Rock On Barack!

The one thing I know for sure is the power of inspiration is real. And unlike matters of passion and spirituality, I think politics is one of those dubious arenas in which to heed and harness inspiration. Do I think we need it in politics? Oh yeah! But I am so careful to note how it is spun. How it is packaged. I have to admit when Obama first hit the campaign scene, immediately I was drawn into his aura. His message for change caressed my eardrums and indeed my weary spirit. His words had me moist before I even had a chance to do my usual research and background check into homeboy's platform and his history in the Senate. Needless to say, I discovered many a thing about brother Barack. Mostly good. And so now I finally feel I can allow myself to be swayed by his brilliant gift for oratory (his speechwriter is a monster with those metaphors!). And just as his zeal takes a hold of my cynical attitude, Barack done busted out with a music video... and like his speeches, it too has got that magic to morph and move. And will.i.am, what can I say? This brother's game is so tight, and not because he's got MiJac on his sack, but because he's got Barack's victory speech from South Carolina rivaling the soulful urgency of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?" Say word.

Michelle Obama & her man

So how you like ‘em now? While folks where getting caught up in the superfluous, like how Oprah's outfits complemented Barack's ties during their mega campaign tour or how Michelle Obama's dark skin makes her so not the typical wife of a successful/accomplished Black man, or even Whoopi wondering what if Barack were married to a white woman, the Baracks were winning heads over in Iowa (and around the country) with their political movement for change. No doubt I was surprised by the results in Iowa and was just beaming at the eloquence, sophistication and power of his victory speech. His words and how he commanded the mic were straight monstrous—brother's definitely on some Rakim ish. Hillary not so much. Her speech was painful to hear-- like she had more time than words to speak. Girlfriend was tap dancing her way out of Iowa.

On the other hand I love watching Michelle speak. She seems to handle every question with such realness and grace. I've seen her speak on everything from getting her husband to quit smoking to her thoughts around his possible assassination. Michelle is tough and classy; crazy intelligent and still totally down to earth. And if I must dip into the waters of superficiality then please let me say this, with all the hair woes of sisters on the Hill and in the House, it's such a relief to have Michelle whose coif is always tight and right. Maybe now we can all focus on what really matters... cleaning House!

A President's Day Quickie

Okay so I'm running out the door but I just stumbled on this editorial by author Trey Ellis. He's commenting on Blackness and politics and therefore on Obama:
I bit my tongue for as long as I could, reading essay after essay about Obama and his "blackness" that were about as insightful as if they'd been written in the era of Flip Wilson. Geez! Doesn't anybody watch the Disney Channel these days? The complexion of America has changed in the last thirty years.

His comments are interesting if not controversial as he takes his 1989 theory on The New Black Aesthetic and remixes it for a discussion on what he calls cultural mulattos:

A genetic mulatto is a black person of mixed parents who often can get along fine with his white grandparents, a cultural mulatto, educated by a multi-racial mix of cultures, can also navigate easily in the white world.

I hear Trey on the prevalence of cultural mulatto-ing. I mean my girl Nae and I have a whole run down on the pros and cons of attending Hunter High School for six years and how our real education came not so much from the literature we studied or the mathematical equations we solved but from our social interactions with boys and girls of all ethnicities, shades and financial backgrounds. We learned things about race that no book can teach and use those same lessons to this day in Corporate America. The whole theory on why do all the Black kids eat at the same lunch table just gets flipped to why do all the Black girls go out for drinks together after work? Do we straddle the fence of being in a Black and White world yeah I guess so. But does that straddling come into conflict with our Blackness. Nope not for us personally and not really for the white or Black folks we deal with. A few things about Trey editorial that I don't understand or agree with:

About Colin Powell-- truth is all my peeps whether they are born in Jamaica or born in England or born here will still say they are Jamaican because that is their culture and their family’s homeland. I don't ever hear any of them say they are Black American and furthermore I don't see what’s the big deal. Maybe I'm missing something here. Please y’all help me out!

This sentence here about Denise, Sandra, Vanessa and Rudy Huxtable:

The culturally mulatto Cosby girls are equally as black as a black teenage welfare mother.

I kinda disagree with him here because of the role class plays in how they rolled in their Blackness and therefore what they were exposed to and how that was played out. I mean the girls never talked about their hair and how different that was from their white friends. What Black girl in all white or in mixed environments never thinks about their hair or their skin complexion especially in the 80’s? (Of course this gets really complicated when we look at Sandra and Denise who in real life are both biracial and looked very much like the genetic mulattas they really were in spite of being cast as the children of two very brown-skinned parents!) In terms of Black culture it is still hard for me to say that the Huxtables were the quintessential Black fam. Just as I have a hard time swallowing that James, Florida and the rest of the Evans crew were the ultimate Black family. I know Trey would ask me was one fam more Black than the other and I guess in theory I would have to say no. It’s just in 2007 it still seems like these types of conversations in the first place do so much to stifle, contort and constrict definitions of all that Black folks are. Do Asians have these same conversations?

And then although I think Trey’s essay is engaging and definitely a good convo for the water cooler I do feel like his last sentence just simplifies everything. But maybe like me he was tight on time and didn't have a chance to say more so I won’t be mad. Alright I gotta bounce there's some President's Day sales I need to check out.

Later.