"cool enough in the black world"

Here we go. Yet another white guy is caught using the n-word, then goes on TV crying and tearing up, saying that he didn't mean it and that he thought he was able to use it because he thought he was cool with black people like that.

Give me a damn break.

In case you didn't hear, Duane Chapman, who has a bounty hunter show on A&E, was talking to his son on the phone He son has a black girlfriend. He basically told her: Break up with that black bitch or else (my interpretation). He then used the n-word several times.

I'm not sure how, but the conversation ended up on the Internet, and then all hell broke loose. Soon, A&E suspended his show, and you know that THAT means: It means he's about to lose money and it's time for him to act like he's sorry for what he said.

He went on Fox News - FOX! - and was all teary and apologetic. He then, according to the Associated Press, made the following statements:

"I thought that I was cool enough in the black world to be able to use that word as a brother to a brother," he said. "I'm not. I didn't know really know until three or four days ago what that meant to black people."

"I now learned I'm not black at all," Chapman said. "And I never did it out of hate."

First of all, who in the "black world" he was hanging out with that supposedly allowed him to use the n-word?

Secondly, he is just now realizing that he's not "black"?

Also, why did he go on Fox news, of all networks? And why should be believe anything anyone on Fox news has to say? Knowing Fox, they put him on there for reasons of propaganda, to show that Chapman was a victim of a supposedly politically correct society that, for some strange reason, they argue, won't allow EVERYONE to use racial slurs.

I call BS. I'm tired of white people thinking that they can use racial slurs, even IF they hear people of other races using them.

Work it, Ofree

Say what you want about Oprah - or, as Jemele calls her, "Ofree" - she knows how to work it. When faced with something, she doesn't hide like a lot of punk-ass celebrities do. She calls a press conference and owns up.

Remember that mess with James Fry, the writer who wrote "A Million little pieces"? When the authenticity of the book was questioned, Oprah got all defensive, saying that she stood by her decision to choose book as part of her book club.

THEN it was revealed that Fry was a fraud and the book was bogus. Ofree could have said nothing and did nothing. But instead she owned up. She admitted that she made a mistake, and then focused an entire show around the idea of deception and plagiarism. THEN she got Fry back on her show and called him everything but a child of God. I thought she was going to get the belt and whup his butt like she was his mamma. She called him out hard.

So now, we have this scandal about one of her schools in Africa. Turns out of of the women in charge of taking care of the kids was a little bit crazy. Oprah, instead of saying "no comment" for several weeks, held a press conference and put it all out there, saying that she was devastated by what happened and that the woman was fired and all of that.

I was impressed. No matter how you feel about Ofree, she knows how to work it.

Katrina

New Orleans - I went on the Katrina Hurricane Tour today. Again. I went on it last year, but since I rolled through NOLA this weekend after grabbing a cheap-ass, last minute air fare and a hotel bid on Priceline, I decided to do it again. Wanted to see how much the city had changed in the past 12 months, whether or not this city ever had a chance to get back to where it was.
The city is making progress, at least they have over the past 12 months since I last took the tour. But, damn, there's a long way to go.
I have conflicting feelings about New Orleans. On the one had, it's a city with a deep, rich culture. On the other hand, the practical side of me says that, until we decide that the city is worth saving, what's the point of putting hundreds of millions of dollars back into it?
In other words: It's cool that they're re-building, but what happens if another hurricane rolls through?

Gay Harry Potter

Why did JK Rowling reveal that Dumbeldore was gay? What's the point? And who gives a damn? Of course, I have no issue with homosexuality. But I don't quite understand the point of, all of a sudden, after the last book as been printed, stepping up and saying, "Oh, so and so was gay. You didn't know???"

Yall know me. I don't give a damn about Harry Potter, nor his little wizard friends nor his teachers and all the rest of those goblins and whatnot. I read the first book only because it was a gift from a friend. And, yes, it was entertaining, but I grew burned out on the Harry Potter craziness over the last few years.

Quite frankly, Damn Harry Potter.

But, here's why this bothers me: Who cares? Was it necessary? What did she think she'd be doing by suddenly making one of the characters gay. Now, all of a sudden we're going to have everybody and their mamma reading the books AGAIN, going through them and looking for clues. Then you're going to have all of the right wing fools protesting and shit, saying that kids should not be subjected to reading Harry Potter.

And on and on.
Enough already.
Screw Dumbeldore, Harry Potter and JK Rowling.
No pun intended.

Massacre in Virginia

The massacre at Virginia Tech pisses me the fuck off. Excuse my language, but the sheer enormity of this is jarring. One fool was upset, and he had to take out more than two dozen people? For what? For general principal? Why? What does it accomplish to kill EVERYBODY you saw?

And, what, we can't even send kids to college now? We gotta have them outfitted with bulletproof vests and shit? Whatever happened to the college campus as the "safe place," where parents from the inner city could send their kids off to get them off the streets and into a good environment?

I'm no Pollyanna, but I want to believe. I want to cling to the notion that human beings are inherently good, that when it comes down to it, we'll all help each other in a pinch. Events like this shake that belief, and makes me want to crawl under the covers and weep for the common sense of my fellow man.

Understand where I'm coming from: I was at the forefront of the Columbine High School shootings. That was almost eight years ago, and my emotions are still raw. What I witnessed has been sealed into my mind, and will likely stay there: Screaming, bloody kids running for cover, weeping parents, distraught law enforcement officials.

Who could forget that? It all came flooding back to me Monday, after seeing what Virginia Tech's campus was going through.

Many parents wanting a better life for their kids often dream of sending them to a secluded, serene college campus, where they'll get a good education and be protected from the elements of "the streets".

But what happens when a college campus becomes "the streets"?

Hip hop didn't create Imus

I'm willing to admit that hip hop has issues. I know that rap is often crap. But I'm not going to go so far as to say that what Don Imus said he said because of hip hop music.

That's bullshit.

For one thing, hip hop is what it is: a genre of music. Yes, it's a sexist, homophobic genre of music, but that's what it is: Music. Now I'm not saying that music does not influence society. Clearly, it does. But I'm not writing Imus off as a victim of hip hop culture.

For another thing, this seems to be yet another example of a white person wanting to simply pass of their racist beliefs onto another group, namely, the group that they are racist against.

It's black people's fault that Don Imus is a racist?

I don't think so.

Fired

So now he's a martyr. Don Imus has been fired by CBS. A lot of people have gotten what they wanted. Me included. But, to be honest, I've had a concern about this all week. I've been worried that firing him would, essentially, give even more fuel to the racist conservatives out there, many of whom hide behind the veneer of "free speech" when what they really want is "free hate." A case like Imuses only gives them more fuel and provides with with an even larger platform to rant on about their bs.

Imus is no martyr. What he said was racist. But now we're about to see an explosion of mofo's who jump on the conservative bandwagon, hooping and hollering about how this is yet another sign of the decline of "American" values.