The meltdown continues, and chasing the Big R.

Just call Mike Huckabee the Charlie Sheen of A-merry-can politics. Now the man is attacking Natalie Portman, who happens to be an actress. Yes, an actress. Not someone charged with writing laws and implementing public policy in this country, but an actress.

Seems he doesn't like the fact that she is glamorizing having kids out of wedlock. (Yes, kind of like Sarah Palin's family.) Mike, she is an actress. Relax!

It's Friday night, and I have to do a little racism chasing before the weekend. Hmmm, let me see now; where should I turn?

I know, how about that state that has been giving me so much material lately? From a governor who calls a police officer an "idiot", to a judge who locks up a woman for trying to give her child a better life; my friends in the Buckeye state might want to get the number to the closest U-Haul store.

"GAHANNA, Ohio – The mother of a black Ohio fifth grader assigned to play a slave for a social studies lesson says the school should be more sensitive.

Principal Scott Schmidt of Chapelfield Elementary in Gahanna (guh-HA'-nuh) called Aneka Burton to apologize for what happened to her son, Nikko, on Wednesday. Columbus station WBNS-TV reports Schmidt said no harm was intended.

Ten-year-old Nikko says the class was randomly divided into "masters" and "slaves" and that the only other black student got to be a master. Burton says her son refused to take part in a simulated slave auction and was sent back to his desk.

Burton says she appreciates the apology, but the exercise was inappropriate". [Story]

I thought Ghana was in Africa? Of wait, it's G-A-H-A-N-N-A. Sorry. Still, you would think with a name so close to an African name those folks would be more sensitive. But hey, at least they tried to even things out. They allowed one of the little black kids to play the master. *shaking head*

Finally, I see the Judge tossed that lawsuit in Delaware where the theater owner told you Negroes to keep quiet before a Tyler Perry movie. (That guy must follow the 12% rule)

But seriously, in spite of what some of my friends in the house happen to believe, it was not a "frivolous suit". Hard to prove? Yes. (Because everyone knows that there are no racist left in A-merry-ca.) But "frivolous"? I think not.

"The Delaware Supreme Court has ruled that a movie theater manager’s mandate that a screening room full of black patrons be quiet during the film did not violate the state’s equal accommodation laws. This all started with a 2007 showing of 'Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married' at the Carmike 14 Theater in Dover. The manager, David Stewart, told the room’s 23 black patrons to be quiet, remain in their seats and turn off their cell phones. Stewart was then followed out of the theater by a patron, who told him his comments were not well taken. So Stewart went back, explaining he didn’t mean to offend anyone, but he had to make the announcement per the policy of theater owner."

The article continues: "One of the 23 African Americans in attendance was Juana Fuentes-Bowles, who just so happens to be the director of Delaware’s Human Relations Division. She stood up and told everyone that Stewart’s comments were racist. Although Stewart did not use 'racist language' her office conducted a hearing and found that his conduct violated the state’s equal accommodation law. The Delaware Supreme Court had originally found that Stewart did indeed single-out a black audience for the silence demands – since he did not make the same announcement in other theater rooms on the same night. Each of the 23 complainants were awarded $1,500 in damages for being told to be quiet during the movie [nearly $80,000 in all]."

More: "But a Superior Court then reversed the decision, and [on Wednesday] the state’s Supreme Court has affirmed the reversal. According to Supreme Court Justice Jack Jacobs, the theater-goers failed to establish evidence of racial discrimination. The judge accepted testimony by Stewart that his comments were not motivated by race as Stewart evidently would have equally told teenagers to pipe down during a screening of 'Halloween.'"

He "WOULD HAVE " equally told teenagers to pipe down?" Riiiiight. Is there anyone interested in buying an antique bell from me with a slight crack on the side? If you believe that about the theater manager I would love to sell it to you.

CURIOUS FIELD

This post is going to be...well, interesting. You see I was having lunch with a very nice sister the other day, and we got to talking about inter racial relationships. This eventually led to talk about a certain web site, [No direct links for you. You can link the site through one of the links below] and the interesting twist she puts on the whole interracial dating thing.

Said web site is run by a black female who promotes interracial relationships and encourages sisters to date outside of their race. OK, so far so good, because, hey, this is A-merry-ca, and to each his (or her) own as far as I am concerned. True love can be color blind, so that is not my issue.

But then I remembered, this is the same sista that was the cause of an e-fight between two talented black brothers, a fight which I think has caused an ongoing strain in their relationship. Hell, I think I even got between the tit for tat with a post or two, because I thought the entire issue with this blogger was undermining the true spirit of the Afrospear movement.

Anyway, I went to the site, of one of the brothers involved and my suspicions were confirmed. This was the same site run by the same female blogger who somehow had managed to become the object of all this discussion. Now I have no problems with this sista wanting to date outside of her race; but bashing brothers while she goes "Monsters Ball" on us is quite a different story.

So the purpose of this post is to ask this simple question: (Because I have some strong suspicions about this sista) Has anyone ever seen a picture of this blogger? If you have, could you please send me a link? Or, if the blogger herself happens to be reading this and has a photo of herself, the field would appreciate a link. **WARNING** if you send me your picture I will post it.

Maybe later I will get into why this is important; but for now, ---I am sorry to be so cryptic -- that is all I have to say :)

Peace. (I think)

We can all get out of the barrel together.

I have a couple of confessions to make. I like apple pie more than watermelon, and I thought the Captain and Tennille were better than Peaches & Herb. OK so there, I said it. But please stay with me, I am trying to make a point here. My taste in music and food is diverse and varied. And even though I am as black as they come, I happen to like some of the same things that my melanin challenged friends do. But that's just me. There are lots of black folks out here who probably can't stand apple pie, and who probably keep "Reunited" in steady rotation on their ipods. So even though we all might look alike, (at least we do to FOX NEWS) deep down we are all different. My point is this:

It must be really hard to figure out how to please us black folks, and what we really want. We are, after all, individual human beings. Our individual needs are just as diverse as all the other races. But there are things that I am sure most black people can agree on, and that most black people can unify around- at least I think there is, cause honestly, lately I am not so sure- And that is what we all want; to get the f**k out of the barrel!

I have been thinking about this for the past couple of days. Partly due to my post about the recent bullshit that I read about over at Kos, and partly because of the responses that I have been getting from my white liberal friends about it. I mean I basically called out white liberals to recognize; and to get real about racism and the different challenges we face in this country. But it must be hard on them to really get a grip on this race thing, because there is no one black person speaking for all of us. One poster to this site (I think his name was "reasic" wanted to know what the democratic party can do to better reach out to blacks. I believed he was truly concerned and I attempted to give him some answers primarily about issues that I am oncerned with.

But while doing some blog hopping recently, and I stumbled into the what seemed to be some polemic wranglings between one of my brothers in the AfroSpear circle, free slave, and another brother named Micheal Fisher. (More about the names in a minute) The shit seemed so petty and counterproductive that it left me wondering; whats the point? What's the use of calling out white folks and telling them to get their shit together if we can't get our own house (or should I say barrel) in order?

I hate to jump into the middle of this particular clash, because these two men are both grown and intellectually sound enough to fight their own battles. But I am firmly in the AfroSpear, and I am committed to that movement. I like Max Julian (The Free Slave) and I believe that he is committed to the struggle as well. The other brother, unfortunately, I don't know too much about. I do know that he was pissed at the "Spear" over a perceived slight of a sister over there, and he has been demanding an apology from some of it's members ever since. I read his site, and besides the dude who commented on his post and seems to be the Flav to his Chuck D (his own personal hype man) it seems cool enough. The guy has also gone after my homey, Asa on occasion. (I think he called him a religious fascist or some shit like that), but hey, no harm no foul, Asa seems to have moved on. Now as I said, this is not my fight, so I will try and stay out of it. Although I will say this to the brother, who seems to have issues with people who use avatars and not their real names. I choose to use an avatar on this blog because that is what 90% of bloggers do. Please believe that it would be very easy for someone to utilize google and get my real name if that's so important to them. But that's not what this blogging thing is about with me. This is about finding an avatar that I think represents a manifestation of my beliefs and sticking to a theme for my site so that individuals who come to it will know just what to expect. I have some opinions about people who use their real names on their site as well ,(LaShawn) but I realize that I would be just as guilty of what I am accusing the brother of doing if I succumbed to those thoughts.

But I seriously digress. Back to my issue. So this saddens me to see that the old crabs in a barrel adage just might hold true, even in our little part of the world known as the blackosphere. Why can't we work together and put our differences aside to achieve common goals? Why do we have "black on black" crime even on the f*****g Internet? Why do we have to challenge each other all the f*****g time? Is it that we want to prove that we are intellectually superior? Or that our dick is bigger than the next guys?...(good luck) Sorry, I won't engage. I am too busy battling whitey, this corrupt ass administration, house Negroes, FOX NOISE, and our f****d up black leadership. The last thing I need to be worrying about are other so called enlightened ass Negroes, who are supposed to be holding it down and helping to unify black folks around common goals, threatening to take their ball and go home.

So my question is this: If whitey suddenly found the "good witch", decided to give up some of his power and give in to our demands; just what the f**k would we do ?