Another SuperSpade on TV…again
October 8, 2008
What’s up fam,
I wanted to let you all know that my good friend Dumi will be on television tonight (10/8/08) at 9pm on WTVS (Detroit Public TV), 760am WJR, 101.9fm. The show is also available online. Dumi will be an expert panelist on Bridging the Racial Divide: Part Four. Over the last two years, the series has taken a candid and often contentious look at the role of race in Metro Detroit. The series has gotten a lot of great feedback and the good folks at Kingberry productions have brought some past panelists and new panelists together to discuss what’s happening and on the horizon for Metro Detroit. There are some heavy hitters on board joining Dumi on the panel including Dave Bing, Peter Karmanos, and others.
I was fortunate enough to see the taping and have an audience with the panelists in the green room. And for those who don’t know, Dave Bing is currently the safest bet in terms of trying to predict the next mayor of Detroit. Check out the show tonight and show Dumi some love.
Stay up fam,
Brandon
On Obama’s Religion & The Question of Qualified Black Candidates
September 9, 2008
Commenter John Paul Reeves left what Brandon & I felt was a thought-provoking comment on Brandon’s Obama Drops the Ball on Energy post. I was responding to the comment, but my response got pretty long, so I felt it’d be more appropriate to write it up as a full post for everyone to be able to read and respond to easily. This is my full response:
@John Paul Reeves,
On Obama’s Religion
As for how I as a Black Christian (not speaking for that entire demographic) feel, I have no “concern” about Obama’s religion. In fact, I bet most people don’t have any concern about Obama’s religion. Frankly, I don’t care what his religion is, and the people who say that he’s a Muslim in a derogatory way are actually not only insulting Muslims by implying that being Muslim is bad, but they are also note acting in a Christ-like manner by bearing false witness against another person. So there are two questions to pose to Christians or anyone else who has a problem with a candidate’s religion:
- What’s wrong with voting for a fellow Christian?
- What in your Christianity would stop you from voting for someone who was of a different religion if there was a non-Christian in the race?
On Qualified Black Candidates
As to your question on qualified Black candidates that could run for President and VP, the issue is not qualification. There are qualified people of every type: race, sex, gender, ideology, religion, sexual orientation, age, etc. The issue is actually one of prejudice and access. Read more
Revisiting the ‘I’ in Individuality - Black on Black Thought
July 31, 2008
This is part of the bi-weekly Black on Black Thought feature.
Today we look again at the concept of individuality. James wrote a piece today called Am I destroying the black community? that is a response to something I wrote last November called How the myth of individualism is destroying the Black community. In it, he refutes many of my points, but I think at the core he misses some fundamental truths that are necessary for individual success and collective advancement.
Who’s image is it? - Black on Black Thought
July 16, 2008
This is part of the bi-weekly Black on Black Thought feature.
James wrote an interesting response to the New Yorker cover called “The New Yorker and Archie Bunker”. The gist of his analysis is the following:
Wlady Plesczynski, longtime editorial director of The American Spectator, blogged that the cover was “too clever by half, taking some generally known unserious tropes and having a field day with them, as if at some level the magazine actually thought such a caricature had some basis in fact.” That is exactly right. If the cover were an attempt to pre-empt and ridicule conservative attacks on Obama, two things went terribly wrong in that thinking:
- This will only embolden — it certainly won’t scare — conservatives. Now that a liberal publication has fired the first salvo, one far worse than any that Republicans have conjured up to date, it’s far more likely that we’ve entered Open Season than any chance of conservatives shying away from playing the race angle.
- Most Americans are, in the words of a former colleague, “only negligibly literate.” While the inside-the-Beltway types will see the cartoon for what it is — a poorly done jab at the right-wing — I doubt that the people in “Flag City, USA,” many of whom actually do believe that Obama is, or was, a Muslim, will see the nuance. More likely they’ll just take it as proof that see, I knew that Obama he was some kind of Muslim; my friends were right all along — even The New Yorker said so.
I agree with James that this is satire done with the skill of dog writing poetry. However, we differ on the underlying reason why this article cartoon cover failed so miserably.
Wow, no comment
July 14, 2008
What was that about us living in a post-racial society?
One Love. One II.
Race Talk in America
July 9, 2008
This is part of the bi-weekly Black on Black Thought feature.
What’s up fam,
I am happy to kick off Black on Black Thought. This week, James wrote about CNN’s Black in America special (that will highlight life in Black America in all its complexity) and considers whether or not this series will over saturate America with “race talk” and its possible impact on the 2008 election. James basic conclusion is that we are reaching a saturation point in our “race-talk.” I think we are far from the point of saturation.
How you win matters
June 18, 2008
What’s up fam,
I went to the Obama rally that was held in Detroit and it was a great event. My homegirl Monique Perry (a fellow Detroit native I have known since high school and went to the University of Michigan with me) pumped up the crowd and encouraged folks to register and organize. Obama thanked her on national television. Let’s get em’ Mo and GO BLUE! Obama gave a relatively standard stump speech but it surely didn’t sound like one. The brother has conviction and I am happy to see him as the Democratic nominee.
However, I was grieved to learn that someone from Obama’s team “barred two Muslim women from sitting behind the podium by campaign volunteers seeking to prevent the women’s headscarves from appearing in photographs or on television with the candidate.” For context, the city of Dearborn which borders Detroit is home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the country so you really can’t be in Detroit and avoid the Arab-American community. And can we way hijjab instead of headscarves? Ok, thanks.
Now if Obama personally called the Detroit reporter and apologized for calling her sweetie the same day the incident happened, his staff needs to find these women’s numbers and make sure Obama himself apologizes. I say that because anybody who knows me, knows that I am all about process and how you win is very important.
I actually think that Obama should have over-indulged himself in the Arab-American community to demonstrate that he is secure enough in himself to be photographed with Arab-Americans. Doing so would not only send a strong message to Arabs across the globe that we are all deserving of respect and it would help end the post-911 classification of the Arab community as “them”. This is a moment where the Obama campaign can continue to do the right thing and not what is politically expedient. How you win matters.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
Clinton shows her true colors
May 24, 2008
What’s up fam,
Let me first say I appreciate Garlin’s update as to what the SuperSpade has been up to. I am currently recovering from the Michigan Policy Summit that was a huge success. I write today because I am livid at what Senator Clinton told the South Dakota’s Sioux Falls Argus-Leader in explaining why she would stay in the race. Have you ever heard someone say something and think, “I know they just didn’t say what I thought they said.” This is one of those times because Senator Clinton said,
“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it.”
You can video of her remarks below,
Sean Bell
April 25, 2008
Like many of you, I am outraged that the three detectives were acquitted of killing Sean Bell. Sean was 23 the night he was set to be married the next day and though he was unarmed, the cops thought him dangerous enough to deserve being killed. And Sean wasn’t just killed, he was shot 50 times. It is crap like this that make me upset as to why Black people fear and distrust the police.
I know there will be rallies held in New York to protest this miscarriage of justice and if you are in the area, you should go. After the marches though, Bell’s story like Amadou Diallo and others will be filed in the Black consciousness as the continuing saga of injustice that has plagued Black folk since we were kidnapped from Africa. Surely this is worth Black folk being bitter right?
Bell was killed at a strip club and the undercover detectives were there to investigate if there was prostitution going on. Prostitution is wrong I get it. But quite frankly, how in the world do you investigate prostitution? I mean you tell me that these detectives couldn’t have set up a camera and watch the footage from the precinct? Aren’t there enough unsolved murders in the hood that could be a better use of these detectives’s time? And while I don’t have a J.D., how is it these detectives were not brought before a jury?
I try to imagine the hell I would raise if one of my people suffered a death like Sean Bell. The fact is that while I never knew Sean, he is my brother and your brother too. Our prayers go out to Bell’s family and friends as they and we try to sort out this injustice.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
standing up for Black liberation theology
April 22, 2008
H/t to my folks at Jack and Jill Politics for featuring this video of Michael Pfleger, a Catholic Priest based out of Chicago. When I wrote earlier about Black silence on Jeremiah Wright, I wanted to hear someone break it down like this. Enjoy and please watch the whole video. Stay up fam,
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