Answering the Call

Former North Carolina (throw ya' hands up) Senator John Edwards is officially cosigning on Brother Barry's candidacy and endorsing him for the Democratic Presidential nomination. John Edwards is the real deal Holyfield and if Brother Obama wasn't running I'd be riding with old dude. Can anyone say Veep?
Or at least Attorney General?
The goal of an Obama Administration starting next January is looking more and more tangible each day.
Its a new season...

voting for the revolution

Cornel West once said, "You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. You can't save the people if you don't serve the people." No two men embodied this love ethic more than Brothers Malcolm and Martin. And as our nation commemorates MLK's (or Martin Lutha the Kang's) birthday it is only right that Brooklyn Sis takes time out to reflect on our hard won rights. Paid in blood and paid in full. The night has been long, but we made it to the other side, we saw the rays of a bright new sun.
But the question remains, what have we done to further our journey to real equality?

On my last day on the job as a student-teacher at a NYC public high school, I decided to throw off the kid gloves. I came out swinging, straight kicking the truth to the young black youth, like Wu Tang. But my 12th graders were too busy smoking cess and drinking beer, not really tryna hear what I was kicking in they ear. I was trying to engage them in some conversation over the 2008 election - aka, the most important Presidential race of our generation. Who were they down with and why? But the kids were more interested in talking about which member of the senior class rocked the flyest gear on the regular. There are probably one hundred good reasons for this type of pervasive apathy. Endemic poverty, miseducation, the forsaken promise of the battle for equal rights are but a few. We know this, but it is my prayer that we do not let this golden opportunity pass us by. If we don't inspire a new generation of educated voters we are not only then we are in effect taking the future out of our hands. Apathy is never a good look.
We have the chance to light a fire within a whole generation. We demand change, because it is ours to have. It is our right and our legacy.

Rest in power Brother Martin.
Rest in power Brother Malcolm.

the battle to be the first

During every Black History Month celebration of my childhood, we were always provided lists of "black firsts"; the first African-American Supreme Court Justice -Thurgood Marshall, the first African American woman to venture into space-Mae Jameson, and the first African American to win a Nobel Peace Prize- Dr. Ralph Bunche. This list goes on and on, and hopefully on Super Tuesday (February 5th aka Brooklyn Sista's birthday) we will be talking about another black first - the first African American Democratic Presidential candidate.

However, another Senator is trying to make history as well; Hillary Clinton is vying to be America's first woman president. While Jamaica, Pakistan, Liberia and Chile have all embraced female leadership, we have lagged behind. The United States remains as mysgonistic as it is racist, and both have an uphill battle ahead of them. But it cannot be denied that our country is in store for some seismic changes, as people co-sign on the prospect of having either an African American or a woman as Presidents.

But as all politics are personal and these two candidates are being pitted against each other as both of their camps court the woman and the black vote respectively. Women ralled around Sen. Clinton in her surprising win over Sen. Obama in the New Hampshire primary, although the polls showed Obama leading with a 10-12 percentage point lead ( we won't go into how polls don't effectively account for racial prejudice just yet). And in the upcoming South Carolina primary, where African Americans make up 50% of the Democratic base, the Obamistas are out in full force, billing their boy as the embodiment of "the Dream" of our ancestors and MLK.

This proud moment in our nation's history, in which we have the opportunity to look at ourselves differently, has been marred by a little bit of "who has it worse" type mudslinging. Peep Gloria Steinem's New York Times op ed peice in which she argues that, "Gender is probably the most restricting force in American life..." Ms. Steinem has seemingly forgotten the restivive forces of race and socio-economic status. She has also forgotten how race and gender intersect, leaving black women to contend with the crushing realities of instituionalized racism and sexism. Perhaps Alice Walker should pay Steinem a visit and remind her of the tenents of womanism. Even if Sister Walker does hammer home the need for feminist theory to be more inclusive of women of color, to honor our contributions and to recognize our struggles, interests of the feminist and civil rights movements have not always converged and in many ways have shut black women out.

So what is the woman of color to do? The same thing as every other concerned citizen. Educate herself on the issues and come to an educated decision on who she will be voting for come Primary Day.