WHITE RACISM KNOWS NO BOUNDS... WHITE, GAY, FOLKS DOWNPLAY CLINTON'S TIES TO ANTI-GAY PASTORS, BUT CRUCIFY OBAMA

UPDATE: I have a copy of the letter I sent to the Washington Blade about my posting on the McClurkin/Obama mess: Wanna heah it, heah it go:

Criticism of Obama event reveals ignorance about gospel music

Re: “Obama stands by ‘ex-gay’ minister despite protests” (news, Oct. 26)

I am a gay African-American male who is out, proud and politically active. I wonder how many of the people quoted in this story have ever been to a gospel concert, a black church or know anything about gospel music.

Frankly, I wonder how many of the interviewees were black, given the level of ignorance expressed in all of the story’s quotes. I also wonder how many African-American gays are driving the protests regarding Barack Obama’s pick for this concert series/outreach event. To think that Obama picked Donnie McClurkin as a “headliner” for a gospel concert because of his views on homosexuality is pure ignorance. McClurkin is a very famous and successful gospel artist with a huge fan base. Gospel music, at its most basic form, is an expression of healing through hope.

This event was designed to be an outreach event for Obama to convey his message of change and hope to the black church. What’s wrong with that? There are different sectors of the electorate that as a politician, Obama must appeal to in order to wage a successful campaign as a presidential candidate. Hillary Clinton has done it, John Edwards has done it, and so has Bill Richardson; Obama is no different.

What I find offensive is the fact that HRC President Joe Solmonese was consulted by Obama about an event that Solmonese probably wouldn’t even attend, nor would any of HRC’s wealthy white donors. Just because someone supports your campaign and chooses to work to see your vision come to fruition, does not imply that you agree with everything a supporter believes in.

S JOHNSON
Washington

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! Okay so I won't bore you all of the gory details, but I'll post the story here.

Just one week after criticizing Sen. Barack Obama’s ties to an “ex-gay” minister, supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) are downplaying her connection to anti-gay figures.

Obama was assailed last week for allowing gospel singer Donnie McClurkin to appear at a South Carolina campaign event, but the endorsement of Clinton by at least two anti-gay black ministers has so far not generated similar outrage.

“I don’t know if that’s the same as, ‘Here’s a microphone — you can speak for my campaign,’” said Ryan Wilson of the South Carolina Gay & Lesbian Pride Movement.

Some of Clinton’s gay supporters, along with unaligned gays such as Wilson, said they’re generally unconcerned that anti-gay ministers Bishop Eddie Long and Rev. Harold Mayberry are supporting the campaign.

Long’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in suburban Atlanta once marched against gay marriage and hosts an “ex-gay” ministry. Mayberry has preached against homosexuality to his First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Oakland, Calif.

In interviews this week, Wilson and others said they were not concerned that Clinton had accepted a $1,000 donation from Long or that she recently thanked Mayberry for “fighting for civil rights and equality,” because she has not allowed either minister to speak for the campaign.

“There is a very big difference,” said Peter Rosenstein, a Washington political activist who is on Clinton’s gay steering committee. “This doesn’t impact at all what I think about Sen. Clinton’s campaign.”

Alvin McEwen, 36, a gay man who led an opposition vigil Sunday outside Obama’s campaign event in South Carolina, agreed.

He said “there’s a whole big difference” between Clinton accepting a $1,000 donation from Long and Obama allowing a man who espouses “ugly things about gays and lesbians” to speak during a campaign event.

“I would say the Obama campaign crossed a line,” McEwen said. “They touted this man as speaking for the campaign.”

McEwen has not said which candidate he supports.

A spokesperson for the Clinton campaign said the candidate “has been very clear” that she supports policies that advance equality for gay Americans.

“But in campaigns, you can never expect all your supporters to agree with you 100 percent of the time,” said Jin Chon. “Hillary Clinton is a leader who will bring together people with differing opinions and have an honest and open dialogue to find common ground.”

Brad Luna, a Human Rights Campaign spokesperson, said the organization had no plans to issue a statement regarding Clinton’s ties to Long and Mayberry.

He said the Obama campaign’s decision to let an “anti-gay reverend” headline a campaign event was “a unique situation,” but that HRC’s advice to Obama stands for Clinton, fellow candidate Sen. John Edwards and others.

“If it’s Sen. Clinton or Sen. Obama or Sen. Edwards or whoever,” he said, “we would encourage them to seek out places to have discussions among their campaign supporters and try to bridge the gap between religious leaders who might not be as good on these issues as we’d like and their GLBT
supporters.”

Obama’s campaign last week indicated it would do that, but declined to pull McClurkin, a Pentecostal minister, from the event. Campaign officials instead added to the event Rev. Andy Sidden, a gay United Church of Christ minister.

Sidden, who offered the campaign event’s opening prayer, said he did not cross paths with McClurkin.

“I have yet to actually meet him,” Sidden told the Blade. “We were kept apart — or at least we were apart. And I wouldn’t know him if I saw him.”
McClurkin claims to be “ex-gay.” According to HRC, McClurkin in 2003 accused gay Americans of “trying to kill our children” and in 2002 called homosexuality a “curse.”

When he took the stage Sunday, McClurkin said, “I’m going to say something that’s going to get me in trouble,” and in his ensuing comments noted that “God delivered me from homosexuality.”

The unsolicited comments were not well received. Jim Pickett, a longtime Obama supporter and advocacy director at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, said he was “annoyed” by McClurkin’s remarks.

“That sits pretty badly with me,” he said. “There was no point-counterpoint. He made those statements. He had the bully pulpit. There was no dialogue.”
Sidden said he was not given an opportunity to take the stage with — or to respond to — McClurkin. Sidden noted that if he had met McClurkin, he would have encouraged him to “love himself just the way God made him.”

“I believe that homosexuality is a gift from God,” Sidden said, “as is heterosexuality.”

See what I mean about white gay folks? HYPOCRITES!!!

Wear RED... 10/31 the last day of Domestic Violence Awareness Month! This is dedicated to WOMEN.

Today is October 31, 2007. October, for many people who aren't aware, is Domestic Violence Awareness month. To read more about the commemoration please visit WAOD here. I am against domestic violence against any person regardless of their gender. However, since this month specifically addresses violence against women, I will observe this new custom. I will add another layer of specificity though; the focus of this posting will be black women. In the memory of black women who have remained silent while being victimized by, died from, survived domestic violence this poem by Laini Mataka of Washington, DC is for you.

T H E S T R O N G B L A C K W O M A N IS D E A D!

The strong black woman is dead
The strong black woman is dead...on August 15, 1999 at 11:15 p.m. while struggling with the reality of being a human instead of a myth, the strong black woman passed away.

Medical sources say she died of natural causes, but those who knew her know she died from being silent when she should have been screaming, smiling when she should have been raging, from being sick and not wanting anyone to know because her pain might inconvenience them.

She died from an overdose of other people clinging to her when she didn't have enough energy for herself. She died from loving men who didn't love themselves, and only offer her a crippled reflection. She died from raising children alone and for not being able to do a complete job. She died from the lies her grandmother told her mother, and her mother told her about life, men and racism.

She died from being sexually abused as a child and having to take that truth everywhere she went, everyday of her life, exchanging the humiliation for guilt and back again.

She died from being battered by someone who claimed to love her. And she allowed the battering to go on, to show she loved him too.

She died from asphyxiation, coughing up blood from secrets she kept trying to burn away instead of allowing herself the kind of nervous breakdown she was entitled to, but only white girls could afford.

She died from being responsible, because she was the last rung on the ladder and there was no one under her she could dump on. The strong black woman is dead.

She died from the multiple births of her children she never really wanted, but was forced to have by the strangling morality of those around her. She died from being a mother at 15, a grandmother at 30 and an ancestor at 45.

She died from being dragged down and sat upon by un-evolved women posing as sisters. She died from pretending the life she was living was a Kodak moment instead of a 20th century, post slavery nightmare!

She died from tolerating Mr. pitiful just to have a man around the house. She died from lack of orgasms because she never learned what made her body happy and no one took the time to teach her, and sometimes when she found arms that were tender, she died because they belonged to the same gender.

She died from sacrificing herself for everybody and everything when what she really wanted to do was be a singer, a dancer, or some magnificent other.

She died from lies of omission because she didn't want to bring the black man down, she died from race memories of being snatched and raped, snatched and sold and snatched and bred, snatched and whipped and snatched and worked to death.

She died from tributes from her counterparts who should have been matching her efforts instead of showering her with dead words and empty songs, she died from myths that would not allow her to show weakness without being chastised by the lazy and the hazy.

She died from hiding her real feelings until they became hard and bitter enough to invade her womb and breast like angry tumors. She died from always lifting something from heavy boxes to refrigerators.

The strong black woman is dead.

She died from the punishments received from being honest about life, racism and men. She died from being called a bit-h for being verbal, a dyke for being assertive and a ***** for picking her own lovers. She died from never being enough of what men wanted, or being too much for the men she wanted.

She died from being too black and died again for not being black enough. She died from castration every time somebody thought of her as only a woman, or less than a man.

She died from being mis-informed about her mind, her body and the extent of her royal capabilities.

She died from knees pressed to close together because respect was never part of the foreplay that was being shoved at her.

She died from loneliness in birthing rooms and loneliness in abortion centers, she died of shock in courtrooms where she sat, alone, watching her children being legally lynched.

She died in bathrooms with her veins busting open with self-hatred and neglect. She died in her mind, fighting life, racism, and men while her body was carted away and stashed in a human warehouse for the spiritually mutilated, and sometimes when she refused to die, when she just refused to give in, she was killed by the lethal images of blonde hair, blue eyes and flat butts, rejected by the O.J.'s, the Quincy's and the Poitiers.

Sometimes, she was stomped to death by racism and sexism, executed by hi-tech ignorance while she carried the family in her belly, the community on her head, and the race on her back!

The strong silent, talking black woman is dead!!!!!!!!! Or is she still alive and kicking???????????? I know I'm still here.

I will be adding the names of DV victims to the end of this post and in the comments section to venerate them. I encourage you to do the same.

You've been tagged

I've been tagged by AttorneyMom at Character Corner. Please follow the rules of this game to the best of your ability.

The rules of the game are:

A). Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog...

B). Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself...

C). Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs...

D). Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Facts About BLKSeaGoat:


1) I am trying to lose 30 pounds by next late spring for the start of the summer travel season (Just need to tighten my abs and tone up a little more... I'm back on the market and I'll be in Miami at that time).

2) I love to cook and I am considered a culinary master...even by my brother who went to Johnson and Wales!!!

3) Although half of my lineage includes black spanish folks, I speak no spanish.

4) I have been single for 7 years and I believe monogamy is a Western Philosophical construct.

5) The day I was born several hundred people were injured and a few dozen killed during a freak accident on the NY Subway system.

6) Although I've been told I would make a wonderful father, I do not want children... ever.

7) I have an extremely awful temper, but rarely get angry enough for anyone to ever see what I'm capable of (Trust me on this one... you don't want to know).

I am tagging DJ Black Adam, Attorneymom, Gem2001, shecodes, brotherkomrade, johnny, antonio.

Self-Determination is a RIGHT...Let folks have it!

Hey my peoples! Today is Monday and I'm feeling a little...MEH. As luck would have it, I received a wonderful telephone call from a good friend of mine who is finishing up a research fellowship that's also a part of her dissertation (She's always been great at killing two birds with one stone). Today we talked about our mutual experiences in working with the less fortunate and how our ideologies, as they relate to race, class, and poverty have changed. She is a kick ass clinical social worker who is graduating this May with a Ph.D in Clinical Psychology. I am social worker functionally, but I lack the academic training to possess authentic credentials. Suffice it to say, we have markedly different approaches when it comes to working with clients, but we hold some of the same fundamental beliefs. Chief among those beliefs is that clients have a right to self-determination; that is, they should be allowed to make decision for themselves even if those decisions are to their detriment.

It's quite difficult to watch someone you've been working with for years regress back to the original state in which you first encountered them. Frankly, it's the pits. I am so tired of working my ass off to get people to a certain point in their lives only to be disappointed by them. This level of direct service is the most unrewarding, unkind, and thankless kind of work. I rarely ever have clients who continue to grow after we mutually agree to limit our contact with each other. Instead, I find myself going into crackhouses, heroin alleys, or the sex worker strolls to physically pull them up and out, to get them back into treatment or stable housing. When I do have a client who bucks the trend, they seldom live long enough to enjoy the accoutrements of their newly found independence from drugs and the poverty mindset (which is markedly different from poverty). See, my goal for most of my clients is to show them a different way to compensate for many of the things they see as shortcomings in their lives. We accomplish this by meeting clients where they are and by creating treatment plans that emphasize a client's strengths. We then create S.M.A.R.T. objectives or incremental action steps to achieve the goals of the treatment plan. Sometimes the plans work for a spell; most of the time, they don't.

I'm ambivalent, because many times I find myself judging them. I chide them for being lazy and complacent or for using illness and addiction to abrogate them from personal responsibility. I find myself being the polemicist, wanting to arrest the disciplines of abnormal psychology and psychiatry for providing people with a cadre of disorders to again, escape responsibility. Conversely, I find myself trying to be the understanding social worker, attempting to explain away bad choices as personality disorders or the direct result of drug addictions. What I'm learning now though, is that people definitely have the right to self determination. I should not expect less of them than they expect of themselves. I am learning that it's okay to be a help as long as I don't become an enabler. Most importantly, I am learning not to be married to people's outcomes; it's their life to make. I can only provide good advice (based on what information I have) and have a reasonable expectation that at some point people will have enough self-determination to expect more of themselves---and work toward achieving all that life has for them.

Obama...Why I'm not giving up on you... yet!

Happy Friday everyone!!! I'll cut to the chase. Today I read a story in the Washington Blade (a gay newspaper weekly) about a controversy surrounding the Golden Boy of politics, Senator Barack Obama. In J. Lysen's story Obama is being evicerated by gay rights activist from various organizations like Truth Wins Out, the Human Rights Campaign, and Equality Illinois regarding a gospel concert that features superstar Donnie McClurkin. You read the story for yourself and come up with your conclusions; I'll post mine here. I'm all for inclusiveness and PC stuff but some of the criticism being meted out by the gay trinity is really unnecessary and definitely confusing. How many of you out there in the blogosphere are betting people? Do you feel lucky enough to accept a wager of mine, double or nothin'? I will bet you $1.00 that the detractors I mentioned above are A) NOT black and B) know next to nothing about the black church, gospel music, or gospel concerts. Instead of most of the white blogosphere realizing this, they have taken the opportunity to indict the BLACK CHURCH (as if their own white churches' isht don't stank). Hell, I bet until Donnie started talking about God healing him from his gayity, these individuals had never even heard about him.

As usual, when I get heated, I don't take time to calm down. I let my disdain for certain things get the best of me and I make it my mission to make everyone else's life a living hell. The Washington Blade's life is no exception. I WAS going to post a letter that I sent to the editor (I didn't save it), but before I do that I want to provide some of you with a very BRIEF history of gay activism in this country. Blacks and black latinos started the Stonewall Riots; Whites didn't. In my experiences with white gays, many white gay people (men in particular) feel that their status as an oppressed group absolves them from being racists. This could not be further from the truth. Historically, white gays excluded their gay brothers and sisters of color from the "rights" table as soon as they hi-jacked the gay rights movement. Black gays were excluded from white gay establishments altogether or forced to undergo extra screening processes to patronize these establishments. I don't blame them though; wanting to keep one's hands on all of the goodies society affords is an intrinsically white (WASP) characteristic. I understand.

What I don't understand is how Obama gets side-swiped by all of this criticism, while Hillary "Condescension" Clinton and the rest of the white boys get a free pass. So what if the Black Church was the heart and soul of the Civil Rights Era, you can't expect it [being a CHRISTIAN church] or its members to stamp a YES vote on gayness. The other thing is that Donnie's ex-gayness isn't unique to him or Gospel Music. White charismatic christians, evangelicals, and other faction of Jesus groupies believe homosexuality is sin. This is a CHRISTIAN concept AND a fundAmental belief in the majority of Christian faith systems. It ain't homophobic or INHERENTLY BLACK "CHURCHED".

What the F#$%---?

Okay, Okay... I've been gone for a minute, but now I'm back in the jump off... and I'm P-I-S-S-E-D! The highlight of my weekend was having dinner and drinks with two remarkable women with whom I will become long term friends... I know it. It was great to sit down and actually have an intellectual conversation punctuated by intense debate, wonderful humor, and just good clean FUN. We had decided to visit a black-owned Martini bar in DC and it was awesome!!! Now onto the not so good news...

T h e E s s e n c e o f B e i n g P i s s e d!

This morning I read two stories with great interest: ESSENCE magazine's story on Dunbar Village (ironically not accessible on its website, although SEVERAL articles about the Jena 6 and Genarlow Wilson are... A MESS!!!) and an article in the AJC today, discussing a meeting of self-appointed, black "leaders" regarding yet, another useless march on Washington, DC. Yes, these stories were completely riveting. I will try to scan the Essence story and upload its url as a .pdf.

So, let me give Essence kudos on being the first, major, national publication to take on the discussion of how America, both black and white devalues black womanhood. I found Francie Latour's report to be a thoughtful and insightful look at how we automatically deem black perpetrators as victims when they commit crimes...especially against black women. Where the hell was Essence magazine 4 or 5 months ago? Why did it take so long? Some of you who read this will respond that Essence is a lifestyle magazine for black women; therefore Essence has no obligation to report on topics like these. My response is that Essence, when it decided to publish stories related to the aforementioned causes, Essence obligated itself to publish the gruesome stories of Megan Williams and the Dunbar Village Rape Victim (for more info on Dunbar Village, please visit here).

Just the mere fact that these were two black women, who had been maliciously and brutally raped and tortured, should have made them relevant enough to be covered by Essence magazine--the voice of black women. Parity is certainly not one of Essence magazine's strengths. When I searched their website, I found 4 stories dedicated to the Jena 6, 3 to Genarlow Wilson, and 1 shared story related to the inherent dysfunction of our juvenile justice system. Now, after several bloggers have made it their mission to keep these stories in the front of our minds (although they don't have the benefit mainstream media coverage), Essence magazine has found it necessary to publish a story? Should we be celebrating because a magazine that touts its chief demographic are black women decided to do a story about black women? Groundbreaking concept; I bet that Peabody award is just itching to go to Essence. I could concoct a conspiracy theory that since Essence magazine, while being owned by Time-Warner is the BET of print media and doesn't really give a damn about black people, but that would be reaching...even for me. Enough with my soapboxing. The story is actually quite good and should be read.

Let's have another MARCH!!!

Wanna do something to feel relevant? Let's have another MARCH!!! You know how effective public gatherings can be, especially given the current political climate. Marches during the late 90's to the present have been the single, most successful tool to influence public perception and public policy since they were done during the Civil Rights Era. Federal Agencies have been rocked from their very foundations and laws have been changed by passive-aggressive. showbiz activism. NOT! So in today's AJC (although the article was published yesterday on the web), the usual suspects (or useless suspects) have announced plans to gather in Washington, DC to request Federal intervention to curb the increase in hate crimes. They will talk about noose hangings and how unfair the criminal justice system is to well, criminals. This is a worthwhile (worthless cause) and needs to be supported by black people and the white liberals who like to save us alike! Come one, come all to the march of Millennium!

Read the AJC story and then write me to curse me out for not thinking the way that you do. In the meantime, I'll be firing off a letter to Susan Taylor.

Long Live the Spirit of the Million Man March

So, in true black man fashion every October 16th since 1996 (the 1st anniversary of the Million Man March), I have taken some time for reflection. Although my life is so interesting (yeah right), I won't bore you with the play-by-play of my 1995 MMM experience. I'll skip right to the juicy parts so all 12 of you can have something to pass your time at work while your surfing the internet on company time.



Let's see:

For starters, I wasn't an open, practicing homosexual; I wasn't DL either. I've known that I was attracted to men all of my life, but didn't acknowledge it until I was 19--one year prior to the MMM. I was also a virgin--completely. I had not known a woman or man carnally or "in the biblical way" as my grandmother so eloquently stated. The MMM became a turning point for me because I promised to myself on October 16, 1995 that I would openly declare to myself, my family, and others that I was gay. Now some of you may ask, "Sayeed, why is this important?", Great question! At this time in my life I was an active church member and considered my relationship with God to be one where my life was to be above reproach. I attended a Pentecostal church that taught "Holiness is unto the Lord, so be ye holy". I would go to church Sunday after Sunday (and Wednesday, and Friday, and other days) to hear a preacher browbeat me for having a sexual attraction to men. In fact, that year I was in an "altar call" and was called out by a man who called himself an Apostle. I was told in front of hundreds of parishioners that I was a "filthy homosexual" and that he was going to cast that "demon" out of me. Me, being the impressionable idiot I was at that time, I believed him, and embarrassed, humiliated, and confused, I let this bastard "lay hands" on me.

When I did nothing to demonstrate that the good "Apostle" ridded me of the evils of my filthy homosexual spirit, he became enraged and told me that I had no faith. I left the altar call, headed to my pew, picked up my bible and left. I went home that night and prayed... and I prayed... and I prayed. Many nights after I prayed and nothing happened. I was still gay and very much attracted to men and I sought guidance from my Pastor's wife. When I informed her that I tried to get rid of the gayness (I can laugh about it now), she took my hand and invited me to lunch. Instead of going to a restaurant, she took me to a hospital. "Strange", I thought. Nonetheless, it was lunch and we were close; I trusted her. She started to talk to me about how God was going to punish me for being gay. She told me "he's gonna let the DEVIL give you AIDS! Is that what you want? Well, is it? " I was silent. She took me by my hand and we walked out of the hospital cafeteria to an elevator which we rode to the ID ward at the hospital. She took me to every hospital room where people were dying of AIDS and made it a point to tell every person that I was gay. This was the final straw for me.

I allowed my blind faith and spirtual ignorance to take a backseat to my true feelings and I blasted her out. I mentioned all of her shortcomings that I purposely overlooked because I didn't want to judge her. I talked about how wretched her children were and how all of her sons had bastard children. I talked about how her daughter was a slut and slept with so many boys in the church and the number of abortions she hid from the congregation. I knew then that I had made my conscience decision to publicly admit to being gay, but I hadn't quite made a choice to live as a gay man. I still could not express my physical attraction to men or my desire to be loved and to love a man. I was also very apprehensive about engaging in sexual intercourse too.

Fast forward to the MMM. *Whew* I had to get out of that because this post is long already! I was in undergrad at the time and traveled to Washington, DC from Atlanta, GA with a bus that was chartered by my college (I'll let you guess which one - *lol*). And then, I met ... HIM. Dayum! There I was trying to concentrate on my reasons for atoning and here I am lusting for the young man who sat infront of me on the bus. I wasn't sure about his sexuality, but I knew I wanted him. I won't get into the lust that was in my heart or on my brain. I was a 20 year old virgin so I'm sure you can imagine how sexually frustrated I was. Not to be distracted, I read my bible, prayed, and tried to take my focus off of this beautiful brother in front of me. Long story-short, we did not sleep together (at least not at the MMM), he was gay (but just as confused as I was), and we focused our energies on the manifest that we recited and the promises we made to ourselves. When we returned to Atlanta we were rejuvenated, hopeful, emotional, and proud. I came out to my immediate family that year. The fallout was pretty mixed, but my family was supportive, affirming, and welcoming.

This is wierd, I was going to write about our collective progresses and victories 12 years after the MMM, but ended up segueing into my coming out story. I guess that's why the MMM will always be a significant turningpoint in my life. Lying to oneself or living a lie is one of the greatest sins to atone for.

Mychal Bell back in jail... I know I'm late!

I know I'm going to catch hell from most of you for stating my position on this, but who cares? Let me preface my posting by stating that ANY person who violates the conditions of their probation is subject to incarceration for violating the judge's order.

Here we have the case of Mychal Bell, one of the key people in the Jena '6' case whose prior criminal record was used to to keep him in jail. Again, we have self-appointed civil-rights leaders crying foul for something that happens to people regardless of their race or soci-economic status. It doesn't stop there though. Several high profile (and high falutin') black lawmakers have chided Congress and the US Attorney, Donald Washington for doing nothing about this case. I have to wonder, would congressional action change the fact the Mychal is a repeat juvenile offender?

So when Mychal Bell, this, young- teen- aged- victim- of- a- corrupt- justice system, was out committing crimes where the HELL were his damn parents? Why weren't Al Sharpless and Jesse Jackass protesting? Why didn't Mychal's parents make a huge, national stink about their bad-assed child? Are we so desperate to re-create the Civil Rights Era that we'll take up ANY cause? Do we have such a romanticized ideal of Black America that we are blinded by our myriad shortcomings? Have we become so shell-shocked by white liberalism and paternalism that we've adandoned all common sense and commitments to personal responsibilty? Is the perception of Unity that important?

I realize that structural disadvantage and racial discrimination are still lingering problems in our society; they are systemic and undeniable. However, they existed prior to 1964 and black people survived; they existed prior to the Treaty of Tordesillas (the first declaration that Europeans used to relegate Africans to being chattle instead of people around the late 1400's) and we survived. Those obstacles still exist today, but we are equipped with more tools to level the playing field AND we are still surviving. Now, we need to use that strength of surviving and the lessons we learned from surviving to move forward; even when we are wrong.

Technorati is going to help me get to the public

All,

I'll be using Technorati to assist me with promoting the blog. Eventually someone will read this and I just wanted to offer an explanation.

Technorati Profile

Jena 6 at the BET Awards

Wow. What a difference a national movement, unrelenting press coverage (albeit very late), hundreds of thousands of petition signatures, black T-Shirts, and hundreds of thousands of dollars make. Now add to the mix two self-appointed, media-whoring, black "leaders" and we have the Jena 6 movement. This is a picture of Bryant Purvis and Carwin Jones ( l to r), 2 of the "Jena 6" from Jena, LA. at this past weekend's BET Awards. Now I don't mean to be a party pooper, but What The F---? Was it not enough that thousands of people from all over the country converged on a small Louisian Town to protest the unjust treatment of 6 young black men? Was it not enough that Mychal Bell, was sent back to jail to serve out an 18 month sentence for a probation violation? Was it not enough that only media coverage that chitt'lin' eatin' BET managed to broadcast about the Jena 6 amounted to a 30 second spot and a shout out on 106 and Park?

Okay, so maybe some of you will call me a hater for raining on this mornic parade, but I think it's still worth mentioning that these boys committed a crime. While the charges they were facing were probably extremely severe for the crimes they committed, they are still criminals awaiting trial. Crime, no matter how morally justified it seems to be, is still crime. Congratulations to BET for contributing to the further humilation and degradation of black people. This picture sickens me to my stomach and I copied from the website named The Young, Black, and Fabulous. Thank you BET for placing a stamp of approval on foolishness; jobe well done. For the Jena 6, is this what all of those people came to Louisiana for? Is this what the 400K raised for your legal defense was spent on? I realize that these boys may be young and that they've been made icons for an new Civil Rights Movement. However, they are facing SERIOUS charges that may result in them being incarcerated for a significant amount of their lives (any time spent imprisoned and deprived of freedom is significant).

*SIGH*

My Introduction... and my .02 cents...

I offer you greetings and salutations from Washington, DC's Brentwood neighborhood! I am elated to finally have a place where I can hone both my writing and critical thinking skills. The purpose of this blog is to provide another space for black people with good ol' fashion common sense. I realize that the title implies that there will be no foolishness here, but in most cases I will post the source of the foolishness. That way, you'll know that I didn't make it up and you can access the original source to draw your own conclusions and then post them here. I'll be moderating comments in an effort to combat SPAM, web crawlers, and people who lack both home training and common sense. This does not mean that I will refuse to post comments contrary to mine.

So here's a little about me:

I'm a black man who is also gay (and probably in that sequence if I were forced to pigeonhole myself into a certain dichotomous key). Much of what I write will come from my experiences growing up as a black male child. The gay part came much later-not that it was a huge surprise to me or my parents. I'm in my early 30's, consider myself socio-politically independent, spiritual, and I'm a little arrogant (why else would I create a spot to pay homage to myself? KIDDING!!! Really.). I have no children, but I am the eldest male of seven children and I did assist with the rearing of some of my younger siblings (emotionally and financially). Currently I work as a Social Worker in DC for a very marginalized population. I am single, but I do date and I have a range of interests from cooking to opera. I may post a picture on here, but for now you'll just have to form an opinion of what I look like based on what you read here.

Thanks,
BLKSeaGoat A.K.A. Sayeed