Today in Blackness: MHL on Smiley, Dyson, and other annoying folks.

This is an excellent source!!!!

I feel some severe envy in you my brother. You sound like someone who is mad that they don't get the same dap Dyson gets. Dyson is a brilliant brother and should be revered. Black on black player hating is like kicking rats in a bag.

You do what you do and Dyson will do what he does.

Now Tavis Smiley on the other hand...

By the way, Harris Lacewell belongs to me. Ha, ha. One fine Sista. Woo.

Blacks need anarchism babee:

My man Noam Chomsky:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cceC3DeFcY

For a long time Dr. Dyson has irritated me. While some of his points are relevant he always seems to enjoy the sound of his own voice way too much. And, his argument against Cosby for all the educated words used, still seems small-minded and irrational. Sit long enough in the homes of the poor and you will want to use any method necessary to convince them to educate themselves or at least their children, so that their lives can be better. It is education that got Dyson where he is today, and I'm certain he didn't always receive the message that he needed to better himself in a kind and gentle way. Folks don't need an advocate justifying their ignorance, they need knowledge.

Next if you truly know youth trapped in the foster care system, coming from families with 6, 7 or 8 kids all had by an incarcerated mother. If you view the hurt in these young folk's eyes, because they want to be loved by someone who is their blood and if you know that young folks are dying in the foster care system then Cosby's advice to tie "warm" young sisters to a chair with duct tape doesn't seem such a bad idea. Some folks need to stop having babies they have no intention of caring for.

One more point. Tavist lost me in his arguments against Obama early on. See, he faulted Obama for coming out in Springfield, IL and not in an urban area. Heeello Tavist and the gang. I live down the street from Springfield in an even smaller town. I am older than most of that group, so I've been black longer. Listening to the "Last Poets," Gil-Scott, and caring about the community. And, here's a heads-up, just like in the South, there are blacks in many Midwest small towns and cities, too. Our everyday lives may be more diverse because of the composition of where we live, but our experience is a valid and relational to those from urban areas.

Finally, folks need to remember Obama was black when he was walking the streets of Chicago as an activist and no one gave a hoot about him. He is black when he goes to bed and black when he wakes up each morning. He has a black wife, wearing her REAL hair, who is REAL person, with REAL spirit and intelligence. He has two black children--one with twisties in her hair some days. But, Mr. Obama is everybody's President though and most of us understand that...

redcatbiker,

I disagree with so much of what you've written that it would take way too much time to write why you're wrong...er...why I disagree.

The only thing I can say is I'm sorry.

She and TWiB are sooooo veeeeery wrong! Obama was a media-generated candidate. And, pray-tell, how the heck were blacks "co-authors" of his presidential campaign? Just look at who his advisors were! And he made absolutely no campaign promises to the [not monolithic] black community--not one campaign promise! What is sad is how many blacks fell for the Obama okey-doke and drank his Kool-Aid. Because, as it has turned out, Obama is pretty much 98% following Bush's playbook and plan for the nation. His campaign was nothing but empty advertising platitudes like "Change We Can Believe In." Well, dear-hearts, what change? He has given away more money to the banks, with the bailouts, than did Bush. (As a matter of fact, when he was the Democratic Party candidate, as the leader of the party, he strong-armed his fellow Senators to vote for the first of the bailout bills that Bush proposed!) Are you people here at TWiB so blinded by race--support a black man no matter what!--that you willingly sell out black folks for one black face in a position of power. Remember: All presidents are managers of empire. Get political here! Obama does not have the interests of blacks at heart, and that is regardless of his having a black wife and black daughters.

I saw Obama's phoniness coming a mile away and did not vote for him. (The only difference between Obama and McCain was thirty years and skin colour. Oh, and that Obama would smile at you whilst sticking and turning the knife in your gut.) I think I am one of about twenty blacks who did not vote for him. Obama was never truly a liberal, neither was he a progressive.

As a constitutional law professor, he went against the constitution and he proved himself to be nothing but a politician by voting against the fourth amendment, in favour of the FISA bill: That's right, he voted in favour of spying on his fellow American citizens. As a constitutional lawyer he should have supported [his former] Reverend Wright's first amendment right to free speech. Obama could have said, in regards to Wright's "not God bless America, but God damn America!" that he did not support his viewpoint, but that, as an American, as a constiutional lawyer, that he supported Wright's right to free speech. Instead, Obama gives his "white people don't be afraid of the big black man, I won't in any way infringe upon your white privilege" Philadelphia Race Speech.

One of the few black websites that had Obama's number from the get-go was the blackagendareport.com They were one of the few black information websites that showed any critical thinking skills regarding Obama the candidate, and they continue to show critical thinking skills regarding Obama the president. You all should borrow a page from their book.