That's Ostrich Homie

How we gonna' communicate
When we can't even conversate?
You tell me it's converse
I'm trying to expand your Universe.
Show you what is and what will be
Man, you birds kill me.
Holla' "Eff those coons" and "Bomb those sand niggers"
When you facedown, ass up chasin' figures
That's right clown, you getting screwed
Fighting feuds got your brain nude
Naked as jaybird, skinny dipping in life
Crocs in this water, falcons taking flight
It's a food chain game, and you look like dinner
Chances for survial couldn't be slimmer
Keep those blinders, bury that head
Hot sand burns, Third eye closes on the dead
You monkeys blind, deaf and dumb 'bout evil
Faking funk and pulling stunts like Knievel
My thoughts nova, catch the light while you can
Soon enough y'all be asking
"What happened to Big Man?"




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She's Joined the Team

Sandra Bullock is on Team Brown Baby.

It's quite the popular team in Hollywood, as brown babies have been all the rage for the past five years, and were popular among some folks even before the recent craze. White Hollywood stars love adopting brown babies, particularly brown babies from other countries, although Sandra decided to stay stateside with her choice.

Now she's parading the infant around on celebrity magazines, and talking about her plans to be a single mom. I've written about the voluntary parenting sans daddies phenomenon so I won't even go there again. And while I know that Bullock has filed for divorce from Jesse James, I still have to wonder.

So, she was planning on adopting a black baby with a husband who goes hard for White Power, and likes to dress up like Hitler?

Maybe this gives credence to Bullocks assertions that she had no idea that James was a racist. Some folks will surely argue that nobody would adopt a black baby with a racist, it just wouldn't work. I can see that argument.

Then again, I find it terribly hard to believe you don't know your husband is a racist after living and loving him for five years. Racism and prejudice isn't something people typically hide from the ones they love. They usually let that all hang out. I just can't fathom that Bullock had NO IDEA about James' beliefs and predilections.

Which leads me to wonder if she planned to use a black baby to change her husband's mind. Was this baby supposed to "cure" Jesse James of his bigotry. Was this a new variation of the Magical Negro theory, basically the Magical Negro Infant theory?

I must admit, it seems like Hollywood types believe that adopting brown babies from war torn countries and impoverished areas can save the world. With that belief, it doesn't seem like much of a leap to think that brown babies with white parents can cure racism.

Does it?

But, I really don't know. A friend of mine posited that if you combine Bullock's do-gooder past with the possibility that she might have actually believed the hype about her role in The Blind Side, then you get a woman who sees adopting a poor black baby as the next logical step. I mean, it's like a real life Blind Side without the extra hassle of a dealing with an older child. My friend said that she also thinks that James could have been great at living a double life, a possiblity that I consider remote, and really just chalk up to my friend's man-hating ways.

But, what do y'all think?






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Pay to Play

Money makes the world move.

Don't believe me?

What if I told you that rich citizens are given access to the police simply because of their ability to make donations? I don't mean they get to do a poo-butt ride along, I mean they get to use tasers, help kick in doors or even watch a perp get questioned. They get to fulfill all of their law enforcement fantasies with a scratch of a pen on a check.

Would you believe me?

Some of you wouldn't, you'd tell me that's a clear conflict of interest. You can't pay the police for access. You'd be right. You can't give most police departments direct donations. But, you can give police foundations donations. Or organizations like the fraternal order of police. And everybody knows those non-profit organizations are really just an extension of the police department.

If don't believe me, all you have to do is verify what I'm saying by reading the New York Times.

I'm not here to blast the NYPD. Lord knows they aren't unusual in their operation or methods.

Nah, I'm perturbed by something else in this process. I'm bothered by the possibility, wait scratch that... I'm bothered by the fact that rich folks with unprecedented and unequal access to the police always make things worse for people like me.

I know it's not anything new. Money has made its own laws forever. I'd have to be a fool to believe that rich folks and poor folks operate on an even playing field when it comes to the justice system or law enforcement agencies. I've been accused of being a lot of things, but rarely a fool.

But, what the Times exposed was fairly brazen. This wasn't a lost report, or a ride home instead of to the lockup for a rich person's son. This was an entire program where donors were given a taste of what it is like to be a boy in blue, and then hit up for cash afterwards. And instead of being done by a public agency whose records are open to the public, it was done by a shadowy foundation, that keeps its business private.

That should concern folks, for real.

More and more, people with money are creating a separate world with separate rules. And that world is being staffed by folks with guns and sadistic tendencies. It's not hard to imagine the next stop on this train. Private militias running around enforcing the "laws" of private enclaves populated by rich folks seeking to escape the masses.

Gentrification would seem to the forerunner of a new society where rich folks have usurped easily defensible urban areas, while the huddling masses are pushed away from these hubs and crammed into shanty towns. Food and other amenities are brought in from outlying farms to those folks living in the urban areas.

Some of y'all are shaking your heads, and I don't blame you. I typically try to avoid dystopian science fiction as well.

But, it seems to me that nothing good can come of rich folks obtaining increased access to our publicly funded law enforcement system. And, given my past experiences, I know that it's quite easy for those with means to twist a public agency into basically a semi-private agency while still having it funded by the money of the peons.

Trust me, it happens all the time.

So, while some folks might see this Times story as another predictable treatise on the pay to play phenomenon, I see it as more. I see it as opening salvo in a much deeper game. A game that we all need to be aware of and vigilant about because it could have dire consequences.

Guns and money create power.

Who has the guns and the money?



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Just Gotta Shake My Head

I seem to be following The Field Negro lately, but I swear I had this story before I saw it on his site.

I'm talking about the story about this white dude who dressed up like a black guy in order to avoid police detection while robbing banks.

It's another example of white folks understanding the power of the black bogeyman myth and thus realizing it makes sense to pretend to be black to commit crimes. That way you can avoid suspicion when you switch back to being white.

Honestly, I wasn't even mad at dude because his costume was so realistic. I had to nod my head in respect at his creativity.

That said, while researching this guy's costume, ('Cause face it, I need to know just how easy it is for white folks to walk among black folks undetected) I found the website of the company that makes it. Here's the site if you're interested.

If you check out that link you'll see, it's a gallery of costumes, mostly horror and freak show stuff. And then there's the black dude costume, or "The Player."

I'm going ignore the suspect name for the costume which brings to mind stereotypes about sports and women.

Instead, I'm wondwering, does anybody else find that gallery strange?

Anybody else wonder why "The Player" was a natural off-shoot for a company that had previously focused on zombies, ghouls and aliens? Am I the only one that wonders how this fits in with the long-held notions of black men as "monsters"?

I'm not alone, right?

Everybody understands that there is something a bit off with this company's decision to make its first "human" costume a mask of a bald black man, right? Y'all don't just see this as a random and reasonable occurence, do you? I sincerly hope not because that would mean I'm going crazy and my blog audience isn't as sophisticated as I thought. (Yeah, I'm kissing up.)

When I saw that gallery I just had to shake my head. You know, that "Ain't this about a B" head shake. It's like every time I turn around, I get another reminder, another tap on the shoulder.

Some folks might argue that's only because I'm looking for it, you know searching for racism like it was gold. But, I contend that I would rather have my head on a swivel then be the victim of a crackback block. Even paranoid folks have enemies, right?

So, tell me, do y'all think I'm being paranoid?





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