I don't even know what to say, except I hope Andrew Meyer gets a royalty for this...
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Brandon's First Football Game
This is my nephew, running his first touchdown at his first football game ever. I post this because I am proud of him. I post this because I love hearing his supportive parents, my brother and sister-in-law, screaming for him to stay in bounds, and I know that they will be there for him and their other son, Brian - who, not incidentally, is also a football star - always.
I post this because I know that Isiah Thomas and Michael Vick and OJ Simpson must have started similarly - talented, ripe with opportunity, buoyed by the support of their fans. But who is on the sidelines for them now, screaming for them to stay in bounds?
I post this because I know that Isiah Thomas and Michael Vick and OJ Simpson must have started similarly - talented, ripe with opportunity, buoyed by the support of their fans. But who is on the sidelines for them now, screaming for them to stay in bounds?
Monday, September 17, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Walk With Purpose
...So Daddy's been working with some African American junior high/high school kids in Hollis, Queens, who are writing and performing their own show. As we rehearsed this week, I yelled at them (Or spoke firmly, maybe) because they drag their feet as they walk into place onstage (or off):
Walk with purpose, guys. We don't have all day. Look like you know where
you're going, and go there. Hold your head up...Pick up your feet...Walk in
a straight line; don't meander. You're killing me with this...
...Today my partner gave me his keychain gym passport so that I could go to NYSC and do some treadmilling. But I'm not a member there. Won't they check? His response:
No one will notice you. They're always doing something else when I come
into the gym. Just walk with purpose past the front desk into the gym and
they'll never know.
...Reminds me of the time, shortly after we met, when I first visited him at his high-rise apartment building at 63rd and York:
Just walk with purpose past the front desk and come up to the 26th floor.
Security won't stop you.
...Daddy remembers being stopped by security guards. My humanity didn't fool them. There I was, all black and stuff - just covered in lousy blackness - having the pre-9/11 nerve to try to walk to the elevators without showing my ID. The security guards were all black, so they knew Daddy didn't live there. And why would Daddy be coming into the building on a Friday night, all brazen and shit?
...Makes me wonder if my black kids in Hollis walk with little purpose because they don't want to be accused of stealing identity, or just plain stealing, or worse yet - having a purpose.
...Nope, Daddy aint going to NYSC today. And when my partner asks me why, I'll tell him:
Because I'm Black.
Walk with purpose, guys. We don't have all day. Look like you know where
you're going, and go there. Hold your head up...Pick up your feet...Walk in
a straight line; don't meander. You're killing me with this...
...Today my partner gave me his keychain gym passport so that I could go to NYSC and do some treadmilling. But I'm not a member there. Won't they check? His response:
No one will notice you. They're always doing something else when I come
into the gym. Just walk with purpose past the front desk into the gym and
they'll never know.
...Reminds me of the time, shortly after we met, when I first visited him at his high-rise apartment building at 63rd and York:
Just walk with purpose past the front desk and come up to the 26th floor.
Security won't stop you.
...Daddy remembers being stopped by security guards. My humanity didn't fool them. There I was, all black and stuff - just covered in lousy blackness - having the pre-9/11 nerve to try to walk to the elevators without showing my ID. The security guards were all black, so they knew Daddy didn't live there. And why would Daddy be coming into the building on a Friday night, all brazen and shit?
...Makes me wonder if my black kids in Hollis walk with little purpose because they don't want to be accused of stealing identity, or just plain stealing, or worse yet - having a purpose.
...Nope, Daddy aint going to NYSC today. And when my partner asks me why, I'll tell him:
Because I'm Black.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Black Enterprise Pulls Plug on Eddie Griffin
Eddie Griffin, while performing at Black Enterprise's 14th annual Golf and Tennis Challenge in Miami on Friday, used the N-word repeatedly, pissing off the Jacks and Jills, the Buppies and The Bougies of Black Enterprise Magazine. Didn't he know that the NAACP buried the N-Word in July?
Sensing that Griffin didn't know, Earl Graves, the publisher of the magazine, literally pulled the plug on him. Graves appeared onstage - with a plug and a cord in one hand and a working microphone in the other, saying, "We at Black Enterprise will not allow our culture to go backward. Black Enterprise stands for decency, black culture and dignity."
Eddie Griffin's publicist declined comment, but I imagine that Griffin said, "Damn. Them Black Enterprise niggers mean BUSINESS."
Sensing that Griffin didn't know, Earl Graves, the publisher of the magazine, literally pulled the plug on him. Graves appeared onstage - with a plug and a cord in one hand and a working microphone in the other, saying, "We at Black Enterprise will not allow our culture to go backward. Black Enterprise stands for decency, black culture and dignity."
Eddie Griffin's publicist declined comment, but I imagine that Griffin said, "Damn. Them Black Enterprise niggers mean BUSINESS."
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