MONOGAMY

MONAGAMY

With all these folks around me getting married, having babies, buying houses, and basically following the natural laid out path of life as it is ‘supposed to be’ done, as it was done by our parents, and their parents, I wonder why I am in such a completely different place. I would like to think that I’m just as mature and responsible as my friends who are moving along in life, and I realize that many of these steps come from being in a long relationship and taking the ‘natural next step’.

I know that the concept of TIME is a mother fucker. After a certain amount of time, the woman feels like its time to take the ‘next step’. I realize I’m generalizing my ass off, but bear with me for the sake of making my point. I even fell victim to it! I moved in and just by the nature of the time we spent together, it was assumed that we should ask ourselves, “What comes next?” After a while it’s, “Let’s get engaged.” Once you start that process, it’s all over! Engaged = Debt (ring) = Married = More Debt (wedding) = Baby = Even more debt = House in the suburbs = Debt = daycare = College Tuition …. It ! goes on and on, and I haven’t tried to satisfy the wife yet, or myself!! It just doesn’t seem like a road I want to walk down.

I’m not knocking marriage, I do see the beauty of being married: sharing your life with that special person that you’ve found, that person with whom you can share everything, talk about anything, go anywhere, raise a child together, it truly is a wonderful thing for those who are lucky enough to have found that special person. So I struggle with the idea of whether or not I could really see myself married. It is even more difficult to currently grasp since I’m single and free to come and go when I please, where I please, with whom I please, but in attempting to realize why I don’t buy it, this is what I figured out:

I don’t buy into the concept of monogamy.

So for the next couple of weeks, I’m going to try to come to grips with why I feel this way. I by no means have anything figured out, I’m far from a pro at practicing this concept, and I’m sure many of the things I will say will contradict each other. Like all the rest of the chronicles, these will be stream of consciousness writings that just flow without any sort of point really, it is just a way to put all the thoughts out into the open, then go back and try to make some sort of sense of it all.

I have best friends who are happily married, and best friends who refuse to get married. Nothing I say is directed at anyone who is married, with baby, sans relationship, or otherwise, so please don’t think I’m directing my comments at anyone in particular because I’m not. I’m only talking about me, my opinions and my views about the subject at hand. I can admit that I’ve learned a lot from many of you (both positive and negative) and I hope that someone can learn something from me and my flaws as well.

I welcome anyone’s input on the subject throughout the process of the monogamy series and hope we can all learn something from each other on this one.

One,

-c

CD of the moment: TLC – “Crazy, Sexy, Cool”

your wallpaper responses

I'm working on the next installment here, but in the meantime, I wanted to pass along a few of the more interesting responses I received on my little Wallpaper magazine rant. These are of course reprinted without permission. :)

-c

CD of the moment: Groove Armada - "The Dirty House Session"

My goodness, this turned out to be quite an experience. What started out as innocent perusing through the magazine store...

This prompts many reactions, in part because it raises many issues.

I agree on so many counts...I disagree on one fundamental and concluding point, which is that it is about irony. Or at least intentional irony. It's all about the intentions. Wallpaper shouldn't be taken out of context from the industry it belongs to: the magazine industry. (The entire magazine industry in my opinion has shifted, and what we are left with is the mass production of sales catalogues. Which is what I really believe Wallpaper is. I think they are just selling the concept of "design".) Women's fashion magazines can be looked at as a leading example in the magazine biz.

They are the masters of marketing images and lifestyles that are unattainable, and in fact don't represent the majority of their readership/audience. Their intention is to sell product through well-researched theories and formulas of the relationship between advertising and marketing, hierarchies of human needs and insecurities (and countless other psycho-social theories), Darwinian-like concepts of self-preservation and competition related to basic biological and social drives toward beauty and physical prowess, and a capitalist economy which relies entirely on our consumption of goods and services and fuels a culture-less society that finds meaning and power in buying and ownership. I've now forgotten what my point was.

Well, suffice it to say that I don't believe that irony figures into their intentions at Wallpaper. I think you're giving them undue credit. I think their intention is to market and sell products and a certain "metrosexual" (I like that term by the way) lifestyle image (because after all, that's what the advertisers pay for) to as many people as they can reach. Listen, plenty of people in New York attempt to live out Wallpaper fantasies. And they'll pay good money to do so (may put them another grand in credit card debt, but that's another story).

Wallpaper is a magazine, or I should say, a print product, like so many other print products, that truly lacks in substance. Then again, so many media products lack in substance. Shallow, but well-designed. Appeals to our aesthetic desires, but not our intellectual or creative needs/interests. Or at least, not mine. The notion that it doesn't represent people of color is fascinating and disturbing. Kind of reminds me of the gentrification that has taken over NYC...and frankly made it less of an interesting city to live in.

Very nice!

A well written summary of all the issues ( no pun ) regarding the W* mag. I note that you have bought into, at least partially into the Wallpaper "lifestyle" i.e. Strolling down the block,carefully casual, but stylishly dressed into your corner "magazine lounge" To sit and sip with the rest of the "so cool that they are actually HOT"! folks and ingest some carefully crafted "eycandy" (your words I believe) , maybe a smoothie while keeping an eye out for any stray ladies -also casual but stylishly dresses,lounging with no agenda- who you might strike up a conversation and buy into your image and walk out with ya. Not that I am saying there is anything wrong with that. More power! The thing that struck me is that you love the mag. but somehow loath the slickness of it. I think the mag is a caricature. A very enticing slick cream filled donut that you are drawn to. But I believe that is has to be. It is eye catching and different enough to grab your attention and to hold it for a while and fo! r a low on patience guy like me thats perfect. Empty calories :) I also have a different response than the one you mentioned

"you feel underachieved, unaccomplished, and feel like either your goals were too low, or your achievements not important enough. "

I get the felling that they are full of shit and who would want to live like that. They may be telling us that that the lifestyle we should aspire to but I don't buy it. I love the graphics and the presentation, the articles are sort of non to me. The magazine is equivalent to most cutting edge or highly stylised modern architecture. Great to browse, nice to tour, but who the hell would want to live or work there. I buy it faithfully till I am so sick of it that I swear of it f! or months, then I catch myself re-reading the old issues. Curious 'eh !

you know me.....king of the one or two sentence replies but this last e-mail has evoked a certain urge to respond....why? because i feel that this magazine you speak of as well as other forms of the media a kin to this narcissistic frame of mind is what is killing us black people.

yes i said it, i know i'm usually saying that we as a people expect too much of a handout, but i truly beleive that these publications dangle the preverbial carrot in front of our face just to make us react. i completely understand and agree with affirmative action to help us get into school, and get jobs...shit if the man won't choose to help us then we will force them too. but when we start asking for reparations for shit we didin't have! a damn thing to do with...that's just trifling. Only a black person could dream up such a bullcrap scheme. they are basically sayin' "my greatgrandad was beat by yo' greatgranddad and even though i wasn't even imagined or dreamed about for another 80-90 years, and my great granddad died thirty years before i was born i am in an emotional hell......i can't sleep....i' can't go outside....OH LAAAAAAWWWWD HELP ME!!!!!!!!! but if you give me some money to pay my car note for a month i should be straight."- utter bullshit.

i digress.....back to the magazine. how does this contribute to our problems??? this form of media, as i see it, is the last but most formidable barrier for a african american to overcome.

it gets th e underpriveledged because, it is coupled with the music videos and these poor children think that if they forget studyin' and just right rhymes, their life will turn out okay. it doesn't... so now they're stupid and old......and virtue that they fell into this hoop dream way of thinking means that they are more impressionable. now we got a dumbass late teen that's impressionable livin' in the ghetto where the pimps, and drug dealers try to by these items in these magazines that these children also buy. but hey, these kids in the projects get fucked anyway you look at it. the man has MANY ways of keepin' them in check......as for the few of us that have made it, like you and me......this is the most potent weapon.

i want you to understand that i in know way, shape, or form believe that that type of med! ia was intentionally put in place, it just worked out that way.....as an aside lemmie say that i believe taht many of the reasons why the upper hand has been given over us is because shit just works out for them, not because they did any elaborate schemes....they are just some lucky muthafuckas......i mean their asses wiped out a whole continent of american indians by given some blankets, what kinda bullshit is that????? they happened to be nasty as shit and the blankets that the indians bought or stole happened to foreign germs that got in their asses.....red people are dead, white people win. damn, i'm off the point again....

like i was saying, these magazines are our worst enemy. they dangle all of these extravagant things in front of our faces that DON'T MEAN SHIT. they fool us into buying shit th! at we can't afford, so that we are in debt without shit to invest.&nbs p; although the statement seems innocuous enough, the content is devastating.

for the most part the black professionals in this country are starting from zero....we don't have old money to draw off of. in fact when we speak of our population (educated black people) that is the last true advantage they hold over us. if they can find ways for us spend what little cash we amass then they can continue to dominate over us because every generation must start from zero......it sux.

and when all is said and done......why do you want that shit???? what the hell makes that $4000 wine glass any better than one found at ikea??? what makes that 1898 wine! any better than one from 1985???
don't get me wrong i'm all for letting wine age and can even taste the benefits of it (most of the time), but is a forty year old, or even a twenty year old wine any worse than a one hundred year old wine..... i doubt it.

i say all this to get across the point that the establishment's (which truly is colorless) last hold on us is our greed, which the african american community is plagued by. even us....smart, black, professionals suffer from it. but we also are able to recognize it and put it at bey. we must in order for us to be able to succeed.

i could go on for another 3000 words but i'll stop it here.

summer observations

Upon the first week of consecutive 80 degree days this year, it feels so nice to see all the lovely ladies out wearing the tight shit. It reminds of a spring day on the campus of Howard. I don’t know if it is the fact that everyone had been covered up for the past six months or what, but all of a sudden there is skin and flesh everywhere I turn. I love it. However, there are some things that need to be addressed to the ladies before we get too deep into the summer. This is just from my own personal perspective, so you are welcome to take it or leave it.

First of all ladies, please use the clear deodorant. I appreciate women's commitment to fresh pits, but I hate staring at a pit full of chalky whiteness since the shirts and haltertops are now sleeveless. I don’t even mind a little bit of stubble in the pits, I find it sexy, but if this is the route you take, then you need to take extra special care to make sure you don’t have sort of battle between the deodorant balls under your arms.

Next, get yourself some Jergens, some body butter... SOMETHING. just because it's not as dry out it doesn't mean you can violate the daily lotion routine. ”Crusty, ashy skin” has no part of cute in it. If you’re wearing sandals, clean your feet hon. There is nothing worse than seeing some jacked up toenails, corns, etc… If your feet aren’t ready to be exposed to the world, no worries, just cover them bad boys up and work on them until they’re ready.

Furthermore, I have some issues with the baby powder thing: under the boobs, under the arms, in the ‘drawls’ -- fine by me, but NOT all the way up your fucking neck, behind your ears and shit! It’s either that or it’s these ladies who tend to ‘over-vaseline’ themselves. It is just nasty. What you need to do is get some friends that will tell you about yourself.

Next on my list are these linen pants (or light colored ones) and regular undies? This is a NO-NO. Please, thong it or go commando. I don't want to see your granny panties. On the other hand, nobody wants to see your sweaty cooch juice on your pants either. Know yourself, know you body, handle that.

For the men, timbs and sweatsocks when it’s 90 degrees outside??? your gonna have athlete's foot from all the sweating man! Hell emphatically NO!

A few more for the ladies, ok, I know its hot, and bras can be restricting but if your breasts are past a B cup, its highly suggestible that you wear a bra. I mean, as much as I’d love to see the nips popping through your shirt, your shits DO sweat, and all you need is a big tittie wet spot on your shirt looking like you lactating or something to make me bust a chuckle at your ass. Nobody likes sweaty uni-tits… Kind of makes you envy the mosquito bite girls this time of year.

Welcome to yet another season of hiding well developed asses. This is one that is often overlooked but has become increasingly frustrating: Sweaters tied around asses. I KNOW y'all got some big asses too…. Damn, just untie the sweater for 5 seconds, let me look at that ass right quick….. please?? ……………. I SAID PLEASE!!!!??? It’s either that or it’s the ladies who have their entire thong showing. You ain’t in an Aaliyah video!!! Then there are the ladies who wear the granny panties way up their back and hanging out their pants. Get some draws that fit ya ass!!

I’ll be the first one to admit that a *slightly* visible thong gives me a woodrow wilson, but I don't want to see half of a butt cheek unless I'm about to see more. Then, when they do this and that tag is sticking up……… One of these days, I’m going to tuck that shit in for you, and you should thank me instead of slapping me. I’m not trying to feel on your ass (well, maybe I am), I’m just trying to help you out.

Lastly, this is a plea to all women. As you walk down the street, up the stairs, etc., if you notice a sexy ass in front of you, move over a little bit. Chances are, there is a guy behind you trying to take a look at it, but you are in the way. If your ass is sexy, then it’s cool, but you can still scoot over, thus giving the guy behind you the opportunity to view two great asses at once. Your assistance in this manner is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

-c

CD of the moment: Dimitri from Paris - "After the Playboy Mansion"

wallpaper magazine

After snowing for the first 5 days of the month, now, 10 days later it's 81 degrees outside! Mother nature has a sick sense of humor for real. Anyway, this weekend it was so nice outside that I went for a walk and ended up at my local 'non-alcoholic magazine lounge'. It's where all the 'cool' people go to look and feel progressive enough to buy a $5 fruit shake because they hate the people that go to Starbucks and pay $4 for a cup of coffee .... go figure.

Anyway, since you're in a magazine bar, you have to have a 'cool' magazine in your hand, so I pick up Wallpaper* magazine. If you've never seen it, heard about it, or read it, you should go pick one up so you know what I'm talking about (only found at finer magazine stands worldwide). If you can't find it, no worries, I'm going to tell you ALL about it.

-c

CD of the moment: Groove Armada - "Back to Mine"

I will be the first to admit that as much as I know how dumb Wallpaper* magazine is, I'm very much seduced by it. In fact, I used to buy it regularly until I realized I was buying into a reading about a lifestyle I'd so covet but almost never achieve. I also went through the last three issues I had bought and realized that not one single person of color was in the entire magazine. (and the magazine is pretty damn thick). Not in any of the ads, not in any of the articles, not even when they were in Africa.

Although it markets itself as such, Wallpaper is not a magazine. It is a surreal lifestyle brand. A superb example of “brand concepting". There's an idea, a blueprint, to capture, mold, and sustain a global / jet-set / ‘metrosexual’ culture that only the Wallpaper brand (and the people who buy the magazine) understands. It makes for great eye candy but is of little practical use. Their aspirational "global citizen" lifestyle, living through one impeccably styled rail hub or departure lounge after the other, looks great on glossy paper but is basically a hollow fantasy. One simply cannot deny the attraction holds for young professionals like myself, and mockingly it assumes we are from the demographic they imagine would be buying the magazine. We are at the point where we make eno! ugh money to take the occasional international trip, yet are forced to fly coach, stay at a 2 star hotel and eat at cheap cafes. The idea that we could take that same trip, fly first class, stay at a five star hotel, eat at the finest restaurants, pick up a hand-carved ivory Buddah to take back to the house, and charter a private helicopter ride around the island just for kicks doesn’t seem THAT far out of reach.

It truly is a mirage of something so close but yet so far away. By presenting obscure CD’s you’ll never be able to find by groups you’ve never heard of, there is the impression that there are things in this magazine that will allow you to be a part of this ‘pseudo-fashionable’ world. Then you go and search for the CD, and when you find it, you somehow have access to something that no one else knows about, which is intriguing to me personally, in itself. They also appear to have an editorial purpose beyond promoting slick consumer goods, with a progressive/ecological ideological slant--the extensive articles on the Red Cross and the UN, for example, or the fact that automotive news/stories tend to be about small, efficient urban vehicles--even bicycles!--and not expensive sports cars. Somehow it makes you feel like you are i! ndeed a part of the world they have created.

Also, the appearance of both men *and* women on every cover, instead of the usual sexpot selling model, as well as the gay-friendly inferences (which somehow make the heterosexual reader feel as if they are now more open because this stylistic photo doesn’t freak them out) somehow gives the reader a sense of political correctedness. The sexiness of all the women, like the completely sheer shirt wearing female with no bra (hard nipples and all) or the ‘uni-sex’ nature of all the men’s clothes present a world where sexuality is something that is free of boundaries or restraints. (Did I mention the models are drinking a glass of a vintage 1894 reserve port at $9,000 a bottle out of hand blown Finnish stemware at $4,000 per glass!)

When the magazine started to become popular, many remarked how the presentation of the graphics in the magazine are so "my generation". And it was quite a big deal, seeing as how excellent the magazine design is. In the end though, the magazine is just one big infomercial, the crux of emptiness. And after you’ve looked through the whole thing once, you feel underachieved, unaccomplished, and feel like either your goals were too low, or your achievements not important enough. One should give credit to the concept of making us spend money on basic advertising though………….. interesting phenomenon really…...

And yes, the mix of "quiet" architecture, unpublished destinations, the love for everything Swiss, environmental conscience and high-style, low-profile living makes for a great contemporary fantasy. Also do u notice in the writing they always make these grandiose assumptions along the lines of "oh, of course you have this, of course you are this way, of course you’ve been there.... "

Its like you’re reading this issue while lounging in your Eames chase lounge chair, wearing your Prada clothes and your Louis Vuitton shoes while living in your Scandinavian designed villa in the Swiss alps…. Its so wonderfully silly.

BUT, they give extensive coverage of new & young architects and designers (I've learned about many lesser-known architects here that get little press anywhere else), and they champion unknown glo! bal modernism, with interesting historical articles on mid-century masterpieces in the middle east, Africa, South America, that I've never seen covered elsewhere. However, even in Africa, there won’t be any colored people in the photos, as if it infers: when you go to this obscure location of the world, you’ll be in your 5 star hotel and driven to this location thus you won’t have to deal with any of the local people. I hate it.

As eye-candy alone, it's great. It's well designed. Their photo layouts are more carefully shot than most, and but for products, interiors, etc, they do a nice job of always integrating lifestyle components (interiors, products, fashion, art, antiques), instead of just arraying a half-dozen handbags against a cheap backdrop and calling it a spread. For fashion alone though, it makes you feel like if you were to copy the styles that are presented, you’ll ! only have a knock-off of the original presented here;

The magazine is all about irony...the only person who actually lives that lifestyle is probably the editor. The magazine is so ridiculous and pretentious that it can’t be taken as literal...and the editors must know this...so I try not to take the magazine so seriously – I take for what it is: eye candy. It is actually quite funny if you read between the lines. I think the only people who actually try to live that way are people without any real style or design sense of their own and so they have to look to a magazine to get it.

In an age of "I don’t care what he said, that just looks COOL", can we blame wallpaper? Lets be honest, most magazines suck. I don’t support the whole jet-set, style over substance approach at all, (maybe because I’m not a part of it) and it seems to me, until architects start taking this profession seriously, we're all doomed to more fluff and its consequences. Or all the fluff will continue encouraging architects to produce boring bland buildings as an antithesis to all of the fluff.

Wallpaper is very easy to dismiss as just improbably stylish lifestyle porn, but that would be ignoring its true genius (that is, if you get beyond it’s tongue-in-cheek arrogance).
Wallpaper teaches the reader and fellow magazines the lost art of laughing at one's self.
The genius is in the irony, and its lure is the impossibility of it all. It is a very well laid out, beautiful magazine that mocks its readers because no-one of us is so beautiful, so stylish, so Scandinavian, so unemotional and pansexual, so rich and sophisticated, with so much leisure time and, God forbid, no children or ugly/poor/unfashionable friends. We can be some of these things, but never all of them. The message is "Everything in this magazine is way too much for you", and it is sent in a very intelligent way.

So if you’ve never purchased the magazine, I do encourage you to go and buy one issue so you can see what I’m talking about to experience how easy it is to be swept into this Utopia of sorts that they’ve created. Everything is happy, beautiful, and there aren’t any colored people around either! If you’ve bought it before, then you understand how as much as I hate it, I can’t wait for the next issue to come out!

last few questions..

the last few of your questions answered..........

thanks to all who asked stuff. It helped me get out of the little slump I was in.

-c

CD of the moment: Gil Scott Heron - "Winter In America"

Q: oh yeah, and where did you get those beautiful eyes (mom/dad)?!

I’ve got some ‘indian’ in me. I know it’s cliché but my mother’s mother is half Indian for real, for real! I’m thinking Cherokee, but I’m not sure. But she has the straight hair and bluest eyes you’d ever see. (kinda tough to tell towards the end with those cataracts, but trust me) Both my parents have light brown eyes (Xx) so I guess it’s the whole recessive gene thing. X = brown, x = green thus Xx + Xx = XX, Xx, Xx, or xx. I’ve got xx.

Q. Just how many angela davis type friends DO you have?

I don’t know what you’re talking about? Just because the man is always trying to keep me down, my friends are angela davis!?? For example, I just got a new computer, and my computer is BLACK. Why they give me the black computer huh? Trying to send me a message? I’m not WORTHY of the WHITE COMPUTER!!!! HUH!!!! With a BLACK keyboard and a BLACK mouse. If you ponder the significance of a BLACK mouse, it says that all mice should now be black. So a mouse which is a pesty, annoying insignificant figure in the natural chain MUST BE BLACK!! It’s not right!!! So I have requested a ! WHITE mouse. They can’t keep me down!!!!! I’M GONNA RISE UP!!!! BUCK ‘EM DOWN!!! BUCK ‘EM DOWN!!!!!

Power to the people.

Q. Have you ever cheated while in a committed relationship? If so, what's your reasoning for the infidelity? What have you learned from it? Did the person find out?

Yes, I’ve cheated. The only way I can rationally reason it out is that human beings are sexual beings and monogamy is a devil concept created by the catholic church.

I’ve learned that women don’t like that shit, and yes she found out, women always find out because men are stupid. Either that or we just don’t give a fuck most of the time.

I have a taste for OTHER grown-up ladies. I enjoy sex. I wear condoms. All my conquests are consensual and the other person (almost) always knows the deal. I’m happy & healthy. I pay my own bills, go to work, pay taxes, & do my own thing -- including having sex with who I want when I want. I love my mama & can make some good fried catfish too. What does all that have to do with cheating? Absolutely nothing. But I thought I’d try to give you a MSNBC insider answer by answering the question quickly, then diverting your attention to something else, therefore thinking you might forget about my dog-like tendencies.

Q. Do you give spare change to homeless people?

Hmmmm, Sometimes. It’s a double edged sword. If you give change, then I feel like it is a way of encouraging them to stay on the streets begging. If I don’t give change, I feel guilty because I have no idea what circumstances might have led this person to end up in a position where you have to beg complete strangers for money, so it would be fucked up for my fortunate ass to walk right by them. So I basically give money to those who (in my best judgment) look like they need it. I saw a woman with her baby asking for money the other day, but the baby had on a new pair of Timbs………. Hell naw I ain’t giving her nothing, but again, without knowing som! eone’s complete situation, it is difficult to know if you’re helping or hurting the situation. There is this one homeless guy who I’ve befriended who I call ‘Magic’. I locked my keys in my car one night right in front of his ‘house’. So I asked him if he had a hanger. He spent the next 20 minutes with helping me try to break into my car to unlock it. Smelled like shit, but a real nice guy. Then afterwards he asked me which club I was going to, and when I told him, my man pulled out passes to the club for me and my ladyfriend!!! So if I know I’m going to be going out in that area, I’ll stop by and give him some cash because in talking to him he made it very clear th! at he has chosen to be homeless, because he enjoys the freedom. This guy is no idiot and hasn’t created some sort of reality for himself to live in, he’s well spoken and just got tired of working and paying bills so took a complete U-turn in life. The moral of the story is….. Homeless people are people too. They have hearts and feelings and shouldn’t be looked at as inferior because you have more than they do. So be nice to homeless people, you never know when you’ll need one to help you out.

politics, pt. 2

For the record, I don't write these during work (for the most part). Maybe a little editing, but I do these after work or at home. I just send them at work to help break the monotony of the day. So don't think I'm some slacker at work, because I'm not, cool? Cool.

I realized today that I double booked my attendance at two different parties for this coming weekend. I'm not quite sure how I'll handle this yet........

Anyway, here is the rest of the answer to the 'why become a Republican' question...

peace,

-c

Q. Would you ever consider becoming a Republican?

part 2

The other thing that bugs me about politics among blacks is that there is clearly a lack of good black leaders? Or at least a good black leader that I know about. Tom Joyner raises thousands of dollars a year for black students. Tavis Smiley agitates. Both of them are liberal. Floyd Flake controls millions through his church organizations-he's conservative. Cornell West publishes provocative essays and supported Bill Bradley. He's progressive. All black leaders from all across the spectrum. Which says to me that you can be a part of ANY political party and serve the interest of black folks if that is your aim-even the Democratic one.

Has there been a black person in a position of leadership in the Democratic party besides Ron Brown? For all the talk of Clinton being the first black president, Bush Jr has more Black people in higher positions. But to me, this is totally irrelevant if they are gonna fuck black people over. Give me a white person whose in my corner over a pitch black sellout any day. But how would we get to know whose really in our corner or not? There is no monolithic way "we" feel. Ask 10 black ppl their thoughts on 10 different subjects, and you'd get 10 different responses. So who REALLY can speak to the best interests of blacks?

I wonder why JC Watts is 3rd in party leadership for the Republicans? The only reason I could imagine why is that the Republicans are COURTING blacks these days? I must admit I know very little about JC Watts, so he might actually be a good guy with good intentions. But by allowing him to reach that level of leadership tells me that they are probably only courting black people like J.C. Watts and John McWhorter, folks who will overlook their parties hypocritical AND racist tendencies for their own personal gain.
I suppose everyone has a little hypocrite in them, so you can’t expect anything less from the Republicans.

It is impossible to overlook certain shit about the Republican party. For example, I still believe the Republicans set up the disenfranchisement of the black voters in Florida. They also had a mayor in New York who gave the police force carte blanch to violate the rights of any "suspicious" black man in the city. But I’m thinking that if there were more forward thinking people (white or black) in the Republican party, doctrine would have to change.

Republicans are absolutely terrified of the following issues: Reparations, Civil liberties restoration, the war on drugs (elimination), a cease to personal taxation, and decreased police intimidation. For those reasons alone, the Republican party sucks.

Granted, they both drop to their knees for big business and rich white men run both but it's their political agendas and ideologies where the important difference lies. I believe that the Republican party is, for the most part, concentrated on furthering the conservative social and political agenda of the south: anti-affirmative action, pro-life, pro-christian (and anti-every other religion), pro-death penalty, pro-wildlife drilling. None of this helps me or any other black folks I know.

Then you have jackasses like Clarence Thomas and Alan Keys, who so flippantly spout off about how affirmative action is evil, who wouldn't be where they are today without it. They’re just puppet-coons for the republican party.

dance, clarence, dance...

For hypothetical purposes, if Bush came out tomorrow, and said "We are going bring back Midnight basketball for the urban youth, commit more money to sickle cell anemia research, appoint a panel to study black-on-black crime, and take a look at reparations (right or wrong)", he would probably receive overwhelming support from the black community. Would it be genuine? Probably not. Would it make some people consider voting Republican? Probably… Look for some pro-minority gesture like this in early 2004 ri! ght before the election.

So if I truly thought there would be a 'liberal Republican' who could have my best interests at heart, dismiss all the pro-life, pro-Conservatism the rest of the party supports, yet agrees with the whole less taxes and government intervention stuff, I'd think about voting for that person.

However the Democrats have Al Sharpton who if for nothing else, you gotta love because his perm is so tight.

Snowstorm, politics and stuff

I was supposed to do a preliminary punch list for the project I've been working on for a while, however mother nature decided to play a sick April Fool's Day joke on me and about 5 minutes into the meeting which is being held on site outside............ a FREAKIN' SNOWSTORM drops from the sky................. Are you kidding me??? It's now storming snow and the weather forcast (which was supposed to reach 50 today) has been 'updated' to say we are expecting 1-3 inches of snow...................... fucking Chicago....

This is the first part of a two (or three) part political rant. I started working on this question, then realized there is still a lot to cover, so I'll have to do this in a couple of parts. It isn't organized in any kinda way, it's just my scatterbrain commentary on the thought of being Republican.

-c

CD of the moment: Lazy Dog, volume 2

Q. Would you ever consider becoming a Republican?

A. Very difficult question to answer. First of all, it is my belief that the two party system is a HUGE part of our government’s problem. People are not elected based on what they value or believe in anymore. They’re elected because of the party they belong to within a certain region that has led the people to believe that this particular party has their best interests at heart. (get that?) It’s utter bullshit to me.

Let me tell you what I LIKE about the Republican party and then give you the counterpoint as well.
First of all, the Republican’s push the belief that less taxes and government intervention in my life is good. From a selfish standpoint, how could I not buy into this. However, programs that benefit poor children, like Headstart, etc… have to come from somewhere. I have no problem giving up some coins so an unfortunate family can eat, get healthcare, and other stuff like that.
That is all well and good. I want the poor to eat, I had good friends in high school that paid for their lunch with that yellow punch card instead of money. Should that continue, of course. Where does the money come from however? I got it, maybe the soda and cigarette companies that are in such a frenzy to sell to the youth, maybe some of the shoe companies can subsidize some programs, or the cand! y companies. Would they? Hell no.

However, that measly $300 check Bush sent me wasn't worth breaking the Social Security Trust fund, either. Not that SS wasn’t already in shambles, but he could’ve kept that shit for real. So that was some stupid shit to do in my opinion, but you better believe I spent that shit.

I think the Democrats take the black vote for granted. To me, it's not smart to vote for somebody I think will take great delight in fucking me over just because the other party isn't dope. So I'm tired of being an 'automatic' vote for the Democrats.
In my opinion, I dont think they care (they being republicans) they dont care what black people think, say or do. So if they can convince some of us to vote for them in the next go around, great, if not, no big loss, they've been doing without "us" for years now.

The bottom line is its not what color YOU are its what color your MONEY is (green, silver or nonexistant.) And I would put money down that there is a white group of democrats out there that is riling the black folks up, there may be a small core of hardcore politic junkies out there, but by and large, "we" dont care one way or the next. And our money says so. Blacks don't give huge campign contributions, and if we do, we don't vote to support the organizations that gave the money. And that’s proven by the latest poll numbers..... what's my point??? I'm not sure.

The GOP is about money. Green bills. Its populated by some of the most racist folks you could ever meet, who would smile wide as the Mississippi if you contribute something to them. Give them something; they'll give you something. My feeling is that I don’t need a politician (white, black, democrat, republican, etc.) to be my friend. I have those, believe it or not. I need someone who is going to HELP ME WIN. That’s it.

Win what you ask? Maybe a contract to do a great building. Maybe get me a job when I don’t have one. Whatever it is I want to achieve, I need someone to help me do that, not slap me on the back and tell me how great my ancestors are or were, and how I've been fucked over. I know that already.

If anyone owns a business and fires you its because your not contributing enough to the bottom line. I could be the most coonish, pink lipped, bug eyed, shuffling lazy negro that ever stepped foot off a plantation, but if the person I work for (white or black) and opens his books and sees where I come in on the bottom line, if I’m not profitable they would get rid of me. To me, that is common sense? Would l I be a slave for him, of course not. I use him for what he can get me, and he uses me for what I can get him. Thats life.

This also stems from my belief that I can compete, on any level in existence with any human on the face of the planet. My ancestors and people less fortunate than me still need affirmative action. More often than not, I believe that I'm not one of them. I am lucky and fortunate and I thank God that my parents have put me in a position to do so. I still have to deal with discrimination and lack of opportunity from time to time, but maybe I’ve bought into the ‘Republican idea’ that I have the skills to compete on any level therefore shouldn’t receive (don’t want to receive) any sort of special handout to achieve my goals.

Now, the counterpoint which rips my above point to shreds, “Great for me!” Good to know that the less fortunate and gifted among us can count on my support. Also, good to know that I craft my entire world view based on what I need without giving a damn about anyone else." The view above is selfish, self-centered and not based on the ideals of community and the 'group' which is the mindset which has truly assisted blacks get to where they are today.

But here is my point, its not at all about what I need. I personally try not to even live in this year or decade. I'm thinking what I could do that would benefit MY sons and daughters, how can I ensure that my parents who bent over backwards to get me where I am, don't end up in an old folks home I can barely afford (ever been inside one of those places? Its hell on earth for real.) Right now I work at a pretty high profile architecture firm. I received my check last Friday, and the same day saw this older guy, maybe 45 yrs old getting laid off. My heart broke for that guy, to get laid off at that age would suck ass. When my parents reach their golden years I want them living plush, traveling where they wan! t doing whatever they want, call up her son, I'll wire some more cash, whatever she wants or needs its taken care of. But should l I be concerned for every granny on the planet? Perhaps. I'm just not.

What I respect about Republicans is that they tell blacks from the jump 'fuck you.' If you don’t have it like we have it, fuck you. So the argument goes would it be 'keeping it MORE real' by voting for the guy who I know doesn't give a damn about me but is honest!! The party where Senate Majority Leader, Trent Lott, is a proud member of the Council of Conservative Citizens and doesn't even hide that shit! Or the Democratic party that claims to have your best interests at heart, but the amount of tangible change over the past 30 years is minimal at best.

Please don't think I haven't seen the gains black people have made. There have been some definite changes. I know that home ownership (among blacks and whites), lack of unemployment, and college enrollment all reached there highest levels ever under Bill Clinton. (Even though only 2% of new homes were done by architects, but that’s a different argument) Of course, the counter argument could be made that president's don't effect these things, but if that's the case, why bother with politics at all, eh?
I like Clinton. I'll vote for his wife if and when she runs only because Bill will be giving her advice.

I’m all for trying to change the game from the inside out. But in reality, I cannot change the game. At best, as a Republican, I would only become a part of it and perhaps, help some black folks in the process. I saw my dad do this in his own way. He was the voice that made sure whenever they hired summer kids for internships, they better hire some blacks, or he was going to give them hell. So you can make a ‘small’ difference in your own way even by being a part of the republican party. Now that he has retired, there hasn’t been ! one black hire at all. So without someone in there with a voice, I’m afraid we would be looked over completely.

................. to be continued...