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Love Rain Down - A Short Film
An animated film based on the song "Love Rain Down" from the album "AFropolitan" by Derrick N. Ashong (aka DNA) & Soulfège. The movie follows the tale of a little boy named "Johnny" who makes a trip to the legendary "Crossroads" of Robert Johnson fame, and stands down the Devil armed only with a song...
It is Saturday once again and that means we are coming to you LIVE with some great interviews and DNA's take on the week's news and events. On deck this week: Obama's Tax Deal with the GOP, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Julian Assange and the Hactivists, plus some great convos about Bullying and Facebook Cheating. We have a great LIVE show lined up for today. We're live at noon ET (9am PT)! C ya online!
I love it when people who have problems with race use the idea that others are overly sensitive about race to unveil their own bigoted tendencies. You've all heard the news about Dr. Laura Schlessinger dropping the n-bomb 11 times in a 5min conversation. Aside from the impressive rate of slurs per minute there are a few other points I think are worth touching on.
First, let's just get out of the way the obligatory acknowledgment that everyone who says something racist is not necessarily a racist. I know some of you don't want to hear it, but you know & I know it's true. Sometimes good people say stupid things. Sometimes good people say stupid things that reveal elements of bigotry within them. However you want to slice it, it is becoming increasingly apparent to me that people can say reprehensible things, without necessarily being reprehensible people (ask anyone whose grandparents grew up under Jim Crow...whatever race they may be).
That said, "not being a racist" is no excuse for being an idiot. Just look at the "bad behaviour" of TV producer Mark Gordon who recently dropped the n-word multiple times at a reading. Fortunately his co-Executive Producer of "Grey's Anatomy" Shonda Rhimes, did the neighbourly thing and provided a black-person-said-I'm-not-racist card to get him out of jail mostly free. He's not a racist, she told a friend, he's "an idiot."
Idiots are a dime-a-dozen in America these days. And since we've elected our first Black president the idiots have been coming out in droves. Take Dr. Schlessinger for example. When asked by a Black caller for advice on how to deal with racist comments from her White husband's friends, Dr. Laura opens by asking the woman to define racism because "sometimes people are hypersensitive." It is the height of good fortune that we've got benevolent White folks like Dr. Laura around to help Black people know racism when we see it.
The conversation continues with the caller trying to give Dr. Laura examples of what's troubling her & Dr. Laura helpfully informing her that none of these things are racist. Dr. Laura even goes on to tell a story about her big, Black bodyguard who she wants on her basketball team because "white men can't jump." Apparently that's not racist...it's funny. Dr. Laura is an expert on comedy as well.
I won't regale you with the details of the rest of the interview, as you can get the full audio & transcript here. Let's just say that soon enough, Dr. Laura gets on her n-word roll, dropping lyrical bombs like a rhythmless MC, arguing that Black guys use it all the time and so why shouldn't she.
And here's the problem with stupidity. The argument that "you did it, why can't I" is the kind of moral reasoning that is typically left on the playground around the 5th grade, unless of course you find yourself in the unpleasant position of having to defend the indefensible. I've heard certain White people argue time & again that Black people use the n-word so why can't they and the question that always jumps to my mind is:
"Why would you want to?"
I don't walk around wishing I could freely use the kind of racial slurs Latinos or Asians, Jews or Italians use for each other. It hardly bothers me that gay people call each other words that I wouldn't feel comfortable using myself. But there appears to be a real anger among some White folks, that they've been left out of the n*gger party. Trouble is, like an alcoholic trying to convince the bartender that this next drink will be his last they neglect the obvious fact: "White people have been at this particular party for a loooong time...aren't you ready to go home yet??"
How long before you get tired of wishing you could do something that many people find patently offensive? Then again, I'm forgetting that the problem is not that they're offended. The problem is that you're offended that they're offended...right?
Clearly folks like Dr. Laura don't have enough Black friends to know that lots of Black people don't like the word no matter who uses it. Just look at the comments by renowned former "n*gger lover" Paul Mooney in the ABC article above. Maybe Dr. Laura uses that word all the time when she's kickin' it with her Black friends & bodyguards. But if it popped out of my mouth around my parents I might catch a closeup of the back of somebody's hand. Matter of fact Doc, you really should come over sometime...
I'd love to see Dr. Laura call her Black bodyguard a nigger. That would be a great way to prove her point. Lots of Black people are oversensitive about this stuff, but just look at this nigger that works for me - he loves it! Let's just drop all the euphemisms and the aster*sks and unveil the word in all its glory. It'll help niggers to be less sensitive & gosh-darn it, Dr. Laura's here to help.
The most offensive part of Dr. Laura's comments is not that she purports to know what's best for niggers. It's that she takes the woman's personal struggle and uses it to grind her own personal political axe. "We've got a black man as president, and we have more complaining about racism than ever. I mean, I think that's hilarious" she tells the caller (remember folks, Dr. Laura knows comedy). When the caller isn't buying what the good doc is so fervently selling, Miss Laura drops her and declares "if you're that hypersensitive about color and don't have a sense of humor, don't marry out of your race." Great advice for all you future callers: don't come around here calling Dr. Laura with your "miscegenation woes," unless you're funny. Real funny.
Listen folks, unlike Dr. Laura I'm no expert on race or identity politics. I dropped out of my PhD program long before I got that kind of street cred. I wouldn't know where to start telling a Jew how he should feel about anti-semitism or a gay person how to stop worrying so damn much about homophobia and I'm waaay too "sensitive" to have the stomach to issue a phalanx of racial epithets along with the advice.
But I've been around long enough to know stupid when I see it. And there's been a whole lot of stupid going around ever since we elected a Black president. You Lefties kept saying GW was dumb. Wait'll you see the nation he left behind...
Alright so the interview aired on Monday. I was going to post some thoughts yesterday, but real life was all up in my grill aallll day! So now as I sit quietly pon the couch as the ISDN tech hooks up my phat new digital pipe, I'm taking a moment to reflect & give y'all a lil bit of the inside scoop on what all went down.
First off, MUCH thanks for all of those who tuned in on Monday. I got a gang of great emails, FB msgs, phone calls & txts with mucho love & inspiration! For those of you who didn't get to catch the full hour interview, you've still got two options to get w/ el programa:
2) Tune in this weekend to hear the FULL interview again:
Oprah Radio (Sirius Channel 195 - XM Channel 156): Saturday Nov. 28 6am ET (3am PT) 2pm ET (11am PT) 7pm ET (4pm PT)
Sunday Nov. 29 6am ET (3am PT)
2pm ET (11am PT)
If you haven't already heard it, in the interview we talk about everything from ancestry, to faith, social entrepreneurship & of course artistry, music & Soulfège. We also talk about The SHIFT movie and the growing global awareness of our need & power to make change in our world. We talk about S. Asian Rockstar Salman Ahmad and his Concert for Pakistan, which had hundreds of heads bobbin' at the UN General Assembly. We talk about how on earth I've gotten to do such insanely cool things as sit on a panel with the former President of Ireland & the Queen of Jordan (turns out Oprah & I have some common roots), and we both concur that I've got cute ears (thanks Mum! You too Pops).
We talked about serious things: the role of spirituality in our lives, and those of members of my generation. About the place of religion in our world today and the idea that God is bigger than any given doctrinal "box." We talked about the poetry of Hip Hop and she played "Fight On" and "Do Right". In a nutshell, I got a chance to kick it with a kindred spirit, and it turns out she's also the most powerful woman in the world.
If I'd really taken the time to think about the magnitude of having an hour to vibe with Oprah Winfrey, or the serendipity of a little African boy from Accra by way of Brooklyn & The Middle East, having such an audience at this particular stage in my life, I would have probably been too nervous to be my best.
And to be honest, I did have a few nights prior to that day when I'd wake up in a cold sweat after a dream along the lines of this:
I'm in a giant palace, where medieval guards usher me briskly down a long hallway adorned with ornate fixtures and flush with light from a chorus of chandeliers. I nervously chomp on a handful of peanut M&Ms in an effort to calm my harried senses. I arrive at a grand doorway and as it opens a voice booms from the ether: "Behold...Oprah." She floats through the doorway ringed in light, surrounded by a phalanx of courtiers and smiling extends her hand to me. I smile back & eagerly thrust my own hand forward to grasp hers, too late realizing that my sweat filled palms are covered in a muddy residue of melted chocolate, peanuts & synthetic coloring.
Oprah recoils in shock as she beholds her now sullied palm; four obervers faint in protest, and the booming voice booms again: "OFF WITH HIS HEAD!!!" I spin helpless, searching for the nearest escalator. As the whole room descends on me in anger I leap onto the stunned shoulders of a courtier and bound atop a sea of angry heads in the direction of what I hope to be the exit. President Obama stands in a corner shaking his head in quiet disdain.
Fortunately this did not actually happen (I know, you were worried for me huh?). If you want to know what DID happen, listen to the interview this weekend! :) And tell your friends & fam to join the gang. I will be eating Thanks-filled leftovers & dreaming of faraway lands.
Beijinhos,
D.N.A
P.S. If you haven't already signed-up for the free Sirius/XM Trial you can do so here:
Wassup y'all! I'm not even gonna' tell you where I've been. lol A WORLD of stuff has been happening. Will fill ya' in later. Just wanted to give you a heads up that I'm contributing to the new Yes We Will Inauguration Blog at BET.com. Check it out and give me a shout! D.N.A
I did an interview earlier this week for Harvardwood, exploring some of the current trends in the campaign and some key issues facing the nation. It's a 45min full-length, unedited, uncensored response to some live questioning and covers topics from the role the Media & the Arts in politics to the ongoing propagation of lies by the McCain/Palin ticket in this campaign. I'll see if I can get the source vid from the interviewer and chop it into smaller pieces, but for now here's the whole hog. Get informed, get involved and let's go out there and WIN this thing!
Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 11:44AM 