american black

Michael Eric Dyson no longer to use N word

Syndicated national radio host Tom Joyner has announced that Michael Eric Dyson wont be using the N word anymore. Playahata.com asked Dyson
if it this was true and wanted to find out why is contoversial regional  DJ Star, of the Star and BucWild show  always talking negative about him on the air and Dyson set the record straight on all the rumors.

Dyson  told Playahata.com "I showed love to Star and Buckwild because despite the fact that they were hating on me, I chose to acknowledge the good work that they do. Even if I disagreed with their characterizations of me, I could forgo personal feelings of anger or hurt and embrace the need for healthy critical dialogue. I would love to appear on their show and engage in an open, honest examination of the problems that continue to confront the black poor in particular, and black communities at large.

Janet Jackson Plays A Stripper

Don't call it a comeback....

Janet Jackson shot a cameo last week  playing a stripper in Jermaine Dupri’s new Video “Gotta Getcha”. From his new Album: Jermaine Dupri Presents: Young, Fly & Flashy Vol. 1. But a source tells me that you have to look at her really closely to see that it's her… Ms. Jackson.

As we all know Janet was never shy about showing off her body, and her boyfriend Jermaine was never shy about admitting that he actually enjoys visiting strip clubs. And Atlanta is the home of the strip club.

In the video, it’s Jermaine that visits a Strip Club peep show, he looks at each girl and the last one is Janet. And she is bumping and grinding and dancing like never before in a classroom-like setting.

She wears a very mini plaid mini-skirt with riding boots from John Der Dau. And her buttocks are barely covered by fishnets. "You're not supposed to really know it's her," the source says. "You're like, 'Is that Janet?'" The video should debut sometime in June. As for Jackson's equestrian style, I hear horseback riding is her new passion. She got riding lessons earlier in the month for her birthday.

Black Bike Week 2005

In case you didn't know it, it was Black Bike Week in South Carolina last weekend. Of course the city decided to change the rules and add race to the matter. They also bought out the National Guard and Federal Agents. But at least the folks from Christian High School had a good time

Got back safely from our senior trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C. and let's just say it was eventful. Mary Ann tried to warn me, and well, she was right. It was Black Bike Week 2005, that means we shared the area w/ 260,000 african american bikers. Our hotel had private security, cops on every floor 24/7, the National Guard had a presence and Federal Agents on the main blvd. It was pretty wild. Nothing like bringing the graduating class of Cincinnati Christian High School right in the middle of modern day Sodom....

why I don't give a f*ck about memorial day (and other reasons people hate me)

I was lucky enough to be raised by parents who didn't give a fuck about holidays. If you need a holiday to remember something is important then it ain't really that important.

Now Memorial Day is supposed to be about celebrating/honoring those who died in our nations service.

"Whatever. Just  pass me a beer."

Now as a Black man I could give you the usual rigmarole about why I don't give a fuck about memorial day. Mention all that Plymouth rock landed on me, shit. But why bother.  The truth is that Nationalism is dead but they just forgot to tell the poor folks.

Dying for your country isn't a noble thing, dying for your principles is.

My Dad was brave enough to tell me about the lies this country tells and my smart ex-wife was wise enough to take me traveling around the world. You know, the world which buys our movies and coca-cola while we buy their clothes and electronics.

My good friend Hank who told me that he like me because "If I had to bury a dead body you wouldn't ask any questions you would just show up with a shovel," deserves his own day. But actually he has it. He's in my head everyday.

He died driving home to wife and kid. Fell asleep behind the wheel. I went to the funeral with my mistress and cried. His mom told me to get my shit together because Hank loved me more than almost anybody.

Hank was a white guy who spent most of his time hanging out with rednecks. He took me to biker bars and country radio stations when we got together. I would take him to Black clubs and let him hang with my friends when he came to my town. It was our unspoken way of changing our small part of the world. Showing the friends we saw everyday that there is a world  of interesting people who don't listen to country music or wear Sean John but are still cool. Fuck tribes. Fuck nationalism. Just challenge the individuals and let the chips fall where they may.

I could tell stories all day about Hank. Like when he took me to his all white Catholic High School and  I pretended to be a student. He got suspended. The 80's were cool to us. The 90's we both moved and pursued our "careers" but  we still found time to steal my Dad's AMEX and drive to Florida to pick up girls we had met on vacation a day before. The chick I went to see became my first ex-wife.

Hank's life ended in 2000. 2000 years too soon.

Whatever.

I'll spend today  working. I'll follow the advice of some white dude: You vacate while others pretend to be working and work while others pretend to be on vacation. I'll also read more of the famous Jewish chick I offended and maybe send my second ex-wife a letter in a real envelope. I'll leave the celebration of those protecting our country from aliens to you. I'll also spend a moment thinking about Hank, like I do everyday, who really tried to make the world better.

Getting Black Kids Involved In the Video Game Industry

Everyone loves video games, even Black folks. But their are very few of us in the Video Game Industry.

Joseph Saulter, CEO of Entertainment Arts Research, is trying to change that with a new program.

Saulter is cofounding the Urban Video Game Academy in June. The free, five-week program in Baltimore will teach 50 African-American high-school students Game Programming 101. Shorter versions of the academy will launch in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. The idea is not only to boost minorities' ranks in the industry, but to get gamers to look up from their screens and learn some math.

The UVGA brainchild icludes not only Joseph Saulter, [who is also professor of the game technology curriculum at American Intercontinental University (AiU)]; Mario Armstrong, TV and National Public Radio (NPR) digital technology guru; and Roderick Woodruff, president and co-founder of AAGAMER.com.

George Bush's Africa Policy and Who's Not Paying Attention

I've been cruising the Black Republican websites and I see very few of them are talking about the meeting between Condoleezza Rice, "senior" White House officials and members of the black clergy on developing U.S policy in Africa.

Could it be they saw it for the sham it was?

The high-level session occurred the same day that the all-Democratic Congressional Black Caucus conducted a long-planned outreach meeting with 200 Black pastors from across the country seeking to solidify bonds between the Democrats and religious leaders. Could it be the State Department meeting was an effort to upstage the Black caucus?

Instead of dealing with the real problems facing Africa, like the genocidal wars and the AIDS epidemic, all they really focused on was care for orphans with AIDS. Noble but c'mon, it smells of an attempt to use the Black Churches to get more Black support but to really do nothing to help the continent long-term.

DuaneSmith says all this and more but better than I did here. And check out the LA Times article for more info. Just don't look at the Black Republican sites 'cuz, as usual, most of them aren't paying attention to what's happening to Black folks anyway...

40 more Jamaicans deported from US

Forty deportees from the United States of America arrived at Kingston's Norman Manley International Airport on Thursday, bringing to 1,165 the number of Jamaicans kicked out of the USA, Britain and Canada since the beginning of the year.

War: What Is It Good For? (Republicans Can't Make Up Their Minds)

Cheap labor republican Micheal King continues to be confused.

He seems to think that Senator Rangel's a hypocrite because he was against the war and now calls for a draft.

Here we have a great disconnect which Republicans can't seem to grasp. If we are really at war then we should be doing everything we can to win. That means a draft. It means the public making sacrifices.

If what we are facing is not a "threat against Democracy and Our Way Of Life", then not only should we not have a draft, we don't need a soldier in Iraq. It's not Rangel who is confused. It's the Republican party who are using our soldiers to benefit multinational corporations under the cover of "the fight against terror" that's the problem.

The End Of Civil Rights?

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is closing offices around the country.

The commission will shutter the Denver office and another in Kansas City, Kan., in October, laying off six people.

The move will force anyone with a federal civil rights complaint in those districts to seek help in the commission's Chicago office. The Denver office covers Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado, while the Kansas City office oversees complaints in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri.

Some say the office closings are a harbinger of the slow death of the civil rights agency, which, riven by partisan politics, long ago strayed from being the "conscience of the federal government," as President Dwight D. Eisenhower intended when he created it as part of the 1957 Civil Rights Act.

The commission has been plagued by political power struggles and by fighting among its Republican and Democratic members.

Cheap labor conservatives in Congress kept its budget at $9 million for most of the 12-year term of

liberal Chairwoman Mary Frances Berry, who left the commission in December. That is $3 million less than its budget during the Reagan administration. The new Staff director is Kenneth Marcus.

cross burnings

Wednesday night the Durham landscape was lit up by three flaming crosses. The fires were quickly put out, but the effects of that message of hate are still being felt. Federal and state agencies continue to investigate the incident as the NAACP makes a statement and the Ku Klux Klan denies responsibility.