The Long Shower
July 14, 2007
Earlier this week I had a little back up in my tub’s drain and when I went to take a shower, my feet became submerged in a puddle. Not a good look! So I turned off the shower to let the tub drain and I proceeded to lather and get SuperSpade fresh. After I finished lathering, I turned the shower back on, rinsed, and got out. While I was drying off, I was ashamed at how much water I waste by taking showers everyday.
As I try to be more environmentally aware of my actions, I know that water is fast becoming a scarce resource. Before I leave this earth, there will more than likely be military conflicts between countries over access to water unless we really get serious about conservation. A while back, I wrote about the growing and troubling nexus between the environment and national security.
Most troublesome though is that there are millions of people in this world that will never be able to take a shower in the way that the West is accustomed to. My shower experience made that sad reality visceral and stark. Sometimes it is easy to forget how privileged we are in America and my shower experience helped me empathize with those less fortunate on a deeper level.
From now on, I am going to take “dry showers.” Give it a try and let me know what you think. If I am way behind the curve on this, that’s cool too.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
Are you fit?
July 12, 2007
Recently, I learned that there is a tremendous difference in being healthy and living a healthy lifestyle and being fit. As I looked around in the various activities I am involved in, I wondered why some individuals did not look like they could do the things they do. Like the guy who plavs basketball every day at lunch, but still has a potbelly.
Only 1 Republican cares about the NAACP
July 12, 2007
Number of official Republican Presidential hopefuls: 10
Number of official Republican Presidential hopefuls invited to NAACP Presidential Forum in Detroit: 10
Number of official Republican Presidential hopefuls invited to NAACP Presidential Forum in Detroit that actually showed up: 1
Wow. Not surprising, but still, wow.
Whatever you think about the relevance or irrelevance of groups like the NAACP, that is still a significant group to ignore. Also remember that G. W. Bush ignored the NAACP until finally appearing in front of them in 2006.
One Love. One II.
Does gender trump race?
July 11, 2007
Shirley Chisholm is a hero to many because she was the first Black woman to run for president. This was a tremendous act for women and Black people in this country.
In what I think is her most interesting quote, she said the following:
“I’ve always met more discrimination being a woman than being black,” she told The Associated Press in December 1982, shortly before she left Washington to teach at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. “When I ran for the Congress, when I ran for president, I met more discrimination as a woman than for being black. Men are men.
I’m interested what people think here. Is society more sexist than racist, as Chisholm suggests?
With a white woman (Hillary Clinton) and and a Black man (Barack Obama) both having a great chance at being the next president, this election season could potentially bring such a question to the forefront, for better of for worse.
One Love. One II.
Does tragedy trump race?
July 10, 2007
According to recent study by Carnegie Mellon University and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, people did not show much racial bias when giving financial help to Hurricane Katrina victims.
According to What Determines Giving to Hurricane Katrina Victims: Experimental Evidence on Income, Race, and Fairness (54 pages, PDF), on average, charitable giving to Katrina victims is not affected by the perceived race of the recipients.
This is interesting to me. Have we come a long way now? Are people less racist? Or was the tragedy of Katrina enough to get people to look past their race and find commonality on a human-to-human level?
One more interesting thing: does anyone know what this means?
Caucasians who say they do not identify with their ethnic group
It’s a term/phrase I’ve never heard/read before.
One Love. One II.
Seeking new model for Black and Progressive Orgs.
July 9, 2007
AgentX’s creative comment regarding new possible names for the CBC got me thinking about the sad paradigm of current Black and/or progressive organizations whose work is mostly or wholly supported by corporate donations. This model is crippling our communities because the leaders of these organizations can’t really say nor do what needs to be done for fear of disrupting the money stream. On the other hand, the masses accuse these same organizations for not doing anything to help the people that are really hurting. This cycle breeds distrust and non-results. I believe the work we really need to do can happen until we do two things, 1) actively want less and 2) build up our own socially conscious businesses/institutions that are supported by the community. Talk to me,
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
Malcolm X
July 9, 2007
What’s up family, long time no see huh? I am up here roasting in this hot weather and looking forward to the fall. Anyways, I wanted to try something new and talk about different books I have read, share how I felt about them and most importantly, get your feedback. Today’s book is The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Read more
The Weekly Dream: Phoenix Rising
July 6, 2007
“They say Jay, how you get so fly? By not being afraid to fall out the sky…”
-Jay-Z, Beach Chair
This morning I was watching MTV and I saw clips of the next Making the Band 4 episode. For those unfamiliar with the show, Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs has this competition for whatever type of band he wants to put together and MTV tapes the competition as Puff has them complete various tasks. This season he is putting together a male R&B group. And for whatever reason, Puff says in the clip “Count the number of beds, and count the number of people, somebody is going home. It’s every man for himself.” For some reason, it struck a chord with me.
Normally, I hate reality shows, but I am drawn to the ones where there is something at stake and there are eliminations. Why? Because on those shows you watch people get taken out of their comfort zones and see who they really are.
What is independence?
July 4, 2007
Many moons ago, I wrote a piece about the concept of Indivisible Freedom, which essentially came to the conclusion that the notion is does not really exist in practical terms. Today, this “Independence” Day, I’d like to do a similar exploration of the the concept of independence.
Sen. Obama beats Sen. Clinton
July 1, 2007
Senator Obama raised about $5 million more than Senator Hilary Clinton this quarter from 258,000 donors. This is a big deal because what this shows is that even if Obama doesn’t win the nomination (though I hope he does) he has all but assured his viability as VP candidate regardless of who wins the nomination. The man is a force to be reckoned with, period.
“At least $31 million of Obama’s total is for party primaries,” whereas
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
