Why are people so dumb? And I’m not talking about women, I’m talking about Harvard president Lawrence Summers. It’s the year 2005 and he’s the president of Harvard. Why would he be a complete idiot and publicly state that women are inferior to men in the sciences — and this reason could be genetic?
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/01/31/MNG02B326R1.DTL
Women with their faces wrapped
Hide within a world trapped
And dominated by the masters
Wailing o’er their sons’ disasters
Can you put the past behind you
Will you break the chains that bind you
Free your body, free your mind.
From You Gotta Stand For Somethin’
A Song Blog by Patrick Anderson
Michelle Malkin asks: “Will American feminists be celebrating these amazing images and this historic day? The silence is deafening.”
An amazing thing has happened in Iraq. Given the opportunity to grab their freedom, Iraqis have not only taken it, but they’ve done so amid the expolsions and homicidal efforts of a viscious terrorist insurgency. When the smoke clears we’ll know the score, but there are indications that the turnout was astounding–somewhere between 57 and 72%. U.S. presidential election turnouts have exceeded 60% only twice since 1968, and no one had to dodge bullets, mortars, roadside bombs, and maniacs strapped with explosives. There are reports of thousands of people walking over 13 miles to a polling place just to cast their vote. (How many of us would walk more than two or three blocks to vote if there wasn’t a good parking space?)
The whole scenario is stunning, and it answers once and for all the question: “Do they really want their freedom?” It gives enormous meaning to the lives and deaths of thousands of Iraqis and over 1400 American soldiers who have paid the ultimate price in the name of liberty. This war is a horrible mess, but there’s no turning back now. We’ve got to finish the mission.
Planes are crashin’, lights are flashin’
People dyin’, children cryin’
Heroes charging through the smoke
God in heaven we invoke
Soldiers screamin’ ‘cross the desert
Facing dangers, freeing strangers
Do they even want the freedom?
How to keep it, how to use it
Why it matters, why you choose it
Are we even right to give it
Can they ever hope to live it
Sons and daughters packed in boxes
Save us from our paradoxes
Who will bless your sacrifice?
This morning on “To the Point” with Warren Olney (you can listen to the episode here), various guests from both sides of the political spectrum were discussing the viability of Howard Dean in the race for Chair of the Democratic National Committee. All commentators said that Dean had made a mistake when he said that removing Saddam from Iraq had not made the world a safer place. Conservative pundits attacked Dean for the supposedly outright stupidity of this statement. The kindest members of the Democratic party said Dean’s comments may be true, but they are not the kind of truth that the American people want to hear right now.
Time out!
I thought the Democrats were supposed to be members of the reality based community? Let’s apply a little bit of critical thinking. Was Saddam a bad person and a bad national leader? Absolutely. Is the world safer from terrorism now that he’s removed? Not at all. First, we destabilized the region, creating a chaotic environment even more conducive to terrorists. Second, we pissed off a lot of Iraqis who might now be inspired to take up terrorism against us. Third, Saddam had no connection to the Al-Qaida terrorists that we ought to be most interested in bringing to justice.
The message that attacking Iraq made the world a more dangerous place in terms of terrorism ought to be one of the Democratic party’s central messages. The pundits on this morning’s radio show mostly sounded like they were worried about the party seeming soft on defense and national security. Seems to me a great way to tough on those issues is to point out that current administration is being really, really stupid on those issues. It would also help to have a clear, alternative plan.
But don’t just take my word for it. Earlier this week on “To the Point,” conservative pundit William S. Lind argued that the U.S. has “destroyed the state” in Iraq. Which is to say that any and all previously existing governmental structure has been destroyed. Lind argued quite emphatically that this made Iraq more of a breeding ground for terrorists. (You can listen to that show or get a transcript here.)
Then there’s the Israeli think tank, the Jaffee Center. They say that the war in Iraq is 1) siphoning resources away from other efforts against terrorism that are actually effective, 2) providing a rallying cry for Islamic terrorists (thereby stirring up more terrorism), and 3) not at all effective in reducing terrorism because Iraq was not the “swamp” in which the “mosquitoes” of terrorism bred. The article quotes Shlomo Brom, a retired Israeli army general: “On a strategic level as well as an operational level,” Brom concluded,” the war in Iraq is hurting the war on international terrorism.” You can read the article for yourself here.
This has me so mad, I’m actually cross-posting both here and on my own blog. Grrr! I want a party to say what I believe, not what they think I want to hear. If I believe a falsehood, I want my leaders to keep bringing up the truth until I am forced to confront it. Especially if the falsehood tricks me into hurting myself. Double Grrr!
Well, well… what do we have here:
HOT 97 in NYC (I’ve been gone 5 years and i still miss manhattan) drops a joint called “tsunami song”: The kids who’ve been oprhaned by the floods will be sold into sex slavery… Asians need to shut up… People laughing at the death and destruction…It’s a foul and racist song all the way around. And the culprits? Mainly Black radio talent.
Star and Buck, Miss Jones and crew decided to play the same card that Howard Stern, Debbie Shlussel, Rush Limbaugh and Don Imus and countless of white on-air talent have played for generations: It’s the “ethnic people of color is funny and their suffering is even funnier” card. All these guys grew up on Stern’s nigger jokes and slurs. They’ve heard all of Limbuagh’s thinly veiled and not-so-thinly veiled racial slurs. They’ve seen the Jenny Jones and Ricky Lakes parade out sterotypical blacks at a profit for generations. They’ve seen the success of Anne Coulter, Bill O’Reilly and (neocon-in-training) Dennis Miller. And now it’s 2005 and they’ve decided that “well hell, we can do what they do and get ratings, too. After all, we’re all equals now.” And this time, Asians, a smaller demographic, get to feel the heat.
One of the many ironies in all this mess is hearing folks like Jin, an asian-american emcee (and a good one ) firing back using rap lyrics criticizing HOT 97. And he’s not alone. Thanks to hiphop, soul music, BET, etc. Many Asian-Americans, along with Hispanics, Europeans, etc. “embrace” black culture–at least as far as they can claim ownership and definition of it. Consequently, most of th Aisians complaining about this know HOT 97 because they’re fans of 97’s “urban” format, which is just a bastardized term for “black music that’s acceptable everyone else.”
There’s always been something amusing in America about having non-blacks embracing and in most cases flat-out stealing black culture, then turning around and using it as a platform to criticze black folks. Even when the criticism is just–and in this case it is–it’s always struck me as more than a little bit hypocritical on more than a couple of levels. It’s like saying, “I’m gonna take from your community, with or without your permission, because I can, and i’m going to use what i’ve taken to put you in your place whener i see fit.” You see this alot with the co-option of MLK Jr.’s legacy. (Everyone from midgets to smokers to fat people to white gays pulls the ” this is not what MLK would’ve done” card to justify getting whatever it is they want”–usually at the expense of black folks, by the way.)
This is also the part of multiculturalism in America that I’ve always struggled with. So much of what we call “multiculturalism” really comes from everyone doing their versions of black culture (artforms, language, dress, etc.), yet there’s no real discussion about the racial politics or reprecussions of this. There’s an arrogance, almost a type of racism involved when you decide that simply because you like what comes out of someone’s community that you’re entitled to own it or create your version of it. Particularly when those people could never pull the same stunt on your respective culture/artforms, etc. (Consider how accomidating Koreans or Chinese or French or Italians or Jews would be of Black Americans suddenly decided to claim ownership and authority of their various cultures (music, dress, lanugage, etc.). The result is a psuedo koombya vibe where everyone pretend to have something in common; that is, until one of the “friends” gets out of line and spits something like the Tsunami Song.
Anyway, this HOT 97/Senate Confirmation Hearings stuff is just the beginning of the New America, an American where way too many black folks, in the name of “having overcome” will be forced to learn 4 very ugly lessons the hard way:
1) Being equal to the mainstream society that’s held you down for so long doesn’t mean you adopt the worst of their traits, too. 2) We’ve probably sacrificed being ourselves and embrancing our own communities in the name of being “equal” and “accepted” by everyone else. 3) No matter how far we go, someone’ll remind us that “Oh hell nawh! Nuh-uh, nigga–you can say/do some things, but you don’t get to say/do (that)!” And 4) If love of money and power ain’t the root of all evil, they’re at least evil’s biggest cash crops.
Hadji Williams is author of KNOCK THE HUSTLE:How to save your job and your life from Corporate America. (www.knockthehustle.com) It’s hiphop’s first guide to success in business, culture and life. You can reach him at: author@knockthehustle.com
