Riding around with my sister yesterday, I happened to turn to NPR and “This American Life” was on. It was on it’s last story of a cop in the NYPD who refused to manipulate charges to boost and/or lower numbers for the crime statistics. Being the type of person he is, he starts recording everything. Very damaging. When the top brass figures out what he’s doing, they have him committed to a psychiatric ward against his will.
This is something that I think everyone should listen to. My aversion to uniformed “law enforcement” officers tends to bend toward the rant end of the spectrum so when something so coherent and apparent comes up (i.e. police brutality videos) comes up, I like to make it available to as wide an audience as possible. I try to post it here, I post it to facebook and email it to friends.
Why? Because the role of the police in our community needs to be trained. Their disdain for our basic human rights has become so ingrained into police culture that nothing short of radical reorganization is needed.
Below is a video from the 2009 Hip Hop Summit that the Nation of Islam leads every year to try and influence rappers to have more positive messages in the music. Wise Intelligent, formerly of 1990′s hip hop group Poor Righteous Teachers, eloquently explains, as an industry insider, what he saw as the deliberate manipulation of the hip hop industry away from political rap to the hyper-sexualized, materialistic music topping the charts today.
Do you agree? Disagree? Use the comments to state your position.
Who represents you? You do! Occupy Wall Street September 17, 2011 12pm
A number of organizations have gotten together and decided that it was time to send a really powerful message a la Arab Spring. They want corporate money out of government and they want to stop preferential treatment of corporations and the rich at the expense of every other American. So they are hoping to get 20,000 people to camp out on Wall Street for at least 2 months. Rapper Lupe Fiasco has even donated 50 tents toward the cause. Please visit www.occupywallst.org to get the full story and find out ways you can help even if you can’t participate. Since I’m not working, I really want to participate in this but sleeping on the streets of New York really gets in the way of dialysis 3x/week. So I’m using this post to get the word out.
Now that I think about it, I don’t want to stop with just this action. Mainstream media routinely ignored direct actions and protests that have happened all over the country this past year including the Keystone Protests in DC where 1200 people were arrested (including the head of NASA and actress Darryl Hannah). If you are planning direct actions and protests anywhere in the country and would like to get the word out, please email me at swan_diver@hotmail.com and I will post it on my blog. My hope is that those posts would serve as a resource for both activists looking for ways to make a difference and journalists who are looking for protests to cover. I feel really excited about this.
EDIT September 18, 2011 – Just saw on TruthOut that the protests are being Livestreamed. Will try to embed it below. If it doesn’t work, you can watch it here.
Black media and the blogosphere has been ablaze these past couple of weeks with news that Tyler Perry might be in talks to get his own television network. Just google it and read the back and forth. Perry elicits some very strong feelings.
Many people think that this is just a natural progression for a media giant who employs black people and gives us a presence that has been dwindling over the past decade. Others feel that the images he puts out for mainstream consumption are doing black people a disservice and maybe he shouldn’t have a larger format to continue this.
So let’s speak plainly. Tyler Perry makes shit. But that’s okay. Why? Because the fact that we can have a Tyler Perry means that we have reached a place in American society where we no longer feel that any media representation we produce must be our best face. The vast majority of American media is vapid bullshit. The visual and audio equivelant to a Krispy Kreme double bacon cheeseburger and it seems to be getting worse every year. And while it is a twisted sort of progress, the fact that we are participating in the production of that vapid bullshit is progress. No other group in this country requires it’s media makers to always think of the “good of the community” when producing. If that was the case, the makers of Jackass would have been thrown out a long time ago. In modern American media there is only one judge and that is money. Tyler Perry makes a lot of it.
Yes, we still have a problem with stereotypes. Yes, we still have a problem with our lack of visibility in mainstream media. However, we are in luck because technology has flattened the media landscape. No longer do we need to head to LA or NY to make media. No longer do we have to beg large studio executives to greenlight our projects. No longer do we need massive funding to tell our stories. For $10,000, the price of a good used car, we can set up a media presence that is global.
So maybe, instead of gnashing our teeth over one guy just doing his thing, we open the doors and make it possible for everyone to get their voice out there and let the best rise to the top.
This is a post that I’ve been meaning to write for a long time and as usual I procrastinated. However, I have just spent the last few weeks in and out of hosptials due to a nasty blood infection and dialysis catheter issues where the only source of news was CNN and other mainstream sources. This is really to say that I got NO news over that period unless you count the 24 hour bullshit of the Casey Anthony case. It really was all just noise. I could watch 2 hours of CNN and not have any better understanding of any issue they covered. Having had to turn the TV off in disgust, it really hit home just how much I relied on independent and public media to stay informed about the issues that affect my life.
But I’m broke. That is the excuse I used for years when the pledge drives came on my favorite NPR stations. When my favorite podcasts ask for money, in my mind I always make a note to give when I have the extra funds. I ease my guilty feelings of being an information leech by stressing my good intentions. Independent media has to ask for money a lot.
Then GritTV, a great progressive news source, announced that it would have to abandon it’s daily format and rework itself into a monthly, hour-long program that they are urging us to lobby our public TV stations to pick up. Other outlets can’t grow and expand because of lack of funds. Given the horrible choices out there that calls itself news, I have decided to find a way to help out these independent sources given my meager resources. I have decided to carve out $10/month to give to a variety of news sources. This post is to encourage you to do the same. While my list may not be the same as yours, I would hope that enough people care about actually getting facts with their news that it actually makes a difference. Below is my list for the year starting January 2012.
Local Public Radio Station – I’m lucky in that I have at least three to choose from. WFCR/WNNZ is the one I listen to the most. Though it’s hard because WNNZ which has all of the talk is an AM station that I can’t get on most of my radios so I have to listen online. WFCR must get a lot of money from classical music lovers that that’s what plays all day. WAMC out of Albany, NY must be the best public radio station I’ve ever come across when it comes to local, informative programming.
Local Public Television Station – Sometimes they may have a minimum contribution that is more than $10. Check and see. Also, they are constantly looking for less expensive programming than what is offered by the CPB. Feel free to lobby them to include shows like Democracy Now and GritTV to their lineup.
Democracy Now – Speaking of “Democracy Now”. It is probally the best show to watch/listen to if you want your news unfiltered through corporate media and government propaganda. It deserves a much more prominent place on the American media landscape.
Citizen Radio- If you want a hilarious, informative, accessible way to begin learning about progressive politics, this is the podcast for you. Their tagline: “Like CNN but with swearing” is dead-on. If you can make it through their 20 minute douchebag buffer, then this is the thing for you. Great for teens.
Black Agenda Report - Sadly, the state of 90% of black media has devolved into little more than consumerist puke and profiles of personality cults. Black Agenda Report does it’s best to analyze and inform us about real issues affecting the lives of the vast majority of African-Americans.
AlterNet – Another great resource to get facts and information on a variety of issues affecting the country and the world. Like “Democracy Now”, it’s one of the best resources for a well-rounded education.
This is just a partial list of the best stuff. If there is something I’ve missed, please leave a link in a comment. Remember, we are looking for news oulets, not (just) propaganda.
I love writing but I love discussion and the sharing of ideas even more. I have at leat 5 half-finished posts that I want get done but would really appreciate knowing that they will actually be read. According to my site stats, someone is visiting.
Just please leave a quick comment, rate the post or share it on your facebook. If you like what I say, great. If you think I’m full of shit, say it.
This Tuesday night I sat, self-conscience, in an uncomfortable wooden chair, in the great room of Blanchard Hall at Mount Holyoke College to see Stacyeann Chin. Early in 2006 I had discovered Ms. Chin’s work while scouring the Internet looking for black lesbian sites. I quickly added her has a friend on Myspace and enthusiastically followed her career online as much as I could. I read her poems and played YouTube videos to anyone who I think would appreciate her. So I was really excited to be there.
Ms. Chin did not disappoint. Readings of both book excerpts and poems were engrossing and powerful (look at video below of the scathing piece she did for the Gay Games she read that night). Their rawness and honesty left an impression on the audience that was tangible and indelible. For me though, it was her between-piece banter that made the night. With the first proclamation of her gray pubic hairs, I felt us collectively ease into a safe space after a spate of nervous laughter. Throughout the night, in tune with her own sense of openness, the audience would raise their hand to admit they were in therapy or let out a knowing laugh at a Hitachi Magic Wand reference.
At the end, even though I had bought her book, “The Other Side of Paradise” the week it came out, I couldn’t find it packed away in boxes after the move so used my gas money for the week to buy another copy for her to sign. When it was my turn at the table, instead of the pithy comment I had rehearsing the whole time making reference to her insomnia that I had read about on facebook, I blathered something about bumping into her at NYC Pride a few years ago and how she inspires me. Complete fangirl bullshit.
And then I went home and thought and wrote and thought and wrote to work through some shit going down in my life right now.
One thing kept popping up though. Some things she said, especially in reference to sex, seem like they were pulled right from my head. I felt the same way. I wonder if it was my 390lb frame proclaiming my horniness and flirting with baby dykes would it be seen as such a tantalizing, transgressive, sexiness?
And Staceyann Chin is amazingly sexy. She exudes a sensuality that can only come from a woman fundamentally in sync with herself. While watching her on stage, it was hard not to imagine what she tasted like or what she would smell like if I buried my nose into the curve of her neck. If I thought she was even halfway serious about her offers that night or if I thought she would have even looked at me twice, I would have jumped at the chance.
As powerful as she is (and the following is no slight to her in the least), I have come to learn that it’s very easy to talk about the power of the pussy when there’s a line of people wanting to fuck it. I have spent most of my adult life reading and writing, processing and keeping up with the world. If only given a chance, I feel that I could have made amazing contributions. But I have been deemed unfuckable so I have to watch time and time again as opportunites get passed to the less talented, the less dedicated, the less qualified.
This should come as no surprise. Even the marketplace of ideas is still a marketplace and packaging matters. Does this make me feel better? No. I’m just getting tired now and the fight is leaving me and I feel like I’m just going through the motions.
Ah, the taser*. Touted by our friendly neighborhood police state as the “humane” alternative to gunning us down in the street, tasers have instead presented us with a whole new set of problems and abuses by law enforcement who practice predatory policing. To make the point and to facilitate more discussion of this issue, I will highlight just one story about the government-sanctioned abuse of the taser by police each week. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to run out of stories.
To start off, below is a video showing proof of a police officer tasing a man who was already subdued, with his hands on the hood of the car, presenting no threat whatsoever. Upon further research, this case being so blatant, the police officer shown in video did lose his job. But that is a rare case. Stay tuned.
* While “Taser” refers to a specific company, it has entered common usage for any device that uses electrocution to disable and subdue a person.
