the gospel

"hard to be a spiritual being when shit is shaking what you believe in."

It's just sex, right?

That's what people want to boil it down to. This morning the Root is running two pieces on "sex tourism" to Brazil and other "third world" locales. I pen a direct review of Jewel Woods and Karen Hunter's book "Don't Blame it on Rio" and Mark Sawyer does a indirect review of the book as he discusses the representation of Brazilian women in American popular imagination and scholarship.

I decided to write the review after traveling to Boca Chica, Dominican Republic and seeing many of the things that Woods wrote about come to life. I think that the book can open a dialogue that we are seriously in need of around Black middle class men and the lack of accountability that we are allowed to operate with. Yes Virginia, Black male privilege does exist and we need to uncover it, discuss it, and act upon it. Give my piece a read here. No doubt that many of the responses will try to compartmentalize the actions of these "prostituting" brothas, or claim it's just like sex tourism from other groups, but I think even if it's like processes that happen in other groups, we really need to begin to address it with care, because it's having serious effects.

Mark Sawyer, a scholar I respect very much, does a great job of discussing the relationship between "developed" and "developing" nations and characterizations of women. While Sawyer pans Woods and Hunter's book, he then goes on to suggest there is something that makes Westerners look upon Brazilian women, and others, as mere sexual objects. I'd contend that thing is male privilege coupled with financial capital ... which are central to Woods and Hunter's book. Additionally, Sawyer brings up a question that was troubling me as I read "Don't Blame it on Rio," who are Black women? It is likely that many of the women that these Black male tourists are cavorting with are of African descent, but this Diasporic connection becomes dissolved into sex. By saying being with women from Brazil, DR, Cuba, etc is weakening the Black community, are we too narrowly defining the Diaspora? And before you say it, yes I do know men who have traveled abroad, met women, married them, though they are fewer in number then the ones I know who have just slept with women and returned to the US.

A little while back I wrote, "what if everyone knew Black was beautiful?" it was triggered by some deep conversations I had with brothas and sisters in the DR about Blackness and its negativity. Will we ever truly forge a Diaspora? I wonder how do we, as African-Americans, contribute to these negative images as we transverse borders. Alright, that's enough of me opening cans of worms, I'll have to revisit some of this later. Thoughts?

And still more questions... critiques edition

The only way to make it better is to lovingly critique, right?

1) What am I more disappointed in, the one million "a millie" freestyles or that Wayne sold a millie in a week?

2)Why is the Nas and Green Lantern tape so banging? And why does it make me nervous for the album?

3) Did anyone peep Nas taking on the Hegelian Master-Slave dialectic? Or have I read too much theory of late?

4)Why can't I get enough of public access rap shows?

5) Why am I waiting so hard for Immortal Technique's album?

6)What would have happened if Obama's folks let them sit where they should have been seated?

7) When did everyone in NYC decide to root against the Lakers (and yeah I'm still a Lakers fan)?

8) Does Lil Wayne know menstration is not a venereal disease? Freudian freestyle anyone?

9) Why within 20 minutes of being on the beach in the Dominican Republic did multiple "Morenos" call me nigga?

10) What if all my people truly knew "Black is Beautiful"?

11) What happens when love is not enough?

12) Why do people think wanting my due is being a capitalist, when it's clearly just my Marxian understanding of the value of my labor?

13) Why were more people outraged about Tim Russert's death than the R. Kelly decision?

14)Why are you "so anti it don't even matter"?

15) Why am I so ignorant for putting the little White kid's picture so big?

Harlem Blues and the Barack Buzz

This week I had a chance to do an interview with Newsweek.com regarding the significance of Barack Obama's campaign and Harlem. The short video entitled, "Martin, Malcolm, Barack?" features me and multiple Harlem artists. Click here to check it out.

Like all journalism, whether print or multimedia, I always find myself wondering how things become whittled down. We really discussed a great deal in the interview which was about a half an hour. We discussed current day Harlem, its history, Black politics, Black leadership, really the whole gamut. But even with the editing, I think the piece was successful. Check it out.

Update: For some reason this video seems to be very difficult to maintain a link to. I've changed the url a couple of times and as of 1m on June 26th this link is active. I hope the video doesn't disappear from cyberspace! And shout out to UptownFlavor.com where I pulled the link from!

All before my morning coffee...

Getting up for me usually involves a regiment of reading, eating, washing, and coffee. Before I could get to the last three, I was awakened by two things, but not by coffee.

First the news that the Mets fired Willie Randolph arrived. Now anyone could have seen it coming, but it was when they fired him that really got me. I stayed up past 1 to watch the Mets win and then went to bed. Apparently in the wee hours of the morning, they released Randolph, Peterson (thank God), and Nieto. In many ways, they've captured my feelings about it on metsblog here.

And tucked amidst my political, social, and sports rantings, I occasionally delve into the emotional. I must say a thank you for the letter I received today. I contains some of the truest things that have ever had said to me and I'll use it for its purposes. Thank you for pushing me to be "the northeast wind, pushing, cajoling, and inspiring greatness in myself and others." (If you didn't know, that's what Dumi means).

Now to get to that morning coffee.

Mirrors of Truth

Let go of your worries

and be completely clear-hearted,

like the face of a mirror

that contains no images.

If you want a clear mirror,

behold yourself

and see the shameless truth,

which the mirror reflects.

If metal can be polished

to a mirror-like finish,

what polishing might the mirror

of the heart require?

Between the mirror and the heart

is this single difference:

the heart conceals secrets,

while the mirror does not.

-Rumi

Been around the world and I, I, I...

So I was traveling this past week and didn't get a chance to hit you with anything new. But now I'm back in the States and I wanted to quickly to tell you to check out the Addicted to Race podcast that I guest co-hosted with Carmen Van Kerchove. In continuing with the theme of world travel, the podcast features a variety of subjects from media coverage of Mynamar, the MLK monument in DC, to Hip-Hop and accountability. As always, I had a great time cutting it up with Carmen, one of the sharpest cats out there on Race and Pop culture!

And on a side, but related note to my traveling, I'll be taking some time to reorganize my stuff over the next while, so posts may be slow.