A bag of N&Ns

February 21, 1965 is a day that lives in infamy for the United States of America and it doesn't even know it.

1965 also marks the debut of the much discussed generation X. GX is so named because we are the children of the Baby Boomers, coming of age just outside the idyllic post WWII period and in the aftermath of the non-violent driven portion of the Civil Rights movement. Keep in mind that The Watts riots were in 1965 and America burned every summer thereafter punctuating in the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Every year around this time (Black History Month) the usual suspects trot out to impersonate Malcolm and Martin and "lead" us somewhere, telling us what we need to do. Then you have those who try to tell THEM what WE think...and what WE need.


What you mean WE kimosabe.

There IS NO WE anymore. 1965 marked the end of WE.

1965 was the beginning of the Negroes and Niggas era.

The N&N era is defined by one segment of Black America shaking their head and their fingers at the other segment of Black America for betraying the race.




The Black Elite (Negroes) has as a voice: Bill Cosby

Ladies and gentlemen, the lower economic and lower middle economic people are [not*] holding their end in this deal. In the neighborhood that most of us grew up in, parenting is not going on. (clapping) In the old days, you couldn’t hooky school because every drawn shade was an eye (laughing). And before your mother got off the bus and to the house, she knew exactly where you had gone, who had gone into the house, and where you got on whatever you had one and where you got it from. Parents don’t know that today.

I’m talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was two? (clapping) Where were you when he was twelve? (clapping) Where were you when he was eighteen, and how come you don’t know he had a pistol? (clapping) And where is his father, and why don’t you know where he is? And why doesn’t the father show up to talk to this boy?

The church is only open on Sunday. And you can’t keep asking Jesus to ask doing things for you (clapping). You can’t keep asking that God will find a way. God is tired of you (clapping and laughing). God was there when they won all those cases. 50 in a row. That’s where God was because these people were doing something. And God said, “I’m going to find a way.” I wasn’t there when God said it… I’m making this up (laughter). But it sounds like what God would do (laughter).

We cannot blame white people. White people (clapping) .. white people don’t live over there. They close up the shop early. The Korean ones still don’t know us as well…they stay open 24 hours (laughter).

The Negroes are BELIEVED to be the natural offshoot of the King Faction of the Civil Rights Movement. Many of its spokesmen were in the King Faction and use his name and legacy as irrefutable credibility. They brandish it everytime someone asks them how they got here and who said what they thought mattered. Those at the forefront of the Negroes are almost exclusively male and have this knack for getting in trouble with women they are not married to, an unfortunate legacy of the King Faction. They are the ones who cringe whenever someone in the media pokes fun at the movement, as reference by the calls for Boycotting Barbershop the movie, Boondocks, and suing OutKast.

The Negroes are acknowledged as the voice of Black America. CNN has the primary spokesmen of the Negroes on Speed Dial, FOXNews has them pinned on their dart board. The latest and perhaps largest sighting of Negroes was at the funeral of Coretta Scott King, where they spent SIX HOURS, alternately calling out W to his face and groveling at the feet of their honorary member, Bill Clinton.

Niggas on the other hand have a less defined pedigree. Their first appearance is believed to be at the Watts riots in 1965. Niggas are USUALLY less affluent and less literate(or at least hide their literacy if they have it). They are currently the demonized segment of Black America, being blamed for sagging britches, drugs, violence, births out of wedlock. They seem to find the cameras and microphones of the local news with frightening regularity. They watch lots of television and don't read. Their most recent appearance was in the wake of Hurrican Katrina, although you had to look carefully to differentiate those looking for food from those looking for free. The Nigga movement is mostly made up by those unable to take advantage of the limited advancement opportunities provided by education or gainful employment. As we move to a more knowledge based economy, not knowing is the worst sin you can visit upon a child and the Nigga movement passes on its ignorance like a birthright.

Of course, theses are only two small vocal segments of the Black Diaspora. The rest of us exist somewhere in the middle, jumping from one group to the other or are too busy trying to make ends meet to run with either of those crowds, because, truthfully, being a nigga or a negro is far harder work than it should be.

Had Malcolm lived to truly articulate his evolving ideology, the parallels with Dr. King would have been able to merge and perhaps we would have had the chance to listen to ONE voice and not be stuck with the choice of a hypocritical, pious, self-righteous, and condescending Negro movement and an amoral, short-sighted, and generally clueless Nigga movement. The middle cannot hold, primarily because the middle has no voice. In a culture that insists on screams for attention, a calm reasoned plea for anything falls on deaf ears.

and THAT, my friends, is the struggle.

And the struggle continues.

Simulcasted from Balls N My Words

From Balls N My Words



Being an African-American is a peculiar blessing. The very things you find most gratifying about your heritage as an American exist under the relentless shadow cast by the way your ancestors arrived at...pauses for the appropriate air of sarcasm and irony..."the land of the free and the home of the brave." I have lived in Texas for nearly two years and I have never been more cognizant of both my blessing and its peculiarity than I was watching and then researching the story of Shani Davis.

The full spectrum of Shani's story will sound familiar to many astute sport fans, as it positions him as a driven and singular talent, guided by a savvy and confrontational parent in a sport long held as being exclusive to African-Americans. I would love to be a fly on the wall at a dinner party of Earl Woods, Richard Williams, and Cherie Davis when they start spinning yarns of how they battled the power structures in the name of their children, battling the media along the way.

As an African-American, I confess that the Winter Olympics don't move me all that much. The only winter sport I have ever found myself is Snow Shoveling and my current residency in Texas is a testament to my love for it. I follow them from a distance, waiting for a story that interests me. I caught Shani Davis on the overnight replay on NBC ONLY because I don't have cable (and wont until the new house gets built). What strikes me most about Davis' story is how he relates that he was picked on as a child for his devotion to speed skating, a sport introduced to him by his mother, who at one time worked for a US Speed Skating Executive. Kids will be kids, yes, but there is something especially insidious about how African-American children (and adults, at times) poke fun at other African-American children who have interests that stray from what is socially acceptable. As a African-American man who grew up being ridiculed for similar reasons, I assure you the aloof persona that Davis carries was forged in many solitary moments. Davis appears to have a drive for speed skating that has elevated him to the top of the game. He doesn't appear especially sociable, especially considering the attention he received as a result of turning down a last minute invitation to join the US Team Pursuit team. Most critical of his decision was Chad Hedrick who all but called Davis unpatriotic for saying that he preferred to focus on his 1000 meter race instead of working on a team in an event he had no interaction with. Davis responded by beating Hedrick and the world on Saturday. The two will meet again in the 1500 meter race on Tuesday. Expect NBC to play up that rivalry to nauseating levels. Expect me to be rooting for Mr. Davis for reasons that should be plain.

Just as it was with the story of Vonetta Flowers becoming the first African-American to win a Winter Olympics Gold Medal in in 2002, the Shani Davis story is one that endears itself to me because I relate to it. We as people root for those with whom we share a kinship. It is why, no matter where I live, I root for the team of my youth, the Pittsburgh Steelers. It is especially gratifying to watch brothers and sisters excel in the fields of their choice despite a culture that tends to be overly critical of its own when they choose a different path. I will be watching Tuesday when both Flowers and Davis attempt to add to their Olympic legacies.

The Cerebral Vortex 105 errr...Parrish Thinks 105 things about himself.

105 Things about Me

1. My given name is David Wayne Parrish, Jr.

2. I am the Father of two sons

3. I am named after my father who I believe is named after the actor David Wayne.

4. My oldest son is named after me...and I would have named all my sons David...if it wasn't so unfair.

5. I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, where I attended an all Black elementary school and an all Black High School.

6. Was reading before I was potty trained

7. Raised on PBS and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

8. I Wasted one of the most lucrative college scholarships ever offered for reasons that I cannot truly explain in this forum, although I am sure I will address it.

9. I have one younger brother who is infinitely more charming than I am.

10. My Father died of an aneurysm in 2000.

11. I spend a lot of my time trying to avoid mistakes my father made, something that is much easier said than done, since he was nice enough to pass on all his faults to me.

12. My step-father died when I was 13 after marrying my mother when I was 7.

13. He died of Lung Cancer at the age of 53. I vowed to never smoke a cigarette (or anything else) after that and never did.

14. That man spent his last months on earth cramming life lessons about being a Black man into me that I wish I was old enough to process at the time he told me. I would have had a much easier road in life if I had grasped what he was instilling in me.

15. My mother is #4 of five daughters and one son born to my maternal grandmother, a woman who has 6 children 24 grand-children, 37 great-grandchildren, 12 great great grandchildren and has not had a negative word spoken about her in my lifetime.

16. I am the only one of my deceased paternal grandmother's grandchildren with two Black parents. She had three sons and only one of them, my father, married a Black Woman.

17. My mother is left-handed, I am left-handed, but neither of my sons are left handed.

18. I wet the bed until I was well into my teens.

19. I sleep so hard, it sometimes amazes me that I still don't wet the bed.

20. I lost about 35 lbs during my freshman year of college.
    

21. I have never seen ET

22. My Father was a professional drummer for many years, playing for the R&B group Samson and Deliliah, George Benson, Earl Klugh, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and some others.

23. I played drums (and trombone) at Westinghouse High School for a band director who graduated from Grambling.

24. I attended Florida A&M University for two years on the aforementioned lucrative scholarship that I pissed away for reasons I shan't discuss. Today.

25. I met the two men I would go to war with if it went down tomorrow. One of them will be my best man at my second wedding. The other stood by and watched while I broke one, no two, no three, no four of the 10 commandments. Which is what your boys do when you act an ass. Stand by and watch while you FUBAR on your own accord. Then stroll by and help you pick up the pieces.

26. I am an original hip-hop head from the break dancing days

27. Every 2 years or so, I vow to walk away from hip-hop, leaving it to the children and lil white boys it craves to market itself to. Then a project comes along to pull me back in.

28. This year, those projects were Late Registration, The Craft and The Minstrel Show.

29. I am not afraid to admit i will cry at movies.

30. Last movie I cried at was Coach Carter. Something about father son scenes really pulls at the heartstrings for me.

31. My sons live with my ex-wife, although I hope to spend their puberty years with primary custody.

32. I have received mail in the following states: Pennsylvania, Florida, Connecticut, California, Maryland, Texas.

33. I am a cat person who owns a Shih-tzu named Casey. This is what happens when you marry a dog person.

34. I am marrying a Fourth-grade teacher in the FWISD, who happens to be a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc.

35. My first wedding was on my ex-wife's birthday

36. My last wedding will be on my birthday.

37. My ex-wife was a Mets fan originally from the Bronx currently living in Maryland.

38. My future wife is Yankees fan originally from Queens, currently living in Texas

39. My ex-wife was a track star

40. My future wife was a softball star.

41. I dunked a basketball on a regulation rim exactly twice.

42. I was a horrible athlete growing up.

43. I distinctly remember being force-fed soccer in elementary school, back when the powers that be were intent on making the US a soccer power. 30 years later, they are still trying.

44. I am a registered Democrat, although that means absolutely nothing to me.

45. I will likely go to my grave having never been a registered Republican, although I grow more conservative by the day.

46. This factoid is purely the fault of the Republican Party, as the Democrats have done NOTHING to ensure my continued membership.

47. I once ran a political campaign for city council.

48. I will likely never do that again.

49. I believe that people who WRITE about politics have far more influence than people who work in politics at the current time.

50. I have no public political opinion on Abortion because I believe it has no place in the political discussion. IMO, you would do better arguing the criminality of bypass surgery, because, in effect, it is a medical procedure.

51. I still struggle keeping my shoes tied.

52. I attended Space Camp, where i was the first African-American to finish both levels.

53. I lost my virginity at the age of 19

54. I spent a portion of my childhood eating Cheerios with apple juice because I was allergic to Milk.

55. I was also allergic to Citrus, chocolate, Seafood, eggs and tomatoes.

56. I am probably the only person in history to be accepted to Princeton, and Georgetown, but not into Hampton.

57. I have always been self-conscious about my looks.

58. I still swear that Suge Knight was involved in the murders of BOTH Tupac and Biggie.

59. After much thought and a little bit of research, I have decided that ultimately, i don't care who killed Kennedy, although I am confident the government knows far more than we will ever find out.

60. I have a fairly detailed outline of what I will do if I ever win the lottery for over 100 million dollars. The only time I will play is when the jackpot gets at least that high.

61. I was terrified that I would be short, since I didn't make five feet until I was 13

62. I grew up being picked on for being a nerd, a term that has always tormented me, to the point that I will get an attitude if you say it even in what you term a complimentary fashion.

63. I have been waiting tables either full time or part time for almost 20 years.

64. That experience has given me an extensive knowledge of food and drink and taught me how to cook extremely well.

65. I have lived in Fort Worth, TX since March, 2004.

66. I work part-time in Arlington, TX, which has the distinction of being the largest municipality in the WORLD without public transportation.

67. My first crush was a girl named Cecily Jones. We were in school together in second grade. I saw her about two years ago. She remembered me by name and everything. I didn't know who she was until she mentioned her name.

68. She and I made the front page of the itty bitty community Newspaper that Thanksgiving. She was “the little Black Girl” and I was...yes you get it.

69. I am light complexioned(can't bring myself to say light-skinneded), although my mother and father are both fairly dark-skinned.

70. I saw my first porn on a Betamax when I was 14.

71. I have never really gotten into porn. I equate it to watching a tape of OTHER PEOPLE riding a roller coaster.

72. My earliest experience with fireworks is crying like an absolute banshee at the Bicentennial Fireworks celebration in 1976. Now I LOVE fireworks. And stuff Blowing up.

73. You could never convince me Magic Johnson didn't get HIV from a man.

74. I root AGAINST teams moreso than I root FOR teams in basketball.
75. I fill out a bracket religiously for March Madness. I always take those two days off for the first two rounds when ball is on all day.
76. I would love baseball a lot more if there was revenue sharing and a salary cap.
77. Instituting those two things would ultimately make my home life more difficult.
78. I can procrastinate with the be of them.
79. my favorite color is black
80. My car has 310 THOUSAND miles on it.(it is a 1993)
    
81. The last CD I bought was Ghetto Classics by Jaheim
82. I am currently reading Freedomland by Richard Price
83. I try to go to the movies about once a week.
84. I have not had cable since July of LAST year...it has been most frustrating.
85. I will not have cable until we move into our new house this summer
86. I watch very little television, because most of what is on regular television is hard to watch.
87. I am not a fan of reality television, although I find myself watching it more than I care to admit.
88. I would rather watch American Idol on mute with Swahili subtitles than sit through _______ with the Stars. (skating, Dancing, skeet shooting, losing weight, whateva)
89. I am a bonafied Movie Snob, Although Friday is still the funniest movie I have EVER seen.
90. I think even random, pedestrian rappers (Fabolous is the archetype) are geniuses with language. I think NO such thing of rappers like Lil Jon and D4L who basically yell out stuff that may or may not rhyme over danceable (or not so danceable) tracks.
91. I used to root for the Pittsburgh Pirates until I realized they werent going to even attempt to keep Barry Bonds (yes, that long ago)
92. I have since become a baseball fan nomad before finally settling on the team of my betrothed, the hated( by others...not me) Yankees.
93. As ridiculous as I think the club scene can be, there is something about me and the missus getting all gussied up and hitting a club and dancing our collective asses off that will never get old to me. (unfortunately, it was already old to her before we met)
94. If I had theme music, it would be Flavor of the Month by Black Sheep
95. Deep inside me, there is a best selling novel screaming to get out.
96. If I ever ran into more money than I could ever hope to spend, the FBI would have a significant file on me, cause I would spare no expense putting the evil of the government right on front street. Not that I think anyone would actually notice.
97. My disdain for 83.7% of black media is far too expansive to be contained in this list. I LOVE Black Culture...I HATE the way it is delivered.
98. I have waited tables for a fairly significant part of every year since 1989
99. I made a GOOD BIT more money waiting tables and tending bar than I did working on Capitol Hill.
100. I am a born again disciple of my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
101. I have a frustrating relationship with organized religion, in light of #99. If pressed, I would say many folk romping the earth wielding Bibles are going to be in for QUITE a shock when the sky does indeed crack.
102. I believe there are FAR more last days than many sitting with baited breath waiting for Jesus' return
103. As much as I love Basketball, for some reason the NBA annoys me, and I find College Basketball like a boring 1 hour show with 5 of the most amazing minutes you've ever seen at the end every week.
104. Condoleeza Rice will be president before Hillary Clinton. George Clinton will be president before Hillary Clinton. Jerry Rice will be president before Condoleeza Rice.
105. This was WAY harder than I expected.
     

Cheney's Response A Concern In GOP

Cheney's Response A Concern In GOP

I stopped paying attention to this story because it seemed like the typical hypercelebrity nonsense.

Hypercelebrity nonsense - a mundane story elevated into news due to the notoriety of the principal characters (see Britney Spears driving with her child in her lap)

What in the world is wrong with Dick Cheney?

Isn't this typical of how they handle EVERYTHING at the White House?

One would think that the shooting of a friend would prompt at least a bland public apology. Something like:

Yo, Sorry about that.

And to those who said: "Oh, he'll be ok." I say this: He is SEVENTY-EIGHT YEARS OLD

When my grandmother got up from the couch too fast she didn't feel right for a few hours.

DUDE SHOT HIM IN THE FACE AND CHEST WITH A SHOTGUN! It's gonna take a minute to get right if you are young dumb and full of come-what-may.

Lawd help us all if this man dies. We will never get regular news again.

let's try something different

I am going to play with my new blogthis plug in on my firefox (remind me to tell you how much I love firefox) browser.


Hopefully it will do what I think it will do.

Cold Turkey...

I am, and have been for quite sometime, an IM addict. I could go into details about how much time I have wasted in conversations of varying import when I should have been reading or writing.

Mostly writing.


Yesterday I just stopped. No Fanfare or anything like that. I just didn't log on. I got so much more done in the past two days than I had in the previous 4. If you used to IM with me and are wondering where I am with that, email me at dparrish2@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you guys...both on this blog and the sports blog. Enjoy your weekend.

I have met some FINE people, and will continue to IM in certain situations, but all communications will be conducted by phone and email unless previously agreed to until such time as I can address this focus issue.

Poetry break : Freedom for dummies

Freedom is only free to the dumb
It's almost unfair the tricks played upon us humans
The higher species, indeed
The very MOMENT...that instantaneous split second in which you delude yourself into thinking you are free-

Is the very moment the shackles lock around your limbs

You want freedom, look at your cat.
He does what he pleases, when he pleases, how he pleases

You think he pisses in that litter box out of some threat YOU pose?

That, my friend, is freedom
until you put a leash on his ass.
And see how well THAT goes.

Freedom is a goal moreso than a destination
Freedom begins and ends between your ears
The power of the gray matter is the only matter that....matters



What's that you say? Contradiction?

No.

Thought both frees you and binds you

You cannot truly be free unless your mind thinks itself out of the shackles you cannot see
for those are the bonds most difficult to break
the ones that appear the second you break the ones you can see.

that's right yall...many are LESS free NOW...than we were when they had us in actual CHAINS. At least then, we all knew what held us down. right now..do you have ANY IDEA what really holds you down? I digress...let me free myself from this line of thinking and get back to the poem.see how tricky this freedom thing can be...you can get bound by ONE thing in the midst of freeing yourself from another.

Beware the man who proclaims his freedom as though he achieved it.
Freedom comes from without...but is cultivated within

As long as you seek freedom from within your quest for free gets dumber and dumber

He who the Son sets free...is free indeed.

and now you are free from the tyranny of my own lack of freedom

Are you ready for something new?

Let us put aside the front we put out there for the world and be honest with ourselves.

This is a big deal.

Oh Sure, you can sit there and ACT like black women didn't contemplate running down to Jamaica to find them a young accented boy toy to retrieve some lost groove.

There is something about seeing a scenario play out in front of you, fictionalized or otherwise that makes it more plausible. There are...

pauses to calculate an appropriate number...finds the number too staggering to contemplate...

COUNTLESS Black women in a circumstance where they feel they have exhausted the possibilities of meeting a Black man who fits into the mold they feel as though they want to marry. The reasons for this are many. The causes for those reason are just as many. I know many of those women and mostly they talk about how they WANT a Black man but it is just not working out. These women also talk about how the White men are approaching more and more often. And they talk about how their approach is getting more and more difficult to toss off just because. But they just can't imagine it.

Why?


Stoppit. YOU KNOW DAMN WELL WHY.

The Black man's mystique is the stuff that legends are made of. Good and bad. I should know, since I embody the best and worst of those traits. But I am aware of my shortcomings and I was blessed enough to find a woman to love me through those shortcomings while I work on eradicating them. Funny thing, when you try to FIX what is wrong with you, people tend to be more willing to work with you while you do it.

Time is running out. As we crawl...slowly, painstakingly and agonizingly crawl, to a more understanding society, the plausibility of a inter-racial relationship becomes more and more acceptable. This movie will open many eyes to a possibility that was considered heresy to MANY Black Women. I wonder how the dynamic will play out.

IN case you are wondering:

YES...I believe that Black men are better off with Black women and vice versa. Not because We are inherently inferior or superior, but because I believe, in this current society the love of a Black Woman is what a Black man needs most. And that Black children need to see the unique mystique that a Black man and a Black woman share when truly in love. For reasons that are better kept off this post for fear of muddling the subject matter, I have never dated a white (or even non-black) woman and do not feel particularly cheated at all. Then again, as a Black man, the teeming masses of desirable Black women have never left me at a crossroads.

She and I will be seeing it this weekend, and I will return to review it for you. It will probably serve as part of our Super Bowl pregame show.

The reviews have been generally positive, with Roger Ebert (who is incidentally married to a woman of color) practically drooling all over it.

I would love to hear comments from those of you who have seen it, and those of you who refuse to see it.