Apparently, Barack Obama hasn’t done enough for black people.

Black leader intellectual, Michael Eric Dyson, in a talk in Iowa last week, made a comment about President Obama’s lack of dialogue on race:

“What difference does it make to have a black president? Maybe not a damn thing. Maybe it’s worse than a white president, ’cause he won’t even talk about race.”

Dyson continued, “I love him, but I will not be silenced.  I’m not asking you to speak up (for black communities) ’cause you’re a black man. I’m asking you to speak up ’cause you’re the president.”

*First of all, if you’re somewhat familiar with Michael Eric Dyson, and have ever heard him speak (whether in person or on tv/radio), then you probably know this “talk” was full of all the Dictionary.com Words of the Day from January 1, 2011 through February 17, 2011.   If you’re also familiar with Dyson, then you know that black leaders intellectuals like him believe that anything black, or race related, is their bailiwick.  But that is neither here nor there….  I receive the daily Word of the Day from Dictionary.com, and I just wanted to use, “bailiwick,” in a sentence.

Back to Dyson, he’s earned his title as an intellectual.  He’s a tenured professor at Georgetown.  Last time I checked, that was a pretty decent school.  Being that Dyson is an intellectual, he should know that politics is a way harsher game than the lecture circuit which he frequents.  A few points:

-President Obama, in some circles, is viewed as a Nazi Socialist who wants to ruin America.  His every political move is challenged and questioned.  Some people don’t even believe he is an American citizen.  Despite undeniable proof of his citizenship, these same people still believe his mama paid the State of Hawaii to cover it up.   He has professed his Christian faith numerous times, yet people still believe he is a Muslim (like there is something wrong with him being a Muslim).  Even during the 2008 campaign, a simple sign of support, affection, and “I got your back,” with his wife was lauded as a “terrorist fist bump.”  White Whitmore fear is at an all-time high.  Yet, you want him to stand up and speak more about how black folks can’t catch a break race when white people overwhelmingly voted him in?  That would be political suicide.

- If Dyson would recall, one of Obama’s shining moments came in 2008, in the wake of the Reverend Wright issues.  Obama gave one of the most impressive, moving, and insightful speeches on race in recent memory.  If you go back and read that speech, Obama not only started a dialogue on race, but he sparked a dialogue on the idea of a post-racial America.

- Just the mere fact that Obama is the first black president has done more for black people since King and the Civil Rights Movement.  When teachers and adults tell black kids that they can be anything in the world, including president, then they are no longer selling a dream.  It actually happened.  And if it actually happened, then it can happen again.  Black kids now have more to aspire to than rapping, singing, playing sports, or acting.

- Barack Obama is the president of the United States of America, not just black people.  With that said…

How about we focus on getting him re-elected?  Follow me on this…

Everyone knows that President Obama is seeking re-election for a second term.  The Rethuglicans know that they have no viable candidate who can beat Obama right now.  During his first term, Obama has had to govern from the center.  In other words, he’s had to walk on eggshells and concede on issues he really believes in for the greater good.

Now imagine a black president in his second term, with no possibility of being re-elected.  If Obama is re-elected in 2012, then I’m predicting 2016 will be when he goes on his When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong tour.  He’ll be unfiltered.  He’ll be on his way out of office.  He will have the platform to say and do all the things he has always wanted to say since 2009.  Us black people might even get reparations checks out of the whole thing!  Who knows?  I just think that by 2015-2016, we could get this version of the president.

So my plea to Michael Eric Dyson is simple:  DON’T MESS THIS UP!

What do you think?  Should Obama talk more about race?  Is Obama doing enough for race relations?

Louis CK has a stand-up album called Hilarious that cause me to have an epiphany.   If you haven’t seen it you should check it out.

He has a section in it called… “Everything’s Amazing & Nobody’s Happy”.

In it he talks about how we complain about everything, but how we never sit back and just realize how good we have things.

I mean think about it.  We complain about flying, but really thinking about flying.   You sit in a plane and go through the air at hundreds of miles an hour and you don’t even feel it unless there is some turbulence.  You can go from New York to California in 5 hours.  In the 1800’s that trip would have took you 3 months and you were likely not to show up in California with the same people you left New York with.

I think about my own life.  I complain about my job a lot.  I get mad because I don’t have a enough work to do and my boss ignores me sometime.  Now let me give you some background.  I have my own office,  my boss doesn’t keep up with my vacation time, I get paid a decent salary, and I’m black.

Can you imagine me complaining to my great-great-great grandfather that was a slave?

Me: I’m tired of my job I don’t do anything.

GGG-grandfather:  Son…You’re a b!tch.  Do you want to switch places?

Your boss ignores you.  I have freaking overseer!

You have an office.  I stay in a shack with 20 people half the size of your office.

You get paid in money.  I get paid in chitlins and rags for clothes.

You get vacation time…. Vacation!  You lazy M.F.  You don’t even work that much.  I work!  I plant enough food to feed Mississippi every day.  Do you know how much a country ninja in Mississippi  can eat?

You sicken me!

So good people at the cool table I implore you to sit back and really think about all the stuff we take for granted and really start to appreciate it.

So, I was at the court house this week.  I’m sure anyone who has been at a courthouse for any reason has witnessed society’s equivalent to Cirqe de Sole’.   The events at the courthouse led me to this question.  Have you ever been so embarrassed by your own race that you almost felt unworthy to look at someone from another race?  I’m talking about  that crawl under a pillow embarrassment.  Well I have, and it was this week.

I’m sitting outside the court room and I just saw some of the most ignant (yes I said ignant) crap I’ve ever seen in my life.  This one guy walks around the corner and is in full n*gga garb.  He had on a fake fur coat, nappy braids, a hat, and gold teeth.  GOING TO COURT!!!  I mean if you looked up n*gga in the dictionary, his picture would be there next to T-Pain’s, Lil Wayne’s, Al Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson.  Anyway this is how our story begins.

He comes around the corner on his speaker phone talking about he is about to get a divorce.   Not only that, he is cussing loud, he’s late, and he has to be asked to remove his hat.  Now I know I’m being judgmental.  But I’m almost positive he knows the rules of the court.  Then when he gets ready to go in he tells the court officer, “I’ll be back let me go take care of this restraining order thing first.”  Wait!  You are late for court, and then you tell them to wait on you??!!  Get the heck outta here!

Oh I’m not done.  Then he starts walking in and out of the court room because he keeps getting calls.  TURN YOUR PHONE OFF!  ARE YOU INSANE?  EVER HEARD OF CONTEMPT???  So on the 5^th or 6^th occurrence of walking out of the court room he runs into one of his friends.  I believed if there was a female form of the word n*gga, her picture would be next to it along with Khia, New York, Jackie-O, and Souljah Girl (Youtube, “Souljah Girl, Crazy Girl on Train).   So this lady proceeds to show him all the places where she has covered the tattoos up of her former husbands’ names.  “She’s like yeah I’m getting rid of this MF in all places.” 

This is the point in the story where I’m too embarrassed to look at the white man that has been sitting next to me the whole time.  I mean I’m embarrassed to the point where I want to look at him and say, “ You see these n*ggas?”

My fellow nerds tell me of your… “I was embarrassed to be White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Indian, Native American, etc.” story.

Here is a forum I read the other day with some great court tales.  Check it out here…

Yesterday we talked about whether black people could be racist.  As always, there were inconclusive findings. 

Anyway I wanted to ask you guys a question…

We have a lot of organizations that cater to black culture like NSBE (National Black Society of Engineers), Black Greek Organizations, ETC. ETC….  I know at one time in society, we needed these organizations because everything else excluded us.  But are they still valid?  Do we just self-segregate at this point?  And if so, why?

But I’m getting off track here.  Those weren’t my original questions.  My question is if white people had an organization that catered to whites only, like the White Society of Engineers,  do they have a right to?  I’m sure most people would look at that name and think, “OMG! That sounds like the engineering arm of the Ku Klux Klan!!!”  But I mean seriously, if there was a group of white kids that said, “Hey there is an engineering association out there for every other race. Why can’t we have one”,  would they be wrong?    I’m not saying it’s an association that is truly whites only, but it caters to white culture… just like Black Greek organizations cater to black culture, but are no longer exclusively black.   Sidenote:  How crazy is it crazy to see a white guy outstep his bruhs?

There would be many arguments about it here.  I could see both sides.  One could say that any organization that doesn’t exclusive cater to a race is by default a white organization.  But is that true or is it what I asked early?  Do we self-segregate?  Do we not go to those country clubs because they said no blacks allowed at one time and we lived with that limitation?  What say you my fellow nerds?

In the continuation of our Black in America series, we are going to ask a question… Can black people be racist?

Well I’m not sure about this one. I think it would all depend on what your definition of racism is. My definition would be…preconceived ideas about a group of people based on skin color, physical features, and cultural background. And being racist for me isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Like a good stereotype is to say that, “all Asians are good a math”… That is a blatantly racist statement, but I don’t think anybody would get offended by being called smart.

But for this particular question I think we have to look at racism in its more common negative tone. A racist statement like, “all Black people like watermelon and chicken”. Again I’m not so offended by that because I like both of those things. Not because I’m black, but because they are delicious.

Well one of my clear friends says the other day that Black people can’t be racist. The only people that can be racist is the race that is in the majority. That race is the power race because of its majority and can oppress other races based on their race. And through his definition he could be right.

So I guess the question is whose definition is right? Can black people be racist, based on either definition? Do we get a pass for the simple hardships we’ve dealt with in this country? Is there a clearer definition of racism? My fellow nerds please pontificate.

Well your nerds have decided to do their own version of Black in America (shouts out to Soledad O’Brien)…

Our first entry basically aims to dispel some of the lies that black people have told themselves since the days we sang (yes I said sang) Negro spirituals outside the church.

1.  In the words of Ced from The Barbershop,  “OJ did it”.  Yeah I said it.  If you’ll beat a woman, you’ll kill a woman.  I can’t believe this fool broke the law again after all we’ve done to stand behind him.

2.  We are more racist than white people.  (later on this week we will talk about whether or not black people can be racist).  So let me say it like this, we sterotype more than other races.   We do it a lot when it come to our own race.

3.  For the young people being hood is neither cool or the norm.  I don’t know about you, but for half my childhood I grew up in the hood.   Then we move “out there ’round them white peoples” and trust me the hood is not better.  I like a clean neighborhood without crime.   And in the words of one of my favorite rapper’s 607… “you ain’t real cause you grew up po’ (poor)”.

4.  Being hated on is not a good thing.  I mean don’t get me wrong you are going to have haters.  And it is probably a sign you are doing something good.  But don’t relish in the fact you have haters.  Make it your mission to better mankind so people don’t hate on each other.   I listen to rappers today and they act like it’s a good thing other people want to KILL them.  That is insane!  I don’t want people to kill me because I’m doing well.  That’s nothing to be proud of.

5. We like buffoonery.  That is the only way shows like Flavor, New York, Real and Chance, Cupid and all those other love shows stay on the air.  And for a special pungent brew let me throw in a dash of BET and some Georgia Peaches from the Real House wives of Atlanta.

I’m a big fan of the Foxxhole radio show.  It’s ridiculously funny and
they touch on some very poignant subjects.  Well the show last Friday
took a turn into a chapter on adult illiteracy.  

Well a few illiterates called in (Doesn’t calling somebody an illiterate sound
like an insult???) and expressed how they had ended up illiterate
and why they never read.  As I listened to the guys talk, I realized
one of the biggest problems plaguing America, and Black America
specifically… Lack of personal responsibility.  One guy said he owned
a trucking company and said he never learned how to read because his
teachers didn’t care.  He talked about how the schools were bad
and blah blah blah. Well, I wonder now why he never learned to read…
and Lou Dix hit the nail on the head…  Because he was LAZY!  This man
was an illiterate with a trucking company.  Think about how much more
he could do with an education!  But instead he decided not to take
responsibility for his actions and say, “I’ll learn to read now.”

This is not an isolated incident in our community.  Everytime I
hear somebody making an excuse for not doing something it makes me
cringe.  I didn’t wake up on time this morning because my alarm clock
didn’t wake me up.  I can’t believe you just blamed your oversleeping
on an alarm clock!  It didn’t stop working ,so get your butt up.  And
we wonder why our children don’t do what they are suppose to do!

Anyway I’mma stop “Lou Dixin’”.  Listen to a couple of Foxxhole’s and
you’ll know what that means.  All of my fellow nerds… Why don’t we take
responsibility for ourselves? And what can we do to change that?

-shouts out to Christopher Williams.

Anyway…

So, I was on my way to being the new Micheal “Blue” Williams minus the gorilla-like façade.  I was managing 5 musical acts and it seemed like everything was going good.  I was at the BET awards hanging out with celebrities doing my thing, driving the nicest cars, living in the biggest mansions, had an eight track stereo, color TV in every room, and could snort half a piece of dope every day.  It was the American dream, well ain’t it. Fool you better come on in.   So anyway I woke up and I realized I had just wasted 5 years of my life and I was still on the corner selling CD’s hoping to recoup what I spent at Wal-Mart the night before.

I won’t bad mouth any of the people I managed at the time, but I’ll just say some were easy to get along with and some weren’t.  At that point I heard Laurence Fishburne (Larry at the time) ringing the bell on the yard yelling, “Wake Up!”.  I had to realize that although it was possible to be a successful musical manager, I had to have a come the Jesus meeting with myself.  Even at the point that all my acts became successful, I would never make the type of money I was looking for.  I also didn’t love what I did.  I didn’t hate managing, but I didn’t get a sense of fulfillment that I needed.  And if I’m going to waste that much time I better be doing something I love.  If you don’t do what you love it doesn’t matter how much money you have.  Unless you’re Bill Gates and you can pay somebody to do it for you.

Why am I rambling about myself?  Well it’s like this.  I see a lot of people spending years chasing after dreams that won’t materialize.  I would never tell you to give up on your dreams.  But you have to have a reality check.  I fell into that trap of having to prove myself to everyone at the detriment of a lot of years of my youth.  Most people get caught in that idea that what we see on TV is real life and that we can have that.  People don’t live like they do on TV. 

So anyway I’m ringing the bell on you.  If you are trying to do any of these things.  WAKE UP!

1)      Professional Sports. Very few of us have the talent to master the sport.  And of those very few are smart enough to keep the money.  Statistics show “78% of former NFL players are broke or financially stressed after retirement, and 60% of former NBA players go broke five years after leaving the league”

2)      Music.  If I hear another ninja say he’s rapping/producing/singing/ now…I’m going to scream.  I’m so tired of that.  “Mayne we bout to get this paper.”  It’s not a quick hustle.  It takes at least 10 years to get on if you ever get on.  And when you do, YOU DON’T MAKE ANY MONEY!  Also, in the age of digital music, you’re a lame if you’re still on the corner selling your mixtape burned on a Maxell CD, with your rap name and title written on it with a permanent marker. 

3)      Acting.  See number 2 and add 10 more years.  Also, getting on a reality TV show and being a video hoe/model urban modeling aren’t legitimate paths to the Academy Awards.  With that said…

4)      Modeling. I don’t know any 5’2, 140 lbs models for Victoria’s Secret, Sports Illustrated, etc.  But I do know plenty of 5’2, 140 lbs models for Black Tail.  “Girl I’mma video hoefessional now”. I’m just saying…

5)      Fashion Design.  Which seems like if you do 1, 2, or 3 you have to do this.  Putting your name on some jeans doesn’t make them any better.  Putting your no name a** or logo on a shirt doesn’t make it better.  Unless it’s a Polo. 

6)      Network Marketing.  Shoulda been #1 to me… I must admit I’ve fell into the trap as a lot of students do coming out of college wanting to get a quick buck.  I’m not saying there isn’t money in it, but I’ve never seen the paper.  Plus they eerily resemble cults.  Shouts out to Tahitian Noni & Pre-Paid Legal.

What are some of the things you think people should give up on?  What are some dreams you had to give up on?