Maybe it is time for the return...

...of the Afro-Elitist.

The Good Ol' Days....

Racism, just like I pictured it, sambos and everything, only $79.00...thanks Fab.com!

Tribal Highball Glasses Set Of 4

Added about 7 hours ago by susannader via The Modern Historic Though firmly seated in our design past, Mid-Century modern pieces continue to evoke images of the future with their refined lines and high-tech materials. As purveyor of all things Mid-Century, The Modern Historic seeks to give your home an atomic age update worthy of a classic Bond film. These timeless pieces will mix well with every kind of décor, from the industrial to the organic. 
Sometimes the good ol' days are, well, good.  Buying vinyl records, old cars, heirloom jewelry, classic furniture or any antique can inspire nostalgic feelings. Nostalgia has its place.  But you have to admit, the prevailing racial attitudes of those good ol' days were just a wee bit discriminatory.  Lynching, marginalization, rampant disenfranchisement, assassination of leadership (physically or character-wise), jim crow, de facto racism, rape, murder and so on...were acceptable forms of treatment against African Americans in the 17th, 18th, 19th, and  20th centuries.  For the purposes of keeping this post brief, we won't go into specifics.  Race issues have admittedly improved over the last decade or so (Biracial POTUS, the culmination of lots of hard work and sacrifice).   However, every so often (damn near daily), something reminds me that racial vigilance must continue.  On my Facebook page, I see the above Fab.com listing pasted by a friend, who characterized this listing as "hipster racism"...code for a type of racism propagated by so-called urban (mostly European) dwellers who typically gentrify a neighborhood, living in diverse neighborhoods.  This you'd think would foster some racial understanding, right? What it fosters is a false sense of comfort, that this so-called hipster can take for granted that being cool supersedes cultural competency and understanding.  The folks at Fab.com can take solace that they've allowed their true colors (and cultural competency) to shine through.  Feel free to click the link and give them a piece of your mind (I'm sure this link won't last too long, or not).
UPDATE 7/24 11:40am CT:  The below link no longer takes you to the Fab.com post...apparently someone @ fab.com got the message...let's see if there's some sort of mea culpa from the folks @ "Fab".UPDATE 8/3 11:12am CT:  Fab has basically dropped the issue.  A call to the Fab client services department resulted in being placed on hold several times, then connected with a media coordinator named Katie, who personally apologized and said she took the matter personally, (missed opportunity to ask her if she was black, ugh!), then I explained that a global apology would be the appropriate way to handle the matter, she said she would bring it to her "team" - (whoever they are).  Up to now, no known global apology posted on site.  Racist Tribal Highball Glasses on Fab.com

Entertain Yourself. Post Gentrification Harlem hip-hop style...

Harlem, NYC- known for its luxury condos, restaurant rows, hip bar scene and white flight INTO (not a typo) the US African-American mecca is also in the midst of a music renaissance...and it ain't jazzy...it's hip-hop all the way...check these folks out (you may not agree with the message or the sound, but they're making noise)...

...you've already heard of Azealia Banks...haven't you? She's gone from pouring vanilla chai lattes at Starbucks to spitting fiery lyrics (she's not for the faint of heart, eyes or ears).  She's dynamic, fashionable and from (my ol' hood) Harlem...and supposedly, she's a major league music talent...so "they" say.
Btw, "they" are right.  Listen, and find out for yourself...

Liquorice

...haven't had enough of Harlem, then check out this kid...ASAP Rocky, another new "NBT" (that's "Next Big Thing", if you're acronym-challenged)...

Ridin (ft. Lana Del Rey)

...and then head further underground with the emerging Y-ME era and The Gang (editor's note: lived in the same Harlem building with Young Da Historian-my cheap ass paid $$ for his early mixtapes, he's that good)...listening to all this you'd have no idea Harlem gentrification exists.  Welcome back to the hip-hop map Harlem...

...these cats run the streets...you want to tell them they don't?

I Got The Team

Arrested Development Gone Wild - Kids Having Kids...@ 33 Yrs Old.

Several weeks ago, a Knoxville, TN man, 33 year-old Desmond Hatchett, petitioned a family court judges leniency as he asked for a reduction in his child support payments to his twenty-four (originally reported as thirty) kids.  Yes, you read it right...two dozen kids.  Jokes and smh's ensued throughout the media.  With so many sad things to choose from, this should make this one of my easiest blog posts, right? Wrong.  See, the idea of one man who's royalty, a billionaire, or the last man on earth, fathering twenty-four kids is excessive, but when he's making minimum wage ($7.25/hour in Tennessee) that amounts to thirty cents ($0.30) an hour per kid, two dollars and forty cents per eight hour workday or twelve dollars per week, per child...if the father dedicates every bit of his paycheck, before taxes.  Taxes would eat away another twenty to thirty percent, depending on Tennessee's payroll taxes.

Desmond HatchettDuring HS-Voted most likely to reproduce...multiple times.

Supposedly, the children are spread among eleven women.  Which means eleven women were willing to have Desmond Hatchett's child.  Let that thought marinate for a minute.  Is it because Desmond Hatchett is such a mack/pimp/playa, that women can't resist his charms? Does he have hypnotic powers? Does he mesmerize these women with something he should really package and sell in an infomercial? Who the f**k knows.

What I know is there are too many children and not enough parents.  There are athletes (T.O., Antonio Cromartie, Jose Lima) and entertainers (Lil Wayne, Flavor Flav) fathering multiple kids with multiple women.  Is this a case of dysfunctional life imitating art? Again, I don't know, nor do I give a sh*t.  I just know that I'm tired of the ignorance and I'm tired of the irresponsibility.

There's a trend/mentality in many (mainly poverty stricken or poverty stricken influenced communities) where men and women accept the multiple father/mother family structure as a norm.  It isn't a norm, especially since kids deserve a chance to be raised in the best possible environment.

A child enduring a fatherless or father-absent environment begets all sorts of child development obstacles ranging from attachment issues, abandonment, abuse and neglect.  The child becomes a product of their environment.  Raised in an inherently dysfunctional environment is traumatic and while some of those children may succeed, many unfortunately, sans positive intervention, won't have much of a chance to succeed.

There's nothing wrong with single parenthood when the parent is willing and capable of raising children (and believe it or not, while having ample finances is a factor, it is not the deciding factor of a single parent's capability).

However, unless there is a serious effort to attack the issue of irresponsible parenthood...these stories continue and the decimation of family (as we know it) continues as well.  The Desmond Hatchett story, I'm afraid, isn't over.

LA Times version of Desmond Hatchett story

Isn't Every Day Mother's Day?

Hopefully, your mother was around you throughout your developmental years.  As a toddler, she cleaned you when you couldn't clean yourself (even after you finally ate the pureed green peas), she dealt with your five year old twin sister's death threats, as a teenager, she kept away from the den as you "studied" with your first romance, then just when you were about to make your move, she'd knock on the door, right? Yeah, those were the days.

My mother is a family person...her faith in family is superceded only by her faith in God.  Even when, as a family, we weren't as cohesive or as together as she envisioned (maybe she didn't take into account the strength of the egos she raised), she kept the faith, belief and (while I'm sure it was trying) the love.  One day seems wildly insufficient to recognize mothers everywhere.  Internationally, mother's day celebrations occur on dates usually affiliated with springtime.  In the United States, Anna Jarvis, a Pennsylvania social worker, began the concept of Mother's Day in order to memorialize her deceased mother in 1907.  Ms. Jarvis refined the concept and fought for its national recognition in 1914 (thanks Wikipedia).

Mother's day is the hallmark for our undying love and appreciation for the sacrifices, joys, maternal bonds and fulfillment of motherhood.  While capitalists attempt to replicate its spirit with candy, flowers, jewelry, amongst other material goods...at day's end, no matter how touching the material representation, a mother's love dwarfs any material gift one can possibly provide.  Should you find a material item which provides that love, you might want to take a DNA test...or patent the item (might as well profit from the dysfunction).

Happy Mother's Day to my mother, and moms everywhere.