I spoke on the subject to a group of students at MLK High School (Chi) today.  Here are some excerpts:

On M. Phelps’ Diet: Have you read about what, and how much, this dude eats??? Check out homeboy’s 12K calorie a day diet:

Breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. Two cups of coffee. One five-egg omelet. One bowl of grits. Three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar. Three chocolate-chip pancakes.
Lunch: One pound of enriched pasta. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread. Energy drinks packing 1,000 calories.
Dinner: One pound of pasta. An entire pizza. More energy drinks.

After I read this I knew right away this mf smoked weed. And alot of it.

On Kellogs: So they drop sponsorship of Phelps because, like the late O.D.B & the Wu-Tang Clan they are, “for the kids”… Please.  Kellogs: Sugar Frosted Flakes, Coco Crispies, Fruit Loops, Rice Krispy Treats… “For the kids”??? STFU!!!

On Role Models: Athletes and entertainers ARE NOT role models. We have an unhealthy tendency to prop-up or deify people that are great at one got-damn thing (sports/entertainment). We uncritically assume that they are great at everything.  And history shows that whenever we want someone to be infallible or perfect or aspirational, it never quite works out. When you think about it, athletes and entertainers are in essence fictional characters.  If that’s how you wanna role, why not have cartoon characters as role models? They don’t f’up nearly as much as real people. Anyhoot, role models – the people we want to shape our kids – should be parents, family, friends or at least somebody that you really really know.

The War on Drugs Didn’t Work: Another reason I’m not surprised that Michael sparks(tokes)… Weed/drugs are more pervasive than ever. Especially w/ in Well-to-do White communities. I grew up in the hood and the only shit I was ever exposed to was weed, malt liquor (Shlizt, Champale, etc.) and cheap wine (TJ Swan). Think about the movie Cooley High as a point of reference in terms of inner-city drug activity.  I went to High School in the burbs – w/ wealthy White kids… Have you seen that flick Less Than Zero? Yeah. That’s exactly what it was like. Talk about drugs: weed (various kinds), hash, cocaine, acid, opium, whip-its, moonshine and all the accoutrements: scales, bongs, pipes, filters… I was shocked. I had absolutely no idea.  And the worst thing about – a lot of the drug related activity was going on w/ parental consent.

I remember being at one party in the wealthy suburb of River Hills, WI.  The Fall of ’88.  A whole bunch high school juniors and seniors, NWA, Mc Hammer, Ton Loc, REM, The Cure… Some Less Than Zero shit… All of a sudden the party host’s father angrily bursts thru the door into the large kitchen where the majority of us were partying.

Silence and smoke.

Now, I’m the only black dude there. And I’m high(from contact). So I’m freakin’ out, about to jump over the kitchen sink and out the window because I’m thinking to myself, “shit this mf ’bout to call the cops on my black ass…”

So as I’m visually mapping my way through the crowd over the sink and out the window, the father starts yelling and screaming. Now I can’t quite make out what he is saying because a voice inside my head is like, “Now!!! Run nigga, run!!!

I shake my head to silence the voice and gather myself. Then I’m able to make out what the father is saying. Get this.  He says to his son, the party host, “I don’t ever want to have to tell you again about doing drugs IN MY HOUSE!!!”

I’m thinking to myself, “WTF??? In your house? You don’t want us to do drugs – in your house. You mean it’s okay for us to do drugs – outside – in your yard???”

I was shocked. At that point I’d had enuff. I was confused. I didn’t feel safe. I immediately went home after that – too the familiar surroundings of the hood. True story. On my G.

On a Beat Down: Michael needs to find out who took and leaked the now infamous photo and “handle that”.

All caught up in the moment, many of my once moderate recently turned “toe in the water” liberal White colleagues and acquaintances have gone all Louis and Clark on me.

Part genuine curiosity and part fear of a black planet, they are readily and intensely probing all things Black.

I feel you, “here we go again”.  I dig it.  Our distant and recent social history dictates that these types of social and cultural excursions typically go askew e.g. Black face, Vanilla Ice, White folks in afro/dread-lock wigs, “whiggers”, Ghetto Life 101, CNN’s Black In America etc…

Regardless of our feelings about the matter, it’s happening.  And w/o our input.  So fuck it.  I’m feeling culturally generous.  And I see this occassion as an opportunity to begin a new and improved cultural exchange. 

That said, I’m gonna help these mofos out by acting as something akin to a visitors information center.  So, White folks, if you want your passports stamped I suggest you take heed…

Anyhoot, Brothas and Sistas I need your help.

Let’s start here:

1. What are 5 Black movies that White people MUST see (Roots, The Color Purple, Boys in the Hood – don’t count)?
2. Who are 5 Black authors/intellectuals that White people MUST read/listen to (Tavis Smily, Cornel West, Tom Joyner, Black athletes/entertainers, Al Sharpton, M. E. Dyson are not acceptable answers)?

The Illinois Govenor is a product of his/our political culture.  There are more like him.  They may not all be as brazen and arrogant as BLAGO but they all share the same impious political DNA.  And he is the one in the news because he is the one that the FEDS decided to make an example of.  Unfortunately, making examples of people, rather than dealing head on with the dysfunction of the larger political culture, really misses the point.

BLAGO isn’t so much stupid as he is arrogant.  And to say that he is insane is true, but inadequate.  He is intoxicated with power and high as hell on “e”.  No not the drug extacy – BLAGO got that good shit.  BLAGO got an over inflated sense of entitlement.  Bush, Cheney, Gov. Ryan, Billy Clinton, Nixon and so on and so forth all use or used the same shit.  They are going to do what they gotta do to get where they wanna be.  That’s it.  And as the south side Chicago colloquial expression goes, “they don’t give no fuck”.

In the end, this is bigger than a corrupt political system/culture.  There are BLAGOS everywhere in our society.  They are raised on cultural diet that consists primarily of privilege (male and white) and entitlement and little bit of the King James Version and Nietzsche’s “Superman”… 

I’ve worked for and with these people.  They are on Wall Street and in the Academy.  They are CEO’s and mavericks.  They are executive directors of non-profits and they coach collegiate athletics.  They are superstar athletes.  Some of them ”enforce” the law and others even preach from the pulpit.

Sorry for the roiled pitch and timbre.  I’m just tired and frustrated.  Anyhow, I hope at some point, at the very least, we focus our national attention less on the BLAGOS and more on the social rituals and cultural memes that reinforce and perpetuate BLAGO like behavior.

Humbly;

kd

stay up

kd

• Assure White America that Black folks are not going to enslave them.  Tell them upfront that we are not looking for revenge.
• Assure White America (and Black America) that Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Rev. Jeramiah Wright, and Louis Farrakhan will have no place in an Obama Administration.
• Remind all of his supporters that the fight doesn’t stop with the vote.
• Remind Black folks not to celebrate too hard if he becomes President.  Why?  Look, some White folks are gonna be very angry/scared/depressed in response to an Obama victory.  They might very well be lookin’ for some get-back.  Don’t provoke them with excessive celebration e.g. rockin Obama Tees and poppin’ Champagne bottles at the office – in a “Soul Train line” – while blasting “ain’t no stoppin’ us now”.  Do that shit at the crib or at Church.  And when you get back to the office on Thursday – on Thursday – act like nothing has happened.
• Urge people not to riot if he loses the election is stolen.
• More than a few Black people lost some tried and true White homies (Hillary supporters) over the jolting course of this social and cultural powder-keg of a campaign.  Barack should gently nudge Black folks to determine if any of these relationships are worthwhile and salvageable and if so to go about the work of rekindling these friendships.
• To assuage the concerns of some Black folks that continue to charge Barack with, “forgetting where he came from”, the Big “O” should acknowledge a few of the key Black people that helped him to arrive at this momentous occasion.  Especially his barber.  Barack’s fade, waves and line were consistently TIGHT throughout the entire campaign cycle.
• Let everyone know that if he wins the election, this does not mean that America has finally overcome the “race problem”. 
• In case the election is lost stolen, Barack should point out to his supporters that he/we came this far together.  And that we have come too far – accomplished too much to turn back now.  He should embolden his supporters to continue to march bravely forward and carry on with the great change-work that THEY started.

Humbly Submitted.

kd

“Why is everything always about race with you people!?!” 

You people…

I betta-not EVER AGAIN hear the above got-damn question come out of a White person’s thin-lipped mouth.  Get the story here: OBAMA BUCKS .

*This story was first seen at:  News and Views, the companion blog to NPR’s News and Notes.