Uptown Notes

Passion
“In no fashion have I lost my passion for the pen
It’s just that lately life has been a lost less inspirin” -CeeLo
So this post will explain the absence of postings… well kinda. The real reason is… the Black media pretty much sucks right now, honestly, I feel like no one is writing really good critical stuff. I have been known to scour Blackelectorate, Black Commentator, Seeing Black, used to peruse Africana (plug the address in here to see the old site that I liked), but now they aren’t even coming with it! And there are really few quality news sites. I have done the whole google news tracker and the NY times news tracker, but they give me a lot of not so interesting things, so I’ve been incognegro on the posts.

Plugs
The only stuff I’ve seen on the internet lately is stuff by my boy Marc Hill for Pop Matters (beginning of shameless plugs) or my boy B Sims for HipHopDx (sorry they have too many popups to put a link on my page). So where is all the good stuff? Well, I’m not sure what exactly defines good stuff, after all, this page is usually filled with negative forces impacting Black folks. Hmmmm, now that I’m in stream on consciousness, the next book I want to read is is by Sherman Jackson entitled, Islam and the Black Americans. I got a chance to meet him briefly today and I was intrigued. Oh, and I still have to get to reading Kinship by Philippe Wamba (RIP). So that’s what is “on my bird”. When there is something I find newsworthy or poppin, I’ll post it. In the meantime, be sure to check out La Bloguerra.

Aight, much like your favorite local coffee shop, it’s late and I’m outta plugs… so I’m out!

No barkin from the dog, no smog and …. well not quite, but numbers of minority enrollment, well deposits to attend at least, at U of M increased for Black and Latino students!!! So now I’m waiting for the spin doctors on the Right decide to use this a demonstration of the need for revised admissions policies. You know, “We may have lost, but we were right.”

So I’m dropping this post to just keep this blog alive. It’s been a long time but I figured I would post on two things of relevance to me and probably you. Remember Benton Harbor, remember the uprising (note the traditional media would have called them riots), remember the community organizing in the aftermath (of course not, no one reports on organizing). Well Reverend Pinkney one of the major community leaders in BH is having charges brought against him. The people of BH are still backing him and I’ll keep you updated on what I hear. It’s amazing how some voting fraud cases actually end up being prosecuted, go figure. Thanks for the heads up Mark.

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation recently released its report on diversity and the PhD. The report basically outlines that there has been an increase in percentage of PhDs for the Black and Latino population but Black and Latino folks still represent a very small minority over all. You can read the report here.

PhDiversity 

I recently visited the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and one thing really shocked me, the way in which the radical Black church position was barely present. Detroit is the birthplace of the Nation of Islam and the Black Christian Nationalism Movement but we seldom hear or talk about these traditions in Detroit or at U of M. Recently the Free Press ran an article about archives at the Bentley that make we wonder what else about our history is hidden in there.

On a separate but related note, the Native community has been struggling to get U of M to return the remains of a First Nation’s (Canadian native folk) ancestors back to the nation. I can’t find a weblink for it, but I’ll post more on it. Don’t know what repatriation is, well here you go.

Detroit is a city in trouble, but possibly a city with something to look forward to also. Well, you can see the ruin side of the story by watching George Steinmetz’s new film about Detroit entitled, “Detroit: Ruin of a City.”

Brian Stephens pens a half-intelligent commentary on the U’s relationship to Black students. I’m with Brian on the not having enough institutional supports for underprepared students. By underprepared I mean students with equal intellectual blooming potential but have suffered from barriers such as lack of quality schools, etc. But after that Brian loses me is when he talks about black culture,
Certainly, minority culture, especially black culture, doesn?t encourage the attainment of education. After all, when Kanye?s ?The College Dropout? or 50 Cent?s ?Get Rich or Die Tryin? ? happen to be nominated for album of the year, something is terribly amiss. I could reference the countless refutations of the “anti-intellectual”, “acting white” research, but you could find those by doing a google scholar search! Instead, I’ll say, all cultures exhibit anti-education aspects. I can spew 10 names of White movies where the setting is college but the end result is students goofing off or dropping out. Second, let’s not forget the majority of rap music is purchased by Whites, wouldn’t that mean we should see huge drops in white enrollment. Just my two cents.

Lastly, MSA elections are coming and as usual, they’re drama. Just vote, be informed, go to the NAACP meeting tonight at 8:30 and get informed.

Okay, so for years students of color, particularly Black folks, have been complaining about “crime alerts” and incidence reports that are non-descript and detrimental, for those who thought they stopped publish them, click here. Just in case those suckas wanna change the text, I’ll copy the text as it appears at 8:35pm on Wednesday.

Suspect #1: Black male. early 20’s, black hooded sweatshirt, blue bandana, black gloves, black pants.

Suspect #2: Black male, early 20’s, black fleece jacket covering face, black gloves, black pants

Suspect #3: Black male, early 20’s, black bandana with white pattern, black gloves, black pants

Since U of M is now alerted to look suspiciously at nearly every Black male on campus, one of my friends in law school has suggestions on how to make sure we (Black men) stay safe:

Some rules for us “students” (…like we are actually students here) about traveling at night to help avoid being interrogated:

1. Wear a button that says…”Bush for Blacks”

2. Avoid putting lotion on for three days so you are a walking snowstorm and look like some of these sorority girls

3. Get a timmy from that barbershop on State Street

4. Wear a tight t-shirt that says, “I don’t sit in a room alone white women”

5. Don’t wear black gloves…If you do, make sure that they fit. White folks will not fall for that trick twice. They will never forget OJ!

6. Wear sandals

7. Avoid wearing anything affiliated with Detroit, Ypsilanti, Detroit, Ypsilanti…Did I mention Detroit or Ypsilanti…actually, throw in Pontiac, Flint, Ecorse, Southfield, Inkster, Royal Oak Twp, Saginaw, Mt. Morris, and any other suburb or city that is more than 25% African-American

8. Cover up all tattoos….We all know all of you have gang affiliation or served time

9. Always walk with a white guy from Alpha Sigma Gamma Beta Omega UVWXYZ, Inc. after 9:00 for the next couple of weeks, kind of like a human apartheid pass. You won’t seem as suspicious.

10. Get one of those robes from that Howell auction.

Just a couple of things that have come across my radar recently.

1) Eyes on the Prize the amazing documentary on the Civil Rights Movement has been unable to come to DVD and be aired due to copyright issues. The solution, massive bootlegging, I mean person2person sharing of the movie! Wanna share the gift of Eyes on the Prize, download it and organize a screening in solidarity on Feb 8th!

2) The U of M Law School’s Journal of Race and Law is organizing a symposium on Critical Race Theory. The panelists and topics look like they are going to be off the hook. If you don’t know about CRT, click here. The only catch is that you have to register and the registration deadline has already passed. But I figure there is not harm in publicizing and trying to get people in.

3) Looks like they decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to burn the Klan robe in Howell.

4)Miss Jones & Company are out! Check the statement on the front of Hot 97 webpage. Now who says social activism no longer works?

Okay, so Howell, Michigan is buying a Klan robe and plans to burn it. The robe was displayed in the window of an auction house, oh I’m sure that wasn’t intimidating, and was going to be auctioned on MLK’s bday. A Howell Diversity Council is collecting money to buy it and burn it. So my question is, what is worse, some old school racist paying big money to put in their closet or good minded folks paying big money to burn it? I’m not really sure, this story is just really weird.

Well, once again radio morning shows are in trouble, as if Star and Buc had not already been ignorant enough, Miss Jones of Hot 97 got into the act recently by airing the Tsunami Song. Hot 97 issued an apology for the song and made everyone who was involved give up a week’s salary, but a number of groups are calling for Jones and company’s removal. One of the most interesting things about this whole controversy was Ms. Jones’ on air conversation with Ms. Info about the song and Ms. Info’s refusal to participate and her voicing her opposition as an APA community member.

Gotta go do work.

Today the Detroit Free Press reported that the Michigan Civil Rights Intiative (MCRI) submitted more than the necessary 317,000 signatures to make Affirmative Action a ballot issue in November 2006. The first drive for the ballot intiative was stopped by legal and financial troubles, both of these troubles seem to out of the way now.

Also, the Daily today covers the lawsuit that would force U of M to refund the application fee of all rejected non-underrepresented minority applicats between 1995 and 2003. The basic premise is that students rejected under the system ruled against in the LSA case were not discriminated against. Both sides claim they will be on the winning side of the case. To me it seems most logical that U of M will settle with CIR for some sum of money and be done with it.

I figure I would do a random best of 2004 post. These are not the favorite stories I posted, just what was important or semi-important, ya dig (remember Cross Colours)?

Music- If you don’t have it, you should.

1) Jean Grae- This Week…. “The hottest thing in your hood since crack…”

We’ve been waiting for a Greasy product for a minute and this one does not dissappoint. Check all inhibitions at the door and listen as she pours her heart out on this mic. Refreshing and smooth. Not to mention any M.C. who is hungry enough to review her own album on Amazon gets props from me.

2) Dead Prez- RBG… The official RBG album finally arrived. Getting dropped from labels, getting arrested, and a host of other things didn’t keep Stick and M-1 from bringing it on this feature length EP. Classic dead prez material with a raw video for “Hell Yeah” and a remix featuring Jay-Z, “together on the same track, what they gonna call us now?”

3) John Legend- Get Lifted (the bootleg)… So the real album is out now, but who cares? Legend’s album is so smooth you’ll finish listening and realize, damn, cheating is really sexy. Just kidding. Kanye’s Kid comes through with a solid project that can be listened to cover to cover. So go buy it, support black music ;)

Honorable Mention- Certainly not a album but the song is so sick it has that kind of impact. Bin Ladin by Immortal Technique. If you didn’t check for it before, get Revolutionary Volume 2.

TV

1) The Player-UPN- Aight, this show did not make the water cooler talk around my way, but it was easily the sleeper hit of the year. If you could make it past the terrible slang use and cheesiest metaphors, you were golden. AC took all the other cats to school as he flexed skills that would make Don Magic “oh yeah, I’m a preacher now” Juan wonder if his playbook got stolen. If it comes out on DVD, I doubt it, check it out. Until then, “hate the player, don’t hate the game.”

2) Chapelle’s Show- Season 2 Comedy Central- I loth putting this up, but this season was killer. Was I annoyed with by the constant yells of “Yeah” whenever I rocked a fitted, YES!!! But even with that, I can’t knock the hustle. Dave has some of the most poignant social and racial commentary on TV!

3) Desperate Housewives- ABC- I don’t know how I started watching this, but it is definitely addictive. If you haven’t watched, stay away, you’ll get caught up.

Film

1)City of God- I know it was released before, but it’s soooo good. Also make sure to check out the extras on the DVD.

2) Mean Girls- To me a new(er) Clueless. I don’t care what y’all say, this movie is fetch! For some unknown reason, I was drawn to this movie and saw it a couple times in theaters. I haven’t gotten the DVD yet, but it’s my most coveted xmas gift.

3) Supersize me- I know that it’s not the best documentary that came out, but the take home message was beautifully illustrated. If it could get me to stop messing with fast food, well okay, reduce my fast food consumption, it had to be on point. I still get sick thinking about eating McDonald’s! FYI: There is an effort to bring Super Size Me into classrooms for health education, they will modify the original version, but there is also a conservative “movement” to stop the film from getting to kids. True story, I’m signed up for conservative listservs so I now know some of their inner workings ;)

Sports

1) The Battle at Auburn Hills- So people never eva, eva, eva get it twisted, the battle took place in Auburn Hills with some West Bloomfield thugs. So the media used it as one more opportunity to villiafy Detroit, but everybody who knows, knows. Enough of that, the OG award goes to Stevie Jackson for running up in the stands and the runner up is definitely J. O’neal with that one hitter quitter. Some straight up playground action!

2) Finally the Red Sox Win- Even as a Mets fan, I gotta give respect where respect is due. Boston took the crown and now rocks out to tunes by the Drop Kick Murphy’s. Congrats… though I still hate Bean Town.

3)Kobe- Nuff Said.

Local

1)The Ann Arbor flasher- terrible crime, dumb criminal. Larry Harrison,starting tackle for the U of M footbal team, was caught because he only flashed during home game weekends. Clearly brotha needs some help.

2) Arbor Update- This year, the colloborative weblog Arbor Update emerged as Ann Arbor news central. Not only has it been referenced multiple times as as source in the Ann Arbor News, but it one of the few locations where people of vastly different political and social orientations can be found “debating” each other. Am I biased because I contribute, yeah, so what, no one said I was “fair and balanced” like Fox News.

3) Critical Moment- Critical Moment, originally known as Moment, is a great progressive voice for the Ann Arbor metro area (sorry I thought I would make up a term). It has been expanding in readership and each issue has aesthically improved. Keep submitting stories and it will keep flourishing.

Honorable Mentions- Qdoba and Big Ten Burrito- Ah, finally affordable tasty burritos.

This concludes my best of 2004. Think I got it wrong? Tell me so! One

Gilberto Simpson has been working on organizing a multicultural cooperative them house . Rather than restate everything, the email I recieved is pasted below.

Are you serious about multiculturalism? Do you want to want to live in a

positive environment with other students interested in promoting

diversity?

A unique opportunity has arisen to create a multicultural cooperative

theme house in the north State area of Ann Arbor but we need members who

want to be a part of it. It could be whatever kind of place we define it

to be. An ongoing residential community, a revolutionary meeting hall, a

home away from home, a chance to learn about yourself, a place to be

nurtured both spiritually and culturally, a refuge where you can be

yourself, and above all a great place to live.

Physically the house has enough space for 23 people (both singles and

doubles available) high-speed DSL access in every room, cable tv,

washer/dryer and an industrial kitchen. Monthly charges would be

aproximately $450 per month (including regular meals, utilities and

supplies)

If you are interested in participating in this exciting possibility then

send an e-mail to themehouse@umich.edu or call 734-709-4921