters. The network tipped its hand for how it would handle covering elections in the “voice of the opposition” era during the run-up to January’s senate election in Massachusetts. Not only did Fox portray Scott Brown as a heroic Founding Father-like figure while smearing his opponent, it also actively aided Brown’s campaign by hosting him repeatedly in the days leading up the election and allowing him to direct viewers to his website so they could find out how to “help with donating and volunteering.” After Brown’s victory, the network was jubilant.   With the successful trial run out of the way, Fox copied the Brown blueprint in several other races around the country. In the Nevada Senate race, Fox has spent months promoting Sharron Angle and attacking Harry Reid. While Angle has mostly refused to grant interviews to news outlets, she has made an exception for Fox. In fact, their welcoming atmosphere led Angle to brag about how “friendly” outlets like Fox help her with fundraising. Fox personalities have also worked overtime to aid her race. Fox contributor Sarah Palin endorsed Angle and her PAC gave $2,500 to the campaign. Fox contributor Karl Rove’s GOP slush fund (aka American Crossroads) has indicated it will invest in GOTV efforts to aid Angle. It is also aired an ad targeting Reid. Fox’s Dennis Miller appeared at an October fundraiser for Angle. And then there’s Dick Morris. Fox’s human ethics scandal has repeatedly fundraised on Angle’s behalf while also touting on-air the anti-Harry Reid group that he’s advising. And as Election Day rapidly approaches, Fox kicked off this week by launching an evidence-free smear of Reid. After Reid’s office responded to Fox’s desperate attempts to create a new “political scandal,” Fox’s flagship news program, Special Report, deceptively quoted a statement from Reid’s office in order to continue to push the story.  And, just in case their blatant efforts to get Angle elected fail, Fox already has their backup plan in place. This week, Fox News has been hyping comically flimsy allegations of “voter fraud” in Nevada. As top Nevada political reporter Jon Ralston explained to a confused Bill Hemmer, the fraud allegations are merely a “preemptive” strike so the GOP can “cry fraud” in the event Angle loses. But a candidate doesn’t even need to be in a close race in order to receive the benefits of FoxPAC support. In Delaware, Fox News has thrown their full weight behind Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell, Karl Rove’s short-lived detour questioning O’Donnell’s qualifications for office notwithstanding. Rove quickly got with the program and endorsed O’Donnell. He was joined by fellow Fox personalities Sarah Palin and Michelle Malkin. The network’s hosts have heaped praise on O’Donnell while playing dumb in order to claim her opponent has admitted to being a “bearded Marxist.” While it would be difficult to list all of the effusive O’Donnell praise, one characteristic outpouring of affection came from Fox Business host Stuart Varney, who labeled her precisely the kind of “new face, new blood that we need to get in there.” Following in Angle’s footsteps by bragging about the love she gets from Fox, Christine O’Donnell told GOP insiders at a strategy meeting that she has “got Sean Hannity in my back pocket, and I can go on his show and raise money by attacking you guys.” A host who was concerned about maintaining any credibility may have bristled at being portrayed this way, but Sean Hannity has long-since demonstrated his lack of concern for ethics. Far from being upset, Hannity is still welcoming O’Donnell on his show. The Ohio gubernatorial race features Republican candidate John Kasich, who just so happens to be a former Fox News host. Kasich repeatedly used his platform as a Fox host to position himself for a run, and continued to appear regularly as a Fox contributor and host from the time he announced that he was paving the way for a gubernatorial run in March 2008 until he officially declared his candidacy on June 1, 2009. Since declaring his candidacy, Kasich has continued to reap benefits from his cozy relationship with the network. Several Fox News personalities campaigned for him and openly root for him. Two Fox hosts – Glenn Beck and Mike Huckabee — have told Kasich that they “love” him. Hannity has appeared at a fundraiser for Kasich, invited Kasich onto his show to plug his website, and reportedly “pledged to give $10,000 to Kasich’s campaign should he run, as well as have his wife give another $10,000.” Rupert Murdoch and his wife also donated $10,000 each to Kasich, and Murdoch initially explained News Corp.’s donation to the RGA as resulting from his “friendship” with Kasich. After Kasich’s opponent (accurately) criticized Fox as a “propaganda network” that is “committed to getting Republicans elected,” Bill O’Reilly responded by attacking him for “whining.” Those are just three races. I haven’t even detailed Fox’s love for “rock star” Marco Rubio, or the fact that Glenn Beck (along with the rest of the network) has transformed his show into a GOTV operation for the GOP. So when reporters sit down to explain the results of next Tuesday’s election, it’s important that they include the role of Fox News in shaping the outcome. And if you think the last few months were bad, just wait until Tuesday’s election wraps up and attention shifts to 2012 and the GOP’s presidential primary. Fox currently employs no fewer than five potential contenders for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, and things could get awkward as they try to figure out which of their friends they want to help elect. It looks like FoxPAC is just getting started. This weekly wrap-up was compiled by Ben Dimiero, a research fellow at Media Matters for America.

Breakfast at Christopher’s

…and I wonder if the whispers are for me…

(I see no one else here who looks like Joseph)

…heard like the rumbling of an approaching front

that has already grown far too cold

(when she took my order her eyes were like the

the lens of those old movie projectors from

the days of D.W. Griffith…)

my first bowl of authentic oatmeal

since…I really can’t recall…becomes

bitter from the lingering aftertaste

of spitting out things produced from

being struck and refraining from striking back

(I check for spit in the oatmeal, or even

mucus: she may have signaled the cook with

a wink)

the whispers tighten around my neck

burning and causing upheaval of the flesh

(I see no one else here who looks like Ezell)

the snowflakes seen through the window have been allowed

to come inside this place where they will surely

maintain their form

a menstrual-induced climate? Maybe…

the loss of blood can begin and end

cycles of change

but I note the way she scrapes the burnt toast

and then angrily brushes the black crumbs

from the white counter top onto the dirty floor

de facto…de jure…de facto…de jure…

I begin to weigh this counsel, like a medium

and my eyes become the steamed mirror

that she styled her hair in this morning

(I see no one else here who looks like David)

a fight with her boyfriend last night? Maybe…

the sound of eggs and hash browns on the grill

brings back the cries of that Birmingham Sunday

as like dew I try to blend the confrontation

of night with the conscience of morning

(some say that this is our inheritance, to

emulate nature while others exploit it…)

any kind of dialogue could begin to spin

like the black stool that I sit on:

wobbly and discolored, on a hollow spindle

(I see no one else here that looks like Franklin)

but, this is my first bowl of authentic oatmeal since…